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PMS 2.0 1647 - TNF Recap, NFL Week 6 Preview/Picks, Utah Jazz and Mammoth Owner Ryan Smith, Nick Saban, Ian Rapoport, Stanford Steve, & AJ Hawk

2h 21m 6s

PMS 2.0 1647 - TNF Recap, NFL Week 6 Preview/Picks, Utah Jazz and Mammoth Owner Ryan Smith, Nick Saban, Ian Rapoport, Stanford Steve, & AJ Hawk

The transcription captures a dynamic and passionate discussion surrounding the upcoming BYU vs. Notre Dame college football game, set against a backdrop of growing national interest in college sports. College Game Day’s return to BYU marks a historic moment, with record lines forming due to fan enthusiasm and the significance of the matchup. BYU is presented as a rising force, with a disciplined, defensively aggressive team led by Bear Bachmeier and Kalani Satake, capable of challenging a top-ranked Notre Dame squad. The analysis highlights the cultural and spiritual foundations of both institutions—BYU's Mormon faith and Notre Dame's Catholic traditions—fostering deep fan loyalty and unique rivalries. Meanwhile, broader trends in college football are examined, including the impact of NIL, player workload, and the expansion of playoff structures like the 2014 playoff. Coach Nick Saban offers a thoughtful perspective, cautioning against overextending college athletes and emphasizing player development, education, and long-term sustainability. The piece also touches on the transformative growth of Utah’s sports ecosystem, driven by investments in venues, local teams, and community pride. Ultimately, the conversation underscores a shift in college athletics—from purely competitive to a holistic model centered on student-athlete well-being, cultural identity, and community impact. The event itself is seen as more than a game—it’s a cultural milestone reflecting the evolution of sports in modern America.

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Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to a fantastic Feel Good Friday, October 16th, 2026. This sports program begins right now, football. Took place last night, and boy, it was a little bit of an ugly one. I am live here in Lavelle Edwards Stadium in beautiful Provo, Utah, as BYU hosts Notre Dame this weekend, and College Game Day makes its return to this beautiful university for the first time in 17 years. There is a line outside of the Game Day set that started on Tuesday night, then they kicked them out Wednesday morning. They said, you can't do this. Can't be here all week. Then they opened it back up on Thursday. They're back out there. This is from yesterday. This morning, it's even longer. This should be an electrifying environment, as we find out a lot about both BYU and about Notre Dame. I am incredibly pumped and lucky to be here. Got a chance to see some of the city, got a chance to see some of the mountains, and I'll tell you, the air out here does make you feel good. Been on the road a lot. It was a nice little getaway to see the mountains this morning as I woke up. It is a nice little peaceful retreat, if you will, but in the field of play here, we got a guy named Bear Bachmeier. Bear Bachmeier has been a legendary name in ball since he got in here, but he has Kalani Satake and these Cougars playing some damn good football. Now, they are massive underdogs at home against a Notre Dame team. Led by a guy named C.J. Carr, who might just win the Heisman, who might just be his best efforts. And last year, they didn't make it in the college football playoffs. They turned down the Pop-Tart Bowl. They said, we're not doing that. Okay? We're not doing Pop-Tart Bowl. That is, our whole team's not doing it. Not just one player sitting out, two players sitting out, top five round draft picks sitting out. The whole team said, we're opting out of that. We're going to rebuild, refocus for this year. This year, they've been unstoppable. They are dominant. And today, we find out from Coach Marcus Freeman in the second hour how they feel coming into their biggest test yet. Now, talking about big-time tests, what the hell is going on with Sam Donald and Bo Nix? Ladies and gentlemen, it's not just me here chit-chatting about the glorious sport of ball and the glorious world of sports. There's also some lads back in the Thunderdome in Indianapolis, Indiana, a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, A.J. Hawk is over there. Hawk, how are you doing, pal? I'm doing great. I was just mentioning to Connor, actually. He pretty much called it. He said it was going to be kind of a low-scoring, I don't know if he said poopy game, but I think defense is definitely, they showed their teeth last night. Yeah, and who he's talking about is the toxic tables at Boston-Connor and at Ty Schmidt there that have not been introduced, but I do appreciate that, A.J. You were right. 100% at Boston-Connor yesterday, especially in the morning before we went live, was a big old, oh, no. And I'm going, what's your problem, Con, man? The Patriots seemingly backed. The ball was absolutely back. It was absolutely buzzing. We got magic happening in all sports. What are you saying, oh, no, about? He goes, oh, no, I got a bad feeling about tonight. And I go, what do you mean, a bad feeling about tonight, about our super boosts? He goes, well, we'll see how that goes. That was the worst thing of all time. We got to get better, boys. We got to tighten this up. Bo Nix now needs to run. I don't know what the hell he's doing. Ryan Fitzmagic wasn't happy that he's not running. Okay, Ryan Fitzmagic was not happy that he was not running at all. I don't think I expected that type of emotion out of Ryan Fitzmagic, but I think he, he was just so absolutely alarmed and perturbed by what he was watching from the quarterback position with how good this Denver team is that he felt obligated to get a little bit emotional out there, chit-chatting about Bo Nix. And there was others that echoed his sentiment, but we will talk about why Bo Nix was potentially playing the way he was playing and Sean Payton's postgame messaging to the team feels like he was maybe telling Bo to play scared as hell, don't turn the ball over. That might have been a plan. Nonetheless, Bo Nix has to get better. Sam Donald has to get better. But what Connor said is tonight's game is going to suck. And I don't know. I don't think it sucked. It wasn't the overtime. It had a little bit of magic, but boy, it was defensive dominant. There was ugliness abound. And let's go to one half of the hammer. Cowboys AP tone. The under was the play there literally all night. Our super boost did not hit, but Sam Donald, two interceptions. He won Super Bowl last year. Bo Nix, I guess his progression or development is not going the way we all expected it. Are him and Sean Payton trying to get back on the same page like they were last year? Possibly. But the under was the. Play the all along tone. Is that what we should have been thinking about? Like Connor was might maybe feeling yesterday. Yeah, it kind of was the feel. And then, you know, Herbie came on and he kind of had that same feeling as well. And he's talked to both staffs. And so it was pretty good feel there. And yes, when you came in this game, you you kind of knew that the defenses had the they had the upper hand was the word I was looking for there. And now that you found it, you found two of the best defenses last year. They're basically the same defenses this year against those offenses that have been. Struggling a bit. Sam Darnold turning the ball over. So, yeah, the under could have been the play last last night. People could argue that the Seahawks was the play last night. They outgained the Broncos by a ton. But the Broncos did a great job in the first half and then just held on for dear life in second half and overtime. But, yeah, there was a lot of people that saw, you know, maybe a result like this coming. But it actually happened. Tone, my favorite thing about yesterday, and I know this is going to sound weird. But I really. Really enjoyed watching the Vance Joseph premonition that Kirk Herbst should tell us kind of come true. Yeah, he said in second and sevens or whatever teams are running as opposed to trying to throw against us. So we're not getting as many sacks. And you saw that last night with the Seattle Seahawks doing that. And then you saw the Seattle Seahawks defense doing what they continue to do to Bo Nix, which is absolutely dominate him. And then Chuck Pagano comes out and says, hey, this game is going to depend on turnovers. I don't know if you got a chance to hear what Sean Payton said to his team after the game. But this is what Sean Payton said to the Denver Broncos after their massive win, after being outgamed mightily by the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. I don't know if you got a chance to hear what Sean Payton said to his team after their massive win, after being outgained by the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. He had decent enough time, but we've seen clips from previous weeks where Bo almost didn't he almost moved into pressure like he had a clean pocket I know Dano has has broken it down a few times on TV where he has a clean pocket but he kind of moves into pressure just not for whatever reason not comfortable back there a lot of these plays just look kind of weird and I don't know it just looks like is the confidence down is he not healthy I do not know it's weird that they got a win so you can go from there but I would hope that he takes some steps and I don't know like can you imagine being a quarterback in the NFL and not being super confident like hitting that top foot boom and letting that thing fly I don't know how you get that back but I'm sure they're going to be in the process of trying to figure that out if you're able to get wins whenever you don't have that that's probably good you know because we would assume that he'll be able to get through this but mentally you have no idea what's going to happen and Will Lutz tacks another one on the board he was with Sean Payton down in New Orleans he's been with Sean Payton in Denver his name is Will spelled with one L because he just handed the other L to you and that is actually from his mouth to us I believe after another game winner earlier in his career he's been very clutch they're going to need him if they're going to continue to play this cardiac style of offensive defensive football and Ty Schmidt how do we view last night if I'm a Seattle Seahawks fan which I don't think Seattle Seahawks fans are happy that I'm necessarily a Seattle Seahawks fan but they look vastly different is it just Charbonnet hasn't gotten back they don't have Kenneth Walker so the run game's nowhere near the same Sam Darnold's making the mistakes that I think we saw from Sam Darnold whenever we seen ghost Sam Darnold is this just early in the season how do you think Seahawks fans feel coming out of last night Ty Schmidt probably not great I mean Darnold did lead the NFL in turnovers last year and they were able to weather that storm and it didn't really matter but I think you are seeing how big of an impact Kenneth Walker had I mean there's no question about it I think he's he's either leading on the Chiefs just had a bye but he's either leading the NFL in rushing yards or he's right there and I think all four of the running backs that Seattle is using uh doesn't have it combined as much rushing yards as Kenneth Walker had so like he he was the you know if you're turning it over a bunch with Sam Darnold they could feel confident hey we're gonna get the ball to K-9 and kind of get back on track and then obviously last night their old line you know Denver's defense is unbelievable but their their old line couldn't protect him he got sacked five times and you could tell even when he wasn't facing pressure he kind of got happy feet and just never really got comfortable but the the turn I mean look at their losses you know they've lost someone you know had games this year by three points two points and two points I think and in those games you know they they have four turnovers three turnovers and three turnovers like I don't care how good you are how good your defense is in the NFL if you're consistently losing the turnover battle week in and week out it's going to be tough to win that way so they obviously need to clean things up pretty quickly I don't think it's any doom and gloom but with how tough that division is you really don't have much time to kind of go on a little mid-season swoon here and Ty to your point to kind of put a bow on everything that we talked about from last night Hembo stat here about Sam Darnold year over year without a good run game now these types of things happen he goes from 5.3 percent sack rate to 8.4 percent 15 percent contacted rate to 23 percent pressured from 30 to 40 percent max protection goes from 13.2 percent down to 4.8 percent so they're trying to figure it out in Seattle obviously a couple losses and now the Denver Broncos winning without it playing anywhere near their best football we would assume let's pivot away from the NFL and let's go to college football shall we this weekend we'll be celebrating the hell out of life here in Provo Utah a man that calls this place home and is one of the biggest drum beaters of this state in this culture in this community front of the program owner of the Jazz and the Mammoth ladies and gentlemen Ryan Smith this is a home game this is a home I'll tell you it's beautiful out here thank you for the hospitality last night your office that is boys you know whenever he calls in and he has that big shoe thing behind him yeah you know that big shoe I got a chance to see that it's not just that room with the shoes turns out there's four fours we're all what we're all the shoes going the same way this time because it really bothers me when they're not I I actually switched those because you're the first person to point that out well that's because I think he actually wears these shoes this is probably one of the only billionaires who has these shoe walls and it's not just for looks he actually puts them on today we'll have you know clean Louis V's for the yeah BYU Notre Dame Eve here can you chitchat a little bit about your school being celebrated on college game day and obviously with Notre Dame coming in a primetime game can you tell me what people should expect from BYU and why you are maybe excited about it happening right now as opposed to maybe years past no I mean I first of all I think Kalani and the guys got got a got a squad this year with Bear and everyone I think we're all excited about that you know when when this game was put on the schedule what uh what a moment to have two undefeated teams coming in um look at this backdrop Lavella Edwards Stadium these are my very first sports memories as a kid my my father was a professor at BYU um they drop us young kids off and we had to figure out how to get in the game and this is this is like for me this is just nostalgic it's a full circle moment you know my business partner Ryan Sweeney forever um feels really we've been partners for 15 years and for them to come into town and so many of my friends from that side to come into town it's just meant to be like this these these games with Notre Dame should be on the schedule all the time okay so Catholics and Mormons have you I don't know the history but we don't have to do outside of sport yeah that's a longer conversation yeah okay yeah I assume I assume that is the case but let's just do in sports what is the history has Notre Dame BYU had a rivalry have they had uh I don't think there's been a rivalry I mean I went to the I went 2012 2013 Taysom Hill in in in Notre Dame and it was just a special moment um obviously I think the similarities of both of us being independent for a long time I think that was unique I think in COVID you saw a bunch of other schools who weren't self-sustained these are both massive national brands I mean if you look at the way and you're a ratings guy you understand it the way that Notre Dame draws their ratings the way the BYU draws their ratings um you know we've got these followings and the fan bases are very similar what the schools stand for um it's it's it's pretty special so I think this is the first hopefully of many not going to make any soaking references I decided that this trip I'm not going to do any soaking or quaking I'm not going to bring it up I'm not going to talk about the whole getting around stuff in that particular angle but I will talk about uh the amount of pride your people have for this place the line for college game day to represent for BYU first time in 17 years has been going since Tuesday night and I think you told me they kicked them out because they said hey you can't be here all week basically then they reformed the line as soon as it was opened back up the students here love ball I don't know you talk about it being a national brand I agree a lot of people know of it and I think obviously the ridge uh religion ties into that but I don't think people truly understand how much the folks at BYU and the Mormon culture loves sports and loves ball can you talk about that a little yeah so first of all I think one of the things that people don't understand about Utah we're the youngest demographic in the country by a long way so it is it is youth there are 250,000 college kids within 90 miles of Provo and so it's it's kind of what we do if people want to stay here they're innovative they're entrepreneurial um these kids are creative and it's just it's just refreshing there is a vibe people feel it when they come here and then there's this juxtaposition to everything we're all on our phones the internet AI to be able to touch grass and have this beautiful backdrop of these mountains every single day there's something about it it reaches the soul it touches the soul and I think that's what that's why people like it here and you're seeing that with athletes wanting to come here parents wanting to send their kids here whether they're part of the faith they're not part of the faith they're like I want a good school who does things right especially if they're on the cusp of the doorstep of maybe going to the next level and signing one of those big contracts I think we saw that in hoops we're seeing that in football where they're like hey let's keep the main thing the main thing let's get to Provo let's get in and out we want coaches who are going to do it the right way we want universities who are going to do it the right way I think Notre Dame has a little bit of that too I think so I definitely think two institutions that you know force accountability I think that would be a good way to kind of describe it I think this place is known for that with the people that come through school here let's talk about you and you just chit-chat about people wanting to come out here there was a big story whenever you guys had a top pick and you draft them Utah and everybody's like this guy's not going to want to go to Utah this guy's not going to want to go to Utah now what I think you're experiencing is you have a very young Utah student who's going to want to go to Utah you have a Utah jazz team that loves being here and then also you have Utah mammoth NHL team that comes from Phoenix up to here and everybody's loving I think your athletes love playing out here right is that not the case will that transition into wins I wonder is what everybody's kind of wondering yeah I mean that's the next phase of this I think um you know there's been a little bit of uh I don't know if it's bad marketing or no marketing out there but you know what I can say is the last couple players we had to trade two of them were in tears and then two others kept their houses right so I think people are starting to understand that like hey this is a great place there's nothing you can't do it's our job um you know on the jazz side with Will Hardy with Austin Ainge Danny Ainge to go actually translate this into wins I think we got a good squad with Jaron and and Lowry and Darren Peterson coming on Ace Bailey Keontae George just signed a new contract I mean we're we're in this for the long haul and I think we got a lot of draft picks in the future we're pretty excited the fan base is excited they show up and then on the on the hockey side I mean this is our third year we made the playoffs last year we just beat Edmonton last year which is good Toss up! Toss up bro! Toss up! Toss up! Toss up! so Well, look, I mean, the state of sports in Utah is incredible right now. And, you know, I think we're having, hopefully it's not a moment. I think it's set up to be very, very well or continued into the future. Let's talk about BYU sports into the future. We all know the modern era has caused a lot of chaos, but it feels like it's something that might behoove the BYU squad. Tone has a question for you, Ryan. Yeah, Ryan, I'm not sure where you are, but speculation that a 2014 playoff is coming in college football. And as far as like on your side, as far as donors go, like how does that change for donors? How important is for NIL for your team to be successful? Because if they're not successful, donors aren't going to see any return on their investment. So does this 2014 playoff, more teams getting into the playoff, do you think that actually helps teams as far as getting donors to give money because they'll see more benefit from what they're giving? No, I think the 2014 playoff, anytime you can widen the top of the funnel, that's going to be more beneficial because more people have hope. If you look at professional leagues at the beginning of the year, there are teams where it's like, hey, these teams can win and these teams have no chance. The wider, I mean, it's one of the things I love about hockey is like anyone who makes the playoffs can go on a run and do it. I think you're seeing it in baseball with the Brewers last night and how that works. Like there's a lot of hope. You never want to be in a situation where it's stacked against you. So definitely it's going to trickle in. It's going to trickle down to the donor level. But also, you know, you said, hey, I think the NIL world behooves BYU. I've always said this, like the amount of entrepreneurs, the amount of people who are growing up, the people who want to build a business and help their university. One of the things about BYU is we don't forget where we came from. And I think that there's a lot of donors. It's not just one school with one prominent person that's leading it out. I think we're just getting there. I think we're just getting started at BYU with how we line up the business community, the donors nationally and globally, and to say, hey, how can this become a powerhouse? And so I think you've seen a massive trajectory increase, not only on football, but on hoops. I believe personally, if you look at the best schools, Michigan, others, they're hitting on both major sports and all of the other sports. And I believe that we can be good at all of it at BYU, which is pretty cool. Okay. Can you tell me about the religion, having athletes and the, so Notre Dame, Ty Schmidt grew up going to Catholic school, right? Ty, I don't want to speak out of pocket. Yes, that is correct. So Ty, I didn't know this because I did not go to a Catholic school, but all the Catholic school kids had a dream at one point. Ty, you could stop me if I'm talking out of pocket here. Had a dream at one point to go to Notre Dame. Yeah. Because that's like the college Catholics. So like every Catholic school. We've got a business partner, same way. Every Catholic school in America is potentially filled with, kids that all want to go to Notre Dame. So like Notre Dame is always going to have a packed house and there's different types of Catholics out there. Athletic Catholics, there's the super smart, there's music. Like, so Notre Dame is going to get a plethora of people, regardless of NIL, regardless of recruiting efforts, regardless of how the, who's coaching and everything like that. Is it similar for BYU with the Church of Latter-day Saints and do players that don't have the faith, are they also coming here and what are their takeaways? I know you said earlier, like they want to come here, keep the main thing, the main thing. How often is that? And how often? How often is it through the faith in your eyes? Well, so I think that, I think the answer is yes, but it's also, that's a historical answer. I think what we're seeing maybe the last five years is a shift where other people not of the faith and their parents are coming in or they're coming in and saying, hey, this feels different, let's do this. And if you go all the way back to, you know, one that's top of mind is Danny Ainge's recruiting trip, right? He was here, he's got John Wooden saying, hey, come to UCLA, this is what's going. Right? He comes out here and he's like, whoa, no, this is a different vibe. And I think historically, it's been a vibe that people have been like, okay, this might be the most popular. I think the world swung where it's saying, hey, look, you know, they're not partying as much here. Actually, that's a good thing. Because if you look at our kids, not all of them are partying the same way they used to, especially on the athlete side. They're coming in and saying, hey, I've got bigger goals. College is a means to an end. I am now a professional athlete. It seems like he was looking at me like that with the, oh, come on, bro. Provo's going to be great for you. I think so. It has been already. I can sense it. I can feel it. Yeah, it's good. But you're right. This generation is a bit different than previous generations. It's totally different. So I think the influx, you saw this, you're seeing this, you know, Bear is not an LDS member and he's here as quarterback. We've seen it with Jake Retzlaff, obviously, before. You saw it with Bruce Branch on the basketball side. You've seen it with A.J. DeMonsa, the number one pick. These are people who've got choice. They've got choices to go wherever they want. Got it. And I think you're seeing that. And if you look on the football team, what Kalani's been able to do and their recruiting, like, you're seeing a lot of that. Yeah, and every single alumni from this place that has money doesn't feel obligated but wants to give their money back to the BYU Athletic Department. Is that accurate? I can't speak for all of them, but I think it's a pretty good sentiment. I mean, look where we're at. They've got a deep bench is what he keeps saying. He says, not just me. We've got a deep bench around here. And it's like, oh, you guys feel obligated to do it? He goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No obligation. We want to do that. Just like every other school wants to. It feels like BYU has entered into, I mean, a win over Notre Dame would certainly catapult you into the conversations as your business partner Sweeney over there is shaking his Irish Catholic head as fast as he possibly could. What you have done for this state I think is admirable, too, because you talk about those players that could go anywhere. You, at the level of wealth that you have built and accrued, could go anywhere. You choose to stay here. A.J. has a question about that. Yeah. Ryan, you're up. Obviously, it looks like you're redeveloping, like, the whole downtown district in there. Can you explain what that whole process is, like, when it will be done and how you even got it started? It seems like a massive operation. Yeah. In downtown Salt Lake, you know, if you take a step back, I mean, downtown and urban cores are not having their greatest moment anywhere in the United States right now. I mean, you go to a city near you, it's tough. It's tough selling. Poop out there. Every generation needs to carry the revitalization. If we skip generations on how we help city-build, then naturally, they're going to regress. And so we've got a chance with the Delta Center, obviously the city. One of the things in Utah that's great but also challenging is that's like three connected blocks right there, but there's no air or way to pass through it. So if you want to go around, it's almost like a mile that you're walking and going around. And I always compare this to, like, a golf course where you know, if the trees are growing too close to the green, the grass can't grow. And so we've got this great plan. We've got this great plan with the city. We purchased the land. There's a convention center. And we're revitalizing to be able to actually have a paseo or a walkthrough. It's a live nation venue with 6,500 seats. Got a new hotel all the way from one side of the city to the other. So we're truly be able to connect this paseo east to west. Also. This is going to be ground zero for the Olympics that are coming here in 2034. And so this is a pretty cool spot where, you know, we're going to be having NHL or Olympic hockey, Team USA in Canada, right outside. It's going to be here. And, you know, we're pretty excited about this. This has been a joint partnership for everyone. And I'm just grateful for the city, our state, everyone's coming. You see your big Mammoth statue. You see the Mammoth statues there that you guys were promoting. That thing better be big. That thing better not be small. It better not be small. So it's a pretty cool thing. But I think it goes back to this principle that all of us need to carry our torch to improve our city as much as we can. So we're making a massive investment. The city's making a massive investment. The county's making a massive investment. And I think we're going to look back as a community and be like, wow, that was transformational. Yeah, we appreciate you, buddy. Okay, brother. Hey, enjoy your time here. How old are you again? Forty-something. Forty-eight. Twenty-nine. Show us the shoes. How old? Yeah. Can you show the shoes a little bit actually? Can we get the shoes here? He's usually hooping early in the morning. Cool necklace, too, by the way. Yeah. Pat Cameron. He's got a couple on that necklace there. It looks incredible. Yeah, my daughter gave them to me. Can you kick your feet out that way a little bit? Oh, jeez. Can you jump real high? Can you see those? I don't know if you guys can see. Yeah. Oh, dark sneaks. I mean, they're no different than yours. Oh, okay. Jeez Louise. How many times have you sold your company? Well, I'm on to different companies now, but yeah, we're in the sports world now. When did you sell Qualtrics for the first time? 2018. How old were you? I was, well, let's see. That was '41. Okay. So when you're 41 years old, you sell the survey company that you did for the first time, become a billionaire, fluid. Then you still have Qualtrics, and then you sell it again, again, right? Become a billionaire again. Congrats. Right? Thanks, Thomas. Sounds cool. That's so cool. Then you buy the Utah Jazz, which is a team that you grew up being a massive fan of. How you doing? Valuation's gone up since you got it. And then somehow you end up buying the Phoenix Coyotes and turn them into the Utah Mammoth now. This is all in eight years? Yeah. I think we started in sports in '21, '21, and that's where I came out, yeah. You're a good American dream story, sir. Well, it's good to have you guys here, man. Yeah. We appreciate what you do for sports. You're going to leave Bravo a different human. in all the best ways. - What does that mean? Yeah, what do you mean? Soak it all in, Matt. Soak it all in. Yeah, honestly, I don't know. I know they're all, so I'm learning this about the Mormon religion. They're all like pastors. I don't know what the title is. I'm so sorry. Elder, elder, yeah. They're all elders, but they could all potentially be called to lead the thing. You know, like I think that is an abnormal, you normally go to church, there is somebody there. At any moment, they could all be asked to do their thing. So he could be potentially laying it down on me right now. You know, the Church of Latter-day Saints, he could be doing that. Or he could understand that when you come out here, it does feel different. It is a phenomenally refreshing place. And we're very thankful that you guys are hosting us this weekend. Thank you for that. No, it's great. Incredible company. Hey, miss you, boys. We need to get you all out here next time. Hell yeah. Miss you, too. Hopefully we're doing this again. Yeah. All right, we see you. Irish by a billion. That's my special pleasure, gentlemen. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I get a photo with you, dude? Yeah, of course you can. Hey, what's the line on this one? Ten and a half. Ten and a half. Yeah, so Notre Dame's a ten and a half point road favorite. Correct. Might need to be 20. Is that what you think is going to happen, really? I don't know. We saw some pictures. We saw some pictures of him whenever he was kind of young and upcoming, coming through this entire process. He was sitting down with, like, I don't know, Oprah and all these other people. Really? Yeah, he was doing these. I don't know what they are. Like, he was, I don't know. Like a panel? He was sitting on a stage with the lighting. I think I'm doing one of these on Tuesday, and there's a crowd in an audience. He looks so cool. I know. I mean, he looks so cool. He had the faux hawk right up in there, sitting up there, just like the young tech guru wizard energy at all times. And now he owns two teams in his home state and is trying to bring everything to this place. We'll continue to talk about college football and NFL football and make our picks. A man who's about to be joining me here in a matter of moments, AJ, is the greatest of all time. Back to you and Indy. Yeah, of course. He is talking. Most people know that watchers know Nick Saban will be joining us here shortly. He's making his way to the stage. But, Tony. Tone, 10 and a half point favorites, you're telling me, Notre Dame. Yes, yeah. Do you think that's accurate or should it be more or less? I personally think it's a little much. I think it's a lot, just because the way BYU and Notre Dame both play. They both have great defenses, which typically slows the game down. BYU likes to run the ball a ton, especially with Bear Bachmeier, so that will slow the game down. I assume they'll just naturally want to slow the game down just to keep it close and get it to the fourth quarter. So, just as far as time and mathematics, I think it's a little much, but Notre Dame has won 16 straight games. So, that also could go into the factor that just they haven't lost a game by less than 10 in over a year. But, I think it personally, I think it's a little much, but I've been very wrong as of late. Primetime, 2, 7, 30 p.m. out there. That place will be rocking. My great buddy, Brady Papinga, played for BYU. He's a legend. Yes, he is a legend. Is he D.C. right now? Is he what? Is he the D.C. right now? His brother is on staff, actually. Kelly Papinga. That's who it is. Yeah, so yeah. Great. But, wait a minute. They all love BYU. It is in their blood. They hate Utah. Yeah, I knew one of the Papingas. If I were anything red, Brady would try to kill me. So, that's the thing. Like, I know there's a real rivalry out there between those two, and I think Pat is actually sitting down with our own living legend right now. Pat, what's going on out there? We are here with not the Kelly Papinga or the Kelly Papowski. We are here with, Kapowski, we are here with the greatest college football coach of all time, Nick Saban. Yeah, coach. Coach, you had a documentary released about you. Last week. How do you feel now that everybody knows everything about you? Really no different. You know, we haven't had a chance to, you know, see the whole thing yet. We've been a little busy, but got a lot of good comments about it. I'm glad people enjoyed it. I hope they learned something. You know, it's really about being a tribute to all the people who contributed to the success and giving them an opportunity to express themselves in terms of their experience, and hopefully this will help, you know, somebody out there have a better chance to be successful. And that's. And that's what we're here for. 100% of it. I have not finished it yet. I will get to it by the end of this weekend. There was a couple guys back in the Thunderdome who have watched 100% of it. We finished it this morning as everyone watching it together. Okay. So, coach, you need to know, you're a legend, dude. Your competitive spirit, your drive for lifting others, your misery, too, in the biggest moments and being able to continue to draw from that. It's just, you're a special story. We just told Ryan Smith this, who became a billionaire when he was 14. Now he's 49. He owns two teams and a bunch of other businesses as well. He's a great American dream story. You, just a football guy from West Virginia, and what we're learning about you, thank you for existing, dude, actually. I hope you understand that that's coming out of this documentary as well, as a lot of people are saying, thank God for that hillbilly from West Virginia getting into ball and doing his thing. We're very lucky for you, actually. But, you know, the one thing that I hope people can see and understand is, you know, we're so transactional. You know, in sports, because everything's about winning and losing, and the thing about being a little more transformational, caring about the players, players don't care what you know until they know what you care, being tough on them, tough love, getting them to do the things that are going to help them be successful in the future. We just did it a little different way, you know, trying to be a leader that they could emulate, and, you know, wanted them to know we were trying to help them be successful for their benefit, not ours. And we had a vision for what they could do, and I'll try to lead them and help them and inspire them to do it. And, you know, I think it was a little different approach, but it worked well for us, and I just love all the cast of characters who contributed to it. Yeah, I think you did a great job, Coach. You should be incredibly proud of yourself. Now, college football has changed mightily. How old are you? I'm going to be 75 Halloween. Damn! Halloween's your birthday? Sick! Halloween, baby. Happy birthday. Trick or treat. Trick or treat. Mama don't know which. We love Mama. We appreciate Mama for that, but I guess she was wondering that. I mean, you just being a goblin, you know, going into all these different college football stadiums and dominating people. Halloween birthday is spectacular. But you're 75, and a lot of people say that the changing of college football is what forced you to retire, but I think becoming a seven-time national champion, being considered the greatest of all time, and in your 70s, and not really ever living your life, potentially fell into the decision as well with Miss Terry, but with how fast and how rapid college football has changed, where do you kind of sit on that now that you're media looking in at it? And I know it's hard not to take your coaching hat off, but if you were to look at it, and then now here in about the 2014 playoff, what do you think about where college football is, where it was when you retired, and where this has been a lot of change very quickly, I think, to a sport that is a lot of tradition. The 2014 playoff is the most recent one. How do you feel about it, as a guy who's dedicated your life to the sport? Well, first of all, I really didn't retire because college football was changing. You know, we always wanted to help players be more successful in life. That became a little more difficult with NIL and players getting paid, which I think they deserved, and I was happy for them to be able to do it. It just changed, you know, the whole game in terms of transfer portal. You know, the fact that, you know, when you retire, you don't have to worry about, you know, how much they're getting paid, how does that affect their ability to work on the things they need to do to develop personally, academically, and athletically. I think those are all questions that we want to make sure that in college, we keep education first and development first and make the quality of life better and find a balance in all that and a competitive balance in all that. But the 2014 playoff is, you know, my only concern about the 2014 playoff is I understand that the more players get involved, the more interest it creates and more opportunity, the more hope that it creates for, you know, players, but the one thing that I am concerned about because we played 15 games three or four times, and that was a lot of games for college players. Now we're talking about in a 2014 playoff, you could play five more games and the 12 games and what happens at championship games and how we eliminate those, and I just get a little concerned about that. How much is too much when it comes to how many games a college player plays? Okay, so you're not for the 2014 playoff necessarily? I would be for '16. I think that would be a good compromise. I would be for keeping conference championship games as maybe a play-in to the '16, which now you'd have 20 teams that had hope, but I don't think there's much support for that. I don't think anybody really likes that. Well, I don't think there's, there's not necessarily a lot of people that love the 2014. We are finding things to love about the 2014. I don't think any of us are saying, "Yep, this is the right decision," but I think it is reality and the people that are making this decision, the CFP, which are what commissioners and ADs and all this type of stuff, there has to be a reason that they would like it. And what we've been trying to figure out is what is the exact reason if you were to get to the bottom of it, because it doesn't feel like anybody's out here pounding the drum for it. And hope is certainly what it is, but it's also like to keep the sport going how it is for a lot of these places. If your team doesn't, have success. I don't think the money keeps coming in. And I think that is a realization of all these universities like, hey, we have to have some sort of success or we're going to potentially get cut off of this entire thing. I think that is a big drawer for this. Not saying that's right or wrong, but I do think that is a massive piece of the puzzle that isn't really being talked about. Yeah, I think that you're 100% right. And I love your dissertation of how you explained all those things. But the bottom line is money. That's the bottom line. I mean, you explained that universities need it because of the way we're spending more now for players. And there's still a cost to having Olympic sports, which are important, I think, to be able to keep and give people opportunities to compete. And how do we do that? But I think we also have to look at some kind of budget that we can have so that everybody kind of is competing. At the same level and everybody can plan on how much are we going to spend here? And I want players to make money and I want them to have name, image, likeness opportunities. But I think we have to put some kind of budget on it so people can operate. Every business has a budget. I don't know how any business survives if you don't have a budget. So why wouldn't we need that in college athletics? Yeah, in the NFL, obviously easy to say that they have it figured out and they are professional football, which is what college football has become. So there's always the comparison to that. And then FCS, I believe they've had a 2014 playoff since like 2013 or something like that. So they've done it before. And I'm not saying that it's the exact same as FBS football, but it has happened before. The amount of games are worrisome. But with the interest in the ratings and everything that college football is, we just got to keep that going forward. And I hope no decision, including a 2014 playoff one, stops that at all because there's so much growth for college football right now. It's such a special sport. We got kids camping out to be a part of a pregame show for the sport. That's how special the sport is. We can never tamper with that, I think. I'm 100% in agreement with you. I don't think people realize how much passion there is and how many opportunities are created by college athletics and college sports. And we have to keep it sacred in terms of how we approach it in the future. Okay, let's talk about college football and sacred, shall we? Catholics versus Mormons this weekend right here. I know you do a ridiculous amount of film studies still at this age. It is kind of your only way of preparation. What have you seen on tape from these two teams? I like C.J. Carr a lot. He hit the crossbar, maybe hit the back post, but we counted it because we didn't have as much of a zoom-in on it. He seems to have the moxie of a guy that could go on to win a title. The team opted out of the Pop-Tart Bowl last year to come back to go on a run that they're going on. They're dominating people. And then BYU, Ryan Smith just talked about it. It feels like it's been a couple years in the making waiting to shock the world, which they certainly could do. What have you seen on film and what do you expect? Well, first of all, Notre Dame has a good team and, you know, C.J. Carr is obviously an outstanding player, but Notre Dame hasn't really been tested, I don't think. I think they will be tested by BYU. I think BYU has a challenging defense. They're very aggressive in terms of how they pressure their quarterback and, you know, can Notre Dame run the ball against them? Can they handle their odd front, which they pressure a lot out? Mostly simulated. They play a lot of man-to-man, so they got to beat man coverage. How good is Notre Dame's skilled players outside? And, you know, who turns the ball over? I think all those things are really, really important in terms of who wins this game. Now, BYU on the other hand, you know, Bear is a load and the quarterback runs the way they've been able to run the ball, the way they control the game, I think is very important. I do think that he has improved as a passer and as a more complete player this year than he was a year ago, and I think BYU is a pretty good football team. Yeah, I think they're a pretty good football team and I think this energy could propel them. Everybody's expecting Notre Dame to have a great day, including the sportsbooks. Double-digit favorite coming out here. Road win would still be tough regardless? Yeah, and I think Notre Dame has a couple opportunities to prove who they are. This is one of them. They play Miami later on in the season, but when they don't play in a conference and they don't play a lot of stiff competition, they have to answer the bell when they have the opportunity to do that, and this is one of those opportunities to beat a ranked team who's number eight right now. But on the other hand of that, you know, BYU sort of makes a national statement for themselves. Oh my god, yeah. Hello, we are here for real. Basketball has been getting the number one recruit the last couple years here out of BYU. Football team has been close to winning the Big 12 to get into the dance, do their thing. If they beat Notre Dame on primetime, big one, being gigantic for the entire program. Okay, let's pivot away from this particular massive game on Saturday. There's another one happening in Bloomington. Ohio State-Indiana quickly becoming a rivalry, AJ. You think there's a quick rivalry happening because of the greatness of both teams? You've been a part of that, especially with ex-coach of yours in Kirby. Tone has a question for you. Yeah, coach, I do. When I was watching the doc, it was like, okay, this year, these couple years, it's Bama and Florida. Then these couple years, it's Bama versus Auburn. These couple years, it's Bama versus Georgia, and you would play these teams in the SEC championship. You would play them in the national championship regular season. So that leads me to Indiana-Ohio State. They played each other last year in the Big Ten championship game. They played in the playoffs before, sorry, the regular season before that. So when you, like, when it is that situation, how much do you draw from the previous games in that season or the year before, especially when the coordinators and stuff are the same? And how much do you have to change versus saying, like, this is what we do? How do you prepare for those huge rivalries versus really good teams when you know them so well? Yeah, well, I think the important thing is, is to do a great job of analyzing the game before and keeping a book, I'm going to call it, on the games that you played against somebody, what their tendencies were, what your tendencies were. We always did. What do we do well? What do we do poorly? What planning mistakes did we make? What personnel issues did we have? And we tried to say, what would we do differently if we played this game again? Which you're going to do, and you've mentioned all the times that we played Georgia, all the times that Indiana-Ohio State played. So, and then you decide, what do we need to change? I remember back in, I think it was 11, when we played LSU and they beat us the first time on a field goal. And we changed a whole bunch of stuff in the Sugar Bowl when we played in the national championship game, and we had a lot of success doing that. Typically, that's not how we did it, but we felt like we needed to do it. And I think you have to analyze that. Here's the things we did well. Here's the things we did poorly. What do we need to change to have more success against this team? Because you develop a history on them. You know, Pat, that's true in the NFL. You play the same teams all the time, so you're always developing a history. And if you play, I'll give an example. I was a secondary guy. If you played a bunch pass the same way, three weeks in a row, they were going to wear your ass out, you know, in the fourth game because they knew how you were doing it. So, you had to be able to adapt a little bit and adjust. And, you know, it's like being a baseball pitcher, you know. You can't throw the fastball all the time. Yeah, well, unless you're the Miz. Congrats to the Brewers. Yeah, that's great, man. That is great. But, you know, everybody taught, the Brewers won more games than anybody. Yeah, and Skipper Murphy, incredible leadership in college, now in MLB. We asked him, we said, do we, do you think you're playing old school baseball? He said, no, I'm just playing baseball. That's right. That's what, that's how he describes it. You're a baseball player from the old school days. You love what this Brewers team is doing, I assume. Love it. I mean, they are great. They play good defense. They got team speed. They keep the, they put the ball in play. You keep putting the ball in play, you're going to get people on base. I mean, they just do a great job and they hit home runs in this series. And I never, I really didn't think anybody could be beat the Dodgers, but they, they swept them. Yeah, and it's crazy for the conversation going forward about the CBA because the conversation was the Dodgers are just buying championships because they're willing to outspend in this deferred payments and they have all the stars and it's becoming such a lopsided league. Then the Brewers, the Guardians and the Rays are some of the lower paid salaries, salary rosters in the entire MLB. So now the conversation is being put into a little bit of a tizzy. I know you're a Yankees fan. How'd that go this year? Not, not well. Tampa Bay were four ass out. Ty Schmidt, what's going on with your Yankees? Is there anything to be hopeful for, pal? Or what, you know, because I'm watching this Brewers team and it's like, you guys have like one player that costs as much as the entire roster and the Brewers are dancing and dancing and dancing in the playoffs, continuing to go. No, yeah, the Yankees could take a page out of what Coach Saban just said there and maybe try to, you know, just put the ball in play every once in a while. Don't need one through nine to each hit 50 homers because when you do that, you know, if you don't have a guy like Judge up, most guys are going to strike out 200 times a year, bat around 200. And then when you play teams who are actually good, you know, that's the thing about the Yankees. They'll beat the shit out of all the teams, you know, who aren't that great, who sneak into the playoffs, don't have great records. You play good teams. They tend to wither and crumble. They need to change a lot in the front office and maybe on the bench, but that ain't going to happen. They're making money hand over fist. Steinbrenner doesn't give a shit. So we'll kind of rinse and repeat, run it back next year and maybe it'll work. Yeah, he's a true Yankees fan. Yeah, I can't. I can't add anything to that. Let's get back to some football talk and some you talk. We talked about you retiring in your 70s here and living out your 70s. your life in the documentary showcasing some things about what you're realizing about yourself I think as a whole AJ has a question for you about that coach coach yeah Pat's referencing in there's a great part of the documentary where you talk about with Miss Terry that you've been in a hurry for 50 years of your life and you didn't even really realize it until you're done coach I guess what was that like and what's it been what's it been like not being in a hurry anymore well I think it's a lot less stressful you know that's number one number two um you know you can enjoy things I mean you really kind of can stop and enjoy things you can enjoy playing golf I mean even when I played golf I was hurrying up so I could get done so I could go make recruiting calls or whatever it was so I mean you don't really have the opportunity to just sit back and enjoy things and I think that's important in your life and that's probably the biggest reason that we decided to retire at 72 we wanted to have a few years of quality of life where we could enjoy our family we could enjoy each other we can enjoy things that we like and the relationships that we have I mean we couldn't even enjoy the friends and relationships that we have because coaching is not a job it's a way of life and I loved it don't get me wrong I loved it but there's a lot that you give up and it's nice to be able to enjoy some of those things yeah to live yeah because you you football people are psychos Tom Moore is still on the sideline no I I I mean Tom Moore is a good friend of Bill Belichick is going coaching until it's Joe Paterno coach until like that is the norm with you people so the fact that you were able to actually um break that I think is an important thing because I assume you were heading down that path as well yeah I was and the one thing that I did not want to do and I don't know if this is pride and performance or what it is I did not want to ride the program down I did not want my age which started to be a factor I mean every recruit had the question of are you going to be here for four more years we're 72 years old that means you're 76. I started to ask the the recruits are you going to be here for four years because your chances of leaving are greater than mine but anyway those things started to affect the program and how you got the best players and um so yeah I did not want to ride the program down but I'm just saying that you you shouldn't have to explain yourself on things but there is a lot of narratives that get cooked up for every single decision that you make because you're the greatest of all time just know we're very very thankful that you're still doing TV with us and not just golfing your ass off with Miss Terry down there on the beach well you know I love it because you guys have kept me involved in the game I still feel a part of the team come on and um it's fun why'd you put me in the face last week no last week well because you picked Georgia I mean and you know I was trying to save your ass basically I mean you would have gotten booed they'd have been throwing stuff at you so basically when Bryce and I attacked you yeah the fans loved that yeah so we changed the narrative for you thank you so I could get out of the building yes yeah because if not I was glad they were going to get after me they were going to call it Tuscaloosa you know instead of Tuscaloosa I I respect that I appreciate that what did you I mean I think we learned a lot about Georgia and Alabama both are very good teams Connor has the last question for you about the teams across the board yeah yeah coach and just to go back to the documentary the philanthropy stuff you did in there was awesome it was cool to read and hear about all that so good on you and Miss Terry but uh Pat's point right now we're at a time where it's kind of like hey we know what these teams are how many teams you think right now are looking ahead or maybe just kind of thinking about hey we can do it this year we can go on and win a natty I know that wasn't really in your entire makeup when it came to a week by week gotta just be one and oh but how many teams you right now do you think know hey we can win a national championship this year we can do this well I think there's four teams up there and you've got them listed Georgia Notre Dame Miami Ohio State I mean those have been the four teams to me that have been the most dominant and are the most complete um you know look I love Alabama you guys all know that and I think that next tier of teams right there have a chance to be that if they have the right stuff and what do I mean by the right stuff are they going to respond to the failures that they had the right way are they going to be able to deal with success but those teams in that first four categories seem to be able to have the maturity to do that Indiana's in in the next level and we'll see what they're made out of this week when they play Ohio State I mean really and I I thought but look the attitude that Indiana has and the culture that they have in the program and what Kurtz and Kennedy's been able to do there for them to come back and the game last week against Nebraska when they were down and dominate the fourth quarter of the game you know that's what championship teams do so I I'm just looking to see how they're going to do against Ohio State who I think may have the best personnel you know the thing that separates Ohio State to me when you have a guy like Jeremiah Smith I mean that's like having a Michael Jordan on your team that can go make a whenever you need one yeah definitely to win the game because he makes a play to win the game whenever you need one yeah whether it's third and ten when the momentum of the game's changing he makes a play I mean this guy is one of the greatest playmakers in college football for a long time I think yeah not only for a long he not only third down second down if he's single covered double covered triple covered I think they'll even have four guys on him Julian Sainz throwing up to him excited to see what Haynes coach Haynes defense coordinator for the Indiana Hoosier football team can do against this Ohio State offense now let's get back to Indiana and you saying that you've been incredibly impressed with the culture and the way they've been able to get back and do this you've said multiple times that you've won 19 games straight twice and your team needed to lose that game last week against Nebraska pretty reminiscent of the Penn State situation last year maybe a little bit of the Iowa situation last year where they get tested they get tested can you utilize those as wake-up calls for your team if you're still winning because I think you were kind of um I don't want to say happy but you were okay with a loss coming to your team after winning 19 straight because it felt like it woke everybody up for Cignetti they're about to they have 22 I think right now straight wins that's a lot of success coming back to back to back handling that I think can be very difficult what are your thoughts on Indiana doing that and can they use last week as the wake-up call as a potential as opposed to like a loss that might have to do it yeah I thought they were a little flat in a game early against Nebraska but they did wake up and play great in the second half and especially in the fourth quarter and I do think your team when get challenged like this and they get exposed a little bit that you can use those things well you know you've heard me say this before treat winning and losing the same you know try to teach when you win things that we could have done better try to teach when you lose and and and not like just get on the players if you have a negative consequence in an organization and you don't teach that kills Morales you don't want to kill Morales you don't want to waste a failing you want to build on it so they haven't had to fail my hat's off to him for winning 22 in a row we could never do that we never did that we won 19 twice and and we were complacent and that complacency creates a blatant disregard for doing what's right it's great to get recognition unless it affects your behavior and your preparation then you get in trouble and that's what so many teams have to deal with and can you do that do you have the liberty to do that can the coaching staff help the players work their way through that and continue to challenge themselves you know one of my old sayings is are you acting like you're hungry or are you acting like you have indigestion which one oh because both can kind of feel kind of full is what you're saying no if you're hungry you're going to do great you're hungry you have indigestion you you're like before your way gotta take a yeah yeah I had to poop take some time yeah because a hungry dog runs faster hungry dog runs fast a hungry dog is a little bit more driven potentially than the fat lazy dog yeah we don't want to be a fat lazy dog out here Indiana seemingly could become a fat lazy dog with all the goodness that's going on down there they have not done that oh they're hungry dog looking for their next meal Necton mentality always looking like a shark is that what you're saying yes sir I think you have that mentality don't you I tried I absolutely tried but I I think that you know it's the hardest thing because the human condition is to do what you have to do to get by I mean everybody on this show at some point in time made an A on the first test screwed around for the next two weeks made a C and was happy to have a B average every one of us me included all right we all did that because we did what we had to do to get by right then you don't win the championship that way you've heard me say that before yeah I've heard you bees do get really good degrees you know so that is our selling point but A's give you you know a little bit extra strap no around the cap whenever you're graduating D's get degrees too do they I don't know in those past fails place if they do do they yeah is that D's still get the job done these days how would you know that coach did you do you have experience on this there's no need for a follow-up okay French was hard French was really hard yeah well if you get an uh if you get a a C and then an F you know yeah get a D boom give me my degree operated that's kind of how Connor operated high C low F should meet at a low D that gets you by there we don't think kids should do that no absolutely no don't think you should do don't smoke Don't do drugs, especially nowadays. You can't. Actually cannot happen. You need to study hard. You need to listen to those teachers. Now, some of these teachers. Don't take French. Nope. Not going to say it. Don't take French. Don't play football games in France either. Consistency and performance is what defines success, and that's challenging. We just stepped on that because he was asking the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL to take that game out of Paris because Tone is trying to shrink the game. He doesn't want to grow the game internationally as much, and there's a lot of conversation over there. He's reading headlines from some places. So we don't want to step on your quote right there. What did you say is consistency is what? Consistency and performance define success. Tone has been very consistent about not wanting any of these NFL teams to play internationally. But what is that about? Nah, money is what Tone is upset about. And Roger wants to go on vacation to these countries for free on the NFL time. Oh, don't you say the commissioner of our league wants to go see the Eiffel Tower and get treated religiously. Well, which is why these games are over there. This isn't FIFA, Tone. You're right. That's what the FIFA guy does. What's his name, Gumpy, the FIFA guy? Gianni. Soccer's Don Garber. Whoa. Whoa, what is that? Soccer's Don Garber. Wow. You see that? I couldn't wait to get the cougar peeking over Gumpy's shoulder right there. So sick. Gumpy, your thoughts on Utah as we've been out here a few times now, but this time feels a little bit good. It's finally long pants weather, is it not, Gumpy? Yeah, the shorts got retired on this trip. Beautiful. Beautiful. It feels like we're just chasing. The mountains, you know, you see it, but you just can't get to it. It's there forever. It's like a postcard. Well said. It is beautiful here. Have you gotten a good view of the mountains yet? Yeah, coming in on a plane, it was great. And driving through town, I mean, you're down the street and you're looking straight up at the mountain. It's beautiful. No, but I'm saying it's hard to see the mountain whenever there's so many trees. You know, like I can't. I haven't got a good shot at the mountains yet. I've seen a quarter of a mountain. I've seen, like, a stripe of a mountain. Everywhere I've been. I've seen buildings, trees. I need the – I like to get my eyes on one of these fuckers. You know, I like to get one of these big ones. There's snow on the top of this mountain. You're going to start climbing them. Did you tell Coach you're going to climb them? Yeah, already. That's what I'm saying, H. I want to get eyes on these things to see if I can, you know, hike these things. I'm looking and getting – A lot of day left after the show's over. Doing mountains. I'm looking into climbing the mountains potentially. I've retired from that, too. Smart move, Coach. Hell no. Come on. They say once you get to the top of the mountain, the view is spectacular is what they say. That's what it's all about. You know what I'm asking? Yeah, well, you can ride up there, too, you know. Oh, and that chopper. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, that's the greatest college football coach of all time, Coach Saban. Yay! Appreciate you, man. Thank you, Coach. Are you guys shocked to hear that Nick Saban isn't climbing mountains right now? I think he was lying. I think he still does climb mountains. No, he's a lake guy. You saw from the doc, he wastes no time. He dives right in. That's true. I think I've seen some clips of him going wake to wake on a wakeboard, and then he, boom, hitting a backflip. He's grabbing the board, doing all the little tricks. His tricks are so insane, he's got to wear the helmet, because, like, just in case. Letting go of the rope. He's going 80 miles an hour, yeah. Yeah, I watched him just tanking. Sometimes he puts throttle down. Saban is not wearing a helmet while he's doing it. Well, no, because he's going up 40-foot jumps, basically hitting concrete. He's jumping off the back of the boat going 80. I get what you're trying to say. He lays flat on his back and is doing spins in the water because he's doing something going so fast. Yeah, that's what you do when you go barefoot. Yeah, one foot on the rope. You start on your back, you do the 360s. He's doing all that stuff, right? I think he's dragging, too. He'll do a boogie board out there. Sure, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, he's. I can see him wake surfing right off the back, and you hear them toss him a beer, and he pounds that beer quick, tosses it back. Yeah, I think he actually stone colds him. Yeah. It's pretty cool that he does that. Wake surfing as he's going, they're playing the music, and he catches both of them, and he goes, hell yeah, roll tide, and boom, bang. One, all right. One, all right. One, all right. It's a good time. All right, hour one wrapping up here. Second hour, we'll be joined by Ian Rapoport. Ian Rapoport will give us our weekly wrap-up with Rap Sheet and friends, us being the friends, he being Rap Sheet. Can't wait to catch up with him. He's got info on a lot of stuff. Lamar Jackson has him practice. He's out again this week with an ankle, and if Snoop is going to continue to win games, I guess you can rest Lamar. Lamar also in the middle of contract situation, probably doesn't want to play until he's 100%. Happy for him. Happy for Lamar. Happy for the Ravens. Hopefully he gets healthy quick. A.J. Brown, also an update for him up there in New England, amongst other players. MLB's hot. The Ram trucks from this week are pretty demolishing. The Shite division will be unveiled. We have so much to cover in this second hour. Not enough time. Stanford Steve will stop by to make the picks, and Coach Marcus Freeman will be joining us, the head coach of Notre Dame. I have no idea how we're going to fit it all in. We hope you will join us. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We'll see you on the other side. Goodbye. The King returns. Sylvester Stallone is back as mob boss Dwight Manfredi. In the Paramount Plus hit series, Tulsa King. With new enemies closing in and his empire on the line, Dwight and his crew prepare for the biggest fight of their lives. Tulsa King. New season now streaming. Only on Paramount Plus. They connect us. So whether you're playing, watching, or cheering it on, it takes energy. Visit ittakesenergy.com to learn more. Hello, beautiful people, and welcome back to an absolutely fantastic Feel Good Friday, October 16th, 2026. Hour two of the sports program begins now. Football. That's right. Football is the reason why. Come out here in beautiful Provo, Utah, as BYU hosts Notre Dame tomorrow in a prime time. Undefeated top ten matchup between the Big 12s, BYU, and Notre Dame. An independent operation that is flying high. Last year could have made the playoffs, were voted out of the playoffs, turned down the Pop-Tart Bowl, and said we're going to have all focus on this year. What has this year been? Dominant. Their ten-and-a-half point favorites coming in here to take on Kalani Satake's Coug squad in Bear Bachmeister. Who are playing the best ball that they've played after another fantastic Big 12 year last year. The NIL and current state of college sports has helped BYU. It has also certainly helped Notre Dame. We're in for an instant classic potentially in Provo, and I'm lucky as hell to be out here. The mountains are gorgeous. The air is fresh. And the time is right. Football is cooking in abundance. And week six of the NFL season kicked off last night in a barn burning. Seattle Seahawks-Denver Broncos game. They went to overtime with the Denver Broncos, getting a win at home with Will Lutz telling either his crowd or the Seahawks to be quiet. Congrats to the Mile High squad after getting a dub to start week six. Their offense is nothing to be desirable. Ryan Fitzmagic, legend in the NFL, who's allowed to say whatever the hell he wants. He has earned that right. He was willing to put his face and helmet into a fan for about 14 different teams. So whatever he thinks, he's certainly allowed to think. He thinks Bo Nix needs to pick it up for this Broncos. His team's sitting at four and two. So maybe they only get better. And then the Seattle Seahawks, reigning Super Bowl champs, three and three after Hard Knocks. Is it the Hard Knocks curse? Is Hard Knocks a part of the problem? Or are the Seattle Seahawks just losing these close games? In down the stretch, they'll end up getting it right. Sam Darnold with a couple key, crazy turnovers. Also some big plays. JSN seemingly unguardable. The boys can rally. They lose K-9. Charbonnet, the running back, not back. But Sam Darnold turning the ball over. The Denver Broncos did not. Sam Darnold not taking advantage of stuff. Denver Broncos did. And the Denver Broncos walk out at 5,280 feet above sea level with a dub over the Super Bowl champions. Not just me BS-ing about the greatest thing on earth, sports, today. There's also a man back in a thunderdome in Indianapolis, Indiana. He's a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hall. How you doing, Hawko? What a game last night's kickoff week six. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to toot my own horn. But with the amount of 13 personnel and the way the game was seemingly looking at the beginning of the season, where we had a plethora of points, I thought there was going to come a time where maybe we start getting into slugfest. Do we think we're into that point, or do we think that it was just two great defenses last night, and we shouldn't expect this from every single game, A.J. Hall? I think last night was more of a show of two great defenses, for sure. I think offenses that are trying to find their footing and figure out who they are, not being able to run, obviously, is very, very difficult. And you know me. I'm a broken record talking about the elements. Getting later into the season, you're going to have to be able to run the ball. You're going to have to be able to stop the run when the other team is trying to run the clock out or do whatever. But, I mean, if you're the Seahawks and you want to be the glass-half-full guy, you can say, hey, we played pretty terrible. We turned the ball over three times, and we still only lost by three on the road. So you can kind of spin it whatever way you want. Yeah, I think you can find positives if you want. You can also find a lot of negatives if you're looking for it. And the Denver Broncos fans, I don't think they're necessarily thrilled with how their team looks. They're sitting in four and two with everything very much in front of them. And then the Seahawks fan, you get Charbonnet back, hopefully, maybe get a run game going like you had last year. Charbonnet was starter, I believe, alongside K-9 last year for the Seattle Seahawks. Charbonnet gets hurt. K-9 takes over, has the magical run through the playoffs and through the Super Bowl, becomes a Super Bowl MVP. Now he's a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City Chiefs play who this weekend? Chargers. Now, is he about to go bonkers in that game yet again? Is K-9, not only the Super Bowl MVP, maybe running his ass into NFL Offensive Player of the Year conversation this year? Yes, sir. He might be a massive miss from the Seattle Seahawks offense, but if Charbonnet is not back either, I don't think we've seen anything close to what the Seattle Seahawks team can be as well. So I don't have that much Don or Daubert Don-ness about both teams last night. I definitely don't want to watch them play football against each other again. The talk show table is there at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. One after the hammer. Dot. Cowboys AP Tone is here. Good to see you, Tone. We'll talk about this weekend slate here in a matter of moments. And joining us is a man who joins us on Fridays for the weekly wrap-up with Rap Sheet and Friends. Us being the friends, he being Rap Sheet. Junior NFL insider for ESPN NFL Network, Ian Rapoport. Hey, good to see you, Rap. Hope life is good. Last night, a little bit of a bore. A little bit of a bore. Anything coming out of last night that we need to know that is pertinent information on this glorious feel-good Friday? I would say, I don't know what this was going to be, but Mike McDonald was asked on the radio and then by his beat writers about Sam Darnold still being his quarterback. And he said he believes Darnold very firmly is part of the solution, not the problem, said he has no plans to move on from him, which, you know, probably should not be a surprise. He was literally in the Super Bowl last year, but this is the world we live in. So it was asked and answered, and I would say that was probably the biggest thing to come out of this, other than these two defenses are pretty awesome and enough to make any quarterback uncomfortable. Yeah, Sam Darnold, back to the scene, ghost days. That'll be held over his head forever, even though he did win a Super Bowl and threw for 300 yards in an NFC Championship game and has played his best ball whenever he has to. There will always be questions over Sam Darnold, especially in primetime performances where this is the outcome. But maybe the Broncos do this to a lot of different teams. Let's pivot away from last night's action to a crazy story that came out of the NFL. And we're big fans of Paul Pierce still. So it's not like we're not big fans of people that do this. We're just saying, like, this seemed like a thing. Then D-Butt quickly said, we don't know if this guy was trying to rehab his hammy on the way out. You know, if he was walking, he's hurting his hammy even more. So the reason why he got on the cart and got wheeled out of there is because he wanted to start the rehab process immediately. That could have been the case. I think what Caleb is saying is everybody can eat shit for the way they reacted to the amount of pain I was in. Have you ever torn your hamstring? No. I was in deep pain, and hopefully I'm back. But I like that Ben Johnson has kept everybody questioning every week. We didn't know if it was going to be Case Keenum or Tyson Bajent the first week, Monday Night Football. We didn't know if Caleb was going to be out week to week or he didn't put him on IR. So it's like I think the mystery that Ben Johnson wanted around the quarterback position certainly happened, but it didn't necessarily help with the projections on what happened to Caleb's hamstring. We are guessing now that your report is accurate, but it sounds like with the way he's talking, he's close to being all the way back, and we are excited for that. We're excited for that because that's good for the league. Okay, let's pivot away from that. Let's talk about another player that's back up there in New England, potentially. Connor has a question for you, Rap. Yeah, Rap, she paged her start receiver, A.J. Brown, had the ankle injury week one. Now he's been activated. He was practicing earlier this week. Is that because he's going to play on Sunday versus the Jets, or is this going to be, hey, practice this week, see how you feel, see how you bounce back, then short week Thursday night next week at Chicago, which is probably where they're aiming for? A couple quick injury things before I get to A.J. Brown. Lamar was just ruled out. I'm sure we'll get to that, but Lamar was just ruled out by Jesse Minter. And then Ben Johnson said about Caleb, nothing firm, more information today, but he's on track. So positive vibes there. As far as A.J. Brown goes, so I was told this was about a six-week injury. Usually high ankles are four to six weeks. This is week four. It is awfully fast. So practice this week. I don't believe he's been full yet. I'd be surprised if he played and wasn't previously a full participant in practice. So we'll find out more tomorrow. We'll find out what he's listed today. My guess is he'll be limited and questionable. But it would be incredibly quick to play. Now, he wants to play. I know that. It's a long season, and he's a huge part of it. Makes no sense to rush him out there. So, like, they're going to have to know for sure that he's ready for him to play. Okay, so let's make sure that we know if A.J. Brown's healthy, that'll be great for Drake May. They're back to winning football. Good for them. Good for them on that front. Let's go to Lamar Jackson, just ruled out. How long are we expecting this? Is this for him to get back to 100% healthy, especially if Snoop Huntley is able to operate in a good way? What are your thoughts on the mindset from Lamar and the Baltimore Ravens here? Yeah, I mean, having Snoop come out there last week, play, win, like, it just gives him a little breathing room. Like, this is why you have these guys, you know? Huntley has done it in the past, and that's pretty great to be able to do. You know, this is end of week two. You know, my understanding on this was probably, you know, I know we talked of this before, but could be multiple week. This is probably the second. Hopefully after this, it's it. They don't have to force him out there. I know there was some optimism earlier in the week about him playing. For whatever reason, even though I know he's working, like, very, very hard in the facility, all of that stuff, it's just sometimes his injuries take longer than people anticipate. So that seems to be the case here. And, you know, you hope next week this is it, and he's able to go out there and play. Lamar's been 100% all in through all of O2. He's all of training camp, everything. I'm not saying that any decision would be made with any business in mind. But can we point out the business in mind here for Lamar? Is this a contract here for Lamar? Is that accurate? My brain is trying to tell me yes, but I don't feel like that's right. You're right. Feels right. OK, so let's assume he's going to be 100% healthy before he goes back out there, especially if Snoop Huntley is playing the football that he's playing. Lamar's playing for a bag right now, technically. I mean, sort of. Yeah. I mean, yeah, the answer is yes. But, like, I don't know that there's anything else he needs to prove to the Ravens organization. Like, they know he's their starting quarterback, franchise quarterback guy for the next however many years. I don't think he needs to convince them of anything. Like, yes, if they go and win the Super Bowl, the bag gets bigger, the price goes up. But, like, he's not convincing them. Like, they know that he is a, I mean, when he plays, he is, you know, you could quibble about who's the best. But, like, he's in the conversation. Yeah, he's an MVP. He's Lamar Jackson. Yeah, it's until he wins a Super Bowl that he'll get heralded for exactly who he actually is. I think that'll get held over his head forever. We are massive fans of his, especially with what he's been able to do with his arm, let alone his leg, since the day he probably got onto a football field as a child. We all remember him doing a shh in high school to that kid. He's a special. Why hasn't a deal been done then? Is it because Lamar wants to wait to see if they win a Super Bowl? Is it maybe he's going to weigh his options elsewhere to see what Jesse Minter was like? Because Bashadi, great owner, if he knows he's going to pay Lamar, the price is only going up. The longer they wait, Lamar, I think, still represents himself. What is the kind of holdup there business-wise? So, going back to before the season, like, the Ravens wanted it to happen. They wanted to lock him up. There are, you know, reasons why deals don't happen. I mean, this is a tough one because it's been a challenge to explain why it seems like Lamar has kind of hit the pause and said, let's just go play the season. So, it's left a lot of people, me included, to guess. But, as of, I don't have a firm answer on why. I just know the Ravens wanted it to be done. And his answer was, let's just, we'll wait. So, they waited. I like Lamar doing it. Joe Flacco did this with the Baltimore Ravens back in the day. Bet on himself. Went through a contract. Shot himself $100 million. So, you know, maybe Lamar Jackson's doing the exact same. Or maybe we see Lamar on the move. Oh, wow. Does he go back to South Florida and save the Dolphins, Gumpy? There's no saving us right now. Hey, the Dolphins are playing hard. They are playing hard. And all the rookies are good. But this is going to take time. You know, this year is kind of a write-off. And it's been pretty enjoyable, actually. You know, just knowing the team's not going to be good. Yeah, that's a cougar right there. And we're not talking about an older single woman. We're talking about a cougar that'll hunt your ass down in the mines. You're not talking about, like, the Bard or Ritz Carlton or something? Oh, crap. Whoa. I don't know. I mean, I'm saying, I'm just, that's where. Oddly personal. No, I mean, I'm not saying. Putting on the Ritz. Who says that? I've never heard that before in my life. Never, ever. Never heard that. Yeah. Talk to a lot of people. That's what they say. Okay. You talking to yourself in the mirror saying, holy shit, down in this lobby, there's cougars everywhere. Is that what you're saying? I'm not saying this. I'm just following up to. We understand. Okay. Let's get away from Lamar Jackson maybe being a member of another football team next year or the highest paid quarterback ever for the Baltimore Ravens. Either is on the table. Every team would be excited if Lamar Jackson was to join them, which is why whenever he was becoming a free agent and everybody was scared to negotiate with him, it didn't make much sense. We're at a different time now than I guess we were then. Hopefully he gets healthy. Shout out to Snoop Huntley filling in. Now let's talk about the future and some things that are happening in nation's capital. Ty has a question for you. Yeah. Rap sheet. Are you hearing anything more about the fallout after last Sunday's commanders? Game, which was just, I mean, still kind of mind boggling. Is this a type of thing where, I mean, do they have to have like a great performance on Monday night against the Niners? Because it does kind of seem like this is the type of thing that can kind of just tank your season. Like, are we in an area here where it's possible, where that kind of could have been the straw that breaks Dan Quinn's back. And now we're kind of just waiting to see what happens. I don't know that I would argue with that premise. I would say definitely watching Monday night. Like in inside the building and to the public, everyone said the right things like Jaden took responsibility. He was the one doing the play of, it's a coordinator, you know, head coach, Dan Quinn. And they all stood up and said, I needed to be better. And I should have done this better and all of that. So, and I think they worked in practice this week to make sure that if they get in that situation again, they can handle it properly. That is all fine. And that is all good. What matters is how they respond on the field. So, yeah, I mean, I would say watching Monday, Monday night, he has for better or worse, the performance of Dan Quinn is now in the spotlight very much. If they go out and play a good game, you know, I would say then no issues. I mean, look, if you're asking about Josh Harris, the owner, I mean, he has not been someone who has wanted to or like to or hope to fire someone mid-season or anything close to that. I don't, that is not something he wants to do. It is something you only do if you absolutely have to. I don't think they're there. I really don't. But we're going to, the answers are going to come on the field. And I think Monday night or with the entire country watching is going to be a big one. Okay. Last one here quick before we have to talk to our get to talk to the Notre Dame head coach, Adam Schefter just tweeted Falcons quarterback, Michael Penix Jr. Has no injury designation for Sunday's game and is expected to start versus the bears. We saw him leave the game in overtime to a came in through an absolute strike and another one. And then a meatball sub and Kyle Hamilton of the Baltimore Ravens is on the microphone saying it's true. He's good. Hey, heads up. I mean, he's, he's going to give us one and it ends up happening to the exact person that was saying that. So there's a lot of questions about what happened with Penix. Do we have any clarity on what took place in that overtime, what the conversation was and what this means going forward for the Falcons and anything that we missed out quickly as we are wasting Marcus Freeman's time. I don't want to waste Marcus. in the stream in this time, tell them I said hello. quick uh is he's gonna start i think he's gonna be okay as far as what happened last week i mean it sounded like the more he sat there the colder and sorer he got and he didn't feel like he could function uh and then 20 went in and meatballs up you know um and so hopefully this is the last we we talk about it i mean panics has shown that when he comes in he can change the entire offense and be really really good that is what the falcons are looking forward to seeing and that is what i'm expecting to see this week goodbye and say hello to marcus for me that's it nothing else we missed going into the weekend we need to know about um i don't think so that's pretty uh i think that's pretty good do you have a little person back there working for you what's going on i got my what do you mean little person jude the dude yeah like it's cool that's what i'm talking about oh that's what you mean uh you know i got a whiteboard where i keep all my stuff what did you mean yeah what did you what are you talking about you mean look i meant i wanted to know all right guys you're a real sack of poop i thought he meant jude was over there like pointed things that we missed because i didn't know how he'd be able to remember what he was talking like a wizard or a troll or something like that sounds like it i thought he was just saying like someone his height oh that might have been why he got upset you talking about me is there another me over there yeah my little child uh aj your former teammates with the man that's about to join us and what he's been able to do for an institution that was considered kind of uh outdated and maybe not able to keep up with the modern times of the college football world he's done a phenomenal did you know this about him whenever he was playing alongside you marcus freeman do you know he was going to be the coach that he is oh i mean i thought he was going to go along and play for for a long long time i know he had a medical situation that didn't really allow that but i was not surprised at all from when he started coaching it cincinnati with luke fickle yeah i knew i knew marcus was locked in he was ready to go ladies and gentlemen joining us now former teammate of aj hawks now the leader of the notre dame football team an absolute stallion has a 49 and 12 record as a head coach in college football and he's wildly handsome nobody talks about that they always talk about something else with him they forget to talk about this dude this dude is he's one of the ones that look very yeah he wears this he always wears his little athletic fit pit you know he always does his ladies and gentlemen marcus freeman hey coach i appreciate the introduction man that was good everybody everybody always talks about your hair they never talk about you being handsome you know it always like kind of uh it steals the conversation you are a very handsome man a young man and uh doing a phenomenal job over there in notre dame thank you so much for joining us you are heading out here brother i don't know if you can see this or not oh okay those are rockies okay those are rockies coming out here to take on a team that is very excited for this opportunity what have you been telling your team about traveling out here to provo game obviously a lot of these guys would not be used to having to happen yeah i think there's a lot of things you prepare for um for this game the altitude and and really re-emphasizing things that we talk out talk about throughout the year in terms of the hydration the nutrition the fuel healing um how you breathe and recover and so we've been making sure to re-emphasize those things and and the reality of it we got to be prepared for the crowd the crowd noise um we just finished practice probably 20 minutes ago so um we were practicing with a lot of crowd noise so we have to be prepared for the environment and then you got to go out there and execute you got to make sure that you're doing the things you've done to get you to this point and you got to do it because of your preparation what are your thoughts on kalani sataki there was a lot of chatter about him and you uh maybe getting plucked to go other places and coach elsewhere both of you have remained very loud and very loyal to your respective schools how much do you know about coach sataki and what do you expect from his football teams yeah we played against each other my first year as a head coach in vegas uh 2022 and uh man i was first time i met him and and really enjoyed our conversation i think you look at the results of the time he's been the head coach um the numbers tell you what type of coach he is and you gotta you watch film you watch his team play that it reflects their head coach and and the things that he demands so i have a lot of respect for him um again in our conversations but also how i see his team play you talk about the first year as you as a head coach now you're an old ass man aj has a question for you yeah marcus you mentioned 2022 obviously as a head coach how are you different now like on the sideline game day how do you how do you feel mentally different and has your role changed at all it's to what you do during the game yeah i think sometimes what you don't know you don't know until you go through it um i think back to 2022 and the things that i thought i knew and but i didn't right and you have to learn through failure you have to learn through struggles um hopefully i'm a better coach now than i was last year and i'm a better coach now than i was last week and it's the intentionality of where your mind is what you're focused on and and you know how you practice it right i tell the teams all the time a behavior is is created from behaviors right of doing and practicing and playing in these games and coaches in these games and so you have to be intentional about where your focus is what you're doing um and practice and then you got to do it in the game you can't you know i hear coach or people say all the time stay in the moment right focus on what you have if you don't practice that you're right and so you have to practice how do i practice that you want to do on saturday how do you practice well i think it i think the easy way is to catch yourself drifting right and how many times can you catch yourself thinking about something that's not right in front of you right how many times do we think about saturday instead of thinking about this moment if you catch yourself now you can help get yourself back into the moment right and then be intentional for us about reloading we we talk about reloading between each play right and and that's how you breathe that you recover where's my focus go um i think all those things you have to practice if you want to do them on saturday god he just sounds like one doesn't either yeah especially after watching the saban dog yeah he just he just sounds like a coach speak but it's his natural thoughts that that's the uh that's it well it's fleeting you know you got to make sure you're right here not thinking about saturday how often do we do he started coaching us right there aj did you feel that he just started immediately coaches we need that coach by the way so we very much appreciate that a guy that you've been coaching here for a few years now has had very high expectations because of his last name since he got into the role of starting quarterback now seemingly all the way in on his own ty schmidt has a question for you coach yeah coach how impressed have you been with kind of the evolution and maturation of cj car coming into this year i mean we saw how well he played you know towards the end of last year and then coming in he's on every quarterback watch list you know heisman hopeful top 10 pick in the draft etc etc um but how how much have you noticed a kind of a change in him not just in the way he plays the game but also in his uh leadership and just how he is around the other guys on the team yeah i think you hit it right there um he's always been gifted uh he came in as a freshman i remember he was red shirt and it was the year we played the national championship game and i remember seeing him in the indoor facility probably nine or ten o'clock at night and going through with the practice script right now he was red shirting there's no chance he was going to play and i knew in that moment i said like this dude is going to be special because he already has a foundation of a routine that's going to help him be prepared but and so what i've really been pleased with was his evolution of leadership right and and his ability to make those around him better and some guys he needs to get after him some guys he needs to put their armor his arm around their shoulder but i said that's the greatest responsibility you have like winning the heisman the future in the nfl like that's that's too big don't worry about that put the pressure on yourself to be the greatest leader you can be and be what the team needs you to be and and you'll be the it will be the best thing you can do for yourself and so you know i think that's the biggest responsibility you have and i think that's the biggest responsibility i've been really proud of how he's led this team and continues to lead this team yeah i i loved him he's popped by game day and he just looks so confident the amount of ball tricks he had the casual in this he hit the crossbar first right now i think it was the back post which he sold as the crossbar which i like even more you know so like everything i've seen about him i like and everything i've seen about your team i like the conversation about you guys not being tested how do you handle that because wisconsin feels like they're going to be a good team down the road whenever everybody talks about it but it doesn't really get talked about this weekend i think saban said will be a good litmus test for this notre dame team it'll be the first time we learn how do you handle that with the team and does the maturity help whenever you guys decide last year to not do the pop-tart bowl and just have visions on this particular season does that help explain like who doesn't matter who the competition is for you guys how do you address that with the team yeah i think for us you're always with in a battle with yourself right and how can you make sure that you find ways to build confidence based off any struggle that you as an individual as a team has gone through and so i look at situations where you know the very first game of the year it's a three-point ball game at half right and then we come out in the second half and we score and then all of a sudden we we have interception touchdown versus uh north carolina right they come out in the second half we're up seven i think and they they take the kickoff return touchdown back for touchdown and so i remind them that there is no success without those moments that adversity that struggle and i think that's what i'm looking for and i think that's what i'm looking for and Um, and so understand that, like, cause when we all look back, we go, man, you guys beat all these teams by double-digit numbers. But in the midst of that, there's struggle. There's challenges. We've been tested. And so that's what we've got to remember, right? And so when we're in that situation again versus a good opponent, just like we're about to play tomorrow, like we've been there. That's why I say we've been here before. And so understand, refocus on what you have to focus on to get done. Defense leads the offense. Notre Dame has outscored its opponent 59-0. Off turnovers this season. You, former linebacker, defensive brain, but obviously football requires more at the head coaching position. Tone has a question for you, Coach Freeman. Yeah, Coach, before you were the head coach at Notre Dame, obviously you were the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, and you have the number one total defense right now. I think it's like 210 yards a game. So coming from that side of the ball, but being a head coach, how hard is it to not spend all of your time in the defensive room? And how do you designate your time? I mean, the offensive side and the defensive side of the ball. Yeah, great question. Thank you. You know, I think to AJ's question, how you've evolved as a leader since the first year in 22, you can't do everything, and you're not the only one that's a good football coach in the room. And for me, like, when a coach earns my trust, you know, let him be the best coach he can be. And it gives me an opportunity to wear different hats that I need to wear in that moment. Right? You don't know what's going to present itself every day. And so Coach Ash has done an unbelievable job. You know, when he first got here, I probably needed to spend more time there, just so I knew, hey, exactly what we're emphasizing, what we're doing. And he's shown that he knows what he's doing. He's a great defensive mind, a great defensive leader. And so our guys are playing well. It gives me a chance to really emphasize different things every day. Right? I really enjoy coaching the scout team a lot of times, offense and defense, and your practices are as good as the scout teams give you a look. And so, obviously, I'm not a great leader if the look isn't better when I'm with those scout team guys. And so I've really taken an ownership of that. And I think it's helped both sides of the ball. I know you're focused right on today, and then tomorrow you'll be focused on tomorrow, and then Sunday, go to church. Then we're focused on that day, and then Monday again. But there is some big conversations happening around college football right now, and now Connor has a question for you. Yeah, Coach. Pat's talking about the rumored 24-team expansion for the college football playoff. Is there any reaction from you on your side of the kind of coin when you look at it, especially after what happened last year with being the first team out, basically? Do you have any thoughts about it, or do you not even care? You know that this year is kind of the year to go get it. Look, I'm biased because I'm opinionated towards Notre Dame. I'm not saying this is what's best for college football, like what do I believe is best for Notre Dame, and that's the more opportunities we have to get into the playoffs, the better. And so I'm a proponent on expanding it. 24 teams would be great. Now, I don't want to – it's not right to probably go to 64 or whatever the basketball, the March Madness has, but I'm a proponent of 24 teams because it's going to give Notre Dame football a better chance to get in the playoffs and probably keep our independence. And not only keep your independence to get in the playoffs, and you're not just the only team that's going to do this, there's going to be a lot of teams that get a chance to get into the dance. And I think last year you were the team that was left out. Miami gets in. Miami goes on a run. But who says you guys don't go on a run as well? The way you handled that I thought was very mature for a team. At the time, you guys opting out of the Pop-Tart Bowl, though, you were kind of being viewed as powders. You think that was maybe an act? They were saying you were potting. Isn't that what they were saying? Comment? They were like, Marcus Freeman is pot. Yeah, sore losers. Yeah, Catholics can't handle losing, stuff like that, really. Yeah, they're going after the entire religion. But it did feel like that decision was made for this year. Is that accurate? And how have you seen the boys from that moment continue to kind of drive on this year? Well, I look at it two ways. One, it was actually to say, you know what, we're going to end this season on our terms last year, with this being our 2025 football team. You know, that's how the captains wanted to end the season. They didn't want to have a divided team with not a whole bunch of guys playing in the game. And, you know, I supported them, right? I really did. And we had to make a quick decision. And that's the decision we made. And the minute we made that decision, right, you give yourself a little bit of time to decompress and to really start thinking about the future. And that's when we said we can't lose the pain, the decision, the lessons that we learned from what happened, right? You have to keep the lessons that you learned from failure. And that's a reminder we said we left out, right? Don't blame it on the committee. We didn't do what it takes to make it into the playoffs. And so we use that as a reminder to take advantage of the now, right? I think there's this misconception that we're talking about. We want to leave no doubt for the season and all this. Yeah, but that's a reflection of leaving no doubt with what you have in front of you. And so in our building, we use that as a mentality to take advantage of right now, what you have this game, this minute, and today. The process, baby. It's undefeated. The process, if you can focus on it and master it, the outcomes will come your way. AJ has the last question for you, Coach. Yeah, Marcus, are you having fun? Are you enjoying being the Notre Dame head football coach? We had Nick Saban on a little bit ago, and he said he realized he was in a hurry for 50 years. He didn't realize until he got done. And he said he never changed. He never truly got to enjoy things because it was always next. Here we go. I'm playing golf. I got to go call some recruits. Everything. And I can understand that. I cannot imagine the magnitude being at Notre Dame. Like, can you ever just freak out and let loose? Obviously, it's such a buttoned-up organization. You have such a message you are always curating. Like, what's it like? Are you having fun? I guess, are you having fun? And also, like, I would imagine now it's a lot more fun than it was when you first showed up. Yeah, there's – I don't know that there's anything – probably very few things that bring me joy. Bring me more joy than making an impact on the young people you get the chance to be around every day, right? And that's where the fun happens. When you see a young person practice better because of something maybe you did or his coaches did, when you see these young guys have success, when you see them go to the NFL, when you see – like, that's the fun, right? And that's the greatest joy of this position is that you get a chance to impact young people every day, and that's where I get my fun. That's where I get my fulfillment. It has nothing to do with wins. It does have to do with wins because when you see their face, when you see those guys enjoying the fruits of victory, that brings a lot of joy. And so that's what I would tell you, AJ. Yeah, there's a lot of things that this position really has and entails and you have to do, but the joy comes from the players. The joy comes from seeing others have success. Well, we take a lot of joy in seeing this golden – Don't fly, Ryan. Good luck tomorrow against these Cougs. Hey, there's a – they've been lining up for game day since Tuesday night. I mean, there's an anticipation, and obviously when Notre Dame comes to town, it is a big game for everybody. It feels like a special weekend in college football is about to happen out here. Thank you for leading the boys in safe travels as you come out here to Provo. I appreciate it, man. It's great to see everybody, man. It's great to see you too, man. Go Irish. Hell yeah. You're the best. That's Marcus Freeman. Ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, coach. Go Irish. 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. Yeah. And communities can keep moving forward. Bloom Energy, power America relies on. Jen Latta here. Somewhere in a run, things get fun. You stop counting, you stop trying, you're just here. That's the run reminding you of what your body's capable of when you finally let it go there. And now that feeling fits wherever you need it to. The new Peloton TreadFlex is designed to fit your life, movable and foldable, so you can run, walk, or hike when you need to. And roll it away when you don't. Let yourself run. Explore TreadFlex at OnePeloton.com. Super handsome. He's getting younger. You know, normally, like, coaches age like presidents. But he's getting younger somehow. I don't know how that happens. Do you, AJ? I get your friends like that. I don't know. That's a great point. I don't know. He's so polished, you know. Like, he's so good. I saw Marcus at the Kentucky Derby, I don't know, three, four years ago. I think he had just taken over the job. And I remember he's wearing a suit. And, you know, NBC runs the Derby as well. So, he's there, like, on work. And he came down and slummed it a little bit where I was. And I remember seeing him. I'm like, it was like running into a politician where they can't. I was like, man, can you enjoy this? Like, are you having fun? Like, is this like, he's like, yeah, yeah, I love it, man. Like, he actually, he is all in. But I think he had, like, his, you know, they have, like, the PR people, the market, like, all the people with him. Oh, yeah, sure. And it's just hilarious to see because he is such a professional. I told him that day, I'm like, you're obviously the perfect hire to be the head coach at Notre Dame. He's gone on to have so much success, but yeah, it's impressive watching them. I feel like I've watched them grow up, honestly. Yeah, it's been fun to watch. He's done a great job with Notre Dame. Let's pivot away from college. Let's go and make our picks to join us. To help us make these picks is a man who is really tall, really smart, loves basketball. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Stanford Steve! Hey! Steve-o! Steve-o! Steve-o! Who's the number one team in the country? College football. Georgia. Oh, okay. Is that who you think? Yeah, I just thought somebody said that last week. Coming in hot. Alright, we are very proud of you. I didn't get anything else right, but I got that right. We're very proud of you for doing that. We're grateful for you joining us again. How about Provo, Utah? It's beautiful, is it not? Yeah. I wish I skied. Yeah, haven't you been on tour here for about two months now? You've stopped at a lot of different places. Does it feel different out here in Utah? It feels fresh, does it not? Yeah, it feels almost fake. You know? Like, people from the city wouldn't believe how picturesque this place is. I've been working on that word. You're talking about that view right there. Oh, wow! Wow, what a time. Alright, we need you to get some pics right. I need to get some pics right. AJ's been seeing it, so maybe we follow his lead. Last night, Denver Broncos get the cover and the dub. Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars happening at 9.30am AFC South Clash. Jags favored by two and a half. Stanford Steve, the Texans are off a dub, and they have Marvin Harrison Jr. Who do you like? How do you like it? Yeah, I believe the Jags are the best team in the league when they play in America. I'm going to still take the Jags here. Okay, you don't think in England they are, even though they got a huge win over. Different turf, Saad, you know? Yeah, different accents as well. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I'm riding with Steve here. Give me the Jags. Mine's two and a half. I'll take the Jacksonville Jaguars as well. Titans, Colts. Colts favored by seven at home. I got the Colts. Before you go any further, I got the Colts here. You know that. I told you that a few days ago. Play of the year, man. Is it? Minus seven. Make it minus twelve. Yeah. Okay, AJ's got the Colts. No, I got minus seven. Whatever it says on the graphic, that's what I got. Okay, Steve, who do you got? Colts win. Titans cover. Okay, you like the Titans plus seven. You know, last year's quote from Cam Ward saying if we're keeping a buck right now, we ass has been recycling because they are 0-5. I like that. Give me the Colts. Cardinal Tate's come out and said, I ain't never lose like this in my life. I don't even know what's going on. Hopefully that continues. Give me the Colts. Jets, Patriots. Patriots favored by seven and a half. Connor, Drake's all the way back. Yes or no? All the way back. Steve, is that changing? Jets cover. Oh, shut up, Steve. Shut up. Okay, all right. Jets plus seven and a half. Jets play hard. I'm taking the Patriots here. Give me the Patriots. I'll take the Patriots as well. Bears, Falcons. Bears favored by a point and a half on the road. Pennix is to play. Caleb, we do not know, but he does seemingly tracking. On the way to get back on the field. Steve, who do you like? Love the Falcons. AJ, who do you like? Love the Falcons. Okay, I'll take the Chicago Bears. Give me the Ravens at the Browns. Ravens favored by three and a half with Snoop Huntley. Todd Munkin at home as a home puppy. Tone, what are the stats of home dogs this year? So a couple weeks ago, they were six and two at home. Then they were three and three last week at home. So it'll be, and no, one and oh last night. So we are still trending that direction. So ten and five over the last three weeks are the home dogs. Stanford, Steve, who do you like? Road favorite. Okay, Ravens. AJ, who do you like? I like the Cleveland Browns here. I like the Browns as well. Let's go Carolina Panthers, Philadelphia Eagles. Eagles, dogs at home with McKee at start. Joe Milton at backup. T's and P's for Jalen Hurts. Panthers favored by three and a half. Bryce Young beat me up last Saturday. I'll take the Panthers. I'll take the Eagles with Tanner McKee. Eagles and AJ's got the Panthers. Steelers, Bucs. Steelers favored by two and a half. Played their best ball last week. Steelers. Steelers favored by two and a half in Tampa. Who do you like, AJ? Give me Steelers. Baker Mayfield still can't rotate the stick, so he is not playing. Jalen Daniels will be playing. He moves a lot. Give me the Tampa Bay Buccaneers plus two and a half. I think that's a very close game. Saints versus Giants. Who do you like, Stanford, Steve? Giants. You like the Giants at home. Home dogs. AJ, who do you like? I like the Giants as well. I'll take the Giants as well. Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams. Rams favored by twelve and a half in the NFC West. At home, who do you like, Stanford, Steve? Cardinals plus twelve and a half. Who do you like, AJ? I agree. Chargers, Chiefs. Chiefs favored by seven and a half. At home, Chargers coming to town. K-9 running wild. Give me the Chiefs minus seven and a half. Stanford, Steve? I'll take the points with the Chargers. Wow, AJ. Give me the Chiefs. Okay, Bills. Raiders, 425. Bills favored by four and a half on the road against the Raiders. I'll take Josh Allen as well. Agree. AJ? Josh Allen and Bills. Cowboys, Packers, Sunday Night Football. Supposed to be Micah's return. He's not back yet, but the Pack might be. AJ, do you like the Packers favored by a point and a half? Absolutely. Give me the Packers. Steve? Dallas. I'll take the Packers. Boston boys next here on ESPN. See ya. Nice. Well done, lads! We've done it! Wow. I was like, one word. Yeah, and I wanted to come to you for the Steelers tone and obviously want to come to you for the Packers tie. We saw the clock ticking down there, and we even got the right show. I didn't even promote Schrager there. This is actually busted, right? I feel. Fridays only. Yeah, exactly. That's one that's got me every single week. We're still live, Steve. This guy. Sorry. Steve! Can you believe it? My bad. First rodeo? By the way, I like your pick for the Steelers-Bucks game. I feel that way as well. Oh. Running quarterback. I don't know. They can run the ball and stop the run. It's not good. Yeah. I like Steelers. I like Coach. Oh! Do I want to change that? Coach McCarthy's there. He's saying the same old. You don't think Jalen Warren's going to take a little. You didn't say they were going to lose. A little swing 80. It's a close game. One by one. What is that jacket about, Steve? It's sweet. What do you think? Yeah. Present. Who gave it to you? BYU? He showed up and Brigham Young said, hey, Stanford Steve, you need this jacket? Yeah. God bless, dude. God bless you. I think Brigham Young's dead, but you're saying in that case. Yes. Steve. Steve. Jim Young? Joe Young? Steve Young. Yes. Picker. Great, great, great grandson of Brigham Young. Fact. You know that, Steve? I'm going to look that up. Look it up. It's real. You already did. Yeah. This is a stat we've already looked up. Whenever Steve Young was named as guest picker, because there was a lot of names floating around. Not everybody was available, but there's a lot. I want you to look into it. The Church of Latter-day Saints has a lot of different people that could be considered notable, and Steve Young, actual descendant of Brigham Young. Brigham Young, second leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith, the initial, finds the golden plates in upstate New York. They go to Illinois. Illinois, I guess, turns pretty bad for the Mormons. There's a lot of killings of Mormons. I think it's being promoted. Joseph Smith dies there. Brigham Young, second in command, becomes leader. They decide to go Illinois to you. Utah. During the pilgrimage, a lot of death, from my understanding. Families start combining into families, which then leads to the polygamy conversation that happens for the Mormons. They get to Utah. They find Salt Lake. They say that is where we're supposed to be. God's telling us, and they call this place home. Question. Do you think they saw the size of the mountains and were like, I think this is going to be it? Yeah, but they went over a few. They've been over a few mountains. They went over a few mountain ranges to get to. This was a long haul. Not doing that again. Oh. Well, allegedly. Turn them around. I heard last night, I was told last night by Ryan that Brigham had a vision for where they were supposed to go, or somebody had a vision on where they were supposed to go, and they got through a couple places, and a lot of, I believe, a lot of the Mormons were like, is this. This has been a long road. Can we stop here, maybe? It was like, nope, we're not there yet. We're not there yet. And then, allegedly, you peek over a mountain, they see Salt Lake, and that's it. And then when you get out here, it's like, man, they did a good job waiting to get to this place. It is beautiful. It is beautiful. It's crazy. Every time we've been here, how beautiful it is. And I think, you know, you go to a beach, it's like a postcard. You look out the ocean. This is a postcard. Exactly. We drove over to Sundance Wednesday night, and like, literally, the road, and it's just mountains. You're at the base of it, and I'm not good with heights, but I'm looking, I'm like, oh, man, that's. So you're not good at looking at heights, or just being at heights? Like, anything to deal, dealing with. You can't look at tall mountains? You have to face them. You can't be up there. So you can't look at a building that's tall, because you just automatically put yourself at the top of it? Correct. What are you doing? Yeah, it's not good. Nothing. Go. Just head down. Go up there. Head down. Stairs down. We're fucking. I'm a fast walker. AJ, fast walker. Get by people. Don't look up there. It's kind of cool when you look at how high they are. It's probably like, man, how did we build this thing? I have never heard somebody say, we're driving somebody's mountains. I got a heights thing, so I want to look up at the peak of it. I took one. I was like, no, thank you. So just because something is high, you have problems. Yeah. They made me go to the Space Needle the first year on game day. I was like, you gotta be kidding me. Well, going up there is one thing, but actually just glancing at it is different. They're like, look, the floor is clear. I'm like, oh, my God. So hold on. When you look at the moon, you're like, fuck me. So are you. Space, you know the things with the moon. Wait, what do you mean, Steve? What about the moon? No, we're not doing that. Wait, tell me about the moon. Are there bases up there? What's up there? No, there's enough space around the moon, so that doesn't affect my feelings towards height. Okay, so you've seen the sun and the moon. Yeah. Okay, good. I didn't know if you just kind of put a thing. You look at clouds. Does that bother you? When I'm flying, yeah. Top of the stadium, maybe? I'm already up there. But when you're flying, you've got that blind closed. Hell yeah. You're missing a great view, dude. Steve, you're at the top of the mountain, and I think you know that. That's an incredible jacket, though. I like that you got that. Rise and shout, the Cougars are out. Where's your UCLA hat at? In the Smithsonian. It's still working on the brim. It's in the Smithsonian. That was the sickest thing we've ever seen. I'll bring it next time. I shipped it home. It's that sick. In a suitcase. It wouldn't fit in your suitcase. It wouldn't fit in the suitcase. All right, before we get out of here, I'm happy Stanford Steve is here. All right. That flat bill from UCLA would never be in the division that we're about to debut. Now, should we have done this yesterday? Of course. Neither team that played last night was going to affect this particular division. This season, we've been unveiling every single week an AFC-NFC shite division. The worst four teams in the league get put into the shot. Shite division. If you're at the top of the shite division, you're the shittiest team in the entire league. And then act accordingly going down. Just as a memory server, this is last week's shite division. Okay? The Tennessee Titans were sitting at 0-4. The Los Angeles Chargers were 0-4. The Bucs 0-4. Then the Houston Texans 0-4. They said, we said, they were shittiest teams of the entire league. Now, boys, do you think it's the right time to unveil the week five shite division? I think it is. Yep. A little bit crazy. It's crazy what we're doing this week, because we even opened it up to entire divisions, not just individual teams. At the top of the AFC-NFC shite division, the shittiest of them all, the reigning, defending shite champion. Congratulations to Tennessee Titans. Right back up there. Tennessee. Still up there. Steve, they've done nothing to prove that they shouldn't be the kings of the shite division, but they got the Colts this weekend, so maybe we keep it down and not get too loud about this. Yeah. The only good thing about them is they have a club. A couple backdoor covers. They kept a couple close, but they've certainly not been able to win. Nope. It's shitey of shite down there, Ty Schmidt, and the Tennessee Titans, I think everybody's expecting to remain the Tennessee shitens for the rest of the season. Yeah, absolutely, and it looks like there's about 10 to 15 miles of shite before they're going to find their way out of that, but once again, you mentioned it. Boy, the Colts have to win this weekend. Big one in the loud house. They have to win this weekend. Divisional game, usually close, but that team is absolute hammered dogshot. So, I think we'll be seeing them again next week. Okay, let's go to the next team in the shite division. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Chargers. Okay. Top two remain top two. That's been tough to do with this shite division, Connor. These two have certainly proved to be the top of the shite. Yeah, and they're spending the most shite out of any other team on this list, typically, so not just being shite on the field, being shite up in the front office as well. Kind of impressive from the LA Chargers. I truly don't think. Any other team could get it done aside from the shite Chargers. Well, you know, there's shite at the top. There's shite at the bottom. They've been in the shite division. There's going to be a shite championship battle that's going to come in the end, and it might involve three teams, Steve. Do you know that? Guess who the third team is? They know this division well. Yeah. Miami Dolphins. Gumpy, your thoughts on the Dolphins remaining in the shite division? It's good to be back. We had a week off. I feel like this. We had a pretty good season. We've only been in twice. We're through week five. Bye week. Circle back next week. There you go. Miami Dolphins, Tennessee Titans, Los Angeles Chargers. The shite of the shite coming out of week five. Who will be the fourth team or teams to eat up the last spot of the shite division? Any guesses out of you, Stanford, Steve? You guessed right. It's the NFC East. That is the entirety of the shite division. We didn't want to give it to just one of them. They had an 0-2-2 record this past weekend with abysmal failures across the board. Do you think we got it right here with the fourth team or teams or division, you say? Yes. Absolutely. 100% correct. How about the NFC East? No more. Not really. Yeah. Just one word. Don't need it. You got it right. Ty, this was a big deal. We did an entire division. We had to let people know because people on the internet are trying to guess this to win and autograph something from the Thunderdome. The NFC East certainly deserved to be in there, Ty. Yeah, without a doubt. And people still, I don't know if they really took the bait. A lot of people said Commanders, obviously, for what happened. I think maybe people didn't want to throw the Cowboys in there because it was Thursday, so maybe out of sight, out of mind. But, boy, you go 0-2-2 into Vige. I mean, this might be the type of thing where at the end of the season, whoever wins the NFC East might just say, hey, listen, we were shite this year. We're going to vacate our playoff spot and maybe give it to somebody else. Wow. For the good of the game. Exactly. The tie might be huge later in the year. Certainly. Certainly. You don't think the Saints are looking for a tie right now on their record with what happened with the Detroit Lions? Oh, was the fix in with the tie? Is that what you're saying, Steve? We haven't thought about that. I'm just. It was a suspicious. Everyone cannot stand a tie, but at the end of the year, it always helps the team that has the tie. Yeah, unless you're. Always. Unless there's not a lot of wins in front of that record label. And we'd like to say, just to hold people accountable, there is another person on the Shite Division. What? Yeah. First time ever we've done a human. Really? Oh, my God. A lot of people have been asking for it and calling for it, Steve. Do you know who it is? Me? No. Never. Steve-O. You're not Stanford Shite. Come on. I know. Oh, it's Riaz. Did you get that last week? Yeah. Oh, man. Put him on the board. Don't tell us. Don't tell us. Don't tell us that right now, because there's another guy who's ass. I mean, just the ass of ass. The Shite of Shite when it comes to making picks. Congratulations to our coach. Coach Pagano. Oh, baby. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. He's one in five on Thursday Night Football Picks. This used to be something he was good at. He gets the spread? Yeah. Used to be something he was good at. Now, he's just completely wrong. And the one that he got right, he waffled. Yep. So, like, it wasn't, like, his actual feel. He is now telling people to fade himself, to fade him. And I think he's starting to fade himself as well. It's very early in the season to start doing that. Yeah. But Chuck's in a blender, and he's certainly in the shite division. AJ, anything you think we got wrong here with this NFC-AFC shite division? No, I think this is actually very, very accurate. I just don't know if the Tennessee Titans are going to make it out of this shite division. That's what I'm starting to worry. I think the Chargers, they might win a game at some point. What if you lose to a team in the shite division? It depends on what you've done before. You're probably going to lose. The Colts are. Yes. Colts have been in the shite division before. And if you lose to the shite-iest team in the league, our previous kind of rules have put you in the shite division immediately. Okay. Automatic qualifier, pretty much, right? Yeah, because they don't have a win. Cowboys did it last week with the whole division. Yeah, one-way ticket. Could we see it back? Could we see a team, let's say a team is actually very good, say their record's above.500, and they just look god-awful against a terrible team? Could they jump in? Yeah. The shite division does not care about what it's having. Talk about resumes. Nope. What have you done for me lately? Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Like, there's a lot of arguments to put the Eagles in last week. What'd you say, Tom? There was a lot of arguments to put the Eagles in last week before they even lost to the Jaguars in London just because they were 0-for-12 on third down. The offense just looked horrendous. Everyone was retiring. Players were coming out and saying, you know, ask, ask, how are you, Nick? So, there was a lot involved in that. And choked up. And choked up. You'll be all right. Choked up talking about the shite. Choked on a patch. Too much shite. I don't know how you couldn't get too jacked up. That was emotional. Geez. I'll tell you what, get emotional about this shite, man. How could you not? Yeah. That's true. Congratulations to T.C. Manning last week. T.C. Manning won last week. Proper prediction of the week four shite division. Wow. You will win an autographed, I think, NFL flag football from the Thunderdome. Wait until you see some of these signatures that hit the internet stand. From the boys at the Thunderdome. You hate mine. You? You? You hate mine. What do you do? You are an inspiration to a couple of the guys that are signing on these NFL flags. Yeah. A.J., it's just, it's pretty apparent. And, A.J., we'd like you to sign that ball, please, so you can get on there. Okay. It's pretty apparent a lot of these guys just have never thought about somebody, like, seeing the way they write their name, which is what an autographed ball will be. And it's fantastic. Boston Connors autograph. Very similar to Stanford Steve's. Okay. Just the cleanest. B. O. S. T. There's no flow between the letters. It's left-handed with the first. No, left-handed with the, yeah, there is no flubs. Actually, I think that O and N were sticking on top of each other a little bit. But it looks like the Boston is spelled left-handed, and then the Connor is spelled right-handed. Which is he? Is he right-handed or left-handed? I'm both. Uh, but congrats to T.C. Manning on winning the autographed ball for getting the program shanked division. We will see if anybody got this week's program shanked division. And then as we wrap it up, Stanford Steve, thank you for being here for this. It's time for this week's R.A.M.D. Troll! this is a take on the old school jacked up you got right do you know why we're making that sound because of the truck but do you know why i make but you know why we're saying do you know why we're saying that because it's ramp yeah but when you hit the gas pedal of a ram truck the only sound those sweet ears are going to hear is got it because that's that engine you know that thing's purring not just like a cat not just like a cougar but like a ram about to do some damage it has the power to be able to tow whatever you need steve okay all those free shirts and shit do you get that hat in trailers the hat the fucking flatbell put on a tram can pull it it's got the uh it's my hat it's got don't we it's impossible to miss actually so if it was out there we'd be able to see it but let's get to some ram trucks shall we around the football world let's start in the nfl how about packers running back marshawn lloyd for a touchdown you say you're too small i just ram trucked you right huge win for the packers i can't believe it was matt lafleur's team that was panned and ben johnson's team ty schmidt with a ram truck ty how's it feel to be the ram trucker and not the ram truckie uh pretty damn good you know a lot of people saying maybe you know it wasn't smart to just talk all that shit and and bump his gums week in week out you know and matt lafleur kind of just didn't say anything he said hey you know what i'll let the boys kind of decide that on sunday it has nothing to do with us as coaches trying to you know out alpha each other uh and i think the i think the packers really took that to heart and it showed on the field on sunday let's go to college let's go to the big 10 indiana nebraska indiana gets a close dub out there in nebraska nebraska running back jamal rule look what he does to elijah hardy love the effects yeah he absolutely pops some quarterback says i like that i like what we're doing how about the very next play though how about that steve can we go to the very next play very next play okay how about uh bones jones yeah how about what was that qb yeah that's back-to-back plays that's big 10 football right there it's called ram truck these people getting ram i was waiting for pat to show up in that truck because he said well so i was driving yeah i don't know if you saw it because i was chained to another ram truck and we're ready to a trial version here the trial version of zoom has kind of expired so we can no longer see you i don't know if you guys can see oh yeah it's still good oh it's uh there's an update required on this particular app it's outdated uh please update your zoom workplace in the latest version you can update now there with that blue button over there on the right side and then trial version trial version of unity intercom server has expired uh shout out to unity getting everything done and we're going to get back we're back great work back there talk to right through that great work back there yeah i think we hit the software update dude did you see that yeah i think we got the update in there so we can get this thing rolling the last ram truck of the week is right here byu i love this a coug byu's jay clinton brings a gap pressure on iowa state quarterback who dumps it off to the flower quarterback jaylen williams ram trucks cameron bryant pettaway that's jayven williams on cameron pettaway look at the pressure up the gut though get it out quick i don't think so down you go ram truck for the crew this is the type of shot we love a jay fair and legal and huge a jay hawk i like it to wrap your arms and let that let that guy feel your weight you're allowed to land on top of him he's not an nfl quarterback so yeah i think this is a beautiful play right here the acceleration once he knows he has a chance of the blow-up shot is just watch out i like that he didn't even think of going for a pick that's the best i love dbs that don't even think about going for the ball they're going to kill the guy yeah that was great shot that was right there a ram truck thanks for joining us for that steve absolutely all right we're gonna get the hell out of here over here i know you boys are gonna do this hold on steve he's got hoops he's scared you guys up pretty high steve wait man sorry steve you gotta get the hoops no con said you gotta get the hoops is there is there any local out there that steve goes to i know you know a lot of the local establishments and other college places oh we still got shows to do today no i know it works later i'm saying yeah you always have like a sack room you always have these like nice college bars you talk about it's not really you know they're lacking those here aj and provo i thought that might be their mo but there's a hole in the wall bars are not out here no there's one right next to the hotel boom like a speakeasy type thing that had to probably like a dive bar oh yes so much caffeine in there i cannot wait i cannot wait uh steve you're the man thanks for hanging around here for the uh out you got it aj thanks for traveling indianapolis dude aj pick indiana aj who do you got ohio state indiana steve no i'm not picking indiana you see the smirk you see the i mean come on just what is this what is this what a dumb question uh okay what are you picking steve bro well find out tomorrow yeah watch the show good tease i know set you up good tease college game day 9 a.m eastern 7 a.m mountain time out here in provo utah gonna be an early morning probably a little dark then as the sun will come up these mountains will pop the atmosphere will be electric and we cannot wait to get started we're very thankful to be here uh also on monday night we got field pass on espn hell yeah all the boys yeah we're very pumped and thankful the boys are gonna be traveling out to san francisco you will see them on monday you got time i'll bring it around palo alto show you the old spots at college oh i like that maybe we go do see stanford you don't have enough time for that okay well what do you mean you guys gotta work yeah we do gotta work but we love it we all gotta work yeah you you gotta work but your work is also you know showing people around having a good time shaking hands shooting hoops working the room hoops yeah you are always working the room working the lobby as well we heard about those from you rap sheet that'll be monday night on espn too we hope you'll come join us talks the table great work this week boys thank you one half of the hammer cowboys ap town good work this week thank you uh boys behind the glass foxy obviously great to have you back bruce way to settle back into your role bill way to step up for nick today and mitt way to jump in there as well we appreciate you guys good week boys there you go boys i did great today actually i don't know if you saw i'm on the ones and twos everybody was able to be fucking heard right so i was told to move this one up this one done it was fun man mate you're a real rolodex of talent pal thank you for stepping in back there you too bailey mccomis now we did put up rice eccles stadium at the beginning of the show nobody was happy about that oh yeah what a fucking what an absolute you guys are stirring the holy war podcast a couple weeks prior i just don't know how that happened but it did we would like to apologize to a lot of folks for that i think it was just uh maybe logged in as utah and maybe there was just a button that was pushed whatever the case it was a massive mistake we know we are not at rice eccles we're lavelle edwards stadium that place okay we know that one of the goats one of the goats used to be called cougar stadium then it got named after legendary byu coach lavelle edwards legend and there's a big one out here in lavelle edwards stadium and there's a big one out here in lavelle tomorrow uh gumpy good work this week oh way to go good week boys good week good week way to go gumsh uh to the espn crew barcode a crew thank you so much for setting us up incredible work here incredible work here out of provo all season long as well we appreciate it and uh for everybody that watches at home we can't thank all of you there's a camera up here like yeah they're pointing at because it's like the people are watching at home and we're trying to tell them that if it wasn't for all of you wouldn't be able to do that do you think your point to all of you good timing steve it is because of all of you that we get to do this for a living we can't wait to be back for overreaction monday college game day saturday morning 9 a.m eastern 7 a.m mountain time on espn cannot wait to kick off another flawless saturday of college football into a sunday slate that starts with a london game at 9 30 and then wrapping up monday night as the commanders travel out to take on the niners we're incredibly lucky that we get to do this we're going to try to enjoy it all every single moment we're gonna enjoy the process like marcus freeman said can't worry about tomorrow gotta worry about right now let's master this and then let's master the next and then let's master the next and then the outcome that we want will happen and what we want is for sports to be celebrated like a motherfucker be your friend tell the friends have a nice might change your life we're interesting together team on me team on three for the good of sport baby Have a great weekend. Greatest weekend of all time. One, two, three. Team! Goodbye! Before this. There's this. As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people grow in the grass, pave in the lots, weld in the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hardworking people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit carhartt.com slash jointhetrades to learn more. The NBA on ESPN is happening now. And opening week is on a new level. Welcome to another season of the NBA on ESPN. New chapters begin in South Beach. And stars are out in L.A. Two of the elite players are on display. The king protects his new court. MVP. P's collide at OKC. NBA opening week. Wednesday and Thursday on ESPN.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. College Game Day returns to BYU for the first time in 17 years, drawing massive crowds and generating excitement for the upcoming matchup against Notre Dame.
  2. BYU is building momentum with a strong defensive identity and a deep, cohesive squad led by quarterback Bear Bachmeier and Kalani Satake.
  3. Notre Dame, led by C.J. Carr, enters the game as a top favorite, but faces a tough test against BYU’s aggressive, run-heavy and defensive-minded style.
  4. The college football landscape is evolving rapidly, with increased player involvement, NIL opportunities, and concerns over player workload and long-term health.
  5. Coach Nick Saban expresses cautious support for expanded playoff formats like the 2014 playoff, warning of potential overexposure and sustainability issues for student-athletes.
  6. The cultural connection between BYU and Notre Dame—rooted in religious identity and fan loyalty—creates a unique and charged rivalry atmosphere.
  7. Despite the national spotlight, both programs emphasize player development, academic growth, and long-term success over short-term wins.
  8. A transformational shift in Utah's sports culture, driven by economic investment and community pride, is helping position BYU as a national powerhouse in collegiate athletics.

Summary:

The transcription captures a dynamic and passionate discussion surrounding the upcoming BYU vs. Notre Dame college football game, set against a backdrop of growing national interest in college sports. College Game Day’s return to BYU marks a historic moment, with record lines forming due to fan enthusiasm and the significance of the matchup.

BYU is presented as a rising force, with a disciplined, defensively aggressive team led by Bear Bachmeier and Kalani Satake, capable of challenging a top-ranked Notre Dame squad. The analysis highlights the cultural and spiritual foundations of both institutions—BYU's Mormon faith and Notre Dame's Catholic traditions—fostering deep fan loyalty and unique rivalries. Meanwhile, broader trends in college football are examined, including the impact of NIL, player workload, and the expansion of playoff structures like the 2014 playoff.

Coach Nick Saban offers a thoughtful perspective, cautioning against overextending college athletes and emphasizing player development, education, and long-term sustainability. The piece also touches on the transformative growth of Utah’s sports ecosystem, driven by investments in venues, local teams, and community pride. Ultimately, the conversation underscores a shift in college athletics—from purely competitive to a holistic model centered on student-athlete well-being, cultural identity, and community impact.

The event itself is seen as more than a game—it’s a cultural milestone reflecting the evolution of sports in modern America.

FAQs

The return of College Game Day to BYU marks a historic moment, symbolizing a deep cultural and community connection between the school and its fans. It highlights the excitement and pride surrounding the matchup against Notre Dame, especially given the long-standing tradition of student enthusiasm and fan loyalty.

BYU fans demonstrate a unique blend of deep tradition and modern excitement. Despite religious ties, the student body and community show strong passion for sports, with a vibrant, grassroots energy that includes long lines for College Game Day and a genuine love for the game, even among non-faith members.

The matchup features a strong defensive battle between two teams known for their aggressive play. BYU, led by Bear Bachmeier, is a tough underdog with a dominant defense, while Notre Dame, led by C.J. Carr, brings high-stakes experience and a recent run of success, creating a competitive and unpredictable game.

The 2014 playoff expansion increases opportunities for success and hope for teams, but concerns remain about the number of games college players face. Critics worry about player fatigue and the impact on development, suggesting a need for balance between competition and player well-being.

NIL has significantly boosted BYU’s appeal to student-athletes and donors. It allows athletes to build personal brands and connect with communities, while also showing strong alumni and donor loyalty—many of whom voluntarily support the program beyond financial expectations.

The rivalry stems from shared cultural values—both schools are national brands with deep fan bases and strong traditions. Notre Dame’s Catholic roots and BYU’s LDS faith create a unique alignment in fan loyalty, with many students from both faiths expressing strong interest in these matchups.

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