Transcript of Local Hour: Mike Kills His Father

This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast.

About going to the Copper Bowl. It was a fine reward for a nice season to go and see Baylor there. What I'm talking about, though, is the visit to Ann Arbor several weeks before. I thought Trent Green and Von Dunbar put together a really really great effort there against the Mighty Wolverines. I know Desmond Howard and Elvis Gerbach had other ideas, but they didn't need to be assisted by the referees. That was really what was stuck in my kraw. There was a PI on third down to Desmond Howard, and it was clearly an uncatchable ball, Gerbach threw it into the stands. And yet the flag was on the field. We all saw it. We all have two eyes. I thought it was a ridiculous thing. Trent Green, who knew where he was going to in the NFL? But as an Indiana Who's your quarterback, that was about as good as I had seen up to that point. I'm not saying that he ultimately was more talented than Dave Schnell, his predecessor, at the position. Dave Schnell was very good himself for a few years there as Bill Mallory was building the program up. Those were some good times.

I mean, 8, 3, and 1 is nothing to turn your nose up at.

Let's go.

Let's go, Damoshek. Get out of here.

Where did you go, Dan?

It's enough. You've just been talking to yourself all night. Everyone here- Damoshek, back here.

Take five. Take five after that.

Sourpusses.

He's done 12 straight hours. I believe we violated an assortment of federal and labor crimes by making Damosheck just work all night talking into the YouTube abyss about Indiana football. I can't believe this sentence. Indiana football completing the greatest college football season ever played. Just crushing, if you are Miami to lose at the end that way, about as close to a championship as you can get. Indiana played the game you needed them to play, and you couldn't win it anyway because you got a blocked punt and a small undercut you. But I do think that all of that is something that should be celebrated. I'm not going to sit here and nitpick about a delay of game penalty or the kicker or messing up a decision in a game between two great teams, and one of them had to lose. I do wonder, and Carson Beck said that his ears were ringing at the end, that hit he took on second of 15 that got a penalty. I don't think he was right after that. I do think it needs to go into the math on he throws his first interception after that, the first turnover of the game.

Mendoza didn't fumbling at all this season, correct? He went the entire season without fumbling one time? Fumbling and losing it, a loss fumbling.

Yeah, a loss fumbling.

Crazy game, crazy night. But let me get your thoughts here as we go to a bunch of people who were at the game. Tony has said he's never forgiving Roy Bellamy.

What happened with Roy?

We'll get to that in a second. We'll get to that in a second. But Tony was telling me before the show, I'm going to be on my deathbed, and I'm going to say, In 2026, Roy did that thing, and wherever it is, is the beyond. I'm never going to forgive him.

I can't. I love to forgive people. I can never forgive Roy.

Roy said at the beginning of that drive, Roy doesn't speak very much. He said at the beginning of the drive, Here comes an interception.

Oh, boy.

Before the Canes even got the ball, might I add. Before the Canes even got the kickoff, he said, Here comes the Carson Beck interception. I'm sitting at Dead Flamingo, a couple of miles away, shocked, flabbergasted that that would even come out of his mouth, that he would even think that thought. Okay? And then he said it.

Lucy thought that thought.

To be fair, I think everybody thought that thought.

I've seen this before several times.

Lucy doesn't trust Carson Beck. What are your thoughts, Greg? Because I'm not going to sit here and criticize and be overly critical of the University of Miami for losing a game against the team that took on all comers this season and dismissed everybody. They took out everybody. Notre Dame is about the only one they didn't take out.

Yeah, I don't think there's any form of loss last night that wouldn't haunt and hurt Mario Cristobal forever. He's never going to get over last night. But I think this one hurt even more because they, except for a couple of notable There are terrible exceptions. They played Mendoza very well. He didn't alone beat them.

And Serrat.

And Serrat. But it wasn't just the interception toward the end of the game that crushed everything. It was the punt block, a countdown they gave up. It was a missed makeable field goal. They could have won that game despite never leading in that game, and that's going to haunt Mario forever. But to your point, I give them enormous credit. This was a successful season. It was a watershed season. They make their first playoff. They win the Fiesta Bowl. They win the Cotton Bowl. There's just no situation on Earth where I'm going to criticize Miami today more than I'm going to praise the season they had.

Indiana hadn't won a bowl game since the Copper Bowl in 1991. Hadn't won a bowl game of any kind. Zazlo, you were there. And to Lucy's point, Beck only has six losses. But the reason he has this reputation, and the reason Roy said that, and the reason Lucy feared is because four of those losses, he's got a chance to win it in the end of the game and throws an interception. That's what happens. And so the latest one, obviously the most crushing.

That last night was one of the best sporting experiences I've ever had in my life. I have nothing but praise for that Huracanes football team. I think the Canes fan should be so proud. Short of winning the whole thing, this was an incredible, incredible incredible season. It could not have gone any better. I couldn't have imagined a scenario where the Canes did not play their best game, did not play a perfect game, and would have a chance to win last night. They didn't play close to a great game, and they were right there in the end. I had such a great time. The Canes fan should be so proud. Just all heart and guts that Canes team. It's such a bitter finish for the Canes fan. I saw kids leaving the stadium last night crying And I'm like, Man, you should be just so proud of this team. It was a great, great night. I was so happy. And of course, the only regret, if you will, is so close. We were all so close to an all-time moment. And just so, so close.

Well, we got the all-time moment for Indiana. You see the stats. This is going to be hard to explain to people who only see the box score when you say, Hey, Mendoza had one of the greatest runs of all time. And the stat sheet says rushes for negative eight yards because that was the only time he used his legs in any meaningful way. Pat Coogan, the center for Indiana, said, Best defensive line I've ever seen. And he says, We knew it going in, but holy because I was surprised Indiana was able to run the ball as well as they did. But I was also surprised that Miami didn't win a game in which Mendoza looked like that. It didn't look like the Heisman winner.

No. But he made the Heisman play. Not only the 12-yard run, which was epic. Balls called by Signetti.

On fourth and 5, twice on that drive, fourth and 5.

He had two 19-yard completions, one on fourth and 5, one on third and long. Those three plays, those two completions and that run, were why he won the Heisman Trophy.

That's what Mendoza did this season, though. If you look at the Iowa game, if you look at the Ohio State game, there were several stretches this year where he did not look that good. But what was really the difference in this game in this entire season for Indiana is he He was able, better than anybody, to take a game where he looked bad, and the second you needed him to do something remarkable, you knew he was going to do it. It was automatic.

I'm sorry, Dan. It's one of the all-time great college football plays you've ever seen.

That is correct. He referred to Thibault as Mr. Thibault after the game. That was Thibault-esque. I want to bring in Mike here because- Mike, did you watch the game last night? I want to talk about the idea that Beck says after the game, his ears are ringing. You saw on second and 15, he gets hit in the chest. It's called a ruffing the passer. He hits the back of his head on the turf. And around here, we were asking, who's the backup? We were asking, is this going to come down to the backup. And then what he does on... I told you this earlier in the Netflix documentary on the Cowboys, Troy Akeman played an entire NFC Championship game that he does not remember because of a concussion. And I I'm going to ask you, how fair is the criticism of Beck when he's telling you after the game, My ears were ringing, and the decision he makes is to throw to Marion, who's got one catch for six yards and was fairly useless in the entire game, throws into double coverage when there's plenty of time, and that's not a good decision, and underthrows it.

Yeah, he got up wobbly. I think it's safe to question whether or not he was right. That's not how you beat the cover two.

It wasn't a good throw.

But it's safe to criticize.

I mean, yeah. There were six plays in that game that Indiana, as advertised, they execute, and they made all those plays, and Miami didn't. The block punt, the miss field goal, which is 50 yards.

In the block punt, by the way, Tony, you can't field that at the five, which, of course, leads to the block punt.

Malikai, Tony can do whatever he wants. We're good with him. I agree. Shut up. Balman, just forget not whipping on a block. What the hell was he doing? You're punting out of your end zone. That's the one that honestly hurts the most. Those back shoulder throws in the RPOs had us in hell. Those are 1v1 plays. I will say for all the Mendoza love, he did make the mistake. He did throw the pick six. That was a tailor-made house call.

I don't remember that.

When was that? It bounced off of Ethan O'Connor's hands. It was at their 40-yard line. That was a house call. We didn't make that play. You got to make every play. I'm fully confident that Miami's best beats Indiana's best, and Miami He just had procedurals, penalties, and they didn't make the plays.

The mistackles. So many mistackles.

Look, Mendoza is a tough as nails kid, too. They had us in hell with the RPOs, but he was being punished for them, and they stopped running it a little bit in that second half because of the punishment that he took. But one thing about Mendoza, I think he's going to be a really good pro. He's accurate. That's a pro throw that he dares you to stop, and you can't stop it. I think he's got pro wide receivers, too. But he is tough, dude, because we were hitting him hard.

Very hard. Signetti said after the game, which put Signetti on Mario's hate list forever, he said there were at least two ruffing penalties that should have been called that weren't. He pretty much said Miami played a little bit dirty on his quarterback. Really?

Yeah, he did. I mean, clearly early in the game, he catches one under the chin several beats after the ball was out of Mendoza's hands. It's unquestionable that the Miami defense was instructed, put a lick on this guy.

But in the parade of reasons why UM can be extra crestfallen by last night is that Miami outgained Indiana in total yards despite running 17 fewer plays. Miami's defense held Indiana to four and a half yards per play, which is not much when you have the Heisman winner and that a ground game. So Miami did not play a bad game. They just had two or three or four crucial things go against them.

The fourth and 5 calls is a combination of coach and quarterback coming together at the very top of the history of this sport to beat Miami because of what Signetti was calling in those situations. A radio guy for the Washington Huskies tweeted this, A two-star quarterback scrambling for the national championship winning shutdown on fourth down in his hometown against his hometown team after winning the Heisman for the most losing program of all time while his mother, with multiple sclerosis, screams for joy from her seat, is possibly the limit of how good sports can get. It was amazing to watch those two teams after a pretty dreadful first half, put on a second half that made half a game a game for all time. It made half a game a game for all time because of everything that was happening at the end. You can't ask for more if you're Mario Cristobal, then My highest paid player has the ball in his hands at the end, and we've got a chance to win the game because Indiana has finally done the dumb thing of giving the game away on second and one with a false start when they don't do that.

That team, do you know how ridiculous it is for that team not to lose fumbles? They don't make mistakes, and they sure don't make dumb ones. And so a false start on second and one when all they needed, we don't get the classic ending. We don't get the Beck interception. We get a bit of anti-climax because the Hoosiers ran for nine yards on first and 10 when the Hurricains knew they were going to run the ball to get second or one, then they get the false start. And so Miami gets the gift of Signetti in that spot saying, I'm going to kick the field goal on fourth down. I'm not going to go for it, even though Miami fans were terrified that he was going to go for it because he ends the game on a single play with the ball in the Heisman winner's hand.

And the other thing, too, like man, two times where you're on fourth and five, and it is a crucial moment. He calls timeouts that he probably should have saved for later in the game to figure out, All right, boys, what do we got here? It ends up being Mendoza to Becker. What's his name? Becker? In that play where you're like, Who is this guy? Where did he come from? If you're not watching Indiana, you don't know this guy.

No, Indiana didn't know him two months ago. Indiana did not know who that was two months ago.

That's right. Serrat was injured. That required Becker to go in there. Bottom line is, you guys were Beck. We were Becker. That's all. No, the fourth and 5 run, iconic for all of time, obviously. But really look at it. As Fernando gets to roughly the line of scrimage, he's lost at sea. He has to cut back across. It looks like he's stuck. It looks like it was a bad play call, and he makes the play with his legs, with the cutback.

He's done that all year. This was Fernando Mendoza's game. This was why he won the Heisman this year. I honestly think Kurt Signetti did not have his best game. I thought he was sloppy with his time Cribs, just the management of it, play calling. All of it was like, this was not the Kurt Signetti that we've seen throughout the payoff, but it was really Fernando Mendoza who saved his ass.

You say this, but if you look at that stat line, that is one of the worst stat lines he's going to put up because he's not going to make the mistake of throwing interception. So if I told Mario Cristobal, look at the box score here, look at Serrat, and look at what it is that Mendoza does in this game. He says that's a win. He would have taken that before the game if I'd offered it to him.

He threw the interception. We just didn't catch it.

But it's really not... People look at this. I think a lot of people have watched Indiana in the postseason and did not watch Indiana in the regular season. This was not a Heisman year where we were particularly blown away with how great Mendoza was. If you saw him against Alabama and Oregon, you would have been. He had several games like that this season where he did not do much. But in the moments where you needed him to be the best player on the field to win the game for you, he did that against Ohio State. He did that against Iowa. He did that against Penn State. That is why he won the Heisman. I didn't come in thinking that this would be the Fernando Mendoza is better than everyone else on the field. He's like so pure college football. That's what he is, and you saw that yesterday.

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Context needs to be applied.

I thought that context was applied. We'd like to rip that out of context. I was going for a thing. I have a family.

You're going to pretend here that you don't love Matthew Kachuk more than you love anybody you've ever loved?

I don't love Matthew Kachuk more than my daughter.

Stugatz.

Now, it's pretty damn close.

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats.

Canes fans are mad at Corsenbeck today?

I don't know whether... I mean, Keynes fans are going to be mad because they lost, and the standard and the expectation is win all the time, make me feel good all the time. But I really think that the the entirety of this season and that result is above criticism. I don't believe that losing to that team that ends the best college football season there has ever been.

Not best team.

Not the best team, but the best season there's ever been, and not the best team just because it's all 25-year-old guys who aren't draft-backed.

I got to tell you, I've seen a lot of good teams in person, Saban's Alabama, Clemson. That's as good a team as I've ever seen in person. They're just really good. I was stunned. I know Miami, especially in the second half, had some success at the line of scrimmage. I was really impressed. At pregame, I was looking at them like, God damn, we're much bigger than these guys. How is this going to play out? Everything that I've seen and heard about Indiana came true. They just execute. And the flabbergasting thing was that Mendoza threw that pick six, we dropped it, and that they had the false start on that second one, which I was like, What? How? At that point, you start thinking, Maybe we can do this because it was like a spaceship landed in the middle of the field.

You were 40 yards from doing it. You had 50 seconds, plenty of time to score the countdown, and you got the result that you wanted where Indiana was gassed at the end. The last two drives, Miami being able to score quickly and up-tempo offense with wide open receiver's when Mike, I don't think there was a more surprising thing to me in an evening of surprises than the first three quarters, every damn pass back through was being touched by an Indiana defensive back.

Yeah, how were the receiver's never open?

He was throwing in the tight windows accurately, and everybody was always covered in a way that I haven't seen all season. How?

Dude, 5'9, D'Angelo Pons is a frigging sick player. I said, Can we stop throwing at this guy? He was unreal. Refs let them play. I was good with that. I like that type of game. They get there and they force the refs to think about it a little bit, but that's what they do. They execute. Their timing is exceptional. They're really good, fantastic football.

I think both things are true. I think you can say Miami might well have won that game, if not for a turnover with 44 seconds left. But you can't take an Iota away from a 16-0 team that had a plus 21 turnover ratio, the best in the nation. I mean, Indiana richly deserves the championship it's celebrating.

But when Mike says it was six plays, right? You got two plays on fourth and five. You've got a blocked punt, and you've got a field goal hitting an upright. Those are the four for me that I'm like, Okay, those are game swingers. I don't know if you want to put an extra point.

The third down to Becker was crazy. Yeah, that was insane. Everybody in the building knew what was coming, including our corner. It's just like, Can you stop this? Becker is unbelievable. I don't know. That guy just became Jordy Nelson or Alec pierce or any other wide receiver you can think of.

Did anyone see a replay of the deep pass that they said hit the ground?

It hit the ground like hell. It obviously hit the ground. It did?

It did hit like six yards.

The Marion, yeah, it obviously hit the ground. Let's play here the sound last night. A bit of a stunner. Mike, you were not here as low. I want an etiquette ruling here from everybody in the room because Tony says he We will simply never, will ever forgive Roy Bellamy for this. This is before Miami gets the football with no time out and less than two minutes left in the game. Here's Roy Bellamy out of nowhere. Again, he's very, very careful about when he uses his words. All of us were confused when this came out of his mouth.

In a sense, like that kid with a false start.

I'm a Bias fan.

In a sense, yeah.

He'll never let it go, ever.

Did Roy just whisper an interception's coming up?

That's how it usually works. He screamed it.

Why did you do that?

Because that's how it usually works. It sounds so right. I hate it, Billy Corbin.

No timeouts, length of the field. It is a lot of time, but that last drive that Miami had was... It went against everything else that was happening in the game. All of a sudden, you had receivers running open down the field.

At least we have a lot of timeouts. Hey, I can't have that.

What's up, guys?

Go ahead, Tony. What do you got?

Why would Roy say that?

Why would Roy say that?

I don't know. It's evil. He's doing the reverse change. He's borderline evil.

No, no, no. Okay, listen, you guys are a little bit ahead of us. I'm taking on my headphones. You guys have been putting me in a picture and picture to see what happens on a delay. I'm sick right now. I don't even want to talk. I'm done. This is a big drive. This is a big drive.

Is it? Okay. It was a big drive.

It was a big drive.

You were right. It was a big drive. Is it good analysis that Tony just said, This is a big drive?

He ain't rolling.

Two minutes, national championship.

Roy saying that there was going to be an interception by Carson Beck on this drive. You haven't said that much during this livestream. What an odd thing for you to choose to say.

I forgot already.

Thank you for reminding me. Miami will not forget, Roy.

Mike will never forgive you if it's...

It's called reverse psychology, man.

Come on, Carson. Come on, Carson. Fifteen seconds on the play clock. 14, 13.

Oh, no.

There he is.

Oh, my God. See?

The Indiana Hoosers are the national champions of college football.

Of all the things to say. Of all the things to say.

I know. You say that.

You say that. You say that.

What's the crowd like, Tony? Look at Roy going, too. All right. Good work over there, guys.

This is brutal.

I came When I came in here today and muttering under his breath in the eating area, Lewis is saying, and I'm quoting here, In the crucible of life, I don't ever want Roy with me. I asked him, Why are we in a crucible? And then he starts yelling at me, Last night was a crucible.

Last night was a crucible, Dan. Last night was literally the crucible of life. And we're all in the foxhole together, okay? There's ammunition raining down. Roy says, I'm out of here. It starts running the opposite way. The rest of us are going forward. He's going backwards. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? We're all there together, and he's going the opposite. Roy, where are you going?

As bullets rain down, Dan.

We were charging up a hill with bayonets, and we looked behind us and Roy was running in the other direction.

He's hauling ass in the mess hall.

But you'll survive the fox hole if somebody in there says 30 seconds prior to the bombs dropping, we should get out of here. Something bad is about to happen.

I think that's not the point.

That's why we had Zaz boots on the ground. Zaz was giving us the updates 30 seconds ahead, which I liked because it was going well. And then he does that. Dan, the one thing you can't do is say the I-word when you got a final drive for your life. If you ask Mario, if you ask the guys in that locker room, that was a drive for your life.

Well, Mendoza said after the game, I would die for my team. That was something. If you looked at his right arm, it was- That's a rasberry.

That's a play on.

It was damaged.

We were playing a game back here. How many members of your family would you be willing to kill off to not suffer the indignity of last night again? My dad's dead.

Well, your dad played the bongos in here. He was playing the bongos after Indiana touch downs. He was doing so with delight. I see that the troll doesn't fall far from the tree. He was really hit. I've never seen him so radiating. I got no respect for that guy.

Like, straight up. No respect for that guy.

Roy joins us now from remote. When I say from remote, he's in hiding. He's in the federal witness protection program.

That's a mess hall, Dan. The rest of us are in the foxhole still.

He is not welcome around Crucibles or welcome back in Miami right now, given what it is that he did.

It was a wild thing to just casually say while you're sipping your coffee.

Roy, yeah, muttering under his breath. I could see the ripples on his coffee of the hatred being caused, just coming out of his nose and mouth as he talked about not wanting Roy at the crucible of life to be with him.

Dark morning. Louis is just like, casually spitting out Morty lyrics as he's sipping his coffee.

Roy joins us now. Roy, do you have an explanation? Have you given it some thought? Do you regret your decision, or are you just happy that you got the prediction right?

Well, first of all, I'd like to say, Hello, Lucy. I miss you. Second of all, don't blame me for this loss. If you want to blame anybody, you can blame the kicker for missing, kicking the ball off the upright. You can blame the punter.

I'll leave Carter Davis out of this.

Fifty yards, bro.

You do it. You can blame the punter for having his punt blocked. You can blame the DBs for dropping interceptions, and you can blame Kostenbeck for that interception.

And what happened just before that? A person said words. A person said words on a live stream. And you know words carry weight, Roy. You know that. More than anybody, you know that. And you know I love you, but I'll never forgive you. I'll never forgive you. I'll go be at my deathbed. You may be dead. I may be dead first. It doesn't matter. I'll be on my deathbed, and I'll never forgive you for that.

Roy, you know about those words carrying weight?

Yes, I do. Okay. So you knew that. I don't speak that many of them.

Exactly right, which is why it means more, okay? That you said what you said. The SEC. Before Before we even got the ball. Before we even got the ball, you said, Here's an interception. You didn't say it once. You said it twice so people could hear you because it went underneath the radar, and then you said it again.

Tony, it was the most logical conclusion to this game. Of course, he was going to get intercepted.

No, absolutely not.

You knew what was going to happen.

No, the most logical thing was he's going to have another incredible drive. Malikai Tony is going to make a play, and they're going to score with six seconds left and win the damn game.

That's not how the world works, Tony. Sorry.

Just got disappointed. You're not going to forgive him, Dan. You're not sorry. You don't have to forgive him. I don't blame you for not forgiving him.

I need a T-shirt that says, I stand with Roy. I love the idea of superstition so much. Sports superstition. I think it must have started with not talking about a no hitter in the fifth ending and on. It's the most ridiculous thing in the world. With all due respect to all of the intelligent people in here who actually believe in superstition but can never explain why, I stand with Roy.

Dan Levatard.

Kermit the Frog here, live from Metalog Media Studios here in Miami. Stugatz. The Germans are advancing on France in World War II. This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.

We're going to get to an off Rodan with Lucy Rodine in just a second. But I understand that you guys had some press box experiences worth recounting.

I saw somebody get tackled by five security guards who was posing to be media? One, he was wearing a Miami jersey, so that gave it a- I saw those two guys walking through the lunchroom right after you came and said hello to me.

Did you see it? Yes.

No, it happened way later.

No, but I saw those guys.

He had like a... Wait, was it the guy with the white jersey? No. Because he didn't have a press pass. I was in the Ox press box, and I'm not a big time. They didn't let me in the main one.

Which was better because I got to see this. Cody, were you in the main press box? Did they honor the legendary columnist?

I was in the main press box, but the times have changed, Dan. I know you're not in press box as much anymore, but the traditional media has been shunted into the shadows. We were the Miami Hérald and other big local outlets were in the number five press box, which is not the main press box. Here's the thing. The main press box now is given over to self-help podcasters and TikTok influencers and- That's where I was. Pit Bulls, Astrologists. The Miami Hérald is in the end zone, okay? We were lucky. Dave Hyde made the work out of a janitor's closet. An open bottle of Fabuloso spills on his podcast right on deadline. I mean, times are tough. His podcast. Times are tough. I'm in his laptop.

It spilled all over his podcast.

That, too.

Two and a half hours sleep.

Thank you. What happened?

There was a fight? We've got Cody on two and a half hours sleep. Thank you, Zaz.

First of all, quit Quit your gapping. I was in the stance. They basically put me in the stance. I was in a Miami section. But this guy, he's in the media area with the camera. He clearly does not have a credential, and he's wearing a Miami jersey. And somebody- Day give away. Yeah, somebody reported him, I guess. I wasn't me because I didn't see him. The security went to bring him down, and then he was like, No, I have a ticket. I'm supposed to be here. They were like, You don't have a credential, though. This is like, Media. He starts screaming at this cop who was a woman, and I was like, Whoa, I not like the vibe of this. He kept yelling at her, Don't touch me. She was not touching him. I was right there. I saw the whole thing. Then he starts yelling at her, and he's getting in her face. Then the other cop comes up, and he's like, She keeps touching me. He was like, I can see that she's not touching you. We're all watching her not touch you. He was like, I'll touch you. I'll touch you. Then he put on his little meta glasses because I think he was going to try to film it.

He was like, Fine. I'll show you my ticket. The lady was like, No, I've been asking you for 10 minutes to show me your ticket. Then he was like, No, I'm not leaving. So they had to pick him up by his arms and carry him out. Then he started fighting, and then they all tackled him on the ground, and he didn't make it to the second half, which obviously probably worked out for him.

That's a bummer. That's a bummer that he doesn't get to watch the second half.

He missed a good second half.

It was- Epic. It was really cool. I felt like I got the most uniquely Miami in their home stadium playoff experience.

We've got Diana Rusini coming up later in the show, Charles Barkley as well. But let's together go off Rodan. Yeah, hello. I'm with channel 6 News. Not really, but I'm here to inform you that IU is going to stomp Miami tonight.

Go, Hoosier.

Dan, it took the Miami Hurricanes playing in the National Championship game for me to finally go to a game at Hard Rock. As you can see, it went well.

Watching Dan talk about the different types of Cubans, right? Now, we are the types of Cubans that will eat your face off, all right? We're hoping that they take Mendoza and they eat his face off tonight.

Because I've been a seasoned ticket fan since I was 17, I'm 58 now. So this is huge for me. I've been waiting for this since 2001.

Go, Keith. How much bad football do you think you've sat through in your lifetime as Indiana fan?

Well, for me, it would 46 to 50 years, somewhere around that. It's been a lot of mediocre football, I'll say. You weren't there with us two years ago.

You don't understand the pain that I watched when we went four OTs with Akron.

You could find a ticket on the ground at the tailgate. Yeah, at the tailgate and get in for free.

Did you ever in your life think you would see Indiana football compete for a national championship?

Never in my life, no.

As of a year ago, not a chance. But at the beginning of this year, and as of a week ago, a bunch of us were in Atlanta. Truly the greatest day of my life. I have a wife, I have children. Maybe we cut that. Let's cut that one, actually.

You have the most unique outfit on I've seen all day. What is this fit for?

Well, we're rooting for both Indiana and for Miami because I have a four-month-old grandson, born in Miami, and a two-week-old grandson, born in Bloomington, Indiana.

Wow. Okay, so this really is a house divided. Is there a side you're leaning to more?

No. No? How can I pick among my favorite grandkids?

My grandparents have been able to do that pretty easy with me. Your grandson has never known Indiana to be a bad football team.

Oh, good point.

The earrings, the necklaces. My women are ready for the game today. Best outfits I've seen the whole day. Can we explain them and how we put them together?

Okay, we went military style because we're here, we're going to It's two of us guys.

The hurricanes are going to get it done, and we're going to claim the victory.

You've got the best hat, helmet, contraption I've seen all day. Can you explain to our viewers what you got going on here?

Hi. We have the Miami Cuban theme going on. It's a funnel. You pour your cafecito or your vodka.

Is there a row where I could see one of these in action? Is anybody willing to take a drink?

One more row over. There's already someone in action with it.

If Kurt Signetti was here right now, what would you say to him? Thank God.

Thank God you came to save us.

Changed all of our lives.

He put Indiana on the map. What he's been able to build has been incredible, especially in the two years.

I'd say, I hope you stay until you want to retire.

Never go anywhere else.

Let's build you a statue and just please never, ever, ever, ever, ever leave.

Will you guys build Mario Cristobal a statue if he wins this game?

No doubt.

I mean, we got concrete in the truck. We're going to be forming it up after the game.

Have Indiana fans? Have they been nice? Very nice. They've been extremely nice.

I gave one of them a slider earlier, gave them some scumas, some sauces. They've been great.

Have you been nice to them? Yes. For now. I don't believe you. Have Miami fans been nice?

Haven't seen too many.

We had police officers making fun of us earlier this morning. They were over the loud in their car. We were getting churped. Miami fans are so kind. They're so nice. They would never say anything rude to us. We like you guys. Enjoy your trip.

Good luck.

Good luck. Have a great day. Good luck. Good luck.

Have a great day. Other than that, they've been not nice.

This trip was brought to you by DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app today. The Crown is yours.

Love Dan Levatard.

I love the Dan Levatard show.

I didn't realize this is what it was right now.

I don't look like Dan Levatard. Thank God.

This is what born and raised Miami looks like.

We deserve to be here. A lot of people counted us out.

We kept the faith.

We knew we belonged here, and here we are.

We're going to claim the victory. We're in our hometown, and we're going to get it done.

Go, Herb Caine. We got some Caines over here. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, guys.

Despite what my behavior shows, I am sad for the Miami fans in the office. I can empathize what it's like to watch your favorite team lose a national championship game. I've been there twice. But I just wanted to say this is why I love college football, because you get stories like Indiana, the greatest turnaround from any team ever, from the losing his powerful team in college football to the national champions. This sport is awesome. What a great season. I started to cry at the end because I'm so grateful I got to do this. Thank you for another wonderful year. I'll see you. Well, I'm going to be on the show today, so after this.

Wow. Hast du den gesehen? Ey, das ist ja der absolute Wahnsinn. Einfach nur perfekt. Nice. Manchmal merkt man sofort, dass es passt.

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