Transcript of The Big Suey: The College Football Power Hour

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Welcome to the Big Sui, presented by DraftKings.

Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Lebitard podcast.

I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging.

I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't What happened to you guys? I've done it. Now, here's the Marching Man to Nowhere, Fatface, and the Habitual Liar.

This episode of the Dan Lebitard Show with Stu Gotts is presented by DraftKings. Draftkings, the Crown is yours.

What happened there? How are you feeling about that? Why did you get all weird about that?

What happened? Why did you look to your right mid-sentence?

Because the mic did not pick up when I started that. The mic was not on when I said this episode, and it threw me off.

It was. It was. It was on. Don't worry about Everybody heard you. Because sometimes you get a countdown and it'll throw you off. Don't worry about it. It threw me off. You did great. I don't know why so many people are piling on on you. It's insane. You nailed that Bill's Dolphins game.

Thank you very much, Mike. I should be used to it by now, but I'm not quite. It's Okay, I'll get over it.

The Patriots had five turnovers yesterday. I saw something that I don't often see in that game. Mike Vrabel, not late in the game, not in a desperate situation, fourth and one from his own 16-yard line went for it. Fourth and one from his own 16. I still can't get used to some of this stuff. I know all of these coaches have gone crazy now when it comes to fourth and short. Most coaches, college and pro, now know that they were doing the math all wrong for, I don't know, a century before that, and now they all go for it.

Four than one of the 16 is still nervous.

He's a crazy person. He said he was going to cut off his pecker. The guy's insane.

He since walked that back.

Well, he was the Titans coach back then. He said if they want, he would cut off his pecker in order to win a Super Bowl. And now with the Patriots, they had five turnovers yesterday. Aaron Rodgers ends up winning and going to two and one, but the Steeler's offense didn't look particularly good. The Patriots were 4 for 4 on fourth down in that game right till the end when they needed the last fourth down conversion and did not get it. That's one of the five games I would mention is worth talking about yesterday. I reluctantly will throw Jacksonville and Houston in there. Houston is the lowest scoring offense in the sport. How crazy is that?

C. J. Stroud sucks, huh?

Get that team off televisions everywhere. I cannot watch this team. They are so unpleasant. I get angry. Watching them because I do believe them to have talent. Maybe I should forget what C. J. Stroud did as a rookie.

We were all on his tip. He's not that good.

That's a breakdown. You're not getting on get up.

He's talking about a pecker.

Getting up?

I mean, they have some talent, right? That's a bad organization, man.

The Jags were trying to lose that game. They had five drops in the game. The Jags do everything wrong at the end of games. It's like everything.

When I saw that game on the schedule, I was like, No, no, don't do this to us. They play twice?

Were you actually looking at the rundown for week three? I was so mad. You come up with Houston and Jags are like, No, no, no.

Why is this game? This game is an affront of football. Get this off. Just skip it. The next time they're scheduled to play, find two other teams to play. It's just bad.

It's a battle of stinky quarterbacks. I hate them.

Another half a team. Another half a team. Good defense, no offense.

How do you guys feel in general about the limits on offense all over the sport? All over the sport that you have every quarterback throwing for 160 yards.

I mean, is Houston going up against a great defense every game? That can't possibly be it. I saw Tyrod Taylor move the ball against Tampa Bay, which, by the way, good team.

Let's talk for a second about how Aaron Glenn feels about that wonderful celebration after Baker Mayfield produced not one but two game-winning drives in that game. Two game-winning drives in that game. Baker Mayfield now has four game-winning drives this season, and they've only played three games.

That throw to Abuka. Abuka is coming to the league. He's A wide receiver one.

He is so good.

He's so amazing. That game was so great. And by the way, as esthetically pleasing a game as you could see, those white creamsicle uniforms at home, it just looks a little different. What is more valuable to a football team, if you're not putting up your best effort, because we have not seen a complete game from Tampa Bay this year. They've been in tough betting spots. What more do you want as a special trait from your quarterback than to do that? What is more valuable? And in the final minute, I know this guy is going to do it, perhaps multiple times.

They're injured, and not only did they do it multiple times at the end of that game, you're mentioning Abuka, but Mike Evans was out. He got injured. And so it's not just that both his tackles are out. Now Mike Evans is Hall of Fame receiver's out, and still two game-winning drives against the Jets.

Wasn't it just last week you were talking about Baker Mayfield, that he's one of the three or four quarterbacks who if they have the ball in the game, we think they're going to score.

We all knew how it was going to happen. You saw how much time was on the clock while Aaron Glenn is dancing, and you're like, Don't do this. Don't do this. Baker's going to find a way, and he always finds a way. But Abuka is a great... That dude is a great player. And while Mike Evans is off, there's talk that Chris Godwin, who's another one of the great players to watch in this league. So fun to watch. Godwin's coming back, so hopefully there isn't that much of a drop off because they have Philadelphia next, and there has been a thorn in Philadelphia's side over these last few seasons. Remember, Philadelphia had to reshape their entire offense the last time they played Tampa because they got blown the out.

When I say Baker Mayfield, League MVP, I'm not even kidding. I mean, it used to be words that would be ridiculous in the same sentence, but the way he's winning games- It's not ridiculous right now. He just has that ability. I mean, Daniel Jones, Justin Herbert, who are the MVPs right now? I can make an argument for Baker being number one on the list at this point.

It's not like system plays. It is very much individual efforts. He makes plays. He makes stuff happen. He becomes Steve Young in certain moments when they need plays with his legs. And that throw that he made to Booker, it's just not many people can do that on this point.

I know that a lot of analysis excludes what I'm about to say, which is one of the reasons that the football got worse in week three here is because people aren't as fresh. They haven't had months off anymore. Now they're going week to week. Again, some of the quarterbacks are out. And so your ability to win games when your team is injured injured. Baker Mayfield is without his tackles. They're winning games against teams that have pass rush. And when we're talking about this, and you guys are saying Baker Mayfield for MVP, and I'm hearing then, unless you say Daniel Jones, imagine that conversation two and a half years ago.

Baker was in the MVP conversation halfway through last season also. He had a great last season also.

I think we're here on Baker Mayfield, where We've decided this guy is an upper echelon. You can win a championship with Baker Mayfield. There's no more question.

Baker Mayfield were caught. This is Baker Mayfield, when maybe there's still some... Well, not maybe. There are probably still some questions about Daniel Jones. We are here with Baker Mayfield.

But Baker can also lose you a championship, which is why he doesn't win the MVP, because Baker is capable of blowing you some games also, which is what always ends up happening at some point in the season. And then he takes himself out of the MVP conversation.

I just love that he's fearless and that every Everyone has to backpedal when he's got the ball at the end of games.

Aaron Glenn was confident.

That was so silly.

I'm on my couch being like, There's a lot of time left.

Does he not know that he's coaching the Jets? You're not going to and send the Jets.

It's like walking Greg Cody in the music. I know.

He did look like me.

There's two things. There's two acts of God here. You're the Jets, and that's Baker Mayfield with time. Why are you dancing? You got to know that's not going to age well. That is a rookie head coach.

Let me explain to you that Chris Cody, do you know how odd and earth-shaking it is for the Jets to get a lead late and send Chris Cody, who I know to be allergic to books and research, sent him immediately to the internet to wonder whether or not yesterday was a historic day for blocked kicks.

I was like, There are a lot of missed blocks and misses. I'm like, There's a lot of misses today. Let me do the numbers. I'm going to crank the numbers out. I'm going to go to every game log, see all the kicking stats. I learned, based off the average, it was just a slightly below average day.

How much time did you spend doing that?

A good 14 to 17 minutes of going through game logs, doing all the math of all the field goal percentages.

What is that? What exactly did you do in terms of like, you did the math and the numbers and all that?

I went and looked at the kickers' field goals in every game. I have it in my phone, actually, where in this game, they were four of seven, the kickers were. In this game, they were three for four. There was only three games yesterday where the kickers were perfect. There were misses in every other game. Some games had four misses. It ended up being around 76, 75% yesterday, field goal kickers, while the average is slightly above 80.

But blocked kicks, return for touch downs had to have been historic.

Yeah, I didn't look up that specific one. It was more just misses in general.

That's the one that I'm most interested in. Yeah, that would have been a good one.

In my mind, I was just like, Every game I'm watching, that field goal miss. But the weird part was the return.

Yeah.

It was also in In my mind, the misses.

And they turned potentially losses to wins. They were huge.

Wins to losses.

That's what the Witching Hour does.

It delivers. Classic Witching Hour. By the way, the Dolphins are favorite over the Jets on Monday night football.

One of the all-time sad Monday night games we have a week from tonight.

$27 gets you in right now. Oh-and-three Monday night football.

Oh-and-three Jets. I'll be there. At Oh-and-three Dolphins.

Unfortunately.

Scott Hansen actually said yesterday that that Colts-Titans game was the game between the most accurate kickers in the league. And as soon as he said it, they missed three consecutive kicks. Three consecutive field goals got missed. Also in the Cleveland game, you could have also had one return. A blocked kick returned for a countdown, except it took like a funny bounce. Otherwise, that would have happened there, too. To have the fact that during the witching hour, you had two blocked field goals returned for touch downs is what made the witching hour erase a truly dreadful day of professional football.

Dan, I have indeed opened up the game time app to see ticket prices. I can get in that door for $28, fees included. That is fees included. There are about a dozen tickets right now that I'm looking at this app that are under $35 all in, fees included. That's taking the guesswork out of buying tickets, people. Download the GameTime app if you want to go to this terrible NFL game on Monday night between the Jets and the Dolphins for an unbelievably low price. Why? Because that is what game time does. It's the absolute best in the market. If for whatever reason you find a better price out there, game time will match 110% of that price. Use the code, Dan, for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. I might go.

Two bad teams could be an exciting game. I might go. By the way, also the return this week of 9: 30 AM football. Yeah. Dublin, Ireland. Are the Vikings doing-Vikings.

Back to back in Europe? I think they are. They're doing Dublin and then London. Kevin O'Neill, good coach.

This episode is supported by FX's The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawk. Allow us to introduce you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist/ rare Bookstore owner, unofficial truth seeker who's always on the tail of his latest conspiracy. This time, his most recent exposé puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa. Meaning only one thing, he must be onto something big. Fx is the Lowdown, premiered September 23rd on FX. Stream on Hulu.

Howdy, folks. It's Mike Ryan, and I know it's early in the NFL season, but it has shown you exactly why the NFL is indeed king sport in the United States of America. Great games, incredible matchups, in-demand tickets for these high-profile games. Sometimes, oftentimes, these games are sold out and you're left with the secondary market. Well, let me tell you about my go-to on the secondary market the official ticketing partner of the Dan Levatard show. I'm talking, of course, about game time. Game time's amazing for a lot of different reasons. Zone deals, panoramic seat views, the low price guarantee, and game time's unparalleled ticket coverage. I'm an NFL free agent, so I'm always looking for the biggest games, and game time makes it so easy to peruse the app. One of my favorite features is, fees are always included. What you see is what you pay. And that is hugely important when you're traveling abroad to catch the game de jour. Take the guesswork out of buying NFL tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code Dan, and get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code D-A-N for $20 off.

Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download the Game Time app today. Don Levatard. You owe me everything. You owe me everything.

You have added 10 years of my career. Yes, I have. This man has. You haven't. That man.

Who the hell are you? Let me tell you. Stugatz. I am.

Who the hell are you?

You should be banking me.

Bullshit.

Me. You're a rude young man.

You're a fool.

You're a fool. I already called you a fool. You're a fool right back. You can't call me.

You're You're an idiot again.

It's a fool, Rob. You're an idiot, twice.

You're an idiot for dismissing how much I've helped you.

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats.

I want to talk about some college football here, and I'd like to know from the group here what you guys believe to be the biggest story from the weekend. The first thing I'm going to do here is play some old Davo Sweeney sound, not just the sound from last week, but the famous sound from last year where he was taking calls from a sports radio station, and he got mad at some caller named Tyler.

The Davo Sweeney Show. I'm starting as the lowest paid coach in this freaking business. I'm where I am because I've worked my ass off every single day, I am not going to let some smart ass kid get on this phone and create this stuff. So if you got a problem, I don't care. I work for the board of trustees, the president, the AD. If they're tired of me leading this program, all they got to do is let me know. I'll somewhere else where there is an appreciation. My part of vision is cold.

He wants to be fired.

I am a man of faith. Absolutely. I'm 53 years old, and there ain't one thing in my life. I have been a part of failure many I'm really tough. But there ain't one thing in my life that I ever failed at, Tyler. Never. I wanted to get an education. I got two degrees. I wanted to be the first college in my grads with my family. I did it. I wanted to go play football in Alabama. I earned a I've been in the leadership for three years. Worked my ass off, won a national championship. I wanted to get in the coaching. I worked my way to be the head coach. And when I got this job, and I'm sure you didn't want me to get this job, 15 years later, I'm still here. And I say the results are what they are, and I'm staying on him. So you don't ever have to call back Tyler.

Wow. Braggard.

Well, he's pretty arrogant. I also imagine that whenever he argues with his wife, he also gives his age and asks her to fire him.

This This is becoming a move.

You can get a divorce if you want.

Look, I'm 53 years old. Okay, I got plenty of time. You can take half my stuff. The buyout is only going down.

Let's play the sound from last week because I suspect after losing to Syracuse, we will get some of that arrogance deflated right out of him in tone, temper, and tenor. But let's play the sound from last week of Dabo Sweeni also being hugely arrogant while he's lecturing people.

To buy you time, I can provide the framework for the audience that I guarantee you he will invoke he can be fired at any time and that he's still got plenty of time to get fired and go somewhere else and win. I've been backing up Dabo, consistently throughout all these because he turned that program around, but that was a really bad loss that he had to Syracuse.

If they want me gone, if they tired of winning, they can send me on the way because that's all we've done is win. So if they're tired of winning, we've won this league eight out of the last 10 years. Is that not good? I'm just asking, is that good? I don't know if that's good or not. To win your league eight out of 10 years, to go to the playoff seven out of 10 years, to be in four national championships, win it twice. Yeah, we're a little down right now. Take your shots, but I got a long memory, in case you all don't know. We'll be all right. We'll bounce back. This is a program built to last. Always has been, always will be. I would just say, if you give up on us, if you don't believe on us because we've lost two games down to the last trade, and you didn't believe in us anyway, so it don't matter. You weren't all in anyway. If you're all in, you burn the ships, man. There ain't no exit strategy. You're freaking all in. Hey, listen, I mean, Clemson's tired of winning. They send me on my way, but I'm going to go somewhere else and coach.

I ain't going to the beach. Hell, I'm 55. I got a long way to go. You all are going to have to deal with me for a while. I got a long way to go. I'm just getting going. I'm just now good enough to be a head coach.

Okay, so But this was after he lost two games. Then Syracuse comes into Clemson. They were a double-digit underdog. I think they were 17-point dog in this game, and they lose. Clemson loses 34-21 at home, and Dabo doesn't sound... You might not hear, Fire me now and give his age here.

But why are we held to a different standard from all these other teams out there who ain't ever won nothing? We're not perfect, and we may suck this year. We may lay a freaking egg and go six and six.

You're going to be lucky if you get 66. I think Dabo has realized that the best job isn't coaching college football. It's being fired from coaching college football.

I mean, where is Jimbo Fisher right now? Is he still making- Did you run into him on your campus tour?

Jimbo is out there working for ACC Network.

No, I didn't see him.

Let's play the sound of Dabo sounding broken. You've gotten all of the arrogance. Let me hear broken.

Disappointed. Painful. I'm hurt. I mean, I'm human. I mean, I'm I'm not a cyborg. I mean, this is my life, man. I've been here 23 years. I love this place. I give this place the very best I got every single day, every day. There's never been a day that I haven't given Clemson every ounce of everything I have. I hurt. I invested my life here. When I don't get the job done, I'm responsible.

I'm 55 years old. Seriously. I could be fired at any time. I'm not a robot. It'd cost less if they do it next year, perhaps.

Not really. If they fire him now, he's about 60 million. Next year, it's 57 million. And after that, they have to pay him everything that's left from 2027 to 2031.

Did he not listen to himself? He's like, Why are we helped to a different standard. I mean, we won a bunch of championships around here.

I won this league 10 times. That good? I don't know.

Why aren't they treating us like every other 6 & 6 ACC team? Is it because we've won so many of these championships while I was here? Maybe that's perhaps. I don't know. I'm just a 55-year-old man. I'm just good enough now to be a head coach.

He has special Alabama clauses in his contract also. If he were to leave to Coach Alabama, he would have to pay Clemson $6 million. And if it's any other school, he'd have to pay them $4 million. And every single year, there's clauses like that, and it's only Alabama that's higher than every other school in the country. So when they signed him to this 10-year deal in 2021, they were really afraid of him leaving to go to Alabama when Saban left. And now they're hoping Alabama fires their coach and hires him so that he has to pay them instead of the other way around.

You can't run down that hill the way he does and then lose 34-21 in Syracuse.

Put it on the poll at Levitard show. Can you run down the hill the way Dabo does and then lose 34,21 to Syracuse. I do want some college football observations from you guys, especially from Zazlo, who's a college football expert and was part of ESPN radio's coverage all week and want Mike Ryan's thoughts on game day as well. Texas Tech It looked awfully impressive to me, and somehow their backup quarterback, Will Hammond, is better than their starter Morton, because he came into the game and they all of a sudden started dragging Utah. But the game for me that I enjoyed most this weekend And by the way, Belichick quietly lost to UCF 34-9 this weekend.

Loss to Jacory Brown, former Miami third string quarterback. Yeah, Dan, to your Texas Tech point. They spent so much money this offseason on defense. And on College Game Day, they did a breakdown of what this defense does. You got D tackles, holding guys up with one hand, just pushing them away so they can make a tackle with the other arm. They got Ramello Hype from Georgia Tech, who appears to be a mercenary and a good one. Texas Tech. That's a team that spend a lot of money and it seems to be working out for them.

I felt the limitations of offense in Auburn and Oklahoma. And when I looked at the stat sheet, Oklahoma had eight sacks at the half and finished with a record for the school 10 sacks, but I really did think it was 20. I'm not joking. When I tell you, I thought that they had more sacks in the second half than they did in the first because of the amount of pressure they kept getting.

Interesting storyline with Jackson Arnold who was quarterback for Oklahoma now playing for Auburn. Did they boo him? Yeah, they did. That's weird. Oklahoma, they cheated to win that game. Sec reps admitted. They did one of those- They admitted they cheated. Yeah, they blew that call. Oklahoma tried to be cute. They a guy to the sideline, pretending that he was going to sub out.

I like when they do that.

Defense was super confused. You're not allowed to do this. It's against the rules. Calls for time out were even ignored. A guy who is pretending to be subbed out stays on the side of the sideline, just walks into the end zone. Why can't you do that? It was a bad call because it's cheating.

That should be allowed.

Why is it cheating?

Because the defense is allowed to substitute, so they're caught in no man's land. Like, Is this guy checking in? Is he checking out? He goes into the end zone unguarded. I disagree. There was also a bad There was also a bad call on a fumble return that should have went Auburn's way. It was just really bad. And then they get the safety at the very end for a back-breaking six and a half, and you know I was on that six and a half.

Now you can hear it.

You can hear it.

There you go.

There's the cheating. You can hear it. Of course, you could hear it.

They cheated.

That's the cheating right there.

Auburn for the last two... I've been on Auburn against Oklahoma the last two years. They're inventing ways to lose to this team and not cover.

The best game of the weekend was Arkansas-Memphas. Arkansas was winning the whole game, and then Memphis took the lead late, and Arkansas had the ball clearly in field goal range inside of the 10-yard line at the end. Could have just milked the clock. I think could have just knelt, handed the ball to the running back, and he got the ball punched out. Is Mike Gunde going to last the season? No.

There's no way. I can't believe he got out of that building. Watching that game on Friday, I can't believe he got out of that building. There were really good sources that said Mike Gunde was out. There were reports saying that he was out. And at the 11th hour, he agreed to some deal that saved his job. There is no way Mike Gunde is still coaching.

He gave back money.

Yeah, that was a deal.

He gave back money in order to keep his job. But I thought they were terrible last year, and they were. I thought they were as bad a big conference team as I saw all of last year. But they're worse this year. They just got dragged at home. I don't even know. Was it Tulsa? Tulsa.

It was Tulsa. And Tulane, I In case you can understand it, Tulane is not a bad football team. Tulsa is always bad. Tulsa doesn't belong to be playing on the same surface as Oklahoma.

They're going to get their ass kicked at home next week, too. They have Baylor. They're going to lose that game, too.

Put it on the poll at Lebitard Show. Has Tulsa ever, even one time, been good at football? Yes or no? I want to know because I just associate Tulsa. You tell me that name, and I'm just always associating that with bad college football.

Also geographically, strange place to have a hurricane. I never really got that mascot name for Tulsa.

How about Indiana? You see Indiana kill Illinois?

Dude, Mendoza might be the real deal. He's good.

He's from here, right?

Yeah, he was. He was a Cal quarterback. They gave Miami everything that they could handle. He was one of those quarterbacks that was linked to Miami in the offseason. By the way, John Mateer, Mendoza, Carson Beck were the three quarterbacks that Miami was pursuing this offseason. All three guys are probably in it to New York right now if you were to poll Heisman voters.

How about Indiana, though? Indiana jumped up from number 19 to 11 in the poll after crushing number nine Illinois. One spot behind one lost Texas.

That's Indiana. Look at Indiana schedule because they always find a way to get these sweethearts schedules. They'll have some tough conference tests, but to do that to a top 10 team, it seems like Signetti is going to be in that conversation, that playoff conversation. They've already shown that a Big Ten team, that TCB is like that, they don't need to play anybody at non-conference, and that's what he's banking on.

What do you guys think of this Paul Feinbaum quote on Dabo? It's time for him to do one of two things. It's either to consider another school, and I think he is hireable if he quits talking or just get away from football and become a TV guy. He's very funny. He'd be very glib. He's got more credentials than any other non-TV coach out there of the people that could leave coaching and go into the TV. He It would be very coveted.

There's another solution. Fully embrace the portal. I know it's not part of that program's identity. I think their best player on the D-line is the one transfer portal.

They have three transfer portal kids, I think, on the team this year, right? Yeah.

They're some of the better players on that roster. Why can't he just adjust? Just give yourself over to where college football is and stop thinking that you have all the answers. He very clearly thinks that he does have all the answers from his program's position.

That program is built to last.

Paul Feinbaum made it wrong. Stop talking. That should be one because he's not doing himself favors. He's becoming a joke. Well, you're right.

He should invest in the portal because teams that do are ranked number two in the nation, to use an example. But the problem with Feinbaum's comment is Dabo Sweeni has got a very impressive resume. So what are you saying? He's not allowed a one-on-three start?

I think three of his last four seasons have three losses or more in them. And so, of course, he's allowed a one-on-three start, but this is what the descent looks like. It's not up for argument.

He's not allowed a one-on-three start.

He won the ACC last season with three losses, and he was in the payoff.

Yeah. If you don't believe that, ask Dabo. He'll be very quick to remind you of that.

It's not just three losses, though, Greg. You're supposed to get right against Syracuse at home. Agreed. It's a bad loss. And it's not like- Off a loss in which everyone's questioning the difference between this Dabo team.

This is not a bad team. No. Although their season is probably going to fall off soon because Anjeli, who's been really good for them, had a noncontact injury that wipes him out for the season. So that's not going to be a loss at age as well, I don't think. But usually when he's at these forks in the road where Tyler from Spartanburg going at him or they lose to these other teams, he's very good to back up his words with a good performance. To lose at home a conference game, 17 and a half point favorite, and not have... They were never in that game. Syracuse totally controlled that game. That's not what this season was about for Clemson that came in. Rank top 10.

Dabo versus Belichick up next.

Syracuse, Fran Brown, their coach, is a good talker. He's the one who reminded us last year that he doesn't shower after they lose. Here he is after beating Dabo and Presumptuous, and I presume Tyler as well, in Clemson. I don't care about what Vegas said.

No, Vegas said, Canelo was about to win.

You know what I'm saying?

Crawford said different.

Does he understand, Vegas is not a prediction. It's not what it is.

No, they try to get action.

Vegas said different.

It's not a prediction.

Vegas said different.

Don Levatard.

Is there a back in my day?

There is, actually.

What?

Were you not going to tell anyone?

Wait a minute. You guys. Guys, it's a Tuesday. Stugatz, here's your guy.

Greg Cuddy with Back in My Day.

Shit, I can't help my head.

Okay, here it is. Sorry. Adultry.

That is it.

We are back. We are waiting for this one.

This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugats.

Zazlo, how was your time with Mike Ryan tailgating as part of the ESPN Radio campus tour? I understand that Willis McGahee was wandering around. He had a good time. Yammering and yelling into the sky, fueled by whatever it is that he was enjoying in terms of liquid.

He made one of our videos for ESPN Radio unusable. Let's just put it that way. Willis was having a good time, though. Good for him. We had a great time tailgating. I mean, like Mike said, we had a bunch of Florida Panthers who were hanging out with us. Mike knows how to do a good tailgate. I'll tell you something. I've never been to a Mike Ryan tailgate. He knows how to do it. Good music. I mean, it was lacking a little bit of the Pearl Jam, but whatever. I'm not a DJ. Good music, good food, good drinks. And then, let me tell you something. I sat with Mike for the game. Those seats, that's where I sit now.

That's where I sit for all the things. The recliners and the televisions and all that stuff?

That's where I sit for all the games now.

Okay, you mentioned that, but you didn't give me any further details on what you did.

Big, comfortable seats, lots of leg rooms. Sometimes I like to I want to spread out a little bit. I want to be comfortable. I could stand when I want. I can sit when I want. Drinks, flowing. There's food. You got the TVs right there. What a great... That's where I sit now.

You mentioned that. Wait a minute.

Are you a Golden Cane like Mike?

I mean... No. I don't get involved in that minutia. I'm just telling you, that's where I sit.

It's for someone else to figure out. But Sazla walks into that barn, that's where he sits.

Michigan won at Nebraska this weekend. What's the name of their interim coach, Biff something? Bogie? Their interim coach, how was he going to celebrate after it is that they beat Nebraska? And Matt Rule, host of The House Rules podcast.

What are you going to do tonight to celebrate?

I'm going to eat some Haagen Daz coffee ice cream with my wife and smoke a Cuban cigar, and then probably go to the hospital.

I love that last part. He was also great on game day. Saban was interviewing him. He's like, I remember when you were down there at St. Francis paying players. I learned that from you, Coach.

When he's at the hospitals at the end of the night, he's like, Is this a great night? Yes.

Let's play it again. Yes. Ice cream and cigars in the hospital. It's a good night.

What are you going to do tonight to celebrate?

I'm going to eat some Haagen Daz coffee ice cream with my wife and smoke a Cuban cigar, and then probably go to the hospital.

Cigar? He's high-fiving the nurses. Probably go to the hospital.

Smoking a cigar in the hospital, that guy.

By the way, Nebraska, don't be afraid to win one of these.

Mike, how was the game day experience?

I heard from a lot of people at ESPN, they're like, Man, this is better than 2017. I didn't think so. I think 2017 had, just by volume, more people there. It also happened later in the season, so the weather was better. Shout out to all those kids that were there. It was a hot one. Florida, South Florida in particular, especially with a bunch of students from the Northeast, not exactly a hockey town. Matthew Kchuck, clearly hindered by this injury, did his best to get the people there, but it was all about the moment with Pat McAfee in the speedo going off the diving board. I think overall, it was just a great weekend for the University of Miami. Shout out to that athletics department, Joe E. T. Baria, the President, Kim Gourby, the SID. Chris Ball came off great in his interviews. The campus looked beautiful on television. It looked like a place you wanted to be. And then it's not the prettiest game, but Miami, T-CBs and looks physically dominant against an in-state rival. Just pretty much ends a Billy Napier experience at Florida and looks a certain way. Looks like a legit contender.

And on a neutral field, I'd concede to the champs. I think that Ohio State is better than Miami, probably a little bit more experience, more depth, certainly. Miami's got to say healthy. But the neutral field this year in the national title game is in Miami.

Isn't quarterfinals also here, right?

Miami looks a certain way, and I think they'll have a really good test. Now, it's a weird schedule for them. They're only going to play one game in the next 20 days, but that game is against Florida State, which, by the way, not the easiest opponent on Friday when they go up to Charlottesville against Virginia. That team can move the ball. I don't think it's going to be a low-scoring one, but I think FSU in this game might fortify some things that will get them feeling good about their offense, but won't exactly be where they can win this game because Miami is going to give you a different energy along those trenches.

As a Canes fan, you want FSU to beat Virginia, though, right?

I do, but I'd be, Hey, don't overlook the who's. Don't overlook Chandler Morris. They can move the ball.

A couple of things I do want to say, though. I've known Mario Cristobal, okay, since he was an offensive lineman in college, and I've told you that his brother's a good deal more intense and menacing, his older brother is, than he is. Mario Cristobal works extraordinarily hard and is usually soaked in an inordinate amount of stress. The way that he is presently carrying himself in interviews is as a man who is really confident in the players that he has. Lane Kiffin told us when that group of men were coaching in Alabama, that they would walk onto the field and just know that they had the bigger, stronger, faster players every single time that they were walking onto the football field. Cristobal has had some of that stress pour off of him in these interviews where he doesn't seem nearly as much under duress.

I noticed it, too. He was really kind to me. He gave me a lot of time over the weekend as well for ESPN. Obviously, It has a lot to do with the current state of the program. I mean, he was really nice and really forthcoming with me.

Does Mario Cristball go on any show but this one, it seems, huh? Greg Cody twice, Zazzo for an extended period of time.

You know what? Mario is so confident in his team right now, he can't even convey publicly what he thinks of his team. It's one of those situations where he has to be careful what he says publicly, because I just think he's supremely confident. I think before the Notre Dame game, he knew he was going to win. I think before the South Florida game, he knew he was going to win easily. He can't say that, but I've never seen him so confident in the roster he has. Would you agree, Mike?

Teams with this type of advantage along the trenches, they're going to be in every game. You're not going to blow out a team with that offensive line, and now you can add the defensive line. We said this last year. You don't blow out teams with that offensive line. Miami, to their credit, lost two games via a combined nine points, were in every game. It's different this year. You know they're not going to abandon the run game like they have last year. They blew the Syracuse game, which they were leading 21-0, and they were running at seven yards a clip, and they were still chasing awards and whatnot. They couldn't break themselves because they were so desperate down here for 20 years to get a quarterback that looked like Kam Ward. Once you had the toy, your identity was, Kam's going to figure it out. Kam's going to save us. That's not the identity here. Carson Beck, I don't have it today. Let's hand it to Mark Fletcher. He'll get hit at the line of scrimmage three yards in, and then that line of scrimmage will then move seven more yards because everybody in mass is just going to physically dominate the opponent.

Now, granted, the Florida defensive line was depleted by injury a little bit, but I don't think I've ever seen a UM offensive of mine physically play that well against a good defense. Um is so complete all over the field right now. I just don't see a weakness other than what you mentioned, depth. But if they're starting 24 or healthy, there

The photo that shows every game.

And the... Come on. Makes and misses in every game. Speaking of confidence, in the history of sports media people, how many are there who could pull off what McAfee did this weekend? Give me the names of the people who do that stuff. The game day experience, it's hard to transition from Lee Corso to something that is younger and has more energy, but him upping the ante on 100,000, 200,000, 300,000, $500,000, $500,000 field goal kicks.

Pathetic kicks this week.

I mean, that is life-changing money for you and your boys, and he gave you a second chance, and you can bank it in. It's legit. A lot of people just assume, ESPN takes care of Pat on the back end. No, he makes these spur of the moment decisions, and he's the one that fronts the money. On that game, I think that's the best version of Pat McAfee. I really do. He leans into what makes that show special.

See him feeding Saban, the gator sandwich? He got nick Saban on camera to take bites out of a huge sandwich.

He lightens him up. He does. For Pat McAfee to pull off that big moment at the end and make it feel big when David Pollack did that in 2017, help Jenna Sims did that earlier in the show, and it still felt bigger because of the personality and just the general star power that Pat McAfee has.

He's a star. Everyone was following him around on game. He was like, The crowds of people wherever he would walk to if he was switching if he was going over to the field goal contest. He had crowds of people following him. Everyone had their phones out. Where's Pat? Where's Pat? That guy commands a crowd.

I did get to speak to Chucky, though. If Chucky wasn't fresh off of surgery, Chucky would have been right there, up there with him. Jumping off that thing. I thought this guy was tough. They had that conversation. That would have been a look. That would have been a look.

I'm out for two more.

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