- Hey, what's going on? This is the Saturday Don't South podcast. I am Connor O'Gara. Well, we have a packed, packed show today. Tim Tebow, E.J. Manuel, they are both gonna join us in a bit here. Awesome, awesome stuff from a pair of former Sunshine State turned, well, Sunshine State quarterback turned analysts. I guess that, oh, yeah, that's category, both of them fall into, that counts. That's a flex, man. You could've just stopped at Tim Tebow. You got E.J. in there, too. You know, I know if we're gonna make the people listen to my laugh for most of the podcast, we're gonna offset that with some hard-hitting talent. So, yeah, that's a great kit, man. I'm excited to listen to that. Two guys who are going through it right now, a bit. Yeah, it was good to be able to catch up with them. E.J. is awesome, by the way. I try not to say that every single interview because it's like, oh, what'd you think about about this person, were they not awesome? E.J. is great. And I've wanted to, I'm trying to get him on for basically like the last, well, I tried to get him on about a year ago and had been going on his show with Hester on SiriusXM. And so it's just been long overdue, something I've been wanting to, did not intend. I'm not just trying to troll Florida State by having him on here when they're 0 and 3. It just ended up happening that way. So stay tuned for that. We've got a lot of the week as well. Week four, week four is here. And so too, will you turn in 30 this week? - Yes sir, yes sir, 30, 30 really excited. I have no idea what I'm doing. Everyone keeps asking me, I have like a, my friends are kind of conspiring with my girl for the secret plan. My buddy Brady from Philly, I think ruined part of the surprise, but a genius move by him to just fire hose me and come up with a bunch of fake surprises. Kind of like when you show the fake play art in CAA. So now I'm not sure what the real surprises. I have like ideas of what they are, but I'm more confused than when I started. So I'm off Thursday and Friday. If you guys want to fight with me on Twitter, there's two great days, schedule your time, book the 30 minute session. And then yeah, I'm just going to be chilling all weekend. I'm excited, got a new Warcraft expansion out. So grinding some delves. - You know, there we go. I know what that is, totally. - Yeah. - Fingers crossed that a pandemic doesn't change your entire 30th birthday plan. And you don't actually get to go flap to Chicago and go to a Cubs game with all your friends and spend a weekend with your family. Fingers crossed it doesn't happen to you for your 30th birthday. - Wow. - It'll be better. - Yeah. Well, you know what? That's a very silver lining. And I saw some very, so two polls for you. I think you'll enjoy this about, finally kind of looking at the mirror going, wow, you are kind of getting older, becoming a little, I think 30 is a good line for that. And one of them was one of my buddies, Jeremy from Twitter. I'm good friends with him. And we have like a text group chat. And he was like, you know what the Saints remind me of? The 2000 Chiefs with priest homes. And I'm like, or the 2003. I'm like, buddy, I don't have a single cognizant memory of that team. Thank you for making me feel young. - That's good. - You need that. When you were about to turn 30, you need reminders that you're still young and you still got it. - Yes. And then on the other end, I saw a kind of a one of those TikTok ads that they retrofit for Instagram. And it says POV, you built your first camcorder can now make memories. And I go, oh my gosh, your camcorder's retro now. And so I'm right there in the middle. I think I'm exactly where I need to be. - Yeah. Look, nothing scary about 30. It's all just about life perspective. It is truly just a number. Although I will say this past year of my life is a 34 year old. I'm like, God, I feel old in so many instances. Like just physically, I feel like I can't bounce back on the way that I could when I was 30. So you've still got plenty of very, very good years left. Well, all right. We're gonna do something a little bit different today. Little bit different with how we usually structure this. Usually I like to save the headliner games for like the middle or kind of towards the end. Not today, not today. That is how fired up I am about Tennessee, Oklahoma. - Yeah. - Number six, Tennessee. Seven point favorite on the road. Number 15, Oklahoma. SEC debut for Oklahoma. The over-under I have for this one is six and a half Toby Keith references. I think I'm about to have more on this segment. I think I am. The Josh Hiple, Oklahoma reunion deserves a new name. A more all encompassing name, dare I say. This is the Toby Keith bull. This is it. To honor the late Toby Keith, who unfortunately is no longer with us, I need to probably explain why we have very often said, "This is a Toby Keith game for someone." For those who maybe don't listen very regularly, maybe you just listen to game previews or something like that, or you haven't heard an explanation of why we call something a Toby Keith game. It's a, "How do you like me now when?" Usually referring to a head coach getting that win. I guess you can also pertain to quarterbacks or something like that. So this game is just the perfect culmination of that in a variety of ways. For Josh Hiple, even as the touchdown favorite obviously, which as Dusty Dvorak pointed out with my guys in the next round, OU is his biggest home underdog. Let me see if I can say that correctly. Biggest home underdog that OU has been since 1998, pre-bob Stoops era. That's wild to me. Absolutely wild. For Hiple, very well documented what this game represents. Hi has been runner up, led OU to a national title 2000, spent nearly a decade there as an assistant, and then when OU was a preseason number 14 in the country, and then they only win eight games, Hiple took the blame as the OC when they got whacked 40 to six by Clemson at the end of the 2014 season. You get it, you get it. Lincoln Riley of course then steps in and becomes what he becomes. Hiple then essentially has to rebuild his career and has to go to Utah State and kind of climb his way back up the ladder. Not quite as drastic as Lane Kiffin getting left on the tarmac, but you kind of get the process of what it takes to be able to do these things sometimes. That's the long and short of it. Are there hard feelings between Josh Hiple in Oklahoma? Depends on who you ask. We talked to Trey Wallace about that. We talked to Chris Plank about that. Those are, in my opinion, people who are very, very well-informed different ends of this spectrum with Tennessee and Oklahoma. But if you ask Hiple about it, he kind of has been a little bit more playful about this subject and he brushes it off. He said repeatedly that if he didn't go through what he went through at Oklahoma by rising and getting fired there, he wouldn't be doing what he's doing now, which is leading a premier program that looks capable of maybe not just competing for a playoffs pop, potentially competing for a national championship. - I mean, this isn't all time. I mean, this might be even specific to Hiple, but both of these guys, this might be the all time. How do you like me now, Game? I love that. I love that call out. Did you see the quote that Venables had about Hiple and the Keeley Smith? I did not see that, no. - Oh, man. - Was it the, was it the, in the Chris Lowe story? - It was like, he got asked it. Like yesterday, I saw it as a press conference thing, but it was, okay, either this is a good natured, like one of the sweetest, most like candid stories I've ever seen, or it's a little bit of intentional, kind of like down playing Hiple. But he tells this story about how, you know, they come in from Kansas State talking about Venables. And you know, it's crazy. Look at these guys ages. There's only, okay, we'll do math seven years of difference between them. So, I mean, Venables would have been very young. - Venables was the DC when Hiple was quarterback there. So yeah, I'd be like a young DC. - Yeah. - Yeah, so we're talking about, you know, guys that are, you know, both young, both of them are 20s, right? And they said they were scouting quarterbacks, Mike Leach and Brent Venables. And they brought in, Venables wanted to bring in Akilie Smith, who was going out of Juco at the time. And he said, you know, Mike Leach, they come out and they have Hiple throw in there. He said, you know, he's a pasty guy. Kind of said he didn't really look great. So he looked a little doughy, a little pale. He said, it's, you know, it's the winter. The wind's blowing and he's like, this guy, I mean, this guy is not going to get a ton. I want to go get Akilie Smith. And he said, Leach looked at, he said, that's our guy. And basically, the Venables comes back around and says, well, you know, he proved me wrong a little bit. And it was kind of, like I said, like negative, like negating of being like, ah, you know, 'cause he's talking about Akilie Smith talking about, oh, you know, this guy's, you know, got the pro style. He's ripping the ball around the yard. And they canceled the visit that Akilie Smith was going to have because Leach liked Hiple so much. And so, yeah, it's crazy when you get guys that are kind of, I mean, it's so rare that we get to see a guy who is a player and a guy that was a coach. And their ages are this similar. I mean, to your point, yeah, Oklahoma, I guess, finds coaches really young 'cause we've seen this kind of over and over again with them. But these are two guys that are just so different. You know, offensive, defensive, coded guys. Where the Venables get to the dry fit guy. He's kind of more like, you know, he's super, he's swole, he's a defensive, hard nose. Like I can see him doing an Oklahoma drill at Oklahoma. And then Hiple is a guy who's kind of unassuming. He's always going to kind of, oh, you know, and he's very, you know, he's just a very humble or chill guy. And so watching these two guys, I mean, this is like soap opera stuff, man. - It really is. And that's just another element of why, like this is the Hotty like me now game. I mean, Venables himself saying, yeah, I don't really know if I want that Hiple guy. I'd rather go with the Keelie Smith. I mean, coming over from, from snow college as Josh Hiple did back in the day. I mean, yeah, it's crazy to think about his path and to think about now being in this position where you have a chance to go back to your alma mater, the place that fired you and have a chance to have this moment on this national stage. It is so rare. It is so unique and so fittingly college football that we're getting this. I'd like to think that when Hiple got the Tennessee job, maybe some Oklahoma fans laughed for the simple reason that, look, I like to make these things up in my head. Maybe Oklahoma fans are like, yeah, you know what? Like he's never really gonna figure it out, which would perfectly set up Hiple to maybe take some screenshots of those messages. And he's like, what I took off to Tennessee, I heard that you made fun of being never imagined. I make it this far. - Yeah. - It's just sitting right there, sitting right there. - Dude, yeah, I mean, it's perfect. Yeah, I think like we down by way. It's like, I have a Tennessee, I have my own program, you know. I mean, they're offense, it's like they will. - There's more. - Oh. - So we Keith might have looked into a crystal ball and secretly written this song for Josh Hiple and then was like, yeah, we'll make it about this guy who can't get this valedictorian in high school. That's a little bit more relatable instead of me as a die-hard Oklahoma fan writing this to the guy who is currently the quarterback at Oklahoma because remember when this song came out, fall of '99, Hype was first year at OU. - No way. - In 2000, when Hype was a Heisman runner-up, how do you like me now hit the top of the country charts? It was a crossover hit as well. I hope that when Hype went to New York for the Heisman ceremony, he just played that song on repeat and he thought about the Weber state coaches who had him buried on the depth chart and he's like thinking about his path or maybe Hype will play that on his way back from the national championship after he faced off with the guy who won the Heisman, Chris Winky, and beat him in a national championship. By the way, who sang the national anthem at the Orange Bowl, the national championship that year that Hype will won it? Toby freaking Keith will, no way. - This is crazy. - This is crazy. This is the Toby Keith Bowl in every way and not just, not even just for Hype. That's kind of the crazy thing. Think about this, what this means for Oklahoma. I mean, if we just had the Oklahoma side of this, this is what we would be talking about. Remove all the Hype all stuff. Oklahoma playing in the SEC for three years. OU has had to answer the question about whether or not it's SEC Radio, okay? And we've talked about it on this show for a long time and have gone through different iterations of it because they've been a lot of different things over the course of the last three years. And how fitting that this is their first SEC game? It's against the Tennessee team that, gosh, I was thinking about this. And our guy Cole Kublick would probably be a better person to answer this question, but is there anybody in the country that's playing better in the trenches than Tennessee right now? Offensive and defensive line? Like they are getting after teams and they are dominating in that way. And it's going to be a game in which we get such a good answer to that question for Oklahoma, how they're going to stack up in that way. Obviously, you're gonna have so much attention on this game, college game day, coming to Norman with fans for the first time since 2012. They hosted game day in 2020, but obviously without fans, if OU wins this game against Tennessee, buddy, they had better be blasting some How Do You Like Me Now in that post game locker room, blasting it. Tennessee better have that queued up with the social team. Will you always talk about the social posts that you wanna see that don't see the light of day if a team loses or something like that? This better be in the giraffes ready to go. For either team. So, can Oklahoma win the Toby Keith Bowl? Who, look, as my guy Chris Planck said on this show, you know, he told us in the off season, he had never seen a person happier than Toby Keith after Oklahoma beat Bama in the Sugar Bowl 2013. You know what, I just can't help but think that like all of us who are gonna be glued into this game, Toby Keith is usually on the sideline for every Oklahoma game, he will be watching this maybe from the Pearly Gates, hopefully from the Pearly Gates, Toby Keith's watching that. Sitting there with his red solo cup, he's like, come on, Senators, come on. Just give me my moment. I think OU plays out of its skull to start this one. Like plays like a team possessed, moves on from the Houston start, moves on from the Tulane low that happened, kind of in the second half of that one, Nick Anderson's back, Jackson Arnold outplays Nico in the first half. Everybody's like, dang, I guess we were sleeping on Oklahoma a little bit. Josh Hype will somehow doesn't have an opening script touchdown for a game plan that he's probably been thinking about for 10 years. Everyone in Norman's rocking. But the poise, Nico, the Amalet Ava and the depth of that Tennessee defensive line takes over. Nico does something that he hasn't had to do in his career to this point. Not just play on the road, but rally. This game is your last chance. If I'm speaking to someone that's like, eh, you know what, Tennessee quarterback, where have we seen this before? This is your last chance to get on board. If you're not all the way in with Nico, the trains leaving the station. And I'm not saying he plays perfect football in this one. I don't necessarily think that's gonna be the case 'cause I just told you, I think Jackson Arnold's gonna outplay him in the first half. I think this OU defense confuses him at times. Maybe a Billy Bowman pick in there. I could definitely see that happening. But a fourth quarter comeback that'll live in Tennessee lore, that's what's gonna play out. I think Oklahoma covers, but can't quite put Tennessee away. That defensive line shuts down the Oklahoma running game late. I think Tennessee wins this one 28, 24 in a game that absolutely lives up to the hype. - So I'll see what you did there. Yeah, I think this is, I mean, this is why we love sports. - Right, yes. - You can't write this, you know, all the little intricacies of, you know, one leaving, one going, you know, whatever. And to me, man, I'm just gonna be honest, maybe this is my bold prediction for the season. I think Tennessee beats this knot out of them. I think they put their foot on their throat. I think Josh Hypo has a lot to prove to this fan base and this team. And I think, you know, it shows that, you know, we've passed the threshold of, I think, you know, where Josh Hypo would go to Oklahoma where he would leave Tennessee. I think it shows that he is on his own, right? He's doing this stuff. And when you think about the trajectory of these two guys, I mean, Josh Hypo took over certainly a worse situation in my mind, right? - No doubt. - No doubt. - No doubt whatsoever. Like you could, we could talk about the 30 day window and all that stuff, but like, Tennessee post Pruitt, what Hypo did year one was so unbelievably impressive with that roster, with how much turnover they had. I was impressed with a seven win season. And it's not to say that, that Oklahoma didn't have its fair share of transfers and stuff like that. I mean, obviously they lost Caleb Williams for crying out loud, but still, I would 100% say that it was a worse situation that Josh Hypo inherited. - Yeah. And I mean, that's the thing. Like, you know, you talk to the Oklahoma fans and they'll tell you, oh my gosh, you just don't understand how bad Lincoln Riley was. And as we've discussed, you know, you're best coach by win percentage, not championships, obviously, but win percentage. You know, this is a team that was winning lots of games. - They would disagree. They would disagree with you on that one. - But I'm just saying, like it's not either this guy left. It wasn't like, I mean, okay, let's just put two realities on the board. One team was so sorry, they framed their own coach for paying players with McDonald's bags. Are we able to talk about poverty? That's poverty. Painting the rock, getting shot out of town, having a coup. That's a problem, okay? It's not, we have one head coach for 20 years. We have his air-apparent waiting at the wigs and then he gets a little tired of you leave. That's not real struggle. Tennessee has been struggling for this, I mean, my whole life. - You put it like that, yeah. - I mean, since the SEC championship game it gets LSU and I was a wee lad. I guess that was '07, maybe it wasn't a wee lad, but it feels like it in football terms, right? Feels like, I mean, that was the last time Tennessee was really contending, right? You had that little blip on the radar, you know, in '22, but I will say, I mean, Josh Hypel immediately beat the timetable in a way that I would argue, Vennables has it. I think that if Vennables came in with higher expectations and as I'm gonna perform them, and Hypel came in from UCF, you know, into this disaster and I was saying, I don't know if his offense was gonna work at the SEC and I was wrong. I mean, this is the working, it's the number one offense in America. I don't know if, I mean, I guess you could talk about Texas, Michigan, but I think Michigan just stinks. That NC State win might be the biggest win that we've seen this year. - For... Wait a minute. - For Tennessee. - The biggest win of any team in college football? - Yeah. - I would disagree. I mean, I would definitely put what Texas did at Michigan ahead of them, even if Michigan ends up being an eight and four team. Like, 'cause what offense he stayed at ends. - NC State's a three touchdown underdog at Clemson this weekend, right? Like, I mean-- - I'm with you. - But think about it, you know, bringing in Grace and McCaw, I mean, these are two programs that were really not-- - These never hurt, yeah. - Right, like, that's the thing. Like, yeah, Grace and McCaw gets hurt and it looks worse over time, but I just think Michigan's not that good. I watched the whole Michigan game, you know, opening the season, they just look lost. Like, I just don't think Michigan's any kind of a good team. And I mean, plenty of people have marched into that big house and beaten them, you know what I'm saying? NC State is, say what you will. They have had strong defenses, they've had good quarterbacks, they had a good quarterback in that game, and they got embarrassed. And like, that wasn't where shocking of a result to me. Everybody like that. - So how about this then? The winner of this game gets to have the best one of the season. - Yeah, and I mean, but I said, what's the outcome it does this year? But I think this is gonna be Tennessee's coming out party. I really do, I think that, you know, when you look at what these teams had to fix, right? With Tennessee, it was very clearly building a defense and building an offensive line that could keep up with Hypel's pace. Okay, and honestly, even in years one and two, it looked like they were doing that. I mean, they had some very key transfers. They had to rebuild, you know, the line with Mays and that stuff takes years, as we see. But now they have a team built in Josh Heifel's perfect image. They have a mobile quarterback. They are one of the best line teams, like you said. And how shocking is that? That this team that was known like the Mike D'Antoni seven second sons is out here mowing guys. - Think about that, about all of these elements that Tennessee has working in its favor. And instead of the potential upside of just talking about a quarterback that Josh Heifel has groomed and some receivers that look really fun and a ground game that's rock solid. In terms of upside and vision of what some were saying, us included, of what the Tennessee could become, this is potentially an apex season for Tennessee. And it's the type of thing that you sell when you're in those interview rooms and you're trying to say, this is why I deserve this position. Tennessee is further along, obviously, than where Oklahoma is. And I would, I mean, I'll push back a little bit on the notion that Venables hasn't necessarily lived up to expectations. They gave them an extension for a reason. It's because of the recruiting as well. And that's a part of it. We talked about how the Oklahoma football has been. - Diermer. - Correct. I think it's different when you're talking about like the year one stuff versus like what they were last year as a 10 win team, where were their weaknesses? They still ended up beating Texas that year, which is obviously really important. Beating Texas and having a 10 win season, a little bit different. Some would argue, 2014, the year that hype will ends up getting the boot, that might have been a little bit more of a lull. But anyway, we could debate that at a different time. But like, if you see, if you're at that place, you're at that apex, right? That Tennessee feels like it's at that. A lot of us feel like it's at. These are the games you win. Yep, these are the games. These are the hostile atmospheres you go into and you silence. And Tennessee in 22 LSU at noon or at 11 o'clock, did that in that instance. But that was the kind of the question and kind of the lingering bad tastes is like those hostile atmospheres of Georgia and South Carolina that they went into, they kind of got swallowed whole by. And can you show that? Because this Oklahoma atmosphere, I'm telling you what, it's going to be reminiscent of that Georgia atmosphere, reminiscent of, I mean, that South Carolina atmosphere, once it got going, it was rocking, absolutely rocking. So I'm fascinated to see the way that hype will handle this. And I can't wait for this game. This is the game I'm most excited for of any that have happened so far this season. Cannot wait. Yes, and I mean, that's the thing, right? Because you can kind of see both sides are going into Tiger Stadium and smacking an LSU team that ended up winning the West, right? And a good LSU team, like that in Alabama, we're kind of the two biggest Tennessee ones. And remember, I know I'm kind of talking off the cuff here, but when you talk about how that win aged very well, right? Outside of it. She got better too, which helped age that win. And that game was the infamous, like it's one-on-one coverage. You have to take a chance that Brian Kelly had with him. Boy, he got to your point. That was probably a game that turned them around, where he was like, I actually do trust my neighbors. But anyway, so point being, like, yeah, I look at it. You know, like I said, what Oklahoma had to get, or sorry, what Tennessee had to get better at. It's trenches, it's defense, which is a big ask when you're coming in from a current team. And for Oklahoma, it's the offense, right? And I mean, outside of a, you know, Herculean, Dylan Gabriel performance, which you just mentioned last year. And I think that that was, that was a good offensive team. I'm not taking anything away from it, but Dylan Gabriel really just kind of went super saying, right? Like we've seen that stuff happen. They haven't consistently, I think, found their offensive identity. I've actually watched a pretty good amount of Oklahoma this year. And I just feel like they're fighting for their lives and end up ways that they really shouldn't be. And, you know, if you're an, it's like, it's, I hate to talk about LSU game, but it's like, me and my, I have a good friend who's an Oklahoma fan, we wish you a good one. LSU is now Oklahoma, and Oklahoma is now LSU, where it's like, you guys have a good defense. Somehow you're winning these games 20 to 17 off of these weird miscues, because you can't snap the ball. You know, meanwhile, it's a high-flying offense on the other side. So, yeah, I think the thing that's so crazy about this is that defensively, you would talk about Venables being this great mind, you know, getting the transfers and always trusting Venables on the defensive side. That's a close call with them in Tennessee now. Tennessee is right there, not a little bit better, but offensively, it's nine day. And I think that, you know, you can look at the Georgia game for sure and say Tennessee goes on the road and gets silenced. But when you really look at how that roster is constructed, it was, I mean, it's five, six stars and a bunch of duct tape behind them. And, you know, we've kind of evolved from the high pole scores 21 points in his first 15 plays that are on the script that we used to joke about, and then he's just holding on for the rest of the game. I think he's almost done worse at the scripted plays and better at everything else. And so, yeah, I think that now that he has a quarterback who can make things happen with his legs, which we've seen how big of a deal that is in modern college football, right? I mean, it's just, it's so crazy to see where this team has gone. So, yeah, I think that, you know, and we'll know, like, I think we'll know pretty soon. You know, if it's a Josh Hyrule Turtle game, I think we've seen the Josh Hyrule Turtle games. The problem with that offense is if, you know, if it doesn't work, it gets bad fast. - Well, it's your point. - Yeah, it's your point. - Yeah, and if it's, to your point, if this is a comeback, that's worse to me. Almost, then, like, a beatdown, because if you get Hyrule to where he's turtling and you're up and you're smacking him and they can't stay on the field, and then suddenly they're like, "Hey, I'm gonna have this." That's what we need to really be scared about Tennessee. 'Cause that's what they couldn't do last year. That's what they couldn't do in 2022, 'cause they didn't have the chemistry. They didn't have the depth. If they come back against the circle on the team, it's a team to be talkin' a nice championship, but you know what I'm sayin'? - Very well could be. Could be that discussion on Saturday night, but this, the easily the game of the week in the SEC and for my money, the game of the week in college football. All right, well, Florida, six point favorite, Mississippi State. Oh boy. - That whole set is like Florida, eyes go big, six point favorite, eyes go bigger. Mississippi State, eyes get even bigger. - Golly, the over-under I have for this one is 45 Mississippi State rushing yards. - Yep, that's it. That's what the Bulldogs are averaging in two games against FBS competition, 1.67 yards per carry. Wolf, pun intended. Peyton Thorne has more rushing yards than Mississippi State leading rusher Kavonle. Peyton Thorne's playin' two games. Peyton Thorne's also Peyton Thorne. - The thing was notably Peyton Thorne, is this? - Just sayin'. Florida's run defense has also been Basura averaging 227 yards allowed against FBS competition. So this is something has to give matchup, but not in a good way at all. For the sake of my entertainment value and your entertainment value, and everybody listening to this, I hope this doesn't happen, but I'm bracing for this possibility. What if this is last year's Mississippi State Arkansas game all over again? I mean, it's possible, Will. It is possible. I don't think it will be, because I think Lebi is too good of an offensive mind, and I gotta imagine he's gonna be able to take advantage of this Florida defense, whatever you wanna call it, Florida defense, air quotes, which is what, like that overunters at 58 and a half, right? But, I'm terrified, because the noon slate is about as thin as it gets. Again, no bad Saturdays, but the noon slate doesn't have a whole lot of options from our multi-viewing experience. Debo Sweeney, ironically enough, who spoke out about how great YouTube TV is with the multi-view, he's part of that noon slate. Again, aforementioned three touchdown favorite against NC State, but I don't know, like am I gonna have to flip on Kansas West Virginia? I mean, those teams have multiple losses. I don't wanna do that. I'm gonna be watching this game, and I'm just envisioning this scenario in which I watched the entirety of this football game, and I look back on those three and a half hours, and I say to myself, I am saving those receipts for when I hopefully, join Toby Keith and Pearly Gates, as we mentioned before, and maybe in heaven, I can get some sort of like charity tax write off for watching this game so that you all don't have to, and so that I can come in on here on Sunday and actually provide some thoughts and analysis, because I think even Florida fans, you're gonna be watching this game with paper bags over your heads. I'm just saying, you know it's true. Will, these teams are combined one in 13 in their last 14 games against FBS competition, and that lone win was last year when Mississippi State took care of mighty Southern Miss, a game in which it led by a touchdown in the middle of the fourth quarter. If these teams go a combined one in 15 in SEC play, with this game being the lone win, it will not surprise me, it will not. This game is so bad that it feels disrespectful to Dan Moen to call it the Dan Moen Bowl. It just does, okay? Like this is our only hope, our only hope, is that DJ Lagway, maybe some Kevin Coleman type stuff, splash plays that he gets in the passing game for Mississippi State. That's the only thing I can save our entertainment for this one. I am picking Florida win by a touchdown 21 to 14. If you don't have to watch this game, I don't recommend staying away from football, watch as much football as possible, maybe find a different option, or watch a replay of a pass game, if that's what you gotta do in the noon slate, by any means necessary. Wolf. I think there are two very different kinds of bad teams across sports, right? We've talked at times when I covered the Orlando Magic, they were not a fun bad team. Both of these are fun bad teams. So I think, yes, and I'll tell you why. This is a good example of a game that when I was younger, I would not have watched because I didn't have social media. This game on Twitter is gonna be one of the funniest things in the world because these teams have found ways to do things wrong that I could never anticipate could even be done wrong, right? So like the guy, like I saw a tweeter, the last 40 of his like shook this man so hard, he turned into a werewolf, and this guy is like running on the ground on all fours. Like, there's the, you know, the way that Florida was when they had Phi other DC, Grantham, and they played Stanford and they gave up all those points. I think both of these teams are that way, wherein, you know, Mississippi State has all this coaching turnover, they're not really sure who they are. Florida should have workers who turned over, but they don't yet. It's everyone's gonna check out. So yeah, I think this game is gonna be so sloppy and the difference is like guys falling down. Like I think in the Arkansas Mississippi State game, we notably didn't have many guys falling down. It was actually kind of a gap-sounding game. That's where the score was so low. Y'all fences were failing for sure, but when a guy falls down, you score a touchdown. I will give you over under four guys falling down in this game. - Well, I think Florida's best defensive moment of the year was the clip that SEC Network tweeted out where the A&M running back. I think it was Emmett Smith Jr. who actually who saw Desmond Watson are thick king in the hole and then just chose to go the other way. I think Florida's best defensive moment of this season. And I'm not gonna include anything that happened in week two. I'm talking about like against a real team. Yep. I would be so, so upset to lose this game as a fan because of that reality. That reality of, oh my God, we're not gonna get one this year, are we? It's staring both of these teams in the face. It really is. And I mean, SEC play. That's what we're talking about here. We're not talking about whether or not Mississippi State's gonna get that one late in the year against UMass TBD on that. So discount Ryan Bamford, but you can't beat Florida. You certainly can't beat UMass. I got an identity up there. Do they though? Look, it'll be potentially a game in which Florida's offense should be able to find some success. If you're just going with the most basic Billy Napier stripped down version of whatever the heck this has been in two plus, I guess three seasons at Florida, you say, all right, you should be able to establish somewhat of a rushing presence, I would think. If there is not any running lanes to be had for the Florida offense against this Mississippi State defense, which has just struggled so mightily, just shut down the shot, just shut it down, just simulate the rest of the season. We already know what's waiting for you in the latter half of the season, even if it's not as difficult as we thought, because Florida State is still technically on there. I mean, just shut it down, just shut it down because there's no way you could be the team that just watched Toledo go into that building and take it over and then come there a week later and then lose. I would be an all-time bad loss for Florida. You really would. I'm imagining, I wish we could have a viewing party of this game with Hypo and Venables, because Levy is like the other Oklahoma guy and it's like, well, I think we've got one and two pretty well figured out, whoever they may be, because say what you will about each of these guys, but I mean, this is a state right now as a team that has a guy with more putt return yards than rushing yards. Like their high putt return yards is higher than their high rushing yards. This is a team that makes no sense. I don't know. - Guys, fair catch, Will. - Guys, like that's what I'd say. Like, do you know how hard it is to have your leading rusher up 88 yards at this point? - It's hard. - When you get to smack my Toledo, you should be running the ball. It's the thing is like, you should be running the ball against Toledo and you gotta throw it. So yeah, point being, I think that's just all it is. I will be so locked into this game. I will be tweeting constantly. I don't really care about Mississippi State in terms of like, I don't take pleasure in their pain. That's true about one of these teams. So I think that at the end of the day, like it's just gonna be like, it's one of those things where like, it almost this, this is the worst, how about this? This is the worst game ever that determines neither coach's future, because Billy, I think the hay is at the bar. - Yeah. - And let me, even if he loses this game, it's like talking to us in Toledo. They're not fired off from a Florida loss. - Yeah, it's not a can't lose game. - It's a please don't lose game. - Please don't embarrass us though. - Please, just don't. We don't wanna be a laughing sock. The noon slate is so thin. Again, people are just gonna bake fun of us on the internet. - Yep. - That's happening very much. All right, well, UCLA, number 16 LSU, or the spread is 24 and a half on this one. - UCLA, a football team, is in Los Angeles, us and USC, who already beat you. - That was done by two, no. - That was done by design. - I really, I really think that was done by design and picked at me these days. The over-under I have for this revenge game for LSU, people forget that, technically a revenge game for LSU. One on air mention of Buffalo Wild Wings, by the way. That does not include the thousands of Jason Kelsey, Buffalo Wild Wings commercials that you will inevitably see while watching a Saturday of football. That, again, that's not part of that. This is a specific mention on air. - Why? What are you talking about Connor? - As Ben Bolch of the LA Times reported, Buffalo Wild Wings is offering free wings for every UCLA win. Buddy, if you thought that people like to root against Brian Kelly before, wait until Saturday afternoon. - You got bro wings on the line. That's big time. When I was in high school, that's when Buffalo Wild Wings was first kind of coming on to the scene. It was, I think it was like my freshman or sophomore year of high school that Buffalo Wild Wings was like really starting to get big. They got one 10 minutes away from my house. And I used to have this discount card that you would buy from one of the clubs in high school, pay like 20 bucks for it. And it gives you all these discounts to local restaurants, whatever it was. And it was Bogo 12 Wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. - Ooh. - I think my record was like 26. I put down. That was-- - Heck yeah. - A little fluffier. A little fluffier time for your boy, but-- - Brett got Connor. - Look, I can put him away. I can put away some wings, relatively small wings. I mean, we're not talking like big honking, you know, but still that was a badge of honor for a little bit. I like how Buffalo Wild Wings waited to do this until after the Indiana game. They pretty much saw you roll into the Rose Bowl. - And so you're coming. - They, well, you could say that. Or it's the ultimate like, guys, we're good. We can schedule this promo. We're gonna be fine. We're not gonna go broke doing this for UCLA victories this year. It's gonna be okay. If they can't even stand the field with Indiana, we're gonna be just fine. And this is gonna be some good buzz for us. Smart marketing, at least smart marketing on that point. - Yeah. - Sadly, I don't think America will be looking at its lips. I do think that Garrett Nussmeyer will be doing that, watching this UCLA secondary, which has not been very good so far. As much as I wanna see Caden Durham kind of get some run in this one. I do think he will, even though he looked back at the snap count in South Carolina game, just Williams had a 40 to 23 snaps advantage compared to Caden Durham, which is kind of crazy. But there's no reason why, Ellis, I know. It's frustrating for an LSU fan. You're like, why can't the right running back just get the football? - Especially for a football fan. Like I've been frustrated by this stuff in Florida. I've been frustrated by this stuff across the board. - Just play the fun guy who's better. I don't care about your third down blocking. - I know, seriously. Ellis, you should be able to throw the ball over the place. No reason why Kyron Lacey shouldn't go off in this one. I would think that LSU finally is gonna get off 'til a good start, didn't even get off to a good start against Nichols. But I'm gonna say that LSU wins big, no Buffalo Wild Wings, LSU wins 42 to 14. - Here's a completely irrelevant kind of interesting storyline here. Homecoming for Eric P. Enemy. - Oh, that's a good point. That's a really good point. Define homecoming, Will. That's from Louisiana. That's, yeah, I guess that counts. That counts. He's, wow, wait, he's actually from Louisiana. Yeah, he's born in New Orleans. I did not realize that 'cause I was thinking of him as Colorado back. I mean, he was phenomenal, obviously in early 90s. And somebody that's been everywhere, seemingly, as a head coach didn't realize that. - Oh, listen, if you're from Louisiana, I'll find you, you know, Angela from the office, Ellen DeGeneres, whatever it is. There anyway, point being, yeah, there's not much to talk about in this one outside of, you know, did you hear Brian Kelly's answer about the transitive property? - About how, like, what it means to beat South Carolina in, like, that close of a game? - Where he's like, well, you know, we beat South Carolina and maybe Kentucky, Kentucky on Georgia. You guys are, look, you're missing lots of punchlines here with Brian Kelly. You're making the same jokes over and over and over again. You don't understand how he's upsetting you on purpose. As a troll myself, I understand that Brian Kelly thought, what is the thing I could say after this game that people hate me so they think that was gifted to my opponent? What is the thing I could say a little such you guys the most? He's been coaching way too long to, at this point, beat not knowing this stuff. I think that he was like, let me use some UCF 2017 math year and really just prove to you guys that I'm better than you thought. 'Cause everybody, and that's gonna get used later on and it's gonna be in bad faith. And I think he's reached that point in his career where he's just like, you know what? I'm gonna go ahead and punch a table. People are gonna hate me if I don't wanna do it. I'm just gonna do it. And so, yeah, point being, Brian Kelly, please don't embarrass me in my birthday the day after. You know, I really am gonna do it so much reflecting. And one of those things doesn't have to be how much I love for care about LSU football. But if you make this a game heaven forbid if you lose it at home, I might have to evaluate that too, right? So that's about it. That's about all I got for you. I mean, hopefully, you know, that this is a team that has struggled offensively but it has been pretty fundamentally an offensive team. They were in a slug fest with Hawaii for no good reason. So hopefully LSU stays gap sound and then they don't have guys falling down either. You're hangover for your 30th birthday. I would like to think that's gonna be over by 3/30 Eastern. - I will. Is it gonna be over by 3/30 Eastern? - I hope so, man. - I hope so, man. But also now I think the last time I was thinking we're gonna sleepwalk through a UCLA game. Boy, how did we not? So I wanna be respectful to this UCLA football team. It just, hopefully, I'm having my coffee, some bread or something and just not freaking out. Like I was watching Max Johnson throwing a ball with his left butt cheek like the last time he played. - Will looks up at the halftime stats. - LSU's got 10 carries for eight yards. You just got a trash can next to his couch. Just the worst possible times. - Caden Durham is throwing. Josh Williams is throwing passes. I'm like, "Gosh, Brian, please, man. I like you this week." Anyway, good. All right, Arkansas, Auburn. Auburn's a three point favorites. The overunder I have. Yeah, no, right? The overunder is 0.5, jet gate references. Real ones, no. I hired college football fans. Don't have to explain this to you, but I would love the over to be able to hit on that. I don't think it probably will, despite the fact that we have Bobby Petrino returning to Auburn. Well, I guess he didn't technically go to Auburn. Auburn went to him with jet gate. That's how that worked. Auburn, you don't want Bobby Petrino going to you. You know, there's safety hazards. You're going to take a count there. - Disagree. Arkansas very much wants Bobby Petrino going to them at all times. Maybe the only people. Not the size. - Stephen Madriver. - Yeah. - Buddy. - Each too soon. If you don't remember jet gate, and if you hear it referenced on the broadcast for some crazy reason, here's pretty much the long and short of it, Auburn pretty infamously flew to Louisville to try and poach Bobby Petrino. While Tommy Tuberville still had a job ended the 2003 season, tried to go with the night before the iron bowl. It leaked. Everyone looked awful who was involved in this. Amazing that Auburn had the 2004 that it did. Very historic, undefeated season, obviously. And then Tuberville ends up getting five more years after that. But anyway, when Petrino was the head coach at Arkansas, he beat Auburn three times in four years. Since the neck brace in that aforementioned so-so driving of motorcycles, Arkansas has only beat Auburn three times, including just once the last eight seasons. If you're trying to figure out, and I get asked this question sometimes, like what's holding Arkansas back? Like, what can take Arkansas to that next level? Because I think it's pretty easy to be like, oh, well, you know, you see how they stack up against Alabama. It's the longest annual losing streak in the SEC is Arkansas Alabama, obviously, they couldn't beat Saban. But I think for a better case to make for that argument is they can't beat Auburn and A&M. Those are the games that they actually need to win and can't. And that's what's prevented them from getting over the hump and being a consistent program. Huge, huge opportunity for Bobby Petrino's offense against an Auburn defense that's been okay, but nothing really hurts shattering. Obviously they didn't get the blame for that Cal loss because of how bad Peyton Thorne was. But nonetheless, there is an opportunity there. This isn't going to generate like a national viewing audience, but the loser of this coach is going to get ripped will. It's going to be a bad, bad week for the loser because it's not like a full on hot seat bowl. This isn't 2015 LSU Auburn. That's what I'm thinking of, right? Yeah, it's a 2015 Tiger Bowl. But think about it, three-point spread. If Arkansas loses to a backup quarterback because Hank Brown is going to get his first career SEC start, which to be clear is home-filled advantage three points. So Auburn to three-point favorite. It's in Auburn. It's pretty much a no spread. Yeah, it's basically a pick-up. Vegas is going, I don't know. These scenes are kind of all over the place at this point of the season. But if that happens and if Arkansas loses, maybe it's a close game. Pitman is staring very likely at a two-and-four start going into the buy, which was pretty much the scenario I said he has to avoid if he wants to not have 100 years ago. You know what? Maybe now is the time to pull the plug. You kind of get ahead of things a little bit instead of just dragging this on for a few extra weeks. If Auburn loses its second consecutive home game, it's to a team that has been, look, I think Auburn feels every single year that Arkansas game, when you do the preseason schedule, they pencil that in as a win. I don't necessarily blame it at this point. But if you lose to a team like that, frees the supporters will lose a lot of faith. And that's gonna be a bad, bad vibe at Jordan Hare. It's tempting to take the Jekwin and Jackson, Taylor and Green combo as fun as those guys have been as I want to punch to start off the year. I just don't necessarily think they're going to be able to avoid some of those ball security issues that have plagued really both of them in the first part of the season. So I'm gonna reluctantly take Auburn in the unknown that is Hank Brown. And I'm gonna say that Hugh frees avoid disaster and wins this 131 to 21. - Man, this is gonna be a fun week 'cause this is another one. I think Arkansas is gonna win. I think that at the end of the day, I know like, okay, so good news for Arkansas. You're gonna know against the state of Alabama going into this. The bad news is you're really struggle with UAB and Trent Daufer. - So we call Pine Bluff part of the state of... - No, it's Arkansas Pine Bluff. We're talking about UAB, we're talking about UAB, my bad side side. - Yeah, there we go, there we go. Okay, yeah, it's gonna say Arkansas played Pine Bluff. Yeah, so it wouldn't be anyway. So put being yeah, I think, you know, I love Taylor and Green. I don't think it's just like him as a person. I think he has those moments, obviously, where you're still learning the new scheme. Everyone's still learning the new scheme. I think the scheme works. That's the big difference here with Auburn, right? Like Hank Brown, the good thing about Hank Brown is he's not Peyton Thorne. Right, so at the end of the day, they didn't mean you'd like to say at the bayou, you know, the devil that you don't know has been in the devil that you do know. Same deal here, right? It's like, I think that I know, unless Peyton Thorne has a historic rushing performance, how about the Georgia game a couple of years ago? It's not really gonna work for him. So point being, you know, I, man, this is so hard to say out loud, but I actually really do believe in this Arkansas offense. And I think that Auburn just hasn't proven to me that they can put anything together. You know, I think that they've struggled in games. They shouldn't have. I understand Arkansas has done the same thing. But if I'm just looking across the board and I'm like, these are two teams that I would say are similarly talented, right? Outside of a couple, like, you know, you landed Jackson is another guy. Like, I think that at the top end, Arkansas might not have a couple more of these guys. You talk about Jekwin and Jackson and like all that stuff. So like, I think that honestly, if you're picking talent, I mean, who's the talent that kind of scares you at Auburn? Coleman, obviously, but he's a freshman. Who are the dudes on Auburn right now? - I would say, yeah, it's the freshman receivers. Those are the dudes. I mean, Jarcois Hunter has had moments in which you've seen the breakaway rushing ability. And he can have that 40, 50 yard touchdown, but you're right. I mean, they haven't established those guys consistently yet. And Chiantre Lambert Smith was kind of brought in to be one of those guys. And he's had some good moments, I think, to start off the year. But the guys that on the back end, you're like, hmm, that's gonna be a mismatch. And by the way, Coleman's banged up. And he's gonna be, it looks like he's gonna be out for a little bit, I believe, dealing with the injury that he suffered in the Cal game right before Peyton Thor and throws at his way and ends up being an interception. But it's a fair point. They don't have those established guys yet. And this Arkansas defense has actually played, I think, all right. UIB game had some moments where it was like, eh, it's not necessarily there. But yeah, look, I think there's a reason why that spread is only three. You could definitely see Arkansas. - And that's what the planes, by the way, which I undersold that, you know, it's technically all counters, three points. But the plate should be a good seven at the 10 point advantage too, you know? So, 'cause they've gotten up. But the thing is, I don't think this is a get up for this game. I don't think this is the, you know, two, three, four games of the year where Auburn really gets that spiritual power of Jordan hair. I don't think they should need it for this game if they're a good team. So, yeah, point being, like those games you kind of know ahead of time, right? Georgia, Alabama, like they're these big mythological games that either Auburn just plays a different home. I mean, these are two guys, and this is honestly the biggest compliment. Like, do not take this the wrong way. But these are two offensive coordinators that are like, draw some stuff up on the napkin guys. Like, stuff you've never seen before. Like these guys have forgotten more football than we'll ever know, talking about for sure, you know, in Fries. And I'm so fascinated to see these two offensive schemes and to see the formations and the sets in the way they use, you know, Hank Brown, relative unknown. You want to kind of like make the playbook a little bit smaller for him, to where you could just do the stuff that he knows how to do. And you're not really trying to program him with too much stuff. But on the other side, you know, if you're in an away game in the SEC, you also need to shorten your playbook a little bit too, especially with a guy like Taylor Greene, who's new to the offense. So, I think this is actually going to be an evenly matched chess match between two guys who like, let's say you give them like Georgia's talent. I think they would be able to do insane things with really plus level athletes. I've heard of them really in the past catchers this year, but like Ohio State's talent, like if they had like those type of guys like, oh, we're going to have a middle screen to this guy who's going to then do a barrel roll and take off. Like, but with these levels of talent, you really can't get that creative because they can't win one-on-one. So point being like, I'm, this is going to be a scheme game. I do like Arkansas's talent as weird as it sounds a little bit better despite what Fries is doing in the recruiting trail. I think that Arkansas has done a little bit more in the portal. But I think scheme wise between, I was just a couple of steps ahead of Fries too. Still got it. Yeah, Robert Patrick still has it, man. I'm just saying, just saying, drawing them up on napkins. He's, the sunglasses are going to be out. They're going to be popping. Wouldn't, would not be surprising if Arkansas won this game. All right, well, let's close with Vandy and Mizzou. Number seven, Mizzou, 20 and a half point favorite. The overunder I have is 16.9 Vandy points. That's what Vandy averaged in SEC play last year. Somehow, this is, this is going to be one of the more depressing stats you've ever heard. Averaging 16.9 points in SEC play, that was Vandy's best offense against SEC competition since 2018. Yeah, mind you, that was a Vandy offense that scored 21 points, scored more than 21 points in two of its eight SEC games. That was last year though. This is Pavia, or as I call it, BP and eight points. AP, well, I guess Pavia is still there, so it's not after Pavia. You get what I'm saying. Yeah. This is the Vandy offense that's putting up 40 a game. This is the Vandy offense, it's running out of fireworks. It's kind of a sneaky good test for, for the Mizzou defense. If they can defend a quarterback that does what Pavia does, because they have a handful of games later in the year, if they're competing for a playoff spot, where it's going to be really important that they're gapped discipline against these mobile quarterbacks. Guys that like to call their own number at Jalen Milro, Jackson Arnold obviously showed last week that he was more than capable of doing that. Lenoir Sellers. But no, maybe Marcel Reed could be starting for A&M by the time that they play that game. Did a pretty good job against Castellanos last week, Boston College. It is gotta be Castellanos. You know, look, I heard them say Castellanos, the only person I heard say Castellanos was McAfee, which makes me think that it is Castellanos. So we've covered, we've covered both sides of it. It could be either one of Castellanos, obviously. I mean, wait, hold on. Tom Brineman's going to get a Boston College game. I already looked this up, Will, already looked this up. Way ahead of you, way ahead of you. They have not decided yet whether or not Boston College is going to be on the CW. There's like eight people listening to this that actually have an idea of what we're talking about. On the CW. Anyway, they need to. Boston College needs to be on the CW. We all agree very much. But yeah, I think I'd actually be somewhat impressed with Corey Batun's defense, the defense that I kind of dogged in the off season, if they are able to shut down Vandy. And that's not a sentence I say a lot very often. The problem for Vandy is that I think they don't really have a favorable chance of showing a whole lot of discipline against Mrs. Offense for four quarters. Maybe early, maybe they have some moments, but it's kind of nice for drink that he can point out to a top 10 team that he has. Like, look, you guys have not been as good as, I think you can be, and you're still sitting there with everything in front of you, and you still have all this proven talent. I think that he can avoid a sleep walk game against Vandy because of what Vandy has already shown, despite the fact that obviously, the air fell out of the balloon a little bit with the Georgia state law. So I'm going to take Vandy to barely cover, but Mizzou wins 35 to 17. - Yeah, I'm right there with you in that, you know, if they don't, if they convincingly beat Georgia State, I think that Vandy would have been creeping into that other specific votes category, which is a terrifying lot. But like, I mean, at least I'll think that if you wreck the ZC team, but with a winning its VT in overtime. So yeah, that being said, I really hope this isn't a drink, overthink game. You know, he kind of in a way had one of those last week but Boston College, I think is like pretty well coached. - It's a 25 team, you know, understandable. - It's saying what you will about Bill O'Brien, but he at least knows, you know, how to get the guys like kind of in like the, not to have procedural penalties and stuff like that, like to play a cleaner game. It may not be the most smooth game, but it won't be a disaster. And so point being like, I think that I really hope this is a just keep cruising. Mizzou, like Mizzou is gonna have some close calls this year. They've already had one that's kind of the identity of not just a drink who is a great fit for this program because historically Mizzou has had some of these games where you're just like, why are you, you're playing the Marine Academy? Why are you in a once core game right now? Just get out of here, right? Also knows the Florida Gators last year. But anyway, I think that we, you know, I just think that this should be a walkin' apart from Mizzou. And again, like those are the games you're supposed to control. Now that being said, man, I love Pavia. And I hate that the win was taken out of his sails. He's a super fun guy. I think he'll probably be good for about two or three plays a game where you're like, oh my goodness. You know, how did Vandy end up with this guy? Of course, it's the New Mexico State Illuminati. We've just, if you listen to this podcast, you know, you know, the blood oath. They also together say Vanderbilt. And that's probably what would come out if, you know, Vanderbilt finds a way to make this close or upset. And I think, I mean, you know, there was too much time on this game. But what would you say about the revival in Vandy and Clark Lee right now? Like it was pretty destitute at the end of last year. They have a great BT win when you get the Georgia State Law. It's like, it's just hard to, to me, to find a pulse on where we're at here. - SEC play's gonna determine it. - Yeah. - You can get off to a nice start like they have. You can feel like you've made all the right moves. The Virginia Tech win was great. If you have another season in which it's an O for an SEC play, it's done. - Yeah. - It's done. Like that's, that's just the reality. Who knows? Like one in seven could look a lot different depending on who that one comes against. And it can look a lot different if you're, you know, obviously in position to win a couple of extra games and people think that you're supposed to, but it's still going to come down to that. This was never going to be, he saved his job just by virtue of beating Virginia Tech. Like that's, that's great. That's awesome. But you still have to show that you can do it for the duration of the season. And there'll be questions obviously if this goes south and if this is a blowout for Vandy, Vandy fans will feel like same thing all over again. I think Mizzou's kind of avoided this though. This like, this, this potential hiccup. They had a game like this a few years ago against Vandy. I mean, like last year, yeah, I know they played a good competitive game against, against Florida that went down to the wire. But like they've really, for the most part, kind of put their foot on the gas against. - That's what I'm saying. Like VC is not a team. If you were the number 17 in America. - Not this year. - Yeah. - Yeah. - More so like last year. - But I think it's in the DNA. You just never know when it's good. And it's very different than the puker to your shoes game because like the buck stoops puker to your shoes game, you just can't snap the ball. Like you have no shot at winning that game. The drink game went from a game that he used to lose in hilarious fashion to now he just wins them in hilarious fashion. - Mizzou needs a drama-free Luther Burden game too. - Yeah. - Had the game in week two where he leaves because he's sick and everybody's kind of like, why Luther Burden leave? That's not good. And then last week he doesn't get a touch for the first 20 minutes of that game. And then he ends up having a really good game but you still had the two on sportsman like penalty sprinkled in there where drink is ripping him on the sideline. Mizzou needs a drama-free Luther Burden game where he just dominates. Maybe he beats a great player like CJ Taylor over the top or something like that. But I do think Mizzou wins this one convincing way. - I'll stay really quick. I'm with you. Mizzou probably gets into the 40s here. I hope Mizzou can avoid this type of stuff. And I would say if you've decided to watch this game, stick around for the post-game handshake 'cause it's probably gonna be funny to be these two guys. I've imagined drink with a big life of gumball style, smile, leap, chanting, some kind of Viking curse at him as they're walking up. And then they're just going, they're separate ways and giving like the LeBron, like biggest handshake I've ever seen at Leak try to get out of there. But that's it. That's all I got for you. I don't think drink is using hair dye. - Probably not. - It's an electric start to it, isn't it? I caught an angle of him during the game day interview that he was doing with that robotic dog that made me think, is he experimenting too? Is he experimenting a little bit? He might be. Drink is in the come home category. He is. Don't sleep on that one. He's got a bunch of kids, you know? He's got a tough, he's got like a stressful job. It's understandable that it's going. I'll just keep put a pin in that one. And you know, I'm the czar of SEC coach hair. We were always on top of it. - Yeah, look, he's already got the dad vibe and he's got kind of the dad jokes here. He loves creed, big greed fans here. It's like, I think it already fits him. Let's just, you know, just embrace the dadism. - Yes. All right, well, lock of the week. We are, oh, by we, I mean me, 'cause I'm the idiot. - Wanted to. - You can play it in my face with these locks of the week though. Come on now. You bet against Nebraska and Fort Colorado. You bet the Gus Miles on him. I'm telling you, Gus Miles on him, you bet. - You see, I've won that game. They did. - They did. - They came back and won, but they just didn't cover two and a half. And I made the mistake of saying it's basically a pick on, it's the reason why Vegas hands out those spreads. So I take the L, KJ was at his best when the moments, you know, seemed to matter in that game. And like, I kind of had that game snuffed out. I'm just saying, but yeah, wanted to. I'll get back to 500 this week. Here's how we're gonna do it. - Okay. - USC is a six point favorite at Michigan. - Here we go. You might have heard Alex Orgy getting his first career start. I think everyone's excited. I think everyone's going, wow, Michigan offense unlocked. What's capable of? I don't think it's good to be a one dimensional offense against a Danson Lin defense. I don't. I think that defense is gap discipline. I think they defend the run extremely well, relative to past Lincoln Riley teams. And we need to kind of throw that out for the time being. As long as Danson Lin is running that USC defense, I am telling you, you need to not associate it with Lincoln Riley. Just think of it as a separate unit. I also think Miller Moss, based on what we've seen, very limited sample size. You're right. It is better's occasion name. It should be just be occasion name. He's got the type of poison you need to go into an environment like that and win. And I know I'm basing that a lot on what he did in Vegas, which, well, you were there. That sounded like Death Valley West. All right? It did. And that takes poise to play as well as he did down the stretch of that game. And yes, it's against the LSU defense, but still a big time throw after big time throw. I think USC wins this by three touchdowns. And we're wondering if Michigan is like a seven five team this year. I'm telling you, Michigan is not any good. And you know, I'll give credit to the USC fans, man. I'll be honest, those guys were like, I agreed with kind of the reports of like, oh, you know, it was 80, 20, the Cajuns are everywhere. I don't know if these USC guys were staying at a commune. I don't know where they all came from. They can drive. It's different than what you guys had to do. That's why. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know where they all came from, but walking over there, it was 90, 10, 80, 20. And then they got in there pretty loud, especially for the first, you know, half or so. And then at the end, like, I'll give them credit. There were not as many of them, but they were locked in. I unfortunately have a lot of respect for USC fan base now. You know, that's what happens when you're comparing Kelly as your coach, you end up with a lot of respect for a lot of your opponents. We almost went out in two against USC's is how our season almost started. So anyway, they will fly in the funniest way. Anyway, so point being, yeah, I think Michigan is just kind of cooked. I don't know. I don't like anything about them right now. I like to tie it in, who fumble is out too. I think Lovelin's out. He left last game with an injury. Yeah, there's much to say. It's Texas. He had like one of the weirdest non-contact fumbles I've ever seen. You almost got to start grabbing your leg of your fumble like that. So I mean, yeah, I don't know, but that's it. So never mind, I like nothing about Michigan. I think USC, you know, obviously we're kind of getting the postseason, like preseason jitters out against LSU. But I do think this offense is going to be up to par with exactly what you said. Their defense is night and day man. And fortunately, we've landed in there on Xandara. We've teamed up to actually have a pretty good defense. So this is actually a pretty good team and they just don't think Michigan is one. And the fact that you can still get a spread like this, I think is a really smart pick. Because after this week, I don't think you'll be able to get this type of spread in a Michigan game. I agree. I think that this is probably the last time we're going to think of Michigan as like, "Yeah, you know, it's a big house." You know, defensively, it should still be really good. I think USC has the ability to change that. All right, let's kick into our interviews. Great to be able to catch up with Tebow and EJ. Like I said, first time having EJ on, it'll be first of many. We will have him on a lot, just a rising star in this business, someone I've really enjoyed getting to chat with. So yeah, I think people really, really enjoyed that conversation with him. First Tebow, then EJ. Not excited to be joined by a very special guest is Tim Tebow. Tim, I'm pointing to get to with you, of course, but let's start with something that you've been doing for years. I know you're very passionate about. It's got a new twist this season. Tell us everything that's going on with the Allstate AFCA Good Works team. Well, we are just so excited for another year because these 22 young men are doing incredible things on and off the field. And it's also so near and dear to my heart because I got to be a part of this team coming off my senior year in college. And so I'm just so grateful. Like the impact they're making is incredible. And with this 2024 Allstate AFCA Good Works team, they rival any of them. I mean, you're talking about Gavin Solchak going to Joe Berg and Cape Town around the world to help or J.J. Weaver or Piggies, both of them are part of it. And they're making massive impacts. Now I've got Starks speaking at AFCA, like, you know, the hardest part is narrowing down which stories do I want to try to tell the world about what they're doing? Because there's so many of them. And yeah, the twist this year is the Allstate Whirlpool trophy. Whoever the team captain is going to receive that which is an incredible honor. It's something I was very fortunate and humbled to be a part of and win. Danny Whirlpool was a huge hero to me growing up and the example he set. And now these team captains have the opportunity to try to live up to that and receive such a humbling award. And so we need everybody to go vote on who they believe the team captain is. And that incredible honor they'll receive the Allstate Whirlpool trophy. - You need a trophy named AFCA, too. Whirlpool's great. Like he's awesome. - No. - You need a trophy named AFCA, too. (laughing) - I don't think so. I think we can keep it to the Allstate Good Works team and Danny and I think that'll be good, you know. Mine would be just weird, I think. - I love it, though, 'cause it shines the light on the great things that are going on with everybody talking about, you know, NIL and playoff expansion and, you know, everybody's out for money. It's nice to see things like this that are happening. And obviously you're a very, very big part of it. Okay, so that's the positive, Tim. You knew that we were gonna talk Florida, which not so positive, obviously. You were on the sideline at the swamp for the opener against Miami and I know that you were there last week with ACC Nation. I had Laurel Rutledge on the show last week and she was saying how, you know, you guys on the sideline were like, we wanna play because we feel like we could show more effort right now than what's going on and how disappointing that was. From your vantage point, just take this anyway that you want, what's missing at Florida right now? - That's a good question. I think probably to sum it up, an edge. Just some form of an edge. I would love to see some of the next steps just being in the level of tenacity and fight that they show in the games. You know, I think that times it looks very competitive and at times it's where is that physicality? Where is that tenacity? Where is that edge? Where is that four to six seconds of relentless effort and focus? And I think it's hard because we generalize like that and that's not always fair to generalize because, you know, there's some guys that are giving an incredible effort and you see the individuals playing, but as a unit, offense, defense, special teams. I think the physicality upfront on both sides has to get better. I think it's one of the biggest issues is we're not winning at the offense or defensive line period. And then on top of that, you have to take so much pride in this and I don't mean that in an arrogant way. I mean that in a competitive way. You have to take pride in your team and your teammates and what you do and there's has to be a level of that. That it's just no, like this is, I'm representing the front and the back of this jersey and we're not going down this way. We're gonna, you know, if we lose, we lose, but we're gonna lose swinging. And that's where I would want to see there be a difference. - Be honest, how many tackles were you ready to make in that opener? - A couple. I tell you, spikes was about 15 feet on the field though. Several times, so he was closer than I was. - No, he could still, he could still get 15 though. That's the crazy thing is like you could tell him, like there's no doubt whatsoever. He'd be getting sacks, he'd be getting TFLs. Like I would not want to give that guy the right of way to be able to do that. - No, there's no chance. - It was awesome, we were standing there and so many of the guys that were there that came back were amazing defensive players. You know, we just had just so many players that were there and it's so many of the linebackers and then major right. And it felt like all of the guys that were there are very physical hard-hitting guys. And it was like, oh man, I literally have to feel like I might have to hold them back from getting too far on the field. And I was like, that's the type of competitiveness we want to see out of everybody. - You didn't have Miami fans trash talkin'. Like they know like, all right. They could take over the stadium, they can kind of have their moments, but Miami fans know their place not to trash talk Tim Tebow, I would hope, right? - There wasn't too much, but there's a few players and fans that try to get after it and I just ignore it and keep going. Okay, so the initial plan for DJ Lagway was to be to Graham Mertz, what you were to Chris Leake. And obviously all that changes when you go one and two and it starts off the way that it does. Would you make Lagway the starter right now if you had that decision? - I think I would probably keep evaluating it week by week. I think when we look last week, Graham was much more prepared to handle the looks on second, third and long. As he should be, he's seen a lot more defenses. And so I think, you know, against the Mississippi State and some of the weeks, I think you need to balance that. You need to let DJ get reps 'cause he's gonna learn through that. But it's where balance is of who you're playing because of Mike Elko defense when you're, you can't run the ball and you're in second and third and long. I said this before the game. DJ's gonna be seeing pressures and looks he's never seen in his life. And that's not fair to him. And give him time to adjust and build. He's gonna be a great player. And you can see that flourish at times. And, but I think it's important that you help him build and grow and let him see the looks. And if you're running the football and you're able to get in second six and second four, then it's a different offense in second 12 and second 13. How many times were they behind in the sticks last week? That's a tough look for DJ. But that has to be applied when looking at, lose your quarterback. But let's also, let's be very clear. The quarterback, the quarterback room has not been the issues for Florida. That was not the issue week one. Although people look and say, well, the intercept, but he's getting hit in his face almost every single play. Like, and then last week I thought, I thought Graham played extremely well. The pick six is not his fault. He put it in the guy's chest. I thought he played extremely well throughout the game with not a good running game. And I think DJ had his time and both of those players are, just really gifted good players. And I think it's so easy for us to just look and say, well, it's the quarterback. It's this big position, it's all of this. But the difference is we have to be physical. We have to be able to push people around. We have to be able to hold up in the front seven. Like, those are the biggest issues. Yes, is the quarterback exciting? Absolutely, is DJ someone that I get so excited about? I love the kid. He's one of my favorite kids. Like, he's an incredible young man. He's so fun to be around. He's so gifted. He's a better young man than he is a player. And he's a great player. And so I'm so excited. But when we want to address the real issues, it's not the quarterback position right now. Sure, there are areas that can get better. No doubt. It's a bunch of other places. Yeah, and I think that was definitely the takeaway from watching a play out Saturday is like, look, it's you can talk about the quarterback battle. And so we're blue in the face. But reality is like the lines of scrimmage are just not where they need to be at this point. It's kind of, you know, it feels like wasted breath. In non-Florida things, which SEC quarterback has impressed you the most so far? I think when yours, I know he got hurt, but the way he played first, you know, two and a half games was impressive. Obviously, arch came in and did really well, but the way that Quinn was able to manage the game in the big house against Michigan, it's still a really good defense. It's just, he's so accurate and he makes it look so easy. It's just, you like watching me and you're like, that is such a natural throwing motion. He's so gifted. It's so easy. It is, it's, I mean, it's a walk in the park for him. So I think he's played very well. I'm excited to see what happens when Jackson Dart and Ole Miss is offense with all those weapons, how they look when they play a good defense. And one of the hard things to evaluate is they're the best offenses in the SEC haven't faced the best defenses. So now, Niko against Oklahoma's defense, I can't wait for that. Like that matchup is going to be awesome. That is gonna be really fun. It's gonna be exciting to see when Jaylin and Alabama's offense go against George's defense. That'll be really exciting. But those two, I mean, Niko's really stood out. How he played against NC State, the way he's able to go from an easy catchable, accurate short pass to a on the money throw down the field, just completely changes Tennessee's offense. And I love what they're doing right now. - It looks like there's a really good chance that we're about to see Archmending get his first career start. And again, we're recording this book before. Availability reports and all that stuff. So take that with a grain of salt. But let's say that is the case. What advice would you give Arch ahead of his first career start? - No, do what he's been doing for a long time. Don't make too much of it. Don't let the pressure build. Man, he's ready for this moment. He looks so great. This entire year, when he's gotten in the game, he's played well. He hasn't tried to press too much. But also he's got the arguably the best play caller in college football right now on Steve Sark. So that makes it really nice. He knows how to get quarterbacks going. He does such a good job from the running game to the RPO and very catchable RPOs too, to the down field play action. He just sets you up so well. I really feel like Sark is to college what Shanahan is to the NFL right now. And an offensive football. And it's fun to watch. But so anyways, Arch should just, you know, just, hey, I don't have to do anything more than what Coach Sark is asking me and he'll be great. He's so talented. He's so poised. He's extremely accurate. He's a way better athlete than I think most people kind of thought when coming in. But just through going to Texas and being there over the last few years and seeing his numbers in the weight room and on the GPS, you're like, okay, he's a really good athlete too. - Did you ever have Peyton or Eli reach out to you before you got your shot at Florida? I know like Manning passing Academy has been a thing forever. But like, did you ever have them like cross paths with those guys before? You know, while you were at that point in your career where you're still kind of figuring out what exactly like it takes to be a lead at the college level. - No, I never got to see them before I got to Florida several times then. And then obviously in the NFL, our past crossed. And every time they were encouraging, every time they would say things of belief or inspiration or every time both of them were always that way. And including their father who's, you know, could not have been more encouraging. Every time I've always been around him and so kind. So that whole family has just been super sweet. But no, I didn't have the privilege of meeting at my high school. But then from a few events and games and stuff in college I met them around and they just could not have been nicer. - I want to give Florida fans a little bit of positivity 'cause certainly it's been probably lacking for the first few weeks of the season here. I don't think I've ever asked you this, but it's something that I've always wondered about. I think Florida fans in general always wonder about, do you have a favorite Percy Harvin story from back in the day? - Ooh. (laughs) One of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, weird together, actually, watching a Florida basketball game. And he had the chance to go up against Percy. And he looks at me when during the game, he was like, "By the way, how incredible is Percy?" And I was like, "I know, it's just, it's unstoppable." And he was like, "Man." He's like, "I've never had to go against somebody that I was more terrified in the first couple steps could lose me." He's just so gifted. And I was like, "I know, it's crazy." Like, Percy's so gifted. Percy, I think the one thing that people don't give him enough credit for is how he's so gifted, so good, so explosive. But he's also so competitive. Like, man, in big moments, you know that's also when Percy, he shines, and he wants the ball. And he shows up for those big games, and he shows up for the big moments in 'em, and he wants the ball on. Man, that combination, when you have very gifted and very competitive, like, he didn't shy away from those moments, and I loved it. There's something, there's that look in his eye where you know, like, "Pang, okay, I'm glad he's on my side. It's just, it's awesome." - What could he have been in the NFL if he had stayed healthy, man? Because they just, there was like that brief moment with the Vikings where people are wanting, or maybe it was, maybe it was with the Seahawks. I can't remember, but there was a moment where people were like, "Is Percy Harbin already the best player in the NFL?" And then it obviously never panned out for him, and being able to stay in the field, but like, what type of player could he have become? - Well, I think you could say that, you know, a lot throughout his career, and he was so tough. He played with injuries, just some of those, you just can't keep playing with the different injuries he sustained, so he was tough even to fight through it and get back earlier from high ankle sprains. And he was so tough, I mean, it's hard to say what he could have been, except when he's at his peak, who covers him, who stops him? I don't know. I just know, I'm grateful that I got to play with him, that I got to watch him, and it's just, there are times when he's going up against a really good DB in one-on-ones, and he could give him a move, and within a split second, he would have a 10-yard separation. Like, he's just that explosive. - Such a fun player to watch, and somebody that, for college football fans, you remember very, very well just how special it was. - Say, but guess what, when you're a teammate, you also have to be careful not to watch him, too, 'cause he's so fun to watch. You're like, oh no, I got it, like, keep running, get a block, do something, it's so easy, 'cause it's, you know, that good, you're mesmerizing. - One last thing before I let you go here, and I've been wondering about this since it came out, but in Swamp Kings, I felt like you were at a whisper, and like, I hear you talk here, I hear you talk like on SEC Network, ESPN, whatever, maybe, and I was wondering, like, did they instruct you to kind of, like, talk like this a little bit? Like, you were in this, like, different kind, and I don't know if that's just, like, your competitive zone, where you're just super locked in, but you're usually such a fired up, like, animated guy, but like, what exactly was, like, the genesis behind that? - I don't know, I've never been asked that. I guess it was just in some of the stories I told, I don't know, where they just, they didn't use ones where I was louder, I'm not sure, to be honest. - I haven't really thought about it, so there you go. - I think it was just, like, the intensity coming out. Like, you were getting back into the competitive mode, like, you know, where they, like, they probably, like, show you games and stuff, and they show you specific hits, and you're just, like, you're just, like, locked in, and it's, like, singular focus, something like that, whereas when you're an analyst-- - Well, yeah, asking you stuff, you're kind of just, like, reliving some of it, and maybe that's it a little bit. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I don't know. - It's a good question. - All right, girl. - I like the observation, but, you know, I'm like, I don't know. - Yeah, no, look, it just, these are the types of things that losers like me, you know, we lock into, and we're like-- - That's not true. - That's not true, stop. - Dude, I love it. - I really appreciate it. - I appreciate the time, man. On behalf of everything that you're doing with the All State Good Works team, I know that this is something that you've been very passionate about for a long time. It's been awesome to see this grow and to what it's become. Best of luck to you with everything with that, everything you got going on on TV, and probably most importantly of all, best of luck to your Gators, man. - Oh, thank you. And go vote for the Allstate Whirlpool Trophy winner. - Yes, one more time. And where can people do that again? - I believe that's espn.com/allstate. - Perfect, perfect. Tim, thanks again, man. Really appreciate it. - Of course, appreciate you. - I'm excited to be joined by a very special guest. It is former Florida State quarterback, current ACC network, Series 6M analyst, EJ manual. EJ, it's been fun getting to go on with you and Hester every Thursday. And I gotta say publicly, you are taking this Florida State start like an absolute champ. Like you really are. You're not, you're not bitter. Like you're taking it all in stride, which I give you tremendous credit for better than certain Danny Kinnell. But be honest, privately, you need a hug, man. - You just do. - Connor, I do need a hug. I gotta get like an air hug right now, bro. Look, man, it's, if you would have told me that Florida State would be 0-3 going into week four. I probably would have thought you were on drugs and would have thought you'd been drinking. I would have said, "Hey, look, "maybe we need to go to Alcoholics Anonymous, "a little AA meeting or something, "because I would have thought you were crazy." And so don't get me wrong. Of course, in my job, I know I have to be, what's the word? I try not to be a Homer, but of course, I want my alma mater to play well and to do good. I like Coach Norville. We've developed a friendship. But at the same time, when they're not playing good, I have to be honest. And of course, I don't like to build my job on tearing kids down, 'cause these are still amateur athletes. These are not professionals, right? I played in both. I played in the league and I played in college. And I know how hard it is. But at this point, I mean, I just feel like something has to change. And if you have backups who maybe haven't gotten their opportunity to play, and I'm not even just in a quarterback position, all over the field, it's not just DJU. It's defensive line. It's to corners. It's the linebackers spilling and coming up and making tackles and getting guys on the ground. It's the run game. Noroidal Williams gets the first carry in that game against Memphis, pops the ball out and it's a fumble. Easy field position for Memphis, gives them a lot of confidence and dokes. So yeah, I do need a hug. I think they need a hug, in fact. And again, I'm always rooting for them. I want them to do well, but ultimately, you know, we have a job here and we have to be objective and we have to be honest to call it how we see it. - I was dead wrong too. I mean, for the record, like I ranked him seven preseason top 25, like had him win in the ACC. He was like Mike Norvell deserves blind faith. I mean, if I had a nickel for every time I said that this offseason, but, you know, it wasn't even, oh my God. I think DJU Youngahle is going to turn into this Heisman candidate or anything like that. Cause like he is who he is at this stage was career. We just thought that pieces could work. You had an interview with him that ran on college game day. You were there in Dublin. You saw all of this play out to say that it is at this point already with him specifically. I think it's stunning even for those who didn't necessarily believe that he would become this star. How stunned are you watching it play out the way that it has in this offense? - Yeah, I'm stunned because I thought this offense would fit him well and whatever that fit would be. If you watched him at Oregon State where he has some success, you know, they ran a ball, they got under center, they had two backs, a full back and a running back. They ran inside zone and maybe they, and look, they do have, I was about to say, maybe they don't have running backs that fit what Damian Martinez, but they do. Rodel Williams is a guy that can go inside zone between the tackles. Cam Davis, the freshman, he can go in between the tackles. They didn't even have Lawrence Tofili who can be that perimeter kind of stretch runner with speed to the sideline. So I thought the run game would be something that would help Florida State. But I don't have the stats in front of me, but they haven't ran the ball. I don't know if they've gotten 100 yards. And if they have, it's not like 150 or anything like that. And so that production or lack thereof is certainly going to put more pressure on DJ. And let's be real, he's a fifth year senior. So at this point, you would expect him to be able to lead the offense with his arm. And it just, it just seems like it never goes, goes right. And even the picks he threw against Memphis, you know, he moves to his right and he throws like a deep over route or a post route. I don't actually, I don't know who he was throwing to because it was two receivers in the same area. It was looked like a punt counter. And a guy was up under him, the ball pops up in the air, 50 yards down the field. And the DB for Memphis catches it literally like it's a punt. And I'm just like, man, like we keep shooting ourselves in the foot as an offense. And so I expect him to play much better. I feel like it's a confidence thing with him. And I said that before the season, you know, I told friends, I was like, look, it can go one of two ways. It can go the one way where he starts off extremely fast. And he has a ton of confidence and that continues to build throughout the season. Or it starts the way it is in reality. And now they're just trying to fight and scratch and claw to get a victory. And to be real with you, Connor, I don't know where it's going to come because Cal's a good team. They play them this week. If you were ever going to get a win, I would have thought it would have been at least one or two of the first three that they played and they didn't get any of those. - Yeah, trust me, after seeing what Cal did at Auburn, I don't think anybody's taken Cal lightly at this point of the season already. Is any of this easier to swallow, knowing that Florida's also down really bad? (laughing) - A little, yeah, it is a little bit easier to swallow because every program has their ebbs and flows. You know, I can remember when Clemson was not necessarily in this space where they were losing this much, but where they weren't, you know, the dominant team in the ACC. Like when we played them, they were good. They had Taj Boyd and Nuke Hopkins and Sammy Watkins. They were really good. They were talented. And it really came down to either us or them, whoever won that game in the Atlantic in the ACC, usually moved on to the ACC championship and had a chance to win the conference. But then you saw their dominance and now you see them where they're like nine, 10 win team, like trying to also figure it out and scratch and claw, not blowing people out. And so, look, it is what it is. I do think they will win some games. It's just not gonna be easy. And the fact is, if they win Georgia Tech, I don't even know if they're in the situation. Truthfully, is that crazy how small the inches are in football, if they find a way to get a stop or if they don't give up that 12-yard gain after they had a fumble by Georgia Tech and Haines King gets back on and he throws like a smoke route and the receiver got like 12 yards to kick a field goal, maybe they end up winning that game. And then their fortunes are different. They're confident is different and we're having a different conversation. So, it's about the inches. And also when you lose 10 plus guys to the draft, sometimes this happens too. I think that also needs to be mentioned as well, what, 10 or 11 guys got drafted last season, the star quarterback, Jordan Travis, obviously moved on and you bringing in a DJU who's had an up and down career in college football and it's just to this point, hasn't necessarily worked out in Tallahassee. - And nine of those guys that were drafted were former transfers. I mean, that's the reliance and you know, it's just a little bit more fickle even if you've had as much success as Norvell has had in the portal. Speaking of Florida, your second career road start was against the other guest of today's show, Tim Tebow. And I say second because with all due respect to Wake Forest, playing in the swamp, a little bit of a different piece to think you could say, especially when you're, you know, Redshirt, Freshman, you're still trying to figure out who you are. I'm sure you can relate a ton to Nico Yamalayaba who's going into his first true road start as a Redshirt, Freshman at Oklahoma. It's gonna be an awesome atmosphere. What advice would you share with him based on your experience? - Excuse me. The biggest advice for him is to let the game come to you. Now, I think Nico's in a completely different spot than I was years ago, because one, I mean, this dude is, he's an amazing player. Like he has, I feel like every single green light within that offense to throw the ball vertically down the field. At that time, I also was a backup. So the offense really wasn't catered to me, not making any excuses, but it just, that was a situation. You know, Ponder was hurting. I came in and actually that game was pretty crazy 'cause that was Tim's last game. That was Bobby Bowden's last game against Florida regular season. And Florida was really, really damn good that year. They had like Joe Hayden and a bunch of other great players on the defense. But for Nico, man, just take what the defense gives you. I think the biggest thing that he'll learn from like another big game against NC State is just don't turn it over. Because if you don't turn it over, you know, you're going to win. Like not only are you potentially going to win big because you have a great team around you, you're going to win a lot of games. And I feel like, you know, as a young quarterback, you have to learn to pick and choose when to take your shots. I know that was something that I always learned specifically in the NFL because if you take a shot, unless you try to throw something to double coverage, ball gets tipped up, it gets picked or it's incomplete, you know, you want to give that playcrawler the confidence to know, hey, if I give you a shot, sometimes it's easier to just hit the check down that's five yards away and let that guy scatter and get another eight yards. All right, 13 yard game, perfect. We got a first down and we'll get another opportunity to take a shot. So those are just some small things that I would tell him and also just have fun and be you. You know, at this point, you know, the way he's played to this season, he should have no type of hesitation in what he can do on the football field. He has a rocket launcher on his arm. He has a ton of receivers. He has really good running backs and the offense that fits him perfectly where they spread you out and you have pretty much the full field to read every single thing within your progressions. - The story of you getting recruited by Bobby Bowden is incredible and I know you told it a few years ago with Knowles 24/7. Can you share the story of him coming to Virginia Beach and what a scene it was? - Yeah, it was an awesome scene. So he first came to my high school and mind you, Nick Saban had been there, Philip Famer had been there. Les Miles, Jimbo comes. Jimbo was coming every Tuesday for like eight weeks straight just to kind of get everybody up out of there like, "Hey, this is my guy." But when Bobby came, it was different. And at this point, you know, my high school was kind of used to these coaches coming through, me getting called out of class, going to my coaches office to meet with them. And I mentioned Nick, like Nick flew in on the helicopter, landing on the 50, Philip Famer from Tennessee, late landing on the 50. So again, they were used to this. But when Bobby Balen came, it just seemed like maybe it was the teachers that knew more of who he was. And then obviously, you know, the student body also kind of figured it out. 'Cause, you know, we're football fans in that area. Just, you know, and we like everybody. We don't just like Florida State. We like Miami. We like Michigan. 'Cause we're kind of like in that Virginia area where you can either go north or you can go south and you're fandom. And so, of course, teachers started asking for autographs, which then led to students stopping asking for autographs. And it just so happened that we were walking through the hallways. I think going toward the gym and the bell ring. So all the kids come out into the hallways, stopping asking for autographs. He was very gracious and, you know, super nice and took some pictures and stuff. There's like the old cell phones we had all grainy and whatnot. You remember those days. And the funniest part was when he came to my house in Virginia Beach. And I'm pretty sure either my dad had told our neighbor, Mr. Mark, that Bobby Balen was coming this particular evening. And Mr. Mark was a huge, funny enough, didn't even know this, a huge, excuse me, a huge FSU fan. And he had like a small, like little, small helmet that he wanted him to sign. And I guess Mark had also told some other neighbors within the neighborhood. And so Bobby and Jimbo came over, I guess around 6.30 that evening. And we're sitting down about seven o'clock getting ready for dinner. And we hit a knock on the door. And no lie, it's like 12 people out in front of our house, asking to meet Coach Balen. And my dad was the one that answered the door, "Hey, man, come on." Like, you know what I mean? Like relax, like chill. And then Coach Balen was like, "What's going on?" And he ends up taking some pictures as well, selling some more autographs. So it was really cool. Another part, my dad had his chair in the house, right? And as soon as Coach came in, he sat in my dad's chair, which of course we didn't mind like it's Bobby Balen. And I also remember my mom made some lasagna. So that was cool. And we all just sat. And he was super personable. He just fit right in. And a lot of times, coaches will kind of give you coach speak and just kind of sell you on. "Hey, man, you come here. We're going to do this and that." He was very honest, like, "Hey, you coming to Florida State, you're going to have a chance to get a great education. You have a chance to get coached by one of the best in Jumbo as a quarterback coach. And you're going to join a brotherhood, a program that is one of the best in college football. He didn't even say anything about his own accolades. And again, just one of those kind of guys with that rare air when they come into your house, man, it was a very momentous night. We still got a picture of that at our house back home. We're me standing there. We got a Christmas tree in the background. It's pretty cool. - It's like God rolling through the door, man. - Literally, literally. That's how I felt, that's how I felt, man. It was very, very cool. And Coach Bounds also just a, you know, he's a Christian man as well, which really hit home from my family 'cause that was how I was raised. And, you know, when I got to Florida State, that stayed the same. It wasn't like you get there to school. Sometimes coaches will tell you stuff throughout recruiting and then you get to school is different. We always made sure that we were understanding and have the availability to go to a church on Sundays to have, you know, the four or five hours off to whatever church it was to a Baptist church, a Catholic church. He took us to many just to give us a chance to still have that side of our life solid up as well. - Different end of the spectrum, the thrill of being recruited by him and getting to play for him versus the... I don't even know what the emotion probably was at the time, but do you remember the moment you found out that he was gonna be retiring at the end of 2009? - So I knew within recruiting, in fact, that Jimbo was the head coach in waiting. Jimbo made that clear. I don't know if that was a conversation I ever had with Coach Bowden, but I didn't know that Jimbo eventually would be the head coach and I didn't know when. I didn't know if it would be my senior year, if it would be my pressure freshman year, my research sophomore year, which I think, I forget when he actually took over. I guess it might be my research sophomore year. And so I knew that that was also a part of my decision. My second choice was actually LSU. And that's when The Last Miles was there. It's kind of crazy to think I would have been throwing a Jarvis Landry and Odell and all that kind of stuff. Funny enough, Jarvis is my neighbor now out here in South Florida. So we're boys, but yeah, I didn't know that eventually Jimbo would become the head coach and that was certainly a part of my decision, because I wanted to go somewhere I knew I would get the tutelage the entire time I was there. So I didn't want to go to FSU if I thought Jimbo might go somewhere else to take a job somewhere else. My junior year, he was like, "Hey, I'm not going anywhere." And I think he probably told me he would be the head coach in the future just to let me know that he wasn't going somewhere else. - Was that, 'cause I don't really feel like it was, I mean, it was known that Jimbo was expected to be the guy, but it didn't really feel like it was such public knowledge. I mean, there was obviously a plan in place to be able to make that happen, but you never know when and you can't have that get out. Would they say to you like, "Hey, just like keep this in the DL, because we're trying to be able to lock in our foundation here and we don't want it all of a sudden like out there and then all Jimbo is doing this and maybe he's interested in this job or that job." I imagine they were probably like, "Hey, kind of keep this hush, hush. We have a plan, it'll be okay, but just trust us on this." - Yeah, at that time too, Connor, I was young. So I don't even think I thought anything of it beyond when he first told me about it. And I trusted his word and I went ahead and signed it. I was excited to go there regardless. I mean, it's Florida State, dude, like, you know, especially coming from Virginia being the top player in that state. You know, UVA fans, Virginia Tech fans still give me crap whenever we go there for work trips or when I played them 'cause they wanted me to stay in state. But, you know, those are like the neck of the football, the Michigan's, the Florida States, the LSU's, the Alabama's. You go there, it's about as high as it gets and I don't care if they're good or bad. It's still something to be very proud of to be a part of, like I said, that brotherhood and that program. So yeah, sure, it might have been one of those things that we didn't necessarily talk openly about. But it was just kind of an understanding of like, hey, eventually, you know, whenever Coach Bowden does move on or retire or however that process works 'cause again, that was way beyond my pay grade. Back then in college, I was just a broke college kid trying to figure it out on the football field. I knew that Jimbo would be the next man up. - Speaking of Jimbo, you are doing a serious show with Hester and Jimbo during this gap year of sorts forum. I know Jimbo has always kind of been skeptical of media stuff, like he's not necessarily been someone that wants to get out there and do all the car wash stuff, but obviously doing a show with a couple of his former players, like you two had to appeal to him. Did he reach out to you guys? Like, how did that process start? - So I'm pretty sure our main producer, Olivia Bronco, she probably reached out to Jimbo. Now we did have Jimbo, Hester and I would have Jimbo join us on shows last year and even I think the year before when he was still the head coach at A&M. And of course, he was comfortable with us 'cause he knows us, man. Like, he outraces, really, you know, as his players, you know, Hester played for him at LSU when he was a coordinator. And then I played for him and got recruited by him when he was a coordinator, then the head coach at FSU, like we just talked about. So for him, we're literally just talking ball. And of course, he knows we're not gonna ask him anything that's gonna put him on the spot or make him feel uncomfortable about answering a question on a specific coach and all that kind of stuff. 'Cause I get it, man. Like, when I went from being a player to also getting into media, I did have to learn, look, I'm not a player anymore. If you have to be a bit more objective, you have to be honest. 'Cause sometimes you know this, us athletes, we'll give you just the vanilla answer to kind of just not throw anybody under the bus. You know, we've seen some players do that and that's just how it is sometimes. And so you have to be very particular in how you answer questions. But Jimbo has done a great job. We've had him on two weeks now. I think he enjoys it because it keeps him around the game. And we have meetings before we have that show on Tuesday and we'll go through what he wants to talk about. Then I'll just pitch in on some thoughts. And I feel like his background is, he's done it all. He's coached everywhere. He's won championships. He's coached under Nick Saban. Like, a lot of the things that Jimbo taught us, I'm pretty sure he got from Nick when he was, you know, an assistant for him. And so just, it's been great. And I hope our listeners enjoy it. 'Cause they know Jimbo talks fast and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, he is a, he's a savant, man. I haven't really been around anybody like him in a sense where he can remember a play-conner from 2009 on week six. And he'll, oh yeah, yeah. I remember, "X Crosshallow." Like, he'll just spit it out and he'll remember it. And so, you know, his perspective is really cool to have for our show. - Do you think he gets back into coaching next year? - I don't know if it's next year because I'm pretty sure at this point, let's be real, like financially, he's fine. You know, so I'll pretty sure he's gonna take the job that is really perfect for him. He's created that opportunity where he can pick and choose where he wants to go. Funny enough, in the back of my mind, I haven't even talked to Hester about this. Like if, let's say Florida does open up, does Jimbo potentially look into that? I know he coached at FSU, I know he coached at LSU. And if he does get back into coaching, I'm pretty sure he probably wanna get it back into the SEC or maybe even the Big Ten, don't know. But I haven't asked him that, so I'm not speaking for him. But I would assume whenever he does get back into it, it's gonna be because it's like the perfect role in the perfect spot that he wants to go to. - I gotta ask, you only spent one year with him at FSU, and I'm sure you've gotten this before. You got a James Winston story. What's the best one that you could maybe share on PG-13 airwaves? - Brad, you said a PG-13 airwaves. So first off, I call him J-Boo, we all call him J-Boo. I don't know if you've heard that nickname of his before, but we call him J-Boo, so when he got to Florida State, he was young, he was immature. Like we all are 17, 18 coming from our high school and getting there, and I remember he told this girl, who I don't even know if James knew that I knew her, but he happened to be out, and it got back to me, and I thought it was really funny, and he was like, hey, he was introducing himself to the girl. And so he was like, hey, I'm James, how are you? What's your name? And he was like, oh, and he was like, yeah, I'm the new quarterback, I'm about to come in and tell you, E.J. manual spot, da da da da da da da. And so she was like, oh, really? Okay, cool, good luck with that. And so it got back to me, but it was honestly one of those things. James is like a brother to me, man, like I, you know, back then I didn't even take it serious, whatever. Like we competed, I continued to start. He was a red shirt that year. The plan worked out perfect for him, 'cause even that team in 2012, we had a championship caliber team. A lot of those kids, or guys, excuse me, were like sophomores on the offensive line. They were younger, and then when James came in as that red shirt freshman, they were juniors, and it was a lot of draft picks. Came Irving, Josue Matias, Brian Stork was our center. Trae Jackson, Bobby Hart, all these guys, all five of them played in the league. And so they were juniors when James came in, but that's a funny story. And then even back when he was a red shirt, James, we would have to like get him from like the, he'd be over at like the water bottle station, playing around, just cracking jokes. He literally is the same persona that he has now. He's always been that way. And so he loves the game, he takes it extremely seriously. And I've even told James this as well. Like, one of the things I've always admired about him is his short-term memory. You know, he can throw two picks in the first half, and he'll throw four touchdowns in the second half and win the game. And that's literally playing quarterback. You have to have short-term memory. And so I've always appreciated that about him. I wish I had more of that from him when I was a player myself. And so, those are like the PG-13 stories, of course. But we've had some great, great memories. And seriously, I'm so proud of him. And not even just the football stuff he's achieved, playing the league a long time. You know, the fact that he's a family man now. He has kids, he has a wife. He's doing really, really well. And his media career is gonna be bananas whenever he is finished playing. He's gonna be great. - His wife, not the girl that he told, he was gonna take your job. - Correct, not that girl. Neither of us married that girl. She's a friend, it's all good. And she actually was a friend back then too. So, yeah, it's all good, not that girl. - I'd like to write a book about this subject one day. And it's, there's a lot of different interpretations of it. But it's the moment that quarterbacks in the NFL realize that they're not going to have the career that they hope for, either because it's just not there. And they realize like, I can't process on this level. I don't have physical ability, whatever it is. Or maybe the opportunity isn't gonna be there. And they realize they're never gonna get it. You're five weeks older than me. So, for a long time, I kind of still looked at you as like, yeah, EJ's young. Like he's gonna find the right spot. He's gonna make the work. But we're, how, as interested as however you want, like what was that moment for you in the NFL? - The moment really was for me when I signed with Kansas City shoot, even before that. So, I'll give you the whole track. I did four years in Buffalo, did another year in Oakland. And then I signed with Oakland for my sixth season. Going through training camp. Derek Carr was going to be the starter again. John Gruden came in as the head coach. And so, I was battling with Connor Cook for Michigan State for that backup job pretty much. And you can look this up after, man. We played throughout the preseason. I got the fourth preseason game to start against Seattle. Had an amazing game. And so, I thought that was kind of the nail in the coffin to make the team. And I remember we got the two days off after the game. And then I had got, I went to LA to check on like an apartment I had just bought. 'Cause I was renovating it so I could live in it during the off season after that year. And I get a call from the GM. And they like, "Hey, you in town?" I was like, "No, I'll be back later tonight." It was like, "Hey, can you come in?" 'Cause we need to have a meeting. Connor, at that point, I'm thinking, oh, I'm about to get a restructure contract. I'm about to get like a two-year deal, two years, 10 million or something as the backup. And 'cause that's kind of like the number four backup, right? And so, I come back and before I even get on the plane, my agent calls me, he taught France. And he's like, "Hey, you talked to the GM." I was like, "Yeah, yeah, they want me to come back." And he's like, "Did they tell you they were "going to let you go?" And I was like, "What, really?" It was the first time I had ever been cut in anything, specifically also in the league. And I had just played what I thought was one of my better games in my career, but pre-season and I, it didn't matter. Like, I felt like I played enough, played well enough to make that team. They end up cutting me for A.J. McCarran, who basically got beat out by Josh Allen out in Buffalo. And so, I go back to L.A., I'm training, I'm waiting. And I even remember, John Gruden never really gave me an explanation as to why he let me go. Like, you know, I was just kind of like, "Okay, I had a good pre-season. "I'm gonna get picked up probably the next two or three weeks "when somebody goes down." During that offseason, excuse me, during that season, I got three workouts. Everybody kept guys that they already had on the roster, which is kind of normal. They have like a practice squad guy. They'll just bring him up instead of bringing in guys that don't know their offense, all that kind of stuff. 'Cause the onboarding takes like two or three weeks instead of guys who have been there. And so, I'm training, training. I end up tearing my meniscus for the third time, 'cause I have tore my meniscus twice my rookie year. Once in the second week of the preseason, my rookie year. And then again in like week 18 or week, excuse me, week 15 of my rookie year, got surgery that summer, that off season. And then tore it again while I was waiting to get signed. And so, got surgery. And then I signed with Kansas City in February of 2019. And actually, this was like the first Super Bowl team that they had later on that year. And so, when I was there, just my knee was still bothering me. It didn't recover like I thought it would. And to be real, I was thinking like, "Yo, if Pat goes down and I'm on the back up, am I healthy enough to even lead this team that's supposed to win a Super Bowl?" And I was very honest with myself. And I also had the opportunity to join ACC Network at the time too. So I didn't have a TV opportunity. I would have kept playing. I would have been like, "Hey, I'mma just suck it up and figure it out, take some medicine and just grip my teeth and get through this pain." But when I knew I had a TV opportunity and a media opportunity, which is what I got my degree in at FSU, I kind of saw it was like, "Maybe this is a sign for me to move on." And so, to answer the question, I think it was just another opportunity kind of presented itself that I was okay with. And I just took that leap of faith to see if I liked it. The funny part is Kansas City actually called me back. So I retired in like June of '19. They called me back in August because Chad Henny had broke his ankle. And they were like, "Hey, come back. You can be the backup. We'll guarantee you your money." And that was the other part. I didn't have guaranteed money in that deal. Chad did. So I assumed if I go through pre-season, they're going to keep Chad over me 'cause they owe him six million. They don't owe me anything, right? And I just went through that and rate with the Raiders the year before. And so I didn't want to be without a job and basically lose that opportunity at ACC Network. So I had to make the decision when I did to leave. Literally, I told Coach Reed, went to his office, I said, "Hey, Coach, I'm going to move on and go do TV." He was like, "You got an interview?" I was like, "No, no, I'm going to take another job." And he was like, "What, really? Like, you sure?" And I said, "Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity, but I'm going to go ahead and move on." So looking back, I think I had real regret probably when I was sitting there watching the Super Bowl that year. I remember I was in Miami, watching it with friends and I was just like, "Yo, this is crazy." I would have probably still been playing truthfully and potentially still for them because Casey keeps their backups and Chad played as a backup to Pat for the first six years of his career. And Andy Reed is awesome, great front office. Travis Kelsey is a friend of mine. We train together for the draft. So I've known him for a long time. But I also believe God that make mistakes and I enjoy what I do now. So to answer your question, I guess that moment was just when I got cut by Oakland 'cause I was like, "Man, okay, not only did I not get the chance to really start again when I left Buffalo 'cause that was another story. Like my second year in the league, I get benched. Similar to how Bryce Young kind of is in that position, but we were two and two. We lose to Houston that week. And internally, it was told to me by the head coach that, "Hey, we want you to take a setback "so you can learn from a veteran," which is usually normal early in the career, but that wasn't presented to the media. It was just more or less like, "Hey, we're switching quarterbacks, "we're going with Kyle Orton, not EJ." So of course, EJ got benched, right? And then that narrative permeates throughout my career pretty much. And then also, even internally, my confidence took a hit as well. And it definitely affected me. So that's why I can understand that I can relate to a Bryce Young. I can relate to a DJ who you're gonna lay 'cause I know how hard it is when your confidence does start to get hit and start to get punched a little bit. And you, of course, need those opportunities to get it back, but sometimes you don't get them. - It's a great answer. It's a really, really good answer. You have such great perspective. And speaking of your gig with ACC Network, which by the way, you're crushing, you've got a long, long career ahead of you. I mean, you just tell, it's very, very evident. I know you got to run, you got production meetings coming up. - Yeah, all good, all good. - But I want to get you out of here with some rapid fire, just five questions first thing. One of the times of mine is I work. - Yup. - All right, let's do it. Okay, first one, what's the play that you think about when you close your eyes and daydream about your career? - Ooh, Trips Right 35 pin Indy. - That's any specific instance of that? - Yeah, so all right, Trips Right, we got three guys to my right. The Titan's actually gonna stay in and block. I'm giving a fake zone to the left. I'm prailing around, I'm looking at safety outside. I have a post and then I have what we call like a in and out. So basically the slot receiver's gonna run like a 10 yard in and then peel back out almost like an over or a corner out. And so it's like a hollow read, pretty much we get quarters. I'm tossing a post. If it's covered too or if it's anything else, I'm probably banging the out and then I also have a flat out in the right side 'cause it's like a chip flat by the Titan. - Thank you, really smart. - That was great break though, that was really good. - What's the toughest place to play at? At least in terms of your college experience. - Ooh. - I gotta say Clemson, Death Valley was pretty tough. Yeah, Death Valley. - Start your college career over, but Florida State doesn't exist. Where are you going and why is it LSU? - Yeah, I'm going to LSU because that was my second choice and they showed me a ton of love when I was getting recruited. And I always feel like they have great receivers to throw to for quarterbacks. - You're a fellow Florida native, or Florida resident I should say. You spent enough time here to be able to answer the question, is Florida the South? - South Florida is not the South. South Florida is its own Caribbean animal kind of way. Like I don't even know how to describe it. But yeah, technically the state of Florida is the South, but South Florida is its own entity. - Central Florida as well, kind of its own. - Yeah, it's different, it's different. But like Tallahassee and up Jacksonville, that's the South, that's like South Georgia. - Yeah, you gotta go north to get South. That's the way it is right. Our last one. If people see you in public, what can they do that isn't just asking you if you need a hug for your nose? - They can just say go north, I would appreciate that. And then sometimes that seems like they're trying to be funny as well. But yeah, yeah, I guess that's the best way to say it. 'Cause look, I live in South Florida and Miami's very good. So my neighbor over here, I know I mentioned Jarvis, he's a LSU guy, but like everybody's UM fans now 'cause they're really good. So I give them that, but then I'll also remind them they did not beat me when I was a starter at Florida State. So it is what it is, they can't say much to me. But I guess I would say just say go north and I'll appreciate that. - There you go. All right, don't ask EJ if he needs a hug, he's good. - Yeah, my wife's here, I'll get a hug from her, I'll be all right. - EJ, I really appreciate this, man. Looking forward to that chat with you on off campus and we'll do this again real soon. - Sounds good, bro. Appreciate you, Connor. Thanks, man. - All right, well, let's close with some latter of the week. Mine is Mizzou fan, Jack Foster. Oh, I'm sure if you're listening to this, there's a good chance that you saw the very scary experience that friend of the program, Peter Burns had last weekend. If you didn't, PB was out in Columbia with the SEC Network crew, ahead of the BC Mizzou game and they're out to dinner, starts choking on a piece of food. Three different people tried giving PB the Heimlich, they were unsuccessful and just as about PB, just as about, he's like ready to lose consciousness. Our guy, Jack, steps up and dislodged this piece of food from PB and did so because he is a youth sports coach who just went through CPR and Heimlich training, all that stuff, just wild, absolutely wild stuff, that guy that we love on the show, you texted me this when PB tweeted out the thread, they're like, oh my God, this is extremely scary for anybody that's ever experienced a situation like that, obviously you can relate to this, but hopefully something like this can kind of serve as a call to action for people to go out and get trained. Or if you are trained, make sure that you're comfortable in those situations because obviously you can save someone's life, it's safe PB's life. My mom's done that a handful of times in restaurants because kindergarten teacher, she gets her certification, does all that stuff and I've always kind of like, I've never witnessed it, but I've just heard, she'll call me and be like, I saved someone's life tonight. Like, whoa, what'd you do, mom? And it's not necessarily a difficult thing to do. It's really not like local classes offered, probably could do online classes, a couple hours, knock it out and you can be better equipped to save anyone in that situation. If something we had to do, obviously before Claire was born and we had to get our certification, do all that as well. And probably seeing this reminded me, we're not should probably practice this a little bit more because, man, talk about fight or flight. I can't imagine what it's like to lose consciousness and go through that, but glad that PB is doing well. I was texting with him yesterday and just talking about, you know, how bizarre it was and hopefully this can bring some awareness to a really scary situation that can just happen like anybody, anywhere at any time. So glad to hear that he's doing better. - Yeah, PB is just a king and I'm probably going to be talking about this in media days for the rest of my life. I really appreciate that opportunity. And it's so cool to see these guys and how humble they are, you know, specific to the SC Network crew too. I mean, those guys are kind of the standard barriers for SEC coverage and then therefore, all of College of World coverage 'cause the SCs were College of World basically takes place. And so being around him and seeing that he is, you know, this genuine guy and he is, you know, low in his best life right now. We've been talking about that with some of the interviews, some of the trips he's going on. Like, I'd love to just kind of keep up with him and see him thriving. And so, yeah, it's crazy like reading you out of the thread. It's just like, you just never know and your life can change like that. So happy made out of it okay. And yeah, in regards to one of our, I wouldn't exactly call him my good buddy 'cause I don't think I know him well enough yet, but definitely you're a good buddy and we're excited. You know, see more of him. - Have you choked before in public like that? - No, I don't think so, no. - It's trying to think, I don't think I have either. Lauren's had like a couple of, not not four people giving her the high and like, I don't think she's ever had anyone give her the high and I'm like, but she had like a weird spell back in our Nebraska Wednesday night Apple bee's days. Shout out to that. Look, open late, you can eat great. There were a couple of moments where it would happen to her and it would like, I mean, it would scare you. Like, it's definitely, well, it's just a bizarre thing to go through. And yeah, I mean, you can certify, you can certify. Not that hard and definitely can be a big help to someone. What do you got? - Speaking of, you know, kind of larger than life, like media people, my lot of the week was, yeah, I think you're just awesome too. I think this is a good one too. But mine's Adrian Wojnarowski, or Woj as he's known in the NBA community. As you guys know, I have kind of an interesting background. When it comes to this, I see stuff, you know, I was born in Louisiana, but my kind of journalism or sports career took a detour through Orlando, Florida, where I got to meet you, right? And cover the Orlando magic and, you know, kind of all these other sports going on. And when I was covering the magic, I actually got to meet Woj and talk to him a couple of times. And he's like, I mean, just no shot, he remembers me, because I'm sure he talks to thousands of young, wide-eyed reporters who were like, "Whoa, oo, oo, oo, oo." Can you give me any advice? But, you know, I mean, he was super-duper nice. He is, you know, he was kind of like the meme of him being like locked in his phone, because, you know, when you got GMs on your phone, you want to talk to him, right? And so, like, he's always been that. But, you know, it's so funny. I saw a tweet about this, right? This is the melding of worlds, right? To really put everything in perspective. We talk about how, okay, the Boston College Coach leaves, because the NIL stuff, you know, Chip Kelly leaves, because the NIL stuff. This is a gentleman whose job, Adrian Rosnerowski, and he's retired, if you guys didn't know about the preamble, but this is a gentleman who decided, I'm going to go be the GM of Saint Bonaventure's basketball program, and that is going to increase my quality of life. I'm going to be so much less stressed doing this than my job of being an NBA newsbreaker, where if you mess up a comma or a period, you've changed someone's life forever. So, shout out to him. I mean, he's been in this kind of unofficial back and forth with Shams, who is on the clutch sport payroll, as far as, like, he's really connected with LeBron James, and he gets fed scoops that way, and Woah just kind of, you know, moves with the business. And my favorite Woah's moment is during kind of the beginning of the culture war stuff. There's an email between him and Josh Hawley, where, you know, Hawley was trying to get him, Josh Hawley is a senator from Missouri, and he was trying to get him in trouble with his bosses, and there was just a screed shot that Hawley tweeted, which I don't know why he did this. But it was just a, it was an email from Woah's that just said, "F you, period." That was the whole email. So, like, the thing about Woah's is that he's always been a straight shooter, he's always been a guy that was speaking his mind in this era of me first players, and guys wanting more and more, kind of like, softball coverage. I think he has always been pretty upfront and fair with the journalism part of it. I'm sure there's always kind of an underbelly to that type of job, but when he, it doesn't feel like he had agendas one way or another, and I think he just kind of got burned out, was like, "Hey, this young kid is getting fed scoops "by clutch, and I just don't really feel like competing "with him anymore, and because it's been time "in my family." So, as a guy who's changed sports journalism in a way that very few people have, you know, the Wode bomb, the way that he did, breaking news, I think, is something that would be harder and harder to do over time, and the way that he made his own path, launching the vertical, and then getting his Kings ransom to come to ESPN, I just think he's really paved the way for, you know, if you work your butt off, if you're up, you know, 18 hours a day, having a beat, and you really own that real estate, you still can, right, you're in paycheck, and so, great for him calling it a career, I'm sure he'll still be around, but it will not in the same, I think the notifications can come off now, which is a big, you know, salute to the past there. - I think that 10 years from now, there won't be people like, "Whoa," which anymore. I really don't, 'cause I don't think it's worth it. I think he rises, that's why he stepped down. He's like, "What am I doing? "What am I doing?" I sleep three hours a night to break news that, if we're being honest, like, yeah, he's in an awesome war with, you know, is that shams are shoms, I always go back in. Shoms, that's right. News that comes out like 10 minutes later, or like somebody else is just gonna report it, and I'm not saying like what he does is insignificant, 'cause like it absolutely served a purpose, but I think he got to the place where he's like, "What am I doing this for?" Like to just tweet this out just so that the bottom line can say ESPN reports that blah, blah, blah. It's like you get to a certain point where, I mean, everybody knows who you are and what you do, and instead you just have to just live with the stress. That's why, like, I don't know that people understand, 'cause it's almost unfair to call him a beat reporter. What he does is so extreme and what he did for a living, but the stress that comes with being on a beat and realizing you have to just be glued to your phone, because if you're not breaking news with certain things, you're just S-O-L. - Mm-hmm, you're not lying, yeah. - Dude, the quality of life is terrible, and I've spoken about it before, and it's the reason why I don't think that in this internet age there is going to be people that want to do that for that long. And Chefter still does it, obviously, and he's talked about wanting to get away from it, and what's his exit strategy? Like, I don't think Chefter's going to be doing this 10 years from now. I don't. - Yeah, he already got a Michigan natty, I mean, what else does he have to play for? Really, at this point? - Exactly, good point, well, good point. - He can just throw him three pieces of gear and watch him as couch, and, you know? So, point be here, they're like, he, that's all, like, it's always cool to talk to him, to talk to him with you, 'cause we're at different, you know, like, we both want to be journalists growing up, right, and admire these guys, and you got farther certainly, you're still in the path, and I kind of moved to the social part of it, and yeah, I think to your point, like, we're seeing more and more that agents are controlling, you know, the narrative, and that even with Wode, you were seeing, you know, like a nice little caveat put in there that the agent demanded before they gave them the news. - Sure. - One thing I will say about Wode, and we'll get out of here, I didn't bring this up earlier, I was talking about it just kind of him being a different guy. As a guy who works in corporate sports coverage, actually the thing that's the most legendary for him was when ESPN, you know, had those big memo go out, company-wide, and they said, "Hey, no news breaking for the draft, okay?" - Right, right. - Sean's gonna be out there breaking stories 'cause he's connected with everybody, but Wode, you can't do that. And Wode did something, he goes, you know what? This is a corporate addict up here, but I'm making money to do this, and so what would I rather do? Upset my corporation, or lose out of the thing that got me paid, and so he said, you know what? I'm gonna still break news, but I'm not gonna say Detroit is drafting whoever. I would say Detroit is focused on whoever. Detroit has zeroed in on, Detroit lasered in, and that, a couple of years of the draft, where he was not directly saying they were drafting somebody, he was getting around the corporate memo, but still breaking news, while competing with people at a local marketplace, was one of the funniest corporate effus I've ever seen, 'cause it was just like, hey, I'm here to do a job. If you don't want me to do that job, it's tough, fiery, 'cause this is my job, and that guy's so old school, man. I just have always loved him. - Hope he lives a good life, man. He lives a good life, because, yeah, you step down from a role like that. It's obviously, you're going into a totally different chapter, and hopefully it sleeps more than three hours a night. Life's too short, man, it just is. If you haven't, at least five star of you, subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you can watch every single episode of The Saturday Down South podcast. We're gonna be doing some things exclusive to the YouTube channel as well, that I'll tell people about probably with the recap pod early next week. If you have not, follow us on Twitter @thestspod, @setdownsouth @sijogara@cosaward. Thanks, guys. Talk soon. (upbeat music) You
Week 4 is here! The guys have a full breakdown of the SEC action, with picks and previews for Tennessee-Oklahoma, Florida-Mississippi State, UCLA-LSU, Arkansas-Auburn and Vandy-Mizzou. Tim Tebow joined the show to discuss the Allstate AFCA Goodworks team, Florida's struggles, Arch Manning's first start and more. EJ Manuel joined Connor to discuss Florida State's unthinkable start, Bobby Bowden stories, his new venture with Jimbo Fisher and more. The guys close with Lad of the Week.
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