Dianna Russini On Coach Firings/Hirings, Brandon Walker On CFB, Who Is Under The Most Pressure Wild Card Weekend + Guys On Chicks
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On today's part of my take, we've got a twofer. We're talking Black Monday firings, hirings with our good friend Diana Rossini. And then we're going to do a little college football playoff preview.

Unfortunately, our college football expert, because he won the duel with Tom Fornelli. Has it been won? It has. He's got three out of four of the last teams. Brandon Walker, he also... We haven't taped Brandon yet, but he will be in this show. He said to me before, is it my coronation? So basically our worst case scenario. Wait, so...

Is Tom totally out of teams? Yeah, he's got one team left, but statistically he can't. But we should put some stock. If he picked the champion, that should mean something. That should mean something. We're winners on this podcast. We haven't decided yet. We're going to do hot seat, cool throne. We're going to do some pressure rankings. We're going to do guys on chicks.

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The crown is yours.

Okay, let's go. Martin 19, Martin 1910.

Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. Score big during the NFL playoffs with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to get $20 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just $5 only on DraftKings Sportsbook. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, January 8th, and PFT Black Monday has occurred.

And we just want to remind everyone that those guys have families. Kids have to change schools. Yeah. Getting fired is not fun. No, it's a very somber day. Thoughts and prayers. Anyone that takes joy in their coach being fired is a sicko. See you, Doug Peterson. Adios, bitch. So it was crazy. We're going to get into more with Diana Rossini about it, but.

That was, I think, the most shocking news was Trent Baalke staying and Doug Peterson going because Trent Baalke, he's a cockroach. He just sticks around forever. He has been the GM of two teams, and he is now about to hire his sixth head coach. And I looked it up. Trent Baalke, as the GM of the Jacksonville Jaguars,

is 26 and 58 or sorry he started as like a i think he was a senior player personnel whatever and then became the gm so his time in jacksonville 26 and 58 doug peterson's time in jacksonville was 22 and 29 so trent balky without doug peterson was 4 and 29 22 and 29 sounds pretty good yeah it does and but so doug peterson got fired but trent balky didn't yep and you separate those and you're like wait a second

Now, I'm not saying Doug Peters should have kept his job, but it seems like the Jags should have fired both of them. Yeah, so Trent Balke, he was there for the 49ers, the Jim Harbaugh, Jim Tomsula days. Yep. I believe he hired... Chip Kelly. He hired Jim Tomsula. He hired Chip Kelly. Yep.

and he was part of that whole scene where allegedly Harbaugh may have told some high up people when they walked into the room, sorry, this room is for men only. Yes. And then that, you know what he's really good at? He's really good at sitting next to the owner. Yeah. And being the one with the most face time around the owner. Even how he got the job in Jacksville, he started as a, like I said, senior player personnel or something, and then they fired their GM, and then he was like, I'll be the interim GM. And then after a while, I was like, wait,

I guess I'll just stick as the GM. Yeah. He's a survivor. Sitting next to the owner during games is actually worth a lot in terms of job security, and he's very good at that. Yeah. So that was a big news. Then the Giants, also big news, keeping both Dable and Joe Shane in.

crazy. I mean, I guess John Mara deserves credit for being a man of his word. I guess so. He also really kind of threw him under the bus while saying that he's keeping them. Yeah. He's like, this is one of the hardest decisions I've had to make, but we're not firing him. And it's a dumpster fire decision in this respect. One, you have a GM. They both are on the hottest seat possible going into the season. So what is the GM going to do? He's probably going to spend as much money as he possibly can at

in free agency i think someone posted it last night like gettleman spent the most money in his hot seat year who was their gm after gettleman uh can't remember his name but he spent the most money in his hot seat year and uh now you have the coach and gm in their hot seat years gonna just

Try to spend as much money as possible and hope that it keeps their job. And also probably draft a quarterback. And then maybe... I would say that the pressure would be on them to play that quarterback on the early side rather than on the delayed side. Yes. So I'm not saying that if they get Cam Ward and he's great, they put him in too soon, but...

if they get cam ward or should or somebody like that and they wait around for, you know, four weeks in the regular season and he doesn't look great in practice, they're going to be more likely to be like, fuck it. Let's just pull the emergency start rookie quarterback lever so that we can save our own job. Correct. But I do think that day ball, I think he's a,

I've changed a little bit as the course of this year went on, but I still think that he is a guy that can be a very good head coach. I agree with that. If he had the right tools around him. They got to do a lot of other stuff. Like the roster is not so great. But yeah, they're going to be sticking around. And Mr. Mara, I would feel so bad if I was the head coach and the owner gave a press conference being like,

I know everybody in the world wanted me to fire this guy and I wanted to fire this guy, but I'm not going to fire this. Yes. Yes. Uh, by the way, it was Jerry Reese before Gettleman. So he had a hot seat year where he went max in the, in the free agency. I think they made the playoffs. Um, and Gettleman did the same. So it's going to be, they're going to be all in. Uh,

Also, I saw this. So Jordan Renan said, how rare is it for a coach to get another season after winning just three games in their third year? It's only happened twice since 1980. Bruce Coslett in 1999 and David Dave Shula in 95, both with Cincy and both crashed out.

Definitely a weird thing for year three. Like year one, three wins. You can keep your job. Year two, maybe even year three, three wins. Definitely. Usually is you're gone. I think they both made such an equal amount of mistakes that it was hard to pin most of the blame on one of them. It's kind of smart. It's very smart. Cover each other. So they're like, they can, if they both get a little bit better, then we're in a good spot. Yeah. But I can't identify which guy is the issue. Um,

and then, uh, the names are, are piling in for each job. Uh, the bears are going to hire or are going to interview every single person ever. Mike McCarthy, David Shaw, uh, Kafka, Robert Salah. The list just goes on and on. I did see an old friend though. Memes. Are you excited for Matt Nagy era in New York? Uh,

He's just getting an interview. He's not the next coach. What's wrong with talking to guys? Yeah. Who do you want? Because Ben Johnson is not going to the Jets or the Saints because those teams did not offer him an interview, which means he basically was like, don't even bother interviewing me. Ben Johnson would have been Adam Gase 2.0 on the Jets. Nice spin zone. That's good. 100%. I don't like his attitude when it comes to taking meetings either.

Yeah, I don't either. It's kind of crazy. We got two teams in the playoffs and three teams looking for new head coaches here on this podcast. So who do you want? Either Vrabel. Okay. I mean, Hank just went like this. You sad, sad boy. Yeah, I mean, it's still possible. Aaron Glenn. Okay. Brian Flores. I'm sure Dolphins fans are probably like, yeah, take him. Yeah. Well, yeah. I'll take him. Yeah.

That's pretty much it. Sounds like you're thinking about kidnapping. I'll take that guy. Yeah, it doesn't seem like you're very enthused about this. I think you should want Rex Ryan. I think you should want Rex Ryan more than anything you've ever wanted. Because at the very least, it's going to be a fucking blast. Yeah. Yeah, but the end of the Rex Ryan days weren't great. Right. But the beginning were, and what would you be doing when you hire him? You're going back to the beginning. Back to the beginning, but he's old now. You don't know how he deals with the new players. He's thinner. Yeah.

We need fat. If Rex agrees to put on 200 pounds. Fat Rex back? Yeah, fat Rex. See, I'm the reverse of Mike McCarthy. If Mike McCarthy, if the Bears decide to hire Mike McCarthy, it has to come with Ozempic.

He's going to be the first person ever to move to Chicago and lose weight? Yeah, he'd have to do it. He'd have to do it. Because I was talking with Eddie, our good friend, and he basically was like, I don't want Mike McCarthy because of the face he's going to make. And I explained to him, well, there's no big jumbotron in Soldier Field, so at least you won't do that. But I agree, you've got to lose weight if you're Mike McCarthy. I want Mike McCarthy to...

Because you're rooting for my demise. No, not for your demise specifically. Torture. Because he's a good coach. You know the honesty is that Mike McCarthy to the Bears would be a disaster. And it would be funny to watch. I'm fine with people wanting to have fun watching. Anyone to the Bears would be a disaster. That's the reality. I think he's a good coach. A coordinator is not a proven good head coach. There's been many examples of stud offensive coordinators not working on his head coaches. Mike McCarthy has at least proven himself as a head coach.

Like, you have a better chance with Mike McCarthy than Ben Johnson. I'm not even joking about that. You'll at least be honest. You just want to see my pain. No matter what. And Mike McCarthy makes it funny. But yeah, I think, honestly, if I really want to see your pain, Ben Johnson would be more painful because you'd get so much higher up. And then when he sucked, you'd be so much higher up. I'm never getting higher than 6 out of 10. Mm-hmm.

But that's a lie. That's not a lie. If you got Ben Johnson that. Not getting that. If I really wanted to take glee in your pain, I would root for Ron Rivera to the Bears. But I'm not. And I'm rooting for Mike McCarthy. But you would also love that. No, actually, I don't think that I would. I don't think I would. You'd find a way to love it. No, because he's so nice and he'd probably stop in, probably have to be nice to him again. Yeah, that would be too close to us. If you get Ben Johnson...

Six out of ten. That's such a lie. That's such a lie, and you know it. That's awesome. So if you get Ben Johnson six out of ten, you get Mike McCarthy, where are you at? Two. Two out of ten. I'm rooting for Mike now because I feel bad for the way he's been treated in Dallas. I mean, he got a raw deal. So you're...

You'll be more excited than if you got Mike McCart. You're going to be excited if you get Ben Johnson. I want you to get Ben Johnson just because I want to see you walk back this take. So if it sounds like they're going to get Ben Johnson, then Big Cat gets to watch the rest of the playoffs and see every play and be like, oh, fuck yeah, that's mine. But it stays 6 out of 10.

Hank, what are you guys going to do? You got it set? Frabel? Frabel. You don't even have to worry about it. Give him a backup plan? That's so annoying. Look at his smile. Are you a little bit worried about Tom Brady? How much joy would it give Tom Brady, the guy that demanded his release from the New England Patriots, to then take their potential next coach and put him in Las Vegas? I think Tom Brady and Mr. Kraft have a good relationship.

So I don't think it would give him that much joy. There's not bad blood. He's not even thinking about anything. The release with the Patriots, that was a Brady-Belichick thing. Give me a backup plan, though, for Boston, for New England. Probably Ben Johnson. Yeah. He's a UNC quarterback. Drake Mays is a UNC quarterback. There's that connection. That's your backup? Is it Ben? I would take Mike McCarthy. Proven winner. I...

Don't know a lot of ball, but I would rather take a proven head coach than an unproven coordinator. You are rolling the dice a little bit. There's a lot that happens as a head coach that you don't get practice for as an OC. And he has the best guy ever to manage that team and be the leader of that team in Dan Campbell while he gets to try all this fuck shit. Josh McDaniels. Yeah. Hank keeps saying this thing where it's like,

You've seen head coaches. How often is it that a head coach goes to his third team and is more successful than

Yeah. Because there's just as many instances as offensive coordinators, good offensive coordinators being good and going to a new team as there are head coaches going to another team. Yeah. Your whole thing of like, yeah, offensive coordinators going to a new team sometimes doesn't work. Sometimes head coaches going to a new team also doesn't work. What about Andy Reid? What about Sean McVay? What about Kyle Shanahan? What about Matt LaFleur? That was his second, not his third.

I know, but he just said going to a new team. All right, remove the Redskins, and then let's do it again. Huh? Remove the entire Redskins coaching tree. Okay. Like, you just named one organization, and that's just because the Redskins are— We build coaches. I just said Matt LaFleur. Matt LaFleur. He was on that team, too. I didn't know he was on that team. Say Kevin O'Connor. Kevin Stefanski. Coach of the year twice. No big deal.

I mean, no, I mean, I'm talking. I'm basically John Harbaugh was a special teams coordinator. I'm basically just talking specifically about McDaniels. That's I'm obviously have a Patriots bias, but that that is how I see it. It's just you have to you have to have already coached before. Sometimes it doesn't work. I'd rather take a proven winner. Okay. I mean, I think it's probably the same. Like, it's probably the success rate proven.

Doug Peterson was a head coach that went to another team and did not work out for the second team. Max, let me give you one because we'll adjust it now. We'll not go second team. John Fox. We'll go third team. Bill Belichick. UNC. No. Oh, you're counting the Jets. Yeah. Browns, Jets, Patriots. Okay. Third time's a charm. Yep. I guess. Whatever. I don't want Mike McCarthy, but I'm probably going to end up with him. I'm going to end up with Brian Flores. They're interviewing 100 people just so that Ryan Poles can hire the guy he played college football with.

Did you guys see Jerry Jones on Landman? No. His acting job? What is Landman? It's a show. It's got like Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Hamm in it. Okay. It's a crazy show. But Jerry had like a 90 second cameo. Was it good? It was incredible. Whoa. Like this guy can fucking act. Whoa. He started to tear up and like have sniffles during it. He gave it a passionate speech. He out acted Jon Hamm and Billy Bob Thornton in the same scene. Okay.

That's what Jerry should be doing. Yeah. More time acting, Jerry. Be an actor. But it made me think Mike might be coming back. Like if this, the emotion that he was able to demonstrate. He was thinking about firing Mike McCarthy. He was talking about just life and family and having people around you that you care about deeply.

And he meant it. Yeah. And obviously he feels that way about his son. But yeah, it made me think. I think he's not cut out for firing guys anymore. Yeah, he hasn't. He doesn't fire guys. Jason Garrett was there for way too long. Do you guys want to do some pressure talk? Who's got the most pressure? I also did a rankings of which QB I'd want in this playoffs. I don't know if you guys wanted to pick apart my rankings or we could do it together.

I could rip through it. You could tell me. I think you would like it, PFT. Okay. My rankings are Patrick Holmes, one. I don't like it. Josh Allen, two. Lamar Jackson, three. Matthew Stafford, four. Jared Goff, five. Justin Herbert, six. Baker Mayfield, seven. Jaden Daniels, eight. Jalen Hurts, nine. Jordan Love, ten. Sam Darnold, eleven. CJ Stroud, twelve. Bo Nix. And then Russell Wilson last.

You're ahead of Jalen Hurts. It's a lot of names to try to remember the exact order of them. But there's also a difference between quarterback and quarterback in the system that they're currently in. Yeah, I'm just saying which quarterback I want. I just want, like, who I trust. It's my trust rankings. I think that's pretty good. Would you go any different than Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson in your top three? Maybe not Lamar. Trust in the playoffs? Based on how good Lamar has been this year. I understand. His interceptions aren't really interceptions.

We could do a quick snake draft of drafting the quarterbacks. Yeah, let's do that. All right. Hank, you ready? We'll do a three-man draft because we each get four quarterbacks. No, wait. It's 14, right? Yeah. It's 14. So, shit, that's a number that doesn't work in this. We could do two just left out. Two left out. Okay, I like that. All right. That's the do not trust list. Hank, do you want to start? No. Okay. PFT, do you want to start? Yeah, I'll start. All right.

I'll take Patrick Mahomes. Okay, good pick. Thank you. Good pick. I'll take Josh Allen. I'll take Jared Goff. And then you also have one coming back. And I will take Lamar Jackson. Okay. I'll take Matthew Stafford, Super Bowl winner. Yeah. Okay, I will take Jaden Daniels, Baker Mayfield. Okay, I will take Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts. I will take Super Bowl winner Russell Wilson.

Wait, no, I only have one. Sorry. Justin Herbert. I don't know why I picked two there. That was really stupid. Justin Herbert. Jalen Hurts. Okay. Super Bowl winner. Did you just take Jalen Hurts? Yeah, I took two by accident. Justin Herbert was my pick. We're doing a great job. And Russell Wilson. Okay. My last pick, CJ Stroud. I kind of wanted to take Sam Donalds. Damn, seems like you guys certainly have a tight. My last pick, what's your type?

Well, I wasn't going to take you in love. I'm going to go Malik Willis. Good pick. No, can I change it? Yeah. Tanner McKee. Malik Willis and Tanner McKee. Yeah. Malik McKee. We'll put it up for vote. Blind vote. And loser has to do an hour stand up. Nope. Loser has to go to a bachelor party.

Yes. Yeah. Okay. You want to talk pressure rankings or who's under the most pressure? I have a few that I had listed. I've got a 1-1, and it might be different from what you had talked about. All right. So give me your 1-1. My 1-1 is Sean McDermott. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Are we doing individuals or teams? It could be individuals and teams, but make your case for Sean McDermott because I have a different coach that I think might have more pressure. Okay, because Josh Allen has been an alien this year. He's been incredible. It's his best year ever. He might win the MVP, and he's probably going to be incredible in the playoffs again because Josh plays very well in the playoffs. The playoff losses, you can't...

you can look at all of them and say, that's not really on Josh. Yeah. Like he played out. He played good enough to win 99.9% of games. He played two perfect playoff games the year that they lost to the chiefs in the 13 seconds. Right. So who gets the blame for those losses? Sean McDermott, I think deservedly. I don't think that obviously there's a narrative out there because he wants to beat my homes. He wants to say, okay, I'm the guy in the AFC. I can lead my team to super bowl. I get that. But in reality,

it's a lot more on his head coach than it is on him. And McDermott, I thought this after the heartbreaking loss last year, and it would be shocking if it happened, but if they get bounced in a terrible fashion again, I wouldn't be surprised if the Bills moved on from McDermott, even though he's been a great coach for him. He turned the entire franchise around, along with Josh.

but at some point these losses add up. Yeah. And you become that guy, and then it breaks your brain, and you spend all your time thinking about how to get over this one little hump, and then things just fall apart. It's a good point. I don't know if they'd fire him. I don't know if they'd fire my coach that I picked, but it's kind of similar vein. I think Mike Tomlin has a ton of pressure because Mike Tomlin –

He hasn't won a playoff game since 2016. Yeah. And if you look at his playoff record, because he's been in Pittsburgh in forever, his first four years in Pittsburgh, he was five and two in the playoffs, including a Super Bowl. And his last 14 years in Pittsburgh, he's three and eight. So it's not been good. And I think the way this season has ended, I know there was some murmurings last year. Like, I don't think Mike Thomas can get fired.

But this is just another year where it's like, hey, you have not won a playoff game. We're going to be going on almost a decade of you not winning a playoff game. What's going on here? We're Pittsburgh. We're the Steelers. We need to win playoff games. So that was my coach. And also I think Russell Wilson –

There's two guys that are under pressure in terms of money. Yes. Russell Wilson and Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold was going to be my next pick. Yeah. Because the difference in how much money he's going to make next year based on how he performs in the playoffs is... There's probably a $100 million difference. Yes. If he stinks...

He could get franchise tagged. He could get picked up and signed for some team. If he hits the open market, some team will overpay for him. So it probably won't be in the 25 to $30 million range. They'll probably pay like a little bit more. But if he plays really, really well in the playoffs, now we're talking about like $150 million. Yes. 175, 200 million. The way quarterbacks get paid, you don't know. So this is like, it's a hundred million dollar difference.

Based strictly on how he plays, I would say, in the next two games. And you can't just take a small sample size, but that's also the reality of it. The game on Sunday was a very consequential game, playoff atmosphere. If he comes out and has a dud in the actual playoffs...

That's two pressure games where you're like, what just happened? Yeah, and the most recent games you've seen. Right, right. And yeah, so Sam Donald and Russ, I think Russ is the same way. If Russ comes out and he's just awful again, like who's going to sign him? Yeah, no one. No one's going to sign him. As for...

the quarterbacks. I had a little pushback when I said it on Sunday from people online, but I do think Lamar is under more pressure than Josh Allen. And that's because something that you said, Josh Allen has not been the reason why the bills have lost in the playoffs. He's been an absolute alien. He's 24 touchdowns, four interceptions. He had those games, the chiefs game. He played perfect there. Their defense couldn't get a stop in 13 seconds. Lamar,

Lamar's 2-4 in the playoffs, and he's had some really good teams, and he's had some years where his passer rating is 75 in the playoffs. He's had interceptions. I looked it up last night. Four out of six of the games, he has not gone over 200 yards. The other two were catch-up games. Remember the game when they were the one seed against the Titans and he was just throwing the entire second half? And then last year when they were down against the Chiefs,

I think there's just a lot of pressure on Lamar just because this is – you got to – like another insane season, if they get bounced by the Steelers especially, it's like what is going on here? Yeah. I actually agree with that. I disagreed with you I think on Sunday and thought that it was mostly on Josh. But that's a good point. Yeah. I think that Lamar – yeah, especially the season he has, especially if he wins MVP. If you lose in the playoff, if you're Josh –

Or Lamar, and you lose early on in the playoffs, you probably don't want to win MVP, right? Yeah. You're like, maybe Josh. Maybe Josh because he hasn't got one yet. But if you're Lamar...

You're like, well, I got a third one. But again, it almost serves to magnify your playoff losses. Right. And Josh definitely has pressure on it. The Bills have pressure on it. Sean McDermott, like you said. It's just that if you look at both of those guys and what they've done in the playoffs, and obviously it's not all on the quarterback, but that is how it works is if the quarterback doesn't elevate their game. Josh has elevated his game in the playoffs. Lamar has not. So Lamar has to do that this year because this is like –

If not now, when? The good news is... Have you guys seen that... I believe it is every 12 years the Ravens win the Super Bowl. Yeah. And it's always with a 28-year-old quarterback. And Lamar is 28. So Trent Dilfer won it in 2002 as a 28-year-old quarterback. The...

Joe Flacco won it as a 28-year-old quarterback in whatever year that would be. Oh, no. Flacco won in 2012. Trent Delfer won it in 2000. Yeah. Flacco won it in 2012, and it's 2024. All 28-year-old quarterbacks. All right, so we've got right now a sample size of two for that. Correct. But this would fulfill the pattern. Significant sample size. It's like 17 years from now, there will be another darts champion. Yeah. Because that's how the prophecy has been foretold. How sick would that be if someone just guaranteed, like, hey, every 12 years you can win a Super Bowl?

I can wait that long. I would easily take it. Great. Easily take it. That's about when you would get restless for the next one. You kidding me? Yeah. The second. I think Cam Dicker, the kicker for the Chargers, has a lot of pressure on it. Just because Harbaugh. Yes. If you blow a kick. And Justin Herbert would be my actual pick. Yeah. Justin Herbert, also the kicker for the Vikings. Will Reichardt. He's got a lot of pressure on him. Yeah. But Herbert. Herbert definitely has pressure. He's got pressure. They were beating the Jaguars at one point.

But the narrative will be out there that you can't win the playoffs. Yeah. Even though he's a very good quarterback. Also, I just found this out yesterday. Game in Houston, the annual wildcard game there. You know who's leading the Texans out onto the field? Who? Arian Foster. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I don't know if that's good or bad for the Texans. I think it's good. I think it's good. Is he wearing the jacket? Yeah.

I need to get in touch with him. They want... No, they lost that game. They lost that game. They got fucking killed. Yeah, they lost. That was J.J. Watt's jacket. It was his idea. But yeah, Arian Foster will be leading the Houston Texans onto the field for this playoff game. That rocks. I'm pumped for him. But yeah, in this game, I would say...

There is some pressure on CJ Stroud, but not nearly to the extent as Herbert. And CJ Stroud also has the, as weird as it is, and the Texans going into the season were dark horse Super Bowl, and it looks like that's not going to happen. With the amount of injuries they've had on offense,

And CJ Shroud just having not a very good year overall. It can be like, hey, even... You could tell yourself even his floor is playoffs. Yep. So we're going to be okay. And yeah, there's gravy teams. There's teams... I mean, the Commanders... I actually think the Commanders...

are going to win on Sunday night. We'll do all of our picks and analysis on Friday. But the Commanders, you know, everything's gravy. The Broncos, everything's gravy. I even think the Chargers, Justin Herbert has pressure on them, but this was a lot quicker to get to the playoffs than they might have expected. So it's a little bit of a gravy. The Rams, like, you got to... Matthew Stafford's getting old, but...

That was another one where they had a bad year last year and they were able to flip it pretty quickly. And then the other two pressure teams I had, one was the Packers. That was simply because there's word out that maybe the Bears broke the Packers. Copycat league. Yeah.

I hope that's not the case because I want to have – I don't want to just be one of those teams that just beats their rival all the time. And that's unfortunately so far this year that's exactly what's happened. Sometimes you see that happen but the opposite way. Yeah. Like this might be a Michigan-Ohio State thing. Yeah. Where you beat them and now they get really, really good. But they literally can't beat us as of recently. So Packers have pressure because we might have just broken them. And then the Eagles –

Nick Sirianni's got some pressure. I actually don't think he has as much pressure as he did in the beginning of the season. You think he has just as much? No, I agree. I'm nodding in agreement. So what's the pressure count on Nick Sirianni? If you guys flame out, what happens?

I mean... Nothing. Nothing. So he might not even be... He's not going to get fired. So he might not even be under pressure. I mean, it's still pressure from... There's always pressure from the city to win. And the team is so... This is the most talented Eagles team that I've ever seen, I think. Whoa. Whoa. Of all time. Shot at Jason Kelsey. No, I think... Most people... Who, by the way, has another show? Shout out. I watched the whole thing. Good show. Of course you did. Yep. What's your favorite part?

I liked when he had a nice panel. He had Lil Dicky, Charles Barkley, and Baldy on it, our guys. I liked when they were just – there was a couple bits that they did in the beginning and at the end. So your favorite part was the other people? Yeah, that's what's up. No, they did like – I liked when they were just talking ball. Okay. I wasn't a fan of – they did a lot of bits that I wasn't a fan of, but I did like when they sat down. Okay, so you liked Charles Barkley, and then you didn't like the bits.

I love the whole show. I thought it was great. Yeah, me too. You asked me my opinion. My favorite part was when it was just Jason. No, when it was Jason and his wife. Yeah, yeah. That was awesome. His wife was great. Yeah. Queen. She has a name. Kylie. Queen. Queen Kylie. What? What are you doing? All right, so not a lot of pressure under Nick Sirianni. I mean, there's just pressure to win in Philadelphia, but there's no job pressure, if that's what you're asking. Right. Right. Okay. Okay.

Do you think there's any job pressure for Kevin O'Connell? No. Not in the sense of he'll be fired, but kind of in the sense of he's getting a new contract. He's getting a new contract.

I don't think so. I obviously saw the Kevin O'Connell could be traded report. That to me just, I assume, was his agent writing that, you know, telling someone, hey, can you report this? Because we want to put some pressure on the Vikings to actually sign this guy for what he deserves. It'd be insane if you're the Vikings and you traded Kevin O'Connell. Yeah, so I don't.

I don't think he has that type. I think they're going to give him a lot of money no matter what. I think that there might be some truth to what you just said because he was upset that he didn't get a contract extension earlier. Right. And so he's like telling his agent, yeah, it's okay if you leak this. Yeah, make some noise. Because there are probably some teams that would line up to trade for him. Yeah. Now, the last one I had was the Lions if Ben Johnson accepts a job. I don't know if he'd accept a job.

while they're still in the playoffs, but he might like, I don't know how that would work. I do. So I do think that there is some pressure on, uh, on the lines. Yeah, there is. Uh, well, you might lose both your coordinators. So you never know how long that's going to, you know, it's not that the lines will all of a sudden be bad, uh,

But any team that has success and loses talented people in the organization, it makes it a little bit more difficult to get back there the next year. And if Dan Campbell, if he makes one of his super aggressive decisions and it doesn't work out for him, then there's a lot of pressure on Dan Campbell. Yeah. Then people start talking. Yeah. But he is like he will make super aggressive decisions. 100%. That's what's going to happen. And he's a winner. He's a winner. He's a winner.

Did you see the post-game video? It was awesome. In the locker room? Awesome. When I grow up, I want to play football for Dan Campbell. Yeah. This is like all roads through Detroit. Like all the entire thing was... You understand why those guys will just do anything for him. Mm-hmm.

And why Alex Anzalone will rush back with a broken arm and they die for him. That quote from, what was their cornerback's name? The guy that said, they tried to bury me, but you can't bury what came from dirt. Yeah. That's great. Great quote. Yeah. Great quote. I'm just excited for the playoffs. This is one of my favorite weekends of the year.

Excited to get into it. We're going to break down each game on Friday's show, but it was good to set the stage. I'm also just excited not to, I'm sure memes you agree, just to not have our teams playing to make football look worse. It's nice to watch some good teams play.

Where's your confidence at right now, PFD? Midweek. It's actually pretty high. Okay. I agree. So sometimes memes gets pissed at me for not being as super confident about my team as I should be. But I feel like I'm also realistic. Also, this is the result of...

decades of scars of being disappointed by my team where I think most normal people, they, they take that forward and they are less likely to get excited about things. Memes is not a normal person. No. So he's just like, yeah, jets will be great next week. Uh, I, I think that we have a very good chance against Todd Bowles and the Bucks defense. Um,

I'm now back big time thinking that Jaden Daniels is going to put on a crazy display where I'm talking. I think he's going to run all over the box. And I know they have a good rush defense, but I think I know what Todd Bowles is going to do. I think I'm one step ahead of him. Hell yes. That's got to feel good. And I've got an answer for it. That's got to feel good to know it's Tuesday and you're already one step ahead. I've got the game plan. And guess what? I've got an answer for it.

When we do our picks, I like the commanders in this game. I like him too. But again, like you mentioned, it's really no risk. It's a free roll where if we lose in the playoffs, still great 10 out of 10 season. You just don't want to look bad. Yeah, I don't want to look bad, and I would like to see –

Jaden play well in the playoffs. I would like to see Dan Quinn make good decisions during games. Yeah. And I would like to see some spark out of a run game. It's also a win no matter what, just because there's always like so many bad stats about rookie quarterbacks making their first run.

or just guys making their first start in the playoffs and you get this one out of the way as early as possible. Yeah, I mean, Jaden, luckily he played in big games in the SEC back when the SEC used to mean something back in the day. But I think, yeah, I'm confident. We'll talk more on Friday, but I'm...

I'm going to bet on the Commanders for the first time in a very, very long time. I usually stay away from those games. And I've got a little parlay cooking, too. I like it. All right. Let's do Hot Seat Cool Throne. Hot Seat Cool Throne is brought to you by our friends at Game Time. It's football season. You want to pull up tickets for the game in Tampa Bay? Yeah.

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I actually might buy commanders NFC championship game tickets just in case it's commanders Packers $2,000 a pop right now. I like that. And then give them away. Wow. No chance. I'd be allowed to go. You know what? I'll match. You want to match? Yeah, I'll match. You want to get tickets? Yeah. You get refunded. Yeah. No, I know. I know. I'll match. Okay. I'm not going to buy them till it happens, but I'm matching. Okay. I'll buy the tickets and then I got to, I got to figure out who I'll give them away to. Yeah. Yeah.

We'll find someone. You know what? In the spirit of bipartisanship, I will give them away to Donald Trump and Joe Biden if they would like to attend together and send a strong message to America that all politicians are great. Yes. No, I'll give my two away to just anyone who's not a Packers fan because I don't want Packers fans taking over Raul John. I love that. Yes.

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Hot seat, cool truck. Hot seat. Yeah, I mean, you said it. We have the gym now. We also have an in-house golf instructor. So I was thinking about it earlier and everything. Everything's come together in this office. I fixed my golf shot. Yep. People are not going to like the new one. I would like to hire a long drive coach.

Kyle Berkshire, if you're out there, Kyle, let's do a video together. He's out there. Yeah, well, if he's listening. Not Hank, not right now. I'm trying to interfere with my training right now, Hank. How do you think people are going to respond to my new golf shot? If it is good, I literally walked up and tested it today, and I hit it four feet from the pin from 100 yards out. How do you think people are going to respond to it, though? Listen, people online hate it. There's no perfect golf swing. Tiger Woods could post a swing, and people online would be like, blah.

But you just got to do what works for you, and that swing works for you. Okay. Even though it's a drill. I haven't seen it yet. He got told to do a drill, and he just had all the pieces in my swing. He showed me a drill where you just put all your weight on the front foot, and you put your back foot all the way back, and that's just my new swing. I like that. Like a closed stance in baseball. Yeah. My hot seat are North Koreans. Oh. Oh. You actually took mine, Hank. Yeah. Oh. But good pick. But yeah, if you were thinking about maybe moving to North Korea, you heard some good things from me.

I don't think you might want to rethink it because North Korea has banned eating hot dogs. Oh, I'm out. Yeah. Yeah. Cooking and selling hot dogs as part of a crackdown on Western culture infiltrating the hermit kingdom. Yeah. They crack down on some other stuff, too, besides just hot dogs. You can't wear jeans. No leather jackets. That's fine. That's fine. No microwaves. Okay. Air fryers. What about air fryers? I don't see air fryers on here. No weed, Hank. Ooh.

They probably already had that. Actually, that's fine. That's fine. Yeah, you quit. Yeah. No slang. No slang? No slang.

That's actually good for us. Yeah, that is. No new slang. Porn. No porn. But I think that was already a rule. Okay. That's why the North Korean soldiers that went to Russia and fought against the Ukraine, they all kind of just kind of went away because they got addicted to porn. Yeah. Yeah. Which is pretty cool. Okay. That was your... But no hot dogs. No hot dogs is a deal breaker for me. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's my hot seat. My cool throne is WWE. Yeah. Yeah.

they are on netflix now i'm not a you know wwe guy i think you guys are more wrestling people when you're younger i was not but i mean netflix is the answer getting anything on netflix like i went on netflix last night to watch something else and i saw wwe i was like i'll watch this for a little bit i that's never happened i've been on tv a million times i've scrolled past it never watched it but it was like open netflix wwe i was like oh what's this about and i realized for

They just own everything. Yeah. They own our eyeballs. But that's got to be great. It's got to be great for WWE. Yes. Yes. And I heard it was awesome. Did you enjoy it? Yeah. I mean, I watched it for like 20 minutes and then turned on Dune. Okay. What was your favorite part? The panel. The promo. Yeah. A couple of great promos. Cody Rhodes, I think. The Rock. That was our wrestling talk. Yeah. I've never wrestled. My hot seat is meth streams. Mm.

The site we all love and have agreed silently to not discuss on the show because you don't want to talk about meth streams because it'll get taken down. It was a big part of, I'd say, my entire 20s. First crack streams, then it was meth streams, and the sites have been taken down.

And there's a note on there that says, I believe it's from the owner of the site. I'll be taking a break from live streaming. Reminder that the only domains in which I operate are meth streams and crack streams. So no more meth, no more crack.

Why did this happen? This guy made so many people happy by having this website. Did he just get bought out? FCC, yeah. Or the FBI. Dana White showed up to his house and fucking beat him up. Yeah, this sucks. It's a very, very sad day. Very sad day. I always love the chat on the side of these streams.

Trying to trick you? That's where he got the real. Oh, yeah. I was actually, I was watching the Caps game yesterday. And for a second, I had to pull up the score app. And I just went over to the chat. And every single comment in the chat on the score app was tie game. Yeah. Like people that were like, I'm at the game. They just scored. Yeah. That's Elio. Elio's in there. It's awesome. He does that. He's a troll in the score app. It was very, very funny. Then my cool throne is Mayor's Betts.

They're back on. This is the time of year in playoff season where the mayors come out of the closet and they just make a bunch of bets with each other. It's always for the dorkiest shit that they send back and forth. But this time the mayor's bet is actually between J.D. Vance and Ted Cruz for the UT Ohio State game. So Ted Cruz says, hey, J.D. Vance, care for a wager? Loser brings beer and food from his home state and delivers it wearing the winning jersey. And then J.D. Vance says, all right, which Texas ice cream should I have Ted bring when the Buckeyes win?

It's just Maribet season. Wow. And they're always quirky. The stakes couldn't be higher. Can't wait for this. Yeah. Also, shout out. Fuck you to Aftab Pureval, the mayor of Cincinnati. He still owes me a case of Skyline Chili. He also. They don't pay up on that shit. I'm waiting for my case of Skyline Aftab. Didn't it wasn't.

Haven't the Bengals not been in the playoffs since he got all cocky? Since Travis Kelsey called him a jabroni? Yeah. I think it's been a while. Well, they were... Yeah, they weren't... No, their last playoff game was a loss to the Chiefs. Yeah. In the AFC Championship game. I think there's an aftab curse. Yeah. Until you send me my skyline, you're never going to make the playoffs, buddy. Yeah. Okay, my hot seat is concussion protocol. Oh, why? Jalen Hurts is still in it.

But isn't that cool throwing concussion protocol because they're taking good care of him? That's true. Good point. I'm nervous. It's crazy. Chef. He tweeted that when he didn't even have the concussion test that day. Correct. Yeah. He's crazy. Literally could not have been out of concussion protocol yesterday. It's crazy because I needed that tweet to have this. You're you're. I mean, it's crazy. I told PFT my panic level was at a four out of ten yesterday. It's at it. It's down to a two out of all the tweet made it go. Okay.

Well, then a lot of people – because I got worried, and then a lot of people were like, he literally cannot be out of concussion protocol until Wednesday. So, yes, that is technically correct, but –

We won't know anything until Thursday because he has to practice a full day and then the next day wake up with no symptoms and then you're out of it. Sounds like we're running out of time. So if he practices Wednesday. You want him to play. I know I do. This is what I'm saying. I want you to respect concussion protocol. This doesn't work. Yes, it does. This doesn't work. You like the Packers. No. I want him to play. Big Cat, Packer fan. I want you to play.

to acknowledge that it's a concern. It's not until Thursday. Wait, you told me yesterday it was a concern. But that's because I didn't know the rules. Sorry I was concerned of my stupidness. You should be more concerned. Max kind of has a point. I've been concerned. What are you talking about? I'm the one who's concerned. I'm saying get him out of concussion protocol. This is crazy.

I know how the concussion protocol, you don't respect it. I do. Part of you wants him to not play. No. No. Absolutely not. Because if the Packers win that game, then I got problems. Look at PFT's face. I don't. I mean, there is a part. No. Yes. No. There's zero part. You wouldn't be trolling this hard. There's zero part. You got some joy out of the concussion protocol. Yes. I told you on Sunday. I wanted one more day, and then I need him out. So what happens on Sunday?

What would happen on Thursday? Are we getting an update today? No, there's no update until... We're still not in problem territory. You can't get out of concussion protocol until you practice a full day and then wake up the next day. If he's in concussion protocol on Thursday, Max, I will be more concerned than you. They're not practicing today or tomorrow. Wednesday is their first practice. I will be very upset if he's not out tomorrow. Oh, correct. Yeah. And today when the show comes out. I told you my timeline. I have a timeline for the concussion protocol.

I mean, no, you're Packer Dan. No, I'm not. I have a timeline. My timeline has expired after today. I sent it to you on Sunday. I wanted one more day. And Shefty doing that tweet was awesome and crazy. I mean, it was just absolute rage bait. That's all. I mean, how long has it been? I think he did that. I think he did that tweet just for you. Maybe. Has it been, what, 12 days? I don't know.

It's been a long time. Gosh, the protocol's bad. I care about him as a person first and foremost. Me too. Is Jordan Love okay? You say he's like the 10th best quarterback in the playoffs. That was trust. It was trust rankings. Yeah, because all of the quarterbacks ahead of him have played good Super Bowl games, right? What? Jalen Hurts. Nine. I had him nine. Yeah. Ahead of Jordan Love. Call me Packer Dan again. Jordan Love stinks.

Also, me, Big Cat, and Hank each took four guys. So the least we could have him is number four. True. On our personal rosters. No, I was speaking to Big Cat because he had him at nine. Well, that's because he's in the concussion protocol, you fucking idiot. My cool throne is fart coin. Fart coin. If you bought fart coin a month ago, you outperformed the entire stock market since 1869. So is it at the moon? It must be at the moon.

I don't know. I'm just pissed that I missed the fart coin. Are we in a fart bubble right now? Fart coin. I'm an idiot. How long has fart coin been around? 1869. Okay. Wait, the market cap on fart coin is $1.2 billion? Love it. Fart coin's going crazy. I might get in on Hawk 2 a coin.

I feel like that's going to pop. By the dip. That's going to pop. Is she just gone? No, she was back. She's asleep. A picture of her came out. She was just chilling on the beach rocking a $2,000 swimsuit. Oh, nice. Respect. Good for her. Okay, let's get to our interviews. We've got Diana Rossini. We're going to talk some Black Monday coach firings, hirings coming up. And then we have Brandon Walker, our college football expert, talking about the college football playoffs.

Before we get to Diana Rossini, she's brought to you by Experian. For the AWLs who really know us, you know how responsible we are with our money. The secret reason we have so much to gamble is because Experian helps us save money across our other purchases. League rights, they're getting out of hand. We have to subscribe to way too many streaming services so we can watch every key game, and that's where Experian comes in. They'll find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions for you so you don't have to worry about paying for services you forgot about.

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We got a bunch of Kevin's Natural Foods sent to us. It was delicious. Their coconut chicken soup, one of the best soups that I've ever had. Their General Tso's chicken stir fry is incredible. If you want a delicious protein-packed meal on the table in five minutes, Kevin's Natural Foods heat and serve entrees are your MVP.

Thank you.

And now, here's Diana Rossini. Ooh.

Okay, we now welcome on our very good friend. It is Diana Rossini, senior NFL reporter for The Athletic. You can find her on The Athletic, also Scoop City podcast she does. Very good. She has her ear to the streets of all the NFL coaching and GM hirings and firings. So Black Monday's done.

I'll start with this, Diana. What was the most shocking thing that happened on Black Monday that you league-wide, you were just like, everyone's confused as to why this occurred? Yeah, it was less about the firings and more about who was being retained. Yeah. I would say from the, like, let's just start with the firing category. I'm shocked the Patriots really did it. There was a lot of chatter about it, but I can't believe they really pulled the trigger. But in terms of those that were retaining, yeah.

Like, I can't believe the Giants kept Joe Shane and Brian D'Abel. I cannot believe it. From everything we saw in hard knocks to obviously Saquon Barkley having the most ridiculous season to the mess with Daniel Jones to winning just three games. Um,

All of the drama in New York, it just seemed like this was the time. This isn't working. And just even from things I know, this isn't working. But John Mara sticking with his words that he said in October, which was that he didn't want any change. Yet, did you hear him talking about retaining them? Like, it's like painful for him. Yeah, yeah. Like these guys are going to have to win every game. Otherwise, they're going to be walking off the field going, am I getting fired today? And I just think it's a really...

They're being put in a really, really hard spot in Jacksonville, too, with GM Trent Balke. I think that one was pretty surprising. A lot of people thought he'd be out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And with Doug Peterson being gone, and it shocked me to find this out yesterday. Our good friend Uncle Chap sent me a very sad Jaguars stat that Doug Peterson actually has the third best winning percentage of all time for the Jaguars in the history of their franchise. And so Balke sticks around. He's a survivor. You can't get rid of that guy.

What does that mean for the Jags coaching search? Does that make it like which, which coaches do you think would be less likely to work with a guy like Trent? Bill Belichick. Yeah. Yeah. Jim Harbaugh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. Look, I think that job is actually more coveted than you'd realize. You know, when you take a look big picture, I would say, let's just put it in order. I'd go Patriots,

Bears, Jags, in terms of openings of what coaches I know that I've been talking to want. And the Jags roster with Trevor Lawrence, there's not this belief around the league that Trevor Lawrence is not the guy. Right. Even though he hasn't been great. Every coach wants a quarterback. You have to go to a place to have success that has a quarterback in place that's decent and that can win you games. Right.

And those are those three teams, which is why everyone is trying to get those interviews and you see everyone is off and running. But the Trent Baalke situation is, to me, that just, I read it as the owner doesn't want to go through the process of searching for a head coach without some guidance. These guys are not football guys. They don't know. Look at the Jets. They hired a search firm of people they fired.

just to do it so they didn't have to. Right, right. That sounded mean. That sounded like that was targeted at memes. That did sound, yeah. Did you mean to target that at memes? Be honest. No. Look, I don't like memes, but I don't not like, like, I like the Jets. Yeah. Ah, that's, I don't know about that. No, it'd be good for you, I think, if the Jets were good, right? People don't know this. I grew up a Jets fan. I live. Be your own people. Be your own people like that.

I want to see them successful. But it's the same story. And memes, you feel this. And you're a lot younger than me, so your pain is different than mine. And mine is much worse. They've been making these mistakes that are so ridiculous every single year. And it just seems like they can't get out of their own way, as you guys know and have been following all the reports.

Yeah. So let's talk about the Jets. So Mike Greenberg got an interview to be the GM for the Jets. That sounds like a dream job for him. But who are you hearing in terms of their coaching options right now? Well, last week they had Ron Rivera in the building and Mike Vrabel in the building at Florham Park with the team out practicing at the same time. Just wild. But that's what they chose to do.

Um, they are casting a very, very wide net as you're seeing, um, almost, almost to a point where I wonder if Mike Tannenbaum is getting paid per interview. Um, it's just like every, I'm sure you guys were following along yesterday. How many slips went? I, I must've typed the word jets 50 times yesterday in terms of, um, you know,

coaches that are going to be taking, and general managers, interviews with them. Look, I think Aaron Glenn, Brian Flores, Brian Greasy, Arthur Smith, Joe Brady. I mean, basically...

Matt Nagy yeah yeah Matt Nagy's gonna get a job yeah I think in this cycle he's getting a lot of love behind the scenes from teams and um I I think I think Nagy was I think the best move he made was to go back to Kansas City sort of reset figure out where he messed up what mistakes he made get that confidence back up by being around the you know the greatest to do it um

And he's ready to go. So I'm interested to see what his staff is going to look like because that's obviously going to be an important element in all this. Yeah. Is that an unusual thing to do, to have two coaches that are interviewing for your job go out and watch practice at the same time? Yes. That is weird. It's very weird. It's also like, look at the Bears, right? They technically could have had Ron Rivera, Mike Vrabel come in last week.

you know, they had that ability to do it. Right. They chose not to do it because, well, first of all, the Chicago bears, their first round of interviews are all virtual. Okay. So you're not like Mike Rabel and Ron Rivera, not flying in there. Um, that Ron's not going there by the way, but, um,

Everything is virtual first. And then through those virtual interviews, then they're going to pick the guys for the next round to come in to meet in person. And obviously the Bears don't think Mike Rabel is too big to interview. Yeah. Guys, no. What? You reported that. I was amplifying your reporting. We've done this so many times and it's so annoying. How big is too big? If he lost 20 pounds, would he get a job?

Okay. I was thinking about, I was like, I'm not telling them this, but I'm going to tell you. Yes. Somebody from the jets said, damn, he's really big. Yeah. That sounds like brick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

The awesome listeners of the show will come up to me and ask me if I've destroyed Mike Vrabel's career because I said that teams don't like that he's fat, which is so not what I reported. No, we never said he was fat. We never said he's fat. He's a big man. He played football. He's powerful. My general manager said to me that Mike Vrabel is very intimidating to a lot of people.

that he, his personality, his size. That's all I said. And it wasn't just one general manager. It was multiple. It's also, it's true. It's also, that's, that's on the general managers. Cause Rabel is not that intimidating. Once you get to know him, he's just a big guy. He's a strong guy. He's a strong masculine man. He's a leader of men. I,

I want him as the Bears head coach. So, all right, let me ask you about the Bears. This is my thought process. You can grade my thought process. Tell me I'm crazy, whatever you want to go with this. So I want Vrabel or Ben Johnson.

The Patriots are probably going to have Vrabel, right? I would assume. Ben Johnson is not done. He not accepted an interview with the Jets or the Saints. They never reach out because he basically was like, I'm not doing it. Yeah, people are back channeling. Like, hey. Yeah, and so he's not doing that. So it's down to there's two guys, Vrabel and Ben Johnson, for three seats. The Jaguars, the Patriots, and the Bears. Balky coming back.

Does this mean that once Vrabel takes a job with the Patriots, then Ben Johnson might be the target for the Bears or vice versa? Look, as someone has had to report a lot of crappy news to you over the last few weeks, I think this will be – I think it's good for you. Okay. I think when the Trent Baalke news broke, you're back. You're back. Yeah, right.

I think Ben Johnson still has a lot of questions about management in both of those organizations, which I think is pretty well known at this point. There are questions. Ryan Poles is leading the search. Ryan Poles is not going anywhere. I think there's some Chicago people who believe he's going to get fired at some point here when the search ends. Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles are in lockstep in this search. Yeah.

They 100% have their eye on Ben Johnson and Mike Vrabel for sure as their top candidates. So, you know, let's say in this world, and it would be, I guess, Hank's best world, Graves goes to New England. Yeah, I think...

Ben Johnson, the chance of him landing in Chicago are much better now that Trent Bucky is in Jacksonville, which if you're a Jags fan, it's like, oh my goodness, are you kidding? What are we doing? Yeah. What are we doing? You know, but I'm interested to hear what happens after these interviews because you find out a lot about these organizations and what their plans are and how they envision themselves and what the philosophies are. And

when you find out what kind of questions they've been asking. Yeah. So we'll see what they're after. Do you think – what would the percentage chance be? Because I've played this whole thing out, and obviously I want Ben Johnson, but I do think that him staying at the Lions is still a possibility. I'm so glad you said that. I'm so glad you said it because I had somebody yesterday text me. It was like, hey –

Don't forget, there's a world where Ben Johnson stays and looks at this coaching cycle and goes, this is not for me. This is not what I'm signing up for. Damn. And weirdly, that drives the price up every year that he says no. But... It's like, oh, I got to get this guy. I feel like you could learn something. Yeah. Yeah. Like,

look, he's great. He's an awesome play caller. I love his self-awareness, his understanding of, look, I've only been to the playoffs twice in my life. I wanted to come back to Detroit to just watch not only this team get back, but watch how they handle success because that's another part of growth as a coach of not just dealing with the problems, dealing with when things are good and how to manage your team and how to make good coaching decisions.

So I appreciate that emotional maturity, but at some point here, you got to jump in the pool. You got to do this thing. Well, a good cautionary tale is Lua –

Lou Anarumo from the Bengals, who was a hot name in the NFL coaching circles three years ago, and he just got fired by the Bengals. So it might not last forever. You might not be the guy that everyone's lusting for forever. So I'm hoping that that will push Ben Johnson to the Bears. You look at it this way. The second the Detroit Lions stink,

His chances are going to go away. That's just the reality, right? How many times have we seen this where, like you just mentioned, Lou's defense was tremendous in the Super Bowl. He's considered the Patrick Mahomes killer. And he fired him, you know? Is he going to get a job somewhere? Yeah, yeah. I think Lou's one of those coordinators. I don't mean to be insensitive to the process because I'm sure he was hurt and upset about it, but he's one of those they get fired and you go, all right.

head coaching candidate is going to bring Lou Adarumo on as their DC. Yeah. And I can tell you there are several right now who are talking to him to try to see what he wants to do next. Ben Johnson to the Bears with Lou. They coach together in Miami. I've already done this all in my head. I've gone way too deep with all the connections. I do like that format, though, when you get a younger head coach and then he brings in a guy that's just been around for forever. Yeah.

to kind of like show him like what Wade Phillips did in LA when McVeigh was out there. He's like the guy for a while there where like you bring that veteran presence of like, nah, okay.

Look at Brian Callahan in Tennessee, right? He brought his dad. Yeah. Yeah. To help out. You know, Tennessee Titans fired their general manager, Rand Carthon. Yeah. So the statement that they put out today was really, really strange. They said that Rand was hired to be like the description of the job was different when they brought him in, which was to be in lockstep with the head coach. Now the description of that job has changed, which also implies that now Rand's job is to be

Brian Callahan's daddy and tell him what to do all the time. And he didn't fit that job description. What happened in Tennessee? Well, he's got a daddy. His daddy's on the team. His daddy's his daddy. He's got two daddies.

Look, I'm going more big picture, right? So you just go back one year ago, just one year ago when they were making a decision of what to do with the general manager position. After John Robinson obviously was let go and we know what came with that with the A.J. Brown trade and all the things with communication issues that he had with the owner, they move on. All right. So they collaborate with Mike Vrabel at the time and say, okay, what do we want to do next?

Vrabel goes, I want to go with my player personnel guy, Ryan Cowden, who's now currently with the New York Giants. Guy understands how I work. We view things the same way. And he's like a real football guy. He's a true scout. And the Titans said, no, we want Ren Carthon. He's the guy. And from what I understand, Vrabel just made the suggestion of, hey, like, I like Ren too. He's a great dude. Let's just make him an assistant GM. Mm-hmm.

and let him grow on the job with Ryan. And then when the time is right, you know, he can get a GM job and they didn't want to do it. And then in the end, they obviously fired Mike Rivel, gave the power to Rand Carthon here. And now a year later,

Rand Carthon is out. Yeah. So to me, this says they don't know what they want. This also says to me that they make emotional decisions, which are the worst times, which is, you know, I think there's a difference too in making emotional decisions. Robert Kraft was emotional talking about the Gerard Mayo, but I don't think that's emotion. I don't think that's just a reaction to a bad year. That's, this is not up to the standard. I need this team to be right. This in Tennessee is, um,

have to blame someone I'm sick of it go someone needs to fix this ran it's not you goodbye that's got to be such a shitty feeling as a GM you have the number one pick like you're excited for a couple weeks like after week 18 you're like fuck yeah okay now it's ran season baby and then it's like no you don't even get to make that choice you'll get to open this present yeah that sucks yeah but yeah no I can see that that's there is a difference between being emotional about a decision that you made and then making this the decision because your emotions took over

Correct. And look, it's human nature to be emotional about it and be frustrated and angry, but

I think they were emotional when they fired their head coach last year, and it sounds like they're emotional here. I don't know if that's a great quality to have when you're running a business. We'll get back to Diana Rossini in a second. She's being brought to you by Prime and Wild Card Playoffs. They're coming on Saturday. We got TJ Watt and the Steelers taking on Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in a playoff showdown between AFC North rivals, and it's only on Prime Video.

Is there any love lost in this game? That's my first question. Second question, what should I do with the record books? Should I keep them or should I throw them out the window? Do these teams like each other? A lot of questions should be answered. If you're not a prime member, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial to stream the game. The Steelers, Ravens, it's a big spread, but you know that these teams play pretty close. So it's going to be a great game. It's playoff football.

Steelers, Ravens, what could be better than that? The Steelers and the Ravens in Prime's exclusive wildcard playoff game powered by Verizon. Saturday at 7.30 Eastern, only on Prime Video. What's going to happen with Mike McCarthy? Because his presence, and it's a large presence. Is he too large to get a head coaching job? He might be. It's messing me up mentally because...

What the Bears are really good at is they're interviewing every single person that's ever coached football. And there's some names on that list that scare the fuck out of me. So then I find myself being like, well, Mike McCarthy would be better than this guy. And then I have to take a step back and be like, wait a second. Am I talking myself into Mike McCarthy? So can he just stay in Dallas so I don't have to talk myself into Mike McCarthy?

No, I think the chances of him staying in, in, in Dallas are fair. Like I think that could happen. Um, look, I know that they did a little bit of work on some head coaches behind the scenes of the last few weeks. So it wouldn't shock me if they also move on. I just don't like how they're going about their business, how they're, they're just kind of hanging them out to dry right now, trying to figure out what he's going to do next. This entire year was really hard. If you're him, you know, not knowing what's going to be next. Um,

Look, I think if Mike McCarthy does wind up moving on or the Dallas Jerry says, yeah, we're going to go in a different direction. I 100% think he has a good shot at getting that Chicago Bears job. That would be the funniest possible. Yeah. Funniest possible outcome. I think it's the worst. I've thought about this about Dan. I'm like David Shaw. Why I'm imagining your pain that I have. I'm like, what would,

I would move Dan so angry that I don't even want to be around him. David Shaw, I don't want Brian Flores, but I've somehow talked myself into maybe the second time around he'll be better. But I just don't want a defensive guy, except for Mike Vrabel, who he's a different cat.

Because he's... Well, you look at who he's hired in the past at OC. They go on to be head coaches, right? Arthur Smith, Matt LaFleur. He obviously knows how to pick a good OC. So that's a good point. Anthony Weaver is a name that I'm hearing a lot of teams are putting in for. He spent three years with the Baltimore Ravens. Right now, he's the DC for the Miami Dolphins coach. He was with the Texans. Another large man. But he...

I don't want to say he's like Vrabel light because that's taking away from Anthony's abilities individually, but he has a great way of connecting with players, holding them accountable, but he's just a little bit more laid back. Like he's cool, but he's smart. So, you know, I can tell you people in Baltimore were very...

They think that this is going to be the run he gets. This is the cycle. He'll be a head coach. It's time. So you shouldn't be disappointed if that becomes a real thing. I just don't want a defensive coordinator. I want an offensive guy. I want someone who's going to come in here and be like, Caleb Williams, we have to do everything. This organization has to do everything in its power to make Caleb Williams great.

And so that's all I'm scared about. One other name in Chicago is Cliff Kingsbury, the people thrown out. I don't want it. I don't want it because I selfishly want to keep him around in Washington. And I think he's a he's a very good OC. Didn't work out for him at all as a head coach. And he's one of these guys where when they get fired from being a head coach, they immediately say, like, in that moment of truth after after you realize what you just got freed from. Like, yeah, being a head coach kind of sucks.

Like that might not be for me, but then a year later though, these guys are like, yeah, I want to coach football again. Like they forget so fast. Well, going back to what we were talking about, how everyone knows there's such a small chance of getting those jobs. So you do it, you take it out. Even if you're not ready, you just, you just do it. But I think Cliff has had some time here for,

time off away as we know he traveled the world um to sort of recenter himself and now that he's having so much success as a coordinator and he's told me in the past too um i like play calling yeah like all the other crap that comes with being a head coach and all the headaches that you have to deal with and the things that you have to think about and manage is you know it's exhausting um so i i do think

he will take an interview, but I think when it comes down to it, it may be one of those situations where he decides to just stay in Washington. Yeah. Um, all right. So memes, I think has some questions for you before we do that though. Uh, a question on Max's behalf is Jalen hurts. Going to ever clear the concussion protocol. Uh,

I am not happy about this. This is concerning to me. This has been over two weeks. Look, Wednesday's practice day is going to be the most important part of this process, obviously, because we'll know if he's cleared.

but we're obviously starting here. The playoffs and the starting quarterback is still in concussion protocol. Yeah. So, yeah, Max, you should be freaking out, my friend. You should be freaking out. The word I heard was concerned. How are things in your... What, Max? What? This is obviously PFT just texting her ahead of time to say this. No. 100%. What? Are you concerned for his brain, dude? Are you saying that her integrity as a reporter is so low that I could text her and make her put out a false report?

You don't respect women. That's not what I said. That's not what I said. You sound like memes. What I am saying is that actually, I don't know. Don't you need to, can't you not clear concussion protocol until a practice day? Correct. So that there was no way of clearing concussion protocol yesterday. But it did tweet it on Wednesday. But remember, Max, this is, this is, this is the news that you have to watch.

he will get tested again. If he gets tested and fails, he's got to go through the whole thing again. Oh, no. He's got to do the colors, the alphabet, everything. Count backwards by seven. How are things inside your own house? Is your husband as deeply into the Tanner McKee lore as Max is? Oh, yeah. Look...

I'm at a point now where I manage Kevin the way you guys manage Max. Like it's the same, we're the same person. So I understand what he's doing. I know what he's dealing with, just all the obnoxiousness and the concerns and the, my favorite thing to do because we're always, we have a big calendar in our kitchen because we're busy and the big calendar, you need the big calendar. Yeah. We're like a 1983 home. Like it's just gigantic instead of using phones. Yeah. And I will just do this. I'm like, well, if,

If the Eagles get bounced out of the first round, da-da-da. I mean, just you want to cause havoc. I've been planning things on Sunday. I've been planning things on Sundays, and I put them in there. He's like, I don't know why I'm putting things in there. I don't know why I'm doing that. That's great. All right, memes. You got questions? I have two questions. Okay. The first one's from me, and the other is from Tom Lee. He's a coworker, also a Jets fan.

Mine is, who's your source inside the Jets building and why do they keep showing up for a job they hate? Okay. And then the follow-up from Tom Lay, what's your fucking problem?

It's good questions. Good questions. Would you like to address either of those? Yeah, it's the janitor. Everyone always says it's the custodian. It's the security guard. It's the cheerleader. It's actually Sala. He's still at the building. Yeah. It's Joe Bonino. It's any New York Jet fan. If you come up to me and just tell me a story about the Jets, I'll report it. Why not? It's the New York Times. They

don't care memes doesn't know sarcasm he's gonna be like she said yeah she said it i knew that she finally admits it i know um memes you you do hate my reporting i have noticed it um and i realize that you i think i don't think you hate me i just think you hate the information that i'm putting out there is that true yeah he can't separate it yeah no don't shoot the messenger shoot the message you are shoots the message to him you are the news yeah

Like, it's easier to get mad at you than it would be to wrap your head around it. Like, I'm a mad at Brady. Yes. I'm the one who did that. Yes. So speaking of the Jets, with the Rex Ryan thing, do you think it's a good strategy for Rex Ryan to say, like, I'm going to go in there and tell Aaron Rodgers that the country club days are over? It's brilliant. It's brilliant. I love what Rex is doing right now. I'm all behind this campaign. It's ridiculous, but it's smart because –

He's telling the Jets, I want this job. I'm going to do this job. You know when you're so overwhelmed by someone's confidence that you're like, wait, maybe they are good. He's telling them what he wants them to believe. Whereas you think Mike Vrabel was sitting there going, I want this job. I'm doing this job. I know how to fix this. Ron Rivera wasn't doing that. So you're getting a different message. So he's going to separate himself. To me, it's worth the risk.

Yeah, it'd be fun. See, I have one question about the Raiders because we talked about the teams that didn't do anything. I'm not sure that we can put the Raiders into that category just yet because I think Mark Davis is kind of just like thinking it over. I don't know. He's taking his time. What's going on with Tom Brady and the Raiders and the relationship with Mark Davis? And do you is Antonio Pierce safe?

Yeah. So it's the Tom Brady influence is bigger than I think people realize. I know he's the minority owner and there were some question marks of like, all right, well, he'll be in the background. Tom Brady's not going to be, has Tom Brady ever been in the background of anything, right? Like he he's full on in the decision-making for the Vegas Raiders. He talks to Mark Davis all the time. And I think you're going to see tons of Tom Brady ways and, and just influence on how this team is going to run. Um,

So I think the question that we probably need to consider is, is Tom Brady an Antonio Pierce fan? Does he like what he sees? I'm going to guess probably not from his personal history with the Giants.

I don't even think it has to do with the Giants. I just think, look how Tom likes to do things. It's discipline. It's New England, right? It's the Patriot way. It's tight. It's accountability. It's all the things that we know. It's everything that Hank is. This is just...

I don't think Antonio Pierce runs his team that way. Yeah. You know, I'm not saying one is better than the other. I just think when it comes down to it, it goes back to that comfort of, I know I can operate with that. So who's left that can do something in the way that Tom Brady wants it? Brian Flores, Mike Rameau, right? There's New England again. Shiano. Shiano. No one's talking about Shiano. Are we doing this again? No one's talking about Shiano. Why are we talking about Shiano?

We should talk about Shannon. Is it Mike Rabel to the Patriots is done?

I don't think so. He's meeting with the Bears. He's meeting with the Saints. Okay. I'm curious when he's going to meet with the Patriots. That's the one I haven't seen yet. Okay. I'm going to go dig on that. Okay. And Hank is all in on this, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. He reported it already. Yeah, he did. He reported it. He reported Mike Raybould to the Patriots? Based on his feelings. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. That's our reporting standard here. I actually think that's the least...

interesting hire though like it's like yeah it's great and it's cool and returns home but that that's not like a shocking move if that happens no I actually like expect it to happen I want it to happen so it's like the chess board starts to clear up a little

Yeah. I mean, if he picks the Jags, then I'm like, holy cow. That came out of nowhere. Do we have time for one last question? I know that you have another thing coming up. Do the rollback question. Rollback question. Joggers, hoodies, shorts. R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com. R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com. Promo code TAKE. 20% off. Joggers, hoodies, shorts. Okay, so is there a college coach that is drawing interest that maybe we haven't heard about as much? Because I'm thinking about two guys. Not Shiano.

Dabo, because he hates coaching college now. It seems like he's fed up with the transfer portal NIL stuff. And then Sark. Fine. I don't think those two are going to be in the cycle aggressively. I don't know what Sark wants to do, but every coach in college likes that buzz of the NFL.

Bill O'Brien is the name I'm watching. I know he loves Boston College and they love him up there. But that's a name I'm watching. Matt Campbell is a name I'm watching. Okay. Yeah. I don't know about, but Bill O'Brien, I think I said Raiders would make a lot of sense for Bill O'Brien. There's another new connection. I forgot about that. I didn't, I didn't connect that. That's great. Yeah. Um,

Look, the question was, could I see these college coaches maybe getting an opportunity? Like, yeah, but I haven't heard any of these yet. But those are the names if I had a guess at this point. I'd keep an eye on them. Okay. Do teams have to announce when they do an interview? They just like to do it. It's not... But they don't have to. They could interview someone that we don't know about, and then all of a sudden it's like, well, that's the coach. Yeah.

Yeah, they just like to let the world know. They just like to let the fan bases go, look, we're working. Yeah, the Jaguars publishing their list of people that they've asked to interview for the job was pretty strange. Yeah, see, I would... What about the teams putting out comments that they're retaining their coaches and GMs? When did we start doing this? I know, yeah. If I were running a team, I would just go like, yeah, we're interviewing the ghost of Vince Lombardi. We're interviewing just, you know, George Washington. The leader of men. I would move in silence. Yeah.

But that's how I would do it. But don't you think if you have to put out a statement, like, do you think the Chiefs are going to put out Andy Reid? That would be funny. Yeah. After they win the Super Bowl. Decided to retain Andy Reid. We're going to stick around. The Rams are like, we love Sean McVay. He's allowed to return back. Like, no. No. Thanks. Yeah.

All right. Well, Diana, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We love having you on and we'll see you at the combine. We'll see you Super Bowl week. We'll see you at the combine. And, you know, don't just let me down easy. If you know, if you find out something before I see it, just let me down. I am hoping this all comes together on your 40th birthday. That is the hope for me. So I can't wait to give you that big, big present. Ben Johnson. Josh McCown's your head coach. Bye guys.

I'm going to go ahead and get started.

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For more information, go to ForThePeople.com slash PMT or dial pound law pound 529 from your cell phone. That's ForThePeople.com slash PMT or pound law pound 529 from your cell. This is a paid advertisement. She's also brought to you by our great friends at Uber Eats.

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maybe some Thai food one night, mix it up with Uber Eats, terms and conditions apply, see the app for details. And now, here is our number two ranked college football expert, Brandon Walker. And now for something completely different. Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is our college football expert, not by choice, but by a stupid tournament that we did and he happened to win. It is Brandon Walker, who has already made demands on this studio. He demanded the couch be put

back because Hank was sitting on a Vinnie Woodhead chair, which Vinnie Woodhead is near and dear to our heart. Yeah. Vinnie Woodhead, it's our van. Sure. Sure. Hank just said unilaterally that he was going to move the chair, install the chair. And then whenever we'd have a guest off, he'd force memes to come in here and move the entire couch back. Right. Two things.

Oh, did you just do long ones? Two things. A, I'm not a guest. I'm part of the show now as the resident college football expert. And B, the couch has nothing to do with me. I'm sitting on the couch, but you guys are engaging in the couch fight with Hank right now. True or false, you sat down on the chair and you said, what's this chair?

True, but I really was... I didn't know what the chair was. I rest my case. I rest my case. But Hank is the one... But as part of the show, shouldn't you know that it's Vanny Woodhead? Aren't you and Hank fighting, but didn't you just say you're part of the show? You don't know Vanny Woodhead? I don't know the intricacies of Vanny Woodhead. I'm aware of Vanny Woodhead. You're part of the show. You know who knows about Vanny Woodhead? Who? Tom Fradelli. Well, you know what he doesn't know about? College football, and that's why I'm here. I walked into that. Yeah, well, Brandon's also... His ass isn't really built for a chair. It's more of a couch ass. I...

I sat in the chair. I immediately got concerned I was going to break the chair. Yeah. There were concerns with the chair. But Hank is fighting the chair battle, not me. I don't care if the chair's here or not. Well, you clearly care a little bit. You should have an opinion one way. Well, I do have an opinion. I want our guests to be as comfortable as possible here. Okay. All right. So you're here. I'm here. Wait, are you a guest on your own show now? No, I'm not a guest. But you might be a guest on your own show.

I'm in a pretzel now. What? How do I get out of it? Trigs make Brandon really fat in the cover art. Yeah, that's how you get out of it. Why? Go ahead. Why would you do that? No, I wasn't talking to you. I understand that. But why would you do that? You don't even have to do that much. I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to Trigs. Weighed in at 273 yesterday. I thought I was 265. Yeah, Brandon told me that he ordered dark chicken for lunch instead of having the chicken breast meal that we had for lunch from the whole office thinking it was healthier. I think that's actually way worse. So you're probably up to 276 now. I love that dark meat.

Brandon. Yes. Jason Whitlock over here. College of Puma. I know what I'm capable of. Watch it. Watch it. Cans. Stay away. He said cans. He said a huge rack. Yeah, he said a huge rack. Several times. Got to stay away. Yeah. I've never seen someone cope harder with not being able to get laid. Yeah. He knows what he's capable of. I wouldn't allow myself around her because I knew you'd get me in the same room as that. I'll tell you one thing. Huge rack. You know me. Yeah.

Me and my wife have a deal. I can never be in the same room as Sidney Sweeney. That's right. I'm capable. You know. What I'm capable of. All right, so Brandon, college football playoff. We want to talk about the matchups. Sure. We're down to four. Yeah. Overall, how would you say the first college football playoff has gone? Are you one of the... Let me ask this a better way.

Why is it that college football seems like there's just an endless amount of fans that just don't seem to like the sport? It's the only sport that really gets meticulously picked apart for the quality of its games. It doesn't really happen to the NBA playoffs or the NHL playoffs. It doesn't really happen to anybody else. It's the only sport where if there's a bad game, it is suddenly an indictment of the entire sport. Correct. Whereas...

A playoff is just that. You are playing off to find out who's the best team at the end. There's no guarantee you're going to have some aesthetically pleasing games along the way. You've just collected through a 12-game sample size who deserves to be here. We pretty much got that this year. I don't know that it was perfect, but we got that. We can't help that some of the games weren't as good. The Super Bowl, when PFC and I were growing up, you were in your 30s. In the 90s was always a blowout. Yeah.

It does seem like you're just going out of your way to take shots sometimes. Like, oh, you're part of the show. I think that because they installed this new playoff, there are now a bunch of people out there that are looking at it and trying to tweak it, trying to move it around, trying to add things, trying to inject their own ideas into it. You've got to be careful with that. You've got to be careful because if you do too much, you're going to become the NBA. Mm-hmm.

And you don't want that. People believe that the playoff was implemented because it was supposed to be some grand fix. Well, it wasn't fixing because nothing was broken. It was just a better way to determine a champion. It's more seats at the table. It's more excitement. And it gave us an October and November that were unparalleled in excitement. November had games. Would anybody have cared about Ole Miss, Florida in previous years? No. Would anybody have cared about certain games? No. It gave us a great November. It gave us a bad first round. But then it also gave us Texas, Arizona State, which was remote.

But the pushback I always have for people is, so the first round sucked. What was the alternative of the first round? It would have been Indiana and Tennessee playing in a bowl game that half the players opted out and no one gave a fuck. So yeah, it was a blowout, but all the players were playing and they were trying their hardest. And I'd rather watch that even if it's a blowout. People are nostalgic liars about college football. They're like, well, we should go back to how it used to be. 30 years ago, Penn State goes undefeated and gets nothing.

They get nothing. There are these times in history where we're just letting sports writers decide. So we've come step by step by step. The 12-team playoff, I think, is the best way to do it until we have a 16-team playoff, which would be even better. How about we compromise? How about we keep the current format, but the winner gets the old trophy? That.

That could work. Now, I will say this year it might have. You don't know this. This is year to year. Maybe eight teams was enough for this year, but you can't go based on. You can't do that. And the fixes that I do think should happen are you don't do the automatic buy. The seating. It should just be the four best teams get a buy. Yeah. And there should be the first two rounds should be on campus because I do think what we're finding is part of college football, it's obviously the game, but it's the atmosphere as well.

And when you ask a fan base to travel potentially three times in a three-week stretch, you just aren't going to get the same atmosphere. You're just not like the fans. The crowds are not going to be the same as they were when it was like, here's our one big bowl game. It also takes time to build up to that schedule, to make it part of a fan base's routine, where if you're a big school that has national title aspirations every year, that you just pencil in, okay, like late December through mid-January,

I got to keep my calendar open because it might be on the road. Yeah, I mean, if you're a Texas fan, you're in your second straight playoff, or you're going to – I don't even know where they played that last game. Were they at the Fiesta Bowl? Yeah. No, they weren't at the Fiesta Bowl. They were at the Peach. They were at the Peach Bowl. Are you going to Atlanta knowing that you might have two other trips in the next two weeks? Maybe you're not. Maybe you say, well, I'll get them the next time. So it creates some issues and stuff, but there are small issues we have to work towards.

Overall, this is a better way to do it than we've ever had, and it is going to get tweaked. The auto buys for conference champions got to go away. That has to go away. It created a spot where the sixth seed had the easiest path to where we are right now, which I think Penn State probably was good enough to get there anyway. I'm not going to hold it against them, but they had an easier path than, say, Oregon.

Yeah, Oregon got screwed. Oregon should have just lost the Big Ten championship game, and they still probably would be alive. Yeah, yeah. They would have gotten a home game. They would have won it. Then they would have gone on. They wouldn't have had the rust that they dealt with against Ohio State. Now, Ohio State killed them so much, you can't really blame that. But still, there were issues, and we'll fix them along the way. Ohio State, yeah, go ahead. Oh, I was going to say, I think the other thing we agree on, Brandon, is that the national championship game should be at the Rose Bowl. We don't believe in that. We don't.

You try to make it personal with me about the Rose Bowl because you try to make it personal with me about a lot of things. No, I don't. You make it personal. You like to point fingers and say Brandon Walker hates the Rose Bowl, and you turn everyone against me by saying, no, I don't hate the Rose Bowl. I think the Rose Bowl is magnificent and wonderful, and it is also absolutely in love with itself and thinks it's bigger than the sport, and the Rose Bowl needs to be taken down a peg. The Rose Bowl holds up college football progress. It's done it before. It stands in the way. It has to have things its way, and it is not that special.

Are you describing the Rose Bowl or the SEC? It is special. Good one, PFT. Literally everything you said. Not the worst counterpoint I've ever heard. Yes. Not the worst counterpoint I've ever heard. But it's better than his counterpoints where he just says, I hate it. No, I don't hate it. I just think it's in love with its own parts. You hate it because you'd get a migraine if you went. I did that.

The fucking Texas-Arizona State game. They are in overtime of a playoff game. Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl will not hold up. The Rose Bowl keeps... You keep saying the farts thing, but the farts smell incredible. Yeah, they smell like roses. I don't think the Rose Bowl farts smell that good. Well, Brandon, they had to kick off because the game is built... It's not...

It doesn't go by your fancy clocks. It goes by the sun. So you don't respect the sun? The fucking sun? Imagine that? Not respecting the sun? There's an airplane. You don't even know what they fly over for the Rose Bowl. No, you don't. You didn't know either, did you? Are you fucking kidding me? What flyover did you not know? Are you fucking kidding me? There was a flyover you didn't know recently. No, he knows all the flyovers. Yeah, there was a flyover, but that was like an experimental aircraft that I couldn't possibly expect. What was the stealth that flew over the Rose Bowl, right? It's called a B-2 bomber. Come on.

B2 bomber. Maybe you knew. Don't we call it the stealth? Somewhat, yeah. Like casuals would call it the stealth bomber. People don't respect the Rose Bowl. I respect stealth bombers.

And the Rose Bowl? I respect the Rose Bowl. Here's the problem with it. You turned it into this where you either love it unconditionally. Well, I'll admit to one thing. My feelings were hurt a little bit because I didn't. Usually I can pick up on your mocking tone. And when we were January 1st, we spent the whole day together. And I did not pick up on your mocking tone for about three hours. And then when I did, I was like, God damn it.

He's been mocking me this whole time. Well, that's kind of on you. You live your entire life with me on a mocking tone. I know, but you then also, I found out he bought me two gifts. Guess where the gifts are from, PFT?

The Rose Bowl. He's buying me mocking gifts. No, he's mocking me with gifts. Brandon was nailing you for three hours and you didn't realize it? Yeah. If I bought myself Rose Bowl gifts, that's mocking. He was mocking me with gifts. I know that he loves the Rose Bowl, so I got him Rose Bowl gifts. Honestly, Big Cat, if I were you, I would be fine with that arrangement. If somebody wanted to buy me a mocking gift that I actually enjoyed, I'd be like, okay. But I don't know if I enjoy it anymore because every time I enjoy it, Brandon's laughing.

You walk up there and you see Wisconsin Badgers 1994 Rose Bowl champs and a picture of the Rose Bowl. You don't... I'm like, God damn it, he got me again. Yeah, yeah. That's how our friendship works. That's a great friendship. So as an SEC fan, Brandon, how do you feel about the mighty shoulders of Texas carrying the mantle for the SEC? Still Big 12. It's been a... It is weird. It feels weird. It's been a bad bowl season for SEC. It's been a bad season for the SEC. Would you like to apologize for the SEC? 100% no, because...

Fuck the SEC. I'm a fan of Mississippi State University. When Georgia loses, I think it's hilarious. When Alabama loses, I think it's fucking hilarious. So this myth that you guys think that we're all sitting in our trailer parks down south just waiting for Alabama and Georgia to bail us out is wrong. It is wrong. I was going to say Super 8. Yeah. Whatever. Wherever we're hanging out. Back of a pickup. Down south. The dogfighting ring. Wherever we're hanging out down south. The cross burning. The cousin fucking fest. We're not just waiting. We would never talk football. The cousin fucking fest.

We're never waiting for Alabama to bail us out. When they win, we're like, God damn, this is proof of how tough it is down here. When they lose, it's hilarious. I like that. But in a weird way, the SEC school, Texas, going up against Ohio State, kind of built like an SEC team.

ohio state yeah they've been the one team uh constantly and clemson touched it for a few years that have been built like an elite sec team it's not built like an sec team it's built like an elite sec team because there's teams built like uh you know florida right now and kentucky and a and m and then there's teams built like alabama and georgia over the last 15 years which is just take the five of the five stars and put them in every position and destroy everybody and texas is like that ohio state's like

that. So if Ohio State wins this national championship, shouldn't we be saying that Georgia's built like an elite Big Ten team? I don't represent the Big Ten. I don't have a Big Ten accent. That's on you to start turning around the narrative. No, I actually find the whole thing funny and it's like the Big Ten cat thing that I do. I don't actually... I'm kind of with you. I'm not rooting for Ohio State to win. It helps you none as a Wisconsin fan. No, I know. I'm not rooting for them. I'm rooting for them.

I will benefit if they win it all, I will benefit it by saying, wow, toughest conference. Look at me. But I know that I'm not rooting for them. When you get to the end of the season, and it's happened to the SEC a couple times, it might happen to the Big Ten this year, and two SEC teams play for a national title and your team went 9-3 in that conference, you're like,

Look at what we had to deal with down here. I'm never winning anything ever again. Neither are you. It sucks. Speak for yourself, buddy. You're talking to a 2021 College World Series champion. Okay, well, I've actually got a dynasty going with women's hockey. Well, yeah, but you don't really. You never actually watched one of the games. I did. I watched the third period of one of the championship games. Yeah, but you can't name any players. Like, I can name all the Mississippi State baseball players. Haley.

Chad, Austin, Cody. All right, let's talk about the games. Let's. Thursday night. Sure. Penn State, Notre Dame. Slugfest. Path to get here, Penn State, nothing. Right. Haven't had to play a big game. Notre Dame acquitted themselves very nicely against Georgia. Mm-hmm.

Marcus Freeman pantsed Kirby Smart. Absolutely pantsed him. Pantsed him. Had him crying like a bitch after. Loved it. And Georgia, by the way, is going to be back. They're going to be fine long term. Oh, they've already gotten two of the best wide receiver transfers in the country. They're fixing their problems now. And Kirby Smart is one of those coaches that, kind of like Nick Saban, when they lose, it's actually bad for everyone else because they're just going to come back with

more vengeance. Well, I kind of say that about the entire SEC. If everybody wants to shit on the SEC right now, that's fine if you want to do the collective conference thing, but embarrassing Alabama and embarrassing Georgia, them going through that, it's just going to turn them into monsters this offseason, and it's going to be nastier than it's ever been. I think most of the shitting on the SEC is because the SEC so vehemently defended itself going into the

playoff and also openly lobby they've had a 20-year run where they've just kicked the shit out yeah but everybody would lobby in that scenario i think i didn't i didn't think alabama deserved or south carolina or omiss that's where you hate south carolina uh all right so this game yeah you've actually predicted the playoffs perfectly so far i have yeah that's our college football expert folks yeah who do you have winning this game and why i have penn state winning this game because i think penn state and her name are very very very similar i

I think Penn State's a little bit better version of the team they're going for. They have a better quarterback. Great defense, better quarterback, both elite running game, both very, very, very physical. Penn State just has one more explosive playmaker than Notre Dame has. They have the incredible tight end, Tyler Warren, and they have a quarterback who I think is not going to make the mistakes that the backup quarterback for Georgia made. Listen, Notre Dame...

They're both built to win games the same way. Get a 7-10 point lead, use their defense, ride it out, win the game. And Notre Dame pulled that off to a tee against Georgia. Notre Dame had two plays. They had the sack fumble to get the ball at the 9-yard line, and then they had the kick return. That gave them two touchdowns of separation, and they never let Georgia breathe. If those two plays don't happen, they had 250 yards of total offense. They're playing a more physical defense, and I don't think Allard's going to make the mistakes the backup quarterback made.

I just like Penn State as a little bit better version of what both teams are going for. It does. The Tyler Warren piece is a good point because when you watch Notre Dame, like Jeremiah Love is electric. Riley Leonard can run very well. He's a tough runner. It just doesn't feel like anyone's getting like crazy open. No. Whereas Tyler Warren is one of those guys where it's like you just throw it up to him and he'll get it.

I think Notre Dame had 80 yards passing against Georgia. Great touchdown by Faison. Which was all fine. That's what they needed to do to beat Georgia, but I just don't know if that's going to beat Penn State. I think Penn State's going to get a couple touchdowns from the combination of Aller and Warren, and I

I know that a lot of people, it feels like more people believe Notre Dame's going to win than believe Penn State's going to win. But I think that's totally due to the path that Penn State has and the path that Notre Dame has. Do you think that Allard is... Do you trust him? I think he is very good. I've been on the Drew Allard train for two years to my detriment last year when they lost to Ohio State and Michigan. People were like, see, we told you he's terrible. That was a bad game. That was a bad game. It was a bad game, but it was also due to the two best defenses in the country. Well, this year...

He doesn't turn the ball over. I think last year he might have had four interceptions. This year, three. Something ridiculous. I don't know if those are exact numbers. But he doesn't turn the ball over. Doesn't make mistakes. If they had elite receivers, this would be an elite offense. They don't have elite receivers, so it's a really good offense. Okay. Did you plan on this when you're thinking about who's going to win this game? It's the 100th anniversary of the Four Horsemen. Mm-hmm. Knute Rockne. I don't believe Ric Flair and Arn Anderson were together 100 years ago. Yeah.

Are you familiar with Canute? I am familiar with Canute. Win one for the Gifford, right? Gifford, yeah. Doesn't that feel like Team of Destiny vibes? Do we know if there's any 100-year anniversaries for Penn State? Probably don't want to look in their past. Have we checked? Yeah, this is Catholics versus Catholics. Or Catholics versus convicts. Yeah. Both. Catholics versus Catholic convicts. Catholic? Sure. Well, Catholic convicts versus Catholic convicts.

Good point. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Question about this game. Yeah. Big game, James. Sure. Which I think we should start calling him big game, James. Remember when we called James Shield big game, James? Right. It's like, well, like, why? It's just it just rhymes with James. Yeah. So big game, James. Yeah. Are we worried at all about big game, James not being big game, James?

I think about it. Is it fair to say he hasn't won a big game when he just won two playoff games? I understand. Those aren't big games. Right. Max said they weren't big games. Isn't that right? Okay, so could I argue that Georgia without its starting quarterback is? No, it's still Georgia. Okay. It's still a big game. So we're really massaging the word big game to fit our narrative right now. It's a team that's like, you know, he's not greatly favored over. Yeah. And...

It's a toss-up game against a top-five team. Penn State has not been able to overcome when Michigan was at the top of the sport the last three years. They couldn't overcome them. And when Ohio State's – they haven't overcome Ohio State. Once.

Can I ask you this? Yeah. Over the last four years, what's Notre Dame's record against those two teams? What would it be? Because it'd be the exact same as Penn State. No, it's a fair point. But that's also a little Brian Kelly in there. And Freeman, who I think, again, he pants Kirby Smart. He looked great. Yep. This is a guy that lost Northern Illinois this year. This guy who has lost some small games. Tough team. One of the best Mountain West teams. This is a guy who's lost some games he shouldn't lose.

But suddenly because he beats Georgia, all the questioning is still on James Franklin. It's called narratives. I don't think this is all about the coaches here. I think this is one team has a better quarterback than the other. That's what I think. I agree. I agree with you. If you go out the whole playoff, it's four coaches. Somebody's breaking through for the first time. Ryan Day gets rid of his problems.

James Franklin gets rid of his problems. Marcus Freeman ascends to the top of the sport for the first time. And Sarkeesian battles through everything he had to battle through. So it's a fascinating coach narrative playoff. I agree. It is. So with Marcus Freeman, the pantsing really occurred on that fourth down. Yeah, the fake go. Did you know that Georgia had a giant banner on the sidelines that said DJO?

You remember that DJO that was on the bottom of the screen the entire game because it was boom, right there on the sidelines. So what did DJO stand for? Don't jump off sides. That makes sense. That's what the banner meant. Yeah. And then they jumped off sides. Well, they also have posted speed limits in Athens, Georgia, and they don't really pay attention to those either. They also probably had a banner saying don't get in the way of refs.

Don't get in the way of refs. Don't drink and drive. But I think that having the don't jump off sides banner makes you more likely. If that's the one thing that you're emphasizing. It's in your head. If the last word you read. Don't hit the ball in the water, Hank. Yeah. If the last word you read going onto the field is off sides, it's in your mind to jump off sides. It's in your DNA. Correct. All right. So officially Penn State.

I like Penn State. Would you be willing to put your reputation as a college football expert on the line? I have already earned that reputation via winning this battle this year, so I don't know that I have to put it back on the line. Do you need a banner to hang behind you? Because I don't think you won the Big Game Boomer banner. Big Game Boomer hasn't put one out yet. Okay, so you haven't won it. Right. I haven't won it, but I haven't lost it either. Okay. And we went through all of 2024 without a new banner. True. I'm with you. I think I'm going to bet Penn State. Yeah. Okay.

What's the current line in draft? Two and a half, I think, or maybe two. I think it'll be a pick them by game time. I feel like the late money is coming in on Penn State. I also hate to do it, but I don't know. Under? It's low, 44 and a half. You can't have a kick return or a college football play, something stupid happen, but these teams both want to play.

I mean, both those things happened in the last game. The total ended up at 33. I know. So the one thing that's been jumping out to me about Notre Dame is their secondary. Yeah, very good. So good. Yeah, Xavier Watts is one of the best players in the country. So I feel like, yeah, as much as you want to trust Penn State and you want to trust Drew Aller, that is going to be a tough battle for him. It's going to be very tough, especially because his receivers don't really get much separation. But...

it's not so much just trusting drew allers trusting drew aller more than you're trusting riley leonard to throw the ball down the field when you play so i think i don't think penn state is going to go out there and throw for 350 yards and four touchdowns but if you had to tell me you know that one team's going to win by throwing for 215 yards and two touchdowns i would say that's penn state yeah okay uh max you have any penn state questions for brandon

No, I had no notes. I think he did a great job. It's going to be a great stream. We'll have Max there. We'll have Chief there representing Notre Dame. I think Frank's going to be here representing Notre Dame. Connor Griffin, Penn State. Jeff D. Lowe, Penn State. McKenzie, Notre Dame. Yep. So it'll be great. It'll be a packed house. Okay, second game. Yeah. Texas, Ohio State. Now...

The knee jerk is Ohio State looks unbeatable. Right. And Texas has not looked, like, incredible. Not at all. I mean, they kind of played a little around with Clemson. I know that was never really in doubt. Right. And then Arizona State probably should have won that game. They got right to the edge of losing. That targeting call, that changes everything. In a fourth and 13, if he overthrows it by an inch. Zero blitz. I know. So... Is this going to be Ohio State kicking their ass? So...

If I went by what the two teams have done in the playoff, it has to be that, right? It has to be because Ohio State got the embarrassment against Michigan. Three weeks they heard how terrible they are, how big of a train wreck they are. And they came out and their play calling was different. Their attitude was different. Everything was better. They had fixed it. However, I wonder about this.

Ohio State now, by virtue of their two performances they put on, does the pressure now circle back around to get on their shoulders again? Because they had that pressure going into Michigan the last couple years. They've had that pressure. And Ryan Day traditionally doesn't do that great with pressure. Now that they have shown they are unequivocally the most talented and the best team in this playoff, does the pressure come back? And then do they go into that shell again where their play calling isn't as aggressive, where their play calling isn't as down the field? I wonder about that. Otherwise...

If Ryan Day and Chip Kelly don't hold this team back, if they call plays the same way they've been calling plays, I think they win by two touchdowns. Breaking Moose. You get a cow. You get a cow. You get a cow. Like that. Breaking Moose. Another one? Yeah, yeah. That's good. That's a good cow. Because we don't want to have to re-tape it. Raiders fire Antonio Pierce. Oh, they do? Okay. Interesting. So Raiders fire Antonio Pierce. That is...

another Vrabel opening it is possibly Vrabel bring Josh McDaniels back yeah so do we have any thoughts on that well we before we get back to college football you're not you've watched one NFL game in your life I've watched a bunch of NFL games uh but they play every Sunday still yeah you're gonna be here on Sunday right uh no no absolutely not okay um

I know how many openings there are. How many Vrabel openings are there? Five. So are all the openings Vrabel openings? Yes. Whatever opening he wants, he takes. Okay. Jacksonville's not a Vrabel opening, right? They're not hiring Vrabel. They probably want to. Yeah. Everyone wants to. Right. But you can't be a Vrabel opening if Vrabel would never get to you. He would pick another job before you pick that one, right? Yeah. Maybe Ohio State. You guys got to be honest about your Vrabel opening.

This immediate reaction is bad for the Bears because... That's your immediate reaction to everything. I agree. But I do think there's a chance that Ben Johnson goes to the Patriots and Vrabel goes to the Raiders and then...

Why would he choose the Raiders over the Bears? Tom Brady. No, Vrabel? Yeah. Tom Brady. Tom Brady. Tom Brady's part owner of the Raiders now. You probably didn't know that. No, I knew that. I needed Vrabel to go to the Patriots so Ben Johnson could come to the Bears. Now it's back to there's multiple seats open for...

Those two. I understand they were longtime teammates, but is there any personal evidence that says he's going to tie his future career into whatever Tom Brady wants him to do? I think Mike Vrabel's a pretty good coach, and I think he... Yeah, I... They don't have a quarterback, though. Actually, Raiders is not Ben Johnson, so Raiders could be...

Why wouldn't Raiders be? Deion Sanders. Why wouldn't Vrabel be Patriots? What's the laugh? He's not a good enough coach for it. I think he will be Patriots. I don't know where. I don't think Ben Johnson would be Raiders because they don't have a quarterback. Okay. But I need Vrabel to go to the Patriots so that Ben Johnson could go to the Bears. Fair. All right. So that's where I'm nervous because if Vrabel goes to the Raiders, then Ben Johnson will go to the Patriots.

And you believe in a year of our Lord 2025, the Patriots are a more appealing destination for Ben Johnson than the Bears would be? I'm a big connections guy. I feel like both quarterbacks. No, they're both good. What I'm saying is like it's not – so the quarterback obviously is why somebody would be interested in New England. Yeah. Second is Robert Kraft feels like he would typically be a good owner to work for. But I bet for a coach, an offensive-minded coach –

I know whatever he put on the field this year, I bet Caleb Williams is really fucking enticing. Yeah. I bet you think you can unlock the best. Here's the, I do all my coach hirings and firings on connections. That's why Mike were able to the Raiders, Tom Brady. Sure. Ben Johnson played quarterback at UNC.

But Drake may also did. It's as simple as that. That's what makes me nervous. I also think that the guy who is the longtime offensive coordinator of a team, that he's been very committed to the Lions. He stayed out of the coaching search last year. He took himself out because he wanted to return to the Lions. He's super close. I think it's not impossible for him to do it, but I think it adds another reason why he maybe wouldn't want to go to the Bears. Yeah.

but guys we can talk about the nfl when the season starts again next year season's over yeah no i know we just we were gonna have to include this in the podcast anyway so why not just do it are they doing they're not are they doing a playoff this year for the nfl we actually do our transfer after the season's over i know that sounds weird that is weird yeah and the playoffs actually it's not based on just a bunch of old dudes sitting in a room why not yeah it's weird all right so texas so you think the pressure on ohio state i think i could surface i think it could resurface and we've

seen Ryan Day not be able to deal with that before, right? Yeah. If all of a sudden he's the heavy favorite again and you have no excuse not to win, I feel like that could creep back on him, him and Chip Kelly. How does Texas win this game? Personally, I'm kind of done with Quinn Ewers. So Texas is the...

is probably the most interesting team. I believe they have Ohio State ceiling in there somewhere. Every now and then for like two drives, maybe a quarter, that Texas offense looks like, oh my God. Sarco getting his bag, a misdirection play. Sarco getting his bag. Quinn will be throwing darts.

Because every now and then, Quinn Ewers just throws fucking darts. And then he'll throw a floater into triple coverage. And you're like, where did this guy come from? If they could, for four quarters, tap into their actual true potential, which is going to be tough against Ohio State, which I think is the best defense in the country.

It's going to be tough against them. But if they could, they're as talented as Ohio State. Yeah. You know what? They're not as talented. Nobody is. But they're as talented as anybody not named Ohio State, and that would give them a puncher's chance. Yeah. So do you think that the formula is going to be run the ball, get physical? For Texas? They have a very good offensive line. No, I don't think so. That defensive line is really, really good. I think it has to be making plays 25 yards down the field. I think it has to be Marcus Golden. I think it has to be even –

maybe get Isaiah Bond involved. It has to be Quinn Ewers hitting at least three or four game-breaking passes. Or put on Michigan uniforms. Or put on Michigan uniforms, and that causes Chip Kelly and Ryan Day to fucking freak out and want to win the game a certain way that they shouldn't be wanting to win the game like that. They do have a golden and a blue. Yes. I know it's not maize and blue, but it's close. Well, golden and blue would be Notre Dame, wouldn't it? No, but... Blue and gold would be Notre Dame. They got two players.

Blue. And blue. Yeah. But that's not Michigan. His name isn't Mays. That's true. That's what I said. Which is Mexican. I said I know it's not Mays, but it's close. Mays is Mexican corn, right? It is corn. Or Native American corn. Native American. Oh, it's Native American. So your official pick is Ohio State. I kind of want to take the over in this game. Texas defense is good, though, too. It is very good. It also gave up 510 yards and 31 points to Arizona State. That's the thing. That wasn't a fluke. Arizona State didn't fluke that game.

They just bullied him in the second half. Arizona State had the ball in the red zone in the first half four times, didn't score any points. They moved the ball all day. Finally, Scadaboo and Leavitt got it going, but they scored 31 points. It's overtime, so they scored 24 in regulation. But they had 510 yards. That's a lot of yards. How do you shut down Jeremiah Smith? You don't.

Not possible. You don't. You either just hope you shut down everybody else, or you hope Chip Kelly and Ryan Day don't force feed him like they've been force feeding him. Which they probably should. They didn't force feed him against Michigan. They didn't force feed him against Penn State the first time. And they kind of pussyfooted around it. They came out in the playoff and realized, hey, we have the best receiver room in the country. Because it's not just Jeremiah Smith. He's the one getting the headlines. But Puka's been great.

Like, Cornell Tate's been pretty good, too. Like, they have – their third-best receiver would be the best receiver on any other team. And you just hope they go away from that. Yeah, you've got to get inside their brains somehow. Against Penn State and against Michigan, Ohio State ran the ball on first down, ran the ball on second down, and tried to be tougher up front, tried to be out – and out physical teams. And they couldn't do it.

As long as they don't try to do that again, I don't know how you stop them. So the thing that concerns me is, and I agree with you, I was planning on betting on Ohio State. I feel like they're not going to make the same mistakes that they made against Michigan. They just can't. That was like shock therapy where they woke up and were like, okay, we can't do that again.

But it also seems like everybody else in America is saying Ohio State by two touchdowns. Well, Texas is a hell of a lot better than Michigan, too, right? Yeah, they beat the fuck out of them. Yeah, so Texas, I don't want them to get disrespected here. I just don't think they have the high-end potential of Ohio State because Quinn Ewers can never be that guy for a full game. They have not played a full game yet. It's consistency. Yeah. They've consistently played...

You know, that SEC championship game, they played Georgia very tough. Yeah. They got killed by Georgia when they played at home in Austin. And then the rest of their resume is, you know. Not much. Like I said, even the Clemson game. They were killing Clemson. Clemson, again, it was never doubt. They won by 14 points. Right. But it was also like, wait, whoa, do we have to look at this game again?

Yeah, and I can imagine an NFL scout as they get ready for the draft, and I think he's going to go back to college and transfer somewhere else. But looking at Quinn Ewers has to be one of the most frustrating things you can look at because you will see three throws and you're like, this guy is a top five pick. We've got to trade up and get this guy. And then the next three throws, nobody get near this guy, undrafted free agent. Yeah, the game-winning throw against Arizona State was incredible. That was a great play by him.

Yeah. Like standing in the face of pressure for 13. Yeah, that was a great throw. You've got to give him credit for it. He's capable of doing great things. But the interception he threw with six minutes left when they were nursing an eight-point lead was among the worst throws you've ever seen. He throws it into double coverage and he floats it. It's basically an arm punt. I would trust him more if he brought the mullet back.

I'd agree. I kind of would agree with that, too. It at least indicates some swagger to him that he really doesn't have. Right. It would actually transform this entire discussion from like, oh, he really frustrates me with the interceptions to that's Quinn. He's a gunslinger. Right. He's going to take his chances. So Ohio State beats Penn State in the national championship? I think Ohio State beats Penn State. Man, that would be such a... Imagine James Franklin wins the national championship over Ohio State. It would basically solve...

Every one of his life's problems. Who's that a bigger kick in the dick for? Is it a bigger kick if James Franklin finally breaks through, gets to the national title game, and he has to play Ohio State, a team that he just can't beat? Or Ryan Day fights through everything, gets to the national title game, and then loses to Penn State, who he's never lost to. Oh, you know what it'd be. Ohio State fights through, gets to the national championship,

loses to Notre Dame Lou Holtz laughs in his face oh I didn't even think of that well when he wakes up the next day right yeah they should actually do you know how ESPN always does like the seven different simulcasts sure a Lou Holtz one should be like the Lou Holtz cast and it's just him asleep on his chair but to answer your question I think it would probably be a bigger kick in the dick to Ryan Day only because James Franklin is kind of used to it yeah

Like, he's been there, done that. Losing to Ohio State, no one would be like, oh, man, James Franklin lost to Ohio State. If Ryan Day loses to Penn State in the national championship game after losing to Michigan at the end of the season, and you're already in your January 20th, you can't fire him, that would be very unsettling for Ohio State. Whereas Penn State would be like, listen, we just got to the national title.

We got to stay the course, keep taking shots. James Franklin, yeah, he can't beat Ohio State, but maybe someday we'll get there. And as much as I like Penn State and think they're a very good team, their roster is not as good as Ohio State's. Right. Them losing to Ohio State would not be that big of a deal. They don't have a Jeremiah Smith. Nobody does. Right, but it feels like they're always missing that one guy on the outside that can be just everything. Yeah.

They are. Any home field advantage at all for Texas? I don't think so. I think Ohio State travels well enough and it'll be 50-50. At worst, what, it'll be 60-40, something like that. I don't think there'll be a home field advantage. Ohio State's very concerned about the temperature at game time. We saw that with Tennessee, too. I think it's going to be very cold, actually, in Dallas. Is it? It's indoors. It's indoors. But it's going to be cold outside. They might pump the AC. What if someone leaves the door open? They're expecting some snow. Yeah? Yeah. What if someone leaves the door open?

In Jerry World. The big door? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a giant window with the sun. But you don't respect the sun. Wouldn't Ohio State want to leave the door open so it could be in northern Texas? Yeah, you'd think so. That's actually my favorite sunset in sports is that 15-minute window when it's at Jerry World and it blinds all the receivers. Yeah, I guess they still have that. I remember Texas Stadium when I was a kid, too. They had the hole directly in the roof and it was just awful. Oh, it was the dumbest thing ever. It was...

One of the Leon Lett games, the fumble against the Dolphins. So that God could watch the Cowboys. That's what they said. Yeah. It was snowing. Snowing in an indoor stadium. That's right. Crazy. Okay. I got a Roback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com. Promo code TAKE. Who's going to win the 2026 national title? That's a great question. Thank you. Great question. Thank you.

So Jeremiah Smith will be back. Maybe he transfers. To where? Wisconsin? Whoever wants to pay him $10 million. He should just do it. Yeah. He could probably make more money in college football in the next two years. You think Portnoy would try to get his rich uncle to buy him too? I don't know if he's related to Larry Ellison. He's probably going to call him that soon. Yeah, how big of a Michigan fan is Larry Ellison's girlfriend? Got to be the biggest in the world. $12 million. Who's the winner?

Texas with Arch Manning. How about Texas? Oh, okay. I think they're still going to be real damn good. Is Kalen DeBoer going to be okay? No. Oh. He will be a two-and-out guy. Whoa. He will be a... Who's their quarterback next year? It is very funny that Alabama, like, they're kind of not screwed in NIL, but they are not the same as Ohio State or Michigan or Texas. No. Like, they don't have the same boosters. Listen, Alabama...

Not to brag, but me and Fornelli did sit on this couch before the year and said Alabama's not going to be competing for national titles because Milrow's not good enough. I also said Travis Hunter would win the Heisman. You did. But Milrow was still the best they had. Like, what's coming down the pipe at Alabama? And running back, they've been normal forever. Receiver, they're normal. Well, Ryan Williams. They're just – Ryan Williams, sure. Good point, Big Cat. Not normal whatsoever. Very good point. They are way closer to a normal SEC team than they've ever been, and nothing is happening to make me think that's going to change. So Nick Saban's going to have to come back and save him?

I don't know. I guarantee you if they go 9-3 again or 9-4 with a bowl up, he's out. I got two words for you. They will not let that happen to you. What's coming down the pipeline of quarterback? Jaden Rashada. Jaden Rashada. Do you want in on him? No. No. He doesn't want in on him. He won't stay anywhere long enough to be in on something. He does have a pretty crazy resume.

He's been to... One year in school, he's been to three schools? Yeah. And then I think in high school, he went to two or three different high schools? Yeah, I just... He's a friendly guy. And Oregon has a guy who signed in December and already transferred. These guys don't understand. Just go somewhere and plant yourself for a year or two and see. Just see what happens and see how it unfolds. Don't just leave immediately. My big fix for the transfer portal is... Because now schools coming up, schools are going to be able to pay directly to the players. Yeah.

What you should do is freshmen should get whatever. Let's just say round number is 50K. Sophomores get 100K. Juniors get 150, whatever it is. If you transfer, you go back to freshmen.

That's not a terrible idea. I thought maybe if you sign out of high school, you have to stay somewhere two years. Now, that's not very American. It's not very free, but I think it's better for the players. I do, too. If you transfer immediately, you're never going to because it's going to make it. It's like a concussion, right? Once you get one, it's easier to do it again. Is that true? I think so. Like Jalen Hurts having two this year? Did he have two?

He might have had one in the first Commander's Game. We have so many of these transfer zombies that are now at four and five and six and seven schools. Did you see his post-game interview in that game? It's ridiculous. He was wearing glasses. Yeah, it's... We're doing Jalen Hurts now? No, he's just in the concussion program. We're worried about him. I don't know what it's going to look like when the schools start paying directly, but you are going to be able to... You can have contracts. I don't think that's un-American. If you sign up for a contract and you probably have some sort of collective bargaining with the players...

What people don't realize is this is college football. It's great that the schools are going to be paying them and everything, but the behind-the-scenes and the under-the-table money is still going to be flowing bigger than ever. Of course. So all these freshmen that, oh, he's only getting 50K. Yeah, he's not getting 50K. He's getting 500K somewhere else. So it's all going to be nasty. My take –

And the whole transfer portal and NIL stuff is the pendulum has swung as we, we, for the longest time guys couldn't make, it couldn't even fucking get a job. Yeah. Uh, now we've swung all the way the other way and we're going to find somewhere in the middle.

I just feel like some players, you know, I like player freedom. I like guys going to find an opportunity, and some of these schools lie to players. But sometimes when you go to a place and you leave immediately, you never give yourself a chance to grow into anything. And if you're always looking for the quick fix, the school is too, and you're never going to find anything. And you're just going to be that guy for the entire five years you're in college and it's never going to work out. And if you don't have an NFL career, having a college career at one school that means something is very valuable.

You look at a guy like Jalen Hurts. He's stuck around, right? He's stuck through it. Showed that he's a good teammate. Then he got out of there. And then he got concussed twice. Packer Dan. He went to the school that valued loyalty the most. He's probably a great backup quarterback. That's what you can say about that man. So you guys have just transitioned fully into messing with Max right now? Would you say it's...

If your quarterback's concussion protocol the week of a playoff game. That's not great. Big Cat's trying to play this game that he's huge. I just want Max. I am. I need the Eagles. I need him out of concussion protocol. I need him to beat the Packers. I need him out of concussion protocol. But he also really wants to troll me about Jalen Hurts. So it's Packer Dan. You wouldn't admit, Max, the Monday of a playoff game, hearing the word concussion protocol is troubling. Thank you. It is a technicality problem.

It's a bad technicality. It was impossible for him to get out of concussion protocol yesterday. But is that not a troubling technicality? Because he's concussed? No.

He would have had to have gotten out of concussion protocol last week if he was going to... Because he wasn't out of concussion protocol last week, he had to still be in concussion protocol Monday. I think... Let me just... I'll just say this. I think the fact that Max is talking so much about the concussion protocol... You're talking about the concussion protocol. This is troubling. I'm not triggered. I know what you're trying to do. Why pack your Dan when Barstool Big Pack was right there? Yeah.

Because Yankee Dan, Packer Dan. Let's get him out of concussion protocol. And he did have, that is his second. If you look at the video after the Washington game, the first one.

Sorry. He's already been concussed. I was just here. Oh, yeah. So PFT is a constant state of concussion. No, we just hit guys hard. You said that, yeah, because you were still wearing sunglasses in the concussion. Well, yeah. You wear sunglasses inside. Actually, PFT did have a concussion at the salt shed. Yeah, I had multiple concussions. I also may have gotten bit by a rabid bat. Still came out, did the show the next day. Bang.

Brandon, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it. College football expert. Do you have any questions for us? No, no. I just, as my first official appearance as the official college football expert on this show, officially, I had a good time, officially. Okay. Officially,

Good job. And we never did actually say, but the contest that I won, I had three schools left in the college football playoff. Fornelli has one. He has Penn State. Okay. If Penn State wins it all, I think Fornelli should probably win. That's what I said. But no, even if they win it all, he is still short of my point total because I've been so dominant so far. But if you don't get the champion, it's kind of un-American. That's not what we said. We'll have to review the tape. You...

He also had two bye schools. That's him. That's him. If you choose bye, that's a lifestyle choice. Those are wins, too. But yeah, listen, USA Rugby does the same thing. You finish in second place long enough, you get first place. It's like Kobe Bryant's career. It's like he was never the best player ever in the NBA, but he was always like number two, three. Guys, I have officially already made an appearance as the expert. I don't know what we can't undo it now. We're going to bleep that out.

Let's clip one out. We're going to bleep out me saying expert at any time. We can bleep out the Kobe stuff, too. I don't have time for the Kobe stance. Bleep out concussion as well, and then the whole entire podcast will just be a bleep. All right. Thanks, Brandon. You fat bleep.

Brandon Walker was brought to you by Netflix and their gripping new limited series coming called American Primeval starring Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin. American Primeval is about one of the most beautiful, brutal, and isolated parts of America in 1857 as men and women violently clash over land, culture, religion, and community. American Primeval is a very violent story of rebellion, pain, hatred, fear, and ultimate survival as one woman fights to save her son,

All right, let's finish up with guys on chicks. Henry, Hank. How many of these questions are, hey, as a female AWL, I was greatly disappointed to hear that Max would not attend my bachelorette party. A lot. A lot. And that's sad. I didn't.

I was just abiding by the rules. I was obliging to the rules. Obliging. Did anyone tell you that you were saying that word incorrectly? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Isn't that disgusting, Hank, that we have a producer that can't pronounce words? Yeah. It's sickening. Did you guys hear the other day? If I lost that bet, I would be at so many bachelorette parties. That's the thing about me. Yeah, you would. That's the thing about Hank. That's the thing about me. He loves women. Did you guys? I didn't respect them. Yeah. Unlike Max. I have a girlfriend.

Yeah, so you can't respect women. She could go too. If you're in a relationship, you can't respect women. What are you, Mike Pence? Can't be in the same room with them? Some of your most respected women are your girlfriend. Max is afraid of getting in a room with some of that peanut butter skin. Yeah. You just know what you do, so you got to stay away from it. Oh, God. Those cannons. You know what you're capable of, Max? I meant to bring this up. I don't know. I was like, maybe, I think it was over Christmas, maybe. Yeah.

I think it was Charles Davis. We had a... Because I was talking about Oblige and how you said that wrong.

He said it was a Nick Klaus situation. He said Canute Rockne. Oh, yeah. And he was like, that's actually if you look it up, that's actually how it was pronounced. That's how you would have read the word. Yeah. Canute Rockne. Am I wrong? But is this the 100 year anniversary of the Canute Rockne? I don't know. Was it the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame? Yeah. What are you guys talking about? I'm pretty sure that was. Canute Rockne is a famous football player. I'm pretty sure that was 1925. Way back when. If so. Or coach. Sorry.

If so, that would be like, I mean, Team of Destiny, Notre Dame, right? Yeah. The Echoes literally getting woken up. He coached from 1918 to 1930. So Knute Rockne, shout out the legend. Yeah, the Four Horsemen, 1924 included the Four Horsemen. Backfield, the Harry Stolldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden. Don't see a lot of Elmers in the backfield anymore. Elmer Layden was a problem.

All right. Hey, guys on chicks. Speaking of pronunciation, this actually kind of plays into it. We also got a note about this. K-E-T-O.

Keto? Keto? Keto. Keto. That's the correct pronunciation. Okay. Fun fact. Okay. My boyfriend decided he was going on a keto diet to start the new year. I always thought it was keto, too. Ketosis. Yeah. Yeah. Is it ketosis? I guess. I don't know. Keto. Keto Kaelin? My boyfriend decided he was going on a keto diet to start the new year. I thought he was kidding, but when I came home from work the other day, he filled almost the entire fridge and freezer with meat. Yep. Like a fridge almost entirely of fish, beef, and chicken.

He's not crazy chunky, and I never said he had to lose weight. I actually like the little plump. I actually like the little plump. Oh, that's mean. But he's fully doing this, and it's kind of annoying. Probably piss smells bad too, right? And my bad girlfriend, if I tell him to stop because I don't want our entire fridge and freezer filled with meat,

Do I let him go for this? I'm thinking this resolution will end soon anyways. That's the answer. You got to just ride it out. He's going to want carbs by Friday. Yeah. Every diet goes the same way. Especially the January 1st one. Yeah. In the keto, you're like, damn, this is awesome. I can eat steak. I can eat bacon. All I have to do is eat meat. And then you do it for like two weeks and you say, shit, you know what I would like

die for right now is a piece of pizza yeah guys see like an influencer who's in tremendous shape he's like all i have to do is eat as much meat as i want all the time and it's very easy for a guy to say yeah that sounds like the easiest diet ever but at the end of the day he's going to want a bag of chips yeah i went through this with the dunk when i was like looking up the easiest and or no the fastest ways to lose weight without you know losing like muscle or strength and it's

keto but it's then i looked into actually how you do it and i was like i'm not that's not possible yeah no it's it's it's kind of one of those trick diets where if you say like how do i do this yeah and you say hey do you like steak yes oh do you like chicken yes well i have a diet for you

But then you eat it and you're just like, this sucks. Yeah. Also, you know what else I really like is all the sides that come with steak. Yeah. Yeah. Give me the cream of corn. Give me the twice baked potato. Yeah. Give me the mashed. Give me the sweet potato fries. Give me all that shit. Give me the lobster mac. It turns out that everything has carbs in it. And sugar. And sugar, which is a carb. But I'm not eating candy. But you're right. Grapes. When I found out grapes were carbs, it blew my mind.

It did. Yeah. Hey, guys, my husband is a huge Baltimore sports fan. We are expecting our first child, and he is adamant on naming the boy Jackson. Well, I do love the name Jackson. He wants to name the middle name either Lamar or Holiday. Is enough enough, or do I bend the knee? Has his sports fandom gone too far to run for the hills? You got to go Holiday. I mean, that's because you cover both. Or does that then take away the Lamar?

What? What's the question? I don't think it covers. I think it's just Jackson. Yeah, he's just naming him his name. And Jackson Holiday is also, he's a great prospect. Yeah, you might want to be. Lamar Jackson would be a safer bet. What if Jackson, like, it happens a lot, that good prospect. Yeah. What about Jackson Gunner? That would be good. I like Gunner. I think Gunner Jackson flows. Gunner Jackson is great. All right, yeah, Gunner Jackson's cool. If you want to go with, like, a tried and true Baltimore guy, you could go Calvin Jackson. Mm-hmm.

Then he sounds like a future president. That's true. Jackson's actually not a bad first name because you can do things with it. Like, you give them chances...

If you're naming your son something after a sports player or something weird, give them a chance. Give them a chance to change it if they want. So if they become Jack, that's not a weird thing. Yeah. Also, don't do the X. I don't think he would. But the J-A-X-O-N is crazy. Also, Jackson to me sounds like more of a Southern name, doesn't it? Yeah. Like if you're from Georgia, you're named Jackson. That's different from if you're from Baltimore. A Nashville suburb. Yeah. How about this? How about Jackson Stavros? That's good.

Jackson Stavros the Wire. Yeah. Okay, yeah, I think Jackson, that's a good name. Maybe don't do Jackson Holiday because then that's just, then you're naming after Jackson Holiday, not Lamar Jackson. And also, like Mac said, prospects don't always pan out. Also the one Jackson that we know sucks.

What's the Jackson? McCarthy. Oh, he's Jackson. I should know that because I'm his dad. Also, there's something weird about naming, naming your son after like a 21 year old. That's not related to you.

Right? With Lamar, at least he's got some age and he's become a part of Baltimore. At this point, it's like you're naming your son after a 21-year-old who's good at sports. Yeah, I think you were right with the Cal thing. You want to name after a guy whose career's over because you can't change it. Now...

You could change it in, like, I don't know, hypothetically, like a double murder kind of situation. So maybe don't name it Mojay. But you can't change what they did after they retired. So maybe go Cal or Lamar Jackson's safe just because at bare minimum, he's got two MVPs. Yeah. And he was electric. Like, if he never wins a Super Bowl, you still would be like, he had an insane career. But would that, like, if you were from Miami, you named your kid Marino. Yeah.

Yeah, maybe go Joe Flacco. Flacco Jackson the wire. Flacco Jackson. Gunner. Flacco Jackson the wire gunner. Last name. All right, we'll end with a part in your take. Hey, boys, new take. Why hasn't anyone tried to block a field goal at the crossbar?

Obviously would have to be a long field goal so the kick has a chance of landing short, but I feel like there's enough there to at least give it a try. The Lions could have tried against the Ravens back when Tucker kicked the 66-yarder. The crossbar is 10 feet above the ground, and anyone who can dunk could give it a shot.

What do you guys think? Much love. Go Hawks. I agree with this. I don't know if it's legal. Can you goaltend? I'm looking up field goal rules right now. Okay. I'm not sure, but we're going to find out. What would make it illegal? I don't know if there's goaltending. What's the difference between five inches and 50 yards? I agree. Because if not, why not you sign Wimby for a playoff contract and just put him back there on field goals? I'm guessing you can't put your hand on the crossbar, but if you're just straight up

jumping up. All right. So here we go. All must pass through the vertical plane of the goal, which is the area above the crossbar.

If the ball passes through the goal and returns through the goal without striking the ground or some object or person beyond the goal, the attempt is unsuccessful. So I'm reading right here that Morris Stroud of the Chiefs used to do that, and then they changed the rule, Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1, formerly known as the Stroud Rule, goaltending by any player leaping up to deflect a kick as it passes above the crossbar of a goal post is prohibited. The referee could award three points for a palpably unfair act.

That's bullshit. That is bullshit. I think you should get what would be interesting is if they change the rule where you can goaltend. You have to catch it, though. Or it's a live ball. That'd be hard. I know. But it would be at the end of a game like, hey, this guy's got it. Because then how electric would be if the guy tipped it to himself and dropped it?

And then it became goaltending. And if you reject it above the crossbar and catch it and return it for a touchdown, that's worth 10 points. I like that. That's automatic Super Bowl. Yeah. I like that a lot. This is a weird penalty for them to implement because the chance of this happening has got to be very, very rare, right? Yeah, I'd agree. It doesn't... I mean, I guess someone was doing it, but...

Yeah, so it sounds like they made it illegal. That sucks. That'd be fun. I also wish that the Arizona State field goal counted. People were trying to say that it did. The one that bounced in? Yeah. That'd be cool as well. Okay. Numbers. What? We're like a week into 2025 and Meme still has never gotten it. I'm going to go with five. Eleven. Three.

Do you want three? No, I'm thinking. 33. Let me find a number in here. Memes, what are you most worried about? PFT getting it for a second time or Jack getting it and then you being literally the only one to never do it? PFT has never gotten it by himself. Oh, that's actually not true. Yeah, he actually has gotten it. I got it. By himself? On this machine, I've gotten it. On the old machine, I get it several times. You've never gotten on any machine ever? No.

That's crazy. I also think memes like something... People underestimate the fact that you never got it in the old office either. Yeah, they never got it. I also think something's up with memes. I think he got concussed over the break or something because he seems a little bit happier. I don't know what it is. It's the jumpsuit.

Really. Okay. He's really excited about the jumpsuit. Like, he was smiling to me today. I was like, this is weird. Memes get hacked. He's never done this before. Yeah, and the Jets season is over. Yeah. And we're winning the Super Bowl next year. Nice. Okay, three. Eight. 21. 99 pug. 48. 48's Jack. What was yours, PFT? Five. Max, what was yours? 11. What was yours, Hank? 33. 57. Jesus Christ.

Love you guys.