Ravens Fire Harbaugh, CFB Portal Madness w/ Max Olson, Plus Hoops w/ Robbie Hummel

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the recent firing of Ravens coach John Harbaugh, the chaotic landscape of the college football transfer portal, and insights into college basketball featuring thoughts from Robbie Hummel. Key highlights include the movement of top players in the transfer portal, notable college basketball matchups, and sports betting updates for the NFL playoffs, all while offering advice and commentary on current events in football and basketball.

Key takeaways

• Harbaugh's Ravens exit after 18 years proves patience is a virtue, but disappointment is a hard pill to swallow.
• With 13 playoff wins, Harbaugh's record sparkles—can a single Super Bowl dim his Hall of Fame chances?
• The NFL’s coaching merry-go-round raises eyebrows; a missed kick can lead to a whirlwind of change.
• Injuries aside, the Ravens' disappointing season shows that even top-tier teams can end up in the 'what if?' pile.
• For $2.5 million in prizes, DraftKings proves that betting on live NFL moments can be as thrilling as the games.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Ryan Russillo (Host) · 1 h 26 min speaking
• Max Olson (Guest) · 24 min speaking
• Robbie Hummel (Guest) · 12 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 15:00: DraftKings, Game Time app, Max Olsson, Austin Rivers
2. 15:00 – 30:00: Miss Washington, Carlyn & Laurie Hunter, Florida Attorney General
3. 30:00 – 45:00: Florida Attorney General, Auburn, Baylor, Arizona State
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00: Georgia, Austin Rivers, Robbie Hmel
5. 1:00:00 – 1:15:00: Carlyn & Laurie Hunter, Darius Garland, Dylan Harper, Miss Washington
6. 1:15:00 – 1:30:00: David Alche, Edgecom, Sherry Castle
7. 1:30:00 – 1:45:00: DraftKings, Florida Attorney General, Georgia, Robbie Hmel
8. 1:45:00 – 2:00:00: Georgia, Marcus Peters
9. 2:00:00 – 2:02:18: Ryan Rillo Show

Notable quotes from "Ravens Fire Harbaugh, CFB Portal Madness w/ Max Olson, Plus Hoops w/ Robbie Hummel"

• An interesting story out of Washington that involves LSU. and then we'll take a look at the games as well. So, a lot of Portal stuff. We're going to talk with Robbie Hmel, who was terrific on.

  about Miss Washington · at 0:11

• The Game Time app gives the advantage back to the fans. It's the hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use, and the Game.

  about Game Time app · at 11:59

• They've picked up the number one defensive tackle to help replace Lee Hunter. They have Cam Coleman, the number one wide receiver in the portal on campus today. they're they're…

  about Carlyn & Laurie Hunter · at 17:18

• Running back? But, some of these superstars right now, Kiwan Lacy, Jaden Ba, Florida, Isaac Brown at Louisville, like schools are going to have to pay two, three million bucks to get those guys or keep them.

  about Florida Attorney General · at 26:09

• In. he's played with five different quarterbacks in his two years at Auburn. He's shown, you watched Vanderbilt this year, like he can take over a game. for Texas, for&m, for Tech, like this is gonna just be a straight up bidding war. And.

  about Auburn · at 38:58

• Portal and he's going to go take official visits to Virginia and Stanford and Baylor. You'd be Wait, what the hell happened? like I because he truly like we all kind of viewed…

  about Baylor · at 41:13

• Does that really change? Does that really put you on that same tier as Alabama and Georgia and Oregon and these programs that just stack it year after year in high school…

  about Georgia · at 48:27

• Comes into the San Antonio team that's super established. Fox is coming back from the injury. Castle has made a massive jump. They're actually, it looks like their preference is to have Castle run the offense and Fox play off of him.

  about Sherry Castle · at 1:13:50

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Robbie Hmel — Person · 3 mentions · first at 0:19
  Take a look at the games as well. So, a lot of Portal stuff. We're going to talk with Robbie Hmel, who was terrific on the NBC Peacock NBA Monday game where they're doing it…
• Carlyn & Laurie Hunter — Person · 3 mentions · first at 17:21
• Sherry Castle — Person · 3 mentions · first at 1:13:53
• Max Olsson — Person · 2 mentions · first at 0:05
  The Ryan Brascillo Show is presented by DraftKings. Today we're taking a look at the transfer portal. Max Olsson's all over it. Where the big names are going, where the big names have already signed.
• Austin Rivers — Person · 2 mentions · first at 0:26
  The NBC Peacock NBA Monday game where they're doing it from the bench. He and Austin Rivers. I'm going to get his thoughts. He's been around Detroit a lot. We'll do some…
• Edgecom — Person · 2 mentions · first at 1:03:51
  Kind of the same thing in New York. And Paul George is starting to fit into that equation. Plus the whole VJ Edgecom dynamic where you're man, this dude, this dude is a beast…
• Darius Garland — Person · 2 mentions · first at 1:09:29
  God, I've I've done so many stinking games. What's my No, Garland. Garland was slow back with the toe injury and he hasn't What's my man the shooter? God, he's actually he was phen yes. Sam Merrill.
• Dylan Harper — Person · 2 mentions · first at 1:13:02
  Thought with how much responsibility has been shouldered there. in terms of Dylan Harper, I haven't gotten to see San Antonio yet. And I will say the one thing that's tough for me because I'm doing so much college, I kind of.
• Ryan Brascillo — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:01
  The Ryan Brascillo Show is presented by DraftKings. Today we're taking a look at the transfer portal. Max Olsson's all over it. Where the big names are going, where the big names have already signed.
• Kate Cunningham — Person · 1 mention · first at 1:10:28
  Detroit like five times, but I do love the physicality and toughness that they bring alongside Kate Cunningham.
• Adam Mitchell — Person · 1 mention · first at 1:10:42
  Without Duran playing, and I probably talentwise still hold out hope for Cleveland and Mitchell wasn't playing in that Pacers game where, they had to come back and then the…
• Harrison Barnes — Person · 1 mention · first at 1:14:07
  So depending on injuries and how they want to go with the Kell Vel part of it and then Harrison Barnes, I mean Sohan's totally out of the rotation at this point. Champenni is getting minutes.
• Champenni — Person · 1 mention · first at 1:14:10
  And then Harrison Barnes, I mean Sohan's totally out of the rotation at this point. Champenni is getting minutes.
• David Alche — Person · 1 mention · first at 1:27:45
  He's one of the best orthopedic surgeons that there was in the world and his name was David Alche out of New York City.
• Marcus Peters — Person · 1 mention · first at 1:50:04
  We're going to read his email now. his dog's Roffus 85 lbs lab mix player comp 19 or 2016 Marcus Peters ball hawk insane ball fixation and fetching ability. So, he did a nice…
• Mobly — Person · 1 mention
• Nick & Sarah Allan — Person · 1 mention
• Sohan — Person · 1 mention
• Sophia Rob — Person · 1 mention
• Steve Bashadi — Person · 1 mention
• Strus — Person · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

• Miss Washington — Company · 8 mentions · first at 0:11
• Florida Attorney General — Company · 6 mentions · first at 26:13
• Georgia — Company · 5 mentions · first at 48:31
• DraftKings — Company · 4 mentions · first at 0:03
  The Ryan Brascillo Show is presented by DraftKings. Today we're taking a look at the transfer portal. Max Olsson's all over it. Where the big names are going, where the big names have already signed.
• Miami — Company · 4 mentions
• Auburn — Company · 3 mentions · first at 39:01
• Game Time app — Company · 2 mentions · first at 11:59
• Baylor — Company · 2 mentions · first at 41:19
• LSU — Company · 2 mentions
• Baltimore Ravens — Company · 1 mention · first at 2:46
  John Harbaugh out after 18 years as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. So, want to do the resume. he didn't die, so we're not doing an obituary here but 180 and 113. That's the record. 13.
• Arizona State — Company · 1 mention · first at 39:44
  Interesting to follow. I like I covered that playoff game last year, Texas, Arizona State. Like watching him live, it's dude, this kid is special. He was only a red shirt…
• Kentucky — Company · 1 mention · first at 40:05
  Move considering how tight he was with Kenny Dillingham. and he goes to Kentucky for a visit. Now Kentucky has his has flipped Kenny Mincchi the Notre Dame backup from…
• Oklahoma State — Company · 1 mention · first at 40:49
  Think it's been a good quarterback market this year. You've got Drew Master going to Oklahoma State for North Texas after, leading the country in passing this year. Byron Brown going with his coach to Auburn. we mentioned Hoover, Rockbeck.
• Florida State — Company · 1 mention · first at 42:22
  I'm surprised, he visited Florida State. I'm surprised that it's not done yet. either Baylor's got to like find the money to get this done or he's going to go pick a spot and a big reset here. How about his.
• JMU — Company · 1 mention
• Texas Attorney General — Company · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

• NBA — Concept · 1 mention

Sponsors

• Ryan Rillo Show — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 2:01:59
  School and get caught. thanks to Kyle Serudi. Thank you for checking out and please subscribe to the Ryan Rillo Show. Barsto Sports Uncrustable.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:01 The Ryan Brascillo Show is presented by DraftKings. Today we're taking a look at the transfer portal. Max Olsson's all over it. Where the big names are going, where the big names have already signed. An interesting story out of Washington that involves LSU. Uh and then we'll take a look at the games as well. So, a lot of Portal stuff. We're going to talk with Robbie Hmel, who was terrific on the NBC Peacock NBA Monday game where they're doing it from the bench. He and Austin Rivers. I'm going to get his thoughts. He's been around Detroit a lot. We'll do some college basketball stories. So, a lot of fun with him. And then, of course, we have life advice and my open on Harbaugh out in Baltimore.

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2:26 We need a big push here. Want to start with the breaking news out of the NFL. John Harbaugh out after 18 years as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. So, want to do the resume. I mean, he didn't die, so we're not doing an obituary here but 180 and 113. That's the record. 13 playoff wins, Super Bowl in 2012. Incredible Super Bowl, by the way. Only three losing seasons. He's got a five and 11 in there. and then two eight nines. That's pretty heavy stuff. Uh when Steve was looking for a head coach prior to hiring Harbaugh, he had said he's looking for a Hall of Fame coach.

3:15 Um I don't know if Harbaugh will make the Hall of Fame. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the best Hall of Fame because they are selective. They don't just let everybody in. Um and I think they celebrate the best. I don't think that they worry about the lean years. I think they look at like your best stuff and you know usually a Super Bowl for a quarterback will get you in but for the most part it you know there's probably way more guys that we think should be in it as opposed to some of the other sports you're like that guy got in. So look I don't know if Harbaugh gets in there with the one Super Bowl and he still has a lot of work to do. He's a young man young man in his 60s but he looks young. Um, you know, if Tyler Loop makes that field goal in the last game of the season on Sunday night, Ravens win the division, they're in the playoffs again.

4:04 Does this happen? Uh, I don't know. Depends on what the playoff game looks like, right? Right. Put together a little bit of a run, then no, it probably doesn't happen. But I don't think it was about that kick. I don't think it was just about the 25 season. Um, because look, if you just look at this year, you go, "All right, this is one of the Super Bowl favorites before the season started." And this is probably one of the single most disappointing teams in 2025 that you could have. Um there's probably a lot of choices there, but the Ravens probably have a few more excuses with some of the injuries that they had to deal with on top of everything else. But the division's terrible. The Steelers, the Steelers, that Steelers team, you watched them this year. They're in the playoffs. You're not. Um so the expectations division, I don't think it's just the loop miss field goal.

4:47 Although it's first thing I thought about. I mean, I thought about that kick a And by the way, I love that kid in college, too. So, Steve Bashotti, who's the owner of this team, who if you read the John Feinstein book on him, you're going to like him. You're going to like you're going to wish your owner were more like him. U he just the way he comes off in the book is terrific. And I I think even since that book, I think that book's like over a decade old. Um it it feels like the book was a really really good accounting of like how he goes into his decisions and how he sees himself as an owner and what he wants his franchise to be like. But there's also something else happening here because this is somebody who is incredibly patient. And I don't think firing horrible after 18 years shows impatience. I don't think that's an owner that's watching that kick be missed and be like, "All right, time to

5:31 make a change here." Um, there's clearly more to it because that's what I think Shotti does. I think he he kind of steps back and takes a bigger picture. But if you look at the trends of coaches being fired, and I just want to point to the guys that were fired after one season. If you go from 1980 to 2000, only seven head coaches were fired after one season. If you go from 2001 to 2010, five coaches were fired after only one season. If you look at it from 2011 till now, it's 15 coaches that have been fired after one year. So, we're basically averaging one a year after having seven and 20 years and five and 10 years prior to this. Pete Carol's now been fired after one year twice in his career with the Jets in 94 in Vegas this year. Speaking of the Hall of Fame, I'm like, can you be a Hall of Fame head coach and also be fired twice after one year?

6:20 I think with the Super Bowl and what he did at SC, Steve's going to see he might I don't even know. Do they I I lose track of some of that stuff every now and then. Um, it doesn't sound good when you're averaging one firing after one season every single year, but you know, it kind of speaks to what we have in this sport, what we have in college football on top of everything else because there's just less patience. There's less patience than ever before. And I don't know that it's directly related to money. Maybe the money in the college game, but not necessarily the pro game.

6:53 If you look at the college salaries, it's just a rising tide for all. In the NFL, it's not really like that. It feels like there's this upper class and then maybe no middle class. I was looking at the salaries this morning. Like there's 20 million for Andy Reed. Shawn Payton's at like 18 million. Harbaugh was at like 16 million. I think he was making a little bit more than Jim was with the Chargers. So, there was a good chunk of guys that were like 14 million north, but there was only like a couple like a 20 or 18. Uh, but then at the low end, there's guys still making like $4 million a year being a head coach in the NFL. Like, that's ridiculous.

7:32 Basketball, the money hasn't caught up necessarily. Baseball's gone in the opposite direction. I think there's podcasters making more than all the managers combined in the AL Central. Um, but for football, I think this money to the coaches with the salary cap projected to be 300 million next year and the revenue that this league makes that we may it it may not just be like, hey, things are more intense and the new owners have less patience than ever before and if you're making all of this crazy money and then you don't step up like we're going to fire you.

8:03 I think that money is like nothing to these guys anymore. Especially when we're talking about coaches that are being fired that are making less than eight figures a year. Not that anybody's crying for them, but the money I don't think has I don't think it's been a full rising tide thing that's happened with NFL coaches the same way. So yeah, again, it could get back to that that lack of patience. Um, there were quotes about Harbaugh being dismissed and I thought one was really simple from ESPN this morning that I was reading that it was a current player and he's like, "You know what? It's a little surprising, but I'm not shocked." And that's the day-to-day stuff being around the franchise that, you know, you don't have access to. I don't have access to.

8:49 I'm not even I don't care enough to talk to somebody about the Ravens every single week like what's going on over there? Um, but this is part of the process of like I don't know that any of us necessarily know like I just don't look at a record. I won't look at a record and be like that coach sucks because of this record. You know, do you like the work that the coach is doing? Do you not like the work the coach is doing? Do you have a good record but you think you have a long-term mistake? But again, that guy never ends up being fired. I also think there's a really interesting Lamar storyline in all of this because the disconnect was real.

9:20 Um, I don't know what Lamar wants to be. The story, whether you go back to like when he was sort of offered as a free agent, but not really there any interest and was there clue like there's a lot of weird [ __ ] that's going on with Lamar that has some of it has nothing to do with him and some of it directly has stuff to do with his decisions on like sitting out one practice a week and all that kind of stuff and Harbaugh being frustrated. So, this feels like at least a win for the Lamar camp part of it. If this was becoming more untenable, this relationship between head coach and their star quarterback, a star quarterback who was diminished this year. I hope it's because of injuries.

9:57 There was a couple runs in that Pittsburgh game where it's like that does not look like the same guy. And that part of a game for a quarterback as you start approaching 30, it usually starts to fall off of a cliff. And Lamar is so special physically, like I'd almost think that it would take longer for that to happen for him. But this year, the running part of his game was the worst it's ever been in his career, which is fine if the rest of it's all terrific. And he's so good. His resume is so good, the MVPs that you should just look at 25. Lamar Jackson deserves a pass. But this decision tells you that they're way more like all in on Lamar than maybe some of the stories that we're reading about. Um, ultimately whenever you're deciding to fire or hire a head coach, and meaning hire, keep a guy around and not fire him is probably the way I should phrase it, it's I think it's just really simple. Like, do you

10:44 think you have the right guy? And yeah, you could need a new voice, especially after 18 years, but look, it's not like it's the same players all the time over those 18 years. You're cycling those guys out. Um, and it felt like for a long time there, there were some lean years there. there was like this middle section for Harbaugh from 2013 to 2017 where it became a topic more often. It's like, hey, you know, should the Ravens shake it up? And so many other franchises would have done it. Like, yeah, we know we won a Super Bowl, but you know what?

11:16 What's going on with this season? Like, why are we down here? What's going on with the offense? Um, let's just make a change because we're going to make a change. And it gets back to that point of Bashadian like he knew the whole time. He's like, I think I have the right guy. I know the results are not based or the results are not to the level of the standard that we had when Harbaugh first came in here because when he first came in I'm going to tell you in a second like he tore it up but you know and I still think he's kind of the right guy and clearly it got to a point where it didn't feel like that was the right guy. Um first five years for Harbaugh five playoffs three conference championship games one conference championship game appearance since that Super Bowl. So I would close with this.

11:54 If Bashadi thinks it's time, that's good enough for me. The Game Time app gives the advantage back to the fans. It's the hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use, and the Game Time guarantee means you can trust you'll get 100% authentic tickets on time and at the best price. Plus, fees are always included, so what you see is what you pay. The Hornets are coming to town Monday. And I was looking in the app and I see Clippers Hornets tickets starting at $25. You're telling me I only have to pay you $25 to watch Hornets basketball? Um, we've talked about Kiple a ton. Probably haven't talked about Diabate enough. Uh, Brandon Miller's last week has been spectacular.

12:43 I'm talking like poster, not just posters, but like, hey, I would order that poster if I were living in the greater Charlotte area with some of the stuff that Miller has done. I love this team right now. Take the guess work out of buying NBA tickets time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use the code rillo for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create account and redeem the code R USS LL for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. We are in the transfer portal season for college football. Day one, we had over 4,500 players enter the portal. We're going to go through all the big names, all the latest stuff. A guy who crushes it when it comes to this, which I think is going to become a bigger bigger season every single year. From ESPN, it's Max Olsson. Good to see you, man.

13:27 Hey, that number is 5,800 now, Ryan. So, it just it won't stop. Day one was 4,500. I did not I lost track of the next 1300 players. Yeah, we're I I counted up this morning. Um if we're talking 100 fiveman rosters, there's enough FBS scholarship players in the portal right now, you could field 26 college football teams.

13:49 So, uh all right. Well, let's start with some of the headline stuff here because there's there's a lot of lot of places I want to go here. So, let's try to get through it as quickly as we can. Uh Sorsby, is this just a Texas kid going back to Texas after leaving Cincinnati?

14:04 Yeah, I think that's a big piece of it. Um, I think Brandon Sorsby has shown a ton of improvement over his two years at Cincinnati. He started his career at Indiana, uh, before Sig got there. And, you know, he I think he's one of those guys that at the start of the year, he was like maybe a fringe top 10 Big 12 quarterback in terms of perception, but is a guy who's super confident and believes he's the best quarterback in the Big 12. He's a super like if you spend any time around him, very confident in himself. He had a really good year, great dual threat player. Um, you know, he is a guy that thought about going pro and he he's he's got good measurables. You know, the tape, like he could certainly build on it. And, you know, maybe if Dante Moore and Ty Simpson were staying in school, he'd be kind of dumb not to go pro, but um he he looked at Texas Tech as a chance to, you know, go try and prove he's a first

14:48 round pick and and go play with a ton of great players there. Go Yeah. Go back back home to Texas. And then, you know, certainly if you can make five, six million bucks, um, that helps.

14:57 Yeah. Yeah, cuz I think there was a lot of push that maybe he was going to end up at LSU. Yeah. And then he goes to Tech. There was the line about him just being blown away by the facilities, which I think we all collectively laughed at. I think that's like when

15:08 was it was it Mike Hampton who once said he loved the schools when he signed with the Rockies. Um yeah. So anyway, well, good for Mike Hampton if I'm not being critical of it, but all

15:19 they are incredible facilities. But like I I think there's also something where

15:25 like again I I hear this all secondhand. This is something you're reporting on, but you'll wonder like of the cycle of the boosters that get excited about getting involved and the rules that I put in quotes about like what a team can or can't do and then if they get burnt then it's like do the same people go, "Yeah, let's do this all over again." And with Tech that clearly ramped up for the 25 season, win the Big 12. Feel like I don't know what kind of wakeup call that Oregon playoff game was for them, but this was not a oneanddone thing for the people that were behind the money decisions with Tech. If anything, it felt like they were more empowered about what they were able to pull off in 25 and being like, let's just keep heading in this direction and not screw around.

16:11 No, it's absolutely well said. And I've written about Texas Tech a bunch this season. And I think for them and Joe McGuire was like well aware of the pressure. Like they needed to win the Big 12 this year for the first time in school history. If they didn't win the Big 12, like it was a failure and that there would be a lot of there'd be a lot of pressure and a lot of problems. I think um if you if you had all this talent and you just went eight and four, right? And so I think for them winning the Big 12, just like covering that game, being down on the field with them afterward, there was like just kind of that sense of relief of like, okay, we did it. like now we're going to the playoff, we think we can make a run, but it's like kind of house money from here because we did what we set out to do in in winning 12 games. And you know, in in some ways, yes, they were like, if you talk to their GM, James Blancher, and

16:54 the people there, like in October, they were like, here's who we're going to go get in the portal in January, like they were well prepared to make a run here. But in, you know, to lose, to get shut out by Oregon the day before the portal opens, I think also motivates the money people of like, yeah, we're not going to lose to LSU on this quarterback, right? We're not going to go like we're going to go chase the best players uh that that become available. And, you know, they've picked up the number one defensive tackle to help replace Lee Hunter. They have Cam Coleman, the the number one wide receiver in the portal on campus today. Um, you know, they're they're chasing they they have a chance to probably sign maybe four of the top 10 guys in the portal. So, uh, yeah, this is not a one-year deal. Um, they are very much invested on on running it back.

17:39 Okay. So, what do you think happens now at LSU at quarterback? Because we have the Dean Williams angle, we have the Sam Levit visit, but he was on his way to Tennessee after Baton Rouge. So, um, I also think it's important to point out this Williams story out of Washington's nuts because he just days ago signed what was quote a lucrative NIL deal that they said that he had not filed his paperwork to transfer, but he had just announced it on social media. So, they were like, what the hell is going on here? And of course, it's worth reminding everybody there's a back connection there with Kein where Williams was committed to Old Miss for like 6 months about 3 years ago. So, what can you tell us on this one that basically is a package deal of all the things that people hate about college football right now?

18:24 No, it absolutely is. This was like as as the portal opens up um you know, Thursday at midnight and we go through a few days of this like there are names that pop up that are like surprising. I think Dean Williams announcing on Instagram that he's going to transfer portal was like the first like wo of this cycle like of like just there was not rumors. They had publicly announced five days ago he's resigned. From what we've heard, that's that deal is, you know, north of four million. He's going to make him one of the highest paid QBs in the country. So, it wasn't a money issue. Um, you know, in terms of his deal with Washington and just really, yeah, not indications that, uh, he was thinking about doing anything else other than staying at Washington. And so the timing of this on Tuesday night was insane because first he announces that he plans to enter the port. He's going to do what's best for him and his family

19:12 and enter the transfer portal. At the same time he's posting this, Lane Kein is sitting courtside at an LSU men's basketball game with Sam Levit on the visit. And there's a I don't know if you saw it, there's this incredible photo of Sam Levitt looking at his phone and Lane Kein looking at Sam Levit as this is like playing out. And then Levit wraps up the visit, decides, "Okay, I'm gonna go visit Tennessee now." Because I think it became clear to a lot of people that Dean Williams appears to be the target for LSU now. And obviously for for a lot of money and so um there's a lot of complications with that. And we we you know, Washington, he signed a deal like you to sign a deal and then make this flip. Like the school is going to try to enforce that. The Big 10 is going to try to enforce that. You know, we saw one of these issues play out last year with a defensive back, Xavier Lucas, who's

20:00 trying to transfer from Wisconsin to Miami to go home. And Wisconsin said, they put their foot down and said, "You signed something, we're not going to put your name in the transfer. We're just not going to do it." And so, you know, we we can try and talk things out, but we're not going to let you transfer there. And he he ends up withdrawing as a student and and enrolling at Miami. You can do that. You can operate outside the portal. I I think we're going to have a similar dispute here. Um because there's at at this point there's there's no like coming back, right? You can't say like, "Hey, we're gonna, you know, we're going to really be tough on you, but you're you're coming back, right?

20:29 We're you're going to change your mind and and stay in Washington." So, yeah, this is going to be a a big issue, bigger issue than it was a year ago. Um and one that's going to bring a lot of attention to these deals they sign, you know, ultimately like it could also create some hurdles here for Linkith and who needs to go sign one of these quarterbacks as fast as possible.

20:48 All right. So, I don't know how this changes anything, but Tai Simpson just as we started taping this announced that he's leaving Alabama and entering into the NFL draft. Um, again, any of these major programs have to be prepared for any of this stuff. I'd imagine Dbor and Simpson's relationship is strong enough um that this it's not like Alabama's waking up going, "Oh my god, now what do we do?" But how do you think that impacts any of the stuff that we're talking about? because there's still, look, there's still another list of like 10 quarterbacks that we don't know that are all like name brands, at least in the college football world. We don't know where they're going to end up, but Alabama certainly changes the equation for some of the other teams that didn't think that they were out going to be out there hunting.

21:26 Yeah, I think it it probably at the start of the season, this probably would have been the ideal scenario actually for for Kalin Dbor. as much as you'd like to have Ty Simpson as a two-year starter. Um, the fact is they've got a five-star freshman and Keelin Russell uh from from Dallas who's really talented and it's just, you know how it is nowadays, Ryan, it's like those guys don't sit for two years, right? So, like if if Sat Tyson's coming back, then your backups Keelen Russell and Austin Mack, they're going to kind of figure out like, do I got to bail on this? And so, um, to have Ty Simpson go pro and, you know, I think probably at this point in time, we'd say be a first round pick.

21:57 Um, and then you kind of hand the keys to to Keelin Russell, I think is is kind of it's a good outcome for Alabama. I think it's one that the fan base will be excited about. Um, it does to me though, like as you kind of have this musical chairs here, there's a couple really big programs that don't have the QB solved yet. Uh, you've got LSU, you've got Oregon, who's still waiting on Dante Moore's decision. You've got Miami. To me, Miami is like the big mystery one in all of this because there was a lot of uh speculation tying them to Lenora Sers. He's staying at South Carolina. CJ Bailey announced he's staying at at NC State. you know, last two years, Miami uh pulled pulled a guy out of the uh portal who had had already announced they were entering the NFL draft. And so I think that talking with personal people last night as they were trying to figure out like what is Deont Williams doing? Uh I think that the one we're

22:43 still trying to solve is what is Miami up to here? What do you think Demon Williams is doing? He must know if

22:53 yeah that I mean everyone you talk to thinks that it's going to be LSU and it's going to be for you know some something in the range of five to six million bucks. And so again the question is how quickly can you get that wrapped up but I I I think that that's that's a guy that Lane Keifin knows really well um and really wants to get. I I you think Oregon likes Williams but probably is not trying to uh spend at that level maybe for a quarterback. Um, you know, maybe Miami can can get in the mix there with with him. But yeah, again, it's as you kind of have this musical chairs play out here now. Sam Levit goes on and maybe goes to Tennessee now. I think Dylan Riola's hoping to go to Oregon.

23:29 Um, and we'll see if that actually happens. Um, yeah, it's it's uh, as these guys make commitments now, you've got a you've got still a few big stars that uh got to make a move here in the next few days.

23:40 Um, I guess I'm just trying to figure on the money part of it. What when you hear about money announce can you check with somebody to find out how fake the announcement is because usually like on the player side there feels like there's a lot of rounding up. So what do we know about like I don't care about per player but as you were kind of alluding to position like where has that spending gone? What is real about what it costs to get a top-end guy at some of these positions?

24:06 Yeah, it's it's tough to report on. Like if I just went and tweeted the first number I heard from somebody all the time like I would be wrong all the time. I think that's, you know, one one

24:15 they're generally always considered outrageously like rounding up numbers, right? That's from what I hear.

24:21 Yeah. Like Yeah. Generally, generally you hear something that's maybe a little bit too high, right? Um but like I'll give you an example like I I wrote a piece on Texas Tech's defensive line this season and you know if you talk to the players themselves, you talk to their agents, you talk to Joey Magguire, talk to Cody Campbell, you talk to their GM James Blanchard, everyone's going to give you like a slightly different number. And so you're like trying to like triangulate that and like ultimately like Cody Campbell's writing the check. Like I kind of trust what he's saying. I'm not saying I don't trust everybody else, but um you're trying to kind of like no one's like, "Hey, here's a PDF. Well, let me just show you." So you're trying to like kind of figure out what's right. And you know, certainly for Texas Tech, they spend a lot of money. They're going to continue to spend a lot of money. But

25:02 yeah, it's hard to narrow down. You hear a lot of stuff as this is going on. I would say at the quarterback position, it certainly jumped up for the proven guys. I think last year you could resign your quarterback or you could go get like a pretty good proven quarterback for about 1.5 million. Like that was like considered like fair. And now I've talked to a bunch of GMs who are trying to resign their quarterback this year and it's like man the conversation starting at three. And I think for some of these programs especially like in the Big 12 where you've seen a few of them move on. It's like we love this guy.

25:34 Yes, we could come up with three million bucks, but like we also have to go get like a dozen other players in the portal and like we're trying to stick to a budget whether the cap stuff is real or not. Like we are trying to stick to a budget. And so you get into these pretty complicated decisions as these prices keep going up. At other positions, you know, I think the perception is usually like if a guy's pretty good, he wants half a million bucks. If he's been a starter, he's looking for, you know, 500 to a million plus. And I think good linemen and good pass rushers and great receivers, you know, are going to get over a million bucks. And I mean, we've got some big-time running backs right now, too. You would say like, "Hey, why would you spend a million bucks on a running back?" But, you know, some of these superstars right now, Kiwan Lacy, Jaden Ba, Florida, um Isaac Brown at Louisville, like schools are going to

26:17 have to pay two, three million bucks to get those guys or keep them. Yeah. Because if we look at like the payment structure over the years here, um you know, you could sit there and I've already touched on this a little bit like but I wonder how many new money people would would feel burnt by it because look, I'll say this. Um it's very clear that this is now a three-year trend with the SEC where this is not to the standard. This is not what we would expect. And even if I think it's the deepest conference, still the domination, there's just too many results now that I can't like I don't have the evidence that I used to have in the past to be like, what are you guys even talking about? That is not happening. So, whatever the gap, SEC, Big 10, if you think the Big 10's better, like you know, now I'm like open to all of it. Um, as we're like on year three of kind of what this is. But, you know, I've seen some other stuff written

27:07 where it's like, "Well, once the SEC like the other the other schools could pay and like sometimes I'll hear it from a fan base or a guy who I know played at one of the other schools where I'm like, you guys, you seriously want to argue that you guys were never doing anything that was like in the shady area of things?" Um, because we know that you were. So, like, what are you talking about? But for the schools that maybe were more by the rule book, um I wondered if if they would get excited and be like, "Oh, we can actually kind of do this out in the open and you know, we we can everything's sort of allowed here." Which again, other people would argue that not everything is allowed, but we can kind of get to that. And that there'd be a bunch of excitement and there'd be a bunch of money and then they'd go, "Hey, we went seven and five again. What a waste of money. Like, why am I why am I doing this again?" They're

27:57 like, "We paid how much for this one guy and he stinks." And so I wondered if there would be some kind of correction? But then at the same time, I would think of like the first time you were actually able to compensate your college quarterback, you're like, "We're going to give him $1 million." Like, oh my god, $1 million for quarterback. And then it's like, yeah, but do you realize like once we get through a couple cycles of competition and bidding on this stuff and and we know that people cannot help themselves? That's why there's a salary cap in football, in hockey, in basketball, because if you just let it be a free market, guys would be making $80 million a year in basketball. All right? So that even if there's some correction for the passion of wanting to cut these checks for all of these kids and different fan bases and boosters feeling burnt by it, you would at the same time have a lot of schools going, I

28:47 can't believe we're getting a differencemaker quarterback for the total of $1 million. Like it would make sense that it's in the five or $6 million range that we're hearing about with the top end guys because you just knew based on competition alone that it was going to get there. So, I wonder how those two things play. And feel free to point out anything you think is inaccurate in my my assumptions or my summary of of where this has gone in a couple years, but as it feels like those two things are battling each other. And it's also sort of hilarious, too, like how do you spend five or six million on a quarterback when you supposedly have $20 million in cap space to use for your entire athletic department?

29:28 That's That's right. Yeah. I mean, or let's not try to do that math because it just doesn't

29:32 we can just move on from that. Yeah. Um I I will say this season, Ryan, I think you were already seeing the signs of like, you know, I think with Brian Kelly, I think with Mike Gundy, I think even a couple years ago with Jimbo Fischer, like we're already seeing the signs of like, hey, man, like we spent I mean James Franklin, too, like hey, we spent a lot of money on this team and you're blowing it like you're we're gonna fire you. Like that's just like that's what it is now. if the investment level rises up um then the stakes are just heightened every year even though your team is completely different every year and you know I think that right now you're also seeing what SIG is doing in Indiana is so insane and yet it sparks hope for everyone right and so it's like I mean freaking Indiana's doing it right like their championship window opened the second he got there that's insane and so it's like

30:22 all right well what are they doing let's try to do what are doing. And so we've in the last two, three years, like you would talk to you would talk to, you know, personnel staffers at playoff programs and they'd be like, "Yeah, we're trying to take like five to 10 transfers a year." Like we're not trying to overdo it. Like we're signing blue chip high school recruits, all that. We, you know, we we we develop guys, we get them to the pros, all that. We've normalized in the last like two years here, not only like paying a lot of money for every player, but flipping it every year and just bringing in 25 transfers every year. And, you know, constant just constantly looking at who can we go get to make us better. And I think you could also like look at where we're at today and say like I' I've had this conversation with Blanchard at Texas Tech like some of these teams we thought were going to be really good to

31:07 start the year and back in August like Penn State like Clemson who had everybody coming back and it looks so good on paper. There's there's maybe like an argument to be made here of yeah having that veteran retained you know experienced team like if you stay out of the portal because you've got those guys that might be a mistake with kind of where this is going right now because some would argue like you need to just be constantly recruiting your roster. You need to constantly be recruiting over even the the veteran starters you got the NFL guys you've got and applying that pressure every year and and boosting the roster every year. Uh because otherwise maybe the guy that's, you know, a junior doesn't get that much better as a senior and maybe there's that complacency a little bit and you're, you know, you're looking at a season like Clemson or Penn State and you're like, man, how are we not better

31:51 than we were a year ago? Like it doesn't make sense. And so just this need for everybody to flip this all the time, whether you're winning or losing. Um it's very expensive. There's a lot of attrition to it. It make kind of makes the whole market like a little bit worse and crazier. Um, but that as you see people and these four programs that are at the end here have success with it. Like I think for everybody else it's like man we want to keep our players like we want to be competitive. We see their there you know Indiana is showing it's it's possible. Um but it it also creates like a lot of spending and a lot of hope that's like probably not going to pay off too.

32:28 Yeah. Yeah. The biggest mistake is like thinking that Indiana's [ __ ] everybody else up because it's discrediting what they do as evaluators.

32:39 Oh, for sure. And you know, there was a stretch there forever. I can go back. I've always talked about like revisiting this. There was a stretch there like early 2000s and on it was like look at everybody like Stoops as soon as he got there title right as soon as he gets there. Sabin was right on the map immediately. Mac took a little bit longer, but it was very clear like it felt like the coaches that mattered were doing their best work in the first few years, but that window was still like a three or four year window. So, just because Signetti is doing what he's doing, any other AD or fan base holding their program to the same, like I've seen it written about, it's like, hey, no excuses, no excuses.

33:11 It's like, well, um, I'd rather just praise what it is and how special this is, how unique it is. is a plus at all these categories, right? In terms of how they're doing it there.

33:22 Can you add more to I mean is it Wilson and like by the way I love Hoover. I love that pickup at quarterback. I mean it just makes sense. Like I don't know if it's the signetti pitch, but there is another part of this story that I feel like deserves more just awareness on how these guys have like if I owned an NFL team, I'd want to meet with the the Indiana staff and go, what do you do to so perfectly identify what you need? Because again, if we're talking overall talent rankings, there's an argument to be made that Signetti doesn't even have this thing going yet. And yet they're a game away from playing from a national championship.

34:02 Yeah. And they've already loaded up for next year. They have Josh Hoover coming from TCU. They have Turbo Richard, the running back from Boston College. They got Nick Marsh, who, you know, probably the second or third best receiver in the portal. You're going headtohead with Notre Dame on him and getting him to sign. Um, you know, they like they've got one of the past best pass rushers coming in. So, they're going to run it back, too. They're going to keep doing this. I it's it's incredible to watch because you're right like the the thing people say last year is like oh I mean they brought all these JMU guys with them and that really helps that sets the culture these guys have played before you know these guys what they can do translates in the Big 10 it's not that bad of a jump from what they're doing at JMU to doing at Indiana and you kind of get a lot of credit for yeah we brought these 12 13 guys with us and they that

34:42 really boosted the roster in year one. Okay well some of those guys stayed but like how do you explain year two then because I think that they did an exceptional job. It's not just the Heisman quarterback. You go through the whole depth chart, they either had returning seniors or they went out and got exactly the guy they needed. And I think part of it is like the availability of talent and they know exactly what they're doing, what exactly what they're looking for. They're very well prepared before the portal opens to go get the guys they want to get that fit them. And part of that, like we say, if there's 5,000 guys out there and it only takes 20, like they know what they're looking for and and they don't have to give each of those guys three million bucks to come to Indiana. Like the guys are bought into, hey, I see the results. I see what they're doing here.

35:26 Um, you know, I I it's it's exceptional. It's what they've done this year. and and I don't think it's going to drop off when these JMU guys graduate or this portal classroom like we've seen in the past like yeah it can be hard to maintain if you're doing the portal thing every year but I think they're also a pretty exceptional developmental and cultural program and so yeah I think now guys see it I think Setti's pitch in the past has been I think he's had five or six guys since 2019 win offensive player of the year in the conference and so Fernando Mendoza buys that pitch and comes out and takes his game to another level. Um, now Josh Hoover is gonna have a chance to do the same. And so if you can keep stacking this and you have the proof of the playoff like this, like guys are going to keep coming. It doesn't matter. Yeah, they could go to Ohio State or Michigan or Penn State or all these other schools, but like

36:11 they're into it. They they they're they're into the brand he's created and they want to win.

36:18 Have you talked to teams that have decided they're just not even going to bother with high school quarterbacks anymore?

36:25 It's a good question. I mean, it is because ultimately we're getting the whole like how much should we pay a high schooler and how much should we pay for a high school class that is its own conversation that I have with James all the time. That's I I find really interesting because the statistics are what they are. Like these guys don't stay. And now that the the rule is unlimited transfers for their career, you know, guys are I'm I'm seeing players pop up in the portal who are looking for their fourth school right now. Like it's pretty common place. like that's going to keep happening as long as things are set up the way they are right now. And so part of the challenge is like, okay, how much are you going to pay? How much are you going to invest in a guy before he actually gets on the field for you and like starts producing?

37:07 And then once he does do that, then is he jumping up to a million or two million or three million bucks, right? I think that that's it's a tough business right now. you know, you've got to work really hard to keep guys on board and even if you're successful and even if they're an all-conference guy and performing at a high level and love the offense, like somebody can come along and offer them something better. And so, yeah, I think the high school, like you're seeing freshman quarterbacks who just got through a year, who red shirted are hitting the portal now. Like, I think everybody is looking at this from just this direct path to getting on the field. And you know, a couple years ago, it's kind of clear it was heading this way that like past year two, if they weren't starting, they were leaving. And now I think that's happening even earlier. So, um, you know, you've got obviously the four teams in the playoff

37:52 at the end here all did it with transfers. And I think that's going to continue. I think whether it's just it's expensive to keep them and, uh, you know, they just don't stay very long if they're not the guy as soon as they get there.

38:07 Let's run through just more of the players here then. So it it sounded like I mean this is twice now with Tech whether it was the LSU Tech battle over Sorsby but you know a week ago it felt like Cam Coleman hey Alabama he'll stay in the SEC or whatever but you think Cam Coleman's going to end up in love. It's it's a Texas vers Texas A&M versus Texas Tech battle which since you know since they left the Big 12 we haven't seen too many of those Ryan like I think that's going to be uh extra spicy here. I I I think it was pretty evident, especially like once Hues got fired. I'm like, man, people are coming after Cam Coleman. I you know, I talked to one source that that thinks that he could as a wide receiver, he could get like three million bucks from this next school. He could get 35, something like that. Like, he has the potential to be a first round pick. A year from now, he's he's, you know, he was a top five recruit coming

38:58 in. Um, he's played with five different quarterbacks in his two years at at Auburn. He's shown, like, you watched Vanderbilt this year, like he can take over a game. um for Texas, for&m, for Tech, like this is gonna just be a straight up bidding war. And uh fascinated to see what he prioritizes here, what he and his family prioritize. But um yeah, he's he's a true number one receiver and he's the the number two player in our reigns right now.

39:23 Give me some other big names. I mean, I I don't want to put you on the spot too much here where you feel like I'm just asking you to predict where all of these kids are going to land, but like give us a few more names of some of the bigger ticket items right now that you're trying to figure out. Yeah, you know, the Levit one, the Sam Levit uh recruitment's been pretty interesting to follow. Um, you know, I like I I covered that that playoff game last year, Texas, Arizona State. Like watching him live, it's like, dude, this kid is special. He was only a red shirt freshman last year. Exceptional year with Scataboo last year at uh at Arizona State. Got hurt this year. Got knocked out for for the back half of the season.

39:58 Kind of like it was kind of out there, but a little bit surprising he made a move considering how tight he was with Kenny Dillingham. and he goes to Kentucky for a visit. Now Kentucky has his has flipped Kenny Mincchi uh the Notre Dame backup from from Nebraska. Uh he goes to uh he he was going to go visit Texas Tech. Texas Tech gets the deal done with Sorsby in their battle with LSU. He goes to LSU. LSU is now uh on on evidently chasing Deont Williams Jr. from Washington. Now he's going to Tennessee and Tennessee's just kind of been like seemingly kind of quiet. They haven't I don't think had a lot of OBS from from quarterbacks so far. um certainly would be a good move for him, but you know there's people kind of assumed he's from Oregon. Would he end up at Oregon if Dante Morg goes pro? So I think he has an interesting decision to make. That could be another one where Miami just comes into the picture and

40:42 says like, "Hey, we got to figure this out." Um you're the guy like it's it's I think it's been a good quarterback market this year. You've got Drew Master uh going to Oklahoma State for North Texas after, you know, leading the country in passing this year. Byron Brown going with his coach to Auburn. Um you know, we mentioned Hoover, Rockbeck going to Penn State. You know, you've still got DJ Lagway out there, which honestly, Ryan, a year ago, if you

41:03 I can't believe there's not like I I still am a Lagway believer. I'm just saying that right now.

41:08 I am too. And I think if you had told me in August, um he's going to go in the portal and he's going to go take official visits to Virginia and Stanford and Baylor. You'd be like, "Wait, what what the hell happened?" like I because he truly like we all kind of viewed him as a fivestar freshman like a truly like has a chance to take the step and be a top 10 quarterback this year. He's just had so many injuries and I think that that is really you talk to personal people like that's just the concern is like developmentally two years in that he's not where he should be because um he's missed a lot of practice. He's just missed a lot of time and has not even been throwing the football very much in the offseason. So um I think there's a lot there. I agree like I think that would be a great guy to invest in. You know, I I wondered when he entered the portal, like if you're dabbling in Clemson and they recruited DJ Laguay in

41:56 high school and have a good relationship with him, like wouldn't that be an incredible move for Clemson with when you've just got, you know, backups returning and you want to have a competition. Um, you know, his dad went to Baylor. I think he he just visited Baylor. Um, you got Stanford fighting, you got Miss is trying to get him in because they don't know what's going to happen with Trinidad Chamblas and so Miss is on him and they're on deuce night from Auburn and they're trying to kind of figure out what to do here. So, yeah, it's uh I I'm s I agree with you.

42:21 I'm surprised, you know, he visited Florida State. Like, I'm surprised that it's not done yet. Um either Baylor's got to like find the money to get this done or or he's going to go uh pick a spot and a big reset here. How about his teammate there, Jaden Ba, who I think behind Love is my favorite running back from college football this past season. I mean, a lot of this stuff can get lost. the receivers's gone after a year was a big- time recruit. But I know the running back price, I don't know if there's it's the same as like not drafting one in the first round, but I'm telling you right now in the college game, that guy is a [ __ ] stud. And I just don't think I don't blame anybody for not watching Florida games this year. He was so good that you would just I would like I'm going to watch him this this series. Uh that's how special I think he is as a running back.

43:07 you talk to like especially as as Napier was on the hot seat during the season like talking to the SEC personnel folks they're like yeah no it's Jaden Ba like that's if that if that opens up like we're all lining up to try to line you know get Jaden Ba here um tough runner like just a sophomore like really talented and it's been Jaden Ba has never put his name in the portal but there have been a lot of people fighting over Jaden Ba here over the past two months and he announced yesterday he's staying at Florida um and that is going to that came as a surprise I think to some people uh it's it's a huge deal for John Srell obviously and a big priority as soon as he got the job like we got to get this done but yeah Florida's running back's coach Jamar Jaluke went to Texas lost both of their running backs to the portal and it was pretty clear like yeah they're going to try and get Jaden B if

43:52 they can I think LSU certainly um you know if they couldn't get Kiwan Lacy to come they certainly wanted to get Jaden Ba and so it's a big deal for Florida you know hey we still got a little more time here before the portal closes so you got to kind of fight and hold on here. But I think Jane Ba's a player that is absolutely, you know, a couple years ago you would say when when Quinchan Judkins was sping the portal from Old Miss, I remember there was a lot of conversation about like come on, like why would you pay a running back a million bucks? Like look at the NFL.

44:19 Like that doesn't make any sense. Of course he goes and wins a national championship at Ohio State, but like now it's like you got to keep that guy. It's not really about the economics of it and about we look smart for this. It's like this guy has to stay here. And so, yeah, those guys are going to get paid over a million bucks and those deals, you know, could approach two or three million bucks.

44:38 Yeah, I guess I am always a little bit like, you know, considering all the turnover that they've had. I was I was a little surprised by that. I just looked up the John Henry Dailyaly latest the edge for Utah. Um, it's going to come down to Michigan Notre Dame. I don't know if something's changed since I read that this morning. I loved him. I I thought he really popped uh whenever you watched Utah this year. it feel a little surprising that he wouldn't follow Whittingham to Michigan, right?

45:03 Yeah, that would be that would be a little bit surprising. Um, really premium player that that I'm curious how that's hit you, too. But like the way that this is that shook out at Utah, uh, pretty wild. And I think as soon as Whittingham, you know, he he's going to like coach the bowl game and then he's done. Then he gets Michigan, then I'm not coaching the bowl game, I'm going to Michigan. And then as soon as that goes down, then it's like, okay, now Michigan's top defensive players are going in the transfer portal right away.

45:27 Um, yeah, it's I I would be surprised if some of those guys didn't go to Ann Arbor with him. Um, yeah, Daly was really impressive this year. One of the best pass rushers in the Big 12 in his first season as a starter. Got hurt at the end of the year. He says he's going to be fine for spring ball and I I don't think teams are really going to hesitate about the injury there. I think I think that he's going to be a highly valuable guy and I I think you know truly that's a position pass rusher where if you're whether you're experienced and you have production or you're just a freaky freshman and we got a few of those in the portal right now like yeah easily million bucks.

46:00 Yeah, the Whittingham thing could not have worked out better for Michigan. I mean just when you're trying to figure out like who can come in and then also like command the respect and Whittingham there's extra boxes that he checks that you wouldn't even be thinking about. Although I was reading about Michigan the other day and I was like, "We just need to get back to like whatever this is." And you're like, "Well, what do you mean?" Like all the controversy around Harbaugh and then the next coach was at best super horny, at worst dangerous to women. So you have a national championship with this group. Are you telling us like none of that fan base?

46:30 And I wouldn't expect any single fan base to actually go like, "Well, I'd rather this be more respectful without the national championship." Um, but Whittingham like from getting the right coach, a coach that I absolutely love, the demeanor and all this stuff and like buying whatever his contract is, there should be like another 20% of just instant credibility, right, that all of a sudden all the nastiness of like the Michigan football brand of the last few years with also a national championship in there, as I say it a second time, um, it just washes away immediately. like Whittingham is like the perfect cleanser for everything they're worried about.

47:10 All right, let me um let me close with this because you had mentioned it. We had a transfer portal quarterback match up in the final last year, the final four. This year, all all portal quarterbacks. Um which which game which outcome here are you more confident in picking between the rematch with Indiana and Oregon and then of course Miss and Miami?

47:30 Man, I I think Miss will get it done. And I I do I as you look at this Ryan like it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility here if we have Indiana miss in the national championship game I think it's going to be a real representation of the things we've been talking about here because those are two programs that are not in the blue chip ratio right they are not like does a great job recruiting the roster but they're not on that same level as a lot of those SEC schools in terms of just stacking five star fourstar high school recruits obviously Indiana isn't and so to have those two at the end and one of them is the champion. Like I think it's it would be a reflection of like you can call it NIL, you call it Portal, it's obviously both, but like that that is like we're in the new era of this and that if you can do this at the highest level, you can win a national championship. And I

48:16 think that there's still been that skepticism over the past few years of, yeah, cool. You spent a lot of money, built this great portal class, you know, they're not first rounders, they're not second rounders. Does that really change? Does that really put you on that same tier as Alabama and Georgia and Oregon and these programs that just stack it year after year in high school recruiting? And so, um, I I think Miss can do it. I I as which is wild for everything that's going on there every hour of every day. Like I I you talked to people on that staff and I talked to one right after they they resigned Kiwan Lacy, which was a huge deal for them. Um, because there's no question like the the the you know, they were fighting LSU on Kiwan Lacy. wasn't in the portal, but you know that you were you were trying to fight and convince him uh to to stay put um as as so many of these players have agreed

49:04 to. But like you talk to the guys that have been there and been there for the past, you know, what they've gone through the past like two months now, they're like, "Dude, it's not it's it's like a a multi-part Netflix documentary. Like just if you're living in it every day, the Old Miss side and the LSU side of it, right? Like it's it's uh one of them said he's like I he's like I think it's like Godfather one and Godfather 2. like you can't just like tell the old miss piece of it. There's like there's two whole stories here. So, it's like it's just been completely insane. And that motivation I I can't think of a Can you think of like a pro sports example of a parallel of like, hey guys, the head coach just bailed on you. He doesn't think you can win the national championship. How about we go win the national championship? Like if they get to this title game, like not not only is it like just a total nightmare for Lane

49:51 Keifin, but like they might actually do it. like they like they might despite their phones ringing every day about hey we want you to transfer here and go here like for that group to like come together and play the way they did against Georgia and be as resilient as they were and then they go play Miami and like yeah Miami's Dline is going to give them problems obviously like as it does everybody else wouldn't be stunning if Miami you know won that game but like I I the old miss story here um that's playing out every day is uh is pretty wild and and can't really think like is there a pro sports one like that where like yeah coach left But we just got we we got better. We won playoff games.

50:28 Um I'm trying to remember how the I don't think the Knicks did that great after the Pat Riley. I just remember that being like a ton of drama. Um certainly look, it wasn't the equivalent of what Old Miss is doing right now. I'm just trying like I was starting with like, all right, what pro scenario do you have? Um, yeah, it's not like the Jets went on some tear after Bellich decided to fax resign as the HC of the NYJ. So, yeah, I'd have to I'd have to think about it more

50:56 to have like, you know, it's instead of like instead of those guys just being like, "Wow, this is heartbreaking. This ruins our season like and now we're all, you know, all our coaches are going to LSU, a bunch of our players going to LSU." the way that that Pete Golding um it just galvanized it and the way he's handling this every day. Um and and with just like you know pretty straight talk and and just like not dissing lane but like hey I'm going to do it my way. I'm I'm going to like do what I have to do to kind of get this team through the rest of this. Um, yeah, it's it's unbelievably impressive and I I truly think we could see Miss in the National Championship game, which, you know, you would have said as Lane was deciding this, you would have said like, "No, they probably can't do it." But, um, you know, they took down Georgia and it took a took a lot of punches to take down Georgia. And, uh, you know, I think that

51:40 kind of proved like, man, I think they've they've got an opportunity to to finish this run here. This is where people who don't like me are about to get really annoyed though because I would I would point to a couple things here where I feel like we'll have these results in a moment. Like I don't know that you'd ever look like at a a string of data of like hey look at how long this has happened and you be like oh what happened in 1947 and be like oh that was kind of an outlier year or whatever like oh what happened over here. Um specific to Lane and the old Miss LSU part of it. anybody that thought that Lane should be coaching throughout this entire thing as it extends, it's an outrageous thing to even propose. So, the fact that Old Miss was like, "You can [ __ ] off, man." Um, I completely agree with Old Miss because Lane would be this entire time working these guys to follow him to Baton Rouge

52:29 while he'd be like the star and it was just going to be it was just going to be a thing and as an extent

52:35 that meeting it's like Lane's like, "You don't think I'm going to handle that with integrity?" It's like, "No, dude. We don't think you're going to handle that the right way. Like, of course not.

52:42 So, and by the way, if you're LSU, you'd be like, we actually, even if it's like an inside agent, you know that we'd like to get our thing started down here. So, like, what are you going to do? Host Sam Levit for a portal visit while you're prepping to go up against Miami? That that was argued I personally think was absurd. Now, here's where I think I'm going to annoy people is that the hey, look at Old Miss and the job he left for LSU because he didn't think he could do at Old Miss what he can do at LSU while Old Miss is on the doorstep of doing this thing. Um, no one has ever ever in the decades that I've cared about this sport has ever argued that Old Miss is a better job than LSU. So, we could have a result that makes it very easy to make fun of Lane and be like, you know, look what you did, dummy. Now, they're in the national championship game and you left.

53:39 But I feel like that's like the one data point out of like 50 to what feels like a really good point in the moment when in fact you're actually just not telling the truth. Yeah, you have to like you can tell me

53:55 you have to appreciate like this is a very like magical run from miss here, right? Like given of course

54:01 it just that that's like what can you say and then you have the quick turnaround uh from the Sugar Bowl to to the the semi-final here and like

54:09 you know it's an interesting thing to navigate going going four rounds like they're going to right. Um, yeah. No, it's No, no one is saying it's it's a you know, we all agree LSU, you're you're on the fast track to playing for national championship, no matter who the coach is, no matter whether you're from the South or not, right? Like it's it is set up for success. Um, but to Lane Lane will will want this credit obviously, but he put together a very special team here and then had to leave that team uh and not finish the job with them and then like I said for for that to just like galvanize them and be like, "Yeah, screw it. Like let's just go win a national title together, guys." So like and then we'll figure out all the rest of the stuff after the season's over and the coaches will leave. But like you think about it right right now Ryan like those assistant coaches at all miss some of them are like

55:01 working during the day getting ready for the playoff game and then at night we're going to go over to this room and we're going to go recruit for LSU here and then we're going to fly back to LSU and host these visits and we're going to fly right back and every round it's like is Lane going to let us go back to Miss and keep coaching or like is this going to can we work this out? So, yeah, it's just kind of I as as as divorces go in college football, um it's just one of the craziest things you've ever seen.

55:27 Yeah. In a sport that has signed up for more and more crazy uh especially the last few years. Max Olen, you can read all of his portal rankings, updating it hourly for ESPN.com. He is one of the best to be doing this. We appreciate the time. Thanks, Max.

55:41 Thanks, Ryan. Joining us now, NBA analyst, NBC analyst Robbie Hmel, who also you know from the college game as well. He'll be on Peacock's NBA Monday, January 12th, Celtics at the Pacers with more on the bench coverage. Uh, I have loved this. I can't believe TV tried something new and it's worked this well. Uh, you and Austin Rivers, I know they mix it up a little bit in the routine, but you know, I'm going to start there. I don't know talk NBA and everything, but how do how do you think this has worked this well?

56:13 Cuz I'm actually shocked how great this is going. Yeah, I I was very skeptical when it was pitched because of where your location is. You know, I was like, wait, so I'm going to be on one bench and Austin's going to be on another bench and then Noah or Michael Grady will be across the floor? You know, how are we supposed to not talk over each other? Because in threeman booths, there's a lot of non-verbal communication. you know, there's a lot of like I might point at you if you're going to take a replay or and when you're all the way across the floor, you really can't do that. So, um I was a bit skeptical of that, but I will say we did some practice games out at Summerlake in San Francisco and it went pretty well to the point where was like, wow, you know, I there's maybe something here. and Sam Flood, who's the the president of NBC Sports, had done this with hockey and he's kind of brought it to basketball. And obviously

57:05 with hockey, it it stuck and it's kind of become something that all, you know, hockey broadcasts do now where they've got an analyst or reporter right down there on the glass is what they call it. So, um, I think it's gone great. You know, it's been really, really interesting. I I think Austin and I have developed a really good chemistry and that Noah is as good as anybody. And you could say the same for Michael Grady. Like I think the people that we work with um in this broadcast have have been tremendous. And then I give a lot of credit to NBC for putting crazy amounts of resources to it. You know, we have the same crew. We've got a bunch of cameras. We've got really good good people working on these these shows. And then I give the NBA credit, too. You know, they they are a big part of this in terms of saying, "All right, we're going to give you this access." The coaches have been really really good.

57:55 they've let us come to shoot around. That that's a lot more of a college thing. For the NBA, the way that TV usually works is you might meet with the coaches, you know, before the game, but you're not going to shoot around. You're not getting that level of access to see how are they going to guard things and, you know, what's the scouting report on certain players, but they've been willing to do it. And uh, you know, without their accessibility, it would have been a lot lot harder to pull this off. But I I think it's gone great, too.

58:22 It's been really really fun to do it. and uh you know like even last game you know we're we're sitting courtside we're doing our thing in Philadelphia and I'm sitting next to Bob Myers so it's just kind of like it's it's been surreal. You've got executives, you've got actors, you've got I was sitting next to this dude named the watch king um in Brooklyn. So it's it's a hodgepodge of who you sit next to. But you do meet some really interesting people. I love it. And I I always think of like are there no new ideas or if you have that approach to any of this stuff, does that mean you're just limited creatively? And that it's like of course like there's all sorts of things that we have not thought of. And I was thinking about there was that NFL game where the camera thing got messed up. I don't know if it was because of the fog and then we went to like all 22 for half and then everybody online's like freaking out

59:11 being like, "Oh, this is amazing. We should stay with all 22. It teaches you the game the whole thing." and then they stayed with it for a little bit and then you realize like yeah actually the whole reason why we've had it the other way is because it's just way better thing to watch on television and that over the course of a full season this doesn't really work and so at first when it was announced I was like are they just trying to do something different like how are they not going to like feel disconnected and it's been incredible man I really enjoy it and I imagine too there's with this access there's an understanding and maybe because you're a former player and obviously Austin's very close to it as well there's a tremendous this amount of trust in that you're going to share what you think helps tell the story, but you're not going to betray anybody and being like, "Oh my god, they want to bench this guy.

59:53 Like, he's a dog right now." Like, nobody, you know, there's there's all this stuff that I imagine that you have access to that you have enough of a filter to understand what will work and what will get you in trouble.

1:00:03 Sure. And, you know, Austin has grown up in the NBA, so he has a tremendous feel for locker room. You know, what it's like to be the day-to-day thing. um just being around coaches, players, all that. So, I I think that he's got a tremendous feel with that. And then, you know, I I wasn't in the NBA long. I played two years, but I think I've done TV long enough to understand like what these coaches are going to think is okay to have out there and what's not. We ran into something really interesting in Detroit, like in the third or fourth week of this, they were playing the Wizards. It was actually a really good game, even though Washington is obviously rebuilding. And there was a late game situation where it's like, "All right, they're going to draw play and Detroit's going to draw this up and I'm in the huddle and I I watch exactly what JB Bicker staff draws up." There has been, and I understand this, a

1:00:53 little bit, I think, of hesitancy from head coaches of like they can't just say what the play is, right? like that that could be very I think just kind of you know maybe breaking the the sacredness of of what's coming even though there's a delay even though it's not like the Wizards can be watching this and you know yelling at the guys hey pin down for for Duncan Robinson or or whoever. So, like we had to kind of like navigate that and I think we actually did a good job of of saying all right, you know, we waited as long as we could. The ball's about to be inbounded and then just being subtle of watch Duncan Robinson.

1:01:30 It's screen rescreen and it actually worked out perfectly where they ran the play right and Washington just blew it up. Like basically three guys ran into each other. They all fell down and then Detroit threw it to the corner for Danish Jenkins and he hit a three. But it it ended up working out, I think, as well as it could have. But that's one of those kind of tricky things to navigate of, you know, how do you do that? And it was the first time. So, we were lucky that it ended up working out probably as well as it could have. But yeah, you're you're never going to say because obviously there's times where coaches are trying to motivate. Maybe in the NBA, not as much as you'd see in in Europe or or in college or high school where there's like a coach really really yelling at a player. But when those things happen or there's an argument on the bench between teammates, you can say, "Hey, there was some heated

1:02:19 discussion without being like, "Hey, he just cussed this dude out to the maximum, right?" Like, you've just got to you've got to use some common sense, I think. And that's kind of the approach we've taken.

1:02:29 The story from the most recent game, the Denver win in overtime against Philadelphia is like perfect for it because, you know, Denver's got this lineup, these different groups of guys, you know, Embid's played better, he's moved better. um you know Maxis in the MVP conversation and then next thing you know you're like we're in we're in overtime for this one. So how different is the experience between what you're dealing with with your bench versus Austin because there were two vastly different expectations based on who was playing.

1:02:56 Sure. I I'm sure with Austin and it was funny because we both played for David Adelman. You know I had him for two years in Minnesota and Austin had him for a couple years in Denver. So we we know him well. Um I'm sure that he was every time out he had to be thrilled, right? like just because these guys are playing hard, they're getting an opportunity. Um that's one of those games where he's just like, "Man, I just hope we we hang around and we have a chance." Whereas with Philly, I thought the way they played at the Garden on Saturday was uber impressive. Like their offense is just clicking. They're getting whatever they want. New York can't guard them. And their big three, you know, Maxi has been so good. You're right. Absolute MVP discussion. Embiid.

1:03:36 I saw him in Memphis on last Tuesday and I was like, man, he's throwing the ball off the backboard trying to dunk. He's protecting the rim a little bit better. He's leaving his feet. He's looked better. I thought he looked, you know, kind of the same thing in New York. And Paul George is starting to fit into that equation. Plus the whole VJ Edgecom dynamic where you're like, man, this dude, this dude is a beast for being a rookie. The clutch factor, the athleticism, the shot making. And yeah, I I will give Nick a lot of credit. He was he was very calm, but the constant message of we need to guard the ball. We need to stay out of rotation. We have got to keep these guys in front of us.

1:04:12 And I saw Jaylen Picket a lot in college. He's a hard guard, man, because he's herky jerky and he's kind of he's a bigger guard. He's got some size, but they couldn't keep him in front of him. And then Peyton Watson is pretty good. Like he he doesn't get the opportunity. But that that's my biggest takeaway from this game. And I I kind of understood this being a lower tier NBA player for two years. Even the guys that don't play are really good players, you know, and they you just need an opportunity. You need a situation where you're like, man, I get to play through some things.

1:04:42 Denver is making three after three after three from guy like Zeke Naji, I think, is shooting 28% from three. Hunter Tyson was like 22% from three. Those guys aren't bad shooters, but and I I always used to give my college teammates such a hard time for this. It is so hard to sit on the bench for two and a half hours, get put in when the score is decided by 20 or 25 points and be like, "All right, go make some shots." And I used to give our walk-ons such a hard time. I'd be like, "Man, it's basketball. Go out there and just shoot that thing." And they'd be like, "Dude, it's hard." And then when I got to the NBA, I was like, "All right, they they have a point. It is hard because you're just you're not in a rhythm. So, I think it's a great lesson and like everybody in that league can play and when you get the opportunity and you play hard and maybe a team like Philly that's trying to be labeled as a contender, they're looking

1:05:34 at that roster like, man, there's nobody playing. Their starting five is out, Tim Hardway Jr.'s out, anything can happen. It's it's why the NBA can be so fun. Who is, you know, I'm kind of like this is one of those answers if somebody's like, "Hey, who do you think the best is?" is then it's like, well, it's not that I'm rewarding the best, it's that all of a sudden other people are going to think I'm not the best. But have there been a few moments with a team or with a coach where you've had access through the season where it's just really impressed you or maybe

1:06:04 I would say that they all have been great, you know, like they they all have been willing to talk about their teams and and showcase. I think the coaches look at this like, you know, and Austin made this point early on, like so often with the NBA, coaches are just scapegoed. You know, he's doing a bad job, he's fired. And I think that this job can can do it or these broadcasts can do a good job of celebrating how good these coaches really are. You know, I because the the basketball IQ and just the the way that these guys take from all different places. you see action that gets run in Euro League or college or, you know, some stuff that that guys have come up with themselves. I I think that's a cool part of this. Um, you Kenny Atinson's been tremendous. JB Bicker staff has been tremendous. I really enjoyed my my talk with Joe Missoula. You know, I played against Joe in college. Um, so I that might, you

1:06:57 know, just in terms of having a familiarity. I know Joe can can be tricky with some of his media that you see, which is actually hilarious. and and I I was roommates with Desawn Butler uh who was his college teammate and also on the Celtic staff. We were roommates in USA basketball back in the day in Belgrade for four weeks with along with Evan Turner. Um so like that that goes a long way I think of having a relationship. Um, honestly, I can't. Of all the teams we've had, and I bet we've had like 12 teams, every coach has been great. Sit down, give access, you know, talk about their teams, talk about their game plan. There's not been a single person that's not been good.

1:07:37 Okay. With the This is probably slanted a little bit who you've been around versus who you haven't been around, but like if you look at the East contenders, right, because you know, the expectation of Cleveland is they I still expect a Cleveland run at some point, but you know, it's really up and down depending. I mean, even last night, a battle with the Pacers. Um, you know, Detroit gets off to the start. New York would feel good about Boston's sort of surprise. There's some of this meaty middle part of the East that early on they had some good records, but you're like, I don't know if they're really necessarily talented enough. If there's one team that you felt like, hey, this might be the team. Is there an answer for that for you?

1:08:11 Boy, I because the Pistons have come back to earth a little bit and I do worry some about their shooting and the court getting shrunk come playoff time. I did love that Knicks game though by them the other night. It was it was like

1:08:25 really intense defensively. Some of the individual one-on-one defensive matchups, you're like, man, you know, go ahead.

1:08:31 No, I mean they they guard they they destroy you in the paint, they destroy you on the glass. Like they they win the margins at everywhere. And it's like if they can just shoot a decent percentage from three, they they're going to have a chance. And then Kade is a legitimate star, right? Like, so I I really like Detroit's team, but I think you could make the case the shooting, you know, Boston, it's like, god, they've gotten rid of just everybody, and they don't have Tatum, but Jaylen Brown's playing like like a, you know, a first team allNBA type guy. Um, the Knicks, there just feels like there's something that's been something just seems a miss. And maybe it's you get Josh Hart back and and you become whole and that all um comes together here. I agree with you on Cleveland. I I think that they're certainly a team I I think like missing Max Struce has been a lot more impactful than maybe people have given credit for.

1:09:22 And you've been you've missed Moy some. Um God, I've I've done so many stinking games. What's my

1:09:29 No, Garland. Garland was slow back with the toe injury and he hasn't What's my man the shooter? Um God, he's actually he was phen yes. Sam Merrill.

1:09:40 Sam Merrell, unbelievable start to his season and then he hurts his shooting hand. So it's like I I think he's a really good player. So if they get healthy and whole, I could see that. And I feel the same way about Philadelphia. You know, you get UB back in the mix and you have a healthy Embiid and you have a healthy Paul George. Now I get that NBA fans would be like, well, that hasn't necessarily been the case over the last three, four, five seasons, you know, like that. But if they can be healthy, watch that Knicks game and you're like, whoa. You know, their their talent. I had an executive text me that like, look at Philadelphia's talent when they're healthy and they're scary. So, you know, I I don't know if anybody has necessarily separated themselves. I And I I might be biased because I've seen Detroit like five times, but I I do love the physicality and toughness that they bring alongside Kate Cunningham.

1:10:32 Yeah, I'm with you on that. like I I think they're in their own level in the East. Um and they had that Knicks win without Duran playing, you know, and and I probably talentwise still hold out hope for Cleveland and Mitchell wasn't playing in that Pacers game where, you know, they had to come back and then the Pacers put together this little kind of like mini burst at the end there. But I just like we could talk about Strus all we want, but if you have Allan, Mobly, Hunter, Garland, and Mitchell

1:11:00 and even the the erratic part of this, like Stru should not be the deciding factor

1:11:05 for for like, oh my god, you know, they don't have this guy. It's like, well, look at all these other dudes they have. I mean, Hunter's the most expensive fifth option in the NBA. So, um, I look, I'm I'm with you on Detroit, even though it's not like, hey, oh my god, if Detroit isn't in the NBA finals, I'm going to be shocked. Like, I'm not that far along with it. That would be aggressive.

1:11:24 No, I'm with you there. Because you've done so much college. every night has been like I have so much fun now watching this rookie class where depending on how the games are kind of like flowing and like what I want to get my eyes on. There might just be a moment where like you know what I I I mean look Khan Canipple has been like a default Charlotte's almost like a top five league pass rating for me here just because I'm blown away that somebody this young could understand the nuance of basketball as well as he does. It it blows my mind. It's not just the shooting and the scoring and the rookie numbers for three-pointers. It's like, oh, he understood how to do that. He read that this way. He He's always dribbling with a purpose. He's moving the ball with a purpose. Give me your kind of breakdown of like where guys are versus what you would think they would be. Um because again, you've watched

1:12:12 them all season long and there's so many rookies to get excited about. Sure. So, I guess you start with Cooper and you know, I think it was widely thought generational talent. Um and he clearly has been, right? Like it's just been it's been phenomenal.

1:12:28 No. And like he's playing he's got the ball in his hands and Yeah. You know if if he starts making threes at a clip like man good luck, right? Like and that's probably going to happen because even at Duke he started a little bit slow from a shooting perspective and by the end of the year he was shooting a pretty good percentage. I just think his his feel, his size, his footwork, he he's just and then like defensively the way that he can be off the ball, you know, as as a as a secondary defender. There's just there's so much to like about Cooper. So, yeah, I I'm with you.

1:12:57 Probably even higher than I would have thought with with how much responsibility has been shouldered there. Um, you know, in terms of Dylan Harper, I I haven't gotten to see San Antonio yet. And I will say the one thing that's tough for me because I'm doing so much college, I kind of helicopter into the NBA. Um, now I saw him a ton at at Ruckers and I I thought really really highly of him just in terms of pace, size, ability to get to the rim, has a mid-range, can shoot it from three. Has he I'll actually I'll throw it back to you. Has he played as well as you? Because I haven't seen San Antonio in person yet. Um, I I don't I can't really even answer that for Dylan Harper.

1:13:39 No, I I think that's that's actually like a fair way even if you've been watching a lot of it only because he's he's asked to impact the game in a way that's really tough in comparison to some of the other young guys. Now, he comes into the San Antonio team that's super established. Fox is coming back from the injury. Castle has made a massive jump. They're actually, it looks like their preference is to have Castle run the offense and Fox play off of him. So depending on injuries and how they want to go with the Kell Vel part of it and then Harrison Barnes, I mean Sohan's totally out of the rotation at this point. Champenni is getting minutes.

1:14:12 So Harper has to come in and kind of find his spot and it's it's tough for him. But I would say in the Flashes where he's allowed to be himself, it's really really impressive.

1:14:24 Yeah. Um unfortunately he's not on a bad team just running high ball screen and then reading off everything. My favorite thing about him may be how advanced he is around the rim with his size and his his footwork's phenomenal. Like he just has these moments where you're like, "Okay, there's so much to work with here." But Castle has made such a jump

1:14:45 and and playing like real Yeah. playing like real point guard, which I didn't really know if that was true, even though they were trying to package him that way before the draft. So, look, Fox looks like he's off the ball as a preference more often than not. So for Harper, it's just it's harder to find a flow of like five or six minutes where he's in charge of the ball. It's just not going to happen a lot. But I've like

1:15:06 I think with with with Steph Castle, it was like if he plays point guard, the teams just go under and under and under and under like are they going under to the restricted arc and and the fact that he's been able to make that work is is really impressive. Um Edgecom, I guess, is the third pick. I thought he had a chance to be good. Obviously you no one thought this the clutch stuff is crazy. You know, I I know he missed the the game-winning layup in in Philly the other night, but he makes some defensive plays even where you're like, man, he's just always making things happen at the end of the game. And we saw him in Memphis last Tuesday and he hits the gamewinner. Um just pretty unbelievable to see his mixture of high-end athleticism, shot making, you know, being dynamic, getting to the rim. I I love the way that Philly just reverses the ball, and he just rips it down the scene. Like I I think for somebody

1:15:56 that's athletic with the way the NBA guards at the nail and help, that's an unbelievably simple action, but also at the same time so incredibly effective. Um so I I would not have thought Edge could have impacted the game like this. Um but clearly he he has. Caniple would be fourth um as the fourth pick. I knew he was crafty. I knew he could score. I knew he could shoot. But to see what he's done, you kind of hit the nail on the head earlier with Charlotte is actually incredibly fun to watch. Now, their defense at times is like, whoa.

1:16:30 But they they score, you know, they got dudes that could really score the rock and he's a big part of that. the fact that he's like in this conversation in terms of threes made with like the the best shooters in the league is pretty phenomenal because there is I thought the adjustment to the NBA three-point line just in terms of like at the college three as a player I felt like all right I can be off balance I can kind of fade back you know you get to the NBA three-point line you start doing that early on and you don't maybe have some of the strength that these guys that have been there for 10 years and you're off balance you're fading man you're going to shoot air balls so I I just think that that he's made that adjustment so quickly and just his his knowledge of how to score, how to play off two feet, how to find angles, that that's high level stuff. Like it it really is. Um and to round this out, I

1:17:18 guess the fifth pick was Ace Bailey. I saw you don't have to do the whole first round.

1:17:23 I've seen him play none, but I will say I did see him in college score 39 at Indiana and the shot making was absurd. Like he's making shots off one foot. he's doing, but he doesn't in college at least, he didn't get to the free throw line. He wasn't great at getting to the rim. He tantalizes you with some shots that you're like, there might not be another, you know, freshman in the country that can make them, but at the same time, you're like, does he manufacture points in a way that like the best scorers in the NBA do of getting to the line, stealing easy baskets? That that wasn't a thing. And I will say, I have not watched much Utah because we haven't had them. So,

1:18:00 yeah. No, I know. Well, I knew you didn't have uh everybody here, so I wasn't going to be like, "All right, now the 23rd pick." Um, did Austin Butler Was he confused by your entire deal that night?

1:18:12 Yes, I think so. Um, he was incredibly nice. So, you had a Lakers game and you ended up being seated next to him because of limited seating. Well, I you know at Staples or Crypto or whatever they call it now or Madison Square Garden, which we haven't been to, but at some of these places, the the real estate there is so so expensive as you know. So, it's like they I don't know if it's add a seat or, you know, just squeeze you in or beg the owners for their seats or whatever it is. Um I was told before the game, so this is because this became a thing, right? I was told before the game, Rob, you're sitting next to Jimmy Goldstein. I was like, hell yes. Like, this guy, you you know, I'm sure you know Jimmy Goldie, wears the cowboy hat, you know, goes to all the NBA games,

1:19:01 has a very distinctive look. Um, so I was like, all right, I I can't wait to talk to him, you know, like just because when I was playing, him and Rooney Turof would always have these like discussions before the game, during the game. So, I'd always like see that. I was like, I I really am excited to just kind of talk to Jimmy Goldstein and see what he's like. Well, I look to my left, that's not Jimmy Goldstein. I'm like, this guy's probably a model or I I I will say I have really lost track of like movies, shows, especially during the season. But I I have not seen much of his work. So Noah being the bad partner that he is, he calls it out.

1:19:40 Like it's not like he said it in the timeout like, "Oh, Rob, you're sitting next to a famous actor." He just says it on the broadcast and I I had no idea. But yes, he he was very oblivious to what we were doing. I was oblivious to what he I guess who he is. And the sad thing was I had made a point that night to go out there early and look at just who's around. Okay, there's Eddie Murphy, there's Jimmy IN. There's Pat Sjack. Sadly, those are all people that like my freaking grandma would know. like I was not aware to the the new age actor and I have had more people reach out to me and be like how do you not know this guy then I'm in the grocery store I see him on the cover of like Men's Health it was it was a funny moment but it's like it it was an awakening for me that I need to get up in my pop culture yeah I don't look everybody gets older you start worrying about things he feels like he's kind of a big deal um and he

1:20:36 was decked out a lot of length on him though I don't know if you guys are sizing each other up, but he's

1:20:41 he's got some length, as they say. And like a lot of those actors that you run into and you see him in person, you're kind of like, man, they're not very tall. Like he he that probably didn't help my cause either. That when he's standing up, he's not maybe looking in that way, right? Like, so I'll make any excuse that I can for myself to not know this guy. But I will say I will know Austin Butler for the rest of my life. That that will not be something that I escaped me.

1:21:07 Who knows? you could be staying with him next time you come out to LA just story.

1:21:12 There you go. What was it like sitting next to Bob for that game? Just to kind of like we we spoken a lot of timeouts whether it was about, you know, does he miss TV? Does he like his new job? Um he's obviously got a fascinating perspective on players because he did play and then he builds the Warriors and has been an executive for so long. Um, I was blown away with how cool he was. Um, you know, just in terms of of talking to him and, uh, he could not have been nicer and I, you know, that's one of those things where you're like, man, that was pretty cool that I got to sit next to Bob Myers and and kind of pick his brain during timeouts.

1:21:50 Yeah, he's one of the most impressive basketball people that I've ever talked to. How many teams in the West have you had that you felt like you had a good read on? because I know

1:22:01 I've seen LA once, now Denver, but you know, Denver played nobody. Timber Wolves once, Suns twice, Grizzlies, and that that would be Yeah. So, we we have Oklahoma City coming up. That'll be fun. Um I think we actually we have San Antonio at Detroit. That'll be a good game. Um but we've had the Rockets, too. We had the Rockets early on, so actually more more of the West than I would have thought. Um, but it's been we've had we've been heavy east and we haven't gone west nearly as much. But I guess in terms of lately it's hard to to say the Nuggets you just got to survive, right?

1:22:37 Like just try to keep your head above water, get healthy, and then come back and and make a run when you get Joic back. Um, Lakerwise, I guess we haven't seen God that was that Austin Butler game was that's almost like a month and a half ago. So they almost feel like ancient history.

1:22:51 Um, same with the Rockets. The Suns have been a great story. You know, like the Dylan Brooks thing, it is fascinating to watch him psych himself up into these games because everybody like you kind of talk to him beforehand and he he he's very thoughtful and, you know, he's he's good to talk to in terms of I think kind of just figuring out what he's trying to accomplish and and how they're trying to play. And then you watch him go into this routine of like psyching himself up to to kind of go into this alter ego. And man, he I give him credit. He doesn't back down to anybody. He's not backing down to LeBron. He's not backing down to Durant. He doesn't care. And you know, I I know that he's going to be a very polarizing figure in the NBA because obviously a fan of any team but the team that's rooting for him is going to hate him. Um but I do give him credit because it it can it's hard I think when

1:23:44 you're not maybe at the level of Durant and LeBron. And yeah, I think if you asked Dylan Brooks, he'd say, "Well, I am at the level of those guys, but when you're not, maybe that's a credit to to just kind of his confidence, but it's hard to do that with those dudes because those are some of the best players to have ever played this game." How important is it for you to be able to say through all your injuries and everything, and you were one of my favorite college players when you were playing, I just loved the way you played man.

1:24:15 How important are those two seasons for you when maybe you're you're around it and you're thinking like, man, if this hadn't happened, this hadn't happened and all this kind of stuff like that you can say like, look, at least I I did play in this league for a couple years. How important are those two season?

1:24:29 No, it it's very important. Um, I have such a complex thought process of my professional basketball career. Like it it is if you had told me in high school, you know, I was like a top 75 recruit coming out of high school. If you told me, "All right, you're a second round pick, you play two years in the NBA, you play Euro League, you play in Spain, Russia, Italy, will you sign up for this today?" I would be like, "Yes, sign me up immediately." Right? Like I I obviously hoped I could make the NBA, but when you're ranked 75th in your class, and granted, our class was absolutely loaded. You've got Derrick Rose and James Harden and Kevin Love and Kyle Singler and Mike Beasley and Billy Walker and OJ Mayo and like the list just goes on and on and on of Blake Griffin, Evan Turner. Um, and then you get into the guys that were just really good college players and then fringe NBA guys. It's like, man, there was so many

1:25:20 good players that when you're playing against that and then you get to college, you're like, it's not that much of a difference. maybe other than the physicality and the the age gap, but you know, if you told me that as a senior in high school, I would sign up immediately. But after my freshman year and then you start, you know, having some success and you, you know, you make the World University Games team for USA basketball and my junior year I'm playing as well as I'd ever played and then you just, you blow your knee out twice in, you know, eight months and you don't play basketball for 17. You're like, I don't know if I'll ever play again. And I think that I certainly have a good feeling about persevering through that and making it through all that and getting drafted and then going overseas for a year and playing in Spain and playing well and getting to the NBA.

1:26:05 But, you know, I think by the time I was a junior, my thought process is that, man, I I can play 10 years in the NBA and I can be a good role player and I can impact winning and I can help a team win. And you know, I think I go to Minnesota and my first year, we've got a team that's that's pretty good, but in a loaded west. We won 40 games, but you know, it was it was Kov's last year. He was all NBA. He was tremendous. Um, but then we trade him and we bring in Zack Lavine and Andrew Wiggins who are rookies and Anthony Bennett who's a second year player that's trying to, you know, kind of find his way through a tough rookie year. And we win 16 games.

1:26:40 And like I'm I we were laughing with David Adelman um before the game. He used to create an edit because they would put me in some really hard spots. Like they'd be like, "Rob, you're going to bring the ball up, but you're guarding Demarcus Cousins." So David, like just to kind of keep spirits light, would make these man's game edits and it would be essentially like and I, you know, I knew that I'm not I'm obviously not a center. I'm like a I'm a three or maybe a stretch four. So he'd he'd pull some of the funniest clips of these guys just like weight rooming me just to kind of it like it sounds bad but we would laugh so hard like dude what are you going to do?

1:27:19 Demarcus Cousins is 611 280 right like I'm 6'8 215 220 what am I going to do with that? Um so yeah I I think in terms of also like this isn't happening for me to broadcast these games if I don't play in the NBA. So, I honestly I look back and I had a surgeon. He he actually just passed away. Um he had brain cancer. He's one of the best orthopedic surgeons that there was in the world and his name was David Alche out of New York City. And I when I found out he passed, it it it honestly punched me in the face because I'd had a bad experience with my first surgery in Indianapolis. And you know, I go to New York and again like I'm thinking I I don't know if I'll even ever play basketball again. And he, this dude could not have had a better bedside manner. He could not have had a better confidence about we're going to get you back. You know, it's just as simple as doing the surgery. And you know, I look

1:28:13 back on that moment of of having my second surgery in New York City at the hospital for special surgery. And you know, David Alch not only saved my basketball career to go on to have an all Big 10 season as a senior, get drafted, play in the NBA, play overseas for three years, but now in terms of just TV, like I'm not doing NBA games if I didn't play in the NBA. So I when I found out that he passed away, it it it really, you know, kind of like it just it punched me in the face. And it's like, man, I I owe so much to David Alchek for the job that he did to just get me back up to being functional and able to to play basketball. And, you know, for the rest of my life, I'll I'll think, you know, for him that it's I I owe a lot to that dude. And uh you know, he was an incredible doctor.

1:29:01 Yeah. Well, that's really well said and I'm I'm sorry to hear that. No, it's Yeah. But I I think about that question with guys that I've got to know, you know, all the years of working at ESPN. you know, some of the guys that become friends, like I have a friend who pitched in the minors, I think for 12 years, and he was in the majors for six days.

1:29:17 Yeah. And when he got sent back down, you know, we were just waiting for him to get the call back up and then

1:29:23 it never happened. And I don't I think it really hurt to talk about it when it happened and then the off season of like what's next and then I think now years removed, you can be like thank God, thank God I got those six days, you know.

1:29:38 Totally. And totally I know Jay Will, well there's so many J Wills, but Jay Williams Duke, you know, we worked, we'd live near each other in Connecticut and there's a couple times we were hanging out and I'm thinking like I'm complimenting him being like, dude,

1:29:53 when you had it going, you know, when you had But then what I didn't realize is that

1:29:59 it may have been something that he was like, I I don't want to talk about this because it's still something it's going to be, especially when you're him and you're the number one pick and it looks like you're like you're going to like who knows? what's possible for you and your career.

1:30:11 But I imagine like anybody like life, you just have to get a little bit older, a little bit more removed from it, and you'll find a way to appreciate things that maybe you didn't appreciate nearly as much.

1:30:21 Yeah. And you also realize that like being in the NBA is such a gift in terms of like it's such a unique place. It's such a it's not the real world, but you're around these guys that are are the best athletes in the world and some of the best players to have ever played. And you know, I think when you're there, you're thinking, I'm going to be here for a long time. And it's definitely not not the case for most of us, right? Like most of us when it's done, it it's not like it's your choice. And my ending, this is a a bit of a hard pill to swallow as well. You know, I had had really good talks with Minnesota and our team was dysfunctional is not the right word. We just we were tanking for Carl Anthony Towns and I'd had some good talks with the front office in Minnesota about coming back and my agent Mark Blestein had as well and you know they offered me a qualifying offer and then on July 4th this is the worst holiday I

1:31:14 think I've ever had. On July 4th, I get the call from Mark that my qualifying offer is rescended because Minnesota can sign Nemia Bellitza, who was the Euro League player of the year, and I'd played against him in college, and I' I'd seen him overseas. And look, he was a really good player overseas, so I I understood the business of it, but that's, you know, I'm thinking, all right, at worst, I signed this qualifying offer and I'm making 120% of what I made last year, and I get to run it back with with Minnesota and try to be a part of this young court with Zach and Andrew and and Anthony and all these guys. And just like that, I never play in the NBA again. So, it's like it it just it ends so fast for for most of us.

1:31:56 It's not like you get the retirement tour, you know, it's just like when you're not good enough, they tell you and you're never seen again. And I will say that the silver lining is I have some incredible stories of playing in Milan for Georgia Armani's team my my year after I got cut by Denver. Um because I did go to training camp with them or the year, excuse me, the year before I went to training camp with Denver. And uh then I played in Moscow and Russia was a free-for-all in so many ways. So, from a life experience thing, I I did gain some incredible experiences, but you want to be in the NBA. Like my my rookie year in Spain, this is a great example. I get there, I remember we landed and I I cried. I think I cried every time I landed in Europe because you're like, I have 10 months, which seems like an eternity, even though it's not. It's not that long. And if you're going over there by yourself, you know,

1:32:48 if you're not married or you're not, you know, taking somebody with you, it's it can be a little bit daunting. You know, at least in Milan and even in Moscow to an extent, there was more English- speakaking people. But in this, I was in Santiago de Compastella, Spain. So, it's not like you're in Barcelona or Madrid where there are more English speakers. It it is heavy Spanish. And honestly, they speak uh they speak Genan, which is like a dialect. So, it's sort of Portuguese, it's sort of Spanish. like I took Spanish in high school, but I'm going to really have a hard time if it's just normal Spanish and I'm definitely going to have a hard time with Ga. So, um it was just like I get there, I have a workout the next day and the trainer, I'll never forget this, after the workout, he's like, "Robbie, are you good?" And I was like, "Yeah, could I just get two bags of ice?" And the trainer laughed and he points to the ice

1:33:39 machine. He goes, "The ice machine's over there. We have no wrap, so you got to hold that stuff on on on your knees yourself. And uh you can make the bags. And like not that I was opposed to making my own ice bags, but I'd never like at Purdue, what do you need? I need some ice for my knees. Sweet. There's a cooler right there. They wrap it on. Same with the NBA. You know, you've got ice bath. You've got the ice bath in Spain. They were garbage cans. They would just fill them up with ice water. This is in the ACB. This is in the second best basketball league probably in the world in ter

1:34:11 level of play and we were a smaller budget team um that had done a really good job of evalu like we had Salah Mezy who played for the Dallas Mavericks on the team and a couple guys that ended up moving on to your league. U but like William Buford and I we were taking the baskets down and putting them up like we were building maintenance uh after every practice and before every practice we shared the stadium with an indoor soccer pro team. So, think about how crooked the backboards were when we're putting I mean, it was just like in terms of life experiences. Um, but also living overseas and seeing different cultures and and eating different foods and meeting some really really good and cool people. That that's probably the silver lining. I didn't play 10 years in the NBA, but I did, you know, get to have some experiences of playing for George Armani's pro team or playing in Moscow or or even after I retired, you know,

1:35:02 playing threeon-ree and and traveling the world and playing in in like 19 countries in 2019 trying to make the Olympics. That that those are really cool life experiences that, okay, maybe the NBA is what the goal was, but it doesn't always work out and you've got to pivot. And I think that's one thing that that my knee stuff has certainly taught me. Big thanks to Robbie Hmel. Again, the Peacock NBA Monday game, January 12th, Celtics at Pacers. I enjoy it so much. You three guys are terrific on it. Again, I know they mix up some of the things, but I'm I'm I'm not overstating this because when I the first game I'm like, what are they going to try to do? I'm like, this isn't going to work. And it's it's gone completely the other way. So, all of you and everybody at NBC deserves a ton of credit. So, thanks again, man.

1:35:46 No, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Ryan. And uh yeah, we'll uh we'll keep doing our thing on Mondays. I appreciate it.

1:35:51 You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

1:36:11 Life advice. Life advice rgmail.com. We've got high hat on the high hat. Kyle and Sir Rudy. Yo,

1:36:21 no mic. Kyle got this the second time. Kyle, [ __ ] I just said nothing gets past you, man.

1:36:30 That's all I said. That's like you have the pompador lean going. What's going on? I think it's good from this angle. Honestly, I thought about this and then immediately right off the bat, you know, he throws cold water on it. Even if that's not what you were trying to do, that's how I took it. It's all right. I'm going to keep it like this.

1:36:46 I think you look good. I'm going to keep it like this. youthful. Yeah, I agree. You look like, you know,

1:36:51 not not a not how you do fellow kids, but you know, you look, you know, it's a good youthful look.

1:36:56 Great. Right. But I'm just talking about like hat placement that came up. No, it is. It is.

1:37:00 It's different. It's certainly different. I was It was sort of like I was like going into school like first day of new year and someone's like, "Dude, what are you wearing?"

1:37:07 Kind of weird different for you. But uh you know what? I'll just I'll take it positively.

1:37:12 It's kind of like a late 80s lean on it. Late 80s, early 90s movie. guys just get they just made it down to Daytona. Who knows what's going to happen.

1:37:22 Oh man. I tell you, I had that I rocked that for a little while. Okay. Jesus. Yeah. Someone would say your your hat placement selection isn't the greatest. So, I don't know if that's the best thing to go off of, but

1:37:35 Oh, thanks. Thanks for coming to my side buddy. Yeah. Listen, I'm an equal opportunity hater. Uh, you know,

1:37:41 what would you say is the issue? You got a lot. Actually, you know what? Now that we're on this topic, uh, we got a long pause today, but, you know, might as well do it. I was, you know, every once in a while I just check out the YouTube comments about things on the pod, whatever, see what people like, what they don't like. And man, a lot of comments about your hat last episode. And I, honestly, I thought it too, very aggressive sort of like,

1:37:57 yeah, whatever was on there was like pronounced. Was very pronounced. Yeah. What were the issues?

1:38:04 So, I think somebody said it was casting a shadow over your face. That's how big it was.

1:38:10 That's funny. Uh well that's my guy Dave Prescott invented the fast wrench firefighter down in Florida. Um college buddy and he invented this wrench that basically he his whole thing was like the way his mind works it it makes all the sense in the world cuz in college you'd be like this guy's going to invent something but if you really knew him you're like yeah he probably would. So he's a firefighter he's been down there forever. He's an awesome guy and he realized that they had to use like multiple tools. They needed all these different tools to be able to access their job like however they're doing hooking up to different water supplies. I mean, it's it's beyond my understanding, right? Cuz I don't fight fires in my spare time. And so, he basically just decided there needs to be this like multi-tool that's incredibly durable that basically handles all of these different things that you're

1:39:01 dealing with. And it's incredible. So, I ordered one. I'm bringing it to the Miami uh not Miami. I'm not going to Miami. Manhattan Beach Fire Department. Um so that is his company. So I wore the hat and we're just giving a little shout out there. So anybody that has an issue with that firefighters apparently.

1:39:21 You have a pretty successful group of college buddies. Uh I'd say I'm probably near the top of my group and that's not saying a lot. So you had like

1:39:32 Yeah. That new 4Erunner. Oh well. Yeah. Obviously, that gave me a small bump, but I think in the grand scheme, I mean, we've got like country music stars, guys inventing fast wrenches with honestly pretty cool gear to go with it. Uh, and every once in a while, you just Yeah, it was a It was It's certainly It really draws

1:39:49 a lot of depth on the logo. Yeah. I mean, it's a patch. It comes off. I think there's other patches that was part of the branding.

1:39:54 Oh, it's detachable. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, that would make a little more sense. Yeah.

1:39:58 Checks out. Yeah. Um, but I was look I'm glad it was even brought up because I didn't expect to even give him that kind of shout out. But there you go. If you're you're running if you're if you're on the fire, you you're in the wrench business, you're looking for a new one.

1:40:11 Yeah. There's no promo code. We know a guy. Yeah. Yeah. Not yet. Well, we're just honestly I'm just going to start airing this stuff out in the pod last night. It deserves to be to be done.

1:40:22 Oh no. Uh Big Cat text last night and honestly this our the guy was getting in DMs yesterday too. Uh not the DMs of the show. who's following up on the pictures about the wine thing yesterday. We have a Steven Sheay wants to do a wine review of your of your wine and Big Cat was asking us like how do we get the wine to them and I was like I don't even know this wine exists yet. It's it's like I think it's like a prototype technically, but are you open to to Chay doing a a wine review? I guess he's got the fastest growing Somalia show on X right now. So that's the fastest growing in America. I know. Tough tough to keep track. Uh, I got to know when we're shipping cuz this whole thing is kind of um

1:40:59 starting to feel like a little over the skis. Oh yeah, cuz I'm getting text like I can't I can't put you through to him. I'm sorry cuz I don't think I don't think he's at that stage yet.

1:41:09 Look, the backstory is it was this real estate deal with a friend and then they were like, "Hey, while you're here, do you want us to make you some soft?" And I was like, "Yeah, it's great." And then they made logos and then they were telling me yesterday they're like, "All right, this can start shipping in two months." I was like, "Whoa." Like, "What the fuck?" I was like, "I

1:41:26 I thought you were just going to make like a couple cases, right?" And so I have I'm I got a lot of other stuff I have to worry about, but um there's a pretty good chance I'm going to be really like annoyingly not responsive about anything having to do with this wine for a little while. If that's okay with everybody,

1:41:48 honestly, we got a lot of content right now. Football playoffs. We don't need it.

1:41:51 We'll need to do this. push this into the spring summers. This will be good content then.

1:41:55 Yeah. I mean, SAV is good year round. This will be great post June. Yeah. When it's hot.

1:41:59 Mhm. Yeah. So, so you're open to it? You're open to having him do a wine review.

1:42:04 I don't know if that I want him doing the first review, though. Does he have enough credibility in that house?

1:42:10 He's not just some guy. I mean, he took a football class, I heard. So, he is that guy. No, I I I get the football

1:42:17 funny. I'm just joking. I actually never met him, but I think he's funny and I like him.

1:42:20 I like him. not a business. But and by the way, it's not really like I may be on the label, but it's not 100% my business. And so the guys in guys in Oregon might be like, who is this upandcomer?

1:42:33 Mhm. That might be a nice way of saying it. Yeah. No pub is no pub is that puff, you know.

1:42:39 Oh man. Uh all right. Hey, Kyle, pull up the spreads on DraftKings, okay? Let us know what they are. I think as of this morning, both lines were at three and a half. Miami and Indiana favored. Um, looks like Seri already has them and wants to say

1:42:54 we don't. I I thought we were just going straight up, but now I got to do the spreads. So, here we go.

1:42:58 No, we're gonna do a little mini contest for DraftKings. Mini alliance, side alliance.

1:43:03 Mhm. So, we're all going to pick both games and then see who has the overall What's that?

1:43:09 Three and a half. You are correct. Both three and a half. All right. All right. So, Kyle, the board is yours. You can pick whatever you want. We'll do combined record off of the semifinals and then the final. We have to come up with a final score and everything else. It'll be Super Bowl lunch, not dinner. Can't afford it. We'll do a Super Bowl lint. I'm just kidding. I just I don't know that we're going to have time to do all these dinners based on what you guys have already signed up.

1:43:32 So, this will be different than the salad bar. I tell you what, the three of us Ruby Tuesdays old school as many times you want to get as many fixins as you guys want.

1:43:43 Fixings. All right. Okay. Um, the winner has to pay though because you want to celebrate friendship.

1:43:50 Yeah, I like that. So, with that being said, I'm going to take Miss plus three and a half.

1:43:54 And you got to pick the other game, too. And yes, and uh and Oregon plus three and a half.

1:43:59 Okay. I love it. Not paying for not paying for the salad bar. It looks like I'm just kidding. I actually do believe

1:44:08 me. Sure. I'm taking Miami. Um, don't really have I just think the front is awesome and uh I think the miss fairy tale thing is a little overplay. I do love Trinidad though, so I'm going to hate to root against him and I honestly don't like rooting for Miami either, but I think Miami is just a better team. Uh, and then I'm going to take Oregon, too. I I two guys pick it against Indiana. It's probably stupid to pick against Sigs, but uh, you know, got to beat him twice in one season. I think, you know, Oregon's good. I think they get him.

1:44:39 Wow. All right. Or don't lose by three. So there you go. I kind of like the points on both sides. The points haven't really done much. It was It was four at one point. It was like a three then a three and a half. So I don't know how much is going to change over the next couple days. I'll take the points with Old Miss. Even though I'm if I had like, hey, you got to pick the game straight up, I would pick Miami. I do feel like um back not even having to do anything to this point like he's probably due. And if there was a defense of all the playoff teams that were ranked, like that was my whole point with Miss's defense. And it's not like they shut down Georgia, but Georgia's just not not to the standard you'd expect with that defense generally. And um I'll take I'll take Indiana cover.

1:45:21 I'll do something different here. Um All right. So, all three of us have different variations.

1:45:26 There you go. I like that. So, the variations vary. Let's get to life advice. As we all knew, um, the amount of dog poop content

1:45:39 dominated the inbox. Over overflowing. Yes. Kind of couldn't put a lid on it. Nice.

1:45:48 Uh, are you just I think most of you got it. I think I think most of you got it that it's not the greatest thing. And then those of us that have garbage cans are supposed to think about you walking around with a plastic bag of dog poop. Like nobody wants that in your hand, right? Long time.

1:46:11 Throw it in some construction lot or something just cuz you've held it long enough. You know, there's better options.

1:46:16 Yeah. But I mean, I'm a dog guy through and through. And that's a choice that you make. Like you don't have to do that. You don't have to have a dog. Um, you know, the people I mean the worst is the people that like think that like they're just like biodegradable and they just leave them on the sidewalk. It's like not really how this works guy. But okay.

1:46:32 No, there was a there was a construction lot that was just empty for a long time and it was insane the amount of people that would just throw their dog [ __ ] over the, you know, small little flimsy fence and it was just like

1:46:42 there must be a hundred bags of dog [ __ ] in this corner lot that eventually somebody's going to start construction on. Uh, it was crazy. LA was crazy. The only one that like I think most people got it in the sense that if it depends on where you live, all right? So, a lot of it has to do with where you live and I'm biased in my setup because like everybody that decides to live where I live like you just accept the fact that everybody's just on top of each other and like that's just the way it goes. Like Chris Long comes out to visit, he's like, I can't fathom having a house where it's like all it is is just people all the time. Like how do you do that? And I'm like I'm so used to it because I've never really lived on like I mean growing up I did you know driveway property you can't see anybody other neighbors but from college on this is kind of the way it's always been is I've always lived sort of like within

1:47:33 walking distance of of everything. Um and it makes you think like wouldn't I eventually want to at some point have but I think this is an entire different topic when you're trying to figure out plotting building lots. So let's not do that right now. Uh, most people I think get this right. A lot of people were like, "Look, if the trash can is out and it's trash day and there's trash that's already in there, it's all going to the same place. Like, what's the issue with throwing stuff on the top?" I would tell you I agree with that. I'm not to the point

1:48:03 maybe in 15 years I'll be so old that I'll just be like looking for things to be pissed off about because I think there's like an age thing that's like, "Wait, so you're now telling me that you don't want your garbage messed with?" Um, and then the line was

1:48:17 coming for your garbages, too. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Like that's my garbage and I don't

1:48:21 So it could be a little emasculating if it's like you're just going to do that right in front of me, you know? So

1:48:26 So you think there's something to that? I think again I think there's no wrong answers. The only guy who would be wrong is the poop thrower. And so that's why that guy is like if you get caught, you just say, "Yeah, sorry. Your ru your trash can, your rules. My bad." I don't think you're supposed to defend your thing. But if somebody who's just saying in general all poop throwing is bad unless you own the trash can or the city owns it, you know, I would I would maybe argue with you. But I'm saying if you're caught in the act, I think you just kind of bow to the trash can owner and you're like, "My bad, dude. I'll remember that one. Throw it in your neighbors next time."

1:48:58 Here's the one that pissed me off and I'm going to use this. I knew you had one. I knew you had Let me just say this.

1:49:03 Stalling until this been scrolling the whole time. I was trying to find it again. You were um Over 90% of the responses were basically like the common sense part of it of like, hey, look, we even had some guys be like, I've done it. I don't love that I've done it. Yeah.

1:49:22 Right. And if I had a dog and I was like, I don't want to deal with this right now. I'm telling you right now, I'd probably do it, too. But if I lived in this area that I live in, I would stop doing it. I would map out where the garbage cans are. You know, the strand's really nice. You just take a little U-turn down there and there's public waste baskets there and there's plenty of

1:49:44 right and you're going to get there pretty quickly. You know, you're not going to be walking across a desert here with fecal matter in your hand.

1:49:52 Um, but this guy this guy [ __ ] it up and we're going to read his email now. Um, his dog's Roffus 85 lbs lab mix player comp 19 or 2016 Marcus Peters ball hawk insane ball fixation and fetching ability. So, he did a nice little that was that was kind of cool, but not cool enough for me to think that the rest of the email worked. Every single time I walk my dog and there's a can on the curb, I use it. If cans aren't put away by the morning following trash day, it's fair game. My only concern is if they are garage cans versus side cans. We had a few people do this where if you don't have your cans away by a certain amount of time, then that's essentially on us and the tax is your dog [ __ ] sitting in my trash bin for 6 and 12 days.

1:50:45 That's that's property of the community if it's not put away by a certain time.

1:50:48 Yeah, that's I broke into your car because you had it unlocked and like Yeah, that's exactly what it is.

1:50:54 Hey, my car got broken into. Why did you Why did you park it there? And you go, "Okay, never mind. Done talking about it."

1:51:02 Yeah, that's insane. Okay. Well, I hope that guy changes his ways cuz that's I mean that that might just jade your whole topic if you have a guy on the street who's looking. He's trying to snipe your can. He's doing his 6:30.

1:51:15 He's saying next morning. So what's next? 6:30. It's If he's if he's mentally there, that means he's not like cuz here's the deal. I have to put mine out super early. I miss it occasionally cuz it's always on a taping day. It's just me. So, if I miss a pickup, it's not the end of the world. But if I had to put the can in my garage, it would be really bad. But I have sort of like an outdoor organizer bin.

1:51:38 You're not a night before guy. Um, you're a morning guy. I just do it the night before.

1:51:44 Well, you know, you get a little wind off that that offshore breeze, brother. You've seen how close he is. Yeah,

1:51:50 that's fair. Yeah. Yeah. There's a little more distance between the driveway and the the trash can up here in the northeast.

1:51:59 Nobody cares until somebody has a thing of dog [ __ ] in their hand. They're just going to go, "Oh, wait. The cans have already been emptied and it's just a little bit later in the day and he hasn't had time to put them away." But the town will actually get really on your case if you don't have some sort of organizer and if you want to leave them sort of exposed the street cuz they don't want every single house having all their garbage cans all over cuz it just wouldn't look that good. But then it's like, "All right, so now I got to pull it into the garage." And if you're doing squats that day and somebody was like, "Hey, this guy didn't put his can away in time." Come on, man.

1:52:31 All right. Um, this a long show today. It is. Yeah. You want to just do a quick one? Maybe a one.

1:52:39 Yes. A1. A single. 15 minutes in and we haven't done anything yet. I mean, we were doing poop follow-ups, but we really a quick one. I let an 11-year-old beat me at pickup. I think we've covered this neighborhood before. 6 foot 180, bench 165. Well, no kidding. He beat you. I'm just kidding. Um, squat, deadlift, 225, mostly rock climb, do yoga. Yeah, you're going to be in much better shape. Your back isn't going to hurt. Um, don't worry about my bench joke, man. Good for you if you're doing all that stuff. Pickup comp. Andre Robertson, all D, no jumper. Was never the same after some knee injuries. I volunteer with an organization that matches me with a kid who wants a positive role model. My little um Jack, he did change the name, just in case we have an 11-year-old listening to the podcast. Jack just started playing basketball. One of his goals is building skills and confidence. So, we played a

1:53:30 couple games of one-on-one. He's got solid fundamentals, but he obviously can't compete with a height speed advantage. First game, I hit a couple layups and immediately realized this isn't training. This is a grown man destroying a fifth grader. So, I switched to only lefty threes and hook shots. in game of three to five feet of space on defense. I let him win a close one and then a little wider in game two. He had a blast. We got ice cream. Great day, great coaching. Mission accomplished. Wow. Next time we hang out though, Jack is talking crazy amounts of trash.

1:54:03 I'm fine with good nature ribbing, but I also want him learning sportsmanship and not turning into the kid everyone avoids at open gym. Now I'm torn about what to do the next time we play. Option A, demolish him 11 zip as a lesson, but then he learns I was sandbagging and I risk shattering the confidence we were trying to build in the first place. Also, I'm in my 30s. If I celebrate a shut out an 11-year-old, I can't go back to Whole Foods. I don't know what the Whole Foods. Is there a rule?

1:54:28 Maybe that's a pop culture thing. I don't know. Maybe, you know. Yeah, maybe that's a line from a show we didn't watch.

1:54:33 Maybe we need like a social influencer on the show. Should be like, "Oh, you're not Looksmaxing." Um, option B,

1:54:42 play it close to win like 118, but keep the hope alive that he can get me. Kyle, I sounded like you had something there.

1:54:48 I'm just saying that's not real, is it? Like smashing your face with a hammer in order to like build up some sort of calluses. Is that true?

1:54:58 Well, I mean, I don't want to give away all the secrets. Okay. All right. Option C. Keep letting him win close games and trust his real coaches to develop his game. I'm here to build confidence. Appreciate your thoughts. Uh, as you as we pivoted into the trash talking part of it, I was leaning toward option A 11 zip, but I don't I think it's I don't think it's 11 zip, but I think he needs to lose a game. Yeah, I like a happy medium. Like maybe you are d Kimbeang his [ __ ] but you're still keeping your left-handed thing that you're doing. Like maybe you're you're hamstringing yourself a little bit, but still to the point where if you're if you're blocking a a trashtalking 11-year-old shots, that's got to feel pretty good regardless of what you've allowed the score to become. You know, maybe you just maybe just amp up the defense, Tony Allen, this thing instead of, you know, just demolishing the kid.

1:55:51 Yeah. I Well, I mean, Ryan, you probably I I think you've talked about this like the like the dad role of like the first time you beat your dad. Like that's like a big deal in life in in a sport in like competition. My dad wasn't a big athlete, so I didn't really have that, but like obviously I know it's a thing. And I don't know. I don't I just don't like the idea of giving it to like giving him.

1:56:09 He already did. I know. I'm I'm like kind of off of that to begin with. Like I think I think you I think you already kind of screwed up.

1:56:17 Oh, no. It's over. So, I don't I don't I think you just kind of lost I mean I'm happy for you. You're helping out the community. It's great work, but I think you know just if I'm coaching up like the you know I don't know if it's the Boys and Girls Club or whatever we're doing here like you know I think you got to you got to like legitimately beat the kid until like he at least is somewhat close to you and that just it it builds callouses to Kyle's point about hitting somebody in the face with a hammer. like you gota you got to kind of like let that kid learn how to to take an L first because then if he's if he's the guy that starts you know talking smack with no actual backup to it then that's not then you end up with somebody like me in college who's talking [ __ ] to people who probably shouldn't be talking [ __ ] to.

1:56:53 So I don't know I I kind of don't like that idea. I think you got to I think you should be Steve.

1:56:57 I keep thinking about that when we were sharing those pictures and I was like that's exactly

1:57:01 you could see you could see the words coming out of my mouth. Legend. Yeah. It wasn't it wasn't great. So, as someone who was that kid, maybe uh I don't know.

1:57:09 No one ever punched you. I actually never got punched. No. Problem probably. Yeah. Uh but you know, and I I didn't really have any bigger friends. Um so I don't know.

1:57:23 Was it the Quinnipiac thing? Well, see, you had a hockey Well, cuz like I wouldn't do that. I wasn't talking [ __ ] to hockey players, though.

1:57:31 Yeah. Like we always talk about UVM. It was like there was really no one to be afraid of. We didn't have football and then we were friends with all the hockey players so didn't didn't matter.

1:57:40 And your friends were all [ __ ] geniuses apparently. So it was cool. Engineers engineering country ballads and goals.

1:57:49 Shout out St. Louis. Nice. You don't disagree though? Like I don't know. I just I don't like the idea of just letting the kid win. I don't I don't I don't love it.

1:58:00 I guess I think he already started off with that way. So I mean whatever. He's not maybe he's not a born coach and he's just trying to figure it out. It's like what do we do from now and uh I don't know if you should go from you know

1:58:12 back then yeah certainly knock him down there's cut and that's why I think getting your [ __ ] swatted often

1:58:17 will do that anyway whe whether you're you know whether you're scoring 11 nothing on him or whether you're just blocking everything he puts up which is probably going to be satisfying to you as the guy who is just getting [ __ ] talked.

1:58:29 Think about our emailer here though. Uh he was concerned about changing the kid's name. He does yoga. His first thought was like, I want to volunteer and help kids build confidence. And then he noticed something about the kids' personality he didn't necessarily love. Like this is a very thoughtful

1:58:49 Yeah. No, I agree. This feels like a very good person emailing the show here for a bunch of different factors. So, this is this is somebody who's probably not an old only child and struggling with the processing the way others emotions could be impacted by their decisions. This is somebody I imagine has multiple siblings and can can see the world uh in different ways. No offense to the only children out there, but there's just a lot of data, right? Sorry. Um, so I think this person's like a this person's like coming from a great place, right? Um, so it might even be hard for the person emailing us to understand that Jack needs to [ __ ] taste a little humility here, right? So even if you're 30 and he's 11, don't let him win anymore. Doesn't mean you have to destroy him. Doesn't mean you have to start beasting him on the block, scream out mouse in the house, too small, that kind of stuff.

1:59:43 Slap the backboard. Yeah. Right. The emotional roller coaster of being 11, you know. Although I don't know. 11year-old boy feel like you're pretty sturdy with stuff though. It depends on who you're at with like how where your upbringing is. Then you can start getting a little weirder, you know, after that and you know, emoing out.

1:59:59 I'm trying to think of what what age was like the peak. No one could say anything to me. Age 11 is high. You think

2:00:08 11 is cuz you don't know you don't know [ __ ] but you think you know everything.

2:00:13 Yeah. I don't know. I think I was pretty like deferrent to adults still at 11. At 11. Oh man. I feel like

2:00:20 I don't know. It was still like my mom was like, "Don't let me hear you being disrespectful to anyone in this big wide world. You better keep that [ __ ] tight if I if I find out." So,

2:00:29 okay. But what about the part within like outside of earshot, let's say, of of any adult, Kyle?

2:00:36 Oh, well, that's a night and day. Jackalyn Hyde situation, you know? Right. Your weed story is phenomenal, by the way. You don't get enough credit. Like, that needs

2:00:46 what? People need to talk about that. you just coming home and telling your parents like, "Yeah, smoked it. I'm not supposed to debate over, you know, whatever you guys think." Whatever you guys think is just probably like, "What? What? What do you want me to do?"

2:01:00 Then telling your brother, "Don't deny it. They know you did it, dude. They want you to have a little shame." That's right.

2:01:07 Have a little bit of shame. Then they think they really got you. And then just figure out how you're sneaking out. Like

2:01:12 if I were a parent and a 15-year-old kid came back just wreaking of the old gange and I'm like, "Hey, what the [ __ ] is this?"

2:01:19 And they'd be like, "You know what? I did it. It's on me." And he like went to the room. I'd just be like, "What are we supposed to do now? He's he's two moves ahead of us."

2:01:27 Yeah. Yeah. Can't even enjoy this. Yeah. It's true. You know, I'm going to reflect on my decisions. Thank you for your input.

2:01:38 I'll be playing Zelda. What was going on? Are there any uncrustables around? All right, that'll do it for the show today. Thank you. We're saying thanks to Tom and Kevin until they come on at some point. We'll bring them on, ask them if they got high when they were in high school and get caught. Uh, thanks to Kyle Serudi. Thank you for checking out and please subscribe to the Ryan Rillo Show. Barsto Sports Uncrustable.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Ravens Fire Harbaugh, CFB Portal Madness w/ Max Olson, Plus Hoops w/ Robbie Hummel"?

Ryan Russillo (Host), Max Olson (Guest), Robbie Hummel (Guest).

What is "Ravens Fire Harbaugh, CFB Portal Madness w/ Max Olson, Plus Hoops w/ Robbie Hummel" about?

The discussion centers on the recent firing of Ravens coach John Harbaugh, the chaotic landscape of the college football transfer portal, and insights into college basketball featuring thoughts from Robbie Hummel. Key highlights include the movement of top players in the transfer portal, notable college basketball matchups, and sports betting updates for the NFL playoffs, all while offering…

What is mentioned in this The Ryen Russillo Show episode?

39 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Miss Washington, Florida Attorney General, Georgia, DraftKings, Miami, Robbie Hmel. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Ravens Fire Harbaugh, CFB Portal Madness w/ Max Olson, Plus Hoops w/ Robbie Hummel"?

The episode runs 2 h 2 min; the transcript is about 26,663 words in 294 timestamped sections.

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