CFB Preview With Tom Fornelli, Best Of Kentucky Sports Radio Callers, NFL Cut Day + Mt Rushmore Of Things We’ll Eventually Do
2023-08-30 02:39:28
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Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music on today's Pardon My Take. We have our good friend Tom Fornelli in studio talking college football, getting us ready for the college football season, getting us ready for week one. He releases a mega-lock, almost a game of the year, for week one.
On Saturday, we also hosted Kentucky Sports Radio on Tuesday, one of our favorite days of the year. We have the best of of that, some great calls. I never thought that we would be in a 10-minute conversation about cockfighting.
Oh, I did.
But we did, we were there. So great calls from the Kentucky Sports radio listeners. Shout out Matt Jones for having us guest host again. MOUNT RUSHMORE Season Final two Mount Rushmore is coming up.
Hank and Max need to make a move. We're going to do the Mount Rushmore of things that we'll do eventually.
Hey big cat, I saw a stat come across my desk.
Oh, let's wait because I don't want people to miss that stat. Let's wait until we do the Mount Rushmore, because sometimes people skip the start of the show. We need to....
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Welcome to part of my take. Today is Wednesday, August 30th, and unfortunately, guys, it's cut day.
Yeah, it's NFL cut day, tough day, a lot of practice squad stashing out there. You can always convince yourself that a high like a first, second, third round pick that gets cut. You want to pick that guy up, bring him in, see if you can reclaim him.
He flashed a lot of reclamation projects going on out there. Nathan Peterman got cut by the bears. That's sad to see.
Very, very sad. He'll be fine, though, as soon as John Gruden gets another job. Yeah, he's, uh.
He's, he put up one of the most legendary stat lines in NFL history. We'll always have a soft.
Spot for old Naty Pete? I hope he finds a place. We also have the big news, so we're taping this at Uh, two 30 on Tuesday. We're getting ourselves ready for NFL season.
We know the hours that come with it, the late hours, so we're taping it a little early in the afternoon. Do we think by the end of this show, Jonathan Taylor will be at Miami? Dolphin? Oh, that's a good question, so here's just to set the stage.
The Colts have a 4pm deadline. Uh, they have to decide at 4pm whether he's going to be on the PUP list and miss the first four games or possibly trade him. The Dolphins have been making some funny little moves. They traded a, uh, offensive lineman to the Bears. They, uh, cut Miles Gaskin.
They freed up almost exactly the amount of cap space they need to sign. Jonathan Taylor Will Jonathan Taylor be a dolphin? It'll be interesting.
If he, if he becomes a dolphin and then struggles with a dolphin, we'll Jim Mercer then pay to fly. You can fly a dolphin, for sure, easy, no problem, dolphin could sit coach.
Yes, Dolphin could do.
Southwest, and they could be in, like the Seas Spirit Airlines. You see, it's halfway filled with dolphins the entire time. I hope, I hope, Jonathan Taylor goes to the dolphins, and I will say this right now. If Jonathan Taylor goes to the dolphins, it will be very hard for me not to bet on the Dolphins every week. Because in a dude off, they would probably be leading the.
League. So I'll say if he goes to the Dolphins, it is the AFC beast. Yeah, that is, that is a.
Gauntlet That's the group of death. Yeah, it's, I mean, dude off Miami dolphins, okay?
You want?
To do a dude off to a Jalen Waddle, Tyreek Hill, Jonathan Taylor, Bradley Chubb, Alec Ingold.
Jalen Ramsey when he comes back from injury? Oh, that's a good one. It's pretty good, a lot of dudes.
That's a lot of dudes, a lot of dudes I'm missing out on. Somebody is no longer on the Dolphins, which we will do on Friday, we're going to do new, where Jake will have a powerpoint to preparing it.
Now, a few rule changes, a few rule changes. Football math with Hank, and then same face with New Places, same face. New Place is going to be a great Friday show. For that. Jake, the football math, No, football math is just a quiz I'm going to give you.
Okay, so you just got to bring your brain since your first time ever, your corporate guy. Now have you learned how to put?
Together a deck. Yeah, oh yeah, you're a powerpoint guy. Hell yeah.
Let me see one of your packaging.
Let me see your deck, let's see it. What's that? What about your deck? You want to do the jersey one?
You have a picture of jersey, Yeah, let's see it. What about the deck? wow.
Our boys all grown up. But yeah, cut my title page, that's your title page, that's a good title page. 2023, Pardon my take.
NFL pre preseason presentation. We got to figure out how to do it so that we can get it on the YouTube. For the people at home, please subscribe to the YouTube. By the way, we need to get to five, we need to get to half a milli by the end of the by the end of football season.
We need.
To get there, I memes, I haven't even talked to memes about this, and I was just trying to conceptualize in my head. Probably shouldn't be doing it live on the pod. But no, let's close to a million on Instagram and Tick Talk and kind of Twitter. What if there was a world where we could get them all at the same time?
Oh, triple crown, yeah. And like, somehow we, you know, set it up where if we can do it, then we'll give, give back. Oh, we could give back.
We could give back, but only if we get, you know, if we can somehow cross, if we can get a million in the same day.
I would match if we gave back if we got a million in the same day. Hank, Would you be willing to play golf with a three awls? Yeah, okay, all right.
Just described Hank's entire. So we got, we got something. Yeah, I'll do the same thing, okay?
So you match matching, I will not match, I will not match that. I'll pay for a round of golf for four awls, how about that?
They can pick the course, most expensive course in the world. I don't even know what it is. Pebble Beach is up there, probably up there. Masters.
I have to get a math, I have to join Augusta. Uh, yeah, so let's get all those, let's do it.
Let's bump it. I sent the deck, you sent the deck, this is the deck. Go something with big cat and jersey.
Jerry, There's only one.
Page, it's a slide, I mean, it's a. it's not a presentation page I presented. This is really.
Nice, Thank you Jake, very cool, okay.
Um, when Jersey Jerry decided to move to Chicago, he didn't account for extra people that would be in his house, or should we say ghosts? After experiencing Jersey, Jerry had to make some moves. Who's he going to call Big Cat?
Why am I italicized? Who's he going to call? Big Cat should be bolded as my only criticism. Did you write this yourself? I didn't ask for criticism.
You didn't write this.
There should be a question mark after the word ghost. You didn't ask for criticism, did you?
Did you proofread this? Yeah, Hank. did you write this yourself? No. Join Big Cat as he hires a ghost hunter to accompany him to Jersey.
Jerry's House and connect with the guests from the afterlife. Over the course of two episodes. Big Cat and Jersey. Jerry will bring their audience along for the ride while they try to navigate a scary situation. Just in time for spooky season, Ooh, we should, maybe we. maybe we do, like a series called Spooktober. Well, I like that.
We can do something Halloween for Sam. How? Yeah, I like that.
That's good they play on.
Halloween I have to put a bed in right now. How lean? Um, all right, so what else we got?
We got Ronald Acuna almost getting accosted at the Rockies. Yeah, he kind of did get accosted.
A little bit a bad look for Colorado security. Yup, it was tough. They had they had two guys run onto the field. One of the security guards went up, tried to tackle the dude that was hugging.
Ronald Acuna fell on the ground, then the second guy came up, shoved Ronald Acuna, who got tabletop, over the security guy. When I first saw the picture, I thought that these two guys went on the field. And just just to do a tabletop, which plays on the elementary school playground, one of the all time moves, tabletop and your buddy, um, to an all-star outfield, break the moves real quick.
The flying burrito is pretty good. We just tabletop, jump sideways, sideways into them, I go.
I go number three, tabletop, number two, pull out the chair, number one, panting, panting, with balls flapping out, yeah.
If you can get the full pants where the where the the the underwear goes to the hardest I'll ever laugh. We didn't mention Wedgie, I feel like Wedgie.
That was a big thing in the Eighties, yeah, and it was a huge thing on sitcoms throughout the Nineties, yeah. Steve Urkel got wedgie.
All the time everybody got wedgie. It was like, Oh, we don't have a scene to write in this elementary school sitcom. wedgie, wedgie stuff in a locker or a swirly, swirly, yeah.
But that doesn't really happen so much in my experience.
Like, Where's the lovable loser? And then he's hanging up from a tree. Yeah, thanks for getting.
Me down guys. I got fully pants in high school with with boxers, yeah, pick up basketball game with my friends, so there's a ton of my friends. And your dick flopped out.
Yeah, oh, that was.
Funny, yeah, were you having a good day or a bad day? Uh, I don't remember how I was shooting that.
Day. But it was in the middle, it was like, who did it to you? was it where you and Jesse?
Were you embarrassed friends? Yeah, we're still friends. Were you embarrassed at the time?
I just, I've never reacted quicker. Yeah, my dream is to get pants when, for whatever reason, I'm just hanging nice and low and then have a good dick day. Good visual, yeah.
That's what I was referring to with Jake. He took it as how was his basketball performance? But if I'm having a good dick moment and I get pants, I am going to be so happy. Very hard to do, though, when you're.
Playing sports, you get the sports stick where your dick, like, ends up like a tic-tac and your. Your body needs the blood and other parts of your, uh, like, my, my heart is like, Hey, we need more blood, where can we get it from? Oh, your tiny little dick, it gets resorbed into your body, yeah.
So, uh, I think I did that, I think I might've pants Brandon Walker full dick out. It's a little bit less funny when it's an adult, because then it's like, Oh.
Workplace harassment. I would say in terms of funny rankings, it would go a kid panting an adult number one. Yeah, very funny.
Um, uh, kid panting another kid also very funny. adult panting an adult not funny and adult panting a kid very not funny.
Yeah, very, very not funny.
And this all started because we're talking about Hank's wonderful deck. He's got a great deck, yeah, he's having a great deck day, yeah.
Um, okay, yeah, so we had, yeah, Kunya, who was very chill about it afterwards.
Shout out, Ronald to Kunya having an unbelievable year. It seems like the best guy ever. He's like, Yeah, they wanted a picture. I didn't really know what to do.
Yeah, it's not the first time that two guys from the stands have just run down and accosted a Braves outfielder. The famous Hank Aaron moment when he's running around the bases after after, uh, breaking Babe Ruth's record stealing. I found out today from Big T that those guys almost got shot. They almost got assassinated because there were snipers in the crowd. Hank Aaron was getting all sorts of death threats.
So they thought those two guys were threats, they didn't pull the trigger, they just wanted to pat him on the back, that would have.
Been number one sports highlight of all time. Yeah, that would have, Darren Revelle would have been tweeting it every day, yeah.
4K Watch these guys brains get blown out. Uh. We also had the Ryder Cup announced. People are mad. We have a South African on the team, yeah, we have a, so the Ryder Cup is. Scotty Sheffler, Wyndham Clark, Xander Shoffley, Max Homa, Patrick Antley and Brian Harmon are the top six, which is very funny.
When I think the PGA announced the captain's picks and everyone's like, Where's Scotty? Yeah, it's like, Well, he made the team. And then the captain's picks were Brooks Morikawa, Sam Burns, Jordan Speed, Justin Thomas and Ricky Fowler. People are mad about JT.
They're mad, they're calling it a boy's club. He's got the resume. Here's the thing JT is a killer in international play.
That's a fact.
Hank When he's good, uh, he has not been playing good career national play records.
A Ryder Cup and President's Cup. Cam Young, one, two and one, Keegan Bradley, six, five and one, Lucas Glover, two, six and one Justin Thomas, 16 and five. Yeah.
How do you say no to that, hank?
That's a resume pick. When he was 16 and five, he was a top 10, top 20 golfer in the world. He gets up for the big moments. What do you mean? When he was playing in those matches? He deserved to be on the team because he was one of the best golfers in the world.
And he played like one of the best golfers in the world. He's not playing good golf right now. That's Ryder Cup.
It was two years ago. Okay, Justin Thomas is one of major since then. Yeah, I, I, I don't like it.
That's fine, I. I just feel bad for, you know, Keegan and the guys. I like Keegan a lot. I like Keegan too. But he's been playing better golf, even Bryson Bryson on 58. It's a team.
He's been.
On the Ryder Cups before. But it's a team sport for the, you know, golf is an individual sport, now you're doing a team setting. He's the ultimate team guy, he's friends with all these guys, and he's a fucking killer when he plays an international play. Just a lot of pressure.
I guess what that's?
Without the entire, you know, fan base and world being like, you shouldn't be on this team, you better perform. It's a lot of pressure because everyone's on the team. I hope he does, I just.
Would be a great story. I love, I love it when they have to pretend to be friends with Patrick.
PaTriCK Reed Like Patrick Reed, being not on the team, just Thomas being on the team is the greatest vibes change of all time. Everyone likes each other, that's what we need. We need leaders, we need guys who've done it.
Come on, Hank, you want to win this thing or no.
I do I just it's a it's a risky pick, in my opinion.
Okay, well, let's make a bet Justin Thomas will win his matches.
His how many solo matches does he get? I don't know, I don't know the format.
I do, that's where I am. I don't, I don't. I'm not as as well-versed on on the Ryder Cup. Or how obviously significant the the. You know, Justin Thomas was 16 and five. Obviously him and him and Spieth are boys and they never lose, so that I guess if that.
That makes sense, so you'd want to put it in a team that never loses.
I get it, I just it's. It's a risk. He's a killer, he's a killer. But imagine if the final singles matches so everyone plays, performs badly?
Why would you kill a person who didn't make the Fedex Cup playoffs? He's a killer, he's done it before, why didn't he kill the season?
Because it wasn't an international play, he's changed his game to more accommodate.
The international play style. He's a killer, I think you're forgetting the part that he is a.
Killer. They have the bigger key. Yeah, I hope they win, I hope, I hope Justin Thomas proves.
Me wrong? I actually hope they lose and Justin Thomas is the only one that wins, and it's like.
We could have used 12. Justin Thomas. It's so funny to imagine golfers like getting up for international, international play, like in other sports, if you're playing for your country. Most sports are more conducive to, like, being aggressive, showing a lot of emotion, getting like, you know, running on adrenaline in golf.
It's like almost the exact opposite, where you want somebody that's more mellow, that doesn't even care that they're playing. Yeah, but making a big pot you can unleash, you can unleash. Yeah, we've seen some guys.
Unleash in the past. Yeah, big time, unleash. Uh, I have a question about, uh, cut day last thing before we do hot seat, cool tone.
When did it become a thing that people just tweet out like a star player gets cut? Have you guys seen this trend? I mean, I just fucking walked outside.
And Nicky Smokes goes to the Patriots. Uh, cut Matthew Jude on because of his comments. But Ariana Grande is like, No, I don't, I don't even have to look. I know that can happen. And he walked by. He's like, Yeah, that was, I think I got, I think I got caught. Oh, you got the prankster.
Got pranked like that, someone tweeted like, Uh, the chiefs cut Patrick homes. Why? why?
Oh.
Doing a fake thing, yeah, but it's not even. It might be for engagement, I think. Elon sent out a warning Manipulate the system like your account's going to be suspended. Whoa?
How does?
He manipulate, how? how would one manipulate the system doing a bunch of polls on who will win?
Each conference to manipulate the creator Compensation program on this platform will result in an account suspension. Oh, like stealing tweets. I don't know what that means. But it seems like if you're just blatantly just tweeting just to get impressions, he's watching it. Yeah, what else are you tweeting?
For love of the game, I'm just that's how I interpret it.
Okay, yeah, all right. Well, we want Elon to keep paying us, so stop manipulating the system.
So stop tweeting, Patrick Homes got cut. Cause I? Even even though you know it's fake, you still see it and you're like, Wait, what?
We should sign that guy.
Bring him in homes. Yeah, like, when I see that, my first instinct is like, Well, if you did get cut, let's bring them in for a workout. Yeah, let's at least see what he's got.
If he's got anything left in the tank, yeah, um, all right, let's, uh. Also, Demar Hamlin made the team oh, good for him.
So yeah, good for him, I think his his comeback Player of the year. Odds are at like minus two 80 right now. Wow.
Odds on favorite to win? Um, do you think that they sat in a meeting? Yeah, yeah, and they're like, we can't. I think I think they had a conversation that was like, Here are two options.
One we cut them, or Hamlin, two we cut them. But we give them a job as like, supervisor of morale, supervisor of of not dying for the Buffalo bills and just keep them around, and supervisor of alive. Yeah, you always need one of those. Senior vice president of Refabulation.
Being alive, Uh, yeah, that I mean. He probably made the team because he was, he is a good depth.
Guy for them. Well, maybe his clones better than he was. Yeah, that's true. That'd be a big upgrade.
What if we picked up a couple of tricks when he was in the lab, that would be interesting, like?
Some people have a stroke and then they come back and they can play the piano out of nowhere. What if Demar comes back? And now he's like, a now he can, he can read an offense and know exactly when?
To time a blitz, he's like, Uh, Mel Gibson and what women want? yeah, what quarterbacks want? uh-huh.
Oh, we should, we should write that movie, that's pretty good, holy fuck, we should actually write, cause, like the DeMar Hamlin movie. I don't really know if there's enough to write it now. But if we got our hands on the script and we changed the ending to it, where he got a.
Supernatural power. He can hear everything that the quarterbacks are thinking, Yeah, I mean, imagine, imagine him going up against a Sean Watson. Oh, that'd be pretty gross, yeah.
Or.
Going up against Kirk Cousins, he's like, Fuck, why is he talking about Coles? why is he? why is he talking about the sweater? At Target? We're in the fourth quarter, yeah.
Philip Rivers, I'd love.
To hear his thoughts. Dag Navitt I should be, I should be a pregnant in my wife, yeah, later.
Tonight, I'm going to, I'm going to put another seed in her. She's ovulating right now. The.
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Now.
EBay on September 28th Game Day will never be the same thanks to Coors light, okay?
Hot seat, cool thrown hank. Oh my hot seat is the NBA, Oh, China, China No Track and Field star, Oh Noah Lyles.
Yeah, you know about Noah? Yeah, everyone knows Noah. Uh, he was doing an interview where he basically asked, You know, why do they call the N.B.A. the world champion, world champion of what they only play in America?
Uh, and there was a, you know, it was kind of an embrace debate. I guess is, you know, is NBA the world champion or they just the U S champion? Have the nuggets?
Beaten like the series A team from Slovenia. No, you have the Raptors, so that's true. Did the?
Nuggets beat Victor Women Yama's team in France. No, the Mets, they did not, they've, they're.
They have not beaten the Mets yet. Did the Nuggets beat Yukon? They did not right so good point.
Yeah, this is the dumbest debate ever, especially when you consider all the best players in the.
This is track and field, being like, please like my sport, yeah, and then you think, like.
Think about some of those Spurs teams, remember the Spurs when they won, maybe their last title. And all the dudes had their, uh, home country's flags, there was like 15 different flags, yeah.
The Nuggets famously only represent the United States. All their good players come from the USA.
This is one of those cases where a guy's trying to say something deep. And then he says it, it's. We call it an ocho, and he says it. And then when it comes out of his mouth, he's like, Uh, yeah.
Take that, guys. Here's a quote, though this is from someone in 2010. It doesn't make any sense for an N.B.A. team to call themselves world champions. I don't remember anybody playing, anybody outside of our borders to get that tag.
Greg Popovich 2010 Play Outside of the Borders. He played the Raptors. Yeah, but you know, everyone was kind of roasting them, and I agree.
But then you see.
The quotes from Greg Popovich saying the same thing, Yeah, he probably was on the vino.
You should be, if you're like an Italian basketball team, you should be allowed to challenge the Nuggets. If you beat them, then you're world champions. If you lose, your team is folded.
That should be the plan, but like a relegation plan, you're talking about a Super League or the the mid season tournament. Yeah, bringing all the champs. My other question from this? Not a soccer guy?
You guys are thankfully. What is the best soccer league like? If there was in this, in this?
A Saudi Arabia? The Champions League is the best teams from each league playing each other, so if there were, they can call themselves world champs. So if if there was a comparable league, so say if the NFL, if there was a comparable league in like England, American football and they were really, really good, they would have. Basically, how this the Champions League works is every single league like your EPL, the league in France, the Bundeslager from Germany, the Spanish league, all the leagues in Europe. Their best four teams play in a tournament during the season concurrently. That's when you see, like Tuesday and Wednesday games, that's champions.
League So Hank, I'll in. In a relation to United States sports, it's kind of like college football a little bit. They've all got their own. Like the different divisions spread across our country, there's a spread across Europe.
And so the best teams from each conference then go into a final four. And then the winner of that is the national champion. Here, the winner of that is the UEFA.
Champions League champion over in Europe, but it's it's hard to say which league is the best because, like the EPL is probably the deepest. But then like Bayern Munich or PSG, or Real Madrid or or Barcelona, when they had messy like they would win the Champions League, so maybe the best teams.
In a different league, but the best league overall, I think it's probably the EPL, definitely not in.
Yeah, not yet. MLS should get in the Champions League, that would be awesome. I would love to get fucking smoked. Uh, okay.
Good question, Hank, talking soccer? Yeah, and then what was?
Your cool term, oh my, uh cool throne is Tiffany Gomez. Yeah, she's back, she's flying.
She's back, she's back on the planes, she's so fucking hot back in there. Well, she did an interview, she was, you know, playing core.
They kind of it was like a little TMZ interview at the airport, and, uh, she said, she, you know, wasn't. She didn't know what she saw. She was kind of not giving answers on what she saw on the back of that plane. But she did say that an in-depth interview is going to.
Have to happen. So come on the show, Tiffany, please, Tiffany, in person only. I invited her on the show. I have not heard back from her.
Um, we would love to talk to you about anything.
Really just be in the same room as you. I also liked. The Tiffany Gomez is definitely not an industry plant.
Like, this isn't a setup to make someone famous. Because when she did her initial video, then she did a post and she was, uh, didn't have shoes or socks on. She was giving away her feet for feet, feet for free online. It's day one. That is a rookie mistake, Tiffany, you got to make the boys pay for those.
Anyone with management, that's that's, you gotta, you gotta cover those feet up and be like, Listen, Tiffany, those puppies, we get 50 k a pop.
She should walk, she should become an air marshal, we should just put her on one plane a day.
Yeah, so many drugs and guns in my pocket. We should put her on one plan today and she gets.
To kick off one person from each flight who's not real? I like that, yeah, real or not real.
What a game show. Yeah, Tiffany, come play real or not real with us, it's like we'll also judge.
It's like, cake or not, we know how everything's cake. People just go, you know, you cut through stuff, I think they're real, we just cut through people.
Oh, shit, whoops, that guy was real.
They're bleeding out, I've seen, I've seen the videos, they're definitely real, and they're.
Spectacular, Uh, then my other cool thrown is Bolero, our friends at Over at Bolero, they're now carrying part of my cheesesteaks. 140 locations plug. God love it.
Yeah, absolutely.
What did I say yesterday when they asked me for a comment? Uh, it was a great, great comment.
I said, it was a perfect strike. Yeah, who are you going to call Big cat, yeah?
Yeah, Bolero.
Part of my cheesesteak Bolero Great friendship So fun fact about Bolero, their director of food.
And Beverage was my freshman year roommate at JMU. Wow, didn't realize that.
Didn't realize that until we did the first Bolero thing, and I was like, Jeff, you can't tell anybody anything.
That I ever did, yeah, but please put our cheesesteaks in your in your bowling alley. Yes, no, bolero is awesome.
Bowling is awesome, Bowling is one of those things that every time we do it, we're like, why don't we do this more? why don't we bowl more fun? We should start a total strike and there won't be any left to spare, yes.
Like it, like it. okay, uh, good job, cool.
Thrones hot seats did everything. Nice job Hank. thanks and you got a great deck. Uh, my hot seat is Spanish soccer. More soccer talk today.
So the president of the Spanish Soccer Federation, Uh, got a little hot water after the Women's World Cup. He kissed one of his players on the lips as she walked across the stage. Uh. He claimed it was consensual. She has since come out and said there was nothing about that that was consensual.
Okay, uh, FIFA has suspended him, and now he is, uh, he's denying all the accusations. He's got a sexual harassment. It was on video thing, yeah.
So, but he's still saying that that was that was consensual, got it? Um, now where it gets interesting is that guy's mom has now entered the fray. She's engaging in a hunger strike inside of a church to protest all the bad stuff that they claim. That she claims they're doing to her son, so she's saying that, uh, she's describing the media scrutiny as inhumane hounding of her son.
And, uh, she's calling on Vanessa Ruiz and her Moso, who was kissed, to tell the truth about the kiss. So this guy's mom believes him. Um, that's a newsflash, like, of course, your mom's going to try to support you. But the hunger strike is ongoing right now inside of the Spanish church, trying to take the heat off of the president of the Spanish Soccer Federation.
Okay, let's see, let's watch this hunger strike. She just needs to come out and say that we always kiss on the lips, like if she has video of adult mom with adult son kissing on the lips all the time, you might have a little wiggle room.
Well, after every good show that we do on part of my.
Take, Dave kisses us on the lips one by one as we walk out. That's just a reward for a job. Well done. Birthdays, our birthdays, we kiss, we kiss at midnight.
Uh, so yeah, we'll see what happens with this guy. But then also, their coach was in trouble during the World Cup because celebrating a goal, he reached out and he grabbed one of his assistant coaches boobs. It might be the same coach, it might just no different.
This is a coach and the president of the Spanish federation. These guys are touchy, feely. This might. It's bane is given Italy a real run for their money in terms of per pervert or Spanish, yeah.
That might be the new segment. It's a Barcelona pervert, or breath with a thopple. Uh, so that's my hot seat. My cool throne is Blake Bortles, Blake Bortles on the cool throne.
He is living his lifelong dream of working construction, so he's getting a house built for himself. And he asked if he could join the crew that's building his house. And we're construction. Why are you giving me this?
Look, where'd you hear this? Uh? Billy Football wrote a blog about it, right? The gap. So Gaz tweeted a text that he got saying this. Blake Bortles told us this I'm part of my take a year ago, in October.
Oh, that he was still working construction, that he was doing exactly this. Oh, I forgot. Yeah, so it was Gaz, basically, someone listened to part of my take, texted Gaz the exact story, Bortles told us.
And then Billy blogged it, which again Billy was in the room for. When Blake Bortles told us this, I got billied, he said. There's construct. We're like, What are you doing these days? like, Well, we're building a new house. And I get bored sometimes and I go see if I can help the guys out.
Okay, Billy Buck cracked me. Yeah, well. When Gaz tweeted, I was like, Wait, like, what? Portals told us what's breaking again?
It broke to me twice. That's why we were giving you that face for like, Are you? I thought, maybe you were doing it, being like, No, I got Rebroke, I got Rebroke on this news. Yeah, no, he t, he told us.
This, Oh. Also, Blake Bortles is retiring from football. Yeah, that's kind of crazy. I thought he was going to be in camp this year.
Uh, my other cool throne is is Bolt man? Yes, Chargers unofficial super fan? Well, he's official super fan, uh. But he stopped by the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Sunday night and he paid respects to Junior Sales Bust in the Hall of Fame.
It was a very funny picture of Bolt, Bolt Man looking solemnly at junior sales face, and Bolt man is nothing if not civically engaged. We've seen them at town council meetings, we've seen him, uh, addressing, uh, the owners of the team from the podium. Bolt man is, uh, he's a legend in the Super Fan game.
And it's very funny to imagine Bolt Man staring solemnly at Junior Sale, when you know that Junior Sales face is staring back at the sunglasses face with a menacing grin. That it was incredible, and so that's a beautiful picture, our boy, clue, clue.
Haywood replied with a photo shop that he made a bolt man observing the Vietnam Wall in D.C. I'm sure that we're going to get bolt man. Photoshops are going to be hot in the streets. I mean, they are just just keep that in the back of your head.
Bolt Man Photoshops. I'm buying stock on those right now.
Like, board was working construction pop for Jonathan Taylor. Oh, okay, this is a game of.
Blink first, damn, so he's not going to get traded, he's not going to be out for.
He's going to be out for four weeks. Why? Here's a dumb question, why don't the Colts just put them on the active roster? To Pam? Yeah, but not that much, right?
Why wouldn't they just hope that he shows up for day one, but they're not to. PAM Yeah, but that's what I would do. I would, just I would, I would put them on the active roster and be like, maybe he'll change.
His mind before week one? No, well, he can't. if he's on the pup, he can't play. Yeah, yeah.
For the first four weeks. But that's not what I was saying. I was saying, I was correcting Billy. I was coaching Billy, saying, please credit the part of my take up so that you were on in October.
Okay, Billy, I fucked up too. All right, okay, but yeah, I don't. I don't know what to do with, what to do with Jonathan Taylor.
If you're the colts, I think you just got to hope that he shows up. I think you got to say you're going to be running back. He's going to show up, he'll show.
Up, yeah, all right. pop for for John Taylor, all right.
My hot seat, cool throne. uh, my hot seat. Is the Mets for doing a uh? Highlight video of Max Scherzer when he was back in New York last night. It's classy, very classy. Uh, tough, tough. Look. Mets fans did boo in person, uh, but I did have some Mets fans being like, they do these tribute videos for everyone.
That's ridiculous. I know that he, he. They won a bunch of games last year. They didn't amount to anything you can't do. Especially a guy who left under well, it didn't feel like great terms you can't do a video for.
Him, That's insane, yeah. Did the Celtics ever give Isaiah Thomas his video? I think so.
Right, that was a that was actually don't. That was like a month long storyline we were all paying.
Attention, that was depressing. I don't think it ever happened because he got cut. Damn so either.
Way got a tribute video, uh, which was very awkward. Uh, my cool throne. I have two, uh. The first is this guy who does a Notre Dame podcast, Vince Daddario, who, uh, seemingly shit his pants live, uh, recording, uh. He said afterwards he got two cramps, that's why he ran out.
Yeah, crap, um, yeah, that listen, we stand with anyone who shits their pants, it happens. What are you going to do?
Yeah, it's just a cramp, man. Yeah, he probably was drinking a bunch of.
Guinness on Saturday It's an internal cramp, everybody deals with them. Yeah, I shit my pants after drinking a lot of Guinness ones.
What do you want the guy to do? You want him to just stay?
In the room, No, you can't, you can't. And then my other cool throne is, uh, the White Sox. It's been a very bad year for the White Sox.
The team was supposed to be good, they were very, they have been very bad. Jerry Reinsdorf's been teasing selling the team, possibly moving to, uh, Nashville, possibly Arlington Heights, uh. And then a gun went off the other day in the outfield in the game. Now the reason why I have them on the cool throne is we got some more details of it.
And I'm a firm believer that if your team is going to have a bad season, make it so bad. It's a circus and you can just laugh at it, uh? And that's where the White Sox have gotten to. Because, per Peggy Kosinski, who's a great reporter for ESPN 1000, said the shooting at Guaranteed rate field during the White Sox game was indeed an accidental discharge by one of the women. Grazed by the bullet, she reportedly snuck the gun in past metal detectors, hiding it in the folds of.
Her belly fat.
Uh, I don't know how that works. Anatomically, like to be able to support an entire gun in the folds of your belly fat. It's gotta be a small gun. I mean, it has to be a.
Small gun, but that is very fat, though. The White Sox have officially reached the level of. That's like, they're doing funny shit, that's. It's such a train wreck of a season, a belly fat gun.
Like, you'll just know that, like, Oh yeah, I remember that season, the belly fat.
Gun, you think she intentionally brought the gun, or you think like she was walking in and she's like, Fuck, I have this gun in my purse and I don't want to, like, get rid of it. Oh, I thought.
You were saying, like, she forgot that she had the gun in her belly fat already. No, like, you know.
You, you walk in, you're like, Oh fuck, I have to go through security. oh fuck, I brought a giant.
Tool set to the airport the first time playing first class, exactly. She's just finding quarters and like, you know, hot dogs, I think it's. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that she had the gun on her bed for protection. And she rolled over in the middle of the night. And it got stuck in her belly fat, and then she didn't realize that the gun was still in her belly fat, which?
She walked into the game, she woke up, went to the game. It was like, Fuck my my belly fat guns.
Here, you know. What's almost more embarrassing is that the gun that was jammed into her belly fat went off and she didn't really hit herself. Yes, she just got grazed, yes.
If you're going to ask, it's like a Plexiglas situation. It's funny that the gun went off in his sweatpants and he shot himself, right. This woman didn't even really shoot herself, it just grazed her.
Yeah, and it's.
Also, if you have a belly fat gun, that means you definitely have a gun that doesn't fit in your belly fat. That you would never bring to a game. What's the charge on that? Yeah, yeah, you're, you know what I mean?
Real gun, Yeah, you, real gun. You're like, Oh, this is not. I can't. I can't conceal this one in my belly fat. I'll have to keep this in the in, properly stowed away in.
The gun box I can see John Moran accidentally shooting himself during a game. Yeah, he needs.
To get fatter, he's James Harden, James Harden, James Harden, definitely, but yeah, it's a.
That's a it's embarrassing situation, probably why we didn't learn the full story until just now. Yeah, um, I would. I would love to see the police interrogation tapes where they sit her down or wheel her in, or whatever it is, and ask her, Okay, we think we know what happened here, it was in.
Your belly wasn't it? How did you get this in? We can. It's the perfect crime. It really is the belly fat, the belly fat, probably.
Yeah, it's like a kev. The belly flat stopped the metal.
Detector Yeah, that's crazy, yeah. So when, when she walked through, do they do?
They have to wander down. And she was like, That might be my, that's my IUD, yeah, that's my belly fat, yeah.
My belly fat sometimes goes off. Yeah, um, okay, uh, Jake, your hot seat, cool trunk.
Uh, my hot seats. AI, AI is trying to squeeze out journalism. I don't know if you guys saw this story, but, uh, Allen Iverson, No, oh, Andre Guadalla, yeah.
So they're having the Columbus Dispatch. What's AI artificial intelligence? Oh, they're having the Columbus Dispatch, right AI Sports Stories.
And one of them was so robotic that they reversed it so.
That sounds like they AI just killed itself. Well, my hot seat. Yeah, AI is on the hot seat.
Yeah, yeah, cause you can't do the job. Not a big J, correct?
Got it? This is a hard industry.
And they're just trying to squeeze out more of us. Yeah, it's been, it's been going on for a while. Where a lot of newspapers have been using AI to write high school like high school football updates have been done by AI. That's what this was.
Yeah, so they're pausing it. This was just a really shitty AI program that they hired to do it. If you want a job done, do it right. pay for the premium AI service. So nobody will know that it's a robot that does it.
Or just let journalists do it, or just let a human being do it. Exactly. You need that human touch, yeah.
So I'm actually I'm okay with AI, I don't know if we all just don't have to work well, I'm.
I'm okay, I'm okay with AI in so far as that. I want AI to know that I'm on its side for when it.
Does take over and it'll like me, and if AI can be like, Hey, you do my job, I'll just chill. I'm okay with that. I think it's probably a big mistake.
We should smash all the computers, that's.
What I think that works, uh, my cool throne should be a day. In the United States where nobody uses computers, they turn off the internet from. That would be awesome. Ooh, yeah.
Go dry, damn.
We all do, like divorces, everything would just be, or we're just really great for one day, yeah.
That's true, just be optimistic. Uh, my cool throne sister Jean threw out the first pitch.
At the college game, which terrible pitch. I'm a slop, I'm going to take that to no, no, was it?
No disrespect, I would knock that out of the park. I actually had a difference. I've been a sister Jean hater for a few years when she wound up, and then she threw it underhand.
I was completely fooled. She was out there throwing junk. Yeah, no slop, it's gross, yeah.
Well, I don't think I could hit it, I think. Reading 104th birthday. I would back her down in the low post, I would dunk on her, but I think she might be able to strike me out, dude.
Six, or Jean is so old. I like, was scrolling Twitter, saw it and I read it as 140 and I didn't even flinch. Yeah, she will live to be 140. She's a witch.
If you get past a hundred.
It's like, What's stopping you? She is an absolute witch. My grandmother used to tell me nuns are witches. I believe that for several years, I also got a theory for you that you.
Might want to work on PFT. I don't think I've ever seen Virginia McCaskey Bears owner and sister Jean in the same room. That is interesting, huh? Just two women just living over a hundred girl bosses, girl bosses, just girl boss in their way around town.
Sister Jean Badass, Badass woman. Yeah, she is the original girl boss, cause I don't. I don't know if history goes back far enough to find another one, it doesn't.
Yeah, uh okay, she's the first woman, she's first woman, she is, Eve.
Uh, okay, let's get to our interview. We have Tom Franelli, then we're doing Kentucky Sports Radio Best of Callers, which were awesome.
And then we'll do our.
Mount Rushmore and Guys on Chicks. Tom Franelli is being brought to you by Body Armor. Time for interview with Tom and shout out to Body Armor. Body Armor. Sports drink helps us stay hydrated throughout our interviews with the biggest guests in the world. Packed with electrolytes and no artificial sweeteners, flavors or dyes, Body Armor Sports Drink hydrates today's athletes during competition. More importantly, it hydrates us during interviews. You can buy some body armor today on Amazon. Check it out right now in stores and on Amazon Shut Up Body Armor.
It's delicious strawberry, banana, great flavor. that was peach mango. that's another great one, blue raspberry.
They're all good love body armor. Check them out today and now here's Tom Franelli.
Okay, we now welcome on one of our favorite guests, and it's finally in person. It is the best college football writer online True Hank Lockwood. Andy Staples doesn't write anymore.
I don't think. Tom Franelli in studio, Hank and Tom in the same studio for the first time ever. Whoa Uh, Tom, great to see you. thank you for. I would say you were at least 5 of. The move to Chicago is like, oh well, uh, like, three times a year we can have Tom on in person, I think that's.
Pretty much the only reason you need to be back at Chicago. And honestly, since I've moved to the suburbs, this show is the only reason I've been back to Chicago at a couple months. Yeah.
Yeah, I've just I'm done, I'm a suburban right now, we're over it.
I'm going to say something.
And don't take it the wrong way. I'm not coming on to you, but you look good, you do look good.
Thank you, I have not, but what I have been doing is golfing a lot. I've been, you know, Hank stole my identity.
So I'm trying to steal his. I've been out golfing a lot this summer, took my first lesson in April. So I just have a tan. That is really the only difference for somebody who works from home. I haven't had a tan like this in three or four years.
If you can't tone it, tan it. That's what they say. Uh, all right. So we are on the precipice of 2023 college football season. No better time, so let's start big picture.
Uh, realignment happened, all this bullshit happened, are you? I'm personally more excited for this season than I've been in a long time. Just because I think there's going to be weird, like blood feuds and teams about to leave and just kind of enjoy it before everyone breaks up.
How are you feeling going into this season? I'm kind of with you in that. I'm looking forward to it because I do feel like this is the last season of college football. Resembling kind of what we've all grown up watching and rooting for. And it is going to change. But I'm also somewhat non-plus simply because, like Georgia has obviously won the last two national titles, they're probably going to win a third. Like, when I look at things going into the season and I look at Georgia's schedule, there is absolutely no way in hell.
They are not making the playoff. Okay, but here's the.
One fun part, because you said it with Georgia's schedule, we get to do an entire season of Georgia hasn't been tested yet. No, that's a fun thing, but that's the thing Georgia gets to the.
Playoff and it doesn't really get tested, like Ohio State game was great and then you get to the title game against TCU. Which is, you know, there's the Cinderella story that everybody says can't happen in the college football playoff. And then they get what? 65 to seven.
You've been on? No, I did not. This isn't all to George. This will be really, I don't know, I can't remember.
Well, it would be a, that's a. It's a smart bet. You can say everyone's going to be betting on Georgia, but George is so good and it doesn't matter what. They set the spread. Yeah, just.
Going to dominate, it's going to be an all time. uh, we're just Georgia's going to dominate everyone. I don't think they have a game on their schedule. Tennessee at Tennessee is kind of their toughest game.
What they did to Tennessee last year. So so we will spend the entirety of this season debating. Well, Georgia hasn't played anyone, and that's going to be, and you're basically hoping that Georgia has just. I mean, you could make the argument because there's now nitpicking, because they are phenomenal team. Is the disease of Morgan to take over for Georgia? Where they've been there, they've done it twice, they're scheduled.
They don't have those big games, they will get like everyone ramped up for. Can they trip up somewhere? So what you're saying?
Is like, Georgia's biggest opponent is complacency versus themselves. It's true media. We might have to put it on our shoulders. We do because we have been doubting Georgia. Kirby's got he's, that's the one thing I think Kirby took from Saban.
More important than recruiting or anything is convincing your players nobody believes in you. Because I have seen it from the Georgia fan base already. Because, like, two people in the SEC media poll picked Alabama to win the league, it's like.
See, they don't. No one believes in you, kids. Yeah, it's it's going to be funny, because Georgia is. If Georgia was a little bit worse. If they were, like, barely favored to win the national championship, then I don't think we could say like, they haven't played anybody, but there's just nobody that Georgia possibly could play. For us. To be like, Wow, yeah, Georgia's battle test.
Well, that's part of it, too, cause you look at Georgia's schedule and you say, Oh my God, they're going to win all of these games by two or three scores. It's so easy. But then if you put, like Auburn with the same Georgia schedule, they're probably going eight and four. So it's not like it's a cakewalk.
It's just in comparison to Georgia, there really is nobody else in the country that you could put in front of them. That's not within their own league, or Ohio State, or Michigan, or maybe USC this year. Although after what I saw from that defense last weekend, I'm not that high on the Trojans anymore. But it's just it's one of those things. They are so fucking good that there really isn't anybody else that you have any kind of faith in beating.
Them, even with a new quarterback, right? So, uh, one more question about realignment Is there a who's the winner? and who's the loser from realignment? Uh, the SEC and the Big 10 are.
Winners and television executives are winners, and conference commissioners are winners, I mean.
Yeah, it's that's why I watched the sport. I love it when the commissioner does his.
His advertisement during the Bowl game. I mean, I will say I'm a winner in the sense that. Since I work for CBS, growing up, as a big 10 fan, watching Big 10 football, going to a big 10 school. The fact that the Big 10 is now on CBS is actually something that is very exciting for me. That's a big winner for you, exactly.
So I'm a winner in that sense, I am a loser in that. To get what I wanted, I had to add USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon, you had to destroy.
College football. We didn't have to add Washington, Oregon. We did them. No, they were on sale, yeah.
The UH, Rutgers is a winner, too. Rutgers in Maryland. Rutgers in Maryland are big time.
Winners I mean, they've got a ton of money from just being right place, right time. Yeah, like.
Oh, they got a lot of cable boxes. Oh, James Gandolfini was like, Rutgers, Ray Rice. I know Rutgers always get shit on, but they really did to say something nice about Rutgers. They used the minimal amount of success for the maximum amount of security, yeah.
I mean, they just played it.
Perfectly. Jim Delaney back in the day looked at Rutgers and said, Hey, that's close to New York, you know what? New York has a lot of people, yeah.
We're going to get a bunch of money game.
Of Thrones Map, where it goes all the way to the coast. They love college football in New York.
It's probably, I mean, you guys would know better than me. But it's gotta be the biggest sport in New York, barbecue, bourbon and college football. Yes, all right, so let's go, let's go.
Big conference by big conference, so SEC Georgia, if not Georgia, then who? LSU? Okay, I really.
I, I'm not going to say that the Alabama Dynasty is dead, but I feel like it's dying and it's, you know, it's not going well. I mean, there's. Saban this week is standing in front of the media, saying he's not going to release a depth chart for their game against, I think, Middle Tennessee. Competitive advantage, because it's a competitive advantage. And it could cause like it could distract players in the locker room to to know what their job is. Yeah, so that to me, it's an.
Amoeba Depth Chart. We don't tell Hank what day he's working until the day of Hank doesn't know.
When a weekend is, so they bring in, you know. It's like, we don't know who Alabama's quarterback is yet. We mostly think it's going to be Jalen Milrow. But you look at that team like they had Bryce Young the last few years. The guy who was the number one pick in the draft was one of the best players in the country. And they couldn't get past Georgia with them and the roster talent wise. Like, the one thing that Alabama was able to do during this dynastic run recruiting was they killed everybody. On the lines of scrimmage. Offensive line, defensive line, and they still have good players in those spots, but Kirby Smart in Georgia have better players.
They have gotten more of those guys. And it's been kind of under talked about in recent years. That Alabama's offensive line, the last few years for Alabama standards, has sucked. They have not been able to run the ball, even with Bryce Young and defenses having to trust that. And I look at LSU, they did a lot better than I anticipated in Brian Kelly's first year. He's a really good coach.
Turns out he's a really good coach and Jaden Daniels was fantastic. Behind Jaden Daniels, they have Garrett Nussmeyer, who some people believe is going to be very good himself.
If he ever has to go in and start, he's got a huge arm. They've got a bunch of talent at receiver, they're very talented at running back, they've got good players on both the offensive and defensive line, the secondary. There's some question marks there that haven't been proven, but I give LSU the benefit of the doubt when it comes to producing defensive backs.
So I just look at that division and I think LSU is better than Alabama this year and they're more likely to win the West. And I think if you get them to the SEC title game against Georgia, they've got a shot. They've probably got a better shot than anybody else in that conference of beating Georgia.
Who's that offensive lineman that they just said was going to get the number seven on LSU left tackle, I think?
What the hell, I don't know.
I'm on the spot.
Yeah, you're putting me on the spot here. I do not know his name, but no.
You don't know the left tackle for LSU, what the fuck?
He's getting number seven, best player in Louisiana gets to rock number seven, but he's not allowed to wear number seven on the field.
No, but Teddy Bridgewater can wear number 50, which, by the way, tangent that just looked fucked up. I'm happy he didn't.
Will Campbell?
Will CampBeLL Yeah, I think he should be allowed to actually wear the number seven.
I don't.
An offensive lineman wearing seven just won.
I don't, no, I think offensive line is the one traditional position where, god damn it, we need to have a standard. All right, you're a fat guy who moves pretty well. You need to be in a 60 or a 70. I don't want to see single digits on the offensive line.
We're too classy, we're too smart. I speak as a former high school offensive lineman, so I know what I'm talking about. Leave that for the defensive lineman. They're the showboats.
They're the guys who are trying to show off.
Just one big dude wearing number seven would be cool, it would be cool, the rest of them have to wear in the 60s. Preferably, 69 should be the left tackle. I think that should be like in soccer, where the striker gets number 10..
Nine.
Number nine, nine, is that what it is?
How are those 10?
No 10 is the attacking midfielder kind of guy.
Don't try to correct us.
Who's number seven? That's a defensive midfielder?
Uh, no, that's like a winger that's Ronaldo.
Oh, I was thinking, Jurgen Klinsmann.
What is Messi wear?
Messi wears 10.
Oh, interesting. The goat Yeah, so we're right.
Yeah, but he's not a striker.
Oh, he strikes.
What does Pusilicic wear?
You don't know when he's going to strike.
I don't know what's he wearing with AC Milan.
What did David Beckham wear?
Uh, seven winger.
Oh, fuck shit.
That's stupid. Who cares about soccer anyways? Okay, did you see, by the way, when you said competitive advantage, do you see the Arizona Cardinals? They're declining to name a starter for a competitive advantage against the Washington Commanders.
So we're either going to get Josh Dobbs or Clayton Toon, you don't know which one to prepare for.
I think Clayton Toon's a good player. Um, I don't know. It's going to be tough to game plan for the Cardinals. Yeah, not knowing who their quarterback is.
That's one of those where you see it from an NFL coach, like every year there's a new coach and you're like, that guy's not ready for the NFL.
No, no, that team is clearly trying to get the first pick. They want Caleb Williams more than anything.
Yeah, didn't they, um, the way that they handled Hopkins contract. I think they could have just waited a couple of days and cut them, and instead they just said, no, we'll cut them down. We'll just eat $11 million.
You know, we got to use our cap space, somehow, that's really what they're doing. There's a cap floor, you have to spend a certain amount of money. That team is in tank load.
I just watched the Bears do it last year, so I know I know the move.
Um, all right, so let's talk Big 10. I have a take, uh, top to bottom, Big 10, strongest conference. No, but just yes, just say yes.
Yeah, for sure, but no.
All right, so maybe not top to bottom, but I do think Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, all could be in conceivably. Be in the college football playoff. And then you have, you know, I was always going to be good. Wisconsin could have a very good year with Luke Fickle changing everything. Uh, there's some salty teams in the Big 10 that will keep it. You know, the floor isn't just like falling out after, like the top three teams.
I do think you're right at the top. I mean, Ohio State, Michigan. we know what they're going to be. Michigan's won the last couple of years. Ohio State is still. Ohio State reached the playoff last year in a down season.
And then Penn State. I do think this is their best chance to win the Big 10 in a long time now. The problem is, I still don't think they're as good as Michigan or Ohio State, but they do have a quarterback. Drew Alar is, I mean, Sean Clifford didn't get a ton of respect. He was drafted by the Packers, so it's not like he sucked, but he's. You look at the quarterbacks, and he was always the kind of guy you look at. Like, you know, Ohio State's with Justin Fields and C.J. Strouds and all these N.F.L. first round picks.
Michigan didn't really have the five-star, but they've had good players. Penn State, I felt like, was the one team that was trying to convince itself that it was a national title contender while playing with a jagged quarterback. You know, just a guy, but I think Alar is the first guy, really. I mean, McSorley was not ultra talented, but he had the moxie. I think Alar is the kind of guy who has that kind of attitude.
He's also really fucking good. So I think that could give them a step up. Because you look at the rest of that roster, their offensive line is fantastic, they have great running backs, they've got talented receiver.
The defense is phenomenal, so if Alar clicks, that is a team that could win the East, it could win the Big Ten.
And they have the benefit of playing Michigan at home and Ohio State. They have to play in Columbus, but they always play Ohio state top.
Yeah, they give Ohio State, I mean, until the last couple of years, obviously, but even then it's like, Penn State, even when they're bad, they step up. And they gave Ohio state. More problems in, like the last decade than Michigan was for most of the parts, so now obviously Michigan's taken over that role, but Penn State can't beat Michigan, though, that's the problem. It's like when they play, they usually get the shit kicked out of them by Michigan.
But no, I think I I. My prediction was those three teams are all going 11 and one, they're going to split the series with each other. Like, the home team is going to win every single one of those games. And it's going to come down to some weird, draconian tie breaker in the Big Ten bylaws to decide who wins the division. But I do think because of that, there's a very good shot that once again, the Big Ten will get two teams into the playoff.
Whoever wins the East and whoever finishes in second.
They should just make the tiebreaker whoever puts up more points on Rutgers.
I think I think we I we did some research into this. I think it goes to the team that had the best schedule. Like the win loss of their, you know, their non whatever opponents. And I do think like, I can't remember who drew. Like Northwestern, I think it was Penn State. They're fucked because of that.
Cause Northwestern is probably not going to win a big ten game.
Yeah, that's tough.
What about? what about the West? Are you buying the badgers? are you buying the dairy raid?
I buy the badgers long-term, I don't, I know, I know. Booster Cat. You went out and you bought a whole lot of players for your badgers and went out and you bought Luke Fickle. But I just think that what he's going to do with Phil Longo coming in, and I know that it gets overblown. Like they're going to run the air raid, the dairy raid. But like when Phil Longo was at North Carolina, there were seasons where the Tar Heels had two running backs who rushed for a thousand yards.
It's not like he doesn't know how to run the football. They're not going to be throwing it 80 times a game. But my only concern is to go from the transition of what Wisconsin always has been to what they're trying to be, even in the transfer portal era. It's really hard to do that in one off season, so I think there are going to be growing pains. I think defensively they might take a slight step back because, you know, Jim Leonard's gone.
He's at Illinois now.
I don't know if you're aware of that.
Wait, wait, wait. He's a Wisconsin guy, though.
No, it turns out he's an Illinois guy now.
Cause I thought he was going to be the next head coach.
That's what I was told, too. But, you know, Booster Cat stabbed him in the back.
Well, as soon, as, as soon as Kirk for Rents finishes his 80 year contract. Uh, Brett Pielma, what does he have tattooed on his ankle?
Uh an Iowa, Hawkeye.
Oh, interesting, okay?
You didn't seem to care when he was winning Big 10 titles at Wisconsin.
Well, you know, he was there for a little bit of time. Now you got your best coach ever.
Brett said at Big 10 day Media Days This is his J, this he's finishing.
Oh, he's never said that before.
He's never going to leave. No coach has ever said this is my dream job, but I'm here forever.
I've made amends with Peel, I like him again. There was a time when I was not so happy. Because you know the whole like karma thing, and and you know it, it. It hurt me, but now I'm, I'm cool with it.
I love him cause he's made Illinois good. Yeah, back to Wisconsin. I think that I think long-term fickles. A fantastic hire for them.
I think that they are going to win a fuck ton of games with him there because I think Luke Pickles a very good coach. I mean, he got Cincinnati to the playoff and then that team had nine players taken in the N.FL draft. He knows what he's doing, he's seen the blueprint and I. I've seen people use. Like the six and six year at Ohio State, where he was like the interim. And they had a bunch of people suspended because of dumb penalties. Is like, Oh, he can't win in the Big 10..
He'll be fine. Yeah, I just think that this year, Wisconsin's probably more likely to be eight and four than it is 10 and two or 11 and one. Okay.
So I think nine wins is what I'd like.
That'd be, I think, if you win nine games, it was a very good year. But I, I like Iowa. I know it is fun to shit on Iowa for the offense. But like it wasn't that long ago, it was the 2020 season when I was scored 32 points per game. It's not like this is something that has not been happening for Iowa for a long time.
It's the last couple of years. They had a terrible quarterback who could not do anything. Like. I don't think there was anything, schematically, that Brian Ferentz was doing that kept Iowa from scoring points. They just didn't have the dudes.
So so what's it going to be? is it going to be? Is Iowa going to finish with a higher points per game total or higher ranking in the top 25 at the end of the season? Both.
I think that this is, I mean, they're going to score. I. I'm on record, they're going to score 31 points per game, and I think they're 31..
Yeah, I guess if you put in a punt, return and.
With 18.
6 points per game last year. I don't give a fuck.
Go look at 2020.
And I scored 32 points for game. I also don't give a fuck.
It was great betting on Iowa last year, being like, all right. If I'm laying a number, I know they need to score on defense or special teams, and then they would.
Yeah, Iowa, the years. It has a decent quarterback and a tight end and a receiver, it scores points. So what do they go out in the portal? They get Cade McNamara from Michigan, who helped get them to the college football playoff a couple years ago.
They get Eric All, a very talented pass catching tight end, who maybe he's not the George Kittle type of blocking tight ends that Iowa is used to. But he can, you know, contribute in the passing game. And you get Caleb Brown, a transfer wide receiver who couldn't get on the field at Ohio State. Because, you know, they've got an N.FL roster at Ohio State, but is a very talented player himself. They have talent at the skill position that they haven't had in three years.
You didn't mention the fullback.
The fullback, too, of course.
What's his name? Hayden Large?
Hey, it's.
Yeah, six, five, 300 pounds. Actually. Donald Trump is built like Donald Trump.
What a name.
Yeah, six, three to 15.
But I think they're going to be fine, I think they're going to score a bunch of points and I think they're going to win the West. I think they are the best team, they're the one I have the fewest questions about.
Interesting, I did not see it going that way.
That hurts. They have to play Wisconsin and Madison.
Yeah, that wasn't a problem for most teams last year.
Yeah, all right.
You have one good year.
I'm just saying, we're a football school now, it's like, you know?
What were you before?
We were a basketball school.
Trying to be a basketball school?
At one point, a basketball school.
What's James Madison like a rugby school?
We won the Sunbelt last year. You remember that, Tom?
No, I don't.
They got a pizza party.
Sunbelt Champions.
They had a huge pizza party.
Give me a sunbelt preview, 10 seconds or less.
It's fun. James Madison is going to be good, App State is going to be good, South Alabama is still going to be good.
And time.
All right, how's your sunbelt?
You keep going, Sunbelt is awesome.
No, it's a very fun conference and I'm on the record. I mean, especially now that teams have left the AAC, like the AAC loses Cincinnati, UCF and Houston to the Big 12. I think the Sunbelt is going to be the best G5 concert conference within the next 10 years.
Because it's the same thing as the SEC. All the football and population growth moving towards the Southeast is kind of growing that conference as far as talent-wise. Because they're getting a lot of the, you know, quote-unquote leftovers that the SEC leaves behind. And there's just a buy-in from all the schools about wanting their football programs to be good. It's not like we were, you know, they didn't add rutgers because of cable boxes.
They added James Madison because they gave a shit about football and want to play football. So I think long-term Sunbelt is going to be the best G5 leader.
So do you think that the Sunbelt is going to be better than the AAC again this year?
It could be the AAC is three teams and then a whole lot of, I don't know.
So Tom, when we were sitting outside before we started this interview, I mentioned that I was going to Tuscaloosa for Texas-Alabama. Week 2 The College Football Show, Barstow College Football Show. We'll be there, I don't know if I'm breaking news, but that is, we will be there. And Tom just whispered, Texas is going to win that game.
They are.
So Big 12, Texas, it's the year.
It is we have to do our predictions at the beginning of every season on Cbssports.com. And I was asked for the most underrated team in the country, and I chose Texas. And it felt really fucked up to think of Texas as being underrated because it is perpetually overrated every single year.
But I really do think this year's Longhorns team is going to be very good like they are. I've got them winning the Big 12, I got them in the college football playoff picture. They're not anywhere near good enough to win a national title. But they could be, like, you know, the TCU of the world and get to the playoff. Because they've got Quinn Ewers, a quarterback who we saw last year in Austin.
They nearly beat Alabama until Ewers got hurt and went down. And they still hung tight in that game. And Alabama still needed a last minute like field goal to come back and win it. I think they've improved the overall talent depth of that roster. I think Ewers gives them a much higher ceiling, and if you're looking at Alabama and Texas, like Quinn Ewers versus I don't know Jalen Milrow.
That seems like a huge advantage in Texas's favor in that matchup, even in Tuscaloosa. So I think talent-wise, they've done a very good job of building that roster. Where they're closer on par with the SEC teams that they're going to be competing with in the future. And I think they have a huge quarterback advantage over most teams that they're going to play and in this sport, that goes a long way.
You are in direct opposition with Andy Staples on that, I think, he said. They're the most overrated.
Well, he's a Twitch streamer. What is it?
Who cares what Andy thinks? Wait, so who else? If not Texas, then who? Because the big 12 is it feels like it's fun every single year. I'm actually happy with the whole conference realignment.
Feels like the Big 12 will continue to be fun with the teams, they added. But Kansas State was great last year, Baylor was good last year. You have, like, there's these teams that people don't really expect, and it's just a hard conference to play.
Two things can be true, one is that the Big 12 is really fun. Because, like, especially last year, nobody in that league was like, there was no gap, there was no top-tier team, everybody was close enough to where.
Week by week, you're going to have a ton of fun games and anybody can beat anybody.
TCU.
But still, TCU played an 8-1 score games. It's not like they were blowing the doors off the teams. But the other part of that is true is that Oklahoma and Texas were mediocre last year. They kind of did not live up to their expectations, which allowed the rest of the league to kind of step up. I don't know if Oklahoma is going to have a big bounce back year.
I think they're going to be better than they were last year. But I do think Texas, if there is an elite team in that conference this year, it is Texas. But I agree with you in that. Between TCU, who I think just naturally has to kind of come back to Earth a little bit. Because besides of everything that they lost, like I said, they played a lot of one-score games. We'll never forget that crazy two-minute drill to get the field goal against Baylor, to win where they're scrambling on the field with no timeouts.
They get the kickoff and they make it. I think Baylor is still going to be good. Kansas State is just a very well-coached team that doesn't do stupid shit. And if you can do that in college football, you're going to win plenty of games. I don't think Kansas last year was a fluke.
I look at that league, I think having Cincinnati, UCF, Houston and BYU coming in, they are probably going to struggle a little bit. But I don't think the gap between them and the rest of that league is significant enough to where they won't be able to win some games. The only team I look at in the Big 12 that I have serious concerns about the bottom falling out is West Virginia because they come in with their coaches already on the hot seat.
They have a very tough non-conference, they start the year with Penn State. They get pit. Like that's a team that could lose three or four of its first games and then you fire the coach.
And then you go to the interim and then everybody just kind of quits and then everything bottoms out. So when I look at the Big 12 as a whole, I think Texas is the best team and I think West Virginia is the only team with a chance to be terrible.
All right, what about future Big 12 team Colorado? Or Boy Deion? I know what people are saying nationally about Deion, there's a big conversation about him.
Where should the expectations be for Colorado this year?
If Colorado gets to a bowl game, Deion should get a lifetime extension.
Here's the thing there's been a ton of attention about what he's done in the transfer portal, bringing all these guys in. And he's got Shadur, his son at quarterback, who was very good at Jackson State, we have not seen him play at this level yet.
But he's a talented player, so that's important to have the quarterback's the most important position. You get Travis Hunter, who is a phenomenal player at any level. I know it looked like he was playing a different sport than most of the kids he was facing last year.
He is a genuine two-way threat, kind of like Deion, where he's going to be the best corner on the field and he might be Colorado's best receiver too. And so they have very talented players.
But they just don't have the depth yet, and my concern for Colorado is its offensive line and its defensive line. I don't know if they have enough guys there yet to really compete in the Pac-12. Because while the Pac-12, the bottom of the conference is pretty soft. And they might be able to find some wiggle room to pick up a few wins down there.
The top of that league is still pretty good, they don't have an elite team, but they have a lot of very good teams. And they have. Like, Utah, if you look at Utah, just beating the shit out of people the last years.
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