College Football Will Be Okay - RELAX | Late Kick Live Ep. 390

At Academy Sports and Outdoors, we carry all the gear to have fun and spend time with family. Get the gear you need to kick off summer. Swing by your local Academy store today or shop online at academy.com to find igloo coolers, trager grills, pelican kayaks, or stay fresh in new styles from Columbia and Nike. Plus easy in store or curbside pickup, shop anytime, anywhere, and find our widest selection of colors, styles, and sizes. Not the only reason, but one of the reasons that I should be elected commissioner of college football is I don't think anyone has a better grasp on the psychology of us, we as a people than I do. And so everybody's talking about expansion and contraction. Everyone's talking about realignment. Everyone's talking about how the ACC could drop off into the Atlantic just as the Pac-12 drops off into the Pacific. Guilty. I have been guilty of trafficking in such conversation this week, but the psychological aspect is this. I know you don't want to listen to that. You want to be assured that things are going to be okay. And so tonight gather around the old late kick campfire here. Sometimes I'm putting out the fires as fire patrol paint, but tonight I am fanning the flames of the fire that will gather around and together accept the fact that it'll be okay. This is late kick live. It is now Thursday, May 25th, the year of our Lord 2025, 23, who knows what we'll have on our hands in 2025. And we're jam-packed high atop somewhat of an overcast, but still cheery downtown Nashville, Tennessee. I'm going to lead the show with it tonight. College football is going to be fine. I know there are some band-aids we need to put on the sport. It's going to be fine. No one's running for the exit door. We've got some things to talk about in terms of bold predictions tonight. We got some of you just flat out questioning the manhood of Ohio State. I'll do my best to defend them. If not outright join in with you. Who knows which way I'll go on that. This whole Georgia, Florida, Jacksonville conundrum is going to end up being a big deal. Not until 2025, speak of the year, but it's going to end up being a big deal. I think we're approaching a point where that thing just goes to a home and home. And one of you asked about it, so I'll talk about it also. The Dion stuff has gotten way out of control on this channel and in life. It's gotten way out of control. Now it behooves us to talk about Dion cause it moves the needle, but my goodness, we can't talk about him without the comment section going crazy. And it's because the, I think a lot of people don't watch the video. I get accused like 10 times a minute now of saying something that I didn't say about. It was just like, watch the video. So anyway, we'll talk about all that. They're watching us in Rhonda, North Carolina, Oakland, California, losing your baseball team, but you got a college football show, Fort Worth, Texas, Mobile, Alabama or LA, lower Alabama, as we called it in Harris County. Thank you for watching us. I've got some things to talk to you about very, very, very quickly here. So Sunday night, it's Memorial Day Eve. Bradley's tongue's drag in the ground. Director Colin hasn't gone home in months. Producer Jesse had the audacity to take a vacation. Couldn't be us. But since that's the case, here's what I did today. I came in early and good for me for doing that. And we recorded about an hour 15 minute conversation with our good buddy Cole Kubler. We had him on the show a couple of months ago. We got insanely good reviews on that. So we just went hardcore deep dive on all sorts of stuff today. And we will edit that and we'll upload it on the channel Sunday. So it's not going to be a traditional show Sunday night, but it will be plenty and then some. There'll be a lot of meat on the bone in that chat that we had back and forth. The second thing is I get daily now. People asking me, hey, what happened to those conversations and those interviews you said you were going to bring us when we got the channel to 100K? We got three of them coming up in June. I'm not going to tell you who they are until right beforehand because that's the fun of it. This is the time of your, I can schedule that sort of thing because of the kind of names that we're going to have on the show. You kind of got to work on their schedule. So that's that. And thirdly, I have probably the stupidest entry right now that any of you have or any of you have suffered from, and I'll talk about it later in the show, but you know, you always need some perspective in life. And I've been feeling bad for myself all day. I don't even have the right flavor of choice liquid in the chalice. We had to go with second string orange tonight. But what I didn't do is lose to the 19th ranked player in this office in ping pong, two out of three today. And one of one of our brethren in the other room right now did. So we'll call him Aaron Grisham. And it's been a rougher day for him than it ever will have been for me. I just got a mildly strang back. So details to come later in the show. And prayers up for Grish. Okay, let's breathe deep. Let's work on our box breathing techniques. I was doing some research on that. Colin, are you familiar with box breathing? It's really, really fascinating. It makes you feel so peaceful. Google it, kids. After the show, Google it. Colin, here's your endpoint. College football is going to be fine. I know a lot of people are worried right now. I know they got you scared. I know maybe even if you've watched late kick and you've heard me talking about how they're such an uncertain, hazy future for the Pac-12 and the ACC and the like, I know that it may make you feel like there are treacherous waters ahead. And yeah, they may get choppy. But do you understand how strong this sport is? I don't think many of you do judging by how dire the comment section looks a lot of times when we talk about what we've been talking about the past couple of weeks. So one of you came to me and you were very respectful. You sent me an email and you said, I love the show and then there were like paragraphs of compliments about the show. And then you said, but I got to be honest with you, I have not liked the doom and gloom segments as of late. And while I would slightly disagree with the characterization of us doing doom and gloom segments, point taken. So maybe I haven't done a good enough job of explaining that even if all this stuff's going on in front of you, there is a lot about the foundation of this sport that will make things more than okay in the end. What I cannot do tonight here on this, what May 25th, 2023, I cannot promise you if you're a Washington state fan, that things are going to be okay. I'd be lying to you. I could say it, but I'd be lying to you. So I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by trying to do that. What I'm going to say in a very general sense is the same thing like Morgan Freeman said, President Morgan Freeman, when deep impact was happening, the asteroid was imminent. He knew some folks were going to get wiped out, but he did. He did let America know that by and large, we will persevere. It's just not all of you are going to be with us. That's about as good as I can do tonight. I am telling you, this sport is going to be more than fine. This sport is going to prosper. It's going to flourish. There will be some figurative casualties along the way. It's inevitable. It's unavoidable. I'm not going to say I told you so other than to say I told you so, but that's in the past. So let's break off the rear view mirror. Let's just look through the windshield. The first thing people are claiming, not just go down a list of two or three things. The first thing that people are claiming is conference realignment is going to ruin college football. It's not going to ruin college football. It is going to change college football. If you'll notice, by the way, if you're 25 years old, this stuff seems new to you. It's not new. It's always happened. Realignment has always happened. There has never been like a static 10 or 15 year period of this sport where there was just no movement. It hasn't happened. And here's what I realized. I know college football fans of all ages, eight to 80. I know college football fans that run the entire gamut of being very, very young to very, very, shall we say, seasoned. And the more seasoned amongst us, you would think if the sport was being ripped apart, it seems would be freaking out right now. I've noticed the opposite. This is not an absolute observation, but I've noticed in many cases, the older college football fans amongst us actually are sitting back sort of going, hmm, and they may not like what's happening, but they're not freaking out. The younger crowd, ironically, is freaking out more than the older crowd because I think the older crowd has a lot more learned lessons through observation of the history of college football. And they know changes always happen. And they've probably heard a time or 10 someone tell them, this is it. This is the end of college football as we know it. And it's never been the end of college football as they knew it even, much less just the end of college football. Conference realignment, it will be no different. Now, you're going to get a very, very healthy and robust power to of conferences in the major college football levels. You will get that. That's unavoidable. We were kind of already there. We will be there. I don't know how the second tier of college football will play out. I don't know who's going to be in the ACC. I don't know that, but if you'll just think for a second at the plight of rice food, rice used to be in the Southwest Conference. There was a time that the Southwest Conference was viewed as the premier conference in college football. How's the Southwest Conference right now? How is rice right now? Rice is about a five-some odd touchdown dog against Texas, their old Southwest Conference partner, by the way, to open the season. Rice was a casualty, so to speak, of the changing landscape of college football. So it doesn't serve as any consolation to rice fans that the Southwest Conference broke apart. And Arkansas went to the SEC and pretty much all the other ones went to like the Big 12 or elsewhere. No, it does not. It does not provide any solace to them. But by and large, college football fans don't spend every waking moment telling themselves, boy, once we lost the Southwest Conference, that was it. Nor in the future will you say, boy, when we lost Phil in the blank, that was it. Now, you may have individual fan bases that say that. And I feel for you guys, I absolutely feel for you guys. You've watched this show. You know how I feel about that. I am very, very unhappy about it. But the sport overall will be okay. The other thing that's happening right now is the transfer portal has very much changed the sanctity, the integrity, if you will, of roster management. And it's changed how you define a college football player, how you define the value of a commitment, how you define the value of a starter or depth. All of a sudden now you've trained yourself to look at the roster and say, hey, in any given year, like 20% or 30% of these guys could be moving on. And that's ruining the sport. That's the follow up in that sentence. I hear it all the time. The transfer portal has made it a selfish, me-first mentality. And all these guys are just mercenaries out there looking to start wherever they can. Some guys are playing for three or four schools, and that's ruining the sport. Is it really ruining the sport? Here's the best way to gauge it. Let's say you're watching Clemson versus Florida State. Week four, this fall. It is 20 to 17 Noles, mid-third quarter. It is fourth and half a yard. FSU is on the Clemson 31-yard line. And they're deciding whether to go for it. Oh, they're going to go for it. Here they come to the line of scrimmage. Crowd is at full throat. Play clock, five, four, three, press pause. Are you thinking about the portal at all? Are you thinking about conference realignment at all? Are you thinking about NIL? Are you thinking about how much money those individual players are making and how much maybe the guy next to them is not making? The answer is no, no, and no. All you care about is the game. All you care about is the matter at hand. All you care about is what you've always cared about. And that is a Saturday in the fall. And as long as we have that, you've got college football. So you ask me, well, what would it take for you to walk away from college football? What would it take to turn you off from college football? That's it. We didn't have that anymore. That's when I'd walk away from college football. But you see, we're nowhere close to losing that. You may be close to losing some things or some things changing. You're nowhere close to losing that. And the other thing about it is in that moment, on fourth and half a yard, on the opponent's 31 yard line, three point game, mid third quarter, big time urgency on the line. Are you really thinking about what percentage of your roster originally committed to Florida state or are you just thinking about the catch you've got and the catch they've got and whether your cats are better than their cats? What are you thinking about? I think we all understand what you'd be thinking about. And it's the same thing people watching at home, agnostically, are thinking about no one is paying attention to the very thing that many are claiming is destroying the sport in a moment like that. The moment or what it's about is my point. Speaking of which, speaking of NIL, I got some folks claiming to me that NIL is ruining the sport. I'm not trying to insult your intelligence. It may sound like that. I'm not trying to insult you if you feel this way. I guess I'm trying to change your mind on it. Is it really ruining the sport? I don't disagree with you that it's changing the sport. I don't even disagree with some of you who may say you don't like certain aspects of this. That's totally fine. Hey, again, if you watch my show, I speak out frequently on things I do and don't like. We've all got preferences. We've all got an idealistic view of the world of college, what we would like to see. It's not always the way it is. In fact, rarely is that the way it is, but there's a far cry from I'm not getting it exactly how I want versus it's ruining the sport. NIL is not ruining the sport. Unregulated NIL may have led to a far less than ideal circumstance in the sport. That's not just for you as a fan. That's for the offensive coordinator at Kentucky or the defensive backs coach at Oklahoma State. Yeah, a lot of folks are dealing with that. Then you got Congress laughably claiming. I want to emphasize laughably claiming. They're about to come in and solve anything. Don't count on that. I just look at it and the more I talk to staffers, staffers are ahead of the game here a little bit. Coaching staffs, not across the board, but some of these coaching staffs are starting to realize, all right, this is about to settle a little bit. Here's another thing that's happening. It's behind the scenes. It doesn't really affect you at all. For anyone who was scared that NIL was just going to completely overhaul recruiting, look at the top 10. Does it look any different? Look at the outcomes in the national championship games. Does it look any different? Aside from TCU making a freak run, does the playoff picture even look any different? The same teams that were always there, by and large, are there and the ones that are new to the party? Like welcome back Florida State. Welcome back after a brief absence, LSU. Welcome back Tennessee. They're not back because NIL or the portal, they're back because they got their act together. They always should have been there. So it wasn't changes to college football that opened the door for them. My point there is simply to say, is they really ruining the sport? Like is that what we're looking at? I don't think so. And what I was going to tell you about what's going on behind the scenes is for those of you who were worried that NIL was just going to create a situation on the recruiting market where these deeper pocketed schools came in and bought all the recruits they wanted, which had never happened before. Trust me. Here's what's actually happening. There's a pretty magic number out there in the recruiting world right now as it overlaps with NIL. About 10% give or take. Could be 8%, could be 12%, but let's just use 10%. 10% is the number that when all is said and done over the next couple of years, most programs are going to settle at as an allocation percentage of their overall NIL budget to go to recruiting. And all that means is schools are learning very quickly. We do not want to spend inordinate amounts of the finite budget that we have on unproven players. There's a myth that it's just endless money. These places are printing money. They'll spend whatever it takes. No, they won't. Even the deepest pocketed programs have a budget. There is a limit. There's a number. It may be bigger than middle Tennessee's, but there is a number and they are not going to spend 50% of it on high school kids. They would get burned by it fantastically. They're going to end up. Most of them are going to end up allocating about 10, 12, maybe 15% of their NIL budget towards high school players. And disproportionately, most of it will be spent on either portal players or what about this concept, players already on their roster who are proving themselves. And so if you think that's going to ruin the sport, we simply disagree. You're going to end up with haves and have-nots and you're going to find that in most cases, those clumps are going to look eerily similar to what those clumps look like in 05. So is realignment ruining college football? It's not ruining the sport. It is absolutely detrimental to some programs. I don't like it. I'm not telling you otherwise. It's not going to ruin the sport. NIL is not ruining the sport. The transfer portal is not destroying the sport. College football is going to be fine. Okay. So any of you who are new to the party and you've listened to this show over the past couple of weeks and it sounded alarmist in nature, it's only because I try to get out in front of this stuff instead of yelling from behind the wave. I try and get in front of the wave and yell, hey, wave coming. I try and do that. Now because I would much rather take preventative measures, whatever that means behind the microphone, than just yell about things after the fact. But do not mistake what I'm saying for trying to tell you college football's screwed. College football's not screwed. You're going to have a great product. It's going to be fine. It's going to change. It always has. There will be beneficiaries. There will be casualties. It'll suck for the ones that get left behind. The end. I just told you the story of college football as it's been throughout its entire existence. It's just you got a new set of circumstances that is repeating what the reality has always been. All right. Now that that's out of the way, I appreciate you guys being tuned in live. Thank you so much. And if you are here, like the video, thumbs up and subscribe to the channel because we are on the road to 200 K subs. Notice the serious face. No, notice the paper pop. And I know that a lot of you out there just listen on podcast, which is cool because we have the number one college football podcast in the world right now, even though podcast is not our main source of traffic. And if you don't think management notices that, think again, friends. So thank you for that. Anyway, if you're listening on podcast, keep doing it. Just go over to the YouTube channel and subscribe there too because it doubly helps us. Thank you. Okay. I got a question from someone. I was, I was wondering where Colin, where should we put this in the show? Belchi is producing the show tonight. Belchi, where should we put this in the show? Well we put it near the top because even though it's an Ohio state question, Ohio state's one of those national teams. And also I'm getting the sense and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm getting the sense a lot of you have formed an early opinion on Ohio state this year. So I'm going to read you this question and then I'll give you my response. Chris from Dearborn, Michigan hit us up. He said, why do people just assume Ohio state can win a national title every year? My answer is cause they can win a national title every year. Do we, do we need to go down the road of explaining the difference between cannot and do not cannot versus will not, cannot versus have not? There's a big difference in what you're technically capable of versus what you will go on to achieve. Alabama last year, could they have won a title? Yes, did they? No. Ohio state last year. This is where I go when people come at me with this because they're doing it a lot right now. I was talking to Cuba like today. You'll see this on the Sunday interview I upload. We were talking about Ohio state and he had hesitation. He kind of sounded like Chris, Colin check and see if Cuba has a little twin up in Dearborn because it sounded a lot like Cuba like today. He said, I don't know why people just assume Ohio state can win one. I don't know that they can win one and I'm like, maybe we just take different approaches here cause in May or June, July or August before they've kicked it off. I like to operate under this philosophy. When you're asking me who can win a title, I'm going to err on the side of caution. So my field will always be big. I'll have like 10 or 15 teams in there. And it's because I'm not going to ignore raw talent. Now raw talent alone doesn't do anything and come November, we will have learned that. But we don't know that in August. We don't know whose talent will be cultivated and developed and put in the right place and utilize the proper way. We don't know that. That's why God has us play the games instead of getting to August and then hit fast forward button for us to December. Voila, there are your results. That wouldn't be all that fun. That would destroy college football and I don't, I don't have it on good authority that that's coming anytime soon. So with Ohio state, what do I know every year about Ohio state? They're going to be supremely talented. Every year about Ohio state, I know that they have had a really deep receiver room. Every year at Ohio state, I know that they outclass roster wise, everyone in the big 10. Now I know what you're yelling right now. I'm going to wait for a second. They're probably done. Most of your 90% of you are done yelling now. I just, I just told you talent doesn't win you anything. Talent alone doesn't win you anything. So you don't have to yell at me. Well, that was the case last year. What happened last year? Well, that was the case two years ago. What happened last year? They lost to Michigan both years. That's what happened. Talent alone doesn't win you anything. I think I've repeated that like five times already tonight. So what should I do? Where should I classify them? Let's say you were running a sports book, calling out of curiosity. Do we have that slider that has the overall odds to win the national championship this year? Because it has Ohio state way up there and anyone who's asking me this question from Dearborn Michigan has to be just beside themselves. They have to be floored to see that Ohio state has odds that are right in line with Michigan. They have virtually the same odds as Michigan to win the national title for the record. As of tonight, you realize Ohio state is a one point dog against Michigan in the game that's several months down the road. That is telling you that the odds makers, for example, view them as as pretty equal. They may even slightly favor Ohio state neutral field. Anyway, that's irrelevant because as you could tell me Ohio state was favored the last two years. What did it mean? I get you. My point is let's pretend that you ran Caesar's sports book instead of the folks at Caesar's. Mr. Caesar, where would you put Ohio state? If you forget about splitting money, forget about monitoring the action. If you just wanted to put true to life odds on Ohio state on your board, where would you put them? You put them behind USC? You may put them behind LSU. Many of you may like LSU more than Ohio state this year. That's okay. But how far down are you putting them? You're going to put them behind Notre Dame, behind Texas A&M? Are you putting them behind Tennessee? Where would you put them? I don't think people remember last year properly because everyone thinks negatively about Ohio state right now. And usually if they think negatively, they follow it up with, yeah, cause Ryan, they can't win the big one. And I just, I wonder where you were in 2022. I wonder what you were watching. Cause I know I was in Atlanta, Georgia after being in Columbus, Ohio the month before and seeing them lose to Michigan. I was in Atlanta, Georgia. I think it was New Year's Eve. I was standing right under that upright. You can see it if you watch the replay. I'm in a blue shirt. I'm standing right under that upright as that potential game winning field goal goes wide, very wide. And Buckeyes lose 41 to 40. I think it was 42 to 41. That's the gap that a ball coming off a foot the right way is the difference between Ohio state and Ryan, they not being able to win the big one. And them entering this year pre-season co-favorite with Georgia to repeat like that, that's the gap. That's what we're talking about. That is not how people remember last year. I told you guys the next night. I told you they just lost this game. It was an incredible game. Six or seven times out of 10, they probably win it, but they lost it. The way they lost it, I said it doesn't matter. People are not even going to remember this game. They're going to remember the Michigan game and they're going to combine that with and they've lost two years in a row. And we're going to go into next year and it's going to be the most uncomfortable several months for Ryan Day ever cause his entire future is going to be decided based on the Michigan game. And here we are. Here we are. So I don't, I don't look at the situation that way is why I'm teeing it up like that. So why I think about them as a national title contender is because I compare their players to other teams players. That's why I do it. I don't compare them to past Ohio state teams or anything like that. There are several points of vulnerability here, not the least of which is the quarterback position. Sure it is. The fact they had to rely on a transfer from San Diego state to shore up the offensive tackle spot. If they short it up. Absolutely. Yeah. Several points of, several points of concern potentially defensively, especially if you get in a playoff or national title situation cause it would greatly help if you didn't let Georgia hang 40 plus on you. You're playing a team, the caliber of Georgia, even if it's not Georgia. That's the breaks of being in the playoff. But if you're going to come at me and say a team of that caliber is not even a consideration to win the title, I don't know about that. I don't know about that. So Ohio state until further notice, especially if they're playing this slate right here, their first truly loseable game. All respect due to Indiana. If they lose to Indiana, you can wad this entire segment up, throw it in the garbage. It is a different conversation up there. They go to Notre Dame in week four. They've got Penn State at home. They're favored by about 10 and a half. That is in late October. They go to Wisconsin the very next week. That is a tough one, two back to back stretch. And then they've got Minnesota 11 18 and they go to Michigan 11 25, not a murderous row, not the easiest of draws, but not a murderous row. But if I'm looking at that, I'm asking like, where are the sure losses? And the answer is there is no sure loss anywhere on that schedule. In fact, they'll be favored in every game on here, but one, I would imagine. So why would I consider them a national title contender? Cause they're a national title contender. That's why. I have to do something for you that I never do. I have to actually, I have to actually pull the laptop over here. I have to say thank you for watching over a thousand of you live right now. And I know you guys have a lot of things you could be doing tonight. We're about to go into a holiday weekend. Anybody work in tomorrow? Not in this building. They even canceled softball for us this week, which I didn't learn about until today. So I'm a little bit devastated by that. Here's what I have to do. I have to read the following. So you know, Academy Sports not doors. There are ride or die. They're your one stop shop for all outdoor sporting goods, supplies, needs, etc. I have well documented what they have. They go above and beyond for you. I got two really good emails today that were so long. I can't read them from satisfied customers of ours, but I do make it my duty to inform you if you're military out there, if you're first responder, this was already the place to go. You bring in that first responder ID, you bring in that military ID, 10% additional off that order. That applies for online orders too. You go to what is it? Academy dot com slash discount. They got you hooked up. You get free pickup for online orders within two hours as well. So I would, I would highly recommend that you guys are visiting Academy regardless. I think about all the outdoor possibilities this weekend and beyond. Then imagine not going to Academy before you hit up the great outdoors. Don't be that guy. Don't be that girl. Don't be that mom or dad. Don't be that niece or nephew. Do the right thing. And if your military first responder, take that ID, take him in there. Boom, 10% off just like that. So you get what you need. You get it for a little bit cheaper. Appreciate the service. That's through July 4th, by the way. So it doesn't just end after this week for first responders and military academy dot com if you can't get there in person, Academy sports and outdoors, if you can. And tell them I sent you. I'm not saying that get you a discount. Okay. But if you tell them I sent you, it just makes the show look good. And the cashier may or may not have a clue who I am, but that's okay. That's on her. That's on him. You did your job. And for that, I thank you. You know what, you know what a double paper pop means on this show? Well, it means I'm about to take a sip from the chalice and then it means things are going to get really serious. Because it is, well, it's May, but it's also bold prediction season. Now, I, I've been perusing the comments on this because we started bold predictions in May last year. And I thought in retrospect, because we went like 30 chapters deep, I said, Colin and Jesse, might we have started it too early? And everybody said no. And then I looked in the comment section and so many of you were happy to see bold predictions return. It's like our version of a preview magazine, people are people have been looking forward to it. People have been asking, hey, when does bold predictions start again? Well, the answer is it started what four shows ago cost tonight is chapter four. So here we go. Colin, here's your, here's your point. Bold predictions chapter four. Simple question. What would you bet your own money on? What is the boldest thing you believe will happen in this upcoming college football season? We got some boldness on the piece of paper tonight. The first one has to do with Georgia Bulldogs. Brian is checking in from Alexandria, Virginia. Brian doesn't think George is going to make the playoff this year. How? How? It's, in fact, my own staff responded that way today, Brian. They questioned you. And in a much lowercase fashion, how I question you crazier things have happened. I will grant you this. George has got a really good shot to make the playoff this year. I'm putting this in an eight point seven five on the boldness scale. Can you imagine that? This is a combination of being really good and having a really trashy schedule. Let's be real. Georgia can do nothing about the latter. They have everything to do with the former. How would this happen though? So let's just entertain the thought. I mean, it's not crazy. It's not a crazy scenario. They lose to Tennessee and lose the SEC Championship game. They're about a seven and a half point favorite on the road at Neeland right now. That game doesn't happen until November 18th though. So whom's knows what they'll be by then. And you know, maybe, maybe Hugh Freeze just catches lightning in a bottle. They are Georgia's first conference game. They're, well, they're not their first conference game. They're their first road game this year. They go to Auburn, new quarterback hasn't been on the road yet. Think about it is you always build that stuff up for Georgia. And any time that you use what would classically be a weakness for a normal team, you see Georgia just chewed up and spit it out. So we'll see about that. But how would it happen? Easy. They drop one game and then lose the SEC Championship game. That's how it would happen. Will it happen? It's tough. They're the favorite to win the national title. So the favorite to win the SEC obviously. So I'm putting this at an 8.75. And that is an insanely high rating of boldness just because someone said you won't make the playoff. It's really hard to make the playoff. And yet the mere possibility that Georgia won't make it brings an 8.75. That's, that's really, really up there. And next up, this happened last year. Okay, so Jess in Maryville, Missouri said despite being odds on favorites, the big 12 championship game will not feature Texas and it will not feature Oklahoma for a third consecutive year. That's right. It's been back to back years where they haven't been in there. I had stats and info. Do a little research. The last time that they didn't make it in the big 12 championship game and back to back years was 97 and 98 and it's never happened three times in a row. OU in Texas, either one or the other has been in the big 12 championship game 17 of 21 years. So they're going to miss out for the third consecutive year. Both of them going to be sitting at home on conference championship Saturday. I happened to disagree with this. I made it an eight on the boldness scale. And eight, so as usual, Texas and OU are the odds on favorites to win the big 12. Texas is number one. OU is number two. Yes, kids, for those who are unfamiliar with how the odds making process works, that Oklahoma, the one who barely made a bowl game last year, that's right. They're above Kansas State. They're above TCU. They're even above Iowa State. Yes. Yes. Three, go bet your money accordingly. Look, you could sell me on Oklahoma not being there. I really think Texas is going to be there. That's as close as I've come to a prediction on them this year and I reserve the right to change my mind and it's not cause they got a soft schedule. I'm not even counting the game at Bama. That's out of conference. We're just talking about big 12 play. They don't have it easy. I know some people disagree. Like Ole Miss may disagree given the schedule they have to play. Yeah. Okay. I just have to play a schedule like Ole Miss has to play this year. Texas has not so easy time. Back to back road games in late November is not easy, especially when the latter takes you to Ames, Iowa for a November 18th game and then you close against Texas Tech, which could be the sleeper in the conference. And also, let's not overlook how thin the air will get for Texas. If they're going into November and they're in the conference championship picture and therefore possibly the playoff picture, think about the pressure that I always heard people talk about tightrope walking and they talked about how difficult it is to train to walk a tightrope because you think to yourself, hey, a tightrope is a tightrope. So whether it's five feet off the ground or 500 feet off the ground, it's the same, right? No, it's not the same. The rope is the same. Your foot is the same. But there is a much bigger difference psychologically between looking down and knowing five foot fall, I can land on my feet. 500 foot fall, street pizza. There's a big difference. And so Texas, it's one thing if they start hot, it's another thing if they're a one-loss team headed up to Ames, Iowa in late November, headed home to play Texas Tech, everything's on the line. Ooh, thin air. Practice that box breathing like I talked about earlier. I am fascinated with the concept of box breathing this week. The internet's not a good thing for me to have. For all the reasons that you normally wouldn't side. It's totally different than the reason that I don't want Bradley having the internet. My internet research, my search history is all over the place and breathing techniques was what I was looking at this week, mainly because I think I strained my back because of combination of bad breathing and sneezing. I'll tell you that story later. This I think is going to be in the Big 12 Championship game. I think that. I don't know that. So I'm going to say this is an eight claiming that neither one of them will be in the Big 12 Championship game. This one is even more bold though. By a long shot. Hah, Preston not so surprisingly hails from Birmingham, Alabama. And you better hail from somewhere close to Tuscaloosa if you're saying this. An Alabama quarterback is going to be a Heisman finalist this year? Oh, what? Oh, who is it? He didn't even know who it's going to be. Do you know? I don't know. Does Nick Saban know? Does Tommy Reese know? I don't think anyone knows. This prediction from 50,000 feet is not crazy. It's just when you get on the ground level, you realize how insane it is. Alabama has had a quarterback end up a Heisman finalist or better three out of the last five years. So yeah, Bama quarterbacks have littered the Heisman Trophy picture. That's the good news. The bad news is they've been named Bryce Young into a tongue of a low and Mac Jones. So of course they have. This year's crop is, well not that the name Ty Simpson is bad or Jalen Milro or Ty Buckner is just far less as expected production wise from them. And also if you think about the style of play that Bama's probably going to incorporate this year, will it even call on that kind of production? Like if a quarterback, I don't care who it is. If a quarterback at Alabama has put up the kind of production that you need to be going toe to toe with Caleb Williams for Heisman finalist consideration, what? It's likely they've been playing catch up in multiple games that Bama may be a three loss team if they got a quarterback for four thousand yards. So no, this is not going to happen this year. This is a nine and a half on the boldness scale. Look, I'd put half decent odds that you can't even guess who the starter is going to be right now, much less who that starter is going to be as a Heisman finalist. So that's all there is to say about that. Lastly, boy, this would be catastrophic. Nicholas from Bloomington, Illinois said Ohio State loses two games against Michigan and Penn State. Oh, and they lose a new year six game. So there's no real way to know what bowl game they would be in. I'm just going with the first two parts of this. Ohio State loses to Penn State and loses to Michigan. I made this a seven point two five. It's pretty low actually. Seven point two five. This is not the boldest prediction in the world. It's statistically unlikely to happen. It's not the boldest prediction in the world. As much as I was defending Ohio State a second ago, I didn't tell you I didn't have questions about them. I just said, I've got questions about everyone. So look at Jerry Emig. Look at him keeping up a Ryan day. Good for him. I just said that out of all these teams, if I got questions about all of them, the team and the whole lot of talent is the one that I don't I don't shy away from. But with Ohio State, we can already give you numbers on these games. So Penn State comes in there and Penn State is a 10 and a half point dog. So Ohio State as it stands now double digit favorite against Penn State. Plenty of time for that to move. And Penn State is one thing when you go to the Michigan game at the end of the year, Ohio State is a one point dog in that game right now. I don't know if that point spread surprises you guys. It's at Michigan. I don't know if that surprises you that that game is it's the second to it's the last week of the year of the regular season. So all kinds of things can change that. I was giving you a read on what people think about it right now. This is a seven and a quarter in terms of boldness of prediction. And I already talked about Ohio State a lot tonight. So I'm not going down this road again, but man, just just a follow up on that. Like I didn't grow up in Ohio State fan or anything like that. So for those of you who did, what does that do? What is what does that do to Ohio State football? Because you're looking at that saying what Josh, it's still a 10 win season. That matter for them. It won't matter. You guys know that's true. It won't matter. You beat Purdue. You beat Maryland. You beat Indiana. You beat Youngstown State. Big deal. That's what they'll say. Manford, Ohio, Mansfield, Ohio. Is there a manford? I don't know. In Akron, Ohio, in Dayton, Ohio, that's what they'll say. They'll say, yeah, of course you beat them. If you didn't beat them, we would have run you out of here before the season was even over. But you lost Penn State at home. You lost to Michigan for the third year in a row. And then you did whatever you did in the bowl game. It's not good enough. I don't know what would follow that sentence, but I do know that's what they would say. And it would be extremely uncomfortable. And it's already kind of uncomfortable up there. So selfishly living vicariously through Ohio State fans. I hope you guys can avoid that, but we'll see. They're watching us in Provo, Utah, Cherokee Falls, South Carolina and highlights Florida. I paper pop because maybe we've got some Florida Panther fans in highlights Florida. Now anyone who knows me knows that I am just born and bred die hard NHL to lie die Florida Panthers all the way. Colin, you know this about me, right? I love Florida Panthers. So we are headed to the Stanley Cup finals. Good for us. I can't name a player. So yeah, I'm already screwed on that front. But yeah, Andrew Ivan's ghost of those games. I got a shout out Ivan's for real. So Ivan's is a legit Florida Panther hockey fan. The Florida Panthers, I think up until like five minutes ago, Florida Panthers always struck me as the most anonymous professional sports team in America. Meaning if you follow NBA, Major League Baseball, NFL, NHL, even if you don't watch them, you could name all the teams. I can name all the teams in all those leagues. And I could name the Florida Panthers, but I think if you're trying to name the NHL teams, normally what happens if you don't watch hockey, you get to where you're about five or six short and then you realize, oh, I forgot Winnipeg has a team now. Oh, I forgot Seattle has a team. Oh, I forgot Vegas has a team. Florida is usually the last one. Like there is an NHL team in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. You usually forget about that. You remember Tampa, but you forget Florida, don't you? No longer. So Ivan's when I was down doing the signing day show a couple of, well, it was it last year or this year, it was this year, this past December. Ivan's was checking like the Panther score on his phone. And I gained so much respect for him because on his screen, he has multiple updates and one of the updates is a text about the whims of an 11th graders mentality towards Michigan state. And then the next update is, oh, Panther scored three to one lead over the Maple Leafs. Good for Ivan's congrats. Like half of the HQ office in Fort Lauderdale, apparently is a Panther season ticket holder. So speaking of the state of Florida, although not not NHL, this has concluded hockey night in Nashville. I got asked about this a lot. So I chose one of the questions. I'll talk about it for a second here. Foster asked, well, Foster's from Alfreda, Georgia and Foster asked, do you think this Georgia Florida game should stay in Jacksonville? This is a conundrum for me. It has been for a while. I get asked about it all the time. I've spoken about it on the show a couple of times. You know I love tradition. Love it. I think that when you cut college football open, it bleeds tradition and be careful with sharp objects around our sport, please. But if you did cut it open, tradition is what it bleeds. So Georgia and Florida have played in Jacksonville for a long time. There was like, I think one time in the nineties because of construction, they did the home and home. But by large, this has been a neutral site game in Jacksonville, Florida, so much so that Corey Smith even wrote a song about it. Well, there's a situation. Two situations in fact. One of the situations is Kirby Smart hates it. He doesn't want it there. Some Georgia fans have always thought the location is unfair. Whatever. One of them gets on a plane. One of them gets on a bus is the way they've always put it. And I get that. I have always countered that you guys should just play at Memorial Stadium in Columbus, Georgia and be done with it, but it always gets shot down. So Jacksonville, Kirby looks at it and some people of Kirby's ilk look at it and say, we can't use it as a recruiting weekend. Alabama and Auburn play at home and their biggest recruiting weekend. Guess what they get to do? They get to bring recruits because their biggest games are on campus. We play Florida and I can't bring five star players there because it's not eligible to be an official visit because it's not on campus. And I get that. And I think selfishly, if I were a coach, that's how I think. Now, Billy Napier and the Florida contingent, they've gone on the record and they've said, yeah, but we make a lot more money having the game neutral site. And, you know, good for these cash strapped SEC programs, find an way to make an extra buck. Sarcazam intended, but I get the appeal. Look, if you're Napier or if you're not Napier, you don't need to mention money. You can just mention tradition. That's fine. I think the best argument for Jacksonville is not money. No one cares how much money you're making. They care about the tradition maybe. And so I've always been torn on this. I have never come down on the side on this argument because I get both of them. So, I love the traditional aspect of it. I also really respect Kirby's motivation of I could not care less about tradition if it impacts my recruiting in a negative way. I want the recruiting weekend. The other thing I think about is, and I normally use this logic in a lot of different ways, if I were to reinvent the sport today, where would I put Georgia, Florida? And I know that that's a little bit of a backwards way of supporting the home and home argument because there are a lot of things about tradition that are grandfathered in simply because of tradition and you're not allowed to just hit the reset button. I just made your argument for you if you didn't like that, by the way. But there's this other thing that's coming down the road. It looks like there's a construction project coming up down there. I think it doesn't happen until after 2025. So we got a little time, but that construction project is coming and it looks like, I can't remember if this is official, it looks like they're going to have to take that game home and home for a couple of years. I don't think it's ever going back to Jacksonville if they go home and home. That's what I think. Because I think if those folks get a taste of what it feels like for Florida to play between the hedges and those folks get a taste of what it's like for Georgia to play in the swamp game over for Jacksonville. And I have a sneaking suspicion. If I personally got to be at those games, I'd probably say the same thing. Like I envision us 10.50 to go in the first quarter. And we've already seen the spectacle that is Sanford Stadium and Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on fire. And I just picture us collectively looking to the left, looking to the right, saying, are we really letting this go back to Jacksonville? Like they were right. This is crazy. This is nuts. I think that's what would happen. I think that's what will happen. So whether I like it or not, whether I support it or not, any Kirby Smart's going to end up getting his way on this, and I think both schools are going to benefit from it because what is the age old rule around here? Games never get worse when you play on campus. They can only get worse when you move them off campus. And that even goes for this game. There is only one game in this sport outside of Army Navy. There's only one game in the sport where you would get a big time fight from me if you tried to move it from its neutral location. And that is OU Texas. And that includes you fools out there who want to move that game to Jerry World. No, no, we're hauling oats on that front. We can't go for that. No can do. As for Jacksonville, Florida, I know the game's been played there for 450 years. It would not break my heart. Let me put it that way. If you move Georgia, Florida on campus. The end. All right. Let's move it along. Got two more things to talk to you about. Yes, we're unloading the barrel. I've really grown to dislike the orange liquid. This used to be our go to out of the chalice. Oh, and the other thing is this company. It's a very popular company. Still has not decided to sponsor us. So I still don't give them shout outs. What a missed opportunity. I cannot believe that we're talking about this tonight. I did not. I just want to tell you, those of you who are getting tired of this particular subject coming up, I didn't want to do it. But you're making me do it. So we're going to do it. Matt from Fort Worth, Texas. Folks like you were fine when other coaches were doing it. But now since it's Dion, it's wrong. Nah. That's Matt's sign off there. Nah. Matt, what are you talking about? I know what Matt was responding to. So I do know what he's talking about kind of in a way. I chose this not because Matt himself said it. I chose this because I've been getting this nonstop. And I've been hearing a lot of people say it nonstop. There's this thought out there in the college football public that people are outspoken about Dion Sanders because Dion's just a different cat and he's not doing anything that anyone else isn't doing. And they're going after him and when in reality it's the system you should be mad at, not Dion Sanders. And the back part of that I agree with, Dion's not doing anything illegal. So Dion's doing exactly what the system allows him to do. I've said it before. I'll say it again, I don't have an ounce of disdain for Dion Sanders. Quite the opposite. I like Dion Sanders. I liked it. He's in college football and I'm not mad at him for doing anything that half of y'all wouldn't do if you just took the job he took. And that's what I've told some coaches I've talked to because I thought as I told you last show a couple of shows ago, I told you a couple of shows ago, several coaches have reached out to me and they have spoken their mind on Dion Sanders. Only Pat Narduzzi has done it publicly. The rest of them are off the record on it. And their reasons are their reasons. But when they've vented to me, I've told everyone of them the same thing. You ought to go public with it or else you're just venting. If you want something to change, then lobby the proper authorities or just speak out like Narduzzi did. I got all the respect in the world for Pat Narduzzi. I don't even care if I disagree with him. He spoke and put his name behind his words. A lot of the other ones won't. I've been echoing that sentiment. So where this response was born from is our great social team took a clip I did or took a clip from a segment I did a couple of weeks ago where I said a lot of coaches have been reaching out to me talking about Dion and the portal and overturning an entire roster and how they don't think that's what college football should be. And they just really don't like Dion, which a lot of them don't, candidly. And I said, I think some of them are jealous of him. I think some of them legitimately have concerns. I think some of them don't like him personally. And I think some other ones just are upset with the system and they are kind of misplacing their anger on Dion Sanders. Well, here's what happened. People didn't actually listen to the video. They just, they saw a video. They assumed I'm hating on the dude. And so they come in the comment section with comments like Matt's because if you've actually listened to what I've said, I dare you Matt, I'll give you a paycheck. If you go find me criticizing Dion Sanders period, much less disproportionate to any other coach, you won't find it brother, but I challenge you to go try. I'm not criticizing him. You want to criticize something. You can criticize the system, but until the system is fixed like what would you do Matt? You go and you're the head coach at Colorado and this is afforded to you. This opportunity is afforded to you. What would you do? You would look at a room full of kids that just went 1 and 11, have the opportunity to replace them with better pieces and you would say, I'll pass. This is not a charity. They're paying you to do a job. And the job is to do everything within the rules to put the best team possible on the field. So if you're telling me that rules are no rules out of the kindness of my heart, I would opt not to overhaul a roster. You're either lying or you're about to be sitting right back up in the stands buying a ticket because you're not going to be employed for very long with that mentality. Now Matt, if you wanted to come to me and you wanted to say, I hate that the rules allow Dion or anyone to do what he's doing, then we're going to have a conversation and you may even find I agree with you. People come at me and they call and you know this from the time you and I started this show here, they have come at me whenever there's been a change in the portal or NIL or both, usually at the same time and the NCAA has no idea how they're going to police it. They just throw it out there. Oops, we spilled this bucket of blood in the water. I hope no sharks show up. Let's go back to shore. That's the NCAA's modus operandi. Well, you know, some people don't call it out and some people do. We call it out on this show and we get labeled sometimes as once again being a large. Or just complaining or being negative. It's not that. So in 2020 and 2021, when this was happening, I'm not going to tell this story again at length, but I'm not going to play a clip again. Because that just feels like patting yourself on the back and my back hurts too bad right now to do that. But in 2021, when this was happening, I came on the show and I said, this is about to do something that you think you're going to like and you're not going to like it, just like playoff expansion. Same principle. You think you're going to like what NIO and the portal do and you're not going to like it. It's not going to give you what you think and that is a level playing field. It's never going to do that. And what it's going to do is you're given players freedom to move about the country like it's a Southwest flight. You're given players money and you don't realize that coaches are then going to look at that and say, well, you're no longer a student athlete in my eyes. If you got all that, I'm going to treat you a lot more like an employee. I can't call you one legally, but I'm going to treat you like one. We were doing the segment in 2020. I remember it vividly. We pulled up a clip from it the other day. Well, we're here now. We're here. So what I don't have time for is a lot of people who bang the drum in I'll portal. Yes, portal for all and I offer all and then listen to me, say what I said is that up shh, boo, but then we fast forward three years and then they want to claim I'm hating on Deon Sanders. I'm not hating on Deon Sanders, nor are a lot of people who are mistakenly hating on him. They're hating on the system that was allowed to be put in place without any ability to properly police it. That's what's got him angry. Just the transfer portal doesn't have a face and I all doesn't have a face. Deon's got a face and he talks out of it a lot and that's what rubs a lot of them the wrong way. Let me address one other thing and this is kind of it's kind of a sidebar, if you will. So in the comments on that video, let me set you straight on something. A lot of you came in there and said, oh, all these coaches who don't like Deon Sanders, it's a race thing. It's called these black. More than half the coaches I talked to about that were black. So it wasn't that I'm not doubting there. Maybe someone out here that doesn't like him because of his skin color. There's a lot of folks in this country. I'm telling you the folks I talked to. There was not an ounce of that that I detected. In fact, a lot of them looked just like Deon. It wasn't that. And it wasn't even Dion is the point I keep going back to. They're upset at the system. Dion just happens to be the one taking advantage of it. So the Dion hate it. There's this group of people. They're kind of cultish. They just roam the internet and anyone who says anything about him, they don't actually listen to what is said. They just say, Hey, am I really, really is that what we're doing? I don't think so. All right. We got one more thing to touch on here. And it's, it's an interesting program. The way we do the mood trackers is I'll normally pull up the globe and we'll spin it like Carmen San Diego. And all right, is our finger going to land on the SEC or the big 10 pack 12 ACC big swap no, it never lands on independent. And as a result, sometimes we can forget about Notre Dame. That's one of the prices you pay for being an independent. Sometimes if people are checking off boxes by conference and you're not in one of them, there you go. And I'm sure that keeps them up at night up there. No one we may miss a Notre Dame mood tracker, but alas, one of you pointed it out to me. So Notre Dame mood tracker time thermometer goes in the fan base, raise the tongue. Let's pull it out. What are you guys feeling about Notre Dame? What is the middle 80% of the fan base feeling this time last year? I talked at length as everyone else was clowning themselves about Brian Kelly's accent and his dancing and his recruiting videos. And I was sitting here talking about how forget all that. Did we just see a win win? Notre Dame fans were ecstatic with Marcus Freeman. LSU fans were ecstatic with Brian Kelly. We fast forward a year. Has anything changed? Not really. In fact, I think a lot of people feel validated in that LSU certainly loves where they're at Notre Dame after they got off to a rocky start. They ended up with a nine win season and they went into the transfer portal and got the best quarterback in the transfer portal afterwards. They're recruiting very well and they're recruiting well again this class. I think they're moved right now as we got ours. LSU feels the same way. It is again a reflection of one of the most rare occurrences in the coaching market and that is the win win. Everybody wins. Coach moves on a really good one. And yet you already had the replacement in house. That's the other thing. Notre Dame didn't have to do this massive coaching search. They had their head coach right there. He was on the same staff as it turns out. So Marcus Freeman's elevated. And here's the added benefit. Freeman could go be a solid B list actor if not eventually an A list actor because I've seen those commercials. I've seen those hype pieces Notre Dame put together last year. He's got the looks. He's got the chops. He's got the charisma. And Marcus Freeman chooses to grace us with his presence as a head coach. And if you don't know me better, you'd think I'm saying that sarcastically. I'm not man. I appreciate him hanging around. Some coaches look like meatballs with arms extended out of the meatball. Marcus Freeman's a good looking dude. And we are comfortable enough around here to say it. And he's the head coach at Notre Dame right now and he is theirs. That's the attitude amongst Notre Dame fans. We got ours. They can keep Brian Kelly down there. We got ours. We got the dude we want. I told you at the time and I'll remind you, if you're not a Notre Dame fan, you don't think about this a lot. Notre Dame folks had a very interesting relationship with Brian Kelly because I've heard Lou Holtz talk about it before and he's right and he would know. He said, there's a certain attitude you have to have towards the brand of Notre Dame to be an effective head coach at Notre Dame. Well, they didn't feel Kelly necessarily had that. And I don't think they're wrong. I think Brian Kelly looked at it a lot more transactional than in a poor your heart out love it sort of deal. I think that he looked at it as a major job and I'm a football coach at Notre Dame, but maybe I'm not Notre Dame and then football coach in that order and the Notre Dame folks, they just want a certain kind of mentality. They want a guy who embraces all of what Notre Dame is and Brian Kelly just said, I want to go play football. That's what I want to do. Marcus Freeman's all of it. Marcus Freeman is what they want. And Marcus Freeman had options. He has options. He chose Notre Dame. A lot of that staff stuck around. They chose Notre Dame. They're really into that up there as they should be. As everyone should be, Notre Dame just takes it a little more serious than most. And that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. So they're coming into this season. They got another shot at Ohio State this year at home. They go to Clemson. You know, they play USC every year. So one way or another, Notre Dame is going to have a massive impact on the playoff picture this year. And then within the walls of Notre Dame, they listen to someone say that and they say, yeah, we're going to have an impact on the playoff picture. And we may be in the playoff picture. And then everyone goes, well, wait a second. Wow. Yeah, let me pay attention to them. Now they're when totals eight and a half. They're odds to win the title or plus 2,500. They got a shot. You don't know who Marcus Freeman is as a head coach yet. How could you? You know, one year in, you don't know what lessons he's learning. We don't even fully know what his profile is. And so you bring in the best quarterback in the transfer portal and you pair him up with an already really good roster that's not going anywhere because they're recruiting at a very high level. Let's see what they do this year. Sam Hartman, first in completions career at Wake Forest, pass touchdowns most all time, passing efficiency most all time, total touchdowns most all time. Wake Forest. You're president, right? President Forrest, I'm kidding. My humor hits 90% of you, but there's 10% of you that, like the other day, I made the middleman joke. I used the office quote, you wouldn't arrest a man for just delivering drugs from one person to another would you? A cop came in the comment section. An actual police officer came in our comment section and kindly but firmly pointed out, it's not a joke to some of us. My apologies. So instead of just making veiled drug references, let me just put it to you like this. Marcus Freeman is a really good fit at Notre Dame. They know it. He knows it. The fan base loves it. That's the mood. We got ours. Bam. Kickoff 2023, about 100 days away. Really good show tonight. About an hour. There was there was talk around the office that we may not even go 40 minutes and shame on whoever said it was me. I said it. That's right. I promise you one thing. I hate that I got to tell this story. Those of you who don't want to see me embarrassed, just log out now, please. I'll give you two seconds. Yeah, you're still here. Okay. Well, the thing of it is I was a really big baseball fan when I was a child and I remember the home run race between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. I don't think Roy's run baseball. I think it made it great. It blended pro wrestling and baseball. Well, anyway, I remember still one day there was news on Sports Center. Sammy Sosa had been scratched from the Cubs starting lineup because of a back injury. I think, oh, that's a shame. Get well soon, Sammy. And then more details emerged. How did he injure his back? Sneezing. And I thought to myself that is pathetic. That is one of the softest things I've ever heard from a pro athlete or otherwise. We fast forward all these years later and I now have a strained upper back muscle from sneezing and I told Gabe Ickard this the other day. I told Cube Look this earlier today. It's not the strain that is hurting me the most. It's the fact that I think if I were a starting linebacker on an NFL team or college football team right now, this particular injury because of where it is and because of the movement that it limits and because of the difficulty I have breathing, I truly don't think I could play in a football game tomorrow. And I would be Sammy Sosa and that would be so humiliating. You got guys dragging around torn patellas. This dude over here, he has got bone on bone. He's 36 years old. He's just trying to hang in there and make one more paycheck. I got to do it over here that it's been sporting a fracture in his forearm for six weeks. It's just taped up every week. You guys have fun out there today. I have fully functioning legs. Shoulders feel great. However, there is a little twinge in my upper back. I would I would stuff my own self in a locker. And yet here I am. I guess the one saving grace is I really thought we had softball tomorrow night and we don't that's that's God looking out for you. Injuries have to happen. At least it happened in my bi-week and softball. So yes, if anyone has a more ridiculous injury than that you're dealing with right now, believe me, I need to be comforted. I just want you to feel sorry for me. That's all I want. So anyone out there suffering some freak injury right now, please hot glue gun burn your cheek. I don't care how it happened. I just care that it happened. Please make me feel better. And if you can't do that, just subscribe to the channel and that will suffice. So for producer Belji filling in for Jesse, for director Colin, for Bradley the associate, I'm Josh Bate. Take care. Great conversation with Kubelik going to be posted on the channel sometime Sunday until then take care and God bless. Bye. in. the. the. the. the. the. the. ♪♪