A

This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability. Veris 18.

B

Hey, what's going on?

A

This is the OG kickoff. A double down in next round media production. I am Conor o'. Gara. Well, I've always said that we're a football country, not a football country. I, I think Monday confirmed that.

B

Yeah, it was rough, man. That was really rough. I feel like I, I have fallen for the longest con in the American experience, which is I've watched more World cup this year than maybe the rest of them combined. Just because of the time. You know, there's so much of it in Atlanta and, you know, seeing everybody come out of the back end of it and be like, well, of course our academy system is the issue. Like, I saw comrade Clay Travis talking about how things cost too much money and capitalism is bad, and in Europe they have things figured out because the players generate the revenue instead of paying into it. So, yeah, we've just done the whole. It's, it's, it's Charlie Brown the football all over again, bro.

A

Bigger conversation. U.S. men's National Team or June Lad of the week, Matt Miller. Which one?

B

Man, that's tough.

A

If you haven't seen that story on Awful announcing, just Google it. Needless to say, cold taked on that one. Lad of the week, former friend of the show, Matt Miller. Yikes.

B

Anyway, but speaking of lads of the week, we got Ben Garrett this week.

A

Yeah, Ben's a lad. Yeah. Another former lad of the week. I don't know that we've gone that direction before of lad of the week before guest on this show, but we did that with Ben. Great conversation. Talking all things Ole Miss. If you remember, Ben was very much part of the lane craziness with the viral interaction that happened on the sideline in the egg bowl. So we talked about that. We talked about all the, the crazy things that have happened in Oxford over the course of the last seven months or so. So we will do that and then our actual topical Vlad of the week. But first, Will, I thought this would be a great time of year to do the thing that everybody's doing, seemingly. SEC coach rankings. We didn't do this Last year, did we. Because we did hot seat index for SEC coaches. But I don't believe we did an official SEC coach ranking, if I'm not

B

mistaken, because we're some haters and obviously we predicted Brian Kelly would get fired last year. No, I mean I, I think that with this many coaches and this many storylines, this. That's the thing is the amount of new coaches is really what struck me here. How it's like would you rather have the mystery box or the thing that you know what it is?

A

It's a great question and that's probably speaks a little bit more to each specific situation of why the unknown is often more attractive than the known. And I don't know that these rankings will necessarily reflect that, but nonetheless it makes it really difficult. So when we do the graphic and stuff like that, maybe you'll end up only seeing the top 10 or something. And I wouldn't get overly upset about that if, if your coach isn't necessarily in the top 10. I don't know that you want to be discussing SEC coach rankings anyways, but nonetheless, it is a very popular time of year to be doing these rankings. I have been doing bi weekly rankings on all things SEC for Texas. That's going to be something that doing in the, in the off season. And then I'll be doing a weekly SEC comp for Tech sag. So be on the lookout for that. And already done. SEC quarterbacks, SEC power rankings and just most recently did SEC coaches. So I thought let's turn this one into a pod and we can make for a good discussion. So we each did our own rankings here and I think it'll be fascinating to see where our biggest discrepancies are right now because I think there is a lot of room for interpretation. And I'm going to say this at the top along the lines of what you're talking about before with the six new. It's not technically sex. Sex. It's not technically 6 sec new coaches. Let me start that one over for the kids.

B

Bobby Petrino did not get hired.

A

Actually, it's not tip. It's not six new SEC coaches. Okay. Because Lane is technically not new and Pete Golding was promoted last year. But it's six SEC coaches in new spots. That's how we're going to say this. And it's more of a crapshoot. So I don't view this as some sort of a projection. I view it as like how we feel about these coaches based on what we know about them right now. Okay. And I don't just hit the wins column on stats reference and go, oh, let's just go by that. Because if we were doing that and you just want to default completely to past accomplishments, you're ranking Dabo Sweeney ahead of Kurt Signetti. If you want to do that, that's on you. That's not on me. So, Will, let's do it this way. I want you to share your 16 through 1, and then I'll go. And then we'll kind of go on the back end here and get into some of these discussion points. Does that work? Yes.

B

God, I love that you're starting here, because this guy I. At 16, I was just staring at. I can't believe. I think this guy's the worst coach in the sec, But I do so quickly. I'm gonna run through my criteria here. Winning real things that matter. Right? So like participating in conference championship games, winning the conference, participating in the play, winning playoff games. So that's. That's part of it.

A

What about winning the press conference? Does that. Does that count at all or.

B

No, that could negatively affect some people, as we've seen. But what about.

A

What about winning on social media? Does that count?

B

That also could affect some people negatively. I see what you're trying to do anyway, so, okay, then next is going to be your ranked wins. So who have you beat? Kind of like big games. Can we trust you? That's gonna hurt some certain coaches help some other ones. And then. Have you ever been dog water? And that. That one really matters to me. You know, if you're a guy that has just been dog water for a period of time, I'm gonna hold that against you, unfortunately. And so that's more. More or less my criteria. Does that make sense?

A

Define dog water like you're bad.

B

Like, you're, like, fighting for a bowl game. It's like, what's this guy doing? We're questioning the direction of our program, and it's not.

A

The bowl has been sitting out for a few days. The water hasn't been changed. There's that one random piece of food that's somehow still in there, and your dog's just been lapping at it for a little bit. And you look at that water and go, that's not something I would ever subject myself to. Okay, I get what dog water is.

B

Yes, exactly. So without further ado, let's start with number 16 here. Teased it a little bit. Connor. I think the worst coach of the SEC is Jeff Lebby.

A

Okay, we will dig into that more. Continue.

B

Okay, so you want me to go 16 through one?

A

Yeah.

B

16, Ryan Silverfield. 14 Will Stein. 13, Alex Goish. 12, drink, 11.

A

Interesting. You gotta beat somebody.

C

Sorry, sorry.

A

Go ahead, go ahead.

B

Okay. Okay. So 12 is drink, 11 is Beamer. 10, John Summerall. That's gonna be interesting. 9, Clark Lee. 8, Pete Golding. If you guys think I'm an LSU homer after this specific podcast, I'm never gonna reach you. Number seven, Mike Elko. Number six, Brent Venables. Number five, Josh Hypo. Number four, Lane Kiffin. Number three, Steve Sarkeesian. Number two, Kaylin DeBoer. Number one, Kirby Smart.

C

Wow.

A

Okay. We have more disagreements in the back half than we do in the front half, and that surprised me. I did not think it would go that way. I'm usually bad at predicting how you and I are going to align on specific topics like this, so that's maybe not a surprise. Okay. At 16, I have Will Stein. At 15, Ryan Silverfield. 14 Jeff Levy. 13 Alex Golish. 12 John Sumrall. 11 Pete Golding. 10 Shane Beamer, 9 Brent Venables. 8 Eli Drinkowitz, 7 Clark Lee, 6 Josh Hypo. 5 Mike Elko, 4 Lane Kiffin, 3, Steve Sarkeesian, 2 Kaylin DeBoer, and 1, Kirby Smart. Okay, lots of takeaways here. Well, okay, we dis. Let's. Let's start at the very, very back end here. I ranked will sign at 16 because he's the only guy in this list who has never coached a game. And I. I didn't want to. I didn't want to do the thing where I assume that just because someone is a really good coordinator, they're automatically going to figure out certain things as a head coach. And I just think there are too many ex of elite coordinators who struggle with head coaching elements. And I, I don't want to assume that he's already better than others in that way. He is the safest bet on this list to rise, probably. But that. That's my main logic for it. It's more. So just what does it look like when you're actually running a program? Everybody else has run a program before, so that's why I feel like it's fair at least to start him at 16. You did not have him at 16. You already have him ranked out of two guys.

B

I do. And the reason he's. He's the top of the mystery box list to me, because he could be good. That's the thing. There are guys that I know I wouldn't exactly want to have them as my head coach, we have. It's like, what's he gonna do, you know, not beat an SEC team at home for a couple of years. Like, how, how bad could it be? Right? And so like, that's the thing is that I think Will Stein is the kind of hire you want at a place like Kentucky that you want to get the boys going. You know, you want to get like this high flying offense and maybe give us some points here and there, but like some of the hires they've made. So it's not like he's doing boneheaded things. So as high as I could be on a guy that, you're right, has not actually like stepped to the press conference, he would be head coach before this. But, but I'm just bullish on him. Yeah.

A

Yeah. So you had Levy dead last. And I struggle with him too. I, I have him ranked just behind Alex Golish, both of whom are former hypo disciples, which is just a fun thing to say because Goelish took Levy's job at UCF after he left after Levy left for Ole Miss. But goal is already has done the rebuild and he's got just as many SEC wins as Levy. So that's worth keeping in mind too, even though Golish obviously has not been an SEC head coach yet. I think if I'm just looking at those two specifically, I think Golish gives you a better chance of winning a game tomorrow than Levy. I, I, and I've watched a lot of goalish at usf and I trust me, like when I say the feeling of close game late, we, we saw the side by side last year, like Levy has that opportunity to win at Florida. Can't. Goish has that opportunity to win at Florida does and is able to game. So like, if, if you're telling me right now that Levy's better than goal ish, I, I can't get there. If Lebby hasn't risen Several spots above 14 on this list at season's end, I'm not saying that definitively means he's gone. I do think a public perception will be horrible and he will have a lot of people who will want him gone. Whether or not that means he gets fired. TBD on that. But I, I think I'm. Maybe I'm the highest on him by having at 14. It's, it's, maybe someone has him at like 13 or something. But like even that, I don't know how you can get there at this point.

B

Yeah, I mean I'm, I'm right there with You. So you're talking about goal ish there at 13 or you're talking.

A

I go at 13 as well. But like just, just for the Levy part of this.

B

Yeah, yeah.

A

I, I don't know how much different it would be if they'd won that bowl game to be able to get to six wins. I don't know how much that changes it. But again, as we, as we talk about with him, the biggest thing he's got to show this year is just the late game miscues. It cannot be there. It cannot be like, oh my God, Camaro Taylor was so fun to watch for three and a half quarters and then in the last six minutes, it felt like his head coach let him down. If that's the type of tune that Mississippi State is singing this year, yeek, not enough cowbell to drown out that noise.

B

Yeah. And I think that's the thing is like, how does that 5, 6 win season look? You know, there are situations where goal is. Could win the right five or six games. Wow, what a fun brand of football. We don't have three play callers. Like, we got some stuff to figure out. We'll figure it. And that, that's why, you know, I put him at the bottom behind kind of the mystery box of. Gosh, this is rough when I say it like this. I mean, I have Golish Stein, Silverfield Levy, because those guys might be, they might win an SEC game the first couple of years. And that's the best way I could say because to your point, when you lose the Texas game the way that he did, it's explicable for me to imagine someone else doing that. So, like, until I see it, it hasn't happened yet.

A

Yeah. In Silverfield, by the way, for Arkansas fans saying, talk about our guy, talk about our guy. He's probably going to be bottom two on bottom three on every single list. Just because he took over a program that already was in a really good situation with Memphis. I, I knock him a little bit, having not been to a conference championship in the American at a time when your top four teams left. And to me, that's a little bit troubling. It's not to say it's going to fail at Arkansas, but just in terms of like, body of work what you came in with. I think everybody saw that it felt like there was a clear pecking order with those coaches coming out of the American and he was last on it of the guys who got an SEC job.

B

So.

A

So, like, that's kind of where I'm at with, with him and why he's, you know, only in 15. Okay, we gotta talk Summerall, let's talk somewhere on Golding here. I had some roll at 12 and Golding at 11. You were much higher on, on Golding. So let's, let's maybe start with Summerall.

B

I've hired both of these guys.

C

Yeah.

B

Goldigan8.

A

I knew I was, yeah, I knew I was gonna be low on, on the two of them. And by the way, I, I, I, I think there are some who would say like oh, in a vacuum, who would you take right now? John Summerall over or Pete Golding? And if they're both on the open market, it's probably John Summerall. So like I'm, I'm agreeing to that to a certain extent. We also did see the Ole Miss situation play out the way that it did with golden getting that job and then doing good things with it. But we saw those two, two coaches facing against each other in a playoff scenario in which obviously that's not entirely Golden's doing, but he does get credit for having a really good game plan amidst a lot of distractions and dominating a lesser talented team. That's not the end all be all, but it is at least something

B

I

A

think Summerall deserves to be the clear like of the mystery box guys. What will of the, the moving up a level guys. He's I, I think he's the one. Right. Just because conference title in all four years at a group of five program, two different group of five programs with Troy in his time at Tulane as well and doing that at like this time right now with the way roster retention works, that matters. Okay. No, you haven't done in the sec that is still a noteworthy accomplishment. And it's perhaps, I mean we're saying it's more noteworthy than some current SEC head coaches having done that. And you ranked him ahead of a lot. So like what was the thing for you with Summerall that made you go, I think he's like closer to middle of the pack in the SEC before he's even coached a game.

B

Yeah, I talked about kind of winning the big games and what is our goal, right to I mean, make the playoff. You could take Lane Kiffin and Pete Golding and say they share one playoff team. That's fine. They're tied with John Somer combined in terms of again, you could talk about their, their route, all that different stuff.

C

I get it.

B

But doing in the modern era of college football, building a program at kind of a mid major like Tulane In a place, you know, it's in New Orleans. It's like a private school. It's not like they're not going to be like a, even like a Houston. That's just like where you have this big football history. You got to really sell. You gotta, you gotta bring a little bit of like Ted Lasso energy in there and just make the guys believe. And so I think that it's easier for me to project that you could also look at. And this isn't the be all end all obviously, but you can look at the interest Adam that, you know, it was kind of 1A and 1B with him and Lane Kiffin. And the Lane stuff got so messy that we focused on that, but it was like everybody wanted Summerall as soon as Lane Kiffin domino dropped. And that's because he's well regarded for his ability to do just that to, to basically turn things around. And that's, that's exactly what Florida needs right now.

A

Yeah, and I, I think what he did, getting Darian Mensah and Jake Retzlaff coming off of the ugly breakup at byu, he gets to camp super late and they still get the group of five bid. All right. I guess I shouldn't say the group of five bid, they still get a playoff bid. You get what I'm saying? I, I think to me that's really impressive and his ability to evaluate on that side of the ball is going to be important. It's going to be very important at that job at Florida. And so far, obviously he's done really well. I don't know how much I elevate him just because I like the personnel moves and I think he's got the right mindset for the job. It's. It's significant. But I, I think that he is an obvious candidate to rise on this list. But yeah, I'm, I'm not willing to say, like, oh, he's a top half coach in the SEC before he's ever coached a game in the sec. So I couldn't, I couldn't quite get there. You, however, have Golding at 8. I think you're going to be the highest on goaling, Golding of, of anyone. And I, I think he's, maybe he might be the toughest guy to rank of anyway.

B

And guys, I've been very consistent on this. I think that Pete golding for the 2026 season is going to be a good head coach. I think beyond that remains to be seen. That's the thing, you know, that's the little Bit of the mystery box there is the farther we get away from a team that was ultimately built by guys that he didn't hire. You know, who were the guys that he hired and we're going to talk about that with Ben Garrett. As far as he's hitting high school more, his philosophy is completely different from lanes. That's fine. He's done really well in the portal. Ole Miss has like more money now. I get that. But I think for the 2026 season, bringing back your quarterback, bringing back a similar offense being the D.C. so you're kind of bringing back your D.C. as well. Right. They just have such continuity. And again, what did I have they been dog water? No, they beat Georgia. They won a playoff game against John Sumrall, who I like a lot and then they narrowly lost to Miami, who is just like this unstoppable team. And and so that being said, if I haven't seen you struggle, I've only seen you beat Kirby Smart. It's really hard for me to go. Yeah, you're bringing back a lot. Yeah, you're gonna stink this year.

A

You know, it has to count for something. It has to. Hey, beating Kirby Smart, doing so in an all or nothing type game where catch him off guard. There's no way Ole Miss and Georgia had an instant classic in that first matchup. And you could tell me that Trinidad was the reason that they won that game. Yeah, sure, he probably was. In the three miraculous plays he made in that game. I think you could point to and say that was the difference. And it wasn't necessarily Pete Golding's defense that that stymie Georgia, although they did have a, a really nice stretch there when Gunner Stockton may or may not have been, but definitely was concussed in which Georgia's offense was just ineffective in every possible way. I think that matters. And if we're going to talk about some of these coaches who have yet to win big time games and how tough it is to check that box, Pete Kolding has already done that for you. It's ironic that he's working backwards and some of the guys that I've ranked ahead of him, he needs to show he can do that. He needs to show that he can do Eli Drinkowitz things, Eli Drinkowitz type things or Mike Elko type things, Josh Hyple type things that will obviously play out this year. This year is going to be huge for his ranking. He's got probably as much volatility as anyone on this list. And if they go 7 and 5 or something like that. And they do hit that under on. On the regular season.

C

Over under.

A

He's falling several spots. Like, not just. Not just from 8 for you, but from 10 for me. Like, he would fall into that, like, 13 category all of a sudden, and we'd be like, ah, well, what has he really done? Like, if Ole Miss has its worst season since 2020, right? Like, that would be grounds for Pete Golding dropping significantly as what could be a preseason top 10 team with the game's most important position kind of figured out. I. I think that would have to. I think that would have to ding him significantly, even though we have yet to see anything to make us think he is bad at this.

B

Yeah, exactly. It is. It's gonna swing wildly, right? Because again, if all we have is good tape to judge you on, can't invent bad tape because I'm a hater, you know? And again, I think there'll be more good tape in 2026. But that's why, you know, the Kirby Smarts, the Nick Sabins, regrettably, folks, the Dabos, you know, doing it year after year after year, where it's like, okay, you didn't just have this hot run. You didn't just have this quarterback. Like, that's where you can really submit your legacy and submit your ranking. For me, because now it's almost like an incumbent, like, what's it called? Head coach elect number eight. It's like, okay, one season could swing you all the way down to hot seat if you. If you essentially waste the Trinidad year, which I don't even think is in the cards here, but if you reload and you're looking around like, hey, okay, this is where way far removed from this playoff team.

A

There is something that it's that I'm wondering about with Ole Miss this year. Haven't brought this set up until this morning. And I looked this up because I. I keep envisioning this scenario, and this is bad.

C

I don't.

A

I don't project injury or do anything like that. I'm a little worried about Q on Lacey. I'm a little worried. Like, the more I think about the workload that he took on last year, the amount of games that he played, the type of running style that he has, I'm a little worried. So I look this up, and I'm like, when was the last time that a running back in the SEC returned to college after getting as many carries as he did? Well, you know the answer to that.

B

Oh, gosh, was it like, Mark Ingram or something.

A

Herschel.

C

All right.

B

Oh, my God. Funny enough, I was. I was thinking about guessing Kevin Smith, but it's not even him.

A

Yeah. And there was a Madre Hill, the Arkansas running back in 1995 had more carries, but towards ACL in the SEC championship that missed the next two seasons. So, like, in terms of the guy who actually, like, came back after having that many carries in the SEC and played football the next year, it's Herschel. Like, the dude just had more carries than anyone in the SEC since 2015. Derrick Henry.

B

Okay.

A

And, like, Derek Henry goes to the NFL. Like, it's a different conversation when we're talking about, like, hey, you're returning to college or this decorated guy, and everybody is just going to load the box to try and stop you. It's different when you have a quarterback like Trinidad that you have to account for. So, like, I. I get it. I can't get that out of my mind. And I'm high on Ole Miss. You'll hear this. This conversation with Ben in which I continue to bang the drum, that Ole Miss needs to be getting national respect. That can't be the thing, though. If you're peak holding. And if you do encounter an issue like that, the issue can't just be, oh, our running back was a little bit banged up, and it just. And didn't end up being the year that we hoped it would be. Everybody knows what he took on last year, and that can't be what you're putting all. You can't be putting all of your eggs into that basket. And you're not, because you have Trinidad. But I just keep that in mind as we talk about Ole Miss this year.

C

Okay.

A

All right.

B

Do they have, like, a clear, established backup plan, or it's just like, we'll figure it out if we need to.

A

Do.

C

They.

B

They do.

A

And look, Lane last year said, I'm not messing around with this. I know what it was like the year before. And I'm. I found a guy that I'm gonna trust, and I'm gonna. I'm just gonna ride this.

B

Okay?

A

Guy that's got fresh legs who barely touched the football the previous year when he was at Mizzou, ironically enough. And we're just gonna roll with this. And maybe that's a strategy that works this year. It was a strategy that worked last year. It works really, really well. Kevon Lacey was awesome at finishing games. I hope that dude still has everything left in the tank, but I do think about that work club.

B

Okay.

A

Will Beamer and Venables I had them side by side at 10 and 9 for a reason. You had, you had Beamer where again, I had Beamer.

B

Let me scroll up here. I had Beamer pretty low. I'd be at 11.

A

Yeah. Okay, so we're pretty much in agreement. And you had Venables at where?

B

Venables. Let me scroll up again. Maybe I'm scrolling down. This is great radio. Let's see. Yeah, I have Venables higher. I have him at six.

A

Okay, okay, so you're, you're definitely higher on Venables than I am. We're three, three spots apart on that one. But I, I put those two guys next to each other because I think they're the yo yo coaches. So far, remarkable highs. I mean Beamer has beaten five top 15 teams. You talk about like all the wins he's had as a double digit dog. Venables beat five ranked foes last year, which, that's the exact same amount that Lincoln Riley has in his entire time at usc. For those keeping track of things like that. But both coaches have yet to have consecutive eight win seasons. You know, you can't always be the guy who thrives when people are doubting you. It's the biggest thing South Carolina fans want to see overcome when, when your program gets a big time win. It can't always be, well, we were such significant underdogs and man does this feel good to catch this team by surprise. Eventually you want to be favored in these games and you want to take care of business and you want to stay in the hunt. And there have been very few times in which South Carolina has felt like that. End of 2024 obviously being the biggest example. But I think will the greatest challenge in this sport is succeeding after an eight month off season of people telling you how good you're going to be. Okay, set up before I'll say it again. Venables had those two losing seasons when his teams had their two highest preseason rankings. That's an issue for him still.

C

Okay.

A

And this team's going to get a high preseason ranking and I, I think it's his best team yet, so he's got a chance to overcome that. In year five, Beamer had South Carolina's first preseason ranking in South Carolina since the last full season of Spurrier 2014. And then four and eight happened. But here's what's promising, I think for, for both coaches and why they could be on the higher end of this list next year where they're both maybe in the top half of the sec. They both continue to recruit at a really, really high level. Roster retention is. Is a strength of theirs. Both are not necessarily offensive minds in a traditional sense who have heavily invested into talented quarterbacks. I think Venables, for me, he will rise into the category that you currently have him in if Oklahoma gets back to the playoff this year. But I can't quite get there yet just because of the yo yo factor.

B

So it's weird, right, because I said that I value big wins, and that's why I have Venables so high. And I also was like, he. You can't really be dog water. Well, a little bit of the prisoner of the moment, obviously, because if we did this after last year, these two guys, to your point, are like, flipped, right? But here's where I draw the distinction here. Brent Venables is a mastermind at defense. So, like, I know what the floor on this Oklahoma team is. It's that you have a quarterback who can't throw the football forward, and your defense is still, like, frustrating Texas for a half. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're still, like, your defense has still got some NFL players that are hopefully gonna help the Saints a lot, and your offense looks kind of broken because you have some injuries, but you're.

A

You're.

B

You have an identity, right? I think what makes Shane Beamer a little scary is that there is an inability to adjust within the context of a season when you hire Mike Shula that you can't say, actually, give me that. I'm gonna fix this. You're just kind of stuck there. And I think that when you're in that situation, makes things a little bit harder. I think as, like, a leader of men, you know, Shane Beamer is awesome. I think he gets. He's a good recruiter. He gets guys bought in. There's a lot to like about him. But I think as it's determining your floor, like, Brent Venables is probably what the premium defensive coordinator of this generation, like Kirby Smart, was probably a little bit before him. It's probably Kirby and then him.

A

I would agree with that. So, like, I think it's definitely fair.

B

He's a great football coach. No matter how you slice it. He might just be the best defensive coordinator ever. And maybe he just does that after Oklahoma. If it doesn't work out with Beamer. Again, love the guy. Just don't know what he exactly does on that end. But the one that I'm now looking at is Venables and Elko for that same reason, right?

A

Yeah, and I, I, I would take Elko over Venables in, in a vacuum. And not to say I would take them. I like, if you're just giving me go run the defense. I'm taking Brent Venables. If you're taking a guy to run a program, I would take Elko. I think Elko, I had him at five and I think there's a lot of room for interpretation in that like 5 to 8 type range in the SEC. I think one of the things that, that is so impressive with Elko is that he took over two situations that had really low expectations with Duke and A M. Don't forget about the Duke part of this, guys. 35 and 16 in four years as a power conference head coach, having rebuilt two power conference programs. If you had told anyone when A M pays that historic buyout to Jimbo Fisher, hey, you know, by, by the time that A M is playing in those two regular season finales against Texas, SEC championship bid is going to be up for grabs in both of them and that they're going to be 12 and 4 in SEC play. And those are things that Elko has working in his favor. The recruiting rankings take that for, for what it is. He certainly checked that and there's no doubt that he knows how to recruit talent. I think that he has done something that is really hard to do, which is succeed as a high level, as a coordinator, which he did under Jimbo Fisher for those four years. And then they bottomed out the year that he went to Duke and then come back and show as a head coach that you actually have more to it than just that. That's the part with Venables that I'm still wondering about. Like, I know that if you were just running a defense, you could sign up and do that tomorrow and haunt quarterbacks in this sport at a super, super high level and I would never have to worry about that. Can you figure out all those other elements to it though? Because that's been questioned at times so far at Oklahoma. I think it definitely has been. So I, that's why I give a little bit of more of the benefit of the doubt. I think it was a little bit more of a rebuild for, for Elko at A M than it was for Venables at Oklahoma. That's not Oklahoma fans. Like, I, I understand Lincoln Riley tried to take as much of what he could to Southern California. Okay. Like, he fully acknowledged that it was going to be rough that first year. I, I get that he still had those two losing seasons. Okay. Like, that still has to account for at least something. Okay, so I, I, I think there's. They're similar in that way, but I think Elko has handled the head coaching duties better so far, given the circumstances, than Venables has.

B

I, you know, man, the more I stare at these two guys, I kind of want to flip them. But I will say this, this sounds insane. I mean, there's, to me, this is a Raiders edge between Venables and Elko because like I said, they are similar. They're great defensive minds. You know, could I imagine Elko having two kind of bad seasons like Venables? Not really, man. But that being said, this is going to sound so stupid, but just hear me out. When you know you're a bad team, your expectations are just like, okay, so, so even as a bad team, they bleep stomped Alabama at Oklahoma and it was like, oh, my God, that was something. They were having a good season. This is just fine. Whereas there is nothing worse to me as a fan from my personal experience than like, getting to the end of the season and being like, oh, my God, we're gonna appear in the SEC championship game. All we have to do is beat Texas. Not that, not the preventables can do that consistently either. That's what makes these guys so hard to pick between. But it's like, hey, all we have to do is like, beat Texas and then, okay, we got a home playoff game like that. The, the high of spending like 1112 weeks as like, oh, my God, this could be the greatest X Am team ever, going back to like 1939, and you're just like, oh, wow, I talked a lot of crap online. I look silly now. Yeah.

A

I think that there are some who would say Elko has a Texas problem. Sample size is still really small. It's, it's still really, really small. I think Texas played exceptionally well in that game last year and did stuff to A M that they had probably gotten away with in certain games and they couldn't on that stage. And Texas has those bragging rights. Like, I'm not saying Elkos, Elko is better than, than Sark or anything like that. Like, I think Venables still has his, you know, his issues within games. You still kind of wonder, like, ah, is he micromanaging the offense? You know, like, is he, is he always going to make that right higher at the offensive coordinator? Because we've seen what it looks like when he doesn't like. I, I think they're, they're both in similar spots, though, having Just lost home playoff games, right? Like, they're the first two coaches to do that. That's kind of a weird thing to process as a fan base because you're like, oh, it's really good we got to host this awesome home playoff game. It was also really disappointing the way that it finished and you left it feeling like, oh, man, my coach isn't a big time coach. Even though so far to their credit, like, they're two years together in the SEC as head coaches that I think they've. I think they've still done a lot of things really well.

B

You know what? Really quick, I think I'm gonna flip these two, because now I'm looking at, okay, what if I just took bam out of this? Which I know is a big deal. Like, I know it's a big deal, but if you. It's. Those wins are doing, like, most of the Brit Venables lifting to put him above Elko. I still think he's right there, but I'm gonna flip these two. I'm gonna move Elko up to six and Venables down to seven, because I'm going against my own. My own logic here. If I'm saying you can't be dog water and then Banola's two bad seasons and Elko's zero.

A

Let's have the drink conversation. Speaking of dog water, man.

C

So I'm.

A

That was my. My biggest stunner of hearing your rankings was you have drink at 12. Yeah.

B

Just. It's like, I hate to be this guy, but it's like, what are we doing here? Like, why are we. Like, why are we doing this?

A

You know, I had. I had him at 8, and I thought you were gonna have him at, like, like, six or something like that. Okay, so we're gonna get Mizzou fans that are really, really upset by this and people that look at Mizzou and go, oh, you guys are way too low on him. I. I feel like I've defended him when it comes to his name being thrown around for big time vacancies. Like, when Hester would come on and say, like, I think drink would be great at lsu. And I was kind of like, yeah,

B

he sold me, bro.

A

Oh, yeah. I think there are things that he does really, really well, and his body of work is. Is impressive. Like, I also think he deserves to be viewed through the lens of someone with an $11 million contract. Six years, 64 and a half million dollars is a lot of money, and it's why I put them on that worst contracts list. And people push back be like, oh Mizzou. Like they're 29, 10 over the last three years. They have a real identity that like he does the portal well. He's only, he's only screwed up the all important defensive coordinator hire once. And it was Steve Wilkes, a hire that everybody at the time was like, I got Steve Wilkes. That's actually a really good hire. And then it turned out it was pretty bad. But they were able to move off that and they've been really good on that side of the ball since then. I give Drink credit for realizing that he needed to take his hands off the offense. Hire a primary play caller. Focus more big picture.

C

What a thought.

A

Billy Napier, thanks for telling. On three, the thing that everybody's been yelling at you for ever. We've only seen what that specific version of Mizzou looks like with Kirby Moore. Mizzou fans will tell you Kirby Moore

C

as a play caller was great in

A

2023 and then it kind of fell off those last two years. TBD on how that dynamic is going to go with Chip Lindsay. Okay, so why is he not higher? Why are Will and I both lower on Drink than probably the consensus. Okay, here's, here's the, the ammo against him. They beat Ohio State in the bowl game. Huge for Mizzou. Huge. We're not taking away from that. He has then lost to eight straight ranked teams. That 2023 squad beat four ranked teams in the five seasons. Outside of that. This is going to sound like cherry picking, but five seasons a lot. Okay. That's half a decade we're talking about. In those five seasons, Mizzou is 3 and 17 against ranked foes under Drink. And the biggest thing that I, that I come back to that has him but for, for me at least behind a Hypo or an Elko, both of whom took over total rebuilds. I think you would look at Drink in his situation. Say Missou is a rebuild. They're coming off that weird like that Tudor suspension thing with Barry Odom where they got locked out of a bowl game in 2019. Whatever. What's his marquee win in the SEC? 2023 Tennessee against Joe Milton. Doubt it was an impressive game. Drink has yet to beat an SEC team that finished with a winning conference record. Will. Yep.

C

Yep.

B

So I love that you started that point with like I'm not going to take away from the Ohio State game because that's the difference. I unfortunately I'm going to do exactly that. I think that if, if I'm Going to make this point about Bama just a couple of seconds ago. Hey, man, we're talking about an Ohio State team. Wasn't a, you know, wasn't a playoff game. They were down to like their third string quarterback at the time. It felt like a really big launching point. I remember being so excited for Mizzou at the time. But then again, that win just looks like it's Madagascar right now. And you look at what Ohio State has done since and you look at what Mizzou has done since and you go, this is looking flukier by the day because Mizzou has been given chance after chance after chance to not be Charlie Brown with the football. And it feels like they get to this point where it's like, okay, we're ready to go. We're physical, we're running the football. We're going to push you around. We're gonna play hard nosed defense. When they had Blake Bakery, they were hitting the mess out of people, you know, like they had Freedom Cook for. It was like, okay, we have everything that you need. Luther Burton.

A

Oh my God.

B

And you look at it, you're like, who did they beat?

A

Though the Kansas State win was impressive, that was kind of the launching point. A lot of his biggest moments are non conference play, not necessarily within the sec. So he is, look, he's still sitting on zero for that. And if you recall, Mark Stoops got dragged for that. That was a big deal. When someone brought that up on ksr, he like didn't believe it. What do you mean? Like, I've only beat. He had, he had two wins against SEC teams that finished with winning conference records. And people are like, oh, hey, but like, because he beats these teams, then they finish 4 and 4. Like I get that. Okay, that, that's, that's part of it. But like he's entering year seven and he's got zero. Pete Golding has coached against one SEC team. He has more than drink, all right? He already checked that box. Clark Lee has one. Elko Venables, those guys have two. Beamer has three. Hypo is four. None for drink. All right? And again, I am not trying to dismiss the consistency that he has brought to a program that was starved for consistency, okay? They're in the midst of their best three year stretch since like the Chase Daniel Blaine Gabbard era. That's what we're talking about right now.

B

Okay?

A

It's like, that is good. But you're not considered a top five coach in this conference if you're not beating the teams that really matter within this league.

B

All right.

A

And that's why I drink. I think the more that I look back on, as much as people say, like, oh, you know, like, we don't want him to fill this vacancy, I do think that there, there were a lot of people looking at it from the viewpoint of like, he's not the face of the program that I want or something like that. And they, they were letting their own biases factor into that. Maybe subconsciously there was also that as well that was factoring in because I, I get it a little bit more so than maybe, you know, November of last year.

B

Yeah. And I will say too, this is like a compliment sandwich here. You know, I, I think that, okay, they built like this perfect drink team in 2023. I mean, how many of his biggest wins were in the 2023 season? Right. You can talk Kansas State win, you took the Tennessee win. It's like, okay, all this happened now with an expanded playoff. We get one more kind of shot to see what that team actually is. And we, we know more because let's say you want a playoff game. We're having a slightly different conversation about you. But all of the success, we talk about like a Music City bowl kind of thrown in here or whatever. But yeah, I think that like all the successes in that one year, it was just a bad situation that we were about to move to an expanded playoff. We just didn't, we didn't have the ability to see them in that format. So that stinks. But it is what it is.

A

They had an opportunity. 24 schedule set up beautifully and they couldn't take advantage of it. They got waxed in the game. That matters. Brady Cook was banged up. I get it. That team, like, as crazy as it sounds, that team was kind of disappointing.

C

It was.

A

I know they had double digit wins. That's, that's still like, that's an opportunity to change perception of your program. And maybe they have done good things to change the perception of their program, but man, like beating a top 10 team and the regular season in doing so for the first time in the playoff era, that's a thing that's still going to hold you back, is we have these conversations. He's a good coach. It's a good coach, but that context matters. Okay, Clark Lee, I had him at seven. Where'd you have him at again?

B

Okay, let me scroll up again. Amazing radio. Amazing Radio 9.

A

Okay, we're pretty close on this. I, I don't think this has to be that confusing, but Maybe he is confused some because we do need to bring up the fact that he's 2 and 22 in SEC games without Diego Pavia as his QB1.

B

Okay.

A

And he also just led the easily the most historically downtrodden program in the SEC to its best regular season program history. And that was a year after he took down number one Alabama. You've heard all this. Good coaches recognize their flaws and adjust. He entered 2024 firmly on the hot seat. So he adjusts by relying much more on the portal than they had in previous years. They went all in with the New Mexico State thing and it worked. We know regression's coming. Okay. Progression is coming in a post Diego Papio world if it doesn't. That's the story of the year in college football. If Vandy is a 10 and two team again, Clark Lee is a top four coach on this list. Like, we're also.

B

He's like winning coach of the like. What do you mean? He's like. He's like a top five coach in America. If he could do that back to back use of Bandy.

A

Yeah. If Clarkley pulls off like a Kurt Signetti type thing this year and we're just like, wait a minute, he's doing what that. Then we can have those conversations. Okay, here's. Here's an interesting thing that I was debating with Clark Lee and it's why I think he's worthy of being in the top half of SEC coaches. How many coaches in the SEC could have led that program to 10 wins? You know, maybe three or four was what I settled on. Like Kirby. Yeah, I think Kirby could.

B

I think like give Kirby a few years.

A

He could do that. I actually would have taken Kiffin over Debore for that specific argument, though. Not for the argument that we'll have later on. Elko maybe just because he's already done two power conference rebuilds. But I'm not convinced that Sark would like.

C

Sark.

A

You hate the transfer restrictions at Texas, buddy. Yeah, I'm not convinced Hypo would. Hypo obviously has taken over rebuild in that state before. But like, I. I don't know that the ceiling would have been that good. Like that's been a ceiling at Tennessee. Would that be a ceiling at Vandy as well? I. I don't know.

C

So like that.

A

I just think that should be celebrated. And, and I think that accomplishment, while this list isn't specifically who has the best accomplishment on it, I. I think that's rarefied error and I think we'll. There's a chance that we'll look back on that stretch of 24 to 25 that Clarkly put together, you know, a nationally relevant Vanderbilt program and go, wait a minute. That was incredible. That was more impressive than what James Franklin did. And so that, that to me is why I'm maybe a little bit higher on him than you.

B

Yeah, he's. I mean he's up there with Pete Golding in terms of the hardest guys to rank. Right? Because you have to. Okay. People like hate Vandy now, which is like such loser mentality.

A

They hate the coverage.

B

Yeah, yeah, I get. But it like I, we've made this point before but it's like, like you know, if your team is worse than Vandy, which hey, hand up, like that's your fault. Like, it's like you should be mad at you, not mad at them. So there's a couple of things here, right? Like, so we're gonna lose on both ends of this because he is gonna be a victim of his recent success where we don't remember how Tin pot dog water Vandy was. I mean like the happiest thing that happened them in like years was that they had a woman take a P A T when he took over. Like it was bad bro took over.

A

But yeah, that's what I'm saying.

B

Like right before, like it was like this is the thing we're getting up for. Like that's the. We have no players that we're excited about. Like we. The crazy thing about like the, the Mason years too is they actually like kind of had quarterback and like parts of running back figured out. So it was like this is our hard ceiling. Like we have the, like we have a multi year start at quarterback. We good and we still can't win. And so okay, you start off and you inherit that. You have 10, you know, you have a 10, you have a two in team. But then I felt like that when the win against Florida mattered, I feel like they had another one was at Kentucky that year.

A

Kentucky in the snow in Lexington.

B

Yeah, those were like big program building wins. It's like, oh, then you backslide. Okay. But getting up off the mat at Vandy that second time is honestly even harder than the first because you've already had guys that are coming in to win and they're like we're losing. Oh my God, what do we do? And so then to go outside of the box and you know, get the. He talks about the New Mexico State guys, but what the reason why I don't feel bad about it is Going to age is the infrastructure building with the Barton Simmons stuff, with getting in, you know, the five star kid with the fact that like they start they've. This guy has completely changed the trajectory of Vanderbilt as a university from being something that we're like, hey, are they going to be like the next like two lane where we just kind of stick them in the American. If they keep playing like this across all sports to like, oh, you guys are getting five stars and you're like selling Nashville as cool place to play. But we forget about how bad they were because we want to hate on Pavia and the way he had success.

A

He did the thing that forever I thought was impossible at Vandy. He made a program that has been steadfast in its approach to use the benefits of football to benefit the greater good. He made them go, oh, we can use the benefits of football to benefit football. We're, we're actually able to do that. You need proof of concept. It is so hard to do that and you need the right person in place. And that's not to say that Clark Lee would be the guy that you would pick to like win a national championship type scenario or anything like that, but right man, right spot. Okay. And we question if it was going to be that. If he regresses to like a 4 and 8 type season this year with what we expect to be a first year starting quarterback in Jared Curtis, then we'll probably go back to saying some very, you know, unflattering things about Vandy and we'll wonder how much of it was just Pavia. But for now I gotta tip my calf to that man. Have to. Absolutely have to. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doom

B

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A

help from one of the State Farm's 19,000 local agents. When you choose to bundle home and auto bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.

B

I mean, if you can keep that kid in the boat though, that's the thing is that's unlimited hopium. If you're at Vandy and you got five star quarterback, it's like, hey, even if we win four games, we might win six the following year, that maybe we'll win eight the following year. Like awesome, you know?

A

Yeah, definitely. We've already talked to Elko, so let's, let's talk a little hypo here. I have hypo at 6 and I think that you could easily look at the body of work and go, that's everything Tennessee could have hoped for in a post Jeremy Pruitt world. And you can be proud of that. You know, like, you have done things that you dreamed of in the 2000 and tens by beating Alabama multiple times, by having a season 2022 in which you felt like you had a real chance to win a national championship. You have had a consistently good offense that is actually fun to watch. And you also won in the Swamp too, last year. Let's not lose sight of that. Like, I, I do that sometimes where I talk about, like, how it was a hollow season in Tennessee. Like, yeah, winning in the Swamp is. Is still significant when you haven it in 22 years, whatever it was. And I think that Hypo is the adult in the room that they very much needed. We have acknowledged all of that. Okay. I don't know that there's anybody that's putting him in, like the top four in the SEC right now. Okay. Because you had him. You had him at seven. Oh, at five.

B

Okay.

A

I knew we were one off on him.

B

Yeah. Yeah.

A

The thing that's a little bit tough to get past is that they are, in the last three seasons, six and seven in true road games, road woes issue. And all six of those wins came against teams who lost at least six games. It's tough winning games away from home, doing so in hostile atmospheres. That matters. That's the best way to change perception if you're trying to do that in Tennessee under Josh Hypo has certainly changed national perception. They are no longer the butt of the joke. You can't say that about them. I do think that Hypo has a finishing problem. You know, I think it's kind of fair to. To point that out with the way that they have finished these last few years. And yes, I understand Nico having the bowl game moments that he did against Iowa made Tennessee fans feel a whole lot better about that. Like, Tennessee could have very easily lost to Vandy in 2024, and that would have been really, really disappointing. But I, I think they've had some moments in recent memory that have just given Tennessee fans a bad taste in their mouth. So while I do think he is so much more stable and speeds the vast majority of the alternatives that you could have in that job, it's why I'm a little bit closer to the middle of the pack with him as opposed to like saying he's top three or Top four.

B

Yeah, I think, you know, this is a guy and, and I, I've referenced this before, but I like to, I don't like to weigh on it too much. Like, one of the first things I said on this pod was about his offense and how it could kind of be figured out in the SEC because there's a lot of smoke and mirrors. And I'm actually kind of amazed on how he's been able to adapt to the SEC from what he was running at UCF and how you can see shades of it, but it's, it's very different. Pretty much every question that you had for Josh Hyple, can you play in the big boy physical sec? Well, his Lions have been awesome, right on both sides of the ball. Can you run the ball? Running backs have been awesome. You know, is his offense gimmicky?

A

Well, it depends on the quarterback.

B

You know, like, that's the thing is it's like some years yes, some years no. But even in those quote unquote bad years, okay, Joe Milton, you still are, you know, nine and four you in the Citrus bowl, okay, Last year is gonna leave a bad taste in your mouth. That's fine, I get it. But at the same time, like, if you told Tennessee, you have to like, like weirdly, like almost put on the orange colored glasses here and be like Tennessee fans, like, Dude, I'm 31 years old. You guys have respectfully been a joke for the vast majority of my cognizant life. This dude shows up and is immediately just reeling off like these good to great seasons. And again, like, hey, that was the other question. Could he be Alabama? They did that in, in the big year. Yeah, you're right. I did it twice. And it's like, hey, like, despite the horrors of how rough this team can look sometimes, they've still competed and not really been sorry almost ever. I mean, you could call it a hollow eight win season. It's an eight win season again, plenty of LSU teams, I would love it if they won eight games. So like, the thought of you started off and you had a populist revolt and it was like, who would take this toxic place? Who would come and take this job and save them? They just like the way he's built stability in a way that I thought it was going to be blowing in the wind with like QB play and gimmicks and people figuring him out. I mean, let's just take this inflection point of like the biggest criticism of Hypo is like the game in the rain. Against Georgia where they got quote unquote figured out. Okay, if that was the end of that and they figured that out, that was at this point four years ago and he's still cooking dudes with this random guy from. What was it? Diablo community. Where did dude come from last year?

A

Joey Aguilar? Yeah, by way of the App State, then ucla. Yeah, yeah.

B

Like, yeah, it's like okay, let's just get this random dude off the street. We got a five star, didn't work out. Hey, no worries. We got. This is our floor right now. Now again the defense was a big part of. It's underrated. I'm not exactly sure they should have fired their DC don't exactly love the hire. We talked about that. But that's the kind of the thing they could regress this year and if they fire him, they're stupid. And I've said this over and over again, like this is fine if you're Tennessee for right now.

A

Tim Banks had a rough year. They couldn't. But. But at the same time, if you had told Tennessee fans, hey, you're gonna have the same defensive coordinator for the first five years of the Josh Hypol era after all the complimentary football, they would have said yeah, if you would have told Tennessee fans, hey, Josh Hypo is going into year six now and he is yet to have a losing season in SC play. Like sign me up. That's good. These are good things. Okay. So I, I think he's. It's probably more like 5 to 7 is where you're gonna find Hypo in most of these rankings. And I think that's okay. Well I have Lane kind of in his own tier. I had him at 4. Did you have him as at 4 as well?

B

I also have before.

A

Yeah, yeah. If you're putting Lane in the top two, ask yourself this, can you really do that for a guy who has not been a head coach in a power conference championship game and he is not coached in a playoff game as a head coach. Should have been last year, decided not to. The other thing, Will talked about this before. Lane has never started and finished as a top 10 team as a head coach. Okay. And you might say, Connor, that's a made up step, blah blah blah. No, no it's not. And here's why. And it's actually the stat that I would point to as to why I don't think Kurt Signetti is the number one coach in the sport yet. I would still give that to Kirby Smart. Maybe I'm in The minority by saying

B

that we're both homers. Look at us.

A

I maybe that's fine until you do that start and finish As a top 10 team, you haven't done the hardest thing that there is to do in this sport. Have everyone tell you how great you are for eight months and then deliver. Have everyone tell you you're a national championship contender and actually be a national championship contender. It is harder than we give it credit for. And I know what you're thinking, Connor. How many times have other elite coaches done this? Well, I looked up all of them. Kirby Smart, Ryan Day have done it eight times. Dabble Sweeney's done it six times, but hasn't done it of course since 2020.

B

Money.

A

Lincoln Riley five times. But obviously all those were at Oklahoma. Marcus Freeman three times. Kaylin DeBoer, Dan Lanning, James Franklin, all have done it twice. Sark, Kyle Whittingham, Mario Crystal Ball, Luke Fickle, Dan Mullen, Mike Norvell, they all did it once. Okay, I believe that's the Luke Fickle the clown meme with the soldier Cincinnati,

B

they were really good.

A

Anyway, Dan Mullen did that at Florida. That's, I think that's the list among active coaches. If I'm not mistaken. I might have, might have left one or two. I looked up a lot of them. Nine of those coaches are still at their current school. All right, so you put a little bit more weight on that. What Lane did at Ole Miss was remarkable. Okay. Four double digit win seasons in his last five years there. So basically the non coveted seasons. He was coveted for a reason. Okay. That's why he's a top four coach in this conference. But that's why I would put him behind someone like DeBoer who has started and finished as a top 10 team at two different schools and he's reached a national championship game and he's coached in conference championship games in two different conferences. I think that matters. And while I'm not saying that Deborah is as good of, of an offensive mind as Lane Kiffin, again, I'm talking about like the head coach things and all the things that have to factor into that. And that's why I would go in that direction. Why Lane is still just, just kind of in his own tier outside of the top three.

B

Yeah, I, I think, I mean I think him and hyper like similar. Right? Like they've had some like good to great teams. Like I, I'm gonna give Lane a playoff appearance if that's okay with her. I don't think they were gonna get A playoff conversation.

A

My whole point is like, we just haven't seen him on that stage. And you could tell me like, oh, you know, we got to see what it looked like when he was a coordinator on that stage. We also got to see what it was. Look what it looked like with Nick Saban coaching with him.

C

All right.

A

So, like, pretty big deal. Yeah, I mean, that's. That's why it's tough.

B

It's. What I'm not gonna do is like. Because this would be a hobotake. Oh, they were gonna play Tulane, but they beat them. We don't know. There's no way to tell. There's no way to just assume. John Summerall just gets. Because they got run out of the building. It's against Pete Golding. I don't know. You know, and I'm certainly not gonna say about the Georgia part of it because they had lost to Georgia within the context of that season. We won't talk about why they lost to Georgia the first time.

C

Well, we'll.

A

What if. What if I told you that the 24. 2024 team, by virtue of dominating Duke in the bowl game in which Duke was on its third string quarterback. What if I told you that they showed everyone why they would have won a bunch of playoff games? Would you believe that?

B

You know, I've really had to adjust for my 2024 opinion of Lane Kiffin because that was a rough year. It was really rough now.

A

But I hated that.

B

But does have a signature win which you. I don't think you could take away from him, which is against Georgia. That was a big win like that. That matters. Like you look, you can talk about Target on your. They cared about that. That was a big game. He did win that game. I don't think that stands alone at this point. I think the Oklahoma win pretty good deal last year. I, I think that they've done some. But that. That's kind of a loan on a tier of beating Georgia.

A

Right.

B

And so that being said, yeah, I think him and Hypo are decently similar. I think that, you know, you took over an underratedly bad situation. You turned it around. Again, we forget about how bad Ole Miss was and again how this is part of the conversation. I'm sorry. How like to make Ole Miss a. A cool place to go to have all the gimmicks and the stuff he was doing and the Duncan and getting the transfers and getting the quarterbacks like. Like getting these freak wide receivers like having an identity in the way that they did that Played so well to, you know, at least portal recruits on social media that really mattered. And they have an identity so, like, that. I. I get all the bad parts. I get losing the. The big games. I get dropping the weird games like Kentucky. Cool. They had a Perfect team in 2024. Just like drink did. Did they at least got a big win out of it? Right. So I get it. You know, there's a lot of words to be said about a guy who essentially has not done a ton in terms of things that really matter, you know?

A

Yeah. The 2024 schedule with that Ole Miss team, there's just. It's hard to get around it, man. It's really hard to get around how that team missed the playoff. And, yeah, they.

C

I.

A

Maybe they could have done something on that stage. They didn't deserve to find out. Yeah, I think. I think we're.

C

We're.

A

I think we're right with where we are with Lane right now. Okay. I went to Boar over Sark. You did as well. There will people. There will be people that will inevitably push back on that. They're like, deport's not even a top five coach in the sec. If we're in the minority on this, that's fine. Like, I don't. I don't care.

B

Who doesn't think. I'm sorry. Really quick point. You made the point about who could just take their little shop and set it up at Vandy. I think Deborah could do that. Because here's the thing about Deborah. He's so milquetoast. He fits in anywhere. That dude could coach on Mars because he has no personality and he just wins football games. It's not like he does, like, Southern Fried. Whatever. It's not like he goes and talks about cheese. It's like the dude is like a chameleon. He's like Randall from Monsters, Inc. He just blends into his environment. I think that. That you could just. If we had like a. What's it called? Like a.

A

Like a.

B

Like, okay, way to go play the Martians. The board is such a good choice for the coach because, like, he. What has he done but win big games everywhere he's been?

A

And that's my point.

C

Yeah.

A

What a thought. Coach who wins big games has lost some games that he should not lose. Agreed. Very much understand that. I think people that would say Deborah's not top four, top five, like, Shark's a better coach. They'll ignore the fact that Sark is 0 and 2 against Deborah.

B

A real human being, saying that Steve Sarkeesian is better than him because that feels. How would, how would one think that.

A

Yeah, I, I do think that there is some of that sentiment out there. Okay, maybe it's not even just Sark, but it's, it's others like, oh, Link Kiffin, you would take over Deborah. I. Again, like we have the side by side. Sark and Deborah faced each other those two years and Sark one, Sark won zero times. Okay, like that was with Texas, like established in year two and in year three and like that's a different program. I understand that, that it was a rebuild at Washington too. Let's not pretend like that was just some program that was, was made to, you know, just thrive in those, those, you know, that first year that he had.

B

And really quick, you think Dan Landing is what, like a top three coach in the sport?

A

Top four. Top four.

B

When Dan Landon goes to bed at night, he checks under his Mattress for Kaylin DeBoer. That dude is his absolute nightmare. Like, he had so many chances to get over the Caleb Deborah and that was at the Pacific Northwest. So he's been doing this. I don't know who the Sioux Falls rivals were, but I'm sure they hate this man too.

A

Bismarck, they play against them. Is that a D2 school? Maybe, maybe not. Couldn't tell you. Some are probably just gonna conveniently leave out with any Kaylin Deborah conversation that this is a guy who in four years is a power conference head coach, is 18 and five against ranked foes, is eight and three against the top 10, both of which are the best marks among active coaches in terms of winning percentage. Sark in that same stretch, that same four year stretch that we're talking about 15, 11 against ranked foes, that's solid. It's not the boar. Six and eight against the top 10. Solid. Not Deborah. Deborah is 12:4 in conference place since joining the SEC, which he joined when Sark did as well with Texas. And Sark is 13 3. So Sark has a one game advantage there, but very, very similar. But here' what tipped it for me. I don't look at Kaylin DeBoer and see coaches that have his number. If you tell me, ah, Brent Venables had his number, I'd say, well, he kind of did just avenge that on playoff stage. So that's not really as much of a thing anymore. Against Sark, Kirby and Lanning. Kaylin Deborah is 7 and 1. Sark, meanwhile, is Ofer against Kirby and Deborah. Oh, and five. And for all the talk about Deborah losing games that he Shouldn't. Who was it who also lost a game to the team in the Sunshine State who didn't go to a bowl game because Sark did that too. All right? And I was the one saying like, look, this guy for two, three straight years, like he doesn't lose to teams outside of the top 15. And then we saw last year, we saw that play out and we saw Texas have a lower floor. Okay, we'll. We'll see if that's going to continue to, to be something where Texas just has that one random dude. Deborah has that one random done. Okay. So if you're gonna put that point against him, I think you also have to bring it up with Sark. Both are elite coaches. Okay. I think Star can win a national championship. I think Deborah can win a national championship. But side by side, I would go with Deborah. And people that dismiss him just because he's not Nick Saban are totally dismissing what, what he has done in big time games.

B

Yeah, we talked about it before, but in the modern playoff era, right, Like, I love that you threw landing in there too. 7 and 1. It's like, like, yeah, I think there's more distance between Deborah and Sarkeesian than there is between DeBoer and Kirby because Kirby's kind of beat him like one time and it didn't ultimately really matter. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's, it's like this, this dude when it's time to get up for these big games. I know we're saying ad nauseam here, but you know, basically the argument against Debor is fundamentally a meathead argument. It's like, oh, B standard. You're lost to foreign state. Okay, well then let's do the meathead argument back head to head. Boom. He's smoking everybody in his tear. And like, this is gonna sound so bad. I. There's just all of Baton Rouge is going to disown me. But it's actually kind of impressive that they looked that horrible against fsu and I was making jokes about it and like Bama's dead and they found a way to appear in the SEC championship game. It's actually very funny. And then also they lose to Oklahoma again and what do they do? They beat that team on the road. It's like, who is this guy?

A

It avenged the Vandy win as well. Which that game was. Was probably closer than what the final score indicated. There's no doubt about it. But, but yeah, like avenging losses is kind of a big part of being an SEC coach. You have A chance to avenge the. The Florida State loss this year. Can you do that? Like, is that going to be a thing that hangs over you? Kirby Smart avenged those two losses to Alabama in convincing fashion against Alabama in the SEC championship this past year. That mattered for Kirby to be able to do that against Saban's successor. So, yeah, I'm higher on him than most, I guess. Still, it's weird to process 11 and 4. We had a graphic here for the next round about like, weird record seasons, about how, how difficult they are to replicate of like a team that goes six and eight. You're like, that's not supposed to happen in college football. You're supposed to go 11 and 4 in college football. And so if you want to make the case against him and say, like, oh, Bama hasn't lost this many games since, blah, blah, it's very easy to talk both sides of your mouth with Kaylin Deborah. When you actually sit down and look at the body of work, you go, all right, still pretty impressive. You still have a chance to win a national championship with a guy like him.

B

Yeah, absolutely. And I'll transition on this point. Right. I know that the way the season ended for Alabama is not something they want to see, but that's why I, I actually disagree. I think right now Kurt Signetti is the best coach in the sport because I know how tough that Alabama team was and I know how Kirby Smart and others, when they've had these bye weeks in the, in these playoff games have just come out rusty. And the way that Signetti came out just punched that Bama team in the mouth, I think says way more about Signetti than it does Alabama because they just won a playoff game. They were hot. Like. So that being said, now transitioning onto our unanimous number one here, do we

A

need to discuss much with Kirby here? Because here's the wild stat.

B

Okay.

A

I was trying to think of, like, what, what's. Is there anybody on planet Earth who would argue against him as the best coach in the SEC right now? Like, even if Bama had won the SEC championship last year and Kirby was 0 and 3 all of a sudden against Deborah, rings still matter. And that would still obviously probably weigh a little bit heavier. He's the only active SEC coach with an SEC championship and he's got four. So what are we doing here?

B

Pretty big deal. That's.

A

I, I don't know. Call me old fashioned. Probably has to. Probably has to matter a little bit. Kirby's 1. It's a boring discussion. The better discussion is is 1 verse, 2 with the insignetti again, I've kind of. Kind of announce where. Where I stood on that. I. I hope we get it ahead to head with those two. You know, I think that'd be so fun to be able to see. Like, as much as I fear the future of expansion and like getting to 2020, like getting to 24 teams in 2027 potentially, I do want to see some of these matchups play out. Like, I. I want to see what it looks like again with Lanning and Kirby and like, their. Their styles. I've kind of like tried to will that into existence with playoff predictions in the past and stuff. Like, there's a lot of good matchups that are just kind of sitting out there that I'm like, ah, Oregon, Texas would be really fun. Or, you know, like, I. I just want to see what it would look like kind of on that stage or like, you know, I just think that. That there is an opportunity for us to have these conversations and, and have a little bit more data that actually pushes us in one way or the other. But then again, it's kind of more fun when it's debatable.

B

Yeah, I mean, I think. I think exactly to your. Your point, right? It's like the goal is to not just win the sec, but when the natty Kirby has multiple of both. I think that as annoyed as you can be that they've had these couple of one done years, two insane losses, not to do the opium thing, but just wild, weird losses. If Signetti does play Kirby, that's gonna feel like a World cup game. Like the first guy that makes a mistake is just getting fed to a shredder. That would be actually a very fun game. Game. You look like you're about.

A

I think I was trying to think of like, the only ways that Kirby could fall off the one spot.

C

It's.

A

It wouldn't even happen after this year. I think it would take Georgia missing the playoff in consecutive years and us wondering, is he on the dabo path? That's the only way I think that I would push Kirby off of the one line. And it would probably take a different SEC team not only winning an SEC championship, but then winning a national championship or coming very, very close to a national championship. Again, the guy has two rings. That's. That's gonna hold up well. That's gonna hold up well. Even if they're nine and three and they missed the playoff in one season

B

or something like that, I'm gonna have kind of a two woke take Here. Connor, I'm sorry but maybe kids from ages like 17 to if you're cursed. Ignati25 maybe those kids shouldn't be playing like this many football games because think about the amount of teams that we've been like, man, they're really starting to fall off at the end of the year.

A

It's crazy.

B

Georgia, Tennessee, Texas a little bit Alabama last year, maybe not. So I think that's what I like about Signetti is that the team was able to peak in games like in the teens, which is like very hard to do. Miami technically did that, but it was because they were kind of dog water at other points in the season. They were just saving their good plays. But like that being said to, to do that, I think that's what the game is going to be about is about a wear and tear management peaking at the right time. You're not going to have these dominant again say for last year. You're not going to have these dominant beat downs like we were expecting from the earlier Georgia team. So that's what I want to see and I think Georgia fans would like, in a moment of honesty, agree with me there that they want to see like hey, we don't want to get into the back half of the year and wonder, hey, is Stockton like hurt? How many bobos do we need here? We can't throw the ball 10 yards. What's going on? I think that those are things that it some of its chance, you know. But that's my only criticism for Kirby right now is just peeking at the right time.

A

Adapt or die. Name of the game. So here's a question that we can ask. Who rises the most on this list in 2026? You know, I think Goalish and Summerall winning eight games if they did that this year, especially knowing the context of both of those programs, Auburn and Florida as prime dud of the decade candidates heading into 2026. I think them sliding into that 89 range all of a sudden just being middle of the pack in the SEC after one season as SEC head coaches, I feel like that's definitely possible. Do you think that is.

B

Yes, that is actually such a good question, man. I might. And kind of a weird one here, I think. I think South Carolina is gonna have a pretty good year. I think Beamer can rise.

A

I mean it's. I, I wonder, I wonder where he would have been at last year. I think he would have been like six or seven if we were doing this last year because we did hot seat index so we didn't Necessarily outline that in the same sort of way. But like just in terms of like how you and I see this probably would have peaked at 6 or 7.

B

It's the classic Will rakes a guy too low that he does better than that. And it's like wow, look at this guy who surprised me. It's like maybe shouldn't have him this low. I don't know. I could just based on the weird stuff that happened last year. But I could very easily see Shane, Shane Beamer with the uoc with the return of Lenora Sellers with a running back that can hopefully carry the football with Nick Armor back my boy. I can see him in the top 10.

A

Thing that'll matter this year that could cause certain coaches to rise consecutive playoff berths. Something that in the sec, Sark, Kirby, they're the only two coaches that have been able to do that.

B

That.

A

So that matters. Think about. Yeah. The board headed year in between. Yeah. So I, I think doing something like that if like Elko or Deborah can do that, I think doing it at

B

different schools is more impressive than doing it consecutively because that's like if you do it consecutively at two different schools, you just walk into a great situation, you know. Yeah.

A

I mean in the Context of the 14 playoff versus the 12 team playoff is obviously different. That Bama team would not have made. Made the 14 playoff that Deborah had last year. Yeah. There's probably a lot of different ways that you can spin that, but I just think doing it consecutive years is. Is still impressive. You're right. If you can do so at. At two separate schools, that would be a nice flex as well.

B

Do you give Pete golden credit there? If he does it, it'll miss.

A

No, not for, not for getting to the playoff. Because he didn't coach in the regular season last year. I would not give him consecutive playoff births if he has consecutive seasons with playoff victories. Just. Let's have that conversation. That's, that's a little.

B

And that's what matters folks. Winning games.

A

Yeah. Who could fall the most on this list? It's probably Clark Lee.

B

Clarkley.

A

You know, if Bandy goes five and seven, does he fall four spots and behind some of those year one guys? Like that's probably the way that it would trend because you know if that happens then we're doing all the side by sides of like the numbers with and without Pavia and that's.

C

Look, look.

A

That would be a fair thing to bring up for a coach that's entering year six, you know. So I think that he would probably be the most likely to fall. We're leaving off guys that would get fired, obviously, because they wouldn't be listed on this next year. But, yeah, high pole.

B

Another guy might have a little bit too high, and I got him at 5. But again, if I'm predicting defensive regression, and that's actually kind of been their bread and butter, imagine a great year for Tennessee this year. So I don't think he could be at 5 at the end of the year.

A

Can that defense regress? Well, look up the numbers for last year, man. It was bad. It was bad. Especially the missed tackle numbers. Oh, my God. Their past defense was atrocious. It was terrible. I mean, Tennessee was a rough, rough watch for. Well, but their offense was fun.

B

That's the thing. Is their offense gonna be that fun again? Is the question.

A

Yeah, I. I worry about that less. They always seem to find a way. They usually do. Okay, so let's recap our. Our 16. You want to start? You could start with your 16. Just go 16 through 1 again, just so we put a bow on this.

B

Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's rock. All right. 16 levy, 15, Silverfield, 14, Stein, 13 gold.

A

Wait, who'd you have at 16? You would levy at 16?

B

I had levy at 16. Yes.

A

Oh, I thought you said 15. Go ahead. Sorry, My bad.

B

I'm sorry. I would start over now. Okay, 16 Levy, 15 Silver Field. 14, Stein, 13 Golish, 12 Drink, 11, Beamer, 10, Summerall, 9, Lee, 8, Golding. I'm gonna switch mine up and make my 7, Brent Venables, my 6, Mike Elko. 5 is Hypo, 4. Lane Kiffin, 3. Steve Sarkeesian, 2. Kaylin DeBoer, and one, of course, Kirby Smart.

A

Are you saying stein with a sch2 like Stein

B

German. I didn't mean to do that. He might be German.

A

I think a little bit. I think a little bit.

B

That's about Rammstein.

A

We should have thrown that Adam. Like, have you ever been called Stein before? Because I think it kind of makes you sound a little tougher. No, it's just a little bit. If he needs a rebranding, we're here. We will gladly take care of that. All right, Speaking of Will style, I had him in 16, Ryan Silverfield. And at 15, Jeff Levy at 14, Alex Gosh. 13, John Sumrall, 12, Pete Golding, 11, Shane Beamer, 10, Brian Fenables, 9, Eli Drinkowitz, 8, Clark Lee, 7, Josh Hypo, 6, Mike Elko, 5. Lane Kiffin, 4. Steve Circus in 3, Kayla Board 2, and Kirby Smart. At 1. We have a graphic, maybe just top 10. It's tough to fit 16. We'll see.

C

See?

A

We'll see. All right, people, don't get upset if your guy doesn't make the graphic be top 10.

B

Yeah. And then that's the thing. I'm. I'm torn. Do I cram a bunch of names in there and then rage bait you for, like, if you're a Mississippi State fan, or do I just leave it a mystery and be like, oh, my God, where's my guy?

A

11 through 16 is the same thing. You know, that you're not top 10, you're last. That's what I always say. All right, let's kick it to. Let's kick it to our guy, our new buddy. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun with Ben Garrett. We talked a lot about life and, yeah, many things. I think of the right way to say that. We talked a lot about him kind of at the end of the regular season with his viral interaction with Lane Kiffin. And we. We recap kind of that, all that went into it. Some adult language in here, so maybe not the interview to listen to in the car with your kids, but great stuff from Ben and something that I think a lot of people get a kick out of. So here is Ben Garrett.

B

Garrett.

A

I'm not excited to be joined by a very special guest. It is Ben Garrett, who covers all things Ole Miss for on three bed. You know, pretty quiet last seven months on the beat in Oxford. You know, just. Has anything happened or is it just kind of business as usual for you?

C

Just business as usual, you know, holding hands with my wife, walking through the grove, looking at the squirrels. Yeah, you know, nothing crazy. Not like Lane leaving in a very chaotic way and Pete taking over and leading them to a pair of semi or a pair of wins into the semi finals of the College Football Playoff. You know, of the most chaotic of it was the roster piece as they're putting it together. You know, like, that was really fun and interesting to watch. It's still fun and interesting to watch. I mean, it's July 8, July 1. LSU owed money, buyout player money for Devin Harper and Prince William Yellen still hadn't paid. We'll see how that works out. But in a world where nothing matters and nothing's in for enforced, who the heck knows? But, yeah, it's been such a quiet time. Such a quiet time over here in Oxford, Mississippi.

A

The.

C

The beautiful magnolias are blooming. No, it's, it's. It's gearing up for war come August, man. It's, it's pretty crazy and chaotic time.

A

Okay, so you were also at the center of a lot of the craziness that's unfolded. Will brought up this story back when it happened, you know, with you being let go originally from on three, being brought back by on three. And then when you got back, you had all this drama that unfolded when you made a comparison to Lane Kiffin that shares a name with a certain garden tool that people couldn't very much look up. And then you were confronted by Lane at the egg bowl. You know, everybody saw the Trey Wallace video that, that went viral. Can you share with our audience how kind of all of that went down over a very small period of time for you? Most of us are one good deal away from finally replacing that worn out rug, fixing up the backyard, or getting the bedroom. Good news, that deal's almost here. Wayfair's Black Friday in July sale. Get up to 80% off area rugs and up to 60% off outdoor and bedroom furniture. Shop Wayfair's huge selection of styles and find the piece to fit your style, budget and space, plus free shipping. Black Friday in July ends July 27th. Shop today@wayfair.com Wayfair Every style, every home.

C

It was, it was nuts. Back in September, when you're talking about being let go from on three. Yeah, I wouldn't even let go my own three. I was let go by someone who came in and some stuff happened that was not in any way true. And so, like, when you're standing on truth, man, if you got the truth in your corner, you're gonna win out. You know what I mean? And so I'm thankful to all three of them for Shannon Terry will crawl. They swooped in and they're like, wait a second, what happened? And we kind of explained the situation and within 12 hours, you know, I'm back, back, back where I've always been for almost 20 years now at the Ole Miss Spirit. Ohmspirit.com Food on 3. Sign up today for $1.

A

5.

C

Five days to try it out for $1.

B

Can you just do a promo? I think it's the first time it's ever happened on here.

C

Welcome. Welcome to Everything is wrestling. Wrestling, y'.

B

All.

C

Okay? Like, I mean, I'm at the point CM Punk went and took Sami Zayn's title nine days. Like, I'm ready to cut promos, you know what I mean? And that was, that was, that was September was. It was Wild man. And. And it was incredible to see like the community that we built for almost 20 years, the Spirit and has moved from Scout to 247 now to On3 to see that community rally to my side. I didn't know I had it like that. I'm gonna be honest with you. Like, I was like, dang, that's pretty cool. And so to hear from people, contemporaries in the business, like Shay Dixon over at lsu, people that I think the world of saying, hey man, you got to start giving yourself some more credit here and grace. And I was, I was, I was very thankful for that. And it's been great. And if anybody wants to try something, we'd love to have you. It's again, the old Miss Spirit. But then, you know, turn around and. And I. If you haven't learned within four minutes of talking to me, I love to run my mouth. Like, I just. I talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. Now that is both the blessing and the curse that a sovereign God has graced me with. Number one, he commands me to be honest. Number two, but also understand that that can get you into some stuff, you know, and that was exactly what happened in November. You know, it's kind of like a throwaway comment on a Tuesday podcast. We're sitting there talking to Brad Logan. He's like, we're going through all the things. And I'd heard that he was leaving and, and I mean, he'd been trying to leave since Oklahoma, the Oklahoma game, if not earlier than that, like October, like he was, he was leaving. He was gone. He made a decision, in my opinion, after ole Miss finished 9 and 3 with his best defensive or maybe overall roster in his opinion, in 2024, even though that was at. Laid at the feet of him, like he's the reason why they went down. And three, he's the one that started the fifth string running back at Florida. You know what I mean? He's the one that anyway, didn't matter. You know, we were talking about Willy Wonney because he didn't want to be honest. He wanted to coach in the playoffs. And so, you know, leaning on his past history and everything, I knew to be true because I've been. I talked or covered Lane three times, talked to him three times a week, be in official capacity or off the record for six years. This is not somebody I didn't know. This is somebody that knew me and I knew him. But one thing that Lane, one of his go to's man, has always been like, I don't Even. I don't even know who you are. I don't. I don't know who you are. I don't. It's like, very Regina Georgie. You know what I mean? It's like, who. Who are you?

B

Who are you?

C

Right? And so I think what was funny about that situation is one the. It was like, call saying, hey, a zebra can't change his stripes. But no one's like, oh, how dare you call Lane a zebra. It's because of the crassness and the kind of, you know, it's the crass nature of the, of the comparison itself. And so, like, he thought I called him straight up a hoe. But that just showed me, again, they didn't understand basic, you know, metaphors and any analogies, anything. And so then that whole thing happened. Like, Trey Wallace is behind me, and so is an Ole Miss coach who I won't name whose friend. And we had been talking on the field for, like, five minutes. That was the funny thing. Like, we'd been talking for a while. He first walked up, and he's like, did that look like a team that was distracted? I was like, I never said anything about a team being distracted. I did say, you can't turn a hoe into a housewife, which is objectively hilarious. He didn't think it was hilarious, which is fine. Like, I, I, I wouldn't either. But it's. It's. It's wild to me that, like, all these months later, and having talked to him and he called me the next day with the most awkward apology I've ever heard in my life. Like, I was trying to talk to him like a human. Like, hey, man, like, Baba, it's all good. And then he was, like, sticking to a script. He's like. And also, I wanted to say, because that's lame, you know? And I've talked to him since. Yeah, I've talked to him multiple times since I talked to him in a while now. And I have nothing against Lane. It's just everything is performative with him, man. And, like, I got to give it to him. Nobody understands that this business here now is wrestling. Just like, like, everything is wrestling, but especially college football these days. Like, Lane Kiffin. And I had a coach behind me who was looking out, going, don't say anything. You can't win this. You don't say anything.

B

Don't.

C

You can't win this. And he walks up, and I stood there. I didn't know. I didn't even know he talked until I was, like, halfway down the Hall. I was like, oh, wait, wait a second. Because it just wasn't like that. And he's making $98 million, and still, all these months later, he can't wash off a loudmouth idiot from north Mississippi calling him a hoe or what he thinks. Calling him a hoe when I just. You know, it's. It's hilarious. He can't wash it off, and. And it drives him crazy. But, yeah, it's been a wild, wild year, man. And it was. I was at the beach, like, a couple months ago, and I was. I was playing with one of my daughters, throwing a football, and just show you what the relationship, like, is with Lane. I quite literally texted to him because, like, she dropped it. It was her fault, okay? She ran a bad route. She rounded off the top of the route. She wasn't. She wasn't tough with her hands at the top of the catch point, and she didn't believe me. So I was like. I just texted Lane, you know, I said, all right, Lane, seriously, who's right here? And he goes, ben, that was a shitty ball. And that was. You see what I'm saying? So it wasn't even like that. You know what I mean? It was. It's funny. Like, he's fine, but, you know, it. It made for a fascinating moment in time to go viral for something like that, which in the moment, I had God in my ear going, don't say anything. Don't say. Yeah, but it turns out also it was Jake Schoonover saying, don't say anything. You can't win this. You know? But, like, it was. It was. It was an interesting thing. I'm just, you know, to consider all that went down and to where everything is now.

B

It.

C

You know, you just. You give thanks for where you are, and. And you just continue to live every single day and not worry about it. Just be yourself. Be authentically you. No one can say that Ben ain't authentically himself. Good, bad, and indifferent. You know what I mean? So that one was. That. That was wild because, like. And also, the funny thing dude is saying, well, I wasn't gonna look at my phone. Like, I'd already made the decisions. Like, after the afterbull, I was like, I don't want to deal with this. To re log back in, essentially two days later. I had never. I was like, oh, this is what LeBron deals with every day. You know what I mean? Like, this is what. Like, I can't imagine what. I don't know. Pick your. Your most hated, like, Cody Rhodes. You son of a. You know, it was wild. The other ones go, no, man, you did. It was insane. And still to this day, even it's so. It's like shooting fish in a barrel or. Yeah, it's like shooting fish in a barrel because, like, I can just mention lsu and buddy with the mentions on Twitter from LSU fans are storming in and I'm gonna get that gif of me going, like, hey.

B

Huh?

C

What's that? Huh? Oh, he talked that. So, yeah, that's a long, roundabout way of saying it's been a very non eventful year.

B

This guy's gonna slander LSU fans and pronounce it Jif in one breath. Wow. He's just coming right in my character, that, man.

C

The thing is like. Like, I love LSU fans because, like, they're about ball, they're about that action. You know what I mean?

B

They're.

C

They coming, baby, you know, so, like, whatever. That's part of the fun of the spirit of the thing that we've lost in the sport. I love that. Like, I grew up, you know, going to Ole Miss, LSU games when, like, as like a teenager, this is true. In Baton Rouge, getting a beer bottle thrown in my head because, like, I was, like, walking around being little. Being, like, little. Being uninhibited. Go, yeah, go round, like, shut up, you stupid idiot. That's. That's how it used to be. That's how it was. So, like, I understand that rivalry and, like, I'm just glad that the rivalry is being treated for what it is now. Lane added gasoline to a fire, but, like, this has always been one of the SEC's most, like, historic rivalries. And to see it now at this place is, for me a hell of a lot of fun because I'm one of those that. I grew up hating the state, but I really grew up, like, dude, just. Just beat lsu, man. You know, let's go down a red stick. But. But it's. It's a different world now, so I have no problem with. With LSU fans. Talk your stuff, man. I love it. Like, that's what it's. What it is. It's too much these days, bro, about people worrying about things that aren't the spirit of college football, dude, like, some of them really do hate me, which is fine. But, like, a lot of the hate, for the most part, is performative. Just like n. Lane's entire stick, including the stuff that happened at the egg ball, A lot of it's very performative. It ain't personal. It's social media. You know how many people I've met in person? They're like, man, I've said some terrible things to you online. I'm like, yeah, I don't care. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't matter. Like, you can put it away, bro. Like, all you got to do is pick that thing up, cut it off, and put it to the side you find. So, yeah, I've learned through all of the. All of this year is, one, be authentically yourself, because you have to be able to stand on what is true. But two, also, like, you know, do I apologize for a crude metaphor?

A

Sure.

C

Because no one wants to be called a hoe. But also, I wouldn't call him a hoe. I've explained it. But the last thing is, it ain't that serious, because even after that viral moment that a lot of people keep building their entire opinions around both of me and Lane and whatever, I'm good with Lane. I'm fine. I think I. I think he made a. A. I. I have issues with his exit and the decision that he made and how he's handled things and how he continues to operate. I think it's hilarious that LSU obviously forced him to stop going on Twitter for, like, two months, which was for the best.

B

It was for the best.

C

It was for the best, you know? And, like, Verge has been great. Like, he steps up. He's like, yeah, I mean, Ole Miss. Like, Ole Miss offered more money, and he went to LSU for less. Like, that blows a whole narrative up, you know? Like, Verge going, hey, guys, everybody else paid about the same. I know Ole Miss paid a little bit more, but, like, he wanted to go. Okay, well, that blows up a narrative because, you know, he wanted everyone to believe that. Oh, well, they pushed me out. Oh, well, I. I'd hit my ceiling. No, dude, you just wanted to go to lsu. And if you'd have just said that, hey, I want to go to LSU. Bet skis. least it's honest. Don't pull the. They tried to run me off the road as I was heading to the airport. Dude, you had a state highway patrol escort of the. And the dudes who are driving the cars. I know. And they're like, dude, he's just lying through his teeth. What are we talking about? Like, chill out. It's not that serious. But he just.

B

He.

C

He's the star of the. Of a movie in his head. You know what I mean? And everything feeds itself. And it's. It's just bizarre because Ole Miss, quite literally. And he'll Push back against this. And I don't disagree with him. He'll say, like, Ole Miss was going.

B

You.

C

If you stayed here and he won, like, you thought we'd build you a statue. And him, he's like, what does that mean? What is. What does that matter anymore in 20, 26? To which you're like, fair, right? Like, fair. Like, who the heck goes, man, I can't wait to get to Norman to go see the Baker Mayfield statue. You know, like, that's a legitimate. But it's the other stuff, the extracurricular stuff feeding into both the rivalry and. And how everything is, again, wrestling that I think most people kind of get tired of.

B

So I'm gonna change gears on you real quick because I. We could probably talk about that moment for an hour. You spoke on the financial part of it, right? And it's really interesting to me because it feels like Ole Miss is kind of over. Like they've had this quiet kind of metamorphosis over the last 10 years, just kind of financially across all sports. You kind of look across the board and you go, okay, baseball, women's basketball, men's basketball, football. You know, these Ole Miss teams that LSU is used to going in there and stomping out, you know, 15 years ago, they feel very different from the modern Ole Miss teams. And it wasn't too long ago that we were. We were, you know, talking about Lane Kiffin kind of going. Going around that weird state law about, like, the. The four year contracts and all that stuff. That feels like eons ago at this point, right? So what has happened under this administration to kind of remold Ole Miss athletics?

C

See, and that's one of my biggest pushbacks against the whole, well, you know, good luck, Ole Miss. Y' all gonna fall back to being Ole Miss now that Lane's gone. Like, you can say you should have maybe gone a different direction, have more of an expansive search and this, that and the other. Like. Like you could have questions about Pete and the long term viability of this program under Pete, but in terms of competing, number one, Ole Miss was out in front very, very, very early of the transfer culture. Lane deserves a ton of credit for that. Before anybody else was adding transfers, he was going to Canada and getting Tavius Robinson and Dean Leonard. All right, now, it wasn't just Lane. It was a scouting and development, development department, a lot of which still remain here because all of the defensive staff stayed. You know, it's not like Lane targeted and found Tavius Robinson. Randall Joyner did, and then he Brought him to Lane, and then they watched him. They said, heck, yeah, let's go get him. All these kind of things. Same thing with whoever was. I think Trail Buckley was the defensive or cornerbacks coach at the time for Ole Miss. So, like, Ole Miss, from a program standpoint, has been operating at a different level. Once you stop. Once you said once, the NCAA essentially said, money doesn't matter. Oh, it doesn't matter, as long as we got as much as everybody else. You're talking about the school of doctors and lawyers. You tell us all we got to do is have money to go compete at the big boy table. No bureaucracy, selected bureaucracy getting in the way. And so all of the investment was already there. Hell, you saw the investment in 2013. Stuff that these days, fans, even LSU fans who hate Ole Miss, would laugh about laramie Tunsil being 11. Level one violation for sleeping on Chris Kiffin's couch. We. We laugh at that now. We're like, okay, who gives a. We said the same thing back then. But most everyone else is going, oh, no, y' all doing everything else. Or y' all going way beyond all this kind of stuff. And that's just simply not the case. While Alabama players back in those days, the 2010s, were driving around every new kid that went on a visit. Like, I've got Ole Miss targets from Mississippi who went over there and came back with Dodge Chargers. But here's the thing. I'm not saying that's bad. I'm saying, great, do what you got to do to get players. Because I'm a player advocate. Because they suppress the labor force for their entire existence. And now that they've. And all anyone said was, hey, where are the adults in the room? And now you ask the adults in the room, and they'll probably say, yeah, we've let these guys down. Because you let it get to this point where I don't know how in the world it recovers. Covers the Protect College Sports Act. Come on now. Anybody that wants Congress to fix things. That's hilarious. Give me a break, man. Like, you should be pissed off at your athletics directors and the chancellors and all of the. Those feckless nimrods sitting in. In behind. In. In offices in Indianapolis, you know what I mean? Who just quite frankly, wanted to cling to their jobs and to any semblance of power that have led us to this place. And now they're saying, bail us out. Help us. We can't do it ourselves. That's what you've been paying these dudes to do these people in Indianapolis, and that's what you've been paying them to do. No one wants to admit what the truth is you're headed to like you're headed toward. And it's the only outcome that salvages whatever this is you're headed toward. Collective bargaining. You have to admit it to yourself, admit it to everyone else, and let the players be represented, like be employees and be representatives. And you know what? You just gotta have to say what we've all known to be true since the beginning of time. Yeah, school don't really matter when it comes to these kids that y' all want to get your degree four years after school. We'll give you four years to get a four year degree.

B

We ain't coming to play school.

C

They're not here to play school. Have y' all seen their schedules? Man, their schedules are insane. I'm not talking about a class schedule. I'm talking about daily schedules for why they're here. The, the, they're, they are the principles of a multi million dollar corporation. They're like their responsibility is to be the best versions of themselves as an athlete on the field. Stay healthy, you know, get bigger, faster and stronger. Hit those benchmarks in the strength and conditioning program. Buddy, you need to trim £15. I don't give a. If you go to basket weaving, buddy, you better get meat weight in two weeks. You know what I mean? That's what their job are. And like they're up every day at 5:30 in the morning, morning workouts and they got their, and all their stuff is scheduled for them. Stop treating them like they aren't what they already are. Stop. Oh, how do we fix it? Collective bargain with the, with the labor force. There you go. But they don't want to, want to do that. So yeah, it's, it's a fascinating time. And that's why for me, you can get, get swept up in all the things that we think are negative about the sport and be, and be fearful about where it's going. If it, like I've heard Dan Mullen say out of his mouth. Yeah. The only way this changes if we have a complete and total reset does you do we understand what that means? A complete and total reset of this, of, of the ncaa, of the sports starting from scratch. What you'd be blowing up. It's, it's. I, that's where like people probably think, yeah, dude, LSU fan, let me get in these midgets. I want y' all in the mentions. I want that because that feels like college sports. Yeah, we're gonna whoop your butt. We're gonna roll into Oxford, Mississippi, and Lane Train's gonna roll out there with a dub and put little brother back in a spot. Cool talk that. You know what I don't want to talk about, man? I really hope that Ted Cruz's bill gets through Congress.

A

Seriously,

C

Eric, I don't care. Solve the problem. Y' all are paid to do it.

B

Stop.

C

Well, what do y'. All. Ben, what do you think they should do? But I don't know. He'll pay me, if you want my opinion. You know what I mean? But instead, they want to go, well, Congress. Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz of all, but like, Ted Cruz. Save us, Ted Cruz.

A

Give me a break, man.

C

This is insane. Ben.

A

Biggest takeaway so far of Pete Golding, besides the fact that I think he might be the best cusser of any coach in college football already, I'm gonna

C

be honest with you. He's so relatable because the first time he got there, in one of his press conferences, he started. He sounded like me. He's like. And, guys, we've talked about this like, God is good, and I'm so thankful for all the work that. All the things that God has done for me in my life and all these things. I love the F word. It's terrible. I can use it as a noun, an adverb.

A

We'll hold off on these airways with

C

that one, but, yeah, I'm not gonna do it. But like, Bob Knight. You said it before we started con. Like, Bob Knight said, it's the most versatile word in the English language. And Pete.

B

Pete.

C

Pete is a big believer in that. You know what I mean? Like, my man, he talks like he's from Hammond, Louisiana, but, dude, I swear, he sounds like he's just straight out of, like, Ripley, Mississippi, New Albany, Mississippi, you know, like, he rolled off the streets of Ingamar and got the head coaching job at Ole Miss, you know, I love it about him. Like, he's very authentic in that way. And. And that is something that is a departure from Lane, because Lane is very guarded, especially in what he says publicly, even what he says privately. You know, like, that's the funny thing about all the stuff that happened back in November. It's like, I don't know who you are. I was. I went into his. Like, he called me into his office because he wanted to talk about why I was asking about Ulysses Bentley, to which I was like, all you got to say is, why aren't you playing the kid? You know what I mean? Well, he's not any good. Well, none of your running backs are any good. He's the best one of all your bad options. So why are you not playing him? You know, like. And the answers were never sufficient. So why was that?

B

Ben know.

A

We still don't know.

C

We don't know. I, I've heard things but like, I'm not. I don't know.

A

It can't be.

C

I don't know. I don't know what y' all talking about. I don't know.

B

Okay, so anyway, I had a hard hitting recruiting question here. I'm gonna skip that one and say I'm going to Oxford for the LSU game.

C

Recruiting question though. Like I can be.

B

I don't think we have time, man. We just talked about. We're gonna get to the Quran. If I ask you a critic question,

C

I will give you my best 30 second answer, I promise. Go get.

B

Okay, back to back. So Pete Golding feels like he's hitting high school way differently. Lane. Does that feel accurate?

C

That was what I was going. Thank you, Connor for asking the question. Also for Will, it's tied into what I was talking about. He's very authentic. That's been the biggest takeaway. But honestly, the shift in recruiting philosophy in the high school ranks is the thing that really sticks out to me the most. Like they're building their rosters from the inside out through high school. Like they, they are focusing most of their high school recruiting on the offensive and defensive lines because they believe philosophically that's the only way you can build them. Like you're not going to keep deep. David Gabriel George is about to choose between or choose from Ohio State, Ole Miss and Tennessee. It's not going to be Ole Miss, it's going to be Ohio State or Tennessee. And when he does, if he's not playing, wherever he signs this time next year, dude, he'll be in a portal as a sophomore. All right, because all the money's going to be. It's different with offensive linemen, it's different with defensive linemen. You can both retain them and build them up in a different way. So I think that's been the biggest shift in philosophy. And one thing that I've noticed in answering your questions, Will, about how Pete Golding has changed things a little bit, but mostly like the offense is 80 the same under JDB there. A lot of the stuff is still the same, but you can see where he's putting his hands on it.

B

There you go. So I am going to Oxford for the LSU game. Where should I go beforehand and where should I hide after?

A

He's LSU fan. Keep this in mind as well. Very important part.

C

Number one, call me when you get into town. Number two, we're going to Funkies because Funkies is the best. My golly will hook it up. Like, we're going to Funkies. You've never been to Oxford. And while I don't prefer the library sports bar and Grill, I'm 40 years old. Like, I would encourage Will to go. I'd be like, we'll go.

B

Have.

C

You should go to the library. Go check it out. Food wise. Like, if you've never been here, please eat it. Ajax. It's my favorite restaurant in town. It's legendary. It's right there on the square. Get. You're gonna go, I can't eat this much food. Yes, you can. And. And eat that. But, like, I'm an OG guy. Like, I love Proud Larry's right off the square, too. Like, Proud Larry's is my spot for a lot. I used to be my spot for a lot of music, but, like, I'm old now, dude. Like, the kids these days, I don't know, they might be different than me, you know what I mean? Like, we had Pearl street back in the day. We ain't got that no more. So I would say you have to hit the high water marks. You have to hit the ones you know. You gotta hit Funkies. I love the vibe of Funkies. The library, sports bar and eat something. Like, don't come here. Like, don't come here and go eat it, Crystal. All right. Don't be that guy. Go eat somewhere that you haven't eaten before. Eat local and try it out. And also be willing to walk around. It's pretty fun. Yeah. Because why you think most people will want you to hide or why you think will you might need to hide? Ole Miss fans aren't like that. They really aren't cornered. They're going to be pissed at Lane. As long as you're not doing what you do, you know, going up there, doing what some LSU fans do, which is instigate. You're gonna be fine, Lane. I have no idea what's awaiting him when he gets here, except for like a really intense light show and maybe like some different whole thing, merch and hoe themed, you know, music choices.

A

I. I'm all on board for all of that.

C

Please, just.

A

Ole Miss needs to lean into this as much as possible. And I really hope that they do and that this is everything that we've been talking about for, for months now. Ben, I want to get you out here with a record prediction. I said on your airwaves a couple of months ago that I think Ole Miss breaks through, gets to its first SEC championship ever. And I guess I'm zacking with the Vegas odds by saying that. What's your prediction for this team?

C

The 7 1/2 win total, win loss total set by by BET, MGM and FanDuel. I don't see it. You know, I think they'll clear seven and a half really easily. But the schedule is tough. So I understand, like there's a reason why Vegas has built cathedrals, you know what I mean? Like I can see where they're thinking, like if anything happens to Trinidad Shambles, what is Deuce Night? Like, what will do snipe do with a nine game SEC schedule and arguably the toughest schedule in Ole Miss modern era history. This is a tough schedule. Having said that, if this were not Ole Miss on the helmet instead LSU for Will or Georgia or Alabama and you looked at what you're bringing back even compared to the schedule, you go, I don't care. They're going 10 and two at work. Like nine and three. Like the thing is, is nine and three. Well, nine and three, it's got to be the right nine and three. Get you into the back end of the playoff. I don't know. I would argue that a 9 and 3 team would be, would be more worthy of selection than say like Tulane or James Madison. That, that those were waste of times. Last year they were waste of times. So in that way I understand why the 16, you know, extending out to 16 makes sense just because you want to include them. But like we need, we need to see who's really competing here. So nine and three to me is, is what I hear pretty regularly and that I can follow that. But like I'm looking at 10 and 2, man. And I see swing games, all right. I see LSU as the biggest early season swing game. That's LSU at home. You got to beat them. That game will probably determine which one of those teams win double digit games. All right, Oklahoma, you got to go back to Oklahoma. Now you won there last year, but it was tough, right? You get Georgia at home, but you got to go to Texas. What does Texas look like? Everybody's been wanting to crown Texas for ever since ours took over. You know what I mean? I still hadn't seen it, but I love what they did in the off season. I mean, Cam Coleman's a Stud, I think he's kind of getting. Getting oversloaded in terms of how good he is. Is like I love Cam cone, but dang, dude, we got him up there. Jeremiah Smith and Cam Coleman. Let's chill. You know, Hollywood Smothers is going to be great for Arch but like there's more pressure on Texas and. And Arch and Steve Sarkeesian than Ole Miss guys. You know what I mean? Like Ole Miss, they got their playoff or bust Ole misses playoff or bus because like this is. You got Trinidad, you got Kiwan Lacey. The best quarterback, the best running back, two of which received Heisman votes last year. Trinidad finished eighth in the Heisman voting like that with all they've got coming back. Yes, there are question marks. Offensive tackle, you're replacing a lot at wide receiver. Deuce Alexander is back. But like the. John Stribling was really good, y'.

B

All.

C

Now he wasn't good to. He wasn't like Dijon Stribling. Second round, first pick the second round good until like October. But same thing. You lost Prince Will can Blake Purchase and Jonathan Maldonado and and all you got coming back center and Perkins because they signed Luke Forelli and Keaton Thomas. He can play more that nine eyes slide down what Prince Will was doing. Prince Will was a. Was a negative value run defender. So was TJ Daughter. They feel like they portaled over TJ Daughtery and like they. That's not one that they cried about losing Prince Will. They built the guy and. And turned him into a sack monster. They missed that. That's the loss. They're like damn. We. We wanted to hold on it. They resigned him for goodness sake. Still. Oh, buyout money. July 1st. July 8th. No Devin Harper too. 407,009 something.

B

Send the bill right to Jeff Landry. I'm sure.

C

Yeah I'm gonna send it to you Will. I'll let you get them to whoever needs to go to. But yeah, like there are legitimate questions about this team. But I think if it were any other logo on the helmet and I had Andy Staples on the podcast recently and he said he's. Oh yeah, it's just the logo seeing almost ranked 8th or 9th. Bull crap. If it was anybody else that team returning what they return regardless of the schedule would be in my opinion no like no lower than 5. Like I think they've got everything to go compete again. There are legitimate questions including like what does it look like for full season under Pete. What does that look like? John David Baker like you're the office is what Everybody's gonna be paying attention to does it look the same? Because defensively they've gotten better. So I say 10 and 2. I think they're going to split Georgia, Texas and then lose another one. I'm not. I just refuse to consider a loss to LSU in September. Can't, can't. Can't do it. Sorry. Like I'm out there. They gotta win that to me.

B

Man, that hurts.

C

Sorry bro. I hope your birthday is terrible.

B

And then I thought we were gonna party. Wow. You're just gonna party.

C

I'm gonna let you. We're gonna party on your birthday and hopefully at the end of the night you will be like crying into, you know, your, your paps Blue ribbon. I don't know, like let's just whatever it might be. So I'll say 10 and 2. That trap game. One trap game that I'm really looking at though, potential trap game. Florida, man. Like I think Florida is going to be tough. That's right. After all the emotion of lsu, like all of that build up and then you've got to go to games where Ole Miss hadn't won since 2008 when they made Tim Tebow cry. Buster Faulkner, who I think is the future SEC head coach has got his quarterback and it's his system. John Sumrall, man, he would have been Ole Miss his head coach. That's another story for another day. I really think Florida, I'm not saying they're going to be like some blow up breakout team this year, but I think they're going to drive people crazy. So there are real landmines on the schedule. But if I like I'm gonna go with. I'm gonna save the same energy that everybody else that you that like on the national scale. I'm use Yalls energy for Ole Miss, man. Look at what they return. Look what they got. Look what they built on. Look what they did in the portal. 10 and 2, 10 and 2. And if you fall short of that, you have to ask legitimate questions about why. And that's fair because that's. This ain't personal. Like with all the Wayne stuff. This ain't personal. Even though he probably felt like it was personal because he didn't understand the metaphor. This is, this is just professional, man. And Ole Miss has got is one of his very best rosters and he's ready to go compete for another national championship. And again remember they fell one play shot playing for national championship. Now they look back on it. Now that I look back on it though, I watched that replay And I'm glad to know that people are agreeing with me because I try to say that you don't call past interference on. On a Hail Mary. It would. A Hail Mary. That was just straight up pass interference. It wasn't a Hail Mary. Well, I see your face over there. Go watch that play. That was just a schemed up play. It was pass interference. It should have gotten the ball at the one that handed off to Bet Kiwan. Ladies, they're going to the title game for the first time since the 60s. Don't you. Don't you make them faces at me? No, I think 10 and 2.

A

Hey, that's a fair prediction, Ben. Great stuff. Hopefully we'll see in Tampa in a couple of weeks. And fingers crossed that you just get a couple of things to talk about this year and it's not as boring as last year for you.

C

Yeah, last year. Golly, what a snooze fest. Anytime you need me, man. I enjoyed it. Thank you, guys.

A

Thanks, man. All right, well, let's close with some lad of the week. I'll start with the thing that everybody is still kind of talking about, but also kind of annoyed with. Adam Sandler. No, not Travis Kelsey. Not Taylor Swift. Adam Sandler, the dude who officiated their wedding. There's been a lot of discussion in the o' Gara household about why Adam Sandler was the choice for this, because in many ways, it's pretty random. And then the more. The more the guest list came out, the more it actually seemed really appropriate that Adam Sandler was the officiate for this very noteworthy wedding at Madison Square Garden.

B

Easy answer. He was the one celebrity they both knew.

A

Not quite.

B

Apparently.

A

Like, they both had a movie that they liked. And I'm saying their movie that they liked. Happy Killmore, too. Travis Kelsey, Adam Sandler, working together. My theory was this. If you're gonna go random and just, hey, we're gonna make sure that anyone who's somewhat famous is at this wedding. And you just have your pick of anyone. And you don't want to make this, like some super sentimental thing and whatnot. Adam Sandler's a great choice. He actually is. Okay, so there, there's that part of this. And Adam Sandler needs to be mentioned for an all time. Like, like, like who would be, you know, your dream golf foursome, Getting a golf with Happy Gilmore. Of course, why needs to be part of those discussions. But I have a theory that because Travis Kelsey is now getting involved in the movies and stuff like that, I think he's gonna be in, like every Adam Sandler movie from now on. I. Adam Sandler has his guys. Rob Schneider and David Spade have made up a career off of it.

C

All right?

A

And he's just going to be one of. One of Sandler's guys now moving forward. And so I think those two guys have probably hit it off a little bit. The theory that I've also seen, I think it was part of my take that was talking about this. Like, the one thing that Travis got to pick was the officiant. He's like, Adam Sandler. That makes sense for a millennial to pick him.

B

But why?

A

Why wouldn't they? So, like, there's that and, and the fact that Adam Sandler was just doing the most Adam Sandler thing possible of playing pickup basketball in New York hours before this wedding is just very on brand. And I, I just think that he deserves to be mentioned in this everlasting question of who would you trade places with for a day last 30 years, man, Adam Sandler. Top five. Top five. Maybe exclude athletes, stuff like that. But what a life, man. What a life Adam Sandler's lived. And the fact that he got to be the efficient. The efficient at this wedding is just absolutely crazy.

B

I, you know what? If I could just save one celebrity from being problematic, I think it would be like if I found out something bad about Adam Sandler, I might just openly weep because, like, that's one of my few guys. I'm like, wow, I think you're so funny and wholesome. And again, I'm not going to Google it because I don't know, but. But yeah, he just seems to be an awesome dude. Seems to have put his friends on. I mean, would you rather be friends with Adam Sandler or a saving assistant? Feels like you could just get jobs for the rest of your life either way, but that the guy's done it the right way. He's had fun. You know, it feels like every movie is like some kind of like boys trip, bachelor party thing that's like, you know, we'll be home by 8. At this point in his career, he's really living the dude dream where he's like kind of still going, making like good stuff like, like, kind of reliving or like he'll drop like an uncut gems every once in a while. Like, okay, I still got it, you

A

know, what was the. Oh, gosh. What was, what was the. The basketball movie he did?

B

Yep, that I quickly cycled uncut gems because I couldn't think of the name of that One. But that was also very good. Yes.

A

Yeah, it was like the 610 European guy who came over. That was actually good.

B

That was really good. Yeah.

A

It's bothering me that I'm blanking on the name of that. Somebody knows it, but yeah.

C

What a.

A

What a good life Adam Sandler has lived. And when he writes his tell all memoir, maybe he can violate the NDAs that certainly many people at this wedding signed and tell us about how in the world he got selected to do this. It just seems so random. But why not?

B

That's. Are you anti. Who's anti? Adam Sandler. Because like if I could get one, that's actually a great. That's a great person to officiate my wedding.

A

Yes. He would do a tremendous job. There's no doubt in my mind people overthink that that often and in reality just, just get a point guard, get a point guard. Get someone that can tell some light hearted jokes. I would have loved to have heard the jokes that he was popping and not just because it was like this wedding. Like if he was making jokes at their expense, like what were they? That'd be fun to hear. Athletic Brewing Company crafts award winning non alcoholic beers. For those who want to be part of every round. With over 185 flavor awards, there are exceptional NA beers that fit your lifestyle and any social occasion. Summer's full of good times and Athletic fits right in. Go to athleticbrewing.com to have brews delivered to your door or find them at a bar, restaurant or store near you. Near beer Athletic Brewing Company. Fit for all times,

B

Eh? Yeah, that's the thing. You can't go like Shane Gillis like people like, oh, I want like the funniest. No you don't. You don't want to get upstairs that you're. Yeah.

A

So like yeah, Shane Gillis, Kevin Hart. Probably not gonna be the best. Maybe make it a little bit too much about that. I feel like Sandler's got enough self awareness to at least be like, all right, I've had my fun.

B

Who would rock that? Eddie Murphy would be another good one.

A

Yeah. True.

B

Yeah. Okay. So my lad of the week. This is kind of a tongue in cheek one. Here is Big 12 commissioner Brett York. Now he's a guy who I've talked about a decent amount because he's actually kind of quietly been an innovator within the college sp case. He's like really leading into. How can we kind of brand our conference like a weird tech company that we're just selling product. You Know, he's like, we are the best basketball conference. We got this going on. Look at this. It's all like, kind of like smoke and mirrors. But it's kept them as the third viable conference, like, pretty clearly. And, boy, howdy, did you have a rough week this week. Boy, how do you have a rough week? It was media days. It's kind of like actively going on. And, you know, they had Texas Tech in there yesterday. And of course it's media days. So, like, the media is supposed to ask questions. So we'll start with the swordsby stuff. He was just kind of straight up, like, I've talked about this enough, guys.

A

It's like, this isn't the place to discuss this. Where do you think is the place to discuss this? Because this pretty big topic of conversation. I would say no, it's kind of

B

the only place someone could actually ask you this question. But I kind of do get it from his perspective because, like, he. That's a coward.

C

Coward move.

B

Like, I. I think that's a coward move no matter what. But he is probably so, like, he's had to handle, like, everybody being mad about this. I'm sure the conference is threatened to break apart. I'm sure there's a lot happening behind closed doors, so whatever. Okay, that. That was not great. This Monster Energy drink sponsorship is, like, sending me bro. Like, the fact that they're like, this is a classic Brett Yard mark too, where it's like, ah, massive name brand. You've heard it's like $20 million. Like, oh, my God, $20 million per team. Oh, my God, that's so much money.

A

It's like, like, no.

B

$20 million per university. That is like a kind of a backup wide receiver type guy.

A

Look, you gotta find creative ways in this day and age. And if that means circling back to a company that had a heyday 15 to 20 years ago, then by all means, you have to do it and get creative. I think we should refer to the Big 12. No longer as America's Conference, but truly as the. The Monster Energy Big 12 Conference.

B

I kind of love that. I kind of want to call it the Monster Energy Big 12 Conference from now on, because that's so funny. And it's one of those that's, like, so beyond the pale of, like, weird stuff that it's actually kind of funny. It's like the Dukes, you know, Mailbowl and everything. And so, yeah, like, that was actually such a funny because I literally saw people on Twitter being like, this is stupid. And people are. Do you not want the million dollars. It's like so funny that this is all happening in real time where it's like, dude, again, it's, it's, you know, do you want to sell your sponsorship to Palantir or some company you've never heard of and get more money, or do you want to have the name brand recognition? And the Big 12 is consistently been like, we're going to do the weird thing. We're going to name our recognition. So that's point number two, point number three. And my, my main point here. You. I'm sure you see the question with

A

this gentleman, Sean Dillon, Texas Tech media member, who asked a very long winded question that I don't think he ever got to the punchline. But it more or less, for those who haven't seen this, was, why do you hate Texas Tech? Brett, you are Mark, please tell me why. And then, Brett, you are Mark, like walking the stage being like, I'm gonna stand over here, like, I'm gonna ask you to stand up and ask me that question. I respect Brett, your Mark, for his response. I'll be honest.

B

He kind of cooked that guy, like, low key at a time where, like, there's not really a right thing to say. If you think that Texas Tech reporter, please go listen to the quote. I couldn't even reenact the awkwardness of this question. And I'm gonna add that to the back of my mind repertoire from over some type of a commissioner where it's like, now stand up and tell me that again. Because the dude said it so scared. Like, you could tell he, like rehearsed it as soon as he went to go say it.

A

It's written on the computer right there too. Like, it's like, okay, I get. I will defend reporters who sometimes, like, if you're in these situations and you've got a microphone in front of your hand, you're literally in a stadium type atmosphere. There's. There's a lot of people there and you're on television, you could. You get your chance to be able to ask that question. Your heart rate starts going, all right. And if you have your question written down on the computer, okay, that's fine. When it's that long and that. How do we say this kindly off the reservation.

B

It was one of the worst questions I've ever like. It was. He said. He mispronounced. He said tortillo. And he was like, basically the heart of his question was. Was. Well, like, he stays stammered like a thousand times the first time. And he Got a warm up game to a little preseason to do it. The first time, he was like, hey, question if OSU is allowed to do this and. But we can't throw tortillas, tortillas, one of these on the field. Like, why can we do this? And then also, this happened with Sourcebee and how come you're not prosecuting him from Cincinnati's perspective? And so anyway, so your mark is like, go ahead, stand up and say that again. And the way he, he ends the question, which is, this is such a baller move by your back. He ends the question of, you said that it's 12 forward and how can we feel like we're included? And your remark just goes. After he says it the second time, labor is equally as much. He goes, yeah, that's actually not our slogan this year. It's 16 strong. Have a great day. It was like he made this dude talk for two straight minutes and it was just like, and bleep you. I'm out of here.

A

I respect it. I respect it. And it's a reminder. Asking questions is probably, it's. It's like eating spicy food. You can watch someone else do it and you can think it's easy. And then you get up there and you realize, yeah, it's kind of tough. It's kind of tough to come out clean. And very rarely does a reporter actually look good asking a question. I mean, those instances are, are never shown because it's very insignificant. And I, I think that if, if you're in that spot, like, you're very specifically just trying to get that answer to Ryle to get your own fan base going. If, like, see, Brett, your mark hates Texas Tech. And look what he did by, you know, like, punishing Texas Tech. He didn't punch, punish Cincinnati or Oklahoma State. Like, this isn't 16 strong. You're going too far. You're going too far. But media day season, full effect. Love that the big 12 players are all in full pads. Love seeing DJ Will Egwe in full pads. If he was in full pads throughout last off season, I think he would have stayed healthy. That was.

B

Yeah, I mean, it's a quote that was like, hey, you know, Dave Random might be on the hot seat, but at least everybody knows it's not DJ Lagway's fault if it goes wrong. Like, it's like actually a similar but very different situation, which I think is a great way to phrase. It's like I was gonna blame up this year. You know, it's probably gonna be more to random than it wasn't on on Lagway last year. But yeah, just quick, quick thing. We've talked about this a little bit. I've gotten roasted by George o' Leary and Scott Skiles and guys in Orlando when I was coming up. So I get it was terrible. I, I got, I tried to ask easy questions. It couldn't get him out, so. But granted, I was like 20 years old. But that being said, if you're ever in that situation, simple, the question the better. And if you feel yourself going into a soliloquy, it's probably gonna go poorly for you because that requires them to kind of play along with you and they're kind of got to figure you out pretty quickly. So you get scared. It is scary. Don't really judge anyone unless they do something disagreeous. But if you get scared, just ask. How can we take you seriously after what happened this year? And sit down. At least you say it with your chest. That's a.

A

It's a tough, tough thing to process. Oh, I saw you on tv. How you doing? How you doing, fella?

B

You okay?

A

Rough any day. Anyway, can't wait for media days coming up in a couple of weeks here we are going to be in Tampa. That is the, the plan. And we will have tons of coverage from there. We have one more pod before that very special guest coming up next week. I haven't even told you who this guest is yet. Will someone who has been on the show before has not been on in a while but I'm very, very excited about. So be on the lookout for that. Please leave us a five star review. Subscribe to the Next Round on YouTube where you can find all of our content. Follow us on Twitter @cg@gosohar. Thanks guys.

B

Talk soon.