Off the Field with Drew Butler Analyzing Playoffs and March Madness

Ever wondered what keeps college football players hustling both on and off the field? Tune in as former UGA punter Drew Butler joins us for a playbook's worth of insights—from the thrills and spills of social media to the strategic chess game of college football recruiting and player transfers. We kick off with a hearty discussion on the perils of the digital world for athletes, share behind-the-scenes stories of the offseason, and tackle the tidal wave of change brought by the college football playoff expansion, dissecting how teams like Notre Dame and Penn State are strategizing for success.

As the chat heats up, we dissect the financial playing field of college sports, where player endorsements are sparking debates and making headlines. Discover why places like USC are hotbeds for recruitment and how NIL deals are reshaping the college football landscape. Plus, we aren't afraid to veer off into the wild world of conspiracy theories, royal family chatter, and the unique cultural fascinations that intersect with the sport – all brought to life with Drew's veteran perspective.

Finally, we wrap up by diving into the drama and unpredictability of March Madness, strategy shifts in team building, and the unfiltered joy of upsets. We also cruise through current events and pop culture, from container ship mishaps to celebrity legal drama, proving that sports talk can swerve into any lane. Join us for an episode that’s as versatile as a five-star recruit – packed with laughter, banter, and the kind of lively sports talk that keeps you coming back for more.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

what do you mean? Verne, funquist, cfb we're live now, drew, have some for one I apologize.

Speaker 2: 0:09

Yes, I'm sorry. Allow me to uh retweet this on at drew butler. Follow at drew butler shameless plug we're gonna.

Speaker 1: 0:16

You know what? That's the whole show. There you go.

Speaker 2: 0:18

You already did it uh at fun and pass at drew butler um twitter, instagram, x, anything you want. There you go. How are you brother? Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1: 0:26

Of course, To be clear right off the bat, the multiple accounts that you plugged, those are just different accounts. These are not new accounts. You've had to start over from saying something inappropriate on Twitter. What's that?

Speaker 2: 0:38

like. I saw a great tweet from my buddy, jimmy Trena. I don't know if you follow Jimmy, but he's a longtime SI guy, a sports media guy, and he did an interview with Bill Raftery. Obviously that's timely with the March of the. Women going on and Bill Raftery does not have any social media and they asked why don't you have social media? And Raftery said well, at 11.30 pm, after my 10th drink, I'm liable to tweet something out that'll cost me my job. So he doesn't have social media.

Speaker 2: 1:09

I think, before I press send. I probably don't use social media as much as I, clearly as much as you. I mean you've leaned into it yeah, thanks man. I'd rather follow you fighting with people than actually fight with people.

Speaker 1: 1:27

That's my point, anyway, I mean I. So this is let's, let's hold on. Welcome into the show everyone. Thank you, um, uh, chris marler here. It is our third or fourth episode of fourth and wrong. Um, it's been a tremendous success so far. So we really appreciate you guys growing the show in the comments, all that kind of stuff like and share, retweet, all the good stuff we really really appreciate. Join with a special guest today and this will be a consistent theme, something we might talk about later Drew, with you and I in the off season and doing some shows about college football. But welcome in our guest. Former UGA legend, I always say, the greatest American punter of this generation, which doesn't really mean shit, because he's not Australian, but Drew Butler, thank you.

Speaker 2: 2:08

Yeah, you're like a top five fan and I have five fans, so I appreciate you being in there, marler, thank you.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Yeah, what I was going to say was I feel like I've gotten this is going to sound stupid, but I feel like I've gotten better on Twitter with arguing mainly just because I have less people 100%.

Speaker 2: 2:24

I mean not even before your last account got clipped, as Evan Grimes said in the comments you're much better and that's probably good for just your general state of living. So I commend you for that, yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:36

I appreciate it. Well, man, we so you know obviously college football show. First there's the. This time of year is my favorite time of year. We got opening day next week. March of madness is going on right now.

Speaker 2: 2:47

Um as you jokingly weeks away masters.

Speaker 1: 2:50

Two weeks away, georgia right now, up 12 in the nit. I'm watching it right here, dude, it's awesome, I mean it's good beforehand I saw I thought they would be favored. Even though they're on the road, a nine point underdog felt like a lock. They.

Speaker 2: 3:02

They were nine-point dogs. I didn't even look at that. Yeah, Now let me just say this Obviously, I've been in the NIL space since the beginning and my favorite people to follow are the lawyers in the NIL space. You don't need to get into that mess. I tweet at them. Sometimes that's like the only people I kind of chirp at. I respect them because they're way smarter than me I kind of chirp at.

Speaker 2: 3:22

I respect them because they're way smarter than me. I'll say that first off. But when all of the teams simply completely opted out of the NIT, I kind of thought to myself that sucks right, because there are players on those teams who want to play. There are backups, there are walk-ons, they want to play.

Speaker 2: 3:46

I have a very hard time believing that, unanimously, the team's like nope, we're done we don't want to play now for a team like georgia and coach white and all these transfers. And they're young. They need to learn how to do one thing. They need to learn how to win games, and that's what they're doing. I mean the nit. Call it the not invited tournament, call it the not important tournament, whatever you want to call it. They're fighting and they're trying to put a trophy in the case, regardless of what it is, and if they win this game, they get to go to madison square garden. That's awesome, so it's been fun watching I you know, honestly it was.

Speaker 1: 4:15

It was weird and I'm not gonna blame blanket statement your fan base, but your fan base in at least on my timeline, was the loudest of it, because the person who was the loudest on espn about skipping these games was tom crean.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Tom crean did that when he was at georgia, right, so it's like it comes from, not when he was at georgia, when he was at indiana, but yes, okay, right, right, like there's like 2014 and it's one of those things which it's like it does come up that does come off as hypocritical.

Speaker 1: 4:43

We've talked a lot about this offseason NIL stuff, saban, kirby, kiffin whether or not it's hypocritical to make comments. Just because of the tax bracket you're in doesn't mean that you can't weigh in on college sports, which is crazy to me that we're even having that conversation. But this thing with Crean he made a good point. It's just probably the wrong vessel of the message because it's like I mean, you know, but he's right, like dude, I tell you what this is.

Speaker 1: 5:08

I thought about playing college baseball like you know a decent amount on here and I was my freshman year. I was like undersized. I was like in over my head when it came to like the college game, like I just wasn't expecting to be that difficult and some of the best times I had in my freshman year was like we would play JUCOs and like in the fall and stuff like that, and it was like to get you know to recruit JUCOs. But you got like I got to start in all those games hitting the three hole. That was awesome, like some of these kids that would get to like play in the NIT, like why would you not, why would you not create that opportunity?

Speaker 2: 5:40

It's awesome. Coaches love to coach, players love to play and I'm sick and tired and I'm a huge golf fan. I think many people probably know that if you follow me, like the, nonstop talking about live and the money and the PIP, and the money and the money. Of course we all work for money. This is America. It's capital. We all love money, right, yeah, but you love the sport as well.

Speaker 2: 6:07

College football coaches are total sickos. They are obsessed with football. They are obsessed with developing players. They are obsessed with coaching. If you asked kirby smart right now, what day is it? He's liable not to know like he is so locked into spring practice right now. He's worried about the depth chart. He's worried about developing the guys who just got on campus. That's across the board in college football. These guys love to coach. They want to see these kids get better and the good players. They love to get coached, they love to play. It's so much more than just oh, let's sit out because we're not getting paid, like right. That blanket statement drives me crazy and I feel like now I'm the old guy with three kids and I'm about to be 35, like yelling at the clouds. But that's just how I feel. It's just changed so much in plus years.

Speaker 1: 6:54

It's crazy I love the way you started it, because it sounded like a taylor swift song and you were like players are gonna play coaches, love to coach. Haters gonna hate, hate, hate hate, hate.

Speaker 1: 7:03

You're exactly right but like I will, I will also say this so, like from two sides of it, devil's advocate of it, maybe you make the case of like you're a head coach, you're, maybe you're burnt out, maybe you're like I, I need a, I need a break, but like that's fair, again it's, but it's like three weeks, it's three weeks. Yeah, I don't think you're gonna get like as much of a jump on anything. And also, you're talking about this isn't football where you need to go have a ton of roster turnover, a ton of recruiting and stuff like that. You're talking about four guys in a class, so it's not like they need to have all for recruiting. Yeah, but I will say I think that it's interesting because and we'll get into the whole show here in a second this has been good, but get into like the whole show here in a second, this has been good.

Speaker 1: 7:52

Um, but kirby, kirby said something, I think this weekend I was listening to josh pate um and he made the comment about kirby saying this about the nil stuff and it's something like roster turnover, all kind of stuff. He made the comment if you would just tell me what my roster was, just tell me what my roster is in spring. I'd be fine with everything else and I think I think what we're seeing here is like we saw it with Saban, we've seen it with other people and some people have adjusted to it and adapted to it quicker than others. But there's just so much change across the landscape of college football, in all of the sports, that I think a lot of coaches are having a hard time trying to figure out. Like okay, how do I navigate all this? Like Katie Johnson entered the portal today, I thought he graduated eight years ago.

Speaker 2: 8:25

He's been playing college basketball forever. Yeah, tell me if I'm wrong, but I remember, like during COVID wasn't he still playing? I mean, it's been a long time. This is Georgia, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, like the transfer portal we could do a whole show on this. The transfer portal is the gasoline that has been thrown on the college sports fire right now nil has been bastardized.

Speaker 2: 8:49

We all know that. But what's happening in the transfer portal? To stick up for the coaches, like a kirby, or with saban retiring or anybody, anybody doesn't even matter what coach you are to sit there and be developing these guys in spring and have to wonder on april 15th if they're just gonna be like. You know what I'm out to? Have to wonder if people are text messaging parents and players on your roster trying to get them to up and leave. That is so crazy because in any other sport, specifically the NFL let's just compare college football to the NFL that is so against the rules and those are almost the worst things you can do because you lose draft picks. Coaches get fined, teams get fined uh, you, you lose like the.

Speaker 2: 9:33

The rules in the NFL for tampering are so extreme because it's the one thing that's holy you have to be in your contract and of course the lawyers will say well then, you got to be guys. It's just, it's nuts. That's not fair to anybody, it's not fair to these kids, it's not fair to the coaches, it's not fair to the fans. That's what sucks. It's just the unmitigated free agency across college football. I'm very, very against that.

Speaker 1: 9:58

Well, I'll tell you what too it the word you use was.

Speaker 1: 10:01

I think it was because I wasn't listening to anything you said, as always, but um, the the thing you said about how you have to wonder if other people yeah, there's a wondering man if you know what's happening and then you're talking about being curvy, smart and you're like like this is where I think it has to get frustrating for for him now, not even like mentioning saving, but saving gets frustrated. It's like, all right, I'm bringing all these guys in and I can promise them hey, you're gonna be an nfl first round pick, you're gonna be an nfl draft pick. I, I can develop. That was the value prop, absolutely right. And now you're talking about with kirby, it's like, okay, I'm gonna do all that and I'm gonna win national championships. Like this guy's gone.

Speaker 1: 10:35

It's not even close to see who's number two, it's, it's me, I'm one, and there's, there's no one. That's 1B, right, I am one of one. And now you've got to sit here and be like, well, shit, man, if I didn't play that kid enough in garbage time or he's not getting started, I have to worry about other teams texting him, recruiting him, all kinds of. Here's the thing that set out the most to me, and this is where we end up starting the show. In quotes that Pate said, josh Pate made a comment about how crazy that the landscape of the college football is going to be after April, where he said every single player, every single player is open and fair game.

Speaker 1: 11:13

He said he talked to one university that had like it was like a significant university in the landscape of college football, very relevant. And he said he talked to like about one position group and they said we already know at the end of August they're in spring practice right now. We already know at the end of August who is going where, we already know, like who's leaving and it's going to be a ton of turnover.

Speaker 2: 11:33

And then, on top of that, what's that? End of April, you said, end of August. Oh, my bad End of.

Speaker 1: 11:38

April. They already know where they're going and, on top of that, they already know who they're going to backload onto the roster to fill those spots from other schools. It's insane, it's insane.

Speaker 2: 11:50

It's totally insane and we can move on. After this. I was on a panel at the Gwinnett Rotary Club with Matt Stinchcomb, who's brilliant, and Ben Hartsock, who I've known forever. Ben lives in the Atlanta area, longtime NFL vet, very, very smart. He's a commentator now on Big Ten Radio, does some ESPN stuff as well SEC or SiriusXM and we were discussing just how much everything's changed and I said now, being the dad having three kids being back in Georgia, looking back on my first two years of college, coach Bobo recruited me. Recruiting was one call once a month because I was a no-name punter. Stacey Searles was the offensive line coach when I was at Georgia. He's back at Georgia now.

Speaker 2: 12:33

Those guys those guys used to ride my ass just because I was in the way. I lived with a quarterback and a lineman. They'd be like I hate that my quarterback and lineman live with a punter, silver spoon country club. They did it every single day. I earned their respect. I'm so thankful for the way they coached me. Now I get to go back I get to talk to them, we laugh.

Speaker 2: 12:56

Hey coach, remember this. Like those are the things where they're testing you. They want to see how you react. They're building you up as a person. You stick around, you work harder. You earn that respect. Now, if they do that, kids are liable to say you know what I don't like the way you talk to me. I'm transferring. That is bad for everybody involved yeah, it's bad for everybody involved.

Speaker 1: 13:18

I quit mid-year. Man, I quit mid-year one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I quit mid-year because I we, we played a nobody and every other player I think, got in that weekend like that wasn't a pitcher besides me and I took it so personally. I remember telling my coach afterwards and I was like, yeah, man, I was the only one that didn't play like. That felt like you were sending a message because I had zero idea that that was happening. And he was like I played a bunch of freshmen that will never play again the rest of the season. You were going to be like on you know, travel roster. You're almost like, you're like one of the main 25 guys we had that we have to travel with, like, and I was. I was so been out of shape about it and you know anyway. So it's just I. There are some kids, the softer kids like me, that are gonna have a hard time with this. Um, all right, but it brings me to this point.

Speaker 1: 14:03

This will be our first topic here. One of the things he said what Pate said was anyone's fair game. I don't feel like that's completely true. I get what he's saying, but I feel like there's got to be three to five guys that we could either agree on or each have. That would be locks to not leave where they currently are. Maybe it is as bad as things.

Speaker 1: 14:25

Maybe I saw a rumor today on Twitter. I don't know how real they are, but Quinshawn Junkins might want to come back to Ole Miss. I don't know if he'd be welcome back. I also don't know how valid those reports are, but if I was making a list of players not to leave, it would start and stop for me with Carson Beck For sure. I think there's not a better situation he is going to find himself in. Evan grimes is a really good point. Starting quarterbacks will say, um, there's not a better situation he'll find himself in. So that's where it would start with me. What are some other guys you think that like would would maybe not even just quarterback guys that would have zero reason to leave where they currently are yeah, I mean you make.

Speaker 2: 14:59

Obviously evan makes a great point. A guy like carson beck, his head coach and his offensive coordinator are staying. He's got just an embarrassment of riches. At the skill position, george is the number one team or number two team, wherever you look heading into the season. He's going to stay. I think for the most part as well. Like I keep forgetting and I have to remind myself, 12 teams are going to the playoff this year. I know 12 teams are going to the playoff this year.

Speaker 2: 15:23

I know 12 teams are going to the playoff this year. It's crazy. So the mindset heading into the season is um depth. Right is going to be taking care of everybody, making sure we peak towards the end of the season because the season's getting longer. So instead of just looking at your ohio state, georgia, alabama, michigan now it is those old misses, now it is those Penn States, to where they're actually in the locker rooms now with spring practice starting going, we're going to the playoffs. This year it's happening. We don't have to worry about being number five because five is going. Five through 12 is in the playoff. So I think that mindset shifts a little bit.

Speaker 2: 16:01

I know I'm not giving you the exact answer that you're looking for, because, of course, not at all yeah, the starting quarterbacks, um, but you'd have to think that the mindset of the players now for those top 15 programs are like okay, well, hey, once we get to december and the playoffs are there, we all have a chance. So, um, I don't think it would be as crazy as it would be a year ago, where it's like I, I got to go get to one of these top four teams.

Speaker 1: 16:25

I would agree with that. I will say this we did a show on this a while back I think it was when I was doing solo and I was saying how there may not be if they expand the playoffs which they've already done, of course, there may not be a team in the country that will benefit more than Notre Dame. When they were in the BCS era, all Notre Dame had to do was to win 10 games right, 10 out of 12 games to get an automatic birth into a BCS game. Like that's insane to me, right, yeah, it's kind of insane. They didn't go to more, to be honest, but they 10 wins or more, they get in. If you look at it. Now, that's kind of how it's set up to be, in my opinion, because they, they are the fool's gold of strength of schedule man. Like, yeah, it is they, they, I don't give a shit. I said every it seems like I say it every month now on this podcast I don't give a shit.

Speaker 1: 17:11

They played air force or, or I don't give a shit. They played boston college and yankee stadium or finway park, I don't care, I just don't care. But I tell you what there's another team that might benefit more to this than anyone. And you want to talk about fool's gold, using that phrase to characterize a team Penn State. Yeah, penn State stays in the top 12. Of course, and does nothing.

Speaker 2: 17:36

Yeah, they middle over there in the Big Ten East they can't get over that Ohio State-Michigan hump. But since they play in that division or now that conference or however you want to describe it, they'll lose two games. Those two teams that they lose to will be in the top seven and just by default they'll be in that 10, 12 range or seven to 12 range. So pencil in Penn State for the playoff. I think they're going to be there.

Speaker 1: 17:59

And you know, pencil in Ole.

Speaker 2: 18:00

Miss by almost the same metric, because the teams that Ole Miss is going to lose to this year will be those top five echelon teams. And their strength of schedule and their good losses will have them be right in that range.

Speaker 1: 18:14

Well, and piggybacking off that, there is like two years ago when Bama didn't make the playoff and should not have made the playoff again, to be clear, when they lost two games and they were like fifth. Whatever the quality of loss was the argument. I think Saban was just the PR disaster that he was going on that Big Ten Championship Saturday on Fox. Whatever you might see an argument now being made for quality of loss, because losing two games games this is much more of a how do we manage the full season. I think I, one of the things.

Speaker 2: 18:49

Yeah, you're exactly right. That's what I was alluding to with depth and just the length of the schedule and managing the guys that are managing your health, managing your roster absolutely, totally agree well and like.

Speaker 1: 19:01

And now you, like you said earlier, you said you want to be peaking late, like there's not a team. I feel like we watched in 2022 man georgia georgia at one point in that season where they went 15 and 0 wasn't the number one team in the country, because tennessee was, and tennessee deserved it yeah, tennessee deserved to be on there because of the fact that they had beaten like five ranked teams or something like that. Um, oh, this is okay. Yeah, patel saying too, we're getting to that in the next segment too as well. But I will say this, like, taking it a step further and just talking about Penn state, cause it's just now hit me about this the Penn state thing, man, it's, you know this better than anybody it's hard to beat a team twice. Right, it's?

Speaker 2: 19:39

it's really hard to beat a team twice.

Speaker 1: 19:41

So if Penn state goes 10 and two Michigan and Ohio state and then they get into the playoff and get to play them again Again, there may not be a team in the country that will benefit more from this, this situation, than Penn state, because of that.

Speaker 2: 19:59

And the way they lose to those teams. Usually the Ohio state game kind of close Michigan. The offense just completely disappears. Michigan runs the ball for the entire second half. Penn state doesn't even show up, and that probably will happen again yeah they will be ranked in 7 through 12 range and of course they'll get into the playoff. And you know, if they host that first home game in Happy Valley, like that will be in electric atmosphere do not get it yes, it will be a couple days before Christmas.

Speaker 2: 20:25

It will be cold. That place will be packed out like that is what the college football playoff committee wants. People and they'll probably that could be good for football place will be packed out Like that is what the college football playoff committee wants people and they'll probably play.

Speaker 1: 20:32

That could be good for football. It could be good for football, absolutely, I mean we'll see, but, like I'll say this too, If, if we get, I think that that setting watching a Penn state team play maybe they play another blue, but like watching Penn state play Texas at home in a whiteout in December is awesome.

Speaker 1: 20:51

That's awesome, but at the same time, I think where you'll see the issue arise is if that becomes stale and we see Penn State do this every year. That's when you're going to be like what the hell are we doing, guys? I'll tell you what. The other person on this graphic that I think I wouldn't say he's a lock not to leave. I think that Evan Grimes probably made the best point. I wouldn't say he's a lock not to leave. I think that Evan Grimes probably made the best point, which was the idea of quarterbacks being the most likely to not leave One. They've already probably got the biggest check on the team. I think Carson was rumored to have around $1.2 to $1.5 million. Peyton Thorne got $390,000 from last year, which is wild. The other guy on this list.

Speaker 2: 21:30

Good for him, that's awesome. That will most shitload of money for a college student.

Speaker 1: 21:36

Yeah, yeah yeah, do you have to? How far that money goes in a college town, by the way a long way, especially where you're not having to pay much.

Speaker 2: 21:46

You're at the facility from 6 am to 10 pm every single day. You don't really have an opportunity to just let loose.

Speaker 1: 21:52

So yeah, um. So the other one, the other person on this list and I like I love mizzou. Anybody listens to this show knows that I always I always kind of white night for mizzou and I really like them, um, and I think they're gonna be great next year. I really do. But luther burton is somebody that people are talking about as being a top three and possibly number one overall pick in the draft.

Speaker 2: 22:15

Come on I swear to god, number one overall pick. It was on, twitter drew okay, so we believe it well, I believe everything I see on twitter.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Um, but no, I this is like listen. There's also a bazillion mock drafts, like to use georgia again as example. I mean jake from was was the projected number one overall pick one time by matt miller, who's like a respected name I know.

Speaker 1: 22:37

I remember jay orlowski was saying he's gonna be a first rounder too absolutely yeah so, but I had to do you know what I do best, which is nerd out and deep dive and get out my pencil and and start writing down stats at my notebook. And Luther Burden, one of the things I feel like we're not talking enough about. Luther Burden. I think he's really good, I think he's really talented. If you look at his numbers, dude, you look at his numbers from a year ago, and here I'll pull them up real quick, because I'm not prepared like ever.

Speaker 2: 23:05

Probably important to note too before you dive into the stats Brady Cook is coming back as well, so he's got a great starting quarterback. Eli drinkwitz is obviously known as an offensive guy, so those factors play into the assumption that luther burton's gonna have a huge year and and schrader's gone, yes, which hurts because he was, he was elite. That kid was a total stud.

Speaker 1: 23:27

Yeah and, and he also, if you look at it and somebody pointed this out to me on Twitter earlier this kind of coincides with what, oh boy, kind of coincides with what was going on in the second half of the season when he kind of emerged. But you look at these numbers 86 receptions, 1,212 yards, nine touchdowns. Right, I'm going to say this, even though I love Mizzou and I think that he'll be good this year. I think he'll be a star player. Is Luther Burden overrated? And I think the answer is yes, because then look at these numbers. They're great numbers, man, great numbers.

Speaker 1: 24:02

But you look at the first six games he played South Dakota wait, I don't even know what the school is, man, I don't even know what the school is man. South Dakota Coyotes that's who they opened with. Mtsu ranked Kansas State. Memphis Vandy ranked LSU we all know about that. Lsu defense Terrible. His first six games he had five touchdowns. He had seven or more receptions in every single game and he had 132 receiving yards per game. That's stellar. Of course, played two ranked opponents. You look at the last seven games of the year. Last seven, he played four ranked opponents right.

Speaker 2: 24:39

What did he do against Georgia? Because that was a really physical game. There wasn't much airing out in that game, if I remember.

Speaker 1: 24:44

Three for 53 and one touchdown. Pretty good, that is an outlier. I would probably keep out just because of the fact that luther burden, lining up against kamari lassiter, is you're going to see that the next level. But like it's best on best, yeah for sure, right. So, um, and I believe that touchdown was in the first half. I think it was the. I think it it was their first or second score of the game, um, but the last seven games you played more ranked opponents, like I said. Uh, he had. He had one game over 100 yards. He only had one game where he had seven or more catches, um, and he ended up with 32 total catches as opposed to 54 in the first. First six. Uh, for a average of 59.9 yards per game and only four touchdowns.

Speaker 2: 25:28

You know that that's not why are we talking about that? So I think, I think there's there's a big delta to use a business term between those statistics and being deemed, you know, the best player in the country number one overall draft pick. You want to see somebody absolutely pop on tape like a marvin har Harrison Jr where you're like yeah he's an absolute stud.

Speaker 2: 25:52

He's going to start day one in the NFL. Will Luther Burden start day one in the NFL? I don't know. I really don't know. I'd be interested to know, because that's a lot of receptions, how many targets he had. Is he pulling the ball down? You know, 65 percent of the time where the, where he's getting thrown his way. Is it higher than that? Um, those are the things where guys are going to scout, watch him. How does he do against cover two? How does he do against man zone? All that type of stuff. And I think I want to reiterate what you're saying. He's a great player. There's no doubt he is a high level sec talent, but being the number one overall draft pick as a skill player, that is in another stratosphere.

Speaker 2: 26:29

He's going to have to have a hell of a 2024 against really good opponents to validate. You know predictions like that yeah, I agreed, agreed.

Speaker 1: 26:38

Um, all right, where do we want to go next? We gotta get to the bridge thing, please.

Speaker 2: 26:43

Oh, yeah, the baltimore bridge, that's, that's great. Did you like what I just sent you?

Speaker 1: 26:47

so I did, and there's multiple reasons why I think it's something we should talk about. Maybe this becomes a recurring segment because of conspiracy theories. We are 0 for 1 on conspiracy theories currently because, between us, I thought Dude, I was on. I was the whisper of this because I feel so bad about it. Maybe I owe the royal family an apology, but I just thought Kate Middleton was dead. I was on sirius xm last week talking with dory and he's like what do you think happened? I was like I think she's dead two days later she comes out and was like oh my gosh, I had cancer.

Speaker 1: 27:18

I'm so. Thank you for all your support and like all of twitter was like so this is.

Speaker 2: 27:23

This is uh on that topic jackie and I, my wife, we were in sedona for our 10-year anniversary at the beginning of this month.

Speaker 2: 27:30

So, beautiful spot. We had a blast, well, one of the nights. We're sitting out there by the fire at this awesome resort we stayed at and this lovely British couple sits down next to us. So we start chatting and on the plane ride there I got deep into the Kate Middleton conspiracy black hole and I'm sitting there with Jackie. I'm like are you aware of this? You know it's a four hour flight out to Phoenix. She's like no, so of course these British people walk up to us and I'm like what do you guys think about Kate Middleton? This is the beginning of the month. They're like what?

Speaker 1: 27:58

do you mean?

Speaker 2: 27:58

They had no idea about the American conspiracy theories. I was like she's gone, like she's missing, they're like you Americans are so crazy and it was just. It's funny looking back. Obviously, what has since come out is tragic and I hope she has a full recovery. But at the time the British people, they think extremely highly of the royal family and I come in as just this red-haired American guy.

Speaker 1: 28:26

I'm like oh yeah, she's nobody's seen her since Christmas.

Speaker 2: 28:28

She's gone.

Speaker 1: 28:30

It's crazy. Well, it's also like it's funny too, because, like I understand like that, that that reaction to you is like you know, you americans are blah blah. It's like. Well, like it's not like it. You could put it this is a, this is a country, and I I withheld from saying the effort there, so I feel like I deserve a trophy right now, but congratulations this is a country that, in 2024, is still like yeah, yeah, we actually believe that there's a royal family that passed down with all these incredible genetics.

Speaker 1: 28:57

They are better than everyone else. Also side note no one with perfect genetics looks like that. Like no one with perfect genetics is as ugly as that fucking family. Excuse my language.

Speaker 2: 29:09

It's just, you know, just the fascination with them. Like you said, one of my wife to bring her up again, one of her very close friends has worked at ABC News for a very long time and she was the royal family correspondent. She lived in London and if news broke she was on Good Morning America leading the seven o'clock hour with hard news from buckingham palace. That was her beat, it's fascinating though.

Speaker 1: 29:35

Yeah, she was the pat 40 of the royal family you know what I would love? Yes, that's exactly what she was in like a fantasy, in like a fantasy world, like like the mike griffith of the royal family, would be awesome yeah, like, who is that guy in britain?

Speaker 2: 29:49

I'd love to know who that is. I would love to know who that is and he's worked for some other families. He's worked at some competing families who, like, don't believe in the royal family. But then he got his big break. Now he's all in on the royal family and I love mike griffin.

Speaker 1: 30:04

He knows constantly shitting on america as like the saban versus kirby dynamic yes, yes, perfect yes, um, that's good and he is american.

Speaker 2: 30:14

And he is american, though. That's the best part, because that guy has to be an american who has the royal family. Yeah, now he hates america. I love that.

Speaker 1: 30:22

That's how all that, yes, um, okay, so we have. We have other topics here we can talk about this the usc recruiting push um, it's interesting.

Speaker 2: 30:31

I mean lincoln rally is a great recruiter. That that's always been known, right?

Speaker 1: 30:35

let's, let's not spend too much time on it, but it is interesting because they've gone out and gotten, as of today, three of the top six players in the state of georgia. Um, which is okay. Like there's a reason why. If you look, if you look at all the other pictures I have on here for these things, we'll get to this one in a second. I can't wait to talk about it. There we go. Greatest graphic ever made, but this one here the reason why I didn't cut the background out. People wonder why anyone would want to go to USC, and it makes me laugh every time. Look at the picture.

Speaker 2: 31:06

Yeah, now I know USC is technically, technically, in compton. It's a private school university, southern california. It's elite academically. Obviously you can make the argument that people don't like college sports that much out there. Um, I went to ucla two years ago. I'd never been west. I'd never been to westwood and I got to ucla and I was like this place is awesome.

Speaker 1: 31:30

I was like this place is so sick I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 2: 31:34

And this is when I was working with Aaron Murray and I was texting with. Aaron. I was like dude, ucla is the greatest place ever. He told the story. He's like I took an official visit there. Rick Neuheisel picked me up. He was the head coach. He goes. I literally called my parents. I was about to commit and my parents were like hold on a second, hold on one second. Like let's just think he was like I fell in love at first sight. That place is incredible.

Speaker 2: 31:55

It really is like those schools out there. They're beautiful, it's perfect. Every day You're in Southern California, the scenery not just the palm trees is spectacular. There's a reason why not just hey, here's some NIL dollars and we're going to compete now in the Big Ten why people would want to go there.

Speaker 1: 32:14

One of the things I thought was interesting about this was, again, you're taking three players out of the state of Georgia. This is fascinating to me for a number of reasons. It blows my mind in this day and age when I look at, when I look at people who talk about recruiting and they're like all right, you know, get the big three Texas, florida, california who's the best state after that? Georgia has passed the state of California so many years ago, like easily in the last 10 years, without question, right. So what was interesting to me is like you used to see a lot of this.

Speaker 1: 32:51

Tennessee was really big on this and you can see it now with nico.

Speaker 1: 32:54

But when tennessee had a national, oh, like recruiting footprint, huge, like, huge, huge in california, where all the clausens were from jesse mahalena was from out there or hawaii, or one of those two, one of those two very different places, um, but when you talk about like going, going out to california in a recruiting hotbed or a fertile recruiting ground, all that kind of stuff, it kind of feels like those roles are reversed. When you're talking about USC coming to Georgia and getting commitments from the state, now again, it's March, we don't know if these are going to stick around, if they're going to be the same or not. Whatever, I will say what was most interesting to me was you saw it with Bear Alexander. I think that Bear Alexander is the poster child for what usc is pitching and, and lincoln riley said, they have really gone out and tried to increase the nil stuff since he got there, especially from from this spring. Bear alexander, I think, got like eight hundred thousand dollars or something like that. He got like I know he got an eight hundred thousand dollar apartment.

Speaker 2: 33:49

If you're 18 the bear alex thing, and I don't know this to be true. This is just me guessing the timing around his commitment to USC. If you put the dot, if you put, if you piece the dots together of when the communication supposedly happened and then all of a sudden he's thinking about it.

Speaker 2: 34:10

Really funny that Georgia Was in LA for a national championship Game for about a week and then all of a sudden, right afterwards. It's like Bear Alexander Might commit and transfer to USC. I mean those Going back to our original conversation Of unmitigated free agency. Something smells, something smells there. But to your point, what you're making here is, I think, usc comes to the state of Georgia. They say, hey, we're here because we know the best talent is here. Yep, we're recruiting you because we want to take the best talent and bring it to our school. If you go to Georgia, you're just another Jersey. That's what they're telling these kids. If you come to USC, you're the guy right and you're going to start Right and you're going to be the guy who can then beat the team of the home state that you're from.

Speaker 2: 34:54

That's the whole recruiting pitch. You make these kids feel more important. You make them feel like they're a big fish in a little pond, and for some that's what they want. And they don't necessarily want to be in the shadows of the guys that they've been competing against in high school for years and years and that they watch every friday and saturday growing up. So I don't disagree with it. Now it's time for lincoln rally to actually develop those players that aren't right.

Speaker 1: 35:18

Well, and I tell you what. What you said, I think is all factual. There's also a tremendous amount of power in the words that you're saying of you're just another guy at georgia. Come to usc and you can be a star, because 20 years ago you talk about going to usc, a college football, blue blood and and now that's the, that's the people that put on the full court press to recruit you. There's a lot of power in that and I also want to apologize to you because this is I think I'm to blame for what you guys are doing right now I know I mean this is.

Speaker 2: 35:48

I call it the dogs disappearing act. They're ohio state's on a 17-0 run. This is what they do. They've got to learn how to withstand this.

Speaker 1: 35:55

Thankfully, there's four and a half minutes left and blue cane just made it three um, okay, you, you're ahead of me too, so I hate you for that also, but jarvis jones went to usc, roquan smith went to ucla I mean, think about that.

Speaker 2: 36:08

It was the same pitch back then. And jarvis jones, who I love, uh, he got inducted into uga circle of honor, which is the highest honor that any student athlete can get. He gave an amazing speech and what he said was sometimes even the gps gets it wrong meaning hey, I went out to usc. Obviously he went through his injury, stuff. He came back to georgia he became an all-amer. Same thing with Roquan. He was out at UCLA, stuck in Purgatory.

Speaker 1: 36:34

He started at UCLA.

Speaker 2: 36:35

Yeah, he committed to UCLA. Then he came over to Georgia. Of course, all-time linebacker Georgia just tied it up.

Speaker 1: 36:44

There's also something about the fact that there you go, tied it up. There's also something to be said for the mystique of California, which is as as you and I, as adults, look at living in California and I was. I was very close to living in California, um, not that long ago, and San Francisco used to be my favorite city in the world. It was awesome, love going out there. It's expensive as shit, but I just I loved it. You could not pay me to live in California rightia right now, and but I think with these kids, there's something still where you're like, man, this is there's, there's, it's like the mystique of hollywood, mystique of la. That's a different life. Man, that's a cool. Yeah, you're from south georgia and you're living in a penthouse in la.

Speaker 2: 37:22

That's, that's a cool thing no doubt, and ropon ropon was a what he spurned ucla. They said he was committed and never signed his national letter of intent, and then he came to Georgia, so that was fact check.

Speaker 1: 37:32

I would say another thing, too, is those matchup breakdowns I do during this time of year.

Speaker 2: 37:38

It's like my favorite thing to do, my favorite content.

Speaker 1: 37:40

Yes, yes, awesome, I appreciate that Awesome Dude. The UCLA one. I was telling somebody they were like, do you remember when Damon played UCLA? And I was like, yeah, and they're like. Some of the questions was like, what do you remember most about that? And I was like, if I'm being honest, what I remember most about that game was the Adderall rabbit hole. I went into it the night before looking at the, the alumni page from UCLA, cause it's insane. It like Jackie Robinson and James Franco on the same. It's insane. So, all right, let's talk about somebody else from USC real quick, cause I thought this was hilarious for a number of reasons.

Speaker 1: 38:15

Um, he's a different cat, so no question he yeah, I mean just some gloss ass shit instead of boss that shit. He is seeing last night at the at the USC basketball women's basketball game and he's holding a pink phone case. Yeah, I didn't think that was With like keychains.

Speaker 2: 38:38

Do you carry keychains?

Speaker 1: 38:40

That was the part that was feminine to me, Like wrapped around the finger like a little high school girl.

Speaker 2: 38:45

That was my biggest gripe. I'm like what is that all?

Speaker 1: 38:47

about that is every girl coming out of the tanning bed with a playboy bunny right below her belly button. Yeah, with that thing just just making all the noise in the world.

Speaker 2: 38:58

Funny, uh, but you know what. You know what bothered me the most? What his hair. Can we get a?

Speaker 1: 39:04

are you a bother?

Speaker 2: 39:05

can we get a fresh tape? Can we get a lineup? Can we get the neck trimmed up a little bit dude you're about to be the number one overall draft pick, you know dress for the job you want, not for the job you have come on now he had.

Speaker 1: 39:17

He, he did look a little bit rugged, I guess, is what the word I'll use for that. Now, this is what I thought was funny about this was people overreacted. I think there's still, especially in football. There's still like a macho of course type saying the pink part didn't bother me at all. I had a rose gold phone case, I think, at one point, like when I was like like eight years ago, and that's like whatever, yeah, yeah, paint your nails, do whatever, I don't give a shit, as long as you win football games, I don't care. Like there's rumors now that he might be gay, I will say this that doesn't bother me at all either.

Speaker 2: 39:49

The l, the lgbtqb like meme that came out was hilarious, that that was funny and, um, if he's gay, who cares? Then he's an ass kicker and you know like. You know like that and you know what. If he I don't think he is not again, not that it matters, but he's a baller like who cares? Nfl teams don't care either.

Speaker 1: 40:13

Like this kid yeah, is a generational talent especially at that position. I always said this there was a sick not a sick part of me. There was a just a trolly part of me that really wanted Najee Harris to be gay at Alabama because if you remember 2019, the game against South Carolina, where he has this fourth and five, where he catches a pass on the backfield, hurdles a dude, stiffs arms, another drags him on in the end zone, goes in the end zone and does this, and it was like from the Megan Rapinoe.

Speaker 2: 40:41

Women's World Cup thing.

Speaker 1: 40:42

Bama fans lost their minds on this and it was like I'm not going to be watching Bama football. I've been watching Bama football for 54 years. I've got to put my season tickets up for sale because he's honoring Megan Rapinoe. I was like dude, please go into Heisman and in the announcement say you're gay, so I can watch people's heads literally explode.

Speaker 2: 41:01

People are crazy man. Obviously, social media is a cesspool, caleb Williams, and I think I don't know who tweeted it out, but they said oh, it was like a you know who it was. It was that Ari Marav guy.

Speaker 1: 41:15

No, no, it wasn't it was the dog climate. The aggregator.

Speaker 2: 41:18

The aggregator, uh, he just said, and I I read it and I thought it was actually a really good point he goes for as much shit as Caleb Williams relentlessly takes on social media. He always takes the high road. You never see him get into the mud. I mean, obviously he jumped back at Jack Mack from Barstool today and you know that was funny Tit for tat. If you dish it, you got to be able to take it. So I'll be really interested to see, when the Bears pick him number one maybe, how his personality shifts, because then he's going to be the guy and the media spotlight's going to be the guy. In the media spotlight it's going to be massive. Chicago is desperate, desperate for a superstar at quarterback and you know what, if he's great, he can do whatever the hell he wants and the bears will love him I you know I will say this too like the jack mac thing was hilarious for a number of reasons.

Speaker 1: 42:10

As I told you off air, I'm not a fan of Jack Mack because of one specific instance last year with with Kevin Sullivan from from UF baseball and the story he put out about his affair. That wasn't real and it came out at the worst possible time and it was all. It was all just so maliciously ignorant and I hated it. I will also tell you this watching the back and and forth today. That's what social media is good for. If you miss it, he makes a comment. He's like no pink phone case is crazy, not going to lie. Caleb Williams responds your profile pic is crazy, not going to lie.

Speaker 1: 42:42

And so the next day I don't know if you saw the video, but Jack Mack goes into the Barstool headquarters or whatever in New York or whatever in New York and he's like you see, I got roasted from Keller Williams. You know he, he owned me. It was like, you know, very public blah, blah. So he goes up to this other person and then the um he was like hey, I need you to give me a new headshot. I got roasted from such and such. I'm sure you saw it. So they're taking these pictures, whatever, and he's like fingernails painted. That was funny. That's when social media can be good. Yes, yes, totally agree. All right, as this game is winding down.

Speaker 2: 43:18

Yeah, I'm at 52 seconds, georgia down by one and Justin Hill.

Speaker 1: 43:24

A little work inside, I'm not going to do a play-by-play, but it's coming down to the water. I hate that I'm behind. I also like. So this is, you're a gambling man. We talk about this all the time like just in normal everyday life With a kiss Dog's up by one 36 seconds left.

Speaker 2: 43:40

I hate that I'm behind on this.

Speaker 1: 43:44

So, you guys win in the first half, bears fans are going to paint their nails.

Speaker 2: 43:47

You're exactly right If Bears fans are going to paint their nails.

Speaker 1: 43:51

You're exactly right If they start 8-0, they'll all be painting their nails pink, a thousand percent. That kind of stuff could be good. That kind of stuff could be good, I think, for sports. No, I was talking about this on social media and some of our listeners and the people I interact with from Georgia Twitter that, like me, brought this up a while ago and it was Georgia basketball, like you said, falling apart in the second half. Every single like it seemed like every single game. They lost 10 of the last 12 in the regular season, but still a good team and a good job from Mike White what he's been able to do for most of the year but Georgia to win the first half as a prop bet and then lose the full game. Do you know what that was?

Speaker 2: 44:27

Do you know what it was? Because I do not know what it was Plus 575. To win the first half and lose the game outright.

Speaker 1: 44:33

They've done it like three times in the last four games. It's been money Like it's been.

Speaker 2: 44:38

That's a good bet, or like in the regular season.

Speaker 1: 44:41

Yeah, so I jumped all over that. All right, we got a couple more things to go over here before we get out of here.

Speaker 2: 44:56

We're not gonna.

Speaker 1: 44:56

We're not gonna cover this for a number of reasons. Well, I read the report today.

Speaker 2: 44:58

I read the report today he was. He was doing 90 on south millage. Do you know how hard that is to do? South millage is a two-lane road that is hauling ass. Obviously Milledge is. If you get off the loop, Milledge Avenue takes you into campus. South Milledge goes out towards the other athletic facilities, so it's where the golf course is, where the softball field is.

Speaker 1: 45:21

It's where some of the other fields are.

Speaker 2: 45:23

It's where a lot of the neighborhoods are that some student athletes live at. And then the police officer said he was peddled to the metal at 90 and the car that he was chasing was gaining, so like he wasn't catching up. I don't know, man. I mean, obviously, what was it? 3, 30 am you? Just that's in the dui, less safe. I didn't even know that was a thing in georgia. I guess it was because one, he didn't do a field sobriety test and two, he's 19 or 20. So if there's any suspicion they're going to tag him with that and of course they're going to go through the legal process.

Speaker 2: 46:00

But unfortunate timing Kirby Smart had just raved about him in the media Great leader, great kid. He's been in here doing everything we ask of him. And then today Coach Smart had to get on the podium and essentially say he made a mistake. He's not going to let it define him. Discipline will be internal. Whatever the Athletic Association's rulebook is. Of course we'll have to follow that, but with the history in the last 18 months, this is the thing, drew.

Speaker 1: 46:26

It's tough man there's no excuse, there's no excuse. It's low-hanging fruit for outside fans and to talk about this and like I've tried to yeah, william, I saw that too. I don't know if you saw that.

Speaker 2: 46:38

Sorry to interrupt you. William said he said he would push the car back. The police officer asked him. I don't know what the answer or the question was, but Trevor ETN said trevor travis etn. Trevor etn.

Speaker 1: 46:57

Trevor etn said I can push my car back home I was like it's pretty, it's pretty impressive. Listen, if this was 19, if this was 1980, this would be. This would be the story my dad would tell me growing up, like they had this running back named trevor etn, yes, and he got pulled around the cops one time and he told but like this is what bothers me about this, and like one of the things that always happens on social media, especially with rival fan bases, is the moment you see something like this, you see, oh shit, oh, there's no foul how is that not a foul?

Speaker 1: 47:25

so the moment this happens, you're going to see other fan bases pile on and talk about it, stuff like that, and so, like you know, I I got sent this thing multiple times from people. Like by the time I woke up and someone was like you need to, you need to take a shot at georgia about this, and I was like I don't know if I'm the right person with my fan base to first off, to be using the word shot in general and then talking about like you know what I mean that kind of stuff. But what really does bum me out about this is I saw people going back and forth about this. All that aside, all the shit, talk aside from the fan base, what you said 18 months ago know, evan just said it.

Speaker 2: 48:03

Disrespect, you had a devin willick.

Speaker 1: 48:05

Yeah, I know you had a player pass away and, whether people want to talk about this or not, like I was told from the, the entire 20, like towards the end of 2021 season, this whole street racing thing had become a problem on the team and it was. It was a thing they just did, like the players just did there was a massive expose about it.

Speaker 1: 48:26

Yes, yes, right, but street racing and there's no part of me that's saying that jaylen carter killed someone did anything like that. But jaylen carter and this kid, they're street racing and someone lost their life, I know and the fact that it still goes on it just shows to me at some level there's a lack of care and and I will say this in Georgia's defense this isn't a Georgia player. This is a player they got from the transfer portal who still is responsible and he has to accept responsibility for it and all that kind of stuff and be held accountable. But it does feel like there hasn't been a lot of issues with this from the team since that happened until this. But you got to clean this shit up, man.

Speaker 2: 49:06

You're a hundred percent. You're a hundred percent Right, and the fact that it has been so long since something happened it just goes to show you that when it does happen, it's going to be exaggerated tenfold.

Speaker 1: 49:18

Right.

Speaker 2: 49:19

What's happening right now? So Kirby smart saying the same thing to the team guys, you've done everything we've asked you to do for the last 18 months. Obviously, we've cleaned some things up, but if it happens, these are the consequences, and thankfully nobody got hurt in this instance. Yeah, Looks like the dogs are about to win this game.

Speaker 1: 49:37

Yeah, so I'm going to lose that plus 575. We didn't talk about this at all, but let's just close it out with some March Madness talk Wait.

Speaker 1: 49:44

We didn't talk about this at all but let's just close it out with some March Madness talk. Yeah, please, did I not download the right one? Of course I didn't. All right, well, I don't have the March Madness one in front of me that I made clearly for this show. March Madness this weekend biggest takeaways. I did a full-on nerding out yesterday on the officials and the fouls that were called in the thing I sent it to you yesterday.

Speaker 2: 50:06

You did not respond which I want you to know. I thought it was a great graphic. I thought it was a great graphic. I'll give you that much.

Speaker 1: 50:11

I appreciate that Watching, I think, like the the GF was in town, her watching me write this down in pencil in a notebook in the year 2024, of every single game, so like 48 total games of how many thousand?

Speaker 2: 50:27

free throws were in this.

Speaker 1: 50:28

She was like there's gotta be a better uh scenario or a better way to do it. Yeah, yeah. So, um, opening weekend, march madness, main takeaways any big bets you hit, uh, anything you missed on. I think the biggest takeaways I would say for me was man watching watching auburn lose. The yale was kind of crazy. There were some, there were some significant upsets, but that was wild for so many reasons because we talk about this a lot in sports but the referee inserting themselves into games that they need to. I hate referees.

Speaker 2: 50:58

I hate referees across all sports.

Speaker 1: 51:00

It's an epidemic.

Speaker 2: 51:02

I can't stand them and I talk about it ad nauseum on punt and pass to the point where people are like Drew, stop it. We don't want to hear you talk about it anymore.

Speaker 2: 51:11

I cannot stand when referees aren't held accountable. I cannot stand when it becomes a ref show. I cannot stand when they make it about themselves. It's bad for the sport. Uh, they don't face any repercussions whatsoever. It drives me absolutely crazy. And it's from the nfl to the nba to college basketball, college football. It's so annoying. Um, and, of course, when those things happen, we shouldn't be talking about that. We should be talking about what's happening on the court in these right is my favorite things in this past weekend.

Speaker 2: 51:48

You know you love to see the cinderellas. That's obviously not happening in this march madness. Nc state's a great story, having just won the acc conference championship. Dj burns jr I mean, the guy's a nose guard banging around down there. He's fun to watch. But what I thought about and I was sending it in a group chat with my buddies how does Auburn lose to Yale? How does Kentucky lose to Oakland? How does that happen in no other sport?

Speaker 1: 52:13

Is that even?

Speaker 2: 52:14

possible. It's not even possible. You're talking about Oakland, a team where nobody's going to play professional basketball. Who beat Kentucky, where five guys are five stars? They probably all go to the NBA. How does that happen in college football? If Georgia or Alabama or Ohio state or Michigan played Yale football, it would be a total bloodbath. That's just what happens, Right. And there's no other sport baseball, no chance, no chance, right. How come in college basketball, in the tournament, it happens? I mean Yale I see it like a team full of future lawyers just beat a team full of four and five stars. Like it's crazy.

Speaker 1: 52:55

Every March there's either a team full of whites or a team with one great white hope that is just launching from three, that dude from Oakland, grokey, or whatever.

Speaker 2: 53:07

Grokey Exclusively threes dude 346 attempts.

Speaker 1: 53:13

Good win for Georgia here. That's huge.

Speaker 2: 53:15

Go to.

Speaker 1: 53:15

MSG baby. I love that, but no, grokey. 346 attempts. Eight Eight were from two.

Speaker 2: 53:22

I will say All season long. He shot eight two point shots they were all up the rim.

Speaker 1: 53:28

They're all layups credible dude.

Speaker 2: 53:30

That's incredible the.

Speaker 1: 53:32

The thing that I, jay wright, talked about this. I think it's like with coach cal. They this, this is when you know it's bad at kentucky. They put out a graphic today I think it's on three that said coach cal is staying at kentucky and they had to do a full graphic about it.

Speaker 1: 53:46

And one of the things I think is really interesting about that is the fact that Jay Wright brought up he goes, listen. What he did in the one-and-done era was incredible. There's a 30-for-30 about it. He put out all these kids that ended up going pro and had a great one year. They only won one natty.

Speaker 1: 54:03

With this right it's hard to win a college basketball national championship, but doing all that and you look at where it's at now. He brought this up in the year the era of the portal. Especially the teams that are winning are veteran teams. It's time to switch that entire mindset from cow and be like like you can have these great players that are, you know, 18, 19 years old, but if you, but if you've got a team full of like 22, 23 year olds, especially now when you have, like that extra year because of the COVID, there's a lot to be said for that.

Speaker 1: 54:32

So I thought that was interesting. Yeah, yeah, going back to what you brought up, and I'm going to throw up the graphic here for a second, there you go. Love it, like this is the moment this happens. I understand that people want to talk about how you shouldn't bitch and complain about the refs, but this is egregious and I went through every single game from every single region, because I was watching the Bama game against Grand Canyon and at one point they had 36 free throws and Bama had like 15.

Speaker 2: 55:03

I saw a hilarious tweet. It was like live feed of the Bama-Grand Canyon game and it was like Rucker Park Guys like swinging on each other falling on the ground, balls going everywhere.

Speaker 1: 55:14

I mean, that's what was happening in that game. Most disjointed basketball game I've ever watched. It was awful to watch, but you talk about, like the Auburn game. Auburn and Bama, they're both in Spokane and you look at it you ever been to Spokane. No, you don't want to go. Nothing against.

Speaker 2: 55:31

Spokane Hard to get there, not really itching to get back, let's just put it that way.

Speaker 1: 55:35

Okay, that's fair. I just saw that. One of the things I saw was like it was talking about like the rest of those first two games where, like, like the first round I'm not trying to say that Auburn would have beaten Yale if they had a full squad and Chad Baker Mazzara should not have elbowed that guy in the ribs or what have have some more, you know, for lack of a better word, it's a quorum. I don't know Cause I'm, I'm, I'm running out of thoughts here, but like, at the same time dude, you, they're three minutes into a game because of that, that's such a massive impact.

Speaker 1: 56:05

And when I broke down the numbers, what I thought was wild was in those two games Bama and Auburn they both had 44 total fouls. Auburn had 25 in their first game, the most out of any team in the country. The 44 fouls in those two games were the most in any two games in the first round of the entire country. And in those two games they combined for 119 free throws. That was above the national average by 8 000 per game and over 18 free throws. It's just wild like that. I'm not saying it's why they lost, but it impacts the game so significantly and you look everywhere else and it's like how is that happening? How is it such a like? Not just the most, but egregiously more than everywhere else?

Speaker 2: 56:42

I mean houston. The game goes to overtime against texas a&m. Four of their starters fouled out and they still won the game. Jamal shett, big 12 offensive player of the year, fouled out and they still won the game. It's crazy.

Speaker 1: 56:55

Do you want to take a wild guess at how many free throws and fouls were in that game, because I remember the free throws by heart. The fouls was 52,075 free throws.

Speaker 2: 57:08

That's insane.

Speaker 1: 57:09

That's insane.

Speaker 2: 57:11

It's just bad for the sport.

Speaker 1: 57:13

Yeah, agreed. All right, let's close with this. Your choice. How about this? Do you want to talk about Kaitlyn Clark and people upset with her using bad language, or do you want to talk about the bridge?

Speaker 2: 57:29

Let's talk about the bridge.

Speaker 1: 57:30

The bridge is or.

Speaker 2: 57:31

P or P Diddy. There's a lot going on in the world right now.

Speaker 2: 57:35

You know, hats off to Caitlin Clark. Who cares if she cusses, she's a total baller. I'll tune in. I haven't been watching, but I'll tune in for the final four and see how far they get. I mean, um, I'll tune in. I haven't been watching, but I'll tune in for the final four and see how far they get. I mean, like, if the game's good and twitter's going crazy, I'll flip it on. But you know, for me it's just kind of out of my purview right now. It's not really appointment television. Not taking anything away from how great she is, um, so shout out to her, and I I love her dad telling her to shut up.

Speaker 1: 57:58

That was cool that was cool, real quick on that's. I. I appreciate the take. I I understand where you're coming from. You also have a lot more going on in your life than I do right now. This has been appointment television for me for like a month, mainly because her games would come on at 1230 on a Sunday, which is like right when I'm getting up and they would come out and say like she scored 20 or more points in like 45 straight games. So it's really been fun to watch. The game they had in the first round against I think it was holy cross had 3.23 million viewers in the first round of a women's tournament, one verse 16, which was over three quarters of a million more than the previous record they had for viewers, which is awesome, just so awesome. Yeah, and I'm tired of people who have never played sports weighing in on her being her saying bad, her not being a role model. Like I quote Charles Barkley, it's not her job to be a fucking role model, it's her job to win games.

Speaker 2: 58:50

Yeah, and you know what, Like the people who say that it's such a throwaway comment, it's them trying to be relevant and holier than thou. It's so crazy. She is a bona fide star and she can do whatever she wants, as long as she's scoring 35 a night. As far as far as I'm concerned, all right but the bridge, okay, the bridge is crazy. I woke up this morning, turned today's show on. I'm like what the hell is this?

Speaker 2: 59:16

and then you know, by 11 am this morning I saw somebody tweeted out. My buddy clem tweeted out never knew there were so many cargo ship captains on twitter. I everybody's breaking it down. I was like, yeah, this is crazy. You're seeing like sped up and slowed down and wasn't intentional and was the captain from Ukraine and was there explosives on the bridge? I mean it's insane. First off, just the logistical nightmare for that port and like what it's going to do to the eastern seaboard.

Speaker 2: 59:45

That's crazy tragic if people have in fact lost their life um but, dude, that I mean you don't, I've never seen anything like that ever.

Speaker 1: 59:56

No, it like you've ever seen, like when you were a kid, the old stuff about like the bridges, that like had like the suspension wires messed up and so they draw bridges right, but, like I, it's not just. The bridge fell and broke and crumbled into the water. It happened so quickly.

Speaker 2: 1:00:13

Yeah, I mean, it was a full container ship that rammed into the I don't even know what this is called the pillar yeah. That was insane dude. And then it just it just freaking alex glaze. If you remember, alex uh used to be on 11 alive sports here in atlanta he is a news broadcaster in baltimore, I'm sure he hadn't slept in 24 hours.

Speaker 2: 1:00:36

I follow him on social media. He's been all over it. But I mean that is a national storyline, like tonight. Tonight Lester Holt was live from Baltimore. The Today Show. They'll have people live. It is a massive, massive story. And you know, is it taking away? Was this from the Illuminati to take the attention away from P Diddy? I don't know. These are questions we have to ask. These are questions we have to ask, by the way how about P Diddy leaving the country and got out?

Speaker 2: 1:01:10

No, no, no, no. How about? P Diddy's drug mule was a former Syracuse basketball player. Did you see that? Did not? Yeah, it just broke, probably like 6 pm tonight. P Diddy's drug mule, who was detained at his house, was a former Syracuse basketball guard. He's a white kid.

Speaker 1: 1:01:28

He looks like me. He's one of the white kids from the late 2000s early 2010s.

Speaker 2: 1:01:33

Of course he is dude, but he played like 2019 and 2020 at Syracuse Crazy, I don't even know. My first thought was how on earth is that connection made? I don't know, man, like the world is, the world is a crazy place and it's an election year. It's only going to get crazier.

Speaker 1: 1:01:50

People buckle up I I want to. I love a good conspiracy theory. One of my favorite quotes about this is this ron funches, he's a comedian. He talks about great he's. Like he's like it's wild to say that you don't believe in any conspiracy theories. Like I understand not all of them, maybe, maybe not the big ones, but any. Like you think that the government's just batting a thousand. That's insane. Like I think that's such a good point. I will also say I wanted to have a conspiracy theory about this and so I got up super early this morning. Allie went home, so I came back to the house and went back to bed and by the time I had woken up because I'm watching this, it's like 8 o'clock, whatever. I'm seeing all this stuff on the news. By the time I had gotten back up from my I guess, technically my first nap of the day, I see Marjorie Taylor Greene post her research theory. I was like shit.

Speaker 2: 1:02:41

She checked in on which one Baltimore or Diddy she posted one on Diddy. Oh no, I'm asking you, I didn't see her. Oh no, Baltimore.

Speaker 1: 1:02:50

If she weighs in on P Diddy, I'm going to lose it.

Speaker 2: 1:02:55

I was like that meme of Biden seeing her at the State of the Union is all time.

Speaker 1: 1:02:59

It's all time.

Speaker 2: 1:03:01

And one of my favorite podcasts right now. Well, it's been one Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade. I'm a huge David Spade fan. They now do episodes on Fridays called Superfly, and what they do is they aggregate 10 top news headlines from the previous week and they just riff for 45 minutes. It's brilliant, it's fun. Maybe it's something like what you and I should do around the world of college sports, but what they've been doing is they cover everything. They cover politics, they cover pop culture, but when they do the political stuff, it's very light. They're comedians. Dana carvey has a hilarious joe biden hunter biden skit that he's been doing and he also does a great trump. They they make fun of everybody.

Speaker 1: 1:03:44

Yes, they make great impressions.

Speaker 2: 1:03:47

Yeah, he's 68 years old. I mean, it's just fascinating how talented he is. Wait, he's 68. Dana Carvey is Dana Carvey. Yeah, so they're making fun of Biden, hunter, trump, everybody. Well, they post them on their social media and the comments just explode. I can't believe you're a maga. I can't believe these guys. They don't care. So they opened up this past episode. They're like dude. Let's just open up the comment section and look at these people eating each other alive and they're laughing about it.

Speaker 2: 1:04:16

It's funny. But dana carvey's skit with hunter and joe biden is that hunter biden is the only one who can decipher what joe is mumbling saying. It's so damn funny, it's so funny and light-hearted.

Speaker 1: 1:04:30

And then this past week they were doing the trump yard sale to post the bond it's just gold it's comedy gold so I will tell you this, and without getting too political, you do have to give biden credit for the lincoln riley surge in recruiting because of mentioning him at the state of the union address was obviously huge, huge for that program. So, all right, let's close out of here on that.

Speaker 1: 1:04:56

This was awesome um we, you and I still need to finalize some stuff here, but I, I, just I. I think we're this. This all ends with us doing an additional show with you know fourth and wrong, and then putting pass and bringing some more weekly content out of this filthy off season, maybe in the end season as well.

Speaker 2: 1:05:14

I think that'd be great.

Speaker 1: 1:05:16

Yeah, I agree, man, I always blast to have you on. I really appreciate it. Tell everyone they can find your stuff and we'll do it again soon.

Speaker 2: 1:05:22

Yeah, absolutely, add drew Butler stuff and we'll do it again soon. Yeah, absolutely At Drew Butler on Twitter and Instagram at punt and pass. But right now, off season, I'm on the radio and I need to know the game on the steakhouse with steak.

Speaker 1: 1:05:31

Shapiro, so check us out if you're in the area.

Speaker 2: 1:05:32

Yes, sir. So having a blast, I appreciate you, and it's like spring cleaning, so the kids are down and my wife is like cleaning the house without me. So when you asked for 8M, I was like yeah, of course, dude, I'll gladly do it every day.

Speaker 1: 1:05:44

this week I got nothing. I'm watching one tree Hill. I'm almost done with a bank.

Speaker 2: 1:05:47

There you go.

Speaker 1: 1:05:49

Oh, yeah, and.

Speaker 2: 1:05:50

I do have to mention Georgia swept Bama and baseball this past weekend. Bye.

Speaker 1: 1:05:55

I don't, we'll talk about this out there. I don't give a shit.