BRANDON WALKER AND KAYCE SMITH DELIVER A THROWBACK EPISODE

Hey Unnecessary Roughness listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Welcome to Unnecessary Roughness, old school edition. If you've been with us for six years since, or seven years now, since 2019, this is how the majority of the shows went early and then middle and then whatever, but it is me and Casey Smith, just the two of us back together again for this episode. Nothing's wrong. I was just like, hey, let's just do an old school one. Let's just do me and you. Yeah, you said we haven't done one, just the two of us in a while. By the way, I'm going to say this multiple times. My voice has still not returned from San Fran. Yeah. San Francisco, excuse me. I know that that's very offensive to say San Fran, I've learned. So you're going to actually, you joke about having to carry these podcasts. You're going to actually have to do that. But yeah, this is an old school mom and dad episode. I feel like the newer listeners or watchers, viewers, whatever the word is of this podcast, don't realize that we did this for years and jack mack would be on the side so this is this is throwing it back i like to throw it back you know i do uh indeed you do uh so uh that's that was a word around san francisco anyway um so what happens in california stays in california brandon not to some people okay so we've got uh i have an announcement off the rip well i actually have two announcements off the rip number one is this our this is our last episode before our break we're going to take a break and we'll be back in the summer uh we will be back uh when college football starts to stir again we will start to stir again so this is our last episode for a while uh and number two announcement is you know one of the reasons this podcast is so special is it has the beautiful and talented casey smith thank you but up until yesterday it had the 2023 number one college football media personality in the world according to big game boomer and i would like to update everybody. Maybe you've seen it. Maybe you haven't. I haven't talked to Casey about it. Ladies and gentlemen, the 2025 number one college football media personality in the world is once again Brandon Walker. As evidenced by this banner right here and as declared by James. James has declared me the number one college football media personality in the world. Thank you to James. Thank you you to big game boomer r.i.p wherever you are uh so we got that going for me Casey the uh so I did I responded to it on Twitter and I just said you know much deserved because it is much deserved sure but what's so funny is that there are probably so many people seeing that on Twitter that don't necessarily live in the barstool world or know the lore that probably don't have a clue what big customer means and that made me giggle because of course we know and stoolies know but there's a college football fan out there that like has to say what the fuck is big customer well if you're watching this and you only know it's from college football uh big customer is the nickname i got because i ordered chick-fil-a every single day at the new york city office and i got to ordering it so much the security guys who stand at the door and let the food in would grab my food uh and quietly write these affirmative quotes that i thought were coming from the Chick-fil-A. Number one customer, huge customer, big customer. And I just, it made me feel so good every day because this one place I ordered lunch from was noticing me. And I didn't find out till months later after I'd moved to Chicago, the security guys were doing it themselves. So big customer is a good nickname though. It is. It's great. The fact that I believed it the whole time, because obviously when you were in New York, we were together every day. We would eat lunch a lot together i thought there's just no way that in new york city they are acknowledging one guy but they must be because who would be making this up so i was bamboozled too and so i didn't i i santa claus wasn't real that day we found out when pat and mike were doing that to you it just isn't mean it was hateful but it was so much funnier so much funnier than did anybody i never figured this out did only they know like did they keep it that secret did the whole office No, because I found out because Spider told me. Oh, well, once Spider find out something, I mean, everybody knows. I love Spider. Spider knew. My brother, but he's the worst kept secret guy. Spider knew and Ebony knew because I think when they weren't there, they had Ebony to do it. Like, they had a network of people that if we're not here, you do it. So, Ebony not snitching makes sense. Like, if there was a person at Barstool Sports that I needed to keep a secret from or keep a secret with is you and it's ebony if the opposite i love spider but i would not want him to know something i didn't want anybody else to know so i assume as soon as he found out you found out i believe so i believe i believe so um all right we got you got five questions for me that's your segment and my segment is going to be this hey real quick before i do that segment a little quick mini segment um i don't know if you saw but r.i.p james vanderbeek um what james Vanderbeek from Dawson's Creek and Varsity Blues died at 48 today. So he is now gone. But is James Vanderbeek, does he qualify as a football legend? Because he obviously is not a football player, he's an actor, but he was the quarterback in a very seminal football movie. I think he would be a football legend. What do you think? I don't know if I would use legend. You go Dawson first? You go Dawson first when you think of him? Brandon, I have never seen an episode of Dawson's Creek. So I know who he is because obviously at that time, and I don't even remember when Dawson's Creek hit its peak. I feel like I may have been a little too young. Like 98 to 03 is what I'm thinking. Okay, so that would have been, I mean, I guess I had girlfriends that like had posters of him on their walls. I was never a big Dawson's Creek guy. I would know him from Varsity Blues more, but it was like a one-off. Like would you call Taylor Kitsch because of Tim Riggins a football legend? uh i think i would you would i like like the the like um like the court like the defensive lineman gary bertier remember the titans he's a football legend right when he dies that's a football loss i don't know that's true that's true okay also i mean i'm i know i'm sounding ignorant did did they was he sick yeah i believe i believe he had cancer yeah that's awful R.I.P. Very young. Oh, my God. Bless you. That wasn't a great time for that sneeze. No, but it's just classically you. Yeah. All right. Here's my thing I got. And you told me you didn't see this on Twitter, and I'm actually glad you didn't see it. I hold in my hand, I believe this was College Football Report on Twitter. You know, just one of those Twitter accounts that love college football and do some aggregation and do some lists and everything, and I love them so much. But yesterday they dropped the top 50 head coaches in college football following the 2025 season. Now, anybody can make a list, and I'm not going to sit here and say his list is any more credence than my list or your list, but it does open up a question. I'm going to read you the top 10, and then I'm going to ask you the question. So the number one coach in college football following the 2025 season, Indiana coach Kurt Signetti, number one. Number two, Kirby Smart. Number three, Ryan Day. Number four, Dan Lanning. Number five, Marcus Freeman. Number six, Lane Kiffin. Seven, Steve Sarkeesian from Texas. Number eight, Dabo Swinney from Clemson. Number nine, Kalen DeBoer from Alabama. And number 10, James Franklin of Virginia Tech. Just missing the cut, Lincoln Riley at USC. Mario Cristobal, number 12, at Miami. Kyle Whittingham at Michigan, number 13. Mike Elko, number 14. And Kalani Satake at BYU, number 15. So my question is this. I have multiple questions. The first one is, two years in, is it correct or premature to anoint Kurt Signetti, who has now got two seasons at this level, two playoff teams, one national championship? Is it premature or correct to call him the best coach in America? Not only do I think it's correct, I think it's number one with a bullet. In fact, like I was, you know, my facial expressions, if you're watching on YouTube, I think probably gave away a lot of my takes here. But like that one is the only one I think that you could make the argument that is the absolute correct position. I think you could debate a lot of the other ones. There are some in the top 10 that I think are baffling. But everything we talked about before they won the national championship, everything we've said for the last couple of seasons, you have to put him there, right? He not only took the worst college football program of all time to win a national championship, he did it in two years by just being the best at this new evolution of college football. And he did it decisively. He did it in the first year by going 11-1, getting to the playoff, having a talent discrepancy and losing, fixing the discrepancy, coming back and beating everybody. It is correct. He is the absolute best coach in college football. and it's just a phenomenal thing when you think two years ago he was coaching at James Madison University. He's already in his 60s, like he's not a young man, but he right now is the creme de la creme top of the heap in college football. I think that one's a slam dunk, and I think Kirby Smart No. 2 is probably also a slam dunk. Then you do get into some questionable ones, but it's a top 50 list. Nobody's going to agree with everybody's top 50, and nobody's going to agree with everybody's top 10. But I think universally if you watch college football and make a living talking about it. If you do not have Kurt Signetti number one, you're either lying or just trying to get clicks. That's a rage bait. And I do both. I do both all the time, but I'm not going to do it here. You love that, but this is one that is an obvious rage bait. Like sometimes it's like you can rage bait and you can still make the argument. Like you can't. I would agree with Kirby Smart. I guess you could, there's not really anybody else I would slide above him. I would put him there. James Franklin being in the top 10 is baffling to me. And I understand that, you know, in the past, we've always put him up there when he was at Penn State. And it was like, OK, he just can't get over the hump. Like he got fired midseason. I'm not saying he's going to be a bad coach by any stretch of the imagination. But to rank that as a top 10 coach after this season is kind of crazy. So am I wrong? No, no, no, no, no. I think James Franklin is already benefiting from the new coach bounce. Like we're looking at James Franklin at Virginia Tech and we're saying, wow, what a great get for Virginia Tech to get a guy like James Franklin. and we're remembering the coach that he was and forgetting that the last version of James Franklin we saw was terrible. I don't believe he should have been fired that fast at Penn State. I think they should have given him a year to correct it. But he did get fired because they were terrible. In a year, they thought they were going to win a national title. But that's not the one I have the biggest problem with in the top ten. Kalen DeBoer being number nine is crazy. Kalen DeBoer was handed the best roster in America, and he turned it into missing the playoff at 9-3, sneaking into the playoff at 10-2 and then getting his fucking doors blown off by Indiana. So if you go to Alabama and that's your results, you're not a top 10 coach. You're just not. I think holding Cristobal out of the top 10 at this point is just holding on to either grudges or judgments you made three or four years ago and is ignoring what he is right now, and that's one of the elite coaches in the country. and also and I'm just going to say it Casey as much as I ran in with your people and everything and as much as I said I don't know if it's a national title team when when they were still undefeated Mike Elko at 14 is a little ridiculous I think he's better than Lincoln Riley ahead of him I think he's better than James Franklin at this point ahead of him and and I I would yeah I would move him up I agree and I mean that's not a bias take when you look at you know obviously Kurt Signetti is the top of the top when you've had a couple years at a school but what Mike Elko did to turn A&M around from what Jim, I mean, the dumpster fire that Jimbo Fisher was, but Mario Cristobal not being in it. Like at one point, I think you got to eight or nine and I legitimately had to think, is it the cold medicine I'm on or is it my blonde hair? Did he not say Mario Cristobal yet? Because this man had them obviously playing for a national title. And a couple of years ago, it was like, you know, the Christofrods, all of that. And he definitely wasn't perfect, but to keep him out. And I mean, again, Lane Kiffin's the hottest name in the world. What's Lane Kiffin won? Why is Lane Kiffin above Mario Cristobal? So here's – I go the other way on that one. I'd rather have Lane Kiffin than Marcus Freeman or Dan Lanning. Is that crazy? I mean, no. I mean, listen, I love Dan Lanning. I ride hard for Dan Lanning every single year. I probably should stop doing that next season. Lane's name is the hot name, and he obviously – every single time there was a job opening, it's like Lane is there because he rebuilds these teams in where he had Ole Miss. But he still hasn't won anything. Like, yes, his team got to the playoff, but then they won in the playoff without him. I don't know. I would keep him there. I'm not saying I would take him out of the top 10, but Mario Cristobal being in the national championship should absolutely have him higher up than that. I agree. Mike Elko, James Franklin shouldn't be anywhere near the top 10 in my opinion. If you consider that Mario Cristobal played for a national title this year and he is 12 and then Marcus Freeman played for a national title last year. And, and he, he surrounds that by, by, by not a very good seasons before that. And then this year missing the playoff. Like why is Marcus Freeman and, and, and Mario Cristobal separated by seven spots? they have the exact same peak and and crystal ball has done it longer this is a semantics question but is the list going into this season like or is it coming off of last top 50 head coaches in college football following the 2025 season yeah see that's that's where you lose all credibility to me because you're going to put mario crystal ball outside of the top 10 following a season he played the national championship and other guys who didn't even some of them didn't even sniff the playoff i mean i guess marcus freeman did but they still were left out i don't know that that's but Brandon as I always say and I know it's a little early to say list season but this is why college football is so great because you can throw these lists out on social media and we're going to sit and we're going to talk about them and we're going to get excited on February the 11th to talk about the next season just just one more I wanted to say he got Vanderbilt Clark Lee outside the top 25 he got Vanderbilt Clark Lee behind guys like Brent Venables and just on and on and on And Clark Lee a pretty goddamn good coach He went 10-2 at Vanderbilt. All right. He should be up there. Wait, really quickly, really quickly, though. Where would you put Dabo now? Because we've said in the past – I think eight's about right. Dabo obviously winning multiple national titles, but Limson was god-awful. I think eight's about right. I might jump him up just in case he gets Ole Miss in trouble for this tampering shit. So he might go up to number one if Ole Miss gets in real trouble. I doubt they will because the NCAA is toothless. But if Dabo could pull that off, I'm going to be a Dabo rider for the rest of my life. The new year is here. Get back into an at-home routine you love and elevate your space with Wayfair. 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Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Hey, Brandon, speaking of refresh, have I told you what I'm refreshing? no what i'll text you oh boy what's that what what could what could i'm gonna i'm gonna text you right now it's gonna be nasty what is she refreshing well it's not nasty but your your phone list your contacts what are you refreshing not the roster okay because that roster is pretty thick no it's not oh god you did tell me that you did tell me that all right uh well you know i think dolly gets it done once every couple of years so why not you um every 10 years you got to get a refresh you got to get them you know let's go get the tires rotated science it's scientific do they rotate them medical do they rotate them or do they they you know what honestly it's a great question it's uh but it really is it's every 10 years and and this current uh this current tire set um is 16 years it's got a lot of wear and tear a lot of wear and tear on them those things are running bald uh anyway um i didn't tell you this i i last week i went to uh i went to a party on thursday night after the dozen thursday by the way all-time day for me i woke up and did did my shows and then i got to go to the guy fieri show and uh all that and uh thursday night i went to a dinner that my agency was hosting and there were a lot of college football legends there and uh i met fernando mendoza that night you did tell me that and i walked up to him i did i and i texted me that i walked up to him and i was like yo what's up man and i and i was like you know because i'll be saying some shit and i was like uh he's like hey and then he's nicest guy he's just like just like he is on tv he was like that and he's like uh he's like what's up and i said hey man just in case i'm sorry i said if i said anything and he goes oh i know what you said but you were mostly talking about indiana you never say anything bad about me and i was like damn it you're right i never did say anything bad about you i just bad mouth your coach before the year started so that's okay he seems like he would be the guy that even if he knew you had said like the most heinous shit ever yeah he would still like he would he'd be like you know what god forgives you now that feels like my my my meeting eli manning didn't go quite as well um anyway uh brandon can i tell you mike kadik so i fernando followed me on instagram and i obviously I'm like 45 years older than Fernando Mendoza, but I made the joke to, to Kadic. I said, um, is he into older women? And usually Kadic will play, you know, play along with my, my jokes, my antics. He said, you leave that angel alone. And I was like, I agree with him. You, you stay away from our sweet baby boy. He's a child. He's a child. I cannot, I, but like, I just wanted to make the joke and, uh, Kadic was very, he was not playing around cause like he had Fernando Mendoza just, every time you see him he's just the happiest guy and I have a question about him later in this because there's some discourse around him that I am not a fan of Brandon but we'll get to it well it's your turn to ask questions of me well I will so first and foremost I know the guys did a an episode last week I believe on like Monday I know you and I were in we're in California but on Tuesday we're all hanging out you know we're focusing on the NFL and the college football playoff management committee, which by the way, adding management, it just makes it sound even worse and dorkier, but they come out and obviously this is like a week old at this point, but we have not talked about it personally together. They come out with one of the worst moves I've seen in college football for a long time. So if you're listening or watching this, you probably know, but just as a refresh playoffs going to remain 12 teams, they're going to, instead of having it New Year's Eve and New Year's day, they're going to have one game on the 30th to not interfere with the NFL on Thursday. But then the big one, two weeks between the quarterfinals and the semifinals, then the championship game will be on the 25th. So Brandon, from start to finish of the college football playoff, not just next season, the season after will be 38 days from the first kickoff to the last kickoff. And if you are sitting at home doing that math, not only is it 38 days, the end of the regular season to crowning a national champion of just 12 teams in the playoff is two months and i know that i immediately you know went on a rant put it on instagram twitter everybody brandon my question to you is did you first first and foremost said that twice did you see anybody defending this at all because i did not no and it's one of those things that uh college football has changed so much over the last five years uh and sometimes i'll say this about roger goodell in the NFL, Rob Manford in baseball, maybe less about Adam Silver in the NBA, but maybe. But these professional sports leagues, when they put out something that is unpopular, they do a good job of usually listening to the pushback and listening to what they're saying. And if they don't change it, at least they acknowledge things like, okay, yeah, but baseball will change, football will change sometimes. they'll tighten some things up uh but college football the big problem we all had this was a great playoff the only problem the only problem most people have with this playoff is it took forever it took absolutely forever and we all turned to college football and said hey guys great playoff make it shorter and they looked at us and said hmm what what what longer you want to make it long you ever seen the movie the great outdoors oh yeah john candy is is on the pier and he's teaching his son how to hold the rope to ski and and they're they're like they're in the boat dan aykroyd's in the boat and he looks back he's like you ready to go and um john candy just says yeah yeah yeah one minute and they take that to mean i'm gonna drive the boat as fast as possible across the lake and and and like john candy's calling him a bastard and he thinks he's saying go faster that's what college football is right now college football is in a boat speeding across the lake and we're saying you bastards and they're like oh faster faster you want to go deeper into january it's unbelievable the one thing we had a problem with the playoff they just refused to fix and they're going to make it much much much much much worse indiana miami are two great teams that championship game lost so much momentum from the from the playoffs because you had two full weekends of nfl playoff action in between the semis and the finals it did a disservice to indiana a disservice to miami and instead of fixing it they're making it worse it's it's bullshit that analogy is perfect because i just cannot imagine sitting in this college football management committee boardroom or zoom or whatever they're doing and being like you know what every single person that's involved in college football not just the fans because yes like at the end of the day you and i work in this industry but we're also fans not just the fans you've got head coaches head coaches like dan lanning who's in the playoff you've got players talking about it like this is not even just from an entertainment standpoint players shouldn't have to wait all this time to play these games the coaching carousel the transfer portal all these things they're sitting in that boardroom and they're like oh we don't care about any of that we're just gonna make it worse we're not gonna make it better we're gonna make it worse and the fact that there are two full weeks between the semis and the quarters like that not only loses steam that just can't be good for the teams that are playing physically It just can't be. There's just no, there's no rationale that makes sense. Like, I don't know if it's a money thing. I know they're trying to avoid the NFL, but that makes no sense. There's no way they're making more money from this. So my question to you, Brandon, is what is it going to take to actually fix it? Because I said, and you said, and everybody said, sitting up in front of God and everybody, we can't just bitch and moan about this. We have to fix it. There is a major problem. Now it's worse. What's it going to take? Because I don't know. They didn't want to listen. now when are they ever going to listen casey it it's not going to get fixed until it starts costing them money it probably will never cost them money so it probably will never get fixed it's probably just something they're going to have to do and live with it reminds me have you ever seen the movie the great outdoors with john candy it reminds me of a scene later in that movie where they go to a steakhouse and they got the old 96er right this gigantic steak that's hanging on a hook in the back and nobody can eat it if you eat it you get your whole meal for free and the ncaa is john candy and they're sitting there and they're they're eating and they're cutting it up they're cutting it up and and they they eat the second they get to the end and it's like there's nothing on that plate but gristle and fat and then they still got to eat it they still got to eat it and they still got to ruin what's left their meal that's what it reminds me of casey i haven't seen that movie in years just one of my dad's favorites i feel like i'm gonna have to watch that uh so before i move on to the next topic and i know that this is there's not a solid answer on this but right now sitting where we are with knowing what they're doing with the playoff they said they're not going to expand it you know they said it's going to be 12 for right now do you like is 12 just the answer for right now do you think it's 14 do you think it's 16 i think there is no perfect answer so 12 is as good as any 16 is probably where we're headed eventually i think we'll end up landing at 16 and that's a good solid number it gets rid of the buy problem the the the other problem that everybody have with this um this current iteration outside the timing is the fact that the bye teams are now 1-7, I believe, in these games. So, like, 16 would solve the bye problem. Just let everybody play, let everybody play the same amount of games. That would fix that problem. But there is no perfect number. Some years, like last year, we didn't have 12 deserving teams. This year we probably had 15. So there's no perfect number. Don't get your head caught in a perfect number. Find a number that's fair for the teams that are in it that year. and I think 16 is probably that answer where you don't have a bye week where you accumulate more rust and you know what to be honest if they fix the calendar the bye week would be a little bit better because the bye week means you got to wait five weeks to play four weeks to play if you had everybody playing on two weeks or three weeks that bye week's not as big a deal but it reminds me my go ahead go ahead go ahead no i'll save it i'll save it no i got an ad you got an ad to do do an ad i do i do my uh my answer to that is is if they're gonna keep fucking up the calendar don't add any more teams because at this at this rate if they want to add more teams we'll be playing they'll fucking yeah like the super bowl will happen and they'll be like well wait a minute we've got the semi-finals of the college football playoff coming so that would be a disaster um Okay, so I talked about this before the break, or I guess before we went on a little break of the show, but IQ Bar. Now, Brandon, if you're watching YouTube, I'm showing you this ultimate sampler. You know me. When I get a hold of a product that I love, I can't stop talking about it. I can't stop using it. This is an empty box because I've just been ordering the regular product. So IQ Bar is our snack and our coffee sponsor, and everything these days is all about protein and health. an IQ bar protein bars and the IQ Joe mushroom coffees are the delicious low sugar brain and body fuel that you need to win your day. I've been using them since I got this. They are incredible. It's non-jittery coffee. You can also just put it in your purse or your bag or whatever, bring it with you. You can just mix it with either hot water or cold water. But these protein bars, Brandon, unbelievable. They've got all the different samplers. They've got everything you could possibly want. All of them are clean label certified and entirely free of gluten, dairy, soy, GMOs, and artificial ingredients. If you get the Ultimate Sampler Pack, you can try all the IQ Bar products. You get nine IQ Bars and four IQ Joe sticks. I got a couple of the samplers, decided what my favorite flavors were, and now I've been ordering them, paying for them out of my own pocket because I love them that much. And right now IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQ Bar products, not just the sampler, but I would recommend the sampler if you just want to try, see what you like, including the Ultimate Sampler Pack plus free shipping. to get that 20% off. All you have to do is text 64,000. Just text roughness to 64,000. Text R-O-U-G-H-N-E-S-S to 64,000. That's roughness to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Brandon, as you know me for all these years, for like eight years now, when I like something to eat, I'm going to keep eating it. And I cannot stop eating these protein bars. Can't stop. Can't stop, won't stop. Can't stop, won't stop. Ain't going to stop. It's that one. It's that one. It's that one. Yeah. What you got? You know, remember, we used to be able to sing songs without getting in trouble on YouTube. Yes. I think we used to have like full karaoke's on these episodes. We'd have full karaoke. I was hanging with the fellas. So I was my voice is so bad right now that I can even I can even join you But you know I would guess if we if we did if we had like a memory on like you know on the phone or whatever it could go back to what song do you think you and Brandon have sang together the most over the last eight years? It has to be that one. Yeah. And that's not even, that's not even a hit song by them. That's just like an album cut. Right. Right. It makes me, it makes me ill by NSYNC. Makes me ill. See you again. Okay. Anyways. Can't, I can't, I don't want to fuck up my voice even more. Okay. So, so we're talking about the college football playoff. the national championship game was awesome it was awesome it lost a lot of steam because of the calendar it was good and it in it if you and i were regular fans of just sports it would have been a lot more devastating but because we do this now i realize what i'm about to say brandon is going to sound asinine to the the normal sports fan not a first time but the people that are listening and watching yeah well that's kind of my entire life i just spew asinine shit all the time sure um the nfl will always be king always always always there's no doubt about that we know that after the absolutely futred display of a super bowl the other day which i said was the most non-super bowl feeling super bowl of all time if you go look at the nfl's social media right now whether it's instagram tiktok or whatever the clips from the game are amassing like 100 to 200 thousand views where bad bunny is amassing 150 million views so that you know obviously what was popular is this the closest again i know it's still a major gap but is this the closest that college football in the nfl from a popularity standpoint can ever get because it feels like that to me but i know i'm biased because i'm a college can ever get no i mean i i don't rule anything out in the future i think college football's future is very very bright i i think I think you're I think that's a good question I do think you're asking the wrong question in this sense okay is it the closest it's ever been no no no no the question I think that should be asking is and I might try to answer that one because it's not a bad question but NFL is number one number one with a bullet unassailable it is far and away the the number one American sport is college football firmly entrenched at number two now has it reached number two is it solidly number two is it is it has it surpassed the nba because certainly as far as word of mouth as far as uh you know excitement about postseason everything i think it is at least caught the nba it's at least caught baseball it's past hockey um is it number two now maybe you people think about this and say, oh, you're crazy. MLB is number two. NBA is number two. Because NBA still does huge numbers as far as social following and all that. But is this the closest college football will ever get to pro football? I can't say that. Is this the closest it's ever been? I say no to that too, because I feel like college football in my lifetime peaked when you had the marketable stars of, and this is not to take a shot at Mendoza. This is not to take a shot at guys we've had recently but those mid-2000s you had reggie bush and vince young in a national title together with matt leiner there too you had tim tebow coming you had like mid-2000s particularly that usc uh that usc texas national title game i think is the peak of american college football and while ratings might be even higher back then vince young reggie bush were global superstars before they ever played a National Football League game, and I don't think Fernando Mendoza is. Is that fair to say? I think it's fair. So I'm going to go back to your amendment on my question. I've thought college football is second for a while now. And I guess that's why I didn't even think, is it second? Because to me, it has been. And again, I have to take my college football fan and my college football career brain off. It's like when I talk to people just on day-to-day that are big NBA fans, they say the same thing. I don't watch the regular season. I watch when the NBA playoffs come around. Obviously the NHL playoffs are awesome. You love that. But as far as just the viral-ness, if that's even a word, of the sports, I do feel like college football is the biggest it's ever been because all those things you just mentioned are true, the early 2000s, and you look at those guys, the big key is there wasn't social media. If you had social media back when those guys were playing, I can't even imagine. But now with how easily digestible these sports are, And when you look at Fernando Mendoza, when you look at guys over the last few years, I think that that popularity has taken off to where if you were a college football fan in the early 2000s or even when I was in school, when Johnny was playing, you knew everything that was going on. Now you just are a sports fan and you know exactly who Fernando Mendoza is. You're watching Indiana. You're doing those things. I don't believe it'll ever catch the NFL, but I think it's I think that it is is rising. And when you look at ratings, it has to be number two. So I'm going to read that. I got one more take on that. A few years ago at Barstool, we had, say five years ago, six years ago, when LSU won a national title and then Alabama won a national title and then Georgia won a couple, we would have all the highlights would go out on Barstool or whatever. We'd have clips go, and then we would have coworkers from New York that don't really watch college football. They'd be like, yeah, I checked in on a college championship game. It's the same teams every time. It's a boring product when I watch it. It's this and that. It doesn't grab me. that was like 2021-22 I don't feel like that happens anymore I feel like the playoff and the legitimacy and I think it is now if it's not Super Bowl level it is the second biggest thing towards Super Bowl level and people don't do that shit anymore they don't say that dumb shit as much as they used to well it also helps that the game isn't a blowout I know it has been in the past but having a good game helps that whether you wanted the 12 team playoff or not it makes it more fun for the regular sports fan to watch because it's an actual playoff. It reminds me of the movie The Great Outdoors with John Candy where they go out riding horses and they're riding horses down the path and Dan Aykroyd and the whole family are on nice, fast horses. And then John Candy is on this slow horse that doesn't even want to walk because he's really fat. And he ends up getting off the horse to try to make it be nicer and the horse runs off. And the horse that runs off is the NFL and John Candy eventually catches it, but it does take him a while, and he's college football. Beautiful. Guys, if your hair isn't playing like it did in your 20s, by the way, if you like that bit or hate that bit, buckle up. Because, guys, if your hair isn't playing like it did in your 20s, it might be time for a real comeback, not another workaround, because throwing on a hat isn't a strategy. Nutrafol supports healthier hair from within. 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Brandon, speaking of hair, just really quickly before we get back to college football, I know you talked about it on the yak because I had to watch the yak today for your take on this you know the bald stool is happening right now yeah you've been saying for a long time you've been you've been ringing the mincy bell for a long time I have known this man for however many years he's been working at barstool the photo of him today on that airplane I audibly gasped I I still was so shocked and nothing shocks me with him anymore what how did that man not die on that airplane somebody like i would have killed it i would have killed him i would have killed him i casey in fact it's so funny you're saying that i literally just got a text from somebody i don't even know the number it it it it's it sent me the tweet and said this is it this is the one that set me off this is this is the one that turned me and and i said to him and i'll say to you been telling everybody for years i i i've been beating the mincey drum mincey's a uh uh an asshole for years and years and years and nobody believed me and finally you guys see what i've been saying i listen i've been i you know mince and i have a good rapport you know he follows me around the office wants to talk about lane a lot um this one was this one was truly shocking because and i i'm by the way, squarely on your side. And you said it on the act. I don't think you should ever recline your seat. I don't care. You paid for your seat. The amount of recline that you get does not come anywhere near to the amount of an asshole. It makes you like, you're not reclining fully back. If you want to recline fully back, pay for an upgrade. And I also was, I will pay whatever for an upgrade. If I, if I know that it's going to be that comfortable, like I say, whatever within reason, Ben mints treating that like, you know, no free ads, but treating that like jet blue mint or delta one in coach with a co-worker is baffling to me it's baffling even for him so he is all right what else you got for college football okay so fernando mendoza you we've talked about him a lot in this episode um so so now that the super bowl is over you know we're all going to turn our attention to the draft turn our attention to who's going to be the number one overall pick the raiders have the number one overall pick and clint kubiak now i would like this on record that i don't think at any point, especially a new head coach getting in front of the media is ever going to tip his cap and be like, this is what we're doing. We're not going to show you our hand. But there's a lot of discourse right now on social media because he made the comment when asked about who the number one pick is going to be. He said he has to watch a lot more film to be able to make that decision. And now everyone's out there, you know, oh my God, is he non-committal to Fernando Mendoza? So I love Colin Coward. He's a great guy. I watched the show today. And he said, he doubled down and he said listen I believe he should be the number one pick but apparently now there is a lot of talk inside circles that he's getting a lot of pushback that Fernando Mendoza should not be the number one overall pick that Indiana's success this year was solely based on Kurt Signetti and Colin said the last time he got this much pushback when he felt a certain type of way was Sam Darnold now we see what Sam Darnold just did so obviously these things can come full circle but my question to you you and I both talked about Fernando Mendoza all year even before you believed in Indiana you believed in Fernando Mendoza is there a world that you could see Fernando Mendoza and maybe not going number one overall if somebody wants to take a non-quarterback yeah is there a world at all where you see that that would he would should not be the number one quarterback taken off the board no he's number one pick I don't care what the Raiders are saying I don't care what Colin Coward is saying uh every single Colin Coward agrees with you by the way he's saying every every single year whoever has the number one pick when asked by a reporter a month or two in advance by the way they know they were picking him a month ago two months ago every time they're asked about the number one pick that is obvious they're like yeah well it could be anybody and they're just fishing to see if there's a team in like two through eight who is so quarterback needy they'll make a godfather offer to come up to number one they don't want to take the godfather offer but they want to see if they can get the godfather offer somebody offered him three first round picks three second round picks and a star they're gonna do it and they're just slow playing they're just saying yeah i know i have a royal flush here but i might not even play it they're gonna play it yeah you never don't play it he's gonna and and furthermore this notion that it was it was all signetti and zero percent mendoza well signetti was there last year and they got their ass kicked twice against good teams. They upgraded a quarterback. All of a sudden, they're kicking everybody's ass. That didn't just happen. That happened because he went out and got the right quarterback. Not to say Curtis Wart was a bad quarterback. He just wasn't going to beat Ohio State, Notre Dame. Mendoza did. And thirdly, what's the alternative? Number one pick, what's it going to be? Arvel Reese? Is it going to be David Bailey? Is it going to be Carnell Tate? Who's going to be Spencer Feneau? These are all good players. These are all Sonny Stiles, Reuben Bain, Jeremiah Love, These are all good players. None of them are going before the fucking best quarterback in the draft. And further, there's not another quarterback to be picked there. Dante Moore went back to school. Carson Beck's not going to be number one pick. Trinidad Chambliss is trying to go back to school. Who would it be? It's the easiest number one pick we've had in a long time. Yeah, and the only way he would not go number one is if somehow a team that already has a solid quarterback moves up to number one. Or if he kills somebody. If he kills somebody between now and then, he's not going number one. What was it, the gas mask? what year was that oh that was like 16 yeah like you want to talk about melting down can you imagine which now i mean weed's legal in most parts of the country but can you imagine if fernando mendoza just all of a sudden had like some like crazy skeletons in the closet come out like we would all melt down but could you imagine if he did get caught with the gas mask and the las vegas raiders of all teams were like no we're not picking him because of weed oh come on vegas is the one team vegas and denver and seattle they could all get away with it um in new york well i I mean, I sat in the, you know, we sat in the studio after the national championship and did the recap podcast. And I said, I doubt I see Fernando, you know, spraying champagne all over 11 tonight. And Liam was like, well, you might. We didn't even see that. The kid was just hanging with a nice, just big smile and a, you know, beer. But yes, I agree. You know, it's again, it's the discourse that's around it. But Casey, the drugs he offered me on Thursday were incredible. You would not have believed the amount of drugs that he offered me. What'd you hallucinate? it reminds me of the John Candy movie The Great Outdoors alright I'm done with that the GameTime app gives fans the advantage with constant innovation it how you unlock amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps It so simple to use The GameTime guarantee means you get 100 authentic tickets on time at the best price No surprises. Fees are included in the price you see. What you see is what you pay, period. Pick an upcoming event on GameTime and talk about how easy it is. I sure will text it should have been in red instead of black. So what I got right now, Indiana and Illinois basketball. basketball at the State Farm Center. Thank you, Lukey Blutman. You can get in for just $212 at one of the biggest Big Ten basketball games of the year. That's going to be a huge one. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets. I'm actually going to a Bucs game soon. My son's been wanting to go see the Bucs play in Milwaukee, so GameTime will take care of that for me. No problem. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to every type of event with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code RUFF for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account, use code RUFF for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today, and I'd just like to show you. It was, in fact, in red. I just read it poorly. It's okay. That happened. Brandon, you know what? You know where I'm hoping that GameTime can send me? To a playoff game that A&M actually scores a touchdown in? That was – See, that was hateful. For fucking what? Can you imagine? And that leads me into my next question. That leads me into my next question, by the way. Sniffing the playoff. I can't stop listening to Bad Bunny, Brandon. I've been speaking in Spanish. So my son, by the way, turned three yesterday, which is crazy to me. No, he didn't. Yes, he did. You're lying. Yes, he did. Okay. He turned three yesterday. Wild. But my nanny, she only speaks Spanish. She came in the other day to help me get the house ready for his birthday. And I was blaring bad bunny. And she just looked at me just like, well, what's going on here? I'm like, I think I'm Puerto Rican now. I love him so much. Well, good for you. Yeah, I think so. I think I'm going to just start. I mean, I speak Spanish. Like, I think I'm just going to like get, you know, like really lean into this. Like, you know, I've got, I don't have a Latina ass, but you know, maybe I can shake it a little bit and I just, I'm going to go find bad bunny. That's who I'm going to marry. Bad bunny. Wow. Good for you. Well, good luck with that. That's now, that's now my new, my new thing. I, I've got my son dancing around to, to bad bunny music. I mean, he doesn't know if he's swearing or not. Well, I guess he probably does. He speaks besides the point game time, that and Cardi B because Cardi B is, we're having, we're having a moment over here. Everybody needs goals, Casey. My off-season goal is to marry Bad Bunny, me and probably 100 million other white girls in America right now. There's a lot going on. You mentioned tickets to an A&M playoff game. Now, this is kind of inside Barstool, but it's a bigger question. And again, I never watch the act, not because I don't love you, but I'm normally doing other things. I had it on today. And you guys were talking about our friend Fasoli. Now, in this world right now, if you're not familiar, basically Dave Portnoy took all the Boston-based Patriots fans, the guys who grew up loving the Patriots, got them in a bus, a suite, the whole thing to the Super Bowl. They got to live out a dream that they would never get to live out without Dave. Dave being super rich. This is amazing. All these things. Now the Patriots go and get their absolute dicks kicked in, as we all saw. We have a guy named Fasoli who hours and hours and hours before the game was filmed crying before the game. now other people in the company have made fun of that and said they think it's lame and weak and whatever Brandon my question to you is you and I are have been very blessed to go to I mean I would say hundreds at least over a hundred games of Mississippi State or A&M football over the years that's our number one teams with a bullet yeah I still get emotional when I go to an A&M game in person and see everything around me especially when I went to the playoff game this year can you imagine if the first time you had ever seen mississippi state play a real football game in person was at the national championship in a suite you're telling me you wouldn't cry or be emotional over that why are we making fun of this kid well i'll tell you why casey i'll tell you why okay and and this is you need to wake up you need to wake the fuck up no you do and i'll tell you why he was right to cry i would cry in the situation but we work at a company full of assholes we are assholes ourselves we are nothing if not ball busters of every single person that works here if i go stand on the sideline and watch mississippi state lose to texas in overtime it becomes a running joke for a week where everybody gets their jollies off because that sometimes you are the shit and sometimes you eat shit. And even though he has a great backstory and even though he was right to cry and even though it was emotional and even though everything was correct, you still have to – you're still going to get your balls busted here at Barstool Sports. That's just what the company is. That's fine. And you're 100% correct, especially old school Barstool. And I know Kevin's saying like hashtag not my Barstool and all that. And I get that. I'm not taking away the entertainment value of that. But to the people online that are like, we're coddling a loser. We're coddling this. I just can't, like, if you don't love sports, just come out and say it. Like, and I actually was texting with Vasoli and I was like, I know if I come out and defend you, which I have, it's going to be like, well, you're a chick. Of course you cry. Girls cry over everything. Also true. But there is something that is so magical about your favorite team. I just can't, like, if I could take every single game away from Kyle Field and I knew that I was watching them play in the national championship, I don't care if it's a neutral side, I'd be bawling my eyes out. Let me stop you there. Fine. I want you to imagine the Jets made the Super Bowl. I want you to imagine Kevin Clancy in a suite looking down at the Jets logo on the Super Bowl field. I want you to imagine tears falling down his eyes. I want you to imagine the Jets losing that Super Bowl, and I want you to tell me what Dave Portnoy and 15 to 20 others would have tweeted after that happened after the video of him crying came out I well I know what would happen because I know this company first of all I don't think that he would cry um but that's that's a whole different issue that we have here I don't think that he would um I think it doesn't I'm taking the team out of it like I know people hate the Patriots and hate Patriots fans at Barcelona and get that I'm just saying anybody who is saying oh well you shouldn't be crying like that to me is what makes these like these events in the sport so cool and i mean i'm taking it from a college football standpoint i get that but i just was sitting there and i was thinking like i just i i mean i literally teared up on the field at the a&m playoff game standing there with my dad like holy shit we made it to a playoff game in my lifetime that's crazy i don't know i feel for posoli i'm like yeah cry cry king it's sports you should get emotional over sports it's what we get the most emotional about like we're not rational people when we talk about sports yeah think about on this podcast over the last eight years how many times you and i've gotten in a fight over football that's crazy yeah uh you got another ad i do bowl and branch um so obviously the off season is here so we're all going to be hopefully resting a little bit more and i love my bowl and branch sheets brandon uh i know it's the season where you start getting sick i am sick nothing better than to rest in your bowl and branch sheets i'm also i'm also sick i'm sick as a dog right now but go ahead you take all the glory no i'm saying it is it's your season to get sick this is when everybody starts losing their voice and feels like shit for a little bit. 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They're loved by millions of sleepers and it drapes you in soft springing near weightless warmth of the most coveted texture. it is still like negative 10 degrees in New York but eventually it'll become spring and then it'll become summer these are the sheets that go with every season they keep you warm when it's cold they keep you cool when it's hot and if you want to discover the softness beyond your wildest streams at Bowling Branch get 15% off your first order plus free shipping and returns at bowlandbranch.com slash rough that's Bowling Branch b-o-l-l-a-n-d branch.com slash rough take 15% off exclusions apply. All right. So as you mentioned, Brandon, this is the last thing before we go. In the past, we've done year round podcast. We are going to take a break until the summer. So by the time we come back on these airwaves, it'll be preview time, right? It's preview time. We're buckling in. So before we go, Brandon, I have a way too soon rapid fire list. And I don't, I didn't want to send you the list because I want your off the cuff answers on February 11th, way too soon. in 2026 your way too soon national championship prediction is god off the cuff it's supposed to be off the cuff yeah i well i'm just thinking uh i i think georgia gets back i think georgia was young this year i i think i'm gonna i know i think i'm gonna go I want to go one big time, one school that's there a lot and one off the cuff school. Because listen, over the last few years, well this year I guess you had two off the cuff schools, Indiana and Miami. But like TCU's played for a national title. Washington's played for a national title. So give me the Georgia Bulldogs and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. And that's a team that keeps adding in the transfer portal that went out and got a quarterback. You know, when they got to the playoff this year, they were outmatched on offense and I think they have fixed that um again i think ohio state's taking a step back indiana's indiana's the the the question mark do they just keep rolling i i hate to i hate to rule them out but i'll just for right now say georgia and texas tech even though god i like texas this year too i'm gonna say georgia and texas tech just that that's off the top of my tongue okay your way my voice is is on its way out your way too early 2026 favorite storyline that you want to pay attention to i think it might be Lane Kiffin in the SEC with a better program. I think it's Lane Kiffin having done all he could at a program that just isn't that great historically. Now he's at a place with resources and he's placed with everything. He's going to have to go back to Oxford. He's going to have to play a lot. He's talked a big game and now he's going to have to play a lot of teams in the SEC that are already there. He went out and had the number one. This year the storyline was, is he going to leave? Well, he did leave. now's the story the storyline is all right you're there what are you going to do with it yeah i can't wait for the lsu o'emiss game i think that like that right now if you're not circling that as a college football fan like that's that's by far going to be the most anticipated and lastly which i know you you love to hate a little bit you know you're a little bit of a hater can i can i can i'm in that last answer sure i think a better answer now that i thought i don't think about it is what does indiana do now they're on top okay indiana went to the top of the sport in record fashion and as quick as possible now they are the hunted now they are the uh the top of the mountain i think ohio state takes a step back the big 10 is going to look a little different on top and indiana is absolutely there what does indiana do for an encore is probably storyline number one all right continue but you know what the petty storyline is is lane kiffin like the rational college football storyline is absolutely that okay so the last one brandon i know you love to beef with college football fans your 2026 way too early fan base you are going to hate the most this season that's a phenomenal question uh right now it might be indiana because no matter how many times i say i was wrong no matter how many times i say kirsten is the best coach in the country no matter how many times i think that's an all-time great team they will clip something from two years ago be like yeah but you didn't believe in us then yeah i still don't believe in your team as it was then but i believe in them now so anyway india you know i think it might be greatest hits i i think oklahoma is one that that is always there south carolina is always there i'm trying to think of a new team that i'm going to clash with i mean you you've covered a bunch over the years i mean you even got into it with my fan base i'll get it i'll get it i ain't scared of the smoke with anybody um trying to think of a team that has been down that will be up it's just it's probably just going to go the greatest hits but right now that's a good question i don't have an answer for you i gotta think about that one well stay tuned because you you always and i i do the same thing i mean remember in like what was it 2019 you really never know though kate you never know who it's going to be you never know yeah he's gonna pop i mean florida state and i went back and forth forever. I don't even, I think it was like over like Kindle Briles or something like, you know, these, that's what makes college football so great. Uh, lastly, before we get out of here, this episode is sponsored by better help. Um, you know, the off season, we get to slow down a little bit, uh, which gives us time to work on our mental health. But if you're out there and you're still grinding every single day and you don't feel like you have somebody to talk to better help is the way to go. Whether you're married, dating single, the truth is most of us are still trying to figure out and find our way, whether you're dealing with work stress, whether you're dealing with Just actual mental health issues. Better help is the way to go. It does the initial matching work for you. So you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and 12 plus years of experience and industry leading match fulfillment rate. They get it right the first time. If they don't, for some reason, they will match you with somebody else completely for free. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash Smith. That's better help. H E L P.com slash Smith. Brandon, as always, okay to not be okay. yeah it is okay to not be okay all right uh next time you see us we'll be in the summer i will be many pounds lighter casey will have uh have the tires rotated so uh oh that if they follow me on instagram they're gonna know they're gonna know there will be signs all right thank you casey thank you lukey thank you brandon we'll be back in a few months that's it that's unnecessary roughness brandon smile