Dabo Snitches, Coaching Carousel Updates, Preview/Picks of NFL Conference Championship Games

The games are fantastic, but the noise around college football is deafening. We open with a candid look at how NIL and the transfer portal are reshaping loyalty, recruiting, and the way fans connect to players, then dig into Dabo Swinney’s hour-long tampering broadside. When a fully enrolled Clemson transfer flips after alleged contact from Ole Miss, it exposes the one rule everyone still pretends to respect: no tampering with players outside the portal. If there’s a first domino that could restore sanity, enforcing that rule might be it.

Money and structure take center stage next. Uniform sponsor patches are coming, and while tradition matters, stable revenue without messy strings can help keep programs competitive. On the playoff front, the CFP holds at 12 teams through 2026 with two hot-button tweaks: automatic berths for all power four champs and a guaranteed top-12 path for Notre Dame. We make the case for flexibility over rigid auto-bids and question whether the Irish need yet another exception instead of a conference home.

Then it’s over to the NFL carousel. The Ravens tab Jesse Minter, betting on a defensive CEO to steward a roster built around Lamar Jackson while managing OC churn. Dallas elevates Christian Parker to DC, a sharp secondary mind stepping into play-calling with less blue-chip talent than he had in Philly. And in Los Angeles, a potential Mike McDaniel–Justin Herbert pairing under Jim Harbaugh hints at a nasty run game, ruthless play-action, and explosive balance if the Chargers add speed and get healthy up front.

We close with two heavyweight previews. Denver’s elite offensive line meets New England’s opportunistic defense, with Drake May’s big-play swings and Jared Stidham’s unknowns tilting our pick to the Patriots straight up. In the NFC, Seattle’s secondary is for real, but the Rams’ answers—Matthew Stafford, Puka Nakua, Davante Adams, a deep tight end room, and a physical ground game—are built for this moment. Stop the run, force Sam Darnold to win from the pocket, and let Stafford cook. Our lean: Rams, with the winner favored to lift the Lombardi.

If you’re into smart football talk with strong opinions and real matchups, hit follow, share with a friend, and drop a five-star review. Who’s your Super Bowl pick—and what’s the first NIL fix you’d enforce?

Transcript

NIL, Portal, And Fan Attachment

Dabo, Tampering, And Clemson vs Ole Miss

Jersey Patches And Money Reality

Playoff Format, Auto Bids, And Notre Dame

“Google Me”: Signetti’s Full Circle Moment

NFL Coaching Cycle Headlines

Ravens Hire Jesse Minter: Fit And Risk

Cowboys’ DC Pick And Concerns

Chargers-McDaniel Pairing Potential

Conference Title Preview: Context And Records

Broncos vs Patriots: Matchups And Pick

Rams vs Seahawks: Matchups And Pick

Closing Thanks And Calls To Support

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome back to the JV Sports Podcast. Today is Friday, January 23rd, and we are back for another pot. If you if you've been listening for a while, you would know that I'm not usually the person who does the intros here. Jace could not be on today. We have a lot of things going on. We're getting ready for this crazy snowstorm coming up, which if you're listening throughout the country of the United States, you're not somewhere on the West Coast or very on the down south. I think even down south is dealing with this right now, are they? I don't again, I'm not a meteorologist by any means, and really I don't watch the news at all, especially the weather. I just usually go to my phone app and just see where that goes, even though I know that app is kind of bad all the time and gives you wrong information. That's just where I go. So everything I'm hearing is second hand, and who knows what the actual truth is, but some bad weather's coming. It's winter time in here in Ohio. We're gonna be getting it here in the next 24 hours or so. So Jay Sangs has things to do. But the thing, this whole show still has to go on, a pod still has to go out. We have some big football games coming up in the next couple days. Well, on Sunday, so I had to come on here, talk about things I want to talk about. There's plenty of other things too, some college football topics that I wanted to get into that have come up over the last couple days, even though it's crazy how college football used to be. As soon as the season was over, it felt like everything was the would like go dormant for like again. Maybe this was just me as a child not really paying attention as much and like not being in a message board and stuff like that. But ever since like the playoffs and like all the portal stuff, and it just keeps going, it almost feels like they're taking on like an NFL-like approach of even when games aren't going on, there's newsworthy things to have to keep track of. And unfortunately or fortunately, depending on what side of this you're on, whether you're kind of like a bystander to what the news is and you're just kind of like um bringing it in as it comes, or if you're a fan of the of such team that's dealing with some of these issues, or if you're what is or if you're like one of the teams that are like again, if you're a part of it, it may be good or bad depending on what the news is, or if you're just outside of it altogether, you kind of just get to watch college. I'm not gonna say college football burn because I don't think it's burning, but there is some real stupid shit happening right now, and it does potentially affect the long-term viability of the sport when it comes to a lot of like the the long-standing, really deep grown-in roots of passion that college football has in people's lives. So, and all the stuff that's happening, I'm not saying like the sport is as good as it's ever been when it comes to product on the field, and we had a really good national championship game for the first time in a while, ever since the let's just be honest, ever since the playoff format started, this has been like the most like this patent one we just had between Miami and Indiana was the most competitive we've had no in like pretty much the whole time. So the product on the field is fine, but it's everything outside of what's going on on the football field that is really turning a lot of fans off of like what are this lot of the stuff that's going on. And I'm not gonna sit here and say all of it is for good reason because there's some people out there that don't want to see players get paid whatsoever, which is where they're on the bad side of things. They just want to have the illusion of amateurs and stuff like that, just like going for school and playing for the pride of like of your school and for your family. And I'm like, well, like that's unrealistic, right? Especially when so much money is going up over their heads. But there's some people out there that are okay with players getting paid, and but they just want to have a little bit of some sort of having a little bit of like the attachment you could have to the players and to the teams, like you used to have when you know people that were crazy about recruiting and all this get to like really follow these because that because that's what the NFL gives you, is like being able to follow a kid going in and rolling to whatever school you're a fan of where your alma mater is, and you get some see them grow up over three to four years, kind of grow into being a talented young person, into being a grown-up that's ready for the next level of going to the NFL, or like a nobody that you never even heard before coming in and bursting onto the scene and becoming a guy that you really attach yourself to and and can have a lot of fun uh following, not only as a player, but as a person over their years of of college. So I just feel like they want more of that back, and with a lot of the new changes that have come with the NIL with the portal and all of that, it has kind of taken away a little bit of that, which does take a little bit of the lifeblood of the sport away. So as if one day we will be able to get some of these some changes into where we can get a little bit of that back. Again, we'll it'll never go back to what it was before, it won't. That's just not how things go. But if you can just do a few tweaks, we can get a little bit of that back as a as a sport and as a fandom, as a fan of the sport, it just a little a few tweaks can help the sport and keep it where it's going right now, where players do get paid, but also add some guardrails for so at least us as fans can have a good idea as to what we're getting ourselves into, and like maybe we can get attached to players coming in as high schoolers again and stuff like that. So I just feel like there's a few tweaks that can be made that can help out the the college football world as we know it, but again, is it really ever gonna happen? I don't know. I'm not gonna sit here and like hope and pray. I'm just gonna like you know take every punch as it comes, but that's the hope that we can get back to, right? I that's all we can kind of attach ourselves to and just kind of you know ride the wave and hope we can have a fun time while doing it. So without further ado, five-minute long rant already. I've already told myself before this pod I didn't want to do this for two hours by myself sitting here staring at a wall. But with it being a five, like almost six minutes now of me just talking and already rambling about, I don't have a lot of confidence in that. So let's go ahead and get to the topics that I wanted to talk about here. We're gonna start with college football, and then we're gonna go. I have like four, like four or five stories in college football that I wanted to talk about, and then get to that don't include any games, obviously, which is hilarious. And then I have the few NFL topics, and then we're gonna cap it all off with the preview and the our predictions for the two conference championship games that are happening on Sunday for the NFL to see who we're gonna see in the Super Bowl. So let's go ahead and not go on about anything else anymore. Let's go ahead and get to what I want to talk about here. So I hate to start with this because it feels like every say the last like three, four, five pods now, it feels like I come into every single one with like a big problem with NIL and the portal and all of that. And I I kind of feel myself it almost feels like complaining. But because here's the thing, I don't necessarily disagree with players getting paid and having the freedom to do what they're doing, but I do agree with the idea that maybe there needs to be some more guardrails when it comes to making not only teams honor the contracts that they give out to these players, but maybe making some players have to follow the contracts they signed into these teams as well, and it has to go both ways. You can't I I think I said this in a different aspect, but I think it's a obviously it's a saying that's said throughout life and throughout with people, is that right now it feels like the players get all of the freedom but none of the responsibility. Players get the freedom of getting the money and having opportunity to like to earn money for yourself and for your family and all of that, and or you get to move and go to a different situation if you think you're not getting the right situation that's going to help you out long term for your academic or your playing career or for money and be able to go to a different spot if you see fit, but none of the responsibility of saying if a player signs a contract with a school, they have to honor the contract that they signed. There's a lot, there's been a more than a few players during this cycle that have signed contracts with NIL-wise with school saying they're going to come back, and then they hear from a school saying they're going to, you know, like, hey, there's other schools like, hey, I'll pay you such and such amount more than what you're already getting if you go into the portal and come with us, even if you just signed your recent deal. And that's where I think something needs to be done to kind of take away that aspect. Because at the end of the day, if it was going the other way and schools were taking away money and not willing to pay what they promised a kid they would pay them, even if they were bad, I would be on the other side saying the school you decided to get want to give them that amount of money, you have to pay them no matter what, because you signed yours, you had your part in this too. This is a two it takes two to tango to a certain extent. So I do think players in this spot do need to have a few more guardrails to make them have to, you know, once you sign a contract, honor it. I just feel like it's not necessarily that hard. And I'm not saying that they don't deserve to have the movement they do, but like once you pen to paper, you should honor the deals that you sign. And that's true in life for regular adults. Whatever contract you sign, you usually have to do, or there's gonna be consequences. And as of right now, in college football, there's a lot of players that sign deals and say they're gonna do some things, and then they renege on it because other opportunities come the way. And again, this is not all on the player, this is on the families of the player or their teams that are just looking for the next big paycheck or what trying to do whatever they want to do to try to make get one-up in the world by profiting off of a player or their family member or whatever. So this isn't this isn't all about the players being terrible or doing a bad job. Sometimes it's people around them as well. So I'm not putting all the blame on them, but there does need to be a few guardrails, and this is where, and this is where I'll get to the story that I want to talk about today. And this is like might be the last straw for me, to be honest, because if you've been listening to this podcast for a good amount of time, I have made it very clear there is a few people in the college football world that I despise more than Mr. Dabo Sweeney, the coach, the head coach for the Clemson Tigers. I find him to be very fake. I find him to be, I honestly, overall, I just don't think I've ever listened to him totally and totally believed everything he said. When I listen to him talk, I always feel like there's an ulterior motive or he's trying to skirt some type of responsibility for something that has happened. And it's just like it's never I've never gotten a good vibe from Mr. Dabo Sweeney whatsoever. And I've always, again, also the the fact that he has coached some teams that has done some things to my buckeyes, which I can totally take account for. Like that, that may I may be a little slanted because of what my um allegiances lie. But I will say that even without that, Dabo has done some things throughout my time of being a fan and listening to him talk at times, and maybe listen to some things that he has done, that has made me feel not so great about Dabo, not necessarily as a person, I'm not saying he's a bad person, but I just feel like I don't find him to be the most genuine at all at all times, and he likes to act like he is a little bit of a holier than thou complex he has, and it rubs me the wrong way. So when there is a story that comes out, this is I think this was today, right? Yeah, that comes out today, and it makes me side with Dabo Sweeney, you know, like there is a fucking problem if I am ever siding with Mr. Dabo Sweeney. So let me get to the story here. Dabo had a one hour long news conference today to where he straight up snitched on a on Ole Miss and their head coach, their now head coach, um Pete Golding, for tampering with one of his players. Okay. And this player is Luke Farelli, who is a former um, I think he played at Cal as a linebacker, I believe. Hold on, let me make sure I'm not crazy. Let's see here. Leah linebacker Luke Farrelli, um, who Dabo recently had gotten out of the transfer portal, which is something again, I'll get to how big of a deal that is here in a second. But had gotten him out of the transfer portal, he signed an NIL deal, um, got like got kind of locked in. He um enrolled in the classes and started going to classes and doing meetings and stuff and workouts. And this was let's see here. Let me get to the actual let's um so the on the 14th, so more than a week after Farelli had begun classes at Clemson, Farelli's agent contacted Clemson general manager, Jordan Sorells, to alert him that Ole Miss was going hard after Farelli. And then Swinney talked us um to Sorrells, who let's see, no, no, Swinny told the GM to go and talk to the Ole Miss GM, asking um the Ole Miss GM to stop all communication with Farrelli because he had already signed. He is a Clemson player now, like he's not in the portal anymore. Like, stop trying to contact him because that is tampering. That is the classic tampering without any sense of a doubt about that, okay. Thomas, the GM for Ole Miss, said that hey, he didn't do that, but Pete Golding does what he does. So he's saying that Pete Golding himself was trying to contact the player and that he was doing what he was going to do, even if it wasn't necessarily within the letter of the law when it comes to tampering. So that was the end of that conversation. And then after that, there is um communication that happened between Golding and Ferrelli, pretty much saying, like, hey, I'm I like pretty much texting um the lineback, the the player, pretty much saying, I know you're signed, but what's the buyout? Which is like a quote that Dabo said again. We don't know exactly because there is no real facts that have been prevent um presented or you know, real evidence that all this happened, but this is all based off what Dabo has said. I know what you what I know you're signed, but what's the buyout? Which is what he's saying, Golding said to the player, and was followed by a photo of a one million dollar contract and phone calls from quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and former quarterback Jackson Dart trying to get Farelli, the player, to go back into the portal and then go to Ole Miss. Again, Ole Miss, when he was in the when he was in the portal, he was down to Ole Miss and Clemson as the two schools that he was gonna potentially transfer to from Cal. And then he ultimately played Clemson, and then you know it comes back, and then Ole Miss is trying to still kind of contact him, Golding doing all of that. And then on the 15th, it was a four-hour roller coaster that um it started that day where Farelli was like told the staff, all the coaches that he was gonna stay put, and he was only going to he was gonna stay with Clemson, no it no issue at all. And then by the end of the day, by the late afternoon, he had gone into the school's office, pretty much saying he wanted to be entered into the portal, and then he was he was going to go to Ole Miss. And now Clemson's going to fight it, and they're gonna try to do the same thing as what you know Washington did with the court with their quarterback, and then also what Duke is trying to currently do with the quarterback that is trying to do the portal after um trying to get out of his deal. So this is this is my thing, okay? When it comes to Clemson, like again, this is happening everywhere, this is not a new thing, right? This is the one thing that everybody is scared of because when it comes to tampering, like all of this thing, like with if the players are gonna have the freedom to do what they want to do, and there's not gonna be any guardrails when it comes to once you sign a contract, you have to stay, and all that situations like this are gonna happen, okay? And this is where the Sweeney part makes it even more of a big deal when it comes to the college football world. Sweeney famously has been against the portal in every sense of the word. He was one of he was the last remaining pillar of being a guy that was said, hey, I want to get a guy in as a high schooler and get them and grow them, and not only as a player, but as a person. And again, this is all his words, not necessarily saying that I believe this, which again, I think I believe to a certain extent because for so long he had stuck to that, and a lot of his players never really left Clemson and he was like doing what he was supposed to do. And like, as much as I have bad things to say about him, a lot of his players don't necessarily say such bad things about him. So I have to take it on face value for the most part that when he when the players get to Clemson, he lets you stay, he's gonna try to build you up from the ground up, he's not gonna quit on you. Even if you don't play, you can still stay in the program, get your degree, and all of that. And he had stuck to that, right? And he had been totally again famously against the portal, and people were yelling at him, talking about hey, if you want to be, if you are Clemson, you still want to have the high bar that he had kind of set there of trying to go win not only the ACC, but having a chance to win national championships, like he had done throughout the 2010s at Clemson. Is that you have to change with the times? Like, if you are going to do this, you have to be willing to make some changes when it comes to what your philosophy is. If you're gonna survive in the sport, right? And people have been wanting him to do that forever, and he's been so unwilling. And then finally, this year, he jumps on the bandwagon. I think last year he got like two, only like two transfers to come in, right? Even with players leaving sometimes with from his program, he had been like very against even bringing players in from the portal at all. And then now this year, I think. Let me get how many exactly because it is a big deal, because as a guy that didn't want to do it at all, and then he they've had their worst couple seasons they've had in a while under Dabo, and like this past year, I think they won how I'm not sure how how many games, but it's a lot less than what you think Clemson should, especially in the ACC. Let me get to let's see the ACC. Clemson, right? A guy that famously didn't want to do it at all. This year, they brought in nine commits as transfers to come to Clemson, right? This is again, this is a lot more than anybody ever thought, and people were truly questioning whether that would actually happen, okay? But he did. He's brought in nine transfers to come into the school, and he's done what he's done exactly what everybody thought he needed to do. Again, not necessarily at a high rate. He's getting a bunch of three-star, four-star guys, nothing crazy. But again, it shows a little bit of a change that he's willing to change with the times a little bit. Again, how much he's doing this willingly, I'm not sure. But again, it showed it he's doing it, right? But then for him to make this move, along with Sore, this now um finelli, the linebacker, brought him in, did exactly what he didn't want to do, and brought in this player, and then getting burned by this player and by another school by him jumping into the portal, back into the portal right away and going to the other school he was trying to go, he was. Potentially going to go to. I I just I just think that this was one of those situations where if you were gonna be if you were gonna try to tamper with somebody's player, you should have picked anybody else's fucking program. Because here's my thing with Dabo, right? At his heart, he can be a real fucking Karen. In every sense of his life, he can be. He can be that guy. And especially when he has it, doesn't he want to he doesn't want to deal with this at all. He never wants to deal with this portal shit. And now that he's that he's been forced to, either by the school or whether when it comes to now competitively, he's been forced to. And then as soon as he does it, his pl player that he brings in, maybe not all the way willingly, gets him to come, and then he renegs and then goes to a different school. Of course, he was gonna fucking snitch. And he's gonna be the first one to scream it to the high heavens. And here's the thing, and this is what makes it crazier is because nobody else is gonna really try to make that big of a deal of moments like this, because every other school is willingly being a part of the tampering part. I feel like to a certain extent, everybody's tampering. It sucks, but if you even my school, Ohio State, even as much as I believe they're trying not to, they're trying to do it by the bludder of the law at all times. But to a certain extent, if you're not doing it, you're you're almost behind the eight ball at all times because every other school is tampering. But Clemson isn't doing it. Dabo isn't fucking doing it. So now that he's been he's bought, he's had to buy into the system a little bit and do what he had to do, bringing in these players, and then a player renegs, he was gonna snitch to everybody. And when he goes into this his press conference for an hour and he details all this, of course he was going to. And I just think if you're Pete Golding, if you're old miss, like what did you think he was gonna do? Just fucking eat it and not say anything. And again, I'm not saying Dabo being the one that's snitching now about it is gonna necessarily change the landscape, and now everybody's gonna change the rules and rule changes are gonna come and all these and Garbriel's gonna come like we're supposed to have, but this is another step. This is another step, and as much as I'm not a big fan of Dabo as a coach, he's well respected in the fucking industry, and maybe not as a competitive coach right now because he's so against the change. Sorry to take a drink. That's been happening in the sport, but he's respected as a man and he's respected as a as an all-time coach in college football. So I just think that like this is one of those things that it's just another again. The fact that I have to agree with him is an absolute tra absolute travesty, but I have to agree with him in this scenario because it's happening everywhere. And if this is one of the few rules that has actually been outlined by the NCAA and by all this shit where it's pretty much the Wild West in pretty much every s everything else when it comes to NIO dollars, how much they're getting paid, what the actual um salary cap is, and what players are supposed to, like these deals are supposed to be real, they're not, like all this other shit about the wild west. But the one thing that has been l in inked in like inked down pen to paper is that tampering is not allowed if a player is not in the portal. And now it's happened to fucking Dabo Sweeney's program to a player they didn't even want to do, like he didn't want to be a part of this anyway. He was gonna fucking snitch, and I'm not necessarily mad at him for doing so. I again is it really gonna change anything? Probably not, but it's just another step on the journey of maybe getting to that point at some point in this whole roller coaster that is college football right now, and where change is always happening, and we don't know when it's coming next, and like we just don't we just need a little bit, we just there needs to be some real changes, but it's just the fact that Dabo, in his first try of really trying to start embracing this system, and that's been burned by it, and he's now snitching, and it's kind of hard to refute when he had already like with the player already went to Clemson, like are already starting to kind of um buy in and kind of like he's getting an apartment, getting a car, get enrolling in classes, going to classes and going to meetings and workouts, and then he ends up transferring again, like that is a that that's that seems real smoking gun ish to me. I I don't I just I don't know. It's just again, I'm my head is spinning because of the idea that I have to agree with Dabo. But everything he was talking about in that scenario, I I agree with. And again, this has been stuff I've been talking about forever, and this is one thing that really because again, all the other shit is like whatever it is, it's gonna happen. But just the tampering part, if you can find a way to police it and to punish, and for all this shit to happen, I feel like it's almost like a like a domino effect that the other parts of this sport that have kind of gone awry will start to be knocked over too to where fixes really start will come it, will really start to happen. But it's just you it almost feels like there's so much going on, you only can fix one thing at a time, and the easiest thing to fucking fix is the thing that is like already signed on paper that you can't fucking do, and it's tamper. That's the one thing when it comes to the in the NL money and all like all the salary cap shit, all of that stuff is is wiggle room. There's wiggle room in all of it, but the tampering thing is the one thing that's pretty much ironclad you're not supposed to do, and it's happening everywhere. So if the NCAA and all these schools and these conferences can find a way to really lock in something to change this to where this isn't gonna happen as much, or if it does, there's gonna be some real punishments for these schools and for these coaches for doing this shit. And for the players too. Like there should be some real punishments for this, and if you do that, I just think it'll make things a little bit easier little by little, because all the change is not gonna happen at once. It's gonna be happening, it's just like moving the tight, it's like the Titanic going towards the iceberg, right? It's like only it's happening a little bit at a time, but you know you're eventually getting there. And again, I think that's like that's getting towards disaster, so maybe that's the wrong thing to do. But it's like trying to move a big boulder, right? It's only gonna happen a little bit at a time. Nobody's gonna fucking kick that thing and send it 20 feet. Like it's gonna happen little by little, and by maybe getting to this part and fixing this, it can lead to making everything else a lot easier to fix, too. I don't know. Again, it's Dabo, man. It just sucks that I had to agree with that, man. But it I agree with him in this sense, like that that needs to be fixed if we're gonna get closer to the cospowl that we really want to that we really can root for and not have as much like despair about when all this shit's happening all at once. Alright, next thing that I want to talk about. Um, NCAA approves jersey patches on uniforms starting next season. So I don't look, this doesn't have to be a big story. Like it again, it's a big one because there's so many fans and teams and that have a lot of history and their uniforms looking a certain way, and every there's a lot of people out there that believe that adding patches to uniforms is a bad thing and that it'll lead to the it it's dirtying up the sport and like having all this and that happen. And again, again, it's the money's here, it's in your face, it is what it is, it's not gonna change. But if adding patches to uniforms that, you know, it happens anyway, because patches are added when teams go to these bowl games and all of that, and if the schools can use that same real estate throughout the season to help their programs by getting infusing some money that won't have nearly the ties of like, you know, getting of accepting like Saudi money, like money, like private equity money, like that comes with strings attached. But if you can just make a deal with a with a um with a company in your area or within like a national company that wants to be a part of it, and and like have their brand on your on your on your team's jersey, that seems a very one-for-one transaction that'll help with the money for these schools so they can help keep these programs running. And I'm I again I love the Ohio State uniform. I love uniforms in general, like they all look very good, but I don't I just don't think patches are gonna be the end all be all and it'll ruin fucking college football in the way that it looks. I just don't think that's the case. And maybe it helps that I I watched NBA and like they've been doing the patches for years now when it comes to adding different um companies on their patches on their on their jerseys. So maybe I'm just a little bit more what is it? Um what's the word I'm looking for? Adjusted to that potential outcome to happen. And again, the story's been out for a while. Ohio State's been looking for um companies to do a patch like that so they can do that, try to infuse some money into the program. Because again, everybody's trying to get the money to pay these players and and keep um it's it's an arms race to stay competitive in college football right now. So anything you can do is a big deal. So I'm not against it. I kind of understand people that are like against it because they just they want the the the idea of purity and it not being about money and about young people playing football for for their pride and for their family and for the university. I get all of that to a certain degree, but again, like I said earlier, it's just unrealistic to believe that is all that is happening right now. And the more we can kind of get past some of these hurdles that you know people are so like holding on to with for dear life, I just think people will will adjust, man. Because like at the end of the day, people are gonna watch college football because that's a part, that's a part of the fabric of these communities and of these cities and of these towns and of this country. It's a part of it. College football is, and it's like again, if you make it happen, people aren't gonna leave the sport. So I just think that just making it happen and just having an open mind to some of this stuff, I just feel like it, like it seems like such a such a big deal, but as you go past and you like years go by, it's gonna be like, hey, I really I really like complained about that at one point. I was so against it, like it doesn't even fucking matter to me now. So I'm just like just have an open mind and just be willing to roll with the punches because some of these changes are just definitely necessary and they were gonna happen anyway. It just sucks that it feels like all the changes are happening at once for like a lot of the older fans that don't necessarily want to deal with all of these changes happening all at once. So that that part I do I am a little bit um uh sympathetic to, but outside outside of that, and just like it's the changes common to the sport, it is what it is. It's it's again, we have no control over that. So that's all I got on that. And then the next story I have is the college football playoff. Will will remain a 12-team playoff going to the 2026 season because the conferences could not agree on a plan for more teams, either like the 16 or going up to 20 or whatever. I don't think we need to go that far. I don't think there's 20 teams that deserve a chance at a national title every single year. I've been on that for a while. I would have stopped at eight to a certain degree because I just don't think year after year there is 20 team 12, 18, 20 teams, 12, 16, 20, or 24 teams that really should have a chance at a national title every year. They're just not the case. But again, as the sport levels out, maybe that'll be that maybe that'll change, but I'm just not there as of yet. But they they couldn't figure out a plan for it, so it's gonna stay uh stay 12 for this upcoming season with two big changes. Well, again, it that couldn't get figured out because the SEC and the Big Ten, the two major players in college football, are the conferences that just can't get along and they really can't come to any type of conclusion. So as long as those two conferences are at odds, there's really no change that's gonna happen if they're really trying to trying to make it happen. So when it comes to the 12-team playoff for next year, there are going to be two major changes to the rules going into next year that would not like didn't apply this past uh season. One, the power four champs will be guaranteed spots in the playoff, um, as well as the highest ranked champ from the group of six. And then the second change is that Notre Dame will be guaranteed a spot as long as they are in the top 12 at the end of the season. So those are the two changes, those are the two major changes that are going to happen. So, with those two changes, if they applied to this past playoff that we just experienced, instead of Clemson being in the playoff, Notre Dame and Duke would be in the playoff instead. I think Clemson would be um sorry, not Clemson, uh Miami would be out, they would never made the playoff if those rules apply to this past season. And they if some other team would have been kicked out too, but really, what does it matter? But it was so Notre Dame and Um and Duke would be in the playoff rather than Miami getting in and those two teams not getting in. So, how do I feel about this? For okay, so the one rule about the all power four champs being guaranteed a spot, I just don't fucking agree. I get why the conference, the conferences would want that to be the case now because of what happened with the ACC and Duke. I get the idea that you want your because again, if if it happens like this again, it does take away a little bit of the impact of what the conference championship game means to each of these conferences. And again, it it only happens that way if your conference is ass and all of your teams can't get it together and win the games or supposed to win, which is what happened in the fucking ACC last year. If Miami had gotten their shit together throughout the year and not lost the few, the couple big games that they had, like they weren't even big games, teams they were supposed to beat by a landslide, they would have been in their own ACC championship game and this stuff wouldn't be as big of an issue. But Miami didn't take care of business throughout the regular season, and then they brought up and then it brought up all this hubbub with them in Notre Dame, because Notre Dame didn't have the guaranteed spot, so like they got kicked out. And I just feel like if like I just don't think year after year, if a conference overall and these teams are gonna be ass, they're not gonna take like there's no team that's gonna separate themselves from the pack and really prove themselves to be good enough to be in the playoff, I don't feel like they should be automatically in if they win a bad if they win a bad uh conference. I just don't think so. Because I just think to in in general, this whole playoff thing started with trying to get the best teams in. And I get it, there's supposed to be a little bit of a uh a hand like a what is the word I'm looking for? There's supposed to be a little bit of a balance between best team and most deserving deserving. There has to be a balance of those two. I totally understand that. But I do feel like there are years where I just feel like there's years and sp in specialty reasons that I think that that should be a little bit of a sliding scale. And I feel like if you were gonna introduce this new rule in when it comes to guaranteeing the conference championship championship conference championship winner to be in for the power four, I feel like you're taking away a little bit of that sliding scale portion of it. I do feel like there are gonna be seasons when that's gonna be applicable. I feel like it's just gonna take away that, and I feel like we should just not be giving it it's kind of like the same thing as like the NFL, where the NFC South winner of the Panthers this past year, they were under 500 and they were hosting a fucking playoff game. Like that's where, like, and I was totally against that. The fact they got to host a playoff game, and again, their rules are more a little bit like their rules are more compact and like they're they're locked in. You win your conference, you're into the playoffs, and you get a home playoff game. But I don't necessarily agree with that. If your teams, all of your teams in your conference show that they're not worthy of being a good enough, like producing a good enough team that deserves to have a deserves to have a home game when there's a conference that has three 11, 12 game uh winners in their conference, and one of them has to be on the road now because of that. Like, I I I just don't agree with that in general because I feel like it just should be a sliding scale a little bit, a little bit of wiggle room for these moments, because it's just like college football's not gonna be even all the time. And as much as the the rules themselves and NIL and the portal has evened out a lot of schools, there are gonna be schools that are just are not good enough and they don't deserve an opportunity. And if the teams that are are of that caliber don't take care of business in the regular season, that should not lead to like a team like Duke that had no reason to be in the playoff getting in, and that will be an option now because of these teams that win their conferences automatically being guaranteed a spot, and that just should not be the case. So I I don't agree with it. Maybe my mind will change as the sport keeps changing with rosters and all of that, but as of right now, I just don't think I agree with that part, and then Notre Dame, I don't know. I do I agree with it, probably not, but I also have to acknowledge the fact that like Notre Dame has always gotten special treatment in college football. It's gonna happen. Notre Dame is that school that's always going to get some special treatment in this scenario, and it's just another another, what is it, another chapter in the saga of Notre Dame getting that opportunity they probably don't deserve, and they probably again just based off their name. I get it, they're they're Notre Dame and the history speaks for itself, but it's just I just don't agree with it. I don't agree with the fact that they should just be automatically given a spot. Again, if they're in the top 12, they should deserve to be in. Again, that's the rule. And if I really have to think about it, if they're in the top 12, they deserve to get in. And again, this all comes back to the fact that this is all kind of decided by 12 by what is it, 13 people in a room? I don't I forget how many people are on the committee. But the fact that there are people in a committee that get to decide this thing, if they decide that Notre Dame's a top 12 team, they deserve to get into the playoff. That's fine. That's fine. Maybe, maybe I'm just being a little bit too jaded by the whole Notre Dame aspect of it. But it's just like one of those things that it's just like, I just don't like the fact that Notre Dame always gets special treatment in these scenarios, but maybe this is one of those spots where maybe they deserve that special treatment. If they're in the top 12, they deserve to be in the playoff. Fine. If they're good enough to be in the top 12, they deserve to be in the playoff. I guess. I guess. Again, it's just I just don't like giving in to Notre Dame fans, man. Notre Dame and their fans, I'm just not a big fan of them. As an Ohio State fan myself, again, I'm I'm in rarefied air talking about other rarefied air fan bases. I get it. It sounds like me, kind of like, you know, the small violin and all that shit, but I don't know. I when it comes to Notre Dame, I'm just always going to be like initially against making any type of concession toward Notre Dame at all because they they feel like they deserve the world, and it's not necessarily the case. I just don't think so. But I guess maybe in this spot they probably have a point. They probably, if they do, if they're in the top 12 at the end of the year, they deserve to be in the be in the playoffs. But again, I just feel like if they were to join a conference, they wouldn't have to deal with this shit. But they get to have their cake and eat it too. And that maybe that's where I my anger comes from because they don't have they don't want to have to acquiesce and be a part of any of the rest of the college football world, but they still want to be a part of the big dance that everybody else is a part of. So like you don't have to follow any of the rules that everybody else has to follow, but you want to have a special case for yourself to get in as long as you as long so I yeah, that's the part I hate is the fact they get they want to do they want to have their cake and eat it too. That's it. I think I've diagnosed my own my own issue with Notre Dame is that they just they always want to do it their own way and still get their way. And it's just not the case. If they just joined the Big Ten or actually join the ACC, they wouldn't have to deal with this shit. But you know, they want to get all their money and not have to join conferences and not have to play a conference championship game like everybody else does if you're a team of that caliber, but yet they still want to get in the playoff. That's that's what gets me. That's what irks me about this. I hate I hate it, but you know, it is what it is. And then the last Cotwell topic that I have is okay, so if you so Kurt Signetti, one of his biggest, uh, what is it? One of his biggest, what's the word I'm looking for? Quotes that he has had ever since he kind of bursted onto the scene at Indiana, was when he was, I think it was like a first interview of like a very close, like like a very popular interview that he had early on in Indiana was that, hey, I win, Google me. I think that was in his press conference, his opening press presser. It was that, hey, I win, Google me. And people always make fun of them up until this year, where they won the national title, they did what they were supposed to do. Again, I don't have to give them any more credit. I think I've done enough when it comes to talking about how great Indiana has been this year and how magical their season kind of turned out to be. But so now, because of that, Google has done one of the funniest things I've ever seen. And now when you Google Kurt Signetti's name, you it automatically on the top of the page will say, Yup, he won. And I do think that's a funny thing. Again, it's like one of the more memeable things that he is not memeable, but like impactful things he has said throughout his time in Indiana. Now he's done a lot bigger things and won a national title and all of that. But the fact that you now can search his name and it'll say, Yup, he won right there at the top of the page is kind of awesome. It's and it's very funny. So I did have to mention that for anybody that wants to go try it, you can go try it right now, and that's exactly what it did. I made sure I did it before um before I started the pod here, and it literally says, Yup, he won at the top of the page. So I do have to uh I have to give Google a lot of credit there that the fact that they saw that as an opportunity to make this change and it's it's really cool. And it's just like kind of like a full circle thing. Like, hey, he said at the beginning of his time in Indiana, yep, I I win. Google me. And now when you Google him, it'll say, Yep, he won. That's actually really cool. So that's something I wanted to mention on the pod as well. Um, but again, not necessarily a big story. I think it was just kind of a funny one to kind of add in. Alright. Now I'm done with college football. Let's go ahead and jump into the NFL now, where I have like two stories to kind of talk about. They're both coach, uh they're both coach kind of connected connection. Nope. They're coaching uh stories when it comes to coach head coaching in the NFL and just coaches in general getting hired and fired when it comes to this hiring cycle in the NFL right now. So I have two of those, two of those to talk about, and then I'll get to the conference championship stuff. So here's the here's what I got. Uh another head coaching job has been filled with the Ravens hiring ex-Chargers DC Jesse Mentor. Jesse Mentor, who is a guy that has spent some time with the Ravens, I believe. I think he was their DC for a little bit. Let me make sure I'm not crazy. Nope, that's not the story I want to click on. Let's see here. In the NFL home. So Mentor, who was most recently the DC for the Los Angeles Chargers over the last couple years with Harbaugh. He was before that, he was at Michigan with Harbaugh as the DC there. And then, yeah, he's been with Jim Harbaugh the last four seasons. So he was at the University of Michigan for um 22 and 23, 2022 and 2023, and then he was with the Chargers for the last two years with Harbaugh for 2024 and 2025. And his first NFL job came with John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh's brother, where he was a defensive assistant from 2017 to 2020. So for his whole coaching career, he had been with a Harbaugh to a certain extent, with his longest tenure being with Jim, both at Michigan and at um the Chargers the last four years or so. So now he is going to be the head coach for the Baltimore Ravens, which was pretty much looked at to be the top job in the coach this year's coaching cycle for all the NFL jobs that have been been opened, right? Which I kind of agree with. I'm like, maybe you can have some type of like maybe you you value both uh Buffaloes a little bit more, but I think I'd probably value the Ravens because they do have Lamar. They do have a long track record of having great GM, great GM, um having a great GM, having a great owner, and like having a long-term history of just like excellence, right? So I would probably go probably Baltimore over Baltimore 1 and then probably go Buffalo 2, especially with the owner going off and saying the stupid shit he said um during the press conference earlier this week, which I think we've already talked about. Actually, no, did we talk about it? No, I guess we didn't. So I'm he said like the owner for the Buffalo Bills, and they were doing the um the press conference with about with the GM now turned, I think he's like the head of football operations now in Brandon Bean, and they were talking about Keon Coleman, and then the owner kind of came in as Brandon Bean was answering the question, pretty much saying that Keon Coleman was a team was a team, um, was a sorry, a coaching staff pick when he was drafted to the Buffalo Bills out of Florida State a few years ago, that it was a coaching staff pick and not Brandon Bean's idea, and that's not the guy he actually wanted when they drafted him. He decided to still acquiesce to the coaching staff, which one was a terrible idea because you know Keon Coleman's still on your goddamn team. Unless you plan on releasing him tomorrow, that's still a guy you have to, he has you you're paying him to come and play for you. And not to mention the fact that I get it, you're trying to throw the the head coach under the bus, the guy that you already fired, you're now replaced, trying to replace, but the OC for the Bills was also there at that point, and he's also a candidate for the job of being the head coach at Buffalo. So you're throwing not only the guy you just you already threw under the bus, you're throwing him under the bus again, but now a guy that could be attached could still be attached to your team, you might be throwing him under the bus as well, as well as Keon Coleman, the guy that you're still he's still on your team. You drafted him. I don't think they're gonna just sit here and just let him go and like let him off the hook and like let him go to a different team. So I think you still have to deal with him on an everyday basis, and you did you threw him under the bus. Like, and I just think to a certain degree, I get it, Keon Coleman hasn't been nearly what they thought he was going to be when they drafted him, but I do think that's something you have to keep in-house, and you just don't come out with it with all willy-nilly without thinking about the consequences of that. And that's that situation, especially to protect the guy, the GM, that helped with the with the pick. And then especially after Brandon, uh the owner came out and tried to say that, people were going back because literally perfect timing, like during that, during that time when they were drafting Keon Coleman, they were doing hard knocks. And that there were plenty of um of clips of Brandon Bean talking about how much he wanted Keon Coleman himself. And this wasn't with the head coach around. There was time plenty of times, there were clips that were coming out for days after that whole press conference, talking about how Brandon Bean was talking about how he wanted Keon Coleman and that he was excited to draft and like he was doing that without the coach around. He wasn't saying this is the coach's guy, like they he was saying he wanted Keon Coleman as well. So trying like now it's start like it's uh there's obvious evidence that can that is contrary to what he's what the owner was trying to say. So I do think that does add to the fact that maybe it's a little bit of like a weird situation ownership-wise and all of that there. On top of the fact they kept the GM that obviously was a part of the problem as to why the team wasn't good enough. Again, they were good enough for Josh Allen to lead them to all the way to the divisional round again. But I think that everybody knows watching football that it's not like the Bills were the most talented team out there. Again, we talked about this on the last spot, how Brandon Bean wasn't necessarily doing his job of filling out the roster in a good in the same way that maybe some of the rest of the uh the big quarterbacks teams were doing so throughout the last few years with their quarterbacks doing what they're supposed to do, trying to fill out the roster with other talented players. So, but yeah, back to the part where Baltimore is the best job, and now they have now filled it with Jesse Minter. What do I think about that? I was kind of surprised they went with a defensive head coach again. I thought they were going to lean towards offense because you had Lamar, and because there was obviously a power struggle a little bit between Lamar, like maybe not a power struggle, but you could tell that like it Lamar and John Harbaugh were not on the same page at all times, and that they weren't on the best of terms. And you kind of like you're now you're like so. I thought when you got rid of Harbaugh, that you this was opening up an opportunity for the Ravens to get an like an offensive-minded head coach that can call the plays, and that you wouldn't have to worry about getting a new coordinator every time that now you'd have to like every time that because again, the same issue I've been talking about. If you have a good offensive coordinator, they're more likely going to get a head coaching job at some point. So you're gonna have to replace them a lot more often than you are a defensive, uh defensive coordinator because it's just kind of how the league is going as of right now. So I really did think they were gonna go offensive um head coach when it comes to how they they were gonna hire somebody, but and not to mention, I thought that they went with a young guy that comes a little bit more risk. Like Jesse Minter has been doing a great job as the DC um with the Chargers these past two years, and when he was doing Michigan was pretty good too, but again, he was kind of you know getting the cheating and all that. But I'm not gonna go too far into that fact, but he's been doing a good job as the DC with the Chargers over the last couple years. So I'm like, I'm not saying that he's guaranteed he won't work, but there's no guarantee that he will. And I think that when you have a quarterback in his prime that has three to four more years of prime football left in him, I thought you would go with a little bit more of an established head coach that you would have a little bit of a higher floor attached to. So maybe you can kind of guarantee at least getting to a certain point to where you're not gonna have like so there'd be no risk of like totally ruining it coach hit coach like head coaching wise to where you'll maybe you hire a back. Again, I'm not saying Jesse Mintzer will be a bad hire. I I don't necessarily hate it, but I think it does come with a considerable amount of risk. But I thought that you wouldn't want to take when you've sided with your yuck with your your prime quarterback in his prime. I just thought you're gonna go with an O's with an offensive-minded guy. So now, on top of hiring him, I think he'll do good with the defense. I'm not gonna lie to you, because he was it wasn't like the Chargers defense was the most talented defense out there, and he was making them play. They were playing hard for him, and they were playing um playing physical, playing hard, and they were like they were getting the job done again. They didn't, it's not like they were the most talented defense out there. So I do think he'll be able to work wonders with the defense, but it just now you have to go and hire an OC for Lamar, and then maybe that OC will stay for a year or two and then go on and have to take another job, and then you're gonna be back into finding another OC again. And it's I just feel like you didn't they they could have had a chance to not have to go through that again if they would have picked an offensive-minded guy, but you know, apparently they fell in love with Jesse Minter. Hopefully it'll work out because again, they just have to make it work because once Lamar's out of his prime, like what are you gonna do after that? Like, this is Lamar has three to four more years of prime football where you can expect him to be at his at his best, and then it'll be a landslide from there. So you really have to take advantage of these next three to four years of his of his prime. And I'm just like you are taking a risk with maybe maybe Jesse Minter isn't a head coach. Like, maybe that's the case. We've seen it before, so I'm just not I'm not, I just I just don't want to, I'm not saying he'll be a bad pick. I'm just saying there is a chance, it is on the board, that he may not be a great head coach, and that'll you'll now be back at the table again in a couple years once you decide that he's not doing the job correctly. So especially when you already fired a guy that had already gotten you, like that was a again, I'm not saying you had the highest ceiling in John Hart um John Harbaugh, but he had a very high floor, and you weren't going to be terrible with him as your head coach. So like now you're like taking a risk to potentially be worse than that. So that's why I thought they would go with a little bit more of like a guaranteed option, maybe an like offensive guy to help out with Lamar to make sure that connection was good, but it's just they're taking a chance on another home run for the next 15 years. Like that that's I think that's what they're going for. I hope it works out. But you know, you have Lamar there, and I saw I thought they would go with more of like a Lamar type of guy. And I'm not sure Jesse Mentor is necessarily Lamar's first pick as a head coach, but again, the owner, um, Bienemis not is it Bienemy? Nope. Nope, that's not his name. Um Ravens owner. Bishotti, sorry. Um, Steve Bishotti, he said from the get-go in his presser that he has all the power. He was taking Lamar's um input, but he had all the power, and he he exercised that power by hiring Mentor to be the next uh head coach. Hopefully it works. Actually, I hope it doesn't work. I'm a Steelers fan. That's kind of weird. I'm not wishing for their downfall, but I am. It's kind of a weird one, but uh I don't know. I'm not gonna go any farther into that. Next one. Cowboys hire Christian Parker as the DC, who is the former secondaries coach for the Eagles, okay? I have I have a couple problems with this, okay? A couple problems. One, this now DC has never called defensive plays before. I'm not saying that's an instant no, but I'm saying that is something you're gonna have to get over him and you're gonna have to hope that he's gonna be good as a DC, kind of doing the play calling thing, because that is an art within itself. Coaching a player to be as good as they're supposed to be is an art in itself that you do have to be good at as a DC, but especially as a defense or defense quarter or offensive, anybody that has to call plays, calling plays is a something is a skill you have to master. And I do think that is something they're taking a risk on because the dude has never called plays before. So who knows whether he's actually good at that. Again, I'm not saying, but when it comes to the coaching part, a lot of the Eagle secondary players like Cooper Dejean and Um uh Quinyan Mitchell came out and said that they would really um they're sad to see him go, and that he um I think Cooper DeGine talked about saying I think he tweet he tweeted that like he wouldn't be the player he is without um Christian Parker as a head as a coach for them. So like I'm not saying he can't be a developer, he is a div he looks like he is a decent developer. So that so the not calling plays before is one thing I have a problem with this, and then the second problem I have is that when he was at his most successful, his statement with the Eagles, he was getting some very talented players to coach up. So and the Cowboys are not as good as drafters as the Eagles are. The Eagles, I've talked about their D their um their their GM being one of the best GMs in the NFL, and that he's a really good developer, like really good at have really has a really good eye for talent, and that the Eagles are literally killing the draft every single year, not only when it comes to picking the right guys, but also move maneuvering the draft and getting guys to at this at deals and and like getting guys that are like maybe that have high f high ceilings and that they're very talented. Like that's something the Eagles are very good at. I I don't think the Cowboys are as good at doing that. So once this guy is a DC for the Cowboys, how are you so sure he's gonna be able to do more with less? Because I just I don't I'll never believe that the Cowboys will ever have the talent at on their defense overall that the Eagles has have had over the last five, ten years, like where they've they've always had talented dudes on their defense, especially as of recent, when this guy, Christian Parker, has been there. So my that's my other question is can he do more with Leska? I never think the Cowboys are gonna be able to draft in the same way the Eagles are and be able to get him as talented players as the Eagles have on the defense. So that's like those are my two big questions with that. Again, I'm I'm never sitting here saying the Cowboys need to be very competitive and all. I I think the NFL is a is a funnier place when the Cowboys do this shit every year where they make the their own fans think they can have a chance to go win some win some important games and they fall flat on their face every year. I think the NFL is a funnier place when that happens. So I'm not sitting here rooting for the the success of the Cowboys by any means, but I do think that in general when it comes to this hire, that it just doesn't necessarily make the most sense to me. I thought they would try to go for a more like you know, veteran DC that's called plays before, that's done it in the NFL, and then they're kind of taking a little bit of a swing here, and that's where I think uh again, but they no, because they're gonna their coach is an offensive guy. So that's where I think it's even more important for you to have a guy that's done it before, and like especially with your coach being an offensive guy, call him plays on that side. I don't know if it's a little bit of a risk on the cowboy side. So those are the both of the coaching things I wanted to talk about. So now let's see, they're open NFL jobs. So as of now, the jobs that are left is gonna be Buffalo, it's gonna be Pittsburgh, it's gonna be the Cardinals, it's gonna be the Cowboys, which again, the Cowboys, insane. The fact that they have um lasted as long, like sorry, no, no, no. No, the Browns. Sorry, I said the Cleveland Browns, right? Yeah. Insane the fact that nobody seems like they wants to take the Cleveland Browns job at all. There's multiple guys that are like in it for other jobs that have that the Browns have asked to like take interviews with them and they keep telling them no. It's insane the fact that like it's so obvious the Browns job is like radioactive that nobody really wants to take it, even though we all know that somebody is going to take that job because there's really no other opportunities and they're gonna have to take that chance. But it's just funny to see that they keep trying to get some of these higher, like these uh more applauded names, the hotter names, and like they all keep telling them no, which is kind of funny. Um, oh, I wanted to talk about this. So the Chargers, speaking of guys leaving, I talked about the guy that was leaving that team to go be a head coach, but now they're gonna they're OC. So Mike McDaniel, this news happened as we were podcasting last time, so we didn't really get to talk about this on pod. Um, but the news came out that he had signed a deal. Um, Mike McDaniel, who is the former head coach of the of the um of the Dolphins, had signed a deal. To be the OC for the Chargers as long as he doesn't get like head coaching consideration. Because if he does, he'd automatically be able to go take that job. But as long as he doesn't get a head coaching uh spot that he wants to actually take, also another guy that was offered a chance to go interview for the uh the Browns head coaching position, he told them no as well. Hilarious. Funny with funny. I love laughing at the Browns and how dumb they are as a team and how bad they are as an organization. Uh so Mike Daniel, I think it's a very good spot for him when it if he ends up going there as the OC for the Chargers. Let me get to my one negative first, then I'll get to all the positives. I think him and Harbaugh are the most different individuals you can possibly have as people. Harbaugh is a very to the point um football guy that really has no other interest except football and physicality and doing all that, right? And my Mike McDaniel is more of like a I'm right, right? It's Mike McDaniel. Let me make sure I got his name right because I keep saying it. Mike. Mike McDaniel, okay. Mike McDaniel is a guy that is kind of like a nerd, not much doesn't really have the gravitas of a football guy, but he's very smart. He knows how to put together an offense, and it's just and he when he talks, he talks in very long, winded sentences. So like every answer he has is very like long and like drawn out. So it just feels like when it comes to the type of people that they are, they're very different. And I I would just I would love to be able to fly on the wall to have to experience a conversation between Harbaugh and McDaniel talking about offense, and I just feel like that'd be hilarious to have to experience. But let me get to all the positives about him potentially being the OC for the Chargers again, as long as he doesn't get a head coaching job that he actually wants. So I think him going to be the OC for the Chargers, he gets to be the OC for a Justin Herbert who is a very talented quarterback that can do anything that McDaniel would want to do when it comes to the quarterback position. He'd be able to throw as far as McDaniel would like him to. He'll be able to run if McDaniel wants to do some quarterback running option, like to have that uh have the QB option as a as a play for them. Again, I get they're not going to want to run um Herbo all the time, but I do think he's gonna have that option because Herbo is such a talented guy, not only throwing the football, but running as well. And then on top of the fact that I just think McDaniel, their way that he has his offense, he likes to run the football. One of the things he does best is being able to make a creative and explosive running game. And I do think Harbaugh, in his blood, he loved jump, Mr. Jim Harbaugh himself loves to run the football. And I do think Mike McDaniel in general, it he was given a little bit of a soft um the fact they were everybody would talk about the fact that he's soft because he's a soft, like he's a small guy, not really a big football when it comes to footbig, when it comes to football, big, and he doesn't really he kind of comes off as being a little bit soft, and the Dolphins were soft because they weren't necessarily a tough football team in the way that they played. But McDaniel, like he has a very physical run game and creative, but physical run game that I do think will mesh well with what Harbaugh wants to do, and then when you're you're gonna get defenses to want to like put extra um guys in the box to try to stop the run game, he then can create big plays in the passing game. Again, you're gonna have to get some faster receivers that can consistently catch the football. Um, but as long as you get that, he'll be able to get you some big play action plays over the top and like get you some big passing plays that Herbo would be able to take advantage of. So I do think that in when it comes to what he likes to do offensively, we'll really fit with what Harbaugh to do running the football. But when that doesn't work, or when you're gonna get you're gonna lull defenses to sleep trying to stop the run, and then you're gonna be able to, as long as you get a real wide receiver that you can rely on on every day every down basis, other than Lad McConkey. If you can get a wide receiver that can really take the top off a defense on top of that, I really do think the Chargers will be a real problem for the rest of the NFL. Especially for those teams in the AFC West that they're gonna have to deal with two times a year. He's gonna be able to really put together some real offenses, though the defenses for those teams are gonna have to worry about, but for the rest of the AFC as well. So I do think it's a very good fit. And I they have they have running backs that they can rely on. They just drafted a first-round running back this past year, and then they're gonna get their offensive line, or they're gonna get some guys back for their offensive line, getting them healthy, they're with both their tackles, and they're probably gonna have to draft another alignment to help out help out that line. But win healthy, that offensive line will actually be very good. And I do think they'll be able to do some of those things that he likes to do running the football. And then if they get that thing humming again offensively and help out Herbo to where he doesn't have to be the whole offense, because that's really what it turned into throughout the rest of the year. Again, the offense line was terrible, so that also was a bigger made it such a much bigger issue with Herbo having to run that offense. But get the offense fixed, and then you're gonna add the creativity of Mike McDaniel. I do think it's gonna lead to a very explosive offense for the rest of the NFL to have to deal with. And I do think that's gonna be a very a big match in heaven, uh like an amazing match, other than the fact that when you know Harbaugh and McDaniel have to talk to each other, I think that will be absolutely hilarious, and not much will happen because I just think those two are so different as people. But I think otherwise, I think it'll be a very good match for everybody involved as long as you know Mike McDaniel doesn't take a head coaching job somewhere. And then also for McDaniel, I think for him that's a very good spot. The fact that he gets to go with the Chargers, where who doesn't necessarily get the most um press coverage when it comes to like the Chargers almost forgotten because they're not the biggest team in LA, and all of that, they're the he gets to live by the beach, and then if everything goes well and he does what he's supposed to do over the next year or so, he might be back to being a hot head coaching candidate for another another um for another team once the next hiring cycle comes through after next year. So I do think it can be a it's a very good spot for him if he's not gonna take a head coaching job this time around, for him to set himself up to have an explosive offense next year and then be ready to go to maybe be the top guy the next go-around when there's teams that are looking for a head coach. I do think it's a very good spot for him as well. So I decided to talk about it because I just think it's a match made in heaven, honestly. For Mike McDaniel and for the Chargers and for Herbo. Now they need to get to drafting, try to try to get some more pass catchers that can be a little bit faster, and then uh maybe get that offensive line healthy, maybe add a couple more guys to that line. I do think they can really do some things um next year with McDaniels with McDaniel as their OC. So that's all I got on that. And without further ado, I don't think I have any other stories to talk about in the NFL. Let me see here, just to make sure. I don't have anything else. So let's go ahead and get to the games now. So we have two games to talk about, not a lot. Again, it's still it's the final four teams that are left in the NFL this season. So playing in the conference championship games on Sunday. Both games are happening on Sunday, right? Yeah, I'm gonna make sure I'm not crazy here. Yeah. So the first game will be the Broncos and Patriots game happening this Sunday at 3 p.m. Um in in Denver. So that'll be a home game for Denver. And then the second game will be at 6.30 on Sunday, with um Seattle being at home, with the Rams coming back in for those two teams facing off for a third time this season with them being conference uh division foes and all of that. So uh that's gonna be another big game. So those are the two games we have to talk about. I'm going to give um my preview of those games and then give my picks. I do have Jace's picks for both of those games as well, so we're not going to miss out on that. But let's go ahead and get to those games. Um, when it comes to the records so far in the postseason, I overall am 7-3. And then Jace overall through the first two rounds is seven and three as well. So we're all tied up so far when it comes to the records. For the first, for the wildcard round, I was five and one, Jace was three-three. And then for the divisional round, I went two and two, and Jace went four and oh. Again, I just couldn't help myself. I picked Buffalo and Houston as the two as the two differences with Jace, and I took an L on both. I should have gotten the win with Buffalo, though. But you know, Josh Allen had to, you know, have a terrible game that he hasn't really played before in the playoffs. So that kind of ruined it for me there. And then obviously, you know, Houston. CJ had a terrible day as well. So but the defense was great, though. But again, I don't have as much of a gripe on that one because that one was just, you know, CJ had an all-time terrible day that day against New England. So it is what it is. So let's get to the games here. Broncos Patriots. This is in Denver. Um, Denver is going to be playing with um Jared Stidham as their starting quarterback for this game, because we talked about in the last pod, we had Bo Nicks in the last game against Buffalo, had injured his, like I think broke his ankle, and had has to get um he broke it during the last drive of the game in overtime. So he broke it, he'll he'll be getting some surgery, he'll be back for next season, but he's gone for the rest of this um postseason. So they're gonna be without Bo Nicks in this game, playing with Jared Sitdam as their as their quarterback, a guy that hasn't taken any snaps in a NFL football game for the past two years. But when Sean Payton came out after the game and talked about the Bo Nicks thing, he showed that he had confidence in Jared Sitam, that he said that he'll be ready to go, and that again, I there's not much else he can say. What are you supposed to say? Jared Sitdam sucks ass. So why in the hell would you have him as your backup? So he does have to give him a little bit of a uh sense of confidence when it comes to talking to the media about him, because again, you're still relying on him to try to win the game if that's what your goal is for this game, which I think it is, you know, being the conference championship and all that, with a chance to go to the Super Bowl. And then you have so you have that going for the Broncos. You're gonna be at home. Your defense is one of the best uh in the AFC. They've been doing their thing, but again, they do let up a lot of points against some of the better teams they have faced throughout this year. So that's gonna be an issue. And then can you rely on Jared Sitdam to get you some points when you when you have them? And it's just like that is not something you can necessarily like guarantee that'll happen. So that is gonna be a big deal offensively. Can they kind of keep the ball rolling the same way they had with Bo Nick's? Which I'm like, it's not it's not totally guaranteed that Jared Sitham will be awful. Because I think to a certain degree, I'm not a big believer in Bo Nicks in general. So like if so, for me, believing that Bo Nicks isn't that great of a quarterback, if Sean Payton can make Bo Knicks a viable starting quarterback in the NFL, why couldn't he do that with Jared Sitam? Again, maybe Bo maybe Bo Nick's a little bit better than just a non like a viable quarterback. Maybe he's I think he's about average as a quarterback, so like why can't Why can't Jared Siddham do that? Why can't Sean Payton do that with Jared Siddham? So like that is an option on the board that maybe even with the f lack of reps that he has had that he can come into this game and they can manage to have him run the offense and do good things even with us not seeing a lot of it in real football over the last two years from him. So like that is an option on the board. I don't think it's a very like likely option. Do I think it's more likely that he sucks ass or that he is awesome and wins the game? I think it's probably closer to the closer to him sucking ass. I'm not gonna sit here and say he's gonna come out and be amazing, but I do think it's probably closer in the middle where I think he'll be able to manage the game and they'll and Sean Payton will do some things offensively that'll try to help him as much as he possibly can. Again, this kind of like in the same way with Bo Nick's is Bo Nick has not been consistently great all year long. Bo Nicks has had times where he has been under like not playing as well as he probably can be, and they've managed to win football games even with that being the case, with their defense and with Sean Payton kind of dialing some things up to where it'll make it makes it easier on Bo Nick. So why so he can maybe do that with Jared Sitam? So that's still an option in this game. I don't I'm not gonna put any money on that, but I think it is on the board that they can probably manage with with Jared Siddham. On the Patriots side of this thing, so you have bo Drake May coming into this game. He had un I don't think he's played a great game this postseason yet. But this is him coming off of a regular season where he is gonna be in top two in the in the MVP voting, if not win it altogether. It's pretty much between him and Matthew Stafford. We'll see how that goes. I'd probably lean towards Matthew Stafford if I had a vote, but again, I don't have a vote. I don't, I you know, I don't fucking matter in this whole thing. I'm just sitting here talking on a microphone to a wall and to whoever decides to listen. So I'm not saying my opinion really matters, but I'd I would probably give to Stafford if I had a choice. So, but Drake May's been playing good all year when it comes to regular season. But in the playoffs, he's played against two very good defenses in the Chargers and the Texans, and not necessarily again, he made some big throws last week against the Texans defense. That without them, they probably don't win that game, even with all the um turnovers by CJ. But he made some big plays, but otherwise, he has kind of been fumbling the football a lot. I think he has like five fumbles throughout the last two games, so definitely not a big definitely a big one. And it does kind of come to ham size where, like, hey, he has smaller hands than other quarterbacks, and when guys come up and start swiping at the ball, having bigger hands would definitely be a help in that scenario. But guess what? Drake maybe was born with the hands that he has, and again, he's been managing all year without it, without bigger hands, but in these last two playoff games, it has been a little bit of an issue for him holding on to the football. So that you have that, and then the offense for the rest of the offense for the Patriots. You have the offensive line who has not been looking all that great, especially the left side with why am I forgetting the left tackle's name? Hold on, let me get his name because I'm gonna talk shit about him. I may as well say his name correctly and have his name in there. It is the uh Will Campbell, their first round pick from this past season's rookie type rookie left tackle. He has been having trouble all year long with more talented pass rushers that are bigger than him and that have longer arms than him. Because again, Will Campbell, as talented as a tackle that he is, he's not the biggest tackle out there. And his one of his biggest weaknesses is the fact he has shorter arms for a guy of his size. He's they they list him at 6'6, 320, which again listed stuff isn't always the best way to because again, they they lie all the time when it comes to listing sizes and weights and all of that. But the one thing that is very much proven about him is that he has short arms. And now that he has faced some of the best some of the better um defensive ends in the NFL that are as big as him and as strong as him and that have longer arms, he has been having a lot of trouble with those type of defensive ends. And guess what the Broncos have? They have two very good, I'm not saying they're all-time defensive ends like some of the ones they face over the last couple weeks, but they are two very good defensive ends that are bigger and that have longer arms that have those same type of characteristics. And if he keeps struggling, there's going to be more defensive ends in the lap of Drake May that may be able to get after him and sack him, which he has been sacked a lot in these playoffs. But also maybe be able to create some turnovers if they can swipe at the ball, and Drake May keeps fumbling the football like he has the last couple games. So, like the offensive line, especially the left side of the offensive line, will be an issue that they will have to handle against the Denver Broncos, who has a very good defense. They don't, their defense is not as good as the Houston defense, but I think they're all they're they're just as good as the Chargers defense. So I do think they'll the Broncos defense will be able to get a lot of pressure on on uh Drake May, especially from the left side of the line where, you know, Will Campbell has been doing a lot of struggling as of so far, especially in the playoffs, heck all year, when it comes to some of the more talented pass rushers they're gonna have to face. So I do think that'll be an issue for the New England offense to have to deal with. And then also when it comes to their wide receivers, they have a talented set of wide receivers, not necessarily like obviously Stefan Diggs is like a one of like a number one type of guy, and he's been playing very well throughout the season. I'm not really worried about him. But they have Kayshawn Boutet, and then you have like you know, Demario Douglas and Kyle Williams, but it's just kind of like a mix of those other guys alongside of Stefan Diggs, where it's not necessarily the most consistent wide receiver production. I think it's mostly based off of Drake May being able to have broken plays and be able to kind of throw the football down the field, and whoever is down there is down there. So it's not the most consistent of wide receiver production, it's more just Drake May kind of having some broken other than Stefan Diggs, of course. It's Drake May having some broken plays and kind of making making some things happen, along with Hunter Henry, their tight end, who's all who's very good, along with Austin Hooper. But it's their pass catchers that I think and they're going up against a very good uh Denver secondary. Is their secondary as good as like I think their number one is as good, the number one corner they have is as good as um Houston's number one quarter and Patrick Patrick Surtain for the Broncos, and then you have um Derek Stingley Jr. as the number one for the Houston Texans. I think those guys are pretty comparable, but as a total secondary, are they as good as as Houston? Maybe it's close. I would say it's close. As a secondary, I think it's close. I think it's more of the pass rush that I think Houston kind of takes takes the cake when it comes to how good of a defense that they have. But I think secondary-wise, I think they're relatively close, and I do think they'll be able to, as long as they get after Drake Man, don't let have let him have a lot of plays outside the pocket, extending plays and all that with his legs. I do think their secondary will be able to do a decent job against the wide receivers from um from New England. So and then the offense, and then for the defense for the for New England, they don't have an amazing pass rush. They've been looking at the last couple weeks. They've played against um CJ Stroud last week, who had the worst week he possibly worst game he possibly could have. But again, his offensive line was a turnstile, and they really weren't doing any blocking for him whatsoever. And then the week the week before that against the Chargers, like their chart, their offensive line was awful, and Justin Herbert really didn't have a lot of time to throw the football at all, especially in the second half. First half, it was a little bit more he had a lot more time, but his set his wide receivers weren't getting as much separation. But it they were they have faced two defenses so far that their offensive line was definitely a weakness. But now, not being a great pass rusher going against an uh offensive line in the Denver Broncos, that is probably one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, especially probably one of the best offensive lines that's left in the playoffs so far. So I do think the New England defense is gonna have a lot of trouble, defensive line is gonna have a lot of trouble getting pressure on Jared Sitdam just by just getting after him with the pass rush. So it's I think it's going to be more about playing coverage against those those wide receivers from from Denver and hope that the coverage will lead to coverage sacks rather than the defensive line getting instant pressure on Jared Sitam and getting after him right away. Because I just don't think that's gonna happen against how good of a deep offensive line Denver has. I just don't Think uh New England has a defensive line that can create the instant pressure that you need, especially against a very good offensive line that def that Denver has. I just don't think it's really gonna happen. So, and then the secondary for New England, they have a good secondary. I think Christian Gonzalez is their best guy, he's their number one um corner, but I think outside of him they play hard, but I don't think they have a like a talented secondary outside of Christian Gonzalez that you can just like guarantee will be able to lock down anybody that um the Broncos have. And when it comes to the Broncos, like they obviously they have their um hold on, let me see here. The Broncos. I I I for I'm forgetting names again. This is one of those things I do on this podcast where I always forget names. Like obviously they have a very talented wide receiver in Cortland Sutton. Marvin Mims is a very good backup wide receiver who can make some big plays. Um Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant, they're two very young wide receivers that they kind of take turns, kind of having big games, and Pat Bryant is back for this game after not playing last week. Um, Troy Franklin is questionable, but they have some talented wide receivers to deal with. And if Cortland Sutton is probably going to be taken away by Christian Gonzalez, I think that'll be his number one job is to try to take um Cortland Sutton away, then it's gonna be on the other young wide receivers to try to make plays against a secondary for the Patriots that isn't necessarily locked down or crazy talented on the backside of that defense. So, and if Jared Sutham can get some time to sit there in the pocket, make read the defense and throw the football where it needs to go to the open man, I do think they have some talented wide receivers that can make some bigger plays down the field. But it's just are is Stenham going to have enough time, and if he does have that time, is he gonna be able to get the play, make the plays necessary to kind of like keep the offense moving and be able to score some points? Because again, I think the defense will be able to put up a really good fight against that New England offense, but it's just can they just can't can he keep the offense moving and score the points necessary to back up that defense and how good they will play? Because again, I just don't think you're gonna lock down. I I think Drake May has not played a great postseason game so far this postseason, but it's just he's capable of the big play at all times, even if it comes at the um price of him maybe taking a big hit and do and running outside the pocket and doing all that. He'll do all of that. So he's always looking for the big plays, is like can you withstand those big plays and can Stidum just keep your offense moving and be able to score points? Because you're there's no way I just don't think there's gonna be a way you're gonna lock down the Patriots to like under 10. But the question is, is can Denver's defense keep New England under 20? And can the offense led by Jared Siddham and um Sean Payton get to where like that 17 to 20 points and just keep uh make it be a little bit more of a low-scoring game, while also understanding that you're not gonna hold down Drake May for the whole game. He's gonna get a couple on you. That's just how it's gonna go because he's been a big play machine all year. So it's a big deal. So Jace has picked New England for this game. Um the way I look at it is that I think New England is a four-point, four and a half point favorite in this game, especially being at home, obviously, with the fact they have a young uh starting quarterback that hasn't taken any snaps in two years. Not he's not young, but in Jared Siddham, I I am gonna pick New England as well in this game. If I had if I was betting like the line with it being four and a half points, I'd probably go with Broncos. I do think they can probably keep the game close, but fortunately, we're doing it straight up, so it's gonna be a little bit more black or white, so you get to have to pick a winner here. So Jace picked New England, and so am I. I just think that New England has more avenues to win this overall game than the Broncos do. And because of that, and because all the things I've talked about, I just think, especially with Stidum, there's gonna be so much volatility, and like, unless they like if I knew exactly what Stidum was gonna give you, then I think I would be a little bit more comfortable maybe picking the Broncos to win this game. But it's just because I'm not sure what Stidum's gonna be, and I'm not, and I just know what I'm getting from New England a lot more. So I just feel a lot more confident in picking New England to win that game, especially since Stidum's first start in two years. So with all that being the case, I'm gonna take New England and win that game. I think it'll be close, though. I think it'll be a knockdown drag out fight till the end. I really do. I just think that I just think that you're not gonna, unless you're gonna guarantee me Drake May has an awesome game for the first time in his playoff career so far, with his first two games being before. I just don't think you can guarantee that. So I just think that Broncos can keep it close, but I do think New England probably wins the game to finish it out. But I wouldn't be surprised if the Broncos won this game. But again, I just think it Broncos only have one way to win the game, and it's by causing turnovers and by keeping the score low. I just don't think the Broncos are gonna win a shootout with the Patriots. So I just think the Broncos need to keep it as a lower scoring game, and hopefully that defense can come through with a lot of big plays. I'm just like, I just don't think I can count on that to happen, which is why I'm gonna pick New England to win the game. All right, and that's the first one. Me and Jace kind of uh both picked New England there. Next game, the LA Rams going to Seattle to play for the third time this season. What is there to say? The Seahawks defensively is the best defense left in this playoffs. I think it was between them and Houston as being the best defenses in the NFL. Seattle, I think the strength of their defense more lies in their secondary than their front seven. I think the set front seven for Houston is a lot better than the Seahawks front seven, but I do think the secondary for the Seahawks is awesome. And I think they know how to play good defense and they they're good on the back end, they tackle, they're physical, and their safeties are really good, and they play some very good defense on the back end, and they make it very hard on the quarterback to diagnose the defense and get the ball to the right guy. And if they do, they a lot of eyes are on you and they're ready to pick the ball off at any time, tip them, tip passes, and they're really get ready to um take a ball whenever they can. Um and then offensively, it's gonna be uh for the Seahawks. It's you know it's Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold didn't have to do much last week. I think he's they last week he went like 17 of 20 or something like that. He didn't have to throw the football a lot, um, and he did what he had to do, and he won like they won the game, and he's playing with the tornado bleak, which what was news coming into last week's game with that they played, and it didn't really affect him in that game. Again, it was a blowout. They destroyed the 49ers by 35 points. So I just think that in this game against a much better Rams team, I think we'll put up a much better offensive performance. I think it might require the Seahawks to get a lot more out of Sam Darnold to win this football game, and I think that the running game for the Seahawks has been very good this year. They don't they are gonna be playing without Zach Charbonnet, who tore his ACL in that game last week, so all they're gonna have is Kenneth Walker as their main guy running the football. But again, they've he ran the football very well last week against a Niners defense that's nowhere near as healthy as what the Rams is right now, but it's not like the Rams are like awesome at stopping the run. So I do think the Seahawks are gonna be able to run the football. It's whether they stick to it and whether the game plan calls for it, because I think that if they let the Rams kind of like get up and down the field, I think that will be an issue that'll stop the Seahawks from being able to play in their game plan. I think what the Seahawks want to do is they want to run the football and then they want to do play action pass with Sam Darnold and two JSN and two other those other wide receivers, Rashid Sahid, and the tight end. Why am I forgetting that guy's name? Um I man, I for I what is his name? Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. It's not that, not that tight end AJ Barner and Elijah Arroyo, who's coming back off an injury, he'll be another good uh tight end and guy to throw to. So like that's what they want to do offensively, and I don't think they want Sam Darnold to have to carry the whole offense. That's really not what they want to do offensively, especially with him having the injury, he's not gonna be able to run around. He's really gonna be a statue back there. So running the football, hat letting him do some things off play action is definitely how the Seahawks want to play offensively. But if they have to start slinging the football around, they do have some talented wide receivers to do so. JSN, Cooper Cup, Rasheed Shaheed. Um, they have some dudes. So like it depends on what they want to do. And I think the problem does come in is that if they do have to rely on Sam Darnold to just put the team on his back, I just I'm not again he's done it throughout the regular season, but throughout his NFL career, it's been it's yet to be seen in a big in a big time game whether he can actually do that and succeed and do it in a you know at a playoff matchup. I just don't think he's really shown that so far in his NFL career. So I think that will be a harder thing is if they need him to throw the team on his back and throw them to a win. I think that they really want to run the football and keep it balanced in order to kind of keep the Rams on their heels to stop it from having to only be on Sam Darnold's shoulders. So that'll be yet to be seen whether the game plan will kind of lend itself towards that, or if they're gonna have to rely on Sam Darnold and hope he doesn't like choke in the moment, which is what he's done throughout his NFL career in big games. Ask what he did at last year with um with Minnesota, how he played in those two big games, they really needed to be at his best. He didn't do so. So I think the Seahawks, again, I think their their defense is awesome. I think their defense can do some really good things, but they're playing against a Rams team that's seen them twice already. And the Rams will not be new to the environment the Seahawks will be playing in, though they'll be playing in being the Seahawks home stadium in Washington. I just don't think that in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, I don't think the Rams will be new to that. Like they'll know what what's coming, they'll be ready for it because they've already seen it before this year, and they've played twice already. And anything that Seahawks defense can do, the Rams had seen that, and um uh Sean McVay as the head coach will be ready to plan for that, and Matthew Safford seen that defense before. So I do think both of those guys, there's not really anything the Seahawks will be able to like pull out of the hat that neither of those guys have seen before, and they're both veteran, and they've both been seen a lot of defenses in their day. And I do think they'll have a real plan to get you know Matthew Safford to be able to get some open throws to Puka Nakua, to Devontae Adams, to those that trio of Wybruce um tight ends that they have, and they run the football very well too with Kyron Williams and Blake Corum. So they just have so many options to throw the football and run the football with. And if all if all else fails, Matthew Safford can really just sling the football around and make good decisions. And he didn't play well last week in the in a win against the the Bears, he didn't play that well, and I just don't expect him to have two bad games in a row, especially against a defense that he has seen so much before. So I do think Matthew Stafford will come into this game ready to go, and he'll be able to play um play very good football. And it's just if the Rams can have real balance, I think it'll be impossible for those Seahawks to stop them. But if they have to put the whole game on on uh on Matthew Stafford's back to win the game, he can do that. But it's just can he be his best in this big moment against a very good Seahawks defense will be a good question because there's no question Puka Nakua will be able to play a good game because he's been doing that all year long. Off the field, he's been a little bit of a troublemaker doing some stupid stuff, but on the field he's been he's been nails all year long. And then you have Devontae Adams, who's the leading touchdown receptions in the NFL. He didn't have a great game last week either. But I think Devontae Adams, Puka Nakua, all those tight ends, they just have so much, they they have so many good players that know what what to do in big moments, that I do think the Rams' defense will be, I mean Rams offense will be raring to go, especially with being led by Sean McVay, seeing that defense before, they're gonna have plenty of plans to be able to get their guys open, especially with those tight ends as well. And running the football with Kyrgyz Williams, I think they have some they have a really good set of weapons all over the place for Matthew Stafford to where the game doesn't have to be all on his back. He has plenty of dudes to throw to that he can that help alleviate the pressure for him. And then on top of that, on the defensive side of the ball for the Rams, like their their secondary is not good. I think their defense line is pretty good. They can get after the passer. I think they'll have some real opportunities to get after Sam Darnold and get him on the ground. And if they can, it'll make it a lot harder for the Seahawks to be able to kind of do what they want to do, running the football and all that. But if the Rams can stop the run and force the Seahawks into, you know, long third downs and having to really put the ball into Sam Darnold's hands, they have to read the defense and not have to make quick quick throws and like let some plays develop, and then it'll give the defense a chance to get after him. And if they do, he's not gonna be able to run away from them as all that much because of the tornado bleak. So I just think that the Rams defense, their whole plan should be to try to stop the run as much as they possibly can because I do think that's what the Seahawks really want to do is run the football first, and just force Sam Darnold to have to put the game on his back and to go and win it, and I do think that'll give the Rams the best chance to win. Because Sam Darnold, there's still a chance that old Sam Darnold is in there and he might shit down his own leg when the moment gets too big and when the game is truly on the line and on his shoulders. I do think that's going to be an issue. That's gonna be the way for the Rams to really like have the formula to win. Because if it comes down to quarterbacks, I think I'm not I don't think I'm going on a limb saying I take Matthew Stafford over Sam Darnold. But I will say that if Sam Darnold does have to throw, he will have to stop, you know, old boy JSM because he has an awesome player. He's almost impossible to stop. And I don't believe anybody on that Rams defense will be able to stop him one-on-one. They're gonna have to put two guys on him, but that'll only open up the rest of the offense, Cooper Cup and um Cooper Cup, AJ Barner, Rasheed Shaheed. That'll only open up the offense for those other guys. And again, Cooper Cup's done it before in big moments, but can Rasheed Shaheed, AJ Barner kind of come out and make some big plays? Raja Laja Arroyo make some big plays if um the Rams put more um effort into trying to stop JSN from having a big impact in the game. Can those guys make make that defense pay for doing so? That's gonna be a big question, but I don't know. Again, the the Seahawks defense is very, I mean, sorry, the Rams defense secondary is not all that great. So I think this game will really rely on pressure trying to get it get after Sam Darnold stopping the run. And if they can do that, it'll give their defense a chance. But it just at the end of the day, their secondary has been kind of like you know open for business to a certain extent. But if they can stop the run and put the ball into Sam Darnold's hands, I have to go win it for him. Like, he just hasn't really done that that much this year. So, and throughout his NFL career, so that's it is gonna be a question. So Jace has picked Seattle to win that game. I think I'm gonna go the Rams. I'm gonna go the Rams here because I think Matthew Stafford's been here, done that. I think that the Rams are gonna have a really good offensive game plan and be ready to go. I think Pukanakua's gonna be ready to show out along with Devontae Adams, those tight ends, and be able to run the football as well with Kyron Williams and Blake Corum. And I just think that defensively, I know it's gonna be a little bit of a trouble with a lot of trouble with JSN having to deal with him, but I think the Rams will be able, because they've seen that offense before, and because honestly, ever since that week 13 game that Sam Darnold had against that Rams defense where he came back at the very end and won it, he didn't really play a great game in that game, and then he came back in overtime. No, was it overtime or at the end of the game? With a two-point conversion, they were able to get the touchdown, then he won it off the two-point conversion. Ever since then, Sam Darnold has really regressed and he really hasn't been as explosive as offense. And if they can't be explosive and get really big plays on the field, and as long as the Rams can stop the special teams, um, Rasheed Shaheed, he has been a menace all year long, punt returning, kick returning, touchdowns all year long. Last week in San Fran, he did it the very first kickoff of the game, kickoff return, touchdown. If the Rams can stop that, along with that, that's what happened in the last game that the Rams and the Seahawks played, is that they let a kick-return touchdown go. Um, or was it punt return? I'm not sure which one it was, but they let Shahid return one for a touchdown that really swung the game towards Seattle and managed to help them win that one. I think after that, the Rams fired their special teams coordinator and all that because that was a really big deal in that moment to kind of let that one through. So as long as the Rams second um uh sorry special teams can stop Rasheed Shahid from having a big game and like impacting it that way and having good returns, I do think that their defense, the defense for the Rams can make it hard on Seattle to have to like nickel and weigh their way, nickel and dime their way down the field because I just don't think the big plays are really gonna be there because I just think that they haven't really had a lot of big plays um throughout the latter half of this season and through the playoffs so far. They haven't had a lot of big ones. So if they aren't running the football and you have to force them to nickel and dime their way down the field, I think that's gonna open up a lot of options for you know the Rams to get after Sam Darnold or to help him make a mistake if that team has to put the ball in the hands of Sam Darnold to go win it for him. So I'm gonna take the LA Rams. I'm gonna take um I'm gonna take Matthew Stafford to go out there and play a big game after not playing as well last week, uh, along with Puka Nakua and Devontae Adams. Uh, I'm gonna take the Rams to win that game. I really do. I think they are I think for a lot of the year, I've been talking about them as like the best team in the NFL. I've also talked about Seattle being like up there too with them in with Seattle and the Rams kind of like being the two best teams in the NFL. And I think those two teams, whoever wins that game, will definitely probably be my Super Bowl pick. Again, because I do think it'll be the Patriots on the other side winning their, winning their side of the AFC, and then getting to the Super Bowl. I just don't want them to win. But I do think the two best teams left in this playoff reside in the NFC and they're facing off against each other. So whoever wins that game, I do think it's gonna go win a Super Bowl, and I do I am going to put my bet in that the Rams will win it. So I'll take the Rams, Jace take the Seahawks in that scenario, and that's about it. So those are the games. I talked about them as much as I possibly can, made our predictions, as well as talked about everything else I wanted to talk about today. So that's about it here. So hopefully you guys had a great hope you guys had a good time listening to the pod today. I had a good time doing it, and I'm doing it in about an hour 40, so not necessarily two hours, so I'm doing a little bit better compared to usual. But uh let's go ahead and finish off the pod. I don't want to make it go any longer. So if you guys have been listening for a while, we appreciate you. If you're just now joining on, hopefully you like us and enjoy us enough to continue to listen to us talk about sports in the dumbest way possible. If this is the first pod you've listened to, make sure you go listen to a different pod with both me and Jace on like the podcast earlier this week, and get a better idea of what we are at our best when we have both of us, me, Jace, brothers, podcast co-host, kind of sitting here talking sports, talking shit, making jokes, and all of that. So make sure you go get a better idea if this is the first pod you've listened to, that you go listen to a different pod that can show you what we are at our best with both of us kind of here doing our thing. But if you do like us and enjoy us enough, we would appreciate if you could do a couple things for us. If you could like our podcast, subscribe to the podcast, rate the podcast five stars wherever you listen to us. We're pretty much available on all audio platforms out there, so we shouldn't have any problem finding us on anywhere you listen to your podcasts. And then make sure you share us, friends, family, enemies, anybody you feel like could enjoy the podcast we put out on a weekly basis, with it being two times a week during football season. We would love if you can do that. And then last but not least, if you could follow us on Twitter andor X, whatever you'd like to call it, at JB Sports Pod is the podcast handle, at Javante Boozer is my handle, and at Jace Boozer1 is Jace's handle, and that's about it so I'll go ahead and finish off the pot. Thank you guys for listening. Thank you guys for always listening. And have a great day. Have a great night and see you guys next week. Bye y'all.