The Kyle Bailey Show: Ryan McGee

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's welcome in and welcome back. Ryan McGee, ESPN senior writer,
College Game Day contributor, one half of Marty and McGee.
He's back with us for his weekly conversation, Ryan McGee,
what's going on, buddy?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
How are you? I'm good, man, I'm cold, but I
think everybody is so brother than now, we're good.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Any advice for a freshly minted forty year old man?
What are some some things I must do now at
forty years old?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, and he starts stretching. That's the biggest things. I
let myself get wound a little too tight, and I
went to one of the stretch lab deals when I
was probably forty five, and that changed my life. So
you need to stretch. That's my biggest So I learned
my You know, I played. I played in the Charlotte
Knights like charity softball.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Game a few years ago.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
No one knew that day is that I tore one
hamstring and heard another one. I pitched the rest of
the game, but I did not have another at bat.
I walked up to will Cuncle and I was like, hey, man,
don't let anybody no but I can't walk. But I
was like, but I'm not leaving the game like I
was in the World Series. But the point is stretch

(01:06):
because I didn't and end up popping a hamsterring bro.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I was on your team that day and I didn't
know that.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah, no, no. I went to Kunkle. I said, hey, man,
like he was. Remember remember Will took that way too seriously.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
It had like two home run.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
And I walked over to Will and he walked over
to me. He goes, he says, you all right?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
He was playing third, and he walked to me in
the mount and I go, I am not all right,
I go, but I'm not leaving the mound. I said, So,
I said, let everybody knows somebody needs to hit from me.
But yeah, we won the game.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's what matters.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
That's true. We did win the game. We got the
trophy and everything to prove it. All right, we got
some college football to get to here. Let me just
start with what a massive flop for the ACC or
the weekend was for the ACC. After all that handwringing
and arguing and you know, we're not getting treated fairly,
they went out there and laid an absolute egg this
past weekend. What did that do for their odds and

(01:57):
the playoffs and the perception over.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
All of the I mean, it's all about I mean,
I mean we talked about last week that the Group
of Five and the ACC both are doing this to themselves.
And I don't want to hear any complaining when we
get to the playoff and there's multiple Big ten teams
and multiple SEC teams because the reality is you left

(02:19):
those spaces open. And so yeah, they're gonna need a
situation kind of like last year. You know, they need
someone to be in the top ten and then lose
a close ACC championship and hope that the other team
gets an invite, you know, like like we had with
SMU and close in a year ago, and so, you know,
a team that everybody kind of wants to be in there.

(02:42):
But then maybe they get upset in the Conference sampenship
game in Charlotte, but in a close one, and so
that that's what they're going to kind of have to
hope for. But yeah, I mean, you know you can't.
I mean, it just it is what it is. You know,
Game day is going to a pet Notre Dame this weekend,
and Nardoozy was funny. Anybody's like, yeah, is listening because
I want to beat Notre Dame like everybody else. But

(03:02):
it's not a conference game, you know, right now, I
need to worry about conference games. But I was just
writing an essay for Saturday Show about the history of
you know, football at Pitt and maybe, you know, maybe
this is Pitt's chance to kind of seize it. But yeah,
I don't want to hear by complaining because it had
won the SEC last year. You know, the SEC in
a much different manner. Everybody kept beating up on each

(03:25):
other and then you know, they went from talking about
we're going to get half the teams in the playoffs
to man, I hope we get four.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
I'm with you, all right, So we await the next
iteration of the rankings. I'm looking at the top twelve
and we talk about all of these teams. You talk
about several of them all the time, especially from the SEC.
But I mean I watched BYU Texas Tech on Saturday.
I truthfully hadn't seen that much of either team and enjoyed, well,
I didn't enjoy the game. It was kind of a blowout.
But is there a team in the top twelve that

(03:53):
you think is not getting enough love? That's not being
taken seriously enough.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
No one's talking about Tech's A and M No One,
and they're number three in the country. And I think,
and I think, I think they're better at Indiana because Indiana,
I mean, in the end is an amazing story, but
literally have not played anyone. And in Ohio State, I'm
completely impressed with. I mean, and listen, they're the champs,
so they deserve to be number one, but no one's

(04:19):
talking about A and M. And it was, you know,
it was funny. Was I was in Columbia, Uh, yesterday
for my daughter's birthday, and we took her to dinner
and this guy stopped me at rest at the restaurant.
He gets, wouldn't it be the most South Carolina thing
ever to go to Texas A and M and like
win by ten? Yeah, and you're right, and it would be.
And at this point that's kind of your seat, which

(04:40):
is try to ruin it for someone else and then
also be Clemson.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
But yeah, but I love Marcel Reid.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
I think I told you I spent some time with
him a couple of weeks ago leading into that LSU game.
And I think that because they're A and M and
because they've never gotten over the hump over the years.
Have I won the conference titles since Arcie Slocum and
all that stuff. You know, I think everybody's kind of
like no one taking Diego Pavias seriously as a Heisman candidate,

(05:07):
but called he plays at Vanderbilt. You know, brand names matter,
and the reality is until A and M can prove
that they can win a ring, then I get it.
But but I think I cannot remember a team ranked
in the top three that no one's talking about, and
and A and M to me, is at the top
of that list I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
I think it's the best answer. Ryan McGee, ESPN hanging
out with us since you mentioned the game Cocks. I
was talking to our mutual buddy Danny Canell about this
on Friday, and you know, rumors popping up that Miami
might be trying to poach Leonora Sellers out of South Carolina,
and you know, you and I've had multiple conversations about
Shane Beemer. Danny even brought up the Netflix quote from
Shane's wife about it's not when we get if we

(05:47):
get fired, it's when we get fired and things like that.
I think I had asked Danny. You know who's more
likely to be back there next year, Shane Beemer or
Lenora Sellers. And I'll float that to you. But I
would also add, you know, if somehow Lenora Sellers does
decide to leave for another school, like how you know
how punitive is that to Shane Biemer in the way
they look at him.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well, it's bad, and it's bad because he's local. You know,
I think I think it would wouldn't. Yeah, obviously we
all know how good Leonora's is when he's on. We
also know he's been running for his life, you know,
the two years he's been.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Behind center at South Carolina.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
But this is the kid that's from just up the road.
I mean, he grew up in Florence, right, I mean
he's got that. He's got that, you know in the
Florence area. He's got He and I have talked about
racing at Darlington. You know, he goes home all the
time because his parents live right there. You know, when
I was at the Kentucky game when the granddad got
hit with the football or whatever, they had driven what
forty minutes down the road. So he's local, and so

(06:41):
I think that would hurt more than anything else. You know,
if you had a quarterback from Texas or California or
Ohio or something and he left and went to Miami,
you know, you could kind of reconcile it a little bit.
But the fact that he is a local guy, and
you know, for folks that don't know, you know, back
in the Judaean and Clowney days and all those guys
from rock Hill and all those guys from the upstate

(07:03):
that suddenly stopped going to Clemson and started going to
South Carolina, that was Shane Beemer. He used the assistant
coach on those teams, Steve Spurir, and so you know,
if if Beemer were to lose him, it would be bad. Now,
all that being said, I think that me saying that
is the reason that Leonoris won't leave because something that
I think we forget a lot of times is the

(07:25):
money's the money, and I get all that stuff, but
the reality too is you want to play in front.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Of your family.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Now, I've talked to Mike Brown about this about you know,
there's a reason all these Texas players stay in Texas
at all the Texas schools because the parents can drive
to their games and they can drive to Oklahoma, and
they can drive to and m and they can drive
to know these places. And so I think, knowing Leonoris
like I know him, that's what he's going to wrestle with. Now,
that's not saying he's not gonna leave, but I think

(07:53):
that he loves Shane Beemer, he loves being close to home,
and Mario Crystaball is not alike do and so who
do you want to play for? I think that's the
question he has to ask him, do you want to
play of your family? And I think that's probably what
Lol Wilson is going to wrestle with.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
I don't know how you feel about this. Ohio State's
kind of I mean, they're omnipressent, they're always around. You
always assume they're going to be there, But it does
feel like nobody's talking about Ohio State. They're the number
one team of the country, So I know that feels
ridiculous to say out loud, but it does seem like
I don't know if it's because people perceive them as
boring or this is just what they do, but this
to me feels like the least talked about Ohio State

(08:29):
team of the last five years.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, and it's kind of a Big Ten business model
because the reality is the year that Michigan won the
championship national championship, what two years ago, three years ago,
you know, we weren't talking about Michigan except for the
fact that we thought they might be cheating.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
That was kind of it.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
They didn't play anyone, you know, they you know, Ohio
State now, to their credit, will always schedule a big
out of conference game within the first couple of weeks,
and they opened the year with Texas this year, and
part of what hurt them too is that Texas win
hasn't been as impressive.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
At least it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
I think it's becoming more impressive as Texas C's winning
week the week. But you know, it's still how the
Big ten business model is. We kind of wave good
by to those teams, and then we check back in
with them, you know, when they start playing their their
rivalry games when we get into November. Certainly was the
case of Michigan a couple of years ago, and I
think it was the case of the High of State

(09:23):
when they won their championship the following year, and so
it's we kind of check out on them. But now
it's time to get on with it, because these are
the games that Ryan Day has struggled with when we
get into the middle of November and the end of
the season, which is Michigan the conference championship game, and
until last year of the postseason. So that's why we're
not talking about them. But I'm totally blown away by

(09:45):
that team because I thought there was no way they
could lose the players they lost and not take at
least a sizeable step backwards. And the reality is is
that they've gotten better week to week. And the Committee,
as we've learned, they really like teams that looked pretty
good in September will look really good at this time
of year. They like teams that improve, and so they're

(10:06):
rewarding those teams, and they think Ohio States one of them.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
That's well put. Now, you don't cover the NFL, but
it's on the front page of ESPN today. Your friend
Andrey Adelson, who I think is on the station this
week as a matter of fact, has an article out
about it. And I don't know if you were among
those who when they saw Brian dabol was fired abruptly
yesterday by the New York Giants, thought oh, that might
be an interesting landing spot for Bill Belichick. I mean,
it's a front page story on ESPN dot com. Is

(10:29):
that where your head went? Do you even think that's
in play?

Speaker 3 (10:33):
He's on the list?

Speaker 2 (10:34):
I mean, I don't think.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
I don't think know why he couldn't be.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
I mean, he's in that family, you know, He's in
that Parcells family, and so I think that.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
You have to at least give that a look.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
I just in my experience, when guys step out of
the NFL line, they don't usually go back and they're
not usually lit back in, you know.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
And so I think in.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
The reality too is look at what Belichick's lasts so
years in the league were.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
It's pretty bad.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
And so I don't know if you hire him or not,
But but I think he's certainly on the list. And
I bet there's a few boosters and members of the
board of trustees in Chapel Hill they're calling their friends
in Manhattan and going, Hey, you should hire this guy.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
He's great, that's funny. Let me steak this in real quick.
Is that Brian Kelly thing at LSU gonna get ugly?
Or is this just a story that people are interested
in and will click on and nobody cares in two weeks.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
No, it was inevitable. I mean there's no way.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
When I saw how it went down, it was one
of those what we think he might have resigned. And
then the governor started popping off and press conferences and
he got so Louisiana so fast that you know, if
you're Brian Kelly, you got to try to get your money,
and that's what he's going to do.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Listen, I don't care who you are. If there was fifty.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Million dollars sitting out there and you're a lawyer, tells
you I think we can get some of that, then
you go, all right, well you know, congratulations, go get it.
I can use that fifty million to pay.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Your bill of ale hours.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
There you go, Ran. I appreciate you, buddy. I know
your weeks are busy this time of year. Thank you
as always. We'll talk to you next Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Hey, we finally did it on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
I've been making you move it every week and now
we finally did it on Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
So yeay us.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
It was your birthday gift to me. That's what I'll
call it. Thank you, buddy. We'll talk to you next week.