The Kyle Bailey Show: Ryan McGee

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
We got to talk to Ryan McGee, ESPN senior writer,
one half of Marty and McGee, College Game Day contributor,
and I guess the latest arch nemesis of Denny Hamlin.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I think he's comfortable with it all. Ryan McGee's back
with us for a Tuesday conversation. What's going on, Ryan?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, I mean, you know, between Denny Hamlin question about
journalistic ethics and Lane Kiffin undermining my one hour documentary,
it's been a hell of a week.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, we referenced the documentary just a couple of minutes ago,
so that is pretty appropriate. But let me just let
me hit the Denny stuff really quickly, because I read
your piece. It was an explainer piece about the lawsuit.
I did think that you, as you pointed out to Denny,
I know we're buddies, but I did think that you
tried to play it down the middle. But Denny still
called that a propaganda piece and said that you and

(00:48):
other journalists are intimidated by NASCAR brass and just feeding
us what they want us to hear. I know you've
responded already, but you know your thoughts on that accusation.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, Well, I just responded to him the once, which
was I'm sorry you didn't like it. I've tried to
hit it down the middle, you know, see you on Monday,
and honestly I muted the conversation. So anything he has
said since then, or that any wing nut on Twitter
has said, I haven't seen it, because you know, my
mute is my favorite aspect of Twitter. It was a

(01:18):
shout in the room and you don't even know it.
I've done the same thing with a lot of the
lane kipping people, So it's just listen. It is so
emotionally charged. And I'm not at the courthouse today, but
from everything that Jeff Gluck and Bob Pokers and you know,
all the great journalists that cover motor sports every week,
from everything they're tweeting, Denny was extremely emotional today for

(01:39):
hours and hours on end while he was up on
the on the witness stand, and so it didn't surprise
me that he reacted the way that he did. But
I also think he was trying to kind of get
out ahead of the truth, which is the truth is
all I did was layout, this is what was in
the documents, and everything I dealt with were numbers and
spread she's I got no help from NASCAR, and so

(02:02):
you know, I had a couple of questions for NASCAR,
just like I had a couple of questions from the
people representing you know, twenty three or eleven and in
front row. So it's just, yeah, I hit it down
in the middle. I get it. He's just really really
raw right now. Which you know, he also has my
cell phone number. He could have called me if you
had a problem. But whatever, it's just kind of not
the world we're living in right now.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Ryan McGee, ESPN senior writer, Marty and McGee College Game
Day contributor. We've got him back with us on the hotline.
All right, we'll skipped to college football here, Lane Kiffin.
He did it, Ryan, he took the job. Another tarmac incident.
I hope Marty is safe and that you were at
least sending him door dash when he was, you know,
posted up on the tarmac out there in Oxford. I mean,
he's done it, and apparently Nick Saban and Pete Carroll

(02:43):
counseled him to do it. We know Ole miss is
not going to let him coach in the playoff now
that it's all happened.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
What's your reaction. I mean, I'm just I think if
you come to me a month ago, and I think
I've said it on this show every week, if you
come to me a month ago, I would have been
really shocked about this. But you started to kind of
read it a little bit. And honestly, as soon as
his son Knox showed up for a high school playoff
game in Mississippi wearing LSU headphones, I was like, okay,

(03:12):
but but I'll tell you this, and Mary Marty has
said this on the air, and you know, Lane was
texting Marty and myself both, I mean midnight Friday night
and again on Saturday, and so I don't I don't
know that his mind was completely made up. I think
he definitely was waiting to see what was going to
happen with the Iron Bowl and if Ole miss might

(03:32):
be in the SEC Championship game and all those things.
But it's just you can't leave, but then expect to
have all the benefits of staying. You just can't. And so,
you know, let's think about all of the most dramatic,
worst like coaching departures of the last fifteen years, and

(03:53):
Lane O's what four of them? Five of them now
you know Randy Eessel right left Yukon on the tar
American went to Maryland. That's about the worst. That was
the worst one. Previously, you know, Brian Kelly kind of
did that to his Notre Dame guys. But Lane Kiffin,
I mean between the tarmac and USC and Saban telling
him to get the hell out of there before the

(04:13):
National Championship game, and then of course you know Tennessee
and and all that. It's just it's it's one after
the other. And so I'm just a little taken aback
because I genuinely believe that he would care more about
what people thought about him. But but you know, you
kind of run home to Mama when you're when you're
faced with these situations, and the reality is he just

(04:36):
kind of went back to doing the same thing that
he's always done. So I think he's a change man.
I think he's certainly a changed father. I think he's
changed the way he lives his life, but he ain't
changed the way he changes jobs.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Do you think there's anything particularly notable about the fact
that he said Nick Saven told him to take this job.
I'm a little bit surprised by that. Maybe I shouldn't be.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, I know this for a fact. I mean, I
know that one of the stories that he kept going
back to going into the weekend was Dennis Erickson. Right,
So Dennis Erikson was the Oregon State got Oregon State
to the rose Ball. In USC offered him the job,
the Trojan's job, and Dennis Erikson made an emotional decision
because he didn't want to bail on his team. He

(05:19):
wanted to coach Oregon State and the rose Ball, and
in the meantime, USC offered the job to Pete Carroll.
And Dennis Erikson has spent his entire life wondering, did
I make the wrong decision? Because I made an emotional decision.
And I know for a fact Lane Kiffin was wrestling
with that story on Friday Night, And so yeah, I

(05:39):
think that Pete Carroll is the voice now of Monte
Kiffen in the eyes of Lane Kiffin because his dad
is gone. And Pete Carroll, you know, Monte Kiffin was
Pete Carroll's mentor. They were on multiple staffs together, and
so as soon as Pete Carroll said, your dad would
want you to do this, it was over. And I

(06:00):
think that Nick Saban also has a spot in his Heartfelsu.
So it doesn't surprise me that the two of them
would have told him to go do that. But that's
no solace to the people in Oxford.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
All Right, what do you think of tonight? We get
the penultimate college football playoff rankings? I had a championship
weekend and the ACC is in this really weird place
Virginia and Duke in the title game. Duke gets in
by way of this convoluted tiebreaker system that I think
most everybody wants change before next year, outside of Duke.
By the way, programming note, we'll talk to many daz
on the show Thursday about all of this. But you know,

(06:35):
Virginia and Duke, and it is worst case scenario for
the conference of Duke wins the ACC championship game. Miami's
in the mix, but they're not projected to be in
right now based on the ESPN article I've got pulled up.
What do you think of the ACC's predicament and how
this conference has been discussed throughout the year.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Well, I think Miami really wishes notre name was playing
for then ACC championship. Yes, yeah, and you know, and
it's no fault to Manadas. I'm excited for that those guys,
and he's gonna try to win the football game. But
there and in Virginia though they took certainly took care
of business to get stue, you know, not that long ago,
what a few weeks ago. That's a vulnerable football team.
So it's a mess. I mean, the good news is

(07:13):
it's I think, yes, that tiebreaker is going to be changed,
but you know, probably should have projected some stuff before
you left that thing on the bucks. But yeah, but listen,
the reality is, and you and I have talked about
this all fall, it only would have taken one team
to take care of their business. Right. If Georgia Tech
is just taking care of their business, right, if Miami

(07:33):
has just taken care of their business, if you just
if you, if you, if you have one team, it
changes the entire view of what your conference looks like.
And the reality is Virginia versus Duke is not a
great look. And you know, and that's no slight to
to either one of those teams, but it's just it
is what it is. So it's it's you know, it's

(07:55):
it's a mess. And there is a real real chance
that the ACC could be watching the college football playoff
after a year ago, when you know they kind of
ended up with this magical way that the Tumblers fell
and ended up with multiple teams and when a lot
of people thought they shouldn't have had it.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
You're from North Carolina. You went to Tennessee, but you
grew up in North Carolina. You got a lot of friends.
I'm sure that went to and rooted for ACC schools.
I don't think I've ever asked you this. Would you
get hit with the whole ESPN SEC bias argument? What's
your retort to that?

Speaker 1 (08:27):
My retort to that is number one, I grew up
on Tobacco Road. I grew up in Rileigh. My dad
was an ACC football official for the better part of
thirty something years. I mean, I'm literally in my office
looking at the first credentials I ever had for a
college football game, and it was North Carolina Virginia when
I was twelve years old. Like that, that's the world
that I grew up in. And I can tell you

(08:48):
I co host the show on the SEC network, and
you know what, you know who Marty and I had
on the last version of the three hour show that
we did in August before football started. You know who
you had on the show. No, we had to head
to Florida State and head coach from Virginia Tech. So
I don't want to hear it from my end, And
and my friends at the ACC network worked really, really hard,

(09:08):
and you know, and the fact of the matter is
when John Swofford signed the deal he signed with ESPN
so many years ago, it was groundbreaking, it was the
best deal, and it was the deal that saved the
Atlantic Coast Conference and that big fancy office that got
just down the road from both of us. ESPN paid
for that office. And so everybody acting like we're all

(09:30):
having these secret meetings and we have ESPN has no
stay in what that Coas Football Playoff Committee does, zero,
And so whatever they come up with, ESPN will react to.
I work for ESPN that doesn't televise Big ten football,
And the last two years I have gone to the
National Championship Game and we have done everything we can

(09:52):
to promote you know, non SEC teams in the Championship Game.
It just whoever's there is there and that's what we cover.
And there are certainly relationships, but you know, I don't
hear him by a ripping fox for being anti SEC.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
That's a good point there at No, you're right about that.
You're right about that real quick. I'll let you go
on this. I just looked at my buddy Adam Kramer.
I think you know, Adam college football guy fired off
a joke a few minutes ago on Twitter that said quote,
Penn State should check in on Virginia's Virginia Tech head
coach James Franklin. I am watching my guy, Jimmy flipping
Penn State commits left and right. He flipped in Oklahoma

(10:30):
commit this morning, national signing days tomorrow. You know I'm
not I'm not gonna make this about me celebrating my
guy in my program so much as what on earth
is Penn State going to do?

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Kalanie Saidtaki, who are they gonna who are they hiring?
What are they gonna do?

Speaker 1 (10:43):
I listen, We're living in an earrow where coaches will leave.
And I told you, I mean, I'm glad Clark Lee
signed his extension at Dan Vanderbilt. But we're living in
a world where guys will lead their alma maters if
they think they can go in somewhere else. I don't
think Kilani's going anywhere. No one is by you more
than Kallina Kataki does. I mean, he loves it and

(11:03):
he's devout about his church. He did, like, I don't
believe he would want to do that. That being said,
if they throwing it off money, he might. But man,
what are they waiting on? I mean, the SEC hired
what six coaches in like an hour and a half
one day, yes, and Penn State can't find one. So
I just it is the strangest thing to me, guy,

(11:24):
and the Penn State twitter verse is cracking me up
because the stuff They've got a cookie monster drumming his
fingers on the desk. Are we ever going to have
a coach? All that stuff? And so you know, if
if you know you have Kilane, and you know, you
just got to wait till the Big twelve championship game
is over with and see if eyu what they're gonna do.
And maybe they're doing the right thing, and I hope,

(11:46):
I hope they have a plan and that's what it is.
But man, right now, it sure feels like they're kind
of they're kind of losing, you know, contact with the pack.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Sure does Hey buddy appreciates you as always, we'll talk
to you next week. Have a great one.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
He appreciate it. Thanks,