Episode 100!: PJ Fleck Joins!

Gopher head coach PJ Fleck joins Chip Scoggins, Ryan Burns and Justin Gaard for the 100th Episode of the podcast! The guys cover some college football current events after the first half of the show but talked about anything but football with PJ where they learned about his hobbies, favorite vacation spots, love for bourbon and boating and the only traffic ticket he has ever received.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Glenn Mason said a long time ago at the University
of Minnesota, you need a pair and a spare.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Thank you, PJ. It is time for another edition of
the Pair and a Spare Podcast. I'm justin Guard from
the Fan and the Gopher Sports Network. We've got Chips
Goggins from the Star Tribune, Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated
dot Com. We're presented as always by our great partners
at Jack's Cafe. We're going to talk a little bit
later about how much fun we had at Jackson Saturday
night as part of the Dickeytown Athletes event. But it's
our one hundredth episode and we wanted a special guest

(00:26):
for episode number one hundred, so I called in every favor,
I called in every marker, anything we could possibly do
to really get the man who starts the podcast every
week telling us that Glenn Mason said a long time
ago at University of Minnesota, you need a pair and
a spare. He's head coach PJ. Fleck, who got tricked
into doing the podcast, so they told him he was

(00:48):
doing you know, Reef Davis and Nick Saban. It's just
a parent a spare coach. Sorry about that is.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Who you told me we were gonna be hones with
fantastic Thanks for having me on the show. Guys heard
a lot about it, believe it or heard a lot
about it, So thanks.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
For having me on.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, this is great. We're really excited. We know you
got a lot to do today. So I'm going to
stay in the background a lot because Burnsy always complains
he never gets to talk to you. Heready, he wants
to talk to you in like February when there's nothing
going on. He's complaining we haven't had any time with
the head coach. So Burnsy, you're gonna get to ask

(01:22):
whatever you want to ask for the next twenty to
thirty minutes and Chip you too, so you guys take
it away, jeez.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, we want to ask you guys.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
Yeah, we won't ask football questions this this podcast is
kind of all.

Speaker 5 (01:36):
Over the map, so we appreciate you doing it. It's
good to see you.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, you know, I've been thinking about, Uh. We started
this podcast four years ago, I think because I had idea.

Speaker 5 (01:46):
It's like, we all love college.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
Football, right and in this market needed uh we're college
football talk, I think, And I've been thinking about like
last couple of days, just this being our hundredth anniversary,
Like where I fail in love with college football? You know,
up in Tennessee, and every Saturday, we'd be in the
basement when you know, watching We'd have the Tennessee game
on and the TV turned down with the radio turned up,

(02:09):
and you know, John Ward was our play by play
and he had always started with like it's football time
in Tennessee. You know, me and my parents would go crazy.
And I remember my uncle took me to my first
Tennessee game when we were when I was eight years old,
and walking out into that stadium and looking out, I
mean I thought it was heaven right, just being up
on top and seeing that stadium. So I think that's
where I fell in love with football. So I'm kind

(02:30):
of curious, like, what made you fall in love with football?
Was there like a seminal moment? Was there something as
a child that drew you to it?

Speaker 3 (02:40):
You know, I was pretty undersized.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
I mean I was only five nine, one hundred and
fifty pounds to graduate in high school, right, And so
I always liked basketball, baseball. I was probably fit more
to play those positions and those sports, but I fell
in love with football.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
When I just started doing it.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
But I can remember watching games with my dad, Keith
Jack and talking about the Rose Bowl, Pat Summer, all
John Madden. Even as a kid, I think my dad
got me involved in like Super Bowl squares, which probably
he probably wasn't supposed to do with like a Super
Bowl square when I was a little kid with my
name on that square. I think that got me interested
in football. I was like, we get to pick teams

(03:18):
and if they score this, we win. I think it
just got me involved in football. But I was the
undersized guy. Mean I didn't play tackle football till almost
high school eighth grade, where I played all the other
sports leading up to that, and if it was football
is more flag football. I think I just did it
and loved it because it was something to do. But
I didn't have a lot of like I didn't have

(03:40):
many people in my family that played football were connected
to football. But yeah, I mean that's where I kind
of I loved it based on what I watched and
what I heard of it. And then when you get
a chance to just stay active in the fall in
middle school and high school, it was something I gave
a shot and I was somewhat pretty good at it.

Speaker 6 (03:59):
See I to talk more about PJ flex hobbies.

Speaker 7 (04:02):
And I know one of your hobbies here because I
saw it from every recruit photo last weekend is I
think somebody here likes the Masters quite a bit.

Speaker 6 (04:12):
Have you ever been to the Masters? And what's your
handicap on the golf course?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
All right, I'll start your second question first. First of all,
I love golf. I don't play enough. I'm an eleven
point eight. You can look that up.

Speaker 6 (04:25):
I have no idea what that means.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Basically, yeah, I'm okay. I can athletically move myself around
the golf course. But I love golf. And part of
what I love about golf is just playing the game,
being outdoors, walking the course. There's always a shot that
makes me feel like I'm really good and keeps you
always coming back. There's a nostalgia to it. There's such

(04:51):
a history and tradition to it. I love the meticulous
parts of the game that from the swing to the
undulation to the greens, everything is challenging. There's really no
second or no shot that's ever the same. And I
just love playing it. I think you can you can

(05:11):
play it with so many different people and you can
play it when you're four years old all the way
up till ninety four years old, and I just I
love it because it's a sport. But I do love
the Masters. Yes, I have been to the Masters. I
went a few years ago just for the Wednesday practice
round and Thursday, and it was like heaven for me.
I love golf. It's not just that I love the

(05:32):
Masters more. But during Masters Week I always wear my
Master's gear. And I wear it because if you've ever
been to the Masters, it's really hard to even buy
gear there, and you have to wait in these long
lines and you have a certain amount of time you
can go shop till you drop. So I wear it
during Masters Week kind of set the tone. But you
mentioned something about golf and last thing I'll hit on them.

(05:54):
I'm sure you have another question. But golf is so
similar to football but so different. Individualize that makes it different.
But you look at Rory McElroy and the Masters the
other day, he hit some unbelievable shots and set himself
up and then bang the next shots in the water.
You have to respond to the next shot. Period, you

(06:15):
have to spawn from the last shot. Last shot doesn't
dictate what the next shot is gonna be. He had
all the momentum in the world. You're gonna let me
talk about this, Ryan. He had all the momentum in
the world and your team.

Speaker 8 (06:26):
He's in prime location, amentum, the saale, the wind is
at his back, the sale is blowing, He's one hundred
and thirteen yards out, He's got all the momentum.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
And everything changed.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Even his last putt to win the Masters, from five
feet away he missed.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
I mean, it was gut renting. And I don't even
know Rory, he is an athlete, is a competitor. It
just rips your heart out.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
I mean, Peather and I watched that together and we
were like hyperventilating just because we felt so bad for him.
Then he came back, same type of shot, put it
three feet, made the putt one of the Masters, and
got that monkey off his back after eleven years. So
we're always hearing about what we haven't done as professional athletes,
college athletes, coaches, pro coaches, and when somebody accomplishes something

(07:13):
like that, it's, uh, you know what people go through.
And we were all just so happy for him, and
I think you didn't have to be a golf expert
or a fan to at least be appreciative for the
accomplishment he just had.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
So there's your answer to golf.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
But I love golf and I love very nice courses
if I do play.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Sorry, guys, I spilled something. I gotta wipe it up.
I'm talking about Well, let me describe my Master's towel here.
These guys peaja are used to me just grabbing random
artifacts from my sporting life and sparting sporting world.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
Well, I figure was one of your kids or something
did something that you kind of got up and had
to go to be a parent.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Just had to go grab No, there, that's cool, thankfully.
The best part of the Masters, because oh good for
me I went a couple of years ago Wednesday, is
that you can't bring your phone in and so everybody's
just there. That was my favorite part is you're not
thinking about your phone, you're not worried about what you're missing.
You're just there, and everybody's in a good mood because
it's like bucket lists for everybody. But being present in
that moment. I looked at my sister and said, we're

(08:10):
just here. This is unbelievable, and you couldn't get distracted.
You see Rory make the putt. There's not one phone
because they're not allowed, and at every golf tournament now,
everybody's trying to chronicle everything, right, That's what I loved
about it.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Not only that King Griffy Junior is the one taking
pic right, Like, how amazing is that? I agree with you.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
The no phone piece that you can truly check out
and be in the moment and when you're in Augusta.
There's a spiritual piece to that. There is a connection
to the earth piece of that. There's a connection to
sport at its at its at its birth like it is.
It's very unique. The second part that's really good, JJ
is the food. The dollar fifty.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
Eggs salad sandwich I might have, I mean the price
of eggs.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
I mean, he's crazy right now, right, so I can't
believe they actually kept the price the same. That was
to me the greatest you could go through that line.
The way they shuffle people.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
In, it's so good.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
And the only lines that are long, which is kind
of different than most places, is the men's bathrooms the longest.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Right, yeah, right, and they run you out of there too.
Two pimento cheese sandwiches, not enough, three too many. I
think there's like a fine line depending on moderation.

Speaker 5 (09:20):
APJ.

Speaker 4 (09:21):
Speaking to traveling, I think I can't remember if it
was last year, the two years ago. I was sitting
in MSP. My wife's like, hey, I think that was
PJ walked by in course, typical PJ. He's like on
a mission, like bombing down the concourse, you know, trying
to find him. But then I ran into you in
Heather later, I think, weren't you going to a dude ranch?

Speaker 5 (09:39):
Right?

Speaker 4 (09:39):
You're going to your daughter's competition and then a dude ranch?
Is that right to have that right?

Speaker 5 (09:45):
What was what was that? What was that like?

Speaker 4 (09:47):
And then pick a dream destination because I know you
love to travel that you haven't been to that you
would take Heather too.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yeah, first dream destination, I'd say Cicily, Italy, where she's from,
so where her family's from. So I think that's gonna
be on the bucket list as we continue to go forward.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, I love. We don't get a lot of time
to vacation.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
We go to a lot of places for meetings and
Big Ten meetings and Peach Bowl meetings and Festibull meetings,
and all these things, but you're still.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Kind of working.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
But you know, we have our places we love on vacation.
But I think one of the greatest vacations we ever
went on. I didn't plan and I'm usually the vacation
planner out of Heather and I because when I go,
I just don't want to be disappointed because I don't
know and she knows. I mean that in the nicest way,
but I don't have much time. So it's like, all right,

(10:39):
I'm kind of an OLDI budd of goodie, like I
know what I'm getting, I know who's there, I know
what to expect, and no, I'm gonna have a good time.
I do not want to go on vacation and be disappointed.
And she booked a spring break trip for her and
I and we went to Brush Creek in Wyoming and
it's a dude ranch and it is a It is

(11:00):
probably the greatest vacation I've ever been on in my
entire life. We actually went the time where all the
executives fro who owned the ranch. We're all there and
we were just in the midd We got there at
a certain time where they were going to transition those
people out and then new people in. There's only about
twenty people on the property at one time, guests, and
there was about a thirty six hour period where Heather
and I were the only two people on about seventy

(11:23):
thousand acres.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
And we were horseback riding.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
They have one of the biggest bourbon collections and wine
collections in the world. All the beef is all grown
there and it's all wagou cattle. We were snowmobiling up
in mountains on fresh powder. I mean in the mountains.
So these roads get shut down in the mountains, and
the roads then become snowmobile trails, and then you dip
down into all these valleys and it's you know, we're

(11:51):
talking feet of snow and you're just ripping through all
these trees and valleys.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
You're having unbelievable dinners.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
The cabin we stayed at was the owner's cabin that
they didn't happen to be there that week.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
So you're talking these big bears everywhere, these stuff bears
and animals.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
I mean, it must have been a four thousand square
foot house that we're in by ourselves, hot tub outside,
and you are just connected to earth, and I think
for us we love to go places where you can
reconnect with the planet, with Earth, with perspective simplicity, because
I think our lives as coaches just move so fast

(12:31):
and you're always onto the next thing, and everything's about
making it successful and better and winning and changing lives.
That sometimes you need to be grounded in that and
nothing more grounding than bourbon, you know, from the earth
in the mountains with fire like it's awesome, that's awesome,

(12:52):
I wrote, Yeah, Well.

Speaker 7 (12:55):
Speaking of bourbon, I mean, God forbid, a man has hobbies.
I know one of your hobbies is collecting bourbon, enjoying bourbon.
How does one start the journey of bourbon? And which
are a few of your favorites from your collection?

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Well, first, I just want to make sure everybody understands
you watch some of these shows and friends and neighbors
or watching where people are having like bourbon in their office.
I don't have any bourbon in my office. I just
want to make sure we don't start that rumor that
that coaches.

Speaker 5 (13:20):
Seventies Yellowstone Yellowstone exactly.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
I don't have one of those carts in my office.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
But I do love to collect bourbon and cabernet wine,
like I just I love the process of things getting
to the bottle.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
And I love the process of aging.

Speaker 5 (13:41):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Maybe not as a human being, but I love it
in either food or I love it and wine and bourbon.
But my whole dream was to have like a bourbon
tasting room. And you know, we just got a new
house and we have a kind of a bourbon tasting
bar and wine and then a cigar room, and it
is so unique. And I think one of my you know,

(14:04):
I'm a big Pappy Van Wink old guy. Anything Buffalo
trace I love. I love Blanton's Gold, the caramel taste,
and then any bourbon that's older, you know, the twenty year,
twenty three years, the twenty five years, the eighteen year old,
even some of the scotches that are eighteen to twenty
five years old, I really love. But you know, I

(14:26):
love an old fashion. So I put normal makers mark
in my old fashions. I just feel like I can
make some really good old fashions and make them all
different too, so but I do enjoy that. That is
something that I do enjoy and I'd love to do
experience with friends and donors and people that come over.

Speaker 4 (14:44):
Have you done have you been to Kentucky to do
one of those Bourbon tours there, believe.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
It or not. I haven't been an Apple a lot
of times for the wine, but have not been to
one of the Bourbon tours. So that is something that
we wanted to do. We were supposed to do that.
We went to the Derby a few years back, but
the weather kind of discouraged us from doing that because
of course we'd go to the Derby that poor his
rain and the winner that we actually had was disqualified.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
So the only time in Derby.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
History, speaking of travel, of the eighteen Big Ten programs
to date, now this is April seventeenth, how many coaches
wives have committed to Big Ten Football media days in
Vegas as opposed to I remember when it was in Chicago, PJ.
Heather was always there. It's Hamilton. Everybody's wife was there.

(15:30):
Let me go to Indy. I thought all you guys
got divorced. I thought it was all over. There was
there was nobody there with Vegas. Who's more excited for
that interesting location for Big ten Football media days?

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Well, I think Commissioner Petita moved at to Vegas because
Heather was the one to bring it up to them.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
I think that's exactly why we.

Speaker 6 (15:47):
Moved it there.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Heather was the first one I think to sign up.
She booked.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
We were all set, Like the minute it got announced,
we were all set. So I'm sure a lot of
them will be out there, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
I tell you what. That play.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Even the city of Las Vegas over the last decade
has changed so much. Whoever is in charge of the
tourism there has not only just cleaned that city up,
the perception of that city, all the professional teams coming
to that city. Uh, you know, we go out there
with a bunch of couples to celebrate Heather's birthday. We
went to a UFC fight like a championship fight last

(16:20):
year with Perell was in it. Just what they've done,
I mean on the strip to walk to a Las
Vegas you know, Golden Knights game, to watch a hockey
game in the desert right there on the strip, whoever
has done that. With the Mounta Hotels, the restaurants, its
first class, and Vegas is everything I mean for any

(16:42):
person looking for anything you're looking for. But we love
we love spas, we love food, and we love UFC.
So it's a great spot to accomplish all of those
so big ten football thumbs up on booking that to Vegas.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
We love it. I'm with you, I'm with you.

Speaker 5 (16:57):
Yeah, PG.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
I remember sitting in on that class that you taught
in the in the business school, and you brought up
the UFC, Like, how do you get so involved in
being a fan of that?

Speaker 1 (17:07):
You know what I've always chip I've always loved watching
people do things that I don't do or like I'm
not good at.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
So rarely do Heather and I go home and watch football.
You know, we're not.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
We'll watch a big game on maybe a Thursday night
or maybe a Saturday night late at night, most of
the West Coast games. But I love to watch things
that I'm not very good at, so USC fighting I
probably I'm not sure how good i'd be at that.
It's a completely different sport. I think it takes a
special individual to do that. You know, I've watched how

(17:42):
Dana White has has created that and boxing.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
I grew up with boxing my dad.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
I used to sit with my dad and watch this
little TV on the on the on the carpet, and
I coddle up next to my dad and just watch boxing.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
And that was huge in our family.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, you know, one of my great memories as a
kid was fighting the neighborhood kids in boxing gloves.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
That's what we did.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
But it's amazing how and I'm not sure, don't quote
me on the ratings and things, but it's amazing how
UFC has surpassed boxing in popularity with young people, the
energy around it.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
What people know of it.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
And I was immediately hooked when I saw it, and
Heather knew a little bit more about it than I
did when I first met her, and then we just
we were able to go to it, we were able
to experience it. Shoot, we met Dana White at Mother
Wolf in Fountain Blue. He was beyond gracious to me,
which was shocking. You see all the people out there,
met David Dave Portnoy, We saw him here when he

(18:42):
was doing the pizza things.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
We saw him before a fight.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
So I think it brings so many people together as
you watch, you know, when people are you know, scanning
the crowd of who's there. I mean, it's it's just
amazing how how Dana has built that into the company
and really the mega brand.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
That it is today. So just always been a fan
of it.

Speaker 7 (19:02):
Well, speaking of things you're not good at, let's continue
on that path I want to keep. I want to
talk a little bit about your boating career, because I
know you're on your third boat.

Speaker 6 (19:12):
I believe here in your time here at Minnesota.

Speaker 7 (19:14):
What happened to the first two and then how much? Well,
let's let's praise it like this. How's Heather as a
first mate.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
That's a great question. Well, I didn't sink any boats. Well,
that's start with the boat that you're willing to beat up.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
You know, as you learn to park near docks, you
know you don't have the side thrusters or anything.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
So, uh yeah, we have a we have a co
boat R seven. I love it.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
It's a surfboat. It's also a family boat. It kills
two birds with one stone. It's a good cruising boat
just to be able to, you know, watch sunsets and
but our kids love the wakesurf and I love the wakesurf.
So that's kind of how we spend the.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Month of July. But it is our third boat. I
had a fishing of course, I always love to fish,
but I was never a fisherman.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
But right when we got here was like I have
to buy a fishing boat, so I'm gonna be fishing
all the time.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
And I never fished. That boat sat there forever, and.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Every time I went on the boat, I didn't catch anything.
So one I didn't have any time to fish. Two
the boat sat there. Three every time I went out,
I didn't catch anything.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
So I'd like to catch. I don't necessarily my personality
fits fishing.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
I like to catch, kind of like I love the recruit,
but I love committee more, you know. I think that
for me, fishing passed me by. I sold that boat,
and then now we've got the Cobalt. So I really
loved the boat though, and we spend a lot of
time on it, the most we can in July, which

(20:44):
is probably a week out of the year. But I
pretend like I can boat with the best of them.
Nothing better than boating, that's for sure.

Speaker 7 (20:53):
I'm not letting you get out of that first mad question,
because someone who has spent thousands of hours of their
life on boats, I know how docking a boat or
coming into a dock and test a relationship, especially like.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
All of you know my wife. I think it's you
all know her very well.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
She's a phenomenal first mate when it comes like she
can vote better than I can vote, she can drive
a boat better than I can vote, she can park
better than I can park, but she wants me to
do it. You know, we have a saying called PJ
just be the boy today, and it's supposed me to
be the boy, which is fine, no problem being the boy.
But the way I park and the way she parks

(21:30):
for two different things. And then whoever's not driving boat's
got to be the first mate. There's a bunch of
shirts we have that like we've parked the boat twenty
times and are still married.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
I'm a little more.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Aggressive getting into that doc than maybe she is my
youngest daughter may or may not have like lost almost
her whole finger and her fingernail maybe.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Multiple times as I park boats. But I like to
get it.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
We're getting in there now, we're gonna park it like
we're gonna get parked, and we're gonna get out and
not waste any time.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
But she's phenomenal.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
She is.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
I mean, she knows she has such I don't know
if you know this about her, but she has such
an appreciation of knowledge for engines and motors and cars
and boats, anything with a throttle, anything with an engine.
She can close her eyes and tell you what car
is based on the start of the motor and I'm
sitting there.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
That isn't so outside my world. But she's phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
And the greatest thing that I love with my first
mate is when she's in front enjoying some sun, chilling
and truly.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Checking out like I love to watch her do that.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Nothing makes me happier than her laying in the front
of the boat with our kids chilling. And that's what
I love to see my first mate do is really
enjoy the boat and not have to worry about the
stress that I'm putting on everybody as I drive, which
the only ticket I've ever really gotten is on my bicycle,
never on a boat.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
So that's good.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Well, hold on, what was that for, guys.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
I'm not sure if you all know this moment? Avid, Like,
I love to cycle. I ran forever, ran marathons, and
then I was like, you know what, low.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Back, I'm gonna switch to biking. So I went to biking.
Of course, I go all in on biking. I got
the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
We're at a lake house.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
This is around twenty twenty and we're going around like Minutetonka.
There's a path I always take every morning. Well, part
of the path you get to it has these little
stop signs and every one of these people's driveway and
I get it, but there's like seven driveways in a row,
and there's seven little stop signs, and I'm like, I've
never seen these stop signs.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
These bikers are flying by me, kids are going through these.
You can see the.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Driveways to the left, okay, and this typical Minnesota. And
I'm giving the excuse of why I got a ticket
first before I actually tell you how I So you look,
you can see the people coming out of their driveways.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
So I'm just kind of slow down, but you don't
really stop. I've never seen anyone stop.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
A long story short, I'm riding a bike one Saturday
morning and I'm going and I kind of slow down.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Go through the first, go through the second, and go through
the third.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
I kind of look over and there's there's this green
truck and whether you want to call him the warden
or whoever you want to call him, you know, whatever
it is, he puts his lights on and he's he's
going down the trail on this road by me, and
I'm like, I shirk eye on my way. He has

(24:23):
no idea this is coach Flack. I'm sitting going well,
maybe he noticed me, Like, I've never seen anybody get
pulled over on their bike. So all of a sudden
he starts getting closer and the roads starting to curve
where the path goes, and I'm like he really wants him.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
He rolls his window down. He's like, you need to stop.
You need to stop. So I stopped and literally he
comes over.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
It goes, h, sir, do you have your license? I said,
my driver's license. Yes, and uh, I apologize if he
listens to this podcast. I'm like, my driver's I said,
did not have my driver's license. He's like, we need
to have your driver's license with your by and we travel.
It's really good to have that in case of things

(25:03):
like this. I said, well, what is going on?

Speaker 3 (25:04):
He goes, you just blew through those stop signs.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Back to her, I said, like, that's against the law
at this at you know these people's like driveways that
I see people fly throw times, Yeah, you need to
stop those.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
I was like, I stood on that.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
I swear now I got my helmet off, and all
these people are going down the trail and I swear
to God, nine out of ten know who I am
taking pictures, and I'm like, I am sitting here getting
a ticket.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
I got a ticket.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
It was like a sixty dollars ticket. And then you
know what it was like the tail between my legs.
I turned the bike around and he just ruined my
whole rocket.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
I went back.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
I told Heathers. She goes and she couldn't stop laughing.
There was no remorse, there was no empathy, there was
no it's going to be okay. She was like, you're
a complete dumb dumb a, like what are you doing?
Like do you that's the only ticket I've ever gotten.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Well, good job keeping that quiet. I can't believe that
wasn't in the papers or leading the Fox nine news.
That's that's good.

Speaker 5 (26:01):
I got my headline for tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Thanks, all right, you gotta go. I have one last question.
How much joy do you take in watching the spirit
of Ryan Burns leave his body every Monday press conference
when he asks you about an injury and you say,
we'll go to the availability report.

Speaker 6 (26:22):
Two hours ahead of time.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
JG.

Speaker 6 (26:24):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
It kills you kill Brian slowly but sure because he
gets pounded from the other side. How can we never
ask about injuries? How come we don't know who's playing.
He's just trying to do his job. And I can
tell by the smile on your face you love that
little game that you get every Monday.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
I would love to say I do love the game,
but it's it's never going.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
To change, Like that's just who I am. It's it's
part of what I believe in, you know. And that's
why the injury reports, the injury report two hours before kickoff.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Every money has to report it.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
So, you know, I feel like there's so much you
can find information, so much out there these days that
you know, we got to have a little bit of
that that journalism, uh that dig a little bit.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
He wants you to work a lot to challenge.

Speaker 6 (27:09):
Yeah, like you heard it here all right.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Just so many people talk these days, and I just
I never want the teams to have an advantage and
anything that you can possibly do to make sure somebody
doesn't have that big an advantage on you, and a
lot of people like it's a no big deal, Like
I mean, they still got to play, they still got
to You know whoever plays. But the way we build
game plans is for not only schemes, it's for people.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
And and why would.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Somebody Now if we had to tell you, we could
tell you, but we have to tell you two hours before.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Games until they make it.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Like the NFL, We're just gonna play Coy.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah, if Coy is injured, please tell us. All right,
thank you for doing this, appreciate it that much. Hopefully
you didn't mind not talking football for thirty minutes, and
we gave you a little bit of a break. You
can go.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
This was the most refreshing thing I've done.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
There you go. You're welcome, You're welcome. Thank you very
much for real.

Speaker 5 (28:03):
We appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Again. Have me out a little more often, guys, I mean,
come on, you heard it?

Speaker 2 (28:08):
You heard it is that's the head coach, PJ. Fleck
onto his next media availability. You can tell he just
loves messing with.

Speaker 5 (28:18):
I love it favorite two hours hours.

Speaker 6 (28:22):
Did you see the smirk on his face immediately?

Speaker 2 (28:25):
I'm on his side on this one. I'm his You
are you guys?

Speaker 7 (28:29):
Bond over your west side of town, Minnetonka.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Magic of the masks that he's further west than me and.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
I love that he just runs into the brick wall
every every every week.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Every week. We had to end on that. How about
almost I'm getting arrested? I mean, what if you get
what if you said I'm not paying the ticket? All
of a sudden he gets hauled off on that guy's
the green car.

Speaker 6 (28:50):
As good as that was, my favorite, is Heather going,
PJ be a boy?

Speaker 2 (28:53):
I wrote that down. I was going to say that
be the boy. I can't wait to say that at
a halftime interview. You know, it's like, hey, uh, why
didn't you had a minute left, you had the ball
around midfield? Why did you play for three? Why didn't
you be the boy? Your thoughts? You know, I'm sure paid.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
To be down there on the sidelines with you for that.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
All right, that was fun. That was cool. Good good questions, guys,
good questions we got to Uh. I mean, I'm also
intrigued by the brush creek.

Speaker 4 (29:21):
Yeah, well it's it is funny because I saw him that. Yeah,
we were My family's going on string breaking. Like I
said that, he just goes bombing bias and you know,
like we talked about, he's a typical PJ. You know,
walking at one hundred miles an hour down the concourse
and we walked around and I ran into him before
they're getting on of on the thing. He's like, Yeah,
we're going this dude ranch. And I think it was Oh,

(29:44):
that's that was the joke. It is like it was
after the.

Speaker 5 (29:46):
U c l A. Was that last year? Yes, yes, it.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
Was after all the u c l A stuff, and
because a couple of weeks after or whatever, and I
saw him, I was like, Ah, you're heading out to
LA for.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
The u c l A job of course, but yeah,
he was. He was all excited to go to this
dude racing.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
And you know, I do think coaches have so little
time in their year just to kind of get away
and decompress because you're you know, it burns.

Speaker 5 (30:14):
You know.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
The calendar, the college football calendar is so different now
than it was, you know, because of the portal and
all these different things, that there's probably so few opportunities
for coaches to actually like really get away.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
And so.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
It's cool to hear like his experience doing it.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Yeah, that was good. That was good. And I kind
of want to get into bourbon. I don't know, I.

Speaker 7 (30:37):
Don't have enough hair on my chest. I don't know
where you guys are on the bourbon. I know you
guys are mister I p As.

Speaker 5 (30:44):
But yeah, I'm not a.

Speaker 7 (30:46):
My two male friends outside of this podcast, obviously, they
love themselves in old fashion and I'll try it every
single time, and I'm just like same thing I say
about IPAs. How much are we forcing this?

Speaker 6 (30:58):
Boys? I understand it comes with age. One day, I'll
get there.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
Yeah, I've had it a couple of times, but.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
It's just not I'm more an IPA fan than a
wine fan than I would be.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
It wasn't it wasn't bad, but I just it wasn't
my you know.

Speaker 7 (31:18):
I can't believe we didn't stop the podcast when he said, well,
we want to go to Sicily and just have Chip
just say all.

Speaker 6 (31:24):
Right, yeah, what do you want to know?

Speaker 7 (31:25):
Here's the next fifteen minutes when you get your lunch veno,
and this is what you should get for the house.

Speaker 4 (31:31):
I'm sure if Heather's family's from there, I'm sure they.
I'm sure they know the routine of great pasta and
great wine at lunch and dinner.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
I had never seen anybody say yes so quickly than
I did Saturday night at Jack's Cafe. When the waitress
walked by our table and said would you like red
or white? And before the sentence was even out of
her mouth, Chip said red red. I'll do red. And
then he took the bottle and he forced it down
more into the cup to pour, to get the cup
a little bit fuller. No ip as for me on

(32:05):
Saturday because I was drinking duck duck beer. That's a transition.
What a fun time we had at Jack's Cafe on
Saturday night. Thank you to everybody that came out. Thanks
to Bill for putting on the for having the idea,
Derek and Rob and everybody for in their staff for
helping us out with Dinky Town athletes to players obviously Jackson,
Howard Dillon, Withikey and Koy Perrich coming by and hanging

(32:26):
out with us. And Jeremiah Carter, director of NIL Operations
for the University of Minnesota. That was fun. Boys, that
was a really fun time.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:34):
I will say you knew it was gonna be first
class just because Bill does everything first class and U
and Jack's does everything first class. I was really appreciated
of Jeremiah Carter who can explain rev Share and NIL
and all the different challenges and loopholes and things that
are involved with that, probably as well as anybody you're
going to find in college athletics. He's so smart. I mean,

(32:57):
it's his job and he's you know, he deals with
it day to day. And also I was this is
the first time I talked to Dylan and Jackson. Obviously
had you know, a knukoy from going up there, but man,
they're impressive.

Speaker 5 (33:08):
Impressive young man.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
Just I think the people that were there, the guy
a chance to talk to them, very thoughtful and articulate
and funded to engaging, really really good guys and representatives
of the program. Like you talk about guys that you
want to you know, to be representative program.

Speaker 5 (33:26):
I can't imagine you have better than that.

Speaker 7 (33:29):
Yeah, or even some of the fans who I talked
to a few different people who drove five six hours
to come to that, which yeah, really always mind boggling
wow that you know, they made a weekend of it.
Or folks who came up and said, you know, we
listened to the family or listened to the podcast as
a family now each individually and then we text about it.
You know, it keeps people, it's it's crazy the things

(33:52):
that college football can do for families, for people, and
for the amount of people who came up to us
and attended the event, and I know, we're so grateful
for that and so many people with such kind words. It, uh,
it makes it a lot easier to work around chips
schedule when.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
You know, yeah, when we're mad, when we're when I'm
moving my whole life because Chip's got to you know,
go up to ESCO again or something, or one of
his projects and football across America.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
Yeah, well, I appreciate, you know, it's funny, like it's
it's you know, like I was talking with PJ, like
we all have kind of that time where we fell
in love with college football, you know, and and.

Speaker 5 (34:29):
It's weird.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
I mean, it's you know, it's fun to be around
people who love college football and like absorb our podcast
because they they you know, they just love all things
about and even though it's changed and it's different and
some of them my romanticism about college sports has been
stripped away a little bit, I still love everything about it,

(34:50):
right and.

Speaker 5 (34:52):
Or the essence of it. And and it's fun.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
To uh to to talk to people that kind of
share that spirit. That we have, you know, so, I
mean I was blown away by how many people came
to that. You know, if it had been ten, we
would have had a good time talking to people about
the podcast and college football and stuff.

Speaker 5 (35:11):
But to have that many turned out.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
And just just say how much they enjoy listening to
this podcast kind of reinforces the idea behind us four
years ago to get this started and we thought that
people might be interested in it, and to you know,
learn one hundred episodes later that they are just beyond grateful.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Really, well, maybe you'll prioritize it more on your calendar.
Then maybe that can be the lesson for moving forward
that it should.

Speaker 5 (35:39):
I won't put you guys off again.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
It shouldn't just be some afterthought on your daily Monday
through Friday.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Hey, I've only I've out of a hundred, I've only
felt forgot to show up once.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
I forgot.

Speaker 5 (35:51):
Oh my god, that was such a low. I feel terrible.
I feel terrible.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Yeah, I finally got the planner because you just straight
up forgot about the show. That was beautiful. I forgot.

Speaker 7 (36:01):
Only took us one hundred episodes now to have Chip
get back on a headset ad back in a mic
because he has seen everyone's feedback via social media wherever.

Speaker 5 (36:09):
It is that, Yeah, the guy tweet at me, so would.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
You, for love of God please speak up. I'm like,
I'm like shouting into this, you know, the head thing.
It's like, okay, I'll try the headsets. So hopefully this
is better for everybody. And I am gonna buy a
mic like Burns and get the professional setup.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, I'll make it a pledge before we start the
regular season twenty twenty five, we'll start making this more
professional operation. Because we do we kind of just you know,
shoe string it in with duct tape, and you know,
we used to do it in person. I like the
YouTube better. I think we'll do more on YouTube as
we go. It's obviously more convenient to just hop on
a stream and do it. That's why we got the

(36:47):
head coach today, right. They when I was setting this up,
they're like, well, can we do it in his office?
They say he can. Well, we're all going to be
in our offices. Oh stream yard, Yeah done, We're done, zoom.
Whatever it is, we'll make this. I've got plans to
make this more professional op right from here before twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
Why would we want to make a professional Like my
whole idea, I tell somebody this at the vent there night,
My whole dea or vision behind us was like three
guys sitting at a bar talking college football, right, like,
not stuffy, not formal, just kind of shooting the ship.

Speaker 5 (37:16):
You know.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Excuse me, thanks, now I have to bleep it out.

Speaker 5 (37:21):
Leave.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah, shooting the breeze. Uh sorry with that.

Speaker 6 (37:27):
But yeah, so for you young man.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
Yeah, three three guys just sitting at a bar talking
carge football and so. But yeah, we could we could
maybe upgrade the aideol.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Of it for me. Well, and I'm happy to start
drinking during the show if that's the idea that you
have with the uh Withers and Planton's gold whatever PJ
just talked about, I'm happy to do that. Well.

Speaker 7 (37:46):
The only person who gas lights me more than justin
guard is my wife and she loves to say that.
Now since that multiple podcasts as his guards, the men
will just start another podcast instead of going to therapy.
So this is this is what I guess us middle
aged men do at this stage of our lives.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yeah, that's exactly right. This is our social interaction. It
is on the TV screens on the screens like this,
Should we talk a little news or anything else you
guys want to add about Jacks besides people. Well, the
other thing I loved was that so many people had
been there for the first time, so you know that
they're hooked. Because the food was great. Obviously, the vibe
is awesome. Yeah, the dessert was good. The cake was unbelievable, shocking,

(38:26):
and I would like cake, I'll say that for you run.
But it was awesome. Yeah, it really was, and it
was fun to just hang out before and after great questions.
We did a little Q and A in the program.
Probably the Q and A went longer than anybody thought
because people just kept raising their hands. So it was
an engaged group, which we really appreciate.

Speaker 6 (38:45):
Ye, it was.

Speaker 7 (38:46):
I think my favorite one was asked during that and
I also got it beforehand because nothing is nothing is
bigger than the bit and people wanted to know, just
chip genuinely have a fear where is that a bit?
And I said it is a bit. The chip also
genuinely has a fear that if that thing drops below
eighty percent on his phone, that the world is going

(39:07):
to end and he's going to be the man left
there standing and holding the bag there.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
As a long uber ride from Jackson Woodbury. You gotta
have you gotta be charged.

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Man.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
You never know what can happen if you're not one
hundred percent, You never know what can happen to you, right,
all right?

Speaker 2 (39:23):
I mean yes, But some people say fear, I would
call it an illness.

Speaker 6 (39:28):
I think it is. I think it's a little bit
of both.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
A lot of things be true, yeah, a lot of
things can be true. But anyway, thank you everybody for coming,
and hopefully we'll do another one maybe in the fall.
Certainly we're going to try to do some kind of
tailgate as well. We've got a lot of things we're
hoping to do and that includes maybe a road trip
someday sometime where everybody ends up. We know, we did
get on the record the Chip's not going to any roads,
any game that's not in California or Florida basically except

(39:53):
the Music City Bowl. Yeah, the only other bowl that
that he would potentially go to. But thank you again
to everybody that can and the players, like we said,
everybody would think a toon athletes and of course Bill
at Jack's Cafe, it was a wonderful, wonderful night, and
I didn't realize I had. I texted my wife about
nine to fifteen about to head out, and then because

(40:17):
I did intend to, and then when I got into
my house at eleven fifteen, I'm like, I want to
call it. Oh yeah, Well I guess. I guess I
did stay a little longer than I had intended to.
I forgot I had sent the original text. You know,
I wanted to finish. Yeah, but she was sleeping. They
were all sleeping, and they didn't miss me. I didn't
miss much at home, So it was great. But thank

(40:38):
you everybody for coming. One of the things we talked
about at Jack's Cafe is something we can kind of
wrap up the podcast with the biggest news in college football.
This week, we had one of our first ever high
profile like mini camp holdouts for Chip's favorite quarterback. He
wanted four million dollars. You guys can can fill in
all the details, but basically he wanted more money Tennessee.

(41:00):
He wasn't going to give it to him, and so
he's on his way somewhere else where. I don't think
he's going to get the four million dollars that he
so desperately wanted what do we think? What do we know?

Speaker 4 (41:09):
Yeah, I mean Nicol pretty much opened the floodgates and
nil back when during the recruiting process where it was
came out that a collective had signed a kid for
I think it was eight million dollars, and then the
Tennessee Attorney General Jeremia Carter went through this his presentation

(41:30):
sued the NCAA saying you couldn't prohibit.

Speaker 5 (41:36):
You know, someone earning this money.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
But my understanding from the reporting is he was scheduled
to make two point two million dollars this year. There
are some quarterbacks that hit the transfer portal this year
that we're getting four million. I think it was a
duke and back going to Miami got four million. So
either his dad and or agent wanted to renegotiate his deal.

(42:00):
And I'll say this, he was pretty good, certainly was
an elite. In his first year as a starter, he
skipped a Friday springball practice and basically was a holdout
and Hypool of Tennessee coach said we don't know everything

(42:22):
behind it scenes was he said I want to going
to portal or Hype said we're moving on. But Tennessee
came out that they said, we're moving on. We're not
going to take part in this. We're not gonna match
your meet your demands. And I think his side was
probably gonna use the or probably was or likely was
using the portal as a leverage ploy to say, well,
if we don't get this, the portal opens on Wednesday
and we'll enter it. And they called his bluff and

(42:44):
they said we're moving on.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
And so.

Speaker 4 (42:47):
The fact that we're in a spot where two point
two million dollars is not enough or is insulting to
a slightly above average quarterback, a good quarterback, not a
great quarter.

Speaker 5 (43:00):
Back, but.

Speaker 4 (43:02):
Is who wanted to double his salary or his you
know pay. You know, I said, I still love college football,
but some of this stuff makes me shake my head.
And so I appreciate Hipel taking a stand and saying
we're not going to get involved just now. You definitely
could hurt yourself on the field because Tissy has to

(43:23):
go find a quarterback now. And there's reports that Niko's
gonna wind.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
Up at UCLA.

Speaker 4 (43:28):
I would be surprised if he even gets the two
million dollars that he was set to make.

Speaker 7 (43:34):
It's it is a fascinating ending to that saga because
it's it's not just from the last week. It goes
back to and Jeremiah Carter touched on it at the
Parentis Pair event where he was one of the first
high profile guys to sign a deal with a collective,
which was the four year, eight million dollars in total
something to where then even as Jeremiah laid out like

(43:56):
the Tennessee Attorney General dude on behalf of the University
of Tennessee to make sure that this deal went through,
where Tennessee has done so much for him, and then he.

Speaker 6 (44:08):
Tries to renegotiate.

Speaker 7 (44:10):
Now it's not just on the kid and right, you know,
we've only heard one side of the story essentially, other
than Nico's father initially calling out the reporting that it
was false, and then everything happened, as that reporter said,
in the next twenty four to forty eight hours and
s Ship's point, it sounds like he's going to go
to UCLA. Now sounds like the report and number that

(44:32):
is going to go along with that is going to
be somewhere around one five, one seven five, which is
still life changing money. He's from California originally, so It
makes a ton of sense, and that's where I learned
through this process as well. SEC SEC transfers in the
spring cannot go to another SEC school, so that limited

(44:54):
his options. He's from California, USC UCLA. Made a lot
of sense.

Speaker 6 (44:58):
But it is going to be.

Speaker 7 (44:59):
Fascinating to see because I think this is obviously the
first time something like this has happened in college football.
How does college football? How does everyone else react? Because
this won't be the last time until there is some
type of collective bargaining or we'll see what happens like
the house settlement here, but it is it was a
wild ride or wrong.

Speaker 6 (45:21):
I'm on rocky top over there.

Speaker 7 (45:23):
Chip Yeah, this last week or so, because when he
didn't show up to practice as guards, he kind of
you can call it a mini camp holds out spring
practice holdout Tennessee finally just went nope, we're done here,
off the team, good luck.

Speaker 4 (45:37):
And we've seen I think examples of kids that have
not held out or whatever, but when they haven't been
given their payments for what they've been promised, right, we've
seen that. This is the first one where a kid
held out because he wants more money or is going
back on the contract that.

Speaker 5 (45:55):
He agreed to.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
So I don't know, you know, I don't know how
many more cases you never say never. I mean, I
think this is kind of a unique case, but I'm
I'm sure there'll probably be a few more of these,
particularly if it's a you know, a quarterback related you're
talking about those million dollars stuff.

Speaker 5 (46:16):
But Bartie, you help me remind me. Was he the
first really high profile.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
Example of a collective doing a pay for play where
you're getting the money before you even step upot on
campus to you know, that's what people said in Wait
a second, what is nil exactly? We thought nil was
come here, prove yourself to get marketing deals. This was, hey,
we'll give you a lot of money to come here,
and then if you make some appearances, great, if not,
but this is uh. I think he was probably the

(46:44):
first real prof high profile pay for play.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
Correct, he was?

Speaker 7 (46:47):
And peace and love to your favorite college football team.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
Ship.

Speaker 6 (46:51):
They've been doing that for a long time.

Speaker 5 (46:52):
Yeah, well on board.

Speaker 6 (46:54):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 7 (46:55):
That ended up getting national headlines because when a kid
from California ends up committe to Tennessee, everybody starts asking
questions and then they get answers, and then that's how
an eight million And that's the funny part about it
was that's anybody that's there will be two things about
the Nico era that people remember. Now, he did lead
your favorite, you know, favorite or second favorite whichever you hold,

(47:16):
the Golden Gophers, and I don't want to put you
on the spot, but he did lead them to the
college football Playoff.

Speaker 5 (47:22):
Now there's no question of that one there, but.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
It is.

Speaker 7 (47:28):
They're going to remember the eight million dollar deal, which
he only got to what year two, the end of
year two before he ended up moving on, so that
eight million dollars never materialized. And then it's going to
be him being essentially then the first example of well
I want more money or someone his dad his agency.
Well that's that's also been the funny part about this
thing is in college football, though, everybody's got an agent, okay,

(47:53):
and so when somebody hits the portal, they're represented by
X Y Z. I mean we've seen Schefter or Ian
Rappaport do that for years now. Where it's when a
free agent signs, you know, Chips Gogin signs with the
Tennessee Titans, represented by Justin Guard and XYZ Company, right.
I don't know that I've seen the agent's name, specific
agency specific name mentioned at all with Nico, which I

(48:17):
don't really understand how with such a high profile case
with this, but I hope it works out for him
at UCLA in the long run.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Here.

Speaker 7 (48:26):
I know that again, when you put millions of dollars
in front of kids that are under twenty one or
even under twenty five, with even the basketball portal stuff.
But things like this are bound to happen. Where as
you guys know, when money gets involved, especially stupid money,
everybody comes out of the woodwork claiming to have your
best interest in mind, and so many of these people don't.

(48:49):
So this is an inflection point almost.

Speaker 4 (48:52):
Yeah, I mean it's it's you know, we see it
all time in in you know, pro sports, that a
fleets get a rep or they get known by something
that happens with their contract, whether they don't live up
to it, whether they hold out, whether they whatever. Nicol's
gonna have to carry this like this is his what

(49:13):
he's going to be known as the guy? And I
don't know anything about the kid. I mean, I just
tell you what I hear from. You know, my Buddy's
back home and stuff that I read, and reporting that
that the people in his circle have a lot of
influence on on these things and and so they're gonna
have to wear it too, And then that his.

Speaker 5 (49:33):
Reputation is uh is such.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
That now people are going to see him as oh,
the guy that you know to two point two million
dollars wasn't enough to play, and that he wanted, you know,
wanted the doubles his salary after basically one year as
a starter. So I you know, you hope he goes
there and finds a new home and and and does well.
But you're right when you introduce this kind of money,

(49:59):
this the kind of things that these are results sometimes.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Do we believe the rumor that Oregon coach Dan Lanning
was one that kind of blew the lid on this
thing and said, hey, by the way, he's calling us
asking for this much money, and he called Josh Hypel.
I don't even know if it's true. I love it though,
because you guys know how much I love Dan Lanning.

Speaker 7 (50:19):
Real Housewives of College Football, Baby.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
It wouldn't surprise me. Like I think Lanning's I'm a
fan of him. I like kind of how he runs
this thing.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
I think coaches, even though there's as PJ just mentioned,
our thing, if we need that much, you know, edge.
But I think when you get into the NIL world
and the kind of the circus has become, I think
there's enough coaches that are frustrated by what's happening right
and the transactional nature of it, that it wouldn't surprise
me if a coach said called Hypee, said hey, just

(50:52):
so you know, his representatives reached out to us about transfer,
and I just want to give your heads up, particularly
if that coach had no interest in the player, right
like right, if he had no interest in signing him,
then what was it harm him?

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (51:08):
I almost hope it's true.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Yeah, I think that I want it to be true.
I love Dan Lanning, and.

Speaker 7 (51:12):
That's where within every kind of say rum or something
like that, there's always a sliver of truth somewhere.

Speaker 6 (51:18):
You just don't know if it's ten percent or ninety percent.

Speaker 7 (51:21):
But I almost tend to believe that if it wasn't
Dan Lanning, I bet you there is another high profile
head coach that did alert Tennessee to get the ball
rolling again to where that's how it got into the
media initially.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
All right, well, let's wrap up the show with some
breaking news. I don't know if you guys have seen this.
It dropped while we were talking with PJ, and I
just happened to look down. Lee Corso will do his
final college game Day Week one of this college football
season August thirtieth, thirty eight college football seasons. Will make
his final headgear pick. I love the press release on

(51:56):
college Game Day built by the home Depot August thirtieth.
He turns ninety in August, and he was on the
first you know, official college game day in nineteen ninety three.
Believe that was Notre Dame and Florida State. Yeah, November thirteen,
nineteen ninety three, number two Notre Dame hosted number one

(52:16):
Florida State in the Game of the Century. That was
the first time they took it on the road college game.
They used to just be in the studio, believe it
or not. Kids, they used to just be in Bristol
and they would just do a college pregame show. Craig James,
the old SMU player, was a big part of it.
Chris Fowler obviously was, and Lee Corso and we know that,
you know, he's obviously had a lot of health issues

(52:37):
the last handful of years, had a stroke, and but
credit to them for continuing to let him be involved
and find ways to keep him involved because he was
being it was it was a time, right, Chip, I
mean Bertley might even be too young, like yeah, for
Kirk kurb Street and obviously now Pat McAfee and what
that show has become. Corso was. Corso was the dick

(52:58):
vital if you want to make the compare, and the
guy who brought all the different energy, the mascots, the pencil,
the not so fast my friend, the craziness, what a run.
And credit to all of them for, you know, letting
him stay involved as long as he felt like he
could do it. And I know Kirk kurb Street took
special interest in, you know, helping him along. And he

(53:19):
even thanked Kirk especially for just how gracious he's been
over the years and making sure he was he was
good to go and doing all those things. But there
was a lot the last few years of why is
Corso still doing it? Why do they still have him
out there? It's like, because the guy's earned.

Speaker 5 (53:35):
It, because he's an institution.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Yeah, he's eighty nine years old. It's probably not going
to be perfect all the time. But the guy's earned
if he wants to be out there, and he's good
with it everybody else. As Heather Fleck would say to PJ,
be the boy, right, be the boy, and let let
Corso do what he wants to do out there. So
I'm nothing but respect for me on the on the

(53:58):
whole thing.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
Yeah, I mean we throw legend around a lot, but
that guy is absolutely legendary and and what he helped
build with that that brand and that that show and
house become so symbolic with college football, and and I
do the last couple of years when you, I mean
you saw him decline and I loved how much Herbie
really kind of the care he took and would jump

(54:21):
in the you know, just the relationship they had.

Speaker 5 (54:24):
But you think about like.

Speaker 4 (54:29):
Leaving a mark and a brand or whatever and the
not so fast, my friend, I just think about like
what it means for people just picking up whatever mascot
he gets. What how much that became a thing a
part of college football Saturday mornings to see, Oh, what's
what's Courso gonna put on his head?

Speaker 2 (54:50):
And watched the last three minutes of the show.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
See you know what he does, he does the way
so yeah, so be a sad I mean that last one,
it'll be a sad farewell. But you know what that's
uh what a heck of a run when you say
thirty eight.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
Years, thirty eight years on game day, Yeah, sixty nine
different teams he wore the mascot, including the Gophers. They
tweeted out. You know he picked the Gophers in that
twenty nineteen game the first time. I mean think about
how it's like just that moment people should YouTube. But
now like Minnesota got the Lee Corso headgear treatment like
that is as stupid as it sounds. That was like

(55:32):
a badge of honor. Yeah, the program for the fan base.
It's a validation that we matter. Yeah, this pro this
we as Gopher fans here now after the Bateman touchdown,
I didn't go too well that day, But it's a
great picture of Lee Corso wearing Goldie's head right in
front of Northrop Mall. Isn't that where they did it.

(55:53):
I didn't get to go over there.

Speaker 4 (55:54):
Hey man, memories are about moments, right, and that's right
if you were there and you saw that. That's that's
a memory you keep.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
So he's danced with the Irishes, Leprechaun, ridden a motorcycle
with the Oregon Duck mounted a seventeen foot fake elephant,
sparked with Katy Perry, wrestled with Bill Murray and Will
Ferrell dressed as James Madison Ben Frank from the Statue
of Liberty Elvis Presley, and of course said the f
ward one time when he kind of goes ef it
and grab another like yeah, it's not. And by the way,

(56:22):
I think McAfee's done a good job of being the
new generation of you know, the energy and the bit
that he's brought to the show with, you know, singing
the songs and doing that kick contest that they do.
The show's obviously not going away, but it's definitely if
you're of a certain age, which we are, it's it's
always Lee Corso.

Speaker 7 (56:41):
The energy gives off, or at least in my mind,
is always fun Uncle, Like you never knew what the
fun Uncle Lee Corso is going to do in the
last ten minutes of the show, which is why you
tuned in and.

Speaker 6 (56:54):
In thirty eight years.

Speaker 7 (56:56):
Goodness gracious, if any of us are still doing whatever
we've done for the thirty eight years.

Speaker 6 (57:02):
I think it's a heck of a run, man, but
such great energy.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Yeah, that'll be fun. So they have some stats here
and I'll just bring him up here. First of all,
he has a six to sixty five win percentage on
his picks. According to ESPN, he's two hundred and eighty six.
There's four hundred and thirty Mascot headgear selections all time.
He's two eighty six and one forty four. Most headgear
selections by team Ohio State forty five, Alabama thirty eight,

(57:27):
LSU twenty five, Florida twenty two, Oregon twenty one. Trying
to think if there's any other thing we need to know,
Army Navy, obviously they've done that. That's about it. He
went eleven and zero in nineteen ninety nine, his most
wins without a loss in a single season, So we'll
always remember ninety nine. I love it. I love it.
Anything else before we wrap it.

Speaker 6 (57:48):
Up, I think that's it.

Speaker 5 (57:50):
It was fun man.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
Yeah, thank you to PJ for one hundred one. Do it.

Speaker 5 (57:55):
Let's do another hundred.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
You got it in you, I mean you got it
in your plan. Are you available.

Speaker 5 (58:01):
That's four years.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
We figured this is four years and another four years.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
We're up ticking. I think we can get it done
in two and a half. We're doing we're doing more
episodes now now that we've included the off season. But
got that was fun. That was fun to have PJ.
I'm glad he could do it. It worked out nicely
that it's spring football, right, they do have obviously they're practicing.
They've got recruits, go to go for Illustrated dot Com.
Burnsy's got a new profile on on recruits like every

(58:25):
day right now right Burnsy like commitments people that are
visiting like it's a crazy time. But we appreciate that
was cool, and you guys, you guys got him, got
him to tell some stories we've never heard before, including
getting a ticket, riding his bike.

Speaker 5 (58:39):
Getting a ticket, which is so good.

Speaker 7 (58:42):
That's awesome, tickets, boating bourbon, the Masters you him and
Pimento sandwiches.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
And that was in like twenty eight minutes. That was
all the things that we covered. So thanks to him.
Thanks to you guys for doing this for one hundred episodes,
and Burnsy for putting up with me trying to you know,
publicly blast you as much as I do your your
very thick skin, so we appreciate that. Well, you have
no choice, It's okay, yeah, not all heroes for capes,

(59:12):
all right. For Jack's Cafe, I'm justin guard. Thanks to
Chips Gogins, thanks to Ryan Burns. Make your reservations. It
is like sixty seven degrees today. It feels like brunch season.
It is brunch season. Baby, patio's open. We saw that
on Saturday night. So make your reservations at Jackscafe dot com,
Jaxcafe dot com and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks
everybody for listening to all one hundred episodes of the

(59:34):
parentis Bear podcast