ITG 87 - Big Daddy Kicks Off Texas Tech Week
ITG 87 - Big Daddy Kicks Off Texas Tech Week
Transcript
00:00:00 (upbeat music)
00:00:02 - In the gun, episode number 87.
00:00:07 Let's see how this goes.
00:00:08 It's time to break down a backyard brawl victory.
00:00:12 And right from the start here, I am still Wesley Euler.
00:00:16 I just have no voice from yesterday.
00:00:18 - There's nothing wrong with your computer, folks.
00:00:20 - That's right, that's right.
00:00:21 There's nothing wrong with your speakers
00:00:23 and your car, your headphones.
00:00:25 Jet drilling the signal caller,
00:00:28 Owen Schmidt, the runaway beer truck.
00:00:29 I'm Wesley Euler, this is In the Gun.
00:00:32 I have no voice from the game last night, gentlemen.
00:00:35 Left it all out there, as they might say.
00:00:37 I sound like Dana, I sound like Dana Holgerson
00:00:40 after a few Red Bulls.
00:00:41 I lost my voice, my car got towed.
00:00:45 I mean, you know, I got a big old,
00:00:47 big old Irvin's towing receipt here.
00:00:50 I tell you what, I had to sit there at their fricking shop
00:00:52 and wait for five hours for somebody to get there
00:00:55 and let me get my car.
00:00:57 So it's been a heck of a 24 hours or so here,
00:01:00 I'd say, gentlemen.
00:01:01 - You know, my wife likes to listen to like
00:01:04 80s top hits on Sirius Radio when we're in the car.
00:01:08 And they got this DJ,
00:01:10 and she was a big DJ back in the 80s.
00:01:13 I don't know her name, but I guess she must smoke
00:01:16 like 14 packs a day.
00:01:18 And that's who you sound like today, Wes.
00:01:20 You sound like that DJ from the 80s.
00:01:23 - I believe it.
00:01:24 - That smokes 14 packs a day.
00:01:25 So let us carry the burden for you today, Wes.
00:01:29 - I appreciate that.
00:01:30 - You didn't leave it all on the field.
00:01:32 - Real quick, remember I said last week,
00:01:35 I pointed out this couch candle behind me.
00:01:38 - Yes.
00:01:39 - And I said, if we beat Pitt,
00:01:40 I said, I haven't lit this thing in like three years.
00:01:41 We beat Pitt, I'm lighting this candle.
00:01:43 So if you're watching on YouTube.
00:01:44 - Right now, right now.
00:01:46 - We're burning the couches, dog.
00:01:49 - The pyro is out there, tune in.
00:01:52 - Couch candle is lit.
00:01:56 - 'Cause we beat the hell out of Pitt.
00:01:58 - Hell yeah, brother.
00:01:59 - Is it great?
00:02:00 Hell of an excrement.
00:02:01 - Oh man, Wes.
00:02:04 I saw Wes yesterday walking up in the parking lot.
00:02:08 He was full of energy.
00:02:10 He was absolutely hosting his tailgate,
00:02:13 having a great time.
00:02:14 - Oh yeah.
00:02:15 He was the Prince of the City at the tailgate.
00:02:18 - Started me off with some spotted cow,
00:02:21 super jacked, okay, had me a brat.
00:02:25 Hung out, had some interesting conversations.
00:02:28 - We had a good old time.
00:02:30 - Did my blue lot tour, getting in the game.
00:02:35 Blaine's like, hey man, come over here.
00:02:37 I see Luke Hamilton and I headbutt his ass
00:02:41 and look at my nose and I'll split my nose.
00:02:43 - You gotta be on YouTube to see this.
00:02:44 - Split my nose wide open, dude.
00:02:46 - When I said this during the beginning of the broadcast,
00:02:50 I really did.
00:02:51 Tony threw down to me for the first segment.
00:02:54 And I said, before we even get started,
00:02:55 you wanna talk about setting the tone appropriately
00:02:57 for a backyard brawl.
00:02:59 Blaine Stewart just walked up to me.
00:03:01 And as soon as he saw me,
00:03:02 the first thing he said was,
00:03:03 Owen, what you just walked me through.
00:03:05 You headbutted Luke Hamilton.
00:03:07 Of course he had a helmet on, you did not.
00:03:10 You bled like a stuffed pig.
00:03:11 And when I saw you later on,
00:03:13 it looked like somebody took a switchblade to your face.
00:03:16 You're down behind the end zone during the game.
00:03:18 Like, oh my, wow, wow, wow.
00:03:20 So between Owen with his nose and Wes with his voice,
00:03:25 I mean, I feel pretty daggone lucky
00:03:27 just to escape a little bit of headache, right?
00:03:29 I mean, I feel pretty daggone lucky.
00:03:32 But for anyone who does listen to the show,
00:03:37 don't ever call into question
00:03:39 the fandom of the three of us and Skylar.
00:03:42 I mean, what you're hearing in Wes's voice
00:03:45 is evidence of that.
00:03:46 If you're on YouTube,
00:03:47 what you're seeing on Owen's face is evidence of that.
00:03:50 And guys, we've been,
00:03:52 like a lot of Mountaineer fans out there, I'm sure,
00:03:55 group texting and it's been nonstop.
00:03:57 It went late, it started early,
00:03:59 and it's just been a blast.
00:04:01 It was great to see you guys, first of all.
00:04:03 We actually got a pick together tonight.
00:04:04 We missed Skylar probably a couple hours.
00:04:06 But I was able to migrate down to the Peach Lot
00:04:09 and for every five or 10 minutes at least,
00:04:12 hook up with these guys at Wes's tent.
00:04:13 And Owen's right.
00:04:15 You know, Wes is the prince of the city down there.
00:04:16 I mean, there's 30, 40 people down there
00:04:19 and he's running the whole operation.
00:04:21 It's quite an operation, but that's a good spot.
00:04:24 That's a neat spot.
00:04:25 - Dude knows how to throw a little tailgate there, man.
00:04:26 I was like, "Hey man, I need to bring the smoker down here."
00:04:29 You know what else is what we need too?
00:04:31 I love the Grateful Dead flag.
00:04:33 We needed an IndyGun flag, dog.
00:04:36 - Ooh, good call.
00:04:38 - I like it.
00:04:39 - We need to get one, dude.
00:04:40 - Come on.
00:04:41 - We're gonna have to get, yeah.
00:04:41 - I'll get it, I'll get it.
00:04:42 - You know the best part about that,
00:04:43 you don't even need patchouli around it.
00:04:45 (laughing)
00:04:49 - I'm writing that down right now.
00:04:50 - I'm telling you what, boys, it was electric.
00:04:55 - Oh, man.
00:04:56 - That felt like back in the day, 100%, 100% to me.
00:05:01 And there were so many good feel-good vibes,
00:05:06 getting to see you guys, you know, hanging.
00:05:09 I had, you know, Tucker Lilly,
00:05:12 one of my players came with me.
00:05:14 I got to give him kind of the royal treatment.
00:05:16 - He was having a blast, man.
00:05:17 - It was awesome.
00:05:18 - He was having a blast.
00:05:19 - Yeah, he was.
00:05:20 - I can't be talking about that for the rest of his life.
00:05:21 - Oh, absolutely.
00:05:23 And, you know, getting to see all my old buddies, teammates,
00:05:27 it just, you know, there was a feeling in the air,
00:05:30 you know what I mean?
00:05:31 And we came out, Pitt had, you know,
00:05:36 barely any success, literally, on that first drive.
00:05:39 And we bowed our backs and stuffed them,
00:05:42 and then the rest was history.
00:05:44 We lost our quarterback in the dang second drive
00:05:47 of the game, and it's like, holy crap, what's going on now?
00:05:50 And we, and them big boys up front,
00:05:53 grinded it out, dog, both sides of the ball.
00:05:56 - It was a lot of fun, Owen.
00:05:58 I mean, it was, like you said,
00:05:59 there were a lot of very familiar faces,
00:06:02 Mountaineer fans on the sidelines,
00:06:04 behind the end zone, around the game.
00:06:07 You know, I spent some time with Julian Miller,
00:06:09 always loved catching up with Jules.
00:06:10 I said, just you being on the sideline tonight's worth
00:06:13 three sacks, right?
00:06:14 And I saw Chris Neal behind the end zone,
00:06:16 I don't know if you bumped into Chris or not.
00:06:18 So big bear hug from Chris,
00:06:20 just like you gave me a big bear hug when I saw you.
00:06:22 But it was all good vibes, and it was like,
00:06:25 but guys, the tone was kind of set.
00:06:27 Even pre-game, it had a different electricity on the field.
00:06:31 You know, it's like, if you compare and contrast
00:06:33 what it's like in a normal game,
00:06:34 out in the field, it's always kind of electric, right?
00:06:36 But this just had a different vibe,
00:06:38 even going through warmups.
00:06:39 Even when I'm watching Pitt specialists come out the tunnel,
00:06:43 there's that extra level of booing
00:06:45 that I don't normally hear when it's Oklahoma State
00:06:47 or Baylor or Texas Tech.
00:06:49 And when I hear our specialists come out of the tunnel
00:06:51 against Pitt, there's that extra level of cheering
00:06:54 that you don't hear against Oklahoma or Texas
00:06:56 or Iowa State, right?
00:06:58 So there's just something, even before you take the field
00:07:01 to actually play football, there was a vibe in the air.
00:07:04 And then Owen, I told you today again,
00:07:08 what Neal said in the locker room,
00:07:10 and I took some notes on it,
00:07:11 because I honestly left that locker room,
00:07:15 I thought, "Pitt just lost this game."
00:07:17 When we stepped out of the locker room, I thought,
00:07:19 "Sorry, Pitt, not your night, you just lost this game."
00:07:22 I mean, we were in the locker room,
00:07:23 and normally what happens,
00:07:24 and we're gonna get Big Daddy on here in a few minutes,
00:07:27 he's gonna join us, of course, and he was down there.
00:07:29 And I love his perspective
00:07:31 on what happened to the locker room too.
00:07:32 He sees a lot of things that I don't see.
00:07:34 But the beauty of it's this,
00:07:36 when normally before the game starts
00:07:39 and we round the team up, even before the video,
00:07:41 before the video, let me talk about this first.
00:07:43 Normally there's chatter.
00:07:44 You know what it's like
00:07:45 when there's a little bit of conversation
00:07:47 down in this locker, down that side of the room,
00:07:50 down this side of the,
00:07:51 a little chit-chat here and there,
00:07:52 trying to get each other fired up.
00:07:54 Nothing mainstream right in the middle of the room,
00:07:56 screaming or anything,
00:07:57 but there's a little of this, a little of that, nothing.
00:07:59 There was nothing.
00:08:00 I didn't hear anything the entire time I was in the locker room
00:08:04 I could have heard a pen draw.
00:08:05 - Focused up.
00:08:06 - It was this incredibly intense level of focus
00:08:12 that again, there's something different about your rival.
00:08:15 And with that intense level of focus from that,
00:08:20 we went to Neil entering the room.
00:08:23 And you know what happens is,
00:08:25 it's optional team prayer,
00:08:26 and then the whole team comes up
00:08:28 and there's this schedule that you follow
00:08:31 and you know you're getting closer.
00:08:33 And then here comes Neil and the team rallies up.
00:08:35 Normally it's all right, let's watch the hype video.
00:08:38 And the first words out of Neil's mouth,
00:08:40 he's standing in front of the screen.
00:08:42 And he said, "We don't need a video.
00:08:45 There's no video tonight, guys."
00:08:46 He said, "No need for that tonight."
00:08:49 And he jumped into a conversation with them.
00:08:51 He said, "First of all, what you're about to step out into,"
00:08:54 and this had a gladiator kind of feel.
00:08:56 You know, I'm already getting gladiator vibes.
00:09:00 And he said, "What you're about to step out into
00:09:03 is gonna be incredible.
00:09:04 And I want you to feed off the energy that you will feel."
00:09:07 He said, "They're here for you.
00:09:09 Feed off that energy.
00:09:10 It's gonna be incredible."
00:09:12 So that's the first thing he drove home.
00:09:14 And then he said, "Guys, this is all about a choice.
00:09:16 We're here tonight to make a choice.
00:09:19 And that choice is, do you choose fear
00:09:21 or do you choose faith?"
00:09:23 And he walked you through the reasons
00:09:24 that we all have faith.
00:09:26 And then he said, "And you know what?
00:09:28 There is no fear in this room.
00:09:31 There's no fear in this room."
00:09:33 And he said, "If we play our best game
00:09:37 and Pitt plays their best game, I hope that happens
00:09:40 because in three hours, we're gonna be right back in here
00:09:43 meeting up to sing that song."
00:09:45 And then he finally said, "Guys,"
00:09:47 this is the last thing he ended with.
00:09:49 He said, "Guys, November 25th, 2011."
00:09:52 He said, "We've been preparing for this for 54 weeks
00:09:55 because we know a weasel has slipped away 54 weeks ago.
00:09:58 But November 25th, 2011 is the last time
00:10:02 the people out there and the people of West Virginia
00:10:04 got to celebrate a win over Pitt.
00:10:06 That ends tonight."
00:10:09 I was like, "See ya, that's it, guys.
00:10:11 We really need to play this thing, right?"
00:10:14 And you know what?
00:10:14 I mean, just the intensity and you could see
00:10:18 they were starting to get a little bit of bounce
00:10:19 and a little bit of hop and it just reached this peak
00:10:22 and out we go and then into the electricity
00:10:25 of that run-on in the brawl.
00:10:28 And we haven't done that in 12 years, guys.
00:10:29 We haven't run onto the field into a brawl
00:10:31 and the brawl was just different.
00:10:34 And the electricity in that stadium and that building.
00:10:38 - 50 minutes before kickoff, 75% of the seats were full.
00:10:43 - Yeah, that's right.
00:10:45 - 50 minutes before kickoff, 75% of the seats were full.
00:10:49 - Well, that's your point.
00:10:50 - It was crazy. - That's your point.
00:10:51 And the format for the pregame show,
00:10:55 Andrew Caridi, who runs the show and hosts it,
00:10:58 and wisely so, he worked April call-in
00:11:02 for an extra traffic report.
00:11:04 Normal April will do two traffic reports.
00:11:06 But we worked her into the format for three traffic reports.
00:11:10 And she was the first one to tell us
00:11:11 when she first hopped on there,
00:11:12 guys, you're not gonna need three of these.
00:11:14 There is no traffic.
00:11:16 - Yeah. - Everybody's here.
00:11:17 - How are they? - You know, everybody's here.
00:11:19 And she was right.
00:11:20 There wasn't traffic in Morgantown Saturday, early Saturday.
00:11:23 But by the time you expected traffic, there was no traffic.
00:11:27 Those folks were all there.
00:11:29 They were all there.
00:11:30 So there's gonna be so many little nuggets
00:11:33 and little cracks between the keys,
00:11:35 but both good and bad that I remember from this.
00:11:38 And when I say bad, I think Garrett,
00:11:40 because I told Owen this.
00:11:42 Molly McGrath was working for the ABC crew on the sidelines.
00:11:47 She's great.
00:11:48 And we were sharing information.
00:11:50 Normally I get it first from Vince Blankenship
00:11:52 for injury information.
00:11:53 He's our head athletic trainer.
00:11:55 Well, Molly happened to be down toward the tunnel,
00:11:59 and I'm on the sidelines, of course.
00:12:01 And we were getting updates on Garrett's situation.
00:12:03 And I mean, I even said on the broadcast,
00:12:05 the play that he got hurt on, I said,
00:12:07 "Tony, Garrett's got a bad limp.
00:12:09 "Something's off.
00:12:10 "He's hurt."
00:12:11 And he stayed in the game hurt and made that last handoff.
00:12:15 He was barely standing up in the gun
00:12:16 to make that last handoff.
00:12:17 He did not wanna come out.
00:12:19 And Molly was down at the tunnel
00:12:21 and she saw Garrett go in with his parents
00:12:24 and said he was just beside himself.
00:12:27 - Yeah. - And I'm like,
00:12:29 he's an emotional kid.
00:12:30 Obviously he's the emotional leader of this football team.
00:12:33 And then I saw him,
00:12:35 he came back out in street clothes eventually,
00:12:37 but I saw him in the locker room at halftime.
00:12:39 And one of the things that I just said to him in passing,
00:12:41 'cause he was in street clothes then,
00:12:42 he had a boot on,
00:12:43 and I was like, "Dude, you know it,
00:12:45 "but nobody in this building can help number eight
00:12:48 "as much as you can for a thousand reasons.
00:12:52 "Nobody can help him the way you can."
00:12:54 And he was already all in on doing so.
00:12:56 That's just the kind of kid Garrett is.
00:12:58 And I said, "The only other thing I'll say to you is
00:13:01 "I'm around you a lot.
00:13:03 "I'm not a teammate, but I'm around you a lot.
00:13:05 "And I feel your energy rub off on me
00:13:07 "when I'm around you.
00:13:08 "And I know what just happened to you.
00:13:10 "And I know how down you are,
00:13:11 "but Pitt didn't hit you in the heart,
00:13:13 "they hit you in the ankle.
00:13:14 "Don't let them change you the rest of this night."
00:13:16 I said, "You got teammates looking."
00:13:18 He knows, I mean, Garrett's just,
00:13:19 he's such a great kid.
00:13:21 He's such a great leader.
00:13:23 He's such an emotionally charged kid.
00:13:25 And that room's special.
00:13:28 I mean, between him and Nico,
00:13:30 that relationship that those two have,
00:13:32 such incredible kids.
00:13:34 I mean, Garrett at one point told me,
00:13:38 and this just says everything about him,
00:13:39 "You wanna talk about somebody who gets the Pitt rivalry,
00:13:42 "who gets the backyard brawl."
00:13:44 This was when he recognized it was over for the night.
00:13:47 And again, he's kind of fighting back some emotion,
00:13:50 trying to push it down.
00:13:51 And he's like, "Jed, I'd rather miss three other games
00:13:55 "than miss this one."
00:13:57 So he knows, he's all in.
00:13:59 It just, God, your heart just hurts so much for him.
00:14:03 But, and there's Nico trying to jump in the saddle
00:14:06 and see what he can do.
00:14:08 And you know what, by the second series,
00:14:11 I went up to Nico before we got to,
00:14:12 when they were getting ready,
00:14:13 Pitt was getting ready to punt,
00:14:14 and I was getting ready to go back out there.
00:14:15 And I said, "How much fun is this?"
00:14:17 And just his eyes were so lit up.
00:14:19 I said, "How much fun is this?"
00:14:20 He said, "I can't explain how much fun this is."
00:14:22 He was just so, guys, there's something,
00:14:25 even when you listen to Nico in the post-game,
00:14:27 and I talked about this in our post-game show,
00:14:30 it's not an accident that he says all the right things.
00:14:34 He's deferential to his teammates.
00:14:36 He's been pretty sharp.
00:14:37 - He's pretty savvy when it comes to the interviews.
00:14:41 He's pretty sharp.
00:14:42 - That's part of being a quarterback.
00:14:43 And when you start as young as he did
00:14:46 at trying to globally master every little thing it takes
00:14:50 to play the position and be the mission control position
00:14:53 of a football program, you understand all that.
00:14:56 So you understand every game situation.
00:14:59 In other words, you eat it, you live it,
00:15:00 you breathe it, you sleep it.
00:15:02 You're passionate about it
00:15:03 from the time you're eight years old.
00:15:04 I mean, that's all I did.
00:15:05 By the time I was a freshman in high, and I'm not Nico,
00:15:08 but by the time I was a freshman in college,
00:15:10 there wasn't a game situation
00:15:11 that I hadn't thought of 10,000 times.
00:15:13 So he understood as soon as he entered the game,
00:15:16 "I'm not here to win this thing.
00:15:17 I'm here to help us win this thing.
00:15:20 I'm here to stay out of the way
00:15:21 of an exceptional offensive line
00:15:22 and very physical run game and not lose this game."
00:15:25 That's why he was so damaged and upset
00:15:27 over that fumbled snap.
00:15:28 He recognized, "Look, I'm not here to do that."
00:15:31 So he gets the big picture
00:15:33 at a 400 level of playing the position.
00:15:35 Like the stuff between the lines is going to come.
00:15:38 That has to rep itself out.
00:15:40 But all the other smaller points,
00:15:42 the minutia, the finer details,
00:15:44 the what you say about your teammates,
00:15:45 what you say to the media, you know, how you inspire people,
00:15:48 he knows all that.
00:15:50 None of this is new to him.
00:15:51 None of this was too big for him.
00:15:53 So I would say in so many different ways,
00:15:56 he's the perfect guy to step in,
00:15:58 not just to any situation
00:16:00 with your starting quarterback hurt
00:16:01 in that kind of environment against that type of opponent
00:16:04 who wants to get after you,
00:16:06 but your starting quarterback
00:16:08 is the heart and soul of your football team
00:16:09 and he's incredibly high energy.
00:16:11 Well, there's a certain calming effect
00:16:14 to seeing a kid Nico's age step into that huddle.
00:16:18 And you saw this with Pat when he was a red shirt freshman
00:16:21 and you know what I mean?
00:16:22 It's a, there's something-
00:16:23 - Yeah, he's got a, he's definitely got a swagger.
00:16:25 He's got a confidence to him.
00:16:28 That's his mechanism.
00:16:30 You know what I mean?
00:16:31 He's, he knows what he's done.
00:16:33 He's dialed in, he's prepared.
00:16:35 You know, I was listening to kind of his interview
00:16:37 a little bit and some of the questions they were asking him,
00:16:39 you know, obviously we know when you're a backup position,
00:16:43 you know, you're getting reps through like scout team.
00:16:45 You're not getting a ton of obviously first team reps,
00:16:49 but a kid like that is so dialed in with film,
00:16:52 mental reps on the side.
00:16:54 I mean, he's a very sound football player
00:16:58 and it was cool to see, you know, he made that fumble.
00:17:00 CJ comes up to him, kind of just like pushed him
00:17:05 under the face mask, hey, keep the head up.
00:17:07 And I just want to double back real quick
00:17:09 to what you were saying about Garrett, you know,
00:17:12 a competitor like that, you know,
00:17:16 sometimes you still need a little piece of advice
00:17:20 every once in a while as well.
00:17:21 And, you know, what you were saying, look,
00:17:25 I get it what happened to you, it sucks right now.
00:17:28 And it's, I know you're bummed, but like you said,
00:17:30 sometimes when you wear your heart out on your sleeve,
00:17:33 those emotions are kind of projected like that.
00:17:36 So, you know, being able to make sure like, look,
00:17:39 just because you're not playing right now
00:17:41 doesn't mean you're not the leader of this team.
00:17:44 - Yeah. - Right?
00:17:45 Being able to get out there and understand the situation,
00:17:49 help Nico out, get to where he needs to be,
00:17:52 get his head right, you know, some of the looks,
00:17:55 some of the checks that he might, you know,
00:17:57 double think about, just need to know,
00:17:59 here's some of the information.
00:18:01 It was cool kind of seeing him in that role,
00:18:03 being able to coach now and kind of step back,
00:18:06 coach it up and still be in the game.
00:18:10 I understand it's a blow, man.
00:18:12 It's, there's nothing worse for a player
00:18:16 than getting injured.
00:18:18 It's just, you know, you prepare so much,
00:18:22 physically, mentally, you're doing the, you know,
00:18:26 the rehab, the therapy, all that little stuff,
00:18:29 the stretching, all the good stuff.
00:18:31 So I understand from his perspective how bummed he was.
00:18:34 And yeah, this is a huge game.
00:18:36 Correct me if I'm wrong, right?
00:18:38 This is the last time we play for a while?
00:18:40 No, we got two more.
00:18:42 Yeah.
00:18:43 Two more and then we're gone, there's a hiatus.
00:18:46 And then there's a hiatus, so two more,
00:18:48 then there's a two-year hiatus, and then four more.
00:18:52 We got some more coming up, but yeah, it's not quite yet.
00:18:56 Okay, cool, cool, cool.
00:18:58 But yeah, so I just appreciate the,
00:19:03 and I'm not just overstating this,
00:19:05 the very special personalities of those two kids
00:19:09 that are in that room.
00:19:10 And what it takes to compete against each other,
00:19:13 to push each other, to pull for each other.
00:19:17 And there's no bigger team player than Garrett Green.
00:19:19 And there never will be.
00:19:21 Running back, receiver, "What do you want me to do, coach?
00:19:22 "Give me a hand, how can we win?
00:19:23 "How can we win?"
00:19:24 You've seen him do it all in the past.
00:19:26 He waited his turn, he earned his keep.
00:19:28 And meanwhile, here's Nico,
00:19:31 for a whole different list of reasons, is special.
00:19:34 But those two kids are just so unique and so special.
00:19:37 And I want you to hit on it.
00:19:39 Neil talked, and the media talked about this.
00:19:42 The backup only gets about 25% of the rebs.
00:19:44 And I found myself, when Nico got inserted,
00:19:47 I watch all the practice stuff, right?
00:19:49 And as I'm watching it last week,
00:19:51 it even crosses my mind,
00:19:53 sometimes I'm watching Nico as closely as I watch Garrett,
00:19:55 why wouldn't I?
00:19:56 But Nico does some pretty cool stuff, right?
00:19:59 And I'm telling you, there's times when he just,
00:20:01 you can tell he's comfortable, he steps up,
00:20:03 he understands the big picture, sees the read,
00:20:06 and strokes it.
00:20:06 And there's other times,
00:20:07 all that doesn't come together as quickly for him.
00:20:10 But one of the thing I probably enjoy most with him,
00:20:13 is oftentimes in two minute situations,
00:20:15 because that's instinct as much as anything else.
00:20:19 Instinct floats to the surface in those circumstances,
00:20:23 because there's not as much thinking,
00:20:25 because things have to be streamlined,
00:20:27 because time's condensed, so everything happens quicker.
00:20:30 And when that happens, boy, it's fun to watch him.
00:20:32 Now you can't just do that the whole game,
00:20:34 unless you're Rich Rodriguez at Glenville State
00:20:37 in the early 90s, right?
00:20:39 But it's difficult to do that.
00:20:41 But it just speaks to the instinct that he has,
00:20:44 not the rest of it will catch up to where he's at.
00:20:47 - Oh, absolutely, man.
00:20:48 Absolutely.
00:20:49 - You know, it's just like a movie.
00:20:51 Just imagine, we don't know what's gonna happen there.
00:20:54 Like we're waiting to see the situation with Garrett,
00:20:56 we don't know how long Garrett's out,
00:20:58 or if Garrett can find a way to play Saturday.
00:21:00 We don't know, we'll find out.
00:21:02 But in the meantime,
00:21:04 if it's Nikko against Texas Tech next week,
00:21:07 well, you're gonna see a much different circumstance
00:21:09 with Nikko inserted with 75% of the reps, as opposed to 25.
00:21:13 You're gonna see different packages, different concepts,
00:21:16 we're more aggressive.
00:21:17 But at the end of the day,
00:21:19 we still understand the strength of this football team
00:21:22 is through three games, very clearly at the point of attack
00:21:25 on both sides of the football.
00:21:27 So you don't wanna do anything to defy that.
00:21:30 I mean, our offensive line, the more I study that tape,
00:21:32 and this is strange to say in a game
00:21:34 where you had 211 yards, all right?
00:21:36 You know, we're not reinventing the wheel
00:21:38 with the numbers that we didn't post against Pitt.
00:21:41 But I got a bit of a spat with one of these Pitt people,
00:21:44 I was texting you guys,
00:21:45 and basically I came back and I was like,
00:21:47 "Look, we had 211 'cause we didn't need 212."
00:21:50 That's why we had 211, right?
00:21:51 - It was a slow grind, man.
00:21:52 It was executed very- - It was a slow grind.
00:21:53 You gotta understand and appreciate the style of the game,
00:21:55 embrace it.
00:21:56 And as I'm studying with great scrutiny
00:21:59 while watching the tape today, watching the O-line,
00:22:02 you talk about fun little nuggets.
00:22:04 It's just the toughness of each of those five kids
00:22:07 jumps out, it just jumps out.
00:22:10 I mean, there's times that I'll see Brandon Yates
00:22:13 on the ground, get back up and just drive somebody.
00:22:16 I mean, it had to be almost rushing past the whistle
00:22:20 just to make sure that he did his job.
00:22:21 And then there's times that I'll see Zach Frazier
00:22:23 on the ground and he's still with one arm
00:22:26 trying to secure and finish his block that's offside.
00:22:29 I'm like, they don't stop.
00:22:31 I mean, the tenacity of those five kids is just,
00:22:34 did you hear what CJ called him?
00:22:36 The Great Wall of China?
00:22:38 He's like, "To get to me, they gotta get through them."
00:22:40 And that is so spot on.
00:22:42 I mean, what an apropos nickname
00:22:44 because when you study those five guys,
00:22:47 and Hubbard's doing a good job too.
00:22:49 And let's say, hey, number 88's not number 88 by accident.
00:22:53 Nick Malone playing tight ends in there for a reason, right?
00:22:55 So the big body guys that put their hand in the dirt for us,
00:22:59 I mean, it's just fun.
00:23:01 Even in a, like Jeff Castile and I were talking
00:23:03 after the game, that box score
00:23:05 looked like it came from 1948, right?
00:23:07 I mean, Tony and I were joking with Coach Wallace,
00:23:09 is this from your senior year in college?
00:23:11 I mean, come on, this is 211 yards each.
00:23:14 But again, we got 211 because we didn't need 212.
00:23:17 And the way that we got to 211,
00:23:19 it really, it kind of pushed you back
00:23:21 to your atomistic roots and reminds you
00:23:24 what this game's all about.
00:23:25 It's about blocking, it's about tackling,
00:23:27 it's three plays in a cloud of dust.
00:23:29 And there were even times I posted some stuff on Twitter.
00:23:32 I wouldn't, we punished them.
00:23:34 And I texted you guys this, this clip.
00:23:36 We punished them so much with that stretch play
00:23:39 right on the outside zone that you guys had mastered,
00:23:41 you and Steve and Pat.
00:23:43 We punished them and we're getting pretty good at it,
00:23:45 you know, but we punished them with it so much
00:23:48 that Wes, the way that works, I mean,
00:23:50 just envision you're in the shotgun.
00:23:52 Okay, let's say I have CJ to my right, all right?
00:23:56 Well, if I'm gonna run a stretch zone play,
00:23:58 that means the stretch zone is to the left
00:24:01 'cause he crosses my face.
00:24:02 Now I read the defensive end to his side, okay?
00:24:06 So now what if CJ flips sides?
00:24:08 Which way's the stretch zone then?
00:24:10 It's to my right.
00:24:12 So there was a time when CJ swapped alignment.
00:24:16 And as soon as he swapped alignment,
00:24:17 I was watching the pit defensive end to that side.
00:24:20 And he flexed out.
00:24:22 He bimed, he bumped.
00:24:23 He bimed himself an extra cushion,
00:24:24 expecting stretch 'cause he was tired
00:24:25 of getting hammered with it.
00:24:27 And meanwhile, on the snap,
00:24:29 the backside defensive end feathers his way in,
00:24:32 fully expecting the same zone read handoff
00:24:35 or exchange off of it for Nico.
00:24:37 And instead, here comes the tight end
00:24:39 and crossing things up and we run split zone on the inside.
00:24:42 And they really, it was only four or five yards,
00:24:44 but this all night was only four or five yards,
00:24:47 only four or five yards.
00:24:48 It's like, they're bleeding
00:24:51 and they don't know they're cut.
00:24:52 It was that type of thing.
00:24:54 It was just so effective to take the air out of it.
00:24:56 And this was probably the first time that I've seen,
00:24:59 I think the new clock rules work to our advantage
00:25:02 to this extent, because it really put us in position
00:25:06 to take the air out of the game.
00:25:07 I'm going back through the last time
00:25:09 we only had 211 yards in a game, okay?
00:25:12 Against anybody, win, lose or draw.
00:25:15 First of all, fortunately it doesn't happen often,
00:25:17 but normally you're not in the game, okay?
00:25:20 Like for instance, Iowa State last year blew us out.
00:25:24 Separating the fourth quarter, we had 200 yards.
00:25:26 Oklahoma State, a couple of years ago, 24 to three,
00:25:28 we had 133 yards.
00:25:30 Minnesota in the bowl game, 206.
00:25:32 Wasn't really much of a game.
00:25:33 Mizzou, Neal's first year in '19 out in Columbia,
00:25:37 held us 171.
00:25:38 Iowa State in '19, 190, we weren't in that game.
00:25:40 Iowa State with Will Greer,
00:25:42 when they dusted us out under the lights
00:25:43 and handed us our first loss, they held us to 152.
00:25:46 We weren't in the game.
00:25:46 Utah in the bowl game.
00:25:48 Maryland, we all remember the debacle in Baltimore
00:25:50 against Maryland in the rain.
00:25:51 The only game that I can remember
00:25:53 that we were even in, and it didn't feel like we were in,
00:25:56 but we were, was LSU in 2010 down in Baton Rouge.
00:25:59 We had 177 yards in a one's four game.
00:26:02 But it says so much about two things.
00:26:06 About, first of all, your defense and defensive effort
00:26:09 and defensive staff and defensive plan.
00:26:11 But second of all, your ability
00:26:13 to play interconnected global football.
00:26:16 Everything connects.
00:26:17 The offense needs to be just good enough
00:26:19 in certain areas to help that defense.
00:26:21 The special teams need to be just good enough
00:26:23 in certain areas we can't have at block punt anymore.
00:26:26 But what we can have is continue to have Ollie pin them down
00:26:29 on the one yard line.
00:26:30 That impacts field position
00:26:32 for the better part of the next quarter.
00:26:34 So to have 211 yards,
00:26:37 and I don't want to say winning convincingly,
00:26:40 but winning a game that was bordering toward decisive
00:26:42 for the second half of the fourth quarter,
00:26:45 that's impressive.
00:26:46 That's speech to the domination.
00:26:47 And I don't want to, it's just like I said to you,
00:26:49 I asked Aubrey Burks on the field in a post-game interview.
00:26:52 I was like, it almost felt like you guys
00:26:54 after that first drive, the 67 yard drive,
00:26:58 it's like you were offended by that.
00:27:00 Because Pitt came out and it was very apparent
00:27:02 what they wanted to do.
00:27:03 Guys, we talked about it all last week.
00:27:05 Pitt wanted to show that they could run the football.
00:27:08 Rodney Hammond had 11, 12 touches through two games.
00:27:10 That's not what they wanted to do.
00:27:12 That's not what they wanted to do.
00:27:13 They wanted to establish a run.
00:27:14 There was no secret that Pat Narduzzi was unhappy
00:27:17 that Cignetti threw the football
00:27:18 the first three snaps against Cincinnati.
00:27:20 That wasn't going to happen again.
00:27:21 So what do they do?
00:27:22 They come out to start the game against us
00:27:24 on their first possession after three and outing us.
00:27:26 And they drive 67 yards to our three
00:27:29 without throwing a pass.
00:27:31 That was him saying, that was Narduzzi saying,
00:27:34 see, I'm going to show you big boy football.
00:27:36 This is how we do it, big boy football.
00:27:38 Or our defense said, you know what?
00:27:39 First, we're going to slam the door and stop you
00:27:41 and hold you to a field goal.
00:27:43 And second, we're going to say, not so fast, my friend.
00:27:45 We're going to show you big boy football
00:27:48 because what happened the rest of the night?
00:27:50 Not a whole lot.
00:27:51 Offensively, they were reduced to virtually nothing.
00:27:54 And then offensively for us, here comes the young buck
00:27:58 and we just kind of lean on them enough to get it done.
00:28:01 But it was a team victory.
00:28:03 - Well, like we were saying, it's a slow grind, dude.
00:28:06 We literally kind of almost did what Penn State did to us.
00:28:10 We just literally grinded them out all game.
00:28:14 And they were quitting by the end of the game.
00:28:18 If you really watched some of that film,
00:28:20 you could tell once they got those shots in, dude,
00:28:24 they were done, Ski.
00:28:25 I mean, they were tired of it.
00:28:27 I mean, and that's how you take a team's will, man.
00:28:30 That's how you-
00:28:31 - It was a physical game.
00:28:32 I mean, like Vince Blankenship was telling, Wes, go ahead.
00:28:35 - I was just going to say, we got to get to big daddy.
00:28:37 He's been waiting for us for like 10 minutes, but-
00:28:39 - Oh, let's go.
00:28:40 Yeah, let's go.
00:28:41 - Real quick, because I've barely talked.
00:28:44 I can't talk.
00:28:44 And you guys, like, this is killing me
00:28:47 because this is the episode I want to talk about the most.
00:28:50 - You know what Garrett feels like.
00:28:52 - Yeah, I'm Garrett Green on this episode right now.
00:28:54 I got to let my teammates get her done for me.
00:28:57 Give me 70 seconds here to touch very briefly
00:29:00 on everything that you guys just said that I wanted to.
00:29:03 First of all, I'm wearing the Narduzzi hat, by the way.
00:29:06 Little subtle.
00:29:07 This is the hat that caused Pat Narduzzi
00:29:09 to throw a bitch fit two years ago at Steelers practice.
00:29:13 He is, I mean, maybe other than Irvin's towing company
00:29:17 there in South Park, Morgantown is the only,
00:29:20 they're on the bottom of my list together, right?
00:29:23 But thanks to Pat Narduzzi for kicking a field goal
00:29:26 on that first drive, because they went 67 yards
00:29:29 on the ground down our throats.
00:29:30 And if I'm him, I'm going for it on fourth down.
00:29:33 And I think there's at least a 50/50 chance they score.
00:29:36 And all of a sudden we're down seven nothing.
00:29:38 And maybe that game plays out completely differently.
00:29:41 So thanks Pat for kicking a field goal there
00:29:43 and going conservative and not having anything
00:29:45 the rest of the game.
00:29:46 Deep breath, deep breath, deep breath.
00:29:51 The university needed this.
00:29:53 Our fan base, our athletics, everything that's going on
00:29:57 in the wake of cutting all these majors
00:29:59 and laying off all this faculty,
00:30:02 $45 million deficit, like that was part of that.
00:30:06 Electricity was, everybody just needed that, man.
00:30:10 And it was amazing to watch it all come together.
00:30:13 How about my Cole Taylor shout,
00:30:16 speaking of episode 87 here of ITG,
00:30:18 that was my predicted, had the game winning touchdown,
00:30:21 right, if you want to look at it,
00:30:22 'cause that put us seven points, Pitt only scored six.
00:30:25 So big shout out.
00:30:26 First tight end touchdown we've had in two years,
00:30:29 I believe, Jed.
00:30:30 - Dude, that was, Wes, that was his second best catch.
00:30:33 The catch in front of our boundary,
00:30:35 that third down conversion. - Big time, big time.
00:30:37 - Wow, Nico zipped that thing.
00:30:40 And I thought, no way is he holding on to that.
00:30:42 Shoot, that was a grab.
00:30:44 - And then last thing here,
00:30:46 you guys talking about the offensive line,
00:30:48 for especially the West Virginia guys, right,
00:30:51 for Zach, for Wyatt, for Doug,
00:30:53 for them to get a win against Pitt is just awesome.
00:30:57 You know, like you couldn't have those,
00:30:59 you couldn't have those three West Virginia guys
00:31:02 graduate without ever beating Pitt.
00:31:04 It just wouldn't have been right.
00:31:05 And those guys will graduate with a three and one record
00:31:08 against Virginia Tech and Pitt in their careers.
00:31:11 And that's pretty damn awesome.
00:31:13 - That is, that is.
00:31:14 - All right, thanks to Bet Online
00:31:17 for presenting this episode of ITG.
00:31:19 Let's take a break here.
00:31:21 Here's what we're gonna do.
00:31:22 I just, I had to get all that out.
00:31:24 Woosa, oh, this is, I'm Garrett Green right now.
00:31:26 That's a great example.
00:31:27 I wanna play so bad, but I can't.
00:31:29 I gotta let my teammates get it done.
00:31:31 We're gonna go to a break.
00:31:32 We'll get Big Daddy on the other side.
00:31:34 Jed, I think I'll let you run it from here.
00:31:36 (laughing)
00:31:38 - We just need your pretty face,
00:31:40 even if you don't show your pretty hair
00:31:42 with the Narduzzi hat.
00:31:42 - That's right, with my Narduzzi hat.
00:31:44 We'll get to Big Daddy on the other side.
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00:32:17 - For more West Virginia Mountaineer football content,
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00:33:32 Let's go, Mountaineer fans.
00:33:35 You're tuned in to "In the Gun" with Wes,
00:33:38 the runaway beer truck, and the signal caller.
00:33:40 Welcome back, the one and only Big Daddy,
00:33:46 Sean Mariner, joining us.
00:33:48 I'm actually, speaking of hats, I've switched hats.
00:33:51 Now I have to step into the host role
00:33:53 because poor voice-challenged Wes Euler
00:33:57 has left it all on the field once again.
00:33:58 But Big Daddy-
00:33:59 I'm Garrett Green, Big Daddy.
00:34:01 You're the Garrett Green of this episode.
00:34:02 I gotta give it to Nico.
00:34:03 I want him to just talk the entire time.
00:34:05 Like, I can sit this one, that's fine.
00:34:07 We're debating, is he more Patrick?
00:34:09 Is he more SpongeBob?
00:34:10 Is he more Dana Hogerson?
00:34:12 We can't figure what that voice sounds most like.
00:34:14 I think there's a touch of Stone Cold in there, too.
00:34:18 Texas rattlesnake, stomp a mud hole in your ass.
00:34:21 Yeah.
00:34:22 So, Big Daddy, let's start with this.
00:34:25 We were kind of giving our recap and our view
00:34:27 of what played out Saturday night in Morgantown.
00:34:31 I know that you were in the locker room
00:34:32 for a lot of what I was in there for.
00:34:34 First of all, shout out to Big Daddy.
00:34:35 He is the greatest player retriever
00:34:38 in Western Union football history.
00:34:41 I mean, we're doing the lineup interviews in the back.
00:34:43 Andrew has the headset set up and the remote,
00:34:45 and I'm in there trying to round them up.
00:34:47 And it's like herding cats.
00:34:49 And somehow, some way, I mean, the fire marshal
00:34:52 wouldn't like what's going on in that locker room, right?
00:34:53 No, not even close.
00:34:55 Especially with the recruits
00:34:56 and all the extra folks who were there last night.
00:34:58 Somehow, like, I went over to Nico's locker
00:35:00 'cause we were gonna put Nico on post game.
00:35:03 I was on the field, Big Daddy,
00:35:04 and the plan was, the strategy was,
00:35:07 okay, I'm gonna do Neil, all right?
00:35:09 First, he was enjoying the song.
00:35:11 Let him enjoy that and his family
00:35:12 and this seminal moment.
00:35:15 So we did that.
00:35:15 - Great shot by you, by the way.
00:35:16 Great shot by you.
00:35:17 That was awesome.
00:35:18 Dax hugging, the daughters hugging.
00:35:20 - Dax came up, my knees just got weak.
00:35:24 - It's when he locks his arms behind his neck,
00:35:26 and I'm just like, oh.
00:35:28 - My knees got weak when I saw Dax,
00:35:30 and I'm like, that is the coolest thing.
00:35:33 - Yeah.
00:35:33 - The dad in me, I was just like,
00:35:34 can I do my job now?
00:35:36 I don't think I can.
00:35:36 I really don't think I can do my job.
00:35:37 - Yes, I'm toast.
00:35:38 - I'm toast.
00:35:39 So then I was supposed to interview Nico.
00:35:42 Well, somehow in the chaos,
00:35:44 not only did Nico lose us,
00:35:46 but football admin lost us.
00:35:48 They didn't even know where the head coach was.
00:35:50 So I'm like, Tony's holding to get a player interview
00:35:53 instead of throwing a break
00:35:54 'cause we gotta do Neil on a player after a win.
00:35:56 So I'm like, I gotta find somebody.
00:35:58 Nico's not around, I don't know what's going on.
00:35:59 So Aubrey was standing down there,
00:36:01 and I grabbed Aubrey by the shoulder.
00:36:03 I literally said, talk to him.
00:36:04 And I said, throw it, throw it, throw it.
00:36:06 And our producer, Pat Sargent,
00:36:08 immediately had Tony throw it down.
00:36:09 And Aubrey's like, what's going on?
00:36:11 He was in the middle of an interview.
00:36:12 So we interviewed Aubrey on the sidelines.
00:36:14 We went into the inside of the locker room.
00:36:16 And so we quickly decided, hey, here's what we'll do.
00:36:18 We'll get Nico in the post game
00:36:19 on the head staff with Coach Wallace and Tony.
00:36:21 Well, the problem is nobody knows
00:36:23 where Nico is in the locker room.
00:36:24 Again, it's so crowded, it's so chaotic.
00:36:26 So I'm over by Nico's locker.
00:36:28 He's nowhere around.
00:36:28 I'm Sean Reagan, the quarterback coach.
00:36:30 I'm like, do you know where your quarterback is?
00:36:32 I don't know where he is either.
00:36:33 I'm looking for him too.
00:36:34 Guess the one guy in the whole building
00:36:35 who knew where Nico Marchio was, Big Daddy Mariner.
00:36:38 He literally walks up to me,
00:36:40 all efficiently, not missing words.
00:36:42 Who is it? Who we need?
00:36:43 Nico, right up here, I'll get him.
00:36:45 Boom, bam, done.
00:36:46 - He was right, I was standing by him.
00:36:48 He was right there.
00:36:49 I just knew where he was.
00:36:50 - You have a map?
00:36:50 I mean, what's going on here?
00:36:52 You have a real-time map of all these kids?
00:36:54 - A big check in my column,
00:36:56 and it was completely inadvertent by me,
00:36:58 is I've got Jed holding onto me
00:37:00 like a little kid in an amusement park.
00:37:01 You know what I mean?
00:37:02 Stay with the family, don't lose.
00:37:04 He's right behind me, and I hear him go,
00:37:07 where is he?
00:37:07 And I look, and Nico's right there.
00:37:09 And as I point, and we look,
00:37:12 like three people moved out of the way,
00:37:14 and it was just a ray of light,
00:37:15 and Nico directly in front of us.
00:37:16 Like, yeah, no, there he is.
00:37:17 - And I'm grabbing Nico's shoulder,
00:37:19 and I said, hey, you're on radio.
00:37:20 When? What can I do now?
00:37:21 Come with me.
00:37:22 And I'm like, dude, we need to do this now.
00:37:23 And he said, well, can I?
00:37:24 No, come with me.
00:37:25 - No, walk.
00:37:26 - But never mind.
00:37:27 Nico kind of owed me a bit of a favor, all right?
00:37:28 Because when we left Penn State,
00:37:30 big day, did I tell you this?
00:37:31 - Oh, I remember.
00:37:31 - When we left Penn State,
00:37:32 he left his AirPods at the hotel in Penn State.
00:37:35 So I had to grab his AirPods
00:37:36 and take them to Morgantown for him.
00:37:38 So, and of course, again,
00:37:39 just we talked in the last segment,
00:37:41 what cool kids both Nico and Garrett are.
00:37:44 - Yeah.
00:37:45 - Now, no level of entitlement,
00:37:47 not an ounce of entitlement on either one of them.
00:37:49 And first thing happens when Nico sees me
00:37:52 after he gets the AirPods,
00:37:53 he can't stop thanking me.
00:37:55 I mean, he just can't stop.
00:37:55 He's just, he's a great kid.
00:37:58 So what you see is what you get, Mountaineer fans.
00:38:01 If it seems like these are very affable and likable kids,
00:38:04 both those kids are just great.
00:38:06 - We could not be luckier with those two,
00:38:09 with each, like it's unreal.
00:38:10 And anytime you want to like question it,
00:38:13 just look at all the sideline shots of Garrett
00:38:15 from this game in a hoodie, arms are crossed.
00:38:18 He's in the game.
00:38:19 The moment somebody scores, he's losing his gores.
00:38:21 Like that's not, hey, I know the cameras are on me.
00:38:24 That's him, just straight up him.
00:38:26 - So now let me ask you this, Big Daddy.
00:38:29 You were in their pregame?
00:38:31 - No, no, upstairs.
00:38:33 I got upstairs at 2.30, didn't leave the press box.
00:38:36 - Okay, I guess that's true
00:38:37 because I was telling these guys,
00:38:39 it was almost as if, I kind of got the sense,
00:38:43 Neil, for his pregame remarks,
00:38:45 channeled not just Stu, not this night,
00:38:50 but Herbie Brooks from Mir.
00:38:52 I mean, it was like a combination.
00:38:54 Those two things, it was just so cool
00:38:56 and so perfectly worded.
00:38:58 I probably shared it with you at some point.
00:38:59 We've had a thousand conversations
00:39:01 with a thousand people last night.
00:39:02 But so post-game, what else do you remember
00:39:05 on the field, in the locker room,
00:39:07 wherever your crazy butt took you?
00:39:09 - My job is to launch country roads
00:39:12 and then haul tons of fun all the way down to the locker room
00:39:15 so I can help grab for you
00:39:16 and then go up for post-game press conference
00:39:18 to help run that.
00:39:20 I press play, I go out.
00:39:21 The elevators are still on lockdown
00:39:23 'cause coaches have just gone down.
00:39:25 So me and Sean Smith, the spotter for Bill Nevin,
00:39:28 are sprinting down the stairs
00:39:30 from the second floor of the press box all the way down.
00:39:33 I get down, run to the tunnel, go to the locker room.
00:39:35 It's quiet, there's nothing there.
00:39:37 So I'm like, "Oh God, I'm already late."
00:39:38 I run in, burst through the doors,
00:39:40 Kool-Aid man it into the locker room.
00:39:42 And it's Nick Meadows with the strength staff,
00:39:45 like putting something on a cart.
00:39:46 Nothing else is there.
00:39:47 I was like, "Oh, all right."
00:39:49 So I go back out front
00:39:50 and I just kind of stand in the tunnel and fans,
00:39:53 by the weight room, fans can look down
00:39:54 and like chant for the players as they come out.
00:39:56 And I just stood there and the entire team came through
00:40:00 and I felt just like pep squad.
00:40:01 I'm just like, "Hey," like I'm hugging guys, high five.
00:40:04 Like that was an awesome moment.
00:40:05 And then just fall them into the locker room
00:40:07 and get down to work.
00:40:08 - The back's the finger.
00:40:09 The finger pointing up in front of the camera right now
00:40:11 is the finger that plays "Country Roads."
00:40:13 - Ah, wow.
00:40:15 - How about that, guys?
00:40:16 Owen, did you know that?
00:40:17 - Sometimes, Chris Owen and I are duties.
00:40:19 If I need to get out early, he'll watch it as well.
00:40:22 - The finger that played "Sweet Caroline" as well too.
00:40:26 - That was...
00:40:26 - Can I just say...
00:40:29 - What a moment.
00:40:30 - The touch to cut the volume every time
00:40:33 it was time to ESP.
00:40:35 - Chris, awesome.
00:40:36 Listen, I cannot get...
00:40:38 He and I are co-producers for this stuff upstairs.
00:40:41 I have to give him all the...
00:40:42 Every video that you see is edited by him
00:40:46 and he and I call back and forth
00:40:47 what he thinks we should go with here.
00:40:49 I agree 99% of the time.
00:40:51 I might tell him I think this one instead, all that.
00:40:54 He was the one too, when we got word,
00:40:56 he killed the audio completely.
00:40:58 So there's like five seconds of silence
00:40:59 before we played it.
00:41:00 Our guy who had told, who had given us the go ahead
00:41:03 on the radio was like, "Play, play."
00:41:04 And he'd go, "We're just giving it a second."
00:41:07 And I'm telling you, the opening bass line,
00:41:10 everybody knows it.
00:41:12 When it played, we thought we would get a reaction, right?
00:41:15 The audible gasp that rippled through the stadium
00:41:20 after that boo-doo-doo, boo-doo-doo.
00:41:22 And everybody realized what was happening.
00:41:24 I had to take a step back 'cause I was just like,
00:41:26 "Oh my God, this is gonna be insane."
00:41:29 - Biblical.
00:41:30 It was biblical.
00:41:31 - Unreal.
00:41:32 - You know, the history, I had to look this up today.
00:41:35 The story goes, Wes, you might even know this
00:41:38 from being buried up among those Pittsburghers,
00:41:39 but the story goes a former player came up with the idea.
00:41:44 He was in the marketing department at Pitt
00:41:46 and they were trying to come up
00:41:47 with these different promotions to peak fan interest,
00:41:49 which obviously failed miserably,
00:41:50 but they tried this to,
00:41:53 "Hey, why don't we play 'Sweet Caroline'?"
00:41:54 "Well, why 'Sweet Caroline'?"
00:41:55 And I actually tweeted this today, guys,
00:41:58 just a little bit ago, because I looked it up.
00:42:00 The reason, I'll give you the phrase that they used.
00:42:02 The reason they chose "Sweet Caroline"
00:42:04 because they envisioned, they said, "Why 'Sweet Caroline'?"
00:42:07 Because they felt the song lent itself
00:42:09 to incorporating Pitt-centric terms,
00:42:12 like let's go Pitt and go Pitt, go Pitt.
00:42:16 - Yeah, like every bass in the track.
00:42:17 - Boy, were they right.
00:42:19 - Every bass in the track. - Boy, were they right.
00:42:19 - Every bass in America.
00:42:21 - It certainly induces Pitt-centric terms.
00:42:25 It certainly does.
00:42:26 Just not the ones they were thinking of.
00:42:27 And that thing at Boatnear Field was magical.
00:42:31 - I saw that tweet earlier today, Jed,
00:42:33 and you obviously did research on that.
00:42:36 To me, it almost doesn't feel true
00:42:38 because I just feel like we've always known to chant that.
00:42:42 Like, there's not a moment for me
00:42:44 where I remember "Sweet Caroline" before I chanted that.
00:42:47 It's always just been that,
00:42:49 which that wouldn't have happened
00:42:50 until after I graduated college.
00:42:52 So we never would have done that
00:42:53 while I was in school here.
00:42:55 You know what I mean?
00:42:56 - On the internet, so it had to be true.
00:42:57 - Had to be true.
00:42:57 And I believe, but like every wedding we've been to,
00:43:00 Wes, yours, when you came to mind,
00:43:02 like I am the guy that people are looking at like,
00:43:07 "I think he needs to calm down
00:43:09 when we scream this part of the song, please."
00:43:11 - Let me give you the guy's name.
00:43:13 I didn't put the guy's name.
00:43:15 Matter of fact, let me give it to you offline.
00:43:17 I'm not gonna do that.
00:43:17 I didn't put his name in the tweet.
00:43:19 - That was the most biblical "Sweet Caroline"
00:43:22 in Morgantown since my wedding at the Alumni Center in 2016.
00:43:27 - Actually, yeah.
00:43:28 - That was one of the-
00:43:29 - Sean was there, you can back me up.
00:43:31 - I can back you up.
00:43:32 - We're gonna put like, I don't know, guys,
00:43:33 is that a top three moment for the night?
00:43:35 Top five moment?
00:43:36 - I think.
00:43:37 - It has to be.
00:43:38 It's one or the other, right?
00:43:39 - Like the MJ Devonshire getting absolutely suplexed
00:43:42 after he ran his mouth for a year was one of them.
00:43:44 - You hear Tony's call?
00:43:46 - No, not yet.
00:43:47 - He called him the human shish kebab.
00:43:49 I mean, it was so, I got to the booth after the game,
00:43:51 like, dude, that was the call of the game.
00:43:53 - Rashid Marjol saying a fan base is something
00:43:58 Pitt doesn't understand was one of them.
00:44:00 - We were really excited to get that video out there.
00:44:03 'Cause obviously the Duquesne video went over really well.
00:44:05 Everybody liked it.
00:44:06 But when Chris O wrote that script, he put that in,
00:44:08 he goes, "Do you think we should keep that in?"
00:44:11 I said, "If you don't keep that in,
00:44:13 then there's no reason to do a video.
00:44:14 Just cut the video."
00:44:16 - Sean, Chris O and I were texting
00:44:17 after the game last night.
00:44:19 He said to me, maybe he was just buttering me up,
00:44:22 but I'm going to believe him.
00:44:24 He said to me when he was debating whether or not
00:44:26 to put that in the video,
00:44:28 and like if it might get a kickback from Pitt
00:44:31 and things like that, he said,
00:44:32 and it's funny 'cause I'm wearing it now,
00:44:34 he said, "I thought of you and what Nark Doozy did
00:44:37 with you in the WVU hat."
00:44:39 - Exactly, yes.
00:44:39 - And I said, "F him, put it in there."
00:44:42 - You know what I think of, Big Daddy?
00:44:44 What immediately makes me think of,
00:44:45 and this is just how twisted I am,
00:44:47 when he's talking about taking that out,
00:44:49 when he's considering that.
00:44:50 You remember the movie "Seven"?
00:44:52 - Absolutely.
00:44:53 - With Pitt and Morgan Freeman?
00:44:54 Horribly, I know.
00:44:55 - What's in the box?
00:44:56 - Spoiler alert for this 20 year old movie, right?
00:44:57 Spoiler alert for this 20 year old movie.
00:44:59 It ends with a head in the box.
00:45:01 Now, when the writer was trying to get that produced,
00:45:04 it was going around Hollywood and they were like,
00:45:06 "Man, you got to take this head out of the box.
00:45:08 It's the scene with the head in the box."
00:45:10 - It's too gruesome, it's too gross, it's grotesque.
00:45:12 - I'm not going to take the head out of the box
00:45:14 in the head in the box movie.
00:45:15 I'm not going to do it.
00:45:16 So he stuck to his guns and kept the head in the box
00:45:18 and it got produced.
00:45:19 That was like taking that line out of that video.
00:45:22 Absolutely.
00:45:23 - And it's crazy too, because, you know,
00:45:25 obviously this week leading up to it,
00:45:26 I talked to you guys earlier in the week.
00:45:29 Since we met and did our discussion
00:45:31 and I talked about the entrance video and everything,
00:45:33 Rashid has either texted or talked to me every day.
00:45:38 And I forgot just how much this means to him personally.
00:45:44 Like-
00:45:45 - He gets it.
00:45:46 He grew up here too, he gets it.
00:45:47 - And so when we were talking,
00:45:49 like we had our meeting to go over the entrance video
00:45:51 and everything, and it's a new guy
00:45:53 and he's being really, really great
00:45:54 about learning our history and throwing stuff in.
00:45:56 And after we got off, I texted him.
00:45:58 I was like, "Hey, the more I think about it,
00:46:00 check out that Phil Braxton play.
00:46:01 I feel like it was good.
00:46:03 Haven't watched it in a little while."
00:46:05 And then that's when Rashid's Twitter blew up
00:46:08 and everybody was reposting it.
00:46:09 And the clip we have is the field angle.
00:46:12 And then it cuts to him.
00:46:13 "This is my city" at the end.
00:46:15 And when I went back and watched it, I was like,
00:46:17 "Yeah, Andrew, that's a top three must be in there."
00:46:20 But it's like Bittencourt's kick, McKenzie's kick,
00:46:23 Rashid, this is my city, gotta be in there.
00:46:26 - Is this on YouTube yet?
00:46:28 Or will it be?
00:46:29 Or if people haven't seen it work, can they consume it?
00:46:31 - I don't know.
00:46:32 I'll talk to another video guy.
00:46:33 - I guarantee you if you go on YouTube
00:46:35 and you put in WVU entrance pit,
00:46:38 somebody with their thousand dollar phone filmed it.
00:46:41 - Yeah.
00:46:42 - Somebody needs to watch it.
00:46:43 Yeah.
00:46:44 If you weren't there and you didn't get to,
00:46:45 'cause it wasn't on ABC, right?
00:46:47 It wasn't part of the production.
00:46:48 - No, 'cause we play it before their broadcast starts.
00:46:50 - If you were on hand,
00:46:51 which it seemed like the whole state of West Virginia
00:46:53 was on hand, but obviously-
00:46:54 - You can confirm.
00:46:55 - So if you weren't there,
00:46:57 I would encourage you to do that 'cause it's pure chills.
00:46:59 I mean, just imagine hearing Neil say what he said
00:47:03 and walking out into that.
00:47:05 - Yeah.
00:47:05 And that's, I didn't know about the November 25th, 2011,
00:47:10 that changes tonight.
00:47:11 - And then walking, that would be absolutely like-
00:47:13 - It was incredible.
00:47:15 It was incredible.
00:47:17 - Sean, you mentioned those first,
00:47:18 that moment of those first couple of notes
00:47:20 of "Sweet Caroline" too,
00:47:22 reminded me very similar decade before
00:47:26 the first seven nation army against LSU.
00:47:29 - Yeah.
00:47:30 - Just that dum, dum, dum.
00:47:32 - And the place.
00:47:32 - And the whole building shook and came to life.
00:47:35 Like it was that same kind of,
00:47:36 everyone was kind of like,
00:47:38 we talked about that at the tailgate before the game.
00:47:41 Some of my buddies like,
00:47:42 "They're gonna play 'Sweet Caroline' tonight."
00:47:43 And what I said was,
00:47:44 "If we win, they'll hit it right after country roads."
00:47:48 But that was better because everyone was there.
00:47:52 No one had left.
00:47:53 All the Pitt fans were still there.
00:47:54 Their whole team was still on the field.
00:47:56 - Yeah.
00:47:57 - It was biblical.
00:47:58 - Listen, big dogs call and leading up to it,
00:48:02 Pitt's driving into the third, right?
00:48:04 I'm doing a million things.
00:48:05 I look down and one of our folks is calling me.
00:48:08 Now we have radios.
00:48:09 That's how we contact each other during the game.
00:48:10 Obviously cell reception's not good.
00:48:12 He's calling me.
00:48:13 So I get on like, "Hey, what's going on?
00:48:14 I must've missed something 'cause I'm doing too much."
00:48:17 And the big boss gets on, the step below Ren.
00:48:19 And he says, "If they score, it's dead.
00:48:22 If they don't, roll."
00:48:23 And so we're watching.
00:48:24 And was it a sack on that third down
00:48:27 that led to the end of the court?
00:48:28 And it's like, "All right, here we go."
00:48:29 - It was a sign from God.
00:48:31 It was a sign from God.
00:48:32 - I had to check with him four times.
00:48:33 I'm so nervous about getting it right.
00:48:35 Like I'm checking with him four times.
00:48:36 Like, "Okay, we're doing this.
00:48:38 Then, right?"
00:48:39 - And you could tell he was getting ready.
00:48:40 - "Just play the damn song."
00:48:41 Like, "Okay, all right, I'm sorry."
00:48:43 - Big Daddy, we gotta hit this right here.
00:48:45 I'm not kicking you out by any means,
00:48:47 but we actually have to take a couple seconds
00:48:49 to remind people that this episode brought to you
00:48:51 in part by our friends at Fortis.
00:48:53 Actually, our go-to guy at Fortis is Rick Lewis.
00:48:57 And Nico has been in Rick Lewis's life for a long time.
00:49:01 So Nico was, or Rick was getting texts from me,
00:49:04 pictures of Nico after the game.
00:49:06 And I was telling Nico,
00:49:06 and he was just smiling like the butcher's dog
00:49:08 'cause he's tight with the Lewis family.
00:49:10 But Fortis roof performance and financial security.
00:49:14 So we encourage you guys to-
00:49:15 - He's a natural.
00:49:16 - Think about what they got going on at Fortis.us.
00:49:19 And you know what?
00:49:20 Let's go ahead and piggyback JR in here, right?
00:49:22 Let's, our rowdy friends are here tonight.
00:49:24 So cars cost less than grafting.
00:49:27 Why do I always say less when I try and do that?
00:49:30 Cars cost less than grafting.
00:49:32 Our big buddy, JR Toothman, if you want a car,
00:49:34 whether it's new, whether it's used,
00:49:36 make sure you head down there.
00:49:37 I can't say enough.
00:49:38 I never get tired of bragging about our boy JR,
00:49:41 all the cool stuff he does,
00:49:42 whether it's with the children's hospital,
00:49:44 whether it's with NIL, whatever it might be.
00:49:46 So absolutely, get online or drive straight to grafting
00:49:50 and check that out.
00:49:51 But we had to get that in here.
00:49:52 Now, big daddy, continue, please.
00:49:55 - Please.
00:49:56 You know, I was thinking about this
00:49:59 and I'm surprised this far into it.
00:50:02 Wes and I were texting today
00:50:03 that I haven't cried on camera yet
00:50:05 because multiple times last night,
00:50:08 just an absolute puddle.
00:50:10 Like, it just, you talk about how important this is.
00:50:15 And I know this is,
00:50:17 we're talking about sports and football
00:50:18 and it's a tough guy sport.
00:50:19 Owen's one of the toughest SOBs that's ever played.
00:50:22 Jed, you got destroyed.
00:50:23 - And Owen cried after every game.
00:50:24 - Yeah, like- - Owen cried, am I lying?
00:50:26 - But there's- - Am I lying?
00:50:28 - No, Owen, like one of your best clips
00:50:30 is you showing raw emotion for the game, right?
00:50:34 - Absolutely. - Like this,
00:50:35 we have such an emotional connection with this game.
00:50:38 - It's relatable.
00:50:39 It's relatable. - Let alone,
00:50:40 like this game is just absolutely gigantic.
00:50:44 A huge crowd like that.
00:50:45 Like, you know, my best friend died suddenly
00:50:49 in a car crash two years ago, okay?
00:50:50 The only game I've ever missed, home game,
00:50:53 for WVU was to speak at his funeral,
00:50:56 help the family, all that stuff.
00:50:57 We played country roads as we closed his casket.
00:51:01 And there are thousands of West Virginia fans out there,
00:51:05 if not millions, who have a story similar.
00:51:07 I grew up watching, listening to games with my grandfather.
00:51:11 I gave my son the initials WVU
00:51:14 and he carried on my legacy for the rest of his days.
00:51:16 Like those emotional connections to this are insane.
00:51:20 Anybody wanna guess what Steve, my best friend's biggest game
00:51:24 of his entire year was, every single year?
00:51:26 Boom.
00:51:29 And so you have a game like that last night
00:51:31 where the place is so full, it's so electric.
00:51:33 Like there were a few times we would hit the right song
00:51:36 at the right moment, or the video we thought would work,
00:51:38 worked, and I had to step back
00:51:41 so that Bill, our announcer, and Chris O
00:51:43 couldn't see me start.
00:51:45 Sucked him back up like a big boy after a couple.
00:51:47 Like quit being a little B-I-T-C-H,
00:51:49 get your stuff together and we gotta focus here.
00:51:51 Like, you know what I mean?
00:51:52 Like it was just, last night was so special
00:51:54 on so many levels, it's just hard to come down from.
00:51:57 - You guys all know our buddy Adam Crowley.
00:52:00 I know Sean knows him.
00:52:01 Owen just did radio with him last week.
00:52:03 Jed, I don't know if you've met him before,
00:52:05 but you know what I'm talking about.
00:52:05 - Met him at the tailgate.
00:52:06 - Met him at the tailgate, that's right.
00:52:07 He hosts radio in Pittsburgh too.
00:52:09 He's like me, Pittsburgh kid, born and raised.
00:52:12 You get bragging rights for it.
00:52:13 It's your trash talk with all your friends.
00:52:16 It depends on this for you.
00:52:17 Both of his parents went to Pitt,
00:52:19 so it's a little different for him.
00:52:21 Like he's got the family side too.
00:52:23 Like him and I, the whole day, are talking about like a year.
00:52:26 Like this is a whole year we're gonna,
00:52:28 and especially we were at the game together last year
00:52:30 in Pittsburgh in the way that, you know,
00:52:31 you gotta lead late in the fourth quarter
00:52:33 and you end up losing it.
00:52:35 When that fourth and 20 sack happened,
00:52:38 I mean, Crowley and I just jumping,
00:52:42 like jumping up and down with joy,
00:52:43 but also crying into each other's shoulders.
00:52:46 - Oh, just sobbing.
00:52:47 Sobbing.
00:52:48 The biggest reaction we've got on Twitter
00:52:52 from the folks that I interact with,
00:52:53 and I appreciate everybody interacting with me,
00:52:56 is that they didn't realize how big our wrestling marks,
00:52:59 that me and Chris O are.
00:53:01 Like we're wrestling nerds from way back in.
00:53:04 And it was completely inadvertent.
00:53:06 It was just my body took over.
00:53:07 I think it was when we got one of the sacks
00:53:12 or an interception early in the game.
00:53:14 I think it was Beanie's interception.
00:53:16 My body just went into the stone cold pose in the window
00:53:19 and I realized that after five seconds
00:53:21 and had to bring it back down,
00:53:22 like I still have to work here.
00:53:24 I can't get that big into it, but it's just, man.
00:53:27 - There were times in that game,
00:53:29 and if you do what we do,
00:53:31 and maybe if you don't do what we do,
00:53:33 you can probably still appreciate this,
00:53:34 but the energy and everything surrounding that game
00:53:39 and that environment, it transcended football.
00:53:42 - Yes.
00:53:42 - I mean, it really transcended football.
00:53:43 - That's what it's all about.
00:53:44 - And you're talking about being emotional.
00:53:46 Again, we all try and be pros, but you know what?
00:53:49 If you were listening to the radio broadcast
00:53:52 and Tony threw down to me before kickoff to ask me
00:53:56 what had been said in the locker room,
00:53:57 again, I'm listening to Neil
00:54:00 and I can't stop thinking of what he said.
00:54:04 And I just have Kurt Russell with Herbie Brooks in my mind.
00:54:06 I'm just, I have Bill Stewart in my mind.
00:54:08 I'm like, not this night.
00:54:09 And then of course you have the famous Herbie Brooks.
00:54:12 Now you were born to be hockey players, every one of you,
00:54:14 and you were meant to be here tonight.
00:54:16 And I'm like, it had such a vibe like that,
00:54:19 except it was telling them that streak ends tonight.
00:54:23 And I remember I said it on the broadcast,
00:54:26 I'm like, man, it was, I'm like, did that sound okay?
00:54:29 I was almost choking myself up
00:54:32 'cause I was just swelling with such energy
00:54:34 and pride and all those things.
00:54:36 I mean, I'm thinking parts too.
00:54:37 And I just saw Blaine in the locker room.
00:54:39 I'm thinking all of these different things.
00:54:41 And wow, it was just, like I said,
00:54:44 it's not often you use the word transcend, but it did.
00:54:47 There were moments in that game that transcended
00:54:50 organized sport and tackle.
00:54:52 - You're so right.
00:54:53 It really did.
00:54:53 If we, I've told everybody, you know,
00:54:55 that I've been speaking to endlessly since last night.
00:54:58 If you look at that ostensibly,
00:55:00 that's not a great football game to watch.
00:55:03 It's a slug fest, it's run ball.
00:55:05 There were what, we threw 11 total passes.
00:55:08 Like ostensibly, that's a terrible football game to watch.
00:55:11 - Exactly.
00:55:12 - There was not one second, one play
00:55:15 where 61,000 people there weren't ready to pop
00:55:19 at the drop of a hat.
00:55:21 - Every second was delicious.
00:55:23 - That should not happen.
00:55:25 That should not, that is almost physiologically impossible
00:55:29 to be that into something for that long.
00:55:32 And yet it was, because everybody knew
00:55:34 how important that was.
00:55:36 Just, it was, it almost feels like you say the same things
00:55:40 over and over again, and it feels rote and everything.
00:55:42 But that was the state uniting for something
00:55:45 that they haven't got to do in over 12 years.
00:55:48 - And I think, Big Daddy, what you're hitting on,
00:55:50 the only thing that mattered,
00:55:52 and what makes that so, the ugliness of the game.
00:55:55 Like I told Jordan Leslie in the locker room after the game,
00:55:58 that was so ugly, it was beautiful.
00:55:59 - Yes.
00:56:00 - I mean, that's what I told Jordan Leslie.
00:56:02 But I think the reason that is, is literally,
00:56:06 by hook or by crook, those 61,000 people,
00:56:09 the 1.8 million strong and all those around the rest
00:56:12 of the US and scattered around the world
00:56:14 that still take pride wearing that flying WB,
00:56:17 all they cared about was one thing, out.
00:56:21 - Yes.
00:56:21 - Outcome.
00:56:23 They didn't, we didn't need a game for the time capsule.
00:56:26 Guess what?
00:56:26 If you beat Pitt for the first time in 12 years,
00:56:28 it's in the time capsule.
00:56:29 - Yeah.
00:56:30 - We don't care what it looks like.
00:56:32 A matter of fact, go out and beat him at their own game.
00:56:34 Out ugly then.
00:56:35 That's what Narduzzi prides himself in.
00:56:37 Go beat him at his own game.
00:56:39 Send him home as the only team in America
00:56:42 with two losses to Big 12 teams.
00:56:44 And that's what we did.
00:56:45 Pitt is now the only team in college football
00:56:48 with not one loss to a Big 12 team, but two.
00:56:51 Now SMU will try and join him this week,
00:56:53 but so far it's just Pitt.
00:56:55 - I mean, just so good.
00:56:58 Just so absolutely unreal.
00:57:00 - I think that's the way to close it down, boys,
00:57:02 right there.
00:57:02 - What, you want me to take it, Wes?
00:57:04 This is gonna be rugged.
00:57:05 Or can you handle it?
00:57:07 - One, maybe I can't, 'cause I'll give you guys this too.
00:57:10 This will put a smile on your face
00:57:11 and all of our listeners to get us out of here.
00:57:13 I mean, like Pitt fans love to tell you about their history
00:57:17 and how good they were with leather helmets, right?
00:57:20 And how good they were before,
00:57:21 how they used to beat us all the time
00:57:23 before the world knew who Adolf Hitler was, right?
00:57:25 Like that's their bread and butter.
00:57:27 The youngest Pitt fan alive today
00:57:30 that can claim to have a winning record
00:57:33 against WVU in their lifetime.
00:57:35 - Gimme, gimme.
00:57:37 - 78 years old.
00:57:39 - That's a tough scene.
00:57:42 - Guys, I spent,
00:57:42 - At ya, boy.
00:57:44 - I spent the off season,
00:57:46 'cause I'm a nerd and this is what I do.
00:57:47 I'm knee deep in this stuff.
00:57:49 It's my hobby, it's my passion.
00:57:50 Every down moment I have, if it is a down moment,
00:57:52 it's spent studying somebody that we play.
00:57:56 So I spent a good portion of this off season
00:57:58 studying Pat Narduzzi's defense,
00:58:01 studying Pat Narduzzi's clinic tape,
00:58:03 listening to Pat Narduzzi groan on and on,
00:58:07 blow the hot air.
00:58:08 Now I continue to say Pat Narduzzi's a good football coach.
00:58:11 I just think he's a D-bag, okay?
00:58:13 It's technique wise, concept wise,
00:58:16 I like a lot of what he does.
00:58:17 I just think he's a D-bag.
00:58:18 - They were losing to Ohio,
00:58:19 Youngstown State before he got there.
00:58:21 - Yes, and then they turned that into,
00:58:23 and again, thanks for reminding me, Wes,
00:58:25 I double back and stick to my claim.
00:58:27 Pitt will always do whatever is worst for its conference.
00:58:32 Always.
00:58:33 If that means knocking one of their conference members
00:58:35 out of a national championship game, they'll do that.
00:58:38 Or it might mean losing at home to Western Michigan
00:58:41 out of the MAAC
00:58:42 and then going on to win their conference.
00:58:45 They will do whatever hurts their conference the most.
00:58:48 Now I spent the entire off season listening to Narduzzi,
00:58:51 watching him break down what he does, and it was fascinating.
00:58:54 I learned a lot, I shared a lot,
00:58:56 even with guys in the administration,
00:58:58 but I enjoyed none of that, none of that,
00:59:02 nearly as much, nearly as much,
00:59:05 as I savored the six minutes that he spoke post-game
00:59:09 that I got to put my headset on and listen
00:59:11 to him moan and groan and crank the excuse machine
00:59:14 for six straight minutes.
00:59:16 Before he started speaking, Tony's still in the booth
00:59:19 'cause he hadn't left, he did the first segment
00:59:20 of the post-game before we took over.
00:59:22 I looked at him and he said, "Is Narduzzi on yet?"
00:59:24 I said, "Not yet."
00:59:25 And I'm very eager to hear him start with that excuse
00:59:27 about that turnover inside the 10,
00:59:29 without mentioning the turnover we gave him inside the 20,
00:59:32 which is the only reason that happened.
00:59:33 He'll act like one didn't happen,
00:59:34 but one, oh, just crushed him.
00:59:36 And he started off the conversation with that,
00:59:38 and Tony just looked at me and started laughing.
00:59:39 There it is.
00:59:41 I enjoyed every second of those six minutes.
00:59:43 - You watch that Narduzzi post-game,
00:59:45 it's X-rated material if you're like us.
00:59:47 - Yes, it is.
00:59:49 It absolutely is.
00:59:50 - 78 years old, the youngest Pitt fan who can claim
00:59:54 dad's winning record against WVU in their lifetime.
00:59:56 - Insane.
00:59:57 - Wes actually has another job where he has to talk a lot,
01:00:00 and so we better cut him loose.
01:00:02 - Two things before I go, and I'll get out of here.
01:00:05 A, I'm getting worried about appearing on this thing now
01:00:08 because within the last week, I've had at least three people
01:00:11 that I've never met before at various functions come up
01:00:15 and be like, "Hey, I've seen you on 'In the Gun.'"
01:00:16 So I gotta keep-
01:00:18 - I thought you were gonna tell us
01:00:19 you were getting other podcast interview requests now.
01:00:22 And I was gonna say, you better not.
01:00:24 - You guys don't need to know
01:00:24 what I've been doing my personal time.
01:00:26 Thank you.
01:00:27 Shout out Matt, shout out my neighbor,
01:00:29 who I'm in full regalia, polo, khakis, got my thing on.
01:00:33 I'm talking with my neighbor who are Pitt fans.
01:00:34 I went back over there last night, don't worry.
01:00:37 And this woman's looking at my name tag,
01:00:39 and she said, "Oh, hi, Sean."
01:00:40 And I thought she looked familiar.
01:00:42 So I say, "Hey, how are you?"
01:00:43 She goes, "Oh, you don't know me.
01:00:44 I just listened to 'In the Gun.'"
01:00:46 And I'm like, "Oh, okay, great.
01:00:47 So you don't even see me, you just-
01:00:49 - It's great.
01:00:50 - You can hear the obesity in the beard and my voice,
01:00:52 and you just know that I had a beard, great.
01:00:55 You, Wes, you said that, or excuse me, Owen,
01:00:58 you said that you were, you know,
01:00:59 you did Crowley's radio show Friday,
01:01:01 and then Jed, you got to meet him
01:01:02 at the tailgate on Saturday.
01:01:04 Is that when you guys took the official
01:01:05 "In the Gun" podcast photo, and I'm not part of it?
01:01:08 - Schuyler wasn't in there either.
01:01:10 - You didn't go to the peach lot, brother.
01:01:12 - I just wanted to check.
01:01:13 I just wanted to see, like, I saw earlier,
01:01:15 and I was like, "Oh, is that the new photo?"
01:01:18 - Here's the new promotional material,
01:01:19 and it'll just be me, you know,
01:01:22 somebody caricaturing on the Statue of Liberty.
01:01:25 - I thought we were going to put a fat head
01:01:27 of you behind us.
01:01:28 - Yes, then it's just this.
01:01:30 We'll just do that right there.
01:01:31 There's your cutout.
01:01:32 - We all got to meet.
01:01:34 We all got to meet there one day in, like, June,
01:01:37 and we'll get into the stadium,
01:01:38 and we'll take an official photo shoot with all of us.
01:01:40 - That's never happened for you before, Wes.
01:01:41 You've never gotten into there illicitly before.
01:01:43 - There might be a person who's on this podcast right now
01:01:47 who got my wife and I into Mountaineer Field
01:01:49 to take our engagement pictures.
01:01:51 May or may not be.
01:01:52 Statue of limitations.
01:01:53 Statue of limitations passed on that one?
01:01:55 - We're done, yes.
01:01:56 Lawyer wife said we're clear.
01:01:57 - He might have even got our wedding date.
01:01:59 - And there might be a guy on this podcast right now, guys,
01:02:02 that I've actually met in the blue lot
01:02:05 driving a damn 18-wheeler
01:02:06 or whatever the hell he put in on that night.
01:02:08 I don't even know what you were driving,
01:02:10 but it wasn't what I was in.
01:02:11 - I was doing some redneck stuff there, dog.
01:02:15 - Yes.
01:02:16 - I got an idea.
01:02:18 - Go ahead, Wes, please.
01:02:19 - I was just gonna say, like, we honestly should.
01:02:21 I'm spitballing this out there,
01:02:23 but, like, we should do, like, a random Saturday in June
01:02:27 or July when everyone's, like,
01:02:28 starving for tailgates and football,
01:02:31 and we'll just set up in, like, the peach lot or something.
01:02:33 Owen, bring the smoker, and, like, we'll,
01:02:36 invite all the ITG listeners.
01:02:38 It'll be $5 all-you-can-eat
01:02:41 or $10 all-you-can-eat or whatever.
01:02:43 - And range away.
01:02:44 - We'll all hang for, like, two or three hours
01:02:46 and just drink a couple pops, have some, you know,
01:02:48 and enjoy the weather and be like,
01:02:49 all right, two months, and we're here for real.
01:02:51 I'm just throwing that idea out there.
01:02:54 - Owen speaks to you guys a lot more
01:02:56 than he does me offline,
01:02:57 and I'm wondering how much is just complaining
01:03:00 about how when I'm on, he doesn't get to talk at all.
01:03:02 He just kind of watches and absorbs.
01:03:06 And I just want to make sure, Owen, I'm here for you.
01:03:08 Speak any time, like-
01:03:09 - Owen's going to make somebody agree.
01:03:11 He's a great listener. - I'm like a sponge.
01:03:13 (Owen laughs)
01:03:14 - Of just the worst possible stories
01:03:16 coming out of my tubby mouth.
01:03:17 That's great.
01:03:18 I'm glad you're making mental notes to just...
01:03:20 (Owen laughs)
01:03:21 - No, that's not true.
01:03:23 I just, I like to hear when you talk,
01:03:25 you have good stories,
01:03:27 and I don't really have a lot of stories to talk about.
01:03:29 - No, not at all.
01:03:30 - Yeah, not at all.
01:03:31 - And you were there for most of those stories anyways.
01:03:33 - I was around for a good bit of them.
01:03:35 And then meanwhile, what will happen is-
01:03:38 - You already know I'm a dirt dog.
01:03:39 I don't need to be putting out on the internet anymore.
01:03:41 - We're clear.
01:03:42 Don't you worry, baby.
01:03:43 We're good.
01:03:44 - And then on Tuesday, you talk to Owen,
01:03:45 and he's like, "Well, I forgot to tell you.
01:03:47 "That one time Andy Reid walked in
01:03:48 "and I was in my underwear."
01:03:49 And I'm like, "Wait, what?
01:03:50 "Wait, what?"
01:03:51 (Owen laughs)
01:03:52 It's like, you know.
01:03:53 Well, I didn't think anybody cared about that.
01:03:55 - Well, when they pop up, I say them.
01:03:57 Sometimes I just like, I get too involved in the stories.
01:04:01 It is what it is.
01:04:02 But I will say something.
01:04:03 Well, I know we gotta get off here quick.
01:04:06 But Sweet Caroline, when the beat drops
01:04:11 and it's our turn to sing,
01:04:13 don't think I'm not the same as you
01:04:15 screaming at the top of my lungs anywhere we're at, dude.
01:04:18 - This guy needs to relax.
01:04:19 - Anywhere we're at, man.
01:04:20 People are like-
01:04:21 - This guy needs to-
01:04:22 It's my story.
01:04:23 Weddings are great, obviously,
01:04:25 but if it comes on randomly,
01:04:27 like if we're at the beach or something,
01:04:28 it is, my body can't not do it.
01:04:32 So it just happens.
01:04:34 And then that's when everybody's like,
01:04:35 "Oh my God, that's not how this song goes."
01:04:37 Like, yeah, that actually is.
01:04:38 - But then you get one Mountaineer
01:04:40 who's at the beach bar too.
01:04:41 - And they just hear it like a clarion call.
01:04:44 - Yeah.
01:04:45 (Owen laughs)
01:04:46 - Hey, Big Daddy, we always like to position this
01:04:49 as Skyler will post it as something along the lines
01:04:52 of Big Daddy kicks off, like for instance, Texas Tech Week.
01:04:55 - Yes.
01:04:56 - So with that being said,
01:04:57 did you hear the story of what played out in the locker room?
01:05:00 Like Dana told the team we were in there.
01:05:02 You were in there for that.
01:05:03 And he said, "Nobody in this room beat that crew
01:05:05 we play next week.
01:05:06 Nobody in here has beat Texas Tech."
01:05:07 Did you hear what happened afterwards?
01:05:09 - Then afterwards, a gentleman who's been here 13 years
01:05:12 pulled me aside and just said,
01:05:14 "Actually, I did my freshman year."
01:05:16 - Malachi.
01:05:16 - Malachi Robinson.
01:05:17 - Malachi comes up to Neil and he's like,
01:05:19 "I was actually here last time we played."
01:05:20 He's like, "I didn't know you were that old."
01:05:21 So.
01:05:22 - Neil in the press conference goes, "Damn, I didn't know."
01:05:25 (Owen laughs)
01:05:26 - That's fantastic.
01:05:27 That's fantastic.
01:05:29 Guys, this has been a blast.
01:05:30 Thank you for- - Absolutely.
01:05:31 - Thank you for being my Nico Marcules
01:05:33 to my Garrett Greens and getting us all a W here.
01:05:35 On the preview pod, I'll close us with this.
01:05:38 On the preview pod,
01:05:40 talked about how Pitt was in a weird spot.
01:05:42 Like how, for a team that's won 20 games
01:05:44 in an ACC championship,
01:05:46 and had a Heisman finalist in the last two years,
01:05:48 that like they, all that goodwill is evaporated
01:05:51 after one bad loss to Cincinnati.
01:05:53 And imagine what we could do.
01:05:54 I've already got friends.
01:05:56 I've already got coworkers that I'm not going to Pitt games.
01:05:59 I'm not watching them.
01:06:00 I'm done with Fildjerkovic.
01:06:01 I'm done with Pat Narduzzi.
01:06:03 Gentlemen,
01:06:04 gas,
01:06:06 match,
01:06:08 fire.
01:06:08 - Light it.
01:06:10 - Let's hope they spiral the rest of the way
01:06:12 and end up missing a bowl game or something like that.
01:06:15 Sean, love you, buddy.
01:06:16 Great stuff as always. - Love you guys.
01:06:17 - Thank you, Jed.
01:06:19 - Thank you guys.
01:06:20 And thank everyone for one of the best,
01:06:22 if not the best nights I've ever had at Mountaineer.
01:06:26 - If you were there, if you were there.
01:06:27 - Thank you.
01:06:28 Yeah, yes.
01:06:29 - And you know what?
01:06:29 If you were just watching at home,
01:06:31 we know you were like,
01:06:32 you've just, all the energy was reciprocated.
01:06:35 - Apparently McDonough and ABC did not like how loud
01:06:38 we had the music and everything.
01:06:39 So- - McDonough, listen.
01:06:41 - We're doing something right.
01:06:43 And his head was shaking.
01:06:44 Oh, by the way, he told a story.
01:06:46 - He's a square when it comes to Hank Stram.
01:06:48 - He was Tony's roommate.
01:06:49 - Yeah. - Okay.
01:06:50 - So he told a story about back when he worked
01:06:52 with Hank Stram and Hank Stram was going deaf
01:06:55 and his volume, his levels were up so high
01:06:57 that he accidentally grabbed his head stud
01:07:00 and he's included about blew my eardrums out.
01:07:02 But apparently we did it last night too, so.
01:07:05 - Yeah.
01:07:06 - He was a character.
01:07:08 He was fun to have on.
01:07:10 Yeah.
01:07:10 - Well, boys.
01:07:11 - Yeah.
01:07:12 - I got a good shot.
01:07:13 - I'm gonna tell a story that I'll tell you guys off air
01:07:15 when we break here in 10 seconds.
01:07:18 - For Big Daddy, for the Signal Caller,
01:07:20 for Owen Schmidt, being here and telling here
01:07:24 that we just beat the hell out of Pit.
01:07:27 Take care, everybody.
01:07:28 And we'll talk to you in a couple of days.
01:07:29 You've been in the gun.
01:07:31 (door creaking)
01:07:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]