Hour 4: Callers

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Have her call me. Love you, bye. That was great. Thank you very much. If you don't know what that was all about, you missed something pretty remarkable earlier. Long is up next. I missed, good afternoon, Paul. I missed that gentleman's name, but that was pretty strong. Really good call. But speaking of good calls, Paul, wow, Smith, that was incredible, my friend. That was just great. When you can make Lonesome Joe and Swamp Frog look like Rhodes Scholars, you have done something. You have achieved something incredible. But as I stated before about Smith when he said something about me, I think it's gotten some more validity to it now. Paul Smith was conceived in a Hardee's restaurant, and he was also born in a Hardee's restaurant toilet. But next subject, Paul and Friday, I just got beat up. I mean, they came at me, you know, the Girl Scout troop, evidently, you know, cookies are behind or they didn't hit it. I don't know, but Lonesome Joe, I just want to do a truce with you. I just don't want to fight anymore. I'm not in to making fun of people with downs and just put me down for four boxes of Ben Mints. It was good to hear from JD, him and Dylan went antiquing this weekend at their favorite antique store. You know what the name of it is, Paul? I know you don't, I'll just tell you. Two men, no truck. And finally, the caller that came back, and we were so happy, so we thought, AJ, AJ, you really went hard, man. You even went on the internet to look me up and blah blah, my mama and all this stuff. And your main point was, I'm too long. I know somebody, and maybe they birthed you, that doesn't think that way. And the irony of all this is, I was visiting some friends in Alabama this weekend. We had to go to Walmart to get some stuff for a cookout. Lo and behold, who do I see in the Walmart parking lot? Good old AJ and his Prius with a David Duke bumper sticker on the back and a shopping cart full of sets of sheets and pillowcases. AJ, my question to you is, are you opening a bed and breakfast, or are you going back to your old ways? Have a good night, Paul. Thank you, Long. I don't even know where I am right now. Steve-O is up next. Good afternoon. You know, Paul, I had a bunch of takes today, brother, but I'm about to start out with old Lethargic Long up there in South Carolina. Did you notice how slow he was talking? He was talking slow because he was trying to read his sister's writing that wrote his monologue out for him, because he obviously doesn't know how to write that gorgeous South Carolina high school education that he probably has. And I'm sure he's been thinking about AJ for three days and came up with that, and he had to speak slow to actually read his sister's writing. But let me get on to old Smittybilt. All right, at first, I thought he was a Kip Keefer Bobblehead doll plant. But then I noticed something when I was like, he called back. Man, that's definitely Sparkless' cousin from like that's like Spark's cousin Eddie. Spark's was like, man, I got to make somebody sound intelligent on this show. So it's going to be me. Also, Paul, I'm going to get on, and I want to talk about the regulators for a second. You got Ugly Joe, you got Matt from Tulsa. I just want to congratulate the newest member that I heard got accepted, and that's old Johnny Boy from St. Louis. They brought him into the club. I don't know why you're going to have that's old John, how he got accepted into that regulator club, but he's in there. Last question for you, I'm going to go off topic for a second. But you weren't on TV during the Johnny, you guys talked about Manziel a little bit earlier in the show, and you weren't on TV during the Manziel SEC media days. How crazy was that? Were you there for that? Yeah, it was my first assignment for ESPN, and I was on the desk with the crew. I'm trying to remember, was this for ESPN? This was for ESPN, I believe, because it was such a big deal. And I was up there with Joe Tesitor, who was hosting it, and he asked me about Manziel. And I excoriated Manziel, I mean, just as you could imagine. And I thought Manziel was going to be up there at some point. I ended my diatribe on Manziel, got up, and literally ran into Manziel as he was coming up on the stage to take my place on the ESPN set. To his credit, he shook hands with me, he said hello. He did not do anything else. And I later got to know him very well. And he just was a little bit too young for the fame. But there was a thousand people there. I mean, it was one of the craziest scenes I've ever seen. Could you imagine his NIL dollars in today's market? No. There would be literally... I mean, because he was... He got under investigation for, I think, signing a football or something. It was totally ridiculous. Found a bunch of footballs. Yeah, exactly. All right, Paul. Thanks, buddy. Thank you very much for the call. Hey, give me your bobblehead doll. Come on. I have one right here. Let's check in with Tony in California up next. Yeah. Hey, Paul, I got a question for you. The Houston Cougars are in a kind of a tricky situation. They got Conor Wegman in his senior year, who will be eligible for the play a fifth year next year. And you got Keyshawn Henderson, the number one player in the country behind him. If you're Willie Fritz, what's the play? You don't want to lose your best recruit of all time. He's not going to sit for two years. Do you tell Conor to move on or do you? I mean, how do you balance something like that? Yeah, I mean, the idea that Conor Wegman is still around is unbelievable. I am always going to think, depending on the impact, try to balance it, but no more than that, because you can't give up the future in today's NIL Transfer Portal world. I got you, all right. Thank you for the call, appreciate it very much. Let me check in next with Randy in Chattanooga. Hey, Randy. Hey, Paul, thank you so much. Can you hear me okay? You sound great, thank you. Awesome, God bless you. Hey, look, I'm from Chattanooga. I think I know you back in the day, it's true, I'm your age. Anyway, Silverdale Ballast Baptist, Silverdale Baptist has won the national championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They brought it home. God bless Jill Gore and all the girls. Well, that is great to hear, Randy. I appreciate you sharing that. You take care of yourself. Thanks for the call. We're up against the break. If you want to get in, this is your moment. We have plenty of time for you to call in. 855-242-7285. We are coming right back. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. 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Oklahoma is starting the season one day earlier. They've moved their Saturday game to Friday night against UTEP. How about that? Let's get back to the calls, and Stemp, won't have to worry about his team playing too many early season games, since they don't play anybody all year. Stemp is up next in Texas. Well, hey, Paul, first, I just thought I'd let y'all know. I was riding my exercise bike earlier today, and I finished the 45-minute class in 25 minutes. I mean, the instructor couldn't believe it, Paul. He was questioning his profession after he saw me walking out of the building. I mean, really, it was unbelievable. The gym even put a plaque with my name up on the wall. Stemp plastered up for the rest of the slackers to see. And Paul, it's also amazing to me. It really actually explains a lot about the SEC. The fact you're playing the sport of football, where there is helmet-to-helmet contact, bodies colliding while moving at full speed on every single play for 60 minutes, and you get people like Bob that call in here. Yeah, he said he's an Notre Dame fan, but he called in to complain and say the reason the SEC hasn't fared well in the playoff recently is because how badly they beat each other up in the regular season. And that sounds like excuses to me, Bob. So why don't you join the cycling class? Losers make excuses. Winners find a way to endure. I mean, I heard Bob say if he has the opportunity, he tunes in to whatever SEC games he can. Well, I encourage Bob to maybe watch a game that's played in a different part of the country, because let me tell you, Bob, they ain't playing flag football or two hand touch. Irish, fire a thing in there. OK, in a reaction to that, let's continue with James in Jacksonville. Hello, James. Hey, buddy. How are you doing, sir? We're doing great. Thank you. I'm good. Yeah, I know you're doing good. I told everybody not to ask you how you're doing. But I guess it's just a reflex thing. You know, you're a moron, sir. You need to take some kind of medication, kind of slow your calls down. I know you think it's cool to talk fast and fire that thing in there. But for real, man, you've got to slow it down, bro. Half of us can't understand what you're talking about because we're not ADHD like you are. Your mind's moving at a thousand miles an hour. Okay? Most people are just moving at a steady pace. You're going way too fast. We can't understand half the things that you're saying, dude. Just slow it down a little bit. I understand you're excited. You're on the air. You know, you maybe even have the jitters. It's okay. Just slow it down, bro. I like you as a caller. I just want to call. I've been trying to let you know how much I appreciate the really professional guests. All your guests are professional. Every time I hear Cole Kubik and Roman Harper, they're explaining things. I feel smarter for hearing them. And they're not chasing soundbites. They're really given good insight and doing their homework. And like when Heather Denitz, I believe she's the one that's tracking the CFP. You know, that mathematical problem. At least I have a general understanding of what's going on. And Commissioner Sanke, you know, I feel like I know the position of obviously the SEC, but where college sports are going. And then lastly, I'll just say, my favorite coach, I can't think of a coach I don't like to hear that you bring on, but when Dawn Staley comes on, I mean, she's bringing it. Just a great person. I appreciate all their time that some of them are paid to be on the show. As analysts and some of them are the coaches and the commissioner, they just sacrifice their schedule to give something to the fans. I appreciate them and I appreciate you giving them that platform. So thank you very much. Yeah, thank you, David. Yeah, I want to make it very clear of, yeah, people work at ESPN and they're on the show, so they are being paid by ESPN, but we don't pay anybody to come on the show. And I have done shows where you do that. There are relationships in local and even national, where guests are paid, and I think everybody knows who they are, and I don't need to waste any time on it. But I appreciate you saying that, because we really, we care very much about our guests here. Thank you. Goodbye. Thank you. Stemp wants to say a word, and we'll give him a chance to respond since everybody else has been doing it all day. Hey, Paul, I just got a quick reply. Hey, James, how could you like me as a caller when you said you can't understand a word I say, you jackass? And you know what? You called and you started your call off with how you're doing, and you let a whole segment last week complain about it. See you later, Jimmy, you goof. Irish, fire thing in there. Listen, I want to say this. I'm well aware of, especially in the South Texas all the way up to New York, the temperatures right now are 95 to 110. And I don't think that's ever been more evident by some of the calls on this program this afternoon. It is, I realize we're next to the last day of June, but man, this thing has gotten a little bit out of control. We'll try to reign it back in here. Chuck is up next. Hey, Chuck. Hey, Mr. Paul, how are you, sir? We are doing great. Thank you. Well, first of all, I want to say that I pity any other force talk that does not have the representation that you give the SEC, because I'm going to tell you, I have never seen anybody in my life ever since I was a kid that always went to bat for the SEC. And I just want to let you know, I appreciate that very, very much. Well, I'm glad, hey, by the way, I'm glad you said that because I had somebody call me today and they were going, why do you defend the SEC? And by the way, we care about the SEC, and we have pointed out many times when we think something is wrong, something is incorrect. In fact, we get a lot of complaints from SEC schools. How come you're not supporting us more? But we do believe in it. We know the people. This isn't some project here. I mean, we know the commissioner. He's been on the show a number of times. We know the coaches. That doesn't mean the SEC is always right. But I think in most of the bigger cases, they are. And one thing about being a call-in show, if everybody is welcome and we don't censor people. So if there's something you don't like, we'll let you hear it. And I think that's where we are different than some other shows who will not let a dissenting view on. And like I said, I appreciate that. And one thing is that I've been hearing you unbiased about the upcoming Notre Dame schedule and all that. Well, isn't one of the criteria for CFP playoff strength a schedule? Well, Chuck, that is supposed to be the way it is, but this committee... Wouldn't that be a strike against them already? Well, it should be, but I'm going to tell you right now, it won't be, because nobody gets more benefits than Notre Dame. Now, I know everybody's saying, well, what about last year? Well, last year, they disqualified themselves. And I know it's always easy to go back and say, well, Alabama shouldn't have been there. Well, I've said that after the fact, Alabama was not a great team last year. They snuck in, but they snuck in because of their body of work over 12 games. So are you going to penalize Alabama for losing to Georgia when Notre Dame's sitting around eating popcorn, watching the game? You can't do that. But the committee last year, I think, was objective mostly, and Notre Dame, don't forget, played at Miami. So that turned out to be one of the more difficult games of the year. But this schedule that we put up earlier, and we'll do it again. I mean, it's just ridiculous. I mean, it's ridiculous. It is really absurd. But more than anything else is, you know, going back to what you're talking about, a lot of people said Alabama shouldn't have went in. But one thing that I'm going to say before I get off and let somebody else call is that they can bash Alabama all they want to. But until your team can be the first team to say that they want a road game in the playoffs, then they've got nothing to say at all. Road tied. Thank you, Chuck. I want to go back to that Notre Dame schedule because a lot of people are really already getting upset. Okay, they play Wisconsin, which is a laughable team. I mean, we know because Alabama beat them two years in a row. And it's not even on Wisconsin's home field. It's at Laneball where Alabama won, I think it was two years ago. Rice, do they even have a football program? Michigan State's one of the worst programs in the Big Ten. Oh, at Purdue, another joke of a program. Now, they do play at North Carolina, which won about four games last year under Bill Belichoke. Stanford at home, another terrible program. At BYU is legitimate. That is a very difficult game, I'll give them that. Navy at Boston, so what? Miami at home, toughest game of the season, Boston College. SMU, legitimate program, and at Syracuse, which upended Miami two years ago in a similar spot, but that seemed like a much better program. So that's what we're talking about. That's why it's not about Notre Dame. Hey, listen, I've been to Notre Dame for games. It's unique. It's unlike anything else. Marcus Freeman, I think, if I'm starting, if I'm hired to run any of the top 10 programs, he is in my first group of candidates. He's one of the best coaches in the country. He is spectacular. And it's amazing that he is still at Notre Dame because NFL clubs are coveting him. Other programs are. Nobody is in more demand and deservedly so. But let's quit this facade that Notre Dame plays the same schedule as the SEC. And that's not just SEC network bias. That's legitimate analysis. And if you got to complain with that, you're welcome to call. I mean, they may, I mean, even if we talk about Ohio State, we made fun of them a couple of years ago. Their schedule this year is pretty difficult. I mean, they're at Texas. They have Indiana on there. They're at Southern Cow, which is a better program than it's been. I mean, Illinois has gotten better. I'm not going to sound like I work at the Big Ten network. At Iowa can be difficult. That is a tricky place to play. At Indiana, we know Nebraska, I mean, that should be a tough game, and Michigan is not really a tough game anymore. And they have Oregon at home. I mean, I am tempted to pick Ohio State to win it all until I look at that schedule and go, oh my goodness, that is truly an absurd schedule. Finally, they have a tough schedule. Okay, we have 30 minutes to go. Welcome to call in. We're pretty loose this week, as you can imagine. We'll take your phone calls right after this. You're listening to the Paul Finebaum Show Podcast. Welcome back, busy afternoon. We still have a few minutes remaining, and AJ is up next. Happy birthday, I man, happy birthday, happy birthday, I man. Hey Paul, you know, initially I thought the show was gonna not go into comedy hour, but just lo and behold, we found ourself off in this comedy hour. I mean, when we got to sit there and talk about Notre Dame's football schedule, I mean, I don't know a bigger, better joke on the planet, other than the fact that, you know, Stemp over there didn't tell y'all. It took him an hour and a half to ride that tricycle that he was talking about, the exercise bike. He didn't tell y'all. He did it. You know what he did didn't tell you? He didn't tell you it had training wheels on it. And that's the bad part about like your schedule in this football team. They got training. I bet you gonna win your conference, ain't you Stemp? I promise you Notre Dame wins their conference this year, Paul. And on top of another joke is, you know, if you can tell Long for me, since he's listening right here, put your ear up to the phone, Long. Put your ear up real close, because I want you to know, when I looked you up on the Internet, that was a false statement by you on your part, because you know what? I didn't have to look you up on the Internet. All I did is I got off exit 17 over there, equivalent to your IQ over there in South Carolina. And then I looked at that third cardboard box on the left, and I saw you, your mama, your daddy, and your greasy granny was sitting over there, and y'all was just panting, holding up a sign, we'll work for food, we'll work for food. And then on top of that, Paul, what's so fun is you got somebody like John. You know, John, I'm so glad that John from St. Louis had his hall today, Paul, because I really didn't feel like getting me a cup of prison coffee. Because you know, his calls are about as impotent as Missouri's football team is going to be during this football season. That's what's so beautiful of it. And I'm going to tell you something, Bash. What you need to do is keep on shining Paul's shoes. And you know, Paul, I wish you would actually start giving people like Vance or somebody, just give you a phone number out instead of 855-242-Paul. Give you a phone number out so when they get a thought, they can call you 95 times in the middle of the night, and they can give you what they want. And that's their suggestions. Or I got another thought, Paul. I need to call 17 more times. I mean, there's multiple people that want to call in 55 times a show. Let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't get your call out to The Paul Finebaum Show, the greatest show on America's television, the sports show of America, if you can't get it out in one call, sit your last down. War Damn Eagle. Dale is up next in Colorado. Hello, Dale. What's up, Paul? Good afternoon. That was a pretty good call. So, I mean, what's up with Notre Dame? Why do they get so much favoritism? I mean, Bryan Horson or Bill and Neyford could go 11-1 with that schedule. And Rudy was offside. We know that. Great to hear. Thank you, Dale. Appreciate that very much. Arthur is up next. Good afternoon, Arthur. Hey, good afternoon, Paul. Just wanted to bring up one fact that nobody that I've heard has mentioned the fact that Alabama's third loss came in the SEC Championship game. And if I'm not mistaken, I do believe the committee has said from the beginning, they are not holding that against anyone losing in their conference championship. To give you even more proof, I think the year before, SMU, did they not lose to Clemson? They did. They certainly did. I think Clemson had a field goal at the end of the championship game. Yeah, they were very lucky for Clemson. Yeah, well, of course. And, you know, everybody, they can be hating on it or whatever, but like I said, that was their third loss in the title game of the conference. So, you know, that's all I have. Oh, other than, glad to hear... What's his name? Oh, I forgot his name. That's how important he is. Well, anyway, have a good day, Paul. Thank you. Yeah, and I mean, that was that was one thing that people made very, they made a big deal about like, you can't leave Alabama at home because they lose a bonus game on Notre Dame isn't playing one. And it comes into the fact that Notre Dame doesn't want to be in a league. They don't want to have to go through a gauntlet like nine SEC games. Instead, they play, you know, their goofy ACC schedule, and usually end up with what you're going to get in the ACC. Nothing. Thanks for the call. Appreciate it very much. Let's check in with Bull, who is in Birmingham. Hello, Bull. Hey, Paul. Good to talk to you again. First of all, happy birthday, our man. You're a legend, dude, and I hope you the best for today. Secondly, still, let's get something straight. Notre Dame hasn't been relevant since 1988 when you won a national championship. And y'all did that with the leprechaun on the side, with the leprechaun as a mascot. So, you know, you had double up right there. That's cool. And then the last time y'all played for national championship was 2013. And then that didn't work out good. So it's been 13 years since that. And the SEC has kicked the crap out of everything that moves for the last, I don't know, half a decade or more. So get your facts right before you start firing something in there, jackass. Fire that in there. The War Eagle. Yeah, thanks, McCoy. Listen, Notre Dame has last played for championship in the 2012 season. Brian Kelly was the coach. They lost by 28 points. They've been in the playoffs a couple of times, as we all know. They played for the championship. I'll take it back. They played for the championship a couple of years ago under Marcus Freeman and lost to Notre Dame. So those are the last two times Notre Dame has played. I mean, it's a good school, great reputation, but they have an easier path than any other major entity because of the no-conference tie-up. And we say this all the time, Notre Dame is in the ACC, except football. Quick break. You want to get in. Final calls are straight ahead, and we are coming right back. Thank you for listening to the best of The Paul Finebaum Show podcast. Watch The Paul Finebaum Show weekdays from three to seven Eastern on the SEC Network. Plus, you can listen and watch on the ESPN app.