The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Matt Leinart’s Favorite NFL Playoff QB and Notre Dame-Ohio State Pick, Plus the SGA Show in Cavs-Thunder
Fri, 17 Jan 2025
Russillo starts the show by welcoming in Matt Leinart to preview the national championship game, pick which QB he would most like to be, and debate if the era of SEC dominance is coming to an end (0:49). Then, Ryen gives out his divisional round picks (41:13) before another edition of Tales from the Couch (42:45). Finally, Ceruti and Kyle join for Life Advice with another bat update and how to handle a note found on a car (60:37). Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, live streams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Matt Leinart Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are Matt Leinart's insights on the NFL playoffs?
On today's episode, we're going to talk NFL and college football in front of the divisional round. and the National Championship with Matt Liner on the coverage and then some bigger picture college football stuff with him and also what he thought about some of the stuff from Caleb Williams as well. So we actually get to a lot of different things there with him. Little tales from the couch.
We'll talk about the surging Kings, the blowout in Oklahoma City, and a three from deep that I love. And life advice. And War Gone... The community has spoken. They seem to love this guy. People have his back. The marathon mic continues. Let's talk some college football. Maybe even sprinkle a little bit of NFL role play with our good friend and neighbor, Matt Leiner, here out in the South Bay.
I want to remind you to check out Throwbacks with Matt and Jerry Ferrara, who you can check wherever you hear podcasts. What's up, dude? What's up, man? How are you?
Dude, how about we had Shady McCoy on this week, and the first thing he said on the pod was he wanted to be an actor.
His favorite show was Power, because Jerry played, I don't know if you watch Power, but Power, Jerry played Proctor, who was a lawyer. uh, empower. And, uh, it was fricking hilarious, dude. And then we talked, uh, we talked a little bit about me hosting them on my recruiting trip, but that's for another day.
So my kids are in the background. Sorry, bro. God, it's just, my house is just a disaster. It's a disaster.
Anyway. It's all right. You know?
Yeah. I hosted, I hosted him. You did? Isn't that crazy? I didn't know that. Yeah. So I, uh, so, cause he's probably, uh,
Three years, three years. Yeah. Like three or four years, four years. Maybe I think I was a senior. You know what I was, I came back from my senior year. I hosted him in the off season. He actually told a great story. He was a big time recruit coming out of Pittsburgh and it was like SC, it was pit with one set ended up getting him, which is a great story.
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Chapter 2: Which quarterback does Matt Leinart aspire to be?
No, I know. No, Ant is ridiculous, man. He's ridiculous.
Okay, so which NFL quarterback would Matt Leiner want to be?
Josh Allen. He, I mean, gosh, there's so many great ones. Like you say my homes and like, I love Lamar, man. I've known Lamar for a long time. I just love the kid. He's just a great dude. Josh Allen is a monster, man. Like he is a monster. And I don't know if you've ever stood next to him. I don't know. Like if you know him at all, like he's every bit of six, five, like two 50 and he's huge.
And he's a great dude. And like his game, I just, I love his game. I love, um, he's tough as nails. He runs guys over. He, he, he's, he is that team. Like he, James Cook's a good player, but like he makes that team. And that's kind of why I think he should be the MVP.
Obviously there's a debate and Lamar has been great, but I think just Josh Allen and the way he plays, he's just a, he's a dog, you know, and in his own way. And, um, I don't remember.
Maybe you think, I don't remember a guy kind of built like him, like, like Roethlisberger was big, but Roethlisberger didn't run, you know, like Josh Allen is, is a big dude who can run and trucks guys and now can throw. And just, I don't know. That would be, that would be me. I just, I love his game. I think he's, he's unbelievable. All right. Who would you, who would you, who would you be?
I mean, the physical part of Josh is pretty enticing because he, there are times where it looks like when he's about to go into the end zone, like defense, like, again, we're talking about NFL defensive players, linebackers stuff.
He's bigger than all linebackers. Right. Yeah.
You could see some of those guys are like, I'm good. That's just going to be the best feeling ever when you're a quarterback. You're always worried about how many hits am I going to take or I want to make sure I'm not doing this or whatever. They're actually not super interested because it's already a wrap anyway. He's getting in when he breaks one of those seven yards out.
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Chapter 3: How does the SEC's dominance in college football compare to other conferences?
One of the best parts of League Pass.
Although my father, after a couple of weeks with me once was like, I almost missed commercials because he was so annoyed at the in game entertainment hosts. Cause then we started like critiquing and be like, Oh, this guy thinks he's fucking really cool. Like he thinks he's three years away from starting on this.
Like he thinks he's going to have a Netflix show where I was like, this person I think understands like kind of where they're at a little bit more and be like, who hired this dude and what's her deal. Right. So you just start going through all of them. I could probably do a podcast. I don't know. Maybe when I take some time off, like ranking all the in, arena entertainment hosts.
I might be your guy. I might be your guy for it. But anyway, they have a lot of kids that play from local schools, local communities. You get to go play in an NBA court. It's an awesome thing to do. I got to do it for a men's league thing. So that was cool. Um, but yet there's kids just running around all over the place. And what happens is all the kids want to take NBA threes.
And sometimes the age range is like, maybe Um, usually the age range is like, absolutely not. This is a disaster. The other night for a nuggets game, the kids took 13 NBA threes. They went over 13. Uh, Oh, there were eight air balls. Yeah. I tracked it.
I went back cause I, the problem is, is when I have multiple TVs on and then the kids start playing, I watch the kids more than the adults because I'm fascinated by their approach to it. And then one kid started waving his arms, pointing like Babe Ruth to where he was going to pull up from. Logo three. I can't believe it hit the rim. This kid pulled up from 30 plus feet.
And I don't think these guys were like above the fourth, fifth grade thing. So it wasn't dumping on kids. It was just an observation about the evolution of where the game is going. And then I tweeted like, hey. Is Steph to blame? Even though I love Steph probably as much as any current. I think Steph will be the last athlete I like this much, by the way, for the record.
Don't know what that means, but there you go. Anyway, went to the Rosillo Denver live show and the Simmons live show. Oh, back to back. Saw your tweet about the kids going over 13 at the Nuggets game, halftime show. As a friend of the coach, I just wanted to write in to give you the behind the scenes.
The coach was hanging out with the kids in the hallway that Jokic always runs down, and he hyped them up to make an NBA three-pointer. Not a good look for the state of the game at the youth level, but the coach probably has to split the blame with Curry. While I'm here, can you help settle some Nuggets group chat drama? That sounds awesome.
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Chapter 4: What are the predictions for the upcoming national championship game?
Chapter 5: What are the key takeaways from the Cavs vs. Thunder game?
Murray is 12th on the NBA player salary list in 26, 27. Is there a tougher contract to build around besides appeal for what you're getting? Yeah, there's worse contracts. Simmons is captain of the Murray ship right now. And I do not want to buy a ticket because I think Murray eventually, because he's had those high playoff moments. We're not talking about somebody who's a stiff.
So I don't think that the Murray contract is like this absolute albatross because I don't think he's going to be this bad. Anyway. All right. Well, glad to know that that was part of it there. But look, it isn't just about these Denver kids. Do you guys want to do life advice emails instead of these? I wouldn't mind. Yeah.
Kyle's already checked out.
I'm looking at Kyle just going, all right, let's go back. Let's just... All right, let's go for just a heavy hitter then. Male, 44, third string university goalie in Canada. Never had a dress for games, so I know the closest bars to every rink we played on at the road. Basketball comp, Cedric Hunter. Matches my practice to game time ratio. Anyway, I run my own construction company.
Skilled labor is in demand. I think these guys are like real Canadians, by the way. Skilled labor is in demand, hard to attract. I keep raising my wages, but it's still hard to retain or attract workers. Recently, I had one of my best employees find this note on his vehicle. Phone number is covered as he posts the note at a legendary dive bar.
Have been busy raising a family, so this reminded me of the hijinks of university in Montreal anyway. On top of this, everything else, maybe the guy went to McGill. While drinking at this bar with friends, we got into an argument. Did a man or woman write this? Is it connected to you driving a Subaru as a construction worker? Is this solicitation or entrapment?
Also, he found this a day after his honeymoon. Should I post this as a benefit that my company offers? Will this lead to dissection on the job site if others get the same note? And if you ever visit the Yukon, we can show you where to park your rental car. All right, so here's the note. I see you park here regularly. Earmuffs, kids, earmuffs.
I see you park here regularly, and I'm thinking you are part of the construction crew working at the country inn. I live close by. Would you be into getting discreet, let's use the term steam occasionally, maybe on your lunch break or after work? That was cleaning it up. So that's the note, Kyle.
Is this a perk? Dude, this unit, this isn't this guy's friends. Just seeing if he takes the bait. You don't think that's what this is. That's gotta be what it is. Or like, just like a group of the regular guys in the bar. Like, uh, let's see if Tommy bites on this one. Cause if he does, they'll have whatever the fuck he's texting or whoever he's called. I can't see this being real.
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Chapter 6: How do turnovers impact NBA games?
Chapter 7: What is the significance of NIL and the portal in college football?
And four minutes later, it's 120-117. Durant came in with like 318. He didn't even take a shot. Um, you know, the wizards, young players don't know any better. So they're going to play pretty hard, whether it's bub or George or Kula Bali, even SAR, like got out and transition after a turnover, like Phoenix had some real turnover problems.
Like I'm just telling you between Minnesota being healthy, which maybe is more concerning where a Phoenix is start. I'm like, okay, well, this makes sense. Like a Phoenix is healthy and they have these guys like their start should be like, That should be a good season because they've done a good job with all the role players and all the stuff in the offseason. And yet, I don't know, man.
I watched the Atlanta game. I watched both Charlotte games. And. What is up with this team? And Beal didn't even play last night. He turned the ankle in the Atlanta game, which was really just bad for Phoenix. And he did come back and play in that game, so ended up not playing here.
So Booker was having a tough run of it because he's in there for basically the entire fourth quarter, and Durant was out. They were up big enough, so you didn't even know if they were going to bring Durant back. Again, there's no Beal. So if you look at Booker's efficiency stuff on this season, you're going to go, well, this is actually kind of a down year for him.
I think that's really missing the point of when he was playing, when the other guys weren't there, how ugly it was getting because it was just him asked to save them the entire time. And at this point, I think Booker's a better player than Duran is. I think he's better for Phoenix than Duran is. And Booker ended up hitting the three that kind of closed the game anyway.
So back to Saar, because I know you've been waiting desperately. When is this going to be back to Alex Saar, man? I'm waiting. It is 123-117. There's 44 seconds left on the game plot. You've got a full shot clock on the inbounds on the wizard side. They throw it into Saar and Saar like dribbles in a hurry to get behind the three point line to then turn and take a three. I'm serious.
There was 22 seconds left on the shot clock. So yeah, I know you got to go quick. Yeah, you're maybe looking for a three. You would have thought there was point zero, like an eighth of a second left. and they were down three or four. Sar was like, nope, need to get this one up.
And I know he shot it really well from three after a disastrous start on this, so that's a shot that they're going to want to take. No one in the history of basketball has ever wanted anyone to take that shot the way he took it. Let's take a quick look at the West right now. Do you know where your veteran teams are in the standings? Because I do. Oklahoma City's class of themselves.
I think the Houston-Memphis-Denver thing and a healthy Dallas are probably the ones that make the most sense. Then it's this Clippers story that just won't go away. They've won three in a row, and they've just been better than I thought they would be. Minnesota alarming because the health and the fact they're not better. Sacramento surging. The 10 seed is Phoenix.
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