The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: Sports Are Stupid (feat. Dianna Russini)
20 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What coaching changes are happening in the NFL?
Welcome to the Big Suey, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Lebitard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there.
That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar.
This episode of the Dan Levitard Show is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours.
I actually don't think there's been a proper reckoning because everything's been moving so fast. Y'all should be embarrassed. They're physically superior and the last two games have fooled America. Take a lesson from very recent history.
Chapter 2: How does Jeff Hafley's hiring impact the Miami Dolphins?
Y'all have been saying the same thing for three weeks. It's the exact same thing I've heard about the four pigs against Louisville and the SMU game going into College Station. I heard the exact same thing going into the Cotton Bowl. They better clean it up if they want to play Indiana. Okay. All right. Anybody at all in media want to say, hey, I'm done doubting this team. Spot the ball.
Let's see what's going to happen. Their worst game was Louisville because he threw four interceptions and he wouldn't stop throwing deep. That quarterback looked like this quarterback to you. What world am I living in where Miami at home is a touchdown underdog against Indiana? Like, what?
I don't care about your NIL money. It's still Indiana.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of the University of Miami's recent performance?
There is not a thing in the sport that stands up to what they have on the offensive and defensive lines. I think they're going to maul them on the lines. I really do. I just think, like, maybe I'm owed an apology. By? Everyone. I think I'm entitled to one. You think I owe you an apology? Yes. I stand by all of that. Great season. Beat Florida. Beat Florida State. Beat Notre Dame. Beat Ohio State.
Chapter 4: Why is Robert Saleh considered a noteworthy coaching hire?
Proved Texas A&M. Proved a lot of the haters wrong. Ran into one of the greatest seasons of all time and had an opportunity to win the game at the end. I know we do this thing where everyone just dunks on the team that lost, but this was a great season for Miami, and I think one thing is very evident.
This coach takes his lessons from his adversity, and Miami's going to be around for a long time, and that pisses everyone off. What's the big takeaway more globally as we go forward? All the complaints over the last six, eight weeks about the structure of the 12-team tournament.
I think the committee ultimately got it right, except for and I wonder how different the tournament goes if you replace Alabama, who had no business being there, as it turns out, with Notre Dame. I do think ultimately it's pretty interesting. How are we supposed to assess college football teams going forward? Because I traditionally said, well, you have two losses.
If you're the you, you don't control everything. Any claim to being in the tournament? You lost two games along the way. You may or may not sneak in.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of the 12-team college football playoff structure?
I wonder what that means. There are 12 playoff teams and six that could actually win the championship. Like there were all sorts of teams in the playoff that can't and shouldn't be in a playoff to win a championship. I just don't like talking about that sport with this certainty because a lot of people shared that opinion and Miami wasn't in that group of six teams.
No, but James Madison, Tulane, Alabama, Oklahoma, those are not teams that could have won the championship. I get it. I hope that this postseason, its legacy is like this Big Ten SEC bull****. comes to an end. Not Big Ten. I'm sorry. I took out Ohio State along the way and was right there with Indiana and everyone said this was a team that lost at SMU. I think that a lot of that stuff is bogus.
We were touting it all season long and I just hope we don't repeat the same mistakes when there's a situation like Oklahoma and Alabama reputationally just getting in. I think Notre Dame probably... The conversation was just so driven by Notre Dame versus Miami that Notre Dame was asleep at the wheel and didn't get to like propagandize their own case against those lesser teams.
Chapter 6: How do recent coaching hires reflect on team performance?
Look, we have had two years of this expanded playoff. We do not have a big enough sample size for them to keep adding teams. Like I watched all the bowl games and there was not a set of teams that I was like, yeah, I really wish I got to see them in the college football playoff. I never thought we should go to 12. I thought we should go to 6 or 8.
How many more would you add?
I don't want to add anymore. They want 16-24, and it's my conference who's campaigning for that.
That's not what I'm saying. How many teams didn't get a shot at the playoff that you think should have been a playoff team?
It would have been Notre Dame. That's it, like one. So I know like the sort of Big Ten SEC conversation, everyone is having it. They're talking about it a lot. But I do think it's important in the sense that the SEC got so many teams in the playoff.
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Chapter 7: What are the challenges faced by new NFL head coaches?
And the SEC, all their great teams that were all these wins that made it so Alabama got in, lost in their bowl games to teams that shouldn't have been that good. Tennessee lost to Illinois. Mizzou lost to Virginia. Both Tennessee and Mizzou did not have a win over a team with a record above .500.
So I do think it's important to have these conversations of like, hey, is this conference really as good as you think it is? Because Greg Sankey is the most active hand in college football. And if he's out here trying to convince you that seven teams belong in the college football playoff from the SEC, and you can look at the SEC sample size in front of you and say, you know what?
Iowa outplayed Vanderbilt that entire game. Yeah, maybe this isn't the best conference in college football. And next year we can avoid an Alabama or an Oklahoma getting in over a Notre Dame team that was much better than both of them. I think we can all agree the best two teams in college football played last night.
We have a lot of times in these playoffs where you look at a team and you're like, TC, you probably shouldn't have been there. Or Washington a couple years ago was okay, but they kind of got run out of the building. These two teams deserve to be the two best teams in college football.
I think the only other team that you would make a case would be Ole Miss and Miami beat them.
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Chapter 8: How does the panel view the future of Miami's football program?
Miami beat them.
I'd make a case for Ohio State. And Notre Dame can watch what happened and be like, oh, my God, how close were we to winning the championship? We are as good as anybody. Texas A&M, too. My concern is replacing the James Madison's in two lanes with elites protecting elites.
I think that's where it's going to track is ultimately you see that James Madison took up a slot that that we should have had. We're Notre Dame, right? Alabama, right? Miami. That is my concern as as a man of the people. I believe James Madison played Oregon better than Texas Tech did. I believe James Madison won a national championship last night.
The issue with Tulane and James Madison both being in the college football playoff doesn't really have that much to do with the college football playoff. It has more to do with the way that the ACC structured their... Because Miami played in the national championship last night, but they were not ACC champs. That was the Duke Blue Devils, which is just a little bit funny.
And so that was more an ACC problem, which should get fixed. Obviously, they're doing weird. Some teams have eight conference games. Some teams have nine conference games. We'll just let them figure it out on their own. Let's give them a year just to get it together, go to college football rehab, and just collectively decide.
But the group of five argument, which I know is an argument that's also been had a lot, that Indiana team was made out of so many group of five transfers. Yeah. James Madison literally did play Oregon closer than Texas Tech did, so that is not the issue. It is simply just the way that the ACC structured their championship game, which made everything go crazy.
Anybody else have a problem with what's in the news cycle, which is like the Big Ten and SEC can't come to an agreement about how the college football playoff expansion would go. Like, wait, they're in charge? They go, OK. They literally are. They kind of are. They legit are. Right. But Miami runs through a whole lot of them.
And we're just like waiting for those other conferences to tell us like what this is going to look like going forward.
I mean, this Big Ten wants 24 teams out of such.
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