PMT DB
PMT DB
Indiana Wins the Natty, Adam Thielen on Retiring, and Paddy the Baddy
The impossible has actually happened. The Indiana Hoosiers, a program that was once the losingest in the history of college football, are your national champions. Big Cat and PFT Commenter spent the morning trying to wrap their heads around the fact that Curt Cignetti did in eighteen months what usually takes legendary coaches decades to achieve. The game itself actually lived up to the hype, featuring a Fernando Mendoza performance that cemented him as a certified dog and a fourth-and-five keeper that will be framed in every bar in Bloomington until the end of time.
Big CatIndiana winning the National Championship is the greatest story in college football history
The Indiana Hoosiers are national champions of the college football world... it is the craziest story... the greatest story in college football. That is a fact.
PFT already has a vision for where Mendoza is heading next, noting that his ability to take a beating in the pocket makes him a natural fit for a specific NFL franchise that loves a gritty quarterback.
PFT CommenterFernando Mendoza will be the Las Vegas Raiders starting quarterback next year
Fernando Mendoza got to show that he can take a beating. Yeah. Which he will likely have to do as a Las Vegas Raiders quarterback next year.
Big Cat has a theory that this whole run was nearly derailed years ago by a certain coach in Tuscaloosa. He did some digging into the history between Cignetti and Nick Saban, suggesting that the reason Cignetti never got an OC nod at Alabama wasn't because he wasn't ready, but because Saban knew exactly what kind of monster he was dealing with.
PFT CommenterMark Fletcher will be one of the best running backs in college football next year
In the second half, Miami got the ground game going. [Mark] Fletcher is awesome. I've loved watching Fletcher this entire year. He's gonna be back next year. And I think the Hurricanes are gonna have another great team.
The scale of this achievement can't be overstated. While Saban has a mountain of rings, Big Cat argues that the degree of difficulty at a place like Indiana creates a different kind of mathematical value for championship hardware.
Big CatCarson Beck is an 'okay' quarterback but his lack of NFL potential is unclear
Carson Beck, I think he's an okay quarterback, but not, you know, he's been in these... he's an okay quarterback. [The three losses for Miami this year], four of them came on an interception when they had a chance to win the game.
NFL Coaching Carousel and Divisional Round Cleanup
Moving to the NFL, the guys reacted to the Sean McDermott firing in Buffalo. It was a move they called for after the Bills' latest playoff exit, and now the focus shifts to who gets to inherit a roster led by Josh Allen. Big Cat wasn't hedging when he ranked the opening against the rest of the league's vacancies.
PFT CommenterCurt Cignetti is the best person to be hired for any job in human history
I think Kurt Cignetti is the best person to be hired for any job ever. The only one that you could maybe make an argument right now would be the athletic director at Indiana [Scott Dolson] who hired him.
Meanwhile, the Patriots are moving on to the AFC Championship game to face the Broncos. Hank is doing his usual routine, trying to convince the world that the most successful franchise of the last quarter-century is actually the team that nobody believes in.
Big CatNick Saban intentionally held back Curt Cignetti to protect his own coaching legacy
Did Nick Saban specifically not promote Curt Cignetti? Because he is like, 'Hey, if this guy gets a head coaching job, he's going to be known as the greatest head coach of all time. Not me.'... Nick Saban's been trying to keep the world from [Cignetti] for all these years.
Speaking of quarterbacks, Big Cat has officially seen enough of the CJ Stroud sophomore slump to make a definitive ruling on the 2023 draft class. Despite Stroud's hot start last year, the gap between him and Caleb Williams apparently isn't just wide—it's a canyon.
Big CatWinning a national championship at Indiana is worth four titles at Alabama
Winning a national championship in Indiana is like probably worth four at Alabama. Yeah. So if [Curt Cignetti] wins one more, he already has passed Nick Saban.
Adam Thielen and Paddy the Baddy
Adam Thielen joined the show fresh off his retirement announcement to look back on a 13-year career that spanned from being a walk-on at Minnesota State to catching passes from Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh. He shared details about the emotional final team meeting with Mike Tomlin and gave a glowing review of Bryce Young's future in Carolina. He also confirmed that even at age 40, Rodgers hasn't lost his fastball.
Big CatThe 2026 Chicago Bears will not regress and the future is bright for Caleb Williams
The Bears are gonna be just fine. And I think the future is very, very bright for Caleb [Williams] and Ben Johnson. Fixing the defense a little bit, you don't have to do the comebacks all the time.
Paddy the Baddy called in ahead of his interim title fight against Justin Gaethje at UFC 324. In typical Paddy fashion, he’s already planned his post-fight meal—which involves a legendary amount of ice cream—and he’s not expecting to spend much time in the octagon on Saturday night.
Big CatCaleb Williams is significantly better than CJ Stroud
I don't think there's even, I don't think there's a debate who you'd take Caleb or CJ Stroud. It's not even close to a debate. No. And that's, Caleb wouldn't, it's crazy to be in this spot... CJ Stroud after his first year, he's completely regressed.
Hot Seat Cool Throne and Pardon Your Takes
Hot Seat Cool Throne covered everything from the Beckham family drama to PFT's concern about an impending alien disclosure. According to a senior analyst at the Bank of England, we might want to settle our debts now because the White House is supposedly about to drop some world-changing news.
We wrapped up with some listener-submitted Pardon Your Takes, where Hank finally voiced what we’ve all been thinking about the suspicious increase in "doinks" across the league this season.
HankLIV Golf will be defunct within five years
Do you think that that Liv will be around in five years? [Hank]: No.
If the NFL is indeed using magnets to mess with the kickers, at least it makes for better television than the 4K feeds that PFT is convinced are being sabotaged by Big Tech to make us buy more monitors.
PFT CommenterThe US government will confirm the existence of aliens this week
Aliens might drop this week. Like, like there's aliens might drop this week... [The White House] might confirm the existence of aliens as early as this week. And just be ready for the outcome of that.
Good luck to everyone playing old man pickup basketball this week, just try not to blow your Achilles like Adam Thielen almost did.
