All right, all right, all right. It's time to smash it up here, everybody. We're going to ease into the enthusiasm here on a Monday night here on Warchant TV and discuss some heavy hitting things. He's Irish Ophel, managing editor of Warchant.com. My name is Tom Lang. Welcome into the Monday Smash presented by State Farm Agent Russ Forhis, as always. More on Russ in a minute.

He's like y'all out there.

He ain't happy.

We're not happy,

but we're here and let's discuss,

I suppose,

how we got here and where we go from here.

Ira,

why does it feel like we have to do this existential thing here on Warchand TV

way more often than most other college football programs.

It's a strange place to be. It is. It's also kind of crazy to think that wasn't that long ago

that we're doing tequila shots and celebrating. And it's just, it's amazing. I mean, it's really,

it's crazy. You know, we've both been doing this for a long time.

I'm a little bit older than you. I've been doing a little bit longer. And it's just wild how

these seasons turn. And how, you know, if you think back to the end of 2023 and, you know,

the kind of the root cause of a lot of the consternation right now is,

is the contract that Mike Norbell's been working under.

The fact that you had to up him to basically 10 years, well, eight years at 10 million a

year.

So it was $80 million contract.

And because you thought he might go to Alabama.

And at the time, I felt like the only, I remember, I texted somebody who was involved in the negotiations at the time. And I said, well, I think you guys had to do this. Like, you know, because they were like, it's a lot of money. And I was like, yeah, I know it's a lot of money, but I think you guys had to do this in this moment. And I'm not changing my opinion of that now, I mean, I think that they felt like they had to do it. I think they had to do it. But here you are. And so that part of it's crazy that, you know, at the end of the 20, 23, you felt like this was a guy you couldn't lose. Then a year later, it goes two and 10. And then you start off this year the way you start it and then

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