Let’s take us back to where it kind of all began.

Technically, he was right. There wasn’t a controversy, but there was a bit of a change at the position.

I wonder if Eason would’ve blocked as well as Fromm did for Michel’s game-winning Wildcat run in Pasadena?

What if…what if…

The grass isn’t always greener, right? Try telling that to your Transfer Portal all-stars, particularly guys like DJ Ukelele and Marvin Jones, Jr., for starters.

That aside, today’s Cleanser is brought to you by St. Paul and the Broken Bones. Have you ever wished you could get an old soul band sound, complete with a light horn section, who is fronted by a guy who looks like Dwight Shrute? Well, your prayers have been answered:

Lead by Paul Janeway, the band is a riser in the industry, and according to the NPR article, your eyes and initial impressions don’t deceive you.

“Paul, according to all the reviews and stuff that are written of the band, he looks like your high school history teacher, or he looks like Drew Carey,” Phillips explains. “Bottom line is that we’re a bunch of kind of nerdy-looking white guys, and when this sort of earth-shaking soul roar comes out of his mouth for the first time, you can always hear the air being sucked out of the room.”

Raised in a strict religious household, Janeway dabbled in preaching, singing, and yardwork before hitting it big.

Speaking of time and chance, like the portal, the strict raising may have paid off in the weirdest of ways.

As for his parents, Janeway says that in retrospect he’s glad they were so strict. He remembers a particularly formative moment when his mother found his copy of Nirvana‘s Nevermind.

“She found it and threw it away,” he says. “I told her that story, and she goes, ‘Listen, Paul, if you’d have listened to Nirvana, you wouldn’t have been a soul singer.’ So, I look at it now and go, ‘Well, maybe it’s turned out to be a really good thing.’ “

Choices and chance are uniquely intertwined in the ways of life, are they not?

Hey, I’m sure it caught your eye…but we have another Champion in Athens:

Congratulations to our Women’s Tennis team on their ITA Indoor Title. Go ‘Dawgs!

I’ve seen some pretty crazy stuff in my time, but I’m not sure I can think of anything that tops this.

Discuss.

I’m going to take a page from a few of you and start exploring some other avenues for content, so I thought I’d give this a try this week. I try to keep track with comments, so if you have an idea for a roundtable discussion point, throw it out there. Since the Playpen is reserved for political content, this can be any number of topics that can be discussed in good spirit, for the sake of generating conversation amongst our Refugees.

Today’s Tuesday Roundtable topic:

What are you watching on TV nowadays (or a streaming service)…what makes it intriguing and why would you encourage fellow Refugees to watch?

My two cents today: Mindhunter. I had a friend who was a Florida State grad and they were a criminal justice major. She had shared her collection of articles, pictures, and interviews collected from Ted Bundy, which got me intrigued about serial killer profiles and the stories of their childhoods that lead them to be who they became.

Mindhunter has a great cast, many of whom are dead on in their look, speech, and mannerisms of the serial killers they portray. While the series ended with only two season, I saw recently that season three is coming out this year after a long hiatus.

David Harriman plays Charles Manson, who is the same actor who portrayed Manson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and is one of a series of characters that are profiled and interviewed in Mindhunter. Aside from great casting, the show follows two members of the FBIs Behavioral Sciences Unit who hopes to use profiles to solve ongoing unsolved cases. Pretty cool, if you like the true crime genre.

How about you? What are you watching and why?

At least he was pushing Milk, Airplanes, and Cars. Then there’s this:

By the way, Williams turned 18 on Sunday, so we can no longer says he’s “the first 17 year old to…” anymore.

I’d imagine he’s the first football player to endorse nail polish, though. It would kind of make sense for a baseball NIL deal for a catcher, but what do I know? I’m just a girl dad.

Apparently, we weren’t the only ones observing that Auburn had surprisingly good stats with Net YPP metrics that should’ve translated to a better win percentage. One thing was for certain, it wasn’t because of defensive shortcomings.

Auburn brought up the rear in turnover margins for 2024, and offense couldn’t get out of its way to put together a really good game outside of the Texas A&M upset. Hugh Freeze and company took notice that one thing was worth preserving, and that was defensive competency.

Makes me wonder if Schumann and Smart are about to hit the negotiating table…or maybe they need to see how 2025 with a little more beef and talent across the defensive line will translate on to the playing field.

He might not have been coaching the team, but he definitely had an impact and the Philadelphia Eagles.

You mean it wasn’t Lincoln Riley’s influence? Shocker.

The recruiting material for Kirby sometimes just writes itself.

Shot:

Chaser:

Aside from that, how were the commercials and halftime show?

Definitely had flashbacks to 21 and 22 defenses last night…man they had Mahomes and company bottled up.

No, I’m not talking about that guy taking that guy’s place…but tell me if this has a familiar ring to it:

Hey, he’s a great recruiter. Let’s see how it works out.