Ep. 12 - Nat St. Laurent Steps Down

[00:00:08] Welcome, welcome, welcome to The Run Out. I am your host, Neil Barrett. And if it seems like I'm a little distracted during this episode, it's because I probably am. You can't see it, but just out of frame right here, I am watching Manchester United play in Europe. If you know anything about me, you'll know that while lacrosse is my favorite sport, Manchester United is my favorite team. I will pretty much watch them over anything.

[00:00:39] But, gotta get the podcast out for you guys, for me as well. So, I am trying to multitask slightly, the volume's all the way down, so if you see me glance down and freak out or something, that's just what's happening. I'm not like lighting my desk on fire or anything. But this has been a huge, huge week in the sport of lacrosse. There's so much to get into. So without further ado, let's get into it.

[00:01:08] First things first, the absolute shock of the weekend happened on Tuesday night around 8pm when the PLL announced that Nat St. Laurent had stepped down effective immediately as the coach and GM of the Carolina Redwoods and that Joe Spallina had signed on to be the new GM. We'll talk about that part in a minute.

[00:01:30] First, I just want to say that Nat St. Laurent is hands down one of the best people in lacrosse. I don't think it's even possible to overstate that. The word PLLASI often comes out when you describe Nat St. Laurent and I think that seems fitting.

[00:01:51] Ask any players that played for him. Hell, ask players that played against him and you'll be very hard-pressed to find anyone who has anything negative to say about him. And to be fair, the few that probably do don't have great reasons. And I'll let you figure out what that means.

[00:02:15] Also, and this is hard for me specifically to speak on as a middle-class white male, but being the only head coach of color in the PLL's history, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he's the only head coach in pro lacrosse, at least as far as the field game is considered.

[00:02:42] He's the only head coach of color since Bill Day, who last coached in 2011, if my research is correct. That was kind of during my dark period, but I don't believe there has been one since then. So that's something that can't be overlooked.

[00:02:59] His impact on this league, on growing it to the point that it is now, and his impact on future generations can't be denied or, again, overstated. I thought Scottie Royster had a really good post about Nat's impact. I know several other players did. So, again, I want to start there that you can't, you're not going to find better than Nat St. Laurent.

[00:03:28] Secondly, and I know I can already hear the messages. I know I'm going to get some messages about this, but I think he is very overhated as a coach. And this idea that he was a poor coach is overstated. And, again, I can already hear the messages. He's the head coach. It's his responsibility. And, yes, you know, he's the head coach.

[00:03:58] And, ultimately, the buck stops with him. I've been a coach. Like, I understand the idea that, as the head coach, it is my responsibility for the team as a whole. And I certainly don't want to give the impression that I think he was Jim Stagnita or Chris Bates or anything. But the idea that his team's constantly and consistently underperformed is bizarre.

[00:04:28] In fact, I think the truth is that his teams have performed pretty much exactly as should have been predicted. They haven't really underperformed or overperformed. They've just kind of performed. The team last season was clearly going to be bad. And I don't think I'm revising history when I say that. The cupboard coming into the season was pretty bare on offense.

[00:04:55] You had RP3 and Ryder Garnsey and Westberg, which was a nice piece. And then, you know, Chris Gray. But I think coming into the season, we had some understanding that he was going to be in and out of that lineup a little bit. At best, you were hoping that after that kind of initial two weeks, I think it was, that he was out, that he was going to be back for the rest of the season. But you knew it was a possibility that he wasn't.

[00:05:20] But even with those three or four guys, if you want to count Westberg in there, you know, they had no midfield depth whatsoever. You know, I didn't, I don't think that it was an incredible lineup. And then with all due respect to John Grant Jr. as a player, as a coach, his record ain't great. His offenses have not been good.

[00:05:45] So while I think people were hopeful that it could work out for him in California, again, maybe, maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I was the only one who felt like this, but I did not think that they were going to be very good. But even taking last season into consideration, Nat has a better record than several other long-serving coaches, none of whom were being told their teams were underperforming slash they should be fired.

[00:06:13] If you are of the opinion that you want to fire him because he didn't win in the playoffs, that's fine. It's probably the most fair argument leveraged at Nat is that he has had teams that didn't win in the playoffs, though. The five years he was in the playoffs, three times he lost to the Whipsnakes on their way to the championship. All three games were decided by three total goals.

[00:06:42] So they were they were one goal games every single time against clearly the best team in the league. And then the next two seasons, he was up against the Archers, who were the best team in the league, who didn't quite make the championship and then the championship that year. So last year is the only only season where you can really point to his playoff record as as really being subpar. But again, I think that team's makeup just wasn't suited.

[00:07:10] But again, probably the most fair argument is his playoff record. And while that's fair, only four teams have won a PLL championship. And while you can maybe argue that JP, Starja and Sean Quirk were quote unquote fired because of their on field performance after a single season.

[00:07:36] And that is honestly probably playing a little fast and loose with it because, you know, we have seen coaches come in and have a not good year. Mike Pressler literally just had an awful year and followed it up the next year by being one of the best teams in the league. So, you know, it's hard to really say that when you when a guy only has one year to prove themselves.

[00:08:01] But I also don't even know that we would say that that is the reason they got fired or stepped down or whatever it was. But even if we suggest that those three were Holman, Sudan, Rubior and Pressler weren't fired for their lack of being able to win in the playoffs.

[00:08:21] And yeah, you can argue that several of those coaches have shorter time periods under the coaching position than than Nassin Loren did. I'm just not of the opinion that that's what should have been the determining factor. And it isn't something that this league has made a habit of doing in terms of firing coaches for on field performance.

[00:08:49] Maybe one day I will make a larger and longer case about why I think Nassin run in the PLL was overhated. But for now, I will just leave it at that. The last point I want to touch on with Nat is the timing. I don't have any kind of insider information. This is all kind of reading between the lines a bit.

[00:09:14] So definitely make sure that you are taking it with a grain of salt, everything that I'm about to say. But I find it very hard to believe that this was the plan or even a plan for any meaningful period of time.

[00:09:34] You don't do essentially all of the free agency work of releasing, signing and trading players and picks and all that stuff just to quit once the majority of available talent is gone. That just doesn't make sense. Whoever comes in next to coach the Redwoods will have their own ideas on how a team should play and which players best suit that style of play.

[00:10:03] Joe Spallina now has almost no one left to target, to build a team in the way that a new head coach will want to play. And according to the reporting by Dan Arestia, Nat was involved in all of the deals up until he stepped down. And we even noticed that Nat St. Laurent was tweeting about some of the deals the Redwoods made Monday night before the announcement was made Tuesday.

[00:10:32] So I am really having a tough time with the timing of this. And I don't buy that he just woke up Tuesday morning and was like, yeah, I'm done here. That that just doesn't make sense. Something clearly had to change quite rapidly in this relationship. And this is pure, pure speculation.

[00:10:59] So don't even take it with a grain of salt. Just treat it as straight up lax truth or conspiracy theories here. We may end up hearing something, you know, later down the road. You know, it could be tomorrow. It could be next week. It could be six months from now. Who knows? At some point, I imagine Nat will publicly have some kind of comment on a podcast or something. He'll say something even if no one else does.

[00:11:29] But we also just may never know. We may never truly know what has happened. But in my mind, one of two things happened here. The first is that something changed in his family situation. I certainly hope this is not the case. But if someone got sick in his family, that would have changed things for him.

[00:11:54] If him or his wife or someone got a job opportunity that involved moving and involved a different level of time commitment, that obviously would change things fairly rapidly. I don't really know, but that's kind of the first context in which this decision at this time makes some kind of sense to me.

[00:12:19] The other context and probably the more likely context that makes this announcement at this time make sense is that something changed inside the league. What that is, again, we may never know. But, and again, put on your tinfoil hats with me for a second here.

[00:12:42] The fact that the Joe Spallina announcement was made at the same time as this is interesting. And again, I need to restate this just for stating the obvious. I know nothing, but I am sure that Joe Spallina was not contacted and hired on Tuesday during the day. This is a thing that has been in the works.

[00:13:07] And without trying to speculate on details and legitimately going down a lax truther rabbit hole, I wouldn't be surprised if this move had something to do with Nat St. Lorraine stepping down. And again, I'll just leave it at that so that we don't end up going super far down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole,

[00:13:30] especially when, again, it's very possible that we will never really know what caused Nat St. Lorraine to step down. I just think it's interesting. The timing feels really, really funky to at least meet. Moving over to the Joe Spallina hire specifically, I mentioned him as a candidate to fill the chaos head coaching spot when Andy Towers left.

[00:13:56] Joe is without a doubt one of the best minds in the game, and this is an excellent hire for the Redwoods organization. As for who he should hire as the next head coach of the California Redwoods, I'm honestly not sure. I would say that everyone who was in play for the chaos job is still in play for the woods job,

[00:14:25] but it's hard to really know who the best candidate is. One, because in the last few head coaching searches completed by the PLL, they have not picked the candidate or even from the pool of candidates that seemed the most likely and obvious choices.

[00:14:47] Two, because the guy that was my personal number one and who makes the most sense at this time of year, considering a lot of the guys that are kind of obvious choices already have PLL obligations that they're not likely to just abandon at this point of the year, was the guy they just hired as the GM Joe Spallina.

[00:15:13] And three, because this team is already radically different from what it was even at the end of last year, and it's hard to really know who fits what the Redwoods have and can maximize what is already on this roster

[00:15:35] while simultaneously looking forward to building something that can compete in a longer term kind of thought process. Because whoever it is, is going to have quite a job on their hands. One name I will throw out that I have seen that makes some sense, given the kind of context of what I just laid out is Brody Merrill.

[00:16:02] I don't really know how likely that is. I know that he works at the Hill School and he just got hired somewhere. I can't remember where it was. I saw him taking some kind of position. So how likely that is, I don't know. We will obviously have to see. But it was one name that I thought was interesting and at least publicly does not necessarily have a reason that you would clearly say he couldn't do it.

[00:16:30] So again, we'll see how that works out. The very last comment on this whole thing that I have before we move on to other things is that I keep seeing this thing that Joe is going to look to draft his son, Joey Spelina, next year. And I know that most of the people saying it are saying it kind of in jest. It's kind of a joke.

[00:16:56] But I also know that there are people out there who 100% believe it. They believe in the puppet strings being pulled and getting, you know, the Kavanaugh's to Boston and stuff like that. So I just kind of felt like I would or should address it.

[00:17:16] Any GM worth their pay is going to want the number one pick, especially one that is so good that he's basically been the projected number one pick since they were a senior in high school. So even familial relationship aside, I am sure that Joe would love to draft Joe, Joey. Well, that's hard to say. Joe, Joey.

[00:17:43] I'm sure that Joe Spelina would love to have Joey Spelina on the Woods roster. But in order to be in a position to draft Joey, the Redwoods would have to either be the worst team in the league this year or willing to give up something pretty meaty in order to trade up. Neither of which seems like Joe doing his job correctly.

[00:18:10] I think he's going to do everything he can to not be in a position to draft his son. And not for nothing, if they're not the worst team in the league this season and the number one pick outright, trading up makes very little sense because they're not going to be a Joey Spelina away from being good. So, yeah, I don't think that there's any truth to that.

[00:18:36] Again, I know a lot of it was said kind of kind of tongue in cheek, but just to address it and say, I don't think it's happening. Moving on to standard PLL free agency news, but sticking with the Redwoods, at least sort of.

[00:18:56] Rob Pinnell, the biggest domino for PLL free agency this offseason, has officially made his choice and signed with the Maryland Whipsnakes. In the last few weeks, several teams were mentioned, but there was a persistent rumor about Maryland that even though it didn't seem to make a ton of sense, it would not die and gave credence to the fact that maybe there was something there.

[00:19:23] From the Whips point of view, the how does this fit with our team is clearly secondary to we just got one of the best QBs in the league and of all time for that matter. Contrary to what some of the more jaded Woods fans might try to convince you or convince themselves, RP3 has in fact been performing at an elite level even the last couple of years with the Woods.

[00:19:53] The team just didn't have the guns to run with him and match him. He was a top 10 scorer in the league last year. Ryder Garnsey was 16th and then you have to go down almost to 30 to find the next Redwoods player in terms of scoring since 2021 when Miles Jones was fourth in the league and scoring and should have been at least,

[00:20:22] at least an MVP finalist if not the MVP. No other player beyond RP3 and Ryder Garnsey has been in the top 20 in scoring and it's not like the ball was getting stuck in RP3's stick and he wasn't sharing the rock in every PLL season he has played ever.

[00:20:45] He has at least the same number of assists as he does goals if not more. Last season he had 15 and 15 the season before he had 15 and 19 and in 2022 he had 16 and 22. So, you know, he's he's making the plays. But last year they were last in defense last in goaltending second to last in offense and last on the power play.

[00:21:14] That's clearly the sign of a poor team from top to bottom and not just a single player quote unquote holding on to the ball too much. Like I said earlier about Joey Spelina, the Woods aren't RP3's replacement away from being a good team. So again, I get the thinking that went into this decision from the whips end.

[00:21:40] You had the chance to sign one of the best players of all time who's still performing at a very high level and you took it.

[00:21:48] What does perplex me is that you spent all of last year getting younger and probably even more than that faster to the point where it was a legitimate possibility coming into this season that the whips drafted a another high level attackman in the draft. And Matt Rambo found himself on the outside of the starting attack line.

[00:22:16] And I'm not saying that he would have been just that you wouldn't have been all that surprised if come May 31st in Albany Rambo was coming out of the box or being used as fourth attackman.

[00:22:26] So why you would do all of that, release Will Manny, trade X and Moral away, trade for Levi Anderson, trade for Ryan Conrad, trade Zed Williams for Matt Brandow just to then go and get Rob Pinnell who doesn't necessarily fit that style of play is beyond me.

[00:22:47] It feels relevant at this point in this conversation to mention that the whips also signed Justin Gutterding and Will Manny, both of which were dominant players in this league for other teams and then tried to play them out of position or by running them out of the box. And it didn't work for either of them.

[00:23:10] So the whips do have kind of a penchant for doing this, for grabbing a guy who is a high level performer on another team and bringing him to the their makeup and moving things around and it just not working out. That all being said, do I think it can work? Yes. And I wouldn't put anything past Staggs at this point.

[00:23:37] It just feels so strange to start a transition towards what this team will look like for the better part of a neck of the next decade and have it work. Remember, they played in the championship game last season, so it's not even like they were failing at this transition and they panicked and made a change. It worked and worked very well.

[00:24:03] And it felt like you had a clear vision heading into this draft for what this team was going to look like, what its needs were and how it was going to play for at least the next few seasons.

[00:24:19] And you may, again, we will see, have derailed all of that to bring in, again, unquestionably a great player, but one that might not fit what you are trying to do. It all feels very New York Jets, Aaron Rodgers to me with apologies to any Jets fans listening.

[00:24:43] I don't mean to bring up what I'm sure is a sore subject, but it just feels like you're starting to get this thing going. And then you caught the flash, caught your eye, and you made a kind of a snap judgment to bring in this player. And it could very much derail everything that you have been doing. But again, we will just have to see how this plays out.

[00:25:13] He will be surrounded by a very, very good team that is helmed by arguably the best coach in the league. And he could very well have an MVP level season and the Whips win a championship. All of that remains to be seen, but we will be paying attention this summer.

[00:25:36] Moving on to the NLL, their trade deadline closed on Monday with several high profile moves. The first happened actually before the trade deadline, and that was Nick Rose going from Toronto to Calgary, which seemed a little bit crazy other than the fact that Toronto season was kind of at the end and they were at a position where it was time to move some guys on and hopefully bring in some draft capital

[00:26:06] to help, you know, turn this team into what it will be for the next, again, decade or so. But even beyond that, that trade began to make way more sense on Monday when Calgary announced that they were officially and finally trading Christian Del Bianco, the former NLL MVP from Calgary to Vancouver as part of a huge four-team trade

[00:26:34] that I couldn't even begin to tell you. The only other one that I remember is Ron John is now with the Buffalo Bandits, but it was a massive trade. One of the biggest trades I think I've ever seen. And I don't know that I've ever seen a four-team trade in a sport before. I've seen several three teams. I don't know that I've seen a four-team. So that was huge news. Christian Del Bianco, for anyone who does not remember, was holding out.

[00:27:03] Some things in his family situation had changed, and he wanted to be playing in the greater Vancouver area. And he actually spent most of the season playing in the AAL, which I believe is Arena Lacrosse League. If I remember correctly, I should have looked that up, but I forgot. But he will finally get the move that he has been looking for to Vancouver that will allow him to actually play in the NLL this season.

[00:27:32] Moving on, Kyle Jackson was also traded from the San Diego Seals to the Albany Firewolves. This matches his recent PLL move to the Atlas. He will now be playing both NLL and PLL in New York. In theory, he could be living there. So that's pretty cool that he could be living there and helping build the community for both his NLL and PLL teams.

[00:28:01] Moving on from the trade deadline, but still talking a little bit of player movement in something that doesn't involve the trade deadline. The Colorado Mammoth announced earlier this week that Zed Williams will be heading to the IR with a season-ending Achilles injury. This is, of course, obviously going to also affect Zed Williams' availability with the Philadelphia Waterdogs.

[00:28:27] He will likely not play at all this PLL season, which is obviously a huge bummer for all Waterdogs fans and just anyone who is a fan of watching Zed Williams play lacrosse. We wish him a happy, healthy, speedy recovery. That's obviously most important, and hopefully we get to see him back on the floor in the NLL and the field in the PLL next season.

[00:28:57] Moving on to several of the games from this past weekend, Toronto managed to keep their very, very slim playoff hopes alive by beating the Halifax Thunderbirds 15-12 in probably a very, very shocking result considering the aforementioned Nick Rose trade and several of the injuries that they are dealing with.

[00:29:23] But they are, again, at least mathematically, still alive for the playoffs. Moving on to Calgary, the aforementioned Nick Rose made 43 saves. They got 10 points from Jesse King and 8 points from Curtis Dixon and outscored the Buffalo Bandits 7-2 in the fourth quarter

[00:29:47] to run out of Key Bank Center with a 17-11 win against the Buffalo Bandits, which left the door wide open for the Saskatchewan Rush to come in and take control of first place in the NLL, which they gladly took, winning a very, very tight game against the Georgia Swarm 8-7 in a game that Lyle Thompson had no goals, which was pretty shocking,

[00:30:16] especially when you combine it with the fact that Miles Thompson also had no goals, making it a very, very rare Thompson no-goal party in Georgia. But again, the Saskatchewan Rush are the story of the NLL season this year, and it is going to be very fun to see how far they can take this

[00:30:40] and can they legitimately pose a threat to the Bandits winning a third championship in a row. Moving over to the NCAA game, Ohio State pulled off one of the big surprises of the season so far, at least for the internet, when they beat Notre Dame 10-9. That Ohio State defense is real.

[00:31:09] They are real good, and they are going to keep Ohio State in a lot of games. But ultimately, I walked away feeling like the game said more about Notre Dame than about Ohio State. For most of the season, I have thought that Ohio State was around that number 10 spot, and I think this game just showed that Notre Dame is kind of also in that spot, that 10 level,

[00:31:37] and they're not a top three school on its way to a three-peat national championship. I have thought that. I am pretty sure that I have been saying that on this podcast repeatedly, but I thought this just kind of showed that Notre Dame is that level, and Ohio State is that level. They're kind of in a similar place right now. I think this game could have easily gone either way,

[00:32:04] and I'd still feel more or less the same about both teams, that they're both kind of right there in the 10 spot. Manchester United just scored, and it looks like we're going to the next round of the Europa League. So I feel like it's important that I clarify something here. If you have been on my social media anytime recently, you'll know that every time Ohio State wins a big game that no one thinks they will, I post hot seat check,

[00:32:32] and I want to clarify that that's 100% just a joke, because I don't think that Nick Myers was on the hot seat either way, and I just think it's funny that the second people started calling his seat hot, the team rattles off all these crazy wins. Again, as I've said many times, this isn't a career where seats really get very hot,

[00:32:57] and I think people overstate how bad Ohio State has been, especially in the past two seasons, which is what a lot of people point to. If you look at, again, even in the last two seasons, who their losses are, their losses are to programs that are easily a level or two above them. And while sure you want to beat higher level teams, the idea that you're firing a head coach for losing games to Maryland and Hopkins and Yale

[00:33:27] is just kind of goofy. The one team they lost to that you would think they should probably beat is Michigan, Michigan, but Michigan just had two good seasons at the time that Ohio State had two bad seasons and was dealing with injuries and stuff. And to this day, Michigan has still never won more than two conference games in a season. Like, to this day. They did pretty good in the Big Ten tournament.

[00:33:56] They won the Big Ten tournament championship, but they still never won more than two games in a conference season. So this idea that Nick Myers was on a hot seat is just kind of goofy to me, and I'm not feeling it. Manchester United scored again, just for anyone who cares, which I know none of you do, but they did. It's now 4-1. So, awesome. We're moving on to the next round. Moving on to the next game.

[00:34:23] Syracuse beats Hopkins 13-10 in the Dome, which hopefully puts a rest to the idea that's floating around out there, that the ACC will be a one-bid league this year. Owen Hiltz led all scores in the game with five points, with Joey Spelina and Tyler Cordes. I don't know how to say that. I should probably do better, but I don't. They each added for a piece,

[00:34:51] and the Syracuse defense was able to keep Hunter Chavette, Michael Collison, and the rest of the Jays offense in check. Like I said after the Harvard game, I think Syracuse is fine. I don't think they're a true title contender, but they are a good team, and they are definitely one of the teams that is going to be eyeing the Final Four. I think that's where most of the teams this year fit.

[00:35:19] They are looking at the Final Four and getting their will in a lot of ways be their championship. I know people don't want to hear that, and I'm not saying that they will necessarily think that, but I think looking back on it in a year or two down the road, they will look at it and say, yeah, that Final Four was a good accomplishment for that season. As I've said several times, borrowing this from Dan Arestia, it's not that everyone is good this year,

[00:35:48] it's that everyone is mid, and I think Maryland looks like a title contender. I think Princeton looks like a title contender, and I think Penn State is probably a dark horse for the title. But once you get outside of that, while I wouldn't say it would be a shock for any of the other teams to win it, I think it would be a decent kind of surprise based on what we have right now.

[00:36:16] If somebody wins their next six games in a row by solid margins, we might have a different conversation. But again, I think Syracuse is kind of one of those teams that's very good and will be vying for that Final Four spot, and then after that, I think that will be about as far as they go. Moving on, Penn State beats Cornell 13-12 in overtime

[00:36:45] in what was probably the game of the weekend. It was incredible, so much fun to watch, and I could talk about it all day from Penn State's missing attack line and what that did to their offense, to Cornell taking a big lead and being up, I believe it was four with like two and a half minutes left, to Penn State's massive comeback led by an unreleasable two-minute penalty

[00:37:15] and scoring the game winner and all of that. It was a great game, and all of those things would be worthwhile, but I'm going to go a slightly different route for this game, if you will allow me some leeway to do this. And this is nearly impossible for me to say without sounding like I'm bragging about being right. So hopefully you guys understand,

[00:37:44] and I am making it clear that I would have these same exact thoughts, even if I was wrong. But for those of you who are not listening to your first run-out podcast, you will likely have heard last week me talk about the difficulty I had in getting that episode up. And I honestly thought about giving up and just not doing an episode last week saying,

[00:38:13] I've recorded it three times, hasn't worked, I'm just going to let it go, and I can record it next week, put it out, and just let it go. It won't be a big deal. But I knew that one of the questions that was being asked, because obviously I compiled them, was about my Final Four. And I knew that I was going to put Penn State in, and I knew that Penn State was playing Cornell this week,

[00:38:43] and that if I picked Penn State, and I didn't put out the episode last week, and Penn State lost against Cornell, then it would easily, next week I could easily just switch it and say, okay, Cornell is going to be my Final Four team. But it was important to me that I put out my original idea,

[00:39:11] because, and those of you that, again, follow me on social media will probably no doubt know, I have a thing about faceless accounts online. There are a few that are fine. If you come on and act like a decent human being, it's fine. But obviously, most people use those accounts

[00:39:38] to say things that they are not accountable for. And that bothers me. So, it's important to me that I tell you my thoughts when I have them, and I can be held accountable for them. To that point, I wanted to get this out so that I could be held accountable. And to that point, at halftime of this game,

[00:40:08] when I saw what the score was, I already started thinking about how I was going to have to come on here and say I was wrong. And not in like a play it off way, because that's not my style either. I'm not going to excuse it or play it off. I'm going to be like, clearly I was wrong. I might try and say I was wrong, but, or something, and say I'm going to give it one more week or something and see what happens. Obviously, losing to Cornell

[00:40:37] doesn't necessarily mean that Penn State won't be a Final Four team. But the way some of that game was going, and again, like I talked about, Penn State was missing basically their entire starting attack for at least large portions of the game, if not the whole game. So there were some ways that you could say Penn State is still that team, and I may have tried to do that. But it's still very important to me

[00:41:07] that I have accountability for the things that I say, and that's why I have no problem showing my face and saying the things that I say. They, you know, the Stick Talk boys got called out by Chaos because they say what they think and their faces and names are attached to it. And the Carolina Chaos know where to find them. And I commend them for that.

[00:41:33] I think that is the very respectable thing to do. And when Cornell won in overtime and all I could think was, whoo, I don't have to figure out how I can, you know, talk about me screwing up the Penn State pick. But again, this was a little bit rambly. It was just all that I could think about. And again, I hope I don't sound like I'm beating my own chest or anything. I just,

[00:42:03] I thought it was an interesting conversation on why I have this podcast, why I stand up for the things that I stand up for and why I will probably to my own detriment at times, you know, have the debates online that I do even with faceless accounts. And that is the biggest reason why, because I just cannot respect you if you don't have the decency

[00:42:31] to put your name and number and face on your comments. And I really do encourage you guys all the time at the end of every episode to leave a message in the comments, to respond to me on Twitter or Instagram or whatever and tell me what you think I got wrong. I am more than happy to have that conversation. I enjoyed the conversation. I enjoyed the debate. You know, again, going back to Stick Talk, several of the guys on that show,

[00:43:01] we have had some debates. So, again, rambling a bit, but it was just kind of the thing that that in-state game reminded me of. And I thought it would be funny to talk about. So, yeah, that's that. And the last thing is, after last week's episode, I told you guys

[00:43:27] that I was going to be accepting questions from you to close out the show. And the only question I got, so it was the winner by default, was from Push Higher, who asked, what is your design process? This is kind of an open-ended question. There are so many different ways that I can take that and answer it. And I'm not sure which one you meant.

[00:43:55] I will say on a larger scale that it really kind of depends on the client and what they're asking for and what their needs are and how I feel like I can meet them on a more, I guess, kind of granular level. You know, again, it's going to depend on the project, but let's just say that we're talking about a Photoshop design. It's going to be finding pictures.

[00:44:24] That's most important. I would say you are going to spend way more time finding photographs than you are actually designing. And then for lacrosse, because photos are so hard to find, I tend to have to let them shape what I'm doing in terms of composition and stuff. If I'm if I'm really, really lucky, I might have an idea

[00:44:54] and a photo that are kind of congruent and I'll combine them. It might be that I have wanted to do something like this and I can find a picture or something that works for it. And then it's it's literally kind of the same thing. I have a video again coming out that will show you the kind of a step-by-step process on how I actually create something in Photoshop. But from there,

[00:45:24] it's just kind of the same general steps of color correction and then kind of design techniques for whatever it is that I'm trying to do. Again, it will vary. And then and then same kind of sort of buttoning up projects using LUTs and stuff. I tend to use a lot of the same things to button up my photo my images over and over and over again. It's just kind of

[00:45:53] become like my go-to sort of style again unless a client is asking for something specifically beyond that. So I don't know that I really answered your question there. Push higher if you would like something more specific. I don't mean this to sound rude but like ask a more specific question that I can kind of follow. Like I said, this is a really open-ended question and I can take it a hundred different ways I feel like.

[00:46:23] So hopefully that answered it at least somewhat sufficiently and you know you are satisfied and I will have a video again coming out soon that has a more in-depth look at my kind of individual process but again if your question is about a larger process just let me know and I'll ask it. That being said again please submit questions

[00:46:53] I will pick one every week that I can as long as you guys are submitting them I will pick one every week and answer it on the show and then again every two months or so we'll do another kind of full mailbag kind of question and try and answer a bunch of them all at once but that is it for the question today and that is it for this episode of the runout next week I will be once again joined by my friend

[00:47:23] Adam Levy and he will be telling us all about the NLL season that was and what we should be paying attention to in the final four weeks of the regular season as we charge full steam head towards the playoffs so definitely keep an eye out for that episode dropping next week but until then I will catch you guys on the internet next week