Speaker 1: Welcome to the Solid verbal hell that for me. I'm
Speaker 1: a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well,
Speaker 1: I want to be happy.
Speaker 2: You want to be happy for a day?
Speaker 1: Edith Steak is that whoo whoom? And Dan and Tye.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Solid Rouble Boys and Girls. My
Speaker 3: name is ty Hildenbrandt. That guy over there be incomparable
Speaker 3: Dan Rubinsteed in the heart of the Midwest, Sir, how
Speaker 3: are you.
Speaker 2: I'm good, especially excited for the show. We have not
Speaker 2: had this guest on for a long time. You've already
Speaker 2: seen the title of the show, so you know it's
Speaker 2: the Athletics Bruce Feldman. I haven't physically, I mean obviously
Speaker 2: because of COVID, Like you don't see the people that
Speaker 2: you're used to seeing on the road, and I haven't
Speaker 2: been on the road obviously, and I don't live in
Speaker 2: New York, and I would always see media people types
Speaker 2: coming in for Heisman or whatever meetings.
Speaker 1: So it's good to see these guys.
Speaker 2: Because we have this video component for our Patreon supporters
Speaker 2: at verballers dot com, it's good to at least see
Speaker 2: them on video. So I'm excited to have Bruce on.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to catch up and this is this is
Speaker 2: bread and butter time for Bruce, Bruce Feldman the Athletic,
Speaker 2: so it is. I'm thrilled to have him on, thrilled
Speaker 2: to pick his brain. And as soon as we finish,
Speaker 2: Pietz's going in the oven. It's a good little afternoon.
Speaker 3: And Bruce's coming on on short notice, which we always
Speaker 3: appreciate his time. We've known Bruce for as long as
Speaker 3: we've done this podcast. He's always been more than generous
Speaker 3: with his time, and as you said, yeah, it is
Speaker 3: kind of his time to shine. Being so he is
Speaker 3: so connected in the coaching ranks, We're gonna try and
Speaker 3: do our best to go through as much of the
Speaker 3: coaching news, ask as many questions as we can, because
Speaker 3: we know, at least the people who write into us
Speaker 3: are very curious as to where this whole thing's gonna
Speaker 3: end up. The coaching carousel spinning ever so chaotically here
Speaker 3: and we're not even in the offseason yet, no, just
Speaker 3: towards the latter bit of the twenty twenty one football season.
Speaker 3: So we'll talk to Bruce of the Athletic here. Momentarily,
Speaker 3: Dan mentioned for Ballers dot com. That's where you can
Speaker 3: go and find everything you need to know about our patreon.
Speaker 3: We would encourage you all to tune in tomorrow. Many
Speaker 3: of you are listening to this on our Friday. Solid
Speaker 3: Saturday dot Com is how you can get access to
Speaker 3: the live stream that we do eleven am Eastern Time
Speaker 3: every Saturday morning on our YouTube channel in hopes of
Speaker 3: getting you ready for the college football week ahead, this
Speaker 3: being week twelve. What did we name it? What was
Speaker 3: the Saturday that we went with?
Speaker 4: You?
Speaker 3: Remember?
Speaker 1: Oh, Sad Slice Saturday.
Speaker 3: Sad Slice Saturday coming at you? Go to Solid Saturday
Speaker 3: dot com and last but not least, Solid Giveaway dot com.
Speaker 3: If you want to throw your hat in the ring, Yeah,
Speaker 3: got a free chance to win a signed mini helmet
Speaker 3: by fan favorite not yet a friend of the show,
Speaker 3: eventually will be Robert Griffin. Third.
Speaker 2: I've interviewed RG three. We have it on the show though, no, no,
Speaker 2: not on this show. He is one of my absolute
Speaker 2: favorite interviews ever.
Speaker 1: He was terrific. I interviewed him right.
Speaker 2: After he was drafted by Washington and was great, was
Speaker 2: absolutely terrific and doing a good job with ESPN and
Speaker 2: decided to get somebody this mini helmet.
Speaker 1: It looks very cool.
Speaker 2: Do you know that I have a Bruce Feldman theory
Speaker 2: that's not the Bruce Feldman body blow theory, but I
Speaker 2: have side of the body blow theory outside of the
Speaker 2: body blow theory, which involves betting against a team who
Speaker 2: played an especially physical team, a pounding running team the
Speaker 2: week before. I have a theory about guys like Bruce
Speaker 2: or you know, people like Nicole Auerback or woj with
Speaker 2: the NBA, or it's Jeff Passen that's Fanci's last AMMLB.
Speaker 2: I have a theory that, like when Bruce retires from
Speaker 2: sports writing, he is going to announce that if you
Speaker 2: go back and look at his old articles, any coach
Speaker 2: that he lists as saying like don't sleep on blah
Speaker 2: baty blah, that's the actual right answer when he does
Speaker 2: his coaching carousel, Like if you go back and look
Speaker 2: at Bruce's columns now and he's talking about like the
Speaker 2: tco opening, he's going to eventually reveal that if you
Speaker 2: go back, he was right about them all and he
Speaker 2: knew and he put in secret code, and you have
Speaker 2: to go back and decipher who's actually getting the job.
Speaker 3: All right, Dan joining us now our longtime friend from
Speaker 3: the athletic from Fox Sports. It's Bruce Felman. Bruce Dan
Speaker 3: and I were talking before we hit record here about
Speaker 3: the last time we had you on. I think it
Speaker 3: was last year when we did a rewatch of Miami
Speaker 3: Ohio State.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that the game or the podcast the
Speaker 1: pop both? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Both remember the game. I'd like to say, I remember this.
Speaker 1: We did to rewatch.
Speaker 2: You talked about your experience experience. I think were you
Speaker 2: on the field for that game?
Speaker 5: I was, Yeah, that part, I definitely remember, okay, and
Speaker 5: I remember thinking, man, I just lost a lot of
Speaker 5: money in a book event.
Speaker 1: That's right?
Speaker 4: Want this?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, your book history. We can talk about that,
Speaker 2: your book history. Like I don't know if this is
Speaker 2: s I curse level, but ma'am, so you write the
Speaker 2: Leech book, you write Coach org On and like meat
Speaker 2: Market obviously was a lot with Coach with that Oorsron
Speaker 2: as well, and the Miami losing that game because you
Speaker 2: were with Miami, right, you were with my me that season?
Speaker 2: Not really okay, So that wasn't k mutiny, I wasn't.
Speaker 5: Can Uni was kind of set up differently where a
Speaker 5: book book agent had reached out to me and thought
Speaker 5: that was really their idea for it, right. So I
Speaker 5: a ton of time working on that book project and
Speaker 5: then they lose to Ohio State the way they do,
Speaker 5: and I just remember thinking I had like kind of
Speaker 5: a similar experience on a much smaller scale. I used
Speaker 5: to freelance from Maxim and I would do some sports
Speaker 5: stories for them, and there was a there was a
Speaker 5: heavyweight fight I think it was. It might have been
Speaker 5: either in Europe or in Africa, where Lennox Lewis got
Speaker 5: knocked out, maybe by Hassim Rockman, and I was kind
Speaker 5: of thing it happened in the middle of the night.
Speaker 4: I saw it, yeah, and I remember like, huh, that's interesting.
Speaker 5: Then I was like, wait a minute, I have like
Speaker 5: a Lenox Lewis story that's not going to run now.
Speaker 4: That's like seven on the fight. That's I lost it.
Speaker 5: And so I remember thinking in that context, I'm like, whoa,
Speaker 5: I bet you I lost this book deal that's coming
Speaker 5: because he's lost.
Speaker 4: And it turned out they still want to do the book. No.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're all good stories, they're all worthy of books.
Speaker 2: They're all good books. I don't mean to put you
Speaker 2: down or anything, but it is fascinating.
Speaker 4: This, by the way a quick one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So Seth Wickersham, you guys know who that is, right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Are you writing about Brian Kelly right now?
Speaker 4: Is that this has nothing?
Speaker 5: But Seth gets married and yeah where he's from. So
Speaker 5: I'm there with my wife. I don't even know if
Speaker 5: we were married at the time, but for a week
Speaker 5: and I get a phone call about my book which
Speaker 5: is going to which is me market from basically the
Speaker 5: guy who's published in the book, and he said, just
Speaker 5: want to let you know, Glenn, who is my editor,
Speaker 5: He's going to be fine.
Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, that's good.
Speaker 5: I don't know why I would be worth concerned that
Speaker 5: he's going to be fine or not because I didn't know,
Speaker 5: and he goes, just want to let you know he's
Speaker 5: going to be fine.
Speaker 4: The only thing is he has no short term memory.
Speaker 5: I was like, what, So my book is about to
Speaker 5: go to print and the editor has no short term memory.
Speaker 5: This sounded like something you'd see on like a soap opera. Yeah,
Speaker 5: And I was like, how can this be? So I
Speaker 5: had to fly back to New York and basically sit
Speaker 5: there with somebody and go through the whole book like
Speaker 5: for like, I don't know, four days straight.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, what caused the memory loss?
Speaker 4: I think he had a stroke.
Speaker 5: Like a great editor, he was a little older, yeah,
Speaker 5: but I had I've had some weird editing experiences, like
Speaker 5: the editor of Kane Muni I think left the company
Speaker 5: like right before it was going to print, so trying out.
Speaker 4: Honestly, this is something on me.
Speaker 5: It was a very sloppy process, right, And the thing
Speaker 5: with meat Market was what it was, the the uh flip.
Speaker 5: The script book with Oseron was supposed to come out
Speaker 5: like around SEC Media Days in July, and it got
Speaker 5: back because of the pandemic and the uncertainty. And what's
Speaker 5: kind of crazy looking back was the publisher who had
Speaker 5: bought it and this was not this I was just
Speaker 5: the writer, but the publisher had bought it. The editor
Speaker 5: had another project that she was also working on, and
Speaker 5: that project ended up, you know, getting slotted ahead of it.
Speaker 5: Whereas I'm thinking in my head, well, LSU's going to
Speaker 5: play games. They're missing most of their best players from
Speaker 5: last year. There's a chance that could start out two
Speaker 5: and two. The book project that she was doing that
Speaker 5: got put in front was DeShawn Watson.
Speaker 4: So oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not ideal. Not ideal.
Speaker 2: All right, let's go into more modern I don't know
Speaker 2: if it's good or bad, but let's go into some
Speaker 2: more modern stories because this is kind of Bruce Feldman season. Normally,
Speaker 2: Bruce Felman season is November, December, January. You know, obviously
Speaker 2: you're extremely plugged in the coaching world. Now this, I
Speaker 2: mean it almost feels year round. It almost at a
Speaker 2: certain point season round, for sure. Does this feel? And
Speaker 2: a listener asked us earlier, is this a new reality
Speaker 2: that we're dealing with with coaches being let go early
Speaker 2: because of new recruiting or because now they're competing with
Speaker 2: other schools who are thinking about getting rid of their coaches,
Speaker 2: or is this year kind of just an aberration with
Speaker 2: currently six open Power five jobs before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 4: I think it is a new reality.
Speaker 5: Much like recruiting, the clock kept on getting early and earlier.
Speaker 5: I think that's going to happen with coaching carousel stuff.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's crazy because Clay Helton was fired in
Speaker 5: early mid September, so long ago that when he was fired,
Speaker 5: Dave Randa was not really a consideration. He was four
Speaker 5: and seven as a head coach. Well since then, David
Speaker 5: Branda is now eight and two this year, and he's
Speaker 5: become a hot candidate. I'm at USC and some other places,
Speaker 5: and I think it's just because there's so much of
Speaker 5: a run up time and it's unusual I think where
Speaker 5: you can have like Joey maguire gets a text tech job. Well,
Speaker 5: he's not a you know, he's not a coordinator or
Speaker 5: certainly not a head coach. So it's you wouldn't expect
Speaker 5: like a head coach to leave a program, especially one
Speaker 5: that's having a lot of success in the middle of
Speaker 5: the season.
Speaker 4: But in the case of that, it's a little more understandable.
Speaker 5: But you're going to see some really weird dynamics because
Speaker 5: you have an early signing period and you honestly have
Speaker 5: a lot more people who in positions of leadership who
Speaker 5: are trigger happy.
Speaker 1: Is so the random thing is interesting to me.
Speaker 2: Right, So he has all this success as a coordinator
Speaker 2: Utah State, Wisconsin, LSU, he's from the West coast, has
Speaker 2: a little bit of West Coast experience, but Baylor's not
Speaker 2: a small place, right, Baylor is not Iowa State in
Speaker 2: with Matt Campbell's name coming up, and he's obviously ma
Speaker 2: Campbell's done a terrific job. But Baylor's not a small place.
Speaker 2: And is there a sense that he wants to be
Speaker 2: a long term guy at Waco? Is that he hasn't
Speaker 2: come out in the way that others have said, like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I want to be here as long as
Speaker 2: they'll have me. Does he seem like a coach who
Speaker 2: wants to maximize dollars exposure program size or is it
Speaker 2: too early to tell.
Speaker 4: I think it's too early to tell.
Speaker 5: I mean, the things I know about Dave having spent
Speaker 5: a decent amount of time with him, is he is
Speaker 5: very thoughtful, and he's the guy who would be a
Speaker 5: great podcast guest for you guys. I know he us
Speaker 5: he's a he's a fast guy. Just to be around
Speaker 5: and listen to him talk, he's you know, he's got
Speaker 5: a good sense of humor. He's very engaging. He is
Speaker 5: not the guy who's going to go up in front
Speaker 5: of a podium and be Jimbo Fisher or be Lane Kiffin,
Speaker 5: and he knows it. So he's he's I think he's
Speaker 5: very self aware and I think he's very genuine and
Speaker 5: with those things. I don't know exactly what he and
Speaker 5: his wife want to do and where they want to
Speaker 5: be long term. I do know this he is likely
Speaker 5: because if they end up winning the next two games
Speaker 5: or win a bowl game, to be the third coach
Speaker 5: in a relatively short period of time in Waco, to
Speaker 5: have a ten win season, that's not easy, right. So
Speaker 5: you have good facilities, You're in a really good recruiting
Speaker 5: area because of Matt Ruhle. In large part, I think
Speaker 5: they have recent you know, renovated what what was a
Speaker 5: dismal vibe around that program when everybody got fired and
Speaker 5: a star the ad Briles, they all got run out
Speaker 5: of there and then mac Rhodes the ad used to be.
Speaker 5: But Houston and Missouri comes in there, and he's a
Speaker 5: really good ad. I think people now get it. I
Speaker 5: mean to hire Rule when he did, he could have
Speaker 5: gone to your alma mater, Dan, I remember, I would
Speaker 5: have at that point. I would have thought that's the
Speaker 5: better job. And he decided to go there. He built something,
Speaker 5: and look, Dave is winning largely with the exception of
Speaker 5: like Apuaika, mostly Rule players.
Speaker 4: So does he want to.
Speaker 5: Go back quote home, we grew up a Dodgers fan,
Speaker 5: He's from like the Redlands area. His brother's high school
Speaker 5: basketball coach there. There's a lot of interesting aspects of that.
Speaker 5: Or does he want to stay at a place where
Speaker 5: I'm not sure even the Big twelve. His status has
Speaker 5: been diminished some with Texas and ou leaving, and I
Speaker 5: suspect where that becomes reflective will be in the next
Speaker 5: TV contract. But we're not comparing it necessarily the Big
Speaker 5: ten or the SEC from a dollar standpoint. As you
Speaker 5: guys know, it's not like the PAC twelve is UH
Speaker 5: is thriving at this point.
Speaker 4: It's not right.
Speaker 5: So it's going to be interesting to see Washington likes
Speaker 5: and USC likes, Baylor loves him.
Speaker 4: I'm fascinated to see.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't all be surprised if he stayed, you know,
Speaker 5: just because of what he's building there. But I also
Speaker 5: wouldn't be surprised, as you know, for a call southern
Speaker 5: California guy who went to college at Cal Lutheran or
Speaker 5: to say no to USC, Now, that'd be that would
Speaker 5: be a little surprising, I guess.
Speaker 2: So one of the things that's been fascinating to me
Speaker 2: is the perception of USC. I have my own biases
Speaker 2: as somebody far away and looking at now USC from
Speaker 2: afar but from southern California went to a PAC twelve school.
Speaker 2: Obviously that's succeeding right now. What is the viewpoint with
Speaker 2: USC having you know, the internal hires at ad forever,
Speaker 2: the internal hires at head coach forever, and is there
Speaker 2: in the coaching community, in the college football business community,
Speaker 2: is there a perception of USC that currently exists? Do
Speaker 2: people feel like it is the job that it was?
Speaker 2: Do do people feel like it still has that kind
Speaker 2: of potential? Is what is the viewpoint as they've seemingly
Speaker 2: struggled to attract the names they feel are befitting of
Speaker 2: the USC brand.
Speaker 5: It's not one thing. It's not uniform. By the way,
Speaker 5: before I get to this, can I have useity on
Speaker 5: your podcast?
Speaker 1: Whatever you want?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 5: So from people who've been at USC, you've coached there,
Speaker 5: one thing you've heard, and I've heard it more than once,
Speaker 5: it's USC you have to fuck it up for it
Speaker 5: not to be great, and they often do right, And
Speaker 5: I think a lot of that comes back from really
Speaker 5: bad leadership. It's Pat Hayden, it's certainly Lynn Swan, It's sputtered,
Speaker 5: you know, beyond that. So I think there's people who've
Speaker 5: been around USC who are like, man, this is arguably
Speaker 5: the best job in the country, because no other place,
Speaker 5: including Alabama or Ohio State, is the landscape in the
Speaker 5: conference as tilted towards you being the.
Speaker 4: Powerhouse of the of the whole base.
Speaker 5: But there are some you know, like it's it's got
Speaker 5: a you know, a terrific recruiting base. It's not like
Speaker 5: there's like alignement all over the place here. Well, there's
Speaker 5: definitely linemen out here, but I think it's like there
Speaker 5: is a little bit of a challenge there.
Speaker 4: I think that goes with it.
Speaker 5: The other challenge that you talk to some coaches, and
Speaker 5: this has come up for a lot because I live
Speaker 5: out here, and people know I live out here. Among
Speaker 5: the coaching world. No we'll talk about you know, it's
Speaker 5: head coach, they're going to make millions and millions of dollars.
Speaker 4: It's not them. It's like my tight ends coach.
Speaker 5: He makes you know, low six figures, which goes great
Speaker 5: in most college towns, ye won't go great here in
Speaker 5: southern California. And so I think that's a consideration for
Speaker 5: a lot of for a lot of guys. How much
Speaker 5: support you have Mike Bone who is a known commodity
Speaker 5: as an AD but just how not just how supportive
Speaker 5: are they going to be? But are they going to
Speaker 5: get in the way you know some of that?
Speaker 4: I mean, how how supportive is that leadership that's going
Speaker 4: to be?
Speaker 2: So do you think it's a get in line job?
Speaker 2: Given the current right so you have huge schools that
Speaker 2: they're competing with right now or presumably could be competing
Speaker 2: with for these big names, is it a get in
Speaker 2: line with the names that you're expecting type of job?
Speaker 2: Or are guys waiting? Are guys thinking, well, rather what
Speaker 2: to LSU? Oh, maybe Miami will open up, Maybe ASU
Speaker 2: will open up, Maybe Florida will open up.
Speaker 1: Like is USC and themisition making.
Speaker 5: I don't think anybody's picking Florida, Miami ASU over over
Speaker 5: USC that USC would want. Okay, So now Mario Christobal
Speaker 5: might because he's from there and he coached at Miami,
Speaker 5: but the other ones I don't think that's case unless
Speaker 5: it was a different dynamic. In one sense, LSU can
Speaker 5: sell great fan base support, great home field environment, great
Speaker 5: great facilities, really really strong recruiting based the other thing
Speaker 5: that is good, but it's a double edged sword. Is
Speaker 5: the last three head coaches have won national titles there.
Speaker 4: That's great. They also just fired.
Speaker 5: One of them who just won a national title less
Speaker 5: than years ago, and now he's from the state. So
Speaker 5: the idea that and I've kind of reported this that
Speaker 5: the rumors about Lincoln Riley going there, that's not happening
Speaker 5: from what I'm told, But like, if you're Riley and
Speaker 5: this is not I have not asked him this. This
Speaker 5: is my read on the situation. Lincoln Riley is at
Speaker 5: a big time program. He's had a lot of success.
Speaker 5: It's going in the same league anyway, and he has
Speaker 5: history there where he's led them to a bunch of
Speaker 5: playoffs and he has arguably the guy who's considered the
Speaker 5: best ad in college football that he works for in
Speaker 5: jokes to the plus he's like raised his kids there
Speaker 5: and it's a young family.
Speaker 4: You go to.
Speaker 5: LSU, he misses the playoff let's say three times, they're
Speaker 5: probably going to fire him and he's gonna walk away
Speaker 5: with a wheelbarrow full of money.
Speaker 4: But you know, you run the risk.
Speaker 5: In Lincoln's case, you know, he lost to at o'seron
Speaker 5: and LSU by like forty. If things start to go
Speaker 5: not great all of a sudden, all that stuff kind
Speaker 5: of gets brought in as you know, we you know,
Speaker 5: you didn't hire Nick Saban, you didn't hire this guy
Speaker 5: who has a national title ring.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: So my point to all that is the pressure at
Speaker 5: that place is going to be excruciatingly high.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought up the Lincoln Riley rumors because
Speaker 3: one of the things that we've heard I think pretty
Speaker 3: continuously now with regard to this LSU opening, is that
Speaker 3: the ad at LSU wants to make a quote unquote splash.
Speaker 3: He's that kind of guy, right. Lincoln Riley was a name.
Speaker 3: It seems like you don't think that's going to happen.
Speaker 3: Mel Tucker was another name. It sounds like maybe they're
Speaker 3: trying to put together an extension for whatever that's worth
Speaker 3: for him at Michigan State. What is a slash realistically
Speaker 3: look like at LSU as you survey the landscape.
Speaker 5: That is a good question, you know, like Michigan State,
Speaker 5: like the person I believe who reported that first, the
Speaker 5: numbers of what Michigan State's prepared to do to keep
Speaker 5: mel Tucker.
Speaker 4: It's like ten years, ninety fivety five million.
Speaker 1: Yeah, crazy is like.
Speaker 4: A very well respected education reporter there.
Speaker 5: I don't know him, but I know the reputation, so
Speaker 5: I don't think it's like some random person just throwing
Speaker 5: stuff out there. But what Michigan's by that, what Michigan
Speaker 5: State would be doing is they would be making if
Speaker 5: I'm not saying this is part of what they're doing,
Speaker 5: but like they would be making Scott Wardwards if he
Speaker 5: were to somehow get mel Tucker, making that a splash
Speaker 5: higher kind of thing, because Meltucker's.
Speaker 4: Had won season.
Speaker 5: Where he's been had a winning season, it's this year
Speaker 5: it's been terrific. And I like Meltucker.
Speaker 4: I think he's I think he's a really good coach.
Speaker 5: But that you know, like all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 5: like I've heard for a month plus that Scott Wooer's
Speaker 5: confident he can get Jimbo and you know this, and
Speaker 5: he's going to keep swinging, and all the people like
Speaker 5: I and m have been adamant, no, he's not going
Speaker 5: to get Jimbo. And then Jimbo multiple times, but especially
Speaker 5: this week seemed to really put a stake in it.
Speaker 5: In the ground I'm not going like, I don't know
Speaker 5: how he could end up in bat rouge and live
Speaker 5: it down after what he's.
Speaker 4: Said, right, So.
Speaker 5: You know, I don't like this is how I kind
Speaker 5: of look at it so much is timing right? So,
Speaker 5: I think Matt Campbell is a brilliant coach. I think
Speaker 5: he's done an amazing job at Iowa State. I think
Speaker 5: James Franklin is a terrific coach too, did worked wonders
Speaker 5: at Vandy and has done a really good job at
Speaker 5: Penn State. Both those guys are not having great years.
Speaker 5: I mean, Matt Campbell, as we're taping this is six
Speaker 5: and four. They play at Oklahoma. There's a really good
Speaker 5: chance that that best will be seven and five. That
Speaker 5: I mean, is that a splashy hire? Like NFL people
Speaker 5: like him a lot of You know, if us he
Speaker 5: hired Matt Campbell, I'd be like, that's a really good hire.
Speaker 4: I'm of it now.
Speaker 5: I know there's going to be some people are going
Speaker 5: to be like, yeah, can he recruit out here? I
Speaker 5: think there'll be that same question can you recruit in
Speaker 5: the SEC? Because it's like, you're not winning four and
Speaker 5: five star battles? Is what he's built on. He has
Speaker 5: found really good talent and developed it. But there's the
Speaker 5: question of can you win those battles? And the the
Speaker 5: uh kind of under the under the water subtext is
Speaker 5: can you be really aggressive like they are in the SEC?
Speaker 5: Read into that how you want to to win those battles?
Speaker 5: Never coach in the SEC. So while I think it
Speaker 5: would be a really good hire, I also understand you
Speaker 5: could be hiring somebody where they're.
Speaker 4: Going to go, wait a minute, this guy, this guy's
Speaker 4: seven and five.
Speaker 5: Is that what you're really going to spend, you know,
Speaker 5: eighty million dollars for nine years on or something like that.
Speaker 4: I don't I don't know.
Speaker 5: I mean, Scott word Got I give him a ton
Speaker 5: of credit for getting Chris Peterson out of Boise State,
Speaker 5: and he got Jimbo out of FSU. Although Jimbo was
Speaker 5: really as you guys now are starting up.
Speaker 4: He was ready there, yeah, yeah, we'll see. I'm fast.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm more curious as to how what LSU
Speaker 5: is going to announce than I am. I'm not saying
Speaker 5: I'm not interested in the USC, I am, but just
Speaker 5: like I'm fascinated by the lsupiece of this let.
Speaker 3: Me ask you about James Franklin. You know, I'm a
Speaker 3: Penn Stater. James Franklin seemingly is in the running for
Speaker 3: every job all the time. And you know, people will
Speaker 3: write to us and say, well, it's because he's a
Speaker 3: good coach. And now the other folks will write in
Speaker 3: and say, well, it's because he's got a good agent. Right,
Speaker 3: he just switched agents. But where are you at with
Speaker 3: Franklin and his stock in the coaching world? Because he
Speaker 3: is sort of always in the running, He is seemingly
Speaker 3: always kind of sort of interested. We don't know for sure,
Speaker 3: but now ad in this year, maybe the dynamic of
Speaker 3: a fan base that's growing a little frustrated in state college,
Speaker 3: it is now the time for him to move. Does
Speaker 3: he still have that kind of credibility in the coaching ranks?
Speaker 3: Where are you at on Franklin?
Speaker 5: I think based on what he did at Vandy, And
Speaker 5: I you know, said this a minute ago. I just
Speaker 5: you know, I don't dismiss that. You know, Vandy was
Speaker 5: awful before he got there. They got he got them
Speaker 5: in the top twenty five a couple of years, and
Speaker 5: then they were resumed being awful after he left. Ty
Speaker 5: you know this, like Penn State's reputation was in the
Speaker 5: toilet after all the Sandusky stuff, and then Bill O'Brien
Speaker 5: stabilized it. And then I felt like James Franklin, at
Speaker 5: least in recruit size, maybe not in sports Treker's eyes,
Speaker 5: but he kind of made it cool to go to
Speaker 5: Penn State or to be part of that. And there
Speaker 5: was certainly other people that contributed to that. Saquon contributed,
Speaker 5: McSorley contributed to Joe moorehead but you know, there's definitely
Speaker 5: been things where there are a head scratcher moments in
Speaker 5: game situations. I think you guys share this quite honestly,
Speaker 5: Like Mario has had some of those moments too, but
Speaker 5: you know what, a lot of coaches have had it.
Speaker 5: I can also remember back, you know, before Saban was
Speaker 5: winning championships in Alabama. I remember being at an Old
Speaker 5: Miss game where I'm like, you ran a fake, fake
Speaker 5: field goal and you didn't block Greg Hardy who was
Speaker 5: just dominating your you know, like your team the whole game.
Speaker 5: What you know, like you see, you know, Kirby Smart
Speaker 5: has had some boneheaded decisions and games. You know, they
Speaker 5: all kind of do. I think fans just remember the
Speaker 5: ones at their team that.
Speaker 4: It happened with.
Speaker 5: I think what adds to James Franklin's the buzz part.
Speaker 5: I don't think it's honestly, I don't think anything to
Speaker 5: do with agent wise.
Speaker 4: I think it's this.
Speaker 5: I think it comes down to you could see him
Speaker 5: at usc You could see him at a lot of places. Yes,
Speaker 5: he's from the Northeast, but he's coached in the SEC.
Speaker 5: He is a really good recruiter. Like and I'm not
Speaker 5: saying obviously Texas isn't open now, but it's like you
Speaker 5: could have seen him at Texas.
Speaker 4: I don't need to shock people to see him at Florida.
Speaker 1: It was a flirtation.
Speaker 5: There was.
Speaker 2: There was James Franklin flirtation with Texas. I think from
Speaker 2: Vandy right way back.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it was a while ago, right, and so
Speaker 5: look there's NFL teams that were interested in them, so like,
Speaker 5: nothing would surprise me.
Speaker 4: The part that I think is.
Speaker 5: Very interesting is the part you said a second ago tie,
Speaker 5: which is the fans are frustrated, Because I think the
Speaker 5: fans are frustrated probably on two levels. They're frustrated on
Speaker 5: you guys, and then look, I'm more guilty of this
Speaker 5: than anybody, because I do a lot of the coaching
Speaker 5: search stuff, and and his name and I believe sincerely
Speaker 5: so is consideration at a lot of big time jobs.
Speaker 4: So there's that, and then there's the other part of it,
Speaker 4: where it's like, well, we're six and four.
Speaker 5: All this talk was four, you know, we were beating
Speaker 5: we're beating Iowa, and then our quarterback gets hurt and
Speaker 5: we don't have a backup ready in the second half
Speaker 5: or prepared or whatever, you know, And so I think
Speaker 5: there's enough frustration with the fan base to go, yeah, this's.
Speaker 4: Worth the trouble, you know, I think. So there's some
Speaker 4: of that.
Speaker 5: I think, look, there's a bunch of Penn State folks
Speaker 5: who didn't like Franklin in the beginning. They really want
Speaker 5: they really had an affinity for Bill O'Brien. We're sorry
Speaker 5: to see him go. And I think like that a
Speaker 5: lot of that faded after they had that game where
Speaker 5: it's like the block kick against Ohio State and all
Speaker 5: of a.
Speaker 3: Sudden like this, Yeah, I know plenty of people who
Speaker 3: thought James Franklin was a snake oil salesman, and those
Speaker 3: are fans, those are people in the media, those are
Speaker 3: people who are connected to Penn State, and it was
Speaker 3: always very fascinating to me how quickly that perception changed.
Speaker 3: And I don't know if it was that game or
Speaker 3: many games, or just what he's done on the recruiting trail,
Speaker 3: but I've been really surprised, pleasantly surprised at the number
Speaker 3: of folks that now have a great opinion, a very
Speaker 3: high opinion of James Franklin and would be sorry to
Speaker 3: see him go.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I'm like, a month and a half ago, I was
Speaker 5: more convinced that he would be the head coach at
Speaker 5: USC because it seemed to make a lot of sense
Speaker 5: on a lot of fronts from where I looked at it.
Speaker 4: Not as convinced of that at this point.
Speaker 5: I mean, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he
Speaker 5: stayed and they did some kind of long term deal.
Speaker 5: And right again, it's the timing isn't great. You know,
Speaker 5: they could I mean, they could be seven and five,
Speaker 5: right so, but and it's seven and five coming off
Speaker 5: of last year, which was like, you know, it wasn't
Speaker 5: just the COVID year. And you don't you have Micah
Speaker 5: Parsons opting out, you have the best running back in
Speaker 5: the conference, having a you know, a medically beyond just
Speaker 5: medically ending his career. It was like, you know, an
Speaker 5: emotional zapp the locker room, you know, from the assistant
Speaker 5: coach I know there. So with the journey Brown, I
Speaker 5: think that just made it that much Sorry, I think
Speaker 5: that just made it just that much harder for them
Speaker 5: to come out of it.
Speaker 4: So now you have two years of disappointment.
Speaker 2: How many more jobs are we talking about big two
Speaker 2: medium jobs right now? I mean, look, the PAC twelve
Speaker 2: could look very different. Uh, the SEC could look a
Speaker 2: little bit different. Obviously, Florida's season has been and kind
Speaker 2: of a nightmare in terms of expectations and performance. The
Speaker 2: Big ten seems pretty stable and maybe people will leave.
Speaker 2: The Big twelve seems pretty stable. But who knows how
Speaker 2: many more medium to big jobs realistically look like they'll
Speaker 2: be searching.
Speaker 5: I think Florida will. I'd be surprised if you bring
Speaker 5: Den Mullin back. I mean, that thing has been a
Speaker 5: disaster this year. You know, he's not a very good recruiter,
Speaker 5: that has struggled, and now you have him in such
Speaker 5: a hot seat. I don't know how people are going
Speaker 5: to buy into that. You know, he fired his defensive coordinator,
Speaker 5: his offensive line coach.
Speaker 4: Those guys were with him for a long time.
Speaker 5: It's just so many issues and so like I did
Speaker 5: a story where I worked with our Florida right with
Speaker 5: the athletic and talk to a bunch of SEC assistant
Speaker 5: coaches and coaches. Yeah, and the issues you would hear
Speaker 5: about why Florida is so underachieving was alarming. Like if
Speaker 5: I was Scott Strickland the ad there. I'm not saying
Speaker 5: like I would fire somebody based on what you know,
Speaker 5: anonymous quotes in a reporter story, but I would look
Speaker 5: at that and say, does this line up with what
Speaker 5: I'm seeing on the field. And then the next week
Speaker 5: after that story comes out, they get embarrassed by South
Speaker 5: Carolina and.
Speaker 4: Lose forty to seventeen.
Speaker 5: Nobody should lose forty to seventeen to the South Carolina team,
Speaker 5: you know, and then they barely beat a mediocre FCS team.
Speaker 1: That's not even a good one. Yeah, mediocre, yeah.
Speaker 4: Four and five.
Speaker 5: You know, Like Stu and I joked about this, We're like, man,
Speaker 5: we watched like three hours of a Samford game. Thank you,
Speaker 5: Dan Mullin. So I would expect a coaching search there.
Speaker 5: I just don't know how what he does against Missouri
Speaker 5: or FSU, no matter how much they could win those
Speaker 5: games by, would be enough to make them go, yeah,
Speaker 5: we're we're good, We're happy with the direction of this.
Speaker 5: Plus his bio, it's like, it's still gonna yeah a
Speaker 5: million dollars. You fire them now or you fire them
Speaker 5: a year from now. I don't think it helps.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and that's been the story across the sport, right,
Speaker 2: like what do we see something turning around? Do we
Speaker 2: see something changing? And it's hard all those stories, by
Speaker 2: the way, but both the ones talking to the high
Speaker 2: school coaches in different states and also the assistants talking
Speaker 2: about what's going on at specific schools, they're really instructive.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: You hear about how a team is or isn't recruiting
Speaker 2: via the high school coaches in the region, You're like,
Speaker 2: it's not going to work out, you know. You hear
Speaker 2: about how USC has or has not recruited. You hear
Speaker 2: about how Luke Fickle has recruited in Ohio. You're like, Oh,
Speaker 2: this dude's going to succeed probably wherever he goes because
Speaker 2: he's so thorough Miami. Is now a job being talked
Speaker 2: about a school you're intimately familiar with. Is Tyler Van
Speaker 2: Dyke enough to save a job? Is there faith that
Speaker 2: many diez with a quarterback winning games the way Tyler
Speaker 2: Van Dyke has done that that has saved or cooled
Speaker 2: his seat a little bit? Or is losing to Florida
Speaker 2: State the way that they did more important and instructive
Speaker 2: than we realize.
Speaker 4: I think it.
Speaker 5: I don't think it's going to be enough to save
Speaker 5: it if they feel like they can do better on
Speaker 5: the coaching front, and I think I am. I don't
Speaker 5: have a great read on that as we're taking this
Speaker 5: right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, Bruce.
Speaker 3: The move to part ways with Gary Patterson, I'm assuming
Speaker 3: it was a difficult decision for TCU given what he's
Speaker 3: meant to that football program, but obviously the end product
Speaker 3: has not been there for a few years running, it
Speaker 3: made sense that they would make the move immediately upon
Speaker 3: the announcement. It seems like much of the reporting, certainly
Speaker 3: your own reporting, centered around Sunny Dyke's for a multitude
Speaker 3: of reasons, is maybe the next guy for TCU. Do
Speaker 3: you believe he's going to be the guy I do.
Speaker 5: I think he makes a lot of sense there. He
Speaker 5: knows the state really well. He's done a terrific job
Speaker 5: not that far away. By the way, as you guys
Speaker 5: know at you with the conference realignment, how it's played
Speaker 5: out this cycle of it this year, SMU is one
Speaker 5: of the bigger losers in it as it.
Speaker 4: Relates to the AAC.
Speaker 5: You know, he was somebody Texas Tech was going to
Speaker 5: target and then once TCU opened that was a game
Speaker 5: changer for them. And look, maybe Joey Mcguireltono to be
Speaker 5: a great hire there. But I think part of that was, hey,
Speaker 5: Sunny Dikes is now going to focus on that. Maybe
Speaker 5: Virginia Tech will make a play for him. I know
Speaker 5: with Babcock the ad, I think he thinks highly of
Speaker 5: Sunny Dikes. But man, you know, like he left that
Speaker 5: region and went to Cal and that was I think
Speaker 5: that's something he had regretted and tried to get out
Speaker 5: of for a while. And I'm not saying Cal is
Speaker 5: Virginia Tech, but just the idea of going away from
Speaker 5: someplace you you really have a comfort zone and do
Speaker 5: really well at That's why.
Speaker 4: I think he would probably end up there. And he's
Speaker 4: worked there before.
Speaker 5: He was spent a year or two on Gary Patterson's
Speaker 5: staff as an analyst after cal I mean, he's a
Speaker 5: really smart guy.
Speaker 4: I think he just to me he would fit really well.
Speaker 3: There, and he seems like the obvious choice based on
Speaker 3: all the reporting. What I find interesting about the Washington
Speaker 3: opening is that there doesn't seem to be an obvious choice.
Speaker 3: There's really been a variety of names that have been
Speaker 3: thrown out from the Matt Campbell's and Dave Randa's, these
Speaker 3: hot coaching names, to coordinators both passed and present, to
Speaker 3: smaller school guys, to wild cards. You even threw Chip
Speaker 3: Kelly's name out there. What type of coach, maybe without
Speaker 3: putting a name on it, What type of coach do
Speaker 3: you feel is required at this juncture for Washington to
Speaker 3: put this thing back on the tracks and get moved
Speaker 3: in the right direction.
Speaker 5: Somebody who comes across is very, very measured and buttoned
Speaker 5: up and genuine. I think that's why I think there's
Speaker 5: real interest in Matt Campbell and Dave Randa. I think
Speaker 5: there's some interest in Joe moorehead Sorry, Dan, I know that.
Speaker 2: No, it's Mario has done a very good job Mario
Speaker 2: and I are on a first day basis of his
Speaker 2: coordinator hires have been very good. It's one of those
Speaker 2: things where recruiting and coordinator hires there's very little left
Speaker 2: to complain about. And I have a good amount of
Speaker 2: faith that as an organ fan, Mario Christaball, as long
Speaker 2: as he's there, will be exhaustive and hire well so.
Speaker 2: And I like Joe moorehead I would love for him
Speaker 2: to be a head coach again.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think those are to me, those are three
Speaker 5: of the names that jump out at me. I've heard
Speaker 5: there's some interest in Justin Wilcox. I have a little
Speaker 5: harder time buying that the ad Jen Cohen would hire
Speaker 5: Justin Wilcox, just that he's thirteen and twenty four.
Speaker 4: In Pac twelve play m cal is a really hard job.
Speaker 5: It's gotten a much harder obviously in the pandemic with
Speaker 5: the restrictions there. But again, you have a coach who's
Speaker 5: thirteen and twenty four. I get that he coached there
Speaker 5: and he's well liked, but.
Speaker 4: He's also had some issues on offense.
Speaker 5: I mean, they weren't on Donovan Washington bad, but they
Speaker 5: weren't very good. And I think that, to me would
Speaker 5: be a risky hire given it's not like, you know,
Speaker 5: he's in the same division, right, and it's not like
Speaker 5: Col's not an easy job. Col's also not you know,
Speaker 5: Yukon or UMass either, right. There's a lot of good
Speaker 5: players you can get there. So that's why I'm not
Speaker 5: as I am skeptical, like I could see them really
Speaker 5: looking at him.
Speaker 4: I could.
Speaker 5: I'd be surprised if she would decide to hire him,
Speaker 5: you know. So, I mean, this is obviously the Jimmy
Speaker 5: Lake higher. It went the complete opposite of everybody there expected,
Speaker 5: including me.
Speaker 2: Did you think he'd get more time, by the way,
Speaker 2: that's not even two years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought he would.
Speaker 5: And then once the Oregon Week played out the way
Speaker 5: he did from everybody I talked to there, I mean
Speaker 5: we were I was in studio.
Speaker 4: All day for Fox.
Speaker 5: That was our game was the uh was the game
Speaker 5: when he was on suspension. And you know, I'm thinking
Speaker 5: about this, I know Jimmy, and it's like I'm basically saying,
Speaker 5: as soon as the game ends against Arizona State, I'm
Speaker 5: saying on National TV, you know, I don't expect him
Speaker 5: to be the coach here much longer, you know, and
Speaker 5: it's just like I remember, there was a little bit
Speaker 5: of a surreal moment because you go from like in
Speaker 5: that chair, I'm working with Acho and then Devin Gardner
Speaker 5: that day. It's like it's a lot of highlight stuff
Speaker 5: and it's I don't say it's not a lot of fluff,
Speaker 5: but like to shift gears to that.
Speaker 4: I was thinking.
Speaker 5: I was like, man, I thought Jimmy Lake was going
Speaker 5: to be a great addition for them, and it's just
Speaker 5: the opposite way.
Speaker 2: Virginia Tech is an interesting job, right, because it's it's
Speaker 2: very difficult to pin down in the same way TCU, right,
Speaker 2: it's so heavily defined by one guy, obviously with Frank
Speaker 2: Biemer and his success there before, justin Fuente and TCU
Speaker 2: and Gary Patterson. How good of a job can Virginia
Speaker 2: Tech be? Is Virginia Tech a school that is investing
Speaker 2: to compete with not even Clemson, but Florida State, Miami,
Speaker 2: North Carolina?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: Is that an attractive job to candidates along the East
Speaker 2: coast in the southeast whatever? What is the current status
Speaker 2: of that job and what is the interest in it?
Speaker 4: I think it's a very attractive job.
Speaker 5: There are people in the industry who actually think that
Speaker 5: is the second best job in the AECCO.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Now, obviously they haven't won national titles like Florida State
Speaker 5: or Miami. They don't have as much talent around them,
Speaker 5: but they have a lot of talent in that area.
Speaker 5: Really good facilities, great home field environment. People in the
Speaker 5: industry think pretty highly of the ad with Babcock. Look
Speaker 5: with Babcock, you know, when he was at Cincinnati, he
Speaker 5: had a plan and ready to go, and he ended
Speaker 5: up hiring Tommy Tubberville and that was a complete dud. So,
Speaker 5: you know, we'll see how this part plays out going forward.
Speaker 5: But is it a better job than USC or LSU. No,
Speaker 5: is it a better job than Florida if that comes open.
Speaker 5: I don't think so either.
Speaker 4: But relative to the rest of the ACC it's a
Speaker 4: really good job.
Speaker 2: Expect names that we've heard for a while as being
Speaker 2: big names around bigger jobs. Luke Fikel, Matt Campbell, Billy
Speaker 2: Napier has been a name that's come up a bunch.
Speaker 2: These are guys who have stuck around places that people
Speaker 2: have not fair or not expected them to stick around.
Speaker 2: Do you think we are going to see names finally
Speaker 2: move or do you think you could see guys holding
Speaker 2: firm that I just mentioned.
Speaker 5: I think that Matt Campbell would. I think there's a
Speaker 5: good chance for a move. The part that makes me
Speaker 5: a little more reluctant than I was maybe a couple
Speaker 5: of weeks ago.
Speaker 4: They could be seven and five.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, like that's not are you cashing out
Speaker 5: on seven and five? In terms of like some of
Speaker 5: these ads who get caught up in the optics, I
Speaker 5: don't know, Like I think Matt Campbell's a really really
Speaker 5: good coach, but it's a harder sell at seven and
Speaker 5: five than it is at nine and three, or certainly
Speaker 5: a ten win season. Billy Napier has been patient. He
Speaker 5: knows he's got a pretty good situation. I don't know
Speaker 5: how much longer you kind of hold your cards to
Speaker 5: the best. He's turned down like three pretty good situations.
Speaker 5: Say he was definitely going to be the guy you
Speaker 5: know Virginia Tech offered him. I think the only thing
Speaker 5: that would make him go, eh, I'm good is if
Speaker 5: he thinks he has a shot at LSU or Florida
Speaker 5: or you know, he worked at ASU. I mean, is
Speaker 5: ASU a better job than Virginia Tech. I don't know,
Speaker 5: because ASU could be if you're having widespread clean out
Speaker 5: the program, that means you could have sanctions coming down
Speaker 5: on the back end of that too. So and then
Speaker 5: Fickle is the other name you mentioned. I think he's
Speaker 5: going to be very choosy. You know, Cincinnati's going on
Speaker 5: the Big twelve, which is up to its platform. Certainly,
Speaker 5: he has a wife and six kids, and he really
Speaker 5: likes the Midwest. I mean he would follow his old
Speaker 5: a d to USC. That would surprise me a little bit.
Speaker 5: I don't know if he wants to be in the SEC.
Speaker 5: I could see Scott Woodward trying to make that happen
Speaker 5: because he seems like he's been turned down by some bigger,
Speaker 5: some big names.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be surprised if he chased Luke Fickle. You know.
Speaker 5: Everything I'd heard was like Luke Fickle would have loved
Speaker 5: it if James Franklin took the USC job and then
Speaker 5: he can go to Penn State.
Speaker 4: So I don't know, they are losing.
Speaker 5: A bunch of really good players at Cincinnati, Like there's
Speaker 5: a time to make a move, because I'm not saying
Speaker 5: they're going to go from thirteen or fourteen and oh
Speaker 5: to back to four and eight, but they may not
Speaker 5: be a top twenty five next year with all the
Speaker 5: talent they're losing.
Speaker 2: You've talked about Mario Christbaul a bit as it relates
Speaker 2: to a couple of different openings, right SEC openings, the
Speaker 2: USC opening or an impending USC opening which we thought
Speaker 2: would happen for a couple of years. Do you get
Speaker 2: the sense that he's locked in with Oregon. He's from
Speaker 2: a completely different part of the country, but seems from
Speaker 2: my perspective, a bias perspective, it's got a pretty good
Speaker 2: in terms of pathway to the postseason, in terms of recruiting,
Speaker 2: in terms of his ability to get money to assistance
Speaker 2: in facilities and all those types of things. Like do
Speaker 2: you think Mario Christaball is the Oregon coach in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three?
Speaker 4: He probably, I could definitely see it.
Speaker 5: I know that he is really high on the teams
Speaker 5: that he thinks he's going to have in twenty twenty
Speaker 5: two and twenty twenty three. In terms of what built,
Speaker 5: I mean he thinks of things inside out, meaning like
Speaker 5: if I go somewhere, how bad is the offensive line?
Speaker 5: Because you don't just flip that right away. That is
Speaker 5: like something that needs to like a garden that needs
Speaker 5: to be cultivated. And I think he's done that right
Speaker 5: and he's done that with a lot of the roster.
Speaker 5: He likes his young quarterback, he likes a lot of
Speaker 5: the things how he's recruited. I think he has got
Speaker 5: enough awareness to know if I go somewhere, are they
Speaker 5: going to do the things that I need to see
Speaker 5: from them to feel like I am supported to go
Speaker 5: compete with Nick Saban and.
Speaker 4: Not a lot of places, you know, I.
Speaker 5: Like to me for USC, Mario Chriswall made a lot
Speaker 5: of sense in the standpoint of he is now setting
Speaker 5: the tempo in recruiting on the West Coast. He is
Speaker 5: preaches and is all about physical football and us he
Speaker 5: went to the air raid. The part where it didn't
Speaker 5: make so much sense is I think USC would like
Speaker 5: to to kind of have a general management role in
Speaker 5: how the program's run with the coach. And I don't
Speaker 5: see what christ Ball want any part of that. And
Speaker 5: I think they know that, and I think they know
Speaker 5: it would not be easy to kind of have that relationship.
Speaker 4: If you're Miami, you can't. I don't want to say
Speaker 4: you can't pay him.
Speaker 5: I don't know what you know, who's gonna like, is
Speaker 5: the rock gonna come up and say there's a blank
Speaker 5: check my old team will I will make it all right.
Speaker 5: I don't know that you know how that works. But
Speaker 5: it is home for him, and he knows the potential
Speaker 5: of it. You know, people can talk about like, oh, well,
Speaker 5: you know you're gonna get these private planes to go
Speaker 5: here as assistance or whatever.
Speaker 4: I think Mario christa Ball knows enough to go.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you get in your cars and you recruit at Miami.
Speaker 5: You don't need to be flying all over the all
Speaker 5: over the country to stock a roster. But all those
Speaker 5: things you said are true. I'd like somebody could. I
Speaker 5: think I had this conversation with Andy Staples, you know,
Speaker 5: and I think we had talked for a minute about
Speaker 5: Florida's situation. I'm like, I don't I don't see Mario
Speaker 5: leaving Oregon for Florida.
Speaker 4: Like Florida, Yeah, that's a state he grew up in.
Speaker 5: He didn't grow up in Gainesville though, right, And so
Speaker 5: like I think for his family, you know, his boys
Speaker 5: are I want to say, like fifth grade and sixth
Speaker 5: grade or sixth grade and seventh grade, but they're basically
Speaker 5: I don't say.
Speaker 4: That's all they've known is Eugene. But now they've been
Speaker 4: there for you know, a little while, and I know
Speaker 4: what it's like to have kids.
Speaker 5: Around that age where you know, you probably don't remember
Speaker 5: when you were three or four, but you definitely remember
Speaker 5: when you were six, seven, eight nine, and so there
Speaker 5: are roots there. Yeah, I if I if, just knowing
Speaker 5: what I know about what he thinks of how good
Speaker 5: they're going to be in the next two years, you know,
Speaker 5: I could definitely see him staying there all.
Speaker 1: Right, fair enough.
Speaker 2: And then somebody that always seems to come up this
Speaker 2: time of year, willing up a couple more questions. But
Speaker 2: there always is a name that comes out of nowhere.
Speaker 2: Right there's like, wait, Nebraska hired Mike Riley. Wait where
Speaker 2: did that come from? Are there coaches that seem to
Speaker 2: be otherwise embedded at places that are listening more intently,
Speaker 2: especially with the dollars that are being thrown around right now?
Speaker 5: You know, I don't know if there's somebody who's like,
Speaker 5: to me, the Mike Riley thing was like the two
Speaker 5: moments where I think I heard them are like, what
Speaker 5: was Mike Riley going there and USC hiring Lynn Swamp
Speaker 5: you know, yeah, different things, but just where you're like,
Speaker 5: I can't believe that happened, And there are definitely some
Speaker 5: you know, I'll be honest, now that I think about it.
Speaker 5: I was like I was at like a food truck.
Speaker 4: When I heard Bronkele Mennenhall was going to Uva.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that seemed kind of out of nowhere.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I dismissed that.
Speaker 5: When somebody tried to tell me, like like a source saying, hey,
Speaker 5: I'm hearing that, it was like something like that.
Speaker 4: I was like, I can't see that, and then it happened.
Speaker 5: I don't know, Like you know, I've written about Klanie
Speaker 5: Satake at byu Is. It's more about this is somebody
Speaker 5: I would think they're going to look at because of
Speaker 5: how his teams play, because of his connections in the
Speaker 5: you know on the West coast.
Speaker 4: He knows the PAC twelve.
Speaker 5: Well, like, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody tried to
Speaker 5: lure him out of there by he's not paying him
Speaker 5: that much from what my man, so like that would
Speaker 5: be one. I mean, like it wouldn't surprise you know,
Speaker 5: like some of these other names like Jane Norbel. He's
Speaker 5: on a lot of people's radar because he's done a
Speaker 5: really good job at Nevada and he is a good
Speaker 5: offensive coach who is a really solid guy. And if
Speaker 5: you've looked at whether whatever at like what happened in
Speaker 5: Washington State with Rolovich or you know a few other spots,
Speaker 5: even Jimmy Lake. You know, I think sometimes people are like,
Speaker 5: all right, is that a flashy hire? Maybe not, but
Speaker 5: like is this a guy we can count on? I mean,
Speaker 5: there are some coaches whose names get thrown out of
Speaker 5: bunch where you're like, eh, there you you know, you
Speaker 5: dig a little bit, or you talk to people and
Speaker 5: they're like, yeah, the AD or the president won't touch
Speaker 5: that guy because they think he's a big risk, not
Speaker 5: necessarily a risk winning and losing games, just in terms
Speaker 5: of the off the field stuff. And I think that's
Speaker 5: the part that's you know that maybe doesn't get like,
Speaker 5: you know, it's harder to write or harder to talk
Speaker 5: about on TV.
Speaker 1: Are you sitting on anything right now?
Speaker 4: I am sitting on my couch.
Speaker 1: Are you sitting on any news that you are waiting on?
Speaker 2: I'm not necessarily getting confirmed, but you're like, Okay, this
Speaker 2: is where a school's going this. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: kind of done. You don't have to tell me, which
Speaker 2: I'm just curious, like how far out.
Speaker 4: We you know?
Speaker 5: We knew going into the to the Washington Issue game
Speaker 5: that Jimmy Lake was done there, right, Like, how do
Speaker 5: you you know? Like there's a lot of stuff like that.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think we knew that Justin Fante was
Speaker 5: getting fired. I'm not sitting on anything, like, I'll be
Speaker 5: perfectly honest. I don't know exactly how the Miami situation
Speaker 5: is going to play out, you know, I know a
Speaker 5: lot of people involved in there. I don't know exactly
Speaker 5: how it's going to play out. I don't have any
Speaker 5: real guess. I mean I have guess, but I don't
Speaker 5: have a strong feeling on what Scott Woodward is going
Speaker 5: to end up at LSU right Like, I'm very interested
Speaker 5: and curious on that.
Speaker 1: Who's teetering right now? Is a SU teetering? Is U?
Speaker 1: C l A teetering?
Speaker 2: Is anybody teetering like like trying difficult decisions?
Speaker 5: Like a s U is a weird one because the
Speaker 5: A D and the number two a D. Who's who's
Speaker 5: like overseas football. Those guys are like their hands are
Speaker 5: in the in the in the cookie jar right now,
Speaker 5: like they don't want to fire herm. The NCAA justice
Speaker 5: system is even is more screwed up than it ever
Speaker 5: is not saying something and you know the vibe somebody
Speaker 5: explained to me there was it's kind of like they're
Speaker 5: all whistling by the graveyard at this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, UCLA Texas, Texas, Texas.
Speaker 5: I don't think Texas can do anything. Okay, it's year one.
Speaker 5: How many times are you going to hit the reset button?
Speaker 1: I hear you. Stupid money means stupid decisions, though I don't.
Speaker 4: Know's there's a funny line.
Speaker 5: It's like what was the Like I watch a lot
Speaker 5: of games on Saturdays with Ocho and Chris Peterson, and
Speaker 5: you know the line about scared money, and because it
Speaker 5: was I forgot what the play was. And Chris Peterson
Speaker 5: quietly looked up at Acho, who was like fifteen feet away,
Speaker 5: and he was like, yeah, stupid money doesn't make money either,
Speaker 5: and it's like that's you know, that's what seems to
Speaker 5: be in play in Austin, right, Like they did not
Speaker 5: waste a lot of time to pull Sark in there
Speaker 5: and maybe it'll work out.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, I remember working.
Speaker 5: On a story where I talked to a bunch of
Speaker 5: coaches who had either were still in Austin or had
Speaker 5: been there Tom Herman's staff, and the feeling was, yeah,
Speaker 5: there were some good players, but it was a lot
Speaker 5: of overrated recruits that they had gotten there. And so
Speaker 5: now did I think they could be five and seven?
Speaker 5: I thought they'd be a little better than that. I
Speaker 5: don't think they'd lose to Kansas. But you got to
Speaker 5: you can't, you know, unless Sark has some some real
Speaker 5: egregious thing, like the USC stuff surfaces in Austin, you
Speaker 5: got to give him way more time than this great
Speaker 5: you know, not even next year, like they could go
Speaker 5: four and eight next year.
Speaker 4: I'm like, you gotta.
Speaker 5: You can't just hire somebody, bring in a new staff,
Speaker 5: and then just pull the plug, even if, like you know,
Speaker 5: he pulls the plug on some assistance. It's like all
Speaker 5: of a sudden. Now though, like a lot of that
Speaker 5: position room. Then you're talking about three or three three
Speaker 5: new coaches in three years. It's actually more than that
Speaker 5: because Tom Herman shuffled his staff, like at the end.
Speaker 5: So you have guys who can have four different position
Speaker 5: coaches or maybe even.
Speaker 4: Coordinators in four years. That's almost recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1: Bruce.
Speaker 3: One final question for me, speaking of more time, Scott
Speaker 3: Frost kind of took some folks by surprise that they
Speaker 3: would retain them. We made the joke on this show
Speaker 3: that it was more a function of other people maybe
Speaker 3: saying no in the background. But regardless, he will be
Speaker 3: returning for the twenty twenty two season. Did that surprise
Speaker 3: you a little bit?
Speaker 5: Like everything there has surprised me in this regard, Like
Speaker 5: I got that wrong.
Speaker 4: Now, maybe Scott Frost.
Speaker 5: In twenty twenty two will go ten and two and
Speaker 5: I'll be like, huh, maybe I was right after all.
Speaker 5: But like I did not think it was going to
Speaker 5: go this way. I was, you know, spent you know,
Speaker 5: spent time in linked in a few times, done their games,
Speaker 5: and just like the plane has never gotten off the ground.
Speaker 5: It's just like it's sped down the runway, it's hit
Speaker 5: icy patches, it's you know, done all this and it
Speaker 5: just can't get off the ground.
Speaker 3: It's like the twenty seven mile runway in one of
Speaker 3: the Fast movies, Right, it just keeps going in the
Speaker 3: planes kind of like you're waiting for it and it
Speaker 3: just never happens.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and he is. He has thrown a lot of
Speaker 5: weight off the plane. Yeah, like you know, it's like
Speaker 5: Mario got thrown off, Luba got thrown off, like his
Speaker 5: O line coach.
Speaker 1: Like he's now he's receiver transferred.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's on his third he'll be on his third
Speaker 5: offensive coordinator, and he's an offensive guy. Like they're they're
Speaker 5: pretty good on defense, Like his defense has done a
Speaker 5: really good job there. But man, like I I've said
Speaker 5: this on our podcast, and like I keep feeling like
Speaker 5: they're going to turn it right, Like I feel like
Speaker 5: they're going to beat somebody. They're going to beat Iowa.
Speaker 5: They're you know, like they're going to get it. They're
Speaker 5: going to get a decent win. Just they can't be
Speaker 5: keep like stubbing their toe into the nightstand every week
Speaker 5: like the And like I I like Adrian Martinez, I
Speaker 5: am guilty.
Speaker 4: I like him personally. I got to know him a
Speaker 4: little bit. I think he's talented.
Speaker 5: He has no play he has no playmakers around him,
Speaker 5: so he often tries to do too much. I'm not
Speaker 5: saying he is Lamar Jackson. But he is very athletic,
Speaker 5: and he's a really good player. I do wonder, you know,
Speaker 5: if he somehow like decides, you know what, I.
Speaker 4: Need a fresh start.
Speaker 5: I'm going to go be a grad transfer or someplace
Speaker 5: house or whatever. You know, they've lost a bunch of
Speaker 5: games close. I feel like without him, you know, they
Speaker 5: would have lost a lot of games not close.
Speaker 4: And I don't know, like I.
Speaker 5: Don't know what, you know, what offensive coordinator they bring
Speaker 5: in or what staff they bring in that really makes
Speaker 5: it change, because I just feel like the margin for
Speaker 5: error has been really slight. Like when he got there,
Speaker 5: he had Stanley Morgan was he was a really good
Speaker 5: college receiver.
Speaker 4: His film was a good player.
Speaker 5: And then like those guys left one because he was
Speaker 5: his time was up. The other one transferred out. And
Speaker 5: you know, they had one Dale Robinson who was a
Speaker 5: really good player, but he decided you want to go
Speaker 5: home to the SEC. And it's just like, you know,
Speaker 5: when your best player is the transfer from the best
Speaker 5: skill guys, the transfer from Montana, you know, it just
Speaker 5: the margin for error is just too small. It's just
Speaker 5: I don't know, he just has not recruited well enough.
Speaker 2: There final question just because it's been the weirdest year
Speaker 2: in terms of high level quarterbacks. And that's another part
Speaker 2: of your beat in covering college football, just because guys,
Speaker 2: we've expected that we're going to be electric and amazing
Speaker 2: and Heisman worthy, weren't necessarily there. What is a young
Speaker 2: quarterbacks name for twenty twenty two that you are buying
Speaker 2: very early stock in as a thing capital t thing.
Speaker 4: And I can't do Bryce Young because he's already he's known.
Speaker 2: Maybe he couldn't have just gotten a starting job. He
Speaker 2: might be a backup right now. Obviously ty is hoping
Speaker 2: you say, like Tyler Buckner or something. But who is
Speaker 2: who is that name that you're just like, Okay, this
Speaker 2: is this is a a name that will pop in
Speaker 2: the next year that hasn't yet.
Speaker 5: I think Jackson Dart is really talented at USC. I
Speaker 5: just don't know who's going to be coaching him, right,
Speaker 5: and so it's hard to go put all the chips
Speaker 5: in on that one. You know, like like Buckner is
Speaker 5: definitely a dynamic athlete. But it's been a like it's
Speaker 5: unfair to say this because Ian Book was a really
Speaker 5: good college quarterback.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but.
Speaker 5: Man, they're like their quarterback play has been largely you know,
Speaker 5: underwhelming this year, right, So I don't know. Sorry, I'm
Speaker 5: not helping you on that one, and I'm not going
Speaker 5: to help you on like pen stay where it's going
Speaker 5: to be or like I'm just thinking in terms.
Speaker 4: Of like who is that guy?
Speaker 5: Could say, Oh, there's some wow in him, like I
Speaker 5: do see a little that in Dart. I have to
Speaker 5: think more like Anthony Richardson, to me is a remarkable
Speaker 5: athlete and he could be really special. I don't know exactly,
Speaker 5: Like everything around there has just been such a such
Speaker 5: an implosion that whoever comes in there, I think he
Speaker 5: has a chance to be really special and he should
Speaker 5: be really special for Dan Mullen, Like I think Emery
Speaker 5: Jones is actually good too. Yeah, Like you have one
Speaker 5: guy and I'm not saying he could be Cam Newton,
Speaker 5: but he is like a super big athlete, you know,
Speaker 5: like who people there really think highly of his talent.
Speaker 5: I would have thought it would have, you know, like, look,
Speaker 5: he's had some injuries, and he's had some moments where
Speaker 5: he does some suspect some spectacular stuff but turns it
Speaker 5: over a bunch. I would have said that, Look, I
Speaker 5: you know, I had count me in on somebody who
Speaker 5: thought Hudson Card was going to.
Speaker 4: Be that guy.
Speaker 1: Remember, yeah, what I heard.
Speaker 5: And then also you have Sark there, who's been really
Speaker 5: good with quarterbacks, and you have arguably the most talented
Speaker 5: running back in the country there to lean on. They
Speaker 5: have a super speed guy, and if you're worthy outside,
Speaker 5: that's one to build on. But it hadn't worked out.
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't know if I'm giving up on
Speaker 5: Hudson Card at this point, but so I would say
Speaker 5: some combination of Jackson Dart Anthony Richardson, although both of
Speaker 5: them are probably gonna have new.
Speaker 4: Coaches next year.
Speaker 1: That's wild, all right.
Speaker 2: Bruce Feldman, the athletic Fox Sports co host of The
Speaker 2: Audible with Stu Mandel, America's pre eminent college football media shredder,
Speaker 2: on the Guitar from nineteen ninety five on I don't
Speaker 2: know when. I don't even know when he Stu was
Speaker 2: in that band in college.
Speaker 5: Look, if there's two things you can find on this tie,
Speaker 5: One you have to find your George Brett Yep training
Speaker 5: clip and see if there's actually video Stu playing, you know,
Speaker 5: with his axe wearing leather pants, somewhere.
Speaker 2: I'm like eight minutes away from the Evanston campus, so
Speaker 2: from the Northwestern campus in Evanston, it's not that far.
Speaker 2: Maybe there are archived bits of footage of somewhere.
Speaker 5: There's a behind the music that was done by some
Speaker 5: journalism student of STU When when when they're when their
Speaker 5: van pulled over, parting up a line of little ants.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, okay, Bruce, thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 1: Everybody was audible. Watchbrus box and hey have a good one.
Speaker 2: And pizza is always available to you in the there.
Speaker 4: I gotta I gotta go for Deep Dish though.
Speaker 1: I love you right why.
Speaker 4: Because that is me. I am the biggest Deep Dish
Speaker 4: pizza fan.
Speaker 2: I love that about you that you're specific. But it's okay,
Speaker 2: what's your place?
Speaker 5: I like Luimo, Naughties, like Classic Okay, like Staples.
Speaker 4: And I went to I want to say, it's like
Speaker 4: pea quads.
Speaker 1: Pe Quads.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't like it as much. It's like it
Speaker 5: was good, it just wasn't me as Luminalo Natties.
Speaker 2: The class I mean, they're all over the place there.
Speaker 2: That's it's a chain, it's a known thing. It's good
Speaker 2: it's just I don't know. There's something beautiful about nice
Speaker 2: thin pizza to me. All right, you got good pizza
Speaker 2: by you by the way in the South Bay, there's
Speaker 2: have you heard of folk?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna send you a link. I'm gonna send you
Speaker 1: a link. There's a couple of.
Speaker 5: There's a good there was a good pizza place here,
Speaker 5: Grimaldi's that went out of business.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna send you a couple of links. I am.
Speaker 1: I am way too deep in the game right now.
Speaker 2: I will I will try to open your eyes to
Speaker 2: a couple of plays.
Speaker 1: South Bay. Maybe that's like Orange County.
Speaker 4: An hour from me.
Speaker 2: I'll get you Like El Segundo, how about that?
Speaker 4: That's good.
Speaker 5: There's actually a good place in El Segundo called Slice
Speaker 5: and Pint, right that is like that's a it's a
Speaker 5: cool little spot.
Speaker 1: So done.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you again for your time, and everybody,
Speaker 2: go go seek out Bruce. Go seek out his books.
Speaker 2: They're all terrific and you can't go wrong. Thanks again,
Speaker 2: Thank you guys.
Speaker 3: All right, Dan Bruce Felman, there is been far too
Speaker 3: long since we had him on the show. But always enlightening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, always try and like I really wish that because
Speaker 2: when I've when I've hung out with Bruce in person,
Speaker 2: you know, you always get more dirt, you always get
Speaker 2: more more of the goths. But that's if we could
Speaker 2: get like Bruce take a couple of shots before coming
Speaker 2: on the show.
Speaker 1: May see. The thing is Bruce holds his alcohol.
Speaker 2: Really well, just like you do, so it probably wouldn't
Speaker 2: affect things, but there is a there is like a
Speaker 2: thing where it's like, this guy's not leaving. He's got
Speaker 2: this murky personal situation and that's the stuff. That's the
Speaker 2: juice that Bruce, of course is far too responsible to
Speaker 2: ever say into a hot mic. But uh, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: always it's always nice catching up with Bruce. It's uh,
Speaker 2: he's been at it for a long time and it shows.
Speaker 3: It absolutely does. And we appreciate his generosity with his time.
Speaker 3: He's come on this show many, many, many times now
Speaker 3: m M. And yeah, great to have him back. So look,
Speaker 3: you mentioned for ballers dot com at the top of
Speaker 3: the show. If you like what we do, going out
Speaker 3: to our Patreon sign up to be a certified or
Speaker 3: premium for Baller. Head on out to solid giveaway dot
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Speaker 3: He signed RG three mini helmet. It's free to do.
Speaker 3: There are just a few quick things that we require
Speaker 3: before we can accept your registration. Go on out to
Speaker 3: solid Saturday dot com if you're listening to this on
Speaker 3: a Friday and you want to take part in the
Speaker 3: live stream that we do. We're going to walk you
Speaker 3: through all of the games, going to rank them from
Speaker 3: one to five. Will spare you right now the exact
Speaker 3: metric that we use. You're gonna have to tune in
Speaker 3: to find out exactly how we grate out these games.
Speaker 3: But trying to do our part to map out your
Speaker 3: day for you and help you along with respect to
Speaker 3: which games to watch and which not to watch. And
Speaker 3: then finally, just go on out to solidverbal dot com.
Speaker 3: We post three articles every week from our friends Travis
Speaker 3: Connor and Bradley. We're doing our best to help you
Speaker 3: through the college football season and make it as enjoyable
Speaker 3: as we can. Dan, Yeah, subscribe, follow, tweet it tie
Speaker 3: and tell them how handsome he is. It's all appreciate
Speaker 3: it for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
Speaker 3: for a guest of honor today, mister Bruce Felman, my
Speaker 3: name's ty Hildenbrand. Thank you again so much for your downloading,
Speaker 3: for your supporting, for I don't know, just your interaction.
Speaker 3: It's been fun throughout the course of the year. In
Speaker 3: the meantime, stay solid, peace,