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Speaker 1: is it? Game Time? Hi? Everybody, Summer is officially over.
Speaker 1: We're going to have an hour podcast with John Middlecoff.
Speaker 1: He's going to join me in about fifteen minutes to
Speaker 1: talk some college football and the NFL opening weekend, Tom
Speaker 1: Brady's Day ABU obviously with Fox the Cleveland Dallas Cowboy
Speaker 1: game highlights an incredible weekend jet San Francisco. But I
Speaker 1: want to talk about USC's twenty seven to twenty win
Speaker 1: over LSU. The line was four to four and a half.
Speaker 1: The late money came in on USC, and I'm always
Speaker 1: I'm not suspicious, but when I see late money moving
Speaker 1: toward a team, you know, I always feel like, is
Speaker 1: there an injury report that's not out yet? So the
Speaker 1: late money came in on USC. And my two takeaways
Speaker 1: are you know, I've said this for years, the NFL
Speaker 1: doesn't need three preseason games, and the LSU USC game
Speaker 1: is a prime example. So USC has no preseason, no
Speaker 1: inner squad games like the NFL has. The players are
Speaker 1: much younger than the NFL, they have limitations on practice
Speaker 1: hours in college. And USC's offense is three top sophomore receivers,
Speaker 1: a quarterback that's never started a regular season game of note,
Speaker 1: Miller Moss. An offensive line with a left tackle Elijah
Speaker 1: Page as a freshman. Alani Noah, a right guard, was
Speaker 1: a freshman. It's an incredibly young offensive team, and they
Speaker 1: had a meticulous opening game in a high leverage situation
Speaker 1: against the top SEC program. You're telling me you need
Speaker 1: three NFL preseason games.
Speaker 2: I thought.
Speaker 1: My first takeaway is how meticulous the game was. Offensively
Speaker 1: seven and a half yards of play for USC. Twenty
Speaker 1: four first downs, only six penalties, no turnovers. These are
Speaker 1: nineteen year old. That USC offense is freshman sophomores, very
Speaker 1: few upperclassmen. Mannheim, the center, who's probably a top three
Speaker 1: center in college football, is their real experienced guy, who's
Speaker 1: you know, he's moved up and down that offensive line.
Speaker 1: He was left tackle, very good at it would have
Speaker 1: been drafted second, third round. Who is a left tackle.
Speaker 1: He may be the first center off the board this year,
Speaker 1: first or second in the NFL draft. Outside of him,
Speaker 1: it's kids. It's Mason Murphy att right tackle, who's been
Speaker 1: a finger crossed for years. He's going to finally hopefully develop.
Speaker 1: I thought he played very well, So I just thought
Speaker 1: it was incredible to ask a young young There were
Speaker 1: certainly more NFL talent veteran season NFL talent on the
Speaker 1: LSU side than the USC side, And for the Trojans
Speaker 1: to play that well speaks really well of Lincoln Riley.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk about that. It's you know,
Speaker 1: I just roll my eyes at the clickbait crowd. Jim
Speaker 1: Harbaugh can't coach, you know, I defended him for like
Speaker 1: seven years at Michigan it's you know, Lincoln Riley's overrated.
Speaker 1: He's averaged eleven wins per season. The one thing that
Speaker 1: is true is that he was handed a program, a
Speaker 1: winning program at Oklahoma, and he'd never truly built one
Speaker 1: from the ground up at USC. And there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that matter. It's not just your IQ. He's
Speaker 1: a very smart play designer and a play caller, and
Speaker 1: he can develop quarterbacks overnight. We've seen that like five
Speaker 1: different times. But can he build a staff? Can he
Speaker 1: build a culture? He didn't have to he was handed
Speaker 1: wanted Oklahoma, So the question has always been can you
Speaker 1: really start from scratch? After they got rid of Alex
Speaker 1: Greench and the defensive guys, can you start from scratch
Speaker 1: and build a defensive staff well past the Flying Colors?
Speaker 1: So you know, I will tell you this about Deanton Lynn,
Speaker 1: the defensive coordinator. He is USC's top NFL prospect outside
Speaker 1: of their center. Had an NFL general manager tell me
Speaker 1: that he will USC will be fighting to keep him
Speaker 1: for the next two years. He's very, very highly thought
Speaker 1: of as a defensive mind. He did a great job
Speaker 1: for Chip Kelly at UCLA and Lincoln Riley, to his credit,
Speaker 1: stolen and they assemble. It's the first time since Pete Carroll.
Speaker 1: And this is not a shot at Clay Hilton, Lane
Speaker 1: Kiffin or Steve Sarkishan the latter to sark and Kiffin
Speaker 1: are excellent offensive minds and very high end coaches. But
Speaker 1: this is the first time since Pete Carroll feel like
Speaker 1: we have a staff with multiple all stars, where we
Speaker 1: got a defensive coordinator who could be a head coach.
Speaker 1: We have a top head coach, We have sharp coordinators,
Speaker 1: position coaches. This is a real staff and you saw
Speaker 1: it on display. Special teams were good defensive alignments. You know,
Speaker 1: that's not a small thing.
Speaker 2: I thought.
Speaker 1: I was kind of watching social media after USC one
Speaker 1: and it was remarkable how many people mentioned how good
Speaker 1: the tackling was a basic in football. Think about that.
Speaker 1: If you if you were building a house and you
Speaker 1: asked somebody, you know, any construction people, and you said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got these guys. They are so good hammering nails.
Speaker 1: They are the best guys at hammering nails, and you'd
Speaker 1: be like, well, that's that's just the basics they can
Speaker 1: they USC hasn't tackled well for a decade. I'm not joking.
Speaker 1: Social media and they were right. Was all over this.
Speaker 1: The tackling was exceptional, secondary linebackers exceptional, the alignment of
Speaker 1: the pre snap stuff, the adjustments. They didn't get any
Speaker 1: cheap stuff. LSU didn't with Nussmeyer, who's a very good
Speaker 1: quarterback by the way, they didn't get cheap stuff over
Speaker 1: the top. LSU had to earn everything.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: USC did not generate a great pass rush, but that
Speaker 1: was pretty predictable because USC's d line is you know,
Speaker 1: does Bear Alexander has a pro body? But I think
Speaker 1: he's been a big disappointment. I thought last year he
Speaker 1: played well, but there's real concerns in the program. NFL
Speaker 1: scouts are really looking at him. In games like the
Speaker 1: LSU game or the Michigan game. Those will be huge
Speaker 1: games because the Trojans don't play USC and Oregon, so
Speaker 1: these Penn State games, notre Dame in games, Michigan games,
Speaker 1: LSU games are huge for Bear Alexander because he's going
Speaker 1: up against NFL bodies and NFL players and he didn't
Speaker 1: do anything. He had one tackle in this game. Big
Speaker 1: concern for him. Thankfully, Brandon Shelby, who was a top
Speaker 1: recruit last year defensive end play a lot of snaps
Speaker 1: and played very well. He's an ascending player on that
Speaker 1: defensive front. Nate Clifton Gavin Meyer, a transfer from Wyoming,
Speaker 1: played pretty well and had a very good fall camp.
Speaker 1: But so you know, LSU has more NFL players, and
Speaker 1: I thought USC looked like an extraordinarily well coached team
Speaker 1: pre snaps. They didn't have a ton of motion Offensively,
Speaker 1: they kept it fairly simple. Again, you have limitations on
Speaker 1: how much you can practice, but they kept it fairly simple.
Speaker 1: They did not run the ball terribly well, but they
Speaker 1: ran it situationally well in the red zone. There were
Speaker 1: a couple of big third downs in the game they
Speaker 1: ran well, and they ran well near both end zones.
Speaker 1: Of course, sealing it with that touchdown at the very
Speaker 1: end with eight seconds left, But you don't have to
Speaker 1: run for one hundred and twenty yards to have an
Speaker 1: effective run game. It comes down to third downs or
Speaker 1: fourth downs or red zone rushes for touchdowns. And I
Speaker 1: thought USC had a couple of moments that shine very
Speaker 1: bright for their offensive line, which again is going to
Speaker 1: be much better in six weeks than it is now.
Speaker 1: The other thing that I should be shocked by it,
Speaker 1: but I'm not because this is what I've seen Lincoln
Speaker 1: Riley do now four or five times. So Miller Moss
Speaker 1: has played two games. What's a remarkable. In both the
Speaker 1: games he threw in the Holiday for six touchdowns and
Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy two yards, he threw for three
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy eight yards against LSU so, a bowl
Speaker 1: team and a top ten college football program. And in
Speaker 1: none of those games, neither one did he have a one
Speaker 1: hundred yard receiver. Well, that is really important. That is
Speaker 1: telling you that Miller Moss is seeing the field. He
Speaker 1: is not reliant on any one receiver. That's a big thing.
Speaker 1: I can remember, and I like Lane Kiffen, but I
Speaker 1: can remember Robert Woods or Marquise Lee. It felt like
Speaker 1: they were the offense. There was one receiver getting the looks.
Speaker 1: They are spreading it around. McCree, the tight end, had
Speaker 1: a really, really noticeably good game and he was very
Speaker 1: much a part of the early game plan. It was
Speaker 1: as if USC went into the game a little concern
Speaker 1: potentially with their youth on the offensive line in the
Speaker 1: pass rush of LSU. So, they got their tight end
Speaker 1: very involved, very quickly. They got one of their running
Speaker 1: backs involved very quickly in the past game. Then they
Speaker 1: started to get their feet under him. Feel pretty good
Speaker 1: about it. Then Miller Moss deeper drops, throwing the ball
Speaker 1: down the field multiple times. Big catch by Deuce Robinson,
Speaker 1: who was a high school tight end baseball star, but
Speaker 1: now you know he's a wide out for USC. So
Speaker 1: my big takeaways are, Miller Moss was a and I
Speaker 1: met him years ago, not that he was thinking of transferring,
Speaker 1: but it was really tough. He was a high school star,
Speaker 1: He's been a great quarterback in Southern California forever. And
Speaker 1: he knew that Caleb Williams was dynamic. But you just
Speaker 1: sit there and you just wait for your turn, and
Speaker 1: I think he was really frustrated. And he and I
Speaker 1: had a brief conversation once and I'm like, listen, dude,
Speaker 1: if you're ever going to stay in a pro and
Speaker 1: sit Lincoln Riley's a really guy and Caleb Williams really
Speaker 1: got to sit behind, You're gonna learn a lot. And
Speaker 1: I think you saw it. Same with Nussmeyer. By the way,
Speaker 1: he could have transferred, didn't. He sat in his program
Speaker 1: and said, you know what, I'm gonna sit here with
Speaker 1: this program. Brian Kelly's had some good NFL quarterbacks, or
Speaker 1: I mean certainly made the NFL. Like I'm gonna sit
Speaker 1: around with Brian Kelly. He knows what he's doing, and
Speaker 1: Miller Moss did that. I thought his accuracy was excellent.
Speaker 1: I thought he mixed the ball up all over the field.
Speaker 1: He's clearly seeing the field. He is not one dimensional.
Speaker 1: He's not zoned in on specific receivers. And like a
Speaker 1: Jordan Love with the Packers, He's young, and all his
Speaker 1: receivers are sophomores, Jacoby Lane, Deuce Robinson. I think Hudson
Speaker 1: may be a red shirt sophomore or sophomore Lemon, I
Speaker 1: think the sophomore. So it's a young offense. It's not
Speaker 1: a young defense. It's not a lot of those guys
Speaker 1: are gone next year. A lot of these transfers are seniors.
Speaker 1: Bear Alexander will be gone, Gavin my Nate Clifton, A
Speaker 1: lot of these guys will be gone. I think go overall.
Speaker 1: If you're a USC fan, it's not just about winning.
Speaker 1: It's not that USC scored a lot of points with Lane, Sark, Clay,
Speaker 1: and Pete. But Pete's teams looked different. The staffs were great.
Speaker 1: You always felt you had an advantage like Belichick in
Speaker 1: his prime. You always felt like Andy Reid. You felt
Speaker 1: with Pete at USC, you had the better staff. They
Speaker 1: were worth a field goal. They would adjust better at halftime.
Speaker 1: They would come in, you know, down the stretch, two
Speaker 1: minute drills. Did you notice the end of the half?
Speaker 1: You know, two minute drill by USC end of the game.
Speaker 1: So many times in that USC game they were so
Speaker 1: intentional on these big drives. They had a complete game plan.
Speaker 1: They were a little conservative with play calling early. Don't
Speaker 1: blame them again. I think it all goes back to
Speaker 1: the offensive line and concerns upfront about keeping Miller Moss upright.
Speaker 1: Once they got confident in that, they opened things up,
Speaker 1: and I thought, you know, second quarter, middle, second quarter on.
Speaker 1: I liked their play calling. I thought everything was intentional,
Speaker 1: everything was smart, everything had a purpose. It just wasn't
Speaker 1: random play calling. They were setting stuff up. And I
Speaker 1: think you have to be really happy. You can crap
Speaker 1: on LSU, but their next four a LSU is going
Speaker 1: to roll through the next month beating teams. By thirty
Speaker 1: they face South Carolina, Nichols, UCLA, South Alabama. They don't
Speaker 1: face Georgia. This year they get BAM at home, so
Speaker 1: they have a fairly favorable SEC schedule and Brian Kelly
Speaker 1: wins ten games a year, They're gonna win a bunch
Speaker 1: of games. That's a good football team. They made silly mistakes,
Speaker 1: they were immature. There was a towning penalty, a head
Speaker 1: hunting penalty. They beat themselves at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: but that's football. USC had the better staff, the better
Speaker 1: game plan. Late, they were more efficient situationally, and they
Speaker 1: hit on a couple of big plays over the top.
Speaker 1: Boy do they have good Receivershi USC got dudes. I
Speaker 1: mean they're all coming back and they are young, and
Speaker 1: you know, going into this game, I didn't even think
Speaker 1: Hudson was going to start, and he made the two
Speaker 1: biggest catches of the football game. I thought he was
Speaker 1: like third or fourth in their rotation. He was the star.
Speaker 1: So in branch, special teams needs to be noted. You
Speaker 1: get to a twelve team playoff, you're gonna have attrition.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna have full rosters. Some of these games
Speaker 1: are going to be won by special teams. Block kicks,
Speaker 1: kick returns, branches. There's nothing else like branch in college football.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of when Dion Sanders played for Florida
Speaker 1: State and they played those big rivalry games with Florida
Speaker 1: or Miami, and all the speed in the country felt
Speaker 1: like it was in those three programs. It was the Gators,
Speaker 1: it was the Knowles, it was the Hurricanes, and I
Speaker 1: mean all the corners receivers felt like four to three
Speaker 1: guys and Dion was another level, like he was another
Speaker 1: gear of speed. LSU's got world class athletes. They wanted
Speaker 1: no part of him in open field situations. That kid
Speaker 1: is just it's just different. It's just he's different. And
Speaker 1: his brother is a decent safety, but I I just
Speaker 1: he doesn't look like anybody else on the field. He
Speaker 1: just looks he's got a different gear. So he's gonna
Speaker 1: become He listened that kick return was so valuable. He
Speaker 1: had a couple of big plays underneath that he turned
Speaker 1: into big plays. Do not in a twelve team playoff.
Speaker 1: It's just like the NFL. Once you go to a playoff,
Speaker 1: attrition becomes part of it. You have to win multiple
Speaker 1: ways because you're gonna be missing starters. You've got to
Speaker 1: win games by special teams. You've got to win games
Speaker 1: on you know adjustments there's gonna be so you're not
Speaker 1: gonna get your best game in a playoff system. It's
Speaker 1: not one big goal bowl game where you have three
Speaker 1: weeks to prepare for it or a month to prepare
Speaker 1: for it week after week after week. You're playing really
Speaker 1: good teams, you have less prep time. These are young players.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to find multiple ways to win in US,
Speaker 1: he could win with special teams. I do think they
Speaker 1: will generate a better pass rush. LSU's got, I believe,
Speaker 1: top of my head, three multiple year starters. I think
Speaker 1: both their tackles are Sunday players. So USC's got to
Speaker 1: feel great about it. And with more on that game.
Speaker 1: John Middlecoff, former NFL scout who's been critical of Lincoln
Speaker 1: Riley on more than one occasion, let's bring in John. So.
Speaker 1: One of the things John that really jumped out to me,
Speaker 1: and I said this to start my rant, is that
Speaker 1: unlike the NFL, these are young kids, practice limitations, no preseason.
Speaker 1: I would be completely okay to watch a sloppy first half.
Speaker 1: I thought USC six penalties, great situational football in the
Speaker 1: red zone, very good two minute drives, handled timeouts, well,
Speaker 1: no turnovers again, very few penalties, two freshmen on the
Speaker 1: offensive line, no real breakdowns. Alignments were great. I thought
Speaker 1: USC more than anything. I thought they looked tight, really
Speaker 1: buttoned up. John. The whole offense is freshman and sophomores.
Speaker 1: I thought they looked great.
Speaker 3: Colin, you get to take a victory lap for the
Speaker 3: next seven days, loud and clear pound that table. To me,
Speaker 3: two things really stood out first and foremost the size
Speaker 3: of the defenders. I would say over the last decade.
Speaker 2: They felt small.
Speaker 3: They've had a guy or two here on defense, but
Speaker 3: for the most part, they've had too many guys that
Speaker 3: look like me, you know, on the Pete Carroll Heyday
Speaker 3: and all these SEC teams. The visual they showed of
Speaker 3: the transformation of the body types during the game, I mean,
Speaker 3: guys going from two thirty to two sixty in an
Speaker 3: offseason was evident. Because the LSU team has come. They
Speaker 3: got a top fifteen tackle, they got another guy who's
Speaker 3: pretty raw, who's gonna go.
Speaker 2: In the top thirty.
Speaker 3: The wide receiver, the number two looks like an NFL guy.
Speaker 3: I mean, they had NFL guys everywhere USC tackled physically.
Speaker 3: They didn't get shoved around. And I think what really
Speaker 3: changed is last two years with Caleb, and rightfully so,
Speaker 3: they wrote him like he was Steph Curry or Lebron James.
Speaker 3: It was kind of like an individual, not a team,
Speaker 3: and it worked two years ago. You're a backfire because
Speaker 3: the defense was so terrible. Didn't they feel like a team? Then?
Speaker 3: They just feel like a group of guys that there
Speaker 3: wasn't one necessary. I mean everyone was making place that
Speaker 3: they felt like a total unit. And listen, you were
Speaker 3: hammering this. I didn't believe Miller. Moss clearly is pretty good.
Speaker 3: He's definitely tough, and Lincoln had the boys ready and
Speaker 3: they they could have folded there in the second half,
Speaker 3: and it was LSU that folded in this white Brian
Speaker 3: Kelly kind of snapped after the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I think one of the things I had
Speaker 1: heard inside the program and they really they really were
Speaker 1: in awe of Caleb is a guy and as a player,
Speaker 1: he was their superman. And as they were rebuilding this program,
Speaker 1: they didn't have the right defensive staff, they didn't have
Speaker 1: enough big bodies. They had to ride him. But inside
Speaker 1: the program, I kept hearing this is a really unified team.
Speaker 1: There is no great individual. It's it's a very It's
Speaker 1: a much more complete roster, for sure.
Speaker 2: It's a deep.
Speaker 1: It's a deeper roster with more B to B plus players.
Speaker 1: In fact, I think their secondary act is actually really good.
Speaker 1: They got length and transfers and this is the best
Speaker 1: secondary they've had in a long time. They have different
Speaker 1: body types. The Mississippi State corner six three, two hundred,
Speaker 1: Jalen Smith, who's a corner, is a smaller guy who'll
Speaker 1: be a nickel in the NFL. I know a couple
Speaker 1: of NFL gms text me they're big fans of Jalen
Speaker 1: Smith and Mannheim the center. But I think this feels
Speaker 1: like it's not as quarterback centric. And that's not a
Speaker 1: knock on Miller Moss, but this is something I kept
Speaker 1: hearing from USC, which is, listen, you get one Caleb Williams.
Speaker 1: Even at USC, you may get one of those. In
Speaker 1: twenty five years, Stanford's had great quarterbacks. You get one
Speaker 1: l way Right, Pitt got one Marino. They've had quarterbacks
Speaker 1: Miami as great as Miami was, Michael Irvin, Warren Sap.
Speaker 1: You're not getting a lot of those guys at big
Speaker 1: programs and so herschel Walker at Georgia. So I tend
Speaker 1: to think that they knew they had something special, but
Speaker 1: they felt their roster was better and the staff was better,
Speaker 1: and I think they sold that to the players, that
Speaker 1: it was a more cohesive group. And it wasn't a
Speaker 1: knock at Caleb. They really love Caleb Williams Kay. Let's
Speaker 1: be honest. They won eleven games that first year and
Speaker 1: it was a garbage roster.
Speaker 3: They were good that year because of him and at
Speaker 3: Jordan Addison. You know one thing in football that's so
Speaker 3: much different than obviously basketball and definitely baseball, is when
Speaker 3: you add We talked so much about the head coach.
Speaker 3: I mean, those two guys are making a combined over
Speaker 3: two hundred million dollars. But when you add the right
Speaker 3: coordinator at a spot where you're struggling, wow, and you
Speaker 3: get it right. It's like adding three or four players,
Speaker 3: isn't it. I mean de Anton Lynn he basically came up.
Speaker 3: You know, he coached for the Ravens, so there's a
Speaker 3: toughness culture. What he did last year at UCLA. I
Speaker 3: know a lot of people around the country aren't locked
Speaker 3: in on UCLA football. They were really good on defense
Speaker 3: and that group. I mean, this guy, if they win
Speaker 3: nine to ten games and their defense looks really good
Speaker 3: all season long, is he not just a lock college
Speaker 3: head coach? And I would imagine a ton of NFL
Speaker 3: teams would hire him immediately. The lineage his dad's a
Speaker 3: really good coach. That was really, really impressive because you
Speaker 3: and I have watched way too many snaps of USC.
Speaker 3: They can't tackle Colin forever for years. I mean, this
Speaker 3: is going back post Pete Carroll. They look like a
Speaker 3: Mountain West team on defense. And last night open field tackles.
Speaker 3: The physic they were how many times last night did
Speaker 3: they hit someone and the guy went backwards? It's like,
Speaker 3: is this when's the last time this happened?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ramsey the safety came up and knocked a running
Speaker 1: back backwards.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so by the way, when they when they I
Speaker 1: was talking to Jen Cohen, the athletic director, when they
Speaker 1: were trying to get Deanton Lynn and I called and
Speaker 1: I said, hey, where's your progress und your defensive coordinator
Speaker 1: and she says, well, I'm not going to tell you
Speaker 1: who it is, but she says we are in a
Speaker 1: dog fight, and he could change the program defensively. They
Speaker 1: were incredibly high on him, and she had said, who
Speaker 1: were pursuing We've been watching for a year and we
Speaker 1: got our fingers crossed here. We're doing everything we can.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was a bruin. He's across town. That's tough.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of politics in Los Angeles, so he's
Speaker 1: terrific and beloved in the program. But no, I think
Speaker 1: you know, John, it wasn't the USC one. It was
Speaker 1: how they won. And it does matter. If you look
Speaker 1: at the history of USC, you can argue there's more
Speaker 1: great defensive players. I mean, we remember Bush and liners,
Speaker 1: but all four linebackers Pete Carroll had Remember it was
Speaker 1: Mala Luge, was Rivers, it was Clay Matthews. All four
Speaker 1: of their linebackers went pro, all of them. I mean
Speaker 1: it was linebacker. You with Penn State for years, and
Speaker 1: I just think I was following some people and some
Speaker 1: people that cover USC, and it was esthetically it mattered.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just hey, we if they don't want thirty
Speaker 1: eight thirty one and the defense was a slide up grade,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't feel good about this.
Speaker 3: If I take is in the second half when it
Speaker 3: looked like they might lose the game. I was like, listen,
Speaker 3: I was wrong on this team. They're definitely more like
Speaker 3: an eight win team. And then they win the game
Speaker 3: and you look at their schedule and you go, well,
Speaker 3: Michigan's quarterback. I was locked into that game because the
Speaker 3: bull they were playing the Bulldogs. Their quarterback situation dramatic
Speaker 3: drop off from JJ McCarthy, Notre Dame. I mean that
Speaker 3: kid is a great physical runner, not a passer. The
Speaker 3: Big Ten, the middle of the Big Ten. I watched
Speaker 3: way too much of them. Minnesota's not that great, Wisconsin
Speaker 3: can't score, Michigan State's not great, Penn State's If that
Speaker 3: quarterback's better, they're going to be a problem. But USC
Speaker 3: doesn't play Ohio State this year, right, So is it
Speaker 3: crazy to say that if they just if they have
Speaker 3: a really good defense, they could be compete to win
Speaker 3: ten games.
Speaker 2: They're a playoff team.
Speaker 3: And the other thing is, and I said this last
Speaker 3: night in the reaction, that if they both go nine
Speaker 3: to three, because LSU is probably not as bad as
Speaker 3: everyone's overreacting, they have so much talent, Well, if that's
Speaker 3: between the eleventh or twelfth spot, like there's only one
Speaker 3: spot and they're both nine and three.
Speaker 2: USC beat them. I mean that's right.
Speaker 3: That's a huge swing game, right if they end up
Speaker 3: with the same record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in LSU does not face Georgia and gets bam
Speaker 1: at home.
Speaker 3: In the next four weeks, LSC schedules not very good.
Speaker 2: I mean they're gonna win nine.
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Speaker 1: So the Big Ten went seventeen and one, and this
Speaker 1: is something I thought about Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC,
Speaker 1: especially Texas and the way they can recruit that state.
Speaker 1: It makes it a better conference. But adding Washington, Oregon,
Speaker 1: and USC to the Big Ten is not a slight upgrade.
Speaker 1: I could argue that after Ohio State, now that Harbaugh's gone.
Speaker 1: After Ohio State, if I said the next five years,
Speaker 1: the second, third, fourth, and fifth best teams in the
Speaker 1: Big Ten were Oregon, USC, Michigan, Washington. Like, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's crazy to suggest that adding three of the
Speaker 1: best four programs in the conference, if Utah always counts,
Speaker 1: I think in that foursome, but with the right coach USC, Oregon, Washington,
Speaker 1: those are playoff teams. Every time Washington's had a good coach,
Speaker 1: Don James, Rick Neuheisel, Chris Peterson, Kaitlin Depoor, they vy
Speaker 1: for a national championship. So it's like, I don't think
Speaker 1: people understand it's Texas Oklahoma make the SEC thicker. You
Speaker 1: added three on any given year top twelve programs to
Speaker 1: the Big Ten, May it be a better overall conference? Now?
Speaker 3: I think over the course of time, I think this
Speaker 3: year there's gonna be a lot of reaction to the SEC.
Speaker 3: Their quarterback play Colin. I mean, I'm gonna give Oregon
Speaker 3: a little bit of a pass. I mean that game
Speaker 3: was really weird. It was played boys. They played boys
Speaker 3: this week. They better kick their ass and kind of
Speaker 3: get after it because that was that was bizarre. The
Speaker 3: quarterback play. I didn't know that much about him. I'm
Speaker 3: sure you heard his name, the Nico kid from Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: That's Tennessee's quarterback. I got news for you.
Speaker 2: That guy's pretty special.
Speaker 3: Jackson dark Ole miss They're pretty good obviously, the two quarterbacks.
Speaker 3: The quarterback Dylan Gabriels at Oregon because they told him,
Speaker 3: you're not gonna start. Jackson Arnold's gonna start. He's pretty
Speaker 3: good too. Their high end teams with their quarterbacks are
Speaker 3: pretty obviously, Carson Beck and Georgia. Over the course of time.
Speaker 3: I think, you know, USC is only going to get
Speaker 3: better if they keep looking like this over the next
Speaker 3: two or three years. Oregon's not going anywhere. But I
Speaker 3: got a lot of question marks about Wisconsin, about Minnesota,
Speaker 3: like the four or five, six seven group of Yes,
Speaker 3: Penn State, you feel pretty good at Penn State could
Speaker 3: be a major problem. I was texting scouts all week
Speaker 3: and long. I mean, they're front seven's full of NFL guys,
Speaker 3: and if that quarterback takes a big step, that game
Speaker 3: got like delayed for twenty five hours, but they could
Speaker 3: be a serious factor, I mean a serious.
Speaker 1: Factory this year.
Speaker 3: So I think the high end of the big ten
Speaker 3: in the SEC. It's pretty clear that though Miami I
Speaker 3: would still kind of red flag.
Speaker 2: The quarterback can be up and down, but they're pretty talented.
Speaker 1: Yeah, cam Ward I watched. I watched a lot of
Speaker 1: cam Ward at Washington State. Cam's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's an NFL guy, but he's
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. He kind of just slings it.
Speaker 1: It's got an almost seven on seven field to it.
Speaker 1: He's slinging stuff and they just have been so inconsistent
Speaker 1: a quarterback. I think he's a playmaker, so I think
Speaker 1: he makes some interest. I think they can beat almost
Speaker 1: anybody and lose to a lot of teams. I still
Speaker 1: don't love Mario crystal Ball as a situational coach. He's
Speaker 1: got a little Dan Campbell.
Speaker 2: I like the.
Speaker 1: Physicality, I like the culture. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: love the game management munch he can recruit.
Speaker 3: One thing that really jumped out to me, and I'm
Speaker 3: sure you would agree, is did you see the ratings
Speaker 3: on some of the games on Saturday just gonna bring
Speaker 3: it up. And I talked about this last night, the
Speaker 3: synergy of the NFL, the draft in college football. It's
Speaker 3: all under this umbrella now right, So you're watching, You're like, wait,
Speaker 3: who's this quarterback? He might be a first rounder. Colorado
Speaker 3: and North Dakota State doing five million people on Thursday night.
Speaker 3: And one thing I think and listen, they've never had
Speaker 3: a czar or a commissioner of the NCAA is a
Speaker 3: laughingstock to everyone at every individual program. No, we need
Speaker 3: to play real games. I have no problem like Michigan
Speaker 3: playing Fresno State, or Oregon playing Boise State, or some
Speaker 3: of those teams in the South, like the one Dilford,
Speaker 3: Like those are power five or non power five whatever
Speaker 3: they consider it, but their Division one. You should not
Speaker 3: be allowed to play the And I got a lot
Speaker 3: of respect for the Montanas and stuff. You should get
Speaker 3: one of those games, and then everyone else in non
Speaker 3: conference should be a Power five program because and the
Speaker 3: more and more TVs. Power because they're cutting the bills.
Speaker 3: We got to wipe that out because how good that
Speaker 3: felt like.
Speaker 2: An NFL ight game last night.
Speaker 3: The physicality in Notre Dame and A and m a
Speaker 3: M's quarterbacks got some serious issues, but the hitting of
Speaker 3: that game, it felt like how many NFL guys are
Speaker 3: on this field? And then you go to some of
Speaker 3: these other games and I understand, like Ole Miss they've
Speaker 3: been recruiting or scheduling these games forever.
Speaker 2: They're a joke.
Speaker 3: I mean Missouri's Missouri, Ole Miss. When these teams are
Speaker 3: beating teams sixty to nothing, like what are we doing?
Speaker 3: And then they get mad fans don't show up, play
Speaker 3: real games, play real teams, and everyone is zoned in.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you brought this up because the ratings
Speaker 1: were spectacular this weekend and people could say, well, there's
Speaker 1: nothing else on the other WNBA is getting big ratings
Speaker 1: with Caitlin Clark Major League Baseball races. Don't tell me
Speaker 1: nothing was on. There was plenty of on. Plus, it's
Speaker 1: the summer. People aren't watching TV rights Labor Day and
Speaker 1: it's Scottie Scheffler's golfing. There was plenty on TV. It
Speaker 1: got ratings because I think John it's almost like have
Speaker 1: you ever been asked to go to a party and
Speaker 1: you're like, well, who's going to the party, And it's like, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: there's two couples. Yeah, let's go to the party. It'd
Speaker 1: be a fun party. I think college football got so
Speaker 1: regional and so southern that big. I saw some research
Speaker 1: on this about a month ago that the Northeast and
Speaker 1: the west didn't feel included and those are population centers
Speaker 1: and they just didn't watch. And now with a twelve
Speaker 1: team playoff, you're like, it's a party. You're asking, well,
Speaker 1: who's in the party, and you're like, well, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be twelve teams in the party. I think when USC
Speaker 1: was rolling, LA was getting ratings, the West Coast was
Speaker 1: getting ratings, they felt represented Notre When Notre Dame and
Speaker 1: Penn State are good, then the Northeast feels represented. But
Speaker 1: when it's LSU and Georgia, you know, Southern guys like
Speaker 1: college football is great. It's not it's regional. It's tribe.
Speaker 1: I stopped talking about it on my radio show.
Speaker 3: Well it's four programs. It was Bama clems in Georgia,
Speaker 3: Florida State.
Speaker 1: Wild State. So so the bottom line is it's now
Speaker 1: a party that everybody like. If you're a Notre Dame fan,
Speaker 1: you're like, we can lose two games and get into
Speaker 1: the party. USC's like if USC beats Michigan, you look
Speaker 1: at that schedule, they can lose to Penn State or
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. They're getting into the party, and I think
Speaker 1: it's just a part. It feels like, finally, all these
Speaker 1: years of this nonsensical scheduling where SEC teams are playing
Speaker 1: Citadel four times, it feels like, now I'm going to
Speaker 1: I'm willing to emotionally engage on Labor Day weekend because
Speaker 1: there'll be a payoff at the party later, a more equitable,
Speaker 1: reasonable payoff with more people included.
Speaker 3: I've always thought, and my thing was with the SEC,
Speaker 3: is that Nick Saban was almost a Tiger Woods Steph
Speaker 3: Curry like figure. Even if you didn't you know, you
Speaker 3: could live in California or live in Washington, to live
Speaker 3: in the Northeast, you kind of paid attention. You might
Speaker 3: not watch the games, but he was just such a
Speaker 3: big figure and his presence forced all these other programs
Speaker 3: and the money he brought in then it forced the Oregons,
Speaker 3: the Ohio States, the Michigan's, really Florida State, Clemson to
Speaker 3: up their game, and it's benefited everybody. And I think
Speaker 3: you really see that with I mean Colin. How many
Speaker 3: Southern California kids are playing all over the country. When
Speaker 3: I was in high school in the early two thousands,
Speaker 3: there were the occasional Tom Brady to Michigan or DJ
Speaker 3: Williams went to Miami, but for the most part, you
Speaker 3: went to USC UCLA, probably Oregon or Washington right.
Speaker 2: It was very rare to and.
Speaker 3: Now the overlap of the recruiting is like, oh, I
Speaker 3: can relate to this guy. All these teams are good.
Speaker 3: It's just really and I think I'm more likely to
Speaker 3: watch the SEC now because they have Southern California guys
Speaker 3: or CJ. Stroud. It's like, oh, he's LA kids starting
Speaker 3: quarterback for Ohio State. I'm in And I think the
Speaker 3: world is so flat now in college football. The other
Speaker 3: thing is with the transfer portal. I watched this quarterback
Speaker 3: in my team. If I'm an Oklahoma fan, what's Dylan
Speaker 3: Gabriel doing in Oklahoma? It's really added think if you're
Speaker 3: a Washington State guy, you're keeping an.
Speaker 2: Eye on Miami.
Speaker 3: There have been so many just factors of the streamline.
Speaker 3: It's so connected now to the NFL. It's just it's
Speaker 3: what college basketball used to be in the seventies, eighties,
Speaker 3: and nineties, right, it felt like one A and one B.
Speaker 3: And now college football is like that. You feel like
Speaker 3: you're watching the minor leagues, but it feels big leagues
Speaker 3: because how cool are these games?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Because of the ambiance and the vibe of the stadium.
Speaker 2: How awesome.
Speaker 3: I think one of the best things to happen in
Speaker 3: football was the Raiders going to Vegas because it created
Speaker 3: the stadium and now they have all these huge events there.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 2: It was also good.
Speaker 1: It was so good. Okay, let's pivot to the NFL.
Speaker 1: I had said this is that we all know this
Speaker 1: that there's seven new playoff teams every year, and there's
Speaker 1: always a good team that pulls back. And I think
Speaker 1: there's an argument to be made that San Francisco's concerning
Speaker 1: Trent Williams said this week, I'm unhappy they don't win
Speaker 1: without Trent Williams and McCaffrey playing. So Trent's out. McCaffrey's
Speaker 1: coming on back to bat years where he carried the ball,
Speaker 1: touched the ball four hundred times. You look at his
Speaker 1: history when he does that, those heavy use years. The
Speaker 1: next year, Christian gets hurt. Trent Williams you just signed.
Speaker 1: Still not sure he's happy? Ricky Piersall gets shot. Thank
Speaker 1: god he's okay. And I think the Rams are a
Speaker 1: super Bowl team. I think they're in the super Bowl bubble.
Speaker 1: I think Arizona played their ass off last year at
Speaker 1: the end and is competitive. And I also think Seattle's
Speaker 1: a total wild card. I think my take is and
Speaker 1: this is no shot at Pete Carroll. I think they
Speaker 1: kind of underachieved the last two years. I like their
Speaker 1: draft picks, I like their players. I'm sitting there thinking
Speaker 1: to myself, is New York? Are the Jets going to
Speaker 1: walk in to Santa Clara and kick this team in
Speaker 1: the head. Are they in trouble?
Speaker 3: Well, all we ever did was talk about Ayuk and
Speaker 3: he wasn't the most important player not signed right or
Speaker 3: having a contract issue. That's Trent Williams, and every day
Speaker 3: that goes by, if he doesn't play against the Jets,
Speaker 3: that's a major problem.
Speaker 2: Who knows what the Jets are going to look like.
Speaker 3: But we know they got a lot of players up front,
Speaker 3: and I would imagine asan Reddick has fifteen million reasons
Speaker 3: to show up this week so that they got pass
Speaker 3: rush the Ricky Piersoll thing. I don't see how that
Speaker 3: doesn't rattle. I mean, John Lynch is at the hospital
Speaker 3: two nights ago or whatever. I mean, he easily could
Speaker 3: have died. How many people have you ever heard of
Speaker 3: that get shot in the chest and lift goes to
Speaker 3: their body and it's by the grace of God he's alive.
Speaker 3: And I think his mom tweeted out something essentially saying
Speaker 3: that now from a playing standpoint, he had been banged up,
Speaker 3: they weren't depending on him, so getting Brandon Ayuk. I
Speaker 3: think people are over correcting a little bit on the Niners.
Speaker 3: McCaffrey said three weeks ago he would have played if
Speaker 3: they had real games. They really they're very careful with McCaffrey,
Speaker 3: Bosa and Trent when he's around in these in these
Speaker 3: fall games, it comes if perty's playing well, they're going
Speaker 3: to be a problem because they still got Debo that
Speaker 3: Kittles healthy. If McCaffrey comes back, you gotta have trenton
Speaker 3: there because their offensive line isn't exactly loaded with first rounders,
Speaker 3: and defensively, Colin, I think they're gonna be pretty good.
Speaker 3: I think their secondary is going to be awesome. Tarvarius
Speaker 3: Ward is a high end player. Leonor this guy they
Speaker 3: drafted a couple of years ago has become really, really good.
Speaker 3: Their safety play John Lynch might miss on some first rounders,
Speaker 3: but that guy knows safeties. I mean they go about
Speaker 3: four deep of guys that will light you up. Fred
Speaker 3: Warner still, if not the best, him and Rokuwan one
Speaker 3: of the best middle linebackers in the league. Their defensive line,
Speaker 3: when that gets rolling, they're always good. I think people
Speaker 3: are over correcting a little bit, but I'm with you.
Speaker 3: My thing goes back to Seattle is how often first
Speaker 3: year coach excellent defensive coordinator. It's a big transition, though
Speaker 3: We've seen a lot of elite coordinator struggle in that
Speaker 3: spot and not saying he will, but until he does it,
Speaker 3: we don't know. Their quarterback is still a guy that
Speaker 3: no one would pick in the top fIF.
Speaker 2: If you were getting a draft.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3: If you told me Dak Prescott was their quarterback or
Speaker 3: some cousins healthy, I'd be like, oh shit, But I
Speaker 3: still Geno and the Niners have beat him like five
Speaker 3: straight times. So you think McVeigh and Stafford are intimidated
Speaker 3: by him now their talent, they get Byron, they get
Speaker 3: one of the best defenders in a draft. They're draft
Speaker 3: in the middle of the first round, so they are
Speaker 3: a huge wild card. Look at the forty nine ers schedule.
Speaker 3: If they beat the Jets, they're probably more likely to
Speaker 3: start four and one than struggle. So I'm not as
Speaker 3: down on the Niners. But it is not debatable. They
Speaker 3: had the craziest training camp of it. I mean, they
Speaker 3: had a player gets shot. They have multiple holdouts of
Speaker 3: high end pro bowlers and all pros and health concerns.
Speaker 2: But I still like them against the Jets.
Speaker 1: Collen So, I think that Tom Brady situation is fascinating.
Speaker 1: I had people asking me in the airport about this.
Speaker 1: I went golfing and I had a couple of people
Speaker 1: ask me about the story that he's going to be.
Speaker 1: You know, he's trying to be a raider's owner, and
Speaker 1: if you're a raider's owner, there are limitations on what
Speaker 1: you can do in the NFL.
Speaker 3: And had you heard about had you heard about that
Speaker 3: before like in the hall, No, no, and so, And
Speaker 3: it's one of those things that that's above my pay grade,
Speaker 3: that's management.
Speaker 1: But so for people that don't know. He can't criticize officials,
Speaker 1: he can't be in certain meetings, production meetings. I don't
Speaker 1: think the production meetings is a big deal. I think,
Speaker 1: have you been watching this stuff? That Brady is allowing
Speaker 1: people to see the binders he has from every single season,
Speaker 1: everybody he ever faced. His preparation is even compared to
Speaker 1: people who spend a lot of time preparing, is literally
Speaker 1: next level. And he just got off the field. I
Speaker 1: don't worry about any of that. The only part of
Speaker 1: it that concerns me, and it only may happen once
Speaker 1: every two weeks, eight times a year that you may
Speaker 1: have to call the officials and go that's a blown call.
Speaker 1: Now replay helps reverse a lot of miscalls. So again,
Speaker 1: it's not the seventies eighties. But when I read all
Speaker 1: the stuff, I thought, do you view it as credibility dinged?
Speaker 1: If he can't rip officials? And I'm not saying rip,
Speaker 1: but be question officiating.
Speaker 2: Listen. I like my announcers.
Speaker 3: I think once everyone started getting on Romo, Troykman kind
Speaker 3: of got his swag back and he'll light into somebody,
Speaker 3: and I like that. Now some people maybe like more
Speaker 3: Rosier glass, but here's the one thing. There's twenty thirty
Speaker 3: million people watching this game when stuff screwed up. Now,
Speaker 3: at football, you have a pretty good idea, and people
Speaker 3: don't like to hear rose colored glasses when stuff's pretty obvious.
Speaker 3: I thought, it's not only officials. This isn't like certain
Speaker 3: things like with teams. To me, the restrictions that I
Speaker 3: read feel like god part of my big question mark
Speaker 3: with Tom because heard him on your show.
Speaker 2: He's awesome. I mean his ability to speak very.
Speaker 3: Complicated stuff, but I was like, let his true personality
Speaker 3: come out that he's known as the great teammate. Part
Speaker 3: of that is being one of the guys obviously ribbing
Speaker 3: some people.
Speaker 2: I think that's pretty difficult.
Speaker 3: It will not be difficult for him to get the
Speaker 3: coaches in the players on the phone, right, Maybe him back.
Speaker 1: That doesn't feel like a deal, That doesn't matter at
Speaker 1: all that way.
Speaker 3: Peyton talks about that sometimes. On Monday night, I talked
Speaker 3: to Sean McVeigh on his drive home. They can go
Speaker 3: him and Peyton get anybody on the phone in the
Speaker 3: NFL in five minutes, right. I do think him not
Speaker 3: being able to do that, if that's really serious, couldn't
Speaker 3: you argue and listen. I'm as pro capitalism as anybody,
Speaker 3: but this feels like it's going to be pretty tough
Speaker 3: if you one day. Actually, he's just never allowed to
Speaker 3: do that. It is pretty difficult to do your job
Speaker 3: if there are legit restrictions. Because it's easy this year,
Speaker 3: but what about five years from now when you have
Speaker 3: some coaches you know nothing about. Those production meetings do
Speaker 3: hold some value, right, And that's one thing I'm not
Speaker 3: saying to like divest from the Raiders because that's pretty
Speaker 3: good investment investing in the NFL.
Speaker 2: But it feels pretty difficult. Fox is given him almost
Speaker 2: four hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, I rent all the restrictions and listen.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a corporate opinionist, so essentially, I have strong
Speaker 1: opinions for companies ESPN and FOCK that have rights with everybody.
Speaker 1: And my take has always been I can say pretty
Speaker 1: much everything and anything, but I don't make it personal.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go after Roger Goodell personally or
Speaker 1: Adam Silver, even now that we don't have the NBA.
Speaker 1: I try to be fair with people, even when I'm
Speaker 1: critical of people, like for a year. Even with Baker Mayfield,
Speaker 1: I've said he is a top twenty quarterback. I think
Speaker 1: he's a great guy. He and Emily are wonderful people.
Speaker 1: I root for the guy. I thought he was immature
Speaker 1: when he came into the league. So I try to
Speaker 1: qualify stuff. I don't want to. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be a sledgehammer. I don't want to be an anvil
Speaker 1: because I'm in these relationships too. I see these commissioners,
Speaker 1: I see these coaches. I don't want to be a jerk.
Speaker 1: I want to be somewhat respected as a generalist or
Speaker 1: an opinionist. But the one that did jump out to
Speaker 1: me was the officiating because and again Tom's such a
Speaker 1: prep monster. I don't worry about the other stuff, but
Speaker 1: that one I think. I think what it would be.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't affect him, but it would mean a lot
Speaker 1: of bad press for him and Fox, and I think
Speaker 1: corporations don't like that.
Speaker 3: My theory was when I read the headline and kind
Speaker 3: of read I think Florio wrote a long thing on
Speaker 3: it was, think how many owners over the last twenty
Speaker 3: years he's cost money? Playoff victories knocked him out Because
Speaker 3: this feels like pretty inoculate. What's he doing going to
Speaker 3: your practice and telling Antonio Pierce, who beat him in
Speaker 3: a Super Bowl, to steal some guy with a practice squad, Like,
Speaker 3: what is really going to happen? But I bet some
Speaker 3: owners or maybe they're vps or people that know the truth,
Speaker 3: because this feels pretty deep on the rule book for
Speaker 3: someone to dive and word gets out and they all
Speaker 3: kind of you know, a group of three four, and
Speaker 3: then it just kind of grows. Is not that they
Speaker 3: have anything against him personally, but from a competitive business standpoint,
Speaker 3: because the NFL is kind of unique that they're all
Speaker 3: independent entities worth billions of dollars, but they benefit as
Speaker 3: a unit. So sometimes they are I would say fractured
Speaker 3: and sometimes on because this doesn't gain steam without a
Speaker 3: group of several guys coming together and making a stink.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: I don't think Roger's just saying you can't do this, right.
Speaker 3: I think it's some owners And think about he's beat
Speaker 3: a lot of people in big games. That the difference
Speaker 3: how much what were the Patriots worth twenty years ago
Speaker 3: before they started rattling off Super Bowls? They were worth
Speaker 3: a lot more now because of the history all tied
Speaker 3: to Tom and think the Colts might have three or
Speaker 3: four Super Bowls, The Ravens, the Steelers. I mean, there
Speaker 3: are a lot of teams that the difference of the marketing,
Speaker 3: the obviously what you make when you're a Super Bowl
Speaker 3: champion getting to the Super Bowl. That just have an
Speaker 3: axe to grind. And we saw it forever with people
Speaker 3: going after Bill on.
Speaker 2: Some of this stuff.
Speaker 1: How about deflate Gate. That was the Cols. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that, the I mean theflate Gate. The irony of
Speaker 1: deflate Gate is Brady after deflate Gate was a more
Speaker 1: efficient quarterback. His numbers went up once we knew. It's
Speaker 1: almost like harbought Michigan once the Connor Stallions story came out,
Speaker 1: and now Harbor couldn't coach, and they played They played
Speaker 1: their toughest games of the year late when all the
Speaker 1: Connor Stallion stuff was out, they beat people worse. So
Speaker 1: it was like deflate Gate and Hardbaugh. We know Tom's great,
Speaker 1: we know Michigan was great, but it let's be honest.
Speaker 1: If flate Gate came from the Colts tournament, I.
Speaker 3: Think I think you can look at the Colts, you know,
Speaker 3: the Jets with Mangini, right with the spygate. I think
Speaker 3: you could just go to their division. I can't imagine
Speaker 3: the Dolphins think that highly of Tom him kicking their
Speaker 3: ass forever. The Bills, the AFC North Teams, the Steelers,
Speaker 3: the Ravens. And this isn't like we're going to ruin
Speaker 3: your life. This is we have certain rules. This is
Speaker 3: really deep in the rule book. Doesn't seem necessary. But
Speaker 3: you know, screw you. We're gonna make this a little
Speaker 3: more difficult on you. And it's like, Okay, you want
Speaker 3: to join our country club. We're not just letting you
Speaker 3: right in because remember Mark Davis tried to almost let
Speaker 3: him buy in at a number not equal to the
Speaker 3: actual value, and the owner said no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 3: If your team is valued as X, Tom needs to
Speaker 3: pay this, even for a tiny percentage. So they have
Speaker 3: made it I would say, pretty difficult on Tom to
Speaker 3: get into this. What would you consider the NFL one
Speaker 3: of the top five country clubs in America and it's
Speaker 3: got to be one of the most might be the
Speaker 3: most difficult thing to get involved in currently.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's the number one TV show on
Speaker 1: every network it's on. I mean I always say this,
Speaker 1: every business ever started in America is looking for marketing
Speaker 1: and has to pay a fortune for it. I mean,
Speaker 1: think about how much Stephen A. Smith, myself, Scott Van Pelt,
Speaker 1: Mike and Tony nick Wright, all these shows, how much
Speaker 1: free publicity the NFL gets every day for six months,
Speaker 1: hundreds of millions of dollars on all of these talking shows, radio,
Speaker 1: TV free. Every business looking for a free ad. So
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's it's it's the best once.
Speaker 3: It's one of the great businesses tail in the world.
Speaker 3: We're in, right, I mean, we can make a lot
Speaker 3: of money just talking about football because of the amount
Speaker 3: of people that want to listen and watch. Obviously they
Speaker 3: consume these games. That's back to Tom. You're right, it
Speaker 3: can get weird if he has to tiptoe about things
Speaker 3: that are pretty obvious, right and that, and maybe he
Speaker 3: won't care, But I think any like any human being
Speaker 3: on a new job, you don't want to start.
Speaker 2: It's a weird spot to be in that there's no
Speaker 2: debating that.
Speaker 1: Give me one team or one situation. I'll give you
Speaker 1: mine first, so I'll give you a couple of seconds
Speaker 1: to think about it. One team that you don't know
Speaker 1: what the hell they're going to look like and so
Speaker 1: I can't get my arms around Philadelphia. So I'm not
Speaker 1: in love with a coach. Take Out Nick Sirianni. One
Speaker 1: guy is a different football team. Take Out Nick Sirianni
Speaker 1: calling plays. Jalen Hurts a different quarterback. I think they've
Speaker 1: upgraded coordinators. Jason Kelsey's gone. They are a bit top heavy.
Speaker 1: I will say they've paid both receivers, but I mean
Speaker 1: they've They've got a lot of money at the high ends.
Speaker 1: I think there's heat on Sirianni. I think Philadelphia has
Speaker 1: proven they'll bail on a super Bowl winning coach. They'll
Speaker 1: bail on Carson Wentz after they pay him. It's always
Speaker 1: been an intense, somewhat combustible city because of the relentless
Speaker 1: nature and the aggressive nature of the media and the fans.
Speaker 1: I love Philadelphia. I don't know what I think. I
Speaker 1: think because the division is still wonky. I like him,
Speaker 1: but if you told me they want seven and ten
Speaker 1: and Syrianna got fired the week after the Thanksgiving I
Speaker 1: wouldn't argue. What do I make of Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: I have a hard time seeing them not being pretty
Speaker 3: good because of the talent they have, and I think
Speaker 3: the coordinator upgrades are massive. I think Fangio has been
Speaker 3: one of the better defensive coordinators. If he gets the
Speaker 3: two defensive linemen they drafted, Georgia playing well, they draft
Speaker 3: multiple corners, they still got Sleigh. I think the talent
Speaker 3: they have on offense, Kellen Moore's proven to be a
Speaker 3: pretty good offensive play caller. Nuss Meyer LSU's quarterback. His
Speaker 3: dad's the quarterback coach. He coached Dak forever. I mean,
Speaker 3: they got a real coach. Sirianna doesn't really. They just
Speaker 3: they kind of want him to stay away, but he's
Speaker 3: gonna get all the heat of.
Speaker 2: Think about these two games Thursday and Friday.
Speaker 3: To me, there's a ton of pressure on the Ravens,
Speaker 3: not because anyone's jobs in jeopardy. Yeah, are you a
Speaker 3: real team? Can you hang with this team? Because this
Speaker 3: team win or lose that they don't care, Like they
Speaker 3: don't see in January. They're not worried about you. You
Speaker 3: need to to me on Friday night. It's like the
Speaker 3: pressure's all on the Eagles because you'll lose a game.
Speaker 3: The Packers are good, But like you just said, the
Speaker 3: pressure all the weird stuff with Sirianni the relationship with
Speaker 3: him in the quarterback. They've paid a lot of money
Speaker 3: to Jalen, and they like Jalen I think more than
Speaker 3: Carson in terms of the guy.
Speaker 2: He's just an easier guy to deal with.
Speaker 3: He's focused his football, the work ethic, the teammates. But
Speaker 3: part of it it's a production based business, like they're
Speaker 3: gonna need, you know, thirty plus touchdowns here and the
Speaker 3: dynamic there. Their division sucks. I'm not into Washington. I
Speaker 3: just don't think they're gonna be They don't have the talent.
Speaker 3: New York's the quarterback situation is just terrible. I don't
Speaker 3: think they got the talent either. And the Cowboys I
Speaker 3: don't think are gonna be the twelve win team. They're
Speaker 3: still but them in the Eagles, basically it feels like
Speaker 3: split most years. I think anything less than ten and
Speaker 3: being in the playoffs, obviously Heirianni would get fired. But
Speaker 3: then it just gets weird, like you just stick with
Speaker 3: Jalen because, like you said, they that city moves quick.
Speaker 3: That city moves quick, and that's the thing with young quarterback.
Speaker 3: We just saw these all these guys get drafted a
Speaker 3: couple of years ago. Three years later, they're all on
Speaker 3: different teams. These guys get huge contracts now because the
Speaker 3: NFL is making so much money. It's like, yeah, we
Speaker 3: already paid him a seventy million dollars to get him
Speaker 3: out of here. Will twenty million a dead cap? You know,
Speaker 3: Russell Wilson. But it's not even just quarterbacks. It happens
Speaker 3: all sorts of players. So the pace in which everything
Speaker 3: happens has never been faster in the NFL. And you
Speaker 3: could argue no one operates faster in terms of pressure
Speaker 3: and urgency than the Eagles, So it's gonna be fair.
Speaker 2: I don't know either.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't bet that game Friday night because who knows. Like,
Speaker 3: if you tell me the Eagles come out firing, I'd
Speaker 3: believe you. If you tell me it's weird, the game's
Speaker 3: in Brazil, what you're doing, does that make any sense
Speaker 3: to you? I'm pro expansion and pro growth.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I text a couple of people with the Eagles.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you're going. They're like, oh, thank god, I
Speaker 3: don't have to go. I'm doing something else. It's like that,
Speaker 3: that is that's one of your Roger has been incredible
Speaker 3: the league office over the last the Internet age. The
Speaker 3: money they've made everybody most of their ideas work. That
Speaker 3: to me is pretty idiotic. I mean, that's that's unnecessary.
Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, I feel like it wasn't it
Speaker 1: a few years ago the Yankees open in Japan or
Speaker 1: something and they were baseball.
Speaker 2: It's easy for.
Speaker 1: Like maybe the Mariners or the you know, the the Giants,
Speaker 1: But no, I mean I like the games in Mexico City,
Speaker 1: which is an amazing city. I have friends that have
Speaker 1: been there. They're like, oh my god, you got to
Speaker 1: go in your life best food city, maybe in you know,
Speaker 1: our our region of the country. And I like European Games.
Speaker 1: I was just over in London. There are NFL You'd
Speaker 1: be amazed. There are not just English Premier there are
Speaker 1: NFL caps all over London. You'll see them.
Speaker 3: Should have just gone there. To me that field, if
Speaker 3: you are going to go, just go across the pond.
Speaker 3: Don't go to Brazil, where I saw aj Brown said,
Speaker 3: you know, we went over the rules and they say
Speaker 3: no phones on the streets. So he's like, yeah, I
Speaker 3: think I'm just gonna stay in.
Speaker 2: My hotel room.
Speaker 3: Like if that, the parameters probably should cancel my team.
Speaker 3: I thought about pretty strong picking this team over the
Speaker 3: summer to win the division. I'm not I'm gonna pick
Speaker 3: the Texans, but the Colts, who I think they're pretty
Speaker 3: good and I like you, I love their coach. Watched
Speaker 3: the Anthony Richardson a couple times in the preseason. Incredible talent.
Speaker 3: The ball flies all over the map, though, So it's hard.
Speaker 3: Could they if he's pretty good and stays healthy, win
Speaker 3: ten games?
Speaker 1: For sure?
Speaker 3: But if he is just wildly inaccurate and against good teams,
Speaker 3: you're gonna lose a lot of those games. So it's
Speaker 3: like their margin from being to me, they could be
Speaker 3: seven to eight or they could be ten to eleven.
Speaker 3: It all comes down to him, and obviously he's gonna
Speaker 3: be rocky. But as the season goes, like what Shane
Speaker 3: did with Jalen, can he just get him under control?
Speaker 3: Jalen doesn't have He throws with more touch because he
Speaker 3: doesn't throw as hard. Yeah, it's really hard for this
Speaker 3: guy to not throw like one hundred mile an hour fastball.
Speaker 1: So it's incredible when the guy's.
Speaker 3: Seven feet away from him. So it's it's hard to
Speaker 3: play like that in the NFL if your team is
Speaker 3: not incredibly loaded. They're good, but I don't know if
Speaker 3: they could overcome some games where he's like fifty percent
Speaker 3: because the balls.
Speaker 2: Are all over the map.
Speaker 1: John Middlikoff Three and Out podcast, former NFL scout, the
Speaker 1: first of about twenty some weeks.
Speaker 2: In a row.
Speaker 1: When you generally, we will generally do these on Sunday night,
Speaker 1: you know that. But I just got back from for
Speaker 1: the record, John, I told my wife a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, I said, we're going to do a European
Speaker 1: trip at least once a year for the rest, you know,
Speaker 1: prior next fifteen years. So we went to London for
Speaker 1: four or five days. And I don't care what anybody
Speaker 1: tells you. My wife is not a foodie, but her
Speaker 1: family's in the food business. She said, it's almost sacrilegious.
Speaker 1: She goes, I would take London food over Italy, and
Speaker 1: I said, just don't say it out loud. We had
Speaker 1: and we were at everything from pubs the hole in
Speaker 1: the walls to high end lunch places. Don't listen to anybody.
Speaker 1: London may not have good weather, that is a sensational
Speaker 1: Maybe it's not New York, but it is a sensational
Speaker 1: food city. And if you like architecture and parks like
Speaker 1: I love to go on jogs or walks in like
Speaker 1: overcast days. I'm a Northwest kid. God London. London is
Speaker 1: spectacular and they have their cab system for anybody listening
Speaker 1: is fascinating. It takes three to four years to get
Speaker 1: a cab license. They're called black cabs. Their cab system
Speaker 1: is a complete game changer for anybody that is not
Speaker 1: from the country and for those who live in the country.
Speaker 1: So the pound is stronger than the dollar, so ten
Speaker 1: pounds is probably eleven and a half dollars. But if
Speaker 1: you go to if you go to England and you
Speaker 1: go to London and you just first thing you do
Speaker 1: is you exchange or you take out, you know, ten
Speaker 1: pounds three hundred in tens. There's ten dollars or ten
Speaker 1: pound cab rides all over and taxi drivers in London
Speaker 1: make Uber and Lyft look like such ripoffs. There is
Speaker 1: no surge pricing. They are tour guides and cab drivers.
Speaker 1: You have to know it takes four to five years
Speaker 1: to be a cab driver or a taxi driver in England.
Speaker 1: You have to know every street in the city. Everyone.
Speaker 1: The testing is tests. Oh it's grueling, it's it's a
Speaker 1: multiple year to become qualification. Are taxi drivers in London?
Speaker 1: My wife and I were laughing, we're like zigzagging back
Speaker 1: ways to find like a weird nightclub at eleven at
Speaker 1: night that some causedier said, hey go try this place.
Speaker 1: It's a it's called uh Froggies, and we're and we're thinking, uh, okay,
Speaker 1: we couldn't find it in a week if it had
Speaker 1: dropped us off down the street. So if you go there,
Speaker 1: just know the transportation. You can take their version of
Speaker 1: a subway. That's fine. The transportation and the food if
Speaker 1: you can get over overcast guys is sensational in London.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: So as a guy that has a large, shit pretty
Speaker 3: good sizeable position in uber, do they just not exist there?
Speaker 3: Do we have no presence? And then just the taxis well,
Speaker 3: they're going to school like they're medical, they're going to
Speaker 3: be doctors.
Speaker 2: I mean, how do you compete with that?
Speaker 1: Well, you can't compete with it. So I never used
Speaker 1: those service.
Speaker 2: You didn't use left when you were there?
Speaker 1: No, No, My concierge at my hotel is he said,
Speaker 1: we can get you a driver for one hundred pounds
Speaker 1: an hour, which is probably again probably about one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty bucks. I think the pound is stronger than
Speaker 1: the American dollar right now. So or you can do
Speaker 1: a taxi. So my wife and I are you know,
Speaker 1: we'll just take taxis. We love. And they're fascinating people.
Speaker 1: I mean, they've just got these British accents. They're they're
Speaker 1: just regular people, but these are careers.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: You you buy that taxi, it is yours. These people
Speaker 1: are incredibly proud. They're tour guides. So if you're going
Speaker 1: to go over there, it is so wonderful. It really
Speaker 1: elevates the experience. They know the city like the back
Speaker 1: of its hand. It's you know what it's like. It's
Speaker 1: it's like a bigger Chicago with even greater architecture. So
Speaker 1: it's a it's a bigger Chicago with roads are tighter,
Speaker 1: but the architecture is even more dramatic. And I think
Speaker 1: Chicago's is a remarkable architecture city in North America. So
Speaker 1: it's it was it was cold over there, like you
Speaker 1: weren't pain No, No, it was I lie, you know again,
Speaker 1: I like cold weather. It wasn't, but it's not Spain, Greece.
Speaker 1: It's not Paris. You're not going to get the mugginess consistently. No,
Speaker 1: you you get seventy degree days all the time.
Speaker 2: What was your best meal?
Speaker 1: My my, Well, I went to a place called at
Speaker 1: twenty two and had a dinner with Anne that was
Speaker 1: it was like a house that had become that had residences.
Speaker 1: That was remarkable. I went to a place called one
Speaker 1: o eight Brasserie and had a super food salad with shrimp,
Speaker 1: and I told my wife three bites into it, this
Speaker 1: is the greatest salad I've ever eaten in my life. Now,
Speaker 1: the portions in London are not American portions. They joke
Speaker 1: about it over there, you know, they joke about you know,
Speaker 1: we're fat. This is not Houston. You don't get a
Speaker 1: plate of brisket. It's not the way it works, but
Speaker 1: just the quality. They take it serious. Gordon Ramsey has
Speaker 1: a footprint all over the city. I mean you can't
Speaker 1: turn a corner without a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. And he's
Speaker 1: helped elevate the culinary experience. But I just think if
Speaker 1: you're if you and your wife, you know, there's no
Speaker 1: language barriers, tradition, architecture, it's civility, and the pubs are
Speaker 1: fricking incredible, John, Any part of town, any part of
Speaker 1: town in London. You walk in a pub, you grab
Speaker 1: a beer, you're standing out in the street talking to
Speaker 1: a bloke about your favorite football team out in the
Speaker 1: street in Alley's. It's just the best, is it?
Speaker 3: You know? It's kind of there in New York City, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, but it doesn't have that vibe of craziness.
Speaker 2: Twenty four to seven.
Speaker 1: Well, I would say I like London.
Speaker 2: Listen. I love.
Speaker 1: Chicago's my favorite big city in the United States. I
Speaker 1: like La Chicago, Vancouver, BC. I love. I don't love
Speaker 1: a lot of big cities, you know, Boston's okay. I'm
Speaker 1: not really a Dallas, Atlanta, Houston don't do a lot
Speaker 1: for me. I don't like to be in my car.
Speaker 1: I want to walk Chicago, New York. I can walk Vancouver,
Speaker 1: I can walk London. You can walk everywhere. A Covenant Garden,
Speaker 1: by the way, a bit of a tourist trap, too
Speaker 1: crowded for my taste, a little young. If you're young,
Speaker 1: go to Covenant Garden. Not my scene. But I would say,
Speaker 1: compared to New York New York's bigger. I think London's
Speaker 1: easier to get around. Both have great parks, central parks,
Speaker 1: you know, terrific. But I'm a London fan.
Speaker 3: I'm a London Did you did you hold your own
Speaker 3: bs and about soccer over some beers with random people
Speaker 3: in pubs? Or it wasn't pretty intense? Are they talking
Speaker 3: to like SEC people?
Speaker 2: If you're in Alabama, you better know your shit.
Speaker 1: No, you're not going to fool anybody. No, No, eighty
Speaker 1: six mile an hour fastballs get past anybody.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine. All right, Bud, okay.
Speaker 1: The volume. Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed
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