Speaker 1: The volume. Hi everybody, and welcome in to either a
Speaker 1: Sunday Night or a Monday morning podcast. Dave Wantstat was
Speaker 1: at Bears practice Wednesday, and I can't wait to talk
Speaker 1: about it. I want to give you a story though, So,
Speaker 1: as many of you know, last football season, I had
Speaker 1: Sean Payton joining me four out of five Mondays. He
Speaker 1: was spectacular and Sean and I got along great on
Speaker 1: the air off the air dinners discussions. I think he
Speaker 1: trusted me. I certainly learned a lot from him, and
Speaker 1: as the football season approached the Super Bowl near the end,
Speaker 1: he had asked me, I think I can share this now, Hey,
Speaker 1: what's my market? What should I be looking at here?
Speaker 1: He was really interested in Fox. He liked Fox, he
Speaker 1: liked broadcasting, and he really enjoyed it. He liked living
Speaker 1: on the beach in Los Angeles. He just loved it.
Speaker 1: He was all over town. He was really genuinely happy,
Speaker 1: and he was really committed to it. He really cared
Speaker 1: about it. He made calls. He was terrific and may
Speaker 1: still be someday, but he was really committed and very focused.
Speaker 1: And then one day he wasn't because the Denver Broncos
Speaker 1: offered him four and a half to five times more
Speaker 1: than Fox did. A man is as loyal as his options.
Speaker 1: As comedian Chris Rock once said, for those belly aching
Speaker 1: about USC UCLA, Washington, Oregon leaving the PAC twelve, this
Speaker 1: is a conference that has continued to drop the ball,
Speaker 1: hired the wrong people to run the conference, been slow
Speaker 1: to see stuff about the future of college sports that
Speaker 1: appears obvious, sometimes stubborn, nose in the air, a little
Speaker 1: too precious for their own good. And so the Big
Speaker 1: Ten is a bigger, broader conference, It's a better conference,
Speaker 1: smack dab in the middle of the country with that
Speaker 1: mid Western work ethos. Even though they produce significantly larger
Speaker 1: revenue than the Pac twelve, they don't have their arrogance.
Speaker 1: And maybe it's because the Stanford cal Ucla excellence academically, historically,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. But the Big Ten is big boy stadiums,
Speaker 1: sold out stadiums, better TV contracts, more committed financially, more
Speaker 1: committed fan bases, more committed boosters. That's where you have
Speaker 1: to go. What in the world has cal ever done
Speaker 1: for the PAC twelve's football conference? Would you be loyal
Speaker 1: to that? Why would you be loyal to an Oregon
Speaker 1: State Arizona game in corvallis what does it mean? This
Speaker 1: is a better conference, a better opportunity, and sometimes it's
Speaker 1: survival of the fittest and survival of the brightest and
Speaker 1: survival of the future. We're seeing the globalization of economies
Speaker 1: college football. This is like globalization. And when I hear
Speaker 1: the belly aching, my takeaway is what are we losing here?
Speaker 1: Some regional rivalries. Washington's already said they want to play
Speaker 1: Washington State, all right, Okay, Oregon will probably continue to
Speaker 1: play Oregon State. All right, We're not losing a lot here.
Speaker 1: And I can tell you firsthand that USC has been
Speaker 1: looking and discussing moving away from the conference for the
Speaker 1: last four years and then they finally did it. So
Speaker 1: you know, when I hear anybody in any industry clamoring
Speaker 1: for loyalty, my takeaway as ohas, have you ever been
Speaker 1: offered something that's spectacular a role, a job, a salary,
Speaker 1: a relocation, an opportunity. It's easy to bang that loyalty
Speaker 1: drum when nobody's clamoring for your talent, or your team
Speaker 1: or your business. Life is about opportunities. The four best
Speaker 1: football programs in the PAC twelve arguably three for sure, Washington, Oregon,
Speaker 1: USC and then Utah is better than the UCLA. But
Speaker 1: sometimes market size matters. They're all going to greener pastors,
Speaker 1: greener in terms of revenue, in terms of stadium capacity,
Speaker 1: a commitment. And I hear this too, Well, what about
Speaker 1: the other sports? What about them? They lose money? College
Speaker 1: football drives a bus, So you're going to take care
Speaker 1: of football first. If you're in a family and you
Speaker 1: paid all the bills, shouldn't you have the greatest say?
Speaker 1: You know, when you look at the NCAA March Madness Tournament,
Speaker 1: CBS foots the bill. They pay for the wedding. If
Speaker 1: I paid for the wedding, don't I get a say
Speaker 1: in the seating chart? So if CBS says we're not
Speaker 1: going to pick what teams get in, but we'd like
Speaker 1: to say in the second and third round matchups, potentially,
Speaker 1: why shouldn't they they're paying for the wedding. They just
Speaker 1: want to say in the seating chart. So I grew
Speaker 1: up with PAC twelve football, but it has been eroding
Speaker 1: for years. It's out of touch, it's too precious, too snooty,
Speaker 1: and the Big ten's a better product now and going forward.
Speaker 1: It's not even arguable. He's the former Dolphins head coach,
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears head coach, Cowboy defensive coordinator, part of the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl twenty seven win longtime pit coach. One of
Speaker 1: Natty is a Miami DC Rose Bowl d line coach
Speaker 1: for USC analyzing football for NBC Sports in Chicago, the
Speaker 1: Big Ten Network, six seventy to Score in Chicago and
Speaker 1: on the thirty third team, which has been really a
Speaker 1: quickly growing website full of former NFL front office guys
Speaker 1: and coaches that I really like. It's Dave wanstat. So
Speaker 1: last time we talked, you said Chicago's a seven eight
Speaker 1: win team. You were at practice Wednesday. They've now added
Speaker 1: a rush end from the Ravens, who was on the market.
Speaker 1: You were at practice Wednesday. Do you still feel like
Speaker 1: it's a seven eight win team?
Speaker 2: I do. I'm going to say call them.
Speaker 3: When you were reading that introduction sounds to me like
Speaker 3: a guy couldn't hold a.
Speaker 2: Job very long anywhere. No. The Bears, Yeah, I was
Speaker 2: up there. I'll tell you what. They have been fantastic
Speaker 2: to me. I spent a lot of.
Speaker 3: Time I would George McCaskey when I just happened to
Speaker 3: bump into him. When I got there and I was
Speaker 3: up with Matt Eberfluss's office. We were talking defense and
Speaker 3: coverages on the board, and then stood with Ryan Poles
Speaker 3: most of the practice. So I got a real good
Speaker 3: feel for not just what they did that day, but
Speaker 3: kind of the big picture and the vision, and a
Speaker 3: couple of things jumped at me, you know, because everybody's
Speaker 3: talking about and this would go for any NFL team,
Speaker 3: any college team. I think they everyone's talking about, Well,
Speaker 3: they got started and the defense, the offense isn't where
Speaker 3: they're supposed to be, the defense is ahead of them. Well,
Speaker 3: I've never been on a team at any level where
Speaker 3: when you start training camp where your defense better be
Speaker 3: ahead of your offense. If the offense is out there
Speaker 3: and they're tearing them apart and they're making plays from
Speaker 3: the get go and the defense is trying to catch up.
Speaker 2: That's it doesn't work that way in my opinion.
Speaker 3: So I kind of like where the Bears are at
Speaker 3: right now because defensively they've had some great additions and
Speaker 3: another year in Mattie Reflus's system everything that goes along
Speaker 3: with it. So I like where they're at right now
Speaker 3: from an offense, defense, special teams. The second thing that
Speaker 3: I looked at was, you know, a lot of players
Speaker 3: they run four or five in shorts OTAs and then
Speaker 3: you put the pads on and guess what they become
Speaker 3: four to eight players. They can't carry the pads. That's
Speaker 3: not the case with the Bears. This is a fast,
Speaker 3: young football team.
Speaker 2: And I was.
Speaker 3: Impressed on their and not just their energy level, but
Speaker 3: how quick they were across the field. And the last
Speaker 3: thing was that I walked out and saying, Wow, you
Speaker 3: know what, Ryan Pooles, he has a plan and this
Speaker 3: guy's gone a good job.
Speaker 2: If you look at their free.
Speaker 3: Agents that they've signed, and you look at the draft
Speaker 3: fix that they've drafted, you know, this guy has got
Speaker 3: a plan and he.
Speaker 2: Has stayed with it. And you mentioned he.
Speaker 3: Just you know, they just added Yanic probably the not
Speaker 3: just maybe the best edge rusher available now.
Speaker 2: But he's twenty nine years old, right.
Speaker 3: And that's that's kind of been a foundation platform for
Speaker 3: the Bears. Every free ation, they didn't talk to anybody
Speaker 3: that was older than twenty eight years old.
Speaker 2: So they're a young football team moving forward.
Speaker 3: With a lot of team speed right now, and they
Speaker 3: get some great competition going, they really do.
Speaker 1: You know, it is interesting. The Chase Claypool acquisition got heat.
Speaker 1: But because Mooney's a smaller athlete, Claypool is a beables
Speaker 1: like a tight end. I understood it from body. From
Speaker 1: the body perspective, you just didn't have anybody on your
Speaker 1: roster like him. So Cole Comet, Robert Tanya, and Chase
Speaker 1: Claypol those are big bodies downfield Mooney, who I think
Speaker 1: is a terrific players tiny. I do worry about Claypool
Speaker 1: last year he kind of disappeared. Are they worried about
Speaker 1: him because they gave up a second round pick for him?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: They they are, but they aren't. I'll tell you why
Speaker 3: I call him. He's in his fourth year, he's in
Speaker 3: a contract year. And you know that's that motivates players. Pressure,
Speaker 3: peer pressure or money, that's what motivates these professional players.
Speaker 2: Let's get you know that that's real.
Speaker 3: And so they got Claypool right where they're going to
Speaker 3: get the best effort that he can possibly give and
Speaker 3: we're gonna find out what that is. You mentioned Mooney.
Speaker 3: That was another bright spot. They were talking about Mooney
Speaker 3: a month ago here in Chicago, maybe being ready for
Speaker 3: the opener. Hey, I saw him and I was up
Speaker 3: there in full pass. He got knocked down and got
Speaker 3: right up off the ground and got back in the huddle.
Speaker 2: So he's back. And the DJ Moore and and Comet.
Speaker 3: They we know Cole Comet, but you know who might
Speaker 3: be the sleeper of their free agent signings, Robert Tunyan
Speaker 3: from Green Bay.
Speaker 2: This guy is a player.
Speaker 3: They flex him, they flex him out, and from an
Speaker 3: athletic standpoint, he's not going to be an every don
Speaker 3: all round player like Comet the physical illness. But you
Speaker 3: flex him out in the slot like they used to
Speaker 3: do with Gronk and Tony Gonzalez and get him one
Speaker 3: on one with the linebacker.
Speaker 2: He's gonna win that battle. Yeah, that was a good
Speaker 2: sign for the Bears. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: He's also good in the red zone. Smart player. He's
Speaker 1: a guy that gets open in tight spots. So now
Speaker 1: I think they're offensive. I think Justin Fields has to
Speaker 1: post eight or nine wins, has to show improvement. My
Speaker 1: guess is he does. You know, you coach the Dolphins
Speaker 1: for years and you know them very well, and it's
Speaker 1: a they're sort of in the in the league for
Speaker 1: me because of to his concussions. I just don't know
Speaker 1: what to make of them. But I did think of this.
Speaker 1: So they went and got Mike White a backup, and
Speaker 1: I thought to myself, generally speaking, even in blowouts, Peyton Manning,
Speaker 1: Tom Brady Mahomes, stay in the game. I could see
Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel saying, listen, we're up plus ten points, eight
Speaker 1: minutes left. We're getting two out of there. What would
Speaker 1: you do? Because it's not in any other injury, Dave,
Speaker 1: if he has a concussion, there's going to be so
Speaker 1: much public and medical pressure and media pressure. You can't
Speaker 1: plan for a month. He gets hurt September fourteenth, you
Speaker 1: can't plan him until October twentieth. How would you manage
Speaker 1: the Tua concussion situation?
Speaker 3: Well, I think you know you're you're right, and it's
Speaker 3: almost to the point where you know they he went
Speaker 3: and did the would he do the karate or jiu
Speaker 3: jitsu or everything?
Speaker 2: And then he put on weight.
Speaker 3: I like the idea to put on a little bit
Speaker 3: of weight, okay, because he's a good enough athlete he
Speaker 3: can carry.
Speaker 2: That should give him strength.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you the number one thing that I
Speaker 3: would tell him, we are not going to try to
Speaker 3: extend place. I think that's when he you know, it's
Speaker 3: going to have to be a situation where I dropped back.
Speaker 3: I see my first read. If I don't like it,
Speaker 3: maybe get rid of the football. That's what I would
Speaker 3: be spending time with on tour. You cannot hold the
Speaker 3: football because everybody talks about, oh, well, they're teaching them
Speaker 3: how to fall.
Speaker 2: When you get hit.
Speaker 3: You know what they say, the guy that hits quarterbacks
Speaker 3: and causes turnovers, it's the guy a quarterback doesn't see,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: So I don't buy this stuff at all. Here they
Speaker 2: come now, I'm going to cradle right, I'm gonna.
Speaker 3: Put my head and that doesn't happen that way.
Speaker 2: That's unrealistic. So because the guy's hitting them, he never
Speaker 2: see him coming.
Speaker 3: So I would just say, let's prevent holding the ball
Speaker 3: that I think that's the best answer, and don't over
Speaker 3: talk about it.
Speaker 2: It'll become a mental thing with the kid.
Speaker 1: Well, the good news is Shanahan and Mike McDaniel run
Speaker 1: the same offense, and both those coaches like the ball
Speaker 1: out of your hands quickly. I mean, Garoppolo had some limitations. Dave,
Speaker 1: he got that thing. He got rid of that thing
Speaker 1: fast and accurately, and so you know, Miami's got the
Speaker 1: vic Fangio. I was told by somebody in the league
Speaker 1: that they thought Fangio was the best defensive mind in
Speaker 1: football today after Belichick in kind of Layman's terms, what
Speaker 1: makes Fangio tick? Like, what are guys like you? What
Speaker 1: do you hear about Fangio? He didn't have you know,
Speaker 1: he didn't get a head coaching break until he was
Speaker 1: like late sixties. So he's probably not a big personality guy.
Speaker 1: But people that I talked to in the league just
Speaker 1: go on and on about his schemes.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I've known Vick for thirty years. In fact, when
Speaker 2: he was up at the Bears as.
Speaker 3: A defensive coordinator with Ron, I was up and we
Speaker 3: spent time together and just reminiscent and so forth, and
Speaker 3: so I studied him close. I've coached against him, and
Speaker 3: one thing that he is he is not. You know,
Speaker 3: he's not a big blitz guy. Okay, so he's he's
Speaker 3: a guy that's going to put the defense. He's a
Speaker 3: little bit of the Belichick mentality, what are you doing best?
Speaker 3: We're gonna take that away, and they do not make mistakes.
Speaker 3: When you play against the Vic Fangio defense, you're not
Speaker 3: gonna see guys running wide open down the field, and
Speaker 3: you're not gonna see open gaps at the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 3: I mean, these guys are gonna play hard, and they're
Speaker 3: gonna play sound, and they're gonna make you out execute them.
Speaker 3: And I think in today's NFL world where everybody's at all,
Speaker 3: these offensive guys are geniuses.
Speaker 2: They get bored.
Speaker 3: Colin, You've heard me say this for years. Don't get bored.
Speaker 3: Most offensive coordinators get bored. Okay, they got bored. And
Speaker 3: we talked about the head coach down on McDaniels. He
Speaker 3: got hired because he was the run coordinator at San Francisco.
Speaker 3: And they're playing the Buffalo Bills and they got a
Speaker 3: third team quarterback in there last year, the kid from
Speaker 3: Kansas State. I'm trying to think of his name, Thomson
Speaker 3: Skyler Thompson. And they throw the ball twice as much
Speaker 3: as they run it. If they run the ball in
Speaker 3: the fourth quarter, they win that game. I mean, it
Speaker 3: makes it made no sense to me. So how do
Speaker 3: you help Tua and how can you help that defense,
Speaker 3: you know, and I know it's tempting. When you got
Speaker 3: Tarik Hill, when you got you got ud Waddle, you
Speaker 3: got a lot of skill talent there.
Speaker 2: The tempt is to throw it, throw it through it.
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3: They have to be balanced if they're going to be
Speaker 3: a serious contender. The Miami Dolphins have to be balanced,
Speaker 3: in my opinion, and that's going to help the defense,
Speaker 3: and that's going to really help.
Speaker 1: Toa What did you make is somebody with thirty plus
Speaker 1: years in football of Sean Payton publicly ripping Nathaniel Hackett?
Speaker 1: Did it catch you off guarden?
Speaker 2: Yes, it totally caught me off guard. And I'll tell
Speaker 2: you what when I was when I was at.
Speaker 3: USC, we had Bill Walsh coman once to we we
Speaker 3: had a pack it was I got it. I guess
Speaker 3: it was pack eight or pack ten.
Speaker 2: I think it was pack eight.
Speaker 1: Back then before Arizona schools.
Speaker 3: It was I'm dating myself, but he came. We used
Speaker 3: to have an assistant coach's golf tournament. We always had
Speaker 3: it at Stanford because they had a nice golf course
Speaker 3: up there on campus and we would all go up
Speaker 3: there and we would bring it, and Bill Walsh came
Speaker 3: in and talk to us and he said, let me
Speaker 3: tell you, young coach or something. And we were just
Speaker 3: in our thirties. Just he says, all you guys are
Speaker 3: probably going to get fired. He says, Well, it happens
Speaker 3: to all of us, he says, and when you get
Speaker 3: fired a couple of rules in coaching, get out of
Speaker 3: the city as quick as you can.
Speaker 2: Don't sit there because everything that.
Speaker 3: The fans and media are going to talk about it
Speaker 3: every day is going to be better all of a sudden.
Speaker 3: This team is going to be tougher, and this team
Speaker 3: is going to be smarter. Think about it, he says,
Speaker 3: it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2: Don't You don't want to be reading in here that stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, with that being said, that was what disappointed me
Speaker 3: the most. Is here showing another coach and just respect,
Speaker 3: and everybody talks about COVID. I don't know what the
Speaker 3: code and all that I would just say is one
Speaker 3: man to another in the same profession. Sean, you know
Speaker 3: what goes into winning a game and winning having a
Speaker 3: successful season. Your GM is involved, right your quarterback, Russell.
Speaker 3: I could go right across the board. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of people involved that the head coach does not necessarily
Speaker 3: have control over the circumstances. And it really was disappointing
Speaker 3: to me because Sean knows better and he came up
Speaker 3: like all of us did in this profession, and you
Speaker 3: just don't see that happening, and just because of respect
Speaker 3: for another guy, and it just disappointed me.
Speaker 1: Listen, even the great coaches in this sport get out coached.
Speaker 1: I mean, go back to you and Jimmy. Did you
Speaker 1: ever have a game when you and Jimmy and you
Speaker 1: are the top defensive coordinator in the league and Jimmy
Speaker 1: was considered the bright young coach. Did you guys ever
Speaker 1: have a Sunday and you turned to Jimmy and he
Speaker 1: turned to you and you said, ship, we just got
Speaker 1: out coachy. I mean, it's I've I've I've talked to
Speaker 1: coaches about this, like sometimes you come in, Dave and
Speaker 1: your game plan doesn't work. Did you ever did you
Speaker 1: and Jimmy, even when you were building the Cowboys ever
Speaker 1: have a bad Sunday?
Speaker 3: We had, We had a lot of them. That first year.
Speaker 3: We won one game. I'll tell you a story. We
Speaker 3: were zero and five or six and we were playing
Speaker 3: the Kansas City Chiefs, and I'm and Joe Montanders with
Speaker 3: the Chiefs at the time, and I'm watching the tape
Speaker 3: and I felt good. I said, boy, we're we felt good.
Speaker 3: We went out there. I talked Jimmy and I said, hey,
Speaker 3: I feel so good about this. We're gonna play great
Speaker 3: defense and shut these guys down. Let's and back then
Speaker 3: if you gave them the ball, if you deferred, you
Speaker 3: lost it. So they got it twice. So you know,
Speaker 3: the rules were different than now. If you defer now,
Speaker 3: then you automatically get it the second half.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no. If you get it, you want it.
Speaker 2: If you give it up, it's over.
Speaker 3: We actually went in there and deferred the kickoffs against
Speaker 3: Marty Schartner and the Kansas City Chiefs, and Joe wantana.
Speaker 2: This is how crazy we were. But here's comes the story.
Speaker 3: So they take the opening kickoff and get out of
Speaker 3: the score, don't we don't you know, we get slaughtered.
Speaker 2: And they were running a three four defense. And I'm
Speaker 2: sitting there the next day and I am.
Speaker 3: Sick, and I'm watching their film on defense on the
Speaker 3: other side of the ball, just to see. And I
Speaker 3: remember calling Jimmy and I said, Jimmy, you know this
Speaker 3: stuff we did at Miami and Oklahoma State, and I
Speaker 3: don't know if this stuff's gonna work. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: and I says, you know, maybe we should think about
Speaker 3: because the Giant said we're in the Super Bowl and
Speaker 3: they were like a three four team with Belichick, and
Speaker 3: I says, you know, God, I mean this, I'm root
Speaker 3: and he says, Dave, I know, here's what he said.
Speaker 2: We know our defense.
Speaker 3: Better than anybody in the league, and we led college
Speaker 3: football with this defense. And you've done it, you know
Speaker 3: it better than anybody. I'm gonna go get players to
Speaker 3: fit into our defense and just keep coaching them and
Speaker 3: we're gonna be fine.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, it had and sure enough, you know,
Speaker 2: we get some players.
Speaker 3: And when we win the Super Bowl, we were number
Speaker 3: one in every category and they called our defense the
Speaker 3: college four three.
Speaker 2: But you know what, and that made me think of
Speaker 2: another point.
Speaker 3: You know, we were one in nine and back then
Speaker 3: most of the head coaches in the NFL.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know you could go through them. I
Speaker 2: mean it was the Marv Levies in the world.
Speaker 3: I mentioned Marty Schottenheimer's Oh I can pull out the
Speaker 3: picture you know it was Bill bar Barcells.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was the Joe Gibbs. This was the guys. Okay.
Speaker 3: My point is we were terrible, terrible, and I don't
Speaker 3: ever remember anybody coming out and these guys stink, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean, they don't have any idea what
Speaker 3: they're doing. It was the worst coaching job in America.
Speaker 3: So you know, you know, I mean we were one.
Speaker 3: We won one game, won one game and didn't and
Speaker 3: want to buy a field goal because we beat Washington
Speaker 3: and they run their third team quarterback, so that's the
Speaker 3: only reason we won.
Speaker 2: So might I don't know it that whole thing. Hopefully
Speaker 2: it's it's over and everybody learned something from it and
Speaker 2: we move on.
Speaker 1: So only twenty five percent of the teams in the
Speaker 1: NFL that start owing to one make the playoffs. If
Speaker 1: you start zering two, it's only twelve percent of the
Speaker 1: teams that make the playoffs. So game one matters in
Speaker 1: the NFL a lot. Green Bay Chicago is a big game, Dallas,
Speaker 1: New York Giants. Would you rather go in to game
Speaker 1: one a little bit of an underdog where you maybe
Speaker 1: don't have the team, or would you rather go in
Speaker 1: as a favorite, but you got to target on you
Speaker 1: because you're probably a favorite. You have better players because
Speaker 1: every year in Week one, bad teams don't know they're bad.
Speaker 1: It's a total danger spot. Jacksonville's going to go into Indianapolis. Coach.
Speaker 1: They've never seen Anthony Richardson play. Shane Steichen's a brilliant
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator. Everybody's going to be telling you. Jacksonville's going
Speaker 1: to roll in the why you couldn't pay me to
Speaker 1: be Jacksonville. By the way, Philadelphia goes to play Pilichick.
Speaker 1: Philadelphia has lost linebackers, new coordinators, nobody. Philadelphia is gonna
Speaker 1: get praised for three weeks. Take me to some of
Speaker 1: your game ones where I just think it's because bad
Speaker 1: teams don't know they're bad yet.
Speaker 3: I got a good to him my first game at
Speaker 3: the Dolphins. Okay, my first game, I mean they everybody's excited.
Speaker 3: We got an Dan Marino is gone. Okay, picture the
Speaker 3: fans now.
Speaker 2: Everybody.
Speaker 3: Everybody's nervous now because it's been Dan for one hundred years,
Speaker 3: and I take over. I bring in a new staff
Speaker 3: on offense, a new staff on defense, and Jay Fiedler
Speaker 3: is our new starting quarterback, and we are going to
Speaker 3: open up with Mike holgerm and the Seattle seahawksay in
Speaker 3: Miami and Mike home Grim, you know, and everybody's pulling out.
Speaker 3: You know, when Mike was at Green Bay and I
Speaker 3: was at Chicago and they had won Super Bowls. So
Speaker 3: this is all the buzzs Oh, this is We're zero
Speaker 3: and one and we're on our way. So I'm watching
Speaker 3: this Green Bay tape and we're all studying.
Speaker 2: And we're on it. Okay, end of the day. This
Speaker 2: is a great finish.
Speaker 3: We intercept their quarterback about five times, we beat them
Speaker 3: twenty three nothing, we shut them off.
Speaker 2: I'm walking over to.
Speaker 3: Shake and Mike and I are buddies, and Mike shakes
Speaker 3: hands and says, you know what, those plays didn't look
Speaker 3: the same with our Bret Fahre there, did they. So
Speaker 3: I mean he Mike's the best, you know, I mean
Speaker 3: he all Famer, but uh no, I uh yeah, we've
Speaker 3: had someone.
Speaker 2: And then then.
Speaker 3: Two or three years later, we got upset by a
Speaker 3: new franchise team, Houston, when we missed two or three
Speaker 3: field goals, but we still didn't play good and we
Speaker 3: were big time favorites.
Speaker 2: So I'd rather be the underdog. I really would. And uh,
Speaker 2: I don't know, I I like you know who I like?
Speaker 3: I kind of like uh, I like Houston going to
Speaker 3: Atlanta and going want to know, I just think.
Speaker 2: That I don't know.
Speaker 3: I just got a good, good feel about that one.
Speaker 1: So Zach Thomas, it was a Hall of Fame weekend
Speaker 1: and you were around for Zach Thomas. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you were around. So he was a fifth round pick.
Speaker 1: I think something like that. Kind of a short guy
Speaker 1: is one of the few great linebackers on six feet tall, Dave?
Speaker 1: How many practices did you know? How long did it
Speaker 1: take for you a guy that had Hall of famers?
Speaker 1: I mean you, you and Jimmy are known as excellent
Speaker 1: personnel guys. You found Aaron Donald, Shady McCoy, I mean,
Speaker 1: all these pit panthers that ended up being great pros,
Speaker 1: that were three star guys. How long was it with
Speaker 1: Zach Thomas before you identified this is different?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: You know everything that and I think it was talked
Speaker 3: about this week. Jimmy and may have mentioned that, you know,
Speaker 3: when they drafted him, and the reason that they drafted
Speaker 3: him was because they knew that he would make a
Speaker 3: lot of plays.
Speaker 2: You know. It wasn't his high height, it wasn't his speed,
Speaker 2: and so it didn't take long. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: all you had to do was put the film on
Speaker 2: and the guy, I.
Speaker 3: Don't know how he did it. He was a three
Speaker 3: don linebacker. I mean he would cover you know, slot
Speaker 3: guys on the slot and running backs and tight ends.
Speaker 3: But he was such a student of the game. There
Speaker 3: were several nights, several nights that the coaches would be
Speaker 3: up there and meet and it'd be ninth thirty ten
Speaker 3: o'clocked up players under the building. It would be dark,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden there'd be a knock at
Speaker 3: the coach door and it'd be Zach.
Speaker 2: He'd say, coach, you got him inute, I'd say.
Speaker 3: He says, you know, boy, I'm watching that tape of
Speaker 3: the Jets, and when they get in that formation that's
Speaker 3: going to that could really box us something about our
Speaker 3: scheme on defense. And we would talk about it. I mean,
Speaker 3: so the guy was probably the best student of the game.
Speaker 3: And when you watch them play, his big thing was
Speaker 3: everybody talked about how quick he got on the move
Speaker 3: and whether it was run or past the guy. We
Speaker 3: all say, hey, linebackers make mistakes. The great ones don't
Speaker 3: make two. Zach very seldom made one mistake. He had
Speaker 3: that offensive line and formations and motions.
Speaker 2: He had it all memorized. He was a true quarterback
Speaker 2: on the field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jimmy's talked about he had one of the highest
Speaker 1: IQs of any player he's ever had. You know, it's
Speaker 1: interesting when you take a look at all the great
Speaker 1: players you've had, it is remarkable how many were overlooked.
Speaker 1: How many were three star players. You had to see
Speaker 1: something with Aaron Donald, a Zach Thomas, you have to
Speaker 1: see something.
Speaker 3: You know who?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 3: You know who? I didn't have to see much. And
Speaker 3: I had Darrel reebas At Pitt and.
Speaker 1: Well he was a big recruit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but he scored four different ways in his high
Speaker 3: school championship game at Aliquippa. And think of he intercepted
Speaker 3: a pass, he caught a pass, he ran a pump back,
Speaker 3: he ran scored four different ways in the championship game.
Speaker 2: I mean, so he's the other extreme.
Speaker 1: Right when you recruited him a new instantly he was
Speaker 1: just fantastic.
Speaker 3: Well, I actually didn't recruit him, but I coached him
Speaker 3: until he graduated until he went to approach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: You know a lot about the Pittsburgh Steelers you coached
Speaker 1: collegiately there, you know, Mike Tomlin, Well, they are old school.
Speaker 1: They pay a lot of money for their defense, not
Speaker 1: nearly as much on offense. And you told me one
Speaker 1: time that they've always been a bit reluctant to draft
Speaker 1: pit kids because if they had to cut them, you know,
Speaker 1: they just didn't want that stigma in the city. Well,
Speaker 1: they draft Kenny Pickett. I thought by the end of
Speaker 1: the year, I thought he's a little bit of a gamer.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like he's athletic, not a hyper athletic, but athletic
Speaker 1: enough to get out of trouble. I think he's got good,
Speaker 1: solid arm strength, not big Ben, but he can he
Speaker 1: can sling it. What do they think in the building,
Speaker 1: because I don't think he's a game manager, right, I
Speaker 1: do think he's a little bit of a cowboy. He's
Speaker 1: willing to sling it. You can tell he's comfortable off script.
Speaker 1: What do you think they what Mike Tomlin and that
Speaker 1: coaching staff thinks of Kenny Pickett heading into year two.
Speaker 3: Well, I can tell you in fact, I talked to
Speaker 3: a guy this morning. They opened up the stadium. This
Speaker 3: is up at Saint Vincience into Latrobe where they go
Speaker 3: for training. Him had four over fourteen thousand people last
Speaker 3: night for a practice and they had to shut it down.
Speaker 3: Fourteen thousand in that stadium. Okay, So there is an
Speaker 3: excitement for this team that's that they haven't had in years,
Speaker 3: in my opinion, And I think it all starts with
Speaker 3: Kenny Pickett. We got to go back to last year.
Speaker 3: You and I talked about this a year ago. He
Speaker 3: was thirteen. I mean, it was Mitch Trubisky with the starters.
Speaker 3: Rudolph was number two, and then Pickett was number three.
Speaker 3: So he really would and you know how many reps
Speaker 3: you did?
Speaker 2: Not many.
Speaker 3: And he's had the whole off season and him and
Speaker 3: Pickens was there, the young receiver from Tennessee and Friarmuth
Speaker 3: was there, the young tight end from Penn State. So
Speaker 3: he's kind of got his guys around him now. And
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what I expect the guy. He's just
Speaker 3: such a winner and such a competitor that the guy,
Speaker 3: maybe his arm strength isn't Ben Roethlisberger, but I think
Speaker 3: the guy is probably more athletic, you know, and he's
Speaker 3: played in more big games at this point than Ben did.
Speaker 3: You know coming out of college, Ben, you know, did
Speaker 3: not play at the level that Kenny Pickett did for
Speaker 3: four years, you know, against Division one scos and beat
Speaker 3: some really good opponents. So I think all that stuff
Speaker 3: is part of him. And he's very confident. And I'll
Speaker 3: tell you that's a lot of excitement. Like I said,
Speaker 3: I talked to a guy this morning and they're they're
Speaker 3: expecting championship. This is not Pickett's good enough to get
Speaker 3: to the playoffs as role as we play good defensive
Speaker 3: running the ball. No, they see Kenny Pickett as a
Speaker 3: super Bowl type quarterback for the Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know when I watched him late in
Speaker 1: the game, I always think one of the things I
Speaker 1: always watch is I think the different with quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: this league is can you play trailing? Can you play
Speaker 1: from behind because the other team knows you're throwing. And
Speaker 1: you know, I always said this about Baker Mayfield. Baker
Speaker 1: was a different quarterback leading and trailing. When he was trailing,
Speaker 1: you could see all his limitations. He rushed uff, he
Speaker 1: couldn't handle the pressure. He's smaller, I watched Kenny Pickett
Speaker 1: in the end of this year trailing a couple times.
Speaker 1: I thought he looked really good. I thought he looked
Speaker 1: completely poised. You know, let's be honest. Playing for the Steelers,
Speaker 1: I would be nervous. That's not the Jaguars. You know
Speaker 1: that that's a big responsibility in that town. And I
Speaker 1: thought the last couple of games of the year, there
Speaker 1: were a couple of moments I thought, he's not intimidated
Speaker 1: by this at all. He looks the part. And I think, Dave,
Speaker 1: I think all those college starts, you know, brought purty.
Speaker 1: He started for four years that Iowa State. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of big games, you know. Parcels used to say,
Speaker 1: if he didn't have, wasn't it like twenty five starts,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't take you right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, there's no question. And Pickett.
Speaker 3: I remember I was doing the colleague stuff for Fox
Speaker 3: and they had the last game of the season against Miami.
Speaker 2: I was up at.
Speaker 3: Michigan and ivor at Michigan versus Hot of State, and
Speaker 3: I was following the pit game on my phone and
Speaker 3: they said Kenny Pickett, a freshman's coming in and playing
Speaker 3: and he played good. So I mean, I bring that
Speaker 3: up just to make the point that this guy's got
Speaker 3: a lot of extent. He got the extra year because
Speaker 3: of COVID and he took it. He had his degree.
Speaker 3: He could have gone to the NFL, and he chose
Speaker 3: to stay one more year a pit just to try
Speaker 3: to better himself, and it worked in his favor.
Speaker 1: Finally, I'm loyal to my family, my friends, and my wife,
Speaker 1: but I don't believe in sports loyalty. And the Big
Speaker 1: Ten is a revenue monster. Bigger stadiums, always full, great coaching,
Speaker 1: great publicity. I understand Washington, Oregon, USC, UCLA. Listen. I
Speaker 1: told a friend this weekend. He's a PAC twelve. Guy said,
Speaker 1: all you need to do is watch USC play Wisconsin
Speaker 1: and Camp Randall and watch Michigan go to Motlake and
Speaker 1: play the Huskies on a Saturday. You won't care about loyalty.
Speaker 1: You know, like, this looks like a big conference. I
Speaker 1: love it. Now you're in Big ten country out west.
Speaker 1: People are freaking out in the Midwest. What are they
Speaker 1: saying about including four Western teams to their conference.
Speaker 3: There's a little bit of who's going to have to play,
Speaker 3: you know, at eleven and twelve o'clock at night and travel.
Speaker 3: But you know what, I think there's more conversation about
Speaker 3: the other sports other than football.
Speaker 2: And I'm doing Big Ten shows, as you know what
Speaker 2: you mentioned. I do one a week. So I talked
Speaker 2: to those people and Tony Pettiti.
Speaker 3: You know Kevin Warren who was the commissioner left and
Speaker 3: is now the president of the Bears. Everybody knows that. Well,
Speaker 3: they just hired Tony Pettiti. Tony PETTITTI was the guy
Speaker 3: that was the MLB network when they started. He was
Speaker 3: the guy that was involved when March Madness started with
Speaker 3: CBS or whoever it was NBC. So he's got a
Speaker 3: great background. The thing that surprises me, called, I don't
Speaker 3: know about you, how fast this happened.
Speaker 2: I know, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: No one can usually make a decision about anything, and
Speaker 3: for five years and this went boom. And then when
Speaker 3: you look at it and talking to people the Big Ten,
Speaker 3: they're interested in yes, in football, let's be in basketball.
Speaker 3: But the total program, what did they bring? And I
Speaker 3: was looking it up yesterday. You know, when you look
Speaker 3: at the top academic schools, obviously in the Pac twelve,
Speaker 3: you know you got Stanford in cal I mean, they're
Speaker 3: off the charts. They're like Ivy League schools. But then
Speaker 3: you got UCLA USC and Washington. I mean, Washington is
Speaker 3: a great academic school.
Speaker 2: You know. And Oregon.
Speaker 3: There's ten teams that won seventy percent of their basketball
Speaker 3: and football games combined, okay over the last I think
Speaker 3: with five or ten years.
Speaker 2: Oregon is one of those teams.
Speaker 3: And then you get Oregon to come in, and you're
Speaker 3: bringing Phil Knight in and you're bringing the Nike.
Speaker 2: Brand to the Big Ten. That is huge.
Speaker 3: And you know, I don't know how it's all gonna
Speaker 3: shake out, you know, how they're gonna divide this thing up, but.
Speaker 2: It will make it exciting. I'll tell you what they
Speaker 2: have to do, though, call it.
Speaker 3: I think everybody better start playing the same amount of
Speaker 3: Division one games, you know, and this is this is
Speaker 3: going You cannot have one conference playing nine and one
Speaker 3: playing eight and the other ones plays ten.
Speaker 2: I mean that's just not right.
Speaker 3: I mean, unfortunately, for the smaller schools, this thing is
Speaker 3: going to one or two major conferences.
Speaker 2: Just like the NFL is.
Speaker 3: They're gonna they should divide that. They want to make
Speaker 3: it easy. Just divide your country just go west right,
Speaker 3: just like the NFL. You know, you know, take it west,
Speaker 3: take it central, take it, take you eat. How are
Speaker 3: you want to cut it up into fours? And I
Speaker 3: think that's what we're going to down the road, I
Speaker 3: really really do.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be more like college basketball,
Speaker 1: where a twelve team playoff eventually becomes a sixteen team
Speaker 1: playoff in the next five years. There's going to be
Speaker 1: so much money in it, and all those Oregon states
Speaker 1: or the NC states that feel left behind, they'll be
Speaker 1: able to get into the tournament in those final four
Speaker 1: slots in the end, Dave. The way I sort of
Speaker 1: look at all this stuff is the SEC is going
Speaker 1: to add Clemson and Florida State in ten minutes if
Speaker 1: you can sit on your hands if you're the Big Ten.
Speaker 1: But Washington and USC and Oregon are elite Top fifteen
Speaker 1: programs and SEC's not slowing down.
Speaker 3: So I ULA's won more championships in the entire Big
Speaker 3: Ten Conference together total sport. No, if you look at
Speaker 3: all the Olympic sports and everything with ULA they have
Speaker 3: I was I read.
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm wrong that they have.
Speaker 3: More championships in all sports than the whole conference.
Speaker 2: So I mean that.
Speaker 3: And they're great academic school. So that's a real plus
Speaker 3: for the Big Ten Conference, no question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just I can't wait for some of the games.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be fantastic. And frankly, the
Speaker 1: SEC by adding Texas Oklahoma increases their Texas recruiting. This
Speaker 1: is going to increase Big Ten recruiting out West Purdue Iowa,
Speaker 1: they don't bring out, they don't get Western kids. Now
Speaker 1: you're going to take trips out there. You're going to
Speaker 1: take that coaching staff out there on a Wednesday Thursday,
Speaker 1: visit a high school practice or two. Watch all these
Speaker 1: schools in the Big Ten start adding California, Oregon, Washington,
Speaker 1: and Nevada kids.
Speaker 3: You know what, that's a great point because I talked
Speaker 3: to the coaches at Indiana a lot and and Purdue,
Speaker 3: and you know it's tough for them, excuse me to
Speaker 3: go east into Ohio and try to get players, you know,
Speaker 3: with Ohio State and Penn State there. So this will
Speaker 3: truly give them a chance to work the other direction
Speaker 3: and get some talent because some of these states just
Speaker 3: don't have enough players in it.
Speaker 2: You know. And so there's no question that.
Speaker 3: And as I said in the very beginning, the only
Speaker 3: vibe that I get here in the Midwest in Chicago
Speaker 3: is is the other sports.
Speaker 2: But there's the trade off.
Speaker 3: So if you're a coach at a minor sport, but
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, your budget's gonna get increased, you know, Okay,
Speaker 3: we got to travel.
Speaker 2: It's part of the deal.
Speaker 3: You're gonna get nicer uniforms, and you're gonna get more food,
Speaker 3: and you're gonna get better facility.
Speaker 2: So that's that's the trade off at the end of
Speaker 2: the day.
Speaker 1: Dave Wantstat Big ten Network, former Bear Dolphin coach, Natty
Speaker 1: All a defensive coordinator, Super Bowl coach at Pitt Great
Speaker 1: talking to you.
Speaker 2: OLA's coach. Okay, Calin talk to everybody. Be safe bybe
Speaker 1: The volume