Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague West and Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you hear from our studios at lambeau Field and West.
Speaker 1: Week one has finally arrived. Are you ready for this?
Speaker 2: I am. I know you can make a lot of
Speaker 2: jokes here about how long the offseason was, and you know,
Speaker 2: training camp and everything, But to me, this is almost
Speaker 2: more like the Christmas Morning kind of thing that it's like,
Speaker 2: we know how good this team can be. We've seen
Speaker 2: the potential and all these things. But when you have
Speaker 2: one of the youngest rosters in the National Football League,
Speaker 2: as much as you and I can pontificate about the
Speaker 2: various different possibilities of this team, you want to see
Speaker 2: it on in the football field. And what better way
Speaker 2: from the Green Bay Packers and the Jordan love Ara
Speaker 2: to kick things off than going down to Soldier Field
Speaker 2: to play their longest rival. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I've done a little bit of research and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be writing about this later on in the week.
Speaker 1: This is actually the twenty fifth time that the Packers
Speaker 1: and Bears will open a season against one another. I
Speaker 1: believe the current count is the Packers have the lead
Speaker 1: thirteen wins, ten losses, one tie. Some of those have
Speaker 1: been significant. You know, the Packers and Bears played the
Speaker 1: first game at lambeau Field, The Packers and Bears were
Speaker 1: the first game of the Vince Lombardi era, the first
Speaker 1: game of the Mike McCarthy era, a lot of those,
Speaker 1: and the first game of the Matt Lafleur era, and
Speaker 1: now the first game of the Jordan Love era with
Speaker 1: him taking over for Aaron Rodgers. And now it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting because you know, there's going to be all of
Speaker 1: the excitement, all the build up, all of the nerves
Speaker 1: and all that. But I think what one thing that
Speaker 1: I think will really work to Jordan Love's advantage in
Speaker 1: this situation on Sunday at Soldier Field is that he
Speaker 1: has actually started an NFL game before, and he did
Speaker 1: it on the road at Arrowhead Stadium in a tough
Speaker 1: place to play. So as much as there is so
Speaker 1: much anticipation for this game and signaling the transition to
Speaker 1: the new era at starting quarterback, at least from Jordan
Speaker 1: Love's perspective, everything about going through the pregame and the
Speaker 1: preparation and knowing that you're going to go out there
Speaker 1: and play four quarters against an opponent with the crowd
Speaker 1: against you and all that kind of stuff. He's been
Speaker 1: through it before, and I think that that is at
Speaker 1: least a little bit of something that he can hang
Speaker 1: his hat on as he makes this momentous start.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a lot a bit of something,
Speaker 2: to be honest with you, because when you're a young
Speaker 2: quarterback that has been the understudy for Aaron Rodgers for
Speaker 2: three years, the opportunities to play were few and far between,
Speaker 2: especially early on in twenty twenty when there was not
Speaker 2: a preseason. But I thought that when you look at
Speaker 2: every step of Jordan Love's journey from the first preseason
Speaker 2: to that game against Kansas City Spots start in twenty one,
Speaker 2: playing a little bit against Detroit later that same season
Speaker 2: in the second half when the Packers already had their
Speaker 2: seed wrapped up, and then lastly last year against Philadelphia,
Speaker 2: every single time I thought you saw progress from him,
Speaker 2: not just in the stat books, but in how he
Speaker 2: carried himself as a quarterback, in the way in which
Speaker 2: he played the position. This is going to be a
Speaker 2: hostile environment because the Chicago Bears and their fans, they're
Speaker 2: going to be energized. As much as you and I
Speaker 2: think have talked about, you know, expectations on the Detroit
Speaker 2: Lions this year as they've continued to make this progress
Speaker 2: underneath Dan Campbell. The Bears feel likewise. They feel like
Speaker 2: with Justin Fields, they have their quarterback of the future.
Speaker 2: They feel like they've drafted well, They've made the right signings.
Speaker 2: Are they going to be a team that's going to
Speaker 2: contend for a Super Bowl this year? I wouldn't think so,
Speaker 2: But they believe they should go into this game and
Speaker 2: be able to change the tide here in this rivalry
Speaker 2: against the Packers, and from the Packers' perspective, from Love's perspective,
Speaker 2: what better way to put your stamp on things than
Speaker 2: going back down into Soldier Field and continue in this
Speaker 2: winning streak that Matt Lafleur has been I'm sure he's
Speaker 2: not going to want to talk about it this week,
Speaker 2: but eight tries against the Chicago Bears and eight victories
Speaker 2: so far, Green Bay has really controlled the tempo of
Speaker 2: this thing, and obviously, now that's something that Jordan Love
Speaker 2: wants to continue to build upon.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. And let's talk about this Bears team a
Speaker 1: little bit because it is the second year of the
Speaker 1: Matt Eberflus era as the head coach. Luke Getzi, the
Speaker 1: former Packers assistant coach, as the offensive coordinator down there
Speaker 1: in Chicago, working with Justin Fields. He is in his
Speaker 1: third year as the starting quarterback, which is the second
Speaker 1: year with this regime on the coaching staff. So there
Speaker 1: are a lot of hopes and aspirations for Justin Fields
Speaker 1: to make some major strides this year. Now, this is
Speaker 1: a young man, he bleeve. He rushed for over a
Speaker 1: thousand yards last year, which doesn't happen very often at
Speaker 1: the quarterback position. I think the word out of Chicago
Speaker 1: is that they would like Justin Fields to not have
Speaker 1: to run as much, to not maybe run as much
Speaker 1: as the did last year, to try to hang in
Speaker 1: the pocket and make more plays with his arm, because
Speaker 1: he certainly does have the arm to do that. And
Speaker 1: one thing the Bears did to help him significantly in
Speaker 1: that regards they went out and got DJ Moore, the
Speaker 1: wide receiver from Carolina, who may not be a household
Speaker 1: name in terms of wide receivers, but you look at
Speaker 1: what he accomplished in five seasons at Carolina over five
Speaker 1: thousand receiving yards. Three of those years he was over
Speaker 1: eleven hundred receiving yards. This is the most accomplished offensive
Speaker 1: perimeter weapon that the Bears have to go with Justin
Speaker 1: Fields now, and he's going to be a player to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on come Sunday.
Speaker 2: Well, and you can't really draw too much out of
Speaker 2: the preseason, right, but I thought some of the early
Speaker 2: signs that we saw, you know, the catch and run,
Speaker 2: the things that he's going to be able to do
Speaker 2: with the ball in his hands, if you can get
Speaker 2: him free in space. I'm sure that's what they're going
Speaker 2: to be scheming up. I'm sure that's what Luke Getz
Speaker 2: He's going to be looking to achieve. But even the
Speaker 2: way they've built the rest of this roster out now, right,
Speaker 2: Mercedes lewis up in Chicago, Robert Tunyan is in Chicago now,
Speaker 2: Cole Kmet just got a you know, extension, got rewarded,
Speaker 2: and they feel like he's going to be a big
Speaker 2: part of this thing too. I think the Bears have
Speaker 2: tried to figure out this offseason. Okay, what does Justin
Speaker 2: Fields do well? Where can we help him and in
Speaker 2: what areas can we take what he's already done well
Speaker 2: and improve upon that. Having a guy like Mercedes does that.
Speaker 2: Having you know, an offensive line that I think is
Speaker 2: trying to make steps forward here and trying to galvanize
Speaker 2: itself is going to do that. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, the Bears needed receivers, and as good
Speaker 2: of a story as Darnell Mooney was last year, they
Speaker 2: just didn't really have a lot of guys that fields
Speaker 2: could go to. So he did have to improvise a lot.
Speaker 2: You're right, Mike. Last year he ran for eleven hundred yards.
Speaker 2: You know, he threw for seventeen touchdowns. But at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, the Bears still worth three and fourteen.
Speaker 2: It didn't translate to wins. They needed to deepen out
Speaker 2: this roster on both sides of the ball, and I
Speaker 2: think when you see someone like more come in that
Speaker 2: has the amount of energy that he has, there's a
Speaker 2: feeling that this is one of those number one receivers
Speaker 2: that we've been missing and a guy that could potentially,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of pick up for what they've lacked
Speaker 2: since Alan Robinson left.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and in the backfield. The Bears have now seemingly
Speaker 1: have turned things over to Khalil Herbert as their number
Speaker 1: one running back that David Montgomery is gone. He's now
Speaker 1: actually with division rival Detroit, and Herbert as a guy,
Speaker 1: you know, showed a lot of flashes, broke some big plays.
Speaker 1: I don't have his exact statistics from last year in
Speaker 1: front of me, but this is a he's a got
Speaker 1: packs of punch, I guess is maybe the best way
Speaker 1: to describe his running style. It's nothing that's overly dynamic,
Speaker 1: but he's not exactly easy to bring down a lot
Speaker 1: of times.
Speaker 2: No, I mean he's a little powerhouse. I mean five
Speaker 2: nine two ten pounds whatever he goes at. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: were talking about last year with his stats. He ended
Speaker 2: up finishing with seven hundred and thirty one rushing yards
Speaker 2: four touchdowns. But the biggest thing of all for him
Speaker 2: was the five point seven yards per clip on the attempts.
Speaker 2: That's one thing that I thought last year the Bears
Speaker 2: sort of saw is Okay, David Montgomery's our guy for
Speaker 2: a few seasons, you know, But you go back to
Speaker 2: the way that this offense was built originally. It's that
Speaker 2: Matt Forte type back right, and obviously Herbert is not
Speaker 2: forte in terms of size, but a guy that could
Speaker 2: be in every down type of presence for you. I
Speaker 2: think that's probably where they wanted to get back to
Speaker 2: a little bit this offseason. Montgomery ends up with the
Speaker 2: Detroit Lions, and the Bear said, you know what, we
Speaker 2: like what we have in house. We're going to continue
Speaker 2: to develop this guy. Now, what's always going to be
Speaker 2: interesting is I looked at the pairing of fields in
Speaker 2: Montgomery almost as like a running back tandem, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, not so much thunder and lightning, but just
Speaker 2: different guys that can do different things with their ball
Speaker 2: in their hands. Herbert gets them back to probably more
Speaker 2: of just the between the tackles type runner, and I'm
Speaker 2: very curious to see how he can make, you know,
Speaker 2: fields life a little bit easier too in that regard.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, it comes down
Speaker 2: to being healthy. And I think when you look at
Speaker 2: the Montgomery era in Chicago, that was one area where
Speaker 2: they just they had to keep turning to different running
Speaker 2: backs because Montgomery got banged up. If Herbert can be
Speaker 2: the guy and stay on the field him like he
Speaker 2: has the past two seasons for the most part, you know,
Speaker 2: this is gonna be someone that I think they feel
Speaker 2: like they can hang their hat on in this season
Speaker 2: and years to come.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, on the defensive side of the ball for
Speaker 1: the Bears, it's definitely been a I guess you'd almost
Speaker 1: say an ongoing transition over the last couple of years
Speaker 1: because the days of that defensive front of you know,
Speaker 1: a Keem Hicks and Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn and
Speaker 1: those guys they're all gone. Ye, And it's not a
Speaker 1: bunch of household names up front on the defensive line.
Speaker 1: But what catches your eye when you look at this
Speaker 1: Bears lineup on the defensive side is the three off
Speaker 1: the ball linebackers in this four to three because they
Speaker 1: have They got TJ. Edwards from the Philadelphia Eagles, they
Speaker 1: got Tremaine Edmonds from the Buffalo Bills, and then Jack
Speaker 1: Sanborn who they developed he was a rookie last season.
Speaker 1: And of course I don't want my you know, Wisconsin
Speaker 1: bias to shine through too much here, but TJ. Edwards
Speaker 1: and Jack Sanborn, former Wisconsin and Badgers who are are
Speaker 1: making their way here in the NFL. And then you
Speaker 1: plug in a former, you know, very high draft pick
Speaker 1: in Tremaine Edmonds coming out coming out of Buffalo. That's
Speaker 1: the that sort of seems to be what the core
Speaker 1: of the Bears defense is going to be. Now, not
Speaker 1: to say that they're completely hearkening back to you know,
Speaker 1: the Brian Erleck or Lance Briggs days of those off
Speaker 1: the ball linebackers, but in some senses that's that's going
Speaker 1: to be the you know, where the targets are when
Speaker 1: you try to go after the Chicago Bears defense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I felt like, you know, in last year,
Speaker 2: they did everything right. You know, they made trades, they
Speaker 2: kind of cleared house a little bit, and you know,
Speaker 2: Sanborn sort of fell into that void, sort of came
Speaker 2: out of nowhere. Although I think there was a lot
Speaker 2: of people when they signed him as a UFA and
Speaker 2: saw him early on, thought that this guy could actually
Speaker 2: be a player for us. But Edmunds is a guy
Speaker 2: I really like because I feel like you always have
Speaker 2: to have an athletic, rangey type of linebacker that can
Speaker 2: do all the grunt work but also can drop back
Speaker 2: in the coverage. I thought TJ. Edwards is a great
Speaker 2: compliment to that as well. In a lot of ways
Speaker 2: you hope for the Bears. You know, I'm sure the
Speaker 2: Bears are hoping it's more successful than what they did
Speaker 2: about what was that five six years ago when they
Speaker 2: completely overhauled their linebacker situation when they signed Danny Travathian.
Speaker 2: When they signed I think it was Darrell Freeman and
Speaker 2: that inside backer do just didn't quite get them to
Speaker 2: where they needed to be. You know, this to these
Speaker 2: two guys a little bit more athletic, I think, a
Speaker 2: little bit younger in kind of looking to see what
Speaker 2: they have in front of them. But they need that
Speaker 2: to be the nucleus because I don't know right now
Speaker 2: what that defensive front gives them in terms of pressing
Speaker 2: the quarterback. That is probably the biggest area they've transitioned here.
Speaker 2: A lot of those household names that they had for
Speaker 2: so many years upfront that you could count on for,
Speaker 2: you know, ten fifteen sacks, they're not there now. You know,
Speaker 2: there's no Khalil Mack, the Akeem Hickses of the world
Speaker 2: in his prime, like those type of players set the
Speaker 2: tone for that entire unit. That's gonna be one of
Speaker 2: the big transitions. But they still do have veterans too though.
Speaker 2: I mean you look at the back end, Eddie Jackson
Speaker 2: is still doing his thing back there. They have depth,
Speaker 2: but it's now just gonna be a question of what
Speaker 2: does that pass rush offer in behind it? How do
Speaker 2: they handle opposing offenses? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think when you look at Matt eber Matt
Speaker 1: Eberflus's background, coming from coaching the defense in Indianapolis and
Speaker 1: now transitioning to the head coach, the defenses with the
Speaker 1: Indianapolis Colts were nothing flashy. They didn't put up a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of great numbers or you know anything, you know,
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of big time highlights or anything. But
Speaker 1: they were defenses that we that were just sound that
Speaker 1: were difficult to solve that times because they didn't have
Speaker 1: any you know, big weak spots that that stood out
Speaker 1: to you. That's what Matt Eberflus is trying to build.
Speaker 1: That's why he's trying to build the middle of that
Speaker 1: defense with those linebackers as as the core of things.
Speaker 1: And and we'll see how how it works out for
Speaker 1: them going into going into year two. Give me your
Speaker 1: sense of what you feel the atmosphere will be like
Speaker 1: at Soldier Field, because there is so much anticipation for
Speaker 1: this Bears team, but yet it only had three victories
Speaker 1: last year. You know, it's hard when we're not in
Speaker 1: Chicago every day to get a sense of, Okay, just
Speaker 1: how patient are Bears fans going to be with this
Speaker 1: new regime and everything else, and certainly starting off against
Speaker 1: the Packers, it's a big time opportunity for the Bears
Speaker 1: to make a statement in week one, as you said earlier,
Speaker 1: coming off of you know, kind of three decades of
Speaker 1: dominance by Brett Farv and Aaron Rodgers as Packers quarterbacks.
Speaker 2: And even different from that, like three decades with a
Speaker 2: few exceptions of the pressure always being on Green Bay.
Speaker 2: Heading into that atmosphere, I think the pressure in the
Speaker 2: pendulum kind of swings back to the Bears now. I
Speaker 2: think they're favored in this game at the time in
Speaker 2: which they're taping this, And to me, it's funny, I
Speaker 2: feel like I'm almost echoing myself when you and I
Speaker 2: talked to this game last year in that it's all
Speaker 2: justin fields. Yeah, everything that the Bears have, all their
Speaker 2: hopes are hanging on that young quarterback. Think about it,
Speaker 2: This was a great year to be going into the
Speaker 2: quarterback business. A lot of guys went off the board,
Speaker 2: a lot of teams moving up to get guys, a
Speaker 2: lot of equity being traded around trying to find the
Speaker 2: next franchise guy. The Bears fell into that number one
Speaker 2: spot and they said, you know what, We're good. We
Speaker 2: got our guy. We're excited about this dude. And here
Speaker 2: they are now kind of going into another season, marching
Speaker 2: into another season. The part that always strikes me as
Speaker 2: interesting is it follows the same script. I don't know
Speaker 2: if it's media driven, I don't know if it's just
Speaker 2: a response from coaches, but this script is always the same.
Speaker 2: When a young quarterback that is a scrambler, that's a runner,
Speaker 2: produces on the ground with his feet, the narrative always
Speaker 2: changes in year two and three, sometimes four, to hey
Speaker 2: can they throw more? Can they become more of a
Speaker 2: pocket passer. That's where the Chicago Bears are going to
Speaker 2: know better than you and I as far as what
Speaker 2: they feel like fields can be in the long run,
Speaker 2: because you do need to keep them healthy, you do
Speaker 2: need to keep him out there. But he also utilizes
Speaker 2: his feet in a way a lot of quarterbacks haven't
Speaker 2: been able to. I don't take it as just a
Speaker 2: flight or flight mechanism with him. I look at it
Speaker 2: as he is a legitimate running threat, running back threat,
Speaker 2: and I don't think I think there's been a dearth
Speaker 2: of those in the league. There's been guys who can
Speaker 2: run like Patrick Mahomes that are natural passers, and there's
Speaker 2: been guys that they just run for the sake of
Speaker 2: running because they're getting out of their progressions. Fields went
Speaker 2: through his progressions, but a lot of times it kind
Speaker 2: of went to him having to scramble to make plays
Speaker 2: with his feet last year with more weapons this season.
Speaker 2: When you ask me the expectations, what the atmosphere is
Speaker 2: going to be like, I think this one's going to
Speaker 2: be really electric for the Bear standpoint, but I think
Speaker 2: it's also predicated on them being able to keep some
Speaker 2: wins going the first month of the season to keep
Speaker 2: that energy flowing in that direction. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Well, I'll take care of a little bit of
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Speaker 1: as much as the spotlight in this game is on
Speaker 1: Jordan Love making his first start as the air parent
Speaker 1: to Aaron Rodgers, there are a lot of guys. We
Speaker 1: talked about our last couple of shows about how young
Speaker 1: this Packers roster is. A lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: green Bay Packers will be making their NFL debuts. There
Speaker 1: are a whole bunch of rookies on this roster. Now
Speaker 1: we don't know who all necessarily is going to play,
Speaker 1: but you talk about a way to sort of shake
Speaker 1: off those first NFL jitters, Throw yourself into a Packers
Speaker 1: Bears game in week one of your rookie season and
Speaker 1: here we go.
Speaker 2: It reminds me the old Don Hodkoitz go learn how
Speaker 2: to ride a bike, which was, okay, we can do
Speaker 2: the training wheel thing, or I can just get you
Speaker 2: in the front yard and start taking some tumbles and
Speaker 2: figure it out.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: That's probably what this is gonna be like for Green Bay.
Speaker 2: They're gonna take some bumps early on, Jordan Love is
Speaker 2: gonna take some bumps early on. But what I've been saying,
Speaker 2: and you've had to edit it when I've written it
Speaker 2: an insider inbox congratulations to you, is the Packers have
Speaker 2: veteran depth where accounts right. If you're gonna pick Okay,
Speaker 2: you're gonna have rookies here, You're gonna have veterans here, Mike,
Speaker 2: where do you want to make sure you have veteran help.
Speaker 2: You want to have it on the blind side of
Speaker 2: your quarterback. The Packers have that in David Baktiari and
Speaker 2: Elton Jenkins. They have guys in the backfield that know
Speaker 2: what they're doing and blood, you know, blitz protection and
Speaker 2: being able to be a checkdown option in Aaron Jones
Speaker 2: and aj Dillon. Where they're young is the position where
Speaker 2: sometimes you want to be young, right. You want to
Speaker 2: have young receivers like Jayden Reid come into your offense,
Speaker 2: a guy like Malik Heath who's probably gonna see some
Speaker 2: snaps right out of the gate even though he was
Speaker 2: an undrafted rookie, and someone like Luke Musgrave who will
Speaker 2: be ling learning on the job this year as a
Speaker 2: tight end one. But I'll tell you what, Mike for
Speaker 2: being a rookie, really impressed me in camp in terms
Speaker 2: of what he was able to do out of the
Speaker 2: gate at a very complicated position. This is going to
Speaker 2: be a supreme challenge for this football team. They're going
Speaker 2: to have to hang their hat at times on their
Speaker 2: defense and they're going to need the defense to play
Speaker 2: to that standard. But that being said, as you myself,
Speaker 2: Larry mccaern, we've all talked about the Packers team, assuming
Speaker 2: they can stay healthy, that takes the field, that soldier
Speaker 2: field in week one is not going to look anything
Speaker 2: like the last one. In Week eighteen when the Bears
Speaker 2: come to Green Bay to play the Packers, right, it
Speaker 2: is going to be developed, It is going to be matured,
Speaker 2: and you just hope through the course of that season,
Speaker 2: those eighteen weeks, those seventeen games, you can pick up
Speaker 2: enough wins along the way that keeps you hunting the
Speaker 2: hunt for playoffs. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And the Packers are young as well. Obviously at
Speaker 1: the specialist position. You have the rookie kicker and Anders
Speaker 1: Carlson six round pick out of Auburn. He'll make his
Speaker 1: NFL debut and then Daniel Wheelan at Punter. He's taking
Speaker 1: over there for the veteran pat O'Donnell. And I use
Speaker 1: that as a transition because I have to clarify something,
Speaker 1: and I'll do it right here on the show. Because
Speaker 1: it was on our last show that I made a
Speaker 1: comment in talking about Daniel Wheelan and in trying to
Speaker 1: tease the feature story that I wrote on him, that
Speaker 1: that is on our website. You can go find it
Speaker 1: if you'd still like to read it. But I made
Speaker 1: the passing comment that Daniel Wheeler went to a small
Speaker 1: school in California. Okay, no, no, wait, wait, listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 1: Because I took a couple of days off this last weekend,
Speaker 1: I disconnected. I disappeared quite frankly for a couple of days,
Speaker 1: and then I came back and I read a defense
Speaker 1: of that line from the last unscripted show that you
Speaker 1: put an insider inbox. It was a reader named William
Speaker 1: from Colorado. I run into the fire here, Mike, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate him pointing this out. But the reason and
Speaker 1: what you said is that obviously you see Davis, which
Speaker 1: is where Daniel Wheelan went, is it is not a
Speaker 1: small school because it has forty thousand students, but it's
Speaker 1: an FCS school, it's not an FBS, it's not a
Speaker 1: Power five conference, and I appreciate you providing that defense
Speaker 1: for me. What I need to clarify, though, is what
Speaker 1: actually what actually happened in my brain when I said
Speaker 1: small school in California, I got and this is the
Speaker 1: honest truth. I got the school for Daniel Wheelan and
Speaker 1: long snapper Matt Orzick mixed up Pacific because Orzick went
Speaker 1: to Azusa Pacific, which is a school in California that
Speaker 1: has I believe ten thousand students, and half of those
Speaker 1: are grad students. It's only like five thousand undergraduate students.
Speaker 1: That's where he played his college football, and I got
Speaker 1: it mixed up with Wheelan, who also played at a
Speaker 1: school in California, not a small school, but an FCS school.
Speaker 1: So I should have just said, if I had had
Speaker 1: it right, I would have said that Daniel Wheelan went
Speaker 1: to an FCS school and not a Power five school.
Speaker 1: The small school line was actually a mistake on my
Speaker 1: part because I got his school mixed up with his
Speaker 1: long snappers, with Orza going to a Zusa Pacific. So
Speaker 1: William from Colorado. I appreciate, I appreciate you bringing that
Speaker 1: line to my attention, and I appreciate my colleagues defense
Speaker 1: and insider inbox of me. But I needed to set
Speaker 1: the record straight right here. So hopefully William is listening
Speaker 1: or watching this show and the clarification has been made.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you did that. You're an upstanding citizen, You're
Speaker 2: a man of honor. I will say this though, it
Speaker 2: had been twenty one years now since the last time
Speaker 2: a player has been drafted out of UC Davis, Right,
Speaker 2: so they've had forty thousand students a year or whatever.
Speaker 2: The last time is two thousand and two. You're not
Speaker 2: gonna guess, so I might as well just.
Speaker 1: Tell no, I'm not gonna be able to get hast.
Speaker 2: Ties to the Green Bay Packers. Really, former Packers quarterback J. T.
Speaker 2: O'Sullivan was the last player to get drafted out of
Speaker 2: UC Davis, not by the Packers, by the Saints.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was gonna say he wasted by New Orleans,
Speaker 1: but then he ended up up and ended up in
Speaker 1: Green Bay briefly. Y, But that's the other thing I
Speaker 1: love about specialists.
Speaker 2: Though, Now you have andres Carlson, who you know, he
Speaker 2: comes from a kicking family. Him and his brother were
Speaker 2: what the kickers at Auburn for a decade. But I
Speaker 2: love that. That's what I always love. You know, these
Speaker 2: specialists U see Davis Azusa, Pacific Old Dominion, you know
Speaker 2: br Hatcher when he was here in camp. Like you
Speaker 2: get these guys that aren't like from the big Power
Speaker 2: five schools, that get an opportunity, and certainly from Wheland
Speaker 2: if you had any chance to check out the story yet,
Speaker 2: be sure to do that because he has an incredible story, yes,
Speaker 2: and such a little part of it is actually his
Speaker 2: background from Ireland. I mean, they's just the things that
Speaker 2: he's done to make his dream come true here and
Speaker 2: obviously you hope for the best for the kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, one of many young players that will take
Speaker 1: the field for the Packers that soldier field in Week one.
Speaker 1: On our next show, we'll get to the keys to
Speaker 1: victory and break things down a little bit more with
Speaker 1: another look at this Packers Bears matchup, but for now
Speaker 1: we'll call it a rap. On this edition of Packers Unscripted,
Speaker 1: be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team throughout Week one. We will have it all four
Speaker 1: for you on packers dot com for Wesi, Am Mike,
Speaker 1: thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you
Speaker 1: next time. Mm hmm