08/30/2022 – Best of 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe

Tuesday on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, LaVar Arrington and Brady Quinn think the pressure on Trey Lance may be too much now that Jimmy G is staying with the Niners. . Lamar Jackson’s hints at details about his contract negotiations and the guys give their takeaways from Week 0 in College Football.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the best of two pros and a couple
of Joe with Lamar Areas, Rady Quinn and Jonas Knocks
on four Radio, Jimmy g he's returning to the forty
niners at the moment, restructuring, no trade clause, restrictions and

(00:24):
choices and decisions. What was your takeaway when you saw
this first, first reaction and then after you were able
to dissect the deal, what were your takeaways? Uh, the
biggest thing for me, LaVar was I think when you
look at the NFL, you almost never see things work
out where like all parties involved actually are satisfied with

(00:47):
with a contract, with an agreement. UH, with a situation
like this, that was it's pretty awkward. I mean, the
reality is it was pretty awkward for a guy that
don't want Super Bowl. He took you to another NFC
Championship game in the only two seasons he's been fully
healthy there, and then you go draft a guy, you

(01:10):
trade up to draft a guy to replace him, and
and now you're like, yeah, but we want this guy
to hang around for another years. It was just it
was really interesting and I wonder if it was credit
to the forty Niners because Remember they were trying to
trade him right after the season, like it was done deal,
they had offers all stuff. Then the shoulder surgery came,

(01:31):
and then it's almost like Jimmy Garoppolo kind of forced
their hand and it was like having to do this
on my own terms. So I think it's a really
a really interesting case of a unique scenario where the
team might have at least in some ways in my mind,
when I saw this, with the way they redid this,

(01:52):
they basically said to themselves, all right, maybe we did
Jimmy G a little dirty. Let's try to do right
by him. We're not or what we have in tray lance.
He is good. He's looked good at times in San
Francisco in the preseason this year. I thought last year
looked very green. But why not keep around Jimmy G

(02:13):
in case we need him in the event of an injury,
because we don't have anyone right uh, in case we
we we need to you know, we're looking at Trey
Lansco on here already. Yet let's go on, we need
to go on around with Jimmy G. They're now position
themselves to do all that, and I think Jimmy Garoppo
is gonna be the second third highest paid backup and
has the opportunity to earn significantly more money six six

(02:35):
five million guaranteed, but another like nine million in playtime
incentives that would make it much more fruitful form if
indeed he does play. So this truly is a win
win for both the forty Niners and I think Jimmy
g I think the only awkward thing is now gonna
be Trey Lance where he doesn't play well. Now the

(02:55):
pressure is on him. Man. That was my first takeaway
from the deal getting done. This is I think this
is we talked about all these quarterbacks and we'll get
to Lamar Jackson at some point during the show. I
would assume. But you know Baker Mayfield, you know he
bet on himself going into last season. This, this restructuring

(03:16):
says to me. It screams, I'm betting on myself and
it could be a poker match with with Garoppolo and
his people, his representation. I mean, I'm with you on
not knowing what Trey Lance is going to bring to
the table in the regular season. We are now getting
down to business that the games are going to begin

(03:37):
to count, and you take this restructuring, you take the
pressure off of the franchise in terms of how they're
looking at you. You're favorable to not only the franchise,
but to your future employer because this is you know what,
He's a sensible guy. He's he's a team guy. He's
willing to do some things that you know would probably

(03:58):
offset in the gate what what maybe would have seemingly
been why did he go about getting his shoulder surgery
the way that he did. But I gotta be honest
with you, I'm not sold on trade lance. I haven't
seen anything that would lead to me believing that he's
not going to have some stumbles and and some some

(04:19):
hard moments. And now you have a guy that you
know has been the reason why you have one as
a head coach, you one as an organization as of
as of late, and he's on He's sitting there right there.
The players know him, the coaches known, and the fans
know him. I think this really really creates a very
very pressurized situation. And listen, I'm not a quarterback, so

(04:41):
you could probably speak better to it than I can.
But I could only imagine if I'm a top draft
pick and I'm the top draft pick that they brought
in to replace you. And I know people brought up
the whole Montana you know Steve Young deal. This is
not a Montana Steve Young deal. Um. We knew what
Steve Young was because he had already played in the pros,

(05:04):
um not the NFL pros. But we knew that he
was going to be uh he first remember he was? Okay, Okay,
I don't even remember him in Tampa. I just remember
him from the USFL. Most people don't remember him the Tampa. Yeah,
I don't even remember him in Tampa. But but here's
the point. We knew that the left he was was

(05:25):
a baller, and we knew that the goat was the starter.
I think it's a very different scenario here, and I
think this is I'll tell you this, If trade lads
performs and and keeps that job, you gotta give him
a ton of respect for being able to do it,
because I think that this creates a situation where if

(05:48):
if he doesn't do well, the amount of pressure that
he will have on him, or the amount of scrutiny
because Garoppolo is sitting right there, it may even be
considered to be unfair. Yeah, It definitely could be considering,
you know, how this could all work out. But the
reality is it. It is Trey Lance's team right now,

(06:08):
and he's got the first crack at it. They're doing
everything they can to put everything else out around him.
I think I think Kyl Shanahan's gonna create or construct
an offense that's it's gonna look drastically different. I think
you see a little bit of that in preseason. Not much,
but still things that are gonna play the Trey Lance's strengths. Um,
And I think you're gonna make the most successful. So
I'm not so worried about this. It's a one year deal.

(06:29):
After this year, it clears itself out. You know. I
think it's interesting you bring up Steve Young and Joe
Montana or other people who have talked about that. So
if you recall Steve Young originally was drafted the Supplemantal draft.
Um I honestly, it's the first overall pick in the
eighty four Submantal Draft. But he did play two years
with the Tampa Bay Bucks. Wasn't very good. I mean,

(06:51):
first year through three picks, state interceptions completed his past
and then when one and four of those games he started,
and the next year is two and twelve, h through
for over two aus in yards, eight touchdowns, the thirteen interceptions,
complete a little bit more his passes. But then he
went to San Francisco and he was there for about
the next I don't know, five years, where he was
just backup duty, right. It was it was spot duty

(07:13):
here and they're starting a few games, went two and one, Uh,
coming in too and one the following year three and oh,
and you're kind of going on down the list. He
really didn't play until he was thirty one years old,
where he got a shot to then be what everyone
saw him to be, where he was an all pro
in and he led the league of completion percentage all that.

(07:34):
But think about that he entered the league at twenty four.
He never really was the guy until thirty one after
that time in Tampa, where then the rest of his career,
you know, really took off. And so you know, I
only bring that up because I think there's a lot
of different paths and a lot of different ways that
people can become successful. When a Super Bowl become that quarterback,

(07:54):
we remember, we just we seldom realize or remember, like
what the journey actually started off like like you know,
usually usually we remember the hoisting up the Lombardi and
and we remember the good times, but we don't remember
the days after that, like, hey, what the career look
like at the end. Like I grew up at Joe
Montana fan, I remember the San Francisco forty Niners years.

(08:16):
And look, he didn't have a bad career in Kansas City,
but it wasn't the same as with the forty Niners.
And so it's it's that's usually how we remember legends
like that. So in this case with with Jimmy g
and Trey Lance, I think it's gonna be really interesting,
you know how this how this plays itself out because
really for both players, I mean I think for Trey
Lance and the opportunity that he has now as a

(08:37):
starter to potentially be the guy, but also for Jimmy
G because after this year, I mean one, he could
play a really key role Allah and Nick Foles too.
Even if Trey Lance is playing well, one injury puts
you in a spot or you're leading a team to
the Super Bowl maybe winning it, and then if not,
after this year, he's gonna have an opportunity to go
somewhere else and play. And I think when healthy Jimmy

(08:58):
Jimmy Garoppolo is a top half of the league quarterback,
that there will be a market for for his you know,
his ability. I think it was his contract and probably
the injury that held him off from being you know,
trade beat at least at that point in time this season. So,
no matter how you cut it up, if it's gonna
be fun to see what happens in San Francisco this
You're not just the quarterback situation with the team, and

(09:20):
I think that division too, to see if the Rams
can repeat or if the San Francisco forty nine can
kind of get back to where they were a few
years ago. Definitely a competitive division and it will be
interesting to see if Trade Lands is able to keep
them on pace with what's going on in the NFC West.
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and

(09:41):
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LaVar Errington and
Jonas Knocks week days at six am Eastern three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio. A.
Let's talk about this Lamar Jackson situation. Q. Now, there's
a situation that that has been ensuing as well. Everybody
wants to know when Lamar Jackson will get this well

(10:05):
done lead the lot Lamar Jackson maybe have has given
one of the most interesting responses in in social media
form to all of the all of the claims that
that you know are are surrounding and swirling around about

(10:25):
Lamar Jackson. What did he have to say about these
these claims of what he's got going on with his
contract situation. That's right. Understandably, fans are a little confused.
One fan on Twitter went on on the platform to say,
give that man the two million guaranteed before you write
a check. Your ass can't catch. Another fan tweeted at him,

(10:46):
saying they already offered that, to which Lamar decided to
clear the air and responded, no, they did not. M
I'm not liking the fact that he's he's reading through
his timeline to look for this stuff. Now, look, maybe
he has someone else who controls it, so maybe it's
a little different. Maybe he's not distracted by it. But

(11:07):
um one, Look, we don't know the whole truth of that,
and that's why I keep going back to there is
a reason why agents exist. They do provide value to athletes.
And by the way, it doesn't have to be an agent.
You know, you can hire an attorney for an hourly
rate or just hiring for a specific series, you know,
period of time for a set rate. Agents will even

(11:30):
do that nowadays, where they won't charge you a fee
every single year of the contract. They'll just charge you
a fee upfront, and it's a more economical way of
doing that. So it's still a bit confusing why he
hasn't gone this route, and in part because again he
doesn't have to speak through social media to people's responses,

(11:51):
you know, who are tagging him. You know, he can
just speak directly to the media, to the team, have
someone out there who's constantly advocating for them him and
earning that percentage as they're trying to negotiate his deal. Um,
you know, look, it's it's it's a complicated process. Only
Lamar and obviously the team knows what's been offering, what's
been discussed. But I just I find that interesting that,

(12:13):
you know, there hasn't been an offer that has been
good enough up to this point for him to want
to take that sort of I guess injury risk off
the table. I mean, we're talking about, yeah, he's not
gonna get two fifty you know million total guaranteed. You know,
I don't. I don't know what quarterbacks going to. I mean,
it seemed like that really is more safe for a

(12:35):
situation of desperation, and I don't think the Baltimore Ravens
are in that right now. So you know, could he
get a hundred fifty million guaranteed? Sure? And if he
has been offered anywhere around that, it's shocking to think
that you wouldn't sign up for that. I mean, look,
I know it's not resetting the quarterback market, but my goodness,

(12:55):
like that's not good enough. I don't know, man, it
would be it be hard for me to turn down
that sort of money, given the point and time that
he's in in his current contract, his style of play,
and just even experiencing some injuries last year like that,
I think would might you know, almost forced me or
pushed me to say, yeah, this contract is good enough

(13:17):
and I'll reevaluate here in three years, you know, once
we get in, Once we get into this contract, I mean,
do you see a different LaVar? I would? I would
say I've been in several situations where I felt at
the point in time where I did a contract negotiation
that I was and this might sound crazy because it's

(13:39):
kind of a long time ago, but I felt like
I was at the top of my my my position.
Like I don't, I didn't see there being anyone It
could be debatable, but you know, and and and O
one O two oh three, I would debate that I
was the best linebacker wanted a bet in the game,

(14:01):
and and so when we were doing in contract negotiations,
contract discussions, I I certainly wanted to be either a
market resetter or or on market market value in terms
of the standard of what my accomplishments represented. I can't

(14:25):
even imagine what I would feel if I had gotten
a Defensive Player of the Year award, let alone the
m v P award. I don't, I don't even know
what I would be thinking. And and and I would
I would most likely look at, you know, the people
that was negotiating my my agents, the you know, the

(14:45):
negotiators for for the team, and I would I would
ultimately let them know that if you're looking at these
other people that are connected to me in this and
in my position, and you're looking at what I've accomplished
versus what they've accomplished. I'm using them. I am going
to use them as my my barometer. I'm going to

(15:07):
use them as my measuring stick as to how you
value me. So, while I agree one with what you're saying,
I also would say if if Lamar Jackson is looking
at where the market is and where the market has
been set, and he's comparing what his accomplishments are and

(15:27):
what he believes his seiling is based off of where
you know, what, what players he has around them, or
whatever the variables he's bringing to the table, if he
believes that that number should be higher for one reason
or another. I don't I don't feel as though that's
egregious if he doesn't take an offer that is, you know,

(15:50):
in the hundred and fifty million range that's guaranteed. Fully,
I just think that maybe you know, I don't know.
I don't. I can't say for sir what he's thinking
if he wants a long term deal that is a
blockbuster deal, or if it's a short term deal, But
I guess it depends on how he feels about the

(16:12):
city and it it appears that he wants to stay there.
So if he wants to stay there, I would assume
he wants a long term deal. And if he wants
a long term deal, I would assume he would want
to reset the market. Now, how close to Deshaun Watson
that is or in guarantees, I don't know, Q, but
I know for me, I would want to reset the
market or at least be close right there at it

(16:34):
with with my peers that they would have considered to
be the ones who are getting paid the most and
considered the best at the position. You know that the
tough part about it is, honestly, we have no insight
whatsoever to what's being offered, and usually we're agents kind
of coming to play, and maybe this is something that
you know, you gotta be careful of as a player
leak because now if you're a player, then you get

(16:59):
that tag as a guy who's you know, got his sources,
he's he's you know, I'm not gonna say a rat
and something like that. But you know, then the then
the team's can become very very weary of you when
things don't go. Are you capable of if you're putting
our personal business out, you're you're compromising the integrity of
of our you know, of our negotiations, and that's coming

(17:19):
direct to you as the player. You don't want that
reputation and and so it kind of goes back to
the original point of just having an agent, having someone
who can can take that for you. You know, if
it does get leaked out with also me, you know,
if it's my agent Joe talking with him, you know,
go take it up with him, like, yeah, I'm mad
at me leaked it out too. Man. You can say

(17:39):
whatever you want at that point because you have someone
to blame. You've got that intermediary, you've got that filter right,
And there's honestly, to a degree to I think a
lot of times the negotiations, you know, people get emotional,
and when you're talking about business, and especially a business
that involves you, like your work ethic, your accomplishments, everything else,

(18:00):
people start to take it really personal. And it's hard
because it's hard to differentiate what really is good for
the business and it's good for you personally, because when
you're your own business, it's one of the same, Like
what's good for my business is good for me if
I'm Lamar Jackson. And so then it becomes having it
becomes difficult having those conversations where you know they might

(18:22):
be saying, well, you know, look at these numbers, and
this is where we feel like you are as comparison
to other quarterbacks who signed contract extensions, whether it's Aaron
Rodgers or Deshaun Watson whoever else. You know, the team
is always gonna have reasons why you shouldn't be paid more, right,
and you're gonna try to provide them with the reasons
why you should be paid more. Now everyone's gonna use

(18:43):
Deshaun Watson at his contract as a case of hey,
here's why we should be doing this. But every team
in the NFL that's redoing their quarterbacks deal is probably
looking at them going, we're not doing that deal. We're
not Jimmy Haslm and d Haslm who are desperate, We're
not them. And so we're not gonna put all our
eggs and that sort of basket and do a deal
that we don't think is fair to our team and

(19:05):
to our team's ability to compete in the future. And
so then what is your conversation, what is your recourse?
And and that's the hard part is again, it gets emotional.
It gets emotional. And so you know, Lamar could be
putting up walls because he's been offered something that you know,
he doesn't feel is in the ballpark of what Deshaun
Watson's deal is. And look, I agree with him if

(19:26):
that's what his his stances is saying I should be
paid more than Shaun Watson. I wholeheartedly agree. Lamar has
been more accomplished. I think at this point I have
a better feeling idea of what he is as a quarterback.
And and you know, if he's gonna win a football
game or not in comparison to the two, and so
I I don't disagree with him. The problem is just
you're not gonna find that unique scenario. You know, you're

(19:49):
their market for that and a different market if he
if he bets on himself and he has a great
year this year, I mean, Baltimore isn't going to let
him go. If he has a good year there, they'll
tag him, right. So if that becomes the idea of
the situation, then now you're talking about they could tag

(20:10):
him again as well, like a year out from that
as well. This this could ultimately drag out, which I
think kind of in a weird type of way goes
back to your original point is if you can get
a hundred and fifty some million dollars guaranteed and and
maybe not for as long you know, then you you
probably should entertain that because you're talking about potentially what

(20:33):
three years removed from right now before you could actually
go test the open market and get get what it is.
I mean that market that that average might go up
kind of crazy for the franchise tag, but it's not
gonna be nowhere near the type of guarantees you would
have if you took wander and fifty million guaranteed, right,

(20:54):
I mean, I mean, I'm looking at this the right way. Yeah,
I think so. I mean I just here's the thing is,
we don't know where. We can only speculate because we
don't know a lot of the details. And that's that's
the tough part is Like I would love to take
Lamar side in all of this, you know, I really would,
but I also don't know what's been put out there.
The Baltimore Ravens don't seem like and Eric da Costa

(21:15):
their general manager. They don't seem like an organization that
doesn't want to do right by their players. I feel
like more often than not. You you you see them
do right, whether it's the contracts, the way they handle themselves,
very similar to what we talked about opening the show
with Jimmy Garoppo and San Francisco John Lynch. Since he's
gotten there has been the standard with the way he's

(21:37):
gone about trying to make sure guys have opportunities, are happy.
You know, he's able to get them, you know, you know, contracts, etcetera.
I mean, they're able to make it way and make
it work, and they did that with Jimmy g Baltimore
strikes me as a very similar organization in that sense.
You can't say that for every organization, but they do
seem to be that that that type of organization. So

(21:57):
I look at this and go, I'm not sure what
the disconnect is. You know, I'm not sure if it's
just a few sticking points that you know, Lamar is
gonna hold Baltimore too, and then you know, play this
thing out like Dad did with the Dallas Cowboys and
make them ultimately pay. But that's I mean, that's that's
a that's a rare circumstance you find yourself in. And
and Dac was lucky because he had an ownership group

(22:20):
that was still willing to believe in him even though
he got hurt that year. I mean remember that, Like
he got off to a great start, but then he
gets hurt and he's still able to negotiate that contract. Like,
if that happens to Lamar, you look at him differently,
because if he gets hurt and has a terrible injury,
you don't know if he's gonna come back and be
the same type of dynamic player you might think he's

(22:41):
going to be, But you don't know for sure until
you see him come back. And so that's the risk
is obviously that he takes. Is that injury risk that
I think would impact him even more so than some
other quarterbacks out there. Be sure to catch live editions
of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn,
LaVar Errington, and Jonas Knocks week days at six am
Eastern three am Pacific. Hey, it's Ben host to the

(23:05):
Fifth Hour with Ben Mallory along with my trustee sidekick
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It's a spin off of that Ben Mallery show. Cold
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If you will the world will we chat with captains
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(23:27):
some amazing facts about human nature and more. Let's sen
to the fifth hour with Ben Mallory on the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
Let's go to college football Week zero. I am super
interested to hear your take on the winners and the
losers of Week zero. I know for certain the biggest

(23:49):
headline to me was Scott Frost losing and in the
way that he did. But I'll you know, I'll turn
this over to the expert and listen to what you
got to say about it. Well, if you listen to
our college football previews, I want I told you Northwestern
plus thirteen with with when I gave you that bet
the Lion actually moved down to ten was the lock

(24:11):
of the weekend. Um, just no doubt about it. And
I think on the onset, just looking at that game
and not talking about what transpired, you had to two
schools of thought. You have one coach that was going
into the season on the hot seat, and Scott Frost,
who fired his entire offensive staff, brought in Mark Whipple,
brought in a bunch of transfers, and who's really trying

(24:34):
to just hang on? And in the meantime, you've got
Pat fitzgild to Northwestern who has continually done more with
less during his time there and has built up a
culture a style of football. And you could say they're
predictable in some ways, but the reality is they know
exactly the type of game they want to play and

(24:55):
when they play it, they're tough to beat. And I
know that's gonna like sound funny to people out there
are in college football because they're not Alabama, they're not George,
it's not an SEC score whatever else. But they are tough,
they're physical and when you give them a light of hope,
they can they can make something happen. And and they
did this matchup like that's the reality of it, you know.
With with Nebraska up double digits, Scott Frost attempts at

(25:19):
a surprise on sidekick that ends up failing. And what
a lot of people will say, and this is called
um anytime it's called resulting. Anytime you look at the
result of something, and you say, well, that was a
dumb decision, Like, we can all look at what happened
with Scott Frost attempting a surprise on sidekick up ten

(25:41):
where you have all the momentum and then giving it
all away in that very play, allowing Northwest not only
to come back into the game, but to come back
and win it. So I think the discussion starts with this,
and you can speak to this LaVar, like, as a coach,
do you make a call that you think is gonna
be unsuccessful at any point in time in the game, Like,

(26:05):
that's never the point of any call you make, right,
And so that's the funny thing is people are like,
well that was stupid. That's all on Scott. Okay, folks,
you have to understand that how they played that game.
Go back and watch the first half again. Look how
aggressive they were offensively. Look at what they were trying
to do. They were trying to step on the throat
of Northwestern. They didn't want Northwestern to have even a

(26:28):
shot of coming back because if that's a team that
you can go up eighteen against, which is what they
were attempting to do, they ain't coming back as good
as Ryan Kilinski looked, and as good as that offensive
line is in protecting and run black, They're gonna be
a one dimensional team trying to throw their way back
down three scores. That's just the reality of it. So

(26:49):
I completely understand what the thought process. And even furthermore,
when and and again, LaVar, you can speak this. You're
you're you're coaching right now. When you get a look,
you're gonna take advantage of that look. Are you're not
trying to execute a surprise something on side, fake punt
something right? Let me tell you something. I created a
scheme specific to the team that we were playing in

(27:11):
our our week one and they explode. They exposed and
exploited it the third play of the game, and they
continued on the entire game. I I I was, I
was negligent and adjusting and adapting. I thought that we
would respond to it and plug it up, and we didn't.

(27:33):
So to your point of making calls, it's like do
you do you take a risk? Do you change the
course or do you try to adjust the play call
of what it is like in defense, it's more about
you know your fronts, where where people are aligning. You know,
are you plugging up the gaps, are they filling the gaps?
Different things like that, there are there are certain things

(27:56):
that you can't take and measure out and what the
result is going to be until it happens. So I
think if in in terms of doing the surprise on side,
they felt like they may have saw something. Maybe there
was a wing, you know, a blocker that maybe they
didn't think had good hands. Maybe they were they created

(28:18):
a gap that was, you know, from one player to
the next was kind of large. Maybe he was back
too far, maybe he was up kind of closed, and
they thought that they could find a sweet spot. There
are so many quality control coaches. There's so much information
being exchanged during the course of these games that when
you make decisions, they're not just Sometimes sometimes it might

(28:41):
be in the moment you're saying, let's go for on side,
but a lot of times, you know, you you hear
that there's a lot of information going over the hid
headsets and it's like, we see this, we might be
able to get it, and and you know what, if
it happens and it works, he's a genius. He took
a chance, he's got moxie. You know, this is what
Scott Frost is the guy that brought into new line coach.

(29:04):
He's got him throwing up every play for every practice,
this that there, here they go, here's the Huskers. They're back.
You didn't get it right, and so now you fall
under the scrutiny and the criticism of it, and rightfully
so here's what it brings up though. You know when
when you do something like that, in my mind, at least, okay,

(29:26):
you talked about making adjustments and and that's the that's
the that's the decision that you're kind of faced with
as a coach sometimes making adjustments, you know who, it's
hard to make adjustments for a group of players where
your quarterback isn't that it was from the transfer portal. Uh.
Two of your your receivers that showed out both both
were transfer portal players. You don't have a culture built

(29:50):
there yet. You're trying to claw and scratch and fight
your way to find success so you can hang around
long enough to build a culture. And that was the
difference to me in this game. It wasn't so much
that one singular decision. Did that decision help Northwestern get
back in the game, because they didn't execute or that
they didn't you know, it didn't happen the way they want,
of course, but did did the defense for Nebraska need

(30:12):
to fall apart in the second half? Did the offense
all of a sudden and Casey Thompson need to literally
frost over? I mean, he was so after the big
scramble around that that became viral. Uh if you're looking
on social media from from Casey Thompson, you could find it.
He scrambles around, chucks the ball down field for a
fifty plus yard gain. After that point for Casey Thompson,

(30:35):
he was six or fifteen with two interceptions for like
forty four yards, And so did he expect his quarterback
was after a great first half where you're like, Okay,
this kid might be up for the Heisman. The way
he looked in the first half, did you think he
was gonna fall apart two? I mean, the reality is
as a coach, you're always, you know, really trying to

(30:56):
hope for the best, and that's and you're trying to
hope for execution. The truth of the matter is it
was a tale of two halves and Nebraska didn't execute
anything really in the second half. And give credits Northwestern
in every step of the way. They kind of stayed
that steady eddie like they can. They ran the football,
Helinski made plays when he needed to in the passing game.
The physicality in the trenches one out on Northwestern, And

(31:20):
you know what, that's their identity, that's their culture, and
that's what really ultimately more consistently wins in college football.
When you if you look at the Northwesterns, the Wisconsin's,
whoever you want to bring into the conversation, Utah, like
all those schools, have an identity and they know exactly
the type of game they want to try to play,
and if they get you to play their game, you're

(31:42):
gonna have a hard time winning. We got a great
Week one matchup coming up between Utah and Florida this weekend,
and that's gonna be one where if you tuck and
go into Gainesville and make FULLI to play their game,
which by the way, Utah's favored by three points, a
little bit surprising, but if they can do that, Florida's
gonna have a hard time and winning that football game.
So you know, I look back on it, and I

(32:04):
think a lot is gonna be made of it, because
to your point, like it was the only thing really on.
You're in Dublin, Ireland. They happened to run their the
internet happens to go out. So all you have is
all these you know, people boozing up because the Irish
people are the best, and they're giving out free booze
at the game to everyone, and then you have this
almost epic collapse where everyone's ticked off. All right. Do

(32:27):
you see the photos of all the Nebraska fans who
are out there by the way, there were thousands. There
were thousands, I mean and and I and someone had
said this, um there are a ton on Twitter my
even Daniel Jeremiah, but he was saying it's something about
you know, college football is is local and regional. I
was like, no, it's not, man not anymore. Like think

(32:47):
about it. You had teams playing as far out west
as Hawaii. Vanderbilt played Hawaii, and then you've got all
the way out east heading into Ireland. I mean, and
that's that's kind of that's the kind of thing that
NFL doesn't do that anymore. You don't go out to
Hawaii for the Pro Bowl yesterday to London the Jacksonville
Jaguars do. Hell, I went. We went out there when

(33:08):
I was in in Denver to go play the forty Niners,
and it was an international crowd. It wasn't a bunch
of Broncos fans. It wasn't a bunch of forty Niners fans.
There were some, but it wasn't like what we saw
from Nebraska. Like that's when it changes to oh my god. Well,
it's not even just that. It's the fact that you
can get fans to travel, you can get them to
go internationally, and they'll go even for a program that

(33:32):
hasn't been hasn't been relevant since the nineties, you know,
since they were that dominant then, and yet they still
I mean, you tell me what pro program can get
their fans to travel that hasn't been relevant. I mean, say,
say what you want about the men bills and lack
of striples, but they'll travel. But but un plus, they're

(33:53):
good now. I mean, they're winning the a f C
East now you know that's that's not a doubt. So
I just I thought it was a really interesting weekend,
but a great weekend for college football. I think the
way the calendars worked out, um, but unfortunately it was
a bad weekend for Scott Frost, and he's yeah, they're
gonna need to come together quick and be competitive in
the Big ten West, which, UM, I kind of find

(34:14):
that hard to believe it will be enough to appease
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