Best of Outkick the Coverage for Jan 10, 2020

Clay Travis and the crew draft their Best Game of the Weekend, 4 NFL playoff games to choose from and Clay included Monday night’s College Championship Game in New Orleans! Lance Clay dives into Mike Leach to Mississippi State and NFL veteran (former Niner/Viking) Alex Boone joins Outkick for the first time to help get you fired up for the Divisional Round and Chad Withrow is live from Baltimore!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of out Kick the
Coverage podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
morning from six to nine am Eastern three to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every morning on the i Heart
Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox

(00:22):
Sports Radio Friday edition Outkicked the Coverage. We are here
and we are rolling into the Divisional Round playoff games
too tomorrow in the NFL too on Sunday, the final
weekend of the NFL season, where there will be four

(00:43):
different football games, the final weekend of football in general,
unless you want to count the XFL, where there will
be four different games to watch. I think the wild
Card and the Divisional Round are the two best weekends
of the NFL season because there's so much good football
on television to watch. Will these four games be entertaining

(01:05):
or anywhere near is entertaining as the four wild card
games that we watched the last weekend, which we're absolutely spectacular.
What stories will be talking about come Monday when we
roll back in for the show as we get ready,
by the way, I'll be down in New Orleans, as
we get ready for the national title game between Clemson

(01:26):
and l s U. We have got a lot of
fun football coming in the next three days. If you
are a big football fan, like pretty much everybody who
was on this show and everybody pretty much who was
probably listening to this show is we're gonna have a
lot of fun. So the question is as we inch
closer and closer to these games, that is now the
eve of the Saturday games. Uh what I'm looking right

(01:50):
now at the absolute latest lines as we get ready
for those games, and uh that they really haven't moved
to that much. The expectation is that Sunday Night's game
between Seattle and Green Bay where it's gonna be frigid.
I saw where they asked for seven hundred shovel ers
to help clear out some of the snow there in Lambeau.

(02:13):
That game, according to oddsmakers, is expected to be the closest. Meanwhile,
in the a f C, Kansas City and the Ravens
are prohibitive favorites, and the forty Niners have also been
a touchdown favorite and have about stayed there throughout. So
as we go and get ready for this weekend's games,

(02:35):
I want to bring in the crew. We do this
every single What do we do this every single Friday?
Pretty much? We draft? Right, we draft what we think
are going to be the best games. I will also
include L s U and Clemson here and uh and
there are five games, and there are five of us

(02:56):
to be able to draft. So I will tell you
that I think the best game of the weekend and
I'm gonna include Monday in this. I think the best
game of the weekend is going to be the Clemson
and the L s U game. I think it's gonna be. Look,
I'm not trying to take anything away from the four
NFL games, and I'll be watching all of them. But
if you told me that I could only watch one

(03:17):
of these five, I'm going with L s U and
Clemson because I think we have the potential to have
and absolutely iconic college football national title game featuring the
number one overall draft pick in Joe Burrow going up
against the number one overall draft pick in one Trevor

(03:38):
Lawrence Joe Burrow if he takes L s U to
fifteen and oh and if they complete that perfect run,
we're talking about one of the best college football teams
of all time if you consider all of the victories
they've had against top ten opponents, whether it's Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Oklahoma,

(03:59):
Texas back when they played against them UH in the
UH and and Georgia when in the earlier part of
the season, and would finish it off with a top
ten win against Clemson. And meanwhile, if Clemson were able
to get the win, we're talking about Trevor Lawrence potentially
playing his entire college football career without losing a game

(04:24):
and maybe going with three straight national championships, which is
kind of just insane to even think about. So in
this game on Monday, the narratives that are being set
up are simply phenomenal. UH. And either way, it's gonna
be a lot of fun to kick back and watch

(04:45):
this game down in the Big Easy in New Orleans
on Monday night. So we'll be talking a lot about
this game on Monday and Tuesday doing the show live
from New Orleans. But that is UH, that is the
game that I would draft number one for all. Let
me go ahead and bring in the crew and find
out who they would draft number one overall in this Uh?

(05:07):
In this scenario, Uh, Danny g who's your number one pick?
I'm gonna take the early game tomorrow, Minnesota Vikings at
the San Francis. It's great too. Yeah, Santa Clara is
gonna be rocking. Two really good defenses. Both teams have
excellent running games, and we still don't exactly know what
we have in either Kirk Cousins or Jimmy g is

(05:29):
one of those two quarterbacks gonna stand up and make
a big difference in this game. It's gonna be fun
to watch. I like that. I think it's a solid choice.
Strange stories coming out of Minnesota. I I haven't seen
a really detailed example, but I don't understand how Adam
Feeling ended up slicing his ankle in a what should

(05:50):
be a relatively calm practice. You know, there's talk that
he may not be able to go. He's got stitches
that should be impossible. I know we had the injury
that happened to Tom Brady, remember when his when his
finger got got ripped and he had to get stitches
and everything else. But this is I think I was
a couple of years ago in the in the in

(06:11):
the practice when his hand got caught on a uh
you know, like on a freak play. But that's a
little bit easier for me to understand as a quarterback
how your hand gets caught on a helmet or whatever
it was, than it is to figure out how in
the world does Adam Feeling get so injured in his
ankle that he needs stitches that he gets a bad

(06:31):
enough cut, especially when you already knew that Feeling had uh,
you know, tender hamstring all season long. It seems like
he would be going particularly easy, uh, and not putting
himself in a position where he can injure himself in
any way. So that's troubling. I think if you're a
Viking fan, to think that theeland who finally seemed like

(06:53):
he was rounding back into form and made a huge
play on the deep ball against the Saints too effectively
nearly win that game for the Vikings, that he could
injure himself as severely as he did. Uh. That's uh,
that's troubling. I'm on the Vikings, by the way, plus seven.
I like the Vikings to keep this close, but that
does make me a little bit nervous. Dub what game

(07:15):
you got? Well, first, if I had the overall number
one pick, I would go with your selection must see.
I mean, I think this is has the potential of
being an all time classic, and for all the reasons
you mentioned. You know, l s U going for the
perfect year in Clemson their twenty nine and oh the
last two seasons, so I think that is gonna be
an unbelievable scene. But for me, with what I have left,

(07:36):
I'm gonna go with Titans Ravens because I'm really curious
to see how these Titans come out to play after
such a such a huge, huge win against New England
and last week. I'm curious see if Derrick Henry can
once again put the team on his back and care
of the offense. And I want to see if Bryan
Tannehill can bounce back because he really didn't play very
well last week. And for the Ravens, a lot of

(07:57):
these guys haven't played a meaningful football game since mid December,
so they there could be a Russ factor here for Baltimore.
So uh yeah, that's the game I'm gonna go with.
See if the Titans can pull off another upset win
and move to the a f C Championship game. Three
weeks off for the Ravens is a huge amount of
time to not play for many of their players, a

(08:19):
game that really matters very much. And I'm still curious
about this mark ingram caf injury reports are that he's
gonna go, and it would stun you if he did
not attempt to go, given the circumstances and scenarios at
play here, but the fact that he hasn't really practiced
and he is such a lynchpin of their readoption attack.

(08:42):
And also, uh, the safety valve for Lamar Jackson throwing
short you know when when everything else falls apart, is
I think, uh a little bit alarming. And what I
wonder you mentioned Ryan Tannehill did not play well. I
didn't play well at all. He had two fumbles and
an interception through for seventy two yards in the in

(09:03):
the game. It's interesting I went back, uh, because the
twentieth anniversary of the Music City Miracle was this week,
in fact, Wednesday, when we had Mike Keith on the
radio here, the voice of the Titans who made that
iconic call. And I looked at the stats because they
were all this oral history of the of the twenty
year anniversary of the Music City Miracle, and Steve McNair

(09:27):
threw for almost the identical amount of yards as Ryan
Tannehill in that game UH for the Music City Miracles
the first playoff win ever of Steve McNair's career, much
like it was the first playoff win ever of Ryan
Tannehill's career. And UH and McNair obviously made bigger and
better plays as the as the playoff run continued. So

(09:48):
I'm curious whether he can follow Ryan Tannehill can follow
that that example and UH and play a lot looser
and with a lot uh, you know, just a lot
more or of the same sort of panache that he
showed in the final ten games of the year. Or
are the Ravens gonna stifle him again? I agree with you.

(10:08):
I think it's gonna be an incredible game. What about you, Eddie?
You got so we got the clems. I think Clemson
l s Who's gonna be the best game? I agree
with dub I think on some level that it's hard
for me to say that I wouldn't watch the Titans
and the Ravens is my top pick in the NFL.
Uh It's hard for me to be objective on that
because I've been a season ticket holder for twenty years
now for the Titans. But who would you take? Uh

(10:31):
and roll with Eddie in your in your draft here? Well,
I would also take the college football national title game
if I had the number one pick. That being said,
I'm pretty happy with the fourth pick of getting what
is likely going to be a matchup of future Hall
of Fame quarterbacks in Aaron Rodgers in green Bay hosting
Russell Wilson in Seattle. You've got the Seahawks seven and

(10:52):
one away from home one eight one and green Bay
seven and one at home this year, So I think
that one will be a very good match. Green Bay
only three and two against playoff teams, uh, they eight
and one is a number that I think is pretty
extraordinary for how good Russell Wilson has been usually the number,

(11:12):
you know, the twelfth Man, and all the talk about
how much of a home field advantage the Seattle Seahawks have,
they haven't been very good at home, uh, you know,
in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to how
good they have been on the road. Um so so yeah,
I think that Seattle has a very good chance as
a four and a half point underdog to go on
the road and beat the Packers. And if that happened,

(11:34):
can you imagine? I mean, it's possible that the Vikings
could pull off the upset and the Seahawks could end
up hosting the NFC Championship Game as the five seed,
because both the five and the six are still alive
uh in the in the postseason there and so the
Seahawks aren't just alive for the NFC Championship game if
they beat the if they beat the Packers, they will

(11:57):
know by the time they play on Sunday night. Hey,
we could be playing to win this game and play
for the NFC Championship at home in front of our
home fans. Even though Seattle hasn't been very good both
super Bowl winning quarterbacks, especially for Aaron Rodgers, how many
more years is he going to be in this good
of a position to finally get that second Super Bowl?

(12:18):
And look, the first Super Bowl is what validates you.
That's kind of how we judge in this day and age, uh,
the overall quality of a of a quarterback. But getting
that second one puts you in a different stratosphere than
having just one, and especially as good as Aaron Rodgers
has been of his generation of quarterbacks, he definitely feels

(12:41):
like the kind of guy who should have more than
one Super Bowl, much like Peyton Manning did when he
finished off his career by getting that second Super Bowl.
I think that was a big statement. Got to two
and two all time in the Super Bowls. I mean, look,
Brady is off the charts with six, but getting two
is pretty monumentally massive. And so for Aaron Rodgers, he

(13:02):
gets ready for that game at Lambeau. I think it's
gonna be an incredible one on on Sunday night. Uh,
what about you? You got one game the left Roberto,
who are you taking? Well? And he took my game
alytic Because it's on a Sunday On Sunday, I have
more time to watch football than I do on Saturdays. Uh. Well,
I guess I go with the Chiefs and the and
the Texans. Uh. I'm not a believer in any read

(13:23):
when it comes to the playoffs. I think that he
always falls short and think he's gonna fall short again
this year. I don't know if it's gonna because because
the Texas is gonna be in the Super Bowlkeain, and
he read to me is the Dusty Baker of the NFL.
We can can win the big game, and I'm interested
to see what happens against the Texans. We may have
to do a I believe I have do I you
you you have the list in front of you right now. Uh,

(13:45):
Danny G I think I have the Chiefs to win
the Super Bowl right preseason? P Yeah, you need a
new NFC team, Roberto Chiefs to beat the the Saints. Saints,
and Roberto also needs a new NFC team. He picked
the Saints as well. Dub needs a new a f
C team. He picked the Patriots because we all all
every one of our teams at least that we had

(14:07):
in the Super Bowl made the playoffs, which is actually
kind of a surprise, you know, given how things can go.
I still feel good about the Chiefs to win the
Super Bowl overall. Um, But if I had to pick
somebody new in the NFC now in order to to
play against the Chiefs, uh man, that's that's kind of tough.
I mean, I think I'd have to go with the

(14:28):
forty Niners because they're kind of a substantial favor right now,
and they're gonna get to play at home. Uh So,
I mean I guess I'd take this safe play and
go forty Niners now as my new replacement for for
the NFC. But I still like the Chiefs to win
the Super Bowl overall. Who would you go as a
new team, dub Yeah, I need uh, I need a

(14:48):
new team in the A s C. I'm gonna go
with the Chiefs as well, because I actually have them
in real life to win the Super Bowl. So I'm
gonna roll with them. Yeah. I think that we're setting
up for a Chiefs in a raven a f C
championship game, which would be pretty electric to see what
exactly could happen there. But I like the Chiefs better.
I just like Mahomes. I think he's more reliable. I

(15:11):
think his game he's he's been more challenged. I mean, look,
if d Ford could have lined up on side, they
would have been in perfect shape to potentially win the
Super Bowl last year. So I don't even think this
is remotely difficult. I'm sticking with the Chiefs. What about you, Roberto,
what would you flip to in the NFC? I guess
I'm gonna go here. I'm gonna I'm gonna go with
the Seahawks taking the Seahawks here, that's a pretty bold pull.

(15:34):
Uh So, uh, we'll see, uh, we'll see exactly what
ends up happening. All right, there's the early draft on
Friday of the weekend, including Monday, the five games to
come from the five of us, and like I said,
it's going to be a pretty extraordinary uh raw role
as we get going for Saturday, Sunday and Monday's games,

(15:55):
be sure to catch live editions about Kicked the coverage
with Clay Travis weekdays at six a m. Eastern three
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio AP. It is the Friday, the calm before the
storm to Saturday Divisional NFL Playoff around games to Sunday
Divisional NFL Playoff around games and Monday night we've got

(16:16):
l s U Clemson down in New Orleans, all of
that rolling together for three straight days of pretty outstanding football,
a crescendo on the season. We have only right now
seven games remaining in the NFL season, and four of
them will be played on Saturday and Sunday to set
the table for the final four in the NFL. The

(16:39):
A F c and the NFC Championship games. We not
surprisingly have been breaking down those games a great deal
all week, will continue to do so as we inched
closer and closer to uh the kickoff on Saturday afternoon
of the first game between Kansas City and Texas the Texans.
But we also have made your news in the world

(17:01):
of coaching, which we kind of just handed at so far.
Mississippi State fired their head coach, Joe moorehead in the
wake of a really disastrous Bowl game performance. But really
everything got put in motion in the SEC with the
Egg Bowl. Now, if you're out there listening to me,
I know that we have listeners in all fifty states

(17:23):
right now listening along, and forty nine of those states
may not know as much about the Egg Bowl. Uh,
some of you do that Mississippi and Mississippi State is
a brutal rivalry. These two schools hate each other. Uh.
They are the smallest schools in the SEC West. In

(17:44):
many ways, they're fighting aggressively against each other, oftentimes to
try to avoid being at the bottom of the SEC
West pile. It is a brutal, nasty, awesome, exhilarating rivalry
and so most recently in the Egg Bowl. It was

(18:04):
a twenty one to twenty Mississippi State win. But the
way the game ended, for those of you who forgot
Ole Miss scored with I believe it was like four
seconds to play and the receiver who scored immediately got up,
ran to the back of the end zone, hiked his

(18:24):
leg and pretended to pee on the field like he
was a dog. This was a celebration that was fame
made famous a couple of years before by DK Metcalf,
who everybody now knows if you're an NFL fan. He
didn't remember him at Old Miss. You now know him
as the guy who went off for a hundred and

(18:47):
sixty yards receiving in his rookie debut game on behalf
of the Seahawks against the Eagles. But before that, A. J.
Brown and DK Metcalf, both of whom could be integral
part of their respective Seahawks and Titans game team games
uh in the Divisional round of the playoffs. They were
teammates on Old Miss, and in fact they were in

(19:09):
the same recruiting class at Old Miss. All right, so
DK Metcalf two years ago does the dog peeing celebration
in the end zone uh, and then it is mimicked
by the receiver Elijah Moore. The official immediately throws a
flag and as a result, the the extra point is

(19:32):
moved back fifteen yards. The kicker then misses the extra point,
and as a result of the way this game goes down,
Ole Miss fires Matt Luke. There then head football coach
really directly tied to this celebration, because it's likely that

(19:53):
Old Miss would have gone for two potentially in that scenario,
and if Old Miss had won that game, then Matt
Luke would have kept his job. But the peeing celebration
was kind of the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back,
and so he is gone. He's fired. But Mississippi State
is also not happy with Joe Moorehead, and they had

(20:16):
been planning on firing Joe Moorehead if if he had
not won the Egg Bowl. So Joe Moorehead gets to
keep his job. The problem is Mississippi State people are
still not happy with him, and Old Miss goes and
hires Lane Kiffin and immediately jolts the entire program with

(20:39):
a great deal of energy, and Joe Moorehead looks even
worse relative to Lane Kiffin. Then Mississippi State advances to
a bowl game there six and six, they get beaten
by a mediocre Louisville team. They have team fights, the
starting quarterback can't start because he got punched into practice,

(21:00):
and Joe Moorehead gets fired, and so as a result,
Mississippi State is back in the coaching search. Well, as
if this thing can't get any WHACKI er, Mississippi State
is close to hiring Judge Joe Judge, who is a
former Mississippi State player on the coaching staff with Bill Belichick,

(21:20):
when the Giants sweep in and offer him the job instead.
So Mississippi State back to the drawing board and they
end up I think, getting the best possible candidate they
could have in terms of energizing their fan base. They
decide to hire Mike Leach. The other guy they really

(21:41):
seemed to look at aggressively is Steve Sarkisian, the offensive
coordinator at Alabama, formerly from Washington and USC and so
as a result, Mike Leach hired away from uh Washington State.
The Pirate now headed back to the SEC, and I
stay back to the SEC because a lot of people

(22:01):
don't remember that Mike Leach was the offensive coordinator for
Kentucky back in the day. UH. And so as a result,
you now have a situation where the SEC West is
just absolutely stacked with talent. When you look at the coaches,

(22:21):
You've got Nick Saban, who's the greatest coach of our
lives in college football. You've got Jimbo Fisher who won
a national championship at Florida State. You've got coach at
Ogeron who is coaching on Monday to win a national
championship for l s U Gus miles On at Auburn
who has played and coached for a national championship. UH

(22:44):
with UH with Auburn in that back in the day
against Florida State, they almost one. They gave up a
late touchdown pass to Jamis Winston. Then you've got Lane Kiffin,
who has had a lot of success in coaching. I
would say it's fair to say consider he's only forty
four years old. UH. Then you've got Mike Leach, who
took I believe Texas Tech to number one in one

(23:07):
of the early polls that season with the Michael Crabtree
year when he beat Texas and UH then went on
the road and lost to Oklahoma. If I'm not mistaken,
I think he got him to number one in a
few polls and has wanted a historically high rate at
both Texas Tech and Washington State relative to the success

(23:28):
levels otherwise of those programs. And then, oh, by the way,
you've got an offensive lineman Sam Pittman, who is the
coach of Arkansas that isn't that proven one way or
the other. But you're talking about an incredible bevy of
coaching talent. I love this higher from Mississippi State. It
makes the Egg Bowl, and it makes the state of

(23:48):
Mississippi in general and absolute battleground one of the most
entertaining states for football in the nation, given how intense
this rivalry is between Mississippi and Mississippi State. And I
want to bring in my crew and see what they
think about this. You guys obviously aren't really paying that
much attention to the Egg Bowl on a general basis,
But Danny g when you saw this, did you think

(24:10):
to yourself, Hey, maybe this is a story I'm gonna
start paying attention to. This is phenomenal for college football,
particularly if you're an SEC fan, but if you're just
a college football fan in general, there's gonna be a
lot of good storylines that come out of the state
of Mississippi. Now, I can't believe you were able to
trace it all the way back to that to the Yeah,
it's amazing the timeline on everything. It might be the

(24:31):
greatest thing that's ever happened to Mississippi athletics history. Uh,
that that they had that peace ceremony because it ended
up cost an old miss Its coach, and it might
well have ended up costing in some way Mississippi State
It's coach too. Now. You talked about it a little
bit with Lance Taylor on Mike Leach and how he's
kind of strange. He's definitely a different character. But the

(24:52):
reaction yesterday, I read a couple of articles and there's
one in the USA Today on their website where they
say Mississippi State back themselves into a corner and that
they think Mike Leach is gonna get exposed, his offense
will be exposed by better college athletes playing against him,
and that he was a desperate higher What do you
think about the criticism who said that, let's see that is, uh,

(25:20):
we need to pull the clip. I mean the Leach
and Dan Walkin have had a feud going. Ah, that
explains this. So I think he took a shot. You
remember that, Dub, when we had him on the Uh,
we had him on the Wins and lost his podcast.
First of all, he's phenomenal. If you're if you're out
there and you're listening to us right now and you're like, hey,
I wonder what Mike Leaches really like. He spent two
and a half hours with us on The Wins and

(25:41):
lost his podcast. So if you've got a long drive coming,
First of all, we got Eddie George up this week
and that's pretty outstanding. I think you guys are really
gonna enjoy it. But Dub, I mean that interview we
did with Mike Leach, I mean it kind of gives
you a good sense for what he's truly like. It
sure does, and you know you're right. It is a
full two and a half hours because Mike Leach did
most of the talking about one and I do remember

(26:03):
he did not uh, he did not mince words when
he spoke about Dan Wilkin and that interview, Yeah, he
absolutely eviscerated him. I mean I we could pull the
audio probably at some point, but It's not a surprise
that Dan Wilkin, who was a writer at the USA Today,
would say that Mississippi State made a bad higher because
he doesn't like Mike Leach. So I mean that was

(26:24):
like kind of self evident. I think it's a really
good higher. Now. I don't know how successful Mike Leach
is gonna be that. There's a strong argument to be
made that Mississippi State is the toughest job in the SEC,
and Mississippi State fans get mad about that, but they've
won one SEC title since in their history, and it
was in nineteen forty one, so they have never won

(26:45):
a football title in the SEC in a post uh,
in a post uh, you know, like uh, Pearl Harbor Air,
not that we're like the post Pearl Harbor Air is
a pretty big one, but going all the way back
to one, they have never won a uh, they have
never won an SEC title since then. And you can argue, Look,

(27:07):
I don't think Kentucky is a great job. I don't
think Vanderbilt is a great job. But it's easier to
win in the SEC East right now, uh than it
is in the SEC West. So I think you can
make an argument that Missisippi State is the worst job
in the SEC, and so what I think will happen
is I think Leech will have historic success. That's good

(27:27):
for Mississippi State, which will still be not that great
in the grand scheme of things. I believe Mississippi State
and Vanderbilt are the only two SEC schools all time
that have a losing record. In other words, they have lost.
I think I'm correcting that they have lost more games
in their history as a football program than they have won.
Uh So this is not an easy job. So this

(27:51):
is about as good of a higher I think as
Mississippi State could possibly make. Dub you're an Auburn fan,
I mean you kind of know f Mississippi State. When
you hear Mike Leach Mississippi State, are you liked thinking
to yourself, that's basically as good as Mississippi State could do. Yeah.
I do think that to myself, and I was a
little surprised Arkansas didn't make a bigger run at them
when they were looking for their new head coach. And

(28:11):
as an Auburn fan, I'm not like that excited about
this because that means that's another game where Auburn and
the rest of these teams, the SEC are gonna have
to prepare for a Mike Leach offense, and people can
talk about how great SEC defenses are and that his
system won't work, But I just don't buy that because
he's had success every single place he's been. At Texas Tech,

(28:31):
he had an unbelievable record for that program, and at
Washington State, he turned a program that was like one
and eleven before he got there and turned them around
and they were top fifteen in the country a few
times during his tenure there. So I think it's an
unbelievable higher And as far as the stories go and
the storylines with Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin going head
to head in the state of Mississippi, the Egg Bowl,

(28:52):
like you mentioned, is now must watch TV on Thanksgiving
Day every single year that those two guys are in
their position, I think you'll have a higher quality of
player because there's so many good players within a three
or four hour drive of Starkville, Mississippi that don't exist
when you're in Lubbock, Texas or when you're up on

(29:12):
the Poloose in Washington State, Like there just aren't that
many really good high school football players in close proximity
to you, and so I think he'll have a higher
level of talent than he's ever had before, which will
lead to, uh, you know, every bit as good of
a results as he had at Texas Tech and at

(29:33):
Washington State. Now it's tougher in the SEC, there's no doubt.
But you don't have to play nine games in conference either.
You get eight conference games, which means most of the
time Mississippi State tries to slot it so that they
get four out of conference wins, which means you get
Bowl eligible if you win two games. You get to
play Kentucky every year, which helps. I know Mark Stoops

(29:55):
has had things going in a good way at Kentucky,
but that's a game that typically Mississippi State has had
a lot of success in, so that you feel like
you have a good chance of winning that game. And
then Arkansas is not very good, right, So I mean,
if you could beat Arkansas in Kentucky, you get Bowl eligible,
and then you would like to hope that you can
pluck away one of those guys uh every now and
then you know, maybe you beat an Auburn, or you

(30:17):
beat an l s U or you know, kind of
cycle up and find your way to win. Look what
Dan Mullin did at Mississippi State was extraordinary. He got
them to number one overall. He got Dak Prescott there.
I think with what Dan Mullin has done in his
first two years at at Florida, there's nobody who can
doubt how good of a coach Dan Mullen is and was.
And I think he took Mississippi State to about the

(30:37):
apex of where they can go. But I think that
that Mike Leach has the potential to put him right
back there in a really entertaining fashion. What do you
think about this, Eddie? Like, you're a college football fan,
but when you saw Mike Leach Mississippi State, what was
your first thought? Well, I know you would uh kind
of mentioned that this was a possibility. And I will
admit as a college football fan, I'm a sucker for

(30:58):
these rivalry games. I always try and watch the Apple
Cup and the Egg Bowl and all those types of game, right,
I mean, Arizona Arizona stea games that I normally wouldn't
really care about, but if it's that matchup, I always
like watching it. So, uh yeah, the Egg Bowl is
always one of those ones I try and catch if
I can, and and now, uh it is definitely going
to be uh pretty close to must CTV for for

(31:19):
those types of programs. Yeah, you know what, this is
what I think is so great about college football and
college basketball to an extent, to but more so for
college football, is it's so intensely regional and if you
live in the states, you know, like the Apple Cup
you mentioned, if you lived in the state of Washington,
it's a big deal. Who wins Washington Washington State. It
may not be nationally usually a big story, you know,

(31:41):
back in the day when Clemson wasn't very good. The
game in South Carolina between Clemson and South Carolina, huge
game in that state. The game in basketball and in
football Louisville versus Kentucky huge games. If you don't live
in those states, you don't necessarily pick up on how
bitterly artisan those games can be and how fabulous of

(32:02):
rivalries they are. And I feel like the Egg Bowl
because most of the time it's not a matchup of
two really really good football programs in terms of national
scale that it gets a little bit under the radar,
Like people know Alabama Auburn right in state, huge Southern
rivalry game. They know how big that is. They might
know historically in recent history Florida, Florida State has been big, right,

(32:27):
a lot of these big games A and M and
in Texas when they used to play, and they should
be playing again in my opinion at some point in time,
that rivalry needs to come back. Those games have been
national enough in scope that people have been aware of them,
but most of the time the Egg Bowl hasn't been
And I think it's gonna be musty television in Oxford
this year, UH for everybody out there to know what's

(32:49):
gonna happen with all the build up that will occur
with Leech and with UH and with Kiffen, both of
whom I I bet we'll have a lot of interesting
things to say along the way. Be sure to catch
live editions if I would kick the coverage with Clay
Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific. Bringing
now Alex boone eight year NFL veteran played for the Vikings,

(33:12):
and he played for the forty Niners and I think
most recently played for Arizona. Alex first time on the show.
Appreciate you coming on, man, Thanks so much. For having me. So,
as a guy who played in the NFL as many
years as you did, are you incredibly geeked up when
the playoffs get here? Is it feel different for you
even not playing now than it did in the regular season.

(33:32):
Is this, uh, just a different hype level for you? Oh? Absolutely,
this This is like the real type of football for me.
And this is like the real defense with a great
quarterback and a fabulous running game. So you know it's
gonna be some hard hitting, some great strategic matchups going on.
And really this is like the real type of football
that you want to watch. Guys that are really in
it to win it. They know what's that mistake, they

(33:53):
know what they have to do to win the game.
And it's really like, hey, listen, who's gonna show up
and who's not. Yeah, And speaking of showing up, I mean,
how surprised were you that Kirk Cousins and the Vikings
showed up and beat the Saints last weekend? I will
say that I wasn't surprised that that that the Vikings did.
I was more surprised that Kirk did. I think we
all were. We were all waiting for that one moment

(34:13):
where he was like, all right, put it on my shoulders.
I can do this. We as a team are gonna
get over this hume together. And boy, they did it masterfully.
And and Mike Zimmer deserves a lot of credit because
you lost some players in the secondary and hold Drew
Brees on the year that he broke the touchdown rector, Like,
I think people overlooked this how well of a game
that was because it was so complimentary offense and defense.

(34:35):
All Right, so let's dive into some of these matchups,
and I appreciate you coming on with us, Alex Boone,
NFL veteran. Here. Let's start with the first game that
we're gonna see tomorrow, the first kickoff, the Texans going
on the road against the Chiefs. Now, the Texans one
back in Week six on the road in Kansas City,
but Kansas City seems to have gotten their defense fixed
since then. Do you give Deshaun Watson and the Texans

(34:58):
much of a chance to go on the road and
pull off the upset against Mahomes and the Chiefs. Absolutely,
they've done it before, the showing they can do it.
But I think the problem is gonna end up being
can they contain Mahomes. If you look at this defense,
and yeah, they are like re sizzled with jj wat back.
And if you didn't see that coming, blame yourself because
all week they all talked about it. This dude's back.

(35:19):
We're super excited, can't wait to have him. Look what
he's gonna do. First sat the entire team was like,
all right, we belong here, we can do this. Let's
go have some fun. And you saw what DeShawn Watson
can do. But can you contain Patrick Mahomes? Probably not? Uh,
and so if you can't contain Patrick Mahomes, you're probably
not going to be able to win that game. What

(35:39):
about we were talking earlier about Derrick Henry. You played
high school football, you played college football. Can you believe
that Derrick Henry ran for over twelve thousand yards in
high school football down in Florida? I almost can, because
I've seen the way he's been running over grown men.
I mean, when you watch him run, here's the thing
that bothers me and maybe you just thought it's you too.

(36:00):
It looks like he's almost in slow motion. But the
minute he hits someone, it like he viserates them. You're like, dude,
what just happened. You're supposed to tackle him and nobody
can do it, So yeah, I believe it, And that
to me is why this game is gonna be a
little bit closer than people think. Like they're like, oh,
Lamar Jackson's gonna do this. Yeah, I get it. Lamar
is doing great. That offense is having fun. I've played
in it. I know how it goes. But Mike ravel

(36:22):
is really really smart. Dude. Look what he just did
to Bill Belichick. He had him screaming on the sideline.
Thank you. We've seen it for the first time ever.
Bill Belichick finally got phased. So do you think you
played on the offensive line? What does it feel like
to block for someone like Derrick Henry. You saw like
when he got when anytime he gets to the next level,
it's like people are allergic to contact. None of those dbs,

(36:45):
none of those safeties really want to try to take
him down. How much of a of a geek job
is that for you on the offensive line when you
see him get through the hole and you know that
he's gonna punish somebody, dude, it's huge. I've seen guys
like cry on the other side, They're like hey, please,
just don't run tower again. You're like, sorry, manly running
the show, not me, and he's a diabolical person. But

(37:05):
you talk about a guy like Derrick Henry what he
can do when you get him on the corners, right, like,
then he has to start an impact on the past
game too, because corners start to get worn down because
this is playoffs and you don't get to pick and
choose when you want to tackle anymore. You have to
bring him down. You have to bring him down collectively
as a defense, so you start wearing on their secondary.
Then all of a sudden, your past game picks up.
That's what Ryan Tannehill really wants. That's why he's been

(37:27):
doing so well. It's because of Derrick Henry and the
fact that this dude can look at somebody at coming
down the pipe and throw a perfect dark and it
is amazing to think about. So you think that because
of Derrick Henry, this game will end up closer than
maybe people expect against the Ravens. Absolutely, I know Earl
Thomas is like, all listen, we're gonna bring him down.
But I watched Earl Thomas play the Browns this year

(37:49):
and I saw what Nich Chubb did to them, Listen,
this is a bigger dude. You don't really understand what
you're getting involved with until you're in the middle of
the game. Now, I think that Lamar will absolutely have
a better chance to win because they're at home. He's
really comfortable right now. They know what they're doing. They're
kind of fine tuning this offense. But look for Derrick
Henry and Ryan Sannehill'll be like, listen, man, we've got
nothing to lose. We're gonna keep this game as close

(38:10):
as we can't as long as we can. We're talking
to NFL veteran Alex Boone. So the other question I
have for you is the Ravens. Some of their top
players have not played a serious game for three weeks.
You know, they took off the final week of the
season after they've already clinched the number one seed. They've
got the bye week for the wild card round, and
now they're coming back trying to be fresh. They're gonna

(38:32):
be fresh, but how much can that impact your timing
if you sit out from full speed for three weeks.
I said this two weeks ago. I've never seen this.
I've never seen a team wrestler starters for two weeks.
It's just because the timing is off at times you're right,
and not only that, but sometimes when the body hasn't
really been taken to the level of going live in
a long time, when you get there, number one, you're

(38:52):
kind of rusty. Number two, you're kind of like, hey, listen,
it's been a while. Maybe we should ooze into this,
not just pick started right away. So it's gonna be
inter thing to see if they come out sputtering. I
think everyone's gonna be like, boy, that was a bad
idea of taking two weeks off. Yeah, I think that's
gonna be a big storyline depending on how they start off.
All right, let's go into Sunday's games. Uh, the early
game on Sunday. We've got, uh, where do we got

(39:15):
going on? We got the well, the late game. Let's
start the late game because I think that's the one
that's most intriguing. We've got the Packers going up against
the Seahawks. Seahawks on the road. You've got two Super
Bowl winning quarterbacks. What do you anticipate seeing in this one?
It's the one that the oddsmakers would tell us is
the most even Uh, the Seahawks around a four and
a half point favorite. You know what, I like this

(39:36):
game a lot. I think it's gonna come down to
with the quarterbacks do but not more importantly, if one
guy on the defensive side of the ball can show
up and just disrupt the quarterback a little bit, right
like if Davey and Clowne, he really comes down says
they listen, this is my coming out party and I'm
gonna show you how this is done. I could see
Russell Wilson going out there with the d K met
kep and having another hundred yard day. But then you

(39:57):
gotta think, like Mike Pennon do she knows exactly how
to attack this offense. He knows exactly how to contain Russ,
and Russ doesn't have some really important guys up front.
That to me always is concerning because if you can
get to Russ early and often do that's the entire
game for them. Right now. Are you concerned at all
about the offensive line and their ability to to block

(40:17):
for Russell Wilson? I mean, like the injuries there, they
can't really they don't really have much of a running game.
I know they got Beast mode back, but the injuries
they had at the running back position. It means that
you don't really necessarily have to respect the big play
potential coming out of their backfield, right. No, that's for sure.
I mean I don't think you think beast Mode is
gonna run for a ninety nine yard touchdown. But I
think that when you talk about the formula against us,

(40:39):
a lot of people have shown you how to do it.
You just have to contain him. You don't have to
go crazy after him. Don't be like listening guys in
your ears back enjoy the day. No, No, this is
more of a chess game. We're not playing checkers this week,
all right, We're gonna contain him in this pocket because
the minute he feels the closing and he can't get out,
that's when you see him get all like crazy and
like look around and what's go going on? And and

(41:01):
then all of a sudden, then you apply pressure even more.
You're down one of their best left tackles right now
in the league. I mean, if you can get pressure
on Russ, the game will be over. The forty Niners
you played for them, Uh, this is unique territory for them.
Jimmy Garoppolo has never started a playoff game before they're
the overall number one seed. Vikings have a short week.

(41:21):
I want to start there. How much of a difference,
if at all? Do you think it makes that the
Vikings played on Sunday and now they have to turn
around and travel all the way across the country and
play on Saturday. Does that impact the way your body feels? No,
it does, But I think that when you're talking about
playoff football number one, your body like response so fast.
It's like being eighteen years old again. It's so fun,

(41:42):
Like you just somehow like wake up the next day
like I'm ready to go, guys, let's do this. But
you talk about a team that's now has so much momentum,
so much momentum after beating up phenomenal Saints team, and
you look at the forty Niners and you're like, well,
you guys took a week off, so you've been sitting
in idol for a while. What team becomes more Angels?
And especially because Mike Zimmer could still pull the Hey, listen,

(42:03):
people still don't respect this card. Look where we have
to go, Look what we have to do right now.
You start getting this team piste off and they have
a lot of fuel on the fire right now. So
you like the Vikings to keep this game close against
the forty niners on the road. Oh? Absolutely. I think
the final scores is gonna be seventeen. I think this
is gonna be a slug fest, dog fight, who can
get to the quarterbacks first, who makes the least amount

(42:24):
of mistakes? And I think more importantly, what coach can
pull their team out of a really tough situation, like
when something goes haywire. Who's gonna be the first one
to be like, listen, guys, we're fine. Let's just get
that to the game plan. Once you do that, you're good.
So I'm curious on on this angle to Adam Feeling
somehow gets a cut, like a pretty severe cut on

(42:46):
his ankle and has to get stitches. I think the
assumption is he's gonna play. But you've been in these
practices where you're trying to get ready for the playoffs.
How in the world do you get a severe injury
like that? When you saw this story and you hear
that a guy has to get stitches because it's something
that happened to him in practice during a playoff week,
are you as confused by how that happens as as

(43:07):
many of us are. Oh, the first thing I thought
was who's getting cut? There's somebody for sure, like like
who didn't see feeling running the smoke route down the
sideline and gotten his way? Like of all the times,
this has to be Minnesota's luck because you look back
at their playoffs starts and there's so many things that
I mean, the Blair Walsh chick just kicks up all
the way to the left. I mean, dude, these guys
have not had worse luck, But now all of a sudden,

(43:29):
you talk about, Hey, listen, we got Dalvin back after
a really bad injury. We're all hitting on all cylinders
and all the sides. Like, well, our star receiver somehow
got tripped up by some idiot and practice, Like, how
does that happen? You're you're with us, though, right, I mean,
like that's that's something that should never happen, especially during
a playoff week where you're probably trying to limit contact,
uh to find a way, and also with a guy

(43:50):
who's had a hamstring issue all year, you would think
you're even trying to be even more careful than normal.
Based on that, I've never seen something like this, and
especially because one of the big things is you never
hear about guys really getting cut open like that, like
having to get stitches stuff like that, especially somewhere out
of nowhere. So you must have really gotten cleeted by somebody.
And I guarantee you that person right now is like, dude,

(44:11):
I may have crossed this the season. Yeah, it's absolutely wild.
So as you look with these eight teams that are
left right now we're talking to Alex Boone, NFL veteran,
how would you break down who do you think are
the two best teams? Who's the best from the a
f C, and who's the best from the NFC as
you project now, I think for sure in the a
f C you have to give a lot of respect
to the Ravens. I think that what they do on

(44:32):
offense is exciting. I think a lot of people don't
know how to stop it. But the answer is really
kind of staring at everybody right in the face. I
think this. Everybody refuses to look at it and they
think it's a lot harder than it is. But when
you turn around and look at their defense, what they
do by applying pressure and how they can stop the
run with just their front four and how they can
do things with the beck and this team is very dangerous.
And when you turn around and you look at what

(44:54):
the Niners have done all year, and a lot of
people have counted them out all year and been like,
what is Jimmy Donne. Jimmy's won games by himself and
he's proving it. And they've gone in and they've lost
some really tough games, just some really tough teams. But
I like what they do on offense, and I love
what George Kittle brings to this offense. And I think
that if he has a day, it's gonna be dangerous
for people playing against them. What's the difference For people

(45:16):
out there who watch NFL football all year long, absolutely
love it, know that there's a difference when you get
into the postseason. How much more is the intensity ratcheted
up compared to a regular season game. We know already
every game matters in the NFL, But when you get
into the postseason, what's the difference in feel? What's the

(45:36):
difference in intensity? Oh, it's hue, do you feel it too?
And as much as we try to blow it off, like, hey, listen,
it's just another game, you tell yourself that because you
don't want to make a mistake in the biggest moment
of your life. And you're like, you know what, it's
just another day, dude, don't get too excited. But you
feel the pressure on your back. You know that, hey, listen,
if this goes wrong, it's the end. And sometimes you're
looking around you're like, this maybe the last time this

(45:57):
team is ever together, and if we're gonna do this,
this is now our last chance. So it puts pressure
on you internally. And then you get there. And sometimes
when you're the road team, you enjoy it because you're like, listen, man,
it's just us burn the boats right, Like, we're gonna
do what we gotta do and then we'll do what
we gotta do to get the hell out of here.
But when you're the home team and you're a number
one seed, man, there's a lot of pressure because people
are like, are they gonna fault? Did they get there

(46:19):
on purpose? It was an accident? Was it was it love?
What was it? This is real fun football? How long
does it take for you to calm down in a
playoff game and just be ready to play? Like when
you're when for you personally. We're talking to Alex Boone,
NFL veteran. When you would go out onto the field
for a really really big game, how long did it
take so you got kind of your breath and you've

(46:40):
got control of your emotions. Everybody's a little bit different,
but for you personally, what was it like in those
moments before kickoff and right after kickoff started? I mean,
once you got that first hit. And that's why I
always enjoyed starting the game with a run play because
it's kind of like me versus you, and I think
the defense almost enjoyed it too, like they would have
rather seen who was the toughest on the first play.
But one you get that first hit, it's like everybody

(47:02):
comes down to earth and we're like, okay, here we
go again. But then all of a sudden, you're kind
of walking again on egg shows because you're like, man,
I remember getting to the line sometimes and we played
some tough games up in Seattle and you were like
you could not hear a word nothing, and everything was
just jumbled around you, and you're constantly thinking, thinking the
right play? Am I going the right way? Can anybody
hear me? What are we doing? I mean it gets

(47:23):
so intense at at times you're like, listen, I almost
want to tap out of this. Enjoy the games by
man this weekend. Fantastic hit. Appreciate look forward to talking
to you again. Dude, can't wait. Thanks so much. That
is Alex Boone, NFL veteran, breaking down NFL playoff games force.
He's fired up. It's not like he's ready to line
up and take somebody out. Fox Sports Radio has the

(47:45):
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
our shows at Fox sports radio dot com and within
the I Heart Radio app. We head up to Baltimore, now,
Chad with row one h four five the zone. My
buddy is up there getting ready. Are you stay in
for the game? We throw you flying back beforehand. I
am staying for the game this time. No need to
fly to Omaha from Baltimore this go around, so I

(48:08):
will be in Mt. T Bank Stadium, which I can
actually pretty much see my hotel room right now for
Saturday night's game. Is there a sort of palpable at
all sense that there's a big game going on there
Saturday or is it still kind of still kind of quiet?
It's early. We got in late last night, so it
didn't really get a chance to get a sense of
the city. Yet we uh, we're gonna do our show

(48:30):
for back in Nashville, uh today at at Tin Roof
up here in Baltimore, so we'll know a lot better
than I will say this though, Clay, just talking with
the Titans and talking to some fans, there's a lot
more fans making the shorter flight up to Baltimore for
this game. A lot of them are coming in Saturday
morning for the game. But I think that you know,

(48:50):
the Titans are gonna have a big fan rally up here.
I would not be surprised to see a lot of
Titans fans that make the trip. Um and a week
ago in New England, it was amazing for a team
and a region that has so much success the Patriots.
Pretty much everyone we talked to that either covers that
team or was a fan of that team was almost
certain the Patriots would lose to the title in that game.

(49:11):
They had no they had they had no confidence going
into it. I think that's the opposite with this Baltimore
team and what they've done this year, and and rightfully so,
that they're the best team in the NFL. Is We
were talking earlier on the show about the fact that
Derrick Henry had over twelve thousand rushing yards in high school,
and everybody out there who is listening to us right

(49:32):
now that watched him at Alabama saw that level of
dominance with him as well. But do you get the
sense that the Titans maybe are surprised even though they
drafted him in the second round that he's kind of
starting to do in the NFL the exact same thing
that he did at Alabama. And it's funny because all
the Alabama fans out there were always upset that the

(49:53):
Titans weren't using Derrick Henry enough, and now it kind
of feels like, you know what they were right, Yeah,
it was, well, I see it's twofold, though, Quay. I
do think that, you know, they weren't using him correctly,
but I also think that Derrick Henry wasn't utilizing the
offense correctly. John Glennon and Joe Rex Road for the

(50:15):
Athletic that covered the team here in Nashville, UM, they
had a great piece up this week about the transformation
of Derrick Henry. You know a year ago, you go
back to this game last year against Baltimore where clarkas
Mariotti got sacked eleven times and the Titans got blown
out at home by Joe Flacco and Lamar Jackson just
played a few staffs in that game. Then that game

(50:35):
against the Patriots where Derrick Henry in the second half
kind of had his coming out party and started the
great second half of that season. In that game, David
flew Lellen was getting more carries early in that game.
The Derrick Henry. That's how out the Titans they were.
They were trying to trade him. Was the reports before
last season like that they just basically had decided, you,

(50:55):
he doesn't fit. They were using Dion Lewis more. Uh,
they didn't have any faith in all. They didn't have
any faith in at all. And and that that piece
of the athletic does a good job play of showing, Uh,
talking to his running back coach, talking to a lot
of different people that because of his athletic ability, he
was always he grew accustomer Alabama in high school of course,
to always looking for the cutback lane and not just

(51:17):
taking what's in front of him. And I got him
in trouble. Remember all the like two and three yard
losses early in his career. Uh, he got away from
that because he started seeing what was there. He started
understanding the offense more, understanding when the cut, when to
take the cutback lane, and when to just go. And
I think a conversation he had with Eddie George I
had a lot to do with that. You know, Eddie

(51:38):
George said, you need to run like you and I
know a buddy of yours too, but Eddie said, look,
you're you need to run like your career to pitt
hunt it because it does and you need to take
what's there. And once he started doing that, he became
more of a wrecking ball for this offense. He's always
had the big plays breath, he's always one of the
fastest guys on the field, but now that he's running
with such power and he's getting the whole so much quicker.

(52:02):
I mean, he's one of the best offensive weapons in
the league. There's there's no doubt about it. And it
was It's crazy to think that just a year ago
mid season, where Derrick Henry was he was being shopped,
David Luellen and Dion Lewis were getting more carries, and
now he's one of the best weapons in the NFL. Yeah,
and I think you're right. What it really kind of

(52:23):
boils down to is he's learned that getting two or
three yards is a good play and uh and and
I think that maybe that was different from what all
the success that he had at at at college and
certainly in high school. It's you know, I'm never gonna
just be a two or three yard runner. And what
he's I think found out is if you stack some
of those two and three yard runs, it gives you

(52:43):
the opportunity to bang the big one every now and then.
Uh and uh. And it keeps the team from having
to be constantly in second and third and long because
you're losing yardage on plays. He almost never loses yards
on runs now, all right, So what do you expect?
The line is up to ten. You're in Baltimore getting
ready for this game nine and a half. The Ravens

(53:04):
are a big favorite. Is it a close game? I
think it is a close game. I do not think
the Titans win, but I think that the rust factor,
you know, the three and the starters. Yeah, resting the
three weeks off, I do think the Titans will will
be in this game. In the second half, and I
think they're in the game in the fourth quarter. In fact,
I think the time is gonna come out of play.

(53:25):
Well now. For the Titans to win up here in Baltimore,
they're gonna have to play possibly their best game of
the year to pull that off. And it is possible,
But I think Baltimore is just they're just so difficult
to stop and and no one's really done it this
year because of the way they run that offense, because
of Lamar Jackson's ability to not just get yardage with
his leg but to break the game open with his legs.

(53:47):
I think the Ravens win. I think the Titans cover.
Here's an interesting subplot as well. I don't I can't
imagine this has ever happened in an NFL game before.
They're gonna be five guys who won the Heisman trow
feet in uniform. You've got mark Ingram R G three
and Lamar Jackson for the Ravens, Marcus Mariota and Derrick

(54:08):
Henry for the Titans. I can't imagine there's ever been
a game played anywhere where there's been five Heisman Trophy
winners all on the field at the same time. That's
a little bit of a subplot there, all right? What
about the other games? Uh, You've got the Vikings on
the road against the forty Niners. They are around a
seven point underdog. You've got the Texans on the road

(54:28):
against the Kansas City Chiefs. They are around a ten
point underdog. Nine and a half or ten there as well.
And then the game up in Lambeau with Russell Wilson
going up against Aaron Rodgers with the Seahawks around a
four and a half point underdog. Those are according to
Fox Bet, which I'm looking at right now. Who's the
most likely to pull the upset off? Of those three

(54:49):
teams that I just ran through? I think I would
probably pay Houston the weather factor in that game, I
know there's a possibility for snow. It's it's a bad weather.
Is me awf a little bit? But is it too
easy just to pick all the home teams? Feel like
all the home teams are substantial favorites? Yeah? I think

(55:09):
this is a home team weekly lot. Last week was
a visiting team week. I think this is the home
team week. I'm I'm taking the home teams and all
these if I had to pick one, but I could
see going in and winning. I think it's Houston, you know,
on the Kansas City, but I like the home teams
in the other games. All right, what about Mike Leach
to Mississippi State. How big of a deal is this?
It's amazing think about the coaching roster in the SEC West.

(55:32):
I mean, not that it wasn't already great, but you
add in the state of Mississippi, Lane Kissing and Mike Leach. Um,
I think this has epic potential for Mississippi State. Doesn't
have winning the SEC West potential, I don't think so.
But they're gonna be so relevant now in such a
test for teams because they're gonna be so different from

(55:52):
the other teams in that in that division. And of
course Mike Leach's personality is gonna left itself to a lot.
I mean, thinking about that Egg Baw matchup down with
those two personalities, budding heads and recruiting in that state
and everything else is gonna go on. I think it's
a terrific higher from Mississippi State. And you think the
other finalists were Todd Grantham and Steve Sarkisian, Yeah, that's

(56:14):
all that those are two of the finalists. I mean,
think of that decision, like you're down to Steve Sarkasian,
Todd Grantham and Mike Leach. Just how different those guys
are and what what a different direction for your program
that is. I think it's a terrific higher by Mississippi State.
I think that Mike Leech thrives in places like Starkville, Mississippi,
in Pullman, Washington and Lunnock, Texas, these sort of football outposts.

(56:37):
And I think he's gonna do a great job for State.
And I think him versus Lane Kissing is gonna be
great seed or every single season. Yeah, there's no doubt.
And also it's a great laboratory test because for so
long people have said, Okay, how would Mike Leach do?
And I know it's not a fair because he's still
going to Mississippi State, which is, you know, sort of

(56:57):
the runt of the SEC West. Let's be on um.
When you look at all those other programs, they aren't
on an equal footing in terms of their ability to compete.
But Mike Leech has never been on an equal footing
at Texas Tech or at Washington State either, and he's
had historic success at those programs. So how will leach
his abilities and coaching style and everything else that he

(57:19):
brings to bear apply in the SEC. We've had a
little bit of a test case when he was the
offensive coordinator with Kentucky when they were walking around in
those air raid helmets back in the day, like with
Tim Couch, which was a fun and entertaining style of
football that they brought to bear there. But how will
he do actually running his own program? That's gonna be

(57:41):
fun to watch. I think he's gonna do a great
job there. You know, a year ago play and the
two years ago excuse me, the uh with John Curry
was courting him to go to Tennessee. There was a
lot of speculations I could he handled Knoxville. There's a
lot more media members that cover the University of Tennessee,
and Knoxville is a much bigger place than Starkville. So
I can understand the question about how a personality like

(58:03):
that would mesh with that big of a job. And
I'm not downplaying Mississippi State is a job. It's it's
in the SEC. But stark builds a different place than Knoxville,
and the media attention is far different than for Tennessee. So,
just like we were talking about, I think that his
outpost style for college football will work in Starkville. And
what if he need to succeed he needs some decent

(58:24):
receivers and he needs a quarterback who can run his system.
You can find that in Mississippi. You can find that
in the South. Now once you can also find in
Mississippi State is a great defense. They've shown that over
the years. If he can bring in or hire the
right defensive coordinator and he can have guys on the
staff that can recruit and develop, if they just have
a decent defense, they're going to have a shot to

(58:46):
win some big games in the SEC West because of
Mike Leach's offense. If he's able to bring in that
quarterback that he needs, and there's plenty of skill players
in the South that he can pick from. Yeah, I
don't think there's any doubt that the overall quality of
player he has willing priests. I think the question is
will it increase enough to increase alongside of how much
better the quality of play will be in the SEC

(59:07):
compared to the Pack twelve in the Big twelve. All right, Uh,
we've got the national title game going on down in
New Orleans on Monday between Clemson and L s U.
What do you think is is likely to happen in
that game? Which side would you take? I mean, I'm
taking L s U. But I mean this is a

(59:28):
mammoth matchup that it's uh, it's really hard to pick
one way or the other. I mean, what is the
advantage of Dabo being in this game before? You know,
if you're if you're looking for We can talk about
all the matchups and everything else, but what is the
actual tangible value of a guy who's been there and
done that and played very well in this game versus

(59:49):
a coach and a coaching staff that's preparing for this
type of what two and a half week layoff or
whatever for the first time. Um that that suff I
want to watch early in this game. I think L
s US the better team. They've been the better team
all years. Why they were the number one team in
the country. But it's tough to pick against Davil and
Clemson in this game, and tough to pick against Trevor

(01:00:12):
Lawrence and those guys after what we saw a year
ago against Alabama this game, so it's tough to pick.
I'm leaving L s U right now play, But I
am curious to see what type of factor that is
with Clemson and that Country staff having done this numerous
times about you know what's wild is if Joe Burrow
wins and l s U gets to fifteen and oh,

(01:00:33):
I think it's probably the greatest single season in college
football history. If Trevor Lawrence wins and his gets his
second national championship, he's still undefeated, Clemson wins their thirtieth
game in a row, then we're talking about Trevor Lawrence
coming back for year three, trying to win a third
straight title before he goes number one overall, which would
be the greatest single season potentially in college football history.

(01:00:57):
Good stuff is always Chadwythro appreciate you join us, Yeah
and play by the way, pots of the greatest single
quarterback career in history with Trevor Warrens we're looking at
in his next game in the year two. So thanks
for having me. Be sure to catch live editions about
kick the Coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
Eastern three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio app.