January 2, 2026 • 41 mins
Jason Fitz & Buck Reising are in for the guys and talk about a big day of the College Football Playoffs that saw Oregon beating up on Texas Tech, Ole Miss stunning Georgia, and Indiana walking all over Alabama. Plus, are both John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin on the hot seat?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with LaVar Arrington, Brady Quinn, and
myself Jonas Knox. Make sure you catch us live weekdays
six to nine am Eastern Time three to six am
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Show over at Foxsports Radio dot com or stream us
(00:22):
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Speaker 2 (00:30):
Let's give this.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh, throw your hands
up in the air.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
If you had a college football semi final that had Indiana, Oregon, Ole,
miss and Miami.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
There's no Alabama, there's no Georgia, there's no Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Y'all.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
This is the new college football landscape, and I love it.
It's Two Pros and a Cup of Joe hanging out
with you on Fox Sports Radio. Buck Rising, Jason Fitz
taking over. It's a bucket fits takeover for the next
three hours. We'll be hanging out with you all morning.
And the fact is we got shocked yesterday for so
many of us because as we sit here now and
only the second year of the expanded playoff. We got
(01:19):
a one seed, sure, but the rest of it, the
five seed, the sixth seed, the ten seed, and utterly
chaotic year in college football continues to give us an
utterly chaotic playoff. And the question is what do we
love more? Because certainly this year what we're getting is interesting.
Certainly what we're getting this year is wild. Certainly what
(01:39):
we're getting this year is entertaining. Are we getting the.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Actual best champion? I don't know. Frankly, I don't care.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
See, this is what happens constantly with the college football landscape.
Buck and I have talked about this a bunch, and
we will continue to He's gonna connect in just a
second here. But as we look at the landscape of
college football and what it looks like, so often people
were saying, Oh, expansion of the playoff reduces the regular season.
Suddenly every game doesn't matter. I sat there last night
(02:07):
as I watched Ole miss figure out a way to
beat Georgia. The best game was the late night game.
If you went to bed late, you missed the only
really good game of the last twenty four hours of
college football. But that game right there encapsulated everything that
is wild about this season.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
There's no Lane Kiffin, right, so there's no proof of.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Concepts, something I talk about I love all the time
a coach that has won a national championship, right like
I love this.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Right, Well, we don't have Lane in this game.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
We have no reason to expect that there's gonna be
a massive George ran the ball all over Ole Miss
the last time these two teams played. You look at
it and say, well, for sure, that's just gonna happen again, Right, Nope,
not at all. In fact, Ole Miss puts on a clinic.
Chambliss comes in and puts on an absolute clinic.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Almost gets a while.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
I mean, they were down twenty four to nineteen going
into the fourth quarter, they were up by ten in
the fourth quarter, and then it was tied with six
seconds left. They get what turns out to be the
game winning field goal.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Weird safety at the end.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
But thirty nine thirty four, and it just it reminds
you that everything this year, everything you think you know,
every single thing you think you can count on, every
brand you think matters to college, none of it matters.
This is the wild, wild West, and I love every
second of it. Buck Rising his now decided to show
up to work, which, for the record, he's just he's
wearing a terry cloth robe, coming in like he's the
(03:26):
dude from The Big Lebowski, just putting the coffee down
and now ready to fire off.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
That takes puck. I'm telling you, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
What's better your robe or where we are were college
football right now, because it's exciting.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
Both both are excellent. It's what other way would you
start your morning then with two pros and a cup
of Joe on Foxyborne Radio, and you know with the bathrobe?
Come on, Well, I got to listen to roosters crowing
and do it in a normal attire. Note it's a
special occasion, so they're a special attire for the occasion.
And the college football last night was excellent. I mean
(03:58):
maybe not. The day of college football was excellent because
I was going back and forth in a couple of
my group techs talking about complaining about the level or
the lack of competitiveness in these games. In the first
two games that we saw were Indiana just smacked the dog,
you know what out of Alabama and Oregon rolled Texas
(04:18):
Tech pretty easily. In that particular situation, and it looked
like we were just gonna get more of the same
for the entire first half of that Old Miss game.
But to their credit and in a big spot, in
a moment where a lot of people have been talking
and looking at Old Miss and be like, what are
they really gonna do without Lane? And is Lane gonna
(04:40):
show up to the game, And is Lang gonna watch
the game? Is Lang gonna comment on the game? All
these different things about Lane kiffn bleep Lane Kiffin. Ole
Miss went out there and beat George's ass. It is awesome.
That's the best possible outcome for all of this. And
now you have two teams who are excuse me, you
have the one team who has beaten the odds as
the top seed with the first round by in Indiana,
(05:01):
and everybody else just creating chaos in the field.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
It's delightful.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Well, look, there are two things out of that number
one ol Miss.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
There were a million.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Ways they could have lost that football game, right like
to your point in the first half, absolutely disjointed. At
the end of the first half, one of my group
that's just going on say and see, that's why it's
a new coach and these little moments are gonna come
back to bite.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Hi turned out they didn't.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Almoss had a bunch of drops in the first half
like it was, it was right on the edge.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
And all turns out it didn't. But doesn't mean that
it can't. You know, I don't think it's a dometary.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I mean, Chambliss in the second half looked like he
was playing video game football. He was running around with
the no looks about to get knocked and you know what,
out over and over and over again, find him ways
to just get rid of the ball at the last second.
Like those teams were flying. I don't know if it
was bad defense and good offense. I just know it
was finally entertaining. But the reality, right the reality is,
for all of that, there is one team that has
(05:57):
been clearly dominant. There was one team that went in
and did exactly what they were supposed to do. There's
one team that is clearly the best team in the
country right now.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
It's Indiana. Like that's the funny thing, Like.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
The humorous part of this is that the number one
team in the land looked like the number one team
in the land. We just look at it and say, well,
that doesn't make any damn sense because it's Indiana.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
But this Indiana, that's who they are.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Is It's such.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
A funny year in college football that way, because this
is I mean, oh Miss. This was their only regular
season loss to Georgia. This was Lane Kiffen's opportunity to
get a big boy win over Kirby Smart and do it.
I believe that game was in Athens earlier in the
year and they weren't able to get it done. So
Trinidad Chambler's three hundred and sixty two yards, two touchdowns,
(06:43):
twenty fourth quarter points. Fitzi, I apologize if you mentioned
any of those numbers at the very start of the
show as I get caught up here this morning, But
just an absolutely dominant second half performance and.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Clutch field goal kicking.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
We love a clutch field goal kicker in college fall
because you can so rarely rely upon them. But if
ole Miss is going to get by on the strength
of their field goal kicking unit, then that is going
to be something that you know, that's something that they
can lean on throughout the course of this as they
continue to play play.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Through the course of the college football playoff.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Georgia, I don't know what you do with some of
these losing teams at this point in time, and really
some of these losing coaches, because I know we're going
to talk about it at some point today. The pressure
index on these name brand coaches who just got bounced
from the College Football Playoff, Kaitlyn de Boor in Alabama,
I mean, have I know you have friends that are
Alabama fans just by nature of living in this part
(07:39):
of the country for as long as you did. God knows,
there are plenty of them in Nashville where I am,
and they are livid. They want to bore out. They
don't care who replaces him in the interim. They don't
care if they just got a band aid their way
through a year. They want to bore gone. Ryan Day,
I'm sure the conversation in Columbus is not favorable at
this point in time, despite him just having won the
national championship.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
A year going.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
I'm not saying that anybody's calling for Kirby Smartshead or
anything like that, but like, think about the three names
that I just listed off, just rattled off there who
just got bounced in the College Football Playoff. These are
the three best theoretically coaches that we've talked about in
college football, and Kurtzignette's just pointing and laughing at them.
I saw a great tweet from Daniel Jeremiah yesterday at
(08:20):
the NFL Network that I really really liked. You can
follow him at Move the Sticks on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
He said.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
Signetti keeps murdering excuse culture. It takes time to build
a program. The playoff by isn't fair. Like those are
the kind of excuses that are being lobbed out there
by people like us who were talking about the schedule
for the first round for the teams that got the
first round by well, the playoff buy isn't fair. It's
you know, there needs to be some kind of restructuring
(08:50):
to it to give the teams that earn, you know,
the top spots in the college football playoff a better
opportunity to succeed. Kurtzignette says Bleep that it takes time
to build the program. Indiana just won back to back
or just to add double digit wins in back to
back seasons after having like the two hundred and thirty
first best win percentage in college football in twenty twenty three,
(09:12):
They've done it in two years. They're rolling into the
semi finals with a head of steam like you haven't
seen anybody do. No, you don't feel as good as
any about anybody in the field as you do the
Indiana Hoosiers, because they're the only ones who looked prepared,
crisp efficient the entire way through to their credit.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Yeah, I mean, by the way, be sure to check
out the brand new YouTube channel for the show. Just
search two pros FSR on YouTube. Again, that's two pros FSR.
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(09:51):
funny to me that Fernanda Mendoza, who again afterwards was
clipping off his interviews. He's just a you're worried last night,
he's a goober. That's part of his charm. But he
talked about how it took a second to knock the
rust off. That second was literally one or two drives
for Indiana and then they were just fine for everybody else.
It's just been tough sletting. Anybody that's had a buy
(10:14):
has struggled to figure out a way to get through
that buy. They've struggled to find that rhythm. It's amazing
to me that the one person that wasn't on the
field last night, Lane Kiffin, that is laughing about it
is Lane Kiffin because he's made now almost nine hundred,
well nine hundred thousand dollars, almost a million dollars in
bonuses that will still be paid to him by the
success of the Ole Mess team. That's one interesting caveats
(10:37):
in the contract when he signed over to LSU, they
agreed to honor whatever playoff bonuses could.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Have been earned.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
So every Ole Miss win, he's getting a check. My
guy last night got another half a million dollars for nothing.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So while he was at the.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
I mean, it's wild, right, And now you sit here
and you think, my god, I mean I came into
this saying, Okay, you've heard me say this repeatedly. There
are two coaches currently active in college football that have
won a national championship, two head coaches, right, Those two
head coaches that have won national championship since as head
coaches or Ryan Day and Kirby Smart so in a
(11:14):
world full of unexpected college football results this year, the
one thing I looked at is like, well, I'm at
least going to trust a coach that's been there.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
They know how this system all works. They're about gone,
I mean.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
There about gone one game one and done on both
of them.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
And it changes some of the way you look at
this playoff.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
But it also makes me scratch my head about the
playoff in general, because Buck, like I was so convinced
that the expansion of college football playoff would create an
NFL like situation with patients with coaches. If you make
the playoffs, you rarely get fired in the NFL. To
your point, last night, I saw fire Ryan Day all
over the plays and fire Kaylin de Moore all over
the place. This is not acceptable, Like college football fans
(11:54):
are still coming out with the pitchforks for a loss
without looking at the modern college football climate. And you're right,
there was plenty of Twitter X conversation last night. I
don't care if we suck for you and we have
to hire the wrong guy, Just get tobor out of here, like.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
It is the wild wild West out here with coaches
that lose in the first round. Or the second one.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
I guess, so at what point?
Speaker 5 (12:14):
And I mean to what you're saying about leaning on
the idea of proven commodity coaches is just like what
can you trust about the college football playoff? Like what
gives you confidence in team X team?
Speaker 6 (12:26):
Why?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Whatever the case.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
I basically did the same thing while we were on
the air for four hours yesterday talking about Georgia. So
when I said about Kirby Smart, I was like, yeah,
I trust Kirby Smart in a big spot to have
his team ready to play. Man For the most part,
they looked like they were ready to play. Pete Colding said,
bleep you in Trinida Chamblis had a second half as
good as anybody in college football yesterday. So sometimes it
(12:48):
just doesn't matter that way. And I don't think, I mean,
I don't know. I'd be curious to see what the
dialogue is on the Georgia message boards and things like that,
to see where they are most attributing the blame for
the loss. As God knows, the fans and you know,
sports media, we like to blame game two as far
as you know what went wrong and why did it
go so wrong? And how the hell could something that
(13:09):
you felt so sure about just completely blow up in
your face.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But that's the fun part of it.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Like, I know, Georgia fans aren't having fun now, High
State fans aren't having fun, and Alabama fans are in
absolute hell, which you know, little delights me a little bit, sorry,
a little bit, just a little bit. I feel like
on the whole, like this is what's gonna make this
is what's gonna.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Bring more people into the college football tent.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
And maybe if you're a college football fan, you say,
I don't want any more college football fans. We don't
need you, you know, we don't need we don't need
casuals in the sport the way that the NFL has
I respectfully disagree. Like the entertainment value on this stuff
is awesome. And again, the games weren't great yesterday, but
the fact that we have a moment like that to
talk about out of any of the three games that
were played, and that a lot of people were just
(13:53):
penciling in the idea that Carson Beck, who's advancing through
the postseason with Miami, they've won two games in the
College football playoffs so far, I'd have the opportunity to
face off against Georgia and give us a bit of
a TMZ matchup there, and Ole Miss just sweeps in
it said like, hell, they're gonna you're gonna get that.
We're going to do this thing, or at least we're
gonna damn sure try And so what leg diffn gets
(14:13):
paid along the way. I think it's awesome. I think
it's awesome for Ole Miss fans. I think it's awesome
for Indiana fans. I think it's awesome for the state
of college football.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Well, I actually agree with every single second of that,
because I think your.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Playoffs are for the fs, for growth of the sport.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I do think that there's probably a discussion that will
be had over the course of the next week on
some Fox Sports radio shows about how desirable a championship
game like Indiana versus Ole Miss is.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Uh, you know, we do this in every sport.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We hear about that.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Please don't be the show that does that this week.
Please God, somebody on this network, Please don't do.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
You're just still bitter because because of all the discourse
around Oklahoma City in Indiana in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
You're still bitter about that.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
As somebody that is from Indiana and by the way,
recently adopted the Hoosiers.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Though you went there. It's the correct thing.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
My first Indiana football game in person is gonna be
the It's gonna.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Be the semi final of the Peach Ball.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
I'm gonna slot on down to Indiana and bandwagon the
hell out of that thing.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Oh my god, this is amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I get the tools to perform at the highest level
on every job without compromise. When you shot Mikita at
the home depot, when the job calls for the best
call of Makita, built to be the best available at
the home depot, hol pros get more done. Speaking of pros,
if you just hate college football, I don't understand you.
But if you do and all you care about is
the NFL, you suddenly have a matchup in college football
(15:33):
that every NFL fan.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Is gonna want to watch. I'll tell you why when
we come back.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
He's buck rising on Jason fitzbucking fits filling in on
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (15:43):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
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(16:03):
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Speaker 4 (16:27):
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio, but it's a Bucking Fits takeover. He's Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitz. We're usually with you on Saturdays from
six to eight pm. If you've been listening to Fox
Sports Radio the last couple of weeks, you've heard us
all over the clock, so we hope that you'll come
back and hang out with us on Saturdays. I'm dumbfounded.
I'm speechless. This morning. It's six twenty three in the
morning on the East coast. It is five twenty three
(16:48):
in the morning Central time, where Buck Rising is. He's
in Nashville. I'm up in Connecticut right now. And you know,
peek behind the curtain of the way radio is done.
We connect on these little boxes, and you know, everybody
justin Lilrainer do great job there in LA.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
They're doing the hard work.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
And you know, Buck and I get on a FaceTime
so we can see each other when the show starts.
This is just an imperative part of making sure that
we're connected, so that we can see how we want
to talk and we can yell at each other.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You're needy.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Nobody else needs me on FaceTime for the duration of
the show.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
The way that you do, you need.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
It feels it just feels bad.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
It feels more connected. We know what's going on, the
rhythm of the show stays better. These are all of
the things.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
That I care about.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Right So Buck comes in today, just sits down and
is still by the way, sitting down at five twenty
five Central time in a terry cloth rope, which is
a bit of a He's just making a little bit
of a jab at me because a few nights ago
we were on a late night on Tuesday. Our number one,
Buck was dressed like an adult. Our number two, he
was dressed like an adult, wearing full clothes, but also
a terry cloth robe over the clothes.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
So we went full hotel roobe.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Today it's just the rope, like I can see that
the taco meet on the chest, like he's just I
am doing radio a lot.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I remember, I'm literally doing radio. I'm looking at the
big Lebowski here and it just Buck in my mind.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
You you came down the stairs this morning in your
house in Nashville, and none of the lights were on
your cats, because you have multiple of them. We're sending
we're on the kitchen counters. They were eating the food
off of plates that have been there for a week.
You found a coffee cup in the sink. You poured
like three day old coffee in it. You throw You
threw a piece of toast to the lady friend, and
you were like, hey, there's breakfast.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
I gotta go work, and then you sat down to
do radio with me. That's what that's that's the feel
I'm getting this morning.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
And Okay, like, what what do you want from me?
I'm here, I'm talking. You're the one bogging down the
show with a bunch of nonsense. I'm prepared to talk
about a champion Indiana team that's rolling through the postseason,
and you want to talk about what I'm wearing today
on national radio.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
He's distracted by your chest hair.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Buck, It's impressive. Let me just say, let me let
me gasp myself up a little bit. It's impressive. I
am you know. You said I was dressed as an
adult or dressed like an adult the other day. I
bet I've damn near look like an adult film. Start
with the with the blue light glasses, the kind of
make you coke dealer At this point in time, I
don't know how I feel about that. That that's contributing
to the esthetic I think it this morning. No, the
(19:16):
house is clean. The cats don't get on the counter.
There's two of them. They're passed out. They've been in
this damn room with me for I don't know, two
weeks at this point, for as long as we've been
on air, in all these different shifts for Fox. And
this coffee is freshly made this morning. I set myself
brew I bet you don't have a self brewer, A
timed brewing coffee machine, Jason Fitz. I had it ready
(19:37):
to go at four thirty. It was fresh made, my
nice cup of coffee. Now I'm here with you. What
more do you want from me? You're so neat. It
comes with it.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
There's a theme, you're needy.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
We we have known each other for a very long time,
and we couldn't be more a lot more in so
many ways. Like I got up early enough this morning
to make, you know, a couple of different drinks and
to make my coffee to let the doult bugs out.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You know, I got.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Dressed, I did all of the normal things you do
in the morning, I said, down on my competer, I
checked my email. I made sure that I was awaken,
alive and ready for energetic radio for three hours, followed
by by.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yahoo Jay job.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Like I got all of these things, y'all who sports
dated by the way, you should check it out. I
got all of these things ready in the morning, and
I sit down, I'm like, I am all ready to
do radio, and then Buck just plops down like a
porn star just with a microphone on. That That is
the the the difference between the two of us, that is.
And yeah, I'm just jealous because there's no real one.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Who's supposed to behave like the rock Star. But it's okay,
I'll carry that loan for you, Bud.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
That is that is a fact, boy, that is the
absolute fact. These buck rising on Jason Fitz. Yeah, you're
really doing America's work there. We're hanging out with you
this morning. The show spontsored by Draftking sports Book and
official sports betting.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Partner of the NFL and NBA.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Right now, use the promo code two, the number two
two pros to claim your special offer at DraftKings again.
Promo code two PTE r O S at DraftKings. The
crown is yours. The College Football Crown is going to
be handed out in just a couple of weeks. But
we do get an interesting matchup if all you care
about is the NFL, because, as we've talked about through
this whole run, one of the beautiful things about the
(21:12):
College Football Playoff Book is that every single team that's
analyzing draft prospects gets to see quarterbacks in high pressure situations.
So imagine my delight when I look down and realize
that in the next round we're going to get a
rematch of Indiana taking on Oregon, which is going to
get us a chance to see how two quarterbacks that
most people believe if Dante Moore were to declare for
(21:34):
the draft.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
He has not yet.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
If Dante Moore out of Oregon declares for the draft,
it is very likely in the eyes of many, that
Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore will be two of the
top players picked in the draft. They will be likely
if Dante comes out, the two top quarterbacks selected in
the draft. Now they get a rematch against defensive coordinators
that they've seen and have seen them. They get a
(21:56):
conference rematch with all of the hype on it. You
get the chance to see likely one v two in
a college football playoff pressure setting. This is a just
gift wrapped, joyful, beautiful present for every NFL team that
wants gets to get more tape on guys at the
highest possible level.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Sure, and I think, I mean I would redirect the
conversation back to you, FITZI, because you're gonna care about
this more than just about anybody out there, because you're
a Raiders fan and they are playing the Chiefs this weekend,
and assuming that they don't, you know, screw this up
for lack of a better term, and go out there
and beat Kansas City in ways that even it doesn't
(22:36):
matter who's starting at Kansas quarterback for Kansas City at
this point in time, I can't imagine a world in
which this Raiders team for as many players as they've
shut down and as passively, shall we say, as they
seem to be tanking. I don't know if it's actively tanking,
but they do seem to be passively tanking at this
point in time, with the way that they've handled the
Max Crosby situation, all these different things, like you have
(22:59):
to be excited about the idea of at least having
more opportunities to see who your future quarterback might be. Now,
I don't know that we don't know definitively that Dante
More is going to come out yet or not. Obviously
that would throw a wrench into things, and maybe it
is just mendos at the end of the day, depending
on how far Oregon makes it through, I would assume,
maybe it's not a safe assumption, but I would assume
if Oregon rolls and wins the National Championship, d'entingmore is
(23:20):
going to.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Look around and be like, yeah, okay, I did what
I need to do.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
I'll go and I assume you know plays well enough
that he's receiving a viable enough draft evaluation that he
would make more money at the next level as opposed
to coming back and being Oregon's quarterback or something else
like that.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
You never know these days in college football, with the
way that.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Nil works, I would like more options than less if
I was a Raiders fan looking at the draft class,
because the quarterback options are non existent beyond Mendoz, like
real quarterback options are non existent beyond Mendoz, at least
if you're going to try and solve this thing organically.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
As a team with the number one overall draft pick.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
Because even then, you know, if if you don't love
Mendoza enough to take him, that's a conversation to be had.
I suppose at some point in time as well, would
you be willing to do what the Titans, for example,
we're not willing to do in twenty twenty five and
trade the pick because you don't you're not completely in
(24:19):
love with the quarterback situation. I don't know that Mendoza
is not. I mean, Mendoz is definitely the best quarterback
that is currently available in the draft process or that
will be available in the draft process that we know
for sure. I don't know that. I don't know who
the next Raiders coach is going to be. Theoretically, if
Pete Carroll is not that person, I don't know how
they're gonna feel about Fernando Mendoza. I think a lot
(24:40):
of NFL people are gonna have questions, not necessarily about
what he's doing in college.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
What he's doing in college is awesome.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
And by the way, we brought up the idea of
excuse culture and how people you know, have made excuses
at every turn for every program and every top seed
in the college football play iff except Kurt Signetti in Indiana.
If he's good enough for kurtz Ignaty to win with,
you should probably be able to figure it out too.
Otherwise you're just saying, yeah, I'm not as good at
coach as that guy, and you're probably not as good
a coach as that guy. But still, I think that
(25:09):
there's enough there that the right person should be able
to handle that situation. And I don't really think there's
much of a conversation we had, but I'm looking forward
to the rematch Indiana went out to Audson Stadium in
Oregon earlier in the regular season and kept it close
for the first half of the game, but then just
ground Oregon down in the second half. I assume that
Dan Lanning is not going to go quietly into that
(25:30):
dark knight again. I assume this Oregon team, this inspired
Oregon defense that we saw just absolutely ravaged Texas Tech yesterday,
and Texas Tech offense been good in the regular season.
You know, I know not to compare Big ten football
versus Pac twelve football, right, not Pac twelve, but Big
twelve football and all these different kinds of conferences and
(25:50):
who's actually playing a reasonable schedule and a reasonable level
of competition versus what they're able to produce statistically. There's
a lot of criticisms of Big ten teams that way. Hell,
there's a lot of criticisms of fair criticisms by the
way of SEC teams that way, who are just.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Getting their asses whipped at every turn.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
It's kind of crazy to see, and I think that
we could probably have at some point this morning. We
don't have to do it today, we could do it
tomorrow if you want. The idea of the SEC being
frauds because they at least they're being exposed at every
turn in bowl season. You've got Tennessee losing, You've got
Vanderbilt losing, You've got Alabama, Georgia, all the top powers,
all the all the middle class of the SEC that
(26:31):
everybody will just tell you at every turn, especially in
our part of the country, the South, the Southeast, that yeah, yeah,
if you put Indiana into a into an SEC schedule,
they wouldn't last a nay, okay, tell that. Tell that
to them now as they roll through actual meaningful games,
past SEC teams, past everybody, to make sure that they
(26:51):
have a chance to be national championship contenders. It's a
long way of responding to your initial prompt about this
quarterback matchup, but I am excited about it. I'm curious
to see how how the narratives evolve around this game
and this playoff, and as we look to see a
first time national champion crowd, at least as far as
the coaches go, It's going to be a fascinating science experient.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I'm here for.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
It's the narratives you mentioned, Buck, that I wonder when
they'll change, Like this is the funniest thing to me.
Bernana Mendoza yesterday was fourteen of sixteen against Alabama, right,
fourteen to sixteen FO one hundred and ninety two yards
and three touchdowns. That's a really nice throws in that game.
Had two incompletionents the entire game. Yes, Indiana is a
real way that they won that game. Fifty rushing attempts
(27:37):
for two hundred and fifteen yards. I mean, my god,
they just ran all over Alabama, which we thought they
might be able to do even through that process. What
I kept seeing on social media last night was about
the limitations of Banana Mendoza, the things he doesn't do,
and it just speaks to what's happened in college football
in the last couple of years. The people are slow
to try and change their mind on certain things, like
(27:59):
at some point, for all of the chaos that I
opened the show talking about, the reality here is the
number one team in the country is Indiana, and Indiana
looked like the number one team in the country in
their first playoff game like that. There is this oversimplification
here of like, it's not all chaos, It's not all
oh my god, what is happening.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
It's not a dumpster.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Fire where Kerma the frog is running around with the
arms flailing in the air, saying, oh Love, no.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
No, no.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
The number one team in the country won their playoff game,
and they look clearly like the number one team of
the country. I just don't know what it's going to
take for people to realize that, no matter what they
thought of Indiana eighteen months ago, that no longer matters.
Like what we thought of certain programs, what we thought
of Alabama two years ago, is no longer significant to
me today. What we think of Indiana, what we thought
(28:46):
of them when Kurt Signetti was fired mean or was hired,
I should say, means absolutely nothing to me. All I
care about is this season Indiana. Consider they're fourteen and oho,
they're literally they're undefeated. They are we talk about, oh
my god. In college football, especially now with this long season,
everybody's just gonna find a game to lose.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
No, not everybody is.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
And Indiana, in the process of going undefeated, has a
Big Ten Championship win over Ohio State, they have a
win at Oregon and they now we just watched them
beat the ever Love and you know what out of Alabama.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Thirty eight to three.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
You're talking about a historic level of margin of loss
for Alabama and not for that program, thirty eight to three.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
And the game wasn't that close. It was like a
sympathy three, right.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
So Indiana went out an absolutely big boy on the
on the playground everybody that they needed to this year.
And I still feel like people are like, yeah, but
it's Indiana, Okay, cool, Like, at what point you're gonna
wake up and just realize that modern college football, Indiana
is who Indiana is and they are clearly the best
team in the country.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
I mean I asked you this question on the local
show the other day when you were kind enough to
lend us your time and talents. The idea that does
Kurtzignetti need to win a national championship for this to
be the greatest coaching job done in college football history.
Not like to say that Kurtzignetti is the greatest coach
(30:13):
in college football history. Obviously that's Nick Saban. Obviously titles
are required for that level of attention to be paid.
But I don't know, man. I mean, thirty eight to
three over Alabama, an undefeated season so far, an opportunity
to hand a conference opponent another loss again in a
(30:33):
semi final game for the right to get back to
the national championship game. I understand your position was, if
I'm not mistaken, that yes, he does need to win
the title for this to be the single greatest college
football coaching job done in history. I don't want to
do moral victories here, Fitzi, but he's brought them up
(30:56):
to a level where I don't think anybody could have
possibly imagined. And even if you picked the best case
scenario for when this man was hired ahead of the
twenty twenty four season and looked at Indiana Football and said, yeah,
maybe you can just compete in the Big Ten for once,
that'd be nice. As the most losing program in college
football history, Indiana football, I think it's the greatest college
(31:17):
football coaching job I've ever seen. I don't know that
he has to put the bow on it at the
end for me to still feel that way.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
At the end of the day, I think I'm already there.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
And maybe that's premature, and maybe I'm biased because yeah,
that's my alma mater, and I'm like Fitzi's right, I'm
a bandwagon Indiana fan. I have never cared about that
football program one time in my life. I've never seen
them play in person. We don't go to Indiana, at
least we during my college career. When when was I
in college from two thousand and twelve or twenty eleven
(31:48):
to twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
I think that's right. Whatever.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
I never went to an Indiana football game, never set
foot in that stadium, never once. There was no reason to.
They just lost. You tailgate the games, you go home,
you watch the SEC, you watch Notre Dame play, and
that was your college football Saturday. And that was fine
for us. My sister just graduated from Indiana last year.
She had a completely different experience a college game day
on campus, had a football games. Get an actual football
(32:13):
program that matters. You have done the thing that so
many people love about the college experience. And obviously, you know,
the education and the friendship and the opportunities that it
creates for your career and all these other things that
are great about college and the learning that you do,
both in real life experience and actual you know, classroom experience,
whatever the case may be. But to have like a
(32:33):
football program alongside that. Indiana, like I said, I'm biased.
I think it's the best place in the world as
far as the university to actually have a college football
experience on that campus, I can't even imagine. I can't
even imagine what that does for an institution like that.
And I don't know why the hell it took so
long for them to act meaningfully invest And maybe they've
(32:53):
been trying the whole time and you just can't find
your Kurt Signetti and all of a sudden, you just you.
I'm not going to say you trip inn fall into
this guy, because that makes it seem like, I don't know,
it makes it seem more random than the situation deserves.
Like they clearly identified something in this man that showed
them that he was going to be the right person
to at least start this turnaround. I'm certain that Indiana,
(33:15):
you know, Scott Dolson, the athletic director, I'm sure he
had no idea that it was going to turn into this.
But now that they've got it operating at this level,
Indiana Football's not going anywhere anytime soon. I think it's
the single greatest college football coaching job in history.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
It might be the biggest brand turnaround in sports. Because
hear me out for everybody that it rolls your eyes
to that before twenty twenty five, the Hoosiers were literally
the most losing NCAA Division One college football team in history.
This is quite literally the equivalent of like imagine a
(33:49):
coach takes over the Browns and suddenly they go to
the AFC Championship one year and they're headed to the
super Bowl the next with no difference, Like suddenly, they
don't suddenly have five star players everywhere.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
It's still as you and I have talked about.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Even the recruiting class for next year is the thirty
third rank recruiting class. When you look at the money
being spent by other programs, it absolutely dwarfs what they're doing.
This is the equivalent of taking whatever you think of
as the losing team that never gets it right, and
all of a sudden, just overnight, they go from being
the worst to being clearly the best in the country.
That's why I hope it ends with the national Championship.
(34:26):
I don't have a rooting interest in it, but will
never give the story the respect it deserves unless Indiana
wins a championship. And that's just the way that we
are at this point, and again, clearly, out of everything
we saw over the last thirty six hours in college
football playoffs, there was no dominant, more dominant team than Indiana.
(34:47):
We'll keep breaking down the college football play up, but
coming up, we've got a big weekend in the NFL,
including a loser Leaves Town possible match with two of
the biggest brands in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
We'll tell you about it next. Buck Rising Jason Fitz
hanging out for Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
Speaker 6 (34:59):
Be sure catch live editions of Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and Jonas
Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe. It's a
Bucket Fits takeover. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz hanging
out with you this morning.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I love this song. I'm just letting it play for
our So it's just got such vibes.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
There's something about like that nostalgic eighties era of music
that I just cannot I can't get enough of.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I just love the way it sounds, all right. So,
speaking of things that we love the way they sound,
why don't we get to the tire Iraq Play of
the day. It's time.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Let's play it maybe or we won't.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Well waits get to the direct play.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Well, you know I was.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
I threw it on them. I saw it on the sheet.
I just I went full Ron Burgundy. My piece of
paper in front of me says tire Rack Play of
the Day. So I read Tirerack Play the Day.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Please no accountability.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Lorena deleted it off her board from the previous show,
so it's on me.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
I just said to Larina beforehand, hey do we have
the Tiract Play of the day, and then she would
have said yeah, and then everybody would have had this
all worked out instead.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
Don't you yell at them? You know what time it
is in Los Angeles. Stop me, you're stopping right now.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Buck is trying you see, Larina, this is what bucked
Us writes to drive a divide. I'm sitting here saying
this is my fault, and Buck is trying to make
it all sound like.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I'm trying to throw you under the bus. So I
just I love busses me anytime. Here's a Tiract play
of the day.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
Around the six yard line, second in goal, there's a
handoff de Lacey straight ahead.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
He going just toorting himself.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
He breaks the plane, touchdown a miss and the rebels.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Have taken the lane.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
That's the Tyract player of the day. For over forty years,
Tyrak has been helping customers find the right tires for how,
what and where they drive, shipped fast and free back
by free road hazard protection, with convenient installation options like
mobile tireinstallation, tire rack dot com.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
The way tire buy should be you. That's how we
do things. H and look at that. It took the
whole team to get through.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
And then Buck was just standing there like a ga
on the sidelines of a football game, trying to tell
us how to do our jobs when we're.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Trying to do You know what, Buck, why don't you
put a shirt on? All right? It's just again and
still no shirt on.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
We are almost through with one hour and Buck is
still topless. I don't know what we're doing here. Thank
you so much, by the way, Learfield on the call
for that. So congratulations again to all of our college
football teams that have moved on. We got a huge
weekend in the NFL. Buck, I'm trying to figure out
will your opinion of the Steelers and Ravens because that
(37:44):
feels like the game that has so much on the
line for the way each of those fan bases view
their teams, will your opinion on either of those teams
drastically change if they simply make the playoffs. Is winning
this game getting into the playoffs enough of a band
aid that everybody will sit down, shut up, color in
their books, and stop calling for a change at their
respective teams.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
Well, I can't speak for Ravens fans or Steelers fans
because I know that it's a little more tense in
that circumstance, and I think that for my perspective. So
let's just take Baltimore. It very much depends on how
Baltimore wins this game. If they win this game, right,
because the way that they were playing prior to last
(38:26):
week would make you look around and say, all right,
do I really trust an unhealthy Lamar or a banged
up Lamar in an offense where Todd Monkin seems unwilling
to kind of lean on Derrick Henry at this point
in time. And then Tyler Hunty gets inserted into the
lineup last week while Lamar deals with this back injury.
By the way, Lamar, for what it's worth, it said
he's one hundred percent playing on Sunday night football against
(38:48):
the Steelers. So we'll see what that looks like and
if that changes the approach. But if they come out
there with a similar game plan where they're just going
to ground you down or grind you down with Derrick Henry,
I think that's their best path to success if they
are to have a legitimate path through the postseason this year.
I think if they get in, I mean, who's the
best team in the AFC right now? It's the Jaggs,
(39:11):
It's the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
I mean, yeah, it is weird to say, but I don't.
And they're coming off a win that they didn't look
overwhelmingly impressive in, but they still are playing the best
football of any of the teams that you're looking at
right now. I don't think that anybody's gonna have great
faith in bo Nicks no matter how good the Denver
defense is. I think Houston, while their defense is excellent
(39:37):
as well, that C. J. Stroud still has questions to
answer doesn't mean he can't do it in the postseason
this year. But he's going to have to do that
for people to have that confidence in him moving forward.
I don't know who's not gettable in this field. If
you're Baltimore looking up at the rest of them and
be like, yeah, we'll go to New England and win
this time. I'm not worried about that. We'll go to
(39:58):
Denver and win if we have the right game plan,
if we do things the way, if we keep it simple, stupid,
and continue to lean on our best players in the
most important moments in which they have for some reason
struggled to do. And I get that their defense isn't
great this year, and that's typically a Ravens franchise superpower.
It's not the case in twenty twenty six as we
(40:19):
head into the new year. So we'll see what happens
for Pittsburgh. It's all about Aaron Rodgers. Is he comfortable
pushing the ball down the field. He's not gonna have
dk metcalf again in this game as he works through
that suspension. Very much matters to me how these teams
win this next game as to whether I think they
are credible moving forward into the postseason.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
I mean, Derrick Henry coming off of thirty six carries
for two hundred and sixteen yards against green Bay and
what was just absolute peak Derrick Henry. But I will
remind everybody that before that game, Todd munkin the offensive
coordinated for the Ravens, chose to give Derrick Henry twenty
carries or more only five times all season. The rest
of the season, Derrick Henry is under twenty carries. So
(41:01):
your answer is, while they just finally opened up the offense,
my question is why why did it take all the
way until December twenty seventh to figure out? Maybe you
win football games if you hand Derek Henry the ball
thirty six times? It makes no sense. I also can't
make sense of the wild rumors that continue to circulate
around Lamar Jackson. But we'll try and figure out next
Bucking fits hanging out on two bros and a cup
(41:23):
of Joe
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with LaVar Arrington, Brady Quinn, and
myself Jonas Knox. Make sure you catch us live weekdays
six to nine am Eastern Time three to six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. You can find your local
station for the Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
Show over at Foxsports Radio dot com or stream us
(00:22):
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Let's give this.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh, throw your hands
up in the air.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
If you had a college football semi final that had Indiana, Oregon, Ole,
miss and Miami.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
There's no Alabama, there's no Georgia, there's no Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Y'all.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
This is the new college football landscape, and I love it.
It's Two Pros and a Cup of Joe hanging out
with you on Fox Sports Radio. Buck Rising, Jason Fitz
taking over. It's a bucket fits takeover for the next
three hours. We'll be hanging out with you all morning.
And the fact is we got shocked yesterday for so
many of us because as we sit here now and
only the second year of the expanded playoff. We got
(01:19):
a one seed, sure, but the rest of it, the
five seed, the sixth seed, the ten seed, and utterly
chaotic year in college football continues to give us an
utterly chaotic playoff. And the question is what do we
love more? Because certainly this year what we're getting is interesting.
Certainly what we're getting this year is wild. Certainly what
(01:39):
we're getting this year is entertaining. Are we getting the.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Actual best champion? I don't know. Frankly, I don't care.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
See, this is what happens constantly with the college football landscape.
Buck and I have talked about this a bunch, and
we will continue to He's gonna connect in just a
second here. But as we look at the landscape of
college football and what it looks like, so often people
were saying, Oh, expansion of the playoff reduces the regular season.
Suddenly every game doesn't matter. I sat there last night
(02:07):
as I watched Ole miss figure out a way to
beat Georgia. The best game was the late night game.
If you went to bed late, you missed the only
really good game of the last twenty four hours of
college football. But that game right there encapsulated everything that
is wild about this season.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
There's no Lane Kiffin, right, so there's no proof of.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Concepts, something I talk about I love all the time
a coach that has won a national championship, right like
I love this.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Right, Well, we don't have Lane in this game.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
We have no reason to expect that there's gonna be
a massive George ran the ball all over Ole Miss
the last time these two teams played. You look at
it and say, well, for sure, that's just gonna happen again, Right, Nope,
not at all. In fact, Ole Miss puts on a clinic.
Chambliss comes in and puts on an absolute clinic.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Almost gets a while.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
I mean, they were down twenty four to nineteen going
into the fourth quarter, they were up by ten in
the fourth quarter, and then it was tied with six
seconds left. They get what turns out to be the
game winning field goal.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Weird safety at the end.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
But thirty nine thirty four, and it just it reminds
you that everything this year, everything you think you know,
every single thing you think you can count on, every
brand you think matters to college, none of it matters.
This is the wild, wild West, and I love every
second of it. Buck Rising his now decided to show
up to work, which, for the record, he's just he's
wearing a terry cloth robe, coming in like he's the
(03:26):
dude from The Big Lebowski, just putting the coffee down
and now ready to fire off.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
That takes puck. I'm telling you, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
What's better your robe or where we are were college
football right now, because it's exciting.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
Both both are excellent. It's what other way would you
start your morning then with two pros and a cup
of Joe on Foxyborne Radio, and you know with the bathrobe?
Come on, Well, I got to listen to roosters crowing
and do it in a normal attire. Note it's a
special occasion, so they're a special attire for the occasion.
And the college football last night was excellent. I mean
(03:58):
maybe not. The day of college football was excellent because
I was going back and forth in a couple of
my group techs talking about complaining about the level or
the lack of competitiveness in these games. In the first
two games that we saw were Indiana just smacked the dog,
you know what out of Alabama and Oregon rolled Texas
(04:18):
Tech pretty easily. In that particular situation, and it looked
like we were just gonna get more of the same
for the entire first half of that Old Miss game.
But to their credit and in a big spot, in
a moment where a lot of people have been talking
and looking at Old Miss and be like, what are
they really gonna do without Lane? And is Lane gonna
(04:40):
show up to the game, And is Lang gonna watch
the game? Is Lang gonna comment on the game? All
these different things about Lane kiffn bleep Lane Kiffin. Ole
Miss went out there and beat George's ass. It is awesome.
That's the best possible outcome for all of this. And
now you have two teams who are excuse me, you
have the one team who has beaten the odds as
the top seed with the first round by in Indiana,
(05:01):
and everybody else just creating chaos in the field.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
It's delightful.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Well, look, there are two things out of that number
one ol Miss.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
There were a million.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Ways they could have lost that football game, right like
to your point in the first half, absolutely disjointed. At
the end of the first half, one of my group
that's just going on say and see, that's why it's
a new coach and these little moments are gonna come
back to bite.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Hi turned out they didn't.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Almoss had a bunch of drops in the first half
like it was, it was right on the edge.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
And all turns out it didn't. But doesn't mean that
it can't. You know, I don't think it's a dometary.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I mean, Chambliss in the second half looked like he
was playing video game football. He was running around with
the no looks about to get knocked and you know what,
out over and over and over again, find him ways
to just get rid of the ball at the last second.
Like those teams were flying. I don't know if it
was bad defense and good offense. I just know it
was finally entertaining. But the reality, right the reality is,
for all of that, there is one team that has
(05:57):
been clearly dominant. There was one team that went in
and did exactly what they were supposed to do. There's
one team that is clearly the best team in the
country right now.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
It's Indiana. Like that's the funny thing, Like.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
The humorous part of this is that the number one
team in the land looked like the number one team
in the land. We just look at it and say, well,
that doesn't make any damn sense because it's Indiana.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
But this Indiana, that's who they are.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Is It's such.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
A funny year in college football that way, because this
is I mean, oh Miss. This was their only regular
season loss to Georgia. This was Lane Kiffen's opportunity to
get a big boy win over Kirby Smart and do it.
I believe that game was in Athens earlier in the
year and they weren't able to get it done. So
Trinidad Chambler's three hundred and sixty two yards, two touchdowns,
(06:43):
twenty fourth quarter points. Fitzi, I apologize if you mentioned
any of those numbers at the very start of the
show as I get caught up here this morning, But
just an absolutely dominant second half performance and.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Clutch field goal kicking.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
We love a clutch field goal kicker in college fall
because you can so rarely rely upon them. But if
ole Miss is going to get by on the strength
of their field goal kicking unit, then that is going
to be something that you know, that's something that they
can lean on throughout the course of this as they
continue to play play.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Through the course of the college football playoff.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Georgia, I don't know what you do with some of
these losing teams at this point in time, and really
some of these losing coaches, because I know we're going
to talk about it at some point today. The pressure
index on these name brand coaches who just got bounced
from the College Football Playoff, Kaitlyn de Boor in Alabama,
I mean, have I know you have friends that are
Alabama fans just by nature of living in this part
(07:39):
of the country for as long as you did. God knows,
there are plenty of them in Nashville where I am,
and they are livid. They want to bore out. They
don't care who replaces him in the interim. They don't
care if they just got a band aid their way
through a year. They want to bore gone. Ryan Day,
I'm sure the conversation in Columbus is not favorable at
this point in time, despite him just having won the
national championship.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
A year going.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
I'm not saying that anybody's calling for Kirby Smartshead or
anything like that, but like, think about the three names
that I just listed off, just rattled off there who
just got bounced in the College Football Playoff. These are
the three best theoretically coaches that we've talked about in
college football, and Kurtzignette's just pointing and laughing at them.
I saw a great tweet from Daniel Jeremiah yesterday at
(08:20):
the NFL Network that I really really liked. You can
follow him at Move the Sticks on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
He said.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
Signetti keeps murdering excuse culture. It takes time to build
a program. The playoff by isn't fair. Like those are
the kind of excuses that are being lobbed out there
by people like us who were talking about the schedule
for the first round for the teams that got the
first round by well, the playoff buy isn't fair. It's
you know, there needs to be some kind of restructuring
(08:50):
to it to give the teams that earn, you know,
the top spots in the college football playoff a better
opportunity to succeed. Kurtzignette says Bleep that it takes time
to build the program. Indiana just won back to back
or just to add double digit wins in back to
back seasons after having like the two hundred and thirty
first best win percentage in college football in twenty twenty three,
(09:12):
They've done it in two years. They're rolling into the
semi finals with a head of steam like you haven't
seen anybody do. No, you don't feel as good as
any about anybody in the field as you do the
Indiana Hoosiers, because they're the only ones who looked prepared,
crisp efficient the entire way through to their credit.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Yeah, I mean, by the way, be sure to check
out the brand new YouTube channel for the show. Just
search two pros FSR on YouTube. Again, that's two pros FSR.
Then hit the subscribe button. Don't stop there, hit that
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(09:51):
funny to me that Fernanda Mendoza, who again afterwards was
clipping off his interviews. He's just a you're worried last night,
he's a goober. That's part of his charm. But he
talked about how it took a second to knock the
rust off. That second was literally one or two drives
for Indiana and then they were just fine for everybody else.
It's just been tough sletting. Anybody that's had a buy
(10:14):
has struggled to figure out a way to get through
that buy. They've struggled to find that rhythm. It's amazing
to me that the one person that wasn't on the
field last night, Lane Kiffin, that is laughing about it
is Lane Kiffin because he's made now almost nine hundred,
well nine hundred thousand dollars, almost a million dollars in
bonuses that will still be paid to him by the
success of the Ole Mess team. That's one interesting caveats
(10:37):
in the contract when he signed over to LSU, they
agreed to honor whatever playoff bonuses could.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Have been earned.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
So every Ole Miss win, he's getting a check. My
guy last night got another half a million dollars for nothing.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So while he was at the.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
I mean, it's wild, right, And now you sit here
and you think, my god, I mean I came into
this saying, Okay, you've heard me say this repeatedly. There
are two coaches currently active in college football that have
won a national championship, two head coaches, right, Those two
head coaches that have won national championship since as head
coaches or Ryan Day and Kirby Smart so in a
(11:14):
world full of unexpected college football results this year, the
one thing I looked at is like, well, I'm at
least going to trust a coach that's been there.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
They know how this system all works. They're about gone,
I mean.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
There about gone one game one and done on both
of them.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
And it changes some of the way you look at
this playoff.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
But it also makes me scratch my head about the
playoff in general, because Buck, like I was so convinced
that the expansion of college football playoff would create an
NFL like situation with patients with coaches. If you make
the playoffs, you rarely get fired in the NFL. To
your point, last night, I saw fire Ryan Day all
over the plays and fire Kaylin de Moore all over
the place. This is not acceptable, Like college football fans
(11:54):
are still coming out with the pitchforks for a loss
without looking at the modern college football climate. And you're right,
there was plenty of Twitter X conversation last night. I
don't care if we suck for you and we have
to hire the wrong guy, Just get tobor out of here, like.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
It is the wild wild West out here with coaches
that lose in the first round. Or the second one.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
I guess, so at what point?
Speaker 5 (12:14):
And I mean to what you're saying about leaning on
the idea of proven commodity coaches is just like what
can you trust about the college football playoff? Like what
gives you confidence in team X team?
Speaker 6 (12:26):
Why?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Whatever the case.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
I basically did the same thing while we were on
the air for four hours yesterday talking about Georgia. So
when I said about Kirby Smart, I was like, yeah,
I trust Kirby Smart in a big spot to have
his team ready to play. Man For the most part,
they looked like they were ready to play. Pete Colding said,
bleep you in Trinida Chamblis had a second half as
good as anybody in college football yesterday. So sometimes it
(12:48):
just doesn't matter that way. And I don't think, I mean,
I don't know. I'd be curious to see what the
dialogue is on the Georgia message boards and things like that,
to see where they are most attributing the blame for
the loss. As God knows, the fans and you know,
sports media, we like to blame game two as far
as you know what went wrong and why did it
go so wrong? And how the hell could something that
(13:09):
you felt so sure about just completely blow up in
your face.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But that's the fun part of it.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Like, I know, Georgia fans aren't having fun now, High
State fans aren't having fun, and Alabama fans are in
absolute hell, which you know, little delights me a little bit, sorry,
a little bit, just a little bit. I feel like
on the whole, like this is what's gonna make this
is what's gonna.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Bring more people into the college football tent.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
And maybe if you're a college football fan, you say,
I don't want any more college football fans. We don't
need you, you know, we don't need we don't need
casuals in the sport the way that the NFL has
I respectfully disagree. Like the entertainment value on this stuff
is awesome. And again, the games weren't great yesterday, but
the fact that we have a moment like that to
talk about out of any of the three games that
were played, and that a lot of people were just
(13:53):
penciling in the idea that Carson Beck, who's advancing through
the postseason with Miami, they've won two games in the
College football playoffs so far, I'd have the opportunity to
face off against Georgia and give us a bit of
a TMZ matchup there, and Ole Miss just sweeps in
it said like, hell, they're gonna you're gonna get that.
We're going to do this thing, or at least we're
gonna damn sure try And so what leg diffn gets
(14:13):
paid along the way. I think it's awesome. I think
it's awesome for Ole Miss fans. I think it's awesome
for Indiana fans. I think it's awesome for the state
of college football.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Well, I actually agree with every single second of that,
because I think your.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Playoffs are for the fs, for growth of the sport.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I do think that there's probably a discussion that will
be had over the course of the next week on
some Fox Sports radio shows about how desirable a championship
game like Indiana versus Ole Miss is.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Uh, you know, we do this in every sport.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We hear about that.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Please don't be the show that does that this week.
Please God, somebody on this network, Please don't do.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
You're just still bitter because because of all the discourse
around Oklahoma City in Indiana in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
You're still bitter about that.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
As somebody that is from Indiana and by the way,
recently adopted the Hoosiers.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Though you went there. It's the correct thing.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
My first Indiana football game in person is gonna be
the It's gonna.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Be the semi final of the Peach Ball.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
I'm gonna slot on down to Indiana and bandwagon the
hell out of that thing.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Oh my god, this is amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I get the tools to perform at the highest level
on every job without compromise. When you shot Mikita at
the home depot, when the job calls for the best
call of Makita, built to be the best available at
the home depot, hol pros get more done. Speaking of pros,
if you just hate college football, I don't understand you.
But if you do and all you care about is
the NFL, you suddenly have a matchup in college football
(15:33):
that every NFL fan.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Is gonna want to watch. I'll tell you why when
we come back.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
He's buck rising on Jason fitzbucking fits filling in on
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (15:43):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Fox Sports
Radio is taking over YouTube and you can be a
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(16:03):
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Speaker 3 (16:19):
Harmon, and The Ben Maller Show. Fox Sports Radio on YouTube.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon and comment away.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio, but it's a Bucking Fits takeover. He's Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitz. We're usually with you on Saturdays from
six to eight pm. If you've been listening to Fox
Sports Radio the last couple of weeks, you've heard us
all over the clock, so we hope that you'll come
back and hang out with us on Saturdays. I'm dumbfounded.
I'm speechless. This morning. It's six twenty three in the
morning on the East coast. It is five twenty three
(16:48):
in the morning Central time, where Buck Rising is. He's
in Nashville. I'm up in Connecticut right now. And you know,
peek behind the curtain of the way radio is done.
We connect on these little boxes, and you know, everybody
justin Lilrainer do great job there in LA.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
They're doing the hard work.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
And you know, Buck and I get on a FaceTime
so we can see each other when the show starts.
This is just an imperative part of making sure that
we're connected, so that we can see how we want
to talk and we can yell at each other.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You're needy.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Nobody else needs me on FaceTime for the duration of
the show.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
The way that you do, you need.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
It feels it just feels bad.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
It feels more connected. We know what's going on, the
rhythm of the show stays better. These are all of
the things.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
That I care about.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Right So Buck comes in today, just sits down and
is still by the way, sitting down at five twenty
five Central time in a terry cloth rope, which is
a bit of a He's just making a little bit
of a jab at me because a few nights ago
we were on a late night on Tuesday. Our number one,
Buck was dressed like an adult. Our number two, he
was dressed like an adult, wearing full clothes, but also
a terry cloth robe over the clothes.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
So we went full hotel roobe.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Today it's just the rope, like I can see that
the taco meet on the chest, like he's just I
am doing radio a lot.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I remember, I'm literally doing radio. I'm looking at the
big Lebowski here and it just Buck in my mind.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
You you came down the stairs this morning in your
house in Nashville, and none of the lights were on
your cats, because you have multiple of them. We're sending
we're on the kitchen counters. They were eating the food
off of plates that have been there for a week.
You found a coffee cup in the sink. You poured
like three day old coffee in it. You throw You
threw a piece of toast to the lady friend, and
you were like, hey, there's breakfast.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
I gotta go work, and then you sat down to
do radio with me. That's what that's that's the feel
I'm getting this morning.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
And Okay, like, what what do you want from me?
I'm here, I'm talking. You're the one bogging down the
show with a bunch of nonsense. I'm prepared to talk
about a champion Indiana team that's rolling through the postseason,
and you want to talk about what I'm wearing today
on national radio.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
He's distracted by your chest hair.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Buck, It's impressive. Let me just say, let me let
me gasp myself up a little bit. It's impressive. I
am you know. You said I was dressed as an
adult or dressed like an adult the other day. I
bet I've damn near look like an adult film. Start
with the with the blue light glasses, the kind of
make you coke dealer At this point in time, I
don't know how I feel about that. That that's contributing
to the esthetic I think it this morning. No, the
(19:16):
house is clean. The cats don't get on the counter.
There's two of them. They're passed out. They've been in
this damn room with me for I don't know, two
weeks at this point, for as long as we've been
on air, in all these different shifts for Fox. And
this coffee is freshly made this morning. I set myself
brew I bet you don't have a self brewer, A
timed brewing coffee machine, Jason Fitz. I had it ready
(19:37):
to go at four thirty. It was fresh made, my
nice cup of coffee. Now I'm here with you. What
more do you want from me? You're so neat. It
comes with it.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
There's a theme, you're needy.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
We we have known each other for a very long time,
and we couldn't be more a lot more in so
many ways. Like I got up early enough this morning
to make, you know, a couple of different drinks and
to make my coffee to let the doult bugs out.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You know, I got.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Dressed, I did all of the normal things you do
in the morning, I said, down on my competer, I
checked my email. I made sure that I was awaken,
alive and ready for energetic radio for three hours, followed
by by.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yahoo Jay job.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Like I got all of these things, y'all who sports
dated by the way, you should check it out. I
got all of these things ready in the morning, and
I sit down, I'm like, I am all ready to
do radio, and then Buck just plops down like a
porn star just with a microphone on. That That is
the the the difference between the two of us, that is.
And yeah, I'm just jealous because there's no real one.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Who's supposed to behave like the rock Star. But it's okay,
I'll carry that loan for you, Bud.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
That is that is a fact, boy, that is the
absolute fact. These buck rising on Jason Fitz. Yeah, you're
really doing America's work there. We're hanging out with you
this morning. The show spontsored by Draftking sports Book and
official sports betting.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Partner of the NFL and NBA.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Right now, use the promo code two, the number two
two pros to claim your special offer at DraftKings again.
Promo code two PTE r O S at DraftKings. The
crown is yours. The College Football Crown is going to
be handed out in just a couple of weeks. But
we do get an interesting matchup if all you care
about is the NFL, because, as we've talked about through
this whole run, one of the beautiful things about the
(21:12):
College Football Playoff Book is that every single team that's
analyzing draft prospects gets to see quarterbacks in high pressure situations.
So imagine my delight when I look down and realize
that in the next round we're going to get a
rematch of Indiana taking on Oregon, which is going to
get us a chance to see how two quarterbacks that
most people believe if Dante Moore were to declare for
(21:34):
the draft.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
He has not yet.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
If Dante Moore out of Oregon declares for the draft,
it is very likely in the eyes of many, that
Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore will be two of the
top players picked in the draft. They will be likely
if Dante comes out, the two top quarterbacks selected in
the draft. Now they get a rematch against defensive coordinators
that they've seen and have seen them. They get a
(21:56):
conference rematch with all of the hype on it. You
get the chance to see likely one v two in
a college football playoff pressure setting. This is a just
gift wrapped, joyful, beautiful present for every NFL team that
wants gets to get more tape on guys at the
highest possible level.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Sure, and I think, I mean I would redirect the
conversation back to you, FITZI, because you're gonna care about
this more than just about anybody out there, because you're
a Raiders fan and they are playing the Chiefs this weekend,
and assuming that they don't, you know, screw this up
for lack of a better term, and go out there
and beat Kansas City in ways that even it doesn't
(22:36):
matter who's starting at Kansas quarterback for Kansas City at
this point in time, I can't imagine a world in
which this Raiders team for as many players as they've
shut down and as passively, shall we say, as they
seem to be tanking. I don't know if it's actively tanking,
but they do seem to be passively tanking at this
point in time, with the way that they've handled the
Max Crosby situation, all these different things, like you have
(22:59):
to be excited about the idea of at least having
more opportunities to see who your future quarterback might be. Now,
I don't know that we don't know definitively that Dante
More is going to come out yet or not. Obviously
that would throw a wrench into things, and maybe it
is just mendos at the end of the day, depending
on how far Oregon makes it through, I would assume,
maybe it's not a safe assumption, but I would assume
if Oregon rolls and wins the National Championship, d'entingmore is
(23:20):
going to.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Look around and be like, yeah, okay, I did what
I need to do.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
I'll go and I assume you know plays well enough
that he's receiving a viable enough draft evaluation that he
would make more money at the next level as opposed
to coming back and being Oregon's quarterback or something else
like that.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
You never know these days in college football, with the
way that.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Nil works, I would like more options than less if
I was a Raiders fan looking at the draft class,
because the quarterback options are non existent beyond Mendoz, like
real quarterback options are non existent beyond Mendoz, at least
if you're going to try and solve this thing organically.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
As a team with the number one overall draft pick.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
Because even then, you know, if if you don't love
Mendoza enough to take him, that's a conversation to be had.
I suppose at some point in time as well, would
you be willing to do what the Titans, for example,
we're not willing to do in twenty twenty five and
trade the pick because you don't you're not completely in
(24:19):
love with the quarterback situation. I don't know that Mendoza
is not. I mean, Mendoz is definitely the best quarterback
that is currently available in the draft process or that
will be available in the draft process that we know
for sure. I don't know that. I don't know who
the next Raiders coach is going to be. Theoretically, if
Pete Carroll is not that person, I don't know how
they're gonna feel about Fernando Mendoza. I think a lot
(24:40):
of NFL people are gonna have questions, not necessarily about
what he's doing in college.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
What he's doing in college is awesome.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
And by the way, we brought up the idea of
excuse culture and how people you know, have made excuses
at every turn for every program and every top seed
in the college football play iff except Kurt Signetti in Indiana.
If he's good enough for kurtz Ignaty to win with,
you should probably be able to figure it out too.
Otherwise you're just saying, yeah, I'm not as good at
coach as that guy, and you're probably not as good
a coach as that guy. But still, I think that
(25:09):
there's enough there that the right person should be able
to handle that situation. And I don't really think there's
much of a conversation we had, but I'm looking forward
to the rematch Indiana went out to Audson Stadium in
Oregon earlier in the regular season and kept it close
for the first half of the game, but then just
ground Oregon down in the second half. I assume that
Dan Lanning is not going to go quietly into that
(25:30):
dark knight again. I assume this Oregon team, this inspired
Oregon defense that we saw just absolutely ravaged Texas Tech yesterday,
and Texas Tech offense been good in the regular season.
You know, I know not to compare Big ten football
versus Pac twelve football, right, not Pac twelve, but Big
twelve football and all these different kinds of conferences and
(25:50):
who's actually playing a reasonable schedule and a reasonable level
of competition versus what they're able to produce statistically. There's
a lot of criticisms of Big ten teams that way. Hell,
there's a lot of criticisms of fair criticisms by the
way of SEC teams that way, who are just.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Getting their asses whipped at every turn.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
It's kind of crazy to see, and I think that
we could probably have at some point this morning. We
don't have to do it today, we could do it
tomorrow if you want. The idea of the SEC being
frauds because they at least they're being exposed at every
turn in bowl season. You've got Tennessee losing, You've got
Vanderbilt losing, You've got Alabama, Georgia, all the top powers,
all the all the middle class of the SEC that
(26:31):
everybody will just tell you at every turn, especially in
our part of the country, the South, the Southeast, that yeah, yeah,
if you put Indiana into a into an SEC schedule,
they wouldn't last a nay, okay, tell that. Tell that
to them now as they roll through actual meaningful games,
past SEC teams, past everybody, to make sure that they
(26:51):
have a chance to be national championship contenders. It's a
long way of responding to your initial prompt about this
quarterback matchup, but I am excited about it. I'm curious
to see how how the narratives evolve around this game
and this playoff, and as we look to see a
first time national champion crowd, at least as far as
the coaches go, It's going to be a fascinating science experient.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I'm here for.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
It's the narratives you mentioned, Buck, that I wonder when
they'll change, Like this is the funniest thing to me.
Bernana Mendoza yesterday was fourteen of sixteen against Alabama, right,
fourteen to sixteen FO one hundred and ninety two yards
and three touchdowns. That's a really nice throws in that game.
Had two incompletionents the entire game. Yes, Indiana is a
real way that they won that game. Fifty rushing attempts
(27:37):
for two hundred and fifteen yards. I mean, my god,
they just ran all over Alabama, which we thought they
might be able to do even through that process. What
I kept seeing on social media last night was about
the limitations of Banana Mendoza, the things he doesn't do,
and it just speaks to what's happened in college football
in the last couple of years. The people are slow
to try and change their mind on certain things, like
(27:59):
at some point, for all of the chaos that I
opened the show talking about, the reality here is the
number one team in the country is Indiana, and Indiana
looked like the number one team in the country in
their first playoff game like that. There is this oversimplification
here of like, it's not all chaos, It's not all
oh my god, what is happening.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
It's not a dumpster.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Fire where Kerma the frog is running around with the
arms flailing in the air, saying, oh Love, no.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
No, no.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
The number one team in the country won their playoff game,
and they look clearly like the number one team of
the country. I just don't know what it's going to
take for people to realize that, no matter what they
thought of Indiana eighteen months ago, that no longer matters.
Like what we thought of certain programs, what we thought
of Alabama two years ago, is no longer significant to
me today. What we think of Indiana, what we thought
(28:46):
of them when Kurt Signetti was fired mean or was hired,
I should say, means absolutely nothing to me. All I
care about is this season Indiana. Consider they're fourteen and oho,
they're literally they're undefeated. They are we talk about, oh
my god. In college football, especially now with this long season,
everybody's just gonna find a game to lose.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
No, not everybody is.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
And Indiana, in the process of going undefeated, has a
Big Ten Championship win over Ohio State, they have a
win at Oregon and they now we just watched them
beat the ever Love and you know what out of Alabama.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Thirty eight to three.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
You're talking about a historic level of margin of loss
for Alabama and not for that program, thirty eight to three.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
And the game wasn't that close. It was like a
sympathy three, right.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
So Indiana went out an absolutely big boy on the
on the playground everybody that they needed to this year.
And I still feel like people are like, yeah, but
it's Indiana, Okay, cool, Like, at what point you're gonna
wake up and just realize that modern college football, Indiana
is who Indiana is and they are clearly the best
team in the country.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
I mean I asked you this question on the local
show the other day when you were kind enough to
lend us your time and talents. The idea that does
Kurtzignetti need to win a national championship for this to
be the greatest coaching job done in college football history.
Not like to say that Kurtzignetti is the greatest coach
(30:13):
in college football history. Obviously that's Nick Saban. Obviously titles
are required for that level of attention to be paid.
But I don't know, man. I mean, thirty eight to
three over Alabama, an undefeated season so far, an opportunity
to hand a conference opponent another loss again in a
(30:33):
semi final game for the right to get back to
the national championship game. I understand your position was, if
I'm not mistaken, that yes, he does need to win
the title for this to be the single greatest college
football coaching job done in history. I don't want to
do moral victories here, Fitzi, but he's brought them up
(30:56):
to a level where I don't think anybody could have
possibly imagined. And even if you picked the best case
scenario for when this man was hired ahead of the
twenty twenty four season and looked at Indiana Football and said, yeah,
maybe you can just compete in the Big Ten for once,
that'd be nice. As the most losing program in college
football history, Indiana football, I think it's the greatest college
(31:17):
football coaching job I've ever seen. I don't know that
he has to put the bow on it at the
end for me to still feel that way.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
At the end of the day, I think I'm already there.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
And maybe that's premature, and maybe I'm biased because yeah,
that's my alma mater, and I'm like Fitzi's right, I'm
a bandwagon Indiana fan. I have never cared about that
football program one time in my life. I've never seen
them play in person. We don't go to Indiana, at
least we during my college career. When when was I
in college from two thousand and twelve or twenty eleven
(31:48):
to twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
I think that's right. Whatever.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
I never went to an Indiana football game, never set
foot in that stadium, never once. There was no reason to.
They just lost. You tailgate the games, you go home,
you watch the SEC, you watch Notre Dame play, and
that was your college football Saturday. And that was fine
for us. My sister just graduated from Indiana last year.
She had a completely different experience a college game day
on campus, had a football games. Get an actual football
(32:13):
program that matters. You have done the thing that so
many people love about the college experience. And obviously, you know,
the education and the friendship and the opportunities that it
creates for your career and all these other things that
are great about college and the learning that you do,
both in real life experience and actual you know, classroom experience,
whatever the case may be. But to have like a
(32:33):
football program alongside that. Indiana, like I said, I'm biased.
I think it's the best place in the world as
far as the university to actually have a college football
experience on that campus, I can't even imagine. I can't
even imagine what that does for an institution like that.
And I don't know why the hell it took so
long for them to act meaningfully invest And maybe they've
(32:53):
been trying the whole time and you just can't find
your Kurt Signetti and all of a sudden, you just you.
I'm not going to say you trip inn fall into
this guy, because that makes it seem like, I don't know,
it makes it seem more random than the situation deserves.
Like they clearly identified something in this man that showed
them that he was going to be the right person
to at least start this turnaround. I'm certain that Indiana,
(33:15):
you know, Scott Dolson, the athletic director, I'm sure he
had no idea that it was going to turn into this.
But now that they've got it operating at this level,
Indiana Football's not going anywhere anytime soon. I think it's
the single greatest college football coaching job in history.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
It might be the biggest brand turnaround in sports. Because
hear me out for everybody that it rolls your eyes
to that before twenty twenty five, the Hoosiers were literally
the most losing NCAA Division One college football team in history.
This is quite literally the equivalent of like imagine a
(33:49):
coach takes over the Browns and suddenly they go to
the AFC Championship one year and they're headed to the
super Bowl the next with no difference, Like suddenly, they
don't suddenly have five star players everywhere.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
It's still as you and I have talked about.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Even the recruiting class for next year is the thirty
third rank recruiting class. When you look at the money
being spent by other programs, it absolutely dwarfs what they're doing.
This is the equivalent of taking whatever you think of
as the losing team that never gets it right, and
all of a sudden, just overnight, they go from being
the worst to being clearly the best in the country.
That's why I hope it ends with the national Championship.
(34:26):
I don't have a rooting interest in it, but will
never give the story the respect it deserves unless Indiana
wins a championship. And that's just the way that we
are at this point, and again, clearly, out of everything
we saw over the last thirty six hours in college
football playoffs, there was no dominant, more dominant team than Indiana.
(34:47):
We'll keep breaking down the college football play up, but
coming up, we've got a big weekend in the NFL,
including a loser Leaves Town possible match with two of
the biggest brands in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
We'll tell you about it next. Buck Rising Jason Fitz
hanging out for Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
Speaker 6 (34:59):
Be sure catch live editions of Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and Jonas
Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe. It's a
Bucket Fits takeover. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz hanging
out with you this morning.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I love this song. I'm just letting it play for
our So it's just got such vibes.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
There's something about like that nostalgic eighties era of music
that I just cannot I can't get enough of.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I just love the way it sounds, all right. So,
speaking of things that we love the way they sound,
why don't we get to the tire Iraq Play of
the day. It's time.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Let's play it maybe or we won't.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Well waits get to the direct play.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Well, you know I was.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
I threw it on them. I saw it on the sheet.
I just I went full Ron Burgundy. My piece of
paper in front of me says tire Rack Play of
the Day. So I read Tirerack Play the Day.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Please no accountability.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Lorena deleted it off her board from the previous show,
so it's on me.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
I just said to Larina beforehand, hey do we have
the Tiract Play of the day, and then she would
have said yeah, and then everybody would have had this
all worked out instead.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
Don't you yell at them? You know what time it
is in Los Angeles. Stop me, you're stopping right now.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Buck is trying you see, Larina, this is what bucked
Us writes to drive a divide. I'm sitting here saying
this is my fault, and Buck is trying to make
it all sound like.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I'm trying to throw you under the bus. So I
just I love busses me anytime. Here's a Tiract play
of the day.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
Around the six yard line, second in goal, there's a
handoff de Lacey straight ahead.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
He going just toorting himself.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
He breaks the plane, touchdown a miss and the rebels.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Have taken the lane.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
That's the Tyract player of the day. For over forty years,
Tyrak has been helping customers find the right tires for how,
what and where they drive, shipped fast and free back
by free road hazard protection, with convenient installation options like
mobile tireinstallation, tire rack dot com.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
The way tire buy should be you. That's how we
do things. H and look at that. It took the
whole team to get through.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
And then Buck was just standing there like a ga
on the sidelines of a football game, trying to tell
us how to do our jobs when we're.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Trying to do You know what, Buck, why don't you
put a shirt on? All right? It's just again and
still no shirt on.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
We are almost through with one hour and Buck is
still topless. I don't know what we're doing here. Thank
you so much, by the way, Learfield on the call
for that. So congratulations again to all of our college
football teams that have moved on. We got a huge
weekend in the NFL. Buck, I'm trying to figure out
will your opinion of the Steelers and Ravens because that
(37:44):
feels like the game that has so much on the
line for the way each of those fan bases view
their teams, will your opinion on either of those teams
drastically change if they simply make the playoffs. Is winning
this game getting into the playoffs enough of a band
aid that everybody will sit down, shut up, color in
their books, and stop calling for a change at their
respective teams.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
Well, I can't speak for Ravens fans or Steelers fans
because I know that it's a little more tense in
that circumstance, and I think that for my perspective. So
let's just take Baltimore. It very much depends on how
Baltimore wins this game. If they win this game, right,
because the way that they were playing prior to last
(38:26):
week would make you look around and say, all right,
do I really trust an unhealthy Lamar or a banged
up Lamar in an offense where Todd Monkin seems unwilling
to kind of lean on Derrick Henry at this point
in time. And then Tyler Hunty gets inserted into the
lineup last week while Lamar deals with this back injury.
By the way, Lamar, for what it's worth, it said
he's one hundred percent playing on Sunday night football against
(38:48):
the Steelers. So we'll see what that looks like and
if that changes the approach. But if they come out
there with a similar game plan where they're just going
to ground you down or grind you down with Derrick Henry,
I think that's their best path to success if they
are to have a legitimate path through the postseason this year.
I think if they get in, I mean, who's the
best team in the AFC right now? It's the Jaggs,
(39:11):
It's the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
I mean, yeah, it is weird to say, but I don't.
And they're coming off a win that they didn't look
overwhelmingly impressive in, but they still are playing the best
football of any of the teams that you're looking at
right now. I don't think that anybody's gonna have great
faith in bo Nicks no matter how good the Denver
defense is. I think Houston, while their defense is excellent
(39:37):
as well, that C. J. Stroud still has questions to
answer doesn't mean he can't do it in the postseason
this year. But he's going to have to do that
for people to have that confidence in him moving forward.
I don't know who's not gettable in this field. If
you're Baltimore looking up at the rest of them and
be like, yeah, we'll go to New England and win
this time. I'm not worried about that. We'll go to
(39:58):
Denver and win if we have the right game plan,
if we do things the way, if we keep it simple, stupid,
and continue to lean on our best players in the
most important moments in which they have for some reason
struggled to do. And I get that their defense isn't
great this year, and that's typically a Ravens franchise superpower.
It's not the case in twenty twenty six as we
(40:19):
head into the new year. So we'll see what happens
for Pittsburgh. It's all about Aaron Rodgers. Is he comfortable
pushing the ball down the field. He's not gonna have
dk metcalf again in this game as he works through
that suspension. Very much matters to me how these teams
win this next game as to whether I think they
are credible moving forward into the postseason.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
I mean, Derrick Henry coming off of thirty six carries
for two hundred and sixteen yards against green Bay and
what was just absolute peak Derrick Henry. But I will
remind everybody that before that game, Todd munkin the offensive
coordinated for the Ravens, chose to give Derrick Henry twenty
carries or more only five times all season. The rest
of the season, Derrick Henry is under twenty carries. So
(41:01):
your answer is, while they just finally opened up the offense,
my question is why why did it take all the
way until December twenty seventh to figure out? Maybe you
win football games if you hand Derek Henry the ball
thirty six times? It makes no sense. I also can't
make sense of the wild rumors that continue to circulate
around Lamar Jackson. But we'll try and figure out next
Bucking fits hanging out on two bros and a cup
(41:23):
of Joe
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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