Buck Reising and Steve Hartman on College Football Opening Day!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
And what a football Saturday it is. It's the most
wonderful time of the year. Always good to be hanging
out with Steve Hartman and the rest of the crew
out there in Los Angeles. I'm here in Nashville. We're
happy to be here with you for the next four hours.
on this week one of college football. Real football, Steve.

(00:26):
Real football. I've been badgering you and bothering you with
preseason football every time you've hung out with us here
on the Saturday show. But now we have real football.
I mean, kind of real football. It's, you know, North
Texas and Ball State and East Carolina all running around
out there against the likes of Indiana, Ohio State, and Alabama.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
But All these count. Thank God. Well, Buck, I have
said this many times in my many, many years of
covering sports and being a sports fan. College football reigns
supreme for me. I love the NFL. I love the NBA.
I love Major League Baseball. I'm into golf. I'm into tennis.
I'm into college basketball. Name it. I'm into except soccer.

(01:02):
But anything else I'm into. but college football is number
one for me. The tradition, you know, the regional part
of it, you know, it's so much different in the
South and the Midwest and the West and the East.
All of these things make me the number one college
football fan. I'm fortunate enough to have had a Heisman
vote since 2010. So obviously I got to keep my

(01:24):
eyes on all the individual performances. Congratulations to your beloved Hoosiers.
It was a little late. for them to suddenly put
points on the board. But I love Cignetti, how he
does this, right? I mean, you're sort of struggling with
North Texas for a little bit there. Like, what's going
on here? And then you look at the final score, boom,
you win by 36. So, Indiana off to a good start.
My UCLA Bruins on the road against Cal tonight. So

(01:47):
this is now a Big Ten ACC battle when it
used to be for years, obviously, a big traditional rival
between the two UCs. So it's it's the perfect day.
And really, I mean, think about it. But we started Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
We got a Monday night game. I like the fact
that the NFL decided a couple of years ago to

(02:09):
take a step back. really create a bye week for
themselves before week one of their season, and give all
the spotlight to college football for this week. I absolutely
love it. Even if we don't have a lot of
marquee matchups, it doesn't matter to me. Just to see
the teams out there, to me, is really appealing. And
hats off to the NFL. By the way, one potential

(02:31):
surprise early, early. Boise State, who a lot of people
believe might be the representative from the group of six
now to get into the college football playoff. Early 7-0
lead on the road against No. 2-ranked Oregon.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
And that is a team that's going to be talked
about a lot, especially if they continue to struggle. Obviously,
it's still in the first quarter, as Steve mentioned, and
we'll keep you updated because there's a number of teams
in the top 25 going at it right now. You've
got Penn State, Texas, Oregon, Georgia, Houston. Tennessee, all in
action ahead of tonight's. I mean, it's not quite the nightcap,

(03:13):
but it's probably the highlight of today. Steve is Clemson
and Lane Kiffin, LSU Tigers.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
What are you making this buck? I mean, you know,
this whole thing, Lane Kiffin, Lane Kiffin, Lane Kiffin. I mean,
he really is amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
I can still remember when he was hired by my
former employer, Al Davis. That was his first head coaching job, remember,
was the Raider job. As Al Davis introduced him as
Lance Kiffin, which was great at his introductory press conference.
That didn't work out so well. He's had all these
hiccups along the way. But... I'm not a legal guy.

(03:55):
I don't know if you have any more knowledge than
I do about our legal system, Buck, but it just
seems unbelievable to me how you can somehow find these
random judges to rule against everybody else and somehow their
ruling holds up. So they basically have cleared the way
for for these two former Ole Miss players under Lane

(04:18):
Kiffin to play at LSU. Now, they're not going to
play today, apparently. I think LSU might be taking the
SEC seriously when they say, if you play those guys,
you will not only get fined heavily, but your coach
is going to be suspended for half the season. Now,
there's a temporary restraining order against that SEC ruling. I
don't know how these random judges can do all these

(04:41):
things because we've even seen it on a federal law
level where somehow these judges can just jump in and say, nope,
can't do that. I don't get it. But this is
going to come to head, and there's one guy that's
going to hold his ground in believing that this should happen,
that these guys should be able to play at LSU.

(05:01):
It's Lane Kiffin.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
See, this is my fault because we were having such
a nice time. We were talking about actual football games,
and then I went and made a mess, and we
started talking about the administrative stuff. But it's a huge,
huge story. Lane Kiffin, of course, was on college game
day to start the season because Lane... Lane going to lane,
and he's going to find the cameras, and he's always
good television. And obviously, in the midst of that controversy

(05:25):
that Steve just laid out, no, I would not pretend
to have much of a formal education in the legal system. Steve,
when we got into this business, you and I, even
though it was at different times, I did not think
that we would be talking about Supreme Court rulings and
temporary restraining orders and all these different things as often
as we have these last six years since college football

(05:46):
and college sports. got turned on its head. But we
do have sound from Lane Kiffin this morning explaining to
the college game day crew why he decided not to
roster these two former NFL players that have since joined
his program.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, that wasn't easy.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
As much as I feel for the players, and I
believe that you fight for what you believe in, and
I believe these kids have an opportunity to play, just
like all the other kids around the country that are
winning court cases and being put on rosters.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
But at the same time, I'm the head coach of LSU.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
And I had to make a decision that.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
Is for the big picture of LSU and the LSU
football program with the uncertainties.

Speaker 6 (06:27):
Of what potentially could have come by adding them to
the roster.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
And we couldn't get exact reasons or exact what that
would mean if we added them.

Speaker 7 (06:37):
So with that, I made the decision, which is the
best interest of the team and the university.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
And we're excited to be playing a great game today
here in front of these fans.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
And let's spot the ball.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Let's spot the ball. That's Lane Kiffin, that audio, courtesy
of College Game Day.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
What do you make of it, Steve? Well, I tell
you what. Now, think about this. I'm going to take
the side of these players just for a moment here.
It's not that I'm 100% for it, because I'm not.
But remember, the NCAA ruled that now you get to
play five years of college football. Used to be you
got five years to play four. Remember, that was forever, right?
You got five years to play four, get a redshirt year.

(07:15):
Now they've changed it. No, you get to play five years. And,
by the way, you're getting paid for those five years.
So that rule was put in after these guys had
already declared that they were going to try to play
in the NFL. These guys never played in a preseason game.
They never participated in anything other than being in training camp.
And they have, according to the new rule, another year

(07:37):
of eligibility. So that would be their argument in their favor. So,
you know, this is a great opportunity. By the way,
in a lot of ways, Buck, it makes great for
college football. Think about this. How many guys that we
were opting out after three years, right? Three years out
of high school, you could opt out, go into the
NFL draft. But now you're getting paid. And now you

(07:59):
can stay five years. You can play five full years
of college football.

Speaker 6 (08:06):
And get paid.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
So we're going to see, I think, strength-wise, the deepest
we've ever seen college football. Because guys will stay. And yes,
they may be transferred. That's the thing I really have
a problem with, Buck. Just this annual transfer where you
don't have to sit out a year. You can literally play...
If you have five years, you can play for five

(08:28):
schools in five years, and there's nothing that can stop you.
That needs to be modified. At some point, you have
to put a limit on how many schools you can
actually play for. Although, again, the cat's out of the bag.
It's a little hard to go back in time. That
would be my only thing moving forward now that you've established,
all right, you get to play five years, five full

(08:50):
years of college football. Great. But you need to limit
how many different schools you can play at over that
five-year period.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
When the Supreme Court made their unanimous ruling, the rare
unanimous ruling in today's political atmosphere to decide that the
way that college athletics was being run was outright unconstitutional,
they talked about, Steve, an exploratory period that we were
all going to have to undergo as everybody tried to
pick up the pieces from what the Supreme Court ruling

(09:22):
essentially shattered, and rightfully so, right? You can't have— That
amount of unpaid labor propping up a billion dollar business.
And I understand that people are paid under the table
and all these different things, but you understand the construct
of it was fundamentally not right. So you have this
exploratory period that they, that they keep talking about, but
now we're six years into the exploratory period, Steve. And

(09:45):
I'm looking around being like, I don't know how collective
bargaining can be accomplished, which is exactly what this whole
thing needs to get right at a fundamental level when,
to your point, the way that we started the show
or at least started talking about at the front end
of the show, was the idea that so many different

(10:06):
court rulings are made in individual states because this does
not have the federal oversight to make it universally applicable.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Or federally applicable.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
That's been the thing that's been as confusing as any
of it, is trying to figure out which states have
which NIL rules that they can maneuver, and now different states,
different universities, on behalf of the states, jockeying to try
and level the playing field or catch up with the
rest of them, wherever they stand in the legal rulings
on this that has made it as, as mercenary as

(10:40):
you could possibly turn a single sport into almost overnight.
There was, you, you mentioned that Indiana put a thumb
on north Texas earlier today, took them to your point,
basically three quarters, that defense, a little shaky for the
vast majority of the game. But I was glad to
see Josh Hoover go out there and throw a couple
of touchdowns, no picks, despite what a sunny Dykes might
tell you anyway. So they put this graphic up on

(11:02):
the screen about the north Texas mean green, who was
Indiana's opponent today. They talked about the different changes that
North Texas has undergone returning zero starters from the 2025 team.
They're one of two FBS teams to do that. Iowa
state and North Texas, they lost 18 coaches and 19

(11:23):
players to just Oklahoma state alone because of the way
that coaches will leave like Lane Kiffin and then recruit
former players or try and get players that were on
their previous roster to their new roster via the portal
and And on top of it all, 72 new players
on the 2026 North Texas roster.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Welcome to college football in 2026, Steve. Well, and also,
this is the thing. Let's go back to your beloved Hoosiers.
All right, so Hoover is now their third transfer quarterback
in three seasons under Signetti. So you had Curtis Rourke,
top 10 in the Heisman Trophy. Obviously, Mendoza wins the
Heisman Trophy, and Hoover putting himself on the map early on.

(12:04):
With the kind of numbers he put on today. That
being said, remember this about Indiana last year. 16-0, not
a single five-star recruit on their entire roster. Not one. So, again,
the idea of, you know, free agency like my UCLA
Bruins this year, they have 42 transfers. Because Bob Chesney

(12:25):
follows Cignetti at James Madison, so he's basically trying to
use the same formula for UCLA. Hopefully, he'll have some
kind of success like that. But when you're putting all
these pieces together as a coach, this is insane. You've
got guys coming from all these different programs, different systems
all over the country. And you got to put them

(12:46):
all together. There's no real preseason in college football at all.
So you throw them out there and then try to
figure it out as you go. That's what's so amazing
about those coaches that have been successful with this new system.
Other guys, old school guys like Nick Saban said, forget it.
Very anxious because you mentioned at the top we got

(13:06):
this marquee matchup between LSU and unranked Clemson. Dabo Sweeney
still trying to hang on to the old ways, right?
He's like the guy, you know, get off my lawn
type of thing. He just said, you know, we don't
need a transfer portal here. We just recruit players and
they come here. Yeah, they're leaving, Dabo. So, you know,

(13:26):
this guy is a dinosaur in a new era. But
those that have been successful, my hat's off to them.
I mean, how they have figured out the new formula
for success in the new landscape of college football is amazing.
But others haven't figured it out. And we'll see what
their future is. Probably dismal. It's such a change. And
as you mentioned, six years into trying to evaluate what's

(13:48):
going on. But the problem is, Buck, is that every
year we're presented a new challenge where we we all
we didn't think about that. Wow. That's going to happen.
So I always say this. Follow the money. The money
is with the SEC. The money is with the Big Ten.
I don't know where that puts the Big 12. I
don't know where that puts the ACC. But the two

(14:09):
big dogs, the SEC and the Big Ten, are basically
going to dictate what is going to be the future
of college football.

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Speaker 2 (14:26):
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He's Steve Hartman. I'm Buck Rising, hanging out here with
you on this Fox Sports Saturday. So from the state
of college football to coaches under pressure, we've got a

(14:50):
number of different names that we just mentioned in this
first segment that I want to dig a little more on, Steve,
and we'll do that coming up next.

Speaker 7 (14:59):
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Speaker 2 (15:05):
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Speaker 1 (15:42):
So how long do you have to trail as a
significant favorite before we officially put a team in week
one on upset watch Oregon right now, only down seven, nothing.
It's the start of the second quarter, but it is
definitely something worth keeping an eye on in this week.
One of college football, he's Steve Hartman. I'm Buck rising,
hanging out here with you because I want to talk

(16:05):
about coaches under pressure. And I, I don't know how
you feel about Dan Lanning at Oregon, Steve.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
He is, by.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
All accounts, excellent at what he does. He obviously doesn't
have a championship to his name, but he's got the
pedigree coming from Georgia as the defensive coordinator for Kirby.
Smart has had great success at Oregon outside of not
having a ring there.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Just yet.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
And, and maybe he will, but this was a season
where you looked around, they're the second ranked team in
the country. I mean, Ohio state and them at the
very top of the table. And you looked around and said, well,
they've got Dante Moore returning. Cause he didn't want to
play for the jets. You've got hell Dylan Raiola's they're
backing him up as the former Nebraska starter. So they've
got something to hedge their bets a little bit. That

(16:51):
defensive line is stock full. of pro football players, future
pro football players, not pro football players who are coming
back to play college football in the mode of Lane Kiffin.
And I'm sitting here watching them against Boise state. Now
they've just tied it up seven to seven, as we
sit here in the second quarter with about 11 minutes

(17:12):
to play, but I'm going to be curious to see
how they handle this because they have been out gained.
Dante Moore has one 50 yard completion. But beyond that,
they've not been very explosive. They've really been stifled when
they've tried to run the football, and they've really not
tried to run the football that much. It seems like
they're trying to figure it out in real time, which
is surprising.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Well, you mentioned Dan Lanning. Now you'd say, how's a
guy that has eight losses in four years on the
hot seat? But how the last two years ended. Remember,
they were the number one team in the country. They
had the bye week, which is always apparently with a
new 12 team playoff, a bad situation. And then they

(17:51):
got blown out by Ohio State at home. Forty one.
Twenty one. Actually, that was at the Rose Bowl. And
then last year, remember, they get to the semis and
they get blown out by Indiana. Fifty six to twenty two.
That was my first IU football game, Steve. I had
no idea how much fun that was.

Speaker 8 (18:11):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
It wasn't that fun for Dan Lanning. So the last
two years, as good as the years have been in
terms of overall record, and with a thud, I mean,
would blow out losses to teams in your own conference,
the Big Ten. So here's the thing. You set your
own bar, and then the expectations go from there. And

(18:34):
if you keep falling short... I'll wreck it again, 48-8.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
48-8.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
I mean, over the last two years, 26-3. But two
of those losses were just blowout losses at the end
of the year, and those can start piling up and
suddenly put you unexpectedly on the hot seat. So, you know, again,
when you're talking about coaches on the hot seat, what
are the expectations? Some of them have created their own expectations.

(19:02):
I go back to Mack Brown at the University of Texas, right?
He wins the national championship with Vince Young. They were
a consistent double digit, you know, win team. They win 10,
11 games every single year. And then suddenly they weren't.
And after what? Two years of that? Three at the most?

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Boom.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Gone. It's like, what? Gone? Mack Brown? Are you kidding me?
Look at his record in Texas over there. What have
you done for me lately? That's why a guy like
Dabo Sweeney, he talks about, well, I'll coach at Clemson
as long as I want. No, you won't, Dabo. You're
starting the season unranked. When's the last time that happened

(19:40):
at Clemson? And if you get the doors blown off
in Baton Rouge tonight to start your season, look out, man.
You could be gone like that. Remember what happened at
Jane Franklin at Penn State? They went into last year
as one of the, what, top five teams in the country?
He didn't even last through midseason and he was gone.

(20:00):
So that's, there's a lot of money invested here, Buck.
And if you're not winning, if you're not in contention
at schools that expect to be in contention, intention for
a national championship, they're going to bring in a new
guy immediately.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Fox Football Saturday brought to you by Underdog. Football is back,
and Underdogs keep your million. Starts you with a million-dollar stack.
Make your picks, survive 20 rounds, and whatever's left is yours. Underdog,
unleash your dog. Terms do apply. So Lane Kiffin and LSU,
10-point favorites tonight over Dabo Swinney and the unranked Clemson Tigers. Now,

(20:38):
those are two different kind of pressures, right? Because I'm
not expecting... Dabo is almost in such a unique situation, Steve,
because there's no question he's the most accomplished coach that
that program has had. But to your point, I think
earlier in the show, to start the show, you called
him a dinosaur. And every time he does one of
these press conferences where somebody asks him a simple question,

(20:59):
he gives like a 15-minute, and I'm not even kidding.
minute responses because he takes it wherever he wants to go.
It just reminds me of a dinosaur that would be
roaring at the meteor.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
That's about to take him out.

Speaker 9 (21:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
And NIL is that meteor. In fact, Dabo is probably
long overdue if they are because the ACC is no
slouch this year, Miami.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
And I get it. It's week one.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
You're trying not to get too ahead of your skis
on all these different contenders that are beating up on
cupcake schools, but Stanford shouldn't be that much of a pushover.
And Darien Mensah has no business looking that good already
with Malachi, Tony, who is going to be, as you mentioned,
you're a Heisman voter earlier in the show. He is

(21:45):
going to be a name on people's lips all year long.
Dabo this year is in a fascinating spot. Because I
don't know what's more of a pressure cooker or who's
in more of a pressure cooker for this game alone.
Because if Lane somehow blows the steam with all the
headlines around Lane Kiffin, what the hell is that going

(22:06):
to look like in Baton Rouge?

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, I agree with you. And, you know, I have
a lot of suspicions about how this all went down
at LSU with Brian Kelly and everything else. I can't
confirm this, you know, but I'm sort of like reading
the room. The idea that Lane Kiffin, because remember he
quits or basically tried to stay at Ole Miss, but
they exited him. I got to believe the only reason

(22:28):
that Brian Kelly was let go when he was is
they already had Lane Kiffin in their hip pocket. Otherwise,
why are you making the move? If you don't know
that Lane Kiffin is 100% sure, and obviously you're sold
that Lane Kiffin's going to be the guy that's going
to win because, you know, Brian Kelly won, but he
wasn't winning national championship chips like his three predecessors all

(22:49):
did at LSU. So, yeah, as far as Lane Kiffin's
situation at LSU, I mean— Who can predict? Look, that
line seems low, doesn't it? I mean, LSU at home?

Speaker 5 (23:04):
10?

Speaker 9 (23:04):
Against.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
A Clemson team that's unranked? I mean, if I were
a betting guy and I'm not, I would tend to
give the points there. I got to believe LSU is
going to come out and maybe put on a show tonight.
At least I'm sure Lane Kiffin would like to see that.
But yeah, I think the Dabo Sweeney situation is real.

(23:29):
in terms of him being legitimately on the hot seat.
I don't think Lane Kiffin in year one is on
any hot seat unless he really does something stupid. And
stupid would have been putting those two guys on the field.
That would have been dumb. And he realized that. And
somebody at the university talked some sense into him, like
we're not going to get fined because another judge could
overrule whatever that, you know, Louisiana judge did. And all

(23:53):
of a sudden we got those guys on the field
were ineligible for the playoff because they're By the way,
the college football playoff people also announced that they will
not support players that have turned professional coming back to
the college game. Now, they didn't say specifically that they
would ban those teams that do that from being in

(24:14):
the playoff. But are you going to take any chances?
So they're not going to do that. But yeah, as
far as Dabo Sweeney, though, I think he is definitely
one that's on the hot seat.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
We'll get back to Dabo and Lane here in just
a second. But first, Martin, let's get caught up.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
We have a development in Eugene, by the way, of
a 26-yard screen pass to Sire Gaines from Maddox Manson.

Speaker 10 (24:37):
It is now.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
14-7, Boise State over the number two ranked team in
the nation. So far, Dante Moore is 9-for-11, 102 yards passing.
Oregon's only rushed for 20 yards thus far in the game.
So keeping an eye out on that one as Boise
State's been giving Oregon all they can handle.

Speaker 10 (24:58):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
I'm just saying upset watch. Yeah, I'm saying like through.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
The first 20 minutes, we got to play, you know,
about 35 more, you know, 40 more minutes of this game.
But so far, it has not been a massive disparity
in talent. At least what you would expect to see
and what you see in some of these other games
like Georgia versus Tennessee State. That one's at the half.
It's a 32-point margin for Georgia in the lead. Texas
with a 21-0 lead over Texas State. 750 left in

(25:24):
the first half there. Penn State, Matt Campbell, the new
head coach, Rocco Beck, the new quarterback. He's got two
touchdown passes as Penn State has a 17-0 lead over
Marshall with 14 minutes left in the first half.

Speaker 10 (25:35):
Tennessee found the end zone again.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
It's now 14-0 over Furman with eight minutes left in
the second quarter. And Iowa with a 6-0 lead over
Northern Illinois, seven minutes left in the first quarter there.
23rd-ranked Houston beat Oregon State 33-20. First-ranked Ohio State with
a big win over Ball State. Indiana, the sixth-ranked team
in the nation despite being reigning national champions, 52-16. Josh Hoover,

(26:03):
the new transfer quarterback with four touchdown passes. And Alabama
beat East Carolina 48-10. Top of the second inning, the
Cubs and the Marlins are scoreless. And in the middle
of the second, the Giants have a 1-0 lead over
the Mets. And right here on the SEC, neither one
of these teams in the top 25, Baylor and Auburn.
Auburn with a 3-0 lead. DJ Lagway with one terrible fumble.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Steve, did you see that fumble? I did. That was bad.

Speaker 5 (26:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
That was bad. Back to you guys. Thank you, Martin.
He's Steve Harmon.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
I'm Buck Rising, hanging out here with you on this
Fox Football Saturday, keeping an eye on all things college
football throughout the course of the show. And we will
get you to and at least through the first 30
minutes of LSU and Clemson because we've got four hours
to do this afternoon.

Speaker 9 (26:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Look forward to that.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
So as far as Dabo and Clemson go with this
particular game, Steve, I'm assuming that that line 10 points
in favor of LSU at home. I'm assuming that's just
week one. You know, let's hedge our bets here against
any weirdness. that might result because this is when you
are going to see the most amount of variance. You

(27:17):
mentioned earlier, college football games, don't do preseason, right? You've
got these scrimmages, but you know, the, the scrimmages have
not even become anything that closely resembles football. Now they're
closer to field day than they are football games. And
so you're trying to, you're trying to limit your variance
as much as humanly possible. in the scheduling of these things,
which is why Tennessee is playing Furman and Indiana is

(27:39):
playing North Texas and all these different things for, for Clemson.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
It's not like their roster lacks talent.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
He's always been able to recruit, even if he refuses,
or at least has been so low to dabble in
the portal. In fact, the one time that he really
did this linebacker, that Pete Golding at Ole Miss snaked
out from under him. It caused a huge stir that
the one person it would happen to, of course, is
Dabo Swinney. I'm assuming that Clemson is not just going

(28:08):
to roll over and die here. In fact, I'd imagine,
I think I might take Clemson to cover.

Speaker 5 (28:13):
Wow.

Speaker 9 (28:14):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (28:15):
All right.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Well, look, again, like you say, it's really hard to read.
And even more so now. because you have these completely
overhauled rosters.

Speaker 11 (28:24):
Completely.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Everybody's bringing in 20, 30 new players from different programs
around the league and just throw them out on the
field week one. Look, we've already seen a couple upsets.
Georgia Tech still trying to figure out how they lost
that game to Colorado. I mean, we're going to get
a few upsets in week one. And obviously, I'll put
it this way. If Clemson beats LSU tonight, I mean,

(28:51):
that is going to be a screaming headline tomorrow. And
Lane Kiffin will get absolutely crucified if he loses this
game at home, his first game at LSU to Dabo Sweeney. And,
you know, Dabo, oh, can you imagine him going off
after a game like that? Oh, yes.

Speaker 10 (29:12):
May I ask you a question here real quick, Steve?

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Yes. How much, and this goes to Buck as well,
how much.

Speaker 12 (29:17):
Are you going to see people hand-wringing over what they
assume is Clemson storming the field if that happens? For
people who don't know, Clemson always goes onto the field.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Well, they do, and down there in Baton Rouge. I've
always met people who was like, oh, why are they
storming the field against this team? No, but I mean,
this would be... Oh, no, wait, this is in Baton Rouge.
I'm an idiot.

Speaker 10 (29:36):
Never mind.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, this is in Baton Rouge. Yeah. Thanks.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
If Clemson fans run the rush to the field in
that Death Valley, they'll get their asses kicked.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Thank you very much. I was thinking you thought that
the Clemson fans would rush the field at Matt Roos.
You know what it is? I just heard Death Valley,
and there's like two Death Valleys here. I'm just. Yeah. No,
they are not going to be storming. But I'll tell
you what, Dabo Swinney will go off after the game
if they win this game against LSU. And Lane Kiffin
will be on the hot seat at least for a week.

(30:05):
So this is a great matchup because, again, you've got
polarizing coaches going head-to-head buck in this matchup.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
So we are hanging out here with you throughout the
course of these college football results, and we will talk
some NFL. We're going to talk some NBA today as well.
But given that college football is in front of us
all over the place right now, we're looking forward to
doing a lot of college football in particular today. What
do you make of Steve Sarkeesian this season? Texas is
currently in action as well. They're up 28 to nothing.

(30:35):
They're not sweating it against Texas State.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Arch Manning, I think.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
For my money, Steve, to see all the things that
were lobbed at Arch Manning, even before he took a
snap in the way that he handled it and improved steadily,
if not immediately, but steadily throughout the course of the
regular season for the Longhorns last year. I think that
Steve Sarkeesian is probably, again, this is not a hot
seat conversation, but in the traditional former fashion, I don't

(31:02):
know if there's a bigger coach or a coach under
bigger pressure than Steve Sarkeesian at that particular university.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Well, again, ever since Arch Manning arrived, they assumed that
they were going to, you know, get on a roll.
We'll know next week, right? They host Ohio State, number
one team in the country. Last year, they opened at
Ohio State, which was a tough place for Arch Manning
as a first-time starter. He did not play well. They
lost that game. But if they beat Ohio State next week,

(31:32):
Everything's good. And obviously, if Arch Manning plays well in
that game, he's going to be very high on the
Heisman list moving forward. So that's where it's at. I mean,
next week, we don't have to wait long on Texas.
Some of these other schools have to wait a while
and you dig through their schedule. When are we going
to really see a big test for them on their schedule?

(31:52):
Texas is loaded. When you're playing in the SEC and
then you throw in Ohio State, they have to play
at Tennessee. They get, of course, the Oklahoma game. They've
got Ole Miss at home. They're at Missouri. They're at LSU.
They're at A & M. It's a fully loaded schedule. So, look,
Sarkeesian has done pretty well the last couple years at Texas.

(32:14):
And after a rough start, they righted the ship to
some degree last year. But, yeah, expectations are high, especially
since this is Arch Manning's last year. We're all going
to wait to see. But, again, we don't have to
wait long. Next week's going to be the game, Buck,
as they get to host this time Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
If you missed any of today's show, you'll want to
catch the podcast. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you
get your podcasts. Right after the show, today's podcast will
be posted. So be sure to follow that podcast rate
of five stars and provide a review. Again, just search
Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the
feed and find today's full show posted right after we

(32:54):
wrap up. Though we have just a few more hours left.
to go here with you on Fox Sports Radio. We'll
flip the script to some NFL conversation because the Raiders
are about to do something with their quarterback that we
haven't seen a team do in almost a decade.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
We'll tell you what that is coming up next.

Speaker 11 (33:12):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
For the first time since 2018, a team that drafted
a quarterback with the number one overall pick will not
start that quarterback. in that team's first game. That's the Raiders.
Kirk cousins at 38 years old is going to get
his dusty ass out there and start for the black
and silver and Fernando Mendoza, the number one overall pick

(33:37):
out of this year's draft quarterback at Indiana national champion.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Is going to.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Ride the bench for the foreseeable future. Steve, I know
you know this organization well. They have not fared too
well in the last, I don't know, two decades outside
of Derek Carr runs here or there.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
What do you make of the decision? Do you agree
with it? Well, first of all, it's the Hartman jinx.
I want you to know, when I joined the Raiders,
they had just come off their third Super Bowl win
in eight years. And they had just received their new
Super Bowl rings. Everyone in the organization, they were showing
them off to me like, you're going to get a
couple of these, man. You're going to get a couple
of these. They haven't won a Super Bowl since. So

(34:15):
it is a Hartman curse over many years. That's tough.
Tom Brady has a big influence on what's going on
with the Raiders right now. And Tom Brady's rookie season
out of Michigan, and yes, he wasn't the number one
overall pick. He was a six-round pick nobody, and he
sat behind Drew Blood so that entire year. And then
the next year, he had an opportunity to take over

(34:35):
as starting quarterback for And he won a Super Bowl.
I'm not saying that scenario is going to play out.
But also Patrick Mahomes was a top 10 pick. And
they had a veteran quarterback in Alex Smith in Kansas City.
He sat his entire rookie season, took over the next year.
And we know where that went for Kansas City. There's
no rusher for Amanda Mendoza. This is a team that
has some interesting skill talent. Jenty, I'm still a believer

(34:59):
in at the running back spot. Bowers is the best
tight end talent in the NFL. But the offensive line
is still trying to sort of piece themselves together here.
So there's no reason to throw Mendoza out early. It's
not like the Raiders are on anybody's radar to get
to the Super Bowl this year. So I agree with
the decision. I'm not surprised by it at all. But

(35:20):
I think ultimately, Buck, I think that Tom Brady probably
stepped in and said, yeah, let's not throw our kid
to the fire quite yet. Kirk Cousins, he's expendable. And
the good thing for the Raiders is this actually could
work out beautifully for them because Kirk Cousins is one
of those guys that is a valuable commodity on the

(35:41):
trade market. If a team that is in contention for
a playoff spot should lose their starting quarterback and, you know,
Kirk Cousins is playing decent for the Raiders, then, you know,
he could be traded and get some value in return.
So I, I think it's the right play for the Raiders.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Well, I asked the question only in the sense that again,
Baker Mayfield's the last time that this happened. He did
not start the season for the Browns as a number one,
overall pick to Rod Taylor was the Browns starting quarterback
for a brief moment in time. And again, it didn't
take long for Baker to find his way into the
lineup and we'll see what happens with Mendoza. But again,
None of these teams that are drafting these kids with

(36:21):
the top overall pick or super bowl contenders.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
And yet to, to a team in.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
These last couple of years, they have all thrown these
quarterbacks out there week one with no real intention of
kind of keeping the guard rails on for them. I
just watched this play out in front of my face
for 17 brutal, regular season game, Steve with cam ward
and the Titans. I, I did not understand the decision

(36:49):
to not go out and sign a Jameis Winston or
a Joe Flacco or somebody in the Kirk Cousins type
of mold, a veteran who is expendable. Unfortunately, you hate
to use the word expendable, but expendable in the football
sense and somebody who can give your young son Number
one overall pick, the opportunity to learn, grow, understand the
rhythms of the NFL, understand the operation on game day. Again,

(37:13):
these guys have been playing football their entire lives, but
obviously this is a bigger show, and there's so many
different things that you have to manage beyond just the
football part of it. And yet the Titans, just like
almost every other team that's drafted a quarterback number one
overall before them, just tossed this dude out there, and
he floundered, floundered terribly to the point where I watch

(37:36):
him in the preseason. I'm like, I don't know if
you're not still affected by the fact that you took
55 sacks last year behind a terrible offensive line. Now,
the devil's advocate argument are the cases like Caleb Williams,
where Caleb Williams, I mean, went from 60, I think
it's 68 sacks his rookie year to 24 last year.
They were insane. infinitely more efficient on third down. And

(38:00):
they led one of the more improbable comeback filled seasons
that you'll ever see in both regular.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Season and post-season football.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
And he looks like an ascending, you know, I hesitate
to say superstar, but he's definitely on the right track.
There's no perfect, I guess, formula. for these things, but
I can't think of a quarterback who has not benefited
from sitting, and yet we have this knee-jerk reaction, it seems,
as both NFL fans and NFL organizations to just put

(38:29):
the player out there, whether they're ready or not.

Speaker 11 (38:31):
Right.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
First of all, I want to give you kudos for
properly saying the name Terod instead of Tyrod. You are
one of the very few, Buck, that actually knows his
name is Terod. I remember when he was in San Diego,
he says, people actually mispronounce my name. It's So, for years,
I literally have been calling him Tyrod. Don't call me
Tyrod Taylor, all right? So, I want to give you

(38:52):
kudos for that. That is marvelous.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Well, you know, I mean, it's like the H-N-E-T-N thing. Like,
if you tell me I'm saying your name wrong, okay, bud,
just tell me. I'll change it.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
Right.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
And that's what his mom says. His name is Tyrod.
So we always said, fine, his name is Tyrod. It's
not Tyrod. I love that. Look, you have to read
the room. You can't go by what other teams do.
You have to understand where your organization is right now.
And by the way, Kirk Cousins is a great person
for Fernando Mendoza to watch in what to do and

(39:23):
what not to do, right? He's a lead by example.
He's a pro's pro. He may not be the most talented, quarterback,
but he has had success. And I got to believe
that he's the kind of guy that Tom Brady says
is the perfect guy to have in the quarterback room
with our developing young quarterback. Also recognize that Mendoza in
the preseason, who made some phenomenal throws in his first

(39:46):
preseason game, made some questionable decisions after that. And so
that's when they were saying, all right, let's take a
pause here. Yeah, he looked exciting in that first game,
but he's making some rookie mistakes early. That's only going
to be amplified once we get into the regular season
as defenses get a little more sophisticated what he's looking at.
So that's what the Raiders, they can't worry about what

(40:08):
other teams do when you have the number one overall
pick as a quarterback, do what's best for us. And
I think they've made the absolute right move to have
Mendoza watch at least to start the season.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Fox football Saturday is brought to you by underdog football
is back and underdogs keep your million starts with a
start you with a million dollar stack make your picks
survive 20 rounds and whatever's left is yours underdog unleash
your dog terms to apply Oregon still trailing to Boise
State we're going to talk about it next on Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 11 (40:38):

Speaker 1 (40:43):
You know, there's only one problem with a highly anticipated season.
If you don't live up to those expectations, you start
this thing off on a really, really wrong foot. He's
Steve Hartman. I'm Buck Rising, hanging out here with you
on this Fox Football Saturday. We are awash in college football,
and it is glorious Thursday through Sunday to get the

(41:06):
football season going. Proper week zero. Maybe it gives you
a little taste of If you're chasing week zero, you
feel a little bit like a drug addict, right? Like
that's just, that's, that's just the most extreme, most middling
version of college football that you can find. And then
you get a little bit closer each and every week,
but this, this Boise state Oregon game, Steve, a lot

(41:29):
of football, a lot of football left to play.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
As we work.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Our way down past the two-minute warning, but a 17-7
lead for Boise State over the number two ranked team
in the country. And as Oregon punts, I ask you,
what the hell?

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Well, I mean, let's remember two years ago, Boise State
at Oregon, Autzen Stadium, Eugene, and Boise State lost that
game 37 to 34. That was an undefeated Oregon number
one ranked team at the end of the year. And
that was Boise's only loss until they got into the playoff.

(42:08):
They both ended up losing in their first round of
the playoff. So it's not like Boise comes out of
completely nowhere. And a lot of people, it's hard to
believe now when we talk about Boise State as a
Pac-12 school, but they are in what only has eight
schools now. They went from two schools to eight schools
in the Pac-12. But this is a good Boise State team.

(42:29):
They have talent. Just eyeball test here. Forget the score.
Just eyeball test. These two teams look very even on
the field. And then you have Dante Moore. Forget the
Heisman Trophy. Dante Moore is one of those guys. Remember,
he came back to Oregon, right? You know why he
came back to Oregon? A lot of money. But this
guy is being projected as being perhaps the number one

(42:52):
overall pick in the NFL draft. And he looks, you know,
maybe I'm a little biased because he started at UCLA
and then, of course, left the UCLA program, ended up
at Oregon. But I don't see that many highlights from
Dante Moore. You know, he just, to me, seems fairly pedestrian.
I watch some of these other quarterbacks around the country

(43:13):
just do things that I do not see from Dante Moore.
So this could be really an eye-opening loss, obviously, if
Oregon were to lose at home.

Speaker 11 (43:22):
There goes.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
You know, it's well, it's not impossible, obviously, for them
to win a national championship. We'll see much more when
Oregon comes to the Coliseum take on USC coming up
here in a few weeks. But, yeah, I mean, this
this to me would be obviously a really bad loss
for Oregon. But a real eye opener that there is
talent at some of these lesser schools that aren't in

(43:44):
the power conferences. And certainly Boise State has quite a
legacy over the years. Yeah, and that's how you get
poached and you end up in the Power 4 conference. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Everybody sees you on national TV doing it to Oregon
next year. All right, we'll give you a bag to
come play for LSU or Alabama or Indiana or any
of these other ones. You say it would be a
bad loss, and I, by no stretch of the imagination,
disagree with you. Oregon's schedule this year in the Big
Ten is not the easiest by any uh, by the
strength of schedule metrics that you would look at.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Certainly not like Indiana.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
I mean, my God, it must be nice to be
the national champion and just play your way through what,
what equates to an NFL fourth place schedule with your
biggest game being hosting Ohio state, but still nothing else
that really threatens you in the middle of your title
defense for Oregon. I, you don't want to see any,
any of these teams who are playing lesser opponents. And
there's no question that Boise should be a lesser opponent

(44:41):
because You want to see everybody come out and handle
business in the first week. Certainly, if you're the coaching staff,
this is supposed to be your version of a preseason
game unless you're Louisville and Ole Miss, which is the
only ranked matchup of the weekend. And, you know, we'll
say LSU and Clemson as well. This should be a tune-up.
Oregon getting humbled like this. And again, a lot of

(45:02):
football to be played. We still have about a minute
left in this half and a whole nother half of football.
And we'll see what Dan Lanning, Lanning, what the messaging
looks like heading into that locker room at half, especially
given that they are at home. I do think that
there is something to the idea of valuable losses though. Steve,
I understand that the college football playoff is not set

(45:24):
up to promote losses, but you can get away with
it more now in the current setup and than you
could in previous iterations of college football. And I don't
know if there's not something to be taken away from
this because this is a significantly different team than was
not just marketed.

Speaker 9 (45:39):
Right.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
But everything on paper, everything that you've seen, all the
tape that these guys have out there, even if Dante
Moore is more pedestrian than the hype around him would
lead you to believe this is exposing a lot of
different issues with the, with the Oregon football team that
if they have to eat it in a loss, they
have to get corrected because it's not like their Big
Ten schedule gets any easier.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
No, like I said, one of the big tests they're
going to have, and this is where USC, you know,
they've had cream puffs. They play San Jose State. They
play Fresno State. They got Louisiana. How about the fact
that they get to go to Rutgers? How does Greg
Shiano still have a job after losing to UMass? How
is that even possible?

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Every time I see Rutgers on television, I think about
the time that Tennessee fans ran him out.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
They hired him here, Steve.

Speaker 8 (46:22):
I know.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Ran him out of town. It's called Shiano Sunday here.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Losing to UMass. Oh, by the way, did you hear
what they paid UMass to play that game? So they
paid $ 1. 55 million to UMass to play that game.

Speaker 6 (46:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
I didn't know Rutgers had that kind of cash line
around the athletic department.

Speaker 6 (46:43):
Well, they're a Big Ten school.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
They're Big Ten. You know, Big Ten, all the schools
in the Big Ten have big money. But that was
the payoff for UMass to play that game. Supposedly, look,
a team hadn't even won a game in two years.
and Rutgers gets absolutely run off the field there. All right,
by the way, we have 30 seconds to go here
in the first half, and Boise is still leading Oregon 17-7.

(47:07):
Oregon has the ball at the very least. I want
to get into field goal range here and get some
points on the board. But, yeah, I mean, again, it's
too early to say. Like I said, I'm looking at
Oregon's schedule right now, Buck, as after Boise State, you know,
You know, they got to go on the road against
Oklahoma State, a program that's falling apart. Then you get

(47:29):
Portland State at home, but they're at USC, September 26th.
This is the game. This is the game where Lincoln Riley,
talk about coaches on a hot seat. Lincoln Riley, he's
one of those guys. To me, he's a complete fraud.
I've said this almost from day one when they hired
him from Oklahoma. This guy is basically a poor man's
Cliff Kingsbury. I would hire him as my quarterback coach

(47:51):
in a heartbeat, but as a head coach, you keep
losing close games. That's on you as a coach. That's
a game USC has to win. They have to beat
Oregon at home coming up here on September 26th. So
these are early games. Are they going to have much
of an impact as far as which teams make the postseason?
Think about this. We know you've got 12 teams in

(48:12):
the college football playoff, and we know at least three teams,
probably four teams from each of the SEC and the
Big Ten, will end up in the playoffs. So not
fatal for the Ducks. But they certainly don't want to
start the season with a loss. And they made a
big play. And it's a touchdown. Look at that. Did
I say Dante Moore was a pedestrian? Not with that throw. Touchdown, Ducks.

(48:38):
Right before the half with 19 seconds to go.

Speaker 5 (48:42):
Huge.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Huge for momentum. Again, still trailing as they get ready
to wrap up the first half there in Oregon.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
But a huge momentum play.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
To help try and carry the Ducks with some more
positive momentum into the second half against Boise State. I
want to go back to what you said about Lincoln
Riley because I'm glad to hear somebody else thinks this way.
I have so many people in the world of college
football regularly telling me, yeah, I know what.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
You think about Lincoln.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
And it's basically the same as you, Steve, that as
a head coach, this man has accomplished very, very little.
I understand that he was thought of as as a
wonder kind of, I understand his time at Oklahoma was
considered a success and should be considered a success, especially
given who he followed up, but to, to bring what
he has to USC and who have accomplished so little

(49:29):
with the talent that that he was able to import.
I mean, I think of Lincoln Riley as being on
the front end of the portal and finding different ways
to maximize his rosters in the modern age of college football.
I cannot believe he has lasted this long with the
way that that program, I think relative to expectation, you
tell me if I'm off base about this, because obviously.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
You're out there, but I just can't imagine that they've could.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Underperform more relative to their expectation, to their pedigree, and
who you expected them to be when you hired Lincoln Riley.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Well, think about this. His predecessor, Clay Helton, Clay Helton,
he was fired by USC, and his winning percentage during
his run at USC was 657%. Lincoln Riley's winning percentage
to USC going into this year is 660. It's the
same guy. So he hadn't done anything. And by the way,
remember that first year, USC paid a mint in NIL

(50:26):
money to bring Caleb Williams to USC with Lincoln Riley
from Oklahoma. They started that season 11-1. Things were great.
And then they get blown out of the Pac-12 championship
game by Utah. And then one of the all-time bowl
game collapses in losing to Tulane. Since that time, their

(50:46):
winning percentage has been sub-600. The only reason that Lincoln
Riley is still there, and believe me, I have plenty
of USC fans that have been screaming for his head
over the last couple of years, is the buyout in
his contract. The buyout is somewhere north of $ 70 million.
And even with, in fact, it said here, yeah, the

(51:09):
buyout is right now still at around $ 60 to $ 75 million. Now,
USC is one of those schools that seems they have
unlimited money. But I will make this prediction about Lincoln
Riley as far as this year is concerned. If they
finish the year 9-3 and they're heading to the Alamo Bowl,

(51:30):
he will not be coaching that game. OK, so they
go nine and three and they're heading to the Alamo Bowl.
Lincoln Riley will not be coaching that game. This is
a team that brought back more starters than any other
FBS school this year. Fifteen. They have a third year

(51:51):
starting quarterback in Mayava. They had the number one ranked
recruiting class in the country last. So there are no
more excuses for Lincoln Riley. And like I said, they
got cream puffs early on, but that home game coming
up here in a couple of weeks, three weeks against
Oregon will be the game. If they win that game,

(52:14):
he gets to move forward. If they lose at home
to Oregon, he's in deep trouble, deep trouble.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Well, a lot has been made about crowds at the
Coliseum and it's a massive venue. So I almost don't
fault them for, you know, looking or the optics of
the Coliseum. But when you have you have the New
York Post five hours ago, Steve, doing a story on
how they found out how.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
Many people actually. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Through the gates for the San Jose state game, 35,585.
That's 15,000, almost 16,000 fewer fans than what USC announced
as tickets out again, tickets distributed as the way the
teams had started announcing tickets distributed as the way that

(53:04):
And listen, a lot of people are enjoying the at-home
experience more. I'm not banging on USC fans. I don't
want it to sound like that at all because I
cover a team here in Tennessee and a fan base
here that doesn't show up to games, and I don't
blame them. Spend your money on something more worthwhile rather
than to watch a 3-14 product on a regular basis.
I'm not down on fans. doing that at all. I

(53:25):
just think that that Oregon game, to your point, is so,
so critical. And again, I would defer to you and
your expertise, especially since you're out there in L.A., on
USC and the import of that football program. It just
seems like they have so much that they need to
see before they can be won back over. And the

(53:46):
Oregon game simply to me would be a starting point
based on where they have kind of where they kind
of languished, right?

Speaker 2 (53:53):
They're not, they're not terrible, but they are just stuck
in this purgatory.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
And you see all these different college football programs finding
ways to maximize their abilities with way less resource than
somebody like a USC has. I just think that that's
the first step in the right direction as opposed to
the thing that would turn the tide in his favor.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
You disagree?

Speaker 11 (54:13):
Well, no.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
And here's the other thing. So everyone's like, well, I mean,
they moved to the Big Ten. Well, that didn't seem
to affect Oregon. Since when did Oregon football lap USC football?
In what alternate universe did suddenly the University of Oregon
put together a better football program than USC and their legacy?

(54:35):
My father went to USC. I was raised a Trojan,
and I became a Bruin, okay? And when the Pete Carroll,
I remember when Pete Carroll took over, and here I
am a diehard Bruin, and I remember covering their first
BCS championship game when they played Oklahoma. I remember they

(54:55):
blew them out there at the Miami Gardens. I was
down there. And I actually thanked Pete Carroll. I walked
up to him and said, Coach, I want to thank you,
not for me, but I want to thank you for
my father, who USC football is his number one thing
in life as far as sports is concerned, and you
have made them relevant. And by the way, in the

(55:16):
height of the Pete Carroll era, even if they were
playing Utah State, you know, at the Coliseum, they packed
that place. I can tell you right now, there is
no buzz in L.A. for USC football. zero buzz there's
no buzz for ucla football either let me make that

(55:36):
clear but there is no buzz there was that period
of time in the mid-2000s when they had liner when
they had reggie bush when they had these great teams
led by p carroll they were the hottest ticket in
la hottest ticket the dodgers were a little bit down
lakers were a little bit down usc took over la
took over la And, you know, culminate with that unbelievable game,

(55:58):
losing that Rose Bowl to Texas. They own the city.
There's nowhere near that. There is no buzz. And people
are saying, well, you know, it's different. I got, you know, Tuscaloosa.
That's all they got. Right. Or this, that or anything else. Yeah.
But there have been times in L.A. when USC frustrated.
football was so strong that they would pack that Coliseum

(56:20):
regardless of the opponent. It didn't matter. People wanted to
be there. There's none of that anymore. And a lot
of it has to do with Lincoln Riley. He doesn't,
he doesn't inspire anybody, anybody. Now, if they get on
a roll this year, And I remember when Pete Carroll,
his first year when he took over, SC was down.

(56:41):
They were 6-6 his first year. Nothing seemed to be changing.
And then the next year, they lost a couple of
games early, and then boom, they got red hot. Carson
Palmer goes on to win the Heisman Trophy, and then
they never look back from that. That's what SC needs.
That's what they were expecting when they got Lincoln Riley.
They were sold a fraud. He's not that kind of coach,

(57:02):
not even close to being that kind of coach. So,
I mean, it's going to be critical, yes, for them to,
you know, for him to keep his job that they
play well the rest of the year. And when I
say play well, that means you've got to be in
the playoff. You have to be in the playoff. Anything
else less than that is not going to work. It
is a shame because I have been in this city

(57:23):
pretty much my entire life, and I can tell you
there have been times when USC football was the buzz
of the entire city, and that is so far gone
with Clay Helton and now with Lincoln Riley. They're an afterthought,
and that's why even this game yesterday, they had 45,000
was the official number. They announced 53,000. It was 45,000.

(57:43):
That's embarrassing. That's just unbelievably embarrassing. embarrassing for usc football
regardless of who they're playing.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Yeah it's it's one of those things in sports that
that means so much historically that you hate to see
uh anything that would that would tarnish it and that's
just been kind of the case it's not just usc
but usc one of the more notable ones a lot
of these second window games have gone to half so
i'm gonna take this opportunity to talk a little nfl
with steve hartman stick around it's fox sports radio.

Speaker 6 (58:13):
Check us out on YouTube, subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon,
and comment away.

Speaker 8 (58:44):
Fox sports radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation catch all of our shows at fox sports
radio.com and within the iheart radio app search fsr to
listen live.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
So we'll get you caught up on the college football
scoreboard here in just a few minutes from now but
a lot of these second slate games at half not
really much to report other than the Boise State 17
to 14 lead. Oregon getting a late touchdown there at
the end of the half to give themselves at least
a little bit of momentum. He's Steve Hartman. I'm Buck Rising,

(59:21):
hanging out here with you. Steve, we have football. We
have NFL football on Wednesday night.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Yes, we do, Buck. Not soon enough. Because we're playing
an Australia game on.

Speaker 11 (59:33):
Thursday, so everybody's got to move everything.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
The hell around for this Australia game. How about this
Australian game? The big story here is the Rams, right?
So the 49ers are already there. They're practicing. The Rams
are going to basically arrive in Melbourne the day before
the game. It's a 16-hour flight. So they have these doctors, right?

(59:59):
So they have these guys that basically are talking about
preserving rhythm and routine with a kind of weird travel
schedule when you go down under and somehow not completely
lose it when you return back to the States. So
this could be genius, obviously, if the Rams come out

(01:00:20):
and play well and beat the 49ers. But if they
look like a team that has incredible jet lag, I mean,
their clocks would literally be 16 hours off. And if
they lose to the 49ers, big game in the division,
they will be absolutely ridiculed. So apparently they got these
scientists that have figured this whole thing out. They're like, yeah, yeah,

(01:00:44):
you don't need to get out there early. In fact,
you can arrive the day before the game and you'll
be fine. You'll be more than fine. I cannot wait
to see how this plays out. I mean, this is
absolutely nuts. The Rams will not leave until Tuesday night.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
We can agree that there's no way this football game
is good, right? Like, if you ship this thing off
to Australia, whether you've been there for a handful of
days or whether you're getting there two days before, like,
this is not going to be a well-played football game
on the other side of the world for all the
logistical reasons you just brought up.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
Well, look, I... I was talking to my friend Matt
Money Smith. He's the voice of the L.A. Chargers. And
so Money and I were doing a show together on Thursday,
and we were talking about this whole international scene in
the NFL. Why are we playing all these international games?
There's no way they're going to have just a random

(01:01:39):
team in London. You can't do that. First of all,
what player would want to live in London because you'd
be subjected to England's tax laws, which as bad as
ours are, theirs are worse. So if you were creating
like a European division where you had four new teams,
I mean, none of this seems to make sense. The
international games, look, I get the NFL wants to go international,

(01:02:03):
but the rest of the world has their own brand
of football. We have American football. And as rich as
the NFL is, they don't need this. They really don't.
And it really causes a problem, you know, when you're
flying to South America or Europe or Australia to play
these games. So it's like giving to what are you

(01:02:24):
actually gaining from this? Are you going to have teams
around the world in the NFL? The logistics are brutal.
This is not basketball. This is not baseball. This is
like you need a week of preparation, not just to
prepare for a game, but to recover from the previous
game physically.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
I just don't understand why the NFL is so hell-bent
on having these games, but the Rams are going to
try a different tact again. They leave L.A. on Tuesday
night for a game that's actually going to be played
Friday in Australia, but Thursday in our hemisphere.

Speaker 5 (01:02:59):
Crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
It's just a completely ridiculous thing. I mean, but Steve,
everybody that I talk to as somebody who covers the
NFL on a daily basis and covers a team on
a daily basis, that international division thing is so real.
And I don't know what the timeline for that looks like,
but that's absolutely the way that they envision this. And it's, it's,
it's one of those things where did the NFL need

(01:03:23):
to take Christmas day from the NBA?

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
No, but they knew they could.

Speaker 5 (01:03:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
And so they did it anyway. Right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
Do, do they need to suffocate college football once we
get later into the year and start dropping Texans Titans
divisional games on a, on a college football Saturday to
compete with college football because they know they can hold
their own.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
Even if the product is, is, Frankly, in a lot
of cases, slop.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
They have been able to monetize the most watered-down version
of their product at every turn, Steve. And so while
I am against it at every turn, I don't blame them.
I do blame them for being this kind of greedy,
but I don't blame them for thinking that they can
get away with it because they've.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
Gotten away with it at every turn.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
And the international scoped Of course, they're not going to
actually cut into football, right? To European football, to La Liga,
to Bundesliga, all these different things, to the Turkish league, right?
But they think that they can put up enough of
a fighting chance where somebody... will give them more money
in an apple TV streaming deal or a Netflix streaming

(01:04:33):
deal to be the first streamer exclusively to broadcast an
NFL game played in Tokyo or something like that. Like
this is what they're doing at a certain point. They
have to be financially preparing and financially preparing their owners.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
For, for the top, for whatever the top of.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
This thing looks like, because they're going to hit their,
their top at a certain point.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
But I have no idea when that's going to happen
to them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
Mark Cuban predicted that they were, that they were pigs
going to get slaughtered 10 years ago. And all they've
done is continue to lap every other pro sports team
or pro sports league in this country because of the
way that we cannot, we cannot put down our football habit.
We continue to encourage their behavior by the fact that
I watched all of those Christmas Day games in the NFL, Steve,

(01:05:24):
and I think only one team was still eligible for
the postseason at that point. I think every other team
that played on that Christmas Day slate on Netflix was
mathematically eliminated.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
This is ridiculous. By the way, by the way, give
the NFL credit. They finally threw in the towel on
the pro bowl. No flag football game. That's over. And
then this, I think what really was the problem was
I didn't understand when you don't actually have a game game,
why you would replace guys on a roster. And, you know,
remember last year, Shador Sanders, who had the fourth lowest

(01:05:55):
QBR of any quarterback over the last 10 years with
enough pass attempts to actually qualify for that, ends up
getting to the Pro Bowl because, well, nobody else wanted
to go. So they got rid of that. They're going
to name the Pro Bowl teams. They're not going to
be any substitutes. They'll get honored and everything else. So
they got rid of that game. So sometimes less is
more on this. But again, the idea of, I mean, how, yeah,

(01:06:19):
but you have it so perfect. You have 32 teams.
You have eight divisions of four. You know, are you
going to expand the playoffs one more level so there's
no buys in the first round?

Speaker 11 (01:06:27):
Maybe.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
A lot of this also hinges on when they're going
to go to an 18-game schedule. That that is going
to be that's going to be the next step. Getting
from 17 games because, you know, Buck, what they're going
to do is, you know, you have 17 games over
18 weeks. They're proposing 18 games over 20 weeks. Two
buys for everyone pretty much would eliminate the preseason, which

(01:06:50):
would be merciful. By the way, remember in 2020 COVID year,
there was no preseason. They were able to survive quite wisely, okay?
They don't need a preseason. That's a joke. But once
they do that, the idea of exploring to any kind
of expansion in the NFL will be in the next
line in order. I don't know, Buck, how far do

(01:07:10):
you go? 32, 40, 48 teams? Where's the end to this?
they're an end to this in terms of the expansion
because remember this they have an equal distribution of the
network television money which coincides with the salary cap meaning
that none of the actual salaries are out of pocket
for these owners the money that they have to spend
is on coaches scouting all the you know organizational things

(01:07:34):
that's where the money comes out of the pocket but
the players salaries are covered by the equal distribution of
the network money so we'll see how this plays out
but I hope not I just Keep it here in America.
This is American football. We don't need to be playing
overseas our great game.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
Fox Football Saturday is brought to you by Underdog. Football
is back and Underdogs keep your million. Starts you with
a million dollar stack.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
Make your pick.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Survive 20 rounds and whatever is left.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Is yours.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
Underdog, unleash your dog. Terms do apply. We'll talk more
about the Rams and the Niners playing in Australia right
after Martin gets us caught up.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
Boise State had an opportunity to score a touchdown and
take a 21-7 lead over Oregon late in the second quarter.

Speaker 10 (01:08:27):
They neglected to do it, ran the ball on.

Speaker 3 (01:08:28):
Third down, kicked a field goal, and since then, Oregon
now scored a touchdown late in the second quarter.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
It's still Boise State leading 17-14.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Oregon has the ball.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
They just got a first down, but they did just
get a flag.

Speaker 3 (01:08:40):
Oregon has been shooting themselves in the foot, especially with
these seemingly false starts and touchdowns. And holding penalties on
the offensive side of the ball, that's really been, to me,
what the struggle has been, especially in the second half.
I mean, second half of the first half, so, late
and midway through the second quarter. But it is 17-14,
three plays into the second half now. 17-14 with Oregon.

(01:09:04):
I was shocked at what the score is and also
shocked at the way that Oregon has been playing because
Boise State really was pushing them around for most of
the first quarter and midway through.

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
The second one.

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
Texas with a 35-7 lead over Texas State at the
start of the third quarter there. Texas, the fifth-ranked team
in the nation. 18th-ranked Penn State has a 31-0 lead
over Marshall. 20th-ranked Tennessee, 35-0 over Furman. And Iowa, 30-0
over Northern Illinois.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Steve, you said there's no preseason.

Speaker 10 (01:09:32):
I would neglect that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
I mean, when I'm looking at Georgia with a 56-3
lead over Tennessee State.

Speaker 10 (01:09:37):
In a game in which they have been blowing them.

Speaker 3 (01:09:39):
Out since, I don't know, 28-0 in the first quarter,
this might be a preseason game. Ohio State also might
have played a preseason game earlier today against Ball State, 56-3.

Speaker 10 (01:09:49):
The number one team in the nation did.

Speaker 3 (01:09:51):
Sixth-ranked Indiana with a 52-16 win over North Texas. Former
TCU quarterback Josh Hoover had four touchdown passes for the Hoosiers.
Alabama beat East Carolina 48-2. 10 13th ranked crimson tide
and 23rd ranked houston with a 33 to 20 win
over oregon state major league baseball bottom of the fourth

(01:10:12):
inning the cubs with a four to.

Speaker 10 (01:10:13):
One lead over the marlins and.

Speaker 3 (01:10:15):
Top of the sixth it's the giants with a six
to two lead over the mets third and 10 right
now for oregon in their opening drive of the second
half that is going to be a first down completion
and Got tripped up there.

Speaker 10 (01:10:28):
Yeah, but that's going to be a first down.

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
Oregon, it was shaky in about the first 18, 20
minutes of this game, but it seems like they're starting
to find their footing.

Speaker 10 (01:10:36):
Steve and Buck, back to you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
We'll see how it plays out. Thank you, Martin.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
College football is something we will swing back around to. Obviously,
we've got a full slate of college football. We'll get
you ready for LSU and Clemson, which will be the
highlight of today's slate in just a moment. But you mentioned, Steve,
that the Rams are the story of this Australia trip
for their strategy. the logistical planning around taking that team

(01:11:04):
to Australia with very, very little ramp up for lack
of a better term in differentiating from what the Niners
are doing, which is giving themselves plenty of time to
get over there, get acclimated and get ready for this
Thursday game. Of course, we will start the season with
new England at Seattle, a rematch that absolutely nobody asked
for from this past year, super bowl, but for the Rams,

(01:11:27):
I don't think I've talked to you, Steve, since Aaron
Donald was officially officially announced to be coming back. Would
you play him in this Australia game? Because not only
are you, are you tempting fate here a little bit
with your strategy around your travel and your preparation and
all the different things that athletes and coaches are so
rigid about, which is just their daily routine. You're talking

(01:11:50):
about a 35 year old who hasn't been given the
full go just yet. Two years removed from football at
a very, very physically intense level.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
I mean, they're in a great spot where you can
talk about them not necessarily needing Aaron Donald, but if
it was me, I wouldn't put him out there on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
I agree with you. I think that people have to
understand this. Look, Aaron Donald is not just a future
first ballot Hall of Famer. He is on the short
list of one of the greatest defensive linemen in the
history of the NFL. Okay, let's make that clear. He
has sat out two full seasons. Two full seasons. seasons

(01:12:30):
he has not played in a football game in three
years so no matter how he looks in workouts the
guy was always a physical specimen that doesn't matter and
you know who knows that aaron donald knows that i
think what you do in this game he's making the
trip to australia is you just give him a little

(01:12:50):
taste right a little spot duty here 10 plays here
15 plays Basically, I see that happening the entire season
because Buck, ultimately, he's coming back because he wants a
second ring. The idea of bringing back Aaron Donald is
to win another Super Bowl. Well, you're not going to

(01:13:12):
get the benefits of Aaron Donald if he gets hurt
early in the season and the season ends. And by
the way, then you're on the hook for paying him
$ 20 million. He gets $ 30 million with incentive. My guess
is you would rather pay him the $ 30 million with incentive,
which probably includes a trip to the Super Bowl. then
just giving him 20 million and him going down with
an injury early in the season. So I think the

(01:13:34):
Rams are going to be smart about this. I think
Aaron Donald's going to be smart of this. Maybe he'll
surprise himself. Maybe he gets out there and he feels like, wow,
I feel better than I actually thought I would early on.
But like, so I have a 49er fan friend of mine, right?
He's on the radio and he's all worried about Aaron Donald.

Speaker 6 (01:13:52):
He goes, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
Pick your poison, Aaron Donald or miles Garrett. I go, yeah,
If I were the 49ers and Aaron Donald is on
the field, I am gunning for Aaron Donald until he
proves that he is the guy that was Aaron Donald
three years ago. Then we're going to run all over
this guy and hit him from every angle. I'm sure

(01:14:14):
the Rams know that there's a big rivalry, a lot
of friendship between Kyle Shanahan. and Sean McVay. So yeah,
I don't expect, he could be surprised. Almost every one
of my predictions buck or wrong. It's, it's crazy. No
one's made more bad predictions than I have over the years.
But that being said, it would make sense that you're
trying to get Aaron Donald to stay healthy over 18

(01:14:37):
weeks and 17 games and be fully prepared to make
a deep playoff run. That's asking a lot of a
35 year old who has not played an NFL game
in three years.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Yeah, it's a total science experiment to me. I don't
know what the precedent is for something like that. Like,
I remember Richie Incognito a couple of years ago, the
former offensive lineman beyond the off-the-field stories that Richie had,
retired and then came back after a year layoff. It's
not unprecedented that a player would take time off or
a season off, removed, and then return. I mean, I

(01:15:12):
cover Calvin Ridley. Calvin Ridley was suspended for a year
from gambling. I think he was out of the league
for basically a year and a half And Calvin has
not had the most successful return to the NFL, but
he's still been an NFL player and he's still been
a serviceable wide receiver to add an advanced age. The
Aaron Donald thing, especially at that position, Steve, I can't,

(01:15:32):
I can't fathom in my, in my mind, the idea
that he could just snap his fingers and turn into,
you know, a top 10 defensive tackle all of a
sudden after being the best one I may have ever seen.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
Yeah, I mean, it's possible. Anything is possible. But, I mean,
think about, I mean, very different position, Michael Vick, right?
He was in prison. I mean, he was out for
a couple of years. They didn't throw him in to
be a starter. They gave him a little spot duty,
sort of got comfortable, and all of a sudden he
felt good, and then he played a couple of really
good years after that. But, again, the long-term plan for

(01:16:04):
Aaron Donald, because it's a one-year deal, is have Aaron
Donald healthy. At the end of the year, when the
games really count in the postseason, because the goal here
is to win a Super Bowl championship. Even without Aaron Donald,
the Rams are the overwhelming favorites to win the Super
Bowl this year. By the way, teams that have been
this favored going into the season as Super Bowl champions last.

(01:16:27):
never win the Super Bowl championship I just want to
sort of throw I mean when I say I saw
this stat the other day was unbelievable teams that have
had as good odds in their favor heading into the
season as the Rams do this season none of them
like the last 10 have not won the Super Bowl
so you know just you know give them 10 plays
in this first game maybe it'd be still healthy feeling

(01:16:50):
good give him 15 plays let him move up a
little bit and and take.

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
It from there A college football playoff contender is not
getting near enough hype. We'll talk about it coming up
next on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 11 (01:17:04):

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
Pulls a trigger deep down the right side of the field.
Ball in the air, and it is caught in the
end zone.

Speaker 5 (01:17:14):
Jeremiah Smith, 48-yard touchdown grab from Julian Sand.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
And Ohio State gets their first TD of the year,
leading 6-0.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
That is courtesy of the Learfield Sports Network, Ohio State.
Radio there, Jeremiah Smith. Not leaving anything to the imagination.
151 yards on eight receptions, two touchdowns, two of Julian
Sayen's three touchdowns in an absolute demolition of the Ball

(01:17:46):
State Cardinals.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
No chirping today.

Speaker 1 (01:17:49):
56-3 is a crazy score, but that's what we come
to expect when you talk about contenders in week one against,
as Steve Hartman calls them, cream puffs.

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
But Steve, I don't think.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
there has been any real conversation, any real hype around
the Ohio state football team. This year is the number
one team in the country. There've been all the Jeremiah
Smith headlines in the world. We're talking about how this
guy could go pro yesterday and absolutely could first touchdown
reception that he had was just filthy.

Speaker 2 (01:18:21):
Just absolutely filthy.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
And yet every conversation around Ohio state comes back to
that wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
He justifiably.

Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
So, but I can't remember a time where I've seen
such an outsized level of conversation around one player versus
the best team on the country and the national championship
favorite that he plays for. I feel like there's been
very little discussion of Julian saying he's top five in
the Heisman odds, but he's just two spots ahead. of

(01:18:51):
Jeremiah Smith in the Heisman trophy odds. And I know
that's something that you're going to keep an eye on
as a Heisman voter throughout the course of the college
football season. Are we not talking enough about Ohio state?

Speaker 2 (01:19:01):
Well, I think that it's you're, you're a little weary.
I mean, they won the championship two years ago. They
won the national champ. Remember, they were the eighth seed
that year in the 12-team playoff, and they ended up
winning the national championship. By the way, with Jeremiah Smith. Again,
the Heisman Trophy is for the best college football player
in the country. So I've been voting on this for

(01:19:24):
16 years right now. Not everyone that I have voted
for has actually won the Heisman Trophy. But you can
certainly make an argument that Jeremiah Smith is the best
college football player in the country, much as Larry Fitzgerald
was at the University of Pittsburgh back in 2003 when
he was second place. in the Heisman Trophy. We did

(01:19:44):
have Devontae Smith win the Heisman as a wide receiver
in 2020 in the COVID year. So I'm keeping an
eye on him. But I don't know if it's just that.
I think that, you know, Ohio State just sort of
sits there. We always know Ohio State is going to
be in the conversation. I just think at this point, Buck,
a lot of teams are trying to highlight some of
the other teams that might be challenging. And then, of course,

(01:20:06):
Indiana winning, your Hoosiers winning the national championship last year
really changed everything because now it's like, wow, you mean
a team like Indiana could win a national championship? So
I think people are sort of digging in and trying
to figure out. I'll tell you a team a lot
of people say could do it is Ole Miss, right?
Trinidad Chambliss, their back of quarterback, Ole Miss. Could they

(01:20:27):
win a national championship? Indiana has changed that dynamic. So
I think that's why Ohio State is a little bit
off the radar right now.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
With the iHeart app, you can stream us wherever you are.
Catch us and all of our Fox Sports Radio shows live.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
24-7 in the new and improved iHeart app.

Speaker 1 (01:20:45):
Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app to stream
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Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
At the top of your screen.

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
Again, just search Fox Sports Radio in the iHeart app
to listen live. Yeah, Ohio State is going to be
fascinating to watch this year because they are not far
removed at all from winning that national championship. And the
Big Ten has continued to just win championship after championship
after championship. We'll see how the college football season plays out.

(01:21:18):
Looking forward to it. Keep it locked here on Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 11 (01:21:22):

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
Yes, it is indeed a Fox football Saturday, and we
are grateful for football back in our lives. We're also grateful,
as will you be, for Underdog Fantasy, which is who
brings you this show. Football is back, and underdogs keep
your million. Starts you with a million-dollar stack. Make your picks,
survive 20 rounds, and whatever's left is yours. Underdog, unleash

(01:21:49):
your dog. terms do apply the Tennessee Titans. Steve, that's
a team that, you know, that I cover and they've
been in the news for all the wrong reasons this week.

Speaker 2 (01:22:00):
They are only favored.

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
In one game and that is at home in week
one against the New York jets, which I would rather
be talking about. But instead we have spent a lot
of time here locally and I've seen it talked about
a lot nationally about the Tennessee Titans for the first
time in franchise history, pulling the credential of a media
member without giving real cause. That media member joins us now.
It is Jared Stillman, longtime buddy of mine and the

(01:22:24):
host of Stillman and Company, which you can subscribe to
on YouTube.

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
Buddy, thank you for the time.

Speaker 9 (01:22:30):
Glad to be here, Buck.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
So regale the audience who may not be familiar with
your background covering the Titans and how they came to
pull your credential.

Speaker 9 (01:22:45):
So I've been covering the Titans since 2015. I was
on the radio for 10 years. I did afternoon drive.
I mean, I am so old. I date back to
doing radio and national covering the Titans to when Buck
was an intern at our station. And look at him now. Um,
but I do feel like, um, you know, that I

(01:23:10):
had transitioned out of the local radio job into a
podcast job, uh, had really built, I think, and for
a local, you know, niche team, like the Titans had
built a, you know, a decent enough audience fan base
reaction base. Um, and I think that the Titans, I
think had gotten sick of me being critical of their

(01:23:30):
football team and personally, They're probably their most insecure moment
right now, transitioning into a new stadium with a number
one picket quarterback. I think it started to hit the
wrong nerves. And I think that viral moment with cam
ward the week before, which I thought was a fine interaction.
I mean, I didn't have a problem with it and

(01:23:50):
I don't think cam did either, but But the reaction
to that probably led to the Titans saying, okay, we
don't want to be criticized anymore. Let's just get this
out of the building, get this out of the way,
so that we'll pretend to ignore his noise.

Speaker 2 (01:24:07):
Jared, Steve Hartman here. You think you're old. Jeff Fish
and I graduated the same year from the same high school. OK,
so I go way back. And I also was the
media relations director for the L.A. Raiders during the 80s.
And I don't have to tell you how many times
that my boss, Al Davis, would walk up to me

(01:24:27):
and tell me, get him off the field. In other words,
grab this media member that said something derogatory about the
Raiders and escort him off the premises. Of course, immediately
he would file a complaint with the league, and then
he would be reinstated. Do you have any recourse here?

(01:24:48):
I mean, because honestly, the Titans are out of line.
If they're just removing people that are critical of the franchise,
that is not a reason for revoking a credential. But
like I said, back in those days, The media members
that I would escort off the premises would immediately return
after filing a grievance with the league.

Speaker 9 (01:25:11):
So I'm sure I probably could file some sort of
grievance with the league or some sort of appeal. I
am not a member of the pro football writers association, which.

Speaker 5 (01:25:19):
I believe buck you are.

Speaker 9 (01:25:20):
I am not a member. So I'm not covered with
that sort of protection. And I'll say this, you know,
I viewed kind of my jobs and I thought it
was a little different when I was on the radio
versus doing a podcast, but I always felt like my
job when it came to access was to really, you know,
Go when there's something that is worth going for. So

(01:25:46):
I think sometimes there was a sense that I didn't
go all the time because I didn't go to the
assistant general manager's press conference when, quite frankly, I don't
really care what the assistant general manager has to say.
I care about what the general manager.

Speaker 2 (01:25:57):
Has to say.

Speaker 9 (01:25:58):
And and so I feel like, you know, is it
worth to me? I don't think that removing the credential
is worth what it meant to the Titans and the
fallout for Cam Ward. I don't think that was worth
it to them. I'm not sure it's really worth it
to me to push this and try to litigate one
way or another, whether or not I should be in

(01:26:19):
five Titan press conferences a season.

Speaker 1 (01:26:23):
Jared Stillman, host of Stillman and Company on YouTube. You
can subscribe to the YouTube channel where if you are
interested in Titans and Tennessee-related hot takes. Known Jared a
long time, and obviously I am somebody who covers the
Titans on a daily basis. When they told the rest
of the media core that they were going to yank
your credential, the thing that was cited to us... and

(01:26:46):
not in specific instances, was it was a subject of
journalistic integrity. Jared Stillman, should the Tennessee Titans get to
decide what journalistic integrity is?

Speaker 9 (01:26:56):
You know, I don't think they should, but I also
don't know, other than the NFL hiring an ombudsman to
cover each of the 32 clubs, I'm not necessarily sure
who would. You know, they do run the credentialing system.
They do, you know, as far as logistics are concerned
for the media, they do run that. So I totally

(01:27:17):
understand what you're saying. I just think that, you know,
I don't think the Tennessee Titans' interest is in journalistic integrity.
I don't think that anybody in that press corps, you
would speak better to that than I would, Buck. But
I don't think anybody in that press corps thinks that
the Titans are making this move out of journalistic integrity.
And I think that as long as everybody's aware of that,

(01:27:41):
I think it makes it even harder for them to justify.

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
So was there anything leading up to this? I mean,
they didn't give any specific reasons, Jerry, but how would
you term your relationship with the Titan organization over the years?

Speaker 13 (01:27:56):
Well, I grew up.

Speaker 9 (01:27:58):
In Nashville and I remember when we were a minor
league sports town and people liked Tennessee and Vanderbilt. And
so I remember when the Oilers moved from Houston, I
went to the first game they played in Nashville in
98 against the then San Diego chargers, the Tennessee Oilers.
So I'm a huge Titan fan. And I stayed a
Titan fan, even though I was on the air because

(01:28:19):
I could separate the two. I really, really felt like
I had what I would consider a love hate relationship
with the Titans. It was, Hey, you know, I love
the Titans. I grew up a huge fan. I want
to see good things happen in the city of Nashville.
And there's a lot of good people over there. And
over the years, there have been a lot of good coaches,
a lot of good players. And I've wanted good things

(01:28:40):
to happen for. But then at the same time, like,
you know, the Titans always have unforced errors. The Titans
always have unnecessary drama. And the Titans are the definition
of instability. And so I think that they kind of
felt the same way, where they, I think, appreciated how
much I enjoyed covering the Titans. But at the same time,

(01:29:00):
they probably were sick and tired of the way that
I do it, which is by what I believe to
be being blatantly honest, sometimes even if it makes people uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (01:29:12):
Well, one such example of that, Jared, that I would cite,
and again, you know my position on this, and I've
talked to you about this before. I don't believe that
card-carrying fans of any team should be credentialed media members,
so I did not believe in you being a credentialed
media member on the outset.

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
That's not a personal attack.

Speaker 1 (01:29:29):
That's just a principal situation, understanding that that's not the
world that we live in. One such example that's often
cited is in this conversation is a tweet from before
the Titans played the Patriots. What would Amy Adam Strunk, who,
if you don't know, is the controlling owner of the
Tennessee Titans, rather have? And this is Jared's tweet. The
best orgasm she's ever had or a win over Mike Vrabel.

(01:29:53):
Do you think that crosses a line?

Speaker 9 (01:29:56):
Yeah, I think it does. I mean, I do think that,
you know, sending that out, this is when I had
just really started going with the podcast and I was
trying to, you know, kind of, I was trying to
flex a muscle of like, oh, I can be like
really funny, like a Howard Stern type funny. But it

(01:30:16):
was a mistake. I probably shouldn't have said it. I
guess what I would say though is while I understand that, Usually,
if an issue like that is of prominence, then it
gets dealt with when it happens. It's not like the
Titans were upset about that and then because of that
decided to remove my credential. The defining moment that led

(01:30:38):
to this was the interaction with Cam Ward the Thursday
before the Bears preseason game. And that was before they
told me on Tuesday that I was no longer welcome there.
So I just don't think that that's the defining issue
in this. They didn't cite it as the first thing.
They didn't cite it as the second thing. Um, and
if that's, that's not integrity, um, as far as like, well,

(01:31:01):
journalistic integrity. So I trust me, it's not something that
I'm proud of. It's not something that I, you know, like,
you know, still point to today and think it's hilarious,
but I don't think it's that big of a deal.
And I also think that if it was that big
of a deal in the Titans felt that way, they
would have done something about it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
I'm just curious for someone that's been following the Titans
organization over these many years, um, Is it dramatically different
since the passing of Bud Adams and his children essentially
taking over control of this franchise, or is it pretty
much the same?

Speaker 9 (01:31:35):
I would say that on the whole, it's pretty much
the same. There was a moment in there where Steve Underwood,
who was Bud Adams' kind of right-hand man, and he
ran the Titans in Nashville while Bud lived in Houston.
When Steve Underwood was the president of the team, there
was at least a semblance of stability. Now, they had
one really embarrassing coaching change, you know, when they ended

(01:31:56):
up hiring Mike Rabel. under the Steve Underwood tenure. But
for the most part, it was professionalism and they improved
as a football team. The owner, Amy Adams Strunk, did
not appear a lot publicly when she did. It was
always for good things. And Titans fans really, I think,
kind of fell in love with a certain version of
Amy Adams Strunk that as they won, she was there

(01:32:16):
kind of more supportive with the fans. The fans weren't
asking her to make the big trade or they weren't
demanding her to fire the coach. And I think she
really bought into that. And so there was a little
period there where, I mean, it felt like a real
honeymoon between Amy Adams trunk is the controlling owner and
the fans and buck remembers that. And then I think,
Over the years, with the consistent change in leadership, at

(01:32:40):
times what feels like overreactive moves, I think that that
really epitomized some of the issues that the late Bud
Adams had when he was in Houston, and they're all
very similar. The patterns are almost incredibly parallel. So, yeah,
I'd say there's a lot of that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
We'll wrap up with this one, and we're talking to
Jared Stillman, who covers Tennessee sports locally. You can follow
the Stillman & Company YouTube channel where Jared does his
weekday show. And, of course, we're talking to him because
the Titans, for the first time in franchise history, revoked
his credential, revoking a media member's credential for the first

(01:33:20):
time as a franchise. Do you think they thought it
was going to get this much traction?

Speaker 9 (01:33:26):
You know, I think it would be hard that they
couldn't envision that. But, but we've seen moves the Titans
have made and we've seen some of the reactions when
they've made them like the choice for color analyst, instead
of a former Tennessee Titan, when there were many former
Tennessee Titans out there that were qualified and wanting to

(01:33:47):
do the job, they hired a former Pittsburgh Steeler and
that upset a lot of people. And I wondered, did
they know how people were going to feel when they
did that? Well, surely they did. but we've been saying
that for a long time with some of these decisions
that the Titans have made over the years that have
been just terrible. And so I don't know if they
did or if they didn't. I just, I think that

(01:34:10):
to me, I just decided like, Hey, like I'm just
going to call it how I see it. And anything else,
you know, balls and strikes and anything else. It's just,
it's just noise.

Speaker 2 (01:34:23):
Thank you for the time, buddy. I appreciate it.

Speaker 9 (01:34:26):
Absolutely. Thank you, Bob.

Speaker 11 (01:34:28):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:34:28):
You know, it's so funny. You know, as soon as
Jared came on, I heard this whole story. I just
could not help myself thinking back to my old boss,
Al Davis. He would tell me, Harbin, Steve, I want
him off the premises right now. Steve, I want him

(01:34:49):
off the premises right now. I'm like, I have to
walk over. And they're like, really? I'm like, yeah. I mean,
you're going to file a grievance with the league. And
it is different, and he was right, because if you're
a writer, you have certain protection in terms of your
access to the team, and then they would come back
the next day. But it was just a pain in

(01:35:09):
the ass.

Speaker 1 (01:35:11):
Well, it's I only bring this story up, Steve, because
Jared and I have known each other for a while.
And Jared knows that I don't think he should be
a credentialed media member. And I'm kind of a hardliner
about card carrying fans in the media core. But again,
I understand that those lines have been blurred a million
different ways.

Speaker 9 (01:35:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:35:27):
Like me being a reporter, but also doing a talk
show locally, nationally, where there is very much opinion. as
much as there is reporting, right? I understand that the
lines have never been more blurred in our realm. Just
the idea that a professional football organization would be so
small as to single out one person operating independently on

(01:35:50):
YouTube because he had a very, I thought, fair exchange
with the quarterback, but the quarterback was perceived in a
not great light. And then it started highlighting all of
the things around the Titans that have been negative as
opposed to the positive stuff that they're trying to spend
because they're selling people on a new stadium and new uniforms.
And Oh, please God buy our stuff because we know we,

(01:36:12):
we suck as a football team here lately, but capitalism
still remains and we got to make our nut. I
just think the whole story is, has been insane. Even
if on principle, I don't necessarily disagree with the decision
to take the credential.

Speaker 5 (01:36:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:26):
And again, we're talking about this and not just us.
Everyone is talking about this story. So it's getting legs
and it doesn't even serve a purpose for the Titans.
I mean, with all due respect to Jared, I don't
know how many people nationally are listening. What Jared Stillman
is talking about in terms of the Titans, but they
are now, you know, before this week, bud.

Speaker 5 (01:36:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:47):
And so all of a sudden now you put a
spotlight on him, which is exactly right. The opposite of
what he wanted to do. You wanted to defuse him.
If anything, you've lit a fire. So I again, some
of these decisions are made hastily. When I joined the
690 back in the early 90s, we were the flagship
of the Chargers. I was only a couple of years

(01:37:08):
removed from working for the Raiders. They were outraged. You
hired a Raider to be on the Charger flagship? Dean Spanos,
who was then the underlink to his father at the time,
basically sent a series of letters demanding that I be
taken off the air because I had roots with the Raiders. Fortunately,
my employer said, no, he's not going anywhere. We're going

(01:37:32):
to stick with the guy. So, you know, there's a
lot of give and take. People don't really get this
on the outside. They can get hypersensitive about certain people
in the media if they don't sort of play along
and play nice. And in this case with Jared, he
sort of dared him. Like, you know, dare you to
take my credential away? And they did. And here we are. Yeah,

(01:37:55):
just an utterly.

Speaker 1 (01:37:56):
Waste of time story again ahead of a season where
they have to show some level of competency around a
former number one overall pick hosting the New York Jets.
Robert Sala, the new coach's former team in week one,
where both of these franchises are pointing at each other
right now and saying that.

Speaker 2 (01:38:15):
That's that's a team you should beat with ease.

Speaker 1 (01:38:18):
When in reality, they're both kind of the basement, not
even kind of they are the basements. of the NFL.
Just a completely ridiculous story. I do want to talk
some actual football with Steve Hartman.

Speaker 2 (01:38:27):
Thank God. We'll do that coming up next.

Speaker 6 (01:38:30):
Hey, it's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 7 (01:38:33):
Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5
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Speaker 6 (01:38:43):
Yup, that's right.

Speaker 7 (01:38:44):
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Speaker 8 (01:39:00):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 1 (01:39:13):
We pause your football coverage for a little bit of
basketball talk. Wednesday afternoon, the NBA found the Clippers guilty
of salary cap circumvention with Kawhi Leonard, a story that's
been exhaustively reported by Pablo Torre, the former The penalty
that we have seen levied against Steve Ballmer, the owner

(01:39:34):
of the Clippers, and the organization itself, one of the
biggest we've ever seen for any pro sports franchise. And
Dan Wojcicki, who covers the NBA, is an insider for
The Athletic. joins us now he and law murray have
a story up for clippers fans nba's cap circumvented circumvention
punishment and all too familiar shame dan thank you for

(01:39:56):
the time i guess first and foremost what did you
make of the punishment that was levied against the clippers
organization yeah after you know.

Speaker 5 (01:40:05):
I i think.

Speaker 10 (01:40:07):
I mean, obviously very severe.

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:40:09):
And when you read through the report that the NBA
investigators found, it's clear that, you know, they broke one
of the league's golden rules, which is you cannot negotiate
sponsorship deals for your players. You know, you can, by
league rule, introduce them, you know, to sponsors. If the

(01:40:32):
sponsors requested, it's very explicit that, And there are gray
areas in some of this stuff, too.

Speaker 13 (01:40:40):
You know, I think the Clippers would tell you.

Speaker 5 (01:40:42):
That some of what they did is done regularly by
other teams. The sense that I have gotten in talking
to people is it is not done regularly, at least
not to this scale, at least not to this level
of financial reward.

Speaker 13 (01:40:56):
Right, where you get paid millions of dollars.

Speaker 5 (01:41:00):
And you don't have to do anything. Um, that's, that's,
that's not normal. And I think, you know, the league, um,
responded to this abnormal behavior, um, very sternly in a
way to not only to say to the Clippers, but
to say to anybody else, like, if you're thinking about
trying this, like, don't.

Speaker 2 (01:41:17):
Uh, Dan Hartman here, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm looking
at this Gillian Zucker and she is somebody who, So
much of this is out in the open. I mean,
these email exchanges are as indicting as anything I've ever seen,
and I'm trying to figure out exactly... what Steve Ballmer

(01:41:41):
saw in her. Because I remember, Gillian, when she was
back at Fontana.

Speaker 9 (01:41:45):
Fontana.

Speaker 11 (01:41:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:41:46):
I mean, I would be out there, and I met
her a couple of times, right? And I remember the process.
There were like 30 different candidates. The Ballmer was looking
for this specific position. She's done interviews of why he
picked her instead of other people. Then she got into
immediate trouble with the DeAndre Jordan situation. And now we
got this. And this is a mess. And she is

(01:42:07):
right in the center of this. So from your standpoint
of knowing this organization, Dan, what exactly does Steve Ballmer
expect from her? Was she just carrying out what she
thought he wanted? You know, where, you know, like, hey,
we're on the hook. We made promises here to Kawhi
Leonard and that wacky uncle of his, and they're making

(01:42:28):
demands on us that we deliver the goods. Or did
she act on her own to impress Steve Ballmer? I'm
just trying to figure out her dynamic with Ballmer.

Speaker 7 (01:42:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:42:38):
Yeah, I mean, I think she really aggressively pursued the
Clippers job and was one of Steve's first, if not
very first, like, notable.

Speaker 13 (01:42:48):
Hire with the organization.

Speaker 5 (01:42:50):
And one of the things about the Clippers under Balmer
is there's a lot of two-way loyalty, right? Like, people
that work there are incredibly loyal to Steve. And the
sense has been that, like, you know, people are... Steve
is pretty loyal to his people, right? Like, this is
not a pro sports franchise that has.

Speaker 13 (01:43:10):
Had a lot of turnover in their front office.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
You know, like.

Speaker 5 (01:43:16):
I mean, most of their, they had this really big, huge,
robust basketball front office. One person, Michael Winger left for.

Speaker 13 (01:43:23):
A promotion with the Washington wizards.

Speaker 5 (01:43:24):
Everybody else has stayed. They've had opportunities. Guys have had opportunities.
They've had interviews. And I think, you know, there is
just like a lot of, a lot of belief and
trust and, and, and one another. That being said, Armin,
I think, like, in this case, right, this is an employee,
it seems like, and from the people I've talked to,

(01:43:46):
who was very singularly focused on delivering and would do
what she thought was necessary to deliver. And whether it
was ignorance.
Whether it was willful moving around the edges of the
rules or not even around the edges, just like blowing

(01:44:09):
through those guardrails. You know, the document paints a picture
of someone who is very.

Speaker 13 (01:44:14):
Comfortable doing this, you know, who is not at all.

Speaker 5 (01:44:18):
Like, I mean, like, you know, had no problems seemingly,
you know, making deals that had quid pro quos, making
deals that had certain levels of you know, kickback isn't
the right word, but like this idea that like, you know,
we will give you business here if you give Kawhi

(01:44:38):
Leonard business there. Like it's all, you know, like when
you read that stuff and you read how little, I mean,
subtext there even is, like there's no winks and nods here, right?

Speaker 13 (01:44:50):
It's all very direct line.

Speaker 5 (01:44:51):
And to me, I think this is just an employee
who is you know, really wanted to deliver to her boss,
her very competitive boss, and a boss who, you know,
his results driven.

Speaker 1 (01:45:03):
Dan Wolke of The Athletic here with us on Fox
Sports Radio. Theathletic.com is where you read his latest piece.
Well worth your subscription for Dan and all the great
journalists doing work there on any number of sports.

Speaker 2 (01:45:16):
The Clippers put.

Speaker 1 (01:45:17):
Out a statement saying that they've done nothing wrong, essentially.
I read the statement itself. Dan, it's very true. if
I may say, self-righteous for a situation as ridiculous as this,
who does it serve for them to continue to be
loud and indignant about something that they clearly did wrong?

Speaker 5 (01:45:41):
I don't, I wish I had an answer for that.
I don't understand, you know, why they are still fighting
in a way, you know, unless they, they truly believe
that what they've done is within the rules. I can
tell you. And I mean, and again, the evidence. that's
been presented certainly seems like they haven't right um throughout

(01:46:03):
the course of this last 12 months when i've spoken
to my sources in the clippers organization um you know
they have repeatedly like denied and not in a way
that like my kid denies it when you know you
see the the candy bar wrapper at his feet and
he tells you he didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:46:19):
Eat the chocolate Like.

Speaker 5 (01:46:20):
Not that kind of a denial, like, like real, like, no,
like I don't understand why they're doing this in a
way as if like they were accused of, you know,
some event that, that happened in a different league. Like
it was so ridiculous to them.

Speaker 13 (01:46:34):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:46:35):
And I think, I don't know if, if they back.

Speaker 13 (01:46:39):
Themselves into that corner so much now where.

Speaker 5 (01:46:41):
They, they feel still like they have to fight where they,
if they feel like persecuted by the NBA and, and,
and kind of, you know, they've, they've used the word
like targeted and witch hunt and stuff like that to
describe this.

Speaker 13 (01:46:54):
You know, I think it's pretty obvious.

Speaker 5 (01:46:56):
That they had an issue with the way the argument
was presented by Pablo Torre. Like I, like, I think
you know, they've, they've attacked sort of like around the edges, like,
you know, him as a podcaster and not a journalist
and different things like that. And they've been really forceful
on all of this. I don't know though, you know,
they don't have the right to appeal to the NBA.

(01:47:17):
They do not have the right to arbitration with the NBA.
I mean, they could sue the league, which would be
a very Al Davis thing for them to do. But,
you know, like for a team that generally speaking, like
doesn't have the, the benefit of the doubt from the public.
I don't know why they keep going down this road.

(01:47:37):
No one wants to fight for them.

Speaker 9 (01:47:39):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (01:47:39):
Not in that way. Like I have not gotten the
sense guys in LA that there's like this big clamoring
of people who feel like they've been wrong. But since
I got, when I talked to fans, it's like the
fans that believed them are upset that they believed them.

Speaker 2 (01:47:52):
Let's talk about the trade with Toronto. All right, so
the Raptors were going to give up Brandon Ingram, Grady Dick,
two future unprotected first-round picks. Now there's a buzz that
they may try to redo the deal. So can they
redo the deal? Would the Clippers be willing to do that? Remember,
the first-round picks that they are forfeiting start in 2029,

(01:48:13):
so this would not affect these picks that they're getting
from the Raptors. But is that trade still going to go?
as planned or are they going to revisit this trade
and if they do is there a possibility the trade
won't happen.

Speaker 5 (01:48:29):
I have a heart. I don't have an answer for that,
like specifically, but just.

Speaker 13 (01:48:34):
In the way that business is done in the league,
I just have a.

Speaker 5 (01:48:37):
Hard time believing that they can walk away from this
trade as already agreed upon, right? That, that the outs
provided here were existed in a world to, to keep the,
you know, if Kawhi Leonard had his contract avoided or if,
you know, there were some other more severe punishment levied,
like that stuff didn't happen.

Speaker 13 (01:48:58):
It's not going to happen.

Speaker 5 (01:49:00):
You know, Kawhi Leonard is not subject specifically to any
more monitoring or anything like next year. he kind of
gets to go about his business. I mean, his uncle
can't represent him, right? Like that's the biggest thing that,
that can't happen, but everything else is just kind of like.

Speaker 13 (01:49:16):
Status quo, you know? And, and I think I, I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:49:21):
Know why Toronto would look at the situation other than
perhaps they feel like they would have leverage now to
make a better deal. But I I'd say that that's
not really how the NBA works, right?

Speaker 13 (01:49:32):
Like these are people that, you know, in teams that.

Speaker 5 (01:49:35):
May want to convene on a deal six months from
now or 12 months from now. And, you know, holding
the Clippers up for fewer draft picks or for something
like that, like today would almost certainly come back to, to,
to haunt them down the road. And, and it wouldn't
be like good business and it wouldn't. So, so I don't,
I think the trade will happen.

Speaker 2 (01:49:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:49:55):
But I mean, I think.

Speaker 13 (01:49:56):
Like this whole thing's a mess, right?

Speaker 5 (01:49:59):
And it will follow Kawhi Leonard in some way, shape
or form to Toronto. I would imagine he will be
booed and different things like that.

Speaker 13 (01:50:07):
I think obviously like with the Clippers, you know, they get.

Speaker 5 (01:50:12):
A bunch of players, but now they are very, very
incentivized to take those players and see if they can
make different deals with them.

Speaker 13 (01:50:20):
Perhaps they can, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:50:21):
Maybe you turn Brandon Ingram into one of the picks
you lost. Maybe you can can move things around like
that way with some of the younger players are getting
in this deal.

Speaker 2 (01:50:29):
You know, if, if, if.

Speaker 5 (01:50:31):
Grady Dick figures things out, maybe they, they figure out
a way to, to trade him. But like, you know,
all of those players have to know that they're walking
into a situation in which like they have no stability
now either. So yeah, really unfortunate situation for everybody, but
there's a lot of shrapnel here, right? Like for, for a,
for a report that, that functionally named five people, right.

(01:50:52):
Kawhi Leonard, his uncle, Dennis Robertson, Gillian Zucker, Steve Ballmer,
and Lawrence Frank, you know, there are countless that have
been affected, not, not just fans, but like, you know,
other employees, the players that have been involved in this trade,
different agents involved in all of this stuff. Like, you know, there's, there's.

Speaker 2 (01:51:11):
Real ripples here.

Speaker 1 (01:51:13):
His latest piece on the athletic for Clippers fans, NBA's
cap circumvention punishment and all too familiar shame.

Speaker 2 (01:51:20):
Dan, thank you for the time. We appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (01:51:22):
Thank you for having me guys.

Speaker 1 (01:51:24):
That's Dan Wokey of the athletic Steve. If, if somebody
took five first round picks, well, let's get to Martin
because I'm way late on that. And then we'll talk
more about this.

Speaker 2 (01:51:34):
Go ahead, Martin.

Speaker 3 (01:51:38):
That's right, because there's been nothing but action going on
in this Boise State-Oregon game. It's now tied 27 apiece.
Boise State had the lead at the half. They just
added a field goal to now tie it back up
to 27 apiece. 8-15 left in the fourth quarter. Oregon
now going to have the ball first and 10 with
about 8.45 left. Again, like I said, in the fourth quarter.

(01:52:00):
Texas and Texas State wrapping up now fifth-ranked.

Speaker 10 (01:52:03):
Longhorns with a.

Speaker 3 (01:52:04):
59-7 win over Texas State. Four minutes left in the
fourth quarter. Penn State with a 45-0 lead over Marshall.
Rocco Beck with four touchdowns in Matt Campbell's Nittany Lion debut. 56-9,
the margin between Tennessee and Furman. The 20th ranked Volunteers
in the lead. Seven minutes left in the fourth quarter there.
Northern Illinois driving, but it's 33-0. Iowa over Northern Illinois,

(01:52:26):
the 22nd ranked Volunteers. Hawkeyes there with about five minutes
left in the third quarter. Ball State and Ohio State,
a big win for the Buckeyes, 56-3, 63-3, the margin
between third-ranked Georgia and Tennessee State. Josh Hoover threw four
touchdown passes in his first start for the Hoosiers after
he transferred from TCU, Indiana, 52-16 over North Texas.

Speaker 10 (01:52:51):
13th-ranked Alabama beat East Carolina, 48-0.

Speaker 2 (01:52:56):
33-20, the score.

Speaker 3 (01:52:57):
Between 23rd-ranked Houston and Oregon State.

Speaker 10 (01:53:00):
Major League Baseball, top of.

Speaker 2 (01:53:01):
The seventh inning.

Speaker 3 (01:53:02):
The Cubs lead the Marlins 6-4, bottom of the ninth.
It's a 9-3 lead for the Giants. Phillies with a
3-0 lead over the Braves in the bottom of the second.
And also in the bottom of the second, the Tigers.
with a 1-0 lead over the Guardians. Second and one
now for Oregon as they're trying to.

Speaker 2 (01:53:18):
Drive down the field.

Speaker 3 (01:53:19):
But I tell you, boys, this has been a back-and-forth game.
Boise State dominated the first 20 minutes or so, but
Oregon woke back up. And now we'll see what they're
able to do as they have the ball at their
own 39-yard line.

Speaker 2 (01:53:30):
Fellas, back to you. Thank you, Martin.

Speaker 1 (01:53:32):
We'll spend most of the last hour here with Steve Hartman,
Buck Rising, hanging out here with you on college football
because a lot of fireworks in this lane.

Speaker 2 (01:53:42):
Oh, and we got a big play. Oregon is going
to get a score. Touchdown, Oregon.

Speaker 1 (01:53:48):
Like I said, we got to get back to college football.
But first I got to remind you that Fox football
Saturday is brought to you by underdog football is back
and underdogs. Keep your million starts you with a million
dollar stack. Make your picks survive 20 rounds and whatever's
left is yours.

Speaker 2 (01:54:06):
Underdog.

Speaker 1 (01:54:07):
Unleash your dog terms do apply so a lot of
college football talk left to do obviously we'll keep you
updated on the scores but i want to get steve
hartman's reaction to this entire clipper story because what an
absolute damn mess it's fox sports radio.

Speaker 11 (01:54:23):
You're listening to fox sports radio.

Speaker 1 (01:54:27):
So we just got done talking with Dan Wokey of
The Athletic about this Clippers punishment. He's Steve Hartman on
Buck Rising, hanging out here with you on this Fox
Football Saturday, of which the football discourse will soon resume.

Speaker 2 (01:54:42):
Steve, this is a punishment.

Speaker 1 (01:54:44):
Unlike any we've ever seen five first round picks are
docked from the Clippers. The Clippers are also being fined
an additional $ 30 million by the league. Steve Ballmer suspended
for one year as the owner, several other lieutenants suspended
from the Clippers. Several of whom you mentioned in our

(01:55:05):
interview with Dan in the previous segment. Steve, if a
league docked my team, and I get that basketball is
not football is not baseball, but if a league docked
my team, five consecutive first round picks, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33,
I would not watch my team anymore. There would be
no point. They have, I understand that bomber has money

(01:55:30):
hand over.

Speaker 2 (01:55:31):
Fist, right?

Speaker 1 (01:55:31):
He could buy the league if he wanted to. And
so a lot of the conversation in the lead up
to this was, will Steve bomber even accept a punishment
handed down by the NBA? Cause God knows the NBA
doesn't want anybody digging further and further into the salary
cap circumvention story. But if you are a fan of
this franchise and I understand Clippers fans have a little

(01:55:53):
bit of a tortured existence anyway. I just don't think
you could possibly get me interested in this team for
the foreseeable future. They have put them in a decade
hole just by finding them these five first-round picks.

Speaker 2 (01:56:05):
I'm not so sure about that. I'm not. And I'll
tell you why, Buck. All right, let's remember exactly what
went down. The $ 30 million, I mean, he's got that
in his couch, right? The man is worth, according to Forbes,
$ 159 billion.

Speaker 3 (01:56:20):
$ 159 billion.

Speaker 2 (01:56:22):
So if you take away the $ 30 million, now he's
worth $ 158, 970, 000. So that doesn't change anything. I mentioned Gillian Zucker.
She is a nightmare and she deserves to be suspended
without pay for honestly being so stupid to basically chronicle

(01:56:43):
everything she did. This was all this wasn't hearsay. This
was all documented in emails. And then he got Lawrence Frank.
He gets a six month suspension. Essentially, he was the
whistleblower to save his own ass is what happened there.
So he only got the six months. But as far
as losing these picks, again, if this trade with the

(01:57:03):
Raptors goes through, they get Brandon Ingram, they get Grady Dick,
and they get two future unprotected first-round picks. These are
not affected by the five picks that are going to
be taken away. The Clippers are a perennial team that's
in that, you know, four to nine seed in the

(01:57:23):
Western Conference. And that means they're basically getting middle first-round
picks over those five years. I don't think that's going
to change. And if you were to look at all
the first-round picks, players selected between, let's say, 15 and
25 in the NBA draft, take a look over the
last 10, 15 years and identify how many of them

(01:57:44):
are All-Stars. Very few. So honestly, I don't think that
any of this is going to have a real major
effect moving forward for the Clippers. As Dan Warnke said,
they could use a guy like Brandon Ingram and parlay
that into more first round picks. There's a way to
recover those picks. Remember the traded five first round picks

(01:58:05):
to get Paul George just to get Kawhi Leonard in
the first place. And still they were a team that
was winning, you know, 45 to 50 games every single year.
So I don't think this is really going to change
the dynamic of the Clippers. I'm surprised, though, because when
you think about it, when Adam Silver took over as commissioner,
his biggest headache immediately was trying to get Donald Sterling

(01:58:28):
out as the commissioner of the league. And not only
did he get reprieved thanks to Steve Ballmer, who paid
four times over market value, but which, by the way,
increased the value of every other team, he'd be very
careful because there's no doubt that Steve Ballmer has the resources.
If you're really going to go after him, he could
literally lay out every single owner in this league. He

(01:58:50):
can find dirt on every one of them because, as
you said, he could literally buy the entire league and
become the National Ballmer Association. So I'm going to be
very interested in how it plays out, but I do
not think this is a death sentence for for the
Clippers on the court.

Speaker 1 (01:59:08):
is back and underdogs. Keep your million starts you with
a million dollar stack, make your picks survive 20 rounds
and whatever's left is yours. Underdog unleash your dog terms
do apply. Adam Silver and his role, I don't want

(01:59:29):
to say his role in all of this. Obviously, his
role as commissioner of the NBA and his role in
the middle of this is handing down punishment to one.

Speaker 2 (01:59:37):
Of the league's clubs.

Speaker 1 (01:59:38):
But Adam Silver as commissioner, the Donald Sterling decision, the
decision to oust Donald Sterling from the league, rightfully so,
was viewed as one of the most popular decisions I
can remember from or being made under a commissioner ever.
In quite some time, commissioners not often public publicly popular figures.

(02:00:01):
Adam Silver was at the start of his tenure viewed
very favorably.

Speaker 2 (02:00:05):
Steve, I don't know if anybody has.

Speaker 1 (02:00:07):
Taken more of a 180 as far as their popularity goes.
And as far as their efficacy goes, then Adam Silver,
I maintain that he's done as much damage to his
league as ever. Any commissioner running a sport right now
since Kathy Engelbert has been ousted at the WNBA. I
wonder what you make of him as a figure and

(02:00:30):
whether you think that he would have made this punishment
if Pablo Torre didn't essentially force his hand these.

Speaker 2 (02:00:36):
Last six months. Yeah, with all the paperwork tied to
this incident, how the NBA had no clue about this
is ridiculous. Again, with all due respect to Pablo Torre,
who did the job to open this, it's all in
black and white. Again, you're not even working with hearsay.
It's literally laid out in front of you. Here is
the thing about the commissioner of the NBA. He is

(02:00:57):
sided with the players 100 percent of the time. The
reason the NFL is the strongest professional league in the
world is that the commissioner and the owners still control
the league. The players are well compensated because the revenue
goes up and they are getting huge amounts of money
and now more and more guaranteed contracts. But Adam Silver,

(02:01:18):
in an effort to be on the player's side, continues
to make decisions against the owners that are paying him.

Speaker 10 (02:01:27):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (02:01:27):
So none of this makes sense on how he has
been able to retain his position when he constantly sides
with the players over the owners. So this is the doozy, though.
So where we go from here, we'll have to see.

Speaker 1 (02:01:40):
We will indeed see. We'll get back to college football
here in just a second. We've got a number of
scores to update you on and to get you ready
for LSU Clemson. Stick around. It's Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 11 (02:01:52):

Speaker 1 (02:01:56):
It has been a full Fox football Saturday, and we
are looking forward to wrapping this up with Steve Hartman
with some football talk ahead. We are supposed to Steve
have Clemson and LSU kickoff in about a half hour
from now, but it is a torrential downpour in Baton

(02:02:18):
Rouge and there is lightning, which means that they are
in a delay. According to a lot of my friends
who are covering SEC football down there, specifically columnists and reporters, national, local,
of the like, everybody reporting weather delay right.

Speaker 2 (02:02:36):
Now in Baton Rouge.

Speaker 1 (02:02:37):
So we'll keep you updated if this game kicks off
while we are still on the air. I'm excited as
hell for it, though, for all the different reasons. LSU
paid a hell of a lot of money for that
football team. It better be one of the best teams.
I know they're coming in in the preseason rankings at
number 11, but the pedigree of that football team should
be significantly higher in national championship expectations, even in year

(02:03:01):
one for Lane Kiffin are fair. And we talked about Dabo,
the dynamic between both of these guys earlier. When we
first started the show a couple of hours ago, Steve
Dabo is a fascinating figure here. The line is 10
in favor of LSU at home. I don't do a
lot of betting. I'm not allowed to bet on the
NFL for ethical reasons as a daily beat reporter covering

(02:03:23):
a team. But if I was betting, I told you
this earlier, I think I would bet Clemson. I think
that's a line that probably seems pretty short, but For
a lot of people, but would be pretty enticing to me,
especially with all the different distractions that Lane has created
around his football program.

Speaker 2 (02:03:40):
Well, again, expectations. I mean, that's what every coach is
being held to. Expectations with your presence. And we got
two coaches very much in the spotlight in this game.
Dabo Sweeney, who obviously put. Clemson on a level that
I don't think anyone ever dreamed they would ever achieve,
you know, multiple national championships, you know, but now the

(02:04:03):
game has changed. The dynamic has changed with the transfer
portal and all this NIL money. And he seems to
be hesitant to go all in like some of the
other coaches. And then you have Lane Kiffin. who basically,
and I can't prove this, I'm insinuating something, but it's
pretty clear to me that in the midst of his
run at Ole Miss last year, he got wind after

(02:04:26):
the firing of Brian Kelly that the job was his
if he wanted it at LSU. And I think he
knows long-term, LSU, that he won national championships with three
other coaches. That's a place where he has a better
chance to win a national championship perhaps than than he
had with Ole Miss. By the way, I'd love to
have Ole Miss. You want to bet this year Ole

(02:04:46):
Miss could be a national champion. That would be unbelievable, right?
If Ole Miss actually won the national championship this year.
It would be electric. After Lane Kiffin left with Shambles
at quarterback. I love him at quarterback. They certainly have
that opportunity. So, yeah, I mean, you just have these
two coaches that are lightning rods. They talk a lot.
They do things that not everybody is in lockstep with.

(02:05:09):
They both have a level of arrogance that even for
coaches of this caliber just goes next level. I mean,
they are that kind of abrasive, you know, my way
or the highway. I know what I'm talking about this.
You know, there isn't any... any shyness on either side.
So this is a great matchup coming up here. I
just hope that this weather is going to hold up.

(02:05:31):
And by the way, you know, they talk about, well,
it was too hot in L.A. for people to show
up for the USC game. I guarantee you there's not
going to be an empty seat in Baton Rouge no
matter what the weather is for this battle tonight between
LSU and Clemson.

Speaker 1 (02:05:44):
Yeah, I saw the field temperature. This was not the
degree temperature in the stands, but the field temperature in Bloomington,
Indiana today was 152, according to the Fox.

Speaker 6 (02:05:57):
I mean, again, you know that you've got.

Speaker 2 (02:06:01):
To be laughing. They're like, wow, it's just too hot
out there in L.A.

Speaker 5 (02:06:05):
Really?

Speaker 2 (02:06:05):
Have you been in the Midwest in early September? The
humidity levels are unreal. Like you're chewing the air. Down south?
Come on. I mean, just the idea of weather being
a factor. Weather is never a factor for fans. I mean,
we've seen it around football for years. There are people

(02:06:27):
that are brave, extreme weather to support their teams over
the years. When I hear about weather, hot it is,
I hate warning. I was here. Come on. It wasn't
that bad. Ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (02:06:40):
I don't think we have been under triple digits here
in Nashville, Tennessee in– I think the better part of
a week. And I'm not talking like real feel. I'm
talking like actual degrees. I'm looking at it right now.
It just got to six o'clock here and we just
dipped down to 99.

Speaker 2 (02:06:55):
I forgot to tell you, my daughter's in Nashville right now. Oh, okay.
She's there for a friend's wedding. She got into Nashville yesterday.
She loves Nashville. She's been there like, I don't know, 10,
12 times. I almost kid her that it's like her
home away from home. But yeah, my daughter is in
Nashville right now. So how's the weather in Nashville, you say?

(02:07:17):
Hotter than hell. So I hope her wedding is indoors.
I was going to say.

Speaker 1 (02:07:26):
Well, and we just happen to have, I mean, it's
maybe not the game of the weekend per se, Steve,
but it's the only matchup between two ranked opponents is
here in Nashville. It's Louisville and that Ole Miss team.
In fact, I've got a number. We had Pete Golding
locally on the station. I do the local talk show
for here in Nashville earlier.

Speaker 2 (02:07:48):
In the week.

Speaker 1 (02:07:48):
I've got some friends that work at the SEC Network
that were able to interview him, obviously, before they kick
off their season down here.

Speaker 2 (02:07:54):
They, you want to talk about science experiments.

Speaker 1 (02:07:56):
We talk about Aaron Donald as a science experiment earlier
in this show, man, that Ole miss football team is
cause they feel like of all the playoff teams, all
of last year's playoff teams, Would you say that they
have the highest degree of variance, like of all the
teams that mattered, not, not the Boise States of the world.
And you know, these group of four teams or, or,

(02:08:19):
or yeah, a group of four teams that will get
into the playoff by, by nature of automatic bids and
things of that nature, like of the power for teams
of consequence that actually have the opportunity to to win
a championship. I don't know if there's a higher variance
team in the sport this year than Ole Miss.

Speaker 2 (02:08:36):
I agree with you. By the way, it is a final.
Oregon has hung on to beat Boise State 34 to 27.
So number two, Oregon survives a big battle. They were
down for much of this game. against Boise State. But
I really love Ole Miss. I mean, if you if
you want to say, you know, think out of the box,
like what happened with last year with Indiana. It wasn't

(02:08:57):
like Indiana came out of nowhere. I mean, they were
11 and two the year before. But the thought everyone
the thought was that was an aberration. And then we
saw Ole Miss get on that playoff roll without Lane
Kiffin last year. And you got Shambles back at quarterback.
And by the way, there were shenanigans there. Remember, the
NCAA twice ruled against Shambles. to be able to have

(02:09:20):
eligibility left to come back to Ole Miss. And, again,
judges got in the way of that, and so he's
back at Ole Miss. So I think they are definitely
in play for a run for the national championship. And
so they could be, to the SEC this year, what
Indiana was to the Big Ten last year. Love them.

(02:09:41):
Love them this year. Do you have a college football.

Speaker 1 (02:09:45):
Champion this year? Have you made picks yet? Already, I
don't want to steal any thunder from your Sunday show
with Vijay.

Speaker 2 (02:09:51):
I have not. And again, our Sunday show, we're so
focused on the NFL. You know, that Sunday show. In
two weeks, we get to what we call end zone
radio here at Fox Sports Radio. Buck, you would love
this kind of show because you're an NFL guy. I mean,
we just do four straight hours. We have like 10
games sometimes kicking off at the same time. And I

(02:10:11):
got to be, you know, running through the stats and
everything and watching the games, keeping everybody listening up to
date on everything that's going on. VJ jumps in and
gives us some betting stuff and everything else. It's really
a dynamic show. So yeah. We look forward to that.
But as far as college football is concerned, look, I
think that from a talent standpoint, the team that is

(02:10:34):
ranked number one in the country, Ohio State, again, with
Sane come back for his second year as a starter,
with the best football player in the country, and Jeremiah Smith,
the five-star talent they just seem to have across the board,
I think they are the team to beat. Now, are
they going to win it? I mean, we'll see. But
I think Ohio State is. And again, we're going to

(02:10:56):
find out everything we need about Ohio State next Saturday.
They're on the road against Texas. I mean, right out
of the box. We talk about all these early season. No, no, no, no.
Number one, Ohio State on the road against Texas there
in Austin next Saturday. If Ohio State wins that game
on the road, they are going to be very tough

(02:11:18):
to beat this season.

Speaker 1 (02:11:20):
I mean, I'd expect a dramatically different game from the
last time that these two teams met. And I love
that they have this series going on, but it was
14-7 in week one of last year. Of course, you
had Arch struggling mightily against Matt Patricia's defense. Arch might
have struggled anyway, no matter the caliber of the defense,

(02:11:43):
based on what he continued to do until things kind
of ramped up for him in the final third.

Speaker 2 (02:11:47):
Think about this. Buck, last year you had Julian Sane
and Arch Manning both their first starts on a collegiate level.

Speaker 9 (02:11:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:11:53):
Now they both have a full year under their belts,
and it's not week one. So they both have a
game under their belts. You know, big blowout wins today. Yeah,
I think it's going to be a shootout. I can't—
Have you been down to Austin? No, I never have.
It's on my bucket list. That— That complex they have

(02:12:14):
there at the University of Texas. Understand this about the
University of Texas. There is no college in the country
with more money than the University of Texas.

Speaker 8 (02:12:22):
Nobody.

Speaker 2 (02:12:23):
Nobody. I remember their late great athletic director, Duke something,
you know. I remember I was there for the final four.
It was in San Antonio in 2008. Austin's about an
hour drive away from San Antonio, so we went there together.
One of my broadcast partners worked in Austin for a
number of years, and we walked into this athletic director's office.

(02:12:46):
I've never seen an office so big. It was ridiculous.
The guy had to make the brick. That was my
buddy at the time. They got insane money there. What
an amazing university at the University of Texas. I was
just amazed. I mean, Ohio State at Texas with quarterbacks

(02:13:08):
now that, you know, have a full season under their
belt as starting quarterbacks. I cannot wait for that matchup
next Saturday. It's going to be a shootout.

Speaker 1 (02:13:16):
There's so many great games that I've had circled on
the college football schedule, like not just week one, obviously,
but moving forward throughout the course of the season.

Speaker 2 (02:13:24):
And, of course, you know, things could happen.

Speaker 1 (02:13:26):
That change how interesting those games are.

Speaker 2 (02:13:29):
But we get.

Speaker 1 (02:13:30):
an incredible matchup between Texas and Ohio state.

Speaker 2 (02:13:32):
Like you mentioned next week.

Speaker 1 (02:13:34):
I mean, Steve, where they're building stadiums that are North
of 20,000 people for high school football in Texas.

Speaker 2 (02:13:41):
It does not.

Speaker 1 (02:13:42):
Surprise me at all to know that Austin has one
of the more impressive football facilities, if not the most
impressive football facility out there. I, I get, I get
so jealous of you guys doing end zone radio because
I'm a beat reporter, right? So I cover one game
on Sunday, every Sunday. And then I, usually I get

(02:14:02):
around to the rest of the NFL games. I'm normally
caught up by the time we get to Tuesday, Tuesday morning,
I'm ready to go. I've seen most of Sunday. I've
seen Monday night football and things like that, but it
kind of removes the joy of watching NFL football, not
just because the, because the team I cover is not
very competitive and competitive. You know, you'd like to change
the channel on them from time to time, but it's
one of those things where I enjoy my college football

(02:14:25):
Saturday so much more now since I've been an NFL
reporter and I travel every weekend or not every weekend,
but I go to every game and, you know, practice
and training camp and all these different things that nothing
makes me happier than a full slate of college football Saturday.

Speaker 2 (02:14:38):
So I sit here on Sundays. The studios here, we
have four beautiful big screen TVs, right? You know, we
can watch all the games. And it's so funny because
we'll sit there and we'll pick the four games we
want on the screens, right? But we'll have to follow
because there will be anywhere between eight and ten games,

(02:14:58):
especially early in the season before the buys. So they
just load up the schedule for what is– 10 a.m.
on the West Coast, 1 p.m. on the East Coast.
And so what happens is you watch games, and then
there may be a game, it's like a team's up 17,
and you're like, all right, let's turn off that game
and go to a different game, right? And then we'll
be getting there toward, you know, fourth quarter action. All

(02:15:19):
of a sudden I look up, and that game that
was a 17-point lead is tied. I'm like, what happened
in that game? I missed that game. What happened there?
It happens every single week. And by the time we
get done with those first games, you're just exhausted. And
then you get the second wave, obviously a lesser slate
in the afternoon, but there's nothing like it. I mean—

(02:15:42):
I mean, for me to have been in this industry
as long as I have, and then, you know, you
get sort of compensated to essentially do what you would
dream of doing at home, which is watching as many
NFL games as you can simultaneously. And all you have
to do is talk about it and update, you know,
the scores and the stats and everything else. As I say,

(02:16:02):
every single time I'm on the air, living the dream,
living the dream. That's what I do to start every show,
living the dream. And that's exactly what it was. But
you'd be dynamic with this buck.

Speaker 14 (02:16:13):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:16:14):
With your NFL pedigree, no question.

Speaker 1 (02:16:17):
Well, you guys are the best at it, and the
audience really enjoys it. That much I do know. If
you missed any of today's show, you'll want to catch
the podcast. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get
your podcasts. And right after the show, we'll have the
podcast posted and available for you to listen at your leisure.
Be sure to follow the podcast, rate it five stars,
and provide a review. Again, just search Fox Sports Radio,

(02:16:41):
wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the feed, and you'll
find today's full show posted right after Steve and I wrap.
I want to talk about the defending national champions and
something that Kurt Cignetti said after today's win over North
Texas that I think is going to make Steve laugh.
We'll do that coming up next. It's Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (02:17:03):
Hey, it's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 7 (02:17:06):
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Speaker 2 (02:18:00):
That's the GOAT.

Speaker 1 (02:18:01):
Don Fisher, Learfield, Hoosier Radio Network, Indiana, the defending national champions,
52 over North Texas, 16 points for North Texas.

Speaker 2 (02:18:14):
Steve Hartman, I'm sweating a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:18:16):
Watching that North Texas offense, move the ball on my
championship defense. And they, they returned a lot of guys.
I know they lost some dudes too, but that, that was,
I mean, I know it's easy to say, well, it's
a lot closer than 52 to 16, but for the
better part of the third quarter, I was worried that
my football team might not be as impressive as the

(02:18:38):
one that I remember last I saw them.

Speaker 2 (02:18:40):
All right, Buck, let's pause for a second. Did you
ever in your wildest imagination ever think you would utter
the words, defending national college football champion Indiana? Did you
ever think you would actually say that?

Speaker 1 (02:18:55):
Brother, I didn't even think I was going to say
it in basketball, which, by the way, still hasn't happened.

Speaker 2 (02:18:59):
Yes, it's been a long time. In my lifetime, not yet.
I got Bob Knight. The whole thing is surreal. It
really is surreal. Look, again, Josh Hoover is the third
consecutive quarterback. I mean, they're just bringing in these new quarterbacks. Now,
a year ago when Fernando Mendoza came in from Cal,
he had some solid numbers at Cal, but he lost

(02:19:20):
as many games as he won there. I don't think
anyone's saying, wow, okay. A lot of people are saying, wow,
how are they going to replace Curtis Rourke? I mean,
he was pretty good. Top 10 in the Heisman voting category.
And then you get Mendoza with the unbelievable season he
had a year ago. Josh Hoover today, 13 to 16, 231,
four touchdowns, no picks, off to a good start. Let

(02:19:41):
me ask you this, though, as an Indiana person, I mean,
now are you at the point where, like, you can't
even accept a loss? I mean, this is a team
on a roll right now, 17 straight wins. Are you
expecting Indiana to run the table like they did last year,
this year? What are your expectations for Indiana right now?

Speaker 1 (02:20:02):
If they drop the game at home to Ohio State,
which is the only game of consequence on their schedule,
I know they go to Lincoln against Nebraska. Nebraska is
nobody of consequence anymore. Again, it's crazy for me to
say that with my chest as an Indiana football fan.

Speaker 2 (02:20:16):
Ridiculous. But there's nothing else really there.

Speaker 1 (02:20:22):
That should test a team, the caliber with the kind
of coaching that Indiana's got other than Ohio state, who
we know has the potential to be overwhelming. We'll see
what that looks like next week against Texas. So, yeah,
I mean, I would, Is it unacceptable if they lose
that game?

Speaker 2 (02:20:40):
No, I can't.

Speaker 1 (02:20:42):
I can't get myself to that place, Steve, especially as someone.

Speaker 2 (02:20:45):
I mean, Buck, look at this schedule. All right, so.
It's gross. It's gross. So you got Howard, Western Kentucky,
and then you get into conference play. You get Northwestern
home at Rutgers. Awful at Nebraska. Terrible. You talk about
a coach on a hot seat. Matt Rule is going
to be gone. You get Ohio State at home. who's

(02:21:06):
not what they were, Minnesota at home, SC at home,
at Washington, Purdue at home.

Speaker 10 (02:21:11):
I see another undefeated season.

Speaker 2 (02:21:13):
If you beat Ohio State, who else scares you on
this schedule? No, that's what I'm saying, though, Steve.

Speaker 1 (02:21:20):
Like, if they drop it to Ohio State, and again, depending, like,
they can't go in there, they can't get shelled at home,
and they can't let Jeremiah Smith just run wild on them,
even though the guy's going to get his numbers down.
No matter what, because that's the only loss on the schedule.
If a loss exists, I do believe that they can
hang with that Ohio state team. I do believe that
they are significantly less talented. They were less talented than

(02:21:41):
Ohio state last year. The question for me that was
not answered today against North Texas is they made their
money really on defense, right? And really with a running game.
In fact, Cignetti, Cignetti caught up with Jenny Taft of
Fox after the game on the, on the field. And
this was the Hoosiers head coach talking about what appeared

(02:22:03):
to be a dominant win, even though there's definitely some
corrections to make.

Speaker 2 (02:22:06):
I mean, we lost some key guys, went out and
we lost both corners. They'll both be back. Kobe Martin.

Speaker 8 (02:22:14):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:22:15):
So right there in the first quarter, our two backup
corners played their entire game. So, there's a lot of
corrections to be made there.

Speaker 5 (02:22:26):
There's some good, some bad, some ugly.

Speaker 2 (02:22:28):
So, it would be a good critique.

Speaker 14 (02:22:30):
Was this what you expected from Josh Hoover in his debut?

Speaker 2 (02:22:33):
You never really know what to expect. I thought he
made a significant stride in fall camp. I was confident.
And I thought he played a lot of confidence today.

Speaker 1 (02:22:44):
My whole thing with Indiana this year, Steve, is that
Josh Hoover, who's played a lot of college football at TCU,
coming in here shouldn't have to do as much heavy lifting.
That's why I thought this Indiana team could be better.
What they have to prove to me based on today
is that offensive line, who there was a lot of
attrition this past year. The Titans drafted one of the
offensive linemen from Indiana. here in Tennessee, that needs to

(02:23:07):
get right because the run game was not impressive against
North Texas. And the defense, I just, I shouldn't see
North Texas that comfortable sustaining drives. And frankly, the thing
went off the rails once this North Texas starting quarterback
got hurt.

Speaker 2 (02:23:21):
Yeah, again, it's the first game of the year. And
if you listen to Coach Cignetti, I mean, he pretty
much says, look, you don't know what to expect. You
really don't. I mean, you get ready for a season.
You throw the guys out there in the first game.
A lot of new faces on this Indiana team from
a year ago. You know, most of the James Madison
transports have now gone on. And so remember one thing

(02:23:44):
about Indiana. That was a pretty old team back then.
in terms of experience a year ago, and that experience showed,
and that's why they won a national championship. So this
is almost, in some ways, like a year one for Cignetti,
because the art is such a turnover in terms of personnel.
And now, of course, you say, how much do we

(02:24:05):
reap the benefits of winning that national championship? Obviously, when
they're knocking on people's doors, it's not like when you
were at Indiana, you know, it's like you've got to
be kidding me, right?

Speaker 1 (02:24:15):
Nobody had to package the football tickets with the basketball.

Speaker 2 (02:24:18):
Tickets to get anybody to buy football. Nobody is answering
the door in terms of elite recruits. Those days are over.
Indiana has money. You know, Rutgers has money. Didn't show
against UMass, but every Big Ten school has money to spend.
It's just about spending it wisely and getting the right
personnel decisions, something that Signetti has been unreal so far

(02:24:42):
in his couple years at Indiana. So what's the deal now?
Martin could be out for a while, the running back?

Speaker 1 (02:24:49):
Yeah, it does seem like that's a possibility. They had
a number of different injuries, like you mentioned, one of
the running backs and the two starting corners. So they
expect all of them back, but I'm not sure about the,
they didn't put a timetable.

Speaker 2 (02:25:01):
On the running back. So Kobe Martin apparently will be
out a little bit, according to Signetti. Again, if they
don't need him against Howard, I'm sure he gets sent
out that game. He'll be fine.

Speaker 1 (02:25:14):
I love that they, that they went full sec with
the way that they're scheduling.

Speaker 2 (02:25:17):
Now it makes me very happy. Wow. That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (02:25:22):
Just all kinds of tough opponents before Ohio state halfway
through the season.

Speaker 2 (02:25:27):
Martin, we got college football on right now. What's the latest.

Speaker 3 (02:25:32):
We're going to go back to a game that just
wrapped up a few minutes ago because number two ranked
Oregon was in hell for three and a half quarters
of this matchup between Boise State and Oregon. It was
a 34-27 win for the Ducks, but they only outscored
them 20-10 in the second half. to go ahead and
get that seven-point win. First half was all Boise State.

(02:25:55):
It ended up being 28 for 37, 378 for Dante Moore,
three touchdowns on the day passing. But again, Boise State
gave them all they could handle. It was one of
those games that we'll look back at later on down
the year. It says, Boise State really good or Oregon
not as good as we thought they were? 12th ranked
Texas Tech with a 14-0 lead over Abilene Christian late

(02:26:18):
in the first quarter. Midway through the first quarter, 8th
ranked Texas A & M has a 7-0 lead on
Missouri State.

Speaker 10 (02:26:25):
Again, Oregon was in an interesting game. The rest of them,
not so much.

Speaker 3 (02:26:29):
22nd ranked Iowa with a 40-0 win over Northern Illinois.
Ohio State beat Ball State 56-3. Georgia with a 63-3
win over Tennessee State. Texas with a 59-7 win over
Texas State. Indiana, 52-16 over North Texas.

Speaker 2 (02:26:47):
But to Buck's point.

Speaker 3 (02:26:49):
Earlier, the 21-point score for the Indiana in the fourth
quarter and the starting quarterback.

Speaker 10 (02:26:54):
From North Texas did leave the game with cramps.

Speaker 3 (02:26:57):
Alabama had a 13th-ranked Alabama with a 48-10 win over
East Carolina. Penn State 45-0 over Marshall. And Matt Campbell's
debut as Penn State head coach, Rocco Beck, with four
touchdown passes. Tennessee handled Furman 56-9. And Houston with a
33-20 win over Oregon State. In Major League Baseball. Bottom

(02:27:19):
of the ninth inning, the Cubs lead the Marlins 6-5.
Bottom of the fifth inning, Phillies 4-1 over the Braves.
Middle of the sixth, the Tigers with a 3-0 lead
over the Guardians. Angels 1-0 over the Pirates in the
bottom of the fourth. Also in the bottom of the fourth,
it's Brewers 2-1 over the Reds. Top of the second,
Orioles and Red Sox are scoreless. raised with a 1-0

(02:27:40):
lead over the Rangers. White Sox 3-0 over the Twins.
Bottom of the first, Blue Jays and Royals tied 2-1.
Top of the second in the Padres and the Yankees scoreless.
Same with the Astros and the Diamondbacks. And it is
pouring right now in the real Death Valley, I'll say it,
in LSU. The 11th-ranked Tigers trying to play the Clemson Tigers,

(02:28:04):
who are unranked. But it is pouring rain down there.
Michigan and Western Michigan about to get started. That one's
going to be on NBC. But obviously the game of
the day, Dabo versus Lane Kiffin.

Speaker 10 (02:28:16):
You know, are there going to be NFL players in it?

Speaker 2 (02:28:19):
No.

Speaker 3 (02:28:20):
Until next year when someone gets drafted. But we'll see
if this game gets started anytime soon.

Speaker 2 (02:28:25):
Yeah, Steve. Martin, I got to ask you a question.
When the Hoosiers head into the big house. Yes. On
October 24th, what kind of Michigan team are they going
to be facing?

Speaker 3 (02:28:36):
Better be one that's physical, Steve. Better be one that's physical.
And better be one that has a quarterback coach for
its $ 10 million quarterback.

Speaker 8 (02:28:45):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (02:28:47):
Kyle Whittingham, this guy's a winner.

Speaker 3 (02:28:49):
He has.

Speaker 10 (02:28:50):
He's won.

Speaker 3 (02:28:51):
I would say now I'm glad that the games have started.

Speaker 10 (02:28:54):
Everybody else has been much concerned about.

Speaker 3 (02:28:55):
The NIL and NFL players coming back. Well, I'm glad
that they had that distraction because I'm not sure if
Kyle Whittingham is aware that Ohio State is Michigan's biggest rival,
but I'm sure he'll find out shortly.

Speaker 8 (02:29:08):
Yes.

Speaker 10 (02:29:08):
Because, I mean, my goodness.

Speaker 2 (02:29:10):
Just lie to me.

Speaker 10 (02:29:11):
Yes, yes, Michigan-Ohio State rivalry.

Speaker 2 (02:29:14):
You don't look fat in that dress, okay? Just lie
to me. Make me feel good about it.

Speaker 10 (02:29:17):
I understand you coach for Urban Meyer and Ryan and
all of this. You're kind of more Buckeye than Wolverine, but.

Speaker 2 (02:29:23):
You're here now. Jim Trestle got honored today, Buck, finally,
after all these years. When he got the Ohio State job,
what did he say? Number one thing. We're going to
beat Michigan. Exactly. We're going to beat Michigan. And they
did year after year after year. So, yeah, one thing
about those rivalries, Buck, on the collegiate level, you better

(02:29:44):
win those main rivalry gains if you want to have
job security.

Speaker 1 (02:29:48):
Hey, no question. He's Steve Hartman. I'm Buck Rising. Thank you, Martin.
Did either of you see the way this Auburn-Baylor game ended,
by the way?

Speaker 2 (02:29:56):
Unbelievable.

Speaker 6 (02:29:56):
How about that?

Speaker 2 (02:29:57):
Oh, my God. So, Baylor goes for the two-point conversion
and the win. Nine seconds to go. They complete the pass.
The guy turns up, and he gets stuck right at
the goal line. Did not get over. Auburn hangs on.
it's such a sick tackle.

Speaker 1 (02:30:12):
Like, I mean, it's cause we, you see guys shake
tackles like that.

Speaker 2 (02:30:17):
And that is a size disadvantage.

Speaker 1 (02:30:20):
It looks like, I think that's a tight end out
there turning up field and whoever number five winters is
for Auburn just sticks him.

Speaker 2 (02:30:29):
I mean, he gets on All-American alert with that kind
of hit because it was right at the goal line.
Ball clearly did not cross the goal line. Unbelievable. Literally
game-saving play for Auburn to hang on against Baylor.

Speaker 8 (02:30:42):
Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (02:30:43):
And this is after Auburn just had terrible clock management
to put themselves. in a situation where they might lose
this game. But Auburn survives. Baylor, that's another one to
keep an eye on as far as head coaching changes
this year. I thought that was going to go a
lot better than it has these last couple of years.
And it's just, it's fallen off a cliff pretty fast.

(02:31:04):
A little more college football conversation before we make Steve
play our dumb little game of would you rather to
wrap up the show as is the custom. We had,
I had an Alabama fan come up to me, a
lot of Alabama fans here in Nashville, a lot of,
a lot of, a lot of Ole miss, a lot
of Auburn, obviously Tennessee Vandy's not that big, but Uh,

(02:31:24):
as far as an alumni base goes, but there are
a smattering of Vanderbilt fans. They're actually about to kick
off here in the not too distant future if they
haven't already. Uh, and of course we'll keep you updated
if Clemson and LSU actually get off the, I mean,
they will get off the ground at some point, but
right now we are in a weather delay on ABC.
I had an Alabama fan come up to me this
morning at the gym and was upset. Upset because the

(02:31:48):
college football hype video that they watched on game day
this morning did not feature but two seconds of Alabama highlights.
And they are not accustomed to Alabama not being as
heavily featured as Indiana or Ohio State. The fact that
Indiana is even in that conversation, again, still surreal. But
Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, LSU, all these different things. Alabama

(02:32:12):
is such an interesting team this year. They're starting a
true freshman at quarterback. Keelan Russell looked great today in
what I was able to see of him. Not too
often does Alabama do any college football program, frankly, start
a true freshman. Martin was Underwood, Bryce Underwood, a true
freshman when they trotted him out there.

Speaker 2 (02:32:29):
He had to be for that price tag. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (02:32:33):
So, again, it doesn't happen very often. And when it happens,
it's very rarely a seamless thing. Alabama is one of
these teams. We had a pressure conversation as far as
head coaches go this year. I thought the board was
going to be out last year. And now he's starting
a true freshman quarterback with a fan base that expects
him to compete for a title. I think that is

(02:32:56):
one of the more interesting stories in college football this season.
I don't know how he's going to handle it. It's
going to be so curious to me.

Speaker 2 (02:33:01):
I agree with you. I mean, that is a, that's
a desperate coach. I mean, he understands, look, first of all,
All the success that he had had at every level.
His record was just incredible, you know, with Washington and then,
I don't know, was it an NAIA school or whatever
he was where he never lost a game. By the way,

(02:33:23):
Keelan Russell was born in 2007.

Speaker 9 (02:33:24):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:33:24):
2007, that just sort of mind-blowing to me. This guy
was the high school player of the year. I mean,
this is an incredible talent. But, you know, when you
are understanding why you would take the job to replace
Nick Saban, I don't care how much money they put
on the table. You are asking for a short run.

(02:33:45):
This goes all the way back to when I was
at UCLA. They hired Gene Bartow to take over for
John Wooden. Two years later, despite only losing nine games,
he got booed out of town. And so that's that's that.
So I don't know. DeBoer is putting basically his future
in the hands of a of a 19 year old
kid and saying, you need to save my job, because

(02:34:07):
if they have another nondescript year or get into the
playoff where they get humiliated in a playoff game, it's
just not going to cut it. This is Alabama. This
is the legacy of Nick Saban, you know, that is
going to hang over this program forever. just like it
did with Bear Bryant until Nick Saban came along. So

(02:34:27):
it hints of desperation. I don't wish him any ill will.
I can't wait to see what Keelan Russell does. But, boy,
that's asking a lot of a true freshman 19-year-old kid.

Speaker 1 (02:34:39):
How pissed do you think DeBoer is that ESPN is
rolling out a six-part documentary series on Saban in the
middle of October? I think if they're struggling at all
and Bama fans are watching a six-part documentary on the
greatest college football coach of all time, because that's what
he is anymore. I think that's only going to foment
more anger against Kalen DeBoer. Again, it may not happen

(02:35:02):
that way, but that is something that is so easy
to foresee.

Speaker 2 (02:35:05):
Yeah, it's not Fresno State, nor is it with Sioux Falls.
That's where he was for five years, NAIA. He lost
three games, 67-3, in five years there in the NAIA.
But that stays a long gone. Look, if you didn't
know this when you took the Alabama job, then you're

(02:35:26):
not very smart. But four losses his first year, four
losses his second year, humiliated in that Rose Bowl by Indiana.
He's going to have to have a deep run. at Alabama,
and I just don't know if they have that kind
of talent anymore in a more competitive SEC with Lane
Kiffin at LSU. We talked about Ole Miss a little

(02:35:48):
bit earlier, Buck. They're very much in the mix right now,
plus the usual suspects headed up by Georgia. It's going
to be a tough run for Alabama this year, I fear.

Speaker 1 (02:35:58):
is back and underdogs. Keep your million starts you with
a million dollar stack. Make your picks survive 20 rounds
and whatever's left is yours. Underdog unleash your dog terms
to apply. We'll play a little bit of would you
rather with Steve Hartman on Fox sports radio next.

Speaker 11 (02:36:22):
You're listening to Fox sports radio.

Speaker 2 (02:36:26):
Man, Steve.

Speaker 1 (02:36:28):
Putting up with four hours of me, you deserve some
kind of medal.

Speaker 2 (02:36:31):
Oh, Buck, are you kidding? We could do 10 hours. Oh,
I better not give our bosses any.

Speaker 1 (02:36:36):
Thoughts about that. I mean, we both like money. I
don't know about 10. I love you, buddy, but I
don't know about 10. I got an ice cold tequila
soda and some wings waiting on me to watch this
LSU Clemson game if it ever gets off the ground.

Speaker 2 (02:36:52):
You got to start that game first.

Speaker 1 (02:36:54):
But instead of a medal for your time served here,
you get would you rather.

Speaker 2 (02:36:58):
What can I say? It's easy, guys.

Speaker 11 (02:37:01):
Don't think too hard.

Speaker 6 (02:37:02):
I'm not a moron.

Speaker 10 (02:37:03):
Would you rather bucket?

Speaker 11 (02:37:05):
It's no good.

Speaker 8 (02:37:06):
Or fix it?

Speaker 2 (02:37:10):
We got Garrett with the questions. A real easy game.
Garrett's going to.

Speaker 1 (02:37:14):
Toss these questions up to us. Steve and I will
answer accordingly. Steve, of course, will lead off the proceedings.

Speaker 2 (02:37:22):
I'm ready here. All right, let's do this.

Speaker 14 (02:37:24):
So I've heard you guys talk about your passion for
NFL and college football. Maybe this one will surprise. all
of us, but if you had to choose only one
day of football for the rest of your life, would
that be Sundays, Saturdays, or Fridays?

Speaker 2 (02:37:39):
For me, it's Saturdays. I'm sorry. I mean, it's nothing against, obviously,
the NFL. I mean, our end zone radio is a
phenomenal experience every single Sunday. But if you have a
fully loaded Saturday of college football, boom, that's me all
the way. I don't even think it's close, Steve. I mean,

(02:37:59):
I've been.

Speaker 1 (02:38:00):
And listen, this is me biting the hand that feeds me.
There's a lot of money in pro football, and I
am grateful to do that for a living because it's
a dream job, and I wouldn't change anything about it.

Speaker 2 (02:38:10):
But as far as the experience... Man.

Speaker 1 (02:38:12):
There's nothing like being in a college football stadium on
a Saturday or watching college football with your buddies or
being at a bar, all those different things, right? Sunday,
you got the scaries a little bit. You can't go
full bore the way that you might on a college
football Saturday. Cause you know, you got Monday morning work
creeping up on you. I think that there is that,

(02:38:33):
that the experience of the NFL, you might feel differently
about this. I think they've never made it easier to
stay home, to watch the NFL than they have right now.
In fact, I think they're almost exclusively anymore marketing to
the people watching on television, as opposed to the experience
in the stadiums, because I think it's more designed for

(02:38:53):
television than it is the stadium experience college football. The
only way they can mess it up is keep trying
to play these games internationally, like kicking off the season
with TCU and UNC in Ireland.

Speaker 2 (02:39:03):
Yeah. They do that every year in Dublin. Of course,
unless you're a USC football fan, then you can stay
at home.

Speaker 14 (02:39:10):
Oh, well, I was hoping one of you guys might
surprise me and go Friday night, old school, do some
high school football.

Speaker 1 (02:39:17):
Man, I love high school football, and I just can't
say that I'd.

Speaker 2 (02:39:21):
Pick it over a Saturday. I really can't. Fair enough.

Speaker 14 (02:39:24):
All right, let's go cash on the table here. You
know how they work lotteries around the country, right? Would
you rather take the $ 200 million that you just won
the lottery but have to take it over 20, 30 years,
or would you just take the whole $ 100 million that
they slashed and burned at the beginning of it today
and then have that tax the crap out of that thing?

Speaker 2 (02:39:43):
Cash now. You want cash now. Cash now.

Speaker 14 (02:39:46):
What would you have said 20 years ago when you
were younger? I don't know if I'm going to be
around in 20 years. So, I mean, I'm taking the
cash now.

Speaker 2 (02:39:53):
Absolutely, 100%. It's free money. I didn't expect to have
this money. So, no, I'm not going to spread it
out over 20 years and everything else. By the way,
that gets taxed every time you get one of those payments. So, no,
I'll take the lump sum immediately.

Speaker 1 (02:40:08):
I was going to go the opposite until Steve reminded
me that you would get taxed annually on that contribution
as opposed to, you know, just having it all at once.
So the financial discipline that I lack would make me
want to say, hey, maybe we spread this thing out.

Speaker 2 (02:40:25):
A little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:40:25):
Maybe we have a little more reserved nature to your weddings.

Speaker 2 (02:40:29):
But no, I'm with Steve. Give me the money.

Speaker 14 (02:40:31):
All right, this may hit a little close to home
for Buck here, but would you rather be a fan
of someone, say, like Ohio State, a blue blood who
wins every year, but, you know, wins a title once
every 10 years, and every other year is an absolute failure,
or would you rather be a fan of Indiana, where
there's 10, 20 years of absolute failure, and then they

(02:40:52):
come out of the woodworks once every now and then.

Speaker 2 (02:40:54):
And win a title, and it means the world... to
that fan base I have been fans first of all
I'm a UCLA guy we used to be dominant in
basketball way back in the day and we're not anymore
much like your Indiana Hoosiers Buck so no I would
I would I would I want my team that I'm
rooting for to be a perennial contender not some shot

(02:41:18):
in the dark hey we pulled a miracle one season
that's great but I'd rather be a perennial contender man,
that's a.

Speaker 1 (02:41:27):
Tough question because you, you would rather, I think the
vast majority of us would rather our team consistently compete
and still have the opportunity to do it, to occasionally
win the championship. But Steve, I'm telling you, I don't
think I'll ever feel about a team or a championship
moment the way that i did about indiana because it's

(02:41:47):
just completely out of nowhere like there's there's nothing that
is going to recreate i'm in that corner of the
end zone when he runs in that touchdown on fourth
and five and he gets hit a bunch of times
and you think he's going down and you think it's
over and you think it's a turnover on down and
downs and then he dives for the touchdown i i
lost my mind uh what level little of it was

(02:42:09):
left at that point after spending you know a couple
of days in south florida pre-gaming for a football game
i uh man i'm a homer here give me give
me the give me the the shot in the dark
give me the shooting star give me the one time
and never again or anything like that because.

Speaker 2 (02:42:24):
It was just man that's amazing well and if they
riled off more championships it won't be the same right
just won't be the same it won't be but what
will be is fox sports radio

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