Game of Power

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Walcome in out Kick listeners. Thursday edition of the OutKick
Podcast underway. Here we'll talk with Dr David Chow about
the big decision that to has to make, breakdown all
of the January first Bowl games, what do we learn
from the Outback, the Citrus, the Sugar and the Rose Bowl.
And we'll talk the wild card weekend up coming as
well as the impact of David Stern all of that

(00:21):
on the podcast. Hope your new year has begun well
and we will entertain you. I'll Kick the Coverage with
Clay Travis live every weekday morning from six to nine
a m. E. Stern three to six am Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for OutKick the
Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every morning on the I Heart Radio app by

(00:43):
searching fs are you're listening to Fox Sports Radio. I
am play Travis. This is OutKick the Coverage live from
the Geico Outkicks Videos, which as we speak is actually
my car driving into the downtown studio. Good Starts of

(01:06):
the New Year was off yesterday, stayed up late watching
Georgia Take it to Baylor. Go upstairs, sit down, put
on my headset look over and realize that my entire
radio box and I don't know what all the technology is,
but I was told that it was indestructible and impossible
that it could ever not be on. There are zero lights.

(01:28):
My technological acumen consists entirely of turn it on and
turn it off. That did not work, and plugging and
unplugging did not work. And so I have no idea
what's actually going on with the home studio right now.
By the way, everything else in the house works flawlessly,
of course, uh literally everything else in the houses. I'm

(01:49):
walking around like there's no switch that's been flipped or
anything like that. My TV, if you need to be
to be on TV right now, I could sit down
and be love on television, zero issues. But my curse
of radio technology continues. And so I am presently in
my car, which is now the guy go out kicked
studios on the way in. Now that is the background.

(02:11):
And I appreciate, by the way, to people on Twitter
who are like, hey, they're playing best Off on your show. Yeah, thanks, yeah,
thanks for letting me know that I'm not live on
the radio. If you hadn't tweeted me, I would have
been totally unaware that I am not live on the radio. Hey,
you're not live on the radio. Yeah, thanks thanks if
you hadn't let me know on Twitter that I wasn't

(02:32):
live on the radio, you are a real star there.
Thank you for letting me know that they're playing that stuff.
All right. Where do we learned yesterday? We gotta lot
to get into you day. Um. First of all, we
learned that the Big Twelve is awful at football, and
we kind of got that in the information when Oklahoma
went out and lost six, three to eight to Oklahoma

(02:53):
to LSU and you would never remotely in the game
at all. Things got worse, I would say for the
Big Twelve as we moved throughout the new year. By
the way, I hope everybody else had a great new year,
and I hope the things in your house that need
to work in order to you to do your job
are actually working. But in uh, in in general, what
we learned is something that we already knew, which is

(03:15):
the SEC still really good at football, has gone six
and two as the best of the Big five conferences
and as the best of the small conferences. The Mountain
West by the way second best overall from win percentage
at four and two, and the Big twelve is the
worst at one in five and frankly, last night, even
with what felt like half of their starters deciding not

(03:39):
to play, there was not a lot of suspense about
which team was better last night between Georgia and Baylor
in the late night game, in the event that you
went to sleep before that game ended, because as many
of you probably did that that game did not end
until well after midnight and start till late Uh. And
we've got to do something I can see need to

(04:00):
be up in arms in college football over how long
these half times are. It's it's utterly indefensible how long
college football half times are. And I'm gonna get the
band people fired up again, but we don't need to
see the flipping band perform every single guy. Like the
Rose Bowl halftime literally lasted like two hours. I couldn't
believe how long it went on when they were actually

(04:22):
playing in the Rose Bowl. I don't have any idea
how Origon found a way to win. Well, yet kind
of I do, because you had four turnovers from Wisconsin,
which had no business whatsoever losing that football game, yet
found a way to get it. Justin Hobert turns into
an oversized running back, gets three touchdowns for Oregon. Monumental

(04:43):
win for that programs huge for him as he presumably
heads into the first round of the NFL Draft. Alabama
takes down Michigan. Jim Harbaugh remains the most fraudulent big
time coach in all of college football. He has now
lost made probably in the history of college football, the
most overhyped coach. Ever, he has now lost four straight

(05:07):
bowl games. Nick Saban, don't think that that wasn't a message.
Nick Saban was sending punching in a additional touchdown with
just a few seconds ago instead of taking a knee. Uh.
They held Michigan. Alabama did scoreless in the second half,
and that was even with some of Alabama's top players
deciding to sit out. A big decision now that is

(05:29):
looming all over all of college football and a big
discussion point. During the course of that that game. Greg
McElroy said that he expects for to a ton of
VLOA to come back next year, and if that in
fact does happen and TWA comes back next year, he
would join Andrew Works, Peyton Manning, Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford,

(05:53):
a relatively short lived that we expected to to be
able to go pro and be first surrounders. And you
can debate about where Tebow would have gone. Only Sam Bradford,
Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning would have all been top
ten picks. And if Tuah comes back, that is a
printed steordinary story in college football that does not emerge

(06:16):
that often. I also think it's the difference between Alabama
being incredibly elite and just being good. Now there's as
many as nine players from Alabama that are underclassmen that
could come out and potentially be first rounders. Greg McElroy
said during yesterday's broadcast, you think six of them might
decide to to stay and come back, And so that

(06:39):
is a story that we will follow again to announcing
on January six that he was contemplating going thro. Now,
I asked you guys last night late during that Georgia
and Baylor game to go vote to the poll and
you can still do it at Clay Travis on Twitter.
What would you do or what would you suggest that
to A should go pro or come back to Alabama?

(07:03):
Sixty seven percent of you say that you think that
to UH should uh should go pro instead of coming
back to Alabama with about round thirty five thousand of
you I think voted in that pole. Uh, it's up
last night and still up now if you are interested
in voting in that. UH. Big win for Minnesota. Speaking

(07:24):
of coaches that are not overhyped, p J. Fleck gets
Minnesota to eleven wins faster than Jim Harbaugh gets Michigan
to eleven win in five years. Jim Harbaugh still hasn't
won eleven games that Michigan. P J. Fleck does it
eleven and two in year three with Minnesota, big time

(07:44):
win over Auburn. The gust Miles on and I'll bring
in dub before long year to get his take on this,
But the gust Miles on bipolar love and hate affair
with Auburn and their fan base is back to hate
gust Miles on. All three years that Alabama has that
they've beaten Alabama, they have followed it up in the

(08:06):
bowl game and lost the next game, which is just
vintage Auburn. They can't handle UH success. As soon as
good things happen, they go ahead and they collapse shortly thereafter.
But a big win for Minnesota UH to to get
to eleven wins, notch and outback Bowl victory. Uh well,

(08:28):
let me go ahead and bring in Eddie Garcia. I
find out what's taken the world of sports, and then
I want to hear what dub thinks about the the
Auburn fan perspective on that performance against Minnesota. I'll actually
go to DUB when we come back out of the break.
By the start of our two I'll be in the studio,
But in the meantime, I'll bring in the crew and
get everybody's big takeaway from the games that took place

(08:48):
on January one. When we get back, this is OutKick
per side. All you hanging out with us, hope your
has started off well and the technology that you need
to rely on I was actually working. This is the
mobile out Kick Studios. We'll be back. This is Outkicked
the coverage with Clay Travis. I am almost to my

(09:10):
downtown Nashville studio, pulling into downtown Nashville. Nice start. The
entire radio apparatus in my home isn't working. Kind Of
like Auburn's offense under Guss mauls On, whenever they have
some small measure of success, they immediately are collapsing next,
and so I want to start there with reactions to
what we saw yesterday in the college football bowl games.

(09:34):
Job Auburn grad, Auburn fan. The response or easual nation
this morning is when we can open thinking, what, well,
it's a vicious cycle. You're so right. We we sniff
a little bit of success with a big, dramatic win
over Alabama and the Iron Bowl, and then we get
a few weeks to prepare for a good Minnesota team
in the in the Outback Bowl. And here's what we do.

(09:55):
We have two thirty two yards of total offense, led
by a coach who is supposedly an offensive mastermind. They
controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.
We only average two point two yards per carry on offense,
and they're running game yesterday was unbelievable. They got five
or six yards at will. There were multiple occasions on

(10:17):
third and long where they just handed the ball off
and got the first down easily. Our defensive line, which
was the most probably successful unit of our team all season,
they got absolutely dominated by Minnesota up front, and we
ended up losing thirty one to twenty four. But it
wasn't even that close because Auburn had a kickoff return

(10:38):
for a touchdown, and on Minnesota's first drive of offense,
they threw an interception which led to an Auburn three
and out but a field goal. So if you take
those points away, which you're fairly fortunate, I would say
this game is even uglier and it's more like fourteen,
which is kind of what the numbers would suggest when
you look at the stat sheet fo total yards from

(10:58):
Minnesota two hundred seventy nine on the ground, two rushing.
And this has become a negative trend for Gus miles
on in these bowl game appearances, only two wins in
bowl games as Auburn head coach. One of them was
against Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl and the other was
last year against Purdue here in Nashville and the Music

(11:18):
City Bowl. All other bowl games he's lost, and they've
all been against against you know, big Power five opponents.
So he is now two and five in bowl games
as Auburn's head coach. And I think what has to
be so frustrating is the like inconsistency in general. Right.
I mean you can go from hey, we're beating Alabama, Oh,

(11:40):
everything's gonna be Okay, a freshman, let's be excited, and
then almost immediately like and there's no to win. Auburn
is going to collapse, except you know that Auburn is
going to collapse pretty much all the time, right like
in every big game. So to me, that was one
of the big story lines um coming out of out

(12:02):
of this game was just how good Minnesota was. And
we could talk about how bad Auburn was, and I
certainly think that's a part of it, but as you
are mentioning, it wasn't just that they that they won,
It was that they physically dominated Auburn. And I mean
that was to me the most shocking result from the

(12:22):
from the games that we're taking place yesterday. Uh there's
maybe I shouldn't be shocked by it, just because Auburn
has been so inconsistently, uh inconsistent, But that was to me,
that's about the most is one that I just didn't anticipate. Well,
I think the physical domination that Minnesota displayed was incredibly
shocking even for me as a you know, a biased
Auburn fan, because this is an Auburn defense that held

(12:44):
l s us offense to twenty three points during the
regular season in Baton Rouge and this defense, especially the front,
has been the strong suit of this team. And for them,
they got bullied yesterday by Minnesota. And they are a
good team, don't get me wrong, but to see that
unit in that side of the ball playoff season very
very well to an exceptional standard, and then yesterday they

(13:07):
just came out flat. And to me, when you come
out flat with two or three weeks to get ready
for a game, that's on coaching. And these guys weren't
ready to play. Then it showed. And p J Fleck
hats off to him. I think he's a fantastic coach.
Having Minnesota to eleven wins, like you said, faster then
Jim Harbo has been able to do that for Michigan
is super impressive to me. Yeah. Now, and I know

(13:27):
some people out there were Michigan fans can say, well,
Jim Harback coaches in the Big Tennis, you gotta play
against Ohio State, you got to go against Penn State,
Michigan State every year. Well, Minnesota beat Penn State, a
team that Michigan could not be. And I don't think
there's anybody out there who would even say that Minnesota
is within the same zip code as Michigan in terms

(13:48):
of overall advantages. I mean, I believe this is the
first time they said that that Minnesota had won eleven games.
It's like nineteen o five. Um, so we're talking about
a long history of Fouser at Minnesota, and she Flint
came in with one one one hundred, maybe one one
thousand of the hype that that Jim Harbaugh did, and

(14:10):
he now has already exceeded the achievements of Jim Harball
at Michigan. And by the way, when I go after
Jim Harbaugh, inevitably you know that there's some pushback because
although Michigan is don't push back anywhere near as much
as they used to. When I began for the first
time a couple of years ago saying that Jim Harbaugh
was the most overhype coach in college football history. A

(14:30):
lot of Michigan fans and a lot of them listening
right now to me, agreed. But if you really break
down what Jim Harbaugh has done, I mean, look, Michigan,
he he has just been okay, right, I think he
has been a good coach for Michigan, and good coach
means you win like eight or nine games a year.

(14:52):
But the hype that he came in with. When he
came in, you would have thought that he was the
next Urban Meyer, he was the next Nick Saban, and
that they were gonna be garlanded with national championships at Michigan.
And for him to be outperformed by P. J. Fleck
Put substantially and much more fast than uh than Jim

(15:14):
Harbaugh could be is about as much of an indictment
of the hype machine or Jim Harbaugh as I have
ever seen. Now, I do think in general the Michigan
job is while re overrated, Basically since World War Two,
Michigan has won one half of a national championship in football,
and I think that stuns a lot of people out

(15:35):
there that Michigan since the nineties has won one half.
Back in I guess it was back in they won
one half of the championship with Nebraska when they remember
they didn't play all the time. Then Nebraska finished undefeated
and Michigan finished undefeating Charles Woodson the Heisman troop a year.

(15:57):
All of that, that was the only time that Michigan
has been in the championship caliber for for basically the
last seventy years, so they have one half of the championship.
So I think it's kind of crazy to compare Michigan
with frankly, Ohio State or Alabama or USC or any
of these traditional programs of dominance because one half of

(16:21):
the title, since I believe it is, does that really
sounds to like abscellently excellence? It doesn't to me. All Right,
I am now pulled dot doms. You can come outside
and lent me into uh the the OutKick downtown Geos.
I'm gonna be moving this to show from the cab
of my car, uh to uh the to the inside

(16:42):
of the studio. Uh And for those we'll never even
notice the difference, I appreciate on of you. This has
been outkicked live from my car. This is outkicked. The
coverage with played traffic. A lot of reactions to uh

(17:03):
what used to be and used to feel like such
a better day for bowl games than it did to
me on January one. Now this is me maybe on
my soapbox, but to me, it is utterly absurd that
they don't play the college football playoff games on January one. Instead,
they allow the Rose Bowl to exist and look I

(17:24):
enjoyed watching Oregon in Wisconsin, but I think they were
am I right? There were only four Bowl games on
all of January one, and they didn't start. I feel
like it used to start earlier. Uh, but they didn't
start until one o'clock Eastern. And then for some reason,
you have simultaneously the Outback Bowl and the Citrus Bowl
going at they kick off it basically the exact same time.

(17:47):
Is it crazy of me to say that one of
those games should kick off at noon or even eleven
a m. Eastern so that you can watch that game,
and then you're not watching them head to head. That
seems like a real scheduling snaff food to me. Again,
my argument is, and I hate to play god here,
but you know, I think I know the better answers
and almost anybody. Why would you not start, let's say,

(18:09):
the Outback Bowl at eleven a m. Eastern so when
everybody's crawling out of their bed after a fun New
Year's Eve. If you did have a fun New Year's Eve,
or if you didn't, you just get to kick back
and be able to sit back and watch at eleven
am Eastern, you could start the Outback Bowl that way
everybody could watch the first half of the Outback Bowl
and then you could choose whether or not to watch

(18:30):
the Citrus Bowl. Anyway, we only got four games. We
had the Outback Bowl, we had the Citrus Bowl, we
had the Rose Bowl, and we had the Sugar Bowl.
What did we learn from those games? Well, I think
the big takeaway more than anything else is the Big
twelve is awful. And if you're out there right now
and you're thinking, Okay, I know it's bowl season, what
do you do? I'm not a every game is a
referendum on the overall talent of a conference guy, because

(18:54):
I think individual teams and individual games, crazy things can happen.
But I do think you need to look at the
totality of the bowl record of a conference and it
roughly gives you an approximation of how good that conference is.
And so far as we essentially are through bowl season,
I know we got a game, uh today, what Boston
College is playing somebody in? Then Indiana and Tennessee play

(19:17):
in the evening because evidently a lot of people never
go to work at all during basically two weeks. And
by the way, maybe that's what I need to do.
I need to give me the Dan Patrick schedule. The
Dan Patrick Show just took off all of last week,
and they're taking off all of this week. They left
before the College Football Playoff was played, and they're coming
back after the first round of the NFL Playoffs, and

(19:41):
you won't have heard a word from them in the
two weeks in between. I need that schedule. I don't know.
I don't know how you get that schedule. I've never
heard of anybody taking two full weeks off for the holidays.
But that's what I need to do. I want to
start doing that because then if I wake up and
things aren't working on the radio, don't have to worry
about it. But Power five Conference Bowl records, the SEC,

(20:01):
having played eight games, is six and two. The Pack
twelve has bounced back from obsolescence. It feels like big
win for Oregon in the Rose Bowl, not just for
Oregon and Justin Herbert, but also for the Pack twelve
conference in general. The Big Ten is four and four,
the a c C is four and five, and the
Big Twelve is one in five. So really there are

(20:23):
two mirror image conferences here. The SEC is good, which
is I think what most people anticipated. The conferences six
and two, and the Big Twelve is one in five.
The Big Twelves only win Texas UH, and the SEC's
only two losses Mississippi State, which seems thoroughly disgusted and
basically done with Joe moorehead their coach. Although nice win

(20:47):
for Louisville and then Dubbs Auburn team just absolutely refuses
to to show up at all. So let me give
you a roadmap where we're headed here. Since we're starting
a little bit awkwardly as compared to normal shows, We're
gonna talk with Chris Mannix UH in the next segment.
He's our NBA insider and UH David Stern Yesterday bad

(21:09):
news seventy seven year old David Stern dies. I think
that David Stern is the most impactful sports commissioner ever,
and I'm not sure there's a close second. I'm not
sure anybody else will ever be on his level. But
we'll talk about that with Chris mannox An our three.
Dr David Chow will join us. Lots of uncertainty about
health status for a variety of different players as we

(21:30):
get ready for wild Card weekend in the NFL, and
we will discuss all of that with him, as well
as what he thinks to us should do from a
medical perspective of what advice he would give him. But
I want to bring in the crew right now while
I can talk to everybody. We've already talked to her
dub about Auburn, So I want to go to Danny G.
Danny G, what was your big takeaway we were off?

(21:52):
I know Jason Martin and Jeff Schwartz were in yesterday,
but what was your big takeaway of games on New Year's?
And does it feel a different to you that there
were only four games in college taking place on New
Year's It feels like usually we get the bed buffet,
the corner copia of excess, and I didn't have that feeling.
I watched all four games, Don't get me wrong. I

(22:14):
watched whatever it was, twelve or fourteen hours basically of
football on January one, like I long have. But we
only had four games. As good as the Rose Bowl was,
there wasn't a ton of second half drama in the
Alabama Michigan game, and there was really no drama at
all in the Sugar Bowl, where Georgia came out got
up nineteen nothing and you never really felt like they

(22:35):
had been challenged overall. But what stood out to you
from the day of football. I love the pageantry of
the Rose Bowl. It's right down the street from where
I live, even affected traffic in my city. But the
halftime show was outstanding because they put that stat up
on the screen that Justin Herbert hadn't touched the ball

(22:56):
in over an hour of real time, which is pretty amazing. Um,
so the guy comes in in the third quarter basically cold.
Wasn't surprising that he had to win with his feet.
I think that's what stood out to me was Oregon.
And do you think Justin Herbert's skills will translate well
into the NFL? I don't have any idea. I mean,
I think there are right now a lot of quarterbacks

(23:19):
with a lot of decisions to make, and I think
the number of teams that have to make really intriguing
decisions are are difficult as well. Because I think Joe
Burrow is gonna go number one overall. Cincinnati Bengals are
gonna draft him. It would be an utter, utterly insane
upset only the Bengals could make if they didn't draft

(23:39):
him number one overall. But after that we don't know
what to was gonna do. Uh. And again that's our
poll question. If you're just waking up and you want
to go vote in it, what do you think two
should do? Go pro or come back to Alabama? And Uh,
let me give you the latest updates on that. Over
thirty two thousand of you have voted so far, sixty

(24:01):
seven percent of you are saying go pro. So that
factors in in a big way because then you have
to factor in Justin Herbert, who you don't really want
to say very often that a first round quarterback made
all the plays with his legs when typically he's considered
to be a pocket passer. But that's what Herbert did
with three rushing touchdowns in the Rose Bowl. So I

(24:22):
think it's hard to assess any differently Justin Herbert based
on the way that he played. Now, he did make
a couple of big throws, and credit to Oregon late
instead of maybe taking the the safer route and running
the ball and letting everybody else call their time outs
and then you punt it back and you hope you're
on defense you can hold on. They put twice two

(24:43):
different situations. They gave a perfect situation to Justin Herbert.
He threw for a first down to start the end
of the drive, and then on third and three, I
think it was they hit that little short pass out
to the left. Uh. They gained a lot of yards,
and so credit to Oregon for letting Herbert make the

(25:04):
plays to win that game. But that was Ah. That
was a game where it's hard to look at Justin
Herbert and say, oh, he's definitely a first rounder. And
then uh, in the nightcap, Jacob From came out and
played really, really well. He looked like Jake From a
little bit from last year. George Pickens was almost impossible
to defend. But now it kind of feels like From

(25:26):
might be leaning towards going pro. And he was a
guy that coming into the season. If you had been like, hey,
who's more likely to be number one? Uh, Joe Burrow
or Jake From, I think virtually every major college football
fan would have said, oh, I can see Jake From
being able to be the number one pick. In fact,
I'm kicking myself a little bit because I bought some

(25:47):
future tickets on Jake From to win a Heisman. My
idea was sound. I thought that an SEC quarterback would
go from good to great in ten. I just didn't
anticipate that it would be Joe Burrow go and good
to great. I thought it would be Jake from going
good to great. But so now I think from maybe
a late first round guy. He's shown that he can

(26:07):
make every throw, but he's also I think gotta have
you fairly apprehensive. If you watched a lot of this
Georgia offense this year, they were just not very good
um and part of that was I don't think they
had great game breakers at uh at wide receiver, but
they just never really kind of hit a full stride
on offense. So I think there could be four guys.

(26:28):
Jacobisan is sitting around right out there as well. But
other than Joe Burrow, there's a great deal of uncertainty
that is out there about what exactly should be and
could be done at the quarterback position as we come
into the draft. What about you, Eddie Garcia, what stood
out the most to you from a day of football? Actually,
you texted me and like, hey, make sure you check

(26:49):
the winner classic out And I don't know that I
would have even flipped over and watched it otherwise, but
I flipped it over. They were playing in the Cotton Bowl,
and uh, that was a pretty cool thing to watch
as well that I know a certain large segment of
our audience is probably checking out as well. Yeah, I
missed most of the the Outback and the Citrus Bowl
because I was watching the Winter Classic as a big

(27:11):
hockey fan. And by the way, but you know what,
the technology today, they can do that pretty much anywhere,
believe it or not. And they did have some rain
issues and I know they had worked like thirty six
hours straight to make sure they'd have the ice playable
and they had to, you know, to go over time.
But in the end, uh, yeah, it seemed like it
was pretty good. And they were like thirty thousand Predators

(27:31):
fans there something. It was ridiculous that a lot of
people traveled. Yeah, good job by them. But I thought
the Rose Bowl was fantastic, And I, like Danny g
I have a I have a soft spot for the
Rose Bowl as well. I've always loved that game, whether
it was a part of the playoffs or not, and
I thought that that was a pretty compelling game. A
little bit sloppy, but you had the big special teams
play and whatnot. The Sugar Bowl. I just couldn't get into.

(27:54):
I watched until halftime and then I started doing other things. So,
you know, New Year's Day in the past I can
remember are being nostalgic. You know, you had the Rose
Bowl and the Cotton Bowl and the Orange Bowl al together,
and they were all big important games. And I'm not
saying I want to go back to those days. I
love the playoffs, but uh, New Year's Day doesn't have
quite the the punch that it seems to have in
the past. Well, I just think that they need to

(28:15):
have the playoff games on New Year's Day, uh, instead
of allowing the Rose Bowl to basically take all of
college football hostage by refusing like the bowl game exists
because college football allows it to exist. And I just
think the big ten in the Pact twelve need to
bow up and actually have some some testicular fortitude here

(28:39):
and say, look, I mean, we enjoy playing in your
bowl game. And it's great when the Golden Hour arrives
and everybody can lose their mind over how beautiful the
sunsets are and all those things, and it's Pasadenas a
beautiful place, and the Rose Bowl. Other than the fact
that it's almost impossible to get to is uh. It
is really a great venue, But I don't know that

(29:00):
they should be able to hold college football hostage and
be like, we're not going to allow you to play
the games that people would rather watch because we're the
Rose Bowl and we kick off every single uh, you know,
January one at five eastern and we refuse to move
off that time slot. I don't know what kind of
power they have. I don't understand the negotiating leverage that

(29:20):
they have. The Big twelve and the Big Ten can say, Okay,
we're changing that you're gonna kick off on December thirty
one or on January two this year and we're playing
our we're playing our playoff games on January one. Like,
I don't understand why that can't easily be rectified. And uh,
I think it's an example of college football being held
hostage by the past. Frankly, be sure to catch live

(29:42):
editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at
six am Eastern three am Pacific. We're talking about the
fact that, in a relatively short period of time, P J.
Fleck has taken Minnesota from absolute football afterthought Minnesota in
college football was a total backwater in terms of how

(30:07):
much people would talk about Minnesota. In fact, I bet
the amount of time that Minnesota football has received on
national sports talk or radio is one one. This probably
even high compared to how much people talk about Michigan.
P J. Fleck takes over at Minnesota and he has

(30:30):
completely turned around everything there and let me like his
head coaching tenure, because I do think this is interesting.
For instance, Matt Rule took over an eleven lost team
two years ago and took him to eleven wins. Now
they lost last night in the Sugar Bowl, but that's
a pretty incredible trajectory overall. But if you look at Minnesota,

(30:51):
p J. Fleck was five and seven in year one,
two and seven in the Big Ten. By year three,
he's eleven and to seven and two in the Big Ten.
He has taken Minnesota to eleven wins faster than Jim
Harbaugh has been able to get Michigan to eleven wins,

(31:12):
and in the process, I think that he has made
Minnesota football relevant in a way they never have been before.
So row the boat, indeed, But within that context, what
is more overrated than Jim Harbaugh. I want to open
it up to the crew, all right, sports or otherwise. Also,

(31:35):
you can tweet me at Clay Travis and let me know.
I believe firmly that Jim Harbaugh is the most overrated
coach in the history of college football. Now doesn't mean
he's bad because some people out there like, well, he's
still done. You know, he's still won eight or nine
games or whatever you want to say. Okay, fine, he has.

(31:56):
But relative to expectations, Jim Harbaugh is the most overrated
coach in the history of college football. And I don't
think there's a close second. Because he was supposed to
be Nick Saban, he was supposed to be Pete Carroll
at USC, he was supposed to be Urban Meyer. And
at best, he's been a little bit above average for

(32:19):
Michigan head coaches over the last hundred years. That's really
what he's done, a little bit better than average for
Michigan head coaches over the last hundred years of football
in the big house and in an arbor. So what
in life is comparable there? And by the way, if
you don't think Nick Saban deciding to score late against

(32:44):
Jim Harball wasn't a hundred percent a response to Jim
Harbaugh calling out the SEC and uh Nick Saban in Alabama,
then you don't have a very good memory because Nick
Saban is like an elephant. He never forgets any thing.
He's like your wife never forgets anything. You do something wrong,

(33:05):
it's gonna get brought up a decade from now. Like
I thought we got over now, No, she didn't forget.
She forgave, but she didn't forget. It's a big difference
between forgiveness and forgetfulness. And if you want to know
the difference, just think about your wife. Uh So in
that scenario, can anybody think of anything in the world, sports,

(33:27):
pop culture, you name it, what is more overrated than
Jim Harbaugh? Danny g Do you know anything in the
world right now that is more overrated than Jim Harbaugh. Yeah.
A friend of mine we were kind of arguing about
this the other day because she was telling me, Oh,
you gotta watch the Kevin Hart special on Netflix. I

(33:49):
like him, but I think he's way overrated. Like I
was a comedian. Yeah, I like him in Ju Mangi.
He's awesome in that movie. But like the comedy with
Will Ferrell and some the other comedies that I thought
were so cheesy and that I wasted my money on it.
And I even went and saw him do a stand
up performance like two years ago, and I thought, well,

(34:10):
maybe he'll be funnier in person, But I really didn't
laugh that much the night we were there watching him.
I don't know, I like him, but I think he's
way overrated. Because we had to stand in line to
see him. I think we were in line for like
an hour and a half. Yeah, and I was like, man,
it just felt like way too much effort for what
I got back, kind of like what you're saying about Hardball. No,

(34:33):
I can see that. I mean, Kevin Hart is probably now.
I think the differences with comedians it's hard. It doesn't
by the way, you don't have to be able to
prove it like you can prove. I think statistically that
if you looked at amount of time spent discussing versus results,
I think you could prove that Jim Harbaugh is like
statistically the most overrated coach in college football history. I

(34:57):
don't know what data you could point to to say
Kevin Art is the most overrated comedian of his era,
but certainly that's a strong argument, I could see it.
I'm not an expert on uh, you know, comedians, and
I don't know how you quantify which comedians are good
and which ones are average, and which ones are bad
and all those things. And obviously Kevin Hart has a

(35:17):
huge fan base. But that's an interesting angle there, dub
what would you say, what is the Jim Harbaugh of
insert here? Like, what do you find to be as
overrated as Jim Harbaugh? Well, I was thinking first in
the sports world, and the first thing that came up
with Steve Kerr. Okay, I understand he's got the titles,
but if you gave me Durant Curry, Clay Thompson, yeah,

(35:39):
I'm fairly confident I could win at least sixty games
with that. So if the drop off between you know,
one of the top coaches in the NBA and me
is eight to ten games, I think that's an issue.
But in in other aspects of life, I'm not a
big I'm not a huge on popcorn, to be honest
with you. I know it's convenient movie time, snap popcorn
is overrated in your mind. And well, if there's if

(36:00):
there's if there's a food group that you have to
lather in butter to make it edible. To me, that's
just overrated. To me, it's more of a butter Well, no, no,
that's what I like the butter, but I have to
douse it in butter for me to even enjoy. And
then your fingers are getting hands get all greasy. To me,
I'm fine without the buck popcorn. Overrated is an interesting angle, Eddie.
What would you say, what is the Jim Harbaugh of

(36:21):
sports or otherwise in your mind? Well, I gotta say
watching the festivities there in Times Square, I thought that
looks really I mean, I know, everyone seems to be
having a good time, and there they're all Jim, I
wouldn't You couldn't pay me to go do that. That
looks standing in the cold for hours, God knows where

(36:45):
you go to the bathroom. I just thought, I have
no ever do that. And this and the TV shows,
by the way, we're awful to the the guy, the
people that are there, and these musical acts. It's terrible.
I went uh to Times Square when we flipped from
ninety nine to two thousand and uh. Now, it was

(37:06):
so crowded then that and I was in college at
the time, but nine to two thousand, you couldn't get like,
I don't know what the normal crowd is for Times Square,
but it was, you know, orders of magnitude on that level.
And that was also when everybody had the Y two
K fears. So and for some of you out there,
you're so young you don't even remember the fears of

(37:26):
Y two K. But the idea was that when we
flipped to two thousand, because computers had been programmed only
based on two decades, I don't I never really understood
the whole Y two K fear, but but essentially it
was like the computers were gonna flip and they were
gonna think it was all over again, and nothing was
gonna work. And so if you grew up around then,

(37:48):
like Y two K was a massive terror, right like
everybody was was was just convinced that the world was
gonna come to an end and then nothing happened. It
was it was may maybe the most overhyped UH calamity
of all time in human history, because nothing really happened
at all. UH. And so I thought that was in
and of itself like the danger zone with it. But

(38:10):
it was so crowded in Times Square that we couldn't
get there until you know, they keep dropping that. That's
one of the lessons. I didn't know this at the time.
I mean, it makes sense, but they keep dropping the apple,
the ball there, or whatever you want to say, every hour.
So they do it for East Coast New Year, which
makes sense because that's where New York City is. But
then they'll do it for Central time Zone, they'll do

(38:32):
it for the Mountain time zone, and they'll do it
for the West Coast. So by the time they dropped
the ball for the West Coast, we had made it
there to be able to see it, but that was
three am. But yeah, I'm with you, guys. It does
seem utterly like and and I always think about it
now from a parent perspective, and I'm like, I some
of these people take their kids, and I can't think

(38:53):
of anything more miserable than being in the cold with
your kids, who inevitably, as soon as you get a
good spot, are gonna have to go to the bathroom
and then you're gonna spend like two hours trying to
get them to the bathroom. Uh. And so yeah, that
that seems to me to be utterly awful. I can
definitely see that as being overrated, and there are I

(39:14):
don't think we can play the audio. But you know,
they banned me on CNN for saying that I that
I support the First Amendment boobs like I'm not allowed
on the entire network anymore. And then I wake up
on and I wasn't watching, like I also don't watch
like the stories, uh you know, like the ball dropping
or whatever else. But CNN had Anderson Cooper and uh oh,

(39:35):
who's the guy from uh Andy Cohen, the Bravo guy.
They had them on and they were talking about all
sorts of ridiculous stuff. We can't even play what they
were saying on CNN, the deal with body parts. I can't.
I can't be on because I talked about how I
like boobs and that one is that one's utterly ridiculous.
All right, what about you? Uh? And but maybe we

(39:56):
can cut it. You can look, I tweeted it out
to any I don't even know if it's possible for
you to g have that and cut it so that
we can play it without committing FCC violations on radio?
What about you, Roberto, what would you say is the
Jim Harbaugh of any other aspect of life? So, by
the way, the nominee so far are Jim Harbaugh is
like standing in outside watching the ball drop on New

(40:17):
Year's Eve. He is popcorn in the words of Dub
and he is Kevin Hart comedian in the words of
Danny g. Last Week goes off, And I like to
catch up on movies I've never seen before. So I'd
like to go on the IMDb and see you on
the top rated Hunter Movies or whatever. I'd always see
that Apocalypse, Uh what was it? Apocalypse Now? Apocalypse Now,

(40:37):
It's always on there. I'm all right, I mean, let
me try to watch this movie. I watched it. Man,
I'm always terrible to be done. A top one hundred
list of greatest movies. It's it's the greatest and it's
the top rated war movie. I believe that's on that list.
So Apocalypse not not overrated, definitely. It's been a long time.
So I saw Apocalypse Now, and the only thing I
really remember is that Robert Daval says, uh, you know,

(40:59):
they're what's the uh oh, the stuff that you dropped
like it's something in the morning smells like napalm in
the morning. That's the line that's obviously the most famous
for his character is great in the movie, but he's
only on there a short time and then yeah, Marto
Brown was only there for like thirty minutes, so it's like,
come on, man, uh yeah. I was thinking about this too, well,
those are good, those are good nominees, and I was

(41:22):
trying to think of the world of sports, and I'm
not even sure that there is a guy or girl
in the world of sports who is the Jim Harbaugh equivalent.
I think you would probably have to go to somebody
who is really good but has never won a championship.
But the thing is, if you're really good and you've
never won a championship, you're still really good. So that's

(41:45):
a criticism like oh maybe you can't win the big
game or you're the best that's never won a championship.
That that doesn't really apply because I think that hardball
isn't really good. So it would be different if hardball
like one ten or eleven games every year and then
Michigan got to the playoffs. Like that would be like
Bob Stoops. If Bob Stoops had never won a championship before,

(42:09):
he has won one, but you point to him and say, well,
Oklahoma can get there, but they can't really win a championship.
Or you could maybe say in the NFL, for instance,
like Andy Reid. Andy Reid would be, oh, he's the
best who's never won a championship. I would say in
the coaching you know, Super Bowl realm. But it doesn't

(42:29):
mean that Andy Reid is not still really good. And
I can't even conceive like this is like someone who's
not actually that good. That we've all been sold a
bill of goods to believe that they are good. And
that's why I say these are relatively rare. Like your
guy's suggestions, Kevin Hard is an interesting one, it's harder

(42:50):
to quantify, like what makes a really good comedian? Uh,
popcorn is just like an individual preference. Uh, And you
know not standing outside for New Year's is just an
individual preference. Like those are choices. But I I'm genuine like,
this is to me a really interesting question because I
don't think there are that many easy analogies to draw

(43:14):
than what is more When we got a ton by
the way, I'll read you some of the some of
the guys on Twitter who are weighing in what's more
overrated than Jim Harbaugh in an out Burger all right
again A personal preference avocados. Uh. The most overrated movie
is The Irishman the Beatles. Uh, somebody's saying like highly overrated, blasphemy.

(43:41):
The Dodger Dog. I will say that Dodger dog is
up there, Dodger Dog. I I gotta tell you this.
I went to I've been hearing about Dodger dogs my
entire life. Oh, the Dodger Dog is great. The Dodger
Dog is phenomenal. It was the most unfulfilling high expectation
meal maybe that I've ever had. You didn't have the

(44:02):
right one. That's got two different ones at was like
it was gross. It was like I looked at it
and and I was like, this doesn't even look good.
And then I dove in and it was a disaster.
Like it was utterly atrocious. L A Street was that
at the Dodger door. That's it wasn't like in the

(44:23):
corner in late night and night in l A. Yeah,
they grill outside arenas and stadiums in southern California. So yeah,
I've had a lot of like And that was one
of the great things about going to UH school in Washington,
d C. Was the street vendors like right, there's always food.
And there used to be a guy back in the
day who would His name was Maniche I think if
I remember correctly, and Manuch Manouch. Manush would set up

(44:45):
directly across from the GW dorms and he was a
hot dog vendor. But he would only work from like
eleven o'clock to three am. So, you know, like most
hot dog vendors are like out like I'll you know,
feed you, you know, during the day or whatever, this
guy was only there for late night, um late night
college kids, and so you would look out your dorm

(45:06):
and you'd see him there and you'd be like, this
is amazing because nothing else is open at the time.
I know the d C now is a lot more
active than it was back then, But when I was
in college in d C, it was crazy because relatively
few people lived in many different parts of d C
at the time. Now a lot more people have moved
back in, but d C was very much, at least
Northwest d C where George Washington University where I went,

(45:26):
was very much of a commuter town, and so people
would come into work and then they would bail and
like there were no restaurants. Uh. You know, it wasn't
like the community that it is today. Like if you
walk around all over d C. Now it's very much
of a twenty four hour community everywhere. It didn't really
have that vibe in many parts of the city when
I was there at the Turn, you know, ninety seven

(45:47):
to two thousand one. So this guy was kind of
like your your saviors. So yeah, I can understand why
that could be particularly enjoyable. Um. But uh, but yeah,
the hardball thing is just to me, one of the
off the charts unbelievably ridiculous, overhyped scenarios. All right, when
we come back, I want to jump into this to

(46:08):
a decision which is going to be made on Monday.
Should he stay or should he go? Now? Uh, we
will discuss me. We can play that music when we
come back. I'll give you the pros and cons and
tell you what I would be thinking if I were
to and had to make this choice. Uh, and we'll
also talk about that, by the way, with uh with
Dr David Chow this is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis.

(46:38):
She churned me out of the ballue and goes He's
not gonna ask me who has the biggest Hollywood is he? Okay? Okay,
that was CNN. We play that again. You can kind
of hear what was said Anderson Cooper and Uh, what's
the guy's name, Andy Cohen? I keep forgetting his name. Uh.
They are on CNN for the broadcast. Can't say boobs

(47:00):
on CNN your banned for life if you say that.
You like the First Amendment in boobs, but you can
say this. He's not gonna ask me who has the
biggest Hollywood is Okay? That's just said it. There you go, CNN.
They didn't have double standards. They would have no standards
at all. Welcome back, Geico out Kick Studios. Want to
hear something amazing. Discover matches all the cash back you

(47:23):
earn at the end of your first year, automatically with
no limit to how much. Will match millions of people
a year getting their cash back match. Discover cash Back Match,
What are you waiting for? Learn more at discover dot com.
Slash cash back match UM a couple of stories that
we are tracking. David Stern Uh seventy seven years old,
thirty year commissioner of the n B a UH the

(47:45):
NBA is struggling right now, I think because they don't
have the stewardship of somebody like David Stern. And this
is an interesting point. I'm gonna talk about to down
to start the top of our three, So if you
want to hear my take on to we'll start it
off here in a few minutes. But I do want
to mention just David Stern angle there are a lot
of smart people in the world. One of the challenges

(48:10):
with I think being a smart person, which I don't
think there's any doubt that David Stern was super smart,
was being smart enough to understand what normal people think.
And this is something that I think gets lost very often.
I want you to follow me down the road here
before with me a little bit. Think of the smartest
person that you know, whoever that person may be in

(48:32):
your life. Maybe it's one of your family members, maybe
it's somebody that you work with, maybe it's somebody that
you went to school with. Whoever, the absolute smartest person
you know is how often is that person also incredibly
good at thinking like a normal person. This is this

(48:56):
is something that that I contemplate a lot. For instance,
there are people, oftentimes attorneys who are trial lawyers, are brilliant,
but they're brilliant and they're able to talk in a
way that everybody can understand. They're not like like if
you sat down with Albert Einstein, and I don't know

(49:16):
whether this would be the case or not, but if
you asked him to explain the theory of relativity to you,
it's probably the case that he is so well versed
in the theory of relativity that he would have trouble
explaining it so that an average guy or girl could
really understand it. Now, maybe he also had in an

(49:37):
a gift Einstein to be able to speak to normal
people in a way that they could understand him too.
What I would say about David Stern is he understood
what the NBA needed to do to appeal to Middle America,
and that was his gift. He was such a brilliant

(49:58):
business person that he was able to craft a sport,
which was a niche sport at the time, the NBA,
and make it appeal to everybody. And the way that
he did that essentially was in a way to kind
of sum it up, NBA action is fantastic. If you
are around my age or you're older, maybe you're a

(50:20):
little bit younger too. You will remember when the NBA
was at its peak. Do you know what their number
one calling card was, NBA Action is Fantastic. That was
what they're advertising to the entire nation. Michael Jordan's, Reggie Miller,
Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, NBA Action is Fantastic. And it was,

(50:46):
you know, like a collection of great passes, great dunks,
exciting things that were designed to appeal to fans. Right,
they would emphasize the fan and fantastic and show people
reacting to the great athletic achievements on the court. I
think that Adam Silver is smart, but I think he's

(51:07):
maybe too smart. He doesn't understand how to appeal to
the common fan. He's to New York, he's to l A.
He's losing touch with Middle America. And I think that's
always a big challenge. When you have success, you get

(51:27):
sucked into that elite stratosphere. And I think that Adam
Silver's of the world are sitting around saying, oh, man,
we've got to ban the word owner because it's racially insensitive.
Oh we gotta pull our All Star Game out of
North Carolina because the transgender bathroom bill. I don't think
those are decisions that David Stern would have made. I

(51:50):
really don't. I think David Stern would have set back
and been able to think about what Middle America, who
is ultimately the lynchpin of his brand, would think about
those responses and understand that being popular in Park Avenue
in New York or Hollywood in l A. Is not
necessarily gonna play well in Peoria. It's not necessarily something

(52:13):
that people in Birmingham, Alabama and Louisville, Kentucky are gonna
respond to in a good way. And I think that
is David Stern's unique gift. He was able to appeal
to everyone, the elites, the common man, and he lifted
to the NBA two heights that it's never been close
to again, and people want to talk about on Twitter, like, oh,

(52:35):
the NBA is gonna challenge the NFL, which is laughable.
In the late nineties, the NBA ratings with Jordan and
everybody else when they're trying to appeal to everyone, were
infinitely higher than they are today, and they were infinitely
closer to the to the NFL. And that was, I
believe because of David Stern's unique gift to appeal to

(52:57):
both the elites and the common man simultaneously to make smart,
incredibly brilliant decisions for his league. Rest in peace, David Stern.
We come back. What should too do on OutKick? Appreciate
all of you hanging out with us? January one now
come and gone. Welcome into a new decade and a
new decade got rolling like a lot of the past

(53:19):
decade was with SEC mostly dominance, Big twelve mediocre. Uh.
The four games that were going on yesterday, I walked
all four of them, got takeaways for all of them.
I want to reiterate my point, which I do think
makes sense. Why would we not start the Outback Bowl
at eleven a m. Eastern and lets instead of playing

(53:43):
that game simultaneously with the Citrus Bowl. I miss January
feet where almost as soon as you get out of bed,
there games going. So I would, if I were the
schedule or start the Outback Bowl at eleven a m.
Eastern and then when you start the Citrus Bowl at
one pm, then you're able to sit back and watch

(54:06):
the first half at least of the Outback Bowl before
the Citrus Bowl even gets going. But what do we
learn out Back Bowl props? The PJ Fleck. He's everything
that Jim Harbaugh was supposed to be a guy who
arrives in the Big ten and over delivers. P J.
Fleck eleven wins in year three. He took over a

(54:29):
program that was in the dumps, went five and seven
in year one, bounced back up, I believe, to eight
and five, seven and six in year two, and then
in year three everything coming together for him. Eleven wins
for the Auburn Tigers. Auburn is now oh and three
under Gus miles On in Bowl games after they beat Alabama,

(54:52):
and to me, this is the challenge with Auburn in
general and why the Auburn fan base is so bipolar
when it comes to gust miles On because there's zero
consistency in that program. Credit to Minnesota for whipping Auburn's ass,
but for Auburn to show up and play like they

(55:14):
did all the time, this is just there's so many
swings from one extreme to the other from the Auburn
Tigers that it is uh, it's it's tough to watch
in all honesty if you're an Auburn fan with what
you're paying gust miles On. So big win for Minnesota
Alabama and Nick Saban took it to Jim Harbaugh. We

(55:34):
had some fun an hour too, talking about what is
the Jim Harbaugh of other parts of life, sports, pop culture?
What is as overrated as Jim Harbaugh is, who came
in like a hurricane. He was supposed to be Urban Meyer,
he was supposed to be Nick Saban, and instead he's

(55:55):
been a slightly above average Michigan football coach over the
past hundred years. P J. Fleck gets to eleven wins faster.
Crazy stat for you, Rutgers has more Bowl wins in
the last twenty years than Michigan does. Michigan has now
lost four straight Bowl games under Jim Harbaugh. Pretty much

(56:15):
every time there's an opportunity to win a big game,
Michigan falls flat on its face and Harbaugh fails and
Nick Saban punched in a touchdown late. I think because
Harbaugh ha called out Saban in Alabama and the SEC
over recruiting issues, and as a result, Alabama ninth straight
season of eleven wins or more. Big time performance by

(56:39):
Jerry Judy on his way out to being what I
expect will be the number one overall receiver drafted uh
in the draft here in a few months and a
big time performance by Alabama in the second half they
held Michigan scoreless. The Tide were down sixteen to fourteen UH,
and then got rolling and and took control of that

(57:01):
game in the Rose Bowl. Absolutely no way that Wisconsin
should have lost that football game. They were in control
almost the entire way defensively, other than Justin Herbert being
able to run the ball, they almost shut down Oregon.
And to have that game you fumble a punt and

(57:25):
give up a touchdown there to allow Oregon to win
that one. When I felt like and you probably felt
like it as well, Wisconsin was in control throughout is Wild.
Oregon only put up two hundred and four total yards. Now,
it's not like Wisconsin was a house on fire, but
Oregon ran the ball thirty times for sixty six total yards,

(57:47):
and that includes one thirty yards scramble uh design run
by Justin Herbert to give Oregon lead. UH. This was
I think a really tough one to weigh air if
you are a Wisconsin Badger fan. They had possession in
this game for nearly forty minutes UH compared to twenty

(58:08):
minutes for Oregon. Wild wacky game, a lot of fun
to watch, uh. And then in the Sugar Bowl, Georgia
has a ton of players who did not show up
UH and want to play because they didn't want to
hurt their draft stock, and they went out in the
first half and just put this game away. Credit to
Baylor for making some plays in the second half. I

(58:28):
hope that their quarterback ends up Okay, he got to
look like a pretty bad concussion with about six minutes
eight minutes to go in that game, something along those
lines in the fourth quarter. But Georgia twelve win for
the Bulldogs and Jake from was fantastic, especially in the
first half. Nobody could cover George Pickens, who had eleven catches,

(58:49):
and Georgia big time when uh certainly, especially considering how
poorly they played last year in the Sugar Bowl against
Texas and and also on top of that, how many
of their top players were sitting out and they still
found a way to pretty much dominate against Matt Rule

(59:11):
and Baylor. And now the question will be what will
be the next step for Matt Rule. Will he interview
with the Giants, will he consider moving on to the NFL.
He's already turned down interview opportunity with the Cleveland Browns.
But what's the next step now for Matt Rule? Will
he stay at Baylor or will he move into the

(59:31):
NFL coaching ranks. I believe both the Carolina Panthers and
the Washington sorry and the Giants want to interview him.
All right, that was all a big part of the
January first Bull games. Here's the other story that was
out there, Greg McElroy said, Remember Greg McElroy won a
National championship Heisman Trophy winning uh, sorry, national championship winning quarterback,

(59:54):
did not win a Heisman trophy, lost a Heisman Trophy
winning quarterback Cam Newton in his senior year. And the
camp Back game, which was one of those games where
gust mills On figures out how to win a really
big one and then loses the next one. Now, at
least the next one, uh that he lost in the
bowl game was against UH Florida State. But that in

(01:00:15):
and of itself, and he was the offensive coordinator there
as opposed to the head coach. But that's why gust
mills On really ended up Auburn's coach was because of
that incredible season he had as the offensive coordinator for
Cam Newton. But Greg McElroy says that he expects for
to and talk about Looa to come back to Alabama
because of his health status. And that's a pretty reasoned,

(01:00:37):
uh well connected opinion. And to us shortly after that
sends out a tweet saying he will be making his
announcement on January six, and so that's Monday. So on Monday,
to Ah will have a press conference or will in
some way let everyone know whether he is elected to

(01:00:59):
enter the NFL draft or not. He was on the
sideline if you were watching the game. He's still on
a crutch trying to get back to being healthy. I
think he's gonna come back. I think that to Uh
is gonna return to Alabama. That's my prediction right now now.
On Twitter, I gave you guys an opportunity to tell

(01:01:20):
me what you thought he should do, to vote whether
or not he should come back, and a huge percentage
of you said that he should go pro. Thirty five
thousand of you voted. Six percent of you said to
A should go pro. Thirty three percent of you said
that too I should stay at Bama. Here's the interesting

(01:01:40):
decision that he has, and I'm gonna bring in the
crew and see what you guys think if I were
to his dad, because that's the way I kind of
think now that I've got three boys, I got an
eleven year old and nine year old, and the five
year old. I've moved on from the I'm gonna think
about this from the athlete perspective too. Now A lot
of times I think about it from the dad p sspective,

(01:02:00):
where you're trying to give advice to your kid and
you're weighing the pros and cons and you know the
kid's gonna take it. I would tell to it to
go pro if I were his dad right now. And
granted I don't have full access to his medical records
and everything else, but I believe that the quarterback position
is so incredibly important in the NFL that there is

(01:02:23):
a team that will take a risk even if his
medical history is not ideal. In the first round, and
probably within the first twenty picks, I think to Uh
will be drafted and go into the NFL. Then he
especially the later he's drafted in the first round, the
less he's going to actually have to play, right because

(01:02:47):
it's likely that somebody will have a quarterback they might
be able to use. Then he can continue to rehab
except get paid millions of dollars to do it. You
make most of your money in the NFL if you're
going to on your second contract, So the faster you
can get to your second contract, the better it is
for you. If to what comes back and he plays

(01:03:10):
fabulously well, then he would be a top five pick
if he goes pro. Now, I still think he'll go
in the top twenty. If he comes back and he
doesn't play well, or even worse, he gets injured again,
then I think the chances of him being a first
round pick almost go to zero, and it's possible he

(01:03:33):
falls into the second or third day because of concerns
about his health. I think you have to take the
guaranteed money right now, this point in time. If I
am advising him and I am to his dad and
I am sitting around looking at all these details, and
he asked me for my opinion, I say, you gotta
go pro. You gotta think about this like a business perspective.

(01:03:56):
It's not ideal that you got hurt. It likely knocked
you out of the top three or four and pushes
you maybe into the teams but I still think the
quarterback position, even if you have issues with your health,
is so important in the NFL that somebody will take
a chance on you. And by the way, being drafted
later in the first round oftentimes is an overall benefit.

(01:04:18):
It's less money, but it's oftentimes an overall benefit to
your long range career because you go to a better,
more stable franchise and are better able to have success.
I e. Think about the difference between Baker Mayfield going
number one overall to the awful Cleveland Brown organization versus

(01:04:38):
Lamar Jackson going late in the first round to the
Baltimore Ravens, who were able to build a successful team
around him and build around his talents. I don't think
this is difficult at all. I think this is an
easy decision to me too, I should go pro. What
about you, Uh, Danny G What would you say? We

(01:05:00):
you know how much I love the NFL draft. In fact,
all day yesterday I was scouting for my favorite team,
the Raiders, and I'm hoping Jerry Judy gets drafted by Vegas.
That would be amazing as far as t A goes.
You're right about it being a blessing in disguise that
he could go late in the first round. I've looked
at just about every mock draft that's already come out,

(01:05:20):
and a couple of them have the Saints taking to
A at the end of the first round, basically replacing
Teddy Bridgewater. That puts to A in a very good situation.
That would that's a right, I mean, And even though
you might be going late in the first round, where
you go matters to such an extent that to me,
that's a that's a great example. If you can go

(01:05:41):
in the first round, I think you have to go
uh And and look, I understand that to A. And
some people out there gonna say money is not everything,
and I understand that argument, right. I have taken at
times less money to do jobs that I wanted to
do more. In fact, when I left practicing law, people
thought I was crazy end up doing this profession. But ultimately,

(01:06:04):
when all is said and done, too has to be
a businessman in the way that he analyzes his decision making.
And if it's purely a business decision, I don't think
this is difficult. I think you have to go pro.
What about you, dub I can't even believe this is
a real conversation because to me, it's so obvious and clear,
especially with his injury history at Alabama. I'm assuming that

(01:06:27):
with you know, modern science and medical professionals, that he's
gonna come back pretty much. And I don't I don't
think he's gonna drop that much in the draft. I
still think there's gonna be a team take him top ten.
No may be right in my mind that because he's
such a uh generational talent. In my opinion, I think
there's definitely gonna be a team either in the top
ten or a team outside the top ten that trades up,

(01:06:49):
kind of similar to what the Chiefs did with Patrick
Mahomes to come up and take him because you know,
all season we just kind of assumed he was gonna
be number one overall. And yes it was a serious injury.
But if he comes back and you can get him
at eight or nine or ten or eleven, I don't
see why on arthe wouldn't do that. And as far
as the business decision, it shouldn't even be a decision

(01:07:09):
because it's it's his future. And if he goes back
to Alabama and you know, has another very serious injury
like the one he just had. Then he just doesn't
play well because he's not recovered. A. Yeah. To me,
this is a no brainer and an obvious choice to make.
So both of us so far, all three of us
so far have said he should go pro. What do

(01:07:29):
you say, Eddie? I completely agree with what everyone else
is saying. And for the points that have been pointed out, um,
it is is more likely that he would return to
school and hurt his draft status that help it. And
as as dub mentioned, if it's another serious injury, maybe
that's his career. So look, it's one thing for a
player who's been completely healthy to come back to school

(01:07:51):
for another year because he has unfinished business or wants
to help his team win a national championship. But when
you've had the history of the injuries and you were
going to risk that again and you've already won a
national championship. So he hasn't done it's starting the entire season.
But he literally threw the touchdown pass to win a
national championship. So and and he's answered every question about

(01:08:14):
how good he is. To me, it's pretty much crazy
for him to decide to uh to to come back
to Alabama. I really do think it is Yeah, he
will be remembered as a national championship quarterback. I believe. Now, Look,
there have been guys who have come back. Andrew Lack
came back, Peyton Manning came back, uh, Sam Bradford came back,

(01:08:34):
and Tim Tebow, although that's a little bit different because
we didn't know about Tebow's draft stock. But those are
four big time star college football players. So from a
college football fan perspective, I like the idea of to
a coming back because I think it makes college football
even more interesting. I also think from an Alabama fan perspective,
there's a big drop off if if to Ah leaves,

(01:08:56):
I think Alabama could go back to just be in
a nine or ten win team. I think that that
the Tide are young. But he's a he's been a
you know, he's been sort of a racer of issues
for Alabama because their offense has been so good under him,
and so I do think that they would have issues
if he doesn't come back at just being good as
opposed to great, and the other thing I would say,

(01:09:19):
like again, using Andrew Luck or Peyton Manning or or
Sam Bradford for instance as an example, those guys were
one most I think Bradford may have had a little
bit of health issues. Liner, by the way, came back
as well, Matt Weiner at a usc um. Those guys
all were not really dealing with major injury issues. In

(01:09:41):
other words, that was them just deciding, hey, I'm not
ready to leave college and go pro. Yet it was
more of a lifestyle decision and almost all of those
situations than it was a and and and yes they
had the risk of getting injured and impacting their draft stock,
but two us already had the injury. And I think

(01:10:02):
if he comes back and he has another injury, remember
he's not taking a lot of hits, and he's looked
pretty brittle. He's had two different surgeries on his ankles
for high ankle sprains, he's now broken his hip. If
he comes back and he has another injury, I think
it's a fair question to ask. In the NFL, where
you get hit even more, are you really going to

(01:10:24):
be able to withstand the rigors of an NFL schedule
or is your body just not built to take all
the punishment, Which is not an indictment on too of
some people's bodies just can't handle NFL life. When we
come back. We'll talk with Dr David Chow. He's been
in these situations. What medical advice would he be giving
and what does he anticipate to his expectation. Expectations being

(01:10:47):
from a health status perspective, plus lots of health issues
as we get ready for NFL wild Card weekend, we'll
hit those as well. All that still to come. This
is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis. Appreciate all of
you hanging out with us. January one now come and gone.
Welcome into a new decade and a new decade got

(01:11:12):
rolling like a lot of the past decade was with
SEC mostly dominance, Big twelve mediocre. Uh. The four games
that were going on yesterday, I walked all four of them,
got takeaways for all of them. I want to reiterate
my point, which I do think makes sense. Why would
we not start the Outback Bowl at eleven a m.

(01:11:35):
Eastern and let instead of playing that game simultaneously with
the Citrus Bowl. I miss January one, where almost as
soon as you get out of bed, there games going.
So I would, if I were the schedule or start
the Outback Bowl at eleven a m. Eastern and then
when you start the Citrus Bowl at one PM. Then

(01:11:59):
you're able to sit back and watch the first half
at least of the Outback Bowl before the Citrus Bowl
even gets going. But what do we learn out Back Bowl?
Props to PJ. Fleck. He's everything that Jim Harbaugh was
supposed to be. A guy who arrives in the Big
ten and over delivers. P J. Fleck eleven wins in

(01:12:21):
year three. He took over a program that was in
the dumps, went five and seven in year one, bounced
back up, I believe, to eight and five, seven and
six in year two, and then in year three everything
coming together for him. Eleven wins for the Auburn Tigers.
Auburn is now oh and three under gust miles On

(01:12:44):
in Bowl games after they beat Alabama, and to me,
this is the challenge with Auburn in general and why
the Auburn fan base is so bipolar when it comes
to gust miles On because there's zero consistency and now
program credit to Minnesota for whipping Auburn's ass, but for

(01:13:05):
Auburn to show up and play like they did all
the time, this is just there's so many swings from
one extreme to the other from the Auburn Tigers that
it is uh, it's it's tough to watch in all
honesty if you're an Auburn fan with what you're paying.
Gust Miles on so big win for Minnesota Alabama and

(01:13:27):
Nick Saban took it to Jim Harbaugh. We had some
fun an hour too, talking about what is the Jim
Harbaugh of other parts of life, sports, pop culture? What
is as overrated as Jim Harbaugh is, who came in
like a hurricane. He was supposed to be Urban Meyer,
he was supposed to be Nick Saban, and instead he's

(01:13:49):
been a slightly above average Michigan football coach over the
past hundred years. P J. Fleck gets to eleven wins faster.
Crazy stat for you, Rutgers has more Bowl wins in
the last twenty years then Michigan does. Michigan has now
lost four straight Bowl games under Jim Harbaugh. Pretty much
every time there's an opportunity to win a big game,

(01:14:12):
Michigan falls flat on its face and Harbaugh fails and
Nick Saban punched in a touchdown late. I think because
Harbaugh had called out Saban in Alabama and the SEC
over recruiting issues and as a result, Alabama ninth straight
season of eleven wins or more. Big time performance by

(01:14:33):
Jerry Judy on his way out to being what I
expect will be the number one overall receiver drafted UH
in the draft here in a few months, and a
big time performance by Alabama in the second half they
held Michigan scoreless. The Tide were down sixteen to fourteen
UH and then got rolling and UH and took control

(01:14:55):
of that game in the Rose Bowl. Absolutely no a
way that Wisconsin should have lost that football game. They
were in control almost the entire way defensively, other than
Justin Herbert being able to run the ball. They almost
shut down Oregon. And to have that game you fumble

(01:15:17):
a punt and give up a touchdown there to allow
Oregon to win that one. When I felt like and
you probably felt like it as well, Wisconsin was in
control throughout is wild. Oregon only put up two hundred
and four total yards. Now, it's not like Wisconsin was
a house on fire, but Oregon ran the ball thirty

(01:15:38):
times for sixty six total yards, and that includes one
thirty yards scramble UH design run by Justin Herbert to
give Oregon lead. Uh. This was I think a really
tough one to where if you are a Wisconsin Badger fan,
they had possession in this game for nearly plreaty minutes,

(01:16:01):
uh compared to twenty minutes for Oregon. Wild wacky game,
a lot of fun to watch, uh. And then in
the Sugar Bowl, Georgia has a ton of players who
did not show up uh and want to play because
they didn't want to hurt their draft stock, and they
went out in the first half and just put this
game away. Credit to Baylor for making some plays in

(01:16:21):
the second half. I hope that their quarterback ends up Okay,
he got to look like a pretty bad concussion with
about six minutes eight minutes to go in that game,
something along those lines in the fourth quarter. But Georgia
twelve win for the Bulldogs and Jake from was fantastic,
especially in the first half. Nobody could cover George Pickens,
who had eleven catches, and Georgia big time when uh, certainly,

(01:16:47):
especially considering how poorly they played last year in the
Sugar Bowl against Texas, and also on top of that,
how many of their top players were sitting out and
they still found a way to pretty much dominate against
Matt ruland Baylor. And now the question will be what

(01:17:08):
will be the next step for Matt Rule? Will he
interview with the Giants? Will he consider moving on to
the NFL. He's already turned down an interview opportunity with
the Cleveland Browns. But what's the next step now for
Matt Rule? Will he stay at Baylor or will he
move into the NFL coaching ranks. I believe both the
Carolina Panthers and the Washington Sorry and the Giants want

(01:17:33):
to interview him. All right, that was all a big
part of the January first Bull Games. Here's the other
story that was out there. Greg McElroy said, Remember Greg
McElroy won a National championship Heisman Trophy winning UH, sorry,
national championship winning quarterback did not win a Heisman Trophy.
Lost to Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Cam Newton in his

(01:17:53):
senior year in the Camback Game, which was one of
those games where Gus malls On figures out how to
win a really big one and then loses the next one. Now,
at least the next one UH that he lost in
the bowl game was against UH Florida State. But that
in and of itself and he was the offensive coordinator
there as opposed to the head coach. But that's why

(01:18:14):
Gus Malson really ended up Auburn's coach was because of
that incredible season he had as the offensive coordinator for
Cam Newton. But Greg McElroy says that he expects for
to A talk about Looa to come back to Alabama
because of his health status, and that's a pretty reasoned,
uh well connected opinion. And to us shortly after that

(01:18:38):
sends out a tweet saying he will be making his
announcement on January six, and so that's Monday. So on Monday,
to Ah will have a press conference or will in
some way let everyone know whether he is elected to
enter the NFL Draft or not. He was on the
sideline if you were watching the game. He's still on

(01:18:59):
a crutch, try to get back to to being healthy.
I think he's gonna come back. I think that to
Uh is gonna return to Alabama. That's my prediction right
now now. On Twitter, I gave you guys an opportunity
to tell me what you thought he should do, to
vote whether or not he should come back, and a

(01:19:20):
huge percentage of you said that he should go pro.
Thirty five thousand of you voted. Sixty percent of you
said to A should go pro. Thirty three percent of
you said that to I should stay at Bama. Here's
the interesting decision that he has, and I'm gonna bring
in the crew and see what you guys think if
I were to his dad, because that's the way I

(01:19:42):
kind of think now that I've got three boys. I
got an eleven year old and nine year old and
the five year old. I've moved on from the I'm
gonna think about this from the athlete perspective too. Now
A lot of times I think about it from the
dad perspective, where you're trying to give advice to your
kid and you're weighing the pros and cons, and you
know the kid's gonna take you. I would tell to
it to go pro if I were his dad right now.

(01:20:04):
And granted I don't have full access to his medical
records and everything else, but I believe that the quarterback
position is so incredibly important in the NFL that there
is a team that will take a risk even if
his medical history is not ideal. In the first round

(01:20:24):
and probably within the first twenty picks. I think to
H will be drafted and go into the NFL. Then
he especially the later he's drafted in the first round,
the less he's going to actually have to play right
because it's likely that somebody will have a quarterback they
might be able to use. Then he can continue to

(01:20:46):
rehab except get paid millions of dollars to do it.
You make most of your money in the NFL if
you're going to on your second contract, So the faster
you can get to your second contract, the better it
is for you. If to What comes back and he
plays fabulously well, then he would be a top five

(01:21:08):
pick if he goes pro. Now I still think he'll
go in the top twenty. If he comes back and
he doesn't play well, or even worse, he gets injured again,
then I think the chances of him being a first
round pick almost go to zero, and it's possible he
falls into the second or third day because of concerns

(01:21:32):
about his health. I think you have to take the
guaranteed money right now this point in time. If I
am advising him, and I am to his dad, and
I am sitting around looking at all these details, and
he asked me for my opinion, I say you gotta
go pro. You gotta think about this like a business perspective.
It's not ideal that you got hurt. It likely knocked

(01:21:53):
you out of the top three or four and pushes
you maybe into the teams. But I still think the
quarterback position, even if you have issues with your health,
is so important in the NFL that somebody will take
a chance on you. And by the way, being drafted
later in the first round oftentimes is an overall benefit.
It's less money, but it's oftentimes an overall benefit to

(01:22:16):
your long range career because you go to a better,
more stable franchise and are better able to have success.
I e. Think about the difference between Baker Mayfield going
number one overall to the awful Cleveland Brown organization versus
Lamar Jackson going late in the first round to the
Baltimore Ravens, who were able to build a successful team

(01:22:40):
around him and build around his talents. I don't think
this is difficult at all. I think this is an
easy decision to me too, I should go pro. What
about you, Uh, Danny G what would you say? Well,
you know how much I love the NFL draft. In fact,
all day yesterday I was scouting for my favorite team,
the Raiders, and I'm hoping Jerry Judy gets drafted by Vegas.

(01:23:04):
That would be amazing as far as t A goes,
You're right about it being a blessing in disguise that
he could go late in the first round. I've looked
at just about every mock draft that's already come out,
and a couple of them have the Saints taking to
A at the end of the first round, basically replacing
Teddy Bridgewater. That puts to A in a very good situation.

(01:23:24):
That would that's a right, I mean, And even though
you might be going late in the first round, where
you go matters to such an extent that to me,
that's a that's a great example. If you can go
in the first round, I think you have to go.
Uh and and look, I understand that to A. And
some people out there gonna say money is not everything,
and I understand that argument, right. I have taken at

(01:23:46):
times less money to do jobs that I wanted to
do more. In fact, when I left practicing law, people
thought I was crazy to end up doing this profession.
But ultimately, when all is that and done, too has
to be a businessman in the way that he analyzes
his decision making, and if it's purely a business decision,

(01:24:08):
I don't think this is difficult. I think you have
to go pro. What about you, dub I can't even
believe this is a real conversation because to me, it's
so obvious and clear, especially with his injury history at Alabama.
I'm assuming that, with you know, modern science and medical professionals,
that he's gonna come back pretty much. And I don't.
I don't think he's gonna drop that much in the draft.

(01:24:30):
I still think there's gonna be a team take him
top ten. No, in my mind that because he's such
a uh generational talent. In my opinion, I think there's
definitely gonna be a team either in the top ten
or a team outside the top ten that trades up,
kind of similar to what the Chiefs did with Patrick
Mahomes to come up and take him because you know,
all season we just kind of assumed he was gonna

(01:24:50):
be number one overall. And yes, it was a serious injury.
But if he comes back and you can get him
at eight or nine or ten or eleven, I don't
see why on Earthie would do that. And as far
as the business decision, it shouldn't even be a decision
because it's it's his future. And if he goes back
to Alabama and you know, has another very serious injury
like the one he just had, that he just doesn't

(01:25:12):
play well because he's not recovered, Yeah, to me, this
is a no brainer and an obvious choice to make.
So both of us so far, all three of us
so far have said he should go pro. What do
you say, Eddie? I completely agree with what everyone else
is saying. And for the points that have been pointed out, um,
it is is more likely that he would return to

(01:25:33):
school and hurt his draft status that help it. And
as as dub mentioned, if it's another serious injury, maybe
that's his career. So look, it's one thing for a
player who's been completely healthy to come back to school
for another year because he has unfinished business or wants
to help his team win a national championship. But when
you've had the history of the injuries and you were
going to risk that again, it's just you've worked at

(01:25:55):
one a national champions correct, correct, So he hasn't done
it's starting the entire season. But he literally threw the
touchdown pass to win a national championship. So and and
he's answered every question about how good he is. To me,
it's pretty much crazy for him to decide to uh
to to to come back to Alabama. I really do

(01:26:16):
think it is. Yeah, he will be remembered as a
national championship quarterback. I believe. Now, Look, there have been
guys who have come back. Andrew Lack came back, Peyton
Manning came back, uh Sam Bradford came back, and Tim Tebow.
Although that's a little bit different because we didn't know
about Tebow's draft stock. But those are four big time
star college football players. So from a college football fan perspective,

(01:26:40):
I like the idea of to a coming back because
I think it makes college football even more interesting. I
also think from an Alabama fan perspective, there's a big
drop off if if to Ah leaves, I think Alabama
could go back to just be in a nine or
ten win team. I think that that the tide or young.
But he's a he's been a you know, he's been

(01:27:00):
sort of a racer of issues for Alabama because their
offense has been so good under him, and and so
I do think that they would have issues if he
doesn't come back at just being good as opposed to great,
and the other thing I would say, like again, using
Andrew Luck or Peyton Manning or or Sam Bradford for instance,
as an example, those guys were one most. I think

(01:27:24):
Bradford may have had a little bit of health issues. Liner,
by the way, came back as well Matt Liner at
a usc um. Those guys all were not really dealing
with major injury issues. In other words, that was them
just deciding, hey, I'm not ready to leave college and
go pro. Yet it was more of a lifestyle decision
and almost all of those situations than it was a

(01:27:47):
and and and yes they had the risk of getting
injured and impacting their draft stock, but two US already
had the injury. And I think if he comes back
and he has another injury, remember he's not taking a
lot hits, and he's looked pretty brittle. He's had two
different surgeries on his ankles for high ankle sprains, he's
now broken his hip. If he comes back and he

(01:28:09):
has another injury, I think it's a fair question to ask.
In the NFL, where you get hit even more, are
you really going to be able to withstand the rigors
of an NFL schedule or is your body just not
built to take all the punishment, which is not an
indictment on two of some people's bodies just can't handle
NFL life. When we come back, we'll talk with Dr

(01:28:32):
David Chow. He's been in these situations. What medical advice
would he be giving and what does he anticipate to
his expectation expectations being from a health status perspective, plus
lots of health issues. As we get ready for NFL
wild Card weekend, we'll hit those as well. All that's
still to come. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows

(01:28:55):
at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I
Heart Radio app search s R to listen live. Dr
first of all, thanks for getting up earlier with this
happy New Year. And uh, I want to go right
into this. Uh this to a situation. It's gonna be
a monster story. He has announced that he will make
his choice about whether to go pro or return to

(01:29:17):
Alabama on Monday, purely from a medical perspective. And I
know you don't have access to his personal uh you know,
try his personal surgeries or his medical records or anything
else put into perspective for us, what you would anticipate
for him over the next couple of months from a
health perspective, Well, you know, you saw him at the

(01:29:39):
ball game on a crutch, so it's pretty obvious he's
not gonna be ready to work out at the combines
if he decides to turn pro. But then again, most
times the top clubs don't necessarily work out anyways. But
I do expect that he should be ready to go
by this football season and times they're able to do

(01:30:00):
some things. And my concerned medically with him after the
evascular necrosis issue and assuming that that does not happen
to blood flow issue with a hip dies out, the
arthritis is the issue, the loss of motion, limited motion
and gradual wear and tear that of the joint that's

(01:30:21):
now accelerated with this fasher dislocation. That's my medical concern.
So if you were advising him from a perspective of
what you think NFL doctors will be looking at, and
I know you've looked sometimes at these draft draft picks
and and obviously you're a team doctor for the Charger,

(01:30:41):
so you've dealt with a lot of different injuries over time.
Do you think his injury is so significant that there
would be teams that that no one would draft him
in the first round because I think everybody out there
would acknowledge this is a first round quarterback if he is,
you know, healthy coming into the draft. Do you anticipate

(01:31:01):
that that this is something where hey, twenty teams take
him off their board and just say we couldn't draft
this guy, Like, what would you anticipate the medical diagnosis
would be the range of opinion for NFL teams. Well,
first of all, if you believe the media reports and
what his doctors have said, it seems like for sure
he would be drafted in the first round. But you

(01:31:23):
have to understand all of the medical information that's out
there has come from to a side and to his doctors,
and to his doctors can only release information that to
allows them to release. So if there is a negative report,
quite sure the patient would say, yeah, you can't say that.

(01:31:45):
So you get the rosy picture. Now, I hope the
rosy pictures what the truth is. But that's what you
don't know until you get to a combined situation and
you actually get hands on exam and to look at
the medical records. Which right now no one has except
his own doctors, and so it's a very uh filtered
or rosie uh information that's been given to the media.

(01:32:09):
So the real truth will need to be seen. But
I still anticipate that he still could be drafted. Now,
when I started in the NFL, he probably would not
be drafted in the first round, but nowadays I think
he totally would. Now why do I say that, Clay,
Because in the beginning I used to get asked by
a GM, can this guy be our left tackle for
the next decade or more? Right? But by the end

(01:32:32):
it was can he get to a first contract? Because
if you look at the long jetty longevity of even
gms nowadays, it's no longer ten plus years or fifteen years,
it's it's a five year cycle at most. So can
he get through his first contract? And the first rounder
is five years? So that's why I believe he still
can and would be drafted in the first round. Would

(01:32:55):
you tell him as a doctor based on what you
know that it makes more sense and he and you.
You don't get into what his head is or why
he decides to go or whatnot, But purely from a
financial perspective, given the fact that he could have this
arthritis arthritis in his hip, and then it's a degenerative condition.
And everybody has a limited number of snaps, whether it's
Tom Brady, you know, playing until he's forty two or

(01:33:17):
forty three years old, or you know the average player
who's out of the league by the time they're thirty.
Most people would do better to get to the NFL
as quickly as they could to maximize their earnings potential.
Would that be what you would advise him likely if
he asked you purely from a medical perspective, what advice
you would give him. Yeah, I mean, obviously I look

(01:33:37):
at the records and then give us modest advice, and
of course you have to balance the medical side against
his life and what he wants to do, etcetera. But
you know his quote a while back, money lost, his
money lost, and he said that to the point of, hey,
if I can't get drafted, you know, twenty four higher,

(01:33:57):
and then he should go back to college because the
money really drive up and dips down. Yeah, that's true.
But if he isn't drafted high, now, I mean, look
at the risk that he would take if he gets
injured again. He's really going to drop and if he finishes, fine,
he's just put more miles on himself. And the other thing,
you have to think money lost, his money lost. If

(01:34:19):
he plays another year at Alabama, that's money lost. And
let's say the other reason to go pro is to
start burning time. Everybody knows that the second contract is
the big money contract. It's getting to the second one,
and you know there's a silver lining and being drafted
high in the second round, you only have four years

(01:34:42):
before you get to that second contract. Now, I'm not
thinking he's going to get to the second round, uh,
barring any surprises medically, but that's kind of what I
would point out, as you say, with limited miles, where
do you want to burn those miles? All right, let's
go into the NFL and we're talking to Dr David
Chow at Pro Football Doc. Encourage you to go follow

(01:35:03):
him there. Uh, zach Ertz is probably the most famous
player right now as we get ready for a wild
card weekend that it seems like may not play rib issue.
We don't really know specifically all the details there, But
what do you anticipate from him? Well, you know, I
wrote the article on two a while back. I wrote

(01:35:24):
one a second one on Earth's Just Yesterday about why
I am still doubtful that he plays, even though you
hear optimism coming out of Philadelphia. I get that the
Eagles really want him to play and need him their
short pass catchers. I get that zach Ertz is lobbying
and wants to play. But it's not the rib. It's
the kidney issue. And he says he doesn't feel the

(01:35:45):
kidney anymore, but normally you don't feel kidney pain in
terms of pain, fibers and what have you. The issue
is re injury. He has a lacerated kidney. And if
you go back in the history of NFL, and I
did this officially assistant at Pro Football dot dot com,
Taylor did it for me in two thousands fifteen. I

(01:36:06):
think it was Andrew Luck had a Week nine lascerated kidney.
The team initially said two to six weeks. Never made
it back. Keenan Allen for the Chargers Week eight in
that same year, never made it back. How do Henry
two years later Week fifteen macerated kidney did not make
it back. Jordan Poyer, a Brown safety at the time,

(01:36:29):
last rated kidney in October did not make it back.
Miles Austin of bruise kidney a little bit different didn't
make it back, and uh forgetting one more right now.
But basically they all didn't make it back. Why because
of the risk of re injury to the kidney. When
it lascerated kidney happens, it's like a watermelon getting karate

(01:36:51):
chopter dropped on the floor. It's not like a cut.
It's sort of explodes a little bit in cracks that
that watermelon gets hit a second time, it really break
so opened. If it becomes a ruptured kidney and you
lose a kidney, some people would say, so what you
can live on with kidney. Yes, that's absolutely true, but
you can't play NFL football or contact sports with one

(01:37:14):
kidney because if you were to lose the second one,
you would spend a life on dialysis. And because of
these reasons, unless it never was a lascerated kidney, it
was a media report that said it was. Unless there's
something that I don't know medically. I don't see how
he plays this weekend, and I don't see how he
plays next weekend at the Eagles win. I'm talking Dr

(01:37:35):
David Chow That is scary. Uh, indeed, honestly, Uh, more
positive story another big name. It appears the Vikings have
tried to protect Alvin Cook by not playing him the
final two weeks of the regular season. What do you
anticipate seeing from him? How healthy will he be? And
how impactful can he be? Thanks for saving me with
this question, because I started to sound like a negative Nancy.

(01:37:57):
There's tear. I mean that that. I mean, you know,
I think sometimes we gloss over legitimate dangers that people
can face from an injury. Right, And when you dive
into that Zach Hurt story, I think there are a
lot of people out there kind of wincing as you
worked through the significance of the injury and what it
could mean to him going forward. Uh. You know, a

(01:38:20):
lot of times we talk about ankles, or we talk
about you know, shoulders or things like that, but you
start talking about kidneys and life changing impact. I mean,
I think that that really is eye opening and sometimes terrifying.
Don't seem to have those same concerns for Dalvin Cook.
But what do we anticipate from him? Well? I anticipate
Dalvin Cook will be very very good. First of all,

(01:38:41):
the timeline for an sc joint spring, you know, he
will have you know, usually a four to six weeks.
He started doing pretty well and he's at that timeline.
And the other reason I say he's going to do
fine is this is what the Vikings seemed to have
been strategizing for. Yes, he had some reaggravations of the
of the sc joint. Yes he may have injured his
left shoulder, but I think he could have played and

(01:39:04):
finished the game week fifteen. They chose to set him.
I think he could have played week sixteen in week seventeen,
but they chose to set him because they were essentially
locked into the succeed. So now that he's got the
extra rest and it will really will be three weeks
of rest that he's gotten extra, I think he's really
going to be fine and suffer no consequences with the

(01:39:26):
sc joint or shoulder issue and really be a hundred
percent And quite honestly, I think the same thing for
Alexander Madison is backup alright. What about some of the
secondary issues for the for the Saints, Van Bell Eli Apple,
what do you anticipate there? Well, you know, lower extremity injuries,

(01:39:46):
muscle injuries, growing ankles, are always tough for dbs, and yeah,
I think that's something to watch. And the something to
watch is can Odut of Theland finally get back on
track after his hamstring issues off season long and he's
been back but hasn't gotten back on track. So it's
Adam Phelan's hamstring versus a couple of these other defenders

(01:40:09):
groins and or ankles, and that will be interesting to watch.
Buffalo Houston big storylines. J J. Watt, who is coming
back from I believe as a torn pectoral muscle. Will
Fuller has had all sorts of hamstring issues. He now
has a groin issue. What do you expect from these
two guys? Well, Will Fuller with the groin on top

(01:40:30):
of the hamstring, I mean he probably could play and
be kind of a go route guy as a limited
route tree, but that's kind of what he is a
little bit anyway, So um, I think, uh, wait and see,
but I think he still could play. J. J. Watt
is obviously going to play at this point in time.
He's been activated in kudos to him in the Texas

(01:40:51):
for the quick return. But we've talked about this. He's
super human, but he's still human. There's no way he
will be a hundred percent on his strength and he'll
have limited reps. And there was an article out of
Houston talking about it, and we've been talking about it
at the website for weeks now saying, Okay, if he returns,
he's gonna have some limitations, and some of his limitations
are going to be keeping offensive lineman off of him

(01:41:15):
from getting hands on him, which is why they're already
saying he's going to be more in the in the
rush and pass game as opposed to the run stopping game.
And then the other thing is it's going to be
harder for him to wrap and tackle on that left
side because of the peck tendon rupture. Look, he's strong,
his heck J. J. Watt is still better than than
most players, but there's no way he's a hundred percent

(01:41:37):
right now. Okay, what about the Titans New England game.
It looks like a Dory Jackson maybe coming back with
a foot from a foot issue, but Jason mccordy also
has a groin issue for the Patriots, both secondary issues there.
What else do you see in that game? Well, you know,

(01:41:57):
the big thing in that game besides it being a rematch,
and everyone talks about Tom Brady's elbow. I don't think
that's the big story. I think the big story continues
to be Julian Edelman and his leftnee patella tendonitis. If
you watch him, and he's listed as a shoulder injury
as well, but if you watch him, he just doesn't
move the same and especially I have yet to see
him really make a one put one plant cut off

(01:42:20):
his left leg in weeks and patella tendonitis literally, you know, Lingers,
so expect him to alter his route tree in terms
of how he runs his routes to favor that left knee.
And he's nowhearing near himself right now and that's probably
going to be the case for the rest of the playoffs.

(01:42:41):
Outstanding stuff is always my man. We'll talk to you
next week as we get ready for Divisional round of
the NFL. In the meantime, go follow at Pro Football
Doc Happy New Year when we come back. Jason Garrett
meeting for a third time with the Dallas Cowboys. Reports
are today. What in the world is going on with
the Cowboys coaching search and their decision When it comes

(01:43:01):
to Jason Garrett will discuss This is OutKick on Fox
Sports Radio. This is Outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis.
Big decisions still to be made down in Dallas. I
think it's in kind of incredibly weird that reports are
that Jason Garrett is meeting now with Jerry Jones for

(01:43:23):
a third time. Thursday, they're gonna have a meeting. They
had a meeting on Monday and Tuesday. And I don't
know about you, guys, but this feels like it's trending
towards potentially Jason Garrett keeping his job. Maybe I'm wrong
and Jerry Jones is just being extremely uh deferential towards
Jason Garrett, But three different meetings to discuss a job

(01:43:49):
doesn't sound like you're going to get fired. Maybe you
have to remake the staff, maybe you're gonna redo everything.
But this I don't know about you, guys, but if
you have ever been fired before in your life, how
many times did you have three meetings with your boss
in the week that you got fired about whether or
not you were going to continue in that job. It

(01:44:12):
sounds to me like Jerry Jones is trying to find
a reason to keep Jason Garrett as his head coach.
Does this make sense to you, guys? I mean going
around the horn here quickly. If you were about to
be fired and you got called in on Monday and
you met with your boss and you didn't get fired,
and then you got called in on Tuesday and you

(01:44:34):
met with your boss and you didn't get fired, and
then you got called in on Thursday and you met
with your boss and you didn't get fired. If you
got fired after that, would you not be like, dude,
why didn't you just fire me on Monday in our
first meeting. This feels worse to me than if Jerry
Jones just goes ahead and rips the band aid off.

(01:44:55):
If I said to you, hey, Danny g I've got
serious issues about how you're doing your job. I got
to decide whether or not you're going to keep your job,
and I made you come in for a meeting with
me for three straight, three out of four days to
discuss it, wouldn't you be like, dude, just make your
mind up? Like, I don't know what else I could say.
What's got to be going on here is that they're

(01:45:15):
trying to find him another position in the organization, trying
to iron out where he belongs in the mix and
where Jerry Jones can put him in the front office.
Even if that's the case, how do you need three
meetings with him to make that decision. Well, because I'm
sure Jason Garrett wants to stay head coach, right and
and but if that's the case, then allowing him to

(01:45:36):
continue to make the case for why he should be
head coach is allowing him to potentially still be the
head coach. Well, remember, Jerry has history with his dad.
Jerry Jones runs the company like runs the Cowboys, like
a family business. But just take it, take it outside
of that, dub. If I if I said to you, hey,

(01:45:57):
I'm thinking about firing you, let's have a I'm for saying,
and you know that that's what I'm doing because for
whatever reason, your performance has not been very good. And
we have a meeting on Monday, and then we have
a meeting on Tuesday, and then we have a meeting
on Thursday, all about the same issue. Does that not
seem like it's kind of unfair? Well, even after two meetings,
I'd be kind of scratching my head, you know, after

(01:46:18):
the second meeting and then calling back for a third,
I think my mindset would be like, Okay, well maybe
I'm maybe I'm safe and sound here, but I mean,
you know, I thought I was bad at breakups, and
here's Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett three days later and
we still don't have a resolution. When everyone thought this
was pretty much a decided thing that he was gonna
get fired, not you know, only that. I don't even
think it has to do with jobs. If you're a

(01:46:38):
kid and you get called into the principal's office three
times for the same misbehavior by the time you've gone
in there the third time, and you're having that conversation,
like I've said everything I could possibly imagine saying, I
really wonder whether there's like a coach in waiting type discussion.
Could could it be possible that Jerry Jones is gonna say, hey,

(01:47:00):
Jason Garrett, you're the coach, but we're elevating Jason Witten
because we think he's the long range future of this
franchise as a head coach. Is that a crazy idea?
I don't know exactly what's going on. I know that
we've never in my mind, I can't remember this ever
happening in college or pro where everybody expects for a
guy to be getting fired, and then over the course

(01:47:21):
of a week, he has three different meetings, which by
the way, have all been leaked to the media, so
that the media knows these meetings are going on, and
they continue to take place. I don't remember this ever
happening in a similar vein, and so I don't know
what the news is. I don't have any idea what
to anticipate or expect. I've been thinking ever every time
that Okay, he's gonna meet him and fire and face

(01:47:43):
to face, and it hasn't happened yet. Does it happen today?
We'll find out. See if the Lincoln Riley debate, whether
the Urban Meyer chase all that starts to officially get
underway for the Cowboys today, or if Jason Garrett looked
like a dead man walking and he may have gotten
a reprieve and be back. I don't know. Maybe he's
gonna be the Clay Hilton of the NFL. Appreciate all
of you hanging out with us. Happy New Year from
all of us to you. Thanks for hanging out with

(01:48:05):
us in nineteen and twenty. This has been OutKick on
Fox Sports Radio

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