January 1, 2026 • 41 mins
Kevin Figgers and Adam Auslund fill in for Big Ben and recap the Cotton Bowl between Miami and Ohio State & discuss if there’s anything that could make bowl games more watchable + an edition of Stranger Than Fiction!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Ben Mahler Show podcast.
It's me Ben. Be sure to catch us live every
weeknight from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three
am Pacific right here on Fox Sports Radio. You can
find your local station for the Ben Maler Show over
at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSRS.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Kevin, We're still allowed to play this song on the radio.
I love it well, Daddy and family forever, the.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Little Big Ben Mallo staple. You're on Fox Sports Radio.
I can't.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Can I say it. I'm gonna get so much crap
if I say it, I'm gonna say it in.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
The air everywhere the vast Fox Sports Radio network.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Kevin figures Adam Alslin filling in for Big Ben Malor
here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
This is this is the big time Adam. I me
talking about a Fox Sports Radio legend that we're sitting
in for right now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Big Ben Mallor, who I used to listen to up
on kgk AM eleven forty up in Norcl I mean
back in the day, and now we're filling in. This
is kind of a big deal and I don't know.
It's a holiday. Happy New Year everyone.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Happy New Year everyone out there on the East Coast
and everywhere else. The about an hour left in twenty
twenty five for those out west, So looking forward to
spending the next four hours.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
With you guys. Here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
You can hit us up on the socials at KFIG
one is where you can find me. You can find
Adam at follow Adam A. We are on X That's
where you can hit us up and talk to us
about whatever's on your mind. Here on the on the eve,
on New Year's Eve, I should say I have twenty twenty
five into twenty twenty six, depending on where you may
be listening.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Okay, I do have to say we have some early
technical difficulties, so don't ask me to play first off
right now, Kevin, of.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Course, we doll machine.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Hold on, hold on, I'm trying to play something right now.
Bring it ain't working. It ain't working, like it's not
on my end. All I know is this New year,
same machine.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's what it is.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
No this year, she says, from nineteen ninety five. What
do you think that's my machine playing that? I thought
so they're just playing like random soundtrucks.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Now that's John Loraina. Just keep him rolling.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Why it's like one button on the sound bar, that's
all I can tell. Uh, it's just try every button.
I don't know, Kevin, let's just start talking about the
upset tonight.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Please.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
We don't need First off, we can go back to
the old school method. I can say first off like
Tupac and hit him up, which is the SoundBite for
us Miami One. Dude, it ain't New Years if you
don't got Michael Irving bringing out the belt on a
gatorade bottle with a jersey on it and just going
to town like that's how you're ringing the New Year.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Doing a little bit too much. And I love Michael Irving.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
And by the way, you can't help if you ever
have a chance to meet the guy in nicest person
you will ever meet in your life, will sit there
very charismatic. We'll talk to you almost like a politician
to a certain degree. I have nothing negative about Michael
Irvan as a person, but man, he really is dealing
a lot of spotlight these last few weeks from the
University of Miami.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh you think he's like sister Jean a.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Little well, a little bit to a certain agreement.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I rest her soul. Did she pass ever?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I feel like she just passed earlier this year.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Okay, Well that'll be the in memoriam segment we do
later in the show when we talk about everyone who
passed in twenty twenty five?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Are we doing how we're doing that? By the way,
that's news to me. Resnuck that one in on the rundown,
didn't she Well, she snuck up.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
By the way, Oh my god, a New Year's miracle.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Don't get cocky, kid, you know we're only four minutes
into the show. I think could die in an instant.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Check out the big brain on Briabrie. First of all,
it had nothing to do on my end, Kevin. I
just want to make that abundantly clear. This was not
a technical issue over on my side here, of course,
I want to see here. Throwing Lorain under the bus
is what it sounds like.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Man, I do not even know what an ir machine is.
But thank you for bringing in new stuff into the studio.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Well, look, this is old stuff for us. This is
old s this is before you were born. This is
raindo early nineties.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I work with Ben Maller, one of the dinosaurs of radio.
Don't tell me you're bringing in old stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I actually have some Ben Mallor sound here.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Wow. So I want everybody to be clear.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
That was the reign of that said that about Ben,
and that was Adam that said that band was an
old ass Dinosaurka the malin militia.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Coming after me anyway, because I know how you guys operate.
But I'm trying to be on my best behavior here tonight.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I'm not. It's the end of twenty twenty five. I'm
going out sad. What does it matter?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Holiday?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Here we be, Look, Santa Claus, it's past. I got
plenty of time to make up for being on the
naughty list, now do you. And speaking of Ben Maller,
Adam Ashland, I mean he literally called me Ashland before
Adam Ashland.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
He's not alone though, I mean been multiple personalities who
have called you out of your name before.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Adam Aslin, Adam Ashlin.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Adam Ashwish. I mean Brian Oslin, Brian Ausland. I mean,
if you don't even get the first name right, like
I do. Have credit cards, Kevin, that's say l A
N D instead of l U n d. In fact,
when we put up that cliff last week, as we
had Petro's papadaekas on but trying to bite a real show,
who joined us and eviscerated the USC Trojans because he's
(05:08):
like from there, he has ownership on that story.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
God, he's not the only one. You see what Linda
White sweety yesterday.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Oh I did not Lyndell or I don't know if
I can repeat it on the air, put it that way.
I didn't know he popped his head up. I haven't.
I haven't thought about Lindell White in a long time, since.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
He's thought a lot about the USC football program. I'll
say that.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Oh, the fact that he didn't have that block in
front of him to get that first down. But even
the Fox Sports Radio little clip we put out with
Petro saying if that if everything talking about Matt Lioner
trying to make excuses for USC, even that said l
A and d Adam oz Land like I'm from the
(05:45):
land of oz It shot him. I can't get away
from it. But that's fine, everything's fine now, we're good. No,
I am over it.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
If everything's perfectly all right? Now we're fine. We're all
fine here now, thank you?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
How are you You know where things aren't fine? Well,
they're never fine there, but Ohio, Ohio losing this ballgame tonight,
Kevin in the fashion they did being the number two seed.
The main takeaway I have, the Colin Cowherd takeaway is this,
thank goodness, we at least have a twelve team playoff,
and thank goodness Miami got in because they have more
(06:21):
than proven themselves. Notre Dame. I'm sorry, Brady Quinn, you
guys have zero case. Not only did Miami beat you,
they beat Texas A and m who beat you, and
now they've taken out Ohio State to move on rolling
their way into the semis.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, this part is hard.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
And by the way, a few people when the very
beginning of this debate happened between Miami and Notre Dame
and being seven places apart in the initial CFP rankings,
I was championing Miami the entire time. And yes, obviously
Miami deserves to be here, and it was a great
victory over Ohio State, in a great victory over an
m last week. But I can't necessarily say that, well,
this means that Notre Dame doesn't deserve to be in
(06:57):
because who's to say Notre Dame basically played the exact
same way that Miami played these last two weeks or
whatever it's been. I guess it's been two weeks in
between games or whatever it was between their last their
playoff win in the first round. But ground and pound,
dominant defense, that is how Notre Dame has won all
season long. So I can't necessarily say that if Notre
Dame made it to the situation and Miami didn't, that
(07:18):
we wouldn't necessarily have the same results.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Okay, you're right, but Miami certainly is deserving at this.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Point without a doubt.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Kial didn't go in and just get run over by
the Aggies. That didn't happen. They went into one of
the toughest environments and got an ugly road victory. And then,
as you mentioned, the Tito or Tea's ground and pound
game traveled today to the Cotton Bowl to get this win.
Over what I think I mean, most brackets for the
playoff are busted, Kevin. They are Remember what we used
(07:49):
to do for the bracket challenge back in the day.
Look at the flowers. Flowers.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I don't have to bring that back for college basketball
Season two. I guess right, bringing in him out the CFP,
why they hell not?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
People are going to be confused with all the guns
being shot up into the air tonight. Yeah no, kidd
at midnight here on the West coast.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well, in Ohio State, who I mean, without question, mostly
has the most NFL talent on their roster, first round
picks up and down, and for them to lose the
way they lost against Indiana, Granted that was a close,
tight game too, but Indiana kind of dominated them up front,
and you can say for the most part of this game,
and I know they made their run in the second half.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
The exact same thing happened with Miami.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
One thing we've said about the University of Miami under
myro Crystal Ball, any team that he coaches, they're going
to be good in the trenches, and that's exactly what
they were early in this game, well, being able to
bust off runs in the run game and really stuff
Ohio State, and he has them to get nothing going
offensively the entire first half of the game.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
They started with that level of physicality and they finished
with that level of physicality while also going seven to
fourteen on third downs mixed in on huge plays where
at one point Carson Beck completed thirteen straight passes in
the first half. A lot of them were dink and
dunk passes, but in a game against Ohio State, you
might have to do that, Julian saying, by the way,
(09:01):
I'm saying, he completed ten straight to start the second half.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
He was spectacular.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I think the turning point of the ball game was
they're down by three. They get the ball back from
Miami at seventeen fourteen and the first penalty of the
game got cold was seven minutes left in the fourth quarter,
and it was a hold on Ohio State and it
put them in a third and twenty situation. They got
a short yardage gain out of it, they had to punt,
and then on that punt they had another penalty. Yeah,
(09:29):
they redid it and it ended up being a much
worse punt where it was like a difference of twenty
yards where Miami was starting with on that final drive instead.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, I mean, the big thing the difference for me
in the game was really the protection up front, because
Julian Saying has basically been as great as he's been
completely over over eighty percent of its passes, great numbers,
but I think a lot of that was due to
the fact that he had all data throw. He had
all data throw all season long. These last two games
against Indiana and Miami was sacked ten times, five times
in each game.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Run for his life.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I will say this, in the second half of the
game on Friday night, he showed himself well in that
second half and the having that pressure as well as
he possibly could trying to get out make plays. And
you mentioned the h RA completions that he made two
touchdown passes. He played well in the second half. But
the exact opposite for what happened with Carson Beck, who's
been more of your game manager type. If anything, Carson
Beck is a guy that you don't want throwing the
(10:22):
ball more than twenty five thirty times a game because
he is prone to throwing interceptions. And these first two
playoff victories from Miami, he's been a game manager, and
I think that's the recipe for them to be able
to win.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
If you told me somebody threw an I inc on
a screen pass that went seventy two yards the other
way in this ball game, I would have thought it
was Carson Beck, not Julian saying that's the other thing.
They miss a field goal, they give them seven points
to Miami's defense. The margins are so slim in a
battle like this. Now, Ohio State did recover after being
(10:52):
down fourteen to nothing in the first half and missing
that field goal at the end of it to come back,
and then I think they had like two hundred and
thirty yards on their next three drives and they kept coming,
but Miami was able to keep them at bay even
when you saw, I mean, Ohio State gets that touchdown
with Bo Jackson, different Bo Jackson to start the second half.
Mammy comes right back and kicks a fifty yard field
(11:14):
goal where by the way, they recover their own fumble
just to stay in fuel goal range to knock that
down when their kicker was one for four last week
with the wind, you could say, but against the Aggies,
that was a huge play.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
And I also want to say there's an excuse floating
out there that, well, you know, Ryan Day, it took
the play calling duties away from Brian Hartline because Heartline
is distracted as a new head coach of South Florida
has too much on his plate, which I don't know
if it's necessarily wrong to a certain degree, especially knowing
how the portal works and all this. These guys there's
no way they can be fully committed to the current
job when they know they have a future job that's
(11:48):
of much more importance when they're head coach of a
new program. I don't know if I can say that
because I don't think execution or play calling was an
issue for Ohio State. I think they just got beat
like that that picks six, and I think Dusted said
this on the telecast. It was like, that's just film study.
Like the way that he read that play. I mean,
Julian Sayin telegraphed the pass and he jumped it and
ran it back. That was nothing but just heads up
(12:09):
play by the defensive back and you know, being able
to get stuffs in the run fits and all that.
All of that was just execution. I just thought Miami
executed better than Ohio State. So I don't know if
I can necessarily blame this on play calling O'Ryan days part,
especially based on the fact that was to your point,
Ohio State's offense woke up in the second half. They
just couldn't recover from their slow start.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
And the other excuse being made for Ohio State is
they almost had a month off between games and that
they had what happened to Oregon last season where they
got the buy that the number one seed. I know,
Ohio State was number two, but Oregon looked ill prepared
for that. Ohio State buzz saw last season that had
to beat Tennessee to get to them, And now Ohio
(12:47):
State has the layoff and you talk about rest versus rust.
I don't know if that first half was just rust
or physicality and them getting their ass beat out there,
because Mario Cristobaul postgame on SVP on the Evil four
Letter was like, hats off to our guys because we're
some tough ass sons of bitches out there, and they were,
(13:08):
and they have molers and we knew this coming into
the season. Early in the year when they beat Notre Dame,
we were all talking about how physical they were in
the trenches. John Madden was right, it always goes back
to winning the game in the trenches because everything starts
there and everything can fall apart there if you don't
have your es and order. In Ohio State, Julians saying
in the first half, the way he was under duress,
(13:30):
like it was hey, you better back it up. He
was running for his life like it was brutal to watch,
and they had another big sack in the second half
on him that proved to be crucial. So they started strong,
They started with that physicality, they finished with it, and
they had their own screen pass really to put the
(13:51):
ball game away on that third down late Miami.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
The big thing for me, I guess is the fact
that they were able to get contributions from other players
other than Malachi Tony. Everybody knew was the biggest offensive
threat that Miami had, and you knew Ohio State was
going to look to take that away, and they did that.
But the fact that Miami was able to run the
ball for over one hundred and fift yards against the
Ohio State team and put up the amount of points
they put up against Ohio State, who allowed what an
average of like eight point nine points per game, yeah
(14:16):
or something this season.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
It was the best defense since twenty eleven Bama.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah. I mean, it was an incredible effort by the
University of Miami.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
So I would like to give them flowers and talk
more about what they did right than people harping on
what Ohio State did wrong.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, I mean they did twist the pure snipple of
Ryan Day in this game, and he looked upset Blackbeard
himself out there. I also because he's been so good
in the past when he was calling plays. I don't
know if that had anything to do with it. He
wasn't calling plays against Indiana when it looked like, oh
they had a governor on and that was the excuse.
(14:47):
Then well, they're not letting that dog off the leash yet.
They're gonna wait for the playoffs to really turn up. Well,
you take a month off, do you lose some of
that competitive edge out there? And then if you have
to find it after getting your butts kicked in the
first half just to get into year, it's too late.
Miami was too good. If they played this game ten times,
Miami might beat him six out of ten.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I could see that.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, well, it's one of those there, to a certain degree,
kind of evenly matched because they're stylistically built the same way,
physical upfront, and who's gonna win a physical matchup? I mean,
when you're built the way those teams are both built
to your point in time or to your point it
can go back and forth. On any given day, who
was just more physical, who was able to make the
plays on that given day, and on Friday Night, it
just happened to be Miami. I guess my question to
(15:32):
you would be based on how Miami played against A
and M and against Friday Night. Is there a team
that they can't beat? I mean, why can't they win
the National Championship? If you're gonna be that stout defensively,
I know you might need a little bit more punch
offensively here and there. But if you're gonna be that
good on offense, you already played against one of the
best offensive lines, one of the best offensive units you're
going to face in this postseason.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Why can't you make a deep run to the championship?
Who can't you beat?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Well? George is very familiar with Carson Beck, and I
expect them to beat Old Miss tomorrow and that should
be the matchup in the next round.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Corre.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
I'm not saying they can't beat Georgia, but Georgia would
be favored against them, and I will doubt that the edge.
I just think they're more dynamic. I don't trust Miami
enough to make as many of those crucial fifty to
fifty plays on those third down conversions, like they were
able to win this game just because Carson Beck can
go the other way very quickly at times. With him now,
he's been okay in big games and I'm rooting for him,
(16:27):
and I think it's a really interesting storyline if they
end up taking on Georgia. But I mean, your defense
keeps you in it. If you can run the ball
like that and still play defense, you're gonna be in
the game. I just think Georgia is a player too,
better on offense than Miami.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yeah, and I think most people felt that about Ohio
State comingga into Friday night's game too and saw how
that played. It's played itself out. So I guess congratulations
to University at Miami. And if you're Ryan Day, you're
probably back on the hot seat again because that's what
Ohio how Ohio State works. If you imagine, by the
way Kyle Winningham comes in has a phenomenal seat an
end of the year.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Next year, Michigan.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Beats Ohio State and Ohio State's probably gonna make the
playoff again. I'm sure they will, but you imagine what
happens if they lose to Michigan and don't win the
national championship next year, what people are gonna.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Say, Oh, yeah, he'll be right back where he was
square one. He is a year removed from having one
of the most dominant runs and winning the first ever
twelve team playoff. By the way, what have.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You done for me lately? Because apparently what happens in
the past twenty four months isn't lately.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yeah, I know there was so much disappointment and there
were a lot of losses to Michigan, but they were
able to win on the biggest stage. Now, some fans
might say, well, that was Chip Kelly. That was different.
That was Chip Kelly. That's what they might say, because
he knew Oregon and they lit them up. Where was
that at the Rose Bowl? I believe last year when
it wasn't raining as much. Yeah, it's the same cross
(17:48):
to bear. It is difficult. It is a high pressure
situation for him always, But you knew what you signed
up for, and yeah, he'll be under the hot seat.
But Julian Sand's coming.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Back right, Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
They got a good young quarterback. They should still be
very competitive.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Oh, they'll be better than competitive. They're they're gonna win,
you know, a ten eleven games again next season. They
just they're returning too many guys. Even if they lose
a bunch of guys, they have five stars right behind
them coming in, so they're not gonna them being in
the playoff next year.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I don't think is gonna be an issue.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
This was so disappointing of a loss, though, because they
were double digit favorites at one point this week they
ended up I think minus nine and a half over Miami.
So people aren't gonna forget this. Lord knows, somebody with
the belt will definitely not be forgetting this. I love it, honestly.
It makes me laugh every time. The belt to ask
(18:41):
movement that has been going on in sports now and
Michael Irving doing the most with it tonight, I'm good
with it.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
I'm sure it's not his intention to draw attention away
from the team, but to a certain degree I think
it does. It's like you can be on the sideline
and cheer when the team does well, but you're doing
a little.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Too much for me, Mike, he thinks he's on the
team still he does.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, what was that speech he gave?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
It was Jamis Winston Esque afterwards talking about you're not
gonna take away my glory speaking about the past. Yeah,
I'm here for it. But I know we got more
to talk about with college football because there are some
games that are being overlooked right now, Kevin. And it's
kind of a change into the guard. It's a new
era of college football. When you got twelve teams in
how much do you care about these bowl games going on?
(19:24):
We had Texas Michigan earlier and as our friend David
Vass would say, it was kind of whole hum. It
was a little bit ho hum out there. We'll talk
about that next. He's Kevin Figers. I'm out of Moslin.
It is fna in on The Ben Mallor Show. Happy
New Year.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Mallor
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Joined me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Every day.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest
sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at
the sports book.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And all the best guests.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
I told y'all you want to come join us Stantium
No Yo, stop them boom running them go broom right,
Roy sat party, gore you lo time wait put bell
(20:40):
time as we hit it every week and we go
keep doing it until we're laying back home and I
will stadium for the National Championship next week.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Same deal, same bad Chando, same bad time.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Okay, a New Years tradition like no other. Michael Irving
there forget the ball dropping bell to ask, that's what's about.
Welcome back in. It is FNA and for Ben Mallor,
FNA cotton Man a Oslin, He's Kevin Figures. Be sure
to check out our brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Just search Ben Mallor's show within YouTube. Again, that's Ben
(21:18):
Mallor's show. Be sure to hit the subscribe button and
don't stop there. Hit that thumbs up icon and comment away.
Let me know when you agree. With me. And also
when you disagree with Kevin, go check out our brand
new channel again. Just search Ben Mallor's show on YouTube
and subscribe. All Right, I may have taken some liberties there, Kevin,
just a few.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Do they still have a Liberty Bowl? Was that happening today?
I'm confused.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I believe the.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Liberty Bowl does still exist. I know there was the
Liberty Mutual Classic Bowl or something like that earlier. Today
it's on Friday. It's on Friday between Navy and Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh Brilliantah, I'll meet you there.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah, this is the point.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
It's not the same. The bowl games have outlived their usefulness.
Now if their usefulness is so much about money, that
maybe does happen. Yeah that what do you always say, Kevin?
The answer is money?
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (22:17):
What was the question?
Speaker 4 (22:18):
That's I stole that from Rick Neuheisel. But it's true
when it comes to these situations. So I looked into
this Adam too. So if you go back to last year,
so the end of twenty twenty four, all these bowl
games that were happening in December, some of the ones
that were not of note per se, you know, the
Relia Quest Bowl, the Pop Tarts Ball, the alim Moo Bowl.
You realize all of these lesser bowls that were not playoff.
Playoff games average between six and eight million viewers. That's
(22:43):
pretty significant during the holidays when you're putting on live
for I understand why if you're ESPN and Petrols told
us this on the on our FNA show last week
on Friday, Like, look, it's it's a TV event for
for the for they want to have some live sports
to put on. There's nothing else going on during the holiday.
You put some live programming, you're gonna get eyeballs. Even
if it's just background noise, You're you're gonna get viewership.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
So I understand why they still do it.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Passive viewing.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Heah, it's more of like a passive viewing for a
lot of people to be honest with you, like.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Me and the end of Stranger Things because it sucks. No,
I haven't seen it all yet, no spoiler alert, but
six to eight million viewers. Yeah, the NBA Finals was
doing that last year. This is happening with random bowl
games right now now.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Grant if it's the Pop Tart Bowl and I have
to guess which Pop Tart is coming out at the
end of the game, then sure I might tune in
for that.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I thought I saw a pop tart at a barbecue,
like who was getting barbecued? Like they threw it on
the barbecue there to advertise for it. Now, if it
was the brown sugar and cinnamon one, my fay, I
don't care which what charcoal gets on that thing, I'm
good with it.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I take down force four six of those things easily.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Back in the day, the money will always justify the
bowl games.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I do care about his money.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
But back when it was the BCS and it was
one game for the championship, there was no tournament. There
was no four team playoff, definitely not a twelve team
playoff like we have now. We were starved for just
more college football. We'll take what we can get, and
those one off games, those bowl games, they felt like
(24:16):
little mini championships, like the mini Boss before the Final Boss.
Like say you're playing streets a Rage, you play the
weird guy with the knives at the beginning, and then
by the end you're taking on mister X.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Well, the you have Shiva whatever or Shiva whatever his
name is, and then you can say mister X is
just sitting in his chair creepily staring at you, fighting Shiva.
And then once you beat him, he jumps from behind
the chair and brings out a giant machine gun.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
When's fifty cent doing the documentary on mister X. I've
always wondered about them all, but it was different. Before
we had all these games with real stakes, where teams
were moving on, we were just happy to get You
remember when Oklahoma took on Alabama. I think it was
the Sugar Bowl and it was still Bob Stoops versus
(25:00):
is Nick Saban, and I think Oklahoma won, And that's
when we really started to get that narrative of, well,
if the SEC wins, it's because of the dominant conference.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
You know what it was? It was Utah at them.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
It was Utah Winningsham's first year and I believe it
was Saban's second year at Alabama something like it was
early in his Alabama tenure. I think before they ever
won a national title. And yes, you're one hundred percent right.
Utah went into the Sugar Bowl and ran Alabama off
the field, and the narrative was why Alabama didn't want
to be there anyway? They had a greater site. They
had their site set on the National Championship. This is
a letdown, which I always thought was total bs. You
(25:35):
if you're on the field, you're practiced for a month
leading up to the game you're playing. We didn't have
a transfer portal back then. All your guys suited up, which,
by the way, I think is a big part of it.
I'll get back to that in the second. But don't
give me the excuse because if Alabama would have won,
it's like, oh, another victory in the bowls bowl season
for it.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
The SEC is what they do.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Yeah, so you just can't flip the narrative based on
what's convenient for you. But a big part for me
that takes away from the from of these bowls. It's
not the fact that it's like not the BCS anymore,
not the fact that they're not playoff games. I'm fine
with non playoff bowl games. The problem is there's such
high roster turnover. Guys are entering the portal once the
regular season ends. Half the time, you don't know who's
going to be there and not. Players are opting out
(26:14):
left and right. If they're opting out because they're in
the portal, or they're opting out because they have the
designs of going into the NFL draft, which I understand.
We're never going to forget the Jalen Smith injury in
a non playoff BCS game or whatever it was back
back in the day at Notre Dame and it ruined
his entire career in his future, so I understand why
they do it. But players took pride and playing in
(26:36):
those bowl games, whether it was the Sugar Bowl, the
Rolls Bowl, or the Capitol Won Bowl or something like that.
All the players took pride and actually going, taking the
trip and playing in the game, and we had compelling matchups.
Now you have no idea who's going to be suiting
up for a team in a bowl game because these
guys are all entering the portal once the season ends.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
That's fair too, but for me, the relevancy of bowl
games stops when you know longer have teams that would
be top ten in a tournament, a fictitious one we
never had back in the day, which we do have now,
so now we get to actually watch a playoff. So
it's just not the same if I'm watching LSU or
(27:13):
Alabama or Boise State. Like we were very intrigued with
Kellen Moore and those Boise State teams and their bowl games,
and it was bs when they pitted them against TCU.
I remember they didn't want to put them up against
an SEC team in case they lost. That stuff was
really intriguing. Now it's just whatever, when's the next playoff game?
When's the next game that actually matters out there? When
(27:36):
you have twelve teams involved. Even when you had four
teams involved, bowl games still meant more to me. Now
it's still everybody has their own traditions, and the viewership
seems to be high enough to I guess justify them
continuing here because the money is always going to say so.
But it just doesn't feel like the traditional Bowl season
(27:56):
like we used to have.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, it's not like games have not been entertained.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
I mean on Friday, Michigan in Texas was much more
higher scoring than I ever thought it would be. Iown,
Vanderbilt was good and they have both of their starting quarterbacks.
In that matchup, Arizona and Duke was high scoring, entertaining
USC and TCU went to overtime. It's not that the
games aren't necessarily competitive. It just, like I say, it
just feels different, and I think it's because for me,
at the very least, as someone who considers himself a
(28:20):
little bit of a college football purist. Again, I do
not mind postseason bowls that are not playoff games, but
I can't have it.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
It's not gonna matter to me if it doesn't matter
to the players.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Well, we have the big issue for me, pass on
playing in a bowl game this season.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Multiple teams, by the way, Pass were playing bowl.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Game, but one was out of spite in Notre Dame.
That tells you about the relevancy, like they don't even care.
They view it as a consolation prize that nobody wants.
High level players aren't competing if they know they have
a future in the NFL and they're not making big
nil money now to justify you know, the insurance or
whatever you need to play in a game like that.
(28:58):
I think USC had twelve guys opt out. Now, that's
not an excuse for losing a TCU who had their
backup quarterback in there with the horn Frogs, of course,
but still, yes, if you don't have the best players,
you really aren't grading who's the better team coming out
of that game?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
As much, yes, just as it glorified.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I mean they're glorified exhibitions anyway to a certain degree,
but even more so at that point. Because look, the
and one thing that people who try to defend this
will say is like, well there's extra ball practices looking
ahead to the next season. Twenty percent of FBS players
transfer out at the end of the year, So you
have no idea all these practices that you're banking up
in December, I could be with a group of guys
(29:37):
who are not even gonna end up being there by
the time you get to spring ball.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
So what do the practices really mean at that point?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Well, and we did have Brady Papinga on with us
recently and there was a Brady versus Brady, a Brady
off that the Brady Bowl actually was pretty good this
season between him and Brady Quinn here on Fox Sports Radio.
And I do understand what Brady Quinn is saying, like
I'm not risking anything for what is pretty much a
(30:04):
meaningless game. I also understand what Brady Papina said, some
of that practice time could be valuable to guys, and
more so than anything what he said, it can be
a slippery slope at one point at what point do
we get to guys just packing it in at the
end of seasons because they aren't making the playoff. They
got four or five losses, it's a down year. They
(30:26):
don't want to risk injury either. We don't want to
head down that path. Now all of a sudden, regular
seasons are being more and more diminished, as people are
already worried about that with expanding the playoffs too. I
don't want to see that happen. So I understand both
sides of the debate. I probably would lean towards Brady
Quinn a little bit more.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I mean, I will say this, Adam, who's to say
that's not gonna happen, especially if there's a program that
has high enough expectations. If you are I'm just I'll
say Florida State or something, Hey, I expectations coming into
the season.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Things obviously didn't go the way that you planned.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
After you at the big up at the start of
the year against Alabama, If you are a no doubt
first round, top ten pick or something like that, and
you saw by the time you got to early November
that this season was in the dumpster, it will not
surprise me at all in the next couple of years
of a guy that says, yeah, I know there's three
games left in the regular season, but I'm leaving now.
It's not a good sign to show to NFL teams.
(31:20):
You're basically quitting on your team at that point in
time as part of the interview process. Almost But if
you're talented enough, I mean, look at the guys who
can get drafted into the NFL, Guys who with all
the things that some of these guys have done, If
you're talented enough, note that's.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Not gonna matter.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah, talent over everything, that wouldn't be a concern or
the deciding factor for an NFL team, of course.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
So even taking the Bowl, if Bulls go away out
of that equation, I think that's probably something that's going
to come to a head at some point here in
the next couple of years.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
In the end, as much as we're bitching about bowls
and you know, getting after our member Barris here pretty
pretty hard. While it is the end of twenty twenty five,
in the end, do they really hurt any one by
continuing season. Maybe it's not like it used to be,
but it doesn't hurt anything. We still get our playoff.
(32:07):
We still get our bowl games. They're there if you
want them, that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
They're there if you want them, and plenty in between
six and eight million people apparently want them.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
I mean, one thing I've heard that I would want proposal.
I heard a couple of weeks ago that I actually
like that.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Some have come up with what if you took a
portion of the ball, because Petros brought this up to
us when we had them on our show. There's too
many baths, there's too many bowl games. There's not enough
good teams to fill the bowl games. So what I
would do is take some of these balls and move
them to the front of the season and have them
be like some part of like your college football kickoff
week or two weeks so whatever, and have these sponsorships
(32:41):
attached to these ball games at these neutral sites.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Maybe have a slotting system like you have now.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
The third ranked Big twelve team from the previous season
faces the third ranked SEC team from the previous season,
and they both play each other in the Sun Bowl.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Because the supply is supply and demand, the demand is
so high because people are just starved for college foot well,
they will take anything. At the beginning of the season right. Well,
now we're being more picky and chuesy because we actually
have a twelve team playoff and we're like, ah, these
bull games. I don't know, maybe maybe the milk's gone
bad here on some of these things.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
But if Tennessee and Illinois are playing each other in
mid August, You're like, oh my god, this could be great,
this could be a separator. This is like, these are
two I mean, solid programs in the in the Big ten,
in the SEC.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Who knows people are feeding for those games, like Michael
Urbans feeding to get that belt out, But it's a
good use. I was gonna say something else was feeding there.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
Well, yeah, look like he's a remember of jobasy the
ways out there taking his belt off and gyrating out
there on the sideline, just talking about feening.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
First of all, if I still have a six pack,
it's sixty or whatever he is, And that was showing
off tonight, like he could actually go out there and
wear that mid riff jersey that they all used to
wear and look pretty damn good. Michael Irwy's in great shape.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Ezekiel Elliott wishes he had that.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
That's Oh yeah, well, are you doing too much?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Eating. He's all eating.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Coming up next is FNA filling in for Ben Malor.
We do have a little bit of stranger than fiction
for you, an animal addition, And I know we're almost
out of twenty twenty five, but snakes aren't gonna be
left in twenty twenty five. They're not going extinct. They
will still be with us in twenty twenty six. Thanks. Well,
(34:23):
that have to be snakes. As to my Happy New Year, well,
well we can get into that coming up next, because
I will tell you how to navigate the situation with snakes,
especially in Florida, Florida, man everywhere, but also in Australia.
That's coming up next and Stranger than fiction as it's
FNA on FSR. I'm at Supulvida and Ventura come down
(34:45):
any day.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
FNA Cottonna Kevin figures out.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I'm also back with you guys, filling in for Big
Ben Malard here on Fox Sports Radio. Coming up next hour,
got a very important question for you guys, and you
could chime in on X I can't fig one and
that follow out and make and also check in at
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox as we headed
to the New year, what change would you make to
(35:10):
your favorite sport or any sport for that matter. You
give me a sport that you hate, and he's like,
you know what, I'm so damn tired of football. Why
don't they use their feet more? If they use their
feet more in football, damn it, I will love it
more and I would accept it.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Who is the guy on sixty minutes, Kevin that you
have referenced many times back in the day, was like,
why is a orange called an orange, but a banana
is a banana? Why don't they call it a yellow?
Speaker 2 (35:37):
I don't remember, that's right, ipund.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
It a little bit like that type of logic there
for a second, but I liked it.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, Like, hey, whatever works for you.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
That's not necessarily where I'm going with it, but just
to give you a very elementary example of where you
can go with it, there it is.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I'm going to make a change. The Clippers stopped losing.
Actually that's already happened.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Well, look at you, O.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Brie just rolled her eyes.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
What do they so they're only like, what thirteen games
under five hunds?
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Now?
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Right? Did you know Brie's still playing an ugly sweater contest?
And she has her Phoenix Sun sweater on tonight. B
you notice fighting words, Brie, Brie.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
By the way, you notice how he just glossed over
my Clippers record despite the fact that they.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Can thirteen games underth mind mind er, do you want
to keep we can just keep saying that all show
it's actually just ten to now, Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
I'm sorry, damn really closing in on the Utaw jazz there, Adam,
good job, guys.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
There's a lot of season left. Let me tell you something.
There's a lot of show left here too, But we
got to get to stranger things.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Fast food customer defending perticies n called nine one one
after her McDonald's run out of McNuggets.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Strange.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
You can't give a drunk man riding a horse at
ewy and he got Unlike cards, ardes don't have motors,
they have in mind in their own Strange things begin.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Twenty four year old man now Jusa.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
They're throwing an alligator through a drive through window. Strange, Okay,
it's stranger than fiction here. You know, in Australia they
get to the New Year before most anywhere else in
the world, as they're nineteen hours ahead of us. Here
on the West Coast in the United States. So they
(37:10):
have seen the future and it's apparently much more dangerous
than we could have ever imagined, not only because maybe
the world financial system is about to crash and only
Cooigne will be accepted and we're back to being subjects
of King Kanye West in twenty twenty six. Now that's
like a black Mirror episode I never need to see.
(37:31):
It's because animals appear to be getting more and more
threatening and dangerous as they become more comfortable with us humans.
So it's not all fun and games with the animal kingdom.
Like Jack Black and Paul Rudd running around with that
new Anaconda movie that's a comedy. Snakes, Why have to
(37:52):
be snakes? John Boyd didn't get swallowed, spit up and
then swallowed again for them to make Anaconta into a comedy.
All right, But speaking of the movies, I'm speaking of Kanye, Well,
there is Snakes on a Plane, and Kanye had his
own snakes on a Plane line in a song before.
Never seen snakes on a plane. There's snakes in a
(38:13):
Subaru in Australia. As this week there was a coastal
carpet python that took a magic carpet type of ride
as it attached itself to a family vehicle and the
stowaway snake traveled nine hours across Queensland from Toowoomba to
the Central Coast as it was hitching a ride like
(38:35):
Green Day on the fuel tank of the car. When
the family saw the three foot python underneath the chassis,
they pulled over at an Australian reptile park to have
a snake handler uncoil it. I'm just surprised they actually
have a reptile park. It seems redundant, Like, isn't Australia
just basically one big reptile park with dangerous animals everywhere?
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Oh yeah, if it's not the sharks, then the reptiles
will get you.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
I didn't know they needed parks or zoos there. The
whole continent is just that.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Well, the kangaroo will come and kick the crap out
of you too. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
The wild animal thing we got in San Diego has
nothing on Australia. Australian Reptile Park Head of Reptiles, though,
Dialon Wallace.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Dialon Dialond Dialond dialand dialand.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Said he's never seen a snake travel that distance before again.
Talk to Kanye about how far he went in that plane.
But you snake huggers out there, don't worry. It was
on the fuel tank, which means it was safe because
the elements weren't getting to it on its nine hour
trip across the country and the continent. And I guess
(39:41):
being close to the turning wheels created like a lot
of ventilation to keep the snake cool.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah, the snake was a python again and unfortunately they
just shipped its ass back to Queensland. It made that
nine hour trip and they just.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Said I came all the way this damn way for
nothing and he throw me your rat or something. At least,
jeez Bill.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
It took that trip for a reason. To the Central Coast.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I never thought that I'd be sympathizing with a freaking python,
but here I am.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
That snake. Want to see the beaches in the Central Coast, right,
They want a little vacation, little vaca. I wanted to
slither on the beaches, looking at the beaches, checking out
the honeys there.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
I always get worried about a python getting flushed down
the toilet in my apartment complex, and then I'm sitting
there and it goes through the pipes.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
And I did see win animals attack situation years ago,
when I've been haunted by that ever since.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
So yes, I'm right there with you.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Things I probably have no that don't necessarily have to
be paranoid about, but I most definitely am.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
If I lived in Australia. Instead of one of those
bumper stickers that said, you know when cat haters have
one that says, can't find your cat, check under my tire,
I'd say, if you can't find your pet python, seriously,
just check under your tire. It might be there. On
a nine hour road trip. They attached them selves there.
He's getting figures. I'm I'm Moslin. It's FNA in for
Ben Mallor here on Fox Sports Radio
Hey, thanks for listening to the Ben Mahler Show podcast.
It's me Ben. Be sure to catch us live every
weeknight from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three
am Pacific right here on Fox Sports Radio. You can
find your local station for the Ben Maler Show over
at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSRS.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Kevin, We're still allowed to play this song on the radio.
I love it well, Daddy and family forever, the.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Little Big Ben Mallo staple. You're on Fox Sports Radio.
I can't.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Can I say it. I'm gonna get so much crap
if I say it, I'm gonna say it in.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
The air everywhere the vast Fox Sports Radio network.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Kevin figures Adam Alslin filling in for Big Ben Malor
here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
This is this is the big time Adam. I me
talking about a Fox Sports Radio legend that we're sitting
in for right now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Big Ben Mallor, who I used to listen to up
on kgk AM eleven forty up in Norcl I mean
back in the day, and now we're filling in. This
is kind of a big deal and I don't know.
It's a holiday. Happy New Year everyone.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Happy New Year everyone out there on the East Coast
and everywhere else. The about an hour left in twenty
twenty five for those out west, So looking forward to
spending the next four hours.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
With you guys. Here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
You can hit us up on the socials at KFIG
one is where you can find me. You can find
Adam at follow Adam A. We are on X That's
where you can hit us up and talk to us
about whatever's on your mind. Here on the on the eve,
on New Year's Eve, I should say I have twenty twenty
five into twenty twenty six, depending on where you may
be listening.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Okay, I do have to say we have some early
technical difficulties, so don't ask me to play first off
right now, Kevin, of.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Course, we doll machine.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Hold on, hold on, I'm trying to play something right now.
Bring it ain't working. It ain't working, like it's not
on my end. All I know is this New year,
same machine.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's what it is.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
No this year, she says, from nineteen ninety five. What
do you think that's my machine playing that? I thought
so they're just playing like random soundtrucks.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Now that's John Loraina. Just keep him rolling.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Why it's like one button on the sound bar, that's
all I can tell. Uh, it's just try every button.
I don't know, Kevin, let's just start talking about the
upset tonight.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Please.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
We don't need First off, we can go back to
the old school method. I can say first off like
Tupac and hit him up, which is the SoundBite for
us Miami One. Dude, it ain't New Years if you
don't got Michael Irving bringing out the belt on a
gatorade bottle with a jersey on it and just going
to town like that's how you're ringing the New Year.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Doing a little bit too much. And I love Michael Irving.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
And by the way, you can't help if you ever
have a chance to meet the guy in nicest person
you will ever meet in your life, will sit there
very charismatic. We'll talk to you almost like a politician
to a certain degree. I have nothing negative about Michael
Irvan as a person, but man, he really is dealing
a lot of spotlight these last few weeks from the
University of Miami.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh you think he's like sister Jean a.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Little well, a little bit to a certain agreement.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I rest her soul. Did she pass ever?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I feel like she just passed earlier this year.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Okay, Well that'll be the in memoriam segment we do
later in the show when we talk about everyone who
passed in twenty twenty five?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Are we doing how we're doing that? By the way,
that's news to me. Resnuck that one in on the rundown,
didn't she Well, she snuck up.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
By the way, Oh my god, a New Year's miracle.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Don't get cocky, kid, you know we're only four minutes
into the show. I think could die in an instant.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Check out the big brain on Briabrie. First of all,
it had nothing to do on my end, Kevin. I
just want to make that abundantly clear. This was not
a technical issue over on my side here, of course,
I want to see here. Throwing Lorain under the bus
is what it sounds like.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Man, I do not even know what an ir machine is.
But thank you for bringing in new stuff into the studio.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Well, look, this is old stuff for us. This is
old s this is before you were born. This is
raindo early nineties.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I work with Ben Maller, one of the dinosaurs of radio.
Don't tell me you're bringing in old stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I actually have some Ben Mallor sound here.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Wow. So I want everybody to be clear.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
That was the reign of that said that about Ben,
and that was Adam that said that band was an
old ass Dinosaurka the malin militia.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Coming after me anyway, because I know how you guys operate.
But I'm trying to be on my best behavior here tonight.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I'm not. It's the end of twenty twenty five. I'm
going out sad. What does it matter?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Holiday?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Here we be, Look, Santa Claus, it's past. I got
plenty of time to make up for being on the
naughty list, now do you. And speaking of Ben Maller,
Adam Ashland, I mean he literally called me Ashland before
Adam Ashland.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
He's not alone though, I mean been multiple personalities who
have called you out of your name before.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Adam Aslin, Adam Ashlin.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Adam Ashwish. I mean Brian Oslin, Brian Ausland. I mean,
if you don't even get the first name right, like
I do. Have credit cards, Kevin, that's say l A
N D instead of l U n d. In fact,
when we put up that cliff last week, as we
had Petro's papadaekas on but trying to bite a real show,
who joined us and eviscerated the USC Trojans because he's
(05:08):
like from there, he has ownership on that story.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
God, he's not the only one. You see what Linda
White sweety yesterday.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Oh I did not Lyndell or I don't know if
I can repeat it on the air, put it that way.
I didn't know he popped his head up. I haven't.
I haven't thought about Lindell White in a long time, since.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
He's thought a lot about the USC football program. I'll
say that.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Oh, the fact that he didn't have that block in
front of him to get that first down. But even
the Fox Sports Radio little clip we put out with
Petro saying if that if everything talking about Matt Lioner
trying to make excuses for USC, even that said l
A and d Adam oz Land like I'm from the
(05:45):
land of oz It shot him. I can't get away
from it. But that's fine, everything's fine now, we're good. No,
I am over it.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
If everything's perfectly all right? Now we're fine. We're all
fine here now, thank you?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
How are you You know where things aren't fine? Well,
they're never fine there, but Ohio, Ohio losing this ballgame tonight,
Kevin in the fashion they did being the number two seed.
The main takeaway I have, the Colin Cowherd takeaway is this,
thank goodness, we at least have a twelve team playoff,
and thank goodness Miami got in because they have more
(06:21):
than proven themselves. Notre Dame. I'm sorry, Brady Quinn, you
guys have zero case. Not only did Miami beat you,
they beat Texas A and m who beat you, and
now they've taken out Ohio State to move on rolling
their way into the semis.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, this part is hard.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
And by the way, a few people when the very
beginning of this debate happened between Miami and Notre Dame
and being seven places apart in the initial CFP rankings,
I was championing Miami the entire time. And yes, obviously
Miami deserves to be here, and it was a great
victory over Ohio State, in a great victory over an
m last week. But I can't necessarily say that, well,
this means that Notre Dame doesn't deserve to be in
(06:57):
because who's to say Notre Dame basically played the exact
same way that Miami played these last two weeks or
whatever it's been. I guess it's been two weeks in
between games or whatever it was between their last their
playoff win in the first round. But ground and pound,
dominant defense, that is how Notre Dame has won all
season long. So I can't necessarily say that if Notre
Dame made it to the situation and Miami didn't, that
(07:18):
we wouldn't necessarily have the same results.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Okay, you're right, but Miami certainly is deserving at this.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Point without a doubt.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Kial didn't go in and just get run over by
the Aggies. That didn't happen. They went into one of
the toughest environments and got an ugly road victory. And then,
as you mentioned, the Tito or Tea's ground and pound
game traveled today to the Cotton Bowl to get this win.
Over what I think I mean, most brackets for the
playoff are busted, Kevin. They are Remember what we used
(07:49):
to do for the bracket challenge back in the day.
Look at the flowers. Flowers.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I don't have to bring that back for college basketball
Season two. I guess right, bringing in him out the CFP,
why they hell not?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
People are going to be confused with all the guns
being shot up into the air tonight. Yeah no, kidd
at midnight here on the West coast.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well, in Ohio State, who I mean, without question, mostly
has the most NFL talent on their roster, first round
picks up and down, and for them to lose the
way they lost against Indiana, Granted that was a close,
tight game too, but Indiana kind of dominated them up front,
and you can say for the most part of this game,
and I know they made their run in the second half.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
The exact same thing happened with Miami.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
One thing we've said about the University of Miami under
myro Crystal Ball, any team that he coaches, they're going
to be good in the trenches, and that's exactly what
they were early in this game, well, being able to
bust off runs in the run game and really stuff
Ohio State, and he has them to get nothing going
offensively the entire first half of the game.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
They started with that level of physicality and they finished
with that level of physicality while also going seven to
fourteen on third downs mixed in on huge plays where
at one point Carson Beck completed thirteen straight passes in
the first half. A lot of them were dink and
dunk passes, but in a game against Ohio State, you
might have to do that, Julian saying, by the way,
(09:01):
I'm saying, he completed ten straight to start the second half.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
He was spectacular.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I think the turning point of the ball game was
they're down by three. They get the ball back from
Miami at seventeen fourteen and the first penalty of the
game got cold was seven minutes left in the fourth quarter,
and it was a hold on Ohio State and it
put them in a third and twenty situation. They got
a short yardage gain out of it, they had to punt,
and then on that punt they had another penalty. Yeah,
(09:29):
they redid it and it ended up being a much
worse punt where it was like a difference of twenty
yards where Miami was starting with on that final drive instead.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, I mean, the big thing the difference for me
in the game was really the protection up front, because
Julian Saying has basically been as great as he's been
completely over over eighty percent of its passes, great numbers,
but I think a lot of that was due to
the fact that he had all data throw. He had
all data throw all season long. These last two games
against Indiana and Miami was sacked ten times, five times
in each game.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Run for his life.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I will say this, in the second half of the
game on Friday night, he showed himself well in that
second half and the having that pressure as well as
he possibly could trying to get out make plays. And
you mentioned the h RA completions that he made two
touchdown passes. He played well in the second half. But
the exact opposite for what happened with Carson Beck, who's
been more of your game manager type. If anything, Carson
Beck is a guy that you don't want throwing the
(10:22):
ball more than twenty five thirty times a game because
he is prone to throwing interceptions. And these first two
playoff victories from Miami, he's been a game manager, and
I think that's the recipe for them to be able
to win.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
If you told me somebody threw an I inc on
a screen pass that went seventy two yards the other
way in this ball game, I would have thought it
was Carson Beck, not Julian saying that's the other thing.
They miss a field goal, they give them seven points
to Miami's defense. The margins are so slim in a
battle like this. Now, Ohio State did recover after being
(10:52):
down fourteen to nothing in the first half and missing
that field goal at the end of it to come back,
and then I think they had like two hundred and
thirty yards on their next three drives and they kept coming,
but Miami was able to keep them at bay even
when you saw, I mean, Ohio State gets that touchdown
with Bo Jackson, different Bo Jackson to start the second half.
Mammy comes right back and kicks a fifty yard field
(11:14):
goal where by the way, they recover their own fumble
just to stay in fuel goal range to knock that
down when their kicker was one for four last week
with the wind, you could say, but against the Aggies,
that was a huge play.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
And I also want to say there's an excuse floating
out there that, well, you know, Ryan Day, it took
the play calling duties away from Brian Hartline because Heartline
is distracted as a new head coach of South Florida
has too much on his plate, which I don't know
if it's necessarily wrong to a certain degree, especially knowing
how the portal works and all this. These guys there's
no way they can be fully committed to the current
job when they know they have a future job that's
(11:48):
of much more importance when they're head coach of a
new program. I don't know if I can say that
because I don't think execution or play calling was an
issue for Ohio State. I think they just got beat
like that that picks six, and I think Dusted said
this on the telecast. It was like, that's just film study.
Like the way that he read that play. I mean,
Julian Sayin telegraphed the pass and he jumped it and
ran it back. That was nothing but just heads up
(12:09):
play by the defensive back and you know, being able
to get stuffs in the run fits and all that.
All of that was just execution. I just thought Miami
executed better than Ohio State. So I don't know if
I can necessarily blame this on play calling O'Ryan days part,
especially based on the fact that was to your point,
Ohio State's offense woke up in the second half. They
just couldn't recover from their slow start.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
And the other excuse being made for Ohio State is
they almost had a month off between games and that
they had what happened to Oregon last season where they
got the buy that the number one seed. I know,
Ohio State was number two, but Oregon looked ill prepared
for that. Ohio State buzz saw last season that had
to beat Tennessee to get to them, And now Ohio
(12:47):
State has the layoff and you talk about rest versus rust.
I don't know if that first half was just rust
or physicality and them getting their ass beat out there,
because Mario Cristobaul postgame on SVP on the Evil four
Letter was like, hats off to our guys because we're
some tough ass sons of bitches out there, and they were,
(13:08):
and they have molers and we knew this coming into
the season. Early in the year when they beat Notre Dame,
we were all talking about how physical they were in
the trenches. John Madden was right, it always goes back
to winning the game in the trenches because everything starts
there and everything can fall apart there if you don't
have your es and order. In Ohio State, Julians saying
in the first half, the way he was under duress,
(13:30):
like it was hey, you better back it up. He
was running for his life like it was brutal to watch,
and they had another big sack in the second half
on him that proved to be crucial. So they started strong,
They started with that physicality, they finished with it, and
they had their own screen pass really to put the
(13:51):
ball game away on that third down late Miami.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
The big thing for me, I guess is the fact
that they were able to get contributions from other players
other than Malachi Tony. Everybody knew was the biggest offensive
threat that Miami had, and you knew Ohio State was
going to look to take that away, and they did that.
But the fact that Miami was able to run the
ball for over one hundred and fift yards against the
Ohio State team and put up the amount of points
they put up against Ohio State, who allowed what an
average of like eight point nine points per game, yeah
(14:16):
or something this season.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
It was the best defense since twenty eleven Bama.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah. I mean, it was an incredible effort by the
University of Miami.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
So I would like to give them flowers and talk
more about what they did right than people harping on
what Ohio State did wrong.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, I mean they did twist the pure snipple of
Ryan Day in this game, and he looked upset Blackbeard
himself out there. I also because he's been so good
in the past when he was calling plays. I don't
know if that had anything to do with it. He
wasn't calling plays against Indiana when it looked like, oh
they had a governor on and that was the excuse.
(14:47):
Then well, they're not letting that dog off the leash yet.
They're gonna wait for the playoffs to really turn up. Well,
you take a month off, do you lose some of
that competitive edge out there? And then if you have
to find it after getting your butts kicked in the
first half just to get into year, it's too late.
Miami was too good. If they played this game ten times,
Miami might beat him six out of ten.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I could see that.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, well, it's one of those there, to a certain degree,
kind of evenly matched because they're stylistically built the same way,
physical upfront, and who's gonna win a physical matchup? I mean,
when you're built the way those teams are both built
to your point in time or to your point it
can go back and forth. On any given day, who
was just more physical, who was able to make the
plays on that given day, and on Friday Night, it
just happened to be Miami. I guess my question to
(15:32):
you would be based on how Miami played against A
and M and against Friday Night. Is there a team
that they can't beat? I mean, why can't they win
the National Championship? If you're gonna be that stout defensively,
I know you might need a little bit more punch
offensively here and there. But if you're gonna be that
good on offense, you already played against one of the
best offensive lines, one of the best offensive units you're
going to face in this postseason.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Why can't you make a deep run to the championship?
Who can't you beat?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Well? George is very familiar with Carson Beck, and I
expect them to beat Old Miss tomorrow and that should
be the matchup in the next round.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Corre.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
I'm not saying they can't beat Georgia, but Georgia would
be favored against them, and I will doubt that the edge.
I just think they're more dynamic. I don't trust Miami
enough to make as many of those crucial fifty to
fifty plays on those third down conversions, like they were
able to win this game just because Carson Beck can
go the other way very quickly at times. With him now,
he's been okay in big games and I'm rooting for him,
(16:27):
and I think it's a really interesting storyline if they
end up taking on Georgia. But I mean, your defense
keeps you in it. If you can run the ball
like that and still play defense, you're gonna be in
the game. I just think Georgia is a player too,
better on offense than Miami.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yeah, and I think most people felt that about Ohio
State comingga into Friday night's game too and saw how
that played. It's played itself out. So I guess congratulations
to University at Miami. And if you're Ryan Day, you're
probably back on the hot seat again because that's what
Ohio how Ohio State works. If you imagine, by the
way Kyle Winningham comes in has a phenomenal seat an
end of the year.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Next year, Michigan.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Beats Ohio State and Ohio State's probably gonna make the
playoff again. I'm sure they will, but you imagine what
happens if they lose to Michigan and don't win the
national championship next year, what people are gonna.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Say, Oh, yeah, he'll be right back where he was
square one. He is a year removed from having one
of the most dominant runs and winning the first ever
twelve team playoff. By the way, what have.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You done for me lately? Because apparently what happens in
the past twenty four months isn't lately.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yeah, I know there was so much disappointment and there
were a lot of losses to Michigan, but they were
able to win on the biggest stage. Now, some fans
might say, well, that was Chip Kelly. That was different.
That was Chip Kelly. That's what they might say, because
he knew Oregon and they lit them up. Where was
that at the Rose Bowl? I believe last year when
it wasn't raining as much. Yeah, it's the same cross
(17:48):
to bear. It is difficult. It is a high pressure
situation for him always, But you knew what you signed
up for, and yeah, he'll be under the hot seat.
But Julian Sand's coming.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Back right, Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
They got a good young quarterback. They should still be
very competitive.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Oh, they'll be better than competitive. They're they're gonna win,
you know, a ten eleven games again next season. They
just they're returning too many guys. Even if they lose
a bunch of guys, they have five stars right behind
them coming in, so they're not gonna them being in
the playoff next year.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I don't think is gonna be an issue.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
This was so disappointing of a loss, though, because they
were double digit favorites at one point this week they
ended up I think minus nine and a half over Miami.
So people aren't gonna forget this. Lord knows, somebody with
the belt will definitely not be forgetting this. I love it, honestly.
It makes me laugh every time. The belt to ask
(18:41):
movement that has been going on in sports now and
Michael Irving doing the most with it tonight, I'm good
with it.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
I'm sure it's not his intention to draw attention away
from the team, but to a certain degree I think
it does. It's like you can be on the sideline
and cheer when the team does well, but you're doing
a little.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Too much for me, Mike, he thinks he's on the
team still he does.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, what was that speech he gave?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
It was Jamis Winston Esque afterwards talking about you're not
gonna take away my glory speaking about the past. Yeah,
I'm here for it. But I know we got more
to talk about with college football because there are some
games that are being overlooked right now, Kevin. And it's
kind of a change into the guard. It's a new
era of college football. When you got twelve teams in
how much do you care about these bowl games going on?
(19:24):
We had Texas Michigan earlier and as our friend David
Vass would say, it was kind of whole hum. It
was a little bit ho hum out there. We'll talk
about that next. He's Kevin Figers. I'm out of Moslin.
It is fna in on The Ben Mallor Show. Happy
New Year.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Mallor
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Joined me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Every day.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest
sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at
the sports book.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And all the best guests.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
I told y'all you want to come join us Stantium
No Yo, stop them boom running them go broom right,
Roy sat party, gore you lo time wait put bell
(20:40):
time as we hit it every week and we go
keep doing it until we're laying back home and I
will stadium for the National Championship next week.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Same deal, same bad Chando, same bad time.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Okay, a New Years tradition like no other. Michael Irving
there forget the ball dropping bell to ask, that's what's about.
Welcome back in. It is FNA and for Ben Mallor,
FNA cotton Man a Oslin, He's Kevin Figures. Be sure
to check out our brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Just search Ben Mallor's show within YouTube. Again, that's Ben
(21:18):
Mallor's show. Be sure to hit the subscribe button and
don't stop there. Hit that thumbs up icon and comment away.
Let me know when you agree. With me. And also
when you disagree with Kevin, go check out our brand
new channel again. Just search Ben Mallor's show on YouTube
and subscribe. All Right, I may have taken some liberties there, Kevin,
just a few.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Do they still have a Liberty Bowl? Was that happening today?
I'm confused.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I believe the.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Liberty Bowl does still exist. I know there was the
Liberty Mutual Classic Bowl or something like that earlier. Today
it's on Friday. It's on Friday between Navy and Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh Brilliantah, I'll meet you there.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah, this is the point.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
It's not the same. The bowl games have outlived their usefulness.
Now if their usefulness is so much about money, that
maybe does happen. Yeah that what do you always say, Kevin?
The answer is money?
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (22:17):
What was the question?
Speaker 4 (22:18):
That's I stole that from Rick Neuheisel. But it's true
when it comes to these situations. So I looked into
this Adam too. So if you go back to last year,
so the end of twenty twenty four, all these bowl
games that were happening in December, some of the ones
that were not of note per se, you know, the
Relia Quest Bowl, the Pop Tarts Ball, the alim Moo Bowl.
You realize all of these lesser bowls that were not playoff.
Playoff games average between six and eight million viewers. That's
(22:43):
pretty significant during the holidays when you're putting on live
for I understand why if you're ESPN and Petrols told
us this on the on our FNA show last week
on Friday, Like, look, it's it's a TV event for
for the for they want to have some live sports
to put on. There's nothing else going on during the holiday.
You put some live programming, you're gonna get eyeballs. Even
if it's just background noise, You're you're gonna get viewership.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
So I understand why they still do it.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Passive viewing.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Heah, it's more of like a passive viewing for a
lot of people to be honest with you, like.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Me and the end of Stranger Things because it sucks. No,
I haven't seen it all yet, no spoiler alert, but
six to eight million viewers. Yeah, the NBA Finals was
doing that last year. This is happening with random bowl
games right now now.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Grant if it's the Pop Tart Bowl and I have
to guess which Pop Tart is coming out at the
end of the game, then sure I might tune in
for that.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I thought I saw a pop tart at a barbecue,
like who was getting barbecued? Like they threw it on
the barbecue there to advertise for it. Now, if it
was the brown sugar and cinnamon one, my fay, I
don't care which what charcoal gets on that thing, I'm
good with it.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I take down force four six of those things easily.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Back in the day, the money will always justify the
bowl games.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I do care about his money.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
But back when it was the BCS and it was
one game for the championship, there was no tournament. There
was no four team playoff, definitely not a twelve team
playoff like we have now. We were starved for just
more college football. We'll take what we can get, and
those one off games, those bowl games, they felt like
(24:16):
little mini championships, like the mini Boss before the Final Boss.
Like say you're playing streets a Rage, you play the
weird guy with the knives at the beginning, and then
by the end you're taking on mister X.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Well, the you have Shiva whatever or Shiva whatever his
name is, and then you can say mister X is
just sitting in his chair creepily staring at you, fighting Shiva.
And then once you beat him, he jumps from behind
the chair and brings out a giant machine gun.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
When's fifty cent doing the documentary on mister X. I've
always wondered about them all, but it was different. Before
we had all these games with real stakes, where teams
were moving on, we were just happy to get You
remember when Oklahoma took on Alabama. I think it was
the Sugar Bowl and it was still Bob Stoops versus
(25:00):
is Nick Saban, and I think Oklahoma won, And that's
when we really started to get that narrative of, well,
if the SEC wins, it's because of the dominant conference.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
You know what it was? It was Utah at them.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
It was Utah Winningsham's first year and I believe it
was Saban's second year at Alabama something like it was
early in his Alabama tenure. I think before they ever
won a national title. And yes, you're one hundred percent right.
Utah went into the Sugar Bowl and ran Alabama off
the field, and the narrative was why Alabama didn't want
to be there anyway? They had a greater site. They
had their site set on the National Championship. This is
a letdown, which I always thought was total bs. You
(25:35):
if you're on the field, you're practiced for a month
leading up to the game you're playing. We didn't have
a transfer portal back then. All your guys suited up, which,
by the way, I think is a big part of it.
I'll get back to that in the second. But don't
give me the excuse because if Alabama would have won,
it's like, oh, another victory in the bowls bowl season
for it.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
The SEC is what they do.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Yeah, so you just can't flip the narrative based on
what's convenient for you. But a big part for me
that takes away from the from of these bowls. It's
not the fact that it's like not the BCS anymore,
not the fact that they're not playoff games. I'm fine
with non playoff bowl games. The problem is there's such
high roster turnover. Guys are entering the portal once the
regular season ends. Half the time, you don't know who's
going to be there and not. Players are opting out
(26:14):
left and right. If they're opting out because they're in
the portal, or they're opting out because they have the
designs of going into the NFL draft, which I understand.
We're never going to forget the Jalen Smith injury in
a non playoff BCS game or whatever it was back
back in the day at Notre Dame and it ruined
his entire career in his future, so I understand why
they do it. But players took pride and playing in
(26:36):
those bowl games, whether it was the Sugar Bowl, the
Rolls Bowl, or the Capitol Won Bowl or something like that.
All the players took pride and actually going, taking the
trip and playing in the game, and we had compelling matchups.
Now you have no idea who's going to be suiting
up for a team in a bowl game because these
guys are all entering the portal once the season ends.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
That's fair too, but for me, the relevancy of bowl
games stops when you know longer have teams that would
be top ten in a tournament, a fictitious one we
never had back in the day, which we do have now,
so now we get to actually watch a playoff. So
it's just not the same if I'm watching LSU or
(27:13):
Alabama or Boise State. Like we were very intrigued with
Kellen Moore and those Boise State teams and their bowl games,
and it was bs when they pitted them against TCU.
I remember they didn't want to put them up against
an SEC team in case they lost. That stuff was
really intriguing. Now it's just whatever, when's the next playoff game?
When's the next game that actually matters out there? When
(27:36):
you have twelve teams involved. Even when you had four
teams involved, bowl games still meant more to me. Now
it's still everybody has their own traditions, and the viewership
seems to be high enough to I guess justify them
continuing here because the money is always going to say so.
But it just doesn't feel like the traditional Bowl season
(27:56):
like we used to have.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, it's not like games have not been entertained.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
I mean on Friday, Michigan in Texas was much more
higher scoring than I ever thought it would be. Iown,
Vanderbilt was good and they have both of their starting quarterbacks.
In that matchup, Arizona and Duke was high scoring, entertaining
USC and TCU went to overtime. It's not that the
games aren't necessarily competitive. It just, like I say, it
just feels different, and I think it's because for me,
at the very least, as someone who considers himself a
(28:20):
little bit of a college football purist. Again, I do
not mind postseason bowls that are not playoff games, but
I can't have it.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
It's not gonna matter to me if it doesn't matter
to the players.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Well, we have the big issue for me, pass on
playing in a bowl game this season.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Multiple teams, by the way, Pass were playing bowl.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Game, but one was out of spite in Notre Dame.
That tells you about the relevancy, like they don't even care.
They view it as a consolation prize that nobody wants.
High level players aren't competing if they know they have
a future in the NFL and they're not making big
nil money now to justify you know, the insurance or
whatever you need to play in a game like that.
(28:58):
I think USC had twelve guys opt out. Now, that's
not an excuse for losing a TCU who had their
backup quarterback in there with the horn Frogs, of course,
but still, yes, if you don't have the best players,
you really aren't grading who's the better team coming out
of that game?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
As much, yes, just as it glorified.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I mean they're glorified exhibitions anyway to a certain degree,
but even more so at that point. Because look, the
and one thing that people who try to defend this
will say is like, well there's extra ball practices looking
ahead to the next season. Twenty percent of FBS players
transfer out at the end of the year, So you
have no idea all these practices that you're banking up
in December, I could be with a group of guys
(29:37):
who are not even gonna end up being there by
the time you get to spring ball.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
So what do the practices really mean at that point?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Well, and we did have Brady Papinga on with us
recently and there was a Brady versus Brady, a Brady
off that the Brady Bowl actually was pretty good this
season between him and Brady Quinn here on Fox Sports Radio.
And I do understand what Brady Quinn is saying, like
I'm not risking anything for what is pretty much a
(30:04):
meaningless game. I also understand what Brady Papina said, some
of that practice time could be valuable to guys, and
more so than anything what he said, it can be
a slippery slope at one point at what point do
we get to guys just packing it in at the
end of seasons because they aren't making the playoff. They
got four or five losses, it's a down year. They
(30:26):
don't want to risk injury either. We don't want to
head down that path. Now all of a sudden, regular
seasons are being more and more diminished, as people are
already worried about that with expanding the playoffs too. I
don't want to see that happen. So I understand both
sides of the debate. I probably would lean towards Brady
Quinn a little bit more.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I mean, I will say this, Adam, who's to say
that's not gonna happen, especially if there's a program that
has high enough expectations. If you are I'm just I'll
say Florida State or something, Hey, I expectations coming into
the season.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Things obviously didn't go the way that you planned.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
After you at the big up at the start of
the year against Alabama, If you are a no doubt
first round, top ten pick or something like that, and
you saw by the time you got to early November
that this season was in the dumpster, it will not
surprise me at all in the next couple of years
of a guy that says, yeah, I know there's three
games left in the regular season, but I'm leaving now.
It's not a good sign to show to NFL teams.
(31:20):
You're basically quitting on your team at that point in
time as part of the interview process. Almost But if
you're talented enough, I mean, look at the guys who
can get drafted into the NFL, Guys who with all
the things that some of these guys have done, If
you're talented enough, note that's.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Not gonna matter.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah, talent over everything, that wouldn't be a concern or
the deciding factor for an NFL team, of course.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
So even taking the Bowl, if Bulls go away out
of that equation, I think that's probably something that's going
to come to a head at some point here in
the next couple of years.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
In the end, as much as we're bitching about bowls
and you know, getting after our member Barris here pretty
pretty hard. While it is the end of twenty twenty five,
in the end, do they really hurt any one by
continuing season. Maybe it's not like it used to be,
but it doesn't hurt anything. We still get our playoff.
(32:07):
We still get our bowl games. They're there if you
want them, that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
They're there if you want them, and plenty in between
six and eight million people apparently want them.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
I mean, one thing I've heard that I would want proposal.
I heard a couple of weeks ago that I actually
like that.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Some have come up with what if you took a
portion of the ball, because Petros brought this up to
us when we had them on our show. There's too
many baths, there's too many bowl games. There's not enough
good teams to fill the bowl games. So what I
would do is take some of these balls and move
them to the front of the season and have them
be like some part of like your college football kickoff
week or two weeks so whatever, and have these sponsorships
(32:41):
attached to these ball games at these neutral sites.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Maybe have a slotting system like you have now.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
The third ranked Big twelve team from the previous season
faces the third ranked SEC team from the previous season,
and they both play each other in the Sun Bowl.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Because the supply is supply and demand, the demand is
so high because people are just starved for college foot well,
they will take anything. At the beginning of the season right. Well,
now we're being more picky and chuesy because we actually
have a twelve team playoff and we're like, ah, these
bull games. I don't know, maybe maybe the milk's gone
bad here on some of these things.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
But if Tennessee and Illinois are playing each other in
mid August, You're like, oh my god, this could be great,
this could be a separator. This is like, these are
two I mean, solid programs in the in the Big ten,
in the SEC.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Who knows people are feeding for those games, like Michael
Urbans feeding to get that belt out, But it's a
good use. I was gonna say something else was feeding there.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
Well, yeah, look like he's a remember of jobasy the
ways out there taking his belt off and gyrating out
there on the sideline, just talking about feening.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
First of all, if I still have a six pack,
it's sixty or whatever he is, And that was showing
off tonight, like he could actually go out there and
wear that mid riff jersey that they all used to
wear and look pretty damn good. Michael Irwy's in great shape.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Ezekiel Elliott wishes he had that.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
That's Oh yeah, well, are you doing too much?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Eating. He's all eating.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Coming up next is FNA filling in for Ben Malor.
We do have a little bit of stranger than fiction
for you, an animal addition, And I know we're almost
out of twenty twenty five, but snakes aren't gonna be
left in twenty twenty five. They're not going extinct. They
will still be with us in twenty twenty six. Thanks. Well,
(34:23):
that have to be snakes. As to my Happy New Year, well,
well we can get into that coming up next, because
I will tell you how to navigate the situation with snakes,
especially in Florida, Florida, man everywhere, but also in Australia.
That's coming up next and Stranger than fiction as it's
FNA on FSR. I'm at Supulvida and Ventura come down
(34:45):
any day.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
FNA Cottonna Kevin figures out.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I'm also back with you guys, filling in for Big
Ben Malard here on Fox Sports Radio. Coming up next hour,
got a very important question for you guys, and you
could chime in on X I can't fig one and
that follow out and make and also check in at
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox as we headed
to the New year, what change would you make to
(35:10):
your favorite sport or any sport for that matter. You
give me a sport that you hate, and he's like,
you know what, I'm so damn tired of football. Why
don't they use their feet more? If they use their
feet more in football, damn it, I will love it
more and I would accept it.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Who is the guy on sixty minutes, Kevin that you
have referenced many times back in the day, was like,
why is a orange called an orange, but a banana
is a banana? Why don't they call it a yellow?
Speaker 2 (35:37):
I don't remember, that's right, ipund.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
It a little bit like that type of logic there
for a second, but I liked it.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, Like, hey, whatever works for you.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
That's not necessarily where I'm going with it, but just
to give you a very elementary example of where you
can go with it, there it is.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I'm going to make a change. The Clippers stopped losing.
Actually that's already happened.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Well, look at you, O.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Brie just rolled her eyes.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
What do they so they're only like, what thirteen games
under five hunds?
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Now?
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Right? Did you know Brie's still playing an ugly sweater contest?
And she has her Phoenix Sun sweater on tonight. B
you notice fighting words, Brie, Brie.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
By the way, you notice how he just glossed over
my Clippers record despite the fact that they.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Can thirteen games underth mind mind er, do you want
to keep we can just keep saying that all show
it's actually just ten to now, Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
I'm sorry, damn really closing in on the Utaw jazz there, Adam,
good job, guys.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
There's a lot of season left. Let me tell you something.
There's a lot of show left here too, But we
got to get to stranger things.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Fast food customer defending perticies n called nine one one
after her McDonald's run out of McNuggets.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Strange.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
You can't give a drunk man riding a horse at
ewy and he got Unlike cards, ardes don't have motors,
they have in mind in their own Strange things begin.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Twenty four year old man now Jusa.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
They're throwing an alligator through a drive through window. Strange, Okay,
it's stranger than fiction here. You know, in Australia they
get to the New Year before most anywhere else in
the world, as they're nineteen hours ahead of us. Here
on the West Coast in the United States. So they
(37:10):
have seen the future and it's apparently much more dangerous
than we could have ever imagined, not only because maybe
the world financial system is about to crash and only
Cooigne will be accepted and we're back to being subjects
of King Kanye West in twenty twenty six. Now that's
like a black Mirror episode I never need to see.
(37:31):
It's because animals appear to be getting more and more
threatening and dangerous as they become more comfortable with us humans.
So it's not all fun and games with the animal kingdom.
Like Jack Black and Paul Rudd running around with that
new Anaconda movie that's a comedy. Snakes, Why have to
(37:52):
be snakes? John Boyd didn't get swallowed, spit up and
then swallowed again for them to make Anaconta into a comedy.
All right, But speaking of the movies, I'm speaking of Kanye, Well,
there is Snakes on a Plane, and Kanye had his
own snakes on a Plane line in a song before.
Never seen snakes on a plane. There's snakes in a
(38:13):
Subaru in Australia. As this week there was a coastal
carpet python that took a magic carpet type of ride
as it attached itself to a family vehicle and the
stowaway snake traveled nine hours across Queensland from Toowoomba to
the Central Coast as it was hitching a ride like
(38:35):
Green Day on the fuel tank of the car. When
the family saw the three foot python underneath the chassis,
they pulled over at an Australian reptile park to have
a snake handler uncoil it. I'm just surprised they actually
have a reptile park. It seems redundant, Like, isn't Australia
just basically one big reptile park with dangerous animals everywhere?
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Oh yeah, if it's not the sharks, then the reptiles
will get you.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
I didn't know they needed parks or zoos there. The
whole continent is just that.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Well, the kangaroo will come and kick the crap out
of you too. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
The wild animal thing we got in San Diego has
nothing on Australia. Australian Reptile Park Head of Reptiles, though,
Dialon Wallace.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Dialon Dialond Dialond dialand dialand.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Said he's never seen a snake travel that distance before again.
Talk to Kanye about how far he went in that plane.
But you snake huggers out there, don't worry. It was
on the fuel tank, which means it was safe because
the elements weren't getting to it on its nine hour
trip across the country and the continent. And I guess
(39:41):
being close to the turning wheels created like a lot
of ventilation to keep the snake cool.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah, the snake was a python again and unfortunately they
just shipped its ass back to Queensland. It made that
nine hour trip and they just.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Said I came all the way this damn way for
nothing and he throw me your rat or something. At least,
jeez Bill.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
It took that trip for a reason. To the Central Coast.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I never thought that I'd be sympathizing with a freaking python,
but here I am.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
That snake. Want to see the beaches in the Central Coast, right,
They want a little vacation, little vaca. I wanted to
slither on the beaches, looking at the beaches, checking out
the honeys there.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
I always get worried about a python getting flushed down
the toilet in my apartment complex, and then I'm sitting
there and it goes through the pipes.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
And I did see win animals attack situation years ago,
when I've been haunted by that ever since.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
So yes, I'm right there with you.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Things I probably have no that don't necessarily have to
be paranoid about, but I most definitely am.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
If I lived in Australia. Instead of one of those
bumper stickers that said, you know when cat haters have
one that says, can't find your cat, check under my tire,
I'd say, if you can't find your pet python, seriously,
just check under your tire. It might be there. On
a nine hour road trip. They attached them selves there.
He's getting figures. I'm I'm Moslin. It's FNA in for
Ben Mallor here on Fox Sports Radio
Host
Ben Maller
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