Meyer Moves On

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Ben Maller Show podcast.
It's me Ben. Be sure to catch us live every
weeknight from two to six Eastern eleven pm the three
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(00:25):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Let's go my final
night getting to sit in for Big Ben Maller here
on Fox Sports Radio. My name is Chris Plank. Thanks
so much for tuning in. And here's what sucks about
it for me personally. I finally got my sleep schedule

(00:47):
figured out. It took four shows, a myriad of bribes
to my children to having to shut the hell up
A kidding, I love my kids, kind of, but I
finally got to figure it out. I feel like this
is the start of the day. I feel like you're
supposed to feel at eight am or seven am, whenever

(01:09):
normal people start their work day. I finally got this
sleep thing figured out for an overnight show, and then
I probably won't do it again for a while. So
I guess that's how it works right. Once you finally
figure something out, Once you finally I guess, quote unquote
get it, you don't really get to use it. It's

(01:30):
the beginning of another Ben Miller's show with hot takes everywhere.
We've got Coope back tonight. He's taking your calls at
eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox. Eddie will join us,
coming up in Just a Bid Eddie Garcia on updates
all night long, Aunt Antonio Brown Watch, and of course,
after our New Year's Eve extravaganza last night, we're Berto

(01:52):
Flores back on the wheels of Steel this evening, where
we will continue to pump you full of information attainment. Tonight, well,
it's the end kind of of the bowl season as
we kick things off talking about probably passion one or
one a in my sports bucket, if you will. I'm
a big college football fan. Part of it I live

(02:14):
in a college football town. But most of it is
just because I think it's entertaining. I think you constantly
get storylines and people lose their ever loving mind because
they treat it as if they have an ownership stake
in every single team. Either they went to school there,
or they buy tickets, or they're a donor, or they're

(02:36):
just a fan who because of X or Y, they
deserve all the wind. Oh, we're the greatest tradition ever.
So college football to me, and this day has always
been sacred. Now, the four team playoffs sometimes the NFL
having games on January one has started to skew the

(02:56):
excitement away from January first. But two time honored traditions
played out to absolute perfection in the Bull world today.
Number One, bonehead decisions by coaches who maybe struggle with

(03:16):
the time off as much as players do. We'll get
to Chris Peterson and James Franklin coming up in just
a bit, And I honestly I don't know how that
affected the world, the gambling world, but it had to
be two of the Do we use the word soft
around here a lot? I have one of my buddies
who everything is soft to him, so it just seemed

(03:38):
very sharman soft the decisions at Chris Peterson and James
Franklin made in their respective Bull games. But that, to me,
that's not the time honored tradition that we need to
start with tonight. The time honored tradition for quote unquote
blue bloods are even just college football teams who consistently

(04:00):
find themselves in bowl games. That constant storyline comes in
the form of the excuse. And as I've learned from
listening to this program, as Big Bin likes to say,
the best story is always in the losing locker room. Well,
the losing locker room is one that a lot of

(04:21):
times fans like to say, not really that big of
a deal because they weren't in the big game. Allow
me to give you exhibit A the Sugar Bowl. I
don't know if you caught this, but that Georgia, that
vaunted Georgia football team who belonged in the four team playoff,

(04:43):
who took to Twitter after less than competitive playoff games
last week, who took to Twitter when they were left
out of the playoffs and showed their frustration, vented, laughed, mocked,
Well they got their asses kick tonight smoked. You might say, well,

(05:04):
I don't know a game you watched, plank, but the
final score didn't necessarily indicate a team that got blown out.
I would challenge to say that, I think you've just
looked at the box score. Texas dominated Georgia tonight, the
team that was supposed to be the fourth team in
the team that Kirk curb Street apparently. I don't know

(05:25):
what's going on between he and the Georgia Bulldog fans
and the coaching I don't know, but that was that
was his love interest heading down the stretch this year.
They got destroyed tonight, dismantled by a middle of the
road Texas team. And I say that with love, horn fan,
because you know that trajectory is just going up. But

(05:47):
an SEC team falling short in the bowl game isn't
the story here. A Big twelve team winning in the
Sugar Bowl isn't the story here? Oh no, no, no,
it's it's that time honored tradition and llege football where
the losing team that losing maybe locker room. You know,
it's not from the coaches. Well you know, it's just

(06:08):
a we didn't have that same care. We weren't in
the playoffs, so it didn't matter as much to us.
You already see the narrative shaping from college football analyst
who so badly need to be right to stroke their
very very sensitive egos that they're they'll throw that out

(06:30):
there in just absolute boatloads. Oh well, you know, I
understand Georgia getting beat because they really expected to be
in the playoffs, and when they didn't get there, you know,
probably didn't have that same energy. Really. I mean, I've
always thought, if you want to prove people wrong, if

(06:51):
you want to show people that either you deserve the
promotion or you deserve the opportunity, here are we Jever
way you guys want to describe it. You go out
and you bust your backside and you get it done
in a way that just blows everybody's mind, and they're
left with no other choice but to say, Wow, that

(07:15):
was awesome. That person deserved that either promotion or job
or in this instance, that opportunity. I still don't understand,
and it doesn't happen for a lot of teams, but
for some reason in the world of college football, we
tend to skew these excuses towards the Southeastern Conference when
they don't play well in a bowl, when they get

(07:36):
beat ah, well you know that wasn't a big game,
so that doesn't really matter to them. I'll never understand it.
I never will. And they don't even get me started
on UCF. LSU basically had one of its best players
on defense, one Devin White, and my gosh, he was awesome.

(07:57):
If the Oakland Raiders don't take Devin White four, I
may I may have to throw myself off a cliff.
I don't really want to, so please John Gruden, Mike
Mayock do the right thing. But here's a golden opportunity.
Even though a UCF team is playing without their best player,
their quarterback, You're playing an LSU team that has what

(08:20):
three guys that have already moved on a couple of suspensions,
maybe in their injuries excuse me not suspensions, and then
as the game gets going, they lose another one of
their cornerbacks to an ejection. So here's UCF, whose athletic
director has taken the incredibly arrogant stance of saying, well,

(08:40):
I am sorry. We are the UCF Golden Knights. We
don't do two for ones with Florida, and you have
every chance in the world to basically slay a giant
if you will again and you lose. He get beat
in a game in which I don't think the final
score was indicative of how give a blow out of was.

(09:00):
They showed some heart late, kind of like Oklahoma, but
if it wasn't for a pick six early in that game.
Who And yet I guess I don't understand this, and
maybe it's something that I should embrace by now. Boy,
we really like tearing down the goalpost early in games.
We really like claiming how right we are about five
minutes into the first quarter, first quarter. I like to

(09:23):
call it the Arnie span your effect. It's like a rest.
I'm a big wrestling fan, right, and in wrestling, usually
the guy that's going to get smoked will have this
early assault and the announcers will be saying something along lines, oh,
the Brooklyn brawlers got him here tonight, and then two
seconds later he's pinned. That's kind of what Twitter is like.

(09:44):
Early in games. I told you guys UCF belonged, looked
her up ten in the first quarter, and they get smoked.
I don't get it. I'll never understand it. But that
time tradition f well, you know, they kind of thought
that they belonged in the playoffs, so maybe they didn't

(10:05):
have that same umph. I'll never get it. I'll never
understand it. To me, in life, you prove others wrong
by absolutely knocking it out of the park when you
get that opportunity, and if you make excuses for them
when they don't like Georgia did not tonight, like UFCI, UFC,
like UCF didn't this morning, Well sorry, you didn't deserve it.

(10:29):
And then there is a part of me who has
to completely and totally go hypocritical on this and maybe
even look at it from a fairly natural perspective, which is,
can we really, though, put too much on a bull
game to begin with? Find me another sport that finishes
its regular season, maybe has a championship game, and then

(10:51):
waits thirty days to play its championship. It doesn't happen.
It doesn't happen in the NFL, It doesn't happen in baseball,
it doesn't happen in basketball, doesn't happen in hockey. I
don't know. I don't follow soccer too much, so I
don't know if there's a league overseas where it happens.
So there's always that delicate balance where do we overanalyze

(11:13):
the bull season anyway? All convoluted topics that will dive
into tonight here on the Ben Mallor Show. But ladies
and gentlemen, we have controversy, and we have the return
of the true. In my opinion, Star of this program,
Eddie Garcia, Happy New Year, Eddie. Did you and the
wife enjoy New Year's Eve off? Yes? Question Mark, I'm

(11:36):
Ron Burgundy. Um. First of all, thank you very much
for that amazing introduction. I can't wait for bending get
back to completely blow those those ideas out of the water.
But no, I mean, I gotta be honest. My father
in law fell on New Year's Eve and was in
the hospital, so it was not a he's doing well,

(12:00):
they're going to release from the hospital tomorrow. But it
was not a great New Year's Eve for me and
the missus unfortunately. But thank you for asking. So let's
let's just pay play hypothetical here, Eddie. If you were
still scheduled to come in and we were going to
do a CNN type New Year's Eve show and just
get hammered on the air, you probably would have had

(12:21):
to take the night off anyway, right, I probably would
have asked for the night of day. Yes, yes, well
that stinks. There's nothing well, I mean, I hope and
I'm glad. I assume Karen's dad is okay. Question Mark. Yeah,
it looks like it looks like he's gonna be okay. Yeah,
But it's it's always unfortunate whenever you have that night

(12:43):
off and then lo and behold, something happens to where
you say, oh, I mean, I wouldn't have been able
to work anyway. So do you put too much in
the bowl season? Do you sit around, do you plan
the whole day around it? Or no? It depends. It's
some of these early bowl games I wouldn't watch for
any reason whatsoever. I have no interest in the great
majority of the bowl games. But New Year's Day is

(13:05):
definitely a day where I plan to just sit and
watch the games. I mean, I'm kind of a college
football traditional fan. The Rose Bowl, you know, the Sugar Bowl.
Those bowl games still mean something to me, even though
they're not necessarily involved. You know, this year in the
in the playoffs. So yeah, I mean, I definitely enjoyed
all the football games, even like Kentucky, I thought it

(13:27):
was a cool story this year. I enjoyed watching that game.
I was kind of rooting against UCF. So I enjoyed
all the games. Today New Year's Day as a day, Yes,
I will sit down and I will watch those bowl games.
I found myself rooting against UCF too. I don't know
what's wrong with me? I mean, I usually love the
good little underdog story. But man, as soon as UCF
start jumped out on top, I think it was what

(13:47):
ten zip in one point, maybe even seven zero, and
oh my gosh, I told you they belonged in the playoff.
It's the first quarter, you know. I know this sounds crazy,
but we have four quarter games and this isn't any
revelation anyone. So we'll more about the bullseason. But Eddie,
the floor is yours when we come back, because there
is major drama playing out for your Pittsburgh Steelers, and

(14:08):
I mean, we need to get to the bottom of it.
And Coope. By the way, there's some major drama playing
out in Denver right now with the Broncos. So I
gotta figure out are you are you guys on the
verge of bringing back Mike Shanahan. This is real life
apparently that this is taking place according to reports out

(14:29):
of Denver. And then I'm afraid to talk about the
Raiders with Roberto because we did so much last night.
I basically got death threats on Twitter. How dare I?
How dare I talk about the Raiders whenever they just
hired a general manager yesterday. Oh the outrage. It's all
coming up and coming at you on a busy edition
of the Ben Mallers Show right here on Fox Sports Radio.

(14:50):
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Ali from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios in for
Ben Maller, it's Chris Plank. Fair question here on Twitter

(15:15):
from Ernie who writes Plank with this being the last
night filling it for Big Ben with the Mallard militia,
have you upgraded your six pack of PBR? Also watch
out for those mascots out there. No, no, no, it's
it's the same rule. Anytime I fill in on the
Overnight show, there are two energy drinks or a six
pack of PBR, And depending on how the first hour goes,

(15:38):
either one gets saved for later or one gets taken
care of over the next So far it's just been
energy drinks. I mean, so that that's a good sign
right so far. And then by the way, Matt brought
this up, and I probably should have opened with this tonight.
But like I said, I've been on a bowl game
high And by the way, I'm starting to believe more

(15:58):
and more that nobody likes themselves more than people who
cover college football. I mean why, I mean maybe sports
radio host would be one a to that man. How
dare you ever question someone who covers college football's opinion
on anything? Oh? Look out. But with that said, it
has been a heavy night. It's been a sad night.

(16:20):
And Matt Wrights, guys, I hope you can mention Tyler
Trent on your show. Make sure the people from Purdue
know the entire country is thinking and praying for them.
If if you need a good cry, if you, I
can't think of any other way to put it. We
all need a good sports cry every now and then,
or even in this instance, a real life one. Go

(16:40):
read Greg Doyle's common column from the Indianapolis Star on
the time that he spent with Tyler Trent over the
last year, maybe maybe longer than that. For Greg Doyle,
and of course Greg Doyle, I think he'd been on
many platforms during his time as a writer. This might
be some of his best work. And for those that
aren't from filiar with this story, he became the produced

(17:03):
super fan he al right, shouldn't say became, It had
always been a produced super fan. Was infected with cancer, battle,
it fought, it gained notoriety, got on a national stage,
pushed for a cure, fought, and he lost his battle
at the age of twenty today. So Matt, I appreciate
you bringing that up. Rest in peace, Tyler Training. Yeah.

(17:23):
For those of you that are Produce fans or Big
ten or in Indiana in general, we are thinking of
you tonight on this sad story. So there's no real
easy way to transition from that. So I'll just use
the magic of audio as we shift from the Bowl
season for about ten minutes to talk about some good
old fashioned NFL controversy. What happened in practice on Wednesday

(17:46):
that set this off. Well, that's the kind of baffling
thing to me is people are making a big deal
about a walk through on Wednesday, that there was a
blow up, a fight between between he and I. I
don't know anything about that. If there was a blow
up or it's been Roethlisberger from earlier today, Eddie Garcia,
I don't know if you all are aware of this

(18:07):
is quite the Pittsburgh Steelers fan. So I don't know
what to make of this mess. I think we danced
around it and talked through it in about twelve thousand
different ways in scenarios last night. Big Ben's now claiming
I have no knowledge of a blow up. There's about
sixteen different reports out there from he's asked to be
traded too. He wants to be traded to he's mad

(18:29):
about Levy on Bell. I mean, financially, he can't get traded.
I mean, I don't know any other way to put that.
He's not getting traded. He's not getting cut, period. So
what do we make, Eddie, of what's going on with
Antonio Brown, Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers right now? I
don't know, and I don't know what he's upset about.
To be honest with you, it's not I understand. He's

(18:50):
the you know, stereotypical diva wide receiver and he wants
the ball on every play, although that's completely unrealistic. But
it's not like they don't arguet him all the time
and As a matter of fact, I think you can
legitimately criticize the Steelers and their offensive coordinator and Ben
Roethlisbergerfy're trying to force the ball to him when he's
not open now sometimes, and I think he's the best

(19:12):
wide receiver in the NFL. Sometimes he will make great
catches even when he is covered. So maybe in his
mind it's just always throw it up to me and
I'll and you know it's I've got a better chance
of making a good play than throwing it to somebody else.
But he gets double teamed all the time, and understandably,
so he's one of the best. I don't think anyone
can argue he's not one of the best wide receivers
in the NFL, one of the best big play players

(19:34):
in the NFL. And so when he gets doubled, most
of the time, they're going to throw to guys that
were single covered, And for him not to understand that
is I guess it's just that's the way it's got
to be. When you're a diva wide receiver, you've got
to complain, you've got to cry about always wanting the ball,
you're not getting the ball enough. When the team doesn't
perform up to expectations because you're not getting the ball enough.

(19:55):
So as I mean, as a fan, I'm willing to
put up with a lot of things when it comes
to talented players, right, of course, I'm willing to put
up with just you know, okay, the remember you had
the live video from the locker room. Remember that a
couple of years back during a post game after a game,
he's live videoing from the locker room. Okay, fine, I

(20:17):
wish he wouldn't do it, but whatever, I really think
he cares more about what his next end zone dance
is going to be than you know, whether his teammates
have any success or not. I mean, there's a lot
of things he does that you just kind of shake
your head at. But okay, he's talented. You put up
with it. But you can't put up with him blowing
off meetings, blowing off walkthroughs, not you know, showing up

(20:39):
for practice if if that happened, and so I mean,
if I don't know what you do, Yeah, you get
to sit him down and talk to him and tell
him listen, aren't you smart enough to understand you can't
get the ball in every play? But he's almost like
a cartoon character, you know what I mean, he's at
this point, he's too talented. He's talking about the contract.
That can't trade him. You don't want to trade one
of these elite players. But I mean, you can't have

(21:00):
a guy like that just say I'm gonna do whatever
I want. And so, I mean he didn't play in
the game. I'm assuming because of what happened at whatever
it was in practice and him not showing up. And
I brought up several different scenarios. The one that stood
out to me, Eddie is how does this even get out?
You know who leaks this? Because I don't think everyone

(21:21):
just got together and said, hey, let's make up a
story about Antonio Brown in a fighting practice. This got
out in some way, shape or form. So who feeds
that to the media. I don't know. I really have
no idea, but this is this. This whole season with
the Steelers has been one giant soap opera, and as

(21:43):
a fan of the team, I am just ready for
this season too. I mean, it's obviously over now, but
it's like I'm I just don't even want to I
just want them to shut up and come back next
year and hopefully have a better season. But do you
blame Mike Tomlin for any of this? Is? No, No,
I don't, I really don't. But I know I'm probably
in the minority because a lot of Steeler fans, at
least the vocal ones I shouldn't say, maybe a lot

(22:05):
of Steeler fans, but the ones on social media, they
want him fired. And we know that's not going to happen. Uh.
And he doesn't have any control of the locker room.
Uh is some of the criticism. And look, I know
he's not necessary. He's a player's coach. He's certainly not
Tom Coughlin or somebody like that. But who if you're
telling me if Bill Belichick was coaching Antonio Brown, would

(22:28):
he be acting any differently? I don't know. Maybe they
wouldn't have signed him to an extension, maybe they would
have let him go somewhere else. But Antonio Brown's gonna
act like this no matter who his coaches. That's that's
because that's who he is. It's kind of the receiver
position is. Yeah, you get you get to where you're
getting paid as a receiver, man, you're you're If you
don't get the ball every single play, you're gonna throw

(22:49):
a fit. I there's a cliche, isn't it. Really? Yeah,
tow me the ball every single time that I'm open
or I'm going to be mad about it, even though
you might be under pressure or things might not be
going well with maybe I drop a few balls. Here's
here's the bottom line in all of this? Well, I
actually I say the bottom line, Eddie, I don't know

(23:11):
if there is a bottom line in all of this?
Is there? Because I don't think anything's gonna get resolved
this offseason. The dude has a contract that doesn't have
a potential out until twenty twenty one. If he's on
the roster for the Steelers this year in twenty nineteen,
it cost him twenty two point one million dollars. If
he's not, it costs him twenty one point one million dollars.

(23:32):
He's not going anywhere. And you mentioned him being upset
about Leveon Bell. Why what is I mean? How is
that on anyone else other than Leveon Bell. He didn't
want to play because he didn't want to get hurt
it wants to get a big contract, So he's if
he's mad at Leveon Bell, why would that Why would
that come back against the Steelers. I don't I don't.

(23:52):
I don't get that at all, eight seven, seven ninety
nine on Fox. Let's get after at eight seven seven
nine ninety six, six three six nine. We had good
discussions about this last night, some theorizing that maybe it's
the drama or the paranoia from Antonio Brown because of
Juju coming up and because of maybe not being in
his mind as involved as he was in the offense.

(24:12):
Even here is somethink it's paranoia from Ben Roethlisberger that's
feeding this story out there. We'll talk about it more
in depth as the show rolls on here on Fox
Sports Radio, but live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios.
He's spitting opinions on the Steelers and also the latest news.
What's going on Eddie Garcia. Let's start with the college
football New Year's Day Bowl games. We had some very

(24:32):
interesting matchups, including the Sugar Bowl, where Texas had a
strong showing, beating Georgia twenty twenty one in a game
that really wasn't as close as that scuore might indicate.
The Longhorns knocking off the fifth rank Bulldogs, who some
people felt should have been in the college Football Playoff,
but they didn't look like a playoff team against Texas.
Quarterback Sam Elliger for the Longhorns had three rushing touchdowns

(24:52):
in the win at the Rose Bowl. In the final
game for Urban Meyer as Buckeyes head coach, Ohio State
goes out with a twenty twenty three win over Washton.
Quarterback Dwayne Haskins four Ohio State had three touchdown passes
in the win. Fiesta Bowl, LSU beat UCF forty to
thirty two. Joe Borrow four touchdown passes for LSU for
Central Florida, their twenty five game winning streak comes to

(25:12):
an end. Central Florida Kentucky excuse me, Central Florida Citrus
Bowl Kentucky beats Penn State twenty seven twenty four. Wildcats
maybe finished their best season ever, ten win season for
the first time since nineteen seventy seven, and then cap
it off with the Bowl win. Running Back Benny Snell
Junior had a two touchdown runs and became the school's
all time leading rusher in the process. And the Outback

(25:33):
Bowl was Iowa holding off Mississippi State twenty seven to
twenty two. So ny BA games of note the Raptors
beat the Jazz one twenty two to one. Sixteen Toronto
with the twenty eight eleven record, the most wins in
the NBA. Kawhi Leonard a career high forty five points
for Toronto on the eve of his return to San Antonio.
Nuggets beat the Next one fifteen to one oh eight
Dead Runell a half game up on Golden State for

(25:53):
the top record in the West at twenty four and eleven,
and these sixers win in LA with the Clippers one
nineteen to one. The support brought to you by Truecar.
Online car shopping can be confusing, but not anymore. With
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to Chris Blank and the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios.

(26:14):
Thanks Eddie, and I guess maybe for me, I'm perplexed
by as we're talking about the Antonio Brown situation, which
again for me personally, on this show, I feel like
that we spent the better part of what would you say,
Roberto half the show last night between calls and different
opinions on this talking about talking about this when when
we had Bowl games to get two and bowl games

(26:35):
to preview. And I honestly think it's one of the
more intriguing stories beyond the coaching carousel right now in
the NFL. And then Eddie Matthew on Twitter just hit
us at m marin eleven fifty four and I didn't
even realize this. He was the number third number what
is the number third? He was the ranked number three

(26:55):
in most targets. Juju was number four in the NFL.
If this is about wanting more targets than being the
third most targeted receiver, that's kind of crazy. But here's
the thing is, he's not really talking right now. All
of these reports aren't coming from him. I dug and
dug and dug throughout the night because you know, you

(27:17):
can fall down the proverbial report hole. And the report
that Antonio Brown wants to be traded, follow that bad
boy and see where it gets you. You know Antonio
Brown has requested to be traded, Well, it's it basically
came from him yelling I'm done. That's it. Because Jason Lockinford,

(27:41):
we've referred to his report a couple of times. He
said that he has requested a trade, but then softened
it a little bit, saying, I'm told it was not
a demand, but he was asked to be dealt. Very
unlikely Rooney would capitulate that deal. That's a fancy way
to say that he would have Hello San Francisco or Oakland. Right,

(28:04):
But Brown has issues with Tomlin and Ben Roethlisberger and
feels like the coach is to align with the quarterback.
So again, here's even a oh, yeah, he's asked to
be traded, and then it's kind of softened a little bit, say, well,
you know, it's not necessarily a demand. It's still kind
of just a request. But yet nobody from Antonio Brown's

(28:26):
camp is saying anything. So do we put all of
our eggs into this report from locking for his basket, Eddie,
or do we think that in time the Rooney family
can work through this and work it out. Well, I
just I go back to my original comment. Why does
he want to be traded? I don't get it. He's
playing on a pretty good team with a pretty good quarterback,

(28:48):
and as you said, he's getting the ball, he's what
is it he wants? I don't know the question. It's
a fair question, and if he thinks that a coach
is too aligned with a quarterback, So you want to
go somewhere and start fresh in a locker room where
maybe I mean, everyone has coaches that they've played for

(29:10):
war that they've worked around before Eddie. But you want
to go somewhere and start fresh and just expect everything
to be revolving around you. I had a coach one time,
tell me a current receiver in the NFL. Let's say
that he may or may not have played for the
greatness of the Raiders, and he had coached him in
college and a pretty well known name. I don't want

(29:32):
to throw the coach under the bus, but he said,
he is the greatest guy to coach on the planet
as long as he's getting the football thrown his way.
And it might even be a series where he wasn't
necessarily open. But if they don't try to get him
the football, he becomes a massive malcontent. And I said,
can you not mention him or kind of try to

(29:52):
get in his head? And the coach's point was, he's
too good. He's too good. You can't you can't try
to call these guys down. It's this competitive nature in
which they feel like they need the ball in their
hands all the time, and as receivers, they know that
it's just not possible unless the quarterback looks their way.
So I don't know if that's part of this here
in which he sees all right, I got a guy
below me that's getting the fourth most targets in the NFL,

(30:15):
and I'm at three and he's getting a little bit
more credit. And maybe he's teacher's pet right now. I
don't know. I don't know. It's just it's a crazy
story to kick off the offseason in the NFL, and
to me, I don't see an end in sight outside
of just everybody kind of putting their arms back together,
arms back together, putting their arms around each other, Eddie

(30:36):
and saying, listen, we got to work through this because
the way this is the fun thing about the NFL.
Maybe not fun is the best word, the confusing thing
about the NFL, which makes all this talk of trade him,
cut him, get him out of here. He's a malcontent.
He's the best receiver in the NFL. And I know
we can debate. Julio Jones is up there. You know,

(30:58):
there's Aj Green and he's healthy. Is up there. Michael
Thomas has proven to be one hell of a receiver.
I think Mike Evans is an underrated guy. But there's
certain things that you work through with Antonio Brown that
you're probably not going to work through for say, oh,
I don't know, Seth Roberts. You know you're going to
be willing to accept certain things. And the dude is

(31:20):
due twenty two million dollars. So with that said, you
can't just cut him. You can't trade him unless you
find somebody that's going to be willing to swallow the
massive number. And even if you do trade him, you
still are punished because of his contract with twenty one

(31:41):
million dollars in dead money twenty one mill, not five,
not six, not even ten, twenty one. So if you're
all riled up tonight, which I don't, Eddie, I don't
see you as a guy that says, go trade him, right,
because you know that's not gonna happen. I'm not getting
that sense from you here this evening, I guess is
what I'm saying. Right, All I'll say is this, Like

(32:01):
I said, I'm willing to put up with a lot
of stuff with diva players because they're special players, and
if they want to act this way, fine, but what
do you do with a player who and we've seen
it with allegedly Kawhi Leonard in the NBA Leveon Bell
with the Steelers, if they decide they just don't want
to play anymore, they just don't want to follow the rules,
what do you do with a guy like that? Right?
I mean, how can you? How can you? Truly? You

(32:24):
know Arnie Spanner, whom I do a show with every
Sunday night. His theory is, if you're mad and you
don't want to play, you just go out and fake
an injury. So the next time, if if Antonio Brown
wants to try to prove the Steelers wrong, then whenever
they have offseason activities he skips them. And then when
the season starts, it's, oh, my own my hamstring. You know,

(32:46):
those types of different things, which again I find ludicrous,
but this story is crazy amongst itself. And then you know,
you have the you have the people that say the
Steelers could be and what the NFL would term hot
why because of the way that they phrased the injury report.
Though I don't think the NFL at will ask for
X rays or MRI's to try to prove that Antonio

(33:09):
Brown had a knee injury and this just wasn't merely
a disciplinarian a discipline issue. So it's quite the story.
It's just getting started. We'll talk about it more in
depth tonight. We'll hear from Ben Roethlisberger and try to
find ways in which they can fix this. But when
we come back to the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios,
I laid out the time a tradition to kick off

(33:30):
the show of college football analysts, college football writers trying
to point out that X team loss because they were
disappointed that they didn't get into the playoffs, so they
don't play with that same fire and that same intensity.
It's a time honored tradition, guys in the sport of
college football. But there was time honored tradition Part two

(33:51):
that played out with Penn State and Washington. We'll get
to it next. I'm Chris Plank and for Ben Maller
on Fox Sports Radio on the Ben Mallor Show, specialized
in sarcasm, snark, and satire, all things needed to survive
the shady late night characters on Twitter. Let your thoughts
be heard, but the masses under the cover of the
microblogging website and follow the man in for Ben Maller.

(34:12):
That would be Chris Planky. Is at Plank Show. Edie
can tweet at and follow me Eddie Garcia, I'm at
Eddie on Fox. No play for mister gray Yeah, Adam Divinitary,
did you see? Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe that
I saw a gray Beard on Adam Vinitary and Ali
from the Ico Fox Sports Radio studios in for Ben
Mallor it's Chris Plank. You know. That's the one thing

(34:34):
that I kind of regret. We didn't have a chance,
and we still have three hours tonight. Maybe we'll get
into it later, but the playoffs are still compelling to
me in the NFL right now. Legitimately, Eddie look at
all eight of the teams playing this weekend and confined
a way to justify them winning and moving on and
maybe even challenging beyond that. So I and also I

(34:58):
think that I went and oracles on this last night.
It had to be enraging to the die hard fans.
But I kind of think the Chiefs are the biggest
hurdle for the All right, did I say the Chiefs?
I kind of need. The Chargers are the biggest hurdle
for the Chiefs potentially in their second round game. But
yet I feel like we're sleeping on Baltimore. But then

(35:20):
every time I feel like we're sleeping on Baltimore, Eddie,
I think like we're getting a little too carried away
about Lamar Jackson, who hasn't really been forced to do
too terribly much yet. So I've talked to myself in
circles on this bad boy right now. Yeah, the Ravens
are certainly interesting. I mean, but if they fall behind,
they're dead. You know, that's to see it. If they

(35:43):
fall behind there, they're going to lose. But as long
as they can run the ball and stay in it,
and they've got that incredible kicker and keep it close,
then they're they're probably gonna be in every game with
that deepens. But I mean, they could have lost that game.
He's Cleveland. They if that touchdown fumble isn't called, then
they return that score. I mean, Cleveland could have really
won that game and they'd be outside looking in. So

(36:05):
it's I agree with you, it's it's it's intriguing. It's
hard to put a finger on, but I think in
the end, I think it's going to be a really
really great wild Card weekend at two. So hopefully we'll
have some time next hour to get into it, because
I'm just We're kicking off next hour Coop with a
complete breakdown of what's going on in Denver right now,

(36:25):
So get your notes together for me. I've got to
figure out are you training for John Harball or are
we going to bring back Mike Shanahan. I'm still speaking
of nine lives. Please tell me y'all saw where Vance
Joseph is interviewing today. He's on his way to Cincinnati

(36:45):
to interview. After that, after that Rally the Troops postgame
show in which vanceage our postgame comment in What's Vance
Joseph said, You know what all I really do is
just make sure I get out of bed every morning.
Thanks Vance. That's really firing us up. Time on a
tradition in the Bowl season. We talked about it earlier,

(37:07):
making excuses for teams you picked as to why they lost,
especially when they get upset Allah Georgia tonight and maybe
to a lesser extent UCF this morning. But man, poor
coaching sure does seem to take the reins quite a
bit whenever it comes to the bowl season. I don't
know if we'll have time for both of them here

(37:28):
in this segment, but let's at least start with the
granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl, which seemed like
a one sided blowoff, blow off blowout as ESPN did
its best to really build up the incredible career of
urban Meyer. Now we'll talk about this later because I'm

(37:50):
not one of those it feels like you need to
just act in disgust every time he mentioned urban Meyer's name.
There's some people on this magical ride that is social
media that feels as if every time you cover an
Ohio State game that urban Meyer's name is mentioned and
you're just supposed to turn and shame him shame. I

(38:10):
don't think that's necessarily the case. But beyond that, it
seemed as if Ohio State was on their way to
an absolute route of Washington. But the Huskies showed some heart,
battle back scratched and Claude had an opportunity late to
cut it to three with a two point conversion, but
of course that failed, couldn't recover the onside kick game over.

(38:32):
But um, something a little bit more concerning to me happened,
and Chris Peterson I still consider to be one of
the best coaches in college football. But the decision that
Chris Peterson made to punt on fourth down with six

(38:53):
minutes to go after taking a time out is still
one of the more heads scratching calls I think we've
seen in college football. Not to be outdone by James Franklin.
And we don't have time here in this segment, but
you're Washington. You've got nothing to lose in this game.
You're already trailing. You've shown some heart in fighting to

(39:16):
get back in this game. I mean you were, you
were left for dead down twenty eight to three in
the third quarter. You have put together quite the rally.
It is fourth down and there's six me Now, granted
you're deep in your own territory. You're deep in your
own territory, but you're gonna, You're gonna, You're gonna punt

(39:38):
and give them the ball back. Almost worked out, but
by the time you got the football back, you'd blown
all your time out. You go down the field and
you score, but you don't have an opportunity to get
them back. Some would argue and say, well, you're too
deep in your own territory. You can't risk it. If
you don't get that fourth down, you have no chance.
Fair enough, but very odd, very odd, Chris Peterson not

(40:05):
only taking the time out before the fourth down with
six minutes to go, but also to punt because you think,
you take the time out, you talk about it, you
get your best play together, you go out, you pick
up the fourth down. And we're not talking about fourth
and fifteen here. So one interesting coaching decision, the second
from Penn State will get to next hour, plus the

(40:26):
latest on the Broncos coaching search. Next Chris Plank and
for Ben Maller on Fox. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am
Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app. Oh, we've got a bevy of openings in
the NFL to talk about, including the Broncos coop. Will

(40:48):
give us the scoop coming up in just a bit,
It's another hour of the Ben Maller's Show. I'm Chris Plank,
sitting in from the Getico Fox Sports Radio Studios and
is always your calls at eight seven, seven ninety nine
on Fox seven seven nine nine, six six three six nine.
Not only is Coope back, Eddie Gars see it in
the house, and Roberto Flores on the wheels of steel.

(41:09):
Let me real quick, just just wrap this up, because
we're getting on coaches, and I understand that there could
be a little bit of back and forth on the
decision by Chris Peterson to punt because they were deep
in their own territory. But you're you gotta remember, I
come from the mindset of Madden. Everyone has a play
for a fourth and long, you gotta do it, and

(41:29):
you're fighting an uphill climb anyway. Thankfully, urban Meyer went
very conservative with the offense and Washington was able to
get the football back and nearly nearly pull this bad
boy off. Same can't be said for atrocious coaching decision
Numero uno on the night as we talked to bowl
season in the VRBO Citrus Bowl, James Franklin, whom has

(41:55):
been elevated into elite status by the butt kissing college
ball reporters here in my beloved sport. I mean, come on,
he'll give you a quote, he'll talk to anybody, so
he's the greatest thing ever. That's kind of how this
thing goes. If a coach talks to a media member,
he's the greatest thing. Ever. I'm guilty of this. I'm

(42:16):
absolutely guilty of this. But in the same vein, I
don't go over the top whenever things don't go so well.
For instance, this season should have ended better for Penn
State than the Citrus Bowl if only James Franklin hadn't
called the worst fourth down play in the history of
college football against Ohio State. There have been bad decisions

(42:40):
on fake punts. What James Franklin did on fourth down
against Ohio State absolutely hands down the worst. He topped
it a bit. Tonight, ben State made heck of a rally.
They were down twenty seven to seven to Kentucky in
the third quarter, cut it after two straight touchdowns to
twenty seven to twenty one. They drive to the Wildcat's
fourteen yard line. It was fourth and seven with just

(43:02):
over four minutes left in the game. They were roland
even though trace McSorley was playing with the broken foot.
James Franklin decided to kick the field goal and gave
the ball right back to his opponent, who had the lead.
Pinn State cut the deficit to three, but they gave
the ball back to Kentucky and never got it back.

(43:23):
The Wildcats picked up two first downs before Pinn State
finally stopped them because James Franklin had to use up
all his timeouts. Wei said, didn't get it back. They
didn't get it back with much time left, and there
was no chance, no chance for Pinn State to get
it done. So questionable coaching, along with excusinator two thousand,

(43:43):
along with really, when all is said and done, some
pretty bad matchups, highlight what has been a less than
stellar bowl season. And that oh, that narrative that they just, oh,
they don't care, they don't care if they're not playing
of the championship game, they don't care. That's just that's
the dumbest thing I've ever heard, and the fact that
people continue to spew it is crazy to me. I'm

(44:05):
not saying that the energy is as amped if you're
playing for a Sugar Bowl as it is for the
four team playoff, but isn't that the same for both teams?
Wouldn't that be the same for just about everybody in
college football. We'll get to Urban Meyer coming up in
just a bit. There are eight eight vacancies currently in

(44:26):
the National Football League one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
You have Tampa who acts dirt Cutter. You have the
New York Jets, who acts Todd Bulls. Cleveland and Green
Bay already had their guys cut before the season started,
and then of course Miami Cincinnati followed suit. I guess

(44:48):
had a story that had been developing for a while
involving Arizona and how they were done with Steve Wilkes,
and then what many of us might look at Justin
Cooper as the best opening right now, just based on
the most recent Super Bowl for any of the teams
that currently have a vacancy, and that's the Denver Broncos.
I know that you have been keeping tabs on this.

(45:10):
Are you buying that Mike Shanahan maybe number one on
John Elway's list right now to potentially replace one Vance
Joseph No, a man of many words. I can't because
I can't. I mean, he's made enough screw ups, and
that would, I feel like, would be like the nail
in the coffin. I just I don't think you can

(45:32):
go down that road. I don't think it would be
received well by the fans. I just don't. I don't
see it happening. Here's a couple of other names for you,
just to try to get you a little bit fired up.
Maybe maybe the Broncos, according to the list that was
put together by Pro Football Talk, could pursue one John Harball.

(45:56):
Now keep in mind, Hardball has a deal that goes
through twenty twenty, and there has been talk that they're
trying to extend his contract, even though there had been
reports that he was on his way out as recently
as what mid season when things had kind of gone poorly.
But now with Denver open, and I think the Jets

(46:18):
might be interested in Miami as well too, we could
be talking trade. Are you willing to trade a pick
or two to get John Harball? I don't know, but
from what I've from what I've heard that he's not.
He's not always not willing to trade a top draft
pick to get John Harbaugh. So, I mean, I like
the idea of John Harball, but I don't think that's

(46:39):
gonna happen either. The idea of Mike Mularkey to the Broncos.
That was one name where I just I like Mike
Mularkey as a as a as a former coach. That
you can laugh about, but the fact that he keeps
getting interviews. How about Mike Munchek being on this list
as well? That was a name where I thought, hadn't

(47:01):
he kind of swung and missed a few times, So
maybe not getting another opportunity. But here's a couple of
other names for you, coope. If any of them jump
off the paper and you're like, that's my guy, you'll
let me know. Reportedly, Steeler's offensive line coach Mike Mooncheck,
former Colts coach Chuck Pagano, whiz Kid and former Norman

(47:22):
High School quarterback Zach Taylor, Patriots linebackers coach and some
field the defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Bears defensive coordinator
Vic Fangio. Any of those names do anything for you? No,
not really gonna be a long offseason in Denver than

(47:42):
I think. I will say this much, though, I was
kind of impressed whenever I started seeing some of the
names today that had been floated around for certain vacancies,
and as I was perusing the periodicals, if you will,
Yahoo's Chris Robinson reported that Cliff Keysbury is expected to
get a couple of head coaching interviews that with the

(48:04):
Cardinals and the Jets. Now, when last we heard from
Cliff Kingsbury, he had been fired after failing as a
head coach at Texas Tech and had been hired as
the offensive coordinator at USC. Now it's very unfair probably
to say that he had failed as a head coach
at Texas Tech, because that's not an easy job. I mean,
you're in the middle of nowhere, Texas, no offense, Lubbock listeners,

(48:27):
but it's not a recruiting hotbed. It's few and far
between the coaches that have had success there recently. And
i mean, let's face it, you're playing in a conference
that's dominated by Oklahoma, and Texas looks to be on
its way back, though no team has declared themselves back
more often than Texas has. With that said, his offense

(48:52):
and kind of that hot offensive mind is the going
thing in the NFL right now. So here's the details
from Charles Robinson, even though he signed with the Trojans
as the offensive coordinator just a couple of weeks ago
after being fired. The Guru, if you will, is scheduled
for two interviews, with potentially more coming. There are two

(49:17):
other teams in addition to the Jets and the Cardinals
who have Kingsbury on their list for head coaches interviews,
but they haven't set him up yet. According to another report,
he's considered a prime commodity for top level offensive coordinator
positions as well, but the question is whether or not

(49:38):
he'd accept an OC gig. There was another report that
even though Houston hired Daniel Holgerson, Kingsbury initially turned down
a lucrative offer to be the University of Houston's head
coach to stay at USC. So, I mean, listen, in
this copycat league that we live in, thought is that

(50:00):
you need to find the hot young offensive coordinator right now.
I mean, Sean McVeagh got it done with the Rams,
so suddenly everyone wants the next Sean McVeagh as he
continues to have success. And I think you're going to
start hearing a little bit more about Vic Fangio because well,
if it's not the the young whipper snapper, it's the

(50:21):
wiley vet as a defensive coordinator. Just look at what
Wade Phillips has done with the Rams at times, look
at what Fangio has done up at Chicago. So it's
a very copycat league. But I don't know if in
the history of the NFL, and I'm maybe I've got
some digging to do during the break. Maybe Google's gonna

(50:42):
be just absolutely blown up with different searches. For me,
I can't fathom a time when a coach was fired
from a school that what did tech playing a bowl game,
when he was fired from a school that didn't go
to a bowl game and ended up getting hired, or
at least even an interview as an NFL head coach.

(51:04):
I love Cliff Kingsbury. I think he's awesome. I've talked
to him many times. He's a great personality. He gets it,
he understands how to talk to people. He understands the
personality side of the game. But he didn't have success
as a head coach. Good offensive mind, failed on the

(51:24):
old people's side of things. I guess the coaching side
of it. How do you say, winning side of it.
But yet in the NFL you get owners or general
managers that get so caught up in wanting to find
the next great mind, the next great guru, that they'll

(51:44):
overlook things like I don't know, failure as a head coach.
Dude's gonna be a great offensive coordinator. He really is.
He did a great job at Texas A and m
did a great job during his time at Houston, learned
a lot on the NFL front during his time on
the practice squad of the New England Patriots. He's gonna
be fine. But the idea that you could lose at

(52:05):
a middle of the road college football school, even though
it's a Power five conference, and end up getting hired
at an NFL gig, I mean, we are really reaching.
We have really reached that point. And it was funny because,
in the same vein of researching the idea of Cliff

(52:26):
Kingsbury is a coaching candidate, I had to laugh at
an article by Florio again that laid out former coaches
that aren't getting an opportunity, and then I had to
just think to myself, well, I guess maybe it would
make sense to talk to Cliff Kingsbury. I mean, if
you're trying to make a case that Jeff Fisher deserves

(52:47):
an interview, then either your big cat and the barstool
guy's making fun of it, or you haven't been paying attention.
If you're sitting here, as Roberto have pointed out on
this list of potential head coaching candidates, and you're trying
to make a case for Mike Mularkey to get an interview.
I don't think you've been paying attention Rob Chadzinski. I
mean that dude was a one and done. That was

(53:09):
a Steve Wilkes, Gus Bradley. Let mean, come on, if
you fail as a coach a couple of times, I
don't know if you. I don't see many people out
there laying out with a coach on an NFL front saying, well,
third time's a charm, you know what. I understand that
John Fox failed a couple of times. You know, he

(53:29):
took the Panthers to the Super Bowl one one with
the Broncos or was he the coach on yeah, one
one with the Broncos. But my man is third time
I think he can do a good job. Actually would
be four time with John Fox, because we forget about
the Bears. Oh. Eric Mangini, you know, failed with the
Jets of the Browns. Dude's been on TV. I better
not joke about Eric Mangini because I know how Mark

(53:51):
Davis loves to hire guys off TV. Herm Edwards, you
know he's out of the Arizona State right now, we
all lost our mind because he did the goofy thing
with the press comp frience in the Jersey. Maybe we
should give him another shot. I guess I shouldn't be
surprised whenever I see those names listed as people who
could get calls about vacancies, and then we hear about

(54:13):
a guy who coached a team that didn't make a
Bowl game getting interviews. Maybe I shouldn't be as surprised
as what's being laid out right now in this copycat league.
What about Kingsbury and Denver coop? I mean, I would
be kind of fun. He seems like an Elway kind
of a guy. I sure as hell would rather have
him than Mike Moonchek right now, that's for sure. I'd

(54:34):
rather have Kubiak come back and head coach again. He's
still around. He's still around, by the way, Denver is
Ryan Knesberg reports to Advanced Joseph Will indeed interview for
the Bengals head coaching job. Unbelievable. All right, when we
come back to the Geico Fox Sports Radio studio, let's
relive some of the big moments of the Bowl games today,

(54:54):
including a young lady who had one job one job
and she couldn't execute it. We'll play that for your
next Chris Planking for Ben Maller on a busy New
Year's Day into January second on Fox Sports Radio. The
only thing better than listening to The Ben Maller Show
live on the radio is to hear it again at

(55:15):
your convenience on demand. Ben Maller Show podcast is moving
up the charts unless it's not. Support our little radio
show by subscribing to the podcast on iTunes and giving
us five stars. It will help keep the show growing
and pacify our bosses. Now live from the Guico Fox
Sports Radio Studios in for Ben Maller, it's Chris Plank,
got a lot to get to. You know, we haven't

(55:36):
even touched on Urban Meyer yet. And Eddie, I think
it's fascinating to have the debate about how his do
I use the term tenure or legacy? Maybe we'll be remembered.
And I brought it up earlier. And I know we
have a lot of good Ohio State fans that listening
up in Columbus, A lot of listeners up in Columbus
and across the country, massive massive alumni base. But I

(56:00):
mean this, dude, as much a success as he's had
on the field always seems to be covered in some
sort of controversy. I like Herman Meyer, but I'm not
going to sit here and kiss his butt and make
him out to be the most incredible thing we've ever
seen because of some of the problems that he that
he's had. So I'll let's let's pull the crew here
real quick, and Eddie, I'll start with you. It's a

(56:22):
question that's been on my mind since basically about halftime
of the Ohio State game, when I think it finally
registered that this was it for Urban Meyer. How do
you think his legacy will be remembered, will be remembered fondly,
or will it be stained by the controversy that costs
him his first handful of games this year. Well, first
of all, I would say tenure because I think he's

(56:43):
going to coach again. I really go He's fifty four
years old. I mean, I know he's got enough money
to live comfortably, and he says he loves Ohio and
he's gonna teach some ridiculous class that Ohio State on
the leadership. I think he's gonna coach again. So I
would use the word ten yure, but it'll be remembered
fondly in Ohio. Outside of that, um, you know, he's

(57:05):
gonna be looked at as I think being a very
successful but very slimy coach because of all the stuff
that went on at Florida and the issue with Ohio
State Coop. What do you think? How do you remember
the tenure of Urban Meyer. I mean, I think Eddie
put it perfectly. If you're an Ohio State fan, you're
gonna love the guy. But other or I mean, hey,

(57:27):
even even a Florida fan, you're gonna have fond memories.
But other than that, you're gonna be like f Irban Meyer.
That dude is a greasy pile of you know what?
Riberto any different thought than what I agree with Eddie
and Coop anywhere else other than Ohio State, Yeah, he's

(57:47):
a creep, a fool. It's interesting when you look back
at the off seas well, I guess it wasn't even
the off season. It seems like it was two years
ago with how this college football season went, at least
for me, that they were having me early season rallies
and it was just I mean, I love passion. I
do I think It's why the passion y'all have for

(58:09):
this Shorrbert, the passion you guys have for this show,
if anyone other than Ben does it is fascinating to me.
And I love reading the hate. The passion that people
had for urban Meyer when he had been accused of
covering up at least a very very awful person's actions

(58:34):
is amazing to me. And it's almost as if and
it kind of shows you how stupid we are sports fans.
Sometimes we just Ohio State fans doing things like that,
completely looking past what had allegedly happened in the off season.
And who did they get mad at. They didn't get
mad at urban Meyer, they didn't get mad at the
culture hell to start things out, y'all didn't get mad

(58:56):
at Zach Smith. You were meant well that that picture
of her bloody finger looks doctor to me. Did you
hear Zach? Did you hear her own mom? She said
she's crazy. I mean it took realizing and grasping the
crazy that was Zach Smith to truly understand just how
awful you look defending that guy. All of that aside,

(59:16):
I don't think we need to revisionist history here tonight.
It was the last game for Urban Meyer, and I
think Eddie and Coop and Roberto hit it on the head.
I don't think I could do any better. The Ohio
State fans, the Utah fans, the Bowling Green fans, and
you can absolutely beat the Florida fans. Remember this dude fondly.

(59:38):
He took a no name program and had it rolling
in Bowling Green. He put Utah on the map and
had a quarterback draft in number one overall, he won
national championships, cuple of him at Florida. He gave us
Tim Tebow. He he won a championship at Ohio State
in a year where many thought they didn't deserve or

(01:00:00):
in the four team playoff, and he gave us quite
arguably the greatest college football playoff game we've had whenever
they beat Alabama. It's probably there's two great four team
playoff games that we've had. Most of them have been
blow ups. There's only been two of the four team
playoff semi final games that have finished with the deficit

(01:00:21):
of a touchdown or less. And that was one of
the very first ones, Ohio State beating Alabama, and last
year when Baker and the Sooners fell to Jake from Georgia,
that's it too. But despite all that great, there's been
enough bad off the field, away from the field that
has really tarnished that legacy. But he still talked about

(01:00:43):
how tough it was to walk off the field for
one last time. Question Mark dug Lanmurrays, Cleveland dot com Urban,
How did you feel walking off the field And was
it any different than every other time you've walked off
the field after a win. Sure, I would we've been
on the phone recruiting last half of the walk if
it wasn't our last game, And right now I'd be

(01:01:04):
like starting to put pencils to who's coming back, who's
not coming back? And what do we do at left tackle?
What do we do this? What do we do that?
But the new guy's got to worry about that and
we're going to certainly help him. So it felt different.
You know, again, there's all you can't sit there. There's
just certain people that think that you need to destroy

(01:01:25):
a guy from the moment he had that mess in
the preseason. Look what he's caused, and he had that
mess down in Florida with Aaron Hernandez and looking past
so many things. Again, if you're that kind of person.
This wasn't necessarily your kind of press conference after the
Ohio State winning the Rose Bowl, Edward, ashe off ESPN, Urban,
Shelley just said out there that she thinks you're done.

(01:01:46):
She would be a static if you never coached again.
Why do you believe that you won't coach again. Oh,
I think I'm very blessed, and this has been I know,
relatively young, but I started young seventeen years as a
head coach, thirty three years doing this and just very fortunate.
And I do believe I'm done. When they say Shelley,

(01:02:08):
that's his wife, who I guess, I guess took sooner
stage with some of the media members, And maybe that's
unfair because I'm sure they went naster about whether or
not what she thought of his future, and she had
basically said, you know, I don't want him to coach again.
I don't want him to be back out there. And then,
of course, in this NonStop, endless ass kissing of Urban Meyer,

(01:02:32):
here's one more quick question from his post game. Do
you have an idea what tomorrow will be like or
do you not really know? I have no idea? How
to be honest, with you. I've been thinking about that
a little bit and trying not to think about it
because it gets in the way of these two players
and the team. But you know, I have the best
athletic director that you can be around. I have a
school that I love dearly. I feel very welcome in

(01:02:54):
Buckeye Nation and here, and I'm an Ohioan. My job,
I think as we all move forward, is to make
coach Day, who is an elite coach, make this program
even stronger. And that's all our focus on. That's their focus,
that's my focus, Jane Smith's focus. It's a very strong program,
but we're gonna make it stronger. I don't know if
it's worth throwing it out there as chum to see
if you want to jump in here tonight at eight seven,

(01:03:16):
seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine
six six three six nine. But I'd be curious to
maybe get some more of that national perspective on exactly
how Urban Meyer will be remembered. And I'm with Eddie.
I don't think he's done coaching. I really don't. Guys
who I think retired in or done coaching. Bob Stoops,

(01:03:37):
he's done. He's enjoying life way too much right now.
Urban Meyer, Let's watch and see how these next couple
of months ago. But I don't think he's done coaching,
so let's get after it. But before we do that,
from the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios, Eddie Garcias sliding
in to get us caught up on everything that's going
on in the world of sports. What's up, Eddie? Hey, Chris,
let's get you caught up on the college football New

(01:03:59):
Year's Dave Bowl games. We had five of them. Will
start with the last game of the night, and that
was the Sugar Bowl with Texas beating Georgia twenty eight
twenty one Longhorns knocking off the fifth ranked Bulldogs, who
some felt should have been in the college football playoff.
Quarterback Sam Ellinger for Texas had three rushing touchdowns in
the big win for the Longhorns. Rose Bowl Ohio State.
In the final game for Urban Meyer as Bunk Guys

(01:04:20):
head coach, beat Washington twenty eight twenty three, Buckeys quarterback
Dayne Haskins had three touchdown passes in the win. At
the Fiesta Bowl. It was LSU over UCF forty to
thirty two. Central Florida suffers its first loss in two seasons.
A twenty five game winning Street comes to an end.
LSU quarterback Joe Borrow had four touchdown passes. Centrus Bowl,
Kentucky be penn State twenty seven twenty four. Wildcats finish

(01:04:41):
with a ten win season for the first time since
nineteen seventy seven. Running Back Benny Stell Junior became the
school's all time leading rusher and had a couple of
rushing touchdowns for Kentucky into the Outback Bowl. It was
Iowa holding off Mississippi State for twenty seven twenty two win.
Some NBA games upnote, Raptors beat the Jazz one twenty
two to one sixteen. Toronto has the most wins in
the NBA with a twenty eight and eleven record. Kawhi

(01:05:01):
Leonard had a career high forty five points in the win.
Nuggets over the Knicks one fifteen to one oh eight.
Denver a half game up on Golden State with the
top record in the West at twenty four and eleven,
and the Sixers beat the Clippers in LA one nineteen
to one thirteen and top twenty five college basketball. We
had number nine Florida State beating Winthrop eighty seven seventy six,
tenth rank. Virginia Tech took down Notre Dame eighty one

(01:05:21):
sixty six, while Saint John's upset Number sixteen Marquette eighty
nine to sixty nine. This report brought to you by Truecar.
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true Prize from Truecar, now you can know the exact
price you'll fay for you're in X car, so it's
a truecar, and enjoy more confident car buying experience. Now
back to Chris Plank in the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios.

(01:05:41):
You know, it's always tough because, like I said, gonna
be in a post game press conference setting and decide
to go scorched earth on a dude. It's just it's
not logical, but it is curious to see how it's
played out. Mister Wonderful ad One not done tweeted at
us and said Erwin is revered here. This is a

(01:06:02):
sad day for Ohio State fans. Now there's some of y'all,
some of y'all be outside keep saying nationally outside of
Columbus that hear that, and you need to steer your
car back on the road because of the rage. How
dare you well, he's one, He's one, Ernie Fire's back.
Urban Meyer is in the same club with the other

(01:06:24):
slimeball coaches like Rick Pettino, Rick Neuheisel, and surprisingly another
Ohio State coach, Jim Tattooed Tressel. You know what's kind
of interesting, by the way, speaking of Tressell, not to
get off on a side road here, but Jim, Jim
Tressel knew guys were getting tattoos, paid for tattoos in

(01:06:47):
today's that seems so minimal based on what we've dealt with,
involving under under the table, bribing to get guys to
sign with shoe companies in college football, covering up domestic
combuse allegedly in college from college basketball to college football.
I mean, when you start thinking about what Jim Tressell
did wrong, not to say a deed is worse than

(01:07:10):
the others, it kind of pales in comparison to what
we've had to deal with in a lot of ways.
But hey, that's going to be a title I think
outside of Columbus that he has to deal with. But
here's here's there's there's one thing you cannot doubt. And
as bad as things were off the field, he was

(01:07:30):
a hell of a coach. I don't know. I don't
know if his style would ever work in the NFL.
Arnie and I have debated that quite a bit. I'd
be curious to see it. You know what if suddenly
Cleveland's going through their interview list of coaches and they say, huh,

(01:07:50):
you know, here's a guy that went to Cincinnati, grew
up around Ohio. Maybe maybe I shouldn't have just say Cleveland.
Maybe I say the Cincinnati Bengals. A guy that won
one hundred and eighty seven games, won three national championships,

(01:08:11):
a guy who was consistently elite. Maybe what he needs
is the next level. And by that I mean the NFL.
I mean, would that be something where suddenly an urban
Meyer would say, you know what, let's do it. I
mean it. It's been amazing what he's done on the field.
I mean, if you're interviewing Mike Muonchek, you should at

(01:08:33):
least call urban Meyer to see if he is willing
to talk. But I don't know. I don't know how
that would work for him at the next level. The
guy never lost more than two games in a season
at Ohio State. He had a couple of tough seasons
at Florida, including his first year there, but he basically

(01:08:57):
was able to throw a national championship and another between
a couple of nine and four and nine and three seasons.
It's hard to argue with the results on the field.
It really is, because here's the thing. We look past
a lot, an absolute lot, But I just don't know

(01:09:21):
if he's one of those guys in my personal opinion
that we'll take an opportunity in the NFL. Or At
eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven
nine nine six six three six nine. You can hit
us up on Twitter. That's at Plank Show. That's at
Plank Show. I've got a lot of good stuff on
Twitter that I have been ignoring and I don't know
why tonight. So we'll get to that coming up here

(01:09:41):
in just a bit. And the question of the night,
I guess you could say, is the tenure. Because I'm
with Eddie, I don't think he's done. Maybe it's not
going to be in the NFL this year, maybe it's
next year, maybe it's not going to be in college football. Well,
I don't think it'll be in college football this offseason.
Maybe it's magically when USC comes open next year. He

(01:10:03):
had some adversity over the summer. But I really truly
think whenever you're looking for someone to pump energy and
attitude into your program, you're gonna call Urban Meyer, especially
if it's a place like USC. So how will he
be remembered in the college football ranks? All right, let's um,
let's get blind Scott in here. I think he's been

(01:10:23):
waiting patiently. Blind Scott, welcome to Fox Sports Radio. What's
going on? Man? Not much? I got some good things
to say about ever Meyer. He's a friend at Bill
Belichick's He's a great coach. He's a great guy. I
listened to Jose Bias's book Unnecessary Roughness, and I he's
mentioned in the book. He welcomes these kids into his home.
He's a good guy. He's at Jesus freak. He studies
the Bible. He's you never hear anybody say anything better

(01:10:47):
about him, any of his players, you know. But if
he wants to run for president in two twenty maya
for president twenty twenty, we'll bring him into the Patriots.
If he wants to come back. I want Harbor, Jim
Harbar Ertha Meyer to replace Bill. I'll check when he leaves,
because you know a PELI check's on his way out,
and you know Brady's on his way out. And who
better to bringing to the Patriots but urban Meyer, who

(01:11:07):
has all the you know he had such a patriot
teach young people. He'll bring us a good quarterback. He'll
keep the Patriots on it from him. We'll bring him
back in a couple of years and the Pats super Bowl.
Who's pass it all? Here? Drop the yes? Wow? I
mean it's a three thirty eight on the East coast,

(01:11:28):
blind Scott bringing it? I mean, def you had enough?
Can't you let someone else win for a while? I don't.
I'm really confused by the I guess you could say
pecking order in New England. If Blind does he what
does he want? Urban Meyer and harbaught a co coach
in New One? I mean, this isn't this isn't softball,

(01:11:49):
This isn't University of Tennessee where got co head coaches?
Come on now, I don't think urban Meyer's gonna be
the next head coach in New England, which makes it
very interesting to see what's gonna happen this offseason with
Josh McDaniel, Because my understanding was it last year whenever
he decided to say no to Indianapolis, that's because he
was going to be the next head coach in New England.
Now suddenly his name was being floated for basically Green Bay, Cleveland,

(01:12:13):
just about every single opening out there outside of Arizona. Anyway.
I know that's not the point of why you brought
it up, but urban and New England. Yeah, I don't
necessarily know if that's a direction I would want to go.
Come on, blank Scott, let someone else win. For goodness sakes,
I mean, so much adversity, so much to overcome this year.

(01:12:34):
You had people doubting you, Oh my gosh, boohoo after
going to the Super Bowl and losing last year. The pain,
the horror, Poor poor New England, Poor Boston area sports fan.
How will you ever survive? I don't think Belichick's going
anywhere for a while either. Again, that's a guy that
when you see him away from football, he seems to

(01:12:54):
enjoy it, but yet that grind always brings him back.
Harp on, Bill Belichick, Harbon, Urban me are going to
take over for Bill Belichick, you know, to kind of
maybe give that a little bit of momentum though at
least with Urban. Yeah, there'll be guys that kind of
sneak in every so often that'll stud a study under

(01:13:15):
Belichick a little bit. Chip Kelly did it for a while,
Greg Schiano did it for a bit before he ended
up as a defensive coordinator at Ohio State, and the
Chip Kelly with UCLA. Now, so yeah, you never know, No,
maybe there's a chance that you go up there just
to kind of study a little bit and see the
Belichick in ways college football. An now it's become Nick

(01:13:37):
Saban the Land of Misfit Toys, and can go check
that out, spend some time with him. Next thing, you know,
you're a quality control coach. At eight seven, seven ninety
nine on Fox when we come back to the Geico
Fox Sports Radio Studios, let's dive in. I promised some
highlights from the bowl games today. We'll get to those
and some post game sound as well as we recap

(01:13:59):
what is you usually and supposed to be the greatest
day for college football? But was it? We'll debate next
on Fox Sports Radio on the Ben Maller Show. We
specialize in sarcasm, snark, and satire, all things needed to
survive the shady late night characters on Twitter. Let your
thoughts be heard by the masses under the cover of

(01:14:20):
the micro blogging website and follow the man. In for
Ben Maller, that would be Chris Plank. He's at Plank
Show and you can tweet that he is the liar
and the mena Fox Sports Radio edwork gets the Coop
de Loup Justin Cooper and he's at you h bronco fan. Wow, Eddie,
it's a base package I've ever seen. Yeah, and Ali
from the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios. In for Ben Maller,

(01:14:43):
it's Chris Plank. I think Coop I was maybe delusional
during the last hour we worked together. I may have
called you Justin Turner. Either that or I was really
looking forward to baseball season. I did not catch it.
Someone was yelling at me on Twitter about you know.
The one thing that has been fun doing this show

(01:15:03):
has been the Twitter interaction. Last night was pretty crazy.
I mean, I would have to say last night was
one of the wildest shows I've ever filled an overnight
and not I don't think anything got too out of
control or anything was too insane. It was just it
was New Year's Eve. We had a lot of sports
topics going on, kind of a crazy New Year's Eve.
Tonight a little bit more laid back, and I appreciate
that because, you know, we gotta make sure we set

(01:15:25):
the table for craziness for Ben tomorrow night, so everyone
can be on their game. Maybe some people are resting
up tonight, but there is one thing before either you
get home on the West coast, before you start to
head home in either the Central or Eastern time zones,
or for those of you that are listening on the podcast,
there is one thing that you need to hear tonight

(01:15:49):
that will make everyone feel better about doing their job.
Elizabeth Brady, congratulations to the university champions today Dateline Sugar
Bowl Trophy presentation. So for those that don't watch a

(01:16:13):
lot of bowl games, there's endless amounts of sponsored tiants
and it's fine to help make it possible. This is
their big event. I have no problem with it. I
get it now. Sometimes being at the game, it can
be a little bit life sucking. College Bowl games become
a lot like NFL games in person, where and there's
just long breaks and the commercial breaks and get the

(01:16:34):
kick off, another commercial break, then a review in eighteen
other and commercial break and a sponse. It's just it's insane,
But they'll always have somebody who has involved with trying
to thank everyone for being a part of it, promote
their brand. Who can forget what was it the Chevy
guy during the World Series a couple of years ago
that kind of got a little bit fired up talking

(01:16:56):
about the Chevy truck and then completely lost his mind.
But I think we can add Elizabeth Brady, who I
would imagine had practiced this many many times during the
week looking in the mirror. Congratulations to the University of Georgia,
Congratulations to the University of Texas. Okay, let's try this again.

(01:17:18):
And then that moment came with I don't know what
is the Superdome hold? Anyone know? I maybe six seventy
seventy thousand screaming fans. Half of them probably left because
Georgia loss, the other half out they're losing their mind.
Holly Row gives it a microphone, Elizabeth Brady, and then
this congratulations to the university champions today you can see it.

(01:17:49):
I almost wish everybody had a video button on their radios,
which is a new invention I'm working on, guys, So
maybe we'll all be rich by the time we fill
in again. But the moment, and I feel really bad
for this woman. But the moment where she started to
say the University of you could just see her brain
go U not tonight, Liz. Sorry, we have no idea

(01:18:15):
what direction you're going with this. And we've all been there.
We've all been there. There'll be someone that you work
with or someone that you know and you'll see him
and you're like, is that John or Jim? And you
have no idea, but you know them. Poor Elizabeth Brady.
As the moment, her big moment, and then Elizabeth Brady,

(01:18:36):
oh gosh, congratulate, Oh no, I saved her. Congratulations of
the university champion today. The combination of words though that

(01:18:58):
I'm not laughing at her, Okay, I'm laughing with her,
laughing out her. The combination of words though, Eddie, University
Champions Champions today. Today. It was like a like a

(01:19:18):
beauty pageant contestant trying to come up with some smart
answer and you knew there was nothing there. Oh my gosh,
poor poor lady. Now listen here's what we need to
find for next hour. Maybe I'll make this my charge.
We need to find the guy in the Royals locker
room talking about Chevis. It's got to be out there.

(01:19:41):
There's no way that hass that there's no because this
is right up there with Miss South Carolinas. Eddie brought up.
This is out there, this is up. This might be
better just because of the words congratulations university champions today.
Time of his life, time of his life. Yes, it's

(01:20:01):
Sergio dipp Is well too. Oh my gosh. All right,
hour two in the books. Two more to go, Chris
Blank and for Big Ben Maller right here on Fox.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Wow.
Hour three already it's to be I guess it's no

(01:20:24):
longer the beginning. It's the midway point of The Ben
Maller Show here on the second day of January on
Fox Sports Radio. Bins back tomorrow, So if y'all can
for the next two hours, will be good to go.
As always, I'd love to hear from you at eight
seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven nine
nine six sixty three six nine good stuff on two.

(01:20:50):
I don't know why I haven't got to the tweets tonight.
I almost feel as if I'm I'm holding off because
there's this paranoia that as well rested as I am,
at some point I'm going to crash and burn, and
I'm afraid that could be in the final hours. So
your tweets are here to save me maybe, but keep
them coming. At Plank Show. That's at Plank Show. Now.

(01:21:11):
We had the fantastic, fantastic audio last hour from the
sponsor of the Sugar Bowl that I guess had one
of those moments to where she thought she had everything
planned and figured out, but then when that moment came
whenever she was actually called upon to do her job,

(01:21:33):
the moment kind of like the guy who handed out
the Heisman trophy as well too, that moment where everything
had been built up to it, you had practiced, you
had worked on it, Holly Row, take it away, let's
go congratulations to the university champions today. The fact that

(01:21:55):
she's looking around during that as well too, it's just
almost as if you I probably, if I was worried
about it, I might have had someone put together a
few Q cards for me. Could you imagine how pathetic
that would have looked, though. Congratulations to the University of
Tulsa on their University of Tulsa. See, maybe I'm glad
I didn't do it. Congratulations to the University of Texas

(01:22:16):
on their Sugar Bowl that's one card. Congratulations to the
University of Georgia on their Sugar Bowl win. Not that hard,
but thankfully somebody was paying attention last our Thankfully somebody
heard my cries for what I still consider to be
the greatest moment of a sponsor implementation during a trophy ceremony.

(01:22:38):
Jeff Tuttle, my man at JR. Tuttle four with this
doozy from the World Series in two and fourteen, in
congratulations as the official sponsor or the official vehicle of
Major League Baseball. Chevallet is proud to participate in this
prestigious award along with our dealers. We are also extremely
honored to get back to this by supporting baseball in

(01:23:02):
cities and tops cross this nation. At Chevrolet, we have
we have also been proud of the latest and greatest
technology in our truck lineup, which is the all new
twenty fifteen Chevy Colorado. Um it combines class switting, leading

(01:23:22):
you know, technology and stuff with Wadify power, bold technology
and stuff. You know, it's got some technology and stuff audit.
So welcome. We have a new member in the world
of botched sponsor implementations. Oh I guess this one isn't
nearly as drawn out as my man Rick Wild whenever

(01:23:44):
he was handing out the World Series Trophy and MVP
to Madison Bumgarner back in two thousand and fourteen. Anyway,
just some fun stuff to lighten the mood here tonight
on a rather heavy night where we've talked in depth
about the Urban Meyer era and how it is now
over or is it? And the question of the night
at eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven

(01:24:04):
seven nine nine six six three six nine and on
Twitter at Plank Show, at Eddie on Fox, at Raider,
Underscore Rob twenty four, and of course at you h
Bronco fan. How would the Urban Meyer era be remembered?
Do you? What do you think? Justin you want to
get Mike in here real quick before we get to
Twitter getting mine anytime you're calling from Ohio. I have

(01:24:25):
a pretty good idea which direction you want to go, oh,
Mike dropped. Okay, well let's get a couple of tweets
on this bad boy. Then here's the here's the first
one that jumped to mind for me. Because I know
that we all care about championships. I know that we
all care about titles and winning. But how about this
from at All Texas Trucker at Kim McKay. I like
what Chris Peterson has done at you dub, but I

(01:24:48):
would trade him for Urban Meyer in a heartbeat. Wait
what I mean? Chris Peterson has done a phenomenal job
at Washington. It was a coup for them to get him.
Irban Meyer's not going to wash Ington, But I wow,
that was one that kind of blew me away a
little bit. Then there was this from the little bro Troller.
Everyone knows Urban Myers on field accomplishments, but just google

(01:25:12):
all his career off the field incidents and see all
the shady stuff that followed him wherever he went. Gets
us to that great debate that those of us in
diehard college sports towns like to have. It's kind of
that you're seeing it play out in Auburn right now.
Would you take a championship and then pay for it,

(01:25:34):
maybe with three or four, maybe five years of either
a probation or being in basic obscurity in the world
of college football, which you trade winning a title for
having to pay for some sanctions the years following. Many
people Sure, absolutely, I'll take that title right away. Now.

(01:25:57):
I'm not saying Trucker that that's the way you're going
there at Washington because of all the things that have
happened with urban Meyer, from the I guess you could
say blind eye that he turned in Florida, to all
the problems they were having away from the field, to
the issues involving his wide receiver coach. I don't believe

(01:26:20):
he's ever found himself in any issues with the NC
double A. I don't think whenever you start digging into
the Ohio State saga or the Florida sotha with urban Meyer,
you're not going to find a lot of NC double
A issues. But what you will find is a lot

(01:26:41):
of just issues in general. I thought there was a
real interesting piece I believe it was on ESPN earlier tonight,
and the headline kind of hits on what we've been
talking about this evening. Why it's hard to fully celebrate
urban Meyer's final win. No guys that have the kind
of on the field success like urban Meyer has. While
I agree with mister wonderful, well, it's a cello, it's
a sad night in Columbus, it's a sad night in Ohio.

(01:27:04):
It's a night that you really kind of sit back
and the rest of the country says, oh, all right,
well we're moving on there. You know, every program gets
a second or third chance. I mean, Penn State getting
a second and third Baylor getting a second and third chance.
With some of the problems they had, Ohio States issues
are I don't want to say they pale in comparison,
because I'm not trying to compare bad deeds to bad deeds,

(01:27:27):
but they're obviously not on the level of some of
the issues that we've seen in college football. Still, did
urban Meyer turn a blind eye to it? Which is
the question tonight? There was There weren't any tears from
urban Meyer. There wasn't any really truly overly emotional moments.
Even in the locker room stuff that they made available.
It was simply, here's Ryan Day, he's our new head coach.

(01:27:50):
Time to move on. I don't know, I just I
think interesting to see how this is played out over
the last couple of months and to see exactly what
will play out going forward. I mean, based on everything
we read, based on everything that we've seen, he's going
to be very much involved still in the program. He's

(01:28:13):
still very much going to be involved at Ohio State.
You know, I again, my reference to everything is Oklahoma
football and the University of voclahom. It's where I live,
that's where I work, It's my school, and Bob Stoops
is everywhere. But Bob Stoops just retired. He didn't have
any issues lingering around him, though I know you all
like to theorize about it that, oh what happened? Why

(01:28:35):
did he retire? This is a much different world for
Urban Myron. Yet he's still going to be around everywhere.
Brandon writes, Urban has to be proud the Buckeys want,
and so did his disciples, Luke Fickle and Tom Herman.
I'm sure he is. I'm sure he is. But that's
not the question today. That's not what we're talking about.

(01:28:57):
That's not the pride that you take in your coaching tree.
Is not what we're getting after today. The question is
how are we going to remember the Urban Meyer era.
Do we celebrate this guy like they are in Columbus
right now? Or do we do we shake our finger
in dis Dane at what he has taken place? Cowboy

(01:29:18):
Killer rights some of these just coming in our gray guys. Um.
So basically, it's like the Patriots of the NFL cheating
their way to Super Bowl wins. Maybe. So now don't
now listen, be careful, Cowboy Killer. I've already got Patriot
fans mad at me, all right, I can't. I can't
go much further here, like match really mad at me? Which,

(01:29:39):
by the way, can you explain this to me, Coop,
I'm a little bit confused. So we're live right now,
we are live on the year on Fox Sports Radio
right now. But during during this same time slot, people
will actually choose to listen to last night's show instead
of listening to us live right now. Is that what
I'm getting? I'm I mean, I haven't seen that before,

(01:30:05):
but I guess I guess it happens, because here's what.
Here's what Matt from Cape Cod wrote, Plank, great job
filling in for Ben. You're like Jeff Hostetler for Phil
Simms in ninety ninety one, However, yesterday's talk Rule Raider
jest was garbage hash hashtag what's a hashtag? Hashtag podcaster

(01:30:29):
listening live today? So in other words, no, no, so
he's normally just a podcast listener, but he's happening. He's
listening live right now, all right. I was very perplexed
by that. Sometimes I need Coope to break out the
dry race board and fill it all out for them.
But I'll get to that, Matt in just a little bit. Okay,

(01:30:50):
hold off here, I'm gonna get a couple more um
because I'm a bitter fan. Man. I just can't move
past this thing, even though it was like twenty years
Josh rites just to Josh dammit, which might be one
of the best names on Twitter. Breaking news. Urban Meyer
just hired by the University of Champions Today, Thanks Elizabeth

(01:31:11):
hashtag maller up boy there, It's gonna be so interesting
to follow what's next for him. It is. And I'm
not sitting here trying to tell you how to think,
how to feel. I mean, I, like I said, last night,
I listened to the Gladiator podcast. I understand how Florida
and that culture was not good. I followed Ohio State

(01:31:33):
football quite closely, and the way that this was handled
in the seat in the offseason leaning up to this
year not good, a black eye for the university, but
in all of it, he's somehow persevered I remember. I mean,
I guess maybe my biggest problem with this whole thing,
My biggest issue is when you are watching a game,

(01:31:56):
whether it be on Fox or ESPN or CBS, ever
has it and they play it up as if Urban
really had Oh boy, what a what a tough offseason
for Urban Meyer to have to overcome all this adversity.
I mean it is they almost treat it like it's
some sort of Cinderella's story of overcoming something that was

(01:32:18):
out of his control. And that's where that's the only
place where my true frustration comes in in this. It's
just I think the dudes paid his price. He was suspended,
he's retiring, the university's going to move on. It's been
proven that this this crazy man that there was a
receiver's coach, has issues, and obviously there's a lot of

(01:32:41):
validity to the reports it took place. My problem that
I have is when we paint him out to be
the victim. That's where my issue is and I think
you see it a lot. I mean, Gus Johnson and
Joe Clatt were destroyed for it earlier this year, and
it seemed to be the narrative today on the broadcast.
And that, to me is where I have issues. That's

(01:33:03):
where I get triggered. That's where my point and that's
where my frustration kind of settles in. Because he won games,
he made some mistakes. I think a lot of people
now will let him go off into the sunset. We
won't get too carried away with tributes outside of Columbus,
and we'll go along, we'll go about being football fans
and sports fans. But when you try to paint him

(01:33:23):
out to be a sympathetic figure, I think that's where
a lot of people miss the boat. Not just miss
the boat, absolutely swinging a miss. And don't try to
suck us all in on it. Don't try to make
us feel bad for him. Just let him be, let
him go live his life. We don't need you telling
us how challenging this offseason was and how much they

(01:33:45):
had to overcome. All right, eight seven seven ninety nine
on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six sixty three
sixty nine, Listen, I haven't had an opportunity tonight to
go to all in on the NFL playoffs. We'll do that.
And oh, let's go ahead and add one more thing here.
I got some new news on Antonio Brown that we
need to lay out as well, so we'll do that next.
Chris Plank and for Big Ben Maller. On a busy

(01:34:07):
Wednesday night into Thursday. Right here on Fox Sports Radio
on the Ben Maller Show, we specialize in sarcasm, snark,
and satire, all things needed to survive the shady late
night characters. On Twitter, let your thoughts be heard by
the masses under the cover of the micro belonging website
and follow the man in for Ben Maller that it's
Chris Planky is at Plank Show and you can tweet

(01:34:27):
at and follow our technical producer. He plays all the
music and most of the funny sound bites on the
Ben Maller Show. His first name is Roberto, his last
name is Flora's. You can follow at Raider Underscore rob
twenty four, Yeah, lots of me and I'll live from
the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios. In for Ben Maller,
It's Chris Plank Just to kind of recap Eddie, because

(01:34:49):
I'm sure we've got a lot of new listeners as
we roll into the one o'clock hour in the Pacific
time zone and getting close to maybe get enough for
worktime on the East Coast. The Steelers in Antonio Brown
apparently are at a bit of an impass because, according
to Jason lackinfora he has asked to be traded, but
I think we all know he's not going anywhere, and

(01:35:11):
because if they trade him, they'll still owe twenty one
million dollars against the cap, or he'll count twenty one
million dollars against the cap and dead money, and he's
due twenty two million dollars. He turns thirty one this summer.
He signed through a twenty twenty one after signing his
extension last February. And let's say they wait until they
post June one trade that would save them quite a

(01:35:33):
bit of money. But it's possible, but I don't necessarily
think it's going to happen. So, just to kind of
reset the table, where do you stand on the Antonio
Brown drama in Pittsburgh. I'm just confused by it, to
be honest with you, because I don't know what it
is he's upset about. I mean, I don't think he's

(01:35:53):
upset about what he should be upset about him that
is that the team didn't perform very well and missed
the playoffs. We had mentioned it earlier that he was
in the top five as far as wide receivers targeted
in the NFL, and having watched every game, I can
tell you there were times when you felt like they
were forcing him, forcing the ball to him, you know,

(01:36:17):
to the detriment of the team, just to try and
keep him happy or to try and keep him interested.
And he's look, he's so good that most defenses are
going to double team him, meaning there's going to be
better opportunities for other players like Juju Smith Schuster. So
I guess in the Again, for me, I'm confused because
I don't know what it is he's unhappy about, because

(01:36:38):
they are trying to get him the ball, and it
wasn't like he had a bad year. He still had
a very good year, so and he's getting well paid.
So again, I don't know what it is that he
is unhappy about. It's the most confusing thing to me too.
Let's play this real quick, because I've got it here.
And I haven't played it yet. Tonight, they'd asked Ben
Roethlisberger kind of what he had thought might have led

(01:37:02):
to some frustration for Antonio Brown. And here's what the
uh Skeeler's quarterback had to say about whether or not
this was a big deal. A B and I talked
AB on Thursday morning, because after after the walker Aby
left on Wednesday, and then on Thursday morning, I talked
to A B. And everything was great and fine, and then, um,
you know, this story just keeps growing. So, like I said,

(01:37:24):
I consider I'd be one of my closest friends on
the team, So I'm not really sure why or where
some of those blow up is coming from. And then
they're one more quick cut here from Big Ben. Um.
Not really sure because I had heard some mixed things
about a knee and then uh, he wasn't really there
to get the opportunity to speak to him. Like I said,
I reached out to him numerous times, called, texted and
tried to talk to him to find out excuse me

(01:37:46):
around what was going on and and and just hadn't
heard back. So I really couldn't get any answers for you.
So here's what's for me. Sorry, Ben. Here's what's crazy, Eddie,
if you think about it, we have eight playoff games. Wait,
we have eight playoff teams playoff games this weekend. And
you and I talked about this earlier. We think it's
wide open. Any team can win. But yet what seemed

(01:38:07):
to have dominated the news cycle, this Antonio Brown news.
It kind of kind of tells you a little bit
about just how I guess you could say big of
a deal the Steelers are, and maybe even a bigger
deal this story could end up being, doesn't it. Yeah,
there's no doubt. I mean, they're They're a team that
gets a lot of interest and just the soap opera
all season long that has gone on with this team,

(01:38:27):
starting with obviously Levan Bell and Antonio Brown had a
part in that during the year. You know, they blow
up on the sidelines with the offensive coordinator and you
know those types of things. So you know, I'm, like
I said, I'm willing to put up with a lot
from a from a star player on my favorite team. Um,
but in the end, if he you know, look, they
had to they had to win that game over the

(01:38:48):
Bengals stave a chance to win, and if he didn't
play because he basically was, I don't know, a big baby,
and it was upset about whatever he's upset about. I mean,
you can't have that. I don't know which if you
suspend them or you you find them, but you mean
you can let him get away with a lot. But
not that right. I mean, if you're going to get

(01:39:09):
to a situation where you're basically putting yourself in position
to miss a game because of your attitude, come on, man,
an important game too, not just a huge game, meaningless game.
You know, if it was even I mean, it's not
acceptablelive it if it was a meaningless game. But the
fact that that was actually a very important game, it

(01:39:30):
doesn't reflect well on him obviously. Mind boggling. Now, let
me ask you, when Ben comes back tomorrow night, will
it be about Antonio the prima Donna or will he
have his back because the Steelers are an awful organization.
I'm very intrigued by this one Tomorrow night, Eddie to
see which angle well he or is he? Like? Does
Ben do what Arnie does to me, where he takes

(01:39:52):
whatever side will make you mad and he goes with that?
I would say, b yeah or something? Man, Man, I'm
used to. Man, I'm right there with you. All right. Listen.
The big story of the night beyond the Antonio Brown
Saga has been asking a very simple question. At eight
seven seven ninety nine on Fox, how will the urban
Meyer era be remembered? A couple of guys checked in,

(01:40:14):
Let's go to the phones. Todd is in Arizona before
Eddie's update. Todd, what do you think, gentlemen tonight going? Well? Man,
how's your you and your phone? Oh? It's it's great, happy. Um,
you know, uh folk urban Meyer, great coach now that Um?

(01:40:38):
But you know, how do you let him get away
with what he has? Um? You're having a whole Florida
and now you have this at Ohio since Um, you
know you're gonna go somewhere I think out here maybe still,
And he's gonna go somewhere where he's going to get

(01:41:01):
a new start and he's going to look like a
great guy, just like the way he did at Ohio State,
and then maybe disappear again for another two years. You know,
I appreciate your phone goals. What's something weird was going
on with his phone? Do you have his phone on
his shoulder or something that Yeah, that's kind of what
it sounded like. So let me now, I consider one

(01:41:22):
man to be my Ohio State expert. Okay, one man overall,
under all other the show's almost overhanging there. Add one
not done tweeted at us. He said, Ermine is the
new associate athletic director, and I think he'll take over
his a D at Ohio State when Jean Smith retires.
Maybe maybe he does. Maybe he's great at it. I
don't know. I've often thought that athletic directors, when we

(01:41:45):
try to kind of pigeonhole a former coach into it,
it doesn't always work out so well. It has in
Wisconsin with Barry Alvrest, didn't necessarily Nebraska with Tom Osborne.
We've seen other instant I think John Cooper was an
athletic director for a while. It just doesn't always work
out so well. So to me, I've always been a
fan of maybe looking at an up and coming administrator

(01:42:07):
as opposed to handing the job to a former coach.
But in this instance it would be very interesting to
follow because, as mister Wonderful points out, he has a
couple of years to learn. It's like, you know, if
Mike Mayock was an assistant GM before he was the GM.
It might make it a little bit less stressful to
know that he's negotiating contracts and deals, or at least

(01:42:27):
talking about potential contracts. So maybe it's a different path
for urban Meyer. Now, maybe he says, you know, my
coaching days are behind me. There is stress of an
athletic director, but it's a different kind of stress. It's
not necessarily all game planning and crazy hours, though you
do work crazy hours, but not quite like a coach.

(01:42:50):
There's a few more breaks in there. So maybe that's
where he sees his future as opposed to be in
a coach. But I just what I've noticed in most coaches,
unless you're in your seventies and less you're in your eighties,
whenever you get into the administrative side of things, you
always have that itch to get back. And let's face it,
he's a damn good coach. He's a dam good goats

(01:43:10):
and he wins, and a lot of people will overlook
a mess that you've left off the field in order
to bring a winning way. So good stuff. I appreciate
your call, question Mark Todd Mitchell, hang in there. I'll
get to you in Ohio and you as well at
eight seven to seven ninety nine on Fox. But first
from the Guy Go Fox Sports Radio Studios. Eddie Garcia
is back with everything that's well currently as of this hour,

(01:43:32):
not going on in the world of sports. But it
was a crazy night for bulls. Yeah. New Year's Day
obviously traditionally a big day for college football bull games,
and we had. The Sugar Bowl was the last game
of the night, with Texas knocking off Georgia twenty eight
twenty one, Longhorns beating the fifth ranked Bulldogs, who some
felt should have been in the College Football Playoff. Texas
quarterback Sam Ellier three rushing touchdowns in the win for

(01:43:55):
the long Horns. Rose Bowl saw Ohio State being washed
in twenty eight twenty three in the final game as
Buckeyes head coach for Urban Meyer, Dwayne Haskins three touchdown
passes in the win for the Buckeyes. Fiesta Bowl. LSU
beat UCF forty to thirty two. Central Florida suffers it's
first loss in two seasons, a twenty five game winning
street coming to an end. LSU quarterback Joe Borrow had
four touchdown passes. Centrius Bowl Kentucky bet Penn State twenty

(01:44:18):
seven twenty four. Wildcats finished with a ten win season
for the first time since nineteen seventy seven. Running Back
Benny Stell Junior had two rushing touchdowns and became the
school's all time leading rusher in the process. Outback Bowl,
it was Iowa over Mississippi State twenty seven, twenty two.
NBA Games of Note, Raptors beat the Jazz one twenty
two to one sixteen. Toronto has the most wins in
the NBA with a twenty eight and eleven a record.

(01:44:40):
Kawhi Leonard had a career high forty five points in
that win over Utah. Nuggets beat the Knicks one fifteen
one oh eight. Denvers a half game up on Golden
State with the top record in the West. Denver now
twenty four and eleven on the year. Seventy six Ers
beat the Clippers in LA one nineteen to one thirteen,
and the NHL the Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium
saw the Bruins beat the Blackhawks four to two. This
support brought to you by True Car Online. Car jopping

(01:45:02):
can be confusing, but not anymore. With True Rice from
True Car Now, you can know the exact price you'll
pay for your next cars if it's a true car.
Enjoy more confident to car buying experience. Back to Chris
Plank and the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. That is
Eddie Garcia. You should be following him. If you don't
at Eddie on Fox, that's at Eddie on Fox. Um.

(01:45:23):
There was one kind of corny moment in the Bulls tonight,
but for someone who is a big twelve guy, it
kind of got me fired up. We'll play that coming
up here in just a bit. And I've got a
date for you to mark on your calendar. I don't
know now there's been a lot of social media talk

(01:45:44):
Eddie that this isn't about a vacation for Ben Mallard.
This is about serving suspensions. So I don't know if
we can confirm and or deny, But I don't know
when I'll get an opportunity to fill in again if
I don't. I've got a date that you need to
mark on your calendar in twenty ninth team and we'll
do that coming up here in just a bit. But
in the meantime at eight seven seven ninety nine on

(01:46:04):
Fox eight seven seven nine nine, six six, three, six nine.
Let's get back to the phones. Speaking of Eddie Garcia
and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kevin in La wants to talk
an Tonio Brown. What's going on, Kevin, Welcome to Fox
Sports Radio. How you guys doing, Guys, Happy New Year
to you listen to I'm a very big Steeler fan.
Let me tell you who's the problem, guys. It's Ben Roethlisberger.

(01:46:30):
They I watched them all year. They went out the
way to throw the ball to Antonio Brown. That's your
best player. But the problem was when the game was
on the line, they didn't try to go at him.
That's where he's just frustrated. Guy. I love the fact
that he's coming out the way he is because he's upset.
He's passionate about winning. I love Antonio Brown. Ben Roethlisberger

(01:46:53):
a year ago was talking about he wasn't even sure
if he wants to play. What do you mean you
don't you want a player you don't? I questioned, bit
the emphasis told beyond Bill Roethlisberger more than Mike Thomin
to play. Ben Roethlisberger needs to check hisself or somebody
needs to do something about his attitude. I don't know
what it is, but it's Ben Roethlisberger. Guys. I'll listen

(01:47:16):
to your comments off the air, all right, So, Eddie Garcia,
there is a fellow fellow Steeler fan in LA who
thinks that the problem is the other Big Ben. Where
would you stand on pointing the finger at Roethlisberger, I
don't really Look. You can criticize Ben for a number
of things. I don't know how you can support Antonio

(01:47:38):
by what happened with the last game of the year.
Ben Roethlisberger has never not shown up to play in
a game because he was pissed off at the organization
or at a teammate or something else. So I mean,
I think that speaks for itself. You can say, if
Antonio Brown is so passionate about winning, why wasn't he
on the field against the Bengals. There is a great

(01:47:59):
checkmate on that front. And I wanted to give you
I want to give some props to David on Twitter
who brought up something that I had forgotten about. But
if you watched the Bengals game, it was brought up
during the telecast that Juju Smith Schuster was voted on
by his teammates as team MVP, and David was speculating
that maybe that pushed Antonio Brown over the edge. I

(01:48:22):
thought that was a pretty pretty good point. But that's
voted on by the teammates, by the way, So Antonio
Brown is a phenomenal player, but he is not a
good teammate. And I don't think I think the players
on the team themselves certainly spoke when they voted another
wide receiver as the MVP of the team. I find
it so interesting because you'll always hear about rooms in

(01:48:45):
the NFL, and let me be clear before that's taken
out of context, the receiver room, the quarterback room, the
running back room, and how tight those rooms, right, And
maybe to be fair, maybe it's a little bit more
of a college thing so times, but you hear it
in the NFL as well too. Oh that quarterback room.
And in Dallas, they they're really tight, they really they

(01:49:09):
really get it, they really like each other. That running
back room in Kansas City. You know, it's just it's
always kind of a storyline. Is this to lead us
to believe that the wide receiver room in Pittsburgh has

(01:49:29):
issues or is this just a guy who's a little
bit of a mess. I don't know, let me you know,
let's hey, Frank and iwa hanging there. Since we're on
this topic, let's go to Pittsburgh, Tom, and Pittsburgh just
jumped in. Tom. What do you think where do we
point the finger in this Antonio Brown saga? You're on
the air, Oh my gosh, guy, of course of Antonio Brown.
I look, I'm just gonna throw out some things. You

(01:49:52):
guys can kind of like put it together and you know,
take it from there. First of all, this past year,
Antonio Brown, progressively off the field has really gone downhill.
That's what's being reported. And I think there's something psychological
when somebody's acting as bizarre as he does. And this
is only the stuff that we know about. I think

(01:50:13):
there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes, but I
think there's something going on with him from a clinical standpoint.
I'm just saying it. You know, you got him with
a lawsuit for throwing furniture supposedly off a fourteenth four balcony, right, Eddie, Yes, Yes,
I did, right, Yes, we talked about it. He got
arrested for driving one hundred miles an hour on a street,

(01:50:33):
by the way, that's got quite a few red lights.
It's not like it's a wide open country road. It's
it's through the heart of the North Hills in Pittsburgh,
all right hundred miles an hour. I think what set
him off was Juju getting selected by his teammates. Okay,
who knows, maybe Roethlisberger, you know, petitioned for him to

(01:50:55):
get voted on for that. You know, he had that
bad fumble. Juju. Juju is a media, social savvy person
who's just blown by in popularity in Pittsburgh and nationally.
I think beyond Antonio Brown here you got Nataniel Brown
and the other problem with the Antonio and Eddie. You

(01:51:17):
know this. You know, an office is much better when
you spread the ball around, right, look at Tom Brady.
He he'll throw to nine different receivers and you can
never key and you never know where the heck he's going.
And probably and for a while the Steelers were doing that.
Ben was really spreading the ball around. But you know
what happens. Antonio goes ballistic. Right, if he's not getting

(01:51:40):
the ball, it's almost like Ben's got to throw him
the ball. But then you know, all of a sudden,
if he starts getting open, you do want him get
him the ball like they did in New Orleans. This
is a guy psychologically they know that they got to
be very delicate with him. He's a phenomenal player. He
always works his tail off. Okay, you can never you know,

(01:52:03):
go against the term of his work, ethic effort and
also his production on the field. But off the field,
I think my juju getting selected, that's what just set
him off. That's why this all exploded on Wednesday. And
maybe he felt bad again. I'm just throwing it out there.
I don't know if it's true, if Ben maybe even

(01:52:24):
you know, behind the scenes, maybe lobbied for him to
get selected. But Antonio's got some serious issues. You don't
throw ferns or off the fourteenth floor balcony, you know,
And then you just had eighty thousand dollars in cash
and a gun. You go one hundred miles an hour
on the highway, and you know, you remember all the

(01:52:44):
penalties he used to take after celebrating a couple of
years ago on touchdowns, you know, running into the pile.
I mean, you know, but what does tib would do
if you come down hard on him? Then the guy,
because psychologically he's not playing with a full deck. You know,
he's gonna he's gonna piut, he's gonna act up, so
you trying to have to It's a very delicate line.

(01:53:06):
And again I'm throwing this out there. I don't I
don't know for sure. But but what made this last
instance so troubling is he really went over the line
when he quit on the team. And you know, he
the Steelers made the choice not to play him on Sunday.
That wasn't his choice. He just thought he was gonna

(01:53:27):
show up after blowing off practices, you know, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday and so forth, that he was gonna play and
filing the Steelers put the hammer down on him. And
I don't know where this is gonna go. They're not
gonna trade him. No, they can't eat, they can't they
can't tell I'm gonna jump in here real quick, just
because we're up against it a bit and I want
Eddie to be able to respond. But it was funny

(01:53:49):
last night, hey, because we were do you remember Roberto
in the first hour, we kind of went around the
horn and who was was it Brian that was filling
in And he said, you can't help but think about
you know, any issue that's going on with maybe a
CTE or something of that nature. I know that's kind
of a crutch, but you can't help it. One, is
there something going on mentally with Antonio Brown right now

(01:54:11):
and to the point that Tom just brought up, Eddie,
there's been a lot of incidents at my point to
some sort of issues that's going on between the ears
for him right now. Well, I mean, I certainly can't
speak to any mental issues he might have. I think
he just is living up to the part of being
a diva wide receiver. I mean, he well, he hasn't

(01:54:32):
always been like this when he was when he was
first breaking in on the Steelers, he wouldn't act like this.
It was it was as he progressed becoming a great player,
and he took on almost this persona that I talked
about is like it's almost cliche that if you're a
star wide receiver you have to act this way. Now,
it's not always the case. Like Larry Fitzgerald. I mean,
he doesn't act anything like this, but he just I

(01:54:54):
think the caller made a great point, and he's right.
The Steelers did tell him he's not going to way,
but he put himself in the position to not be
on the field because of the way he acted. I
think the team had to do something they I don't
think they. I mean, they couldn't let him get away
with that, because once he gets away with that, he's
gonna always, you know, continue to do it. So he again,

(01:55:15):
he wasn't on the field because he put himself in
that position. So he's right that the Steelers did hold
him out, but that was because of Antonio Brown's actions
that he was held out. Fascinating conversation and we'll continue next.
My name is Chris Plank, sitting it for Big Ben
Maller right here on Fox Sports Radio. The only thing
better than listening to the Ben Maller Show live on
the radio is here it again at your convenience on demand,

(01:55:37):
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Now live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios in
for Ben Maller. It's Chris Plank. Yes, it's the Ben
Maller Show here on Fox Sports Radio. He is Garcia,

(01:56:01):
that is Justin Cooper, We're Breta Flores on the wheels
of steal. My name is Chris Plank. Next hour as
we head down the home stretch. The best tweets of
the night, The highlights from I Don't want to Say
Bull Season January one, and since this is my probably
last show in a while, prediction sure to go wrong

(01:56:23):
in twenty nineteen, including what I want to kind of
peg as the cheesiest moment of the bull season so far,
but one that I got to admit kind of made
me laugh a little bit. Longhorn Nation, We're bad. That,

(01:56:48):
of course, was Sam Ellinger tonight after the Texas Longhorns
beat everybody's four team playoff biggest miss Georgia, which, again,
if you're making an excuse for a team not winning
a game and saying, well, they should have been in
the playoffs, no, go beat Texas, Go beat the pants
off Texas, and then we'll maybe hear your complain about, wow,

(01:57:11):
maybe they should have been in the biggest claim to
fame that Georgia has this year is that they almost
won against Alabama and pulled off the worst fake punt.
Maybe that we've ever seen, and they did so, according
to some to try to make a quarterback happy so
he wouldn't transfer. Guess what, he's still transferring. With that said,

(01:57:32):
I kind of dig me some Sam Allinger. Now, listen,
I am genetically predisposed to have a complete and utter
disdain for everything burnt orange. But one of the biggest
jokes around the Texas Longhorn program has been the constant
assessment of where they are from the perspective of back

(01:57:52):
or not. Now here's a date you need to mark
down on your schedule, and I'm looking ahead here just
a little bit. But hey, it'll it'll be here before
you know it. October twelfth, two thousand and nineteen. You
might say, a plank, it's January second. I know, I know.
October twelfth, two thousand and nineteen, when five and oh

(01:58:15):
Texas takes on five and oh Oklahoma, Texas will have
beaten LSU. They play on September seventh, Oklahoma will have
knocked off Daniel Holgerson in Houston, UCLA and Chip Kelly
because I guess they just stopped recruiting at UCLA, which
is kind of important to a college football program. And

(01:58:36):
it's going to be the biggest game in college football
in the early season, because, as much as it's been
a proverbial, ongoing joke, this was a really good season
for Texas, really good season. Now we could argue that
they should have lost a few more games. You could
debate that they should have won a few more games,

(01:58:58):
but to see the way that they physically dominated Georgia tonight,
I mean it took a late touchdown to make it
a one score spread for the Bulldogs. So look out,
college football. I'm not sitting here because they do have
some holes to fill. Colin Johnson's going to be turning

(01:59:20):
pro most likely, Lil Jordan Humphrey is going to be
turning pro most likely. But they've done a really nice
job recruiting and they have what everybody needs to be
successful in college football, a standout returning quarterback. It hurts me.
It kind of you know, that indigestion feeling we all
get when we get old. It kind of burns. That's

(01:59:41):
why I've got a credit Texas because I do. I
think they're back. I think they're a problem for college football,
and I think between Texas and Oklahoma, the fun is
back in the Red Rivers shootout, three down, one to go.
Highlights when the Bulls are next right here on Fox
Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk

(02:00:02):
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Fox sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Search FSR to listen live. I still haven't played what
might be the greatest quote of the NBA season, how
the Spurs turn things around last night? Coming up here
in just a bit as the final hour of the

(02:00:23):
Ben Mallor Show kicks off here on Fox Sports Radio,
I'm Chris Blank sitting and the crew was here though, Roberto, Eddie, justin,
I will Coop, and Big Ben's back tomorrow night. We're
counting down to Clay Travis, who I'm sure I'll be
spitting some fire involving the Bowl games today, interesting to
see kind of how they played out, especially with UCF

(02:00:44):
and LSU this morning. With the highlights coming up in
just a bit, and despite all the excitement surrounding the
coaching carousel in the NFL and the playoffs on Saturday
and Sunday, we still find ourselves magnetized towards or with
that away, we're pulled towards the Antonio Browns story, and

(02:01:04):
I'm just I'm not buying the trade. I'm not buying
the trade. Talk are the rumors. I mean, the dude,
if he's dealt or cut, you absorbed twenty one point
one two million dollars in dead money cap it's just
you're done. Keep him around as twenty two million dollars. Now,
there is a little bit of an asterisk on this story,

(02:01:27):
and that is a post June one trade would save
almost fifteen million dollars, So that could make it possible.
But I'm just going to go out on a limb
here and put one and one together and realize most
people would realize if they're working a deal with you,
that you would try to wait till after June one

(02:01:50):
to save yourself the money. So we'll be very interesting
to follow. Has been a fun conversation tonight. All right,
let's talk some Bowl games at eight seven seven ninety
nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six three
six nine. You can also hit us up on Twitter
at Plank Show. Of course, everybody else is very active
on the Twitter sphere at uh Bronco Fan that's Coop

(02:02:11):
at Eddie on Fox at Eddie Garcia, and of course
at a Raider Underscore rob at twenty four. That's Roberto
Flora dul Tonight, We've been asking the question all night
long on the phones, how will the urban Meyer era
be remembered? And it's kind of even tough to truly
kind of pass through that. Are we talking era? Are
we talking tenure? Because is he going to coach again?
Is he the next ad at Ohio State? Is he

(02:02:32):
gonna jump to the NFL? There's so much unknown involving
urban Meyer, but what is known is the dude could
absolutely win. Now, did he leave a little scorched earth
off the field, yes, But in the world of college football,
seventy five to eighty almost ninety percent of fans will
look completely past that for the w Now, I'm not

(02:02:57):
saying we're celebrating urban Meyer's career tonight by ni stress
to the imagination. I'm just curious to get the feel
for how we're supposed to look at this and how
we're supposed to take it. So let's go to Ohio. Well,
Mitchell will kick us off here an hour number four
on Fox Sports Radio. What's going on? Mitchell? Hey? What's up? Chris? Hey?
Thanks for your stick tutiveness tonight man, I appreciate you

(02:03:19):
jumping on. Yeah. Well, I've been at die Ard Cowboys
fan my whole life, and but I love my Bengals. Soon,
I don't know what I ever did. They ever faced
each other in the Super Bowl. I don't think I
gotta worry about that for a long time. Anyway, I
wanted to say, I think Urban Meyers should be the
next coach in Cincinnati for real, because to me, they

(02:03:39):
have nothing to lose. I mean a lot of people
are gonna talk about what they don't want, the media
circus and all that, because you know, the trigger people
we're going to play calls them or the cry babies, ill,
they'll have something to say about him getting that job.
I'm sure. So they may not want, you know, all that,
but then what do they got to lose? I mean,
for me, they are definitely going to be the last
place team there, and now Cleveland's coming up, that spark

(02:04:02):
ain't quite dead yet in Baltimore maybe coming up. So
why not take a chance on Urban Meyer? And another
thing too is you know why did he come back
to coach to begin with at Ohio State because he
loved to hire him. He grew up in Cincinnati. You
can't tell me he has a dream to coach in
the Cincinnati Bengals, so I kind of think he will
be the next coach there. Well, like I said, I

(02:04:22):
just hope to cry babies leading alone. You know one
thing I love about to Clint Travis show us he
talks about triggered people, he rips them to shreds. But
when it comes to Urban Meyer, he's one of the
triggered people. So I'm sure he'll have something sad about
Urban's morning. Anyway. I just I really hope Urban Meyer
gets that job in Cincinnati, willself. Let me talk about Mitchell.

(02:04:44):
I appreciate your phone called, Buddy, and I'm Mitchell seemed
fired up about Irvan Meyer and Cincinnati. Let me tell
you why I'm actually with you on this now. I
don't know. It's a great debate. Would Urban Myers system
and maybe that's not even fair what his style work

(02:05:04):
in the NFL? I don't know. You know when I've
name dropped Arnie a lot tonight, probably because I'm promoting
my show Sunday Night with Arnie Span You're here on
Fox Sports Radio from eight till eleven Pacific time. But
whenever I bring that up to Arnie. He says what
people don't like to win, But I don't know if
he's gonna win in the NFL. Just because you win

(02:05:25):
in college doesn't necessarily mean it's going to equate to
doubles in the NFL. It's a challenge. But here's why
I think why not Urban Meyer in Cincinnati. Here's who
they're reportedly interviewed so far. Can I speak tonight? Here's
who they have reportedly interviewed so far. Offensive coordinator Bill Laser,

(02:05:46):
special teams coordinator Darren Simmons. They're considering Hugh Jackson. There
was a report that they could pursue Mike Zimmer, but
apparently that's out the window. They've requested interviews with Zach Taylor,
who's about thirty three years old, the Rams quarterbacks coach,
Rams passing game coordinator Shane Waldron, and Patriots offensive coordinator

(02:06:09):
and Josh McDaniels. They'll also interview former Broncos coach Vance
at Joseph. While rumors persist that Hugh Jackson could get
the job, you'll hear those names, and Mitchell, you're right,
why not? I mean, if you're sitting in the Bengals
front office and you're trying to figure out your coach.
You're watching Irwan Meyer bid Ado, you're seeing his wife

(02:06:30):
say I hope he doesn't coach again, and you think,
why not? Who cares about the media circus? It's the NFL.
There's one major difference between the NFL and the college game.
In the NFL, you have set times college it can
happen anytime. When it comes to coaches, interviews, players interviews,
they're set responsibilities, they're set times. You can prepare for it.
Who cares about the media circus in the NFL? And

(02:06:52):
by the way, saying this with love, Cincinnati, you're the Bengals.
You might not mind a bit of a media circus
around you in be good for what's become a very
stale situation. You've had Marvin Lewis in there for eight
hundred years, it's been the same thing, different year. You've
had the Hugh Jackson coming on to save things, which

(02:07:13):
he never does, and you always fall short. Why not?
Why not? So from Urban Meyer to our other big
topic of the night. Thanks Mitchell, I appreciate your phone call.
Let's go to Memphis, Zach, what's going on? Welcome to
Fox Sports Radio. I wanted to comment on the Antonio
Brown situation and I wanted to say that it falls

(02:07:36):
on three people. I'd say him obviously, Antonio Brown himself.
I would say that in my experience, wide receivers do
tend to be chippy and maybe a little bit crazy,
and so yeah, that does fall on him. I don't
think that big contract helped either with the big ego,
even though he is a great player and he can't

(02:07:58):
have a big ego. And then I'd say it also
falls on Mike Tomlin, who's a great coach, but he
is the responsibility does fall on him because he's the
leader of that team. And also I'd say Big Ben
because when it comes to a locker room, establishing the

(02:08:19):
culture falls on both the quarterback and the coach. So
I would say Big Ben didn't really lead by example
as a quarterback and create a good atmosphere there in Pittsburgh,
and Mike Tomlin was sort of the enabler to that
and that's what's led to the ab situation. Also, Boomer Sooner, Hey,

(02:08:42):
Boomer Sooner, Baby, thanks for the call. I appreciate it. Zach, Yeah, Eddie,
I have a question is are there captains in Pittsburgh.
I'm trying to think Ben Ben wears the C right,
doesn't Antonio Brown wear the C too? Remember I'm lead here.
I'm pretty I'm positive Ben does. I don't know if
Antonio does or not. Let me look here. And it's

(02:09:04):
kind of funny because I say, do they have it?
I mean, the NFL is well known for their their
little seas, all right, the team cap Ben Roethlisberger and
Marquis Pouncy with Cam Hayward and Chris Boswell, so those
were their captains this year. With that said, that's a
fair point. Hey, you're a leader, You've got to keep

(02:09:25):
things in line. But this is the NFL, you know,
this is This isn't the college game where you can
kind of jump all over someone's like yes, sir, I'm
gonna give it. I mean, this is the NFL, and
Antonio Brown is paid just as well as any other
player in that locker room. So it's got to be
kind of tough to basically have one guy try to
keep him in line. And I think I think what

(02:09:47):
Zach was talking about kind of falls in line with
what you've been bringing up tonight, and that is it's
a very confusing situation. But Eddie, there's plenty of blame
to go around, There's plenty of fingers to point in this. Yeah,
I like I said earlier, I think you can criticize
Ben Roethlisberger for a lot of things, for being a
drama queen. And you know, with his comments at the

(02:10:09):
beginning of the year, you know about maybe not playing
and then oh no, I'm definitely gonna play. And you know,
I'm not saying that there aren't other issues with this team,
that everything is Antonio Brown's fault. But it's just as
You've talked about, it's a really difficult situation when you
have a guy who is as important as Antonio Brown
is and who's getting paid what he is to be

(02:10:32):
able to, you know, really tell him you're going to
do this, and you're going to do that because he's
not going to listen to you. I mean, if he's
not gonna and he's not gonna listen to the head coach,
so then what do you do? Then you sit him,
then you suspend him, you find him. But is that
going to solve the problem. So they're trying I think
they're trying to they're trying to play Kate Antonio Brown
as much as they can. And I think that was

(02:10:55):
the issue this year with them. Like I said, I
think they definitely went out of their way to try
and get him the ball. There were times they throw
those little wide receiver screen passes to him, even though
I don't think they knew that. They thought they were
gonna work, just so they could tell him you're getting
your touches and make him feel like he's involved more
in the offense. But look, it's like I said, there's
blame to go around. But in the end, with this

(02:11:16):
situation with Antonio Brown, now it's it's on him because
I don't know what his issue is. I'll say one
thing about him. If the Steelers do decide, hey, we're
gonna try to make a deal here. Now we can't
make this deal until after June one, but we're going
to shop him. Every team in the NFL could use

(02:11:39):
Antonio Brown. I don't care how deep your receiving corps is.
You want Antonio Brown, But I wonder what the market
would be. I truly wonder a what kind of compensation
you could get and be how many teams would be
interested in trying to get him. Of those who need him, which,

(02:12:03):
by the way, there are thirty one other teams in
the NFL who could use an Antonio Brown. Or we'll
take him in Oakland. Coop would take him in Denver.
Everyone listening, uh, everyone listening. Blind Scott would take him
in New England for the Patriots. I mean everyone, look,
every everyone loves the talent. That's yeah, there's no debate

(02:12:25):
about that. It's just all the other stuff that has
to come with it. You can't separate the two. Unfortunately.
Oh it is hard, and that that's kind of my point, Eddie,
what do you do? What do you do? Because you've
got to have a very strong willed either coach or
position coach or so. And I don't even know if
he would respond. I had a chance this year. I

(02:12:48):
had a chance to see Antonio Brown because he came
to the Oklahoma West Virginia game. Storytime with Plank maybe
and usually it all involves the Sooners, So maybe we
should work on Boomer Sooner his background music for this
in the future, Roberto. But he was he was his
own guy. He was over in the corner of the
end zone, had what I think was what a fur

(02:13:09):
code on and just enjoying the game. Yeah, yeah, I know, shocking, right,
But he was cool. You know, he was saying hi
to fans, he was introducing himself, but he was doing
his own thing, and I just thought to myself, what
a what an awesome dude. I bet he is, I
said this, Eddie, I bet he's a great teammate. Look
he's out here supporting Marquis Hollywood Brown, who is his

(02:13:30):
cousins with Murray. He's a great teammate when he's happy.
When he's not happy, he's a terrible teammate. So, which
goes for just about ever again. Yeah, which again goes
to why they try to get him the ball as
much as possible, also because he's great, but they want

(02:13:51):
to try and keep him happy as well. I think
they've I really think as far as the play calling goes,
they really have gone out of their way to try
and keep him happy and keep him motivated. But he
still isn't. Yeah, it's apparently it's almost it's almost as
if you know, you just you don't want to deal

(02:14:13):
with that mess. Okay, So again, Arnie always compares everything
to this alleged dating life that he had. I don't
know if he really existed or not, but I doubt it.
I doubt it's it's like his amazing basketball abilities that
he likes to tuck. Dude, you have no idea he has.

(02:14:34):
He's added video now to his basketball yeah, boy, but
he'll always say it's almost as if the hottest chick
in the world she wants to date you, she wants
to be around you, but you have to deal with
the baggage of crazy ex boyfriend or she's insane and
you know so that's kind of I guess how you
could use an analogy here for Antonio Brown. All right,

(02:14:57):
if you're on hold, hanging there, we'll get it right
to you eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox Good stuff,
rolling it on Twitter as well too, as we head
down the home stretch on a busy edition of The
Ben Maller Show here on Fox Sports Radio. You can't
lick your own elbow, travel at lightspeed, or sneeze with
your eyes open. However, you have the power to increase
the audience of The Ben Maller Show. Tweet, Instagram and

(02:15:18):
Facebook post about the show. Don't be bashed. We'll tell
your friends and family about our distinct program. Tell bad
new listeners like yourself and Ali from the Geico Fox
Sports Radio studios. In for Ben Maller. It's Chris Plank, Eddie.
Can we have our conversation on the air that we
were having on Twitter? Because I'm okay with it. I
think it's fun to talk about I like hockey. It's

(02:15:38):
the Chris Plank Show in for Ben Maller, So yeah,
you can talk about whatever you want. Just funny thing. Yeah.
The funny thing is Ben would be very anti this,
and there's a certain sense that I feel of making
sure I hold it up to his level of expectation.
But this is a fascinating story that broke today. It's
not about the two penalty shots on a couple of

(02:16:00):
fouls on a breakaway goal in what the Swedish Cup
or something like that. I was following the World Junior Championship.
I was very close. So we had the Winner Classic today,
which has become a favorite of mine. I mean, any
chance you get an opportunity to watch outdoor hockey, you
will do so. But correct me if I'm wrong. But
they announced next year we'll be at the Cotton Bowl. Correct, Yes,

(02:16:21):
the Dallas Stars will be hosting a yet to be
named opponent. Here's the thing about the Cotton Bowl. Yeah,
and for those listening in the Dallas area, you can
you can jump in on Twitter with this. We won't
take calls on it, obviously, but it is a very
it's a very historic venue. Yeah, it's there's not a

(02:16:44):
lot going on there outside of the State Fair, which
always intrigues me when they have bowl games there. It's like, oh,
it's the bowl game live from the historic Cotton Bowl.
There is legitimately nothing going on around the Cotton Bowl
unless it's the State Fair. So I don't know why
they even do it. And lets the neighborhood isn't necessarily

(02:17:08):
the safest, so I'm going to imagine this will be
a day game whenever it takes place. But I think
it's cool because it is relatively close to downtown Dallas.
It will be cold, I mean, I think, and they
better have their contingency plans in place in case weather
rolls in. But I saw that, and at first I

(02:17:29):
kind of did the old rock curl of the eyebrows.
But then Eddie, I thought, man, that's damn cool a
because nothing ever happens at the Cotton Bowl outside of
ou Texas and be what a unique way to kind
of put this event and venues that wouldn't typically get hockey,
which has kind of been the normal last couple of years. Well,
the NHL does like to go for the historic venues

(02:17:49):
if possible. They've done Fenway, They've done Wrigley Field. They
had notre Dame Stadium today, So I guess I get it.
I just wonder. I've never been there, so I just
wondered if it would be a good venue for this event.
Although I mean, I guess they don't really I'm not
gonna say they don't care about that, but in the end,
it's what's going to bring up the most interest. And

(02:18:10):
I had always thought that Jerry World at and T
Stadium made the most sense because you know, they love
having unique events there, whether it's a boxing match or whatever.
But I do understand that the Winner Classic is January first,
and they have, you know, the Cotton Bowl. They're on
the twenty nine, So you can't set up the ice

(02:18:31):
rink that quickly, I don't believe, and so I guess
they can't have it there if they want to do
it on January first, and then the Cowboys are playing
obviously a playoff game coming up so then they'd have
to tear it down in time for a potential playoff game.
So it wouldn't surprise me to see Jerry find a
way though. If this goes well, If this goes well

(02:18:52):
the Cotton Bowl, it wouldn't surprise me to see Jerry
find a way over the next couple of years to
make it happen. All right, UNI gonna say that. The
only bad news is when they have these types of
games in these non traditional places, they usually don't go
back there anytime soon, Like we had one at Dodger Stadium,
but that was I think it's like six years ago.
And yeah, it's been a while. I don't think they're

(02:19:13):
coming back any in the next couple of years either.
It's crazy you said they had it in La six
years ago. I thought it was like last year. That
tells you how I think it was twenty twelve. Tells
you how time flies. Man. I saw basic. My son,
who's fifteen, is one of those kids that always shows
me memes, and it was people born in two thousand

(02:19:34):
are people that grew up in two thousand and nine
versus people growing up today. I'm like, wait, that was
in two thousand and nine. I was like, what are
you talking about? So time tends to fly for me.
So when you say that happened six years ago, Gosh,
I'm really getting old, Eddie. I've got to start. I
gotta recalibrate. All right, Let's let's get two more quick
calls in here before we hit things predicting that are

(02:19:56):
sure to go wrong in twenty nineteen, plus tweets and
some highlights from the bowl games today. So let's try
Frank in Iowa. If he's still hanging in there, Frank,
welcome to Fox Sports Radio. What's going on? Frank Bild?
Let me try Jeff and Pasadena last Call to night.
What's going on? Jeff? Or your last time? I wanted

(02:20:18):
to touch based on the Antonio Brown thing and kind
of compared to the Matthew Stafford thing with my Lions. Listen,
I know you said that great show. By the way,
I wanted to touch mentioned that. Uh you know, you
brought up that there would be twenty or thirty one
other teams that would talk about Antonio Brown or that
would take him. But I would be, being a Lions fan.

(02:20:41):
I wouldn't want an organization to take him. And here's why,
Because a lot of Prima Donald wide receivers. They always
crash and burn at the end. It's happened with Dez Bryan,
It's happened with Chad Ochocinco, It's happened with uh, what's
his name, Terrell Owens. I mean, these guys think that
they're bigger than the team, and they never want to.
They never want to, you know, they're always complaining and

(02:21:03):
crying and winding about getting more. I need more catches,
I need more catches. So you know, I don't want
the guy because I think he's overpaid and I think
he's basically a quit on the team. And you know,
if I was Pittsburgh, I would wait until after June
first to cut him. The segue and the Stafford thing
is is again there's still a lot of fans on

(02:21:23):
the board, on the boards I post on thinking that
he's going to get traded or they should trade him
or cut him. And I keep telling them, look, you know,
it's the same thing you mentioned with Antonio Brown about
the cap space thing. It's the exact same thing with him.
They can't cut him or release him because if they do,
it would count between sixty and eighty million dollars in
dead cap space, so he's not going anywhere. We're stuck

(02:21:46):
with him. He's a great quarterback. I don't I don't
understand why they just can't build the team around him,
and you know, see what happens from there. I'll take
your comments off the air, Chris Bye. Is they cut
at Stafford? And I don't understand. Maybe maybe this is
a conversation for one of our cap guru guys, Joel

(02:22:08):
Corey or maybe Andrew Brandt, But is in twenty nineteen,
Matthew Stafford would count forty nine million dollars against the
Lion's salary cap forty nine mill, And there's no magic
date in which you cut him by where you're like, oh,
it's only five and then next year it's twenty mill

(02:22:33):
against the cap. If you cut him, he has a
potential out in twenty twenty one. Man. Look around the league,
and I say this a lot involving Raider fans. And
I don't know where you fall in this, Roberto, but
I say this a lot of Raider fans that get
nuts and say, oh, we gotta move on from Derek Carr.
Look around the league, there's not necessarily quarterbacks that are flourishing.

(02:22:54):
The top six highest paid NFL quarterbacks did not make
the playoffs. You have to build around them, period. And
I know the big investment is in quarterbacks because really
good ones are few and far between. So when you
say we got to get red of Stafford, really who
you want to go get? I mean, you want to
Dwayne Haskins. Is it gonna be there for you to draft?

(02:23:15):
You want to draft Drew Locke. You want to bring
in a Ryan Fitzpatrick. Do you want to pay Nick Foles?
You know it's fine, but you're not looking at a
long term fix. I think Matt Stafford's a hell of
a quarterback. And I think we just get upset because
guys don't necessarily perform how we want them to, and
we look at their contract and say, oh my gosh,

(02:23:36):
they should be doing better, and they should. But man,
take Josh Johnson started at quarterback for the Redskins for
goodness sakes. If you got a good quarterback, and Matthew
Stafford is a good quarterback, give him time. They fired
their offensive coordinator or they mutually agreed to part ways,
and old Jim Bob Cooter, who is on his way
out Let's see what they do to bring someone in.

(02:23:57):
You can't go anywhere with them. That's I mean, I'm sorry.
You might think you're better off. I don't think you are,
and you can't do anything about it with the cap
situation you're in. All right, let's move on, shall we
to Twitter when we come back? But first from the
Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios, Eddie Garcia in the house
with everything that took place in the world of sports
last night. What's up, Eddie? Well, let's get you cut

(02:24:17):
up on all the New Year's Day Bowl action in
college foodfall will start with the Sugar Bowl, where Texas
knocked off Georgia twenty eight to twenty one. The game
actually was not as close as that score would indicate,
the Longhorns knocking off the fifth ranked Boldohns, who some
people thought you should have been in the College Football Playoff.
Texas quarterback Sam Ellinger three rushing touchdowns in that win
for the Longhorns. At the Rose Bowl, the final game

(02:24:38):
as Buckeyes head coach for Urban Meyer in Ohio State,
sends him out a winner with a twenty eight twenty
three win over Washington. Buckeyes' quarterback Dwayne Haskins three touchdown
passes in the victory. At the Fiesta Bowl. It was
LSU holding off Central Florida for a forty to thirty
two win. UCF suffers it's first loss in two seasons.
A twenty five game winning streak is snapped. LSU quarterback
Joe Burrow had four touchdown passes in the in citrus

(02:25:00):
foul Kentucky over Penn State twenty seven, twenty four Wildcats
finished with a ten win season for the first time
since nineteen seventy seven. UK running back Benny Stell Junior
is the team's the programs all time leading rusher with
his effort in that game. He also had two touchdowns.
Out Back Bowl. It was Iowa over Mississippi State twenty seven,
twenty two. Some NBA games of note, Raptors beat the

(02:25:21):
Jazz one twenty two one sixteen Toronto as the most
wins of the NBA with a twenty eight and eleven record.
Kawhi Leonard career high forty five points and that when
for Toronto Nuggets over the Nicks one fifteen to one
oh eight. Denvers a half game up on Golden State
with the top record in the Western Conference at twenty
four and eleven six Ers over the Clippers one nineteen
to one thirteen. Top twenty five college basketball. We had
three ranked teams in action wins for number nine Florida State,

(02:25:43):
a number ten Virginia Tech, but number sixteen Marquette lost
to Saint John's eighty nine to sixty nine. The support
brought team by Truecar. Online car shopping can be confusing,
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can know the exact price you'll pay for your next car.
So visit Truecar and enjoy more confident car buying experience.
Back to Chris Blank and me Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios.
Thank you, Eddie. A couple of crazy stats that I

(02:26:05):
have to share just because I mean, I'm hopeless when
it comes to my silver and black. The Steelers have
missed the playoffs five times in Ben Roethlisberger's career. I'm
sure you know this, Eddie. I'm not bringing it up
to rub it in or anything, just the facts. Two
thousand and six, two thousand and nine, two thousand and twelve,

(02:26:28):
two thousand and thirteen, and now in two thousand and eighteen.
Crazy stat, maybe more so for the caller earlier who
wanted to point the finger at Big Ben and say
he's awful to drama filled gotta move on. He's causing
all these problems because the drama with Antonio Brown. Every
year the Steelers have missed the playoffs with Ben Roethlisberger

(02:26:50):
at quarterback, they missed by one game. One game. There's
not a four and twelve year in there. There's not
five and eleven. There's not three and thirteen. Heck there,
I don't even think they're seven and nine. They missed
the playoffs. Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season
with the Steelers. That's amazing. But here's what's even crazier

(02:27:10):
about those five years. Every time that Ben Roethlisberger missed
the playoffs, they lost a game to the Raiders. And
speaking of the mighty Oakland Raiders as a team as
a team, did we talk about this, Robert, I'm sorry
with it. As a team. The Raiders had thirteen sacks

(02:27:32):
this season. Not good, Danny, not good. Thirteen sacks. If
you would too, if you were to take Raiders that
were on the roster for Oakland in twenty seventeen who
are now playing elsewhere, they account for thirty two sacks.

(02:27:54):
Thirty two that includes names like Khalil Mack maybe you've
heard of him, off for two first round picks, Deniko
autreyja'd Ward is in. That makes Bruce Irvin as well
as well too. But yeah, yeah, thirty two to thirteen.
I'm not good. All right, let me hit some tweets
here real quick. We had a good back and forth

(02:28:15):
throughout the show tonight about what to make of the
bowl games today. For instance, you know every year there
is this tradition in college football. It happens every single
year where a favorite team loses and suddenly they didn't
have interest. Well, you know, Georgia loss to Texas because

(02:28:38):
they weren't in the four team playoff and they weren't interested.
They didn't have that same drive in that same fire.
I get it. I understand it's not the four team playoff.
But you can tell me Kirby Smart didn't prepare like
he typically would for a game. You're gonna tell me
that he went into any of his meetings or his
prep less intense than he typically would. Get out of

(02:28:58):
here with that, and then of course there's UCF, who
I gotta be honest with you. I thought with everyone
that was sitting out for LSU, I thought they were
kind of trying to hand in the game, and UCF
still couldn't pull it out. Granted though, as at calvs
A dub City points out, I'm gonna give UCF a
pass because they were playing LSU without their starting quarterback,

(02:29:19):
but Georgia no pitiful loss at Beer Barn fourteen added,
LSU started the Fiesta Bowl without multiple starters on defense
and fell into an eleven point hold before exposing UCF.
LSU owned the game for about fifty of its sixty
minutes and out gained UCF by more than three hundred

(02:29:43):
yards of total offense. All true statements at lab On
Law Our Labond Law Rights. LSU was playing without nine starters,
two of which were defensive all Americans. They they started
their fourth string corner and he got ejected. They actually

(02:30:04):
had a receiver at corner for the entire second half
and still held UCF to two hundred and fifty total
yards on the day. Greedy Williams and Grant Delpitt were
the All Americans who did not dress for anyone wondering,
and if you think their absence didn't make it a
bit easier on UCF's offense. I've got real estate property

(02:30:25):
in Florida. I'd like to discuss with you. You know,
that's the thing that's kind of funny about it is,
you know you want to say wow. In fact, it
was crazy on Twitter. UCF jumped out on top early
and you would think that the game was over with.
How those who proclaimed that UCF belonged to the playoffs
or that they were a great team. Oh, they're up early.

(02:30:47):
It's like, damn, guys, it's a four quarter game. We're
talking ten minutes into a four quarter game and you're
planning your flag on UCF. Whenever LSU finally got established,
they steamrolled them, destroy them. But no, no, no, let's
not get in the way. If you're a narrative, much
like Mark, people are going to say that Georgia didn't

(02:31:08):
care about the bowl game last night, just like Alabama
didn't care when the Sooners ran over them a couple
of years ago. It's a constant narrative. It's a constant
narrative whenever a team that you expect to win in
a either New Year Six Bowl or back in the day,
a non BCS Bowl, when they lose and you thought
they were going to win, Suddenly it's about well, it

(02:31:31):
wasn't a championship game, it wasn't a playoff game, so
nobody truly cares. Whatever fits the narrative, I guess is fine.
And then one more quick point, this one from Paul,
who writes, I can't wait until next year, guys, when
jobs like USC, Auburn and Florida State are open and

(02:31:54):
we will be treated to a million Urban Meyer rumors.
I think that's going to be incredibly interesting to watch
when And maybe I don't necessarily know if I would
add Florida State on there, but I definitely think I
definitely think USC and Auburn our schools to keep an

(02:32:17):
eye on, because you know you've got a call urban
Meyer at any of those vacancies. Some might say, but
what about the off the field stuff? Tell us matter more?
I mean, you you feel like in any of these
I'm not saying I agree with it, but you would
feel like in any of these situations you could pr

(02:32:38):
spin it to where, well, when we'll be fine, don't
worry about the off the field issues. And that's what's
going to happen at a place like USC if they
pun on Clay Helton after this year, all right, I
want to wrap up. I have a couple of predictions
for twenty nineteen and a couple more really good tweets
that just made the cut before we get out of
here on the final Overnight eighty six the Big Ben

(02:33:00):
Mallor Edition for the Holidays next right here on Fox
Sports Radio. Of course, don't forget the biggest story of
the night was basically hammered home by one Sam Ellinger
Longhorn Nation or Bad October twelfth, twenty nineteen. Market down.

(02:33:21):
Now Oklahoma, Texas is going to be something else. Speaking
of college football, nobody will give you better breakdowns, analysis
in reaction than Clay Travis, who is back after taking
New Year's Day off and will have a complete breakdown
not just of everything that took place, but what it means.
What does it mean as we get set for Clemson

(02:33:42):
and Alabama in the National Championship Game. And I told
you guys, we didn't talk about it tonight, but we
got into it quite a bit last night. This Marcus
Mariota saga, I think is just getting started in Nashville
right now. As a matter of fact, the leader in
my world of the Tennessee Titan fan club. Sean at
Shady eight four twenty hit me up moments ago and said, guys, plank,

(02:34:07):
what's Marcus Mariota's worth to your Raiders? Hashtag tighten up?
It would be so interesting with some of these we're
talking about Matt Stafford last segment, with some of these contracts,
Derek Carr and Mario. Mariota's obviously got the fifth year
option coming up this year, so maybe he's not necessarily

(02:34:29):
in this mix, but Carr and Stafford some of the
high priced guys to see if teams decide to maybe
all right, try to make a move. I had a
Philadelphia friend say that there's a rumor in Philly that
because of Mike Mayock's love for Carson Wentz, that the

(02:34:49):
Eagels may be willing to commit to Nick Foles and
try to deal wins to the Raiders for a couple
of number ones. We could have madness in the NFL
involving the quarterback position over the next couple of months.
But the one thing we know for sure, we got
some time in the NFL playoffs will get underway this weekend.

(02:35:10):
We'll get to the super Bowl. But as soon as
the Super Bowl wraps up, It's going to be possibly
the craziest offseason we've had in the NFL. Add to
that the fact that I think we have a true
number one in the draft. I think Dwayne Haskins is
an NFL star, but some don't feel that way. Some
think it could be a Drew Lock maybe the Jones

(02:35:31):
get out of Duke. Maybe well Herbert's not turning pro now,
but maybe you might have someone willing to take a
risk on a Kyler Murray. I don't know how he
fits in the NFL, but maybe it's Maybe it's an
NFL draft that doesn't necessarily have that star power at quarterback,
especially like last year's, but we overvalue quarterbacks like we
do left tackles and cornerbacks, which got me to Josh's tweet.

(02:35:54):
So the two best quarterbacks in all of football this
year Patrick Mahomes and Dwayne Haskins. And I'm even more
impressed with the fact that Haskins hit fifty tds in
five thousand yards in less games. Man, there's moments where
he looks like QB one. I mean, he looks like
the kind of guy that if he's on your roster,

(02:36:15):
you're going to win championships, and not just Big ten championships.
I'm talking Super Bowls. I'm talking to visions. I'm talking
conference championships. Sky has that look, mister nice guy hits
us up as we head down the home stretch. Matt
Stafford is the Philip Rivers of the NFC. What's wrong
with that? I mean, what's is that bad? I don't know.

(02:36:39):
I mean, I take it Philip Rivers is a bit
of a roller coaster. But I mean Philip Rivers is
in the playoffs. I don't know if that's a bad thing.
Is if that's a knock, I don't know how much
of a knock it is a Staffords, it's a knock.
I mean his quarterback ground. I was gonna say a

(02:36:59):
few more yeah, but I don't wish that I had
Philip Rivers for the past How many years has he
been the Chargers quarterback? Twenty nine thousand, it seems exactly.
I'm glad he wasn't our quarterback for that period of time.
You're Mike, Mike right, we have a super Bowl. He doesn't.
That's because of your quarterback at the time. Well, he

(02:37:20):
let up. We had a big fight about this. The
other night, Coop, because I've forgotten that Peyton had that
bad Super Bowl year. Oh, I was just getting buried
because my whole thought was Peyton Manning was great when
he came back from his injury, but he had one
bad year and suddenly it's the worst thing that ever happened.
I still want a Super Bowl though, Mike writes Urban Meyer.
I don't think would be allowed to coach in the

(02:37:42):
NFL too much inherited controversy. Really, Okay, I'm not allowed
by who wants to hire him? Then you're gonna hire him.
I mean, my gosh, guys, Cream Hunt is going to
get resigned this offseason. Reuben Foster got to resign after
getting cut by the San Francisco forty nine ers. They

(02:38:03):
finally had to suspend Old and Smith so he wouldn't
still be on the Raiders roster. I mean, please, I
just don't think there is a such thing as too
much inherited controversy. And then one more this from Brandon.
The best thing I will take from the Urban Meyer
era is going undefeated his first year at Ohio State,

(02:38:23):
but being unable to play for the national championship, then
turning around and winning the first ever playoff, especially beating
saving Hey. Like I said, I think it's gonna be
very curious to follow over the next couple of years
how the Urban Meyer era is remembered. I have the
biggest problem whenever you paint him out to be some
sort of sympathetic figure. I get at Columbus, you're gonna

(02:38:46):
love him, and we're all dumb because we want to
call him out. Same in Gainesville. But if you try
to make him out as a sympathetic figure, oh, he
overcame so much adversity. Get out of here with that.
That's garbage, all right, Everyone one appreciate all the tweets,
calls reaction to the show tonight. Thanks to Justin Cooper. Coop,
I always dig working with you, Roberto good New Year's

(02:39:09):
Eve show last night, even a better show tonight. And Eddie,
you're the best. But I know Big Ben's coming back
tomorrow night, but can't wait to listen. And you've got
me rooting for the Chargers, so I hope you and
your wife have a blast getting set for the Chargers
and the Ravens. I'll be back on Sunday night with
Arnie Spanier from ten p to one a Central Time.
Until then, Clay Travis is next right here on Fox

(02:39:31):
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