3 & Out - The importance of good coaching, Cowboys have many issues, Kauff on Campus - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
My people? I'm John Middlegoth this three and Now podcast.
Hopefully everyone's having a good day, a good morning, maybe

(00:24):
an afternoon, depending on where you're at, what you're doing.
And today the Chicago Bears, Chicago Bears fired their offensive coordinator.
I did a reaction video on YouTube, so you can
go check that out on the YouTube page. Make sure
you subscribe to that right when it happened, just an
instant reaction. I'm going to talk today a little more
about just the big picture ramifications of just the Bears

(00:48):
aren't alone when it comes to dysfunction. The Cowboys, meanwhile,
we're going to lose their quarterback for the season, Dak
you know, ripped his hamstring off the bone going under
the knife and he's gone. So Cooper Rush, Trey Lance
and more Cowboys losses. The Giants meanwhile, are in that

(01:10):
conundrum of like do we bench our quarterback? So if
he gets injured, you know, if we play him he
gets injured, we're gonna owe him money next year. So
they've kind of been getting asked about that and kind
of trying to circumvent the answer. But I think I
don't know how much longer Daniel Jones has as a
starting quarterback for the Giants, and it might start this week,
might start in a couple weeks, but I'd say the

(01:32):
end is near. And then I want to dive in
on cough on campus as we do this every Wednesday.
Big story out right now is the animosity and anger
from Ohio State people on the big noon kickoff and
then constantly playing games at noon, which I do understand,
So I just want to got to dive into that.

(01:52):
If you haven't fallowed, it's a big story in the internet.
Joel Klatt was tweeting a bunch about it. Brady Quinn
has made some comments, but trying to get Brady quin
on the show through some people, so hopefully we talked
to him sooner or later. But yeah, that's we will
dive into that and some other college stuff as well
as a mail bag, so you guys know the drill
of the mail bag at John Middlecoff as the Instagram

(02:14):
fire in those dms. Get your questions answered on the show,
and if you listen on Collins Feed, make sure you
subscribe to the three and out feed. I appreciate everyone
that has and Uh, let's talk a little football. But
first you know what we gotta do and tell you
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I think we do this often, whether it's in sports,
whether it's in business, whether it's in politics, we kind
of over complicate things. The media definitely does a really
poor job of this, Like I think most things are

(04:07):
not actually that complicated. And I think you definitely see
it with football coaching, right Obviously, a good coach can
go to a situation that isn't good and not have success,
but it doesn't mean that he's not a good coach.
But you kind of know right away, You're like, and
it's hard because you can't quantify this. And I think

(04:29):
a lot of the new age media who loves analytics,
they love the ability to quantify everything, and I mean
my style and just the way I live my life.
I'm more of a gut feel guy, and I feel
for the most part, over the course of my life
it suited me pretty well. Why I trust this gut,
which right now is a little too big, But I

(04:50):
am a huge believer in like you kind of know
stuff when you see stuff, and you got to go
off instinct. And I've been lucky enough. Like the coaches
I've been around, it was pretty clear, like, yeah, this
guy's in alpha, this guy's a leader, this guy kind
of has quote unquote it. And then you watch some
guys and you go like Brandon Staley, this ain't gonna work, right,

(05:16):
Matt Eberflus, no chance, this is not gonna work. Now.
You can't overcome it, right just because you think a
guy doesn't know. If he starts winning and he's got
some magic sauce, like listen, it's hard to push back
against it, right, you know the end result, Like we
live in a bottom line world. It's black and white.

(05:36):
But for the most part, it's like yeah, the Harpbob Brothers, Tomlin,
even Dan Campbell, which a lot of people question. Then
over the course of times, like yeah, he's kind of
got it. He kind of brings something to the table.
I've seen all these think pieces on the election. You know,
all these different variables. Like, guys, this wasn't that complicated.
She does not resonate with people. She never has. When

(06:00):
she tried to run in twenty twenty, she didn't make
it very far. Why she couldn't get one percent of
Democrats to get behind her. She was the lowest rated
vice president in the history of this country. So when
she gets smoked in the election, like, yeah, no shit,
because she does not resonate with people. And as a politician,
either resonate with people or you don't. Whether you're Donald Trump,

(06:22):
whether you're Bill Clinton, whether you're Barack Obama, we kind
of know when we see it. Some things work and
some things clearly do not. It's no different coaching. You
get most coaches get them on a whiteboard and they
could have some success, and they would blow you away
with their knowledge. You'd be like, holy shit, this guy
really knows his defense. He has really mastered you know,

(06:45):
his side of the ball. This guy can scheme with
x's and no's till the cows come home. Will can
he communicate with his own players. Can he lead his
own players? Does he know how to take that information
that he wrote on the whiteboard and change as the
team that he's going against has answers for what he's doing.

(07:06):
What happens when someone on his team dies? I mean
that sounds more than an awful, But what happens when
someone's on the team's daughter dies? This is life. These
are real things. So you not only have to have it,
you have to understand football and you have to be

(07:26):
able to handle a million things coming at you every day,
a million miles an hour. It's not the forty nine ers.
Last week, Tarvarius Ward was not with the team. You
know why again when I bring up to death, because
it was on top of my mind. His one year
old daughter just passed away last week during the bye.

(07:47):
There's no like preparation in football school to teach young
coaches how to deal with this. That doesn't exist. You
just certain people are more equipped to handle adversity, to
handle craziness. For whatever reason, it's no different. I was
reading this article and I think I mentioned this yesterday

(08:10):
talking about Chris Shula, the new defensive coordinator for the
Los Angeles Rams. And Chris Shula's dad, who is Don
Shula's son, spoke about how Kasehan McVay they played college
football together at the Miami of Ohio. They all used
to come to their house. I think they had a
sweet house in Florida during spring break and hang out.

(08:31):
I don't know how many guys five eight ten, And
one of his comments were like, obviously you didn't know
Sean McVay was going to be an NFL head coach
at thirty two years old, But one thing was clear
when he was eighteen nineteen, twenty years old hanging out
with the rest of his teammates. He was the lead dog.
He was, as we say in normal life, the alpha.

(08:53):
And I think when you watch some of these coaches,
they ain't alphas and they get overwhelmed. So regardless how
much football they know, you put him in that spot
like Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Andy Reid, Mike Tomlin, the
Harball Brothers, clearly Dan Campbell, they have ability to handle
shit that most people don't. It's just a fact. Like

(09:18):
I talk about Kyle Shanahan a lot, you know who
kind of the leader of the whole operation sometimes can
be John Lynch. So when I see the Chicago Bears
completely unraveling, like you had no shit. Matt Eberflus and
Kevin warrenar in charge. So I will defend Caleb Williams

(09:41):
like under this, you know, in terms of not the
easiest place to go in and succeed. And he is
not Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck who would succeed no
matter where you put him. He like the overwhelming majority
of players need help, need to be led. Tom Brady

(10:03):
needed it. It's part of the highest level of competition.
There is a small, small, small percentage that can kind
of overcome everything. And I would say Peyton Manning is
the best football example. Lebron James a pretty good basketball example.
Caleb is not gonna fall under the category of like

(10:24):
he could overcome the dysfunction now is he good enough?
Only time will tell. Are we ever going to be
able to find out? Who knows? You know why I
was thinking about this today. What's the difference between the
Chicago Bears and the Las Vegas Raiders? Like the Las
Vegas Raiders are the low hanging fruit that most people
make fun of, and they've earned that over the last

(10:47):
the Internet age post two thousand and one, two thousand
and two. Since right now, so going on twenty plus years,
it's been really ugly. They've had a lot of low moments.
They been known as kind of a cheap franchise, but
then that kind of changed when Mark Davis offered John
Grewen and one hundred million dollars and then a couple

(11:08):
of years later went all in on Josh McDaniels. Now
they both backfired and fucked them, but like, I gave
him a lot of credit for trying. And I was
always critical of Dean Spanos, like, what's the point of
having this multi billion organization if you're always gonna go
cheap on the coach? How does that make any sense?
Think how stupid that is. No other organization in any

(11:31):
other industry would do that. It's like, wait, you have
this thing that is this valuable, that makes this much money,
and you have a position that you could argue. You
could argue the head coach is equally as important as
the quarterback, because we've seen a lot of great quarterbacks
not win shit with bad with bad coaches, but we've
seen great coaches win games with average quarterbacks. And you're

(11:53):
gonna pay this guy on league average, on the lower half,
like you deserve to loose, and we can still make
fun of the Raiders because they lose and they do
stupid ship, but at least their owner has tried several
times taking an enormous swing. And if I'm a Bears
fan and listen, it's over, it's water and under the bridge,
You're never getting this guy. But it was right there

(12:14):
for you to for it to happen. Jim Harbaugh was available. Now,
I think two things are true. You would never have
been comfortable giving Jim harball what ultimately Dean Spanos gave him.
From what I've heard, is like sixteen plus million dollars
a year. Jim Harbaugh makes a lot of money. And
number two, Jim Harbaugh was never going to answer to

(12:37):
Kevin Warren. Jim Harbaugh hates Kevin Warren and rightfully so,
but when it came to football, he was not going
to work hand in hand with Kevin Warren about building
his football team. So you would have had to fire
Kevin Warren, which I think is clear the Bears are
not only not going to do, but unless something dramatically
changes over the next two months, he's going to have

(12:59):
even more more power when Eberflus gets fired. But look
what happened. The Bears fired Luke Getzi. He goes to
the Raiders. He doesn't even make it to Thanksgiving. You
hire Shane Waldron, who doesn't make it to Thanksgiving. You
guys are basically the same organization. Some would argue the

(13:21):
Bears have more talent. Some would argue the Raiders before
they trade DeVante had the same amount of talent as
no quarterback. But it's all about ownership. Like, that's what
I'm saying. When we overcomplicate it, when your owners really
suck and they have no clue what they're doing. This
is what happens even when you try and your heart's

(13:41):
in the right place and you open up your checkbooks.
So I think there's a clear line of delineation, Like
the same owners keep winning, the same teams in the
NFL keep winning, and the same teams keep losing. So
if I'm a Bears fan, in what world can I
be confident that anything's gonna change? Because who are we getting?

(14:06):
We're not gonna sniff around Belichick or you think Mike
vrabel is going to have to sit down with Kevin
Warren and tell him who's going to be up and
down on game day or what player he wants to
cut or trade for no chance. But that's the dynamic
that they built, that the coach and the GM answer
to him, and now you have this GM. I mean,

(14:29):
there are a lot of, you know, rumors out there
that he was the guy that didn't want to fire
ebra Flus. And it's a tough position to be in,
especially if you like someone personally. It's anyone who's ever
been in the position, whether you own a deli or
whether you run a major company, having to fire people
that you really like and respect. Because I think it's

(14:52):
easy to fire people that you don't like and don't respect.
It's harder to fire people that you like but don't
think they're any good at their job. But when you think,
like I think this guy could be good at his job,
I know we don't know the results, but I also
really like their human I live like I understand where
you would come from having a emotion and empathy in

(15:16):
your heart of like, let's just see if this can work.
I do get it. But when you're hired to take
that job, like I'm sorry, like you got to be
a little cutthroat. There is a balance to this all,
and now you have this situation of your team resents
the quarterback. I don't think these stories flying around that
people went to either the head coach or the GM

(15:36):
like let's play Tyson is just made up and pulled
out of someone's ass. Your best wide receiver who signed
I think a historic deal this during hard knocks, so
during training camp, a contract extension who has been an
excellent player in the NFL. I think it's fair to
put the piece of the puzzle together to go, Yeah,
he's not a big Caleb Williams guy, and I would

(15:59):
say if you were in his shoes and you were arguing, like, well,
argue against me, how are you gonna win? It would
be difficult. You'll just blame the scheme. But it's like, hey,
what about when plays are there, he doesn't throw the
ball anywhere. It's a disaster. So you have this perfect combination.
But it all gets back so we can nitpick all

(16:20):
the bullshit. This is what happens during politics. Let's just
go to the root of the problem. The ownership is terrible.
It is awful, and I don't follow it as closely
as diehard Bears fans or people in the NFC North.
Clearly they have no they're not inclined to sell the team.
So as long as they're there, nothing's gonna change. And

(16:43):
the Packers are going nowhere obviously because they never do.
They're the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFC. Minnesota for most
of my life have been a pretty well run team.
They've just had good football teams. I know they've never
won a super Bowl, but pretty good teams. The Detroit Lions,
who have been a joke, Like, clearly they got a
real coach. We'll see, you know, And I've talked about this.

(17:07):
I think on the reaction video when the news broke,
there's gonna be pressure if Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn
both leave and become head coaches. I wouldn't just chalk
the Lions up next year another thirteen fourteen wins. It's
going to test Dan Campbell, but like, look at their roster,
A lot of people would love to be there. They're

(17:28):
gonna be okay, They're gonna be very competitive, and I
think he's kind of proving that proven now that ya
he kind of knows what he's doing. He's a pretty
high level guy compared to just Dan Campbell to Eberflus,
think of a job, what job besides like getting styled
up to go out to a party. Would you pick

(17:51):
Eberflus over Dan Campbell? Nothing that involves leadership, Nothing that
involves anything that would you know, addy toughness. I'm not
even talking physical, I'm just talking, Hey, this this could
get Harry, who do you want to be in the
boat with. We're all choosing Dan Campbell, And you'd argue

(18:12):
that goes back now two or three years before they
started winning at this level. Something about Eberflus just off.
It seems like a nice guy. But to lead my
football team like part of football? Why these guys say
like we're going into battle on Sunday? You know why?
Because it is a physical and mental battle. And eber

(18:34):
Flus can't win a Sunday road game. He's never won
a Sunday road game. Think how impossible that is? Honestly,
I don't even think it's statistically possible. Even if you
win two or three games a year, You've never won
one road game on a Sunday, never one. And the
answer is no, never won. But like I see it,

(18:57):
and I'm closer with this because you know, I just
know Raider fans and I live out on the West
Coast that like the Raider, the same shit's gonna happen. Okay,
maybe they'll fault fire Antonio Pierce after the end of
the year, Like do I have any faith that they'll
figure it out? Of course not. And I think a
lot like the Bears, once you get into a division
and you start getting lapped in terms of the people

(19:21):
running the show, it's like, how are you chasing down
what would it take to chase down Sean Payton, Andy
Reid and Jim Harbaugh, Like in what like you're gonna
hire Bill Belichick that that would be the only opportunity
that you'd have a chance to compete. He's not taking

(19:42):
that job. Honestly, you probably just hired Dean Sanders. If
you end up getting the number one overall pick takes
your door, hired Deon Sanders. At least you'd be interesting
because right now you're the worst of both worlds. You know.
Part of what makes the Bears interesting is Caleb Williams.
If Caleb did not exist and they just had justin Fields,
they would not be as interesting. So, like, the problem though,

(20:05):
is if he does not get better within a couple
of years, it's no longer interesting. It just becomes the Jacks, right.
The Jags are just irrelevant now. The Bears have a
much bigger fan base. I'm not acting like they're on
equal footing in terms of importance to the league because
of the city the size of their fan base. But

(20:26):
Lee's been just fine a lot of years when the
Bears have sucked, and I don't know what would change.
So I just fire Shane Waldron for Thomas Brown who
They'll all be fired here at the end of the year.
Their strength of schedule the rest of the season is
by far the hardest in the league. They're a huge

(20:48):
underdog at home against the Packers. We don't even know
if Jordan Love's playing. It's just it could get a
lot uglier. And to me, if you were going to
do anything today, you fire the head coach. Just fire that. Well,
who's gonna be the interim? Who gives a shit? That way,
you can start looking around, you can start being serious.

(21:10):
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Speaker 1 (22:57):
Speaking about less serious. You know, I watched, you know,
Damian Woody went after Micah, and then I saw the
clip of Micah going back after Damian Woody. And one
thing I think that Micah has a hard time with
because Damien said, essentially like, why are you talking when
you've been injured? And then Micah Parsons is like, you

(23:18):
act like I want to be injured. That's not what
he was saying. His point was simply you come out basically,
you know, it sounded like you were calling him lazy
and you had not been playing recently. But regardless of
the back and forth, the Cowboys have just become, i mean,
a pretty big joke pretty fast. And now Dak Prescott

(23:40):
who is out for the season, who is pretty clear,
like how often does the guy pull his hamstring and
it's like he needs surgeries? Out for the season. Kind
of just feels like we're punning on the year. I
gotta be real with you. I think it's the right move.
You'd want to lose out from here on out. You
want to have as high of a pick as possible.
It's not even about the first round. It's about eround.

(24:00):
Your team is going nowhere, your coaching staff is trying,
your players are even trying, and you are getting your
ass kicked. You are screwed. If anything, I would play
Trey Lance because that guarantees you will lose every game.
And if you're the Cowboys, you want this season and

(24:20):
with the second or third pick, ideally the first pick regardless,
and have as many options as possible, because that even
makes your job much more desirable because obviously you're gonna
have to pay Parsons. You're gonna have three players making
what's Parsons gonna make one hundred and twenty hundred and
thirty million dollars guaranteed, CD made a hundred guaranteed and

(24:41):
DAK made two hundred guaranteed, so ad it off. You're
talking like four hundred and fifty million dollars guaranteed. It's
a lot of money invested in three players. Who I mean,
Dak at best is like the seventh or eighth quarterback
that's at best when he's playing his best. On average,
he's probably like somewhere between ten and thirteen. Parsons I

(25:01):
think is a little overhyped great pass rusher, not a
great run player, but a really good defensive player. And CD,
you know, give or take somewhere between three and six
as a wide receiver. So it's not exactly like, well
we got Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and Lawrence Taylor, three
guys everyone would want, well, not Dak but the other two.
But you pay for it. And I think it's just

(25:23):
time to punt on the season. You know it already
happened to you organically. Now you can control it and
just keep losing these games. And I think the number
one question is going to be is like who is
Jerry interested in hiring? And are they interested back? Like
is he interested in Mike Rabel because I think if

(25:44):
he was, Vrabel would be interested back. Is there any
interest in Bill Belichick or are they just gonna want
to do some younger assistant, which I think would be
a pretty crazy pivot from a guy that Listen, we
can nitpick Mike all we want. It's hard to really
argue that he knows what he's doing right. So if
you hire Ben Johnson or Liam Kohen or all these

(26:04):
guys that are having incredible years as offensive coordinators, there's
no guarantee they can be a head coach, and you
can find yourself in a situation real fast where it's
really shitty. So I you know, the Cowboys, their only
question now is because they're they're gonna lose games. That's
they just have to show up on Sunday. They'll lose.

(26:25):
It's gonna be the coaching situation. We know the fate
of Mike. He's done. It ends and he had his opportunities.
You know, I think his first two years in the
playoffs were there for the taking at home against the
Niners and Jimmy Garoppolo like that was there, buddy. And
two years ago on the road against the Niners, they

(26:46):
easily they should have won that game that they were
taking a two party and Dak played shitty. It's kind
of been that. It was the kind of the story
of you know, I would say Mike's tenure in some
big games, Dak let him down, let him down a
big time and on the Giants, you know, I think

(27:06):
it's on a tough spot. I saw Joe Shane had
some quotes today basically saying like rebuilds are hard, like
we feel good about the direction we're going, which, I
what is he supposed to say? Our team sucks? If
I was a fan, I wouldn't watch us play either.
This is the worst product I think I've ever seen
since being a sports fan. This blows clearly. He's got

(27:29):
to be glass at full and both him and the
head coach have reiterated like it will be a football
decision based on Daniel Jones. This isn't peewee football. This
is a business, and you obviously misplayed your hand when
you gave Daniel Jones all that money. It was a
disaster contract, one of honestly the dumbest contracts we've ever

(27:51):
seen in the history of sports. Like we have seen
some big contracts and then a guy get injured, right,
It's like nothing you can do you pay a guy
who's an excellent player and then he gets hurt. It's
like that's unlucky. But sometimes, like you pay a guy
all this money. You see it in the NBA a lot,
like when the Wizards gave Bradley Beal two hundred and
fifty million dollars, you're like, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's

(28:13):
the worst contract of all time. I feel like that
with Daniel Jones, You're like, yeah, I think that's pretty dumb.
Everyone kind of universally thought like, yeah, I don't think
that adds up, and it aged even worse. But he's terrible.
He's just not good enough. He had a couple games.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Stretched this year where you're like, okay, he's he's serviceable.
You're like trying to make excuses for Him's like, I
think you can compete with this. He's not turning the
ball over. But then over the course of time, it's
like he just gets worse and worse.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
I think you gotta bench him. I think you make
a business decision right now. And if you're John Marrow,
like you gotta get involved, Like what's the point of this.
We're not winning any games with this guy. So you
could argue from a football standpoint, just go to the backup,
just see if that gives you a better chance to win.
And two, in what world do we see a scenario

(29:04):
even if we can control it, and we don't know
this guy any money where he's gonna be on the
team next year. Well, the answer to that it doesn't exist. Right.
You don't want this guy on the team next year. Right, clearly,
I think they like the guy as a person. He's
a bad football player, and relative to his position that
are starters in the NFL, you could argue he's one
of the worst. So why wouldn't you control what you

(29:26):
can control and just bench. That's what they should do. Okay,
let's go on campus a little cough. On campus is
a fun time of year. It's kind of sad sometimes
when you look at the current time of where we're
at when it comes to the football season, like, we
don't really have that much left. Telling stuck you this
last week. Sometimes when I scroll over, I'm like, we're

(29:47):
already in week ten. I was looking Ole Miss is
eight and two. I'm like, God, they only got a
couple of games left. Football season's going a little too fast.
I wish, you know, we could do a slow rewind,
go back to like Week five. I like a long
football season because even sometimes like I gotta watch Monday
night football, it's still way better than not having football on.
But one topic that's pretty controversial right now in the

(30:11):
land of Ohio State and a television network is this
big noon kickoff and Big noon kickoff. Obviously, when Fox
got the Big Ten a couple of years ago, they
created this time slot on Pacific Standard time. It would
be a nine am kickoff, and it's dominated. It is

(30:32):
dominated now. Over the course of the last three years,
with all the good Michigan teams in all the good
Ohio State teams, the overwhelming majority of those games involved
those two teams. And this year, because Michigan has falling
off a cliff, the last six Big noon kickoffs have
been Ohio State. And Ohio State fans are freaking the

(30:56):
fuck out because they go, this is insane. Why can't
we get a night home game. They look at LSU,
they look at Texas, they look at Georgia this week
against Tennessee. They're getting all these night home games. And
I think from Joel Klatt, who went on this long
Twitter rant giving his perspective from the Fox side, how

(31:19):
well these games have done. How big this game has
been for ratings for the conference and it's all true.
And then all the Ohio State fans, well, yeah, it's
been big for the conference because you're using Ohio State.
This isn't some equitable transaction. It's not like, well we
use Iowa this week, we use Nebraska. You're just riding
the two big dogs. And now that Michigan and Harbaugh's gone,

(31:42):
fuck them, it's just Ohio State. It'd be like playing
the Cowboys or Lakers in every primetime game. When they're good,
it'd be a no brainer. But eventually it's like, well,
no one else is bringing anything to the table. And
this is how it works in the NFL, speaking of
like the Bears or the Raiders or some of these
bad teams, doesn't matter if they're bad or good, because
as long as the Steelers, the Ravens, the Chiefs, the Niners, right,

(32:04):
the Packers, the Eagles, like they keep winning over the
last three years, the Cowboys, those games get the highest ratings.
Yet everyone at the end of the year, during the
course of the year, with the payout, makes the saint
because the partnership as a whole is worth more. Now
I think Ohio State would say, well, if we went solo,
we'd be like Notre Dame. Our value is worth way

(32:26):
more than Rutgers. That's one hundred percent true, but the
value to the network as a group is very, very valuable.
I do understand Fox's point of view if this game
had been the night Big Ten kickoff and it went
against the SEC, because the SEC's two main time slots

(32:49):
are obviously the one after Big Noon I'm just gonna
go on Pacific Standard time are usually a twelve thirty kickoff,
and then the night kickoff, which is four thirty. Both
those are Pacific stands times, so the late afternoon and
then the night window, which they dominate. So Fox realized
there was a gigantic opening in the morning, and it

(33:10):
hasn't just worked, it's dominated. So two things can be true.
This was one hundred percent the right move for the
television partner to make the highest ratings for Ohio State, Michigan,
and the rest of the Big Ten when they play
those teams. Also, it sucks for the fans, it really does,

(33:35):
because having a night game mixed in every once in
a while when you are as good as Michigan has
been in Ohio State. It is a big deal. It
is way more fun. There is something to be said
about tailgating, drinking all day in the communal aspect that
the SEC is really getting to enjoy right now. But

(33:57):
I do think part of and listen, Ohio State versus
Diana in two weeks, if they put that game at
seven point thirty Eastern time at night, would do well
ratings wise, but it will do better in the morning
competing against nobody because think about that morning slot, you're
not really competing against the best SEC teams ever playing
each other, and Notre Dame because usually they play at

(34:21):
some sort of you know, time slot in the next
two I think it's a tough one. I really do.
At the end of the day, you have to realize
this is a fan. They need you. None of this
shit would exist without us. All these sports, all the

(34:43):
money comes from us, especially in football. The reason they're
getting these massive television contracts is because we watch, and
as long as we watch, we don't actually really matter,
and they don't don't give a shit about us. And
you could argue, hell, in the NBA they lost half

(35:05):
their audience and they doubled their television deal, so maybe
it's just a unique time where television rights, you know,
with live programming for sports is so unique and powerful
that we don't even matter as much. But without us,
there's no money. Like that's not an opinion, that's a fact.
But so many people are watching. You can bitch and

(35:26):
moan on social media, but if seven, eight, nine, ten
million people watch all these morning kickoffs, they're gonna keep
doing it. Why because it's working. And part of it
is like you complain all you want. They're like Rutgers
in Minnesota bring nothing to the table, which is somewhat
true in terms of the massive television ratings. But your

(35:48):
value to these television partners is the overall inventory as
well as the cash cows. So you do need them
to fill in Fox Sports one at seven thirty at
night when Minnesota plays Iowa. That does bring value to them.
So at the end of the day, nothing's gonna change.

(36:09):
And I one thing I do agree as an unbiased
like I'm not a big ten guy. It has helped
your conference having when you have a sweet game Penn State,
Ohio State, when you have you know, Michigan, Ohio State
has played in that time slot forever Michigan's played a
ton of those games over the last couple of years.

(36:31):
I watch you because you're not really competing against anyone
else I want to watch, So you get me as
a consumer, which if it was LS now with YouTube TV,
I get the four box. But like at night, Ohio
State Indiana or LSU Alabama if they're on at the
same time and I only have one option to watch

(36:54):
one game. Most people don't have multiple TVs, like myself,
Like I'm choosing LSU Alabama. So you guys have created
a niche for I would say the sport. It sucks
if you're an Ohio State fan you want to go
to the game. It probably sucks if you just want
to watch the game right and like just want it
to feel bigger at night. But I just don't think

(37:16):
it's gonna change. I mean unless like Ryan Day and
Ohio State brass like refuse to participate. And it doesn't
feel like that's gonna happen anytime soon. So it's just
gonna be a bunch of people complaining when the same
thing continues to happen. I mean, it really does. And
I get where you're coming from, Like we are as

(37:36):
important of a college football brand as anyone in the country,
and that is one hundred percent of fact. Fox needs
us really more than we need them. You could put
us on any other network at most time slots, and
we are going to move the needle. That is a fact.
But you're signing a contract with these guys, so they
got you by the balls, and they're gonna utilize you,

(37:59):
and they are utilized you, and it is working to
your benefit because more people are watching this game than
they would otherwise, which still a lot of people would watch,
but because of the less competition in a weird way,
it is also working to your benefit in terms of
the program. You know, one thing that's crazy the way

(38:20):
college football's kind of played itself out is like the
ACC with Miami losing and obviously Clemson falling apart and
losing some games, like they're only getting one team in
the Big twelve, they're only getting one team in. So
we have four conferences that they're whoever wins the conference
championship gets an automatic bit. But when we look at

(38:42):
the SEC and we look at the Big Ten, you know,
I think the over under on that the amount of
teams of those two conferences is like seven and a half.
If I was a betting man right now, it's say
eight teams between the SEC and the Big Ten, probably
four and four get in. I'm pretty confident that when
you look at the Big twelve in the eight are
getting one team each whoever wins the conference championship game

(39:04):
for both conferences. So if you go four, four is eight,
two and two is ten, then you probably go Notre
Dame in Boise State, and that's it. And when you
look at the Big Ten, like I think we got
a pretty good idea, it's a little less jumbled than
the SEC. It's Ohio State, it's Oregon, it's Penn State.

(39:29):
And I think unless Indiana loses like one hundred to
nothing like Indiana's in, the SEC gets a lot more
weird because you're gonna have a ton of two loss teams,
and there are gonna be some two loss teams that
don't make it the SEC championship game. And what if
a two loss team makes the SEC championship game, like
Georgia or if Tennessee were to lose this weekend and

(39:49):
they have two losses I'm just using an example, or
Ole Miss or whoever, and they lose that SEC championship game.
So now they have three losses, but they go, hey,
we just weren't in this game, especially if it's a
close game. We played an extra game, so that team
with two losses didn't even make it. The SEC could
get complicated, but I do feel pretty confident that you're

(40:10):
gonna get four teams from each conference, and the Big
twelve's kind of falling apart because BYU pulled one of
the craziest games out of their ass. You know, the
utahed was like ready to get fired. He was so mad.
Iowa States falling apart. Colorado now controls their own destiny.
I think the networks that's who they want. They want
Colorado to win out and then win the Big Twelve championship,

(40:32):
so do I That's what I'm rooting for. But I
also think what's cool about college football is while individual
games like ultimately USC playing LSU, whoever lost that game,
their season was very much alive, right, But it was
clear going into that BAM LSU game that someone was

(40:53):
playing for their playoff lives, and I believed in Brian Kelly.
I'm just like, you know what, Alabama doesn't look that good.
LSU obviously is coming off a bad half against text
A and M. But the games at home, their offenses
should be really, really good. Their defense has played a
lot better. It's just from a gambling standpoint, I'm like,

(41:14):
how do I not take LSU as a dog at home?
And that game was over pretty fast. I mean, we
didn't even make it till halftime before it's like, this
thing's over. And I think the cool part about college
football is how these one game scenarios can kind of
define you for a while. Like ultimately, the USC game

(41:34):
when Brian Kelly slammed his hand didn't define him because
he came storming back. And then even that first half
against Texts A and M, it was like, God, LSU
looks like they could be a problem in the playoffs.
Then the second half comes, but his first half was
good enough where it's like you weren't gonna totally act
like Brian Kelly was some idiot, because if you watch
him in the first half, I think of the score

(41:55):
at halftime was seventeen to seven, but it felt like
it should be thirty to seven. LSU was destroying them,
and then nus Meyer melts down and then it bleeds
right into the Alabama game, and now they have whatever,
six straight quarters of getting worked and we go from
Dubor it's like, you know, he's wearing T shirts on

(42:16):
the sideline. Nick Saban never would have done that. This
team looks like they're gonna be eight and four. They're
fucking falling apart. The Saban dynasty fields like seven years remove.
What is going on? And now it's like, oh, do
the math. They're gonna be ten to two and guess
where they're gonna be in the playoffs And Kaylin DUBOORR
for the second straight year with two different programs, is

(42:36):
gonna be playoff bound? Now it technically last year was
the final four, but you know what I mean, that
was a massive win. And I think it's one of
the rare cases where it's like bigger loss or like
worst loss for a coach or bigger win for a coach.
I think it was equal on both sides. I think
that's a devastating loss for Brian Kelly. Not because he's

(42:57):
gonna get fired, not because he's gonna get run out
of town. But I think the last couple of years,
you know, people still wanted to give him the benefit
of doubt and it got your hype, your hopes hyped
up for this season. He was the guy in the
USC game, and props to him for saying, no, Lincoln,
We're not going to reschedule this game. We're playing you
in Vegas. He was the one that refused to tap

(43:20):
out and I gave him a lot of credit for that,
and then he lost. It's football. Fuck, shit happens that
TEXA and M second half. You're like, what the hell
just happened? But you're like, hey, it's on the road.
That's one of the craziest environments ever. Elko, the coach
for A and M, was like, listen, he said that
I watched this press conference after the game. He's like this,
this this place needed a lot of help. We had

(43:41):
a lot of issues here this program. We had a
lot of different things. We had a to do list
a mile long, but one thing that was not on
there was this atmosphere at this place, as they call it,
like the twelve. And it's hard to win on the
road in the SEC, but at home against a Bama team,

(44:02):
which I think a lot of people question, like how
good it is relative to a lot of other Bama
teams and get beat like that that one's hard to shake.
And it's also a big moment for de Bors, like, hey, guys,
you know who I've beat this year? Kirby Smart. Last
time I checked, he's under a contract for well over
one hundred million dollars. Oh and Brian Kelly, Yeah, yeah,

(44:23):
I think he signed a ninety million dollar contract. So
you do the math. I'd beat two guys that have
contracts signed that are approaching or maybe over depending on
the language. Two hundred million dollars. I beat him both
year one with a quarterback that I didn't pick, who's
much more of a runner than a passer. And if
you've seen me coach like Jay Cane or Michael Pennix,

(44:44):
I want a pocket passer. That's how I call offense.
But if I got to adapt, fuck it. Thirteen million
Kirby a year will kick his ass at home. Brian Kelly,
what are you paying him a year? Ten? You want
me to go on the roads to baton rouge, yeah'll
bend him over. Pretty big moment for Debor just kind
of quiets everybody, Like, guys, this dude from South Dakota

(45:08):
kind of knows how to coach ball, and this is
the highest level football, you have some devastating losses. It
comes with a territory. I saw Sean Payton his press
conference after that loss to Andy Reid. He's like, the
reality is, as a football coach and as coaching in
this league, you're gonna have games like that, and hopefully

(45:29):
over the course of time you're on the right end
more than the wrong end, that it happens to you
more than it happens on the other end. And right now,
I would say in the Mahomes Andy era, it feels
like for the most part they have been on the
right end of the majority of them. They've had a
couple go the other way, right the Tyreek Hill play

(45:50):
against Cincinnati that kind of derailed that game, and they
ended up losing at home in the AFC Championship game
the Super Bowl against Tampa Bay when they were missing
their tackles, got boat raced. It happens. But I'd say
this for a guy that lost to Vanderbilt, which actually
i'd say age better because it's pretty clear that Vanderbilt's
a real program. Is like Caitlin knows what he's doing,

(46:13):
And if I was a Bama fan, I would not
trade my coach for Brian Kelly. And if I was
an LSU fan, if you gave me the option, like
would you trade to Bor for Kelly, I'd be like, yes,
I didn't think he'd hesitate. That's how fast shit changes.

(46:39):
Little Middlecoff mail bag time at John Middlecoff is the
instagram at John Middlecoff Instagram. It's crazy, I'm recording this.
It's not even five o'clock yet in the afternoon. It
just gets dark so early now. But fire in those dms.
Get your question answered here on the show. We do
one on the weekend, try to do several during the week.

(47:02):
But yeah, you guys know the drill. Just my Instagram.
Fire in. We will start with Reginald, but he goes
by Reggie. Longtime listener, first time question regarding McVeigh and
the Rams. The team won three straight with the previous
setup at offensive line, the right tackle being out definitely hurt.

(47:24):
But Jackson at center when you had a rookie who,
by most accounts, PFF and some other analytics sites say
he was playing very well, and you put a guy
who had three weeks worth of practice at the position
because you signed him to a contract this offseason. At
the guard spot, in this case, where would you have

(47:45):
to pay a guy? Do you have to play a
guy because you paid rather than play the best for
a continuity of the unit. Did McVeigh overthink this, well,
Jackson the center was staffing. I mean, Stafford's I would
can call him like Peyton Manning or Joe Flacco is not.
He's six six, but he's I bet he's six three

(48:05):
and a half and he had to reach up a
couple times. I mean on the one that he ended
up picking up on the fumble. Those snaps in the
shotgun were not great. I do think anytime you're a
GM slash coach, and I think it's fair to say
that less in McVeigh are one and the same, like
when they signed guys, Obviously they're gonna be instances where

(48:26):
one guy's pushing for the other guy. You know, a
player that maybe the other guy just gets convinced, but
he's not totally on board. But I think you don't
sustain success for that long without you both being on
the same page. When you do invest a lot of
money into a player, whether it's a guard or center,
whether it's a linebacker, what other whatever position, you do

(48:49):
for your own ego want to see it work, and
I think it's hard when a guy early in the season,
like if this was year two or three and he
had a long history for you of struggling and the
other younger player had filled in at multiple moments, then yeah.
But I think it's very fair to assume that when
you pay a guy a lot of money, he doesn't
get bench just because he got injured, especially if you

(49:12):
think he is a good player and has you know,
was playing well before he got hurt. I think it's
easy to second guess when you know you re put
in some starters that you paid and they don't play
as well as the younger players who were previously in there.
I think it's a tough spot. I think year one
of that situation, the veteran player who's making a lot

(49:35):
of money gets the benefit of the doubt. I think
where you get in dicey situations is is this year
two or three of the situation, when he hasn't played well.
Then it's on the coach in the GM to be like, no,
we're just going with the young player. I think year one,
like you believe this guy is a better player over

(49:55):
the course of ten weeks, twenty weeks, right, so anyone
can have one better game. I'm defending him here. It's
not like I haven't broken down the film or asked
for the intel on the Rams offensive line situation. But
just watching, you know the guys struggle. Clearly their offensive
line as a whole. That unit struggled in that game

(50:16):
against what I would say is not the greatest defensive front.
Though the young player from Penn State Miami had a
pretty sweet rush. But I don't have a problem with
reinserting a highly paid player who's I mean, we'll barely
start in November, so you still are probably pretty high
on the guy. Can we all admit now that Chase

(50:38):
is better than Jefferson. He's breaking all these records for
two hundred yard games, two hundred fifty yard games, and
Jerry Rice and I believe the second most fifty to
sixty yard tds for a career at his age. He's
a lot more explosive than Jefferson. Jefferson has had way
more targets than him as well, as pure stats don't

(50:59):
show the whole story. But I am a fan of both,
and it's funny how everyone just says Jefferson is the best,
and there's no debate, but they never made sense to me.
Curious what you think. I do believe whichever guy got
to play with Joe Burrow would just have some remarkable games.

(51:19):
Joe Burrow, this version, over the course of his career,
is much better player than Kirk Cousins and is obviously
dramatically better than Sam Darnold. So, like all things aren't equal.
If me and you run a race, we just run
one hundred yard dash, or we run a mile, just
me versus you. There are no variables. Hey, tomorrow the

(51:40):
race is at Nuon, so you know, like what time
you need to eat, what time you need to hydrate,
what time you need to start stretching like this, just
it's mono amano. I play you golf, I play you tennis,
just me versus you. Right, we're both playing the same course,
we both playing the same you know, if we give
each other the same exact tennis, rackets, football, there are
variables like who's calling your plays, who's throwing you the ball.

(52:05):
I think it's pretty I'm with you. I think it's
pretty close. I think I'd have to really do a
deep dive, Like if you got the option, which guy
would you take if you were starting a team tomorrow
and you got to pick one of the two, I
would have to do a lot, like, do a lot
more research. I would not feel comfortable just going. I
would take Justin Jefferson right now. And I'm guilty of

(52:26):
saying Jefferson's the best wide receiver, but I think I
said when did they play? Oh, it's Thursday night. Like listen,
I don't know if he's the best wide receiver, but
I know he's a lot closer to one than he
is five in the rankings. Like Jamar Chase is an
elite dominant player. They are both game changing dominant forces.

(52:47):
Body types are a little bit different, right, one guy's longer,
Their games are different. I would say Justin Jefferson's more
just pure route runner. Chase is like the best version
of like a route runner, you know, DJ Moore, Deebo,
Samuel over the middle, ability to break tackles, make guys miss,
run by guys. Jefferson is like pure what you would

(53:11):
develop more in a lab. Chase is kind of this
new era, explosive, unstoppable force. I got no issue with either.
I'd hear both sides of the argument. I think as
of as I sit here right now not doing deep dives,
because I'm with you, it wouldn't be about the stats
my deep dive. If I was going to pick between
the two of them to like play for my team,

(53:32):
if I was a coach or a GM, I'd have
to do more research on the person, which clearly they
both really like football because they play their ass off,
and to just really study the tape, because again we're nitpicking.
It'd be like who do you want? TJ. Watt or
Miles Garrett. Well, you couldn't go wrong either way, but

(53:54):
if you were really choosing one or the other, you
would have to do a deep dive. Right It's like, hey,
I'll give you two homes. They're both worth nine million dollars. Well,
if you didn't get to pick, or he didn't get
to choose, you'd like, well, give me either, because even
if I don't like it, I'll just sell it. But
if you truly had to live there and they're giving
you two options, like you would probably do a deep dive.

(54:15):
You don't want to go check them out. So I
hear you. I do think we kind of flippingly give
Jefferson more credit than Jamar now, his stats, like you said,
are pretty hard to argue. He does get a lot
of targets, which obviously boosts the stats. But I think

(54:36):
when you look at Jamar Chase, yeah, I mean Jefferson's
has been a lot better. I do think Jamar is
a pretty special player, and he's having a very very
special year. He's having a year a lot like Justin Jefferson.
I mean last year he had one hundred catches for
twelve hundred yards in seven touchdowns. Good year, previous year
eighty seven, one thousand, don't I don't have the games

(54:59):
played on the way. I'm looking at her right now. Again,
he's he's a fucking baller, uh, I say right now,
Justin Jefferson. But I hear what you're saying. Teams find
starters and quality players in the third round all the time.
As a Nighter fan, my buddy and I are still
upset we invested a third round pick for at best

(55:22):
an above average kicker. Obviously, Moody had a rough game,
and I don't want to let recency bias skew this,
but if you're using a third round pick on a kicker,
you gotta be sure he's the guy in your opinion,
how egregious of an error is it taking a kicker
in the third round when there's, for example, dominic poonies

(55:45):
out there. Shouldn't kickers be seventh rounders or udfas. I
think this is a pretty simple answer for me. I
would say, there's a line where you can't take a kicker.
You would never take one in the first round, you
would never take one in the second round. I have
a hard time taking one if I'm a bad team

(56:08):
and I'm drafting in the top half of the third round.
I do think once you become a super Bowl team,
or once you become a high end playoff team and
you draft at the end of the third round, you
view that pick and maybe you don't have a fourth
round pick, like, what the hell's the difference of me
taking this guy at pick ninety six. Let's say I'm

(56:29):
pull up what his exact pick was. Then if I
were to have a fourth round pick, right, Jake Moody
was picked ninety nine, So if I'm the forty nine ers,
I'm a pick ninety nine, Like, there's a big difference
to me taking that kicker at ninety nine and then
seventy five, because you go well, the fourth round starting
in a couple picks, and we don't have the option

(56:49):
to take a guy. Once you start getting that third day,
it's like whatever. If you are going to take a
kicker or a punter on the second day of the draft,
which I would say nine point nine percent is always
gonna be in the middle or the end of the
third round. He's got to be a plug and play
starter and be really good. I'm pretty sure Justin Tucker
was an undrafted free agent, and I saw Richard Sherman

(57:12):
going on this rant because like anyone with a brain,
we him, myself and everyone else that I respect defended
Deebo Samuel because Deebo Samuel looked at Jake Moody, who
was drafted in the third round. His job was simple
make kicks, and so far early in his career, including

(57:33):
the Super Bowl, he has missed kicks and all if
Deebo would have said you're a piece of shit, you
suck out have been like, yeah, that's probably not the
ideal thing to say. In the middle of the game,
Deebo Samuel looked at him and said, lock in and
the whack job long snapper comes flying off the top rope.
Even Kyle acknowledged the long snapper crossed like shut up,

(57:56):
he didn't. You're allowed to be critical. And the one
thing Richard made the point of, it's pretty clear you
can find kickers. It's the most replaceable position. It is
easily the most replaceable position. And I don't disagree. As
we sit here in twenty twenty five, I guess it's
still twenty four, but you know what I mean. Brandon
Aubrey did not play kicker in college, did not play

(58:18):
college football. I don't evenk he played high school football,
started kicking when his soccer career ended. After college, the
dude baits on Sunday Night Football. They're like, yeah, he
just started kicking. Well, I don't even know his story,
but I don't want to screw that up because I
almost said he didn't play football, but I'm pretty sure
he did. Played college football. So he played at Arkansas,

(58:43):
he played at Texas State. He was an undrafted free agent.
He goes to play for the Michigan Panthers, which I
would imagine as a USFL team. Professional American Football is
a UFL team, So he's an undrafted free agent. Plays
goes to the UFL a year later, he's just kicking
game winner after game winner for the I don't know

(59:05):
one of if not the best team were currently in
the NFL. So it's like, I take this guy in
the third round and listen, he's coming off an injury,
which is an ankle injury, so it's it's not the
easiest injury to come back from if you're a kicker.
But like I put this on Kyle and John, if
you're gonna make him active, fuck, he better be ready.
When the previous two guys they had just had I

(59:27):
don't think he'd missed a kick. So it's a major
problem when you draft a guy and it's he does
not need to be Justin Tucker. There there's gonna be
a few Justin Tucker's in the history of our life,
but he needs to be your starting kicker for multiple
contracts and right now as through a year and a half,
Like Jake Moody's job security is in question in the

(59:47):
long snapper supporting him when he's part of one of
the worst, if not the worst unit, the special teams
unit for the forty nine ers in all of football.
If it wasn't for the punter with Snowski, who they
also drafted who's good, and I think they took Mitch
in like the fifth round, take a fifth, take a fourth,
take a sixth round punter. As long as he's your starter,

(01:00:09):
I got no issue with it. And he's a good player.
But if you're gonna draft a kicker, whether it's the
third round or it's the sixth round, the fucking guy
better be just your starting kicker. And while Moody's your
starting kicker, they got a lot of questions for him,
So I don't have an issue with the third round pick.
But here's the thing with kickers. Unlike a lot of positions,

(01:00:30):
this guy was a dominant college player and he kicked
in the elements. Jim Harball was quoted as saying, this
Moody played at Michigan death taxes, and Moody like, this
guy didn't miss. And then immediately he comes to the
NFL and in the preseason he starts missing. You're like,
holy shit, here we go. And you've seen this happen.

(01:00:51):
Sometimes when a guy loses his confidence, it can go fast.
I mean you see it at all. Nu Smiler nuss
Meyer was cruising this season. He was like, is he
gonna be the first team all SEC quarterback, and then
the second half of the A and M game happened,
and then the Alabama game happened. You go, this guy

(01:01:12):
sucks right now. That's how fast it can happen. It
can happen to all of us, and no matter what
we do. When you have the confidence, you feel like
it'll never go and when you lose it, which you
can lose very very quickly, especially as a young person,
it feels like you're never gonna get it back. And
that's why you watch Jake Moody. You go, he's in
his own head. And the hard part about kickers, like, well,

(01:01:33):
you can't. It's not like you know he's the right
tackle or debo or you know your safety where you
can just start screaming at like hey and you know
dog cuss them on the sideline to get their head
in the game. It's like, no, we got to be
very careful. They're very fickle. If you yell too loud,
he won't be able to hold down his food and

(01:01:55):
then I'll miss another kick. It's like, holy shit, no
wonder these other players like listen, you can be critical
of like you know people has his moments, but it's
like people's having an excellent game. I've seen him carry
a fucking NFL team to the NFC Championship game. I
mean over a course of two months. Like I'm sorry,
if Debo tells you to lock in, just be like yeah.

(01:02:15):
And even Moody was like he was right, and I
got the long snapper like be quiet, shut up. It's like, nobuddy,
you be quiet. Let's pretend you're a little kid at Thanksgiving.
You sit at the little kids table, be grateful that
there's food on your table. No one wants to hear.
The grown ups don't want to hear from you, so
just keep your mouth shut. That's it's not shocking that
Kyle came out like, yeah, our long snapper was wrong,

(01:02:38):
even though Deebo Choke slammed him. Should a knee captaim.
But again it's like, well, you can't cut him because
where are you gonna find and these that's where the
kickers and the long snappers and the punters. They feel
like they got the coaches in the front office by
the balls, because if if another position player played like that,
it's be like, oh, we gotta bench him. It's like
we gotta be very careful. We got a tiptoe around

(01:03:00):
the kickers. It's like, oh my god, listen. I used
to hang out with the kickers when I was a
GA at prison State because while practice was going on,
I didn't have much to do. Guess who else didn't
have much to do. The kicker of the punter and
the long snapper kind of kicked it on the side
of the hill of prison State. We'd like run the clock,
we'd blow the horn.

Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
It's meanwhile, the rest of your team is, you know,
just battling their ass off for six months a year, injured, sweaty,
it's cold, banging pads, getting yelled at, kicker, long snapper,
middle cough up on the hill, cracking jokes about some

(01:03:41):
chick that just walked by.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Just listen to your pod on the Bear's Disaster. Is
an overreaction for me to say that Caleb Williams will
never be a star in the NFL. The dude doesn't
have it. I think if he's lucky, he'll have a
chance to be criminally overrated, the same way Trevor Lawrence
has been. But he will never be in the same
universe as mahomes Lamar Allen or Joe Burrow. I don't

(01:04:16):
even think Andy Reid could make this guy a star.
I'm not even a hater. I'm a USC fan who
wants him to succeed more than most people. But goddamn
he is hard to watch. I've learned my lesson. You know,
with young guys, I would say, more often than not,

(01:04:37):
if you bet against young players. I guess I was
going to try to make the analogy for all.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Sports, but let's just stick to football.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
You know guys their rookie year who really really sucked.
If you just bet on them not being a good player,
you would be right way more often than you were wrong.
But there are a lot of examples of and I'm
talking high picks, harder to judge, later round picks that
you know they're in out of the line of not

(01:05:06):
playing as much. But a first round pick, if you
just said it, first round pick becomes a full time
starter year one game one, plays the whole season and sucks.
I would say most players go on to not be good. Right. Usually,
I would say a large percentage of them pop right away.
That are that the good ones? Right? You can see like,

(01:05:28):
damn it's Michaeh. Parson's guy, Damn it is Nick Bosa, Miles, Garrett,
Trent Williams, whoever. But there are a lot of examples
of guys that struggle early and become really good players.
So like what I bet my four oh one k,
which is booming by the way, that he's going to
not be a good player, I would not. I do

(01:05:48):
think it's very very concerning though, when you struggle from
within the pocket. So I think best case scenario for
this to work, he's going to have to play a
version of like Russell Wilson in Seattle. And clearly eber
Flus didn't want him to play like that. He wanted
him to be like a pocket quarterback. That's not what
he is. You know. Part of a good coach and

(01:06:09):
this is why eber Flus and Waldron are shitty coaches
is like what does the guy do well, especially with
a young player, Like, what does he do well? Whatever
he does well, we need to figure out how to
do that well. I don't know who I was listening to.
Did I read this or I listen I don't know.
Some sports content somewhere is when Cliff became the offensive

(01:06:30):
coordinator for Washington, and I don't know if it was
after the draft or during the draft process, he spent
a lot of time at LSU with their coaching staff,
and he really tried to hone in on the best
plays Jaden ran as in the passing game and in
the running game. And obviously some of those plays might

(01:06:54):
not be in his playbook. What did he do? He's
adapted those plays so Aiden can be successful. I never
understand a coach who this is what we do, no
matter what, and then you draft a player and then
try to fit him into that scheme. Now, if you
draft a player because you saw everything he did in

(01:07:17):
college fits your scheme, okay, but Shane Waldron his offense
or you know, whatever he was asking Russell to do,
which was much more drop back passing, is just not
what he's gonna be. You need to get this guy
in the move. I would say, some play action layups.

(01:07:37):
I would say, I would just get him moving, like
dropping him back three five steps and have him feeling
the pocket is not his strength right now and if
it never is, then yes, he will never be a star.
Because how did Lamar? I know Lamar wont an MVP early,
but like, how did he become I would say these
last couple of years, one of the best players we've

(01:07:58):
ever seen in the regular season because he can dominate
from within the pocket and he's comfortable within the pocket.
That's one thing Russell could never do and a hard
part for Russell. You couldn't see. You know, if Russell
was six or four, would he be a better pocket passer?
I believe he would. Well, what do you see when
you watch Caleb Williams kind of looks short, Like I

(01:08:22):
just feel like it's it hard for him to see.
Where did Caleb measure in at the combine? I mean,
he's a fraction over six ' one. A short offensive
lineman is six y three, So when you factor in helmets,
you know you got a lot of guys ahead of
you that are six four and sixty five. Just difficult

(01:08:44):
to see. I mean, Drake May's big. I feel like
Jayden Daniels, I feel like he's not that much taller.
Maybe he is actually so. Jaden Daniels, Jaden Daniels is

(01:09:04):
more than two and a half inches taller than Caleb Williams,
which doesn't sound like that much, but I think that's
a pretty big deal. I think that's a massive deal.
I mean, Jade Daniels a fraction below six foot four.

(01:09:25):
I think it's hard for like, what's Kyler doing well
right now? Throwing on the run, Like what are the
chances if you're a betting man right now? And who
knows the way k Kyler's gotta stay healthy. But if
Kyler stays healthy the next five years, I don't not

(01:09:46):
saying he's gonna win Super Bowls or even playoff games,
but he's he's a good NFL player. Like you watch
Kyler play, you go, He's got a lot of talent.
It works. He can really play. And Kyler kind of
good right away. Caleb's ever as good as Kyler Murray.
And they're different players. I mean, Kyler is a much
more explosive athlete. Uh, Caleb's taller, but you'd be like, well,

(01:10:07):
everyone like circle jerks Caleb's arm. Well, I think Kyler
is is. Every bit is good. They got an issue,
they do and the thing that will ruin them all
is there were six quarterbacks drafted, and what did we
say wouldn't happened? Well, if you just play the odds,
three of them are gonna suck. It's hard to figure
out because you never want to say this guy's gonna suck.

(01:10:28):
This guy's gonna suck, but it is inevitable, it's unavoidable, unavoidable.
So now you're watching, you're started doing the math. You're like, well,
I'm pretty sure Jaden, even if he's not this good,
it's gonna be just pretty good. Right, And you go

(01:10:49):
bo Nicks even if he's never gonna be a top
five or six quarterback, like, he'll probably be a top
fifteen quarterback. If you're a top fifteen quarterback Derek Carr's
been starting in the NFL a decade, it's like, well,
if you're a decade long starter and you make the
playoffs a couple times, like, that's a hit. So you're like, well,
who's gonna miss It's early whatever bitcoin stock is right now,

(01:11:14):
I don't know any bitcoin. Do own Cardono, which actually
ripped lately in a couple of eve but right if
you're a bitcoin holder right now, and especially, it's one thing.
If you bought like in the last couple of years,
it's been what anywhere between forty to sixty, so you
still paid a lot if you own one full. Obviously

(01:11:34):
you can buy fractions, but if you've just bought let's
just say ten bitcoins. You would have to be really
rich or have a lot of capital do that in
the last couple of years if you just did it
for yourself individually over the last year. So at eighty
eight it feels really high, but it also depends where
you bought it at. But if it's eighty eight thousand
and you bought it at two grand, it's like, yeah,

(01:11:55):
I spent ten thousand dollars about five coins. At two grand,
you're feeling pretty good. You got about five hundred large
in your crypto account. And that's what it felt like
with Caleb Williams when they drafted him. It's like, got
a stock sky Higks. Guy's going number one. This guy's
a badass. It feels like his stock is I don't
want to say it can get it's like hit rock

(01:12:17):
bottom because it has not. I mean, we're only it's
November twelfth, So if he continues to play like what
we just witnessed, it could get worse. But it has plummeted.
The worst stock I've ever purchased by a mile is
this stock called Skills. It's basically a video game company.

(01:12:38):
I'm in for about seventy five large. The problem is
when I open my e trade account, there's only about
I looked the other day it was thirty eight hundred dollars,
so you do the math. I'm down a lot. It's
one of those I just tried it out to check
very often. Luckily it doesn't change my life, but it does,
you know, hurt my soul, and it's it's a good

(01:13:00):
learning lesson, and it sucks. I'm not rich enough to
just seventy five grand disappears it's cool, I mean, it
fucking sucks. Pisses me off. It's like, why didn't you
just put this in Costco or Amazon? Why why'd you
overthink this? You know why I got greedy. I got
greedy because I didn't want to turn that seventy five
grand into one hundred and twenty grand. I wanted to

(01:13:20):
turn it into like eight hundred grand. And I got.
I didn't get screwed. I got what I deserved. And
it's something I'll think about the rest of my life.
And I've thought a lot about it when I invest now.
And that's just something I did within the last like
three or four years, and it sucks. Sometimes I think
about just if I can get it back to like
eight grand, try to just take it out and just

(01:13:41):
use that money to gamble on sports and just take
an underdog one weekend, put that on an underdog and
just try to grow it back. It's crossed my mind,
but that's a I don't want to talk too much
about it. I get too angry. But back to Caleb, Like,
you know, they spent a lot that number one pick,
that trade, and now if like he was one hundred

(01:14:02):
dollars stock I mean, what is he today? What is
he today? It doesn't define your career. Stock Mart goes
up and down, but he's probably like fifteen bucks, ten bucks.
If they put Caleb on the open market, they would
get dramatically less today than they would have three months ago.

(01:14:23):
Obviously they're not going to, but like, what would the
Raiders trade for Caleb Williams, Like they give their number
one pick and hardpeat. They'd probably give their first end
second round pick, but they wouldn't give like three ones
for him, No chance you couldn't. That'd be insane. But
in August, what would the Raiders have give if like, hey,
the Bears were like, hey, we just drafted this guy,

(01:14:46):
but we'll trade him to you give us your best offer.
I mean, what would they offer three ones? And DeVante?
I mean they would offered a stupid amount. Things change fast.
That's that's what I love about talking about football and
players and coaches and teams, and so I love the
stock market like I love the fluidity of all this,
and we're dealing with humans. Things change so quickly. Things

(01:15:09):
are up, things are down, like only the great players
are like pretty consistently good every year, Like you're like, well,
if TJ. Wats healthy, he's gonna be hot, he's gonna
be at all pro like yep. Even some young players
like a Sauce Gardner's the next what guy who was
sweet that then by year three and four didn't look
as good? Can we pump the brakes on some of

(01:15:32):
the comps to Jalen Ramsey and Richard Sherman. Let's just
see him have like three straight good years. That's how
fast things change. And sometimes it's not all your fault.
Younger players influenced by coaches, and you get derailed. Like
I said, if you lose confidence, you get injured. But
that's what makes this stuff so interesting. Back in June,
I saw the Jets were favored by sportsbooks. In twelve

(01:15:56):
of their seventeen games. I thought that was crazy and
it offended me as a Bills fan. So as a
fun bet, I threw one hundred dollars on their opponent's
money line in every single one of their games, seventeen hundred.
The man's got a little money. After Sunday's debacle in Phoenix,

(01:16:17):
I now am up six hundred and seventy four dollars
and I have never had more fun watching garbage football.
So my question for the that's that's fucking awesome. That
is that's why we do this. That is sweet. So
my question for the pot is this. I know you

(01:16:38):
put your money behind teams or coaches you highly respect,
like with Debor in the Natty last year. Thanks for
making me some money on that too. Final four Net
Natty didn't go our way, but Final four was sweet.
Have you ever faded or had a little respect for
a team, coach, or player that you bet a large
sum of money against them, regardless who they faced? Or alternatively,

(01:17:02):
what was the most you blaze you placed mostly for
fun that turned out to make you a lot of money.
I would say the Washington is one of my all
time like as much as it was for for Debor
and Washington and the team that I thought was really
good and how well coached they were with Ryan Grubb.
It was a bet against Sark because at the time. Now,

(01:17:25):
maybe SARK wins the National Championship this year, They're definitely
gonna be in the mix. It's wide open. So my
logic could change. Nil has changed the game. Their defense
is better. But that bet, for as much as it
was on Washington and their coaching staff and their head
coach and their OC, it was a lot against Sark.
It was a lot against Sark. I think sometimes in

(01:17:48):
the NFL, you know what you did, it's pretty genius
and it worked out well for you. You gotta be
careful about doing that, just it's such a thick league.
You know. I was drinking on Saturday night and I
just bet on the Panthers and I woke up. I
was like, why did I do this? And when I

(01:18:09):
woke up was ten oh un So I felt pretty good.
But you know, I think it can be very very
difficult to just play that logic. In college sometimes it's easier,
but then even like you're like, oh, Michigan, they're gonna
get smoked by Indiana. Well, the bet was take Michigan
because they covered. They lost my five. I think the

(01:18:32):
way to do it like you did, unless betting on
every game is shorting them on the season, taking their under. Yeah,
I mean I usually most of my bets are usually
more based out of when I get aggressive positive, like
glass half full, me believing in someone. Like last week,

(01:18:56):
I had a pretty big bet on the Steelers because
I was like, wait, they're getting points this team against Washington,
who hasn't really beat a good team, even though I
like Washington. And I sweated that out and I actually
cashed out on the final drive and ended up losing
like fifty bucks because I was like, you know they're
gonna have a walkoff few I'm out. And then when

(01:19:17):
I cashed out right before they play to zach Ertz,
who I thought they got lucky. I thought I got
a first down. But whatever, I think it's easy. There's
only so many opportunities. The way I viewed Washington in
Texas last year, I don't have that feeling a lot.
And when I've had that feeling over the course of
my life, I have gone all in. I go back

(01:19:40):
to college when I was watching my buddy's house over
Christmas break and I watched the Giants play the Seven
Paths and they easily could have won that game. I'll
never forget being in my buddy Fry's house in this
back TV room. He had a big screen TV and
no seven you know those TVs. The they weren't like
these eighty inch flat screens. They were like they looked

(01:20:02):
like a suburban. And I just remember I thought the
Giants were gonna beat him. And then Randy Moss catches
the ball down the right sideline and I was like,
I think this Giants team's pretty good. Like they match up.
They were one of the only teams that matched up
well with that pass team. And then somehow they made
it to the Super Bowl. And I took all the
money I had. I can't remember the exact amount, probably

(01:20:26):
somewhere between like fourteen hundred and seventeen hundred, and I
put it, you know, at the time in eight. I
guess it would have been, you know, January of eight
or February of eight. I don't even know what the
site would have been bet at all. And I convinced
a buddy to do like the same. He put like
a grand which at the time might as well have
been like the equivalent of one hundred grand to me.
And we watched that game by ourselves in the living

(01:20:47):
room and it was fucking glorious. So I would say.
The other time I did it was when the Super
Bowl was in San Francisco, Caroline against Denver. I'll never
forget one. I had seen Denver play because I was
doing the Raiders post game, so I had seen them
live for a couple of years, and I just remember thinking, like, listen,

(01:21:08):
I I'm not Belichick. I haven't been, you know, watch
studying this league for fifty years. But in my short
time around football at the time, it was you know,
six or seven years around the NFL, seeing teams live
like all over the league, AFC, NFC, I was like,
this is this defense is pretty top notch. Their defensive

(01:21:29):
line was incredible. It had DeMarcus Ware von Miller, Malik
Jackson who was a baller, and Derek Wolf who was
also a baller, all four of their starters. I mean,
von Miller's a Hall of Famer. Where's a Hall of Famer?
The two inside guys when they were healthy were dominant.
Their secondary was elite. It had a keep to lead.

(01:21:52):
They had drafted Roby and they had Chris Harris. So
they had three high end corners and the one guy
who could play the slot was awesome and honest all
three could play the slot if you had to. And
then their their safeties. Uh, I forget the big hitting
safety they had, but he would, he would? Who were
there two safeties they were? They were big hitters. And

(01:22:15):
I remember thinking, like, you know, I kept watching the
Panthers walk around town that week, like Monday through Saturday,
and they were kind of screwing around, and I remember thinking,
you know, I feel like one team's a little more

(01:22:35):
focused than the other. I remember that really stood out
to me. I thought like, I don't really love the
focus of the Panthers. Now. I didn't think Cam was
gonna have such a bad day, but I did. Oh
TJ Ward was a safety. TJ Ward would hit you

(01:22:56):
so hard. He was one of the harder hitting safety.
I remember seeing Webster. Yeah, I mean they had oh
Darien Stewart. Now, I just remember thinking like, I just
think this Denver Bronco defense is elite. Peyton couldn't throw,
but it was like, I don't think that Denver or
Caroline's gonna be able to run and score on them.
So I bet at the time three or four grand,

(01:23:19):
which was an astronomical amount of money for me at
the time, and it was all the money I had,
and I remember feeling pretty good about it, and I
went and it was awesome, and then Cam didn't jump
on the play. It was sweet. I remember getting drunk
and just I was so happy that I've been I've
made a couple of huge bets on Super Bowls that
have been pretty special in gambling, and especially a game

(01:23:40):
like I didn't care like I'm not a Bronco guy.
I'm not definitely not a Panther guy, but being at
the Super Bowl having money on one team and that
team dominating the game. Now, listen, I'm a forty nine
er guy. I bet a lot of money on them
last year. That really sucked. And I rooted for Andy
back in nineteen when he played the Niners, and listen,
I've been a forty nine er since I could walk.

(01:24:01):
But I just, you know, knowing Andy, I knew how
much just that meant for his legacy, and I wasn't
I was cool, and it was weird. I didn't have
any money on that game, but I found myself kind
of rooting for the guy, and when it ended, I
was really happy that was not the case. He'd already
won two, he didn't need the third. Uh, And I

(01:24:22):
had five g's riding on it to try to break
even from the Ravens the previous week. God, that was ugly.
I mean, Kyle just Kyle just can't beat Andy. What
are you gonna say? Audios, have a great day, See
guys tomorrow. The volume

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