October 22, 2025 • 39 mins
Colin Cowherd dives into Kevin Durant’s rocky debut with the Houston Rockets and what it reveals about the 2x NBA Finals MVP’s current place in the league. Is KD still a franchise-changing superstar, or has the league passed him by?
In the NFL, Colin makes a bold comparison between Packers quarterback Jordan Love and a prime Aaron Rodgers, explaining why Love might already be outperforming the legendary QB he replaced in Green Bay
Later, FOX Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt joins the show to break down what Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans must fix to get into College Football Playoff contention and finally compete for a national championship
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowver
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, here we go on a Wednesday. NBA opened up
last night. That was fun. Way to go in BC.
That wasn't bet at all. Little MJ. Here we are
wherever you may be, however you may be watching or listening.
We're in Chicago. It's the hurt Well chrisp This morning
(00:48):
in Chicago. Is the NBA season starts in earnest. Last night,
Jay Mac, everybody yesterday is talk. We've discussed this. The
West is loaded, It's insane. I don't think Golden State's
gonna be a play team. I think the Lakers will
struggle like a six or a seven. If Lacron is healthy.
I think Minnesota could win it. I think okay SE's good.
I think Denver could win it. I think Dallas is
(01:10):
wildly underrated. Houston is the team to keep your eye
on because there's elements. They have two young stars I love,
but they brought in an old guy last night, Kevin Durant.
And let's talk about Kevin Durant. So Kevin Durant came
in last night, played okay, but if you watch the game,
is you know they got to figure out how to
(01:32):
get him more shots. He was kind of lost, especially
late in the game. So they are a collection of
talent at this point is I'm a little bit of
a pushback guy on Houston. They lost their point guard
Fred Van Vliet injury, so they're a team without a quarterback.
There are a collection of really talented musicians with no
conductor or lead singer. And at the end of the game,
I mean they led by twelve, and the third they
(01:53):
led by six with four minutes to go. But when
two good NBA teams play, it always comes down to
the final four or five possessions, final two and a
half minutes. That's what it comes down to. And Katie
was lost. They were disorganized. He called a timeout they
didn't have. He wasn't bad. He looked like he was
a hired mercenary. Oh wait, that's what Kevin Durant is
(02:16):
at this point. He is a thirty seven year old,
gifted bucket getter and Oklahoma City. All these guys have
been playing together for a couple of years. Ok See,
you better beat him soundly if the games are close,
especially now with all the KD brand new to Houston,
They're not going to look good late. They look good
first half, they look good, third quarter, they look good
(02:36):
with about five minutes to go, but late in the game. Okay,
see he's been through this. These guys been playing together
three four years. So at this point, Kevin Durant is
not a culture guy. He's not a two way player. Actually,
he's not a grind for eighty two game guy. He
is a mercenary. In fact, his Twitter handle is easy
(02:56):
money Sniper and that's only because I get paid to
shoot a lot was too long. That's what he is.
And in the final, I mean he had more fouls
than buckets made. In the second half of Hot, he
just didn't do much, and that's because it's brand new.
He's kind of a limited great sniper. He comes out
and makes big shots and okase, he's got defenders and
(03:19):
depth and size and experience now and youth, and they're
just better team that's been playing together longer. So he
has value. Kevin Durant clearly has value. But when I
watched Houston last night without a point guard, it's point
guard by committee. Amen Thompson, great talent. Alprin shen Gun
best player on the Rockets, much better than Kadi at
this point. Kid made the All Stars at twenty two,
(03:41):
he's now twenty three. Alprind Shen Gouon's the best player.
He's basically about ninety eighty percent of jokicch he didn't.
He's not as big and forceful as Jokic, but the touch,
the finesse, he can pass, he can hit threes. Kevin
doesn't need to be their best player, and he's not
gonna be. He's not the athlete of him. N Thompson,
he doesn't have the youth and the overall skill and
ability of Al Prince Shegoon. That's not what he is.
(04:04):
He's paid to hit buckets and he'll hit a lot
of them. But I watched them last night. My takeaway
on Houston, and again, it was a fun game and
Houston for three quarters was rolling, but it reminded me
of the Clippers for years when they had Paul George
and Kawhi Leonard, And who's the point guard, who's running
the show, who's getting us into the offense. That's what
(04:24):
it felt like last night. And so the Rockets late
looked a little lost. And it's a team without a quarterback,
with a lot of good receivers and a lot of
good bucket getters. Because a man Thompson's a stud, you're
one of the best athletes in the league. Not a point.
I mean, he can play it, but he's not a point.
And al Prince Shengun is unbelievable like Jokich. He can
(04:46):
handle the ball, but he's not a point either. And
Katie down the stretch fouls calling the timeout they didn't have.
He took the hit for the loss after the game.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
A foul from Dan Plas Warren. I think those two
plays the reason he loves.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
You.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, sure, I gotta be better for you, throw down
as stay down, be more disciplined for his his opportunities
to get a stop, to say the game that I'll
come around to offense. So I gotta be more take
more event.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And goes okay. Meanwhile, as we predicted Skinny Luca skinny jeans,
Luca is gonna score a lot of points, and he
did forty three and the Lakers lost to the Old Warriors.
So Skinny lucas we told you he's gonna lead the
(05:37):
NBA in usage rate. I think he has a chance
to win the scoring title. Last night, you saw that
he can attack the basket. Now I'm sorry he lost
twenty five. I can actually see his shoulders now. He's
gonna attack the rim, attack the basket. He beats guys
quicker off the dribble. So that is what we thought
and what we saw. Secondly, the game, same issues the
Lakers had last year, they have him this year. They
(06:00):
lack athleticism on the wing. They're going to struggle against
teams like Minnesota and OKC on the wing. They're bad
defensively in the post. They were last year they are
this year. And Lebron's older and will be available in
spurts and he'll be great in spurts. But Luca, Skinny Luca,
(06:21):
he's gonna score a lot of points. They are a
top heavy roster. Last night, Austin Reeves, who scored a
lot of stuff late and Luca combined for sixty nine points.
Nobody else had more than ten. Okay, that's what they're
gonna be when Lebron doesn't play by the way the
Warriors had four guys fifteen or more. So. Essentially, the
Lakers are Luca plus old Lebron plus lack of athleticism
(06:43):
plus really lousy defending the rim, and that is not
good enough in the West with the te Wolves and
the Thunder and the Mavericks. I mean, the West just
loaded the Nuggets. I'm not sure. I'm not sure who
I like. I think Dallas is better than anybody's given
him credit for. So and the other thing the Lakers are.
JJ Reddy got kicked off about this. Last year the
Lakers were a terrible third quarter team, and last night,
(07:06):
despite the fact that Luca in twelve minutes at thirteen points,
last night, they were a terrible third quarter team. Why
this is my opinion, because the third quarter is when
you go in at half and they're really smart coaches,
pull some levers. Let's have a good say, how many
levers are there pull? They can't defend the rim. They're
not athletic enough. Lebron didn't play heavy reliance on Luca
(07:29):
thirteen points twelve minute. There's not a lot of levers here, right,
They're just so much. I mean, it's just like sometimes
NFL teams the Raids can go in at half. Gino's Geno,
where are the levers? Some teams have multiple levers. Denver's
got levers. You know, Eagles have levers, The Tampa Bay's
got them. What are the Lakers? What do you what
(07:51):
do you do at half? What are you going to change?
So my takeaway is, remember this is very important to remember,
and this is why then felt a little disengaged last night.
And this is a real thing. So Laker fans don't
forget this next sentence. They've got new ownership, but they
made the Lakers' new owners made a very public statement
(08:14):
this summer they want to be flexible in twenty twenty
six and twenty twenty seven. Uh huh, it's twenty twenty five.
Is the first time in Lebron's career. They're not going
for a ring. The games are going to be sold out,
Skinny Luca Lebron maybe his last year for the first
time ever, the ownership is not afraid of Lebron, and
(08:37):
they're not building a team for Lebron. The Lakers are
Luca JJ Reddick in the future and flexibility next year,
in the year after the draft. Next year is going
to be very good. There's gonna be opportunities down the road.
So the new Laker own and took this Laker ownership,
this new group. When they bought the Dodgers, it wasn't
(08:58):
about winning a World Series the first year. They identified
their stars, moved off, some embraced others. Long term build
to be viable, like the Dodgers are thirteen straight postseasons.
So these new owners this is a Luca JJ Reddick
long term build. They would love to be a playoff team.
(09:21):
They would love to have home playoff games. They would
love to drive that playoff resident revenue. They'd love to
win a title. They're not winning a title. They're not
getting out of the West. They're not getting the Western
conference finals. Luca old Lebron, lack of athleticism, no rim protector. Defensively,
in the East, you could get to a conference final.
(09:42):
In the West, it's gonna be hard to win a series.
So Lebron's not happy about it. But for the first
time he's not driving this bus. Luca, though the weight loss.
He's quicker. He attacks the rim. He didn't do that
last year. A lot of fallaways, a lot of settling.
He's back to attacking the rim. Here's Luke after.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Yeah, I feel like I say, no, less tiring, better shape.
So I'm just trying to get a win. You've got
to try and be physical. You know, obviously they're in bonus.
It's a little bit harder, but the end, you got
to get a stop and that's what kind of winning
the game.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, this is not going to be a great defensive team.
Great defensive teams are great protecting the rim and hyper athletic.
That's why, like Minnesota when they played them last year,
go bear protects the rim. You know they got their
very highly athletic wing defenders. There are certain components you
need to be a good passing team in the NFL,
like a good offensive line, a quarterback over five to ten,
(10:46):
maybe a viable veteran tight end, good twitchy young receivers.
It's the same thing in the NBA. You want to
be a great defensive team, you have to be a
great rim defender. You gotta have somebody at the iron.
They don't really have that. They didn't last they made
a move. They don't this year. It's what they are,
and they're not super athletic on the wing, at least
not athletic enough to be the OKAC or a Minnesota
(11:07):
in a series. So I think. But I do think
if you love Luca, I can see his shoulders now.
I mean, what has he lost? Twenty seven twenty eight
pound me? He's much much quicker, plays downhill much more often.
That was fun. J Mack. I know you're a bit
of a Laker fan. That must have felt really good
last night.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Oh my gosh, it was excellent. First of all, happy
the NBA's back. Second of all, Luka Donctz looks again
like the best player in the league. I don't want
to hear this, SGA is better than Luca nonsense. But
I think you're overreacting, just a tad on the Lakers. Okay,
two new starters. You're missing an All NBA player in Lebron,
the top two minutes guys off the bench just joined
the team, Like, let's pump the brakes on the panic
(11:49):
can't win a series. I think this team definitely has
the players to get to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Undeniably. I would would not.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Surprise me at all. Problem is you got to get
everybody healthy.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Is that that for a honest trade at the deadline?
I think, John, are you giving up Austin Reeves in
a package for you? Honest?
Speaker 5 (12:06):
I don't know if I am Colin? Okay, I probably am.
What Austin Reeves was really strong last night?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (12:14):
And by the way, Warriors take Warriors not going to
the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
That veteran team looked really good together. Yeah, three months off,
it's easy to look great in the opener. Yeah, check in.
Check in in February eighth and see how young they look.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and Noone Eastern nin a em Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Hey it's me Rock Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot
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Whether you believe in analytics or the I test, We've
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(12:59):
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Speaker 1 (13:08):
All right, welcome back Joe Klatt top of Next hour.
So uh, very interesting game for the first time ever
former Packer great Aaron Rodgers now as Steeler, He and
the Steelers will host Dream Bay. Aaron tends to have
a long memory. He's going to face the team, the
(13:30):
Packers he built his legacy on, and let him go
and move down to Jordan Love. So the Packers in
the Indianapolis Colts are the only teams in the NFL
left with only one loss. Packers also have a tie
against the Cowboys, and nobody quite knows what to do
with Jordan Love. So I went back this morning and
I went to Aaron's Super Bowl winning year that's twenty ten,
(13:52):
and I went back and looked where was he through
six games? And I looked at Jordan Love through six games.
Their first six games. Jordan was way better passer rating,
fewer picks, team was scoring more, much better completion percentage,
one more game. So Jordan Loved this year through the
first six was better than Aaron in the year he
(14:13):
won his first Super Bowl, and both were twenty seven
years old. Aaron was cooler Aaron's personality was more out there.
Aaron kind of plays the position. Although I think Jordan
loves cool Aaron. The way he lets go of the
ball was kind of, you know, throws it with no
feet on the ground. Aaron was a very unique quarterback
(14:34):
and he was cool, and he was carrying the torch.
At that time, when he was twenty seven, it was
a very thin group of ascending young quarterbacks. Farv was
in his forties and McNabb was still around, and it was,
you know, Aaron's making a Pro Bowl and he's in,
you know, mid twenties, twenty six, twenty seven years old,
and it was Brady and it was Breeze, and it
(14:55):
was Manning and Farbes around and there's McNabb and older
Tony Romo was getting meat up every week before the
Cowboys had a great offensive line, and then it was Aaron. Well,
the difference is Jordan Love. There's all sorts of great
young quarterbacks now, even the ones were not totally sold on.
Caleb Williams are insanely talented, Drake May looks like a
pro bowler. Jayden Daniels last year unbelievable. Justin Herbert, they're
(15:19):
just more good quarterback play. You go back to Aaron
at Jordan Love's age, and it was like Aaron and
a bunch of old guys were still in the headlines.
It was it was a bunch of Farb and Brady
and Manning and Breeze and McNabb was still hanging around.
Now Aaron's the old guy and the league is all
young quarterbacks. It is just a bunch of kids. And
(15:42):
so I actually think Aaron is going to do very
well Sunday night. I think Aaron's the kind of guy
that I think when you're older, you could be a broadcaster,
you could be a political figure, you could be a
football player. When you get older, you can't work seventy
hours a week, you can't grind like you used to.
But your best this game is still great. The late
(16:02):
great Kobe sixty last game, he played like you can stuff.
Brett Fahr was old and rickety. He was still great
at the very end. Right, So I think Aaron's gonna
play well. Steelers are at home. The Packers are very talented.
They play with their food a little, They let you
hang around for a while. Here's Mike Tomlin on the
(16:25):
matchup of Aaron and the Steelers against his former team.
Speaker 7 (16:30):
Aaron's been added a long time. You know, he's got
an awesome relationship with this game. I hadn't been with
him for a long time, but he's been fired up
every single week. I'd imagine it's going to be the same.
I'd imagine some external things are going to make more
out of it than it is for him. He's playing
and playing to win. That's what he does.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It's just interesting is when when Aaron was Jordan's current age,
he felt like he was the young star that was
going to carry the next generation of quarterbacks. And as
good as Jordan Love is, better numbers than airin at
his age. Right like in space, it's just so many
good young quarterbacks. There are so many. We're still waiting
for Caleb to be great. Jaden already is. I mean,
(17:14):
bo Nick's thirty three points in a quarter on Jackson
Dart looks like he's a player. So it's just a
different world now. The quarterback play in the NFL. This
is the golden age. Don't listen to anybody. Don't listen
to anybody, you know, glamorize and romanticize the Lway Morino years.
There's never been close to this much quarterback talent. It
is unbelievable. I mean this year, the next NFL draft
(17:37):
may have six quarterbacks drafted May and the best one
of them may be the younger red shirt freshman at
Notre Dame car He may be the best. He not
draft eligible.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and Noone Eastern nin a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and
noon to three eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find
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Speaker 2 (18:13):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
All right, here we go, it is our two. We
are live. It is the heard. Joel Klatt is around
the corner. So I gotta start this hour with this.
This happened yesterday or the day before. I think it
was yesterday. The tweet came out from Russell Wilson. So
Sean Payton coached the Denver Broncos. When he got to Denver,
(18:44):
he and Russell Wilson and I had set it on
the air. This is gonna be a personality clash. I
know Sean had dinner with Sean. I've had a lot
of discussions with Sean. Shawn is blunt, Sean is up front,
Shawn is authentic. Sean didn't care what you think about him.
And Russell can be you know, very I would say,
almost political, a little bit more calculated. And when Russell
(19:07):
had his own office there in the Denver building, that
was not gonna play with Sean Payton. So it never worked.
Sean didn't view him as the future. He was overpaid,
and Sean was gonna get rid of him. It wasn't
ever gonna work. And so Shawn's taking a few shots
at Russell. And after coming back to beat the Giants
and Jackson Dart who replaced Russell. Here's what Seawan said
(19:30):
after the game Sunday.
Speaker 8 (19:32):
It was a great win, good team effort to fight back.
Tip your hats to New York. Those guys that found
a new juice about him, and you could see that
on tape. You know, they found a little spark with
that quarterback. I was talking to John Mayor not too
(19:53):
long ago, and I said, we were hoping that that
change would have happened long long after our game.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Well out, Russell Wilson did not like that, went to
X classless, not surprised. Didn't realize you're still bounty hunting
fifteen plus years later through the media. Let's ride. Let's ride.
You knew that was coming. First of all, the Russell
Wilson story is crazy. It deserves a Netflix special. So
(20:20):
Russell Wilson's last two years at North Carolina State seventy
two touchdowns, best record for NC State in eight years,
and the coach demoted him said, They're not going to
be an NFL player. I'm going to go with Mike Glennon.
So he goes to Wisconsin, he scores thirty nine touchdowns,
they go eleven and three and go to the Rose Bowl.
I don't think Wisconsin scored thirty nine touchdowns since he left,
(20:44):
and yet he only went in the third round of
the draft. He got disrespected again, and then in Seattle
when he's changing the world, he's a unicorn talent, Marshawn Lynch,
Pete Carroll, the defense got all the talent. So Russell
has lived in this kind of prism of he didn't
get respected NZ State, even though he was record setting.
He didn't get respect in Wisconsin even though he's easily
(21:07):
the most productive quarterback they've ever had for a single season,
And he didn't get a ton of respect in Seattle.
And I think Russell's tired of it. I think he's
just tired of it. And I mean Pete Carroll chose
Geno Smith over him. Sean Payton was willing to deal
with the worst dead cap hit in league history to
go with Bo Nicks. Mike Tomlin said, I'll go with
(21:29):
old Aaron Rodgers, who gets hurt more. And Brian Daviles
being investigated by the league because he went over to
the injury tent to make sure he didn't have to
put Russ back on the field. So you know, zero
for four with coaches. But I think the bigger issue
is Russ Fields disrespected. But there is a truth about
smaller quarterbacks. Let me ask you, how is to his
(21:49):
career gone the last couple of years, how's Kyler Murray's
career gone the last couple of years? And how has
Russell's career gone? He's lost his last seven starts. There
are limitations with smaller quarterbacks. They don't last as long
and they do not age well Russell to Tyler Murray.
(22:13):
By the way, I do think it is hard when
your entire life is an uphill battle. I mean the
fact that he had seventy two touchdowns, best record in
almost a decade in the coach at NZ State says
not interested, and then he goes to Wisconsin who can
never get the quarterback right and is unbelievable, and the
NFL still ignores him. I mean, and to show you
(22:36):
more disrespect that Russell Wilson's had when he was at
the top of his game, a unicorn talent, a playmaker,
the Seahawks GM and Pete Carroll went to Wyoming to
scout Josh Allen. So I do think we all have limitations.
I think all of us in life if we feel
constantly disrespected over and over and over again. I think
that's what Russell feels, and that's why he clapped back.
(22:59):
He just feels respected and he's tired of it. And
I get it, and I don't think. I don't think
Sean should have taken a shot at him, but I
think Russell's always been above that of punching back, and
I think yesterday is like I'm over it. I'm over it,
and I get it. The guys NC State, Wisconsin Seahawks,
(23:20):
Geno Smith, I get it. And with that, Joel Clatt,
the Voice of college Football, is joining US live. They'll
have the UCLA Indiana game, which is Ucla is a
crazy story. I mean, it's so weird. They get rid
of their coach and they have a completely different vibe, feel, energy,
(23:43):
and juice. For the record, does UCLA have any chance?
I mean, it's pretty interesting what they're doing offensively. Do
they have any chance to compete with Indiana?
Speaker 9 (23:52):
Well, I mean they're playing substantially better football and they
still have a five star quarterback. This is what I
find so interesting in college football right now is these
teams that maybe we don't think a lot of they've
got better players than they ever have because of revenue
sharing and nil, and that talent has dispersed. So I
think more than any other year, I think that there
there are opportunities for a team like UCLA to go
(24:15):
out there and not only play with, but maybe even
beat Indiana. And it starts with their quarterback and he's
got a play well, and their play caller Jerry Neuheisel
now Tim Skipper doesn't probably get enough credit for the
way UCLA has bounced back and played so well, totally
different energy. I think you're exactly right. But also these
two coordinators that they that they have, Jerry Neuheisel has
really understood that he needs to teach the why to
(24:38):
the concept, and I think it shows on film when
I'm watching UCLA. It's drastically different with the way that
they play in terms of their urgency on offense. And
you can only do that if you understand the why,
not just what or how, but the why of what's
going on in the football field. So they're playing a
lot better. But I will tell you this is an
uphill battle because this Indiana team is very good, the
only team in college football right now in the top
(24:59):
five and scoring offense and scoring defense. They've got a
top five pick at quarterback, They've got experience on the outside.
The defense has been sensational, they can run it, they're balanced,
and that's a tough place to play. So you know,
it's an uphill battle for UCLA.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
So when Ohio State went and got Chip Kelly from
the NFL and Matt Patricia, it shows you the meshing
in college and pro football I mean Belichick going to
college not working. But there's a mesh now. It used
to be there was pros. They look down at college football. Well, no,
you're seeing NFL guys steel offensive stuff from college. You're
seeing NFL guys go. I'll be a coordinator in college
(25:36):
and make a million bucks a year. But it's interesting.
So the other thing that's happening to college football that
has an NFL field that nobody's talking about. It used
to be Ohio State and Michigan play. Oh, it's burr,
it's cold. Then you go play somewhere in Orlando. You
go to a nice, sunny location. The College Football Playoff
is very NFL. You're going to play in crappy weather.
(25:57):
That wasn't the case. So the best teams are now.
Then I'm going to go to the Rose Bowl. You know,
got to go to Orlando all the time. And so
I watched Notre Dame this weekend and I want, oh,
Notre Dame is built for December. Notre Dame, it's not.
They don't need Dante more slinging it fifty times. I
(26:18):
watched Notre Dame and I thought every year we watched
this in the NFL. Joe Joel, there's two football seasons
pre Thanksgiving and post we want to College football now
is going to have a little bit of that feel.
And I watched Notre Dame Saturday, and I'm like, I
would want no part of Notre Dame if they get
(26:38):
to the playoff? Am I crazy? No, You're not crazy.
Speaker 9 (26:41):
In fact, I based an entire episode of my podcast
around this exact topic.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
You can actually go out. It's out today.
Speaker 9 (26:51):
You shun go over the Joel clad Show on YouTube
and subscribe and check it out, and it's basically this.
I went and with Chris bar Felika, so I brought
Bear on. He did a national championship draft, Colin. To
your point, he proposed on a conference call, like, hey,
how far would you get down the list if you're
just drafting teams all or nothing to win the national championship?
How far would you get before you drafted Notre Dame?
(27:14):
And we all thought to ourselves, like, man, easily in
the top six, you know, And I know they're not
ranked right now up there in the top six because
of the two losses, But those two losses look a
lot different. They look like a different team with a
quarterback that's maturing. Even though he played his worst game
against USC, I don't want to see that run game
with Jeremiah Love and Geneerian Price. Those guys can absolutely
(27:36):
handle the rock. So to your point, I think that
if I'm looking at the sport right now, I said
earlier in the year, there was ten teams that could
win the national championship. At one point I thought twelve.
Now as I'm starting to really see this and evaluate it,
I know the playoff is going to be twelve, but
there are six teams that I'm like, you know what,
any given week, any given run through the playoff, these
(27:57):
six can win it all. And Notre Dame is one
of those. And I think you're spot on. They do
the foundationally things correct. When the line of scrimmage, run
the football. They can play good defense. They did it
against USC last week. And another thing that I would
just say is that this sport still is dominated by defense,
as much as we watch in awe of great offensive play.
(28:18):
The last four national champions Georgia had the number one
defense in college football. Georgia had the number four defense
in college football, Michigan number one defense in college football,
Ohio State number one defense in college football, you still
have to play great on defense if you're going to
go out there and win it all.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Hey, I want to ask you because you do work
for the draft. And so when college football and pro
football converge, and I think more than ever, I think
the playoff feels very NFL. The nil they're being paid,
the transfer portals even a whackier free agency than the NFL.
But college football today, in the last three years, feels
much more Sunday than Saturday. And I still love it.
(28:56):
But when I watched Jackson Dart with Kiffen So, I
always felt he's got a much better college coach than
ninety percent of the sport. I liked him, but he
was all over the map. It is weird to me.
I like him way more in pro football that I
liked him in college football. And I liked him in college.
But did you when you watch Jackson Dart, did you
(29:18):
think he was going to look like this goodness quickly
in the pro without a great team, without a great
old line.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
No.
Speaker 9 (29:25):
I mean if and by the way, if anybody says
that they saw this, they're they're lying because he would
have gotten selected a lot higher than he did. You know,
like that I like, that's an honest opinion, and I
did not see this coming from Jackson Dart. I love
that that New York And remember Mike Shanahan did this
for RG three early in his career at Washington, but
(29:48):
he wanted to put his player in position to succeed.
So what New York is doing offensively is tailored towards
the skill set of Jackson Dart, and that's really smart
from Brian Dable.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Smart.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Now.
Speaker 9 (30:00):
I know that they just totally bombed out in the
fourth quarter against Denver, which was wild. Denver scores thirty
three in the fourth quarter in order to win that game.
But Dart and his skill set and the way that
they're using him, it's effective. And even though Sean Payton's
comments got then you know, pointed to Russ and we're
talking about everything else, what he initially said is absolutely correct,
(30:22):
and I think you and I would both agree like
they have a different juice with Jackson Dart at quarterback, no.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Question, yeah, no question. So they're not going to make
the playoff. And I got into this discussion the other day.
I am often called a USC homer. I resent it,
but I live with it. Everyone I'm wondering if you're
going to go USC this week. Okay, so I just listen.
(30:53):
In the NFL, we've seen great play callers like Lane
Kevin and Mike McDaniel coach in the NFL. It's but
Lane was super young and McDaniel isn't really your classic alpha.
What we know in the NFL is Harbaugh is not
a great scheme guy, Dan Campbell, Vrabel Tomlin is that
(31:14):
in the NFL, you're hiring these are all millionaires in
the locker room. You're hiring an alpha, a CEO. You'll
then you will give this schematic excellence. And there are
exceptions like Kyle Shanahan or Andy Reid to your coordinators,
but you are basically they called in the NFL a
walk around coach. Jimmy Johnson's a walk around coach. He
walks from unit to unit to unit, inspiring judging parcels.
(31:38):
A walk around coach. So you know, I I look
at USC in college, it's a little different. You got
to be a walk around coach. But a lot of
these guys they don't want to call plays because they're
really good at it and much better than the average
college coach. Interesting with this, and so My take is
I think Lincoln Ryle as a play designer and caller
(32:02):
is a plus. How many years do I have to
watch USC get pushed around on every road game before?
I don't have this opinion. He's not a culture builder.
He is a great, great intellect. But I'm watching them
get pushed around by Illinois and last year Maryland, and
(32:23):
last year Michigan and this year Notre Dame.
Speaker 9 (32:26):
It's four years in. This is what they are as
a program. I do think it's getting better. I mean
we sat here and talked about how much better it
was getting against Michigan. I think Notre Dame is just
elite running the football. That's where Illinois exposed to USC.
But they are going to be better on the defensive
line next year than they have been this year. Jakim Stewart, right.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Is his name?
Speaker 9 (32:48):
The young kid like he's He's a phenomenal player on
the interior. I'm going to take it a different way.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I think that.
Speaker 9 (32:57):
In college football. See I disagree with you at the premise.
I think in the NFL, scheme guys are rewarded and
walk around coaches aren't like scheme guys win Andy Reid,
Kyle Shanahan.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Those guys win.
Speaker 9 (33:13):
I think what Stichen is doing right now right Stikeen
in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
It's very creative, it's great. It's great style.
Speaker 9 (33:20):
Like scheme guys win in the NFL, what you don't
see in college is scheme guys, and specifically play callers
win at the top level. In fact, we haven't seen
a play caller win a national championship since I think
it was Jimbo Fisher and before that it was like
Tom Osborne back in the nineties. Like guys that are
CEOs win in college football because the walkaround style is
(33:43):
much more prevalent and needed. This is why Ryan Day
gave up his play calling duties. That's his superpower, it's
his cape on his back. So he gave him up
last year. Are we saying that that basically? So, what
you're basically saying is it's a walk around sport. Lincoln's
not that great walk around coach.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I don't think so.
Speaker 9 (34:02):
I think the play callers, the Kiffins and the Sarks
and the Lincoln Rileyes of the world, they need to
look at a guy like Ryan Day and think to themselves,
you know what made them have the ability to win?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
The national championship. I'll just say this.
Speaker 9 (34:15):
If Ryan Day called the plays last year and was
the coordinator to facto for Ohio State, I don't think
that they win the national championship. But it's not because
of his play calling. It's because he wouldn't have been
available to the defense after they got beat by Oregon
to go in and fix broken structures.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
I think that's a man.
Speaker 9 (34:34):
He would talk about that openly and it was the
reason why he decided to give up play calling duties. Now,
you also have to be a GM. You also have
to raise a bunch of money and do all of
these things outside. And the level of time and commitment
it takes to not only formulate a game plan but
then become the play caller and study to be the
play caller, I don't know if you can be a
(34:55):
national champion and call the place in college football. Brent
Viittibles is trying to that on the defensive side right now.
Mike Elko is trying to do that on the defensive
side right now, and I think it's too tough.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
I look at your top ten. You have Ohio State, Indiana, Alabama.
I agree with that, Oregon A and m Georgia, Georgia Tech.
How about Georgia Tech, Miami, Notre Dame Vandy. I'd have
Notre Dame a little higher, but I don't. I don't disagree.
I gotta tell you something I am. I am rooting
for Kaylin de Boor, and the reason I'm doing it
(35:28):
is replacing a legend is really hard, and people forget
people go to Alabama. Nick Saban saw this coming. He
knew that he couldn't match up with George's nil or Texas.
He knew it, and Nick said, I'm gonna quietly move
to television. And he was smart. He saw it, and
Calin de Boor inherited a less talented roster. They do
(35:51):
not have a elite nil I think you're over selling this.
I don't know. I don't think they have the money that.
I mean, USC's been an eighteen large I don't think
Alabama's got that, do they?
Speaker 9 (36:04):
Well, they have it through revenue share. You know, the
SEC has given them a large check. And then if listen,
if you want to take Nick Saban at face value,
what he didn't like is that the day after they
lose to Michigan and the Rose Bowl, you know, players
are asking how much are you going to pay me?
And how much am I going to play? And he
didn't like those conversations as I don't know if it
(36:25):
was a resource battle where like all of a sudden
he was scared or this or that. I don't think
he liked the nature of what the head coach was
going to have to do. Like, for instance, at Ohio
State last year, they win the national championship. The next morning,
in fifteen minute increments, they started meeting with every player
and their manager to talk about nil. I mean, that's
that's not fun and I don't think Nick Saban wanted
(36:46):
to do that.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Now.
Speaker 9 (36:47):
I don't want to speculate on his account, but I
would just say this, I think Kaylin Debor is one
of the better coaches in the entire sport. His record
proves that, yeh, wherever he's been great. And he's got
a quarterback right now in Ty Simpson that I think
has a really good chance to be the number one
overall pick. And when you got that, like you got
(37:08):
a chance. I don't think their defense is great. I
don't think they run the ball, you know great, But
man like this is a great quarterback, A proud tradition,
a good roster, and I think they're going to be
really tough to beat. I think they would right now,
which is the reason I put him at number three.
Are my favorite in the SEC?
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, no, I think so too. They don't look as
ferocious defensively, they don't look as powerful or quite as
big defensively as the Saban years. But they don't have
you know, it's a whole different world now backups transfer.
Speaker 9 (37:40):
So yeah, don't be surprised if Simpson's your number one pick, though,
I mean it'll be him and Fernando Mendoza will be
looked at as that number one pick.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
All right, Listen, I'm gonna ask you sc questions. I
know they're uncomfortable for you. I'm a journalist. They're always
very comfortable questions for me. It's just listen, for four years,
you are what you are.
Speaker 9 (38:03):
Don't you think you're Don't you think you're seeing a
trajectory that is different than what has been before.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Let's see, they go on the road. They can't beat Illinois,
they can't beat Notre Dame. What's different? Uniforms, the same results,
the same road. I mean, it's the same day on
the road, uniforms look the same. The offense is clever
and smart, that's the same. They get pushed around the same.
Speaker 9 (38:26):
I think USC makes the playoff in the in the
next twenty four months.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Oh oh, standards kind of dropped, hasn't it by year six?
I mean, I mean we're lading, we're not the we're
not March madness, but we could be up to eighteen teams.
They're pretty quick. Ope, in the next twenty four months.
Speaker 9 (38:46):
All right, Cloud, it's good see anybody you as well
have a good day, dude.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yeah, maybe you know. First of all, I don't want
ping pong tables at work, and I got higher standards
than you get the USC job. In year six you
get into the playoffs. Oh you're crazy. Talk over here.
My rule is, if you're at work playing ping pong,
you're a ding dong. You're not going to management. I
mean you can go ahead, hit it back and forth
(39:11):
and have your dog at work. All right, somebody's got
to do the heavy lifting here. I guess it's me.
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at
Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio
or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowver
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, here we go on a Wednesday. NBA opened up
last night. That was fun. Way to go in BC.
That wasn't bet at all. Little MJ. Here we are
wherever you may be, however you may be watching or listening.
We're in Chicago. It's the hurt Well chrisp This morning
(00:48):
in Chicago. Is the NBA season starts in earnest. Last night,
Jay Mac, everybody yesterday is talk. We've discussed this. The
West is loaded, It's insane. I don't think Golden State's
gonna be a play team. I think the Lakers will
struggle like a six or a seven. If Lacron is healthy.
I think Minnesota could win it. I think okay SE's good.
I think Denver could win it. I think Dallas is
(01:10):
wildly underrated. Houston is the team to keep your eye
on because there's elements. They have two young stars I love,
but they brought in an old guy last night, Kevin Durant.
And let's talk about Kevin Durant. So Kevin Durant came
in last night, played okay, but if you watch the game,
is you know they got to figure out how to
(01:32):
get him more shots. He was kind of lost, especially
late in the game. So they are a collection of
talent at this point is I'm a little bit of
a pushback guy on Houston. They lost their point guard
Fred Van Vliet injury, so they're a team without a quarterback.
There are a collection of really talented musicians with no
conductor or lead singer. And at the end of the game,
I mean they led by twelve, and the third they
(01:53):
led by six with four minutes to go. But when
two good NBA teams play, it always comes down to
the final four or five possessions, final two and a
half minutes. That's what it comes down to. And Katie
was lost. They were disorganized. He called a timeout they
didn't have. He wasn't bad. He looked like he was
a hired mercenary. Oh wait, that's what Kevin Durant is
(02:16):
at this point. He is a thirty seven year old,
gifted bucket getter and Oklahoma City. All these guys have
been playing together for a couple of years. Ok See,
you better beat him soundly if the games are close,
especially now with all the KD brand new to Houston,
They're not going to look good late. They look good
first half, they look good, third quarter, they look good
(02:36):
with about five minutes to go, but late in the game. Okay,
see he's been through this. These guys been playing together
three four years. So at this point, Kevin Durant is
not a culture guy. He's not a two way player. Actually,
he's not a grind for eighty two game guy. He
is a mercenary. In fact, his Twitter handle is easy
(02:56):
money Sniper and that's only because I get paid to
shoot a lot was too long. That's what he is.
And in the final, I mean he had more fouls
than buckets made. In the second half of Hot, he
just didn't do much, and that's because it's brand new.
He's kind of a limited great sniper. He comes out
and makes big shots and okase, he's got defenders and
(03:19):
depth and size and experience now and youth, and they're
just better team that's been playing together longer. So he
has value. Kevin Durant clearly has value. But when I
watched Houston last night without a point guard, it's point
guard by committee. Amen Thompson, great talent. Alprin shen Gun
best player on the Rockets, much better than Kadi at
this point. Kid made the All Stars at twenty two,
(03:41):
he's now twenty three. Alprind Shen Gouon's the best player.
He's basically about ninety eighty percent of jokicch he didn't.
He's not as big and forceful as Jokic, but the touch,
the finesse, he can pass, he can hit threes. Kevin
doesn't need to be their best player, and he's not
gonna be. He's not the athlete of him. N Thompson,
he doesn't have the youth and the overall skill and
ability of Al Prince Shegoon. That's not what he is.
(04:04):
He's paid to hit buckets and he'll hit a lot
of them. But I watched them last night. My takeaway
on Houston, and again, it was a fun game and
Houston for three quarters was rolling, but it reminded me
of the Clippers for years when they had Paul George
and Kawhi Leonard, And who's the point guard, who's running
the show, who's getting us into the offense. That's what
(04:24):
it felt like last night. And so the Rockets late
looked a little lost. And it's a team without a quarterback,
with a lot of good receivers and a lot of
good bucket getters. Because a man Thompson's a stud, you're
one of the best athletes in the league. Not a point.
I mean, he can play it, but he's not a point.
And al Prince Shengun is unbelievable like Jokich. He can
(04:46):
handle the ball, but he's not a point either. And
Katie down the stretch fouls calling the timeout they didn't have.
He took the hit for the loss after the game.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
A foul from Dan Plas Warren. I think those two
plays the reason he loves.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
You.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, sure, I gotta be better for you, throw down
as stay down, be more disciplined for his his opportunities
to get a stop, to say the game that I'll
come around to offense. So I gotta be more take
more event.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And goes okay. Meanwhile, as we predicted Skinny Luca skinny jeans,
Luca is gonna score a lot of points, and he
did forty three and the Lakers lost to the Old Warriors.
So Skinny lucas we told you he's gonna lead the
(05:37):
NBA in usage rate. I think he has a chance
to win the scoring title. Last night, you saw that
he can attack the basket. Now I'm sorry he lost
twenty five. I can actually see his shoulders now. He's
gonna attack the rim, attack the basket. He beats guys
quicker off the dribble. So that is what we thought
and what we saw. Secondly, the game, same issues the
Lakers had last year, they have him this year. They
(06:00):
lack athleticism on the wing. They're going to struggle against
teams like Minnesota and OKC on the wing. They're bad
defensively in the post. They were last year they are
this year. And Lebron's older and will be available in
spurts and he'll be great in spurts. But Luca, Skinny Luca,
(06:21):
he's gonna score a lot of points. They are a
top heavy roster. Last night, Austin Reeves, who scored a
lot of stuff late and Luca combined for sixty nine points.
Nobody else had more than ten. Okay, that's what they're
gonna be when Lebron doesn't play by the way the
Warriors had four guys fifteen or more. So. Essentially, the
Lakers are Luca plus old Lebron plus lack of athleticism
(06:43):
plus really lousy defending the rim, and that is not
good enough in the West with the te Wolves and
the Thunder and the Mavericks. I mean, the West just
loaded the Nuggets. I'm not sure. I'm not sure who
I like. I think Dallas is better than anybody's given
him credit for. So and the other thing the Lakers are.
JJ Reddy got kicked off about this. Last year the
Lakers were a terrible third quarter team, and last night,
(07:06):
despite the fact that Luca in twelve minutes at thirteen points,
last night, they were a terrible third quarter team. Why
this is my opinion, because the third quarter is when
you go in at half and they're really smart coaches,
pull some levers. Let's have a good say, how many
levers are there pull? They can't defend the rim. They're
not athletic enough. Lebron didn't play heavy reliance on Luca
(07:29):
thirteen points twelve minute. There's not a lot of levers here, right,
They're just so much. I mean, it's just like sometimes
NFL teams the Raids can go in at half. Gino's Geno,
where are the levers? Some teams have multiple levers. Denver's
got levers. You know, Eagles have levers, The Tampa Bay's
got them. What are the Lakers? What do you what
(07:51):
do you do at half? What are you going to change?
So my takeaway is, remember this is very important to remember,
and this is why then felt a little disengaged last night.
And this is a real thing. So Laker fans don't
forget this next sentence. They've got new ownership, but they
made the Lakers' new owners made a very public statement
(08:14):
this summer they want to be flexible in twenty twenty
six and twenty twenty seven. Uh huh, it's twenty twenty five.
Is the first time in Lebron's career. They're not going
for a ring. The games are going to be sold out,
Skinny Luca Lebron maybe his last year for the first
time ever, the ownership is not afraid of Lebron, and
(08:37):
they're not building a team for Lebron. The Lakers are
Luca JJ Reddick in the future and flexibility next year,
in the year after the draft. Next year is going
to be very good. There's gonna be opportunities down the road.
So the new Laker own and took this Laker ownership,
this new group. When they bought the Dodgers, it wasn't
(08:58):
about winning a World Series the first year. They identified
their stars, moved off, some embraced others. Long term build
to be viable, like the Dodgers are thirteen straight postseasons.
So these new owners this is a Luca JJ Reddick
long term build. They would love to be a playoff team.
(09:21):
They would love to have home playoff games. They would
love to drive that playoff resident revenue. They'd love to
win a title. They're not winning a title. They're not
getting out of the West. They're not getting the Western
conference finals. Luca old Lebron, lack of athleticism, no rim protector. Defensively,
in the East, you could get to a conference final.
(09:42):
In the West, it's gonna be hard to win a series.
So Lebron's not happy about it. But for the first
time he's not driving this bus. Luca, though the weight loss.
He's quicker. He attacks the rim. He didn't do that
last year. A lot of fallaways, a lot of settling.
He's back to attacking the rim. Here's Luke after.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Yeah, I feel like I say, no, less tiring, better shape.
So I'm just trying to get a win. You've got
to try and be physical. You know, obviously they're in bonus.
It's a little bit harder, but the end, you got
to get a stop and that's what kind of winning
the game.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, this is not going to be a great defensive team.
Great defensive teams are great protecting the rim and hyper athletic.
That's why, like Minnesota when they played them last year,
go bear protects the rim. You know they got their
very highly athletic wing defenders. There are certain components you
need to be a good passing team in the NFL,
like a good offensive line, a quarterback over five to ten,
(10:46):
maybe a viable veteran tight end, good twitchy young receivers.
It's the same thing in the NBA. You want to
be a great defensive team, you have to be a
great rim defender. You gotta have somebody at the iron.
They don't really have that. They didn't last they made
a move. They don't this year. It's what they are,
and they're not super athletic on the wing, at least
not athletic enough to be the OKAC or a Minnesota
(11:07):
in a series. So I think. But I do think
if you love Luca, I can see his shoulders now.
I mean, what has he lost? Twenty seven twenty eight
pound me? He's much much quicker, plays downhill much more often.
That was fun. J Mack. I know you're a bit
of a Laker fan. That must have felt really good
last night.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Oh my gosh, it was excellent. First of all, happy
the NBA's back. Second of all, Luka Donctz looks again
like the best player in the league. I don't want
to hear this, SGA is better than Luca nonsense. But
I think you're overreacting, just a tad on the Lakers. Okay,
two new starters. You're missing an All NBA player in Lebron,
the top two minutes guys off the bench just joined
the team, Like, let's pump the brakes on the panic
(11:49):
can't win a series. I think this team definitely has
the players to get to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Undeniably. I would would not.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Surprise me at all. Problem is you got to get
everybody healthy.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Is that that for a honest trade at the deadline?
I think, John, are you giving up Austin Reeves in
a package for you? Honest?
Speaker 5 (12:06):
I don't know if I am Colin? Okay, I probably am.
What Austin Reeves was really strong last night?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (12:14):
And by the way, Warriors take Warriors not going to
the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
That veteran team looked really good together. Yeah, three months off,
it's easy to look great in the opener. Yeah, check in.
Check in in February eighth and see how young they look.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and Noone Eastern nin a em Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Hey it's me Rock Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot
baseball talk, featuring the biggest names of newsmakers in the sport.
Whether you believe in analytics or the I test, We've
got all the bases covered. New episodes dropped every Thursday,
(12:59):
So sop of favor and listen to Inside the Parker
with Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
All right, welcome back Joe Klatt top of Next hour.
So uh, very interesting game for the first time ever
former Packer great Aaron Rodgers now as Steeler, He and
the Steelers will host Dream Bay. Aaron tends to have
a long memory. He's going to face the team, the
(13:30):
Packers he built his legacy on, and let him go
and move down to Jordan Love. So the Packers in
the Indianapolis Colts are the only teams in the NFL
left with only one loss. Packers also have a tie
against the Cowboys, and nobody quite knows what to do
with Jordan Love. So I went back this morning and
I went to Aaron's Super Bowl winning year that's twenty ten,
(13:52):
and I went back and looked where was he through
six games? And I looked at Jordan Love through six games.
Their first six games. Jordan was way better passer rating,
fewer picks, team was scoring more, much better completion percentage,
one more game. So Jordan Loved this year through the
first six was better than Aaron in the year he
(14:13):
won his first Super Bowl, and both were twenty seven
years old. Aaron was cooler Aaron's personality was more out there.
Aaron kind of plays the position. Although I think Jordan
loves cool Aaron. The way he lets go of the
ball was kind of, you know, throws it with no
feet on the ground. Aaron was a very unique quarterback
(14:34):
and he was cool, and he was carrying the torch.
At that time, when he was twenty seven, it was
a very thin group of ascending young quarterbacks. Farv was
in his forties and McNabb was still around, and it was,
you know, Aaron's making a Pro Bowl and he's in,
you know, mid twenties, twenty six, twenty seven years old,
and it was Brady and it was Breeze, and it
(14:55):
was Manning and Farbes around and there's McNabb and older
Tony Romo was getting meat up every week before the
Cowboys had a great offensive line, and then it was Aaron. Well,
the difference is Jordan Love. There's all sorts of great
young quarterbacks now, even the ones were not totally sold on.
Caleb Williams are insanely talented, Drake May looks like a
pro bowler. Jayden Daniels last year unbelievable. Justin Herbert, they're
(15:19):
just more good quarterback play. You go back to Aaron
at Jordan Love's age, and it was like Aaron and
a bunch of old guys were still in the headlines.
It was it was a bunch of Farb and Brady
and Manning and Breeze and McNabb was still hanging around.
Now Aaron's the old guy and the league is all
young quarterbacks. It is just a bunch of kids. And
(15:42):
so I actually think Aaron is going to do very
well Sunday night. I think Aaron's the kind of guy
that I think when you're older, you could be a broadcaster,
you could be a political figure, you could be a
football player. When you get older, you can't work seventy
hours a week, you can't grind like you used to.
But your best this game is still great. The late
(16:02):
great Kobe sixty last game, he played like you can stuff.
Brett Fahr was old and rickety. He was still great
at the very end. Right, So I think Aaron's gonna
play well. Steelers are at home. The Packers are very talented.
They play with their food a little, They let you
hang around for a while. Here's Mike Tomlin on the
(16:25):
matchup of Aaron and the Steelers against his former team.
Speaker 7 (16:30):
Aaron's been added a long time. You know, he's got
an awesome relationship with this game. I hadn't been with
him for a long time, but he's been fired up
every single week. I'd imagine it's going to be the same.
I'd imagine some external things are going to make more
out of it than it is for him. He's playing
and playing to win. That's what he does.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It's just interesting is when when Aaron was Jordan's current age,
he felt like he was the young star that was
going to carry the next generation of quarterbacks. And as
good as Jordan Love is, better numbers than airin at
his age. Right like in space, it's just so many
good young quarterbacks. There are so many. We're still waiting
for Caleb to be great. Jaden already is. I mean,
(17:14):
bo Nick's thirty three points in a quarter on Jackson
Dart looks like he's a player. So it's just a
different world now. The quarterback play in the NFL. This
is the golden age. Don't listen to anybody. Don't listen
to anybody, you know, glamorize and romanticize the Lway Morino years.
There's never been close to this much quarterback talent. It
is unbelievable. I mean this year, the next NFL draft
(17:37):
may have six quarterbacks drafted May and the best one
of them may be the younger red shirt freshman at
Notre Dame car He may be the best. He not
draft eligible.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and Noone Eastern nin a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and
noon to three eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find
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dot com, or stream us live every day on the
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Speaker 2 (18:13):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
All right, here we go, it is our two. We
are live. It is the heard. Joel Klatt is around
the corner. So I gotta start this hour with this.
This happened yesterday or the day before. I think it
was yesterday. The tweet came out from Russell Wilson. So
Sean Payton coached the Denver Broncos. When he got to Denver,
(18:44):
he and Russell Wilson and I had set it on
the air. This is gonna be a personality clash. I
know Sean had dinner with Sean. I've had a lot
of discussions with Sean. Shawn is blunt, Sean is up front,
Shawn is authentic. Sean didn't care what you think about him.
And Russell can be you know, very I would say,
almost political, a little bit more calculated. And when Russell
(19:07):
had his own office there in the Denver building, that
was not gonna play with Sean Payton. So it never worked.
Sean didn't view him as the future. He was overpaid,
and Sean was gonna get rid of him. It wasn't
ever gonna work. And so Shawn's taking a few shots
at Russell. And after coming back to beat the Giants
and Jackson Dart who replaced Russell. Here's what Seawan said
(19:30):
after the game Sunday.
Speaker 8 (19:32):
It was a great win, good team effort to fight back.
Tip your hats to New York. Those guys that found
a new juice about him, and you could see that
on tape. You know, they found a little spark with
that quarterback. I was talking to John Mayor not too
(19:53):
long ago, and I said, we were hoping that that
change would have happened long long after our game.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Well out, Russell Wilson did not like that, went to
X classless, not surprised. Didn't realize you're still bounty hunting
fifteen plus years later through the media. Let's ride. Let's ride.
You knew that was coming. First of all, the Russell
Wilson story is crazy. It deserves a Netflix special. So
(20:20):
Russell Wilson's last two years at North Carolina State seventy
two touchdowns, best record for NC State in eight years,
and the coach demoted him said, They're not going to
be an NFL player. I'm going to go with Mike Glennon.
So he goes to Wisconsin, he scores thirty nine touchdowns,
they go eleven and three and go to the Rose Bowl.
I don't think Wisconsin scored thirty nine touchdowns since he left,
(20:44):
and yet he only went in the third round of
the draft. He got disrespected again, and then in Seattle
when he's changing the world, he's a unicorn talent, Marshawn Lynch,
Pete Carroll, the defense got all the talent. So Russell
has lived in this kind of prism of he didn't
get respected NZ State, even though he was record setting.
He didn't get respect in Wisconsin even though he's easily
(21:07):
the most productive quarterback they've ever had for a single season,
And he didn't get a ton of respect in Seattle.
And I think Russell's tired of it. I think he's
just tired of it. And I mean Pete Carroll chose
Geno Smith over him. Sean Payton was willing to deal
with the worst dead cap hit in league history to
go with Bo Nicks. Mike Tomlin said, I'll go with
(21:29):
old Aaron Rodgers, who gets hurt more. And Brian Daviles
being investigated by the league because he went over to
the injury tent to make sure he didn't have to
put Russ back on the field. So you know, zero
for four with coaches. But I think the bigger issue
is Russ Fields disrespected. But there is a truth about
smaller quarterbacks. Let me ask you, how is to his
(21:49):
career gone the last couple of years, how's Kyler Murray's
career gone the last couple of years? And how has
Russell's career gone? He's lost his last seven starts. There
are limitations with smaller quarterbacks. They don't last as long
and they do not age well Russell to Tyler Murray.
(22:13):
By the way, I do think it is hard when
your entire life is an uphill battle. I mean the
fact that he had seventy two touchdowns, best record in
almost a decade in the coach at NZ State says
not interested, and then he goes to Wisconsin who can
never get the quarterback right and is unbelievable, and the
NFL still ignores him. I mean, and to show you
(22:36):
more disrespect that Russell Wilson's had when he was at
the top of his game, a unicorn talent, a playmaker,
the Seahawks GM and Pete Carroll went to Wyoming to
scout Josh Allen. So I do think we all have limitations.
I think all of us in life if we feel
constantly disrespected over and over and over again. I think
that's what Russell feels, and that's why he clapped back.
(22:59):
He just feels respected and he's tired of it. And
I get it, and I don't think. I don't think
Sean should have taken a shot at him, but I
think Russell's always been above that of punching back, and
I think yesterday is like I'm over it. I'm over it,
and I get it. The guys NC State, Wisconsin Seahawks,
(23:20):
Geno Smith, I get it. And with that, Joel Clatt,
the Voice of college Football, is joining US live. They'll
have the UCLA Indiana game, which is Ucla is a
crazy story. I mean, it's so weird. They get rid
of their coach and they have a completely different vibe, feel, energy,
(23:43):
and juice. For the record, does UCLA have any chance?
I mean, it's pretty interesting what they're doing offensively. Do
they have any chance to compete with Indiana?
Speaker 9 (23:52):
Well, I mean they're playing substantially better football and they
still have a five star quarterback. This is what I
find so interesting in college football right now is these
teams that maybe we don't think a lot of they've
got better players than they ever have because of revenue
sharing and nil, and that talent has dispersed. So I
think more than any other year, I think that there
there are opportunities for a team like UCLA to go
(24:15):
out there and not only play with, but maybe even
beat Indiana. And it starts with their quarterback and he's
got a play well, and their play caller Jerry Neuheisel
now Tim Skipper doesn't probably get enough credit for the
way UCLA has bounced back and played so well, totally
different energy. I think you're exactly right. But also these
two coordinators that they that they have, Jerry Neuheisel has
really understood that he needs to teach the why to
(24:38):
the concept, and I think it shows on film when
I'm watching UCLA. It's drastically different with the way that
they play in terms of their urgency on offense. And
you can only do that if you understand the why,
not just what or how, but the why of what's
going on in the football field. So they're playing a
lot better. But I will tell you this is an
uphill battle because this Indiana team is very good, the
only team in college football right now in the top
(24:59):
five and scoring offense and scoring defense. They've got a
top five pick at quarterback, They've got experience on the outside.
The defense has been sensational, they can run it, they're balanced,
and that's a tough place to play. So you know,
it's an uphill battle for UCLA.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
So when Ohio State went and got Chip Kelly from
the NFL and Matt Patricia, it shows you the meshing
in college and pro football I mean Belichick going to
college not working. But there's a mesh now. It used
to be there was pros. They look down at college football. Well, no,
you're seeing NFL guys steel offensive stuff from college. You're
seeing NFL guys go. I'll be a coordinator in college
(25:36):
and make a million bucks a year. But it's interesting.
So the other thing that's happening to college football that
has an NFL field that nobody's talking about. It used
to be Ohio State and Michigan play. Oh, it's burr,
it's cold. Then you go play somewhere in Orlando. You
go to a nice, sunny location. The College Football Playoff
is very NFL. You're going to play in crappy weather.
(25:57):
That wasn't the case. So the best teams are now.
Then I'm going to go to the Rose Bowl. You know,
got to go to Orlando all the time. And so
I watched Notre Dame this weekend and I want, oh,
Notre Dame is built for December. Notre Dame, it's not.
They don't need Dante more slinging it fifty times. I
(26:18):
watched Notre Dame and I thought every year we watched
this in the NFL. Joe Joel, there's two football seasons
pre Thanksgiving and post we want to College football now
is going to have a little bit of that feel.
And I watched Notre Dame Saturday, and I'm like, I
would want no part of Notre Dame if they get
(26:38):
to the playoff? Am I crazy? No, You're not crazy.
Speaker 9 (26:41):
In fact, I based an entire episode of my podcast
around this exact topic.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
You can actually go out. It's out today.
Speaker 9 (26:51):
You shun go over the Joel clad Show on YouTube
and subscribe and check it out, and it's basically this.
I went and with Chris bar Felika, so I brought
Bear on. He did a national championship draft, Colin. To
your point, he proposed on a conference call, like, hey,
how far would you get down the list if you're
just drafting teams all or nothing to win the national championship?
How far would you get before you drafted Notre Dame?
(27:14):
And we all thought to ourselves, like, man, easily in
the top six, you know, And I know they're not
ranked right now up there in the top six because
of the two losses, But those two losses look a
lot different. They look like a different team with a
quarterback that's maturing. Even though he played his worst game
against USC, I don't want to see that run game
with Jeremiah Love and Geneerian Price. Those guys can absolutely
(27:36):
handle the rock. So to your point, I think that
if I'm looking at the sport right now, I said
earlier in the year, there was ten teams that could
win the national championship. At one point I thought twelve.
Now as I'm starting to really see this and evaluate it,
I know the playoff is going to be twelve, but
there are six teams that I'm like, you know what,
any given week, any given run through the playoff, these
(27:57):
six can win it all. And Notre Dame is one
of those. And I think you're spot on. They do
the foundationally things correct. When the line of scrimmage, run
the football. They can play good defense. They did it
against USC last week. And another thing that I would
just say is that this sport still is dominated by defense,
as much as we watch in awe of great offensive play.
(28:18):
The last four national champions Georgia had the number one
defense in college football. Georgia had the number four defense
in college football, Michigan number one defense in college football,
Ohio State number one defense in college football, you still
have to play great on defense if you're going to
go out there and win it all.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Hey, I want to ask you because you do work
for the draft. And so when college football and pro
football converge, and I think more than ever, I think
the playoff feels very NFL. The nil they're being paid,
the transfer portals even a whackier free agency than the NFL.
But college football today, in the last three years, feels
much more Sunday than Saturday. And I still love it.
(28:56):
But when I watched Jackson Dart with Kiffen So, I
always felt he's got a much better college coach than
ninety percent of the sport. I liked him, but he
was all over the map. It is weird to me.
I like him way more in pro football that I
liked him in college football. And I liked him in college.
But did you when you watch Jackson Dart, did you
(29:18):
think he was going to look like this goodness quickly
in the pro without a great team, without a great
old line.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
No.
Speaker 9 (29:25):
I mean if and by the way, if anybody says
that they saw this, they're they're lying because he would
have gotten selected a lot higher than he did. You know,
like that I like, that's an honest opinion, and I
did not see this coming from Jackson Dart. I love
that that New York And remember Mike Shanahan did this
for RG three early in his career at Washington, but
(29:48):
he wanted to put his player in position to succeed.
So what New York is doing offensively is tailored towards
the skill set of Jackson Dart, and that's really smart
from Brian Dable.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Smart.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Now.
Speaker 9 (30:00):
I know that they just totally bombed out in the
fourth quarter against Denver, which was wild. Denver scores thirty
three in the fourth quarter in order to win that game.
But Dart and his skill set and the way that
they're using him, it's effective. And even though Sean Payton's
comments got then you know, pointed to Russ and we're
talking about everything else, what he initially said is absolutely correct,
(30:22):
and I think you and I would both agree like
they have a different juice with Jackson Dart at quarterback, no.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Question, yeah, no question. So they're not going to make
the playoff. And I got into this discussion the other day.
I am often called a USC homer. I resent it,
but I live with it. Everyone I'm wondering if you're
going to go USC this week. Okay, so I just listen.
(30:53):
In the NFL, we've seen great play callers like Lane
Kevin and Mike McDaniel coach in the NFL. It's but
Lane was super young and McDaniel isn't really your classic alpha.
What we know in the NFL is Harbaugh is not
a great scheme guy, Dan Campbell, Vrabel Tomlin is that
(31:14):
in the NFL, you're hiring these are all millionaires in
the locker room. You're hiring an alpha, a CEO. You'll
then you will give this schematic excellence. And there are
exceptions like Kyle Shanahan or Andy Reid to your coordinators,
but you are basically they called in the NFL a
walk around coach. Jimmy Johnson's a walk around coach. He
walks from unit to unit to unit, inspiring judging parcels.
(31:38):
A walk around coach. So you know, I I look
at USC in college, it's a little different. You got
to be a walk around coach. But a lot of
these guys they don't want to call plays because they're
really good at it and much better than the average
college coach. Interesting with this, and so My take is
I think Lincoln Ryle as a play designer and caller
(32:02):
is a plus. How many years do I have to
watch USC get pushed around on every road game before?
I don't have this opinion. He's not a culture builder.
He is a great, great intellect. But I'm watching them
get pushed around by Illinois and last year Maryland, and
(32:23):
last year Michigan and this year Notre Dame.
Speaker 9 (32:26):
It's four years in. This is what they are as
a program. I do think it's getting better. I mean
we sat here and talked about how much better it
was getting against Michigan. I think Notre Dame is just
elite running the football. That's where Illinois exposed to USC.
But they are going to be better on the defensive
line next year than they have been this year. Jakim Stewart, right.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Is his name?
Speaker 9 (32:48):
The young kid like he's He's a phenomenal player on
the interior. I'm going to take it a different way.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I think that.
Speaker 9 (32:57):
In college football. See I disagree with you at the premise.
I think in the NFL, scheme guys are rewarded and
walk around coaches aren't like scheme guys win Andy Reid,
Kyle Shanahan.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Those guys win.
Speaker 9 (33:13):
I think what Stichen is doing right now right Stikeen
in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
It's very creative, it's great. It's great style.
Speaker 9 (33:20):
Like scheme guys win in the NFL, what you don't
see in college is scheme guys, and specifically play callers
win at the top level. In fact, we haven't seen
a play caller win a national championship since I think
it was Jimbo Fisher and before that it was like
Tom Osborne back in the nineties. Like guys that are
CEOs win in college football because the walkaround style is
(33:43):
much more prevalent and needed. This is why Ryan Day
gave up his play calling duties. That's his superpower, it's
his cape on his back. So he gave him up
last year. Are we saying that that basically? So, what
you're basically saying is it's a walk around sport. Lincoln's
not that great walk around coach.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I don't think so.
Speaker 9 (34:02):
I think the play callers, the Kiffins and the Sarks
and the Lincoln Rileyes of the world, they need to
look at a guy like Ryan Day and think to themselves,
you know what made them have the ability to win?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
The national championship. I'll just say this.
Speaker 9 (34:15):
If Ryan Day called the plays last year and was
the coordinator to facto for Ohio State, I don't think
that they win the national championship. But it's not because
of his play calling. It's because he wouldn't have been
available to the defense after they got beat by Oregon
to go in and fix broken structures.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
I think that's a man.
Speaker 9 (34:34):
He would talk about that openly and it was the
reason why he decided to give up play calling duties. Now,
you also have to be a GM. You also have
to raise a bunch of money and do all of
these things outside. And the level of time and commitment
it takes to not only formulate a game plan but
then become the play caller and study to be the
play caller, I don't know if you can be a
(34:55):
national champion and call the place in college football. Brent
Viittibles is trying to that on the defensive side right now.
Mike Elko is trying to do that on the defensive
side right now, and I think it's too tough.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
I look at your top ten. You have Ohio State, Indiana, Alabama.
I agree with that, Oregon A and m Georgia, Georgia Tech.
How about Georgia Tech, Miami, Notre Dame Vandy. I'd have
Notre Dame a little higher, but I don't. I don't disagree.
I gotta tell you something I am. I am rooting
for Kaylin de Boor, and the reason I'm doing it
(35:28):
is replacing a legend is really hard, and people forget
people go to Alabama. Nick Saban saw this coming. He
knew that he couldn't match up with George's nil or Texas.
He knew it, and Nick said, I'm gonna quietly move
to television. And he was smart. He saw it, and
Calin de Boor inherited a less talented roster. They do
(35:51):
not have a elite nil I think you're over selling this.
I don't know. I don't think they have the money that.
I mean, USC's been an eighteen large I don't think
Alabama's got that, do they?
Speaker 9 (36:04):
Well, they have it through revenue share. You know, the
SEC has given them a large check. And then if listen,
if you want to take Nick Saban at face value,
what he didn't like is that the day after they
lose to Michigan and the Rose Bowl, you know, players
are asking how much are you going to pay me?
And how much am I going to play? And he
didn't like those conversations as I don't know if it
(36:25):
was a resource battle where like all of a sudden
he was scared or this or that. I don't think
he liked the nature of what the head coach was
going to have to do. Like, for instance, at Ohio
State last year, they win the national championship. The next morning,
in fifteen minute increments, they started meeting with every player
and their manager to talk about nil. I mean, that's
that's not fun and I don't think Nick Saban wanted
(36:46):
to do that.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Now.
Speaker 9 (36:47):
I don't want to speculate on his account, but I
would just say this, I think Kaylin Debor is one
of the better coaches in the entire sport. His record
proves that, yeh, wherever he's been great. And he's got
a quarterback right now in Ty Simpson that I think
has a really good chance to be the number one
overall pick. And when you got that, like you got
(37:08):
a chance. I don't think their defense is great. I
don't think they run the ball, you know great, But
man like this is a great quarterback, A proud tradition,
a good roster, and I think they're going to be
really tough to beat. I think they would right now,
which is the reason I put him at number three.
Are my favorite in the SEC?
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, no, I think so too. They don't look as
ferocious defensively, they don't look as powerful or quite as
big defensively as the Saban years. But they don't have
you know, it's a whole different world now backups transfer.
Speaker 9 (37:40):
So yeah, don't be surprised if Simpson's your number one pick, though,
I mean it'll be him and Fernando Mendoza will be
looked at as that number one pick.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
All right, Listen, I'm gonna ask you sc questions. I
know they're uncomfortable for you. I'm a journalist. They're always
very comfortable questions for me. It's just listen, for four years,
you are what you are.
Speaker 9 (38:03):
Don't you think you're Don't you think you're seeing a
trajectory that is different than what has been before.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Let's see, they go on the road. They can't beat Illinois,
they can't beat Notre Dame. What's different? Uniforms, the same results,
the same road. I mean, it's the same day on
the road, uniforms look the same. The offense is clever
and smart, that's the same. They get pushed around the same.
Speaker 9 (38:26):
I think USC makes the playoff in the in the
next twenty four months.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Oh oh, standards kind of dropped, hasn't it by year six?
I mean, I mean we're lading, we're not the we're
not March madness, but we could be up to eighteen teams.
They're pretty quick. Ope, in the next twenty four months.
Speaker 9 (38:46):
All right, Cloud, it's good see anybody you as well
have a good day, dude.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yeah, maybe you know. First of all, I don't want
ping pong tables at work, and I got higher standards
than you get the USC job. In year six you
get into the playoffs. Oh you're crazy. Talk over here.
My rule is, if you're at work playing ping pong,
you're a ding dong. You're not going to management. I
mean you can go ahead, hit it back and forth
(39:11):
and have your dog at work. All right, somebody's got
to do the heavy lifting here. I guess it's me.
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