July 27, 2022 • 35 mins
Welcome in to the Best of The Herd with Colin Cowherd! Colin explains how Jimmy Garoppolo left a bad taste in San Francisco’s mouth; Kevin Durant was passed on three major teams for a trade by being lumped in with major diva players. College Football is just fine but they’re truly being underachieving, and when Mike Tomlin talks, we all listen! Plus, Colin brings you his Quarterback Tier List!
Guest: Jimbo Fisher
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be
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the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox
Sports Radio. Here we Go on a Wednesday, live in
(00:27):
Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, however
you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and f
S one. Nick Right joining us today, Joey Taylor, Jimbo Fisher,
Coach of Texas, and M's joining you. So I was
(00:48):
thinking about this. If you go to a movie, it's
a little all over the place, but it's got a
great last ten minutes. Yes, whether you're on a date,
you're married, or with a friend, you walk out of
that theater and you're like, I kind of liked that movie.
(01:10):
That's a good movie. Yeah, you feel better about it.
You're a little confused, but they wrapped it all up.
So I'm gonna start with that. A few years ago,
I'm in West Hartford, Connecticut. I mean, I watched a
movie called Burn after reading it's George Clooney, Brad Pitt.
It's odd. It had the greatest last scene in the
history of any movie I've ever seen. My wife and
(01:33):
I walked out of that movie and were laughing so
hard we were bending over in the street for ten minutes.
We both today think that's a great movie. It's like
I've watched it again and I have the exact same feeling.
It's wrapped up so perfectly in the office scene. It
is so perfect that it ties it all together. That
(01:55):
I think of that very positive. It's a very very
good movie to me. Usual Suspects, which was better than
that movie, but also similarly had an unbelievable last scene.
Last fifteen minutes, is also a good movie with a
great ending, And if you ask people about it, they's go, oh,
that's a great film. That's not. It's a good film,
a great ending, And that leads me to Jimmy Garoppolo.
(02:16):
It's now official. He met with Kyle Shanahan, he met
with John Lynch yesterday. He's back. He's throwing, but the
team informed him we're moving on to Trey Lance and
here's Kyle Shanahan stands where we're at. We understand where
we're at. Like, I can't tell you how appreciative I
have been of Jimmy and hmbing here and so appreciative
(02:37):
what he did for us last year. I think Jimmy
and we knew what movie made the year before on
that Jimmy did a hell of a job coming to
a camp and went in that job and taking us
real close to the super Bowl. But we have moved
on to Trey. We're starting camp out this way. We
think Jimmy would have been traded if the surgery didn't
happen in Deead. He needed to do it, so there's
no ill will there at all. But it's good to
(02:59):
see that he is healthy. But now it's all just
seeing how this will end up. All three of us
are on the same page, all right, They're moving on.
So let me ask you do you think last year
was a success for Aaron Rodgers. I don't couldn't win
a home playoff game one and done embarrassing, yet he
was MVP. That goes to me. That goes to my
(03:22):
argument the last part of the movie makes the movie.
You can never have a great movie with a bad ending.
There's never been ever a great movie with a lousy
last fifteen minutes. Doesn't doesn't happen. There's not one. Aaron
Rodgers won the MVP last year is not a success.
Couldn't win a playoff game, couldn't score a touchdown. Let's
(03:45):
go to Jimmy Garoppolo because I think a lot of
you think replacing Jimmy Garoppolo is not that hard. From
week ten on last year, second in the NFL and
completion percentage seventy one, second in yards per attempt, fourth
and passer rating, that's the Jimmy Garoppolo he's replacing. Nobody
(04:05):
cares about Week four. That's why the Niner coaches are nervous.
Jimmy's a gamer and an alpha, and he's confident. That's
who you're replacing. Nobody gives a rip about the injuries,
and nobody cares about Aaron Rodgers. October. Aaron Rodgers season
was embarrassing at the end. Again, Trey Lance is not
there yet, and Jimmy Garoppolo, by the way, may never
(04:26):
ever be close to this good again without Kyle Shanahan.
You're probably right, doesn't matter the last fifteen minutes of
the movie. If it's great, you walk out of that
theater and your memory of it is that is a
good movie. And there has never ever been a great
movie ever made with a lousy last fifteen minutes. Jimmy
Garoppolo's last three years two NFC Championship games. Blew out
(04:50):
Aaron Rodgers in one and led Matt Stafford in another
in the fourth quarter. The team that has beaten him
the last two years that he has gotten to at
least the NFC Championship was a Super Bowl champion. That's
who knocked him out. There's a Rams this year, and
it was the Chiefs that year, and he led both
in the fourth quarter. And this roster is full of
guys who played in those games and loved Jimmy Garoppolo.
(05:13):
So this idea, it's just going to be easy. Trey
Lance gonna be bigger, stronger, more athletic. I don't doubt
any of it. But how it ends is how it is, okay,
And if you look at the Niners schedule, when Trey
Lance is on the field on the other side of
the field in the first ten games, he's going to
be facing Russell Wilson, Matt Stafford, Patrick Mahomes, Matt Stafford,
(05:37):
Justin Herbert and Kyler Murray. And that's what you're going
to compare him to, and that's what his teammates are
going to compare him to. So you know this idea
that oh, Niner fans were like, it's great. All I
hear is shade for Jimmy Garoppolo last ten games. And
that's when legends are made. That's why Rogers will never
be Brady. He doesn't end as seasons. Well, oh he's great.
(06:00):
In September, that was Brady's the worst month. Nobody cares.
Nobody cares Tom's worst month in New England September. Tom
was great in January. Can't be a great movie with
a lowsy ending. Jimmy Week ten on was really good
and won big games. And Trey Lance has his work
(06:21):
cut out for him. I think it'll be good. I
think it'd be talented. But this idea, this is just
Kyle's great. Jimmy g get him out of here tougher
than you think. So now it's three teams that Kevin
Durant was lined up for. Yesterday, the Miami Heat publicly
(06:43):
said no, thank you, and we know that the Warriors
publicly said no thank you, and we know the Phoenix
Suns by signing DeAndre Aighton have said no thank you.
Sons Warrior's heat, no thanks. I think what's happening to
Kevin Durant happens all the time in a lot of businesses.
(07:05):
I think he's being lumped in with high maintenance players, divas,
players that lack self awareness. I think he's getting lumped
in with Kyrie and Ben Simmons and Westbrook and James Harden.
And I think the NBA and the executives, overwhelmingly of
the good teams are now pivoting away from that because
(07:26):
those storylines have been so profound and gobbled up a
lot of shows like this and don't kid yourself exacts
here shows like this, they read the headlines. How many
stories have we had on James Harden, Ben Simmons and
Westbrook and Kyrie Irving. As I always say, in our business,
we report plane crashes, not plane landings, and those there
(07:50):
have been a lot of crashes with those guys, right,
So KD is getting lumped in with those players. You
see this all the time in business like streaming. Right now,
Netflix had a really bad quarter and so now suddenly, uh, streaming,
streaming's done. No, streaming's fine. Streaming is gonna be just fine,
(08:11):
and almost everything is moving to streaming, and streaming is viable.
And Hulu's gonna be fine, and Netflix will be fine,
and Amazon Prime is gonna be fine, and streaming is fine.
But it had a bad quarter. It's really really visible.
And any streaming company now, because of Netflix is the
big dog. They'll get lumped into who streaming the entire sector.
(08:33):
It'll be fine. Kevin Durant is getting lumped in with
Kyrie and Simmons and Harden and Westbrook. He's not declining,
Harden is, Westbrook is he is available? Ben Simmons isn't
He's trustable in the playoffs, Hardens not. We are lumping
a guy in who's averaging twenty nine a game, shooting
(08:56):
fifty two percent, and when he's on the floor remains
a very a very good defender. He plays hard, he
plays nightly, he plays well, and he's the best get
a bucket guy in the NBA and arguably ever. But
he's getting lumped in and right now, and there's an
old saying. We've all heard it. Your parents probably told
you mine did maybe Joyce, did you know? Choose your
(09:19):
friends wisely. You're gonna be judged by the company you keep.
So steph to Kyrie. Kyrie, the world is flat. Kyrie's
not going to get baxed. Wasn't available, not a great teammate.
I think Kad, and I've said this before, has to
separate from Kyrie because as long as he's with Kyrie,
people are gonna look at Katie and go, oh, that's
(09:42):
your guy. That's how you run with because by leaving
reliable staff and going to Kyrie that's one thing. Remaining
with him, keep doubling down on it that's another. And
so choose your friends wisely. Sometimes you gotta cut the
court from people you like because you're getting judged by him.
(10:02):
And if you're more talented than the company you keep,
and more reliable and more dependable and lower maintenance, sometimes
you gotta cut the chord. Because I really think Kady
it's kind of amazing. There's no takers twenty nine a
game best shotmaker in the game still plays defense. I
mean he's thirty three, folks, he's not forty. He's unbelievable.
(10:27):
There's like no takers and teams are doing it publicly.
Miami publicly, no thanks, Golden State publicly, no thanks. Phoenix
didn't even wait DeAndre and we'll sign him, no thanks.
Like I think he's gonna go back to Brooklyn. We
talked about this yesterday. That is my guess. But it
is fairly remarkable that this level of player. He's a
(10:48):
bit of a wanderer. He's a little passive, aggressive, he's
twenty nine, a game fifty two, best shotmaker in the world.
There's value. I mean, he's really good. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter
nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and
the iHeartRadio app. So been saying this for a while,
(11:11):
kind of irritating that when you love something like college football,
it's infuriating that it doesn't have a centralized voice. The
structure of it's a bit of a mess. Everybody's doing
whatever it takes for their conference to crush. So Kirk
Ferent's very respected. Used to be. I think years ago
he was on Belichick's staff in Cleveland. He nick Saban
(11:32):
Belichick in Cleveland. Really smart guy chose the college route.
Could certainly coach in the NFL. Iowa doesn't a remarkable
job to put three star athletes, develop them and put
them in the NFL where they flourish. It really doesn't
as good as anybody in the country at taking like
unheralded recruits and making them NFL stars. Iowa does it
about as well as anybody. And he was talking about
(11:53):
the state at Big ten Media Days, the state of
college football. There's a real lack of structure and framework
in our sport right now, which I think is concerning
and dangerous. Nil. I think it's a great initiative, great conceptually,
and our transfer policies right now are a little bit
concerning too. And spending six years in the NFL where
they had a salary cap, Yeah, there is a system
(12:14):
there for you know, a limit on how much or
how little players can be paid. And there's also a
system of movement. There are times when players can move
and can't move, And I have no idea how you
get to that point in college football. I'm not smart
enough to know that, and I'm not smart enough to
know who's going to do it. But right now, I'm
sure as a lot of us that are a little
confused on what the rules are and what are the
how do you operate? And we just have such a
(12:36):
good game. I hate to see it, you know, implode
or you know, suffer a setback by the way. Pat Fitzgerald,
another one of the smartest coaches in the country for Northwestern,
summed it up. He said, the games on the field
have never been better. Off the field, it's never been
more chaotic. Young people, let me speak to you if
I may. I know you don't want to hear it,
(12:58):
but two things are true. You can't matter at your
company and work twenty five hours a week. I know
people have convinced you your friends got to put in
the hours and grind. It's really true. Sorry. And the
second thing is strong management in your career is going
to matter. Sometimes they'll bark, sometimes she may fire you,
(13:19):
they'll demand you to work extra hours. But I worked
at a company one time called ESPN for seven eight years.
They had amazingly strong and focused leadership ascending. Then management
was say whatever you want on the air, and the
ratings tanked. It matters. The games are great in college football.
(13:40):
The coaching has never been better, the athletes have never
been better, the training has never been better. The TV
production has never been better. Who's running it. Who's running
it you're I don't care how talented you are in
any field, you will swim in mediocrity with unfocused or
no leadership. I mean, listen, take a deep breath. College
(14:03):
football is not dying. So many people love this sport.
They're so close to the trees, right they can't you
see the forest from the trees. The old saying goes
like boxing and newspapers, we were told they were dying
twenty five years ago. They're still fine, all right. New
York Times doing fine. So it's the Wall Street Journal
making a lot of money, but college football is underachieving.
(14:28):
Labor Day weekend is another glaring example why there's no
schedule maker in college football, so everybody avoids big games.
The Labor Day weekend is the weekend before the NFL starts.
It is wide open real estate, beachfront property. We're wrapping
our summers up. People go out on the boat for
the last time in the summer. They come home at night,
(14:48):
they are ready to have a beer, be with their
kids for the final time of the summer and watch
college football. And we've got two big games games two
you gotta watch Oregon Georgia, Notre Dame, Ohio State. There's
no ceo. It's a million dollar business. There's no schedule maker.
Does everybody understand how long the NFL works on their schedule?
(15:13):
I mean the NFL that is a cottage industry. The
NFL schedule meticulous weeks on end. They call our boss
at Fox, they call CBS, they call every network head.
They argue, they fight, they strategize. Labor Day weekend, two games,
two games. I gotta watch. So, yes, the games are great.
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The athletes are great, the quarterbacks are great, the television
production is great, the stadiums, the fans, the bands, it's great.
You'll swim in mediocrity without strong management that occasionally might
bark at you. That's like Dana White UFC's that's what works.
(15:59):
Talent needs leadership, and college football, as great as it is,
doesn't currently have enough or any. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Herd weekdays and nun Easter nine
am Pacific. So this is an interesting story. I remember
this week, and I know most of you don't watch
every day, but earlier this week, Mike Sando of The
(16:20):
Athletic dropped his annual quarterback tiers there's like four or
five tiers, and he asked his executives and coaches fifty
people around the league for their opinion that he takes
all those anonymous grades and he has tiers. It's interesting.
The GM for the Minnesota Vikings, Quaseadofo Mensa said yesterday
(16:43):
regarding Kirk Cousins, I'll be frank, the one asset where
you get nervous about not burning it down as quarterback.
We don't have Tom Brady, we don't have Patrick Mahomes.
Super Bowl is more likely if you have one, it's
very unlikely to have that quarterback. So everybody kind of
freaks out. WHOA. They say, very credit call. The Vikings
are in the second best place you can be in
(17:04):
the NFL with a quarterback because my quarterback tiers is
more simplified. There's three of them. The first tier is
a quarterback that can win a super Bowl. That means
you may have to win on the road, You're gonna
have to beat other great quarterbacks. You're gonna have to
win multiple games. Can you win in bad weather? Can
you beat Aaron Rodgers in Lambeau? Quarterbacks that can win
(17:28):
super Bowls. The second tier is quarterbacks they can win
a division in a playoff game. Andy Dalton won a division,
Mitch Trubski won a division. Kirk Cousins won a division.
They have one playoff win and it was called a miracle.
So they're not gonna win. They're not. They're not. They're good,
but they're not good enough to win three straight playoff
games or four. Say they're not Matt Stafford, they're not Brady,
(17:50):
they're not Manning, they're not Russell Wilson. Where they can
win on the road at home good weather, have to
carry a team. The defense thinks that day they can
win to shootout, but they can win a division. Mister
Bisky won an division, Andy Dalton won an division, and
they may They're not gonna win multiple playoff games. They
go in a playoff game. They need things to go
their way. Stefan Diggs makes the Beck's Biggest Player of
the Year in the NFL. Vikings win. And then there's
(18:13):
the third tier. Get on the phone. You don't got
that guy, Get on the phone. And so I think
Kirk Cousins is in Tier two. Mike Sando had him
rated fifteenth. That's about where I have him. I probably
have him fourteenth. I think last time I did it
so and so I only think there's eight guys in
the world in Tier one, and probably eight and Tier
(18:34):
two and then sixteen and Tier three. To me, these
are the guys that can win a Super Bowl, Alan Brady, Burrow,
Herbert Mahomes, Rogers, Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson. I think Derek
Carr and Kyler Murray or Darn Close, Lamar Jackson, maybe two,
I'm not sure. I think Kayler, I think Dak and
Lamar and when maybe a playoff game or two. I
think Derek Carr's darn close. I like Derek way more
(18:57):
than the market, and I think Kyler's really special. If
Kyle is healthy at the end of the year, running
around making plays with that roster, he's got dagon win
multiple playoff games. I don't have him yet winning four,
just not quite. I don't think he's quite quite special
enough from the pocket. But I mean that's so My
whole point on Kirk Cousins is it's not a terrible
place to be. There's only eight teams in the first tier,
(19:19):
and some of those guys in the first tier, justin Herbert,
haven't even made the playoffs. Yet most of them don't
have Super Bowls, So, I, you know, I think it's
I don't think it's a shot at all at Kirk Cousins.
I think we know exactly what he is, and he's
a very capable Tier two guy, and they deserve to
be paid a lot of money. I think Tier two
quarterbacks are They make billionaires rich, they sell merchandise, they
(19:42):
fill a stadium, they're excellent. I even think there's guys
like Mitch Trubisky as a bridge quarterback who's incredibly valuable
this year to the Steelers for his mentorship of Kenny Pickett.
He's a really good guy. That defense is good enough
that division. You could win some games in that division.
I think you could. I think I honestly, I don't
think they will, But I you know, are we all
(20:02):
gonna be shocked if Tomlin, that defense, those receivers and
playmakers won that division. Wouldn't be shocked by it. I
don't think they're gonna go on the road and beat Mahomes.
Are not gonna beat Josh Allen. They probably wouldn't beat Lamar.
They may not even beat Tannehill. One more Herd The
Herd Streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Within the iHeartRadio app, search Herd to listen live or
(20:24):
on demand whenever you like. Mike Tomlin was talking yesterday.
When Mike Tomlin talks, I listen because I think he's
the best podium speaker we've had in the NFL. Perhaps Ever,
some guys are not good Belichick, some guys talk too fast,
Pete Carroll, some guys are regrettable, Dan Campbell. Tomlin's great,
and he was talking about Kenny Pickett, and he was
(20:48):
talking about Mitch Traubisky and not judging them. Here is
Mike Tomlin doing something he does very well, talk at
the podium. We're not going to micromanage or overmanage this
quarterback competition. The depth chart will not rest on every throw.
I know that you guys will want to ask me
every day and every throw, but we're gonna be a
(21:09):
little bit more steady than that. I think it's important
from a leadership perspective to to to not overmanage it,
to not be too impulsive. And so that's what I
relate to those guys, and our actions will continue to
display that mindset. The Pittsburgh Steelers fan base is quite interesting.
Sometimes I think they live in a time warp. I
(21:32):
feel the exact same way about the Steelers every single
year with Mike Tomlin, Le'll be pretty good. Not buttoned
up enough to win a Super Bowl, but pretty good.
Always have good players, always have a good structure. I'll
be pretty good. Last year a lot of turbulence. Nine
to seven and one. Steelers were nine and seven and one.
(21:54):
They draft well, they organized well, they developed well, they
teach well. Oh well, they're nine to seven and one,
but they have not won a playoff game in six years.
They have not beaten an elite quarterback in a playoff
game in twelve years. And by elite, I'm saying Joe Flacco.
Steeler fans, however, demand that you respect them like it's
(22:17):
the seventies. Since the Steelers losses were both to Green
Bay a long time ago. They have one playoff win
over a starting quarterback. I'm not in Pittsburgh regularly, but
do they still think Eddie Murphy is the top billing
(22:37):
comedian and are they quoting like back to the Future quotes?
I don't understand it. You can't demand nineteen seventies respect
and Big Ben's best year respect when I've been watching
this thing for the last like eight years, ten years.
You do not beat star quarterbacks in playoff games. Don't
(23:00):
beat starting quarterbacks in playoff games. And once again this year,
I think they'll be good. Pretty good, draft well, developed, well,
teach well, pretty good this year in an offensive leaning league.
They are thirty first in offensive spending and have Mitch
Trubisky in a rookie and I think all things considered,
(23:24):
it'll be about nine to seven and one they'll be
pretty good. I know, I know I'm gonna get huge
pushback on that opinion. I'll put it out today on
the interweb. They'll be pretty good. Not good enough to
win Super Bowl, pretty good, won't be the elite quarterbacks
in the playoffs. Pretty good. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am
(23:46):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart
Radio app. Well, Jimbo Fishers won of five college football
coaches that have actually won a national title. That's active.
You got Dabbo, and you got Sabin and now Kirby Smart,
mac Brown and Jimbo Fisher. He was the first Saban
assistant to come back and beat him and they beat
him last year, and his recruitings on an absolute role.
(24:09):
And you know he gets out there sometimes and you
know he's a little publicity skirmishes. He's like a talk
show host. He's just out firing shots. Jimbo Fishers joining
us live and uh, you know I did defend you
when Saban came after you. I said, give me a
break on this stuff. Nick, don't be a hypocrite on
this stuff. Here is um So. I'm a fan of
(24:31):
the transfer portal because I think kids change their mind,
coaches leave. I'm a fan of the NIL, but as
a diehard college football fan, here's where I'm at with
this stuff. Jimbo, And I'm not blaming anybody. Hell, I
don't even know what's legal. I thought NIL was name
image likeness for active college players. Now it looks like
you can go out and buy a high schooler. Don't.
(24:52):
I don't love that? Are you? What? Do you ever
say it to yourself? Can we do this? Can we
do that? Is it confusing to coaches? It's very confusing
because niccolony is based off your state laws. The NCAA
does not regulate has these regulations. Their regulation is based
off individual state laws. Some guys can offer high school kids,
(25:12):
some guys can have written offers for him, do the
whole thing. And in some states you can even get
nil as a high school player. In our state, we
can't even have a conversation about NI all. We can
say our players have nils, they do it, the guys
that are here, but we cannot even talk about NIL
to a player with any kind of offer or anything
in that regard. So everybody's offering, and I mean everybody's
(25:32):
on a different rule set, there's no standard. It's all
based off everybody's own state laws. That is crazy. So
Kirk Ferrin said yesterday and Pat Fitzgerald said this, and
I agree with him. Pat said, the games have never
been better, the athletes have never been better, and the
sport's never been more chaotic. I believe the sport needs
(25:55):
a czar, a schedulings are and as CEO your take
on that, I'm for that one hundred percent. And I
think unified. I think unification in officiating. The same officials
that there's no confidence to everything is to a school
you play them as full time. We're in a billion
we're in a multi billion dollar business and we're paying
officials and not, you know, having full time train I
(26:16):
think that should be a full time job for one.
They have other jobs on the side, that's fine, but
I mean training them, send them out of the right place.
I mean a unification of scheduling everything in college football.
So be under one, as you say, Czar, in my opinion,
one set of rules. So Jimbo, I look at your
schedule and it's funny. So everybody love guys like me.
I love USC UCLA to the Big Conference, Texas, Oklahoma.
(26:39):
But then I look at your schedule and I think
to myself, at one point you have Miami and Crystal Ball.
Arkansas was probably the shock in the country last year,
at Mississippi State, at Bama at South Carolina. Then it's
Lane Kiff in Florida at Auburn. I think to myself,
what if I threw Oklahoma into that is? Have you
(27:00):
ever said to anybody in the sect, guys, y'all want
to keep adding teams at some point, it's almost it's
like an NFL schedule. You don't get a break. Like
if I ran your program, I'd be like, why do
I have to play Miami? If next year? Yeah, your
take on that I'm with you one hundred percent, Colin.
I mean, welcome to the SEC. It's it's enclosure to
(27:21):
the NFL of any conference in football. I don't mean
I'm not trying to slide anybody else, but the number
of players, the quality of the programs, and the importance
that the football is to them. And like you say,
but I think they've trying to I think in the
future where they're trying to do as they're trying to
round it out where you're like, for instance, we're in
the SEC West, and I think in the new rules
when we ADD, I think we're going to mix up
and play more Eastern teams. Eastern teams are gonna play
(27:43):
more Western teams, and you're not all the way set
in with just only the West schedule plus a couple
of your Eastern schedules. Yeah, I think it's actually going
to balance the scheduling out a lot more because in
the SEC it's always been sometimes the East is really good,
sometimes the West is really good. Are better? I say,
they're are both always really good, but one side it's
better than the other. And I think the new rules,
when we do ADD, I think it's actually going to
(28:04):
bounce a scheduling out more than it is right now.
If you believe that or not so Jimbo Fisher joining us,
Um listen, you and I know Nick, and like Nick,
I got no problem. But I think sometimes he gets
a little pious up there. You know, you dominate for
a long time and you see the world to your tunnel,
and that's the only way to see it today this morning.
(28:24):
If you if he called you when you picked the
phone up and talk to him, Yeah, men, men, Nick,
we're path we're moving past it. I'll understand something. Where
we drank the same water growing up. When you're coming
from West Virginia, you're fight scratching, clawing for everything you got.
We have and people in our statement where I grew up,
in the way I grew up, what was on your mind?
Come out your lips, okay, and then you moved in.
(28:45):
Five minutes later, you said what you said and either
either fought over it, got to fight over and then
played five minutes later, or you said okay and you
walked off and you played five minutes later. He's the
same and we're cut from the same cloth. We're both competitive,
and that's just the way it is. I mean, and
I have respect for Nick, like I said before, and
we're fine, Jimbo. I don't like the second um signing
date in college football, and here's why, because I think
(29:07):
it tears away at the quality of life of the
young people on your staff that you never get a vacation.
I think it's horrible. If I ran it, i'd hire off.
Schedulings are and there's one signing date. And I would
also make the transfer portal. You can transfer all year
except Labor Day to the end of the regular season.
You can't transfer in a season as a player either
going to coach, but but there are I look at
(29:30):
your schedule and I get more vacation time than you,
And I think to myself, how long can you coach
at your level before it's complete utter burnout. Do you
ever feel that, Yeah, it's totally changed. I mean the
visits in June and made the spring visits. I like
you said, I like to have one signing day. I
like the early signing day. I think it's the best.
I really do, But I would cut out. You and
(29:50):
I are thinking on the same same track here, and
I do think the way recruiting is because we're recluding
two and three and four classes at a time, and
every weekend except for the four weekends we're dead, and
we have a dead period in February, but we're working
on ball, getting ready for spring practice. You're working with
your players. The only time, the only three or four
weekends we get off is those at the end of
June the first of July, and we're back on track.
(30:11):
That is it, per year, every other time of the year,
every weekend, we have players here, we're recruiting, we're coaching.
Something is going on, and you are right, I'm worried
about the longevity of some of these guys and what
it does to the family life for things that are
going on in college football right now. Yeah, so, okay,
you're gonna be very good. I know that. Um what
(30:33):
when you have a great program and you bring in
these five star kids and that you had a class
last year, how I'm a five star kid. Okay, okay,
and you're recruiting me. I want to play. Oh I
don't want to sit on the bench. But you have
a bunch of five star kids. You are getting to
a point in your program that you have so many
(30:55):
NFL bodies that you're gonna go out and recruit, and
people are gonna recruit against Jimball and say you're not
gonna play. He's got three NFL corners. You can't not
gonna play a NM. Do you sense now you're moving
into that space where people are using that against you,
is you just can't go to an M and play
very quickly. Right now, we're getting that in recruiting right now,
they're saying they di And my thing is this, you
(31:15):
mean we think more of you than they do. I mean,
why can't you play? Or we think you can? And
I'm gonna tell you what where you get better is
who you go against on a daily basis, every day
in practice. And you're going to line up and practice
against these guys each and every day. And I think
that's where you get better. And I'm a day one
statement and I say this all the time. Call it.
I've never had a great play with the guys that
are truly great players. Ever asked me about the depth chart.
(31:37):
I mean, I give you I'll give you a quick
story and I'll tell you about Jay and Ramsey. Sure
when he came, we had four returning We had LaMarcus Joiner,
P J. Williams, Terrence Brooks and Ronald Darby all four
first second round draft picks that are still playing in
the NFL. On you're eight, I mean after eight years.
That was he was a freshman coming in year we
won the national championship. PJ said. I mean, Jenden said, coach,
(31:59):
I'm gonna start to day one. I said, Jayen, and
I ain't seeing that. If you're the best players, you're
gonna start. We had four returning guys. They're all taught
two round draft picks. He started day one, and we
moved another guy to Nicol and then we had the
best and that whole secondary to this day is still
playing in the NFL eight years later. But what I'm
saying is the truly great players back room. I remember
Michael Clayton was a guy. I mean, the guys that
(32:20):
we've had here are some of the the great players.
You know, have never asked me about who we have
or what goes on. They think somebody else is going
to have to move. Dalvin Cook was that way. I mean,
Darwin James was that way. Guys were in this group
here are saying the coach, I'm not being arrogant to
the guys we have. We're coming into the playoffs. They
come to play and the competition. The truly great players
love the competition and it's working out. And I think
(32:42):
that's how you build great program, just like we did
at Florida State, and just like we're starting to establish here. Okay,
I want you to recruit me right now, and I'm
the recruit. I say, you know, Jimbo, it's hot in Texas.
Oh my good lord, jim Ball. You know, boy, that's sark, guy. Boy,
he really sell me, well, boy, sell me. Listen. Here's
(33:04):
what A and M has. It has the most complete
package of any school in the country. When you're talking
about culture of university, this place is unbelievable. You get
here and you'll see it. The commitment to people have
its top twenty educational school in the country, educations through
the roof, the commitment that we have made to our
f For instance, right now, we're building a new one
hundred and sixty million dollars facility right now that's going
to be state of the art, which no one in
the country is going to have. For your personal development.
(33:25):
What we have, we have coaches of one of the
five coaches have won a national championship. We have coaches
that have put as many NFL players in the NFL
as we can afterwards. You're talking about this where the
sixth richest school in a country with an eighteen billion
dollars endowment for life every ball. You're talking about one
of the two largest alumni associations in the country at
five hundred and fifty thousand alums. There's one hundred nine
thousand people in every game. You're playing an SEC schedule
(33:47):
each and every time. And here's the important thing I want.
Do you want to go somewhere that has won a
championship or you want to be the first to do it?
The people you remember, the guys that really make a
difference in the world of the guys are the first
to do it. If you go somewhere else and just
be another guy, you're just another guy. Come here and
be the first guy to ever do it and set
the standard for a new organization. Those are the ones
got statues outside they talk about all that's pretty good.
(34:10):
Sales pitch Jim Ball, that's pretty good. I didn't know
about alumni stuff. I like that. Wish I could be
done now. I mean at this school here, when you
when you dig into a college. That's why I tell
peop when they get here, not just the facilities, but
the commitment in how this place is five hundred and
fifty thousand living alums. You've got you got one of
the sixth The commitment to the to the student athlete
after ball is as good as is the best there
(34:31):
is anywhere in the country. Boy, if you signed four
recruits today, I better get a cut on that. I'll
tell you that. I'll send to your take. Keep me
on the show. You gotta keep me going on the show,
all right. So they had a number one recruiting class,
eight five star recruits. They play Bam October eight, which
is going to get a lot of publicity. And I
never talked to you before. You know, Um, you make
(34:53):
college football good. I like guys that spar out there.
I like that whole Texas thing going on right now,
and I wish you're the best of lout going forward.
Thank you very much this thing. What would you be
doing in May and this summer right now if I
wasn't arguing with somebody Jimbo Fisher. That was a good thing.
That was a big one right there.
Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to
three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and FS one. 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 Herd is
the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox
Sports Radio. Here we Go on a Wednesday, live in
(00:27):
Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, however
you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and f
S one. Nick Right joining us today, Joey Taylor, Jimbo Fisher,
Coach of Texas, and M's joining you. So I was
(00:48):
thinking about this. If you go to a movie, it's
a little all over the place, but it's got a
great last ten minutes. Yes, whether you're on a date,
you're married, or with a friend, you walk out of
that theater and you're like, I kind of liked that movie.
(01:10):
That's a good movie. Yeah, you feel better about it.
You're a little confused, but they wrapped it all up.
So I'm gonna start with that. A few years ago,
I'm in West Hartford, Connecticut. I mean, I watched a
movie called Burn after reading it's George Clooney, Brad Pitt.
It's odd. It had the greatest last scene in the
history of any movie I've ever seen. My wife and
(01:33):
I walked out of that movie and were laughing so
hard we were bending over in the street for ten minutes.
We both today think that's a great movie. It's like
I've watched it again and I have the exact same feeling.
It's wrapped up so perfectly in the office scene. It
is so perfect that it ties it all together. That
(01:55):
I think of that very positive. It's a very very
good movie to me. Usual Suspects, which was better than
that movie, but also similarly had an unbelievable last scene.
Last fifteen minutes, is also a good movie with a
great ending, And if you ask people about it, they's go, oh,
that's a great film. That's not. It's a good film,
a great ending, And that leads me to Jimmy Garoppolo.
(02:16):
It's now official. He met with Kyle Shanahan, he met
with John Lynch yesterday. He's back. He's throwing, but the
team informed him we're moving on to Trey Lance and
here's Kyle Shanahan stands where we're at. We understand where
we're at. Like, I can't tell you how appreciative I
have been of Jimmy and hmbing here and so appreciative
(02:37):
what he did for us last year. I think Jimmy
and we knew what movie made the year before on
that Jimmy did a hell of a job coming to
a camp and went in that job and taking us
real close to the super Bowl. But we have moved
on to Trey. We're starting camp out this way. We
think Jimmy would have been traded if the surgery didn't
happen in Deead. He needed to do it, so there's
no ill will there at all. But it's good to
(02:59):
see that he is healthy. But now it's all just
seeing how this will end up. All three of us
are on the same page, all right, They're moving on.
So let me ask you do you think last year
was a success for Aaron Rodgers. I don't couldn't win
a home playoff game one and done embarrassing, yet he
was MVP. That goes to me. That goes to my
(03:22):
argument the last part of the movie makes the movie.
You can never have a great movie with a bad ending.
There's never been ever a great movie with a lousy
last fifteen minutes. Doesn't doesn't happen. There's not one. Aaron
Rodgers won the MVP last year is not a success.
Couldn't win a playoff game, couldn't score a touchdown. Let's
(03:45):
go to Jimmy Garoppolo because I think a lot of
you think replacing Jimmy Garoppolo is not that hard. From
week ten on last year, second in the NFL and
completion percentage seventy one, second in yards per attempt, fourth
and passer rating, that's the Jimmy Garoppolo he's replacing. Nobody
(04:05):
cares about Week four. That's why the Niner coaches are nervous.
Jimmy's a gamer and an alpha, and he's confident. That's
who you're replacing. Nobody gives a rip about the injuries,
and nobody cares about Aaron Rodgers. October. Aaron Rodgers season
was embarrassing at the end. Again, Trey Lance is not
there yet, and Jimmy Garoppolo, by the way, may never
(04:26):
ever be close to this good again without Kyle Shanahan.
You're probably right, doesn't matter the last fifteen minutes of
the movie. If it's great, you walk out of that
theater and your memory of it is that is a
good movie. And there has never ever been a great
movie ever made with a lousy last fifteen minutes. Jimmy
Garoppolo's last three years two NFC Championship games. Blew out
(04:50):
Aaron Rodgers in one and led Matt Stafford in another
in the fourth quarter. The team that has beaten him
the last two years that he has gotten to at
least the NFC Championship was a Super Bowl champion. That's
who knocked him out. There's a Rams this year, and
it was the Chiefs that year, and he led both
in the fourth quarter. And this roster is full of
guys who played in those games and loved Jimmy Garoppolo.
(05:13):
So this idea, it's just going to be easy. Trey
Lance gonna be bigger, stronger, more athletic. I don't doubt
any of it. But how it ends is how it is, okay,
And if you look at the Niners schedule, when Trey
Lance is on the field on the other side of
the field in the first ten games, he's going to
be facing Russell Wilson, Matt Stafford, Patrick Mahomes, Matt Stafford,
(05:37):
Justin Herbert and Kyler Murray. And that's what you're going
to compare him to, and that's what his teammates are
going to compare him to. So you know this idea
that oh, Niner fans were like, it's great. All I
hear is shade for Jimmy Garoppolo last ten games. And
that's when legends are made. That's why Rogers will never
be Brady. He doesn't end as seasons. Well, oh he's great.
(06:00):
In September, that was Brady's the worst month. Nobody cares.
Nobody cares Tom's worst month in New England September. Tom
was great in January. Can't be a great movie with
a lowsy ending. Jimmy Week ten on was really good
and won big games. And Trey Lance has his work
(06:21):
cut out for him. I think it'll be good. I
think it'd be talented. But this idea, this is just
Kyle's great. Jimmy g get him out of here tougher
than you think. So now it's three teams that Kevin
Durant was lined up for. Yesterday, the Miami Heat publicly
(06:43):
said no, thank you, and we know that the Warriors
publicly said no thank you, and we know the Phoenix
Suns by signing DeAndre Aighton have said no thank you.
Sons Warrior's heat, no thanks. I think what's happening to
Kevin Durant happens all the time in a lot of businesses.
(07:05):
I think he's being lumped in with high maintenance players, divas,
players that lack self awareness. I think he's getting lumped
in with Kyrie and Ben Simmons and Westbrook and James Harden.
And I think the NBA and the executives, overwhelmingly of
the good teams are now pivoting away from that because
(07:26):
those storylines have been so profound and gobbled up a
lot of shows like this and don't kid yourself exacts
here shows like this, they read the headlines. How many
stories have we had on James Harden, Ben Simmons and
Westbrook and Kyrie Irving. As I always say, in our business,
we report plane crashes, not plane landings, and those there
(07:50):
have been a lot of crashes with those guys, right,
So KD is getting lumped in with those players. You
see this all the time in business like streaming. Right now,
Netflix had a really bad quarter and so now suddenly, uh, streaming,
streaming's done. No, streaming's fine. Streaming is gonna be just fine,
(08:11):
and almost everything is moving to streaming, and streaming is viable.
And Hulu's gonna be fine, and Netflix will be fine,
and Amazon Prime is gonna be fine, and streaming is fine.
But it had a bad quarter. It's really really visible.
And any streaming company now, because of Netflix is the
big dog. They'll get lumped into who streaming the entire sector.
(08:33):
It'll be fine. Kevin Durant is getting lumped in with
Kyrie and Simmons and Harden and Westbrook. He's not declining,
Harden is, Westbrook is he is available? Ben Simmons isn't
He's trustable in the playoffs, Hardens not. We are lumping
a guy in who's averaging twenty nine a game, shooting
(08:56):
fifty two percent, and when he's on the floor remains
a very a very good defender. He plays hard, he
plays nightly, he plays well, and he's the best get
a bucket guy in the NBA and arguably ever. But
he's getting lumped in and right now, and there's an
old saying. We've all heard it. Your parents probably told
you mine did maybe Joyce, did you know? Choose your
(09:19):
friends wisely. You're gonna be judged by the company you keep.
So steph to Kyrie. Kyrie, the world is flat. Kyrie's
not going to get baxed. Wasn't available, not a great teammate.
I think Kad, and I've said this before, has to
separate from Kyrie because as long as he's with Kyrie,
people are gonna look at Katie and go, oh, that's
(09:42):
your guy. That's how you run with because by leaving
reliable staff and going to Kyrie that's one thing. Remaining
with him, keep doubling down on it that's another. And
so choose your friends wisely. Sometimes you gotta cut the
court from people you like because you're getting judged by him.
(10:02):
And if you're more talented than the company you keep,
and more reliable and more dependable and lower maintenance, sometimes
you gotta cut the chord. Because I really think Kady
it's kind of amazing. There's no takers twenty nine a
game best shotmaker in the game still plays defense. I
mean he's thirty three, folks, he's not forty. He's unbelievable.
(10:27):
There's like no takers and teams are doing it publicly.
Miami publicly, no thanks, Golden State publicly, no thanks. Phoenix
didn't even wait DeAndre and we'll sign him, no thanks.
Like I think he's gonna go back to Brooklyn. We
talked about this yesterday. That is my guess. But it
is fairly remarkable that this level of player. He's a
(10:48):
bit of a wanderer. He's a little passive, aggressive, he's
twenty nine, a game fifty two, best shotmaker in the world.
There's value. I mean, he's really good. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter
nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and
the iHeartRadio app. So been saying this for a while,
(11:11):
kind of irritating that when you love something like college football,
it's infuriating that it doesn't have a centralized voice. The
structure of it's a bit of a mess. Everybody's doing
whatever it takes for their conference to crush. So Kirk
Ferent's very respected. Used to be. I think years ago
he was on Belichick's staff in Cleveland. He nick Saban
(11:32):
Belichick in Cleveland. Really smart guy chose the college route.
Could certainly coach in the NFL. Iowa doesn't a remarkable
job to put three star athletes, develop them and put
them in the NFL where they flourish. It really doesn't
as good as anybody in the country at taking like
unheralded recruits and making them NFL stars. Iowa does it
about as well as anybody. And he was talking about
(11:53):
the state at Big ten Media Days, the state of
college football. There's a real lack of structure and framework
in our sport right now, which I think is concerning
and dangerous. Nil. I think it's a great initiative, great conceptually,
and our transfer policies right now are a little bit
concerning too. And spending six years in the NFL where
they had a salary cap, Yeah, there is a system
(12:14):
there for you know, a limit on how much or
how little players can be paid. And there's also a
system of movement. There are times when players can move
and can't move, And I have no idea how you
get to that point in college football. I'm not smart
enough to know that, and I'm not smart enough to
know who's going to do it. But right now, I'm
sure as a lot of us that are a little
confused on what the rules are and what are the
how do you operate? And we just have such a
(12:36):
good game. I hate to see it, you know, implode
or you know, suffer a setback by the way. Pat Fitzgerald,
another one of the smartest coaches in the country for Northwestern,
summed it up. He said, the games on the field
have never been better. Off the field, it's never been
more chaotic. Young people, let me speak to you if
I may. I know you don't want to hear it,
(12:58):
but two things are true. You can't matter at your
company and work twenty five hours a week. I know
people have convinced you your friends got to put in
the hours and grind. It's really true. Sorry. And the
second thing is strong management in your career is going
to matter. Sometimes they'll bark, sometimes she may fire you,
(13:19):
they'll demand you to work extra hours. But I worked
at a company one time called ESPN for seven eight years.
They had amazingly strong and focused leadership ascending. Then management
was say whatever you want on the air, and the
ratings tanked. It matters. The games are great in college football.
(13:40):
The coaching has never been better, the athletes have never
been better, the training has never been better. The TV
production has never been better. Who's running it. Who's running
it you're I don't care how talented you are in
any field, you will swim in mediocrity with unfocused or
no leadership. I mean, listen, take a deep breath. College
(14:03):
football is not dying. So many people love this sport.
They're so close to the trees, right they can't you
see the forest from the trees. The old saying goes
like boxing and newspapers, we were told they were dying
twenty five years ago. They're still fine, all right. New
York Times doing fine. So it's the Wall Street Journal
making a lot of money, but college football is underachieving.
(14:28):
Labor Day weekend is another glaring example why there's no
schedule maker in college football, so everybody avoids big games.
The Labor Day weekend is the weekend before the NFL starts.
It is wide open real estate, beachfront property. We're wrapping
our summers up. People go out on the boat for
the last time in the summer. They come home at night,
(14:48):
they are ready to have a beer, be with their
kids for the final time of the summer and watch
college football. And we've got two big games games two
you gotta watch Oregon Georgia, Notre Dame, Ohio State. There's
no ceo. It's a million dollar business. There's no schedule maker.
Does everybody understand how long the NFL works on their schedule?
(15:13):
I mean the NFL that is a cottage industry. The
NFL schedule meticulous weeks on end. They call our boss
at Fox, they call CBS, they call every network head.
They argue, they fight, they strategize. Labor Day weekend, two games,
two games. I gotta watch. So, yes, the games are great.
(15:38):
The athletes are great, the quarterbacks are great, the television
production is great, the stadiums, the fans, the bands, it's great.
You'll swim in mediocrity without strong management that occasionally might
bark at you. That's like Dana White UFC's that's what works.
(15:59):
Talent needs leadership, and college football, as great as it is,
doesn't currently have enough or any. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Herd weekdays and nun Easter nine
am Pacific. So this is an interesting story. I remember
this week, and I know most of you don't watch
every day, but earlier this week, Mike Sando of The
(16:20):
Athletic dropped his annual quarterback tiers there's like four or
five tiers, and he asked his executives and coaches fifty
people around the league for their opinion that he takes
all those anonymous grades and he has tiers. It's interesting.
The GM for the Minnesota Vikings, Quaseadofo Mensa said yesterday
(16:43):
regarding Kirk Cousins, I'll be frank, the one asset where
you get nervous about not burning it down as quarterback.
We don't have Tom Brady, we don't have Patrick Mahomes.
Super Bowl is more likely if you have one, it's
very unlikely to have that quarterback. So everybody kind of
freaks out. WHOA. They say, very credit call. The Vikings
are in the second best place you can be in
(17:04):
the NFL with a quarterback because my quarterback tiers is
more simplified. There's three of them. The first tier is
a quarterback that can win a super Bowl. That means
you may have to win on the road, You're gonna
have to beat other great quarterbacks. You're gonna have to
win multiple games. Can you win in bad weather? Can
you beat Aaron Rodgers in Lambeau? Quarterbacks that can win
(17:28):
super Bowls. The second tier is quarterbacks they can win
a division in a playoff game. Andy Dalton won a division,
Mitch Trubski won a division. Kirk Cousins won a division.
They have one playoff win and it was called a miracle.
So they're not gonna win. They're not. They're not. They're good,
but they're not good enough to win three straight playoff
games or four. Say they're not Matt Stafford, they're not Brady,
(17:50):
they're not Manning, they're not Russell Wilson. Where they can
win on the road at home good weather, have to
carry a team. The defense thinks that day they can
win to shootout, but they can win a division. Mister
Bisky won an division, Andy Dalton won an division, and
they may They're not gonna win multiple playoff games. They
go in a playoff game. They need things to go
their way. Stefan Diggs makes the Beck's Biggest Player of
the Year in the NFL. Vikings win. And then there's
(18:13):
the third tier. Get on the phone. You don't got
that guy, Get on the phone. And so I think
Kirk Cousins is in Tier two. Mike Sando had him
rated fifteenth. That's about where I have him. I probably
have him fourteenth. I think last time I did it
so and so I only think there's eight guys in
the world in Tier one, and probably eight and Tier
(18:34):
two and then sixteen and Tier three. To me, these
are the guys that can win a Super Bowl, Alan Brady, Burrow,
Herbert Mahomes, Rogers, Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson. I think Derek
Carr and Kyler Murray or Darn Close, Lamar Jackson, maybe two,
I'm not sure. I think Kayler, I think Dak and
Lamar and when maybe a playoff game or two. I
think Derek Carr's darn close. I like Derek way more
(18:57):
than the market, and I think Kyler's really special. If
Kyle is healthy at the end of the year, running
around making plays with that roster, he's got dagon win
multiple playoff games. I don't have him yet winning four,
just not quite. I don't think he's quite quite special
enough from the pocket. But I mean that's so My
whole point on Kirk Cousins is it's not a terrible
place to be. There's only eight teams in the first tier,
(19:19):
and some of those guys in the first tier, justin Herbert,
haven't even made the playoffs. Yet most of them don't
have Super Bowls, So, I, you know, I think it's
I don't think it's a shot at all at Kirk Cousins.
I think we know exactly what he is, and he's
a very capable Tier two guy, and they deserve to
be paid a lot of money. I think Tier two
quarterbacks are They make billionaires rich, they sell merchandise, they
(19:42):
fill a stadium, they're excellent. I even think there's guys
like Mitch Trubisky as a bridge quarterback who's incredibly valuable
this year to the Steelers for his mentorship of Kenny Pickett.
He's a really good guy. That defense is good enough
that division. You could win some games in that division.
I think you could. I think I honestly, I don't
think they will, But I you know, are we all
(20:02):
gonna be shocked if Tomlin, that defense, those receivers and
playmakers won that division. Wouldn't be shocked by it. I
don't think they're gonna go on the road and beat Mahomes.
Are not gonna beat Josh Allen. They probably wouldn't beat Lamar.
They may not even beat Tannehill. One more Herd The
Herd Streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Within the iHeartRadio app, search Herd to listen live or
(20:24):
on demand whenever you like. Mike Tomlin was talking yesterday.
When Mike Tomlin talks, I listen because I think he's
the best podium speaker we've had in the NFL. Perhaps Ever,
some guys are not good Belichick, some guys talk too fast,
Pete Carroll, some guys are regrettable, Dan Campbell. Tomlin's great,
and he was talking about Kenny Pickett, and he was
(20:48):
talking about Mitch Traubisky and not judging them. Here is
Mike Tomlin doing something he does very well, talk at
the podium. We're not going to micromanage or overmanage this
quarterback competition. The depth chart will not rest on every throw.
I know that you guys will want to ask me
every day and every throw, but we're gonna be a
(21:09):
little bit more steady than that. I think it's important
from a leadership perspective to to to not overmanage it,
to not be too impulsive. And so that's what I
relate to those guys, and our actions will continue to
display that mindset. The Pittsburgh Steelers fan base is quite interesting.
Sometimes I think they live in a time warp. I
(21:32):
feel the exact same way about the Steelers every single
year with Mike Tomlin, Le'll be pretty good. Not buttoned
up enough to win a Super Bowl, but pretty good.
Always have good players, always have a good structure. I'll
be pretty good. Last year a lot of turbulence. Nine
to seven and one. Steelers were nine and seven and one.
(21:54):
They draft well, they organized well, they developed well, they
teach well. Oh well, they're nine to seven and one,
but they have not won a playoff game in six years.
They have not beaten an elite quarterback in a playoff
game in twelve years. And by elite, I'm saying Joe Flacco.
Steeler fans, however, demand that you respect them like it's
(22:17):
the seventies. Since the Steelers losses were both to Green
Bay a long time ago. They have one playoff win
over a starting quarterback. I'm not in Pittsburgh regularly, but
do they still think Eddie Murphy is the top billing
(22:37):
comedian and are they quoting like back to the Future quotes?
I don't understand it. You can't demand nineteen seventies respect
and Big Ben's best year respect when I've been watching
this thing for the last like eight years, ten years.
You do not beat star quarterbacks in playoff games. Don't
(23:00):
beat starting quarterbacks in playoff games. And once again this year,
I think they'll be good. Pretty good, draft well, developed, well,
teach well, pretty good this year in an offensive leaning league.
They are thirty first in offensive spending and have Mitch
Trubisky in a rookie and I think all things considered,
(23:24):
it'll be about nine to seven and one they'll be
pretty good. I know, I know I'm gonna get huge
pushback on that opinion. I'll put it out today on
the interweb. They'll be pretty good. Not good enough to
win Super Bowl, pretty good, won't be the elite quarterbacks
in the playoffs. Pretty good. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am
(23:46):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart
Radio app. Well, Jimbo Fishers won of five college football
coaches that have actually won a national title. That's active.
You got Dabbo, and you got Sabin and now Kirby Smart,
mac Brown and Jimbo Fisher. He was the first Saban
assistant to come back and beat him and they beat
him last year, and his recruitings on an absolute role.
(24:09):
And you know he gets out there sometimes and you
know he's a little publicity skirmishes. He's like a talk
show host. He's just out firing shots. Jimbo Fishers joining
us live and uh, you know I did defend you
when Saban came after you. I said, give me a
break on this stuff. Nick, don't be a hypocrite on
this stuff. Here is um So. I'm a fan of
(24:31):
the transfer portal because I think kids change their mind,
coaches leave. I'm a fan of the NIL, but as
a diehard college football fan, here's where I'm at with
this stuff. Jimbo, And I'm not blaming anybody. Hell, I
don't even know what's legal. I thought NIL was name
image likeness for active college players. Now it looks like
you can go out and buy a high schooler. Don't.
(24:52):
I don't love that? Are you? What? Do you ever
say it to yourself? Can we do this? Can we
do that? Is it confusing to coaches? It's very confusing
because niccolony is based off your state laws. The NCAA
does not regulate has these regulations. Their regulation is based
off individual state laws. Some guys can offer high school kids,
(25:12):
some guys can have written offers for him, do the
whole thing. And in some states you can even get
nil as a high school player. In our state, we
can't even have a conversation about NI all. We can
say our players have nils, they do it, the guys
that are here, but we cannot even talk about NIL
to a player with any kind of offer or anything
in that regard. So everybody's offering, and I mean everybody's
(25:32):
on a different rule set, there's no standard. It's all
based off everybody's own state laws. That is crazy. So
Kirk Ferrin said yesterday and Pat Fitzgerald said this, and
I agree with him. Pat said, the games have never
been better, the athletes have never been better, and the
sport's never been more chaotic. I believe the sport needs
(25:55):
a czar, a schedulings are and as CEO your take
on that, I'm for that one hundred percent. And I
think unified. I think unification in officiating. The same officials
that there's no confidence to everything is to a school
you play them as full time. We're in a billion
we're in a multi billion dollar business and we're paying
officials and not, you know, having full time train I
(26:16):
think that should be a full time job for one.
They have other jobs on the side, that's fine, but
I mean training them, send them out of the right place.
I mean a unification of scheduling everything in college football.
So be under one, as you say, Czar, in my opinion,
one set of rules. So Jimbo, I look at your
schedule and it's funny. So everybody love guys like me.
I love USC UCLA to the Big Conference, Texas, Oklahoma.
(26:39):
But then I look at your schedule and I think
to myself, at one point you have Miami and Crystal Ball.
Arkansas was probably the shock in the country last year,
at Mississippi State, at Bama at South Carolina. Then it's
Lane Kiff in Florida at Auburn. I think to myself,
what if I threw Oklahoma into that is? Have you
(27:00):
ever said to anybody in the sect, guys, y'all want
to keep adding teams at some point, it's almost it's
like an NFL schedule. You don't get a break. Like
if I ran your program, I'd be like, why do
I have to play Miami? If next year? Yeah, your
take on that I'm with you one hundred percent, Colin.
I mean, welcome to the SEC. It's it's enclosure to
(27:21):
the NFL of any conference in football. I don't mean
I'm not trying to slide anybody else, but the number
of players, the quality of the programs, and the importance
that the football is to them. And like you say,
but I think they've trying to I think in the
future where they're trying to do as they're trying to
round it out where you're like, for instance, we're in
the SEC West, and I think in the new rules
when we ADD, I think we're going to mix up
and play more Eastern teams. Eastern teams are gonna play
(27:43):
more Western teams, and you're not all the way set
in with just only the West schedule plus a couple
of your Eastern schedules. Yeah, I think it's actually going
to balance the scheduling out a lot more because in
the SEC it's always been sometimes the East is really good,
sometimes the West is really good. Are better? I say,
they're are both always really good, but one side it's
better than the other. And I think the new rules,
when we do ADD, I think it's actually going to
(28:04):
bounce a scheduling out more than it is right now.
If you believe that or not so Jimbo Fisher joining us,
Um listen, you and I know Nick, and like Nick,
I got no problem. But I think sometimes he gets
a little pious up there. You know, you dominate for
a long time and you see the world to your tunnel,
and that's the only way to see it today this morning.
(28:24):
If you if he called you when you picked the
phone up and talk to him, Yeah, men, men, Nick,
we're path we're moving past it. I'll understand something. Where
we drank the same water growing up. When you're coming
from West Virginia, you're fight scratching, clawing for everything you got.
We have and people in our statement where I grew up,
in the way I grew up, what was on your mind?
Come out your lips, okay, and then you moved in.
(28:45):
Five minutes later, you said what you said and either
either fought over it, got to fight over and then
played five minutes later, or you said okay and you
walked off and you played five minutes later. He's the
same and we're cut from the same cloth. We're both competitive,
and that's just the way it is. I mean, and
I have respect for Nick, like I said before, and
we're fine, Jimbo. I don't like the second um signing
date in college football, and here's why, because I think
(29:07):
it tears away at the quality of life of the
young people on your staff that you never get a vacation.
I think it's horrible. If I ran it, i'd hire off.
Schedulings are and there's one signing date. And I would
also make the transfer portal. You can transfer all year
except Labor Day to the end of the regular season.
You can't transfer in a season as a player either
going to coach, but but there are I look at
(29:30):
your schedule and I get more vacation time than you,
And I think to myself, how long can you coach
at your level before it's complete utter burnout. Do you
ever feel that, Yeah, it's totally changed. I mean the
visits in June and made the spring visits. I like
you said, I like to have one signing day. I
like the early signing day. I think it's the best.
I really do, But I would cut out. You and
(29:50):
I are thinking on the same same track here, and
I do think the way recruiting is because we're recluding
two and three and four classes at a time, and
every weekend except for the four weekends we're dead, and
we have a dead period in February, but we're working
on ball, getting ready for spring practice. You're working with
your players. The only time, the only three or four
weekends we get off is those at the end of
June the first of July, and we're back on track.
(30:11):
That is it, per year, every other time of the year,
every weekend, we have players here, we're recruiting, we're coaching.
Something is going on, and you are right, I'm worried
about the longevity of some of these guys and what
it does to the family life for things that are
going on in college football right now. Yeah, so, okay,
you're gonna be very good. I know that. Um what
(30:33):
when you have a great program and you bring in
these five star kids and that you had a class
last year, how I'm a five star kid. Okay, okay,
and you're recruiting me. I want to play. Oh I
don't want to sit on the bench. But you have
a bunch of five star kids. You are getting to
a point in your program that you have so many
(30:55):
NFL bodies that you're gonna go out and recruit, and
people are gonna recruit against Jimball and say you're not
gonna play. He's got three NFL corners. You can't not
gonna play a NM. Do you sense now you're moving
into that space where people are using that against you,
is you just can't go to an M and play
very quickly. Right now, we're getting that in recruiting right now,
they're saying they di And my thing is this, you
(31:15):
mean we think more of you than they do. I mean,
why can't you play? Or we think you can? And
I'm gonna tell you what where you get better is
who you go against on a daily basis, every day
in practice. And you're going to line up and practice
against these guys each and every day. And I think
that's where you get better. And I'm a day one
statement and I say this all the time. Call it.
I've never had a great play with the guys that
are truly great players. Ever asked me about the depth chart.
(31:37):
I mean, I give you I'll give you a quick
story and I'll tell you about Jay and Ramsey. Sure
when he came, we had four returning We had LaMarcus Joiner,
P J. Williams, Terrence Brooks and Ronald Darby all four
first second round draft picks that are still playing in
the NFL. On you're eight, I mean after eight years.
That was he was a freshman coming in year we
won the national championship. PJ said. I mean, Jenden said, coach,
(31:59):
I'm gonna start to day one. I said, Jayen, and
I ain't seeing that. If you're the best players, you're
gonna start. We had four returning guys. They're all taught
two round draft picks. He started day one, and we
moved another guy to Nicol and then we had the
best and that whole secondary to this day is still
playing in the NFL eight years later. But what I'm
saying is the truly great players back room. I remember
Michael Clayton was a guy. I mean, the guys that
(32:20):
we've had here are some of the the great players.
You know, have never asked me about who we have
or what goes on. They think somebody else is going
to have to move. Dalvin Cook was that way. I mean,
Darwin James was that way. Guys were in this group
here are saying the coach, I'm not being arrogant to
the guys we have. We're coming into the playoffs. They
come to play and the competition. The truly great players
love the competition and it's working out. And I think
(32:42):
that's how you build great program, just like we did
at Florida State, and just like we're starting to establish here. Okay,
I want you to recruit me right now, and I'm
the recruit. I say, you know, Jimbo, it's hot in Texas.
Oh my good lord, jim Ball. You know, boy, that's sark, guy. Boy,
he really sell me, well, boy, sell me. Listen. Here's
(33:04):
what A and M has. It has the most complete
package of any school in the country. When you're talking
about culture of university, this place is unbelievable. You get
here and you'll see it. The commitment to people have
its top twenty educational school in the country, educations through
the roof, the commitment that we have made to our
f For instance, right now, we're building a new one
hundred and sixty million dollars facility right now that's going
to be state of the art, which no one in
the country is going to have. For your personal development.
(33:25):
What we have, we have coaches of one of the
five coaches have won a national championship. We have coaches
that have put as many NFL players in the NFL
as we can afterwards. You're talking about this where the
sixth richest school in a country with an eighteen billion
dollars endowment for life every ball. You're talking about one
of the two largest alumni associations in the country at
five hundred and fifty thousand alums. There's one hundred nine
thousand people in every game. You're playing an SEC schedule
(33:47):
each and every time. And here's the important thing I want.
Do you want to go somewhere that has won a
championship or you want to be the first to do it?
The people you remember, the guys that really make a
difference in the world of the guys are the first
to do it. If you go somewhere else and just
be another guy, you're just another guy. Come here and
be the first guy to ever do it and set
the standard for a new organization. Those are the ones
got statues outside they talk about all that's pretty good.
(34:10):
Sales pitch Jim Ball, that's pretty good. I didn't know
about alumni stuff. I like that. Wish I could be
done now. I mean at this school here, when you
when you dig into a college. That's why I tell
peop when they get here, not just the facilities, but
the commitment in how this place is five hundred and
fifty thousand living alums. You've got you got one of
the sixth The commitment to the to the student athlete
after ball is as good as is the best there
(34:31):
is anywhere in the country. Boy, if you signed four
recruits today, I better get a cut on that. I'll
tell you that. I'll send to your take. Keep me
on the show. You gotta keep me going on the show,
all right. So they had a number one recruiting class,
eight five star recruits. They play Bam October eight, which
is going to get a lot of publicity. And I
never talked to you before. You know, Um, you make
(34:53):
college football good. I like guys that spar out there.
I like that whole Texas thing going on right now,
and I wish you're the best of lout going forward.
Thank you very much this thing. What would you be
doing in May and this summer right now if I
wasn't arguing with somebody Jimbo Fisher. That was a good thing.
That was a big one right there.
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