Best of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon

Hour 1 + Hr2 Seg2 (Jason Cole) + Hr3 Seg 2 (Pete Fiutak)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern,
7 to 11 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the Best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Best friend, Mike Harmon. Listen to us tonight. Check out
our YouTube channel and see us. Just search Jason Smith
Show within YouTube again. That's Jason Smith Show. Hit the
subscribe button, then tap the thumbs up icon. Comment away
whether you agree or disagree. Let us know what you think. Again,
just search Jason Smith Show on YouTube and subscribe. A

(00:52):
big college football night, a big hot take basketball kind
of day. Yeah, I think we're moving into fall pretty well,
Mike Harmon. I don't think there's going to be, boy,
the dog days of summer. No, no. We're moving right
into big time storylines very easily.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, there's never been a lull. I mean, we had
the FIFA World Cup coming out of that. We had
controversy in that and then coming out of it. And
we roll into what has been the most legally– A
dominated week in terms of sports headlines, perhaps ever?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, a lot of law stuff. We got that today. Well, today,
the Pablo, I mean, more finding out. I mean, come on, dude,
you could watch as much as much any kind of
law and order as you want. You're not going to
understand the Pablo Torrey thing. No, no, no.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
I've tried to break it down and read it back
to myself like I was a five year old. No, no, dude,
like a proposition.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Just just reading the Cliff Notes version of what it
is is like, OK, wait a minute. You're still losing
me on the Cliff Notes version. So I kind of get,
I kind of get why he said last night, I
hope people want to stick through and see to the
end of the big story.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
People are going, yeah, I don't get it. I don't
know what it's about.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
I'm gone.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
I'm gone. I'm sorry. I'm done.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Money is being funneled here and borrowed back here. Like
you're drawing a giant, like, I don't know. Danny G
was working on something where he had a bunch of whiteboards.
I don't know if it was for a game they
play or something, but I was going to steal them
and Voltron them. And even then, I don't think I
have enough space to kind of connect all those dots.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
Man.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
So again, we'll get into that coming up in a bit,
but college football first, and it's a big night of
college football. We have three top 25 teams playing tonight.
And I say playing because, you know, none of the
games are really close. However.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Oh, come on.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
They're games.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
There's people in the stands. They're fighting through traffic.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
I mean, there's a lot going on. Don't worry. Everybody
will be at that USC game soon. Don't worry. Don't worry.
They'll be there soon. Hey. Don't worry.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
The Boilers put up 44. Oklahoma's rolling. So Chris Plank's excited.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
I'm watching Pat Fitzgerald and Sparty getting after it.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Come on. But here's the thing, right? Coming off tonight,
coming into this year, it was widely assumed, well, Jeremiah Smith,
best wide receiver in college football, and it's not close, right?
He's going to get Heisman votes. He's going to be
up there. He's going to be a top five overall
draft pick. He's the whole package. And he is. He
is terrific. But I want to say this. Are we
sure that Malachi Toney is not the best receiver in

(03:24):
college football?

Speaker 3 (03:25):
How about that? I mean, hot take debates. Let's go.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Picking up where he left off last year, so far
against Stanford, It's 21-3 in the second quarter, seven catches
for 141 yards and two touchdowns. And what we saw
him do when he started to make headlines towards the
end of last year, I mean, 18 years old, right?
When we saw the end of last year when Miami
started to gain a lot of attention because they won

(03:50):
their way through the playoff and suddenly, hey, wait a minute,
this kid's pretty good. You just watch any sort of
clip reel from Malachi Toney. Just watch from tonight. where
it's the separation, the route running, the hands, the quick
twitch movements. I mean, really, I don't know that he's
not the best wide receiver in college football. He's a

(04:12):
smaller guy. Maybe he's a better Steve Smith, right, which
would be pretty bleepin' good. But, like, I mean, you
watch some of it. He had one– he caught one
pass today where he was in the slot, and he
just gave a little bit of a jog and a
feint inside the And he just blew outside for a
quick out 15-yard gain. And what's the DB going to do?

(04:33):
I'm telling you, Jeremiah Smith is great. Are we sure
he is the best? Is he as explosive as Malachi Toney? Man,
I can't believe anybody's going to be explosive with him
this year. And you're bringing in a big quarterback in
Darian Mensah, who's been able to get him the football. Obviously,
taking over from Carson Beck is a big deal, but... Man, Malachi, Tony,
you're looking at this kid going, oh, my goodness. I mean,
it's really unbelievable what he could do at such a

(04:55):
young age to be able to be this good and
already this good with a new quarterback, jumping off of
what happened last year when you think, okay, maybe Miami
takes a little bit of a step back. They graduated
their quarterback. Nope, he is just picking up right where
he left off. This kid is unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
And now you have Leviosa, I mean Mensah, down there
as their quarterback, Darian Mensah. Well, because, you know, we
like to put some numbers to things, and why not?
Right now you're plus 250 for Jeremiah Smith to win
the Bolitnikoff Award. Malachi Toney at plus 650. Cam Coleman

(05:35):
of Texas at plus 900.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
So a big blowout so far for Miami against Stanford. And, look,
we talked about Oklahoma beating UTEP. And, look, I think
fans are still getting to the game at U.S. I
think there was traffic. I think the 101 across the
valley floor, there was a little bit of traffic. There
might have been a police chase. There might have been
some protests. There might have been some road work being done.

(05:59):
Maybe people didn't know what time the game was. Maybe
the sun.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Was too high in the sky. There was a Dodger game.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yeah, you know, but at least, you know, when you
look and say– Hey, the lower bowl is filled. We're
getting there. OK. All right. USC, we're getting there.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
Look, the long road begins with the first step. We
talked about it a bunch, though. I mean, this is
while the heat was such a big factor and such
a talking point last week, as well as all the
stuff going on in L.A., the liking problem that people
have with the coach and how he's never really tried
to embrace anybody as the coach. not even walking five

(06:33):
steps to grab a reporter and make them, make them
a buddy. No, I mean, he hates everybody, but tonight,
Friday night of a holiday weekend in Los Angeles, I
got to the parking garage and like, there was this
moment where I like, look, it's a, it's a Friday.
Like I'm not thinking about it from the larger scale of, Hey,

(06:55):
it's a holiday weekend. Cause what do we do? Lunch pail,
we go to work, right? It's a football weekend.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
We go to work.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
I get into the parking lot and there are like
three cars on the first level where normally you've got
everybody from the hot yoga studio fighting to try to
back in terribly with their car repeatedly. There's nobody there.
I looked at our guy and I go, what's going on?
He goes, you know, holiday. Everybody just left early.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
I'm like, holiday, holiday.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Or they were all fighting to get over to the Coliseum.
I don't know which was truer.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yes. And they're, and they're still fighting. They're still fighting
to get there. So we'll keep you updated on the
college football games. Again, all the, all three top 25
teams have a leave, at least a couple of touchdowns
in this game, but I've been waiting to get to
this all day. Cause I love starting things with a
great big hot take. And, and, you know, we talked
about this a lot last night on the show, getting

(07:48):
into the FIBA world cup and the women playing this
morning and, Kaitlyn Clark, for some reason, and Paige Becker's
coming off the bench, the best players coming off the bench,
which is absolutely ridiculous. But that's not the hot take.
That's not the hot take. I got a better hot
take for you. I got a better hot take for you.
You think that the players in the WNBA didn't like

(08:12):
Kathy Engelbert, right? The story today that she announces that
she is retiring. as commissioner of the WNBA. And we've
talked about her ad nauseum for a long time, and
many shows have picked up along it after we've talked
about it. That's great. We have big shoulders. We can
carry you. She's an A to B commissioner, to quote
my friend Mike Harmon. She's not a B to C commissioner.

(08:32):
She had no idea how to handle this era of
the WNBA with the new players and the new stardom,
and she just decided, I'm going to be invisible the
entire time instead of addressing things like our– players being
adjudicated the right way when it comes to fouls, right?
Are we dealing with controversies outside of the WNBA, even

(08:54):
stupid stuff? Are we dealing with it right? Instead, I'm
just absolutely invisible. And you've seen some players who were
very vocal about Kathy Engelbert not liking the job she's done,
and that's come out a lot in the last couple weeks.
So think about this. She's retiring, right? And we knew
she was going to retire, right? We knew it. If

(09:15):
you want to thank me for my role in this,
that's fine. We knew she was going to retire. She
could have announced her retirement at any time, right? I
could announce my retirement tomorrow. Could have done it yesterday.
Could have done it Monday. Could have done whatever. But
this is one of those announcements that I think was
carefully crafted to serve a couple of different outcomes here.

(09:37):
Number one, if she's going to retire... When am I
going to do it? Well, when I'm not going to
get as much hate or celebration or controversy, which is
when the FIBA women's national team is playing in Germany, right?
Because they're not going to have enough time to weigh
in on the W. They're going to be worried about
winning the gold medal. There's not going to be as much...

(09:59):
You're not going to hear a lot from Caitlin Clark
and from Paige Beckers and anybody out there not going
to talk. Brianna Stewart, not going to talk about Kathy Engler.
You're not going to hear a lot. So, okay, I
want to make sure that's going on because I know
the players don't like me. But here's the thing. How
much of this is a final blank you to all
the players because she knows the players don't like her
They have said they don't like her, that she announced

(10:21):
or the story breaks of her retirement right after they
play their first game in World Cup. Didn't need it.
Could have done this at any time, right? They play
their first game. Caitlin Clark stars off the bench. Paige
Becker stars off the bench. All the different memes you're
seeing of Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese, how they're getting along,
and Angel Reese is telling Kaitlyn, hey, you can't go

(10:42):
in the game yet, you've got to wait for the horn,
and they're laughing. All of this, it's the best overall
story the WNBA has had. Here are all the players
that we all think hate each other, they can't stand it,
and here they are playing together, and it's awesome, and
it's wonderful, and Kaitlyn Clark stars, and right after, what
do we get? I'm retiring. I'm taking away from the
headline that should go to the players today is, in

(11:05):
the first game for the World Cup, but I'm announcing
my retirement today. I'm taking away from your big party
and your big celebration. Blank me? You guys like the
job I did as commissioner? Blank you. I'm going to
announce what I'm saying right now when I could have
done it absolutely at any time. We're not playing for
another few weeks. There's many times she could have announced

(11:25):
she's retired, but it's coming, but it comes out today.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
This is a final blank you. Oh, you don't like me. Okay.
I'm going to get a little bit of my petty
revenge here at the end of the day.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
How about I take you a step further? This is
forced by the NBA to say, Hey, take some heat
off us. Cause nobody likes you. Not exactly the best
week for the NBA in terms of headlines, stories, Pablo
Torre finding out and everybody else getting the Cliff Notes
version and catching up. And then what dropped today, which

(11:56):
we'll get to. But all of that in a nice
big package. Hey, Kathy, it seems like a pretty good
time for you to announce this. Because then all the hate, vitriol,
and folks that have no care one bit for the WNBA,
its players, its existence, have taken time to talk about

(12:19):
it today. So you're not talking about the NBA and
Adam Silver or anybody else at this point. Look, with
her tenure, we've talked about it a lot. She was
a good business person. That's what she was brought in
to do. And she did that part of the job well.
But it's like, you know, you're building a business and

(12:40):
you go and it's like, all right, we need to expand.
So we go and we get three floors of a building.
On the top level, all your top executives. Hey, nice
corner office looking out over the city and whatever else
going on. The folks that are building the web presence
and all of that, they're on the ground floor. In
the middle, hey, what are we doing on the second floor?

(13:02):
We haven't figured out those hires yet. That's kind of
the WNBA in this growth cycle that they've been in.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
Right?

Speaker 3 (13:09):
You had folks at the top. They got the business
stuff together.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Right?

Speaker 3 (13:13):
And she should be commended for everything that's worked. Obviously,
corner office on the other side of the floor is
reserved for Caitlin Clark and And all the execs that
she brought on board based on all the businesses that
came on board. But timing is what it is. You
take advantage of it as you can. League partnerships. The

(13:34):
problem is you still need to run the league in
the day-to-day. And that's where it's been lax. And you've
got some players who talk very openly about their relationship
with Kathy Engelbert that they had one. So many others,
including some of your biggest stars in the game, are like, yeah,
I see her when she hands me an award, right?
I mean, that's a quote directly from Aja Wilson.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
I see her. You know, I'm always happy to see
her because it means she's giving me hardware. Like, that's
the biggest indictment in terms of, you know, your coordination, consideration,
and involvement on the day-to-day of this league. Those are
the people whose ears you should be bending every week. Hey,

(14:18):
what do you guys need? What's missing? Not just from
your office, but from the league as a whole. How
do we support you? And that's not just the players
and in arena like that's the the everything else, the
the tax of social media, the tax of all the
pundits and loudmouths. stopping in when it's convenient to criticize

(14:40):
something that went wrong at a game, right? People throwing stuff,
people saying things, whatever. No, no, it's that day-to-day maintenance
that's been missing. And those are all those people on
the second floor that they never figured out. how to
make the intermediary, because it's not all going to be
on the commissioner's shoulders, right? And she gets, you know,
the brunt as well as you are, right? You've got

(15:01):
the title, you get the smoke. But there should have
been a whole auxiliary staff hired and implemented to help
this growth process. And they were remiss in doing that,
which is why you find yourself having these battles and
these squabbles. And as she exits, everybody kicking her in

(15:22):
the posterior as she exits the door.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
She had to go. We've talked about it a lot.
She had to go. They fixed the glitch.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
It was going to be done, right?

Speaker 1 (15:30):
A to B was great. She kept the league afloat,
kept it going. But now this new era, they need
their version of David Stern, right? That's exactly what they
need is someone to come in. that can take the
league from tape delay NBA finals into, hey, we're celebrating
Magic and Larry and Michael. That's what they need now.
They had what they had, and now it's, okay, how

(15:52):
do we take advantage of this unprecedented growth? We need
someone that can actually do things. That will actually come
to the defense of the players or anybody. I mean, really,
Kathy Engelbert made Adam Silver look like the busiest guy
in the world. Like, he made him look like Bruce
Almighty when he was granting everybody's wishes, going, I can't stop.
I just got to keep helping everyone. I got to
keep helping everyone. Like, Adam Silver likes to do nothing

(16:14):
except when it comes to the Clippers. And it made
Kathy Engelbert, wow. I mean, she's just like, yeah, I'm
not going to do interviews, not going to help anything.
I'm going to give you lukewarm statements on stuff. Yeah,
she absolutely had to go. And again, you think today
wasn't planned out when she announced she could have put
her retirement out there any time she wanted. This is
a blank you to the plate. You don't like me.
You're very vocal with blaming me. I'm going to take

(16:37):
as much out of your moment as I can.

Speaker 4 (16:40):
Right?

Speaker 1 (16:40):
She knows I can't do it so much when they're
playing for the gold medal. I can't do it during
the playoffs, when they're playing in the finals, because that's good.
I'm going to lose it. I got to pick the
right time. And I'm picking now because, again, it serves
both purposes of blank you to the players and I'm
not going to get as much hatred because everybody's focused
on what's going on in Germany. So that's why we
had it today. This was a master trolling class from

(17:03):
Kathy Engelbert here for the WNBA.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
Kathy has presided over the WNBA through the most significant
period of growth in the league's 30-year history. We are
grateful for Kathy's leadership and unwavering commitment to the advancement
of women's basketball. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Beat it.
I think that's how Adam Silver's line ended.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
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more info, visit Webull.com slash disclosures. Well, coming up next,
we got more college football and try to make sense

(17:46):
of what the hell happened today with Pablo Torre. Keep
it here. We're just getting started on a big, fun
Friday night. Jason and Mike. fox sports radio.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Be sure to catch live editions of the jason smith
show with mike harman weekdays at 10 p.m eastern 7
p.m pacific on fox sports radio and the iheart radio.

Speaker 5 (18:06):
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in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5 to
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Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yup, that's right.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
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Speaker 4 (18:41):
And you'll find today's.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Full show and a best of version posted right after

(19:09):
we get off the air. So a big night again,
college football again, as, as, as the games get closer
or more people start getting to the games at USC. Oh,
is it too soon? Too soon for that too soon. Uh,
A bigger crowd than last time for USC.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
But still the same result, which is good for them.
They lead Fresno State right now 23-0. Big safety. And
then a touchdown following up has put this game out
of reach. Meanwhile, Miami continues to lead Stanford 21-3. We
talked about the big night from Malachi Toney. Just unreal.
And Oklahoma blowing out UTEP 44-0 as we get set

(19:47):
for the big first full day in college football tomorrow.
But last night, we talked about this a lot. The
world was waiting. Apparently, Pablo Torre had something new, right?
He took care of the Clippers, took care of Kawhi Leonard,
took care of Steve Ballmer. Pablo Torre found out, and
we saw the penalties for the Clippers for circumventing the

(20:07):
salary cap with Kawhi Leonard. Well, last night, they put
out a little, just a big eye emoji on Twitter
for a Pablo Torrey finds out page, now the Bob
Woodward of our generation, who puts out a big teaser
coming for tomorrow. And it was a picture of Mark
Walter and the Dodgers at the White House giving President
Trump a jersey. And the description of what was coming

(20:30):
from Vanity Fair, who had a teaser, it was hard
to understand. It involves a baseball team in Los Angeles,
Hall of Fame basketball players, big business. And you're saying, okay,
I don't understand what this is. It sounds like a...
plot line of a streaming show that i just have
to watch to see if i get but i guessed
right smith uh yeah well you well you you didn't

(20:53):
get the magic johnson part of it sure i did
no you didn't you did not get magic johnson come
on you just said magic johnson have a tweet about.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
It well no because of the the involvement as an
owner of the the dodgers that it all tied together
and that that it was it had to be rotten
from the core And then we'd get a tweet about it.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah. This story that broke today, I'm going to try
to explain it the easiest way possible, which is the
best way for my brain to understand it because it's
incredibly complicated and I don't know anyone that really understands
exactly what's going on.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Did you figure out the way to do it in
a movie or TV show?

Speaker 1 (21:31):
No, I always say take.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Your favorite protagonist in a TV show. I'm going to
explain his world.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
I'm going to use a Ted Lasso analogy to to
explain this. Catch you later, Pepe. But he kind of
warned last night by saying. like saying something like, well,
I hope everybody sticks with this tomorrow for this big
story that it is. And it's like, okay. All right.
So when he, when you have to say that I'm going, okay,
he knows this is going to be something that's hard

(21:57):
to swallow. And again, there's the podcast that he talked
about it on. And then there's different websites to try
to recap what was said. And even if you read
the recap of, It's impossible to figure out. It's like, yeah,
it's like, you know, when you had cliff notes and
so I always knew a book was really difficult in school.
Like if I'm reading something and I don't get it

(22:18):
and I get the cliff notes so I can understand
or write a paper a little bit better when I'm
reading stuff that's so incredibly dry and boring, like Jude
the Obscure or, you know, crazy stuff. And I'm like,
I don't want to read any of this in high school.
Come on.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
I'm out.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
I read all the time. I don't want to read
any of this stuff. Come on. Like when I when
the cliff notes are still something they go, yeah, I
still not sure I understand what's going on. You know
how difficult that story is going to be to cut through.
This story landed today with a thud, with an absolute thud. Right.
This was the I'll give you analogy. This way, if

(22:53):
Pablo Tori finds out about the Clippers, was Michael Jordan
and the last dance 30 for 30.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Right.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
As big a deal as that was. Hey, what do
they have coming up next? And then they had the
Lance Armstrong documentary, which nobody cared about, which landed with
a huge thud. Well, because we all Lance Armstrong thud. of, of, of,
of following up. Hey, we're following up the last dance
with Lance Armstrong and boy, no one really cares. That's
a big thud for many different reasons. Okay. Now we're

(23:21):
moving on past that. So that's what this is. This
is the Lance Armstrong doc of, of Pablo tour.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
See, I was going to give you a scripted TV
show and say, it was like your opinion of the
last season of the bear.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (23:35):
I can't say because I didn't watch it. Oh, you
didn't watch it? No, I had no interest in seeing
the last season of The Bear. It's been terrible for
three years. Why am I going to do it again?
Nothing happens. I'm not going to watch it.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
No.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
At least I read and did research and looked into
this to try to understand it. At least I looked
into it, man. Bear, I'm like, yeah, no, skip it.
I'll watch something else. I'll watch Ride or Die with
Hannah Waddingham. Yeah, I love Hannah Waddingham.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
It didn't give you a lot. And I'm sure you
watched Gary, the spinoff. Cause that was entertaining.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
I made it through about the first half hour, Gary.
Then I stopped. Wow.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
Even getting after it. Come on.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
I'm just done. I was just done. Well, either way.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
So this story. And again, I'll try to, this will
be the best way. If you want to record this somehow,
use your phone. So when you explain it, this, this
is the best way I can explain it. Now, you
know that Mark Walter is already under investigation for for
insurance fraud, right? It's why he sold, potentially, why he
sold the Lakers, why selling his shares in Chelsea, why

(24:37):
he looked into selling the Dodgers TV contract, which is
the most lucrative thing in the world, right?

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Which is also part of all of this.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
So, you know, Mark Walter is under investigation for insurance fraud.
This is the best, easiest way to explain it. When
he bought the Dodgers, bought them for a lot less money,
Magic Johnson helped him out with some money. And in
the ensuing years, there was some insurance fraud that he's
being investigated for, and Magic Johnson is caught up in this.

(25:05):
And the reason the picture was up there of Mark
Walter giving the jersey to President Trump is because, according
to Pablo Torre, knowing that this is how it happens
in America now, Walter was hoping that President Trump would
be able to do something to help him out of
this situation. So that's really the story. That's the easiest
way to— anything else— Forget it. It just gets too difficult.

(25:26):
It's too weird. It's too much inside baseball. It's too
hard for the average person to get worked up over
a story like this because, number one, it's really complicated.
Number two, did I say it was complicated? And number three,
I don't know that this is breaking any ground on
anything that we really care about. Like, Kawhi Leonard... getting

(25:47):
a fake job and circumventing the salary cap, wow, that's
easy to process and that's something we've never seen before.
How's the NBA going to deal with this? But here's
a story about billionaires who are potentially involved in some
sort of scandal or fraud, which we see these stories
every single day, right? We see big business stories involving

(26:10):
President Trump one way or another every single day. I
don't see how this moves the needle, right? This would
have to get to a point where, honestly, Walter's got
to sell the Dodgers and Magic Johnson's going to prison, right? Like,
that's really where this would have to get to for
people to be interested in. That's where it's got to
get to because everything else is just... Okay. Yeah. I mean,

(26:31):
I guess I'll kind of follow this. I don't know.
That's why this is followed up. I get it. It's
investigative journalism, and it can be really soupy, and there's
lots of red tape to cut through, and there's lots of–
I get it. But overall, publicly, I don't think this
is going to garner our attention. I don't think it's
going to be something that we really harp on a

(26:52):
lot unless– the Dodgers become for sale and Magic Johnson
can go to prison. That's really the two things that
would make people go, oh, what's going on here now?
What do I need to know? The rest of it,
it's billionaire problems and it's nothing that really is something that, whoa,
it gathers up, grabs my attention. for something new because
we knew that Mark Walter was being invested. We knew

(27:12):
this was going on.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
We do.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Okay. Magic Johnson. That's okay. That's a new thing. Didn't think,
you know, the money that he lent him and now
they caught up in the insurance fraud too. But outside
of that, like I did, this didn't really land nearly
as much as he thought it was going to.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah. It's interesting. Like some of it, it goes back
to the sale to Walter and the Guggenheim group and
how they came over the top and what seemed like
a multi, uh, multi-bidder kind of system, including Stan Kroenke.
So that's part of the details that has, I think,
some interest because it gets into the TV deal that

(27:48):
had been brokered in the bankruptcy court, as we've talked
about in past episodes. We've got Steve DeSegar at the
news desk today, and I know he was pouring through
this legalese in between that and getting ready for week one.
of Chargers football, and stats for days, of course. But

(28:10):
when you get down to it, the Magic Johnson side
of it's interesting because you're talking about a life insurance
company that he owns, and I'm curious what the premiums
were doing there. People were paying in during these years
or settlements and all of that. Like you're following trails
of money. And again, that's me being a nerd. The

(28:31):
general consensus, like you said, unless someone's slapping cuffs on somebody,
nobody cares. Just play baseball. Make sure that the game
is on at 7-10, not 7-11. And we get back
to the business of things kind of operating as normal.
Because right now the Dodgers are worried about Shohei Otani
and a million other things. So people can't be mired

(28:54):
down in legalese.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, it's just some things just are too tough to...
explain that cut.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Oh, it's not digestible at all.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
You have to be able to cut through the clutter, right?
And make it something where, okay, you're good. Cause the
news world is really, it's very difficult to cut through. Now,
this is a story that you had people's attention. Okay.
What does he got next? And not that, not that
he failed at it, but just, okay. This just doesn't
quite have the same meat to it unless other things happen.
Like we talked about, that's going to be really difficult. And, and,

(29:27):
you know, so far for seeing this, I'm like, okay,
This will be something that drags on, investigate it, find out.
It's almost like when, it's almost like, to kind of
make another analogy on it, is like when you have
to read about collective bargaining. stories and and what goes
back and forth between players and the union and what
is said and what the commissioner's office say and what

(29:48):
the the representatives of the of the union have to say.
And it's like, you know what? I really don't care.
You know, they, they get into so much detail and
stuff about, about backloaded salaries and different, like you need the,
give me the nuts and bolts of it. What do
I care about? Like, that's kind of what it's like,
which is why I think we have less stomach for
that as we go on, which is why no one
wants to talk about the upcoming potential baseball lockout, because

(30:10):
it's just so daunting to even think about the back
and forth between both sides and, and, and the, and the,
sheer amount of minutia that's going to go into it.
So that's kind of how I see this thing unfolding.
Following it like, well, I'm following the baseball, the talks,
and I'll get interested when there's a deal. When there's

(30:31):
going to be a deal, a deal is close, there
could be a deal, that's going to gain my attention, right?
Like we said, that's when this story... We'll gain more
attention if those couple of things happen.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, I mean, one of the pieces, just to go
back to the TV part of it, was that the
charge here, not criminal, but just the assessment of it,
is that Major League Baseball may have allowed the Dodgers
to keep more of the money from its TV deal.

(30:58):
because Walter purchased the team and it pushed the asking
price North. Like this is, this is how inside, as
you say, inside baseball against where you're talking about all
of that going back over a decade ago. I think
with football kicking off, people will be worried about the
eighth team in their respective division. I mean, they got

(31:20):
fantasy drafts this week and of course a lot of
betting to do.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Exit out about a fresca. Exit Swollen Dome, the Jason
Smith Show, with my best friend, Mike Harmon. Time now
to find out what's trending in the wide world of
sports from special delivery Steve to Sager SD. What do
you got?

Speaker 6 (31:36):
Hello, and I think even bringing up the Dodger TV deal.
That even makes it more undigestible because then you have
to say, well, actually, that all started with the previous
owner and the bankruptcy that even created the need for
a sale. I mean, you know, I think the verb
we're looking for is the Mark Walter story is very
hard to parse.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Nicely done.

Speaker 6 (31:57):
You cannot break it down into bits and then analyze,
connect and maybe actually understand it.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
We're just going to do that for four hours. Everything
else is gone.

Speaker 6 (32:06):
What is laid out there is apparently we have a
very rich guy who has many, many companies predating sports
who apparently had one of the companies loaning money to
another one of his companies and didn't report it. So
it's apparent self-dealing.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
And that's where it stands. Like they always tell you,
if you're going to set up the simple LLC or
limited partnership in any case, it's got to be separate
from the rest of your monies.

Speaker 6 (32:33):
Money's, yet again, plural on this show.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
That's correct.

Speaker 6 (32:36):
As for college football, on FS1 at Michigan State, Toledo
has just scored a touchdown to take the lead on
the Spartans, 20-19 early in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, on
Fox TV, halftime at 14th ranked USC, Trojans 30-0 over
Fresno State. My goodness, Jaden Maiava, good again. Not only
three touchdown passes, but 17 of 18 through the air,

(32:58):
284 yards in the first half. Halftime, No. 7 Miami
leads at Stanford 28-6. And I'm glad you brought up
Malachi Toney of the Hurricanes. It's 10 receptions in the
first half for 182 yards and two scores. Early in
the fourth quarter, 10th-ranked Oklahoma driving again. Sooners up 44-0

(33:19):
on UTEP. And Kansas, starting the fourth, leads 37-0 against
Long Island. Road wins for San Jose State and, no,
not Indiana State. They were tied at Purdue 3-3 late first,
and that was about as close as they got. Even
Purdue wins in a blowout this weekend, 44-19 the final.
Most teams are opening the season on Saturday. There are

(33:42):
three college games this Sunday. The Pro Football Hall of
Fame is changing its voting rules. A separate seniors category
is out, and there will only be 25 voters now,
not 50. To Major League Baseball, Cleveland has won in
walk-off fashion in both ends of a doubleheader. 7-6 today
against Detroit and in 10 innings tonight, 4-3 against the Tigers.

(34:03):
The Rays are ahead in the top of the ninth
at Texas, 6-5. Houston at home ahead of Arizona, 3-1
in the top of the ninth. The Arizona Diamondbacks a
half game ahead of San Diego for the last NL wildcard.
The Padres at home are tied with the Yankees, 1-1
in the bottom of the fourth. The Dodgers and Blakes
now scoreless with the Nationals in the third.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
D.H.

Speaker 6 (34:23):
Shohei Otani of L.A. out again due to his injuries. Earlier,
we had road wins for Boston and the Cubs. Home
victory for the White Sox, 44-1 over Minnesota, and now
30 homers this year for both Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery.
What is going on with this team? Not just alone
for first in the AL Central. They, I guess, just

(34:44):
lost the half game on the day because Cleveland swept
a doubleheader. Still, two and a half game lead. Atlanta
won in Philadelphia 5-2 and Milwaukee beat the Reds 10-7.
WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelberg will retire at the end of
this year. And Team USA won its opener at the
Women's World Cup. In hoops, it was 94-61, Americans over China.

(35:09):
Kaitlyn Clark led with 14 points and 11 assists off
the bench.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
No turnovers.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
Back to you.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
Thank you, Steve-O. Jason Smith, Mike Harmon, live from the
Fox Sports Radio Studios. Coming up next, two separate events
tonight in the same sport has pretty much guaranteed one
big piece of hardware is going to be won this
offseason by one person and one person only, and his
initials are somewhat close to PCA. That's next. Jason and Mike, Fox.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Joining us again tonight.

Speaker 4 (35:57):
Go Aztecs, dude.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
Another half a sandwich.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
With the latest on this story. He is, at least
I believe he still is, pro football Hall of Fame
voter Jason Cole. Jay Cole, let's get that out of
the way. You're still a voter, right?

Speaker 4 (36:13):
I've been told otherwise.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Okay, all right, very good.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
Every time I see a Canton member come up, I
just block it.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
They're just trying to loan you money. Samini keeps calling
me and I keep sending it to voicemail. Samini. I
don't care about the jets. Samini going to voicemail.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
Yeah. Jim Porter's number saved. Yeah. I'm not going to
answer that right now. Um, no, I have not heard
one way or the other. And, uh, I've had a
bunch of people like text me, like, did you make it?
Did you make it? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Um, Who votes on that? Yeah, who votes on that then?
Do I vote on that?

Speaker 4 (36:59):
Thank God, no.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Wow, I was going to vote for you. Now I'm
going to vote for Samini.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
Samini! I would say, I assume it's the board. Those
guys will get together. I mean, Joe Horgan used to
pick the selectors, probably. He would get approval, but I
don't know if it's Joe's task. I don't know if
it's Jim Porter. Number one, I don't know. And number two,

(37:30):
I kind of don't care. I'm trying not to worry
too much about it because I don't get paid for it.
So like, I'm not, it's, it's an honor to do it.
But I don't, you know, like I put a lot
of work into this and, And a lot of effort

(37:50):
into it. And I take great pride in it because
I think it's important you impact people's lives. I'm getting
really serious here. But it's not mine, I guess is
what I want to say. I don't, the Hall of
Fame doesn't belong to me. I don't think it started
really well when, like when we opened the call, I said,
so are we voting to take Drew Pearson out? I

(38:12):
don't think that bodes.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
Well for me.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
You know, that can be bad.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
I've had it with all that cold guy. I want
to get Cowboys out of the hall of fame. I
just want to say that right off the bat.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
Jerry was listening to everything. I will say this. They
made it incredibly difficult for any senior candidate. I mean,
there are no more senior candidates. So all those guys
are in that, like there's, those aren't guys, those guys
aren't getting in. So like drew Pearson, cause she considered
himself very, very fortunate. that he got in when he did,

(38:51):
because in this world, Drew Pearson never makes it. And frankly,
I'm pretty comfortable with that. Cause I've said during meetings,
you know, that I'm really uncomfortable with the senior process.
I'm one of those guys who was not a big
fan of it. I know there are a lot of
people who spend a lot of time talking about the
old guys who don't get in. And I'm like, they
had their chance and they didn't. And there's a reason

(39:13):
I don't know why we're revising history, but that's, That's
my own personal sort of bias about the senior process.
But those guys, they're all grouped in the 15th. And
the funny part about it is everybody keeps saying, oh,
this was about bill check and they screwed it up
and they put them in and now they're fixing it.
It's like, yeah, they just created a system where it's
even harder to get the whole chicken. Like now he

(39:37):
has to go straight up against players. And you know,
as a voter, I will always lean that lean towards
a player over coaches because those are guys I rather
vote for guys who are on the field. Now Belichick
is an exception and should be in the hall of
fame no matter what. And it's such a great coach

(39:59):
that he sort of transcends that, that internal feeling for me.
But it's still like, if you're putting like Richard Sherman, Or,
you know, Ben Roethlisberger or Gronkowski. Gronkowski is an automatic

(40:20):
over Belichick in my view, right? Who's the other one
who's an automatic? Adrian Peterson is an automatic over Belichick
to me. And I know there's some people who may
not agree with me on that and they're entitled to
their opinion. That's fine. And my opinion may not matter because... Again,
Jim Porter might be calling me right now and saying,
get off the line. Get off the line now.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
So when are you guys going to find out? How
are they doing this?

Speaker 3 (40:47):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (40:47):
They didn't explain it. I had to get off the
call because I actually had a doctor's appointment I had
to go to. But I was on for about half
an hour during the call. They went about it. And
you could see, I'll say this, there are a number
of guys who, when they heard that news... I sort
of knew this was coming because I'd heard rumors of

(41:10):
it before, that they were going to cut down a
lot of voters. I didn't know it was going to
be this drastic, but I'd heard that they were going
to do that. I don't think that it solves the
bias issue. In fact, I think that it makes bias
worse because the fewer people you have, the easier it

(41:31):
is to block somebody. It does get rid of the
regionalism that we have. When you have a person who
is a great presenter in a particular city... And I
won't mention a lot of names other than Ira Kaufman
is just one of the greatest presenters you will ever
hear in your life. When you have a great presenter,

(41:55):
it does have an impact on somebody's ability to get
into the Hall of Fame. I mean, there is some
bias to that. There's just a humanness to that. because
of the way that people are able to do that job.
So getting rid of that is probably a healthy thing.
But reducing the total number of people, I don't agree
with that. I think that you should have almost more people,

(42:17):
not less, in this process. And so, again... The Belichick
thing is funny because I see people say, oh, they
did this for Belichick. He's got to get in. They
made such a huge mistake. And it's like, okay. So
they now created a system that's harder for Belichick. And
they made a system that's harder for Bob Kraft to

(42:39):
get in, who's another guy who should have gotten in
last year.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
So if I said to you, the number one reason
why this was done, the number one reason why this
was done, because obviously that's what everybody defaults to is
Belichick didn't get in. You heard some embarrassing stories from
the guys that didn't vote for him. Here's why I
didn't vote for him. If I said, OK, number one,
why this big sweeping changes, what would you tell me
is the big number one?

Speaker 4 (43:04):
Well, if you really understood it, it would be that
Jim Porter, who grew up in Canton, and this is
a very important thing in his life, really believes that
there's a very high standard for getting into the Hall
of Fame. And I don't disagree with him on that.
I think he's on the right path. He's always believed

(43:25):
that you should reach a certain number of votes and
affirmation to get into the Hall of Fame. This should
be really, really hard to do. And it should, you know,
you should be wanting a smaller Hall of Fame, not
a bigger Hall of Fame, right? I think that that
pushed this forward more so than the Belichick one. So
if you know the personalities in this, you know how they,

(43:47):
how those people think and what drives them. So I
think that that's really much more, you know, of an
issue here. Like, There have been, there was a move
in recent years when Dave Baker was running it is, okay,
we're just going to take these five guys. We got
to get it done really fast because we got to
go off and do the TV show and, you know,
get the knocks on the, on the doors show out

(44:10):
of the way so that we can make it really
dramatic and all that kind of other stuff. And, you know,
getting 80% be damned. We don't really care about that.
We just can't get five guys in the hall of
fame every year and rub, even if we have to
sort of rubber stamp it. And there was that feeling
toward the end. And when Jim Porter took over, I
think that he saw some things that bothered him in

(44:32):
the way that this was handled. And I think he's
done his own evaluation of this over four or five
years that goes way, way beyond, okay, last year there
happened to be this vote where Belichick didn't get in.
I think he's willing to live with the Belichick thing.

(44:53):
But what he's not willing to live with is that
the standards are not what he grew up with, essentially.
When he was a kid in Canton, and the funny
story he'll tell you is his mother did all the
travel for the Hall of Fame. and would arrange all

(45:14):
the travel for the hall of fame and so he
knew who the hall of famers were because she would
have to set up the travel for those guys to
to get to the super bowl on time or whatever
you know whatever it was that had to be done
so i mean he's a he's a hall of fame
junkie in a lot of ways i mean he's a
lifer this is a very important thing to him And I,

(45:38):
you know, I salute him for that. I salute him
for wanting to do this and make it as pure
a process as you can, knowing full well, like, knowing
full well, this is the funny part. Jim Porter at
every meeting will say, we're doing everything we can to
do this right. And I almost automatically, you know, chirp

(45:59):
in right away. Yeah, good luck with that, Jim.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
You know, like, I've had my eye on you for
a few years.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
I'm feeling less than it'll be our fault now, Smith.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
I'm making myself a target, but it's funny because we'll
laugh about it a little bit. Cause I go, yeah, Jim,
you're there. There's no perfect process and you're trying to
get a perfect result. And there's no perfect process with
human beings. And that's whether you have the baseball process,
which has hundreds of voters, or you have 50 voters

(46:34):
and you try and knock it down to 25. There's nothing.
Computer process, let's take all the stats. Well, stats don't
mean a whole lot. It's about winning and fame and
all these other things. This is really, really hard to do.
And that's why, you know, I try my best to

(46:55):
do it the best way I know how to do
it and figure it out myself. But knowing full well, like,
there's no perfect process. So everybody who, like, sits here
and rips me every year, you know, when they say,
how could you do that? How did you guys not
get Belichick in? And, you know, I sit here and go,
it wasn't me. I voted for the guy. But knowing
full well, the people who didn't vote for Belichick had

(47:18):
some legitimate reasons not to. They weren't necessarily so far
off base. I mean, the man's been accused of cheating
at a high level, and different people take that in
different ways. And I can't do the value proposition on
that one for everybody. But I thought he transcended that,
but in their eyes, he didn't. So that's the way

(47:39):
it goes. But I respect that Jim Porter's trying really,
really hard to do this right. If he picks me
to be a voter, great. If he doesn't pick me
a voter, it's been really fun. And we can make
jokes about Hall of Very Good. And I can I
can make even more jokes because I'll be less afraid.
Not that I was afraid before, but definitely that at

(48:01):
that point, I can really push for Drew Pearson to
be taken out because I can say, let's let's put
him back up for election and see if he survives
this one.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
In the new world order well i mean one everybody's
going to be in the same room again which has
got to be a good thing for the process but
does the uh change away the way things were with
senior members and everything jason do you think it changes
and skews the 25 that that make it to a
uh more i guess the digital age here and folks

(48:33):
that are are newer to the game and and fresher
with this Does that make any sense?

Speaker 4 (48:40):
Yeah, you basically said, can we get some of the
fossils out of there?

Speaker 3 (48:44):
No, no, but I mean the guys that can make
the impassioned case for the senior guys, not that they're
not still doing their job, but does that mean that
maybe there's a push to some folks that have been,
I guess, newer on the scene, going into advanced analytics
and all that stuff?

Speaker 4 (49:02):
I mean, you can... going to be some of that.
There are years, you guys, some guys are real numbers
crunchers here. And I like to do a little bit
of both numbers do matter. And there's, there's a certain
amount of number crunching that you do, but you also
have to recognize that football as a sport doesn't lend

(49:25):
itself to great numbers crunching because the guy who's playing
in week one, is not the same guy who's playing
in week 11 based on injuries and things that happen. Okay. And,
and injuries have such a huge impact on careers. And

(49:45):
so how do you measure Terrell Davis versus Frank Gore
and Frank Gore's with third in rushing with Ray all time.
And I, and I have great respect for Frank Gore
as a football player. And I think there's a place
for him in the hall of fame, but he's not
better than Terrell Davis. Like, there's just no way you

(50:07):
can never tell me that. And all the people, and
there are a ton of people who said that Terrell
Davis was a fabrication of the, of the Shanahan system.
And he didn't play very long. He was done after
four years and this and that. It's like, No, no, no, no, no.
You don't understand what Terrell Davis was and how great
he was and how much better he was in that

(50:27):
system than everybody else who played in that system, even
though it created a bunch of thousand yard runners. So
it's like, okay, analytics would tell you probably that Frank
Gore is a better player. Terrell Davis is the greatest
postseason running back in the history of the game. I mean,
he is, he's a monster in the playoffs along with

(50:49):
four years that are like second only to Earl Campbell. Like,
so I appreciate analytics. It doesn't tell the full story
of guys as football players.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Right.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
And it took us forever to get Terrell Davidson. I
think it's going to take us forever to get Frank Gore.
And I'll tell you this, Eli Manning, no way he's
making it not in this system. I can, there's no
possible way he's making it in this system. And so
all those people who hate on Eli Manning and I'm
not firmly on the fence on Eli Manning, but this

(51:24):
system made it much, much harder to get Eli Manning
and Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren coaches like that for, I mean,
Belichick is one and he's an outlier. And then Andy
Reed in a couple of years, he's going to be
an outlier. and he'll, he'll make it into the hall
of fame. But the guys who were, you know, like
Coughlin and Shanahan and Holmgren guys who are better coaches

(51:48):
than a lot of guys who are in the hall
of fame with his name. So I won't mention Bill Cowher,
but you know, like They're not going to get in.
I thought the Bill Cowher thing would make you guys chuckle.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
I did.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
I was away from the mic a little bit, so
it didn't resonate, I guess.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
He's on Twitter at JasonCole62.

Speaker 4 (52:08):
I get dead air. I get dead air on a
slam on Bill Cowher. I get dead air.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
What?

Speaker 4 (52:16):
That was even better than Drew Pearson hates.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
It was good. It was very good. I'm telling you,
it was very good.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
And you guys give me dead air?

Speaker 1 (52:25):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
I'm getting more sandwiches out of this. All right.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
You get another half a sandwich for that. We'll give
you a half a sandwich.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
No, I'm getting five sandwiches for the dead air.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Five sandwiches.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
Five sandwiches. Five sandwiches for dead air.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
All right. J. Cole, appreciate it, buddy. See you. Fox
Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon.

Speaker 4 (52:47):
We got spicy sauce, we got regular sauce, we got
pesto sauce.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
A great appetizer night for what we're going to see tomorrow,
the first big full day of the college football season.
Two players tonight decided, hey, don't forget about us for
the Heisman vote. Number one, Malachi Toney for Miami tonight

(53:14):
against Stanford in a 45-6 win. 11 catches for 229
yards and three touchdowns. And this was basically, most of
this was done in the first three quarters. Are we
sure that he's not the best wide receiver in college football?
I know, look, Jeremiah Smith is terrific. He's everything you
want from a wide receiver. Look, Ohio State's wide receiver

(53:36):
room has been incredible the past decade. But you watch
Malachi Toney, and I know he's 5'11, but the guy,
I mean, when he bursts onto the scene at 18
years old and does what he does last year and
now follows things up here, you watch his route running,
his quick twitchability, his separation, like there's nothing the guy
can't do. He might almost be uncoverable when you get

(53:59):
to the NFL if he winds up being a slot
guy that you can't get close to. Like watching him tonight,
it was, I'm saying to myself, this might be the
best wide receiver in college football.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
Man, think about Tom Brady working with him in this slot.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
Man, I'll tell you. Joining us now on the hotline,
nobody better to have this debate with than the owner, editor,
proprietor of collegefootballnews.com, your one-stop shopping for everything college football.
All the picks, all the prognostications. It is Pete Futak. Pete,
what's happening, man?

Speaker 7 (54:30):
So you're saying he's like another Travis Hunter for the NFL,
who I still refuse to acknowledge his Heisman win. He's awesome,
of course. But the thing about Malachi Tony is this
is a big debate, which I think we're all missing
here in the whole stuff that's going on with the

(54:53):
rest of the world of college sports right now. The
real ridiculousness of this is that Jeremiah Smith is not
a New York Jet right now. that, like, the whole
three years on a high school thing, that is such
a ridiculous rule because if he's good enough to go
to the league, go to the league. And it's the
NFL's way of making college football the minor leagues so

(55:15):
that NFL does not have to develop the talent. But, like,
Malachi Toney, he's going to have to play again next
year of college football. For me, I'd tell him to
sit out. because why get hurt? But, like, he's only
two years out of high school. He can't go to
the NFL draft. Neither can JKS, the Cal quarterback. You know, so, like,

(55:37):
it's just ridiculous that these guys are this good and
this talented, and they're still stuck in college when they
should be playing in the NFL right now, just like
Jeremiah Smith should be right now.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
Pete, you go find the judge that wears the colors
of that guy's rival.

Speaker 7 (55:51):
Apparently so.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
And he'll sign the papers to get him to the NFL.
We'll go back the other way.

Speaker 7 (55:57):
It's, it's, it's, I don't know why this has never
been touched. It just, I think it's because everyone likes
the idea that, Oh, you make these guys aren't developed yet. Well,
they sure as shoot look like they're developed into, you know,
great college football players. And so it's just a ridiculous
part of this whole mess that we're in, in terms
of what is a professional, what isn't a professional Malachi.

(56:19):
Tony's probably getting a few mil to play at Miami
right now, but not a professional. He's not a professional athlete.
but yet he's still in college. It's just a lot
of weird stuff happening. But on the field, yes, Stanford's
having a rough time right now, but he really looked good.
He's a very, very good football player.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Well, the other guy making a statement tonight, Pete, through
two weeks now, Jaden Maiva of USC, five touchdowns and
six incomplete passes. Not a bad start for USC.

Speaker 7 (56:50):
And look who they lost. You lose the Blitnikoff Award winner,
you lose Lane, you lose Lemon, you lose all that
talent from last year's receiving corps. And I know everyone
wanted to talk about, ha-ha, there were like five people
showed up to watch him play San Jose State in
194-degree heat and all that kind of stuff. But Fresno

(57:11):
State's good. That is a good coach team. That team
could end up winning the Pac-12 title. That's not anybody
that they just ripped apart without even thinking hard. But, boy,
that's the team I'm looking for. Gary Patterson, defensive coordinator,
he obviously heard it after the fourth quarter against San

(57:31):
Jose State, and they're like, nope, we're not doing that again.
And so they just came out, and they pitched a
gem tonight. You're right, Maava. He's been, you know, UNLV
and now USC. He is looking all the part. Every
bit as good as any quarterback can possibly look this
early in the season.

Speaker 3 (57:49):
Pete, we also had Oklahoma in action. Pat Fitzgerald makes
his Sparty debut. How many monitors in the Futek household?

Speaker 7 (57:57):
Oh, you know, now, now, I have a kid who
goes to Michigan State, so, and there was another part
of my household who, for some reason, wanted to see really,
really old women's tennis players play. So we had to,
I tried to get the The whole thing, we have
four things on the screen, the multi-view thing going. I
lost that battle, so I did go into the home

(58:18):
office and had a bunch going on at once. But
at that time of year, there's a lot of fun
stuff happening at once right now. Tomorrow, even though there
aren't a lot of great matchups, but there's some fun
stuff happening out there. And it's that time of year, finally,
for all the off-the-field stuff that's going on. And the
dumbest offseason in the history of college football, it's just

(58:38):
nice that they're actually kicking the ball off and blocking
and tackling again.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Well, tomorrow's where the dumb stuff meets the field because
the marquee game of the day is LSU and Clemson,
especially with all the drama this week of the players
coming back from the NFL, a late injunction earlier this
week that's allowing LSU to get a couple of players back. However,
as of tonight... as of tonight they're not added to
the roster and honestly just thinking about it i can't

(59:05):
believe they will be and any of these players coming back,
like Indiana's going to get a couple of people back.
I can't believe that's going to happen because I don't
think any team wants to run the risk of, well,
we're playing them now, but later on in the season,
another decision comes down, and because these players played, they're ineligible,
you're going to lose a win. I think there's too
much unknown for these guys to actually play until this

(59:26):
gets adjudicated a little bit more.

Speaker 7 (59:29):
Meanwhile... The entire Illinois basketball team got to the final
four with 47-year-old professional old dudes from Eastern Europe. True. Like, okay,
like Tommy Castellanos, the quarterback who was at Boston College,
he gets $ 800, 000 to go to Florida State. All right,

(59:50):
done there. He gets $ 800, 000, it should be something like that, reportedly,
to go to Texas Tech to be the backup quarterback.
Or maybe even push for the starter if Will Hammond's
not great. But he's not a professional. He's an amateur
athlete who is making almost $ 2 million over the last
couple of years. But we're arguing over a couple of

(01:00:11):
guys who basically had a cup of coffee in a
training camp. The hypocrisy to all this is ridiculous. And
I get it. It's just, it's unseemly. You don't want
NFL guys coming back. I keep making the joke where, God,
it was like 15 years ago where I had, I
did an April Fool's thing. It said there was some

(01:00:33):
sort of weird glitch where Herschel Walker still had eligibility
because he left a year early for the USFL, so
it didn't count. He was going to come back to Georgia. Well,
sure as shoot, he could still do that, technically. I mean,
if he still has eligibility. I mean, it's just ridiculous.
I get it. But I, and the other side of
this thing too, is I, I give it up for

(01:00:55):
Wayne Kiffin. I mean, for all the Wayne Kiffin-ness of it,
why isn't your coach trying to go out there and
get every possible great player he can get? You know, I, okay.
Push as many boundaries as possible because it is murky.
It's I'm not a lawyer, but I, they're smarter people.
And I, me, that's why I'm not smart. They don't
know which one that is. Uh, that basically said, look,

(01:01:19):
you can't just say, we're making a rule where if
you sign an NFL rule, you're ineligible. It doesn't really
work like that when you've got parts of this puzzle
that involve lots and lots and lots of money. So
these guys could still be college students. They still have
eligibility remaining technically, but because they went to the Cleveland

(01:01:41):
Browns and New Orleans State training camp and got whacked,
Instead of, I don't know, you know, serving drinks at
an Applebee's, they can't play in college football again. Meanwhile, again,
all these guys are moving around and getting paychecks from
different schools and new NIL money. And, okay, we're all
supposed to just be, you know, good with it. So

(01:02:02):
it's all ridiculous. Meanwhile, you know, again, Malachi Toney should
be in the NFL right now. And forget the rest
of the season. Go be in the NFL right now,
Malachi Toney.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
All right, we've got plenty of time to talk about
all the other litigation and chaos and investigations, Pete. What
other game has your rapt attention for tomorrow beyond the
obvious LSU-Clemson game?

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
Yeah, there's a.

Speaker 7 (01:02:23):
Lot of obvious out there because this has been pretty
chalky so far. We've got a lot of FBS over
FBS blowouts happening. You're just getting out there, getting tuned up.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
Okay, it's fine.

Speaker 7 (01:02:33):
I want to see Baylor versus Auburn. Last year's game
kind of flew under the radar because they were a
little awful. But that was a wild shootout where you
had Auburn, who ran for over 350 yards. You had
Baylor throw for over 450. And now Auburn has the
Alex Golish offense from South Florida. So it's going to

(01:02:54):
go 1,000 miles an hour. Baylor's got D.J. Lagway, the
Florida quarterback and real NFL prospect. He's now slinging it
for Baylor. This should be a wild back-and-forth firefight. This
is going to be– we haven't really had this yet
so far where we've had just like a 45-42 last
team with the ball wins this. I think that's what

(01:03:15):
this is going to be.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
He's on Twitter, at Pete Futek. That is at Pete Futek, collegefootballnews.com.
Your one-stop shopping for everything college football. The picks, the prognostications,
the analysis. Pete Futek has them all.

Speaker 4 (01:03:30):
Pete.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Welcome back. Another season ready to go. Thanks so much
as always.

Speaker 7 (01:03:33):
Is Steve Angeli in the NFL yet? Is he able
to go?

Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
Hang on.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Let's let Steve get through the game tomorrow. Okay, let's
let him get through that.

Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
Okay, we're good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
We're good.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
See you, Pete. Over, under for that game.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
Auburn, Baylor, 59 and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
I'll tell you. What do you like on that one? Over. Over?
I'll tell you two games I like the over on, right,
for tomorrow. I love the over on Indiana-North Texas because
the spread is 40.5 and the over-under is only 56.
And the other one I love is Ohio State-Ball State
where the over-under is 56 and Ohio State's a 50-point favorite. So, like,

(01:04:15):
I mean, really, I mean, that's too close to me.
So you're talking about a couple of games where I
like the over again. Week one is impossible to predict,
so I like to look at stuff like the over-unders and, like,
The over for those two games for Ohio State, Ball State,
because they're so close. Give me the over for Ohio State.
Give me the over for Indiana over North Texas, 150%.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
And now that I have a real rooting interest in it,
can't wait to watch Oregon and Boise State.