January 10, 2026 • 40 mins
In Hour 2 of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, Steve DeSaegher fills in for Mike as the guys recap the end of the Oregon–Indiana CFP Peach Bowl, where Indiana closes out the game with a dominant victory. College football insider Pete Fiutak joins the show to break down the Hoosiers’ impressive win and what it means moving forward.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
PLEA give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, Welcome inside hour two The Jason Smith Show with
special delivery Steve de Seg're in for Mike Harmon. For
over forty years, tire Rack's been uping customers find the
right tires for how, what and where they drive. Shipped
fast and free, backed by free Road, has a protection
with convenient installation options like mobile tire Installation. Tire Act
dot Com is the way tire buying should be. Well.
(00:53):
We are mercifully at the two minute warning of Indiana
and Oregon, a fifty six to fifteen lead for the Hoosiers,
who are two minutes away from a date with the
Miami Hurricanes in the National Championship, just how we wrote
it down the beginning of the season. Indiana Miami for
the National championship, right do we all wrote it down now?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Not even how people wrote it down a month ago.
By the way, it's eleven o'clock in Atlanta where this
game is. This place would be empty normally, except ninety
percent of the fans are Indiana fans. It's almost all
Hoosiers in red anyway, and they're all sticking around.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, what are they calling it? Indiana in Indie Indiana
Indiana right?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Basically Indian Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it looks like you look at
the sands that go wow this. I get that. It's
a little bit easier, you know, travel or trip from Indiana,
you know, getting I think Oregon.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Also already had the East coast trip. And this is
actually the problem that I've talked about on these airways
before they even expanded the playoffs. When you go to
multiple rounds, fans cannot afford bowl prices which are two
three hundred dollars multiple weeks in a row, and flights
and hotels and all of that. And then you throw
Oregon three thousand miles away essentially from all of its
(02:06):
playoff games.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I mean, if this game was more of a neutral field, Steve,
I got to tell you this could be like fifty
three to eighteen. You know you buy neutral fieldworth, so.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, I'm talking about when you get to multiple rounds,
and this would have been three straight trips to the
Eastern time zone, right, including Miami if Oregon ahead advanced.
So I mean, this is just completely untenable for the
average fan.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So as the clock takes closer to zero, Oregon may
put in a cosmetic touchdown here to make it fifty
six to twenty. Wh Kurtzignetti still looks really mad. You know,
this game tonight we talked about Dante, We talked about
Fernando Mendoz the last hour of the show. We'll get
into him more with Pete Futech coming up in a
few minutes. But this game is an absolute total disaster
(02:54):
for Dante Moore. Okay, coming into this game, who was he?
He was someone who rose up draft charts this year
to the point where it's a two quarterback draft. Right,
It's Mendoza, Dante Moore, take your pick. It was just
four days ago. Todd mcshae said, well, if the Raiders
don't guarantee me, I'm gonna go back to school because
I don't want to be a Jet, Right, Like the
Raiders are where you want to go for a destination.
(03:16):
Get out of here with that crap. But like that's
where we were. Like four days ago, we were Wow,
Dante Moore from Nana Mendoza. Maybe as you get closer
to the draft, you know Dante Moore. Depending how this
game goes, Dante Morre's skill set shines a little bit more.
You'd never know what you can convince yourself of. But
if anything we saw tonight, Okay Mendoza with his five
touchdowns thirteen out of fourteen in the matchup against the
(03:37):
other only other guy could go number one. Yeah, Mendoza's
going number one to the Raiders. But now Dante Moore
who would have been? And in theory, hey a lead
pipe since to go to the Jets, Because no matter
what you want to say, look, and I love Joel Klatt,
but he lives on Mars. If he thinks going back
to Oregon for a year, for one year and seven
million for life changing money is a better decision than
(03:59):
four years fifty million, which is what he would get
as a number two pick in the draft, that's just stupid.
Nobody's doing that. It's just a way to say, oh,
I want to jump up and down on the Jets
because it's low hanging fruit. One's no one's taking one
year and seven million dollars for anything when they could
have four years and fifty million dollars. And also, you're
drafted at the top, you have more chance to succeed.
They're going to give you more chance if you falter
(04:21):
early because you're the number two overall pick. What happens
if you get drafted later in a year from now,
other guys could pass you up. It's less guaranteed money.
So yeah, Dante more going to the NFL. He's got
to prove it at some point. Don't worry about your
second contract. Worry about your first contract.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
And also if you show anything, you're getting a second contract.
And I think Sam Darnold is more than proving that out.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
But think of the disaster this is because now, if
you're Dante Moore, right, if you're the if the Jets
are watching this game and they're going, yeah, I don't know,
you know, I know we pick a quarterback up high
at number two, but I really I don't know. We
have a lot of picks. I think they have four
of the top fifty picks, we can get a qu
quarterback we like a little bit later. Maybe it's Ty Simpson,
(05:02):
maybe it's not Smary, maybe it's somebody out who knows.
But yeah, this guy at number two, I don't know.
And the biggest game he had, he was awful, wasn't
He wasn't ready to meet the moment. And sometimes that
happens in big players where it's a big game and mentally,
either your two jacked up for it or something happens
and you wind up making bad decisions. And from the
(05:23):
first play of the game, Dante Moore made bad decisions, right,
bad Desi're throwing that football, bad decision to hold onto
the football in the pocket. As much as he did
against Indiana's defense. You were expecting a little bit more
out of Dante, more than this, Like I can't say
I'm expecting. Hey, he should have gone for three fifty
and four touchdowns, but a little bit more than giving
the game away with fumbles and interceptions and just looking
(05:44):
absolutely awful. So here are the Jets now at number two,
going wait a minute, so are we better off taking
this guy at number two? Or should we trade for
Kyler Murray? And hey, we will have him for a
year or to it, and we'll we have more number
one pick picks in the first round next year. So yeah,
we want to wait until a better quarterback draft than
twenty twenty seven. Maybe Arch Manning is the number one
(06:06):
pick coming out or someone else when it's you know, look,
it's widely expected that's gonna be a better quarterback class
all of a sudden. Now Dante Moore night might not
be going number two. And if Dante Moore doesn't go
number two to a team that needs a quarterback, who's
gonna take them? Where's he gonna go? If you're not
looking another quarterback being taken in the first round until
you get way far down, like what is Dante Weill?
(06:27):
Look what this game has done to Dante Moore's value
where maybe he doesn't get the evaluation he thinks he
needs to get from the NFL and he gets a
lukewarm reception. I don't think anybody's gonna tell him that, hey,
yeah you should go back to school. But it's gonna
be yeah, you've played great, but yeah, we got a
lot of decisions to make, We got things. It's gonna
be one of those conversations where I'm not gonna tell
(06:48):
you we're not gonna take you, but I'm gonna make
you understand that, hey, without having to come out and say,
we have a lot of other things working on. Boy,
we like the combo of Kyler Murray and Caleb Downs
because we can get one guy in a trade for
nothing thing and take Caleb Downs at number two and suddenly, look, look,
how much better team we.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Are a non quarterback?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah? Yeah, So I so I don't know, yeah, cause
you're not taking a quarterback if you're not taking more
at number two. So now suddenly he may look to
go back to school to say, hey, I did so
much damage to my draft value. It's going to be
a huge debate. But that's why this game was such
a disaster for him, because now suddenly you've thrown open
the door to not going number two, to falling through
(07:25):
the draft, to saying maybe I do need to go
back to school for one more year. Yes, and the
soft landing because he'll go back to Oregon to make
seven eight million dollars a year in nil money. That's
probably what he's going to get. So, I mean that's
a really I mean, so it's going to be a
really soft landing for him. But man, I'll tell you
to go from where you were just four days ago
to now. You have to sit there and make hard
(07:46):
decisions about your future. This game was an absolute disaster
for Dante Moore.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, maybe he just wants to stay in college so
he doesn't have to go to the NFL face Troy
Aikman and have to pay back the money he stole
from your CLA before you drop, where.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Is that there is that that is true?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
By the way, Fernanda Mendoza has just taken it. It
is a final Indiana fifty six twenty two over the
Oregon Ducks in Atlanta tonight, so the semifinal round is done.
It is Indiana at Miami in Miami, Monday the nineteenth
and Dante more finishes with two touchdown passes and the
one pick six on the first pass thrown. Let's not
(08:24):
forget the fact that these two teams met in lead
play at Oregon in October and Dante Moore, although the
game was tied in the fourth quarter, was hit a
lot in that game and you really had to show
your metal. And Indiana was superb the last seven eight
minutes of that game and took the game and then
tonight just flat took it too Oregon. Not just the
difference between the quarterbacks, the difference between the teams was
(08:47):
painfully obvious tonight.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, this look, this was this was a game where
one team, Fanana Mendoza was terrific, right, like he was terrific,
But you saw one team that was clearly on a
different level. Not that any quarterback would have come in
and did what Fanana Mendoza did tonight, but he was
really as great at night as he had. This was
a head of the snake night. There was nobody on
Indiana that had a bad night. There was nobody you
(09:11):
could say, ah, you know, they could have no you know, yeah,
Menoza only threw fo one hundred and seventy seven yards, right,
but he threw for five touchdowns. They ran for more
yards than they threw four right like that. They did everything.
They took this this high powered Oregon offense and force
them into three turnovers in the first half and all
the yards and points they had were in garbage time.
Like this was. This was as good a game as
(09:32):
you could get from Indiana. Like they were on another level.
And that honestly, Steve, that's my only fear for them
in the championship game against Miami. Miami is a solid
team across the board, right really defense, Yeah, they're very physical.
They have shown that they can hold on to the
football and then you know they don't need to throw
the football down for the no short possessions. I feel
(09:54):
like every Miami drive is they take over at the
other team's forty five and they run fourteen plays forty
five yards in a touchdown, and they take nine minutes
off the clock. Right, that's everything, So I can see Miami.
You know, hey, this game plan is terrific because what
Miami does well. They're solid everywhere. But the only thing
that honestly for this Indiana team is you're gonna get
(10:15):
a little bit of a bounce from this game to
the next end. Right, you played as good as you
can a week ago. Now this is almost a perfect
football game. I can't believe you have another level to
get to in the National championship game, and you're gonna
get a little bit of a bounce in that game.
So that's the one thing that tells me, Hey, you know,
don't count out Miami just yet, just because you know
that's how sports goes but outside of that, you see Indiana,
(10:36):
it's like they have no competitors this season. Zero.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, and very realistically, they don't have to be any
better than what we've seen the last two games. Anything
close to this wins you a national championship. You mentioned
Mendoza with the five touchdown passes tonight he was seventeen
of twenty for the one hundred and seventy seven yards,
no interceptions. So you may ask in a college football
playoff game, had there ever been a guy to have
(11:00):
more touchdown passes than incomplete passes in a playoff game?
Tua did it for Alabama twenty eighteen against Oklahoma, and
now Mendoza has done it back to back playoff games.
This is what he did against Bama and the Rose Bowl,
and it's what he did against Oregon tonight.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah. I mean, look, this is gonna be. I can't
wait for the national championship game because it's gonna be
those two different styles and different ways. And can Miami's
defense make life miserable for Mendoza? And I mean really,
he's going to have to be more escapable than he's
ever been. Right, He's not a guy that runs the
football a ton clearly he's a pocket guy, but he
has shown that he can make plays with his legs.
(11:39):
Not always pretty, they're always pretty to watch for down
to Mendoza run, but he's gonna have to keep plays alive.
Miami's defense is fast, it's physical. But look, if this
Indiana team shows up, it doesn't matter. But really, I
don't know that you see Indiana. Are they going to
show up with this kind of effort again? Now you're
gonna get a little bit of a bounce. You have
some time off, you have ten days between games. And
(12:00):
that's the one thing that I can sit there for
Miami and go, Yeah, they're solid everywhere. It's not like
you can take advantage of one thing they don't do well.
They run it well. They can control the football because
that's the best thing you can do is keep the
ball out of Nana Mendoza's hands, right, And Oregon couldn't
do that tonight. But I've watched Carson Beck and Miami
put these monster twelve fifteen twenty play drives together throughout
(12:23):
the playoffs and basically take an entire quarter of football away.
If they can do something like that a couple of
times in that game, man I'm telling you Miami, Miami
might have a chance, but again, you just watch Indiana.
They show up. It doesn't matter. Miami could play with
fifteen guys on the field, it's not gonna matter.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Indiana apparently is already a touchdown favorite for the final,
which will be in Miami against the Hurricanes. I will
say about Mendoza individually, and we saw yet again in
this game tonight, what would probably make the NFL scouts
spounce water. It's not just the wins, and it's not
the ability to occasionally run if needed. What he can
(13:01):
do down the field, the accuracy with I'm not talking
about there are guys that are drafted in the first
round who can't complete all the screen passes. Let's be
honest about this. He can complete on the nose twenty
and twenty five yards down the field. And we saw
it again tonight. It's very impressive. And the sideline stuff
and the back shoulder stuff, it's I mean, this has
(13:21):
been happening all year.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, I mean really, it's amazing to see all of
a sudden, a team with zero football Patrick Tree, zero history, nothing,
they have zero, zero football culture. There's no Indiana Football Museum,
it's left Hey, there's Antoine Randall l there's Anthony Thompson,
and there's a bunch of games where ran the single
wing offense back in the early nineteen hundreds. That's it.
(13:44):
Two year and all of a sudden, in two years,
it's we're the new dynasty in college football. Like that.
That blows my mind, Steve, that in two years a
team can come from absolutely nowhere and be a dynasty.
For one hundred years they were nowhere and now they're
a dynasty.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
And then go. It's including the hot start against Oregon tonight,
playing back to back to back. Ohio stayed for the
conference finals in Alabama, then Oregon ten plus quarters and
outscoring those opponents ninety three to twenty ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So here we are, after a huge victory fifty six
to twenty two. The National championship game is set Indiana
and Miami, just how we all thought it was gonna
be in the preseason. Forget Arch Manning, forget about any night,
It's gonna be Indiana and Miami coming up next. Pete
Feutec stops by College Football Insider EXTRAORDINAIY. What's next for Mendoza?
(14:38):
What's next for Dante More and does Miami have a
chance in the title game? Keep it right here, our
Big Football Friday feels like it's just getting started. Jason
Smith Steve de seger in for Harmon. This is Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Hey, It's Rob Parker and Calvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
And in addition to hearing us live weeknights from seven
to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, we are
excited to announce brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
That's right, you can now watch The Odd Couple live
on YouTube every day.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube
Again YouTube, Just search Odd Couple FSR. Check us out
on YouTube and subscribe.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Steve desanger
in for Mike Harmon. Where if you had Oregon and
you were getting thirty five points, congratulations, you cash that
ticket and anything less you weren't cashing Indiana fifty six
to twenty two. Perfect everywhere tonight, Perfect offensively for Nana
(15:53):
Mendoza seventeen out of twenty for a bucks seventy seven
and five touchdowns. Indiana ran for two touchdowns in one
hundred and eighty five yards. They caused three turnovers. Everything
you wanted to see Indiana do they did, and now
they head into the National Championship game. Nobody better to
break it down than the man who is the owner, editor,
(16:16):
proprietor Grand Pooba of college Footballnews dot com. You're one
stop shopping for everything college football, all the picks, all
the prognostications, all the analysis. He's on Twitter at Pete
fu Tech. It is Pete feutech Pete. What's happening, man,
how's it going?
Speaker 5 (16:33):
I think there might be someone out there's better than
I am, because I still think Oregon's gonna win the
game three hundred and seventy eight yards to three sixty three.
And you know, it's like, seriously, I mean, that was
just a horrific performance. I mean, I don't know what
kind of vulcan mind meld, whatever it is thing that
they that Indiana has over teams, but Oregon just did
(16:56):
not look good. I mean they looked scared. They do
gun sure and they just did not play a good game.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, I felt like watching this game look as good
as Mendoza was is good. Everywhere, Indiana seemed to be
one step ahead. They seem to be, you know, especially
defensively stopping them on third down. They seem to be
at a different level mentally, a different level of focus.
It's it's almost like watching a youth sports game where hey,
these two teams make it to the championship and one
(17:25):
is the big club team that's so good, and the
other one just you know, wins a couple of games
how to forfeit. You get to that champion, will go, oh, yeah,
one team is really really good. Other team doesn't deserve
to be on the field. That's what it look like
to me.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
What's crazy though, Oregon's kind of better. I mean they've
got a whole lot more talent. I mean it just
but man, Indiana just does not make mistakes. And like
the crazy part about it, you could just like the
first play, pick six, it was just like all right,
and yeah, you just don't have it. Even even with
(17:57):
a fantastic it was seven to seven. They marched pretty easily.
I don't understand the game plan on either side. For Oregon.
I get it, their running backs were hurt, but Dante
Moore is still the number two, maybe even the one
taking the drafts at the end of the day. Don't
you let him like fling it fifty times and say
(18:18):
you're the You've got to be the best player on
the field here. And he did it early on. But
then you had the you know, the running back fumble,
and you had this weird other fumble. You can't make
mistakes against Indiana because they just pounced on everything.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Pete.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
It was complete domination at the Rose Bowl, and I
assume some people said, I'm not sure that's repeatable. It
was so good. It was kind of repeated tonight, wasn't it.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
Yeah. I mean it's first of all the domination of
the rosebull because that wasn't very good. I mean, Oregon's good.
This was just a weird I mean, they held it.
This is the second time this might I think this
might be this of Indiana's season again. Oregon has I
think the two best yardage defensive games for Indiana. I
(19:04):
think they both think they was the Penn State and
Nowhere first organ game were tied with the fewest amount
of yards by Indiana so they did run run up
but kind of lost to this because they were winning
so big because they had such short fields. But they
did get you know, knocked off the field a couple
of times. There were chances there, but there was that
one moment where you could kind of tell them there
(19:25):
was a little bit of life there, like eighteen minutes
to go, and you said, you know what if they
score here and somehow three and out and get another
touchdown fast. I don't think they're gonna win, but maybe
they would make it interesting. What do they do three
straight runs and work the clock and Oregon those in
the then to the third quarter went out, they went
(19:46):
with that weird pitch to the outside like they've never
seen Indiana play defense before and know what they do.
It was just it was just a bad overall performance
by Oregon.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, yeah, Pete, because that's what I like on fourth
and one is to give the ball to a guy
five yards behind the line of scrimmage because that's all
it's going to get a first down.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Again, like Indiana, that team is never going to leave
their lanes. It's like, do you not watch this team?
I mean, that's that's what you don't do. You power
on Indiana. That's how you beat them potentially. But no,
I'm thinking out Oregon organ organ Indiana's awesome. I mean
they're playing for great I mean just I love watching
(20:24):
the receivers run route. I mean, Becker and sarat are
checked flawless. I mean the defense did a great job.
And yeah it didn't it wasn't a plus. But the
running game wasn't that bad for Oregon. The fifth string
running back that they flew out there was actually pretty good.
He wasn't the problem. But it was just like like
(20:45):
Indiana beat them right out of the gate. I mean,
they just have this weird dominance thing happening that when
they show up and again pick six on the first play,
it's like you don't recover.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
From that with the cloud. This was like an Indiana
home game in Atlanta tonight. The final is going to
be against Miami in Miami. Is that going to make
a difference on the field the Hurricanes and the home support.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
I don't know if it's I mean, it depends on
what home support there might be. I mean, first of all,
the tickets for the sing are insane. I mean it's
to give in the building. They're already talking, it's like
thirty eight hundred and to get any real seat in
the middle there, you're ten grand already. So I mean
everybody in Indiana fan ever is going to go to this,
and Miami people are going to go to this as well.
(21:30):
Totally dating myself here. If I could do that, I
wouldn't be here. But nineteen eighty three Nebraska was the
greatest team of all time. It was just a formality.
Blah blah blah. Bernie Cosar and the Miami Hurricanes pulled
off the winterness in Miami in Miami exactly. You know,
I've just throw that out there just as you know,
reference of something. But I don't think it's going to happen.
(21:51):
They can't come out and play scared against this team.
And you can tell right out of the gate that
Oregon looked like a team that didn't quite sing it
could think it could win. I still think my Indiana
people are going to overrun Miami uh over in the
stadium there. But Miami had better come with a big
time attitude from the start that they can't just play
(22:12):
scared like Ordon just did.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Well, here's the thing, Pete, is that, like I look
at this game and I give Miami a little bit
more of a chance. Well, look, if this or if
this Indiana team shows up, it doesn't matter who plays
for Indiana. It makes no difference who plays for Miami.
They could have Kozar and and Irvin and Willis mcgaey,
it doesn't matter.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
But they're gonna get No, I'm not gonna go that far.
That was a pretty good just some pretty good teams
back there. With those you got some Hall of Fame
talents down there. So yeah, yeah, you're saying.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
But here's the thing is that they're gonna Indiana is
going to get a little bit of a bounce from
this game to the next game. And Miami is solid everywhere.
Their defense is fast, it's physical, and their style of
football where every possession is a thirteen play, sixty five
yard drive that takes nine minutes off the clock like that.
Like that that's the right fo. I think that's the
(23:06):
right style to try to combat this Indiana team that
you want to keep Mendoza on the bench and be
able to you know, control the football a bit. Like
I give Miami more than a puncher's chance because they're solid.
It's not like you can do one thing and stop
them like. They're solid, they're fast, they're gonna hit their
physical they're gonna punch Indiana in the mouth. So yeah,
I'm looking forward. I look at that and see that's
(23:27):
a much better matchup for this than Oregon turned out
to be. For sure.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
They basically take everything you just said and just apply
that to Oregon, And that's kind of what I thought
was gonna happen tonight. Look, but you're right, though, I mean,
the talent on Miami's lines. I mean, they've got an
NFL offensive line and they just need to bash away
from the starts. The pass rushers that weren't there against
(23:52):
all this, They've got some top ten overall pick pass rushers.
They've got the guys at defense. Yeah, Tony is one
of the best. Is probably on Max Field. They're going
to get to Mendoza. They have ten days to kind
of figure out how to do this. So you're right,
I mean, they've got all the things there. But man,
is Carson Beck going to be the Carson Beck that
we've seen in the last couple of weeks. Is He's
(24:13):
going to be the SMU Louisville Carson Beck where its
two picks and all of a sudden game over Indiana
has a funky way of making making team to do that.
But you're right, I like this Miami team. I said
from the start that this is a team that could
make a deep run and could win the national title.
And you know, again, you know if they play sharp,
(24:34):
if they play the thing I mean. Miami played the
like C plus game. They totally dominated Old miss and
yet it came down to the last play. It was
like they made their own mistakes, and they don't make
those mistakes, they blow out the rebels. And if they
can just play sharper, then that team can absolutely hang
with Indiana.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Miami's defense has had so many good games. They only
give up fourteen points a game. Indiana was only allowing
ten points a game for the full season going in
to tonight. Do you see this as more than just
a fourteen to ten type of game though?
Speaker 5 (25:04):
The final it depends on how like you guys are
alluding to it. How much do you get the long
sustained drives where you know you Mendoza takes what's there,
what's given, You're going to want to get the ball
out of his hands in a hurry on the quick
shots because he does not want Ruben Bain jumping out
his head half the game. You know, so it's do
they just go ding ding ding ding DNK down the
(25:25):
field or you know in Miami same thing, do they
just land an offensive? I mean, look, it's ole miss.
I mean, thank goodness almost didn't win because Indiana would
have won that game nine hundred and fourteen to two.
I mean, it almost didn't have a chance against Indiana.
That defensive front was getting gouged, and Miami, as good
as it is, is not going to be able to
(25:47):
pile drive its way like it did again into rebels.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Pete you Tech College Footballnews dot Com insider, our guest
here on Fox Sports Radio. All right, flip side here,
uh Fernanda Mendoza with the game he had tonight. Congratulations,
you're the number one pick in the draft. You're headed
to the Las Vegas Raiders, which I don't know if
that's a victory, but that's happening. Do you see anything
different for the future of Dante Moore after tonight's game,
whether it is thinking more about going back to school,
(26:12):
maybe the Jets aren't gonna take him at number two?
What did this kind of game? What impact did this
kind of game have on.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
More, you know what, it shouldn't have any Like, if
you're good enough to play in the league, go to
the league, Like, Okay, then it was a bad night.
Well he's gonna have good nights. He's going to be.
I mean, if he's only twenty, and I get it,
there's only the twenty first start and all that. But
if he's got the talent, and I still kind of
think once the workouts start to kick it, everyone's gonna
(26:38):
love Mendoza because he's everything you want in the franchise quarterback.
You know, the personality, you know, the great accuracy, everything
you want in an NFL quarterback. But when Dante Moore
gets into a pro day and he lets a grip,
there's gonna be some people out there gonna be like, yeah,
Mendoza is really good, but wow, this guy, I mean,
(26:59):
he's just got better tools, more talent. So at the
very least, let's say exact too, Let's say he's top five,
you still go to the league. He's the number two
quarterback off the board of Mendoza's one. So lad, So
you know, what are you going to do? It's a
Bill Parks deals thing. If you want to play in
the NFL, go to the NFL.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
As far as the Big Ten Conference, we could have
three separate teams three years in a row winning the
national title. What does it say about the Big Ten?
Or is it just Indiana happened to have its best
year ever and Michigan just happened to have this one
supreme year. Is to say something as a whole about
the league.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
It says that they're just better. I mean, I've been
screaming this for a couple of years. They have more money, like,
they have better deals. They have now of course I
like Department of Texas and some of these other places.
They're just monsters and they're bigger than anybody else in
terms of the media rights deals, in terms of the
market share. I mean, you know, think of what are
(27:54):
the big markets in the SEC Atlanta, Okay, you know, Dallas, Yeah,
I guess sure, Houston with Texas, A and m absolutely,
you know. But look what you got with you know,
with the Big Ten. You've got whatever New York is
for a market. You've got Chicago, You've got La You've
got all these big markets that and they just have
(28:14):
the better deals and a lot more dough and now
it's going to get even weirder when you've got people
like Mark Cuban who are going to help out the
cause with Indiana and they just have the dough to
keep this thing going. So it's a blip. I mean,
next year the SEC could go nine to zero in
the bowls and you know, this is all just sort
of a quirky thing. Look, if they want to, like
Kicker puts it to the left, they lose. You know,
(28:35):
they're but for you know, a miss play by you know,
Dieo Pavio late and maybe Vanderbilt win. So this is
all kind of quirky. You know, Missouri came down to
the last play. I mean, you know, everyone's dunking on
the SEC. But it wasn't that bad. However, the apology
excuses to her by the SEC is insane. You can't
be the it just means more conference and then be like, wow,
(28:59):
these guys weren't really crying and bold.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah all right. So lastly, I know, look, we got
ten days of the National Championhip Game. But right now
we've just we've talked to the last two nights. You've
seen both of these teams play. Give me your prediction
right now, we see the national title game Indiana Miami.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
What do you think I'm getting missing on Indiana? I
mean I picked them to beat Alabama, but I thought
I'll know would show up. And like I said, I
thought the Oregon was going to show up in this.
I'm not going to do that again. Seven and a
half is the early line. That seems like a lot
for this Miami team. But again, you know, how can
you not know? This team is still focused, It doesn't
seem phased by anything. And again, well it might be
(29:37):
in Miami. That thing's going to be like seventy percent.
Who is your fan? So I got to pick Indiana
obviously because they're just playing that well right now. And look,
you mentioned the Big Ten before, like the least eight years,
there was a run of eighteen in nineteen years where
SEC team was in the We're in the national championship,
the over the Ohio State. Oregon gave them the first
(29:58):
College Football playoffschampionship with the one blip. Now you got
three straight, like you said, without an SEC team in it.
It's lonely for them.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
He's on Twitter at Pete Feutech. That is at Petefutech
college footballnews dot com you're one stop shopping to everything
college football. Pete is always by the appreciated. We'll talk
to you next week and we'll talk portal and preview
the national title game.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Absolutely, guys are going all right, there.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Goes Pete, feute knowing college football. That will be the
same conversation. Somebody at halftime of the National title game
will announce they're going in the portal.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah, it'll be arch Manning. We'll be going into the
portal at halftime of the game, like a rod opting
out of his contract in the middle of the World Series.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I was a little surprised when I heard during the
broadcast tonight there's a give to so and so. You
know he's in the portal. Wait, wait a minute, he's
playing right now.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
He's actually gotten the football and has run into the
portal like it's Avengers and Walk has opened the portal
running through that. You just disappear while he's going. He's
in the portal.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
He's like that dumb Souper movie. They're into some new
universe here.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
So seven and a half points is your early line
for Indiana and Miami? Why are we seeing Indiana Miami?
Steve Disager as the details on what the Hoosiers just
did to the Ducks and more with what's trending right now.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
They wipe the floor with him. I think that is
the correct answer. I'll take Hoosiers for two hundred. Alex. Yeah,
it's dominance, complete dominance for the number one team in
the land. Indiana fifty six twenty two over the Oregon Ducks,
and in league play, they had won at Oregon back
in October, getting ten points in the last six and
a half minutes to win by ten tonight in front of,
(31:37):
to say the least, a pro Hoosier crowd showing up
in Atlanta. This semi final goes to Indiana as Fernando Mendoza,
the Heisman Trophy winner, throws five touchdown passes. He was
seventeen of twenty for one hundred and seventy seven yards,
and yes, they are favorites for the National Title game
against Miami in Miami on Monday the nineteenth to the
(31:58):
NBA Phoenix held on for victory over the nixt tonight,
one twelve to one oh seven, thirty one points for
Devin Booker, twenty seven for Dylan Brooks, twenty seven for
Jalen Brunson, in the defeat, So we have three late
games in progress. In the NBA halftime in La Bucks
leading the Lakers sixty one fifty two, mid third quarter,
(32:21):
Rockets only a head at Portland seventy two to seventy,
and their late third quarter at Golden State Warriors are
only leading Sacramento eighty six eighty four. Earlier, OKC was
down twenty one and still won its game at Memphis
one seventeen, one sixteen, and shay Killjus Alexander did not
play due to a sprained ankle, and still Okase goes
to thirty two and seven wins on the road for
(32:44):
the Clippers in Atlanta, for New Orleans and Philadelphia. Boston
won at home, beating Toronto one twenty five, one seventeen. RJ.
Barrett of the Raptors left with an ankle injury. Anthony
Davis of the MAVs could miss a few months if
surgery is required on his left hand. He has ligament damage.
College basketball usc was an overtime winner at Minnesota seventy
to sixty nine, just three NHL games. The late contest
(33:07):
is in the final minute at Utah, the Mammoth leading
four to two over the Blues. The Winnipeg won at
home five to one against La Washington, a five to
one winner at Chicago. Brooks Keepka applied for reinstatement to
the PGA Tour. He just left Live Golf after well,
still having one year left on his contract, wanting to
stay closer to home.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Back to you, Thank you, Steve O. The Jason Smith
Show is Steve de Sager in for Mike Harmon. Now.
We have said a lot about Indiana head coach Kurt Signetti,
who said, listen, I am happy at times, even though
I never smile. Wait till you hear what Signetti had
to say right after Indiana pasted Oregon to go to
(33:48):
the National Championship. I stop not that. No, no, no,
because I know what he said. He didn't say that.
Prove it right now, he didn't say. He didn't say
prove it. Wait wait, will you hear what he had
to say? You're gonna hear it next right here. Jason Smith,
Steve Desager, this is Fox Sports Radio. Explain it to me.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with special delivery
Steve de Saga in for Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
That is not John Cena.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
We just watched Indiana put a clinic on against Oregon.
Indiana played great, Oregon did not fifty six twenty two.
So now Indiana and Miami into the National Championship game
on the nineteenth. And look, there's a lot of great
things and some we're gonna make a big, bold prediction, built, big,
big hot take coming up in about ten minutes on
(34:53):
Indiana after winning this game tonight. But so much attention
on Kurt Signetti in the job he's done. Is Indiana's
head coach, and look getting the contract extension in just
in two years. They have a dynasty in Indiana. It's insane.
And he had a big comment yesterday, Steve on the
day before the game where he said, look, you know
I'm happy at times. You know, he's never happy on
(35:15):
the sideline. He's always upset. I think I think it
was performance art in the fourth quarter, like that he's
scowling and mad and yelling after they block a punt
when they're up forty two thirteen. They have the ball
in the red zone, like, okay, you don't need to
be scouted. You don't need to be smiling and suddenly
going crazy. You don't need to dance around the field
like you're Robert Sola after a sack. But I mean,
(35:36):
come on, man, let's let's a little bit. You don't
need to be sitting there going okay. So I think
a little bit of performance art.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
But there were times today where it seemed like a
smile was coming in to the face, and the way
he erased it was with not quite scowl, but kind
of a skew. Let's say the lips were going askew
to one side, like a somewhat disappointed look. And that's
how he rid himself of the thoughts of a smile
(36:03):
during a game.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Do you think he had like a there was a
like he had an ear piece in where someone was
telling it to Hey, cameras on your cameras, right, can't
smart smile, gotta look mad, gotta look bad, gotta be
always coaching, always coaching, always go ebc always be coaching.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
There is no very good. There is no smirking at
what Mendoza has done in these two playoff games for Indiana.
Because he still has more touchdown passes than incompletions thrown
in two playoff games combined eight tds, including the five
tonight five incompletions total in playing Alabama and Oregon.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
So you would think, Okay, kurtz Signetti's gonna show up
and give his postgame press conversation. Well, there's some things
we gotta work on. Yeah, yeah, a game he play
almost bro, things got to work out. We got a
really tough game coming up. However, we did not get
that from Kurt Signetty. We got what is going to
be a SoundBite. I'm sure we play on this show
for the next year plus. Tight Shirt's gonna hear it.
(37:02):
He's gonna love it. This is Signetti off the field
doing an interview with ESPN. He's asked about thinking about
Miami the National Championship, and this is Kurt Signetti's response,
this game, I'm really not thinking about the next game.
I'm thinking about cracking open the beer.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Family.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Congrats, enjoy that beer, coach. I mean, what do you
say after that? That's great, coach, But one more question.
I just said, I want to go get a beer
because we just won the semi final. We're going to play.
I'm going to get a beer right now. Don't ask
me any more questions.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
So he's in the heartland of America. He never wears
the blue collar, but this is gonna make him even
more beloved to the fan base.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Oh yeah, that's so on brand for Kurt Signetti. Yeah,
we just won. I'm gonna go have a beer and
then I'm gonna get mad at my team and find
a way to motivate them to go play against Miami.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
And once he turns eighty years old, he'll become the
Colts coach and he'll stay in state. I can see
how all of this is going.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I don't know, or does he win the national title
and then get the job right away, like if he wins,
if he if he if he beats Miami, does suddenly
the Colts go, hey, yeah, look look Shanstein, I'm been great. Yeah,
now you're gone.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
I think he's gonna wait until Philip Rivers turned sixty
and then at back as he joins the Colts and staces.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Kind of like his quarterback offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
He could do both, actually literally do both. He could
call his own plays. We could go old school NFL
on that, sure.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
But I dig I'm thinking about cracking open a beer
like like like, there's somebody in the locker room whose
job it is, and if we win this game, you
have a beer ready for coach when he comes out. Okay,
you just you open it and you hand it to him.
And it's not gonna be like Luca, where someone's gonna
come take it away from him. No. No, you hand
him that beer and you give that beer to coach.
(38:52):
You give him five minutes to enjoy this game.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Or this game was so lopsided he actually had time
on the sidelines during the game to think about such thing.
It was forty two to seven in the third quarter.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
We blocked that putt hey go grab me that course light.
It's just go into the into the locker room. It's
hit under the gator reader. Yeah, it's my at the
bottom right there. Just pull it out, Just bring it
out to me. Okay. Yeah, but yet put it in
the koozy, so nobody knows, all right, so nobody could tell.
Let's don't know.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
If you saw the sixty minutes interview with Signetti and
about the Indiana program in general, and they even got
Mellencamp in there, and it was just it was if
you are a neutral fan of the sport of football,
and even not necessarily the Big Ten or college football,
it was attractive. It's such a good story, and it's
getting better by the round, and it's not hyperbole when
(39:43):
these network guys can continually say this is the greatest
college football story of my lifetime.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's so unlikely, it's I mean,
I think everybody needs a beer after that. I need
a beer after what we're gonna say about Indiana coming
up next. I'm gonna need a beer and I get
two with undefeated. Still, I mean, you're already seeing I'm
seeing trend on Twitter twenty twenty, Alabama twenty nineteen, LSU.
You know, two of the best college football teams individually
(40:11):
the last you know, a couple of decades in Miami.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yet about what two thousand and three or two or
four or somewhere down there, they had a phenomenal roster.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I mean, this is this is incredible. This is the
level of football we're talking about Indiana at. So yeah,
I can see where Kurt Signetti needs a beer. I
can see where that happens right there. Exit out about
a Frescas Jason Smith, Steve de Sager, and at Fox
Sports Radio Again, don't forget. Our best of podcasts goes
right after the show is over. Download rate us, Subscribe,
(40:40):
We'll love you forever and ever and ever. Wherever you
get your podcasts from, just search our names, Jason Smith
and Mike Harmon. It will come up. You'll get that
Kurtz Signetti audio about cracking Oprah a beer. But coming
up next. You want a big hot take about what
we've seen so far this season in college football, you
got it. Piping hot on a Friday Fox, It sucked.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
PLEA give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, Welcome inside hour two The Jason Smith Show with
special delivery Steve de Seg're in for Mike Harmon. For
over forty years, tire Rack's been uping customers find the
right tires for how, what and where they drive. Shipped
fast and free, backed by free Road, has a protection
with convenient installation options like mobile tire Installation. Tire Act
dot Com is the way tire buying should be. Well.
(00:53):
We are mercifully at the two minute warning of Indiana
and Oregon, a fifty six to fifteen lead for the Hoosiers,
who are two minutes away from a date with the
Miami Hurricanes in the National Championship, just how we wrote
it down the beginning of the season. Indiana Miami for
the National championship, right do we all wrote it down now?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Not even how people wrote it down a month ago.
By the way, it's eleven o'clock in Atlanta where this
game is. This place would be empty normally, except ninety
percent of the fans are Indiana fans. It's almost all
Hoosiers in red anyway, and they're all sticking around.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, what are they calling it? Indiana in Indie Indiana
Indiana right?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Basically Indian Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it looks like you look at
the sands that go wow this. I get that. It's
a little bit easier, you know, travel or trip from Indiana,
you know, getting I think Oregon.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Also already had the East coast trip. And this is
actually the problem that I've talked about on these airways
before they even expanded the playoffs. When you go to
multiple rounds, fans cannot afford bowl prices which are two
three hundred dollars multiple weeks in a row, and flights
and hotels and all of that. And then you throw
Oregon three thousand miles away essentially from all of its
(02:06):
playoff games.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I mean, if this game was more of a neutral field, Steve,
I got to tell you this could be like fifty
three to eighteen. You know you buy neutral fieldworth, so.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, I'm talking about when you get to multiple rounds,
and this would have been three straight trips to the
Eastern time zone, right, including Miami if Oregon ahead advanced.
So I mean, this is just completely untenable for the
average fan.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So as the clock takes closer to zero, Oregon may
put in a cosmetic touchdown here to make it fifty
six to twenty. Wh Kurtzignetti still looks really mad. You know,
this game tonight we talked about Dante, We talked about
Fernando Mendoz the last hour of the show. We'll get
into him more with Pete Futech coming up in a
few minutes. But this game is an absolute total disaster
(02:54):
for Dante Moore. Okay, coming into this game, who was he?
He was someone who rose up draft charts this year
to the point where it's a two quarterback draft. Right,
It's Mendoza, Dante Moore, take your pick. It was just
four days ago. Todd mcshae said, well, if the Raiders
don't guarantee me, I'm gonna go back to school because
I don't want to be a Jet, Right, Like the
Raiders are where you want to go for a destination.
(03:16):
Get out of here with that crap. But like that's
where we were. Like four days ago, we were Wow,
Dante Moore from Nana Mendoza. Maybe as you get closer
to the draft, you know Dante Moore. Depending how this
game goes, Dante Morre's skill set shines a little bit more.
You'd never know what you can convince yourself of. But
if anything we saw tonight, Okay Mendoza with his five
touchdowns thirteen out of fourteen in the matchup against the
(03:37):
other only other guy could go number one. Yeah, Mendoza's
going number one to the Raiders. But now Dante Moore
who would have been? And in theory, hey a lead
pipe since to go to the Jets, Because no matter
what you want to say, look, and I love Joel Klatt,
but he lives on Mars. If he thinks going back
to Oregon for a year, for one year and seven
million for life changing money is a better decision than
(03:59):
four years fifty million, which is what he would get
as a number two pick in the draft, that's just stupid.
Nobody's doing that. It's just a way to say, oh,
I want to jump up and down on the Jets
because it's low hanging fruit. One's no one's taking one
year and seven million dollars for anything when they could
have four years and fifty million dollars. And also, you're
drafted at the top, you have more chance to succeed.
They're going to give you more chance if you falter
(04:21):
early because you're the number two overall pick. What happens
if you get drafted later in a year from now,
other guys could pass you up. It's less guaranteed money.
So yeah, Dante more going to the NFL. He's got
to prove it at some point. Don't worry about your
second contract. Worry about your first contract.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
And also if you show anything, you're getting a second contract.
And I think Sam Darnold is more than proving that out.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
But think of the disaster this is because now, if
you're Dante Moore, right, if you're the if the Jets
are watching this game and they're going, yeah, I don't know,
you know, I know we pick a quarterback up high
at number two, but I really I don't know. We
have a lot of picks. I think they have four
of the top fifty picks, we can get a qu
quarterback we like a little bit later. Maybe it's Ty Simpson,
(05:02):
maybe it's not Smary, maybe it's somebody out who knows.
But yeah, this guy at number two, I don't know.
And the biggest game he had, he was awful, wasn't
He wasn't ready to meet the moment. And sometimes that
happens in big players where it's a big game and mentally,
either your two jacked up for it or something happens
and you wind up making bad decisions. And from the
(05:23):
first play of the game, Dante Moore made bad decisions, right,
bad Desi're throwing that football, bad decision to hold onto
the football in the pocket. As much as he did
against Indiana's defense. You were expecting a little bit more
out of Dante, more than this, Like I can't say
I'm expecting. Hey, he should have gone for three fifty
and four touchdowns, but a little bit more than giving
the game away with fumbles and interceptions and just looking
(05:44):
absolutely awful. So here are the Jets now at number two,
going wait a minute, so are we better off taking
this guy at number two? Or should we trade for
Kyler Murray? And hey, we will have him for a
year or to it, and we'll we have more number
one pick picks in the first round next year. So yeah,
we want to wait until a better quarterback draft than
twenty twenty seven. Maybe Arch Manning is the number one
(06:06):
pick coming out or someone else when it's you know, look,
it's widely expected that's gonna be a better quarterback class
all of a sudden. Now Dante Moore night might not
be going number two. And if Dante Moore doesn't go
number two to a team that needs a quarterback, who's
gonna take them? Where's he gonna go? If you're not
looking another quarterback being taken in the first round until
you get way far down, like what is Dante Weill?
(06:27):
Look what this game has done to Dante Moore's value
where maybe he doesn't get the evaluation he thinks he
needs to get from the NFL and he gets a
lukewarm reception. I don't think anybody's gonna tell him that, hey,
yeah you should go back to school. But it's gonna
be yeah, you've played great, but yeah, we got a
lot of decisions to make, We got things. It's gonna
be one of those conversations where I'm not gonna tell
(06:48):
you we're not gonna take you, but I'm gonna make
you understand that, hey, without having to come out and say,
we have a lot of other things working on. Boy,
we like the combo of Kyler Murray and Caleb Downs
because we can get one guy in a trade for
nothing thing and take Caleb Downs at number two and suddenly, look, look,
how much better team we.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Are a non quarterback?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah? Yeah, So I so I don't know, yeah, cause
you're not taking a quarterback if you're not taking more
at number two. So now suddenly he may look to
go back to school to say, hey, I did so
much damage to my draft value. It's going to be
a huge debate. But that's why this game was such
a disaster for him, because now suddenly you've thrown open
the door to not going number two, to falling through
(07:25):
the draft, to saying maybe I do need to go
back to school for one more year. Yes, and the
soft landing because he'll go back to Oregon to make
seven eight million dollars a year in nil money. That's
probably what he's going to get. So, I mean that's
a really I mean, so it's going to be a
really soft landing for him. But man, I'll tell you
to go from where you were just four days ago
to now. You have to sit there and make hard
(07:46):
decisions about your future. This game was an absolute disaster
for Dante Moore.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, maybe he just wants to stay in college so
he doesn't have to go to the NFL face Troy
Aikman and have to pay back the money he stole
from your CLA before you drop, where.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Is that there is that that is true?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
By the way, Fernanda Mendoza has just taken it. It
is a final Indiana fifty six twenty two over the
Oregon Ducks in Atlanta tonight, so the semifinal round is done.
It is Indiana at Miami in Miami, Monday the nineteenth
and Dante more finishes with two touchdown passes and the
one pick six on the first pass thrown. Let's not
(08:24):
forget the fact that these two teams met in lead
play at Oregon in October and Dante Moore, although the
game was tied in the fourth quarter, was hit a
lot in that game and you really had to show
your metal. And Indiana was superb the last seven eight
minutes of that game and took the game and then
tonight just flat took it too Oregon. Not just the
difference between the quarterbacks, the difference between the teams was
(08:47):
painfully obvious tonight.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, this look, this was this was a game where
one team, Fanana Mendoza was terrific, right, like he was terrific,
But you saw one team that was clearly on a
different level. Not that any quarterback would have come in
and did what Fanana Mendoza did tonight, but he was
really as great at night as he had. This was
a head of the snake night. There was nobody on
Indiana that had a bad night. There was nobody you
(09:11):
could say, ah, you know, they could have no you know, yeah,
Menoza only threw fo one hundred and seventy seven yards, right,
but he threw for five touchdowns. They ran for more
yards than they threw four right like that. They did everything.
They took this this high powered Oregon offense and force
them into three turnovers in the first half and all
the yards and points they had were in garbage time.
Like this was. This was as good a game as
(09:32):
you could get from Indiana. Like they were on another level.
And that honestly, Steve, that's my only fear for them
in the championship game against Miami. Miami is a solid
team across the board, right really defense, Yeah, they're very physical.
They have shown that they can hold on to the
football and then you know they don't need to throw
the football down for the no short possessions. I feel
(09:54):
like every Miami drive is they take over at the
other team's forty five and they run fourteen plays forty
five yards in a touchdown, and they take nine minutes
off the clock. Right, that's everything, So I can see Miami.
You know, hey, this game plan is terrific because what
Miami does well. They're solid everywhere. But the only thing
that honestly for this Indiana team is you're gonna get
(10:15):
a little bit of a bounce from this game to
the next end. Right, you played as good as you
can a week ago. Now this is almost a perfect
football game. I can't believe you have another level to
get to in the National championship game, and you're gonna
get a little bit of a bounce in that game.
So that's the one thing that tells me, Hey, you know,
don't count out Miami just yet, just because you know
that's how sports goes but outside of that, you see Indiana,
(10:36):
it's like they have no competitors this season. Zero.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, and very realistically, they don't have to be any
better than what we've seen the last two games. Anything
close to this wins you a national championship. You mentioned
Mendoza with the five touchdown passes tonight he was seventeen
of twenty for the one hundred and seventy seven yards,
no interceptions. So you may ask in a college football
playoff game, had there ever been a guy to have
(11:00):
more touchdown passes than incomplete passes in a playoff game?
Tua did it for Alabama twenty eighteen against Oklahoma, and
now Mendoza has done it back to back playoff games.
This is what he did against Bama and the Rose Bowl,
and it's what he did against Oregon tonight.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah. I mean, look, this is gonna be. I can't
wait for the national championship game because it's gonna be
those two different styles and different ways. And can Miami's
defense make life miserable for Mendoza? And I mean really,
he's going to have to be more escapable than he's
ever been. Right, He's not a guy that runs the
football a ton clearly he's a pocket guy, but he
has shown that he can make plays with his legs.
(11:39):
Not always pretty, they're always pretty to watch for down
to Mendoza run, but he's gonna have to keep plays alive.
Miami's defense is fast, it's physical. But look, if this
Indiana team shows up, it doesn't matter. But really, I
don't know that you see Indiana. Are they going to
show up with this kind of effort again? Now you're
gonna get a little bit of a bounce. You have
some time off, you have ten days between games. And
(12:00):
that's the one thing that I can sit there for
Miami and go, Yeah, they're solid everywhere. It's not like
you can take advantage of one thing they don't do well.
They run it well. They can control the football because
that's the best thing you can do is keep the
ball out of Nana Mendoza's hands, right, And Oregon couldn't
do that tonight. But I've watched Carson Beck and Miami
put these monster twelve fifteen twenty play drives together throughout
(12:23):
the playoffs and basically take an entire quarter of football away.
If they can do something like that a couple of
times in that game, man I'm telling you Miami, Miami
might have a chance, but again, you just watch Indiana.
They show up. It doesn't matter. Miami could play with
fifteen guys on the field, it's not gonna matter.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Indiana apparently is already a touchdown favorite for the final,
which will be in Miami against the Hurricanes. I will
say about Mendoza individually, and we saw yet again in
this game tonight, what would probably make the NFL scouts
spounce water. It's not just the wins, and it's not
the ability to occasionally run if needed. What he can
(13:01):
do down the field, the accuracy with I'm not talking
about there are guys that are drafted in the first
round who can't complete all the screen passes. Let's be
honest about this. He can complete on the nose twenty
and twenty five yards down the field. And we saw
it again tonight. It's very impressive. And the sideline stuff
and the back shoulder stuff, it's I mean, this has
(13:21):
been happening all year.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, I mean really, it's amazing to see all of
a sudden, a team with zero football Patrick Tree, zero history, nothing,
they have zero, zero football culture. There's no Indiana Football Museum,
it's left Hey, there's Antoine Randall l there's Anthony Thompson,
and there's a bunch of games where ran the single
wing offense back in the early nineteen hundreds. That's it.
(13:44):
Two year and all of a sudden, in two years,
it's we're the new dynasty in college football. Like that.
That blows my mind, Steve, that in two years a
team can come from absolutely nowhere and be a dynasty.
For one hundred years they were nowhere and now they're
a dynasty.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
And then go. It's including the hot start against Oregon tonight,
playing back to back to back. Ohio stayed for the
conference finals in Alabama, then Oregon ten plus quarters and
outscoring those opponents ninety three to twenty ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So here we are, after a huge victory fifty six
to twenty two. The National championship game is set Indiana
and Miami, just how we all thought it was gonna
be in the preseason. Forget Arch Manning, forget about any night,
It's gonna be Indiana and Miami coming up next. Pete
Feutec stops by College Football Insider EXTRAORDINAIY. What's next for Mendoza?
(14:38):
What's next for Dante More and does Miami have a
chance in the title game? Keep it right here, our
Big Football Friday feels like it's just getting started. Jason
Smith Steve de seger in for Harmon. This is Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Hey, It's Rob Parker and Calvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
And in addition to hearing us live weeknights from seven
to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, we are
excited to announce brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
That's right, you can now watch The Odd Couple live
on YouTube every day.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube
Again YouTube, Just search Odd Couple FSR. Check us out
on YouTube and subscribe.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Steve desanger
in for Mike Harmon. Where if you had Oregon and
you were getting thirty five points, congratulations, you cash that
ticket and anything less you weren't cashing Indiana fifty six
to twenty two. Perfect everywhere tonight, Perfect offensively for Nana
(15:53):
Mendoza seventeen out of twenty for a bucks seventy seven
and five touchdowns. Indiana ran for two touchdowns in one
hundred and eighty five yards. They caused three turnovers. Everything
you wanted to see Indiana do they did, and now
they head into the National Championship game. Nobody better to
break it down than the man who is the owner, editor,
(16:16):
proprietor Grand Pooba of college Footballnews dot com. You're one
stop shopping for everything college football, all the picks, all
the prognostications, all the analysis. He's on Twitter at Pete
fu Tech. It is Pete feutech Pete. What's happening, man,
how's it going?
Speaker 5 (16:33):
I think there might be someone out there's better than
I am, because I still think Oregon's gonna win the
game three hundred and seventy eight yards to three sixty three.
And you know, it's like, seriously, I mean, that was
just a horrific performance. I mean, I don't know what
kind of vulcan mind meld, whatever it is thing that
they that Indiana has over teams, but Oregon just did
(16:56):
not look good. I mean they looked scared. They do
gun sure and they just did not play a good game.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, I felt like watching this game look as good
as Mendoza was is good. Everywhere, Indiana seemed to be
one step ahead. They seem to be, you know, especially
defensively stopping them on third down. They seem to be
at a different level mentally, a different level of focus.
It's it's almost like watching a youth sports game where hey,
these two teams make it to the championship and one
(17:25):
is the big club team that's so good, and the
other one just you know, wins a couple of games
how to forfeit. You get to that champion, will go, oh, yeah,
one team is really really good. Other team doesn't deserve
to be on the field. That's what it look like
to me.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
What's crazy though, Oregon's kind of better. I mean they've
got a whole lot more talent. I mean it just
but man, Indiana just does not make mistakes. And like
the crazy part about it, you could just like the
first play, pick six, it was just like all right,
and yeah, you just don't have it. Even even with
(17:57):
a fantastic it was seven to seven. They marched pretty easily.
I don't understand the game plan on either side. For Oregon.
I get it, their running backs were hurt, but Dante
Moore is still the number two, maybe even the one
taking the drafts at the end of the day. Don't
you let him like fling it fifty times and say
(18:18):
you're the You've got to be the best player on
the field here. And he did it early on. But
then you had the you know, the running back fumble,
and you had this weird other fumble. You can't make
mistakes against Indiana because they just pounced on everything.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Pete.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
It was complete domination at the Rose Bowl, and I
assume some people said, I'm not sure that's repeatable. It
was so good. It was kind of repeated tonight, wasn't it.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
Yeah. I mean it's first of all the domination of
the rosebull because that wasn't very good. I mean, Oregon's good.
This was just a weird I mean, they held it.
This is the second time this might I think this
might be this of Indiana's season again. Oregon has I
think the two best yardage defensive games for Indiana. I
(19:04):
think they both think they was the Penn State and
Nowhere first organ game were tied with the fewest amount
of yards by Indiana so they did run run up
but kind of lost to this because they were winning
so big because they had such short fields. But they
did get you know, knocked off the field a couple
of times. There were chances there, but there was that
one moment where you could kind of tell them there
(19:25):
was a little bit of life there, like eighteen minutes
to go, and you said, you know what if they
score here and somehow three and out and get another
touchdown fast. I don't think they're gonna win, but maybe
they would make it interesting. What do they do three
straight runs and work the clock and Oregon those in
the then to the third quarter went out, they went
(19:46):
with that weird pitch to the outside like they've never
seen Indiana play defense before and know what they do.
It was just it was just a bad overall performance
by Oregon.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, yeah, Pete, because that's what I like on fourth
and one is to give the ball to a guy
five yards behind the line of scrimmage because that's all
it's going to get a first down.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Again, like Indiana, that team is never going to leave
their lanes. It's like, do you not watch this team?
I mean, that's that's what you don't do. You power
on Indiana. That's how you beat them potentially. But no,
I'm thinking out Oregon organ organ Indiana's awesome. I mean
they're playing for great I mean just I love watching
(20:24):
the receivers run route. I mean, Becker and sarat are
checked flawless. I mean the defense did a great job.
And yeah it didn't it wasn't a plus. But the
running game wasn't that bad for Oregon. The fifth string
running back that they flew out there was actually pretty good.
He wasn't the problem. But it was just like like
(20:45):
Indiana beat them right out of the gate. I mean,
they just have this weird dominance thing happening that when
they show up and again pick six on the first play,
it's like you don't recover.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
From that with the cloud. This was like an Indiana
home game in Atlanta tonight. The final is going to
be against Miami in Miami. Is that going to make
a difference on the field the Hurricanes and the home support.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
I don't know if it's I mean, it depends on
what home support there might be. I mean, first of all,
the tickets for the sing are insane. I mean it's
to give in the building. They're already talking, it's like
thirty eight hundred and to get any real seat in
the middle there, you're ten grand already. So I mean
everybody in Indiana fan ever is going to go to this,
and Miami people are going to go to this as well.
(21:30):
Totally dating myself here. If I could do that, I
wouldn't be here. But nineteen eighty three Nebraska was the
greatest team of all time. It was just a formality.
Blah blah blah. Bernie Cosar and the Miami Hurricanes pulled
off the winterness in Miami in Miami exactly. You know,
I've just throw that out there just as you know,
reference of something. But I don't think it's going to happen.
(21:51):
They can't come out and play scared against this team.
And you can tell right out of the gate that
Oregon looked like a team that didn't quite sing it
could think it could win. I still think my Indiana
people are going to overrun Miami uh over in the
stadium there. But Miami had better come with a big
time attitude from the start that they can't just play
(22:12):
scared like Ordon just did.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Well, here's the thing, Pete, is that, like I look
at this game and I give Miami a little bit
more of a chance. Well, look, if this or if
this Indiana team shows up, it doesn't matter who plays
for Indiana. It makes no difference who plays for Miami.
They could have Kozar and and Irvin and Willis mcgaey,
it doesn't matter.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
But they're gonna get No, I'm not gonna go that far.
That was a pretty good just some pretty good teams
back there. With those you got some Hall of Fame
talents down there. So yeah, yeah, you're saying.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
But here's the thing is that they're gonna Indiana is
going to get a little bit of a bounce from
this game to the next game. And Miami is solid everywhere.
Their defense is fast, it's physical, and their style of
football where every possession is a thirteen play, sixty five
yard drive that takes nine minutes off the clock like that.
Like that that's the right fo. I think that's the
(23:06):
right style to try to combat this Indiana team that
you want to keep Mendoza on the bench and be
able to you know, control the football a bit. Like
I give Miami more than a puncher's chance because they're solid.
It's not like you can do one thing and stop
them like. They're solid, they're fast, they're gonna hit their
physical they're gonna punch Indiana in the mouth. So yeah,
I'm looking forward. I look at that and see that's
(23:27):
a much better matchup for this than Oregon turned out
to be. For sure.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
They basically take everything you just said and just apply
that to Oregon, And that's kind of what I thought
was gonna happen tonight. Look, but you're right, though, I mean,
the talent on Miami's lines. I mean, they've got an
NFL offensive line and they just need to bash away
from the starts. The pass rushers that weren't there against
(23:52):
all this, They've got some top ten overall pick pass rushers.
They've got the guys at defense. Yeah, Tony is one
of the best. Is probably on Max Field. They're going
to get to Mendoza. They have ten days to kind
of figure out how to do this. So you're right,
I mean, they've got all the things there. But man,
is Carson Beck going to be the Carson Beck that
we've seen in the last couple of weeks. Is He's
(24:13):
going to be the SMU Louisville Carson Beck where its
two picks and all of a sudden game over Indiana
has a funky way of making making team to do that.
But you're right, I like this Miami team. I said
from the start that this is a team that could
make a deep run and could win the national title.
And you know, again, you know if they play sharp,
(24:34):
if they play the thing I mean. Miami played the
like C plus game. They totally dominated Old miss and
yet it came down to the last play. It was
like they made their own mistakes, and they don't make
those mistakes, they blow out the rebels. And if they
can just play sharper, then that team can absolutely hang
with Indiana.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Miami's defense has had so many good games. They only
give up fourteen points a game. Indiana was only allowing
ten points a game for the full season going in
to tonight. Do you see this as more than just
a fourteen to ten type of game though?
Speaker 5 (25:04):
The final it depends on how like you guys are
alluding to it. How much do you get the long
sustained drives where you know you Mendoza takes what's there,
what's given, You're going to want to get the ball
out of his hands in a hurry on the quick
shots because he does not want Ruben Bain jumping out
his head half the game. You know, so it's do
they just go ding ding ding ding DNK down the
(25:25):
field or you know in Miami same thing, do they
just land an offensive? I mean, look, it's ole miss.
I mean, thank goodness almost didn't win because Indiana would
have won that game nine hundred and fourteen to two.
I mean, it almost didn't have a chance against Indiana.
That defensive front was getting gouged, and Miami, as good
as it is, is not going to be able to
(25:47):
pile drive its way like it did again into rebels.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Pete you Tech College Footballnews dot Com insider, our guest
here on Fox Sports Radio. All right, flip side here,
uh Fernanda Mendoza with the game he had tonight. Congratulations,
you're the number one pick in the draft. You're headed
to the Las Vegas Raiders, which I don't know if
that's a victory, but that's happening. Do you see anything
different for the future of Dante Moore after tonight's game,
whether it is thinking more about going back to school,
(26:12):
maybe the Jets aren't gonna take him at number two?
What did this kind of game? What impact did this
kind of game have on.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
More, you know what, it shouldn't have any Like, if
you're good enough to play in the league, go to
the league, Like, Okay, then it was a bad night.
Well he's gonna have good nights. He's going to be.
I mean, if he's only twenty, and I get it,
there's only the twenty first start and all that. But
if he's got the talent, and I still kind of
think once the workouts start to kick it, everyone's gonna
(26:38):
love Mendoza because he's everything you want in the franchise quarterback.
You know, the personality, you know, the great accuracy, everything
you want in an NFL quarterback. But when Dante Moore
gets into a pro day and he lets a grip,
there's gonna be some people out there gonna be like, yeah,
Mendoza is really good, but wow, this guy, I mean,
(26:59):
he's just got better tools, more talent. So at the
very least, let's say exact too, Let's say he's top five,
you still go to the league. He's the number two
quarterback off the board of Mendoza's one. So lad, So
you know, what are you going to do? It's a
Bill Parks deals thing. If you want to play in
the NFL, go to the NFL.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
As far as the Big Ten Conference, we could have
three separate teams three years in a row winning the
national title. What does it say about the Big Ten?
Or is it just Indiana happened to have its best
year ever and Michigan just happened to have this one
supreme year. Is to say something as a whole about
the league.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
It says that they're just better. I mean, I've been
screaming this for a couple of years. They have more money, like,
they have better deals. They have now of course I
like Department of Texas and some of these other places.
They're just monsters and they're bigger than anybody else in
terms of the media rights deals, in terms of the
market share. I mean, you know, think of what are
(27:54):
the big markets in the SEC Atlanta, Okay, you know, Dallas, Yeah,
I guess sure, Houston with Texas, A and m absolutely,
you know. But look what you got with you know,
with the Big Ten. You've got whatever New York is
for a market. You've got Chicago, You've got La You've
got all these big markets that and they just have
(28:14):
the better deals and a lot more dough and now
it's going to get even weirder when you've got people
like Mark Cuban who are going to help out the
cause with Indiana and they just have the dough to
keep this thing going. So it's a blip. I mean,
next year the SEC could go nine to zero in
the bowls and you know, this is all just sort
of a quirky thing. Look, if they want to, like
Kicker puts it to the left, they lose. You know,
(28:35):
they're but for you know, a miss play by you know,
Dieo Pavio late and maybe Vanderbilt win. So this is
all kind of quirky. You know, Missouri came down to
the last play. I mean, you know, everyone's dunking on
the SEC. But it wasn't that bad. However, the apology
excuses to her by the SEC is insane. You can't
be the it just means more conference and then be like, wow,
(28:59):
these guys weren't really crying and bold.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah all right. So lastly, I know, look, we got
ten days of the National Championhip Game. But right now
we've just we've talked to the last two nights. You've
seen both of these teams play. Give me your prediction
right now, we see the national title game Indiana Miami.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
What do you think I'm getting missing on Indiana? I
mean I picked them to beat Alabama, but I thought
I'll know would show up. And like I said, I
thought the Oregon was going to show up in this.
I'm not going to do that again. Seven and a
half is the early line. That seems like a lot
for this Miami team. But again, you know, how can
you not know? This team is still focused, It doesn't
seem phased by anything. And again, well it might be
(29:37):
in Miami. That thing's going to be like seventy percent.
Who is your fan? So I got to pick Indiana
obviously because they're just playing that well right now. And look,
you mentioned the Big Ten before, like the least eight years,
there was a run of eighteen in nineteen years where
SEC team was in the We're in the national championship,
the over the Ohio State. Oregon gave them the first
(29:58):
College Football playoffschampionship with the one blip. Now you got
three straight, like you said, without an SEC team in it.
It's lonely for them.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
He's on Twitter at Pete Feutech. That is at Petefutech
college footballnews dot com you're one stop shopping to everything
college football. Pete is always by the appreciated. We'll talk
to you next week and we'll talk portal and preview
the national title game.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
Absolutely, guys are going all right, there.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Goes Pete, feute knowing college football. That will be the
same conversation. Somebody at halftime of the National title game
will announce they're going in the portal.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah, it'll be arch Manning. We'll be going into the
portal at halftime of the game, like a rod opting
out of his contract in the middle of the World Series.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I was a little surprised when I heard during the
broadcast tonight there's a give to so and so. You
know he's in the portal. Wait, wait a minute, he's
playing right now.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
He's actually gotten the football and has run into the
portal like it's Avengers and Walk has opened the portal
running through that. You just disappear while he's going. He's
in the portal.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
He's like that dumb Souper movie. They're into some new
universe here.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
So seven and a half points is your early line
for Indiana and Miami? Why are we seeing Indiana Miami?
Steve Disager as the details on what the Hoosiers just
did to the Ducks and more with what's trending right now.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
They wipe the floor with him. I think that is
the correct answer. I'll take Hoosiers for two hundred. Alex. Yeah,
it's dominance, complete dominance for the number one team in
the land. Indiana fifty six twenty two over the Oregon Ducks,
and in league play, they had won at Oregon back
in October, getting ten points in the last six and
a half minutes to win by ten tonight in front of,
(31:37):
to say the least, a pro Hoosier crowd showing up
in Atlanta. This semi final goes to Indiana as Fernando Mendoza,
the Heisman Trophy winner, throws five touchdown passes. He was
seventeen of twenty for one hundred and seventy seven yards,
and yes, they are favorites for the National Title game
against Miami in Miami on Monday the nineteenth to the
(31:58):
NBA Phoenix held on for victory over the nixt tonight,
one twelve to one oh seven, thirty one points for
Devin Booker, twenty seven for Dylan Brooks, twenty seven for
Jalen Brunson, in the defeat, So we have three late
games in progress. In the NBA halftime in La Bucks
leading the Lakers sixty one fifty two, mid third quarter,
(32:21):
Rockets only a head at Portland seventy two to seventy,
and their late third quarter at Golden State Warriors are
only leading Sacramento eighty six eighty four. Earlier, OKC was
down twenty one and still won its game at Memphis
one seventeen, one sixteen, and shay Killjus Alexander did not
play due to a sprained ankle, and still Okase goes
to thirty two and seven wins on the road for
(32:44):
the Clippers in Atlanta, for New Orleans and Philadelphia. Boston
won at home, beating Toronto one twenty five, one seventeen. RJ.
Barrett of the Raptors left with an ankle injury. Anthony
Davis of the MAVs could miss a few months if
surgery is required on his left hand. He has ligament damage.
College basketball usc was an overtime winner at Minnesota seventy
to sixty nine, just three NHL games. The late contest
(33:07):
is in the final minute at Utah, the Mammoth leading
four to two over the Blues. The Winnipeg won at
home five to one against La Washington, a five to
one winner at Chicago. Brooks Keepka applied for reinstatement to
the PGA Tour. He just left Live Golf after well,
still having one year left on his contract, wanting to
stay closer to home.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Back to you, Thank you, Steve O. The Jason Smith
Show is Steve de Sager in for Mike Harmon. Now.
We have said a lot about Indiana head coach Kurt Signetti,
who said, listen, I am happy at times, even though
I never smile. Wait till you hear what Signetti had
to say right after Indiana pasted Oregon to go to
(33:48):
the National Championship. I stop not that. No, no, no,
because I know what he said. He didn't say that.
Prove it right now, he didn't say. He didn't say
prove it. Wait wait, will you hear what he had
to say? You're gonna hear it next right here. Jason Smith,
Steve Desager, this is Fox Sports Radio. Explain it to me.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with special delivery
Steve de Saga in for Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
That is not John Cena.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
We just watched Indiana put a clinic on against Oregon.
Indiana played great, Oregon did not fifty six twenty two.
So now Indiana and Miami into the National Championship game
on the nineteenth. And look, there's a lot of great
things and some we're gonna make a big, bold prediction, built, big,
big hot take coming up in about ten minutes on
(34:53):
Indiana after winning this game tonight. But so much attention
on Kurt Signetti in the job he's done. Is Indiana's
head coach, and look getting the contract extension in just
in two years. They have a dynasty in Indiana. It's insane.
And he had a big comment yesterday, Steve on the
day before the game where he said, look, you know
I'm happy at times. You know, he's never happy on
(35:15):
the sideline. He's always upset. I think I think it
was performance art in the fourth quarter, like that he's
scowling and mad and yelling after they block a punt
when they're up forty two thirteen. They have the ball
in the red zone, like, okay, you don't need to
be scouted. You don't need to be smiling and suddenly
going crazy. You don't need to dance around the field
like you're Robert Sola after a sack. But I mean,
(35:36):
come on, man, let's let's a little bit. You don't
need to be sitting there going okay. So I think
a little bit of performance art.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
But there were times today where it seemed like a
smile was coming in to the face, and the way
he erased it was with not quite scowl, but kind
of a skew. Let's say the lips were going askew
to one side, like a somewhat disappointed look. And that's
how he rid himself of the thoughts of a smile
(36:03):
during a game.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Do you think he had like a there was a
like he had an ear piece in where someone was
telling it to Hey, cameras on your cameras, right, can't
smart smile, gotta look mad, gotta look bad, gotta be
always coaching, always coaching, always go ebc always be coaching.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
There is no very good. There is no smirking at
what Mendoza has done in these two playoff games for Indiana.
Because he still has more touchdown passes than incompletions thrown
in two playoff games combined eight tds, including the five
tonight five incompletions total in playing Alabama and Oregon.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
So you would think, Okay, kurtz Signetti's gonna show up
and give his postgame press conversation. Well, there's some things
we gotta work on. Yeah, yeah, a game he play
almost bro, things got to work out. We got a
really tough game coming up. However, we did not get
that from Kurt Signetty. We got what is going to
be a SoundBite. I'm sure we play on this show
for the next year plus. Tight Shirt's gonna hear it.
(37:02):
He's gonna love it. This is Signetti off the field
doing an interview with ESPN. He's asked about thinking about
Miami the National Championship, and this is Kurt Signetti's response,
this game, I'm really not thinking about the next game.
I'm thinking about cracking open the beer.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Family.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Congrats, enjoy that beer, coach. I mean, what do you
say after that? That's great, coach, But one more question.
I just said, I want to go get a beer
because we just won the semi final. We're going to play.
I'm going to get a beer right now. Don't ask
me any more questions.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
So he's in the heartland of America. He never wears
the blue collar, but this is gonna make him even
more beloved to the fan base.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Oh yeah, that's so on brand for Kurt Signetti. Yeah,
we just won. I'm gonna go have a beer and
then I'm gonna get mad at my team and find
a way to motivate them to go play against Miami.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
And once he turns eighty years old, he'll become the
Colts coach and he'll stay in state. I can see
how all of this is going.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I don't know, or does he win the national title
and then get the job right away, like if he wins,
if he if he if he beats Miami, does suddenly
the Colts go, hey, yeah, look look Shanstein, I'm been great. Yeah,
now you're gone.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
I think he's gonna wait until Philip Rivers turned sixty
and then at back as he joins the Colts and staces.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Kind of like his quarterback offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
He could do both, actually literally do both. He could
call his own plays. We could go old school NFL
on that, sure.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
But I dig I'm thinking about cracking open a beer
like like like, there's somebody in the locker room whose
job it is, and if we win this game, you
have a beer ready for coach when he comes out. Okay,
you just you open it and you hand it to him.
And it's not gonna be like Luca, where someone's gonna
come take it away from him. No. No, you hand
him that beer and you give that beer to coach.
(38:52):
You give him five minutes to enjoy this game.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Or this game was so lopsided he actually had time
on the sidelines during the game to think about such thing.
It was forty two to seven in the third quarter.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
We blocked that putt hey go grab me that course light.
It's just go into the into the locker room. It's
hit under the gator reader. Yeah, it's my at the
bottom right there. Just pull it out, Just bring it
out to me. Okay. Yeah, but yet put it in
the koozy, so nobody knows, all right, so nobody could tell.
Let's don't know.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
If you saw the sixty minutes interview with Signetti and
about the Indiana program in general, and they even got
Mellencamp in there, and it was just it was if
you are a neutral fan of the sport of football,
and even not necessarily the Big Ten or college football,
it was attractive. It's such a good story, and it's
getting better by the round, and it's not hyperbole when
(39:43):
these network guys can continually say this is the greatest
college football story of my lifetime.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's so unlikely, it's I mean,
I think everybody needs a beer after that. I need
a beer after what we're gonna say about Indiana coming
up next. I'm gonna need a beer and I get
two with undefeated. Still, I mean, you're already seeing I'm
seeing trend on Twitter twenty twenty, Alabama twenty nineteen, LSU.
You know, two of the best college football teams individually
(40:11):
the last you know, a couple of decades in Miami.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yet about what two thousand and three or two or
four or somewhere down there, they had a phenomenal roster.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I mean, this is this is incredible. This is the
level of football we're talking about Indiana at. So yeah,
I can see where Kurt Signetti needs a beer. I
can see where that happens right there. Exit out about
a Frescas Jason Smith, Steve de Sager, and at Fox
Sports Radio Again, don't forget. Our best of podcasts goes
right after the show is over. Download rate us, Subscribe,
(40:40):
We'll love you forever and ever and ever. Wherever you
get your podcasts from, just search our names, Jason Smith
and Mike Harmon. It will come up. You'll get that
Kurtz Signetti audio about cracking Oprah a beer. But coming
up next. You want a big hot take about what
we've seen so far this season in college football, you
got it. Piping hot on a Friday Fox, It sucked.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
Popular Podcasts
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.
iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.