January 1, 2021 • 37 mins
It's The Odd Couple with Rob Parker and Aaron Torres filling in for Chris Broussard. Rob and Arron react live to Alabama beating Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl. Former NFL DB Marcus Cromartie helps preview the final week of the regular season and Dabo Swinney might regret ranking Ohio State out of the top 10.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Odd Couple podcast. Be sure
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(00:25):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Yo, Welcome in to
The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio. It is January first,
and a happy new Year to everybody. Yes, indeed, Rob
(00:48):
Parker and Aaron Torres in for mister Chris Broussard. It
is a funky flashback Friday, and so much to do,
so little time. Aaron Torres, Happy New Year, my brother,
Rob Parker, Happy New Year, my man. I was driving
(01:08):
around all week. Kurgion, Dan Patrick, Kurgion, the Odd Couple.
I know you've been busy, but it's a pleasure to
be joining you, and obviously a privilege and a pleasure
to be joining you this afternoon. Always. You know, I
love having you one. Aaron, of course, works with Arnie
Spanier here on Fox Sports Radio. He covers college basketball
(01:29):
and football and you know all the other stuff in between.
So yeah, we'll have a good show. It's great to
have you on, especially with the big college football games
going on today as we try to pick another champion
or a crown another champion, even though it's the usual suspects.
But we will get to that, but first, let's welcome
(01:51):
in the Odd Couple crew, and you're you're right. I
was filling in for Dan Patrick and all these other shows,
and today will conclude ten shows in the last five days.
It has been a whirlwind and I'm gonna tell you
enjoyed all of it. Great different host to work with
(02:12):
Jonas Knox locally on AM five seventy LA Sports that
was fun. Filled in for Rogan and Rodney did some
damn patricks and of course the Odd Couple has been
rolling strong despite the elitist Chris Bussard with two weeks
off here at the end of the year. Yeah, I
can call him that fan dude. I'll tell you, like
(02:34):
I said, every single time I got in the car,
I heard you. I heard you with Bernie Frado heard you.
I don't even know with everybody, but I am glad
you are the cal Ripken of sports talk radio by
man and uh yeah, just a pleasure to be with
you today and so as Robert, I will get into
momentarily my New Years and everything, but we should keep
(02:57):
everybody updated on the football game. Alabama, as you alluded
to a minute ago, Rob, rolling past us Notre Dame
thirty one to seven Kurmson Tide looking like exactly like
we thought they would. They are completely dominating the Irish
four hundred twenty seven yards only two hundred eighty twenty
yards for Notre Dame. And I think it's gonna set
up largely what we're gonna talk about for the next
(03:18):
couple hours is what is going on with college football.
And you know, I'm a college football guy. I love
college football. I love this sport. But we are at
this weird point where it's every single year Alabama, Clemson,
sometimes Ohio State is in the mix, and after that
it's just a huge gap, and it's it's it's a
fascinating thing to discuss on a daylight today where Alabama's
(03:40):
absolutely steamrolling Notre Dame again, and in a lot of ways,
I'll be honest, Rob, I feel bad for Notre Dame.
I mean, Notre Dame is a school that I don't
think the average person understands that they are in a
unique situation. It's a small school, it's a Catholic school.
They can't be it's academically they can't recruit a lot
(04:00):
of the same people that in Alabama and Ohio State,
a Clemson due and so it's just a very weird
situation at Notre Dame where they're competing in this sport
with these schools that basically, I don't want to say
it's an uneven playing field, but it is totally bizarre.
But I bring all this up just to say that
as we look at Notre Dame thirty one to seven, again,
(04:20):
Alabama has the ball and they're driving with about eight
minutes left in this game, it's just fascinating to think
about how we got to this point where Notre Dame
can get to a playoff as the fourth best team
in college football and it's not even competitive. And oh,
by the way, you start talking about the evening game
with Ohio State in Clemson. I just saw a tweet
(04:40):
out on social media that seventy six percent of all
bets are coming in on Clemson. And so we are
just at a fascinating point in college football with this
sport as a whole, where every single year, Alabama, Clemson
to a degree, Ohio State is in that mix. Rop
so go ahead. I think is bad. I just I
(05:02):
don't get me wrong. We love like dynasties and great
teams or whatever. Like you know, some teams can have
a run and you look at them and you're impressed
by it or whatever. But but where we are now,
exactly this is my issue is for a team not
to even be competitive in a in a playoff game, right,
(05:22):
that's the problem. It's not that Alabama is winning again
or Clempton's gonna win again or whatever it is. It's
that there's no competition. That that's the whole nature of sports. Right,
where's the upset? Why can't Notre Dame come in nineteen
twenty point underdogs and and play the game of their lives? Right?
(05:45):
It has happened before, but we don't have that anymore.
And I don't know how if you're even if you're
a big college football fan, how does it feel good? Aaron?
Why would you want to watch this? I mean, at
the Alabama scoring its first three possessions, all right, I'm
ready to click around. Is there a Honeymooner's Marathon or
(06:06):
Golden Girls Marathon on that I can watch. I mean,
is that where we are with a game is not
even well, not even competitive from Jump Street well. And
it's really funny because you know, obviously as part of
just having been around college football for years, I go
on all these local shows in Tuscaloosa and College Station,
which is where Texas A and M is, Knoxville, Tennessee, wherever.
(06:29):
And it's just really funny because you go on in
Alabama and I'm not kidding Rob the in September, it's
a conversation about, you know, how do we match up
with Clemson? How do we match up? It's not about
LSU or ten or Tennessee or Texas A and M
or the SEC. It's who it's those two or three
teams at the end of the season, and then you
(06:49):
go out in Knoxville and it's just misery because you
can't figure out a way to get to Alabama's level.
And so to your point, I think it's really hurt
the sport. I don't know how we get another two
or three teams to Alabama and Clemson's level, because I'm
with you, it's hard to defend this sport when it's
the same two teams every single year. Yeah, and it
doesn't mean that those schools aren't great, sure, but that's
(07:10):
just not It becomes the Harlem Globe Trotter is against
the Washington Generals. That's what we're watching today. And you
might think it's too harsh to call Notre dame the
Washington Generals. But when they play the big boys in
the big moments, they don't they don't perform, they don't
play well. But and it was never like that. I
(07:32):
can remember college football where there were other schools that
were in the mix and and and it was it
wasn't this one sided for a couple of schools and
then yeah, you know you have your LSU or oh
you know, they always keep Ohio State in the mix.
I think Ohio States always in the mix, not only
because they're a good program. They want the big ten involved,
you know what I mean, like like they don't want
(07:54):
it to be totally where where you turn off or
alien eate uh, the PAC twelves not involved that they
don't even they just pooh pooh a PAC twelve am
all right like that it doesn't matter, no, one hundred percent.
And I really think and it's funny and I want
your just opinion on this, but um, you know, as
a guy who lived in Michigan, I know you've been
critical of Jim Harbaugh, as you should be, as we
(08:16):
all should be. But it's like, how can Michigan not
at any point in fifteen years put a team on
the field that can compete with with Ohio State? How
can LSU had last year but mostly for the last
fifteen to twenty years not compete with Alabama. I think
it's a bad thing. And you know what scary rob
(08:36):
is if you follow the recruiting rankings, it's only going
to stay this way because now we're six, seven years
whatever it is, into this playoff and kids say, I
want not only is Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State gonna get
me to the NFL. They're gonna get me in those
big games that matter. And now the recruiting gap is
getting even bigger. And that's what the scary party is
(08:57):
going forward. Now you're right, it's a it's a bad side.
Nobody wants to go to a Michigan or some other
school and try to make their own markets, Like where
is the factory I want to be on in the
big games? I can get a ring, right, I'll go
there everybody, people from all over going to to h
Alabama or Clemson and just saying, oh, yeah, this is
(09:19):
where we'll go. And they're three deep in every position
and you know what I mean, Like I was just
I'll give you a good example that that backup quarterback
that came in for Clemson the first game against Notre
Dame DJ. I believe it's Uey Lagan La La, I'm
not Kazoomtity. Well, guess where he's from, Rob, He's from
southern California. This is what I'm saying. Yes, this is
(09:42):
what I'm I mean, kids from southern California are going
to the South to play football and play for these
schools and they don't want to, you know, turn USC
around or UCLA or anything like that. It's amazing. And
the same Michigan for all of its failures as a
(10:04):
perennial and I get it, they one more game than
any other college football program and all that other nonsense,
but they've got basically one national championship since the Louisiana purchase.
I mean, that's how long it's been. And Jim Harball
came here, came to Michigan to fix it, and he
can't even beat Ohio State. He's been burned by Michigan State,
(10:25):
and uh, you know his his rivals. They have him
gone to the to the college football Playoffs. I mean,
it's embarrassing. Yet that school has so many guys who
have gone to the NFL, right, Michigan, Yeah, no, one
hundred percent. And I don't know how it gets fixed because,
like I said, if you follow the recruiting rankings, it's Alabama, Clemson,
(10:46):
Ohio State at the top every single season. And so
it's unfortunate. But I'm with you, and I'll ask you.
You know, I know you and Chris primarily you don't
talk a ton of college football on this show. And
also you gotta get my background growing up in New
York City. Yeah, there's no college football. Okay, there's no
college football, which is incredible when you think about it.
(11:07):
So I grew up with no college football. I watched
the big games as a kid, you know what I mean,
I did, but we didn't have I mean, West Point
was probably west Point. Syracuse is a million miles away
from New York City, so Syracuse wasn't your college football team.
I used to cover West Point when I was a
sportswriter at the Daily News, yep, when I first started out.
(11:29):
So I used to drive up there and cover games
on Saturdays during college football season. But no, for the
most part, you know what I mean, I grew up
without college football. Well, and that's what I was going
to ask, is I know there's so much NFL to
cover over the course of a week. But you're a
sports fan. I've watched games with you, I've hung out
with you. I know that you just you love sports.
That's why we all do this. But I was going
(11:50):
to ask you, as somebody who didn't grow up around
college football, I'm guessing that the dominance of one to
two to three teams doesn't what's the word. It doesn't
encourage you to to to carve out time on a
Saturday to make time for this sport when at the
end of the season we know who the same two
or three teams are going to be. That's where I'm
at and I used to go on some saturdays. You know, me,
(12:12):
Aaron love the Chicken Wings. I could go to sports bar,
hang out, you know, watch a good game, see something.
But it has become very predictable. I'm curious as to
see from our listeners how many people are you still
that engaged? And we've seen the ratings. I know it's
down for just about everybody, but we've also seen the
(12:33):
attendance go down to college football. I think it was
two years ago and it dropped like the lowest point
in twenty four years or something, you know, across the
board where where normally college football people are into it
because they're invested the schools in their community or or
they went there, you know what I mean. It's different
(12:53):
from prohe where people are more invested in college because
as their team that they grew up with. But I'm
curious to see how many people are enjoying this? Are
they tired of it? Where are you? Did you turn
have you turned back? Are you flipping? Are you glued in?
(13:16):
I just I don't know, all right? Eight seven seven
ninety nine on Fox is our telephone number? Eight seven
seven nine nine six sixty three sixty nine. Can you
still watch Predictable Games? Is college? Is the college football
playoffs tainted? This year? We want to hear from you.
It is the odd couple on New Year's Day. That's right,
(13:39):
Listen to my mic. We're live Rob Parker, Aaron Torrez
right here on Fox Sports Radio, and we're all in
this fight against COVID nineteen and Ford Motor Company is
doing its part by manufacturing and donating one hundred million
mask to underserved communities, and Ford encourages everyone to join
(14:02):
the effort. We are so close to winning this fight,
and these next week's are crucial. Let's hold the line,
continue to social distance, wear masks, look out for each
other so we can get back to where we were.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Chris Brussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm
(14:24):
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app. Now, this is a funky flashback Friday. My goodness, gracious,
it is The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio here on
January first, twenty twenty one. Yes, Happy New Year's Day
to everyone. Rob Parker and Aaron Torres in for Chris Brussard.
(14:49):
I'll telephone number eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox.
And I don't know, Aaron. I mean, it's still thirty
one seven Alabama. If your lost Vegas. Why don't they
just pull these games off the board. It must beginning
and taking a bath. I'm serious. If I was in
Las Vegas and running one of the sports books, it's
(15:10):
either you know, a team getting fifty points or no
bet at all, right, because everybody's winning. The real gamblers,
don't they win all the time. One of these college,
big college games. Well, it's unbelievable because all week long
and we were I've talked to Bernie Fratto, the Vegas Insider,
I haven't heard anyone really make the compelling case that
(15:32):
Notre Dame could even keep it close. And it was
a three touchdown spread. So it's unbelievable. But yeah, I
will have to ask Lamar Miller that an hour three
because Lamar Mitchell, I'm sorry because Lamar Miller's I think
of running back. Uh, but yeah, because it's just it's
unbelievable that all week long, No, but everyone said Notre
Dame doesn't have a chance, and sure enough, here we are, right,
(15:54):
That's what I'm saying. It's all right, let's see if
sports fans are still into the college football playoffs because
we already know what's gonna happen. It's so predictable. Let's
hear from you. Eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox
and Aaron. I know you got people chiming to get in. Absolutely,
Sean and Texas, you're on the odd couple. Aaron Torres
filling in for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker. What do
(16:15):
you got, Sean? Hey? What's up you guys? Hey? Happy
New Year. So I love college football. I'm a big Wisconsin,
Wisconsin Badger fan. I grew up in Wisconsin, and it's
just like it's crazy to see that, like fraysing Notre
Dame has no business being there. I texted a friend
of mine when I first saw this spread. I was like, dude,
(16:36):
how do I knap at all of my money I
have on this? Because I'm gonna win it? I know,
that's That's exactly what I'm talking about. What would stop
somebody from going into their savings and putting five thousand
dollars down on Alabama. It's really like the only reason
to not do it is that you just don't trust
sports betting because otherwise, like, I mean, come on it,
Notre Dame has no business being there, and it's it's
(16:58):
weird because it's like, well, what do you do to
fix this? What do you do to fix this? Because
like Wisconsin. Strength like comes from the fact that people
take a lot of pride in being a big, badger Lyneman,
You're gonna run everybody over. What does USC have? What
do you UCLA have the perennial of powers? Like? Did
they even have an identity to bring in big recruit? No,
that's the problem, and and and and Aaron brought it
(17:20):
up earlier about the what was that the quarterback from Clemson? Yeah,
the Clemson, the backup California. Correct, and actually the second
best quarterback in high school football last year was committed
to USC. Guess where he ended up, Rob, Alabama. And
he's from southern California. So there's another one. Dude, there's
the issue. It There is the problem, all right. Eight seven,
(17:41):
seven ninety nine off Fox, Andrew and Tennessee. You're on
The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio, Aaron Towres filling in
for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker. What do you got Andrew?
What's up? Guys? Man? Rob? I love the show. Happy
New Year, Happy yeah, and um we're rolling man, rolling
into the new year. And I'm excited. Thanks for all
(18:02):
the support for the Odd Couple for real, all Right,
As a big Tennessee fan. I've been a Tennessee fam
my whole life. You know, it makes me sick to
see Alabama as good as they are because they've just
been handing it to us for fourteen years in a row.
But I don't have no interest whatsoever watching Alabama Notre
Dame play. I've seen a video online of a lady,
(18:22):
a Notre Dame fan, cryme once they you found out
that they had to play Alabama because the recruiting gap
is so bad. Alabama could have twenty guys get drafted
in the first round this year and it's gonna be
the next twenty five star recruits up and they won't
miss a beat. They never miss a beat, no matter
who leaves day, it just the next man up. And
(18:43):
they produced the same numbers or better every year. And
I don't know how teams like Tennessee can close the gap.
I hope they can figure it out. I don't know
if they're gonna fire through it or not, but we
got to figure something out because the gap in college
football is just unreal because Plans and Alabama and Ohio
(19:03):
State they're just on a different level and nobody seems
to be able to catch them, no doubt. Thanks for
the call, appreciate it. And Aaron, this is why you
don't bet five thousand dollars become us. Notre Dame scores
a touchdown with less than a minute ago, and now
it's a seventeen point right, Oh that's right. Yeah. So
so they just crushed a lot of people. A lot
(19:25):
of people just got crushed unless Alabama somehow runs the
ball back on the kick on the kickoff. Can you
imagine that? I mean you would be if you had
a big bet on this, you would die. I would
kill you. Yes, well, and this is why. And I'm
telling you this is why it's so funny. I always
have buddies text me kind of what our caller just
said a minute ago is well, bro, I gotta take Bamma, right,
(19:47):
I gotta take Bamma right. And I'm not saying don't
take Bama. But when literally every single analyst, person whoever
can't even make the argument for Notre Dame to keep
it competitive, I was just like, you know, I'm just
gonna stay away because it feels too obvious. And sure enough,
Vegas just cast a lot of tickets right now, how many?
How many? I love it? Just set's just got kicked in.
(20:09):
So there. I was gonna say, there's a lot of
crumpled up tickets at all the sports books across Vegas
right now, sad all right? Eight seven, seven ninety nine.
On Fox, Brandon in Dallas, you're on the odd Couple
Aaron Torres filling in for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker.
How are you, Brandon, Happy New Year? Happy New Year.
How are you guys doing tonight? Man doing great? Man
(20:30):
love the show is always having a great time all week.
Thanks for holding it down last night, man, I appreciate it. Yeah,
you know, we're gonna keep it rolling. I'm not gonna
take any time or for a while, and we'll just
be I'll be here. I'll be here until I'm taking
some big trip. Unless I'm going on a really big trip,
I'll be here. Hey, We're here for it. Man, appreciate it.
(20:52):
But about college football, man, it has gotten very It's
gotten so regional. You know, it's gotten very regional. Unless
you're from the southeast, you know, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana a
little bit, or if you're over there from Ohio. You know,
you're just not interested in this. This is gonna be
the fourth year in a row that's gonna be Clemson
and Alabama. And I'll be honest with you, guys, if
it wasn't for Draft Kings, I wouldn't be watching this
(21:13):
game right now. See are you winning in Draft Kings
or not? With the score, with the late score, what well,
I got a couple of bucks coming in. But my
bigger guys were playing tonight, So so Trevor Lawrence is
gonna do great for me. I'm sure I'll win a
few shekels. Okay, there you go. We need some shekels one,
no doubt about it. Speaking of shekels, I put a
(21:34):
hundred shekels on the Wizards to finally win. The spread
was minus one against the Timberwolves, who are awful, and
the Wizards haven't won a game. So keep me in mind. Okay,
I need some shekels. Listen eight seven seven ninety nine
on Fox John in La. You're on the odd couple
Aaron Torres filling in for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker.
Happy New Year, John, How are you hey? Yep? New
(21:56):
year guys, Thanks for taking the call. Absolutely, I totally agree, man,
this is uh it sucks, man, watching the college football.
I'm a huge SC fan, and yeah, we haven't won
in quite some time. And that's okay. My brother's a
huge Notre Dame fan. Well maybe not no more. I mean, dude,
(22:17):
this is this is brutal. Notre Dame hasn't won anythings?
Is nineteen eighty eight? I mean really, I'll give you
one for SC. Lynndale White, Reggie Bush. Remember that they
were all long ago that used to be. Now yeah,
you know now it's like, well everyone like some of
the previous college are saying, you know that that quarterback
(22:39):
he moved to Georgia because there's no high school football
here in southern California, so he was slated to go
to SC and he said, no, I'm gonna go play
football in the South. So you know, it's it's it's
hard to watch, you know, because you see all the
all the Pac twelve teams. Look what happened to SC.
There were five and oh they were saying, you know,
they probably couldn't they probably shouldn't have been five and
(23:02):
l right, but they wait and lost. They went and
lost the Oregan But you know that's every day. I mean,
you could slide in one of these taxwelf teams and
someone's gonna upset somebody, and that's the exciting part. But
when you watch a pro football team like Alabama come
in and just roll everyone through, it's like, all right, no,
no doubt, appreciate, thank you. Oh really, what do you
(23:28):
say about Tom Brady? It's like watching Tom Brady not
against good teams. Oh, I'm sorry, that's another conversation. It
is you got anytime you go off on Tom Brady
if you want, I know you must have something. So
oh yeah, we got a topic we definitely could talk about. Okay,
you want to take one more. We gotta get to
sn squeeze it in man, man, well, thirty seconds, you're
on the odd. You're on the odd couple. Fox Sports
(23:50):
radio Errant Tour is filling in for Chris Brussard alongside
Rob Parker. Hey, love y'all, you gotta do it, an Stan,
you're all years. Thank you, my man, thank you, and
h Rob you know I love you, baby, No, no,
no doubt. It's systematic, bro, It's the elephant in the room.
It's the concussion issue, and we're seeing that first hand
(24:12):
in California. Unfortunately, no youngsters want to play well or
a minimal the mouth, keep up the good works. Let's
love you guys. Happy New Year, Happy new year, Thank
you man. Well, no doubt about it. That's another issue
as well. We know enrollment and to football has gone down, Aaron,
with all the stuff going on. All right, it is
the Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio on your New
(24:33):
Year's Day, Rob Parker and Aaron Torres in for Chris Broussard.
We appreciate you being along. Uh here as we start
twenty twenty one on the Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio.
And now let's welcome in Marcus Cromarty, a former NFL dB.
He joined us here on the Odd Couple. What's happening
in Marcus? Happy new year? What's going on? Rou Happy
(24:55):
new year? Man? What's going on here? It's going on?
Mar guess man, All good man, let's just get right
to it. We just heard Steve de Saga talk about
Alvin Kamara testing positive for Corona and where this is
and this was the elephant in the room and the
scary part that you go into the NFL playoffs if
you miss a guy like this or somebody, a big star,
(25:16):
a quarterback test positive for coronavirus. I mean this could
wreck the same season, couldn't it. Well, Roger Goodell has
to do the right thing. I think. You know, you
look towards the NBA and you see how they handled
all this. You gotta let your big time players playing
these playoff games. You know, I've seen you spoke on
the earliest he can return to Jane Ward tenth. Well,
then you can. You gotta schedule that game for Jane
(25:38):
ware tenth. I think they'll be doing the same, So
huge this service if you schedule on Jane Ward ninth
on that Saturday playoff game, Marcus, help. Frustrated are guys
in the league. I'm sure you still have plenty of
friends that are playing with just the inconsistency with you know,
some teams have to miss games. Some teams get there,
excuse me. Some teams just have to play without guys.
Some teams get their games moved. It feels like everything
(26:00):
area is a little bit different. And it could cost
the Browns a playoff spot because of their loss. It
could cost the Dolphins they won't have Fitzpatrick available this weekend.
How frustrated are guys in these locker rooms? Well, not
just playoffs spots. You know, you're costing guys contracts. Baker
Mayfield's playing for a contract. You know, not having his
receivers and not making the playoffs this year would hurt
that tremendously. Coaches are playing for their jobs and so
(26:21):
or they're coaching for their jobs, So not having these
players available, it's just terrible all around. You know, you're
doing what you can, but at the end of the day,
I think, you know, you almost got to get the
season of ashtrad. Yeah, what about Washington the Washington football team,
Alex Smith taking snaps with the first team. Looks like
he's going to be They got him listed as questionable
(26:43):
against the Eagles. But the Eagles aren't playing, aren't going
to play some of their starters, and Pittsburgh's not playing
Ben Roethlisberger. They're gonna rust some people. Is the integrity
kind of fudged here? I mean, with so many ramifications
for so many teams. There's five teams vying for four
spots in the AFC, and then you know Washington and
(27:07):
Dallas and the Giants are all in the mix. Guys
not playing? Is that fair or is there's nowhere around it?
And that's basically, you know, blame the team for looking
for help from other people instead of taking care of
business themselves. Well, it's a little bit of both. I
think that's kind of gone on for the majority of
the past seasons. I think only having one team as
(27:27):
a buy the seed in the implications you would have
thought would have kind of eliminated this entire you know,
sitting players down on Week seventeen, but it seems that
it hasn't. So, you know, it's not fair to the
equals are sitting the players in the Washington almost you know,
it's kind of getting push to the playoffs, but that's
why you have to win games in the beginning of
the season. The games in the beginning season are I'm
not gonna feel bad for a team that's seventy nine
(27:50):
not making the playoffs. And I was gonna say, kind
of in the same vein with the Pittsburgh Steelers, do
you think and I've been arguing with my partner in
my normal sought Arny Spaniard about this all week, but
basically that Pittsburgh basically says, we don't mind losing this game,
we just need to buy. But also I think the
factor is that Buffalo. Yes, they'll potentially have some fans
for a later playoff game, But is it also part
(28:12):
of it? Maybe teams are more willing to rest guys
because of the fact that there isn't a true home
field advantage this year in the playoffs. Well, you make
a good point, are I guess they're adding the bye week?
You know, instead of having a bye week there would
essentially have w there was a number two. See, they
just sit in their players week seventeen. It kind of
works the same. You know. Mike Tomlin is always going
to do a great job of getting his players prepare,
(28:33):
and this is just another another way he's implemented a
way to kind of get ahead of the curve. Our
guess is Marcus Cromarty, former NFL dB here on the
Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio. Marcus, last thing here,
We got about a minute or so to go Kyler Murray.
Obviously they gotta go and beat the Rams in order
(28:53):
to get into the playoffs. But what happened? Remember the
Hail Murray throw? He beats the ball, Fellow Bills. Everybody's
going crazy about Kyler Murray and did look like he
was on his way, And then all of a sudden,
they stumbled after that. Even Cliff Kingsbury, their coach, went
crazy talking about after that big game. He was like, wow,
(29:15):
they need to start alternating the MVPs between Kyler Murray
and Patrick Mahomes over the next few years. I mean,
it was like crazy, but it looked like the league
kind of figured him out and have stymied him. He
had struggled more so than not. Well that just first
of all, that goes and shows you they play in
one of the toughest divisions in football, and I know
(29:36):
there's no excuse, but when you got to face Seattle
and you face San Franz defense, you know they're not
getting any handouts. What I would say about Kylin Murrays
that we were crowning him a little too early. You know,
you got to play this game weekend and week out,
and there's no easy there's no easy weeks, you know.
I know, Rob, you know you'd like to say what
you say about Tom Brady, but hey, Tom's been doing
(29:57):
it for years, man. And so to get to that point,
Tom at least has the video equipment, and uh, you know,
besides the video equipment and having quote quote coach, he
has to got to play the game, Rob, and I
know Kylin Murray, he's gonna get that experience. You know,
you only get better playing, So he's gonna get better.
(30:18):
He needs to figure out how to use his height
to his advantage as Russell did. And you know, you know,
staying low or you know, being able to get out
of tough situations, because that's gonna that's gonna be a
part of his game for the rest of his career.
So he's gonna have to adjust to the NFL game
the same way Josh Allen has made his height his
strength and his big arm strength, and so you know,
(30:39):
college got a lot of figuring out to do. But
I think he's gonna be a good player moving forward.
All right. His name is Marcus Cromarty, Man, good stuff.
Will appreciate you. Happy new year. We'll have you on again,
all right, my man. All right, thanks Rob, appreciate it. Man,
a happy new year and wish you and your loved
one is a blessed one. Man, have a good one.
You appreciate it, no doubt about it. Marcus Cromarti chairman
(31:01):
in week seventeen, which will be interested all right? Coming
up next on the Odd couple. Rob Parker Aaron Torres
in for Chris Broussard here on Fox Sports Radio. Did
Dabbo Sweeney set himself up a little bit? We'll tell
you what we're talking about as that the game is
Clemson Ohio State is coming up soon, so we'll talk
(31:22):
about that and much more. It is the odd couple
Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio
app search f SR to listen live. It's tricky betting
on the college football playoffs. It is the odd couple
(31:44):
Fox Sports Radio. Rob Parker Aaron Torres in for Chris
Boussard on his Funky Flashback Friday. Aaron, you would be
sick with a minute to go, am I right, especially
the way that Alabama started the game scoring in his
first three possession, and you would think, oh, this is
gonna be a cake walk, and instead they don't cover
(32:06):
one hundred percent. And not only do they not cover,
they you know, notre Dame scores with fifty six seconds left.
I think it wasn't a competitive game. Alabama was easily
three scores better than Notre Dame. I would be frustrated.
This is also why I stayed away because when everyone
says that there's only gonna be one result, weird stuff happens.
(32:27):
That's how they build these casinos in Vegas, which a
spot that you and I like to go to very often, Robs.
So I'm heading there for my birthday. Man, I can't wait.
That's a couple of days. You know what's crazy. I
know we gotta get to Dabbo, But I was just
thinking that weekend because I was out there last year.
It was the divisional weekend. You and I hung out,
and it was almost exactly a year ago. So I
(32:47):
do know your birthday's coming up. It's unbelievable. January tenth, unbelievable.
I'm not gonna tell you how old them would be,
but it's incredible. I'm looking forward to, you know, going
out to Vegas to hang out for a little bit.
But Dabbo Sweeney, here's the thing. Clemsing's coach in the
Coach's Poll, Aaron, you know, put Ohio State as the
eleventh best team in the country. So my only question
(33:09):
is if somehow, some way Ohio State wins this game
coming up soon this playoff game. If I was a
reporter in the press conference, and you know I've been
known to asking some provocative questions in my career, I
would have I would definitely say to him, so if
(33:30):
what if Ohio State was the eleventh best team in
the country, are you guys number twelve? Now? Because that's
what I have a feeling if they lose. There's a
column on dead Spend coming Monday morning, already know it.
It's half written, but you know my point is like
to do that? What was he thinking? Like we know
about bulletin board material. What was this because he wanted
(33:53):
them out of the way for an easier path to
the championship? Or is this legit because they didn't play
as me games? It's COVID. We know what's going on?
Are and I mean they had no choice. What was
going on? Michigan canceled a game and I can't remember
the other game that got canceled, but it had nothing
to do with Ohio State. Is did he have a point? Yea?
(34:13):
I you know, when he was asked the second, third,
fourth time, he paraphrase, listen, I didn't vote anybody that
played fewer than X number of games in the top ten.
They were clearly the best team. Blah blah blah, blah blah.
I am with you one hundred percent though in that
I just don't think it's listened. Yes, Ohio State is
probably not on the level of Clemson this particular season.
(34:34):
They lost a lot of guys to the NFL, Chase Young,
who's playing well for Washington, etc. I just don't like
the idea. I mean, Ohio State's a really good football team.
Justin Fields is gonna be a top five pike at quarterback.
I just don't believe you need to be giving them
extra motivation. I do give Dabbo I Guess a little
bit of credit for sticking with his guns and saying
(34:55):
what he truly believes. I just don't like the idea
of giving a team this good, actual bulletin board material.
As I said, I'm with you, it makes no sense.
I don't see how you gain from this. We all
know Ohio State, no matter how many games it played,
deserves to be in the mix. Right They're one of
the best four teams in the country, do we Is
(35:15):
there really an argument or a debate about that talent wise, No,
there isn't. It's just a matter of did they deserve
to get in playing essentially half the games of some
other teams, right, But it's not based on talent or
whether or not they belong And I think that's why
I just stay away from it. If this was a
regular year, then I think he would have an argument
if they only played somehow six games. But in the
(35:37):
COVID year, I just I'm hoping Ohio State upsets Clemson.
And am I a bad person for that? No, not
at all. And I think it's absolutely in the realm
of possibility. I mean, listen, Clemson is a touchdown favorite
in Vegas. As I said earlier in the show, I
think something like eighty percent of the money has come
(35:58):
in on Clemson. We just saw what happened when all
that money came in on Alabama in the first game.
Notre Dame figures out a way to cover, and so
I think it's definitely possible. And just the fields. By
the way, there's a reason that he and that team
fought so hard for a season this year. It's because
they believe they're good enough to win a national championship.
Hasn't worked out the way they thought. They've had guys
out with COVID in previous games. Some guys are back,
(36:19):
some guys aren't, but it doesn't change the fact they're
a team that's good enough to win this game, which
is gonna lead to a heck of a column on
Dead Spend Monday morning. If that's the case, it would
it would be something if they could pull it out.
And I'm wondering when we have Lamar Mitchell from the MGM,
you know how much money, you know, like if he
could give us, what was the percentage of money that
(36:40):
went on Alabama because they might be dancing in the
streets all the bookies and the casinos, you know what
I mean really, because that's if I was betting on
that game, I would have taken Alabama minus twenty one
on nineteen or whatever it was. And it was seventeen
right the final margin. So that'll be interesting, all right.
(37:00):
Our number two of the program is coming up, and
we got week seventeen in the NFL, and there are
a few quarterbacks, man, that got a lot to prove,
and we want to hear and figure out which one
has the most to prove, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray or Tua.
So we'll talk about that and much more. It's the
(37:21):
odd couple Fox Sports Radio Rob Parker Aaron Torres, sticking
stay America
Thanks for listening to The Odd Couple podcast. Be sure
to check us out live every weekday from seven pm
to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Odd Couple
at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live
every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching f s R.
(00:25):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Yo, Welcome in to
The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio. It is January first,
and a happy new Year to everybody. Yes, indeed, Rob
(00:48):
Parker and Aaron Torres in for mister Chris Broussard. It
is a funky flashback Friday, and so much to do,
so little time. Aaron Torres, Happy New Year, my brother,
Rob Parker, Happy New Year, my man. I was driving
(01:08):
around all week. Kurgion, Dan Patrick, Kurgion, the Odd Couple.
I know you've been busy, but it's a pleasure to
be joining you, and obviously a privilege and a pleasure
to be joining you this afternoon. Always. You know, I
love having you one. Aaron, of course, works with Arnie
Spanier here on Fox Sports Radio. He covers college basketball
(01:29):
and football and you know all the other stuff in between.
So yeah, we'll have a good show. It's great to
have you on, especially with the big college football games
going on today as we try to pick another champion
or a crown another champion, even though it's the usual suspects.
But we will get to that, but first, let's welcome
(01:51):
in the Odd Couple crew, and you're you're right. I
was filling in for Dan Patrick and all these other shows,
and today will conclude ten shows in the last five days.
It has been a whirlwind and I'm gonna tell you
enjoyed all of it. Great different host to work with
(02:12):
Jonas Knox locally on AM five seventy LA Sports that
was fun. Filled in for Rogan and Rodney did some
damn patricks and of course the Odd Couple has been
rolling strong despite the elitist Chris Bussard with two weeks
off here at the end of the year. Yeah, I
can call him that fan dude. I'll tell you, like
(02:34):
I said, every single time I got in the car,
I heard you. I heard you with Bernie Frado heard you.
I don't even know with everybody, but I am glad
you are the cal Ripken of sports talk radio by
man and uh yeah, just a pleasure to be with
you today and so as Robert, I will get into
momentarily my New Years and everything, but we should keep
(02:57):
everybody updated on the football game. Alabama, as you alluded
to a minute ago, Rob, rolling past us Notre Dame
thirty one to seven Kurmson Tide looking like exactly like
we thought they would. They are completely dominating the Irish
four hundred twenty seven yards only two hundred eighty twenty
yards for Notre Dame. And I think it's gonna set
up largely what we're gonna talk about for the next
(03:18):
couple hours is what is going on with college football.
And you know, I'm a college football guy. I love
college football. I love this sport. But we are at
this weird point where it's every single year Alabama, Clemson,
sometimes Ohio State is in the mix, and after that
it's just a huge gap, and it's it's it's a
fascinating thing to discuss on a daylight today where Alabama's
(03:40):
absolutely steamrolling Notre Dame again, and in a lot of ways,
I'll be honest, Rob, I feel bad for Notre Dame.
I mean, Notre Dame is a school that I don't
think the average person understands that they are in a
unique situation. It's a small school, it's a Catholic school.
They can't be it's academically they can't recruit a lot
(04:00):
of the same people that in Alabama and Ohio State,
a Clemson due and so it's just a very weird
situation at Notre Dame where they're competing in this sport
with these schools that basically, I don't want to say
it's an uneven playing field, but it is totally bizarre.
But I bring all this up just to say that
as we look at Notre Dame thirty one to seven, again,
(04:20):
Alabama has the ball and they're driving with about eight
minutes left in this game, it's just fascinating to think
about how we got to this point where Notre Dame
can get to a playoff as the fourth best team
in college football and it's not even competitive. And oh,
by the way, you start talking about the evening game
with Ohio State in Clemson. I just saw a tweet
(04:40):
out on social media that seventy six percent of all
bets are coming in on Clemson. And so we are
just at a fascinating point in college football with this
sport as a whole, where every single year, Alabama, Clemson
to a degree, Ohio State is in that mix. Rop
so go ahead. I think is bad. I just I
(05:02):
don't get me wrong. We love like dynasties and great
teams or whatever. Like you know, some teams can have
a run and you look at them and you're impressed
by it or whatever. But but where we are now,
exactly this is my issue is for a team not
to even be competitive in a in a playoff game, right,
(05:22):
that's the problem. It's not that Alabama is winning again
or Clempton's gonna win again or whatever it is. It's
that there's no competition. That that's the whole nature of sports. Right,
where's the upset? Why can't Notre Dame come in nineteen
twenty point underdogs and and play the game of their lives? Right?
(05:45):
It has happened before, but we don't have that anymore.
And I don't know how if you're even if you're
a big college football fan, how does it feel good? Aaron?
Why would you want to watch this? I mean, at
the Alabama scoring its first three possessions, all right, I'm
ready to click around. Is there a Honeymooner's Marathon or
(06:06):
Golden Girls Marathon on that I can watch. I mean,
is that where we are with a game is not
even well, not even competitive from Jump Street well. And
it's really funny because you know, obviously as part of
just having been around college football for years, I go
on all these local shows in Tuscaloosa and College Station,
which is where Texas A and M is, Knoxville, Tennessee, wherever.
(06:29):
And it's just really funny because you go on in
Alabama and I'm not kidding Rob the in September, it's
a conversation about, you know, how do we match up
with Clemson? How do we match up? It's not about
LSU or ten or Tennessee or Texas A and M
or the SEC. It's who it's those two or three
teams at the end of the season, and then you
(06:49):
go out in Knoxville and it's just misery because you
can't figure out a way to get to Alabama's level.
And so to your point, I think it's really hurt
the sport. I don't know how we get another two
or three teams to Alabama and Clemson's level, because I'm
with you, it's hard to defend this sport when it's
the same two teams every single year. Yeah, and it
doesn't mean that those schools aren't great, sure, but that's
(07:10):
just not It becomes the Harlem Globe Trotter is against
the Washington Generals. That's what we're watching today. And you
might think it's too harsh to call Notre dame the
Washington Generals. But when they play the big boys in
the big moments, they don't they don't perform, they don't
play well. But and it was never like that. I
(07:32):
can remember college football where there were other schools that
were in the mix and and and it was it
wasn't this one sided for a couple of schools and
then yeah, you know you have your LSU or oh
you know, they always keep Ohio State in the mix.
I think Ohio States always in the mix, not only
because they're a good program. They want the big ten involved,
you know what I mean, like like they don't want
(07:54):
it to be totally where where you turn off or
alien eate uh, the PAC twelves not involved that they
don't even they just pooh pooh a PAC twelve am
all right like that it doesn't matter, no, one hundred percent.
And I really think and it's funny and I want
your just opinion on this, but um, you know, as
a guy who lived in Michigan, I know you've been
critical of Jim Harbaugh, as you should be, as we
(08:16):
all should be. But it's like, how can Michigan not
at any point in fifteen years put a team on
the field that can compete with with Ohio State? How
can LSU had last year but mostly for the last
fifteen to twenty years not compete with Alabama. I think
it's a bad thing. And you know what scary rob
(08:36):
is if you follow the recruiting rankings, it's only going
to stay this way because now we're six, seven years
whatever it is, into this playoff and kids say, I
want not only is Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State gonna get
me to the NFL. They're gonna get me in those
big games that matter. And now the recruiting gap is
getting even bigger. And that's what the scary party is
(08:57):
going forward. Now you're right, it's a it's a bad side.
Nobody wants to go to a Michigan or some other
school and try to make their own markets, Like where
is the factory I want to be on in the
big games? I can get a ring, right, I'll go
there everybody, people from all over going to to h
Alabama or Clemson and just saying, oh, yeah, this is
(09:19):
where we'll go. And they're three deep in every position
and you know what I mean, Like I was just
I'll give you a good example that that backup quarterback
that came in for Clemson the first game against Notre
Dame DJ. I believe it's Uey Lagan La La, I'm
not Kazoomtity. Well, guess where he's from, Rob, He's from
southern California. This is what I'm saying. Yes, this is
(09:42):
what I'm I mean, kids from southern California are going
to the South to play football and play for these
schools and they don't want to, you know, turn USC
around or UCLA or anything like that. It's amazing. And
the same Michigan for all of its failures as a
(10:04):
perennial and I get it, they one more game than
any other college football program and all that other nonsense,
but they've got basically one national championship since the Louisiana purchase.
I mean, that's how long it's been. And Jim Harball
came here, came to Michigan to fix it, and he
can't even beat Ohio State. He's been burned by Michigan State,
(10:25):
and uh, you know his his rivals. They have him
gone to the to the college football Playoffs. I mean,
it's embarrassing. Yet that school has so many guys who
have gone to the NFL, right, Michigan, Yeah, no, one
hundred percent. And I don't know how it gets fixed because,
like I said, if you follow the recruiting rankings, it's Alabama, Clemson,
(10:46):
Ohio State at the top every single season. And so
it's unfortunate. But I'm with you, and I'll ask you.
You know, I know you and Chris primarily you don't
talk a ton of college football on this show. And
also you gotta get my background growing up in New
York City. Yeah, there's no college football. Okay, there's no
college football, which is incredible when you think about it.
(11:07):
So I grew up with no college football. I watched
the big games as a kid, you know what I mean,
I did, but we didn't have I mean, West Point
was probably west Point. Syracuse is a million miles away
from New York City, so Syracuse wasn't your college football team.
I used to cover West Point when I was a
sportswriter at the Daily News, yep, when I first started out.
(11:29):
So I used to drive up there and cover games
on Saturdays during college football season. But no, for the
most part, you know what I mean, I grew up
without college football. Well, and that's what I was going
to ask, is I know there's so much NFL to
cover over the course of a week. But you're a
sports fan. I've watched games with you, I've hung out
with you. I know that you just you love sports.
That's why we all do this. But I was going
(11:50):
to ask you, as somebody who didn't grow up around
college football, I'm guessing that the dominance of one to
two to three teams doesn't what's the word. It doesn't
encourage you to to to carve out time on a
Saturday to make time for this sport when at the
end of the season we know who the same two
or three teams are going to be. That's where I'm
at and I used to go on some saturdays. You know, me,
(12:12):
Aaron love the Chicken Wings. I could go to sports bar,
hang out, you know, watch a good game, see something.
But it has become very predictable. I'm curious as to
see from our listeners how many people are you still
that engaged? And we've seen the ratings. I know it's
down for just about everybody, but we've also seen the
(12:33):
attendance go down to college football. I think it was
two years ago and it dropped like the lowest point
in twenty four years or something, you know, across the
board where where normally college football people are into it
because they're invested the schools in their community or or
they went there, you know what I mean. It's different
(12:53):
from prohe where people are more invested in college because
as their team that they grew up with. But I'm
curious to see how many people are enjoying this? Are
they tired of it? Where are you? Did you turn
have you turned back? Are you flipping? Are you glued in?
(13:16):
I just I don't know, all right? Eight seven seven
ninety nine on Fox is our telephone number? Eight seven
seven nine nine six sixty three sixty nine. Can you
still watch Predictable Games? Is college? Is the college football
playoffs tainted? This year? We want to hear from you.
It is the odd couple on New Year's Day. That's right,
(13:39):
Listen to my mic. We're live Rob Parker, Aaron Torrez
right here on Fox Sports Radio, and we're all in
this fight against COVID nineteen and Ford Motor Company is
doing its part by manufacturing and donating one hundred million
mask to underserved communities, and Ford encourages everyone to join
(14:02):
the effort. We are so close to winning this fight,
and these next week's are crucial. Let's hold the line,
continue to social distance, wear masks, look out for each
other so we can get back to where we were.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Chris Brussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm
(14:24):
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app. Now, this is a funky flashback Friday. My goodness, gracious,
it is The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio here on
January first, twenty twenty one. Yes, Happy New Year's Day
to everyone. Rob Parker and Aaron Torres in for Chris Brussard.
(14:49):
I'll telephone number eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox.
And I don't know, Aaron. I mean, it's still thirty
one seven Alabama. If your lost Vegas. Why don't they
just pull these games off the board. It must beginning
and taking a bath. I'm serious. If I was in
Las Vegas and running one of the sports books, it's
(15:10):
either you know, a team getting fifty points or no
bet at all, right, because everybody's winning. The real gamblers,
don't they win all the time. One of these college,
big college games. Well, it's unbelievable because all week long
and we were I've talked to Bernie Fratto, the Vegas Insider,
I haven't heard anyone really make the compelling case that
(15:32):
Notre Dame could even keep it close. And it was
a three touchdown spread. So it's unbelievable. But yeah, I
will have to ask Lamar Miller that an hour three
because Lamar Mitchell, I'm sorry because Lamar Miller's I think
of running back. Uh, but yeah, because it's just it's
unbelievable that all week long, No, but everyone said Notre
Dame doesn't have a chance, and sure enough, here we are, right,
(15:54):
That's what I'm saying. It's all right, let's see if
sports fans are still into the college football playoffs because
we already know what's gonna happen. It's so predictable. Let's
hear from you. Eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox
and Aaron. I know you got people chiming to get in. Absolutely,
Sean and Texas, you're on the odd couple. Aaron Torres
filling in for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker. What do
(16:15):
you got, Sean? Hey? What's up you guys? Hey? Happy
New Year. So I love college football. I'm a big Wisconsin,
Wisconsin Badger fan. I grew up in Wisconsin, and it's
just like it's crazy to see that, like fraysing Notre
Dame has no business being there. I texted a friend
of mine when I first saw this spread. I was like, dude,
(16:36):
how do I knap at all of my money I
have on this? Because I'm gonna win it? I know,
that's That's exactly what I'm talking about. What would stop
somebody from going into their savings and putting five thousand
dollars down on Alabama. It's really like the only reason
to not do it is that you just don't trust
sports betting because otherwise, like, I mean, come on it,
Notre Dame has no business being there, and it's it's
(16:58):
weird because it's like, well, what do you do to
fix this? What do you do to fix this? Because
like Wisconsin. Strength like comes from the fact that people
take a lot of pride in being a big, badger Lyneman,
You're gonna run everybody over. What does USC have? What
do you UCLA have the perennial of powers? Like? Did
they even have an identity to bring in big recruit? No,
that's the problem, and and and and Aaron brought it
(17:20):
up earlier about the what was that the quarterback from Clemson? Yeah,
the Clemson, the backup California. Correct, and actually the second
best quarterback in high school football last year was committed
to USC. Guess where he ended up, Rob, Alabama. And
he's from southern California. So there's another one. Dude, there's
the issue. It There is the problem, all right. Eight seven,
(17:41):
seven ninety nine off Fox, Andrew and Tennessee. You're on
The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio, Aaron Towres filling in
for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker. What do you got Andrew?
What's up? Guys? Man? Rob? I love the show. Happy
New Year, Happy yeah, and um we're rolling man, rolling
into the new year. And I'm excited. Thanks for all
(18:02):
the support for the Odd Couple for real, all Right,
As a big Tennessee fan. I've been a Tennessee fam
my whole life. You know, it makes me sick to
see Alabama as good as they are because they've just
been handing it to us for fourteen years in a row.
But I don't have no interest whatsoever watching Alabama Notre
Dame play. I've seen a video online of a lady,
(18:22):
a Notre Dame fan, cryme once they you found out
that they had to play Alabama because the recruiting gap
is so bad. Alabama could have twenty guys get drafted
in the first round this year and it's gonna be
the next twenty five star recruits up and they won't
miss a beat. They never miss a beat, no matter
who leaves day, it just the next man up. And
(18:43):
they produced the same numbers or better every year. And
I don't know how teams like Tennessee can close the gap.
I hope they can figure it out. I don't know
if they're gonna fire through it or not, but we
got to figure something out because the gap in college
football is just unreal because Plans and Alabama and Ohio
(19:03):
State they're just on a different level and nobody seems
to be able to catch them, no doubt. Thanks for
the call, appreciate it. And Aaron, this is why you
don't bet five thousand dollars become us. Notre Dame scores
a touchdown with less than a minute ago, and now
it's a seventeen point right, Oh that's right. Yeah. So
so they just crushed a lot of people. A lot
(19:25):
of people just got crushed unless Alabama somehow runs the
ball back on the kick on the kickoff. Can you
imagine that? I mean you would be if you had
a big bet on this, you would die. I would
kill you. Yes, well, and this is why. And I'm
telling you this is why it's so funny. I always
have buddies text me kind of what our caller just
said a minute ago is well, bro, I gotta take Bamma, right,
(19:47):
I gotta take Bamma right. And I'm not saying don't
take Bama. But when literally every single analyst, person whoever
can't even make the argument for Notre Dame to keep
it competitive, I was just like, you know, I'm just
gonna stay away because it feels too obvious. And sure enough,
Vegas just cast a lot of tickets right now, how many?
How many? I love it? Just set's just got kicked in.
(20:09):
So there. I was gonna say, there's a lot of
crumpled up tickets at all the sports books across Vegas
right now, sad all right? Eight seven, seven ninety nine.
On Fox, Brandon in Dallas, you're on the odd Couple
Aaron Torres filling in for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker.
How are you, Brandon, Happy New Year? Happy New Year.
How are you guys doing tonight? Man doing great? Man
(20:30):
love the show is always having a great time all week.
Thanks for holding it down last night, man, I appreciate it. Yeah,
you know, we're gonna keep it rolling. I'm not gonna
take any time or for a while, and we'll just
be I'll be here. I'll be here until I'm taking
some big trip. Unless I'm going on a really big trip,
I'll be here. Hey, We're here for it. Man, appreciate it.
(20:52):
But about college football, man, it has gotten very It's
gotten so regional. You know, it's gotten very regional. Unless
you're from the southeast, you know, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana a
little bit, or if you're over there from Ohio. You know,
you're just not interested in this. This is gonna be
the fourth year in a row that's gonna be Clemson
and Alabama. And I'll be honest with you, guys, if
it wasn't for Draft Kings, I wouldn't be watching this
(21:13):
game right now. See are you winning in Draft Kings
or not? With the score, with the late score, what well,
I got a couple of bucks coming in. But my
bigger guys were playing tonight, So so Trevor Lawrence is
gonna do great for me. I'm sure I'll win a
few shekels. Okay, there you go. We need some shekels one,
no doubt about it. Speaking of shekels, I put a
(21:34):
hundred shekels on the Wizards to finally win. The spread
was minus one against the Timberwolves, who are awful, and
the Wizards haven't won a game. So keep me in mind. Okay,
I need some shekels. Listen eight seven seven ninety nine
on Fox John in La. You're on the odd couple
Aaron Torres filling in for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker.
Happy New Year, John, How are you hey? Yep? New
(21:56):
year guys, Thanks for taking the call. Absolutely, I totally agree, man,
this is uh it sucks, man, watching the college football.
I'm a huge SC fan, and yeah, we haven't won
in quite some time. And that's okay. My brother's a
huge Notre Dame fan. Well maybe not no more. I mean, dude,
(22:17):
this is this is brutal. Notre Dame hasn't won anythings?
Is nineteen eighty eight? I mean really, I'll give you
one for SC. Lynndale White, Reggie Bush. Remember that they
were all long ago that used to be. Now yeah,
you know now it's like, well everyone like some of
the previous college are saying, you know that that quarterback
(22:39):
he moved to Georgia because there's no high school football
here in southern California, so he was slated to go
to SC and he said, no, I'm gonna go play
football in the South. So you know, it's it's it's
hard to watch, you know, because you see all the
all the Pac twelve teams. Look what happened to SC.
There were five and oh they were saying, you know,
they probably couldn't they probably shouldn't have been five and
(23:02):
l right, but they wait and lost. They went and
lost the Oregan But you know that's every day. I mean,
you could slide in one of these taxwelf teams and
someone's gonna upset somebody, and that's the exciting part. But
when you watch a pro football team like Alabama come
in and just roll everyone through, it's like, all right, no,
no doubt, appreciate, thank you. Oh really, what do you
(23:28):
say about Tom Brady? It's like watching Tom Brady not
against good teams. Oh, I'm sorry, that's another conversation. It
is you got anytime you go off on Tom Brady
if you want, I know you must have something. So
oh yeah, we got a topic we definitely could talk about. Okay,
you want to take one more. We gotta get to
sn squeeze it in man, man, well, thirty seconds, you're
on the odd. You're on the odd couple. Fox Sports
(23:50):
radio Errant Tour is filling in for Chris Brussard alongside
Rob Parker. Hey, love y'all, you gotta do it, an Stan,
you're all years. Thank you, my man, thank you, and
h Rob you know I love you, baby, No, no,
no doubt. It's systematic, bro, It's the elephant in the room.
It's the concussion issue, and we're seeing that first hand
(24:12):
in California. Unfortunately, no youngsters want to play well or
a minimal the mouth, keep up the good works. Let's
love you guys. Happy New Year, Happy new year, Thank
you man. Well, no doubt about it. That's another issue
as well. We know enrollment and to football has gone down, Aaron,
with all the stuff going on. All right, it is
the Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio on your New
(24:33):
Year's Day, Rob Parker and Aaron Torres in for Chris Broussard.
We appreciate you being along. Uh here as we start
twenty twenty one on the Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio.
And now let's welcome in Marcus Cromarty, a former NFL dB.
He joined us here on the Odd Couple. What's happening
in Marcus? Happy new year? What's going on? Rou Happy
(24:55):
new year? Man? What's going on here? It's going on?
Mar guess man, All good man, let's just get right
to it. We just heard Steve de Saga talk about
Alvin Kamara testing positive for Corona and where this is
and this was the elephant in the room and the
scary part that you go into the NFL playoffs if
you miss a guy like this or somebody, a big star,
(25:16):
a quarterback test positive for coronavirus. I mean this could
wreck the same season, couldn't it. Well, Roger Goodell has
to do the right thing. I think. You know, you
look towards the NBA and you see how they handled
all this. You gotta let your big time players playing
these playoff games. You know, I've seen you spoke on
the earliest he can return to Jane Ward tenth. Well,
then you can. You gotta schedule that game for Jane
(25:38):
ware tenth. I think they'll be doing the same, So
huge this service if you schedule on Jane Ward ninth
on that Saturday playoff game, Marcus, help. Frustrated are guys
in the league. I'm sure you still have plenty of
friends that are playing with just the inconsistency with you know,
some teams have to miss games. Some teams get there,
excuse me. Some teams just have to play without guys.
Some teams get their games moved. It feels like everything
(26:00):
area is a little bit different. And it could cost
the Browns a playoff spot because of their loss. It
could cost the Dolphins they won't have Fitzpatrick available this weekend.
How frustrated are guys in these locker rooms? Well, not
just playoffs spots. You know, you're costing guys contracts. Baker
Mayfield's playing for a contract. You know, not having his
receivers and not making the playoffs this year would hurt
that tremendously. Coaches are playing for their jobs and so
(26:21):
or they're coaching for their jobs, So not having these
players available, it's just terrible all around. You know, you're
doing what you can, but at the end of the day,
I think, you know, you almost got to get the
season of ashtrad. Yeah, what about Washington the Washington football team,
Alex Smith taking snaps with the first team. Looks like
he's going to be They got him listed as questionable
(26:43):
against the Eagles. But the Eagles aren't playing, aren't going
to play some of their starters, and Pittsburgh's not playing
Ben Roethlisberger. They're gonna rust some people. Is the integrity
kind of fudged here? I mean, with so many ramifications
for so many teams. There's five teams vying for four
spots in the AFC, and then you know Washington and
(27:07):
Dallas and the Giants are all in the mix. Guys
not playing? Is that fair or is there's nowhere around it?
And that's basically, you know, blame the team for looking
for help from other people instead of taking care of
business themselves. Well, it's a little bit of both. I
think that's kind of gone on for the majority of
the past seasons. I think only having one team as
(27:27):
a buy the seed in the implications you would have
thought would have kind of eliminated this entire you know,
sitting players down on Week seventeen, but it seems that
it hasn't. So, you know, it's not fair to the
equals are sitting the players in the Washington almost you know,
it's kind of getting push to the playoffs, but that's
why you have to win games in the beginning of
the season. The games in the beginning season are I'm
not gonna feel bad for a team that's seventy nine
(27:50):
not making the playoffs. And I was gonna say, kind
of in the same vein with the Pittsburgh Steelers, do
you think and I've been arguing with my partner in
my normal sought Arny Spaniard about this all week, but
basically that Pittsburgh basically says, we don't mind losing this game,
we just need to buy. But also I think the
factor is that Buffalo. Yes, they'll potentially have some fans
for a later playoff game, But is it also part
(28:12):
of it? Maybe teams are more willing to rest guys
because of the fact that there isn't a true home
field advantage this year in the playoffs. Well, you make
a good point, are I guess they're adding the bye week?
You know, instead of having a bye week there would
essentially have w there was a number two. See, they
just sit in their players week seventeen. It kind of
works the same. You know. Mike Tomlin is always going
to do a great job of getting his players prepare,
(28:33):
and this is just another another way he's implemented a
way to kind of get ahead of the curve. Our
guess is Marcus Cromarty, former NFL dB here on the
Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio. Marcus, last thing here,
We got about a minute or so to go Kyler Murray.
Obviously they gotta go and beat the Rams in order
(28:53):
to get into the playoffs. But what happened? Remember the
Hail Murray throw? He beats the ball, Fellow Bills. Everybody's
going crazy about Kyler Murray and did look like he
was on his way, And then all of a sudden,
they stumbled after that. Even Cliff Kingsbury, their coach, went
crazy talking about after that big game. He was like, wow,
(29:15):
they need to start alternating the MVPs between Kyler Murray
and Patrick Mahomes over the next few years. I mean,
it was like crazy, but it looked like the league
kind of figured him out and have stymied him. He
had struggled more so than not. Well that just first
of all, that goes and shows you they play in
one of the toughest divisions in football, and I know
(29:36):
there's no excuse, but when you got to face Seattle
and you face San Franz defense, you know they're not
getting any handouts. What I would say about Kylin Murrays
that we were crowning him a little too early. You know,
you got to play this game weekend and week out,
and there's no easy there's no easy weeks, you know.
I know, Rob, you know you'd like to say what
you say about Tom Brady, but hey, Tom's been doing
(29:57):
it for years, man. And so to get to that point,
Tom at least has the video equipment, and uh, you know,
besides the video equipment and having quote quote coach, he
has to got to play the game, Rob, and I
know Kylin Murray, he's gonna get that experience. You know,
you only get better playing, So he's gonna get better.
(30:18):
He needs to figure out how to use his height
to his advantage as Russell did. And you know, you know,
staying low or you know, being able to get out
of tough situations, because that's gonna that's gonna be a
part of his game for the rest of his career.
So he's gonna have to adjust to the NFL game
the same way Josh Allen has made his height his
strength and his big arm strength, and so you know,
(30:39):
college got a lot of figuring out to do. But
I think he's gonna be a good player moving forward.
All right. His name is Marcus Cromarty, Man, good stuff.
Will appreciate you. Happy new year. We'll have you on again,
all right, my man. All right, thanks Rob, appreciate it. Man,
a happy new year and wish you and your loved
one is a blessed one. Man, have a good one.
You appreciate it, no doubt about it. Marcus Cromarti chairman
(31:01):
in week seventeen, which will be interested all right? Coming
up next on the Odd couple. Rob Parker Aaron Torres
in for Chris Broussard here on Fox Sports Radio. Did
Dabbo Sweeney set himself up a little bit? We'll tell
you what we're talking about as that the game is
Clemson Ohio State is coming up soon, so we'll talk
(31:22):
about that and much more. It is the odd couple
Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio
app search f SR to listen live. It's tricky betting
on the college football playoffs. It is the odd couple
(31:44):
Fox Sports Radio. Rob Parker Aaron Torres in for Chris
Boussard on his Funky Flashback Friday. Aaron, you would be
sick with a minute to go, am I right, especially
the way that Alabama started the game scoring in his
first three possession, and you would think, oh, this is
gonna be a cake walk, and instead they don't cover
(32:06):
one hundred percent. And not only do they not cover,
they you know, notre Dame scores with fifty six seconds left.
I think it wasn't a competitive game. Alabama was easily
three scores better than Notre Dame. I would be frustrated.
This is also why I stayed away because when everyone
says that there's only gonna be one result, weird stuff happens.
(32:27):
That's how they build these casinos in Vegas, which a
spot that you and I like to go to very often, Robs.
So I'm heading there for my birthday. Man, I can't wait.
That's a couple of days. You know what's crazy. I
know we gotta get to Dabbo, But I was just
thinking that weekend because I was out there last year.
It was the divisional weekend. You and I hung out,
and it was almost exactly a year ago. So I
(32:47):
do know your birthday's coming up. It's unbelievable. January tenth, unbelievable.
I'm not gonna tell you how old them would be,
but it's incredible. I'm looking forward to, you know, going
out to Vegas to hang out for a little bit.
But Dabbo Sweeney, here's the thing. Clemsing's coach in the
Coach's Poll, Aaron, you know, put Ohio State as the
eleventh best team in the country. So my only question
(33:09):
is if somehow, some way Ohio State wins this game
coming up soon this playoff game. If I was a
reporter in the press conference, and you know I've been
known to asking some provocative questions in my career, I
would have I would definitely say to him, so if
(33:30):
what if Ohio State was the eleventh best team in
the country, are you guys number twelve? Now? Because that's
what I have a feeling if they lose. There's a
column on dead Spend coming Monday morning, already know it.
It's half written, but you know my point is like
to do that? What was he thinking? Like we know
about bulletin board material. What was this because he wanted
(33:53):
them out of the way for an easier path to
the championship? Or is this legit because they didn't play
as me games? It's COVID. We know what's going on?
Are and I mean they had no choice. What was
going on? Michigan canceled a game and I can't remember
the other game that got canceled, but it had nothing
to do with Ohio State. Is did he have a point? Yea?
(34:13):
I you know, when he was asked the second, third,
fourth time, he paraphrase, listen, I didn't vote anybody that
played fewer than X number of games in the top ten.
They were clearly the best team. Blah blah blah, blah blah.
I am with you one hundred percent though in that
I just don't think it's listened. Yes, Ohio State is
probably not on the level of Clemson this particular season.
(34:34):
They lost a lot of guys to the NFL, Chase Young,
who's playing well for Washington, etc. I just don't like
the idea. I mean, Ohio State's a really good football team.
Justin Fields is gonna be a top five pike at quarterback.
I just don't believe you need to be giving them
extra motivation. I do give Dabbo I Guess a little
bit of credit for sticking with his guns and saying
(34:55):
what he truly believes. I just don't like the idea
of giving a team this good, actual bulletin board material.
As I said, I'm with you, it makes no sense.
I don't see how you gain from this. We all
know Ohio State, no matter how many games it played,
deserves to be in the mix. Right They're one of
the best four teams in the country, do we Is
(35:15):
there really an argument or a debate about that talent wise, No,
there isn't. It's just a matter of did they deserve
to get in playing essentially half the games of some
other teams, right, But it's not based on talent or
whether or not they belong And I think that's why
I just stay away from it. If this was a
regular year, then I think he would have an argument
if they only played somehow six games. But in the
(35:37):
COVID year, I just I'm hoping Ohio State upsets Clemson.
And am I a bad person for that? No, not
at all. And I think it's absolutely in the realm
of possibility. I mean, listen, Clemson is a touchdown favorite
in Vegas. As I said earlier in the show, I
think something like eighty percent of the money has come
(35:58):
in on Clemson. We just saw what happened when all
that money came in on Alabama in the first game.
Notre Dame figures out a way to cover, and so
I think it's definitely possible. And just the fields. By
the way, there's a reason that he and that team
fought so hard for a season this year. It's because
they believe they're good enough to win a national championship.
Hasn't worked out the way they thought. They've had guys
out with COVID in previous games. Some guys are back,
(36:19):
some guys aren't, but it doesn't change the fact they're
a team that's good enough to win this game, which
is gonna lead to a heck of a column on
Dead Spend Monday morning. If that's the case, it would
it would be something if they could pull it out.
And I'm wondering when we have Lamar Mitchell from the MGM,
you know how much money, you know, like if he
could give us, what was the percentage of money that
(36:40):
went on Alabama because they might be dancing in the
streets all the bookies and the casinos, you know what
I mean really, because that's if I was betting on
that game, I would have taken Alabama minus twenty one
on nineteen or whatever it was. And it was seventeen
right the final margin. So that'll be interesting, all right.
(37:00):
Our number two of the program is coming up, and
we got week seventeen in the NFL, and there are
a few quarterbacks, man, that got a lot to prove,
and we want to hear and figure out which one
has the most to prove, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray or Tua.
So we'll talk about that and much more. It's the
(37:21):
odd couple Fox Sports Radio Rob Parker Aaron Torres, sticking
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