Michigan Struggles, LSU Humiliates Clemson, Super Bowl Predictions, Rams vs. 49ers

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Very excited to say that Bud Light is the title
sponsor of the Colin Coward podcast this NFL season. This
podcast presented by Bud Light. Easy to drink, easy to enjoy.
All right, vacation is officially over. Because we didn't have a,
you know, we had the World Cup in June. I

(00:26):
took a few extra days in August and about halfway
through my vacation, I started watching college football and I
was ready to do this thing again. I could go
on and on about seven, eight different topics. So we're
going to do a lot of college. We're going to
do Rams, Niners, obviously, Seahawks, Patriots. I'll pick my Super Bowl,
John will too. So, you know, the Michigan thing's interesting.

(00:47):
When Kyle Whittingham got the job, you and I know
Utah football. Run game, defense, special teams, physicality. That's what
they are. They were never very dynamic in the passing game.
In fact, I would say they were conservative. They were stagnant.
It was sort of outdated. So I thought it was
a good hire by Michigan to right the ship. With

(01:09):
Sharon Moore, it was a hazmat spill. Like, let's clean
this shit up. So I think Kyle's a good coach.
But watching that game, Bryce Underwood has regressed badly. I thought, wow,
Whittingham worked in Utah, right? They sort of surpassed, in
my opinion, BYU. He was always a thorn in sort

(01:32):
of the Pac-12 side. But you never really thought offensively
he wasn't a real modern coach. And I watched that
offense and I'm like, oh, because right now there are
some really clever offensive coaches in the Big Ten. And
I still think it's a good hire, but not all hires.
He's not in his coaching prime, obviously. But I watched

(01:54):
Underwood and I thought, oh, this is going to be
Utah where they're going to be tough. They're going to
be physical. They're going to play defense. They'll have good
special teams. They'll win at home. But that was pretty bleak.
Like beyond, we can get into the clock, which I
always thought clocks on the network were synced with clocks
the officials had. I always thought that was sort of
a given. Apparently it's not. But your take on just

(02:15):
the underwhelming performance of Michigan and Underwood.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, I mean, I think they were one of the
biggest question marks in the season, what they were going
to look like coming in. Like, could they be a
top-10 playoff team, or are they going to win seven,
eight games?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Right.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
And I think it's pretty clear they're probably eight games
feels high.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
You know, the quarterback. And the one thing is, it
takes some guys a little bit longer. I know Texas
just played, you know, the sisters of the poor. But
you could tell Arch looked better to me. He made
a couple throws, and they were like, okay, improvement.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Sometimes it pops immediately. Watch the Bama kid. You're like, geez,
see it. Bryce Underwood's like, okay, get a little bit
of a pass. You had Sharone Moore sleeping with everyone
on campus, not focused, screwing around, disasters going on. Like
you said, he was worse. He was unplayable. Unplayable? You
can remove the emotion. His own coach, who is not

(03:09):
tied to him, it's a little like the NFL. College
football is kind of like the NFL. Getting paid, coaches
moving around. Kyle Whittingham inherits this. Said today, we'll see.
Right now he's our quarterback. Do you know what that
tells me? They're playing Oklahoma. who I think is really good.
I think Oklahoma is a national championship sleeper and definitely
a team that is going to cause some serious noise

(03:29):
this year. That could get ugly and that could get
ugly fast. I mean, that's a game that I think
if it is not going well at quarterback, you know,
you got to now, the boosters have a lot of
control over the roster, right? Because they're cutting these checks.
This guy's making three, $ 4 million. That's the going rate
of a quarterback. If he's not good in the half,
like I think he's getting benched by halftime. And that was, Colin,

(03:52):
that was hard to watch. You know, it really was.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
You know, it's interesting that... There are certain things you
can judge in college football in the first couple of weeks. Speed, strength, size.
But they don't have a preseason like the NFL. They
don't have joint practices like the NFL. And you're dealing
with 21-year-olds, not 31-year-olds. So I always kind of feel
like the one thing I don't want to get real

(04:16):
judgy on in college football in the first month are
offensive lines. Because that is probably, and you would know
this as a former NFL scout, that's the cohesion unit
on the team. right? Like offensive lines develop more slowly,
even if you have returners. And now you have an
NIL world where you're bringing in two new starters. You've
got a hot shot five-star recruit. He's going to want

(04:38):
to get time or he'll transfer. So like Washington's O-line
should be their strength. It was awful against Wazoo. Michigan's
O-line was supposed to be a strength. It was awful.
Notre Dame's O-line in the first half, you're like, man,
there's Now, their backs, they've stepped down from love and price.
They don't have the same quality backs yet. But you're like,

(04:58):
what's going on with Notre Dame's whole line? So I
don't want to get real judgy and say they won't
be better next week. But we all know, you and
I know Whittingham's history, which is, I mean, the knock
on Utah. out West was always, God, can you imagine
if they could ever get a top quarterback? Like that
was always the knock. It was like when Barry Alvarez

(05:20):
was at Wisconsin, you're like, God, if Barry could ever
get a great quarterback, you guys could win the natty. So, okay.
So let's talk about the clock again. As a sportscaster.
You know, sometimes players don't know all the rules. Remember
when the Niners went to overtime? Was that a Super
Bowl or a conference championship? And you kind of wondered

(05:40):
if everybody knew what the rules were. Bosa came up.
What game was that?

Speaker 1 (05:44):
I thought it was Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, so did I. I think it was a Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Remember they kicked it off first or something? I mean,
it was, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
And by the way, years ago in an Eagles game,
Donovan McNabb, They went to overtime and McNabb later admitted, yeah,
I didn't know actually the rules and that's the quarterback.
So it happens. Well, as a sportscaster, I thought, because
I've seen it a thousand times, that the network clock,
what you're watching on TV is synced up to what

(06:13):
the officials have. I thought that was a given. That's
why when announcers go, okay, you sit and watch the
clock and go, okay, there's one second left. I mean,
I can literally hear the Kevin Burkhart, Jim Nance, Mike
Tirico's voice saying that, okay, all right, there's a. 01 left.
So were you shocked when both the Big Ten and
the MAAC conference came out and said, no, they got

(06:34):
it right?

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, I mean, the Big Ten, I expected them to
do that. I do think the Western Michigan, the coach,
the AD, the Mac, they have handled this unlike– Class.
LSU would not have handled it like this. There are
a lot of people that would have– and I wouldn't
have blamed anyone if they would have gone scorched earth.
I think there's a travesty for the players because I

(06:57):
think the huge reaction was– You lost the game to
this team that, you know, I think they got, AI did,
it said they had 11 guys on the roster from
the state of Michigan, which I think is an implication
of the portal. You know, probably 10 years ago, Western
Michigan would have been full of local kids, but now
guys bounce around. That's a moment that the rest of

(07:19):
those guys' lives, when they interview, most guys at Western
Michigan aren't playing in the pros. When they interview at
Welsh Fargo, when they interview at some Lockheed Martin, I
played at Western Michigan. You were part of the team
to beat Michigan? That's a defining moment in your life.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
And they did outplay them. I mean, they only had
three yards per play, but they outplayed Michigan for a
big chunk of that game, I thought.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
They had like a 40-minute drive. That's the one thing Michigan,
I thought, had all these defensive players. Maybe Michigan doesn't
have the talent. Maybe when Harbaugh left and all those
guys got drafted, the talent didn't get replenished with Sharon Moore.
Because from a talent standpoint, to me, even goes back
to Bryce Underwood, he doesn't look as dynamic and fast
as I thought. I'm expecting– you watch Trinidad Chambliss, Russell Wilson,

(08:00):
Kyler Murray can't be touched. I'm watching Bryce Underwood. I
don't see this great athlete anymore. So I think you
just thought it was this defining moment for a program
that I'm a small school guy. I root for small
schools in moments like that because I know how historic
it would be for the program. And then, of course,
they get the extra play, and he throws probably the

(08:21):
best pass of his life. Incredible catch. Listen, Kyle Whittingham's
won a Rose Bowl. Kyle Whittingham's been winning big-time games
for a long time. Didn't his face say it all?
He felt, and this is a guy that comes from
Mormon country, played at BYU. I think he felt pretty
icky around the whole situation. Again, Lane Kiffin's of the

(08:42):
world wouldn't have cared. You felt the body language on Kyle.
I don't know if you saw the clips today of
Kyle talking about Bryce. I think he's very uncomfortable. I
honestly think Kyle's a little uncomfortable in this environment. Like
this is I you got to go Utah a little
under the radar. And this feels like this is this
is basically like coaching the Packers or something, buddy.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Listen, I've talked to Kyle a couple different times off air,
and he and his wife had a condo downtown Salt Lake.
And he told me, he goes, oh, we go skiing
in the afternoon. We love it. We've downsized. We got
a condo downtown. I was shocked when he took the
job because I always thought he was one of those classic.

(09:23):
And this has happened with BYU and Utah coaches before.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
It's a great.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah. I mean, first of all, the state's got a
lot more players than you think. They're both excellent programs.
BYU and Utah, excellent. Having spent a lot of time
of my life in Utah, I've gone to several Utah games.
I don't think I've ever gone to a BYU game,
but I've gone to several Utah games. Great stadium, great fans.
These are good programs.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
It's a place you don't want to leave.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Oh, it's beautiful. I was surprised. And it was almost
like when Jim McElwain took the Florida job. I know Jim.
I went to college with Jim at Eastern. I'm like,
Jim McElwain- is not an SEC personality. And Jim was
always uncomfortable, always uncomfortable down there with the scrutiny, the
lack of privacy. You know, they're in your backyard. The

(10:11):
fans are obnoxious. I don't think Kyle, I think Kyle's
more comfortable than that because he's been on national TV games.
But I agree with you. It's like, this is not a,
it's a little bit of an odd fit. And then
you get in and you've got to start Underwood. You've
got to start Bryce Underwood in game one because he's
the valley who'd recruit, right? Like you're kind of forced to, okay.

(10:32):
It'd be hard to take that job and go, yeah,
I'm benching the five-star quarterback. Like you kind of have
to play him. And he was awful. I want to,
I want to throw this out there. Speaking of Kiffin.
So listen, Kiffin's the only troll that coaches in football
in North America. He's a troll. And he sort of

(10:53):
decided the NFL kicked him out. He's not really a
Big Ten personality. He's never going to get the Notre
Dame job. Lane has decided he likes warm weather. He
loved coaching in Florida, that small school. He grew up
and went to Fresno, USC. He loves the South. He
doesn't want cold weather. The South likes to party, have

(11:14):
a good time. I think Lane kind of acknowledges, like,
I found my place in life. I'm a big deal
down here. And he's become like super troll. And it
works for him. I don't think at LSU you need
to troll. I think it's sort of top five job
in the country, but whatever. But Dabo Sweeney and all
these coaches, John, they're the CEO of their football programs,

(11:38):
not the athletic director, not the school president, the head coach.
Dabo Sweeney made a decision as the CEO of a
$ 150 million annual business. Despite a massive cultural change, hey,
we don't believe in the internet. That's essentially what he's
saying 40 years ago if you're a CEO. It would

(12:01):
be a CEO today saying, we don't believe in AI.
Or 40 years ago, we're not going to use the internet.
To not embrace the portal and NIL, and I like Dabo,
is a fireable offense. And I think it took that moment.
I think it's kind of a tipping point moment. As

(12:21):
the CEO of a top 10 college football program, it
may be time for Dabo to go. He has dug
his feet in, rigid, stubborn. Like that was humiliating, was
it not?

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Well, I mean, the game was over. When he picked
it off and made it 17-3, you could just feel
like they don't have a chance. And then within the
blink of an eye, it's whatever, 31-3 at halftime. It
didn't even feel that close. I think there's two sides
to this. One, the Dabo side, I mean, you kind
of look back, he had two elite coordinators that never left.

(12:55):
and Tony Elliott, who's now got Virginia good, and Brett Venables,
who is right in the discussion as the best defensive
coach in the country. Those guys were there with him forever,
especially Venables. And you watch him without him, they are
a train wreck. Their talent. The other thing is, this
is a transactional world. If Bryce Underwood stinks this week,
he'll get benched, and he'll essentially get cut, and he'll

(13:17):
be on a different team next year.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Right.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
That's that happens with all these guys that transfer. A
lot of them aren't some of them transfer on their own.
Some of them are told you're not welcome here anymore.
That's the world we're in now in college. No NIL
for you here. You got to go. You will be cut.
Dabo is the quarterback he started for as much crap
as Bryce is getting. The quarterback at Clemson was worse.
That's the worst quarterback I saw for any top 40,

(13:41):
50 team. He was unplayable. He's been in the program forever.
And I heard someone on one of the recruiting sites
on one of their podcasts say this kid peaked as
like a young player in high school. But then it's
not like he improved, but Clemson had offered him. I
think it was like a sophomore really early, and they
just stuck it out. Well, he's been— he hasn't played forever,

(14:02):
but his peak was like when he was 16 years old.
When you watch him now, guys like Lane and Sark
and Lanning, they just would have moved on. They just
would have been like, you're not good enough, see ya,
we got to bring in another guy, which I respect. Like,
he's very loyal to human beings. That's a good quality
to have.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
But he's also loyal to— to cultures, and they change
in sports. Analytics, the Lakers forever were like, we're not really,
we're not going to go with this three ball thing
like 10 years ago. It's like, guys, the world has changed.
The best teams go with three point shots.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Well, I feel like Lane is like one of these
tech guys. Like he's basically like Elon. He honestly loves
the chaos. He loves you talking about it. He lives
for it. Which I respect. I hate drama and chaos.
I run from it. I said on my podcast, I
think that's why you and I get along. I'm pretty low-main.
Just leave me alone. Lane's the opposite. And I know

(14:54):
a lot of people. I've had family in Fresno since
the early 80s. They know Lane very well. Lane's always been,
I mean, a little out there. And I think as
you start getting the stardom, he's kind of like actually
a tech star or a tech CEO meets like a
reality television star. Yeah. I mean, but, but. where you

(15:15):
can't really– he's pretty elite at his job right now.
He's been the transfer portal king. I mean, I'm watching Simmons,
the quarterback that was supposed to start at Ole Miss,
who then got benched for Trinidad, who's at Missouri now
is dominating. You've got Trinidad, who looks like Russell Wilson.
They're throwing bombs to Deuce Alexander. I Googled, where is
he from? Well, Lane landed him from Wake Forest. He's incredible.

(15:36):
He's the transfer portal king. That's his nickname. You watch
his team. That LSU team, I thought they would be good.
I mean, holy, Colin, they look like an NFL team.
They looked, and I get Clemson's down, but I'm like,
that translates. That works. Their quarterback can't really even throw yet. Well,
what do you know about Lane? He's a great quarterback.
This guy's going to improve.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
And Lane's really a disruptor. And Lane told me this
years ago. I mean, we were having a cocktail in
Manhattan Beach at the Shade. I walked in and there
was Lane. We had a cocktail. And he said, listen,
he had just left. Tennessee job for USC. And he said,
if I had a bad season, I'd have been on
the hot seat. He goes, who are these athletic directors

(16:17):
that get all preachy? These guys. And he went on
a sermon for about 10 minutes and he wasn't wrong.
I mean, I came out of that half hour with
Lane at the Shade Hotel thinking, you know, he's really right.
And that's why I've always said I'm loyal to my
wife and my kids and But in the end, if
tomorrow you just stop watching football, I'd be after about

(16:37):
a month. John, it's not working. It's like, guys, Lane
was just like, listen, who's loyal? AD's top booster. And
by the way, it's less loyal today because of NIA
on the transfer portal. So Lane's whole take was... Tennessee
was awful. I gave you a great year. We turned
it around.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
I'm out of here.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
It's my dream job. So part of me looks at
Lane and thinks, he's just kind of the king of
the South now. And I think with Saban out, Kirby
Smart's got the titles. But I think he looks at
it and thinks, this is kind of who I am.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Don't you also think, you know, Lane really cut his
teeth as a young coach and became a star for Pete?
And Pete's program was really different than most programs 20
years ago. The celebrities, I mean, Colin, they had a
drug kingpin who was working with the cartel. Have you
followed that story? Yes. The guy that, you know, I mean,
they had celebrities, the booster. It was unlike, you go

(17:36):
into one of their practices, it was just open and
a free-for-all. I remember Kirk Herbstreit telling me- We can
close practices now. They don't even let anyone in.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
I remember Kirk Herbstreit saying- I love going to USC practice.
He said, it's like 70% college. This was like 20
years ago, 25. He goes, it's like 70% college, 30% NFL.
He goes, this is like nothing. Herb Street said, this
was years ago when I worked at the other place.
It didn't even feel like college. It was a little
bit like Jimmy Johnson and the Miami Hurricanes. It was college,

(18:08):
but you're in Miami and you're in Los Angeles. It's
not rural. And most college programs are. So listen, it
works for Lane. I don't think you have to troll
at LSU, but it's a good content creator. It's like
Aaron Rodgers being passive aggressive. It creates content. I'm in
that business. You are too.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
It works.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
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10 bucks. I will say Darian Mensah, the quarterback for Miami.
Miami was the best team I saw. Now, they beat Stanford.

(20:52):
It was a fait accompli. Stanford doesn't really pay players.
Miami pays them a fortune. That game was over before
it started. We all knew it. Tony's probably the best
wide receiver outside of Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State. Unstoppable,
three TDs, 250 yards. But Darian Mensah, I like C.J. Carr.
But I don't look at C.J. Carr's traits. I look

(21:13):
at him as a little bit like J.J. McCarthy, to me,
a better version, where not a huge guy, not a
huge arm. He's a winner. He's smart. He's a team guy.
But Notre Dame could win every one of their regular
season games with C.J. Carr going 15 for 21. I mean,
and handing the ball. I mean, they just, their defense,
their coaching, their schedule's weak. And I like C.J. Carr

(21:36):
a lot, but he's not going to be asked to
create He's not going to get in shootouts with that defense.
I look at Daria Mensah. He goes San Luis Obispo.
You know the area well. Then he goes to Tulane.
Doesn't have the best teammates. Goes to Duke. Rarely has
the best team. Now he's in hyper-competitive, pressurized Miami. I'm like,

(22:02):
that's the journey. You and I know this. Getting beat up.
I mean, there was a point where Cal had two
or three quarterbacks in the NFL. NC State did, and
USC didn't have any. And it's like, how? Well, that's
the reality is in college, you need to get beat
up a little. You can't always have like the best

(22:22):
coach and the best life. And I look at Mensah
between Tulane, Duke, and now pressurized Miami. I know a
lot of quarterbacks had great weekends. John, right now, if
I had a leaderboard for quarterbacks, like that's the best
college quarterback I saw.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, I mean, I'd be hard to disagree with you.
I'd never really seen him play. I mean, I'm not
wasting a minute watching Duke football. But he was, do
you know what it reminded me a lot of? You know,
Andy gets to Kansas City, they trade for Alex Smith,
and they draft a couple guys named Travis Kelsey and
Tyreek Hill. And Tyreek Hill turned into unlike any player
we'd ever seen. And he was good, and him and

(23:00):
Travis were good. And then they shipped him out of
town for young Patrick Mahomes. And year one, you're like,
holy shit. And Mahomes and Tyreek Hill were made for
each other with their two skill sets. And you watch this, Tony, clearly.
I mean, he was awesome last year. This guy is bigger, stronger, faster.

(23:21):
The instincts, like Tyree Kill, his body type is different
than the CD Lambs and Justin Jeffersons. But I know
that is an unstoppable force. He can play anywhere, slot, outside,
go deep, short, make guys miss. And he has a quarterback.
I mean, the ball, I would say Trinidad is a
pretty special player, too.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
I don't know if he translates to Sunday, though.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
That's going to be that's going to be the major
question mark. And we've pivoted on the shorter guys.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
But there is before Russell Wilson got bad, he used
to be really good. And there are a lot of
parallels there. And I actually see a little Kyler Murray
in Oklahoma. And the guy is extreme. Again, to play quarterback,
the accuracy always matters. I think sometimes in college, like, well,
this guy's six, five, he can run. Look how it's
taken Nico. You were probably asleep because the game was.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
On at the middle of the night.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
But he looks dramatically better. It's taken him a while.
But with his skill set, you can't teach. Ultimately, Nico
brings something to the table that Trinidad cannot. 6'5, 230.
But Trinidad's accuracy, just like Mensah's accuracy, and Mensah has,
I mean, I don't know, Tyree Kill in his prime
Kansas City. That's what this guy looks like in college football. Now,

(24:33):
like you said, Stanford, didn't they have a million injuries?
But look at the ACC. Did the ACC win? How
many games did the ACC win this weekend? I mean,
Cal lost, Louisville lost. All their second-tier teams did not
come through. Not a great weekend for the ACC. Miami,
it won't matter.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
You know, I was thinking about you because I think
you mentioned it on your Twitter account, John, and I
thought you were right, is that Boise State gave Oregon trouble.
And a lot of it was Boise State. They kept
the ball a lot. Oregon was a much more explosive team.
Oregon was the better team. I mean, you just watch

(25:12):
the game. And Boise State's a great program. But the
world's changed. Boise State's spending less than, I looked it up,
$ 2 million on NIL. Oregon's spending $ 40 million. And I
watched and I thought about this this weekend. Look at
how many quarterbacks that played against smaller teams, it was
literally pitch and catch. I mean, how many quarterbacks this

(25:33):
weekend went 23 of Jaden Mayava against Fresno State?

Speaker 1 (25:37):
It was a joke.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
It was pitch and catch.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
It was a summer.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
I mean, it was just a joke how easy it was.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Texas and Ohio State, Colin, won 115 to 10 combined.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
So in the NIL era, my theory is these games
that used to be kind of fun you know, Fresno State, USC.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
You're like, eh, maybe.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Now, a lot of people will go, well, what about Michigan,
Western Michigan? That may just be a Bryce Underwood issue, right? Right,
if they had a normal, decent quarterback, they may have
won the game outright. But I do think there's a
time that we could just, Bob Thompson's a former TV executive,
and he brought this up. I mentioned this on my

(26:20):
pod last week, is that Bob's like, College football limps
into the season with just these awful mismatches. Now the
mismatches are worse because it's all about what are you
spending for NIL? I mean, Washington spends 20 million. They
don't look close to Ohio State that spends 40 million.
They don't look close. So all these Boise States and

(26:42):
Washington States, listen, they're proud programs. But if I ran
college football today, and this is why I've supported ESPN
and Fox basically taking over college football and saying, we
gave you guys 50 years. You couldn't get it right.
You don't have a centralized voice. This is why I'm
for a 2014 playoff. Let's get right into conference play immediately.

(27:03):
12 games, six home, six away, go into the playoffs
for the top 24 teams. And you could say, oh,
it's really hurting the quality of rivalries. College football's graduated
out of Bama-Auburn is like the biggest game for both schools.

(27:24):
The world's changed here. So when I watched Fresno State-USC,
I watched this and I thought, they probably shouldn't play anymore.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
It's sad because Fresno State changed my life. And a
big reason it did is it used to be an
NFL factory. And when I worked there, I got to
meet every scout in the country, GMs, assistant GMs, because
they were all coming in looking for players. When I
got there, we had Ryan Matthews. He went in the
top 15 as a running back out of Fresno State.
You know where Ryan Matthews would have been after his
true freshman year? At USC or Oregon. There was a

(27:58):
video on all the Fresno State accounts of like Devontae Adams,
Ryan Wendell, who was the Rams O-line coach. All these
former NFL players who came to watch the game that
live in L.A. and a bunch of Rams guys. Ronnie Rivers.
None of those guys would have– Devontae Adams, as a
redshirt freshman, had 100 catches and 14 touchdowns. Do you
know what would have happened? Texas would have called, and

(28:21):
he would have gone. So these programs– Boise State is
an outlier. That program– I grew up in Davis. Well,
Dan Hawkins went to UC Davis. Chris Peterson went to
UC Davis. So that program is an intellectual factory. It
always has been with this toughness factory. They've played Oregon
five times in the last 20 years. They beat them
three of them. And the two losses, two years ago

(28:42):
with Gentee, they lost by three points. And a couple
days ago, they lost by seven. Boise's just kind of
built for whatever reason to play in Eugene and play Oregon.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
And there's a lot of money in Boise because of
Micron is based there, the university. There's a lot of money.
People don't understand this. It's kind of a white-collar city.
It's kind of a wealthy area that tucked up. People
outside Midwest have no idea. Boise's got a lot of money,
a lot. By the way, McDonald's potatoes. Where do they

(29:12):
get French fries? That's an Idaho guy. There's a lot
of money in Idaho.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Wouldn't you say Boise, Idaho is closer to Salt Lake
City than it is Pullman, Washington? Absolutely. It's a real city.
Boise to me is an outlier small school who's somewhere
in the middle. You just don't have a shot. You know,
Kirby Moore's brother, or Kirby Moore's the coach at Wazoo,
Kellen Moore's brother. That guy, you put him at Missouri

(29:38):
or one of these real... He'll be fine. You have
no chance at these little schools in these games anymore.
Because Washington State, once upon a time, they'd have four
or five pros. Now, they did beat the Huskies. Maybe USC, UCLA,
some of these schools, the Huskies didn't recruit. Well, now,
if they didn't recruit him, it doesn't matter because the
following year, Jed Fish can just call the guy up
and take him. They can literally... I'm watching a game, Indiana.
It's like, oh, their second best wide receivers from Michigan State,

(30:01):
their best new linemen from Wisconsin. If they miss on guys,
they just in December, who do we want to buy?
I mean, that didn't happen. So the small schools, we
need to get to a point where I heard you
talking that you should be able to allow one game.
I would personally allow no games. The power four plays
each other. Maybe you can do a strength of schedule,

(30:21):
however you want to do it around Robin. So these
coaches don't bitch and moan. So LSU doesn't have to
play Ohio state. Maybe LSU can play record. You can rotate.
I'm fine with that, but no more playing the little
guy and the, and the power four. They just play
each other. Western Michigan would play Fresno State. And then, obviously, D1AA,
you never play the D1AA again. That, to me, we've

(30:43):
lost that. To me, the Mountain West, which used to
be Utah was in the Mountain, BYU, some of these programs,
it is not the same anymore if you didn't get
called to the big leagues. You have no shot. I
lived it. I saw it. They used to have a shot.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Why?

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Because Pete Carroll would miss on some recruits. Pete Carroll,
when Ryan Matthews got academically ineligible to school, called Ryan Matthews, said,
we want you to come. He was loyal and said,
these guys helped me graduate high school. I'm going there. Nowadays,
they would just call him every year and it'd be
hard to turn down a million dollars. So it's like
the world's changed in college football. But Colin, who is

(31:19):
going to be the person that mandates this?

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Well, how's that ever going to happen? This has been a...
10-year complaint from me. People are like, how can you
like a 2014 playoff? Because we tried the other way.
Teams were playing nine conference games, eight games. How could
you be for the Pac-12 dissolving? It was dying as
a conference anyway, and USC was complaining about it for

(31:43):
years that they were treated worse in conference than Washington State.
They really felt that. Like, we gave the Pac-12 a run.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Do you think that's true?

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Well, USC felt like, if you took the LA market
out of this conference, what's the conference now? Tucson? Pullman? Corvallis? Berkeley?
They're like, because the Bay Area doesn't care about college sports, mostly. So,
I mean, I just heard it from the USC side. Like,
they were just done with it. They were frustrated with
the commissioner at the time, who was all, you know,

(32:14):
from the tennis network. Remember the former commissioner of the Pac-12?

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Larry Scott.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah, he was a very much, ah, rowing matters. And
it's like, football pays every bill. And USC felt, you know,
they got really bitter about it. And so that's why
I said, like, I get it. I heard it for
years from athletic directors and people inside FC. Okay. Let's
talk North Carolina. So this is a mess.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Wow. Jeez. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
So I don't think I could ever hire. I shouldn't
say that I could hire one of my kids, but
football coaches tend to do this. They want to hire
their kids. And, you know, Pete Carroll, Seattle, John Snyder. It's, Well-documented,
Snyder was not a fan of Pete's son. And first

(33:01):
it was scouting, then it was coaching. And that created
a real fissure between those two. I've got that double sourced.
Pete went to Las Vegas. Son was the O-line coach.
That did not work. I've got that double sourced. It
was a problem on the staff. Nobody's going to tell
Pete that because everybody likes Pete. But, you know, and
now Belichick. The first thing I said when he went

(33:23):
to Carolina, it's a friends and family staff. Those never work.
It doesn't matter if it's a car wash or it's
a college football program. Friends and family are not the
most eligible people. Hell, I've said this for years, John,
you know this. When Ben Johnson leaves the Lions, the
best candidate is not down the hall. You've got to
go on a global search to replace, you know, Google's

(33:46):
number three leaves. There's a real great chance that the
best guy isn't the number four at Google. It's like
somebody else at another tech company. So I didn't like
the staff. And then Mike Lombardi's interesting. I used to
put him on FS1 when I started there. I thought
he was interesting as a guest. He kind of had
these leadership mantras and he was kind of an interesting guy.

(34:09):
And then one day I showed up to work and
I said, who's on the show today? And they said, well,
Mike Lombardi's not here anymore. And I'm like, what happened?
And they're like, Nobody's saying anything. So I was like,
it's always been a guy Al Davis once said about him,
that guy can't keep a job. So I don't know
if he got a better offer. He bailed. I don't
know what the hell happened. All I know is I

(34:30):
liked him as a guest. I don't know him personally,
but he's a guy that has struggled staying engaged, you know,
in the employment line for schools. He is a quick
hit out, but Belichick has always been incredibly loyal to Mike.
So he's gone. His son's in trouble. I think Belichick,

(34:53):
to his defense, the defense looked real against TCU. It
looked real. Now, the D-line was dominant. It looked real.
But is this what unravels the Bill Belichick college career?

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah. I think there are two things can be true. One,
I'm almost envious of Belichick. Like I bet Belichick walked
into work today with his son and rehab and Lombardi
quitting and just investigational and unfazed and no one can
even tell the difference he is. It's like, it's truly
a great quality he possesses. I mean, he thrived in
new England when the craziest shit would happen. And I,

(35:29):
they're definitely going to be more competitive because he's pretty,
he's got a chip on his shoulder. He's driven out
their ceiling seven wins or something. I, you, You can
have empathy for someone who has an addiction.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Right.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
But in the real world, when you're hiring people and
that guy has one and you bring them into the facility,
it's like that's kind of on you. You know, it's right.
Mike McDaniel, they found out back with Dan Quinn in
Atlanta and they all helped him out and it changed
his life. But I think at the time, a lot
of it was unknown. This has been well known. As
someone told me that knows the Patriots well, let's just

(36:02):
say he was on the staff with these guys for
a long time. He said, Steve's been a disaster for
a decade plus. This is not new to anything. And
when you have rumors of drugs in the facility, uh,
We ain't talking weed gummies here. So this is like
Bill created all this. He brought a GM who, again,
I don't know Mike that well. I've always enjoyed him.

(36:25):
Big personality. We'll talk a little. He'll let it fly.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
I loved him on my show.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
But he creates enemies everywhere he goes. Pablo Torre treated
him like Uncle Dennis and Kawhi. They're coming after him.
So they were out to get him.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Right.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
And then, but Belichick brought him immediately, makes him the
highest paid GM in college. The guy didn't work in
college in 45 years, brings his kid who again is
clearly they are Belichick, unless he like wins the national championship.
I don't see how he's not fired. North Carolina, uh, Listen,
I'm a West Coast guy. Sure feels much closer to

(37:00):
like a Stanford Northwestern than it does an LSU. They
are drugs in the facility. Mike Malone, who just showed up,
who I've always liked, has to be like, what is
happening here?

Speaker 2 (37:14):
This is crazy.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
I don't see how Belichick survives after this year. Seven wins,
especially if his son never comes back. His staffs have
always been small.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Right.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
He has never hired that many people. Well, now he's
missing multiple people. I mean, they're pretty underwhelmed. So I
it's pretty I didn't think it would go down like this.
But is it really that like in the pros? I
remember the three people went to the meeting. Andy Reid,
Howie Roseman, and Jeffrey Lurie. You answer to one guy.
In college, you got the board of regents, you got
the presidents, like Lane was saying, these athletic directors. Most

(37:48):
of these coaches think the athletic director's an idiot. You
got a lot of people. Now the boosters are paying.
You got a lot of people that have questions for
you that you kind of have to answer. This is not,
Belichick went down the hall, he had to answer to
one person. That was Bob Kraft. Hell, he wouldn't even
give Jonathan the time of day. So I think it's difficult.
These guys aren't used to, they're used to answering to

(38:08):
Al Davis or Bob Kraft. Not 75 academics. You've always
said Belichick's an academic.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
But he's much more of like a private sector, cutthroat, ruthless,
not treating people well. It's that story that came out.
It was long. Every paragraph I went by, Jesus, I
can't even believe this.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Well, I mean, listen, Gronk, Rady, and Edelman. were on
the air and they were asked about Bill in college
and all of them laughed. They were like, they're like, ah,
that's not, you know, the guy we were around is,
you know, going to, you know, college volleyball games to
support the program. It was like, ah, it's not going
to work. So this is not just our opinion. This

(38:51):
was shared by people that knew Bill. And I think
my take on Bill is almost like Deion Sanders to Colorado.
It's interesting. I'm in the interesting business and I think,
you know, Dion, congrats on that win over Georgia Tech.
I think Colorado's a lot of sizzle, not a lot
of steak, whatever. It's interesting, and I thought Belichick would
be interesting, and he's a real coach, but it feels

(39:14):
pretty bad.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Another quick, one major difference to if you just went
to every NFL facility today, the Bears to the Bucs
to Seattle, wherever, there aren't a bunch of women around,
especially young, good looking women. What's in college. Two things. One,
you have a huge recruiting staff that is now full
of co-eds and two, you typically share weight rooms with
the volleyball team, the soccer team. You're just around a situation.

(39:38):
You read that article. It's like these guys clearly couldn't
handle themselves. They weren't used to being around the situation,
which they're around. And this is going to be their undoing.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
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All right, NFL on Netflix is back. Week one of
the upcoming season features the division rivals Rams against the
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(40:52):
regular season game in Australia, airing on Netflix live from
the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Thursday, September 10th, 8.30 p.m. Eastern time.
Heading into the holiday season, Netflix will add the NFL's
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(41:15):
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(41:37):
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Speaker 1 (41:47):
Eastern.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
All right, this next segment, John and I are going
to pick the Super Bowl. It is sponsored by Polymarket.
So with Polymarket, you're not a better, you are a traitor.
It is legal in all 50 states. And I'll give
you an example. If you bet Michigan against Western Michigan,
you could have left that bet at halftime. You're not

(42:18):
locked into bets. Again, you are a traitor when you
use Polymarket. You're not a better. You're predicting and trading
against other people. In my opinion, it is much more
you slash consumer friendly, much easier. You're not trying to

(42:39):
beat the book. So go to Polymarket, sign up right now.
The code is Colin, C-O-L-I-N, to get $ 50 to make
your first trade on the Polymarket app. Okay, John and I,
we're going to pick the Super Bowl. So Seattle is 13%
to make the Super Bowl. The Buffalo Bills, 15% to

(43:06):
make the Super Bowl. Those obviously go down to win
the Super Bowl. But with 32 NFL teams, Seattle and Buffalo,
there's a substantial number of people who agree with me.
So I'm going to have the Seahawks beating the Lions,

(43:27):
getting to the Super Bowl, and then beating Buffalo, the
Bills beating the Bengals in the AFC Championship. Who do
you got?

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Well, I got Seattle too, Colin. And at 13%, if
you put $ 100 on them, it pays over $ 700. So
I think Seattle goes back to back. They've done it before,
you know, a decade ago. One, I like Denver to go.
I mean, last year they should have taken it. The
quarterback got injured. You can get Denver right now to

(43:59):
become the one seed, which they were last year at 13%.
I also like the Bengals at 16%. I kind of
like the Bengals-Denver in the AFC Championship game. Wow. Houston,
I just don't trust the quarterback. If you told me
if Dak Prescott was the quarterback at Houston, I'd be like,
they're going to win 15 games.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
On the Polymarket app, where are they on the Chargers?

Speaker 1 (44:23):
To make it to the AFC Championship game, the Los
Angeles Chargers are 23%. So to put in perspective, Houston's 30,
Denver's 29, Cincinnati's 26. I think the Chargers get a
lot of love, Colin. But I don't hate the Chargers.

(44:44):
I just... There is an elephant in the room with
them about Herbert and the pressure in the playoffs. There is.
And Jim, you know, back-to-back playoff games, they just haven't
looked very good. I do think they're a pretty good sleeper. Like,
I'm taking Denver to win the division. I'm taking them
to win the AFC. If you just replace it with
the Chargers and told me that happens, I don't think

(45:06):
it's inconceivable. Their offensive line's excellent. They lad McConkie. They
add Trey Harris, the first-round running back. They got good defense.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Let me ask you this. Is that, and I'm guilty
of this too. I wonder if we're overselling. Denver last
year was trailed in 15 games and won 14 of
those 15. That doesn't make sense. It'll never happen again.
And because of that number, people are saying sell Denver

(45:38):
this year. Well, my take is with Jalen Waddle, Bo
Nix has another year. The truth is, they won't trail
in 15 games. If they trail in seven and win four,
it'll be a different team. I wonder if the coach
is an A, the pass rush is an A, the
O-line's an A, the weapons are a B, the quarterback's

(45:58):
a B, very good home field advantage, especially early in
the year in the high altitude. Are we underselling more
than any team in the league? I mean, last year
they led the NFL in sacks and their quarterback was
sacked the fewest. That's a pretty good standard to start
a Super Bowl team. If Bo Nix is healthy, they
probably end up in the Super Bowl. Are we underselling Denver?

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Yeah, I think if you want to buy in on them,
which I am, you're betting on Bo Nix taking a step.
Because I think two guys who just became heroes in
every fourth quarter was Bo Nix and Caleb Williams. Or, Colin,
what if they just played well in the second quarter?
What if they just had some more completions in the
third quarter? They wouldn't have been in that position. Now,
Denver is a much more complete team than Chicago. You

(46:45):
could make the argument, if you remove the quarterback every
team in the league, Denver's the best roster in the league.
Just non-quarterback, best roster in the league, I think Denver
would be right in the mix for one. So I'm
buying Denver this year. I bought them last year, and
if it wasn't for a broken ankle– I don't know
if they beat Seattle in the Super Bowl, but I
think that's much more of a coin flip game than

(47:07):
what we witnessed, right? If Denver and Bo Nix are
in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Also on Polymarket, go to the Polymarket app. Seattle, 63%
chance to beat New England. I think they will. I
think it will be very low scoring. You got a
new OC in Seattle. I think defensively, I think New
England and Seattle are both top seven, eight defenses in

(47:32):
the league, 37% chance under 40 and a half. I
would take that. I think Seattle wins. I think it
feels like 24 to 13. I think that's what the
game looks like. I don't think it's a masterclass in
offensive football. I think it's kind of conservative, breaking in

(47:53):
a new OC in Seattle. I think it's a low scoring,
little bit of an ugly between the 30s football game.
Polymarket app, I like Seattle and the under 40.5. John?

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Well, I like your score prediction, and if you like
that score prediction, given that we just saw this game
happen eight months ago, Seattle to win by 3.5 points, 49%.
So if you click the 49% and you bet $ 100,
it returns $ 198. So you can make $ 98. Uh, I, I,
I think Seattle handles them pretty well. Bad matchup for

(48:27):
new England and like them to win by three and
a half, like them to win outright and like them
to probably make Superbowl again.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah. I think new England will be better, uh, between Williams, uh,
Romeo Dobbs, AJ Brown. It's a fortified receiving group. Still
don't love the offensive line. Seattle's a brutal place to play.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
It is. That place is going to be rocking, huh?

Speaker 2 (48:50):
Oh, it is rough. I like Seattle in the under.
All right, let's talk Rams and 49ers. That'll be on Netflix.
So after they won the Super Bowl, the Buccaneers brought
everybody back. And there was a real feeling that, oh,
they're going to repeat. And of course they didn't. And

(49:12):
it's pretty legendary that if you go back to Brady
and Belichick, like repeating was hard. It was really hard
to do. And in Edelman has said many times to me,
every team has a different personality, even if it's the
same guys. Like every camp is different. Every season's different.
There's injuries. There's a new coach. There's a couple of
hot shot rookies. Schedule's different. Injuries are different. So... I

(49:39):
think the Seahawks, by the end of the year, because
they're younger, younger players generally, if they do get hurt,
heal more quickly. I worry about the new OC. So
that's a wild card. Clint Kubiak now coaching the Raiders.
That is a wild card. But I think this sort
of definitive position that the Rams are going to be dominant.

(50:04):
And I'm like, well, what if the left tackle has trouble?
What if the right tackle does? What if Stafford gets
dinged up? Listen, the defensive front is going to be
absolutely monstrous. So, but when I hear Rams are going
to win the Super Bowl, my take is, oh, they're

(50:24):
going to be like Ali and his prime. They're going
to be an unbelievable target every week. It's going to be,
remember that Brady team that went undefeated to the Super
Bowl in And they played Baltimore. They played Philadelphia. And
it was like they got everybody's best shot. Seattle, for
a Super Bowl champ, is wildly under the radar. People

(50:45):
are in love with the Rams and the Bears and
the Bills and the Holmeses back and the Lions. Seattle's
strangely under the radar for a brilliantly coached, stacked roster
that replaced its three big losses all in the draft
in order. are we sure the Rams are going to

(51:08):
hoist a trophy? I think they're deeper and better than
the Niners. They're flying in, playing, getting on a plane, leaving.
San Francisco has been there several days. It's almost like
it's an assignment. We don't care about sleep. We're going in, playing, leaving.
I don't know. I just, I look at the schedule.
I look at Stafford's age. I look at them being
a target and I'm like, are we sure they're going

(51:31):
to even win their division?

Speaker 1 (51:33):
I'm picking Seattle. so bad football just rarely this is
not Kevin Durant shows up and the team could cruise
to 65 wins that's not football and McVay it's not
like they think it is But the guy's taken multiple
years off. He's just going to come back and be
the same. That's what everyone assumes, which, again, I always

(51:55):
have a lot of respect for how serious he is
about staying in shape and all that stuff. But I
don't know. I mean, Miles Garrett, it just feels like, oh,
they're just going to walk to 14 wins. Well, let's
go to the Australia game. They're flying in. 24 hours before.
This is not London. Australia's winter is happening right now.

(52:17):
It's a 16-hour flight, Colin. I get they've done this
and had success with the European Games. This feels like
a different animal. There is just a hydration standpoint. I
was talking to a couple people that made the flight,
and they said the one thing you don't underestimate is
you walk off the plane, you're really thirsty because you're
popping sleeping pills. You're kind of sleeping. You're not drinking.

(52:37):
You get dehydrated in altitude to begin with. And then
you get up and you've still got six hours on
the flight. I mean, it is– I think the way
they've handled it seems a little– I don't want to
say arrogant because they're not doing it. They're doing it
because they think it's the right way and it's worked
for them before. I just think this is a different
animal than playing at Wembley Stadium. And if it backfires–

(52:59):
and the other thing, they've got older players. So, you know,
this is a long travel for older players. Part of
the reason– I mean, you could argue the Niners went
a little too early– But I think they wanted no
part of any hangover with the older guys. They wanted
him to get acclimated, just be comfortable in the moment.
I mean, Kyle, they got there like eight days before
the game. But as Kyle was saying, you see the

(53:21):
story today, Raheem Morris, his birthday was on whatever day
they left. He never even got to experience his birthday
because by the time he gets to Australia, it's a
different day. And Kyle's like, it's weird. I'm talking to
my son. It's Saturday, but it's Sunday here. It really
throws you off. Now, I think McVeigh would be like,
we're going to be there for such a short time.
It can't throw us off. I'm like, I hear you.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
I thought about, you know what I thought about? The Rams,
because of Kroenke and his wealth, having, I mean, this
is probably obvious to anybody who listens to this. I've
used for years. B12 bags, um, like, like vitamin B bags.
Like if I went to skiing in Utah and, and
I both would get there. And the first thing we do,

(54:04):
we don't drink the first night. And then we, you know,
we do the B12 bag. Uh, we invite a door
house and we, anytime we were going to go skiing
for a weekend, it's, it's like when you travel a
long way, I bet you on that team plane, there
are six, eight you know, medical professionals. They're just doing
bags the whole trip to hydrate because they say, I

(54:27):
don't know what the number is, but it's like you
lose three glasses of water every two or three hours
on a plane. It's some staggering figure. When I read it,
I was like, I mean, I read this probably two
or three years ago. I used to have a cocktail
on planes all the time. I'd be like, hey, I'm
flying three hours. I'm gonna have a cocktail. I stopped
drinking on planes. I just don't drink.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Ginger ale.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
And it was literally an article I read several years ago.
Like you have no idea how bad and unhealthy it
is to drink alcohol on a plane. And so my
take is, and NFL teams can't drink on planes, supposedly, reportedly.
Way home. Yeah. But my take is you just have
to have those NDA bags, those B12 bags, those hydration bags.

(55:16):
That's probably how the Rams look at it is we're
just going to be super, hyper focused on that. Rams
have the better team, but I do think it's an interesting,
you know, Rams have done a lot of things. They
didn't play any starters when McVay got there in the
preseason and it worked. I mean, so they've done things differently.
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
It's backed by success. They're not just doing it because
I think this is the right way. It's worked for
them in the past, everything they've done. I just think
that flying nine hours and 16 to 17 hours is
a different animal. I mean, that's an extra cross-country flight
for an older team. You know, they actually just have
a sneaky lot going on. You know, Puka is a

(55:57):
pretty big story of, like, The stories just never kind
of end. The money aspect is he's just going to
be unfazed. I mean, a lot of guys, Christian Gonzalez
is going through this right now. Like Robert Kraft, sneaky cheap.
Belichick took a lot of the heat. Kraft isn't exactly,
he's fighting for every penny. He's like, Robert, $ 100 million,
just give him the contract. What are you waiting on here?

(56:19):
You know, Jerry takes a lot of shit. At least
Jerry ends up cutting the check. Robert's fighting you tooth
and nail. The game's like two days. But I think,
you know, you got the Puka situation. Stafford's just been
bruised and battered over the years. Their offensive line, like
you said, the left tackle thing, we'll see. I mean,
Devontae's battled hamstring injuries later on in his career. You're

(56:39):
bringing back this Donald thing. Seattle's the only team of
the three in the West. If the Niners or Rams
had just won the Super Bowl with the nucleus of
their roster all coming back and the coach, every single
buddy would pick them to go back. But Seattle, probably
the market size, maybe the brand, I don't know. Maybe
their star power.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Well, the other thing, John, is when the Seahawks, when
they had Pete Carroll was a rock star. Marshawn Lynch
was a rock star. The 12s were a rock star.
Richard Sherman was a rock star. Russell Wilson was becoming one.
They were, it was just a, okay, this team, JSN

(57:20):
under the radar, Witherspoon, under the radar. I mean, Charles Cross,
left tackle. 90% of sports fans wouldn't know him if they,
you know, who's Charles Cross? Sam Darnold, he was labeled
a bust. So many of their star players, Nick Emanwuri,
the safety from NC State, so many of their young players.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
Leonard Williams doesn't say anything.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Oh, and he's like the nicest guy. Anybody that's ever
gone to USC that played with Leonard Williams, he's like
the most beloved USC player ever. The classiest, nicest guy.
So Seattle doesn't have any egos and they don't have
any brands. I mean, like Richard Sherman was That kid
went to Stanford, and his life story was fascinating. And
Richard was a big personality. And Richard was screaming at

(58:07):
Aaron Andrews on a postgame show. Like, Richard became like
a phenomena in football. He's got his podcast at the volume.
Richard was a thing in the NFL. Like, everybody wanted
to draft tall corners because of Richard Sherman. Literally, it
was like, oh, you want to go draft the next
Richard Sherman, right? The guy from Stanford? Is Stanford a

(58:29):
great defensive factory? So his story became amazing. Seattle's just
got a bunch of great young players who kind of
like don't have brands. There's not a single brand on
the team. So to me, they're huge.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Even their head coach, who's a star, is not a
brand guy.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
In his division, he's the third most talked about coach.
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(59:31):
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(59:52):
I wanted your take on this. So there was no quarterback.
that got degraded more in the preseason than Tua. Between
practice stuff, joint practice stuff, you couldn't find anything other
than Tua's an abject disaster with the Falcons. And yet

(01:00:12):
he was just named the starter, which tells me the
Michael Pennix experiment It may not work. It may be
a less publicized version of J.J. McCarthy where, yeah, it's
just not going to work. What did you make of
Tua being named the starter with the Falcons?

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Well, I know you like him and a lot of
people like him and I've met him one time and
he was a nice guy. This is nothing personal. I'm
not sure Stefanski... knows what he's doing when it comes
to quarterback evaluations. I, you know, Dylan Gabriel in the third, uh,
I mean, to even be in the two of business,
if two would have came, if he would have paid
the Falcons to show up, right. If instead of them

(01:00:52):
paying him 1.5, he pays them one point. I would
have said, no, we're good. I, I'd rather just take
some random guy. I can't, Certain coaches, for whatever reason,
have blind spots. No one's ever disputed. I think he'll
pick up an offense fast. I mean, look at Mike McDaniel.
Super smart. He liked him early. Saban loved him. I

(01:01:14):
think he's an easy guy to like. But this Dabo
loves everybody. Can you play or not? Andy loves Mahomes.
Big reason he's good. I think to go with Tua, one,
didn't Michael Penix just tell us that Neil Albatross, whatever
the knee guy, my knee's stronger than ever. I'm cleared
to play. If he's cleared to play, he just drafted me.

(01:01:36):
No expectation. I think the Falcons are going to be terrible.
I mean, terrible. I just think he has a soft spot, Stefanski,
for short quarterbacks with weak arms.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
Well, and let's be honest, Sean Payton, Jimmy Johnson, there
are coaches, McVay, that have a good eye for talent,
personnel guys. Belichick did not. Bill did not have a
good eye for talent. There's a lot. Andy Reid doesn't
want any part of it. So, you know, my take

(01:02:06):
is I like Stefanski. I think he's bright. He may
not be a great personnel guy. I mean, I watched
Dylan Gabriel in college. He is tiny. Like he is.
And he's, by the way, he's not super elusive. So
it's like, you know, I get the Russell Wilson. I
get Johnny Manziel. I get the Kyler Murray. Like I'm
a fan of Kyler Murray. Like the runaround guy, you know,

(01:02:27):
he may not see over the line, but he's got,
you know, he's elusive. He's kind of a playmaker. I mean,
Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray played baseball. They don't get hit.
They're great sliders. Like I can defend the small guy.
I like bigger quarterbacks. But with Dylan, you don't get
a lot of athletic ability. And he's small. Like, that's
not an NFL quarterback. That's a third guy. So, and

(01:02:48):
the last time I saw Tua play, and again, wonderful kid.
But that, when they extend, when Chris Greer extended Tua,
I said it on the air, that is a disaster.
That is an absolute massive mistake. Injury prone. I don't
think the locker room believed in him. You know, you've
got deep threats and he doesn't throw a great deep ball,

(01:03:11):
especially in cooler weather, colder, windy weather. I think is
Stefanski just a guy that he's not a personnel guy.
He's kind of an academic. He's an intellect. And I
think you may be onto something because to me, you
would just play Penn. It's not Kirk Cousins Mendoza. I
get starting Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
This is a, the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
Fan base is uninterested. They got SEC football. Like you
may want to, that's why I've said about Shador in Cleveland.
You may just want to play Shador to keep the
stadium full.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
But what I don't understand is how would Stefanski have–
Matt Ryan now plays a key role there. This is
a big quarterback. He stands next to Tua. He towers
over him. Ian Cunningham, who was with the Ravens forever
with Flacco, then with the Eagles with, I think, Wentz
and Hurts. And then the last couple years with Ryan

(01:04:05):
Poles with Caleb Williams. So to me, he would see
a guy like Tua. There are multiple guys in the room.
Stefanski's not Sean Payton here. He doesn't have unlimited authority.
I'm shocked they even started him. If I would have
told you the moment he got cut, right, and they
paid him whatever, $ 55 million, they ate the dead calf
to get rid of him. If I would have said, Colin,

(01:04:27):
what are the chances he's starting week one for a team?
You would have been like, Pauly market, 0%. And if
I did tell you he is going to start for
a team, he'd be like, well, they are right in
the staring down the barrel of the number one overall pick.
Because one, he's a concussion away from obviously never playing again.

(01:04:48):
And two, he's just not very good. Now, maybe they go, well,
we got B. John Robinson, Kyle Pitts, and Drake London.
But I... That one, I mean, maybe Penix's knee is
just shot. We'll find out in a couple days, but
Bosa's been in and out of practice. Maybe Bosa's knee,

(01:05:09):
you can only have so many ACL surgeries before the
knee stops really working.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
I understood the Tua acquisition by Atlanta because I always
felt Penix's comp was a bigger, stronger, longer, better-armed Tua.
Like Penix is a classic pocket quarterback. He is a lefty.
He throws a really pretty ball. I met him once
after a Husky Oregon game. I really like him.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
I loved him in college. He was awesome at Washington.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Super beautiful, beautiful fade, beautiful, beautiful seam. You know, like
a left-handed baseball hitter. It just looks better, right? Yeah,
I was shocked by that decision. All right, John Middlecoff,
podcast is three and out. It is great to be back.

(01:05:57):
Do we have a game on tonight? It's Sunday. It's Monday.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
My wife actually looked at me. I'm like, well, you know,
Florida State SMU. We can skip that one. She's like,
I'm in my bed on Saturday night at like 1130
watching Nico and Bob Chesney just run it down Cal's throat.
I'm like, listen, there are a lot of games that
were terrible. I mean, there were a lot of games
that were like, 70-7 of teams in the top 30-40.

(01:06:25):
But there were a couple that are just, that Cal-UCLA game,
the Ole Miss-Louisville game, that are just like, I'm glad
football's back in my life.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
This podcast presented by Bud Light. Easy to drink, easy
to enjoy.

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