September 5, 2026 • 27 mins
USC is 2-0 and hasn't been tested, so Colin goes looking for what's real: NFL bodies on both lines, four freshmen starting, and a quarterback in Jayden Maiava who's played his way into first-round talk. His verdict is a top-ten team with a schedule that still decides everything. Along the way: why college football has no leadership and never will, what the WNBA's commissioner shakeup says about the same problem, why Darian Mensah is now the best quarterback in the country, and why Lane Kiffin's LSU noise is going to backfire.
Timeline:
0:00 USC 39-0, and college football's leadership problem
3:17 The fix nobody will make: kill the non-conference season
6:41 Bowman, Mosley, Dixon-Wyatt and the freshman wave
10:26 Ten freshmen, no more redshirts, and Maiava's rise
13:38 The Big Ten gauntlet: good team or great one?
16:16 Darian Mensah is the best quarterback in the country
18:36 Lane Kiffin, LSU, and why noise breaks football teams
22:31 A top-eight job that doesn't need the shtick
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. 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. Listen, there is no such thing as a
vacation when USC opens their season. So let's just talk
(00:26):
some college football here. I'll start with USC. There's something else,
a couple other elements to this discussion I want to
do today on a Saturday morning. Okay, 39-0 over Fresno State.
So USC's played Fresno State before the games, you know,
the Pat Hill years, the head coach. Games were much closer.
John Middlecoff pointed this out, and I was thinking the
(00:48):
same thing watching the game. The power of four conferences,
the ACC, which includes Notre Dame, the Big 12, the
SEC and the Big 10. Those are your four big
conferences now. Right. And, you know, I've said this for years.
I grew up loving boxing. Right. My first job in Vegas,
love boxing. But the reason UFC took it over because
it had a centralized voice. Dana White and the Fertitta
(01:11):
family initially. And boxing didn't. So it was everybody for themselves.
And I've said college football has got kind of that
vibe where it's every conference for itself, every commissioner for itself.
So that's why I've had no problem with Fox and
ESPN stepping in and sort of taking the sport over.
When people say, why are we going to have a
2014 playoff? Because that would be a March madness of football.
(01:33):
And the networks watching college football stumble over itself for decades,
an $ 8 billion annual revenue ecosystem, and they can't get
the schedules even. The first three or four weekends are
awful games. Bob Thompson, former TV executive, network TV executive,
(01:54):
talked about it this past weekend on social media. College
football just whimpers into the season with these lopsided games. Meanwhile,
the NFL starts with New England at Seattle, rematch of
the Super Bowl and Rams Niners. because you have a commissioner,
because you have strong leadership. College football lacks that, but
it's better than boxing, so it will survive, even with
(02:17):
all the turbulence in the offseason and the transfer portal
and the NIL and the nonsense with Lane Kiffin and
LSU and the courts. It's just all nonsense. But the
reality is the quality of the product is so good
with college football when it gets rolling in the first
week of October, the next three months, that it overcomes
no leadership, like the WNBA. Kathy Engelbert, stepping down, retiring, wink, wink. Listen,
(02:43):
she was fun when nobody watched the league or nobody
cared about it, and it didn't turn a profit. The
quality of play in the WNBA over the last several years,
especially when you inject Kaitlyn Clark into the league and
Olivia Wilde and some of these star players, the quality
is really good. They're getting millions of viewers for the
biggest games. They're making a profit. And Kathy Engelbert, she's
(03:05):
just not... up for it. It's just too big. You
have to make too many quick decisions. You have to
be so proactive and quick on your feet, or you
get buried with all the platforms and social media. So
the WNBA needs a big time commissioner. Well, college football
does too, but they'll never get to it. So that's
(03:26):
why I have supported the NIL, the transfer portal, an
expanded college football playoff, because it means somebody else can
take the sport I love over. So if I was
going to do college football, I would get rid of
the non-conference season. I would say every– all the four
major conferences– You play 12 conference games. Everybody gets six
home games. If you want one out-of-conference game to have
(03:49):
a seventh home game to drive revenue, okay. Ohio State
can play Youngstown State. You know, USC can play Fresno State.
But the games are increasingly not going to be even
remotely competitive, not like they ever were, because you've got
USC spending $ 35 million on the NIL. What's Fresno State?
What's San Jose State paying in NIL money? I mean,
I don't even know. Half a million? Maybe? So the
(04:12):
games are so lopsided. And, you know, Middlecoff pointed this out,
like we're just getting past those games being entertaining. And yes,
UMass upsets Rutgers. Who cares? It's Rutgers. Like, why are
they in the Big Ten? Honestly. Now, Princeton, New Jersey,
where they're located, stunning. One of the great college areas
(04:34):
in the country. But does Rutgers feel like the Big Ten?
They're at the very bottom of the conference for football.
So my cake is UNLV or USC hammering Fresno State.
What do I take out of it? Not a lot.
I mean, they got a 35-3 lead on San Jose State. Again,
with $ 30 million in NIL, plus the top recruiting class
(04:54):
in the country that has 10 freshmen on the two
deeps and four starters. And then they beat Fresno State 39-0.
What do I take out of it? Well, there's some
things to take. There's never been a question. In fact,
I think Lincoln Riley and USC lead the nation in
total offense since he took over. And remember, whenever anybody
(05:16):
used to say, well, he's got the same record as
Clay Helton, Clay Helton took over Sark's recruits. Lincoln Riley
took over Clay Helton's recruits. There were no players there.
I had somebody inside the Lincoln Riley staff basically tell
me when they took it over, they had about 35 guys,
not great players, like one lineman. They thought offensive lineman.
(05:38):
They thought that maybe could play offensively. at the NFL level.
They had nobody on the offensive and defensive lines relative
to like the Pete Carroll era. It was a mess.
NFL scouts would whisper, if you go to the practice, like,
what happened to USC? They've got no size. They don't
look like USC. That's one of the first things when
(06:00):
you look at an Ohio State or an LSU or
a Texas or, you know, these top programs, you just
see the linemen, the size, six, seven and a half
offensive tackles, two deeps, defensive line, it's Sunday bodies. So USC,
this is what I take from it. They have those now.
(06:20):
Between their tackles, Page and Tuanu, those look like Sunday bodies.
Alani Noah, guard, that's a Sunday player. And they've actually
got it to young, but they've actually got some four
and five star offensive line depth, which they haven't had
in case of an injury that could step in and
look the part be somewhat formidable. And and on the
(06:44):
defensive line. Again, they have depth. They didn't have to
necessarily go to the transfer portal to get at all
of them. So they look the part. And you see
it on the defensive side where Gary Patterson, a longtime
TCU head coach, very smart defensive guy. I didn't know
if Lincoln and Gary Patterson are kind of different personalities,
but Lincoln lets the defense, kind of lets them do
(07:05):
their thing. But the question about Lincoln's never been offense.
So they dropped 39 points. My takeaway is Mark Bowman,
the freshman tight end, Trent Mosley, Hayden Dixon, Wyatt. These
are phenomenal offensive true freshmen. I mean, Mosley, just to
show you how goofy recruiting is, and I follow some
(07:27):
high school recruiting, not as much now in the NIL era.
I'm more concerned about transfers and maybe two or three
great high school recruits. Trent Mosley was like the 30th
best high school receiver in the country, according to recruiting services.
And I remember somebody tipping me off saying, it may
be the best kid, best wide receiver out of Southern California.
And I said, seven, eight years. And I remember looking
(07:47):
at the YouTube clips or on Hubble, that recruiting website.
And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He was
a dominant high school player for years and years and
years and a great Southern California high school football conference.
So he'll make the, you know, I talked about this
last time we just had one of these. He'll make
the freshman All-American team. He may have already made it
before they got into conference play. He's in a sensational talent,
(08:10):
USC's best wide receiver. And he and Jaden Maiava have
a clear relationship. So but it's not about the offense
running back and wide receiver are positions a freshman can
come in and play, you know, offensive line, quarterback, a
tight end. Now, Bowman's a tremendous blocking tight end as
(08:30):
a freshman. It reminds me of a much more talented
Mark Bruner who came to Washington. Remember Mark Bruner? who
walked in, Don James was the coach, and on a
great stack team, he was a starting tight end as
a true freshman, which was virtually impossible in that day
and age at Washington. Bowman reminds me of that. He
looks like a redshirt senior blocking as a freshman. He
(08:55):
doesn't look like a freshman tight end blocking. He'll get
more refined as a wide receiver. I never doubt Lincoln
Riley can develop offenses, wide receivers, run gains. I never
doubt that. That's not the issue. The issue, and it's
been a fair criticism, can he build toughness or a culture?
We're kind of still waiting for that. He tends to
(09:16):
let defense do their own thing. And Gary Patterson, the
former head coach, at least understands what it's like to
be a head coach. And so I don't think he'll get,
you know, defensive if, you know, I think there are advantages.
You know, when Lane Kiffin would hire like a Sark
or a Lane Kiffin and those guys have been head coaches,
there's a real advantage in that. you know, Bill O'Brien,
(09:39):
you know, they sort of understand sometimes the head coach
has to bark and step in. It's his program, right?
So I think Gary Patterson, Lincoln Roddy will work. My
takeaway is defensively, Luke Waffle, the freshman coming in from
New Jersey, five-star kid, absolutely looks the part, like a
young Bosa. Give him two or three more years in
(10:00):
the weight room, watch out. He's another guy that'll make
the freshman All-American team, that's a guarantee. But there's depth
on the defensive line, and it kind of comes in waves.
I love Erlacher's kid, who was a very, very good,
you know, he went to Notre Dame, and Good recruit
that he decided, I want to go to USC. He's
been so far in the season, tremendous. Again, the competition
(10:24):
isn't that keen. It's not that great. But my takeaway
is they looked the part. Defensively up front. size on
the offensive line, size and some depth on the defensive line.
Ten freshmen in the two deeps, four are starting. And
people say, well, they shouldn't have to start that many freshmen.
It doesn't matter if it's Nick Saban in his prime.
(10:46):
If you have the number one recruiting class, you know,
especially in this day and age, some of those guys
are going to play or they're going to leave. I mean,
now in Nick Saban's prime, we didn't have NIL. And
the transfer portal wasn't what it is today. But in
today's world, if you don't play a five-star freshman or
give him an opportunity to be on the two deeps,
he's gone. So you got to play some of these guys.
(11:08):
And four of them are starting. I wouldn't, they have
a cornerback from Ohio that I think has a chance
to start here pretty quick. Could be five starters, another
five or six on the back end to build depth
in the Big Ten season. But the world's changed now.
You know, red shirting, especially for skill players, receivers, backs, corners,
(11:29):
you got to get them on the field. If they
don't feel like they're getting an opportunity, they're out. So
I don't think it's a sign of weakness that USC
is playing the freshman. I think it's a sign of
their recruiting class and the strength that it brings to
the table. USC looks fast. You know, again, they've looked
fast and quick and twitchy before. Jaden Maiava, who I
(11:51):
saw him play at UNLV, I think the ultimate– Tip
of the cap to Lincoln Riley is I remember watching UNLV.
It was like a Friday night and watching Jane Maiava
for an hour and thinking– and when I heard UNLV
recruited him and signed him, I thought, oh, he's sloppy
and mechanics. He's loose. He's not really– it kind of
(12:15):
just kind of feels like he's the greatest flag football
player you've ever seen in college. He was just all
over the place. He didn't play with instructor. He was really,
really talented. But I'm like, ah, in Lincoln's system, that
doesn't feel like it's going to work. And then he
got to USC and I'm like, ah, there's something there.
But now he's tremendous. And it looks to me, it
(12:37):
looks like a mid to a late first round talent.
Who knows? But I mean, in this class coming up, seven,
eight guys, you could make that argument was so far
for let's let it play out. But I, I, it
is hard. You know, I joke, I like social media
X to me, formerly Twitter is a lot of tongue
(12:59):
in cheek. I do think USC offensively can go toe
to toe with a lot of teams in the country.
There's not going to be a lot of offenses that
have that creativity and NFL offensive tackles, a couple of
running backs, King Miller and Wayman Jordan, I think they're
(13:20):
both really nice, creative, clever backs. Bowman, the tight end, excellent.
Don't care that he's a freshman. Same with the wide receivers.
Don't care how old they are. They're playmakers. That doesn't
That doesn't worry me. It will be about the Big
Ten season. It will be about playing Oregon and Washington
(13:42):
and then Penn State in a very short period. And
when you get to that third game on the road
against Penn State and you're missing three starters because they're
banged up and you don't want them to get really
injured and not be able to play against Ohio State
or Indiana, it's a rough schedule. And that's what it's
all about here. I mean, college football has changed so much. Again,
(14:03):
I would just have... I would start by the second weekend,
week one, week zero, you can play your out-of-conference game.
Week one on, all conference games. Get rid of all
these ugly blowouts, all these lopsided games. I mean, they've
been lopsided for years, but now with the NIL, 25
million-plus teams here, under a million NIL teams, always on
(14:27):
the road at the 25-plus NIL teams, home field. I mean,
Fresno State was completely overwhelmed. They had a pretty interesting
defensive series. They stopped the run, kind of said, okay, USC,
if you're going to beat us, you're going to beat
us throwing the ball. And they did. But I just
don't know. These matchups, college football is more like the NFL. Great.
(14:51):
The league we all watch. The ratings are close. Great.
Let's make it more like the NFL. It's still college football.
You still got to go to class. You have limited
practice hours. The players get paid. They should have been
paid 30 years ago, 50 years ago. It's still college football.
Notre Dame, Northwestern, rigorous academic Stanford environments. It's college football
(15:17):
with guys getting paid. I think USC is good. Are
they great? We'll see. If you're listening to this, you're
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Properties LLC, all NFL-related trademarks are trademarks of the National
Football League. All right, NFL on Netflix is back. Week
one of the upcoming season features the division rivals Rams
against the San Francisco 49ers. Just a great rivalry head-to-head.
First ever regular season game in Australia airing on Netflix
(16:44):
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 first ever Thanksgiving Eve game. That's November 25th
to its play, featuring the Packers visiting the Rams at
SoFi Stadium. That may be a 60, 70, 30 Packer crowd.
(17:07):
Continuing the Christmas Day tradition, Netflix again has two games,
one on Christmas Day, Green Bay Packers visit the improved
Chicago Bears at Soldier Field 1 Eastern, followed by the
Buffalo Bills against the Denver Broncos from Empower Field at
Mile High, 4.30 p.m. Eastern. Then in Week 18, with
playoff stakes on the line, catch the final game of
the regular season live on Netflix. Watch Week 1 of
(17:29):
the NFL on Netflix, starting with the Rams against the Niners,
live only on Netflix Thursday, September 10th, 8.35 p.m. Eastern.
I talked about this the last time we had one
of these is schedule matters like USC schedule. The bottom line,
(17:55):
they're going to have to be either Oregon, Ohio State
or Indiana. They'll beat Washington. I think they'll beat. Penn State, close.
They haven't proven to be a real tough physical road team.
It'll be later in the year. It'll be a little chilly.
LA team flies all the way to the East Coast.
You know it's going to be close. They're going to
have to beat the Buckeyes. Indiana, don't think they match
(18:16):
up very well with Indiana's excellent wide receivers. Or Oregon.
It's in LA. There's a chance. Oregon's pretty stacked, especially
on the OND lines. Pretty stacked. A lot of momentum
in that program. with Dante more at quarterback. So, um,
you should feel good if you're a USC fan. I
(18:37):
do feel like I'm watching a top 10 team in
college football. Um, and when you have a really clever coach,
you have a really, you have an NFL first or
second round quarterback, and you've got some Sunday bodies in
the lines, that's a top 10 team. Uh, I want
to mention something else. Um, Darian Mensah is the quarterback
(18:59):
for Miami. I watched a little bit of them beating Stanford.
Stanford was missing a lot of their offensive line. That
was going to be lopsided. But Miami goes on the road, wins, dominates.
So Mensah was a San Luis Obispo high school phenom quarterback.
Then he goes to Tulane. Then he transfers to Duke.
Don't watch a lot of Duke football. Saw highlights. Then
he goes to Miami. Boy, he's something else. He is
(19:23):
really something else. Now, he has Malachi Toney. who had
12 catches, three touchdowns. He and Jeremiah Smith look to
be the best wide receivers in the country. Mensah is
something else. 45-6 win over Stanford. I can't believe there's
a better college quarterback than Darian Mensah. You can tell
(19:45):
me what you want about CJ Carr, Arch Manning. You
can say whatever you want. Lenora Sellers, Dante Moore. Mensah's
about as good a college quarterback as you're going to get.
And by the way, here's what I love. Plays high
school football in an area that doesn't get a lot
(20:06):
of pubs. Then he goes to Tulane, doesn't get a
lot of pub. And then smart enough kid gets into Duke,
doesn't get a lot of pub. Now he's at Miami.
Now there's going to be some pressure. He's playing with
much better players. I like the journey. He's not a
five-star kid that immediately goes to a dominating program like
(20:26):
Ohio State and sits behind great coaching staff, better talent, Tulane, Duke,
now Miami, which is a big city. It's a lot
of pressure. There's a lot of eyes. I like the journey.
And man, he can spin it. His numbers last night
were great. It was even more impressive. Go to YouTube,
(20:47):
watch him. He is a sensational talent and probably has
the first or second best wide receiver in the country.
So I've said, I think Notre Dame and Miami are
my picks to meet for the second time in the
national championship. Uh, nothing I saw last night other than
USC's dominance would lead me to believe otherwise. Um, Can
(21:12):
I talk LSU and Lane Kiffin for a second? So
I've known Lane for a long time, a long, long time.
And he's a great recruiter. I think he's a very
good offensive coach. I was close to the program when
he got fired by Pat Hayden in a tarmac at LAX.
(21:32):
He wasn't quite ready to be an NFL coach, although
it was a tough spot with the older Al Davis.
And he just, he wasn't quite adult enough sometimes off
the field to be the coach at USC. But he's
a smart guy in terms of offense. His personality, he's
like a troll. He likes to troll. I don't get...
(21:56):
what's going on with LSU now. I don't get it.
So Ed Orgeron and Lane Kiffin are two of the
top five recruiters in the country. Louisiana, for its size,
produces tons of Saturday and Sunday football players. Why would
you need some tight end from the NFL that's going
(22:19):
to create a shitstorm? He's not even going to be
a starter. Like, This is Lane's way. He's being the
noisy kid to get attention. And I think this kind
of stuff ultimately backfires. Like, you know, you get attention
and you get noticed. I don't like noise with my
(22:39):
football teams. I've said this for years. If you go
to the noisiest team in the NFL every offseason, and
this is adults. These are men. These are professionals. The
noisier the team, the more distracted the team. Media has
never been more spread out. there's more opinions. People are
on their phone, including players on that noisy team. It
(23:03):
always unravels. You just want to be quiet. You just
want to go about your business. When I lived in
Los Angeles, you never heard about the Rams. You never
saw the Rams. I mean, Puka Nakua's had some trouble,
but it's a pretty quiet franchise, right? Justin Herbert, Matt Stafford,
you never see them. They're never discussed. loud, noisy, polarizing. Like,
(23:27):
I don't think it works with football. I think football
is a very unique culture. Like in basketball, sometimes we've
got more talent than you do. It's hard to beat,
whether it's AAU college or pro. Football is so much,
I mean, think about how great Andy Reid and Travis
Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes. But if you don't trust your
(23:47):
offensive tackles, you can go to a Super Bowl and
get blown out by the Buccaneers and Brady. Like, the
reality is it has always been about the community. A
bad offensive coordinator can ruin an NFL team. You could
have a five-star coach, receivers. I mean, the Detroit Lions,
you know, have this– Ben Johnson had this super coordinator.
(24:10):
They are a freight train going downhill. He leaves. They
put in, you know, somebody who's been around the NFL
for a while. Obviously, to some degree, knows what he's doing.
And suddenly, the offense was still good, but it didn't
feel the same. And Detroit's like, eh, maybe the window closed.
So then they go out and they try to find,
via the Arizona Cardinals, another offensive coordinator that can kind
(24:33):
of be somewhat similar to Ben Johnson. Many believe, myself included,
they have. But it just shows, it illustrates the importance
of just a coordinator. Forget players. Forget the head coach.
A singular coordinator. Look at the Philadelphia Eagles, who have
been incredibly coordinator-dependent since Nick Sirianni got there. So noise, distractions, loud,
(25:00):
I just don't think plays in football. And Lane's great
at getting attention. There's a new book out about Lane.
I'm getting it sent to my place in Chicago, so
I'm going to read that over the next week. I
think this will ultimately backfire, and I don't think it's necessary.
I think LSU, I don't think this year, too many transfers,
(25:20):
41 new transfers. It's too much movement, hard to build
chemistry and unify everybody in one six-month period. But I
think you can compete for a national championship, absolutely. But
I think this is a hurdle. I don't think it's necessary.
So I think it's backfiring. That's my take. And this
(25:41):
has always sort of been Lane's personality. You know, people
could say he can't get out of his own way.
I think that's somewhat true. But I think he, I
put it this way. LSU is a job where you
don't need hijinks. Like there's six to eight jobs in
college football. Just recruit. You've got the commitment. You've got
(26:04):
the support. You've got the stadium. You've got the facilities.
Go win. A lot of stuff you need to do
at a directional school or Ole Miss, you don't have
to do at Ohio State or Georgia or LSU or Texas.
I think Lane's basically developed one personality, and I don't
think it's necessary at LSU. Maybe at Ole Miss to
(26:25):
get attention. I mean, it got my attention. It's like, oh, oh,
the Lane Kiffin story at Ole Miss. I watched a
lot of Ole Miss games last year. I probably, despite
having a great quarterback, Trinidad Chandler, probably won't watch him
as much this year. So it worked at Ole Miss.
I watch LSU for talent. I watch Ohio State, Notre Dame.
I don't need schtick. And it feels like, yeah, yeah.
(26:49):
Like when you have better players, you just punch people
in the mouth, right? When you got the knockout punch,
you don't have to dance around the octagon. You don't
have to dance around the ring. And so I just
don't like the way it feels. I think LSU is
big boy football. All right, Josh. I'm just spitting here.
I got family in town. This is my last full
(27:12):
day of vacation. Tomorrow I'm flying back to Chicago. And
by the way, you know, like all vacations, labor intensive.
Thinking about it the whole time. Can't get away from it.
But how about USC right now? Is it reasonable to
(27:36):
say that looks like a top seven or eight college
football team in the country through a hard to gauge,
hard to decipher first couple of weeks? It feels reasonable.
The volume. Very excited to say that Bud Light is
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This podcast presented by Bud Light. Easy to drink, easy
to enjoy. Listen, there is no such thing as a
vacation when USC opens their season. So let's just talk
(00:26):
some college football here. I'll start with USC. There's something else,
a couple other elements to this discussion I want to
do today on a Saturday morning. Okay, 39-0 over Fresno State.
So USC's played Fresno State before the games, you know,
the Pat Hill years, the head coach. Games were much closer.
John Middlecoff pointed this out, and I was thinking the
(00:48):
same thing watching the game. The power of four conferences,
the ACC, which includes Notre Dame, the Big 12, the
SEC and the Big 10. Those are your four big
conferences now. Right. And, you know, I've said this for years.
I grew up loving boxing. Right. My first job in Vegas,
love boxing. But the reason UFC took it over because
it had a centralized voice. Dana White and the Fertitta
(01:11):
family initially. And boxing didn't. So it was everybody for themselves.
And I've said college football has got kind of that
vibe where it's every conference for itself, every commissioner for itself.
So that's why I've had no problem with Fox and
ESPN stepping in and sort of taking the sport over.
When people say, why are we going to have a
2014 playoff? Because that would be a March madness of football.
(01:33):
And the networks watching college football stumble over itself for decades,
an $ 8 billion annual revenue ecosystem, and they can't get
the schedules even. The first three or four weekends are
awful games. Bob Thompson, former TV executive, network TV executive,
(01:54):
talked about it this past weekend on social media. College
football just whimpers into the season with these lopsided games. Meanwhile,
the NFL starts with New England at Seattle, rematch of
the Super Bowl and Rams Niners. because you have a commissioner,
because you have strong leadership. College football lacks that, but
it's better than boxing, so it will survive, even with
(02:17):
all the turbulence in the offseason and the transfer portal
and the NIL and the nonsense with Lane Kiffin and
LSU and the courts. It's just all nonsense. But the
reality is the quality of the product is so good
with college football when it gets rolling in the first
week of October, the next three months, that it overcomes
no leadership, like the WNBA. Kathy Engelbert, stepping down, retiring, wink, wink. Listen,
(02:43):
she was fun when nobody watched the league or nobody
cared about it, and it didn't turn a profit. The
quality of play in the WNBA over the last several years,
especially when you inject Kaitlyn Clark into the league and
Olivia Wilde and some of these star players, the quality
is really good. They're getting millions of viewers for the
biggest games. They're making a profit. And Kathy Engelbert, she's
(03:05):
just not... up for it. It's just too big. You
have to make too many quick decisions. You have to
be so proactive and quick on your feet, or you
get buried with all the platforms and social media. So
the WNBA needs a big time commissioner. Well, college football
does too, but they'll never get to it. So that's
(03:26):
why I have supported the NIL, the transfer portal, an
expanded college football playoff, because it means somebody else can
take the sport I love over. So if I was
going to do college football, I would get rid of
the non-conference season. I would say every– all the four
major conferences– You play 12 conference games. Everybody gets six
home games. If you want one out-of-conference game to have
(03:49):
a seventh home game to drive revenue, okay. Ohio State
can play Youngstown State. You know, USC can play Fresno State.
But the games are increasingly not going to be even
remotely competitive, not like they ever were, because you've got
USC spending $ 35 million on the NIL. What's Fresno State?
What's San Jose State paying in NIL money? I mean,
I don't even know. Half a million? Maybe? So the
(04:12):
games are so lopsided. And, you know, Middlecoff pointed this out,
like we're just getting past those games being entertaining. And yes,
UMass upsets Rutgers. Who cares? It's Rutgers. Like, why are
they in the Big Ten? Honestly. Now, Princeton, New Jersey,
where they're located, stunning. One of the great college areas
(04:34):
in the country. But does Rutgers feel like the Big Ten?
They're at the very bottom of the conference for football.
So my cake is UNLV or USC hammering Fresno State.
What do I take out of it? Not a lot.
I mean, they got a 35-3 lead on San Jose State. Again,
with $ 30 million in NIL, plus the top recruiting class
(04:54):
in the country that has 10 freshmen on the two
deeps and four starters. And then they beat Fresno State 39-0.
What do I take out of it? Well, there's some
things to take. There's never been a question. In fact,
I think Lincoln Riley and USC lead the nation in
total offense since he took over. And remember, whenever anybody
(05:16):
used to say, well, he's got the same record as
Clay Helton, Clay Helton took over Sark's recruits. Lincoln Riley
took over Clay Helton's recruits. There were no players there.
I had somebody inside the Lincoln Riley staff basically tell
me when they took it over, they had about 35 guys,
not great players, like one lineman. They thought offensive lineman.
(05:38):
They thought that maybe could play offensively. at the NFL level.
They had nobody on the offensive and defensive lines relative
to like the Pete Carroll era. It was a mess.
NFL scouts would whisper, if you go to the practice, like,
what happened to USC? They've got no size. They don't
look like USC. That's one of the first things when
(06:00):
you look at an Ohio State or an LSU or
a Texas or, you know, these top programs, you just
see the linemen, the size, six, seven and a half
offensive tackles, two deeps, defensive line, it's Sunday bodies. So USC,
this is what I take from it. They have those now.
(06:20):
Between their tackles, Page and Tuanu, those look like Sunday bodies.
Alani Noah, guard, that's a Sunday player. And they've actually
got it to young, but they've actually got some four
and five star offensive line depth, which they haven't had
in case of an injury that could step in and
look the part be somewhat formidable. And and on the
(06:44):
defensive line. Again, they have depth. They didn't have to
necessarily go to the transfer portal to get at all
of them. So they look the part. And you see
it on the defensive side where Gary Patterson, a longtime
TCU head coach, very smart defensive guy. I didn't know
if Lincoln and Gary Patterson are kind of different personalities,
but Lincoln lets the defense, kind of lets them do
(07:05):
their thing. But the question about Lincoln's never been offense.
So they dropped 39 points. My takeaway is Mark Bowman,
the freshman tight end, Trent Mosley, Hayden Dixon, Wyatt. These
are phenomenal offensive true freshmen. I mean, Mosley, just to
show you how goofy recruiting is, and I follow some
(07:27):
high school recruiting, not as much now in the NIL era.
I'm more concerned about transfers and maybe two or three
great high school recruits. Trent Mosley was like the 30th
best high school receiver in the country, according to recruiting services.
And I remember somebody tipping me off saying, it may
be the best kid, best wide receiver out of Southern California.
And I said, seven, eight years. And I remember looking
(07:47):
at the YouTube clips or on Hubble, that recruiting website.
And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He was
a dominant high school player for years and years and
years and a great Southern California high school football conference.
So he'll make the, you know, I talked about this
last time we just had one of these. He'll make
the freshman All-American team. He may have already made it
before they got into conference play. He's in a sensational talent,
(08:10):
USC's best wide receiver. And he and Jaden Maiava have
a clear relationship. So but it's not about the offense
running back and wide receiver are positions a freshman can
come in and play, you know, offensive line, quarterback, a
tight end. Now, Bowman's a tremendous blocking tight end as
(08:30):
a freshman. It reminds me of a much more talented
Mark Bruner who came to Washington. Remember Mark Bruner? who
walked in, Don James was the coach, and on a
great stack team, he was a starting tight end as
a true freshman, which was virtually impossible in that day
and age at Washington. Bowman reminds me of that. He
looks like a redshirt senior blocking as a freshman. He
(08:55):
doesn't look like a freshman tight end blocking. He'll get
more refined as a wide receiver. I never doubt Lincoln
Riley can develop offenses, wide receivers, run gains. I never
doubt that. That's not the issue. The issue, and it's
been a fair criticism, can he build toughness or a culture?
We're kind of still waiting for that. He tends to
(09:16):
let defense do their own thing. And Gary Patterson, the
former head coach, at least understands what it's like to
be a head coach. And so I don't think he'll get,
you know, defensive if, you know, I think there are advantages.
You know, when Lane Kiffin would hire like a Sark
or a Lane Kiffin and those guys have been head coaches,
there's a real advantage in that. you know, Bill O'Brien,
(09:39):
you know, they sort of understand sometimes the head coach
has to bark and step in. It's his program, right?
So I think Gary Patterson, Lincoln Roddy will work. My
takeaway is defensively, Luke Waffle, the freshman coming in from
New Jersey, five-star kid, absolutely looks the part, like a
young Bosa. Give him two or three more years in
(10:00):
the weight room, watch out. He's another guy that'll make
the freshman All-American team, that's a guarantee. But there's depth
on the defensive line, and it kind of comes in waves.
I love Erlacher's kid, who was a very, very good,
you know, he went to Notre Dame, and Good recruit
that he decided, I want to go to USC. He's
been so far in the season, tremendous. Again, the competition
(10:24):
isn't that keen. It's not that great. But my takeaway
is they looked the part. Defensively up front. size on
the offensive line, size and some depth on the defensive line.
Ten freshmen in the two deeps, four are starting. And
people say, well, they shouldn't have to start that many freshmen.
It doesn't matter if it's Nick Saban in his prime.
(10:46):
If you have the number one recruiting class, you know,
especially in this day and age, some of those guys
are going to play or they're going to leave. I mean,
now in Nick Saban's prime, we didn't have NIL. And
the transfer portal wasn't what it is today. But in
today's world, if you don't play a five-star freshman or
give him an opportunity to be on the two deeps,
he's gone. So you got to play some of these guys.
(11:08):
And four of them are starting. I wouldn't, they have
a cornerback from Ohio that I think has a chance
to start here pretty quick. Could be five starters, another
five or six on the back end to build depth
in the Big Ten season. But the world's changed now.
You know, red shirting, especially for skill players, receivers, backs, corners,
(11:29):
you got to get them on the field. If they
don't feel like they're getting an opportunity, they're out. So
I don't think it's a sign of weakness that USC
is playing the freshman. I think it's a sign of
their recruiting class and the strength that it brings to
the table. USC looks fast. You know, again, they've looked
fast and quick and twitchy before. Jaden Maiava, who I
(11:51):
saw him play at UNLV, I think the ultimate– Tip
of the cap to Lincoln Riley is I remember watching UNLV.
It was like a Friday night and watching Jane Maiava
for an hour and thinking– and when I heard UNLV
recruited him and signed him, I thought, oh, he's sloppy
and mechanics. He's loose. He's not really– it kind of
(12:15):
just kind of feels like he's the greatest flag football
player you've ever seen in college. He was just all
over the place. He didn't play with instructor. He was really,
really talented. But I'm like, ah, in Lincoln's system, that
doesn't feel like it's going to work. And then he
got to USC and I'm like, ah, there's something there.
But now he's tremendous. And it looks to me, it
(12:37):
looks like a mid to a late first round talent.
Who knows? But I mean, in this class coming up, seven,
eight guys, you could make that argument was so far
for let's let it play out. But I, I, it
is hard. You know, I joke, I like social media
X to me, formerly Twitter is a lot of tongue
(12:59):
in cheek. I do think USC offensively can go toe
to toe with a lot of teams in the country.
There's not going to be a lot of offenses that
have that creativity and NFL offensive tackles, a couple of
running backs, King Miller and Wayman Jordan, I think they're
(13:20):
both really nice, creative, clever backs. Bowman, the tight end, excellent.
Don't care that he's a freshman. Same with the wide receivers.
Don't care how old they are. They're playmakers. That doesn't
That doesn't worry me. It will be about the Big
Ten season. It will be about playing Oregon and Washington
(13:42):
and then Penn State in a very short period. And
when you get to that third game on the road
against Penn State and you're missing three starters because they're
banged up and you don't want them to get really
injured and not be able to play against Ohio State
or Indiana, it's a rough schedule. And that's what it's
all about here. I mean, college football has changed so much. Again,
(14:03):
I would just have... I would start by the second weekend,
week one, week zero, you can play your out-of-conference game.
Week one on, all conference games. Get rid of all
these ugly blowouts, all these lopsided games. I mean, they've
been lopsided for years, but now with the NIL, 25
million-plus teams here, under a million NIL teams, always on
(14:27):
the road at the 25-plus NIL teams, home field. I mean,
Fresno State was completely overwhelmed. They had a pretty interesting
defensive series. They stopped the run, kind of said, okay, USC,
if you're going to beat us, you're going to beat
us throwing the ball. And they did. But I just
don't know. These matchups, college football is more like the NFL. Great.
(14:51):
The league we all watch. The ratings are close. Great.
Let's make it more like the NFL. It's still college football.
You still got to go to class. You have limited
practice hours. The players get paid. They should have been
paid 30 years ago, 50 years ago. It's still college football.
Notre Dame, Northwestern, rigorous academic Stanford environments. It's college football
(15:17):
with guys getting paid. I think USC is good. Are
they great? We'll see. If you're listening to this, you're
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(16:22):
Properties LLC, all NFL-related trademarks are trademarks of the National
Football League. All right, NFL on Netflix is back. Week
one of the upcoming season features the division rivals Rams
against the San Francisco 49ers. Just a great rivalry head-to-head.
First ever regular season game in Australia airing on Netflix
(16:44):
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 first ever Thanksgiving Eve game. That's November 25th
to its play, featuring the Packers visiting the Rams at
SoFi Stadium. That may be a 60, 70, 30 Packer crowd.
(17:07):
Continuing the Christmas Day tradition, Netflix again has two games,
one on Christmas Day, Green Bay Packers visit the improved
Chicago Bears at Soldier Field 1 Eastern, followed by the
Buffalo Bills against the Denver Broncos from Empower Field at
Mile High, 4.30 p.m. Eastern. Then in Week 18, with
playoff stakes on the line, catch the final game of
the regular season live on Netflix. Watch Week 1 of
(17:29):
the NFL on Netflix, starting with the Rams against the Niners,
live only on Netflix Thursday, September 10th, 8.35 p.m. Eastern.
I talked about this the last time we had one
of these is schedule matters like USC schedule. The bottom line,
(17:55):
they're going to have to be either Oregon, Ohio State
or Indiana. They'll beat Washington. I think they'll beat. Penn State, close.
They haven't proven to be a real tough physical road team.
It'll be later in the year. It'll be a little chilly.
LA team flies all the way to the East Coast.
You know it's going to be close. They're going to
have to beat the Buckeyes. Indiana, don't think they match
(18:16):
up very well with Indiana's excellent wide receivers. Or Oregon.
It's in LA. There's a chance. Oregon's pretty stacked, especially
on the OND lines. Pretty stacked. A lot of momentum
in that program. with Dante more at quarterback. So, um,
you should feel good if you're a USC fan. I
(18:37):
do feel like I'm watching a top 10 team in
college football. Um, and when you have a really clever coach,
you have a really, you have an NFL first or
second round quarterback, and you've got some Sunday bodies in
the lines, that's a top 10 team. Uh, I want
to mention something else. Um, Darian Mensah is the quarterback
(18:59):
for Miami. I watched a little bit of them beating Stanford.
Stanford was missing a lot of their offensive line. That
was going to be lopsided. But Miami goes on the road, wins, dominates.
So Mensah was a San Luis Obispo high school phenom quarterback.
Then he goes to Tulane. Then he transfers to Duke.
Don't watch a lot of Duke football. Saw highlights. Then
he goes to Miami. Boy, he's something else. He is
(19:23):
really something else. Now, he has Malachi Toney. who had
12 catches, three touchdowns. He and Jeremiah Smith look to
be the best wide receivers in the country. Mensah is
something else. 45-6 win over Stanford. I can't believe there's
a better college quarterback than Darian Mensah. You can tell
(19:45):
me what you want about CJ Carr, Arch Manning. You
can say whatever you want. Lenora Sellers, Dante Moore. Mensah's
about as good a college quarterback as you're going to get.
And by the way, here's what I love. Plays high
school football in an area that doesn't get a lot
(20:06):
of pubs. Then he goes to Tulane, doesn't get a
lot of pub. And then smart enough kid gets into Duke,
doesn't get a lot of pub. Now he's at Miami.
Now there's going to be some pressure. He's playing with
much better players. I like the journey. He's not a
five-star kid that immediately goes to a dominating program like
(20:26):
Ohio State and sits behind great coaching staff, better talent, Tulane, Duke,
now Miami, which is a big city. It's a lot
of pressure. There's a lot of eyes. I like the journey.
And man, he can spin it. His numbers last night
were great. It was even more impressive. Go to YouTube,
(20:47):
watch him. He is a sensational talent and probably has
the first or second best wide receiver in the country.
So I've said, I think Notre Dame and Miami are
my picks to meet for the second time in the
national championship. Uh, nothing I saw last night other than
USC's dominance would lead me to believe otherwise. Um, Can
(21:12):
I talk LSU and Lane Kiffin for a second? So
I've known Lane for a long time, a long, long time.
And he's a great recruiter. I think he's a very
good offensive coach. I was close to the program when
he got fired by Pat Hayden in a tarmac at LAX.
(21:32):
He wasn't quite ready to be an NFL coach, although
it was a tough spot with the older Al Davis.
And he just, he wasn't quite adult enough sometimes off
the field to be the coach at USC. But he's
a smart guy in terms of offense. His personality, he's
like a troll. He likes to troll. I don't get...
(21:56):
what's going on with LSU now. I don't get it.
So Ed Orgeron and Lane Kiffin are two of the
top five recruiters in the country. Louisiana, for its size,
produces tons of Saturday and Sunday football players. Why would
you need some tight end from the NFL that's going
(22:19):
to create a shitstorm? He's not even going to be
a starter. Like, This is Lane's way. He's being the
noisy kid to get attention. And I think this kind
of stuff ultimately backfires. Like, you know, you get attention
and you get noticed. I don't like noise with my
(22:39):
football teams. I've said this for years. If you go
to the noisiest team in the NFL every offseason, and
this is adults. These are men. These are professionals. The
noisier the team, the more distracted the team. Media has
never been more spread out. there's more opinions. People are
on their phone, including players on that noisy team. It
(23:03):
always unravels. You just want to be quiet. You just
want to go about your business. When I lived in
Los Angeles, you never heard about the Rams. You never
saw the Rams. I mean, Puka Nakua's had some trouble,
but it's a pretty quiet franchise, right? Justin Herbert, Matt Stafford,
you never see them. They're never discussed. loud, noisy, polarizing. Like,
(23:27):
I don't think it works with football. I think football
is a very unique culture. Like in basketball, sometimes we've
got more talent than you do. It's hard to beat,
whether it's AAU college or pro. Football is so much,
I mean, think about how great Andy Reid and Travis
Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes. But if you don't trust your
(23:47):
offensive tackles, you can go to a Super Bowl and
get blown out by the Buccaneers and Brady. Like, the
reality is it has always been about the community. A
bad offensive coordinator can ruin an NFL team. You could
have a five-star coach, receivers. I mean, the Detroit Lions,
you know, have this– Ben Johnson had this super coordinator.
(24:10):
They are a freight train going downhill. He leaves. They
put in, you know, somebody who's been around the NFL
for a while. Obviously, to some degree, knows what he's doing.
And suddenly, the offense was still good, but it didn't
feel the same. And Detroit's like, eh, maybe the window closed.
So then they go out and they try to find,
via the Arizona Cardinals, another offensive coordinator that can kind
(24:33):
of be somewhat similar to Ben Johnson. Many believe, myself included,
they have. But it just shows, it illustrates the importance
of just a coordinator. Forget players. Forget the head coach.
A singular coordinator. Look at the Philadelphia Eagles, who have
been incredibly coordinator-dependent since Nick Sirianni got there. So noise, distractions, loud,
(25:00):
I just don't think plays in football. And Lane's great
at getting attention. There's a new book out about Lane.
I'm getting it sent to my place in Chicago, so
I'm going to read that over the next week. I
think this will ultimately backfire, and I don't think it's necessary.
I think LSU, I don't think this year, too many transfers,
(25:20):
41 new transfers. It's too much movement, hard to build
chemistry and unify everybody in one six-month period. But I
think you can compete for a national championship, absolutely. But
I think this is a hurdle. I don't think it's necessary.
So I think it's backfiring. That's my take. And this
(25:41):
has always sort of been Lane's personality. You know, people
could say he can't get out of his own way.
I think that's somewhat true. But I think he, I
put it this way. LSU is a job where you
don't need hijinks. Like there's six to eight jobs in
college football. Just recruit. You've got the commitment. You've got
(26:04):
the support. You've got the stadium. You've got the facilities.
Go win. A lot of stuff you need to do
at a directional school or Ole Miss, you don't have
to do at Ohio State or Georgia or LSU or Texas.
I think Lane's basically developed one personality, and I don't
think it's necessary at LSU. Maybe at Ole Miss to
(26:25):
get attention. I mean, it got my attention. It's like, oh, oh,
the Lane Kiffin story at Ole Miss. I watched a
lot of Ole Miss games last year. I probably, despite
having a great quarterback, Trinidad Chandler, probably won't watch him
as much this year. So it worked at Ole Miss.
I watch LSU for talent. I watch Ohio State, Notre Dame.
I don't need schtick. And it feels like, yeah, yeah.
(26:49):
Like when you have better players, you just punch people
in the mouth, right? When you got the knockout punch,
you don't have to dance around the octagon. You don't
have to dance around the ring. And so I just
don't like the way it feels. I think LSU is
big boy football. All right, Josh. I'm just spitting here.
I got family in town. This is my last full
(27:12):
day of vacation. Tomorrow I'm flying back to Chicago. And
by the way, you know, like all vacations, labor intensive.
Thinking about it the whole time. Can't get away from it.
But how about USC right now? Is it reasonable to
(27:36):
say that looks like a top seven or eight college
football team in the country through a hard to gauge,
hard to decipher first couple of weeks? It feels reasonable.
Host
Colin Cowherd
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