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January 9, 2026 41 mins

Dan previews tonight’s College Football Playoff Semifinal between Oregon and Indiana.  College football broadcaster Chris Fowler joins Dan and discusses the officiating in the Miami/Ole Miss game, weighs in on automatic bids for the playoffs, and why Indiana’s Curt Cignetti isn’t thinking about moving to the NFL.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's our two on this Friday. Morale is high, and
so are we. Come on in and stay awhile Fritzy
seat and Marv Paula yours truly in the back room,
guys Dylan in the kitchen as we speak, We've got
hambone soup, cheeseburger and banadas. We have pork and banadas,
and we have chreso and panadas. Who has it better

(00:30):
than we do? No stat of the Day brought to
you by Panini America, the official trading cards of the program.
Sunday Night. Justin Herbert leads the Chargers against Drake May
and the Patriots. I like how they give me the
information here on the promotional copy. Only one team will

(00:52):
be left standing. Go figure. That would mean it's a
must win situation for both of these teams. It feels
like okay. Wild Card Weekend Sunday, seven thirty Eastern on
NBC and Peacock. Yes, Bo, put a little more sauce
on it. Only one team will be left standing. This

(01:13):
is wild Card Weekend, Sunday, seven thirty Eastern only on
NBC and Peacock. In a world Oh Speaking of movies,
I just saw Have you seen the trailer for Primate?
It's it's in theaters today.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Oh is it?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes? Okay, so here's the copy. It says, a family's
beloved pet chimpanzee, Ben contracts rabies during a tropical vacation
and turns into a violent rabid killer, terrorizing his owners
in a confined glasshouse, featuring themes of broken trust and survival. Okay,

(01:59):
The question I have is the problem is you have
a pet chimpanzee to start with there, and then it
contracts rabies during that tropical vacation and turns into a
violent rabbit killer. Don't get the chimpanzee to begin with.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yes, boy, I'm looking at the reviews and so far
seventy seven percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes. I don't recognize
any of the stars, but I'm not saying they're not
big name people.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
This feels like if what's his name, Liam Neeson was
in it, though, we would be possibly the greatest movie
of the year, Or if like rape Fines, Oh, if
he played the primate or whatever, Yeah, that would be awesome.
And he played Yeah, you're right, You're like, Oh, there's
certain actors that if they were in this movie, then

(02:52):
like if Leonardo DiCaprio was in this one, and be like, man,
he's in primate.

Speaker 5 (02:58):
Yes, Tom, as long as that neighbor the denial, Mike
pet Chimp is always so calm and tote. Someone must
have taunted it. Did you like put a banana in
his face something. It's got to be your fault that
has started attacking everybody.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
We say good morning. If you're watching on Peacock, that's
our streaming partner, and download the app if you haven't
done so, if you'd like to watch this program unfold
right before your very eyes, We say good morning to
our radio affiliates around the country. Congratulations on the you.
Although I will say I don't think anybody on Miami's team,
I don't think anybody on Miami's coaching staff was more

(03:31):
excited last night than Michael Irvin. I think that that
is probably fair to say. Mike was the hype man
on the sidelines. Kid gets his bell rung, he's over
on the sidelines, Mike is there pumping him up. I
don't know if he was involved in play calling, but
he was as close as you could possibly get to
going into the game. Miami had the ball for forty

(03:54):
one minutes. It's the largest time of possession in any
college football playoff game in history as part of the BCS.
So that goes back to twenty thirteen. Chris Faller was
on the call. He'll join us coming up in about
twenty minutes from now. Pole question for hour two. We
got some phone calls to get what are we going

(04:14):
to go with?

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, we got up there right now, the final play
of the Fiesta Bowl. Should that have been flagged or
should it not have been flagged?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Right now?

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Man, this one's real close. We're going to keep this
one up there for a little bit because it's about
fifty to fifty Okay, Yeah, yeah, I really don't know either.
I feel like, you know, the whole thing for me
with that play was the lead up to it and
all of the flags that had been thrown and you
could just feel it, especially in the fourth quarter, you
knew that there was going to be one play that Man,
they're not going to throw the flag on this one.

(04:44):
It's going to be like, what the heck? You just
threw it on the past five and now on this
one you did in and it.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Ends up being that play and I think it's a
great point because I want to know how you're calling
the game, and if you play or you're coaching, you
want to know what is going to get called and
what's not going to get called. It's like Seattle with
the Legion of Boom. They knew you weren't going to
call every pass interference, right, so they just interfered with
you as much as possible.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
I mean, is no one being held on that Carson
Beck touchdown? I don't know, but the flag wasn't thrown.
Well the left tackle did the defensive lineman?

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yes, how did he get that? Well?

Speaker 3 (05:19):
You see all that space they just casually strolled, didn't
they How did he get that?

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Maybe there was holding, but the flag wasn't thrown.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
And then you got the game tonight. Indiana, I think
is still a three and a half point favorite against Oregon,
and you got storylines here, which is what we love.
You got the Heisman Trophy winner, you go against Oregon again.
Brady Quinn was on with his last hour and he said,
you know, Indiana's physicality probably surprised Oregon, and they won't
be surprised, but can they be as physical with Indiana, Indiana.

(05:51):
That's a big team, a physical team, and that head
coach he wants to run the football. Also, Brady Quinn
did talk about the quarterback for Oregon, Dante More, and
he said, now I'm paraphrasing here, it felt like he
thought Dante Moore, if he does come out, has a
chance to be the number one player taken, and he

(06:15):
liked him a lot more or not. Once again, I
want to make sure that I'm fair to Brady, but
it sounded like he liked Dante Moore as a pro
prospect better than Fernando Mendoza. I just need to see
more games with Dante Moore. And look, it's probably not
fair to him, but if I look at the track
record here of these guys who have fifteen twenty starts,

(06:38):
not necessarily a good track record going into the NFL,
I need to see more. Well, no pun intended there, Tom,
You see what I did more Dante Moore, d Seymore,
Thank you eight seven to seven three DP show operator
Tyler sitting by, He'll take your calls. We'll look at
what would be the biggest upset this weekend, also the

(07:00):
most must win game of the weekend, and who had
the best week in sports. Buddha in San Francisco. Hi Buddha,
what's on your own buddy?

Speaker 6 (07:11):
Happy meet Friday Boys, every day the super Bowl, Baby,
let's go. Thank you Todd, Dan, real quick, little housekeeping.
You guys are trying to reconcile the pies of the
Face Bets Sour and Marvin O's for our bett for
the World Series. Just wanted to bring that to your attention.
And I was bummed about Old Miss going down last

(07:33):
night with what was deemed as mutual contact. And but
to your point, Dan, when you're opening the show, I
think Lane leaving kind of really galvanized the Old Old
Miss players and team and inspired their run.

Speaker 7 (07:46):
So kudos to.

Speaker 8 (07:46):
Them, man, they should be proud.

Speaker 6 (07:48):
And lastly, then I'm super excited for the game this weekend.
And I mean, Kyl has coached his ass off and
he's done a hell of a job. Maybe we can
hire the priest that the Steelers hired to bless our
ends on and we can get them to bless our
defense setting into Philly. And good luck to you Winnie
and Kevin tonight, Dan, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
I got the h the animal psychic that's tonight. I'm
sitting down with Winnie and I'm zooming with animal psychic
and uh, and then my daughter comes in with her
Maine coon cat, Kevin, and then she gets a half
hour with the animal psychic. This is now something weird

(08:29):
could come up tonight. Okay, because when I first got Winnie,
if you're watching on Peacock, you' see here sleeping. When
we first adopted her, we saw our picture on a
website and her name was Penny because her coat looks like,
you know, the color of a penny. We changed it
because the big Germans dog is named Penny. Now, I

(08:50):
don't know if this psychic is going to say, hey,
Winnie would like to go back to being called Penny,
because if she does some recent search here on my dog,
she could probably find out that Winnie was Penny when
they put her up on the website. So we could have,
you know, an identity situation here. But that'll be tonight.

(09:13):
I'll talk about this on Monday. But I'm going in
open minded that maybe I can learn more about my
dog and my daughter is going to learn more about
her cat.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yes, Paul, are you going to be asking questions on
behalf of your dog?

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Is that the pot. I don't know if I can
do that.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
I think you have to because the dog is going
to be well.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Do I say, does does Winnie love me? Is Winnie healthy?
Does would Winnie? Would Winnie take a bullet for me?

Speaker 9 (09:41):
Conservative?

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Does Winnie love me more than my wife does? Wow?

Speaker 9 (09:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Well, I don't know how deep. You know. I'm really
good at asking questions. I don't know if this psychic
is ready for this interrogation. All right, but that that's
coming up later on tonight. I got a big night
ahead of me, animal psychic. And and then I've got
college football as well. Fred in South Carolina? Hi, Fred,
what's on your mind?

Speaker 7 (10:07):
Good born?

Speaker 10 (10:08):
At dan as Dan is?

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Hey?

Speaker 7 (10:10):
Who do we feel most sorry for? Oh miss or
the referees or college football? I know we want to
get it right, but boy, we can take it into basketball.

Speaker 8 (10:21):
With that last shot.

Speaker 7 (10:22):
And I, you know, a foul on the arms, it's
just a shame. Yeah, it's not a perfect world, but
we're trying to get it right.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
And I don't feel bad for college football. I mean, okay,
was it a horrible non call? No? I don't think so,
but it's close. And because they were calling this, you know,
in prior plays in the game. You know that that's
where I would want to know. Okay, were you, you know,

(10:50):
calling these real ticki tac fouls? But that's that's not
the story of the game. It's not it shouldn't be.
I hope it's not. But it was, you know, a
play that we got to see the replay and you
got to see contact there. Gary and Indiana not to
be confused with Gary Indiana.

Speaker 11 (11:10):
Happy New Year boys. I'm I'm calling because I'm Team Toddler.
With this Mendoza thing. It got me thinking back to
the movie Ten Cup when Kevin Costner told Rene Russo,
I want to tell you about your boyfriend you don't
know about. He hates old people, children, and dogs. Then
you fast forward later in the movie, Don Johnson's character

(11:33):
gets done doing an interview, walking off, and he's smiling
and waving and gets back behind the curtain and lights
up a heater and his manager comes over and starts
talking to him. And this old couple shows up with
their grandson and they're holding a dog, and he berates
them and he says, do I bother you when you
go into work? No, leave me alone, and he's he's

(11:54):
walking away. He's like, and you got an ugly dog too.
Now I'm not saying Mendoza is like that, but I'm
just saying it.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
You're okay, it sounds like you are, Gary, What do
you you know? If this is his personality or the
personality that he presents, then I'm fine with it. I
just want to know if he can play football. Well,
I've seen a lot of athletes over the years, and
they're not the person you see when they're on camera,

(12:23):
but they live that life. Okay, that's Fernando Mendoza is
a great story. We should not take that away from him.
If you don't believe in his personality. He's just too
nice and Todd see what she started.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
I don't believe he's some kind of Doctor Jekyll mister
Hyde and it's some kind of big act.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
It's just it's very disney Esque.

Speaker 5 (12:44):
When you see the super happy employees at Disney when
you're walking around disney World at Disneyland, where it's much
we know.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
They're they're asked to do that, what they're paid to be,
they get paid to be. Even still, the fact that
they can can you imagine if Todd was his stuffed
animal at Disney World. Get me out of here. Yeah,
oh yeah, it's true. Can't breathe yeah, Pully.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Well, the thing about Mendos it's it's unique to have
someone to have such a positive mentality at all times,
like an early Russell Wilson.

Speaker 9 (13:13):
But I can remember you.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
I think when you meet people like that, you're thrown
off because most people are more cynical and more calm
or whatever you want to say. But I remember the
first time we met Tony really in person. I'm like,
how can anyone be that energetic and that positive all
the time? But every time I've talked to him or
met him since, he's always the same guy. Yeah, whatever's
behind it. I have no idea, but I love and
you're almost like jealous of people like that a little bit.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Mike in Washington, Hi Mike, what's on your mind? Hey Mike?
How about oh we got Mike here?

Speaker 8 (13:50):
You got me now?

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Okay?

Speaker 6 (13:51):
Yeah, that'd hey.

Speaker 12 (13:54):
So for to debate the pie to the faith bets,
maybe callers can in Dayton Times when they call in
and say, I bet frishday today at seven fourteen my time,
that my Seattle Seahawks are going to make it further
than his Denver Ponies in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Okay, or maybe Tyler can just write these things down
when the callers call in. But yeah, we we have
to log this because we got a few stray pies
that they're they're coming your way. Yes, Marv, So we
take this in March. You said, well, we were looking
at three fourteen, which would be Pie three point one four.

(14:37):
But I think that's a Saturday time.

Speaker 5 (14:39):
Yeah, because March Madness is Sunday, the fifteenth selection Sunday.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
All right, we'll do it Friday, good Friday.

Speaker 13 (14:45):
Friday to thirteenth.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Yeah, yeah, it'll be Pie Day the thirteenth.

Speaker 9 (14:51):
Yeah, we did it.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Salvage da see what we did?

Speaker 13 (14:53):
You very much? Salvage that.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, right, Fresh in Milwaukee, Hi, Fresh, what's on your mind?

Speaker 14 (15:00):
What's up?

Speaker 8 (15:01):
DPN?

Speaker 13 (15:01):
But the boys?

Speaker 14 (15:02):
How got doing this Friday?

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Nobody?

Speaker 14 (15:07):
Nobody? I got a statement in the question DP. First
of all, thank you saying man for the No.

Speaker 8 (15:13):
Two thousand yards.

Speaker 14 (15:15):
To get Derrick Henry in the movie this year. And also,
can you explain having great stats but not being a
great player? And who else is in this category besides
Trey Young.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
You know, it's a great question because I did think
about that when I heard the show back where I
talked about Trey Young. I don't think he's a great player.
I think he has great stats. I think, you know,
scoring and assist. I just don't there's meaningless. There's more
meaningful stats like Bradley Beal put up great numbers. I
don't think he was a great player. Now you can say, well,

(15:49):
he wasn't on a great team. I grew up and
I saw Nate Archibald play. He led the league in
scoring an assist, and I thought that he was amazing.
But he was the only thing that Cincinnati Royals had.
But he led the league in scoring and assist for
a last place team, by the way, So I think

(16:10):
you can get numbers for a bad team. I don't
think that Trey Young is the guy that you go
he can be the difference, like he when we're going
into a game and he's our advantage over your best guy.
And you know, maybe it's semantics here, but I just
I think Trey Young is a curiosity.

Speaker 15 (16:33):
I don't think that he's a great player. Yes, Marv,
he might be. He might not be a winning player.
I think that's the difference. If you put up that
many points in that many assists. You're a really good player.
At least you can't just say he's an okay player
and you put up twenty seven points in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Well, CJ McCollum, you know, put up big numbers. He
wasn't a great player.

Speaker 13 (16:56):
Never put up big numbers.

Speaker 15 (16:57):
Not he didn't put up Trey Young numbers.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, but he averages nineteen for his career. I think
I don't know why. Well, they were involved in the trade,
that blockbuster trade.

Speaker 11 (17:06):
That can know.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
We'll revisit this, and I got Chris Faller. You can't
let Chris Fowler wait in a busy night last night.
We'll take a break. We're back after this.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Calvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 16 (17:30):
And in addition to hearing us live weeknights from seven
to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, we are
excited to announce brand new YouTube channel for the show.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
That's right, you can now watch The Odd Couple live
on YouTube every day.

Speaker 16 (17:45):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube
again YouTube, Just search Odd Couple FSR. Check us out
on YouTube and subscribe.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
More of your phone calls coming up. Chris Fowler was
on the call for last night. It's Fiesta Bowl between
Miami and Ole Miss, and he'll be there for the
National title game on Monday. That'll be at seven thirty
Eastern on the mother Ship and then he heads down
Under for the Australian Open on ESPN Networks. You kind
of go into a game with all the different scenarios

(18:17):
like this could happen or what if this happens? How
often are you surprised in a game?

Speaker 13 (18:24):
Pretty often because college football, dan, as you know, is
often messy. It's not neat tidy, it's controversial, it's noisy,
it's beautiful, and we had all of that in that
game last night. I mean, if you think about the
small moments I've been reliving sort of the end of
the game situation because that was the most dramatic and memorable,
but all the little moments that gets you there. Oh

(18:45):
Miss Lucas Carnero is a great kicker, hits the left
upright twice, doinks it twice on consecutive field goals. One
stays out, one goes in.

Speaker 9 (18:53):
Because it's this far to the right.

Speaker 13 (18:56):
All the Miami dropped about four interceptions, but guys kept
making amazing plays. And you know, I hate to say
this because it's a cliche, but you really did hate
to see Trinidan Chambliss and Ole Miss that group of
guys that have been through so much walk off defeat
it yesterday. Only one team could survive, and Miami deserved it.
But man, it was it was I didn't expect a

(19:17):
lot of things I saw last night, that's for sure.
Carson Beck running the ball for a touchdown was not
on my Bengo par for that end of game situation.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Okay, the non call with that final play, your thoughts
on now. And I'll preface this by saying, I always
look at how the game is going to get called.
You know, they calling everything or they letting them you know, play,
But and they were calling a lot and that's why
I I was a little bit surprised that they didn't

(19:46):
call something on that play.

Speaker 9 (19:48):
Yeah, I'll get to that in a second.

Speaker 13 (19:49):
I mean, the reason why it's it's tough to know
what's going to happen in these games is because they're
officiated by different conferences.

Speaker 9 (19:55):
It was the Big Ten last night.

Speaker 13 (19:57):
You can't have a team involved in the game and
then have that conference officials.

Speaker 9 (20:00):
So it's frequently guys.

Speaker 13 (20:03):
You don't see those teams all year, and they call
pass interference very differently in different leagues. I had a
conversation with the officials on the field about that pregame.
They don't always agree with me. They like to think
there's a national standard. I think it's called differently. Yeah,
mind even have a single penalty against them in the
Ohio State win last night. They had a lot of

(20:24):
costly penalties, a lot of mental mistakes, and Ole miss
had less. But at the end of it, you know,
maybe it wasn't a true hail Mary. Heave you know
where it's six guys and a pile jumping up and
down and that almost never gets called, as you know,
you have to you have to tackle somebody and step
on their neck in the NFL to get a call

(20:44):
like that and a hail Mary at the end.

Speaker 9 (20:46):
Of the game, this wasn't really that.

Speaker 13 (20:49):
But at the end of the day, mutual combat is
what Bill Lemagne are rules expert in the booths. We
had to defer to him. He called it that, and
you know there was pushing and shoving on both sides.
If it's a normal middle of the game situation in
the end zone, they probably get a defensive pass interference call.

Speaker 9 (21:07):
But we can't.

Speaker 13 (21:08):
We can't complain when the official step in an intervene
if we don't understand they're going to call things differently
in different situations at the end of the game.

Speaker 9 (21:17):
Right, don't we kind of want that?

Speaker 13 (21:18):
Don't you want to let him play in the NBA
you want to take exact foul called or something decided
at the free throw line.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
I don't, but it's an advantage for the defense. Then
if they know you're not going to call this, and
it was kind of an intermediate mary, not a hail Mary,
and so because of that, and you're right, hail mary,
they're not going to call anything. This to me, you know,
you could have called that, and it's not a spot foul.
So it's only fifteen yards. It doesn't decide the game.

(21:47):
But given that moment and the way they had called
the game, I thought maybe you could have They could
have called holding on the left tackle on Carson Beck's
touchdown run.

Speaker 13 (21:56):
You you could have called a lot of holding last night.
I think when you have the in the attitude in
your mind that the CFP officials are going to let
him play, which we've heard, we hear a lot, and
they have, I think throughout this bracket for the most part,
let teams play because they know that. You know, twenty
two million don't tune in to watch a holding call.
But you're right, you have to. You have to sort

(22:18):
of officiate the game with consistency and your best judgment.
What Lemage said though, was mutual combat. That's what That's
how the officials view it. Yes, there was jersey grabbing,
Yes the official was. I mean the receiver shriveling was
grabbed there, but he also was pushing off with the
arm to create space before that. And you can make
a case of they've thrown a flag. You know the history,

(22:40):
if Miami had been called for passing the last play.
I was on the Devil Stadium. I was there. Maybe
you were too, Yeah I was, and and Miami's never
won a festa al. They've had their heart broken there.
If they had thrown a flag on Miami in that situation,
historical context and a'll miss it won the game. I
want you could write a movie about whoever wins the

(23:03):
game on Monday Night. It's going to be a great movie.
It was a movie about Old Missus season anyway, that
would have been another movie on Miami's utility in the
fiestival if they've thrown a flag there.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Mutual combat sounds like a Liam Neeson movie Steven Segal
in Mutual Contact.

Speaker 13 (23:23):
Yeah, I mean he got a mutual combat. I said,
I get what you're saying, because they are hand fighting
and pushing and shove it. I just want him back
up for a second. I'm in Atlanta. I got in
at four o'clock. I'm just trying to be professional with
you hearing and get the voice right, so pull back
the curtain. I have this honey from New Zealand. I
have this gel from China, which is an herbal thing.

(23:43):
I have lozenges, and I have this device here. I'm
not vaping, I assure you, but this is something that
you take a hit on to get your voice back.
It's called a vocal miss thing that singers use. And
I've got my iPad sitting on my wheelie bag, which
is on a small table and the ips leading against

(24:03):
a trash can. I'm just doing my best year of
function at this albidan for you.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
So are there concerns the voice might not be ready
for Monday night?

Speaker 9 (24:12):
There are no concerns about it.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
You're not a game time decision, are you.

Speaker 13 (24:15):
No? I mean Sean mcdonn and Greg McClay are calling
the game. I'm just here in Atlanta to watch, okay
from the field, and you know, prepare for the championship.
I'll be ready. Don't worry about it.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Are you the understudy in case something happens to Sean McDonough.

Speaker 9 (24:28):
I hope not. And nothing's gonna happen to Sean mcdonne
except till call it. Great game?

Speaker 2 (24:32):
Uh. The Indiana story and you know, growing up in Ohio,
we were aware of Indiana because they were always the
team that was usually had zero it was like fifty
six to nothing or whatever, losing his friend. You know,
a team in NCAA history with football, and then they
do this in two years, this turnaround, and you're trying

(24:54):
to tell people like you think the Hoosiers movie is,
you know great? This to me, Trump's that because I mean,
who would have thought Indiana would have a Heisman Trophy winner,
be the number one team, be favored to win the
national championship, any of the above.

Speaker 13 (25:12):
It's the greatest turnaround I've seen in the sport. You
can make comparisons to other sports. It's not supposed to
happen in college football and never has historically. Now with
the portal and nil, you can make it happen pretty quickly.
But even given that, which Signetti has done is astounding
to me. I mean it happened last year when they
make the playoff and take another level up to be

(25:33):
as dominant as they were in the Rose Bowl. The
roster's not built with four and five stars. It's a
very different roster construction than the other three teams in
the semifinals and most of the other teams in the playoff.
But he is a brilliant evaluator of talent. That's what
you have to have. A lot of guys can go
to the Portland spend money. They spent it beautifully and
they had a great eye for talent. And he brought

(25:55):
a bunch of key guys from James Madison with him
were the core of the team. And he went out
and got men Doza, So he made some great choices.
But I don't know this is going to happen again
in the future either. I think it's yeah, you can,
you can win quickly with the modern reality, but still
to do it they I don't want to put it now.
They got the portal of no, no, you have to
make a million smart choices to do what they've done.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
SEC did not do well in the playoffs one and eight.

Speaker 9 (26:22):
Or the Bowls for that matter.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Is this an anomaly?

Speaker 13 (26:27):
Well, I mean it's the third straight year that a
SEC team is not going to play in the championship game,
and a Big Ten would now be favored at this
point to win three in a row. So yeah, the
Big Ten can say that the championship runs through that conference.
The Big Ten also did well head to head in
the balls against the SEC. But if you view where
the SEC is and where it's going, yeah, all is

(26:50):
not doom and gloom. I think that, you know, at
the bottom of the conference, the bottom half of it,
you know, nine through sixteen, it's still much stronger than
the Big Ten. So running the gauntlet in the SEC
is still the most challenging thing to do in this sport.

Speaker 9 (27:03):
The Big tent.

Speaker 13 (27:04):
At the top is where the power lies, and the
SEC used to have great top heavy power and also depth.

Speaker 9 (27:10):
They don't have that anymore. At the top.

Speaker 13 (27:12):
You've got three elite teams out of the Big Ten
and Ohio State got knocked out and two of her
playing here in Atlanta tonight.

Speaker 9 (27:18):
But I don't think the SEC is gonna fade away.

Speaker 13 (27:21):
That there's you know, they have too much money and
too much passion and too much invested in the sport already,
but it makes it interesting. I like the fact that
there's balance in the sport. I like the fact that
a ten seed in Miami, which many people out there thought,
and I know you're watching them out there, didn't belong
in Look where they are now. They won three tough

(27:44):
games and they're going to play for a championship.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
I wonder though, that, you know, with college football playoffs
maybe going to sixteen next year, the Big Ten and
SEC are saying we need to have X number of teams.
I don't know if this hurts their argument of saying
we would get X number, we should have five teams
in and the Big Ten has five teams or four
teams because of what's happened this year.

Speaker 13 (28:09):
I don't love the idea of expanding and then including
four automatic bids to the Big Ten in the SEC.
And that's the plan of Tony Cid, a Big Ten commissioner,
and you know, maybe more conferences, like you know, the
ACEC might like to go along with that too, they
like to have more teams in I kind of like
the structure where it is now. I think the tweak

(28:29):
you can make is, you know, tougher restrictions on group
of five teams. It was you know, James Madison was
a great story, but that was never going to be
a competitive game. So you've got eleven playoff games in
this format and two involved complete mismatches. And I think
people would have liked to see Notre Dame or Texas
or Vanderbilt or somebody else in those games. But then

(28:50):
you're now excluding entire conferences any chance to get in
the bracket.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
You know, can college football be fixed? As a strong word,
but it just feels like there are things that make
sense that college football should be doing. Simping simple guardrails
here of starting the season, maybe ending the season on
New Year's Day. Maybe that'll take away the coaches leaving,

(29:16):
maybe players leaving transfer portal. I mean, it feels like
college football. And I said this yesterday. They're waiting for
Congress to clean up their mess. That's not good. No,
it's not.

Speaker 13 (29:29):
I mean it's they're waiting for a new sheriff to
ride into town. Because we are in the wild West
and there's no rules and it's chaos. If people really
knew what was going on behind the scenes, I mean,
I'll tell you this some anecdotes. There's a long snapper
out there from prominent school, a long snapper who's this
mine in his own business, very happy where he is,
not in the transfer portal at all. Twenty seven phone

(29:52):
calls to a long snapper with these are major teams
that are trying to get this guy, offering him money.
I'm happy where I am. I'm not in the portal,
I know. But what's your number? But I'm out in
the brook. What's your number? What's a long snapper's number?

Speaker 9 (30:07):
Is what is where we are? And that's going on.

Speaker 13 (30:10):
You got kickers and punters. I think the SEC half
the conference got a new kicker yesterday, and that's that's
where we are, man, And and it's it's in a
way you just want the system to do right by
the players, But to have four thousand guys in the portal,
the vast majority will not land someplace and play as
a starter and win a championship.

Speaker 9 (30:31):
That's that's the one percent.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Maybe I did bring this up yesterday as well. When's
the last time a player was academically ineligible? You know,
growing up, it happened all the time. I've never heard
of any money.

Speaker 9 (30:47):
It did happen.

Speaker 13 (30:47):
And also they also got away with murder a lot
of them. Back in that there were does with zero
point zeros who played the Blutarski grade point average. I mean,
that's not what we want. I mean, there's a lot
of great examples about what's right in the sport, about
great students who are doing it doing you know, a
lot of the right things.

Speaker 9 (31:06):
But I don't know, that's a good question. I don't
see that anymore.

Speaker 13 (31:09):
You know, Jesus was going to play in the playoff,
but he didn't pass that final and he's gonna have
to sit out.

Speaker 9 (31:14):
And that seems kind of quaint these days, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
Most successful college coaches try the NFL. I mean, some
of the biggest names you know in college football history.
You know, save and spurry or can you see Signetti
trying the NFL?

Speaker 13 (31:33):
I think he wins wherever he goes, right, we know that.
I think there'd be a lot of teams intrigue. He
he seems to love college football. He would not have
stayed at a lower division for as long as he did,
you know whether it's I mean even before James Madison,
he was in small college football and love being a teacher.
And that's okay. I think they're always intrigued because you wonder,

(31:56):
how how would your system work at the highest level
of football.

Speaker 9 (32:00):
But I wouldn't I wouldn't rule it out. People in
college have been trying to hire this guy.

Speaker 13 (32:05):
He signed an extension, a big contract, and they're still
coming after him for trying to say I forget the contract.

Speaker 9 (32:11):
What does that mean these days? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (32:13):
I know Penn State was interesting. You know, there are
a few of them. And Mike Tannenbond brought it up
earlier in the week that could you see a package
deal with Mendoza and Signetti to the Raiders? And I
at first I said no way, but then I don't.
I mean, he makes more money than he would make
in the NFL. Chris, He's going to be the highest

(32:35):
paid coach in college football.

Speaker 13 (32:36):
I wasn't sure if you meant Mendoza or Signetti there.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
I don't know what Mendoza makes.

Speaker 13 (32:43):
But he's not making NFL top pick money, no, for sure.
I mean it's interesting. I have a feel for these
guys and I really wish them success. On Sundays and
I said there looking at the Raiders or the Jets
or it's like wow, I mean to go from where
he's gone an Indian in a structure, order, brilliant, organization, togetherness, chemistry, love,

(33:08):
you love your brother to go to an NFL locker
room like that, where where you got problems if you're
drafting first and you do it again and again, you
got problems. And for Fernando to walk in there knowing
how these guys are. He loves order, an organization and
and things to be neat and tighty. He's very unique personality.

(33:28):
I think that for him to survive and thrive in
the chaos of a of an NFL doormat locker room
is seriously challenging. The fit is so important to I mean,
we got you know, finally, Rice Young's in the playoff,
right in Carolina. It took a few years. It took
the NFC South to get him there. But look what
he had to go through the first couple of years.

(33:50):
You know, they just the chaos, the revolving door of
management and coaches and different offensive systems and getting getting
knocked around. I mean, that's the reality from top picks.
You know, Caleb Williams landing in a good place, and
he also endured some tough times and now he's gonna
take his seam a cam Ward. I hope he can
get there too. But in a Fernando to the Raiders,

(34:11):
man to the Jets.

Speaker 9 (34:13):
You know, good luck man.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
All right, rest the voice though, you got to get ready,
all right, get a lift in you've got yeah, I don't.
I've never used one of those.

Speaker 9 (34:27):
It's very legal. It's just sailing.

Speaker 13 (34:31):
It's just sailing. Solution here vapor.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Somebody's going to make a meme out of that. Chris,
just letting you know you're thanks, then sparking you're vaping
on my show here. Uh, thanks again, appreciate it, Thanks youbody.
Great job, Chris Baller. He'll be He was on the
call for the Fiesta Bowl and he's got the national
Championship on Monday. Let me take a break. We'll come back.

(34:56):
Phone calls and the most must win game weekend and
best week in sports, all of that coming up.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. John and Pennsylvania. John, Welcome to the program.

Speaker 10 (35:19):
Yes, good morning, Dan, as you and I are on
the cusp of our sixtieth Super Bowl. I have a
little trivia for you. Who was the first player to
win Super Bowl rings with two different teams and each
team went back to back.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Okay, so he went back to back Super Bowls on
different teams.

Speaker 10 (35:46):
Got his correct sir, And when he did, he got
four rings, two back to back with the first team
and two rings back to back with the second and
he was a tight end. Marv Fleming, you are better
than the best friend. Thank you, John, who had the
best week in sports? Todd, I'm going to give.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
It to the Carolina Panthers and their fans because they've
backed in with an eight and nine record, they get
to host the twelve and five rams. So the Carolina
Panthers had a pretty good week.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
Seaton Best Week in Sports.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
Tough for me to not say Carson Beck and the
Miami Hurricanes, you know, I mean, he was a quarterback
that led a quarterback that shouldn't be there, led a
team that shouldn't be there to the national championship game.
That's about as good as it gets. A lot of
doubters though, uh you know, borderline haters, I might say,
yeahderline haters. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of people that
don't like that kid for some reason.

Speaker 15 (36:40):
Marvin Best Week in Sports Kevin Stefanski. He got to
not be the coach of the Browns anymore, and he's
a hot commodity for head coaching job elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
All right, Paul Best Week in Sports?

Speaker 4 (36:51):
Nailed that one, Marv. I'm going to go even with
the loss quarterback from old Miss Trinidad Chambliss. He had
a good game. He became the face of the program
when Kiffin left. I was watching in the third quarter
and there was an injury timeout, and there was a
Trinidad Chambliss Verizon commercial that ran on national TV. And
he's now a pretty legit pro prospect who could go
back next year.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, I think that he's petitioned to go back, but
I don't know. You know, once you get that information
from scouts and then they might say you can be
a first round pick, or you might be a late
first round pick or second round whatever it is, you know,
that might change, you know, his thought process there all right?
The biggest upset of the weekend now, points wise, it

(37:31):
would obviously be Carolina beating the Rams, which they've already done.
So is there another game that's even close to that
that if this team won, it would be considered the
biggest upset, Paul.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
I think it should be the forty nine Ers if
they beat the Eagles. The Eagles are still the defending champs.
They just rested. The forty nine Ers looked terrible.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
You think that the Niners beating the Eagles in Philadelphia
would be bigger than the Panthers beating the Rams.

Speaker 4 (38:02):
I think it should be because the Panthers have done
this before. They've taken down good teams and then they
lose to average teams. The Niners have nobody. I don't
know how they got here in the first place. Everyone's injured,
and I know they're twelve and five. Even that's a miracle.
But for them to take down the Super Bowl champs
at home would be something else.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
See, I would be you know, the biggest upset. If
the Panthers beat the Rams again, that would be shocking.
Now the Niners are getting five and a half, it
was four and a half yesterday, the Chargers getting three
and a half at the Patriots, Texans giving three at
the Steelers. Bill's still favored over the Jags. Packers now
favored over the Bears. Todd, do you have an upset

(38:41):
that would be a huge upset?

Speaker 5 (38:42):
The obvious one is obviously the Panthers, but I don't
think it's a huge upset. But I'm going to say
the Chargers beating the Patriots in Foxboro to me would
be a pretty big deal because if they're inconsistent and
we're waiting for the Charges to be, the Chargers to
go into Foxborough and win that game, to me would
be a pretty big upset.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yeah, go cross country there, Marvin.

Speaker 15 (39:00):
The Jaguars if they beat the Bills, even at home,
because the optics, you lost to the Jaguars, I don't care.
If the Jaguars were undefeated this season, Wow, they'd be like, Man, you.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Lost to the Jaguars.

Speaker 15 (39:14):
John Elway still hasn't shaken off the loss to the Jaguars,
and that was twenty five years ago.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
I did finish the Lway documentary. It was good. I
don't know if you learn anything from it, but you
do revisit a lot of things. Seaton got an upset.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Yeah, I'm gonna say, just because I think the game
is so important to Buffalo that it's going to be
the Jaguars if they should upset them. But I think
it is grossly premature to say that the Panthers have
been here before.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Well, they've been here before beating the Rams. They just
haven't been They did beat the Rams earlier this season. However,
last year they were eight and nine. Then there were
five and twelve, two and fifteen, seven and ten, five
and twelve, eleven, five and eleven, seven and nine. They
have not been here in a very long time. James
in Virginia, Hi, James, what's on your mind today?

Speaker 14 (40:10):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (40:10):
Thanks for taking my call?

Speaker 6 (40:11):
Brother?

Speaker 8 (40:12):
Happy saday DP Dan that man. Salute the commanders big
time all the time every time. You know, I know
nothing about being positive and happy all the time. Guys,
I have no idea what y'all was talking about earlier.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
Is this real, James? Is this who you are?

Speaker 8 (40:28):
No doubt about it? Man? You know what, I take
it back to Jerry Maguire, the agent that said I
dumped out of bed. I clapped my hands and I say,
today is gonna be a great day. And that's how
I live life. Man, Love life, love living all day,
every day. Man, all the time. I'm calling today those
man about the Super Bowl picks. Real quick, shout out
to my man GiB and man, shout out to the

(40:49):
old Miss coaching staff for keeping them boys ready and
in the game to win the game at the end. Man,
what I hope that guy gets an opportunity and not
Miss an interim coach. But in the NFL, man, I'm
taking the Bills and the Charges in the AFC and
the Bills to win, and I'm taking the Seahawks over
the Rams.

Speaker 14 (41:05):
Man.

Speaker 8 (41:06):
I really want San Francisco. I think they'll beat Solly
this weekend, but that's Seattle defense and going to Seattle
to play. I think Sam Donald's gonna take him, but.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Oh he ran out of time, mister positivity. Carson Beck
is like the Sam Donold of college football. Isn't he
kind of a weird comparison, but coming up most must
win game of the weekend final hour in this meet
Friday straight Ahead
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