December 1, 2025 • 37 mins
Ole Miss beat reporter Sam Hutchens breaks down Lane Kiffin's dramatic saga leaving Ole Miss for LSU and gives his thoughts on how the CFP committee should view Ole Miss post-Kiffin. Former Steelers HC Bill Cowher dives into the heat surrounding Mike Tomlin and shares what it is like to coach in such a passionate football city. College football insider Andy Staples was baffled by anyone suggesting Kiffin should coach Ole Miss in the CFP, and wonders what Penn State is plotting behind the curtain with their new head coach search.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Sam hutchins he covers Old Miss football for Clarion Ledger,
and he's had a lot to report on. Sam, Thanks
for joining us. When did you start to think that
Lane Kiffin was gone?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You know, I'd like to say I was going back
to Auckham's razor. I think that's what it is. Like
the simplest explanation is probably the most reliable, right, And
there were just one hundred small things that he would
have done differently over the last you know, four weeks,
six weeks if he were staying. So I think it was,
(00:41):
at least for me, I'm not sure there was one moment.
I think it was a slow drip of realization that man, like,
why would you do that or why would you say
that or why would you phrase something like that if
you're gonna stay in Oxford? So it was more of
a slow drip for me than I think a sudden.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Realization trying to understand what happened in the meeting with
the athletic director. Did he want to stay? Did he
threaten to take coaches? Did he threaten to take players?
Was was he trying to leverage this where he could
still coach Old Miss in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, I think the College Football Playoff was throughout this
whole process was definitely Old Miss's best carrot to dangle, right,
and not only because Lane's never coached in one for
but you sort of are setting him up to be
the villain if he leaves the college football playoffs. So
I think that Keith Carter and that realization had set
(01:37):
in pretty firmly in Oxford even you know, after the
Egg Bowl or we were waiting, you know, refreshing on
Saturday for this whole coaching search before it even unfolded Sunday.
But yeah, Lane, that was kind of the last sticking point.
And I think maybe the Iron Bowl helped things up,
right because if Auburn would have won, Old Miss would
be playing in the SEC Championship. But yeah, Lane definitely
(01:59):
won to coach in the College Football Playoff. And then
in his statement it was pretty strongly worded, kind of
going after Keith Carter, the athletic director a little bit.
And then in his interview on the tarmac with Marty,
I think he was a little more understanding of oh
Miss the situation and his situation.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, I don't know if he understands the gravity of
all of this. It's like, hey, I tried, you know,
you know, I just I gotta go. God told me
to go to LSU. I mean it doesn't work that way. Yeah,
And I said, maybe jokingly, I thought he was referring
to Nick Saban when he said I spoke to God.
Now he said he talked to Saban and he talked
(02:39):
to God as well. He just I don't know. And
I mentioned this before, Sam. He seems like a chaser,
like there are certain coaches that are never ever satisfied.
They're chasing, chasing, they don't even know what they're chasing.
Because even if he wins a national title, he'll still chase.
And I just thought that given that documentary on ESPN,
(03:00):
that maybe found happiness, you know, with his family, his
ex wife that program. I guess that's this surprising part
of it. And it felt like he was trying to
play a little bit of a victim there at the
very end that I wanted to coach him, but they
wouldn't let me. What do you make of all to that?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, I thought this was truly it was so fascinating,
you know, not even because of the documentary that was
certainly super super notable, but just because of the general
you know, I guess pr campaign might not be the
right phrasing, but how he turned his life around. I
actually I love your.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Interviews that you've done with with Lane.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Dan, and you talked to him when he's at Florida
Atlantic and you know, all these different spots, and that's
what's been, you know, so beneficial about the six years
he's been in Oxford for both sides. Ole miss missed
four straight Bowl games before he got here. Look where
they are, and and Lane was a little radioactive he
you know, at times at Florida Atlantic, he was pretty wanted.
(03:57):
But Lane has never become a hotter commodity on on
the coaching market until now. So this, this has been
such a beneficial relationship for both sides. But I guess Dan,
you'd remember more than me. But I was thinking about
this last night. If it if it goes south in
(04:18):
Baton Rouge, you know, not that I think it will.
I think Lane's a great coach, but I guess Brian
Kelly probably didn't either.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
But if it.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Goes south, like where will the biggest risk to me
is where will Lane? Where will his name be up
in the Ring of Honor one day at at Florida
Atlantic Like he doesn't. He's giving up his his home
right now, and certainly I think he's going to do
well in Baton Rouge.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
They all think he's going to do well, and.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I think he You know, if if you go into
the Hall of Fame, like the MLB debate, he may
one day have like the tiger on his hat, right,
But if it goes poorly, I just wonder for Lane,
like do you regret giving up your home? Giving up
a place you were loved? Six years in Oxford is
the longest of any stopping his coaching journey.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Talking to Sam hutchins Old, miss Beat reporter for the
Clarion Ledger, if the players voted, and I said this
last Wednesday, I know he's going to want to stay.
But if the players won him, if they took a
vote and they wanted him to coach, then I would
certainly factor that in. If they had taken that vote,
what do you think the results would have been.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
I don't think it would.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Have been unanimous, right, And of course, like on a
roster of one hundred plus players, of course it's not.
But I think generally it had gotten to the point
where players would have said go. And one aspect of
this is they love Pete Golding. The guy they promoted
is kind of the perfect stability guy. I had to
call him, come out. He's kind of the anti Lane Kiffin.
(05:52):
Then all Pete Golding tweets out as shark emoji. He's
like his last forty eight tweets, I think forty seven
I've been just a single shark emoji. But he'll come
in a root me as a Southern accent, and he
fires everyone up. So he's sort of the perfect like
foil to Lane to turn to if you just want
to stabilize the roster before your most important game in
(06:13):
program history in twenty years. But I was at the
Manning Center yesterday kind of talking to Frankly, any any
of the players who who who would chat on the
way out, And maybe it was just a small boost,
a temporary boost, because Pete and Keith gave him a
great speech, But it sort of seemed to me like
(06:34):
they were they were relieved that it was over.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
And here's the deal.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Their window to transfer will open at the end of
the season, so they can still go to LSU if
they want, and I'm sure Lane would love to have
Keewan Lacy the running back, Trinidad Chamblis the quarterback.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
So so the players.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I think are the biggest winner in this situation, perhaps
because they can still go if they want, but now
they can focus on, you know, potentially hosting a game
in Oxford here and nineteen or twenty days and.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I'm guessing maybe a year from now in November, LSU
comes to Ole Miss.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Correct, that's right, They're coming here next year.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
The Mustard models will be flying off the shelves at
the walmart here.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Last question, what does the committee do to Old Miss
if anything, since they're losing their head coach.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Yeah, that'll be That's kind of the next fascinating thing.
The short answer is, I don't think they dropped them
out of a playoff spot. Maybe it's the home playoff spot,
maybe it's the last home playoff spot. But people have
been bringing up the Florida State situation when Jordan Travis
got hurt.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
But I think the.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Thing that some folks miss is that Florida State situation.
There was a data point of Travis losing or of
losing Travis, and then they looked really bad in the
next game, so I thought, Hey, there's an argument if
you're old Miss, you don't want to go to the
SEC Championship game because if you lose Lane and then
get boat raced by Georgia, that would maybe give the
(08:10):
committee more of an excuse to drop you. But you know, frankly,
we have no idea what this team looks like without Lane,
what this team looks like without its coordinators. So I
think that would be a tough sell for the committee
to drop them out of a home playoff spot.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're not going downsu with Lane Kiffin, are you?
Speaker 5 (08:28):
No?
Speaker 4 (08:29):
No?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
He was so fun to cover Dan, and I did
bought yoga with him and he was so fun. But
there were times last year over my time on the
beat that I wished I covered a normal coach, you know,
who wasn't tweeting when.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
I was at the golf course or at the Walmart
or something.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Good stuff. Sam, thanks for joining.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Us anytime, Dan, appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Sam Hutchins, old Missbeat reporter for The Clarion Ledger. He
was good.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
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Speaker 6 (09:10):
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Speaker 2 (09:36):
Hall of Fame coach Bill Cower NFL Today on CBS
Studio Analyst. You grew up in the Pittsburgh area, But
I was curious about the added pressure of coaching your
team that you grew up with and not wanting. You know.
So there's enough pressure there, but now you're gonna coach
the Steelers. How much added pressure was there with that
(09:58):
job title?
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Well, I mean, I think when I first got the job,
I told you, damn. I first thought when I went
back to Kansas City after I was offered a job,
and I laid in bed that first night and I said, Wow,
if I don't screw this up, I can go back
to my twentieth high school class reunion as the head
coaching So my first goal was not to get fired
in those first three years. The pointing back there during
(10:22):
the course of that time and just seeing what Chuck
had done with that team and how that the renaissance
of the seventies uplifted that whole city. It was almost
a responsibility I had. But it's also like a connection
that you had with the people that were there. And
you know, I identified with the heart, the lunch pale,
(10:42):
hard working people, the blue collar element of it. I
worked in steel mills, I always had a summertime job
in Pittsburgh, so I understood what they were looking for.
They're a very passionate fans, very knowledgeable fans about football,
and so through the course of time, it was more
of a responsibility. I felt like I had to represent
(11:02):
that city.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
What do you make of the fire Mike Tomlin chance
that we heard yesterday towards the tail end of that performance.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Well, I mean, like I said, they're very passionate fans,
and you know, and I think it's uh, you know,
listen where they are right now. They're they're six and six.
They've not played very good football. These last you know what,
two and five in the last seven games. So it's
it's it's a scenario. But the fact of the matter is,
we know with five games ago, they still have a
(11:32):
chance to win their division. They're not trending in the
right way. I thought, I think on either side of
the ball, and going up against Baltimore ravens now and
they got them two more times. They got still played
the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Browns, and Nelson still got
play the Miami Dolphins. So we'll see what happens. I
think again, you know, the results will speak for themselves.
(11:53):
But I think from Mike's standpoint, I know one thing,
He's not gonna let the outside noise influence or how
he's gonna his approach to this next game. He knows
it's a lot on stake. They're not playing great football
right now. He's got to find a way to rally
that group and get them to believe that they still
have a chance to win this division.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Did you get fire chance when you were there in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Ilder, I got a fire chance, But I think that
I was you know, there were some people that when
you when you had a losing year and you walk
past them, people start to whisper before they say, hey, coach,
great to see him. When they start. When I start whispering, Dan,
you know, it's probably not a good thing. So when
you walk by and people are whispering, that's probably a
(12:37):
good sign if things are not going that well. When
they walk by and it's going well, they going, hey, coach,
great job, good luck. Hey love what you're doing. Hey
might want to throw the ball a little bit more. Okay, gotcha.
You know you're right on. So I got to the point. Actually,
I said, you know, my point is when we won,
I had no problems stopping the way home from gas.
You're getting gas. When we lost, I waited, t was dark,
(13:00):
it was ten thirty eleven. I was yes, and I
didn't want to hear about it. Honestly, in the morning
on the way to work, like you know, I didn't
want to hear about anyone because everybody would pull up
right next to me. They would be act like they're
pulling up their their their gas tank was absolutely full.
They woun't even put the nozzle. They would stand there
in front of their cars and tell me everything that
I should be doing. We're not running the football enough,
(13:20):
you're too conservative. You like we have no wins rushing
the quarterback, and like you need to make some changes
on that team and even with their coaching staff. Now
that we go yes, yes, yes, and yes, you're probably right,
I need to reevaluate.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
What kind of job offers or feelers did you get
when you were with the Steelers. How often does that
happen on an NFL level?
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Oh, I I never even entertained. I don't think it doesn't.
It doesn't happen at all. I think once you're with
when you're with a team like that, you're trying. You're
just trying to win year to year. You know, my my,
my fear of failure far exceeded my desire to win.
I did not want to fail and get fired. I
mean I that was always over top of my head.
(14:05):
And I just knew results oriented business and if you
didn't produce, you're gonna be asked to move on because
that's just the nature of that profession. So I understood
that getting into that profession. But you know, you never
think about the next job, at least I didn't from
my standpoint. I again, I've been in one place for
a long period of time, Dan, I was in Pittsburgh
for fifteen years. I've been in the CBS for nineteen years.
(14:28):
I'm not the kind of guy it's looking for the
grassby and greener on the other side, I like to
be appreciated and if I appreciated you and get the
very best of me. And you know what, I appreciate
being able to go to work where I am appreciated.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
But it's standard procedure in college football. Now, why is that?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I don't know. I go back. I think it's due.
I think it's the lack of structure that the NCAAA
has right now in terms of these timetables, in terms
of the pool, the transfer portal that takes place, allowing
coaches to leave before the end of or contracts to
go to other places. It doesn't happen in the NFL.
There's a very there's a very discipline structure that we have.
(15:07):
There's a salary cap, there is a time from free
agency that happens afterwards. You know, head coaches aren't going
to be able to go from one team to another
because you're not even talking to another team.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Now.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
The biggest thing in the NFL to me, the problem
that you have if you indeed it is, and I
didn't think it was was your assistance because at the
end of the season and you're in the playoffs, the
assistants have an opportunity to talk to other teams. But
I always looked at that as a feather in your cap.
And I always thought to him because I know when
I was getting interviewed at times that you know what,
my resume is being put on that table with that
(15:38):
playoff game. So I was more inspired to do well
in that playoff game as opposed to thinking about putting
your staff together, thinking about you know what you're going
to do and your mind isn't on the game. I
don't think that's the case. So I don't think we
have that in the National Football League. I think the
NCAA is really it's the wild, wild West. I've said
that out there. I said it yesterday, went on a
little bit of a rant. It's just a problem from
(15:59):
me is that the people that get lost in this
are the are the players, and the message we're sending
to them, the lack of trust that they're going to
start having it in our institutions, in our systems, because
you know what, that's what we're going to lose if
you're telling them one thing and you're doing another thing,
and any other part of that is the entitlement that
we now are doing with young players. When a quarterback
(16:22):
is making four million dollars a year and the alignment
is up there has got a four year scholarship, is
getting paid nothing? Okay, but because you know what, one
percent of the people in college are going to play
pro teaching life lessons about what business is like, what
going into the next level of life is about responsibility,
having a job, working for someone and having the fs
(16:44):
mAbs two to a boss and work your way up
the ladder. You know, sometimes you're not gonna get entitled
to something because you think you decide a part of it.
You may have to work for a long period of
time to get that opportunity. There's nothing wrong with a
good work ethic, a degree of saying, you know what,
I'm going to compete for what I need to compete for,
because you know what, that will serve you better in
life than being entitled and being handed. Something that really
(17:07):
to me is they're too young to be given that
kind of money.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
If you were the old miss Athletic director and Lane
Kiffin said to you, Hey, I want to coach this
team in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
You would have said, you decided to go to LSU,
thank you and goodbye? What to Let you come here?
Let you come here for the next month to talk
about how great LSU is over Mississippi. You kidd me seriously,
to even ask for that question is like, that's an arrogance.
You know that that's arrogance. I think what happened there
is a disgrace to the coaching profession because I will
(17:39):
just say this, the coaching profession is about developing young men.
It's not about chasing the green or grass to somewhere
else and be an ambulance chaser and go, oh, I
can fix you. And then when you fix that, let
me go here and fix that. It's about developing young men.
It's about trying to create tradition, pageantry for the institution
that you work for. We had rivalry weekend. We just
(18:01):
came off of what's a robbery anymore? What's the conference anymore?
I'm telling you we're losing some of the very core
fiber of things that we have grown up loving about
college football, and we're watching it the tier right right
before our eyes.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Talking to Bill Cower, the Hall of Famer and Super
Bowl champ with the Steelers. You know, some of these
teams we rode off back in September, maybe in October,
like the Texans, the Dolphins, the Niners with their injuries.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
How about the Cowboys?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean they're dangerous. I don't know
if they have enough time, but you know, you beat
the Chiefs and the Eagles over a span of four days,
you have to get everybody's attention there.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Coach, I would think so on the job that Brian
Schottenheimer's done through the course of everything that they've dealt
with down there, you know, and hey, I would love
to see the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys
in the playoffs, okay, because I want to know for
once and for arm because they met once and it
was a time. Who was right, Michaeh Parsons or Jerry Jones.
(19:09):
So to get me into the playoffs where we can't
end this thing in a time?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Do you think they both won? I do?
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I do. I think. You know, we sat there and
criticized Jerry all this time for what he did, but
I think going on getting Quentin Williams Overshewn came back,
you know, and and Wilson came in and all of
a sudden, Now these last three games, this defense has
taken on a different identity. Matt Eberflus say, Jerry stayed
(19:38):
with them, Brian has stayed with him. I think Brian
has called an amazing offensive games weekend and week out.
The offense is playing at a very high level. I
think they're playing with a lot of confidence. And I
think the question is, as you stated, Dan, is that
did they dig themselves too big of a hole. I
don't know, but I know there's still five games left
for these guys, and anything can happen, because I think
(19:58):
that it's really truck right now. The National Football League,
that parody has never been greater. Every team that you
think is on top. We saw the Rams get beat
by Carolina. We saw last night the Denver Broncos get
taken the overtime by the Washington Commanders. And who knows
what's gonna happen to night with New England and the
New York Giants. So I think the NFL was in
a tremendous place from the standpoint that it's going to
(20:19):
go down to the final weeks, and I think for
the first time we may have a seventh seed and
maybe two seven seeds that could win in the wildcard round.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Was it tough as a coach tougher to understand your
quarterback or the wide receivers that you had.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
They go, they go hand in hand. I think the
wide receivers, you know, I think the quarterback is going
to touch the ball every game, every play. The wide
receivers you got kind of like you got to massage
them a little bit because you want them to block
for you, You want them to do the dirty work,
but you better give them the ball a little bit too.
So like trying to be able to keep people happy
is like the job that I think of a coordinator
(20:58):
to duke and a guy involved early for the quarterback
to do to make sure he can massage all the
egos that's in there in that huddle that he's got
because a lot everybody wants to have the ball at
the end of the game, and really the only one
is gonna have the ball to begin every play is
going to be that is going to be that uh
that that quarterback. So I just think the quarterback is
becomes a reflection of the head coach at some point,
(21:21):
and I think.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Ben, are your wide receivers, Well.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
I didn't let the wide receiver. They didn't bother me.
Ben drove me crazier because I hated me because he
had to be a reflection of me. Dan. So that's
what I'm saying. I didn't worry about I didn't worry
about the wide receivers. Like they're gonna, they're gonna be mad,
they're gonna they're gonna say all these things. That's wine.
I get it. They know they want the ball, they
want it for all the right reasons. But the quarterback,
(21:48):
like you guys, you gotta think like me, so that
like and so it's like that's the one and at
times I gotta let them be them too. So that's
that little fine line, a give and take, you know.
And that's so that's that's the guy that's gotta be
reflecting you. I think there's no great example that. And
you're seeing bow Nicks and Sean Payton that I think
they they are working hand in hand and Sean appreciates
(22:09):
Boa and but I'm sure Sean wants to stay on
bow to try to get him to be able to
be that you know, toughling guy that's gonna be really
good in the tough situations. And so it's, uh, it's
kind of fun to watch these young quarterbacks evolve with
these with the with their coaches.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I thought it was funny you told the story where
Ben acted look like he couldn't hear you when you
were calling.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He starts bounding. He starts, and I'm thinking,
you know, I know he can hear it. I know
he can hear us. So I said, grab that, and
he goes, I said, grab that. Helme as soon as
he comes off that field, and he says, They go,
it's working now, And I go, Ben, it's working. He goes,
I must have just came back on.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Well he was good enough that he could still do that.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah, yes, he like he would. We would have the
banter back and forth, and it was respectful banters. He
always knew where I stood, and I always appreciated where
he was at. Didn't always agree with it at times,
but you know what, you earned the right to have
that ability, to have that input, to have that respect.
The one thing I knew about Ben Roethlisberger that when
(23:19):
the game was on the line and it was in
the fourth quarter. He wanted to bow in his hands,
and you know what, there was probably no other player
that I would have wanted to have the ball in
hands than him.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
When was the last time you didn't have a mustache?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Ah? Good question? You know. I shaved it. I ship
went down the bolt Head Island one time, like my
fourth year, and I said, you know what, everyone's recognizing
me down here. So I shaved it. And I'm telling
you it was the best thing in the world. I'd
be walking by and they're like, you know, I mean hey,
like like you go, hey, hey, you know the coach
Kler's on this, on this on this island. I go, really,
(23:55):
where's he at? I go? So it was, you know,
so it was. It was. It's been a while, it's
been a while. It's not a good looks it's for
me right now. It's just it's not a good look.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
But did you did you have bust approval for the
Hall of Fame for your mustache?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Yeah? I wow. That wasn't even an option. I mean,
it had had had to be that, because how.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Would you show it to you before?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Yes, there was that, and they kind of excepted, you know,
I think they sentuated the chan a little bit. I
don't think it's that bad, but they which was I
don't know if I agree with that that portrait of it,
but that's fine.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Did your wife have a say in this?
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah? I think when I shaved it, the first thing
she said, please don't shave again. So in other words,
how long is it going to take the grow back?
So I think that got That was my first uh
sign that you know what, Okay, maybe it's not a
good look.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
It's not leaving, not leaving great to talk to you.
And we played nice today, but I know, I know.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
You know, well you know what I think coming off
coming off the what happened yesterday. But let me ask you,
did you have a nice Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
It's still going on, coach, it's on a day. It's
really a spirit that I have.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah. Well, so let me ask you what do you
think was the best game? What do you think was
the best game with Thanksgiving weekend? With with the NFL
Green Bay, Detroit, Dallas, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Joe Burrow, Baltimore,
or Eagles and Bears.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I would say Dallas and Kansas City because that's that's
a heavyweight fight, and you know, the hype involved with
that and it lived up to it. And Dallas winning
that game I thought made for great content. I think
Joe Burrow coming back and doing what he did against
the Ravens, that's pretty big. And now you've got Steelers
and the Ravens coming up this next weekend.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Can you imagine if the four and eight Bengals get
Joe Burrow back, they can still win the division? They
really can't. Yeah, now you got to go to Buffalo
this next week, so we'll see. The NFL has never
been so much intrigued, so many storylines. It's never been better.
So let's let's talk again in about a month and
(26:14):
see who's doing it.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Okay, Yeah, I'll make it a date.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Okay, that sounds good. I'm glad you keep the spirit
going because you were really good today. You didn't even
like you're even like you were actually trying to get me,
asked some really good questions. It was really good.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah. I wasn't gonna do that. I was gonna be nice.
I was gonna play nice. But I can't guarantee in
a month from now.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
No, I I I expect that I never come on
with the expectation of you being nice. I prepare myself
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I'll bet you do you psych yourself up to come on?
Stare at yourself in the mirror.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I look like I look at you like like like
a like a divisional opponent. I make it personal.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Would you want to hit me, like tackle me?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
No? No, I respect you.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
No, I got fore arm shiver.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Oh no, es. I would probably bump you if I
passed you, okay, yeah, if you got like if like
we were walking down the same one, would you turn?
Would you would you like be the one that gets
out of the way for coming down the same path
like I I most of the time, I would. I
think I would get out of the way of you because
I respect you. But if you mumbled something on the
(27:23):
way past, men as you start whispering, because I know
if you're whispering, you're saying something.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Thank you coach, all right, thanks Dan, thank you. It's
Bill Kaller.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Andy Staples was at Ohio State Michigan on Saturday. Will
be in Nashville this weekend and then he'll be attending
a first round college football Playoff game. Andy covers college
football for on three Sports. All Right, we had a
lot of conversation, we had a lot of build up,
and then we had the end result with Lane Kiffin
(28:09):
leaving to go to LSU. Does anybody win here?
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (28:15):
I think LSU feels like they won. They certainly got
the guy they wanted. They got the guy everybody wanted,
because remember Florida wanted him to Ole Miss wanted to
keep him, and LSU probably will wind up having the
same defensive staff, which they're very excited about that. Lane
kiffn probably retains those guys. He then comes in and
fixes the offense, and all of a sudden, you got
(28:36):
a team that should be competitive every year to potentially
make the College football Playoff, to potentially win a national title.
Now here's the catch. Lane Kiffin had to leave a
team that is actually in the College football Playoff and
that is the rub like you leave for a conference rival.
And remember LSU is a bitter rival of a Little Miss.
(28:57):
There are some Ole Miss fans who think LSU's a
bigger rival misissip State. Ole Miss is never going to
let the LSU coach work for ole Miss, even for
a month.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Well, there are certainly people. There's certainly an analyst that
I saw this weekend who thought, hey, why don't you
let him coach? And I don't think I would not
have him coach my team. If I'm the athletic director
at ole Miss, I'd say, nope, you made your decision.
Go and don't act like you're the victim here. You
can't use leverage that you're going to take coaches in
(29:30):
players if you don't let him coach this team in
the playoffs, as has been reported, I'd say, hey, see
you keep your tray in an upright lock position when
you fly out on that private jet.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
And then the middle fingers saluting him on the way
out were told you the story, Yeah, Ole Miss and
could not let him hold them hostage. That was not
gonna work. It was a non starter. There are other
situations where coaches are leaving schools like John Summral at Tulane,
Eric Morris at North Texas worse to go in to
Oaklham State, Summer's going to Florida. The winner of their
(30:03):
game Friday is playing in the playoff and the guy
who coaches that team will coach them in the playoff.
But it's different when you're going from North Texas, Oklahoma State,
or Too Laye to Florida. When you're going from Ole
Miss LSU, you can't do it. And I found it
hilarious that Nick Saban kept saying, let him coach. Nick
Saban fired Lane Kiffin after the twenty sixteen season. Lane
(30:29):
Kiffin takes the Florida Atlantic head coaching job. He's the
Alabama offensive coordinator. He coaches the Peach Bowl, and between
the Peach Bowl and the National title game, Nick Saban
fired his ass. And now Nick Saban's like, sure, just
let him coach. What could possibly go wrong? Like, of
all the people, you know, what can happen?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Why were all these analysts? It feels like carrying water
for Lane Kiffin that day he should be able to coach.
I understand that I don't want this to hurt our
seating in the college football playoffs. You know, we ding
teams for losing their quarterbacks. That would be the only
reason why I would say, all right, we'll let you coach,
but only because we don't want we want to host
(31:09):
a playoff game.
Speaker 7 (31:10):
I can't tell you why the game day disc all
did that.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I can't.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
I mean, my guess is personal relationships with Lane Kiffin,
and they want to cultivate those and keep those healthy. Obviously,
it's a different for Nick Saban since they used to
work together, but for the other guys that look, lane
Kiffin's the most entertaining, polarizing, interesting figure in college football,
and if you work on college football's biggest show, you
want to maintain a good relationship. I suppose that's the
(31:35):
only excuse I can think of, because if they talk
to any athletic directors, and we did, there's not one
who would have let him coach All Miss through the playoff.
All right, what's Penn State doing? That is a great question.
All I could think of is the judge smail as well.
We're waiting as all the other dominoes were falling. The
(31:58):
only thing I can think of is they've got somebody
in mind who's maybe coaching in a conference championship game
this week and doesn't want to do anything until after
that happens. That's the only thing I can think of,
and that leads you to a few names. So Bob
Chesney is the James Madison coach. And he's a name
that I've been saying for about a month because if
(32:20):
you look at Chesney's job history, Northeast guy went D three,
D two FCS, FBS, successful everywhere. It's kind of the
Kurt Signetti path, and you'd have thought, okay, from James Madison,
his next logical step is like Syracuse or Boston College.
But why would you have to wait for him to
coach Syracuse or Boston College for two years? He would
(32:41):
have ended up at Penn State anyway, Like, just get
him now. The other one I thought of, and it's
kind of a wild here, but he's a really good coach,
and I think people just assume he's not movable. Is
Colonie Sataki at BYU. He's at his alma mater, and
maybe he's not movable. Maybe he's just really happy there.
But a chance to coach at at an elite of
(33:02):
elite programs, that's one. I would certainly talk to him
if I were Penn State because I think he's an
excellent coach. But that's the only other one in the
Championship games I can think of, other than maybe Ohio
State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, who kind of the Urban
Meyer path. He was the receivers coach. He's the OC now,
but not really a play caller in his history, but
(33:24):
receivers coach slash ace recruiter and maybe one of the
best recruits in the country and definitely the best receivers
coach in the country. I can see him being ready
to move up to head coaching job. I didn't know
if the jump that big would work, but he's one
I would have talked to as well. What's the NCAA
do with this hiring window? How do they kind of
(33:45):
prevent this? Well, there's an easy fix, but the coaches
don't want it. See that's the thing. The coaches like
to blame the NCAA for this stuff. The nc DOUBLEA
and well, the committees that come up with these ideas,
they've already come up with an idea that would work.
You bring high school signing Day back to February where
(34:06):
it was just have one there. You eliminate spring practice.
You create an OTA type system that starts in May
in the first summer term. You move the transfer portal
window into the spring, and players can leave in April
or whatever. The coaches didn't want that the coaches, like,
I want my team fixed by January. The coaches want
(34:27):
to move between December and January. The players want to
move between December and January two because that's the semester break.
And by the way, the NCAA is not changing that
because you'd have to move Christmas. And I don't think
they're that powerful. So if the coaches ever want to
come around on it, that's fine. But if they insist
that they want their team by January, then they get
(34:48):
to be the villains in this. They don't get to
blame the NCAA for it.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, but the current messy system is great for coverage,
it's great for contest.
Speaker 7 (34:57):
It's not though, Dan as someone who this year round.
I listen Ian Rappaport, Hey, you're yelling all the guy
ye Ian used to be a college football writer, so
he understands my plight. I'm like, I'm like rap sheet.
You guys have the best calendar because you have the playoffs,
the super Bowl, the coaching carousel, free agency, OTAs like
(35:20):
it never stops. It's perfect. We have all the interesting
stuff packed into December. I had a show yesterday, Dan
that would have filled a month's worth of offseason shows.
I had to do it an hour and.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
A half.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Talking. Andy Staples covers college football for on three Sports.
Make a case for Texas making the playoffs.
Speaker 7 (35:42):
It's tough because they're so far down right now, and
I think, really they're they're ast out. But of the
nine and three teams, they would have the best case.
And here's why. Look at ten and two Vanderbilt. If
you're gonna consider ten and two Vanderbilt, consider nine and
three Texas, which beat Vanderbilt head to head, which has
a better best win Texas A and M. And also
(36:05):
can make the complaint that if you don't pick them,
you are discouraging scheduling tough non conference games. Because their
marque non conference game was at Ohio State, which they
lost fourteen to seven. Vanderbilt's marque non conference game was
at Virginia Tech, which they won. If Texas had gone
to Blacksburg, they also would have won. So or Texas
had just scheduled Rice or somebody like that, they would
(36:26):
have won. So if you were to pick the other
team that didn't schedule as hard, then you are discouraging that.
And I don't want that to be discouraged. And I
don't think anybody else does. I want a Texas Ohio
State game to start the season, so if it came
to that, I would hope they would pick Texas. I
think Texas and Vandy unfortunately are kind of boxed out
(36:48):
at this point, so I don't know if it even
comes to that.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
If Arch would come out, do you think he'd be
the number one quarterback taken?
Speaker 7 (36:57):
No? No, I don't. He's got work to do now.
He can grow into what would be an effective NFL quarterback.
He can grow into be a very high draft pick,
but he needs to get better if you want. Even
the A and M game where he played pretty well,
he misses a lot of easy throws still, and those
are throws that NFL quarterbacks don't miss. Those are throws
(37:18):
that Fernando Mendoza Indiana doesn't miss. And Fernando Mendoza is
one that I think the NFL people are going to
be very excited about. He has the prototypical size, and
you've seen him in crunch time like at Penn State
where he's making unbelievable throws. That's what they're looking for.
Arch can be that. I'm just not sure he's there yet,
and I imagine his support system is telling him, Hey,
(37:41):
more starts in college can get you there.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Great to talk to you is always We'll talk to
you soon. Thank you, Andy, Thanks Dan. It's Andy Staples.
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Sam hutchins he covers Old Miss football for Clarion Ledger,
and he's had a lot to report on. Sam, Thanks
for joining us. When did you start to think that
Lane Kiffin was gone?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You know, I'd like to say I was going back
to Auckham's razor. I think that's what it is. Like
the simplest explanation is probably the most reliable, right, And
there were just one hundred small things that he would
have done differently over the last you know, four weeks,
six weeks if he were staying. So I think it was,
(00:41):
at least for me, I'm not sure there was one moment.
I think it was a slow drip of realization that man, like,
why would you do that or why would you say
that or why would you phrase something like that if
you're gonna stay in Oxford? So it was more of
a slow drip for me than I think a sudden.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Realization trying to understand what happened in the meeting with
the athletic director. Did he want to stay? Did he
threaten to take coaches? Did he threaten to take players?
Was was he trying to leverage this where he could
still coach Old Miss in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, I think the College Football Playoff was throughout this
whole process was definitely Old Miss's best carrot to dangle, right,
and not only because Lane's never coached in one for
but you sort of are setting him up to be
the villain if he leaves the college football playoffs. So
I think that Keith Carter and that realization had set
(01:37):
in pretty firmly in Oxford even you know, after the
Egg Bowl or we were waiting, you know, refreshing on
Saturday for this whole coaching search before it even unfolded Sunday.
But yeah, Lane, that was kind of the last sticking point.
And I think maybe the Iron Bowl helped things up,
right because if Auburn would have won, Old Miss would
be playing in the SEC Championship. But yeah, Lane definitely
(01:59):
won to coach in the College Football Playoff. And then
in his statement it was pretty strongly worded, kind of
going after Keith Carter, the athletic director a little bit.
And then in his interview on the tarmac with Marty,
I think he was a little more understanding of oh
Miss the situation and his situation.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, I don't know if he understands the gravity of
all of this. It's like, hey, I tried, you know,
you know, I just I gotta go. God told me
to go to LSU. I mean it doesn't work that way. Yeah,
And I said, maybe jokingly, I thought he was referring
to Nick Saban when he said I spoke to God.
Now he said he talked to Saban and he talked
(02:39):
to God as well. He just I don't know. And
I mentioned this before, Sam. He seems like a chaser,
like there are certain coaches that are never ever satisfied.
They're chasing, chasing, they don't even know what they're chasing.
Because even if he wins a national title, he'll still chase.
And I just thought that given that documentary on ESPN,
(03:00):
that maybe found happiness, you know, with his family, his
ex wife that program. I guess that's this surprising part
of it. And it felt like he was trying to
play a little bit of a victim there at the
very end that I wanted to coach him, but they
wouldn't let me. What do you make of all to that?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, I thought this was truly it was so fascinating,
you know, not even because of the documentary that was
certainly super super notable, but just because of the general
you know, I guess pr campaign might not be the
right phrasing, but how he turned his life around. I
actually I love your.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Interviews that you've done with with Lane.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Dan, and you talked to him when he's at Florida
Atlantic and you know, all these different spots, and that's
what's been, you know, so beneficial about the six years
he's been in Oxford for both sides. Ole miss missed
four straight Bowl games before he got here. Look where
they are, and and Lane was a little radioactive he
you know, at times at Florida Atlantic, he was pretty wanted.
(03:57):
But Lane has never become a hotter commodity on on
the coaching market until now. So this, this has been
such a beneficial relationship for both sides. But I guess Dan,
you'd remember more than me. But I was thinking about
this last night. If it if it goes south in
(04:18):
Baton Rouge, you know, not that I think it will.
I think Lane's a great coach, but I guess Brian
Kelly probably didn't either.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
But if it.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Goes south, like where will the biggest risk to me
is where will Lane? Where will his name be up
in the Ring of Honor one day at at Florida
Atlantic Like he doesn't. He's giving up his his home
right now, and certainly I think he's going to do
well in Baton Rouge.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
They all think he's going to do well, and.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I think he You know, if if you go into
the Hall of Fame, like the MLB debate, he may
one day have like the tiger on his hat, right,
But if it goes poorly, I just wonder for Lane,
like do you regret giving up your home? Giving up
a place you were loved? Six years in Oxford is
the longest of any stopping his coaching journey.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Talking to Sam hutchins Old, miss Beat reporter for the
Clarion Ledger, if the players voted, and I said this
last Wednesday, I know he's going to want to stay.
But if the players won him, if they took a
vote and they wanted him to coach, then I would
certainly factor that in. If they had taken that vote,
what do you think the results would have been.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
I don't think it would.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Have been unanimous, right, And of course, like on a
roster of one hundred plus players, of course it's not.
But I think generally it had gotten to the point
where players would have said go. And one aspect of
this is they love Pete Golding. The guy they promoted
is kind of the perfect stability guy. I had to
call him, come out. He's kind of the anti Lane Kiffin.
(05:52):
Then all Pete Golding tweets out as shark emoji. He's
like his last forty eight tweets, I think forty seven
I've been just a single shark emoji. But he'll come
in a root me as a Southern accent, and he
fires everyone up. So he's sort of the perfect like
foil to Lane to turn to if you just want
to stabilize the roster before your most important game in
(06:13):
program history in twenty years. But I was at the
Manning Center yesterday kind of talking to Frankly, any any
of the players who who who would chat on the
way out, And maybe it was just a small boost,
a temporary boost, because Pete and Keith gave him a
great speech, But it sort of seemed to me like
(06:34):
they were they were relieved that it was over.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
And here's the deal.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Their window to transfer will open at the end of
the season, so they can still go to LSU if
they want, and I'm sure Lane would love to have
Keewan Lacy the running back, Trinidad Chamblis the quarterback.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
So so the players.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I think are the biggest winner in this situation, perhaps
because they can still go if they want, but now
they can focus on, you know, potentially hosting a game
in Oxford here and nineteen or twenty days and.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I'm guessing maybe a year from now in November, LSU
comes to Ole Miss.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Correct, that's right, They're coming here next year.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
The Mustard models will be flying off the shelves at
the walmart here.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Last question, what does the committee do to Old Miss
if anything, since they're losing their head coach.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Yeah, that'll be That's kind of the next fascinating thing.
The short answer is, I don't think they dropped them
out of a playoff spot. Maybe it's the home playoff spot,
maybe it's the last home playoff spot. But people have
been bringing up the Florida State situation when Jordan Travis
got hurt.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
But I think the.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Thing that some folks miss is that Florida State situation.
There was a data point of Travis losing or of
losing Travis, and then they looked really bad in the
next game, so I thought, Hey, there's an argument if
you're old Miss, you don't want to go to the
SEC Championship game because if you lose Lane and then
get boat raced by Georgia, that would maybe give the
(08:10):
committee more of an excuse to drop you. But you know, frankly,
we have no idea what this team looks like without Lane,
what this team looks like without its coordinators. So I
think that would be a tough sell for the committee
to drop them out of a home playoff spot.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're not going downsu with Lane Kiffin, are you?
Speaker 5 (08:28):
No?
Speaker 4 (08:29):
No?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
He was so fun to cover Dan, and I did
bought yoga with him and he was so fun. But
there were times last year over my time on the
beat that I wished I covered a normal coach, you know,
who wasn't tweeting when.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
I was at the golf course or at the Walmart
or something.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Good stuff. Sam, thanks for joining.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Us anytime, Dan, appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Sam Hutchins, old Missbeat reporter for The Clarion Ledger. He
was good.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show week days at nine am Eastern six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Calvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (09:10):
And in addition to hearing us live weeknights from seven
to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, we are
excited to announce brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
You can now watch The Odd Couple live on YouTube
every day.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
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 (09:36):
Hall of Fame coach Bill Cower NFL Today on CBS
Studio Analyst. You grew up in the Pittsburgh area, But
I was curious about the added pressure of coaching your
team that you grew up with and not wanting. You know.
So there's enough pressure there, but now you're gonna coach
the Steelers. How much added pressure was there with that
(09:58):
job title?
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Well, I mean, I think when I first got the job,
I told you, damn. I first thought when I went
back to Kansas City after I was offered a job,
and I laid in bed that first night and I said, Wow,
if I don't screw this up, I can go back
to my twentieth high school class reunion as the head
coaching So my first goal was not to get fired
in those first three years. The pointing back there during
(10:22):
the course of that time and just seeing what Chuck
had done with that team and how that the renaissance
of the seventies uplifted that whole city. It was almost
a responsibility I had. But it's also like a connection
that you had with the people that were there. And
you know, I identified with the heart, the lunch pale,
(10:42):
hard working people, the blue collar element of it. I
worked in steel mills, I always had a summertime job
in Pittsburgh, so I understood what they were looking for.
They're a very passionate fans, very knowledgeable fans about football,
and so through the course of time, it was more
of a responsibility. I felt like I had to represent
(11:02):
that city.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
What do you make of the fire Mike Tomlin chance
that we heard yesterday towards the tail end of that performance.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Well, I mean, like I said, they're very passionate fans,
and you know, and I think it's uh, you know,
listen where they are right now. They're they're six and six.
They've not played very good football. These last you know what,
two and five in the last seven games. So it's
it's it's a scenario. But the fact of the matter is,
we know with five games ago, they still have a
(11:32):
chance to win their division. They're not trending in the
right way. I thought, I think on either side of
the ball, and going up against Baltimore ravens now and
they got them two more times. They got still played
the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Browns, and Nelson still got
play the Miami Dolphins. So we'll see what happens. I
think again, you know, the results will speak for themselves.
(11:53):
But I think from Mike's standpoint, I know one thing,
He's not gonna let the outside noise influence or how
he's gonna his approach to this next game. He knows
it's a lot on stake. They're not playing great football
right now. He's got to find a way to rally
that group and get them to believe that they still
have a chance to win this division.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Did you get fire chance when you were there in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Ilder, I got a fire chance, But I think that
I was you know, there were some people that when
you when you had a losing year and you walk
past them, people start to whisper before they say, hey, coach,
great to see him. When they start. When I start whispering, Dan,
you know, it's probably not a good thing. So when
you walk by and people are whispering, that's probably a
(12:37):
good sign if things are not going that well. When
they walk by and it's going well, they going, hey, coach,
great job, good luck. Hey love what you're doing. Hey
might want to throw the ball a little bit more. Okay, gotcha.
You know you're right on. So I got to the point. Actually,
I said, you know, my point is when we won,
I had no problems stopping the way home from gas.
You're getting gas. When we lost, I waited, t was dark,
(13:00):
it was ten thirty eleven. I was yes, and I
didn't want to hear about it. Honestly, in the morning
on the way to work, like you know, I didn't
want to hear about anyone because everybody would pull up
right next to me. They would be act like they're
pulling up their their their gas tank was absolutely full.
They woun't even put the nozzle. They would stand there
in front of their cars and tell me everything that
I should be doing. We're not running the football enough,
(13:20):
you're too conservative. You like we have no wins rushing
the quarterback, and like you need to make some changes
on that team and even with their coaching staff. Now
that we go yes, yes, yes, and yes, you're probably right,
I need to reevaluate.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
What kind of job offers or feelers did you get
when you were with the Steelers. How often does that
happen on an NFL level?
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Oh, I I never even entertained. I don't think it doesn't.
It doesn't happen at all. I think once you're with
when you're with a team like that, you're trying. You're
just trying to win year to year. You know, my my,
my fear of failure far exceeded my desire to win.
I did not want to fail and get fired. I
mean I that was always over top of my head.
(14:05):
And I just knew results oriented business and if you
didn't produce, you're gonna be asked to move on because
that's just the nature of that profession. So I understood
that getting into that profession. But you know, you never
think about the next job, at least I didn't from
my standpoint. I again, I've been in one place for
a long period of time, Dan, I was in Pittsburgh
for fifteen years. I've been in the CBS for nineteen years.
(14:28):
I'm not the kind of guy it's looking for the
grassby and greener on the other side, I like to
be appreciated and if I appreciated you and get the
very best of me. And you know what, I appreciate
being able to go to work where I am appreciated.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
But it's standard procedure in college football. Now, why is that?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I don't know. I go back. I think it's due.
I think it's the lack of structure that the NCAAA
has right now in terms of these timetables, in terms
of the pool, the transfer portal that takes place, allowing
coaches to leave before the end of or contracts to
go to other places. It doesn't happen in the NFL.
There's a very there's a very discipline structure that we have.
(15:07):
There's a salary cap, there is a time from free
agency that happens afterwards. You know, head coaches aren't going
to be able to go from one team to another
because you're not even talking to another team.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Now.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
The biggest thing in the NFL to me, the problem
that you have if you indeed it is, and I
didn't think it was was your assistance because at the
end of the season and you're in the playoffs, the
assistants have an opportunity to talk to other teams. But
I always looked at that as a feather in your cap.
And I always thought to him because I know when
I was getting interviewed at times that you know what,
my resume is being put on that table with that
(15:38):
playoff game. So I was more inspired to do well
in that playoff game as opposed to thinking about putting
your staff together, thinking about you know what you're going
to do and your mind isn't on the game. I
don't think that's the case. So I don't think we
have that in the National Football League. I think the
NCAA is really it's the wild, wild West. I've said
that out there. I said it yesterday, went on a
little bit of a rant. It's just a problem from
(15:59):
me is that the people that get lost in this
are the are the players, and the message we're sending
to them, the lack of trust that they're going to
start having it in our institutions, in our systems, because
you know what, that's what we're going to lose if
you're telling them one thing and you're doing another thing,
and any other part of that is the entitlement that
we now are doing with young players. When a quarterback
(16:22):
is making four million dollars a year and the alignment
is up there has got a four year scholarship, is
getting paid nothing? Okay, but because you know what, one
percent of the people in college are going to play
pro teaching life lessons about what business is like, what
going into the next level of life is about responsibility,
having a job, working for someone and having the fs
(16:44):
mAbs two to a boss and work your way up
the ladder. You know, sometimes you're not gonna get entitled
to something because you think you decide a part of it.
You may have to work for a long period of
time to get that opportunity. There's nothing wrong with a
good work ethic, a degree of saying, you know what,
I'm going to compete for what I need to compete for,
because you know what, that will serve you better in
life than being entitled and being handed. Something that really
(17:07):
to me is they're too young to be given that
kind of money.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
If you were the old miss Athletic director and Lane
Kiffin said to you, Hey, I want to coach this
team in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
You would have said, you decided to go to LSU,
thank you and goodbye? What to Let you come here?
Let you come here for the next month to talk
about how great LSU is over Mississippi. You kidd me seriously,
to even ask for that question is like, that's an arrogance.
You know that that's arrogance. I think what happened there
is a disgrace to the coaching profession because I will
(17:39):
just say this, the coaching profession is about developing young men.
It's not about chasing the green or grass to somewhere
else and be an ambulance chaser and go, oh, I
can fix you. And then when you fix that, let
me go here and fix that. It's about developing young men.
It's about trying to create tradition, pageantry for the institution
that you work for. We had rivalry weekend. We just
(18:01):
came off of what's a robbery anymore? What's the conference anymore?
I'm telling you we're losing some of the very core
fiber of things that we have grown up loving about
college football, and we're watching it the tier right right
before our eyes.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Talking to Bill Cower, the Hall of Famer and Super
Bowl champ with the Steelers. You know, some of these
teams we rode off back in September, maybe in October,
like the Texans, the Dolphins, the Niners with their injuries.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
How about the Cowboys?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean they're dangerous. I don't know
if they have enough time, but you know, you beat
the Chiefs and the Eagles over a span of four days,
you have to get everybody's attention there.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Coach, I would think so on the job that Brian
Schottenheimer's done through the course of everything that they've dealt
with down there, you know, and hey, I would love
to see the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys
in the playoffs, okay, because I want to know for
once and for arm because they met once and it
was a time. Who was right, Michaeh Parsons or Jerry Jones.
(19:09):
So to get me into the playoffs where we can't
end this thing in a time?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Do you think they both won? I do?
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I do. I think. You know, we sat there and
criticized Jerry all this time for what he did, but
I think going on getting Quentin Williams Overshewn came back,
you know, and and Wilson came in and all of
a sudden, Now these last three games, this defense has
taken on a different identity. Matt Eberflus say, Jerry stayed
(19:38):
with them, Brian has stayed with him. I think Brian
has called an amazing offensive games weekend and week out.
The offense is playing at a very high level. I
think they're playing with a lot of confidence. And I
think the question is, as you stated, Dan, is that
did they dig themselves too big of a hole. I
don't know, but I know there's still five games left
for these guys, and anything can happen, because I think
(19:58):
that it's really truck right now. The National Football League,
that parody has never been greater. Every team that you
think is on top. We saw the Rams get beat
by Carolina. We saw last night the Denver Broncos get
taken the overtime by the Washington Commanders. And who knows
what's gonna happen to night with New England and the
New York Giants. So I think the NFL was in
a tremendous place from the standpoint that it's going to
(20:19):
go down to the final weeks, and I think for
the first time we may have a seventh seed and
maybe two seven seeds that could win in the wildcard round.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Was it tough as a coach tougher to understand your
quarterback or the wide receivers that you had.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
They go, they go hand in hand. I think the
wide receivers, you know, I think the quarterback is going
to touch the ball every game, every play. The wide
receivers you got kind of like you got to massage
them a little bit because you want them to block
for you, You want them to do the dirty work,
but you better give them the ball a little bit too.
So like trying to be able to keep people happy
is like the job that I think of a coordinator
(20:58):
to duke and a guy involved early for the quarterback
to do to make sure he can massage all the
egos that's in there in that huddle that he's got
because a lot everybody wants to have the ball at
the end of the game, and really the only one
is gonna have the ball to begin every play is
going to be that is going to be that uh
that that quarterback. So I just think the quarterback is
becomes a reflection of the head coach at some point,
(21:21):
and I think.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Ben, are your wide receivers, Well.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
I didn't let the wide receiver. They didn't bother me.
Ben drove me crazier because I hated me because he
had to be a reflection of me. Dan. So that's
what I'm saying. I didn't worry about I didn't worry
about the wide receivers. Like they're gonna, they're gonna be mad,
they're gonna they're gonna say all these things. That's wine.
I get it. They know they want the ball, they
want it for all the right reasons. But the quarterback,
(21:48):
like you guys, you gotta think like me, so that
like and so it's like that's the one and at
times I gotta let them be them too. So that's
that little fine line, a give and take, you know.
And that's so that's that's the guy that's gotta be
reflecting you. I think there's no great example that. And
you're seeing bow Nicks and Sean Payton that I think
they they are working hand in hand and Sean appreciates
(22:09):
Boa and but I'm sure Sean wants to stay on
bow to try to get him to be able to
be that you know, toughling guy that's gonna be really
good in the tough situations. And so it's, uh, it's
kind of fun to watch these young quarterbacks evolve with
these with the with their coaches.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I thought it was funny you told the story where
Ben acted look like he couldn't hear you when you
were calling.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He starts bounding. He starts, and I'm thinking,
you know, I know he can hear it. I know
he can hear us. So I said, grab that, and
he goes, I said, grab that. Helme as soon as
he comes off that field, and he says, They go,
it's working now, And I go, Ben, it's working. He goes,
I must have just came back on.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Well he was good enough that he could still do that.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah, yes, he like he would. We would have the
banter back and forth, and it was respectful banters. He
always knew where I stood, and I always appreciated where
he was at. Didn't always agree with it at times,
but you know what, you earned the right to have
that ability, to have that input, to have that respect.
The one thing I knew about Ben Roethlisberger that when
(23:19):
the game was on the line and it was in
the fourth quarter. He wanted to bow in his hands,
and you know what, there was probably no other player
that I would have wanted to have the ball in
hands than him.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
When was the last time you didn't have a mustache?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Ah? Good question? You know. I shaved it. I ship
went down the bolt Head Island one time, like my
fourth year, and I said, you know what, everyone's recognizing
me down here. So I shaved it. And I'm telling
you it was the best thing in the world. I'd
be walking by and they're like, you know, I mean hey,
like like you go, hey, hey, you know the coach
Kler's on this, on this on this island. I go, really,
(23:55):
where's he at? I go? So it was, you know,
so it was. It was. It's been a while, it's
been a while. It's not a good looks it's for
me right now. It's just it's not a good look.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
But did you did you have bust approval for the
Hall of Fame for your mustache?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Yeah? I wow. That wasn't even an option. I mean,
it had had had to be that, because how.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Would you show it to you before?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Yes, there was that, and they kind of excepted, you know,
I think they sentuated the chan a little bit. I
don't think it's that bad, but they which was I
don't know if I agree with that that portrait of it,
but that's fine.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Did your wife have a say in this?
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah? I think when I shaved it, the first thing
she said, please don't shave again. So in other words,
how long is it going to take the grow back?
So I think that got That was my first uh
sign that you know what, Okay, maybe it's not a
good look.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
It's not leaving, not leaving great to talk to you.
And we played nice today, but I know, I know.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
You know, well you know what I think coming off
coming off the what happened yesterday. But let me ask you,
did you have a nice Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
It's still going on, coach, it's on a day. It's
really a spirit that I have.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah. Well, so let me ask you what do you
think was the best game? What do you think was
the best game with Thanksgiving weekend? With with the NFL
Green Bay, Detroit, Dallas, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Joe Burrow, Baltimore,
or Eagles and Bears.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I would say Dallas and Kansas City because that's that's
a heavyweight fight, and you know, the hype involved with
that and it lived up to it. And Dallas winning
that game I thought made for great content. I think
Joe Burrow coming back and doing what he did against
the Ravens, that's pretty big. And now you've got Steelers
and the Ravens coming up this next weekend.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Can you imagine if the four and eight Bengals get
Joe Burrow back, they can still win the division? They
really can't. Yeah, now you got to go to Buffalo
this next week, so we'll see. The NFL has never
been so much intrigued, so many storylines. It's never been better.
So let's let's talk again in about a month and
(26:14):
see who's doing it.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Okay, Yeah, I'll make it a date.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Okay, that sounds good. I'm glad you keep the spirit
going because you were really good today. You didn't even
like you're even like you were actually trying to get me,
asked some really good questions. It was really good.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah. I wasn't gonna do that. I was gonna be nice.
I was gonna play nice. But I can't guarantee in
a month from now.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
No, I I I expect that I never come on
with the expectation of you being nice. I prepare myself
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I'll bet you do you psych yourself up to come on?
Stare at yourself in the mirror.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I look like I look at you like like like
a like a divisional opponent. I make it personal.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Would you want to hit me, like tackle me?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
No? No, I respect you.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
No, I got fore arm shiver.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Oh no, es. I would probably bump you if I
passed you, okay, yeah, if you got like if like
we were walking down the same one, would you turn?
Would you would you like be the one that gets
out of the way for coming down the same path
like I I most of the time, I would. I
think I would get out of the way of you because
I respect you. But if you mumbled something on the
(27:23):
way past, men as you start whispering, because I know
if you're whispering, you're saying something.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Thank you coach, all right, thanks Dan, thank you. It's
Bill Kaller.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Andy Staples was at Ohio State Michigan on Saturday. Will
be in Nashville this weekend and then he'll be attending
a first round college football Playoff game. Andy covers college
football for on three Sports. All Right, we had a
lot of conversation, we had a lot of build up,
and then we had the end result with Lane Kiffin
(28:09):
leaving to go to LSU. Does anybody win here?
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (28:15):
I think LSU feels like they won. They certainly got
the guy they wanted. They got the guy everybody wanted,
because remember Florida wanted him to Ole Miss wanted to
keep him, and LSU probably will wind up having the
same defensive staff, which they're very excited about that. Lane
kiffn probably retains those guys. He then comes in and
fixes the offense, and all of a sudden, you got
(28:36):
a team that should be competitive every year to potentially
make the College football Playoff, to potentially win a national title.
Now here's the catch. Lane Kiffin had to leave a
team that is actually in the College football Playoff and
that is the rub like you leave for a conference rival.
And remember LSU is a bitter rival of a Little Miss.
(28:57):
There are some Ole Miss fans who think LSU's a
bigger rival misissip State. Ole Miss is never going to
let the LSU coach work for ole Miss, even for
a month.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Well, there are certainly people. There's certainly an analyst that
I saw this weekend who thought, hey, why don't you
let him coach? And I don't think I would not
have him coach my team. If I'm the athletic director
at ole Miss, I'd say, nope, you made your decision.
Go and don't act like you're the victim here. You
can't use leverage that you're going to take coaches in
(29:30):
players if you don't let him coach this team in
the playoffs, as has been reported, I'd say, hey, see
you keep your tray in an upright lock position when
you fly out on that private jet.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
And then the middle fingers saluting him on the way
out were told you the story, Yeah, Ole Miss and
could not let him hold them hostage. That was not
gonna work. It was a non starter. There are other
situations where coaches are leaving schools like John Summral at Tulane,
Eric Morris at North Texas worse to go in to
Oaklham State, Summer's going to Florida. The winner of their
(30:03):
game Friday is playing in the playoff and the guy
who coaches that team will coach them in the playoff.
But it's different when you're going from North Texas, Oklahoma State,
or Too Laye to Florida. When you're going from Ole
Miss LSU, you can't do it. And I found it
hilarious that Nick Saban kept saying, let him coach. Nick
Saban fired Lane Kiffin after the twenty sixteen season. Lane
(30:29):
Kiffin takes the Florida Atlantic head coaching job. He's the
Alabama offensive coordinator. He coaches the Peach Bowl, and between
the Peach Bowl and the National title game, Nick Saban
fired his ass. And now Nick Saban's like, sure, just
let him coach. What could possibly go wrong? Like, of
all the people, you know, what can happen?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Why were all these analysts? It feels like carrying water
for Lane Kiffin that day he should be able to coach.
I understand that I don't want this to hurt our
seating in the college football playoffs. You know, we ding
teams for losing their quarterbacks. That would be the only
reason why I would say, all right, we'll let you coach,
but only because we don't want we want to host
(31:09):
a playoff game.
Speaker 7 (31:10):
I can't tell you why the game day disc all
did that.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I can't.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
I mean, my guess is personal relationships with Lane Kiffin,
and they want to cultivate those and keep those healthy. Obviously,
it's a different for Nick Saban since they used to
work together, but for the other guys that look, lane
Kiffin's the most entertaining, polarizing, interesting figure in college football,
and if you work on college football's biggest show, you
want to maintain a good relationship. I suppose that's the
(31:35):
only excuse I can think of, because if they talk
to any athletic directors, and we did, there's not one
who would have let him coach All Miss through the playoff.
All right, what's Penn State doing? That is a great question.
All I could think of is the judge smail as well.
We're waiting as all the other dominoes were falling. The
(31:58):
only thing I can think of is they've got somebody
in mind who's maybe coaching in a conference championship game
this week and doesn't want to do anything until after
that happens. That's the only thing I can think of,
and that leads you to a few names. So Bob
Chesney is the James Madison coach. And he's a name
that I've been saying for about a month because if
(32:20):
you look at Chesney's job history, Northeast guy went D three,
D two FCS, FBS, successful everywhere. It's kind of the
Kurt Signetti path, and you'd have thought, okay, from James Madison,
his next logical step is like Syracuse or Boston College.
But why would you have to wait for him to
coach Syracuse or Boston College for two years? He would
(32:41):
have ended up at Penn State anyway, Like, just get
him now. The other one I thought of, and it's
kind of a wild here, but he's a really good coach,
and I think people just assume he's not movable. Is
Colonie Sataki at BYU. He's at his alma mater, and
maybe he's not movable. Maybe he's just really happy there.
But a chance to coach at at an elite of
(33:02):
elite programs, that's one. I would certainly talk to him
if I were Penn State because I think he's an
excellent coach. But that's the only other one in the
Championship games I can think of, other than maybe Ohio
State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, who kind of the Urban
Meyer path. He was the receivers coach. He's the OC now,
but not really a play caller in his history, but
(33:24):
receivers coach slash ace recruiter and maybe one of the
best recruits in the country and definitely the best receivers
coach in the country. I can see him being ready
to move up to head coaching job. I didn't know
if the jump that big would work, but he's one
I would have talked to as well. What's the NCAA
do with this hiring window? How do they kind of
(33:45):
prevent this? Well, there's an easy fix, but the coaches
don't want it. See that's the thing. The coaches like
to blame the NCAA for this stuff. The nc DOUBLEA
and well, the committees that come up with these ideas,
they've already come up with an idea that would work.
You bring high school signing Day back to February where
(34:06):
it was just have one there. You eliminate spring practice.
You create an OTA type system that starts in May
in the first summer term. You move the transfer portal
window into the spring, and players can leave in April
or whatever. The coaches didn't want that the coaches, like,
I want my team fixed by January. The coaches want
(34:27):
to move between December and January. The players want to
move between December and January two because that's the semester break.
And by the way, the NCAA is not changing that
because you'd have to move Christmas. And I don't think
they're that powerful. So if the coaches ever want to
come around on it, that's fine. But if they insist
that they want their team by January, then they get
(34:48):
to be the villains in this. They don't get to
blame the NCAA for it.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, but the current messy system is great for coverage,
it's great for contest.
Speaker 7 (34:57):
It's not though, Dan as someone who this year round.
I listen Ian Rappaport, Hey, you're yelling all the guy
ye Ian used to be a college football writer, so
he understands my plight. I'm like, I'm like rap sheet.
You guys have the best calendar because you have the playoffs,
the super Bowl, the coaching carousel, free agency, OTAs like
(35:20):
it never stops. It's perfect. We have all the interesting
stuff packed into December. I had a show yesterday, Dan
that would have filled a month's worth of offseason shows.
I had to do it an hour and.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
A half.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Talking. Andy Staples covers college football for on three Sports.
Make a case for Texas making the playoffs.
Speaker 7 (35:42):
It's tough because they're so far down right now, and
I think, really they're they're ast out. But of the
nine and three teams, they would have the best case.
And here's why. Look at ten and two Vanderbilt. If
you're gonna consider ten and two Vanderbilt, consider nine and
three Texas, which beat Vanderbilt head to head, which has
a better best win Texas A and M. And also
(36:05):
can make the complaint that if you don't pick them,
you are discouraging scheduling tough non conference games. Because their
marque non conference game was at Ohio State, which they
lost fourteen to seven. Vanderbilt's marque non conference game was
at Virginia Tech, which they won. If Texas had gone
to Blacksburg, they also would have won. So or Texas
had just scheduled Rice or somebody like that, they would
(36:26):
have won. So if you were to pick the other
team that didn't schedule as hard, then you are discouraging that.
And I don't want that to be discouraged. And I
don't think anybody else does. I want a Texas Ohio
State game to start the season, so if it came
to that, I would hope they would pick Texas. I
think Texas and Vandy unfortunately are kind of boxed out
(36:48):
at this point, so I don't know if it even
comes to that.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
If Arch would come out, do you think he'd be
the number one quarterback taken?
Speaker 7 (36:57):
No? No, I don't. He's got work to do now.
He can grow into what would be an effective NFL quarterback.
He can grow into be a very high draft pick,
but he needs to get better if you want. Even
the A and M game where he played pretty well,
he misses a lot of easy throws still, and those
are throws that NFL quarterbacks don't miss. Those are throws
(37:18):
that Fernando Mendoza Indiana doesn't miss. And Fernando Mendoza is
one that I think the NFL people are going to
be very excited about. He has the prototypical size, and
you've seen him in crunch time like at Penn State
where he's making unbelievable throws. That's what they're looking for.
Arch can be that. I'm just not sure he's there yet,
and I imagine his support system is telling him, Hey,
(37:41):
more starts in college can get you there.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Great to talk to you is always We'll talk to
you soon. Thank you, Andy, Thanks Dan. It's Andy Staples.
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Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.