September 8, 2026 • 43 mins
Dan tries to make sense of the conclusion of the Michigan/Western Michigan game as well as why he isn't as hopeful for the Wolverines moving forward. Gerald McCoy stopped by the show to talk about Aaron Donald and the Seahawks. Lastly,Chris Fowler joined the program to briefly discuss the ongoing U.S. Open before recapping the week of college football.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to The Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Do you have a poll question you want to start
out with, Dylan, before we dive into the college football
action from the weekend?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Well, we have a few options off of the Michigan game,
if you want to start there, Dan.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
First one's from Todd, actually. Got to be negative. Got
to be negative.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Is there any chance Western Michigan would have gotten one
more play if they were on offense in Ann Arbor?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yes or no? I'm going to say yes. Now, I
spent way too much time on this over the weekend.
I have an incredible source on this, and I was
back and forth with him, and He did his damnedest
(00:47):
to convince me that this happens. It's unfortunate that it happens,
but the stadium clock and the clock that they use
in the booth is not always synced up. And I said,
I don't know why. How many times has this happened
before where it goes to all zeros and then somebody goes, no, no,
wait a minute. We got to check in the booth.
(01:09):
I just don't understand it. I thought O.J. Simpson's trial
lawyers did a better job explaining the bloody glove than
they did what happened there at Ann Arbor. I kept going,
you're making it worse the more you talk. It took
him forever to do it. But that's where you go, huh?
Wait a minute. How is that possible? But my friend
(01:33):
kept saying, I mean, I've got probably nine. He might
be texting me now. the link that ties the clock
on the backboards in basketball when it gets under a
minute to the scoreboard, he's telling me about that as well.
Let's see, what else does he say about this? We
(01:56):
were going back and forth right after the game. The
on-site replay operator who is responsible for checking all things,
the on-site is connected live to the conference office.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Uh-oh.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Hard to believe all of this hasn't been better clarified.
The conference took far too long, came across like, well,
they were explaining something other than what we saw. And
I kept thinking, how do you have a system like this?
Don't we want everything to be in sync? Don't we
want that clock to be? And then I was told
(02:31):
they don't show you tenths of a second like we
do in basketball. And I go, okay, I never thought
of that, that we don't put up a full clock there,
that it's, what was it, zero, zero, and four-tenths or something.
It just didn't make any sense. But I thought it
(02:56):
was unbelievable the response that Lance Taylor had. He's the
Western Michigan head coach. Now, there's two ways to go
about this. You go in there, you're upset, or you
go in there– And you realize, let the other people
behind the scenes try to deal with this. You're a coach.
You represent your players. You stay classy. And he certainly
(03:18):
did after the loss.
Speaker 6 (03:20):
At the end of the day, you don't always control
those situations. Or is there a second left on the clock?
We talk a lot about just responding. regardless of what
the circumstances are. We can't control whether there's a second
left on the clock or not. We went out the
first time. We defended perfectly, you know, the Hail Mary situation.
(03:42):
I thought our guys did an excellent job. I know
when I looked up at the clock, it was past
zeros before we touched it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Now, he did go on to say you can choose
to be bitter or choose to be better, and he
chose to be better. Michigan got a win. Actually, they
had a loss, but they also got a win. Western
Michigan had a win, and now they have a loss.
But you start to think about, and Western Michigan, they
(04:11):
were a bull team last year. They're a good team.
The bigger issue, I think, with all of this, and
this might mask it for a week until Michigan plays Oklahoma,
Michigan was almost a 29-point favorite. They're not scoring. They
spent a lot of money on their quarterback. They had
(04:33):
one great drive. That, to me, is a bigger issue. That, yes,
you saved your season. A miracle saved your season, but
can't hide the problems that nearly ended it. Michigan got
bailed out here. This is a franchise, if you want
to call it, that wants to compete for national championships.
(04:55):
Kyle Whittingham's debut. All of a sudden, you're looking around
and you're going, wait a minute. Western Michigan is not
going away. And you spent a lot of money on,
once again, your quarterback. You have NIL. You have everything there.
This was what I thought was really surprising. They did
(05:16):
not look like a championship caliber team. And granted, one week.
I get it. You're at home. Fresh start, Kyle Whittingham.
And then... You pretty much lay an egg. That, to me,
is the bigger picture here. That's the surprising part of
all of this. Here is Kyle Winningham, Michigan's head coach,
(05:38):
about the end of the game.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Well, yeah, obviously the extra second was huge. As I
watched the first... Hail Mary end, and the ball sailed
out of the back of the end zone. As I
glanced at the clock, I was pretty sure there was
one second left, but that obviously is not up to me.
But as the refs went to replay, they confirmed it
and so gave us one more opportunity. And the second
(06:03):
time around, Bryce threw a perfect ball because the first
one he sailed it out the back, which gives us
no chance to catch it. And J.J. made a phenomenal catch.
It doesn't surprise me. That's who he is. I see
him make contested catches every day in practice. And offensive
line gave Bryce enough time to launch it. And so
this game will go down in history, Michigan history. I
don't know if it's in a positive way, but it'll
(06:23):
go down in history for certain.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Coach, I'm with you until you tell me that you
thought there was another second left. Not many people did. Now,
how in the building could you go, you know, I
think there's another second up there. That was wild. I
(06:51):
kept going, wait, it's over. Wait, it's not over. Wait,
how are they determining there's a tenth of a second?
Then all of a sudden you've got to round up
and give them a second there? I've just never seen
it happen before. You know, there's been quite a few
(07:12):
college football games in my lifetime, and I've never seen
it where They came back to life. Like they're the
DeMar Hamlin of college football teams. It's like, nope, they're dead.
It's over.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Wait, what?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
They're coming back. Wow. But now you got Oklahoma coming in,
Oklahoma and Michigan. And Michigan was a one and a
half point favorite a week ago. They're now a five
and a half point underdog just based off of That
lackluster performance against Western Michigan. Yes, Todd?
Speaker 8 (07:47):
If Michigan fans want Kyle Whittingham to pretend that he
hates Ryan Day in Ohio State, I would be surprised.
Wouldn't Western Michigan fans want him to be more riled up,
as classy as he handled things, the Western Michigan coach?
If I'm a Western Michigan fan, I'd want him to
be up in arms and irate and screaming how this
was taken away from us.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I think he chose the correct way because he's going
to let other people fight his battle. I don't think
anything based off his words at a press conference... will
change anybody's opinion on this. Now, you might say, come on, coach,
you've got to go in there and be angry. I
think he's trying to be a leader and not cry
about it. He had every reason to do that. Now,
(08:27):
I did ask my source. I said, Western Michigan has
taken the high road here. Does that have anything to
do with them getting paid and making sure that if
other schools in the Big Ten want to schedule Western Michigan,
he goes, I haven't gone that far down the rabbit
(08:47):
hole yet. I said, well, I'll give you 24 hours here.
And then I saw Paul Feinbaum. I think he was
with Stephen A. And they're like, you know, maybe you're
trying to protect your paycheck you're going to get. Well,
you're going to get paid no matter what. You played
the game. But they're kind of going crazy. quietly with
(09:08):
this at least for the time being i just man
kept going okay there this doesn't make any sense and
then you arbitrarily it felt like and then you tell
me okay the clock that we see on tv is
not the clock that's the actual clock don't have we
come far enough we put up we put men on
(09:29):
the moon we can't sync up a stadium clock with
the clock we see on tv First Hour, brought to
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Speaker 5 (09:55):
Yes, Dylan?
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah, I also think if you're Western Michigan, if you'd
been told before the game you were going to lose
by one to Michigan, I imagine they probably would have
signed up for that too. So while the way it ended,
you have every right in the world to be like,
that was kind of bogus, we're upset, whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
It's still like, you played a great game. Yeah, but
I don't know if you say, yeah, we only lost
by one. If you lost by one but didn't lose
by one that way, then you might go, boy, that
could have gone either way. You won that game. And
then you lost that game. That, to me, is the
(10:34):
hard part where sometimes it's not that you lost, it's
how you lost. And that one will, I mean, that's historical.
That will be there forever.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Yes, Marvin.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (10:47):
Coach Taylor said, God, let's play a hard 60 minutes,
not a hard 60 minutes in one second.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, his players played 60 minutes. They just didn't give
them that one second. If they gave 100% for that
one second. And another thing, please, please, please knock the
ball down. Nobody cares that you got the interception. They
care that you got the win. Knock the ball down.
Speaker 8 (11:19):
So why should we be surprised that they can't figure
out the clock when they couldn't even have lights ready
to go in last night's game where you've got to
sit there for almost an hour and a half waiting
for kickoff?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That was puzzling with Florida State and SMU. A couple
hours there. Boy, they were filling. That's tap dancing is
what we call it in the business. I'm going, man,
I do not envy you because you're at the mercy
of somebody else. You have no idea when the lights
are going to come back on. Boy, SMU, they can
(11:51):
play some offense there. Florida State, Mike Norvell.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Uh-oh.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Maybe last call for him. Dabo Sweeney.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Yikes.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
We'll talk about that. Lane Kiffin's leaning into being a villain.
I would say go full, all the way in.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
All right?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You're going to be a villain outside of Baton Rouge,
and you'll be a villain once you leave Baton Rouge,
who knows, in a couple of years. But for the
time being, you looked great. You played great. Your comments
were suspect. But the bigger picture there, and I said
we would be talking about the coach who lost that
game more than who won. It might be 50-50, but
(12:41):
Dabo Sweeney, Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
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Speaker 2 (13:20):
Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon, and comment away. Gerald McCoy,
one of our favorites, NFL Network analyst and longtime NFL
defensive tackle. He is, of course, drafted out of Oklahoma,
third overall, joining us on the program. How nervous are
you with the clock operator with the Michigan game, with
(13:40):
your Sooners playing in Ann Arbor?
Speaker 9 (13:45):
First off, Uncle Dan, thanks for having me back. I
always love when you invite me back out. I live
so far away. So this is the only way that
I get to see my uncle, my distant uncle. So
Uncle Dan, thank you for having me. And I'm not
worried about the clock operator. We're not going to make
this thing close.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
All right.
Speaker 9 (14:03):
Talk to the guys. We are going to make this clear.
And I'm going to let Rich know that when I
see him later. And I was listening to... Before, of
all those teams and all the odds and all this,
and I did not hear, I heard Ohio. I didn't
hear Oklahoma. I didn't hear John Mateer. And this is excellent.
I love that nobody is thinking about us. That is
(14:25):
exactly where we want to be. So whoever wrote that,
whoever came up with that, you know what?
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Thank you. Good morning. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
That's updated from DraftKings this morning there, but no.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Thank you, DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, Oklahoma and your quarterback, underrated perhaps, and you're fine
with that.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
I'm perfectly fine with it. I'm just fine with it.
Speaker 9 (14:50):
We're going to the big house, I guess, if that's
what they want it to be, and we'll put everybody
on the stand, and then we'll just go week to week.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
So we good where we at.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
You expect Aaron Donald to play this week?
Speaker 5 (15:06):
No. If he plays, it would be great.
Speaker 9 (15:09):
But I believe that signing him was because it's something
they had to get out of the way. But one
thing you don't want to do is rush him out
there because you know that December, January is what matters
the most.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
You know, you want to put yourself in a great
spot by the time you get to December, January.
Speaker 9 (15:28):
But Aaron Donald, what he did, you know, taking over
the Tampa game, And then taking over the Super Bowl
when they wanted his greatness, you needed to flash when
you needed to flash. And there's no need to rush
him after. They signed him to get him on the team.
Now he's getting into practice, getting in the swing of
sitting in meetings again and getting up and going to practice.
(15:50):
If he plays this week, it will be very sparingly,
but I expect to see him either next week or
the week after.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I think you're on record. Did you say he's the
best defensive player you ever saw?
Speaker 5 (16:02):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
What puts him over Reggie White or Mean Joe Green
or Lawrence Taylor? I know it's your opinion, but.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Right, right.
Speaker 9 (16:10):
Yeah, for me, and I love whoever anybody has because
we're speaking of greatness. And I believe in today's era,
we've got a greatness fatigue where people can be so
great that we start coming up with reasons why they
are not as good or not as great.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
You're like, oh.
Speaker 9 (16:27):
oh this person is dominating so much let's talk about
this person so anytime somebody picks anybody i love it
because we're discussing greatness but to you to answer your
question my reason being is because.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Aaron donald is not supposed to.
Speaker 9 (16:41):
Be doing what he does to grow men at the
size he is i don't know if anybody's ever if
you see him on the field he looks smaller but
if you've ever seen him in person you say that's
the guy that's doing this to everybody He's extremely fast.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
He's very explosive.
Speaker 9 (16:57):
He's strong, but his intelligence and his size, his ability
to take on double teams, to be able to switch
his stance and know what's coming, to play the run
at a high level, rush the passer at a high level.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
He just does everything. He can play inside. He can
play outside. He can do it all. He can play
at the nose. He can play three techniques. He can
play at the end.
Speaker 9 (17:18):
He just does everything, and he's done it at a
high level, and he's done it since he touched the league.
A lot of people are great, but from the time
you step foot in the NFL to the time you
leave to do it at the level you did it, it.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Was amazing to me at the size that he's done it.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
How violent is in the trenches, certainly when you're playing
nose tackle? You guys hit something or get hit every
single play.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Yeah, you do.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
But how violent would you say? We see the plays outside,
but inside, it just feels like it's hand-to-hand combat every
single play.
Speaker 9 (17:58):
It is, and that's why people call me crazy for
not wearing gloves. You know, I didn't wear gloves, but
I had to pay for it. Look at my fingers.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
My fingers are all– my hands are all– they're all sideways.
I got scars all over.
Speaker 9 (18:11):
It is what it is, but that's why I say
to play football, you got to have a screw loose.
But to play D-line or O-line, you got to really–
really like has to be something wrong with you to
want to do that every single play. Like wide receivers
is glamorous, but you may not get the ball. It's
a very dependent position. DD is probably the hardest position
(18:32):
to play because you have to.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Guard every Jamar Chase is running backwards. That's very difficult.
Speaker 9 (18:38):
Quarterback is the most important, but the most grueling is D-line, O-line,
because you are getting hit every play, and your hands
are getting beat up, your arms are getting beat up,
you hyperextend to your knee, and you got to get
right up and get back to it. There's a lot.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
That goes on down there that people don't see. And your....
Speaker 9 (18:58):
Like margin for error is very, very, very small because
it happens that fast. It happens so fast. One wrong
step and you're out of there. So it's a difficult
position to play on both sides. D-line more because the O-line,
they have help. It's us versus could be one, could
be two. Aaron Donald could be three.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
We don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Did your wife say, why don't you get your ring
finger fixed?
Speaker 9 (19:26):
Yeah, she wanted me to because she wanted me to
wear my original wedding ring.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
And I thought about getting it.
Speaker 9 (19:32):
I had a teammate that had his his finger was
messed up and he got his original wedding ring cut
in half to wear it.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
And then they put a clamp on it so he
could open it up and put it on. But I
was like, you know what?
Speaker 9 (19:43):
I'm not risking losing that and going through all that.
I'm going to just get these rubber rings. I got
a bag full of these. As long as I got
something over here, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Why is Seattle under the radar?
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Because Last.
Speaker 9 (20:02):
Seattle is not a.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Even if you think about when they had the Legion
of Bull with that era, they came out of nowhere.
Speaker 9 (20:08):
And they had to do it multiple years before we
were like, hey, Seattle is one of those teams.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Sometimes you have teams where they come out of.
Speaker 9 (20:16):
Nowhere because nobody went to last season saying Seattle is
one of those teams. Sam Darnold was still the quarterback.
We wasn't really sure about the defense. Well, now we
got guys being paid on the defense. And we know
who they are.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
But... They lost their running back. And it's kind of just.
Speaker 9 (20:32):
Like a, I mean, they were a couple plays away from,
they just haven't established themselves as one of those teams yet.
So it's always going to be a question mark until
they show us, hey, no, we can do this again.
We can be a competitor, you know, year in and
year out.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
So it happens with teams like that.
Speaker 9 (20:51):
It even took the Legion of Boom a couple years
before we was like, hey, always mention Seattle.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Talking to Gerald McCoy, NFL Network analyst and six-time Pro Bowler,
first-round pick by the Buccaneers. More likely to get back
to the Super Bowl, the Patriots or Seattle?
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Seattle. Oh. Yeah, Seattle.
Speaker 9 (21:16):
The Patriots run was great, but I can't.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
I can't act like.
Speaker 9 (21:23):
They didn't have the record that they had and I
didn't see what I've seen in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
They played good.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
Enough to get there, but there are a lot of
caveats in there. And I never want to discredit people
for getting to the Super Bowl because I never played
in a playoff game. So this is somebody that would
have dreamed to have what The New England Patriots just say,
I don't care about the schedule. I don't care about
how we got there.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
We got there.
Speaker 9 (21:50):
But when we talk about likelihood of getting back, you
have to look at their path of how they got there.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Their schedule was very weak. The weakest, actually.
Speaker 9 (21:58):
And then if we look at how Drake may play
in the playoffs, it wasn't great.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
And then they run into Denver, who didn't have a
starting quarterback.
Speaker 9 (22:08):
And it's like the defense played really well, but the
offense just wasn't clicking.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
And you add an A.J. Brown and it's like, oh, well, this.
Speaker 9 (22:16):
Is going to change life. Well, we don't know that
because we don't know the adversity if they can push
through it. We know Mike Bray was a very, very,
very good coach because he's had good teams at every
stop he's been at. But likelihood out of the two,
I have to go with Seattle because of the path.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Of the Patriots.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Quarterback always gets the cheerleader, but Do nose tackles have
groupies or, you know, that they show up, you know,
that they fan club?
Speaker 5 (22:46):
I'm sure Aaron Donald does. He's in L.A. I mean,
this is Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
We know how Los Angeles goes.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
And he's, you know, I don't know. I mean, defensive
end to get it a little more, you know, Aaron
Donald's an anomaly. I know Warren Sapp did.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
First ballot with that, huh?
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Yeah. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
He was doing L.A. work in Tampa.
Speaker 9 (23:25):
Yeah. Yes.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Yes. That was that was different. That's what I always say.
People are like, man, this guy's like this. He's like this.
He's like that. Man, Lawrence is one of the if.
Speaker 9 (23:37):
I ever have to stay at people in my career
where I'm like that person. I can't tell my story
without that person. Warren Sapp is one of those people.
So for me, I don't see Sapp how everybody else
sees him. You know, Sapp sees himself how he sees himself.
He just is him.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
That's what I say.
Speaker 9 (23:57):
Sapp is just Sapp. A lot of people feel about
him the way they do. But to me, Sapp is
just Sapp. He's just a big, big.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Bro to me.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Who was better than you thought, like a skilled position
offensive player, where once you played, you go, wow, they
lived up to the hype?
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Skilled position?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Like wide receiver, running back, quarterback?
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Le'Veon Bell. Le'Veon Bell, yeah. I played a lot of guys,
but to see his patience... and.
Speaker 9 (24:35):
How he ran the ball. You know, you watch him play,
he don't look as fast as he is. He's extremely fast.
You know, he can run. He's not like 4'2, 4'3, speed,
but he's hard to catch it. When he's in the hole, like,
you have to be extremely disciplined with him. Like, you
have to be very, very disciplined with him. And another
(24:57):
person I played that... Was it NFL when.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
I played him? I might've played in the NFL, but
one of.
Speaker 9 (25:04):
The players I played in my career, that's one of
the best football players I've ever played against is Percy Harvin.
Like he's one of those people that if he could
have stayed healthy, kept his head on straight, he would
have been one of those.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Guys we talked about for years to come. But anybody,
you just look up Percy Harvin and listen to how
people talk about him and you'll know I'm telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
You got any beef with anybody after the fact that you.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Hey, no. I'm too nice of a guy.
Speaker 9 (25:36):
I'm the guy who's asking people if they go to
chapel when fights break up. I'm the guy who said, hey,
so nobody got to be with the church this morning.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
That's me. You know, like I had.
Speaker 9 (25:47):
If you see me pushing back and forth with somebody,
that's in the midst of football.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
But I'm such a nice dude. Even.
Speaker 9 (25:54):
So there's a clip of me with Ryan Jensen and
we were pushing back and forth when I was with
Carolina and he.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Was with Tampa.
Speaker 9 (26:01):
Man, me and Ryan talked on the phone after this.
Not that day, but before we played again or after
we played the second time and then.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Me and Jason Light.
Speaker 9 (26:12):
We talked, had our conversation before I played Tampa. I'm
just too nice of a guy, man. Like football, I
never could play angry.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
And if you go look at my performance.
Speaker 9 (26:22):
In the first time I played Tampa and the second
time I played Tampa, I had this false anger of like, oh,
they treated me away and this and this. And I
came into the game like I got a point to prove.
I've never played a good game where I was angry, ever.
I've never been angry and played a good game. I've
been motivated and played great games. But go look at
(26:43):
my performance versus Tampa, the first game versus the second game.
It's completely different because I went into the second game skipping,
having a good time, hugging everybody in Tampa.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Come here, Jason. Come here, Levante. Oh, I love y'all.
Speaker 9 (26:56):
I miss y'all boys, man. And then I just went
and played football. So I don't have beef with people, man.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Like, I don't. Olami used to tell me, stop being nice.
It's difficult. I'm trying to do my job. Stop being nice.
I need you to stop this.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But how do you explain, like, Troy Polamalu is one
of the nicest people, softest voices, and he gets on
a football field, and he's just a different person.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
You know, it is it is because the game has
to be played a certain way. Like you have to
play the game a certain way if you want to
be able to compete with the greatest athletes in the world.
So you have some people who are not only the
greatest athletes in the world, but.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
The best professionals. And this is Jackson.
Speaker 9 (27:42):
I used to call him the ultimate pro because when
he did off the field to prepare for games, And
then how he played the game, how he practiced.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
You have some people who are like that.
Speaker 9 (27:53):
But then they are phenomenal athletes at that. And then
some people play angry. So in order to compete with
these level of football players, you have to play the
game a certain way. You don't have to be angry.
Some people play angry. I always tell people to find
your why. Why are you doing this?
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Is it your family? Do you want money? Do you
want to be living the L.A. life in Tampa? What
do you want to be doing? I don't know. It's
just like, what is your motivation?
Speaker 9 (28:21):
Whatever that is, you take that across those white lines
and you play the game the right way.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
I'm trying to teach my son that right now.
Speaker 9 (28:27):
He's 11, 7th grade, and he's just now starting.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
He's been playing football, but he's just now starting school ball.
Speaker 9 (28:34):
And I've been trying to preach to him, son, I
shouldn't have to tell you to be more violent.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
I shouldn't have to.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
There's one way to play this game. And you don't
have to be angry or pissed off to do it.
This is just how it's supposed to be played. And
that's how I was, and that's how Troy Palvado was.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Great to see you again. I'll see you at the cookout.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
Yes, Uncle Dan.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah. We'll talk to you during the season.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
I appreciate it. Please have me back. You know, I
always love to see my uncle, man.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Hey, great seeing you in person. We got to see
you in San Francisco using the Super Bowl. It was great.
Thank you. Great to talk to you again.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Thanks, brother.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
That's Gerald McCoy. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at foxsportsradio.com. And within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Chris Fowler, the mothership. He, of course, college football. And
he's calling the action U.S.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Open.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
His next game will be Ohio State and Texas on
ABC Saturday. night with Herbie and Holly Rowe and Laura Rutledge. Chris,
joining us now. How are you feeling?
Speaker 10 (29:47):
I'm trying to look. fresh and not tired for your people.
I had the cold mask on, you know, the gel thing.
You put it in the fridge, you put it on
your face, and maybe the circles under your eyes go
down a little bit.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
That's the goal. I don't know if I succeeded, but
it's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
You look fresh. You travel to Australia. So what would
be your travel recommendation for the Rams or Niners to
go there and play a football game?
Speaker 10 (30:15):
Go there as early as possible because it's a really
nice place to be. Now, I don't know the body
clock stuff. Some people go into the last minute. They
have two different philosophies, right? I mean, my recommendation is
get a lie flat seat or don't even consider it.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
But I think they got that covered.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Doing double duty with college football and tennis and a
different approach, I'm guessing, or a different feel to calling
tennis and then calling college football?
Speaker 4 (30:46):
You have a strange combination of two favorite sports, right?
Speaker 10 (30:49):
Because they're completely different to call, very different in every way.
I got to say that tennis, having two people on
the court, generally I'm pretty familiar with them versus a
roster of 100 guys on each college football team with
a lot of turnover, especially in this modern era. It's
a lot more challenging. There's a lot more moving pieces
to a broadcast. And we had a lot of moving
(31:11):
pieces in Baton Rouge in the opening game. Not quite
as bad as a power outage at Florida State where
they had no monitors in the booth. But we had
a two-hour lightning delay down there.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
And a lot to juggle. But, you know, I love
them both equally.
Speaker 10 (31:23):
Don't try to do what Herb Street did or Johnny
Mack and get me to take a favorite because I
really do love them equally. And the challenge is significant,
but it's different with both. And today I get to
call Alcaraz Ben Shelton in primetime at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
It's a monster match. It's great fun.
Speaker 10 (31:40):
And I'm keeping one eye on Texas and Ohio State
during the day, reading those notes and watching the tape.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Where's the love of tennis come from?
Speaker 10 (31:49):
I got hooked on tennis in the early 70s when
Jimmy Connors came along.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
I played tennis as a kid a lot.
Speaker 10 (31:56):
So I bought one of those ridiculous T2000 Wilson rackets
with the steel circle head and the barbed wire around
the frame that no one could hit a ball with
except Jimmy Connors. And then Chris Everett came along, and
she was pretty interesting as a young kid to watch
her play and get to work with Chrissy now. So
that early 70s, Dan, with Borg and Connors and then
(32:20):
later McEnroe. I mean, I came in in some of
the early glory days, especially for American tennis. And so
I've called tennis since 03. People think I kind of
dip over there. I've actually called tennis longer than I've
called football games.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah, and I wonder about this era, and quite an era, though,
when you think about Federer and Nadal. And we're moving past,
and then we always worry, oh, what's that next one?
You know, Djokovic. So are we in good hands moving
forward where you go, we'll have something that will be
(32:56):
similar to what we just experienced?
Speaker 10 (32:59):
Man, it's hard to top that. You throw Serena in
on the women's side, and and before Jervinus. It really
was an incredible era. I got to see the entire
start to finish from Federer's first Wimbledon in 03 to
his last match and now Novak's nearing the end.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
We're in good hands as long as.
Speaker 10 (33:14):
Sinner and Alcaraz can stay healthy at the same time.
That's been the problem, obviously. Carlos missed the last two majors.
Yannick's not here with the knee problem. When they're together,
they arrive at a tournament and you got these two
incredible talents, future all-time greats on opposite sides of the
draw on a collision course. Now, Without Sinner here, the
good part for American fans is this was viewed as
(33:35):
the best opportunity for an American guy to break through
and end that 23-year drought. And I think they're so
well positioned. Now, Shelton has out for us tonight, the
ultimate test. Francis Tiafoe was on a tear against Alex Mickelson,
a young Southern California, 22-year-old American.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Not many people know as.
Speaker 10 (33:54):
Much about his game, but he hasn't dropped a set yet.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
They're playing this afternoon. One of those guys is going
to go to the semis.
Speaker 10 (34:00):
And then it's Sheldon Alcaraz for the other spot in
that half of the draw. So it's been a really
good tournament for American men and women. But can you
get somebody to the finish line?
Speaker 4 (34:09):
Because I don't think U.S.
Speaker 10 (34:10):
Fans like bronze or silver medals that much when it
comes to these Grand Slam results.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
How would you explain Alcaraz to somebody who didn't see him?
Speaker 4 (34:20):
A special one, built different physically, built different mentally. He
arrived at the U.S. Open, broke through.
Speaker 10 (34:26):
Became number one, and when he won it three years ago,
he dethroned Djokovic at Wimbledon. Novak hadn't lost in 10
years at center court.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
He did that.
Speaker 10 (34:35):
He is, and now he's coming back from four and
a half months off.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
You're not supposed to be able to do that and
bring the level of play he's shown through four matches.
Speaker 10 (34:46):
He needs to have an off day for anybody in
the world to beat him except center when he's healthy.
And Yannick not being here means Carlos has to be
a little off tonight He's dynamic.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
He's athletic. He's got a huge game.
Speaker 10 (35:00):
He's got tremendous finesse and speed around the court. He's
got everything you want to see from a player. And
he's mentally tough. So he's got the cojones to pull
out drop shots in massive moments and matches. He can
win three or four different ways. And he's the ultimate
test right now.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Chris was on the call with Clemson and LSU from
Baton Rouge, and he will have Ohio State at Texas.
That'll be coming up Saturday night. When did you know
that LSU was a whole lot better than Clemson?
Speaker 10 (35:33):
Unfortunately, pretty early in that game. You go into it
with expectations. I really thought that Clemson had addressed some
of their weaknesses. I thought they were going to be
a much better team this year. Dabble Sweeney went to
the portal, got a bunch of new guys on defense.
The question was an inexperienced quarterback and the offensive line.
Could they block well enough to run the ball? The
answer is a resounding no. They were soundly pummeled. It's
(35:57):
an overreaction instinct after week one in college or the NFL,
as you know, but I don't think it's overreacting to.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Say that LSU is stacked. They're a serious title contender.
Speaker 10 (36:08):
I think they're going to have bigger tests, a lot
bigger tests, and maybe Sam Levitt running around and freelancing,
doing what he did so well to Clemson, ripped their
defense apart Maybe tougher when they get into the SEC schedule, frankly,
and he's got to stay healthy because he runs around
and plays a little reckless at times.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
He played an amazing game, but you just wonder.
Speaker 10 (36:28):
Is that sustainable over what they hope is going to
be 15, 16 games? But they're really good, and their
defense is lights out. And they spent a fortune on
the roster, as you know. They have some homegrown guys.
They have some high-priced free agents on the defensive side
of the ball, and it looks it.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
As many college football games as you've called, have you
ever been a part of or even seen anything like
we saw at the end of the Michigan game with
the clock that somehow said zero, the officials said over,
but they put a second back up?
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Well, they found a discrepancy in the clock.
Speaker 10 (37:06):
So that's what we're finding out is that even the
instant replay system is not infallible. Machines, newsflash, can sometimes
be off. And I guess now it's like swimming. You've
got to find two clocks that sink to a hundredth
of a second because that's kind of what it was.
It was just a couple hundredths of a second. They
didn't sink up. What a heartbreaker for Western Michigan. Not
(37:28):
just the clock thing, but if you just let the
ball hit the ground, game over. If you're in the
end zone, you knock it down, game over. But he
stood out of bounds, touched it, and that's what led
to the whole controversy. But, you know, in the wake
of that, There's some serious questions about Michigan. I mean,
Bryce Underwood, who's one of the most scrutinized players in
(37:49):
the sport. When you pay a high school recruit the
money that Michigan did and then brag about how much
they pay. And he went out last year in a
season of turmoil and struggles. Now you get Kyle Whittingham,
different offensive system. Underwood's still 19 years.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Old, man.
Speaker 10 (38:06):
But he's going to feel heavy criticism because he's getting
millions of bucks, right? And that was a very, very sobering.
opening game for them. And they got Oklahoma coming in,
by the way. And Underwood struggled against that defense a
year ago, which is understandable.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
He was in Norman.
Speaker 5 (38:23):
He was young.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Now he's a year older.
Speaker 10 (38:25):
Michigan has to get things fixed in a hurry because
I think the expectations are pretty high and the fan
base demands it. I don't want Rich Eisen to be
drinking heavily on a Saturday night after a win. He
had a big glass of wine on his hand to
our buddy I don't want to see another big glass
of wine if they get thumped from Oklahoma this Saturday.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Were you aware that the clock in the stadium and
the clock with the officials or the replay center don't
sync up?
Speaker 10 (38:55):
No, I had never heard that before. Again, it synced
up except for a couple of hundreds, right? And that
just kind of came into play. I know in this
world we live in, the impression is that, oh, okay,
the man stepped in, and the Big Ten wasn't going
to let Michigan lose another Appalachian State-type game in the
big house, and so.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
They're going to do what they could.
Speaker 10 (39:16):
Listen, they still had to make a play at the end,
and Western still could have defended it a lot better.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
But yeah, I did learn something.
Speaker 10 (39:23):
That was going on like we were getting ready for
our game, and we were going, wait, what happened? And
we couldn't figure it out, and then it started to
get out.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
The phone's blowing up. Western Michigan got screwed.
Speaker 10 (39:33):
I mean, that was a widespread opinion, and some still
believe it.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
I think they handled it with unbelievable class.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, I agree. I just didn't know that in today's technology.
Me neither. You can't sync that. And you're calling games.
I mean, now you're going to be, I'm going to
guess when you do Ohio State and Texas, you're going
to go, hey, is the stadium clock and the replay clock,
are they synced up?
Speaker 10 (40:01):
Yeah, but I didn't think it was going to come
down to like Michael Phelps racing some dude to the
wall and who's going to touch first. It really was
hundreds of a second. I mean, they're synced basically. But
I guess, come to find out, you can't sync them
to the hundreds of a second. So let's hope that
It doesn't happen again this season.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
What do you expect out of Ohio State and Texas?
Speaker 10 (40:21):
I mean, Texas is a very energized, motivated team. I
think that Arch Manning will play much better. I think
Texas has surrounded him with a lot of talent. I
think they're better equipped. Ohio State has had to reload.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
It's weird.
Speaker 10 (40:32):
You look at the roster, there's so many new faces,
except for Julian Sane is back and Jeremiah.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Smith is back.
Speaker 10 (40:39):
I think slight-edge Texas at home, that's how the oddsmakers
see it. But I think it's very close to a
50-50 game. Wouldn't surprise me if Ohio State went in
there and won. We've got to regulate our thinking here
in the 12-team era. This is not a got to win,
must win, or else. That's the flip side of having
an expanded playoff is these games will never be do
(41:01):
or die in September. But I hope it's really, really entertaining.
And it's the SEC versus Big Ten, as you know,
the big debate in the sport. The SEC flexing a
little bit. They didn't lose a game in week one.
But again, competition wasn't great. And conferences are basically judged
by what their top teams do against each other, mostly
(41:22):
in the playoff. But this could be a championship game.
It could be a semifinal game in a playoff. And
it's just happening in early September.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Where do you stand with expansion with the playoffs?
Speaker 5 (41:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (41:34):
I actually like the 12. If you're going to expand,
let's not go beyond 16. In my view. I mean,
you've got to really restructure a lot of things in
the sport. You got to keep the players in mind,
you know, like why are the players always the pawns
and anything that are those needs are never considered. You
can't just layer games continually on top of each other.
Cause you know, those games at the end of the
(41:55):
season are super intense, punishing mentally and physically. And in
my view, um, a 2014 doesn't, doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
And I think it really would dilute some things.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (42:05):
You'd have, you'd have a hundred games in November with
playoff implications, but you have a lot of teams in
the bracket that basically have almost no chance of winning.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
So that I don't like to see.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Yeah. You know, for years I kept saying, let's go
from two to four. I'd be fine in my lifetime.
If we just had four, I was okay with that.
And then all of a sudden I think, I don't
know the powers that be go, wait a minute, how
much money's available here? Let's just, let's go to 12.
And I went, wow, for all those years, coaches told me, oh,
(42:36):
we don't want it. We don't need it. And I'd
be like, okay. And then now we get to 12
and now we want to go right to 24. That
for me is too fast.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
I agree.
Speaker 10 (42:47):
That to me is a jump. And money can't be
the reason. I know that sounds naive, but I think
going from four to 12, was good because teams 5, 6, 7,
and you've seen that in the 12-team bracket, are very
capable of winning, especially with the new reality of the
talent spread around more than IL and Portal.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
So you've got to allow for that.
Speaker 10 (43:07):
Many would say 12 isn't enough because you could look at, wait,
did you have Indiana winning before the season started last year?
Speaker 4 (43:13):
I mean, all things are possible now.
Speaker 10 (43:16):
With the Hoosiers going 16-0, all things are possible, and
I think we have to allow for it. I just
don't think 24 makes sense. If they're going to expand,
go to 16, eliminate the buys. At least the teams
are not playing, all of them not playing extra games.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Safe travels. Great to see you again. Thank you, bud.
Speaker 5 (43:35):
All right, Dan. Enjoy it, man.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That's Chris Fowler.
You are listening to The Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Do you have a poll question you want to start
out with, Dylan, before we dive into the college football
action from the weekend?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Well, we have a few options off of the Michigan game,
if you want to start there, Dan.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
First one's from Todd, actually. Got to be negative. Got
to be negative.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Is there any chance Western Michigan would have gotten one
more play if they were on offense in Ann Arbor?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yes or no? I'm going to say yes. Now, I
spent way too much time on this over the weekend.
I have an incredible source on this, and I was
back and forth with him, and He did his damnedest
(00:47):
to convince me that this happens. It's unfortunate that it happens,
but the stadium clock and the clock that they use
in the booth is not always synced up. And I said,
I don't know why. How many times has this happened
before where it goes to all zeros and then somebody goes, no, no,
wait a minute. We got to check in the booth.
(01:09):
I just don't understand it. I thought O.J. Simpson's trial
lawyers did a better job explaining the bloody glove than
they did what happened there at Ann Arbor. I kept going,
you're making it worse the more you talk. It took
him forever to do it. But that's where you go, huh?
Wait a minute. How is that possible? But my friend
(01:33):
kept saying, I mean, I've got probably nine. He might
be texting me now. the link that ties the clock
on the backboards in basketball when it gets under a
minute to the scoreboard, he's telling me about that as well.
Let's see, what else does he say about this? We
(01:56):
were going back and forth right after the game. The
on-site replay operator who is responsible for checking all things,
the on-site is connected live to the conference office.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Uh-oh.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Hard to believe all of this hasn't been better clarified.
The conference took far too long, came across like, well,
they were explaining something other than what we saw. And
I kept thinking, how do you have a system like this?
Don't we want everything to be in sync? Don't we
want that clock to be? And then I was told
(02:31):
they don't show you tenths of a second like we
do in basketball. And I go, okay, I never thought
of that, that we don't put up a full clock there,
that it's, what was it, zero, zero, and four-tenths or something.
It just didn't make any sense. But I thought it
(02:56):
was unbelievable the response that Lance Taylor had. He's the
Western Michigan head coach. Now, there's two ways to go
about this. You go in there, you're upset, or you
go in there– And you realize, let the other people
behind the scenes try to deal with this. You're a coach.
You represent your players. You stay classy. And he certainly
(03:18):
did after the loss.
Speaker 6 (03:20):
At the end of the day, you don't always control
those situations. Or is there a second left on the clock?
We talk a lot about just responding. regardless of what
the circumstances are. We can't control whether there's a second
left on the clock or not. We went out the
first time. We defended perfectly, you know, the Hail Mary situation.
(03:42):
I thought our guys did an excellent job. I know
when I looked up at the clock, it was past
zeros before we touched it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Now, he did go on to say you can choose
to be bitter or choose to be better, and he
chose to be better. Michigan got a win. Actually, they
had a loss, but they also got a win. Western
Michigan had a win, and now they have a loss.
But you start to think about, and Western Michigan, they
(04:11):
were a bull team last year. They're a good team.
The bigger issue, I think, with all of this, and
this might mask it for a week until Michigan plays Oklahoma,
Michigan was almost a 29-point favorite. They're not scoring. They
spent a lot of money on their quarterback. They had
(04:33):
one great drive. That, to me, is a bigger issue. That, yes,
you saved your season. A miracle saved your season, but
can't hide the problems that nearly ended it. Michigan got
bailed out here. This is a franchise, if you want
to call it, that wants to compete for national championships.
(04:55):
Kyle Whittingham's debut. All of a sudden, you're looking around
and you're going, wait a minute. Western Michigan is not
going away. And you spent a lot of money on,
once again, your quarterback. You have NIL. You have everything there.
This was what I thought was really surprising. They did
(05:16):
not look like a championship caliber team. And granted, one week.
I get it. You're at home. Fresh start, Kyle Whittingham.
And then... You pretty much lay an egg. That, to me,
is the bigger picture here. That's the surprising part of
all of this. Here is Kyle Winningham, Michigan's head coach,
(05:38):
about the end of the game.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Well, yeah, obviously the extra second was huge. As I
watched the first... Hail Mary end, and the ball sailed
out of the back of the end zone. As I
glanced at the clock, I was pretty sure there was
one second left, but that obviously is not up to me.
But as the refs went to replay, they confirmed it
and so gave us one more opportunity. And the second
(06:03):
time around, Bryce threw a perfect ball because the first
one he sailed it out the back, which gives us
no chance to catch it. And J.J. made a phenomenal catch.
It doesn't surprise me. That's who he is. I see
him make contested catches every day in practice. And offensive
line gave Bryce enough time to launch it. And so
this game will go down in history, Michigan history. I
don't know if it's in a positive way, but it'll
(06:23):
go down in history for certain.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Coach, I'm with you until you tell me that you
thought there was another second left. Not many people did. Now,
how in the building could you go, you know, I
think there's another second up there. That was wild. I
(06:51):
kept going, wait, it's over. Wait, it's not over. Wait,
how are they determining there's a tenth of a second?
Then all of a sudden you've got to round up
and give them a second there? I've just never seen
it happen before. You know, there's been quite a few
(07:12):
college football games in my lifetime, and I've never seen
it where They came back to life. Like they're the
DeMar Hamlin of college football teams. It's like, nope, they're dead.
It's over.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Wait, what?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
They're coming back. Wow. But now you got Oklahoma coming in,
Oklahoma and Michigan. And Michigan was a one and a
half point favorite a week ago. They're now a five
and a half point underdog just based off of That
lackluster performance against Western Michigan. Yes, Todd?
Speaker 8 (07:47):
If Michigan fans want Kyle Whittingham to pretend that he
hates Ryan Day in Ohio State, I would be surprised.
Wouldn't Western Michigan fans want him to be more riled up,
as classy as he handled things, the Western Michigan coach?
If I'm a Western Michigan fan, I'd want him to
be up in arms and irate and screaming how this
was taken away from us.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I think he chose the correct way because he's going
to let other people fight his battle. I don't think
anything based off his words at a press conference... will
change anybody's opinion on this. Now, you might say, come on, coach,
you've got to go in there and be angry. I
think he's trying to be a leader and not cry
about it. He had every reason to do that. Now,
(08:27):
I did ask my source. I said, Western Michigan has
taken the high road here. Does that have anything to
do with them getting paid and making sure that if
other schools in the Big Ten want to schedule Western Michigan,
he goes, I haven't gone that far down the rabbit
(08:47):
hole yet. I said, well, I'll give you 24 hours here.
And then I saw Paul Feinbaum. I think he was
with Stephen A. And they're like, you know, maybe you're
trying to protect your paycheck you're going to get. Well,
you're going to get paid no matter what. You played
the game. But they're kind of going crazy. quietly with
(09:08):
this at least for the time being i just man
kept going okay there this doesn't make any sense and
then you arbitrarily it felt like and then you tell
me okay the clock that we see on tv is
not the clock that's the actual clock don't have we
come far enough we put up we put men on
(09:29):
the moon we can't sync up a stadium clock with
the clock we see on tv First Hour, brought to
you by ChatGPT. As a new agent for larger projects,
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give it a goal, it'll help turn scattered materials into
(09:50):
finished work. Get started at ChatGPT.com. Selecting work mode available
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Speaker 5 (09:55):
Yes, Dylan?
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah, I also think if you're Western Michigan, if you'd
been told before the game you were going to lose
by one to Michigan, I imagine they probably would have
signed up for that too. So while the way it ended,
you have every right in the world to be like,
that was kind of bogus, we're upset, whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
It's still like, you played a great game. Yeah, but
I don't know if you say, yeah, we only lost
by one. If you lost by one but didn't lose
by one that way, then you might go, boy, that
could have gone either way. You won that game. And
then you lost that game. That, to me, is the
(10:34):
hard part where sometimes it's not that you lost, it's
how you lost. And that one will, I mean, that's historical.
That will be there forever.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Yes, Marvin.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (10:47):
Coach Taylor said, God, let's play a hard 60 minutes,
not a hard 60 minutes in one second.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, his players played 60 minutes. They just didn't give
them that one second. If they gave 100% for that
one second. And another thing, please, please, please knock the
ball down. Nobody cares that you got the interception. They
care that you got the win. Knock the ball down.
Speaker 8 (11:19):
So why should we be surprised that they can't figure
out the clock when they couldn't even have lights ready
to go in last night's game where you've got to
sit there for almost an hour and a half waiting
for kickoff?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That was puzzling with Florida State and SMU. A couple
hours there. Boy, they were filling. That's tap dancing is
what we call it in the business. I'm going, man,
I do not envy you because you're at the mercy
of somebody else. You have no idea when the lights
are going to come back on. Boy, SMU, they can
(11:51):
play some offense there. Florida State, Mike Norvell.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Uh-oh.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Maybe last call for him. Dabo Sweeney.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Yikes.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
We'll talk about that. Lane Kiffin's leaning into being a villain.
I would say go full, all the way in.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
All right?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You're going to be a villain outside of Baton Rouge,
and you'll be a villain once you leave Baton Rouge,
who knows, in a couple of years. But for the
time being, you looked great. You played great. Your comments
were suspect. But the bigger picture there, and I said
we would be talking about the coach who lost that
game more than who won. It might be 50-50, but
(12:41):
Dabo Sweeney, Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Be sure to catch the live edition of the Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 a.m. Pacific
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(13:06):
pros and a cup of jump.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Dan Patrick.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Colin Cowherd.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Stu Gotts and company. Live.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Covino and Rich.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
The Odd Couple with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
And the Ben Maller Show. Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
On YouTube.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon, and comment away. Gerald McCoy,
one of our favorites, NFL Network analyst and longtime NFL
defensive tackle. He is, of course, drafted out of Oklahoma,
third overall, joining us on the program. How nervous are
you with the clock operator with the Michigan game, with
(13:40):
your Sooners playing in Ann Arbor?
Speaker 9 (13:45):
First off, Uncle Dan, thanks for having me back. I
always love when you invite me back out. I live
so far away. So this is the only way that
I get to see my uncle, my distant uncle. So
Uncle Dan, thank you for having me. And I'm not
worried about the clock operator. We're not going to make
this thing close.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
All right.
Speaker 9 (14:03):
Talk to the guys. We are going to make this clear.
And I'm going to let Rich know that when I
see him later. And I was listening to... Before, of
all those teams and all the odds and all this,
and I did not hear, I heard Ohio. I didn't
hear Oklahoma. I didn't hear John Mateer. And this is excellent.
I love that nobody is thinking about us. That is
(14:25):
exactly where we want to be. So whoever wrote that,
whoever came up with that, you know what?
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Thank you. Good morning. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
That's updated from DraftKings this morning there, but no.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Thank you, DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, Oklahoma and your quarterback, underrated perhaps, and you're fine
with that.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
I'm perfectly fine with it. I'm just fine with it.
Speaker 9 (14:50):
We're going to the big house, I guess, if that's
what they want it to be, and we'll put everybody
on the stand, and then we'll just go week to week.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
So we good where we at.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
You expect Aaron Donald to play this week?
Speaker 5 (15:06):
No. If he plays, it would be great.
Speaker 9 (15:09):
But I believe that signing him was because it's something
they had to get out of the way. But one
thing you don't want to do is rush him out
there because you know that December, January is what matters
the most.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
You know, you want to put yourself in a great
spot by the time you get to December, January.
Speaker 9 (15:28):
But Aaron Donald, what he did, you know, taking over
the Tampa game, And then taking over the Super Bowl
when they wanted his greatness, you needed to flash when
you needed to flash. And there's no need to rush
him after. They signed him to get him on the team.
Now he's getting into practice, getting in the swing of
sitting in meetings again and getting up and going to practice.
(15:50):
If he plays this week, it will be very sparingly,
but I expect to see him either next week or
the week after.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I think you're on record. Did you say he's the
best defensive player you ever saw?
Speaker 5 (16:02):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
What puts him over Reggie White or Mean Joe Green
or Lawrence Taylor? I know it's your opinion, but.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Right, right.
Speaker 9 (16:10):
Yeah, for me, and I love whoever anybody has because
we're speaking of greatness. And I believe in today's era,
we've got a greatness fatigue where people can be so
great that we start coming up with reasons why they
are not as good or not as great.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
You're like, oh.
Speaker 9 (16:27):
oh this person is dominating so much let's talk about
this person so anytime somebody picks anybody i love it
because we're discussing greatness but to you to answer your
question my reason being is because.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Aaron donald is not supposed to.
Speaker 9 (16:41):
Be doing what he does to grow men at the
size he is i don't know if anybody's ever if
you see him on the field he looks smaller but
if you've ever seen him in person you say that's
the guy that's doing this to everybody He's extremely fast.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
He's very explosive.
Speaker 9 (16:57):
He's strong, but his intelligence and his size, his ability
to take on double teams, to be able to switch
his stance and know what's coming, to play the run
at a high level, rush the passer at a high level.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
He just does everything. He can play inside. He can
play outside. He can do it all. He can play
at the nose. He can play three techniques. He can
play at the end.
Speaker 9 (17:18):
He just does everything, and he's done it at a
high level, and he's done it since he touched the league.
A lot of people are great, but from the time
you step foot in the NFL to the time you
leave to do it at the level you did it, it.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Was amazing to me at the size that he's done it.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
How violent is in the trenches, certainly when you're playing
nose tackle? You guys hit something or get hit every
single play.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Yeah, you do.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
But how violent would you say? We see the plays outside,
but inside, it just feels like it's hand-to-hand combat every
single play.
Speaker 9 (17:58):
It is, and that's why people call me crazy for
not wearing gloves. You know, I didn't wear gloves, but
I had to pay for it. Look at my fingers.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
My fingers are all– my hands are all– they're all sideways.
I got scars all over.
Speaker 9 (18:11):
It is what it is, but that's why I say
to play football, you got to have a screw loose.
But to play D-line or O-line, you got to really–
really like has to be something wrong with you to
want to do that every single play. Like wide receivers
is glamorous, but you may not get the ball. It's
a very dependent position. DD is probably the hardest position
(18:32):
to play because you have to.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Guard every Jamar Chase is running backwards. That's very difficult.
Speaker 9 (18:38):
Quarterback is the most important, but the most grueling is D-line, O-line,
because you are getting hit every play, and your hands
are getting beat up, your arms are getting beat up,
you hyperextend to your knee, and you got to get
right up and get back to it. There's a lot.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
That goes on down there that people don't see. And your....
Speaker 9 (18:58):
Like margin for error is very, very, very small because
it happens that fast. It happens so fast. One wrong
step and you're out of there. So it's a difficult
position to play on both sides. D-line more because the O-line,
they have help. It's us versus could be one, could
be two. Aaron Donald could be three.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
We don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Did your wife say, why don't you get your ring
finger fixed?
Speaker 9 (19:26):
Yeah, she wanted me to because she wanted me to
wear my original wedding ring.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
And I thought about getting it.
Speaker 9 (19:32):
I had a teammate that had his his finger was
messed up and he got his original wedding ring cut
in half to wear it.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
And then they put a clamp on it so he
could open it up and put it on. But I
was like, you know what?
Speaker 9 (19:43):
I'm not risking losing that and going through all that.
I'm going to just get these rubber rings. I got
a bag full of these. As long as I got
something over here, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Why is Seattle under the radar?
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Because Last.
Speaker 9 (20:02):
Seattle is not a.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Even if you think about when they had the Legion
of Bull with that era, they came out of nowhere.
Speaker 9 (20:08):
And they had to do it multiple years before we
were like, hey, Seattle is one of those teams.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Sometimes you have teams where they come out of.
Speaker 9 (20:16):
Nowhere because nobody went to last season saying Seattle is
one of those teams. Sam Darnold was still the quarterback.
We wasn't really sure about the defense. Well, now we
got guys being paid on the defense. And we know
who they are.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
But... They lost their running back. And it's kind of just.
Speaker 9 (20:32):
Like a, I mean, they were a couple plays away from,
they just haven't established themselves as one of those teams yet.
So it's always going to be a question mark until
they show us, hey, no, we can do this again.
We can be a competitor, you know, year in and
year out.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
So it happens with teams like that.
Speaker 9 (20:51):
It even took the Legion of Boom a couple years
before we was like, hey, always mention Seattle.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Talking to Gerald McCoy, NFL Network analyst and six-time Pro Bowler,
first-round pick by the Buccaneers. More likely to get back
to the Super Bowl, the Patriots or Seattle?
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Seattle. Oh. Yeah, Seattle.
Speaker 9 (21:16):
The Patriots run was great, but I can't.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
I can't act like.
Speaker 9 (21:23):
They didn't have the record that they had and I
didn't see what I've seen in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
They played good.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
Enough to get there, but there are a lot of
caveats in there. And I never want to discredit people
for getting to the Super Bowl because I never played
in a playoff game. So this is somebody that would
have dreamed to have what The New England Patriots just say,
I don't care about the schedule. I don't care about
how we got there.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
We got there.
Speaker 9 (21:50):
But when we talk about likelihood of getting back, you
have to look at their path of how they got there.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Their schedule was very weak. The weakest, actually.
Speaker 9 (21:58):
And then if we look at how Drake may play
in the playoffs, it wasn't great.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
And then they run into Denver, who didn't have a
starting quarterback.
Speaker 9 (22:08):
And it's like the defense played really well, but the
offense just wasn't clicking.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
And you add an A.J. Brown and it's like, oh, well, this.
Speaker 9 (22:16):
Is going to change life. Well, we don't know that
because we don't know the adversity if they can push
through it. We know Mike Bray was a very, very,
very good coach because he's had good teams at every
stop he's been at. But likelihood out of the two,
I have to go with Seattle because of the path.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Of the Patriots.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Quarterback always gets the cheerleader, but Do nose tackles have
groupies or, you know, that they show up, you know,
that they fan club?
Speaker 5 (22:46):
I'm sure Aaron Donald does. He's in L.A. I mean,
this is Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
We know how Los Angeles goes.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
And he's, you know, I don't know. I mean, defensive
end to get it a little more, you know, Aaron
Donald's an anomaly. I know Warren Sapp did.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
First ballot with that, huh?
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Yeah. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
He was doing L.A. work in Tampa.
Speaker 9 (23:25):
Yeah. Yes.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Yes. That was that was different. That's what I always say.
People are like, man, this guy's like this. He's like this.
He's like that. Man, Lawrence is one of the if.
Speaker 9 (23:37):
I ever have to stay at people in my career
where I'm like that person. I can't tell my story
without that person. Warren Sapp is one of those people.
So for me, I don't see Sapp how everybody else
sees him. You know, Sapp sees himself how he sees himself.
He just is him.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
That's what I say.
Speaker 9 (23:57):
Sapp is just Sapp. A lot of people feel about
him the way they do. But to me, Sapp is
just Sapp. He's just a big, big.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Bro to me.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Who was better than you thought, like a skilled position
offensive player, where once you played, you go, wow, they
lived up to the hype?
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Skilled position?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Like wide receiver, running back, quarterback?
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Le'Veon Bell. Le'Veon Bell, yeah. I played a lot of guys,
but to see his patience... and.
Speaker 9 (24:35):
How he ran the ball. You know, you watch him play,
he don't look as fast as he is. He's extremely fast.
You know, he can run. He's not like 4'2, 4'3, speed,
but he's hard to catch it. When he's in the hole, like,
you have to be extremely disciplined with him. Like, you
have to be very, very disciplined with him. And another
(24:57):
person I played that... Was it NFL when.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
I played him? I might've played in the NFL, but
one of.
Speaker 9 (25:04):
The players I played in my career, that's one of
the best football players I've ever played against is Percy Harvin.
Like he's one of those people that if he could
have stayed healthy, kept his head on straight, he would
have been one of those.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Guys we talked about for years to come. But anybody,
you just look up Percy Harvin and listen to how
people talk about him and you'll know I'm telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
You got any beef with anybody after the fact that you.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Hey, no. I'm too nice of a guy.
Speaker 9 (25:36):
I'm the guy who's asking people if they go to
chapel when fights break up. I'm the guy who said, hey,
so nobody got to be with the church this morning.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
That's me. You know, like I had.
Speaker 9 (25:47):
If you see me pushing back and forth with somebody,
that's in the midst of football.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
But I'm such a nice dude. Even.
Speaker 9 (25:54):
So there's a clip of me with Ryan Jensen and
we were pushing back and forth when I was with
Carolina and he.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Was with Tampa.
Speaker 9 (26:01):
Man, me and Ryan talked on the phone after this.
Not that day, but before we played again or after
we played the second time and then.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Me and Jason Light.
Speaker 9 (26:12):
We talked, had our conversation before I played Tampa. I'm
just too nice of a guy, man. Like football, I
never could play angry.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
And if you go look at my performance.
Speaker 9 (26:22):
In the first time I played Tampa and the second
time I played Tampa, I had this false anger of like, oh,
they treated me away and this and this. And I
came into the game like I got a point to prove.
I've never played a good game where I was angry, ever.
I've never been angry and played a good game. I've
been motivated and played great games. But go look at
(26:43):
my performance versus Tampa, the first game versus the second game.
It's completely different because I went into the second game skipping,
having a good time, hugging everybody in Tampa.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Come here, Jason. Come here, Levante. Oh, I love y'all.
Speaker 9 (26:56):
I miss y'all boys, man. And then I just went
and played football. So I don't have beef with people, man.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Like, I don't. Olami used to tell me, stop being nice.
It's difficult. I'm trying to do my job. Stop being nice.
I need you to stop this.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But how do you explain, like, Troy Polamalu is one
of the nicest people, softest voices, and he gets on
a football field, and he's just a different person.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
You know, it is it is because the game has
to be played a certain way. Like you have to
play the game a certain way if you want to
be able to compete with the greatest athletes in the world.
So you have some people who are not only the
greatest athletes in the world, but.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
The best professionals. And this is Jackson.
Speaker 9 (27:42):
I used to call him the ultimate pro because when
he did off the field to prepare for games, And
then how he played the game, how he practiced.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
You have some people who are like that.
Speaker 9 (27:53):
But then they are phenomenal athletes at that. And then
some people play angry. So in order to compete with
these level of football players, you have to play the
game a certain way. You don't have to be angry.
Some people play angry. I always tell people to find
your why. Why are you doing this?
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Is it your family? Do you want money? Do you
want to be living the L.A. life in Tampa? What
do you want to be doing? I don't know. It's
just like, what is your motivation?
Speaker 9 (28:21):
Whatever that is, you take that across those white lines
and you play the game the right way.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
I'm trying to teach my son that right now.
Speaker 9 (28:27):
He's 11, 7th grade, and he's just now starting.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
He's been playing football, but he's just now starting school ball.
Speaker 9 (28:34):
And I've been trying to preach to him, son, I
shouldn't have to tell you to be more violent.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
I shouldn't have to.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
There's one way to play this game. And you don't
have to be angry or pissed off to do it.
This is just how it's supposed to be played. And
that's how I was, and that's how Troy Palvado was.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Great to see you again. I'll see you at the cookout.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
Yes, Uncle Dan.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah. We'll talk to you during the season.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
I appreciate it. Please have me back. You know, I
always love to see my uncle, man.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Hey, great seeing you in person. We got to see
you in San Francisco using the Super Bowl. It was great.
Thank you. Great to talk to you again.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Thanks, brother.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
That's Gerald McCoy. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at foxsportsradio.com. And within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Chris Fowler, the mothership. He, of course, college football. And
he's calling the action U.S.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Open.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
His next game will be Ohio State and Texas on
ABC Saturday. night with Herbie and Holly Rowe and Laura Rutledge. Chris,
joining us now. How are you feeling?
Speaker 10 (29:47):
I'm trying to look. fresh and not tired for your people.
I had the cold mask on, you know, the gel thing.
You put it in the fridge, you put it on
your face, and maybe the circles under your eyes go
down a little bit.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
That's the goal. I don't know if I succeeded, but
it's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
You look fresh. You travel to Australia. So what would
be your travel recommendation for the Rams or Niners to
go there and play a football game?
Speaker 10 (30:15):
Go there as early as possible because it's a really
nice place to be. Now, I don't know the body
clock stuff. Some people go into the last minute. They
have two different philosophies, right? I mean, my recommendation is
get a lie flat seat or don't even consider it.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
But I think they got that covered.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Doing double duty with college football and tennis and a
different approach, I'm guessing, or a different feel to calling
tennis and then calling college football?
Speaker 4 (30:46):
You have a strange combination of two favorite sports, right?
Speaker 10 (30:49):
Because they're completely different to call, very different in every way.
I got to say that tennis, having two people on
the court, generally I'm pretty familiar with them versus a
roster of 100 guys on each college football team with
a lot of turnover, especially in this modern era. It's
a lot more challenging. There's a lot more moving pieces
to a broadcast. And we had a lot of moving
(31:11):
pieces in Baton Rouge in the opening game. Not quite
as bad as a power outage at Florida State where
they had no monitors in the booth. But we had
a two-hour lightning delay down there.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
And a lot to juggle. But, you know, I love
them both equally.
Speaker 10 (31:23):
Don't try to do what Herb Street did or Johnny
Mack and get me to take a favorite because I
really do love them equally. And the challenge is significant,
but it's different with both. And today I get to
call Alcaraz Ben Shelton in primetime at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
It's a monster match. It's great fun.
Speaker 10 (31:40):
And I'm keeping one eye on Texas and Ohio State
during the day, reading those notes and watching the tape.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Where's the love of tennis come from?
Speaker 10 (31:49):
I got hooked on tennis in the early 70s when
Jimmy Connors came along.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
I played tennis as a kid a lot.
Speaker 10 (31:56):
So I bought one of those ridiculous T2000 Wilson rackets
with the steel circle head and the barbed wire around
the frame that no one could hit a ball with
except Jimmy Connors. And then Chris Everett came along, and
she was pretty interesting as a young kid to watch
her play and get to work with Chrissy now. So
that early 70s, Dan, with Borg and Connors and then
(32:20):
later McEnroe. I mean, I came in in some of
the early glory days, especially for American tennis. And so
I've called tennis since 03. People think I kind of
dip over there. I've actually called tennis longer than I've
called football games.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah, and I wonder about this era, and quite an era, though,
when you think about Federer and Nadal. And we're moving past,
and then we always worry, oh, what's that next one?
You know, Djokovic. So are we in good hands moving
forward where you go, we'll have something that will be
(32:56):
similar to what we just experienced?
Speaker 10 (32:59):
Man, it's hard to top that. You throw Serena in
on the women's side, and and before Jervinus. It really
was an incredible era. I got to see the entire
start to finish from Federer's first Wimbledon in 03 to
his last match and now Novak's nearing the end.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
We're in good hands as long as.
Speaker 10 (33:14):
Sinner and Alcaraz can stay healthy at the same time.
That's been the problem, obviously. Carlos missed the last two majors.
Yannick's not here with the knee problem. When they're together,
they arrive at a tournament and you got these two
incredible talents, future all-time greats on opposite sides of the
draw on a collision course. Now, Without Sinner here, the
good part for American fans is this was viewed as
(33:35):
the best opportunity for an American guy to break through
and end that 23-year drought. And I think they're so
well positioned. Now, Shelton has out for us tonight, the
ultimate test. Francis Tiafoe was on a tear against Alex Mickelson,
a young Southern California, 22-year-old American.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Not many people know as.
Speaker 10 (33:54):
Much about his game, but he hasn't dropped a set yet.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
They're playing this afternoon. One of those guys is going
to go to the semis.
Speaker 10 (34:00):
And then it's Sheldon Alcaraz for the other spot in
that half of the draw. So it's been a really
good tournament for American men and women. But can you
get somebody to the finish line?
Speaker 4 (34:09):
Because I don't think U.S.
Speaker 10 (34:10):
Fans like bronze or silver medals that much when it
comes to these Grand Slam results.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
How would you explain Alcaraz to somebody who didn't see him?
Speaker 4 (34:20):
A special one, built different physically, built different mentally. He
arrived at the U.S. Open, broke through.
Speaker 10 (34:26):
Became number one, and when he won it three years ago,
he dethroned Djokovic at Wimbledon. Novak hadn't lost in 10
years at center court.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
He did that.
Speaker 10 (34:35):
He is, and now he's coming back from four and
a half months off.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
You're not supposed to be able to do that and
bring the level of play he's shown through four matches.
Speaker 10 (34:46):
He needs to have an off day for anybody in
the world to beat him except center when he's healthy.
And Yannick not being here means Carlos has to be
a little off tonight He's dynamic.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
He's athletic. He's got a huge game.
Speaker 10 (35:00):
He's got tremendous finesse and speed around the court. He's
got everything you want to see from a player. And
he's mentally tough. So he's got the cojones to pull
out drop shots in massive moments and matches. He can
win three or four different ways. And he's the ultimate
test right now.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Chris was on the call with Clemson and LSU from
Baton Rouge, and he will have Ohio State at Texas.
That'll be coming up Saturday night. When did you know
that LSU was a whole lot better than Clemson?
Speaker 10 (35:33):
Unfortunately, pretty early in that game. You go into it
with expectations. I really thought that Clemson had addressed some
of their weaknesses. I thought they were going to be
a much better team this year. Dabble Sweeney went to
the portal, got a bunch of new guys on defense.
The question was an inexperienced quarterback and the offensive line.
Could they block well enough to run the ball? The
answer is a resounding no. They were soundly pummeled. It's
(35:57):
an overreaction instinct after week one in college or the NFL,
as you know, but I don't think it's overreacting to.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Say that LSU is stacked. They're a serious title contender.
Speaker 10 (36:08):
I think they're going to have bigger tests, a lot
bigger tests, and maybe Sam Levitt running around and freelancing,
doing what he did so well to Clemson, ripped their
defense apart Maybe tougher when they get into the SEC schedule, frankly,
and he's got to stay healthy because he runs around
and plays a little reckless at times.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
He played an amazing game, but you just wonder.
Speaker 10 (36:28):
Is that sustainable over what they hope is going to
be 15, 16 games? But they're really good, and their
defense is lights out. And they spent a fortune on
the roster, as you know. They have some homegrown guys.
They have some high-priced free agents on the defensive side
of the ball, and it looks it.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
As many college football games as you've called, have you
ever been a part of or even seen anything like
we saw at the end of the Michigan game with
the clock that somehow said zero, the officials said over,
but they put a second back up?
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Well, they found a discrepancy in the clock.
Speaker 10 (37:06):
So that's what we're finding out is that even the
instant replay system is not infallible. Machines, newsflash, can sometimes
be off. And I guess now it's like swimming. You've
got to find two clocks that sink to a hundredth
of a second because that's kind of what it was.
It was just a couple hundredths of a second. They
didn't sink up. What a heartbreaker for Western Michigan. Not
(37:28):
just the clock thing, but if you just let the
ball hit the ground, game over. If you're in the
end zone, you knock it down, game over. But he
stood out of bounds, touched it, and that's what led
to the whole controversy. But, you know, in the wake
of that, There's some serious questions about Michigan. I mean,
Bryce Underwood, who's one of the most scrutinized players in
(37:49):
the sport. When you pay a high school recruit the
money that Michigan did and then brag about how much
they pay. And he went out last year in a
season of turmoil and struggles. Now you get Kyle Whittingham,
different offensive system. Underwood's still 19 years.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Old, man.
Speaker 10 (38:06):
But he's going to feel heavy criticism because he's getting
millions of bucks, right? And that was a very, very sobering.
opening game for them. And they got Oklahoma coming in,
by the way. And Underwood struggled against that defense a
year ago, which is understandable.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
He was in Norman.
Speaker 5 (38:23):
He was young.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Now he's a year older.
Speaker 10 (38:25):
Michigan has to get things fixed in a hurry because
I think the expectations are pretty high and the fan
base demands it. I don't want Rich Eisen to be
drinking heavily on a Saturday night after a win. He
had a big glass of wine on his hand to
our buddy I don't want to see another big glass
of wine if they get thumped from Oklahoma this Saturday.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Were you aware that the clock in the stadium and
the clock with the officials or the replay center don't
sync up?
Speaker 10 (38:55):
No, I had never heard that before. Again, it synced
up except for a couple of hundreds, right? And that
just kind of came into play. I know in this
world we live in, the impression is that, oh, okay,
the man stepped in, and the Big Ten wasn't going
to let Michigan lose another Appalachian State-type game in the
big house, and so.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
They're going to do what they could.
Speaker 10 (39:16):
Listen, they still had to make a play at the end,
and Western still could have defended it a lot better.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
But yeah, I did learn something.
Speaker 10 (39:23):
That was going on like we were getting ready for
our game, and we were going, wait, what happened? And
we couldn't figure it out, and then it started to
get out.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
The phone's blowing up. Western Michigan got screwed.
Speaker 10 (39:33):
I mean, that was a widespread opinion, and some still
believe it.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
I think they handled it with unbelievable class.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, I agree. I just didn't know that in today's technology.
Me neither. You can't sync that. And you're calling games.
I mean, now you're going to be, I'm going to
guess when you do Ohio State and Texas, you're going
to go, hey, is the stadium clock and the replay clock,
are they synced up?
Speaker 10 (40:01):
Yeah, but I didn't think it was going to come
down to like Michael Phelps racing some dude to the
wall and who's going to touch first. It really was
hundreds of a second. I mean, they're synced basically. But
I guess, come to find out, you can't sync them
to the hundreds of a second. So let's hope that
It doesn't happen again this season.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
What do you expect out of Ohio State and Texas?
Speaker 10 (40:21):
I mean, Texas is a very energized, motivated team. I
think that Arch Manning will play much better. I think
Texas has surrounded him with a lot of talent. I
think they're better equipped. Ohio State has had to reload.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
It's weird.
Speaker 10 (40:32):
You look at the roster, there's so many new faces,
except for Julian Sane is back and Jeremiah.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Smith is back.
Speaker 10 (40:39):
I think slight-edge Texas at home, that's how the oddsmakers
see it. But I think it's very close to a
50-50 game. Wouldn't surprise me if Ohio State went in
there and won. We've got to regulate our thinking here
in the 12-team era. This is not a got to win,
must win, or else. That's the flip side of having
an expanded playoff is these games will never be do
(41:01):
or die in September. But I hope it's really, really entertaining.
And it's the SEC versus Big Ten, as you know,
the big debate in the sport. The SEC flexing a
little bit. They didn't lose a game in week one.
But again, competition wasn't great. And conferences are basically judged
by what their top teams do against each other, mostly
(41:22):
in the playoff. But this could be a championship game.
It could be a semifinal game in a playoff. And
it's just happening in early September.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Where do you stand with expansion with the playoffs?
Speaker 5 (41:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (41:34):
I actually like the 12. If you're going to expand,
let's not go beyond 16. In my view. I mean,
you've got to really restructure a lot of things in
the sport. You got to keep the players in mind,
you know, like why are the players always the pawns
and anything that are those needs are never considered. You
can't just layer games continually on top of each other.
Cause you know, those games at the end of the
(41:55):
season are super intense, punishing mentally and physically. And in
my view, um, a 2014 doesn't, doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
And I think it really would dilute some things.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (42:05):
You'd have, you'd have a hundred games in November with
playoff implications, but you have a lot of teams in
the bracket that basically have almost no chance of winning.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
So that I don't like to see.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Yeah. You know, for years I kept saying, let's go
from two to four. I'd be fine in my lifetime.
If we just had four, I was okay with that.
And then all of a sudden I think, I don't
know the powers that be go, wait a minute, how
much money's available here? Let's just, let's go to 12.
And I went, wow, for all those years, coaches told me, oh,
(42:36):
we don't want it. We don't need it. And I'd
be like, okay. And then now we get to 12
and now we want to go right to 24. That
for me is too fast.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
I agree.
Speaker 10 (42:47):
That to me is a jump. And money can't be
the reason. I know that sounds naive, but I think
going from four to 12, was good because teams 5, 6, 7,
and you've seen that in the 12-team bracket, are very
capable of winning, especially with the new reality of the
talent spread around more than IL and Portal.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
So you've got to allow for that.
Speaker 10 (43:07):
Many would say 12 isn't enough because you could look at, wait,
did you have Indiana winning before the season started last year?
Speaker 4 (43:13):
I mean, all things are possible now.
Speaker 10 (43:16):
With the Hoosiers going 16-0, all things are possible, and
I think we have to allow for it. I just
don't think 24 makes sense. If they're going to expand,
go to 16, eliminate the buys. At least the teams
are not playing, all of them not playing extra games.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Safe travels. Great to see you again. Thank you, bud.
Speaker 5 (43:35):
All right, Dan. Enjoy it, man.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That's Chris Fowler.
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