February 23, 2024 • 42 mins
On this episode of The Unafraid Show, George Wrighster welcomes Brandon Walker of Barstool Sports talks about his path from newspaper reporter and podcaster in Mississippi to the "biggest college football personality in the country."
The show opens with George Wrighster talking about he Pac-12 football teams that will be joining the Big Ten this summer, and how he thinks Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA will fare against powerhouse programs like Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State.
Next, Barstool's Brandon Walker joins the Unafraid Show from @MostlySportsTitusandWalker and @UnnecessaryRoughness college football show. Walker talks about the improbable story of blowing up at age 40, navigating being a father of four, his thoughts on Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark and the star power of women's college basketball, the state of college football, and why he thinks George is insane for his battle to have uniform conference scheduling. Also, what the future of Alabama Football looks like under head coach Kalen DeBoer.
After a Lunch Break at Villanueva Mexican Grill, Brandon Walker returns for a game of Wrighster or Wrong. Can Alabama fans handle a rebuild or does Kalen DeBoer need to win now?
Special correspondent Matt Verdarame gives his thoughts on why the Chicago Bears first overall pick will definitely be spent on a Quarterback.
Finally, George Wrighster uses his "Let That Sink In" segment to talk about how his youngest son's enthusiasm for attending Monster Jam events has reignited a secret passion of George's youth, and how the inclusivity of the sport has changed George's view on motor sports. .
#UnafraidShow #CollegeFootball #BarstoolSports #BigTen #Pac12 #USCFootball #OregonFootball #AlabamaFootball #WomensBasketball #MonsterJam #sportsmedia
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Unafraid Show.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We're gonna be hitting every single conference in college football,
but we're gonna start with the Big Ten. And there
are four new entries from the Back twelve and how
they're gonna do. And we got Brandon Walker from Barstool
Sports and the Mostly Sports Show in the building to
talk about it, and of course we got to take
a lunch break, and we have Matt Berdam in the
(00:21):
building as a correspondent, and we got to talk some
monster trucks. You gotta make sure that you like, subscribe,
tell a friend about the show, get notifications, and most
importantly shared so the show can continue to grow. Let's
go the Unaffraid Show. We're moving into a new era
(00:48):
of college football. And one thing that everybody who follows
West Coast Sports is absolutely sure of is that the
rest of the country doesn't pay much attention to us
outside of Oregon and a side of USC that is,
unless you're one of them smart Big Ten fans who
watches The Unafraid Show. And of course you're smart. I'm
talking about your friends. You might want to share this
(01:08):
the way they can get on your level. So for
Big ten fans that might not know what you're getting
with the four PAC twelve teams that are joining your conference.
Let me get you up to speak and after this,
jump on over to my video ranking the Big Ten
teams by likelihood of success over the next five years,
and then let me know your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
But we're gonna get started with.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
My Oregon Ducks, because admittedly the Big Ten has not
historically been kind to Oregon. The Ducks are twenty two
to thirty five against Big Ten teams and have never
played against Rutgers or Maryland.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But recent history has told a much different story.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
The last time that Oregon played Wisconsin, Ohio State, Nebraska,
and Michigan State all fens baby, and you got to
go back seventeen years to find their last matchup with
Michigan and they won that one too. To compete in
the Big Ten, you have to recruit at an elite level.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
At Oregon does that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
According to two four seven, the Ducks nap thirteen of
the top two hundred and fifty in the country in
twenty three and then up that to fifteen in the
class of twenty twenty four and have one of the
highest blue trip brakings in the country. And that's five
more than Ohio State over that same period, and seventeen
more than Michigan. So if you're one of those your
(02:21):
talent ist destiny people expect Oregon to come in and
compete right away. But then you might be asking is
Oregon physical enough or are all these high level recruits
just speedy West Coast athletes that will fold like lawn
chairs when they get hit in the mouth. I'm glad
you asked, because Oregon has had five offensive linemen drafted
since twenty twenty, including a first rounder, and this year
(02:43):
they're expected to have the first center taken off the
board in Jackson. Powers Johnson, and it helps to have
head coach Dan Lanning who has been at Alabama and
at Georgia and understands the physical blueprint that it takes
to compete in the trenches. And you can listen to
my sit down with coach day in Landing and judge
the man for yourself, But it sounds like he plans
(03:04):
on being at Oregon for a long time. And the
Ducks are stepping into a space where they aren't at
a resource disadvantage because the Big Ten is a tough
conference to compete when it comes to nil and people.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Will say Phil nice.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
The only reason for that, Well, don't forget to say
thank you for all those checks that Nike writes the Michigan,
Michigan State, Ohio State, penn State, Purdue, Minnesota, Iowa, and
Illinois as well, because you guys are very welcome and
don't go biting the hand that feeds you now. And
what about Oregon's biggest rival, the Washington Huskies, Because they're
fresh off of national championship appearance with former Big Ten
(03:39):
officer coordinator Kayln de Boor and Big Ten quarterback Michael
Pennix Junior headed out the door.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Can they rebound from.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Massive coaching turnover and roster turnover to compete in the
Big Ten? I believe that they can. Here's the dirty
little secret about Kaitlyn de Borer at Washington. There might
not have been a better end game coach on the
planet last year, but the true is Washington wasn't recruiting
at the level that they needed to in order to
sustain the success that they had in the past year,
(04:07):
and their new head coach Jedfish managed to take Arizona,
arguably the worst team in all of FBS three years ago,
to a top fifteen team with a serious California pipeline.
I think he'll bring that recruiting juice that Kayln de
Boor lacked, And I think that the administration is committed
to the idea of putting every resource available behind Washington
(04:29):
football to make sure that they stayed nationally relevant. Now,
whether they can stomach that commitment over time is another story,
but as of today, they're all in. Now, Washington's gonna
take a little bit of a dip next year because
they weren't just senior heavy, they were super senior heavy
on both sides of the ball. And Kaitlyn de bor
also took some of the returning talent with him to Tuscaloosa.
(04:51):
But if Jedfish proved anything while he was at Arizona,
it's that he can rebuild a roster, and this time
he'll be doing it with a respectable nil fund.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
If Washington isn't challenging some of.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The Big Ten's best teams on and off the field
by twenty twenty six, I'll be shocked. Now, how about
usc Look, these aren't your parents' trojans. Reggie Bush and
Troy Polamalo aren't walking through that door, but they are
still dangerous. But the question is are they dangerous enough
to be competitive week over week against teams in the
Big Ten that are perfectly happy making any game of
(05:26):
rock fight.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
That's the million dollar question.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Because USC is in the middle of one of the
deepest talent pools on earth in LA, and they're always
gonna be talented. And with this track record of number
one picks and Heisman Trophy winners, Lincoln Riley can hand
pick the best high school or portal quarterback he wants
every single year. And Big Ten fans, y'all might learn
the hard way because opening up your conference to the
(05:49):
LA market just might backfire.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I'm serious.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So many PAC twelve teams saw that you gotta watch
your players in postgame handshake lines at the coliseum because
they might be tempted to which jerseys and stick around
in that LA sunshine. Because these twenty year olds aren't
out here watching Fox News and posting online about the
demise of Los Angeles. LA is still dope their kids,
and being a young star athlete in Hollywood is still
(06:14):
as cool as it's ever been. Every question about USC
comes down to whether they're tough enough to compete in
the Big Ten and right now. The answer is not
until they prove differently. They weren't tough enough to fend
off Utah over a couple of years, and now they're
moving to a whole conference of Utah's. I could see
USC putting sixty on Indiana one week and then six
(06:36):
on Iowa the next. I think ultimately they'll get life
figured out in the Big Ten, but I can guarantee
you there will be an adjustment period, and it'll be
interesting to see if Lincoln Riley is interested in involving
and becoming competitive on the defensive end, or if he's
still gonna try to outscore everybody because they're saying one thing,
but we'll see what they actually do, or if he
(06:57):
tries to head to the NFL as a way out.
And finally, my UCLA Bruins and I say my Ucla
Bruins because I married into it, and you know how
that goes, happy wife, happy life, and Big Ten fans.
I think you can understand that because that still applies
out here on the West coast. Honestly, I hate this
move for UCLA. The PAC twelve South was theirs for
(07:18):
the taking in USC's Clay Helton years, and it felt
like they spent the entire time politely declining the throne
because UCLA has been chronically unserious about football and recruiting
in the modern era, and now the fan base is
up in arms about the idea that the opportunity for
a national coaching search ended with the internal elevation of
(07:39):
the Shawn Foster to replace Chip Kelly.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I like the Sean Foster.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I think he'll be successful and he'll be way more
serious about recruiting than Chip Kelly was. But it's gonna
take more than a young, energetic alumni head coach to
lift a program out of mediocrity. It takes administrative and
community buy in. And even though UCLA led the way
on leaving the Pac twelve to head to the Big Ten,
(08:04):
I'm not convinced that they understand the consequences because I'm
afraid the Rose Bowl is gonna feel like an away
game every single week because Big Ten fans travel and
true away games are gonna feel like a hell on Earth,
and both LA schools have to deal with the fact
that the average high temperature in Lincoln, Nebraska in early
November is Los Angeles average low. And the one thing
(08:26):
that UCLA has done better than USC in recent years.
Is understand that football still comes down to running the
ball and stopping the run, and that could be their
one saving grace when it comes to staying out of
the Big Ten basement. But it's hard to imagine them
breaking into the top echelon of the Big Ten without
massive improvements in talent acquisition and nil funds. Let me
(08:48):
know in the comments, which PAC twelve addition to the
Big Ten will have the most success and the quickest,
and which school you think is gonna come to regret
the move? And now is interview time. Let's go, and
we're on with Brandon Walker from the Mostly Sports Show
(09:08):
with Mark Titus. Branded thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, and listen. I am on the Mostly Sports Show
with Mark Titus.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
We do a great job. It's fun.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We do it every day at nine Central, ten Eastern.
But I also have a college football podcast too called
Unnecessary Reference. It's just a dominant force in the in
the industry. Big Game Boomer, who is a guy in
Oklahoma that just tweets out things. He tweets out lists.
He said, he looked at me and he said, this
guy is the number one colleg football media personality in existence,
and I'll be dang, he was right.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I looked at that list and I was like, hold on,
hold on, well, I'm going to the top of this
list branded So I don't know how long it's gonna take,
but you gonna have to move down to number two.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That's fine, We'll come on. Come. Let me tell you something. George.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
You and I met one time, right, we met in
Las Vegas?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yes, correct?
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Come take it? Then come if you want number one,
walk over here and take it.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
George, your Twitter handle is actually cool when you know.
Mine is my name at George Rice, so yours is
at b f W.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
What does the F stand for?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
It stands for Brandon fucking Walker.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And back in the late nineties early two thousands, it
was all about the rock, it was all about Stone
Cold Steve Boston. It was all about these crazy characters,
you know, talking to third person and being loud and boisterous.
That's that's where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Take me back to April twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
An opportunity came along to work for a company called
my Bookie. On the side, I was making twenty five
dollars a show and I would talk gambling picks. I
was just every day at three o'clock, I would just
fire it up and I would talk gambling picks. I'd
tell people my picks, and I would have about thirty
people show up to take those picks. Flash forward to
March it's final four weekend. Dave Portnoy tweets out. You know,
(10:52):
Dave prolific gambler, loves to gamble. I want to put
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars on Texas Tech to
beat Virginia Monday night, dumbest bet in the world. Virginia
won that game, but a guy that was running social
for my Bookie, like quote, tweeted and said, you're a
fake gambler.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Or something like that.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I called Dave out, and you know, if you call
Dave out, look look out. Dave goes at my Bookie
and then lo and behold. I go live from the
my Bookie Twitter page at three o'clock that day. Instead
of twenty five people that I'm used to, there's twelve
hundred Dave Portnoy fans in the chat telling me I'm
a squid, I'm terrible, I'm ugly. My mother goes crazy
(11:28):
things to farm animals, and I.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Just gotta roll with it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
I just like, whoa, whoa, guys, whoa. I'm a Dave
Portnoy fan, and I just rolled. I started insulting them back.
I started, you know, turning their jokes around on them.
I started, you know, throwing them the bird a little bit.
And that night Dave saw it, and Dave blogged on
Barstools Sports. So this was April ninth, twenty nineteen. He blogged,
I should hire this guy. The next day he dms
(11:53):
me on Twitter says, I want to hire you. I said,
hire me. I gave him. I gave him my number.
He called me fifteen minutes later, and thirty minutes later,
I signed my first contract with Barstool Sports.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
That's wild.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So you and Dan Katz are pretty much the only
people over there that have families because you got four kids.
How is that part of the lifestyle when your Brandon
Walker dad, but also you are you know, a barstool personality.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
That's the toughest part for me.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
First of all, it's a wonderful life and it has
provided a wonderful life for my family. But you know,
sometimes having four kids is having four kids, and sometimes
the job has to come first and sometimes the kids
have come first.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
It's a funny story we were in. I went to the.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Blackhawks game the other day, Chicago Blackhawks, and I was
walking through. I have three sons, thirteen, eleven, and eight,
and I'm walking through. I'm leading them through this big crowd,
and this this fan goes, whoa, Brandon fucking Walker. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I'm with the kids, not right now. I'm just it's
just dad right now. So but like, sometimes it's difficult explaining.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Oh, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Today today Dad had to spin around on a back,
get dizzy and throw up for everybody to laugh at him.
You know, sometimes it's hard to explain what dad did
at work today. My big break came when I was
forty years old. That's pretty late to have your big break. Yeah,
I mean, is it?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Is it? Though? Really?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I mean in this.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Day and age when you felt like it, Yeah, felt
like it.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I mean when in the day and age when you
have so many twenty some year old millionaires and.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I was one of them. Like, it's it's no, I
get it, George, you got money, man, you got fuck.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So I do feel like I've I've broken through it.
I do have a national platform. However, I mean you
know this, Whenever you were playing ball and you were
playing at the highest level of D one or you're
playing in the National Football League, that's great, but you
didn't feel like a success. You didn't like stop and say, boy,
I made it? No to do is you' say? I
(14:01):
got here? How do I get here?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
It was one one thousand percent luck. It was.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
There are guys grinding right now that are as talented
as maybe they'll never get their break.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
When luck knocks on the door.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Be prepared to take it, be prepared to put in
the work and and and what I do isn't really work,
but I work hard at it. If that makes sense correct.
I'm gonna say a name, Caitlyn Clark.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Kaitlan Clark has reached a point in this society, in
our sports world that very very few reach. The mere
mention of her name will have one of people feeling
some type of way, whether they get mad, whether they
they jump up and start singing, Oh my god, Kaitlyn Clark.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We have reached a point that we've never reached in sports.
Women's college basketball is bigger than men's right Now.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I don't think the women's game is bigger than the
men's game. I do think for the first time ever,
the women's game has bigger stars, star power turns TV
channels like Kaitlin Clark turns TV channels, Zachie don't really
turn TV channels, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
No, Now, let's transition over to college football, because it's
the thing that me and that me and you love
the absolute most.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And there's a lot of people talking about college.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Football is broken, it's it's it's over because Nick Saban retired,
Chip Kelly went to go be a OC. I'm like,
the product on the field is great, and if we're
getting people out of the game that don't want to
be be in the game, sayonara, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I think what's just the struggle for college fotball fans
right now is we've gone through about twenty five years
worth of changes in about two and a half years.
Players have needed to be compensated for NIL for what
decades now. It should have happened a long time ago.
These things should have worked themselves out naturally over the years,
but instead we get to twenty twenty and they're like,
you know what, old wide open Nil's wide open and
(16:00):
deal with it, and that wasn't the way to do it.
The fact of the matter is, we just had our
last four team playoff and seventy five percent of the
coaches in that playoff are no longer with the teams
they led.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
There.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's a phenomenal time in college football. However, you can
look at college football as broken, you can look at
it as like the wheels are falling off. However you
want to look at it, you need to look at this.
The ratings are higher than they've ever been. Yep, revenues
are higher than they've ever been. These teams are making
more money than they know what to do with. Everything
about college football's profile is higher than it's ever been.
(16:33):
So if individual fans get their feelings hurt because this
player transfers to that player is getting money, get over at, sweetheart,
because this ship is rolling on without you.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
The Pac twelve, though, dying that would hurt my heart,
even though I saw it coming.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
There's still something about a group of teams on one
coast and a group of teams down here and a
group of teams up there. These conferences have their own
personalities and their own heart beats, and their own everything
and this is old man clouds, and I understand that.
But at the same time, what made college football special
was the passions from coast to coast, and it has
(17:08):
it has dwindled a little bit in the name of
the money that they're gonna be made.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
You grew up watching SEC football.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
There is one thing that bugs the hell out of
us West Coast folks and me particularly is the SEC
plan eight conference games. I can't make sense of it.
This has gotta be the umt thing in the world
right now.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I threw my stool because I was mad at the question.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Oh hey, you can't tell me that this is not
the dumbest in the world. Man, that that's how mad
I am, because it is a grift.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
It's a grift. George, let me ask you a question.
If I said, if I said, hey, you know what,
we're gonna go out and we're gonna run. We're gonna
get in shape this week, and uh, you're gonna run
nine hills. You're gonna run nine little hill and every
time you're gonna run up a hill, run downhill, run
up a hill, downhill nine times. Me, I'm gonna run
(18:05):
up eight mountains. I'm gonna run mountains Georgia.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Georgia and Alabama haven't played in the regular season in
like ten years.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I'm running, I'm running, and finally I gotta cross. And
you know what happens when I get to the bottom
of that first mountain, Here comes Georgia. I gotta I
gotta climb another mountain.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
When I When is the last time the Alabama had
to claim climb Georgia during the regular season?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Ein s see, I don't know. He execut came on
an annual basis. If you take a ten year stretch,
of twenty years stretch, of thirty year stretch, eight SEC
games are more punishing than nine games in any other league. Now, recently,
I would say the Big ten East has gotten close
to the power of the SEC.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
It has so so I would I would say that one.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
But at no point in the last twenty years ever
since USC fell off, has a nine game conference schedule
been equal to an eight game SEC schedule.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And I'll fight you are you gonna keep perpetuating this
lie in this myth?
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Okay? So look there is let me let me explain
the math to.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
You on this. I know how math works, George.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Okay, yes, I know your wife's a professor. She's probably
explained this to you.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
But let me explain this.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
No, it's no, not not even that part of the math. Okay,
So when you play eight conference games, that means that
you are going to average four losses per team versus
four and a half. So when the SEC teams played
that November Cupcake, while you know, Arizona's playing Oregon or
(19:41):
or or Michigan's playing Michigan State or Ohio State's playing
Penn State. At the end of the season, they those
SEC teams that play the the cupcakes, they get artificially
moved up when they're when they're playing Northwestern State, unless
they they're Auburn who loo Moses to New Mexico State,
(20:02):
like you, get artificially moved up the rankings. And now
instead of just having the two elite teams at the top,
now all of a sudden, oh, Kentucky looks looks better
because they got an extra win. Now they're a ten
win team. It's a griff, Brandon, and you must admit it.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
No, I'm not gonna admit it. I'm not gonna admit it.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I'm gonna take my team for an example, Okay, twenty
ten is the best season I can remember. For this example,
twenty ten, Mississippi State had been like five and seven
of the year before. They had a good team. It
was Dan Moullen's second year. Mississi State went eight and four.
And that's a mediocre record, right, that is a mediocre record.
It's good for Mississippi State that, George, Come on now, anyway, hold.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
On, where are you a Mississippi State fan? When Mississippi
State came up to Auxton and I had two.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Times to ask you what because we were I walk
into that minute. We're gonna get anyway. Twenty ten, Missisippi State,
who plays in the SEC West, lost four games.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
All four games.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Were to SEC West opponents. All four were the top
ten teams. All four were single digit losses. So they
played four teams in their division, all top ten. There
is nowhere in the country that you're gonna stretch like
that ever outside the SEC.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
That's not going on anymore, though, Brandon. That's the thing
is that is that.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Oklahoma's gonna make it easier, That's gonna make it tougher.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
That's what.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Okay, So if you're gonna go to a league with
sixteen teams, Why would you not go to nine conference games?
That way, now you can get more games on the
on the schedule, and instead of playing three non competitive
games and then one Power five game against it doesn't
even have to be against a good team, why not
play nine conference games and then and then y'all can
(21:55):
keep your little three uh cup k eights.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
The eight game has SC schedule is every bit as
demanding as any nine game schedule in the country.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
And if you don't know the honest truth.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
So you think, hold on, so you think in twenty
twenty four, an eight game schedule is gonna be tougher
than what Oregon has to face into Big Ten next year.
With Ohio State and Michigan on the schedule, plus UCLA
and whatever other teams are on.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
There, He's gonna be garbage juice next year. You know
that that's true?
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Okay, anyway, Oregon schedule will be tough next year. And
would I personally move it to nine games?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
But do I see the logic of why they're they're
sticking with a Do I see because it's gonna get
you more teams in the playoff? I mean, I don't
think the SEC is hurting for getting teams in the playoff.
So so so whatever they're doing, they're getting as many
teams as they can getting bowls to get that money.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
They're getting as many teams in the playoff.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, maybe it's a competitive advantage, but Greg Sank is
the commissioner. His job is defining that competitive advantage for
the SEC, and to me, it is worth it. Like
eight games in the SEC UO eight and oh in
the SEC you're the best team in the country.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
That's that's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
And you guys, he's Brandon Walker. You can find him
over at the Mostly Sports Show and of Unnecessary Roughness
podcast as well.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
See remember Professional.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, so, my son Damon had told me about this
Mexican spot that I had to try. It's called Villain
a Wave of Mexican Grill. Listen, the signage doesn't look
that great, but we got to see how the food taste,
and when I went inside.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
It was clearly it was very clean.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
They have the salce of tray up front where you
can choose and get whatever it is that you want.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Here's the whole kit.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
In the whole setup, I got a combination of lemonade
and mango, which with the guy said was the best thing.
Here's what the pico looks like. Oom, the mochahate, and
we got real guaracamo, not guacamoed sauce. Okay, got some
street tacos. Ordinarily I would never put guacamole and cheese
(23:58):
on there, but that's one of their things.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
So I have to try that joint out. And I
got Alex Burrito. The tortilla looks good.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Go start with the tacos, and I'm gonna take a
squirrel a little line on these joints.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
I got the asada.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
I'm a big carne asida fan.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And you know how old I was when I learned
what the second taco was actually for. It's second taco
actually catch all the stuff that falls out of the
first taco.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And guacamosa bust.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Let me tell you, mother, chaco is solid due these chips,
some boy. So I got the piko first.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
It's not old pico, tomatoes, steel firm tooth.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
That mocha hotte looked.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Like, oh oh, okay, mocha hotte. What you got a
little get to that thing? Guac I like it and
got tomatoes in it. You don't have tomatoes and guak,
you're not doing quack right now, Let's see about this drink.
I like that solid, nothing special, but it's got the pico,
(25:03):
the onions, the cilantro rice beans.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, good, solid burrito.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Eight out of ten, eight out of ten, eight point
five and above I'm driving out of my way to
go there. But eight point oh means if you're on
the way home and I need something to.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Eat, I'm stopping. And that's why I feel about about this.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
If I want some Mexican food and I don't want
to sit down at a full fledged restaurant if I
need a burrito or some tacos, Yeah, bro, this is
an absolute wind and.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Good job going the way like it. Eight point zero.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
And now we're back with Brandon Walker or reister or wrong.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Alabama fans can't handle a two year rebuild with Kaylyndbori.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
You are, reister, You are exactly right in that one.
Here's what's about to happen at the University of Alabama.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Kaylen Debor is a very good football coach.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
But Alabama's not used to having a very good football coach.
They're used to having the greatest coach to ever coach
the game of college football. Calen Debor will be fired
within two years or three years because nine and three
ain't gonna work for them, ten and two ain't gonna
work for them anything short of a national title, and
he will be a failure.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Will it be his fault?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
No, But Alabama fans are not ready to only be
really good and not be elite. Fifteen years of caviare
and Cadillacs and everything has been a great life. But
guess what, the divorce is finalized and you got to
go get a job now in Alabama. Mans, nobody likes
that the Braves in the nineties have to be the
(26:38):
best sports franchise of all time with the least.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
To show for it.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Wow, so you're probably wrong. You're probably wrong. The Braves
in the nineties are way up there. But do you remember,
and you're two years younger than me, the early nineties
Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Went to four four goals in a row?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Do you know how hard? I know you do you
know how hard it is.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
To go to four Super Bowls in a row.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
That's unheard of, and to lose for a row like
you had to get it right once, making four Super
Bowls in a row is a major, incredible, one of
the greatest a confidents ever, and we remember them as
losers because they never won once.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
So while Atlanta underachieved and they should have won three
to five World Series, at least they won the one
and you can at least say, well they got one ring.
They at least got there. The Bills were just as
good as the Braves in the early nineties and never
got there.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Patrick Mahomes is the goat quarterback.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
It is hard to judge half a career, which is
what we have from him, against anybody else's whole career,
and particularly I'm talking about Tom Brady who kept doing
it until he was in his forties, which is remarkable.
But if you want to say, up until the age
of twenty nine, which is what he is now, is
he the greatest of all time? I think the answer
is absolutely yes. And it goes even further than just
(27:56):
three Super Bowls. He's never played a season where he
didn't make the AFC Championship Game.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, you know how hard it is to make an
AFC Championship game, and this day in age with to
win a Super Bowl like out of his six years
he's been in for the Super.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Bowls and he's won three.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yes, so if you want to win a championship, you
must go through Kansas City and it's at it home.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Brady won three in his first five years. I think
maybe six years. But then Brady had a big gap
nine years. Yep, nine years. I certainly don't feel a
nine year gap coming for Patrick Mahomes. So to me,
I think he is own trajectory right now to be
the goat. And if I had to say, up until
age twent nine, who's the goat, it's Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I know that you're a big reader and you love
Rick Riley, but Rick Riley books are overrated.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Wow, okay, are you coming over here to fight me?
All right?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
First of all, it's hard to explain Rick Riley to anybody,
but back in the day in the nineties, Sports Hills
Trading will get to my house. I was subscriber. It
got to my house every Thursday. He has the back
page of every sports illustraded. So what I would do
is I would open sports Wills Trading.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
I see the cover.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Oh look, Tim duncan flip it and see what Rick
Riley was writing about. Time Rick Riley is my favorite
writer ever. Even if he was a little hokey, a
little goofy, a little whatever.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
I'm ald of those things.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
So I will fight over Rick Riley, even though he's
kind of I've met him before and I've heard people
have met him and they say he's kind of a
distract or whatever.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
All right, last, but am I reister or am I
wrong that the Pac twelve cast off, that one of
those teams will both win the Big Twelve and the
Big Ten next year?
Speaker 4 (29:50):
You're wrong because Ohio State's win in the Big Ten.
Oh God, Ohio, Ohio State's George. Ohio State's gonna be nasty, man.
They're gonna get.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yes, they are. They You were that whole defense back,
That defense was top five defense. They went out and
got a quarterback to run their system.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
They got Jim Kelly. They like, what do you what
do you want? They're gonna be unbelievable. I think Utah
is gonna be nasty.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Oh yeah yeah with with Cam rising back, Yeah, they're
gonna be.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
They're gonna be something to deal with. And I do
hate that Arizona lost their coach because I think they
would have been something to deal with as well. They've
done a decent job of holding it together. But without
the coach, I don't I just don't know if I
see it, but they would have been exciting.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
But but yeah, I do like Utah a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
In the New County Ohio state does need something.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
Well, they need.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
They need to beat Michigan is what they need.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
They do, they do.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
But I'll put it like this, if I wanted to
beat Michigan, it would make my heart feel good if
their coach left, their quarterback left, all of their coaches
outside of one left, everybody left.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Man, Michigan in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Four will not be what Michigan it wasn't correct twenty
three or twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
They just hey, man, broke broken clocks win win games
every now.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
And that's not saying at all, George.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I just started talking broken clock has worked two in
the bus.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I ain't the say George.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
All right, you guys, he's Brandon Walker. Make sure you
go check about Brandon.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Thanks for coming on the show, all right, George, pleasure
and this is a home and home right Yeah, yeah, man,
I'm absolutely down, down, down to come on man.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Just hopefully you guys are prepared over there for somebody
like me who's ready to take that number one spot.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
That's fine. Like I said earlier, you're gonna have to
come and take it.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Today's the first day of us doing something a little
bit new here on the Unafraid Show. We're gonna periodically
be bringing on correspondence and this week we have that
verde Ram in the building. You can find this work
over at Sports Illustrated and The Matt verder Ram Show,
which is a football show based mainly around the Kansas
City Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
And he got something for you good.
Speaker 5 (32:05):
Right now, we need to stop the nonsense.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
We need to stop the fake arguments for the sake
of fake arguments. But the Bears are going to take
a quarterback with the number one overall pick this year.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
You know.
Speaker 6 (32:18):
I know that because I have common sense and I
understand how the NFL works. Justin Fields has been with
the Bears for three years, and for three years the
Bears have been terrible. Now that is not all on
Justin Fields, not by a long shot. Field has actually
been good at times. In fact, he was in the
top ten and MVP voting in twenty twenty two. He
(32:39):
ran for over eleven hundred yards that year. The problem
he also fumbled the ball sixteen times, and he wasn't
prolific throwing the ball, and he was sacked a league
high fifty five times. And so what did the Bears do.
They got the number one overall pick last year, and
understandably they traded the pick to the Carolina Panthers because
they said, hey, we're gonna get a bunch of picks
(33:01):
moving forward, and we're going to.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
Be able to reset the franchise.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Ryan Poles GM came in there, added to the front
seven with guys like TJ.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds into de Fines. We're willing to
have a.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Reset here with a bunch of cap space. We'll get
a number one receiver out of this. We don't love
Bryce Young, we'll move back, we'll move forward, and hey,
that worked out.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
The Bears were much better in twenty twenty three. They
won seven games, even though Fields at the miss four
games or a hand injury. You can't argue that that
wasn't the right move, even though, of course, if they
could do it all over again, they would take CJ.
Stroud because Stroud looks like he's on his way to
being an all pro level quarterback. Bryce Young, of course,
does not look like that, at least in his first
(33:46):
year in Carolina. But back to fields and back to
the current situation. So Bryce Young and the Panthers are so.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
Bad this year? They won two games and they earned the.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
Number one overall pick, which belongs to Ryan Poules and
Chicago Bears. Not a bad deal once again. But here's
where the rub comes in. There's been all this talk about, hey,
what do you do if you're Ryan Poles?
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Do you use the pick on a quarterback?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
Do you take Caleb Williams out of the USC, Do
you take North Carolinas Drade May or do you trade
that pick?
Speaker 5 (34:17):
Do you do what you did last year by.
Speaker 6 (34:19):
Hoarding a whole bunch of future picks and say, hey,
we're good with justin Fields. Here's why that argument makes
no sense. First of all, Fields now is extension eligible. Okay,
he's been there for three years. Doesn't mean the Bears
have to pay him. They could play out the fourth
year and pick up the fifty year option and they
could ride it out with tags. Sure, but if you're
(34:43):
that undecided on what you're going to do with Justin
Fields and how good he's going to be. Then you
trade fields and you take Caleb Williams, and you live
with the reality that Hey.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
Williams could be a bust.
Speaker 6 (34:56):
He could also be what most expect him to be,
which is a top light NFL quarterback from the moment
he steps foot on the football field.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
And if you're the Bears, you need to make that decision.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
You have not had a top tier quarterback in the
NFL since Sid Luckman. And there's probably some of you
out there going, I'm sorry who Sid Luckman.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
Who predominantly played in the nineteen forties.
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Okay, when George Hollis was the coach and the Bears
were the monsters of the Midway and they were winning
championships way before the advent of television. Okay, right now,
the Bears have to be sitting there and Ryan Pole
specifically thinking, you know what the best course of action
is to field as many offers as possible for Justin
(35:40):
Fields between right this second and the NFL Draft.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
Hope you can get a.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
First In reality, settle for a second round pick. Maybe
you can bit it up to where you get a
second and a fourth, the second and a fifth and
that return ought to tell you the reality here, and
that reality is that Justin Field just an intriguing quarterback.
He has his value, but he's not a really good
quarterback right now.
Speaker 5 (36:05):
He's an average quarterback at best.
Speaker 6 (36:07):
In fact, if you look at his numbers last year,
bearing in mind he only was able to play in
thirteen games, he was twenty second in passing yards. He
was twenty first in yards per attempt, he was twenty
third in QBR and despite the fact that he had
well under four hundred passing attempts, he was fifth in
sacks taken at forty four. And yes, the offensive line
(36:30):
played a part in that, but sacks are also a
quarterback stat. And the year prior, as I mentioned.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
He led the league with fifty five sacks taken in
fifteen games, and again for his starting quarterback was barely
throwing the ball just over three hundred attempts.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
This is a problem also in twenty twenty two. A
lot of Fields's value is based off the fact that
he can run it. He is dynamic with the football,
and that remains true. The problem is that year looks
like an liar. In fact, if you combine the rushing
totals for fields of his first and third seasons, they
don't equal what he did in his second campaign. So, yes,
(37:11):
he is dynamic with his legs. That is a dimension
that you love about his game. But the truth of
it is he is not a Lamar Jackson who every
year is a threat to rush for one thousand yards.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
That's not the case.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
And he's also not the passer that Lamar Jackson is,
which is why Lamar is a two time MVP and
right now justin fields, not even sniffing a Pro Bowl.
If you're the Bears, this is not a tough call.
You trade justin fields, You accumulate draft capital that way,
and you use your two top ten picks on a
(37:43):
quarterback and then somebody who can help him out. You
want to go best player available there on the offensive side, fine,
you want to take a tackle, great, you want to
take a receiver to pair with DJ Moore, cool with
that too. But the idea that the Bears can just
trade off this pick, yes, they'd get a bevy forth,
they'd probably get three first round picks, but it's some juncture.
The quarterbacks worth more, and if you look at the
(38:06):
great quarterbacks in today's game, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen,
Lamar Jackson on down the line with any of those teams,
trade those quarterbacks for three first round picks.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Hell, no, no chance in the world.
Speaker 6 (38:22):
And that's factoring in that those guys are all on
second deals that are extremely lucrative. You have a chance
to reset the franchise, to restart the financial clock at
the quarterback position and get somebody who might be generational
for Ryan Poles and the Bears.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
This is not a tough decision. Trade fields, draft Caleb
Williams and move forward.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I want to talk about Bigfoot, not the Sasquatch, because
that's a whole other topic for another day. I'm talking
about the big blue Ford F two fifty monster truck,
you know the one I'm talking about, because man, I
love Bigfoot as a kid when I was in Memphis,
but at the time, it felt like it was something
that I needed to keep to myself. Maybe not everybody
can identify with this, but back then it felt like
(39:08):
that there were activities for black kids and for white kids,
and monster trucks weren't exactly on the list of things
that I saw that kids like me were playing with
or even talking about it was just something about the
marriage of motorsports and Confederate flags in the nineteen eighty
South that never sat quite right with me.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
And as a father, you never.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Want your kids to think about something that isn't for
them just because of the color of their skin, especially
something as kick Asses monster trucks, which is why I'm
loving that my four and a half year old son
is all in on Monster Jam. We've been out to
watch Monster Jam as a family several times now, and
I even got plans to be with Marcellus Whiley and
(39:47):
his family at Sofi Stadium for the Monster Jam World
Finals in May. And it's like, I'm getting to redo
on my childhood through the eyes of my kids. And
I'm telling you, there's nothing better than the wonder on
his face when twelve thousand pounds of steel and rubber.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Launched through the air.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
You got Zombie Toro Loco Grave Digger, And you know,
my son has the toy version of all of these,
and then their son of a Digger and I really
don't know how I feel about the name, but the
truck is cool as hell. And I'll tell you what
you looked at some of these drivers like Bernard Light
in the Amazing Spider Man truck and Brionna Mahone in
(40:24):
the Scooby Do truck. And I know the anti woke
crowd hates the term inclusivity, but what am I supposed
to call it? When I see people of all races
and genders out there on the dirt and in the stands.
Monster Jam has done an incredible job of making me
and my family feel like we're not outsiders and like
all of this is as much for us as it
is for anybody else. And it's not just Monster Jam
(40:47):
but motorsports in general. I was out at the Clash
at the Coliseum a couple weeks back for NASCAR's annual
preseason Cup Series event and had a great time. And
I'm sure for Monster Jam, for NASCAR being more welcoming
has paid dividends. Master Jam is certainly getting a portion
of my expendable income because they're helping my family make memories.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
And when I look out at the crowd.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I see nothing but families of all kind and color,
wrapped up in the same amazement, joy and wonder as
my own.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
And I think back to when I.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Was a kid, and it honestly makes me question the
problem that some people have with the idea of inclusion.
Not everything needs to be for everyone, but things that
appeal to everyone certainly shouldn't exclude anyone. When I was
a kid wishing I could go see Bigfoot in person,
but feeling like it wasn't for me that had to
be taught, and not just that motorsports weren't for black people,
(41:41):
but that black people would be better off leaving motorsports
to everybody else. The truth is, nobody is born racist.
Nobody is born feeling a sense of superiority. No one
is born thinking that it's better to be excluded. And
all that is learned behavior. And I'm grateful that my
kids and the kids of so many others living in
era where those things aren't being taught as prevalently, and
(42:04):
that as an organization, Monster Jam, Nascar and others make
the effort to make people like me and my family
feel welcome. I might not have those memories for myself,
but I have them with my family, and hopefully they'll
make those memories with their kids too. Let that sink in,
and that's the Unafraid show. You guys, thank you for
(42:25):
joining us. Make sure that you like to subscribe, get notifications,
tell a friend about the show, and most importantly, share
so we can continue to grow and everybody sees this
dope content. And we're edging up on fifteen thousand subscribers,
so it is giveaway time, so make sure that you're
back here every single week on Thursday.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
See you next week.
Welcome to the Unafraid Show.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We're gonna be hitting every single conference in college football,
but we're gonna start with the Big Ten. And there
are four new entries from the Back twelve and how
they're gonna do. And we got Brandon Walker from Barstool
Sports and the Mostly Sports Show in the building to
talk about it, and of course we got to take
a lunch break, and we have Matt Berdam in the
(00:21):
building as a correspondent, and we got to talk some
monster trucks. You gotta make sure that you like, subscribe,
tell a friend about the show, get notifications, and most
importantly shared so the show can continue to grow. Let's
go the Unaffraid Show. We're moving into a new era
(00:48):
of college football. And one thing that everybody who follows
West Coast Sports is absolutely sure of is that the
rest of the country doesn't pay much attention to us
outside of Oregon and a side of USC that is,
unless you're one of them smart Big Ten fans who
watches The Unafraid Show. And of course you're smart. I'm
talking about your friends. You might want to share this
(01:08):
the way they can get on your level. So for
Big ten fans that might not know what you're getting
with the four PAC twelve teams that are joining your conference.
Let me get you up to speak and after this,
jump on over to my video ranking the Big Ten
teams by likelihood of success over the next five years,
and then let me know your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
But we're gonna get started with.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
My Oregon Ducks, because admittedly the Big Ten has not
historically been kind to Oregon. The Ducks are twenty two
to thirty five against Big Ten teams and have never
played against Rutgers or Maryland.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But recent history has told a much different story.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
The last time that Oregon played Wisconsin, Ohio State, Nebraska,
and Michigan State all fens baby, and you got to
go back seventeen years to find their last matchup with
Michigan and they won that one too. To compete in
the Big Ten, you have to recruit at an elite level.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
At Oregon does that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
According to two four seven, the Ducks nap thirteen of
the top two hundred and fifty in the country in
twenty three and then up that to fifteen in the
class of twenty twenty four and have one of the
highest blue trip brakings in the country. And that's five
more than Ohio State over that same period, and seventeen
more than Michigan. So if you're one of those your
(02:21):
talent ist destiny people expect Oregon to come in and
compete right away. But then you might be asking is
Oregon physical enough or are all these high level recruits
just speedy West Coast athletes that will fold like lawn
chairs when they get hit in the mouth. I'm glad
you asked, because Oregon has had five offensive linemen drafted
since twenty twenty, including a first rounder, and this year
(02:43):
they're expected to have the first center taken off the
board in Jackson. Powers Johnson, and it helps to have
head coach Dan Lanning who has been at Alabama and
at Georgia and understands the physical blueprint that it takes
to compete in the trenches. And you can listen to
my sit down with coach day in Landing and judge
the man for yourself, But it sounds like he plans
(03:04):
on being at Oregon for a long time. And the
Ducks are stepping into a space where they aren't at
a resource disadvantage because the Big Ten is a tough
conference to compete when it comes to nil and people.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Will say Phil nice.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
The only reason for that, Well, don't forget to say
thank you for all those checks that Nike writes the Michigan,
Michigan State, Ohio State, penn State, Purdue, Minnesota, Iowa, and
Illinois as well, because you guys are very welcome and
don't go biting the hand that feeds you now. And
what about Oregon's biggest rival, the Washington Huskies, Because they're
fresh off of national championship appearance with former Big Ten
(03:39):
officer coordinator Kayln de Boor and Big Ten quarterback Michael
Pennix Junior headed out the door.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Can they rebound from.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Massive coaching turnover and roster turnover to compete in the
Big Ten? I believe that they can. Here's the dirty
little secret about Kaitlyn de Borer at Washington. There might
not have been a better end game coach on the
planet last year, but the true is Washington wasn't recruiting
at the level that they needed to in order to
sustain the success that they had in the past year,
(04:07):
and their new head coach Jedfish managed to take Arizona,
arguably the worst team in all of FBS three years ago,
to a top fifteen team with a serious California pipeline.
I think he'll bring that recruiting juice that Kayln de
Boor lacked, And I think that the administration is committed
to the idea of putting every resource available behind Washington
(04:29):
football to make sure that they stayed nationally relevant. Now,
whether they can stomach that commitment over time is another story,
but as of today, they're all in. Now, Washington's gonna
take a little bit of a dip next year because
they weren't just senior heavy, they were super senior heavy
on both sides of the ball. And Kaitlyn de bor
also took some of the returning talent with him to Tuscaloosa.
(04:51):
But if Jedfish proved anything while he was at Arizona,
it's that he can rebuild a roster, and this time
he'll be doing it with a respectable nil fund.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
If Washington isn't challenging some of.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The Big Ten's best teams on and off the field
by twenty twenty six, I'll be shocked. Now, how about
usc Look, these aren't your parents' trojans. Reggie Bush and
Troy Polamalo aren't walking through that door, but they are
still dangerous. But the question is are they dangerous enough
to be competitive week over week against teams in the
Big Ten that are perfectly happy making any game of
(05:26):
rock fight.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
That's the million dollar question.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Because USC is in the middle of one of the
deepest talent pools on earth in LA, and they're always
gonna be talented. And with this track record of number
one picks and Heisman Trophy winners, Lincoln Riley can hand
pick the best high school or portal quarterback he wants
every single year. And Big Ten fans, y'all might learn
the hard way because opening up your conference to the
(05:49):
LA market just might backfire.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I'm serious.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So many PAC twelve teams saw that you gotta watch
your players in postgame handshake lines at the coliseum because
they might be tempted to which jerseys and stick around
in that LA sunshine. Because these twenty year olds aren't
out here watching Fox News and posting online about the
demise of Los Angeles. LA is still dope their kids,
and being a young star athlete in Hollywood is still
(06:14):
as cool as it's ever been. Every question about USC
comes down to whether they're tough enough to compete in
the Big Ten and right now. The answer is not
until they prove differently. They weren't tough enough to fend
off Utah over a couple of years, and now they're
moving to a whole conference of Utah's. I could see
USC putting sixty on Indiana one week and then six
(06:36):
on Iowa the next. I think ultimately they'll get life
figured out in the Big Ten, but I can guarantee
you there will be an adjustment period, and it'll be
interesting to see if Lincoln Riley is interested in involving
and becoming competitive on the defensive end, or if he's
still gonna try to outscore everybody because they're saying one thing,
but we'll see what they actually do, or if he
(06:57):
tries to head to the NFL as a way out.
And finally, my UCLA Bruins and I say my Ucla
Bruins because I married into it, and you know how
that goes, happy wife, happy life, and Big Ten fans.
I think you can understand that because that still applies
out here on the West coast. Honestly, I hate this
move for UCLA. The PAC twelve South was theirs for
(07:18):
the taking in USC's Clay Helton years, and it felt
like they spent the entire time politely declining the throne
because UCLA has been chronically unserious about football and recruiting
in the modern era, and now the fan base is
up in arms about the idea that the opportunity for
a national coaching search ended with the internal elevation of
(07:39):
the Shawn Foster to replace Chip Kelly.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I like the Sean Foster.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I think he'll be successful and he'll be way more
serious about recruiting than Chip Kelly was. But it's gonna
take more than a young, energetic alumni head coach to
lift a program out of mediocrity. It takes administrative and
community buy in. And even though UCLA led the way
on leaving the Pac twelve to head to the Big Ten,
(08:04):
I'm not convinced that they understand the consequences because I'm
afraid the Rose Bowl is gonna feel like an away
game every single week because Big Ten fans travel and
true away games are gonna feel like a hell on Earth,
and both LA schools have to deal with the fact
that the average high temperature in Lincoln, Nebraska in early
November is Los Angeles average low. And the one thing
(08:26):
that UCLA has done better than USC in recent years.
Is understand that football still comes down to running the
ball and stopping the run, and that could be their
one saving grace when it comes to staying out of
the Big Ten basement. But it's hard to imagine them
breaking into the top echelon of the Big Ten without
massive improvements in talent acquisition and nil funds. Let me
(08:48):
know in the comments, which PAC twelve addition to the
Big Ten will have the most success and the quickest,
and which school you think is gonna come to regret
the move? And now is interview time. Let's go, and
we're on with Brandon Walker from the Mostly Sports Show
(09:08):
with Mark Titus. Branded thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, and listen. I am on the Mostly Sports Show
with Mark Titus.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
We do a great job. It's fun.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We do it every day at nine Central, ten Eastern.
But I also have a college football podcast too called
Unnecessary Reference. It's just a dominant force in the in
the industry. Big Game Boomer, who is a guy in
Oklahoma that just tweets out things. He tweets out lists.
He said, he looked at me and he said, this
guy is the number one colleg football media personality in existence,
and I'll be dang, he was right.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I looked at that list and I was like, hold on,
hold on, well, I'm going to the top of this
list branded So I don't know how long it's gonna take,
but you gonna have to move down to number two.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That's fine, We'll come on. Come. Let me tell you something. George.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
You and I met one time, right, we met in
Las Vegas?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yes, correct?
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Come take it? Then come if you want number one,
walk over here and take it.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
George, your Twitter handle is actually cool when you know.
Mine is my name at George Rice, so yours is
at b f W.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
What does the F stand for?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
It stands for Brandon fucking Walker.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And back in the late nineties early two thousands, it
was all about the rock, it was all about Stone
Cold Steve Boston. It was all about these crazy characters,
you know, talking to third person and being loud and boisterous.
That's that's where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Take me back to April twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
An opportunity came along to work for a company called
my Bookie. On the side, I was making twenty five
dollars a show and I would talk gambling picks. I
was just every day at three o'clock, I would just
fire it up and I would talk gambling picks. I'd
tell people my picks, and I would have about thirty
people show up to take those picks. Flash forward to
March it's final four weekend. Dave Portnoy tweets out. You know,
(10:52):
Dave prolific gambler, loves to gamble. I want to put
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars on Texas Tech to
beat Virginia Monday night, dumbest bet in the world. Virginia
won that game, but a guy that was running social
for my Bookie, like quote, tweeted and said, you're a
fake gambler.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Or something like that.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I called Dave out, and you know, if you call
Dave out, look look out. Dave goes at my Bookie
and then lo and behold. I go live from the
my Bookie Twitter page at three o'clock that day. Instead
of twenty five people that I'm used to, there's twelve
hundred Dave Portnoy fans in the chat telling me I'm
a squid, I'm terrible, I'm ugly. My mother goes crazy
(11:28):
things to farm animals, and I.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Just gotta roll with it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
I just like, whoa, whoa, guys, whoa. I'm a Dave
Portnoy fan, and I just rolled. I started insulting them back.
I started, you know, turning their jokes around on them.
I started, you know, throwing them the bird a little bit.
And that night Dave saw it, and Dave blogged on
Barstools Sports. So this was April ninth, twenty nineteen. He blogged,
I should hire this guy. The next day he dms
(11:53):
me on Twitter says, I want to hire you. I said,
hire me. I gave him. I gave him my number.
He called me fifteen minutes later, and thirty minutes later,
I signed my first contract with Barstool Sports.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
That's wild.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So you and Dan Katz are pretty much the only
people over there that have families because you got four kids.
How is that part of the lifestyle when your Brandon
Walker dad, but also you are you know, a barstool personality.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
That's the toughest part for me.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
First of all, it's a wonderful life and it has
provided a wonderful life for my family. But you know,
sometimes having four kids is having four kids, and sometimes
the job has to come first and sometimes the kids
have come first.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
It's a funny story we were in. I went to the.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Blackhawks game the other day, Chicago Blackhawks, and I was
walking through. I have three sons, thirteen, eleven, and eight,
and I'm walking through. I'm leading them through this big crowd,
and this this fan goes, whoa, Brandon fucking Walker. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I'm with the kids, not right now. I'm just it's
just dad right now. So but like, sometimes it's difficult explaining.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Oh, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Today today Dad had to spin around on a back,
get dizzy and throw up for everybody to laugh at him.
You know, sometimes it's hard to explain what dad did
at work today. My big break came when I was
forty years old. That's pretty late to have your big break. Yeah,
I mean, is it?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Is it? Though? Really?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I mean in this.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Day and age when you felt like it, Yeah, felt
like it.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I mean when in the day and age when you
have so many twenty some year old millionaires and.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I was one of them. Like, it's it's no, I
get it, George, you got money, man, you got fuck.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So I do feel like I've I've broken through it.
I do have a national platform. However, I mean you
know this, Whenever you were playing ball and you were
playing at the highest level of D one or you're
playing in the National Football League, that's great, but you
didn't feel like a success. You didn't like stop and say, boy,
I made it? No to do is you' say? I
(14:01):
got here? How do I get here?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
It was one one thousand percent luck. It was.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
There are guys grinding right now that are as talented
as maybe they'll never get their break.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
When luck knocks on the door.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Be prepared to take it, be prepared to put in
the work and and and what I do isn't really work,
but I work hard at it. If that makes sense correct.
I'm gonna say a name, Caitlyn Clark.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Kaitlan Clark has reached a point in this society, in
our sports world that very very few reach. The mere
mention of her name will have one of people feeling
some type of way, whether they get mad, whether they
they jump up and start singing, Oh my god, Kaitlyn Clark.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We have reached a point that we've never reached in sports.
Women's college basketball is bigger than men's right Now.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I don't think the women's game is bigger than the
men's game. I do think for the first time ever,
the women's game has bigger stars, star power turns TV
channels like Kaitlin Clark turns TV channels, Zachie don't really
turn TV channels, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
No, Now, let's transition over to college football, because it's
the thing that me and that me and you love
the absolute most.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And there's a lot of people talking about college.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Football is broken, it's it's it's over because Nick Saban retired,
Chip Kelly went to go be a OC. I'm like,
the product on the field is great, and if we're
getting people out of the game that don't want to
be be in the game, sayonara, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I think what's just the struggle for college fotball fans
right now is we've gone through about twenty five years
worth of changes in about two and a half years.
Players have needed to be compensated for NIL for what
decades now. It should have happened a long time ago.
These things should have worked themselves out naturally over the years,
but instead we get to twenty twenty and they're like,
you know what, old wide open Nil's wide open and
(16:00):
deal with it, and that wasn't the way to do it.
The fact of the matter is, we just had our
last four team playoff and seventy five percent of the
coaches in that playoff are no longer with the teams
they led.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
There.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's a phenomenal time in college football. However, you can
look at college football as broken, you can look at
it as like the wheels are falling off. However you
want to look at it, you need to look at this.
The ratings are higher than they've ever been. Yep, revenues
are higher than they've ever been. These teams are making
more money than they know what to do with. Everything
about college football's profile is higher than it's ever been.
(16:33):
So if individual fans get their feelings hurt because this
player transfers to that player is getting money, get over at, sweetheart,
because this ship is rolling on without you.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
The Pac twelve, though, dying that would hurt my heart,
even though I saw it coming.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
There's still something about a group of teams on one
coast and a group of teams down here and a
group of teams up there. These conferences have their own
personalities and their own heart beats, and their own everything
and this is old man clouds, and I understand that.
But at the same time, what made college football special
was the passions from coast to coast, and it has
(17:08):
it has dwindled a little bit in the name of
the money that they're gonna be made.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
You grew up watching SEC football.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
There is one thing that bugs the hell out of
us West Coast folks and me particularly is the SEC
plan eight conference games. I can't make sense of it.
This has gotta be the umt thing in the world
right now.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I threw my stool because I was mad at the question.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Oh hey, you can't tell me that this is not
the dumbest in the world. Man, that that's how mad
I am, because it is a grift.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
It's a grift. George, let me ask you a question.
If I said, if I said, hey, you know what,
we're gonna go out and we're gonna run. We're gonna
get in shape this week, and uh, you're gonna run
nine hills. You're gonna run nine little hill and every
time you're gonna run up a hill, run downhill, run
up a hill, downhill nine times. Me, I'm gonna run
(18:05):
up eight mountains. I'm gonna run mountains Georgia.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Georgia and Alabama haven't played in the regular season in
like ten years.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I'm running, I'm running, and finally I gotta cross. And
you know what happens when I get to the bottom
of that first mountain, Here comes Georgia. I gotta I
gotta climb another mountain.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
When I When is the last time the Alabama had
to claim climb Georgia during the regular season?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Ein s see, I don't know. He execut came on
an annual basis. If you take a ten year stretch,
of twenty years stretch, of thirty year stretch, eight SEC
games are more punishing than nine games in any other league. Now, recently,
I would say the Big ten East has gotten close
to the power of the SEC.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
It has so so I would I would say that one.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
But at no point in the last twenty years ever
since USC fell off, has a nine game conference schedule
been equal to an eight game SEC schedule.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And I'll fight you are you gonna keep perpetuating this
lie in this myth?
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Okay? So look there is let me let me explain
the math to.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
You on this. I know how math works, George.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Okay, yes, I know your wife's a professor. She's probably
explained this to you.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
But let me explain this.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
No, it's no, not not even that part of the math. Okay,
So when you play eight conference games, that means that
you are going to average four losses per team versus
four and a half. So when the SEC teams played
that November Cupcake, while you know, Arizona's playing Oregon or
(19:41):
or or Michigan's playing Michigan State or Ohio State's playing
Penn State. At the end of the season, they those
SEC teams that play the the cupcakes, they get artificially
moved up when they're when they're playing Northwestern State, unless
they they're Auburn who loo Moses to New Mexico State,
(20:02):
like you, get artificially moved up the rankings. And now
instead of just having the two elite teams at the top,
now all of a sudden, oh, Kentucky looks looks better
because they got an extra win. Now they're a ten
win team. It's a griff, Brandon, and you must admit it.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
No, I'm not gonna admit it. I'm not gonna admit it.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I'm gonna take my team for an example, Okay, twenty
ten is the best season I can remember. For this example,
twenty ten, Mississippi State had been like five and seven
of the year before. They had a good team. It
was Dan Moullen's second year. Mississi State went eight and four.
And that's a mediocre record, right, that is a mediocre record.
It's good for Mississippi State that, George, Come on now, anyway, hold.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
On, where are you a Mississippi State fan? When Mississippi
State came up to Auxton and I had two.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Times to ask you what because we were I walk
into that minute. We're gonna get anyway. Twenty ten, Missisippi State,
who plays in the SEC West, lost four games.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
All four games.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Were to SEC West opponents. All four were the top
ten teams. All four were single digit losses. So they
played four teams in their division, all top ten. There
is nowhere in the country that you're gonna stretch like
that ever outside the SEC.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
That's not going on anymore, though, Brandon. That's the thing
is that is that.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Oklahoma's gonna make it easier, That's gonna make it tougher.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
That's what.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Okay, So if you're gonna go to a league with
sixteen teams, Why would you not go to nine conference games?
That way, now you can get more games on the
on the schedule, and instead of playing three non competitive
games and then one Power five game against it doesn't
even have to be against a good team, why not
play nine conference games and then and then y'all can
(21:55):
keep your little three uh cup k eights.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
The eight game has SC schedule is every bit as
demanding as any nine game schedule in the country.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
And if you don't know the honest truth.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
So you think, hold on, so you think in twenty
twenty four, an eight game schedule is gonna be tougher
than what Oregon has to face into Big Ten next year.
With Ohio State and Michigan on the schedule, plus UCLA
and whatever other teams are on.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
There, He's gonna be garbage juice next year. You know
that that's true?
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Okay, anyway, Oregon schedule will be tough next year. And
would I personally move it to nine games?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
But do I see the logic of why they're they're
sticking with a Do I see because it's gonna get
you more teams in the playoff? I mean, I don't
think the SEC is hurting for getting teams in the playoff.
So so so whatever they're doing, they're getting as many
teams as they can getting bowls to get that money.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
They're getting as many teams in the playoff.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, maybe it's a competitive advantage, but Greg Sank is
the commissioner. His job is defining that competitive advantage for
the SEC, and to me, it is worth it. Like
eight games in the SEC UO eight and oh in
the SEC you're the best team in the country.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
That's that's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
And you guys, he's Brandon Walker. You can find him
over at the Mostly Sports Show and of Unnecessary Roughness
podcast as well.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
See remember Professional.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, so, my son Damon had told me about this
Mexican spot that I had to try. It's called Villain
a Wave of Mexican Grill. Listen, the signage doesn't look
that great, but we got to see how the food taste,
and when I went inside.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
It was clearly it was very clean.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
They have the salce of tray up front where you
can choose and get whatever it is that you want.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Here's the whole kit.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
In the whole setup, I got a combination of lemonade
and mango, which with the guy said was the best thing.
Here's what the pico looks like. Oom, the mochahate, and
we got real guaracamo, not guacamoed sauce. Okay, got some
street tacos. Ordinarily I would never put guacamole and cheese
(23:58):
on there, but that's one of their things.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
So I have to try that joint out. And I
got Alex Burrito. The tortilla looks good.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Go start with the tacos, and I'm gonna take a
squirrel a little line on these joints.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
I got the asada.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
I'm a big carne asida fan.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And you know how old I was when I learned
what the second taco was actually for. It's second taco
actually catch all the stuff that falls out of the
first taco.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And guacamosa bust.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Let me tell you, mother, chaco is solid due these chips,
some boy. So I got the piko first.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
It's not old pico, tomatoes, steel firm tooth.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
That mocha hotte looked.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Like, oh oh, okay, mocha hotte. What you got a
little get to that thing? Guac I like it and
got tomatoes in it. You don't have tomatoes and guak,
you're not doing quack right now, Let's see about this drink.
I like that solid, nothing special, but it's got the pico,
(25:03):
the onions, the cilantro rice beans.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, good, solid burrito.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Eight out of ten, eight out of ten, eight point
five and above I'm driving out of my way to
go there. But eight point oh means if you're on
the way home and I need something to.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Eat, I'm stopping. And that's why I feel about about this.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
If I want some Mexican food and I don't want
to sit down at a full fledged restaurant if I
need a burrito or some tacos, Yeah, bro, this is
an absolute wind and.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Good job going the way like it. Eight point zero.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
And now we're back with Brandon Walker or reister or wrong.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Alabama fans can't handle a two year rebuild with Kaylyndbori.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
You are, reister, You are exactly right in that one.
Here's what's about to happen at the University of Alabama.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Kaylen Debor is a very good football coach.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
But Alabama's not used to having a very good football coach.
They're used to having the greatest coach to ever coach
the game of college football. Calen Debor will be fired
within two years or three years because nine and three
ain't gonna work for them, ten and two ain't gonna
work for them anything short of a national title, and
he will be a failure.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Will it be his fault?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
No, But Alabama fans are not ready to only be
really good and not be elite. Fifteen years of caviare
and Cadillacs and everything has been a great life. But
guess what, the divorce is finalized and you got to
go get a job now in Alabama. Mans, nobody likes
that the Braves in the nineties have to be the
(26:38):
best sports franchise of all time with the least.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
To show for it.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Wow, so you're probably wrong. You're probably wrong. The Braves
in the nineties are way up there. But do you remember,
and you're two years younger than me, the early nineties
Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Went to four four goals in a row?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Do you know how hard? I know you do you
know how hard it is.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
To go to four Super Bowls in a row.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
That's unheard of, and to lose for a row like
you had to get it right once, making four Super
Bowls in a row is a major, incredible, one of
the greatest a confidents ever, and we remember them as
losers because they never won once.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
So while Atlanta underachieved and they should have won three
to five World Series, at least they won the one
and you can at least say, well they got one ring.
They at least got there. The Bills were just as
good as the Braves in the early nineties and never
got there.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Patrick Mahomes is the goat quarterback.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
It is hard to judge half a career, which is
what we have from him, against anybody else's whole career,
and particularly I'm talking about Tom Brady who kept doing
it until he was in his forties, which is remarkable.
But if you want to say, up until the age
of twenty nine, which is what he is now, is
he the greatest of all time? I think the answer
is absolutely yes. And it goes even further than just
(27:56):
three Super Bowls. He's never played a season where he
didn't make the AFC Championship Game.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, you know how hard it is to make an
AFC Championship game, and this day in age with to
win a Super Bowl like out of his six years
he's been in for the Super.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Bowls and he's won three.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yes, so if you want to win a championship, you
must go through Kansas City and it's at it home.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Brady won three in his first five years. I think
maybe six years. But then Brady had a big gap
nine years. Yep, nine years. I certainly don't feel a
nine year gap coming for Patrick Mahomes. So to me,
I think he is own trajectory right now to be
the goat. And if I had to say, up until
age twent nine, who's the goat, it's Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I know that you're a big reader and you love
Rick Riley, but Rick Riley books are overrated.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Wow, okay, are you coming over here to fight me?
All right?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
First of all, it's hard to explain Rick Riley to anybody,
but back in the day in the nineties, Sports Hills
Trading will get to my house. I was subscriber. It
got to my house every Thursday. He has the back
page of every sports illustraded. So what I would do
is I would open sports Wills Trading.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
I see the cover.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Oh look, Tim duncan flip it and see what Rick
Riley was writing about. Time Rick Riley is my favorite
writer ever. Even if he was a little hokey, a
little goofy, a little whatever.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
I'm ald of those things.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
So I will fight over Rick Riley, even though he's
kind of I've met him before and I've heard people
have met him and they say he's kind of a
distract or whatever.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
All right, last, but am I reister or am I
wrong that the Pac twelve cast off, that one of
those teams will both win the Big Twelve and the
Big Ten next year?
Speaker 4 (29:50):
You're wrong because Ohio State's win in the Big Ten.
Oh God, Ohio, Ohio State's George. Ohio State's gonna be nasty, man.
They're gonna get.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yes, they are. They You were that whole defense back,
That defense was top five defense. They went out and
got a quarterback to run their system.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
They got Jim Kelly. They like, what do you what
do you want? They're gonna be unbelievable. I think Utah
is gonna be nasty.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Oh yeah yeah with with Cam rising back, Yeah, they're
gonna be.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
They're gonna be something to deal with. And I do
hate that Arizona lost their coach because I think they
would have been something to deal with as well. They've
done a decent job of holding it together. But without
the coach, I don't I just don't know if I
see it, but they would have been exciting.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
But but yeah, I do like Utah a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
In the New County Ohio state does need something.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
Well, they need.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
They need to beat Michigan is what they need.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
They do, they do.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
But I'll put it like this, if I wanted to
beat Michigan, it would make my heart feel good if
their coach left, their quarterback left, all of their coaches
outside of one left, everybody left.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Man, Michigan in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Four will not be what Michigan it wasn't correct twenty
three or twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
They just hey, man, broke broken clocks win win games
every now.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
And that's not saying at all, George.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I just started talking broken clock has worked two in
the bus.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I ain't the say George.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
All right, you guys, he's Brandon Walker. Make sure you
go check about Brandon.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Thanks for coming on the show, all right, George, pleasure
and this is a home and home right Yeah, yeah, man,
I'm absolutely down, down, down to come on man.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Just hopefully you guys are prepared over there for somebody
like me who's ready to take that number one spot.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
That's fine. Like I said earlier, you're gonna have to
come and take it.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Today's the first day of us doing something a little
bit new here on the Unafraid Show. We're gonna periodically
be bringing on correspondence and this week we have that
verde Ram in the building. You can find this work
over at Sports Illustrated and The Matt verder Ram Show,
which is a football show based mainly around the Kansas
City Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
And he got something for you good.
Speaker 5 (32:05):
Right now, we need to stop the nonsense.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
We need to stop the fake arguments for the sake
of fake arguments. But the Bears are going to take
a quarterback with the number one overall pick this year.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
You know.
Speaker 6 (32:18):
I know that because I have common sense and I
understand how the NFL works. Justin Fields has been with
the Bears for three years, and for three years the
Bears have been terrible. Now that is not all on
Justin Fields, not by a long shot. Field has actually
been good at times. In fact, he was in the
top ten and MVP voting in twenty twenty two. He
(32:39):
ran for over eleven hundred yards that year. The problem
he also fumbled the ball sixteen times, and he wasn't
prolific throwing the ball, and he was sacked a league
high fifty five times. And so what did the Bears do.
They got the number one overall pick last year, and
understandably they traded the pick to the Carolina Panthers because
they said, hey, we're gonna get a bunch of picks
(33:01):
moving forward, and we're going to.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
Be able to reset the franchise.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Ryan Poles GM came in there, added to the front
seven with guys like TJ.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds into de Fines. We're willing to
have a.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Reset here with a bunch of cap space. We'll get
a number one receiver out of this. We don't love
Bryce Young, we'll move back, we'll move forward, and hey,
that worked out.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
The Bears were much better in twenty twenty three. They
won seven games, even though Fields at the miss four
games or a hand injury. You can't argue that that
wasn't the right move, even though, of course, if they
could do it all over again, they would take CJ.
Stroud because Stroud looks like he's on his way to
being an all pro level quarterback. Bryce Young, of course,
does not look like that, at least in his first
(33:46):
year in Carolina. But back to fields and back to
the current situation. So Bryce Young and the Panthers are so.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
Bad this year? They won two games and they earned the.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
Number one overall pick, which belongs to Ryan Poules and
Chicago Bears. Not a bad deal once again. But here's
where the rub comes in. There's been all this talk about, hey,
what do you do if you're Ryan Poles?
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Do you use the pick on a quarterback?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
Do you take Caleb Williams out of the USC, Do
you take North Carolinas Drade May or do you trade
that pick?
Speaker 5 (34:17):
Do you do what you did last year by.
Speaker 6 (34:19):
Hoarding a whole bunch of future picks and say, hey,
we're good with justin Fields. Here's why that argument makes
no sense. First of all, Fields now is extension eligible. Okay,
he's been there for three years. Doesn't mean the Bears
have to pay him. They could play out the fourth
year and pick up the fifty year option and they
could ride it out with tags. Sure, but if you're
(34:43):
that undecided on what you're going to do with Justin
Fields and how good he's going to be. Then you
trade fields and you take Caleb Williams, and you live
with the reality that Hey.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
Williams could be a bust.
Speaker 6 (34:56):
He could also be what most expect him to be,
which is a top light NFL quarterback from the moment
he steps foot on the football field.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
And if you're the Bears, you need to make that decision.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
You have not had a top tier quarterback in the
NFL since Sid Luckman. And there's probably some of you
out there going, I'm sorry who Sid Luckman.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
Who predominantly played in the nineteen forties.
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Okay, when George Hollis was the coach and the Bears
were the monsters of the Midway and they were winning
championships way before the advent of television. Okay, right now,
the Bears have to be sitting there and Ryan Pole
specifically thinking, you know what the best course of action
is to field as many offers as possible for Justin
(35:40):
Fields between right this second and the NFL Draft.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
Hope you can get a.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
First In reality, settle for a second round pick. Maybe
you can bit it up to where you get a
second and a fourth, the second and a fifth and
that return ought to tell you the reality here, and
that reality is that Justin Field just an intriguing quarterback.
He has his value, but he's not a really good
quarterback right now.
Speaker 5 (36:05):
He's an average quarterback at best.
Speaker 6 (36:07):
In fact, if you look at his numbers last year,
bearing in mind he only was able to play in
thirteen games, he was twenty second in passing yards. He
was twenty first in yards per attempt, he was twenty
third in QBR and despite the fact that he had
well under four hundred passing attempts, he was fifth in
sacks taken at forty four. And yes, the offensive line
(36:30):
played a part in that, but sacks are also a
quarterback stat. And the year prior, as I mentioned.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
He led the league with fifty five sacks taken in
fifteen games, and again for his starting quarterback was barely
throwing the ball just over three hundred attempts.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
This is a problem also in twenty twenty two. A
lot of Fields's value is based off the fact that
he can run it. He is dynamic with the football,
and that remains true. The problem is that year looks
like an liar. In fact, if you combine the rushing
totals for fields of his first and third seasons, they
don't equal what he did in his second campaign. So, yes,
(37:11):
he is dynamic with his legs. That is a dimension
that you love about his game. But the truth of
it is he is not a Lamar Jackson who every
year is a threat to rush for one thousand yards.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
That's not the case.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
And he's also not the passer that Lamar Jackson is,
which is why Lamar is a two time MVP and
right now justin fields, not even sniffing a Pro Bowl.
If you're the Bears, this is not a tough call.
You trade justin fields, You accumulate draft capital that way,
and you use your two top ten picks on a
(37:43):
quarterback and then somebody who can help him out. You
want to go best player available there on the offensive side, fine,
you want to take a tackle, great, you want to
take a receiver to pair with DJ Moore, cool with
that too. But the idea that the Bears can just
trade off this pick, yes, they'd get a bevy forth,
they'd probably get three first round picks, but it's some juncture.
The quarterbacks worth more, and if you look at the
(38:06):
great quarterbacks in today's game, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen,
Lamar Jackson on down the line with any of those teams,
trade those quarterbacks for three first round picks.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Hell, no, no chance in the world.
Speaker 6 (38:22):
And that's factoring in that those guys are all on
second deals that are extremely lucrative. You have a chance
to reset the franchise, to restart the financial clock at
the quarterback position and get somebody who might be generational
for Ryan Poles and the Bears.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
This is not a tough decision. Trade fields, draft Caleb
Williams and move forward.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I want to talk about Bigfoot, not the Sasquatch, because
that's a whole other topic for another day. I'm talking
about the big blue Ford F two fifty monster truck,
you know the one I'm talking about, because man, I
love Bigfoot as a kid when I was in Memphis,
but at the time, it felt like it was something
that I needed to keep to myself. Maybe not everybody
can identify with this, but back then it felt like
(39:08):
that there were activities for black kids and for white kids,
and monster trucks weren't exactly on the list of things
that I saw that kids like me were playing with
or even talking about it was just something about the
marriage of motorsports and Confederate flags in the nineteen eighty
South that never sat quite right with me.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
And as a father, you never.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Want your kids to think about something that isn't for
them just because of the color of their skin, especially
something as kick Asses monster trucks, which is why I'm
loving that my four and a half year old son
is all in on Monster Jam. We've been out to
watch Monster Jam as a family several times now, and
I even got plans to be with Marcellus Whiley and
(39:47):
his family at Sofi Stadium for the Monster Jam World
Finals in May. And it's like, I'm getting to redo
on my childhood through the eyes of my kids. And
I'm telling you, there's nothing better than the wonder on
his face when twelve thousand pounds of steel and rubber.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Launched through the air.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
You got Zombie Toro Loco Grave Digger, And you know,
my son has the toy version of all of these,
and then their son of a Digger and I really
don't know how I feel about the name, but the
truck is cool as hell. And I'll tell you what
you looked at some of these drivers like Bernard Light
in the Amazing Spider Man truck and Brionna Mahone in
(40:24):
the Scooby Do truck. And I know the anti woke
crowd hates the term inclusivity, but what am I supposed
to call it? When I see people of all races
and genders out there on the dirt and in the stands.
Monster Jam has done an incredible job of making me
and my family feel like we're not outsiders and like
all of this is as much for us as it
is for anybody else. And it's not just Monster Jam
(40:47):
but motorsports in general. I was out at the Clash
at the Coliseum a couple weeks back for NASCAR's annual
preseason Cup Series event and had a great time. And
I'm sure for Monster Jam, for NASCAR being more welcoming
has paid dividends. Master Jam is certainly getting a portion
of my expendable income because they're helping my family make memories.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
And when I look out at the crowd.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I see nothing but families of all kind and color,
wrapped up in the same amazement, joy and wonder as
my own.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
And I think back to when I.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Was a kid, and it honestly makes me question the
problem that some people have with the idea of inclusion.
Not everything needs to be for everyone, but things that
appeal to everyone certainly shouldn't exclude anyone. When I was
a kid wishing I could go see Bigfoot in person,
but feeling like it wasn't for me that had to
be taught, and not just that motorsports weren't for black people,
(41:41):
but that black people would be better off leaving motorsports
to everybody else. The truth is, nobody is born racist.
Nobody is born feeling a sense of superiority. No one
is born thinking that it's better to be excluded. And
all that is learned behavior. And I'm grateful that my
kids and the kids of so many others living in
era where those things aren't being taught as prevalently, and
(42:04):
that as an organization, Monster Jam, Nascar and others make
the effort to make people like me and my family
feel welcome. I might not have those memories for myself,
but I have them with my family, and hopefully they'll
make those memories with their kids too. Let that sink in,
and that's the Unafraid show. You guys, thank you for
(42:25):
joining us. Make sure that you like to subscribe, get notifications,
tell a friend about the show, and most importantly, share
so we can continue to grow and everybody sees this
dope content. And we're edging up on fifteen thousand subscribers,
so it is giveaway time, so make sure that you're
back here every single week on Thursday.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
See you next week.
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