2025 Week Six Review: Buckeyes Rout Gophers, Defense, Penn State Problems

Chip Scoggins, Ryan Burns and Justin Gaard are back to discuss the Ohio State rout of the Gophers: What started nicely ended quickly as the defense couldn't stop them and the offense couldn't sustain anything after the first drive. The next month will tell the tale of the season with 3 of the next 4 games at home. The guys wrap up the show talking about a Mark Coyle comment that got some attention and the Penn State problem after losing to UCLA.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Glenn Mason said a long time ago at the University
of Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
You need a pair and a spare.

Speaker 3 (00:04):
Thank you, PJ.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
It is time for another edition of the Parent a
Spare Podcast. I'm justin Guard from the fan, Chipscoggins from
the Minnesota Star Tribune and Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated
dot com. We are presented as always by our great
partners and great friends at Jack's Cafe. You see it
on the bottom of the YouTube channel right now. You
can make your reservations at Jackscafe dot com Jaxcafe dot com.

(00:26):
How are we doing, guys? Did everybody recover from another
night game? Burnsey, how are you feeling? How's your sleep?
And are you ready for another night game this weekend
at Huntington Banks Stadium.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Bans of my existence, outstanding opportunities for fans to get
to see. This is one of the things we.

Speaker 5 (00:43):
Talk about with Jack's Cafe.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
By the way, because of these night games. You know
what you get an opportunity to do on a weekend
morning or early afternoon is if you want to earn
some Brownie points each of the next two weeks, this
is your opportunity. With two night games go to a brunch,
Go get some lunch whatever it may be, a jack
and then you get to spend the whole day and
then come on over to see me. Chip and Guardsy

(01:05):
over at hunting a Bank. I got a couple hours
of sleep, but I know Chip was tearing up the
nightclub scene from what I've told.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I made it back to watch the second half to
my hotel. That tells you how old I am in
my nightclub scene. But yes, in New York City, my
daughter moved from I guess Chicago wasn't big enough and
lively enough or so she had to move from Chicago
to New York City for a job transfer. So my
wife and I went for the weekend to help her

(01:34):
get settled in, make sure everything was put away in
her new apartment, and so we uh. I was there Friday,
Saturday and flew home late Sunday, so almost three full
days there.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Give us the rundown. Give us the.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Because you know, I'm very jealous. I'm excited, I know,
jealous of your daughter. I would live in New York
in a second, Burns you would have no shot. He
would hate every second of it. I could do there tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's it's definitely.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
You know, I'm trying to think if I was young
when I want to do it, I could. I can
totally understand walking through there at night and all the
and she's in that kind of Lower east Side, West
Village east Side, you know, all those neighborhoods that are
so trendy, and it is amazing walking around there at night,
and all the streets that are closed off and all
the restaurants and bars that have the I mean it's

(02:24):
not patio seating, it's street seating. You're out there sidewalk seating. Yeah,
and just amazing. I mean just street after street after street,
and all the young professionals that are out there. It's
you know, it is chaotic and energetic and noisy. Maybe
a little bit too much for my small town, southern upbringing,

(02:46):
but my daughter loves an adventure. She's all in. I mean,
she's you know, she thinks she's found heaven. And so
it was a fun weekend.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
It was.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I'm happy for her and happy for all those young
people that get the experience. And I was texted with
you about you know, the bars to go to, and
there's you know, nine million of them that you could
stop and I didn't hit nine million, but we hit
a few of them and uh not too wild. I
was so tired from walking and helping her move and

(03:17):
put stuff together for apartment. But it is a it
is an interesting, fascinating it is a scene.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, so did you not were you not able to
do the brick oven pizza? Were you not able to
go to Brooklyn?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Because we did, Actually we did go to Brooklyn where
she lives is just a short subway right over there.
We can see the Brooklyn Bridge right from her apartment.
So we we did make it over to Brooklyn. But
oddly enough, we went to Target because we had to
make a Target run. We had to buy some uh
some things there. So yeah, but it was fun. Yeah,

(03:56):
and I'm I'm you know, it's tough to have a
a little bit farther away than Chicago, but it'll be
fun to go visit Burns.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
You ready to lock in? You ready to go cover
Rutgers football and live in Manhattan.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
I just want to know if Chip paid the New
York City bar prices of what I'm sure is eighteen
bucks for a michelob or whatever.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah it was. You know, we actually found some places
that were working on. But yeah, I actually paid bout
some twelve dollars beers, which.

Speaker 5 (04:25):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Is that different than a lot of places to meet.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
It's not that a couple of dollars more.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, it's not that different.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
You're spending too much time on You spend too much
time on Facebook. You're spending too much time on Facebook.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Burns y.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, if you want to spend fifty dollars a drink
in New York, yes, you certainly can. But you don't
have to. You don't have to go to those places.
They have something for everybody. I'm not saying you're going
to get a dollar you call. It's like you're in
a college town. But you can find something that's a
little bit more economical, as Chipper said.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
But as I say, you know, dinner Friday night in
little Italy, I'm most splurge a little bit.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
As you should.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, you've earned it. You earned it all right.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Speaking of splurging, the Ohio State Offense had a feast,
So did the Ohio State Defense.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Look at that transition.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
That's why I'm in charge, why I have the big bike.
You're the pro on the YouTube channel. Yeah, it was
a feast. The training wheels were taken off. My line
during the broadcast was people wanted to know if Julian
Sayin's training wheels were going to be taken off. I said,
not only were the training wheels taken off, he was
given an e bike. He didn't even ride a regular bike.
He went right from and Bernsley doesn't have kids. He

(05:33):
doesn't get it. The training wheels, regular bike e bike
that are going forty miles an hour down residential streets,
and towns are trying to have to figure out exactly
should this be legal? Should be let nine year olds
run around on little mini motorcycles? That was Julian saying.
Unfortunately for the Ohio State Buckeyes. If you're a Gopher fan,
the training wheels were taken off. Burnsey and I know

(05:53):
you got a lot of thoughts.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
I'm still trying to picture nine year olds on an
ee bike, know that.

Speaker 5 (06:00):
Was a thing.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Come on over, yes it is.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Come on over and just stare out the window and
I'll be like you used to put the you know,
slow children at play, which my late uncle had a
great lines. You'd always say, it's too bad those kids
are so slow. Just come up you put the slow
children at play sign out, not for adults anymore. You
put it for kids tearing through the block. And of

(06:23):
course what do my kids want? They want e bikes,
and I said, nope, we're not getting you those. So
come on over Burns any time you want to see it.
We've got like we're basically like a Hell's Angel motorcycle
gang of e bikes over here in Minnetonka.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
It's it's a ride, no pun intended.

Speaker 5 (06:38):
The Minnetonka. Something's over there.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
Look at just I don't goodness, gracious, I'm learning all
types of things today. Yeah, the Gopher defense. Here's my
question to you two. And I wrote about it after
the game, and I know that's why guards he brings
it up and Chip, I'll ask you first, what is
the And it's not just the Ohioise Steak game, it's
all three the last three games again, powerful competition. What

(07:01):
is the identity of this Gopher defense?

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, it's it's going into it the season. I thought
it would be the frontline of Anthony Smith, Devon Eastern
and Company, wreaking Havoc and coy Perritch and Kerry Brown
playing center field and making plays and creating turnovers. Clearly

(07:24):
is not that right now, I went back. I was
looking at the the national rankings for takeaways this season,
and again we're not counting game two. That doesn't count.
To me, I'm sorry, you get four turnovers against that team,
it doesn't count other than that game. Two turnovers in

(07:44):
four games, worse for you.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
And tell you they have two defensive takeaways in their
last seven FBS games.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
That's that's gonna be hard to win.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
It's I and I asked the head coach about it yesterday.
Loves talk about the set, tight percent, explosive plays, turnover margin,
and miss tackles. They've missed forty five tackles their last
three games. The Gopher defense has they have two defensive
takeaways in their last seven games, and they don't get
enough pressure to generate explosive plays around the quarterback. And

(08:15):
when you're also not getting takeaways through the air, you
get to have discussions like this one to lead off
podcasts across the country of what.

Speaker 5 (08:24):
Do they do well right now?

Speaker 4 (08:25):
And I don't know that they do much particularly well
because in those three games against cal Rutgers in Ohio State,
they're also not getting off the field on third down,
there's sixteenth in the conference at fifty four percent of
third downs are being converted against them. I just I
don't know that they got the horses. That's and that's
one of the other things I'll pose to you too,

(08:46):
is Fleck loves to talk about three things when he's evaluating.
So let's do the same thing the head coach does.
Is it players? Is it coaching or is it scheme?

Speaker 3 (08:55):
That have you the.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Most worried considering where we've what we've had to watch
here these last.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Three weeks, is players tied to scheme and that they
know they can't do certain things. I think you're probably
one in the same correct.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
They're they're closely tied together.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, yeah, I did. I didn't realize the third down
was that bad. I mean, I knew they were having trouble.
I didn't realize it was over fifty percent. I go
back a couple of years ago. I mean, you remember
they were up towards the top nashally, and that's why
they always rank so high in time and position, because
they ran the ball and then when the oppony got it,
they got the field on third down, and so the

(09:32):
time of possession got skewed. But if you're not getting
off the third down and you're not creating turnovers, then
you're not doing really anything well, but you're not stopping
them and you're not creating as close to play. So
I just thought with their playmakers that this would be
a team. I thought they would give up yardage because
they had so many questions at their corners and in

(09:56):
their depth. But I thought they had enough playmakers that
they would create turnovers to kind of offset that they should. Yeah,
they should when you look at them, the players that
they have, I mean they have you know, parrots, Kerrie Brown,
Anthony Smith creating sacks, and I mean they should have
guys that create these kind of opportunities.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
But it's.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
It's not happening.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yeah, I don't know scheme well enough.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
I'm not Daniel House, even though I am a subscriber
to Gophers guru dot com and I think everybody should
be because he explains things very well. They're just so
inconsistent burns, like even just the Rutgers game. The Rutgers
game was a tale of like four different defensive stories
right that they couldn't do anything for the first couple
of minutes or first couple of possessions first three really,

(10:44):
then Rutgers couldn't do anything, and they sacked them how
many times?

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Six times?

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, six or seven times, and all of a sudden,
it looks like, wow, they understand how to get pressure.
They obviously had the turnovers there and they probably could
have had more. Even the cow game, like the quarterback
plays pretty well. Then they shut that down for a
little bit, get some pressure. We'll guess what. Then call
of a sudden starts running the ball in the third
quarter out of nowhere, and it's almost like they're just
half step behind and everything, and and you know, the

(11:12):
playmaker stuff like Koy could have had a pick on
Saturday night right like he was one inch away from
having a pick right at the goal line. I'm assuming
Ohio States scored in that drive, because they scored on
like they scored on like every single drive. But I
just feel like there's been a lot of those too,
of just half step slow, half step behind. Whether that's

(11:33):
not seeing something quickly enough, whether that's you're doing something
else you shouldn't be, whether you're just not good enough.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
I don't know. We'll see how it goes this weekend.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Well, the takeaways tend to be. That's one of those
things it's hard to quantify because they know you can
do all the right things and just not they not
come right. You don't get opportunities. The tackling is a problem.
And if we go back to that Rutgers game, that
last drive, I mean they got bailed out by a
bad you know, with bats snap missing whatever, eighthan not

(12:04):
how many tackles they miss on that drive where the
you know, the guy bounces off into a three yard
game turns into a thirteen yard game. Would you say
the number was Burnsey forty five and three game. I mean,
that's just you know, and I know, you know, you
can practice it and do the thud and all the

(12:25):
different things that they try to simulate tackling, because you're
not really tackling, you know, in practice. But to me,
that's the that is the probably the most glaring thing
is that they're giving up so many yards after what
should be short gains. Sure, and and it's probably I'm
guessing that's tied to the third down percentage too. Why

(12:47):
it's so high because of missed tackles.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
Yeah, I'd say guys are on the right spot. I
think you go back and watch the Ohio State game.
They missed a lot of tackles, but there's guys right
there to make the play in Ohio State makes a
miss instead of second and it's second and one or
a first down, or even against Rutgers guards. He references
the Koy parritchwe against Ohio State. Fleck has now said
it to me in the media the last two weeks,

(13:10):
catch the ones they throw you. Against Rutgers, they had
four or five of those where they could have come
away with them and they didn't. Some of it's bad luck,
some of it's a bad execution. But I think specifically
with the Ohio State game, I know a lot of
people and we see all of the comments and things
like that, is, well, Ryan, what do you expect they're

(13:31):
fifteen yards off or Ryan, they're playing press man, what
do you expect? I mean, Carnel Tait and Jeremiah Smith
are just insane, and so you got pick your poison.
Plus Bo Jackson, I know it's not tech Mobile nineteen
eighty five, but he's a very good player too. It's
just anything they tried to do Ohio State just because

(13:51):
of what they have as a counter and so that's
where you look at the game coming up this weekend. Specifically,
I mean loves to throw the football. This is like
Drew brees Perdue with how often they're throwing the football
right now. Gopher defenses against power four quarterbacks, Chip, you're
ready for this one. Completing sixty eight percent of their

(14:13):
passes for two hundred and ninety passing yards per game.
They've got eight passing touchdowns in just one interceptions. There's
going to be some points put up at hunting A
Bank on Saturday night, is the way I view it.
But for Danny Danny Collins, Minnesota defensive coordinator, I think
the crux of it is this. Anthony Smith is tremendous.

(14:34):
He's got sixteen and a half tackles for lost in
his last twelve games. But someone else in the defensive
line needs to do something because Dalen Logan Reading and
Devin Eastern have not been what I think you myself
guards he thought they were going to be coming into
the season. The Jackson Howard and Carter Mens. I think
Carter Mens has been getting better, but they need to

(14:57):
find ways to move quarterbacks off their spots. Because you
watched Julian saying I mean, he he had all the
time in the world. He never got moved and he
if you don't, if you have time, and with Jeremiah Smith,
Carnell Tait, may the Lord bless you and keep you chipper.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well that's it. Yeah, I mean, you're right, and we
I mean we thought that their their starting defensive line
would would be impactful and be really good. So far
it's just been basically one guy who's been really good.
So yeah, you need the Logan ratings and those guys
to show up. And and we saw it too, like
when they didn't get pressure on Athan, he was able

(15:35):
to sit back there and pick him apart. And then
he got pressure on him and he disrupted him. But
early on they weren't getting pressure on him and he
just kind of sat back there and found his guy.
So that's that's the And we've said it from the beginning.
It's like they're not good enough in to back in
to think that they're gonna win there. They're gonna need help,
whether it's whether it's where yeah, the corners and you're

(15:59):
it's tough because like you know, I got to see
the second game. Second half of that game is like
the talent discrepancy on the two sides was just reflected
in the score. I mean, it made it. They made
it look pretty easy with pitch and catch, you know,
nestor trying to cover those receivers, which is not gonna work,

(16:21):
you know. I mean. And Ohio State, I think they're
the best team in the country. I think, you know,
I think, as I said last year, when they play
at their if all teams are playing at their best,
I think Ohio State's the best. Like you know, if
they played at their peak, they're gonna be tough to beat.
But you still got to find a way to you know,

(16:44):
generate something. You know, And this is like to me,
these next four I've been thinking about this since I
saw the quote from PJ. We're a good football team.
Forget whether we're good football team. To me, these next
four games are going to either show that or not
show it.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
This's your season. Yeah, the next time.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
I'm a count I'm account Michigan State as October. But
these these next four games in October, even though it's
November first Perdue, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State. Three of those
are at home. This is your season. This is your
chance to say, is this a good team that's just
obviously not in the same category as the elite teams.

(17:23):
I don't know what we PJ say this is a
good team. I don't think I can sit here and
say this right now. Say they agree with him. They
have to show it this month to me.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
Well, here's here's the thing I'll say back to you,
is Okay, we talk about that four game stretch. I
think they'll be favored in two of them, Perdue in
Michigan State. Two, they'll be underdogs at Kinnick and against
Friday night at home against Nebraska. What is a successful
now you can interpret that word specifically successful. What is
a successful run for that stretch? Four and four?

Speaker 5 (17:55):
Is it two and Two's three and one? So four
and oh? How do you view it?

Speaker 2 (17:59):
If you're a good team at three and one, yeah,
I think three and one. If you're a good team,
I say three and one. If it's two and two,
you're an average team. You're an average team, big team,
you know, Yeah, because if you go if you go
two and two, I think you're gonna finish seven and
five more likely.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
I still got Northwestern in Wisconsin, Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, yeah, I think three and one means you're a
good team, which would be eight and four technically, and
that's what I said into the average team would be
seven and five probably. I mean, one game makes that
much difference.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
I don't know. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think
three and one. I mean, I just.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
I just don't really know what this team is yet.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
Which is strange to say, considering Saturday is going to
be the halfway point of the season.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Am I wrong?

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Though?

Speaker 2 (18:50):
I mean, I just I don't get it. I don't
get a sense of what this team's good at. Yes,
I think the quarterbacks can be pretty good.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
Yeah, the quarterbacks good.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Their their best offensive player has been out since, yeah,
for a month, so that's part.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Of it too.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
But I think the quarterback's good. And we'll talk about
Darius in a minute. But yeah, there's still yeah, there's
a lot still up in the air for sure, Like
you don't, there's a lot of more questions probably than answers.
But if the quarterback's good, I mean, it's nice to
have that one answered.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
I think. I think the thing I keep coming back to,
like we all thought they would get blown off the field. Sorry,
nothing there surprised me.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Now, Burns he will tell you I had a weird feeling. Yeah,
I mean, well there was just like no, I wasn't
Maybe I was just tired. But I'm like, you should
have seen his cup.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
It was filled with maroon and gold color kool.

Speaker 5 (19:36):
Aid up there in the press.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
But I'm watching UCLA beat Penn State. I'm watching all
this craziness. I'm like, man, I just think they'll play well.
And then the first drive, I'm like, yeah, perfect, this
is what you need. You have run seven minutes off
the clock and would have been nice to get a touchdown. Yeah,
that's why you don't bet your feelings.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah. But then when I keep coming back to that
that Cow game, and they were so poor that game,
you know, so they they played poorly, you know, had
a nice win against Rutgers, even though the defense had issues,
get blown off the field, you know, against Ohio State.
So it's like, I don't know, I think that just
need to see more to kind of know like what
this team is.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
One of the things on my agenda for this week
is to look up what the record is for road
teams in night games Power four and Power four, because
I don't think it's very good this year. I think
about Illinois going into Indiana on a national televised game
and getting absolutely sucker punched in the face, and then
bouncing back. Minnesota's now had to play in two night

(20:37):
games and they've still got Oregon on a Friday night.
So I would imagine that hopefully in theory it bounces
back in Minnesota's direction, where now they've got two straight
night games at home.

Speaker 5 (20:49):
Hopefully it bounces back.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
But if they're going to go three and one in
that stretch, which I think all three of us agree
would be successful, it's going to have to be because
of Drake Lindsay and the offense putting up thirty points
a game that there's just no way around it because
of the things we're talking about defensively, and Darius is
back now, which we can touch on, But if they're
going to go three and one in that stretch, we're

(21:13):
going to spend the first bye week talking about Drake
Lindsay and Greg Harbow and Darius Taylor having to carry
the load for this thing, because I just I don't
know that I see it defensively outside of it's tough
for Carrie Brown and coy Perrits to get interceptions when
there's no pressure on the quarterback. That don't get to
play center field if you don't get any pressure around

(21:34):
the guys. So Danny Collins has got a lot to
figure out with how to get more pressure on quarterbacks
coming up here.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
All right, So we talk about the offense quickly for
Ohio State and then we can pivot to some things
in our final half hour or so. Yeah, it looked
like a great first fifteen, right. The script looks good.
Whatever they came up with, they figured out, Yeah, we're
gonna move the ball a little bit against his defense.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
They kicked the field goal, they're up three zero.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
They got a stop too, right right after that, and
so you're thinking this is okay, solid. Obviously it didn't last.
Darius Taylor didn't last. I think eight carries right, burnsy
for twelve yards. You are way up there on the
top of Ohio Stadium with your own version of the
all twenty two?

Speaker 5 (22:13):
Is gracious? Are?

Speaker 4 (22:14):
I felt like I was watching the game from thirty
thousand feet up there?

Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, I get I get afraid of heights at at Ohio.
I'm not gonna lie like I look out because it
feels like you're right off the booth, you're like, oh, man, Like,
I don't want to be anywhere near this edge. That's
how soft I am. But they want you to see
the band Burnsey. I know they want you to see
the band formation because it's a really good band. They
don't mind telling you.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
Yeah, well, hopefully I can get a press box heat
next time.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
I figure that. Yeah, we're not. Yeah, we're not going
to do that. Yeah, what do you think?

Speaker 5 (22:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (22:51):
The opening drive Ohio State had historically under Matt Patricia
now only four games have been a very zone heavy team,
play a lot of zone in the opening Drivendy can
understand how to find the soft spots on his own,
and he did, and it's unfortunate that his lone I
won't say a bad pass, but certainly wasn't a good one.
Was just a fingertip too far for Javon Tracey or

(23:12):
else that had been a touchdown on the opening drive.
They still get points, still the first opening drive that
Ohio State has allowed points. But this is where Ohio
State is just different compared to Minnesota. Chip they said, Okay,
I'm gonna play man. In Minnesota's skill position can't get
open against man. And then their offensive line, which saw
four different guys at new spots, really struggled to keep

(23:35):
Drake up right. And when you can't run the football,
you can't get open on the outside against Ohio State's athletes.
That's kind of why you're gonna have one of eleven
night on third down.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, and when you can't run the ball, obviously they
can just tee off on the freshman quarterbie. What was
the what was the conversation about shuffling so many guys
on offensive line? That's to me, that's odd that you're
halfway through season and you don't even know what you're
You're moving four different guys on your offensive line. Why

(24:07):
did this not get settled in train camp?

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Well, my argument is why didn't they make these changes
off the bye week. You had a whole bye week
too if you wanted to, with three games of data
to shuffle things around, And now you decide to do
it for the first time in front of one hundred
and five thousand fans and you're doing a silent count
the entire game. I just don't think they're a very
physical offensive line. I think guys like Nathan Roy and

(24:33):
Greg Johnson are athletic. I think Ashton Beers is fine,
but I posed it to this.

Speaker 5 (24:38):
Way to PJ.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Flyke yesterday, is why don't you get knocked back up front?
You watch these these runs, and there's too many times,
specifically on the interior or the offensive line. By the
time the running back gets the football, both guards are
two of the three interior guys are three yards into
the backfield. That's not how this is supposed to go. Like,

(24:59):
they are just struggling to get any knock back. And
I hear everyone and I agree with them that third
and fourth and short. I looked into the statistics. They
are the worst conversion team in that regard. And I
have also said this the last couple of weeks. I
think Greg Harbow should take shotgun runs the third and

(25:20):
fourth and short and punt them to the moon, eviscerate
them in the ether. You can choose your phrase.

Speaker 5 (25:26):
I hate it.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
I hate it so much. I just and Darius being
back now I think will help mitigate some of this.
But I'd also encourage folks go watch those runs and
go watch the offensive line get pushed into the backfield.

Speaker 5 (25:41):
And we know that.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
Fleck is adamant about running the football there and he's
We've seen it, no matter the coordinator. I just that's
the one thing they got to figure out is they
stink in third and fourth and shorts. And Darius Taylor
missed the last three games and him being back now
and I expect a twenty carry workload on Saturday against Purdue.
But yeah, chip shotgun runs, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
I don't. I don't understand, especially you had two failed ones,
you know, against Rutgers at the end of the first half,
and it's like, I don't, for a life of me
understand why don't you just go under center with a
big quarterback and sneak it or you know, give it
because if you feel like Darius is back, okay, that's
going to improve that. But still it's you're making it

(26:27):
that much more difficult. Now you've got to get six
yards or seven yards when you're in I don't. I
just that baffles me, and I would love to know.
I wish we could have a conversation with them more
than you know, five questions at a press conference, like
what's the philosophy, What do you like about that formation
in shotgun when you're in third and one? Why do
you feel like that's effective versus being under center. You

(26:51):
know they're gonna lose that game regardless, But but it's
just I don't understand it. So when you said their
last and third and short, assume it's Big ten nun Yeah, that's.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
A big time on look and that checks out like
with what you're thinking in your head. That adds up
because they have not been good at it. They have
not been good at it.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Yeah, it's and now you get to face a Purdue
team who is allowing thirty three points a game to
Power five competition. They've allowed more explosive passing plays than
any other Big Ten team. They struggle to generate pressure.
They're a rebuilding team in year one. I mean this
is setting up to be a very Drake Lindsay type
of Rutgers performance if things go well. And this isn't

(27:35):
going to be Ohio State defensive backs locking you down
across the field. So I think they're going to continue
to mix things up up front because it can't get
any worse.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Again.

Speaker 4 (27:44):
I think Nathan Roy and Greg Johnson are a great
starting point, and I think Ashton Beers has been largely
fine in his first year.

Speaker 5 (27:51):
Is the guy at center.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
It's it's khalite to five on a mel Carton somewhere.
Can we find him? Is he healthy yet? You paid
some money for him out of the portal. I'd love
to see him in a game at some point this year.
You saw Dylan Ray get replaced by the Pride of
Tracy Minnesota Tony Nelson in the second half. I would
keep mixing things up, Chip, because if.

Speaker 5 (28:13):
You just keep it the same.

Speaker 4 (28:15):
I think about that quote that's always attributed to Albert
Einstein of the definition of insanity is doing the same
thing over and over again, expecting different results. Well, just
keep trying different things and eventually something's got to work,
because I know that's starting five that they tried it
out in the non conference is not the answer.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Sorry, I was just looking up the down conversions where
they ranked nasally sixty eight nationally at forty percent. But
that's obviously probably skewed by.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
Yeah, and that's one of the last week against Ohio State.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
You take out Ohio State, they've actually been pretty good
on third down.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
But it might be skewed by the other, you know,
against softer opponents too.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
I understand juggling and trying to find your best combination there,
but I'm not sure that. I just can't remember doing
this mid seas before where you're just basically saying, we
don't know who our best five linemen are and we're
just going to keep rotating and moving guys to different
spots and you know, until we figure out who they are,
which typically you do that in the off season and

(29:13):
training camp. To me, it just feels like, I don't
know why this wasn't settled, and maybe that's part of
the problem that you don't if you don't know who
your best five is going into the season is a problem.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
You're answering your question.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
And when you think about how they had to go
to the portal to get some guys, right, yeah, like
you don't. It's not like the old days where you
just a couple of guys leave and all of a
sudden there's three or four guys just sitting there waiting
for their turn.

Speaker 5 (29:36):
Right.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
That's just kind of changed. You know.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
People have talked about that a lot, like the linemen
going the portal as much as anybody right burns because
especially the left tackles, they can make a lot of money.

Speaker 5 (29:48):
Daniel's at Ohio stated, well.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
I mean, you lose him, right, not not unexpectedly, but
you're probably not necessarily counting on it, right because they've
been pretty good at retention and you want to go
home line recruiting.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
To your guys's point with why they had to go
so portal heavy for the offensive line.

Speaker 5 (30:05):
If you want to.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
Look at a horror show, go look at the Gopher
offensive line recruits from.

Speaker 5 (30:10):
Twenty twenty one to twenty twenty three.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
Many of them aren't even here, and those should be
a red shirts sophomore, juniors, and seniors. They did not
recruit well out of high school, so now you had
to mitigate it with the portal, and your portal guys
haven't been very good so far. I don't know what
the answer is, but I just wouldn't keep trotting out
the same five.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
You got to the bottom of Well you didn't get
to the bottom of it, but you addressed it with
the head coach burns that which the court?

Speaker 5 (30:36):
Which way we go with this one?

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Well, no, I'm just saying the h what was your
favorite choy parritch on offense moment? Which which one did
you guys enjoy? Which which part? Because it looks like
that's over and the head coach basically said, yeah, we
said we'd basic. I mean, all this whole time, he said,
we're going to see what he can handle and let
him do what he can handle. And I guess they

(30:58):
found even Koy Parritch has limb. It's at least in
their opinion, because they have not tried them out there
for the last two games.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
Are we good with that? Are we okay with that?

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Or would we like to see him go back to
that at some point?

Speaker 5 (31:10):
Chip, he's your boy.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
You've got the jersey hanging in the background.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
That's right. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it.
I don't know if it means it's completely gone, but
I think they probably found, you know, after what happened
at Cal maybe just said let's let's focus on let's
pair this down. Let's let you go back to being
just good at one thing, or good at you know,

(31:35):
try to maybe two things and not just spread so thinly.
And you know, I didn't. I hadn't thought about it
until you mentioned it the other day, Guardian, when we
were saying it's hard when you don't get a break
during the game. And I'm not just talking about physically,
I'm talking about mentally emotionally, just be able to just
shill for a minute, sit down and chill and get

(31:56):
your your thoughts.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
I'm serious.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
I don't think I saw him sit for the first
three games like I think he went to the sideline
and stood.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
And I don't think that's excuse making for anything.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
I just think it's realistical and nohody else is doing that.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
I thought it was a great point you said. I
thought about it. I was like, you know, you need
to be able to just kind of focus in on
what you're doing on defense, and you know, special teams too,
So I'm fine with it. You know, they can revisit it.
I think that they probably will. It was probably smart
to say, let's pull this back just a little bit
and let him not be so consumed with all these

(32:31):
different things.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
He's been playing better. I still think he's got to
clean up a lot in the mistackle game where he's
part of the you know, he's coming down playing in
the box quite a bit, and he's met some of
the mistackles at the line. He's missed multiple tackles in
each of the last three games.

Speaker 5 (32:46):
I hear flex.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
Saying it, and then he's talking about how we want
to use him in the return game, and then you
see him against Ohio State fair catch everything. And I
know that bothered me and some others and so us
media jackals. I know that we never ask a tough
question our lives, but that came up. Weird how that happens.
Flex's answer was he didn't want to start drives within

(33:07):
the fifteen or twenty of Ohio State if Koy were
to return it and not go anywhere.

Speaker 5 (33:13):
And because he's he's.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
Told me to which one of us he told it was?
You know the statistics are the statistics there?

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Yep?

Speaker 5 (33:20):
Okay, Well that's.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
Very fleck risk averse esques for those of you wondering.
So I hope that he can break one of the
return games soon. I hope he cleans up the mistackles,
and if he does, that wouldn't surprise me if they
allow him to go back on offense by the end
of it. But he's got to continue to play much
better in terms of the mistackles. That's the thing for
him to clean up here against Purdue.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
No fairness to him, he's having to make a lot
of tackles. He has a million tackles against Rutgers too, right, yeah.
I'm old enough to remember my first year on the
sidelines when Kim Royston Creton Durham Hall's head coach, had
like four hundred tackles. It's like, yeah, he's a good player.
That's good.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Good thing.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah, can anybody else make one? I mean, do we
need to do we need Kim to have fifteen every game?
That's that's not ideal, right, And I think Kerry Brown
and Coy were the leading tacklers at least through most
of that game on Saturday, those two were the leading tacklers.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
When you have to make a lot of tackles, Berns,
you're gonna miss more than other people too, by definition.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Yeah, oh my goodness.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
So he needs to be a part of the solution
on defense. And if he is playing the way we
know he's capable of playing, then I think the team
will continue to find success.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
So they need to get him playing better.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Can I bring up a topic because I was reading
your transcript from PJ yesterday, I assumed it was you
asked the question, Burnsy, because it's right up your ballpark.
Probably the kicker. Like I was trying to read pgs,
trying to understand maybe I should have watched the video,
but just reading a transcript, I have no idea what
the hell he was talking about. When he was like,

(34:58):
you have facts, you have reality, you have I didn't
understand what that was.

Speaker 5 (35:02):
Yeah, that question.

Speaker 4 (35:04):
I was sitting in his office and I asked him
that one. And the interesting part about that.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
Lex I like, flex, congratulations on your newly found access.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
I'm very very grateful for you should be people over
at the football facility.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
I'm glad you should have that access. So I'm glad.

Speaker 4 (35:24):
The thing I took away from that chip is he
was noncommittal. There was not a committal of this is
the answer with Brady Dennibergh, We're going to commit to him.
He essentially does say, for those of you who haven't
read it, what's happening in practice and what's translating over
to games is different, and so I have to continue
to evaluate everything. And if I'm not, I'm not a
good head coach.

Speaker 5 (35:44):
To me.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
That says we're going to have another week of how
does it look between Brady Denniberg and your boy, the
pride of football across Minnesota himself, Daniel Jackson, you might
be able to get on the field this weekend because
the forty plus yard field goal thing he had, Brady
Denniberg is now five in his last five attempts. He
hasn't made a forty plus yard field goal since twenty

(36:07):
twenty three at Syracuse. That's a problem for a man
who I looked into these stats too, Chipper. No Big
Ten team has attempted more field goals in twenty twenty
three than Minnesota, twenty twenty four than Minnesota, and now
that they're struggling to make forty plus yard field goals
in twenty twenty five, I think Fleck is going to
have to adapt and adjust. So the hope would be

(36:29):
how much longer is this leased for Denniberg from forty
plus because from forty and in he's been very good.
But Fleck loves forty plus yard field goals.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Well, if you have a kicker that's missing everyone from
forty yards, you're gonna have to change how you call games,
and I mean just has.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
To have much different in theory. In the headset to Harbow,
I turned down knowing that.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, because it's like what more, At some point you
have to say this is not working. We can't put
it on because I mean that miss was a mile white,
you know, and it's like, you wonder if it's not
in his head too now, I mean, the kicker knows it.
And so I think as the head coach and play card,

(37:08):
you gotta as you're nearing that area, you've got to think, Okay,
do we trust leaving this up to a kicker or
do we have to be more aggressive here and think, Okay,
we're gonna have two play calls here because we can't
just think that we have an automatic three points if
we're getting this in this area of the field. So
they're gonna have to either change kickers or just how

(37:28):
they call the game.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
Well, why it matters is you've got we just talked
about the upcoming four game stretch. I'm gonna assume every
one of them is gonna be plus or minus one possession.
I agree with you, Yeah, you're going to need a
kicker to win you a game at some point in
the next four That's just the reality of how this
is going to go.

Speaker 5 (37:43):
And they got to get it cleaned up.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
And that to me was I know, people got mad
that that PJ played that field goal the other night.
To me, that wasn't had nothing to do with that game.
That game was long gone. This was about I got
to build some confidence or figure out this guy to
win a game for me later on in the season.
That's one hundred percent what the whole decision was about.
And so yeah, I mean, I don't know if you know,

(38:09):
I understand that you see one thing in practice and
you're not seeing it in game. But games matter too,
you know. It's like you got to be able to
and it is. There is going to be a game
that comes down to a kick.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
You just for sure.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
They play in so many close games and we've seen
it time and time again, and the way they play,
you have to be able to trust that the kicker
is going to be able to make a forty three
yard field goal.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, and I can confirm that did not hit the
skycam cable like happened.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
Yeah, yeah, which.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
I can't believe knowing like I have one hundred percent
believe it hit the cable. I know people are like, ah,
s an optical illusion. I'm not sure. I think the
one video shows it. I can't believe it doesn't happen more.
By the way, yeah, that thing's flying around all over
the place, but no, the the Gophers ones have not
hit the cable, so we can't we can't blame it
on that. Although Burnsy, I don't know if it was

(38:59):
the altitude, but you had to be feeling things you
hadn't felt in a long time. Watching Tom weston punt
on Saturday Night.

Speaker 5 (39:05):
I beating heart.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Plus just booming punts. They were probably at your eye
level up there on floor eight. You must I mean,
you must have, like I said, you just had a flutter,
a heart a flutter. You must have thought your your
watch was probably thinking you were having some type of
hard episode, because that was some pretty good punting there,
Burnsy flipping the field.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
Heck yeah, man, Yeah, seven punts over fifty average and
until the last one was like a fifty five average.
We've been pleading for that. My heart was a flutter.
I thought the Chicago Bears kicker and Tory Taylor put
on a jersey over there at the Buckeye Stadium. If
that guy shows up, the one that I'm sure Fleck

(39:46):
was like, we can't get killed here. Y'all need you
to boot this. Well, you did a pretty it was
in the field. They're gonna need that to keep showing up.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Yeah, next exactly right. All right, let's pause quickly.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
We got a couple a couple more things to talk
about on the apparent of spare this week, including what
to do at Penn State. It was a great college
football story on one side and not so good on
the other with Penn State and UCLA. Want to remind
you about our great partners and great friends at Jack'scafe.
Jaxcafe dot com is the website, and we want to
remind you about their Hunter's Dinner that's coming up Tuesday,

(40:20):
November fourth, And we went through it all last week.
You know, just the menu, guys, I mean it's all
kinds of crazy stuff. I mean, kangaroo cannot be sea
urch and sushi, bluefin tuna. You know, You've got Icelandic
wolfish tacos. You've got split piece soup with wild boar, proscudo,
wild rice salads here, duck breast. I mean, it's all

(40:40):
these things that burns E goes out and spends months
in a deer stand with all his trail cams trying
to get or out in the middle of the lake
trying to catch Jack's already has all of it. You
don't need to do any of that you can just
go and eat all this great stuff. You have to
call for this one the numbers on the website but
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Speaker 3 (41:03):
You've got a call.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
But this is the kind of stuff that they do
with Jack's Cafe on top of everything else any other
day of the week. Just great food, great ambiance, great vibe.
They put together special events like this Chipper.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
I have never hunted in my life, but I would
go with me neither take part. Oh, I would love that.
I mean, did you see that menu?

Speaker 3 (41:22):
I just read most of it.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yes, it is unbelievable. Like for Bill, it shows how
creative they are. Not only they do like there's staples
that they've had for ninety years, right, and they do
that so well, but the creativity to come up with
the menu like that and think about the hunters out
there in the season, it's incredible, and you know that
it's just going to be outstanding, really good service, really

(41:44):
good food and a fun night. So really cool thing
that Bill puts together because he always does cool things.
And so I hope a lot of hunters and non hunters.
You don't have to be a hundred at partaking the
I'm not a hunter. I would love to have that meal.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
Yeah, just a bunch of different foods that you've probably
never tried, and just to be able to go to
a place where you feel very comfortable knowing that it's
gonna be prepared well and it's not gonna taste gamy.
Like I know, so many people are so afraid of
Jack's Cafe.

Speaker 5 (42:09):
This hunter's dinner. It sounds outstanding.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
Coffee crusted, ostrich with Jimmy Churry.

Speaker 5 (42:16):
I bet it's outstanding. I bet it is.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
I'm sure it's really good. Yeah, I'm sure it's great.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
So if that's a little too exobbed for you, they
have steaks and seafoods and salads and burgers and everything
else that you could possibly want, and a great brunch
vibe and a great brunch scene and probably a few
more weekends on the best patio in the Twin Cities
for brunch. Jackscafe dot Com is a website. You can
see it on the YouTube channel here on the bottom
right underneath Burnsy Jaxcafe dot Com. Last thing on the

(42:43):
Gophers real quick, because we got about ten minutes or
so left here, Mark Coyle made made a little bit
of news again Burnsy and Our the pregame interview that
he does with me. It happens from time to time.
I know it's one of your favorite pastimes, is reacting
to things that are set on the on the pregame show.
But explain what got people's intennas up about my most

(43:04):
recent interview with the athletic director.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
Yeah, I know that there were some folks that didn't
quite understand that maybe the athletic director was speaking a
bit in hyperbole.

Speaker 5 (43:14):
But here was the direct quote.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
That he shared too much, by the way, but go ahead.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Here was the direct quote from Mark Oyle to Justin
guard here on the pregame show was Ohio State makes
more in one home game in ticket sales than we
do all year.

Speaker 5 (43:31):
I mean, think about that for a second.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Now.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
I understand math can be very confusing for people, especially,
and I also know that maybe there was a bit
of hyperbole, like I said, within there maybe a stretch
or two. But think about it where Ohio State is
one hundred and five thousand people that attended the game
on Saturday night, and I understand that Minnesota's got a
fifty thousand c stadium. So you're thinking yourself that math

(43:55):
doesn't math. Minnesota draws I don't know, Ryan three to
four times times more. Yeah, Ohio State also charges three
to four times more and they sell out every freaking game.
Plus I'm sure the seat licenses.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Seat license are different.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
Yeah, I bet you, it's not too far off. And
so if they get seven of those, and then you
look at how much they do in athletic department revenue,
there's a reason why Ohio State does nine figures more
in athletic department revenue than the University of Minnesota does.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Did it really surprise people? Like I always always I
tell this story and this is a different school. It's
the same thing at the Michigan press Box. You can
there's a a window right by outside the eighties booth,

(44:53):
and I remember being down there one time with Joe
Maturi and it overlooks that golf course where they park
seventy thousand cars at whatever twenty dollars a pop, YEP,
And we were standing there before a game one day
and looking out and just car after car after car
they were just as far as you can see, cars
line up. Joel we're just standing there. I was like,

(45:14):
be nice, wouldn't it You just kind of turned up
me and smiled. It's like the difference between revenue at
Ohio State and Michigan on a game day. It's a
different universe. And so I don't maybe it was hyperbole,
but not really. He was stressing a point that they're
in the same conference, but they're not in the same

(45:35):
league in terms of what they're generating in revenue.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Well and there, I mean, we probably shouldn't have ledged
this in at the end. And again, none of this
is really new, but because I had the same experience
at Penn State, Chipper when I looked out the back
of that old press box and you see all the
car basically RV's, well, it's just the RV's basically in
the mountains. Aren't that going that way? So you can
basically see the Pittsburgh from there, and it's just car

(45:58):
after car after car after car, And you're like, yeah,
there's gona be one hundred eight thousand here, right, same deal. Yeah,
And I mean we learned in the gene Smith, you know.
And in fairness to Mark what it got brought up
because I was asking him about this private capital investor
thing that now I think is going to happen, and
it's not so much private equity as there is going

(46:18):
to be some type of big investment from somebody that
where it's not you know, they're going to own the
league now and everything the league does is going to this.
And he and Mark brought up the deficit. You know
that that has been written about their budgetary deficit, which
I think is like eight to nine million, right Burnsey
somewhere in that and last year they had to fight
and scratching claw to have a balanced budget. And so

(46:39):
fairness to Mark, I brought that up because I said, yeah,
it's great that that's kind of what you're thinking about
with the revenue and this this new revenue because now
you've got to pay the players and all of this.
And you know, we're at a place where the former
athletic director said, yeah, we're going thirty million in the
red because I want to be good at football my
last year and the next guy, I'll figure it out,
you know, I mean, which we've talked about, right, like

(47:01):
that's that's I'm not exaggerating that quote, right. Gean Smith
said we needed to have football win in my last year,
and I left the mess for my predecessor to figure
it out, and it was thirty million bucks. And so
we learned that in that time they had two fewer
home games or whatever, and they had it like eight
or nine million dollars a game. Gophers probably make between

(47:24):
one point five and two I would guess, you know,
something like that, maybe a little bit more. So it
really isn't that far off what he said. And I
don't know why that would offend people. And then you
get people going, we'll make more money, like oh, okay,
no problem, yep, any ideas, any thoughts, because it's not
as easy to just go, well, we need to make
more money, let's make more money, like it just kind

(47:46):
of is what it is. But that's where I think.
You know, the Gophers have beating Ohio State seven times
in history. Do they get three wins over Ohio State
and the rest of our lifetimes in the next four
when you just think about where they are and what
they can do. And again I'm not saying that to
be critical. I'm just trying to They've won. They've won
one time in my life two thousand, the year before

(48:08):
I was born in nineteen eighty one. They also beat
the buck guys Mike Cohen, c Jay Carroll. So one
time in forty three years they've beaten this team. Do
we think they're getting another two or three? Like just
when you guys have all been there, we've all seen it,
and I just think it's real life.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Unfortunately.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
I mean, if you're going to do it, you got
to do it at home. But I mean to your
point that the discrepancy in money now just translates to
the talent on the field, and that's the reality of
what this thing is turning into. And maybe in five
ten years, when there's a collective bargaining agreement, maybe there's
a salary cap and floor, like this thing becomes much

(48:49):
more attainable. But I certainly understand the premise here.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
Well, there's a talent gap. There was a talent gap
way before nil. I mean, it's a history and all
that was into it. And now you add, hey, now
you can give nil, and now we'll always you know,
we go back to the revenue share. You can match
whatever Aisle State does. What you can't match is in

(49:12):
il you can, but you're not going to because of
their you know, uh, the deep pockets they have but
in terms of revenue share, you can give the same
percentage as they do. But the difference is, you know,
they have all this revenue coming in from tickets, parkings, licensing,
you know, sponsorships, donors. I mean, I always said when

(49:36):
I went there, is like there are a few places
that just feel like and you know I come from
the SEC background, you know, don't hold against me, but
it felt like the SEC win at all costs, you know,
like huge event. Obviously Ohio State's one of those, and
and Penn State feels that way too when I go there.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
Yep. So anyway, it's always fun to make a little
new speaking how.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
About my segue. You see, That's why.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
I'm the pro welcome in. I can't say I saw
that coming. Maybe I should have.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
You doubted the three time zone theory. I don't know
why you doubted it.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Yeah, well, and we've seen it. We saw it with
Penn State and the USC last year. They struggled for
a half and then got their act together. UCLA had
not led in a game all season, and with the
son of Rick Newheidel, Jerry getting his first crack at
offensive coordinator, which what tremendous hair.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
First of all hairs everywhere.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
That was I mean, that is why you like college football, right,
not if you're a penn State fan. You're obviously just
you're mad that you lost to Oregon. Then you think,
all right, here's a get right game. Let's just get
out of here against one of the worst teams this
conference has seen in a while. And Jerry new Heidel
and the Fighting Bruins had different ideas. And what a moment,
What a moment, What a time is dad watching on CBS?

(50:59):
That was great, crying after the game, the whole bit.
It was very, very cool.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Well we always said, now, no one saw that coming,
right obviously, but I think we said last week in
college football, if you are not ready to play in
your head, is somewhere else things happen, you know, I mean,
you know, I can't imagine the heat, what the temperature

(51:24):
is like in Happy Valley in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia and
all that area there. I you know, the question's becoming
is you're seeing it, Nashley, what do you do with
James Franklin? Is the time for both of the mutual separation.
I'm guessing he's one of the highest paid coaches in

(51:46):
college football, probably top five, not top ten.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Right allegedly because Penn State is a private university. We
don't know, but I know the buyout number I've heard
thrown around from those in the know is north of
forty million.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Yeah, I'm guessing he has to be top ten if.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
Penn State it's not a private university, it is.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
You can't they're a it's called a If there's a difference,
it's called a land grant. I think is the term
because when I was on the beat and I would
always do try to get contracts to compare them in
Northwestern word, the two that you couldn't get.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
Thank you for standing up for me, Chip, I appreciate
by Ryan.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
I'm sorry, look it up, but I think it's called
has it land grant. It's something where they're not technically Probably.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Surprised if the guy who never graduated from college doesn't
understand what's private and what's the public. I went to
five USC. You don't have to do either now because private.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
Yeah, go ahead, So I don't. I don't. I I
is he the coach at Penn State next year? I
can't see it fifty to fifty at this point, I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
To go from being in the college football playoffs semi
final to being fired the next year. It's crazy, But
I also understand the side of they just don't win
these games anymore, the top ten games. His record there,
and then you go in and you have what I
would argue, and you both give me your opinion on this.

(53:09):
They were that's an own fourteen beating the ap top
ten team. It's the first time it's happened since nineteen
eighty five? Is that the worst loss in the modern
era for Penn State?

Speaker 2 (53:22):
I mean, I don't have their Yeah, I'd probably have
to be up there.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
I mean finished off, couldn't do in twenty sixteen guards.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
I think you mentioned firing, and I don't know, like
how many soft landings are there spots where he would
be willing to go. Would it be one of those
situations where he's like, you know what, right, it's sort
of mutual, you know, yeah, But how many he's not
gonna go? I want to go? You're gonna have to
go backwards a little because there's a few programs that

(53:52):
have Penn States. There's only you know, a hand you know,
a handful does or whatever they have.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
I would I would imagine if this does happen, we
can spend the whole month of November figuring it out
because they're going to have crucial games against Ohio State
that are going to dictate this. But I would imagine
that would probably be a negotiated down buy out at
that point, because I'm sure James is tired of answering
the questions and Penn State wants to get out, and
I would be fascinated to see because that's a very

(54:21):
appealing job for a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Oh yeah, and State, Oh, they line up a mile long.

Speaker 3 (54:26):
Get that job, five or six or seventies.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Yeah, I mean for sure with their resources and.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Especially going in a new press box coming up, like
I think that's about to be done, Like they're even
for them, going above and beyond what they have done historically,
which has been a lot.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Oh yeah, that's a great job.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
But how cool for UCLA where there's like did you
see the shot to open the game? I'm sure that
the producer because there's like seven people in the stands.
I've never seen so many open seats at the Rose
Bowl in my life. Yeah, Penn State played that way.
I mean you Seela goes out to a seven only
they recover an on sidekick, make it double digits, and

(55:06):
then they just never looked back.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
And then that moment between.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
New Heizel and his kid, and yeah, that's fun, man,
it's great.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
It's great, and you feel happy for the players that
hang in, you know, because that's what I've always what's
always struck me that people don't understands like these guys,
even the bad teams, are working their asses off, you know, job,
it's just doing a lot of things, like you know,
going all the way back to January, and they might
not go on spring break and they're on campus all summer.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Like I get it. There's a lot of.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Them are getting paid now, right, a lot of them
are making money. You get you get a free education,
you get the food. Like, but still when you put
in all that work and then get your ass handed
to you and your coach gets fired, like it's hard
to just keep showing back up, like having no idea
if it's gonna work or not. You know, like odds
are you're gonna get boat raced by Penn State, but

(55:54):
you still got to get there at six am for waits,
you know, Like that is tough.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
So I always feel I always feel good for that.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
What was the line on that game.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
Twenty five or something? Yeah, yeah, it was three touchdowns plus. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
My other favorite stating out from that game is we're
in the month of October and Penn State has not
beaten a Power five team yet.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Right, and they didn't play well before Oregon, you know,
like this, it's just been kind of sloppy, and so,
you know, sometimes the things don't lie.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
What what you're seeing doesn't lie.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
You can't just say you're going to turn it on
all right, Burns you, I know you want to talk
Wisconsin and Iowa before we go the two border arrivals.
This is a big one. This is a big one
that Wisconsin hung around with Michigan for a while. I
don't think either of those teams are great. They might
just be, you know, we know about Wisconsin, Michigan might
just be a middle of the road Big ten team too.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
The quarterbacks talented. He made some really nice plays.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Wisconsin's defense is good, but you know, their quarterback situation,
you know, for no fault of their own, has has
been has been rough. But what do we what do
you want to get off your chest about Wisconsin?

Speaker 5 (56:58):
Iowa?

Speaker 3 (56:58):
Wisconsin Michigan, whatever you got there.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
I think it's a huge game for both teams where
Fickle needs to try and continue to write this ship.
And now they're on quarterback three as they were starting
a kid from Southern Illinois over Danny O'Neil, who is
clearly available for that game. And then on the flip side,
you've got Iowa coming off of bye week, and we
have no idea what the status of Mark Ronowski is.
I know that he was listed on the depth chart,

(57:21):
but I also know I've seen the media reports of
he's week to week, and the last we saw from
him as we sit here today ten days ago, was
he couldn't return to the game because he couldn't decelerate. Yeah,
that sounds petrifying to me if I'm a Hawkeye fan.
So I think the line for this game is in
the thirties. It's at Camp Randall. This needs to This

(57:43):
is a huge game for both teams, and that's why
I'm a little upset that this game is at the
same time as the Gophers. Roughly it's going to be
at six pm on FS one.

Speaker 5 (57:53):
But it's I am fascinating.

Speaker 4 (57:56):
I think this is a great slate just overall in
the Big Ten because you've got Ohio State traveling to
Champagne at eleven am. You've also Inana to Oregon at
two thirty. Hecked even the Friday night game, which is
Rutgers taking a five and a half hour flight to Washington.
If you charaka off a bye week for generations.

Speaker 5 (58:15):
Now, be really good. I think it's an outstanding slate.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
You know what's interesting? As I told you guys, I
was looking at, excuse me, the takeaways Nashally. Uh, Purdue
is dead last in college football. They have one to
away in five games. I was down at the bottom too.
They only have three takeaways?

Speaker 5 (58:33):
Right?

Speaker 2 (58:34):
When is the Iowa defense only had three takeaways in
five games? I mean that to me, we know their formula, right,
so that that really jumped out to me that their
defense hasn't been as opportunistic as we've seen. And so, uh,
maybe this is the week that change. Obviously, you're going
against a you know, a backup quarterback. Maybe that's but
I'm sure Phil Parker does something. He stresses like this

(58:55):
is not typically their DNA, that they they're not taking
the ball away defensively, So that surprised me. But Yeah,
that's gonna be a low scoring game there in mass
and I assume and it'll probably come down to turnovers.
Who can create them?

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Yeah, especially if Gronowski is injured. If I think if
Gronowski is healthy, I'm just not a believer in Wisconsin
right now. I just think the vibe is so bad
and I just I'd be stuting. You know, it's gonna
turn if things aren't going very well. You know, the
grumbling the fan We've talked about their fan base. You know,
they have not been happy with anything that's gone on.

(59:30):
So if Gronowski is somehow playing which burns you laid
out his timeline, what we know about it, I just wouldn't.
I just think I was gonna win that game pretty comfortably.
But maybe I'm under selling the Badgers. Maybe the Badgers
are still going to hang on and they know that
they don't have a lot of great opportunities like this,
right That's part of their problem.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
Well, I'm sure the equivalent is in Wisconsin is having
the same conversation, what an opening drive?

Speaker 5 (59:56):
Yeah, what happened? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Yeah, you're right there, and you look at your schedule,
like how much you have to see your spots? Right,
and they're probably saying, this is our one. You know,
we don't only have a few of these left.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
So you mean they don't have a shot after this
game when they take on Ohio State in Oregon?

Speaker 5 (01:00:15):
What do you mean?

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Right?

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
And rivalry games are weird, rights are weird. It's an
important game for both programs, always has been used to
be the winner of the Big Ten. West came out
of this game, right, yeah, yep, all right, Well I
lost a bet with myself. I lost a bet with myself.
I tried to play Burnsy Bingo today and I couldn't.
I couldn't go, I couldn't get I couldn't get him

(01:00:38):
to say what I wanted him to say. I wrote
it down because I wanted proof and I gotta be
fair when I say that I get burnsy. And I
tried to these last couple of minutes, limping in, I'm
just gonna pull this up.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
What does this say?

Speaker 5 (01:00:49):
But I knew there was some about the way you
brought that up. I almost did it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:55):
I almost talked about Wisconsin up.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
I almost did it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
I didn't you. I can tell.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
That's why I kept throwing it out there for people
not watching on YouTube. I like to write out things
I know Burnsier is going to say, and he has
loved the fact that Wisconsin has done forty two push
ups every day this offseason for how many points they score.
They let Iowa score last year. I wrote it down
just before we hit record and God, you were close,

(01:01:23):
weren't you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:23):
I almost had you.

Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
I love to play the hits every listener.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
Damn it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
I'm so mad, and that makes me more mad. I
wish you would have said, Oh, I didn't even think
about it. But the fact that it was right there
and I just didn't make the right play. I didn't
put the right ember in the fire to stoke the flame.
That bothers me. That really bothers me.

Speaker 5 (01:01:42):
It's a good job week, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
Yep, yep, yep. I will all right. I have a
great week. Everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Remember check out the Hunter's Dinner at Jack's Cafe, or
just any dinner at Jack's Cafe, whether you want to
eat the great menu on Hunter's Dinner Night or not.
It's all there for you at Jaxcafe dot com. And
we will talk to you next week on The Pair
and a Spare podcast.