Pair and a Spare Podcast 2025, Week Thirteen Review: Gopher Defensive Meltdown, How To Fix It, Lane Kiffin

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Glenn Mason said a long time ago at the University
of Minnesota, you need a Pair and a Spare.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Thank you, PJ. It is time for another edition of
the Pair and a Spare podcast. I'm justin Gard from
the fan. We've got Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot
com and from Football Across Minnesota and the Minnesota Star Tribune.
He's mister Projects, He's Chipskoggins. We are presented as always
by our great partners at Jack's Cafe. Make your holiday reservations,
your brunch reservations, your dinner with Santa reservations. You have

(00:25):
to call for those, I should say Breakfast with Santa
at Jackscafe dot com. Happy Thanksgiving week, guys. How's everybody doing, Burnsy,
looks like you're getting some red light therapy done on
the YouTube channel today. That's good. You need to take
care of yourself. Recovery is important. So how are things
back in Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
I'm still trying to recover from that krem broule I
had at Jack's Cafe just last week. I had to
take a picture send it over to you, guys. I mean,
it was a fantastic meal over there. Got to see
Bill and everybody. Shockingly, no one is surprised to know
we got to see friend of the podcast, Dan O'Brien
was also there.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Of all fool, very cool Dan O'Brian, the original. Well
it's you know, Jackson's probably becoming a Johnny's hangout again.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
You just to know that he was out.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Holding court with Bill over there at the stand. So yeah,
it was a wonderful meal, and I wish we could
spend the next sixty minutes talking about that instead of
this go for football team, but Chip our things for you.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
Life's good.

Speaker 5 (01:25):
Here, got two of the three kiddos home, one more
to come on Wednesday. I got to get to drive
through the snow to Madison tomorrow. That'll be that'll be fun.
As guards he sits by the pool in the Bahamas.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh is that where I am? That's right?

Speaker 6 (01:39):
Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, I'm sorry. I'm so dedicated to the podcast. I mean,
you guys go to a different county. It's like, can't
do it. Yeah, We're going to Italy or I gotta
go hunting. It's like Guardians in the Bahamas. You're like,
what do you guys want to do. I'm like, Tuesday,
eight o'clock, like we always do. What's the problem. Some
of us are pros, some of us are so. My
kids are at the pool right now. We just had breakfast,
just played catch with the nice kid named James from Brooklyn,

(02:02):
a little five year old. Yeah, we're just making magic
and memories down here. And I've only screamed at him
three times today. The sun has barely come up, So.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
How's it going? How is it going to behind? Great weather?

Speaker 5 (02:14):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (02:14):
She saw you saw a win yesterday or you called
a win yesterday.

Speaker 6 (02:17):
Yeah, it's great weather.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I had to come all the way to the Bahamas
to see something called Gopher defense. It wasn't at Wrigley Field,
it wasn't in Chicago. I had that one in the
whole story about No, it's great, it's great, it's good.
It's you can see why people come here. Yeah, see
why people enjoy it here. And if I was in

(02:38):
New York, like the nice family that we just played
with this morning and met this morning, it's a two
and a half hour flight from JFK. Wow, they just
cut it right down, you know.

Speaker 6 (02:48):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
The Atlantic Ocean's like, Yeah, I'd be here a lot too.
I'd been here a lot too, rather than connecting Atlanta
or wherever you're going. And and so it's fine, it's good.
No one cares that I'm here. I'm happy that i'm here.
They've got an other game, families having a good time.
I think I didn't see him much yesterday because I
was working. So that's what I know. That's what I know.
But it's it's nice. I'm sorry about the snow. I'll

(03:10):
be returning home to shovel it, I imagine, right, because
we don't snow blow, as you know, Chip, shovel.

Speaker 5 (03:16):
We're blue collar, just like you are in Minnetaka. You're
blue collar of there in Minnetaka.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, shovel my own snow. It's not like burns.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, lord, look at my age. I'm worried about heart
attacks at that. Look you've boys. Got to get on
the train soon enough. I'm still even appalled that Chip
alerted me to something called the the USPS Informed Delivery,
where Chip can view his mail ahead of time. You
got to say this with the utmost peace and love
to you. Of all the things technology related, that's the

(03:47):
one you know about.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
Well, let's be let's be clear about this. I don't
have that technology in my phone. My wife does.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
She tells me what's coming. So I wouldn't know the
first thing about putting that thing on my phone.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
It is how much she carries. The load that she.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Carries in your house is I would be lost. There's
no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
I was randomly thinking about Chip's technological failures or ineptitude.
I think on the plane down here Burnsey, because remember
when we were all on the same flight. Was that
to l A and you and I were on the
parent of spare group chat texting each other the entire flight,
and Chip's just completely ghosted, and it's like, you know,
the Chip has no idea how to turn Wi Fi
on the plane.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
He's gonna turn your phone off Wi Fi.

Speaker 6 (04:29):
He's gonna turn your.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Phone off, He's gonna land and everything is he's gonna
get seven hundred notifications about us talking on the plane.
And that's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. And
I did I think about that entire flight.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Chip, just as the kids would say, raw dog, the
flight were just no no music, just staring straight ahead.

Speaker 5 (04:49):
No. I put it in their play mode like the
pilot says, such a good and I and I listen
to my music, I.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
I said, might have asked this, what do you listen to?

Speaker 4 (05:03):
Country? Country or yacht rock?

Speaker 1 (05:08):
What are we talking like ninety fucking like like read
like something that would play in like K one O two?

Speaker 3 (05:17):
What kind of country?

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (05:18):
I like?

Speaker 4 (05:19):
I mean, I.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
Depends on the day, but I'm a you know, Garth Travis,
Tritt Brooks and don.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
I like that kind of you know, my wheelhouse.

Speaker 5 (05:28):
But then also like today's country too, so I'm a mix.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
But and then I love yacht rock?

Speaker 6 (05:35):
Why everybody does? How can you know?

Speaker 4 (05:37):
Do you not like you?

Speaker 6 (05:39):
Right?

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (05:41):
Like if I get if I'm going to on a
long drive, put on yacht rock.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
Like four hours, it feels like thirty, it's.

Speaker 6 (05:47):
Like thirty minutes.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, yeah, okay, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I'd love the carpool with you sometimes. I think that'd
be great.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
I'd love to apparents for a carpool or yacht rocket
the whole way.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Football Minnesota comes to the paradise.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
That's right, all right, We've avoided it as long as
we can. I took one cheap shot already, but it's
been I don't even know where to start Burns. You
and I talked about it on Sunday, and it's I
still can't believe that the Minnesota Gopher offense scored thirty
five points on Saturday. This version of the Minnesota Gopher
offense this year looked as well oiled, well tuned, as

(06:26):
good as it's looked all season. You know, everything that
we've complained about, everything that you've complained about, Burns, the
contested catches, the pass protection, all of that was just gone.
And the ball was flying all over the friendly confines
and they don't win the game. They don't win the
game after scoring thirty five points, which is still a

(06:47):
little bit stunning. So I'll let you guys take it
and take it wherever you want to go for the
first part of the first block of the Paradis pair
this week.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Well, you mentioned the thirty five points and I looked
into it after the game game where that was only
the second loss Bleck has had at Minnesota in now
nine years where he scored thirty five points and loss.
The only other one was during the COVID season where
they lost an overtime to Maryland on a missed extra
point forty five to forty four out in College Park.

(07:16):
And if you look at me and say, well, that
doesn't count. That whole season was cursed. You got to
go back to I think Chip would remember this game
when Tim Brewster was still here, when they lost forty
one to thirty eight to South Dakota back in twenty ten.
I mean, that's how often the Gophers have won when
scoring that amount of points. But when your defense is

(07:37):
truly at this stage incapable of getting lined up correctly
getting off the field at any point. Because now in
the last two games, the starting defense has forced one
punt and they have given up in that same span
ten touchdowns and three field goals. And when they needed
them most, when the Gophers actually did score their thirty

(07:59):
five the point and gave the ball back to Northwestern
Chip with eight twenty to go in all three timeouts,
their offense does not touch the football again until forty
five seconds and no timeouts left. I know I've given
a lot of thoughts and feelings. What were your thoughts,
misters Coggins.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
Yeah, I'll say I don't take anything away from Drake
Lindsay and the Northwestern quarterback because they deserve their kudos.
But that was probably some of the worst secondary play
by both teams that I think I've seen in a
long long time. Like Northwestern's corners like were out a lot,

(08:36):
Like they wouldn't even turn around. It was some of
the most abysmal secondary play I think I've seen. You know,
I listened to PJ yesterday and he talked to when
you asked the question about skiing, personnel, coaching, I'm not
buying it, Like, you can't tell me that this there's
not some something fundamentally wrong with all of those Like

(08:57):
when you give up allow the Northwestern quarterback who's what
completely like fifty two percent of his pass is coming
in the game to go fifteen to fifteen in the
second half, and you give up five hundred and twenty
five yards and that many points to a team that, if.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
You look at the stats, without question.

Speaker 5 (09:15):
Is one of the worst offenses is the major college
football going into that game. So, and I don't want
to hear about youth. I don't want to hear about injuries.
I don't want to hear about nil I don't want
to hear about revenue sharing. It's Northwestern, Okay, this is
not Michigan, It's not Ohius, not Misson, not Ohouse State,
not Oregon, not one of the blue bloods.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
Right, So it's it's inexcusable that.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
In year nine, in the transfer portal error, that you're
complaining about being young on defense and injuries.

Speaker 4 (09:52):
Everybody has injuries. I don't care if you have two
starters out this time of year. Everybody has injuries.

Speaker 5 (09:56):
It's not excuse, it's it's they have to take a
hard look at what they're doing defensively in the off season.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Guard, I'll ask you this, are you surprised to Chip's
point right there that Black has elected to since Saturday
and again, I was down there at Wrigley Field. I
heard it postgame, heard it yesterday at the press conference,
that he's going with the youth and inexperienced angle. The
way he continues to as he did yesterday double down on.

Speaker 6 (10:23):
I mean, I'm not surprised.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
I think you look at some of the secondary guys
they're playing and they were clearly getting picked on. That
doesn't surprise me because that's he's done that before, right,
He's done that. Year two, he called it the youngest
team in America. The year after COVID, he called it
a transition year where I think he loses it with
people is that we don't start hearing about it until
week eleven. Right, the defense, that's where you can't always

(10:47):
where I understand people going, well, hold on a second,
because it's not like the defense has been great all season.
Now it's completely bottomed out the last couple of weeks.
What I would say is in terms of scheme, personnel, whatever,
here's what I remember you talking about before the season, Burnssey,
and I heard no one discouraging it in Dinky Town.
You kept talking about how this would be the most

(11:09):
multiple defense that we've seen in the PJ. Fleck era,
right that they had They thought they had a lot
of toys and a lot of pieces to do a
lot of different things.

Speaker 6 (11:17):
Am I remembering that correctly?

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Danny had talked about, or even Mavick Bearanowski had said,
this is the most amount of sub packages we've ever
had in a defense in my time here.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yes, Okay, so I'm remembering that right. And obviously you
had some injuries with you know, Devin Williams has been
very good for him the other you know, the other day,
You've had some other people in and out, Jae Kwon,
Bryan the whole deal. My question would be are they
doing are they trying to to be too multiple? Have
they tried to do too much stuff? Because scheme, personnel, coaching,
whatever it is, it's who do we have? What can

(11:50):
they do? And if we have to give up some
stuff along the way, that's that's okay, Right. We can't
do everything that we wanted to do.

Speaker 6 (11:59):
We can't.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
We can't this, you know, this defense that we thought
we were gonna be in September. I just think about
when Rossi took over in the middle of twenty eighteen.
The first thing he did, it sounds like, is just
simplify the whole damn thing and just make everybody's job
a lot cleaner. And you might if you might not
get the turnovers, you might not get the explosive plays defensively,
but you're not gonna give up five hundred yards to Northwestern, Right.

(12:21):
We saw him clean it up like immediately. Now that
defense is more talented than this defense. I think we'll
all agree. But that's what I keep coming back to.
It's like, if we can't get guys lined up in
the right spot week eleven, no matter how old you are,
like everybody, like my three children right now. If I'm
on the field here at the Baja mar and I
and we just had a five year old playing football
with us before I and I told James the five

(12:43):
year old from Brooklyn line up here. He stood there like, yeah,
that that shouldn't be a problem no matter who's out there,
unless you're doing too much. And guys, heads are just exploding.
So that's that's kind of where I am with it,
Like I get it, Like I I do give more
to injuries and lack of depth than probably you two

(13:04):
do just in general. But if that's a reality, then
you got to figure out something else to get one stop.
I mean, I just kept saying to people on the sidelines,
you guys both know my buddy Paul Lilly, he was
down there helping me out at Wrigley, And how many
times did we go over to each other in the
second half ago They need one stop to win this game.
One They got one right before the half, right where

(13:26):
they ended up scoring. And that's part of the reason
how they built the twenty eighteen to twenty eight to
thirteen lead is they got to stop scored. Wasn't much
time for Northwestern got the ball back, had to punt,
Northwestern's guy muffs it and they score the next play.
They're up twenty eight thirteen. They didn't get to stop
the rest of the game, right unless I'm forgetting something
and they needed and we're talking had third and lungs

(13:47):
had second and lungs had a would be third and
long and you have an off side, Like so, I
get why PJ says that. I also get why people
don't want to hear it. And I understand because at
some point you just got to figure out, Okay, who's
playing for us? And what can they do? What are
we asking them to do? Can they do what we're
asking them to do? Because clearly there's a lot of

(14:07):
that going on, that they're being asked to do things
that they can't do. But to me, it also starts
down with like, how are we How are guys not
getting lined up correctly?

Speaker 6 (14:15):
That doesn't make any sense?

Speaker 5 (14:17):
Well, yeah, that's that's I mean, those are great points.
And if guys are confused, excuse me. At week eleven
or game eleven, there's you know, something fundamentally wrong. And
I also two things that stood up about that thing.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
Again.

Speaker 5 (14:33):
The tackling is just I I for a life meet.
This might be the tackling has been a season long
narrative that has not improved. They improved one game after
they had all those mistackles, but other than that, it's
just been a really poor tackling team. And it's like
you see guys going there and not wrapping up. They're
going in with just their shoulder trying to, you know,
do this kind of thing that's not working. And then

(14:57):
birds you probably saw better from the press box, those
like the press boctiv wasn't great, but it just felt
like they were so far off the receivers. I mean
there was just guys was going there and sit and
the guy would be two or three yards off, and
it was just that quarterback didn't seem like there was
a lot of stress on him.

Speaker 4 (15:15):
He just kept These receivers just found.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
Open spots throughout their secondary And I don't know if that's.

Speaker 4 (15:26):
Is that a skill thing?

Speaker 5 (15:28):
Is that is that a you know, being nervous about
giving up a big play?

Speaker 4 (15:32):
Is that what that is? But it just felt like
there was so much room for those wide receivers to
get open.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
So the question even within that is again we've we've
spent the time talking about is what do they do? Well,
they can't and well, in theory they get a lot
of sacks and sackles for loss.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
In theory they do.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
But there was no pass rush to speak of where
Anthony Smith literally played every single snap for the Gopher defense.
He played seventy six snaps. Wow, which we're going to
see how his leg come Saturday afternoon. He's or at
hunting a Bank stadium. But when your best player on defense,
Anthony Smith plays what I would tell you is probably
his worst game of the season, where he had a

(16:13):
quarterback or a running back dead to rights in the
backfield three different times and he whiffs or it's second
and twenty one on that fourth quarter drive and your
best player lines up off sides for what would have
been Preston Stone's only in completion too. Yeah, like the
the Gopher secondary, and what we have learned about them

(16:36):
is Danny Collins doesn't trust them to play man, which
is why they're playing off in zone.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
And I know all of our listeners are screaming at
me saying, well, Ryan, they don't play zone.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Well, I agree, they don't play anything well corner wise. Now,
whether that's because the guards, He's point John Nestor didn't
play in this game. He's banged up, he's out, Zaekwon
Bryan is clearly injured. Mike Gerald hasn't really played. He's
a red shirt freshman. And then you've used a converted
safety over two corner and Jonty McMillan, who got picked

(17:08):
on early and often. But we knew that Northwestern wanted
to throw the ball the Griffin Wilde coming into this game.
I talked about all last week. No player is targeted
more by their offense in college football than Gryffin Wilde.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
What does he do?

Speaker 1 (17:23):
He has a Keenan Allen type of stat line of
like twelve catches, eleven catches for one hundred and eleven
yards a touchdown. He was always open. You knew he
was going to get the ball, yet you couldn't stop it.
Why couldn't you stop it? I mean, when you don't
get a pass rush, when you don't force a turnover,
they have one takeaway. One takeaway is a defense. The

(17:44):
last five weeks, we're gonna start calling a b flows
defense at that point. Now they had opportunities with Matt
Kingsbury having one go right between his hands and then
Northwestern still catches it. Yeah, right, or Koy Parritch runs
forty five yards down the field, smokes the ball out
goes out of bounds. Yeah, there's some bad luck within that,
but I also just believe at this stage of the year,

(18:05):
you are who you are. You make your own luck.
And the thing that this Gopher defense is refused to
do on Saturday, and they've largely refused to do it
for the last month, is go make a play like
no one can make a play right now. Anthony Smith's
missing guys. Yeah, Emmanuel Carmo, the true freshman from Robinsdale Cooper,
he had to play a lot and they picked on him.

(18:25):
But no one can make a play. And that's why
you give up five hundred something yards to As Chip said,
it's it's a Northwestern offense that had not scored more
than twenty two points in Big Ten play, and you
made them look like the Greatest show on Turf with
Tory Holt, Isaac Bruce Marshall Falk Like you made Preston

(18:47):
Stone of all people, look like Kurt Warner. But that's
been the theme for the last month. For the go
anybody facing the Gopher defenses, you get to look like
a Heisman winner today.

Speaker 5 (18:57):
Preston Stone, Well, it's funny, like you hear that Shaw,
like the defense is on its heels and we say
it in all all sports, but that's what it felt
like watching that, Like they felt like they were on
their heels the whole game, and it was just it
was just methodical, like when when they get the ball
back with eight minutes, you're like one stop, like you said, guards,

(19:18):
you just make us stop here and they're.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
Gonna win this game.

Speaker 5 (19:19):
It just felt like that that type of game, right,
and then they chew up seven and a half minutes
off the clock or whatever that drive was.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
It's just like unbelievable. Somebody make a play here, yeah,
and they just refuse to do it. They were on
their heels the whole game.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, it's you just they're incapable of making a play
right now. And that's where it gets back to the
Danny Collins discussion, or even I noticed right when they
came out before the game, Danny Collins was down on
the field, which is a change. Now, you don't know
how much of it is horrible sidelines in a baseball stadium.
And I actually asked Flack after the game. Hey saw

(19:53):
Danny Collins on the field.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
What's that about?

Speaker 1 (19:56):
And he said some of it was baseball stadium related,
but I would say he did. I I think slip
in the sliver of truth, which was we were playing
some guys that we weren't necessarily comfortable playing today, so
we thought that him being down on the field to
make the adjustments with them face to face would be better.
Clearly it wasn't. But I also think about just that

(20:16):
Joe Rossi, even a couple.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Of weeks ago, got moved down to the field.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
You don't get moved from where you call a game
because things are going well, correct.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
You don't just say, hey, you know what, we're gonna
try it Wrigly. Yeah, because the post is actually coaches
had a good view at Wrigley.

Speaker 6 (20:30):
They were right. They were where they usually are.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
They were in the suite level down the first base line,
like right behind the Gopher sideline, so they were I mean,
they might have been a little lower than usual, but
they were right on top of it. I don't know
how big the booth was up there that they were
sitting in. I didn't go up there, but yeah, you
don't just wake up on Saturday in the morning and
go you know it might be fun, let's go on
the grass at it, because you're like, hey, this is

(20:54):
not going well. We're playing these guys. We need to
do something to shake this up a little bit.

Speaker 5 (20:58):
It is clear like the person so now I mean PJS.
I've heard him say it twice after a game now
and then yesterday about playing guys that we haven't played.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
We're young.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
Some thoughts on that. When you swing and missing the portal,
you forfeit the right to say you're young. To me,
I'm sorry. When you go out and spend money on
the guys in the portal and they don't play, don't
come back and tell me you're young. When you have
draft or draft, well, it's basically recruiting, missus. And this

(21:31):
is year nine. And I heard PJ the other day
it's like it shouldn't matter. If it's year nine, it
doesn't matter. Each year's independent. Well, then why are we
talking about cultural sustainability over and over and over and over.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
If it doesn't matter, then why are you talking about it?

Speaker 5 (21:45):
That's all we've been sold cultural sustainability. Well, if you
get the year nine and cultural sustainable, it doesn't matter
that it is year nine, then don't tell me about
cultural sustainability.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
You can't have it both ways. I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (21:55):
And he keeps saying, well, this is not an excuse.
Injuries and youth is no excuse. Then why are you
talking about it every five minutes? You bring it up
after every game. Then you are wanted to be an excuse.

Speaker 6 (22:06):
Of course, of course he wants it, and stop.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
Saying this is an excuse. You want it to be
an excuse. I'm just it's getting frustrating and tiring.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Sorry, Chip, let me be the first to correct. You're
not excuses.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
Reasons reasons.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, I feel like we need some soft yacht rock
for Chip right now.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
Well, it drives me crazy when you have a poor
performance against Northwestern and you start saying youth and all
these other things. It's like you think Northwestern has all
these built in advantages.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
I mean, come on, I mean you're right with the
portal stuff where you don't get a pass rush on Saturday. Okay,
you took three transfer defensive linemen, two of them didn't play,
one played seven snaps. Okay, you played a true freshman
because of injuries to Devin Williams. Well, you didn't play
the kid who transferred in from Oklahoma State. You played

(22:57):
x y Z guy at corner, yet the other you
took a corner didn't see an action in this game.
I mean, you're right that they whiffed in the portal class,
which is why I've spent the last few weeks asking PJ,
what are you changing with your poral evaluation? Because if
you do this two years in a row, boy, oh boy,
does then the seats start to become warm, even though

(23:18):
I'm very, very skeptical that this institution would ever pay
a twenty million dollar buyout. But that's a different, whole
different podcast.

Speaker 6 (23:25):
Yeah, like, they.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Need to do better in the portal. And trust me
when I say i've I've I've questioned him about that.
They say they're going to make changes.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
We won't won't.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
I mean, we won't know until September of next year
if those changes are actually any good. But he says
they're completely that. I mean, I would tell you they
are well aware in that building they screwed up in
the portal.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
They know it.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
Bernsie. When you say changes, would it be changes in
terms of their scouting process, what they're looking for both
or what or.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Even off field, where I think some of the reasons
why you're seeing some guys plays they're not a I
think some would say not a fit. And that's where
the portal process is even more of a whirlwind than
like high school or JUCO recruiting, Like you have X,
y Z time period to figure out why this guy
is leaving, what he says, why he's leaving, what the

(24:20):
opposing coaching staff where he's coming from says, why he's leaving,
what his agent says, what his parents say, like they're
I think that they didn't do a great job of
getting enough background on guys. And that's something that Fleck
has talked about where I think he compared it to
speed dating.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
Almost well, that's what it is.

Speaker 5 (24:38):
That's the word I always say. The portal is speed dating.
So you don't have months to figure out. You may
have days hours to figure out are we going to
offer this guy, and you're probably gonna miss on some
of those other things versus just a the pure tangibles, Okay,
can you run, does he have size?

Speaker 4 (24:56):
All those things, But in terms of fit, you may
miss because it is speed.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
It is it is, and I think if we're going
to use that analogy. I think they've understood now they
have to ask different questions than what they asked last
year to try and glean more information. But the other
crux of this whole thing is just like, what does
Fleck do now with the whole Danny Collins decision where
you elevated the guy again?

Speaker 2 (25:20):
All that can say, can we stay with the portal
for one second? Because I have follow up? The Chip said,
I'll write it down here, We'll get back to Danny.

Speaker 6 (25:29):
The process there.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Because I'm also wondering, like, are they changing how they
do things financially right, because we still don't know anything,
Like all these guys are coming in the portal, A
lot of it's because of money, right, Yeah, And I
know we do transformational as well as transactional.

Speaker 6 (25:43):
I'm well aware of all of that.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
But which, by the way, I do I like, I
think you can they've found guys. I mean, you think
about the success we talked about it last week that
they've had in the portal kind of pre nil you know,
obviously with with Max it's a home run. The guy's
about to change the history of the Vikings organization this
week when he starts on Sunday, against the Seahawks. We're
gonna remember this week forever, and I can't believe I'm
not back on Kfan this week.

Speaker 6 (26:07):
I even texted with Barrera.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
I'm like, the one day I'm gone, Like I know
I'm gone a lot in November, like the day that,
the day that we'll remember forever is the beginning of
the Max Brose Morrera. That's going to change everything. Stop laughing, ship.
It's not a joke.

Speaker 6 (26:21):
Like this is.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
I mean, it's we're gonna I'm gonna remember that. I
was at the Baja Mar Resort and Convention Center when
the Vikings franchise changed forever. But you think about I
mean just Jack Henderson, Jack Gibbons, I mean Ethan Robinson.
We can name a million guys right in the last
five six years that they've hit on in the portal
that were big time, big time dudes for them. A

(26:44):
lot of those guys are playing in the NFL. I'm
curious why it went so badly this last year where
you just named it. They have dead money all over
the team, right offensive line, defensive line, secondary, they've got
and you can't have sunk costs like that's where that's
where they get in the spot that they're in right now.
Chip to go back to what you said a while ago,

(27:05):
it's like when you miss on the portal, Like, so
I want to know, obviously, is a misevaluation?

Speaker 6 (27:09):
Are they not?

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Are they not going after the right players because they
don't have the money, or are they trying to get
too many players and so then they don't have the money?
Do they need to go harder on a select few
that you know are going to work out? And obviously
nothing's one hundred percent. But and again they have to
pay Koy, They have to pay Anthony this year, they
have to pay Darius.

Speaker 6 (27:27):
What do they do with him next year?

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Like when he decides to go You know what I
mean about the financial part of it, like cause that
has to be something that they think about too, is
what are we doing? What's our financial plan? Is it
a lot of guys for a little is it a
couple of guys for a lot? Is it a mix
of that? Burnsey? And the thing is, we don't. We
don't really know. At least I don't how anybody does
that right, because they can't just line up and go

(27:49):
cherry pick like Oregon does. They do have to be smarter,
but you also just can't afford dead money, like whether
guys are not planning for injury or because they're no good,
you just can't afford.

Speaker 6 (27:59):
You can't afford to have Carlos Kore.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
I'm Megan thirty three million dollars a year and getting
planner fascitis every six weeks. It's just you can't. That
can't happen when you're the Minnesota Golden Gophers. So anyway,
general guy, Yeah, well it was just a Wrigley Field.
So I'm a baseball guy. Yeah, yeah, I'm a baseball guy. Now,
I don't know what you know, what you know about
that or what you think about that, Burnsy, because obviously
it's evaluation is part of it. But the better the player,

(28:22):
the more money it's going to cost, especially in twenty
twenty five. And are they making decisions based on that?
Are they are they projecting too much on guys that
maybe we're injured that can come back and you get
them at a discount or do you get what I'm
saying or trying to figure out, because there's no arguing
that the portal this year was not not good for him,
and it had been very, very good at certain spots
the last couple of years.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Well that's the thing when you're the University of Minnesota.
And I think that's one of the frustrations for I
think flecking the staff is they're aware they have dead
money and they know they screwed up and that can't
happen here. I think what they would also kind of
push back and say is because of I mean, everybody
ever podcast in the Big ten market is saying we
have dead money here, we screwed up, we gotta change, okay,

(29:05):
and this is not a Minnesota exclusive issue, and they
wish they had more money, just like again everybody does,
to then go out and get better players. But the
thing you brought up that I'm curious if they pivot
this way a little bit more, is you bring up
Jack Gibbons and Jack Henderson, Ethan Robinson, Max Brosmer. What
do they all have in common? Where do they come schools?
Schools And you look at some of the dead money

(29:28):
guys on this team and they come from power for
and now again, that could just be an anomaly, and
maybe you don't want to overreact too much, but you've
clearly had a lot more success going the FCS route
or just small school route and seeing if it translates
like it has. I think that's an area where I
would would be more aggressive there.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
But just the roster.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Management with money is going to be fascinating.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Where if you were to have told me.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Anthony Smith would even be in this discussion a month ago,
I would have laughed at you.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
And I still don't know what he's going to.

Speaker 6 (29:58):
Do come back to me.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yes, yeah, where he's I mean, he's statistically one of
the best Big Ten defensive linemen in Havoc with tackles
for lost in sacks, but he's clearly struggled against better teams.
And I think Anthony Smith even said at Big Ten
media days when he was there, Yeah, I mean Penn
State tried to get me for more money last year,

(30:20):
but like I like it here now they'd have to
pay Anthony like like mid round money, which again I
think he'd be worth to come back, but to be
able to get him back would be a nice spoon.
And then the other part of this whole discussion is mean,
what do you do with Darius Taylor Because clearly, I
mean they had the for as much as I've crapped
on the offensive line, all year. The one time they

(30:43):
block well Chip, they have like an offensive line to
get to the safety, get to the safety, and Darius
Taylor turns the corner and he is running through mud
because he's clearly somehow again got a hitch in the gidea.

Speaker 5 (30:59):
Yeah he's Well, they're watching on TV. They're like even
the announcers, which I'm sure you heard a lot of
dialogue about the announcing, but yeah, the way you the
way he was running, and you're like, okay, this is
not right.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
It's it's I.

Speaker 5 (31:16):
It is a complicated question with Darius because if we
take the quarterback out of the conversation, clearly easily their
best player, right, he's different. This offense is different with him,
and he's a very good player. But if you have
him for half the games.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
It's for a third of the games.

Speaker 5 (31:36):
Alutely, Yeah, I I don't know. You know, Fleck talks
about hard conversations. That's gonna be a hard conversation because
you're clearly better with him, but you don't have them
enough to really We talk about your finances and it's
you know, you have to be smart about how you
divide it and share it. And with that caused Darius

(32:00):
to say, I want to go somewhere else because that's
I want more money.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
I don't know how they handle that.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
I mean, it's it's going to be a fascinating inflection
point to see because again I don't know what that
number is. I don't know that I would pay him
more than I think. I would almost have him take
a pay cut based on And then again it's not
his fault that, right, He's clearly had a bunch of
soft tissue injuries this year that he and the strain
in the training staff just cannot get a handle on

(32:29):
whether he does get to one hundred percent and then
he just continues to tweak it and one percent tweak it,
one hundred percent tweak it.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
But this isn't like a like.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
An Antoine Winfield situation where Antoine early in his career
was dealing with injuries, but those were like he had
like a Liz Frank Yeah, like these weren't like these
were not soft tissues. And I just don't know how
you can if you have a certain amount of money
allocated to running back, like how can you in good
faith and when you're looking around and your fleck and

(33:01):
you're the general manager Garrett Turnoff or the DPP Marcus Hendrickson.
Those are the three men that are going to be
making the decision of what is he worth? And I
know that I've I mean I've even asked Fleck about it,
like you got some difficult decisions.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
To make, and I don't end you.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
I mean, that's why you make seven eight million dollars
whatever you do. But I mean it is I just
don't know what you do because I don't know that
I would pay him that much.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Like I wouldn't pay him whatever they paid him this year.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
And if he wants to come back, great, but he
the story is going to be you always can go
somewhere and get more money.

Speaker 5 (33:35):
Well, and it's it before you had just the emotion.
Hey he's a great guy. Everybody loves him. He's a
really good player.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
Sorry, man, you got to make business decisions. Now. This
is what they wanted.

Speaker 5 (33:48):
So now you've got to make business decisions. And this
is what this is going to come down to in
a lot of cases where with players that you have
injury prone, maybe the position do you want to type
a lot of money into in the heck, this is
parent a spare podcast, right, you know there's going to
be injuries, so you know your running backs are gonna
miss games. They have to make business decisions on players.
And that might sound callous, that might sound, you know,

(34:10):
so foreign to where what we're.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
So used to the college football.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
But this reality and when you have seventeen whatever million
dollars the divide on your roster, you have to be
smart with it, all.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Right, Shoul we talk about Danny Collins when we come back.
Anything else you want to add their burnsey? No, let's
do it all right. Let's pause quickly and talk about
our great partners and our great friends at Jack's Cafe.
Couple of quick business items to get to. I mentioned
breakfast with Santa. It's already December, all right, don't let
the sunshine over here to my right in Nasa A Bahamas,

(34:44):
fool you. It's December in Minnesota, and that means breakfast
with Santa at Jack's Cafe Saturdays in December the sixth, thirteenth,
and twentieth nine am to eleven am. You have to
call to get reservations for this. You can find the
information for this on the website as well, but I'll
give you the number real quick. Si one two seven
eight nine seven two nine seven Extension one or guess
what I'm just reading. This is why you should read

(35:05):
the copy or online at jackscafe dot com. You can
do it there now jackscafe dot com. My family, my
kids and I went last year. It's awesome. They do
it upstairs. Santa's there taking pictures with everybody. The food's unbelievable.
It's a buffet. It's a really good time breakfast with Santa.
You can get all the information. I mean, I've gone
through the sample menu before here, guys, but you've got pastries, beignets, gingerbread, pancakes, eggs,

(35:28):
benedict waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, cheesy hash browns, French toasticks,
mac and cheese, fresh fruit, jello, juice boxes for chip
holiday cookies. It's unbelievable. But jackscafe dot com. We also
have some more business to talk about with Jacks, but
anything you guys want to add about just what a
perfect spot it would be to go.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Hang out this holiday season. I mean again, I was
there on Wednesday. We took my best man and his wife.
I had the steak, we had a prime rib. There
was a chicken Poppie with Walleye. I mean we had
the whole Schmorgas born and I remember all three of
my guests looked at me and when this is this
is tremendous.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Rocks Fan was just incredibly attentive.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
And then she comes over with the desserts and she's like, well,
you know, would you guys like any And I thought
to myself, WWCD, what would Chipper do?

Speaker 4 (36:17):
That's right?

Speaker 1 (36:17):
We shared a nice little Crembrewlay has sent you guys
a picture. I mean, it is just the spot to
go again, what especially this time here. I don't know
how you guys are, whether it is breakfast with Santa,
or it's been a long year, honey, let's go out
for a nice date night, or you want to go
out with mom and dad, or you want to go
bring like I did best man and his wife. It's

(36:38):
a great place to have a couple of drinks, get dinner.
I mean it is the patio by the way. Boys,
it's got more lights on it than at some random
home in the pole.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
That's awesome.

Speaker 5 (36:52):
Hey, was I wrong about the crimberl Did I stare
you wrong? Was it not the best Krimberle you've ever had.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
It is the best crembrewle I can honestly faith that
I've ever had. Sipper.

Speaker 5 (37:01):
Hey, guards, do you think there's an age limit on
the breakfast with Santa? Like, I'm not too older.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
You want to join us? We're probably gonna go on
the twentieth You want to join us?

Speaker 4 (37:09):
Did you hear that menu?

Speaker 6 (37:11):
Like?

Speaker 4 (37:11):
I would absolutely devour that.

Speaker 6 (37:13):
It's all good.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
I think last last December, I think was the first
time my wife had eggs Benedict. She never really had it,
and I brought it over, said what is that? I go,
you gotta try it. It's unbelievable, It's she now we
get it almost any time we go to eat. Yeah,
it's great. And it's a buffet. And when you've got kids,
that's the best part, right, that's it. Yeah, let them
pull up and get what they want and then you

(37:37):
go get your face painted and we're not talking about
like a couple of balloons on your cheek and then
like thanks kid. You know, Oh, there's balloon animals too,
by the way, which that was a whole nother fight.
I'd actually say avoid the balloon animals. But if your
kids are more responsible than mine.

Speaker 6 (37:50):
Take them.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
I mean, my son had the entire Santa face painted
on him, like white Beard, red hat, like there was
a Grinch walking around, just old green face. Grayson still
has in his hockey helmet red face paint. If that's
how much he had to go to hockey right after,
because we're building champions here and so it's incredible, Like

(38:13):
the whole thing's cool. So make your reservations for that
at Jackscafe dot com. And if you're hoping there was
gonna be a ticket giveaway for Saturday's battle for Paul
Bunyan's Acts, there has been. And unless your name is
John and Jesse, you didn't win. Who were John and Jesse.
It's the parent of Spare Wedding Group. It's the parent
of Spair Wedding Up that booked at Jack's Cafe a

(38:35):
couple of weeks ago. They got a free keg from
Bill Lucky and now they're going to Gophers Wisconsin two
thirty at Huntington Banks Stadium. So congratulations to John and
Jesse on their marriage. First of all, Bill wants to say,
and secondly that they have found the best college football
podcast in the Upper Midwest. The parent of Spare podcast
and I'm glad that they brought you together or kept

(38:56):
you together or whatever, and we know you had a
great time at Jacks.

Speaker 4 (38:59):
YEA quick shout out to Bill.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
I mean, name another sponsor friend that's going to give
up two tickets and parking every single week to these
games and the memories that are made. I remember what
was the game where the dad took his son and
they're on the field when they rushed the field.

Speaker 4 (39:19):
Hey had Nebraska?

Speaker 6 (39:19):
Right?

Speaker 5 (39:20):
You have you have to picture with some of the
players on the field. I mean, think about that. That kid's
gonna remember it forever. And a huge thank you to
Bill for what he does for our for our listeners,
and just being such a great friend to us.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
Really, I don't even say partner.

Speaker 6 (39:34):
Just a great friend to us, no doubt, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
And we're glad that we finally added Burnsey on the
Parent of Spare group chat. He was feeling very left
out all these at texts that Bill was sending the
chip in me.

Speaker 6 (39:44):
But I'm inclusive.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Many people telling me that I guess you are.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
I didn't know you were, but Bill decided that by
not including you on the front end. So we brought
you back in Burnsy. You can be our Cam Davis.
You can be our Cam Davis. All right, make your
holiday reservation to make any reservations at Jackscafe dot com.
You see it on the scroll at the bottom of
the screen jaxcafe dot com. All right, what do you
want to talk about with the defensive coordinator Danny Collins?

(40:10):
And we should There's a lot more things we got
to talk about. And I'm in the Bahamas. As much
as I'd love to sit here and talk college football
with you guys that Yeah, there's a lot of slide
I'm supposed to be going down at some point, but
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah, we'll keep it brief because we got to get
to the X game here. But I mean, that is
going to be the most interesting decision that I think
Fleck has to make here. It is we sit here
on Tuesday. I mean, Danny Collins is going to be
calling the defense for the Gophers. He did not get
fired after that game. He's in the building, he's game planning.
I can assure you that from what I've been told
from inside that building in the last seventy two hours,

(40:43):
the defensive staff is well aware that they need to
get their act together, that they need to have their
best week of game planning and coaching up and execution
because their tails may be on the line. I mean,
that's that's what happens when you give up four hundred
and sixty seven yards then five hundred, and you've got
a first year defensive coordinator. Now, the thing I would

(41:04):
ask is I am well aware again we've watched all
these games.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
Most of us have been you know again in person.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
For this, Like, if they do make the decision, and
I don't know what Fleck will elect to do because
I think part of the discussion too, is he's an
offensive side of the coach or side of the ball
coach like that he like he is an NFL receiver
coached offense, and so does that make it more or
less likely that he moves on from Danny when he

(41:32):
knows that he can't necessarily fix the defense like he
could in theory fix the offense. But also, do you
want to be on your fourth defensive coordinator in four years?
I'll allow almost what Tim Brewster did offensive coordinator wise.

Speaker 4 (41:48):
Yeah, I mean I think that it's never ideal your
chef on coordinators.

Speaker 5 (41:53):
I think it has more of an impact on offense
than defense obviously, But if they're going to do that
and this is I'll take the torch from from Burnsy here,
then you better step up financially and you better pay
the money to go get a veteran coordinator that you

(42:14):
have to spend money on. Like you're not going to
just say, hey, can you come here for nine hundred thousand.
That's not going to work, right, So if you if
you do make the move, and it would be hard
to justify.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
Status quo right now because this is just not working.
It's just not I'm sorry, it's getting worse. It's getting worse.

Speaker 5 (42:32):
Yeah, then this is where the administration and PJ has to,
you know, say I need the money. I want the
money to go make this splash and get this veteran guy.
This is what I've thought about. But it's going to
cost us money because you can't recycle coordinators and then

(42:56):
don't make an investment in trying to get an upgrade.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Because what would you think about if Michigan State says
the Joe Rossie experience is no longer for us and
he becomes available. Would you then if you knew that
that was going to be the option then, because again
we've seen Fleck with with these coordinator hires, it's largely
outside of I think Corey Heatherman.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
Been like not exact, it's been like like anything.

Speaker 6 (43:25):
In the family. In the family, yeah, in the family.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Would you want to have Joe Rossi back in that
if that's going to be the potential of what it
would be.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
I'm a Joe Rossie fan. I like Joe, I'd be
I think I'd probably look elsewhere just to see. That's
not to say Joe. I mean, it's just he left
here for a reason. And and you know, man, I
would I would look around and and just try to
But I would want a veteran coordinator, someone who's done
it before.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
I just think it's you know, the big ten is.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
It's so good and so competitive to be learning how
to be a coordinator as the guy in that seat.
You know, if I can find a veteran, I think
I would go that.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Well, I'm just I think we got to understand what
we're talking about here. Like Danny Collins slept in a
closet thirteen years ago Western Michigan. That's how long he's
been with PJ, right, Like, I think not knowing any
inside info, just I would I think PJ is going

(44:36):
to give Danny Collins every chance to succeed that he
possibly can't, If that makes sense, Like sure, sure, you know,
like I man, I now, just knowing how he feels
about the guy, justs in general. I mean a couple
of years ago he said to us Danny's the next guy,
when you know, in just assuming that Heatherman was gonna leave, right,
like if Heatherman leaves, Danny's the next guy. I mean,

(44:58):
just how they talked about him, he was groomed, how
Rossie talked about him, like obviously if you keep giving
up five hundred yards, like it doesn't matter if he
slept in a closet.

Speaker 6 (45:07):
I get that.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
But I'd be surprised if after thirteen years of equity
they go, hey, we've had a bad two months.

Speaker 6 (45:13):
Here We're going somewhere. This is just unworkable.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
I'd have a hard time believing that they could get
the initial evaluation so wrong. I guess is the is
how I'm phrasing it. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Like yeah, that's even where you think about the guys
he has fired, like Rob Smith got into his second year,
Mike Sandford got into a second year.

Speaker 6 (45:32):
Finished his second year.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
I think, yeah, I mean maybe maybe, I don't know
if they had a bullgame there, but he had two
full years if I remember right.

Speaker 5 (45:41):
But but we talked, we started this podcast talking about
they can't even get lined up right.

Speaker 6 (45:45):
I know you're right. No, you're right.

Speaker 5 (45:47):
We're eleven games into it and we can't even get
lined up right. But you're telling me the scheme is
not coaked. I mean it's like, wait a second, Yeah,
I get it.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
I mean everything's fair, everything's up for I'm just saying
I'm just thinking about it, like I mean.

Speaker 5 (45:58):
From a personal standport from a yeah, and I get it.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Like I just think he's gonna get every opportunity he can,
like PJ. I would just and on the Rossie thing, like,
I don't know, do you think the Shiraka the way
the Shiraka thing went down? Do you think he's you
think he's ready to be the halfway house for coaches
that have left for more money, Like I think he's probably.

Speaker 6 (46:20):
Done with that.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Yeah, which I wouldn't be too. Like I'm kind of
you guys have heard me talk about it. I'm in
I get it. You all gotta make decisions for your
family and all this stuff, or if you're Brian Kelly,
your family and but it's like, hey, guys, are we
really you know, I'm giving you guys good opportunities, Like
Rossie got an opportunity to come here the first time. Right,
he was a fired defensive coordinator. He's an analyst, he's
a D line coach, he's a coordinator. Now he goes

(46:42):
like Shiraka leaves, gets fired, comes back, leaves, It gets like,
I get it, everybody's got to make financial decisions. But
I'm kind of an if I'm PJ. I'm annoyed about just,
you know, giving guys a lot of money only for
them to leave for another nickel the quickest time that
they can't.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
Well, that's what I say.

Speaker 5 (46:58):
Yeah, I think Rossi's a good coach, but you don't
want to be the fallback, like those good guys go
out to try to get some of the grasses greener
and then it doesn't work out, and it's like I'll
just I'll go back to men.

Speaker 4 (47:05):
So like you don't want to be an as situation.

Speaker 5 (47:07):
Right, So, I mean, I think he's a good coach,
but that's why I'm saying I think I would look elsewhere,
and I think PJ would look else if he decides
to do it. I understand what you're saying about the
personal like you want.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
He's brought him along and he wants him to succeed.
He wants to succeed.

Speaker 5 (47:22):
He you know, clearly thinks highly of him. But there
has to be improvement, and there has to be You
can't have these kind of critical errors that are costing.
And it's not just enough to say we're young, we're
playing guys that we didn't expect to be playing.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
That's that's not good enough.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
Let's where I don't think it should factor into the
equation this weekend.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
But that brings us to the Wisconsin game, which is
going up on Saturday, where yep, Minnesota in the month
of November is the worst passing defense in the Big
Ten and now they get to play the worst passing
offense and might be the worst offense in general in
the Big Ten. Where I think the stat I saw
out of Madison when they beat Brett Beilama's team by

(48:04):
three scorers by the way on Saturday night, was that
was the second time I think they had three hundred
and one or three hundred and two total yards. That
was the first time since Week two they had surpassed
three hundred total yards. Like this Wisconsin offense is horrific,
Like they they cannot pass the football because they're on

(48:27):
quarterback five and a true freshman Carter Smith is out there,
Like they're very banged up at tailback. Like that whole
offense is just smoking mirrors. And then they hope that
they can run the ball. And if you give up,
like I said, even four hundred total yards like to this,
Like I just don't know how you can look around

(48:48):
and say, like we got to bring Danny back at
that point. Like again, I don't think one game should
have that much weight, but if you're potentially on the
fence about it, and again, this thing is not trending
in the right direction, I think I'm a big trends
guy in that aspect. Like this Wisconsin offense stinks like
they they're trying to do like everything smoking mirrors wise

(49:11):
because they know that they don't have the personnel because
of injuries. And I don't want this to make a
Badger message board somewhere, but like that's the reality is
their defense is really good. YEP, but we've seen not
good offenses as recently as last week turned wrigley Field
into coors Field, So figuring out a way to actually

(49:34):
show up. And the good thing too is this is
a Gopher team that's six and oh at home. For
whatever reason, the ball has bounced their way at home.
They have their defensive line has showed up at home.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
Go ahead, Guardsy, No.

Speaker 6 (49:47):
Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
I'm just saying, first of all, I'm extremely I'm extremely
proud of you for the Wrigley Field A Corsefield line,
I think. Is someone who appreciates good writing, you should
be proud of that. That's just an outstanding, outstanding line,
and you should feel good about yourself for that line
and continue to say it as much as you possibly get.
I just want you to know, because some people, as

(50:09):
someone who has brilliant lines go over the heads of
people he talks to on every day, I want to
pause knowledge. I want to pause and say, I fully
appreciate that line. I think it's brilliant, and everyone to
go for Illustrated dot Com should feel grateful that they
get to read that kind of pros for someone as
skilled as you. The only thing I'll say about the

(50:30):
Wisconsin game is I'm having reverse twenty eighteen vibes with
this game, where if you remember, Wisconsin is trailing, you know,
they're kind of, you know, bottoming out a little, not
bottoming out with Paul Chris, but not having the season
that they want to have. And here comes the upstart
PJ Fleck year two, Joe Rossi defense, we're coming in

(50:50):
five and six to snap an act streak of like
twenty years. And that's the Dmitris Douglas game. That's you know,
Tanner Morgan, that's whoever you want to do.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
You know, Blake Cash Williams.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Yeah, Like think about what that game did for the
Gophers in twenty eighteen, getting them to the first Detroit Bowl.
Then the next year's twenty nineteen.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
We know that.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
I'm kind of feeling that with Luke Fickle right now
where he's in the meat grinder in year three, I
guess it is, so it's a little bit further along,
you know, he gets the vote of confidence. You guys
know how I felt about the whole situation. I'm legitimately
like happy for the Badgers that have hung with it
because I can't imagine having a worse situation. Than they've
been in in the last couple of months, with every

(51:36):
former players hating on him, fans hating on him, And
I get it, they're big boys. They signed up for
it in a way, but that they've hung in and
now I've had a little bit of success and it's like, yeah,
they're give a guy a chance to get going. He
mentioned all their offensive issues burnsy, but I'm just having
reverse twenty eighteen vibes in like what this game could
do for but like, imagine what a great way for
Wisconsin to come in here and take the acts and

(51:59):
give the Gophers six and six season after they were
just six and three, Like, I'm sure that's what they're
thinking over there. Like So if the Gophers have any
illusions that they're not thinking that I think, which I don't,
I believe that they know this. That's just kind of
how I'm looking at it right now where the program
is and has been.

Speaker 5 (52:15):
Yeah, and you should never think anything's a slam duck
in an a rivalry game, but something like this, even
if one team's having a bad year ones having a
media good year, like it's a rivalry game.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
And I'll say this about them, obviously they've had so
many just.

Speaker 5 (52:29):
Crazy injuries with their quarterbacks and offense. But and I've
watched them a couple of times down Stretcher, that team's
still playing hard for a team that's been.

Speaker 6 (52:37):
Playing hard all year. They been playing hard all year.

Speaker 5 (52:40):
For a team that's had a brutal schedule, has a
lot of losses, gone through a lot of different things.
The one thing you won't say is they've given up
or the efforts not there. That team plays really hard.
So I mean, the Gophers are gonna have to bring
their fight. And you're right, like the temperature is hot
right now around the Gophers. If that defense doesn't perform
well against an offense that's beat up, it's gonna get

(53:02):
cranked up even hotter. And so they they, you know,
they better bring their best punch to it because Wisconsin's
gonna play hard.

Speaker 6 (53:12):
You know that.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
I will say for the twenty eighteen vibes, I can't
even go back to last year where the Gophers lose
it Rutgers and then they the week before Madison, they
play Penn Stayed down to the wire and it's a
very similar situation where okay, we give the defense the
ball back with six thirty left and all three time outs,
we don't see it again. Just like Northwestern, you give

(53:34):
it back eight twenty left, you get it back with
forty five seconds. It's a heartbreaking loss. And then they
did show up on the road in Madison last year.
So for as much as it is twenty eighteen and
I get it, you can just look back at last
year too and say, well, the Gophers responded in that game.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
Now for this one, yeah, it's gonna be.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
The coldest game of the season, probably like thirty degrees.
It's a pick them in Vegas. The Gophers are six
to zero at home. Like, I can see this and
going a multitude of different ways, but to me, it's
it's got to be centered around and it's unfortunately we
haven't even spent We're fifty five minutes in right, We
even talked about Drake Lindsay's two hundred and seventy yards

(54:11):
four touchdowns. But it's gonna come down to does the
Gopher defense have a pulse against what is an abomination
of a passing offense? Like I feel like people think
I'm being harsh. In the month of November, the Badgers
are throwing for seventy nine yards a game.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Who are they Iowa. Yeah, we'll get to them in
a second.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Yeah, Like they are not a good passing offense, and
the Gophers have been just an absolute sieve through the air.
Now they also haven't been able to stop the run,
which they're gonna have to do. But the Gopher offense
is gonna have to see Drake Lindsay air this thing out,
because the Badger defense in the month of November is
the second best run defense. And boy are they physical upfront.

(54:53):
I'm telling you that is a front seven that is
playing with physicality and reckless ab Now the secondary for
Wisconsin I have a lot of questions about. I don't
think they're particularly good. But unless this go for receiving corps,
which had my five contested catches last week, be still
my fluttering heart.

Speaker 6 (55:13):
How about that? Now they showed us and nice ball
in good catches.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
I mean they chucked.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
First of all, they chucked it. I mean Drake Lindsay,
that was his highest a dot of the entire season.
He averaged twelve yards per passing attempt through the air.
I mean they were saying, I mean Greg Harbo was like,
we know, we got to keep our foot on the gas.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Pedal.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
We're gonna keep chucking this thing deep and I almost
think until you see the defense show a pauls. I mean,
if I'm Harbo this week, I know that the over
under for this game is in the thirties. I mean
the over under for last week's game was at forty
and it ended at seventy three points.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
Yeah, like we all expected exactly Northwestern and Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
So regardless of temperature, you have to for this type
of game, you gotta think you got to score two
twenty five eight points to win because your defense just
it just doesn't have any juice right now. So it's
it's gonna be a fascinating game come two thirty.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
All right, anything else Gophers Wisconsin. You're right, we didn't.
We didn't even talk about Drake, who was really good.
We didn't talk about the kicking game which cost him.
You know, nice to see KOI, by the way, have
a couple of nice returns. What a what an impact
that can have? What did you guys think of how
the forty three seconds was handled at the end. You know,
they got lucky that that ball hit like Pj's usually

(56:31):
pretty good in those spots. I'm surprised they didn't clock
it after that first first down, just to give yourself
a breath, and then Dalen Smith doesn't get out of
bounds like we got it. You just you gotta be
smarter about that stuff.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
The whole thing, like even kicking the KOI was after
the guy has had just a phenomenal day.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
It was, what do you have one hundred and fifty
return yards something like that?

Speaker 5 (56:52):
That was a that was a choice fifty yeah, yeah,
we had ninety what's three? And it was yeah, I
mean that was an absolute choice. You know, I know
fans were mad about the uh the non pass interference.
You didn't want him to catch that ball, like that's
gonna kill it. How much time there if he catches that,
because you're out of time out still right?

Speaker 1 (57:12):
Well, first of all, that would have both the Drew
Bibber play and the jail like the Jalen Smith one
where they'd take the shot that's pass interference like USA
today images is where I pull my game story photos from.
They have amazing photos of the ball five ten yards
away and Jalen Smith is just being hugged. Yeah yeah,
Like and even if okay, say you do throw the flag,

(57:34):
it's going to be half the distance to the goal. Okay,
well your kicker sucks from forty yards. Yeah, so now
it's going to be, say, thirty two yards instead of
forty yards. Maybe that makes all the difference. So it's
that was so interesting. Clock would stop.

Speaker 5 (57:49):
To the I was screaming the clocket. I didn't know.
I mean that would have been an all timer, Like
if you run out of time, you don't even get
a chance to kick it, because.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
You're Minnesota, Michigan, Lime Grover.

Speaker 6 (58:00):
That's what it was.

Speaker 4 (58:01):
We're up there in the press box screaming, tight run
the play.

Speaker 5 (58:09):
What did they see in the portal with this kicker
that convinced him that he was going to be the guy.

Speaker 4 (58:16):
He might be a nice guy. I don't I've never managed.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Well a relationship with the special teams coordinator, right, I mean,
I don't blame the kid at this point, Like they
should never have just taken him.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
And I'd been screaming that from.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
The mountaintops, like watching those kicks tasted like the probably
fifteen twenty different people who sent me that they actually
tried malort this weekend, unlike justin Garden. Yeah, I did
not eleven o'clock kick baby, I got, yeah, Like, he's
now two of seven for forty. Here, he's three of
nine at Syracuse. Let's do my East metro education correctly

(58:51):
and say he's now five of sixteen from forty And
then I asked PJ yesterday, are you going to make
a change now from forty plus? And he looks me
dead in the eye and said no.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
Well, here's the problem.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
How much does he hates football across Minnesota? Chip?

Speaker 5 (59:05):
Well, not only does he miss I mean these are
not even close misses, And like the one, the forty
eight yarder when it's four and five, I'm like, you
have to go for this, Like why are you you
know what the result is going to be?

Speaker 4 (59:20):
Why don't you?

Speaker 5 (59:20):
I mean, I know it's not ideal, but I would
much rather trust Drake Lindsay in that spot throwing the
ball than having this kicker miss it by thirty feet.

Speaker 6 (59:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
I mean, we've seen Fleck do that.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
I mean, nobody loves field goals more than PJ. Flack
or even the third down right before that should have
been wide open to Logan Loyer, but that was the
final play for the right guards before he got benched.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Right, So it's yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
I mean, it's a culmination of different things. I just like,
I cannot believe that they won't give football across Minnesota's
own dah, you know his opportunity. And again maybe he does,
and he's just faking me out.

Speaker 6 (59:58):
The media.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Jackal doesn't want to give wiscon In the info that
they might switch kickers this weekend. But I mean we
talked about it all off season. You brought in one
guy to replace Dragan Kasich, who, by the way, it
was tied for the most misses of any field goal
kicker last year, and now your kicker this year is
two of seven from forty and he cost you a game.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
I mean, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
The offense should have had forty one points instead of
I mean, it's fun, it's it's like it puts it
on a pedestal too. And you can't compare the two.
And I'm gonna make the horrible comparison them, like you
watch Will the Thrill on Sunday. He's just like, fifty
fifty plus look easy. And then we're thinking, here, can
we just make a forty yard field goal at any

(01:00:42):
point this season? I mean, they've gotta they've got to
look at this thing.

Speaker 5 (01:00:48):
Man, if you have a big ten kicker on scarship,
you've got to be reliable from forty yards.

Speaker 6 (01:00:52):
You have to.

Speaker 5 (01:00:53):
We're not saying fifty five. I mean forty forty five
needs to be reliable.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 6 (01:00:58):
I mean in this.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
Again, I don't know they're in practice. I don't know
what Daniel Jackson is doing in practice. But if you're
going to be a coach that plays it the way
PJ does and is going to attempt a number of
forty your kicks are greater, then you need to have
a kicker that can make them like it's it again.

(01:01:20):
We go back to the portal, like what what were
you looking at? What was what were your what was
your process or what were you thinking was going to happen?

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
M all right, you want to talk a little lane
train James Franklin and get the heck out of here.

Speaker 6 (01:01:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
First of all, I want to someone please collate how
many times Chip is said I'm sorry in this podcast.

Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
Yeah, I know it it's so funny.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
Yeah, I'm just frustrated.

Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
I know people will be like a Chip's being a
grouse today, and that's why I'm saying preemptive.

Speaker 6 (01:01:45):
Sorry, but I don't. I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:01:48):
I'm grouchy that a lot of things I've seen and
heard have made me grouchy. So I apologizing for being
a grouch. So I won't say I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
I'll just be a grouch.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
I'll just be Yeah, Well it's the cloud, old man.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Well here I think we said burnsy sorry on Gopher
Football Sunday because and then we'll talk coaches real quick.
This was as good a year for road trips if
you were a Gopher fan that we've probably ever had
Manufacturing Berkeley, Eugene, Columbus, Kinnick and then a game at
Wrigley Field in Chicago. And so many Gopher fans were

(01:02:23):
at those games, all of them, all of them. Some
of them probably went to all of them themselves. Some
of them probably picked a couple, maybe some of this
picked one. The crowds were awesome at every spot on
the road. And as we said, I hope you enjoyed
the fellowship that's the football. Unfortunately wasn't there for you, right,

(01:02:43):
You did not get the payoff when it came when
it comes to your team winning a game which you've
had before at the Rose Bowl or Boulder or you know,
any bowl game that you've gone to. So I would
say I'm sorry to all of those people that made
the trip, and I hope this doesn't discourage you from
continuing to show up on the road because I know
you feel the same way I do.

Speaker 6 (01:03:02):
It's fun.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
It makes it fun when there's so many Gopher fans
on these trips, and there were a ton at Wrigley,
I mean, easily outnumbering Northwestern. The whole sideline where the
Gophers were was just packed with Gopher fans and it
was great. So I hope everybody had a good time.
And I'm sorry that the football didn't work out on
any of those five road trips this year. Anything else

(01:03:23):
you guys want to add on that? Burnsy Chip doesn't
get to go with us, unfortunately, No, I think you
hit it pretty well, all right. So let's get Chip's
opinion on this, because he's the only one of the
three of us that's ever been in Lane Kiffin's office.
Where's our guy gonna go. He's got apparently an announcement
after the Egg Bowl, which is this, Yeah, then they're

(01:03:43):
gonna say what his future is.

Speaker 6 (01:03:45):
This one's weird.

Speaker 5 (01:03:46):
It's it's very weird and I guess it's just a
sign of the times that during a season the coach
can be like openly not even the stuff used to
be used to take behind the scenes, right like Cloak
and Dagger didn't know what was happening. This is is
out in the open. His family's visiting LSU in Florida.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
It's bizarre that you have.

Speaker 5 (01:04:09):
A team that's one of the best teams in college football,
is gonna be in a playoffs and the coach is
basically going to do the recruiting thing and put on
a hat and this is where that's what that's how
you should do it, right, Bernsey for the recruiting, had
the three hats out there and then pull him out
and put him Lane might do it knowing him or will.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
He do a Lebron type of ESPN decision?

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
Yeah, I don't know how this. It'll be interesting to
see how this does. Or just sit out a press release.
I'm home, I'm whatever, Yeah, I I.

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
I don't know. I'm my hunt says he stays, but
if he leaves, I would think it would be LSU.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
I'm betting. If I'm betting, I'm saying LSU. I don't
think the ole miss.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
Athletic director puts out a statement that says, we're all
going to learn Saturday night if he's coming back. I
don't think you send your family on a plane to
go check out houses and everything in the area, like
if you can go get I mean again, the reported
stuff is, I mean, what is it like twelve million

(01:05:19):
dollars a year?

Speaker 6 (01:05:21):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
It makes no sense to from a logical aspect of
your team's about to legitimately make the college football playoff
and be eleven in one. If you win the up
and you're leaving, you're leaving your team that is about
to be in the college football playoff to go chase.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
More money, more resources, better recruiting base, whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
I mean, that is so backwards to me. But welcome
to college football, where none of this is entirely makes sense.
Plus Chip, you'll be the first to tell us Lane
Kiffin is the king of chaos.

Speaker 5 (01:05:54):
Well, he likes the drama, he likes the attention. I mean,
we talk about how he's different than he was, you know,
ten years going. He's more mature and changed lifestyle and
all that. At his core though he still.

Speaker 4 (01:06:04):
Likes being like.

Speaker 5 (01:06:08):
Yeah, he's still he still likes poking the bear, which
I kind of from someone as Afar who's not having
to cover him.

Speaker 4 (01:06:16):
It's kind of comical.

Speaker 5 (01:06:18):
And obviously else you has more money and more resources,
more national profile, all that, but it also has more
things that come with it, more hands, money, proper voices,
more voices. You got the governor coming out saying this,
you got these boosters saying this, You got the their
equivalent of their border regions, so there's more. Yes, you

(01:06:41):
have more advantages, but you also have more people that
want to have influence on the program. You have to
take that into account. But he's probably saying, I'm Lane Kiffin,
I'm you know, it's it's I can handle it. So yeah,
there's part of me that maybe just wistfully wants him

(01:07:04):
to stay it ole Miss to say, you know what,
I'm gonna stay here and I'm gonna win a national
title here and I will be a regular playoff thing
because it's Ole Miss and I built this and it's
great and I'm comfortable and I'm happy. But there's also
the reality of me saying, Okay, it's LSU. It's a
big deal, you know, and so am I going to
turn that down?

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
My wife loves watching two things on television. One is
Below Deck and one is The Real Housewives. And this
is gonna be the male equivalent starting on Saturday night.
Is Lane Kiffin is the first domino to fall, where
then you get to see the coaching carousel, the lights
turn on, the ponies start to go up and down.

(01:07:44):
Because oh, by the way, National Signing Day is next Wednesday, right,
So first of all, the whole calendar is all screwed up.
Don't get me started. We talked to Fleck about that yesterday.
But so many of these jobs have to get filled,
which means more jobs are going to be coming open.
And now then it's gonna be flight Aware Season coming
up here Saturday night Sunday.

Speaker 6 (01:08:04):
Plus I do love that well.

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
Coaches will be fired.

Speaker 6 (01:08:08):
Like this is what this is.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
If you're a college football fan and you just get
to be a third party observer. It's message board and
flight Aware season, baby, and you get to be a
part of the madness to see what happens at Penn State,
u c l A, Florida, LSU all miss Like this
is gonna be fun, boys.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
Doesn't it make.

Speaker 5 (01:08:29):
Because of the calendar, But even because of these so
many coaching openings that we're just gonna see more chaos
in the portal, Like you're just gonna see a lot
more kids in the port or players in the portal
and moving.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
First week of January, right, Well, that's gonna be the
thing that what we get to find out is because
the portal periods are now instead of I think it
was last year you add coaches on the road plus
signing day plus the portal was open, Like that's insane.
So now the portal is only one time a year
that's in January after the Bowl games, signing Day first week,

(01:09:02):
and again I think they should be like signing Day
should eventually be moved, but I mean it is. You
at least have December dead so that once all these
coaching carousel dominos do settle and you know where you're
going to be. Yeah, I mean, there's gonna be a
lot of poral movement from guys at old schools to
wherever the new coach is, but you've at least got time.

(01:09:23):
You'll have a month in between. And just because the
portal doesn't quote unquote open until January, you're still going
to see announcements starting on say Sunday or Monday of
XYZ player announces his intentions. Because this whole thing gets
done behind the scenes. It's like NBA NFL free agency
in that aspect where Minnesota is talking to x y

(01:09:45):
Z agent, Like, you don't think the SEC has already
back sourced this whole thing or even go for player
agents are already shopping. That's how this thing gets done.

Speaker 5 (01:09:54):
But so when we're record next Tuesday, how many of
these openings will be filled.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
I think Penn State gets filled. I think LSU is filled.
I think the big ones will be filled. Yeah, Like
I think Florida and Penn State will have homes.

Speaker 5 (01:10:09):
That's it because if you know, whatever Lane does, clearly
LSU and Florida have a backup plan right now in
mind that they're they've been talking about right so they'll
just pounce on that once they know did I get
the rows or not?

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
You know, the big ones have to fall for the
little one or the mid the next tier to find
homes because those coaches who want the top tier jobs
aren't going to say yes to the say UCLA's and
the arkansass of the world before they know that they're
not a candidate at LSU Florida, Penn State. You know,

(01:10:40):
we have to see the first ones start to fall. Now,
Penn State has had forever to figure this out. Same
thing with LSU, same thing with Florida. But it's even
do we see a jet fish go on the move,
even though Washington's about to finish what eight and four,
nine and three somewhere around there, like the cascading dominoes.
With this whole thing, I hope I get to watch

(01:11:01):
it from afar here because it's.

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
Gonna be fun.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
Yeah, next week will be wild. I'll say a chip
Chip said. Part of me wants Lane to stay at
Ole Miss. All of me wants him to stay at
Old Miss. I I don't mess with happiness. I think
you've got a great thing. You've got kind of a renegade,
little little shop down there at Old Miss.

Speaker 6 (01:11:18):
You can be a hero down there. The money's going
to be the money.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
I understand the allure of LSU and some of these
other big schools, but if you're in the college football
playoff where you are like, what's the problem?

Speaker 6 (01:11:29):
Yep?

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
Like, do we think he's not going to get players
now all of a sudden coming out of like so,
I hope he stays, I hope.

Speaker 6 (01:11:37):
I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
It's a I can't believe that this whole thing hasn't
leaked out, you know what I mean. That's the other
thing in twenty twenty five that God give me. But
you just think about how many regents and like how
small must this circle be at all of these places
if they can actually just say, well, let you know Saturday, yep, oh, okay,

(01:12:00):
who knows?

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
Or even what do you guys think of James Franklin
to bot Tech before we get out?

Speaker 6 (01:12:05):
I like it?

Speaker 4 (01:12:06):
Good high for both.

Speaker 3 (01:12:06):
Good.

Speaker 4 (01:12:07):
I like it, yeah, good for both.

Speaker 6 (01:12:09):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
I I mean two months ago Penn State was hosting
a whiteout college game day and they were in the
college football semi finals.

Speaker 6 (01:12:17):
A year ago.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
I think I know that Franklin is very polarizing, and
I get that he's not perfect and he's probably not
totally the person you see all the time, right, Like,
I'm sure he's hard to work for all these things
that come out after somebody gets fired. You hear all
the bad stuff about him. I'm like, be careful. I mean,
that was pretty damn good for a long time. And like,

(01:12:38):
if our crime is we've never beaten Ohio State and
we can't beat Michigan enough. It's like, all right, you
also haven't won a title since nineteen eighty six, and
the world has changed, so be careful what you wish
for Penn State is what I would say. I think
he does a good job. I think he's a good recruiter.
I think he's obviously wanted a couple of different places.
Now Vanderbilt is no picnic.

Speaker 6 (01:12:59):
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Now everybody thinks it's like, yeah, they beat Alabama, no
big deal. Or they are going to ball games, no
big deal. It's not always the case with Dandy Chip.
As you will tell us right.

Speaker 4 (01:13:07):
As a guy who grew up there. They used to
be the layup.

Speaker 6 (01:13:10):
Yeah, used to be last year. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
So I think it's a great fit. It's similar areas
to where he's kind of been. He's going to be
recruiting a lot of the same spots and we'll see
what they're but and it's a cool college football.

Speaker 4 (01:13:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:13:23):
I think he's good for both him kind of get
back on, you know, get back up and get coaching.
And I mean that enormous, astronomical buyout they reduced.

Speaker 6 (01:13:33):
That the right base nine million bucks now night.

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
Yeah, it was at nine million.

Speaker 5 (01:13:36):
So Penn State comes out pretty good too that they
are not on the hook for a lot of money.
I mean not to say nine million is not a
lot of money, but what do we think it was
going to be forty eight million or something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:13:47):
Well it's offset and language and too.

Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
But yeah, like even within the new Franklin deal here
at vod Tech is staff salary pool up to fifteen
point five million dollars, lots of seven million from what
the previous that's all Virginia. Like for those of you
who haven't looked into the virgin like, how did Virginia
Tech afore James Franklin, why would he want to go there?

(01:14:10):
Because their administration made a decision. So I think they're
going to throw an additional two hundred million dollars into
athletics over the next four years between donors, and I
think they're going to take some money from the state too.
From the way I understand it, people are more than
welcome to google it you can find out. But a
staff salary pool up to fifteen point five million dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
I mean, good googleing, Moogli.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
You guys want to do fourth down with the fourth member,
our buddy chat. Yeah, real quick, the Hotkeys somehow beat
Michigan State.

Speaker 6 (01:14:42):
I'm on the plane.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
I think black magic as always.

Speaker 6 (01:14:44):
Which.

Speaker 2 (01:14:46):
We had issues coming home Burnsy, as you know, And
then I probably shouldn't. I should have told the story earlier,
but we don't have time about how we finally get
home after what seemed like ten hours. That'll hair and
pull up to where they drop a side and there's
a bus for another team, Charter that's blocking my car.
So I can't even get out, like whatever time that was,

(01:15:07):
and Burnsy and I have to do our Sunday shows.

Speaker 6 (01:15:09):
I'm going to the Bahamas. I was not happy. I
was not happy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
The usual jovial Guardzy was not happy to be.

Speaker 4 (01:15:15):
Home, said I'm sorry, like I did be into grouse today.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
I was, Yeah, like seven hours after the game, I'm
pulling into my house when the game was in Chicago.
That that's not right, but no one cares about first
world problems. But we're on the plane and they're down
seventeen to ten. The Iowah Haw guys with like three
minutes left and Michigan State has the ball. They somehow,
you know, and then what happens. Obviously, Iowa makes like

(01:15:38):
a throw, they score a touchdown. There's what am inside
the two minute warning, I think Michigan State has the ball,
and like two minutes later someone says Iowa won, And
I said, how'd they get to overtime so quickly? I
just assume Michigan State was gonna run out the clock.

Speaker 6 (01:15:54):
No, no, no, no no.

Speaker 2 (01:15:56):
They threw at least one pass that stopped the clock.
Iowa had two timeouts. Iowa somehow wins the game in
regulation twenty to seventeen. I saw none of it, but
it's Iowa. It's stupid stuff happens, especially at Kinick Stadium.
What what do we make of a burnsy.

Speaker 3 (01:16:16):
It's just unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
First of all, that Jonathan Smith continues to find ways
to lose games like this, right, this is like, I'm
still curious if Michigan State opens because of the way
he continues to find Like think about the Gopher game
that he lost totally. They had no business losing that game.
Now to lose this game the way, I mean, you're
up ten points in the fourth quarter at Iowa, Like

(01:16:40):
it is just the amount of bounces and again, I
think you make your own luck, especially a Kinnick.

Speaker 3 (01:16:45):
But the horseshoe is so far up down there, Chip
it is just from I.

Speaker 5 (01:16:51):
Didn't get see it any any of it, Eres says,
traveling over to Green Bay to cover that game. But yeah,
and you mean you talk about the bounces I get here.
They also had a we're on the wrong side of
some officiating here. I mean that played into that too,
go from some favorable officiating on that part too. But yeah,

(01:17:12):
I don't know what Michigan State's gonna do. I mean
you could say they were, you know, at least in
these games the chance to win them. Is this his
third year or second year there?

Speaker 4 (01:17:24):
Sex Smith second, Yeah, don't.

Speaker 5 (01:17:26):
I don't know, pulling the plug after two years even.
I mean they've been some you know, soul crushing losses
in the way they've had him. But that as as
how many times have we seen this? Have we come
on this podcast and said, Kennick Iowa, how do they
win a game that.

Speaker 4 (01:17:46):
They shouldn't have won?

Speaker 6 (01:17:47):
It's like, here's the fourth member five times a year.
It seems like do you see a DeLorean anywhere?

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
Because this felt like an Iowa game straight out of
twenty twenty three, Yeah said, because this time I have
no defense for Iowa's offense. You know, I normally try
to counter the narrative and point out Iowa's offense has
been much better than the last two years than the
last two years it was under Brian Ferrence. Those offenses
somehow always made a win still feel like a loss
for three and a half quarters. On Saturday, I experience

(01:18:12):
that pain again against a team that was winless in
the Big Ten.

Speaker 6 (01:18:15):
Yikes, is what he said.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
Yeah, he says, thank goodness for Caden Wheechin, who again
three returns one hundred and forty seven yards and a touchdown.
He almost took the other two to the house. Offensive
line injuries are taking a toll, and now they go
to Lincoln, not much time to rest before they are
a bit restless are the fans. You could hear the
booze on TV after yet another three and out, But
out of the football gods reward Iowa for being booed

(01:18:41):
on their home field. They just let them win a
game twenty to seventeen, because that's just how college football works.
And even in a year where they're going to probably
be eight and four, it's just it is what it be.
You'll just have to come to grips with it. That's
what's going to happen.

Speaker 4 (01:18:57):
Is that is that a typical Friday game. I went
to Nebraska.

Speaker 5 (01:19:01):
I was reading I was reading Steve Sipple from Nebraska writer.
He had a tweet and I assume it's part of
his column. It's a great line talk about Matt Ruhle
and the importance of this game for Nebraska, right in
terms of just like how are you going to frame
the season?

Speaker 4 (01:19:16):
But he said it's a great line.

Speaker 5 (01:19:19):
Rule could sell a comb to a bald man, but
even he can't spend quote progress if Nebraska falls to Iowa.

Speaker 4 (01:19:26):
So I think they're they're they're.

Speaker 5 (01:19:27):
Framing it in like, Okay, this is a measuring stick
on the pro measuring stick, game on the program, state
of the program type game.

Speaker 6 (01:19:35):
Sure.

Speaker 5 (01:19:36):
I don't know if you ever want to do that
in one game, but we do it all the time,
Like if you got to show that this is going somewhere,
like if you lose this game.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
So there's a lot of stakes.

Speaker 2 (01:19:45):
Yeah, even with the backup quarterback though that would be
my counter. It's like you got a guy making his
third start or whatever it is. For Nebraska, like that's
tough against Phil Parker, and you know, I was kind
of just finding a knack and a way to win.
But I know I didn't read any columns saying it
was a bad win over Michigan State and Iowa City Chip.

Speaker 6 (01:20:04):
I know I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
I didn't see any I didn't see any columnists going
down there. The only thing I saw was, you know, gamer,
Mark Gronowski, Iowa finds a way. Gamer just gonna just
gonna plant out those differences. That's all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 4 (01:20:15):
It's called equity. It's called equity.

Speaker 6 (01:20:18):
Equity. Geez e q U I t y don't spell
it for me, don't spelt right. I may spell it,
but no one.

Speaker 2 (01:20:27):
I mean, some of the fans might have been doing
and complaining, but uh, I know no one's saying anything
about them squeaking by at home of Michigan State team.
I'd love to hear the fan line on that show
on that station, but.

Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
That is what I guarantee you. They were lighting it
up down in Irish. I don't think they were singing
praises afterwards.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
I don't know what anything else, guys, we want to
talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:20:48):
I'm sad that we're somehow on the final regular season
week like this season has been. We say it every year,
it's just not what you expected it to be. But
I'm sad that this is the last regular season game
into the bowl game, and it just it always goes
by too quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
For me.

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
It is crazy. I know it is wild, but that's
why we got to appreciate every week. Just enjoy the
season and the time in the fellowship. That's all we have.

Speaker 4 (01:21:16):
Hey, it's Thanksgiving week.

Speaker 6 (01:21:20):
Oh now you're gonna now you're gonna feel.

Speaker 5 (01:21:23):
I'm turning everything. I'm turning the frowned upside down. My
mom and dad we used to hate it, but every
Thanksgiving we'd have to go around to and say what
we're grateful for. So they're no longer here with us,
but I will, I will pick up the torch and say,
you know, no, seriously, I'm grateful for this podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:21:40):
I'm grateful for you too, guys.

Speaker 5 (01:21:42):
And I'm grateful for our listeners that check us out
every week and are friends of ours. They've become friends,
right They're They're part of the family, part of the
pair family. So I'm grateful for them. That's that's what
I'm grateful for this Thanksgiving week.

Speaker 4 (01:21:54):
See, I could be in a good mood.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
This seems like the guy that just that knows he's
about to die, so he goes to for the first time.
You know, he's trying to get it. He's trying to
get into heaven. Last minute, he's trying to throw a
hail Mary to go to go upstairs and set it downstairs.
Doesn't that seem like that? Burns like Chip, he's got
these life regrets now because of his attitude the last
eighty minutes.

Speaker 6 (01:22:15):
Now he's trying to make amends.

Speaker 4 (01:22:17):
I guess dragged on.

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
Yeah, Oscar the grouds down there is trying to know,
make sure we're all we're all happy and thankful.

Speaker 6 (01:22:25):
Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
That just might be the title of the podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:22:33):
So I'm sorry.

Speaker 6 (01:22:35):
Yeah, I know I echo everything Chip said. This is awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:22:38):
Yeah, I will be last week, seeing I didn't I
didn't run out in Chicago because it was an eleven
o'clock kick. But I know that Soda Social was busy.
I know pregame my buddy who was walking from his
place to the games, like I can't believe him. The
Gopher fans there were here, like, it's fun to see
all of you guys on the road. It's fun that
you all reference things that we talk about. And I

(01:22:59):
hope you enjoyed as much as we do because we
love doing it so much. I mean, I'm sitting in
the hotel room in the Bahamas for ninety minutes while
my family's at a water park to do.

Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
This, and not all heroes caves.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
But I'm just saying that, but just because we enjoy it,
and we enjoy being with each other, and we enjoy
being with all of you. So I echo everything that
Chip said. And I don't even have to do that
because I feel guilty about my attitude today.

Speaker 6 (01:23:19):
I genuinely mean that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
I genuinely mean that any final thoughts Burnsy We good.

Speaker 1 (01:23:26):
We appreciate everybody supporting us and supporting Jack's Cafe, coming
up to us wherever you see us and say, you know,
I'm sure guards you. You know, we always get told
are you a one hundred percent? In honor of Oscar
the Grouch every place we go, I've got one more.

Speaker 2 (01:23:42):
We've got one more spot on Oak Street on Saturday
before Gophers, Badgers. I will be asked about my phone
percentage no fewer than four times in that ninety minutes
that I.

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
Want to see if I get asked Halloween, baby and
related questions even after Thanksgiving?

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
But do you think your mom? Do you think your
mom drank wine on Thanksgiving in nineteen ninety one or
did she not know that she was pregnant with you yet?
That could explain a lot of things too, her holiday
party situation. I bet she probably didn't know. All right,
he's gone. This will be the social media clip. Thanks everybody,

(01:24:20):
Jack'scafe Jaxcafe dot com. We will talk to you next
week on The Pair and a spare podcast

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