Pair and a Spare Podcast 2025, Week 14 Review: Gophers Retain Axe, Season Recap, Coaching Carousel

Chip Scoggins, Ryan Burns and Justin Gaard are back to recap a snowy afternoon in Minneapolis where the Gophers won Paul Bunyan's Axe for the 4th time in 5 years. The guys discuss what the right evaluation is for a 7-5 season and what the big picture outlook is with Drake Lindsay potentially leading the offense the next few years. The Lane Kiffin domino fell to LSU over the weekend, they talk about how that went down and what it means and meant for the rest of the coaches carousel. 

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:02):
You need a Pair and a Spare.

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

Speaker 1 (00:05):
It is time for another edition of the Pair and
a Spare podcast. I'm justin guard from Kfan. We've got
Chipskoggin's mister projects from football across Minnesota and all he's
missing is Babe the blue Ox. It's Ryan Paul Bunyan
burns and it's flannel. And is that a Carhart hat there?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Today?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
You went with the You said it before I could
say it. It's the Paul Bunyan's axe burns glow up
today for those that are watching on YouTube, and hopefully
we'll have YouTube up today. International YouTube meltdown last week
in the Bahamas. I don't think I could ever get
the episode actually posted on YouTube. Got locked out of
my account for a while. That was fun. I love
doing that rather than being on the beach with my family.

(00:46):
So we'll figure it out. But how's everybody doing, Paul?
How are you today?

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Well, I'm just glad that you could make it back
here to the Midwest, and I know you tweeted out
the photo of a twenty four hour difference between you
with your toes and the white sand versus then the
white snow on you on the sidelines. We're just so
blessed to have you back here in the continental United States.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Justin yep, there's I enjoyed every second of the Bahamas
because I knew what I was coming back to. I
kept my feet where they were. I touched some grass,
as the Utah governor would say, I touched some grass
because I was following from Afar what was going on
back here and what we would be entering upon reintegration
to the Upper Midwest. And I said, I'm going to

(01:25):
enjoy myself. You know, you're a true Minnesota though. When
you land, you leave an island that's eighty five degrees.
When you leave you land in Minneapolis, it's twenty one
degrees or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
On Friday night, you're walking on the jet bridge and
you go, it's not that bad.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's not that bad.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Like the wind that gets you justin, come on.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
It is it is. And Saturday it was the snow.
The snow was the problem on Saturday. It was not
the cold. Attempts were fine. They are what they are.
As you always say, burns ei there's no bad weather
just bad clothing. I am very seasoned as a sideline reporter.
I was completely geared up, so I was warm, but
the snow just never stopped, which made the game look awesome.

(02:04):
But everything was just snow all over it, all my stuff.
You saw what we were doing out on Oak Street,
burns ey, just to try to keep everything dry. But
it was a lot easier in the Bahamas to get
the equipment going. I'll say it that way.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah, Chipped, have you ever again, have you ever covered
a game such as that where every five to ten
minutes during media timeouts they got shovels at the five
yard lines, hashes, sidelines.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I mean you've seen a lot of football, Yeah, I
think the only one I have was a Vikings Baltimore game.
Oh yeah, you remember the one that had like six
touchdowns in last two minutes.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Crazy, what that was? That would have been two thousand.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Year, wasn't it feel like?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Corderillo Patterson may have web game?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Uh what's that?

Speaker 4 (02:55):
The Joe Web game at TCF Banks Stadium. I think
there was one in December, wasn't there?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
There may have been the one the.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Real snow globe where it felt like they had a
shovel that that's the only one I can I'm sure
there are others, but that's the one that really sticks out.
You know. I was thinking about this driving home that night.
It's like, I don't know i'd want to cover twelve
snow glow games, but they're fun as hell, Like every
couple of years to see one probably wasn't fun to
sit out in, but I love those. It's there's something

(03:25):
kind of comically, I don't know, charming is the word
to watch. Guys have to be cautious with their footing
coming out of breaks, and I mean it's you know,
it's not the most well played obviously football because they
can't run and cut like they normally do. But it's
it's fun to watch. I mean, sure is aesthetically pleasing

(03:48):
when you watch a football game and snow globe like that.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
It's just one of those things where if it happens
every once every ten years, which again I think we've
been doing this one now guard fifteen years. I can't
remember a Gopher game like this you enjoyed for what
it is. To Chip's point, you don't want to watch
it all the time, but to put a kind of
an exclamation point on the home season where you go

(04:14):
seven and oh at home for the first time since
sixty seven, I think technically actually seven and oh since thirties.
I think in sixty seven there were six and oh,
but just a chaotic end to a chaotic season.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, our buddy Scott Doctor was in town to cover
the game. He'd never covered it before, and I don't
know if you saw the story he wrote. He followed around,
he went to a couple of tailgates, you know. He
wanted to do a whole thing on how do people
tailgate in this weather, which he's obviously familiar with, being
he's from Iowa, but he wrote, he wrote, for those
unfamiliar with the Upper Midwest, a stiff northern wind first
bites your nose, then freezes your soul.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Here is winter. Elsewhere it's torture. That's right. If you're not.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
From here, you don't get it. And even if you're
from here, you sometimes wonder, what are we doing here?

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Why? Did why must my?

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Why I'm looking at my I've got like a generation
Guard family photo that my wife got me a few
years ago when I became a father. Rasmus k Guard
eighteen forty seven to nineteen eleven. Why did Rasmus Guard
have to settle here in the Upper Midwest. I'm looking
at Rasmus. He looks like a nice guy. He's got
a little stovetop pipe, he's got a beard, he's got
one of those hats on from the day Rasmus, point

(05:20):
the compass south, brother, point the compass south and help
it out.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
But don't you think the fans. I mean, you saw
the student section throw snowballs, and it's one of those
things that if you're there, that's the thing. I felt like, again,
I don't think the fans would want to do it
seven times, but if you're doing this once every five years,
I felt like they really got into it and said, hey,
this is kind of fun. Let's because you're right Guardsy.
Easy for me to say from the press box, but

(05:44):
I don't think it was like bitterly cold, right. It
was just a snow that.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Was the right right and everybody knows how to dress,
you know what. No one could have been surprised when
they woke up that, oh shoot, where's my you know,
long underwear, where are my wool socks? Yeah it was,
but the crowd loved it. I was actually I would expecting.
This shows you how even my mind needs to change sometimes.
I was not expecting a great crowd. I was not
expecting there to be whatever there was. I know they

(06:08):
announced forty six it wasn't that, but let's say forty thousand,
and I was not expecting a full student section, and
it was full like early, like they sat in an
extra and it was great. It was such a fun environment.
And then obviously they're out there doing snow angels with
the acts after and it's like, if you're gonna sit
in that for five hours, do whatever the hell you want.

(06:28):
Like we were go through whatever you want after the game,
you've earned it.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
We were watching the It was kind of funny though,
we were watching the with the students were pouring on.
They were running this way and the axe was going
that way.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
They were nobody knew where to go.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I was like, who cares. They just wanted to be
on the field. Yeah, they want to kind of see
the acts, but they just wanted to be on the field.
But it was like ships passing in the night.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, captain sprinting by a bunch of drunken twenty one
year olds. Well, so what about the football? What do
we want what do we want to discuss about the
game where the Gophers I thought pretty much controlled it
the whole time, Right, they had the ten zero lead,
They gave up the one ridiculous play defensively, they gave
up the controversial touchdown, but other than that, Wisconsin would

(07:10):
move the ball and then turn it over, and so
I never really felt like the Gophers were in much
danger of losing it. And I'll be honest, going into
the game, I've said this to you, Burnsey, I had
twenty eighteen vibes about this game after what we saw
in Northwestern the reverse twenty eighteen where for people not
old enough to remember, the Gophers at five and six
went over to Camp Randall and won the Acts for

(07:31):
the first time in like a half a generation. Wisconsin
was kind of going the wrong way, kind of scuffling,
had quarterback issues. The Gophers were surging with some late
season post Rob Smith momentum, and I had no illusions
that day that the Gophers were going to snap the
ACT streak. But it makes sense in the PostScript because
they were feeling good about themselves. They went to the

(07:53):
Detroit Bowl game after, But that's how I was feeling
going into this one reverse, Wisconsin had played better football.
They'd beaten two top twenty five teams, including just routing
Illinois at home the week before. And you can't say
Minnesota was feeling great that you were at Wrigley like
I was at Wrigley Burnsey that was as down a
locker room and frustrated a locker room that I remember

(08:15):
for a million different reasons. And so I was impressed
that they kept Wisconsin where they needed to keep Wisconsin,
because to give the Badgers anything offensively on a day
like that, given their offensive struggles, would have been a
bad deal. And they got the acts now for the
fourth time in five years.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
Well that's where I'm just excited that, at least from
the Gopher coaches coming into that game. I think about
a quote from Greg Harbow where he we asked him,
you know, this isn't just another game to the fan base,
do you do you feel that? And he's like, well,
we have to approach it one to oh. But we're
all so well aware that we're judged really on two
games more than any others from this fan base. And

(08:56):
so I think the players knew that. I think the
coaches that I think that's a bad Wisconsin team, which
is part of why I thought Minnesota was gonna win
all week. But I posed this question to you, and
go for football Sunday, guards and I'll pose it to Chip.
How audibly loud do you think the sigh of relief
was from Danny Collins when he watched the freshman quarterback

(09:19):
for Wisconsin snapped the ball into the motion man and
then John nessor at the bottom of a scrum is
the one that comes away with it?

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean, I obviously they were coming go
for coming off a really bad loss. But I just
I didn't think that that Wisconsin offense was going to
be able to generate anything, to be honest with you,
because coming into that game, they were the second worst
offense in major college football in both scoring and.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Total yards out of one thirty six.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
In both categories. Yep, so they're terrible in good conditions.
I didn't think that they were going to be able
to move the ball in those conditions. And know, yeah,
they got the one play where the corner got caught
looking in the wrong place and flat footed a little bit,
But so I thought, and you know, obviously the Gophers
have played differently at home than they have on the road.
So once they got Darius' touchdown, I felt like, okay,

(10:14):
that's probably it. Ten points is probably all they need today,
and you know they're to their credit. I mean, Nester
played the game of his life. He's had some tough
moments this year, obviously at Ohio State. That was a
tough game, but you'd like to see him. I mean,
those are good plays, particularly the second in reception. I
mean that was you know, yep to cut that uh

(10:35):
that route off, I mean so it was I mean,
I wasn't surprised, and I thought they the Gophers played
that exactly how they need to play. I thought Drake
was ridiculously efficient. Didn't throw for many yards, but what
he even he had two d Yeah, he had two
drops on the first drive, so he should have been

(10:55):
like twenty to twenty four. And even you know, I
know the fans, they had the ball around midfield and
they punted. It was the third or fourth quarter when
the food Yeah, and you know me, I've been critical
of Pj's play calling in lack of aggressiveness. There's no
way on God's green or do you go for that
right there? No, you punt that ball ten out ten times.

(11:17):
But make that offense if they can go ninety yards
or whatever it is against your defense, it wasn't going
to happen. I didn't think so you absolutely PJ played
that right. I think they played it right. I thought
Drake we could talk about him. I wrote this for
my column, kind of his thirty thousand foot view. To me,
he's the takeaway of the season. We're gonna, you know,

(11:39):
we'll discuss what we think about the season. But I
thought that game came down to their quarterback didn't make
mistakes in Wisconsin's did.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
I mean, that's kind of been the story of the
season for at least. There's a lot of awards for
the Gopher offense. Lord knows, we spent the entire year
talking about them. But the one thing that they do
better than any other Big Ten school is they were
number one in the least amount of giveaways as an offense.
They had the least amount of giveaways of any Big
Ten team, so that's interceptions or fumbles lost. And in

(12:10):
the month of November, they're the only Big Ten team
to not have a giveaway and in a game where
field position mattered more than anything, And I think Tom
Weston did a pretty good job of pinning Wisconsin's offense
within the fifteen yard line, and then Drake for even
his Donovan McNabb Minnesota Vikings average depth of target where

(12:32):
everything was close to the line of scrimmage because the
weather that was the story of the year. Is outside
of one game in Iowa where a lot of freshman
quarterbacks going to Kinnick and they don't play well, Drake
Lindsay takes care of the football for a freshman quarterback,
which I think the Pride of Mound Zoo is probably
listening to this. So Adam, please don't take this the
wrong way, But Adam Weber threw a lot of passes

(12:53):
as a freshman, threw a lot of touchdowns twenty four,
but he had nineteen picks. I mean, that's a lot
of giveaways. And Drake now at the end of the
regular season with just six interceptions on three hundred plus
pass at times, that's a pretty good foundation to start with.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, if you told us at the beginning of the
year that he would have double digits and interceptions, I
think I would probably say, Yeah, that's probably typical of
a first time coureter and to have six with a
number of throws. I looked it up during the game
and he finished with the fifth most completions in program
history single season, and I think it was tenth ninth
or tenth in attempts. So it wasn't like they were

(13:31):
playing it close to the vest with the young guy.
I mean they pretty it wasn't exactly as many throws
as Brosemary I think last year, but you know, they
let him throw the ball and for him to only
have six interceptions, that's that's pretty impressive. It shows you
he has both accuracy and decision making that, you know,

(13:54):
for a young guy, that's pretty impressive. So no, I think,
to me, that was an impressive season when you consider
and the Iowa thing. I still that game. To me,
what happened to me, in my mind is the defense
fell behind ten nothing, and he got antsy and kind
of panicked and felt like he pressed for sure. I

(14:14):
don't know if Panics is right, he started pressing and
he so I think that was a product of being
behind ten nothing. But for him to have the season
he had with an offensive line that was in flux
all year that really never solidified, I don't think with
statistically one of the worst run games in college football.
They finished one hundred and thirtieth in rushing, which they've

(14:36):
got they've got to be better there. And wide receivers
who are inconsistent. There's not really a game changer in
that wide receiver room. You know, it's not like he
has like Tanner had two NFL wide receivers that he
was throwing too. So for him to do what he
did with with less than ideal circumstances around him, you
can't tell us not a successful freshman season and reason

(14:59):
to give you optimism going forward.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Well, I liked about it. I talked about it on
the radio the last month or so. He's really leaned
into the I'm going to get on your ass publicly
if you're screwing up yeah style, you know, like yelling
at offensive lineman for false starting. You know, he was
on Jevon Tracy right away, you know, on that first drop,
like dude, like let's go. We've been working on this

(15:22):
play all week, like it's snowing out here. I threw
a dot to you catch the ball. I wasn't out
there on the field, but and I couldn't read his lips,
but I imagine it was something along those lines. I
like the fact that he he definitely became more of
an alpha in that way, and I think that can
only help him in the offseason. Right now, the challenges
fix the line, get your running backs healthy if that's possible,

(15:44):
and because they played without their second running back pretty
much all year, right AJ Turner, you know, Femigi boy,
I don't think was going to get as many carries
as he thought he as he got this year, and
figure out a way to improve the pass catchers or
get more consistency out of the pass catchers because you
have a guy like you definitely have a guy your
column chip was right on, I thought, and consistent with
everything that we've talked about all season. Really from the

(16:04):
first game, first couple of games, you said, we can
see why they were comfortable giving it to a red
shirt freshman, even though the season obviously especially on the road,
didn't go the way that they wanted it to with
you know, callan Northwestern right at the top of my list.
If you're investing in the young guy for the future,
like because they were doing that a couple of years ago.
To remember, like PJ, a lot of what he was
talking about with Ethan was people don't see the improvements.

(16:27):
You got to see what I see in practice, and
you're investing in a young guy. These are kind of
the bumps you have to go with. That feels if
there's anything more than one hundred and eighty degrees more
dramatic difference than this, that that's the Bahamas on Friday
to the snow Gold on Saturday, like because he didn't
even have to say that that much with Drake this year,
that we're investing in the future, so we're gonna have

(16:49):
to live with some stuff. They didn't have to live
with a whole lot with him. They had to live
with a lot of other stuff, but with him. It
was the Iowa game. There's three picks I was thinking about.
It was it Buffalo the fourth pick where where Jamison
Gears fell.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
And hit the shoe.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, so that's not a bad pick. So I mean,
I could talk myself into two interceptions for Drake lindsay
if you take out those, you know whatever. So it
was it was a great freshman year, and now you
got to build everything up around him because imagine what
he could do with some dudes.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Imagine what he could do with some dudes.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, you're right about the leadership. I mean, I think
it's just, you know, for any young guy, it takes
a little bit of time to get comfortable in your
own skin and feel comfortable getting on guys. I mean,
particularly what is he nineteen Burns. He's probably nineteen years old,
maybe twenty, I don't know. But if you're getting on
a fifth year, six year guy, I mean, it's just
you know, it's you're probably not gonna do that day one, right,

(17:43):
even though you're the quarterback and as you're the leader.
But I think he just got gradually in more comfortable
with that part of it. But to me, it's the
decision making. Yep, I mean it really is. It's like
even Saturday, he knew he wasn't gonna be able to
take chances in that in that game, so he said, Okay,
I'm gonna play within what I need to do. I'm
gonna those short passes here, move the sticks, keep the ball,

(18:05):
you know, the chains moving. To me, that's in the
rivalry game, with the excitement of all that going on.
I mean, he played within himself and so I think
his you know, his decision making was probably number one
for me. And it's reflected in his in his low turnover. Right,
And so that's all the other stuff you're gonna get
better at. Right. I mean, here's the thing I mean
think about. And I know if you know I wrote that,

(18:28):
Collum and you can imagine what some of the reaction
I got was. I mean, it's, well, he's gonna cause
I say the thing that he's in good hands. Yeah,
he's gonna be in good hands with another program, or
he's gonna be like.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
We need to play the guards he ran from a
buck two.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
No, we're not gonna do that.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
But you know I've got other rants.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
I'll not just say he's I know anyways, I just
having this experience and the next year you just think, Okay,
I've seen this, I've done that, I've been in this situation.
I've been at Iowa's touch situation. I think he's just
gonna you always make that biggest jump from one to two,
right year two as a quarterback, and I think if

(19:07):
you surround him with better infrastructure, I think he could
take a big leap.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
And that's where I think there's two things from that
is one, especially with the amount of whiffs or I
guess not even whiffs, but not hits that they had
in the transfer portal. Or you can point to John
Nester and Tom Weston in this game as key contributors
of why Minnesota one, but overall throughout the entire season,
there's not enough hits in the portal. Well, how do

(19:32):
you combat that? How do you change that? How do
you adapt going into twenty six? And I think Drake
Lindsay should be a case study where Greg Harbo got
a freshman Drake Lindsay ready to go, and he spent
the red shirt year getting him ready, spent the offseason
getting him ready, and Drake was ready. There wasn't enough
young players that I think there are as athletic players,

(19:54):
and especially with signing Day coming up, there's going to
be as athletic as we've seen in the younger classes.
But you have to do a better job of getting
those guys ready to go, whether that's mentally in the playbook,
whether that's physically in the weight room. Because if you're
not going to be able to afford what you need
to afford out of the portal, then you need to
pour in to the young guys that you have. And

(20:16):
so I'm thinking about places like going forward next to
your offensive line, receiver, defensive line, like any position, and
you hope that they learn from that and say, well,
look at what Drake did as a freshman. Now, if
we can get that to happen at another two or
three positions next year because we know what we have
for limited budget for portal spending, then yeah, we can

(20:38):
actually take that next step. And then the other thing
is I've seen the reaction here online too, of well, great,
the Gophers beat a bad Wisconsin team. Fourth out of
the last five years the Gophers have had the ACTS.
Last time that happened was eighty six to ninety. Now, Chip,
let me ask you this. There was a stretch from
two thousand and four to twenty seventeen where the Badgers
won the AX every year. There was a lot of

(21:01):
bad Gopher football teams in that did it? Did those
games still count the same? Can you please clarify for me?

Speaker 2 (21:09):
I'm not sure what you're getting it.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
He doesn't like he doesn't like the the implication because
I got it too.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Well, Wisconsin's terrible. They should be beating in four to five.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
No, it still counts, yeah, I think.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
Yeah, Well, being favored in that game Wisconsin.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, I mean I don't think Wisconsin's oh you're asking
me looking at it from Wisconsin's like no, I don't
think they say, well, Gophers are bad. Who cares?

Speaker 3 (21:33):
It's just yeah, we won, Yeah, we won. We kept
the acts. It was great and it's been interesting.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
I've listened to a lot of things out of Wisconsin
this week, and it is just interesting how they frame it.
They don't frame it that way, you know, like, well,
just I mean they're actually perish the thought giving the
Gophers credit.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
For being young. It's just it's an interesting deal.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, it's I mean, it's interesting. Okay, we're not gonna
sit here. This is not Barry ours is Wisconsin. It's
not Paul Chris as Brett Beanle is Wisconsin. It's not.
But it's still a rywary game, still an axe. It
still matters. So it's like, you know, I'm not sure
you don't apologize for someone else's struggles.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
That's correct, exactly right, And you wonder why are they
struggling and why aren't the Gophers struggling as much? We
talked about this with all the teams in the Big Ten,
like why is Nebraska still scuffling?

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Why in Michigan State, Like.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
I don't think they're gonna be scuffling very much longer.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Though I'm fascinated by pet Fitzgerald. You guys know that.
I'm I'm glad you back in. I'm excited to see
where it goes. And but I also wonder what Joe
Rossi's thinking right now. That was a tough one, right,
that was a tough one. But anyway, we got sidetracked
there because Burnsy's being vindictive and it's not. It's not
the vindictive segment of the podcast yet. We'll get to that.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Is there anything else about the game in particular we
want to talk about? I think we've covered most of it.
It was, yeah, pretty standard victory, which is again, they
hadn't had one of those at home, right, even Yah,
even in the Big Ten, they went seven to zero
at home. And we said that going into the season,
like they have a very inviting home schedule, take advantage
of it.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
They did.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
They did, And the swing games, like we thought Nebraska
was gonna be a swing game, they dominated that game.
That was probably their best performance of the season, right
from sundown. That was their best performance. And then obviously
they needed some weird stuff against Rutgers, definitely against Michigan State,
and then Wisconsin comes here and they're feeling good about
themselves and there's so much so that people over there

(23:38):
predicting the thirty eight to seven Wisconsin victory, which we'll
get to in a little bit, Why yeah, we'll get
to a chip and they'll they handled themselves. So it
was funny. And I talked about this with Burnsey on Sunday,
because you know, I don't typically like share stuff that
I see in the locker room because it's you know,

(23:59):
not open like I'm to do my stuff, and so
I hear a lot. And in ten years I'm gonna
write the book twenty five years on the Go for Sidelines,
and chapter four is already gonna be titled Culture Versus
Skill the Nebraska series. I've already got that figured out.
But PJ talked about going seven and zher in the
press conference, and he talked about it with me, and
that is a big deal, right, Like you want to

(24:19):
protect your home field and you want to give your
fans good experiences, and they did all that, and so
he brought that up with the team like he did
in the press conference, said, we're trying to build something
where that's the expectation, and you guys went seven and oh,
and you know, that's a great job. And the team
started to like cheer that they went seven and oh
at home, and he goes, we lost them all on
the road, Fellas, he lost them all on the road,

(24:40):
like you just cut them off, Like, yeah, that's great,
but yeah, but like we got to figure that part
out too.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Which I appreciate. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, he knows, he's not an idiot.
He knows that they played horribly on the road, even
against in this in the quote unquote swing games, like
they left so much on the table, and you said
that with me at the end, there's there's meat on
the bone here that we got to go find, like
and with Drake and hopefully some additions and everything. Theoretically
they're going to do that in the next few years.
But when we looked at the schedule, we said it, like,

(25:12):
and it sounded weird to say, like they should be
six and one minimum at home, right, Yeah, for sure. Yeah,
we've never said that before about a schedule. But you
looked at it and said, if they are who they
think they're going to be go to get that done,
and it was it was a fun year to be
a season ticket holder.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
I would imagine Bernsy.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yeah, I mean these are the types of things where
again it wasn't always pretty at home, but they found
ways to win at home. And if you're trying to
continually build a fan base and one that again I
think every single year is continually getting younger, you have
to give them experiences such as what was on Saturday,
where I will continue to say it, but the student

(25:50):
section improvement from when I was a student to even
the early years of Fleck to what it is today
is just mind blowing to me. Yeah, where you I
mean you mentioned it. The student section was full before
the game. The rest of the stadium I can assure
you was not.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
They were turning off their heaters and I'm putting it
in food back in the car, and Chip.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Would tell you, I mean the overlap, and I'm well
aware to between Madison students and the u of M students.
There's a lot of friends and it's Thanksgiving week and
people come home because I think guards he loves to
tell you all the Twin Cities kids who don't go
to you they go to Madison and they get to
come home for Thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
So I'm sure pick them up in the snowstorm. I
didn't this time.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
I didn't. I backed out. We put them on a bus.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Hey, good for you. We were telling you that last week.
Good job, good job. I'm sure you were tracking his
location the whole time. Yeah, I'm sure you were still
on still on it, still on it, watching it.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
I got kids going and using the megabus or the
Greyhound or whatever you put them on. I remember get
back in the day.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah, it was. Well, you can tell all the parents
say the same thing because it's a student only bus,
like students put it on. It's not the badger buses.
I forget what they call it. But we met there
in downtown Saint Paul and its leaving like three thirty.
There must have been two hundred kids on that bus.
All the parents had the same thought.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
That did they all get on a bus back down
to Lakeville or did everybody take that.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
They stopped at lake Form and picked them up.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, they stopped on Yeah that's what I thought.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I set that one up like bel high fastball for you.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
There he did, Thank you, thank you. We're in mid
season form.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, no, I mean it was funny. I mean you
saw some what a lot, but you saw some badger
fans sitting in there in the student section, which I
liked that they can do that and there's not going
to be assaults, and you know, you can just have
fun together.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
It's fun.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
You can have fun, you can do it. So, yeah,
it's interesting. I was looking at the because I was
thinking about just big picture stuff and spending and all
these things. And you know, their tenants went down last
year and it going into Saturday's game, it was their
averaging forty six thousand, forty six six hundred. So depending

(28:07):
on how they what that, what they announced and what
it goes, it could have gone down this year incremental
not a lot, but it went down by about a
thousand last season from where they were, So I don't know,
I don't know. I mean, we you know, we can
get into the big picture stuff about you know, and
I think we're all screaming you got to spend money,
you got to spend money, but or more money on football,

(28:31):
And my response is I agree with you. And no
one's pounded on the table more than me in the
last twenty years about this you know, they need to
show a commitment to football. But have you seen the stadium.
I mean it's a fifty thousand seat stadium that they
don't sell out. Like, where's that money going to come from?
Where's it going to come from? I looked at the budgets.
I just don't know. How are you going to make

(28:54):
more money when you have a fifty thousand seats stadium
you don't sell.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
Out, see I don't. I mean that's true, but I
don't think ticket revenue or even concession revenue is going
to make that much of a dent in the bottom line.
If you look at just ticket revenue and concession revenue,
it's actually pretty flat. Like again, I think you're insinuating
over the last five years.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
It's a couple of million a game essentially is what
they get for each home.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
Game, right, So with a couple of million, Yes.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
That's what learned when they went thirty million dollars in
the red and Jean Smith steel and he's like, well,
we had two fewer football games, so we lost sixteen
million there. Yeah, it's crazy and we talked about it
at the time, but yeah, it's like two to three
million bucks if you have a good crowd and everything
that goes into it.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
And again, next year's home slate, you do get Mississippi
State coming to town. So get ready to hear your
Will Ferrell cow bells ringing throughout hunting in Bank Stadium
on September twelf, You've got I would miss too. But
it's not the greatest of home slates. Again, but again,
if I mean, this is just a whole different podcast

(29:59):
at that point, we can and a lot of time
on it this offseason where it's if they have bottom
three spending, because they only can spend what they have,
where are the other avenues to add to add more money? Yeah,
some of it's selling out the stadium and then against
seat licenses and potentially raising stuff like that, but I
also think there's a venue across the street that they

(30:21):
have to start actually selling tickets to or sure.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Well that's it. I mean they say we see spend
more money in football, It's like, yeah, and you need
to spend more money on basketball too. Is it's a.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
It's been a hell of a week for that program.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
But yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Know shows coming up at noon today. Any suggestion guards
what people want to talk about, So yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
I don't I I think we should do a deep
dive episode one book time this offseason just about because
you know, I pulled up at USA Today article from
it is March toward last year where they they brought
they got the revenues and expenses for every football program
in Division one FBS, and I mean they were thirteenth

(31:11):
in revenue, thirteenth and spending, you know, in a big ten.
Now those things have a lag. So they still had
the Pac twelve teams in the Pac twelve, but you
can still look and see what they were spending the making.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
But yeah, the latest fiscal year of data I've seen
is sixteenth in spending, fourteenth in revenue.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yeah, so it's it's again, I it's a tricky situation.
I think we've all said you got to invest. I
mean I wish I could do a library search. How
many times I said commitment and go for football over
the last year. Yeah, I wish I've getting paid by reference.

(31:50):
But I sort of you know it is. I mean,
you know, now obviously we can say, well they got
the you know, the house settlement money and all these
other things, so that's going to players. You know, that's
you're sort of hamstrung when you have a's so I
think they were fifteenth in attendance in the Big ten

(32:10):
and that's not that's not going to change because of
the size of your stadium, you're not gonna be able
to get eighty thousand. So what do you do? I
think we should do a deep dive on that sometimes
this off season try to figure out submit because it's
a nuanced discussion that has a lot of complications and layers,
and it's not as easy as all this is great,
this sucks, which is kind of the modern media world, now.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
You know, unfortunately. Yeah, there's a lot aware. Yeah, we're
aware of the.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Black and white nature of the modern media world, Burns
and I specifically, Yeah, we're definitely aware of it. Yeah,
I want to throw at you. Okay, let's take a
break quick. This is a big tease, all right? Is
it a big tease?

Speaker 4 (32:50):
Burnsy, I can't confirm, nor deny. Let's get it.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Let's we'll come back and we'll talk about it. First
thirty minutes in let's pause and thank our great partners.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
Jackson.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
You see it on the scroll on the YouTube Jaxcafe
dot com to make your reservations.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
They had a great Thanksgiving week with people bringing friends
and family in. I met some people on Sunday at
another at a Vikings watch party event that I was doing,
and they were wearing go for stuff. It was the
Brozemer watch party, which did not go great. If you're
a Max Brozmer fan, like all of us. Are not
great for me, not great for my social media. I
think the most tweeted thing I've ever viewed is me

(33:27):
telling everybody they're not going to believe what they see
on Sunday when Brozemer takes the field that one has
come back to bite me with a vengeance. People are
enjoying that one from all corners of the world. It appears.
But they said, yeah, we were at the g I said,
were at the game yesterday? I said, yeah, we were
at the game. It was great, atmosphere was awesome. They've
been to a bunch of road games and they said yeah.
And we actually went to Jack's Cafe before the game

(33:47):
and it was awesome. It was great, had some great food,
went to Jack's, popped on over to the stadium. It
was didn't want a tailgate, so we went over to
Jack's Cafe and then made it to the game.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
I'm sure people filed their way over after on Saturday night. Right.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
It's just a perfect meeting place before or after a
game if you want to watch a game, if you
have nothing to do with the game, and you just
want to go for a date night breakfast with Santa's
are beginning this weekend. Learn more about that at Jackscafe
dot com. My family will be there one of the Saturdays,
still trying to figure out exactly which one because they're
future professional athletes, so we have them in every sport
imaginable right now. The uh, we're still trying to work

(34:22):
that out. But it's an awesome time. The kids are
gonna love it, face painting, an awesome brunch. Santa's there,
it's upstairs in one of their great banquet rooms. It's
just the perfect time. If you haven't tried it to
go check out Jack's Cafe.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, and don't tell my wife this, but I think
I'm going to take her this this week. She won't
listen to this, but so you won't know. But is
that you know, it's post Thanksgiving and she did a
lot of cooking all the family, We did all that,
and I'm sure she's like I just don't want to
cook this week? Would that be like the best? Like, hey,
guess what, we're going to.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
Be a husband? How do you keep this magic?

Speaker 2 (34:52):
I don't know, it's unbelievable, you know.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
To be this romantic unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
I thought it.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
A great idea.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah, I mean it's it's you know, with all the cooking.
It happened on Thanksgivings, like it's nice to have a
night out where you can just you know you're gonna
get a great meal, great service. On we'll parking lot,
I can't wait.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
Well, we did have some listeners after the after the
Wisconsin win. I think Jack was the one who sent
it to us. It looks like there's a couple of
Gopher fans and three Badger fans that actually went to Jacks.
I can see the photo out of them with them
out on the patio. We appreciate all of you supporting us.
Who again, Jack's Cafe is one of my favorite places.

(35:43):
I was just there from the pot pie to the Walleye,
to the steak, to chips, prembrew let chipper. We also
got to talk about We'll get into some parking discussion
at the end of this too on ironically, but Jack's
Cafe Baby.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Jackscafe dot com, j a xcafe dot com. All right,
what's your burns en question, Bryan Burns the burns in
question for Chip?

Speaker 3 (36:05):
What do we got?

Speaker 4 (36:07):
So, I think for the amount of years we've been
doing this, I know some of your your favorite phrases
and one of them I think you've used over the years.
And I want to ask you if you still think
it's true, is you are what your record says you are?
And this is a team that finishes now seven and five,
same as last year's team. And I know there's a

(36:28):
lot of consternation in the air about this seven and
five versus the last seven and five, But let me
ask you, is this team who their record says they are.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
That's a good that's a great Burns in Questions question.
I would say, like the soundboard there, Yeah, we gotta
get a sounder for that. Yeah. You know what's interesting,
Fleck was after the loss of Northwestern, you're saying, you know,
we lost ten NFL guys, and which is impressive that

(37:00):
you know, Minnesota had ten guys that are on the
NFL rosters last year or this year that were on
the team last year. But there's part of me it's like,
and what did you do with those TfL guys? You
went seven and five? You know, it's like you didn't
get enough out of that team. I said eight and
four going into this year because I thought that the
home schedule was incredibly favorable, and it turned out to

(37:21):
be that way for them. This is a it's a
I will say it is the strangest go for team
season that I can remember in a while.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
Yeah. I feel like we said that last year too,
but this one in particular.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Yeah, this one because of the nature of the games.
I think the blowouts probably say that. And then if
you asked me to characterize this season, I would say
it was fine, it was okay. I know everybody wants
to say it was great or is terrible. It's it's

(37:57):
to me, it's more complicated than that. I'll talk about
this season in about the big picture, right optics. To
me matter, four of your five big ten wins came
against four of the five worst teams. I mean, I
wrote it down there. They're they're big ten wins. The

(38:21):
teams combined in the Big ten conference games. I don't
care about non conference because teams can schedule whoever nine
and thirty six. So it wasn't like you're beating up
the Titans. You know, you're you're beating ohero to nine,
Purdue one in eight, Michigan State two and seven, two
and seven, Rutgers in Wisconsin. As you guards, Heer said,

(38:42):
you needed some favorable officiating to beat Michigan State. That
game may have turned if they don't pick up that
flag Rutgers. It takes the center snapping the ball when
Athan's not looking for it. So it wasn't like they
were dominating those teams and then get blown off the field,
you know, in the road games, but you won. You
want the games you're you know, you finish with the
winning record five and four to Big ten. You don't

(39:04):
apologize for other teams miseries. So I think he was fine. Okay,
it's better than having a losing record, But I think
the losses really bug me. You know, the Cow loss
bugged me. The Northwestern second half buged me. Not showing
up to play at Iowa bug me. Ohio State in Oregon,

(39:27):
You're gonna get killed.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
You know a lot of teams you'd like to be
a little more competitive I'm not saying that that's finally
get killed. I you know, before the Oregon game, I said,
just show up. I'm not expecting you to win. Just
put it be in the fight, and they weren't. So
I think it showed that they can beat bad teams
and they're got a long way to go to be
the upper echelon. That's this season. Big picture, I think

(39:50):
they submitted themselves firmly as a middle of the pack
Big ten team. Like there's nothing that I see that indicates, boy,
they're gonna have back to back four win seasons. They're
not gonna you know, they're not on the edge of
going through the wielders like Michigan State is right now,
like Wisconsin's doing right now. I don't see that coming.

(40:14):
You're at a seven win thing here, like, can you
pop it up? Can you get it to that? Next?
As guards? He said to what PJ said, we got
to get more out of this. Can you get it
to that? You're not going to be a consistent ten
win team program. Sorry, I know people want that. I
just don't see that happening. With the money and the
way college football is, you're solidly firmly in the middle

(40:37):
of the Big Ten. Can you get it another step up?
That's that's what I want to see.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
So the other question I want to kind of get
your reaction to is I looked after the game because
with this win, the Gophers finished five and four in
the Big Ten, So they're above five hundred and the
Big Ten. That's the fourth out of the last five
seasons they finished above five hundred and the Big Ten.
The last stretch they had like that before this one.

(41:03):
They're currently on. Murray Warmath was the coach and we
were back in the nineteen sixties. So when you hear
something like that, so essentially for the first time in
sixty years, they've finished now above five hundred four of
the last five seasons in the Big ten. Kill never
did that, Mason never did that. What's your reaction when
you hear it again?

Speaker 2 (41:23):
They're solidly in the middle of the Big ten where
they have But I will say, this is not Barry
Alvarez is Wisconsins. This is not Paul Chris Wisconsins. This
is not Joe Tillers Purdue, this is not Mark d'antonio's
Michigan State, this is not Gary Barnett's Northwestern.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
Those teams right fas Ohio State, it's dan Landings ore Agon,
It's usc so pretty good, Washington's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
I mean it's different than those days.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yeah, is different.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Yeah, it's different.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
I mean you're teams, yeah, ed teams. But I'm saying,
like those teams that we've seen that have been traditionally
good or at least competitive, respectful, they've backed, they've they've
slid back, whereas I think the floor. What Pj's done
is he's raised the floor. Where again you're solidly in
that middle of that big ten peck in order. And

(42:10):
I don't see signs of this is going to be
a three win program, four win program back to back years.
I just don't see that happen. I think you can
have an expectation, Okay, bad year is going to be
six and six. Right, He's kind of in that six
to eight win thing, which is if that's the expectation,

(42:32):
like you just say, okay, six eight wins bank it.
That's a good spot to be. Now, can they get
to where Okay, they have that year where they you know,
they did it in twenty nineteen, can you win nine?
Can they win ten and do that back to back years?
I think that's to me what the next step for
this program is. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3 (42:49):
It does?

Speaker 1 (42:49):
I agree with everything you said. I agree with everything
you said. For the most part, I think the season
was fine. I think it was a fine plus right,
Like you win all your home games, you've got the acts,
you you've got, you feel like you have the quarterback,
and like four out of the five years you've bet
in Wisconsin, however many years they've had the winning record
in the Big Ten. Like, all of that is, they're

(43:11):
in a good what did I say, Burnsy on Sunday?
They're in a good, solid place like they they are
in that stability, that area, and as PJ said, now
we got to go get more Like now you do
have to understand, like, let's go pop and have a
ten win season somewhere when the schedule allows it and
you play well, Like I.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Think all that's fair.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
I guess the question off the question would be is
fine okay for people like are we because I feel
like sometimes we get to a place where and I
see it all every week another seven and five or
you know another you know didn't who'd you beat?

Speaker 3 (43:44):
You know?

Speaker 1 (43:45):
It's like, well, when you beat the bad teams and
losing the good teams, you're gonna end up where they
finished right in the middle of the Big ten, right
and tied for seventh with Big ten record I think
ninth if you like, literally right in the middle.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
Sounds like a lot of Viking seasons I've watched over
the years, by the way.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, So I guess that's the question, And is fine
good enough for people?

Speaker 3 (44:02):
I would argue it should be.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
I mean, but you do have to have at some point,
you do have to have like if we have five
more years of seven and five, then you go, okay,
are we spinning our tires here? But since they're going
to have that either like with Drake and with how
some of these other things are going. So I guess
that's the bigger question because I always feel like, and
again online's not real life, but even conversations I have

(44:23):
with people just in my life about where the program is,
I'm like, they're in a good, solid spot, which has
not always been the case. And now the challenge, as
you get higher and higher is to try to figure out.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
How to crack that. You know.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Even a guy came up burns Eat on Saturday and said,
you know, is it too much to ask that they're
in the playoff mix, you know, once every seven or
eight years. And I said, I don't think that's unreasonable
at all. I think that's what a lot of us
have said. That's what we and they would have been
in the playoff mix in twenty nineteen. Now that's seven
years ago, basically once the clock hits January first, right, Yeah,

(44:57):
so you do want to be in that mix again,
and probably sooner rather than later. But I just think,
you know, a good, solid, fine season, like you keep
stacking enough of those up, eventually, I think you are
going to have the breakthrough where things pop your way
for a ten and two or a nine and three
and you're in the playoff mix.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Well, this is where I would say two points on this.
You know, we know the hardest thing to do is
to find a good quarterback, right, So you're going where
I was going. I will be disappointed. What's that? Yeah?
I will be disappointed if Drake is here as a
starter for four years that they don't have a couple
pop up seasons in there, because I think he that's

(45:40):
the starting point you build around that, you should have
some pop up seasons And I don't know if you
guys feel this way, and you know every coach is
optimistic about their team and need to do it. But
I just think when PJ starts the season saying, be delusional,
why not us, this is a really really good football team,
a really really good football team, be delusional? We saw
in India. Do coaches speak optimistically about the team. But

(46:04):
when you do that and you lay yourself out there
and then you get blown off the field and you
barely be you know, some of these teams that you
feel like you should handle, I think that works against him.
I think people are like, no, wait a second, you
sold us something here that we're not seeing, and so
I think that clouds the discussion. Maybe I'm wrong on that,
but at least that's sort of how I feel.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
I could not stress to you when I was there
at Big ten Meta Days and I'm hearing him say
these things about be delusional. I'm thinking to myself, have
you looked at this year's team thinking this is not
the team to be delusional with? Yet that was the
messaging you went with. And I think that was a
poor choice because to your exact point, I think people
probably had higher expectations for that if you were going

(46:47):
to do a B delusional one, I would have got
it with two or twenty twenty four team with that.
But I want to cover great seasons like you two
want to cover great seasons. And that's where the thing
would be. You've got the quarterback and he's gonna be
here another couple of years. I feel very confident right
now that Drake Lindsay will be here in twenty twenty six.
And again, I know, I see the tweets and I

(47:08):
run the message boards and well aware, but you've already
hit the hardest part. Now it's can you build this
thing around him? Can you get an offensive line that
can run block? Can you get some receivers that can
get separation? Can you find running backs that can stay healthy?

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Like?

Speaker 4 (47:24):
This is what you've been waiting for for a very
long time. Is Drake is the guy we thought Athan
was gonna be or even Tanner Morgan had really great
seasons here and Tanner will be the first to tell
you Drake is more physically gifted and mentally gifted than
he was. You've got the quarterback, and now can you
build a roster around him? And that's gonna also Again,

(47:46):
we haven't spent a lot of time on the defense.
We'll see what happens on that side of the ball.
But you have to have this thing where you've got
the hardest part. Got like you got that going now,
it's can you build a team around him to have
a and again a twenty nineteen type of run. I mean,
that's gonna be the thing we talk about, all.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Right, anything else big picture, because we have a lot
we're not gonna get to today. We're not gonna spend
We're not even gonna get.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
To my game.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Would this happen in Minnesota, But don't worry, We'll be
able to that. I don't want to derail it with
my own pettiness. I'm trying to be stelpless. Forget about me.
I love you family or family, and so I'm gonna
try to be selfless here. Let's talk about some of
the coaching carousels here in our final ten minutes or so,
the Lane Kiffin domino fell as only Lane Kiffin can
you know he's talking all week about you know, I'm

(48:31):
gonna pray on it. And apparently when you when you're
in the South and you pray, the god you call
is Nick Saban, You don't check the You don't go
up to Heaven. You go to Tuscaloosa or whatever lake
he lives on in Georgia, and you say, coach, what
do I do? And apparently Nick Saban said, you go
to LSU, dummy, it's the best job. It's the best
job in the country. Is kind of how I read
between the lines. I'll be honest, I'm very bummed. I

(48:52):
wanted to believe. I wanted to believe in I wanted
to believe in the humble lane train in hot yoga,
in you know, Oxford, and everything that went with it.
I feel bad for the kids that are there the team,
even tho I'm sure a lot of them are going
to just roll over to Baton Rouge with him. I'm
too romantic about this stuff and feel like people should
stay forever. But I thought he'd already proven that he's

(49:14):
got pretty good support there, making pretty good money there,
he's got a great team there. But there must have
just been something different about that purple and gold LSU guys,
where he is now the coach of the Tigers and
will not be coaching Old Miss in the playoffs, which
by the way, he shouldn't be. I agree with that
as well. But I'm bummed because I feel bad for

(49:36):
given we're in a place that perpetually has not had
a lot of hope in all of our sports. The
worst thing you can do is have your get excited.
You make a good hire, he builds your program, and
then he leaves, and for a conference rival, that's a
tough one, I would think for Mississippi fans. So I'm
bummed for them, and I'm just bummed for the whole
situation that way. And now we see what happens in

(49:56):
Baton Rouge ship.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
You can go, yeah, say I. I I started out saying
I'm rooting for Indiana to win the national title. I'm
now rooting for Old Miss too. I'm pulling like crazy
for Old Miss to uh get on a run and
win this thing. We should talk about the calendar, because
I there was no way this was not going to
be messy. It just it was inevitable when you have

(50:21):
the calendar set the way it is.

Speaker 4 (50:25):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
I mean, he's shown that you can be a playoff
team in Ole Miss. And if you do it, you know,
you know, if you got the right players, right coach,
you can do it. But if you say, is it
easier to win a national title LSU or Old Miss.
I think everybody would say, oh, miss or LSU because
of the you know everything we know about so and
it doesn't surprise me. I mean, we know coaches jump

(50:47):
around a lot of times to start the clock over.
And he's been there six years and a new challenge
and they always Lane's proven that that you know he's
going to after a while, he's gonna, look, you want
to go somewhere else, And you know this is what
coaching is. They jump around, So I guess I wasn't surprised.

(51:10):
I think he was speaking of delusional. Delusional if he
thought that school was gonna let him keep coaching through
the playoff. Why he was coaching coaches and players to
LSU and recruit for them not gonna happen, nor should
it happen. Sorry, So whatever the conversations where he had
to be like, come on, if you're gonna take a job,

(51:31):
go go do it that you know, but you can't
have it both ways. And so I'm really pulling for
Ole Miss. I would love to see them just get
hot and go win this thing.

Speaker 4 (51:42):
Part of being a grown up is making grown up decisions,
and I know that this was a very difficult decision
for Lane, but to then kind of drag your heels
as we kind of heard from the media on Saturday
night or even Sunday morning, which did you guys see it?
Even part of this saga was like Marty Smith out
on the tarmac or outside of his is awesome.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
The tweets about Marty Smith being like one hundred years
old still waiting for a Lane Kiffin decision or I
mean that's where that's us at our best as a country.
You know, when people can be creative like that and
have funny memes and gifts and just posts about just
ridiculous scenarios. That's where I'm proud to be an American

(52:24):
back going on nowadays where you're not really sure, but
like we have it in.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
Us to be hilarious, and we have it. We have
it in us.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
And so they were so Marty Smith, God bless them,
God bless them.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
And then he gets the interview where it looks like
it's like post nuclear fallout in the background and just
a very somber Leane Kiffin. But again with Kiffin, he's
never cared about his public image. I mean, right, or
wrong compared to most individuals in this sport.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Right appears no, no, he does not.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
It appears that he does not. It's not does not
bother him.

Speaker 4 (52:59):
So again I get why he wanted to coach them,
but I hated that even in his opening press conference
at ALICE. I think he said three or four times,
you know, I wish I would be able if you
wanted to.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
You could have just stayed, like you can coach them
next year too.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
That you led to the playoff and then you looked
at those players and again I hear what you say,
trust what you do. I hear that you say you
believe in them, and then I see you leave because
you don't believe in them. You don't think they can
win a national championship there, So I get why he
did it or even now. My favorite stat too is
I saw one of the LSU beat writers say, for

(53:34):
this brief moment in time, right now, and this is
Wilson Alexander who tweeted it. LSU is currently paying Lane
Kiff and Brian Kelly and ed Orgeron all here at
the same time.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
Ed has one more payment left. I think of his mood.

Speaker 4 (53:46):
Wow, Yeah, three different coaches that they are still paying out.
And then again it's just the coaching search where you
get the governor of Louisiana involved, like this is what
had to happen if you're going to do that. But
just a wild and the kiff and saga.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
Well, I would say, you know, it's obviously you know,
a marquee program where it has all the advantages, also
has a lot more pressure and a lot more people
that have our hands in the mix, whether it's the governor,
board of directors, all these you know, people that want
to be influential in the football program. So now maybe
Lane will be able to push that aside. I don't know,

(54:23):
but it's it's LSU is a big thing and there's
a lot of people it is, and so there's a
lot of pressure that's going to come with that job.
And that is a place where it is national championship
or bust or it's a disappointment. It just is and
would you bring his name and the money and everything
that's thrown down that's going to be the expectations. So
I don't think there's been a lot of talking, oh

(54:48):
this is opening the door to man, this is going
to become a new thing. Coaches leaving. I don't think so.
I think this is an outlier. I think it's a
unique situation. How often is a coach going to be
in a playoff, have a team in a playoff, and
have the opportunity to go to another school of blue
blood blue blood? You know? I just well, it happened again. Maybe,

(55:09):
but I don't think it's going to be an annual
thing that we have to just like panic and okay,
now we've opened another uh, gone down another rabb hole.
I don't I don't see that. I think this is
an isolated thing, special circumstance, a unique circumstance. So now
does the calendar need to be adjusted?

Speaker 3 (55:30):
I don't know what you do? Well, how do you.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Do you move the games up?

Speaker 3 (55:33):
I mean mid August.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
And then like a signing day in January? Like, I
don't know what you can do to mess with the calendar,
especially if they're going to keep adding games, which they're
gonna do right with playoff expansion, Like you almost have
to move it up the season like we talked about
and have a week double zero or a week triple
zero and have.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
It in the middle of August.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
I don't know what you do to adjust the calendar
because and honestly, that's probably a big part of the
reason why PJ flex at Minnesota because he straight up
told people his last year of Western Michigan, I'm coaching
this team in whatever bowl game we make. They made
the Cotton Bowl January first, and a lot of schools
had maked I don't remember who was open that year,
but a lot of schools had to make their higher
before that, right, And the Gophers fired their coach after

(56:16):
the bowl game, and oh, Pj's available. He's done with
Western Michigan and now he's there right like like there's
just the calendar is Yeah, it's not ideal. It's terrible
because it sets up stuff like this. But I don't
know how you fix that necessarily. I just don't. They've
tried to do it with the portal for playoff teams, right,
they only have one portal now because that was the

(56:36):
other thing last year. Like the Penn State backup quarterback
ends up leaving during their playoff run. What's he supposed
to do? Like he's transferring, he needs to get into
the portal. We'll go find a place.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
It's what are you gonna do it?

Speaker 2 (56:48):
You gotta have signing day at some point. Yeah, you know,
it have to be able to side of these players.
I don't know if if it's because of this one
case or you're just gonna absolutely blow up the system
and make dramatic changes to the calendar because Lane Kiffen,
you know, wanted to go to LSHU. I don't I
agree with you. I don't know what you realistically can

(57:10):
do in terms of moving the calendar.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
Yeah, it's a whole different op season. I do want
to ask you guys. Jonathan Smith out, Joe Rossi out,
Pat Fitzgerald in within I think it was to twelve
hour span.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 4 (57:24):
Great hire pack in the Big ten.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
Yeah, I mean I think Big Ten's perfect for him.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
I think it's a perfect hire. I think it's a
great hire.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
When I saw him in Iowa City because his kids
will walk on an Eyowa, I wanted to walk by
him and say, can't wait for you to get back in,
But I decided not to be a rube and let
him have time with his family. And it's great. And
obviously they had that one in the chamber for a while.
For sure, they had that one in the chamber for
a long time. There ain't no national search in that one.
That's Hey, Jonathan Smith's out, Hey Pat go Green, Let's

(57:58):
go well.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
I think that's I mean, look what he did at
Northwestern and now I think we can do with the
money and resources that they have at Michigan State. I
think it's a I think it's a home run higher
for them.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
See I'm a little lower on it than you guys.
But I also think the under talked about part of
this is this tells me that Kirk Farrence is going
to be coaching a while because I think, especially with
his kid there, Pat Fitzgerald at Iowa, if Farrence was
going to be retiring soon, maybe fitz sits out this
cycle to see what would happen with the Iowah hawk
ed job. But I'm going to assume this means Farence

(58:30):
is staying there. If I'm going to go on the
other side of the coin here, I want to see
if fits can get this thing back, because where he
really fell off towards the end there was when he
lost his defensive coordinator, Mike Hankwitz. Like that thing once
he retired, and I think he's now seventy seven years old,
Hankwitz is really kind of went in the tank. Now, Yes,

(58:50):
he elevated Northwestern to a place that now David Brown
gets to run because Pat Fitzgerald walked in terms of
how high the floor is now, but Michigan State also
loves himself and it's not clean baggage. Now again, I
don't know the language that was used in terms of
Fitzgerald and Northwestern how that thing ended, but Michigan State

(59:14):
wants to win, baby, and said Joe Rossi back on
the street.

Speaker 3 (59:18):
Yeah, I'll be interesting to see where he ends up, right,
because yeah, I mean he could still be here.

Speaker 4 (59:25):
Obviously, I don't even think if I'm him, I probably
don't even coach next year because I believe the whole
deal was when he left Minnesota, he got a fully
guaranteed three year deal that started in twenty fourteen. This
was only year two. So he's gonna get if it's
one hundred percent of his pay, it's one point something million.
If it's half pay, he's gonna be living off three

(59:45):
quarters of a million next year. So fascinating stuff, or
even fits doesn't take this job if he thinks he's
getting Penn State, which as we record here on Tuesday morning.
Maybe by the time the listeners have this, Penn State
has closed on the BYU coach. That whole saga to
me is you don't fire James Franklin if you don't

(01:00:08):
have something lined up. Now. I've seen some conspiracy theories
Chip where Jimmy Sexton, the college sports agents are, has
made life apparently very difficult for the Penn State a
D because he's so mad that he fired James Franklin,
and maybe he's driving a very hard bargain, which I

(01:00:30):
believe there's probably some truth to that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Probably, Yeah, but are you.

Speaker 4 (01:00:34):
Surprised that, Yeah, and you have Black Saturday or Black Sunday,
whatever it is in terms of coaches fired and coach
is hired, we're still I mean, they fired Franklin two
months ago at this point and they still don't have
a guy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Yeah, it was I thought it would have happened quickly after.
That's what I would have thought, you know, And I
don't know who. I would love to know, like what
their list was, like they're one through four and where
they're at on their list right now, so I don't know.
I mean, yeah, I'm sure their fan base is getting restless,
right now. But if it's going to be the BYU coach, again.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
Fascinating higher all around, if it is BYU's guy, because
again that's a guy. Again I've read the stories about
him where again he was a BYU fan growing up.
He used to listen to games outside of the stadium
because they didn't have enough money to get into the
stadium at BYU and BYU, as we've seen in this

(01:01:33):
nil period, has certainly a lot of money. And the
fact that this got national steam Monday afternoon, Monday evening,
yet wasn't finished overnight, yeah, tells me that there is
still some serious dialogue going on between them. So if
they don't close on the BYU guy, which again I
think they will, even that fit there is just fascinating

(01:01:55):
to me because again we saw Clark Lee get the extension,
the Missouri coach get the extension. Drink Cognetti rule, I mean,
name your guy. There's been a lot of extensions because
of this job. But I don't think Pat Kraft, the
Penn State a D would tell you that he expected
to be here the day before signing day and to
still not have a coach.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
I do find it fascinating. I don't know, like how
many schools contacted clark Lear's agent. But for a guy
to say I'm staying at Vandy, yeah, well I'm sure
he has some options, right, I mean that, and hey,
they just put forty five on my school.

Speaker 4 (01:02:30):
So what was the best win of Tennessee's season? Would
you say it was? Because again I looked at the
schedule for Tennessee, I think the SEC wins three of them.
Their coaches got fired. Would it be roaded in Florida?

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
Probably Florida. I mean, even though Florida is not Florida, but.

Speaker 3 (01:02:48):
It's still they're hiring the two lank coach.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
It's still Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Yeah, that's a disappointing. There's no way to mean speaking.
My home's not my home, my monitor, but my school
is to give up forty five at home.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
That's tough.

Speaker 4 (01:03:02):
That's going to be a future Heisman finalist. Diego Pavillo
to you, by the way, mister Scoggins.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
Can I uh, I got to know, well, I know
we gotta go.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Yeah, but this just popped on Twitter a little while ago,
and it's just food for thought. Here we were just
talking about Pat Fitzgerald and Michigan State I'm just gonna
read you these tweets. You're just talking about money and
how you're gonna pay for stuff and blah blah blah.
Michigan State Athletics launches for Sparta, the Capital Initiative for
MSU Athletics, a one billion dollar initiative designed to elevate facilities,

(01:03:31):
enhance the student athlete experience, and secure Michigan State's position
as a leader in college athletics. You want some of
the options that they're doing. I reimagined Spartan Stadium, including
the new East Tower, or the diversity of premium seating
options and your run functionality will provide football fans the
best in game experience in college football. For Sparta is
designed to impact every Spartan student athlete with both sports
specific facility improvements across multiple venues and shared spaces such

(01:03:52):
as a student athlete dining facility. The conceptual image displays
new premium options such as an exclusive club and courtside
suites at the Breslin Center by the Way building the eighties,
not nineteen twenty eight like Williams Arena, providing an elevated
experience for fans at Spartan basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics events.
A new and renovated spaces and historic Jennison Field House
will support volleyball, wrestling, and gymnastics. So what the competition's doing,

(01:04:15):
boys and girls? This is the league Minnesota's in. And
I talked to Mark Coyle at Wrigleyfield about what they're
thinking about our wrigley Field Williams Arena, and they're not
thinking a lot right now, except they've talked about it
and it's on pause because now they've got to pay
the players. And here we are. I'm just saying, that's
what people are doing. Yeah, So we need to find

(01:04:38):
some money. We need to find some donors. We need
to find some people, because this is not slowing down.
None of it is slowing down. And everybody's crying poor,
but they're still pouring hundreds of millions and in this
case a billion. Apparently that's the investment that programs are making.
So when we talk big picture and all these things,
this is gonna be the tricky part because your expectations

(01:05:01):
have to be financed, as the great Rick new Heizel says,
and if you don't, you can still win. It's just
a lot lot harder. It's a lot lot harder, So
we'll see where it goes. Is that a depressing note
to end.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
On if you're past Yerald?

Speaker 3 (01:05:17):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
Yeah, Tom was speaking of coaching forever. Is it was like, yeah,
I got another few years in me. I got a
top ten team, No big deal. So anyway, it's just
another day in college sports, another school spending a billion
dollars on enhancements.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Crazy your is this your signing day? Is this just
like you're in the bunk or you got signing day
coming up so you can just like put your workman's
attire on. Is that what this is?

Speaker 4 (01:05:42):
Yeah, it's the Paul Bunny outfit. It's the uh I
didn't feel like doing my hair outfit today.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
You're chopping wood in the basement on recruiting.

Speaker 3 (01:05:49):
Yeah, that stove going.

Speaker 4 (01:05:51):
Next episode, we'll get talk signing day. We'll get to
see where they go to their bowl game. If you
ask me today, I'm gonna guess they're in Arizona against
probably a TCU or i Awa State, one.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
Of those music city Huh, Come on, Nashville, it's been
twenty something years.

Speaker 4 (01:06:04):
I don't have enough time to go on my rant.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
I know we missed out on some rants. Today.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
We're gonna have to get some rants going there. We'll
get next Yeah, we'll have playoffs next week. We'll have
bowl game next week, We'll have signing in next week.
We'll get into other big.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
We got to vote this weekend. That's right, is it
this weekend?

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
Yeah? Yes, because we can't give it out right after.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
Army Navy Yeah, Saturday. Yeah, but we can tell.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
After all right, Fellas, good work, Chipper, go to your project.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Thanks everybody for listening.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
Thanks to everybody who came up all season long at
Huntington Bank Stadium and on the road and talked about
listening to parentis Bear, asking about Chip's phone, asking about Halloween.
It's just it's great to have all these inside jokes
with all of you. So continue to do that and
hopefully we see a lot of you at the bowl
game and other events. Please make your holiday reservations at
Jackscafe dot com. It's Jaxcafe dot com, and we will

(01:06:54):
talk to you next week on the Parentis Bear Podcast.