December 4, 2025 • 42 mins
In hour 2, Kyle reacts to the biggest audio in sports with What Did You Say?!?! and lays out whether Dave Canales should be a serious contender for Coach of the Year.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to the Kyle Bailey Show powered by
Victory Chevy Charlotte, where just nineteen dollars down could put
you in a brand new Chevrolet.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Today our number two Sports Radio ninety two seven w
f n z KB and Smoke with you. Trevor Sickham,
(00:29):
A pro football focus is about fifteen. That's not good math.
He's twenty one minutes out. We'll talk a lot of
Panthers in NFC South and Manny Diaz, head football coach
of the Duke Blue Devils, back at five o'clock to
talk about the title game and his argument from Sunday
that you know, the ACC champion should always and will
always make the college football playoff. That's what he told
(00:50):
Andy and Ari. I believe smoke. I hadn't seen that
you pulled the cut, but it was back I guess
on Wednesdays yesterday, right, he told Andy and Ari.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman. For those who don't know
who they are.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Play cut real quick. I just I'm curious because I
didn't know that he said that to them. I don't
listen to their podcast. No disrespect to those guys, but
he said the ACC champion will always make the College
football Playoff.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
What is Duke's best case for college football playoff inclusion
with a win on Saturday.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
I would say this, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion will
always be in the collegeball Playoff. It's gonna happen this year,
regardless what happens on Saturday, It's gonna happen every year.
That's not the way it's gonna happen. We have four
Power four conferences. The competition in this Power four conference
is unlike the competition and anywhere else. That's not the
respect really good teams that are not in the Power
four conferences in which we played to this year and
(01:39):
lost to this year, but week in and week out
in terms of who you play and how you have
to prepare, that's why there's a difference.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
That's why it's called the Power four. Well, we'll see
if it happens.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I'm gonna ask him at five o'clock to make the
case for his team to be in the college football
Playoff if they win this game on Saturday, So many
Diaz coming up at five o'clock. I do also want
to mention you sent me this earlier today. As you know,
we already have coaches moving all over the place in
college football. Ryan Silverfield Arkansas, Alex Golish at Auburn, John
(02:08):
Summer all at Florida. They're a bunch. I'm not going
to rattle them all off right now, but you sent
me this. Billy Napier is apparently in the mix for
the now vacant JMU job. Billy Napier, of course, recently
fired by the Florida Gators. He's interviewed with Tulane already
and is apparently in the mix at James Madison as well.
I think it'd be a tremendous hire for either one
(02:29):
of them, but especially I think Billy Napier at JM.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
You would be fascinating if he takes that job. I
feel like.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Billy Napier could become a Group of five legend because
the Florida tenyor has made people forget that he ran
the Sun Belt before he left.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
He did at.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Louis Louisiana with the raging Cagn's, and I think JMU,
you put those two powers together, I think we're talking
about a group of five team that could be in
the playoff next every single year.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, I think you just to underscore your point. He
went forty to twelve in four seasons at Louisiana, including
a perfect sixteen and oh mark against the sun Belt
West Division. He won four straight West Division titles, a
share of the Sun Belt twenty twenty twenty twenty one
as well, and they made four straight Bowl appearances. I thought, listen,
I wanted Billy Napier and Blacksburg during that recruit during
(03:14):
that cycle.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You know that.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yep, I'm a big knit Napier fan. I thought Florida
got a great hire. That's not the first time I've
whiffed and thought somebody was going to be great somewhere.
But I thought that Billy Napier was going to be
tremendous at Florida. Didn't work out, obviously, But you're right,
he might just be one of those group of five
legend type guys. Or maybe he's one of those guys who,
you know, succeeds at the group of five, tries his
hand at the p four, you know, falls out, and
(03:36):
then he goes back down to the group of five,
group of six whatever we're calling them now, and you know,
just fades into obscurity. You and I were just talking
about Tom Herman the other day, and wondering where Tom
Herman had gotten off.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
To, except he crashed and burned as the next stop
after he did.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
That's what I'm saying though, Like I you know, Tom
Herman was the hottest name in college football coaching.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
That was I think this was. I wasn't the same cycle,
was it?
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
That was the Fuente cycle, right? It was him justin
Fwin and everybody else. I think they were in that
same cycle where, yeah, he was the hottest name out there.
Tom Herman that is ended up with a Texas job,
got him to the Sugar Bowl, but you know, ultimately
didn't work out, and we've not really heard much from
Tom Herman ever since. So, I mean, he's had jobs,
but you know, he's been far from the national headlines
(04:18):
ever since he left Texas.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Flamed out at FAU too. So yeah, but I think
it's not been made official. Plus apparently there's been rumors
that the Lee High head coach who's gone undefeated. Don't
make a Lee High joke. But yeah, he's also in
the mix for the JMU job. Nothing sent ince stalling
the two lane jobs getting a lot of look. Bryce Baker,
the defense coordinator at LSU, which was he was not
the problem at LSU. This past year, he really turned
(04:41):
that defense around. I think it looks like he it's
a war between Lane Kiffin and two Lane to see
who gets his services. I would probably guess he gets
the two Lane job to replace John summerl But that's
basically what it's looking like right now for two Lane.
The group of five job openings I think are going
to be just as interesting, if not more interesting here
in the coming weeks.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I agree, all right, we got it.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
By the way, we have to get back to a
conversation about Dave Canalis and the NFL Coach of the
Year conversation. I realize there are some people who think
it's a foregone conclusion that he can't win it. I
don't think he's in the pole position to win it.
We had some argument about that the other day. But
but I do think that Dave Canalis he's fourth or fifth.
I think fifth in the best odds to win NFL
Coach of the Year right now. But I think he
(05:23):
should be higher than that. I really do. Mike Vrabel
Ben Johnson, no doubt deserving, probably more so right now,
but I still think he's very much in the conversation.
So we'll get back to it right now, we go
to smoke with the best audio in sports.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
What did you say? You what?
Speaker 6 (05:38):
What did you say?
Speaker 7 (05:39):
Hold up?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Wait a minute?
Speaker 5 (05:41):
So may right?
Speaker 7 (05:44):
What I mean by that is.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
What you got.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Well, it's funny you mentioned Dave Canalis because we start
with the Carolina Panthers. And for those who don't know,
Brett Coleman has been breaking down film for a long
time on his own. He used to do a lot
of production work for the NFL Network and kind of
NFL matchup type stuff. Well, now he does his own podcast,
Deep Bootleg Football Podcast, And after Week thirteen's events, he
(06:07):
was reacting on the show with E. J. Snyder and
basically said what I think a lot of national analysts
have now come to do conclusion when it comes to
the team here in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
But like, I really respect this Panthers style because they
know what they are. Like, they know that they're not
going to get chunk plays. They know that if they
turn it over, they're screwed. But they're just gonna kind
of I mean, hell, it's their motto. They're gonna keep
pounding over and over and over again. Again and if
you make them bleed, they're okay with that, Like Koran
does not care from whence it flows. They will drown
(06:40):
you in that pool of their own blood as long
as you die first. That is their mantra, and it works,
It really, really really works. So I really hope we
get to see the Panthers in the playoffs. I almost
hope for it as much as as I want to
see the Bears in the Texans in the playoffs, just
because I find they're chaos so in deep, and I
(07:01):
know that teams don't want to see them in there
because again, you're playing with fire, Like if you give
them one extra possession, you're playing with fire and you
could lose very very easily.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That got dark drowned you in a pool of blood
so long as you die first.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Can't believe Dan Campbell didn't come up with that there, right,
Dan Campbell thing right there?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, the only thing that he said right there is
you know they know they're not going to get chunk plays.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
I don't know that I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Now.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
They certainly haven't come consistently okay, But as they've demonstrated
over the past three weeks, two of the last three weeks.
They are certainly capable of the chunk plays. That's what
still evaded this offense consistently on a consistent basis, those
chunk plays, and we saw against the Rams. I think
(07:48):
every touchdown was a chunk play, right when Chewba was
a big play.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
That was a big run after catch, Mike Jack interception, yea, well.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I'm talking offense. You know, the forty three yarder to McMillan.
I think Coker's touchdown was a thirty three yarder sounds
about right. So that's for right fortune. So I mean,
you know, I love the audio. By the way, the
Texters love this audio. Seven oh four numbers said, such
a violent game, Dante said, that made me smile. Seven
oh four number. That got me fired up. Seven oh
(08:17):
four number. That was a pretty awesome breakdown. As a
Panther fan, I like it. Icy veins, Dear God, Batman
himself couldn't have come up with a darker line than that.
It was good audio. I sent that to Smoke like
twenty minutes ago because I wanted to play it on
the show.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Good stuff from Brett Coleman. What else you got? All right?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Moving on to the other team here, in Seawan the Hornets.
They lost last night to the New York Knicks. The
positive was it wasn't as bad as the game here
last week, but it was still a blowout to the
point where they were playing Tyler Kullak for the Knicks
in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Dude, okay go I said some choice words when he
when he hit a three, like what in the hell
is it Tyler Kollach?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
But anyway, go ahead. He was a good player at Marquee.
He was he was anyway.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
But one positive was LaMelo had himself a pretty good game, honestly,
one of the better games he's had all year.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
And it was also efficient.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
And afterwards Charles Lee was asked by Shannon Spake about
LaMelo and maybe he's getting into a groove.
Speaker 8 (09:10):
Yeah, I thought he was had of going on both
ends of the floor. You know, we needed that boost.
Started that first quarter good defensively, but a little slow offensively.
Again created some good stuff. But I thought as the
game went on, he continued to find his way, his groove,
his rhythm was able to create for other people early.
And then I thought as the game went on, like
you said, I was able to find his shot and
it's good when we can get him a couple catching shoots,
(09:30):
we can get him into the paint. So credit to
his teammates and credit to him.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
As I brought this up earlier, I think the way
I've said it, or the way I phrased it was,
you know, LaMelo played well last night, and he did right,
He did play well. But someone said did he play
well or did he just shoot a bunch? And I
don't think that's an unfair criticist. Well, it's not wrong
to point that out right, Yeah, because he took twenty
(09:55):
seven shots last night. He had thirty four points on
twenty seven shots made field goals. That's forty four percent
from the floor. Now, that's definitely better than he's been
shooting it for his last sixty games. You know, before
last night, I think it was in his last sixty
games he was shooting thirty nine point eight percent from
the floor. And I don't think that that is necessarily
(10:16):
representative of who he is as a player, but the
numbers don't lie. That's that's what the stats have been.
So forty four percent from the floor last night certainly better.
I thought he played okay against the nets, probably didn't
shoot enough that night. He was five to thirteen from
the floor. Last night, he did dish out night. He
was an assist in two rebound shy of a triple double.
So he was incredibly you know, active out there on
(10:39):
the floor last night, always a high usage rate, still
had one of the better plus minuses on the floor.
Nobody had a great plus minus last night except for
t Jon Salon. Oddly enough, t Jon Salon was one
of two players that was plus and the plus minus
last night, and that was after a disastrous first quarter. Yeah,
so I mean, I'm to Charles point, I am. I'm
(11:00):
just hoping that this is the beginning of Lamello feeling healthy,
playing healthy, getting back into a rhythm, because you'd like
it to be a bit more efficient than thirty four
points on twenty seven shots. But it did look like
he felt and played a bit better individually last night.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
What else you got? All right?
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Moving to the college game, if you remember about a
month and a half two months ago, we heard words
that you know, Dave Dorn contemplated retirement at the end
of the twenty twenty four season because he hated that
team so much and with the struggles in October and
early November, there was faults within the fan base and
with a couple of beat writers that maybe Dave Dorn
be leaving two well. During his signing day press conference yesterday,
(11:38):
Dave Dorn took the media to task over those retirement
rumors and as.
Speaker 9 (11:43):
Far as being here, like I'm having fun and that's
the thing I told everybody, like, I'm enjoying myself. I
love this team, i love these guys. We're fired up
about our recruiting class. My staff chemistry is excellent. And
so you know, again, a lot of stuff was made
out of somebody's comments that doesn't have the right to
(12:03):
say those things. I mean, nobody called me and asked me.
They just put some bs out there that they think
is going on. And you know, I'm used to reporters
like going to Annabel and saying, hey, can I ask
Dave is this true before they say something about me
or write something about me, Like that's what a reporter
should do. But now we just get on podcasts and
(12:25):
tell everybody that we have a source and we know
what Dave Dorn is gonna do. Like that's such bs,
you know. So I love what I'm doing. I'm coaching
my butt off. I'm having fun doing it, and I
love where I'm working, and I'm gonna keep doing it
and you know, see where it takes me.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Wow, shots fired at Joe Jillio of The Obvious and
Jillio podcast. There's no reason to dance around that. Joe
was the guy who I think initially put it out
there that, you know, his sources had told him that
Dave was contemplating retirement after last season, that he had
to be talked out of it, that he was likely
going to retire after year's end. I know Joe has
defended himself on the podcast and said that he didn't
(13:05):
report it, but that's what he had heard. I mean,
Joe's been around the program for a long time, so
I don't report on NC State. You know, I typically
lean on information from guys that do. But you know,
clearly that was not the case. And I you know,
a couple of weeks ago when he had that press
conference and he said I'm not going anywhere. I got
four years left on my deal. Yeah, And I started
asking people and I'm like, well, it sounds like he's
not going anywhere. And you know, we had a couple
(13:26):
of people say yeah, but that just might be him
trying to make sure he gets the rest of his
contract money is buy out. You know, he's not going
to let them out easy or let them off like
I don't know, man. Dave's always been fairly straightforward, and
when he says I'm not going anywhere, I'm inclined to
believe him. And now we know he's coming back for
year fourteen.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Now, the main thing is keep CJ. Bailey at all costs.
That's basically all. The main thing is for NC State.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Who's more likely to retain their quarterback? Shane Beemer or
Dave Dorn? Dave Dorn you think so?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I mean, I'd have to believe both Leonoris and CJ
are on Miami's list to poach this offseason. Any smart
organization would have those two quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Fair enough? What else you got? All right?
Speaker 4 (14:07):
We end with your team, as Kyle, Virginia Tech had
quite the bump ever since getting James Franklin.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
On the recruiting rankings.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
They went from one twenty two to like twenty two
or twenty three, depending on which a recruiting outlet you follow,
And James Franklin put this in perspective, just to how
incredible the last two weeks has been for Virginia Tech,
saying that a lot of this guy and a lot
of the guys that helped close the deals on a
lot of these recruits still don't have a job as
of this moment.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
I took the job and everything went down. I called
these people, asked them to come to my house and said, hey,
I need you to come with me tomorrow to Virginia Tech.
I don't know what you're gonna get paid, and I
don't know what your job.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Title is, but I want you to come and we'll
figure it out.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And they all came running behind the scenes to put
this entire class together. And I'm proud of what we
were able to do in a short period of time.
Something that typically takes two years to fill a class.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
We were able to do it in two weeks.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I mean, listen, what he did, as he said, in
two weeks, is pretty remarkable, right, pretty just flat out remarkable.
He had Penn State, I believe, fifteenth in the recruiting
rankings in twenty twenty four. Those, by the way, are
the two four to seven sports Composite recruiting rankings. You
(15:26):
go back to twenty twenty four. I think Penn State
was also fifteenth. So I mean Penn State was always
top fifteen, top twelve in recruiting under James Franklin. So's
that's the territory that he's accustomed to being in. So yeah,
as an alumnus, as a fan, I'm thrilled with what
he's done. That's obvious, there's no question about that. Still
got to get him there, still got to coach him up.
But like everybody else, I remained I just remained fascinated,
(15:50):
kind of like in a car crash sort of way,
watching Penn State trying to figure out what in the
world they're doing, Like they don't have a coach. I
think they're down around one p fifty right now in
team recruiting rankings.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
It's only like one hundred and.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Thirty eight power for or Division one teams, and there
are several spots beyond the end of that they don't
have a coach early signing periods, Like, how many years
is Penn State set back because of this?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
In your mind? Two or three at least, I think, right.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
I think a transfer portal would help the limit to
damage a little bit, but still it also means you
have to hit on the transfer portal.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Well, that's the thing is that I'm not here to
kick Penn State fans while they're down, because I think
they already feel bad enough as it is. But you're
just sitting here wondering, Okay, you don't have a coach,
you're not getting You've lost all the recruits, most of them.
James Is flipped them to Blacksburg. Like, how far in
a hole is Penn State? How many years until Penn
State is back to being a national contender of any
kind based on what's happening right now?
Speaker 4 (16:47):
By the way, I do want to mention too, Nebraska
was not in the top one hundred.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It's bad.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It's real bad. That's what, as you say, the best
audio in the world of sports. When we return, we
check in with Trevor Sickham a Pro Football Focus. What
does he think of the seven and six Panthers and
how does he think the division plays out. We'll talk
about it next Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Well,
(17:24):
the Panthers are into the bye week. They can't drive
us crazy this week with the win loss, win loss,
because you can't lose to the bye week. Not that
I've seen anyway, Panthers seven and six. They got a
week to get healthy and rested up. And then it's
the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans coming out of
the bye with four games to go. Carolina firmley in
the NFC playoff mix, and it's gonna all come down
(17:46):
to the final four games, but likely two games against
the Tampa Bay Bucks. Our next guest knows that well.
He knows both teams well, and we're talking about, of course,
Trevor Sikima, the lead NFL Draft analyst for Pro Football
Focus and co host of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast.
Our boy, Trevor Sikima. He's on x formerly Twitter at
Tampa Bay tray back with us here on a Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
What's going on, brother, how are you?
Speaker 10 (18:10):
I'm doing fantastic, Kyle. I appreciate you having me on
my friend.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Well, I always look forward to it. I got to
start with just the win over the Rams. I caught
a bit of you and your partner talking about that,
I think a day or two after. But for the
folks that haven't heard it, your thoughts on you know,
Carolina beating the best team potentially in the NFL and
shocking the entire league.
Speaker 10 (18:29):
Yeah, it's incredible, isn't it. I Mean, I think that
they probably have the best win in the league right
now because I think that they actually I know the
Rams have lost a couple of games now this season,
but you go back and you look at that lost
against the Eagles and lost against the San Francisco forty
nine ers, So it was a lot more about them
shooting themselves in the foot. And sure they had their
mistakes in their turnovers here in this game against Carolina
(18:50):
as well, but Carolina forced a lot of those. I
felt like for the first time, Carolina actually outplayed the Rams,
and for the first time this season somebody did outplay there.
So it was a massive win. You can't take anything
away from what the Panthers did this past weekend. And man,
it was so great to watch Bryce play with so
much confidence. And that's really just been such an issue
(19:12):
righting this offense overall. Is I heard you know right
before you brought me in, just the frustrations of one
week it looks like crap, and then the next week
they look like they could beat anybody in the NFL.
And it's just it's frustrating as fans obviously to go
up with that up and down on that roller coaster.
But you love to see a win like this, especially
because this comes in the back half of the season, right,
(19:34):
I mean, they're hitting the bye week and then there's
only a handful of games left, and so every team
wants to be hitting it hot when you get down
to the end, especially if you've got a chance to
win the division to get into the playoffs. And Carolina's
got a great chance to do that, especially with two
games remaining against the Buccaneers on their schedule.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So how do we well, First of all, it's funny
because this team is seven and six with a minus
fifty point differential, right, So that's just wild in and
of itself. They're also, though, two to zero, when you
know they're ten plus point underdogs while the rest of
the league is zero to fourteen. Now just speaking to
the you know, the wild pendulum swing nature of this team.
But also Bryce, right, you look at Bryce, he's got
(20:12):
eleven game winning drives under his belt, youngest to get
there at twenty four and change. He's been good against
the Blitz as of late. He's set a franchise record
in passing yards against the number one pass defense in
Atlanta a couple of weeks ago set a record for
passer rating against the Rams. But at the same time,
I think he's like twenty third in QBR. He's thrown
for like twenty three hundred yards this year. There's a
(20:32):
lot of just you know, when we argue about Bryce
on this show, you know, people are pulling stats to
serve an agenda, to help the argument. But the truth
is there are a lot of stats to point too
that will paint him in very different ways. How do
you see him right now, nearing the end of year
three as a potential quote unquote franchise quarterback.
Speaker 10 (20:49):
Obviously you would love for it to be more consistent, right,
but you still do have the highs from Bryce which
are good to see. And again, like you go to
a game like this past weekend, That's why it's so
hard to quit the dude. I mean, I'm looking at
his PFF passing grades and no, not everybody loves these,
but I think that they're a really good, I think
barometer for how well you execute in a singular game.
(21:13):
He's got as many games this season where he is
graded below a forty two in PFF passing grade.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Then he does above eighty.
Speaker 10 (21:21):
And so he's like he's just a complete opposite end
of the spectrum. There's nothing that's sort of average about
what Bryce Young is doing, and so that's the thing
that makes you pull your hair out, but it also
gives you hope. And I mean watching him this pass
game against the Rams, I wish there was something schematic
that I could point to, right, like, oh, they're running
(21:42):
a lot more play action. All well, they're getting a
lot more motion involved. You know, they've got this player
doing this. It's a little bit of those things here
and there. But the crazy thing with Bryce in this
passing offense for Carolina is that some games he just
looks really confident and other games he doesn't. I go
back to that forty nine where everybody was saying, like, man,
(22:03):
what a big game this is. Right, they're coming off
of a huge win against the Atlanta Falcons. That's their
second time beating them this season. They've really taken it
to him. And then they went into that Monday night
primetime game and Bryce just looked tenanted. He kind of
looked like he was second guessing himself. I don't know
if he just heard the noise of you know, so
much being on his plate and on his shoulders coming
off of that win versus the Falcons, watching the Buccaneers
(22:26):
sort of sputtering in the middle of the season, knowing
that the division is right there. But he just he
wasn't the type of player that you needed him to
be to go in against a good San Francisco team
and get a win on the road of Monday night football.
And then you think to yourself, well, okay, now the
Rams are coming to town. Now they're about to drop
two straight. And he comes out with an incredible performance
where he doesn't throw for a ton of yards, but
(22:48):
man a handful of the throws in that game. Specifically,
I mean, look at the Tataro mcmillans row, the long
Tetaro mcmillins throw that he had in the second half
of that game. I mean, McMillan's not even.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Open on that.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
But Bryce gives you.
Speaker 10 (23:01):
Such an incredible throw. He has such a sixth sense
for where the open space is going to be in
anticipation and you go, that's Heisman Trophy winning Bryce Young.
That's Alabama Bryce Young. And we've seen it in Spurts
and so to go back to your original question, where
am I with him three years into the league? I
think that these next four or five games are going
(23:24):
to mean so much for him, and what the narrative
is hint about him going into the season, because right
now I would say that he's taken more lumps than
I thought he would even for as a young quarterback.
He has struggled more than I thought he would have
coming into his NFL career. But the highs are still there,
and so I think that you still have to give
(23:45):
this guy a ton of confidence and faith moving into
these last handful of games that are going to mean
so much.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Is it a no brainer in your mind that they
pick up the fifth year option? That was a big
talking point yesterday with the Graziano piece that got everybody
discussing it. But to you, is it a no brainer
they're picking up his fifth year option.
Speaker 10 (24:00):
I wouldn't say it's a no brainer, but I'm much
more leaning towards that being the case because because of honestly,
the highs that you have seen from him. Now, if
he comes out in you know, these final five games
of the season and he just he looks terrible, then
obviously it's something where you go, Okay, we don't know
if we want to, you know, pick up that fifty
year option and make sure that we're tied to him,
(24:21):
because obviously this guy's had been in a situation where
he's already been benched by the current coaching staff. That
is still there when you turn the clock back about
a year and a half ago, So like that has
already happened, that is in their minds, that's already something
that we have seen unfold. But on the other side
of things, we've seen the Falcons game, we've seen the
Rams game. And so if you have a quarterback that
(24:43):
you've drafted number one overall that was dominant when he
was in college football and has shown flashes of brilliance
in the NFL, not just good play, not just starting play,
brilliance in the NFL, that's something that you don't walk
away from too easily. And so outside of a catastrophic
type of last four games down the stretch here for Bryce, yeah,
(25:03):
I'd be picking that fifth year option up if I
was them.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Trever Sikam a pro football focused NFL Stock Exchange podcast
hang it out with us here on a Thursday. Can
you make the case right now today that Tedero McMillan
is Rookie of the Year in the NFL.
Speaker 10 (25:16):
Yeah, I think he is. I do, and Bucks fans
weren't too happy with me when I continued to reiterate
that even at the beginning of the season, when McMillan
was putting up or Aguka, I should say, excuse me,
was putting up a ton of numbers for the Buccaneers.
But I just knew the consistency was going to be
there with Ted. I loved him when he was at Arizona.
(25:36):
He had two fantastic years of play, even that last
year where it was a little bit more of a
struggle for Arizona's offense when they needed him in the
biggest moments, whether it was to set the tone in
the first quarter on first and ten, or whether it
was to come up with a big catch on third
and long in the third or fourth quarter with the
game on the line. I mean, he's able to do it.
He's such a good route runner for a player of
his size. We know the contested catchability. We've seen the
(25:58):
spectacular catches from him as well, and the fact that
he has been able to do what I hoped that
he could, which is stepping right away into that wide
receiver one role for this team. You see how much
it has helped everything around him. Not only is Bryce
more confidently with a player like that on their team,
but you see that Legett can now be used in
(26:19):
more of just a vertical stretching role. What he does well,
what he does best. You're getting Cocher now open underneath.
It's giving them the flexibility to put multiple tight ends
on the field when they go heavy personnel because they
feel good about the one wide receiver that is out
there in McMillan. And so I think that there are
other rookies that have obviously played well this season, but
(26:40):
on the offensive side of things, McMillan would be my
offensive rookie of the year.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Okay, I have to ask you this. I want to
go to the defense for a second. One of our listeners,
Todd and Indian Trail, just said that you are one
of the best guests on this station.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
He's buttering you up.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
But then the next statement is why does his company
hate Derek Brown so much? I have to ask the
question too, because I think Derek Brown personally and I'm
a little biased here. You know is top two or
three at his position in the NFL, arguably the best
player in his position the way he's playing right now,
But he ends up with a fifty grade in the
Rams game. I think that he was like twentyeth at
his position in PFF rankings last week. According to one
(27:13):
of our listeners, like, what is there some sort of
disconnect or you know, incongruence in the way that we're
looking at Derek versus the way that he's graded.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 10 (27:21):
So I, you know, I saw the grade this past
week against the Rams, and I remember Derek actually shown
up for a couple of really big plays, and I said,
man that those impactful plays obviously were things that helped
them win down the stretch. But I'm looking at his
grades right now. In the last couple of performances, he
has graded a little bit lower. And you know, I
haven't watched all of every single snap, obviously I'm not.
(27:43):
You know, I like to joke and actually tell people
that I grade every single play and every single player,
so I'm at fault for everything that they see on
the website. But you know, when you look at a
guy like Derek Brown, I think it's just a matter
of he might have a handful of really big plays
that end up being difference makers for them, but our formula,
it's not a I should say, with the grades, it's
(28:06):
not a full performance for these guys. What we're grading
is how well a guy executes what is asked of
him on a single play. And where a lot of
you know, other people might look at one or two
plays that maybe they think matter a lot in a
certain spot, whether that's a good or a bad thing,
we are grading every single play, and so I think
(28:28):
that the fifty grade that he gets. I also need
to remind people that sixty point oh is an even grade,
Like that's a neutral grade on our system. I think
that a lot of people, and I think that it's
our job. We need to be better about making sure
this is known for people who use our product. They
think of it as as like school grades. Right, A
sixty point oh is like a D minus. Right, you're
(28:50):
that's basically like a failing grade. That's not what our
grading scale is. And so a fifty where people might
look at it and be like, yo, that's terrible. It's
it's it's on the lower, more negative side of things.
But it's not that far from an average day. And
when you talk about an average day, it could be
something as simple as, hey, he had one really good play,
but then he had three or four plays where maybe
(29:11):
he missed a tackle, maybe he got blown out of
his gap, maybe he didn't hold the line the way
that he needed to. Maybe he really needed a two
gap in a certain situation and instead he tried to
get into the backfield and it kind of might have
hung his other defensive lineman out to dry. Like those
are the things that we look at on every single
play that goes into the formula. But I promise you
we do not hate Derek Brown.
Speaker 7 (29:31):
We've given him.
Speaker 10 (29:32):
We have given him three elite grades this season, and
when you go back to twenty twenty three, we gave
him an elite grade for the entire season. The year
before it was in eighty five, so he was one
of the highest defensive tackles graded in the NFL. I
think it's just these last three games that people are like,
WHOA hold on, hold on, hold on. But I always
just tell people it is a formula grading every single
(29:55):
play as if it matters on the execution of what
guys are asked to do on every play.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Okay, all right, before I get you out of here,
Panthers and Bucks. I mean, it appears the two games
between these two teams in the final three weeks of
the season will decide the division. You know both of
these teams, well, your thoughts on how it plays out,
but with a particular focus on Tampa, who I think
we all Well, I'll put it this way. I thought
they were the best team coming in. I still think
(30:20):
they're a very good team, but between their overall injuries
and Baker playing through an injury, I don't think they're
the same team they were eight weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 10 (30:28):
No, it's gonna be fun down the stretch, and I
don't know, well, I don't know if Panthers fans or
Bucks fans might consider it as fun. But you know,
from somebody who enjoys football when it matters most, I
think it's going to be a lot of fun because
I think both of these games are in fact going
to matter most. It's gonna come down to quarterbacks. And
you know, I know that you don't have me on
the radio to say something as simple as that, but
(30:48):
to be honest with you, it depends what version of
the Panthers Bryce Young Bryce Young gives them, and it
depends what version of Baker Mayfield the Buccaneers get. Because
through the first five seas weeks of the season, we
were talking about Baker Mayfield as an MVP candidate, But
since Week six, Baker Mayfield has been one of the
most inaccurate quarterbacks in all of the NFL. Now, I
(31:08):
know he's playing through pain, but he is missing guys
like we have a statistic that is uncatchable inaccurate passes,
and Mayfield is near the top of the list in
the NFL, and sometimes he has been at the top
since that Week six early season hot streak that he had.
So if he does not playing more consistently, it doesn't
matter if Mike Evans is going to get out there,
(31:29):
It doesn't matter if Jaalen McMillan's going to get out there.
Like he just has to play a lot better. The
exciting part about this for both teams is that there's
a world where when they face off in that three
week stretch, both of them are going to be as
healthy and as on a roll as they have been
throughout the entire year. So for Carolina. The cornerbacks they
(31:49):
got to continue to step up. Mike Jackson, j C. Horn,
they have been fantastic for him, getting Lakes and Ransom
more involved in that secondary because I think he has
been fantastic. Can the defensive line continue to take steps up?
And then for the here as it really is, Mike
Evans getting healthy, Jalen McMillan getting healthy, the pass rushers
for them getting healthy, and we'll see if it's full
strength versus full strength. It's going to be a fun
(32:09):
two out of three weeks.
Speaker 7 (32:10):
That we have there.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Can't wait.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I'll echo what Todd from Indian Trail said. You are
one of my favorite guests. But you already know that
we appreciate your time, brother, and we'll talk to you
real soon.
Speaker 10 (32:19):
Thanks Cale, I appreciate it, man, anytime.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Trevor Sick I'm a Pro Football Focus host, reporter, podcaster,
lead NFL draft analyst, and host of the NFL Stock
Exchange podcast with Us on the Hotline seven oh four five,
seven oh ninety six to ten. A lot of responses
coming in to his rationale for the Derek Brown grading.
We'll get back to those, but right now we go
to smoke on the headlines.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
All right, Kyle, this is a college football injury report
brought to you by Neogenics. Neogenics were all you have
to lose is the pain. We got two injury reports
out for the conference title games this week. First we'll
go to the Big twelve. Nothing too major, especially considering
some of the key players on both sides for BYU
and Texas Tech are probable, including Texas Tech quarterback Baron Morton.
(33:02):
He is probably remembered the only game Texas Tech loss
this year was without Baron Morton. But as I said,
he's probable. The bigger one has to do in the
SEC Championship game because running back for Alabama jam Miller
is questionable for Saturday's game, and questionable seems like a
win considering he left the iron ball in crutches on
(33:23):
Saturday and rained for over eighty yards before he got hurt.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
That's gonna be pretty big if they don't have jam Miller.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
This Alabama offense is a little bit, definitely different without
jam Miller as opposed to with jam Miller.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
No doubt, not just jam Miller, jam Miller. Jam Miller
will come back. We'll tell you who balled out Aggie
Pride on the phone lines up first when we return,
and Duke head coach Manny Diaz coming up at five o'clock.
Sports Radio ninety two to seven wfn Z.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Set get on your beat. Hello, good protection tes of
the years. Can you go to the buck?
Speaker 4 (34:11):
He's gotta go, coming on the.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Back to bush, running into the area. It'll pass toward.
Speaker 10 (34:20):
Brads for.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It's time for who balled out?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Powered by High Performance real Estate Advisors and the biggest
dead gumballer of them all, Thomas L.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Rodd.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Go to high Performance real Estate dot Com and they'll
see you at the closing table.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Smoke would you bring for the people?
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Well, I gotta go down to Austin where Virginia beat
the Longhorns last night, and specifically Johann Grunlow, the German
freshman center for the Cavaliers. He scored fifteen points, six
to seven from the field, including two or three from
behind the arc. I mean, that's a pretty good performance
in itself, but he he did this while he was
in foul trouble. He scored fifteen points in seventeen minutes.
(35:05):
Pretty good, Pretty good. As Virginia has gotten off to
a very strong seven to one start under Ryan Odeum.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
There you go. This one's easy and simple for me.
Austin Corbett, Panthers offensive lineman, was named the Panthers nominee
for the Walter Payton NFL Walter Payton Man of the
Year Award, in a move that was endorsed by players
and coaches, a lot of families in the region, a
lot of veterans across two states, and even by Metallica,
who gave him the news in a recent team meeting.
Austin Corbett one of the many, many Panthers offensive linemen
(35:35):
that have earned starts this year with ten different combinations,
but doing a lot of great work off the field.
Austin Corbett balling out seven oh four five, seven oh
ninety six ten. Hit us up on the fan duel
text line, same number to give us a call. Aggie
Pride has done that, So let's go to the phones,
Aggie Pride, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Man? Thank you for holding Hey?
Speaker 7 (35:52):
Hey, absolutely, man, just wanted to add a little nuanced
if that's allowed on the sports talk radio. I like
to think so to this Dave Canalis Coach of the
Year's thing. So uh hey, look, I think it's somewhere
in between Adam Gold laughing Mac and Bone off off
the air this morning and whoever wrote the article saying
he's gonna win it. So is he in the mix? Yes,
(36:14):
But it's like the year Brandon Miller versus Wimby. It's
just a huge gap between what Ben Johnson and Mike
We're able to have been done in Chicago and New England, respectively,
and what Dave Canals has done here in Carolina. That
that that's not taken away to the taken away from
the turnaround that he's done, the culture change, all that,
(36:35):
But to say he's gonna win it, no, it's just
too big of a gap between one two and where
David cal Analys is maybe three. Again, it's much like
Brandon Miller was never gonna win the Rookie of the
Year as long as Victim win Bianna was a rookie
that year. Uh, that doesn't take away the year that
he had. But is he in the mix? Is Dave
(36:56):
canalens in the mix? Technically yes, he's he gonna win it. No,
but that it's just it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And I think you're and I appreciate the phone call.
You're right, there's nuance, and I always love additional nuance.
So thank you, brother, appreciate the phone call. I sitting
here today. And given what they've done in New England,
what are they ten and two? They're ten and two,
eleven and two, thank you. They've won ten straight games.
So I would say that Mike Rabels Vrabel, pardon me,
(37:23):
is the current NFL Coach of the Year. Not going
to really argue with that based on what they've done,
but we do have four games left to go, and
we have to let the season play out now. Right now,
the odds say Mike Vrabel is I'll call it a
heavy favorite, you know, at minus one ninety five. Ben
Johnson's second favorite plus two to fifty, Mike McDonald of
(37:44):
the Seahawks at plus six fifty, then Brian Schottenheimer of
the Cowboys at plus nineteen hundred, before you get to
Dave Canalis fifth on this list at plus twenty two hundred.
So yeah, he's got a lot of ground to make up,
don't I won't argue with that at all. What I
will say, I think Dave Canalis one hundred percent belongs
ahead of both Schottenheimer and McDonald on this list.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Can we agree on that? Yeah, I can agree on that.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Neither one of those dudes walked into the type of
destitute situation that Dave Canalis walked into with the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Neither one of them did.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Okay, Mike McCarthy's Cowboys were a pretty good football team
before Brian Schottenheimer took over. I mean, look at what
the Seahawks did last year. You know, so Mike McDonald
did not walk into us nearly as bad a situation
from a roster standpoint. Now, Ben Johnson's won more games
than Dave Canalis has thus far. They're nine and three
of they nine and three, nine and three, right, and yeah,
the Patriots eleven and two.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Well, and both both the guys that you've mentioned at
our head, they're both number one seeds in the respective
conference as of right now.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Sure, but like, let's say the Patriots end up I
don't know, they're eleven and two right now with four
games to go. Let's say they falter a little bit
down the stretch, they go twelve and five, right, something
like that. Let's just let's just pretend for a second,
and let's say Dave Canalis ends up winning ten games
can I make the argument that doing what Dave did
in his second year with the Carolina Panthers. And I'm
(39:04):
not disparaging the Panthers, you know that about me, but
this was the worst roster in football a little over
a year ago. It was the worst roster in football.
And if Dave goes three and one down the stretch,
they win ten games and win the division, get a
home playoff game. I'm not saying he's going to win it,
but there's absolutely an argument for Dave can Allis to
(39:25):
be the NFL head Coach.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Of the Year. I think so too. But I also
got to ask you a question, just so we can
be fair.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Since we've been talking about at nauseum for the college
football playoff, is this a situation where head to head
comes into play too, especially if we're talking about the
PATRIOTSS also that.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Yeah, I mean, I gotta ask just to be fair. Yeah, No,
I know.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Again, I want to be clear about this. I'm being
logical and I think pragmatic here. I do think that
Mike Rabel is going to win Coach of the Year,
and you're right to bring up the head to head thing,
but they're coming off the literal worst defense in the
history of football the Panthers are in terms of points allowed.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Now, now, maybe this is.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Maybe a larger argument for Dan Morgan as general manager
of the year as opposed to Dave Canalis, but I still,
I mean, this is still Canalis coaching the football team.
So I'd like to believe that one of those guys
gets some recognition. If this thing continues to go in
the right direction five weeks from now, this might be
a moot point. If they wet the bed and limp
to the finish. Okay, we'll have all forgotten about this conversation,
(40:28):
but I think there's absolutely an argument.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
I really do.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
And you know what, I was also laughing about last night.
So I think it was was a preseason they played
the Steelers and we had Philipony on. I think it
was right, Yes, and Andrew Philippony long time afternoon drive
guy up in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
What is it ninety three to seven? The fan y.
That's right. Pony had me on his FanDuel show.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Last week talking about the Rams game, and he said
back on during that show, he was like, I'd rather
have Dave Canalis as my head coach than Mike Tomlin, Right,
and then Panthers lose the first couple of games. Steelers
start out four and one, and we had a couple
of people texting, h where's that guy from Pittsburgh? You
think he still believes that nonsense? And now we fast
(41:11):
forward thirteen fourteen weeks into the season and Philip Poni's
added again crushing Mike Tomlin on Twitter, and I see
it the other night and I'm thinking, well, I guess
maybe maybe maybe.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Yeah, it also feels like it could be it for Mike.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
I mean, you got Ben Roethlisberger urging him to take
the Penn State job.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
I mean when I saw that, I'm like, oh, well,
that and the fact that they were booing renegade at
home in Pittsburgh, I think it could be. And we're
definitely looking at a scenario where he the whole above
five hundred streak could come to an end.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
They're six and six right now.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Oh yeah, it's getting pretty dire up in Pittsburgh, up
in Yinzerland. But apparently Adam Field is going to fix everything.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Right. Well, they've they let him go though.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
If they don't make the playoffs, Tomlin's got to be right,
I mean, they don't change coaches often up there, but
they are so far removed from the title or anything
approaching a title team, it.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
Would be a good time to reset because you're not
keeping Aaron Rodgers. Aaron's probably retiring. You basically just kind
of have to ride out because you're in the muck
because they've had so much money into defense. Right now,
I think, yeah, honestly think it might be time.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
I think they do it. I really do.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
All right, well, come back our number three. A lot
more to get to. But when we return, Manny Diaz
Blue Devil's head coach. They're playing for an ACC title.
On Saturday, you'll hear from Mandy Diaz next Sports Radio
ninety two to seven wf and Z
You were listening to the Kyle Bailey Show powered by
Victory Chevy Charlotte, where just nineteen dollars down could put
you in a brand new Chevrolet.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Today our number two Sports Radio ninety two seven w
f n z KB and Smoke with you. Trevor Sickham,
(00:29):
A pro football focus is about fifteen. That's not good math.
He's twenty one minutes out. We'll talk a lot of
Panthers in NFC South and Manny Diaz, head football coach
of the Duke Blue Devils, back at five o'clock to
talk about the title game and his argument from Sunday
that you know, the ACC champion should always and will
always make the college football playoff. That's what he told
(00:50):
Andy and Ari. I believe smoke. I hadn't seen that
you pulled the cut, but it was back I guess
on Wednesdays yesterday, right, he told Andy and Ari.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman. For those who don't know
who they are.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Play cut real quick. I just I'm curious because I
didn't know that he said that to them. I don't
listen to their podcast. No disrespect to those guys, but
he said the ACC champion will always make the College
football Playoff.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
What is Duke's best case for college football playoff inclusion
with a win on Saturday.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
I would say this, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion will
always be in the collegeball Playoff. It's gonna happen this year,
regardless what happens on Saturday, It's gonna happen every year.
That's not the way it's gonna happen. We have four
Power four conferences. The competition in this Power four conference
is unlike the competition and anywhere else. That's not the
respect really good teams that are not in the Power
four conferences in which we played to this year and
(01:39):
lost to this year, but week in and week out
in terms of who you play and how you have
to prepare, that's why there's a difference.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
That's why it's called the Power four. Well, we'll see
if it happens.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I'm gonna ask him at five o'clock to make the
case for his team to be in the college football
Playoff if they win this game on Saturday, So many
Diaz coming up at five o'clock. I do also want
to mention you sent me this earlier today. As you know,
we already have coaches moving all over the place in
college football. Ryan Silverfield Arkansas, Alex Golish at Auburn, John
(02:08):
Summer all at Florida. They're a bunch. I'm not going
to rattle them all off right now, but you sent
me this. Billy Napier is apparently in the mix for
the now vacant JMU job. Billy Napier, of course, recently
fired by the Florida Gators. He's interviewed with Tulane already
and is apparently in the mix at James Madison as well.
I think it'd be a tremendous hire for either one
(02:29):
of them, but especially I think Billy Napier at JM.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
You would be fascinating if he takes that job. I
feel like.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Billy Napier could become a Group of five legend because
the Florida tenyor has made people forget that he ran
the Sun Belt before he left.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
He did at.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Louis Louisiana with the raging Cagn's, and I think JMU,
you put those two powers together, I think we're talking
about a group of five team that could be in
the playoff next every single year.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, I think you just to underscore your point. He
went forty to twelve in four seasons at Louisiana, including
a perfect sixteen and oh mark against the sun Belt
West Division. He won four straight West Division titles, a
share of the Sun Belt twenty twenty twenty twenty one
as well, and they made four straight Bowl appearances. I thought, listen,
I wanted Billy Napier and Blacksburg during that recruit during
(03:14):
that cycle.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You know that.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yep, I'm a big knit Napier fan. I thought Florida
got a great hire. That's not the first time I've
whiffed and thought somebody was going to be great somewhere.
But I thought that Billy Napier was going to be
tremendous at Florida. Didn't work out, obviously, But you're right,
he might just be one of those group of five
legend type guys. Or maybe he's one of those guys who,
you know, succeeds at the group of five, tries his
hand at the p four, you know, falls out, and
(03:36):
then he goes back down to the group of five,
group of six whatever we're calling them now, and you know,
just fades into obscurity. You and I were just talking
about Tom Herman the other day, and wondering where Tom
Herman had gotten off.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
To, except he crashed and burned as the next stop
after he did.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
That's what I'm saying though, Like I you know, Tom
Herman was the hottest name in college football coaching.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
That was I think this was. I wasn't the same cycle,
was it?
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
That was the Fuente cycle, right? It was him justin
Fwin and everybody else. I think they were in that
same cycle where, yeah, he was the hottest name out there.
Tom Herman that is ended up with a Texas job,
got him to the Sugar Bowl, but you know, ultimately
didn't work out, and we've not really heard much from
Tom Herman ever since. So, I mean, he's had jobs,
but you know, he's been far from the national headlines
(04:18):
ever since he left Texas.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Flamed out at FAU too. So yeah, but I think
it's not been made official. Plus apparently there's been rumors
that the Lee High head coach who's gone undefeated. Don't
make a Lee High joke. But yeah, he's also in
the mix for the JMU job. Nothing sent ince stalling
the two lane jobs getting a lot of look. Bryce Baker,
the defense coordinator at LSU, which was he was not
the problem at LSU. This past year, he really turned
(04:41):
that defense around. I think it looks like he it's
a war between Lane Kiffin and two Lane to see
who gets his services. I would probably guess he gets
the two Lane job to replace John summerl But that's
basically what it's looking like right now for two Lane.
The group of five job openings I think are going
to be just as interesting, if not more interesting here
in the coming weeks.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I agree, all right, we got it.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
By the way, we have to get back to a
conversation about Dave Canalis and the NFL Coach of the
Year conversation. I realize there are some people who think
it's a foregone conclusion that he can't win it. I
don't think he's in the pole position to win it.
We had some argument about that the other day. But
but I do think that Dave Canalis he's fourth or fifth.
I think fifth in the best odds to win NFL
Coach of the Year right now. But I think he
(05:23):
should be higher than that. I really do. Mike Vrabel
Ben Johnson, no doubt deserving, probably more so right now,
but I still think he's very much in the conversation.
So we'll get back to it right now, we go
to smoke with the best audio in sports.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
What did you say? You what?
Speaker 6 (05:38):
What did you say?
Speaker 7 (05:39):
Hold up?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Wait a minute?
Speaker 5 (05:41):
So may right?
Speaker 7 (05:44):
What I mean by that is.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
What you got.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Well, it's funny you mentioned Dave Canalis because we start
with the Carolina Panthers. And for those who don't know,
Brett Coleman has been breaking down film for a long
time on his own. He used to do a lot
of production work for the NFL Network and kind of
NFL matchup type stuff. Well, now he does his own podcast,
Deep Bootleg Football Podcast, And after Week thirteen's events, he
(06:07):
was reacting on the show with E. J. Snyder and
basically said what I think a lot of national analysts
have now come to do conclusion when it comes to
the team here in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
But like, I really respect this Panthers style because they
know what they are. Like, they know that they're not
going to get chunk plays. They know that if they
turn it over, they're screwed. But they're just gonna kind
of I mean, hell, it's their motto. They're gonna keep
pounding over and over and over again. Again and if
you make them bleed, they're okay with that, Like Koran
does not care from whence it flows. They will drown
(06:40):
you in that pool of their own blood as long
as you die first. That is their mantra, and it works,
It really, really really works. So I really hope we
get to see the Panthers in the playoffs. I almost
hope for it as much as as I want to
see the Bears in the Texans in the playoffs, just
because I find they're chaos so in deep, and I
(07:01):
know that teams don't want to see them in there
because again, you're playing with fire, Like if you give
them one extra possession, you're playing with fire and you
could lose very very easily.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That got dark drowned you in a pool of blood
so long as you die first.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Can't believe Dan Campbell didn't come up with that there, right,
Dan Campbell thing right there?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, the only thing that he said right there is
you know they know they're not going to get chunk plays.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
I don't know that I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Now.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
They certainly haven't come consistently okay, But as they've demonstrated
over the past three weeks, two of the last three weeks.
They are certainly capable of the chunk plays. That's what
still evaded this offense consistently on a consistent basis, those
chunk plays, and we saw against the Rams. I think
(07:48):
every touchdown was a chunk play, right when Chewba was
a big play.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
That was a big run after catch, Mike Jack interception, yea, well.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I'm talking offense. You know, the forty three yarder to McMillan.
I think Coker's touchdown was a thirty three yarder sounds
about right. So that's for right fortune. So I mean,
you know, I love the audio. By the way, the
Texters love this audio. Seven oh four numbers said, such
a violent game, Dante said, that made me smile. Seven
oh four number. That got me fired up. Seven oh
(08:17):
four number. That was a pretty awesome breakdown. As a
Panther fan, I like it. Icy veins, Dear God, Batman
himself couldn't have come up with a darker line than that.
It was good audio. I sent that to Smoke like
twenty minutes ago because I wanted to play it on
the show.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Good stuff from Brett Coleman. What else you got? All right?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Moving on to the other team here, in Seawan the Hornets.
They lost last night to the New York Knicks. The
positive was it wasn't as bad as the game here
last week, but it was still a blowout to the
point where they were playing Tyler Kullak for the Knicks
in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Dude, okay go I said some choice words when he
when he hit a three, like what in the hell
is it Tyler Kollach?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
But anyway, go ahead. He was a good player at Marquee.
He was he was anyway.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
But one positive was LaMelo had himself a pretty good game, honestly,
one of the better games he's had all year.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
And it was also efficient.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
And afterwards Charles Lee was asked by Shannon Spake about
LaMelo and maybe he's getting into a groove.
Speaker 8 (09:10):
Yeah, I thought he was had of going on both
ends of the floor. You know, we needed that boost.
Started that first quarter good defensively, but a little slow offensively.
Again created some good stuff. But I thought as the
game went on, he continued to find his way, his groove,
his rhythm was able to create for other people early.
And then I thought as the game went on, like
you said, I was able to find his shot and
it's good when we can get him a couple catching shoots,
(09:30):
we can get him into the paint. So credit to
his teammates and credit to him.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
As I brought this up earlier, I think the way
I've said it, or the way I phrased it was,
you know, LaMelo played well last night, and he did right,
He did play well. But someone said did he play
well or did he just shoot a bunch? And I
don't think that's an unfair criticist. Well, it's not wrong
to point that out right, Yeah, because he took twenty
(09:55):
seven shots last night. He had thirty four points on
twenty seven shots made field goals. That's forty four percent
from the floor. Now, that's definitely better than he's been
shooting it for his last sixty games. You know, before
last night, I think it was in his last sixty
games he was shooting thirty nine point eight percent from
the floor. And I don't think that that is necessarily
(10:16):
representative of who he is as a player, but the
numbers don't lie. That's that's what the stats have been.
So forty four percent from the floor last night certainly better.
I thought he played okay against the nets, probably didn't
shoot enough that night. He was five to thirteen from
the floor. Last night, he did dish out night. He
was an assist in two rebound shy of a triple double.
So he was incredibly you know, active out there on
(10:39):
the floor last night, always a high usage rate, still
had one of the better plus minuses on the floor.
Nobody had a great plus minus last night except for
t Jon Salon. Oddly enough, t Jon Salon was one
of two players that was plus and the plus minus
last night, and that was after a disastrous first quarter. Yeah,
so I mean, I'm to Charles point, I am. I'm
(11:00):
just hoping that this is the beginning of Lamello feeling healthy,
playing healthy, getting back into a rhythm, because you'd like
it to be a bit more efficient than thirty four
points on twenty seven shots. But it did look like
he felt and played a bit better individually last night.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
What else you got? All right?
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Moving to the college game, if you remember about a
month and a half two months ago, we heard words
that you know, Dave Dorn contemplated retirement at the end
of the twenty twenty four season because he hated that
team so much and with the struggles in October and
early November, there was faults within the fan base and
with a couple of beat writers that maybe Dave Dorn
be leaving two well. During his signing day press conference yesterday,
(11:38):
Dave Dorn took the media to task over those retirement
rumors and as.
Speaker 9 (11:43):
Far as being here, like I'm having fun and that's
the thing I told everybody, like, I'm enjoying myself. I
love this team, i love these guys. We're fired up
about our recruiting class. My staff chemistry is excellent. And
so you know, again, a lot of stuff was made
out of somebody's comments that doesn't have the right to
(12:03):
say those things. I mean, nobody called me and asked me.
They just put some bs out there that they think
is going on. And you know, I'm used to reporters
like going to Annabel and saying, hey, can I ask
Dave is this true before they say something about me
or write something about me, Like that's what a reporter
should do. But now we just get on podcasts and
(12:25):
tell everybody that we have a source and we know
what Dave Dorn is gonna do. Like that's such bs,
you know. So I love what I'm doing. I'm coaching
my butt off. I'm having fun doing it, and I
love where I'm working, and I'm gonna keep doing it
and you know, see where it takes me.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Wow, shots fired at Joe Jillio of The Obvious and
Jillio podcast. There's no reason to dance around that. Joe
was the guy who I think initially put it out
there that, you know, his sources had told him that
Dave was contemplating retirement after last season, that he had
to be talked out of it, that he was likely
going to retire after year's end. I know Joe has
defended himself on the podcast and said that he didn't
(13:05):
report it, but that's what he had heard. I mean,
Joe's been around the program for a long time, so
I don't report on NC State. You know, I typically
lean on information from guys that do. But you know,
clearly that was not the case. And I you know,
a couple of weeks ago when he had that press
conference and he said I'm not going anywhere. I got
four years left on my deal. Yeah, And I started
asking people and I'm like, well, it sounds like he's
not going anywhere. And you know, we had a couple
(13:26):
of people say yeah, but that just might be him
trying to make sure he gets the rest of his
contract money is buy out. You know, he's not going
to let them out easy or let them off like
I don't know, man. Dave's always been fairly straightforward, and
when he says I'm not going anywhere, I'm inclined to
believe him. And now we know he's coming back for
year fourteen.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Now, the main thing is keep CJ. Bailey at all costs.
That's basically all. The main thing is for NC State.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Who's more likely to retain their quarterback? Shane Beemer or
Dave Dorn? Dave Dorn you think so?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I mean, I'd have to believe both Leonoris and CJ
are on Miami's list to poach this offseason. Any smart
organization would have those two quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Fair enough? What else you got? All right?
Speaker 4 (14:07):
We end with your team, as Kyle, Virginia Tech had
quite the bump ever since getting James Franklin.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
On the recruiting rankings.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
They went from one twenty two to like twenty two
or twenty three, depending on which a recruiting outlet you follow,
And James Franklin put this in perspective, just to how
incredible the last two weeks has been for Virginia Tech,
saying that a lot of this guy and a lot
of the guys that helped close the deals on a
lot of these recruits still don't have a job as
of this moment.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
I took the job and everything went down. I called
these people, asked them to come to my house and said, hey,
I need you to come with me tomorrow to Virginia Tech.
I don't know what you're gonna get paid, and I
don't know what your job.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Title is, but I want you to come and we'll
figure it out.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And they all came running behind the scenes to put
this entire class together. And I'm proud of what we
were able to do in a short period of time.
Something that typically takes two years to fill a class.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
We were able to do it in two weeks.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I mean, listen, what he did, as he said, in
two weeks, is pretty remarkable, right, pretty just flat out remarkable.
He had Penn State, I believe, fifteenth in the recruiting
rankings in twenty twenty four. Those, by the way, are
the two four to seven sports Composite recruiting rankings. You
(15:26):
go back to twenty twenty four. I think Penn State
was also fifteenth. So I mean Penn State was always
top fifteen, top twelve in recruiting under James Franklin. So's
that's the territory that he's accustomed to being in. So yeah,
as an alumnus, as a fan, I'm thrilled with what
he's done. That's obvious, there's no question about that. Still
got to get him there, still got to coach him up.
But like everybody else, I remained I just remained fascinated,
(15:50):
kind of like in a car crash sort of way,
watching Penn State trying to figure out what in the
world they're doing, Like they don't have a coach. I
think they're down around one p fifty right now in
team recruiting rankings.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
It's only like one hundred and.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Thirty eight power for or Division one teams, and there
are several spots beyond the end of that they don't
have a coach early signing periods, Like, how many years
is Penn State set back because of this?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
In your mind? Two or three at least, I think, right.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
I think a transfer portal would help the limit to
damage a little bit, but still it also means you
have to hit on the transfer portal.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Well, that's the thing is that I'm not here to
kick Penn State fans while they're down, because I think
they already feel bad enough as it is. But you're
just sitting here wondering, Okay, you don't have a coach,
you're not getting You've lost all the recruits, most of them.
James Is flipped them to Blacksburg. Like, how far in
a hole is Penn State? How many years until Penn
State is back to being a national contender of any
kind based on what's happening right now?
Speaker 4 (16:47):
By the way, I do want to mention too, Nebraska
was not in the top one hundred.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It's bad.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It's real bad. That's what, as you say, the best
audio in the world of sports. When we return, we
check in with Trevor Sickham a Pro Football Focus. What
does he think of the seven and six Panthers and
how does he think the division plays out. We'll talk
about it next Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Well,
(17:24):
the Panthers are into the bye week. They can't drive
us crazy this week with the win loss, win loss,
because you can't lose to the bye week. Not that
I've seen anyway, Panthers seven and six. They got a
week to get healthy and rested up. And then it's
the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans coming out of
the bye with four games to go. Carolina firmley in
the NFC playoff mix, and it's gonna all come down
(17:46):
to the final four games, but likely two games against
the Tampa Bay Bucks. Our next guest knows that well.
He knows both teams well, and we're talking about, of course,
Trevor Sikima, the lead NFL Draft analyst for Pro Football
Focus and co host of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast.
Our boy, Trevor Sikima. He's on x formerly Twitter at
Tampa Bay tray back with us here on a Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
What's going on, brother, how are you?
Speaker 10 (18:10):
I'm doing fantastic, Kyle. I appreciate you having me on
my friend.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Well, I always look forward to it. I got to
start with just the win over the Rams. I caught
a bit of you and your partner talking about that,
I think a day or two after. But for the
folks that haven't heard it, your thoughts on you know,
Carolina beating the best team potentially in the NFL and
shocking the entire league.
Speaker 10 (18:29):
Yeah, it's incredible, isn't it. I Mean, I think that
they probably have the best win in the league right
now because I think that they actually I know the
Rams have lost a couple of games now this season,
but you go back and you look at that lost
against the Eagles and lost against the San Francisco forty
nine ers, So it was a lot more about them
shooting themselves in the foot. And sure they had their
mistakes in their turnovers here in this game against Carolina
(18:50):
as well, but Carolina forced a lot of those. I
felt like for the first time, Carolina actually outplayed the Rams,
and for the first time this season somebody did outplay there.
So it was a massive win. You can't take anything
away from what the Panthers did this past weekend. And man,
it was so great to watch Bryce play with so
much confidence. And that's really just been such an issue
(19:12):
righting this offense overall. Is I heard you know right
before you brought me in, just the frustrations of one
week it looks like crap, and then the next week
they look like they could beat anybody in the NFL.
And it's just it's frustrating as fans obviously to go
up with that up and down on that roller coaster.
But you love to see a win like this, especially
because this comes in the back half of the season, right,
(19:34):
I mean, they're hitting the bye week and then there's
only a handful of games left, and so every team
wants to be hitting it hot when you get down
to the end, especially if you've got a chance to
win the division to get into the playoffs. And Carolina's
got a great chance to do that, especially with two
games remaining against the Buccaneers on their schedule.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So how do we well, First of all, it's funny
because this team is seven and six with a minus
fifty point differential, right, So that's just wild in and
of itself. They're also, though, two to zero, when you
know they're ten plus point underdogs while the rest of
the league is zero to fourteen. Now just speaking to
the you know, the wild pendulum swing nature of this team.
But also Bryce, right, you look at Bryce, he's got
(20:12):
eleven game winning drives under his belt, youngest to get
there at twenty four and change. He's been good against
the Blitz as of late. He's set a franchise record
in passing yards against the number one pass defense in
Atlanta a couple of weeks ago set a record for
passer rating against the Rams. But at the same time,
I think he's like twenty third in QBR. He's thrown
for like twenty three hundred yards this year. There's a
(20:32):
lot of just you know, when we argue about Bryce
on this show, you know, people are pulling stats to
serve an agenda, to help the argument. But the truth
is there are a lot of stats to point too
that will paint him in very different ways. How do
you see him right now, nearing the end of year
three as a potential quote unquote franchise quarterback.
Speaker 10 (20:49):
Obviously you would love for it to be more consistent, right,
but you still do have the highs from Bryce which
are good to see. And again, like you go to
a game like this past weekend, That's why it's so
hard to quit the dude. I mean, I'm looking at
his PFF passing grades and no, not everybody loves these,
but I think that they're a really good, I think
barometer for how well you execute in a singular game.
(21:13):
He's got as many games this season where he is
graded below a forty two in PFF passing grade.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Then he does above eighty.
Speaker 10 (21:21):
And so he's like he's just a complete opposite end
of the spectrum. There's nothing that's sort of average about
what Bryce Young is doing, and so that's the thing
that makes you pull your hair out, but it also
gives you hope. And I mean watching him this pass
game against the Rams, I wish there was something schematic
that I could point to, right, like, oh, they're running
(21:42):
a lot more play action. All well, they're getting a
lot more motion involved. You know, they've got this player
doing this. It's a little bit of those things here
and there. But the crazy thing with Bryce in this
passing offense for Carolina is that some games he just
looks really confident and other games he doesn't. I go
back to that forty nine where everybody was saying, like, man,
(22:03):
what a big game this is. Right, they're coming off
of a huge win against the Atlanta Falcons. That's their
second time beating them this season. They've really taken it
to him. And then they went into that Monday night
primetime game and Bryce just looked tenanted. He kind of
looked like he was second guessing himself. I don't know
if he just heard the noise of you know, so
much being on his plate and on his shoulders coming
off of that win versus the Falcons, watching the Buccaneers
(22:26):
sort of sputtering in the middle of the season, knowing
that the division is right there. But he just he
wasn't the type of player that you needed him to
be to go in against a good San Francisco team
and get a win on the road of Monday night football.
And then you think to yourself, well, okay, now the
Rams are coming to town. Now they're about to drop
two straight. And he comes out with an incredible performance
where he doesn't throw for a ton of yards, but
(22:48):
man a handful of the throws in that game. Specifically,
I mean, look at the Tataro mcmillans row, the long
Tetaro mcmillins throw that he had in the second half
of that game. I mean, McMillan's not even.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Open on that.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
But Bryce gives you.
Speaker 10 (23:01):
Such an incredible throw. He has such a sixth sense
for where the open space is going to be in
anticipation and you go, that's Heisman Trophy winning Bryce Young.
That's Alabama Bryce Young. And we've seen it in Spurts
and so to go back to your original question, where
am I with him three years into the league? I
think that these next four or five games are going
(23:24):
to mean so much for him, and what the narrative
is hint about him going into the season, because right
now I would say that he's taken more lumps than
I thought he would even for as a young quarterback.
He has struggled more than I thought he would have
coming into his NFL career. But the highs are still there,
and so I think that you still have to give
(23:45):
this guy a ton of confidence and faith moving into
these last handful of games that are going to mean
so much.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Is it a no brainer in your mind that they
pick up the fifth year option? That was a big
talking point yesterday with the Graziano piece that got everybody
discussing it. But to you, is it a no brainer
they're picking up his fifth year option.
Speaker 10 (24:00):
I wouldn't say it's a no brainer, but I'm much
more leaning towards that being the case because because of honestly,
the highs that you have seen from him. Now, if
he comes out in you know, these final five games
of the season and he just he looks terrible, then
obviously it's something where you go, Okay, we don't know
if we want to, you know, pick up that fifty
year option and make sure that we're tied to him,
(24:21):
because obviously this guy's had been in a situation where
he's already been benched by the current coaching staff. That
is still there when you turn the clock back about
a year and a half ago, So like that has
already happened, that is in their minds, that's already something
that we have seen unfold. But on the other side
of things, we've seen the Falcons game, we've seen the
Rams game. And so if you have a quarterback that
(24:43):
you've drafted number one overall that was dominant when he
was in college football and has shown flashes of brilliance
in the NFL, not just good play, not just starting play,
brilliance in the NFL, that's something that you don't walk
away from too easily. And so outside of a catastrophic
type of last four games down the stretch here for Bryce, yeah,
(25:03):
I'd be picking that fifth year option up if I
was them.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Trever Sikam a pro football focused NFL Stock Exchange podcast
hang it out with us here on a Thursday. Can
you make the case right now today that Tedero McMillan
is Rookie of the Year in the NFL.
Speaker 10 (25:16):
Yeah, I think he is. I do, and Bucks fans
weren't too happy with me when I continued to reiterate
that even at the beginning of the season, when McMillan
was putting up or Aguka, I should say, excuse me,
was putting up a ton of numbers for the Buccaneers.
But I just knew the consistency was going to be
there with Ted. I loved him when he was at Arizona.
(25:36):
He had two fantastic years of play, even that last
year where it was a little bit more of a
struggle for Arizona's offense when they needed him in the
biggest moments, whether it was to set the tone in
the first quarter on first and ten, or whether it
was to come up with a big catch on third
and long in the third or fourth quarter with the
game on the line. I mean, he's able to do it.
He's such a good route runner for a player of
his size. We know the contested catchability. We've seen the
(25:58):
spectacular catches from him as well, and the fact that
he has been able to do what I hoped that
he could, which is stepping right away into that wide
receiver one role for this team. You see how much
it has helped everything around him. Not only is Bryce
more confidently with a player like that on their team,
but you see that Legett can now be used in
(26:19):
more of just a vertical stretching role. What he does well,
what he does best. You're getting Cocher now open underneath.
It's giving them the flexibility to put multiple tight ends
on the field when they go heavy personnel because they
feel good about the one wide receiver that is out
there in McMillan. And so I think that there are
other rookies that have obviously played well this season, but
(26:40):
on the offensive side of things, McMillan would be my
offensive rookie of the year.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Okay, I have to ask you this. I want to
go to the defense for a second. One of our listeners,
Todd and Indian Trail, just said that you are one
of the best guests on this station.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
He's buttering you up.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
But then the next statement is why does his company
hate Derek Brown so much? I have to ask the
question too, because I think Derek Brown personally and I'm
a little biased here. You know is top two or
three at his position in the NFL, arguably the best
player in his position the way he's playing right now,
But he ends up with a fifty grade in the
Rams game. I think that he was like twentyeth at
his position in PFF rankings last week. According to one
(27:13):
of our listeners, like, what is there some sort of
disconnect or you know, incongruence in the way that we're
looking at Derek versus the way that he's graded.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 10 (27:21):
So I, you know, I saw the grade this past
week against the Rams, and I remember Derek actually shown
up for a couple of really big plays, and I said,
man that those impactful plays obviously were things that helped
them win down the stretch. But I'm looking at his
grades right now. In the last couple of performances, he
has graded a little bit lower. And you know, I
haven't watched all of every single snap, obviously I'm not.
(27:43):
You know, I like to joke and actually tell people
that I grade every single play and every single player,
so I'm at fault for everything that they see on
the website. But you know, when you look at a
guy like Derek Brown, I think it's just a matter
of he might have a handful of really big plays
that end up being difference makers for them, but our formula,
it's not a I should say, with the grades, it's
(28:06):
not a full performance for these guys. What we're grading
is how well a guy executes what is asked of
him on a single play. And where a lot of
you know, other people might look at one or two
plays that maybe they think matter a lot in a
certain spot, whether that's a good or a bad thing,
we are grading every single play, and so I think
(28:28):
that the fifty grade that he gets. I also need
to remind people that sixty point oh is an even grade,
Like that's a neutral grade on our system. I think
that a lot of people, and I think that it's
our job. We need to be better about making sure
this is known for people who use our product. They
think of it as as like school grades. Right, A
sixty point oh is like a D minus. Right, you're
(28:50):
that's basically like a failing grade. That's not what our
grading scale is. And so a fifty where people might
look at it and be like, yo, that's terrible. It's
it's it's on the lower, more negative side of things.
But it's not that far from an average day. And
when you talk about an average day, it could be
something as simple as, hey, he had one really good play,
but then he had three or four plays where maybe
(29:11):
he missed a tackle, maybe he got blown out of
his gap, maybe he didn't hold the line the way
that he needed to. Maybe he really needed a two
gap in a certain situation and instead he tried to
get into the backfield and it kind of might have
hung his other defensive lineman out to dry. Like those
are the things that we look at on every single
play that goes into the formula. But I promise you
we do not hate Derek Brown.
Speaker 7 (29:31):
We've given him.
Speaker 10 (29:32):
We have given him three elite grades this season, and
when you go back to twenty twenty three, we gave
him an elite grade for the entire season. The year
before it was in eighty five, so he was one
of the highest defensive tackles graded in the NFL. I
think it's just these last three games that people are like,
WHOA hold on, hold on, hold on. But I always
just tell people it is a formula grading every single
(29:55):
play as if it matters on the execution of what
guys are asked to do on every play.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Okay, all right, before I get you out of here,
Panthers and Bucks. I mean, it appears the two games
between these two teams in the final three weeks of
the season will decide the division. You know both of
these teams, well, your thoughts on how it plays out,
but with a particular focus on Tampa, who I think
we all Well, I'll put it this way. I thought
they were the best team coming in. I still think
(30:20):
they're a very good team, but between their overall injuries
and Baker playing through an injury, I don't think they're
the same team they were eight weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 10 (30:28):
No, it's gonna be fun down the stretch, and I
don't know, well, I don't know if Panthers fans or
Bucks fans might consider it as fun. But you know,
from somebody who enjoys football when it matters most, I
think it's going to be a lot of fun because
I think both of these games are in fact going
to matter most. It's gonna come down to quarterbacks. And
you know, I know that you don't have me on
the radio to say something as simple as that, but
(30:48):
to be honest with you, it depends what version of
the Panthers Bryce Young Bryce Young gives them, and it
depends what version of Baker Mayfield the Buccaneers get. Because
through the first five seas weeks of the season, we
were talking about Baker Mayfield as an MVP candidate, But
since Week six, Baker Mayfield has been one of the
most inaccurate quarterbacks in all of the NFL. Now, I
(31:08):
know he's playing through pain, but he is missing guys
like we have a statistic that is uncatchable inaccurate passes,
and Mayfield is near the top of the list in
the NFL, and sometimes he has been at the top
since that Week six early season hot streak that he had.
So if he does not playing more consistently, it doesn't
matter if Mike Evans is going to get out there,
(31:29):
It doesn't matter if Jaalen McMillan's going to get out there.
Like he just has to play a lot better. The
exciting part about this for both teams is that there's
a world where when they face off in that three
week stretch, both of them are going to be as
healthy and as on a roll as they have been
throughout the entire year. So for Carolina. The cornerbacks they
(31:49):
got to continue to step up. Mike Jackson, j C. Horn,
they have been fantastic for him, getting Lakes and Ransom
more involved in that secondary because I think he has
been fantastic. Can the defensive line continue to take steps up?
And then for the here as it really is, Mike
Evans getting healthy, Jalen McMillan getting healthy, the pass rushers
for them getting healthy, and we'll see if it's full
strength versus full strength. It's going to be a fun
(32:09):
two out of three weeks.
Speaker 7 (32:10):
That we have there.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Can't wait.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I'll echo what Todd from Indian Trail said. You are
one of my favorite guests. But you already know that
we appreciate your time, brother, and we'll talk to you
real soon.
Speaker 10 (32:19):
Thanks Cale, I appreciate it, man, anytime.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Trevor Sick I'm a Pro Football Focus host, reporter, podcaster,
lead NFL draft analyst, and host of the NFL Stock
Exchange podcast with Us on the Hotline seven oh four five,
seven oh ninety six to ten. A lot of responses
coming in to his rationale for the Derek Brown grading.
We'll get back to those, but right now we go
to smoke on the headlines.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
All right, Kyle, this is a college football injury report
brought to you by Neogenics. Neogenics were all you have
to lose is the pain. We got two injury reports
out for the conference title games this week. First we'll
go to the Big twelve. Nothing too major, especially considering
some of the key players on both sides for BYU
and Texas Tech are probable, including Texas Tech quarterback Baron Morton.
(33:02):
He is probably remembered the only game Texas Tech loss
this year was without Baron Morton. But as I said,
he's probable. The bigger one has to do in the
SEC Championship game because running back for Alabama jam Miller
is questionable for Saturday's game, and questionable seems like a
win considering he left the iron ball in crutches on
(33:23):
Saturday and rained for over eighty yards before he got hurt.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
That's gonna be pretty big if they don't have jam Miller.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
This Alabama offense is a little bit, definitely different without
jam Miller as opposed to with jam Miller.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
No doubt, not just jam Miller, jam Miller. Jam Miller
will come back. We'll tell you who balled out Aggie
Pride on the phone lines up first when we return,
and Duke head coach Manny Diaz coming up at five o'clock.
Sports Radio ninety two to seven wfn Z.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Set get on your beat. Hello, good protection tes of
the years. Can you go to the buck?
Speaker 4 (34:11):
He's gotta go, coming on the.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Back to bush, running into the area. It'll pass toward.
Speaker 10 (34:20):
Brads for.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It's time for who balled out?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Powered by High Performance real Estate Advisors and the biggest
dead gumballer of them all, Thomas L.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Rodd.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Go to high Performance real Estate dot Com and they'll
see you at the closing table.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Smoke would you bring for the people?
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Well, I gotta go down to Austin where Virginia beat
the Longhorns last night, and specifically Johann Grunlow, the German
freshman center for the Cavaliers. He scored fifteen points, six
to seven from the field, including two or three from
behind the arc. I mean, that's a pretty good performance
in itself, but he he did this while he was
in foul trouble. He scored fifteen points in seventeen minutes.
(35:05):
Pretty good, Pretty good. As Virginia has gotten off to
a very strong seven to one start under Ryan Odeum.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
There you go. This one's easy and simple for me.
Austin Corbett, Panthers offensive lineman, was named the Panthers nominee
for the Walter Payton NFL Walter Payton Man of the
Year Award, in a move that was endorsed by players
and coaches, a lot of families in the region, a
lot of veterans across two states, and even by Metallica,
who gave him the news in a recent team meeting.
Austin Corbett one of the many, many Panthers offensive linemen
(35:35):
that have earned starts this year with ten different combinations,
but doing a lot of great work off the field.
Austin Corbett balling out seven oh four five, seven oh
ninety six ten. Hit us up on the fan duel
text line, same number to give us a call. Aggie
Pride has done that, So let's go to the phones,
Aggie Pride, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Man? Thank you for holding Hey?
Speaker 7 (35:52):
Hey, absolutely, man, just wanted to add a little nuanced
if that's allowed on the sports talk radio. I like
to think so to this Dave Canalis Coach of the
Year's thing. So uh hey, look, I think it's somewhere
in between Adam Gold laughing Mac and Bone off off
the air this morning and whoever wrote the article saying
he's gonna win it. So is he in the mix? Yes,
(36:14):
But it's like the year Brandon Miller versus Wimby. It's
just a huge gap between what Ben Johnson and Mike
We're able to have been done in Chicago and New England, respectively,
and what Dave Canals has done here in Carolina. That
that that's not taken away to the taken away from
the turnaround that he's done, the culture change, all that,
(36:35):
But to say he's gonna win it, no, it's just
too big of a gap between one two and where
David cal Analys is maybe three. Again, it's much like
Brandon Miller was never gonna win the Rookie of the
Year as long as Victim win Bianna was a rookie
that year. Uh, that doesn't take away the year that
he had. But is he in the mix? Is Dave
(36:56):
canalens in the mix? Technically yes, he's he gonna win it. No,
but that it's just it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And I think you're and I appreciate the phone call.
You're right, there's nuance, and I always love additional nuance.
So thank you, brother, appreciate the phone call. I sitting
here today. And given what they've done in New England,
what are they ten and two? They're ten and two,
eleven and two, thank you. They've won ten straight games.
So I would say that Mike Rabels Vrabel, pardon me,
(37:23):
is the current NFL Coach of the Year. Not going
to really argue with that based on what they've done,
but we do have four games left to go, and
we have to let the season play out now. Right now,
the odds say Mike Vrabel is I'll call it a
heavy favorite, you know, at minus one ninety five. Ben
Johnson's second favorite plus two to fifty, Mike McDonald of
(37:44):
the Seahawks at plus six fifty, then Brian Schottenheimer of
the Cowboys at plus nineteen hundred, before you get to
Dave Canalis fifth on this list at plus twenty two hundred.
So yeah, he's got a lot of ground to make up,
don't I won't argue with that at all. What I
will say, I think Dave Canalis one hundred percent belongs
ahead of both Schottenheimer and McDonald on this list.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Can we agree on that? Yeah, I can agree on that.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Neither one of those dudes walked into the type of
destitute situation that Dave Canalis walked into with the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Neither one of them did.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Okay, Mike McCarthy's Cowboys were a pretty good football team
before Brian Schottenheimer took over. I mean, look at what
the Seahawks did last year. You know, so Mike McDonald
did not walk into us nearly as bad a situation
from a roster standpoint. Now, Ben Johnson's won more games
than Dave Canalis has thus far. They're nine and three
of they nine and three, nine and three, right, and yeah,
the Patriots eleven and two.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Well, and both both the guys that you've mentioned at
our head, they're both number one seeds in the respective
conference as of right now.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Sure, but like, let's say the Patriots end up I
don't know, they're eleven and two right now with four
games to go. Let's say they falter a little bit
down the stretch, they go twelve and five, right, something
like that. Let's just let's just pretend for a second,
and let's say Dave Canalis ends up winning ten games
can I make the argument that doing what Dave did
in his second year with the Carolina Panthers. And I'm
(39:04):
not disparaging the Panthers, you know that about me, but
this was the worst roster in football a little over
a year ago. It was the worst roster in football.
And if Dave goes three and one down the stretch,
they win ten games and win the division, get a
home playoff game. I'm not saying he's going to win it,
but there's absolutely an argument for Dave can Allis to
(39:25):
be the NFL head Coach.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Of the Year. I think so too. But I also
got to ask you a question, just so we can
be fair.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Since we've been talking about at nauseum for the college
football playoff, is this a situation where head to head
comes into play too, especially if we're talking about the
PATRIOTSS also that.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Yeah, I mean, I gotta ask just to be fair. Yeah, No,
I know.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Again, I want to be clear about this. I'm being
logical and I think pragmatic here. I do think that
Mike Rabel is going to win Coach of the Year,
and you're right to bring up the head to head thing,
but they're coming off the literal worst defense in the
history of football the Panthers are in terms of points allowed.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Now, now, maybe this is.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Maybe a larger argument for Dan Morgan as general manager
of the year as opposed to Dave Canalis, but I still,
I mean, this is still Canalis coaching the football team.
So I'd like to believe that one of those guys
gets some recognition. If this thing continues to go in
the right direction five weeks from now, this might be
a moot point. If they wet the bed and limp
to the finish. Okay, we'll have all forgotten about this conversation,
(40:28):
but I think there's absolutely an argument.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
I really do.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
And you know what, I was also laughing about last night.
So I think it was was a preseason they played
the Steelers and we had Philipony on. I think it
was right, Yes, and Andrew Philippony long time afternoon drive
guy up in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
What is it ninety three to seven? The fan y.
That's right. Pony had me on his FanDuel show.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Last week talking about the Rams game, and he said
back on during that show, he was like, I'd rather
have Dave Canalis as my head coach than Mike Tomlin, Right,
and then Panthers lose the first couple of games. Steelers
start out four and one, and we had a couple
of people texting, h where's that guy from Pittsburgh? You
think he still believes that nonsense? And now we fast
(41:11):
forward thirteen fourteen weeks into the season and Philip Poni's
added again crushing Mike Tomlin on Twitter, and I see
it the other night and I'm thinking, well, I guess
maybe maybe maybe.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Yeah, it also feels like it could be it for Mike.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
I mean, you got Ben Roethlisberger urging him to take
the Penn State job.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
I mean when I saw that, I'm like, oh, well,
that and the fact that they were booing renegade at
home in Pittsburgh, I think it could be. And we're
definitely looking at a scenario where he the whole above
five hundred streak could come to an end.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
They're six and six right now.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Oh yeah, it's getting pretty dire up in Pittsburgh, up
in Yinzerland. But apparently Adam Field is going to fix everything.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Right. Well, they've they let him go though.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
If they don't make the playoffs, Tomlin's got to be right,
I mean, they don't change coaches often up there, but
they are so far removed from the title or anything
approaching a title team, it.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
Would be a good time to reset because you're not
keeping Aaron Rodgers. Aaron's probably retiring. You basically just kind
of have to ride out because you're in the muck
because they've had so much money into defense. Right now,
I think, yeah, honestly think it might be time.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
I think they do it. I really do.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
All right, well, come back our number three. A lot
more to get to. But when we return, Manny Diaz
Blue Devil's head coach. They're playing for an ACC title.
On Saturday, you'll hear from Mandy Diaz next Sports Radio
ninety two to seven wf and Z
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.