The Kyle Bailey Show: Roman Harper

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Our number three sports Radio ninety two seven WF and
ZKB and Smoke emanating live from the Chandler VAULTA Studios,
the Carolina's personal injury lawyers. One call that's all go
to Cvinjurylaw dot Com. That Cvinjurylaw dot Com. Bill Belichick
has dominated the news cycle and this show of course

(00:29):
here in Charlotte the last couple of days, and it
might be all coming to a head. We started the
show with Andrew Jones of tarhel two four seven reporting
that he heard and is actually knows that the Brass
and Chapel Hill met this morning about potentially moving on
from Bill Belichick and that he himself Andrew Jones, saying
he didn't think it was really all that crazy that

(00:50):
Bill Belichick would be done before the next game, that
he wouldn't coach against Cal coming up Friday, October seventeenth.
And Andrew Jones very credible, been on top of this story,
you know, laid it out in a way that makes
it clear U and C was nearly, you know, is
getting close to being done with Bill Belichick. Well, in
the last twenty five minutes. Ollie Connelly, former NFL college

(01:11):
football scout writer for The Guardian. Not exactly a heavyweight
in the world of breaking news, at least not in
your timelines all the time. But this was the man
who broke the news less than a year ago that
Bill Belichick was set to become the next head coach
at North Carolina. I won't read the entire thread because
it's a little bit lengthy, but Olli Connolly reporting at
four twenty eight this afternoon, so thirty five minutes ago now,

(01:33):
quote her sources, Bill Belichick has discussed buyout options with
North Carolina's hierarchy. Belichick has signaled a willingness to trigger
his own one million dollar buyout if he can find
a soft landing with another team or in the media
end quote. He goes on to report that Belichick's coaching staff,
many of them have already spoken to other schools that
might be college football playoff bound about taking on roles

(01:55):
during the postseason. From one coach quote, the rats are
leaving the ship end quote, some staffers believing a change
will come in the next two weeks. There are reports
of serious recruiting violations, according to Ali Connolly, that we've
already talked about that have already been proven by the school,
according to multiple sources, and the last quote there from

(02:16):
one UNC defensive assistant quote, what we've done to these
kids is fed up end quote. Also, I want to
throw in there, Belichick's communication with his staff the last
two weeks, according to Connolly, has been described as weird
and distant by multiple members of the coaching staff, and
multiple coaches were unable to get a hold of the
Big Whistle during UNC's bye week, where he apparently spent

(02:38):
the bye week, or at least a portion of it
in Nantucket vacationing with Jordan Hudson. So that's where we
are right now. It appears, according to the reporting that
the Bill Belichick era is nearing its end in Chapel Hill.
It is not official yet, they have not declared it.
There's been no time of death officially from the university,
but according to all recent reporting by time in individuals,

(03:01):
this appears to be coming to an end very soon.
Let's bring in Roman Harper, two time Pro Bowler, Super
Bowl champion, SEC Network analyst, former Alabama Crimson tied New
Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers safety our buddy Roman Harper
back with us for a Wednesday conversation Roman. What do
you make of all this?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
What do you think that I didn't want to come
in after that introduction and I want no part to
this that when this thing first started popping off, I
told you, I think he's going to be utter failure.
I didn't expect anything out of this. That North Carolina
football hadn't been relevant in forty years, so in my lifetime,
and this is the biggest thing that has happened for them,

(03:39):
and it's totally blown up. And I don't know, I
know that was a very embarrassing loss to Clemson, knowing
that Clemson had struggled, the fact that everybody was, you know,
talking about that, oh Ludacris was wanting to perform at
a night game and ended up being like the eleven
car twelve o'clock kickoff, just like all the you know,
the latest and greatest internet hits of making fun of people.

(04:01):
North Carolina has been a lot of a grunt of
a lot of jokes, and it's tough and college and
coaching college football is nothing like coaching like the NFL.
And for all the same reasons that I thought that
this wasn't going to be great, it literally proved me
all the way right, And I just feel bad that
we're actually kicking people more that down because Bill Belichick's
a legendary coach that deserves to be able to go

(04:23):
out kind of on his own terms, and if this
is his own terms, it's sometimes it's better to leave
on your own terms, and being fired, well, you just
don't want that on your resumes.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Let me ask you this though, Like, I don't know
that we're kicking And while he's down, I mean, I'm
sure maybe some people are, but he willingly entered into
this situation having not coached college football in fifty years
of being a coach, Like he took this on. And
I do think that that he and Michael Lombardi brought
an NFL arrogance with them that you know, well, there
you go. You hear it. So like you said, you

(04:52):
thought this was going to be a mistake, and I
think you just nailed it. They're the same game. It's
still football, but coaching college versus coaching the pros are
aste different. So go back to that, What is it
about him that you think was always destined to fail
at the college level.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, number one, not everybody wants to do it the
Belichick way. Sure in the Patriot way. That works in
the NFL because at the end of the day, you
have this one term that keeps players in line. It's
called conduct detrimental that coaches and organizations get to use
to keep players in line and in check to doing
exactly what they want. That you have Tom Brady for

(05:27):
all those years, and that you won. So when you win,
everybody's happy and everybody's willing to staplify they do. It's
best word the team. But when you come and you're
trying to build out an organization, you're dealing with nineteen eighteen,
twenty twenty one, twenty two and sometimes twenty three and
twenty four year old kids because of you know, COVID
and whatever else you've had in college. These kids are selfish.

(05:48):
They don't care anything about that. It's all about themselves
and everything's transactional. And the fact that you can't just
draft guys, you actually have to recruit guys. The difference
when you know in the in the league, nobody chooses
to go to New England, they draft you. I didn't
choose to go to New Orleans out of college. I
was drafted there. I chose to go to Alabama, that's

(06:11):
the difference you make the choice in college until ultimately
these kids, these young men still get to make the
choice to be a part of North Carolina's program. And
right now, I think that's the one biggest mistake that
Coach Belichick and Michae Lombardi made was that you know what,
We'll show up and guys will just want to come
to us in sands like, No, you still got to

(06:32):
recruit them, and they're still being recruited by a lot
of other suitors who have better traditions and don't have
just all the Jordan Brandon the Pool colors. But it's
also the fact that, like, what traditions do you have
in North Carolina besides you and this name that's supposed
to make me excited to be a part of this program.
And that's the part that was ultimately going to fail
all the time, because that's just what it is. And

(06:54):
it's not easy to win games either. We ain't talk
about coaching the game yet. It's everything else.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
It is, it's everything else. It's the distraction. Yeah, it's
everything else. You're right, all right, We'll come back to
the college stuff in a minute. But I do want
to get you a way in. Since we you mentioned Alabama,
there a couple of former Alabama quarterbacks going at at
Sunday at the Bank, Tua and Bryce and Boy, I'll
tell you what. In the beginning, it felt like after
the first couple of turnovers, fumble, interception, boom, they're down

(07:20):
seventeen to nothing. You know, Panthers fans are ready to
quit again, right, I mean many of them are out
on Bryce. They can't believe this is happening again. Another
terrible start, but they fight their way back Rome and
they come back from seventeen down. They tie the largest
franchise come back in history, and they get to win
twenty seven to twenty four. Bryce was really bad in
the beginning, but he made some clutch throws in the
second half. Ric o'dowdle was a monster. The defense appears

(07:43):
to be getting better. What'd you make of it?

Speaker 2 (07:45):
All? Well, I lost twenty dollars on the game first
and play.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
I'm sorry I be don't.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Told me I thought that I thought the Panis would
lose and not gonna lie. But it was fine. I
was very I was kind of excited early because I
had Darren Waller on my fantasy team, so that's always
exciting when he gets onto a hot start. And then
Miami became Miami, and it kind of showed us that, like, hey,
Caroline is a team and an organization that's still in

(08:11):
a place where they're trying to grow. Miami looks like
they're in a place where they're ready to implose. And
so if you ever think that is worse or things
to get any worse, yeah it can't. And you're that's
Miami Dolphins right now. And so you take the positive
with the positive which was the ability to go to
run the football when Carolina really wanted to. Rico Donald
had a great game, random ball extremely hard. And I

(08:33):
take the other positive, which is ixaberly get hitting the
box floor. You know. So like you take those positives
offensively that are really good, and you just got to
keep building. Look, this team's a very young team and
a very young coaching staff. With the players and everything,
they have to learn how to win, and right now
they're still figuring out how to not kind of get

(08:54):
in their own way. I think that's another piece of
this whole puzzle that not enough people understand. And so
when whenever you can get a win, you celebrate them.
Because they're not easy to come bine, and you got
to take the positive with it. It'll be interesting to see
how both of these teams continue to go forward. It's
good that they were actually able to win a home
game in front of a home crowd, so the crowd

(09:15):
can actually be excited about, Hey, even when we get down,
we still have a chance to go win this game.
They did it versus Arizona, but they couldn't finish it off.
Versus Miami, they able to help finish this thing off
and defensively be able to get a stop at the
end of the game as well to help steal it.
So it wasn't like your offense just scored the last
second touchdown and you walked off that way. But ultimately

(09:38):
both sides of the football contributed in a big week
in a big way and help them do that. Also,
special teams not giving up any big returns, which is
exactly what set them off in a bad direction versus
New England just the week before that. So you know,
you take the positives with that, just like I always
tell you. And I didn't cut the game off this week,
which is a positive. Like the week before I cut

(09:58):
the game off.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I did want to tell you, nobody offered me a
table to jump through in Buffalo on Sunday. I wasn't
offered a table.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Didn't do it thentor Graham, that's all your Graham. You
look like you had a good time. The flag football
at halftime looked awesome, and I'm very disappointed that you
didn't jump through a table.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Well, I mean I was. I was keeping my eyes
peeled like my head was on a swivel walking through
the tailgate lots. But I didn't see anybody die for
a while like nobody does for one.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Oh my gosh, Kyle, because you weren't looking. You weren't
looking close enough. You got to go in through the outskirts, bro,
They're not These things aren't just right by the stadium
in the VIP section with the great barking. Nobody's jumping
do tables there? You know you you think you're uh,
the Princess of Mungar.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Oh my gosh, dude, I was walking through the tailgate
lots with you're.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Going through with the rose pedals, thinking they was just
open up a table for you. No, yeah, go up
there and.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
See it, dude. Did you ever go and see did
you ever play at Buffalo by the way, I'm sure
you did. Did you ever play there?

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah? I did, I did. We won?

Speaker 1 (10:56):
We okay, But like I gotta be honest man, like that
that I know it was Sunday night football was of Patriots.
But that was. I mean, that's one of the best
football environments I've ever been in in my life.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
It was. It was really true, it is. And the
first of all, the fans care a lot about that
team is Buffalo and Bill's mafia fans all over this country,
and it's really cool whenever you see And that's the
reason why a team like Buffalo can survive throughout the weather,
throughout It's not a big market, it's a very small
market team, but it doesn't matter because the fan and

(11:27):
the passion that is there in Buffalo, like they love
that team. They ain't going nowhere. They understand that Buffalo
is everything there and the organization with Brandon Bean and
coach McDermott understand that as well, because that's why they
supply the players with so many different opportunities and making
sure that the players are well taken care of as
far as massages, days off, how they practice, the hot tub,

(11:50):
cold tub, all the situations within the building. They're a
super upper class because they know it's really hard to
recruit players outside of that to the city of Buffalo
to come play football outside of Like, you know, it's
not the prettiest, it's not the most vibrant, but we
love our football team. They treat you right when you
get in the building, and the fans are second to none.

(12:12):
And so I'm glad you got to see that. It's
it's maac in the middle of the neighborhood. Though it is, yes,
it is.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Polar opposite of Charlotte. Our stadium is part of the sideline.
Theirs is in the middle of nowhere. And last thing
on this I will say if you watch the NBC
broadcast Sunday night, as they're coming back from break at
the end of halftime, they show the highlights of the
flag football game at halftime and Tarico's talking about it,
and Collinsworth jumps in and he says, man, these people
were into that. They were even chanting USA USA there

(12:41):
at the end. I got him doing that Roman As
I'm walking out the stadium with a live mic, I
get all seventy thousand people channing USA in high Mark
stadium on a Sunday night. It was incredible. So everybody's
welcome for that. That was all me.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
I love the name droppers yourself right there. I love
that right. I did see that they went to the
flag football game. That's how I was like, Oh, that's
exactly why Kyle was different for the hot time. Yeah. Then,
and they talked about the USA Cham I'm glad that
you took credit for it right now, because they didn't
give it to you. So that's all I got.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
It was a core memory for me, so I really
loved it all right. Let me let me ask you
a question college football related. We were talking earlier about
all the parody in the sport, and I referenced Kirby
Smart after he lost to Bama a couple of weeks ago.
He was telling reporters, hey, the game's different. It ain't
like it used to be. The rosters aren't as deep
as they used to be. Guys are getting paid to
go elsewhere, this, that and the other. And some people
didn't want to hear it because he had just lost

(13:35):
Obama and he's won and seven against Bama, and so
some people thought that was an excuse. But he's one
hundred percent right, and we were trying to, Like I asked, Smoke,
who do you think is the best team in college
football right now? So I'll ask you any conference, who
is the best team? Who are you picking to win
the national championship right now?

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Oh? So I don't want to do that. That's why
we'll answer your question though. First of all, who did
Smoke say.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
I don't think he said Oregon his answer.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
I could see that. I could vibe with that. I
think Oregon is the top five game for sure right now.
The team I've been really, really just most impressed with,
and this the way they play, is Miami. I just
love their defense, the way they fly around and hit
people a key mesador number three, the D lineman goes
inside outside game wrecord with bain On at number four

(14:26):
the other defensive end, Like it's just what they do,
travels right, and they're good enough offensively. The old line
on that side of Miami is able to push teams
around where they need to be, able to physical physically
push them around. And you've got a veteran quarterback and
Carson Beck that's throwing the ball and being pretty good
at it so far this year. Outside of a couple
of little rare moments, but he's played well, and so

(14:47):
I like Miami right now. That's probably my favorite team
to watch so far this year as far as consistency,
what they're doing on both sides of football now themendment
I say that you know, the moment Miami goes out there,
lets one squa. But Miami for me right now seems
like the most complete team with the ability to travel
and ability to host games and be really really a

(15:10):
tough out. So I like Miami so far. Just as
far as outside of my normal footprint. I do like
Oregon because they have a lot of speed, but I'm
still a little bit concerned with their quarterback and lack
of experience in big time moments in games. I just
think it's easy when you're playing games that are you

(15:31):
know that you're not actually dependent on to go win
the game yet. So and Oregon will all that's yet
to be determined. Oregon still has one more ranked team
to play in their season, which I think is blowney
because you've got teams like Oklahoma will have five top
twenty five ranked games still left on their schedule, and
all the other conferences are really just wrapping up all
their tough ones. Unless some other teams will come top

(15:54):
twenty five as the season progresses. But the big teams
kind of got all their stuff out of the way too.
So Ohio State two games left against top twenty five Ophony,
Oregon has won and they're one great wins against sim State,
which doesn't look that good anymore. So we'll see. I
know they passed the eye test, but we saw this
last year, Kyle, is that once you get to the playoffs,

(16:15):
it helps you to play a tough game. I think
it hurt Indiana last year, and I like the Signetti coach,
but you know, I can't wait to see as Indiana
continues to progress and the rest of the Big ten
what they do as well. Love it.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Hey got about thirty seconds. I just want to squeeze
this in. We'll go harder on the college stuff next week.
But you got Tyz Simpson at Alabama. Really impressive kid.
You know, I'll just talk about this incredible quarterback class
coming into twenty twenty five. Some of these guys have
been okay, others have been complete flops. Do you think
ty Simpsons an NFL quarterback?

Speaker 2 (16:46):
I do think he's the NFL quarterback. The thing is
is this offseason, Kyle. I set it on the SEC network.
I said, Ty Simpsons are going to have the biggest
glow up this season. I saw this happening. It also
helps when you've got an NFL ready offensive coordinated that's
really good at calling plays, setting the table for you
very nicely so you can come in there and eat
and be in peace. And so Ty Simpson understands this offense.

(17:08):
They got three legit NFL wide receivers on this roster.
They have a really good offensive line. It's a lot
of really good factors around Tie that's allowing him to
be great. And Ty's paid his dues. Man. I gave
him a hug on the sidelines, quick store. I gave
him a hug on the sidelines last year, and I
told him, I said, man, I see you, because sometimes
a lot of people just need to be recognized and

(17:28):
told that they're being watched or that they see them.
And so I know it wasn't his turn, but I
told him just to be patient, continue on this road, bro,
and that the future's bright. Because I thought he had really,
really vastly improved over the last season and a half
of football for him, and so now they kind of
see this whole thing coming to fruition. It's been great.
He's dominant up and honestly, I think he should stay

(17:49):
in school another year and continue to flourish. Like don't
don't all of a sudden get a little taste of
some good stuff and then all of a sudden, jet man,
do what you gotta do. I understand straight by the
iron Fire book, I think what he does, Uh, it
lasts longer than just one season. Sorry, Thoal, You're good, bro.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
I appreciate you as always. Thank you for the insight.
Thank you for you know, keeping me humble by roasting
me a couple of minutes ago. And we'll do it
again next Wednesday. Thank you, my friend.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Hey, the only thing that would have been better, Kyle,
if you just say talk to you talked about yourself
in third person the way I can probably talk about
you know, Roman Harper, was this next time you see
you know, you know Kyle Bailey did that.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
I'll practice, I'll practice. I'll try to get better at that.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, get better at that time. I will person.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
I will thank you, buddy, Roman Harper, two time Pro Bowler,
super Bowl champion. SEC Network analyst with US on the
hotline