December 10, 2024 • 31 mins
This week on Weekend Warriors, Anish and Tom react to the final college football playoff rankings, discuss the modern politics of college football, emphasize the importance of building around Bryce Young this offseason, and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm going to start with baseball because I know how
much Lukes loves it. I know you're not a baseball fan.
I love baseball movies though, But when you see fifteen years,
seven hundred and sixty five million dollars, those numbers don't
even seem real. That's absurd.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
How do you quantify that?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Like where you can quantify that?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It just takes a lot of zero's No, no, I
takes a lot of But I guess maybe I use
the wrong phraser. But like, all right, how do you
Is there any level of production at any position in
any sport that warrants that type of money? I go
to this.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I think there's two things where his market Juan Soto
is the guy we're talking about. His market exploded. So one,
here's context. Right as a Yankees fan, Aaron Judge and
his Rookie of the Year season was I think twenty
five or twenty.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Six years old. That was his the year's season.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Juan Soto is that age right now?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Now? Yeah, So people see.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That and go, okay, you're getting this guy essentially for
the prime prime of his career. He's had you know,
six to seven incredible seasons. The guy back in nineteen
he won a World Series with Washington. He was a
clutch postseason performer this year. But you're getting aged twenty six,
twenty seven, you probably have, you know, seven or eight
(01:24):
years of prime production where you can build a championship
team around him.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Then I think most teams say, well, you're already getting
your money's worth on the front end. So now if
you got seven more seasons where he's gonna be making
fifty plus a year, yeah, back end, and he's not
the same player and there's a decline, you can live
with it with the production on the front end. I say,
if you watch the career of Mike Trout for example,
(01:54):
this guy broke in at the same age nineteen eighteen
years old. His first seven eight seasons, I mean, this
guy was he was on the trajectory of one of
the best players ever, and then injuries happened. Now he's
thirty three, thirty four, he's got i think six seven
years left on a deal where he's making a lot
of money. They can't trade him, and it just eats
(02:14):
up so much of your payroll in one guy no
longer productive, and God forbid, something happens to want Sodo.
And I know Steve Cohens got more money than the
man above. I get all that, but you get a
significant injury here, Yeah, and you've tied up that much money, guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Money, and here's his entire organization.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
He can opt out after five years. The Mets convoid
the opt out after five years and essentially turned that
into a fifteen year, eight hundred plus million dollar deal.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Are you kidding? No?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I mean, I'm a Yankee fan and I'm sitting here
and I'm getting text from my fellow Yankee fans going,
how do we let Sodo get away? I go listen,
you're talking about numbers, were even the richest team in sports? Yeah,
I understand drawing the line in the sand. I really
do you kind of have to write?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I mean, because really, for what you just said, age
a debilitating body, injuries, reduction in production, and now you're stuck,
as you mentioned, if there's another six by six seven
years left on that contract and you totally handcuffed the
rest of your roster. Yeah, right, I menton y ris
Ky reward proposition, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, And again, the guy's a unicorn, He's one of one.
He hits for power. He doesn't strike out. He's got
the best batting guy.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Since Ted Williams. He's a great player.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I got to watch him this past season almost every game,
and yes, I wanted him back.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It would have been great.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It's not my money, yeah right, it's just an absurd
If there is a player in football that warrants that
kind of deal, Well, first off, is there.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
A player in football that warrants that kind of deal? Well,
I'll tell you who it would have been if he
played now have been prime? Yeah, it would have been
Deiane because he plays outside a quarterback and defensive hand
and offensive tackle. I think you take all four, but
I mean cover corners that are six foot or taller
(04:14):
that can contribute in the kicking game and flip field
position and score like. He would have been that guy
if Bo had to take the way half the field. Yeah,
if Bo hadn't gotten hurt, he probably would have been
that guy. I would wonder what Marshall Falk would have been,
the nineteen ninety eight, ninety nine, two thousand version of
Marshall Falk in today's game, what he would have garnered.
(04:37):
Here's one.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Because part of this is you have to be able
to produce for a long time in longevity.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, Jerry Rice. Jerry Rice absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
When his career he played into his forties, he was
I think he had a thousand yard season or two
with the Raiders like he did.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, he did. Yeah, that's a great example, right to me.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You need somebody who can last and get their work done.
B It's not necessarily a guy who's going to have
this incredible peak, but you kind of need to stretch
that out over a long time. And that's that's the
hard thing, especially this day and age.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, No, there's no question. I mean, and there's so
many unknown variables, right, Like you said, catastrophic injury, right.
And the one thing I've noticed in my twenty six
years of being are almost thirty years now being in
this this sport is either a scout or a coach
or a broadcaster is in the sport of football in particular,
(05:37):
when the decline starts, it's not slow, it's off a
cliff like it's weird. I don't know if it's the
violence of the collision sport, what have you, but it
is not a gradual decent. It is a it is
a precipitous fall, and it just seems to be that way,
(05:58):
and nobody has a crystal ball for when it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
No, and when it happens, very rarely do you see
it stop, reset, and then the guy gets back to
where he used to be, or even that.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It doesn't often doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
All Right, we got a pack show, we got playoffs,
got some NFL Panthers arrows pointing up despite some recent losses.
I'm going to dive into the playoffs first. This is
the Weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Weekend close to the episode cap
by Feeling Touchdown Carolina Weekend Warriors.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
The college football playoff bracket came out on Sunday. You
and I talked about it last week. You said you
thought SMU was in with a loss. I didn't agree,
and honestly, I don't think SMU is in if not
for the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Oh, they saved themselves that fourth quarter. And you know what.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
The other thing I don't know this is qualitative. Yeah,
but Dabo's Sweeney at the end of the game in
that postgame interview. One of the first things he said, yep,
SMU is a playoff team. And I've made this case
on the college basketball front when it comes to the ACC.
So in college basketball, the ACC in the last seven
(07:18):
years has lost Rick Patino, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Beheim,
and now Tony Bennett, five coaches with championships who when
they say something, they have a megaphone.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
It carries weight. YEP, it carries weight.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
The SEC had that guy in Nick Saban m H.
I'll make the case Dabo Sweeney has a bigger megaphone
than any head coach currently in the SEC right now.
And when Dabo says that after a game, whether it
influenced the playoff committee or influenced a few members, I'm
telling you that had weight, a lot of weight. And
I'm watching that and I'm going good for Dabo. He's
(07:55):
standing up for his league, he's standing up for SMU
and Frankly, Alabama two weeks to go crap the bed
against Oklahoma, a very mediocre at best Oklahoma team and SMU.
I thought that game kind of played out like we
talked about it a week ago, where there was stage
fright early. Once they settled down, they showed they can hang.
(08:15):
That fourth quarter was incredible. They almost forced overtime. I
think if they force overtime, they probably win the game.
Kevin Jennings can play. I think they deserved it. I
went into Sunday going, I don't know if the committee
has the guts to leave Alabama out, and then when
they put the bracket together, I'm going I think they
got this thing right.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah. Well, I want to go back to what you
first said about dabbo because I was literally watching it
and thinking the exact same thing, because the timing of
it was perfect. And don't think for one second the
coaches in that room, Oo've all been on that sideline,
bove all finished a game, wove all gone through that handshake,
and in that moment they know exactly what they just
(08:55):
did win or lose. That team was either really good
that team was not very good. Right, So to make
that statement and it's bold and it's there for everybody
to hear, and it carries weight because it's dabble, I
totally agree. I do think that it had influence. I
also think you're one correct about the fourth quarter, and
(09:15):
not just the fourth quarter. The SMU did something in
the first quarter they had not done all year long.
That was beat themselves. One of the reasons why SEMU
was so good is because yes, they've got good players,
they're well coached, they're well prepared, but they never just
went out and laid an egg against anybody. Right, Well,
they did that and they got themselves in a hole
(09:36):
that they had not been in all year long. So
now your first question is what are you going to do?
And you have to figure ret lastly saying the same thing,
and all of a sudden, they just kept chipping away,
chipping away. They weren't looking at the scoreboard. And some
of the throws that that Kevin Jennings kid made in
the fourth quarter were just if you don't have respect
(09:56):
for that kid. And I know a lot of people
watching that game had not watched a snap of Kevin Jennings.
They might have heard his name. But now you look
and you see, wow, Okay, they've got some serious offensive skill.
They've got some guys up front, and to watch them
crawl back to me, they say they secured their invite
on their own. They secured their invite because of what
(10:19):
they did, even though they lost. Now, the last point
that you made, I really believe a niche that if
the committee had left out SMU, they would have fundamentally
transformed the college football landscape forever going forward, because you
would have had coaches screaming to the rooftops, I am
(10:42):
not playing in a championship game. We're not doing it
up on every wall in every building of every college
football complex in America. You're gonna have bait. You're gonna
have staples. What are they all right? Win the conference,
v beat your rival, go to a bowl game, make
the college Football Playoff. Well, now you're telling if you
if you make that move, you're telling everybody that it
(11:04):
does not help you to play for a championship, when
that's the goal of every sport on the planet is
to play for and win a championship. And I think
they didn't want to deal with that backlash. What I
find interesting is all of a sudden, as bad of
the loss as the Alabama loss was to Oklahoma suddenly mattered.
(11:25):
It was interesting because it didn't matter all that much
each of the last three weeks, and now all of
a sudden it did, right, And so that was their fallback.
That was their ability to say, well, as we take
a second look at it, you know, and to be
honest with you, I think the College Football Playoff Committee
and Ward manual had kind of screwed this thing up
the last three to four weeks. How they've discussed it,
(11:47):
the fact that two weeks ago they essentially said, well,
if you're not playing, there's no data points, so you're out. Well,
you can't do that.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
That's one of the fundamental pillars of the entire thing
is that every week with its own week and we
rerant the top twenty five, you're going to tell me
that because South Carolina didn't play, but Clemson beats SMU
that that wouldn't have helped South Carolina skate.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
No doubt, or take another domino the last weekend of
the regular season where let's say Georgia Tech ends up
beating Georgia Georgia, Yeah, that might push Miami potentially into
the twelve team mix. Miami lost to Georgia Tech, all
of a sudden, that lass starts to look a whole
lot better.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Absolutely, there's no question, and so those things do matter.
So I think the committee had to crawl out of
a hole because they backed themselves in a corner. But
I do think that they fundamentally got it right because
they would have a big problem on their hands going
forward because here's the other issue in all of this,
and I don't think people think. I certainly didn't think
about this prior to the season, and I don't think
(12:46):
most people did, if they're being honest. Going away from divisions,
I don't think people realized how much that was gonna
tilt schedules, because not all schedules are created equal. And
you can't sit there and blame the team. They didn't
create the schedule. It was the schedule that was laid
out in front of them. You know, you can't blame
Indiana because they didn't play you know, Penn State or
(13:06):
they didn't play Oregon. Can't blame SMU because they didn't
play Clinton or Miami. They played the schedule that was
put out in front of them. By the way, with
SMU SMU. And I said this before the a SEC
Championship game. Everybody's talking about Alabama and SMU and who
could be in. Somebody make a case for me that
Indiana should have been in over SMU. I'll give you
(13:26):
another one. I'll give you another one.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Texas, Texas got a foot pass despite finishing the regular
season with exactly zero top twenty five wins. Their best wins,
Texas a and m no longer ranked, no longer.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Ranked six and six yep, and nobody and nobody said
a word about it because of the decal and their helmet.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
So you know, to me, their resume and Miami's resume
not a whole lot different except for the fact that
Texas had two losses to Georgia. Yeah, you want to
call it that, and because of conference perception, even though
Miami lost to a nine win Syracuse team on the road, who,
by the way, is in the.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Top twenty five. Yeah, and by the way, had beat
UNLV and UNLV had been in the top twenty five
for four weeks and had played in the Mountain West Championship.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
And the loss came to a Georgia Tech team that
if they could figure out what to do from the
three yard line, they got to win against Georgia.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
You're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
So but again it's not all apples to apples. I
think what's unique this year too, and this is good,
this is good for college football, is that in years past,
most years, last year I think at Florida State had
a healthy Jordan Travis and you know, Ohio State had
they been in the mix, and it was an expanded Playoff.
Maybe a different story, but in most tears, you get
(14:47):
to the top four and maybe there's a case for
five or six to be in. Yeah, there's usually just
a couple of teams and you kind of know who
it's going to come down to. Year that Cincinnati was
in the College Football Playoff again, great story. Knew they
weren't going to win the whole thing. The year TCU
(15:09):
was in the College Football Playoff a couple of years ago.
Oh hey, Georgia just scored again. You knew they weren't
going to win the whole thing, right, they had to
win against Michigan. Great, they go up against Georgia and
I remember Georgia's scores early in that game.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
This is over.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
You can just tell over no noub what's unique. I'm
looking at the bracket in front of me. Right, if
Clemson gets solid quarterback play, they're a little Jekyll and Hyde.
Can they hang with Texas? I think they can hang
with Texas absolutely, Tennessee Ohio State. To me, that's a
(15:46):
toss up, right, either of those teams can go beat
Oregon in the quarterfinal. I look at SMUs draw, Penn
State very beatable, Boise State as sem U has a
very real chances an eleven to go get to the semi.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yes they do. They got a really good draw.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Georgia. We say this all the time. If they don't
beat themselves and they play well, especially on offense, they
can win the whole thing. But now Carson Beck's status
up in the air. What happens at quarterback? Do you
trust Gunner Stockton? So George is now wildcard. I sit
here and I'm going there. There's probably nine teams, eight
teams that can win this thing.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I totally agree with you. And it's gonna take health,
it's gonna take luck, it's gonna take competitive depth, and
it is gonna take outstanding quarterback play because that is
a gauntlet to have to get through.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
And I'm glad you hit quarterbacks because I look at
this and I say, all right, if you could ride
with three quarterbacks for this college football playoff amongst the
playoff teams, who do you cast your lot with?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Dylan gave Reel number one because of consistency of performance,
and there's nothing he hasn't seen. Kevin Jennings is my
number two. I have no I have no issue with that.
He's been my number two quarterback. I ranked the act
quarterbacks each week. He's been my number two quarterback for
the last seven weeks, behind cam Ward. I've gotten a
lot of heat for it. And I'm like, you're not
watching the guy, not watching him, and and I think,
(17:15):
and I think he's really really good. Do you want
to know who the dark horse guy is?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
And all of this, I'm gonna guess Drew Aller.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
No, Sam Levitt at Arizona State. Okay, they got a quarterback. Dude,
that guy whoa he is a player And this is
what I find so fascinating about his story. So this
kid was.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
At Michigan State, correct, Jonathan Jonathan Smith gets the Michigan
State head coaching job, comes over from Oregon State. Right,
Jonathan Smith brings his own guy, yeah, Oregon State with
him to East Lansing. Aiden Giles. The reason Levit hit
the portal because Sam Levitt is an Oregon kid. He's
from Oregon, was never recruited by Oregon State and Jonathan
(18:00):
Smith while he was living in their backyard. Yeah, so
this kid now goes to East Lansing, goes to Michigan State.
The guy who never recruited him in the first place.
Takes that job, and he goes, oh, all right, I
got no shot here. You're gonna bring your own guy.
He brings you this guy who, by the way, didn't
have a great season. And then he transfers and Arizona
(18:23):
State finds a gem Kenny Dillingham, very easy to root for.
And I gotta be honest, there's two running backs here.
Running backs are making a comeback. Folks asking genty you
know all about He's going to New York for the
Heisman BOYSEU State running back who's got I think eight
or nine hundred more yards than the next in college football.
But if you haven't watched Camp Scataboo boy, you need to.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
You need to.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I was telling some folks of the Panthers about him,
and I just said, you got to watch this guy, right.
He plays on special teams. He can be a core
four special teams guy for you. Nothing else works out.
His contact balance is incredible, and he goes nine thousand
miles per hour for everything. I'm telling you that this
(19:06):
guy's going to be on an NFL roster, and there's
going to be a team out there that's gonna overthink
it and say, no, that's the guy you want in
your locker room. I'm I'm on this camp Scataboo train.
I'm not getting off with you.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
He's a locker room changer. He is a team chemistry builder.
I think he's John Riggins.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Listen he You know what when you watch the old
Riggins highlights from the Super Bowls and there's guys pinballing
off of him, stiff arm about to go down hand
in the grass, he bounces up.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's how this guy runs. I know, I know. Are
he just every intangible trade, analogy, every intangible trade of
somebody who loves football?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
He has so Arizona State's the four seed, boy sees
the three steed, Georgia two, Oregon one. How do you
handicap the favorite?
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Say that again?
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I'm sorry, how do you handicap the favorite for this
whole thing?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Huh? I think because of the level of consistency that
they've shown, Oregon has a lot of winning traits. To me,
because we've seen so many warts, we've seen so many
holes with so many of these of these rosters, and
they haven't really revealed many of those. And I think
(20:29):
that travels that's the one. But I still maintain and
I don't know what's gonna happen at quarterback. But if
if Gunner stocked in at Georgia can play even resemble
the performance he had in the SEC championship game. And
to your point, Georgia doesn't beat themselves. They're better than
everybody else. They're just better than everybody else.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I'll give you that. Here's my worry with Oregon despite
being the one seed. I think they have the toughest
quarterfinal draw.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
With Arizona State.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
No, Oregon would get the Tennessee Ohio State winners.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah correct. No,
I do too. I think they have well. I would
say that. I would say that if Ohio State wins,
because I think they're more evenly matched. I think Tennessee
has more wards than maybe people think. And I don't
think the quarterbacks played very well down the stretch.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
No, he had a really good start to the season
and everyone was on the Nico train.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah, it kind of fizzled out. I'll say this.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
The kid's still a freshman, He's still got time. I
think he's going to be a good one.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Oh, I do too to. I think too much was
put on his shoulders too early. Then the schedule got
difficult and it all came crashing down a little bit.
But they can run the football. They're a solid team
on defense. But in this type of tournament, like he's
going to have to play his best football, You're not
getting through this thing with mediocre quarterback play.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
The team that I'm having a hard time evaluating, and
and I've watched a few of their games this year
is Notre Dame because the schedule, I'll be honest with you,
it's lacking, brutal. They lost in Northern Illinois early, but
in some of these games down the stretch they looked
flat out dominant. And when you watch the pieces, I
(22:15):
like the quarterback, it's kind of like you have this,
you know, Halloween costume on and you're a Halloween guy,
and you know, on the surface, like the heck is that?
And then oh no, I see what you did there.
It's actually clever and it's pretty good and sneaky good
(22:35):
and it might win awards. Like I think they're gonna
beat Indiana. It's gonna be a home game for them.
I think they're better than Indiana. Nothing again to great story,
but I think Notre Dame wins that game in South bend.
I'm not counting out Notre Dame against Georgia. I'm not
Luke's And again, because of who they haven't played, it's
(22:59):
hard to get a fear of valuation of how good
they are.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Something about this team in the eye test. Am I
off here?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
No, you're not. I was actually just going to follow
up with They're the one team that from a schedule standpoint,
you say no way. Then you watch them and the
eye test is glaring like they're and they have things
that travel right. They can run the football, they stop
the run. The quarterback does everything they ask him to do.
Now they may not ask him to do much, but
everything they ask him to do, he does it well.
(23:26):
And you talk about a guy from week one to six, eh, like,
all right, was that really a big transfer portal? You know, improvement?
And then you watch him down the stretch he's played really,
really good football. I think they've got championship caliber traits.
And what may help them is everybody looks at them
because of the schedule, goes how good are these guys?
(23:48):
And if Georgia were to fall into that trap, that's
that's how you have an edge. If you're Notre Dame. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
The part that concerns me is if they get past Indiana,
now they play Georgia and they haven't seen a team
like Georgia all season.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Not close. No no, no, no no no no no no no.
I mean, when you think about it, the three potentially
the three worst teams in power for football are all
on their schedule. Florida State, Stanford in Purdue. Yeah, they
missed out on Keen State somehow, right, and then they
had Yeah, that's right. And then they had the lost
(24:21):
in Northern Illinois, which ended up looking worse and worse
and worse. But they just kept getting better and better
and better. And then you have the two service academies.
Those two service academies would beat eighty five percent of
the teams on Notre Dame schedule.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I would not disagree by the way they had great seasons.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Army Navy this week, Oh turrip.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
This is gonna be fun. It's going to be more
wide open. And in year one, the College Football Playoff
Committee has put itself in a situation where this is
going to be an entertaining playoff. I'm doing the quarterfinal
for ESPN Radio. Arizona State, winner of Clemson Texas, and
then you'll have the call on TV with Mark Jones
Roddy Jones for SMU Penn State, right.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, yeah. On the I'll be on the sideline with
Quin Katsnick. We'll each have a sideline and report from
the field, and then Wes and I, Wes Durmo and
I will be doing a pre game lead up show
on ACC Network for that matchup. So, and it's great
because I've had I've had SMU four times this year,
very very familiar with them, So looking forward to that matchup.
It's gonna be fun. Yeah, it should be a lot
of fun. All right.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Before we wrap up, I want to turn the attention
to the NFL real quick, so quick, aside as the
Panthers get ready for the Cowboys Dallas on a short week.
If you watched on Monday night, Dallas came up a
little short because of a special teams blunder that would
have made leon Let either proud or disgusted. I mean,
how many times have you seen that Blockchow goes over
(25:47):
the scrimmage line, don't touch it, don't touch it, and
they touch it and they didn't field a clean Cincinnati
recovers Cincinnati gets the ballpack and gets the mulligan. Anyway,
two things. One, I watched a little bit of this
Simpson's broadcast, so they did the player introductions, right yeah,
and Krusty the clown from Clown College. You want to
talk about a miss? So when they put Ralph up,
(26:09):
he just says, I'm Ralph. How do you not go
with Bovine University?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah? Right? I mean that that was right there.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
That was my only quibble. I said, when I grow up,
I'm going to go to Bovine University. All timeline, how
do you not have Bovine University?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
As Salma Manter because they don't have you? With the writer.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
That that was a miss? But Cowboys a little bit
in disarray right now. Cooper rush the quarterback with dak
out Uh the Panthers. I don't know how much you
saw of the game against Philly, but this is three
weeks in a row against a team that's currently in
first place. Carolina goes toe to toe and again nothing
fluky about it. Philly did what they do against everybody
that ran the ball for two hundred plus Saquon with
(26:54):
Saquon and I'm telling you, man If exavierly get holds
onto the ball and the final moments there we're talking
about a magical moment, a potential ninety eight yard game
winning drive authored by Bryce Young the Kansas City game
a couple of weeks ago, that now with two more
games of evidence, looks to be a real pivot point,
(27:15):
not only in that young man's career, but I think
for this franchise.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, I listen, and it's putting the franchise in a
position to have to really sit down and make some
very very serious decisions and evaluations. And you know what,
good for Bryce Young for putting them in that position.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
When you see this this trajectory with a team, there's
an old coaching adage and your dad was a coach,
so you know how this goes. First you lose big,
then you lose close close, then you win big. Panthers
are kind of in this lose close phase. Sure do
you get from that lose close phase to the win
close phase, because that's a That bridge is a long
(27:57):
bridge to cross.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
It's a long bridge across and it begins and ends
with the quarterback position, particularly in that league, and then
the people around him up front on both sides of
the ball. Defensive front, offensive front. If you look at
the premier teams in the NFL, it starts with the
guy take on the snap. And if you can develop that,
and if you can bring that along and mature and
become something there, it just everything else falls into place
(28:23):
when you get that position right. And it is so
hard to get it right. I mean, just look at it.
I mean, you got thirty two teams in the National
Football League. They all got one selection. They virtually have
unlimited resources to uncover every red flag you could possibly imagine,
and they missed fifty percent of the time they do
on one guy.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
And that's why these next four games, when you look
at the schedule, you got Dallas, who's five and eight,
coming a part at the seams coach on the hot seat.
Arizona has lost three in a row after starting six
and four, they're now six and seven. You get Tampa
first place, seven and six, and then you get Atlanta.
Kirk Cousins is in free fall. Carolina should be in
(29:04):
all four of those games. I think you should at
least probably win two of those games. And if you
go into the offseason feeling really good about Bryce Young
as your future at quarterback, it allows Dan Morgan to
really cook in this draft. By taking the best player
available and be down. You can stock pile picks if
you don't have to worry about that position. You can
(29:25):
now start to address the rest of the roster. Knowing, Hey, okay,
we have the guy at quarterback who showed significant growth.
And I said this before the year. I think we
probably talked about it on the first podcast. Take the
record and throw it out the window. If you get
through the end of twenty twenty four and you know
Bryce Young is the guy. He has three more years
(29:46):
on his rookie contract. Yeah, with your option as a
first round pick, you're in good shape. Now you can
build that team around Bryce, give him the help, go
reload the defense. This organization, this franchises in a lot
better of a spot than it was twelve months ago.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah. Again, And those are the pieces of the puzzle
that you got to put around that player. And you're right,
whether it's agency, whether it's through the draft, trading up,
trading down, putting yourself, like you said, best available player,
if you feel good about the quarterback. I mean, that's
how you transform a roster quickly.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
All right, So Panthers Cowboys this weekend college football playoff
about ten days away. We're taping the show on Tuesday,
December tenth. I remembered it's my brother's birthday today. I
got to call him up. Oh, just looked at the date. Yeah,
you know how we have no idea the idea at
this time of the year. We got a few more
(30:39):
shows of this before we have our last show on
the sixth of January, which is after the Panthers regular
season finale against the Falcons. Been fun, like, subscribe, do
all the things that influencers tell you to do. I
don't know the Verbian what do you like? And subscribe?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Right? Is that what I like? Subscribe and follow? I
guess is it those three? Yeah? I think it does.
Right is right one of them? Right is right? One
of them. I don't know. We're not young enough to
know any of this stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
That's why we don't do the whole big spiel at
the beginning. Well, you're getting in at the end. Before
it continues, we're going to sign off.
I'm going to start with baseball because I know how
much Lukes loves it. I know you're not a baseball fan.
I love baseball movies though, But when you see fifteen years,
seven hundred and sixty five million dollars, those numbers don't
even seem real. That's absurd.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
How do you quantify that?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Like where you can quantify that?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It just takes a lot of zero's No, no, I
takes a lot of But I guess maybe I use
the wrong phraser. But like, all right, how do you
Is there any level of production at any position in
any sport that warrants that type of money? I go
to this.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I think there's two things where his market Juan Soto
is the guy we're talking about. His market exploded. So one,
here's context. Right as a Yankees fan, Aaron Judge and
his Rookie of the Year season was I think twenty
five or twenty.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Six years old. That was his the year's season.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Juan Soto is that age right now?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Now? Yeah, So people see.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That and go, okay, you're getting this guy essentially for
the prime prime of his career. He's had you know,
six to seven incredible seasons. The guy back in nineteen
he won a World Series with Washington. He was a
clutch postseason performer this year. But you're getting aged twenty six,
twenty seven, you probably have, you know, seven or eight
(01:24):
years of prime production where you can build a championship
team around him.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Then I think most teams say, well, you're already getting
your money's worth on the front end. So now if
you got seven more seasons where he's gonna be making
fifty plus a year, yeah, back end, and he's not
the same player and there's a decline, you can live
with it with the production on the front end. I say,
if you watch the career of Mike Trout for example,
(01:54):
this guy broke in at the same age nineteen eighteen
years old. His first seven eight seasons, I mean, this
guy was he was on the trajectory of one of
the best players ever, and then injuries happened. Now he's
thirty three, thirty four, he's got i think six seven
years left on a deal where he's making a lot
of money. They can't trade him, and it just eats
(02:14):
up so much of your payroll in one guy no
longer productive, and God forbid, something happens to want Sodo.
And I know Steve Cohens got more money than the
man above. I get all that, but you get a
significant injury here, Yeah, and you've tied up that much money, guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Money, and here's his entire organization.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
He can opt out after five years. The Mets convoid
the opt out after five years and essentially turned that
into a fifteen year, eight hundred plus million dollar deal.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Are you kidding? No?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I mean, I'm a Yankee fan and I'm sitting here
and I'm getting text from my fellow Yankee fans going,
how do we let Sodo get away? I go listen,
you're talking about numbers, were even the richest team in sports? Yeah,
I understand drawing the line in the sand. I really
do you kind of have to write?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I mean, because really, for what you just said, age
a debilitating body, injuries, reduction in production, and now you're stuck,
as you mentioned, if there's another six by six seven
years left on that contract and you totally handcuffed the
rest of your roster. Yeah, right, I menton y ris
Ky reward proposition, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, And again, the guy's a unicorn, He's one of one.
He hits for power. He doesn't strike out. He's got
the best batting guy.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Since Ted Williams. He's a great player.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I got to watch him this past season almost every game,
and yes, I wanted him back.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It would have been great.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It's not my money, yeah right, it's just an absurd
If there is a player in football that warrants that
kind of deal, Well, first off, is there.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
A player in football that warrants that kind of deal? Well,
I'll tell you who it would have been if he
played now have been prime? Yeah, it would have been
Deiane because he plays outside a quarterback and defensive hand
and offensive tackle. I think you take all four, but
I mean cover corners that are six foot or taller
(04:14):
that can contribute in the kicking game and flip field
position and score like. He would have been that guy
if Bo had to take the way half the field. Yeah,
if Bo hadn't gotten hurt, he probably would have been
that guy. I would wonder what Marshall Falk would have been,
the nineteen ninety eight, ninety nine, two thousand version of
Marshall Falk in today's game, what he would have garnered.
(04:37):
Here's one.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Because part of this is you have to be able
to produce for a long time in longevity.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, Jerry Rice. Jerry Rice absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
When his career he played into his forties, he was
I think he had a thousand yard season or two
with the Raiders like he did.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, he did. Yeah, that's a great example, right to me.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You need somebody who can last and get their work done.
B It's not necessarily a guy who's going to have
this incredible peak, but you kind of need to stretch
that out over a long time. And that's that's the
hard thing, especially this day and age.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, No, there's no question. I mean, and there's so
many unknown variables, right, Like you said, catastrophic injury, right.
And the one thing I've noticed in my twenty six
years of being are almost thirty years now being in
this this sport is either a scout or a coach
or a broadcaster is in the sport of football in particular,
(05:37):
when the decline starts, it's not slow, it's off a
cliff like it's weird. I don't know if it's the
violence of the collision sport, what have you, but it
is not a gradual decent. It is a it is
a precipitous fall, and it just seems to be that way,
(05:58):
and nobody has a crystal ball for when it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
No, and when it happens, very rarely do you see
it stop, reset, and then the guy gets back to
where he used to be, or even that.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It doesn't often doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
All Right, we got a pack show, we got playoffs,
got some NFL Panthers arrows pointing up despite some recent losses.
I'm going to dive into the playoffs first. This is
the Weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Weekend close to the episode cap
by Feeling Touchdown Carolina Weekend Warriors.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
The college football playoff bracket came out on Sunday. You
and I talked about it last week. You said you
thought SMU was in with a loss. I didn't agree,
and honestly, I don't think SMU is in if not
for the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Oh, they saved themselves that fourth quarter. And you know what.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
The other thing I don't know this is qualitative. Yeah,
but Dabo's Sweeney at the end of the game in
that postgame interview. One of the first things he said, yep,
SMU is a playoff team. And I've made this case
on the college basketball front when it comes to the ACC.
So in college basketball, the ACC in the last seven
(07:18):
years has lost Rick Patino, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Beheim,
and now Tony Bennett, five coaches with championships who when
they say something, they have a megaphone.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
It carries weight. YEP, it carries weight.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
The SEC had that guy in Nick Saban m H.
I'll make the case Dabo Sweeney has a bigger megaphone
than any head coach currently in the SEC right now.
And when Dabo says that after a game, whether it
influenced the playoff committee or influenced a few members, I'm
telling you that had weight, a lot of weight. And
I'm watching that and I'm going good for Dabo. He's
(07:55):
standing up for his league, he's standing up for SMU
and Frankly, Alabama two weeks to go crap the bed
against Oklahoma, a very mediocre at best Oklahoma team and SMU.
I thought that game kind of played out like we
talked about it a week ago, where there was stage
fright early. Once they settled down, they showed they can hang.
(08:15):
That fourth quarter was incredible. They almost forced overtime. I
think if they force overtime, they probably win the game.
Kevin Jennings can play. I think they deserved it. I
went into Sunday going, I don't know if the committee
has the guts to leave Alabama out, and then when
they put the bracket together, I'm going I think they
got this thing right.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah. Well, I want to go back to what you
first said about dabbo because I was literally watching it
and thinking the exact same thing, because the timing of
it was perfect. And don't think for one second the
coaches in that room, Oo've all been on that sideline,
bove all finished a game, wove all gone through that handshake,
and in that moment they know exactly what they just
(08:55):
did win or lose. That team was either really good
that team was not very good. Right, So to make
that statement and it's bold and it's there for everybody
to hear, and it carries weight because it's dabble, I
totally agree. I do think that it had influence. I
also think you're one correct about the fourth quarter, and
(09:15):
not just the fourth quarter. The SMU did something in
the first quarter they had not done all year long.
That was beat themselves. One of the reasons why SEMU
was so good is because yes, they've got good players,
they're well coached, they're well prepared, but they never just
went out and laid an egg against anybody. Right, Well,
they did that and they got themselves in a hole
(09:36):
that they had not been in all year long. So
now your first question is what are you going to do?
And you have to figure ret lastly saying the same thing,
and all of a sudden, they just kept chipping away,
chipping away. They weren't looking at the scoreboard. And some
of the throws that that Kevin Jennings kid made in
the fourth quarter were just if you don't have respect
(09:56):
for that kid. And I know a lot of people
watching that game had not watched a snap of Kevin Jennings.
They might have heard his name. But now you look
and you see, wow, Okay, they've got some serious offensive skill.
They've got some guys up front, and to watch them
crawl back to me, they say they secured their invite
on their own. They secured their invite because of what
(10:19):
they did, even though they lost. Now, the last point
that you made, I really believe a niche that if
the committee had left out SMU, they would have fundamentally
transformed the college football landscape forever going forward, because you
would have had coaches screaming to the rooftops, I am
(10:42):
not playing in a championship game. We're not doing it
up on every wall in every building of every college
football complex in America. You're gonna have bait. You're gonna
have staples. What are they all right? Win the conference,
v beat your rival, go to a bowl game, make
the college Football Playoff. Well, now you're telling if you
if you make that move, you're telling everybody that it
(11:04):
does not help you to play for a championship, when
that's the goal of every sport on the planet is
to play for and win a championship. And I think
they didn't want to deal with that backlash. What I
find interesting is all of a sudden, as bad of
the loss as the Alabama loss was to Oklahoma suddenly mattered.
(11:25):
It was interesting because it didn't matter all that much
each of the last three weeks, and now all of
a sudden it did, right, And so that was their fallback.
That was their ability to say, well, as we take
a second look at it, you know, and to be
honest with you, I think the College Football Playoff Committee
and Ward manual had kind of screwed this thing up
the last three to four weeks. How they've discussed it,
(11:47):
the fact that two weeks ago they essentially said, well,
if you're not playing, there's no data points, so you're out. Well,
you can't do that.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
That's one of the fundamental pillars of the entire thing
is that every week with its own week and we
rerant the top twenty five, you're going to tell me
that because South Carolina didn't play, but Clemson beats SMU
that that wouldn't have helped South Carolina skate.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
No doubt, or take another domino the last weekend of
the regular season where let's say Georgia Tech ends up
beating Georgia Georgia, Yeah, that might push Miami potentially into
the twelve team mix. Miami lost to Georgia Tech, all
of a sudden, that lass starts to look a whole
lot better.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Absolutely, there's no question, and so those things do matter.
So I think the committee had to crawl out of
a hole because they backed themselves in a corner. But
I do think that they fundamentally got it right because
they would have a big problem on their hands going
forward because here's the other issue in all of this,
and I don't think people think. I certainly didn't think
about this prior to the season, and I don't think
(12:46):
most people did, if they're being honest. Going away from divisions,
I don't think people realized how much that was gonna
tilt schedules, because not all schedules are created equal. And
you can't sit there and blame the team. They didn't
create the schedule. It was the schedule that was laid
out in front of them. You know, you can't blame
Indiana because they didn't play you know, Penn State or
(13:06):
they didn't play Oregon. Can't blame SMU because they didn't
play Clinton or Miami. They played the schedule that was
put out in front of them. By the way, with
SMU SMU. And I said this before the a SEC
Championship game. Everybody's talking about Alabama and SMU and who
could be in. Somebody make a case for me that
Indiana should have been in over SMU. I'll give you
(13:26):
another one. I'll give you another one.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Texas, Texas got a foot pass despite finishing the regular
season with exactly zero top twenty five wins. Their best wins,
Texas a and m no longer ranked, no longer.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Ranked six and six yep, and nobody and nobody said
a word about it because of the decal and their helmet.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
So you know, to me, their resume and Miami's resume
not a whole lot different except for the fact that
Texas had two losses to Georgia. Yeah, you want to
call it that, and because of conference perception, even though
Miami lost to a nine win Syracuse team on the road, who,
by the way, is in the.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Top twenty five. Yeah, and by the way, had beat
UNLV and UNLV had been in the top twenty five
for four weeks and had played in the Mountain West Championship.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
And the loss came to a Georgia Tech team that
if they could figure out what to do from the
three yard line, they got to win against Georgia.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
You're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
So but again it's not all apples to apples. I
think what's unique this year too, and this is good,
this is good for college football, is that in years past,
most years, last year I think at Florida State had
a healthy Jordan Travis and you know, Ohio State had
they been in the mix, and it was an expanded Playoff.
Maybe a different story, but in most tears, you get
(14:47):
to the top four and maybe there's a case for
five or six to be in. Yeah, there's usually just
a couple of teams and you kind of know who
it's going to come down to. Year that Cincinnati was
in the College Football Playoff again, great story. Knew they
weren't going to win the whole thing. The year TCU
(15:09):
was in the College Football Playoff a couple of years ago.
Oh hey, Georgia just scored again. You knew they weren't
going to win the whole thing, right, they had to
win against Michigan. Great, they go up against Georgia and
I remember Georgia's scores early in that game.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
This is over.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
You can just tell over no noub what's unique. I'm
looking at the bracket in front of me. Right, if
Clemson gets solid quarterback play, they're a little Jekyll and Hyde.
Can they hang with Texas? I think they can hang
with Texas absolutely, Tennessee Ohio State. To me, that's a
(15:46):
toss up, right, either of those teams can go beat
Oregon in the quarterfinal. I look at SMUs draw, Penn
State very beatable, Boise State as sem U has a
very real chances an eleven to go get to the semi.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yes they do. They got a really good draw.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Georgia. We say this all the time. If they don't
beat themselves and they play well, especially on offense, they
can win the whole thing. But now Carson Beck's status
up in the air. What happens at quarterback? Do you
trust Gunner Stockton? So George is now wildcard. I sit
here and I'm going there. There's probably nine teams, eight
teams that can win this thing.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I totally agree with you. And it's gonna take health,
it's gonna take luck, it's gonna take competitive depth, and
it is gonna take outstanding quarterback play because that is
a gauntlet to have to get through.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
And I'm glad you hit quarterbacks because I look at
this and I say, all right, if you could ride
with three quarterbacks for this college football playoff amongst the
playoff teams, who do you cast your lot with?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Dylan gave Reel number one because of consistency of performance,
and there's nothing he hasn't seen. Kevin Jennings is my
number two. I have no I have no issue with that.
He's been my number two quarterback. I ranked the act
quarterbacks each week. He's been my number two quarterback for
the last seven weeks, behind cam Ward. I've gotten a
lot of heat for it. And I'm like, you're not
watching the guy, not watching him, and and I think,
(17:15):
and I think he's really really good. Do you want
to know who the dark horse guy is?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
And all of this, I'm gonna guess Drew Aller.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
No, Sam Levitt at Arizona State. Okay, they got a quarterback. Dude,
that guy whoa he is a player And this is
what I find so fascinating about his story. So this
kid was.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
At Michigan State, correct, Jonathan Jonathan Smith gets the Michigan
State head coaching job, comes over from Oregon State. Right,
Jonathan Smith brings his own guy, yeah, Oregon State with
him to East Lansing. Aiden Giles. The reason Levit hit
the portal because Sam Levitt is an Oregon kid. He's
from Oregon, was never recruited by Oregon State and Jonathan
(18:00):
Smith while he was living in their backyard. Yeah, so
this kid now goes to East Lansing, goes to Michigan State.
The guy who never recruited him in the first place.
Takes that job, and he goes, oh, all right, I
got no shot here. You're gonna bring your own guy.
He brings you this guy who, by the way, didn't
have a great season. And then he transfers and Arizona
(18:23):
State finds a gem Kenny Dillingham, very easy to root for.
And I gotta be honest, there's two running backs here.
Running backs are making a comeback. Folks asking genty you
know all about He's going to New York for the
Heisman BOYSEU State running back who's got I think eight
or nine hundred more yards than the next in college football.
But if you haven't watched Camp Scataboo boy, you need to.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
You need to.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I was telling some folks of the Panthers about him,
and I just said, you got to watch this guy, right.
He plays on special teams. He can be a core
four special teams guy for you. Nothing else works out.
His contact balance is incredible, and he goes nine thousand
miles per hour for everything. I'm telling you that this
(19:06):
guy's going to be on an NFL roster, and there's
going to be a team out there that's gonna overthink
it and say, no, that's the guy you want in
your locker room. I'm I'm on this camp Scataboo train.
I'm not getting off with you.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
He's a locker room changer. He is a team chemistry builder.
I think he's John Riggins.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Listen he You know what when you watch the old
Riggins highlights from the Super Bowls and there's guys pinballing
off of him, stiff arm about to go down hand
in the grass, he bounces up.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's how this guy runs. I know, I know. Are
he just every intangible trade, analogy, every intangible trade of
somebody who loves football?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
He has so Arizona State's the four seed, boy sees
the three steed, Georgia two, Oregon one. How do you
handicap the favorite?
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Say that again?
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I'm sorry, how do you handicap the favorite for this
whole thing?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Huh? I think because of the level of consistency that
they've shown, Oregon has a lot of winning traits. To me,
because we've seen so many warts, we've seen so many
holes with so many of these of these rosters, and
they haven't really revealed many of those. And I think
(20:29):
that travels that's the one. But I still maintain and
I don't know what's gonna happen at quarterback. But if
if Gunner stocked in at Georgia can play even resemble
the performance he had in the SEC championship game. And
to your point, Georgia doesn't beat themselves. They're better than
everybody else. They're just better than everybody else.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I'll give you that. Here's my worry with Oregon despite
being the one seed. I think they have the toughest
quarterfinal draw.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
With Arizona State.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
No, Oregon would get the Tennessee Ohio State winners.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah correct. No,
I do too. I think they have well. I would
say that. I would say that if Ohio State wins,
because I think they're more evenly matched. I think Tennessee
has more wards than maybe people think. And I don't
think the quarterbacks played very well down the stretch.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
No, he had a really good start to the season
and everyone was on the Nico train.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah, it kind of fizzled out. I'll say this.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
The kid's still a freshman, He's still got time. I
think he's going to be a good one.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Oh, I do too to. I think too much was
put on his shoulders too early. Then the schedule got
difficult and it all came crashing down a little bit.
But they can run the football. They're a solid team
on defense. But in this type of tournament, like he's
going to have to play his best football, You're not
getting through this thing with mediocre quarterback play.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
The team that I'm having a hard time evaluating, and
and I've watched a few of their games this year
is Notre Dame because the schedule, I'll be honest with you,
it's lacking, brutal. They lost in Northern Illinois early, but
in some of these games down the stretch they looked
flat out dominant. And when you watch the pieces, I
(22:15):
like the quarterback, it's kind of like you have this,
you know, Halloween costume on and you're a Halloween guy,
and you know, on the surface, like the heck is that?
And then oh no, I see what you did there.
It's actually clever and it's pretty good and sneaky good
(22:35):
and it might win awards. Like I think they're gonna
beat Indiana. It's gonna be a home game for them.
I think they're better than Indiana. Nothing again to great story,
but I think Notre Dame wins that game in South bend.
I'm not counting out Notre Dame against Georgia. I'm not
Luke's And again, because of who they haven't played, it's
(22:59):
hard to get a fear of valuation of how good
they are.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Something about this team in the eye test. Am I
off here?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
No, you're not. I was actually just going to follow
up with They're the one team that from a schedule standpoint,
you say no way. Then you watch them and the
eye test is glaring like they're and they have things
that travel right. They can run the football, they stop
the run. The quarterback does everything they ask him to do.
Now they may not ask him to do much, but
everything they ask him to do, he does it well.
(23:26):
And you talk about a guy from week one to six, eh, like,
all right, was that really a big transfer portal? You know, improvement?
And then you watch him down the stretch he's played really,
really good football. I think they've got championship caliber traits.
And what may help them is everybody looks at them
because of the schedule, goes how good are these guys?
(23:48):
And if Georgia were to fall into that trap, that's
that's how you have an edge. If you're Notre Dame. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
The part that concerns me is if they get past Indiana,
now they play Georgia and they haven't seen a team
like Georgia all season.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Not close. No no, no, no no no no no no no.
I mean, when you think about it, the three potentially
the three worst teams in power for football are all
on their schedule. Florida State, Stanford in Purdue. Yeah, they
missed out on Keen State somehow, right, and then they
had Yeah, that's right. And then they had the lost
(24:21):
in Northern Illinois, which ended up looking worse and worse
and worse. But they just kept getting better and better
and better. And then you have the two service academies.
Those two service academies would beat eighty five percent of
the teams on Notre Dame schedule.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I would not disagree by the way they had great seasons.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Army Navy this week, Oh turrip.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
This is gonna be fun. It's going to be more
wide open. And in year one, the College Football Playoff
Committee has put itself in a situation where this is
going to be an entertaining playoff. I'm doing the quarterfinal
for ESPN Radio. Arizona State, winner of Clemson Texas, and
then you'll have the call on TV with Mark Jones
Roddy Jones for SMU Penn State, right.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, yeah. On the I'll be on the sideline with
Quin Katsnick. We'll each have a sideline and report from
the field, and then Wes and I, Wes Durmo and
I will be doing a pre game lead up show
on ACC Network for that matchup. So, and it's great
because I've had I've had SMU four times this year,
very very familiar with them, So looking forward to that matchup.
It's gonna be fun. Yeah, it should be a lot
of fun. All right.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Before we wrap up, I want to turn the attention
to the NFL real quick, so quick, aside as the
Panthers get ready for the Cowboys Dallas on a short week.
If you watched on Monday night, Dallas came up a
little short because of a special teams blunder that would
have made leon Let either proud or disgusted. I mean,
how many times have you seen that Blockchow goes over
(25:47):
the scrimmage line, don't touch it, don't touch it, and
they touch it and they didn't field a clean Cincinnati
recovers Cincinnati gets the ballpack and gets the mulligan. Anyway,
two things. One, I watched a little bit of this
Simpson's broadcast, so they did the player introductions, right yeah,
and Krusty the clown from Clown College. You want to
talk about a miss? So when they put Ralph up,
(26:09):
he just says, I'm Ralph. How do you not go
with Bovine University?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah? Right? I mean that that was right there.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
That was my only quibble. I said, when I grow up,
I'm going to go to Bovine University. All timeline, how
do you not have Bovine University?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
As Salma Manter because they don't have you? With the writer.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
That that was a miss? But Cowboys a little bit
in disarray right now. Cooper rush the quarterback with dak
out Uh the Panthers. I don't know how much you
saw of the game against Philly, but this is three
weeks in a row against a team that's currently in
first place. Carolina goes toe to toe and again nothing
fluky about it. Philly did what they do against everybody
that ran the ball for two hundred plus Saquon with
(26:54):
Saquon and I'm telling you, man If exavierly get holds
onto the ball and the final moments there we're talking
about a magical moment, a potential ninety eight yard game
winning drive authored by Bryce Young the Kansas City game
a couple of weeks ago, that now with two more
games of evidence, looks to be a real pivot point,
(27:15):
not only in that young man's career, but I think
for this franchise.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, I listen, and it's putting the franchise in a
position to have to really sit down and make some
very very serious decisions and evaluations. And you know what,
good for Bryce Young for putting them in that position.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
When you see this this trajectory with a team, there's
an old coaching adage and your dad was a coach,
so you know how this goes. First you lose big,
then you lose close close, then you win big. Panthers
are kind of in this lose close phase. Sure do
you get from that lose close phase to the win
close phase, because that's a That bridge is a long
(27:57):
bridge to cross.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
It's a long bridge across and it begins and ends
with the quarterback position, particularly in that league, and then
the people around him up front on both sides of
the ball. Defensive front, offensive front. If you look at
the premier teams in the NFL, it starts with the
guy take on the snap. And if you can develop that,
and if you can bring that along and mature and
become something there, it just everything else falls into place
(28:23):
when you get that position right. And it is so
hard to get it right. I mean, just look at it.
I mean, you got thirty two teams in the National
Football League. They all got one selection. They virtually have
unlimited resources to uncover every red flag you could possibly imagine,
and they missed fifty percent of the time they do
on one guy.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
And that's why these next four games, when you look
at the schedule, you got Dallas, who's five and eight,
coming a part at the seams coach on the hot seat.
Arizona has lost three in a row after starting six
and four, they're now six and seven. You get Tampa
first place, seven and six, and then you get Atlanta.
Kirk Cousins is in free fall. Carolina should be in
(29:04):
all four of those games. I think you should at
least probably win two of those games. And if you
go into the offseason feeling really good about Bryce Young
as your future at quarterback, it allows Dan Morgan to
really cook in this draft. By taking the best player
available and be down. You can stock pile picks if
you don't have to worry about that position. You can
(29:25):
now start to address the rest of the roster. Knowing, Hey, okay,
we have the guy at quarterback who showed significant growth.
And I said this before the year. I think we
probably talked about it on the first podcast. Take the
record and throw it out the window. If you get
through the end of twenty twenty four and you know
Bryce Young is the guy. He has three more years
(29:46):
on his rookie contract. Yeah, with your option as a
first round pick, you're in good shape. Now you can
build that team around Bryce, give him the help, go
reload the defense. This organization, this franchises in a lot
better of a spot than it was twelve months ago.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah. Again, And those are the pieces of the puzzle
that you got to put around that player. And you're right,
whether it's agency, whether it's through the draft, trading up,
trading down, putting yourself, like you said, best available player,
if you feel good about the quarterback. I mean, that's
how you transform a roster quickly.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
All right, So Panthers Cowboys this weekend college football playoff
about ten days away. We're taping the show on Tuesday,
December tenth. I remembered it's my brother's birthday today. I
got to call him up. Oh, just looked at the date. Yeah,
you know how we have no idea the idea at
this time of the year. We got a few more
(30:39):
shows of this before we have our last show on
the sixth of January, which is after the Panthers regular
season finale against the Falcons. Been fun, like, subscribe, do
all the things that influencers tell you to do. I
don't know the Verbian what do you like? And subscribe?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Right? Is that what I like? Subscribe and follow? I
guess is it those three? Yeah? I think it does.
Right is right one of them? Right is right? One
of them. I don't know. We're not young enough to
know any of this stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
That's why we don't do the whole big spiel at
the beginning. Well, you're getting in at the end. Before
it continues, we're going to sign off.
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