August 26, 2025 • 31 mins
This week on Weekend Warriors, Anish and Tom preview the opening slate of College Football, discuss the difference between building through player retention and building through the portal, react to the hunting success rate of Tigers, and so much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we begin a new season of Weekend Warriors, we
always begin this first segment with something a little off
the wall and lukes you and I we don't get
too bogged down into stats, but every now and then
there's a stat that just makes you go wow. Head explodes.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So I'm watching in nature documentary with my daughter the
other day and it's on tigers, and it's on this
family of tigers. The mother tiger, the tigress is raising
her four cubs, really fascinating. And I don't know if
it was David Attenborough whoever was the narrator drop this
stat that just floored me. All right, so you think
(00:38):
of the tiger, the biggest of the big cats, Yeah,
apex predator. Right, what do you think the hunting success
rate of a tiger is in the wild?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Hunting success rate of a tiger in the wild, given
that most of what they're chasing is likely smaller and quicker.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And they hunt water, buffalo and deer and all that,
fifty eight percent? Okay, that's what I would have thought.
They said a tiger is successful on a hunt one
out of twenty times.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Really floored me.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Floored me.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Things like you said, if it's water buffalo. If it's
something large, it's something that they have a pursuit advantage on.
Those are the easy ones. It's the small ones that
are hard.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, one out of twenty, I mean that's not very good. No, No,
that's bad.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Imagine trying to like chase a ringtailed lemur or this
a map that can hop around and jump and hop
and get up into trees and skip from branch to brands.
Like I can see it a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, but one out of twenty for like, no, that
they got the baddest cat in the jungle.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
That's like Joe Milton completion's percentage numbers. That's like Anthony
Richardson completion percentage numbers.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I mean, it's it's bad. I mean that's JaMarcus Russells territory.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Mean yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So then you go down in the rabbit hole, right, yeah,
hunting's success rates for these apex predators. So you start
looking at lions and then one thing I think about,
I know we're off the wall already, but tigers are
solitary hunters, so you wonder that impacts them. Right, everyone
knows they're coming. It's just one you don't have a
pack so you look at lions, the lionesses hunt, they
hunt in large groups, like they're hunting rate is like
(02:19):
twenty five to forty percent low. I couldn't believe it.
So you're wondering, all right, who's got some of the
higher hunting success rates? And an interesting lesson here, So
African wild dogs, you know why they hunt and they communicate. Wolves,
they hunt in packs, they communicate. Cheetahs are actually pretty
(02:44):
good because they're you know, faster than everybody. Yeah, exactly
plus fifty percent. But all these other big cats I
was stunned to see, I mean, below fifty percent, below
fifty percent wild just blew my mind.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
That is nuts. You don't think of it that way, right,
But I guess when you think about like the Serengetti
in Africa, and you look at the lions, even their
pack hunters, like they're going after gazelles. They're going after
things that can flat out roll and there nimble and agile.
So it is a challenge. It's not like it's just
sitting ducks out there. It's true.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
But you're thinking about it, right, would you want to
be in the wild with a tiger out on the
loose and normally you would say no. Now, it might
be better than a pack of Africa.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
As long as I'm with other people, because all I
have to do is be faster than the slowest person.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, but you're not fast as well, that's true.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
While they're taking their time devouring that for sorryful individual,
I'm finding ways to get the hell out of there.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Listen, the tiger is maybe my favorite animal. Yeah, I'm
rethinking life decisions one out of twenty.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I mean, hey, by the way, have you ever touched
or pet or been around a tiger cup?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I have not that they look adorable.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Okay, So great story here. I've got a game at
Auburn and it's a noon kick so it's really really early,
and they decided to bring over brand new tiger cubs.
They were twelve pounds. Okay, they bring over these brand
new tiger cubs and they got like three or four
of them on the field. Well, at the same time,
(04:23):
they're practicing the release of the war Eagle from the
top of the stadium, so they're doing like rehearsals. Well,
I'm with the person down on the field that's retrieving
the eagle. When he hits his mark and the lion
or the tiger person. Well, apparently they get on the
radio and the eagle up top is like all antsy
(04:46):
and like jerking at the chain and like freaking out.
And that guy called down and said, get those tiger
cubs out of here unless you want to lose them. Oh,
because that eagle was no looking at. What they do
is they put they set down twelve mice at the
center of it, and that's what they're targeted on, is
(05:08):
those little scurrying mice in the center of the field. Well,
they didn't even care about those those mice, like they
did not care. And next thing you know, we get
the tigers off the field. Eagles fine, But that trainer,
that zoologist, whoever it was, he said that those tiger
cubs are lethal at twelve weeks. Wow, but they might
(05:31):
have been the cutest thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I'm telling you, man. It's Weekend Warriors Season two.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Ladies and Gentlemen the Weekend close to the.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Episode, Talk Bike Lan Touchdown Carolina.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Weekend Warriors.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Another season of Weekend Warriors with Tom Logan, Bill and
e Shruff. College Football NFL. Who knows what else is
on the docket with the punches Yeah, that's right. We
started with nature and hunting success of tigers, which still
is shocking. Well, speaking to tigers, let's start with Clemson
and l LSU. Week one of the college football season.
(06:13):
Good place to start. We're here in the Carolina is
Clemson's got a lot of buzz in the offseason, made
the college football Playoff. I saw a Dabo Sweeney a
Panthers training camp. You showed up to show his support
for Hunter Renfro and we got into a conversation about
the culture and where college football is trending. And you
(06:35):
got to give Dabo. You got to give Dabbo a
credit on this. When everybody else was portal portal, he
stuck to his guns and said, Nope, retention and culture.
Retention and culture. And guess what everybody else now is
moving in the direction of retention and culture. Now. That
still costs money. It costs maybe as much money as
(06:56):
it does to go into the portal to keep your
own guys, but more in and especially this offseason, we've
heard the refrain. We need continuity, We need to build
on our concepts. If you keep refreshing your roster and
hitting hard reset year after year, you're essentially starting at
square one every year, there's nothing to build on, and
you're simplifying when other teams can get a little complex.
(07:19):
I think Dabo Sweeney has come out ahead of this,
and I think Clemson is positioned very well for the
near term and for the long term.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Now look back at the last three or four years
and the pressure and the criticism that has been heaped
upon Dabo Sweeney because he wouldn't follow the pack, he
wouldn't do what everybody told him what he had to.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Do, or he was alone tiger hunting.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
He was alone tiger hunt and you know what, hitting
on better than one for twenty he was right. And
so you're right. He deserves a ton of credit because
when you have a revolving door of twenty five, thirty
thirty five, sometimes forty upwards of forty plus players each
and every year, you've put having to press the reset
button each how are you supposed to maintain any culture,
(08:02):
any type of foundational pillars to your program. And so
where he's invested is the reinvestment into his own roster
in order to reward players that have performed at a
high level. That's how you stop them from leaving. If
you make them a priority, and they're happy to be there.
(08:22):
And so now all of a sudden he has a
returning core nucleus of guys that have been there from
the get go. Now did he go out and say, hey,
is there a piece here? Is there a piece here
that could maybe help us and upgrade us? Absolutely, But
two to three guys aren't tearing down your structure. They're
not ruining your locker room, they're not tearing down your culture.
But they have to be the right guys in order
(08:43):
to do it. So you investigate those guys, You do
a hard dive into those guys, and then if you
feel good about it, you go out and you sign them.
But you look at how this roster has been built.
It's been through the high school recruiting ranks. It's been
competition earning your spot, then once you've earned your spot,
(09:05):
maintaining that spot, and then being rewarded for it. And
he deserves a ton of credit. And as a result,
they're coming into the season with NFL caliber players at
almost every position.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I was going to say, you know, cade club, Nick
is a great example of a guy who maybe at
another school might be on a second or third school
because he had really that explosive start, Hey club Nick,
and then all of a sudden there was that humbling Yeah,
that season when he was the full time starter, took
a step back, came into his own last year. Great
(09:34):
expectations this year. But I look at their defense. They've
got a first or second round pick. It seems at
almost every level. Yes, they've got dudes. And you could
have made the argument that Clemson the last few years
there was a little bit of a talent deficit that
doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
No, and really it wasn't everywhere. It was at a
couple of spots wide receiver, most notably right. They went
on stretch where they're wide out. I mean, the list
goes on and on, Williams, Martin, Yeah, MARTINUZ, Bryan Watkins, Hawkins,
and then and then most recently had T Higgins, Amari Rodgers,
Justin Ross, I mean, and then they had a bit
of a dip that happens, that happens in recruiting cycles.
(10:11):
And now they're back up with Antonio Williams, Bryant Westco, TJ. Moore,
and then they've got depth behind those guys along the
defensive front. I think they got two first rounders and
Peter Woods and t J. Parker and then NFL caliber
players at the other two spots, and then the depth
behind him. They have a budding star and maybe who
is going to be the next great linebacker in college football?
(10:33):
And Sammy Brown, the true freshman last year just burst
onto the scene. Avion Terrell at corner NFL guy, right,
And then you look, where do you build championship teams?
Up front? On both sides of the ball. That's where
the strength of Clemson football is. So you had the
quarterback in there. The only real question that people are
saying is is they're going to be a marquee runner?
(10:54):
Is you know, is Gideon Davidson, the true freshman, going
to have to play a significant role? Yeah, maybe he will.
Does that mean and they're not going to be good
at running back?
Speaker 1 (11:01):
No?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Maybe it's just not as the definitive an answer as
we have with some of the other positions on that roster.
I listen, my only question about Clemson is can they
handle the hype? Now they've dealt with hype before, they've
dealt with expectation. They've answered the cat.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I don't think that's an issue with them. The way
it was. I agree, I agree, clemsoning to me is
long gone. They have proven over and over again that
they are now a big game program. We're in the
past that was fair game.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yes it was. But this is the first time in
three or four years now that they are being looked
at like the twenty sixteen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen Clemson teams. Right,
And so that's a lot of new faces in there,
but there seems to be a chip on their shoulder,
like there seems to be a ha ha. You told
us we had to change everything and do this a
(11:53):
different way, and here we are.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
I look at LSU on the other side. We'll start
with their quarterback because nuss Meyer Garrett nus Meyer's son
of former NFL quarterback Doug nuss Meyer, a great offensive mind,
coach's kid. He is getting a ton of buzz. I mean,
we're talking about a guy who might even be the
top quarterback taken in the draft. Like that's the type
of buzz that he's generating the offseason. I remember you
(12:16):
and I did his spring game of a bunch of
oh yeah yeah, where he was really an afterthought like
Jayden Daniels. We weren't even sure what he was going
to become at that point, and actually it looked pretty
bad in that spring game. Yeah, to me, I think
neuss Meyer's season seems intricately tied with Brian Kelly's fate
and Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It absolutely does. I would counter that by saying, their
offense isn't where the question marks are. Their offense isn't
where the problems are. That's on defense, and I you know,
if you followed college football for the last twenty five
thirty years, you became accustomed to when you saw LSU,
they looked different than everybody else. On defense. They look
(12:58):
they looked like Alabama, they looked like Florida, they look
like Georgia. That hasn't been the case over the last
three to four years. They have not played to the
level or had the caliber of player, particularly in the
interior that we got so used to seeing. Now, I
will say this, They've got five of the top seven
(13:18):
back in their front seven.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
And Harold Perkins bat.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Harold Perkins is back, Brian Bakers in his is excuse me,
Blake Baker's in his second year after a transitional year
last year. But the secondary like this is DBU right,
this secondary's got blown up and this.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Year it's still a question mark. I mean, you can
have a freshman starting on one side. Yeah, wanting a
kid from Virginia Tech to me against the Clemson offense,
which I think will be pretty good. You know, the
SEC folks are gonna say, well, they're an SEC team
and it's LSU, and you gotta gree like all that
is true. I don't think on paper they're a better
team than Clemson.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I don't they're not. I totally agree with you. They
don't have as many definitives as Clemson has coming into
the season. They've got more question marks. Not to say
that they can't be a great team than Brian Kelly's
not going to put forth a great effort. I'm going
to be interested to see how much pressure they put
on themselves, how much they allow their struggles in opening
season contests to consume them, because if they go down
(14:20):
that path, they're going down the wrong path.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
The other big game for this coming weekend Ohio State
and Texas, And you're gonna know exactly where I'm going
with this because you may be on the same train track.
I love Texas's talent. I think Arch Manning is the
real deal. I think he's gonna be a great quarterback.
Antonio Hill is to me one of the most exciting
defensive players in the contract.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Colin Summons, They've got.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
NFL talent all over.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I have one big concern because we've seen this movie
with a number of teams in the past, and it's
offensive line. They have to replace a lot up front,
and so often when we do these pre season rankings,
we kind of ignore that because those guys don't touch
the ball, they're not household names, and all you get
(15:08):
all of these other pieces, you got a block. I
remember Oklahoma, right with Sam Bradford when he came back
after his Heisman year and everybody thought he's got a
chance to be the first Archie Griffin to repeat. He's
got a chance to lead Oklahoma to a national championship.
And that offensive line was a bit of a mess.
Remember he hurts his shoulder and Oklahoma wasn't the same.
(15:28):
Texas had an elite offensive line. I'd argue the best
offensive line in college football last year. You know, Kelvin
Banks first round pick, that two three NFL guys on
that offensive line. I'm not saying they don't have the
talent to replenish that. It may not happen right away.
Those guys may end up great down the road. They
are unproven up front. I still think this is a
(15:49):
top five team, but I think we're sleeping on the
fact that the offensive line is a bit of a
question mark for Texas.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yes, and I think that's more than fair because when
you look get the rise of Texas under Steve Sarkisian,
it's because of how quickly they improved up front on
both sides of the ball. No, Kelvin Banks was the
first first round offensive lineman Texas had had in twenty
three years. Wild that's insane. How does that even happen? Right?
(16:18):
So it just goes to tell you how much and
how significantly they improved. They do return Dj Campbell at
the one spot. On the opposite side, they've got Jake
Major's excuse me, Cole Hudson at center for your guy,
Trevor Gooseby is going to be replacing Kelvin Banks at
the left spot at tackle. I agree with you. I
(16:39):
think it's something to keep an eye on. If you
were to say, okay, well, how do they counter that
while they build this offensive line. They've got one thing
this year. They didn't have each of the previous two.
They got a quarterback that can keep the play alive. Yes,
and if you're trying to build your cohesiveness within that
unit and maybe things aren't perfect, that's how you bail
(17:03):
yourself out. And Arch Manning can run. He is the
only Manning playing the quarterback position outside of his grandfather,
that has the ability to change the game with his legs.
And so I think that's the positive side. If you're
going to counter maybe where the concern is, well, how
do you maybe mask it early? That's how it gets
(17:24):
massed early.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
We have on the other side Ohio State. And you
know last year, listen, that was a super team. They
paid a lot of money for it.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And they were right if you hit on On in
the right way by all.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Means, handsomely rewarded for it. They won a national championship.
I think Ryan Day silenced a lot of doubters. You
are breaking in a new quarterback. You go from a
guy who played a lot of college football in Will Howard. Listen,
Julian's saying, you've probably scattered him a ton. Oh yeah,
high school? Like what is what's the factor there with saying,
(18:00):
you know again, he's at Ohio State, high ranking recruit.
Can he go in and do this right away?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
I think if he understands the position that he's in
and doesn't play outside of himself, doesn't try to do
too much, which young quarterbacks are going to tend to
want to do because they want to impress, they want
to show they're worthy. If he can set back and
walk into that huddle, look to his left and look
to his right and say, you know what, just divvy
the ball, Just get it to where it needs to go.
(18:30):
Avoid negative plays, don't give the ball to the other team.
He doesn't have to wear an S on his chest.
If he does that early and starts to grow and mature,
now the coaching staff starts having real faith and put
him more on his plate, allowing him to have more
in the toolbox. He's one of those guys that's not
going to allow you with physical attributes, right, He's not
a big, imposing physical guy about six feet tall, maybe
(18:53):
one hundred and ninety pounds. Good athlete can get out
of trouble, can move around, They can change the launch
point with him. But when you look at X factor
and tangibles. He's a riverboat gambler, right, and sometimes that
can take on a negative connotations because what river boat
gamblers do. They take risks.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
You know, you can get away with more of that
on Saturdays than you can on Sunday, though.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Big time, big time, and you can, and you know
where you're outlet is. You know, at the end of
the day, even if you don't like it, Jeremiah Smith's
double covered. If you throw it up, one of two
things are gonna happen. He's gonna catch it or it's
any complete.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
We saw that with Colorado, I mean to Travis Hutter
and double coverage, and most of the time good things happened.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
And look at what we saw from Shador Sanders trying
to do that this past week at a preseason game
that ain't happening in the NFL. So I you know,
and I think this applies to both quarterbacks in that game.
You know, with arch arch Man, he's got a larger
sample size of starting two games, having some meaningful snaps,
having a feel for it. It'said the same quarterback coach, coordinator,
play caller, and head coach his entire brief career there Texas.
(20:00):
The path in which they took him down to prepare
him and develop him by not throwing into the wolves.
I think it's prepared him for this moment as good
as you possibly can. Julian say doesn't necessarily have that luxury.
He doesn't have some of those live bolts flying by,
but he is playing it all and so you got
to be able to utilize that, you know. I think
in Julian Sayan's mind is stay ahead of the chains.
(20:22):
A punt is okay, right, don't take negative plays, and
don't give extra possessions to the other team by making
sloppy decisions in the passing game.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Luggs, Look, I look at it this way. You know,
Will Howard was a solid quarterback. Ohio States had better college.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
He just didn't screw it up and that's all.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
He had to do. He had a great run game.
You had Judkins, I think one of the great assets
for Ohio State this year. You can make the case
they have the best skilled player on offense in the
country in Jeremiah Smith, and you can make the case
they have arguably, maybe it's not even an argument. By
seasons end, in Caleb Downs, they may have the defensive
player oh I agree with you in all of college football, yes,
(21:04):
game record, game changer, playmaker. I think if he wasn't
a safety, we're probably talking about a guy who's a
lock for a top three pick in the NFL draft.
And the only reason that he's going to maybe not
go higher than he probably should go is because the
NFL doesn't value the safety position.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah. No, no, I totally agree with that. I think
he's an absolute difference maker. I think the other thing
that's interesting too that we talked, we touched on this
a little bit when it comes to like new faces.
We we mentioned this with Clemson the running back position.
You lose Travon Henderson, Quinn Shaw, Dug kids both to
the NFL, and now you've got CJ. Donaldson comes over
(21:48):
from West Virginia, nice bruising addition, and then you know
you're you're going to be playing a younger guy in
James Peoples who had one carry last year. So I
doubt that edition.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I believe Ohio State's got somebody in that staple.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Oh yeah, they're gonna have guys, yeah, but it's new faces.
It's guys that don't have a significant history of pass protection,
that don't have a lot of you know, I think
if there was one thing for young quarterback that you'd
love to be able to just say, hey, I can
just turn around and hand it off all the time.
And maybe they find that, but I don't know if
they know that quite yet.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
No one last thing I want to hit on in
preseason revealed this, and I think it's gonna be interesting
how NFL gms move forward. There's a lot of old
rookies in the NFL right now. A couple of guys
you know who were cut by the Panthers recently after camp.
One was Karon lynch Adams. He was an undrafted rookie
(22:44):
running back out of Michigan State, had spent a couple
of years at UMass. He was nine months younger than
Cuba Hubbard. Cuba's on his second contract in year five
in the NFL. Right you know what the shelf life
is for players in the NFL, and I kind of
get it because you can now make money in college.
(23:07):
So for some of these guys, staying in college till
you're twenty four, twenty five, twenty six is actually increased
job security and more earning potential than going to the
NFL at twenty two, not making a roster and getting
cut and now not having a chance to make that
kind of money. So I get it. But I've seen
(23:27):
Dan Morgan with the Panthers pay attention to this. He
drafted Nick Gorton, who just turned twenty one. This week,
he signed Bobby Brown in free agency, who is twenty
four at the time of his signing, just turned twenty five.
So targeting young guys, even guys on second contracts who
are as old as some college football players, who are
(23:51):
as old as some NFL rookies. Like to me. Age
in the NFL isn't just a number. It's real because
you get past twenty five, twenty six, and all of
a sudden, you have one down year. You know, teams
are thinking, is he finished.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Right, and is there a younger guy that costs less
that's going to give us the same production, right, So
it becomes cost benefit analysis. You know, it's interesting you
say that because we are now going to revert back
to a lower age bracket because the COVID year is
now done for everybody. So now we're either going to
have three and out guys or we're gonna have a
(24:29):
red shirt junior of guys being draft eligible or we're
gonna have red shirt seniors, right, and those guys are
going to be in the twenty two to twenty three range.
So that'll come back just a little bit now where
I will say the age though from a from a
positional standpoint, means something is at the quarterback position. So
(24:50):
you know, it was Bill Parcells who used to say,
you know, I want a guy to draft a quarterback.
All right, These were kind of his rules. I want
a guy to be a senior. I want him to
be a three year starter. I want him to have
completed at least sixty percent of his passes. Okay, I
want him to have a two to one touchdown to
interception ratio. I want him to have started at least
(25:11):
thirty games, and I want him to graduate have his degree.
Now are those unattainable boxes on the wish list? Maybe
for some, but you know who hit on all of those,
Rock Purdy, Bo Nicks, Jayden Daniels. It matters because when
(25:33):
you have that much as a sample size and you're
going into that next level, it's different than a Mitch
Drubisky that started thirteen games. It's different than a Mark
Sanchez started eighteen.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Games Anthony Richardson.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Anthony Richardson, who not only didn't start very many games,
wasn't any good when he did start games. You just
got wiled by the athleticism and you got wiled by
the arm talent. So I still think there's some credence
there at the quarterback positions. I totally agree with you,
as the board tell.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
You, he's just taking a look. Tyler Shuck is going
to be twenty six years old in September, yep, seven
years bryce young, just turned twenty four, is going into
year three. Yeah, let that let that sink in.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, and so so so Tyler Shuck better played very
good early because his shelf life is so much shorter now.
And you know, and that was the rich risk again
with you know, Michael Pennick junior with Atlanta last year, right,
how much you're going to get out of him versus well, gosh,
he is so damn productive. And if listen, if he
(26:39):
hadn't had the injury history he at and he was
two years younger, he would have been a number one overall.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Pick well, one thing that you said earlier, I'll push back,
which is and you cover you know, the guys coming
out of high school and you do the recruiting rankings
and you see this, and you see this at younger ages.
Two parents hold their kids back because of athletics. Yeah,
so you know sometimes you see this in basketball. Will
take a postgraduate year after high school, you'll get prep school,
(27:09):
then you'll go to college. Sometimes that kid's already been
held back, so you want them to be the oldest
amongst their peers, so they don't get to college sometimes
till like they're nineteen. Now you have the blanket junior
college waiver where if you play a year or two
in junior college that no longer counts against your NCAA eligibility.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I still have eligibility.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Well, think of it this way, postgraduate year, two years
at JUCO red shirt, medical red shirt, it's five years
that don't count. Now, if you're play for college is
the best decade of your life.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Especially if you're any good, you're gonna make a lot
of money.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So I still think we're going to run into, you know,
a bunch of guys who've been in college for a
long time. And to me, you know, the JUCO P
I think becomes interesting. I think it's a leverage play.
For a lot of these kids now, especially with the portal.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, there's no question. And you know, especially out West
with junior college football, it had taken a dip because
of the transfer portal. That was really the first group
of players that were affected most negatively before it started
trickling down to the high school players. But now I
think you're starting to see an uptick back for either
(28:25):
a non qualifier academically or a bounce back kid knowing
full well he's not taking any risk, he's just gaining
more experience and getting better, and it's still going to
have multiple years of eligibility. And I would imagine over
the next two to four years you're going to start
to see that come around for a lot of programs.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
You know, we talked at the very beginning of the
podcast the lack of hunting success for Tigers one out
of twenty on the average hunt. We need to find
out the number of players who go into the transfer
portal and then disappear into the void, Like, what's that
(29:03):
percentage do we have.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
That It's it's a very very high percentage. It's usually lower.
It's it's it's around forty percent or so.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Have found another home that's not good.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
No, that's terrible because they're getting bad advice and they
don't realize there's not enough scholarships out there. Remember there's
no walk ons anymore, right, So these kids got to
start listening to the right people, because before you leave
a full scholarship opportunity and decide to put yourself out
on the market, you better find out what your market
(29:35):
value is or you're going to regret that decision. You're
going to regret it quickly because you'll know within seventy
two hours whether your phone's ringing or on right, and
then you might have to transfer down, you might have
to walk on right. And we're talking about the numbers
within the twenty five hundred to three thousand range at times,
just in football. We'll do the math. There's one hundred
and thirty sixteens. There's not enough jobs.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
As the kids say, there's a four letter acron for it.
You know, a couple f's in there. There's an A
and O in there.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah. Well yeah, and they're going to learn the hard way. Yep.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
So we're gonna do this every week for the rest
of the season. Episode one is in the can We've
got real college football to react to when we do
the show next week. We have NFL Week one that
will be on the horizon next week. Fun time of
the year, it's a busy time of the year. I'm
off to Utsa, Texas A and M and Kyle Field Saturday,
(30:32):
seven pm ESPN for our first game of the year,
and then we'll see what happens after that. For you,
you will be where this fall. I know you're gonna
be a busy man.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
So we'll start off this Thursday. On Thursday I ESPN
with Boise State coming to play South Florida in Tampa.
Should be a good one. I'll be doing Thursday I
ESPN from the booth each and every year, or each
every week, excuse me, and then a variety of Sports
Center College Football Live ACC Network day through Sunday, so
seven days a week for.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Me, brother, it's this time of the year. Well, I'm
glad we got the band back together. We got a
great producer, Matt Hogan, who hopefully recorded the show, and
we'll try to do this again next week.
As we begin a new season of Weekend Warriors, we
always begin this first segment with something a little off
the wall and lukes you and I we don't get
too bogged down into stats, but every now and then
there's a stat that just makes you go wow. Head explodes.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So I'm watching in nature documentary with my daughter the
other day and it's on tigers, and it's on this
family of tigers. The mother tiger, the tigress is raising
her four cubs, really fascinating. And I don't know if
it was David Attenborough whoever was the narrator drop this
stat that just floored me. All right, so you think
(00:38):
of the tiger, the biggest of the big cats, Yeah,
apex predator. Right, what do you think the hunting success
rate of a tiger is in the wild?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Hunting success rate of a tiger in the wild, given
that most of what they're chasing is likely smaller and quicker.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And they hunt water, buffalo and deer and all that,
fifty eight percent? Okay, that's what I would have thought.
They said a tiger is successful on a hunt one
out of twenty times.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Really floored me.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Floored me.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Things like you said, if it's water buffalo. If it's
something large, it's something that they have a pursuit advantage on.
Those are the easy ones. It's the small ones that
are hard.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, one out of twenty, I mean that's not very good. No, No,
that's bad.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Imagine trying to like chase a ringtailed lemur or this
a map that can hop around and jump and hop
and get up into trees and skip from branch to brands.
Like I can see it a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, but one out of twenty for like, no, that
they got the baddest cat in the jungle.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
That's like Joe Milton completion's percentage numbers. That's like Anthony
Richardson completion percentage numbers.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I mean, it's it's bad. I mean that's JaMarcus Russells territory.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Mean yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So then you go down in the rabbit hole, right, yeah,
hunting's success rates for these apex predators. So you start
looking at lions and then one thing I think about,
I know we're off the wall already, but tigers are
solitary hunters, so you wonder that impacts them. Right, everyone
knows they're coming. It's just one you don't have a
pack so you look at lions, the lionesses hunt, they
hunt in large groups, like they're hunting rate is like
(02:19):
twenty five to forty percent low. I couldn't believe it.
So you're wondering, all right, who's got some of the
higher hunting success rates? And an interesting lesson here, So
African wild dogs, you know why they hunt and they communicate. Wolves,
they hunt in packs, they communicate. Cheetahs are actually pretty
(02:44):
good because they're you know, faster than everybody. Yeah, exactly
plus fifty percent. But all these other big cats I
was stunned to see, I mean, below fifty percent, below
fifty percent wild just blew my mind.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
That is nuts. You don't think of it that way, right,
But I guess when you think about like the Serengetti
in Africa, and you look at the lions, even their
pack hunters, like they're going after gazelles. They're going after
things that can flat out roll and there nimble and agile.
So it is a challenge. It's not like it's just
sitting ducks out there. It's true.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
But you're thinking about it, right, would you want to
be in the wild with a tiger out on the
loose and normally you would say no. Now, it might
be better than a pack of Africa.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
As long as I'm with other people, because all I
have to do is be faster than the slowest person.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, but you're not fast as well, that's true.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
While they're taking their time devouring that for sorryful individual,
I'm finding ways to get the hell out of there.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Listen, the tiger is maybe my favorite animal. Yeah, I'm
rethinking life decisions one out of twenty.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I mean, hey, by the way, have you ever touched
or pet or been around a tiger cup?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I have not that they look adorable.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Okay, So great story here. I've got a game at
Auburn and it's a noon kick so it's really really early,
and they decided to bring over brand new tiger cubs.
They were twelve pounds. Okay, they bring over these brand
new tiger cubs and they got like three or four
of them on the field. Well, at the same time,
(04:23):
they're practicing the release of the war Eagle from the
top of the stadium, so they're doing like rehearsals. Well,
I'm with the person down on the field that's retrieving
the eagle. When he hits his mark and the lion
or the tiger person. Well, apparently they get on the
radio and the eagle up top is like all antsy
(04:46):
and like jerking at the chain and like freaking out.
And that guy called down and said, get those tiger
cubs out of here unless you want to lose them. Oh,
because that eagle was no looking at. What they do
is they put they set down twelve mice at the
center of it, and that's what they're targeted on, is
(05:08):
those little scurrying mice in the center of the field. Well,
they didn't even care about those those mice, like they
did not care. And next thing you know, we get
the tigers off the field. Eagles fine, But that trainer,
that zoologist, whoever it was, he said that those tiger
cubs are lethal at twelve weeks. Wow, but they might
(05:31):
have been the cutest thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I'm telling you, man. It's Weekend Warriors Season two.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Ladies and Gentlemen the Weekend close to the.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Episode, Talk Bike Lan Touchdown Carolina.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Weekend Warriors.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Another season of Weekend Warriors with Tom Logan, Bill and
e Shruff. College Football NFL. Who knows what else is
on the docket with the punches Yeah, that's right. We
started with nature and hunting success of tigers, which still
is shocking. Well, speaking to tigers, let's start with Clemson
and l LSU. Week one of the college football season.
(06:13):
Good place to start. We're here in the Carolina is
Clemson's got a lot of buzz in the offseason, made
the college football Playoff. I saw a Dabo Sweeney a
Panthers training camp. You showed up to show his support
for Hunter Renfro and we got into a conversation about
the culture and where college football is trending. And you
(06:35):
got to give Dabo. You got to give Dabbo a
credit on this. When everybody else was portal portal, he
stuck to his guns and said, Nope, retention and culture.
Retention and culture. And guess what everybody else now is
moving in the direction of retention and culture. Now. That
still costs money. It costs maybe as much money as
(06:56):
it does to go into the portal to keep your
own guys, but more in and especially this offseason, we've
heard the refrain. We need continuity, We need to build
on our concepts. If you keep refreshing your roster and
hitting hard reset year after year, you're essentially starting at
square one every year, there's nothing to build on, and
you're simplifying when other teams can get a little complex.
(07:19):
I think Dabo Sweeney has come out ahead of this,
and I think Clemson is positioned very well for the
near term and for the long term.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Now look back at the last three or four years
and the pressure and the criticism that has been heaped
upon Dabo Sweeney because he wouldn't follow the pack, he
wouldn't do what everybody told him what he had to.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Do, or he was alone tiger hunting.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
He was alone tiger hunt and you know what, hitting
on better than one for twenty he was right. And
so you're right. He deserves a ton of credit because
when you have a revolving door of twenty five, thirty
thirty five, sometimes forty upwards of forty plus players each
and every year, you've put having to press the reset
button each how are you supposed to maintain any culture,
(08:02):
any type of foundational pillars to your program. And so
where he's invested is the reinvestment into his own roster
in order to reward players that have performed at a
high level. That's how you stop them from leaving. If
you make them a priority, and they're happy to be there.
(08:22):
And so now all of a sudden he has a
returning core nucleus of guys that have been there from
the get go. Now did he go out and say, hey,
is there a piece here? Is there a piece here
that could maybe help us and upgrade us? Absolutely, But
two to three guys aren't tearing down your structure. They're
not ruining your locker room, they're not tearing down your culture.
But they have to be the right guys in order
(08:43):
to do it. So you investigate those guys, You do
a hard dive into those guys, and then if you
feel good about it, you go out and you sign them.
But you look at how this roster has been built.
It's been through the high school recruiting ranks. It's been
competition earning your spot, then once you've earned your spot,
(09:05):
maintaining that spot, and then being rewarded for it. And
he deserves a ton of credit. And as a result,
they're coming into the season with NFL caliber players at
almost every position.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I was going to say, you know, cade club, Nick
is a great example of a guy who maybe at
another school might be on a second or third school
because he had really that explosive start, Hey club Nick,
and then all of a sudden there was that humbling Yeah,
that season when he was the full time starter, took
a step back, came into his own last year. Great
(09:34):
expectations this year. But I look at their defense. They've
got a first or second round pick. It seems at
almost every level. Yes, they've got dudes. And you could
have made the argument that Clemson the last few years
there was a little bit of a talent deficit that
doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
No, and really it wasn't everywhere. It was at a
couple of spots wide receiver, most notably right. They went
on stretch where they're wide out. I mean, the list
goes on and on, Williams, Martin, Yeah, MARTINUZ, Bryan Watkins, Hawkins,
and then and then most recently had T Higgins, Amari Rodgers,
Justin Ross, I mean, and then they had a bit
of a dip that happens, that happens in recruiting cycles.
(10:11):
And now they're back up with Antonio Williams, Bryant Westco, TJ. Moore,
and then they've got depth behind those guys along the
defensive front. I think they got two first rounders and
Peter Woods and t J. Parker and then NFL caliber
players at the other two spots, and then the depth
behind him. They have a budding star and maybe who
is going to be the next great linebacker in college football?
(10:33):
And Sammy Brown, the true freshman last year just burst
onto the scene. Avion Terrell at corner NFL guy, right,
And then you look, where do you build championship teams?
Up front? On both sides of the ball. That's where
the strength of Clemson football is. So you had the
quarterback in there. The only real question that people are
saying is is they're going to be a marquee runner?
(10:54):
Is you know, is Gideon Davidson, the true freshman, going
to have to play a significant role? Yeah, maybe he will.
Does that mean and they're not going to be good
at running back?
Speaker 1 (11:01):
No?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Maybe it's just not as the definitive an answer as
we have with some of the other positions on that roster.
I listen, my only question about Clemson is can they
handle the hype? Now they've dealt with hype before, they've
dealt with expectation. They've answered the cat.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I don't think that's an issue with them. The way
it was. I agree, I agree, clemsoning to me is
long gone. They have proven over and over again that
they are now a big game program. We're in the
past that was fair game.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yes it was. But this is the first time in
three or four years now that they are being looked
at like the twenty sixteen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen Clemson teams. Right,
And so that's a lot of new faces in there,
but there seems to be a chip on their shoulder,
like there seems to be a ha ha. You told
us we had to change everything and do this a
(11:53):
different way, and here we are.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
I look at LSU on the other side. We'll start
with their quarterback because nuss Meyer Garrett nus Meyer's son
of former NFL quarterback Doug nuss Meyer, a great offensive mind,
coach's kid. He is getting a ton of buzz. I mean,
we're talking about a guy who might even be the
top quarterback taken in the draft. Like that's the type
of buzz that he's generating the offseason. I remember you
(12:16):
and I did his spring game of a bunch of
oh yeah yeah, where he was really an afterthought like
Jayden Daniels. We weren't even sure what he was going
to become at that point, and actually it looked pretty
bad in that spring game. Yeah, to me, I think
neuss Meyer's season seems intricately tied with Brian Kelly's fate
and Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It absolutely does. I would counter that by saying, their
offense isn't where the question marks are. Their offense isn't
where the problems are. That's on defense, and I you know,
if you followed college football for the last twenty five
thirty years, you became accustomed to when you saw LSU,
they looked different than everybody else. On defense. They look
(12:58):
they looked like Alabama, they looked like Florida, they look
like Georgia. That hasn't been the case over the last
three to four years. They have not played to the
level or had the caliber of player, particularly in the
interior that we got so used to seeing. Now, I
will say this, They've got five of the top seven
(13:18):
back in their front seven.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
And Harold Perkins bat.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Harold Perkins is back, Brian Bakers in his is excuse me,
Blake Baker's in his second year after a transitional year
last year. But the secondary like this is DBU right,
this secondary's got blown up and this.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Year it's still a question mark. I mean, you can
have a freshman starting on one side. Yeah, wanting a
kid from Virginia Tech to me against the Clemson offense,
which I think will be pretty good. You know, the
SEC folks are gonna say, well, they're an SEC team
and it's LSU, and you gotta gree like all that
is true. I don't think on paper they're a better
team than Clemson.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I don't they're not. I totally agree with you. They
don't have as many definitives as Clemson has coming into
the season. They've got more question marks. Not to say
that they can't be a great team than Brian Kelly's
not going to put forth a great effort. I'm going
to be interested to see how much pressure they put
on themselves, how much they allow their struggles in opening
season contests to consume them, because if they go down
(14:20):
that path, they're going down the wrong path.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
The other big game for this coming weekend Ohio State
and Texas, And you're gonna know exactly where I'm going
with this because you may be on the same train track.
I love Texas's talent. I think Arch Manning is the
real deal. I think he's gonna be a great quarterback.
Antonio Hill is to me one of the most exciting
defensive players in the contract.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Colin Summons, They've got.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
NFL talent all over.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I have one big concern because we've seen this movie
with a number of teams in the past, and it's
offensive line. They have to replace a lot up front,
and so often when we do these pre season rankings,
we kind of ignore that because those guys don't touch
the ball, they're not household names, and all you get
(15:08):
all of these other pieces, you got a block. I
remember Oklahoma, right with Sam Bradford when he came back
after his Heisman year and everybody thought he's got a
chance to be the first Archie Griffin to repeat. He's
got a chance to lead Oklahoma to a national championship.
And that offensive line was a bit of a mess.
Remember he hurts his shoulder and Oklahoma wasn't the same.
(15:28):
Texas had an elite offensive line. I'd argue the best
offensive line in college football last year. You know, Kelvin
Banks first round pick, that two three NFL guys on
that offensive line. I'm not saying they don't have the
talent to replenish that. It may not happen right away.
Those guys may end up great down the road. They
are unproven up front. I still think this is a
(15:49):
top five team, but I think we're sleeping on the
fact that the offensive line is a bit of a
question mark for Texas.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yes, and I think that's more than fair because when
you look get the rise of Texas under Steve Sarkisian,
it's because of how quickly they improved up front on
both sides of the ball. No, Kelvin Banks was the
first first round offensive lineman Texas had had in twenty
three years. Wild that's insane. How does that even happen? Right?
(16:18):
So it just goes to tell you how much and
how significantly they improved. They do return Dj Campbell at
the one spot. On the opposite side, they've got Jake
Major's excuse me, Cole Hudson at center for your guy,
Trevor Gooseby is going to be replacing Kelvin Banks at
the left spot at tackle. I agree with you. I
(16:39):
think it's something to keep an eye on. If you
were to say, okay, well, how do they counter that
while they build this offensive line. They've got one thing
this year. They didn't have each of the previous two.
They got a quarterback that can keep the play alive. Yes,
and if you're trying to build your cohesiveness within that
unit and maybe things aren't perfect, that's how you bail
(17:03):
yourself out. And Arch Manning can run. He is the
only Manning playing the quarterback position outside of his grandfather,
that has the ability to change the game with his legs.
And so I think that's the positive side. If you're
going to counter maybe where the concern is, well, how
do you maybe mask it early? That's how it gets
(17:24):
massed early.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
We have on the other side Ohio State. And you
know last year, listen, that was a super team. They
paid a lot of money for it.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And they were right if you hit on On in
the right way by all.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Means, handsomely rewarded for it. They won a national championship.
I think Ryan Day silenced a lot of doubters. You
are breaking in a new quarterback. You go from a
guy who played a lot of college football in Will Howard. Listen,
Julian's saying, you've probably scattered him a ton. Oh yeah,
high school? Like what is what's the factor there with saying,
(18:00):
you know again, he's at Ohio State, high ranking recruit.
Can he go in and do this right away?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
I think if he understands the position that he's in
and doesn't play outside of himself, doesn't try to do
too much, which young quarterbacks are going to tend to
want to do because they want to impress, they want
to show they're worthy. If he can set back and
walk into that huddle, look to his left and look
to his right and say, you know what, just divvy
the ball, Just get it to where it needs to go.
(18:30):
Avoid negative plays, don't give the ball to the other team.
He doesn't have to wear an S on his chest.
If he does that early and starts to grow and mature,
now the coaching staff starts having real faith and put
him more on his plate, allowing him to have more
in the toolbox. He's one of those guys that's not
going to allow you with physical attributes, right, He's not
a big, imposing physical guy about six feet tall, maybe
(18:53):
one hundred and ninety pounds. Good athlete can get out
of trouble, can move around, They can change the launch
point with him. But when you look at X factor
and tangibles. He's a riverboat gambler, right, and sometimes that
can take on a negative connotations because what river boat
gamblers do. They take risks.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
You know, you can get away with more of that
on Saturdays than you can on Sunday, though.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Big time, big time, and you can, and you know
where you're outlet is. You know, at the end of
the day, even if you don't like it, Jeremiah Smith's
double covered. If you throw it up, one of two
things are gonna happen. He's gonna catch it or it's
any complete.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
We saw that with Colorado, I mean to Travis Hutter
and double coverage, and most of the time good things happened.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
And look at what we saw from Shador Sanders trying
to do that this past week at a preseason game
that ain't happening in the NFL. So I you know,
and I think this applies to both quarterbacks in that game.
You know, with arch arch Man, he's got a larger
sample size of starting two games, having some meaningful snaps,
having a feel for it. It'said the same quarterback coach, coordinator,
play caller, and head coach his entire brief career there Texas.
(20:00):
The path in which they took him down to prepare
him and develop him by not throwing into the wolves.
I think it's prepared him for this moment as good
as you possibly can. Julian say doesn't necessarily have that luxury.
He doesn't have some of those live bolts flying by,
but he is playing it all and so you got
to be able to utilize that, you know. I think
in Julian Sayan's mind is stay ahead of the chains.
(20:22):
A punt is okay, right, don't take negative plays, and
don't give extra possessions to the other team by making
sloppy decisions in the passing game.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Luggs, Look, I look at it this way. You know,
Will Howard was a solid quarterback. Ohio States had better college.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
He just didn't screw it up and that's all.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
He had to do. He had a great run game.
You had Judkins, I think one of the great assets
for Ohio State this year. You can make the case
they have the best skilled player on offense in the
country in Jeremiah Smith, and you can make the case
they have arguably, maybe it's not even an argument. By
seasons end, in Caleb Downs, they may have the defensive
player oh I agree with you in all of college football, yes,
(21:04):
game record, game changer, playmaker. I think if he wasn't
a safety, we're probably talking about a guy who's a
lock for a top three pick in the NFL draft.
And the only reason that he's going to maybe not
go higher than he probably should go is because the
NFL doesn't value the safety position.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah. No, no, I totally agree with that. I think
he's an absolute difference maker. I think the other thing
that's interesting too that we talked, we touched on this
a little bit when it comes to like new faces.
We we mentioned this with Clemson the running back position.
You lose Travon Henderson, Quinn Shaw, Dug kids both to
the NFL, and now you've got CJ. Donaldson comes over
(21:48):
from West Virginia, nice bruising addition, and then you know
you're you're going to be playing a younger guy in
James Peoples who had one carry last year. So I
doubt that edition.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I believe Ohio State's got somebody in that staple.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Oh yeah, they're gonna have guys, yeah, but it's new faces.
It's guys that don't have a significant history of pass protection,
that don't have a lot of you know, I think
if there was one thing for young quarterback that you'd
love to be able to just say, hey, I can
just turn around and hand it off all the time.
And maybe they find that, but I don't know if
they know that quite yet.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
No one last thing I want to hit on in
preseason revealed this, and I think it's gonna be interesting
how NFL gms move forward. There's a lot of old
rookies in the NFL right now. A couple of guys
you know who were cut by the Panthers recently after camp.
One was Karon lynch Adams. He was an undrafted rookie
(22:44):
running back out of Michigan State, had spent a couple
of years at UMass. He was nine months younger than
Cuba Hubbard. Cuba's on his second contract in year five
in the NFL. Right you know what the shelf life
is for players in the NFL, and I kind of
get it because you can now make money in college.
(23:07):
So for some of these guys, staying in college till
you're twenty four, twenty five, twenty six is actually increased
job security and more earning potential than going to the
NFL at twenty two, not making a roster and getting
cut and now not having a chance to make that
kind of money. So I get it. But I've seen
(23:27):
Dan Morgan with the Panthers pay attention to this. He
drafted Nick Gorton, who just turned twenty one. This week,
he signed Bobby Brown in free agency, who is twenty
four at the time of his signing, just turned twenty five.
So targeting young guys, even guys on second contracts who
are as old as some college football players, who are
(23:51):
as old as some NFL rookies. Like to me. Age
in the NFL isn't just a number. It's real because
you get past twenty five, twenty six, and all of
a sudden, you have one down year. You know, teams
are thinking, is he finished.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Right, and is there a younger guy that costs less
that's going to give us the same production, right, So
it becomes cost benefit analysis. You know, it's interesting you
say that because we are now going to revert back
to a lower age bracket because the COVID year is
now done for everybody. So now we're either going to
have three and out guys or we're gonna have a
(24:29):
red shirt junior of guys being draft eligible or we're
gonna have red shirt seniors, right, and those guys are
going to be in the twenty two to twenty three range.
So that'll come back just a little bit now where
I will say the age though from a from a
positional standpoint, means something is at the quarterback position. So
(24:50):
you know, it was Bill Parcells who used to say,
you know, I want a guy to draft a quarterback.
All right, These were kind of his rules. I want
a guy to be a senior. I want him to
be a three year starter. I want him to have
completed at least sixty percent of his passes. Okay, I
want him to have a two to one touchdown to
interception ratio. I want him to have started at least
(25:11):
thirty games, and I want him to graduate have his degree.
Now are those unattainable boxes on the wish list? Maybe
for some, but you know who hit on all of those,
Rock Purdy, Bo Nicks, Jayden Daniels. It matters because when
(25:33):
you have that much as a sample size and you're
going into that next level, it's different than a Mitch
Drubisky that started thirteen games. It's different than a Mark
Sanchez started eighteen.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Games Anthony Richardson.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Anthony Richardson, who not only didn't start very many games,
wasn't any good when he did start games. You just
got wiled by the athleticism and you got wiled by
the arm talent. So I still think there's some credence
there at the quarterback positions. I totally agree with you,
as the board tell.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
You, he's just taking a look. Tyler Shuck is going
to be twenty six years old in September, yep, seven
years bryce young, just turned twenty four, is going into
year three. Yeah, let that let that sink in.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, and so so so Tyler Shuck better played very
good early because his shelf life is so much shorter now.
And you know, and that was the rich risk again
with you know, Michael Pennick junior with Atlanta last year, right,
how much you're going to get out of him versus well, gosh,
he is so damn productive. And if listen, if he
(26:39):
hadn't had the injury history he at and he was
two years younger, he would have been a number one overall.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Pick well, one thing that you said earlier, I'll push back,
which is and you cover you know, the guys coming
out of high school and you do the recruiting rankings
and you see this, and you see this at younger ages.
Two parents hold their kids back because of athletics. Yeah,
so you know sometimes you see this in basketball. Will
take a postgraduate year after high school, you'll get prep school,
(27:09):
then you'll go to college. Sometimes that kid's already been
held back, so you want them to be the oldest
amongst their peers, so they don't get to college sometimes
till like they're nineteen. Now you have the blanket junior
college waiver where if you play a year or two
in junior college that no longer counts against your NCAA eligibility.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I still have eligibility.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Well, think of it this way, postgraduate year, two years
at JUCO red shirt, medical red shirt, it's five years
that don't count. Now, if you're play for college is
the best decade of your life.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Especially if you're any good, you're gonna make a lot
of money.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So I still think we're going to run into, you know,
a bunch of guys who've been in college for a
long time. And to me, you know, the JUCO P
I think becomes interesting. I think it's a leverage play.
For a lot of these kids now, especially with the portal.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, there's no question. And you know, especially out West
with junior college football, it had taken a dip because
of the transfer portal. That was really the first group
of players that were affected most negatively before it started
trickling down to the high school players. But now I
think you're starting to see an uptick back for either
(28:25):
a non qualifier academically or a bounce back kid knowing
full well he's not taking any risk, he's just gaining
more experience and getting better, and it's still going to
have multiple years of eligibility. And I would imagine over
the next two to four years you're going to start
to see that come around for a lot of programs.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
You know, we talked at the very beginning of the
podcast the lack of hunting success for Tigers one out
of twenty on the average hunt. We need to find
out the number of players who go into the transfer
portal and then disappear into the void, Like, what's that
(29:03):
percentage do we have.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
That It's it's a very very high percentage. It's usually lower.
It's it's it's around forty percent or so.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Have found another home that's not good.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
No, that's terrible because they're getting bad advice and they
don't realize there's not enough scholarships out there. Remember there's
no walk ons anymore, right, So these kids got to
start listening to the right people, because before you leave
a full scholarship opportunity and decide to put yourself out
on the market, you better find out what your market
(29:35):
value is or you're going to regret that decision. You're
going to regret it quickly because you'll know within seventy
two hours whether your phone's ringing or on right, and
then you might have to transfer down, you might have
to walk on right. And we're talking about the numbers
within the twenty five hundred to three thousand range at times,
just in football. We'll do the math. There's one hundred
and thirty sixteens. There's not enough jobs.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
As the kids say, there's a four letter acron for it.
You know, a couple f's in there. There's an A
and O in there.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah. Well yeah, and they're going to learn the hard way. Yep.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
So we're gonna do this every week for the rest
of the season. Episode one is in the can We've
got real college football to react to when we do
the show next week. We have NFL Week one that
will be on the horizon next week. Fun time of
the year, it's a busy time of the year. I'm
off to Utsa, Texas A and M and Kyle Field Saturday,
(30:32):
seven pm ESPN for our first game of the year,
and then we'll see what happens after that. For you,
you will be where this fall. I know you're gonna
be a busy man.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
So we'll start off this Thursday. On Thursday I ESPN
with Boise State coming to play South Florida in Tampa.
Should be a good one. I'll be doing Thursday I
ESPN from the booth each and every year, or each
every week, excuse me, and then a variety of Sports
Center College Football Live ACC Network day through Sunday, so
seven days a week for.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Me, brother, it's this time of the year. Well, I'm
glad we got the band back together. We got a
great producer, Matt Hogan, who hopefully recorded the show, and
we'll try to do this again next week.
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