September 16, 2025 • 42 mins
This week on Weekend Warriors, Anish and Tom recap the Panthers dramatic road loss to the Arizona Cardinals, react to UCLA's 0-3 start, discuss a few high profile college QBs, and so much more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
After we ended the show last week, Tom Lougan Bill
gave myself and Matt Hogan an assignment and that was
to watch this Netflix documentary Unknown Number. Why did you
do that?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
That? Because it was the most disturbing thing of all time, man,
like anything you could imagine being bad, times it by
five and watch Unknown Number the High School Catfish.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So, without giving away why it's disturbing, and there are
many reasons why it's disturbing, one major reason what sort
of the premise.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
The premise for me is, you know, we hear so
many of these stories about you know, social media and
you know middle school and high school kids and bullying
that takes place on social media amongst children and kids
and their peers, and you know how it can lead
to potential, you know, god forbid suicide or self harm.
And you know, you're always under this impression that, you know,
(01:05):
kids can be mean, kids can go on the attack,
and when they do, it can cause a lot of
problems for a lot of people in the circle. But
what you don't realize is it's not a kid in
the circle.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And that was the very very very frightening part. And
you know, it's funny because we grew up in a
different generation, same generation, you and I a bit different. Yeah,
what I've gotten from you know, nieces and nephews who
are older middle school, high school age, they're like bullying
the way we grew up thinking what bullying was like
(01:43):
that doesn't really exist anymore because you know, they don't
really talk face to face. So it happens on social media,
it happens online, it happens on text messages. That apparently
is the new form. So like we kind of see
it as cyber bullying and all that, Like that's just
(02:04):
kind of how they do the schoolyard stuff that happened
when we were kids. Yeah, so it's kind of like
the changing nature of I don't know, whatever you want
to call it, you know, the law of the schoolyard,
I mean, but this documentary took it to another level
where it's, you know, essentially this young high school couple
(02:25):
and they start getting messages from this unknown number and
then everyone's trying to figure out where the source is.
And if you haven't seen it and you like to
be disturbed, and I guess it's almost October, it's the
time for those movies. Check it out. But yeah, that
was like, you have pretty good movie and TV show recommendations.
(02:49):
I'm not saying this was a bad one.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
It was like why, but it was as I advertised
it right, you know on our episode last week, I
was like, you will have never experienced anything like this.
I hadn't.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Would have preferred The Hunting Wives, But there we go.
Let's move on.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Well, I know you've already watched that two or three times,
and not for the plot, ladies and gentlemen, the Weekend.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Dog the staff thanks to Hubbard, quick bro right Road
makes the catch for the touchdown.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Weekend Warriors.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Lots of unpack for this week. You had the Panthers
who almost pulled off the biggest comeback in franchise history,
down twenty seven to three midway through the third quarter,
and then touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Kyler Murray throws a boneheaded
pick and they get the onside kick. Had a chance
at the end, got all the way inside the Arizona forty,
(03:55):
just didn't complete a pass on that final drive in
Koleis Campbell, who's almost forty years old. I came up
with a big sack at the end. But the one
thing that I took away from the game, and I'll
start with a positive. There's a lot to unpack. Ttero
McMillan lugs. I mean, not only has this guy really
(04:15):
played well in his first two games, there's a smoothness
to his game. He catch the hitch, he turns up field,
gets extra yards. He had a big forty yard catch
and run in the game. The contested catches we always
knew was part of his DNA. Six catches, one hundred
yards in his second game, and he's already the number
one wide receiver. Like that is not even he's your
(04:38):
number one guy. He has one hundred yard game in
his second pro game, and by getting ahead of myself,
probably but you can really start to dream on this
guy not just as your number one receiver, but like
in the group with like the elite number one wide receivers.
May not happen this year, but he's got a real
(04:59):
chance to get there.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
He reminds me of what Mike Evans looked like when
he first got into the league from Texas A and
m right long way more agile than you think he is,
like you said, smoother and more flexible than you think
he is. You know what you're going to get on
the contested matchups. But I think the one difference and
maybe where I'd say he's better than Mike Williams, he's
(05:21):
a better route runner in the short and intermediate areas.
I think early on, you know, Mike Evans was a
run and catch guy. I'll get downfield, throw it up.
It's either going to be in complete or I'm going
to catch it. Right. This guy's got a little more
nuanced to his game early on, which is really really impressive.
He's exceeded my expectations. I'll tell you that right now.
I was, you know, I had questions on him. I
(05:42):
was curious, but he seems to be the real deal.
And the more he produces, the more strain it puts
on other guys to start picking up the slack so
that he can't just be taken out of the game
plan because they're not scared to anybody else.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Right, And that is a concern. We'll get into that
in a minute. But you know, one of the things
with McMillan that I think sometimes you lose sight of
and we talked about this when we did our pre
draft shows. You use the word the term underwear Olympics. Right,
you get into the combine, it's the speed, it's this,
it's that, and you just lose sight of game tape
(06:22):
the further you get from the college football season. Yeah,
and it was kind of a reminder, right, oh what
about his get off or his top end speed and this,
and oh yeah, I forgot the guy caught everything at
hour so right, turn on the game tape. It's just
I think it's a reminder. Sometimes there are and there
(06:44):
are guys in all sports and you've played with them
and we've seen them where when the red light goes
on and when it's game day, different beast and that
version may not show up in a tryout or at
a combine, or maybe in the full version showing up
in practice, but on game day it shows up.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
That's Gunner stocked in at Georgia. Like if you saw
him and you looked at him, and you looked at
his body type, and you saw him, you know, lined
up against a jaw mater or an arch maning or
you know, whoever it may be, you'd be like, eh,
not overly impressed. And then you look at what took
place late stay Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, and the plays
(07:26):
that he made late that were just spectacular. So I
totally see where you're getting at. And going back to
the point you make about you know, what we affectionately
call the underwear Olympics is it's amazing how the NFL
sometimes can talk themselves out of a person or into
a person through one pro day and then disregard all
(07:48):
of the film study you've done for the last six
months on him. It's it's it's mind boggling to me sometimes,
and I understand a pro day or a combine performance
making you go back to the drawing board a little
bit said, Okay, what did we miss here? Did we
see and let's go back and see if we saw
this because we didn't think we did and now we
just watched it in shorts and shirts. I'd get that
(08:09):
part of it. But like you're you're so right, go back.
It's the only sport a niche that cannot be duplicated
in an offseason.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
No, it's the equivalent of let's say you have a
kid in your class and wow, we all know that
kid's really smart, but he's getting seas Why is he
getting sezed? Well, he doesn't study, but if he wanted to,
he could get a's. Yeah, but he doesn't, but he's
really smart. And it's the same thing. Well, this guy
didn't really produce in college. But if he ever decides
(08:42):
that he wants to take this seriously, he could be
a twelve sack guy, but he was only a four
sat guy. Yeah, why right? And I think sometimes there's
truth to that, Like, at some point you are what
you are, right, You're You're a guy with a lot
of potential who's not going to fulfill it. And at
some point the tape bears that out. What do you
(09:03):
do on game day?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
So you have somebody wearing number seventeen right now that
fits that description.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Well, listen, I think with xavierly get the one thing,
I will say that this guy does work hard, and
you watch him in practice and the coaches all will
tell you like puts in the time, he puts in
the effort. But I do think, especially you know, with
Jalen Cocher coming back hopefully in a few weeks, he
(09:29):
does have to produce. He's had four catches for eight
yards through the first two games of the season. On Sunday,
they tried to get him a couple of touches early,
and Dave Canalis even admitted to that. They wanted to
kind of build his confidence back up, get him into
a groove. Finished with eight targets one catch minus two yards.
(09:50):
I feel for him because listen, if this guy hits,
he has the personality to become one of the most
endearing panthers in the history of the French.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Of course he does.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Right, but all that other stuff right now, which is
on the periphery, which has given him some renown and
some celebrity. I kind of feel there's angst from the
fan base that hey, okay, like it's great you have that,
but the production has to match it to warrant some
of that. You hope he can get right, because I
(10:24):
do think again, the kid does work hard. You hear
that from all the coaches, Rob Moore, from Dave Canalis.
But the first two games of this season, frankly, it's
hard to defend the production.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah it is. Then you're right. I mean, at the
end of the day, whatever it is you're doing in
the in the off season, or what you're doing off
the field, and maybe it garners some social media attention
and it's created this personality. That's great, But what you're
paid to do is be a professional football player first
and foremost. And the only way, like you said, to
get people to not care about that stuff is if
(11:01):
you're doing your job on the field for the reason
they're you know, buying tickets, and then all of a sudden,
nobody cares what you're doing in Nobody cares what you're
doing off the field doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Like I said, I think he's a guy who if
the production just comes up a little bit, he becomes
very easy to root for. We saw that when he
was drafted, We saw that last year. He will get
a longer leash. But yes, to your point, when you
have the first round pick pedigree and the Panthers traded
up into the first round to get you, I think
people say, Okay, in year two, we want to see
(11:34):
that next step. Bryce Young five turnovers in the first
two games, four of them coming in the first half,
And I really think this is the big thing going
into Sunday. The Panthers were down twenty to three at
the half in both of their first two games. Yeah,
as a play caller, that takes you out of balance. Sure,
(11:56):
And this is a team I know they've got injuries
on the O line. Robert Hunt now out for a while,
Austin Corbett out for a while. Both could even miss
the season, but still a pretty good offensive line, even
with some of the reinforcements they brought back their top nine.
You want to get into running the football. You want
to be able to use Tube Hubbard in the third
and fourth quarter when you're down trying to come back
from three scores in the second half. It's hard to
(12:17):
do that, and they need to just get into a
place where they have balance in the second half. Otherwise
teams are just going to tee off on you and
bring pressure and bring the blitz or do a little
bit of what Arizona did, which is okay, you want
to score, you want to move down the field. It's
gonna take fifteen plays. You're gonna take six minutes off
the clock.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah, and we're counting on you to make a mistake
because the longer the drive is, the more after you
are to make an error. You know, listen, when you're
playing from behind, all right, you become painfully one dimensional
because to your point, now there's not the threat of
just being able to line up and turn around and
run it, and you're feeling like you got to get
everything back, so what does everybody naturally do, particularly at
(12:58):
the quarterback position. You're human nature is telling you, I
got to make something happen now. I gotta do this now.
And it takes you out of your normal rhythm as
an offense, as a play callers, as a quarterback, and
you'd love to be able to see them get in
a position where you're in a three point game, a
seven point game, you're having some success, you're moving the ball,
(13:21):
and now you feel like you can actually run your
offense because you're not constantly playing catchup.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Let's talk about quarterbacks, and let's bring it to the
college ranks for a moment. No quarterback got more hype
coming into the season than Arch Manning when he played
for Texas last year in Spurts, he had some great moments,
big time recruit, obviously the last name. It's one thing
to struggle on the road against Ohio State in the opener.
(13:52):
I think there was a little bit of grace there
despite the preseason hype. When you struggle against UTEP and
you get boot by your own fans. To me, that's
cause for some concern. How do you diagnose what's going
on with ars Manic right now? Is it an injury
that they're not talking about because we've seen the video,
(14:12):
the grimace, the throw. We're trying to parse that, like
the Zagruder film. Is it an actual injury that he's
playing through that's not being revealed, or is there something
more here under the hood.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I think it's probably a culmination of things. And let's
not forget that that position gets more credit than it's
due and gets far more blame than it's due. I'm
not convinced that they're playing very well around him either.
You know, you lose a first round or in the
offensive line, you lose a first round or a wide receiver.
Right now, they're running back room is banged up, so
they don't have the dependable guys behind him right now
(14:49):
to be able to just line up and run it
on people. I do think that Sark has been a
bit of a hesitant play caller, a little bit of
a hesitant. I don't want overload him, you know, let's
you know, let's make sure we don't put him into
a potential mistake. I think at this point, with that guy,
with the with the athletes you have, you just got
(15:11):
to cut him loose and know that given the fact
that he hasn't played a lot of football. He is
going to make mistakes. Right, if his name's Arch Johnson
or Arch Smith, we're probably not dying, you know, dialing
in on all of this. We're more looking at him
as an inexperienced quarterback that hasn't played Okay, let's see
what he does. If I were to have a criticism
(15:34):
specifically of Arch Manning is he's had a little tendency
to play hero ball, and I think what he's got
to do is just step back sometimes and realize that
it's okay to chuck it in the seventh row and
live to play second and ten. It's it's okay to
not put the offense in jeopardy by scrambling around unnecessarily,
(15:58):
which could lead to a bad decision to which we
saw versus utap or a potential sack and negative yard
is playing. Now you're second and seventeen. So some of
that has to come from him. But I I I'm
not so sure they're as good around him as people
are assuming they are.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Well, here's here's the counterpoint to that. This is his
third year in college, it's his thirty year in Steve
Sarkisian system. It's not like he didn't have game reps
prior to this season. He did. Right, sat behind a
guy who I thought was a pretty good college quarterback
that probably didn't get enough credit, quin Yours who again,
(16:41):
because Arch is waiting behind him, everybody thinks like quin
Yours is taking someone's spot. You kind of go back
and go like, if Arch was better, Arch probably would
have played it. Yeah, right, Like absolutely was the better
quarterback when he was there at Texas and Arch was young. Fine,
I'm starting to wonder if like, did we miss something.
(17:04):
I mean, you look at you know, nico Ia Malaiava,
who went from Tennessee to Ucla, had some great moments
early in the season at Tennessee and then kind of
trailed off to the end of the season. Whole dispute
with the school transfers to UCLA and that thing is
a dumpster fire right now. I think, you know, I'm
(17:30):
not saying we got it wrong Arch Manning. There's a
lot of things in the plus column still, but you know,
when you have people saying he's the greatest quarterback since
Tim Tebow, I wonder if the external pressure you're in
every freaking TV ad during a college football game. That
adds to it. It's a lot of what we were
(17:51):
talking about before with someone else.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
There's so much on this kid's plate and so much
on this kid's shoulders that most play even the high
profile ones, don't have to deal with. Right, And I
don't care.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
How your endorsements than Bryce Young, I think.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Oh yeah, without question, without question, And you know, there's
a lot that comes with that. And he's a red
shirt sophomore.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
He's been with the same head coach, the same play caller,
the same quarterback coach the entire time. And listen, has
he shown some good things?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Has he made some plays? Has he done some good things?
There are plenty of building blocks that have manifested themselves.
I think what everybody's really concerned about is the lack
of consistency. Is the up and down moments, the wild
erratic moments, and then the next thing, you know, it's
two or three plays and he looks like everybody expects
(18:45):
him to look, and then he goes back and then
he comes back forward again. And maybe it's just part
of the natural maturation process. I think I still think
he's very talented. I'd like to believe he's pretty mentally tough,
because I think you have to be to have that
last name and to your point, have everything on his plate,
(19:07):
whether it's nil, whether it's endorsements, whether it's finances. I
thought the family and Sark did a great job of,
you know, laying out a blueprint to develop him to
be ready to play. And as a result, he's not
as far along with that blueprint as maybe they were
hoping he would be.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
No, and I'll say this again, his uncle's Peyton and Eli,
they had a lot of the same pressure because of
who their dad was. Of course, you didn't have social
media and you didn't have the direct access to players
that you do, right, But when Peyton Manning went to Tennessee,
like hey that's Archie s Kidd, Yeah, oh yeah, it
(19:47):
was a huge deal. Same thing with Eli, and Eli
had the added pressure of Peyton already having been a
star at Tennessee. His star was growing in the NFL
by the time Eli got there, So the pressure has
been there. I think we all kind of assumed like, yeah,
he's a Manning, he's built for it, but it changes.
(20:08):
I want to stay with the quarterback theme because you know,
there's a couple of guys. Let's start with Nico im Halaiava,
who made the move from Tennessee to UCLA. Now Ucla
fired its head coach after an oh and three start,
former Panther Deshaun Foster. That looks like a move right
(20:29):
now in terms of a career choice, that could be
debilitating for Nico because you got Joey Aguilar who looks
like a Heisman Trophy contender. Yeah, significant upgrade, significant upgrade
right and new system, new offense. And now he got
another coaching change, Like does he opt out of the season,
(20:51):
does he go back into the portal? Does he transfer
after the season? Now? Who wants him? Like his stock
has fallen? You know, I think sometimes it's maybe a
lesson here, Like when you're in a good spot and
you're playing for a quarterback friendly coach like a Josh Heibel,
maybe another year in that system, maybe it's not worth
(21:12):
you know, the extra one hundred thousand dollars or whatever,
because this will better prepare you for a longer career
in the NFL. You go chase the money. Now, well
you get the instant grat instant gratification, but down the
road you may have lost out on millions and millions
of dollars.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Listen, the way I look at this entire thing is
it's a great lesson for everybody. Right, everybody thinks the
grass is greener, more people often than not are going
to over value, okay, their production or their ability level
(21:54):
or both. That happened with Nico Iyamalaiava. He had a
marginal year as the starter as a first year starter.
Eleven of his nineteen touchdown passes came against UTEP Chattanooga.
And I think Kent State right did not play well
on the road and based off of the reports, and
(22:15):
you know, whether it's his family or his dad, or
the demands that were being made. I remember when this happened.
I tweeted out. I said, I said, congrats to Josh
Hipel for taking a stand saying enough is enough, We're
not doing this okay. And then my follow up remarks
were you just left a situation with good to elite
(22:40):
players around you to go into an unknown market with
now a red flag on your head because everybody's scratching
their head going, what in the heck are you doing?
Why did you take this approach? And now what is
your value?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
So now you decide to join eighteen with a coach
that had never been a coordinator, that had been a
position coach for a couple of years, who had a
bad first year in a new tough conference, and you're
gonna have marginal personnel around you, and now you're expected
to save it and to play better than you did
(23:20):
the year before at Tennessee with nowhere near the help
around you. And now look at what we have.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Also just from optics, if you watch Tennessee, Georgia, Neiland
Stadium rocking right orange everywhere, an incredible scene. You see
the highlights from the Rose Bowl. Oh, there were seven
people at the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So bad. It is so bad. And by the way
they're gonna go, they may go on twelve.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
They've lost to what New Mexico, They've lost to UNLV
already and Utah hammered them. And now you still have
the balance of the Big ten schedule. It's gonna be
hard for UCLA. One of the Quarterback Kate Clubnick, we
talked about Clemson a few weeks ago on this show.
We both really liked the roster, and of all the
questions on the roster, I don't really think we had
(24:13):
questions about the quarterback Kate Clubnick, because again, a guy
who's been in the system for multiple years, fourth year
guy now who took his lumps recovered, really played well,
I thought to her. The end of last year, got
Clemson into the College Football Playoff, they win an ACC championship.
He has regressed this year. There's no other way to
put it. Completion percentages under sixty percent. Georgia Tech, you know,
(24:39):
just kind of beat him up in the trenches a
little bit. Offensively. They really couldn't do a whole lot
against that Georgia Tech defense. Kate Clubnick, I did not
envision him being a concern for Clemson. But if he's not,
it like that whole thing falls apart.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
He looks like twenty twenty three k klubnick nose where
he was hesitant, indecisive, showed no anticipatory traits, didn't look
like he trusted what he saw. And then last year
he made this huge leap right and all of a sudden,
every one of those traits I just listed went on
the other end of the spectrum. And now he's throwing darts,
(25:21):
he's anticipating, he's getting the ball out. Those young receivers
are starting to emerge, and you're like, Okay, they got
the entire lineback, they got four or five legitimate wideouts.
They had to figure out what you're gonna do with
the running back. But even though they haven't been able
to run the football overly effectively, that Adam Randall dude
is a beast the former wide receiver. When they have
(25:41):
been able to run it, he doesn't look to be
the problem. Nope, this is all quarterback. And what's the
shame of it is is like, how do you regress
like that when this is the best personnel you have
had around you in your entire.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Career at Clemson. It just doesn't make any sense, makes
no sense. Legitimately thought he was the least of their
concerns going into the season, no doubt. I mean, it
wasn't even like on the list of concerns. Okay, we
saw what Kate Klubnick could do last year. Even if
he's the same guy as he was last year, even
if he doesn't get better, yeah, the same. They have
(26:18):
a very real chance of not only getting back to
the playoff, going undefeated, maybe even winning a national championship.
And instead they've got two losses. Last thing Luke's coaching carnage,
so UCLA Virginia Tech make coaching changes after an when
three start. I've got Oklahoma State on Friday, A lot
(26:39):
of noise around Mike Gundy, Billy Napier after their start
to the season. Now they've got a couple of losses,
losing the USF, losing the LSU. DJ Lagway throws five picks.
That ship does not look to be in good shape either.
And I think napier situation is different than Gundy's because
with Gundhy, now, this guy's been there for twenty one years.
(27:02):
I've always thought he's one of the great characters we've
had in college football. You may not like everything he says.
I've always felt he's been nothing but authentically himself. Yes,
and he's been unapologetically himself, and he doesn't really care
what you think or I think. And I have always
found that an endearing trade about Mike Gundy when we
(27:23):
meet with him. I mean, he's always great, He'll be
honest with you. Yeah, if Oklahoma State does decide to
move off on him, you know, you would just kind
of think based on service and sacrifice and having passed
up other jobs over the years, like Arkansas, Tennessee. They
(27:43):
would kind of let him go out with some grace.
But we also live in a different reality now with
college football, right like, if you're gonna make a move
and UCLA and Virginia Tech, did you have to have
a short list in place? You have to have some
guys that you're targeting. And we talk about portal losing
guys on your own roster keeping recruiting classes. I kind
(28:09):
of feel ucl and Virginia Tech may have opened up
Pandora's box a little bit where schools who might be thinking, oh,
we can wait until the end of the season may
not wait until the end of the season anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
So let's run down the list of the three jobs
you mentioned. First and foremost, ul is a bad job.
I would not have said that twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
To say bad job.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
They have en thing is it? They have zero interest
in making football their greatest revenue producer the front porch
of the university. They have not gone out and secured funding, name, image,
and likeness resources. They just won't commit to it.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
It's not they.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
I mean, look at Chip Kelly left a head coaching
job to go be an assistant coach. He saw it
he was like, these guys have no interest in doing
what it takes to win at what a UCLA expectation
level would be. All right, Virginia Tech, though, what Virginia
Tech has is they have a rabbit, loyal, passionate fan base.
(29:11):
It is going to be there through thick and thin,
and they do have a university structure that I do
believe wants football to be at the forefront of the
university's doorstep. I also think they're going to have to
make a move by eliminating their athletic director. So how
does that next coach get hired? That's interesting. And then lastly,
with Florida, you know, you watch them and you're going
(29:37):
They've allowed two touchdowns on defense the entire year. In
three weeks, they've allowed two touchdowns on defense, and remember
LSU won that game twenty to ten. Okay, one of
those touchdowns was a pick six. Florida's problem is not talent.
(29:58):
They clearly have guys, But I would I would I
would make the point that you made with Kate Klubneck
when you watched Florida the last four or five weeks
of the season and saw what it looked like. DJ
Lagway was turning into no doubt, and they'd be O
miss and they'd be LSU and you're like, oh boy,
this thing might have turned. And now all of a sudden,
(30:18):
he's gone in the tank.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Well, you know, it's interesting because I had Florida in
the bowl game last year and Lagway played, and the
whole cell for Florida going into that game was this
is going to be a springboard into what we expect
to be a real contender into twenty five. And over
(30:41):
the last couple of days, you know, some text message
threads with some college football people, like the one area
where they feel billion napiers now going to get attacked
in recruiting is if you're a quarterback, you don't want
to go play there. Because Anthony Richardson had a couple
of moments and then kind regressed, and again he was
(31:01):
drafted third overall base He stinks more than what he
did of statistics, and now he's not even starting. Daniel
Jones is the MVP of the NFL through two games, surprisingly,
but that's where we are. Another dead cat bounce quarterback
in the NFL. But again, Anthony Richardson, you wouldn't really
say he developed at Florida. Right, and now he completed
(31:23):
fifty of his passes and now Lagway throws five interceptions. Right.
You can already hear this in recruiting, like that's where
quarterbacks go to die. That's an elephant graveyard for quarterbacks.
And we and we saw the same thing with Lagway
last year. Like we saw an uncle Rico arm. A
guy could throw football over the mountains, so a guy
could move. We saw a guy who has weapons around him.
(31:47):
Oh yeah, Like they're not a bad offensive team.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
No, if that's a thing, that's the thing you're like,
what is going on is it's not like they're out
there and they do an't got any players around him, right,
And then you got that d defense is going to
keep you in every single They're going to keep you
within a score of every single game.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, so you know, and again Napier's been there for
a few years now and they haven't won a whole lot,
So you wonder how that situation is gonna play out.
But I'm with you on Virginia Tech. You do an
if you've done a night game at all, as good
as it gets, absolutely as good as it gets. Enter Sandman,
(32:27):
the student section, the crowd on its feet, rocking in
the old stadium, in the old press box, you could
feel the floorboards move underneath you. I mean, it was
something that gave you chills. One of the best home
field advantages. Beginning with the Frank Beamer era. They've got
a long tradition of guys they've put in the NFL,
(32:48):
superstar type players. You know, Michael Vick comes to mind,
but they've had superstar type players, D'Angelo hall Fall coming
to the NFL, and post Frank Emer, you know, justin
Flint has had that one really good season. I think
it was his first season, and then since then it's
kind of been just a steady decline. And then again
(33:14):
with with Brent Pryor, it was, you know, some serious
clock management issues in one score games, big time, and
and there's no way to hide from that. I saw
that last year in the Miami Virginia Tech game. It
never really felt like it was going to work. It
(33:34):
almost felt a little bit like the Bill Stewart higher remember.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
West Virginia Rich Rod like won a couple of games.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, the interim coach a chance here. Uh well, he
wasn't the interim coach. He came over from Penn State.
Who am I thinking of?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
No? No, he Builster was he was the Internet that
they made him the head coach.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
No, no, but Bred probably was not the interim head coach.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Oh no, no, no, no, he came up from Penn
State State. Yeah, JP Price is the interim JT. P.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I'm you know, I was getting confused with with the
other Brent in the a CEC Brent Key who Brent
Key coaching? Yeah, that's kind of run with it. But uh, like,
this was a situation where you know a guy who's
a long time decoordinator, it just didn't feel like he
would be the guy. I I'm curious because you make
this move. Now you're basically saying, all right, we got
(34:23):
the next couple of months to find the guy, and
you have a head start on finding the best guy.
And that is a really, really good job to your point.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
And I'm curious too though, from the time justin Flente
got there then obviously to Brent Pry, like, has that
program in the transfer portal, name, image and likeness era
that were I would still call it. We're in the
infancy stages. Has it lost its cool factor? Has it
lost its attractiveness as a place that guys go I
(34:54):
want to go there and have they put themselves in
a position to financi battle with the top tier peers
for guys.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Like that to have a chance to get him, well,
you know, think of a guy who they lost to Tennessee,
Hendon Hooker. Yeah, that was a Virginia Tech guy one. Yeah,
I happen to think Kyon Drones can be a good
college quarterback. They haven't unlocked him, and he hasn't been
consistent at times, but yeah, guy's got a big arm
(35:25):
and he can move.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Oh yeah, like you can put a college offense around that.
We've seen that with a lot of.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Guys wildly inconsistent.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
So it's gonna be fascinating to see if these two
dominoes start to signal a chain reaction or other teams
are are more patient. I'm I'm very curious how that
works out, because you know, we've seen coaching firings in
season not often.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
You get them three weeks in right, right, and the
Virginia Tech one in the u c l A one,
those two when you look at how the first three
weeks played out, and they were almost left with no choice.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
You're right, But again I start to look at everybody
else now who has a coach where maybe there's indecision
from the administration, And you're already again thinking there's two
powerful jobs that are open. Yeah, you want to get
a guy. It's hard to wait right now, like you
want your top choice, Well, your top choice might not
be there in week seven or week eight because they've
(36:28):
got a handshake deal with one of these schools that
already have an opening.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Right I think UCLA is going to have to either
go the up and comer from the lower division levels
head coach that's had a tremendous amount of success or
the high profile coordinator. Because if you're a current successful
head coach at a power for school right now, do
you look at that job being better than the one
you currently have.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I look at it this way too. You know who's
out there, because we have seen so many college coaches
and basketball and football who have basically said, like, I'm
not sure I want to get back into this with
the ni N No. I know it's portal, this whole
wild West essentially creating a roster. So there's good coaches
(37:13):
out there. You might have to dig deep. I know
Jimbo Fisher wants back in.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
M Yeah, Jimbo wants to You know, the hot name,
the flavor of the week right now is Ben Arbuckle,
the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah there, you know.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
There there's another one, you know, I don't you know,
is somebody like Eli Drinkowitz, who's had success that a
lot of people maybe didn't think he would have at Missouri.
Does he become a candidate.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Again, he's already in the SEC. I know, would you
leave to go to u c l A A big
exactly where? Now you got to deal with the travel,
right there's a lot of factors to me.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
You know, Oregon with the Nike money is kind of
in its own little universe there. But all those West
Coast schools, UCLA, USC Washington, you throw Oregon. That's not
an easy job. You got to manage traveling. I'm feeling it.
Went Houston to Phoenix, Phoenix, back to Charlotte. All we're
(38:15):
doing is broadcast in the game. Yeah, and you're fine yesterday,
I woke up this morning. We got have feeling it
a little bit today, I know. And then you start
doing that through the course of the season, you're going oh,
all right, here we go. Yeah, so yeah, I think
it's gonna be fascinating. Where are you this Thursday?
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I got a home game in Charlotte, Rice, the Rice
Owls coming to Charlotte for an American Conference matchup. I
will say this though, Man, this new coach at Rice
came from Davidson, right up the road from US Non
Scholarship FCS, and he is becoming the pre eminent shotgun
(38:53):
triple option guy in college football. He's one of those
guys that started in high school, then he went to
William and Lee, then he went to Davidson, and he's
flipped and turned the programmed around it at all of
the places. And then he got the Rice job. And
Rice was smart because Rice is like, we're a bit unique.
We don't have the player who will choose from we
don't have a ton of money. We need to have
(39:13):
something that's a little gadgey, little a little more dialed
into the type of player that we can get. And
it's kind of like what Army's done, you know, It's
kind of like what air Force is done with Troy Calhoun.
And you go out and you get that guy that
can bring a wrinkle that makes you a headache for everybody.
It's kind of a smart hire looking forward to seeing them.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
You can share this story on the air. David Baylif
remember him, the old gull.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Oh yeah, he was great.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
One of the best stories he told us. I was
doing a Rice Texas game years ago and he mentioned
how he was worried about a few of his players
getting poached. And we said, oh, you got the bigger
schools you play in Texas, you're worried, Like they play
well and somebody's going to see them and you know,
(39:58):
try to get them a transferre on our own own.
Oh no, that's not what I mean. He goes, you know,
like we're at Rice and for those that don't know,
Rice is basically an IVY League level school, one of
the best universities academically in the country. He said, no,
he said, in the spring ball, you know, we had
one of our starting offensive linemen who we really liked,
would have been a starter, and uh, he got offered
(40:20):
like a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars job from
some energy company in Texas and we lost him to
the real world. And I said, how often does that happen?
He goes, Oh, it happens all the time. He goes,
we'll lose a few players every year. Good job. These
kids have serious internships, they've got degrees and things like
nuclear engineering. Yeah, and they get poached by the real
(40:42):
world and real world recruiters, and so these guys will
come and take their players.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
That's what they fight.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
That's their transfer portal.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Brutal.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Can you imagine, man, So you got to ask about
that if that's still happening. Oh, well, well I will be.
We had Tulsa, Oklahoma State, and then we've got the
Falcons Panthers on Sunday, first home game of the year.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
I'm hoping. I'm hoping they can get off to a
good start.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
I think that's the key.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
They've just buried themselves with some early mistakes in the
first two games, and you hope it's week one, week two.
I thought. The offense, you know, you look under the hood,
Panthers averaged seven plays per drive, which is third in
the NFL. They have the second lowest three and out
percentage of any NFL team, only five percent. The Colts
haven't had any. They're the lowest. So you look under
(41:37):
the hood, you're going, Okay, this is an offense. They
can move the ball. Could use a few more explosive plays,
that's certainly on the table, but they're moving the ball.
The defense played better in the second half. They've got
some serious injuries to deal with. But last year Week eighteen,
Bryce had his best game against Atlanta and Chandler Zavalla
started for Robert Hunt right guard Cave Mays with the
(41:59):
Star Arting Center. It's going to be the alignment on Sunday. Okay,
they did more with less in that game. Chuba Hubbard
didn't play. They had a lot of injuries. Chandler Wooten
was your middle linebacker game, and they found a way
to win an OT So I'm hoping. I'm hoping they
get off to a good start division game and you know,
(42:21):
get that first win. I made the joke on Panther
Talk the other day. I said, you know, it's kind
of like Gladiator, right Maximus, win the crowd, win, the crowd,
win the crowd. You know, I know there's some anngst,
there's a little bit of frustration, but you get off
to a good start. This crowd wants to cheer for you,
this city wants to cheer for you. This region wants
to cheer for you. They want to get behind this
(42:43):
football team. Give them that reason early in the game.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Love it, win the crowd, Win the crowd.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
New motto, Win the Crowd Maximus
After we ended the show last week, Tom Lougan Bill
gave myself and Matt Hogan an assignment and that was
to watch this Netflix documentary Unknown Number. Why did you
do that?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
That? Because it was the most disturbing thing of all time, man,
like anything you could imagine being bad, times it by
five and watch Unknown Number the High School Catfish.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So, without giving away why it's disturbing, and there are
many reasons why it's disturbing, one major reason what sort
of the premise.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
The premise for me is, you know, we hear so
many of these stories about you know, social media and
you know middle school and high school kids and bullying
that takes place on social media amongst children and kids
and their peers, and you know how it can lead
to potential, you know, god forbid suicide or self harm.
And you know, you're always under this impression that, you know,
(01:05):
kids can be mean, kids can go on the attack,
and when they do, it can cause a lot of
problems for a lot of people in the circle. But
what you don't realize is it's not a kid in
the circle.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And that was the very very very frightening part. And
you know, it's funny because we grew up in a
different generation, same generation, you and I a bit different. Yeah,
what I've gotten from you know, nieces and nephews who
are older middle school, high school age, they're like bullying
the way we grew up thinking what bullying was like
(01:43):
that doesn't really exist anymore because you know, they don't
really talk face to face. So it happens on social media,
it happens online, it happens on text messages. That apparently
is the new form. So like we kind of see
it as cyber bullying and all that, Like that's just
(02:04):
kind of how they do the schoolyard stuff that happened
when we were kids. Yeah, so it's kind of like
the changing nature of I don't know, whatever you want
to call it, you know, the law of the schoolyard,
I mean, but this documentary took it to another level
where it's, you know, essentially this young high school couple
(02:25):
and they start getting messages from this unknown number and
then everyone's trying to figure out where the source is.
And if you haven't seen it and you like to
be disturbed, and I guess it's almost October, it's the
time for those movies. Check it out. But yeah, that
was like, you have pretty good movie and TV show recommendations.
(02:49):
I'm not saying this was a bad one.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
It was like why, but it was as I advertised
it right, you know on our episode last week, I
was like, you will have never experienced anything like this.
I hadn't.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Would have preferred The Hunting Wives, But there we go.
Let's move on.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Well, I know you've already watched that two or three times,
and not for the plot, ladies and gentlemen, the Weekend.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Dog the staff thanks to Hubbard, quick bro right Road
makes the catch for the touchdown.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Weekend Warriors.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Lots of unpack for this week. You had the Panthers
who almost pulled off the biggest comeback in franchise history,
down twenty seven to three midway through the third quarter,
and then touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Kyler Murray throws a boneheaded
pick and they get the onside kick. Had a chance
at the end, got all the way inside the Arizona forty,
(03:55):
just didn't complete a pass on that final drive in
Koleis Campbell, who's almost forty years old. I came up
with a big sack at the end. But the one
thing that I took away from the game, and I'll
start with a positive. There's a lot to unpack. Ttero
McMillan lugs. I mean, not only has this guy really
(04:15):
played well in his first two games, there's a smoothness
to his game. He catch the hitch, he turns up field,
gets extra yards. He had a big forty yard catch
and run in the game. The contested catches we always
knew was part of his DNA. Six catches, one hundred
yards in his second game, and he's already the number
one wide receiver. Like that is not even he's your
(04:38):
number one guy. He has one hundred yard game in
his second pro game, and by getting ahead of myself,
probably but you can really start to dream on this
guy not just as your number one receiver, but like
in the group with like the elite number one wide receivers.
May not happen this year, but he's got a real
(04:59):
chance to get there.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
He reminds me of what Mike Evans looked like when
he first got into the league from Texas A and
m right long way more agile than you think he is,
like you said, smoother and more flexible than you think
he is. You know what you're going to get on
the contested matchups. But I think the one difference and
maybe where I'd say he's better than Mike Williams, he's
(05:21):
a better route runner in the short and intermediate areas.
I think early on, you know, Mike Evans was a
run and catch guy. I'll get downfield, throw it up.
It's either going to be in complete or I'm going
to catch it. Right. This guy's got a little more
nuanced to his game early on, which is really really impressive.
He's exceeded my expectations. I'll tell you that right now.
I was, you know, I had questions on him. I
(05:42):
was curious, but he seems to be the real deal.
And the more he produces, the more strain it puts
on other guys to start picking up the slack so
that he can't just be taken out of the game
plan because they're not scared to anybody else.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Right, And that is a concern. We'll get into that
in a minute. But you know, one of the things
with McMillan that I think sometimes you lose sight of
and we talked about this when we did our pre
draft shows. You use the word the term underwear Olympics. Right,
you get into the combine, it's the speed, it's this,
it's that, and you just lose sight of game tape
(06:22):
the further you get from the college football season. Yeah,
and it was kind of a reminder, right, oh what
about his get off or his top end speed and this,
and oh yeah, I forgot the guy caught everything at
hour so right, turn on the game tape. It's just
I think it's a reminder. Sometimes there are and there
(06:44):
are guys in all sports and you've played with them
and we've seen them where when the red light goes
on and when it's game day, different beast and that
version may not show up in a tryout or at
a combine, or maybe in the full version showing up
in practice, but on game day it shows up.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
That's Gunner stocked in at Georgia. Like if you saw
him and you looked at him, and you looked at
his body type, and you saw him, you know, lined
up against a jaw mater or an arch maning or
you know, whoever it may be, you'd be like, eh,
not overly impressed. And then you look at what took
place late stay Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, and the plays
(07:26):
that he made late that were just spectacular. So I
totally see where you're getting at. And going back to
the point you make about you know, what we affectionately
call the underwear Olympics is it's amazing how the NFL
sometimes can talk themselves out of a person or into
a person through one pro day and then disregard all
(07:48):
of the film study you've done for the last six
months on him. It's it's it's mind boggling to me sometimes,
and I understand a pro day or a combine performance
making you go back to the drawing board a little
bit said, Okay, what did we miss here? Did we
see and let's go back and see if we saw
this because we didn't think we did and now we
just watched it in shorts and shirts. I'd get that
(08:09):
part of it. But like you're you're so right, go back.
It's the only sport a niche that cannot be duplicated
in an offseason.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
No, it's the equivalent of let's say you have a
kid in your class and wow, we all know that
kid's really smart, but he's getting seas Why is he
getting sezed? Well, he doesn't study, but if he wanted to,
he could get a's. Yeah, but he doesn't, but he's
really smart. And it's the same thing. Well, this guy
didn't really produce in college. But if he ever decides
(08:42):
that he wants to take this seriously, he could be
a twelve sack guy, but he was only a four
sat guy. Yeah, why right? And I think sometimes there's
truth to that, Like, at some point you are what
you are, right, You're You're a guy with a lot
of potential who's not going to fulfill it. And at
some point the tape bears that out. What do you
(09:03):
do on game day?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
So you have somebody wearing number seventeen right now that
fits that description.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Well, listen, I think with xavierly get the one thing,
I will say that this guy does work hard, and
you watch him in practice and the coaches all will
tell you like puts in the time, he puts in
the effort. But I do think, especially you know, with
Jalen Cocher coming back hopefully in a few weeks, he
(09:29):
does have to produce. He's had four catches for eight
yards through the first two games of the season. On Sunday,
they tried to get him a couple of touches early,
and Dave Canalis even admitted to that. They wanted to
kind of build his confidence back up, get him into
a groove. Finished with eight targets one catch minus two yards.
(09:50):
I feel for him because listen, if this guy hits,
he has the personality to become one of the most
endearing panthers in the history of the French.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Of course he does.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Right, but all that other stuff right now, which is
on the periphery, which has given him some renown and
some celebrity. I kind of feel there's angst from the
fan base that hey, okay, like it's great you have that,
but the production has to match it to warrant some
of that. You hope he can get right, because I
(10:24):
do think again, the kid does work hard. You hear
that from all the coaches, Rob Moore, from Dave Canalis.
But the first two games of this season, frankly, it's
hard to defend the production.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah it is. Then you're right. I mean, at the
end of the day, whatever it is you're doing in
the in the off season, or what you're doing off
the field, and maybe it garners some social media attention
and it's created this personality. That's great, But what you're
paid to do is be a professional football player first
and foremost. And the only way, like you said, to
get people to not care about that stuff is if
(11:01):
you're doing your job on the field for the reason
they're you know, buying tickets, and then all of a sudden,
nobody cares what you're doing in Nobody cares what you're
doing off the field doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Like I said, I think he's a guy who if
the production just comes up a little bit, he becomes
very easy to root for. We saw that when he
was drafted, We saw that last year. He will get
a longer leash. But yes, to your point, when you
have the first round pick pedigree and the Panthers traded
up into the first round to get you, I think
people say, Okay, in year two, we want to see
(11:34):
that next step. Bryce Young five turnovers in the first
two games, four of them coming in the first half,
And I really think this is the big thing going
into Sunday. The Panthers were down twenty to three at
the half in both of their first two games. Yeah,
as a play caller, that takes you out of balance. Sure,
(11:56):
And this is a team I know they've got injuries
on the O line. Robert Hunt now out for a while,
Austin Corbett out for a while. Both could even miss
the season, but still a pretty good offensive line, even
with some of the reinforcements they brought back their top nine.
You want to get into running the football. You want
to be able to use Tube Hubbard in the third
and fourth quarter when you're down trying to come back
from three scores in the second half. It's hard to
(12:17):
do that, and they need to just get into a
place where they have balance in the second half. Otherwise
teams are just going to tee off on you and
bring pressure and bring the blitz or do a little
bit of what Arizona did, which is okay, you want
to score, you want to move down the field. It's
gonna take fifteen plays. You're gonna take six minutes off
the clock.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah, and we're counting on you to make a mistake
because the longer the drive is, the more after you
are to make an error. You know, listen, when you're
playing from behind, all right, you become painfully one dimensional
because to your point, now there's not the threat of
just being able to line up and turn around and
run it, and you're feeling like you got to get
everything back, so what does everybody naturally do, particularly at
(12:58):
the quarterback position. You're human nature is telling you, I
got to make something happen now. I gotta do this now.
And it takes you out of your normal rhythm as
an offense, as a play callers, as a quarterback, and
you'd love to be able to see them get in
a position where you're in a three point game, a
seven point game, you're having some success, you're moving the ball,
(13:21):
and now you feel like you can actually run your
offense because you're not constantly playing catchup.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Let's talk about quarterbacks, and let's bring it to the
college ranks for a moment. No quarterback got more hype
coming into the season than Arch Manning when he played
for Texas last year in Spurts, he had some great moments,
big time recruit, obviously the last name. It's one thing
to struggle on the road against Ohio State in the opener.
(13:52):
I think there was a little bit of grace there
despite the preseason hype. When you struggle against UTEP and
you get boot by your own fans. To me, that's
cause for some concern. How do you diagnose what's going
on with ars Manic right now? Is it an injury
that they're not talking about because we've seen the video,
(14:12):
the grimace, the throw. We're trying to parse that, like
the Zagruder film. Is it an actual injury that he's
playing through that's not being revealed, or is there something
more here under the hood.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I think it's probably a culmination of things. And let's
not forget that that position gets more credit than it's
due and gets far more blame than it's due. I'm
not convinced that they're playing very well around him either.
You know, you lose a first round or in the
offensive line, you lose a first round or a wide receiver.
Right now, they're running back room is banged up, so
they don't have the dependable guys behind him right now
(14:49):
to be able to just line up and run it
on people. I do think that Sark has been a
bit of a hesitant play caller, a little bit of
a hesitant. I don't want overload him, you know, let's
you know, let's make sure we don't put him into
a potential mistake. I think at this point, with that guy,
with the with the athletes you have, you just got
(15:11):
to cut him loose and know that given the fact
that he hasn't played a lot of football. He is
going to make mistakes. Right, if his name's Arch Johnson
or Arch Smith, we're probably not dying, you know, dialing
in on all of this. We're more looking at him
as an inexperienced quarterback that hasn't played Okay, let's see
what he does. If I were to have a criticism
(15:34):
specifically of Arch Manning is he's had a little tendency
to play hero ball, and I think what he's got
to do is just step back sometimes and realize that
it's okay to chuck it in the seventh row and
live to play second and ten. It's it's okay to
not put the offense in jeopardy by scrambling around unnecessarily,
(15:58):
which could lead to a bad decision to which we
saw versus utap or a potential sack and negative yard
is playing. Now you're second and seventeen. So some of
that has to come from him. But I I I'm
not so sure they're as good around him as people
are assuming they are.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Well, here's here's the counterpoint to that. This is his
third year in college, it's his thirty year in Steve
Sarkisian system. It's not like he didn't have game reps
prior to this season. He did. Right, sat behind a
guy who I thought was a pretty good college quarterback
that probably didn't get enough credit, quin Yours who again,
(16:41):
because Arch is waiting behind him, everybody thinks like quin
Yours is taking someone's spot. You kind of go back
and go like, if Arch was better, Arch probably would
have played it. Yeah, right, Like absolutely was the better
quarterback when he was there at Texas and Arch was young. Fine,
I'm starting to wonder if like, did we miss something.
(17:04):
I mean, you look at you know, nico Ia Malaiava,
who went from Tennessee to Ucla, had some great moments
early in the season at Tennessee and then kind of
trailed off to the end of the season. Whole dispute
with the school transfers to UCLA and that thing is
a dumpster fire right now. I think, you know, I'm
(17:30):
not saying we got it wrong Arch Manning. There's a
lot of things in the plus column still, but you know,
when you have people saying he's the greatest quarterback since
Tim Tebow, I wonder if the external pressure you're in
every freaking TV ad during a college football game. That
adds to it. It's a lot of what we were
(17:51):
talking about before with someone else.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
There's so much on this kid's plate and so much
on this kid's shoulders that most play even the high
profile ones, don't have to deal with. Right, And I
don't care.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
How your endorsements than Bryce Young, I think.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Oh yeah, without question, without question, And you know, there's
a lot that comes with that. And he's a red
shirt sophomore.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
He's been with the same head coach, the same play caller,
the same quarterback coach the entire time. And listen, has
he shown some good things?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Has he made some plays? Has he done some good things?
There are plenty of building blocks that have manifested themselves.
I think what everybody's really concerned about is the lack
of consistency. Is the up and down moments, the wild
erratic moments, and then the next thing, you know, it's
two or three plays and he looks like everybody expects
(18:45):
him to look, and then he goes back and then
he comes back forward again. And maybe it's just part
of the natural maturation process. I think I still think
he's very talented. I'd like to believe he's pretty mentally tough,
because I think you have to be to have that
last name and to your point, have everything on his plate,
(19:07):
whether it's nil, whether it's endorsements, whether it's finances. I
thought the family and Sark did a great job of,
you know, laying out a blueprint to develop him to
be ready to play. And as a result, he's not
as far along with that blueprint as maybe they were
hoping he would be.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
No, and I'll say this again, his uncle's Peyton and Eli,
they had a lot of the same pressure because of
who their dad was. Of course, you didn't have social
media and you didn't have the direct access to players
that you do, right, But when Peyton Manning went to Tennessee,
like hey that's Archie s Kidd, Yeah, oh yeah, it
(19:47):
was a huge deal. Same thing with Eli, and Eli
had the added pressure of Peyton already having been a
star at Tennessee. His star was growing in the NFL
by the time Eli got there, So the pressure has
been there. I think we all kind of assumed like, yeah,
he's a Manning, he's built for it, but it changes.
(20:08):
I want to stay with the quarterback theme because you know,
there's a couple of guys. Let's start with Nico im Halaiava,
who made the move from Tennessee to UCLA. Now Ucla
fired its head coach after an oh and three start,
former Panther Deshaun Foster. That looks like a move right
(20:29):
now in terms of a career choice, that could be
debilitating for Nico because you got Joey Aguilar who looks
like a Heisman Trophy contender. Yeah, significant upgrade, significant upgrade
right and new system, new offense. And now he got
another coaching change, Like does he opt out of the season,
(20:51):
does he go back into the portal? Does he transfer
after the season? Now? Who wants him? Like his stock
has fallen? You know, I think sometimes it's maybe a
lesson here, Like when you're in a good spot and
you're playing for a quarterback friendly coach like a Josh Heibel,
maybe another year in that system, maybe it's not worth
(21:12):
you know, the extra one hundred thousand dollars or whatever,
because this will better prepare you for a longer career
in the NFL. You go chase the money. Now, well
you get the instant grat instant gratification, but down the
road you may have lost out on millions and millions
of dollars.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Listen, the way I look at this entire thing is
it's a great lesson for everybody. Right, everybody thinks the
grass is greener, more people often than not are going
to over value, okay, their production or their ability level
(21:54):
or both. That happened with Nico Iyamalaiava. He had a
marginal year as the starter as a first year starter.
Eleven of his nineteen touchdown passes came against UTEP Chattanooga.
And I think Kent State right did not play well
on the road and based off of the reports, and
(22:15):
you know, whether it's his family or his dad, or
the demands that were being made. I remember when this happened.
I tweeted out. I said, I said, congrats to Josh
Hipel for taking a stand saying enough is enough, We're
not doing this okay. And then my follow up remarks
were you just left a situation with good to elite
(22:40):
players around you to go into an unknown market with
now a red flag on your head because everybody's scratching
their head going, what in the heck are you doing?
Why did you take this approach? And now what is
your value?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
So now you decide to join eighteen with a coach
that had never been a coordinator, that had been a
position coach for a couple of years, who had a
bad first year in a new tough conference, and you're
gonna have marginal personnel around you, and now you're expected
to save it and to play better than you did
(23:20):
the year before at Tennessee with nowhere near the help
around you. And now look at what we have.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Also just from optics, if you watch Tennessee, Georgia, Neiland
Stadium rocking right orange everywhere, an incredible scene. You see
the highlights from the Rose Bowl. Oh, there were seven
people at the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So bad. It is so bad. And by the way
they're gonna go, they may go on twelve.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
They've lost to what New Mexico, They've lost to UNLV
already and Utah hammered them. And now you still have
the balance of the Big ten schedule. It's gonna be
hard for UCLA. One of the Quarterback Kate Clubnick, we
talked about Clemson a few weeks ago on this show.
We both really liked the roster, and of all the
questions on the roster, I don't really think we had
(24:13):
questions about the quarterback Kate Clubnick, because again, a guy
who's been in the system for multiple years, fourth year
guy now who took his lumps recovered, really played well,
I thought to her. The end of last year, got
Clemson into the College Football Playoff, they win an ACC championship.
He has regressed this year. There's no other way to
put it. Completion percentages under sixty percent. Georgia Tech, you know,
(24:39):
just kind of beat him up in the trenches a
little bit. Offensively. They really couldn't do a whole lot
against that Georgia Tech defense. Kate Clubnick, I did not
envision him being a concern for Clemson. But if he's not,
it like that whole thing falls apart.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
He looks like twenty twenty three k klubnick nose where
he was hesitant, indecisive, showed no anticipatory traits, didn't look
like he trusted what he saw. And then last year
he made this huge leap right and all of a sudden,
every one of those traits I just listed went on
the other end of the spectrum. And now he's throwing darts,
(25:21):
he's anticipating, he's getting the ball out. Those young receivers
are starting to emerge, and you're like, Okay, they got
the entire lineback, they got four or five legitimate wideouts.
They had to figure out what you're gonna do with
the running back. But even though they haven't been able
to run the football overly effectively, that Adam Randall dude
is a beast the former wide receiver. When they have
(25:41):
been able to run it, he doesn't look to be
the problem. Nope, this is all quarterback. And what's the
shame of it is is like, how do you regress
like that when this is the best personnel you have
had around you in your entire.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Career at Clemson. It just doesn't make any sense, makes
no sense. Legitimately thought he was the least of their
concerns going into the season, no doubt. I mean, it
wasn't even like on the list of concerns. Okay, we
saw what Kate Klubnick could do last year. Even if
he's the same guy as he was last year, even
if he doesn't get better, yeah, the same. They have
(26:18):
a very real chance of not only getting back to
the playoff, going undefeated, maybe even winning a national championship.
And instead they've got two losses. Last thing Luke's coaching carnage,
so UCLA Virginia Tech make coaching changes after an when
three start. I've got Oklahoma State on Friday, A lot
(26:39):
of noise around Mike Gundy, Billy Napier after their start
to the season. Now they've got a couple of losses,
losing the USF, losing the LSU. DJ Lagway throws five picks.
That ship does not look to be in good shape either.
And I think napier situation is different than Gundy's because
with Gundhy, now, this guy's been there for twenty one years.
(27:02):
I've always thought he's one of the great characters we've
had in college football. You may not like everything he says.
I've always felt he's been nothing but authentically himself. Yes,
and he's been unapologetically himself, and he doesn't really care
what you think or I think. And I have always
found that an endearing trade about Mike Gundy when we
(27:23):
meet with him. I mean, he's always great, He'll be
honest with you. Yeah, if Oklahoma State does decide to
move off on him, you know, you would just kind
of think based on service and sacrifice and having passed
up other jobs over the years, like Arkansas, Tennessee. They
(27:43):
would kind of let him go out with some grace.
But we also live in a different reality now with
college football, right like, if you're gonna make a move
and UCLA and Virginia Tech, did you have to have
a short list in place? You have to have some
guys that you're targeting. And we talk about portal losing
guys on your own roster keeping recruiting classes. I kind
(28:09):
of feel ucl and Virginia Tech may have opened up
Pandora's box a little bit where schools who might be thinking, oh,
we can wait until the end of the season may
not wait until the end of the season anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
So let's run down the list of the three jobs
you mentioned. First and foremost, ul is a bad job.
I would not have said that twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
To say bad job.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
They have en thing is it? They have zero interest
in making football their greatest revenue producer the front porch
of the university. They have not gone out and secured funding, name, image,
and likeness resources. They just won't commit to it.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
It's not they.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
I mean, look at Chip Kelly left a head coaching
job to go be an assistant coach. He saw it
he was like, these guys have no interest in doing
what it takes to win at what a UCLA expectation
level would be. All right, Virginia Tech, though, what Virginia
Tech has is they have a rabbit, loyal, passionate fan base.
(29:11):
It is going to be there through thick and thin,
and they do have a university structure that I do
believe wants football to be at the forefront of the
university's doorstep. I also think they're going to have to
make a move by eliminating their athletic director. So how
does that next coach get hired? That's interesting. And then lastly,
with Florida, you know, you watch them and you're going
(29:37):
They've allowed two touchdowns on defense the entire year. In
three weeks, they've allowed two touchdowns on defense, and remember
LSU won that game twenty to ten. Okay, one of
those touchdowns was a pick six. Florida's problem is not talent.
(29:58):
They clearly have guys, But I would I would I
would make the point that you made with Kate Klubneck
when you watched Florida the last four or five weeks
of the season and saw what it looked like. DJ
Lagway was turning into no doubt, and they'd be O
miss and they'd be LSU and you're like, oh boy,
this thing might have turned. And now all of a sudden,
(30:18):
he's gone in the tank.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Well, you know, it's interesting because I had Florida in
the bowl game last year and Lagway played, and the
whole cell for Florida going into that game was this
is going to be a springboard into what we expect
to be a real contender into twenty five. And over
(30:41):
the last couple of days, you know, some text message
threads with some college football people, like the one area
where they feel billion napiers now going to get attacked
in recruiting is if you're a quarterback, you don't want
to go play there. Because Anthony Richardson had a couple
of moments and then kind regressed, and again he was
(31:01):
drafted third overall base He stinks more than what he
did of statistics, and now he's not even starting. Daniel
Jones is the MVP of the NFL through two games, surprisingly,
but that's where we are. Another dead cat bounce quarterback
in the NFL. But again, Anthony Richardson, you wouldn't really
say he developed at Florida. Right, and now he completed
(31:23):
fifty of his passes and now Lagway throws five interceptions. Right.
You can already hear this in recruiting, like that's where
quarterbacks go to die. That's an elephant graveyard for quarterbacks.
And we and we saw the same thing with Lagway
last year. Like we saw an uncle Rico arm. A
guy could throw football over the mountains, so a guy
could move. We saw a guy who has weapons around him.
(31:47):
Oh yeah, Like they're not a bad offensive team.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
No, if that's a thing, that's the thing you're like,
what is going on is it's not like they're out
there and they do an't got any players around him, right,
And then you got that d defense is going to
keep you in every single They're going to keep you
within a score of every single game.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, so you know, and again Napier's been there for
a few years now and they haven't won a whole lot,
So you wonder how that situation is gonna play out.
But I'm with you on Virginia Tech. You do an
if you've done a night game at all, as good
as it gets, absolutely as good as it gets. Enter Sandman,
(32:27):
the student section, the crowd on its feet, rocking in
the old stadium, in the old press box, you could
feel the floorboards move underneath you. I mean, it was
something that gave you chills. One of the best home
field advantages. Beginning with the Frank Beamer era. They've got
a long tradition of guys they've put in the NFL,
(32:48):
superstar type players. You know, Michael Vick comes to mind,
but they've had superstar type players, D'Angelo hall Fall coming
to the NFL, and post Frank Emer, you know, justin
Flint has had that one really good season. I think
it was his first season, and then since then it's
kind of been just a steady decline. And then again
(33:14):
with with Brent Pryor, it was, you know, some serious
clock management issues in one score games, big time, and
and there's no way to hide from that. I saw
that last year in the Miami Virginia Tech game. It
never really felt like it was going to work. It
(33:34):
almost felt a little bit like the Bill Stewart higher remember.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
West Virginia Rich Rod like won a couple of games.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, the interim coach a chance here. Uh well, he
wasn't the interim coach. He came over from Penn State.
Who am I thinking of?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
No? No, he Builster was he was the Internet that
they made him the head coach.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
No, no, but Bred probably was not the interim head coach.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Oh no, no, no, no, he came up from Penn
State State. Yeah, JP Price is the interim JT. P.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I'm you know, I was getting confused with with the
other Brent in the a CEC Brent Key who Brent
Key coaching? Yeah, that's kind of run with it. But uh, like,
this was a situation where you know a guy who's
a long time decoordinator, it just didn't feel like he
would be the guy. I I'm curious because you make
this move. Now you're basically saying, all right, we got
(34:23):
the next couple of months to find the guy, and
you have a head start on finding the best guy.
And that is a really, really good job to your point.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
And I'm curious too though, from the time justin Flente
got there then obviously to Brent Pry, like, has that
program in the transfer portal, name, image and likeness era
that were I would still call it. We're in the
infancy stages. Has it lost its cool factor? Has it
lost its attractiveness as a place that guys go I
(34:54):
want to go there and have they put themselves in
a position to financi battle with the top tier peers
for guys.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Like that to have a chance to get him, well,
you know, think of a guy who they lost to Tennessee,
Hendon Hooker. Yeah, that was a Virginia Tech guy one. Yeah,
I happen to think Kyon Drones can be a good
college quarterback. They haven't unlocked him, and he hasn't been
consistent at times, but yeah, guy's got a big arm
(35:25):
and he can move.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Oh yeah, like you can put a college offense around that.
We've seen that with a lot of.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Guys wildly inconsistent.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
So it's gonna be fascinating to see if these two
dominoes start to signal a chain reaction or other teams
are are more patient. I'm I'm very curious how that
works out, because you know, we've seen coaching firings in
season not often.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
You get them three weeks in right, right, and the
Virginia Tech one in the u c l A one,
those two when you look at how the first three
weeks played out, and they were almost left with no choice.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
You're right, But again I start to look at everybody
else now who has a coach where maybe there's indecision
from the administration, And you're already again thinking there's two
powerful jobs that are open. Yeah, you want to get
a guy. It's hard to wait right now, like you
want your top choice, Well, your top choice might not
be there in week seven or week eight because they've
(36:28):
got a handshake deal with one of these schools that
already have an opening.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Right I think UCLA is going to have to either
go the up and comer from the lower division levels
head coach that's had a tremendous amount of success or
the high profile coordinator. Because if you're a current successful
head coach at a power for school right now, do
you look at that job being better than the one
you currently have.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I look at it this way too. You know who's
out there, because we have seen so many college coaches
and basketball and football who have basically said, like, I'm
not sure I want to get back into this with
the ni N No. I know it's portal, this whole
wild West essentially creating a roster. So there's good coaches
(37:13):
out there. You might have to dig deep. I know
Jimbo Fisher wants back in.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
M Yeah, Jimbo wants to You know, the hot name,
the flavor of the week right now is Ben Arbuckle,
the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah there, you know.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
There there's another one, you know, I don't you know,
is somebody like Eli Drinkowitz, who's had success that a
lot of people maybe didn't think he would have at Missouri.
Does he become a candidate.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Again, he's already in the SEC. I know, would you
leave to go to u c l A A big
exactly where? Now you got to deal with the travel,
right there's a lot of factors to me.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
You know, Oregon with the Nike money is kind of
in its own little universe there. But all those West
Coast schools, UCLA, USC Washington, you throw Oregon. That's not
an easy job. You got to manage traveling. I'm feeling it.
Went Houston to Phoenix, Phoenix, back to Charlotte. All we're
(38:15):
doing is broadcast in the game. Yeah, and you're fine yesterday,
I woke up this morning. We got have feeling it
a little bit today, I know. And then you start
doing that through the course of the season, you're going oh,
all right, here we go. Yeah, so yeah, I think
it's gonna be fascinating. Where are you this Thursday?
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I got a home game in Charlotte, Rice, the Rice
Owls coming to Charlotte for an American Conference matchup. I
will say this though, Man, this new coach at Rice
came from Davidson, right up the road from US Non
Scholarship FCS, and he is becoming the pre eminent shotgun
(38:53):
triple option guy in college football. He's one of those
guys that started in high school, then he went to
William and Lee, then he went to Davidson, and he's
flipped and turned the programmed around it at all of
the places. And then he got the Rice job. And
Rice was smart because Rice is like, we're a bit unique.
We don't have the player who will choose from we
don't have a ton of money. We need to have
(39:13):
something that's a little gadgey, little a little more dialed
into the type of player that we can get. And
it's kind of like what Army's done, you know, It's
kind of like what air Force is done with Troy Calhoun.
And you go out and you get that guy that
can bring a wrinkle that makes you a headache for everybody.
It's kind of a smart hire looking forward to seeing them.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
You can share this story on the air. David Baylif
remember him, the old gull.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Oh yeah, he was great.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
One of the best stories he told us. I was
doing a Rice Texas game years ago and he mentioned
how he was worried about a few of his players
getting poached. And we said, oh, you got the bigger
schools you play in Texas, you're worried, Like they play
well and somebody's going to see them and you know,
(39:58):
try to get them a transferre on our own own.
Oh no, that's not what I mean. He goes, you know,
like we're at Rice and for those that don't know,
Rice is basically an IVY League level school, one of
the best universities academically in the country. He said, no,
he said, in the spring ball, you know, we had
one of our starting offensive linemen who we really liked,
would have been a starter, and uh, he got offered
(40:20):
like a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars job from
some energy company in Texas and we lost him to
the real world. And I said, how often does that happen?
He goes, Oh, it happens all the time. He goes,
we'll lose a few players every year. Good job. These
kids have serious internships, they've got degrees and things like
nuclear engineering. Yeah, and they get poached by the real
(40:42):
world and real world recruiters, and so these guys will
come and take their players.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
That's what they fight.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
That's their transfer portal.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Brutal.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Can you imagine, man, So you got to ask about
that if that's still happening. Oh, well, well I will be.
We had Tulsa, Oklahoma State, and then we've got the
Falcons Panthers on Sunday, first home game of the year.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
I'm hoping. I'm hoping they can get off to a
good start.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
I think that's the key.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
They've just buried themselves with some early mistakes in the
first two games, and you hope it's week one, week two.
I thought. The offense, you know, you look under the hood,
Panthers averaged seven plays per drive, which is third in
the NFL. They have the second lowest three and out
percentage of any NFL team, only five percent. The Colts
haven't had any. They're the lowest. So you look under
(41:37):
the hood, you're going, Okay, this is an offense. They
can move the ball. Could use a few more explosive plays,
that's certainly on the table, but they're moving the ball.
The defense played better in the second half. They've got
some serious injuries to deal with. But last year Week eighteen,
Bryce had his best game against Atlanta and Chandler Zavalla
started for Robert Hunt right guard Cave Mays with the
(41:59):
Star Arting Center. It's going to be the alignment on Sunday. Okay,
they did more with less in that game. Chuba Hubbard
didn't play. They had a lot of injuries. Chandler Wooten
was your middle linebacker game, and they found a way
to win an OT So I'm hoping. I'm hoping they
get off to a good start division game and you know,
(42:21):
get that first win. I made the joke on Panther
Talk the other day. I said, you know, it's kind
of like Gladiator, right Maximus, win the crowd, win, the crowd,
win the crowd. You know, I know there's some anngst,
there's a little bit of frustration, but you get off
to a good start. This crowd wants to cheer for you,
this city wants to cheer for you. This region wants
to cheer for you. They want to get behind this
(42:43):
football team. Give them that reason early in the game.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Love it, win the crowd, Win the crowd.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
New motto, Win the Crowd Maximus
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.