December 1, 2025 • 30 mins
This week on Weekend Warriors, Anish and Tom react to the Panthers win over the LA Rams, discuss Lane Kiffin's decision to leave Ole Miss for LSU, preview the College Football Playoffs, and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There are a lot of ways to digest what happened
on Sunday, but I think the guy who said it
best is a famous North Carolinian by the name of
Ricky Bobby. Did that blow your mind? Because that just happened,
(00:20):
You know what's amazing. I was on the team plane
coming back from San Francisco. We landed a little after
six am Tuesday morning. When I walked through the door
and I got home, my eight year old was getting
ready to go to school, literally had her bags pack
at bags packed, finished her breakfast. Hey daddy, can you
(00:41):
drop me off at school?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Sure, why not? I didn't even put my bags down.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I take her to.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
School, I bring her back. Yeah. By the time, it's
a little after seven o'clock. And in the back of
my mind, I'm thinking, my goodness, it's seven o'clock on
a Tuesday. The guys on the team are probably just
getting home as well. Yeah, you've got a short week,
You've got the la Rams And then, oh, by the way,
your stud safety Trayvon Marrick suspended for one game for what,
(01:10):
according to the Cleveland Browns players said, may have been
a very warranted punch to the groin of Juwan Jennings,
Your star corner j C. Horn is out with a concussion.
Your leading tackler, Christian rose Boom is out. It is
a short week. The Rams are rolling best point differential
in the NFL. Everything on paper said, just get through Sunday,
(01:33):
get to the bye week, take care of New Orleans,
get to seven and seven, and then attack the final
three games against Tampa and Seattle. And you got to
give this team its flowers because that was a championship performance. Defensively,
they made enough plays fourth down, Bryce a couple of
big touchdown passes. But the guy that I think deserves
(01:55):
the most credit is the guy who was raked over
the coals last week.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And that was Dave Canalis. Mm hmm. Listen, First off,
Matthew Stafford had not turned the ball over in ten weeks.
Ten weeks.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
That's almost impossible, Like like that's almost impossible, meaning like
you don't make a bad decision, but you just happen
to have a tip ball that gets intercepted like that,
Like that's just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
But what was so crazy and a track meet game
like that is I mean the two turnovers right from
I mean that that's really because it wasn't exactly like
anybody stop at anybody, no, right, And you see the
way the game starts, you get that huge kickoff return,
and then next thing you know, it's like, oh boy, right,
(02:45):
and then Carolina just kept having answers and and I
and I'll say this, and I think we talked about
this maybe in the first three or four weeks of
the season on this podcast. Putting Bryce Young under I
just think is brilliant because everything comes off of their
(03:06):
inside and outside zone stretch play and when you come
off of that on play action, it's really hard to
number one get to the quarterback. Number two. It opens
things up because you have so many people at the
line of scrimmage. It's just different than being in the shotgun.
(03:27):
And I just think it accentuates Bryce Young's strengths. I
mean the plays the two minute drill at the end
of the second quarter, when he took that sack, I
was like, oh no, and then he comes right back
and just finds a way right the play later on.
I think in the second half where he's going down,
(03:50):
he's dead to right, it's gonna be like a six
yard loss. He gets out of it and he gains six,
which makes the field goal a chip shot, right, Like
those little you know that sometimes get glossed over, are
like like you look, you say, okay, why do we
win that game? It's like those little things right here
and there.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Take the game winning touchdown, the forty three yard pass
to McMillan. Yeah right, nobody's open. Bryce bought time in
the pocket, and again.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
They're trying to throw a tight end delay drag across
the middle of the field and he gets jumbled up
with the linebackers and that's that's supposed to be a
quick throw.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
It's It's fascinating because you know, after Monday night, everybody
made a huge deal about the Panthers not running the
ball and off the running backs only had nine carries
total in that game, and how Dave Canalis took ownership
and Rico Dawdle had the emoji tweet that went viral.
But you and I have covered football long enough, and
(04:51):
I always think it's such low hanging fruits sometimes to
go after play calling, because there's so much that goes
into it. You know, Dad was a coach, right, And
I'll give you a classic example. It's third down and
eight from the plus forty five yard line, and a
team runs a running play and the crowd booze, that's
(05:15):
intentional because you're trying to get into fourth and three,
fourth and four, fourth and manageable because it's four down territory.
And if you do, and it's fourth and three, even
fourth and two, guess what now? A run plays on
the table, a pass plays on the table. Play action
is on the table, the playbook opens up, the defense
has more to defend, and so there's layers to it,
(05:37):
there's sequences to it. Bryce had come off a game
in Atlanta where he threw for four forty eight. The
forty nine ers were beat up on defense. I don't
blame Dave Canalis for thinking we should be able to
do what we want against that defense. Right, hadn't turned
anybody over all season, had struggled to get to the quarterback.
So it's like the same if you got a third
(05:57):
and thirteen and you call a draw play right, every
announcer will tell you. If it works, it's brilliant. If
it doesn't work, the crowd booze, yeah. And so I
just thought some of that was unfair. You could have
made the case Sean McVeigh yesterday didn't run the ball
off because that was successful. But nobody's bringing that up today.
But I thought Dave Canal has handled that criticism really well.
(06:21):
I thought the game plan was perfect. The third quarter
I thought was just a masterclass and had to control
the game. The Rams ran three plays in the third quarter. Yeah,
and the Panthers controlled the clock. They ate up the clock,
they leaned on that big offensive line. They wore down
the Rams. And then you get it into a fourth
quarter game, and the Panthers been really good in the
fourth quarter all season.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And it's nice to have those two backs spell each
other like that. That will looking like Chuba again, no doubt.
I mean that's a double whamie right there. When you've
got that one two punch. I mean, that's and to
be having that happen right now, Like the timing of
that could be critical. Down Thistes, you get tired and
worn out and beat up, and and boy, I mean
(07:03):
that that that couldn't have come at a better time.
It's it's uh, it was. I thought it was just
a remarkable uh performance and it listen, it wasn't perfect.
I mean, defensively, they made the plays that they had
to make. But nobody was stopping the Rams, you know,
I mean, but I don't know if anybody else in
the NFL be stopping the Rams. And nobody was right
(07:27):
and so uh but that was big, man, That was
that was just so big. And then you said the
two words that nobody wants to hear New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Well, if New Orleans can go beat Tampa this coming week,
that would make a lot of people happy because it
means the Panthers in their bye week would end up
in first place. Yeah, by a half game. And again,
I think if you look at where Carolina is right now,
you're You're seven and six, and at the beginning of
the season, I think if you looked at the three
(07:58):
hardest games on paper, Buffalo, Green Bay, San Francisco, Let's
be honest, if you said, hey, if you get one
of those, I'll sign up for that right now.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah you got two. Yeah, you got two of those.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And the team has shown that they can go beat
a Green Bay on the road, they can go beat
a Rams team that win against Dallas is looking better
and better every week. Dallas different teams since the Quinn
Williams trade. But everything is in front of them. I
think this team believes this bye week should help them
get healthy. There might even be a chance you get
(08:32):
Robert Hunt back. I mean, that's your best offensive lineman.
You now have a true running back tandem. We've got
Sunshine and Moonshine and Bryce Young two of the last
three games, has played really well. He at the highest
pass the rating of his career. You've shown you can
go beat anybody. Tampa has been banged up, and I
know they're supposed to get healthy too. Baker's ye got
(08:53):
the left shoulder he's dealing with, but Mike Evans might
be coming back soon. Bucky Irving came back this past week.
I'm not saying it's gonna be easy, right, It's gonna happen,
But all you can ask for is to have the opportunity,
and it's in front of you, and you control. You
control how this thing is going to play out. And
I think the last step in this team's growth. They're
(09:14):
winning on the road, they're winning close games. They've won
with defense, they've won with the pass game, they've won
with the run game. The last step now is handling success.
That's been the biggest challenge this season. You know, you
get the big win against Green Bay. What happens you
lose to New Orleans, You get resounding win against Atlanta,
you go on Monday night, you lay in egg you
come back, you beat LA. Now can you go take
(09:34):
care of New Orleans. That's a game where they're two
and ten, they're out of the playoff mix. I know
it's on the road. Their fans are gonna show up
with the bags over their head, They're gonna remove the
s they're the Aints.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah they go beat the Aints. Yeah, you can't. You
can't allow that game to derail this thing. You just can't.
And you're right handling success but also carrying one performance
over from one week to the next, not having those
dips in those peaks and valleys which had plagued this team.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It's interesting because we're gonna get into college football here
on the other side, but we're in essentially the stretch
run of the NFL. We're in December in playoff season.
Could you imagine if Sean McVay after losing, or you know,
in a week or two, if they Clint says, hey, guys,
you know I'm gonna go go go coach Penn State.
Good luck the rest of the way. Could you imagine that?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Oh well, by the way, that might happen at some
point because they've been sitting around doing nothing.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I can and we'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Why, Ladies and gentlemen. The Weekend.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Rice bros down the right sideline, Pit's Coker and strive
touchdown Toronto Weekend Warriors. Well it's not Sean McVay who's
going to leave the Rams to go to Penn State,
but the Lane Kiffen thing. It reminds me of one
(10:59):
of the psays that we used to watch when we
were kids. When you come home from school and you know,
they'd have reading Rainbow and Dare would have a PSA
and there used to be this one where the dad
scolds the kid for doing something wrong and he says,
you know where did you learn to do such a thing?
And he says, I learned it from watching you, dad.
(11:21):
Lane Kiffin going to LSU and we're going to dive
into this. It's symptomatic of what's wrong with college football.
And we love college football. And from the outside looking in,
it's this beautiful house. You look inside the house, there's
dirty dishes, there's piles of laundry, the sewage and the
plumbing doesn't work, and people are still watching, people are
(11:43):
still coming to games. It's still generating a ton of interest.
But the underbelly right now is very alarming because I
can't think of a situation that would happen. You can't
have it in the NFL where a team would leave
his coach before the playoffs to go coach another team.
Even college basketball. Could you imagine take any coach in
(12:06):
college basketball teams at the NCAA Tournament they're a top
three seed. Hey, guys, I'm gonna go take a job
with another team. You're gonna bail on your team now
you're gonna take the money. That's the world we live in.
What now stops a player from saying, hey, you know,
I'm gonna opt out of the college football playoff unless
you throw in another million dollars like you've opened a
(12:28):
Pandora's box, which I'm not sure you're prepared for. And
what I hate about it is somebody who covers the
sport and you know you're the same way, Like you
got the American Conference Championship right. What's the talk going
into that game between North Texas, which has been one
of the great stories in college football Kulane, which has
had a bunch of success. It's both head coaches who
(12:50):
already have taken jobs elsewhere and coach, but it takes
away from the meaningful nature of these games late in
the season.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Well, and especially in that matchup you just brought up.
We're talking about a potential college football Playoff Berth for
those teams, right, so now the departure of both coaches
overshadow what we should be talking about, and it's a
team accomplishment and the opportunity to play and get a
college football Playoff Berth. I you know, my thing with
(13:21):
with Lane is just the immaturity. And I credit Old
Miss for putting their foot down and saying, no, we're
not doing that. You're not you're not You're not doing that.
You're you're out. If you're gone, you're gone. We have
a university we've got to protect, We've got a team,
we've got to prepare, and that's our responsibility right now.
And I'm glad that they didn't cave on that. And
(13:41):
then he goes out and makes a public statement.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Nobody wants to hear that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, and and quick crying about it, dude, Like stop,
just go be on your merry way, do what you're
gonna do. None of none of this should shock anybody
if you followed Lane Kiffin's career is entire going back
to taking the job with the Raid. All right, this
is par for the course. This is what he is,
this is what he does. And by the way, LSU
has to play at Tennessee and at ole Miss next year.
(14:08):
That should be that should be interesting. But the other
part about this, and you're right about the players, but
like you don't think there's not going to be ramped
tampering going on with that roster over the next three weeks.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
How are they going to focus? And yeah, I don't
want to hear I don't want to hear it anymore
because the hypocrisy, you know, And we've gotten into this
right like we feel it because there's a part of
us that believes in the value of commitment and loyalty
and hey, having an alma mater to go back to
a place that you can go back to, a support
(14:39):
from an alumni network that spans decades, a generation, being
able to give back to your school. Stop with that charade. Yeah,
with that charade. I don't want to hear any coach
preach about commitment and loyalty, because guess what we're asking
these eighteen, nineteen, twenty twenty one year old kids, with
(15:00):
all this money that they're getting now and all the
access and all the perks, we're asking them to grow
up a little faster. But the least we can do
is have the adults act like adults. And I'm not
saying you shouldn't chase a better job or a better opportunity,
but Brian Kelly had ten times the resume that Lane
Kiffen does when Brian Cley took the LSU job, and
Lane did more in the time that Brian Kelly was
(15:22):
at LSU and Lane was at ole Miss. Lane did
more at ole Miss. So it's this idea that you
are potentially, not potentially, you are punting on an opportunity
to take ole Miss deep into the playoff, maybe even
win a championship. Because this year feels that wide open.
It wouldn't surprise me if Ole Miss got to the
semi finals or played for a championship. There's no guarantee
(15:44):
you do that at LSU, and if you do that
at Old Miss, guess what You're gonna have a statue
one day and maybe the legacy piece doesn't matter and
it's all about the money. But here's the thing. You
go to LSU, Now you got to be aware of
their history. Brian Kelly had a pretty darn good resume.
He didn't last long at organ, won a national championship,
(16:05):
was gone less than two years later. Yeah, you step
in and on day one, the expectation is okay, go time. Yeah,
go beat Alabama, Go beat Georgia, Go win SEC championships, something,
by the way, Lane has never.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Done, never done.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Then let's say you go eight and four, nine and
three in your first two years. Guess what, You're on
the hot seat going into year three. And then if
it doesn't work out at LSU, your next job is
probably a mid to low power conference job where you're
definitely not gonna win a national championship.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
And you're not moving back up either. You're probably gonna
be stuck there.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, that's it. And listen, eight and four, nine and three,
not only would you be on the hot seat, that
means you wouldn't have made the playoff in each of
your first two years, right because now clearly like winning
the and I hate that I'm saying this, but winning
the conference championship doesn't seem important anymore.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
To me.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
That sucks, right, I mean there should still be some
value in that. There's not. Oh and by the way, oh,
missus never gone to Atlanta under lang Kiffin's leadership, so
you know. And to me, the money part of it.
First of all, he's not coaching to put food on
the table. So all in all reality, what's the difference
between nine million and twelve million dollars at this day
(17:16):
to his life having already garnered generational wealth? So whatever
those numbers are, who cares? I get I can see
more of that group of five guy going into a
situation where it's it's it's life altering money for him
and his family. Okay, And once you've achieved that, all right,
then you your I think your mindset changes a little bit.
(17:38):
What I think is a little bit is interesting in
all of this is as good of a job as
we all believe the LSU job is. Is there a
more toxic, dysfunctional top to bottom infrastructure in college football
than LSU right now? There's no alignment Florida State, maybe
(17:59):
before the state and have anywhere near LSU's resources.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And again, is the guy that you want in that
infrastructure lane Kiffens.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, chaotic, because I guarantee you right now, there's no
way he took that job without getting full control in writing,
full control personnel, how you div you up nil, having
the maximum mill out of the settlement going directly towards football.
You don't take that job unless you have all of
that in writing. Because he had that at Ole Miss,
(18:29):
he controlled everything. That's why I would worry a little
bit about John someumrul Florida. They just went and hired
a guy to the NFL to be a GM or
I mean, do they even know each other? Who has
the final say who's gonna who actually gets to make
the final decision on who we pay or who we recruited?
Like that would scare the hell out of me.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And again with John summrall right, he won a couple
of sun Belt titles when he was at Troy, but
Neil Brown had kind of put that infrastructure in place before. Yep,
he goes to two lane, you know, has some success,
but Willie Fritz was the one who built that thing
up correct, So I'm not saying John Sumroll won't be
(19:10):
a good coach. He's really good at marketing himself. His
agent is really good at kind of flooding the space
with his name as a top candidate.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Hey, to his credit, it worked. You go from Troy
to two Lane to Florida and what three four years?
I mean that's three years. Really, that's impressive. That's life
changing money. Good for you. But on the surface, it
feels a lot like the Billy Napier hired, don't it.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Wow, Not just on surface on paper, have you looked
at it? Their their win loss record is off by
one game, like they have almost identical resons. And remember
he was the hottest thing since pocket t shirts when
he got hired at Florida, Right, And what that tells
me is what's wrong at Florida? Like, what is wrong
(20:01):
in the other areas at Florida? Because to my knowledge,
Billion Apier didn't just go take stupid pills when he
took the Florida job.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I just I come back to this, right, the sport
needs to get its house in order. The twelve team playoff,
which I think will probably expand at some point to sixteen,
is a lucrative money making enterprise for college football. It
absolutely is don't bleep with it. Yeah, that's with it.
(20:32):
And some of the pushback that I hear from coaches, Well,
if you move the calendar and you move it into
the new year, and you move it after the National championship,
now you know guys can't enroll early. So what they
get to go to prom?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I mean they get to be a high school senior
for their final semester time that they'll never get back, okay,
and they get there in the summer. I mean that
used to be the norm. Is that like I kind
of feel like we could put that, you know, back
in the box, can't we? That's recruiting? Is that that
(21:13):
big of a deal?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Listen, I'm going to Bristol on Tuesday night to cover
Signing Day on Wednesday, which is basically rent a player
for two years. That's all it's become. Remember what we
used to devote to National Signing Day, eleven straight hours
of live coverage, And those fans of those teams and
those alumni and those boosters knew that those guys were
(21:37):
going to be on that team right and that they
they could invest their time and their energy and rooting
on that team because they knew what they had signing
day right now, like all we're doing, I mean, sixty
percent of the guys that sign on Wednesday won't even
be with their team in two years? Like what? I mean?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
What?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
And on top of it, how about this.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
A niche the one time transfer portal window and you
put it before the national championship during the playoffs?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
What are we doing? And I understand that there's quarter systems,
there's semester systems, and there's an academic component to this.
You're telling me you can't get those kids a three
week waiver. Give me a break. Here's the work. You
then make it it.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
It goes back to you created an environment which is
essentially the wild Frontier, and now you don't like the
fact that there's lawlessness everywhere.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
That's exactly right. They created this And don't give me
there were unforeseen circumstances. No, there weren't. If you had
half a brain, you could have seen all of this
coming from a mile away, right, Give me a break.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I just I feel bad because I think this has
a chance to be a wildly entertaining playoff, a wildly
entertaining postseason, and all this chatter about you know, coaches
coming going who's staying, who's going here? It's taken away
and you know again, Lane Kiffin gets to make his
decision and he has to live with the consequences. I
(23:11):
don't want to hear it, like you said, the complaining,
but I think it says a lot when a guy
like Kurt Signetti reups a guy like Rhet Lashley reups
some of these coaches who may have been targets to
be poached or somebody luring them to greener pastures. I
think the nature of the blue blood in college football
(23:31):
is changing. You got twelve teams, there's more access. It's
not just two anymore. It's not four anymore. It's twelve,
and it's probably going to sixteen. And there's a lot
of coaches who say, well, I can win here, and
guess what, you know. Kurt Signetti at Indiana, he can
coach there as long as he wants. Damn Oregon can
coach there as long as he wants. Rhet lastly at
(23:51):
SMU can coach there as long as he wants. You
go to some of these other schools, right, The nature
of it is, you're in the hot seat for two years.
The coach says, all right, well, screw it. I have
a little bit of success. I want my name out there.
I want my agent shopping me. You try to leave,
but I don't want to hear about it. Then when
you're complaining all this kid who committed like this is
(24:14):
not a hey, you know we're family and loyalty and
kid like. No, this is transactional. It is purely transactional. Yeah,
I'll come play for you if you give me money,
and guess what, I'll leave to go coach somewhere else
if I get more money. That's all this is. That's yeah,
this is whoever dies with the most toys apparently wins.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
And the kids are only a vessel like those are
your kids and my team until they're not, right, until.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
You go to the next press conference and it's go
Tigers or woopig right.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Right, I mean that's I mean, that's exactly what it is,
and it's exactly what it's become. And I will say
this just on another note, there's three really good jobs
in the American Open, really good jobs. The best three jobs.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
USF. I think is fascinating because I think they're headed
to a power conference in the next cycle of realignment.
They're getting a new stadium. Yeah, you've got a fertile
recruiting base. You don't have to go far to go
get players.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You can get anybody into school.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
They're kind of already, you know, back on the periphery
of being a team that can compete with the big boys.
They beat Florida already, they beat Boise State. So to me,
that's a really good job. I think Memphis has been
wildly consistent over the last few years with Fuente and Silverfield.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And I mean they've won They've won twenty eight games
in three years under Silverfield. Wow, I mean, I just
have them. They didn't play well Thursday night. He's a
guy who I'm surprised was there as long as he
was Ryan Silverfield. Yes. Yeah, And I think, to be
honest with you, the one job on the market, the
one that he happened to take, he had to take.
(25:50):
He had to. If you're gonna get out of that
Memphis field, it's an sec job. Are you going to
be able to pull it off? Probably not. Is it
going to change your family as well for generations? Yes? Okay,
and then you do the best job you can. But
like he was one of those guys where you sit
there and say, okay, it was time. Like you said,
it probably could have happened earlier. They didn't have the
(26:11):
season on a high note. They had an opportunity when
they started off what six and oh seven and zer
and then they lose on the road to UAB and
it derailed the season. It was time he needed to go.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Let's end on this. If you're a player in the
Ole Miss locker room, and I get it, you're decoordinators.
Now you're a head coach, and you did retain some
staff all year long. You were sold to bill of
goods together, commitment, loyalty, brotherhood, all those things that you hear,
(26:42):
and you did all those things. You put together a
one loss season. You were on the verge of playing
for the SEC championship. You're a top ten team, you're
looking at a college playoff berth and the guy who
sold you all that is gone. What are you thinking
if you're a player in that locker room.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Well, I think you know that's a really good question,
because I think it depends on the type of person
the player is. Is he totally and completely connected to
nil and me getting mine mentality only? Or have they
had a taste of Holy smokes. We could do something
(27:21):
special here and it doesn't matter if Lane Kiffin's here
or not. We're all still here. Let's go out and
have a Jake Taylor moment from Major League right now. Way,
all we got to do is go win the the
whole efing thing, right, I mean, that's the mentality got take.
But do you have that much unselfishness in a time
(27:45):
in college football right now where that is dominating the
personalities of the players.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I've seen that once, and there was a first hand
account of it because a couple of the players on
that team told me. Remember when Craig Bowl was at
North Dakota State and he had won a couple of championships,
was in the midst of winning his third straight championship
with North Dakota State, and he had gotten the head
(28:11):
coaching job with Wyoming either right before their playoff run
or in the middle of that playoff run, and Chris Cleman,
who is now the head coach at k State, had
been named, you know, kind of the interim coach and
was going to be named the successor, and Boll did
coach throughout the playoffs, but really Climbing was the guy
(28:33):
doing all the coaching. You were the players I covered
that team through their postseason run kind of told me
after the fact, they said, the players in the senior
class went to the coaches and said, you better not
bleep this up for us. We've worked too hard. Yeah,
some of you guys are checked out. If you're checked out,
be checked out. But you're not messing this up for
(28:56):
us exactly. And they went out and they won a
third straight championionship. Climbing became the full time head coach.
They ended up winning two more consecutive championships, and you know,
they've kind of like got on a ridiculous run since then.
But that was a senior class that kind of took ownership.
But that was also going back now, twelve thirteen years ago.
(29:18):
It was a different time. That was pre nil.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
This was team mentality. The big team, little me mentality
has almost completely evaporated. And now you've got to ask yourself,
do they have that?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And here's the thing. You're losing the guy who is
at the rudder. You're losing the captain of the ship. Yeah,
the person who was put in charge to instill those
values and instill that concept. As flimsy as it may
seem right now. I think Ole Miss becomes an interesting
test case. I'm curious if the playoff committee knocks him
(29:54):
down a few pangs, I really am. I'm curious how
the playoff committee will treat the Twoline North Texas win. Because, yes,
even though the head coaches will coach until the season
is over, you can't tell me your attention is not divided. Yeah,
not only that you're totally focused on winning games. No,
you're focused on building a staff and getting your family
settled and finding a place to live and recruiting. I mean,
(30:17):
like that's hard, and then you're game planning for the
biggest games of year season. I don't see it. So
I think it's gonna be fascinating. And I think the
hope is, you know, over the next couple of weeks,
we can get the attention back on the field, the
players and the teams.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yep. Amen,
There are a lot of ways to digest what happened
on Sunday, but I think the guy who said it
best is a famous North Carolinian by the name of
Ricky Bobby. Did that blow your mind? Because that just happened,
(00:20):
You know what's amazing. I was on the team plane
coming back from San Francisco. We landed a little after
six am Tuesday morning. When I walked through the door
and I got home, my eight year old was getting
ready to go to school, literally had her bags pack
at bags packed, finished her breakfast. Hey daddy, can you
(00:41):
drop me off at school?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Sure, why not? I didn't even put my bags down.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I take her to.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
School, I bring her back. Yeah. By the time, it's
a little after seven o'clock. And in the back of
my mind, I'm thinking, my goodness, it's seven o'clock on
a Tuesday. The guys on the team are probably just
getting home as well. Yeah, you've got a short week,
You've got the la Rams And then, oh, by the way,
your stud safety Trayvon Marrick suspended for one game for what,
(01:10):
according to the Cleveland Browns players said, may have been
a very warranted punch to the groin of Juwan Jennings,
Your star corner j C. Horn is out with a concussion.
Your leading tackler, Christian rose Boom is out. It is
a short week. The Rams are rolling best point differential
in the NFL. Everything on paper said, just get through Sunday,
(01:33):
get to the bye week, take care of New Orleans,
get to seven and seven, and then attack the final
three games against Tampa and Seattle. And you got to
give this team its flowers because that was a championship performance. Defensively,
they made enough plays fourth down, Bryce a couple of
big touchdown passes. But the guy that I think deserves
(01:55):
the most credit is the guy who was raked over
the coals last week.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And that was Dave Canalis. Mm hmm. Listen, First off,
Matthew Stafford had not turned the ball over in ten weeks.
Ten weeks.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
That's almost impossible, Like like that's almost impossible, meaning like
you don't make a bad decision, but you just happen
to have a tip ball that gets intercepted like that,
Like that's just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
But what was so crazy and a track meet game
like that is I mean the two turnovers right from
I mean that that's really because it wasn't exactly like
anybody stop at anybody, no, right, And you see the
way the game starts, you get that huge kickoff return,
and then next thing you know, it's like, oh boy, right,
(02:45):
and then Carolina just kept having answers and and I
and I'll say this, and I think we talked about
this maybe in the first three or four weeks of
the season on this podcast. Putting Bryce Young under I
just think is brilliant because everything comes off of their
(03:06):
inside and outside zone stretch play and when you come
off of that on play action, it's really hard to
number one get to the quarterback. Number two. It opens
things up because you have so many people at the
line of scrimmage. It's just different than being in the shotgun.
(03:27):
And I just think it accentuates Bryce Young's strengths. I
mean the plays the two minute drill at the end
of the second quarter, when he took that sack, I
was like, oh no, and then he comes right back
and just finds a way right the play later on.
I think in the second half where he's going down,
(03:50):
he's dead to right, it's gonna be like a six
yard loss. He gets out of it and he gains six,
which makes the field goal a chip shot, right, Like
those little you know that sometimes get glossed over, are
like like you look, you say, okay, why do we
win that game? It's like those little things right here
and there.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Take the game winning touchdown, the forty three yard pass
to McMillan. Yeah right, nobody's open. Bryce bought time in
the pocket, and again.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
They're trying to throw a tight end delay drag across
the middle of the field and he gets jumbled up
with the linebackers and that's that's supposed to be a
quick throw.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
It's It's fascinating because you know, after Monday night, everybody
made a huge deal about the Panthers not running the
ball and off the running backs only had nine carries
total in that game, and how Dave Canalis took ownership
and Rico Dawdle had the emoji tweet that went viral.
But you and I have covered football long enough, and
(04:51):
I always think it's such low hanging fruits sometimes to
go after play calling, because there's so much that goes
into it. You know, Dad was a coach, right, And
I'll give you a classic example. It's third down and
eight from the plus forty five yard line, and a
team runs a running play and the crowd booze, that's
(05:15):
intentional because you're trying to get into fourth and three,
fourth and four, fourth and manageable because it's four down territory.
And if you do, and it's fourth and three, even
fourth and two, guess what now? A run plays on
the table, a pass plays on the table. Play action
is on the table, the playbook opens up, the defense
has more to defend, and so there's layers to it,
(05:37):
there's sequences to it. Bryce had come off a game
in Atlanta where he threw for four forty eight. The
forty nine ers were beat up on defense. I don't
blame Dave Canalis for thinking we should be able to
do what we want against that defense. Right, hadn't turned
anybody over all season, had struggled to get to the quarterback.
So it's like the same if you got a third
(05:57):
and thirteen and you call a draw play right, every
announcer will tell you. If it works, it's brilliant. If
it doesn't work, the crowd booze, yeah. And so I
just thought some of that was unfair. You could have
made the case Sean McVeigh yesterday didn't run the ball
off because that was successful. But nobody's bringing that up today.
But I thought Dave Canal has handled that criticism really well.
(06:21):
I thought the game plan was perfect. The third quarter
I thought was just a masterclass and had to control
the game. The Rams ran three plays in the third quarter. Yeah,
and the Panthers controlled the clock. They ate up the clock,
they leaned on that big offensive line. They wore down
the Rams. And then you get it into a fourth
quarter game, and the Panthers been really good in the
fourth quarter all season.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And it's nice to have those two backs spell each
other like that. That will looking like Chuba again, no doubt.
I mean that's a double whamie right there. When you've
got that one two punch. I mean, that's and to
be having that happen right now, Like the timing of
that could be critical. Down Thistes, you get tired and
worn out and beat up, and and boy, I mean
(07:03):
that that that couldn't have come at a better time.
It's it's uh, it was. I thought it was just
a remarkable uh performance and it listen, it wasn't perfect.
I mean, defensively, they made the plays that they had
to make. But nobody was stopping the Rams, you know,
I mean, but I don't know if anybody else in
the NFL be stopping the Rams. And nobody was right
(07:27):
and so uh but that was big, man, That was
that was just so big. And then you said the
two words that nobody wants to hear New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Well, if New Orleans can go beat Tampa this coming week,
that would make a lot of people happy because it
means the Panthers in their bye week would end up
in first place. Yeah, by a half game. And again,
I think if you look at where Carolina is right now,
you're You're seven and six, and at the beginning of
the season, I think if you looked at the three
(07:58):
hardest games on paper, Buffalo, Green Bay, San Francisco, Let's
be honest, if you said, hey, if you get one
of those, I'll sign up for that right now.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah you got two. Yeah, you got two of those.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And the team has shown that they can go beat
a Green Bay on the road, they can go beat
a Rams team that win against Dallas is looking better
and better every week. Dallas different teams since the Quinn
Williams trade. But everything is in front of them. I
think this team believes this bye week should help them
get healthy. There might even be a chance you get
(08:32):
Robert Hunt back. I mean, that's your best offensive lineman.
You now have a true running back tandem. We've got
Sunshine and Moonshine and Bryce Young two of the last
three games, has played really well. He at the highest
pass the rating of his career. You've shown you can
go beat anybody. Tampa has been banged up, and I
know they're supposed to get healthy too. Baker's ye got
(08:53):
the left shoulder he's dealing with, but Mike Evans might
be coming back soon. Bucky Irving came back this past week.
I'm not saying it's gonna be easy, right, It's gonna happen,
But all you can ask for is to have the opportunity,
and it's in front of you, and you control. You
control how this thing is going to play out. And
I think the last step in this team's growth. They're
(09:14):
winning on the road, they're winning close games. They've won
with defense, they've won with the pass game, they've won
with the run game. The last step now is handling success.
That's been the biggest challenge this season. You know, you
get the big win against Green Bay. What happens you
lose to New Orleans, You get resounding win against Atlanta,
you go on Monday night, you lay in egg you
come back, you beat LA. Now can you go take
(09:34):
care of New Orleans. That's a game where they're two
and ten, they're out of the playoff mix. I know
it's on the road. Their fans are gonna show up
with the bags over their head, They're gonna remove the
s they're the Aints.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah they go beat the Aints. Yeah, you can't. You
can't allow that game to derail this thing. You just can't.
And you're right handling success but also carrying one performance
over from one week to the next, not having those
dips in those peaks and valleys which had plagued this team.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It's interesting because we're gonna get into college football here
on the other side, but we're in essentially the stretch
run of the NFL. We're in December in playoff season.
Could you imagine if Sean McVay after losing, or you know,
in a week or two, if they Clint says, hey, guys,
you know I'm gonna go go go coach Penn State.
Good luck the rest of the way. Could you imagine that?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Oh well, by the way, that might happen at some
point because they've been sitting around doing nothing.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I can and we'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Why, Ladies and gentlemen. The Weekend.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Rice bros down the right sideline, Pit's Coker and strive
touchdown Toronto Weekend Warriors. Well it's not Sean McVay who's
going to leave the Rams to go to Penn State,
but the Lane Kiffen thing. It reminds me of one
(10:59):
of the psays that we used to watch when we
were kids. When you come home from school and you know,
they'd have reading Rainbow and Dare would have a PSA
and there used to be this one where the dad
scolds the kid for doing something wrong and he says,
you know where did you learn to do such a thing?
And he says, I learned it from watching you, dad.
(11:21):
Lane Kiffin going to LSU and we're going to dive
into this. It's symptomatic of what's wrong with college football.
And we love college football. And from the outside looking in,
it's this beautiful house. You look inside the house, there's
dirty dishes, there's piles of laundry, the sewage and the
plumbing doesn't work, and people are still watching, people are
(11:43):
still coming to games. It's still generating a ton of interest.
But the underbelly right now is very alarming because I
can't think of a situation that would happen. You can't
have it in the NFL where a team would leave
his coach before the playoffs to go coach another team.
Even college basketball. Could you imagine take any coach in
(12:06):
college basketball teams at the NCAA Tournament they're a top
three seed. Hey, guys, I'm gonna go take a job
with another team. You're gonna bail on your team now
you're gonna take the money. That's the world we live in.
What now stops a player from saying, hey, you know,
I'm gonna opt out of the college football playoff unless
you throw in another million dollars like you've opened a
(12:28):
Pandora's box, which I'm not sure you're prepared for. And
what I hate about it is somebody who covers the
sport and you know you're the same way, Like you
got the American Conference Championship right. What's the talk going
into that game between North Texas, which has been one
of the great stories in college football Kulane, which has
had a bunch of success. It's both head coaches who
(12:50):
already have taken jobs elsewhere and coach, but it takes
away from the meaningful nature of these games late in
the season.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Well, and especially in that matchup you just brought up.
We're talking about a potential college football Playoff Berth for
those teams, right, so now the departure of both coaches
overshadow what we should be talking about, and it's a
team accomplishment and the opportunity to play and get a
college football Playoff Berth. I you know, my thing with
(13:21):
with Lane is just the immaturity. And I credit Old
Miss for putting their foot down and saying, no, we're
not doing that. You're not you're not You're not doing that.
You're you're out. If you're gone, you're gone. We have
a university we've got to protect, We've got a team,
we've got to prepare, and that's our responsibility right now.
And I'm glad that they didn't cave on that. And
(13:41):
then he goes out and makes a public statement.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Nobody wants to hear that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, and and quick crying about it, dude, Like stop,
just go be on your merry way, do what you're
gonna do. None of none of this should shock anybody
if you followed Lane Kiffin's career is entire going back
to taking the job with the Raid. All right, this
is par for the course. This is what he is,
this is what he does. And by the way, LSU
has to play at Tennessee and at ole Miss next year.
(14:08):
That should be that should be interesting. But the other
part about this, and you're right about the players, but
like you don't think there's not going to be ramped
tampering going on with that roster over the next three weeks.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
How are they going to focus? And yeah, I don't
want to hear I don't want to hear it anymore
because the hypocrisy, you know, And we've gotten into this
right like we feel it because there's a part of
us that believes in the value of commitment and loyalty
and hey, having an alma mater to go back to
a place that you can go back to, a support
(14:39):
from an alumni network that spans decades, a generation, being
able to give back to your school. Stop with that charade. Yeah,
with that charade. I don't want to hear any coach
preach about commitment and loyalty, because guess what we're asking
these eighteen, nineteen, twenty twenty one year old kids, with
(15:00):
all this money that they're getting now and all the
access and all the perks, we're asking them to grow
up a little faster. But the least we can do
is have the adults act like adults. And I'm not
saying you shouldn't chase a better job or a better opportunity,
but Brian Kelly had ten times the resume that Lane
Kiffen does when Brian Cley took the LSU job, and
Lane did more in the time that Brian Kelly was
(15:22):
at LSU and Lane was at ole Miss. Lane did
more at ole Miss. So it's this idea that you
are potentially, not potentially, you are punting on an opportunity
to take ole Miss deep into the playoff, maybe even
win a championship. Because this year feels that wide open.
It wouldn't surprise me if Ole Miss got to the
semi finals or played for a championship. There's no guarantee
(15:44):
you do that at LSU, and if you do that
at Old Miss, guess what You're gonna have a statue
one day and maybe the legacy piece doesn't matter and
it's all about the money. But here's the thing. You
go to LSU, Now you got to be aware of
their history. Brian Kelly had a pretty darn good resume.
He didn't last long at organ, won a national championship,
(16:05):
was gone less than two years later. Yeah, you step
in and on day one, the expectation is okay, go time. Yeah,
go beat Alabama, Go beat Georgia, Go win SEC championships, something,
by the way, Lane has never.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Done, never done.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Then let's say you go eight and four, nine and
three in your first two years. Guess what, You're on
the hot seat going into year three. And then if
it doesn't work out at LSU, your next job is
probably a mid to low power conference job where you're
definitely not gonna win a national championship.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
And you're not moving back up either. You're probably gonna
be stuck there.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, that's it. And listen, eight and four, nine and three,
not only would you be on the hot seat, that
means you wouldn't have made the playoff in each of
your first two years, right because now clearly like winning
the and I hate that I'm saying this, but winning
the conference championship doesn't seem important anymore.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
To me.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
That sucks, right, I mean there should still be some
value in that. There's not. Oh and by the way, oh,
missus never gone to Atlanta under lang Kiffin's leadership, so
you know. And to me, the money part of it.
First of all, he's not coaching to put food on
the table. So all in all reality, what's the difference
between nine million and twelve million dollars at this day
(17:16):
to his life having already garnered generational wealth? So whatever
those numbers are, who cares? I get I can see
more of that group of five guy going into a
situation where it's it's it's life altering money for him
and his family. Okay, And once you've achieved that, all right,
then you your I think your mindset changes a little bit.
(17:38):
What I think is a little bit is interesting in
all of this is as good of a job as
we all believe the LSU job is. Is there a
more toxic, dysfunctional top to bottom infrastructure in college football
than LSU right now? There's no alignment Florida State, maybe
(17:59):
before the state and have anywhere near LSU's resources.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And again, is the guy that you want in that
infrastructure lane Kiffens.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, chaotic, because I guarantee you right now, there's no
way he took that job without getting full control in writing,
full control personnel, how you div you up nil, having
the maximum mill out of the settlement going directly towards football.
You don't take that job unless you have all of
that in writing. Because he had that at Ole Miss,
(18:29):
he controlled everything. That's why I would worry a little
bit about John someumrul Florida. They just went and hired
a guy to the NFL to be a GM or
I mean, do they even know each other? Who has
the final say who's gonna who actually gets to make
the final decision on who we pay or who we recruited?
Like that would scare the hell out of me.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And again with John summrall right, he won a couple
of sun Belt titles when he was at Troy, but
Neil Brown had kind of put that infrastructure in place before. Yep,
he goes to two lane, you know, has some success,
but Willie Fritz was the one who built that thing
up correct, So I'm not saying John Sumroll won't be
(19:10):
a good coach. He's really good at marketing himself. His
agent is really good at kind of flooding the space
with his name as a top candidate.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Hey, to his credit, it worked. You go from Troy
to two Lane to Florida and what three four years?
I mean that's three years. Really, that's impressive. That's life
changing money. Good for you. But on the surface, it
feels a lot like the Billy Napier hired, don't it.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Wow, Not just on surface on paper, have you looked
at it? Their their win loss record is off by
one game, like they have almost identical resons. And remember
he was the hottest thing since pocket t shirts when
he got hired at Florida, Right, And what that tells
me is what's wrong at Florida? Like, what is wrong
(20:01):
in the other areas at Florida? Because to my knowledge,
Billion Apier didn't just go take stupid pills when he
took the Florida job.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I just I come back to this, right, the sport
needs to get its house in order. The twelve team playoff,
which I think will probably expand at some point to sixteen,
is a lucrative money making enterprise for college football. It
absolutely is don't bleep with it. Yeah, that's with it.
(20:32):
And some of the pushback that I hear from coaches, Well,
if you move the calendar and you move it into
the new year, and you move it after the National championship,
now you know guys can't enroll early. So what they
get to go to prom?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I mean they get to be a high school senior
for their final semester time that they'll never get back, okay,
and they get there in the summer. I mean that
used to be the norm. Is that like I kind
of feel like we could put that, you know, back
in the box, can't we? That's recruiting? Is that that
(21:13):
big of a deal?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Listen, I'm going to Bristol on Tuesday night to cover
Signing Day on Wednesday, which is basically rent a player
for two years. That's all it's become. Remember what we
used to devote to National Signing Day, eleven straight hours
of live coverage, And those fans of those teams and
those alumni and those boosters knew that those guys were
(21:37):
going to be on that team right and that they
they could invest their time and their energy and rooting
on that team because they knew what they had signing
day right now, like all we're doing, I mean, sixty
percent of the guys that sign on Wednesday won't even
be with their team in two years? Like what? I mean?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
What?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
And on top of it, how about this.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
A niche the one time transfer portal window and you
put it before the national championship during the playoffs?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
What are we doing? And I understand that there's quarter systems,
there's semester systems, and there's an academic component to this.
You're telling me you can't get those kids a three
week waiver. Give me a break. Here's the work. You
then make it it.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
It goes back to you created an environment which is
essentially the wild Frontier, and now you don't like the
fact that there's lawlessness everywhere.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
That's exactly right. They created this And don't give me
there were unforeseen circumstances. No, there weren't. If you had
half a brain, you could have seen all of this
coming from a mile away, right, Give me a break.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I just I feel bad because I think this has
a chance to be a wildly entertaining playoff, a wildly
entertaining postseason, and all this chatter about you know, coaches
coming going who's staying, who's going here? It's taken away
and you know again, Lane Kiffin gets to make his
decision and he has to live with the consequences. I
(23:11):
don't want to hear it, like you said, the complaining,
but I think it says a lot when a guy
like Kurt Signetti reups a guy like Rhet Lashley reups
some of these coaches who may have been targets to
be poached or somebody luring them to greener pastures. I
think the nature of the blue blood in college football
(23:31):
is changing. You got twelve teams, there's more access. It's
not just two anymore. It's not four anymore. It's twelve,
and it's probably going to sixteen. And there's a lot
of coaches who say, well, I can win here, and
guess what, you know. Kurt Signetti at Indiana, he can
coach there as long as he wants. Damn Oregon can
coach there as long as he wants. Rhet lastly at
(23:51):
SMU can coach there as long as he wants. You
go to some of these other schools, right, The nature
of it is, you're in the hot seat for two years.
The coach says, all right, well, screw it. I have
a little bit of success. I want my name out there.
I want my agent shopping me. You try to leave,
but I don't want to hear about it. Then when
you're complaining all this kid who committed like this is
(24:14):
not a hey, you know we're family and loyalty and
kid like. No, this is transactional. It is purely transactional. Yeah,
I'll come play for you if you give me money,
and guess what, I'll leave to go coach somewhere else
if I get more money. That's all this is. That's yeah,
this is whoever dies with the most toys apparently wins.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
And the kids are only a vessel like those are
your kids and my team until they're not, right, until.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
You go to the next press conference and it's go
Tigers or woopig right.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Right, I mean that's I mean, that's exactly what it is,
and it's exactly what it's become. And I will say
this just on another note, there's three really good jobs
in the American Open, really good jobs. The best three jobs.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
USF. I think is fascinating because I think they're headed
to a power conference in the next cycle of realignment.
They're getting a new stadium. Yeah, you've got a fertile
recruiting base. You don't have to go far to go
get players.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You can get anybody into school.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
They're kind of already, you know, back on the periphery
of being a team that can compete with the big boys.
They beat Florida already, they beat Boise State. So to me,
that's a really good job. I think Memphis has been
wildly consistent over the last few years with Fuente and Silverfield.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And I mean they've won They've won twenty eight games
in three years under Silverfield. Wow, I mean, I just
have them. They didn't play well Thursday night. He's a
guy who I'm surprised was there as long as he
was Ryan Silverfield. Yes. Yeah, And I think, to be
honest with you, the one job on the market, the
one that he happened to take, he had to take.
(25:50):
He had to. If you're gonna get out of that
Memphis field, it's an sec job. Are you going to
be able to pull it off? Probably not. Is it
going to change your family as well for generations? Yes? Okay,
and then you do the best job you can. But
like he was one of those guys where you sit
there and say, okay, it was time. Like you said,
it probably could have happened earlier. They didn't have the
(26:11):
season on a high note. They had an opportunity when
they started off what six and oh seven and zer
and then they lose on the road to UAB and
it derailed the season. It was time he needed to go.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Let's end on this. If you're a player in the
Ole Miss locker room, and I get it, you're decoordinators.
Now you're a head coach, and you did retain some
staff all year long. You were sold to bill of
goods together, commitment, loyalty, brotherhood, all those things that you hear,
(26:42):
and you did all those things. You put together a
one loss season. You were on the verge of playing
for the SEC championship. You're a top ten team, you're
looking at a college playoff berth and the guy who
sold you all that is gone. What are you thinking
if you're a player in that locker room.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Well, I think you know that's a really good question,
because I think it depends on the type of person
the player is. Is he totally and completely connected to
nil and me getting mine mentality only? Or have they
had a taste of Holy smokes. We could do something
(27:21):
special here and it doesn't matter if Lane Kiffin's here
or not. We're all still here. Let's go out and
have a Jake Taylor moment from Major League right now. Way,
all we got to do is go win the the
whole efing thing, right, I mean, that's the mentality got take.
But do you have that much unselfishness in a time
(27:45):
in college football right now where that is dominating the
personalities of the players.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I've seen that once, and there was a first hand
account of it because a couple of the players on
that team told me. Remember when Craig Bowl was at
North Dakota State and he had won a couple of championships,
was in the midst of winning his third straight championship
with North Dakota State, and he had gotten the head
(28:11):
coaching job with Wyoming either right before their playoff run
or in the middle of that playoff run, and Chris Cleman,
who is now the head coach at k State, had
been named, you know, kind of the interim coach and
was going to be named the successor, and Boll did
coach throughout the playoffs, but really Climbing was the guy
(28:33):
doing all the coaching. You were the players I covered
that team through their postseason run kind of told me
after the fact, they said, the players in the senior
class went to the coaches and said, you better not
bleep this up for us. We've worked too hard. Yeah,
some of you guys are checked out. If you're checked out,
be checked out. But you're not messing this up for
(28:56):
us exactly. And they went out and they won a
third straight championionship. Climbing became the full time head coach.
They ended up winning two more consecutive championships, and you know,
they've kind of like got on a ridiculous run since then.
But that was a senior class that kind of took ownership.
But that was also going back now, twelve thirteen years ago.
(29:18):
It was a different time. That was pre nil.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
This was team mentality. The big team, little me mentality
has almost completely evaporated. And now you've got to ask yourself,
do they have that?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And here's the thing. You're losing the guy who is
at the rudder. You're losing the captain of the ship. Yeah,
the person who was put in charge to instill those
values and instill that concept. As flimsy as it may
seem right now. I think Ole Miss becomes an interesting
test case. I'm curious if the playoff committee knocks him
(29:54):
down a few pangs, I really am. I'm curious how
the playoff committee will treat the Twoline North Texas win. Because, yes,
even though the head coaches will coach until the season
is over, you can't tell me your attention is not divided. Yeah,
not only that you're totally focused on winning games. No,
you're focused on building a staff and getting your family
settled and finding a place to live and recruiting. I mean,
(30:17):
like that's hard, and then you're game planning for the
biggest games of year season. I don't see it. So
I think it's gonna be fascinating. And I think the
hope is, you know, over the next couple of weeks,
we can get the attention back on the field, the
players and the teams.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yep. Amen,
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