December 13, 2024 • 38 mins
FOX Sports Radio Weekend hosts Martin Weiss and Ephraim Salaam are in for Rob and Kelvin, and the guys discuss the idea that Kyle Shanahan might be looking for a fresh start elsewhere following the San Francisco 49ers’ lost season, explain why De’Vondre Campbell’s NFL career is likely over after that stunt he pulled on Thursday Night Football, tell us why NFL decision makers would be crazy not to let Travis Hunter play two-ways in the NFL and share their expectations for Bill Belichick as the new head football coach at North Carolina.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple with
Chris Brusha and Rod Parker.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hey listen. Sometimes sometimes the.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Starters they take a day off, and at that moment,
generally the guys come off the bench and play well.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
Sometimes they just leave the field and decide. I don't
want to put.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Exactly unless it was Thursday night. Just yesterday, we.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Saw Devendre Campbell walk off the field midway through the
third quarter as a San Francisco forty nine is We're
in the midst of losing to the Los Angeles Rams,
and I mean Dre Greenlaw came back after tearing his
achilles in the Super Bowl. We all saw that as
he was running onto the field in the second quarter
he was finally back. It was won the one bright
(01:02):
spot this year for the forty nine ers and the
year that has been just dark and cloudy basically since
the start of it. Remember when branded Ayuk wanted to
get paid. Yeah, that's how long it's been troubled in
forty nine er Land. And so you know, Devin Dre
Campbell says after the third quarter when they wanted to
rest dra Greenlaw and d Winters got hurt. You know,
he said, no, Moss, he said, I'm good. I don't
(01:23):
want to go out there if you don't want me
in the first quarter, that you didn't want me in
the third quarter. Now, even I never played professional football,
believe it or not, you didn't.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Shocking, I know, but you did.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
So I want to ask you, as a guy in
the locker room, have you ever seen anything like this?
Speaker 5 (01:40):
And if you did, what was your reaction. No, I've
never seen anything like this. I've seen guys be late.
I've seen guys, you know, not come in focused, but
on Sundays, I've never been a part of a team
where a guy walked off the field and fuse to
(02:00):
go in the game. And I'm glad because it's so
troubling on so many levels. The great thing about a
sport like football, no matter who's that quarterback or running
back or no matter what's going on. It's a team sport, yep.
(02:23):
And whenever there is a moment where you feel like
you're more important than the team, then it's time to
go look for something else to do.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Now.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
I don't know what's going on in this young man's life.
It could come out in two weeks that something horrific
had happened in his felt like, we don't know what
it is. But at first glance, what did Mike Singletary say?
Can't win with him? Can't do it? And that's how
(02:59):
I feel about this situation. You can't be in that
locker room look at those guys, especially the type of
season the forty nine ers are having. You can't look
at those guys in the face and be like that
was my bad man, I was tripping. You can't trip
like that.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Now?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Is it intensified because of the season forty Like if
the forty nine ers were eleven and two right now,
would we be having the same level of conversation about this.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
We'd be digging deeper into I wonder what's going on
in his life. But because it's a ship on fire
man overboard, now it lends to oh, this is another
reason why the forty nine ers aren't having the type
of season that the injuries, this type of discord in
(03:48):
the locker room, this all makes this People are now going, oh, yeah,
the forty nine ers are done and they're in trouble.
Because things start coming out this negative about a team.
The first thing you do is you look at the
record and you'll be like, oh, this is a systematic thing.
(04:10):
Then something's going on within that locker room.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
So my thought initially when I saw him walking off
the field was Oh, he must be hurt. Then, realizing
he had played no snaps prior to that moment, I said, oh,
this is interesting, what's going on here? Now I agree
with you in that we don't know the whole story.
We've yet to hear from mister Campbell himself about why
he decided to remove himself from the sideline, But the
(04:34):
response of his teammates after the game and the directness
of the coach after the game lends me to believe
that there is not some more, something that's more you know,
out there and is off the field right that has
made impacting him and impacting his decision making. But it
does speak to the idea what you were saying just
(04:55):
second ago of how things have been so tumultuous in
the locker room, both off the and on the field
for the forty nine ers all year, starting with the
Brandon Aiyuka and his contract situation at Christian McCaffrey and
his injury and will he.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Come back, Oh, he's actually got to go to Germany.
What's that about? Right?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
And then you have you know, two players had you know,
terrible family incidents happened in which you know, their newborn
child has recently passed away. Like that's something that the
lot that is something that it's hard to get up
and go to regular work, much less when it's hard
when it's somebody else's job to stop you from doing yours.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Yeah, it's a lot going on.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
And so my thought was when I was watching the
end of this game, and I'm saying, and this is
kind of tied on the hills of Bill Belichick. And
we'll talk about him coming up at eight o'clock, you know,
we'll talk about his impact and what he's got going
on in North Carolina.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
But some of the reporting there was in the NFL
didn't want him.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I feel like if Kyle Shanahan was on the market,
the NFL would want him, And it made me wonder
because we were talking about should the forty Downers move
on from Kyle Shanahan with this type of stuff going on, right,
with everything that was laid out, and then all the
success that he has had there, I'll be not winning
a championship, all the success he has had there, all
the players aging is it? Do you think Shanahan would
(06:10):
be interested in sticking around for a rebuild or would
one of these situations like Chicago.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
For example, look more appealing.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Because to me, if I'm collegehann and I'm looking everything,
even my team stinks, now, well that.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Team stinks, but at least they got a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Yeah, but I think just knowing Kyle and I do
I mean Kyle when he was was in college and
then also on a professional level. He was my offensive
coordinator in Houston. Uh so we I know each other.
We know each other. We played Xbox together, we play
(06:46):
Halo together. Was he did he beat you?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
No?
Speaker 5 (06:50):
I'm nice on them stakes. Okay, Anyway, that's another that's
another topic in another show. Uh, Kyle's not going anywhere.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
It's a situation.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
He's perfectly happy in this situation, the control that they have.
Him and John Lynch, they're like a package, right. They
came in this thing together. They both asked for guarantee
five year contracts because they didn't want to get into
a situation where two years things didn't go the way
(07:24):
they expected them to go, the turnaround hadn't been complete.
They didn't want to be forced to leave. They wanted
to make change. They wanted to change the dynamic and
the trajectory of the team, which.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
They have done.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
They have been nothing but successful for the last five years.
So I don't see this as a situation where Kyle
is like he's looking over the fence and saying, hey,
that grass is growing in a little bit greener than mine.
He knows he has the pieces. Obviously, the last time
they had this number of Pro Bowl or All Pro.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Players on.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
IR is twenty twenty. You have to win the war
of attrition to be a good football team, and in
sometimes good football teams up run up against it. And
it's a situation where they've run up against it. And
(08:22):
he knows this year doesn't make what next year is,
just like last year doesn't make what this year is. Sure,
the season didn't been around enough to know he's not
gonna tuck and run when things get hard.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I get that, and I get that.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
But what we do know is gonna happen next year
is we know that George Kettle will be a year
older and while his game doesn't look a step slower,
Deebo Samuel looks about three steps slower.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
And he gonna be a year of tight outfits. Many
don't get enough circulation before the game walking in in
them leather pants with the zippers.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Either that has got too much circulation from the couch
to the frieze, because that's what's making the outfit look tighter.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
But now and then, also, you got the contract to
brock party coming up.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
This forty nine ers organization has a lot of big
decisions that are upcoming.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
Like most organizations, that's just what that's football. When people
start pointing out, well they got to do this and
they gotta do that, that's not any different than any
other organization in football. At some point every time those
tough decisions come up, do you pack your things and
go to a situation where you have more time not
(09:28):
to have to be a coach or make tough decisions. No,
I mean step into it and make the decisions best
for your your team.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
I'm coming this from a guy who was baptized the
Saints fan.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Right, So I watched the best friend.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I watched the best coach that my franchise ever had,
you know, basically retire when the salary cap got unmanageable
and his quarterback left.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And now for the just for the.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Price of a second or the fourth round pick, you
get the greatest coach in New Orleans States franchise history
to go up to Denver for a six year contract.
Like So that's That's kind of where I'm at with it.
I'm thinking, like, could one of these scenarios, could it be?
You know, You're you're Chicago, You're you got Detroit who
looks like they're not going anywhere. With Dan Campbell Matt
Lafloor's installed, you got two of the best coaches in
(10:14):
the NFL, probably in your division already. You don't do
you want to be another Antonio Pierce where you're in
the division with Harball, Andy Reid.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Shanahan.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Okay, what I'm saying, No, I'm saying kle no, No,
he's not an Antonio Piers. No, that's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying, if you were the Raiders, you would have.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Much probably rather hired Jim Harbaugh this offseason than Antonio Piers.
Then you would maybe be going up against you know,
you're going to stack up against Sean Payton and Andy Reid.
I'm saying, if you're the Chicago Bears, wouldn't you rather
have a Kyle Shanahan to go over against.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
That Laflorida Dan Campbell.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
They can't get Kyle Shanahan. They can't get him. They
had an opportunity to get Jim Harbaugh, they didn't. So
speaking on Kyle and the San Francisco forty nine Ers,
it is my opinion that Kyle will be there. He's
not going to leave, he's not looking to leave. Things
(11:13):
are going to be more difficult moving forward, but that's
what they pay you for.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And so I think.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Whatever the Bears decide to do, they have their own
issues they need to clean up. And yes, Caleb Williams
is a bright star and a otherwise cloudy sky over
there in Chicago. But in terms of the forty nine
ers and Kyle Shanahan, him, John Lynch, the core, the
(11:43):
nucleus is there. It starts up top, and the front
office trickles down to the coaches, and the trickles down
to the locker room after that, and all three of
those things. Great owner, good management, great coach. Players are
going to come and go. Contracts will come in go.
What can you do?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Can you? Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Everybody's going to age, right, Everyone's going to at a
certain point. Your great player, your great players will age out.
They have a pretty good quarterback they haven't had to
pay for the last three years. They're going to have
to pay him money. Is he a sixty million dollars
a year quarterback? Probably not. I think there's some room
(12:24):
for negotiation there. But that'll allow you some wiggle room
to do some other things that you need to do
to address some of the things in your team.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
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Speaker 3 (12:44):
You alluded to this earlier in the show.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Back to the days of leather helmets, Back to the
days the guys playing football on their lunch break from
the factory, Because that's the last time we saw guys
going both ways in the NFL consistently.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
We may see it next season, I hope.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
So.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Travis Hunter spoke to the Pivot podcast about the possibility
of that occurring next year.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
When people want to get you into the building and
they're going to ask, what if we only wanted you
to play one position? What would be and I don't
care what position it is. What would be your answer
to that, Travis? We want to draft you, we want
to draft you number one overall, but we don't feel
it's fair to you to make you play both sides
(13:29):
of the football. What would you tell that general manager
called coach Broan.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
That's what I'm say. Call coach fran He'll let.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
You know the answer. They know how I feel. I
want to play both sides, and nothing's gonna change my mind.
You can tell me all day now you can't play
both sides of the ball.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
I'm gonna keep telling you, guess I can.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
That's what I want to do. And you have not
seen me not play both sides of the ball since
you've been watching me, So why not do it now?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
I was thinking about it that Ephraim, because probably at
every level he's been at, from middle school to high school,
from high school to Jackson State, from Jackson State to Colorado.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Now has coached the difference between Jackson and Colorado.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
He wasn't saying that you couldn't do it, but you
know the media at large say you can't do it.
And now from Colorado to the NFL, everyone has told him.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
He's gonna have to pick a side.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Yes, everyone that probably has told him that, except for
Deon Sanders, and that's why he went there.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
He was committed to Florida State, remember, yes, and Florida State.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Ryan Clark asked him later row on, he said Florida
State was not gonna allow him to do that. If now,
I personally don't think it's a great idea to play
one hundred snaps of any football heightst college or professional football.
But if you're the NFL team that drafts this kid
who has been told that every step of the way
(14:49):
you have to pick. Are you really gonna tell him
he's got a pick, You're gonna let him figure out
which one is gonna be it?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Or do you just let him play both sides?
Speaker 5 (14:58):
I think I think the conversation is where do you
see yourself as a primary player? What position is your
primary position? Do you feel you're a better cornerback, then
you are a receiver. And based on that answer, if
(15:18):
he says, look, I'm a shutdown corner, I'm a lockdown corner.
That's where I feel more. That's natural. Right, I'm a
man to man corner. I don't need to be in
the defensive huddle. Put me on their guy. I'll follow him,
that's me, Allah Dion.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Right, Then you say okay, then it's your job to
find places to put him offensively. So if you have
an offensive series where there's a ten twelve play drive
and you allow him to come in in three four
of those plays, right now, he's playing both ways. If
(16:00):
you put together a special package for him, if they
say say something like okay, if you guys go out
there and get a three and out, you get to
play the next offensive series.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Right.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
But if like in game incentive, But what happens is
you know that you're minimizing his exposure to injury. So
if you go out there and beginning the game, you
stop a team, they get the ball first, it's three plays,
you're off the field, get some water, you come out
for the offensive series.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Right, if you go.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Twelve plays offensively, then you're not going to play the
next defensive series. I will say what the difference between
a receiver and a cornerback is. Most cornerbacks don't come
off the field on defense, right. Receivers rotat in and
out right. So if you're primarily a cornerback, then you're
(16:58):
going to play all of the defensive snaps. Receivers don't
play all the offensive snaps exactly. There's a place for
some leeway there. Also, they can make them a nickel cornerback.
See that was my thought.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
If you really want to play both ways, then be
our third corner and our third receiver.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
So when we come out, well, he's too good to
be a third on both. But you know, most teams,
if you could be our two, number one or two
receiver in our third cornerback, or you could be our
number one cornerback or a third.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Or fourth you know, but most guys, most teams are
fundamentally most teams are running like three receiver sets, that
type of thing. I'm thinking like when you're if you
have I just think it like this, I think he's
probably gonna play a corner more More, it's harder to
find in my opinion, it is a good cornerback, a
lot a top of the market corner different it is
the top of the market wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
You can you can duplicate some production, you can put
you can piece production together. I mean, look at Tampa.
It's not like they've fall They haven't fallen off a bridge.
Since Mike Evans and Chris Godwin got hurt, they were
able to piece it together a little bit. Now Mike
Evans is back, right, it's a little lot harder to
do that at the cornerback position. Yeah, that's a specialty position.
It's like left tackle. But I think if you're a
(18:14):
team like the Jaguars or the Patriots, or one of
these teams that is floating around that area that could
draft him, the Panthers, whatever, you're gonna look at your
third receiver and be like, Okay, well, Travis Hunter is
better than this guy. I can't just keep him on
the bench, right, and then he's.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Gonna want to play.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
He went on to say in that interview, he said,
I get bored when I'm sitting on the sidelines.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Now, I think some of that, maybe the.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Word choice is a little lack of better term immature,
but I think there's something to the idea that it
helps him stay engaged in then the entirety of the game,
knowing he can impact both sides of the ball. Impacting
both sides of the ball.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
Yeah, and look, being bored on the sideline's that's different
in the pros because every series you're in and you're out,
you're going over everything. Right, you got the tablet, you're
going over, So you won't just be sitting there looking
into the student section like.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Is she in my algebra class?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Trigonometry? Right, You'll be engaged in what's going on defensive wise,
in the game plan. Right after that, you get some water,
you make adjustments, then you come coach. I'm ready to
go in offensively if the offense is still out there
and you go out there, all right, we're going you know,
three wides, Travis go right. But I don't think any
(19:34):
team will be like, look, you can't do that because
you want to take advantage of your talent. Now, you
don't want to burn him out and hav ingim played
a hundred games, one hundred plays a game, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I think so too.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
And so it's one of those situations where what how
can we maximize and use his abilities in our favor? Right,
not just what he wants, but in our favor.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Yeah, See the way I said it is because you
know so many teams now are running at eleven where
it's just one tight end, one running back, and there's
three receivers out there already. Like, you're not telling me
that Travis, like for example, Atlanta runs out a ton.
You're not telling me that Travis hunters not better than
like Ray Ray McLeod.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Like, I'm like, he's gonna get some of those snaps.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
So I see it being like a where he's not
a rotational wide receiver, but he's not gonna To me,
he shouldn't be your number one offensive target, but out
there more often that red zone package is third down,
that type of situation used in moments and deployed in
moments like that.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And I think if he's done.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Like that, then I think that I don't see the
big problem with that.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
No, I think he's such a tremendous talent. They'll find
the right amount of usage for him. Now if he
get nicked up, if he's nicked up or something like that.
To make a decsion, you get we're not about to
play these games. We're not gonna play these games, right,
We're gonna focus on getting you back healthy, and we're
gonna focus on your primary position. That's why I think
it's important to establish what that what that is offense
(21:01):
or defense.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
I think somebody else, the.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Way that this kid talks, somebody might have to make
that decision for him because he's gonna.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Be I don't know what.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Well, you you know what wisdom is or wasted on
the young or something like that. I think that's the same.
Well my mama used to say, it's.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Got to be the wisdom is, energy is wasted on it, something.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
Is wasted, he's wasted on you, something youth.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Is wasted on them. They just don't either way.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
And then you know, to the point, the kid is
like twenty one years old right now.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
He's making a bunch of money, he's doing something he loves.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
He probably feels a lot better on Sunday after the
game than he will at twenty eight years old.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
After you know, yeah, five.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Years, you can run through walls, man, when you're that young,
but once you get older, once you get five six
years in the league, you don't recover for Wednesday practice anymore,
it's right around Friday and where you're like, man folk,
I feel like I can play. And then in year
ten is like Saturday night, you like, okay, I think
I can get out there and play. Now anything past
(22:07):
ten is they just it's just gonna stack on top
of each other.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
You never truly feel like you're ready to play. Okay,
So how's the feasibility of it work though?
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Because I think that if because okay, if you're a
man a man corner, right, you don't necessarily.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
You should be at all the meetings, right, it just
has a blank of statement.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
But if you're just one of those guys who is
gonna you know, you're gonna take the best receiver on
the team guard him every single snap, then you're just
following him around everywhere he goes. Maybe you can miss
a couple of meetings here and there as everybody else
is figuring out what they're gonna do because you're playing
lock one on one.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
But how like it?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
It's reported now that he doesn't practice much, which makes
a ton of sense because he plays double the amount
of snaps. How much is that gonna be able to
translate into the NFL though where you imagine. I imagine
he's gonna have to practice a little bit more than he.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Is in college, of course, because it's you know, he's
been with Shaduur for a long time. It's been with
that defense for a long like they know each other.
The chemistry is there, so you're going to have to
put the practice reps in to build that chemistry. That's
what's important. And once that happens, if they can keep
the same offensive coordinator together, same quarterback, and you build
(23:19):
that relationship in that chemistry, then you don't need the
wear and tear of practice like that. Defensively, on the
other side of the ball, you're making defensive adjustments, what
type of game plan, what type of defense you're plane,
depending on who you're playing, is it man, is its zone?
Is the combination? There is a little bit more a
nuance on that side based on being an individual player
(23:42):
like a corner. So you know, how do you split
those that time in meetings because you're going to this
install on Wednesday. Sure, you put the defensive game plan in,
you put the offensive game plan in, and I imagine.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
That probably has a little bit of overlap in terms
of scale. At the same time twenty four hours in
the dead.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
Well, you have a team, you come in, you have
a special teams meeting, then you have a team meeting,
and then you break up into offense and defensive meetings.
Then you break up into your position meetings. Then you
go out to practice. Then you come back in in
your position meetings and watch what you did in practice.
So it's one of those situations where you can't be
(24:24):
at two places at one time.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
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Speaker 3 (24:39):
If you had told.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Me, Ephraim, and you're somebody who writes Hollywood stories for
a living, if you had told me six months ago
that the Belichick story would include a chapter coaching at
North Carolina, I'd be like, Ephram Salaam couldn't sell that.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
What are we talking about?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
That guy from Salem couldn't sell that. There's no way,
seventy two year old coach. Oh, let me get back
to school. How creative? You know how I would have
done it?
Speaker 5 (25:10):
How so we all know it's a big hollabaloo about
how young Bill Belichick's new girlfriend is right. So Bill Belichick,
being his age, feels insecure about his girlfriend getting her
(25:30):
master's degree at North Carolina. So not to feel like
he's being overbearing, he decides to take a job there
to semi keep an eye on her, because you know,
(25:51):
he knows her being around co Ed's her age and
things like that, he knows what college is. That's how
I would have wrote it. Right now, you have your boyfriend,
who it could be your grandpa, as the coach at
the school you attend to get your master's degree, and
(26:12):
that dynamic and all the things that ensue, and the
starting quarterback falls in love with her, and now coach
and that quarterback and now do you bench it like
that's as a writer, okay, right, you see how I
put this band on.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
It right there? I see, Well, yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
So while it may not be that, while I am
not banking that that's the only way though. Love triangles
between Bill Belicheck and the North Carolina and all that.
And I'm not sure about the status of his twenty
four year old girlfriend's secondary education.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I don't know if she's got a master's or what.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
But I do know this, this is going to have
a Hollywood ending, this North Carolina story. Look at the
landscape of college football. Just short years ago, Colorado football
was one and eleven off of what you know, winning.
I think were one of the won four games total
in like three years or something crazy like that. Deon
(27:11):
Sanders comes in, he brings his Louis luggage with him.
Year two, they're a game away from the playoffs, right,
a win away from the playoffs, and they're probably gonna
have the Heisman Trophy winner on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah. Indiana football, Indiana football. Right, it's one of the.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Twelve teams playing for a college football national championship right now.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Indiana, if I told you.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
That twenty four months ago, you'd said there's no way.
But with Kurtz Chicknetti coming, and he also he didn't
necessarily advertise it as such, but brought his luggage with
him with the transport portal. I believe the twenty kids
transferred to Indiana eleven start, eleven starters. Yeah, so why
can't Belichick also bring his luggage with him to North Carolina.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
He doesn't have any luggage. He's not bringing players from
another team where he's had ultimate success with. Okay, He's
coming in cold Turkey, so to speak. He's coming in
trying to learn and understand the landscape that's already there.
(28:23):
He's not bringing his own plants and grass and things
for the backyard, the landscaping.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Of it all.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
He's coming in like, huh, they put grass over here.
He's coming in cold, trying to learn how to do
this and build it out the way he wants it.
He doesn't have those players that he knows that he
can trust, and that's that. That was the thing. Dion
(28:54):
knew his son and Travis, both of his sons and
Travis and some of the other guys they brought. He
knew what they had to offer. Indiana coach. He knew
those guys, those battle with them. He knew, right, so
they made the transition for their coaches easy because they can,
in a sense, affect the culture of the locker room.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
You bring your leaders in. When I had played for
Denver and I left and went to Jacksonville, and Gary Kobiak,
who's the offensive coordinator in Denver, left and got the
head coaching job in Houston, he called me and said, hey, man,
I need you to come help me teach this old
line how we do it to build a culture. That's
(29:37):
what coaches do, right. Belichick doesn't have any players to
call and help transform that locker room. He's starting from scratch.
He's using Mac Brown's guys, yep. And so that's where
I think it's a little bit different than Indiana in
(30:00):
Colorado in terms of they brought their luggage. I get that,
So I can go with that.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
But if you've been Belichick and the reporting is, and
that's all we have to really go off of is
just trusting their reporting saying that he has He and
Matt Lombardi are Mike Lombardi and Josh McDaniels and whoever
else was in the Belichickian brain trust have all been
auditing these leagues, auditing the league, seeing what jobs would
be open, and then transitioning to college. So I hear
(30:28):
you that they may not have, you know, the actual
physical players in hand. They don't have Shador and Travis
Hunter or the myriad of guys brought from JMU and
other places, from chrispher signetty. But it feels to me
that there is a inefficiency at the top of college
football along the lines of guys like Burton the receiver
(30:50):
for Cincinnati who transferred from Georgia for Alabama to Georgia
right because they got young kids coming in. Or you
look at Ohio State starting Jeremiah Smith and Ryan william
Ryan Williams at Alabama freshmen coming in. There are juniors
and seniors that are getting pushed out of the door
because of the new you know, the new five star
(31:12):
guy who's coming in, who's now making more money than
them and been promised more than them, because it costs
more to get a recruit in the door these days.
If I'm Belichick and I'm that that brain trust, I see,
I mean, I would have to imagine that. AU see
that if you're evaluating the transfer portal and you're now
getting guys who have played a lot of college Like
(31:36):
Arizona State had a lot of guys transferring a year
ago under Kenny Dillingham, but a lot of those guys
had played a ton of college football. Register they were
experienced already and immediately raised the floor of the roster.
If I'm Belichick, I could tell a kid, you're a
sixth round pick right now. If you come here, I
will can teach you how to be a I can
make you a third round pick or second round pick, and.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
He's the guy who's been doing the picking. That works,
but that takes longer. That's a three year process. People
are saying, well, look at North Carolina schedule this year,
this is a ten to win team. You don't have
the players for it to be a ten year team.
They don't know who you are as a coach and
(32:18):
what your expectations are, and you don't have anybody in
that locker room that knows that, and so you have
to unteach or these kids have to unlearn as the
younger or new players comeing in and have to learn.
That's the difference, and that's why I think I think
(32:39):
this is a if he can hang in there. I
think in the third year, when he's had two full
years of recruiting, bringing in guys, really understanding what's out
there in the portal and establishing what the tar Hill
Way is now based off what he did in New England,
(33:00):
I think, then can he go find his young Tom Brady.
Can he do that sure and and change the trajectory
of the school and the culture of the locker room.
It's going to take a little bit of time, so
I say it will have a Hollywood, ending.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
I have thought this probably starts out with a seven
to five to five and seven year one, okay, then
year two we're looking at nine ten wins competing in
bigger games, right maybe like maybe you upset a Clemson,
maybe you upset of Miami down you know, on that run,
depending on what Miami is now. Sean King just a
(33:43):
minute ago alluded to the fact that they bought a
ten and two roster and was laughing as I said,
who knows that the contracts will be like atter.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
The pop Tart role, right?
Speaker 4 (33:51):
So, but I do think it's something fascinating, and I
think that when you look at the landscape of college
football what it is right now, if you the right
kids from the wrong situations, you could really, seems to me,
really jumpstart a program.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Yeah, but you can't miss and that's the difference. You know,
you're not missing what guys you bring in, you know. Okay,
that's fair, Okay, So you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Your point is, you have you know that you know
that your Door Sanders is one of the best three quarterbacks.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
You know what, you know exact Travis Hunter is the
best player in college Like you know what you have now.
In the case of Belichick, he's just hoping and I
hope goes a long way, but not in sports. I
(34:44):
hope it's a hell of a drug. And so there's
going to be a period of Oh, that's not the
guy I thought it was. Oh, this doesn't work like this,
like we thought this was. We like him, but we
need There's going to be a lot of puzzle pieces.
Not to mention the kid, they're gonna lose to the portal,
(35:07):
new coaches coming in, other guys going out. Some of
those kids on the scholarship sitting in that locker room
are like, Oh, I didn't sign up for this. This
is a real thing. And so how many kids do
you lose and do how do you replace them? How
many starters are you losing. It's a lot of things
(35:28):
that we don't know the outcome yet. We're just so
captivated by this thing, the belicheckness of it all. Going
to college, there's so many nuanced things that have to
happen that I don't even know if he's ready for yet.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
No.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
I mean, and I would hope. So if you sat
off you had it all that time. Yeah, but you
to write a four hundred page manifesto. How you're gonna
go ahead and.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Look at this in two weeks. If he realizes forty
guys from the current team enter the portal, what do
you do? It's like, oh snap, that's a reality. He
may not like. Ego is important here, and one thing
we know coach Belichick has is an ego.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
All right?
Speaker 5 (36:22):
What does that do to your ego? Before you even
really get your hands on these guys, they're ready to
jump out the window. How do you deal with that?
It's a lot, There's a lot. This is not the
pros now, Like all those accolades and Tom and the
championship that has nothing to do with college football.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Those are great stories. You can tell a kid.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
You remind me of Tom Brady, Right, you remind me
of Richard Seymour, you remind me of Willie Guinness.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
You can do all of that all day long. Sure,
but those players are not those players.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Justart of advice to North Carolina players. If Belichick tells
you who reminds you of Mac Jones? Hit the portal?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Go now?
Speaker 4 (37:06):
The one last question, because this is you're right, This
is fascinating from so many different angles, but the know
one I'm thinking now is Belichick, more than probably any
coach in college football, has more experience with dealing with
measuring out the money to players to be able to
you know, because you had a salary cap. Then now
there is an artificial cap. At North Carolina, there's no
(37:29):
I don't think Michael Jordan' is writing blank checks to
the football program to get whoever you want.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
He should.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Phil Knight is for Oregon, they're number one in the country.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
But you see, like I think that those are not
necessarily long term sustainable, like how long it's feeling like
going to be?
Speaker 5 (37:44):
What Phil Knight wants is a championship. Get that they're
about to get it.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
So what I'm asking though, is if once you get
the one, maybe you get two, maybe that money drives up.
Is the ability to manage a salary cap as opposed
to just having carte blanche and spending. The ability to
manage a salary cap factor into his level of success
the next on the college.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
No, because it's not a true salary cap. It's not
a true salary cap. You can bring in a quarterback
and you can pay them. I think what they're up
to eighteen million dollars that they have to use. You
can pay them two million of that and the season
doesn't go the way he likes it, and then he
leaves with his money. So it's not a true salary.
(38:26):
When you cut a player in the in the league,
you're only on the hook for guaranteed money. That's a
lot of money to pay and to see walk out
the door in a year. There is no two year,
ten million dollar deal. If you leave before you got
(38:47):
to get some of his back
Thanks for listening to the best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to check us out live every weekday from
four to seven pm Pacific seven to ten pm Eastern
on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The
Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream
us every day on the iHeartRadio by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple with
Chris Brusha and Rod Parker.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hey listen. Sometimes sometimes the.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Starters they take a day off, and at that moment,
generally the guys come off the bench and play well.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
Sometimes they just leave the field and decide. I don't
want to put.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Exactly unless it was Thursday night. Just yesterday, we.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Saw Devendre Campbell walk off the field midway through the
third quarter as a San Francisco forty nine is We're
in the midst of losing to the Los Angeles Rams,
and I mean Dre Greenlaw came back after tearing his
achilles in the Super Bowl. We all saw that as
he was running onto the field in the second quarter
he was finally back. It was won the one bright
(01:02):
spot this year for the forty nine ers and the
year that has been just dark and cloudy basically since
the start of it. Remember when branded Ayuk wanted to
get paid. Yeah, that's how long it's been troubled in
forty nine er Land. And so you know, Devin Dre
Campbell says after the third quarter when they wanted to
rest dra Greenlaw and d Winters got hurt. You know,
he said, no, Moss, he said, I'm good. I don't
(01:23):
want to go out there if you don't want me
in the first quarter, that you didn't want me in
the third quarter. Now, even I never played professional football,
believe it or not, you didn't.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Shocking, I know, but you did.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
So I want to ask you, as a guy in
the locker room, have you ever seen anything like this?
Speaker 5 (01:40):
And if you did, what was your reaction. No, I've
never seen anything like this. I've seen guys be late.
I've seen guys, you know, not come in focused, but
on Sundays, I've never been a part of a team
where a guy walked off the field and fuse to
(02:00):
go in the game. And I'm glad because it's so
troubling on so many levels. The great thing about a
sport like football, no matter who's that quarterback or running
back or no matter what's going on. It's a team sport, yep.
(02:23):
And whenever there is a moment where you feel like
you're more important than the team, then it's time to
go look for something else to do.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Now.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
I don't know what's going on in this young man's life.
It could come out in two weeks that something horrific
had happened in his felt like, we don't know what
it is. But at first glance, what did Mike Singletary say?
Can't win with him? Can't do it? And that's how
(02:59):
I feel about this situation. You can't be in that
locker room look at those guys, especially the type of
season the forty nine ers are having. You can't look
at those guys in the face and be like that
was my bad man, I was tripping. You can't trip
like that.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Now?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Is it intensified because of the season forty Like if
the forty nine ers were eleven and two right now,
would we be having the same level of conversation about this.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
We'd be digging deeper into I wonder what's going on
in his life. But because it's a ship on fire
man overboard, now it lends to oh, this is another
reason why the forty nine ers aren't having the type
of season that the injuries, this type of discord in
(03:48):
the locker room, this all makes this People are now going, oh, yeah,
the forty nine ers are done and they're in trouble.
Because things start coming out this negative about a team.
The first thing you do is you look at the
record and you'll be like, oh, this is a systematic thing.
(04:10):
Then something's going on within that locker room.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
So my thought initially when I saw him walking off
the field was Oh, he must be hurt. Then, realizing
he had played no snaps prior to that moment, I said, oh,
this is interesting, what's going on here? Now I agree
with you in that we don't know the whole story.
We've yet to hear from mister Campbell himself about why
he decided to remove himself from the sideline, But the
(04:34):
response of his teammates after the game and the directness
of the coach after the game lends me to believe
that there is not some more, something that's more you know,
out there and is off the field right that has
made impacting him and impacting his decision making. But it
does speak to the idea what you were saying just
(04:55):
second ago of how things have been so tumultuous in
the locker room, both off the and on the field
for the forty nine ers all year, starting with the
Brandon Aiyuka and his contract situation at Christian McCaffrey and
his injury and will he.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Come back, Oh, he's actually got to go to Germany.
What's that about? Right?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
And then you have you know, two players had you know,
terrible family incidents happened in which you know, their newborn
child has recently passed away. Like that's something that the
lot that is something that it's hard to get up
and go to regular work, much less when it's hard
when it's somebody else's job to stop you from doing yours.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Yeah, it's a lot going on.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
And so my thought was when I was watching the
end of this game, and I'm saying, and this is
kind of tied on the hills of Bill Belichick. And
we'll talk about him coming up at eight o'clock, you know,
we'll talk about his impact and what he's got going
on in North Carolina.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
But some of the reporting there was in the NFL
didn't want him.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I feel like if Kyle Shanahan was on the market,
the NFL would want him, And it made me wonder
because we were talking about should the forty Downers move
on from Kyle Shanahan with this type of stuff going on, right,
with everything that was laid out, and then all the
success that he has had there, I'll be not winning
a championship, all the success he has had there, all
the players aging is it? Do you think Shanahan would
(06:10):
be interested in sticking around for a rebuild or would
one of these situations like Chicago.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
For example, look more appealing.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Because to me, if I'm collegehann and I'm looking everything,
even my team stinks, now, well that.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Team stinks, but at least they got a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Yeah, but I think just knowing Kyle and I do
I mean Kyle when he was was in college and
then also on a professional level. He was my offensive
coordinator in Houston. Uh so we I know each other.
We know each other. We played Xbox together, we play
(06:46):
Halo together. Was he did he beat you?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
No?
Speaker 5 (06:50):
I'm nice on them stakes. Okay, Anyway, that's another that's
another topic in another show. Uh, Kyle's not going anywhere.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
It's a situation.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
He's perfectly happy in this situation, the control that they have.
Him and John Lynch, they're like a package, right. They
came in this thing together. They both asked for guarantee
five year contracts because they didn't want to get into
a situation where two years things didn't go the way
(07:24):
they expected them to go, the turnaround hadn't been complete.
They didn't want to be forced to leave. They wanted
to make change. They wanted to change the dynamic and
the trajectory of the team, which.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
They have done.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
They have been nothing but successful for the last five years.
So I don't see this as a situation where Kyle
is like he's looking over the fence and saying, hey,
that grass is growing in a little bit greener than mine.
He knows he has the pieces. Obviously, the last time
they had this number of Pro Bowl or All Pro.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Players on.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
IR is twenty twenty. You have to win the war
of attrition to be a good football team, and in
sometimes good football teams up run up against it. And
it's a situation where they've run up against it. And
(08:22):
he knows this year doesn't make what next year is,
just like last year doesn't make what this year is. Sure,
the season didn't been around enough to know he's not
gonna tuck and run when things get hard.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I get that, and I get that.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
But what we do know is gonna happen next year
is we know that George Kettle will be a year
older and while his game doesn't look a step slower,
Deebo Samuel looks about three steps slower.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
And he gonna be a year of tight outfits. Many
don't get enough circulation before the game walking in in
them leather pants with the zippers.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Either that has got too much circulation from the couch
to the frieze, because that's what's making the outfit look tighter.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
But now and then, also, you got the contract to
brock party coming up.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
This forty nine ers organization has a lot of big
decisions that are upcoming.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
Like most organizations, that's just what that's football. When people
start pointing out, well they got to do this and
they gotta do that, that's not any different than any
other organization in football. At some point every time those
tough decisions come up, do you pack your things and
go to a situation where you have more time not
(09:28):
to have to be a coach or make tough decisions. No,
I mean step into it and make the decisions best
for your your team.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
I'm coming this from a guy who was baptized the
Saints fan.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Right, So I watched the best friend.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I watched the best coach that my franchise ever had,
you know, basically retire when the salary cap got unmanageable
and his quarterback left.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And now for the just for the.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Price of a second or the fourth round pick, you
get the greatest coach in New Orleans States franchise history
to go up to Denver for a six year contract.
Like So that's That's kind of where I'm at with it.
I'm thinking, like, could one of these scenarios, could it be?
You know, You're you're Chicago, You're you got Detroit who
looks like they're not going anywhere. With Dan Campbell Matt
Lafloor's installed, you got two of the best coaches in
(10:14):
the NFL, probably in your division already. You don't do
you want to be another Antonio Pierce where you're in
the division with Harball, Andy Reid.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Shanahan.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Okay, what I'm saying, No, I'm saying kle no, No,
he's not an Antonio Piers. No, that's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying, if you were the Raiders, you would have.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Much probably rather hired Jim Harbaugh this offseason than Antonio Piers.
Then you would maybe be going up against you know,
you're going to stack up against Sean Payton and Andy Reid.
I'm saying, if you're the Chicago Bears, wouldn't you rather
have a Kyle Shanahan to go over against.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
That Laflorida Dan Campbell.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
They can't get Kyle Shanahan. They can't get him. They
had an opportunity to get Jim Harbaugh, they didn't. So
speaking on Kyle and the San Francisco forty nine Ers,
it is my opinion that Kyle will be there. He's
not going to leave, he's not looking to leave. Things
(11:13):
are going to be more difficult moving forward, but that's
what they pay you for.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And so I think.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Whatever the Bears decide to do, they have their own
issues they need to clean up. And yes, Caleb Williams
is a bright star and a otherwise cloudy sky over
there in Chicago. But in terms of the forty nine
ers and Kyle Shanahan, him, John Lynch, the core, the
(11:43):
nucleus is there. It starts up top, and the front
office trickles down to the coaches, and the trickles down
to the locker room after that, and all three of
those things. Great owner, good management, great coach. Players are
going to come and go. Contracts will come in go.
What can you do?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Can you? Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Everybody's going to age, right, Everyone's going to at a
certain point. Your great player, your great players will age out.
They have a pretty good quarterback they haven't had to
pay for the last three years. They're going to have
to pay him money. Is he a sixty million dollars
a year quarterback? Probably not. I think there's some room
(12:24):
for negotiation there. But that'll allow you some wiggle room
to do some other things that you need to do
to address some of the things in your team.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Chris Brussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
You alluded to this earlier in the show.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Back to the days of leather helmets, Back to the
days the guys playing football on their lunch break from
the factory, Because that's the last time we saw guys
going both ways in the NFL consistently.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
We may see it next season, I hope.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
So.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Travis Hunter spoke to the Pivot podcast about the possibility
of that occurring next year.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
When people want to get you into the building and
they're going to ask, what if we only wanted you
to play one position? What would be and I don't
care what position it is. What would be your answer
to that, Travis? We want to draft you, we want
to draft you number one overall, but we don't feel
it's fair to you to make you play both sides
(13:29):
of the football. What would you tell that general manager
called coach Broan.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
That's what I'm say. Call coach fran He'll let.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
You know the answer. They know how I feel. I
want to play both sides, and nothing's gonna change my mind.
You can tell me all day now you can't play
both sides of the ball.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
I'm gonna keep telling you, guess I can.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
That's what I want to do. And you have not
seen me not play both sides of the ball since
you've been watching me, So why not do it now?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
I was thinking about it that Ephraim, because probably at
every level he's been at, from middle school to high school,
from high school to Jackson State, from Jackson State to Colorado.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Now has coached the difference between Jackson and Colorado.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
He wasn't saying that you couldn't do it, but you
know the media at large say you can't do it.
And now from Colorado to the NFL, everyone has told him.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
He's gonna have to pick a side.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Yes, everyone that probably has told him that, except for
Deon Sanders, and that's why he went there.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
He was committed to Florida State, remember, yes, and Florida State.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Ryan Clark asked him later row on, he said Florida
State was not gonna allow him to do that. If now,
I personally don't think it's a great idea to play
one hundred snaps of any football heightst college or professional football.
But if you're the NFL team that drafts this kid
who has been told that every step of the way
(14:49):
you have to pick. Are you really gonna tell him
he's got a pick, You're gonna let him figure out
which one is gonna be it?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Or do you just let him play both sides?
Speaker 5 (14:58):
I think I think the conversation is where do you
see yourself as a primary player? What position is your
primary position? Do you feel you're a better cornerback, then
you are a receiver. And based on that answer, if
(15:18):
he says, look, I'm a shutdown corner, I'm a lockdown corner.
That's where I feel more. That's natural. Right, I'm a
man to man corner. I don't need to be in
the defensive huddle. Put me on their guy. I'll follow him,
that's me, Allah Dion.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Right, Then you say okay, then it's your job to
find places to put him offensively. So if you have
an offensive series where there's a ten twelve play drive
and you allow him to come in in three four
of those plays, right now, he's playing both ways. If
(16:00):
you put together a special package for him, if they
say say something like okay, if you guys go out
there and get a three and out, you get to
play the next offensive series.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Right.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
But if like in game incentive, But what happens is
you know that you're minimizing his exposure to injury. So
if you go out there and beginning the game, you
stop a team, they get the ball first, it's three plays,
you're off the field, get some water, you come out
for the offensive series.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Right, if you go.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Twelve plays offensively, then you're not going to play the
next defensive series. I will say what the difference between
a receiver and a cornerback is. Most cornerbacks don't come
off the field on defense, right. Receivers rotat in and
out right. So if you're primarily a cornerback, then you're
(16:58):
going to play all of the defensive snaps. Receivers don't
play all the offensive snaps exactly. There's a place for
some leeway there. Also, they can make them a nickel cornerback.
See that was my thought.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
If you really want to play both ways, then be
our third corner and our third receiver.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
So when we come out, well, he's too good to
be a third on both. But you know, most teams,
if you could be our two, number one or two
receiver in our third cornerback, or you could be our
number one cornerback or a third.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Or fourth you know, but most guys, most teams are
fundamentally most teams are running like three receiver sets, that
type of thing. I'm thinking like when you're if you
have I just think it like this, I think he's
probably gonna play a corner more More, it's harder to
find in my opinion, it is a good cornerback, a
lot a top of the market corner different it is
the top of the market wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
You can you can duplicate some production, you can put
you can piece production together. I mean, look at Tampa.
It's not like they've fall They haven't fallen off a bridge.
Since Mike Evans and Chris Godwin got hurt, they were
able to piece it together a little bit. Now Mike
Evans is back, right, it's a little lot harder to
do that at the cornerback position. Yeah, that's a specialty position.
It's like left tackle. But I think if you're a
(18:14):
team like the Jaguars or the Patriots, or one of
these teams that is floating around that area that could
draft him, the Panthers, whatever, you're gonna look at your
third receiver and be like, Okay, well, Travis Hunter is
better than this guy. I can't just keep him on
the bench, right, and then he's.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Gonna want to play.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
He went on to say in that interview, he said,
I get bored when I'm sitting on the sidelines.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Now, I think some of that, maybe the.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Word choice is a little lack of better term immature,
but I think there's something to the idea that it
helps him stay engaged in then the entirety of the game,
knowing he can impact both sides of the ball. Impacting
both sides of the ball.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
Yeah, and look, being bored on the sideline's that's different
in the pros because every series you're in and you're out,
you're going over everything. Right, you got the tablet, you're
going over, So you won't just be sitting there looking
into the student section like.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Is she in my algebra class?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Trigonometry? Right, You'll be engaged in what's going on defensive wise,
in the game plan. Right after that, you get some water,
you make adjustments, then you come coach. I'm ready to
go in offensively if the offense is still out there
and you go out there, all right, we're going you know,
three wides, Travis go right. But I don't think any
(19:34):
team will be like, look, you can't do that because
you want to take advantage of your talent. Now, you
don't want to burn him out and hav ingim played
a hundred games, one hundred plays a game, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I think so too.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
And so it's one of those situations where what how
can we maximize and use his abilities in our favor? Right,
not just what he wants, but in our favor.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Yeah, See the way I said it is because you
know so many teams now are running at eleven where
it's just one tight end, one running back, and there's
three receivers out there already. Like, you're not telling me
that Travis, like for example, Atlanta runs out a ton.
You're not telling me that Travis hunters not better than
like Ray Ray McLeod.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Like, I'm like, he's gonna get some of those snaps.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
So I see it being like a where he's not
a rotational wide receiver, but he's not gonna To me,
he shouldn't be your number one offensive target, but out
there more often that red zone package is third down,
that type of situation used in moments and deployed in
moments like that.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And I think if he's done.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Like that, then I think that I don't see the
big problem with that.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
No, I think he's such a tremendous talent. They'll find
the right amount of usage for him. Now if he
get nicked up, if he's nicked up or something like that.
To make a decsion, you get we're not about to
play these games. We're not gonna play these games, right,
We're gonna focus on getting you back healthy, and we're
gonna focus on your primary position. That's why I think
it's important to establish what that what that is offense
(21:01):
or defense.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
I think somebody else, the.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Way that this kid talks, somebody might have to make
that decision for him because he's gonna.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Be I don't know what.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Well, you you know what wisdom is or wasted on
the young or something like that. I think that's the same.
Well my mama used to say, it's.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Got to be the wisdom is, energy is wasted on it, something.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
Is wasted, he's wasted on you, something youth.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Is wasted on them. They just don't either way.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
And then you know, to the point, the kid is
like twenty one years old right now.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
He's making a bunch of money, he's doing something he loves.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
He probably feels a lot better on Sunday after the
game than he will at twenty eight years old.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
After you know, yeah, five.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Years, you can run through walls, man, when you're that young,
but once you get older, once you get five six
years in the league, you don't recover for Wednesday practice anymore,
it's right around Friday and where you're like, man folk,
I feel like I can play. And then in year
ten is like Saturday night, you like, okay, I think
I can get out there and play. Now anything past
(22:07):
ten is they just it's just gonna stack on top
of each other.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
You never truly feel like you're ready to play. Okay,
So how's the feasibility of it work though?
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Because I think that if because okay, if you're a
man a man corner, right, you don't necessarily.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
You should be at all the meetings, right, it just
has a blank of statement.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
But if you're just one of those guys who is
gonna you know, you're gonna take the best receiver on
the team guard him every single snap, then you're just
following him around everywhere he goes. Maybe you can miss
a couple of meetings here and there as everybody else
is figuring out what they're gonna do because you're playing
lock one on one.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
But how like it?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
It's reported now that he doesn't practice much, which makes
a ton of sense because he plays double the amount
of snaps. How much is that gonna be able to
translate into the NFL though where you imagine. I imagine
he's gonna have to practice a little bit more than he.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Is in college, of course, because it's you know, he's
been with Shaduur for a long time. It's been with
that defense for a long like they know each other.
The chemistry is there, so you're going to have to
put the practice reps in to build that chemistry. That's
what's important. And once that happens, if they can keep
the same offensive coordinator together, same quarterback, and you build
(23:19):
that relationship in that chemistry, then you don't need the
wear and tear of practice like that. Defensively, on the
other side of the ball, you're making defensive adjustments, what
type of game plan, what type of defense you're plane,
depending on who you're playing, is it man, is its zone?
Is the combination? There is a little bit more a
nuance on that side based on being an individual player
(23:42):
like a corner. So you know, how do you split
those that time in meetings because you're going to this
install on Wednesday. Sure, you put the defensive game plan in,
you put the offensive game plan in, and I imagine.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
That probably has a little bit of overlap in terms
of scale. At the same time twenty four hours in
the dead.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
Well, you have a team, you come in, you have
a special teams meeting, then you have a team meeting,
and then you break up into offense and defensive meetings.
Then you break up into your position meetings. Then you
go out to practice. Then you come back in in
your position meetings and watch what you did in practice.
So it's one of those situations where you can't be
(24:24):
at two places at one time.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
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Speaker 3 (24:39):
If you had told.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Me, Ephraim, and you're somebody who writes Hollywood stories for
a living, if you had told me six months ago
that the Belichick story would include a chapter coaching at
North Carolina, I'd be like, Ephram Salaam couldn't sell that.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
What are we talking about?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
That guy from Salem couldn't sell that. There's no way,
seventy two year old coach. Oh, let me get back
to school. How creative? You know how I would have
done it?
Speaker 5 (25:10):
How so we all know it's a big hollabaloo about
how young Bill Belichick's new girlfriend is right. So Bill Belichick,
being his age, feels insecure about his girlfriend getting her
(25:30):
master's degree at North Carolina. So not to feel like
he's being overbearing, he decides to take a job there
to semi keep an eye on her, because you know,
(25:51):
he knows her being around co Ed's her age and
things like that, he knows what college is. That's how
I would have wrote it. Right now, you have your boyfriend,
who it could be your grandpa, as the coach at
the school you attend to get your master's degree, and
(26:12):
that dynamic and all the things that ensue, and the
starting quarterback falls in love with her, and now coach
and that quarterback and now do you bench it like
that's as a writer, okay, right, you see how I
put this band on.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
It right there? I see, Well, yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
So while it may not be that, while I am
not banking that that's the only way though. Love triangles
between Bill Belicheck and the North Carolina and all that.
And I'm not sure about the status of his twenty
four year old girlfriend's secondary education.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I don't know if she's got a master's or what.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
But I do know this, this is going to have
a Hollywood ending, this North Carolina story. Look at the
landscape of college football. Just short years ago, Colorado football
was one and eleven off of what you know, winning.
I think were one of the won four games total
in like three years or something crazy like that. Deon
(27:11):
Sanders comes in, he brings his Louis luggage with him.
Year two, they're a game away from the playoffs, right,
a win away from the playoffs, and they're probably gonna
have the Heisman Trophy winner on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah. Indiana football, Indiana football. Right, it's one of the.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Twelve teams playing for a college football national championship right now.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Indiana, if I told you.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
That twenty four months ago, you'd said there's no way.
But with Kurtz Chicknetti coming, and he also he didn't
necessarily advertise it as such, but brought his luggage with
him with the transport portal. I believe the twenty kids
transferred to Indiana eleven start, eleven starters. Yeah, so why
can't Belichick also bring his luggage with him to North Carolina.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
He doesn't have any luggage. He's not bringing players from
another team where he's had ultimate success with. Okay, He's
coming in cold Turkey, so to speak. He's coming in
trying to learn and understand the landscape that's already there.
(28:23):
He's not bringing his own plants and grass and things
for the backyard, the landscaping.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Of it all.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
He's coming in like, huh, they put grass over here.
He's coming in cold, trying to learn how to do
this and build it out the way he wants it.
He doesn't have those players that he knows that he
can trust, and that's that. That was the thing. Dion
(28:54):
knew his son and Travis, both of his sons and
Travis and some of the other guys they brought. He
knew what they had to offer. Indiana coach. He knew
those guys, those battle with them. He knew, right, so
they made the transition for their coaches easy because they can,
in a sense, affect the culture of the locker room.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
You bring your leaders in. When I had played for
Denver and I left and went to Jacksonville, and Gary Kobiak,
who's the offensive coordinator in Denver, left and got the
head coaching job in Houston, he called me and said, hey, man,
I need you to come help me teach this old
line how we do it to build a culture. That's
(29:37):
what coaches do, right. Belichick doesn't have any players to
call and help transform that locker room. He's starting from scratch.
He's using Mac Brown's guys, yep. And so that's where
I think it's a little bit different than Indiana in
(30:00):
Colorado in terms of they brought their luggage. I get that,
So I can go with that.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
But if you've been Belichick and the reporting is, and
that's all we have to really go off of is
just trusting their reporting saying that he has He and
Matt Lombardi are Mike Lombardi and Josh McDaniels and whoever
else was in the Belichickian brain trust have all been
auditing these leagues, auditing the league, seeing what jobs would
be open, and then transitioning to college. So I hear
(30:28):
you that they may not have, you know, the actual
physical players in hand. They don't have Shador and Travis
Hunter or the myriad of guys brought from JMU and
other places, from chrispher signetty. But it feels to me
that there is a inefficiency at the top of college
football along the lines of guys like Burton the receiver
(30:50):
for Cincinnati who transferred from Georgia for Alabama to Georgia
right because they got young kids coming in. Or you
look at Ohio State starting Jeremiah Smith and Ryan william
Ryan Williams at Alabama freshmen coming in. There are juniors
and seniors that are getting pushed out of the door
because of the new you know, the new five star
(31:12):
guy who's coming in, who's now making more money than
them and been promised more than them, because it costs
more to get a recruit in the door these days.
If I'm Belichick and I'm that that brain trust, I see,
I mean, I would have to imagine that. AU see
that if you're evaluating the transfer portal and you're now
getting guys who have played a lot of college Like
(31:36):
Arizona State had a lot of guys transferring a year
ago under Kenny Dillingham, but a lot of those guys
had played a ton of college football. Register they were
experienced already and immediately raised the floor of the roster.
If I'm Belichick, I could tell a kid, you're a
sixth round pick right now. If you come here, I
will can teach you how to be a I can
make you a third round pick or second round pick, and.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
He's the guy who's been doing the picking. That works,
but that takes longer. That's a three year process. People
are saying, well, look at North Carolina schedule this year,
this is a ten to win team. You don't have
the players for it to be a ten year team.
They don't know who you are as a coach and
(32:18):
what your expectations are, and you don't have anybody in
that locker room that knows that, and so you have
to unteach or these kids have to unlearn as the
younger or new players comeing in and have to learn.
That's the difference, and that's why I think I think
(32:39):
this is a if he can hang in there. I
think in the third year, when he's had two full
years of recruiting, bringing in guys, really understanding what's out
there in the portal and establishing what the tar Hill
Way is now based off what he did in New England,
(33:00):
I think, then can he go find his young Tom Brady.
Can he do that sure and and change the trajectory
of the school and the culture of the locker room.
It's going to take a little bit of time, so
I say it will have a Hollywood, ending.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
I have thought this probably starts out with a seven
to five to five and seven year one, okay, then
year two we're looking at nine ten wins competing in
bigger games, right maybe like maybe you upset a Clemson,
maybe you upset of Miami down you know, on that run,
depending on what Miami is now. Sean King just a
(33:43):
minute ago alluded to the fact that they bought a
ten and two roster and was laughing as I said,
who knows that the contracts will be like atter.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
The pop Tart role, right?
Speaker 4 (33:51):
So, but I do think it's something fascinating, and I
think that when you look at the landscape of college
football what it is right now, if you the right
kids from the wrong situations, you could really, seems to me,
really jumpstart a program.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Yeah, but you can't miss and that's the difference. You know,
you're not missing what guys you bring in, you know. Okay,
that's fair, Okay, So you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Your point is, you have you know that you know
that your Door Sanders is one of the best three quarterbacks.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
You know what, you know exact Travis Hunter is the
best player in college Like you know what you have now.
In the case of Belichick, he's just hoping and I
hope goes a long way, but not in sports. I
(34:44):
hope it's a hell of a drug. And so there's
going to be a period of Oh, that's not the
guy I thought it was. Oh, this doesn't work like this,
like we thought this was. We like him, but we
need There's going to be a lot of puzzle pieces.
Not to mention the kid, they're gonna lose to the portal,
(35:07):
new coaches coming in, other guys going out. Some of
those kids on the scholarship sitting in that locker room
are like, Oh, I didn't sign up for this. This
is a real thing. And so how many kids do
you lose and do how do you replace them? How
many starters are you losing. It's a lot of things
(35:28):
that we don't know the outcome yet. We're just so
captivated by this thing, the belicheckness of it all. Going
to college, there's so many nuanced things that have to
happen that I don't even know if he's ready for yet.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
No.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
I mean, and I would hope. So if you sat
off you had it all that time. Yeah, but you
to write a four hundred page manifesto. How you're gonna
go ahead and.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Look at this in two weeks. If he realizes forty
guys from the current team enter the portal, what do
you do? It's like, oh snap, that's a reality. He
may not like. Ego is important here, and one thing
we know coach Belichick has is an ego.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
All right?
Speaker 5 (36:22):
What does that do to your ego? Before you even
really get your hands on these guys, they're ready to
jump out the window. How do you deal with that?
It's a lot, There's a lot. This is not the
pros now, Like all those accolades and Tom and the
championship that has nothing to do with college football.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Those are great stories. You can tell a kid.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
You remind me of Tom Brady, Right, you remind me
of Richard Seymour, you remind me of Willie Guinness.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
You can do all of that all day long. Sure,
but those players are not those players.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Justart of advice to North Carolina players. If Belichick tells
you who reminds you of Mac Jones? Hit the portal?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Go now?
Speaker 4 (37:06):
The one last question, because this is you're right, This
is fascinating from so many different angles, but the know
one I'm thinking now is Belichick, more than probably any
coach in college football, has more experience with dealing with
measuring out the money to players to be able to
you know, because you had a salary cap. Then now
there is an artificial cap. At North Carolina, there's no
(37:29):
I don't think Michael Jordan' is writing blank checks to
the football program to get whoever you want.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
He should.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Phil Knight is for Oregon, they're number one in the country.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
But you see, like I think that those are not
necessarily long term sustainable, like how long it's feeling like
going to be?
Speaker 5 (37:44):
What Phil Knight wants is a championship. Get that they're
about to get it.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
So what I'm asking though, is if once you get
the one, maybe you get two, maybe that money drives up.
Is the ability to manage a salary cap as opposed
to just having carte blanche and spending. The ability to
manage a salary cap factor into his level of success
the next on the college.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
No, because it's not a true salary cap. It's not
a true salary cap. You can bring in a quarterback
and you can pay them. I think what they're up
to eighteen million dollars that they have to use. You
can pay them two million of that and the season
doesn't go the way he likes it, and then he
leaves with his money. So it's not a true salary.
(38:26):
When you cut a player in the in the league,
you're only on the hook for guaranteed money. That's a
lot of money to pay and to see walk out
the door in a year. There is no two year,
ten million dollar deal. If you leave before you got
(38:47):
to get some of his back
Hosts And Creators
kelvin washington
Rob Parker
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