Steve Hartman & Bucky Brooks talk NFL Offseason and Aaron Rodgers!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh yeah, leaving the
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(00:22):
The way tire buying should be a Look. Who's back
from Indy sitting here with us right now, the great
Bucky Brooks book. Look at you, man, you're all ready.
We're all ready. You're ready. We're ready. We're ready. We're ready.
We're ready, even though we're disappointed, we're ready. Yes, a
tar Heel to the core and his North Carolina tar
Heels most likely played themselves right out of a invite

(00:44):
to the field of sixty eight after being a preseason
number one. Let's just get this out of the way
right now, Bucky. I mean last year Hubert Davis came
in head coach at North Caroline. A you're falling into
legend and they weren't playing great. They got to the tournament.
I know they not down. Mike Bruins. Last year in
the sweet sixteen. Caleb Love suddenly looked like all world.

(01:06):
They get to the championship game, lose preseason number one,
and here we are, and they're not going to make
the field of sixty eight. We don't know that for sure. Yet,
we don't know that for sure. I don't see them
as first four. Look, I see all the things. You
never know. Our net ranking is forty four. We don't
have any notable wins, but we still Carolina. So maybe,
just maybe they give us a pass to get into

(01:27):
the tournament. Yeah, I mean we did be Virginia, Virginia.
By the way, I should talk being a UCLA guy,
we had one of those years once where almost everybody
said we were not going to make the tournament, maybe
into the first four type of thing. And then the
brackets came out. Not only did we make the tournament,

(01:48):
we got an eleven seed without having to play in
the first four, knocked out the sixth seed in the
first round, the third seed lost to the fourteen seed,
We play the fourteen seed, beat them, and the next
thing you know, we're in the sweet sixteen. See it
could happen. That's the turn. That's the thing. I'm just
hoping that Joe Linardi is not right. I know he's

(02:09):
been bashing my guys. It makes a nice fodder, kind
of that soap opera auditar heels in Are They out?
Click click click click clicks, and then you gotta click
and read all the stories and all that other stuff.
And so what I'm hoping is that we somehow find
a way to get in and then when you get in,
you dance like everybody else. And much like the story
that you said, that's kind of what happened for Carolina
last year, Like they messed around and won a game,

(02:31):
and then they won the second one, and so now
you're into sweet sixteen, and if you win the Sweet sixteen,
you have a chance to go to the four because
you only got to win two games. And so we'll
see they can't shoot though that it's just a flawed
it's just a flawed team. Yeah, But this was a
team that was preseason number one. Yeah, the preseason numb one,
because the story was nice, Like they went to the
championship game, they were up on Kansas by fifteen points.

(02:51):
They lose that it's to meltdown, you think, because everyone
with the exception of Brady Mannock was coming back that
you know, you can be able to roll out the
balls and they're going to do it. But when you
go back and you really look at this team over
the last two years, they've been kind of like an
average team, and you now have an average team. They
can't shoot, they don't really defend hard, yes, and so

(03:13):
everything is a grind for them. And you know, it's
disappointed because I looked down the road eight miles away.
I got Duke and I got John Shire's first year
there in the ACC final. Yeah, that game was coming
up later against Virginia team you guys did beat. By
the way, North Carolina UCLA are two schools have more
Final four appearances than any other schools. I mean, yeah,
that's great. But you know, I like I like I

(03:34):
like when we went I like it better when we
win the title, like like the final fours and stuff.
That's great. I like I like first to win. It's
been a while. It's twenty seventeen or whatever. That's a
long time. There's a long time in Tory Land, and
that one the title. I remember when it was Foreverville
back in the day, because I am old enough to
remember when they won that eighty two title with Dean
Smith and that freshman Michael Jordan knocking it down against Georgetown.

(03:56):
So we have a lot of college basketball today. In fact,
come up this afternoon. We got five conference championship games,
Big twelve Championship, Texas in Kansas, Utah State, San Diego
State in the Mountain West, Xavier, Marquette in the Big East,
Duke virgin and the ACC and then Mike Bruins at
UCLA taken on Arizona in the Pac twelve Championship game

(04:17):
later on tonight. So those of the games coming up
in college basketball course tomorrow will be Selection Sunday when
Bucky he will be on the edge of his seat
scene if his tart, he'll somehow get a gift invite
to the field of sixty eight. Once you're in the field,
anything happened. This happen in a UCLA a couple of
years ago. They were in the first four playing Michigan State,
Michigan States beating them by double digits in the first half.

(04:39):
I'm sitting there cursing, like, why do we even get
this invite? We didn't even belong here. Yeah, next you know,
they come back to win the game. The next thing
you know, they're in the final four. See, that's what happens.
Like that's the beauty of the tournament is the single
elimination de Yeah. And even though we reckonize it as
the national champion, it's not necessarily the best team in
the country. Now, it's the team that rose doing does
what they have to do in this tournament. What you're

(05:00):
hoping for is that everyone is dancing, because then it
becomes a series of matchups, and if you get the
right matchups, you can advance. If you get advanced, you
get to the four before you know, you can get
down the next I believe only six of the last
thirty nine tournaments the team ranked number one in the
country going into the tournament went on to win the championship.
So you're right, it's not about who is the best

(05:22):
team that year. It's the best team in the tournament.
We got number one Houston now taken on Cincinnati the
fifteen and a half in the AAC semi Vanderbilt is
getting blown out. There's a bubble team and they needed
to play well today and right now, and I'm having
their way up thirty to fourteen and Penn State, Penn
State about that. Piss what's going on here? I got

(05:45):
to bring Iowa sam in our resident Big ten oh yes,
of course expert and of course after his Hawkeyes, who
are dismissed by a losing Ohio State team or Wisconsin
and Michigan State. Who are you? Who are you rooting
for here? Indiana favorite obviously against Penn State? Who are
you rooting for here? Um? You know Penn States. Penn

(06:07):
State got to ten and ten in the conference and
they looked like they were, you know, gonna get in.
But this is definitely solidifying their bid for the tournament.
So why why Penn State? Why does the Big ten
ten teams and in in in the Big ten? There's
a massive cluster in the middle of the Big ten
and who and the Big ten is like a I know,

(06:28):
good Beast won championships two thousand, Yeah, like what about
I don't know, this happens every year. It's the league
of hype they have they have. I'm literally looking at bracket.
They have ten teams out of the Big ten. They
had a bunch of tournament hen in ten, eleven and
nine like that? How come the back Tallda? But I
think like a team like Oregon maybe just doesn't have

(06:49):
the overall number of wins. Oh my god, but they're
just beating up on each other. Rights true? All right,
So alright, a team like Clemson out of the ACC
like they should get in. I mean, they don't have
a great the schedule, but they were like fourteen and six,
so they were there. They're three seed. They'll get in.
Although I am not in favor of expanding the tournament.
I'll tell you why, because everybody has a shot at

(07:10):
making the tournament thanks to the conference tournaments. If you
win your conference tournament, you get the automatic bit. You
remember a couple of years ago Georgetown and Patrick Ewing
was still the coach. He got fired after two disaster seasons.
Remember that they came out of nowhere, won the Big
East Tournament, got into the Big Dance. So everyone has
a chance thanks to these conference tournaments. But here's the

(07:32):
thing that always gets to me about these conference tournaments,
and if you have one of those schools that is
deemed a potential favor to get to the Final four,
the idea of having to play three games in three
days or four games of four days. I always thought
this was a great disadvantage until, of course, that Yukon
team with Kemba Walker. Remember that year in the Big

(07:53):
East twenty twenty eleven, they had to play five games
in five nights to win the Big East Tournament five
straight nights and then still had enough gas left to
win six tournament games and win the championship. What else
are they going to be doing? Why they weren't If
they weren't into tonit day, we're playing pickup ball, all right.
I want to go back to her playing days in

(08:14):
North Carolina, right when you're twenty twenty one years old? Yeah, young, young,
you could play all day, play all day. You play football,
double hitters. I mean why not? Why not? You got
to play both ways? You play both ways in high school. No, no, no, no,
not that a lot. All right, So we got a
lot of tournament to talk about, but we'll also talk

(08:35):
about everything around the National Football League, and there are
so many stories going on right now. We're gonna get
in some specific stories coming up here shortly. But first
I want to get your thoughts. Since we last spoke
last week, you were still in Indianapolis. We had mentioned
that there were a couple of teams that did not
send representatives to the NFL Combine this year. But the

(09:00):
atmosphere any different this year than any other year you've
been there, Bucky, Yeah, it absolutely was different. It was
different because the buzz is not there like it had
been in previous years when you have so many teams
not sending their coaches and some' not sending their scouts
to the event. It's different. It's a little lighter, it
doesn't have that feel before It kind of used to
feel like the super Bowl for all scouts. Right, this

(09:22):
is when you get a chance to see your guys
that you've been looking at all falls, see them work out. Finally,
allow your coaches to see the guys that you've been
talking about in meetings, and so the love affair when
it comes to drafting begins in ernest in Indianapolis. It
also serves as the official football convention. It's the only
time that everyone it used to be the on time

(09:44):
where everyone scouts, coaches, general manage everyone. They're in the
same city, so you have an opportunity to catch up
see the latest trends, talk about what's going on league business.
You had the beginning of the free agency period where
you have some of that tampering going on I like
that anymore, and so it's unfortunate. And then they're talking
about maybe moving it out of Indianapolis, which I think

(10:05):
would be a major mistake because INI is the perfect
spot for it. It's in the middle of the country,
easy to get in and out of. You have all
the hospitals and all the stuff that you can do
in terms of walking to the spot. So regards to
the weather, you can take care of it. And so
if they move it, I just worry about not having
all of that. And so it's just a different event, because,

(10:26):
let's be honest, it's become a made for TV event
rather than un event that was always for the scouts
and the teams. All right, Still overpaying for a razor
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(10:46):
all right. Coming up on the other side, we're going
to get into some of the major stories coming out
of the National Football League, starting with the trading of
the number one overall pick by the Chicago Bears, so
the Carolina Panthers. How does this work with both organizations?
We'll tell you. Keep it here. This is Fox Sports Saturday.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in

(11:08):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. Hey, it's Ben, host of the Fifth Hour
with Ben Maller, with mean a lot to have you
join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking, what
in God's name is the Fifth Hour. I'll tell you
it's a spin off of that Ben Maller show, Colt

(11:29):
hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if
you will a world will We chat with captains of
industry in media, sports and more every week Explorer, some
amazing facts about a human nature and more. Let'sten to
the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Steve Harman
and Bucky Brooks with you here on Fox Sports Saturday,

(11:50):
coming you live from the tire Rock dot com studios.
All right, maybe this came a little sooner than we expected,
but the deal is done and the Chicago Bears have
traded the number one overall picking the draft to the
Carolina Panthers. In exchange, they get two ones, two twos,
and Dj Moore. Now, before we get into the specifics

(12:14):
of this trade and which team made out best, here,
I want to ask you about DJ Moore and his
impact on justin fields, because we can go back a
couple of years ago, Bucky, when the Buffalo Bills acquired
Stefan Diggs and all of a sudden, Josh Allen looked
like a much better quarterback. We saw a J. Brown
acquired by the Eagles, and Jalen Hurts looks like a

(12:35):
much better quarterback. Tyree Kill acquired by the Dolphins, and
too a tongue of eye, Looel looks like a much
better quarterback. What kind of impact will Dj Moore have,
if any, on justin fields? So this is the neutrin.
What you would like to do is pair a young
quarterback with a veteran receiver. It is the quickest way
to accelerate their growth. There is something to be said

(12:58):
for the dependability and rely ability of a player who
has been in the league for a long time. And
so you saw Josh Allen and Stefan Diggs. You saw
the impact that Diggs had on Alan. You saw the
Diggs that did the impact that A. J. Brown had
on Jalen Hurts this year to A Tony about lower
and Tyreek Hill, it goes on and on and on.

(13:18):
There is something about being able to trust my number
one receiver is going to be at the spot where
the coach is drawn up. I'm gonna trust it, I'm
gonna let it go and he is going to make
plays and make me the quarterback. Right. This enables Justin
Fields in Chicago to have an opportunity to make a
major jump this year. This is his third year in

(13:39):
the league. He'll be going to his third year in
the league. This is when we need to see what
does that ceiling look like? When now you have DJ Moore,
you still have Chase Claypool, you have Cole Commett who
is in there in the middle of the field. Now
you should have an opportunity to see if Justin Fields
can be the dual threat playmaker that he needs to

(13:59):
be to get this team over to Hume. All right.
I was always a Jalen Hurts fan. I kept asking
the question before this season, kind of ceiling are we
looking at and I got a variety of answers. I've
also always been a Justin Fields fan, and it was
a rough season for him. There were some strides made.
Obviously he had a thousand yards rushing, but it's got

(14:20):
to be more beyond that. So when you look at
the Jalen Hurts situation of Philadelphia, which by the way,
a couple of years ago was an absolute mess during
his rookie year and where the Bears are right now,
could we see Justin Fields make a big leap in
his game in twenty twenty three. Yes, And you can't

(14:43):
see it because before you even think about the skills,
you got to make sure that you examine the character
of the kid when you think about Jalen Hurst. And
one thing that maybe people missed on was this is
a worker bee going all the way back through his
nine play for his dad in high school, goes to Alabama,
has success immediately in Alabama. People don't give him enough
credit for the success that he had initially at Alabama,

(15:06):
loses his job eventually to a tung Bo. It sticks around,
leads him in the SEC Championship game, plays well. It
goes to Oklahoma and puts on a terrific season, and
so throughout his time, he's always improved each and every year.
You saw it throughout his time, like the first couple
of years in Philadelphia, got better and better and better.
So now the challenge is for Justin Fields to go

(15:27):
to work much like Jalen Hurts did. I will say,
when you look at them physically, Jalen Hurts, I mean,
Justin Fields is a more dynamic and explosive athlete and
maybe even playmaker than Jalen Hurts. That said, Jalen Hurts
as an outstanding leader. So Justin Fields has to take
the things that Jalen Hurts did, the lonely work, the

(15:49):
work that no one saw, and come back and be
a better version of the guy that we saw rush
for over a thousand yards. If he does that, yeah,
Chicago will kind of. I won't say they enjoyed the
mediorc rise that the Eagles did, oh, but they'll climb
and they'll climb quickly because remember right now, Jalen Hurst
is considered the number one quarterback in the NFC. There's
an opportunity for them to kind of reshuffle the deck

(16:12):
when it comes to the quarterbacks and Justin Field certainly
has the talent to be able to do that. All right,
start with the Bears right now and what they get
out of this deal. So you have the number one
overall pick. They weren't looking for a quarterback justin fields
as their guy. You get a first and second this year.
You drop from one to nine in this year's draft.
You also get a first round pick next year and
a second round pick in twenty twenty five plus Dj Moore.

(16:35):
By the way, Dj Moore will be twenty million against
their cap. They still have even with that twenty million
more cap space, seventy million plus in cap space remaining.
So let's put it on your GM hat right now
for the Chicago Bears. What's the plan of attack to
go from the worst record in the league back up

(16:55):
the ranks as quickly as possible. Well, a couple of things,
and there are a few different ways that you can
attack it. There's some people who believe that when you're
trying to rebuild your team, let's take one side of
the ball and get that up to being great. So
if you're looking at what they have offensively right now,
you have a quarterback who is rush rover one thousand yards.
You now have put Dj Moore, Chase Claypool, Cole comment

(17:18):
around him. You have to make a decision on what
you want to do with David Montgomery or do you
go draft another running back. The big issue for that
offense is they need to fix the offensive line. Your
quarterback can't take the pounding that he took. People would say, oh,
it's the running, but no, that offensive line was terrible,
which is why he was scrambling for his life. So
you want to invest heavily in that offensive line. There
are some vetterans, maybe Orlando Brown finds his way up

(17:41):
to Chicago, maybe they draft some more guys, but the
offensive line has to be a priority. The other thing
that you have is you have Matt Eberflus who comes
from a defensive background. He wants to play a certain
style of defense, but he hasn't had the personnel to
be able to do so. They need a pass rush
you didn't need to enter your play. They need a
playmaking linebacker, and they need someone in the middle field

(18:04):
that can make plays for him to play the style
of defense that he wants to play. We saw it
in Tampa. That's how I work. When they had Warren steps,
you mean rise Derek Brooks, they had John Lynch and
then Ronde Barbie goes into the Hall of Fame. That's
how the defense is built. They need to do something
like that to get it going. And so when you
assessed the free agent landscape, it's not great for the
offensive personnel. If anything, I think they invest in the

(18:27):
offensive line because you can't get some offensive linement and
free agency, and then it has to be about the defense.
Some draft picks, some free agency, but you want to
before you can get too great, you have to get
the good. Can you get this team to good status?
Which you putting them maybe ten and seven in vying
for a playoff? Berth? All right, so you mentioned an
offensive line. I agree with you as far as the
Bears because you do have a quarterback that, if you

(18:48):
keep him healthy, can do multiple things for your offense.
But you got to keep them on his feet. Let
me ask you about an offensive tack and I'm looking
at some of the updated mock drafts now as they
drop down to number nine Scornsky out of Northwestern? Is
he a guy that would you'll be going too high
in the pick for him? Is that a guy that
you could plug in right now is a rookie and

(19:08):
get some productive play out of him. So they're gonna
have a handful of guys where they're sitting at number nine.
So Peter Scamronsky from Northwestern will be sitting there. He
could be a viable option right there in the city.
Doesn't really have to even change, maybe just flip from
one side of the city to the other, but he's there.
You have Paris Johnson Junior from Ohio State not too
far away, Big ten Country. You have him and an

(19:31):
opportunity to be able to be there. Broderick Jones from
Georgia another big guy, malla brawler type that you can
put in there inside o Cyrus Torrence coming from Florida.
So there are guys that could be available for them
at nine. The big thing in this draft. This draft
is not loaded with what I would call blue chip players,

(19:52):
but there are plenty of goal players, guys that probably
rank fringe first second rounders in most drafts. Steve, like
you have about eighteen to twenty four first round talents
that consisive. We go anywhere we talked to any team
to lay, Yeah, that's the first round pick this year.
I would say they're probably about fifteen now from picks

(20:12):
fifteen to thirty five really good players, and so where
is the value with the value in this class? Pass
rushers plenty of them, tight ends, cornerbacks. So the Bears
have to look at free agency and the draft and
figure out where the stremps and weaknesses. Maybe you go
to the draft to address those areas I talked about

(20:34):
pass rusher, dB that stuff, and maybe use free agency
to address some of those other needs. All right, one
quick question here and then we'll get to what's trending
Will Anderson Junior. You know, we were legibly, certainly a
year ago that Will Anderson Junior was the best football
player in the country. His production wasn't what it was

(20:55):
two years ago. This pass year at Alabama, the thought
was is that the Bears would not go below four
at Indie because they didn't want to lose out on
the opportunity to take Will Anderson Junior. Has Will Anderson
Junior stock dropped because you talk about an influx of
a lot of great edge guys potentially in this draft.

(21:19):
But is he no longer separated from everybody? Is he
now more lumped in with some of the other top
rated edge guys in this draft, you might have that
because that might be the impetus for the move. Like
if he was significantly different than the other guys, well,
now you have to have him because he's an outlier.
When you're at the top of the board, you number
one overall, you're thinking about a guy that is a

(21:41):
Miles Garrett type. He's gonna come in, he's gonna wreck shot,
he's gonna be a dominant player. You feel his dominance
from day one. Maybe when you look at Will Anderson
move around on the turf, maybe you didn't see that
necessarily that athlete that leads you to believe that he
is going to dominate. And because of the performances of
some other guys, maybe, like you know, if we miss

(22:01):
out on him, maybe we're okay with Tyree Wilson, maybe
okay with some of the other guys that could be available,
not only in the first round, but maybe in the
second round. And so because maybe he didn't like blow
the combine away, it created some opportunities for other guys
all right. On the other side, the Carolina Panthers claim
they haven't made up their mind on who the number

(22:22):
one overall pick will be in this draft. We think
that's a lie. We'll tell you who we think will
be the number one overall pick in the NFL Draft,
but first let's find out what is Trenty right now?
Kevin wirets in the house, Kevin, what's going on. It's
the eve of selection Sunday, one of the most exciting
days in sports. Several conference tournaments into either in the
semi finals or finals. Seb have already gone final. We've

(22:43):
even had a couple of teams punched their ticket into
the Big Dance. The first in the m EAC Championship game.
It's Howard edging out Norfolk State sixty five to sixty four.
Fund the scope the no vote Virginia for the first
time since nineteen ninety two. There's a Bison in the dance,

(23:09):
how Warred. It goes to March Madness for the first
time in thirty years. They weren't the first team today, however,
to punch their ticket into the Big Dance. It was
Vermont getting the party started. Killing pen the rebound He's
running into open four seventy two fifty nine. Well will
not foul. Vermont America's champions again for the tenth time

(23:31):
in twenty years Vermont ar dancing. It's an Americas Championship
seventy two fifty nine win for Vermont over at U
Mass Lowell as they claim the American East Championship. As
for some semi final actions today, we had a couple
in the Power Conferences already conclude. Alabama pulls away from
Missouri to win at seventy two sixty one as they

(23:52):
advanced the SEC championship for her fifth rank per Due,
it was a law It win over Ohio State eighty
to sixty six. They advanced too the ten final. In
the Atlantic Ten, it's VCU beating Saint Louis ninety to
seventy six. And in the IVY League, the championship game
has set. Princeton beats Pennsylvania seventy seven, seventy Yale over
Cornell eighty to sixty. We have some games in action

(24:14):
right now for them to be exact. In the American
Athletic Conference Semifinal, the first semifinal of the day, it's
top ranked Houston with a double digit lead over Cincinnati
forty two thirty two, about sixteen minutes to go. In
the second SEC semifinal, this one really how much of
a contest eighteenth ranked Texas A and M absolutely destroying Vanderbilt.
Right now, it's forty nine twenty five. That game has

(24:36):
reached half time in the Big Ten, and we got
looks like an upset brewing. That game has reached the
halfway point number nineteen. Indiana's trailing Penn State. It's thirty
four to twenty six. And in the Atlantic Ten semifinal,
the second one of the day, Dayton with a narrow
three point lead over four I'm thirty six to thirty
three at the halfway point. Back over to you, Steve Kevin. Yeah,
I know you're a big fan of these conference tournaments,

(24:58):
especially I just watched the end of that Howard Norfolk
State game. Howard of miraculous comeback. They were down four
with just seconds to go, hit a three and then
a turnover by Norfolk, and Howard ends up winning that game.
But just seeing the excitement for these kids, I mean,
they get to be in the nca Basketball Tournament, maybe
a very short stay most likely, but it doesn't matter.

(25:20):
You've earned that chance to get to the big Dance.
And I get excited for schools like that. Yeah, it's exciting.
It is exciting for these guys to have an opportunity,
and I think sometimes what happens. So much of what
we talked about when it comes to college sports is
about the blue bloods, the big brands, the teams that
we know in football and basketball that have been around
for a long time, and so we always kind of

(25:41):
look at it through a narrow scope of either you
win and have some championship or as a failure, whereas
they are all these other players in schools that are
just hoping for an opportunity to be on the big stage.
And so their championship is the league championship with the
opportunity to then play in March Madness. And this is
the fun part of the year for me, when you

(26:02):
see these guys and you hear these stories, and you
watch tournament and you're deeply invested in college basketball because look, man,
who knows when the next time these guys will have
an opportunity to play in these major games that have
huge implications in those things. All Right, Kevin, thanks so much.
We're gonna check in with you a little bit later on.
I don't know about you as a North Carolina guy,
but as a UCLA guy making the tournament to me

(26:24):
is a given. I mean, you should obviously make the tournament.
I don't consider it a year where UCLA made the
tournament unless they get to the sweet sixteen. If you
make the sweet sixteen, then I checked that. Then I
checked that year. Okay, you made the tournament that year
because you know, you win a couple of games. Anything
less than that, to me, it's like, no, you didn't.

(26:45):
Really the standard that's the same. Yeah, so sixteen, I'll say, Okay,
you made it. Probably we're probably similar. Very haven't grown
up Atario fan since birth. I won to seventy one,
so I saw all those things. My dad was the
biggest care a lont of fans, So I feel like
we kind of I was reared on watching Dean Smith
in those teams, and so for the longest time for

(27:06):
Carolina it was always finished first a second in the
ACC and then sweet sixteen. And so that is what
the expectation is. And so when you're UCLA, you certainly
should harbor those same kinds of expectations. When you have
John Wooden and the success that he had and what
that's the standard is, and so yeah, the sweet sixteen
is one that's worthy of. I don't know if you

(27:27):
guys put up banners for sweets. No, there are no
banners banners or Sweet sixteen Carolina, I don't think so.
Championships hard Yeah, so those things are that. But for others, yes, yeah,
it's a big deal to get into the tournament. You
can talk about it and all that other stuff. But yeah,
when you've been around teams that have like that high

(27:48):
lofty championship standard, you gotta get out the first weekend.
By the way, I'll tell you school San Diego State,
since I know their school, Well, they have two banners
up for Sweet sixteen appearances because that's as far as
they've ever got. They make the tournament a lot. But
that's okay. So tradition, communition again, where's your standard? You know?
But UCLA it's like Notre Dame. So Notre Dame. Notre

(28:09):
Dame football only gives out rings. Yeah, when they win
a national title. Yeah, that's the way it should be.
That's the only time you get a ring. So all
those other years when they're going to get watches, but
the only time they issue out the ring, the bowl ring,
right is the national title? All right? Well, later on
I want to get more into the expansion of the
college football playoffs with you. But let's get back to

(28:30):
the major story out of the NFL this week, and
that is the Carolina Panthers trading two ones, two twos,
and wide receiver DJ Moore two the Chicago Bears for
the number one overall pick. Panthers when pressed about who
they are selecting, well, by the way, this trade doesn't
become official until March fifteenth because that is the actual
first day of the season, so nothing could really be

(28:52):
discussed beyond that. But when we look at quarterbacks in
this draft, and again, these mock drafts are all over
the board. I mean, to me, it should be Bryce Young,
but I'm seeing CJ. Stroudry Young, Fryce Young or CJ. Stroud.
Oh yeah, the outlier. Okay, let's let's we talked a

(29:13):
little bit about this, Bucky, and I'm gonna go back
over this with you. In my perception of the priorities
in evaluating whether or not a quarterback can emerge from
the college ranks and succeed at the highest level in
the NFL, there are two things I'm looking for beyond

(29:34):
anything else. Number one is just flat out intelligence. Yes,
the ability to decipher information and make the instantaneous decisions
that every quarterback has to make on the field. I
will never forget a conversation I had years ago with

(29:56):
Norm Chow. You remember Norm Chow, longtime offensive coordinator, and
b why you under Lavelle Edwards. And then he went
to USC with Pete Carroll and he inherited Carson Palmer.
And after his first year at Palmer was a five
hundred season, Palmer still had one year left at college.
I remember off air talking to coach Chow about Carson Palmer,

(30:18):
and he said to me, if I could put Tye
Depmer's brain in Carson Palmer's body, I would have the
greatest quarterback who ever lived, because Carson Palmer literally could
make any throw. Any throw. I mean literally any throw
touched deep. He could make any throw. But at that point,
Norm Chow said, here's the problem. I had this guy,

(30:40):
Tye Depmer, superstar in college, Heisman Trophy winner. He just
didn't have the physical tools to play in the NFL.
But you talk about the ability to make decisions on
the field, he could do anything from that. That's why
he stood there with a clippart for fourteen years in
the National Football League when I look at Bryce Young,
when I watch how he can scan the field and

(31:03):
make the right decision ninety five percent of the time,
maybe ninety nine percent of the time. On top of
the fact, which is the second ingredient, he is very
accurate in throwing the football. So if I have a
guy who's got the smarts to read a defense and
make the right decisions and that split second that all
quarterbacks are forced to make decisions, and you have the

(31:27):
ability to throw accurate passes, that to me separates you
from the pack. And that's what I see him Bryce Young. Okay,
I see it did and Bryce Young too. I understand
all those things that you're talking about having been around him,
watched him because he's local kids. Obviously, we've seen him
since high school, started in Cathedral and went to Modern
Day all those other things. Goes to Alabama had success.

(31:50):
He is an outstanding performer. When you watch him in
the end of games when they need it, he delivers
two minute drills, comeback situations. He always has the ability
to come through. So he's great in that regard. However,
the National Football League in the pro game is a
little different. Size does matter. We have never seen anyone

(32:13):
of his size not only go number one overall, we
haven't seen anybody of his statue go in the first round.
Hold on, Kyler Murray want number one overall? He did
a statue like just the frame just because he weighed
in at two or four. They are built completely different, right,
Tyler Murray's built like a Yes, I have like a
little bulldog at little fire plug, a different special So

(32:37):
we just have never seen anybody like that go and
perform and and and come off the board like that. Meanwhile,
c J. Stroud, who also offers all those things that
you say you like, intelligence and accuracy and decision making,
natural arm, talent um, another Soka down here, Rancho Cucamugga,
all that other stuff. So he offers all that, but

(33:00):
he gives it to you in bigger packaging. And so
traditionally you go with the prototype because they take all
this data for years and years and years and years
about what plays in the league. C J. Strout is
the prototype of what traditionally plays in the league for
a long time. And so when you think about Bryce
Young coming in, there is concerns about durability because he

(33:23):
eventually will be touched uff and even though we talked about. Yeah,
but the sec is this is still different, and so
that is the separating fact. The size thing is just
so different because he can be then outlier. He could
be great. But man, if you gamble on an outlier
and it doesn't work out, it blows up in your face.
It's critical, all right. So I'm a fantasy j Stratton.

(33:45):
He had the performance of the postseason in college football
as he shredded that number one ranked Georgie him once,
just absolutely tore him up. Well, these are two guys,
being a high school coach of your own here and Soka.
I mean, you've seen these guys in their development of
their game. Stroud decided to go into Ohio state. Of course,
Bryce Young d committee from USC to go to Alabama.

(34:08):
Let's get into the head of Frank Reich for a second.
So Frank Wrch comes into Carolina. He's a quarterback. He
was a quarterback in college in the NFL. Coach quarterbacks,
been offensive coordinator, been a head coach in this league.
You know, he had to deal with a different quarterbacks
seemingly every year in Indianapolis. Let's get in the head
of Frank Reich as he tries to evaluate the talents

(34:31):
of Bryce Young versus c J. Stroud. What do you
think Frank Reich is looking at and making that decision?
Is it just size? No, it's not just sized. Things
that you talked about intelligence, processing, speed and ability, judgment,
What kind of decisions do they make under pressure leadership?

(34:55):
How do they command to huddle? How does he handle
the pressure responsibilities that come with being the QB one
of a franchise. They'll look at playmaking abilitygue can they
operate within structure? But can they also operate when things
get hairy and it's not going according to play and
can they deal with that? And then it's just this
feel that you get. Does this guy feel presidential? Meaning

(35:20):
like the franchise quarterback when he walks in the room,
you kind of feel that thing? And do the team?
Does the team respond to him? Bryce Young gives you
that he played Alabama, He's a big time player. He's
played in big games. He's been the most dominant player
on the field in some of those games. But solways CJ. Stroud,
And when you look at CJ. Stroud and you look
at the size and that stuff, you have to remember

(35:40):
also don't underestimate this part of it. So Frank Wright,
I don't know if you ever been around big, big
old quarterback. I was around him a lot in San Diego.
He's my quarterback when I was in Buffalo. Kim Josh
McCown is also there. Jim Calwill is there. So you
have a lot of guys that have been in the
league for a long time that have seen that position,

(36:02):
and so it'll be interesting. Right now. I would say
that they're probably going back and forth. I don't think
any decision has been made on which one is the one,
all right, Speaking of decisions, Aaron Rodgers, has he reached
a decision? Well, the Packers apparently have on him. This
is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harman and Buckey Brooks Fox
Sports Saturday. We're coming alive from the ti iraq dot

(36:22):
com studios. So well, a lot of interest obviously about
the Carolina Panthers moving up in the draft to get
the number one overall pick. Which quarterback will they take?
There is a quarterback that everybody's waiting on right now,
and that is Aaron Rodgers, the fourth time MVP from
the Green Bay Packers. Mark Murphy, the CEO of the Packers,

(36:43):
was asked about whether or not he felt that Aaron
Rodgers would be a Packer in twenty twenty three, and
his answer was, well, if things don't work out the
way we want. So it appears right now because I
asked you this last week about the Jets and how
much you the Jets should give up, and you said

(37:04):
I wouldn't give up a number one. I could see
a cluster of twos or threes, but not a number
one for a thirty nine year old quarterback. Meanwhile, Peter
King was reporting that the Packers say we will take
nothing less than two number ones. So it seems to
me that Mark Murphy is making it clear, Hey, Jets,
if you want Aaron Rodgers, you're gonna have to offer

(37:25):
a lot more than you got on the table right now.
I don't think retirements on an option when the guy
is looking at fifty nine million dollars and guaranteed money
in twenty twenty three, so you can eliminate that, plus
the fact he doesn't want to be retired and go
into the same Hall of Fame class as Tom Brady
in play second Field of Brady in Canton, Ohio on
that day. So what do you think this is what

(37:48):
is going to be. I mean, well, the Jets anti
up more than they should in order to acquire Aaron Rodgers,
because it seems that's where the Packers are right now.
The asking price is higher than the Jets are willing
to part with at this point. Eventually he will make
his way to the New York Jets. They just had
to figure that part out. They figure out what they

(38:09):
need in conversation, and it's pretty clear and apparent that
the backers are ready to move on. It was a
lot for them maybe the last few years, all the
stuff that they've had to deal with. And it's one
thing to tolerate all of that stuff when he's playing
at a high level. It is another thing when he's
beginning to regress and come back to the pack And

(38:29):
the fact that they dealt with all of the other
stuff and they finished outside the postseason. Yeah, I think
they're ready to move on, all right. So I'm listening
to TJ and Plex earlier today and they were saying,
if Aaron Rodgers joins the Jets, you would have the Chiefs,
the Bills, the Bengals, and the Jets. In the conversation

(38:54):
to get to the Super Bowl. Would Aaron Rodgers added
to the Jets put them in the conversation with the Chiefs, Bills,
and Bengals. I don't know, No, he doesn't. He couldn't
get the package there. Packs had number one seating back
to back years and didn't go to the super Bowl.
So why do we think that he's going to go
to a team that is not as talented as the

(39:16):
package teams that he have not It'll be a nice story.
But even in that division. I mean, I don't know
if the Jets go to the top of the division
with Josh Allen and those guys, so it'll be a
nice story. We'll be tuning in. But forty years old, yeah,
well forty in December, so he'll be three. Hey. By

(39:36):
the way, quick, noe, were you surprised the Dolphins picked
up the fifth year option on TWA. No, they're all in.
They want to make sure that they make it right.
They want to give two of the confidence to let
him know that he is their quarterback. That's how he
did it. By the way, you know, the guy most
affected by that situation in Miami, plus the Carolina situation.
Options are running out for Lamar Jackson. Yeah, I mean

(39:57):
the Carolina was maybe in the mix, Miami was maybe
in the mix. They are no longer in the mix.
What's going to happen to Lamar Jackson? All Right? We
got much more NFL news to get to on the
other side, also a lot of breaking news out of
the NBA. Are the Lakers for real? Keep a right here.
This is Fox Sports Saturday, rolling along on another big Saturday. Here,

(40:18):
Fox Sports Saturday, and we're broadcasting live from the ti
irac dot Com studios tirac dot com. We're gonna help
get you there in a match selection, fast, free shipping,
free road hazard protection, over ten thousand recommended installers ti
iraq dot com the way tire buying should be. We
got a lot of college basketball action going on today,
and we got five five conference championship games coming up

(40:41):
later on today, Big twelve Championship Texas and Kansas Mountain
West Championship, standing to see Utah State, Big East Final,
Marquette Xavier ACC Championship between Virginian Duke, and then the
Pac twelve Championship Ucla and Arizona. Those games are still
to come today. We'll have four or five more conference
championship games tomorrow and then of course we're going to

(41:03):
find out about the field of sixty eight. And yes,
Bucky Brooks, the Proud tar Heels, saying yes, don't be
surprised if my North Carolina tar Heels sneak into the
field of sixty eight. And if they do, based on
what happened a year ago, you might be able to
sneak out and play a little, uh, a little fun

(41:25):
time here. Yeah. I don't, I don't know. I don't.
I don't know if it'll be a lot of fun time.
I don't know. I'm trying to I'm trying to figure
out what to do. You still have players, right, I mean,
you had enough talent on this team to get a
preseason number one read how many of the players do
you have back from last year? We had for the

(41:47):
for the five starts, the five starters that went to
the championship game, for the five starts, all right, So yeah,
so we'll see how it all plays tomorrow on Selection Sunday. Hey,
staying with basketball because we had a lot of NFL
news we're getting too. It's been an unbelievable week again
for the National Football League NBA. The Lakers won last
night against the Toronto Raptors, and what was interesting about

(42:11):
this game was the fact that A d Anthony Davis
scored eight points and they still won, going away of
to win their third consecutive game. The Lakers, who have
not been at five hundred the entire season, are now
one game below five hundred. City in the numbers nine

(42:32):
slot in the Western Conference. D'Angelo Russell last night, big night,
dominating the fourth quarter, taking things over. So look, the
Lakers still have Lebron James, who, by the way, since
the night he broke the record of Kareem abdul Jabbar,
we've only seen him in three games since. Seems like

(42:52):
he's trying to rest up for the playoffs. Heard up,
bang up a little, I'm gonever, i am won the
We'll sit here and talk until I'm blue in the face.
That Lebron is the greatest player of all time, all time,
there's no player that comes close to his resume. However,
at this point of his career, getting a little rest

(43:15):
is not a bad postseason help him. It's not a
bad thing because, yeah, when you go back and think
about the Bubble Championship, yes, yell well rested, three fresh,
fresh and ready to get or fresh and ripped through
the playoffs, and so it might be a bit of
a blessing in the skies. Yeah, Lebron getting a little

(43:38):
little blow, a little rest going into the postseason. Well,
I put it this way. You know, every sport we
talk about traditional powerhouses. Uh, college football is more interesting
when a Notre Dame or an Alabama or Ohio State
or a USC is in the conversation. Same thing with

(43:59):
college basketball. If UCLA or North Carolina or Duke or
Kansas is in the conversation, Kentucky, it makes for more interesting.
And the Lakers are certainly that The Lakers and Celtics
are by far the two most dominant franchises in the
history of the NBA. The Celtics obviously are very relevant

(44:19):
right now. It could be going back to the NBA
Finals again, and then you got the Lakers, who also have,
by the way, the most famous basketball player on the
planet in Lebron James. I'll put it this way. It
would behoove the NBA to have the Lakers relevant in
this postseason, make a run through a couple of rounds,
keep them in the conversation, so you know, it's you know,

(44:43):
if they get everybody healthy in D'Angelo Russell can play
like that at the point, they could do some damage.
They can do some damage. The new crew they came
in when they I mean basically they made a brand
new team at the deadline, a brand new team. This younger,
more athletic, little more dynamic, more committed to playing defense.

(45:03):
Guys are better position to feel the roles that they've
been given. Yeah, this is a different team, man. You know,
it's funny because I saw like Lebron's tweet where he was, man,
he just loves loves this team. So what did he
think about the previous team, like the team that he
had the first half of the year. Does that mean
he hated those guys or I don't know, this was
happy at all. I mean, but didn't he advocate for

(45:25):
some of those guys to come on board? Ultimately? Is
he responsible for blowing up the team that won that championship?
Remember they won that championship and they decided they needed
to do some major upgrades After that championship, runs got
rid of a lot of guys and the chemistry did
not work. They barely made the playoffs that year. Last

(45:48):
year was a flat out disaster for this team is everything.
But he's extended his deal. He's not going anywhere. By
the way, Speaking of the NBA, what did you think
of Fred van Fleet's tirade bombs and everything else? Talking
about I love how he calls out an official by
name spicy. He was flying thirty thousand dollars. That's pretty tame.

(46:09):
He got his money to work right out there. I mean,
but sometimes we watch these games, man, some of these
calls are terrible, and no one pays money, No one
clicks on the TV to watch the officials put make
their mark. I want to see them get out the way.
Let the guys play call the egregious fouls anything else,

(46:32):
let him play through it. And I just want a
level of consistency when it comes to the way the
game is officiated. Just consistent. If it's a touchfowl on
one end, should be a touchfowl on the other end,
all of those things. And so I understand for evan
Fleet's frustration when he talks about what are we doing
in these calls? And he's been teed up a bunch

(46:55):
of times by the officials that he called out here,
he went further, he said, I thought Ben Taylor was
ff and terrible tonight. I mean, I mean he called
him out by name. Sometimes sometimes you say that, like, look,
we talk about players being terrible when we watched the game, like, oh,
I mean he was awful to night. He's just bad, bad,
bad night. Now here's what Van Fleet said after being

(47:16):
a thirty thousand dollars seems pretty light, don't you. He
goes speaking for a lot of guys. Obviously I was frustrated, emotional,
but there are a lot of people that feel that way.
Hopefully going forward we see some change for the better,
the betterment of the game. It's a little emotional, tough loss.
Things not going our way. Got caught him in the
moment a little bit. You live and learn, you move on.
It came out out, then it came out in real time.

(47:38):
I wouldn't have done it if I felt like I
had another option or outlet. I felt like I've exhausted
my options this season, many different occasions. It's just one
of those things. I am human. Think about officiating across
the board here, Bucky, and this is not just NBA,
this is all sports. The money is so big, and

(47:59):
not only is the money big in terms of salaries
and revenue. But gambling establishments are now fully entrenched in
all these major sports, and they're pouring billions of dollars
into these sports. And so when you have, well, how

(48:19):
many different gambling establishments now are associated with the NFL six,
I believe when you go in bed with gambling establishments,
you better be up on the up and up. Yes,
you bet. You better scrutinize your officiating a lead little
bit closer, because you see in baseball you don't really
need umpires because it's all strike ball, fair foul, safe out.

(48:46):
They're not calling fouls, they're not calling penalties. So what
kind of scrutiny are we looking at. It's a well
paid job. By the way, it's a good deal, very
well paid. I mean, think about then fell traveling. How
many how many part time jobs, which is what NFL
officials get a pension? How many? How many part time

(49:07):
jobs in America offer a pension? Now, if you, if you,
if you talk to the officials and those who run
the officials in the National Football League, there's part time
in name right, but full time in work and obligation
and responsibilities. Yes, And I was recently at the what
East West Fran Game and the HBC Legacy Bowl. George Stewart,

(49:29):
longtime coaches, now helping out doing things with the officials,
and he's told me, these guys are watching film Monday
through Friday, depending on your position, you have a given
night to watch film and be corrected and get feedback
and learned and all these things. And so it's not
just a we show up on a Sunday, strolled out,
put on our zebra stripes and go make calls. There's
a lot that goes behind it. And it's a tough

(49:50):
job because to be fair, when they show the replay
for us, it's always in super slow motion, frame by
frame by frame, whereas officials are having to make these
calls in nanoseconds right away. Is it you're talking about
fair file? Does it block a charge all these other things? Yes?
With the greatest athletes on the planet. Yes, I mean
when you watch these plays, like you say, in slow motion,

(50:13):
put it in real time wherever you're standing and say,
how can you miss that? But the pressure on them
is immense, and so they're going to be held to
a different standard than the officials and referees before them.
All right, coming up on the other side, we got
much more going on in the NFL. How do you
know that a general manager and a head coach are

(50:35):
on the hot seat, they make desperation moves. We'll talk
about such a move by one NFL team. This is
Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks Here, we're
coming alive from the ti Iraqi dot com studios. This
is a Fox Sports Saturday. All right, back and forth

(50:55):
we go. Let's get back to some word around the
National Football League. So the Los Angeles Chargers are in
the news over the last several hours making some huge
moves to restructure contracts to eliminate twenty million dollars being
below the cap threshold or above the cap threshold. And

(51:19):
now they're twenty million in the rear of the cap threshold.
Now when you look at this move, and they restructured
four contracts Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, Mike Williams, and Keenan Allen.
So they restructured these four deals to give themselves some

(51:41):
cap room right now, and they're expected to make another
few moves, released in a couple of players to give
themselves some more cap space. But remember this is a
Chargers team. Led by a general manager, Tom Talsco, who's
been on the job for ten years, and in those
ten years, the Chargers of won zero division championships. He

(52:04):
has hired and fired two coaches. He's on his third coach.
There are a lot of general managers to get a
third shot in hiring a head coach, and if the
track record holds up his previous coaches, Mike McCoy and
Anthony Lynn both had winning seasons in their first two years,

(52:26):
followed by two losing seasons, and technically Brandon Staley has
had two winning seasons. So to avoid a repeat of
what happened with McCoy and Lynn, he has done something
that has put the future of the Chargers in jeopardy
because in restructuring those four contracts, he has now put

(52:49):
this kind of price tag on those four players in
twenty twenty four. We're talking four players who collectively will
have a one hundred and forty million dollar cap hit
in twenty twenty four. And oh, by the way, you
have a franchise quarterback entry in his fourth year that's

(53:12):
looking for a new deal that I would imagine it'll
be around fifty million a year. So the idea of
having to win now. She was on full display. As
far as the Chargers are concerned, Is this a wise
move by the organization to play for today with some

(53:32):
major cap ramifications moving forward, Well, it does make sense
to play for the day because you have to blow
this team up after next year anyway, Keenan Allen and
Khalil Mack, I wouldn't anticipate them being around beyond next season.
That you're gonna take some cap hits. So you have
to take some capits, but you take it all than
one lump, right, take it all in one lump. You
have to pay justin Herbert. He's gonna have to get

(53:54):
a big deal. That deal won't come on the books
right away, but it's coming. And you know what the
think of about it? When you pay the quarterback. Everyone
says you can win when you pay the quarterback, and
it's been proven. But you're paying the quarterback to elevate
his play so he can take on some lesser guys,
meaning that when we paid the quarterback, we will have
a younger crew around him, either on offense or on defense,

(54:15):
and he's going to have to get this team up
and running. I will say Tom to LESCo was with
Bill Polian for a long time. They were all together
with the Colts. They saw how to build this team
when you had a quarterback making money. You have to
remember when you look at those Colts teams, all of
the resources went to the offense, with the exception of

(54:36):
the pass rushers and cornerbacks. Right, that's it, hey, defense,
the defense coordinator, I'm your two pass rushers, and you
get some quarterbacks that's hit. Everything else is devoted to
the offense. Offensive line, we got tackles, we got tight ends,
we have we have wide receivers in a running back.

(54:56):
Everything was about paid Manning and they were saying, we're
gonna be great. You here this term bill strength on strength.
We're gonna be great on offense. So we can keep
adding to make sure that the offense is always at
an A plus level. And then defensively, we just need
to be good being but don't break have a defense
that can play with the lead. All right, I love
do you putting on your GM hat? Bobby Wagner has

(55:21):
been cut loose by the Rams. He had another Pro
Bowl level season. This guy, obviously he's gonna be in
the Hall of Fame. Some days had a Hall of
Fame career and on a really bad Rams team, he
was one of the few bright lights. Is he is
he fit for the Chargers to move across the hallway
and sign on with his game play for a Charger

(55:43):
defense that is badly underperformed over the last two years,
or or would he best be served it's badly underperform
I don't know if you want to bring that in,
because not only do you bring you bring in the
experience you've talked about all to accolades, but you get
a slower player, like now you're already trending upwards when
it comes to age. Khalilmac is an older player. You
know you can put Bobby Wagner in the middle of it,

(56:04):
and so at your marquee spots, you don't necessarily have young,
dynamic talent on defense. Good player I mean good players,
great players, former great players, but they're not young and athletic,
and as the game is going, speed matters, athleticism matters,
all that stuff that you have. I don't know if
they can match up when you have a Bobby Wagoner
in the centerpiece. Bobby Wagner makes more sense going back

(56:24):
to Seattle because the leadership and the swag then know how,
the intil of how to win. They now need that
with that team to get them over Hunt. They need
the secret sauce of what it used to be like.
He could be the connect to bring it back. It
makes a lot of sense. I mean a year ago,
at this time, we thought Seattle was just dumping, you know,
getting ready for maybe a high draft pick. Instead, they

(56:46):
unveiled Gino Smith, who rightly got his contract extension in Seattle.
The one thing they cited about Gino Smith is his
work ethic. Yeah, this guy has waited forever for this opportunity.
He got it, he took advantage of it, and you're
right now, all of a sudden, Seattle situation is entirely
different from when they cut Bobby Wagner loose. Maybe they
get the right deal to bring them back. That makes

(57:08):
a lot of sense. Let me ask you this about
Brandon Staley. After that historic collapse against Jacksonville in the
playoff game, still almost unbelievable that they would lose that
game the way they did. I'm not a big fan
of Brandon Staley, not as a head coach. It's not
a personal thing or it's just this guy has made

(57:30):
decisions in coaching that you look like, what are you doing?
What are you doing? I mean there's a there's a
difference between being aggressive and being stupid. And in the NFL,
when you look at the coaches that have the most
success year in and year out, the any rees of
the world, guys like this, they don't make a lot

(57:51):
of stupid mistakes. No, you know, they play it by
more games are lost. Yeah, you just you understand in
the end, all your looking for as to w how
you get there. Nobody cares no style points in the NFL.
You're just trying to get w's. This guy was touted
as this defensive genius after being the defensive coordinator from
one year with the Rams, they had the number one

(58:12):
ranked defense. Of course, he had Aaron Donald and as
a prime what do you make of Brandon Staley? I mean,
if they put the right pieces together, because this guy
was touted as a defensive coach, and if it wasn't
honestly for Justin Herbert, this guy would already be fired.
I mean, Herbert has saved his ass over the last
couple of years by getting some offense going when the

(58:33):
defense has been awful. Defense hasn't lived up to the reputation,
and he was supposed to come in there and really
have the defense playing at a high level. Of the
offense was expected to hum because of the personnel that
they have. So the offense has lived up to it's
part of the equation. They are playing well justin Herbert
has been everything that we thought he could be and more.

(58:54):
They are playmakers galore. They do all those things offensively
to put points on the board. Defensively, though, they have
not being able to stop the run. And when you
can't stop the run, even though people talk about being
a passing league, when you can't stop the run, you
can't dictate the terms to the offense. And so their
struggles as against the run have really created opportunities for

(59:16):
opposing offenses to attack them and attack him relentlessly. It
also has enabled teams to kind of creep back into
the game. And when you think about the playoff game
and why they actually lost that game, it comes down
to the same things. Run the ball, stop the run.
They could not run the ball, or now they could not.
They did not run the football when they had chances,

(59:37):
and then they couldn't generate enough stops when Jacksonville was going,
they'd let him score four or five times in the
second half, and so that's on Brandon Stately, he has
to do a better job of owning his unit, the defense,
and managing the game, which is clock management, strategy and
all those things all right to lets go. So he's safe.
I mean, I know he has a great relationship with
John Spannels, that be the owners, who's the president of

(01:00:01):
football operations for the Charger's a guy I've known and
I like him personally. But he's not losing his job.
We know that when your father is the owner of
the team and Talesco is his best friend. So you know,
I saw something like he's drafted sixty nine players in
ten years, and fifty of them are still playing in
the league somewhere. So how do you evaluate the resume

(01:00:25):
of a general manager like a guy like Tom Talsco
who has very little to show for ten years as
a GM NFL team. You know, that's the difficult part
of it when you're evaluating how you separate the team
in the buckets. What is a scouting victory, What is
a coaching victory or scouting laws, coaching laws. Everyone would

(01:00:47):
tell you when you look at the Charges roster, very
talented team amongst the top ten talent most talented teams
in the National Football League. There's no denying the talent
that this team possesses. The underachievement is troubling. But typically
when you have a team that is talented and is
recognized as being talented, the fingers point to the coach.
Why hasn't the coach been able to maximize the talent

(01:01:09):
of the players that they have. And when those players
sometimes whether they played or didn't play key roles for you,
but they go elsewhere and play major roles, well, then
everyone begins to look at the coaches side. And so
there's some pressure and some increased scrutiny that is certain
to hit on Brandon Staily and their Charge coaching staff

(01:01:31):
because they fall short next year. Yeah, that thing. We're
ramp up and earners for sure, all right. So we're
paying for a razor in this economy gross the dollar
shape cub. You get a top shelf shave at a
regular shelf price. Dollar shaped cub is available at a
store near you in the men's razor aisle. That's it.
That is the ad. Let's find out what is trending
right now. Kem wired is back. We got a very

(01:01:54):
busy day in college hoops here, kep Yeah, we just
had a game go final. In the first game of
the American Athletic Conference Championship semi final, Top frank Houston
playing like the number one team in the country as
they blow out Cincinnati sixty nine to forty eight. When
do you have a couple of games in action right now?
In the SEC not much of a contest between Texas

(01:02:15):
A and M and vanderbil As. The Aggies are ahead
by fifteen. It's eighty to sixty five. That game's got
less than of four minutes remaining. In the Big Ten semifinal,
an upset is brewing and now Pennce Date pulling away
from Indiana. They're ahead by double digits at sixty six
fifty three, a little over three minutes to go. And
in the Atlantic Ten Championship, Dayton beats or Dayton ahead

(01:02:35):
of for them and they're about to beat them though
less than a minute to go. They're leading by nine
seventy four sixty five games that have gone final today,
we actually had two teams punched their tickets into March madness.
The first Howard University bid for the Scope, but no
Volk for digital for the first time nineteen. There's a

(01:03:01):
pison in the d That was Howard Radio there with
the call. As Howard edging out Norfolk State sixty five
sixty four to make their first NCAA tournament appearance in
thirty years. They weren't the only team to punch their
ticket to the bid dance. Vermont was the first team
to do so today, killing penn the rebound. He's running
into open four seventy two fifty nine, who will not

(01:03:24):
foul Vermont America's champions again for the tenth time in
twenty years. Vermont art dancing. It's an Americus Championship. Vermont
with the seventy two fifty nine win over U Mass
Lowell to punch their ticket into March Madness. That was
Vermont Radio there with the call. A couple of semifinal

(01:03:46):
games in the Ivy League, Princeton beats Pennsylvania seventy seven
to seventy Yale over Cornell eighty to sixty to set
up the Ivy League Championship, Yale against Princeton. In the
American or excuse me, the Atlantic ten Championship, semi final.
The first game VCU blowing out Saint Louis ninety to
seventy eight. And in the SEC it was Alabama pulling
away from Missouri to win. It's seventy two sixty one.

(01:04:07):
The big ten stop per Due beat Ohio State eighty
to sixty six. We got a couple of big ones
coming up later this evening. The biggest game of the
day's probably going to be in the Pac twelve Championship
at ten thirty Eastern. It'll be number eight Arizona, number
two UCLA, a possible top seed in the NCAA tournament
on the line. The Mountain West, it'll be number twenty

(01:04:28):
San Diego State facing Utah State. The Big East, it'll
be Xavier and Marquette number fifteen Xavier, number six Marquete,
a matchup of two ranked teams. And another big matchup
in the Big Twelve. That one coming up in about
half an hour from now, seventh ranked Texas, third ranked
Kansas getting together in at Kansas City, the Big twelve
title on the line. Back to you, Ope Ski All right, Kevin,

(01:04:50):
thank you very much. We'll check in with you a
little bit later on. Once again, we're coming to you
live from the ti Iraq dot Com Studios UK. I
want to mention today the pass scene of Bud Grant,
the hall of fame coach eighteen years of the Minnesota Vikings.
He had an amazing career when you think about it.
Not only did he play in the NFL and then

(01:05:10):
many years in the Canadian Football League, also coached in
both the Canadian Football League in the NFL. He also
played in the NBA. In fact, he was the last
living member of the nineteen fifty Minneapolis Lakers, led by
the great George Miken. He was on that team, so
he was a great all around athlete. He got the

(01:05:31):
Vikings to four Super Bowls. They were not competitive in
any of those super Bowls. When you think about the Vikings,
it's like the frozen tundra back the old Minneapolis you
know stadium there outdoor games, freezing cold. He said purposely
he would practice in the freezing cold to acclimate his players.
And no coach had more guys have long careers, healthy

(01:05:55):
careers than Bud Grant. They played forever, these Vikings, and
they ever seemed to get hurt. And the reason I
mentioned this is that Bud Graham had a philosophy about
coaching that he maintains throughout his coaching career. He said,
coaching is like any other job. Nine to five. Those

(01:06:15):
were his working hours as a head coach in the
NFL for eighteen years. I come to work at nine,
I leave at five. There's something to be said for that.
And the Vikings were very when they lost Super Bowl
four to the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Chiefs with
Hank Strand had all these intricate movement of players and
everything else. By the way, the great Otis Taylor also

(01:06:37):
passed away this week, one of the most dominant receivers
of his day. I believe that guy should be in
the Pro Football Hall of Fame, that's how dominant he was.
But the Vikings were a very straight laced team. They
didn't do anything too fancy. It was really man on man.
But you know, Bucky, I know it was a different time. Well,
it's not like we're talking about the nineteen twenties. He

(01:06:58):
coached into the nineteen eighties. Are some of these coaches
that we hear about working twenty four hours a day,
working twenty hour days every day, trying to figure out
what's the best way of going about winning a game
on a day by day basis? Is it too much?
Could you? Could you cut the hours and actually less

(01:07:20):
could be more for coaches around the National Football League. Allah,
but Grant, Yes, the greatest coaches figured it out. The
greatest coaches rely on a couple of things simplicity and
execution and so all of the other stuff that we
like to romanticize, the grinding, the I'm here twenty four hours,

(01:07:42):
I'm working to get an advantage, and all that is
about working smarter, not harder, and Bud Grant, much like
Chuck Noll, Tony Dungee and there are a ton of others,
they didn't put all that other stuff in in terms of,
like all of those extra hours or whatever, do you work,
make sure you get it done, and when it's done, go,

(01:08:02):
because what happens is you need to be at your
best on game day. And if you're logging all these
extras because you hear about coaches sleeping in the office
and those things, if you're logging all of those extra
hours when you need to call it up on Sunday,
you're tired, you don't have the capacity to then think
clearly to act on your feek to react to the

(01:08:23):
things that take place because you're fatigued, and so everyone
can benefit from a little bit of a less is
more philosophy and approach. Hey, we're gonna go We're gonna
go hard during this time, but then let it up.
I played for more of Levy who was in the
Hall of Fame, the Buffalo Bills, like Bud Grant when
the four Super Bowls came up short in every one

(01:08:43):
of them. When I joined the Buffalo Bills, they were
coming off the end of their fourth Super Bowl appearance.
I have never played for a team that practice shorter
and without pads then the Buffalo Bills, I want to
say my rookie year. They may have practiced seventy five
minutes our fifteen minutes. Yes. Well, However, like doing training

(01:09:07):
camp like people have two of days, they may have
had two seventy five minute practices in out boom gone
two of days for two days, third day, have that
morning practice, night off, no curfew. Hey, but it worked
for them. Offense was very simple, surprisingly, but executed at
a high level. Had a lot of success. They just

(01:09:29):
didn't win the big game, so no one gives them
to credit, much like people don't get but grant credit
for his dominance. No, and and he deserved a lot
more credit than he got. He lost the better teams
than all four of those Super Bowls. But you know,
I always I heard a great story back in the
day of Vince Lombardi was a dear friend of John
McKay when McKay was at USC and Lombardi was with

(01:09:51):
the Packers, and they used to challenge each other of
who had fewer plays in the playbook. So Lombardi was here, well,
I we have like eight plays. Yeah, and McKay said, yeah, well,
guess what, we have seven plays. But when you think
about the Lombardi sweep, the Packers sweep, or the student
Body left student body right, Yeah, the thing about the

(01:10:12):
Lombardi sweep was is that it was so well designed
and so well executed even if you knew it was coming. Yes,
they executed it so well that it still made it
tough to stop. It was the same thing back in
the day with tailbacks at USC. Student body left, student
body right, dominant offensive lineman, great running backs obviously. Okay,

(01:10:36):
so that's back then. Can that still work now? We're
less is more in terms of a playbook, because we
I remember years ago, I went up to Raider training camp.
Remember who was it? Walters was the quarterback? What was
that guy from Arizona stage? And he had he showed

(01:10:56):
us the playbook it was it was I'm telling it.
I'm not kidding. It was like two or three telephone
books stacked on top of each other. Yeah, And I'm
thinking to myself, forget just knowing these plays, how would
you get enough practice time to actually execute these plays
so that they work. It just seems when you go
back to I go the old Stone Age day, why

(01:11:19):
you can't do that? What they wear leather helmets back
in the day. But it would just seem to me
obvious that if you had certain plays that you just
everybody on the field knows this play backwards and forth,
we practice it over over over over again and it works,
that that could be good enough. Or my way off
base here in NFL not way off base. We've talked

(01:11:44):
about it. So when I started coaching high school ball,
the first thing you do is you go and you
study all the great coaches, right, and so you listed
off vincelan board. You talked about John McKay, Don Shula,
Chuck Noll, the guys who are legendary in this game,
and all I'm saying same thing, simplicity and execution. Part
of the reason why you want to be simple is
because you want everyone to know exactly what you're doing.

(01:12:06):
You also want to be simple when it comes to
a small menu because you want to rep it so much,
not that they know it, but that they can't mess
it up. And so when you think about those old
black and white clips of Vince Lombardi talking about we
have the seal here here, We're gonna run it over
and over, but think about how long and how many
reps they did of the Packers sweep. Now, the key

(01:12:26):
to simplicity is when you're simple, you now know exactly
what you're going to face, and so you spend all
of your time saying, hey, the defense is only gonna
play this many ways, because the more things you do,
the more variables that you bring into the game, Whereas
if you keep it small, you know exactly what you're
gonna play, and then you work on how you defeat
the things that you say. Let's see, Jim Beheim just retired.

(01:12:47):
Jim Beyond plays the two three zone. Now at the
end of the career, everyone hates it, but he one
of the most winning this coaches in basketball playing gay
two three zone because he controlled the variables. It's about execution,
and the hard thing for coaches is we always feel
like we have to outschem the opponent. Hey, we gotta

(01:13:08):
outcoach the opponent, gotta have this, and then we kind
of romanticized, like, look at this great scheme on TV
and all this other stuff, when really it's about can
you execute it? And so Vince Lombardi said, there is
no such thing as out coaching the opponent. Football comes
down to blocking and tackling. The team that blocks the best,
the team that tackles the best, those are the teams
that win. And so that's what it is. So yes,

(01:13:30):
you can do it. Because when you think about Chip
Kelly and what Chip Kelly did the first iteration when
he was at Oregon, then the success he had early
in Philadelphia, they didn't do a much simplicity. John woodn't
have the same philosophy and basketball. He never really prepped
for an opponent each game, was prepping to have his
team play as near perfect as they possibly could. Practice

(01:13:55):
the basics, do the things I tell you to do,
and we'll win scoreboard. To take care of yourself, and
there are a lot of coaches that believe in that
part of Hey, it's not necessarily it's not about what
they do, it's about what we do. If we play
the way that we're supposed to play, we're gonna be fine.
And the beauty and being simple, you kind of know
what the other team is going. It's only a handful
of things that they can do. So you take all

(01:14:17):
of that, all this stuff out of it, and so
that's the key to it all. Right back to the NFL.
We've talked earlier about the moves that Carolina may make
now that they have the number one pick in the
NFL Draft. Aaron Rodgers, Well, both the Jets and Packers
apparently sitting around waiting for him to make a final decision.
Where is Lamar Jackson going? Is he gonna stay with

(01:14:38):
the Ravens or is there a possibility of another team
picking him up. This is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harbin
and Bucky Brooks. This is Fox Sports Saturday. We are
alive from the Tirak dot Com studios. We mentioned coming
up here at the top of the hour, we got
the Big twelve championship game coming out between Kansas and Texas. Kansas,

(01:15:01):
according to many of the bracketologies, despite six losses this year,
Kansas is the number one overall seed. And I mean
they have had some ugly losses. Remember they had that
home loss to TCU where they lost twenty three umped

(01:15:24):
Iowa Sam. Remind me again, didn't the Cyclones blowout Kansas
and basketball this year? Iowa State at a fifteen point
lost to Iowa State earlier this year. Texas beat him
by sixteen just recently. So it's a wide open tournament
this year. There's certainly no clear cut favorite going into

(01:15:45):
the NSA Basketball Tournament Tomorrow, of course, being selection Sunday.
I want to get back to Lamar Jackson. First of all,
do we have clarification which franchise tag he actually got
by the Baltimore Ravens. Yes, he's going to be asked
to play on the non exclusive tag. So the non
exclusive tag allows him to negotiate with other teams. If

(01:16:08):
he signs an offersheet with the other team, the Baltimore
Ravens have the opportunity to match the offer. If they
don't match the offer, then they have they'll get two
first round picks as compensation, all right, So it's a
bit of a risk because if they had done the
exclusive tag would be for more money. Now, depending on

(01:16:31):
what offers he might get, it would be less money
for the Ravens to pay out to Lamar Jackson in
twenty twenty three. Possibly. But I'm trying to figure out
which teams are left in the running for Lamar Jackson.
We mentioned Miami has picked up the fifth year option
on TWA and obviously Carolina is out of the mix
now they traded up to get a quarterback at number

(01:16:51):
one overall, So who else is in the running for
Lamar Jackson? They'll be willing to part with two number
ones and a lot of money to get them. Well,
I mean, it's only handful of teams because with the
Miami Dolphins given to a talk about little the fifth
year option, it takes them out the mix because that
would have been an intriguing situation playing in his hometown.

(01:17:14):
Put him alongside that track team that they have on
the perimeter, Jalen Waddle, Tyrek Hill, Raheem Mostertum. And so
now what you're looking at is the Atlanta Falcons participally
being in the mix, even though they may deny it.
They were into Deshaun Watson sweepstakes, so maybe there there
is that. But then I have a team for you
have a team that's interesting, that is rarely talked about,

(01:17:36):
and there may be some connections there. So the team
that you used to work for a long time ago,
mister Davis, really the Raiders because when you think about
the raidism, but they have the number one pick because
you have to have the number one pick the seven
year okay, that seventh or overall pick, and the next
year's pick. All right, yeah, because you have to have

(01:17:57):
the picks in both twenty twenty three and twenty four,
all right, And so I mean there used to be
a time where all great players, all former first round picks,
we kind of make their way through the Raiders. And
so you just think about the Raiders and the money
that they now certainly have the ability to pay because
since they moved to Vegas, it's just a cash cow.
All right. Let me ask you this. Let's talk about

(01:18:17):
a potential marriage there of Josh McDaniels and Lamar Jackson.
Remember when Lamar Jackson, when he was of the Ravens,
just lit up New England. Remember that breakout here for Lamar,
and they just poured it on, and it seemed like
from that day on, Belichick became enamored with the idea
that we need that kind of quarterback. Yes, that's the

(01:18:41):
kind of quarterback we need now, not that Tom Brady
has been. We need this guy, that kind of guy,
Lamar Jackson. Yes, is Josh McDaniels the right coach to
max out the abilities of Lamar Jackson? Well, here's what
I will say about Josh McDaniels. Do you remember who

(01:19:01):
Josh mcdanus drafted in the first round. That would be
one Tim Tebow. Yes, that was his first pig, That
is who he hand picked. Yes, he did his franchise quarterback.
That's right. And so maybe, maybe, just maybe he is
okay with that kind of style quarterback, Lucy, it'd be interesting,

(01:19:21):
all right. So the Raiders are in the mix. Raiders
are in the mix. Um. I think the Ravens would
be better served if they keep him. By the way,
there are still a lot of teams looking for quarterbacks
right now around the National Football League. We got much
more March madness coming up. More NFL news. This is
Fox Sports Saturday, A day away from finding out which

(01:19:42):
sixty eight schools will end up in March Madness. This
is Fox Sports Saturday. We're broadcasting live from the ti
irac dot com studios. Ti irac dot com. We're gonna
help get you there and unmatched election, fast free shipping,
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ti iraq dot com The way tire buying should be.

(01:20:04):
I was talking to Bucky here during the break about
the evolution of March Madness, and it has grown over
the years. The last time that the Final Four was
held in an NBA arena was the nineteen ninety six
Final Four in the Medal Lands home of the Nets.

(01:20:27):
By the way, Jim Beheim who announced this so called retirement,
he didn't retire on his own. He was retired after
forty seven years at Syracuse. They end up Blues in
the championship gap game that day to Rick Patino and
Kentucky UMass was there. Calipari was there with his UMass
team and Marcus Camby. That's the last time who was

(01:20:49):
in an arena. I was there in nineteen eighty. I
really date myself when my UCLA Bruins got to the
championship game against Louisville Danny crom coors former UCLA assistant
under John Wood and getting his first championship led by
the great Darryl Griffith. But it is remarkable to me.
Have you been doing any of these final fours, Bucky,
that are now in full blown stadiums. I have not

(01:21:12):
had an opportunity to go there. I think it's weird though,
when I see games in those big arenas, like games
and big old football arenas and Jerry World and all
the other stuff, it just seems like it's so big,
so vast. Two thousand and nine, I'm at Ford Field
and it was the first time that they actually opened
up the entire stadium that was here that you're tar

(01:21:36):
Heels speak. Michigan State from the National Championship. Oh yeah,
dominated that game and saw magic there. Of course he
was rooting on as Spartans. Unfortunately they lost that day
for him. But I was thinking as life sitting because
I was sitting in the floor area looking up like
forget binoculars, Like you need a telescope to see the

(01:21:58):
action from some whose seats. It's crazy. But it does
talk about the incredible popularity of the nca Basketball Tournament
and why it stands out amongst all the other events,
whether it's Super Bowl, World Series, you name it. There's
something so unique about March Madness that it doesn't matter

(01:22:21):
if you know any of the players, you know the schools,
you may know some of the coaches, but it doesn't matter.
The event is actually bigger than any of the pieces
of the event. And I don't know if there's any
other sporting event that rivals March Madness in that respect. No,
I wonder about that. Like when you think about basketball,

(01:22:43):
March Madness, the excitement that we all have when it
comes to watching this. I mean even the casual, the
most casual fan who hasn't watched any college basketball has
to fill out a bracket because it's so into it.
And there's something about tournament play that allows us to
get excited about whoever the champion is. It doesn't matter.
And so that's why you've heard Adam Silver talk about

(01:23:06):
maybe a mid season tournament. You see it all the
time in soccer Premier League. They have these mid end
season tournaments and all these things, playing for Cups and
all this other stuff because people like championships, they like plaques,
and trophies and all this stuff. But this one is
the one that everyone gets excited about because you know
what it is. They coined it phrase March madness. It
dominates our TV screens in March, and you never really

(01:23:29):
know who is going to win it, which makes it
a fascinating watch. Seriously, if I were a business, the
first full days of the tournament, those that Thursday and Friday,
when you have sixteen games each day. Oh, you're trying
to keep you trying to get it. That should be
national holiday Nation. Well, nobody's nobody's working, everyone's staring at
their brackets. National Holiday. This is what I would do

(01:23:51):
on this. Follow me on this one hight for this.
All right, So, first of all, those two days are
days off because no one's working anyway, everyone's got a
bracket in their hands. At least for those first couple
of days. You're alive in those brackets. That here's the
added bonus. Let's say that you still have twelve of
your sweet sixteen teams alive the next week, Boom, two

(01:24:14):
more days off for you. Two more days if you have,
but you have to have at least twelve of the
sixteen teams alive in your brackets, because you know, most people,
after that first week, it's like game over done. I'm done,
my brackets have been broken. But if you're a good

(01:24:34):
enough man, get a little rewarded out there. March Madness
is tough to beat. Is a good time, by the way,
speaking of March Madness, because we've been talking about the
expansion of the college football playoff finally to twelve schools,
which will happen in a couple of years, I don't understand.
If you're gonna have twelve, why not sixteen? Right? I

(01:24:54):
mean again, have four schools are gonna have a buy?
Come on, I just go to sixteen. The way they
do it one Double A, Division two, Division three, they
all have sixteen two. Do you think it's going to
have the same impact with the expanded tournament that we
see in March Madness? Will the expanded first legitimate playoff
system for college football have the same kind of impact

(01:25:19):
when you expand to twelve teams and you think about
the impact, I believe we will see an upset or two.
Sure that to keep us interested, we see it doing
a regular season isn't inevitable? Is going to happen in
the postseason. I believe the expanded playoff field should make
it difficult for the champion, meaning I want to see

(01:25:44):
a champion go through a long route. We saw it
last year TCU knocks off Michigan. Not many people had
that and in their on their being go card, Georgia,
which had dominated the entire season, goes down to the
wire to deal with Ohio State. Even though you can't
replicate those things, some of those things may happen when
you have a field of twelve or even sixteen because

(01:26:06):
you have to play more games, and all it takes
is the ankle sprain, an injury, a bad day, an
unfortunate bounce of the ball, a call that doesn't go
your way to change. To me, that's the exciting part.
And we've seen it those fourteen like it's fine, but
it had been the same four teams. It's like six
teams playing for four spots every year. Just want to

(01:26:27):
see more people now. I don't care if the scores
a lopside it. You have to earn the right to
win title. I just want to make people go on
a road. I remember when Boise stayed upset Oklahoma and
that Fiesta Bowl. I was actually at that game, Bucky,
because we had a front of ours whose son played
for Boise State. Then he Peretta, and we told him,
if you guys get to the Fiesta Bowl, we're gonna

(01:26:49):
drive down to Arizona, We're gonna head to Glendale. We're
gonna see you in a game. We had no idea
we were walking into one of the most memorable games
in college football history. Now, that Boise State team ended
up undefeated that year after beating in Oklahoma in that
Fiesta Bowl. And people say, well, here's the problem. Let's
say that was a playoff game. Let's say that was

(01:27:09):
a quarterfinal game, and then the next week boys plays
a powerhouse team it gets blown out. Does that lesson
the impact of what they accomplish by beating Oklahoma on
that day? Because you know, here's the thing. One of
the reasons these college football coaches have been so dedicated

(01:27:32):
to the tradition of bowl games is that there are
thirty five coaches to walk off where they or even forty.
I don't know any bowl games are these days literally
in their season, what's holding of some trophy? Yeah, And
I've also heard basketball coaches over the years because the
NABC National Association of Basketball Coaches meet at the Final
Four every year, complaining about the fact that, you know,

(01:27:55):
we won our conference, we won our conference tournament. I
remember Calipari R one time interviewing after his first year
at Kentucky. They went from not making the tournament to
the Elite eight when they had Boogee Cousins and John
Wall they got beat by West Virginia, and Caliperry said
that a couple of weeks after that, he was approached
by someone very nice man just wanted to say hi,

(01:28:17):
and he said, we'll make up for this year next year, coach,
And he's looking at this guy, like, make up for
this year. We got to the Elite Ay, you weren't
even in the tournament a year ago. But this is
a Kentucky fan. Yeah, but you didn't win the championship.
And so at the end, only one guy gets that championship.
So there is their arguments both ways. I understand from

(01:28:39):
a coach standpoint about having just a single champion as
opposed to all these years in college football, you know,
thirty thirty five coaches holding up trophies at the end
of their season. For me, I believe when you make
the playoff and expand a fuel like twelve teams or
whatever it is then now become like the final four, right.

(01:29:01):
I think it gives you an opportunity to recognize those
teams because how many teams are really going to win
the national title outside of the big ones that we
normally see. But now you can hang a college football
playoff banner and you're saying if you're one of the
fortunate teams to get in. I believe it makes it
a way where coaches now can be rewarded for good jobs,
bowl games and stuff. I don't know if people are

(01:29:23):
really celebrating those. I don't imagine putting up a Holiday
Bowl thing in the banner, the Rose Bowl like for so.
So for me, it creates maybe an elite where you
recognize those teams as being an elite, even if you
don't make it all the way. There has to be

(01:29:44):
something because if not, like it's becoming stale. It's just
kind of me. Yeah, you know, like this year, I
don't know how many people watch. It was New Year's Eve?
It was yeah, okay that then the championship game was
an afterthought because it was a blog. Yeah, and then
they are been is we go back to that historic
Rose Bowl matchup between Texas and USC and if it

(01:30:05):
was a playoff situation, potentially one of those teams could
have been knocked off. But that is why March Maddis
is so great. At the end of it all, no
one remembers who was the number one ranked team going
into the tournament. What do we remember a team that
ends up winning the national championship? And I followed this
tournament forever and it's always amazing the odyssey of the

(01:30:26):
team that ends up winning it at all. Some of
them were you expected to be in the mix. Others
come out of left field. I'm still perplexed. How was
that Brad Stevens led Butler to the championship game two
consecutive years. Butler, how did Brad Stevens pull that off?

(01:30:47):
I mean, it's one thing to have one miracle run,
but to do it back to back years older team,
he was one of the ones with the early blueprint
know how to advance through to tournament the older teams.
I feel like this, and I felt like this for
a long time. If you're going to win March Madness,
there are two ways to do it. It's the young

(01:31:07):
team that's load to it pros, right, because you normally
if they're pros, they're one year, maybe two years, then
they're out right. Or it's the older team that is
loaded with bees b pluses players that may not be
fringe pros but their program guys. Are you talking about
Honey Hakes and Tiger Campbell four year starters at use

(01:31:30):
c LA along with a David Singleton who's playing is
fifth full year at use c LA. Experience taking advantage
of the young guys does help doing that other stuff
is there there appears to be like that's the lane,
and coaches have to make a decision what lane are
we gonna live in? Are we gonna do it? What
the one that does and have to rebuild the program

(01:31:51):
every year, or maybe get some program guys and now
it's easy with the porter, get some grad transfers and
older experienced team that plays old school beat him up basketball.
That's been the successful recipe for a lot of these
teams that we're seeing that are ranked high. Yeah, member
coach k early in his career when he had the
Johnny Dawkins and the Danny Ferries and the Christian Lightner's

(01:32:14):
and the Bobby hurdles and the Grand Hills. You know
what all those guys had in common. They played four
full years at Duke YEA. None of them opted out.
You know. The first guy he had opted out was
Elton brand He was okay with that, But then when
William Avery decided to do it the same year, and then,
and then, and then a freshman who had not started

(01:32:36):
a game that year, or maybe only a couple of games,
but was projected to me the star of the future,
Corey mcgetty, and he opted out, and Coach K goes,
where the hell are you going? Where? It's a whole
new world coach? And guess what. To Coach K's credit,
he was able to win with one of those type
of one and done teams later on in his coaching career.

(01:32:57):
All right, we'll continue on. We got more NFL news
to get back. He's been a very busy week. So
what's going to happen at number one? Now that Carolina
has that pick? How does that affect the decision of
the teams behind them in the draft? Could there be
some more moves? This is Fox Sports Saturday. Steve Hartman
and Bucky Brooks Here, this is Fox Sports Saturday. And

(01:33:20):
we are coming alive from the tirerack dot Com studios.
All right, let's get some real NFL talk coming in
right now. Joining us, of course, is our Fox Sports
Radio NFL Insider, the one, the only, the Great Adam
Kaplan is joining us once again. So Adam. I asked
Bucky this earlier about the atmosphere in Indianapolis at this

(01:33:43):
year's NFL combine. We know a couple of teams decided
not to send any representatives. Could you sense any differences
in the atmosphere around this year's NFL combine? Well, yeah,
the one thing I noticed there were not as many
coaches there. Yeah, it's kind of alluding to what you said. Yeah,
there are some coaches i'd normally see I didn't see there.

(01:34:03):
Now the personnel guys more or less have to be there,
but the coaches, now, some coaches are just not going.
Some staffs didn't go. The Jaguar staff, Offensive staff, I know,
I don't think anyone was there, or very few guys
were there. Jet staff, A lot of the guys were
not there. Yeah, that was that was one of the
noticeable things of being their last week in Indie. All right,
let's get to the biggest story of the week, and

(01:34:23):
that is Carolina acquiring the number one overall picking the
draft from the Bears. Two number ones two number two
is DJ Moore. Were there other offers on the table?
It just seems a little early for this kind of
trade to be done, considering that the season doesn't technically
start until March fifteenth. Why did the Bears decide to

(01:34:44):
make this deal? Now they got their price. Here's what happened.
Both teams met. The Bears only met with any three teams.
The Panthers were there in person, they met with them
the GM. I think there was like four or five
people in the room for both teams. They were halfway
downe I'm told, in Indie last week, and they had
they had to kind of go through what you've mentioned

(01:35:06):
the draft picks. So what I'm told is the Bears
were actually asking for in the beginning for three first
round picks, which really is essentially two first round picks
and you swap each you go from one to nine.
But the Panthers they discussed players. Both teams discussed players
last week, and the one player the Panthers didn't want
to include was was DJ Moore. They did that obviously

(01:35:29):
he's worth a first round pick. Wh would be the
best receiver for this draft. And the Panthers now they
can get their quarterback the Bears. The Bears wanted to
do this, Now so do the Panthers. They see what
the Panthers were worried about is because they're picking at nine,
the top three guys most likely will be gone, and
you you want to see at that table so that
they had motivation to do it. And the Chicago want

(01:35:50):
to set up what they're doing to do in free agency.
In the drafty. They have a lot of holes. They
have probably the NFL's worst roster, but now they have
so many draft picks and now they can get started.
You know, Adam been thinking about the timing of this.
Did the performances at the combine of the quarterbacks have
anything to do with a Now, let's do the deal.
We've seen what's out there. We have a better feel

(01:36:12):
for the quarterback class, and so we're comfortable with who
we may have available for us at number one. Bucky
I would say this, there's that feeling still three quarterbacks.
Early Richardson, the quarterback from the University of Florida, is
certainly the wild card. No one knows yet where that's
that's going to go, but he certainly had an unbelievable workout.

(01:36:33):
But if you're the Panthers, you know you can't go
forward without knowing who your quarterback is going to be.
They've tried so many guys Darnold, Sam Arnold, Baker, Mayfield
and others. It has not worked, and they want this settled.
David Tepper knows. He's a former minority owner with the
Steelers and obviously now he owns the Panthers. Scott Fitter
or the GM saw with Russell Wilson, how you could

(01:36:56):
you could transform a team, You could get things turned around.
They know that they wanted this done, and it definitely
sends shock waves. I should send that and say that now.
I think after people settled down here, I think you
have to understand it's not they didn't get the third
pick overall of the Panthers, they got the first pick overall.
That's why it costs him so much. And we're not
gonna be able to know if this is going to

(01:37:16):
work until that quarterback plays at least two seasons. So
I think we have to kind of let this thing
play out and then what we could determine whether this
worked or not. One of the things that Buck and
I were talking about, because the conventional wisdom about any
deal for the Bears trading out at number one was
they wouldn't go lower than four because they would want
to get Will Anderson Junior in this draft. I mean,

(01:37:38):
two years ago, he was being promoted as a generational talent,
and his numbers in twenty twenty two were not what
we saw in twenty twenty one. Has Will Anderson dropped
back into the pack, because there's a lot of edge
guys that are pretty projected high in this draft. But
has the stock dropped Will Anderson Junior? Well, Steve, I'll

(01:38:02):
give you a nugget here. I know a team that
likes Lucas Vaness who had a viola better than Will Anderson. Wow. Yeah,
and Lucas Vaness is probably gonna go top ten, top twelve.
He had a phenomenal combine workout. He's got great length, explosion.
He now he's leaving school a little bit early, but
he's very gifted. Will Anderson's a good player. But I
don't think there's any question that he's not elite. I mean,

(01:38:23):
he's he's a good player. There's no his numbers would
show it overall in his college career. But if the
beauty's gonna be out of the beholder with that guy,
I think it's depends who you speak with. You know,
it's a good I'm glad you brought him up because
this draft does not have what we call a lot
of blueship prospects. A lot of good to very good,
but the elite or slash blue chip prospects, they're not
a lot of them on paper in this draft. You know,

(01:38:45):
as funny as you brought it up, I think I
talked to Steve about that earlier. And so coming out
of the combat, what was the takeaway of this class, Like,
did you when you talk to your people, did they
have a sense of there are certain groups that are
strong or just to overl class is just kind of
like what you said. All right, So let's quarterback. It's
you throw richardson there. It's it's very top heavy, and

(01:39:07):
then you've got a bunch of backups, most likely the
rest of those quarterbacks. Although I like Hooker the Tennessee quarterback,
still getting feedback that he's probably going to be a
backup the next level, you know, maybe sometime someday he
becomes a starter. So it's it's a top heavy draft,
better than last year. Running Back is very deep, it
goes very deep. Receiver is not strong. It's just not

(01:39:30):
on paper, not on blue A lot of blue ship prospects.
There edge good, a better depth later, but not great
on high high level prospects. Corners very good, Witherspoon Smith,
Gonzales has really talented, Joey Porter Jr. There's a good
there's a good list of corners. It's a but I
would tell you overall, coming out of the combine, it's

(01:39:50):
a It's not a draft where you go, Okay, if
you're picking the top ten, that's great. If you're picking
the top five, you may want to trade down. All right.
Let's talk about Aaron Rodger here. So Mark Murphy, the
CEO of the Packers, was asked, you know, will he
be back with the Packers and he says not if
things work out the way we want, all right. So
that means that it seems that some kind of agreement

(01:40:13):
has been reached between the Jets and the Packers to
get a deal done. They're waiting on Rogers to put
the stamp of approval on it. Is there any other
team that could get into the mix as far as
Aaron Rodgers is concerned. Here's what I thought of two
weeks ago, since Rodgers had not had his you know,

(01:40:34):
his meeting with the Packers, which he did. I mean
they talked. I know, two or three teams were hovering
and then but once they knew the Jets were all
in fact, a team source this week had a great line.
He goes, now that we all in or are we
all in? We've chips to the table. So that that
that told me, okay, okay. Now so now with Derek
Carr gone, you don't have a fallback option. It's it's

(01:40:57):
that they don't like this, but it is Aaron Rodgers
or bust, because the only other option will be Jimmy Garoppolo,
which is not kind of what they're looking for there.
They're looking to get this done because the Jets will
tell you they know their quarterback away from being really
really good. This is a really good roster. Joe Douglas.
The GM's put together, and Douglas, by the way, people
call very conservative, doesn't make a lot of trades. From
what I'm told, he's the one not the owner, and

(01:41:19):
I'm not saying Woody Johnson's has to sign off it.
He wants him too, but it's actually Joe Douglas's ideas.
From what I've heard. The trade for Rogers, well, so
we talk about Aaron Rodgers one MVP for me, MVP
on the move was a deal with the mare Jacks.
I'm gonna say this, and I want to be clear,
I'm not saying he's going to be traded, but I'm

(01:41:39):
more open to that idea of happening, where before the
combat I would say no, I'm gonna trust the Ravens here,
and I know that they're they're John Harball and Eric
TOCs have been very out in front. He's their guy.
But just talking to a lot of people, it is
and obviously the non exclusive tag has a lot to
deal with it with a franchise tag. But I just
get the sense that this is we're passing never say

(01:42:02):
never situation. Here's what I've learned about teams and saying
they love this guy, they're not going to trade him.
I'll go back to the Clio Mack trade with the
Raiders and the Bears. I remember talking the Raiders several
times in the offseason, They're like, no, we're not trading him.
We're not trading we're not listening, we're not trading. Well,
once John Gruden had personal control got when he thought, okay,
I think he was mistaken, though cli Mack actually admitted this.

(01:42:24):
He thought that Mac would miss not only the entire offices,
he might actually hold out into the season. Gruon's like,
I'm not doing this. So if this guy's not gonna
play here, then we're gonna trade him. You didn't want
to be here, So now we go over to this player.
Lamar Jackson has never said he didn't want to be
a Raven, but and the Ravens want have said they've
been steadfast. Ask yourself this question, move this forward here.

(01:42:44):
Why in the world will they use a non exclusive
tech that means any team can negotiate with Lamar? And
by the way, because he doesn't have an agent, they
actually could talk to him directly. These other teams, Why
would they do that? Now? A GM told me this
week he said he doesn't think anyone would give two
first first round picks for him because it's just it's
just it's really hard because you'll have to play a

(01:43:05):
certain way with your your team, you know, you have
to be more of a running team. But it goes, look,
it's it's it's not a good year to need a quarterback.
So he goes, look if they're open to it, and
Lamar wants out. He did say he thinks if if
the Baltimore wanted to do it, they would probably take
less than two ones, because two ones right now it
doesn't seem to be working all right. Final word, they're

(01:43:26):
getting back to the first question about the Panthers. So
is it a done deal? Will a B. C. J.
Strout is the number one pick? Well, they're not done yet.
See the GM and the head coach, Frank Reich and
fit Over of the GM. They have to figure this out.
And like by I'll give you an example. The Eagles
in twenty sixteen did not know who they were going
to do. They trade up to number two. They knew
going into their West Coast caravan, the owner or the GM,

(01:43:49):
the head coach, quarterbacks coach oc. They all flew out
at West and they worked out and visited with Jared
Goth and Carson Wentz. It was a third week of March.
It was on that flight back that they decided they
all talked, they huddled, it was going to be Carson
Wentz and by the way, they were kind of split
heading into that that caravan. So this is nothing new.

(01:44:10):
I'm not saying it's not a question are they going
to go with Strout or Young. They want to get
through all the information first. Once they've had the interviews
and their facility gone through background checks, they'll make a decision. No, certainly,
it would be surprising if it's not Strout, if they
stay at one, because if you compare the two, Young's
got the size problem that it's a real issue for

(01:44:31):
teams that I've heard this in the feedback we talked
about the comb were the takeaways last week? That was
one and I got that from a lot of smart
people who love Young as a pro ready quarterback, which
you worry about the body type and Strout is it's
really hard to knock him. There's really I don't know
what why people wouldn't like him. I don't know. Maybe
he's not a runner because he don't run very much.

(01:44:52):
Who cares. He's a drop back quarterback who was incredibly
successful in this. We need to drop the Ohio state
quarterback issue. Go through the quarterbacks. The years and compare
this kid strout to the other guys and how ready
they were. This kid's way more ready. He's way more gifted.
All right. By the way, Bucky, grace with you, he said,
it is stroud all the way. Adam, great stuff has
always Thanks so much for join us. We'll talk to

(01:45:13):
you next week. All right, guys, thank you, Adam Kaplan
our Fox Sports Radio, NFL Insider. All right, let's find
out what is a trending right now. Kevin Wyrett is
back with us, and we got some conference championship games underway. Yeah,
we got a lot of action going on right now.
Four games in progress as we speak. The SWACK Championship

(01:45:34):
has reached halftime. They're battling for an NC double A
tournament bid. Texas Southern leading Grambling thirty one to eighteen.
It is the second semi finally American Athletic Conference championship,
and Memphis running away with this one. They're leading two
lane thirty four to fifteen about two minutes ago before halftime.
Arguably one of the top games of the day. Number

(01:45:54):
seven Texas, Number three Kansas in the Big twelve Championship.
The Long Horns ahead right now by three nineteen sixteen,
ten minutes ago before halftime, and in the Mountain West
it is twenty three San Diego State trailing Utah State
seventeen thirteen. They are midway through the first half. We
had a couple of teams punched their tickets into March Madness.

(01:46:14):
The first the Howard Bison Bison Run Death over from
the Scope. Then Northfolk, Virginia for the first time since
nineteen ninety two. There's a Bison in the Dance. That
was Howard Radio on the call as Howard beats Norfolk
State sixty five sixty four to put them in the

(01:46:36):
Big Dance for the first time in thirty years. They
weren't the first team, however, to punch their ticket into
March Madness. Vermont started the day off on a strong note.
Dillan pend the rebound He's running into open four seventy
two fifty nine. Wole willed up foul. Vermont Americans Champions
again for the tenth time in twenty years. Vermont Our

(01:46:59):
Dance Championship. That was Vermont Radio as they beat UMass
Lowell seventy two fifty nine to clinch the America East
Championship and punch their ticket in to the Big Dance.
Other scores from earlier today, we had several semifinal matchups.
In the SEC. Number four Alabama pulls away from number
twenty five Missouri seventy two sixty one to advance to

(01:47:21):
the SEC Championship. They will play Texas A and M,
who blew out Vanderbilt eighty seven seventy five, and that
was not nearly as close as that. I was a
twenty plus point lead for A and M for much
of that game before Vanderbilt able to added on toward
the end. In the Big Ten, Purdue blows out Ohio
State eighty to sixty six as they advanced to the

(01:47:42):
Big Ten title game. They'll square off against Pence Stave,
who scored an upset today against number nineteen Indiana as
they beat the Hoosiers seventy seven to seventy three. In
the IVY League, we had a couple of semi finals.
Princeton beats Pennsylvania seventy seven seventy yellover Cornell eighty to sixty,
so that'll set up and league championship between Yale and Princeton.

(01:48:04):
Top ranked Houston, they looked like the number one team
in the country in the first American Athletic Conference semifinal
of the day, they beat Cincinnati sixty ninety eight, and
in the first Atlantic tennent Championship of the day, it
was Dating over fordom seventy eight to sixty eight. Back
over you, Steed. All right, Kevin, thank you very much.
By the way, once again we are alive from the
Tirereich dot Com studios. Bucky hard to believe that one

(01:48:26):
week from today we're gonna be talking about teams looking
to punch their ticket to the Sweet sixteam. Yeah, I mean,
that's that's the beauty of March madness and everything that
we've talked about for most of the day. The basketball
tournament is king. What we're about to experience over the
next three or four weeks is where we all live
and die for in terms of our sports fandom. You

(01:48:48):
get a chance to see all of these players playing
the single elimination games whereas winner go home. We love
the pressure that comes along with that. And right we'll
sit here in studio and we'll be hanging on the
edge of He's trying to figure out which teams get
a chance to hang a banner and sub marine is
not our won, Our favorite teams Arena. But to see
right even you have to win a championship at UCLA

(01:49:10):
to actually get a banner. In fact, I remember Ben
Hallam when he was coaching UCLA led UCLA to three
consecutive final fours. No school has done it since Ucla
and six zero seven and oh eight. Not a banner
to show for it. Nothing straight final fours. Yeah, and
you get nothing for that. M Getting back to our

(01:49:31):
conversation with Adam Kaplan, So he believes that the Carolina
Panthers are still in discussion as far as the quarterback
situation's concerned. Now when you look at the up update
a draft now, so the Panthers are number one, they're
going to take a quarterback. Texans or two they're going
to take a quarterback, and the Colts are at four

(01:49:52):
they're going to take a quarterback. So when we talk
about Stroud, you talk about Bryce Young and then you
talk about Anthony Richardson. So he was the biggest story
to come out of the combine, putting up numbers that
we just cannot imagine a two hundred and forty four
pound quarterback running a four four three forty the vertical,

(01:50:14):
the whole shebang. This is a guy that barely completed
fifty three percent of his passes at Florida a year ago.
But could you see the Texans or the Panthers with
one of the top two picks talking themselves into taking
Anthony Richardson instead of a C. J. Stroud or a

(01:50:38):
Bryce Young. I can't see that, and I'm gonna be
honest with you, Steve, I have to talk to I
wrote about this on NFL dot Com about Anthony Richson
in his rise, and the thing that I'm struggling with
is I can acknowledge all the athleticism, all the great
trace that he has to combine. He lit it up
six four two forty four, four four three forty at
a forty and a half inch vertical ten nine broadject.

(01:51:00):
All those things are great. But then when I think
about the quarterback, you have to play the game. And
so there are people that compared him to you know,
he's a bigger, faster, stronger version of Cam Newton. Okay,
so in the SEC which is where Anthony Richardson played,
Anthony Richarson ran for six hundred and fifty four yards.

(01:51:21):
Cam Newton ran for fourteen hundred yards. Yes, won a
Heisman trophy. Yes, led his team to the national title.
One other pro on that squad well votes, by the way,
that was fired two years later. Right, So then let's
let's take it down a notch and let's talk about
Jalen Hurts. So, Jalen Hurts doing his time at Alabama,

(01:51:41):
he ran, I mean like he also went bananas. He
had eighteen hundred and nine yards twenty three touchdowns in
his first two seasons at Alabama, right while leading them
to a national title game. Anthony Richinson doesn't have any
of those things. And that doesn't even compared to what
we talk about with the like touchdown to interception ratios

(01:52:05):
that these guys had. Both of these guys fifty three
point four percent passer last year. Now we've talked to
I mean, we talked about the fact that Josh Allen
had back to back seasons of Wyoming where he completed
fifty six percent of his passes and all of a sudden,
he's at sixty five to seventy percent passer in the NFL.
So I've asked, I asked you this last week. Is

(01:52:27):
this something that has complete aberration with Josh Allen. Le's
Brian Dable and Stefan Diggs work some magic to suddenly
make Josh Allen into an accurate passer. Can this be
done with Anthony Richardson? Can you take a fifty three
percent passer in college and make him a sixty five
percent passer in the NFL? Because if you're gonna win,

(01:52:48):
you're gonna have to have those kind of numbers. Yeah,
I say, no, do I suggests no, no, no, no, no, no,
you can't do it. Josh Allen is a bit of
a unicorn when it comes to it, but if you look,
his numbers have kind of come back to the back
of what he is the last couple of seasons. Let's
just think about this, because Adam came on and he

(01:53:08):
talked about like how coaches or how people have talked
about Lamar Jackson and how Lamar Jackson doesn't throw it
well enough, even though I don't know if you saw
the thing that Lamar Jackson retweeted about the number of
guys who have a passer rating over ninety six and
the number of over a hundred touchdowns and it's Dan
Marino and Pat Mahomes and all these guys. But we're

(01:53:28):
talking about Lamar Jackson, not being a competent enough passer.
So here we're saying that Anthony Richardson, who didn't have
any of the accolades that Lamar Jackson had in college
as a Heisman Trophy winner, seeing him dominate as a
runner and thrower at Louisville, we're saying that Anthony Richardson
is worthy of being a top five pick. I can't
see it. I am saying that we on our side

(01:53:50):
of the microphone get fascinated by Mark drafts and we're
trying to make it fit. The talent doesn't fit with
a top five pick. Who is going to stake their
job on a player who is unproven at the collegiate
level and say, you know what, he is going to
be my Cam Newton. We're gonna make this happen. I
just can't see it. I keep going back to Tim

(01:54:11):
Tebow in his four years at Florida, not one season,
four years, he completed over sixty six percent of his passes.
Right over four years at Florida. I remember having a
conversation with urban Meyer after he left Denver and he
was going to the Jets, and I'm like, how did
you get this guy to complete sixty six percent? Of

(01:54:34):
his passes, not for one season over four years of Florida,
and he goes be design an offense for him, for
him knowing what he could do throwing the football, so
that he would have a high success rate, similar to
what Mac Brown did with Vince Young as well at Texas. Absolutely,
and those are the things. Vince Shelle's another one. I

(01:54:55):
just think about all that we're celebrating Anthony Riss, great athlete,
but man, I wouldn't go that early with him as
a quarterback. All right, how's it gonna play out tomorrow?
In Selection Sunday? Keep it right here? This is Fox
Sports Saturday data. Take ten pounds, take off the entry
thanks to Bakeson goes baseline, Chris lays it up, fo't
go Puzzner poking Bison cook gun death over from the scope,

(01:55:22):
and no Folk Forgon for the first time since nineteen
ninety two, there's a bison in the tennis. That's w
HBC ninety six three, the final call as Howard the
bikes punch there take it to March madness, and that
is our progressive play of the day, brought to buy

(01:55:43):
Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable, get a
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even more all your protection on one place, bundle and
save app Progressive dot Com. Want to thank the guys today,
Chris jumping in as he always does, get over for Iowa,
Sam Kevin Wyatt with all the updates today, he was

(01:56:04):
almost out of breath. We got so much a lot
of basketball and going a lot of day with all
the tournaments going on, and the chorus bow as our
brilliant producer and bo I want to ask you a
question out there. I was asking Bucky a little bit earlier.
Now that the Bears have decided that, yeah, Justin Fields
is our guy and we're going to add a guy

(01:56:26):
like DJ Moore to the receiving cores much as a J.
Brown certainly made an impact for your mister Eagles fan,
Jalen Hurts. Do you think that DJ Moore can have
the same impact for Justin Fields and that Bears offense.
I think he could. I think that's why they got him,
and I think they're well positioned to get a quarterback

(01:56:47):
next year if he doesn't help Justin Fields do that.
So I love the trade for the Bears honestly. Yeah,
that's brings u point that we never even covered here.
Good stuff there bow is the fact that the Bears
did get themselves insurance because they also get a number
one pick to couple with their own pick. I wanted
to ask you this, Bucky about next year's draft. Obviously,

(01:57:07):
all the focus is going to be on Caleb Williams,
but Drake May out of North Carolina as a redshirt freshman,
had a hell of a season and even though he's
going to only be a red shirt sophomore next year,
everyone knows that he is probably heading to the NFL Draft.
How good is Drake May? He's good man, and the

(01:57:27):
conversation will be about Caleb Williams and Drake May all year.
Kaylee Williams is special. Drake May has the prototypical things
that you look for, his outstanding pettigree. Both brothers played
like all of his brother his family. His dad was
a quarterback at North Carolina right before I was there.
His older brother Luke played basketball at Carolina. He has
another brother to play baseball at Florida. So he has

(01:57:49):
the goods. He has size, he has athleticism, he has
big time playmaking ability. He's clutched all of those things.
The conversation will be can he close the ground on
Caleb Williams toward the fall next year to make it
a debate in terms of which guy is QB one?
It will be fascinating to watch the two's guys play.
Charlie Chew Chew Justice Yeah, number twenty two back to

(01:58:11):
back Heisman runner ups in nineteen forty eight and forty nine.
The tar Heels have never had a Heisman winner. Willis
Drake may being the first Heisman Trophy winner. It's the
University of North Carolina. It has to happen. He does that, man,
That conversation changes, Yes, this is it. Let's put him in.
Didn't that be nice to have on display there at
Chapel Hill a Heisman trophy? We didn't even notice football

(01:58:34):
there in a basketball school, they notice, they would notice,
like a Heisman trophy. Said yeah, if they notice, they
see what they see. What's going on? All right? So
we are trying to figure this out about your Tar
Heels twenty and thirteen on the season, eleven and nine
in acc play. How could they not be on the
field of sixty eight when you're talking about ten teams
coming out of the Big ten, Michigan's won fifteen games.

(01:58:58):
It has I would like to think that they are going.
The targets are going because of the brand name, the tournament.
The tournament just isn't right without the tar heels. It's
not right, all right. Well, we'll see what happens on
a very busy Sunday tomorrow with all the March madness.
In the meantime, keep it right here. This is Fox
Sports Radio.

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