July 21, 2025 • 38 mins
Ohio State enters preseason without a QB1 while their Week 1 opponent, Texas, knows its coming to Columbus, Ohio, with Arch Manning as the Longhorns' starter. Julian Sayin feels like the penciled starter, but Lincoln Kienholz is the older and more experienced player.
9:50 Does Iowa finally have a QB good enough to lead it to the College Football Playoff in Mark Gronowski?
19:50 Is Shedeur Sanders comparable to Brock Purdy?
30:06 Is Deion Sanders OK?
--RJ gives his strong opinions on the biggest topics in college football, sports and entertainment every week.
--Tune in live on College Football Saturday Night, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, Tuesday Night College Football Playoff rankings revealed and Thursday Night Football.
--RJ also performs daily segments taking on the biggest breaking news stories in college football and the NFL.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:21):
What's up, Ken, folks, it's RJ Young.
I am not on a step mill. If this is your first time
watching adapt and respond or you're listening on the podcast,
thank you for joining us here. We talk college football year
round. If that is something you're
into, go ahead and hit that subscribe button like this video
and answer the question in the comments below, both on Spotify
(00:42):
and on YouTube. Do you think that the
quarterback Derby is real at Ohio State?
Also want to talk a little bit about the quarterback that we
know will be QB one in Iowa and whether or not that makes Iowa a
College Football Playoff contender.
Want to talk a little bit about Shadur Sanders in this
comparison to another Big 12 quarterback that might be fair,
(01:05):
might not be fair. And let's talk about Deion
Sanders and our issue with his health.
Let's start with this. Let's start with Ohio State is
sure they're having a quarterback competition.
They are sure that Lincoln King Holtz and Julian San are
competing for the starting job going into 2025 and as Ohio
(01:28):
State is the defending champ andthey're looking to get rid of
this ON 4 against Michigan. We got our eyes set on this one.
But I think that this quarterback competition is going
to look a lot like the one that we saw with DJ Stroud, Colin
McCord. So for so on, we already know
(01:49):
who we think the guy is going tobe, right?
We think it's going to be Juliansaying.
But not unlike Joey Aguilar and Jake Meckenzer and George
McIntyre at Tennessee, you don'twant to give the job to a guy
that isn't clear in a way your best option at quarterback.
And that's not necessarily true in the case of Joey Aguilar at
(02:11):
Tennessee, who joined up in the spring or would Julian say in
who spent last year behind Will Howard and Lincoln?
Keynotes was four string on thatteam.
Now, Devin Brown and Aaron Nolancleared out, right?
Aaron Nolan looks like the heir apparent for Lenore Sellers at
South Carolina. And Devin Brown, we think it's
(02:32):
probably going to win the starting job at Cal means that
you're going to be looking at these two veterans to lead you.
But I thought it was interestingwhat they had to say on Friday
as they were helping coordinatedcamp and 11 Warriors did a great
job doing a write up on this. But I was really more interested
in what Keenholtz had to say about this competition than I
(02:52):
was Julian saying. Although saying was the first
person to say, hey, it's competition.
Like, we are very much competingfor this and we're helping each
other out as much as we can. But you should know we are
entering the preseason knowing that we're probably going to
share snaps to start. And then we'll expect Ryan Day
(03:13):
and Brian Hartline and Billy Fessler to have some things to
say about who pulls away and just when.
Because I don't know if, you know, they got this little game
against Texas for their Week 1 opener where they probably need
to know who the quarterback is going to be.
So what is it that King Holtz had to say about this?
He's it's been really good. I'm getting stronger, faster.
(03:33):
And I think my body and my mind are in the right spot going in
the fall camp. I like hearing that from Lincoln
King Holtz because last time that we saw that dude play a
game in earnest, he was overwhelmed by Missouri in the
Cotton Bowl. Now, things just weren't going
according to plan, right? Devin Brown got hurt and wasn't
looking that great. And then, like a kid, Holtz out
(03:54):
of the frying pan into the fire.Even so, Ohio State made that
into a game, while Missouri succeeded in getting, say, Cody
Schrader to continue to play into January, which is not
something that we expected to see until name, image and
likeness came along. But guys had NFL futures decide
to protect them by going, hey, look, I'm done playing college
(04:15):
football forever, so good luck to you going to the Cotton Bowl.
Maybe Lincoln King Holtz has become a better player since
then. I sincerely hope so After having
that national championship run where you get to see Will Howard
not just lead the team to a national championship.
This is the part that I think isimportant.
You saw what he did after the loss to Oregon, and it wasn't
(04:36):
exactly get up and get after it.The next day, he spent some time
alone, quite literally in the dark, need to call his mom.
Mom came down there to come see him, pick him back up, remind
him how good he is. And by the time we get around to
December, we're talking about Will Howard reaching that upper
level where his mind, body and soul must be 1 because that dude
played lights out four consecutive games.
(04:59):
He did not have a dud. He was absolutely seeing it and
making it happen with his legs and with his arm.
You learn a lot watching your starting quarterback come back
from that. And to know that he's a grad
transfer, that he knows how to win and that he can teach you
all the traits that you need to have for winning, I think puts
(05:19):
them in a great spot. So knowing the doing that,
knowing that both of those guys have had that front row seat to
watching Will Howard lead this team to a championship, knowing
that you got Jeremiah Smith overthere, knowing you got Carnell
Tate over there along with Brandon Ennis, Quincy Porter, We
expect to come along with my ownGraham.
They add Max Claire, who we think is the best tight end in
(05:41):
the portal, and you're going to be pretty good at the tailback
position. CJ Donaldson, James, People's.
We think we're going to start out there and then you're going
to return a bunch of guys that played a bunch of football
because they had to last year, right?
I think all of this is working to the good, but I also think
that Lincoln King Holds believesthat it's his time to step up
(06:02):
and take some ownership and responsibility for this football
team. One of the reasons that I think
that is he said it honestly, I think it's more like a
responsibility to kind of take over as a leader and I guess
just kind of be that guy they can lean on.
Keen Holds. OK, OK, there are lots of ways
to do that. Being a glue guy, being a locker
(06:23):
room guy is one way of doing that.
Having your head wrapped around the playbook, what it's going to
be, it's going to do that. But also, you know, winning the
starting quarterback job, not a bad act either.
Really. This is going to be for me, more
of an evaluation of Brian Hartline's style as a play
caller and Billy Fessler's styleas quarterbacks coach as to how
(06:47):
they decide to go about finding out who the guy should be for
their program. Like, I get Ryan Day is still
Ryan Day head coach, offensive genius himself, but we saw what
it looked like when he gave the play calling privileges to Chip
Kelly last year. And it worked, right?
It worked. Now they need to change what
they were doing mid season from being, hey, we're just going to
(07:08):
try to run the ball and be as physical as we can.
And the one that says we got #4 and you don't, and start feeding
that guy the rock. Like we all maintain that if
Will Howard had just thrown the ball in the direction of
Jeremiah Smith more often against Michigan, they'd
probably win that game as tight as it was.
You learn this a little too late.
(07:29):
And I don't think they're going to wait to learn this against
Texas. I'm also curious about the
combination of Hartline and Fessler, because hearing Steve
Sarkeesian talk about what quarterbacks coach AJ Millwie
has meant to him is illuminating.
Because Milwee has been a part of that program and been a part
of what Sark has been doing since he got there.
(07:51):
And he's gone out of his way to say, look, I trust that guy to
do things in my stead, which is one of the highest compliments
that any coach can pay. Another one for Ryan Day, this
was Larry Johnson senior for a while, right?
Or I guess it could still could be, you know, bringing in Chip
Kelly, a mentor to when your offense means you don't have to
worry about it either. Has he got there with Brian
(08:13):
Hartline? Is Brian Hartline got there with
Billy Fessler? Right.
Like that's all going to be veryinteresting to watch.
We're also going to find out what it's like for Brian
Hartline to put together a play calling rhythm and a tempo that
he enjoys and that he thinks canmake go for him.
As I'm continuing to take a lookat just what I can expect from,
(08:34):
I don't know, a Lincoln King Holtz that we haven't seen play
since the Cotton Bowl and a Julian saying that we knew Nick
Saban wanted to have on the menucome what, 2023, but couldn't
get to him. You would expect Julian saying
to be the guy here, right? You would expect the guy that
(08:54):
was coming out of Carlsbad, who was one of the best players in
the country, top quarterback in the country in the 2024 Class, A
guy that they really wanted Bamato relieve Jalen Millroe and
Jalen Millroe through those picks against Texas and couldn't
quite get it done. You'd expect that guy to win,
right? You would expect that guy to be
(09:14):
the guy. But if there's something that
King King, King Holtz has been working on that we just don't
know about, I'd love to see it. We can give you stats.
We can give you play making abilities.
I think Lincoln King Holtz mightbe the better athlete, but being
the better quarterback is still something that he needs to show.
Now's the time. And that's the thing he stuck,
(09:35):
stuck it out. He didn't go into the transfer
portal. He he believes he's got a chance
to win the job and he believes he's got a chance to play.
And if those things are true, now is the time to show them.
(10:10):
Back on adapt and respond with me, RJ Young, if you are here
and you have not subscribed, please go ahead and do that.
If you're listening on the podcast, go ahead and rate the
podcast, give it five stars. Also going to get to start doing
a few more live shows here and that means that we're probably
going to be reading some advertisements from here and
(10:32):
there from time to time. I do want to spend some time
talking about Mark Gronowski andwe will get to both the Sanders
and the I say the Sanders stories.
The one about Shadur Sanders at Cleveland is just kind of
interesting to me. But you know, Shudor Sanders
being what he is and then drafting where they drafted him,
(10:54):
you know, fifth round, he's the fourth string quarterback right
now. And then our fascination with
Deion Sanders is health is kind of well, I think worth us having
this conversation about. But first, always wanted to get
your NBA. What's the hold up?
(11:14):
If it's tuition fees, let me tell you, the folks at Get Money
Management Institute have a dealfor you.
At the Get Money Management Institute, they've just slashed
their entrance fee, late fee, slushy fee and your fee fee by
50%. That's you know, that's right.
That's what it says here in the script.
It's now officially affordable to get your MBA at the get money
(11:36):
Management Institute. Secure your space and their MBA
program today at the get money Management Institute.
It just takes one phone call to get this online degree that's
not worth the effort to blow your nose with it.
Mention RJ said stack dad Brad get fed you better get this
money you you better boss up andreceive an additional 20% off at
(11:58):
the online campus E bookstore secure your future with the GMMI
MB A or as they call it a masterbadass diploma today some
restrictions may apply absolutely positively no refunds
get money management institute coming through ANR all right
(12:20):
let's talk about Mark Gronowski in Iowa.
I like Iowa fans have been begging for a long time.
It feels like since like Ricky Stanfield, can we get a
quarterback in here? I mean, I guess CJ Beathard
counts here, but can we get a quarterback?
Can we can we get a functioning quarterback?
We go from can we get a functioning offense and they got
(12:40):
one right, Caleb Johnson with the offense last year to can we
get a quarterback where we can push the ball down the field?
Not a lot, not a lot. You know, we're not trying to be
2009 Texas Tech over here, but we would like the addition of
the forward pass to be reliable,if nothing else, because we know
(13:01):
what Phil Parker's defense is going to be.
Lights out each and every year. He produces studs.
He goes and gets studs. Last year it was Jay Higgins who
had, you know, 1,000,000 tacklesat Old Dominion goes Iowa has
1,000,000 tackles at Iowa. Seb Castro's come through there,
right? You've heard me wax poetic about
(13:22):
Riley Moss. You heard me talk about what
Cooper De Jean can do for you atIowa and you've heard me talk
about what Aaron Graves can be. Now get me a quarterback that
they can look up to. And I think they got that in
Mark Gronowski. Mark Gronowski could be the
difference between Iowa being a College Football Playoff team
(13:45):
and Iowa just being OK, I was going to be OK.
We know this. Kurt Farrance is going to play
the style of football to get you8 wins.
You can. I mean, if if I got to compare
and I do Dave Doran at NC State is Kurt Ference at Iowa, 789
wins. You can pretty much count on
(14:07):
that. Can you count on them to win the
ACC championship, Big 10 championship?
Probably not. Could they make that game in the
when there was a East and a West?
I don't think so anymore. But could they be the third or
four team in? Could they be Indiana this year?
Yes, with Mark Kanowski. Why?
(14:27):
Because Mark Kanowski's a stud. Over 10,000 yards passing, S to
go to state over 1700 yards rushing, 130 career TDs.
The Dude shows up and he wins. That's the most important part
of this. He doesn't make losing a habit.
I tend to believe that if you'rea winner, winning follows you
around. Winning likes to keep winning.
(14:49):
It's a habit. It's not it's not luck, right?
There are things that he's doingevery single day that have put
him and the team he is quarterbacking in position to
win those games. More than anything else, though,
Jimmy Rogers was putting together a South Dakota state
that ran the football. Like, that's why I'm excited
about what Washington State could be in the years to come.
(15:10):
You've also seen a bunch of these South Dakota State players
move up, like when Jimmy Rogers took the job at Washington
State, not everybody went with him.
And a couple of studs had made their way to the Big 10,
including a wide receiver and Northwestern and an offensive
coordinator at Northwestern. But Gronowski is going to play
for the Black Gold. I love this.
(15:32):
I love this because he's not just he's a winner and it's not
just that he has been prolific is that he fits the culture,
right. He is going to get it out the
mud. He's going to outwork you.
He's going to be a Workman like quarterback and I don't think
you're going to have anything else at Iowa.
I believe that programs take on the character of their head
(15:54):
coach and Kurt Farrance is a guythat does not like to take
chances and he values effort, hevalues work ethic.
When you look at Gronowski, you're not going to see a guy
that is throwing the ball to other people.
You're not going to see a dude that is careless with the
football. You're going to see a guy that's
(16:14):
probably going to be In Sync with Tim Lester in the way that
you would hope. But also you're going to see a
leader at the quarterback position for the first time
since Kate McNamara was not her.Again, these are things that
Iowa has craved, and I keep thinking about that 2023 Iowa
(16:34):
football team and that defense and go on, My God, what?
What what what would have happened if they just had a
functioning offense, but we alsogot a Kirk Ference who doesn't
like interceptions and certainlydoesn't care to throw the ball
into the end zone. OK, you go to Iowa to play wide
(16:55):
receiver. I don't think they should play
wide. I don't think they should call
it wide receiver anymore. I think they should call it
flanker because this the offenseis is just not going to be 1
where I see Mark Gronowski throw3000 yards.
I just don't see that happening.Could he be a 2001 thousand guy?
Also not likely. Like it's more likely that he's
like A20500600 guy. But that's because the number of
(17:18):
snaps that they're going to get as an offense are not going to
be as many as others. I if you look at Iowa and you
see what could be Michigan, yeah, that's where we're at.
I think 2023 Michigan and the style of offense and defense
they played could be what Iowa is Light, right?
(17:40):
I don't think they'll be as dominant up front and I don't
think they'll be as gifted on the back end.
But they will be competitive andthey will probably beat somebody
they're not supposed to. Now, can you get them into a
spot where that matters? Can you get them into a spot
where we're asking the question,is Iowa going to be playing in
(18:04):
the College Football Playoff come November when we get to say
not the first week of the College Football Playoff
rankings, but the second, Will they be in that conversation?
Mains to be seen, right. Mains to be seen.
But I really like him. I I do.
And I really like this get as a grad transfer.
(18:24):
I don't know that they're going to be able to continue to get
Mark Granowski's, though. And that's that's the worry.
But that's a 2026 problem in 2025.
Get that dude healthily to a football field and let's see
what the offense can do then. We're not asking for a lot here
because I think the the defense is going to be giving up 17
points or fewer, probably fewer being conservative on that
(18:48):
number. But if you can be the kind of
offense that scores 28 a game, that's it's easy for me to see
you winning 10, even with the schedule you have, right That
that that's not hard. I'm going going to Iowa to play
is still difficult as hell. Like one of my favorite
atmospheres, frankly, Iowa, Michigan was fun.
Now, Michigan won that game. But when I went there 2022,
(19:11):
yeah, that was fun. I think they can continue to do
that. Got to walk around with Dallas
Clark and make jokes for a little while.
That was cool. I don't know where that video
went, but you should go check itout because it was a lot of fun.
And if we continue to get something like a, you know,
other worldly tight end mentioning Dallas Clark,
thinking about George Kittle, sofor so on, maybe that is the way
(19:33):
in which the passing game ignites itself and we get to see
it. But for now, don't be shocked if
we are talking about Iowa playing playoff football in
November. In fact, this might be their
best chance to do just that. Music going to talk a little bit
(20:17):
about Deion Sanders health in a in a minute and I also want to
get to this cop that is, you know, she Dora Sanders is like
this Big 12 quarterback like this seventh round draft pick.
Probably see where we're going with this and why I think that
is kind of a backhanded compliment.
But we'll get to that. Just a second.
(20:37):
Maurice Pippin Ain't Easy Marketing Conference.
Does your business need to rank higher in the search engines?
Do you want everything your company touches to turn to gold?
If the answer is yes to either of those questions and your
business need and your business need wait and your business
(20:58):
needs to get your act together at Pimpin Ain't Easy Mark at the
Pimpin Ain't Easy Marketing Conference.
Attend keynote speak, attend keynote speeches made by
marketing gurus like Bishop Don Juan Slick back, participate in
workshops and learn more about your target market and how you
(21:20):
can get their attention in our high tech world from such
renowned professionals like Craig's girlfriend, Joy's sister
in law's baby cousin Tracy. This event is not free and
neither are your meals. So if you are broke booty Buster
Brown, this might not be your get down.
Only real get money hustlers need apply at the pimpin ain't
(21:43):
easymarketingconference.com. All right, let's talk about
Shadur Sanders who is 4th on thedepth chart at Cleveland with
Joe Flacco taking the lead. Kenny Pickett in second, Dylan
Gabriel in 3rd and you know how it goes.
Mostly it's Joe Flacco has shownthat there's still some juice
(22:06):
left in his arm and his legs, and he is talking like the kind
of man who expects to do something like Aaron Rodgers, I
guess, you know, be Tom Brady. Cool.
Kenny Pickett ain't looked like that guy since he was drafted.
And that was when he was throwing pass to Jordan Addison
in an offense that was built around we're going to feed the
(22:28):
ball to Jordan Addison. Mark Wibble didn't make, you
know, no bones about it. It was no, we're going to get
the ball to our best player as often as we possibly can.
I love that as an offensive philosophy, identifying who your
best offensive weapon is at Cleveland.
That's that's the job. And then which quarterback does
the best job of getting that guythe ball right?
(22:49):
I think drafting Dylan Gabriel in the third round and then
drafting Shudor Sanders in the fifth round because you see
value there is an interesting proposition.
Andrew Berry thinks there's something there, but is it
something worth, you know, comparing to 49ers starting
quarterback and Brock Purdy? He didn't do this.
(23:10):
Mary Kay Abbott, Cabot and her colleagues at cleveland.com did.
They're telling us that the ceiling for Shidur Sanders is
Brock Purdy, right? And 7th round draft pick who is
able to beat out guys like Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo for
the starting job with the San Francisco 49ers.
(23:32):
I think this had more to do withKyle Shanahan than it did Brock
Purdy. But when you look at it and you
see finally my man got paid something like $182,000,000.
It was rough going there for a while.
Now the world is much different for Dora Sanders financially
than it was to Brock Purdy when he entered the league.
I mean, I think Brock Purdy still had roommates to the
starting quarterback San Francisco, which is wild.
(23:55):
First, the rent is too damn high. 2nd, pay that man.
I mean, you got to get him living, right, OK, but when
you're talking about someone whotakes care of the football, who
is good with his decisions and given time to scan the field, is
going to make plays, you're talking about Shidor Sanders.
Like, I I get that the jersey retirement still gets on to
(24:17):
people's skin at Colorado, but the fact is the dude was best
offense player in the Big 12 last year.
He's throwing passes to a Heisman Trophy winner and that
is by definition what you were looking for.
A guy who can get the ball to the best player on the field as
often as possible doesn't mean other guys don't make catches.
I mean, Jonte Western had more than 70.
Will Shepard had a bunch of catches.
(24:38):
Jimmy Horn was productive. It meant that Travis Hunter had
96 catches, something like 14 TDs, 15 TDs, right?
We're also talking about a guy that has learned how to do this
at multiple levels. Like we talked about Shidura as
if he's been playing daddy ball the whole time, as if he didn't
play at Jackson State, Turn thatplace into a winner, play at
(25:00):
Colorado, turn that place into awinner.
The 13 and 12 stuff really bothers me because you're taking
4:00 and 8:00 and you're smashing together with nine and
four and finish the top the Big 12 Conference and you're trying
to make that a career and I'm going, OK, cool.
They get there in year 1. There's nothing.
They double the win total, but we don't talk about that.
(25:22):
We don't talk about first game out the box.
You beat the national title runner up on their home soil and
we act like that's not a big deal.
She do or Sanders did that. He's the guy that found Dylan
Edwards for the game-winning score.
Can we talk about the man as if he's a winner?
(25:43):
Can we talk about the man as if he's willing to sacrifice his
body because that's what he did in that four and eight season?
I mean, put another way, the dude took 50 sacks and broke a
vertebrae, broke a vertebrae in his back.
He broke his back. And he still came back the next
year and was more prolific and was better.
(26:04):
But the aura of playing as his father's son has just gotten
bigger. I expected it to dim because
that's usually what happens whenguys get separated from that,
that that energy, right? Prime is in Boulder.
She doers in Cleveland. I I thought that we would be
(26:25):
done with this, but no, we're comparing him now to Brock
Purdy, which, OK, cool. Brock Purdy played in Super
Bowl. Brock Purdy's quarterback for
one of the best teams in the NFLI get I get the compliment
there, but you're also telling me that you think that Brock
Purdy is not as talented as someOK, I think she doors more
talented than Brock Purdy, but that's that's an opinion, right.
(26:48):
The thing that I can tell you about Brock Purdy and she do it
that they do have in common, especially when they both played
in the Big 12. Purdy took care of the football
and he also LED Iowa State to his first major bold victory
ever. 2020 if he has the ball and a win against Oregon.
The thing that I think people forget that Brock Purdy has with
the Niners and that he had Iowa State was a running back.
(27:13):
A running back. Brock Purdy had Bruce Hall at
Iowa State. Bruce Hall was a unanimous All
American. Anytime I can hand the ball to
the guy behind me and you fear him, my job as a quarterback is
easier. Look at what he had.
So I'd knock over my own damn microphone.
(27:35):
Look at what he had with the Niners.
Is that Christian McCaffrey behind him?
Because that's what I think. Yeah.
My do, my do those. My eyes deceive me.
Now I realized Queen Shawn Jenkins is in trouble.
And I realized Nick Chubb got traded.
But give the man a running back for the first time in four years
(27:58):
and let him cook now also. That's the thing that I would
say about Dylan Gabriel. You know what Dylan Gabriel had
last year behind him? A 1200 yard rusher named Jordan
James. You can throw the ball all over
the yard when you got somebody to hand the ball to.
And oh, by the way, Sheduer still completed more than 70% of
(28:19):
his passes when the defense was screaming pass.
They had the worst run game in all of college football last
year. They could not be trusted to run
the football, which means that if he didn't throw the ball, the
offense didn't work. What happens if you give him a
balanced offense where you can pass the ball, but you can also
(28:41):
run it, too? I don't necessarily like banging
the table about this stuff, but when we come up with these sorts
of comparisons and we don't takeinto into account other
variables that matter on the football field, my analyst brain
goes off. That offense the Kyle Shanahan
(29:03):
runs is about misdirection. It's about running the football
if you are butt naked open. Yeah, Brock Purdy ought to be
able to hit. Is that George Kittle running
down there? Because it looks like it.
Come on now. Make make me understand how
should Dewar Sanders would not be a better quarterback with the
(29:25):
same tools that Brock Purdy has.If anything, we're not aiming
high enough when we talk about what should do.
Or Sanders could be at Cleveland.
But being the fourth string quarterback and being the fifth
round draft pick and the youngest dude quite literally in
(29:46):
that room, it's going to be an uphill battle for him to get on
the field in the 1st place. So we may be getting ahead of
this all together, but I think it's important to recognize if
he gets a shot, I expect he willplay well and it will be very
difficult to get that man off the football field.
(30:28):
Let's talk a little bit about coach Pride and his help, which
he does not want to address publicly.
I think Rick George got as closeto it as anybody.
But there was a column written by Pat Rooney at Buff Zone,
right? Three points column, I think is
is little edgy, little edgy, little edgy.
(30:51):
So I'm going to give Pat his full 2 paragraphs here because I
think it's important that he gets context before we start
asking these questions that I'm about to ask.
Right. So what he wrote was Coach
Sanders didn't discuss the on his ongoing health issues during
Big 12 media days earlier this month.
Understandable. But the questions aren't going
(31:12):
away just because Sanders wants them to.
Whether Sanders discusses his extended spring summer absence
from campus when the Buffs open pre season workouts on July 28th
remains to be seen. But at the outset of this third
season at CU, he already endureda litany of serious medical
(31:35):
matters. In 2021, Sanders had a pair of
toes amputated. In the summer of 2023, ahead of
his first season with the buff, Sanders had two surgeries to
address blood clots in his legs.We know about the surgeries
because he told us, OK? We don't know about any of the
(31:58):
other medical history because hetold us.
I also add in here, find me an old football player who has not
had major surgeries after the age of 40.
Go ahead, find them. Find me guys that'll have knee
replacements, hip replacements. Find me guys that don't have
(32:21):
arthritic hands. Find me guys that still run out
the tunnel or can be trusted andrun out of the tunnel or don't
waddle when they walk right. One of my best friends is former
offensive lineman in the NFL, Jerry Ostrosky.
Jerry does a podcast about Billsthat you should go check out.
Jerry is one of my favorite people and quite frankly made
(32:41):
room for me to get my solo sports talk show host locally.
Like looked up at the program director and the owner of the
radio station said, hey, I'm going to go do something else.
But RJ needs to get this spot. And I say this, say this part,
Jerry needs to move around before he moves around, OK.
But he would not trade any bit of his football career to get
(33:07):
back anything that he has lost or perceived to have lost
because Jerry lives a pretty cool life.
I mean, his boys also played football.
His boy Owen just got done playing at TU.
He's going to finish his career at Northern Iowa, where his Big
Brother Jackson is a coach. Is living your best life.
All while Jerry is also, yeah, aformer All American and got to
(33:28):
play in Atlanta and Buffalo, loves Buffalo.
And we'll talk my ear off about State of Pennsylvania's football
programs and teams from the Philly Eagles to Penn State.
And then every now and again, TUfootball comes up.
I tend to believe, especially asI run into ordered football
players that are much larger than I am.
(33:49):
You're going to have these problems.
You're going to you're going to have these physical ailments.
It's going to suck. And I think maybe there's a part
of Prime that has believed that anything he says about himself
or anybody else is likely to endup getting talked about.
Turns out, if he doesn't talk about it, that's going to
continue to happen too. And we know that he has had, you
(34:11):
know, relationships with media that, you know, he just doesn't
trust some and others he trusts quite a bit.
Others he'll cite. But anytime something like this
happens, I wonder how he will choose to address this because
it is one thing for people to speculate on what his health is.
(34:31):
I don't know. I'm not going to speculate.
I'm just going to say, hey, Bucky was the first person to
raise an alarm for me. And since then, Prime looks
good. He was at Big 12 media days.
He met all his commitments there.
And he did a really good job advocating for the coaches.
And his idea of a salary cap that he doesn't need to be
around when it ain't time to be around doesn't bother me.
(34:52):
It it it doesn't bother me. That's why you've got
assistance. That's why you've got
assistance, you know, help with these matters, why you got gym
managers, why you got secretary so forth.
So that people can handle these things when it ain't your turn
to handle these things because frankly, it's about winning
football games. I don't think he needs to
address himself. You know why I know this Nick
(35:13):
Saban had hip surgery and almostas soon as the like the next
damn day it felt he playing golf.
It happens. Why don't we talk about Bill
Belichick's age? You know, why don't we?
Why why don't we talk about these 70 plus year old coaches
age because, well, they're not revealing to us their physical
limitations. I mean, some of these are just
(35:35):
seen. You're not going to ask Bill
Belichick to run No 3 miles, runNo 40 yard dash.
Why? Why is it important to us that
Prime demonstrates that he is virile and healthy?
Because it is important to so many that Prime demonstrates
that he's supposed to be here. I still think that there are so
many people that are not just upset with Prime being Prime.
(36:02):
They're upset that he got here without perceive having to pay
dues, right? Perceive to pay dues.
Get out of here, man. The dude, the dude is the
youngest among the coaches in the Big 12.
And as far as coaching career, right?
Like Kenny Dillingham comes close, but Kenny Dillingham had
(36:22):
been an assistant, quality control assistant, so forth, so
on. But when it was time to ask
someone to step up and say how we feel, Kyle Wittenham wasn't
the guy that people looked at. Willie Fritz wasn't the guy that
people looked at. Rich Rodriguez wasn't the guy
that people looked at. They looked at Deion Sanders,
who got started coaching collegefootball in 2020, had that one
(36:47):
year to get on the good foot, go4:00 and 3:00 and all of a
sudden they win 12 games. Come again, they win 12 games.
Damn, he gets to Colorado. Well, this big boy football,
they go four and eight. Did you realize they went 2 and
10 the year before? Nevermind they went nine and
four after that. And now we're going into a
summer where we expect Colorado to keep doing Colorado stuff.
(37:07):
Which is to say they don't necessarily think the end all be
all is win the Big 12 Conference.
It will happen. It will help, right?
Because everybody in that league's probably going to catch
2 losses. What they want is to make the
College Football Playoff. But it is difficult to do that
catch two loss in the Big 12. That's where I want the
conversation to be. I want the conversation to be
about a Georgia Tech team that shouldn't nobody want to play,
(37:28):
that they got to play and how the atmosphere will feel when
they play that game. But I don't think that pointing
out that Prime is not spoken publicly about his health is any
way to get him to talk about it.And honestly, as long as he's
coaching football, I tend to think he's healthy.
(37:48):
Until such a time as he says he's not, or we get evidence to
the contrary. Just leave it the hell alone,
all right? That's going to do it for this
episode of Adapt and Respond. If you like the show, subscribe
to it on YouTube, rate it and subscribe to it on Apple and
Spotify. If you're listening on the audio
podcast and we will see you all next time.
(38:10):
We about to be really up and running and really going with
this thing. It's about to get really cool.
What's up, Ken, folks, it's RJ Young.
I am not on a step mill. If this is your first time
watching adapt and respond or you're listening on the podcast,
thank you for joining us here. We talk college football year
round. If that is something you're
into, go ahead and hit that subscribe button like this video
and answer the question in the comments below, both on Spotify
(00:42):
and on YouTube. Do you think that the
quarterback Derby is real at Ohio State?
Also want to talk a little bit about the quarterback that we
know will be QB one in Iowa and whether or not that makes Iowa a
College Football Playoff contender.
Want to talk a little bit about Shadur Sanders in this
comparison to another Big 12 quarterback that might be fair,
(01:05):
might not be fair. And let's talk about Deion
Sanders and our issue with his health.
Let's start with this. Let's start with Ohio State is
sure they're having a quarterback competition.
They are sure that Lincoln King Holtz and Julian San are
competing for the starting job going into 2025 and as Ohio
(01:28):
State is the defending champ andthey're looking to get rid of
this ON 4 against Michigan. We got our eyes set on this one.
But I think that this quarterback competition is going
to look a lot like the one that we saw with DJ Stroud, Colin
McCord. So for so on, we already know
(01:49):
who we think the guy is going tobe, right?
We think it's going to be Juliansaying.
But not unlike Joey Aguilar and Jake Meckenzer and George
McIntyre at Tennessee, you don'twant to give the job to a guy
that isn't clear in a way your best option at quarterback.
And that's not necessarily true in the case of Joey Aguilar at
(02:11):
Tennessee, who joined up in the spring or would Julian say in
who spent last year behind Will Howard and Lincoln?
Keynotes was four string on thatteam.
Now, Devin Brown and Aaron Nolancleared out, right?
Aaron Nolan looks like the heir apparent for Lenore Sellers at
South Carolina. And Devin Brown, we think it's
(02:32):
probably going to win the starting job at Cal means that
you're going to be looking at these two veterans to lead you.
But I thought it was interestingwhat they had to say on Friday
as they were helping coordinatedcamp and 11 Warriors did a great
job doing a write up on this. But I was really more interested
in what Keenholtz had to say about this competition than I
(02:52):
was Julian saying. Although saying was the first
person to say, hey, it's competition.
Like, we are very much competingfor this and we're helping each
other out as much as we can. But you should know we are
entering the preseason knowing that we're probably going to
share snaps to start. And then we'll expect Ryan Day
(03:13):
and Brian Hartline and Billy Fessler to have some things to
say about who pulls away and just when.
Because I don't know if, you know, they got this little game
against Texas for their Week 1 opener where they probably need
to know who the quarterback is going to be.
So what is it that King Holtz had to say about this?
He's it's been really good. I'm getting stronger, faster.
(03:33):
And I think my body and my mind are in the right spot going in
the fall camp. I like hearing that from Lincoln
King Holtz because last time that we saw that dude play a
game in earnest, he was overwhelmed by Missouri in the
Cotton Bowl. Now, things just weren't going
according to plan, right? Devin Brown got hurt and wasn't
looking that great. And then, like a kid, Holtz out
(03:54):
of the frying pan into the fire.Even so, Ohio State made that
into a game, while Missouri succeeded in getting, say, Cody
Schrader to continue to play into January, which is not
something that we expected to see until name, image and
likeness came along. But guys had NFL futures decide
to protect them by going, hey, look, I'm done playing college
(04:15):
football forever, so good luck to you going to the Cotton Bowl.
Maybe Lincoln King Holtz has become a better player since
then. I sincerely hope so After having
that national championship run where you get to see Will Howard
not just lead the team to a national championship.
This is the part that I think isimportant.
You saw what he did after the loss to Oregon, and it wasn't
(04:36):
exactly get up and get after it.The next day, he spent some time
alone, quite literally in the dark, need to call his mom.
Mom came down there to come see him, pick him back up, remind
him how good he is. And by the time we get around to
December, we're talking about Will Howard reaching that upper
level where his mind, body and soul must be 1 because that dude
played lights out four consecutive games.
(04:59):
He did not have a dud. He was absolutely seeing it and
making it happen with his legs and with his arm.
You learn a lot watching your starting quarterback come back
from that. And to know that he's a grad
transfer, that he knows how to win and that he can teach you
all the traits that you need to have for winning, I think puts
(05:19):
them in a great spot. So knowing the doing that,
knowing that both of those guys have had that front row seat to
watching Will Howard lead this team to a championship, knowing
that you got Jeremiah Smith overthere, knowing you got Carnell
Tate over there along with Brandon Ennis, Quincy Porter, We
expect to come along with my ownGraham.
They add Max Claire, who we think is the best tight end in
(05:41):
the portal, and you're going to be pretty good at the tailback
position. CJ Donaldson, James, People's.
We think we're going to start out there and then you're going
to return a bunch of guys that played a bunch of football
because they had to last year, right?
I think all of this is working to the good, but I also think
that Lincoln King Holds believesthat it's his time to step up
(06:02):
and take some ownership and responsibility for this football
team. One of the reasons that I think
that is he said it honestly, I think it's more like a
responsibility to kind of take over as a leader and I guess
just kind of be that guy they can lean on.
Keen Holds. OK, OK, there are lots of ways
to do that. Being a glue guy, being a locker
(06:23):
room guy is one way of doing that.
Having your head wrapped around the playbook, what it's going to
be, it's going to do that. But also, you know, winning the
starting quarterback job, not a bad act either.
Really. This is going to be for me, more
of an evaluation of Brian Hartline's style as a play
caller and Billy Fessler's styleas quarterbacks coach as to how
(06:47):
they decide to go about finding out who the guy should be for
their program. Like, I get Ryan Day is still
Ryan Day head coach, offensive genius himself, but we saw what
it looked like when he gave the play calling privileges to Chip
Kelly last year. And it worked, right?
It worked. Now they need to change what
they were doing mid season from being, hey, we're just going to
(07:08):
try to run the ball and be as physical as we can.
And the one that says we got #4 and you don't, and start feeding
that guy the rock. Like we all maintain that if
Will Howard had just thrown the ball in the direction of
Jeremiah Smith more often against Michigan, they'd
probably win that game as tight as it was.
You learn this a little too late.
(07:29):
And I don't think they're going to wait to learn this against
Texas. I'm also curious about the
combination of Hartline and Fessler, because hearing Steve
Sarkeesian talk about what quarterbacks coach AJ Millwie
has meant to him is illuminating.
Because Milwee has been a part of that program and been a part
of what Sark has been doing since he got there.
(07:51):
And he's gone out of his way to say, look, I trust that guy to
do things in my stead, which is one of the highest compliments
that any coach can pay. Another one for Ryan Day, this
was Larry Johnson senior for a while, right?
Or I guess it could still could be, you know, bringing in Chip
Kelly, a mentor to when your offense means you don't have to
worry about it either. Has he got there with Brian
(08:13):
Hartline? Is Brian Hartline got there with
Billy Fessler? Right.
Like that's all going to be veryinteresting to watch.
We're also going to find out what it's like for Brian
Hartline to put together a play calling rhythm and a tempo that
he enjoys and that he thinks canmake go for him.
As I'm continuing to take a lookat just what I can expect from,
(08:34):
I don't know, a Lincoln King Holtz that we haven't seen play
since the Cotton Bowl and a Julian saying that we knew Nick
Saban wanted to have on the menucome what, 2023, but couldn't
get to him. You would expect Julian saying
to be the guy here, right? You would expect the guy that
(08:54):
was coming out of Carlsbad, who was one of the best players in
the country, top quarterback in the country in the 2024 Class, A
guy that they really wanted Bamato relieve Jalen Millroe and
Jalen Millroe through those picks against Texas and couldn't
quite get it done. You'd expect that guy to win,
right? You would expect that guy to be
(09:14):
the guy. But if there's something that
King King, King Holtz has been working on that we just don't
know about, I'd love to see it. We can give you stats.
We can give you play making abilities.
I think Lincoln King Holtz mightbe the better athlete, but being
the better quarterback is still something that he needs to show.
Now's the time. And that's the thing he stuck,
(09:35):
stuck it out. He didn't go into the transfer
portal. He he believes he's got a chance
to win the job and he believes he's got a chance to play.
And if those things are true, now is the time to show them.
(10:10):
Back on adapt and respond with me, RJ Young, if you are here
and you have not subscribed, please go ahead and do that.
If you're listening on the podcast, go ahead and rate the
podcast, give it five stars. Also going to get to start doing
a few more live shows here and that means that we're probably
going to be reading some advertisements from here and
(10:32):
there from time to time. I do want to spend some time
talking about Mark Gronowski andwe will get to both the Sanders
and the I say the Sanders stories.
The one about Shadur Sanders at Cleveland is just kind of
interesting to me. But you know, Shudor Sanders
being what he is and then drafting where they drafted him,
(10:54):
you know, fifth round, he's the fourth string quarterback right
now. And then our fascination with
Deion Sanders is health is kind of well, I think worth us having
this conversation about. But first, always wanted to get
your NBA. What's the hold up?
(11:14):
If it's tuition fees, let me tell you, the folks at Get Money
Management Institute have a dealfor you.
At the Get Money Management Institute, they've just slashed
their entrance fee, late fee, slushy fee and your fee fee by
50%. That's you know, that's right.
That's what it says here in the script.
It's now officially affordable to get your MBA at the get money
(11:36):
Management Institute. Secure your space and their MBA
program today at the get money Management Institute.
It just takes one phone call to get this online degree that's
not worth the effort to blow your nose with it.
Mention RJ said stack dad Brad get fed you better get this
money you you better boss up andreceive an additional 20% off at
(11:58):
the online campus E bookstore secure your future with the GMMI
MB A or as they call it a masterbadass diploma today some
restrictions may apply absolutely positively no refunds
get money management institute coming through ANR all right
(12:20):
let's talk about Mark Gronowski in Iowa.
I like Iowa fans have been begging for a long time.
It feels like since like Ricky Stanfield, can we get a
quarterback in here? I mean, I guess CJ Beathard
counts here, but can we get a quarterback?
Can we can we get a functioning quarterback?
We go from can we get a functioning offense and they got
(12:40):
one right, Caleb Johnson with the offense last year to can we
get a quarterback where we can push the ball down the field?
Not a lot, not a lot. You know, we're not trying to be
2009 Texas Tech over here, but we would like the addition of
the forward pass to be reliable,if nothing else, because we know
(13:01):
what Phil Parker's defense is going to be.
Lights out each and every year. He produces studs.
He goes and gets studs. Last year it was Jay Higgins who
had, you know, 1,000,000 tacklesat Old Dominion goes Iowa has
1,000,000 tackles at Iowa. Seb Castro's come through there,
right? You've heard me wax poetic about
(13:22):
Riley Moss. You heard me talk about what
Cooper De Jean can do for you atIowa and you've heard me talk
about what Aaron Graves can be. Now get me a quarterback that
they can look up to. And I think they got that in
Mark Gronowski. Mark Gronowski could be the
difference between Iowa being a College Football Playoff team
(13:45):
and Iowa just being OK, I was going to be OK.
We know this. Kurt Farrance is going to play
the style of football to get you8 wins.
You can. I mean, if if I got to compare
and I do Dave Doran at NC State is Kurt Ference at Iowa, 789
wins. You can pretty much count on
(14:07):
that. Can you count on them to win the
ACC championship, Big 10 championship?
Probably not. Could they make that game in the
when there was a East and a West?
I don't think so anymore. But could they be the third or
four team in? Could they be Indiana this year?
Yes, with Mark Kanowski. Why?
(14:27):
Because Mark Kanowski's a stud. Over 10,000 yards passing, S to
go to state over 1700 yards rushing, 130 career TDs.
The Dude shows up and he wins. That's the most important part
of this. He doesn't make losing a habit.
I tend to believe that if you'rea winner, winning follows you
around. Winning likes to keep winning.
(14:49):
It's a habit. It's not it's not luck, right?
There are things that he's doingevery single day that have put
him and the team he is quarterbacking in position to
win those games. More than anything else, though,
Jimmy Rogers was putting together a South Dakota state
that ran the football. Like, that's why I'm excited
about what Washington State could be in the years to come.
(15:10):
You've also seen a bunch of these South Dakota State players
move up, like when Jimmy Rogers took the job at Washington
State, not everybody went with him.
And a couple of studs had made their way to the Big 10,
including a wide receiver and Northwestern and an offensive
coordinator at Northwestern. But Gronowski is going to play
for the Black Gold. I love this.
(15:32):
I love this because he's not just he's a winner and it's not
just that he has been prolific is that he fits the culture,
right. He is going to get it out the
mud. He's going to outwork you.
He's going to be a Workman like quarterback and I don't think
you're going to have anything else at Iowa.
I believe that programs take on the character of their head
(15:54):
coach and Kurt Farrance is a guythat does not like to take
chances and he values effort, hevalues work ethic.
When you look at Gronowski, you're not going to see a guy
that is throwing the ball to other people.
You're not going to see a dude that is careless with the
football. You're going to see a guy that's
(16:14):
probably going to be In Sync with Tim Lester in the way that
you would hope. But also you're going to see a
leader at the quarterback position for the first time
since Kate McNamara was not her.Again, these are things that
Iowa has craved, and I keep thinking about that 2023 Iowa
(16:34):
football team and that defense and go on, My God, what?
What what what would have happened if they just had a
functioning offense, but we alsogot a Kirk Ference who doesn't
like interceptions and certainlydoesn't care to throw the ball
into the end zone. OK, you go to Iowa to play wide
(16:55):
receiver. I don't think they should play
wide. I don't think they should call
it wide receiver anymore. I think they should call it
flanker because this the offenseis is just not going to be 1
where I see Mark Gronowski throw3000 yards.
I just don't see that happening.Could he be a 2001 thousand guy?
Also not likely. Like it's more likely that he's
like A20500600 guy. But that's because the number of
(17:18):
snaps that they're going to get as an offense are not going to
be as many as others. I if you look at Iowa and you
see what could be Michigan, yeah, that's where we're at.
I think 2023 Michigan and the style of offense and defense
they played could be what Iowa is Light, right?
(17:40):
I don't think they'll be as dominant up front and I don't
think they'll be as gifted on the back end.
But they will be competitive andthey will probably beat somebody
they're not supposed to. Now, can you get them into a
spot where that matters? Can you get them into a spot
where we're asking the question,is Iowa going to be playing in
(18:04):
the College Football Playoff come November when we get to say
not the first week of the College Football Playoff
rankings, but the second, Will they be in that conversation?
Mains to be seen, right. Mains to be seen.
But I really like him. I I do.
And I really like this get as a grad transfer.
(18:24):
I don't know that they're going to be able to continue to get
Mark Granowski's, though. And that's that's the worry.
But that's a 2026 problem in 2025.
Get that dude healthily to a football field and let's see
what the offense can do then. We're not asking for a lot here
because I think the the defense is going to be giving up 17
points or fewer, probably fewer being conservative on that
(18:48):
number. But if you can be the kind of
offense that scores 28 a game, that's it's easy for me to see
you winning 10, even with the schedule you have, right That
that that's not hard. I'm going going to Iowa to play
is still difficult as hell. Like one of my favorite
atmospheres, frankly, Iowa, Michigan was fun.
Now, Michigan won that game. But when I went there 2022,
(19:11):
yeah, that was fun. I think they can continue to do
that. Got to walk around with Dallas
Clark and make jokes for a little while.
That was cool. I don't know where that video
went, but you should go check itout because it was a lot of fun.
And if we continue to get something like a, you know,
other worldly tight end mentioning Dallas Clark,
thinking about George Kittle, sofor so on, maybe that is the way
(19:33):
in which the passing game ignites itself and we get to see
it. But for now, don't be shocked if
we are talking about Iowa playing playoff football in
November. In fact, this might be their
best chance to do just that. Music going to talk a little bit
(20:17):
about Deion Sanders health in a in a minute and I also want to
get to this cop that is, you know, she Dora Sanders is like
this Big 12 quarterback like this seventh round draft pick.
Probably see where we're going with this and why I think that
is kind of a backhanded compliment.
But we'll get to that. Just a second.
(20:37):
Maurice Pippin Ain't Easy Marketing Conference.
Does your business need to rank higher in the search engines?
Do you want everything your company touches to turn to gold?
If the answer is yes to either of those questions and your
business need and your business need wait and your business
(20:58):
needs to get your act together at Pimpin Ain't Easy Mark at the
Pimpin Ain't Easy Marketing Conference.
Attend keynote speak, attend keynote speeches made by
marketing gurus like Bishop Don Juan Slick back, participate in
workshops and learn more about your target market and how you
(21:20):
can get their attention in our high tech world from such
renowned professionals like Craig's girlfriend, Joy's sister
in law's baby cousin Tracy. This event is not free and
neither are your meals. So if you are broke booty Buster
Brown, this might not be your get down.
Only real get money hustlers need apply at the pimpin ain't
(21:43):
easymarketingconference.com. All right, let's talk about
Shadur Sanders who is 4th on thedepth chart at Cleveland with
Joe Flacco taking the lead. Kenny Pickett in second, Dylan
Gabriel in 3rd and you know how it goes.
Mostly it's Joe Flacco has shownthat there's still some juice
(22:06):
left in his arm and his legs, and he is talking like the kind
of man who expects to do something like Aaron Rodgers, I
guess, you know, be Tom Brady. Cool.
Kenny Pickett ain't looked like that guy since he was drafted.
And that was when he was throwing pass to Jordan Addison
in an offense that was built around we're going to feed the
(22:28):
ball to Jordan Addison. Mark Wibble didn't make, you
know, no bones about it. It was no, we're going to get
the ball to our best player as often as we possibly can.
I love that as an offensive philosophy, identifying who your
best offensive weapon is at Cleveland.
That's that's the job. And then which quarterback does
the best job of getting that guythe ball right?
(22:49):
I think drafting Dylan Gabriel in the third round and then
drafting Shudor Sanders in the fifth round because you see
value there is an interesting proposition.
Andrew Berry thinks there's something there, but is it
something worth, you know, comparing to 49ers starting
quarterback and Brock Purdy? He didn't do this.
(23:10):
Mary Kay Abbott, Cabot and her colleagues at cleveland.com did.
They're telling us that the ceiling for Shidur Sanders is
Brock Purdy, right? And 7th round draft pick who is
able to beat out guys like Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo for
the starting job with the San Francisco 49ers.
(23:32):
I think this had more to do withKyle Shanahan than it did Brock
Purdy. But when you look at it and you
see finally my man got paid something like $182,000,000.
It was rough going there for a while.
Now the world is much different for Dora Sanders financially
than it was to Brock Purdy when he entered the league.
I mean, I think Brock Purdy still had roommates to the
starting quarterback San Francisco, which is wild.
(23:55):
First, the rent is too damn high. 2nd, pay that man.
I mean, you got to get him living, right, OK, but when
you're talking about someone whotakes care of the football, who
is good with his decisions and given time to scan the field, is
going to make plays, you're talking about Shidor Sanders.
Like, I I get that the jersey retirement still gets on to
(24:17):
people's skin at Colorado, but the fact is the dude was best
offense player in the Big 12 last year.
He's throwing passes to a Heisman Trophy winner and that
is by definition what you were looking for.
A guy who can get the ball to the best player on the field as
often as possible doesn't mean other guys don't make catches.
I mean, Jonte Western had more than 70.
Will Shepard had a bunch of catches.
(24:38):
Jimmy Horn was productive. It meant that Travis Hunter had
96 catches, something like 14 TDs, 15 TDs, right?
We're also talking about a guy that has learned how to do this
at multiple levels. Like we talked about Shidura as
if he's been playing daddy ball the whole time, as if he didn't
play at Jackson State, Turn thatplace into a winner, play at
(25:00):
Colorado, turn that place into awinner.
The 13 and 12 stuff really bothers me because you're taking
4:00 and 8:00 and you're smashing together with nine and
four and finish the top the Big 12 Conference and you're trying
to make that a career and I'm going, OK, cool.
They get there in year 1. There's nothing.
They double the win total, but we don't talk about that.
(25:22):
We don't talk about first game out the box.
You beat the national title runner up on their home soil and
we act like that's not a big deal.
She do or Sanders did that. He's the guy that found Dylan
Edwards for the game-winning score.
Can we talk about the man as if he's a winner?
(25:43):
Can we talk about the man as if he's willing to sacrifice his
body because that's what he did in that four and eight season?
I mean, put another way, the dude took 50 sacks and broke a
vertebrae, broke a vertebrae in his back.
He broke his back. And he still came back the next
year and was more prolific and was better.
(26:04):
But the aura of playing as his father's son has just gotten
bigger. I expected it to dim because
that's usually what happens whenguys get separated from that,
that that energy, right? Prime is in Boulder.
She doers in Cleveland. I I thought that we would be
(26:25):
done with this, but no, we're comparing him now to Brock
Purdy, which, OK, cool. Brock Purdy played in Super
Bowl. Brock Purdy's quarterback for
one of the best teams in the NFLI get I get the compliment
there, but you're also telling me that you think that Brock
Purdy is not as talented as someOK, I think she doors more
talented than Brock Purdy, but that's that's an opinion, right.
(26:48):
The thing that I can tell you about Brock Purdy and she do it
that they do have in common, especially when they both played
in the Big 12. Purdy took care of the football
and he also LED Iowa State to his first major bold victory
ever. 2020 if he has the ball and a win against Oregon.
The thing that I think people forget that Brock Purdy has with
the Niners and that he had Iowa State was a running back.
(27:13):
A running back. Brock Purdy had Bruce Hall at
Iowa State. Bruce Hall was a unanimous All
American. Anytime I can hand the ball to
the guy behind me and you fear him, my job as a quarterback is
easier. Look at what he had.
So I'd knock over my own damn microphone.
(27:35):
Look at what he had with the Niners.
Is that Christian McCaffrey behind him?
Because that's what I think. Yeah.
My do, my do those. My eyes deceive me.
Now I realized Queen Shawn Jenkins is in trouble.
And I realized Nick Chubb got traded.
But give the man a running back for the first time in four years
(27:58):
and let him cook now also. That's the thing that I would
say about Dylan Gabriel. You know what Dylan Gabriel had
last year behind him? A 1200 yard rusher named Jordan
James. You can throw the ball all over
the yard when you got somebody to hand the ball to.
And oh, by the way, Sheduer still completed more than 70% of
(28:19):
his passes when the defense was screaming pass.
They had the worst run game in all of college football last
year. They could not be trusted to run
the football, which means that if he didn't throw the ball, the
offense didn't work. What happens if you give him a
balanced offense where you can pass the ball, but you can also
(28:41):
run it, too? I don't necessarily like banging
the table about this stuff, but when we come up with these sorts
of comparisons and we don't takeinto into account other
variables that matter on the football field, my analyst brain
goes off. That offense the Kyle Shanahan
(29:03):
runs is about misdirection. It's about running the football
if you are butt naked open. Yeah, Brock Purdy ought to be
able to hit. Is that George Kittle running
down there? Because it looks like it.
Come on now. Make make me understand how
should Dewar Sanders would not be a better quarterback with the
(29:25):
same tools that Brock Purdy has.If anything, we're not aiming
high enough when we talk about what should do.
Or Sanders could be at Cleveland.
But being the fourth string quarterback and being the fifth
round draft pick and the youngest dude quite literally in
(29:46):
that room, it's going to be an uphill battle for him to get on
the field in the 1st place. So we may be getting ahead of
this all together, but I think it's important to recognize if
he gets a shot, I expect he willplay well and it will be very
difficult to get that man off the football field.
(30:28):
Let's talk a little bit about coach Pride and his help, which
he does not want to address publicly.
I think Rick George got as closeto it as anybody.
But there was a column written by Pat Rooney at Buff Zone,
right? Three points column, I think is
is little edgy, little edgy, little edgy.
(30:51):
So I'm going to give Pat his full 2 paragraphs here because I
think it's important that he gets context before we start
asking these questions that I'm about to ask.
Right. So what he wrote was Coach
Sanders didn't discuss the on his ongoing health issues during
Big 12 media days earlier this month.
Understandable. But the questions aren't going
(31:12):
away just because Sanders wants them to.
Whether Sanders discusses his extended spring summer absence
from campus when the Buffs open pre season workouts on July 28th
remains to be seen. But at the outset of this third
season at CU, he already endureda litany of serious medical
(31:35):
matters. In 2021, Sanders had a pair of
toes amputated. In the summer of 2023, ahead of
his first season with the buff, Sanders had two surgeries to
address blood clots in his legs.We know about the surgeries
because he told us, OK? We don't know about any of the
(31:58):
other medical history because hetold us.
I also add in here, find me an old football player who has not
had major surgeries after the age of 40.
Go ahead, find them. Find me guys that'll have knee
replacements, hip replacements. Find me guys that don't have
(32:21):
arthritic hands. Find me guys that still run out
the tunnel or can be trusted andrun out of the tunnel or don't
waddle when they walk right. One of my best friends is former
offensive lineman in the NFL, Jerry Ostrosky.
Jerry does a podcast about Billsthat you should go check out.
Jerry is one of my favorite people and quite frankly made
(32:41):
room for me to get my solo sports talk show host locally.
Like looked up at the program director and the owner of the
radio station said, hey, I'm going to go do something else.
But RJ needs to get this spot. And I say this, say this part,
Jerry needs to move around before he moves around, OK.
But he would not trade any bit of his football career to get
(33:07):
back anything that he has lost or perceived to have lost
because Jerry lives a pretty cool life.
I mean, his boys also played football.
His boy Owen just got done playing at TU.
He's going to finish his career at Northern Iowa, where his Big
Brother Jackson is a coach. Is living your best life.
All while Jerry is also, yeah, aformer All American and got to
(33:28):
play in Atlanta and Buffalo, loves Buffalo.
And we'll talk my ear off about State of Pennsylvania's football
programs and teams from the Philly Eagles to Penn State.
And then every now and again, TUfootball comes up.
I tend to believe, especially asI run into ordered football
players that are much larger than I am.
(33:49):
You're going to have these problems.
You're going to you're going to have these physical ailments.
It's going to suck. And I think maybe there's a part
of Prime that has believed that anything he says about himself
or anybody else is likely to endup getting talked about.
Turns out, if he doesn't talk about it, that's going to
continue to happen too. And we know that he has had, you
(34:11):
know, relationships with media that, you know, he just doesn't
trust some and others he trusts quite a bit.
Others he'll cite. But anytime something like this
happens, I wonder how he will choose to address this because
it is one thing for people to speculate on what his health is.
(34:31):
I don't know. I'm not going to speculate.
I'm just going to say, hey, Bucky was the first person to
raise an alarm for me. And since then, Prime looks
good. He was at Big 12 media days.
He met all his commitments there.
And he did a really good job advocating for the coaches.
And his idea of a salary cap that he doesn't need to be
around when it ain't time to be around doesn't bother me.
(34:52):
It it it doesn't bother me. That's why you've got
assistance. That's why you've got
assistance, you know, help with these matters, why you got gym
managers, why you got secretary so forth.
So that people can handle these things when it ain't your turn
to handle these things because frankly, it's about winning
football games. I don't think he needs to
address himself. You know why I know this Nick
(35:13):
Saban had hip surgery and almostas soon as the like the next
damn day it felt he playing golf.
It happens. Why don't we talk about Bill
Belichick's age? You know, why don't we?
Why why don't we talk about these 70 plus year old coaches
age because, well, they're not revealing to us their physical
limitations. I mean, some of these are just
(35:35):
seen. You're not going to ask Bill
Belichick to run No 3 miles, runNo 40 yard dash.
Why? Why is it important to us that
Prime demonstrates that he is virile and healthy?
Because it is important to so many that Prime demonstrates
that he's supposed to be here. I still think that there are so
many people that are not just upset with Prime being Prime.
(36:02):
They're upset that he got here without perceive having to pay
dues, right? Perceive to pay dues.
Get out of here, man. The dude, the dude is the
youngest among the coaches in the Big 12.
And as far as coaching career, right?
Like Kenny Dillingham comes close, but Kenny Dillingham had
(36:22):
been an assistant, quality control assistant, so forth, so
on. But when it was time to ask
someone to step up and say how we feel, Kyle Wittenham wasn't
the guy that people looked at. Willie Fritz wasn't the guy that
people looked at. Rich Rodriguez wasn't the guy
that people looked at. They looked at Deion Sanders,
who got started coaching collegefootball in 2020, had that one
(36:47):
year to get on the good foot, go4:00 and 3:00 and all of a
sudden they win 12 games. Come again, they win 12 games.
Damn, he gets to Colorado. Well, this big boy football,
they go four and eight. Did you realize they went 2 and
10 the year before? Nevermind they went nine and
four after that. And now we're going into a
summer where we expect Colorado to keep doing Colorado stuff.
(37:07):
Which is to say they don't necessarily think the end all be
all is win the Big 12 Conference.
It will happen. It will help, right?
Because everybody in that league's probably going to catch
2 losses. What they want is to make the
College Football Playoff. But it is difficult to do that
catch two loss in the Big 12. That's where I want the
conversation to be. I want the conversation to be
about a Georgia Tech team that shouldn't nobody want to play,
(37:28):
that they got to play and how the atmosphere will feel when
they play that game. But I don't think that pointing
out that Prime is not spoken publicly about his health is any
way to get him to talk about it.And honestly, as long as he's
coaching football, I tend to think he's healthy.
(37:48):
Until such a time as he says he's not, or we get evidence to
the contrary. Just leave it the hell alone,
all right? That's going to do it for this
episode of Adapt and Respond. If you like the show, subscribe
to it on YouTube, rate it and subscribe to it on Apple and
Spotify. If you're listening on the audio
podcast and we will see you all next time.
(38:10):
We about to be really up and running and really going with
this thing. It's about to get really cool.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!