July 27, 2025 • 20 mins
--RJ gives his strong opinions on the biggest topics in college football, sports and entertainment every week.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:21):
What's up kid folk, it's RJ Young.
I am not on a step mill. If this is your first time
watching adapting response, 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 videoand answer the question in the
comments below. Is Ohio State national
championship real? Even though there's this one
(00:42):
asterisk that we got to talk about, Nico Iamaliaba says it
ain't about the money. But is it?
I'm asking you, Kurt Zignetti, saying all the right things.
Can Indiana make a return to theCollege Football Playoff in
2025? Also want to invite you to
subscribe to the podcast on Apple and Spotify.
And if you do that and you fill out the form in the description
below on YouTube, I will send you a sticker.
(01:04):
We're about to part putting merch on the site, which is
great, but none of that merch isgoing to be a sticker.
I understand that a lot of people want stickers, but the
way to get a sticker is to subscribe to the Apple and
Spotify podcast and then fill out the link below.
I really enjoy sending out the stickers.
A lot of them have gone out. There been over 150 stickers
(01:24):
that we sent out so far. I would love to send out more
than 1000 before we get to Week 1.
We'll see how that goes. If we get to that number, it's
probably a little audacious for us.
We get to 1000 for the college football season.
That's probably a better, betterroute to go.
And we're on the cusp of doing something really cool here on
Adapt and respond, and I really enjoy you being a part of the
process. Those are my day ones.
(01:46):
We've been here since around thestep mill days.
I appreciate you more than you know.
Those of you that are just joining up welcome.
It's a vibrant community. We got really 3 speeds here.
We give a fist pound, we get an upside sound face.
If you say something I think is offsides or ridiculous and when
you get a, you're not, you're onmy land.
If you're really just trying to come at me in the wrong way, I,
(02:07):
I'm in the comments, I'll read your comments.
I expect you to be articulate inyour comments and I expect you
to make them about the topics that we're talking about, making
them about me. Hey, dog, you might not be able
to comment on the show anymore. That's just how it goes.
We, we're not, we're not playingwith this.
If you're on the team, then you're on the team.
You're not on the team. You're not on the team, which is
how I want to enter into this conversation about Ohio State
(02:28):
and Michigan and more importantly, Michigan deciding
to lean in on a subject that I'mwriting about. foxsports.com.
You go check it out about Ohio State, Michigan, who really runs
the Big 10. And it is piggybacking on this
thought, right? It is.
Can Ohio State really be in charge of the Big 10 if they
haven't won the Big 10 championship since 2019 and if
(02:49):
their national championship did not come with a win against
Michigan, for whom they lost four times in a row at one
point? We're talking about 10 damn
years with Ohio State lording over the University of Michigan.
And then Jim Harbaugh found a way to get this thing upright
and running and then win a national championship, run the
table in 2023, going undefeated,15 and oh, only needing to coach
(03:10):
9 games on the sideline. Now we can talk about the
suspensions in another segment, and we have and we will.
But I'm going to say Jim Harbaugh built a system, built a
program that could operate at a high level without him on the
sideline. And for that, he deserves all
the credit in the world. One of the hallmarks of a very
well run institution is that when the figurehead and not the
(03:32):
figurehead, excuse me, when the head of the company leaves,
college football is a business. It still operates as it should
because all of the people that you have hired and the systems
that you put in place are functioning without you needing
to oversee them. That is an enormous
accomplishment. Accomplishment in what we think
of as American capitalism in 2025.
(03:53):
I don't think that's true in most instances.
Matter of fact, when a college football coach is no longer in
charge, we watch the program go into disarray before it comes
out. More often than not.
There's almost never a seamless transition between a head coach
and the next head coach. But in Ohio State and Michigan's
case, you saw that Jim Harbaugh knew that Sharon Moore was the
(04:15):
guy to lead, put him in place, and his first year was a success
by anybody's measure. He didn't nail the quarterback,
but he did beat Ohio State and he did beat Alabama, which means
that he beat the defending SEC champions at the time, and then
he beat the defending national champions.
Now, if he gets the quarterback thing sorted out, Michigan is
(04:36):
going to be a force in the Big 10 in 2025.
But that's really what we're talking about, right?
It's it's can Michigan assert itself, assert its dominance in
the Big 10 in 2025 with Ohio State defending its national
championship while also saying we're not defending anything?
That team in 2024 was 2024. This 2025 Philadelphia Eagles
are saying the same thing, right?
(04:56):
We're not defending anything. We're chasing 2025.
That's all well and good. I'm glad that y'all had that
mindset inside of your building,in your locker room.
But we talk about you outside ofthat place and we talk about you
behind your back and we talk about you as if you are the
defending champs because that's who you are in our mind's eye.
And our mind's eye is wake. What makes up the sport?
(05:17):
If we didn't think that Ohio State and Michigan were
worthwhile, they would not be. That's that's fan sentiment.
That is commentary sentiment. As much as we want to give
control to these programs because we want to believe in
them. I mean, the short answer is we
care more about Ohio State. We do then we do Boise State,
San Diego State, so forth, so on.
So when Derek Moore comes through Big 10 Media Days in
(05:39):
Vegas for what feels like it's going to be the first and only
time because Tony Petit was veryclear the media days event was
in Vegas because there's renovations going on in
Indianapolis at Lucas Oil. They believe that Indianapolis
is their home and they will treat it that way for their
media days and for their Big 10 championship game.
So Derek Moore interested in theconversation by saying, first,
I'd like to congratulate them onthe win, then being Ohio State.
(06:04):
But you know, if it's not, excuse me, but you know, it's
not no real win if y'all ain't beat us.
All right, I get that people want to quote him how they want
to quote him. But you can, you can, you can
take off a man, you can say, butit's not a real win if y'all
ain't beat us. I I get that part.
(06:25):
It goes on. Sharon Moore, when I asked about
Derek Moore's comments, he said they won a national title.
They were the best team at the end of the year.
So I give them all the credit. They were all, they were well
deserving. They played really well.
They're obviously wanted. They obviously wanted it all.
So kudos to them. I keep going here.
Derek Moore. I feel like I could have done a
(06:46):
better job as a leader of not letting that get out of control,
talking about the flag plant incident.
But at the same time, I feel like that right there is pretty
much why people come to Michiganor Ohio State.
The rivalry, the atmosphere. Remember that Michigan planted a
flag on the old block at Ohio State 2023 after the win because
(07:08):
this Ohio State team was the best team that they had ever
seen and they still managed to beat them 13 to 10 in Columbus
fourth straight year. I say it's the best team that
they've seen because that team won the national championship.
I don't care that you might think the 2021 team was more
talented, or even the 2022 team if that's where you want to go.
I think that if they played in 2020, this would be a different
(07:31):
conversation altogether. I think we're living in Earth
61838 instead of 616 if they played this game in 2020 because
I think Michigan was going to lose that game by a lot, but it
didn't get played. If they had lost that game by a
lot, I don't think alumni would have been able to stomach Jim
Harbaugh for another year. Instead they force fed him a
contract that was incentive based and quite literally
(07:52):
disrespectful, and he outperformed it.
And in outperforming it, he alsogot what he wanted, which is
everything he needed to win a national championship.
And Jerome Moore in charge when he decides to go coach the LA
Chargers. I think Michigan understands how
we view college football. Like I was saying this last week
when I wrote a piece about Georgia running the SEC All
(08:13):
roads through Sanford, right? Ole Miss measured its season by
beating Georgia, knowing that they could have been in the
College Football Playoff had they taken a little bit better
care of themselves in the football.
If you can beat Georgia, you feel like a team that can play
in the national championship game.
That is what it is. Georgia plays, Texas close,
Texas loses. Georgia plays Texas close again,
(08:34):
Texas loses. Texas still makes College
Football Playoff as NC champion.SEC champion runner up and they
make the college football semi final for the next.
I mean, for the second consecutive year, we measured
Alabama against Beaton, Georgia,knowing that they underperformed
because they underperformed against I think what was the
number two team in the country at the time.
And that vaulted Alabama to number one with the win.
(08:55):
And then they gave it all back with the loss to Vanderbilt and
later with a loss to Tennessee and Oklahoma before losing to
Michigan. Michigan also recognizes how the
sport is being governed and how the sport is being played.
And right now, for better or forworse, the opinions of a few
people matter than more than themillions.
The opinions of selection committee, the opinions of
(09:17):
people like myself who ranked the teams in the top 25 for
national audience and more importantly and most
importantly, you. You don't want to see Southern
Methodist employee state play for a national championship.
You would much rather see Odor Dame, Notre Dame and Ohio State.
I also think you would not mind Ohio State and Michigan, as
we've seen Alabama and Georgia feature in the national
championship game twice, and both times it was outstanding,
(09:39):
It was great, we enjoyed it. We want to see the best teams in
the sport play each other at theend of the season for the
national title. That's why we created a playoff
system. There's also this point to raise
that Ohio State knows what Michigan is saying on his
baseline is true, right? Sharon Moore said all the things
he's supposed to say cuz he's head coach.
(10:01):
Derek Moore is not a head coach.Derek Moore is a player on the
field who beat Ohio State straight up.
He's earned the right to tell them.
They ain't done nothing. If you're an Ohio State player,
you heard this and you hear thisfrom your community, your
neighborhood, people you go to class with.
There are many, many, many benefits to be in a Iowa State
football player. One of them is you're meant it,
(10:22):
right? But if you get your gold pants,
there's nothing anybody can say to you.
And now we've got an entire class of Ohio State players who
never won against Michigan. And some of those players are
really, really talented. I'm thinking about CJ Stroud.
I'm thinking about I get his Quin, Shawn Judkins.
I'm thinking about a Mecca Buca,quite frankly, right.
(10:44):
That's a 2021 guy. Guys they brought back to win
the national title could not gettheir gold pants against
Michigan. This is also important because
the NCAA thought it was worth sanctioning Ohio State over
players giving away their gold pants for some tattoos.
Tattoos last forever. So do the gold pants.
I think the opposites are important here, but it's also
(11:05):
getting under the skin of Ohio State fans that they could face
a postseason ban and Michigan could not.
Michigan who cheated on the field.
Ohio State players who accepted impermissible benefits that led
to Jim Tressel's ouster. Luke Beckle.
Haven't Luke Fickle having a badyear?
But then that 2012, 12 year, that 2012 year was taken away
(11:26):
from them. That team went undefeated.
I submit to you, Urban Meyer would have won the 2012 national
championship with that team. Now, you can tell me that you
think it's different. You can tell me that Notre Dame
might not have been as good. You can tell me all sorts of
things about what you think about the 2012 teams.
But I think that team had earnedthe right to play for the
(11:47):
national title, and it was takenaway from them by an NCAA.
Who might look back on that the way they looked at the Reggie
Bush Heisman situation. Now, when they leveled their,
excuse me, the penalties againstUSC, they didn't say Reggie got
to give back the Heisman. Reggie gave back the Heisman to
the Heisman Trust willingly. The Heisman Trust was unwilling
to give it back to him or reinstate him until name, image
(12:09):
and likeness comes along. So it's more about what the
Heisman Trust was doing and lessabout the NCAA.
But it was precipitated by the NCAA's pointing out the USUS CS
running back, best running back they've ever had, got given
stuff you weren't supposed to begiven at the time.
Now this, this seems ridiculous,and it's always seemed
ridiculous because that's what the sport is.
(12:31):
But I would be remiss if I did not tell you Michigan has still
been managed to beat Ohio State,win a national championship, win
the Big 10 Championship 3. The last four years with all
everything else going on with Matt Weiss, with infractions
case with Jim Harbaugh, recruiting violation, Cherone
Moore and recruiting violations,it doesn't seem to matter.
So if Derek Moore says that it'snot real, Ohio State has one
(12:53):
thing they can do about it. Come the final week of the
season when you play the team upnorth in Ann Arbor, you got to
go get a win. We'll be back with more talking
about what Nikolai and Malayalamhad to say about taking the
money and why I think what he's saying is preposterous.
(13:33):
Back on Adapt and respond with me, RJ Young.
If you're new to the channel, subscribe like this video.
Answer the question in the comments below.
Do you think Niko Iamaliaba should be talking about the
money situation, the holdout situation, Tennessee?
Or do you believe in when he says, you know, he didn't leave
Tennessee because of money? I was going to tell you that we
got an audio podcast this. That's the way in which you want
(13:55):
to listen right now. There are no ads on it, so go
get it. We do this often enough.
Three times a week is what I promised.
But we sometimes do longer showslike this one or shorter shows
like this one, depending on where you live.
Like if it's 30-40 minutes that you're looking for, this is
going to come short of that. But it is a longer show for what
we've been doing on YouTube, which is basically between 8 and
(14:16):
10 minutes, which is a full segment.
For those of you that don't knoware new to the channel, I host a
radio by myself, solo talk radioshow host, kind of like Colin
Coward or Jim Rome in Tulsa at 97.1 The Sports Animal from 9:00
to 11:00 AM until I got a job atESPN hosting game night.
(14:36):
And then later this one in October 2020 where my boss calls
me up, says, hey, do you want totalk about college football for
a living? Write about college football for
a living. I said hell yeah, I do.
And that's where I've been ever since.
You can read my work at foxsports.com.
I'll do other digital and television things later this
year, but this is the show. OK, So Niko, Niko Iyamalayava
(14:57):
shows up at UCLA, and UCLA is very excited about this.
Deshawn Foster gets to introduceNiko Iyamalayava as a guy who is
going to probably be their quarterback in 2025, and the
locker room is ecstatic. They understand they got a
California guy who knows how to play ball.
(15:18):
It's a five star process. Like probably a better
volleyball player than a quarterback.
He's damn good quarterback, but it gives them a little bit more
of an edge. It gives them a little life to
what they're doing. Niko Yamaliaba's name rings out
much larger than Joey Aguilar's might have, and that is going
into the context of this conversation.
However, Niko Yamaliaba reportedly did not report to
(15:44):
camp or said he was not going toreport to the spring game, which
I think is part of camp, if he did not get a raise.
So he held out. He didn't go show up to practice
and he didn't show up the springgame.
I think at the time he's thinking Tennessee has nothing
else they can do but pay me. They they got to come up with a
way here because they can't go get another quarterback.
(16:05):
To which Tennessee said, fool, you thought so they told him he
could kick rocks, go into the transfer portal.
That's what you want to do. You're not going to hold this
hostage. And the rest of the college
football world love that. Shows up at UCLA, gets invited
with Deshawn Foster the Big 10 media days.
And what did he say about the money situation?
That Tennessee. His transferring had nothing to
(16:28):
do with money. OK quote is not at all.
My family was strictly the main importance for me.
I let my business team, my parents handle that side of the
NIL. Just being closer to family was
the most important thing. OK, dog, so why did you commit
(16:50):
to to Tennessee? So why'd you sign with
Tennessee? So why you play, you know, two
years at Tennessee? Why'd you lead them to the
College Football Playoff in 2023?
Because it's not as if you couldn't have gone to UCLA or
USC or Washington or Oregon or any other place, but you
committed to Tennessee because that's where you wanted to be.
(17:14):
It's hard for me to take that quote and make it feel like it
is trustworthy. It's accurate.
It's accurate. And I think that Nico is
speaking the truth on what he believes and feels.
But that ain't how we believe inhow we feel.
We do think it was about money because this is America and we
(17:36):
have a capitalist system. Everything is about money.
It's about the bottom line. I think Nico wants to believe
that he's got a clean slate and that there are enough people
rooting for him at UCLA to do well, that it's not going to
much matter what he did at Tennessee or didn't do Tennessee
or how he left Tennessee. But in the context of college
(17:58):
football nationally, and UCLA isa nationally recognized program,
you're going to have to show us that in other ways.
You saying it ain't going to do it now.
He got asked about it. I'm sure he answered because he
got asked about it, but he didn't leave with it.
I am going to say if this is theplaybook that you're going to
use, where you want to be closerto family, where you think the
(18:21):
most important thing that peoplewant to hear is it's not about
the money. That should have been the case
of Tennessee. It should never have been
anybody hearing that you were holding out.
You shouldn't have been reportedthat you got $350,000 at a high
school to sign and then they were paying you more than $2.1
million a year to play football.It should be mentioned that you
(18:45):
are not the engine for that Tennessee offense Dylan Sampson
was. It should be mentioned that you
needed Max protection, two guys and routes most of the time.
It should be mentioned that yourdual threat ability was stunted.
You didn't take off with the ball as much.
It should be noted that you beatup on bad teams, then got beat
(19:07):
by Arkansas after, you know, winning against Tennessee, and
then get absolutely tranced by Ohio State.
I want this conversation to inform other parties what might
happen if you decide to go this route.
(19:27):
I don't think you can be a middling SEC quarterback and
hold a blue blood program like Tennessee hostage.
That said, when you get to a place like UCLA and you tell us
that it's not about the money, it's hard to believe.
Now, if he turns UCLA into a world beater, the segment might
(19:50):
feel bad. But even if he does, Tennessee's
probably going to feel about Nico the way they feel about
Lane Kiffin. And let me tell you something,
that ain't no fun either. All right?
OK, that's going to do it for this shorter episode of the
Number One. The Number One.
Damn it, I did it again. Adapt and respond with me.
RJ Young. Subscribe on the podcast.
(20:10):
We're going to take a short break from doing the full
episodes as your man has some birthday activities that he's
going to get up to, but I will see y'all very soon.
Enjoy your weekend, deuces.
What's up kid folk, it's RJ Young.
I am not on a step mill. If this is your first time
watching adapting response, 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 videoand answer the question in the
comments below. Is Ohio State national
championship real? Even though there's this one
(00:42):
asterisk that we got to talk about, Nico Iamaliaba says it
ain't about the money. But is it?
I'm asking you, Kurt Zignetti, saying all the right things.
Can Indiana make a return to theCollege Football Playoff in
2025? Also want to invite you to
subscribe to the podcast on Apple and Spotify.
And if you do that and you fill out the form in the description
below on YouTube, I will send you a sticker.
(01:04):
We're about to part putting merch on the site, which is
great, but none of that merch isgoing to be a sticker.
I understand that a lot of people want stickers, but the
way to get a sticker is to subscribe to the Apple and
Spotify podcast and then fill out the link below.
I really enjoy sending out the stickers.
A lot of them have gone out. There been over 150 stickers
(01:24):
that we sent out so far. I would love to send out more
than 1000 before we get to Week 1.
We'll see how that goes. If we get to that number, it's
probably a little audacious for us.
We get to 1000 for the college football season.
That's probably a better, betterroute to go.
And we're on the cusp of doing something really cool here on
Adapt and respond, and I really enjoy you being a part of the
process. Those are my day ones.
(01:46):
We've been here since around thestep mill days.
I appreciate you more than you know.
Those of you that are just joining up welcome.
It's a vibrant community. We got really 3 speeds here.
We give a fist pound, we get an upside sound face.
If you say something I think is offsides or ridiculous and when
you get a, you're not, you're onmy land.
If you're really just trying to come at me in the wrong way, I,
(02:07):
I'm in the comments, I'll read your comments.
I expect you to be articulate inyour comments and I expect you
to make them about the topics that we're talking about, making
them about me. Hey, dog, you might not be able
to comment on the show anymore. That's just how it goes.
We, we're not, we're not playingwith this.
If you're on the team, then you're on the team.
You're not on the team. You're not on the team, which is
how I want to enter into this conversation about Ohio State
(02:28):
and Michigan and more importantly, Michigan deciding
to lean in on a subject that I'mwriting about. foxsports.com.
You go check it out about Ohio State, Michigan, who really runs
the Big 10. And it is piggybacking on this
thought, right? It is.
Can Ohio State really be in charge of the Big 10 if they
haven't won the Big 10 championship since 2019 and if
(02:49):
their national championship did not come with a win against
Michigan, for whom they lost four times in a row at one
point? We're talking about 10 damn
years with Ohio State lording over the University of Michigan.
And then Jim Harbaugh found a way to get this thing upright
and running and then win a national championship, run the
table in 2023, going undefeated,15 and oh, only needing to coach
(03:10):
9 games on the sideline. Now we can talk about the
suspensions in another segment, and we have and we will.
But I'm going to say Jim Harbaugh built a system, built a
program that could operate at a high level without him on the
sideline. And for that, he deserves all
the credit in the world. One of the hallmarks of a very
well run institution is that when the figurehead and not the
(03:32):
figurehead, excuse me, when the head of the company leaves,
college football is a business. It still operates as it should
because all of the people that you have hired and the systems
that you put in place are functioning without you needing
to oversee them. That is an enormous
accomplishment. Accomplishment in what we think
of as American capitalism in 2025.
(03:53):
I don't think that's true in most instances.
Matter of fact, when a college football coach is no longer in
charge, we watch the program go into disarray before it comes
out. More often than not.
There's almost never a seamless transition between a head coach
and the next head coach. But in Ohio State and Michigan's
case, you saw that Jim Harbaugh knew that Sharon Moore was the
(04:15):
guy to lead, put him in place, and his first year was a success
by anybody's measure. He didn't nail the quarterback,
but he did beat Ohio State and he did beat Alabama, which means
that he beat the defending SEC champions at the time, and then
he beat the defending national champions.
Now, if he gets the quarterback thing sorted out, Michigan is
(04:36):
going to be a force in the Big 10 in 2025.
But that's really what we're talking about, right?
It's it's can Michigan assert itself, assert its dominance in
the Big 10 in 2025 with Ohio State defending its national
championship while also saying we're not defending anything?
That team in 2024 was 2024. This 2025 Philadelphia Eagles
are saying the same thing, right?
(04:56):
We're not defending anything. We're chasing 2025.
That's all well and good. I'm glad that y'all had that
mindset inside of your building,in your locker room.
But we talk about you outside ofthat place and we talk about you
behind your back and we talk about you as if you are the
defending champs because that's who you are in our mind's eye.
And our mind's eye is wake. What makes up the sport?
(05:17):
If we didn't think that Ohio State and Michigan were
worthwhile, they would not be. That's that's fan sentiment.
That is commentary sentiment. As much as we want to give
control to these programs because we want to believe in
them. I mean, the short answer is we
care more about Ohio State. We do then we do Boise State,
San Diego State, so forth, so on.
So when Derek Moore comes through Big 10 Media Days in
(05:39):
Vegas for what feels like it's going to be the first and only
time because Tony Petit was veryclear the media days event was
in Vegas because there's renovations going on in
Indianapolis at Lucas Oil. They believe that Indianapolis
is their home and they will treat it that way for their
media days and for their Big 10 championship game.
So Derek Moore interested in theconversation by saying, first,
I'd like to congratulate them onthe win, then being Ohio State.
(06:04):
But you know, if it's not, excuse me, but you know, it's
not no real win if y'all ain't beat us.
All right, I get that people want to quote him how they want
to quote him. But you can, you can, you can
take off a man, you can say, butit's not a real win if y'all
ain't beat us. I I get that part.
(06:25):
It goes on. Sharon Moore, when I asked about
Derek Moore's comments, he said they won a national title.
They were the best team at the end of the year.
So I give them all the credit. They were all, they were well
deserving. They played really well.
They're obviously wanted. They obviously wanted it all.
So kudos to them. I keep going here.
Derek Moore. I feel like I could have done a
(06:46):
better job as a leader of not letting that get out of control,
talking about the flag plant incident.
But at the same time, I feel like that right there is pretty
much why people come to Michiganor Ohio State.
The rivalry, the atmosphere. Remember that Michigan planted a
flag on the old block at Ohio State 2023 after the win because
(07:08):
this Ohio State team was the best team that they had ever
seen and they still managed to beat them 13 to 10 in Columbus
fourth straight year. I say it's the best team that
they've seen because that team won the national championship.
I don't care that you might think the 2021 team was more
talented, or even the 2022 team if that's where you want to go.
I think that if they played in 2020, this would be a different
(07:31):
conversation altogether. I think we're living in Earth
61838 instead of 616 if they played this game in 2020 because
I think Michigan was going to lose that game by a lot, but it
didn't get played. If they had lost that game by a
lot, I don't think alumni would have been able to stomach Jim
Harbaugh for another year. Instead they force fed him a
contract that was incentive based and quite literally
(07:52):
disrespectful, and he outperformed it.
And in outperforming it, he alsogot what he wanted, which is
everything he needed to win a national championship.
And Jerome Moore in charge when he decides to go coach the LA
Chargers. I think Michigan understands how
we view college football. Like I was saying this last week
when I wrote a piece about Georgia running the SEC All
(08:13):
roads through Sanford, right? Ole Miss measured its season by
beating Georgia, knowing that they could have been in the
College Football Playoff had they taken a little bit better
care of themselves in the football.
If you can beat Georgia, you feel like a team that can play
in the national championship game.
That is what it is. Georgia plays, Texas close,
Texas loses. Georgia plays Texas close again,
(08:34):
Texas loses. Texas still makes College
Football Playoff as NC champion.SEC champion runner up and they
make the college football semi final for the next.
I mean, for the second consecutive year, we measured
Alabama against Beaton, Georgia,knowing that they underperformed
because they underperformed against I think what was the
number two team in the country at the time.
And that vaulted Alabama to number one with the win.
(08:55):
And then they gave it all back with the loss to Vanderbilt and
later with a loss to Tennessee and Oklahoma before losing to
Michigan. Michigan also recognizes how the
sport is being governed and how the sport is being played.
And right now, for better or forworse, the opinions of a few
people matter than more than themillions.
The opinions of selection committee, the opinions of
(09:17):
people like myself who ranked the teams in the top 25 for
national audience and more importantly and most
importantly, you. You don't want to see Southern
Methodist employee state play for a national championship.
You would much rather see Odor Dame, Notre Dame and Ohio State.
I also think you would not mind Ohio State and Michigan, as
we've seen Alabama and Georgia feature in the national
championship game twice, and both times it was outstanding,
(09:39):
It was great, we enjoyed it. We want to see the best teams in
the sport play each other at theend of the season for the
national title. That's why we created a playoff
system. There's also this point to raise
that Ohio State knows what Michigan is saying on his
baseline is true, right? Sharon Moore said all the things
he's supposed to say cuz he's head coach.
(10:01):
Derek Moore is not a head coach.Derek Moore is a player on the
field who beat Ohio State straight up.
He's earned the right to tell them.
They ain't done nothing. If you're an Ohio State player,
you heard this and you hear thisfrom your community, your
neighborhood, people you go to class with.
There are many, many, many benefits to be in a Iowa State
football player. One of them is you're meant it,
(10:22):
right? But if you get your gold pants,
there's nothing anybody can say to you.
And now we've got an entire class of Ohio State players who
never won against Michigan. And some of those players are
really, really talented. I'm thinking about CJ Stroud.
I'm thinking about I get his Quin, Shawn Judkins.
I'm thinking about a Mecca Buca,quite frankly, right.
(10:44):
That's a 2021 guy. Guys they brought back to win
the national title could not gettheir gold pants against
Michigan. This is also important because
the NCAA thought it was worth sanctioning Ohio State over
players giving away their gold pants for some tattoos.
Tattoos last forever. So do the gold pants.
I think the opposites are important here, but it's also
(11:05):
getting under the skin of Ohio State fans that they could face
a postseason ban and Michigan could not.
Michigan who cheated on the field.
Ohio State players who accepted impermissible benefits that led
to Jim Tressel's ouster. Luke Beckle.
Haven't Luke Fickle having a badyear?
But then that 2012, 12 year, that 2012 year was taken away
(11:26):
from them. That team went undefeated.
I submit to you, Urban Meyer would have won the 2012 national
championship with that team. Now, you can tell me that you
think it's different. You can tell me that Notre Dame
might not have been as good. You can tell me all sorts of
things about what you think about the 2012 teams.
But I think that team had earnedthe right to play for the
(11:47):
national title, and it was takenaway from them by an NCAA.
Who might look back on that the way they looked at the Reggie
Bush Heisman situation. Now, when they leveled their,
excuse me, the penalties againstUSC, they didn't say Reggie got
to give back the Heisman. Reggie gave back the Heisman to
the Heisman Trust willingly. The Heisman Trust was unwilling
to give it back to him or reinstate him until name, image
(12:09):
and likeness comes along. So it's more about what the
Heisman Trust was doing and lessabout the NCAA.
But it was precipitated by the NCAA's pointing out the USUS CS
running back, best running back they've ever had, got given
stuff you weren't supposed to begiven at the time.
Now this, this seems ridiculous,and it's always seemed
ridiculous because that's what the sport is.
(12:31):
But I would be remiss if I did not tell you Michigan has still
been managed to beat Ohio State,win a national championship, win
the Big 10 Championship 3. The last four years with all
everything else going on with Matt Weiss, with infractions
case with Jim Harbaugh, recruiting violation, Cherone
Moore and recruiting violations,it doesn't seem to matter.
So if Derek Moore says that it'snot real, Ohio State has one
(12:53):
thing they can do about it. Come the final week of the
season when you play the team upnorth in Ann Arbor, you got to
go get a win. We'll be back with more talking
about what Nikolai and Malayalamhad to say about taking the
money and why I think what he's saying is preposterous.
(13:33):
Back on Adapt and respond with me, RJ Young.
If you're new to the channel, subscribe like this video.
Answer the question in the comments below.
Do you think Niko Iamaliaba should be talking about the
money situation, the holdout situation, Tennessee?
Or do you believe in when he says, you know, he didn't leave
Tennessee because of money? I was going to tell you that we
got an audio podcast this. That's the way in which you want
(13:55):
to listen right now. There are no ads on it, so go
get it. We do this often enough.
Three times a week is what I promised.
But we sometimes do longer showslike this one or shorter shows
like this one, depending on where you live.
Like if it's 30-40 minutes that you're looking for, this is
going to come short of that. But it is a longer show for what
we've been doing on YouTube, which is basically between 8 and
(14:16):
10 minutes, which is a full segment.
For those of you that don't knoware new to the channel, I host a
radio by myself, solo talk radioshow host, kind of like Colin
Coward or Jim Rome in Tulsa at 97.1 The Sports Animal from 9:00
to 11:00 AM until I got a job atESPN hosting game night.
(14:36):
And then later this one in October 2020 where my boss calls
me up, says, hey, do you want totalk about college football for
a living? Write about college football for
a living. I said hell yeah, I do.
And that's where I've been ever since.
You can read my work at foxsports.com.
I'll do other digital and television things later this
year, but this is the show. OK, So Niko, Niko Iyamalayava
(14:57):
shows up at UCLA, and UCLA is very excited about this.
Deshawn Foster gets to introduceNiko Iyamalayava as a guy who is
going to probably be their quarterback in 2025, and the
locker room is ecstatic. They understand they got a
California guy who knows how to play ball.
(15:18):
It's a five star process. Like probably a better
volleyball player than a quarterback.
He's damn good quarterback, but it gives them a little bit more
of an edge. It gives them a little life to
what they're doing. Niko Yamaliaba's name rings out
much larger than Joey Aguilar's might have, and that is going
into the context of this conversation.
However, Niko Yamaliaba reportedly did not report to
(15:44):
camp or said he was not going toreport to the spring game, which
I think is part of camp, if he did not get a raise.
So he held out. He didn't go show up to practice
and he didn't show up the springgame.
I think at the time he's thinking Tennessee has nothing
else they can do but pay me. They they got to come up with a
way here because they can't go get another quarterback.
(16:05):
To which Tennessee said, fool, you thought so they told him he
could kick rocks, go into the transfer portal.
That's what you want to do. You're not going to hold this
hostage. And the rest of the college
football world love that. Shows up at UCLA, gets invited
with Deshawn Foster the Big 10 media days.
And what did he say about the money situation?
That Tennessee. His transferring had nothing to
(16:28):
do with money. OK quote is not at all.
My family was strictly the main importance for me.
I let my business team, my parents handle that side of the
NIL. Just being closer to family was
the most important thing. OK, dog, so why did you commit
(16:50):
to to Tennessee? So why'd you sign with
Tennessee? So why you play, you know, two
years at Tennessee? Why'd you lead them to the
College Football Playoff in 2023?
Because it's not as if you couldn't have gone to UCLA or
USC or Washington or Oregon or any other place, but you
committed to Tennessee because that's where you wanted to be.
(17:14):
It's hard for me to take that quote and make it feel like it
is trustworthy. It's accurate.
It's accurate. And I think that Nico is
speaking the truth on what he believes and feels.
But that ain't how we believe inhow we feel.
We do think it was about money because this is America and we
(17:36):
have a capitalist system. Everything is about money.
It's about the bottom line. I think Nico wants to believe
that he's got a clean slate and that there are enough people
rooting for him at UCLA to do well, that it's not going to
much matter what he did at Tennessee or didn't do Tennessee
or how he left Tennessee. But in the context of college
(17:58):
football nationally, and UCLA isa nationally recognized program,
you're going to have to show us that in other ways.
You saying it ain't going to do it now.
He got asked about it. I'm sure he answered because he
got asked about it, but he didn't leave with it.
I am going to say if this is theplaybook that you're going to
use, where you want to be closerto family, where you think the
(18:21):
most important thing that peoplewant to hear is it's not about
the money. That should have been the case
of Tennessee. It should never have been
anybody hearing that you were holding out.
You shouldn't have been reportedthat you got $350,000 at a high
school to sign and then they were paying you more than $2.1
million a year to play football.It should be mentioned that you
(18:45):
are not the engine for that Tennessee offense Dylan Sampson
was. It should be mentioned that you
needed Max protection, two guys and routes most of the time.
It should be mentioned that yourdual threat ability was stunted.
You didn't take off with the ball as much.
It should be noted that you beatup on bad teams, then got beat
(19:07):
by Arkansas after, you know, winning against Tennessee, and
then get absolutely tranced by Ohio State.
I want this conversation to inform other parties what might
happen if you decide to go this route.
(19:27):
I don't think you can be a middling SEC quarterback and
hold a blue blood program like Tennessee hostage.
That said, when you get to a place like UCLA and you tell us
that it's not about the money, it's hard to believe.
Now, if he turns UCLA into a world beater, the segment might
(19:50):
feel bad. But even if he does, Tennessee's
probably going to feel about Nico the way they feel about
Lane Kiffin. And let me tell you something,
that ain't no fun either. All right?
OK, that's going to do it for this shorter episode of the
Number One. The Number One.
Damn it, I did it again. Adapt and respond with me.
RJ Young. Subscribe on the podcast.
(20:10):
We're going to take a short break from doing the full
episodes as your man has some birthday activities that he's
going to get up to, but I will see y'all very soon.
Enjoy your weekend, deuces.
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