Fever Extend Their Season + Are The Colts The Best Team In The AFC South?

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So here we are on this hump day Wednesday, and
I realized that, like it's called hump day because you're
getting over the hump of the week, right, You're you're
into the swing of things. I don't know about anybody else.
I've said this probably on the air before, and it
probably makes me sound like some sort of a degenerate
in some sense. I I always think of my weekends

(00:23):
as kind of officially starting to begin on Thursday once
work is done. Am I alone in that? I'm not
saying I don't put in maximum effort on a Friday.
I just it's because you know Friday is there the
next day, and you're.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Like, oh man, like what a relief? Like you know
it's a Friday, right, Yeah, maybe I can. I can
get behind that a little bit.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
So I mad it. Garrison. Nice to meet you. You're
within sight of the weekend as you come over the hump,
And thank you Eddie for backing me up on that.
My name is Jake Quarry. It is Quiry Company here
on ninety three five and one zero seven. If you
are Eddie Garrison one O seven five to normal people
the fan the home now by, by the way, we
know a Butler Basketball once again. Welcome Mark Minner and

(01:04):
Nick Gardner. That's exactly correct for the upcoming basketball season.
That announcement coming earlier this morning on the Fan Morning
Show with James Boyd, jeff Rickord and Kevin Bowen. But
we are excited to have Butler back in the mix
in what is always a full menu of events taking
place on this radio station that includes the Indiana Fever.
We will get into what happened last night for the fever.

(01:26):
That means yet another game at minimum. If they are
to win that, of course they go beyond. But the
reason to an extent it's a hump day is because
also I think that you are getting over the hump
in the NFL season of the week in terms of
officially kind of putting the last game behind you and

(01:48):
now looking forward to what's next on the schedule. And yes,
there are obviously memorable moments that happen in the course
of a game that you carry with you over the
course of a season. Yes, there are obviously lessons that
can be had or things that you can build on

(02:10):
positively or negatively from one game that you carry with you.
You know, a lot of plays I have days like
this sometimes where you know, somebody will say, how was
your day to day, and I'll say, you know, this
isn't a bad thing at all, but it was one
of those days that in two months from now, I
won't remember a single thing about it. How is your morning, Jake? Again,

(02:33):
wasn't bad? Now? The only thing I will say about
the morning that on a side note that's unique the
building that we work in, which is right on Monument Circle,
we have a parking garage that is attached to our building,
and for the totality of time that I've worked here,
usually pretty readily available in terms of parking, And in
the last two days the parking lot has been completely full,

(02:56):
and it's peculiar to me. It's like this mystery, not
a bad thing. I'm glad that people are back downtown again.
It may be one of the new hotels is using
it for valet I don't know, but I'm not used.
And it's funny because you get spoiled and I'm driving
in and I'm like, this is ridiculous. I can't find
a parking spot. And then I'm thinking, yeah, this is
what like normal life is like for you know, most

(03:18):
of the time, right, But we're just not getting But
have you noticed that? I have noticed that. It's like
it's very odd.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
But I don't have this problem, Jake, because I don't
show up at eleven fifty. I show up well before
the start of the show. What time, Uh, ten ten
thirty usually? Oh, well that I'm sure that. I'm sure
everybody must be flooding in between ten thirty and eleven fifty.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Absolutely, Okay, after they go out and get some coffee,
you know, maybe you go to the store, get them
some Java house, get some pods.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
How are the pods working for you? Oh they're fantastic.
I'm running out.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Oh really, Yeah, let's go get you some more. Okay,
so let's turn the page. Yes, we have Fever to
talk about on the show today. Stephanie White gonna join
is coming up a little bit over an hour from now,
and we will just discussed what it was that they
were able to do to really take control in Game
number two over Atlanta and now shift things back down
to Atlanta, Georgia for Game number three. A decisive Game

(04:12):
number three. But speaking of driving south, before you get
to Atlanta, you've got to go through Nashville, and that's
what the Colts are going to do coming up on Sunday.
And the Titans are really kind of an enigma because
you know how good or how bad are they. I
don't think we really know either, but we have general
idea that what we are going to see come Sunday

(04:36):
for the Colts is there is a big test for them.
The Colts have a major test coming up on Sunday.
It might be their biggest challenge so far this year
in game number three, the biggest dig down resolve that
they're going to need maybe in game number three. And sure,

(05:01):
you can look at the opener and say, you know,
going into that, Miami's speed in space was a test
for the Colts. Or you can look at week two
and say, going into that, Bo Knicks was or is
a promising quarterback and Sean Payton is a guy that
is in his ear and man vance Joseph's his defense

(05:25):
blitzes like nobody's business. Those were challenges for the Colts.
But they now may face their biggest challenge in week
number three. And by that I mean this, they are
unblemish through two games. They are all alone in the

(05:47):
AFC South in terms of being at the top of it,
and they're going against a team that, by all metrics,
is one of the three worst in the National Football
League and one of the biggest challenge lenges I think
in the NFL is in fact, complacency and getting like
just feeling like you're going through the motions or just

(06:07):
kind of in a rhythm and looking past things. And
if you look at their schedule, it would be naive
of me too infer or assume that there's the chance
that the Colts would be looking past Tennessee at the
La Rams, even though the Rams are you know, you're

(06:28):
going out the Sofi Stadium, which is cool, and LA's
La and the Rams are pretty good, and they've had
some pretty good games against the Rams of late. But
I don't think that that creates Tennessee as a trap game,
per se. I don't think you're overlooking week three because
you're like focused on a big one that's sitting there
in the back. It's not like undefeated New England is
sitting there for you in week four or undefeated Jacksonville

(06:51):
in a showdown in the South, that kind of thing.
And so you look at week three and you just say,
you would understand if the Colts even at just two
to zero, and maybe there's fools gold to it, but
even at that record, you would understand if they look
at Tennessee and say, Okay, this is a team in

(07:14):
the Titans that's given up eleven sacks already. This is
a team in the Titans that has surrendered nearly two
hundred yards in sacks. This is a team in the
Titans whose quarterback cam Ward is completing just over fifty
percent of his passes and is a rookie. This is
a team in the Titans that is dead last in

(07:38):
the National Football League in third down yardage needed to
be acquired. They average nine yards on third down nine
yards to go. They average it. Most of that's because
of penalties and then sacks, not because they're only averaging
one yard to the first two plays of a drive.
But either way, there is very little about the Titans.

(07:59):
The most intimidating thing about the Tennessee Titans, the biggest,
most daunting task of the Tennessee Titans. The thing that
scares you most about the Tennessee Titans is not getting
hit by one of the bachelorette busses on the way
to the state. That's it, right, Okay, it's the Woo girls, Jake,

(08:24):
It's it is. Can you do that again? Please? Have
you been to Nashville, Eddie? No, I have never been
to Nashville. So there's not a lot that jumps out
at you about the Titans that worries you.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
They have one offensive touchdown one can you name who
has that touchdown?

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, that's a great question. That's a great question. You
know what. I'll say it was a two yard run
from Campada. Although I think cam Ward's only carried like
he doesn't have a lot of carries. He has four carries. Okay,
I'm gonna say one of them was a one yard dive.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Their own their loan touchstone being a dive, that would
be incorrect.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Okay, who is it? Elik I Yeoman? Or oh your
your one friend?

Speaker 2 (09:19):
No, it's Alec Okay, Yeah, I mean I could be
mispronouncing the first name. But yeah, there's not a lot
that jumps out at you, is my point.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Okay. Now, in terms of the hell's status for the
Colts from today, when you look at pass Rush and
you look at a young quarterback in Tennessee, you want
to keep him uneasy. You want to keep him at
bay and leatu Latu. You know that this would be

(09:48):
a great opportunity for Lati Leatu Latu to kind of
get going. He obviously did not play in game number two.
Shane Steikeen says, he is quote showing progress now part it.
You wonder if Loto is do they accelerate him coming
back if in fact it is a game where you
know you can get by all account, you can get

(10:11):
pressure on, you know, on cam Ward, just without by
breaking the huddle, right, I mean they're having real difficulties
moving the football. It's like Swiss cheese off the line.
It is everywhere. And so as a result of that,
and that's a you know, kind of the age old question.

(10:34):
Does the timing of a return of an injured player
get factored in based on how badly that player is
needed that week? Or you always know, we've got to
go push all in on everything, right. Shavarius Ward, by
the way, still in concussion protocol. And that's a big
one too, because they really have not that again, not

(10:56):
that Tennessee overly jumps out at you in any area
metrically offensively, but that is an area that when you
look towards it, you say, okay, the Colts need to
shore up in their secondary and in their defense. They
have been depleted by injuries. Jalen Jones out ward out
Xavier Howard was basically out right. I mean he really struggled.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
It looks like based off of what Sheenstecken said to Jake,
that Chivarius word is in the second step of the
five step return to participation protocol. When you're exiting the
concussion protocols. The light aerobic exercise is where it sounds
like Ward is at the next step would be the
sport specific exercise, which has increased intensity of exercises that

(11:45):
mimic game conditions and you're still under supervision. The fourth
being non contact training drills, the fifth being full contact
practice justin fields. For the New York Jets, for example,
he was not able to meet that criteria already, so
the New York Jets have already announced that Field will
miss their game this weekend. I will, you know, I

(12:05):
think about this a lot. On a side note, me,
I know, I'm a very very memorable person, Jakes. I
make a ton of impressions on people.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
If if you were an NFL player and in any sport,
but if you were an NFL player, and you look
at retired players, and I know, this is an almost
impossible thing to answer, because when you get in that situation,

(12:38):
the combination of the competitive spirit, the limelight, the praise,
the celebrity, and obviously the money, and I realize that
there may be times that you go into concussion protocol
that you don't even necessarily feel like or realize that
you had a concussion I have. I think, well, I

(13:05):
take that back. There's one time in my life I
had a concussion after a car accident and it was
not I mean, I just remember there was like a
five minute window where I couldn't remember anything. You know,
it's very odd, but I've never had like a severe
concussion or a protocol concussion. But if you were a

(13:27):
professional football player, and I don't know how many Justin
Fields has had, for example, but would you not at
some point too is a good example of this, and
I know he's kind of the poster child of this conversation.
When you look long term at some of the players
that went through the NFL and the number of hits
they took to the head and just how that impacts

(13:48):
them and affects them, would you put a limit on
yourself going into it, on the number of concussions or
the number of times that you go in protocol before
you begin discussing or thinking about whether to walk away.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Other player jake to put in that category's Chris o'lave
with the New Orleans Saints, right. I think he suffered
three concussions just last season alone, and he had concussions
each of the prior to two years. And he had
one undocumented concussion in college. So he's had around five
to six concussions.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
I mean, and he's only you know, twenty four, twenty
five years old, it is. And again, I mean, I
realized this is opening up a can of worms. Under
discussion from ten years ago in the NFL that became
a real hot button issue, and you know, there's been
movies made about it, and you know, it seems to
have kind of simmered down because once you had the

(14:42):
retired players and the you know, the monetary compensation that
I believe that there was a lawsuit at one point
with the Veterans Players Association, But I mean, I just
you look at some players that all of the warning
signs are there, and then I hear about guys that
are repeatedly going in the protocol. It's a great game.

(15:04):
I love it, and I know that the league is
doing everything it can to this point of the protocol
of being cautious about it and being aware of I mean,
so I'm not damning anybody here. I just as a
player and as a person, you wonder, like a Chris Olave,
that's a good example. Austin Colley was a good example,
and he came back and played. I know, but I
mean there was a time where Austin Colley took a

(15:25):
hit and literally everybody watching it was saying to themselves,
like that guy's got to retire. And he did eventually
work his way back into it. But nonetheless the other
thing too, I heard John talking about this. I'd like
to know how many people are going down for the
game now. It's interesting the Titan Nissan Stadium or whatever

(15:47):
it's called these days, the Titan Stadium, they are building
a new stadium right next door to it. So if
you go, I just know this from the IndyCar standpoint,
the Nashville, the Grand Prix of Nashville went right around
the stadium for I think it was two years we
did that. And then when they started building the new stadium,
the entire paddock area where we were is, you know,

(16:09):
became a hole in the ground. So the new stadium
for the Titans is literally right next door to the
current stadium. And as a result of that, the parking,
the accessibility, I would imagine that it's it's pretty tricky
right now. The new stadium looks like it'll be super cool.

(16:29):
The old stadium or the current stadium, the original stadium,
there's nothing wrong with it. It just doesn't have necessarily
all of the bells and whistles. But I would like
to know if people are going down because Nashville is
it's a super fun town. Now, Eddie, you should go.
You could you know what you could do? You could
woo who back at the woo who girls, Whoo. I

(16:50):
like the fact that you lean back and throw your
arms out when you do that.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
I have to lean back so it doesn't get too
loud on the mic, and I want to scare people.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
I think you look like you're leaning back because you're
on your you know, your tipsy, which is a great bar.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
No, here's the thing, Jake. The way I envision that is,
you know, driving downtown all the time, the pedal bars. Well,
that's what that's what, that's what I see when I
see the WU girls. The arms are up.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
And but you do know, and you do know that
you better enjoy the pedal bars while you can, because
when I become mayor, the pedal bars and the scooters
and yeah, people can tell me, you know, the scooters
bringing money to the city. Okay, fine, pedal bars and
the scooters both gone when I become mayor.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Plus I love How I Met your Mother, and that's
one of the key episodes that excuse me, How I.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Met your Mother? Okay? The TV show you mean, yeah, okay,
fair enough. Last night, the Fever and Dominating Fashion extended
their season. There was, of course, the back against the wall,
the proverbial back against the wall. I thought, Eddie, what
they did last night was impressive in a couple of ways.
Number One, Defensively, I thought they kept Atlanta uncomfortable. They

(17:59):
never let the dream get into rhythm. The Fever came out,
they hit big shots early, they got out to a lead,
and then the energy of the building and the overall
tenacity they they just never relinquished that. The other thing
they did they shot the ball better from the outside,
and I think they went a little more balanced in
their scoring. That's one of the things that I want

(18:21):
to talk with Stephanie White about when she joins us
coming up at one thirty today, is you know how
much of that because she's talked about the fact that
their offense is a lot of times just reactionary and
kind of free flowing. And how much of last night
was the Fever schematically going into it saying we are
making these changes and we are going to operate these

(18:42):
ways to get our shooters to get shots to go.
Or is it just change of scenery?

Speaker 2 (18:48):
I thought yesterday Jake and John Nolan and Brinecoss highlighted
this a couple of times during the broadcast. The Indiana
Fever are the best team in the league at home
in terms of three point percentage. They're the worst team
in the double NBA on the road in three point percentage.
So there are obviously a better shooting team at home
that played a part of it. But I just felt
like they played with more of a sense of desperation

(19:09):
yesterday to keep their season alive, and there was a
different level of energy they played with last night compared
to the game one on Sunday, you got some valuable
contributions off the bench from Brianna Turner, Aerial Powers, in
Shape Petty. Those kind of players were not stepping up
to the occasion a number one and that's what's going
to ultimately come down to for Indiana in game number
three on Thursday, is can they get some of those

(19:31):
role players to step up and provide a spark with
some energy to keep things flowing offensively.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Here's to me something I pondered last night. The one
benefit and there's not a lot of benefit of having
your team decimated by injury, and the Fever have been
decimated by injury, But if you were to find one
area that could be a benefit from that, it would
be this. They had to you know, how many players

(19:59):
on the Fever roster right now, on the active roster
were on the roster when they got together on day one.
There are at least what four new faces. So there's
the new faces are Odyssey Sims, Shape Petty, Aerial Powers,
and then Bree Hall got minimum minutes. So well, but
just I'm saying, just you know, on the bench, on

(20:20):
the roster, and there are others that were brought in
and then got hurt, right, I mean emergency signings. That
the point being.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
You have faces, okay, that they added in season, So
you have on that roster players who were facing the
potential of their career.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Being done in the WNBA when they were signed in
an emergency situation by the fever. And many of those
that you just mentioned are veteran players who have been
in postseason situations before. But the maturity and the the

(21:01):
resiliency of being a player that is not Caitlin Clark,
that is not Sophie Cunningham, that is not you know,
Paige Becker's not not a star player, right, but one
who you were not on a roster. You had to
stay in shape, you had to stay ready, you had

(21:23):
to wait for the call. Then the call comes and
you've got to go and you've got to perform. How
much does that individual resiliency then pay dividend when you
have a team situation and you have players in the
locker room that can say to themselves or step up
or think to themselves, this is not the worst thing
I've been through this year. That's a great question for
Stephanie White later on. That's what I make It's one

(21:45):
of the things I want to. I want to ask
her about Stephanie. Jordan is one thirty today, two fifteen
today roughly two fifteen, a friend of the show and
fabulous talented writer David Woods, who primarily is a writer
about you know, track and field sports, Olympic sports in general.
He's done a lot with track and field, He's done

(22:06):
a lot with you know, swimming and covering the Olympics
for years. David Woods and now in you know, independently writing.
But he had and I noticed this the other day
and I wanted to bring him on for it. We
talked about Caitlin Clark, we talked about the Fever. He's
got a new book that's coming out in November and
it centers around one of the one of the most

(22:26):
important features in the book, Caitlyn Clark, Tamika Catchings, you know,
Stephanie White. The book is about Indiana women in sports
and how they have changed the games that we love.
It is essentially a coffee table book. You know, what
would be great would be a coffee table book about
coffee table books, but are about coffee tables. But this

(22:47):
coffee table book is about women. It's photography, it is
inscription about them. And I wanted to talk to David
just about how this book came together and what you know,
He's written several books about Butler basketball that he's covered
over the years. So Dave are going to join us
two o'clock today. But when we come back, Indiana is
in action coming up this weekend. Many think it should

(23:07):
be the game that College Game Day is centered on.
It is not. That will be Florida and Miami. I
get that there's an element of branding that goes into that.
But the Hoosiers are off to a dynamics start once
again under Kurt Signetti. But how much do we know
about who they are because and I'm curious. I was
listening to Don Fisher on Friday night as they were

(23:28):
assaulting the game away with Indiana State, and I guess
the upshot of that is they were having to go
deep into their roster at the running back position. One
of those that was getting a lot of carries out
of Fisher's Kurt Signetti has said is going to get
more carries as the year goes on. So did we
learn a little more about Indiana's depth in that game?

(23:49):
And what do we expect going in now against Illinois?
Don Fisher is the voice of the Hoosiers, joins us
to discuss that in more. Next, the Hoosiers of Indiana
are off to a three and oh start. And now
I hate to say this because I don't mean it
as a disrespect to old dominion Kinnesaus State or Indiana State.

(24:09):
But now to quote the kids, it gets real because
it's number nine Illinois that is next on the schedule.
The game is a primetime matchup seven thirty at night
under the lights at Memorial Stadium. Don Fisher will be
on the radio call for it. You can hear the
game on this radio station. And Don joins us now
to discuss that and more. And Don, let's begin with this.

(24:30):
You know, seven point thirty on a Saturday night against
the top ten team at Memorial Stadium. I guess we're
becoming a little more used to this than we were
of yesteryear. But it never really gets old, does it.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
No, it does not. It's special when you're on national TV.
You're the prime time schedule for that particular evening. And
without question, this is something Indiana has rarely if I
can't remember the last time we were on NBC, So
it's it's been a long time Jake coming and it's welcome. Obviously,

(25:07):
we're excited about it, and everybody should be that's an
Indiana fan, because this is going to be a real test.
You know.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
One of the things I was listening to the game
on Friday night, Don and you guys were kind of,
you know, joking about you were given a lot of
credit to Kobe Martin for the way he was running
the football. But obviously at that point Indiana had a
sizable lead, they're salting away clock. And yet you know,
you made the point and you tipped the cap to
the young man of like, look, this kid's running hard.

(25:35):
You know, he's carrying the football, he's playing well. Now
there's a situation where Kurt Signetti comes out and says, look,
Kobe Martin's one that we will rely on. Perhaps because
of the loss to of Lee b B Junior, who
had a knee injury. I guess my long winning question
would be this, and that is, with the number of
backs that were able to get carries, for example, against

(25:58):
Indiana State, do you do you feel like there is
in fact a lot of depth in that backfield or
was it simply the fact that you were going against
an opponent with a sizable advantage, and therefore it's still
difficult to kind of know how deep you go there.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Well, I honestly believe that Kobe will be a constant
fixture among the running back room right now. I think
he has been in the running back room and in practices.
The difference is that now he will be called upon
against really good competition, which is obviously what he's not
played against in his two years in Indiana. Last year

(26:35):
he played in four games, then they red shirted him
for the rest of the year, and so he did
not face the top ball clubs, or if he did,
and maybe I think he played might have played against
Nebraska in what a ballgame that you could say was
obviously against a competition, although Indiana totally.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Dominated them in that ball game.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
But at the same time, he's produced when he's been
in there. And there's no question that Urt Signetti loves
to rotate running backs, keep them fresh, give them opportunities
to run the football and to be fresh when they
do come into the ball game. And I don't think
that's changed. And Sig said that in the press conference

(27:17):
on Monday, that Kobe now moves up into that position
that Lee VB had, And my gut is that Kobe
Martin's going to see a lot of playing time on
Saturday Night.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
You know, Don, it's interesting because Don Fisher's our guest,
the voice of the Indiana Hoosiers. What you just mentioned,
you know, a year ago, I think kind of the
staple of a Kurtz Signetti team was virtually every game
that Indiana won last year. You know, after the first quarter,
they're up, let's say, three to seven, then at halftime
they're up ten to fourteen, and then you know it

(27:48):
just they methodically would just pull away from people by
never really letting up at all, and they seemed fresh
as the game went on. How much of that is
because of the benefit of being able to build depth
or get guys used to situations in these first three games.
In other words, if you were to take a positive
from a seventy three to nothing or fifty six to

(28:09):
nine whin, it's hard to learn a lot about your team.
But is he utilizing those situations to get guys used
to just being able to give spell minutes in the
big ten?

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Well, there's no question that's what he's doing. And he's
giving guys an opportunity to get reps. That's what he
talks about all the time. When you get in a ballgame,
if you produce, you're going to get more rep going
to get more opportunities. And he did that last year
with Kobe. Of course, he redshirt and him after he
played in the fourth game that he was participating in.

(28:42):
But the key here is that he's not totally inexperienced.
He's actually going to go in a ballgame knowing what
he's done in the past, knowing that the competition may
be tougher, and he's probably studied hard this week getting
ready for this next matchup, because I'm sure he knew
he was going to be the guy called upon as
the third back. And it's what Chris Signetti does. And

(29:05):
and you know, last year they had so many games
that were in the second half. They had total control
of it, and so it gave opportunities for a lot
of different players. Alberto Mendoza got in last year and
got to play in two or three ball games and
did well when he was in there, but they weren't
called upon to do a lot. Now you're going to

(29:27):
be called upon to do a lot, but you're not
going in there Green. If you know what I mean,
You're not going in there as a guy that hasn't
had any experience. He's had some. It hasn't been dramatic,
but at the same time, he's had reps against good competition,
and that tells you something as a coach number one
and number two. It gives this guy more confidence when

(29:48):
he goes into the ballgame for the first time against
a reputable ball club.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
And man, I'll tell you, don you talk reputable to me.
The Big Ten slate is very for Indiana. It's really
front loaded and mean to say that there's ever an
easy game in the Big Ten. But you look at Illinois,
at Iowa, at Oregon. I mean, that's a pretty tough slog. Okay,
So those three right there is as we go into it,

(30:12):
what is the big question mark at this point about
this Indiana team. What is the one area that you personally,
having watched it and called the plays for them, what
is the one thing that you still aren't totally certain
as to who they are?

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Well, I still think that the quarterback position is a
little bit of a question. Not that the look Fernando
Mendoza has all the talent in the world, he got
a great throwing arm, he's accurate. He's a guy that
can really run the football when he has to pull
it down and go. But we haven't seen and I

(30:48):
would say this on a limited basis because obviously against
the competition they've played, I don't think that he's been
tested in that decision making department. Number One, and how
will he handle a team that probably is going to
be able to come after him a little bit more
pressure wise than what these first three ball games proved.

(31:10):
So I think those two things are going to be
the question on Fernando because he has tremendous talent, He's
got lots of experience. He played in California for a
couple of seasons as their quarterback. But again, the question
is does he make the quick and decisive decisions and
the right decisions when he throws that football or tip

(31:31):
pulls it down and runs. These are the things that
you are going to find out about, I'm sure in
this Illinois ball game, and those are the ones. Those
are the things brilliant that concern me more than anything else,
because I think what we've seen from the rest of
this team is pretty dog gone good.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Now.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
I do think that Sigg's been a little bit concerned
about some of the decisions by defensive backs, because he's
talked about that as well as that's still an area
where there was a mistake here, a mistake there that
was pretty costly from a big a standpoint for the
other ball club. So right now, those two things would
pop out at me as being the biggest concerns going

(32:07):
into this game.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Don have you gotten a chance much? Don Fisher our guest,
he's the radio voice, of course for the Indiana Hoosiers.
As if I need to sit you know, give that
disclaim or you know, like like people don't know that,
but he's done it for a few years in a
legendary standpoint. And now you are, Don, if I'm not mistaken,
you are the thirty six time Indiana sportscaster of the year.
Isn't that right? Close? Close?

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Right?

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Two? All right? Fair enough? So don have you gotten
a chance much? You know, whether it be in talking
with Kurt Signette or just the staff in general, to
really get into an understanding of what Illinois brings to
the table and what is intriguing about the ALIGNI as
a test for Indiana.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Well, I haven't Sig is pretty sig doesn't tell you
much about the opponent simply because he's not going to
divulge anything he thinks might be important to him in
displaying out there in the field. That gets a team
like Illinois. But here's what I do know about Illinois.
They're a team or a program really that's a little

(33:12):
bit like Indiana not I mean, they've had more they've
had more good years of football than Indiana has over
the years, but they've not been a great program for
a long time. This particular team that Brett Beelam has
put together is the most experienced team in the Big Ten.
It may be the biggest team in the Big Ten.

(33:35):
They have like four guys in the offensive line. I
believe this is fact three for sure. They have three
guys that are six five or taller and weigh three
hundred and thirty five pounds and the other two guys
there's one I think that maybe about three hundred and
then the other guys like three fifteen. This is a

(33:55):
big offensive line. Where do we come up with that? Well,
Brett Beila came up with it because he coached Wisconsin
in this league, and Wisconsin when he was there, had
the biggest offensive and defensive lines in the conference. So
I think he's tried to build this thing with Illano
a ball club that struggled a little bit through the years,

(34:16):
and they're not struggling anymore because they had a great
season last year. They had a good season his first
season when he came in as the head coach. Indiana
beat them in that ballgame that year because they went
to a prevent defense in the final minute and a
half and Indiana's quarterback picked them apart right down the field.
That Indiana ended up winning the game and breaking their hearts,

(34:37):
which is great for us. But nevertheless, Vilama has been
building this team for the last four years now, and
I think he's finally got what he wants and he's
certainly got the most experienced team in the Big Ten
right now.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
You know, don It's funny because it does not seem
long ago. And I'm not saying this isn't still like
something we need to get out there. It wasn't long
ago that the narrative around Indiana football was like, Hey,
it's great that alum come down and tailgate and enjoy it,
but like, please come into the stadium watch the team,
support the team, and now you know, now you look

(35:11):
at it, this will be the toughest ticket in town.
I mean a primetime game under the lights. That atmosphere
when it's rocking is as good. And you've seen them, right,
you go around the Big Ten all of a sudden
snap of the fingers. What a difference a year makes.
That's as good an atmosphere as there isn't a Big Ten.
Agree or disagree? No, I agree with that. You know,

(35:32):
we don't have the biggest stadium. We've got fifty two
plus fifty two thousand plus when it's full. But they
are loud, and they've figured out, you know, how to
handle themselves in this kind of environment based on what
we saw last year. Because they sold it out the
last four games last season. I think all but maybe

(35:53):
one or two games right now are sold out for
the rest of the season. The Big Ten schedule obviously
is difficult. Fan base knows that, and I think that
they want to become a football school. They're still not
real good at staying around after halftime in games that
don't mean all that much, which obviously we're talking about
the three non conference games, and they still mean something

(36:16):
to the team and to the coaches. They don't mean
a lot yet to the fan base. And that's the
one thing I think the fan base has got to learn.
Your fan base has to support you all the time,
not just part of the time or not just for
a half. They need to be out there and provide
that energy, and if they're not, you're not going to
get some players who look at size of stadiums and

(36:38):
the crowds that attend, and some of these guys are
going to go, well, you know, they may be a
good football program, but their fan base is not that.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
Big, and you know, I'm going someplace else. And I'm
not saying that ever. I'm not saying that's in a
lot of guys thinking. But it does factor in as
to how kids think.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
And if Indiana wants motivation defensively or tips defense for
their gaming, it's Illinois. All they have to do is
look just a little bit to the west and check
out the game film from Edgewood's shutout of Owen Valley
thirty four to nothing on Friday night. If I'm mistaken,
is that right, Don? That is true? That's true.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Edgewood did win their fourth game without a loss after
some very limited number of wins over the last five, seven, eight,
nine years now at Edgewood. But and you know, my
son's the coach, and I'm going to brag about him
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
He's done a.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Great job there, and all of a sudden they're four
to oh this year. But they still got their toughest
part of the schedule coming up too. So it's not
like it's just like Kurt Signetti. You can't ever rest
in your laurels. You've got to basically be ready to
play every single snap of.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
The game, one game at a time. Right, But so far,
so good, and for Indiana, we will see if that
holds true as well. Coming up on Saturday Night seven thirty.
You can hear the game right here on the fan
with Don Fisher on the call down. A pleasure as
always and enjoy certainly on Saturday night, Dada, thanks for
having me, Don Fisher, the voice of the Indiana Hoosiers.

(38:03):
All right, we come back. I've got a burning question
something that happened yesterday that really like kind of upset
me in terms of near Bloomington. I saw a story
yesterday and it was one certainly of disappointment, and I
will share with you what that is because I think
others will if you it might be kind of a

(38:24):
niche thing. It might be kind of a niche thing.
And we have a burning Cults question to get to
in fifteen minutes as well. Every once in a while,
and when I say every once in a while, I
mean like every other hour, I think of something that
I'm like, Yeah, isn't this common knowledge for like everyone?

(38:51):
And then I'm like, maybe it's just me because I
have this weakness of just assuming that, like my brain,
that everybody is like on the same page of it.
But here's one for you. Yesterday, I'm going on about
just mining my own business in Central Niana. I'm walking
around and I'm thinking to myself, Man, Colts and Titans

(39:12):
coming up on Sunday, and there's not a lot about
Tennessee that really jumps out, and there's you know, the
Colts seem to be poised for a three and oh start.
And then I'm like, you know, tomorrow, Stephanie White's going
to come on the show. Meeting today Wednesday, Stephanie White's
going to be on the show at one thirty, and
are we going to be talking about the season coming

(39:33):
to an end? For the fever or what they need
to do to extend on Thursday night and beat Atlanta
in advance in the WNBA playoffs. And that's going through
my mind. And then I'm thinking about a story I
heard in baseball, and I think, man, I mean, this
is a prolific accomplishment in baseball, and yet baseball, I
wonder how relevant this is amongst our listening audience. And

(39:56):
I'm waiting through all of these things. I thinking about
Indiana Illinois coming up up seven point thirty on this
radio station, and the fact that, you know, I'm excited
that Butler basketball is now on the fan, and I'm
going through all these things in my head, and then
out of nowhere, boom, I get like a, you know,
one of these alerts or whatever my phone and I
look at it and I literally stop and think, holy cow.

(40:20):
And I have a feeling this is going to be
one of those stories where you took something for granted
for the better part of your life and then all
of a sudden it's gone and you're like, I never
thought it would leave. And you're like, well, I they
can't take this away. This is like a staple in

(40:40):
a tradition. And then somebody says, well, how often did
you patronize it and how often did you support I
don't know. I just I didn't really think about it
because it just was always going to be there. Well
maybe that's why it's not anymore. So I'm curious of this,
and people feel free to tell me if you know
what I'm talking about. This might be an example, Eddie,

(41:02):
of where I mentioned something and literally I'm I'm speaking
to a vapid tunnel because nobody knows what I'm talking about,
and maybe this maybe that's the problem. There are two
ways to get a hold of me and tell me
whether or not what I'm about to say makes any
sense whatsoever. The first is you can text this radio

(41:22):
show as we and I fail sometimes to mention that
I apologize. Three one seven two three nine one zero
seven zero the telephone number. You can always call in
to chime in with the show as well, but you
can always send me a text at two three nine
ten seventy. We all at the station can see those texts,
but only we see it. Don't worry, it doesn't go
into some public domain. Two three nine ten seventy that

(41:44):
telephone number, and then my own personal number which I
also have given out, and like yesterday, you know, was
on I was on the phone, believe it or not,
last night for a while because I had mentioned Milwaukee
at some point and said, you know how much I
enjoyed Milwaukee, and lo and behold boom, I get a text. Hey,

(42:05):
fiance and I went to Milwaukee for the weekend. So
we ended up talking about it for an hour. Three
one seven five to three ninety two eighty eight. That
number three one seven five to three ninety two eighty eight.
But here's what I saw yesterday, and it made me sad.
And then I thought, maybe I'm maybe I'm weird, maybe
I'm millen one coming up here in about a month.

(42:27):
In October is the time of year where, seemingly, at
least in my childhood, maybe this was just my world.
Everyone navigates down to Brown County for at the very minimum,
a Saturday stroll through Nashville or a drive through Brown
County State Park to see the changing of the leaves.
It's why Indiana football, for years when they were terrible,

(42:49):
would get at least one game that would be on
national television because ABC always wanted the aerials of Memorial
Stadium because of the beauty of the leaves changing color
all around it, and so everybody would seemingly in my world,
and I just assumed this was the case for the
vast majority of Marion County. Maybe it was just a

(43:11):
vast majority of people from Steinmeier. I don't know, but
people would make a pilgrimage down to Brown County and
one of the staples of that. I couldn't believe it
when I saw the news yesterday, couldn't believe it. I
saw it and I thought, am I the only one?

(43:33):
Something's closing that I want to ask about? And we're
going to get into Eddie's burning question about the colts.
Will do both. You can even text me when the
text says this, please fire the blowhard jake dude makes
no sense? Cool, I get it. And it's not Gray's
Cafeteria and Mooresville. But yes, that also is another one
that like it was a staple and everybody's like it
can't go away. I love it. How often you been there?

(43:55):
I don't know, like once in a year. Okay, well
that might be a factor. It's along those lines and
Eddie's burning question about the colts in the AFC South next,
So we're talking Nashville, Tennessee Colts Titans coming up on Sunday.
But Nashville, Indiana is what I was talking about with

(44:15):
Brown County. And again it maybe this was just like
a late eighties early nineties thing, but in my childhood
when we would go down as a family, and seemingly
we did this every year for the usually the second
weekend in October, and we'd drive down to Nashville. I

(44:35):
loved Johnny's Sports Nostalgia. Anybody else remember Johnny's sports nostalgia,
which was you know, I loved it because it was
I was. I have two sisters, and so my my
mom and my two sisters would go and go down
and go to the craft stores and all the things
that you get down there in Brown County. And so
johnny Sports Nostalgia was like the guys that, you know,

(44:58):
the young boys safe Haven to look through baseball cards
and get a pennant of you know that every team
and a plastic batting helmet quote unquote, which I always
got to kick out of it. On the inside it
would say like do not use an actual batting Yeah.
I probably could have figured that out, But there in
the shops, the one staple that I just assumed would

(45:19):
never go away. Is the Hobnob restaurant, which the Hobnob
looks like when you go into it, and I always
as a kid. I mean, obviously, I'm sure I knew
the difference, but it felt like it had it had
been there since eighteen ninety. You walk in and it
was basically fashioned, like an old fashioned drug store with

(45:42):
an old fashioned soda fountain and you know, handmade sodas
and molasses cookies. Fabulous, fabulous place. And it's been there
for it' said forty six years, So it must have
just been opening when I was a kid, but it
felt like it had been there forever. And when I
saw that the Hobnob, they announced yesterday on social media

(46:05):
that they are closing after forty six years. Their lease
was not renewed. I have no idea what all goes
into that, but my first thought was, man, I wonder
like did they go, was business slow or whatever? How
could that be? It's a staple. And then I thought, well,
it's a staple like once a year, you know, how

(46:26):
many people are flying down there in the middle of June.
I have no idea how many people walk around in
Nashville in the rest of the year. I don't know,
but it was interesting because when I saw it, I
thought to myself, holy cow, seemingly everybody will be shocked
by this news. And then it felt like I was
one of like ten people that were even aware. So
maybe I'm maybe I'm speaking into vapid air here, but

(46:50):
either way, Hobnob Restaurant, Brown County, I think they said
until November they will still be there and it's going
to be a must that I'll go down and like
I said, and there'll be one of those things where
I'm like, man, yeah, I wish I'd come here more
than maybe it would still be around the Colts getting
set for the Titans coming up on Sunday. And as

(47:11):
I mentioned earlier, when you look at this team and
what the challenges are for the Colts, and to give
you an update, as of right now, Shaverius Ward is
still in the concussion protocol. That's an area of concern
to an extent for the Colts because their defensive backfield

(47:32):
and you know has obviously been hit hard and Jalen
Jones you know, being out Now, that's the problem is
you just don't have the depth in that area. Leatu Latu,
Shane Steichen said, is showing progress, but there still is
not any word on Leatu Latu's availability coming up on Sunday.

(47:53):
And realistically, and admittedly I don't know the necessity of
that per se and I don't mean that you don't
want to have Leatu latult. Excuse me Leatu Latu, don't mistake.
But the reality is you can get pass rush on
Tennessee like Eddie and I might be able to get
a half sack each. They have given up eleven sacks

(48:16):
so far through two games. They have lost nearly two
hundred yards on those sacks alone, one hundred and ninety
three yards they have. Does Tennessee the worst average of
yards needed on a third down in the NFL? They
average nine to go on every third down play. Now
that's not to say that they're only averaging one yard

(48:40):
through the first two plays of a possession. What it
means is the combination of sacks penalties penalties is a
big one. Is by average putting them in third and
nine situations, they are thus far a fairly anemic offense
and one that does not you know you're going with

(49:02):
a young rookie quarterback that is learning. He's completed fifty
percent of his passes. There's a little bit of the
Anthony Richardson in Indianapolis learning curve going on right now
in Nashville. As I said earlier, theoretically for the Colts,

(49:22):
the biggest challenge on Sunday is going to be navigating
from the hotel to the stadium without getting caught up
in traffic by a bachelorette bus, which then caused Eddie
to lean all the way back and flail his arms
wildly doing his fabulous impersonation of the now Eddie, I

(49:45):
want to know that is that what you whistle when
the bus goes by? Or is that what you hear
the bachelorettes? More commonly, that's what I hear on those
puddle bars. Yes, that is definitely true. And then in
Nashville it's nothing but just a rents and repeat of Well, Jakes,
sometimes school buses with where the top has been sought off,

(50:06):
and it's just it's a disaster.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
I was gonna say, Jakes, I feel like sometimes, you know,
I've never been to Nashville, but usually there's another act
that's going.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
On with the wu, which is.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
I don't I'm not gonna say, well, typically it could
get things may get provocative.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Okay, well there's a lot of provocative kind of like
if you're in New Orleans on Bourbon Street, you know
to get your beads. Yeah, okay, you know, depending on
the level of consumption, probably adult time of everything, Yes,
is a factor in this, right, and it's all It's

(50:44):
never a lot like Broadway itself in Nashville. I do
feel like, you know, nash Vegas, right, I mean, Nashville
is an awesome city, and I know John was talking
earlier about whether or not I don't think. I don't
know if Bulls Eye is doing anything in Nashville per
se this weekend, but I would imagine there are a
fair number of Colts fans that are going down just

(51:05):
because it is a great I mean, Nashville is super
fun and you could just walk up and down on Broadway.
There is a little of me that wonders if that
hasn't somewhat jumped the shark, where people like, at the
first couple of years when Nashville was a really big thing,
if people didn't love it and now it's just like, okay,

(51:25):
like a little goes a long way. But as I
mentioned earlier, if you're going to the Titans game, plan accordingly.
Because the new stadium that they are building for the
Titans is right next door to the existing stadium. So
the area that you've always known it at Nissan Stadium
or whatever it's called this week, literally right next door

(51:47):
to it is where they are building the new one.
So I would imagine that has impacted the traffic and
the accessibility. But as the Colts get set for this game,
Eddie asked a question to me on the way intoday,
and I thought to myself, I think the answer is
a definitive yes, a definitive yes, and I don't see

(52:08):
how there's going to be variation from that. Okay, Eddie,
your question that you asked about the Colts in relation
right now to their game coming up on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
I wrote about this leading up to the start of
the season, Jake, about if the Colts could be, you know,
just like a sneaky playoff team, you know, the one
that nobody talks about going into the year, and they
ended up being, you know, the talk of the town
across the NFL, and certainly they have been that through
two weeks. Just the way Daniel Jones has been able
to play so far. And I look at you know,

(52:39):
sportsbooks and what the odds are out there, the odds
on favorite. But are the Colts the best team in
the AFC South? They've got to be right now, right.
And here's the thing. The NFL season is a long haul.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
Not to overreact after two weeks, obviously, but it's a
long haul. We've seen and I've covered, I've covered teams. Listen,
the Peyton Manning Bursus that year. You were like, yeah,
this team's cooked, and then boom, they get hot, they
go on he Ties McNair I think for MVP and

(53:18):
the rest is history. The year that of the Monday
Night miracle that we mentioned on Monday this semi on
rice leaping that year, the Bucks with the defending Super
Bowl champs, and they literally they were like four and
zero and just steamrolling people, and then the Colts beat
them and everything kind of derailed for Tampa. I covered

(53:39):
the Rams teams that were defending Super Bowl champs and
got out to a six and oh start and were
beating everybody by a ga billion points and then they
go into Kansas City, they get beat and they lose
seven of their final ten games. It is said, we've
seen with this particular team the Carson Wentz year. They

(54:00):
go and they win in Arizona and it is a
fada complete bring on the playoffs, and then the wheels
come off late in the year. There are so many
things that go on over the course of a year
that you just don't know about what can happen. Jake,

(54:22):
the way you're talking about the Colts right now, I'm
definitely picking the Titans when I placed my bets this weekend.
That's probably right. But if you were to say who's
the best team in the AFC South through two games,
you would say it's the Colts. Yeah, based on the
record number one, but based also on the fact that, yeah,

(54:44):
they got gifted one against Denver. Don't get me wrong.
I mean we are literally one leverage away from us
sitting here all week talking about how they got to
get this win against Tennessee because if not, you fall
to one and two, and YadA, YadA, YadA, they're two
and zero. You take the win, you move on. But
Denver's not a bad team, and they dominated Miami. In

(55:05):
Miami I think is terrible. So there's a little bit
of uncertainly there. But let's go back and look at
the other teams in the division. The team there is
one that I think is the second best team in
the division.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
I think it's pretty clear, right, And they face each
other this weekend danver erd On Denverer. Jacksonville and Houston
face off this weekend battle. Okay, it's gonna get the
first win. And I think that I don't think Jacksonville
is as bad as the record. I mean, I get it.
You are what your record says.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
I get it. Look up for me if you could,
Eddie Jacksonville's two games, who they played and what the
score was they played. You know they played Cincinnati, right,
they lost to Cincinnati thirty one twenty seven. I forgot.
They beat Carolina week once, so they're one in one now, zho.
And two they beat Carolina twenty six to ten. Yeah,
so they did against Carolina what you should do, right,
They controlled the game. And then against Cincinnati. I know

(55:58):
that Burrow got hurt, but I do think Jake Browning's
pretty good solid. I mean, he he did throw three picks,
I think, but he throws for He's got a big arm,
and they've got huge weapons obviously right, So they hung
around with which I don't think ten. I don't think
Jacksonville's terrible. Now Houston is the one. To me, going
into the year, you would have said Houston is probably

(56:21):
the best or second best team in the South. And
it's two weeks. I get it. But the deficiencies that
we're seeing right now with Houston seemingly have no answer. Nope.
They cannot run the ball, Nope. And you can't win
in the NFL. You can't win in college, you can't
win in high school if you cannot at all run
the ball. Now, okay, if you're Warren Central in nineteen

(56:44):
eighty six, you're probably okay if you can't run the ball.
But in today's NFL, and I know that we've gotten
away from the necessity of the running back, the value
of the running back, all of those things, right, But nonetheless,
if you watch Houston, as I did for almost the
entire game the other night, they had CJ. Stroud was

(57:09):
basically neutered because you know, and at times his timing
looked off, But I think it's because they were able
to so easily close gaps against him, because they just
dropped everybody back there was no reason at all to
put anybody in the box. They cannot run the ball,

(57:29):
and if you do, they can't hold up Their offensive
line cannot hold up anybody correct, can't block anybody. That,
no doubt, no question about it. So I you know,
like I said, and then and I do think that
Houston defensively is pretty good. But even with that, late
in that game, when Tampa needed to go down and score,

(57:51):
they went right down the field and scored. And I
think Houston's defense was partially just worn out, because now
why are they worn out? Because once CJ. Stroud got
them the lead, they didn't have any way to salt
the clock away none. So Tennessee, I think we know.

(58:13):
Does anybody know definitively anything about who Tennessee is, the
Only thing we know is that they basically are where
the Colts were two years ago. They have a young, athletic,
very intriguing quarterback, one that I think coming out of
college has I'd have to look how many starts he

(58:34):
had in college, but it feels like he's got more
ready like NFL ready to go. Just he needs polish
as opposed to complete, like starting from scratch. But the
Titans just had so many have so many holes all
around that it's very difficult to determine who and what

(58:57):
their identity is because they're the Titans. Look a lot
like symbolically, if you go to Nashville and you go
to the game, and you're driving to the stadium. And
I know this because the IndyCar Grand Prix of Nashville
or whatever we called it, that we did the two

(59:18):
years on the street course went right around the stadium.
The paddock area, the medical or you know, tent and
everything else was all right there, right next to the stadium.
And if I want to say directly to the east
of the stadium, but my geography could be off, but nonetheless,
right between the stadium and the river there was was

(59:40):
this parking lot and this huge area and that's where
that was the main stretch of the IndyCar circuit. And
then we had to move to the Oval because they said, yeah,
Nashville's building a new stadium, and that new stadium is
right there butted up against Nissan Field right there, and
if you drive in into the stadium, there is a

(01:00:01):
symbolism to the eye of the Tennessee Titans because you
see right before you the building process of what's going
to be the future. How big and how beautiful a future,
I don't know, but it's right there before your very eyes.
And then on the right hand side is the current stadium,

(01:00:21):
which has like large pictures of Steve McNair and Eddie
George and reminders of the past. But it's time to
move forward. And I've always said, and this was one
of the things, one of the things that fascinates me
about the NFL, you can tell the state of a

(01:00:42):
franchise by the number of current jerseys that are being
worn at the game. For example, Eddie, give me a
franchise off the top of your head, what sport NFL? NFL,
the Raiders, Okay, the Raiders. If you go to a
Raiders game right now, you walk in, you go out

(01:01:05):
to Vegas. Now, in Vegas it's a lot like Nashville.
You might see a bus of a bachelorette party in
Vegas going down, going down the boulevard, and what might
you hear? Right, but if you go to a Raiders game,
what would you guess is the first jersey you see
when you walk in. Honestly, you go to a Raiders game,

(01:01:28):
the Raiders come to Indianapolis and there's Lynch. Yeah, I
mean Tim Brown, Amari Cooper. That's not bad. Khalil Mack, Okay,
that's a good one. But again Khalil Mack. Now where Chargers. Yes,

(01:01:48):
so you get players that I'm trying to figure of
who it would even be for the but the state
of their Like what current Raider is the one that
everybody's weren't a jersey of Max Crosby. Yeah, that's a
good one. That's good. That's a really good one. Ashton
Genty probably that because he's the up start rookie. Right.

(01:02:10):
But you can always tell when you go to a
Colts game and they're playing, you know, this year, for example,
the Colts are gonna have a home game against the Falcons, Right,
what are you gonna have like a bunch of people
walking around like in Michael Vick jerseys. That's Matt Ryan jersey.
Oh in Berlin, that's right. Yeah, but still people that
are going to Berlin, I mean, how many of them

(01:02:31):
may be a Michael Pennick jersey. Maybe maybe a Drake
Lendon Jerseyjean Robinson, Bijon or Robinson. But you can tell
the state of a franchise by the number of former
players that people are wearing their jersey and for the Titans,
Julio Jones, Roddy White, totally, Tony Gonzalez. I love going
to Colts games and I'm happy for this. Now you're

(01:02:52):
starting to see more. There's some Jonathan Taylor jerseys for sure.
Michael Turner is that his name? Running back boy? I
forgot about him? He was a two thousand Was he
a two thousand year was back in college? I don't know.
Northern Illinois, is that right? DeVante Freeman, Tevin Coleman, Tevin Coleman,

(01:03:13):
baby Prod Hoosier. But back to my point, friend of
the show, when you go to a Colts game, now,
I'm happy to see that you have people that are
walking in wearing Jonathan Taylor jerseys, or you see an
occasional Alec Pierce jersey, a lot of Pittman jerseys. You know,
we went through a period there where every time you
went to a game, all you saw was Marvin Harrison,

(01:03:34):
Peyton Manning, Dwight Friandie. Robert mathis walking around.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
One thousand, nine hundred and fifteen yards junior season for
Michael Turner. Yet I don't know why I'm thinking this.
Oh brock Bowers, Yes, would be for the Raiders. For
uh northern Illinois. You are correct, Uh, yeah, brock Bowers.

(01:04:00):
All the mailman just chimed in, how could you possibly
forget brock Powers. Yeah, that was a major oversight by us,
but you get my point. But I think the Colts
right now, back to the original question, not only are
they on top of the standings in the AFC South,
and you don't want to put the cart before the horse,
but they are in good position to be able to

(01:04:22):
hold on to that, just based on schedule. Because if
they're able to beat Tennessee and you're three to zero,
then you look at the if you break it down
by three, you look at their three games after that,
you go to La and take on the Rams. That's
a tough game, but then back to back home games

(01:04:43):
that you like the Raiders and the Cardinals. I mean,
could they start out five and one? I said ten
and seven at the beginning of the year, and it
seemed lofty and ludicrous, right. I didn't think was lofty
your Ludacris. I just felt like there was a wide
range of outcomes, like it could be a smashing success

(01:05:07):
or it could be a collapse in a total failure.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
This from Ralph at two through nine, ten seventy. Hey, Jake,
can you do the British voice? You do? Now? I
have two British guys. I've got the old, confused British
guy and I've got the young, upstart British guy. It
just depends on which one you want. Do you like
the batles? I mean, I got that guy and I
just I did not expect that's the other guy. But

(01:05:30):
it's hard to do on demand. That's the thing. It's
it's hard to do on demand, you know what I mean? Yeah, confused,
my But I do like the coats, not necessarily the batles.
Stephanie White is the head basketball coach of the Indiana Fever.
They had a big one last night, and that was
a game they had to win. That was as good

(01:05:52):
an atmosphere as you could ask for. Kudos to the
crowd that was there. They were loud, they were I
think they were energetic. I think they lifted them and
I think that there might be something happening within that
roster that came about almost serendipitously, because this is a

(01:06:17):
team that in one year and I'm not sitting here
trying to carry their water. But in one year, with
what that team has had to go through, it would
be fabulous to see them extend and advance beyond Tomorrow night.
They are now in a must win situation again against Atlanta.
It takes place tomorrow night in Atlanta, and it would

(01:06:40):
be easy to say so far mission accomplished, but obviously
they want to continue it forward. Lots of questions for
Stephanie White, She joins us. Next, the Indiana Fever will
head down to Atlanta for a decisive must win game
number three against the Dream tomorrow night. That because of

(01:07:00):
their win last night seventy seven sixty over Atlanta, their
head coach is kind enough to am sure during what
is a very busy time, give us a little bit
of time today, and we are so appreciative of it.
We were actually willing to play justin Timberlake by her request.
By the way, Eddie right, that's right, okay, Stephanie White
joins us on the program. Coach, First off, congratulations on

(01:07:21):
the win last night.

Speaker 4 (01:07:24):
Thanks, it was a good one.

Speaker 5 (01:07:25):
We you know, we enjoyed playing in front of our
home crowd certainly, but our team came out and you know,
backs against the wall and we're able to come away
with a win.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
I wanted to get to this. You and I talked,
I don't know, and I was asking you just about
offenses and offensive sets, and you kind of laughed and said,
you know that you're kind of old school there, Jake,
because things are a little bit more free flow now
within the game and the way that we do things.
When you look at your offensive efficiency last night and
notably I thought you shot the wall better from the outside,

(01:07:57):
how much of that is designed off of making tweaks
to a scheme and how much of that is Jake,
We don't make any tweaks at all. It just happens
within the flow. And it was a matter of just
making sure that we are taking advantage of open opportunity.

Speaker 5 (01:08:12):
I think some of adjusting to coverages and how Atlanta
likes to play and spacing. I think the other piece
is the willing to get to the next action, right
the second, third, fourth actions on the floor.

Speaker 4 (01:08:25):
You know, they're the number two defensive team in the.

Speaker 5 (01:08:28):
WNBA for a reason, and so we have to have
a willingness to do it. And at the end of
the day, we got to make shots.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Is this coach and you've been around basketball a long time,
whether it's a player at the college level, the professional level,
coaching for different franchises, does this team have as much
resilience as any that you've been around it?

Speaker 6 (01:08:51):
Does?

Speaker 5 (01:08:51):
I mean, this is a group that has continued to
be able to be flexible, be resilient, have toughness. And
the amount of situations that we've been through throughout the
course of the year, the amount of different personnel that
this group has had to adjust to, I think it
just speaks volume. And and you know, when you when

(01:09:13):
you when you go through the things that we've gone through,
you build strong cultural roots and and I think you know,
regardless of of of what comes of how far we're
going to to be able to go this season, the
roots that we've grown and the ability that we've had
to be able to get through multiple situations is going
to continue to pay dividends for our franchise.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
I was mentioning this earlier Stephanie White, our guest, the
head coach of the Fever. I don't know that I've
seen a team that I've you know, followed over the
course of a year that has had to deal with
the personnel changes like this one as you just talked about,
and key players going down and then for that matter,
replacement PA replacement am using in air quotes, but but

(01:09:56):
you know, other players going down and just a constant rotation.
So what my question is is this, do you have
because of the fact that you have players that are
giving you minutes right now that did not start out
on your roster and were players that probably at the
beginning of the WNBA season wondered if their career was

(01:10:16):
even going to take them into the WNBA this year,
and now they're in a situation like that. Has that
allowed coach for a resiliency to seep in because you
have players on the roster that are able to say
to themselves, this isn't even the worst thing that I
faced this season. I had to dip, you know, dig
deep down as a player just to get back into
a roster. So therefore this is all gravy to me.

(01:10:40):
Has that mentality seeped into those players that you began with,
you know.

Speaker 5 (01:10:46):
I don't know if it's if it's that mentality necessarily
or the mentality of just the opportunity that's that's in
front of them.

Speaker 4 (01:10:56):
You know, yes, it's that there.

Speaker 5 (01:10:58):
Have been various journey uh to get to this point,
and certainly when you have not been in the league,
there is a hunger and a desire to prove yourself
and and and so that that that helps. Certainly from
a competitive standpoint, you know, certainly, I would imagine with
every player in our league right now, there is a
desire to prove yourself with a new CBA and expansion

(01:11:21):
teams coming, you know, day in and day out. But
I don't get the sense that collectively with this group,
that that that's it right now.

Speaker 4 (01:11:28):
I think the sense that I get.

Speaker 5 (01:11:30):
Is that this group really enjoys one another. This group
really wants to do it for one another. You know.
Certainly ego is UH and is a part of everybody's journey.
That's why they're the.

Speaker 4 (01:11:42):
Best in the world.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
Now, did Stephanie just go through a tunnel? Etty? I
don't know. I just said, nope, you're done. She was
talking about journey and then the call dropped. Do you
think the journey actually took her? I'd like to know.
Is she made you ever driven? Like in West Virginia,
you're driving all of a sudden, you just you go
through a tunnel in one of those hills. But that

(01:12:06):
sounded like it was on our end, actually, But I
believe speaking of journeys, we're speaking of journeys, Coach. We're
gonna continue the journey right where we were. So you
were just talking about the overall resiliency and the collection
of resiliency within the team.

Speaker 5 (01:12:20):
Yeah, And I just think that this is a group
that really pulls for one another. That there that they've
come together and and and they've they've seen different circumstances
and they just pull for one another. And right now
they're playing for a bigger purpose, something bigger than themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
You know, you mentioned this when you look at and
I know we've talked about this, but the well, it
feels like we're on the precipice right now. And a
big part of this has to do with some aspects
of your roster, But it feels like we're on the
precipice of this kind of breakthrough within like the collective

(01:12:53):
bargaining agreement and new television contracts and revenue, and obviously
that was a big topic of discussion the beginning of
the year. You yourself being somebody who was a player,
who was a champion of women's sports. How do you
balance the necessity and the understanding of all of the
players individually trying to grow that brand while at the

(01:13:15):
same time keeping focus on the team aspect of what
the goal is in mind.

Speaker 5 (01:13:21):
Yeah, I mean, I think for us, we talked about
this at the beginning of this year. You know, how
how do we how do we use because every every
single one of us, who is who is competitive and
who wants to be the best at what we do,
every single one of us has an ego. You know,
how do you use that ego to fuel your individual's success,
but also how do you shell that ego for the

(01:13:43):
betterment of a team? And you know, not everybody can
do it. That's why it's important to get the right
group around them. But in terms of the bigger picture
of the league. Yeah, I mean, I was a part
of the very first collective bargaining agreement in the w
NBA as a player, where all we wanted was insurance
for the entire year and not just not just for
the season. Uh, to where they are now and and

(01:14:04):
you know, certainly fighting for for higher salaries and and
and and other things as well. Uh, you know, it's
it's really important to to have great leadership that understands
you know where you are and what you deserve, but
also understands you know how you're setting this league up
for success and the longevity of the league. And there
were plenty of players who had to sacrifice early in

(01:14:25):
their careers who aren't playing anymore for the league to
get to where it is. Just like these players will
be sacrificing something for the league.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
To continue to propel and move themselves forward.

Speaker 5 (01:14:33):
I think there's a lot of information and and there
are a lot of great resources, and and and both
sides certainly understand the pivotal moment that we're in.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
I thought you guys did a really good job last night,
coach of kind of limiting or keeping in check Atlanta's
perimeter play and notably they're outside shooting. Did you make
adjustments in that area?

Speaker 4 (01:14:53):
Yeah, I mean, I think.

Speaker 5 (01:14:54):
Our attention to detail was better. You know, we did
a good job of limiting their opportunities from the three
point line at place we just put them on the
free throw line too much.

Speaker 6 (01:15:02):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:15:02):
The keys for us in our success against Atlanta, in particular,
they gotta they got to hit under eight threes, and
they got to stay off the free throw line less
than fifteen free throw attempts. We did both of those.
We were much more disciplined defensively. When they were driving
to the rim, they do a really good job of
initiating contact, and I thought we did a really good
job of staying disciplined and not fouling and not giving

(01:15:22):
into that contact.

Speaker 4 (01:15:23):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:15:24):
So we were much more disciplined at the point of
our ball screen coverages, of our off ball coverages. We
were disruptive. They're a good team, and we know we're
not gonna limit everything, but those two in particular have
to continue to be a point of emphasis.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
Can there be benefit from getting technical fouls?

Speaker 4 (01:15:41):
I mean, I guess if.

Speaker 5 (01:15:42):
It causes momentum changes in your way, there could be benefits.

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
Have you ever intentionally gotten one?

Speaker 4 (01:15:48):
I wouldn't say intentionally.

Speaker 5 (01:15:50):
I would say that there are times where I sense
that momentum could be could be gained from it. You know,
there are times where where I just you know, I
go a little too far. But no, I wouldn't say that,
I'm like planned most of the time to get to
get technical foul.

Speaker 1 (01:16:07):
Do you have a magic phrase that you know will
get you one.

Speaker 4 (01:16:09):
Like us, we're definitely.

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
Every time or just like not every.

Speaker 4 (01:16:18):
Time anything, if it happens over and over and over.

Speaker 5 (01:16:21):
Again, satisically that that's resulting in one.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
Okay, fair enough, Well that's kind of you know that.
I don't know if you know this or not. That
happens in my line of work. Also, like if I
use it, I get in trouble.

Speaker 4 (01:16:31):
Also, right, do you get fined as well?

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
You know, that's a good question. I'd rather not find out.
You know, what's funny, I don't know if you were
like this growing up. What's what's funny to me is
when I was growing up, and this is kind of
what it's like being on the radio. You know this.
You've done a lot of media work, Stephanie. But like
I'm around my buddies and I mean it's you're like sailors, right,
It's just like when you were in high school. When

(01:16:55):
I was in high school, I'd be around my buddies
playing pick up basketball, doing whatever, and I mean every
other word we're swearing. And then you get home and
you sit in front of your parents and it doesn't
even enter into your imagination, right, it's no party, Les
and the same happens kind of when you're on the radio.
I have no idea how I honestly, I don't know
how it doesn't slip into it. I'm knock on wood right,

(01:17:18):
so I don't know if I'd get fined or not.
I think I could. I don't want to find out.

Speaker 4 (01:17:22):
No, Yeah, it's the same way. It's like and when
I'm in in you know, sport in practice.

Speaker 5 (01:17:27):
In season, it's much more frequently flying around. It very
rarely happens out of season. Steph.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
Last night, Aliah Boston has the layup less thantens Exico
third quarter, you get the steal, and then Lexi hits
the big three in the crowd just goes absolutely nuts.
A moment like that wouldn't have happened, you know, in
previous years because of the way that the format was
for the WNBA playoffs. What did you think of that
moment last night as somebody who's been a part of
this state for so long, and seeing the crowd get

(01:17:55):
as lively as it was there at the end of
the third quarter.

Speaker 4 (01:17:57):
Going into the fourth, it was incredible, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:18:00):
I think it felt very much like it did.

Speaker 4 (01:18:04):
In twenty fifteen when.

Speaker 5 (01:18:06):
We were playing, I believe it was New York in
the semi finals, you know, to go to the finals.
So we had a possession where where Breon January took
a charge right in front of our bench and it
was a momentum changing possession and the crowd erupted, and
it just it felt very much like that. It was incredible.
I mean, I'm so you know, thankful that our fans

(01:18:27):
got an opportunity to get get that playoff game. It's
been a long time coming, you know, our players delivered.
We certainly want to have an opportunity to play some more,
but that was a really special moment.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
I think it's really cool as well to see the
reciprocal support. And I see it even you know during
when the Pacers, like at Thanksgiving time when they do
the you know, our house meal for the less fortunate
at Gamebridge, and you see both the Pacers and Fever
players that are there, the Fever players that are in

(01:18:57):
town at that time, and you know, seeming to Aris
Haliburton at the game yesterday, and then obviously always seeing
Caitlin Clark in different Fever player at Pacers games. Do
you think that's common for most of the franchises that
crossover not just support and respect, but friendship.

Speaker 5 (01:19:13):
I think it's starting to become common. You know, there
are a lot of these players from a young age
have interacted with one another where whether it's through USA
Basketball clubs for you know, there's much more integration of
where these tournaments are, where these where these these players
connect from the high school level to the college level
and and then at the pro level. So I do

(01:19:35):
think that it's it's continuing to become more common. They've
they've had relationships, they're continuing to build relationships. There's such
a mutual respect for what one another does at the
highest level every single day and how you have to
prepare and and it is a very small community of
professional athletes, and so I think it's it's always been sporadic,

(01:19:55):
but now it's becoming much more, much more common in mainstay.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
Hey, I'm serious of this. As a as a basketball
coach who also has done radio and television basketball media,
do you find that you more often when you are
doing the media side of it, that you are critically
analyzing the coaching because you wear that hat as well.
Or do you find that when you are a coach

(01:20:20):
doing media like this that you are more critically wearing
the hat of the media person because you do that.

Speaker 4 (01:20:25):
Also, No, I don't think so.

Speaker 5 (01:20:27):
I think what I try to do is really dive
into to what the coach would be thinking if I'm
calling a game, like what would they be thinking from
a game plan standpoint, from an adjustment standpoint.

Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
It's time and score situation standpoint.

Speaker 5 (01:20:42):
And then when I'm on this side, you know, empathizing
sometimes with with you know, as coaches, sometimes it's like,
oh gosh, that's that why why are we asking that question?
But then empathizing with with hey, like, listen, this is
just because I know the information. Doesn't mean everybody else does, right,
somebody's hearing it for the first time, and so just
having the two perspectives, you know, hopefully allows me to

(01:21:04):
look at it from from that viewpoint so that we
no matter what, we can give the viewer, the audience,
the team, whomever it might be, give them, you know,
what we're looking for, and give them a unique perspective.

Speaker 1 (01:21:17):
What percent of the time when we're when you're on
this show, do you think to yourself, oh gosh, why
are we asking that question?

Speaker 4 (01:21:23):
I'm thinking, oh gosh, what's going to come out of
Jake's mouth?

Speaker 5 (01:21:25):
Like where we asking fifteen fifty?

Speaker 6 (01:21:27):
Is it going to be?

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
Is it fifty to fifty?

Speaker 5 (01:21:29):
I mean, like I was anticipating a little bit when
you were talking about the Journey that we were going
to go into eighties rock again.

Speaker 1 (01:21:36):
Did you like Journey by the way?

Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
I did like Journey?

Speaker 1 (01:21:38):
Yeah, Yeah, Journey's pretty cool. Journey was cool. Listen. I
mean you threw me for a curve ball with Steve
Miller though, because that you know what I mean, Like,
I just I just anticipate you being strictly nothing in
high school but a country music fan. So I was
impressed when you threw Steve Miller out there and justin.

Speaker 4 (01:21:55):
I mean, I was an athlete.

Speaker 5 (01:21:56):
I'm I was an athlete, so you know I wasn't
just growing up on the farm listening to country music. Right.

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
Well, but I you're.

Speaker 5 (01:22:03):
Limiting You're limiting my experience now.

Speaker 1 (01:22:05):
Listen. I'll be honest with you when I when I
think about you, like getting ready for a big game
at secret high school as an athlete, I think of
you as being like Rocky Balboa, like you were like,
you know, climbing up like you know, what I mean,
like you were doing I had a tiger. Yeah, I mean,
like pulling a plow, you know what I mean. I
mean like those sorts of things like I think like
you were basically an Amish athlete is the way I

(01:22:27):
work at it.

Speaker 4 (01:22:28):
Yeah, I see that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
I mean, I mean, let's be honest, it's not like
you were on Michigan Aulllete School. Yeah. Yeah, I mean
it's a little bit different than Indianapolis North Central, but
not I mean you were a hell of them, not
a lot, but a lot better player than I was.
That's for sure, no question about it, all right, coach. Lastly,
you know the obvious here, and that is I know

(01:22:50):
that you want to win this game, and I know
that at this point. It's kind of like you know,
Norman Dale says in Hoosiers, like we've gone over everything
at this point. But when you do go into a
game that you know, if it doesn't go your way,
that then this group may never be together in its
totality again, et cetera. What is the mindset going in?

(01:23:11):
How do you keep a group focused on the job
at hand and not looking beyond the stakes of it.

Speaker 5 (01:23:18):
Well, look, most of the players in our locker room
have been through that part of it before. It's it's
nearly never the same group no matter what at you know,
at the beginning, the ending of a season, the beginning
of the next season. You know, I think for this
group in particular, we have been our best when our
back is up against.

Speaker 4 (01:23:36):
The wall, and this group has just.

Speaker 5 (01:23:40):
Is just focused on doing the job at hand. And
you know, I think for me, when I think about
the opportunity that we have in front of us, I
mean the pressures not on us, right, you know, we're
the lower seed. We force a game three. We know
what we have to do in order to take the
next step and to get to another series and to
continue our quest for a championship. And and we want

(01:24:00):
to embrace every moment that we have because this has
been such a special request group, because we do know
how to fight and call and scrape and scrap for
one another, and because we've enjoyed the moments together.

Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
By the way, Eddie, coach White coached in Nashville, lives
and spends a lot of time in Nashville. Coach Eddie
has come up with what he believes to be the
masterful impersonation of the sound of every bachelorette party on
the back of a bus going down Broadway. Go ahead, Eddie,
hit it. Okay, does that sound about right?

Speaker 4 (01:24:33):
That's accurate.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
That's basically the ambient noise of Nashville, Tennessee.

Speaker 5 (01:24:37):
Right, yeah, it sure is, and you have to hear
it over the loud speakers and the singing the karaoke
Oh yes, totally.

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
All right. Lastly, next musical request would.

Speaker 4 (01:24:47):
Be, who oh wow, let's see.

Speaker 5 (01:24:50):
You know, I went JT and I did. Used to
be a big in sync fan, So maybe we'll have
to go back to nineties boy bands.

Speaker 1 (01:24:56):
Okay, we could do Backstreet Boys in sync. You know,
you name it right. But here's the thing. The reason
I asked is because I'm putting you on the hook
for next week because you guys are going to win
and you're going to continue to have games to talk about.

Speaker 4 (01:25:10):
That's right, Let's go, all.

Speaker 1 (01:25:11):
Right, appreciate it, coach, best of luck. All right, all right,
Stephanie White joining us from the Indiana Fever. Eddie, your
reaction to that interview would be, but that's your cue?

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
What are you talking about. I'm just trying to get
you to do your bus sound effect again. I don't
have a bus sound effect your batslorette sound effect. We'll
see Stephanie is prominently featured in a book from one
of Indianapolis's more known writers, and he's going to join
us in about twenty five minutes. We'll get back into

(01:25:41):
our Colts Question of the Day next, our Colts Question
of the Day coming up top of the hour just
about five minutes from now, and Shane Steichen's thoughts on
I thought he had a very interesting comment, very interesting
comment recently within the last hour about Daniel Joan.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
We'll get into that. I did want to ask this Eddie.
Every once in a while, I will ask you, Eddie
to keep me in check. I know somebody said earlier
that I'm the blowhard, right well, I feel like it's
part of my job title. I that's Jake in check.
I'm looking at headlines yesterday, right and I see the

(01:26:20):
headline of a feat of a major league baseball player, okay,
And initially I was confused by the headline because I'm like,
what does that city have to do with baseball? And
then I pull up the article and I'm very impressed
by the feet and that is that Ham Raleigh of

(01:26:41):
the cal or cal excuse me, yeah, exactly to my
point here of the Seattle Mariners hit, I believe, what
fifty five home runs? Fifty five and fifty six yesterday? Right, Yes,
that is true. And I actually had to jog my
memory when I saw the headline Raleigh, you know, and
then I pull up the article. It wasn't like I
automatically was like, oh, yeah, I mean cal Raley of course,

(01:27:03):
not talking about North Carolina, right and that. So when
I saw the article, it was like, you know, Raleigh
sets record or whatever, and I'm like, what does Raley
have to do with baseball? It didn't immediately associate in
my mind. And for that matter, I mean right there,
I had the Freudian slip of Can versus col Right,
I know, big dumpers the nickname, but I immediately thought

(01:27:27):
to myself, there was a time where the fifty home
run plateau in general was remarkable. Foster did it, and
then you didn't have it again until Cecil Fielder did it.
And then obviously in the home run Derby's of you know,
up into ninety eight, you had you know, Brady Anderson's
doing it, and you know, clearly McGuire and Sosa in

(01:27:50):
the pursuit of sixty one was so big, and some
of the players that randomly were popping up with these
huge years. I think Ron Gant had a year maybe
where he hit close to fifty. And now it's a
little more ordinary. Not ordinary is the wrong word, but
it's it's a little more Kamio Schwarber just did it. Obviously,
you have fifty players in the history of the sport,

(01:28:12):
fifty one fifty three players that have hit over fifteen
the season, and how many of those have been in
the last twenty five years. Ah, that's a great question.
But my question is this, The fact that cal Raley's
name did not immediately recognize to my brain that he
is a Seattle Mariner catcher, and the fact that like
if he walked into my house, I wouldn't immediately recognize

(01:28:35):
him by vision? Is that egregious on my behalf? What
percent of sports fans do you think know who he is?
M think about it and tell me on the other side,
and then we'll get to our Colts question as well.
Colts and Titans coming up Sunday down in Nashville. I

(01:28:55):
think tomorrow we may be taking a road trip down
to Nashville find out the Titan side of things and
the way that they you know, what they've done well
so far, if anything, And I think that is a
franchise and a team that is Colts fans can relate
to what they're going through and not in a bad way.

(01:29:17):
But I'm just saying, a young quarterback that looks to
have a lot of tools that you like, but at
the same time, you've got to, you know, navigate those
tools and figure it out and figure out what they
have at the quarterback position. And that is the biggest
trick in the NFL. Certainly Shane Steikeen knows that. Eddie
asked a question earlier, is this the best team talking

(01:29:38):
about the Colts in the AFC South. A big part
of that answer is going to be what they continue
to get out of the quarterback play. And I had suspected,
as did most I think that when Shane Steiken decided
to go with Daniel Jones at the quarter back spot,

(01:30:02):
that he was doing so partially because he talking about
Shane Steiken had been a college quarterback, and he talked
about that earlier today, did stichen that being a college
quarterback gives him maybe somewhat of an advantage because he
a little bit empathizes, if you want to say it

(01:30:23):
that way, with what a quarterback is going through in
the learning process and what all goes through the mind
of a quarterback when, as I always say it, when
the arrows are flying, right, when bid action's going on,
when you know what hits the fan. Yeah, I mean,
you know, I think it's easy to or do you

(01:30:44):
want to say the word Jay can find out if
you get fined. No, I don't want to find out
if I'm gonna get fined. Okay, it'd be the only
fine thing about this show. I can tell you that
the I think it's easy to sit and say, and
those of us in media, fans, et cetera. You know,
I always get a kick out of it a Monday

(01:31:05):
morning when you know, the All twenty two video comes
out and people like, look at this read this quarterback
completely missed this guy. And if I'm a quarterback, I'm
probably saying to myself, it's easy for you to say
that now, but you're not out there when you've got
microseconds to make that decision, and you know it just

(01:31:26):
is happening all around you, and you know, I think
that Shane Steichen, having played the position, knows and understands
and respects and can see it perhaps in guiding him
through can see exactly like from from afar, some of

(01:31:49):
the challenges that a quarterback faces that we would be
naive to. And in making the decision on whether or
not he wanted to go this year with Daniel Jones,
says Anthony Richardson, And clearly, you know Daniel Jones right
now is as he is playing as well at the
quarterback spot as anybody in the NFL. And it's very

(01:32:12):
easy to sit here and say, but he didn't really
do that through camp, like why is it? Why is
Dan like in camp he didn't really blow anybody away,
So why suddenly the increase in level of play now? Well,
I think part of that answer is because there was
a level of I'm not going to say watering it down,

(01:32:36):
but he was asking you had to basically have both
quarterbacks going through the same reps, the same thing, so
that you could weigh it out. And then once he
decided Daniel Jones was his guy, then I think Stiken
ramped up what it was that he was going to
ask that quarterback to do. And now he is designing
things that are more specified towards the skill set of

(01:32:56):
Daniel Jones as opposed to more water down to be
able to figure out which of the two guys he
wants to go with. He said something earlier today when
he was asked about Daniel Jones. Shane Steiken said the following,
and he was talking here about, you know, we saw
some blitzing with Miami, but we saw a ton of

(01:33:17):
blitzing with Denver. Denver blitzes as aggressively and as with
as much regularity as really any team in the league.
And yet Daniel Jones has had success. And so Shane
Steiken was asked about that success from Daniel Jones, and

(01:33:40):
I thought he said something interesting.

Speaker 7 (01:33:42):
I think I understanding what's going on defense, Understanding where
the pressures are coming from, Knowing the timing of when
you got to get the ball out, knowing how you're
picked up, whether you're going to be hot or not.
I think that's a huge part of it, and that's
the game. That's the game within the game, and that's
studying it and understanding what's going on on the other
side of the field so you can play on rhythm
and play on time, and I think our line's done

(01:34:02):
a hell of the job, you know, protecting for him
in his last two weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
Okay, so right there, what he's talking about is exactly
what Again, Shane Steiken always gives us the answer after
the fact. We should have known this all along. He
went with the guy not necessarily even that throws the
prettier ball, although he does throw with more accuracy. He

(01:34:27):
went with the guy that doesn't necessarily keep defenses shaking
about what can happen if he decides to run. But
he went with the guy did Shane Steiken. He went
with the guy that gives him better understanding of extended vision,
of being an extension of the coach on the field.

(01:34:49):
And I think because he has a quarterback that can
recognize what is happening and process quickly what is happening,
then that allows Stichen to be able to call plays
as he sees fit and as he desires because he

(01:35:10):
knows the quarterback is going to be able to execute
those plays. But if a look or formation counters what
it is that Shane Stikeen wants to do, he has
an extension of his own thought under center. I'm not
saying that Anthony Richardson doesn't get along with Stichen or
any of those things. But Daniel Jones is giving Stikeen

(01:35:34):
the ability, from Shane Steikin's standpoint of allowing him to
be confident in the fact that he has on the
field a guy that is a direct that is going
to directly follow not only what Stikeen wants, but can
check out of and get away from something if the
wrong call was made by recognition. I think this decision

(01:35:57):
was made. I think this this decision was made when
that very first play when Richardson got blown up in
the preseason because he didn't And I'm not saying it's
entirely Richardson's fault. I'm not saying he's the only quarterback
that would not have recognized that. But when you hear
right there what Shane Stikeen is saying about Daniel Jones,

(01:36:19):
what he is saying is not as much that Daniel
Jones does that, but that that's what he needs. He
needs somebody that recognizes situation, the entire operation, entire operation
that's exactly correct, and that entire operation goes above and beyond.
I need a guy that I know when he walks
up to that line of scrimmage. He is carrying with

(01:36:43):
him everything I told him in a meeting on Tuesday.
He is remembering what I showed him in a film
on Thursday, and he has mentioned he is aware of
the potential change in a shift of defensive look that
I reminded him of on Friday. And that's a lot.
There's not many quarterbacks that can do that. That's a lot.
There are great quarterbacks that have played in the NFL

(01:37:06):
for a really long time that failed in being able
to grasp all of that. And then you have other
things that take place that I appreciate Shane Steichen pointing
out to us that are games within the game, to
use his term. For example, the Colts now have a

(01:37:29):
piece in Tyler Warren that is a straw mixing the
drink of their offense. Alec Pierce has become a better
all of a sudden like tough catch, possession receiver, crossing
route kind of guy. But Tyler Warren still and continues
to be the piece that makes that all possible. But

(01:37:52):
what's fascinating is the threat of Tyler Warren and making
defenses guess how and where you're going to use Tyler
Warren that is what is facilitating for so many other
areas of the Colts offensively. But to get that going

(01:38:13):
sometimes you need not Tyler Warren being the one that
other people are springing big plays off of, but rather
Tyler Warren springing a big play off of someone else.
Listen to what Shane Steichen says from a play when
Tyler Warren had a one of his two bigger catches

(01:38:33):
on Sunday where he gets a yard after catch play.
Because that's the thing that makes Tyler Warren so dangerous.
It's one thing to get in the ball, it's another
than what he can do once the ball is in
his hands with the yard after catch. And you think
that it's just that Tyler Warren is this huge bulldozer
Jeremy Shockey, runaway freight train type tight end, and that

(01:38:57):
Tyler Warren, once he becomes that player, then you have
to pay attention to that so much that it frees
up Alec Pierce, and it frees up Ady Mitchell, and
it frees up Michael Pittman, and it frees up Jonathan Taylor.
But what about the fact that other players actually are
freeing up Tyler Warren. Here's Shane steichen On exactly what
I'm talking about. Oh yeah, that was huge. That was
the one where we hit him.

Speaker 7 (01:39:17):
It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:39:18):
I showed that in the team meeting. It was awesome.

Speaker 7 (01:39:20):
That's kind of the game within the game, those little nuances.
You know, he's running off there, and obviously Tyler catches
the ball and he keeps running and looks as you know,
looks up at s Manna man covers and the guy
keeps running with him. Kind of see that around the
league with some guys, some savvy players. We always show
those clips, which are huge because that's extra yards for
the guy that catches it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:40):
So what he's talking about is Warren as he catches
the ball, Alec Pierce on a different side of the
field faked like he had caught it, and Alec Pierce
goes through the motions like he had just made a
reception and begins running and that shifts the defense except
for Tyler. Warren's one guy away from Tyler Warren because

(01:40:00):
all of a sudden, everybody's like, wait a minute, where
did the ball just go? And Warren notices then he
just has man demand coverage and that there is no
other help coming, and he knows I'm gonna win a
man on man coverage and I'm gonna get additional yards here,
and that's facilitated by Alec Pierce doing that. And I
think it's anytime you have that kind of a versatility

(01:40:21):
of a receiver that can make plays catching the ball
but also make plays by being a decoy, that's the
kind of recognition and versatility that you want. Those are
those small details, Jake, that like the Kansas City Chiefs
have perfected over time, that have made them such, you know,
so dominant in terms of finding ways to win. It's

(01:40:41):
those little details that give teams advantages and those because
you take a place over with right and then you're like,
oh my gosh, and then boom, like a four yard
play becomes a twelve yard play and it just extends
and extends. But you gotta love that kind of versatility.
Speaking of versatility, by the way, David Woods is a
friend of the show, and when you talk about writing,
there a versatility there as well, because he's a noted

(01:41:02):
writer when it comes to a couple of things. Number one,
his longtime coverage and book publication about Butler basketball, and
number two, when it comes to track and field events
and Olympic events. David Woods has been Indianapolis's marquee guy
for that. He also works on coffee table books, and
I'm not talking about the ones that Kramer had that's
a coffee table book about coffee tables, but rather about

(01:41:25):
women in sports. We'll get to that in a minute,
but first let me simply welcome him to the program. David,
how are you.

Speaker 6 (01:41:30):
I'm doing great, Jake, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:41:32):
Hey, I want to begin with this. You you know, Cole
Hawker is a guy that is an Olympic medalist that
is from here in Indianapolis. He is a Cathedral graduate.
You know, he went away for college and then I'm
going to say surprisingly became a gold medalist. And that's
not because he's not a great runner, but I think

(01:41:53):
that if you look at when he won Olympic gold,
it was a race where for the first eighty percent,
you know, he kind of came out nowhere. He was
like mine that bird in the Kentucky Derby. All of
a sudden he comes out of nowhere and he wins,
and that puts him in the world stage. And right
now there are the and to correct me if my
terminology is incorrect. The World Track Championships that are taking place,

(01:42:14):
I believe in Tokyo, and he is going to run
to well Friday, technically I guess is it Friday in
Tokyo and Thursday here or he still has another event.
But he was disqualified in the fifteen hundred and may
have won that event if he'd been in it. What
led to David, I know you've been covering this for

(01:42:35):
Cole Hawker's sake. What led to him being disqualified in
the fifteen hundred.

Speaker 6 (01:42:41):
Well, him, he got himself into trouble by which he
often does by staying so close to the rail, which
is the shortest distance. But within the cluttered field he
was in, he was boxed in and he only had
to be in the first six Monday semi final to
get out, and he kind of of he kind of
slipped through, but there was a ruling that he jostled

(01:43:04):
another runner to his right. It kind of it looked
kind of bad live, but on replay it wasn't much
In an international racing that sometimes isn't called. So I
would say maybe the disqualification was warranted, but you know,
it's also perhaps perhaps nitpicking and a lot of times

(01:43:24):
that wouldn't be called, and the way that the final
played out today, I actually I actually think the way
that race evolved, I think Hawker would have won the
gold medal and instead he wasn't even in it.

Speaker 1 (01:43:35):
Okay. And so when you talk about the ruling, okay,
when you have in David, I'm I'm almost embarrassed to
ask this question, it's so incredibly naive. But when you
go with international ruling, So this is in Tokyo, correct,
the World Track Championships, Yes, okay. When you have international
events like that, is it the world sanctioning body that

(01:43:58):
is officiating it? And thus the runner knows, regardless of
competition or locale, that the ruling is going to be
consistently the same or there are there different governing bodies
dependent upon where the event is taking place, and thus
running styles or rules can fluctuate a little bit from
one race to the next.

Speaker 6 (01:44:16):
No, the World Athletics was in charge and it really consistency.
But I just remember watching the end of the women's
marathon at Paris last year. I mean, the winner, Stefan
Hassan and the runner up had a major collision late
in that race, and nothing was called, and in another
women's race. I think it was the five thousand meters.

(01:44:38):
I mean there was big time hand fighting late in
that race and a runner was disqualified losing a metal
and then later reinstated. So you know, it's like any
other sport, officiating isn't always consistent. You know, Hawker's at
fault for getting himself into into a bad spot. He's
actually usually a very good racer actician, and it looked

(01:45:02):
like he might have gotten away with it and he didn't.
But I think it probably just makes him even more
dangerous than the five thousand. I's got to qualify Friday
for the Sunday final, but it's been so hot and
humid in Tokyo. I have a feeling in the final
would go a little slow, and if you let the
pace lag very long, you leave yourself susceptible to being

(01:45:22):
overtaken by a kicker like Hawker, which is how he
won the US Championship.

Speaker 1 (01:45:26):
That's all I was going to ask, is you know
I realized it was in the fifteen hundred that Colehawker
of Innanapolis won the gold in the five thousand, you know,
what is his How good an event is that for him?
I mean, the fifteen hundred is his specialty? Is that correct? Yes?
And so the five thousand is it would he be

(01:45:47):
he would be prognosticated or rank if you will wear
when it comes to the five thousand, well.

Speaker 6 (01:45:54):
Not necessarily among the favors, but again it kind of
depends how it plays out. And it's going to be
really interesting because three milers Hawker Jaka Benger Britzet of
Norway and Niels Leros of the Netherlands, who I thought
would win today's fifteen hundred, are all in that and
it would probably behoove the other guys who are more
of strictly distance runners to try to try to make

(01:46:16):
that race faster, you know, to kind of you know,
to kind of slow down the finishing speed of the
three milers. But that's what makes Championship bracing so interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:46:27):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:46:28):
It's not like the Diamond League where they have wave
lights and pacers and everyone's just out to run fast.
You know, Tactics come into play a lot, and you
know it as you're more familiar with it, it probably
more resembles an Indy car or NASCAR than it does
the drags.

Speaker 1 (01:46:45):
Really good way of saying, and actually you know what
I mean. I mean that in just in terms of
distance as opposed to short burst and et cetera. David
Woods is our guest independent journalists now but longtime rider
here in Santoriniana. All right, let's get to the other
thing that caught my eye, David, and that is, you know,
I Pediment Publishing has a new book out. It's one
hundred and forty four pages. It has fabulous color photography

(01:47:07):
in it. It features and this is the part that
I love, inspiring women of Indiana sports. They changed the
games we love. And then I look at it and
I say, holy cow. The guy that put this all together,
the author of it is David Woods. So take me
through if you could, and we'll get people information about

(01:47:28):
the book itself. But what was the origin of thought
or inspiration of this book that is in fact about
inspiration itself.

Speaker 6 (01:47:38):
Well, I realized I had a lot of these stories
on women athletes over the years, and it really is
probably because of two things. Because I covered you know,
women's basketball at Indiana Fever for so long and Olympic sports.
You know, I just naturally end up writing about a
lot of women athletes, and so many of them are
great stories. I said, boy, if I could, if I

(01:47:59):
could maybe assemble kind of an anthology of these stories,
it might be kind of a cool book. And Indie
Star's Fortsheedter Nat Newell got me connected with h with
the USA Today Gannett editor and they, you know, they
have an agreement with Pediment Publishing, and they decided to
go ahead and do with it. I must have been
I'm pretty surprised, but women's sports are kind of trendy now,

(01:48:21):
and I'm you know, I'm very happy about about what
we've assembled, and uh, you know, I hope, I hope
readers are excited about it as I have been putting
it together. Now, almost all of the stories are just
stories I've already written have been published in Indie Star
probably over the last twenty six years. A couple others

(01:48:43):
are from elsewhere. And I still have to write my
Caitlin Clark story because I you know, that she came
on the scene after I had left full time employment
at The Star, so I'll write an essay about her.
But yeah, the rest the rest of them are from
you know, lots of different sports and from several different eras,
and I'm really gratified that that USA today, Gannett and

(01:49:07):
Indie Starr are impediment publishing are putting this together.

Speaker 1 (01:49:11):
David, when you look back on your career and as
you were putting this book together, you're looking at articles,
let's say that you wrote, you know in some of them,
you know, as you'd mentioned twenty plus years ago, do
you feel like the reception of the articles, the interest
of them, the perception of female athletes is different today

(01:49:35):
than it was, say twenty five years ago, in terms
of the overall interest level, the overall you know, beyond
just the stick and ball sport, et cetera. How would
you explain the overall journey of the reception of female athletes.

Speaker 6 (01:49:56):
Well, I think it's definitely in the stick and ball sports.
It's more think there's a lot more interest, you know,
in in basketball and and you know maybe even college
of volleyball, and ESPN gets good ratings on college softball.
I think there's always been pretty good interest in the UH,
in the in the Olympic sports involving women athletes. I

(01:50:17):
don't know that that's changed that much, you know, in
terms of track and field and swimming and gymnastics, and
you know, I've got you know, Brownsburg cyclist Chloe Dygert,
who who was arguably the you know, the most outstanding
active Indiana athlete right now in any sport. So I
think there's still has always been quite a bit of

(01:50:37):
interest in those but there's no question in some of
these other sports that the interest has really increased. And
as we can see from what Gave and Clark has
done to the n w n b A, and you know,
you could say too that it also might indicate that
there has been some staying power. Now Clark probably shined
a light on all the other players, but she hasn't played,

(01:50:58):
you know, most of the season, but the ratings for
the WNBA have continued to be good, and so there
really has been that carry over which in some ways
even enhances Clark's you know, Clark's impact on the league
because the league has done well even when she's on
the sideline. I think that's pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:51:19):
Jake, inspiring women of Indiana sports. They changed the games
We Love is the book from David Woods Pediment Publishing,
Putting it All Together. David, when you look back at
the stories that you pieced together for this book, did
you have I know that you said that it were
stories that you have previously done. You compiled the stories

(01:51:40):
of female sports related figures that you had done over
the course of your career. Did you have what was
the parameter on what qualified as being Indiana sports? In
other words, did you include, say, if somebody came through
at the you know, at Michael Carroll Stadium right as
part of a team USA Trials and didn't have Indiana

(01:52:01):
connection other than Indiana provided the stage where they were performing, you.

Speaker 6 (01:52:07):
Know, you had to go to either a bee from
Indiana or go to an Indiana college, or in the
case of you know, uh, Tamika Catchings and and Katelin
Clark you know, play for the you know, play for
the local professional team. So I you know, I've got
a few Notre Dame athletes in here. And of course
I've got you know, Tamika and Katelyn Clark who played

(01:52:27):
for the Fever who you know they're not they're not
Native Hoosiers. But I would say probably all, but you know,
maybe just a small handful. You know, didn't uh, you know,
didn't you know worth Indiana natives?

Speaker 1 (01:52:42):
Really? Did you have a favorite story?

Speaker 6 (01:52:45):
You know, I'm not sure I did you know, my
favorite might be Andrea Pomeransky. She was Andrea Craber when
she was at Bishop Chatard. She was a high school
softball star, you know, became became a good run for Miami, Ohio,
didn't run for ten years, for almost ten years, tragically

(01:53:10):
lost two twins, two infant twins, resumed running kind of
for mental health, and ended up being an elite runner,
set a Indiana marathon record, qualified for the Olympic Trials.
The arc of her story is it sounds like fiction.
So I think that's probably the most remarkable women's athlete

(01:53:36):
story that I've come across or will ever come across.

Speaker 1 (01:53:39):
Well, that certainly qualifies for the inspiring aspect of inspiring
women of Indiana sports. They created the games, they excuse me,
change the games we love again. Pediment Publishing put it
together one hundred and forty four pages. It is a
coffee table book. David Woods is the author, David Last.
I know right now in the pre sale people can
get it at twenty five percent off, but they would

(01:54:00):
find out how to get in the book or be
able to acquire it. How well you can.

Speaker 6 (01:54:05):
It's you if you just probably googled inspiring woman of
Indiana Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:54:09):
That would take.

Speaker 6 (01:54:10):
You could probably find the original Indie Star story, which
has a link. Pet Them Publishing has the link. They're
easy to find. I don't think it's on Amazon yet,
but I saw it on the Barnes and Noble site,
so there's quite a few places where you can order it.
It is a twenty percent discount to get it now.
It's it's for release in mid November, you know, which

(01:54:32):
is always plenty of time, plenty of time for Christmas.
And yeah, I hope I hope people who ordered the book,
and that really would be the best deal. I realized
most people probably aren't doing their Christmas shopping this early,
but in this case, it would, you know, it would
be smart to do so.

Speaker 3 (01:54:49):
So I hope, I hope.

Speaker 6 (01:54:50):
I hope people enjoy it. I think they will. And uh,
I think some of these stories, even though I wrote
them a long time ago, still blow me away, so
I hope the readers feel the same.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
David, I appreciate it. We'll talk to you in November
to remind everybody about the time when it all comes out.

Speaker 6 (01:55:05):
All right, Hey, thanks so much, Shake, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:08):
David Wood's our friend joining us on the program. When
we come back, we will get back into.

Speaker 5 (01:55:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:55:14):
David or Eddie asked the question earlier about are the
Colts the best team in the AFC South. I think
we can say they are, But what about the other divisions?
Which division right now already seems to be the most
clear cut. It's only two weeks in, but why not
do overreaction times? Duh, right, we'll do it next. I
failed to allow you, Eddie, to give your answer earlier.

(01:55:35):
When I asked, I admitted to the fact that when
I saw the headline about Kyle Rawley hitting his fifty
fifth and fifty six home runs for the Seattle Mariners,
I had to kind of jog my memory as to
and I know his nickname is the Big Dumper, yep,
But I when I saw the headline, it just said

(01:55:55):
like Raleigh sets new mark or something, and I thought
the North Carolina State, the Carolina Hurricanes, Like whoa, And
I opened the article and that's where I'm like, oh,
that's right, okay, so kyraw And I had to think
for a second about who it was that he played.
And I don't know, and I'll be completely honest, I

(01:56:18):
don't know if you would have just stopped me and
said who does he play for? I mean I would
have had to stop for a second. I would not
have instinctively said to Sattle Mariners catcher, Sattle Mariners, And
part of me wonders if that's not an indictment on me,
and part of me wonders if that's not an indictment
on major League Baseball. So I will give you, Eddie

(01:56:40):
a two part question, the first being if you stopped
one thousand people at the Indianapolis Colts game on Sunday
in Nashville, you found as many Colts fans as you can,
and then you found Titans fans. You know that basically
the same region of the country, and you either showed
them a photo of cal Raley, or you said can

(01:57:02):
you tell me who he plays for? Or you said,
can you name the Seattle Mariner with fifty six home runs?
What percent of the one thousand people do you believe
would know definitively who he is? Thirty? Maybe? So, how
egregious was my pause of recognition about him?

Speaker 2 (01:57:21):
Don't think it's egregious at all, Jake. I think it's
fascinating when you think of major League Baseball because nobody
cares about it. They may pay attention on an opening day,
but they they don't really pay attention in the first
half of the season because the NBA is going on
a little bit because you got the playoffs, right, And
then once the playoffs, however, okay, we start getting into

(01:57:43):
it a little bit, because that's usually around the All
Star break or whatever. NFL's back, it tapers off here
in a couple of weeks, the fandom will start getting
will start ascending again because you're in the playoffs. So
I think when you're in this version right now, when
you're in the last month of the season, I think
people forget about Major League Baseball a lot because you've

(01:58:03):
got college football, you've got.

Speaker 1 (01:58:05):
The NFL going on. But postseason baseball is the best
baseball to watch, and I think that's when you'll start seeing,
you know, fantom increase. I do think that not even fandom,
just more so the amount of people paying attention. I should.
I wonder this, Eddie, And I think the reason why
the number is so low here jac is because obviously
he plays out in Seattle, and I mean major league

(01:58:27):
baseball here. It's a you know, I realized that we're
talking about this in a non MLB market. But I
am curious, genuinely how much Major League Baseball of yesteryear
was benefited by a three to four decade long craze

(01:58:47):
of baseball cards. Yeah, I mean, I just I think
for a long time, baseball players were so recognizable because
you knew of them from baseball cards, and for baseball
cards that would tell you who the previous year's All
Star team was, and et cetera. And you know, a
guy like Raley would have been a household name forty

(01:59:09):
years ago because every kid would have been vying for
his record breaking you know, baseball card. Okay, to the NFL,
thank you for having my back there. By the way,
you're welcome. Best team by division. I'm going to give
you the division and you tell me how clear cut
the best team is you ready, East Buffalo, New England,
New York, Miami. I think we all know who the

(01:59:31):
best team in that division is. And I realized I
can hear all you folks, the Buffalo. This is stupid, man.
Just look at the standings. Yeah, Buffalo's the best, right,
But I do think now, give me the team in
each division that might be better than you think Buffalo,
New England, New York, Miami. I have to stick with
the team I picked in this AFC East Conference or standings,

(01:59:53):
I would go with the New England Patriots. Okay, I
think the Jets might be slightly more competent than people think,
and I know they're owing to Okay, AFC North Cincinnati, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland,
Baltimore agreed, and I don't think Pittsburgh's very good at
Cleveland's a disaster. And the Bengals, I think they will

(02:00:15):
fare better than people realize without Borrow. Yes, I agree
with you. No knock on Burrow. The South, we talked
about AFC West, Chargers, Raiders, Broncos Chiefs. I mean Jake obviously,
when you have T Higgins and Jamar Chase in Chase Brown,
it's very helpful to be correct, you know, competence offensively
and the AFC West, the best team is the Los
Angeles Chargers over Kansas City.

Speaker 2 (02:00:36):
Right now, the best team in the AFC West is
the Los Angeles Chargers.

Speaker 1 (02:00:39):
Yes, I get it. Kansas City can't run the ball.
They don't have much of a passing attack out. I mean,
it's just mahomes scrambling around, trying to find somebody open.
But still like when it comes to Kansas City, You're like,
they just won the conference a year ago, right, I know.
I still think the Raiders are going to be better
than people think. But I would agree with you the
Chargers the best team in the division. Okay, NFC East Eagles, Commanders, Cowboys,

(02:01:04):
Giants until otherwise the Philadelphia Eagles. Okay, I don't disagree,
but I think the Commanders are pretty good. Yeah, I
think the Commanders are pretty good, and I think that
they could you know in a You're right, Philly is
probably gonna win the division, yep, but Washington is a
wild card, is dangerous. NFC North Pack Vikings, Lions, Bears.

(02:01:26):
Best team in the division right now through two weeks
has to be the green Bay Packers. They arguably have
the best defense in the National Football Okay, I think
it's Detroit still. I think they had a letdown in
week one, but Jared Goff went off in week two.
I'll say Lions, I'll take over the long haul. I
can't say Lions just because of the fact Green Bay
has already beat him. I understand they handle them, understood,

(02:01:47):
But I think over the long haul Detroit's going to
be the better team, all right. NFC South Bucks, Falcon, Saints, Panthers.
I think the best team in that division is the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You know what I have to say
about the NFC South good?

Speaker 3 (02:02:01):
Good?

Speaker 1 (02:02:02):
I mean, are you kidding me? Atlanta is not as
bad as you think. I think Michael Pennix actually has
some play in him. But the Bucks kind of play
with the mentality of Baker Mayfield and that's a good thing.
Do you have pinnix envy? Okay? All right? NFC West,

(02:02:22):
I thought that was pretty good. That's not bad. That's
not bad. Niners, Cardinals, Rams, Seahawks the NFC West best team,
three of them. Undefeated. Los Angeles Rams are the best
team in that division. I think that's probite true. The
one that's fools gold, I think is Arizona at least
right now with Stafford healthy. You never know with Stafford,
he had the back injury and leading up and leaving

(02:02:43):
at the start of the year, so things could change
there rapidly. And yes, Arizona, they squeaked by the Carolina
Panthers and they just were able to, you know, show
up and get a win over the New Orleans Saints. Okay, Now,
of the teams that you just said are the best
in each division, let me read them off and you
tell me which one your least sold on. Okay, the Rams,
the Bucks, the Packers, the Eagles, the Chargers. We're leaving

(02:03:07):
out the AFC South. The you said Ravens, right, I did, yes?
And the Bills least sold on?

Speaker 2 (02:03:13):
Yes, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I would agree with that
most sold on, most sold on the either Baltimore or Buffalo.
One of those two.

Speaker 1 (02:03:23):
I think it could be the Chargers. I still need
to see Justin Herbert win a playoff game. I get it.
I think he's very, very talented though, and there's just
something about he's. Look, he's kooky, and he's got a
shelf life of about four years. But Jim Harbaugh, you
know what I mean, Like, you know, he a little
goes a long way.

Speaker 2 (02:03:39):
You know, Herbert's kind of in that Peyton Manning territory
where he's got the ability to be really good. And
you could see it right, and like the whole knock
on Manning was that he couldn't win the big game.
He couldn't win the games when they mattered in the playoffs,
and that's kind of like the similar trajectory right now
for Justin Herbert.

Speaker 1 (02:03:53):
Yeah, Fair uh, J ANDV will be in shortly. We
will do the crossover brought to you by Love Heating
and Airon find out what he's got lined up on
the big program. We'll do it next Eddie, do you
have big plans for the evening? I don't believe. So
it's a night off until Game three tomorrow night, so

(02:04:15):
I'll probably just chill out at home, you know. I
what about you? You're going out to the painting the town
read tonight with Shannon.

Speaker 8 (02:04:26):
No.

Speaker 1 (02:04:29):
I actually am golfing this afternoon. Really, Oh, I have
continued my weekly golfing with Doctor White. There's actually four
that play Will Harris, Eddie Cushionberry, not me, not me.
I'm d A Garrison, that's right. I don't golf, Jim

(02:04:50):
Con and Doctor White, gen Con that's right. We all
dress up like creatures from from Star Trek and go golf. No,
Jim Con, how are you swinging it? You know, it's
a fascinating game because I just started obviously a year ago,
so I'm not I mean to say that I'm good.
Is disingenuous are I'm driving. I was very happy last

(02:05:12):
week because when we played, I used the same ball
the entire round. Is that big for you? I mean,
it can be that I don't drive for very much distance.
The good fortune I have is I hit it primarily straight.
I don't typically shank it or slice it. That's good.
Glad you're not a shanker. Have you golfed? Did you say, Eddie?

Speaker 5 (02:05:34):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:05:36):
My challenge still, as I have mentioned before, and I
know that nobody cares about one's golf game, but I
think it's relatable to people. I'm really good until not
really good, but I'm very competent. And then when I
get about ninety yards in just getting the feel for pitching,
that's where directionally I get thrown off in terms of

(02:05:58):
figuring out the alignment to pitch in the right direction.
So I would say that that when I and I
can put okay. But last week, for example, I had
two pars and then for the most part I was
a like double bogie on most holes, an occasional bogie.

(02:06:20):
We don't really keep an active score, so I can't
say totality what my score is, but I think, you know,
probably mid nineties would be my guests. Maybe that's a
little conservative. I don't know, but I mean it's fun.
So we're doing that, and then after that, just family
stuff got to take care of, you know that kind
of thing. I looked really at what the sports calendar
is tonight. Obviously tomorrow it will be Thursday night football

(02:06:43):
getting back into the swing of things. It's a big
one this week is and isn't it? Does Baltimore maybe
Plany on Thursday night? I believe Baltimore is on Monday night.
I think Buffalo perhaps, but they're taking on is it Miami?
It is Buffalo and Miami tomorrow. Okay, that's not really
a big one.

Speaker 2 (02:07:01):
Sunday night it's Kansas City and New York. Monday night
it's Detroit in Baltimore.

Speaker 1 (02:07:08):
Okay, Detroit, Baltimore's pretty.

Speaker 2 (02:07:10):
Big Monday Night m and T Bank Stadium. By the way,
were you a fave fan the other night, Monday night
of the double header the seven o'clock ten o'clock I
do kind.

Speaker 1 (02:07:19):
Of like it, just because if you're a night owl,
it's pretty When I did the morning show that I
would have said absolutely, no way that is me. But
now it's what's happening? That is me night all Now,
Chris Fowler needed some rocola, right, He definitely poor guy.
He had that Sunday Saturday night college game and then
he's got the game on Monday night. Yeah, he had

(02:07:40):
some definite laryngitis going.

Speaker 2 (02:07:42):
On a double header next week on Monday night. Uh
seven fifteen eight fifteen. Not a fan of the crossover.

Speaker 1 (02:07:49):
Yeah, I would agree with that. But you're a fan
of this crossover brought to you by I Love eating
an Air because jamb has just arrived.

Speaker 8 (02:07:54):
Love the double Dip on Monday Night, Eddie. What's your
problem with that crap?

Speaker 1 (02:07:58):
I love the Double Dip? John, I just I just
not as the overlap.

Speaker 8 (02:08:02):
What up gripping about everything? Younger generation?

Speaker 1 (02:08:07):
Big show? What I do? I was going to say,
I see your mom all the time? You known my mother?

Speaker 8 (02:08:12):
Yeah, that she sees me rarely clothed.

Speaker 1 (02:08:15):
That is, uh want of clothes on my mow and stuff. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:08:18):
A lot of people are going to probably take that
out my place.

Speaker 1 (02:08:21):
Yeah, people are going to take that out of context. John.
I asked this earlier, and I'm curious your thoughts. Being
a native of Southeastern in the Southwestern Indiana. Spec But
did you ever go to the hot restaurant in Nashville?

Speaker 8 (02:08:36):
Uh? No, you know, I did spend much time in Nashville,
so like my time was spend in Bedford and Vincenn's and.

Speaker 1 (02:08:43):
That's right show So like, did you ever do that
like one strip in Brown County though, in the restaurant
that looks like the old drug store? I did not. Seriously,
I have not.

Speaker 8 (02:08:52):
I haven't been to like I go there now because
the Brown Country music said was outstanding.

Speaker 1 (02:08:56):
But Lou Graham coming up in early October for I.

Speaker 8 (02:09:00):
Still have yet to be there. I know that they've
awesome place. I mean, we go sometime. Why don't you
and hey, Friday night Lou Graham. I think the first
Friday night in October, Lou Graham, me and you and
Shannan will go and see Lou Graham go through some
foreigner hits.

Speaker 1 (02:09:17):
I have a feeling this would be like leading somewhere
like some gas station at forty six, and you'd be like, hey,
go in and get a coke, would you. Well, here's
here's what I also do.

Speaker 8 (02:09:25):
I'm really good about this. I'm you know, when I
asked people to go with me that I make them
drive so I can get drunk.

Speaker 1 (02:09:31):
Well, you can always just say like, can you drive
meet drunk? Right?

Speaker 8 (02:09:35):
I want you guys drive and I'll sit here in
the backseat and drink. So yeah, no, it it is
a It is a great place down there. I do
love Brown County a great deal, I do, but I
rarely go for that. Hey, Bloomington this weekend, Jake, it's
going to be great, outstanding. Why don't they reopen Hooligans
again sometime? Stir the echoes of Hooligans. You know, Trent

(02:09:57):
Green did the game. That's the last time I s
I saw Trent Green. This Sunday was back in nineteen
ninety one at Hooligans, and the chicks were just fawning
all over them and not me.

Speaker 1 (02:10:12):
I would imagine life was good for Trent Green, right.

Speaker 8 (02:10:15):
Yeah, I remember some chicken the Hooligans. I was wearing
a turtle neck with my gold chain on the outside
of it.

Speaker 1 (02:10:20):
She said, she.

Speaker 8 (02:10:21):
Said, you don't you look exactly like the lead singer
of Color Me Bad?

Speaker 1 (02:10:28):
Great? You know Color Me Bad. Here's your fun fact.
You're ready. The day that I entered high school, my
first day of school in high school, the number one
song on the Billboard chart was I Want Your Sex
by George Michael. Yes, and the last day that I
walked out of high school, the number one song was
I Want to Sex You Up by Colors. That's great. Yeah,
how about that I want to sex you up? That's
your favorite color? The only mention I remember at the time.

Speaker 3 (02:10:50):
Too.

Speaker 8 (02:10:50):
They had the dude who was kind of vanilla that
was the lead singer, kind of Vanilla Ice Forrest, and
then they had the Terrence Trent Darby dude. And then
they had the Kenny g dude, and then they had
the George Michael guy. It was all kind of looking
like guys that were really popular already.

Speaker 1 (02:11:05):
Trent Darby is one that I thought was going to
be a major star.

Speaker 8 (02:11:08):
Because he told everybody he was going to be bigger
than the Beatles, and he was basing. He wasn't two
hit guy. Yeah, that was the end of that.

Speaker 1 (02:11:14):
All right, John's up next. He will be with you
until six pm today, right, and we will be back.

Speaker 3 (02:11:19):
I ges you.

Speaker 8 (02:11:20):
We got to go until six today, James, Oh, that's
too bad.

Speaker 1 (02:11:23):
Back at noon tomorrow. I thank you for listening to
a Quarying Company.

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