Friday 12/26: Final Colts-Jaguars thoughts & playoff scenarios with Greg Rakestraw and JB!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everyone, Happy Friday, Thank you all for tuning in,
and we are back in studio.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
At least I am. I set up for work.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
I don't know about Kevin Bowing and Jeff Fricker. We
have Greg Rigstraw filling in.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Greg. How you doing? So apparently I'm filling in for
like at least two or three people because I hear
KB no, JB Yes, Jeff No, the Diggity Diggity d
likedon No. Caleb Zuber is in for him, So Caleb,
Caleb and myself. We've lost a lot of hair on
the program so far this morning, but I have been

(00:34):
known to fill a variety of roles, So apparently I'm
filling in for two people. And maybe from a weight ratio,
it's the same amount of poundage on the show that
we would normally have. Oh no, especially after Christmas.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Death, I can't go that far, but yeah I can.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Lozangnie was really good last night.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
I definitely enjoyed the family meal on Christmas Day. Happy
belated Merry Christmas to everybody out there listening. And I
guess we'll got right into a rake. I know, at
least for me in my world, I'm torn between Colts
fans wanting the team to win as a Christmas gift
or one in the lose out and blow this whole
thing up. So the last time we checked in with

(01:11):
you all, we're getting ready for practice, and really there
hasn't been much of a development and change other than
the fact that Shane Styke and again has committed to
Philip Rivers being the starter for this team, regardless of
what happens comes Sunday or come Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Actually right, and I understand that. First of all, it
is a short week. Secondarily, now you throw in Christmas
where the guys did not practice yesterday, so the players
had a walk through Wednesday, We'll have a practice or
as much of a air quotes practice as you're going
to have going into week number seventeen. Basically nothing tomorrow

(01:46):
and go play the game on Saturday. You have zero
time to have two different game plans. So, in other words,
if the Texans win on Saturday and the Colts are
officially eliminated before they take the field against the Jats,
I understand giving the ball to Philip Rivers. Now we
have a different conversation for next week. If that game

(02:08):
is meaningless for the Indianapolis Colts by what happens on
Saturday or by what happens on Sunday in terms of
giving the ball to Anthony Richardson and or Riley Leonard
for week eighteen. But yes, given the time, the circumstance,
this is the proper move. If Philip Rivers is going
to be your guy, then you don't have time to

(02:30):
have a backup game plan to give the ball to
somebody else for Sunday afternoon.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
So, Caleb, I know that you and your dad are
diehard Colts fans, as many of the listeners are. Are
you okay with them sticking with Philip Rivers despite the
minuscule chance of them getting into the dance?

Speaker 4 (02:45):
I think so because I just think at this point,
like I feel like last week's performance, he's playing actually
at a pretty okay level, Like I'm kind of pleased
with how last week went, and I it would be
okay if you trotted.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Him out there again.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
I think when you see him on again, I still
can't believe it was third and goal from the nineteen
and the Niners let up a touchdown pass to this guy.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
It blows my mind.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
But he deserves credit for that, and so yeah, I
think I would be okay rolling with it. And Greg
makes a great point like it's hard to make a
whole new game plan in what twelve hours when you
might find out that you're not eligible for the playoffs anymore.
So yeah, I'm good with it, and I think one
more week is going to be enough. And then yeah,
you're reevaluate after that.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Jab think about how divergent the game plans were last
year if you were using Anthony Richardson or Joe Flacco.
Now I want you to multiply that by a time
of about fifty in terms of what it would look
like between Riley Leonard and or Anthony Richardson and a
dude that was on the couch for the last five years.
So yeah, and again, you have two less days with

(03:54):
your team than you normally would between games. And again,
I'm sure this is not in Shane Steichen's you know,
thought process for what's going on here. But at the
same time, if this game means nothing, this is the
chance for Philip, in front of his family and friends
and God and country, to have one more moment here

(04:16):
when front of Indianapolis Colts fans, knowing you're on the
road next week, and then you are doing a disservice
to your team if you don't give Rodney Leonard some reps.
And again, frankly, if Anthony Richardson can play and next
Sunday is meaningless, you need to get both guys out there.
You need almost almost you look a preseason game.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
I was gonna say it sounds like I let the
college though, when you got two guys and let week
nothing game, week zero game.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
And let's face it, you are talking to the ultimate
preseason expert right here. I know how game plans break
down in terms of the preseason, and there is precedent
for this if you go back to the end of
the twenty fifteen season. Now, this was necessity was the
mother of invention. This predates your time with the Indianapolis Colts,
and you young, and you're probably in college when this happened.
But the Colts went through Andrew Luck and then went

(05:01):
through Matt Hasselbeck, and then went through Clipboard. Jesus. He
was here for about a minut and a half and
then he got hurt in a Saturday game around this
time against the Miami Dolphins. They brought in Ryan Linley
and Josh Freeman off of the Street and basically had
plays for both players and used two quarterbacks in the

(05:21):
season finale and won the game for the Indianapolis Colts.
So exactly, so, anyway, if next week means nothing, then
you should not have Philip Rivers out there. You need
to play Leonard and if he is healthy and available,
you need to play Anthony Richardson again if he is

(05:43):
medically cleared to play, because, as you know, asking Shane
Stike in that question, asking Anthony Richardson that question seemingly
have netted a couple of different answers over the last
couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, I think we can definitely try clarify some of
that here on the show. But honestly, I think that
this is a classic case of in Anthony's position, every
athlete's gonna say they're a hundred percent fine no matter
what happens, and the coach says something that might be
slightly different. But the bottom line is what I understand,
And I think Anthony actually admitted this himself talking to him.

(06:18):
He said he has no major limitations with his vision.
And I think everyone online, at least in my world
on social media, they just took that as he's totally fine,
and I'm like, eh, no, major limitations implied. You sell limitations,
and you probably want to protect that player to a
degree if he's not seeing fully out there on the field,
because it is a violent sport, and you don't put

(06:38):
him out there if he's compromised in that regard.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
So I think that's a frustrating.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Nuance for the fan base, Greg, But at the same time,
I have to be the bearer of bad news and say, hey,
you know again, when Shane says we're not going to
activate this guy, that is a clear distinction that he's
not ready to play football.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
So we'll get into more of that throughout the show.
For sure.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
I think that it is a commerce to have when
it comes to the quarterback position, even going into next year,
like what the heck do you do? And things of
that nature. But we'll break down all the scenarios I'm
sure of how they can get in. It does start
with fittingly having to cheer for the Chargers, which Philli
Rivers did tell us. We'll play some of the audio
later Caleb about how he didn't have to, you know,
have a hard time cheering for his old team.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Dad Gummett.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
So that'll be I think a big part of it.
If other things will cover obviously Pacers as they were
up to Pacers. Yeah, and I didn't really get a
win the last time we were here. They you know, Milwaukee,
they got it done, and it's.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
A win of a different variety. He so JB. When
we refer to the standings in the Eastern Conference, now, okay, okay,
first place is the Washington Wizards at five and twenty three.
The Pacers are only a game out of first. That's
the way the standings need to read. Of course, this
isn't just an Eastern and Western Conference or Eastern Conference thing.
It's also the way Western Conference thing. The good news

(07:58):
is the Sacramento Kings are seven in twenty three, so
the Pacers are currently in second in the entire NBA
in the race to the bottom for the number one
draft pick, or at least to have as good of
a chance as possible in getting the number one pick
for the first time in the history of the franchise.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Greg, You're right that Pacer win against Sacramento a few
weeks ago might come back to bite them if they.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
That's what you get for trying how that's what you
get for giving an effort, actually trying to win a game.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
SA I'll be sure we re lay this message to
Rick caralout whenever he's on their waves next time, and
see if he doesn't like, look at me with the
you know, jump through the phone and kill me or
something like that. So it is something to think about,
you know, Miles Turner, I guess gets the last laugh
for that game, perhaps even this season. But at the
same time, it's rough. It's just different seeing the switches
and things. And honestly, I remember telling myself, wow, watching

(08:52):
the Christmas game yesterday, Greg, like, boy, there was a
time when I was advocating for the Pacers to play
on Christmas, and then seeing some of the performances, I
was like, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
If Tyrese Haliburta not been hurt, they would have been
obviously given health, given how last year would have ended
if they win or get beat in six and the
NBA literally play one fewer game the Indiana Pacers are
playing on Christmas Day.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
Do you think they would have put him Pacers bucks
or they would have put them in that Nick slot
at noon?

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Well, well, again, this is this is the butterfly effect.
This is the domino effect. If he doesn't get hurt,
you invest more in Miles Turner. Miles stays here h
and this team is I don't know if they could
have replicated last year's success because clearly there have been
overuse injuries. And this is what makes what the Thunder

(09:46):
have done against teams not named San Antonio all the
more impressive, because once you make those deep runs in
the playoffs, then guys get hurt and you are short players,
especially early in the season, and that wear and tear
catches up on you. So the Pacers would they have
been ten and fifteen ish like they were to start

(10:07):
last year?

Speaker 5 (10:08):
No?

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Would they be far better than six and twenty four? Yes?
Would they have been on Christmas Day for the first
time since seemingly I don't know, twenty years ago. Yeah,
because the Christmas Day game that stands out in my mind,
and since I'm making references for when James was in
was an a Lion I ten years ago. I don't

(10:28):
know what Romeoville Elementary school he went to twenty years
ago Herminston, but the return game for Jermaine O'Neil after
serving what turned into a fifteen game suspension for his
part in the brawl. Was Christmas Day against the Detroit
Pistons at the Fieldhouse in December of four and I'm

(10:49):
sure they have played on Christmas Day since then, but
it feels like that was the last time I can
actually remember a Christmas Day game for the Indiana Pacers. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Thanks, obtained is quite a bit for both franchises. I
would say throughout this season and we'll see how things
shake out. We'll get back to you on the other
side of it or break here. But this is the
Fan Morning Show here on one seventy five the Fan,
and thank you all for tuning in, and happy belated
Merry Christmas again back in studio here on this Friday morning,

(11:18):
day after Christmas, I showed up for work.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Kevin Bowen and Jeff Ricker did not.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Mark Darton did not either, and then we have the
Greg Rickshaw here on the morning.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Challenge and you get stuck being here when everybody else
is on the beach.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
I don't know, I just didn't plan, I guess, but
I don't mind coming in from work and making it happen.
So we'll start with the injury report from yesterday. This
is another to injury report, and as you pointed out earlier, Greg,
this is not an actual practice, an estimated injury report.
But we did see some positive news on the Sauce
Gardener front. He was as a estimated limited participant, which

(11:53):
is significant because this is the first time he was
listening to anything other than they did not practice since
the injury. So signs are pointing towards him potentially perhaps
getting back out there and playing this SIP coming Sunday,
and Lord knows they could use him.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
The other guy that was a player that was upgraded
was Bernard Ryman, who a doing nothing was a full
participant yesterday and a practice that didn't actually happen, but
if practice would have taken place, Bernard Ryman would have
been a full participant.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
There you go, and so elsewhere in the NFL world,
we'll take a look at what else took place, And
obviously wasn't the Colts playing. It was more again just
the forticipant in not practicing. We have the Cowboys knocking
off the Commanders, the Vikings knocking off the Lions, and
the Broncos knocking off the Chiefs, and what could be
the last home game of Travis Kelsey's career, so that

(12:45):
seem to be pretty significant. He's still holding things close
to the vest there, Rick and won't say whether or
not he'll come back.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
But I don't know, man, is this the end?

Speaker 3 (12:53):
I'm pretty sure he's going on tour becoming a full
time dancer slash full time podcast.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
I mean it sounds like a Hey Kelsey.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
Count down to being trophy husband in three two.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
And then when you get to the NBA side of things,
I thought we saw some from amazing performances. I'll start
actually with the nightcap yesterday and why I'm probably a
little groggy today. I was about to go to bed,
and then Anthony Edwards hit the crazy three pointer at
a tie at ten. It's overtime against Nicole Yokicic and
the Nuggets, but Jokis.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Gets the last laugh.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
One of the best NBA games you will ever see
from one person. It was indeed spectacular. He probably is
the best player in the world at this point. He
finishes the game with fifty six points, sixteen rebounds, fifteen assists.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
No big deal, so he was only forty points away
from matching what the Lakers did in yesterday's game. We
can go there too, Lakers the only team that did
not hang one hundred, which everybody scores one hundred in
NBA games these days. Jokic, by his lonesome scored fifty
six points. How many assists did he have?

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Fifteen?

Speaker 3 (13:58):
All right, So again without knowing whether they contributed to
choos or threes, the Nuggets scored one hundred and forty
two points and at minimum Jokic contributed to eighty six
of them.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Just an unbelievable player. And to your point about the Lakers,
they look old. Shout out to Lebron James. He looked
oil d yesterday. So they get blown out by the Rockets.
One nineteen ninety six, the Warriors knock off the Mavericks.
Had a little bit of reunion there between Klay Thompson
and Stephen Curry. Stephan Curry, the sneaker free agent, was
wearing Klay Thompson's shoes to beat him on Christmas. The

(14:32):
Spurs knock off the Thunder. I think they're three to
zero against the Thunder in the last like two weeks,
which is impressive. Winby has come in. I mean they're
knocking off the defending champs. And you had Sga Shay
Gildess Alexander, who's a fan favorite here in Indianapolis by
the way, say after the game that he did not
really think that his team is better than the Spurs
right now, so that's interesting. And then you got the
Knicks coming back to beat the Cavaliers in the first

(14:53):
game of the day, which, to Kale's point from earlier,
had Halliburd been healthy, that would have been a Pacers game.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
In that slotspect if the Oklahoma City Thunder are twenty
six and two when they are playing teams that are
not located along the river walk, when they play the Spurs,
they are zero and three, which, obviously, now that becomes
the most interesting rivalry currently in the NBA. Forecasting this
all the way down into May and or into June,

(15:22):
because the Thunder appear unbeatable except when the stifle tower
is involved. Actually, that's Rudy Gobert. What is the nickname
we have for Wemby other than just Wimby?

Speaker 1 (15:31):
I was gonna say, is it just Wemby? Is he
just you know, a creative player alien?

Speaker 2 (15:35):
I don't know. The guy is unbelievable, unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
I've seen him in person, Greg and I get reminded
of why I am in the studio with you all,
and while I'm not on a basketball court, because yeah,
I think I would have to be a little bit
taller to compete with anybody at seven five.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Allow me to give you a really crappy nickname, not
euro Disney, euro Bisney because he gives everybody the business. Aha,
I mean, look, what do we think? No, I mean
I leave now, dad jokes go hold give yeah, I'll get.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
You know, set out of ten on that one. Caleb,
how do you what do you think?

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Terrible? I'm with it, rific.

Speaker 5 (16:07):
Hey, we can work shopping throughout the shot something.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
So that's what we have.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
I guess I'll knock out the rest of this check
down by this. I did have a chance to stop
by the Hall of Fame and check out the Hall
of Fame Classic rape Shaw.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
You were there.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Thanks you come over and saying hello.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
By the way, Yeah, I'm sorry that was probably a
little rude, but I don't want to interrupt you working man.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Didn't you didn't interrupt Luke Gurdel's jump shop and you
took the picture you can uk over the other side
of the court and said hello as well.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
This is true, So you want to give the folks
a little rundown of how your uh, I couldn't say
it's like a weekend, but kind of holiday week looked
like in what you got coming up.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Well, my schedule is inverted because of the way the
dates fell for Christmas and for New Year, so I'm
busy on Mondays and Tuesdays. But like this and and
finishing up Soccer Saturday's holiday edition for tomorrow here on
ninety three five and one o seven five of the
Fan are the work responsibilities I have today. So I'm
off tonight and I'm on Tomorrow night, which Friday and

(17:01):
Saturdays off just don't happen for me in consecutive fashion.
So Monday it was, in fact, here's my Monday and Tuesday.
You'll get a kick out of this. So Monday morning
I am doing the girls Sessional Hall of Fame Classic
and then I check into the Steve Alford All American Inn.
That's where the giant shoe is. I love that in

(17:22):
front of that one. So then did that, came back
to do Monday Night football. Signed off at two point
fifteen in the morning, drove back to Newcastle to get
to my room, got there about three zero five. I
think I got about five and a half hours of
sleep going into Tuesday, and did four basketball games on Tuesday,

(17:45):
help the Boys tear down. Was back in my driveway
at eleven twenty. And this is the first time I
have spoke professionally since then, because I actually did try
to check out as best I could on Christmas, even
Christmas Day, which is why I saw zero seconds of
what Nikola Jokic did last night, because I was cashed out.
I was like Philip Rivers, I was on the couch.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Well, we'll see what that brings.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
And so to pivot a little bit, I do want
to get back into the Colds conversation. Obviously, they have
a lot of at State coming up this weekend before
they even take the field. And the question I had
for Philip and the others is are you the type
to watch the game you need to break your way
or are you too nervous to watch? And of course

(18:32):
he replied, until I gotta watch. I got to cheer
for my former team to help my current team, and
I think it just speaks to how crazy things have
kind of unfolded for this franchise. This was a team
that was eight and two, flew back across the water
from Berlin Rake at the number one spot in the AFC,
And now we're talking about can you avoid one of

(18:53):
the all time collapses since the NFL AFL merger in
nineteen seventy They would become the sixteam to win in
seven or eight of their first A games and missed
the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
You were not only eight and two, you're up twenty
to nine to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yeah, I forgot about that part of it.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yes, who have turned out to who have turned out
to be your worst loss of the season. Yeah, imagine
digesting that phrase in your head as you're going into it. Now,
this is the case. And I know this is something
that the guy that only sits in the middle of
the of the three way here on a Monday through
Friday morning, But this is one where what he says

(19:33):
rings true. Both these things can be true, or several
things can be true. This is the overlapping ven diagram
where yes, this is an historic collapse by the Colts.
Injuries absolutely play a factor in it, and not just
the one at the quarterback position. The other thing and
I have not had the chance to go and research this,
and I'm sure I will long after the season comes

(19:54):
to an end. But in my years of covering the team,
which is now you know, hitting it second quarter century,
I can never remember a finishing kick to a schedule
as tough as this one. Again, the Chiefs without Patrick
Mahomes probably won't be seven to ten or six to
eleven because they finish with the Raiders next week, who,
much like the Pacers, are playing for the number one

(20:15):
pick at this point in time. Other than that, every
other team, which is just four because the way the
schedule quirk worked out, will have at least eleven wins.
It's possible every team they play will have at least
twelve wins to finish a season. And I have never
seen a stretch like that. So, in other words, have
the Colts collapsed? Absolutely? Your record is what your record

(20:38):
says it is. Results are what the scoreboard says. But
are there atenuating circumstances? Yes, And if the Colts played
a ridiculously tough schedule over the final six weeks of
the season, that is also a factual statement.

Speaker 5 (20:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
And I think that is.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
The bigger picture, or part of the bigger picture when
you have to evaluate what happens next, right, if you
lose out, I think everything's on the table. I think
before this, I was thinking, Okay, finish the season nine
and eight, make the playoffs, miss the playoffs, whatever you
can say. Hey, injuries are a part of it. But
I understand there's probably some listeners going James, this is

(21:17):
year nine, Chris Balor.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
There there are two different there are two different outlooks.
There are two different you know, reset button options. There's
frankly three different reset button options at this point, which
will be the primary topic of conversation for the next
seven days, likely in the city and on these microphones
that we are using here. But in terms of the
decision as to what to do, are you looking at

(21:41):
this three one year lens or a nine year lens.
If you're looking at this three one year lens, you go,
all right, I get it. This team was eight and two,
This team was seven to one. This team was on
an historic offensive clip before your quarterback got hurt. Then
your quarterback suffered a season ending injury. Other injuries played
a part. You played a very tough schedule down the stretch,

(22:05):
et cetera, et cetera. It's easy to explain away the
flaws of twenty twenty five. What it's tougher to do
is to explain away eleven years without a division championship,
seven years since you want a playoff game, or five
years since you participated in a playoff game, And so
it's really, are you taking a four month view or

(22:25):
are you taking a two month view? Or are you
taking a decade long view? Because obviously those are two
very different answers. And it's why when I have said
this on Cultivator programming, on a phone line talking to
folks such as yourself, or as you and I are
looking at each other eye to I having this conversation
right now when somebody says we think it's gonna happen,
and I go, I don't know. And the reason being

(22:48):
is that the person making the decision is a different
person than the person's making the decision twelve months ago.
I don't know the answer if things play out the
way we expect them to this Sunday and next, I
don't know what's going to happen. And that's the biggest
reason why we'll.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Take a quick bit here, but we'll certainly revisit the
conversation on the other side as well as taking a
look at Iu. I know he's been off for a while,
but we should probably bring up the fact that they
do have a playoff game guaranteed coming up here and
about a week or so, so stick what doesn't be
back here on the fan.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Now. I got to jump in quickly before James actually
says something. I was watching his finger so as he's
doing the head Bob, I even have the white Man overbite.
Listen to Troy here, So is this like the grown
folks music that you were growing up to? Was this
like grandparents' music? Because obviously this is like my high
school days hearing that, and this is usually when I

(23:43):
got the YouTube playlist going. This is on there at
some point in time.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, I would say this was like my parents' type
of music.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Yeah, And honestly, I'm only nineteen years older than you,
so that makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 5 (23:53):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
So you can't just put too much, you know, age
on yourself. I will say, going home and hearing some
of the music were playing for Christmas, It's like, I
get the inevitable. You don't know nothing about this, you
ain't heard this before and all.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
And you'll say these things in twenty years, just so
you know exactly you'll be there eventually.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
I enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
It's funny going home is like stepping back into the
nineties because my mom has probably made the tree up
the same way, because she still keeps all the stuff
that we made.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
When we were like seven or eight.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
So I see myself at different points of my life
and I'm just like, so you don't want like the
very you know, pristine Christmas tree.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
She's like, Nope, I want character.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
I'd say that could also be just going home in
Romeoville too, That is could be that. Yeah, that sauce,
I am your one friend here that has actually been
to Romeoville. And this is going to sound like a
life choice, it's not. This is an actual physical location thing.
When I go to Romeoville, the options were you can
go to jail or you can go to college. Because
they were right next to each other. So Lewis University

(24:52):
that has been a long time arrival of Milba Mater,
the University of Indianapolis, is located in Romeoville, which is
why when I first I met Jay beeB. He's working
for The Times in Northwest Indiana and his Twitter handles Romeoville.
Kid actually knew exactly where he was talking about, and
so if you took the wrong turn off of the
highway to get to Lewis University, you ended up going

(25:13):
to the prison. So when you go to his hometown,
those are his two options. And Lewis is the Flyers
as their mascot because you can major in aviation there
and it's literally right next to the airport. So I
guess there are three options you could and flight risk
is two different things in terms of the jail, the
airport or going to college.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
See Caleb, I made it out, you need to make
a trip up to Romeo. I'll beat the odds man
a very tough place.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Now you don't just takes definitely not. But I did
want to touch on this. We were talking about ie you
a little bit before we went to break and come
out of the break. One of the things that interests
me about where the college football landscape is and how
crazy things are for them. So they will play in
the biggest game in program history on the first, yes,

(26:04):
on the second the transfer portal opens.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
And win or lose. You have to be dialed in
on that.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
And so I was reading throughout the Indie Star and
to do great work there, and the way Kurt Signetti
has kind of phrased it is this week off that
they've had has been really big for them to kind
of scout the transfer portal and try to target guys
or think about guys that they might want to have
joined their program to obviously sustain their success. So it's

(26:32):
so fascinating to me, Rake to understand that you've put
in all this work to get to this.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
Point and you don't get to breathe. We got to
breathe a little bit.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Obviously our jobs are not the same as you know,
being the head coach of a Big ten program, one
of the best in the country. You're definitely not. But
at the same time, there is no rest for the weary.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
No, there's a better rest once you are either eliminated
or win a national championship. Not that the portal windows
have shrunk in terms of the time in which you
are dealing with this, and for the first time in
the history of the football program, Indiana's dealing from a
position of power. Like as you talk about the transfer

(27:15):
portal being open, all I think about are Winthorpe and
Valentine and trading places. It would be Dan Ackroyd and
Ny Murphy. By the way, just basically go buy one
and everybody is diving in because they want to play
for Indiana, and Indiana has the resources to pay those
players that want to come play for Indiana. So yes,

(27:36):
there is an extra added layer of work there. But
believe me, these are the first class problems that you
want to have. That is true.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, we put it in that perspective, and you can
sell it. I mean you can literally sell.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
Literally you can sell we have the better.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, we have the bad. You're not lying about that.
We have the best team in the country. Is one
of your selling points, specially if you win that game,
and then you can say we just the best player
too with the Heisman.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
We can tell you, hey, danl.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
For here and we'll give you the Heisman. Indiana can
actually say that that is a factual statement.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
In draft picks too, like they're gonna get so many NFL.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
Number one pick in the draft.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Oh yeah, I told you.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
My dad's a Raiders fan, and now he's all on
board the Fernando Mendoza train, and there is nothing I
want more than him to avoid the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
I feel like that's just a.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Bad because the Jets are the better option.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
I mean, who are I think it's the Giants right now.
They wouldn't draft on.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
The correct bags. So those are the two teams at
the bottom of the barrel that clearly would are going
to go anywhere more.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Fernando Mendoza to find some more eligibility somewhere.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
I'm sure it's out there. We got all kind of loopholes.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
He got twenty five year old twenty six year olds
playing CUAA football.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
There is a guy that was drafted in the thirty
first pick of the NBA draft that's not gonna be
playing at Baylor University this year for college basketball. Yes,
there's not loopholes because there's no rules anymore. That rules
don't exist. But you missed that yesterday.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
I missed this, So feel free to fill me in
a little bit if you have the Cliff Nods versions,
because I did not know.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
He was involved in an NBA trade with Karl Anthony Towns,
never played a game in the NBA, deemed eligible by
our esteemed friends about fifteen blocks from where you and
I are having this conversation at the NCAA. Because there
are no rules whatsoever.

Speaker 5 (29:22):
I think he played against Wemby in the Summer League.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Correct, he has played in the Summer League. But you
know how G League guys are getting college eligibility. Yeah, now,
oh boy, lay them up, James.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, you know, I got Yeah, but the hoop dreams
aren't dead. I thought they were dead when I was
like nineteen.

Speaker 5 (29:37):
We got some guys playing college basketball.

Speaker 4 (29:39):
I never played college basketball before, and it's just unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
This would be like Lebron going back to Ohio State
after he retires from the NBA or something like.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
This is I'm not sure if it's James Nase. Nase,
I'm not sure. He was the thirty first pick in
the twenty twenty three NBA draft, did not play college basketball,
came in from Europe, has played in the Summer League,
played for Barca in the euro League. So again, full
bloe professional. And that's when you started seeing like these

(30:08):
late siees. Even a place like Indiana State as a
player I think from Norway has a player from Belgium.
These are guys that we're playing professional basketball, because this
is now what this is at the college level. Because
if guys getting paid, it's it's not amateur basketball anymore.
And so the theory is, well, he hasn't played in
the NBA, so he is eligible to play in college basketball.

(30:33):
Seven foot, twenty one years of age, trained with Serge
Ibaka in twenty twenty three, and now we'll play for
the Baylor Bears.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
That is unacceptable, but I guess we have to accept
it because the rules are different and the world is crazy.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Or you could just not watch. Yeah, that's there's that
boy cane, which I think is increasingly becoming the case
in college basketball unless you are watching like your team.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
I was gonna say this feels a little bit like
when you ask Philip Rivers how much he can relate
to a guy like Tanner Bordolini or Josh Downs who's seventeen,
eighteen years younger than him. We can have a college
roster with a guy who's old enough to, you know,
rent his own car, and then you got guys who
are not old enough to get off their parents' insurance. Boy,
that is quite the difference there.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
See, this is what happens when you unplug for a
couple of days. You miss some of these.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, I did miss some of these things. One thing
I did not unplugged from was the Colts. I did
keep the alerts on when it comes to the injury
report and anything that might have came across the wire.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
I will say this Rake, as.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Much as we talked about the offense and Philip Rivers
and what it means from the come back, and I
thought he looked pretty good for seventy five pertunity of
that game.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Before the pick six, I thought he looked like a.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
Fantastic and again, you're down by two scores, you're forcing
your present. Yeah, Phillip's always been kind of an open moor. Hey,
he goes he got the readoff an earlier check that
I made good on that dude for making.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
A play exactly. But that isn't the full story of
how that game unfolded. The defense was absolutely off.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Right, Colon Philip Rivers played defensive tackle or middle lineback.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Exactly, and I think that part of it was probably
one of the more disappointing. And it's happened on a
near annual basis where this team folds in the big
moments for whatever reason. You can point to injuries, you
can point to offensive in execution if that's a word,
and you can point to the defense, I thought, just
falling flat on its face. And you're going up against
the Jacksonville team that is surging. So as much as

(32:34):
I want to again keep harping on the old quarterback
and can't he do it?

Speaker 2 (32:39):
Can he stay off all the time? Can't he get
some help?

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Right?

Speaker 2 (32:43):
I mean, could you imagine if.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
He was not the problem? No?

Speaker 1 (32:46):
No, if he gets off the couch rake and pushes,
this team gives him.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
I thought, his best.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
He deserves the best from the guys who are again
fifteen seventeen years his junior.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
I thought there were three guys you could point to
on Monday night and go that guy played really well.
Philip Rivers is obviously one of them. Alec Pierce is
one of them. Blake Groupie would be the other guy.
And there's other individuals that made decent plays catches, etc.
Blocked well. And again, offensive line, you know, was the

(33:17):
island of misfit toys by the end of the game,
because you really had four backups in the game, and
I thought largely they did their job from a pass
protection standpoint, Running the football not so much. But again,
you're running as on a behind a second string offensive
line at this juncture. You know things like that are
going to happen, but no Philip Rivers has gone from

(33:38):
how could you ask this guy to do this too?
He was one of your best players on Monday Night Football.
And of all of the stats we could trot out
about the way the defense played on Monday Night, not
having the Niners punt seven of eleven on third down,
the most damning number is the fact that Rock Party
got hit one more time than you and I did,

(34:00):
and that lat two got home and forced to fumble,
and kind of indicative of what that game was even
that was recovered and picked up for a three yard
gain by one of the tight ends. But you got
home on the quarterback one time once. That's it.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
And when we have that Chris ballor conversation, that has
to be a sore spot for not only him, because
we know how much he loves the trenches.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Yep, he loves the big dudes.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
And they invested so much in that unit and for
them to not really have any statement moments this season,
any signature standout plays that I can think of that
really flipped correct the game or changed their trajectory of
their season. That's disheartening and I think that is a big,
big point that a lot of the fans into their credit.

(34:45):
I'll give them that respect of being frustrated, like, wait
a second, this isn't a defensive line that we've overlooked
or we're hoping to find the needle in the haystack
or you know, the diamond in the rough.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
These dudes were supposed to be diamonds from the start.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
You have in your defensive end rotation two first round
picks and a second round pick.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
And then the think of the money you put into
these guys into your defensive line, Think of the investments
j T Twoey Molowaugh, who's been out actually with an
oblique injury this week. He hasn't lived up to where
you drafted him.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Latu.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
He's been okay this season, but he hasn't been a dude.
And when you could draft a guy the first def
as the player selected yep a couple of years ago,
he's got to be a dude for you. Quitdy Pat,
you picked up his fifth year option. He's probably walking
in free agency. I can't imagine we're trying to bring
him back. He's had a very quiet year, so I
just think.

Speaker 4 (35:41):
Yeah, no, it is and I just want to jump
in and say, like, the two biggest things of this
nine year run here has been the lack of success
in finding a long term quarterback. And then what you
guys are talking about this past rush, and isn't that
what we say the great NFL teams have is they
have they have the great quarterback and they have edge

(36:05):
rushers who are relentless. And those are the two biggest
things that have just lacked. And there's other talent on
the roster, but you need those cornerstones.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
Yeah, probably the ass are the two toughest things to find.
Absolutely the two things because they're so tough to find
that you have to hit on in the draft. You
don't get those things usually via free agency. And again,
the best resting example out is Miles Garrett, who did
not want to be in Cleveland. But not to go
all Ted Dbiassi on you, everybody has a price, and

(36:39):
the Browns are paying him a ridiculous amount of money
to be far and away the best pass rush in
the league and likely set a new NFL record for
sacks in a season, and to do it for a
team that's probably gonna win three games. Again, you're not
going to find that guy in free agency. It's why
you have to hit on him in the draft, and

(37:00):
the Colts have not been able to do that.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
And that's what that's what hurts. That's what hurts.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
And then you look at the other things that have
not gone your way, and boy, there are a litany
of things where if we had to say, after the
Berlin win, when JT goes off, okay, what things do
you not want to happen? Every single one has happened, right, Yeah,
they have gotten I saw zero health.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
I saw a stat where I think, going up to
last weekend's games, like the results the Colts needed for
assistance went and sixteen correct.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
I mean, it is remarkable how quickly things have changed
and pivoted, which again leads me to and I think
shout out to Stephen Holder for ESPN for kind of
getting at this. This past week is like, you know,
asking different players or asking the coaching staff, how do
you define this season?

Speaker 2 (37:52):
How would you describe it? Explain it?

Speaker 1 (37:55):
And hearing that perspective from certain players and the coaches,
it's interesting because it almost feels like you're watching two
halves of a different movie, right, the one where everything
goes right, and you're right off into the sunset and
you have the team that finally gives this city the
real hope to contend. And then you got the other

(38:15):
half where it's like, why am I sports fan?

Speaker 3 (38:18):
This is painful?

Speaker 1 (38:21):
I mean I feel for Colts fans because, boy, you
if you would have told me they were going to
miss the playoffs or to this extent, because they're not
out of it yet, technically, you would need twelve different
things to happen.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
For you to get in, and all twelve those things happen.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
I mean, it's right, It's tough.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
Yeah, it's tough. You know. Going into the season I
was probably on the high end of the wind total
when I thought this was a ten win team. Now,
obviously things have to go right for them to be
a ten win team given how things, but they were
far better the first two months of the season than
I ever thought that this group was going to be. Again,
it's why, and that question is a great question to

(39:00):
their perspective coaches and players. Again, the ultimate decision maker
is is carly Cale and Casey, And notably from a
football standpoint, carly And it is are you looking at
this through a one year lens. Are you looking at
this through a nine year lens? And for those of
you that are uninitiated, the reason we say a nine
year lens, this is wrapping up the ninth year that

(39:21):
Chris Ballard has been the general manager of the Indianapolis Colts.
If you look at this through a one year lens,
you go, I can explain why this went wrong and
why this went wrong and why that went wrong, and
let's keep this together. And again, keeping things together don't
always mean the same thing because given where you're at

(39:42):
from a salary cap standpoint, a roster construction standpoint, a
quarterback standpoint, and not having a number one pick the
next two years, you're kind of forced to keep things
together from a roster standpoint. So keeping things together mean
do you bring back general manager, do you bring back

(40:03):
head coach? Do you bring back one and not the other?
And again, that's what the conversation. We can kind of
get into that now, but that's really what the conversation
will be next week. If the Texans win on Saturday
and or the Colts lose on Sunday, yeah, then you

(40:25):
are fully into that mode.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Because right now asking these questions, you still have that
group of people there, it's like, oh man, we still
got a chance. I'm not thinking about next year or
how things might look or how to assess the season
when it's not over. But this kind of reminds me
of I want to say, last year where they had
to go to New York play the Giants, right, and
no one will really go there about how mathematically after

(40:50):
JT dropped the ball in Denver, it was like a
three percent chance of GETT into the playoffs or whatever.
So everyone kind of you know, hey, we don't want
to talk about that season still on the line. And
then you you lay an absolute egg against a team
that had lost ten straight coming into that game, and
the answer shifted and you get some more transparency of
why things aren't working or why things have been this stagnant.

(41:11):
And I do think personally I would look at this
more as a nine year review of Chris Ballard and
company and go from there. But we'll get into this perhaps,
I think throughout later in the show. We've got plenty
of time here for sure, But do you view them
as a package deal. It's one of the questions that

(41:31):
my boy Kevin Bowen here on the.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
Fan asks, my guess I can hear his boye saying
joined at the hip, because that is the old school
Jimmer Grison joined at the hip.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
And I do think that is a question that weighs
on this regime, or has to when you have that
conversation about the future and changes you want to make.
Because if you will from the GM, which I think
is well within the range of possibilities, well within the
rights of the team, I'm the frustration of the fan base.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
I get all of that.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
If you do that, then you now have to ask yourself,
do you want to just start over completely when a
new head coach, do they bring in somebody differently?

Speaker 2 (42:08):
You know, is your defensive coordinator still.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Going to be there?

Speaker 1 (42:09):
With Luanarumo we were raving about him earlier this year,
does that say the same? There's so many trickle down effects.
I think that can happen if you make that move.
And to your point, Rake, I'm just not necessarily sure
they'll go that route because they've invested so much into
this one already.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
But I can tell you you really unless you want
to eat a lot of salary cap money. And again,
everything normally starts with all right, if you're gonna hit
the reset button. You're hitting the reset button to go
get a quarterback. You can't go get one the next
two years. And again, if Daniel Jones is healthy, I'm
not sure you have to given how well he played.

(42:49):
So everything starts at the quarterback position on offense, everything
starts at the pass russ position on defense. And because
of not having those first round picks, that is the
domino effect. Then that kind of affects all of the decisions.
From a personnel standpoint, I think you can make those

(43:11):
independently of a general manager and or a coach. But
from a personnel standpoint, I'm not saying bring guys back
in free agency. But again, knowing you don't have the
ability to go get a quarterback in the first round,
and I did do this exercise, I know we're kind
of up against the time wise, so I'll try to

(43:33):
be brief with this. I think twenty six of thirty
two NFL teams basically have a first round quarterback that
is their planned number one quarterback. Doesn't mean that guy's
playing due to injury, that they have built their franchise
around a first round pick. Twenty six of thirty two,
including the Colts, they've got two of them on the
team are first round draft picks. Knowing you can't change

(43:58):
the quarterback position for the next couple of year years,
that tells you that again, from a roster standpoint, you're
probably largely running it back. Now, does that mean you're
the same the general manager and the coach, JB. I
don't think that has to be the case. No, I
don't think that's necessarily. If this, then that that's a conversation.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
We can definitely continue on the other side and revisit
a little bit throughout the show, and we'll hit a
break here, a short break here. Thank you all for
listening and tuning in the day after Christmas, because lord
knows it was hard getting up.

Speaker 3 (44:30):
We're still working, JB. When you hear this beat, are
you trying to figure out the rhymes in your head?
Like Marshall Mathers, Is that exactly what you're doing.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
I feel like I'm like loading up to go out
there for battle or something. They got played this before,
like the picked up games against JAMV.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
I remember when I found out that when clarence parents
had a really good marriage and he went to Crambrook
that is actually a legitimate private school in Detroit that
you can attend. That was not a fictitious name. That
is a real place somewhere not close to eight mile apparently.
Just remember, kids, there's no such thing as halfway Crux.

Speaker 4 (45:06):
Greg knows his nineties hip hop and I'm gonna just
go through the rest of the show.

Speaker 5 (45:11):
Greg, just.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
Absolutely please thank you.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Kem a bit of an old soul there, so I
feel like he's he's from a different time.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
I'm a bit of an old man, so hits well.

Speaker 6 (45:22):
Well.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Speaking of old man, we have a forty four year
old quarterback starting for the team in our city, Philip Rivers,
and I did get a kick out of him saying
that he had to.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Cheer for the Chargers, which will be easy for him
to do.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
And he kind of reminds me he gives you like
Ted Lasso vibes of just, you know, perpetual optimism no
matter what, because it is bleak right now for the cult.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
I think there's a belief sign above his locker.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Oh boy, you know, I think it's like written on
his heart. You probably got a tattooed on his chest
or something like that. And knowing this guy, and yes,
and again he is someone who I think this group
really respects and there is a sense of, oh.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
He can actually do this, We actually have a chance.
But you're on your knees hoping and praying that that
first domino falls in your favor.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
And it's a tough matchup. This is a matchup that
can go either way, the Texans or the Chargers. And again,
for the Colts' purposes, the first two things that have
to happen for them to stay alive in the playoff
picture is to a have the Chargers the Texans on Saturday,
which I'll be watching along with anybody.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
Else NFL Network for those of you that want there.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
You go too long and then you have to win.
There is no scenario. I got this question over the
weekend rate. There is no scenario where the Colts can
only win one game and get in. They have to
win their final two.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
The Colts have to win both, the Chargers have I'm
sorry the textant to lose both, which again Colts Texans
Week eighteen and the Texans going to the Chargers. They
are eleven and four. Yeah, and Aaron Emmett, who were
filling in for the unsportsman like crew before us, you know,
made a very valid point, the Chargers are like the
quietest eleven and four team ever, and much like the

(46:57):
Niners they went through there in restretch early in the season. Yeah,
compared to the Colts, who are obviously, you know, going
through that now. So that part of that part of
is not that far fetched in terms of the or
of the Texans losing both, given how the Colts have
been playing, it may seem more far fetched the Colts

(47:18):
win both against the Jaguars here and then again going
to play the Houston Texans, But there are other games
that have to follow the Colts way next week, and frankly,
I don't think we know what those games are until
you kind of see what the strength of victory tiebreaker
would be. Boy. And so here here is the reason

(47:39):
why there is not an E next to the Indianapolis
Colts name right now, and that is that if the
Colts win both and the Texans lose both, they would
finish identical in terms of conference record, head to head
divisional record, they would all be the same, and I
think their combination of wins would be identical in terms

(48:01):
of their divisional opponents. So now it goes to the
winning percentage of the teams that you beat. And this
is where the Colts are helped by the fact they
own wins against the Broncos and the Chargers. Those are
good things for the Indianapolis Colts. I saw someplace where
it comes down to the Vegas Kansas City game, which

(48:23):
probably is the least meaningful game that'll be played next
week because those two teams have a combined eight wins
right now, but yet that possibly could have an impact
yeah on the final playoff spot and the seventh seed
in the AFC.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
So we wrote this down in the Athletic if you're
looking for a Cliff Nodes version of what we just
talked about and what you need to happen for the
Colts when it comes to this strength of victory, which
right now the Colts's strength of victory is three to
eighty three, whereas Houston's is four to thirty three. And
more or less, you need the teams that you have

(49:01):
already beaten two in a sense, you need you need
you you must have a break. Help me off if
I'm messing this up, because I'm get confused already. You
need to beat the teams or have the teams that
you've already beat win continue to win, so your strength
to your victory looks better. So for example, you beat

(49:22):
or you were you were close to beating the Rams.
You were close to beating the Rams, wingk for that
didn't happen, So you need them to lose Monday Night Football.
You need the Falcons to beat the Rams. You need
the Broncos to beat the Chiefs. You know which that
did not happen. You need the Dolphins to or what
that might not happen. You need the Dolphins to be
the Buccaneers. Like, these are things that are possible, but

(49:44):
still I wouldn't say they're likely. I mean they're possible,
but boy, you need a lot of things.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
To break your way to on You control what you
can control. Yeah, watch the Chargers Texans game.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
You say, can you control that? Can you control that?

Speaker 3 (49:57):
Enough? Is a more simple scenario understandable. If the Chargers
win that game, the Colts have a chance and gas.
If the Colts beat the Jaguars, which were as historically
bad as the Colts have been in Jacksonville. Frankly, Jacksonville
has not been overly successful in this building. No, you
give yourself an opportunity and then we can get out

(50:19):
here and count fingers and toes next week and go
all right, this is exactly there was a chance. And
maybe it was that twenty fifteen season I referenced where
the Colts had Linley and Freeman lean them to it.
There was like a if a six game parlay went
the right way, the Colts would have gotten a playoff spot.
And like the first four of those things hit and

(50:41):
finally one of those things. It was a similar scenario
ten years ago as it is now. So there's that.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
I will say this. It was crazy to hear Philip
and Caleb. You might have called this after the game
when someone asked them, okay, you said you had less
odds of making the playoffs than this one, or had
similar odds.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
He had a cute up, didn't he?

Speaker 1 (51:00):
And he just went off about yeah. I think it
was two thousand and eight. It might have been the year.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
You want you want me to want to explain it
to you?

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Is this the year? Was this the Billy Volang year?

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Uh No, that was the year after so Billy freaking
Volek won the last game ever played at the RCA Dome.
That was in January of eight, after the seven season.
That was the year the Patriots went undefeated of the
Super Bowl. The Colts went twelve and four, but the
Colts were undefeated until the Patriots were here, and then
the Colts got beat by the Chargers to close out

(51:32):
that building oh eight. The Chargers were four and eight
and then won their last four games. The Colts were
three and four because Peyton Manning was hurt, missed all
of training camp, did not miss a game, but I
vividly remember a Monday night football game where the Titans
I think were unbeaten beat the Colts. Many night football

(51:54):
was like, okay, there there's the passing of the torch moment. Okay,
this has been It has been a great five or
six year und for the They're gonna flip other than Peyton,
They're gonna flip the roster. We're all moving on. Coltston
won nine consecutive games and then got to twelve and four,
but they had lost the division. So as the five seed,
they went to the San Diego Chargers at eight and

(52:16):
eight and the Chargers beat them. That was the game
where Darren Sproles went off, and that was the game.
Mike Cyprus had this amazing game as a punter, so
it was the special teams game that beat the Indianapolis Colts.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Boy, is that one that still hurts Uncle? Moe shots Uncle.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
He may get mad at me for revealing this on
these airwaves, but I think during that game he threw
his bowl of popcorn and it broke.

Speaker 5 (52:46):
He was that upset.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
So I mean, we'll see if he gets upset at
me revealing that, but yeah, no, he was.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
He was upset.

Speaker 5 (52:53):
And I think, actually, Greg, I don't know if it's
the next year.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
The year after the Chargers had like the number one
offense and number one defense in the league, but their
special teams was so bad that I think they missed
the playoffs the year after that in ten and so like,
Philip Rivers been a part of some weird teams, and
I think he's notorious for his charger career having the
ball with like fifteen seconds remaining at his own twenty

(53:19):
yard line with no timeouts, having the length of the field,
kind of like that Seattle situation.

Speaker 5 (53:23):
Like that is Philip Rivers to me for his entire career.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Dad Giming, that's a good point you just made, and
it's certainly something to think about and for those listening,
shout out Mo Zoover, the father of Caleb zoo I
call him Uncle Mo because he ran the five k
with us and was moving and grooving. I must say,
your dad actually didn't reach out to me too, Caleb
asking him like, hey, you mentioned something on the show
about what your dad told you for advice looking for

(53:48):
stuff for a high school team, and I was like, well,
my dad was never a high school coach, but he
definitely told.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Me Ray to not be a sorry human being.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
So there's that.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
A couple of things stuck. You got that going for you,
A couple of things stuck.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
I'll say this so and shout out to our text line.
Feel free to weigh in if you all, if you
want to, you know, give us your reaction.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
I don't get the text line. By the way, they're James, yes,
James to me.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
I got the monopolizy substitute teacher.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
You have to like tweet me or like, if you
have my own personal cell phone, text me, then you
text then.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
So this interesting concept or question from Alex here on
the text line, he said, Hello, guys, I get the
entire thing of not having to firsts for the next
two years, but are we really going to commit thirty
to fifty million dollars to Daniel Jones when he couldn't
win us a game that were on his shoulders, the
KC game, the Steelers, the Texans. This is from alex

(54:39):
So this is where I think my off season calculations
have changed a lot because I went into it before
the fractured fibula and obviously the Achilles tear. I was thinking,
is the franchise tag something you would use on Daniel
Jones just to try to negotiate with them? Do you
give them the franchise tag? Because you're like, you know what,

(55:00):
you had one.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
Good year, but that was like one year and forty
million exactly, right, And again I don't think you have
to pay that rate exactly.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
But now the injuries happened, right, I definitely don't.

Speaker 3 (55:09):
I do think there is a bargain. There's kind of
a bargain bin feeling to this now. And my guess
would be is that you you are offering Daniel Jones
a two year contract, and year number two is worth
more than year number one, and your number two has
an option to it, and maybe even going in both
directions as an option to it. Okay, because I would

(55:32):
imagine that you've offered him a little bit more than
you offered him this year, which was one year fourteen
million yep to the quarterback this year. My estimation would
be is that it's it's a little bit more than
that for the first year, a little bit more than
that for the second year. Almost as hey, the first
year is an insurance policy. We're going to give you
a similar rate a little bit more to once you
made this year to allow you to rehab, get stronger,

(55:54):
et cetera. And then we'll have an option for year
number two. And then at that point in time, either
a the Colts know they can go the first round
pick for a quarterback option, or you got your guy
signed to kind of his last long term deal and
that's the way you go. But to me JB of
all the Colts free agents, and if you want to
get that list ready, feel free. There are two guys

(56:16):
that I feel differently about than anybody else, again through circumstance,
what we saw of him on the field, and frankly,
how like everybody in the locker room feels good about
Daniel Jones. He is very well liked, he is very
much respected. In other words, your quarterback feels like the

(56:38):
leader of the locker room and that's a good thing. Okay,
so he's one, But to me, the biggest priority in
free agency that you have is Alec Pierce. And let's
do some real talk here, JB. All right, going into
the season, the overwhelming opinion for those of us that
and frankly, you have better connections on this than I do,

(57:00):
because that's your job cultivating as a reporter those connections.
So you probably know the conversation direction this is heading
that it was thought Alec has gotten to the point
where he's so good the cults are going to bring
him back. In other words, the Colts and at the
time had ad Mitchell. Yep, And you draft Ady Mitchell
with the idea of he is your insurance policy for

(57:22):
Michael Pittman, he's your insurance policy for Alec Pierce. He's
your insurance policy for Josh Downs. Pierce has gotten so
good that now he is the guy that you want
to invest as your number one receiver going forward. And
you kind of end the debate discussion about pitt being
a number one. No, Pierce is your number one pitcher,

(57:43):
number two. Downs is your slot guy. You go, I
like that combination, and so to me, and I want
to say, the Colts about fifty million in cap space
to work with. And this is the one bit of
upside about not having a number one draft pick. You
get a little more money to work with in the
free agency, is true, But to me, it is I'm
figuring out exactly what makes Daniel Jones feel good about

(58:08):
a one er two year deal to come back, and
then trying to figure out what the market bears out
for Alec Pierce and offering him a three or four
year deal and everything else in terms of any other
free agents is if I can get you at my price, great,
and if not, thank you for what you've done for
this team. We're going to go in a different direction.
That's simple.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
So, Ray, this is the point that I was alluding to,
and I think you kind of hit it there as well.
Going into perhaps the second month of the season, I
was thinking, boy, the franchise tag might be something you
want to use for Daniel Jones because at that time,
correct after the Steelers game and even after the Atlanta game,
I was like, there's been some slippage, Yes, do you

(58:48):
want a franchise tag him?

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Because he's good enough to.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
Be to Alex's text, I'm willing to grade the Chiefs
and the Texas performance on a curve because he was
playing hurt.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
That's what I was going to get to.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
And look at that Chiefs game when he has that
scramble for a first down and he's running with my
level of speed getting a or a Philip Rivers scramble
because he was so slow, and you're like, uh oh,
and so question marks with the Steelers game fair? Any

(59:19):
question marks? But the Falcons game fair? After that, he
was clearly playing as a compromise quarterback, please exactly.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
So when you look at how his place sort of shifted,
that shifted my mindset of like, okay, maybe you franchise
tag him. Don't want to commit the the Sam Darnold
Baker Mayfield deal, which would have been three years, one
hundred million.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
Dollars, right, And just to keep everybody in the loop here,
franchise tag is a one year contract and basically you
are paid the average of the top five yearly salaries
at your position. Most understand that, but for those that don't,
that's the price range we're talking about here from a
franchise tag standpoint, which my guess would be JB and
you're typing in furiously look at it up now, somewhere

(01:00:01):
in the forty million dollar range for one year, I
think as well, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
It was forty six million. I believe for the quarterback franchise.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
You ain't doing that and it's fully guaranteed one year, right,
you ain't doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
So that to me, and before again the Slippers in play,
before the fracture fibe LA, I was like, man, I
get us a lot of money for one year, but
is it better to be kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
I did the first place. They're really not doing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
That exactly, But now I'm gonna get that franchise tag, like, boy,
is that something you would use on Alec Pierce? And
I'm not saying this.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Which is probably somewhere in the thirtiesh million dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Going to be twenty eight million.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
So if that is the case, I could see them
sort of approaching this rake similar to how they did
with Michael Pittman Junr.

Speaker 3 (01:00:51):
Where it was franchise place long term exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
But we're just not gonna let you even have the
opportunity to have someone else come or to you and
gets you out of there, because we all know if
Alex Pierce were to hit the open market with no
franchise tagoo, Yeah, he might price himself out of your
entire market. And I think that is an interesting conversation
to have, just because Aleck has changed the narrative on

(01:01:18):
himself so much.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
I mean, you can vacidate what I was kind of
saying earlier. The original plan was going to be, Hey,
it was, it was. It was. There's a lot of
apollion era of trace to how this team operates. And
that's not a bad thing, with the idea of, hey,
we're gonna occasionally draft guys, with the idea of you
kind of got a year or two to develop, but
you're going to replacing this guy because there's only so
much free agency money we can throw around because of

(01:01:40):
the salary cap. And that was the plan for ad Mitchell,
and then the plan changed.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
The plan changed drastically. All the plans have changed for
the Colts. It feels like so.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
It changed nine times over since that plan was made
back in September or October.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Yeah, I feel like everything that I've written or said
can be used against me.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
At this point.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
The past is no longer prolog everything different universe.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
I swear, Caleb.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Every day I wake up to somebody like screenshoting something
or dmem me like, well you said this two months ago, Like, well,
things have kind of changed a little bit since then.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Brother, I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (01:02:10):
You've been in a ton of Twitter wars recently. I'm
been following. I've been following.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
I'm trying to become a better person, you know why.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
Let's say a morning check down caleob All right, so
we've hit a lot of hypotheticals. What do the Colts
do if this happens, if that happens. One thing that
has happened, at least for the injury report update is
a limited participation. Granted, it wasn't real practice yesterday, it
wasn't any practice yesterday, but given the estimated injury report,
we had limited participation for a Sauce Gardener and that

(01:02:41):
is significant because he has not played in a few weeks.
And if there is ever a time you could use
a number one cornerback.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
It is against this surging Jaguars team.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
If Sunday's game means something, and if he is cleared
those oversecting lines, than to tell you play him. If
Sunday's game means nothing, then sauce needs to be sat
for the remainder of the season. It is that simple. Also,
Bernard Ryman was a full participant at doing nothing yesterday,

(01:03:16):
just like I was a full participant in overeating for Christmas.
Bernard was a full participant in practice even though practice
didn't actually take place. Got it good?

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
There you go, And so we'll be out there today,
and actually I do think today's practice is very significant
for that point, I'll be making sure two accessy with
my own two eyes, who is practicing, what are they doing,
what do they look like? And then we'll take it
from there and Sham will tell us everything you know
after practice anyway, because he always does on Fridays.

Speaker 3 (01:03:42):
And by the way, shout out to Jalen Travis. I
think he has played well the last couple of weeks.
And again we talked about there's there's X amount of
money available in free agency and you draft to fill
a need a year or two on the line. I
would imagine Jalen Travis as you're starting right tackle next year.
And what Braden Smith's story has been amazing to come

(01:04:04):
back and he's had eight really good years for this franchise.
But likely Jamen Travis, as you're starting right tackle next year,
so you've seen some of that work in progress for
next already start to kick in.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Exactly, so we'll pivot to a more NFL action. Yesterday, Yes, Caleb,
I lied to you. I said I wasn't going to
watch any of those bad football games.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
But boy, disgust me, Joe.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
I am a degenerate, so I can't help it. I
had to tune in to see what would happen, just
because it's the NFL. Man, They've they've hijacked Christmas, and
I am you know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
I had to pull up my laptop for my father
in law because I just generically put on ESPN, knowing
I'd hit five straight NBA games if I did. And
that was kind of the background noise. What about the
football game? Hang on, Buddyflix, what's Netflix account, here's your laptop, enjoy,
here's a beverage, you enjoy the game. There you go

(01:04:55):
after about three quarters like this is garbage. And he
walked away. I know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
I know the slate this year and theory was supposed
to be very good, but it was not. The Cowboys
knock off the Commanders started to twenty three. The Vikings
is down the Lions, a surprising win for that because.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
The importance have no quarterbacks. The importance of that game
is that the Lions have now been officially eliminated from
playoff consideration. And in that game there were six turnovers,
five sacks. The Vikings had credit for three yards passing
once you take the sack yard a jut of the
passing total, and the Viking still won that game twenty

(01:05:30):
three to ten.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
That lets you know that things got pretty bleak for
the Lions. And honestly, it speaks to what their coach said,
Dan Campbell a couple years ago, like this might have
been our only shot. Yeah, and it looks like it
was at this point. And then they had the nightcap
with the Broncos and the Chiefs. Again, that matchup, way
back when they made the schedule seemed like it would
be great. You'd be looking at two teams right duking
it out for the number one seed in their division.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
I literally don't know how to pronounce the quarterbacks. Is
it ola dokin? Is it a lot of kin?

Speaker 5 (01:05:59):
I still do know where he went to school, Not.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Patrick Mahomes, not Gardner Minshew, former coles legend. Sure, And
so the Broncos keep winning. Obviously didn't win on Sunday
or month Sunday. The Jaguars got him it. They're only
lost since September. A man, the Broncos lead the league
and ugly wins, don't they Yes, they think, oh Nicks
had one hundred and eighty two yards passing and again

(01:06:23):
you won the game. They're right now the number one seed.
So I'm not trying to you know, cast Stones, you know,
being a guy that works with the team that's probably
not going to be a playoff team. But those things
tend to average out, if not this year, they average
out in future years when you win a lot of
ugly games, close games, et cetera. As we saw from
the Chiefs here in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
That is true, and they're taking a look on the
NBA side of things. The Pacers actually be back in
action tonight at Gambers Foothouse against the Boston Celtics. They
have lost a number of games in a row at
this point. I believe Rick Carlisle is still stuck on
win nine nine nine, so he needs one more for
a thousand. Perhaps they'll get that done tonight against Boston.
Were they on Boston then they just play the Celtics. Yes,

(01:07:05):
they were up big on Boston, blew it in Boston.
And that's simply what has happened this year for the Pacers.
They have had some rough rough stretches here, but one
positive I would say for what we saw recently before
this Milwaukee Bucks game, I believe we saw the first
on court workout publicly for Tyrese Halliburton and his achilles recovery.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
So it was just good to see him back out there.
I think I put out something on social media like
the World's Healing, and it was just good to see
that dude out there playing in some capacity because we
know Tyrese is really hurting right now because he wants
to be out there so bad with his team.

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
Do you think we unified the Mega powers? Do you
think Daniel Jones and Tyrese Halliburton start working out together simultaneously?

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
They did have the.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
L Cogan coming together.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
They had the same surgeon, so I past him.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
I will say, though, boy, I need a knock on
some wood here and no no more Achilles tears this
calendar year, please, Or how about ever in this in
the city out the NBA coverage, Nicks knocked off the
Cavaliers in the first game. Yesterday, the Spurs knocked off
the Thunder. The Spurs have.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Had the Dunbeer's number as of late. They're looking really good.
The Warriors beat the Mavericks. The Rockets blow out the Lakers.
The Lakers, as you pointed out earlier, Rake only team
yesterday's not score one hundred points in an NBA game,
which seems impossible these days. And in the nightcap and
over time, the Nuggets take care of the timber Wolves
one eight. Nicole Yolkis is one of the greatest stat

(01:08:27):
lines you will ever see. Fifty six, sixteen and fifteen.
Ho home for that guy.

Speaker 3 (01:08:32):
The other point from yesterday, I thought this was a gag,
but maybe it wasn't. Did Shack fall through that board
on purpose?

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Yes, he had to. There was a cushion back there.

Speaker 5 (01:08:44):
There's no way, there's no more.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
Were they getting Were they getting a new board for
that show? Was that like Turner's way of gigging ESPN
for more money? Maybe workout?

Speaker 5 (01:08:56):
I could see that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
They they roll with that board the entire day like
I saw that a half but early in the day
and came back like wlam and they haven't fixed it yet.
Clearly I was wrong. It's crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:09:06):
How did they pull that off too? They really made
it seem like if it's.

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
Fake, I mean, the fact that they sold that all
day is what is why I'm asking that question. It's
a good question, boy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
I do enjoy having them back. I was confused at
first about how that would all break down or how
that would all play out, but it is good to
have those guys back in the saddle, as they should be.
One of the best I think sports shows for all
reasons that are not sports, because none of them are.
We're talking about outside of Ernie and maybe Kenny, the
rest of them, Shacking Chuck. I don't know if they
know too much about the current state of NBA basketball,

(01:09:37):
but they're entertaining.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
I even listened to some Shacked Diesel while I was
sitting outside last night as a nod to Shack taking
one for the team and projecting himself through a video
board yesterday. I'm outstanding some of its better work.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
By the way, you gotta love it. Gotta love it,
so we'll hit a break here. We'll check back in
with you on the other side of it. Thank you
all sticking with us. To day after Christmas and if
you still got presents to open, make sure you're enjoying
that and leaving cookies out there for saying as well.

Speaker 3 (01:10:04):
All right, young and this is who.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
They has to be Shack Sequille O'Neill, and.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
Who was the group that he is with? Who is
his favorite?

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
No idea about that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
You gotta be got to be careful how you say this. Okay,
foo schnickings. All right, snickings it spelled f u foo snickings. Yes,
so well look cayleb, look that guy. Let's be swearing
it and you can bring that back up a little bit.
There you go, we can talk over this. Shack goes
out and performs again. This will aige everybody get involved

(01:10:37):
on the Arcdio Hall show. Oh boy, yes it was
a rookie.

Speaker 5 (01:10:42):
You said you were listening to this last night, Greg.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
I was listening.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
I was.

Speaker 3 (01:10:46):
I was listening to this to I was listening to
my my Actually my favorite Shack track is his own
song where he's not with fooshnickings. Is I'm outstanding? Absolutely? Yeah? Yeah?
You know you know you know what about that time
Shaq was filming Blue Chips here in Frankfort Indiana. Are

(01:11:07):
you aware of this, James?

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
I was aware that this was film in Indiana.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
I feel like every basketball movie that I've probably watched
at this point probably good.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
You give me a guess, I'm gonna say Indiana.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
So Western University was actually u C l A and
that and that makes sense. The only parts of the
movie other than stuff that was filmed in and around
French Lick involving Larry Bird or Ricky Row aka Matt Nover.
You basketball son now plays at Carmel but the the
Dolphin Dome's Case Arena at Frankfort High School? Have you

(01:11:37):
been there to cover a game or as part of
your basketball journey? Have you been to a game at
Case Arena? Is this the one with the hot Dogs
or not Frankfort hot Dogs? Yes, that's Case.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
Actually I did go there last year because I believe
it was Warsaw Girls versus hs HSC.

Speaker 3 (01:11:54):
Yes, Semi State, correct, and that was a great game. Now,
but when you walked in and by the Warsaw Girls
were fantastic Monday in the Hall of Fame Classic and
running clocked both of their opponents, which doesn't happen at
an event like that. But they have now done that
to seven of their last They are crushing people even
that you have one loss on the season. But when

(01:12:14):
you walk into case at Frankfort, they have a wonderful
Hall of Fame display as to all the greats that
have played in that program. The history has taken place
there and there's a really cool display involving the Western
University Dolphins. And two years ago they had a thirtieth
anniversary night of the filming where they put the dolphin down,

(01:12:36):
They put the decals on the floor to replicate Western
University and Frankfort wore Western gear for one night. That's cool,
and they invited people back. Shack could not make it.
But what did he do? He bought brand new shoes
for I think both teams. Wow. Basically to have new

(01:12:57):
kicks for playing in that game.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
So other reason, like Shack, I know, we'll get back
to the football conversation whether it's the Colts or IU,
but I want to actually stay with high school seem
for a second, because now you got me down a
rabbit hole.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
Raak yep. I was to day after Christmas. Today is
rabbit hole.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
There you go. So we were over at Southport we
being me, JAMV and a couple other guys who get
together and play basket.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
How often does John Yale short when he shoots oh boy?

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Every time and again? For someone who is relatively new
to the JMV troll world. When I first started playing
with him, I thought it was legitimately short. When he
short it cash is going in. So it's like it's
like a little bit of an annoyance because he knows.

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
That it's not and it's going to go in and
saying jamb sucks.

Speaker 4 (01:13:38):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
But as we were sitting there in between games, and
I think I might have been sitting on the sideline
because a couple of those Jamb shorts were going in,
and I was, you know, losing who is on your
short list and you've done it for a long time,
short list of the best high school basketball player you've
seen a live in person with your own eyes.

Speaker 3 (01:14:01):
Greg Odin, I mean, he was so full, he was
so different and so and you always refer things kind
of back to him, like last year, Stink Robinson, now
the certing point yard at Butler, became the all time
leading scorer at Lawrence North. And you would say a
phrase like listen, if you've scored more than Greg Odin

(01:14:23):
and Mike Conley Junior, who is still getting an NBA paycheck,
and for what it's worth when he uses this as
a metric, has made the most money of any NBA
player from the state of Indiana. The answer that tribute
question is Mike Conley Jr. Has made the most money
as an NBA player from the state of Indiana. And
then even this week, so on Tuesday at the Hall

(01:14:45):
of Fame, young man named Brandon Hunter who's a point
guard for Silver Creek. Brandon came into the game. They
only played seven games.

Speaker 6 (01:14:52):
He had.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
Let's see here, fifty eight assists on the year. That
translates to nine point six or something along those lines
over like his first six games. And so I email
my buddy who runs the Hickory Husker website because you
know it's Indiana, Lee Evitt, and I go, all right,
what's the record for assists in a year? Because this

(01:15:15):
team could play thirty three games? And he just if
I can do the math, thirty three times nine is
a lot. And the answer to that question is Mike
Conley Junior has the state record for assists. Guess who
he was throwing the ball to on most of those
assists Greg Odin, so Mike had two hundred and ninety
assists in a single season at Lawrence North boy Llen

(01:15:40):
is as Conley and Odin are freshmen. If Greg Odin
makes more free throws as a freshman, they beat an
unbeaten Pike team in the regional, a Pike team that'll
go on to not lose a game the entire season.
But that LN team probably would have won four consecutive
championships if Greg was a better fore throw shooter as
a freshman. So the answer to your question doesn't take long. Okay,

(01:16:04):
I was. I'm four years younger than Damon Bailey. I
was at the state finals he one in ninety. There
has not been a storyline that was capped off in
the same fashion that Damon Bailey was. Yeah, I'm not
sure there has been a phenomenon because now you explode
social media to the mix, like Romeo Langford was who

(01:16:25):
did win a state championship as a sophomore when ron
Dale Moore was his teammate at New Wall. But not
to mention Shawn East too, I think it's like college
basketball for thirty seven years at this point, but the
single best player in my time of doing this is
Greg Odin.

Speaker 1 (01:16:44):
There you go, all right, well, I appreciate that answer
because we were debating it. We were going into the
girls side for a little bit as well, and I
was like, man, like, there are some names. And when
I had a chance to visit the Indiana Basketball Hall
of Fame, which I've been to a few times, at
this point you started to read little tabs all the
people who have come before. Yeah, and you realize the
resumes are just incredible, right, Like this isn't just a

(01:17:06):
Larry Bird thing, Like, no, these people could really really
play basketball, and a lot of them have resumes that
are just impeccable. I mean Stephanie White, right, See's someone
who's also also a legend as well.

Speaker 3 (01:17:15):
So state record and scoring as a senior at Seegar
High School.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
Yeah, boy, I can only imagine how the Damon Bailey
crowds looked.

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
I was one of the forty thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
High school that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
I thought we had a great turnof for the four
A game this past year for boys and that was
like what sixteen seventeen.

Speaker 3 (01:17:31):
Thou growing up in the area in which not the
not just the era, but the area where Damon played.
What you would do is you would check your schedule
because you were going to all twenty year team's games,
whether you're eighteen and two or two or eighteen, and
then you would go, okay, what are the dates that
we're not playing that Bedford North Lawrence is? Okay? Now

(01:17:51):
where do I think I can get tickets to go
watch him play? You can't just go on your phone, right,
So it wasn't like that back at eighty nine, Son,
What wasn't the way that worked. You had those little
pocket schedules from your bank, or you had Who's your
Basketball magazine when it came out back in November, and
that was your bible and you carried that around with you.
So you had the answers this question, you know, since
the Internet Al Gore had invented it by that point

(01:18:14):
in time, but it wasn't exactly available, you know, for
home distribution, until about five or six years later. So
you would go, Okay, this is where Banel is playing.
Where don't think I can get tickets? And usually you couldn't.
So the option that I had to see him during
the regular season his senior year, which was also Eric Mantras,
the Senior Year, God rest his soul. Bedford North, Lawrence,

(01:18:36):
Lawrence North, Pike and Newcastle were the teams that played
in the Hall of Fame Classic. But this was right
before the Hall of Fame that you were just in
the other day was finished in Newcast, which was ninety
or ninety one is when that building was completed. So
back then the Hall of Fame Classic actually moved around
well and Damon Senior Year. What better place to have

(01:18:59):
it than Assembly Hall. And so that's where I had
a chance to watch bet for North, Lawrence and Lawrence
North playing the championship game Damon Bailey versus Eric Montross.
You know who the best player on the floor was
dude named Eddie Cassian who played the pert Rican national
team that played at Lawrence North ended up playing at
uab Boy that night. He was the best player.

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
This is why Rake is on the panel or the
board of the Hall of Fame here in Indiana.

Speaker 3 (01:19:26):
And you did heal my name tag on as a
board member of the Hall of the first I have
done broadcast with credentials before. I've never done a broadcast
with a name tag on before. But since I'm on
the board. Yes, I felt, you know, if you had
a Hall of Fame question, I would be able to
answer it for you. Well, at least while I was not,
you know, actually doing a broadcast on Tuesday.

Speaker 5 (01:19:45):
James us notn Hoosiers are getting a crash course right now.

Speaker 2 (01:19:48):
Hey, this is learning.

Speaker 1 (01:19:50):
I'm still like I feel like people keep telling me like, oh,
you're an honorary Hoosier at this point.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
There's always more you can learn. You are, There's always
more you can learn.

Speaker 3 (01:19:56):
Google Gobble. You are one of us at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:19:58):
So we'll take a break here, we'll get back in
to the professional side of things. Thank you all for
sticking with us the day after Christmas. Hope you are
enjoying the time off, if you're off with your family,
and if you're back at work grinding.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
Thanks for listening. I feel like Caleb certainly is setting
the mood here on this Friday, giving us the good vibes,
getting the body.

Speaker 1 (01:20:17):
Groove, and thank you all for listening. Tune into the
Fan Morning show here on one step and five the Fan.

Speaker 3 (01:20:21):
He's catering to the old man compared to the other
two dudes he's working with today.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
There you go, and that is the voice of the
legendary great Rastraw.

Speaker 3 (01:20:28):
Now nonfold to the normal guy that is connecting the
ones and twos here even though he's in much better
shame than me. Ricord has me by a handful of years.
But if we played this music to record, he'd be
so lost.

Speaker 2 (01:20:41):
I think, you know, it's a.

Speaker 1 (01:20:42):
Little bit, you know, not his arrow, but he's out
right now. We have Kevin bowing out as well, Mark
Dyton out as well.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
It could have picked up. I mean, Kevin lives like
six blocks from me.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
What you attempted to like knock on the door this
morning and be like, hey man, you want well carpool.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
He's got this unique brother black house and let he's
like his garage and driveway behind his house like attached
to an alley and so like it would create a
lot of work for me to actually have to get
out the car, walk up a slight hill and knock
on his door. Plush as much grief as I would
give KB. He and his wife do have a newborn,

(01:21:19):
so I'm like, I'm not gonna go, just you know,
family sleeping in and enjoy a little holiday time.

Speaker 1 (01:21:25):
I told him to call Uncle j B if he
needs a break he never did, so, I mean, I
feel offended.

Speaker 3 (01:21:30):
Once you get to kid three. Man, it's like different
difference in kid one and kid two. And again you'll
be there at some point in time, some point in time, right,
no time. I didn't have kids in my mid thirty
so you'll be there at some point.

Speaker 2 (01:21:44):
I'm glad you said that break.

Speaker 1 (01:21:45):
You know, mama boy, you know you ain't got to
keep asking all these questions, you know about how serious
I'm I ain't serious just yet.

Speaker 5 (01:21:52):
We questions over the holidays, Jay, I get a.

Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
Couple of my parents are They're like, boy, sit down.

Speaker 3 (01:21:58):
My wife and I were so late and terms of
having kids. When we sat my mom and dad down
to tell them we were finally having having a baby,
I think they thought we were sitting until we were
getting divorced. No, I think that was the mental preparation
guy in their mind. We probably broke it down. No,
I figured out what I was doing. Yeah, yeah, maybe pregnant.

(01:22:20):
Now congrat you yeah, yus.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
That's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (01:22:22):
So the bit of button on our conversation from earlier,
I had a couple of people text the fan text line.
Sam Shan Kemp was one of their best high school
players they've ever seen. But as far as the high
school scene goes, the Colts currently have a high school
coach as their quarterback, Philip Rivers. Again, I thought that
he looked better in a second game back significantly after

(01:22:43):
the nearly five year layoff. Took a couple of hits,
had to pick six late, but for seventy five percent
of that game against the forty nine ers, he was
not just good for his age.

Speaker 2 (01:22:54):
In my opinion, break he was good.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
He had an average NFL quarterbacking line. There you go,
and I'm that as the highest form of a compliment
because what it was twenty three of thirty five to
seventy seven, two touchdowns and a pick right somewhere in
that range. I mean when Daniel Jones was cruising early
in the year. That's a similar stat line to what

(01:23:17):
he would have. Again, folks, if you extrapolate to seventy
five over seventeen games' somebout like a forty seven hundred
yard passer for the course for the course of the season,
you'd be like, all right, you don't have fifteen picks
in a year, but you get the idea a man
that had not played in fifty nine months, a man

(01:23:38):
that was forty four years of age had a normal
average NFL game at quarterback. That is remarkable. It has
gotten to the point. I'm not saying he is your
starting quarterback or anybody starting quarterback next in the National
Football League. What say he couldn't think about doing this
again next year for another team? If he really wants

(01:23:59):
to coach high school football, a let's get him a
job at Cardinal Ritter or something like that. No offense
to the current coach at rhetoric. I'm not calling for
your job on a morning show, but let's find Phillip
a coaching job someplace in Indianapolis where he's kind of
steam over to the practice facility every now and again,
and it could be the second string or the third
string quarterback for this team next year.

Speaker 1 (01:24:19):
You know what I was speaking of high school? I
need to be asking him about his son, Gunner. Is
I you on the trail here? Do we have a pipeline?
I mean I do remember or not remember? I do
know that his position coach I believe in NC State
was Kurt Signetti. So could that be a connection there
to be like, hey, by the way, Kurt I got
a son. You know, you know how I got down

(01:24:40):
my son. He throw a rock just like me.

Speaker 2 (01:24:42):
You know, let's look at the succession plan for Frina
mendoz En company.

Speaker 3 (01:24:46):
Nothing against uncle Phil, all right. I hope his son
throws the ball a little differently than Phil does.

Speaker 2 (01:24:51):
You know, it's crazy they actually do throw it, of
course he does.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
Yeah, that's where he learned. But I hope he processes
the cab like his dad does. I would hope that
maybe he actually has some shoulder rotation, not that I'm
some quarterback expert, but actually throws a bit of a
spiral instead of more of a three quarter shot put. Ye.

Speaker 1 (01:25:11):
Yeah, it's wordswall for Philip Rivers. But I do think
when we look at his play, he is taking a
step forward. Can the rest of the team do that
around him? And can they have a complete game? Because
you're looking at these cults performances and you're always wanting
to look at one area and say, we need a
little bit more here.

Speaker 3 (01:25:31):
This is a give a insert word here game is
what this is? Yeah, and again it's two different things
depending on what happens tomorrow at four point thirty. All right,
if the Texans come out and beat the Chargers. Then
all bets are off and you kind of shrug your
shoulders and Sunday just kind of happens, and you're looking
at guys playing for the love of the game, like

(01:25:51):
Philip Rivers or guys that know, hey, I might be
playing my last home game here with the Indianapolis Colts,
whatever the case may be. But if you have a
playoff birth on the line to keep your season alive,
how you perform on Sunday says a lot about you
as an individual. And so that's really what we're gonna

(01:26:12):
see on Sunday afternoon, is your give up blank factor high.
That's what we're gonna find out about this football team.
Doesn't mean it has to be perfect, but that's what
it boils down to.

Speaker 1 (01:26:23):
Yes, And I do think the way this game plays
out and the rest of the season for that matter,
will determine the bigger picture questions. I know a lot
of people keep texting into our text line or the
YouTube chat or just in general in real life having
those conversations.

Speaker 2 (01:26:35):
About the Coults. It's like, what do you do with
the GM, what do you do with the head coach?
What do you do at quarterback?

Speaker 1 (01:26:40):
Those are the three pillars of any NFL franchise, and
right now, all of that, I would say, is in
flux when it comes to the Colts and your decision
that you have to make, because it's not, in my opinion,
a very easy decision to just you know, go all
the way one way or all the way the other.

Speaker 3 (01:26:57):
How crazy is it? And maybe it's a true sign
of where the franchise is. What seems to be the
simplest decision as to who's back next year is the
guy that suffered the torn achilles a month ago.

Speaker 1 (01:27:10):
Boy, isn't that some That's a great perspective to kind
of put this in. I hadn't thought of it like that, Rake,
But you ain't lying, brother.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
And again, part of it is circumstances that surround Yeah.
And again, if if we're having a conversation, if there's
a number one draft pick involved this year, then maybe
you go all right, let's just hit the nuclear option reset,
knowing you're hit a mid first round pick, but you'll
go to quarterback there and and just go from there
everybody out and it's it's you know, But because you

(01:27:40):
don't have that, and because the initial reports on his recovery.
We're six to eight months and not nine to twelve months.
And that timeline wrapped, you know, goes around training camp
in August and you go, all right, that's the guy
you feel most certain about. Is the guy that just
popped his achilles in a game on December the South.

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
Yeah, and this isn't really insider information here, but I
have been told he's obviously pushing to be available, sure
as soon as he's met busted leg exactly. So for
those thinking this is going to be a super long rehab,
it could be. But at the same time, you know
Daniel Jones and timelines, he ain't trying to hear what
the doctor's telling him about. Oh, it could be on

(01:28:21):
the longer side. No, he expects to be ready to
go by week one of next year.

Speaker 3 (01:28:25):
After this year, James, You there's things you can question
about Daniel Jones. Kid's harder toughness is not one of them. Yeah,
not one of the point that that and again by
all accounts, by what everybody else says about him, And
again you see facial expressions because you're there. You know
everybody in that room believes in Daniel Jones and respects

(01:28:47):
Daniel Jones. From an intangible standpoint, he's the quarterback you want.
He's the guy you want.

Speaker 1 (01:28:53):
There you go, So we'll take a quick break here.
Check back on the other side. This is the fan
morning show the day after Christmas. Thank you all for list.

Speaker 3 (01:29:02):
All right, So, JB in your days of covering the Alion,
I did you have a game at Camp Randall where
you could enjoy this song.

Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
I did not have a chance to enjoy this song
in person.

Speaker 1 (01:29:13):
I'm actually jealous of all the college crowds that actually
had good product out there to make you happy.

Speaker 3 (01:29:18):
Sadly, this was the best part of Wisconsin Games this
past year. It was jump around because the band is
known for they'll keep performing and they call it the
fifth quarter. I know these things because my wife actually
has a master's degree from Madison from the University of Wisconsin,
and so the band has the fifth quarter. My guess is,
most fans didn't stay for the fifth quarter this year.

Speaker 6 (01:29:38):
Nah.

Speaker 3 (01:29:39):
They jumped around, and they jumped on out the building
and headed on down to State Street Broughts and swam
in the lake and went to the Union and the
rascaler of the whole nine yards.

Speaker 1 (01:29:46):
I went to college visit to Wisconsin Madison and also Minnesota,
and it was the dead of Winter's on winter brother.

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
I was going to say, do you not like warm weather, James?

Speaker 2 (01:29:57):
And that was rough.

Speaker 1 (01:29:58):
I was thinking to myself, like, they have tunnels in Minnesota,
I'm gonna get so cold here. You have tunnels you
have to walk through. So yeah, Illinois went too bad,
honestly in my opinion, Champagne Urbana, I liked it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:09):
That Assembly Hall which is now what State Farm Center. Correct, yep.
I got to do one game in there in my
days with Iupui of doing the radio. We actually played
them before finals. It was the one time that we
did this. We basically turned down having a hotel room
and drove the cheam straight to the game because we
knew we were getting a paycheck, a butt whooping and

(01:30:31):
going home. George Hill had broken his foot about three
weeks before this Game's we ain't winning tonight, let's let's
let's get our paycheck and let's go home. I remember
driving up to that building and think it looked like
a flying saucer hand landed in a cornfield. Boy, And
that is how I would describe the other Assembly Hall.

Speaker 1 (01:30:49):
Well, I'll tell you well, we'll have Matt Taylor join
us here in a couple of minutes give us some
of his tailor's tidbits here on this Friday. But as
far as one of the tidbits I'm interested in when
it comes to this team is, as we talked about
the quarterback, talk about the defense, is there a way
rake for this team to unlock Jonathan Taylor because he's

(01:31:10):
quart a touchdown that was I believe his fifth straight game,
and he had coincides with every loss, sure of not
reaching one hundred yards, and that one might have been
the toughest to look at it. Let's we talk about
the passing game looking a little better with Philip Rivers.
It is stagnant to a degree with JT. And I
wonder if somebody that has to do with having a
more immobile quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:31:30):
It is twofold. I'm a little quarterback, yes, but obviously
now you have a defense that is more geared up
to stop you. And then again, let's acknowledge that on
Monday night it was Jalen Travis, Quentin Nelson, pretty soon
it was Danny Pinner, then it was Dalton Tucker, and

(01:31:51):
then it was Matt Gonzalbus and so you have had
to rotate through and then you lose Durogletree during the
course of that game doing a neck injury. Well, a
lot of the pieces in front of him have changed,
and so there's not that many holes to find the
ones that he was getting earlier in the season.

Speaker 1 (01:32:11):
Well, one guy who has not changed and is still
will join us here on Friday mornings is the great
Matt Taylor.

Speaker 3 (01:32:17):
Matt, how you doing, brother, I'm good.

Speaker 6 (01:32:19):
Good morning guys. Merry Christmas to you.

Speaker 3 (01:32:21):
How was Christmas in the Taylor household? What did Santa
bring the kids?

Speaker 6 (01:32:26):
The kids, man, they made out like bandits, I tell
you what. Between the grandparents and Santa Claus, they're coming
out on top. So got a lot of got a
lot of you know, a lot of toys, some games,
some board games, some video game stuff. God, there's so much.
They kind of lost count after a while, kind of

(01:32:46):
blurred out there for a little bit, but it was
it was a very good day. Santa was good to everybody.
So yeah, they're they're in great shape. Hope Hope stand
delivered some good stuff to the rakestraw playing and same
thing with James.

Speaker 3 (01:32:59):
Hope you guys are doing well today.

Speaker 1 (01:33:01):
So later, so did Santa stick around and clean up
all the wrapping paper and you know tissue everywhere?

Speaker 2 (01:33:06):
Was that more of you of your variety?

Speaker 6 (01:33:09):
No, Santa, bales Man, Santa knows the deal. Santa's like
the Iris goodbye. You know, he just dropped off and
gets the hell out of Dodge and just let you know.
But that's the thing that Santa does. He gives you,
guys plenty of you know, trash bags and you know,
plenty of garbage binds to clean up the aftermath. But
uh no, I mean it's a spectacular day. I mean,
if that's the least we can do, uh, for for

(01:33:30):
all that Santa does for us, uh sign me up.

Speaker 3 (01:33:33):
Every year because you because you were such a sports
crazed kid, as was I'm sure James was the same way.
But those us to go the announcer route. We're doing
play by playing our head and frankly out loud, like
we're out in the pickup, you know, playing playing in
you know, basketball in the driveway. What was the best
sports related gift you got when you were a kid, Matt.

Speaker 6 (01:33:52):
Well, there's a couple of them. The just in terms
of being an athlete. You know, I've got you know,
I got a ton of foot a ton of basketballs,
but I got a you know, a Peyton Manning jersey
growing up. I got an Edgerant James jersey growing up,
Reggie Miller. I was really into Jeff Foster because I
was kind of like the player I was on the

(01:34:13):
basketball floor. So I had a Jeff Foster jersey, uh,
you know, in those glory days of the Pacers. But
as a broadcaster, you know, I say this all the time,
like you know, I half half joke about this, but
but it's half truth as well. I mean I was
that ten year old kid that used to do games
in my basement, right, I mean it didn't matter I
turn on hockey games or baseball games or football games. Uh,

(01:34:36):
and I would I would do play by play in
my head. I would, uh you know, bring in a
transistor radio on a Monday night to finish up listening
to Monday Night football with Marv Albert and Boomer Size
and like that. I was that kid. So, uh, my kid,
my parents got me a talk boy. Remember the talk boy,
uh you know, like the the Home Alone too talk boy.

Speaker 2 (01:34:55):
I do remember this.

Speaker 3 (01:34:56):
I remember the game Boy. I remember the talk Boy. Sorry, yeah,
like Home Alone two.

Speaker 6 (01:35:01):
Kevin McCallister had the talkboy, right, like the little like
recording device that he used it like scheme the hotel
and to get in free rooms and all that stuff.
I had a talk Boy with the cassette and I
would do games in my basement on the talkboy.

Speaker 3 (01:35:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:35:16):
People should google Talkboy after we're done talking, because that
was my first you know, broadcast outlet to do and
play by play, and that's what really sort of you know,
allowed me to catch the bug. Yeah, talkboy, you know
back in nineteen ninety seven, Greg big deal, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:35:33):
Boy mate. I only know what a talkboy is because
of that movie.

Speaker 3 (01:35:36):
So by the way, I just I just realized by
the way that I was the person running the board
and pushing the buttons as Matt was listening to games
and I'll go in, say the frequency on twelve sixty
WND back then, so as he was cashing out as
like a fourth grader, I was actually being paid six
bucks an hour to make sure the commercials played two

(01:35:57):
breaks a quarter courtesy of Westwood One. It's touching and
I feel old at the exact same time.

Speaker 6 (01:36:03):
Yeah, the crackle, the crackle of AM radio.

Speaker 3 (01:36:06):
And Matt lived on the South side as far away
from the signal as you could possibly get to. He
still came in.

Speaker 6 (01:36:13):
I guess it was still audible, you know, I still,
you know, figured out the Buccaneers scored a touchdown in
the red zone.

Speaker 3 (01:36:19):
It's like it was perfect.

Speaker 6 (01:36:21):
I mean, Marv Albert is still reading those reads.

Speaker 7 (01:36:23):
I remember like it's yesterday. I mean, this brought to
you by Barbersall America Close shave Barbersol back to you,
Bob size, right.

Speaker 6 (01:36:34):
I mean, that's that's what got me hooked. I still
remember it like it's yesterday.

Speaker 3 (01:36:38):
Talk boy, indeed, there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:36:40):
So well, uh, you know, we don't want to keep
you on the phone too long without getting too the
real juicy stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:36:45):
Let's get to Taylor's tidbits.

Speaker 6 (01:36:48):
All right, let's talk about the matchup Sunday, Lucas Oil Stadium,
one o'clock. You got the eight and seven Colts eleven
and four Jaguars, and the Jags are a very complete team.
They've won six games in a row. They've scored their
opponents by one hundred and thirteen points in that span.
That's an average of over eighteen points per game, fellas
and comparatively, the nearest AFC team, the Texans, they have

(01:37:12):
a point margin of only forty three since Week eleven,
So that gives you perspective on how dominant the Jaguars
have been, and they've got a legitimate resume. There's not
a whole lot of flukiness to what they've done this year.
They've got six wins on the season against opponents that
currently hold a winning record. That's tied with the La

(01:37:33):
Rams for the most in the NFL. The Jaguars are
currently five and three against teams that are currently inside
the playoff picher this year, and they are plus ten
in a turnover margin in those games. That's the best
in the NFL. All right, So let's talk about their offense.
It's rowing they're on a six game heater the Jags
leave the NFL and offensive points scored per game at

(01:37:55):
almost thirty four points per game in that span. And
this coincides with the Colts defense really reeling a little bit,
all right. They have lost five games in a row
and in that stretch they ranked thirty first in passing defense,
thirty first in yards allowed, and twenty eighth in points

(01:38:15):
allowed and the big plays. Right, if you boil it
all down to, like the one thing that's really killing
the Colts consistently, it's the big plays on through the air,
I should say, you know, the team's really racking up
big chunk yardage through the air. Against the Colts on
Monday Night Football, the Colts allowed the forty nine ers
to post eleven plays that covered at least fifteen yards.

(01:38:39):
And in the last five games during this losing skit
for the Colts, they've allowed thirty eight completions over fifteen So,
you know, we talk about the hard truth in terms
of where the Colts are at right now, the Colts
defense is sort of, unfortunately, right back where it was
to end last year, towards the bottom of the league
in overall defense. All right, Lawrence, he is on fire.

(01:39:02):
He has produced two hundred and twenty five plus passing yards,
two plus passing touchdowns, a one hundred plus passer rating
in zero turnovers in each of his last four games.
That is the longest streak in Jaguars franchise history. It's
also tied for the longest streak in the NFL this year.

(01:39:23):
In his last four games, fourteen touchdowns, the most in
the NFL. In that span, He's got thirty three touchdowns
on the year, that's third most in the NFL, and
he also aims for at least two passing touchdowns in
his fifth straight game against the Indianapolis Colts. And then
on the other side of the ball, the Jaguars on defense.

(01:39:44):
Since Week eleven, they lead the NFL in scoring only
fifteen points per game, they're number one in the NFL
and rushing defense eighty seven yards allowed on the ground
per game, and they give it up twenty points or
fewer in four straight games. That is the longest Jaguars
streak since twenty and eighteen. And what the Colts have

(01:40:06):
to do is get some sort of semblance in the
ground game going with Jonathan Taylor. Taylor, by the way,
the only player the Jaguars have allowed to rush for
seventy plus yards in a game this year, and during
this five game losing skid for the Colts, they rank
thirtieth in rushing yards, thirtieth in yards per game on
the ground at just eighty one thirty first, and yards

(01:40:27):
per carry at three point five and they only have
eight runs over ten yards in that span. That's the
second fewest in the NFL. And here's a little bit
of a bonus tidbit that I'll wrap up with. You know,
we talk all the time, right when the Colts and
Jaguars get together. What do we always talk about, especially
down there in North Florida, We always talk about the streak, Right,

(01:40:48):
Colts haven't won in Jacksonville in due ball, you know,
at EverBank Stadium since the twenty fourteen season. Well, the
home team in this series has been absolutely dominant. It
doesn't matter if you're playing at Lucas Oil Stadium or
at in Jacksonville. Down in North Florida, the home team
is nineteen and two in the last twenty one games

(01:41:11):
in this series. The Colts have won six of the
last seven games against Jacksonville Lucas Oil Stadium and ten
of their last twelve in Indianapolis. Hopefully that's a good
omen for this game with the Colts being the home team,
needing to get a win, needing to stay alive in
the playoffs. And we'll see if the Colts get some
help on Saturday tomorrow with the Texans losing to the Chargers.

Speaker 3 (01:41:33):
It's a lot of tidbits you do a lot of
work for this segment, Matt, I appreciate that.

Speaker 6 (01:41:39):
Listen, you're either getting better, you're getting work right, all right,
that's the deal, baby.

Speaker 3 (01:41:44):
What has been the favorite part of telling the Philip
Rivers story for you the last couple of weeks?

Speaker 6 (01:41:51):
For me, it's just seeing him and getting to know
him a little bit better and actually getting to talk
to him in person.

Speaker 3 (01:41:56):
Gray.

Speaker 6 (01:41:56):
I mean, the last time he was here was in
twenty twenty during the COVID restrictions and everything was virtual
on Zoom or teleconferences and stuff like that, and we
made it a point on the broadcast on Monday. I
mean last week, you know, against the forty nine ers,
that was his first chance to put on a colt's
uniform and play in front of a packed house during COVID.
The most fans he ever played in front of at

(01:42:18):
Lucas Oil Stadium was fourteen thousand. Of course, they were
all kind of spread out all over the stadium because
of COVID restrictions. But I mean, he is it's remarkable
how well he played. I mean to me, it's just,
I mean, you shouldn't be able to do what he
is doing at age forty four, and I get it right,
it's only a two game sample size, but I mean

(01:42:40):
to throw, for you know, almost three hundred yards and
two touchdowns in front of the whole world watching you
when you haven't played, you know, in four and a
half years, it's just remarkable. So I mean credit to
what the what the human mind can do and what
it's capable of, right, I mean, if you stay engaged
and you study, and you know your stuff, and you're
you're on top of your p's and q's from a

(01:43:01):
mental side of things, you can be really successful regardless
of what your physical limitations and what your body tells you.
So I mean Philip Rivers, I mean not to sound
too profound, but I mean he's an inspiration and he's
really given this team a big juice and a lot
of jolt late in season trying to make the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:43:19):
Last one I got for you, Mata. Are you someone
who is like the players?

Speaker 1 (01:43:23):
Will you be watching every second of tomorrow's game between
the Chargers and the Texans?

Speaker 6 (01:43:28):
Absolutely? I mean, this is what the NFL wants. I mean,
parody is absolutely king. You know, Roger Goodell is he's
just foaming at the mouth right now because so many
teams are still alive and have a chance this late
in the season, and that's what he wants. He wants
fans engaged as long as possible throughout the course of

(01:43:49):
the NFL season. And you know, we talked about it
again last week. I mean, what's the number. I mean,
since nineteen ninety at least four teams make the playoffs
every year that didn't the year before. I mean, every
year you see a team go from worse to first,
as is the case potentially depending on what happens these
last two games with the Jacksonville Jaguars. So yeah, meaningful

(01:44:10):
football in late December early January is what everybody wants
to watch and consume and be a part of. And
hopefully the Colts get some help. I mean the last
month and a half really, since that Berlin game and
the bye, it's like everything the Colts need to go
right outside of their control has gone wrong. The Jaguars

(01:44:32):
keep winning, that Texans keep winning. You know, they don't
get any help from anybody else when it comes to
their strength of schedule and AFC record and all of
that stuff. So maybe tomorrow is the day where they
finally get a little bit of a break and some help.
But I mean, unfortunately you've stubbed your toe so much
that now you're relying all of that. But you know,

(01:44:52):
if you don't take care of your own business this
week on Sunday even you know, let's say the Texans
win or excuse me the charges the Texans, I should
say tomorrow, none of that matters. If the Colts don't
start helping themselves, which they haven't done obviously in the
last five weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:45:09):
Well may tell we appreciate the time.

Speaker 3 (01:45:10):
Brother.

Speaker 1 (01:45:11):
I will see you over at to facility later today
and again, happy belated Merry Christmas.

Speaker 3 (01:45:16):
You guys too.

Speaker 6 (01:45:17):
Always good to be with you, Greg, always good to
hear your voice. We'll see you soon and appreciate all
you guys do.

Speaker 3 (01:45:22):
I will see you on Sunday to look forward to
the ballet that Matt and I do. We have three
and a half minutes to switch chairs after he does
his first segment of the postgame show. And so normally
I have a laptop with all the emails because people
on all this Matt coordinates everything for the radio network.
So like all the scripts that I have, like he
was referencing the you know, the wonderful folks at Barbasol

(01:45:43):
who are also the presenters of the Horizon League Men'smen's
Basketball Championships. By the way, so finally crafted commercial much
is like this. I have a script from Matt of
ones that I get through during my three hour tour
of the postgame show. So I've got that laptop open
as then Matt that has to unplug about nineteen day
different gizmos before then he exits to go check out

(01:46:03):
there are you know, postgame interviews and stuff like that.
So we get to see each other during practice or
have email chats, but there's always three and a half
minutes we're about three feet apart from each other as
we're trying to extract one and almost like a sports
car team changing drivers in the middle of a race,
kind of what we do in the culture Cult Truth
were athletes and it was really mad and not me.

(01:46:24):
Were is the key thing there?

Speaker 6 (01:46:27):
Yeah, I mean it's like a fire drill, but we've
gotten pretty good at it. It's like poetry in emotion.
You know, I'm spinning away from contact from you. You're
sliding into the little crease there and I'm ripping stuff
off the wall trying to get out of your guys way,
and it's it's a beautiful dance that we do. But
I think we have it down to perfection. And I
appreciate all of you guys do. I mean, the postgame
show is just absolutely humming and hopefully the Colts give

(01:46:49):
you guys some good content to talk about for two
and a half hours coming up on Sunday afternoon.

Speaker 3 (01:46:52):
Yeah. I was pretty spoiled for two months. It'd be
nice to go back to that again.

Speaker 6 (01:46:55):
Matt.

Speaker 3 (01:46:55):
I'm not gonna lie boy, see you buddy.

Speaker 6 (01:46:58):
All right, I'll talk to you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:46:59):
Say we got to say.

Speaker 1 (01:47:01):
Everything I wrote for two months with the greatest Cults
article ever, and all of a sudden, now when I
write something it gets garbage.

Speaker 2 (01:47:07):
James, what are you doing?

Speaker 6 (01:47:08):
You?

Speaker 2 (01:47:08):
You need to change this franchise. That's hard enough questions.

Speaker 3 (01:47:12):
I've got a tidbit for you. Who is the leading
total points, leading scoring offense in the AFC.

Speaker 2 (01:47:22):
Total points, total points AFC AFC Yep, it better not
be the Jaguars.

Speaker 3 (01:47:27):
It can't be the Jaguars. Not the Jaguars. The Jaguars
are currently tied for third.

Speaker 2 (01:47:34):
Oh okay, Caleb, you want a wigh in I bet
you it's still the Colts.

Speaker 3 (01:47:40):
It is not the Colts, but Caleb knows the direction
I'm going with this conversation. Boy, I'm trying to think,
would you like me to give you the number one answer?
That the Buffalo Bills? So who would be second? It
can't be the cat It's still at the Indianapolis.

Speaker 4 (01:47:53):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:47:54):
Four and nineteen points. Wow. The Colts have scored more
points than the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans, and
then Texans went on defense. Texans has scored three hundred
and forty six points. The Texans are not Texans are
a race to twenty. They're gonna beach twenty three twenty
every time they play them.

Speaker 1 (01:48:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:48:11):
Wow, boy.

Speaker 3 (01:48:14):
Cults are the second highest scoring offense in the in
the AFC and more than likely miss the playoffs. Now
misery loves company in the NFC because currently the two
highest scoring offenses are two of the three highest scoring
offenses the NFC have already been eliminated cow playoffs. The

(01:48:34):
Cowboys are third. The Lions are the highest scoring team
in the National Football League and will not make the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:48:42):
So I guess if you're looking for a civil lining mirror.
It could be worse. Well, it could be worse.

Speaker 3 (01:48:47):
Know what this tells you is that you know the
league is a pendulum in terms of how you know,
how we go back and forth. It's a passing league,
it's a high scoring league. The teams that are playing
defense the ones that are winning. So just just something
to marinate on, think about.

Speaker 1 (01:49:04):
Well, I'll think about that throughout this check down, Caleb.
Let's run it down. Let's start where we finished with
the Colts. The injury report came out yesterday.

Speaker 3 (01:49:14):
Rack.

Speaker 1 (01:49:14):
It wasn't an official practice, but anything that set out
to you on that note, So the two things.

Speaker 3 (01:49:19):
Sauce Gardner was listed as a limited participant now again
when the team hadn't walk through, not a practice, he
was listed as DNP. When the team did nothing and
did not report, he was listed as a limited participant.
But it is still in a step in a right
direction after having a calf injury. Now, the other notable

(01:49:40):
would be Bernard Ryman, who obviously has missed time due
to an elbow injury. He was listed as limited in
a walkthrough on Wednesday, when he wasn't even on fifty
sixth Street. He was listed as a full participant in
practice yesterday. But frankly what matters is JB will see

(01:50:01):
with his own eyes once he leaves the studio here,
because the Colts will have an actual practice and James
will see about fifteen minutes of it, and in that
fifteen minutes he'll be able to determine exactly who was
able to participate in said practice, which means what their
status just might be for Sunday afternoon. And again, folks,
I will point out a player could be cleared to

(01:50:22):
go today and if the game tomorrow doesn't go the
way they want it to, that player could be sat
out just for the rest of the season they had
there's no reason to push the issue, as I would
believe would be the case with guys like Ryman and
Gardner both. There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:50:35):
And then as far as the other Christmas Day games
from yesterday, the Cowboys knock off the Commanders, the Vikings
knock off the Lions and eliminate Detroit from playoff contention,
and the Broncos beat the Chiefs in what could be
Travis Kelsey's last game at Arrowhead.

Speaker 3 (01:50:50):
And of course that's only the second biggest news of
the week for the Chiefs. Their new stadium package going
to Kansas, Kansas. Correct, So they are Kansas City. Of
all the places I go to, I think of a
pretty good sense of geography and direction. I get turned
around in downtown KC. Because it's so hilly and because
the airport is so far away from Kansas City. But yes,

(01:51:12):
the stadium is actually in the Missouri half where the
city proper is. But if you look like what I
would think is north, the bluffs are actually west where
Kansas is. They're gonna move out by I would assume
where the soccer facility and the racetrack are, which is
in the western suburbs, which is Kansas. And the state
of Kansas apparently is going to finance this is the

(01:51:33):
tune of one point eight billion dollars to have a
retractable roof slash indoor stadium for the Kansas Chiefs that
is supposed to be operational by twenty thirty one.

Speaker 2 (01:51:45):
So that means the gary Berrys will be moving to
Northwest Indiana.

Speaker 3 (01:51:49):
Air down in Chicago Bear twenty thirty two, Okay, over
the toll road to Victory.

Speaker 2 (01:51:58):
So that is pre newsworthy. We'll see how real the
Bears thing is.

Speaker 3 (01:52:01):
But every long pass that Caleb Williams not completes, butan
owners the sky way going forward.

Speaker 6 (01:52:07):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:52:08):
And then on the NBA side of things, last night
we had some great action. I'll start with the best
game of the day, the Nuggets and the turmber Wolves.
They go to overtime and a koli Jolkids gets the
last last over Anthony Edwards. Nakoli Jokis finishes with fifty
six points, sixteen rebounds, fifteen assists, and just you run
out of words for that guy. Incredible player, probably one

(01:52:31):
of the best players ever, not just of this era.

Speaker 2 (01:52:34):
When it's all said and.

Speaker 3 (01:52:35):
Done again, I did the math earlier. Fifty six points
and fifteen assists, and again I don't know whether it
were si just on twos or assists on three. Somebody
that was there as an actual beat writer could tell you,
or go back at a box score and look, but
at minimum he contributed to eighty six of their one
hundred and forty two points in a win. For a
guy that and I mean this as a compliment, seemingly

(01:52:56):
does not care and obviously he tries, given how he plays,
but it's very much looking forward to not playing basketball.
Hang with his buddies back in Eastern Europe as soon
as this whole thing is done, so forgot. That doesn't
give a darn to the hell of a player.

Speaker 2 (01:53:09):
Oh absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:53:10):
And so we had the Rockets blow out the Lakers.
They looked old, and Lebron James he looked old as well.
The Warriors beat the Mavericks. The Spurs knock up the Thunder.
That was notable because the Thunder are the number one
seed in the West, but the Spurs are the number
two seed. They'ved their number. They've won three straight against them.
And in the first game of the day was the
Knicks beating the Cavaliers. My father was pretty happy.

Speaker 3 (01:53:32):
Guy. If Lebron looks like he is aging, that is
correct because his next birthday is on Tuesday, so he
turns another year older on Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (01:53:42):
I'll tell you what is getting later early for those Lakers.
But at the same time, I don't think any Pacers
fans here feel any sympathy towards that that franchise. They
denied them the championship twenty five years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:53:51):
Do you want you want to know how I know
that his birthday is on Tuesday. I share a birthday
with Lebron James.

Speaker 2 (01:53:59):
Oh well, no, he's there's one with you well and
Tiger Woods.

Speaker 3 (01:54:02):
Greg correct. And to that point, I think I was
born on the greatest athletic birthday of all time. The
rundown of athletes born on that day would be Lebron James,
Tiger Woods, and Sandy Kofound Boy. We're all born on
December the thirtieth. No matter what I do in life,
I will not be able to surpass those people born

(01:54:24):
on December the thirtieth.

Speaker 1 (01:54:26):
I would say I will put you in that conversation.
You're on the Hall of Fame board. You're Hall of
Fame with Jay.

Speaker 3 (01:54:31):
I am maybe in the aj Pierzinski Eliza Dushku category,
also born on December the thirtieth, And because of his infractions,
maybe I have surpassed Matt Lower as both he and
Meredith vi Era also a part of the December.

Speaker 2 (01:54:46):
Thirtieth Who that's a hell of birthday right there.

Speaker 3 (01:54:48):
Yeah, since since Matt has gone by the wayside and
Meredith is doing crappy game shows, at this point, I
might be the top broadcaster born on December the thirtieth currently,
not historically, Maybe I'm at least inching into that conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:55:02):
There you go, Rag, I'll put you there and for
the well by.

Speaker 3 (01:55:05):
The way, but thank you God, blessing sho you there.

Speaker 1 (01:55:07):
We'll take a quick back here. Thank you all for
listening there after Christmas. We know it is family time,
but we appreciate you being a part of our family
as well. And the head Bobby continues thanks to the
great Caleb Zuber on the ones and two. He's back
there like he's club DJ right there.

Speaker 4 (01:55:22):
You know how I found out this song, Greg, It's
not because I was born in the nineties, but it
was on the Last Dance documentary Michael Jordan. They had
a great sound tray, O my goodness, and it was
pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:55:34):
And I can tell you as somebody that lived that.
So MJ like his first title was my freshman year
in high school. I'm not sure you're ever as big
of a sports fan as you are like in middle
school in high school, because like life doesn't get in
the way, so your life revolves around watching all of
these things. But then that didn't span like my first
professional job where I did this full time. Like I'm

(01:55:57):
actually by the time we get to ninety eight and
this will resonate with you, JB. I was on the
evening sports show on WGN as like the Indianapolis represent way,
like like doing an interview talking about vividly or remember
telling them between game five and six, I'm like, listen,
I understand you guys are who you are. You're not
winning Game Six's market Square arena. I said, I can

(01:56:19):
see you guys winning game seven at the United Center.
And I realized, everything that you've seen for the last
seven or eight years tells you you guys are gonna
come here and win game six. Like, no, no, you're not, said,
I think the balls will probably winning in seven, which
is exactly how it played out. But that was like
one of the first times that I did that is
like the like, you know, let's go to get the
Indianapolis sports talk radio perspective. It's Brett Restraw. They didn't

(01:56:40):
know I was just a producer, you know whatever. I
was just random voice form Indianapolis. And so I remember that.
And yes, of all the great things about the Last
Dance documentary, they not only hit the right music, they
hit the music to like the year in which they
were showing the game.

Speaker 2 (01:56:57):
Oh, I didn't realize that's a nice touch.

Speaker 3 (01:56:58):
Yeah, it was really good. It's fantastic. Boy.

Speaker 1 (01:57:00):
Well, Caleb, when you work on the Last Dance documentary
for your boy, we'll make the holds we'll talk about
when you get a couple of those clips and me
shooting those bricks against JAMV and missing layoffs. You know,
I don't have to make it into a documentary, but
we'll make our own bootleg version.

Speaker 2 (01:57:15):
How about that.

Speaker 5 (01:57:16):
I need to come out there sometime and hoop with y'all.

Speaker 7 (01:57:18):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:57:19):
Yeah, I've been telling you that, like, like, what's this
Colt season's over? Because they're not making the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:57:24):
I gotta get JMV to see if we can open
up the club. You know, they're selective of the group.
But I will say this, speaking of selective, that is
what the NFL playoffs is and what the Colts have
to kind of measure in wigh this weekend. And you know,
it's crazy to think that. And I want to say
it was a listener last week reached out Rake and

(01:57:44):
said there's a chance that Indiana football will win a
game in Lucas Oil Stadium more recently.

Speaker 3 (01:57:54):
Than the cult. Yes, very much so.

Speaker 1 (01:57:56):
And when I say that statement out loud, to you,
how crazy does that sound. We're a week away from
are you trying to continue a national championship run? Whereas
in a couple of days we're trying to see if
the once eight and two Colts can back go the
way into the postseason.

Speaker 3 (01:58:12):
Well two months ago it was these three things could
happen within three months of our four months of each other.
Indiana plays in the Big Ten Championship game, the AFC
Championship Game takes place, and then Purdue plays in the
Final Four at Lucas Oil. All of those things no
longer possible for the Colts because if the Colts make
the playoffs, they would be at the number seven seeds.

(01:58:33):
So we can wave bye by to that, both mathematically
and obviously realistically at this point in time, one is
already in the past tense. And you know, for Indiana football,
you know we that do this from a sports talk standpoint,
we tend to be, you know, what's the next thing
in the here and now? And so obviously, if it
comes to the National Football League, it is every six days,

(01:58:55):
it is every seven days. For the Pacers, it's every
two or three three days. Obviously a little less emphasis
on that kind of given how the season has gone
to this point and knowing that the solution isn't going
to rejoin the team by the end of this season,
and so it's more big picture now for the Pacers
than dwelling on what happens on a night in, night

(01:59:15):
out basis. In other words, what James is trying to
do is say, we should probably mention the Indiana football
team at some point in time on the show today,
because yes, they are playing in a national quarter final
six days from now. And as James is learning plug
plug tease as best you can game, you get it right.
Ninety three five, There you go with Don Fisher, Buck

(01:59:38):
sor John Herrick, et cetera, live from the Rose Ball
in Pasadena.

Speaker 1 (01:59:43):
So I want to go there just for a second break.
As you laid out Don Fisher, you know he's a legend. Yes,
how happy are you for him this opportunity? Yeah, I mean,
you don't want to make it about yourself as the
broadcast or as the play by play guy, but we
know he I you through and through.

Speaker 3 (02:00:01):
At Fish in his own mind had to have real
you know, at some point in time, and probably probably
happened during the course of the eighties when when the
Hoosiers were actually good, and their success in the mid
late eighties also coincided a bit of a downturn for
Ohio State and Michigan. So you're thinking, all right, Hoosiers
are better than both AIA State and Michigan Mike over

(02:00:22):
going to the Rose Bowl and Michigan State beats him
and Michigan State ends up being the team that ghost.
I think this was the eighty seventh season, and you've
got to be thinking after you know, you still make
bowl games, and then you kind of slide back towards
oblivion in the from the mid nineties on you go
as a broadcaster. I don't think I'm ever getting the
chance to do a Rose bull Now that's counterbalanced by

(02:00:43):
the fact that Fish has done three national championship games
and men's basketball that have won and got to do
a fourth in two thousand and two. So life's pretty good. Yeah,
when that is the case. But my guess would be
until maybe at some point last year you had kind
of given up hope on Well, I guess of all

(02:01:04):
the career boxes I get to check, broadcasting, a Rose
Bowl is not one of them, because frankly, that was always.
I wouldn't say the attainable goal, but that was kind
of the first goal as a voice of a Big
ten team or a fan of a Big ten team,
at some point, I want to see my team play
in the Rose Bowl. Now, the Rose Bowl doesn't mean

(02:01:25):
now what it meant then, but it's very fitting that
I use first step in this journey of the college
football playoff is in Pasadena and is at the Rose
bul So you can kind of check that box off
that yep, first time in sixty eight years, here's Indiana
playing in the rosse ball.

Speaker 2 (02:01:44):
It's crazy. And just to think of where they rose from.
You all know the story eight years, not sixty eight. Sorry,
but I'll do. You know I'm not a matheatician. I
wouldn't you know, carry the one on that one.

Speaker 3 (02:01:55):
I have that annoying habit of like going to be right.

Speaker 2 (02:01:57):
Sorry but no, that's actually a good habit to have
here on the radio.

Speaker 1 (02:02:00):
But I am honestly, and this is a guy, you know,
Indiana transplant once Illinois My school got blown out by IU,
as you are reminded me.

Speaker 3 (02:02:09):
But your team has made the Rose Bowl a couple
of times exactly, but to see them rise up.

Speaker 1 (02:02:13):
I mean, how can you not become enamored with this story,
especially with the guy who's leading them from from in
the mendoza.

Speaker 2 (02:02:21):
What I like about him? And I get that he
might be like the corny, nerdy guys.

Speaker 1 (02:02:26):
We are flipping champs, Yeah, and he described himself as that,
but it does seem genuine. I've been around a lot
of athletes, you know, at this point in my career, Rake,
and it does not seem like a facade with this dude.
It seems like he genuinely is, you know, the dorky dude,
but also the dog who gets it done in big moment.

Speaker 3 (02:02:45):
He's Philip Rivers with legs. He literally should honestly be related.
He literally took the Heisman trophy to his Catholic parish
back home this week and posed for a picture with
all the priests. Again, that's God bless him for doing that. Literally,
But that's not normally the celebration shot you see of
the Heisman trophy.

Speaker 2 (02:03:06):
No, no, no, not at all.

Speaker 3 (02:03:08):
He's just a little bit of a different cat, and
part of that is to some degree, being late to
having great success. I mean, let's pace it. He was
in a minute percentage of athletes that are good enough
to be Division one quarterbacks. But much like so much
of this Indiana roster, he's not a five star kid. No,
he was a two or three star kid that just

(02:03:28):
happened to kind of blow up and comes here and
it becomes even more so on top of that. Again, folks,
if you go back and I forget the name, but
there was an Indiana University football player who was drafted
number one of the draft in the thirties as a lineman.
When the draft was you know, mel Kiper was just
early in his days of breaking down draft film, you

(02:03:51):
know back then. I'm kidding about that, but you have
to go. But Mendoz's gonna be the number one pick
in the draft as well, and right now that is
very much secondary to what the results are going to be,
hopefully on Thursday. By the way, fire Away.

Speaker 2 (02:04:06):
Corbett Davis nineteen thirty eight.

Speaker 3 (02:04:08):
Had it on the tip of my tongue, so thank
you for figuring for getting that for me from eighty
seven years ago. But he's the Highsman Trophy winner. He
plays at IU, he's mean. Then everyone pick in the
draft and he plays at IU and he and obviously
so many others, Kurt Signetti, staff players, et cetera. They're

(02:04:30):
going to play in the Rose Bowl against Alabama and
Indiana is the favorite.

Speaker 2 (02:04:35):
Just that is also the crazy.

Speaker 3 (02:04:37):
Think about that for a second. Yeah, being the favorite
that I just said that, that is a factual statement.
That is not some sort of wild dream that Indiana
is the favorite in the Rose Bowl against Alabama. It's
crazy to think about. Crazy.

Speaker 2 (02:04:54):
Oh boy, that is.

Speaker 3 (02:04:56):
I just hope the story keeps going as long as
it possibly.

Speaker 1 (02:04:58):
I'm gonna say we need some positive this year. I
have given the state of the Colts right now, where
the Pacers were in Game seven before the Achilles tire,
where the Fever were a game away from the WNBA
Finals without Caitlin Clark, So I feel like I used
kind of put the city and in like the state
on its back.

Speaker 3 (02:05:14):
Right now now, part of me would go, hey, the
Pacers were in the NBA Finals and played in Game seven.
The Fever have become a thing more so than they
ever have in their history courtesy of Caitlin Clark. Colt's
been of a different story, but again, we had two
great months of the Colts. I tend to be much
more of a glasses half full type of person. And
I think of twenty twenty five is, yeah, it'll be

(02:05:35):
kind of a year that might have been from a
sports standpoint. True, still a pretty damn good year to
be a sports fan in Indianapolis. All of the things
you got to experience there. There was a lot of
winning that took place in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (02:05:49):
That is true.

Speaker 1 (02:05:50):
So we'll take a short break here and do it
one final time. Thank you all sticking with us here
on the FAM Morning Show, just hanging out here on
this Friday, getting ready for the weekend. Thank you all
for tuning into the Fan Morning Show. Of course, I'm
James Boyd. You hear me pretty regularly, but you also here,
so I think got pretty regularly as well.

Speaker 3 (02:06:11):
I shouldn't hang around like a house guess. Baby.

Speaker 1 (02:06:17):
We got the other lazy guys sleeping in and maybe
Kevin Bowens up. I'm joking, by the way, they got kids.
I'm sure they're up by now. But we got Caleb Zuber, myself,
Greg Regstraw getting this thing done here on this Friday
because Mark Dyton is on vacation like he always is.
Jeff Rickard's out, Kevin Bowen's out, but you got us.

Speaker 2 (02:06:35):
We make it work.

Speaker 3 (02:06:36):
Rake. I've been told that Twitter is blowing up. And
by a blow up, I mean one nice gentleman said
that we paired well together. There you go.

Speaker 2 (02:06:43):
I'll take I'll take that one, you know, ignore all
the other ones.

Speaker 3 (02:06:46):
Could be one thousand listening audience. This morning, look was
a pretty quiet place on the way let's say twenty yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:06:55):
Man, getting up, I was like, boy, I'm used to,
you know, the hustling bustle a little bit when I
turned the corner and get down here to get to
the studio. But not today, which I can understand. It's
around that time of year. We got to some time
with family.

Speaker 3 (02:07:06):
So I have I have a caffeine addiction, as you
well know. So I started up my day at the
fifty sixth Illinois Starbucks. Okay, and you know there are
various things I'll do early in the morning, and you know,
pre select, you know, pre orders. I with my drink
is ready when I when I walk in, and I
pull up at about six twenty five or so, and
I look to the left and the lights around, but

(02:07:27):
there is not a soul that I can see in
the restaurant, and that never happens. That place opens like
four thirty or five o'clock on most mornings. And I
walked in. I go, am I the first person in
here today? They go, no, No, you're the second. So yeah,
the world is waking up at a slower pace on
what is a Friday off for nearly everybody else other
than you and me and Caleb.

Speaker 1 (02:07:48):
All Right, Well, we can't get out of here before
we break down our predictions for the cold game, but
also our most exciting game, hardest game to pick, and
our easiest game to pick.

Speaker 2 (02:07:57):
Caleb, Let's let's lock and load here for the weekend.

Speaker 1 (02:08:01):
So I will start with the easiest game to pick,
and for me, Caleb, I feel like when it comes
to the easiest game, it can't be anything involving the
Giants and the Raiders that seems like it's a disaster.

Speaker 2 (02:08:15):
I'll get to that game in a minute.

Speaker 1 (02:08:17):
But as far as spreads go, I don't necessarily love
the Green Bay four and a half over the Ravens
just because I feel like that's gonna be a tighter
game because you don't know who's gonna be the quarterback
right now for Green Bay is gonna be Jordan Love
and even if it is, they've been up and down,
so I'll go with that. It's probably my easiest game
because I don't trust that spread.

Speaker 4 (02:08:36):
James, You're not interested in Raiders Giants, which could determine
the number one overall pick in the draft, and where
Fernando Mendoza might be playing football neck I can't do.
Okay for somebody who watched all the NFL games yesterday,
I'm surprised that one doesn't intrigue. I think for the
easiest game now this it's a three point spread. Pittsburgh's

(02:08:57):
favored at Cleveland. I feel like it's kind of a
tricky one because those AFC North games can be challenging.

Speaker 5 (02:09:05):
But I just gotta believe that the Steelers will be
able to win by more than three.

Speaker 3 (02:09:09):
Right, Yeah, the answer to your question is the single
biggest line of the week, Oh, New England at New
York thirteen and a half. New York just got beat
by the Saints, who aren't that great. I'm playing a
ricket quarterback. The Saints just housed them twenty nine to six.
The Patriots have to keep up with the Broncos, who

(02:09:32):
won last night. New England will pulverize the Jets. Okay,
and the thirteen and a half, all right.

Speaker 1 (02:09:38):
It's eighty Mitchell's Jets has Jeff Ricker and aighty Mitchell's
Jets right there. I'll go with the hardest game next
on the scales with a pick. Actually was joking about
this a few seconds ago, but the Giants Raiders is
a hard game to pick. I mean, the Giants are
favored about one and a half, but I have no
idea who's gonna win that game because both teams are
god awful. But as Caleb alluded to, whoever wins that
game will then drop in the Tankathon rankings as far

(02:10:02):
as getting number one pick. So if you're a Giants
or a Raiders fan, you probably want that team, your
team to lose so they can maintain control of the
number one pick, and that will be Frienana Mendozo.

Speaker 4 (02:10:11):
It's really fascinating that that game's really happening this second
to last week in the season.

Speaker 2 (02:10:16):
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (02:10:17):
Okay, Seattle favored by seven points at Carolina. You know
that's one of the longest flights, really, Seattle. Anytime they
gotta fly to the East Coast, that's interesting one to me.
You never know what type of Panthers team you're gonna get.
I think them being favored by seven is a lot
on the road. It's a one o'clock kick. We'll see
what happens.

Speaker 3 (02:10:38):
I think that's the.

Speaker 5 (02:10:38):
Hardest one for me to kind of figure out.

Speaker 3 (02:10:40):
Chicago at San Francisco, it is a three point spread.
In other words, they're pick them because the Niners is
the home team, are getting the extra points. The Niners
coming off a Monday night beat down here in Indianapolis,
but again short week, having to fly back across the country,
and the Bears just have a habit of making things
enterest sting late. They have six wins after trailing with

(02:11:04):
two minutes or less left to go in the game.
So I want to watch it. I want to spend
no money on that game. Bears Niners.

Speaker 2 (02:11:13):
There you go, So most excited game. We'll close it
out with that.

Speaker 1 (02:11:17):
I do think the game I almost excited for is
obviously the one I probably have to cover, being the
Colton the Jaguars. But for that to really matter, Chargers Texans.
I think both of these are playing great football right now.
So from entertainment value, from a stakes value, that's the
one I'm picking.

Speaker 4 (02:11:37):
So what we'll be saying all weekend, Yeah, I think
for most entertaining, I'm gonna go where Greg just went.
I think the Niners Bears game is interesting and a
little good Sunday night football game there, so I'm excited
for that one.

Speaker 3 (02:11:49):
Houston and the Chargers. Sorry to be repetitive and redundant. No,
you're right though, but for our day job to be
relevant on Sunday, we are impacted by what will happen
to afternoon at four thirty. So the obvious choice is
Texans and Chargers.

Speaker 1 (02:12:05):
I will say this, though, there is an Eagles Bills game.
I'm my boy, that might be a little nice too.

Speaker 3 (02:12:09):
So you kind of wonder though, along with that the
Bears and the Niners. Because the NFC playoffs, the seedings
aren't set exactly, but the teams other than the Panthers
and Buccaneers are set. And by the way, Kebab is
at Miami, who completely rolled over against the Bengals last week,
and Seattle's been great. They're going to Carolina. Carolina has
been a good story. I think they did beat the Rams, right,

(02:12:33):
that's kind of their one quality win. Likely Basically as
long as Carolina doesn't win and Tampa Bay loses, then
that those two teams play each other next week, and
that will be the Sunday Night play your Way in
game between those two teams. That'll be the featured game
next Sunday Night. So, in terms of actual effecting playoffs,
seating those the two games that have the most relevancy.

(02:12:55):
But James, there is a scenario where we go to
week eighteen and we know all fourteen playoff teams, which
leads me to go, I'm very curious as to what
Sunday Night game NBC would take if that If that's
the case, that there is a scenario. A handful of
years ago they actually passed on a Sunday night football
game Boy because it did not have any any relevant matchups.

Speaker 2 (02:13:18):
Here's one for the Colts purposes.

Speaker 1 (02:13:19):
I'd be curious to know, if they're eliminated before week eighteen,
who's starting a quarterback? Because at that point you could
go into the argument.

Speaker 3 (02:13:26):
Has to be riding Leonard or Anthony Richardson.

Speaker 2 (02:13:29):
That's a good art.

Speaker 3 (02:13:29):
But I'm not so.

Speaker 2 (02:13:30):
You say, I know, I know, but I'm not so.

Speaker 3 (02:13:33):
There are there are two different questions that were up
against the time wise what should they do and what
are they going to do? And those don't necessarily have
the same answer.

Speaker 2 (02:13:41):
I tell you what, boy, well it gets interesting for us.

Speaker 1 (02:13:44):
I definitely think that this is a scenario where there
is a lot of more dominoes to fall, but at
the same time we'll be here to talk about it nonetheless,
So well you will be, I won't be.

Speaker 2 (02:13:55):
You'll be here as well.

Speaker 3 (02:13:56):
Hang around.

Speaker 1 (02:13:57):
We will kick you out like the janitor or something exactly.
So we will tune in with you all Monday. Thanks
for listening to us, and as always, enjoy the weekend
and be safe my friends.

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