Monday 12/8: The Hoosiers are #1 & the Colts disaster in Jacksonville!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
They seized a fan morning show with Kabi Shaby and Jeff.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Here's the staff.

Speaker 3 (00:06):
Fernando throws it up field, catches made at the thirty
four yard line.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Great grab.

Speaker 4 (00:11):
Here's who's your done already Fernando Mendoza is on the ground.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I did not see it.

Speaker 5 (00:16):
So Fernando gets decked on the first play of the
ball game.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Now he steps up.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
He's gonna be all right.

Speaker 6 (00:22):
And Mendoza takes the stat wants to throw it, fires
it down the field.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's free.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Elijah Soaradi makes the catch. Tot it's gonna be a
twenty eight yard field goal.

Speaker 7 (00:32):
Here's the staff field and kicks the ball.

Speaker 8 (00:35):
It is wide. It is wide wide to the left.
Hets thet Ndiana has big Neal hau steaks.

Speaker 7 (00:47):
One team on to cut right.

Speaker 8 (00:49):
Whoever the dudes would be here, But now the hooses,
we're flipping chams.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Let go.

Speaker 9 (00:53):
Playoffs are just starting and now we're gonna get it
by and uh so you gotta.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Win three games. Bluff above we played.

Speaker 10 (01:05):
Here's an RCO and it's an interception and it's picked
off by Devin Lloyd. Lloyd started right cutting too, has left.
He's gonna be chopped down another twenty one yard line
all between the hash marks for Daniel Jones loan back
of the backfield as Jonathan Taylor. Jones on a counter
gives off to Taylor knifing trying to fight.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
His way into the end zone. He's in yes touchdown.

Speaker 10 (01:27):
Game is tied at seventh. Lawrence goes out of the
gun ball the right hash back to pass he's looking
for to the right side and it's caught for a
touchdown at the end zones to Jacoby Myers a fourteen
yard pass. There's a flag on the play and Daniel
Jones is down. Daniel Jones can't even make it over
to the sideline.

Speaker 11 (01:44):
If you looked at he is seated on the turf
and he just slams his helmet to the grass. He
is now limping over to the cold sidelin.

Speaker 10 (01:51):
Florence side of the gun ball the right hash and
he's gonna give off the right.

Speaker 12 (01:55):
Side to et In slashes inside that thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
He's got an avenue.

Speaker 12 (01:58):
He's gonna go down the right.

Speaker 10 (01:59):
Side, right in the intall for a touchdown untouched.

Speaker 13 (02:03):
Daniel Jones has an a key lease.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
It could be season ending. I don't have the full
details on it.

Speaker 13 (02:07):
A lot of this stuff too. As you go through
a season, you're gonna have, you're gonna go through some
storms and some adversity, and you got to overcome those.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
And so that's what we're gonna do.

Speaker 13 (02:14):
We're gonna find like crazy him believe and we know
that we got a big one coming up on the road.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, good morning.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
It is cold outside, it is dark, and I'm not
even talking about the weather right now. I'm talking about
what it must be like over at West fifty sixth
after and unbelievably celebratory evening on Saturday where Indiana smacksdown
Ohio State and moves on to a bye in the
college football playoffs, and the playoffs are announced yesterday, and
we got all kinds of opinions and thoughts on that

(02:46):
as well. But man, where do we Good morning, Kevin Bona.
I hope you're doing okay today. I'm man, I'm impressed
showing up in just a T shirt today. It is
cold outside. Maybe I'm just getting old, I don't know,
but I'm wearing layers upon late years over here. How
are you doing this morning? I know there's a lot
of mixed emotions going on through you right now? Do
you speak for everybody? How's how's your brain and your

(03:09):
heart working right now?

Speaker 7 (03:10):
You know, I said a Caleb, Caleb, thank you for
the opener here on this Monday morning, I said a Caleb.
When we got in studio, this show feels a it
feels a little odd to me in a way. You know,
I don't necessarily want to totally compare it to a
show a few months back, but I was thinking on
the commute in. You know, we did a show the
Monday morning after Tyre's Halliburton's game winner in Madison Square Garden.

(03:33):
That same night we had the passing of Jim Mersey,
and that same day previously you have to talk about
it on air, we had the Penske you know whatever
cheating scandal, if you want to call it that, over
at IMS, and it's like, oh my gosh, how do
we properly get to all of it? How do you
rank these in you know, major sort of seven oh

(03:57):
one significance et cetera, et cetera throughout the three hour show,
So you know, the more and more, obviously the commute
in the more I thought to what Caleb led off
with right there, and that is when that bracket popped
up yesterday and the number one team in the College
Football Playoff is the Indiana Hoosiers. It was yet another
moment of awe. And I don't know if you felt this, Jeff,

(04:19):
but like I married into a I would say, a
pretty big Indiana football family, as surprising as I might
seem to some, and to watch their emotions play out
Saturday night, to watch like neighbors, friends, you know, people
I went to college with. It reminded me of Purdue
making the Final Four a few years ago. It reminded
me of the Pacers, you know, making it all the

(04:40):
way to Game seven. You've got to dialog it back
a little bit to find that for the Colts, but
it was that sort of moment that sports do offer.
As cruel as we saw it play out for some
fan bases yesterday, it also offers those magical moments. And
so that's probably what I wanted to lead off with
is just Indiana football. And I said it to you

(05:01):
after the Oregon game, Jeff, it's the greatest coaching job
in college or professional sports, bar not Ny. And I
don't think that's hyperbolic. You're in the market and that's
just why you're saying.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
You even had Urban Meyer saying that on Fox Sports
the other night.

Speaker 7 (05:13):
I think it is the greatest coaching job in college
or professional sports. And so just for the thirtieth time,
I feel like I've done that the last two years.
Just an unbelievable hat tip to Kurtzignetti in particular that
IU defense. Yeah, and with the defense is absolutely outstanding.
I get it for Nanda Mendoz is going to lift
up a trophy on Saturday night, and deservedly so. But

(05:36):
that defense, it's just there are a bunch of animals
out there and they were absolutely outstanding on Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
To put it into perspective, and I know a lot
of people may have heard this comparison already, I believe
the stat was Kevin. Coming into that game, Ohio State
had allowed a total of six sacks to Big Ten
opponents the entire season. Six Indiana had five in that
game and harassed Julian saying constantly and repeatedly, and they

(06:05):
had their quick moments here and there, but Indiana shut
those moments down for the most part and just didn't
let them get it going. And everybody will focus on
the miss twenty five yard field goal at the end
for Ohio State. But also remind you that Indiana also
missed a mid range field goal in that one, but
their defense was terrific. But also you want to talk
about Cohones, Kevin Cojones. With the game on the line

(06:28):
in less than a minute to go, did Kurtzignetti play
it safe? Did that offense play it safe when they
wanted to put the game away? What did they do?
Let's go downfield for twenty five or thirty yards to
Becker and call it good on a beautiful throw and
catch Like that was like the exclamation on the entire night,
didn't you think?

Speaker 7 (06:47):
Yeah, I guess I figured they would pass. I wasn't
that surprised by it. I mean, you have the height that.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Was not a safe pass.

Speaker 7 (06:55):
Well, no, but you know again, you got to go
try and win it at that point, and you know,
I guess you could point to very different coaching philosophies
in the aggressiveness between Ryan Day and you know, some
of the short yardage decision making and kicking the field
goal there late. I thought that was a huge break
for Indiana. But I will have Charlie b from Tennessee

(07:15):
stuck in my head for a long long time because
Gus Johnson uttered that phrase quite often. And the Becker story,
I mean, roommates with the Mendoza brothers. He's just been
absolutely incredible for them here over the final few weeks
of the season, with you know, you had the Elijah
Surat injury and then no more Cooper goes out early
in the game on Saturday Night. I think that's a
huge I thought it was a huge loss. It sounds

(07:36):
like Cooper will be okay based off what Kurtzignetti said,
But I mean, what a throw and what a catch,
and Becker had one earlier in the second half of
that game. So just quite the scene. And you know,
again it was just, you know, it feels like that
fan base, obviously the basketball program hasn't provided it deserves that.
And again that was probably my grand takeaway from Saturday Night.

(07:57):
It's you know, over the last few weeks, few months,
few years, we've had this for other fan bases, you know,
in our market, and the Indiana fan base deserved it.
And now they might have another one out there in
pass Pasadena coming up here in three weeks.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, and I know there's some stuff about it in
the newspaper this morning, which you'll see when you get
up and start reading that. But I think we all
thought the same thing yesterday as well. Man, if it
weren't for bad luck right now, the Colts wouldn't have
any luck at all when you start talking about not
just the injuries that they've had and just a devastating
injury for Daniel Jones yesterday, clearly, but it feels like
for the Colts all year long, the injury bug has

(08:33):
just hit all of their best key players at one
point or another. Knock on wood. There's one or two
that have escaped that. But I mean, starting with, you know,
the injuries that kept a couple of guys out for
four weeks, the crazy injury and not crazy, but the
injury did divorest Buckner, the injury to Sauce Gardner just
a game and a half after he gets here yesterday

(08:55):
with Daniel Jones. I mean, if you put a rank
of the top five probably most important Colts on the roster,
three of the five have been hit hard, and you
could probably make the case the four or five have
been bit a little bit this year.

Speaker 7 (09:09):
Yeah, you know, I said to James late last week
because he was certainly on this boat. I was like, man,
do you really believe in like Jacksonville being a curse?
And he was like, yes, one thousand percent. I was
like really, wow, I And you know, it's funny. We're
talking to some colts as the weekend played on, and
some very prominent colts, and they were like, I can't
believe people like keep on bringing up the Jacksonville thing,

(09:31):
like is that really a place where like things just
go to die? And it's it's a curse. It's a
new year, it's new, it's a new team every year.
I mean, this Jaguars coach, it's the first time head coach.
And now I'm watching that game unfold. And honestly, when
Daniel Jones did the interception on the first play of
the game, I was like, oh my gosh, James Boyd
is right, and I'm so grateful he's not in studio
on Monday for him to you know, hear me say that.

(09:54):
But it feels that way, like I mean, from the
Jones pick to obviously the injury, it does. I mean,
it feels like a Trevor Lawrence hasn't had a game
like that all season long. And he had a game
like that and like the game was over. I thought
the game was over by the time Jones got hurt.
I was like, this is going exactly how all the
other ones play out, Like fourteen to seven seems like

(10:16):
forty one to seven at that point.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Were you hard on the game for a moment, because
after they fell behind seven nothing followed Daniel Jones interception.

Speaker 7 (10:24):
I thought they put.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Together a very nice, creative right scoring drive.

Speaker 7 (10:27):
Sure, yeah, I mean they obviously had the response, and
then Jacksonville hits them very quickly after that. I'm just like, Okay,
this is how it's going to go. At some point
the Colts won't be able to play catch up. And
then you know, of course, when he goes down, you
know to expect Riley Land to do anything. And frankly,
I didn't think anybody helped out Riley Leonard. I mean
Taylor fumbled right after that. I thought the defense had
arguably their worst day of the season. Again, Jacksonville's offense

(10:47):
is not doing that to other teams. So yeah, it
brings up all the questions, all the questions now, short term,
long term, all of them. And I don't think any
of the answers are easy. I don't think any of
them are easy. And they got four weeks left, and
right now you're outside of the playoffs. With Houston winning
in Kansas City last night.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Did we even start talking about college basketball right now?
Or we just wipe that all away as a as
a December weekend Monday, it's a bizarre Monday, so bizarre.

Speaker 7 (11:15):
So you have IU football on top of freaking everest.
I guess like the Pacers won a road game, right?
Is that our only other positive from the weekend?

Speaker 2 (11:25):
If they could just play Chicago for the rest of
the season, we'd be good.

Speaker 7 (11:29):
Purdue Indiana basketball, Butler basketball? Can I talk Notre Dame basketball?
Huge one Friday night? That's what you want to talk
about with my Friday and Irish?

Speaker 14 (11:37):
Right?

Speaker 7 (11:38):
The Notre Dame basketball team. But great week last week.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
For good basketball notes, we have to go back almost
seventy two hours.

Speaker 7 (11:43):
I said I would sacrifice a playoff berth for Notre
Dame winning at TCU.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
You did little?

Speaker 7 (11:47):
Did the sports gods wag their finger at me and say,
we'll test that, young man.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
I've got thoughts on that too, as you know. So yeah,
a lot to talk about obviously a mix of emotions.
Everybody in the state other than the real true Purdue
fans fired up about in that. By the way, I've
been getting emails and notes from Purdue fans saying we're
just way over the top of our coverage of Value football.

Speaker 7 (12:11):
By the way, well, I think if we go back
to the Purdue run, I believe we had a produce
specific guest on every single day of their final.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
That's when we got Indiana apparails. That's how it works,
all right, coming up in a moment, we will run
through the weekend that was, and then we will get
to the discussions. We'll take a lot of texts and
phone calls this morning because there's so much I'm sure
people have to get off their chests and want to
talk about. Two three, nine ten seven. You can either
call us up or you can just get to us
on the text line say number. But it is a Monday,

(12:41):
It's a crazy Monday, full of the joys, the lows,
the highs, you name it right here at ninety three
five and one oh seven five The Fan, The.

Speaker 15 (12:51):
Morning Checkdown on ninety sweet five and one oh seven
five The Fan.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
All right, we'll start with the most recent news the
Indianapolis Colts losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars yesterday by final
score of thirty six to nineteen. But that's almost almost inconsequential,
Kevin Bowen, because Daniel Jones comes up limping badly and
very frustrated in the second quarter of that game. It
looks like a torn achilles. We'll get some confirmation on

(13:17):
that later. That's all the news coming out right now.
But he seems to be done for the season. And
where are the Colts now? On the outside looking in
on the playoff picture and all of a sudden they
find themselves in third place in the AFC South. What
are we looking for today? What happens now?

Speaker 7 (13:34):
Well, yeah, obviously the Daniel Jones confirmation of a torn achilles.
And then it sounds ludicrous to say, but if you
are winning or hoping for the Colts to make the playoffs,
so you want the Eagles to win tonight, you want
the Chargers the natually have a difficult schedule the rest
of the way. I sound like an idiot honestly saying
that out loud, given this team is lost four or

(13:54):
five and could be looking at Riley Leonard for the
final four weeks of the season, So I guess one
thing is just do the Colts to do anything else
quarterback wise? I mean not that there's like a Flakoks
sitting there. What's there to do right right now? I
mean there's not. I mean, the trade deadline's obviously gone,
you know, is there anything? Yeah, I assume it'll be
Riley Leonard for the final four weeks. But you know,
Bret Rippins on the practice squad, is that something you

(14:15):
want to look at. I thought Leonard was okay all
things considered yesterday. So yeah, at Seattle coming up on
Sunday and the Seahawks are playing for the one seed
out West.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah. The one thing I would say about Riley Leonard
to your point, he looked okay. It's hard to evaluate
in that situation, but he didn't certainly seem like he
was like just overwhelmed by the situation.

Speaker 7 (14:35):
Now, And I thought second had a really poor sequence
right before half we can get to I thought the
Colts were somewhat still in the game after they go
over Stuart fumble. I thought that was a really poor
sequence from him again in short yardage. But I'll repeat
what I said to lead off the show, the zero
help I thought for Riley Leonard, the Taylor fumble, the
defense just horrific.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, And Houston Texans got to win over Kansas City
last night on Sunday Night Football twenty to ten. And
we've been saying it, but we've seen a couple of year,
a couple weeks in a row. Now at least folks
really starting to pay attention. That defense is no joke,
Kevin Bowen, no joke.

Speaker 7 (15:08):
They've won ten games with Mike McDonald, Jack Smith and
Jigbas leading the league in receiving yards. So yeah, I
saw there are ten point underdog Colts Seahawks coming up Sunday.
I think it's four o'clock right, four or five four
twenty five, one of those.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
And it's Kevin Aludu too. Later on tonight, Philadelphia Eagles
taking on the Los Angeles Chargers the other AFC South
game yesterday? Were you surprised to see the Titans put
some offense together and hold off the Cleveland Browns thirty
one to twenty nine yesterday.

Speaker 7 (15:33):
Boy, I'll be honest with you, I was not paying
much attention to Titans Browns. I'll love he goes to
the world well, I'll let you handle that one.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
That's your NFL report right now. As far as college basketball, yesterday,
Indiana State did beat Southern Indiana seventy seven to fifty five,
but it was a tough day for both Indiana and
Purdue on Saturday. Kevin Bowen, where do you want to start?
You want to start with Iowa State just coming in
that second half up at Macurie and just putting one
on Perdue.

Speaker 7 (16:00):
The teams do not walk in to macki and do that.
First time since twenty nineteen, Produce lost a non conference
home games. So yeah, I mean I thought it was good.
I mean, obviously lyne to you if I thought they
would walk in there and dominate the game, I thought.
I was really this morning the start of the second
half for Perdue, like I thought, first half wake up call,
you know, you kind of regroup into halftime there, none

(16:20):
of that. Iowa State just took it to another another
level there to start the second half. Traychoffman ran really
struggled around the rim. So yeah, ugly, ugly from Perdue.
Super rare to see them play like that again, especially
inside of that arena. So now they'll shift gears here,
big ten game coming up on Wednesday with Minnesota, and
then they'll have Marquette and Auburn on the notable non

(16:41):
conference front. So round out that sleep.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Eighty one to fifty eight was the final score in
that game. And then downtown at the field House, Louisville
went over Indiana eighty seven seventy eight the first half
of you done Fisher doubleheader there. But what did you
make of a during Derez team against Louisville.

Speaker 7 (16:58):
I thought it looked like two different levels of talent. Frankly,
I just thought Louisville had some high, high level scal
one through five and Indiana just doesn't have that really.
And you know, if you look at this non conference
resume that I you started to produce, it's lacking really anything.
They'll get an opportunity Saturday against Kentucky. You talk about

(17:19):
two teams right now that have had disappointing I think
starts to the season. Kentucky would be probably a top
that list there, But I mean, yeah, you hit eleven threes,
just could not guard. Shout out to Ryan Conwell. That
had to mean a lot for him to come back
to his hometown and delivering the manner that he did
every time Indiana made one of those kind of fake runs.
You know, you cut it to eight, you cut it

(17:39):
to ten, and then con will hit another big shot there.
So yeah, I just thought the talent gap was quite
evident there with Pat Kelsey's bunch in year two of him.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
All right, let's move on to the college football playoff.
Indiana is the number one ranked team in the nation
after getting the Big Ten championship with a thirteen to
ten victory over Ohio State on Saturday night. All of
the playoff teams were announced yesterday. If you want to
look at it, Indiana number one, Ohio State flipped to
number two. The other two teams that will get a
first round by number three Georgia and number four Texas Tech.

(18:12):
I alluded to this last weekend. We didn't really have
time to get into it. I understand how it works,
I understand automatic berths, I get all that, But are
we really going to live in a world where both
JMU and Tulane are going to get in over a
Notre Dame team that would be favored maybe by three
touchdowns over both of them. At this point in time,
this isn't the NCAA basketball tournament where they're sixty eight teams,

(18:34):
maybe even expanded to seventy two. It's not that where one,
maybe two guys can make all the difference in the world,
like a Seth Curry did with Davidson all those years ago.
It doesn't work that way in football. It doesn't work
that way right now. You could play Notre Dame in
JMU ten times, Notre Dame and Tulane ten times. I
get how the system works. I understand we need to

(18:55):
change the system. They go twenty to oh in those games. Kevin,
I'm not even a huge fan. I just want to
see the best teams play football. Right now, I'll tell
you another team that didn't deserve to get in. You
look at Alabama over the last four or five weeks
of the season. They're not a very good football team
right now.

Speaker 7 (19:10):
They're not.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
And so I'm just as a sports fan. I'm not
even a Notre Dame fan. This thing they've screwed up,
the first ever edition of the twelve teams, they've screwed
it up.

Speaker 7 (19:22):
Well, yeah, again, it's two different arguments. Obviously, from a
James Madison point of view or automatic qualifying point of
view with the ACC having such a poor season this
year versus Notre Dame's at large status, and that's where
my gripe was, and I would agree with you. I
think it's more of a grape. I think you could
have a gripe with both Alabama and Miami. I have
more of a gripe with Alabama. I'll save it for

(19:43):
a bigger segment to rant and rave and have people
hate Notre Dame fans even more than they already do.
But yeah, I was when Duke one Saturday night. That's
when the pitt and the stomach really started to grow.
I thought there was no chance they'd leave the ACC
out empty handed, and sure enough they did.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Not now and we will talk about that lant because
I thought also the committee, the College Football Playoff Committee,
which is largely determined by guys from the SEC and
the Big Ten, I get all that. I thought they
were sending Notre Dame a message too. Nuh see, you don't.
You're gonna go independent, go on your own.

Speaker 7 (20:13):
Then you're gonna roll the dice the Indiana draw. They
will be out in the Rose Bowl and this will
be New Year's Day, a four o'clock kick on New
Year's Day, they will get the winner of Alabama and Oklahoma.
I think it's a very good drawl for Indiana. The
fact that you have Georgia, Ohio State, if you want
to slot A and M and as a team that
was ranked top five for so much the season, they're

(20:35):
all on the other side of the bracket. If the
seed's held, you would look at what Oklahoma, Texas Tech,
and I guess a rematch with Ohio State. If Indiana
wins that quarterfinal matchup in the Rose Bowl, they will
then play Friday, January ninth in the Peach Bowl. So
that's in the Falcon Stadium there in Atlanta. Goes without
saying how many alumni for Indiana or in that Atlanta

(20:56):
area there, and then the national championship game would be
in Miami.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Just to put a fine point out it. Right now,
Oregon is a twenty and a half point favorite over
James Madison. Right now, oh Miss, without a true head coach,
is a sixteen and a half point fair.

Speaker 7 (21:11):
I'm totally good with one Cinderella, but to have one
sixth of your field be filled with that is wrong.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah, all right. Also, NBA tonight the Pacers after it
went on Friday night in Chicago, will be home to
night to take on the Sacramento Kings. That one. We'll
start at seven o'clock airtime right here on ninety three
five and one of seven to five to the fan
beginning at six point thirty at this point in time,
anything else that you wanted to throw in and sprinkle
in before we move on here?

Speaker 7 (21:36):
No, hey again, Pacers get that, got that first road
win of the season here, So yeah, Rick Carlisle should
join us coming up tomorrow. No Demontes Sabonis for the Kings.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Weon't get to see the former Pacer tonight. All right,
coming up in a moment, we'll start to get to
your feedback. Give us a call now two three, nine,
ten seventy. Caleb will happily answer that he's in from
Mark Dyke them this morning. And you can also hit
us up on the text line if you don't want
to stick around a wait on hold. We'll just get
your comments out there and we'll talk about some of that.
It is. We're navigating a lot of emotions right now,

(22:06):
very fired up and excited about Indiana, really bummed out
about what's going on with the Indianapolis Colts and confused
and once again about college football playoffs and the way
they've decided to mate out those berths. We'll do it
all next as we continue ninety three five and one
seven five boor inside of the gun Bowl.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
The right has well, he's.

Speaker 12 (22:27):
Going to give off right side to etn slashes inside
that thirty he's got an appau he's going to go
down the right sideline into the intel for a touchdown untouched.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
So much going on for the Indianapolis Colts. They've now
lost what four of their last five after starting the
season seven and one. They were setting record well, they
were on pace to set a lot of offensive records.
They were just tearing things up. We knew that the
schedule wasn't the toughest, but still in the NFL, Kevin,
you start putting stats down. That's no joke right there.

(22:57):
So they go all in and they trade two first
round draft picks and a wide receiver to the Jets
for Sauce Gardner. He comes in within a game and
a half, he has an injury that's going to keep
him out for a while. And then, of course, yesterday
Daniel Jones goes down with what we fear and what
seems to be and will be confirmed later on today
probably as a torn achilles, which we know is minimum

(23:18):
a year before you get back. And where does this
leave the cults?

Speaker 7 (23:22):
Now?

Speaker 2 (23:22):
That's really what people are asking. It doesn't even feel
like a lot of Colts fans are worried about playoffs
this year right here right now. That is a concern,
to be sure, But people are like, okay, but what now,
Like what do the Colts do now?

Speaker 7 (23:36):
Yeah, it's it's easily the question that I've gotten the
most last twenty four hours of Okay, what are you
with Anthony Richardson? What do you do with Daniel Jones' contract?
What does this mean for the futures of Shane Steike
and Chris Ballard? All of it? I mean all of
those topics now, Jeff become front burner like no other.
You know, Richardson, you have a fifth year team option

(23:57):
that you have to make a decision on this all season.
By no means would his play or health indicate you
would ever pick pick that up all of a sudden
does it make you want to pick that up? I mean,
all of these questions now get asked. You know, as
far as the final four weeks are concerned. I have
not gotten the vibe that Anthony Richardson is close to
returning at all. That has just been my general vibe

(24:20):
throughout this I think I've shared that, I think James
has shared.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
That that's a pretty serious injury on air.

Speaker 7 (24:24):
Yeah, I mean, you're talking about a guy that I
think it's fair to say nearly lost his eye frankly,
and so you know, an orbital fracture, you know, is
what occurred in the locker room. We're going, We're now
going two months without him practicing. He is doing some
weight room work, but again I have not gotten the
vibe that he is going to be back anytime soon.

(24:45):
So I would assume for the final four weeks that
it is Riley Leonard and then Brett Rippen is on
the practice squad. He hasn't thrown a pass in an
NFL game since twenty twenty three. So that's your little
short term kind of reality, and that obviously doesn't get
into anything from a twenty twenty six quarterback point of view.
My very like early gut reaction to it all is, Okay,

(25:09):
does Anthony Richardson just become your quarterback for twenty twenty six.
You know, Daniel Jones is likely out with the twenty
Keelees for next season, so Richardson is under contract for
next year, the fifth year options for twenty seven, So
would you just roll with Richardson for twenty six? But
then again, once that question is asked, you very quickly

(25:30):
would say to the person asking that question, well, who's
calling those shots? Is it Chris bauerd is it Shane Staking?
And then you just throw up your hands and say,
hope that you're an AU football fan.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Real cook before we get to our first phone call,
don in a second. Here, it's night and day between
having middle of the season in in rhythm. Defenses have
an entire week or two to prepare for you as
a quarterback. Based on what you saw from from Riley
Leonard in that Cincinnati preseason game, what you saw a

(26:04):
little bit yesterday. Do you roll with him right now
and say, let's see what the kid can do. Roll
with Riley Leonard as opposed to just for the rest
of the year.

Speaker 7 (26:14):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's probably. I don't think ripping
all of a sudden is going to, you know, be
vastly different than Leonard. I did think, and I want
to make sure we hit on this, because you know,
I thought there's a sequence there late in the first
half yesterday where I thought you were still in it.
You know, when you get into the rain game, weird
bleep can happen. I mean, you saw some ball security
issues on both teams, and so I thought there for

(26:36):
a second, I'm like, Okay, if you can get this
to one score half, you get the ball to start
the third. You know, just can you put any game
pressure and at the very least you make Trevor Lawrence
hand off the ball in a safe manner for the
final you know, a couple of quarters and after that
go over Stuart fumble when they had third and one
and fourth and one back it up and they did
not use Leonard's a his legs or just hand it

(26:58):
off both times. I that to me was just I
thought it was idiotic. You know, Riley Lennard is not
a pocket passer. That is not his game. His game
is if there is a strength to it, it is running.
And so I thought we would see and again, Shane's
got a plan for this. You have to have a
backup play. Okay, if all of a sudden my quarterback

(27:19):
gets hurt. Here are the whatever two dozen plays right,
and I would assume with Leonard a lot of it
should be leg based. I mean, look at his touchdown,
it's what it's him making a play with his legs.
Look at the first third down he converts to Alec Pierce.
It's him making a play with his legs. That is
his game. I mean, Notre Dame fans saw it all
last year. College football fan saw it in the run
of the national title game. So the fact that they

(27:42):
threw it on third and one I thought was greedy
as hell in the rain, and then fourth and one,
you're back in the shotgun and Taylor gets blown up,
and at that point Jacksonville knows full well if you
just threw it on third and one, you are definitely
gonna be running it here on fourth and one and
they sell out on Taylor and boom. You know, if
Leonard keeps it there, I think there's an opportunity for
him to pick it up. So I thought that sequence

(28:03):
Jacksonville then takes it down twenty eight ten, That to
me was just agree just from Shane, and I thought
your defense was awful yesterday. I mean, Jacksonville, I get
that there's no Buckner, there's no Gardener. Jacksonville's missing their
left tackle and their top pass catcher, and they, you know,
season high in points Trevor Lawrence doesn't look like that
all year long. Just awful. No sacks, no hits on Lawrence,

(28:26):
zero thirty one pass attempts, not a single hit. The
only time is Jersey got dirty was because the rain.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Does Quidy pay still play for the Colts?

Speaker 7 (28:34):
Just awful?

Speaker 2 (28:35):
There's a guy that lines up with his number, but
does he do anything awful? Honestly? And I will say
one thing before I move on to down too. You
go back to that fourth and one. There is very
little in all of the NFL that makes me cringe
and that I hate more than going for short yardage
out of the shotgun. It just drives me nuts. I

(28:56):
know these coaches well that if I put this guy
in motion, now we can move this guy around and
maybe we'll try to get some misdirection going on. You
know how, I feel like it's football. At some point
you just got to make a yard and your guys
can you do it or they can't. Sometimes it just
drives me nuts. All right, let's go to the phone lines.
Don joined US two three nine, ten seventy. Good morning,
don welcome into the Fan Morning Show.

Speaker 16 (29:16):
Good morning.

Speaker 17 (29:17):
First of all, congratulations Hoosiers's a long time waiting for
us for fans, which turned me into a Notre Dame fan,
which I don't care.

Speaker 7 (29:26):
Why they snuffed.

Speaker 17 (29:27):
Him over or Alabama over Notre Dame. They haven't did nothing.
Why are they kicking Alabama's a doubles when they haven't
done anything.

Speaker 14 (29:35):
I get sick of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 17 (29:37):
It's not right and it's wrong. And hopefully the Colts
will come out of there. I don't see Riley Leonard
being that bad of a quarterback. He's still a rookie.
I believe they can make a good quarterback out of him,
and we're gonna beat Jack and Bill. We're a better
team than them. Our next showing. We just got take
care of the other three games, and I believe we
still got hope. All right, guys, have good day.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
Thanks very much. Like Riley Leonard, but I don't like
him as a starting quarterback in the NFL, certainly at
this point, Kevin.

Speaker 7 (30:04):
What am I allowed to ran about Notre Dame. We'll
do it now. It's on the table, right the second, Well,
don't only have James Boyd coming up.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
We got two minutes before we get to James.

Speaker 7 (30:12):
Well, I'm gonna you a lot longer in two minutes, okay,
and we'll hold on to that. Your favorite moment from
Saturday night inside of Luca Soil.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Probably just watching the elation of everybody when that field
goal went left and it's obvious you are now going
to beat As crazy as it sounds, you knew they
were going to be one of the top two seeds
going into the playoffs. That wasn't in question. To be
able to finish off the conference schedule on top of
your regular season schedule though, and beat Ohio State. I

(30:46):
just I think the elation that I felt from people
in their living rooms when I saw when I was
out the next day, going over even to my ma. Look,
it was the talk of the town at the retirement home, Kevin.
It's all people wanted to talk about that moment. It's
almost hard to describe collectively what the Indiana fan base

(31:09):
felt in that moment where that realization is, oh, no,
not only are we undefeated, but we just beat Ohio State. Yeah,
we're going to the College football playoff and we're gonna
win the thing too, as opposed to man just happy
were got there? Can you believe we're in the college
football Playoff? It was we just beat Ohio State and
now we're gonna go win this thing too.

Speaker 7 (31:28):
Yeah, it was one of those nights where like, are
we lled to sleep inside of Lugosolo Stadium? I thought,
you know, there's so many cool scenes. I thought when
Aiden Fisher kind of took the mic there and led
the entire place in the IU fight song, you know,
like for IU fans. You know, again, in three weeks,
you might have a very similar scene in Pasadena, and
maybe after that it's Atlanta. Maybe after that it's in Miami.

(31:51):
But no matter what happens, even if they are to
lose in the quarterfinal round, like that postgame moment, obviously,
Banana Mendoza when he takes the mic, I feel like
he's half like one of those preacher guys on Sunday
that you see in the No, No, But but he's
meeting Mark Dighton's WWE personality.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
But Barstool Sports actually tweeted out, did we just watch
a guy lose the Heisman Trophy in a post game? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (32:15):
It's it's quite the scene anytime he's taking the mic
and I feel like he's you'll, speaking through my soul.
But when Ayden Fisher, you know, one of the JMU guys,
all of a sudden breaks out into that, you know,
it just kind of shows you a little bit more
of what Kurtzignetti has created here in two years. So yeah,
obviously the Mendoza de Becker throw and sure the missed kick,

(32:36):
and you know, I want to make sure every time
we talk about IU today we mentioned what Brian Haynes
has done with that. With that defense, I mean to
stifle Ohio State life sat and just whip them up
front timely plays when they needed to. In the secondary.
The Lewis Moore pick I thought was a huge tone
setter early in that game. I think about Ohio State's

(32:56):
only touchdown came off of the in reception off that
that little screen, So just incredible, incredible job from then
he had a defense. And I think if we've watched
you know, we have watched eye you all year long,
so I think we know it, but still for the
whole you know, maybe national scene to see their defense
play out, unbelievable effort.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
All right, he is gone, but certainly not forgotten. Today,
the third member of our team here on the Fan
Morning Show. James Boyd, getting ready to travel back from Jacksonville,
where he was in attendance for that Colts game in
the rain yesterday, joins us now on the Payless Liquors Hotline.
Good morning, James. You know, we had talked about the
fact that you truly believed in a curse for the
Colts in Jacksonville, But I don't think you had that

(33:37):
much of a curse going on when you said that,
did you.

Speaker 14 (33:40):
No, they're in trouble. There are season probably an end
of yesterday because of the Achilles d Daniel Jones. So
I know I'm here for all the jokes and dow
Wall County curves, but they might actually not made the
post season.

Speaker 7 (33:52):
James, how would you describe the locker room scene yesterday?

Speaker 14 (33:57):
Very dejected, Probably one of the more depressing locker room
I've been in in quite some time, and not saying
I've been around that long, but sit around for four
years now and it hasn't felt like that. I think
they all kind of knew. And the moment that Daniel
Jones went down, there goes our chance now they did say,
and credit johncon Taylor thought he gave the best quart
of locker room, Like, hey, you know, I asked him,

(34:19):
do you have to hold on to the rope and
need to not just hold on? We got a scratch
claw and yanked the rope back to make sure our
season can stay on the rails. But you're asking assist
round rookie to save your campaign, and I think that's
just too much to ask. Roddy Leonard. He played better
than I thought he would honestly yesterday, but better defenses
are coming and I feel like these last four games

(34:41):
there are no lightweights, no gimmes, and they're going to
be in serious troubles.

Speaker 7 (34:45):
James, I gave some thoughts on Anthony Richardson in twenty
twenty five here a few minutes ago. What has been
your view was Richardson there yesterday? I don't think they
showed him on TV? Like, what's been your view of
Anthony Ridgerson possibly putting on a Colts uniform again this season?

Speaker 14 (35:02):
I'm honestly not sure if he traveled yesterday. I did
look for him down there on the sideline with the grant,
and I was also looking a lot for Daniel Jones
through the vernocular fields going on with him, and as
I tweeted out, I believe last week and I we
talked about on the show previously, I've seen and the
Incison's face was in the last three weeks and I
was like a face they could play football anytime soon.

(35:23):
In my opinion, So those who keep intrustingly asking me
about him, I think it's just kind of naive to
kind of go down that route. And keep in mind,
usually even when you have guys to come off ir
they have a practice window, they have to open them
and even done that, let alone with cleared in the play.
So I think they're moving forward with the idea of
Roddy Leonard leading them down the last month of this season.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
James Boy joining us on the Paylist Lickers hotline right
now from Jacksonville. We know what it was like around
here in Indianapolis yesterday. What was the locker room feel
like after the game last night?

Speaker 17 (35:56):
Yes, Kevin just.

Speaker 14 (35:57):
Asked me, it was definitely depressed, depressing, and I felt
like a lot of the guys were dejected in there,
but at the same time sending their condolences in a way.
I'm not asking like you know, Dale Jones is better
and you're saying but definitely sending their prayers and you know,
thoughts to a guy who has given everything to the team,
and you know, the guys already playing through a frash
of sibular probably would have played through another one on
the other leg had it been possible. Is just the

(36:19):
fact that at achilles injury is not going to obviously
help you in the immediate future. And now you have
questions about Damie Jones, Chris Ballard, Shange pikeen. It makes
the evaluation for Carlier say Gordon the coach, principal owner,
that much tougher because how do you evaluate the quarterback
positions if he's done miss the rest of this season
most likely and part of next season. How do you

(36:39):
evaluate Chris Ballard if he finally went all in unlike
in the year's past and in backfires and this magnitude,
how do you evaluate shange Piken who's going into year
three and might not make the playoffs. Most those who
don't make cluff the first two years don't keep their jobs.
So gad, that's take here.

Speaker 7 (36:54):
James Boyd from the atletical course, so he is traveling
back to Indy. He'll be back in studio with us
coming up tomorrow from Afar James, what was viewing Saturday nights?
Indiana and Ohio State?

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Like for you?

Speaker 18 (37:08):
That was great?

Speaker 14 (37:09):
Me and Nathan Brown actually saw to Nathan Brown and
Indie Starr who went out to watch that some bar
in Jacksonville and pickjaw guys. I found the coldest place
for Jacksville to Washington game. They had a bar inside
of an ice skating rink, which was so freaking weird,
but great set up, great screen. There were some Ohio
State fans next to us, and they were actually pretty

(37:30):
respectful and they had a lot of credits to Indiana
and it was quite a night and office Ohio State win.
But oh I just probably enough ything against are you again?
Trench is what surprised me. The mother would just turn around.
They do not get bullied anymore down low and they
have the big dudes to compete and you know, the
nity and gritty. So a great win. Great ports. Wasna
Mendoza and company so excited to see what jack for him.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Yeah, certainly a crazy weekend of sports. I don't know
if you were traveling or had a chance to watch
any of the college basketball during the day, but that
Purdue game was quite the letdown at Mackie. And I
know you watch a lot of college basketball. Did you
see that coming at Mackie?

Speaker 17 (38:08):
No, not at all.

Speaker 14 (38:09):
One of the worst losses I would say probably ever
right for a number one team in the nation. And
so all have to think about, was I went to
a heel tyre Caliburton is and how much trash he
wants to talk to those fans because you know he
likes to rattle a few people and renowned and.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
If you can, Thanks Seame. I always good to talk
to your travel safe buddy. We'll see you right here
in the studio tomorrow. Thanks James, Thanks very much. Interesting
because you know, we were both talking about after the game,
and I wanted to drill down on that because you
you know, you know, I have been in many many
post games. A lot of times it's what is not said,
and it's just the general body language and face of

(38:46):
guys at their locker where you really get a sense
of what's really going on.

Speaker 7 (38:50):
Kevin Well and you know, obviously when Jones goes down,
I think the immediate comp for a lot of our
audience's Halliburton's injury in Game seven. It's similar in a way,
but not really like nothing was going to happen to
Rick Carlyle and Kevin Pritchard, of course, And sure it
sucks the life so much of the life out of

(39:10):
this pace for season as we've seen it play out.
First off, it's ludacris to compare Tyres Haliburn as a
player to Daniel Jones the player. I think you start there.
And also it would be ludicrous to compare the resumes
of Carlile and Pritchard to Ballard and Stichen, So I
would argue it almost adds more to it in what
probably James and those witness down there in Jacksonville. And yeah,

(39:34):
all those questions, I mean, James just alluded to it,
all of these questions, and I think they are difficult. Like,
you know, I didn't think Bowers should have been back
for a ninth year. But I also sit here and say,
is it the best thing in the world to go
out and get a new GM and say, hey, here
you go. Oh, by the way, you don't have your
two first round picks. Reach to the next two years.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
That person's starting off way behind that that's quite the
way to start a rebuild. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (39:57):
But then again Barnaby is like, wait, you're gonna run
this back and Boward's gonna get a tenth year, you know.
I mean it's just and all of the domino effects
off of it. So and you know, I know, Hindsight
could be super twenty twenty with the Sauce Gardener trade,
and I think it's unfair to all of a sudden
go back to that trade and be like that trade

(40:18):
should have never happened. I think the one element to
the trade where you could probably be a little bit
of like, man, there should have been more pause there.
And I get there are time constraints in the trade.
Literally there's a trade deadline. You had to execute it
buy whatever it was November fourth. But Daniel Jones has
never proven himself over a full NFL season to.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Be a franchise quarterback, right, you.

Speaker 7 (40:43):
Know, there's either poor play or there's a lot I mean,
it's a long list of injuries now for Daniel Jones
in his career. So if you want to play the
Hindsight twenty twenty card, I think that's the one element
to Jones because by trading for Gardner, you are saying, unquestionably,
we have the franchise quarterback. He is not only a

(41:03):
great quarterback, but he is durable, and he has proven
himself and he is our guy. That's the one element
to looking back on that trade that you say, boy
Daniel Jones by Halloween deserve that. Yeah, I don't think
that adds up.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, and then even the secondary that they do have
right now where you're talking about Mooney Ward and his
struggles right now. But I also thought it was interesting
there were a couple of plays, not all of them,
but there are a couple of plays where it looked
like Jacksonville was targeting kennymore the second yesterday too.

Speaker 7 (41:37):
Yeah, I thought the defense was just awful. I mean,
zero sacks and zero quarterback hits on Trevor Lawrence and
they're down there starting left tackle. I mean J. J.
Watt talked about how many moving parts they've had on
their offensive line all year long. No, Parker Washington, that
was their leading pass catcher this season coming into the game.
I mean, Jacoby Myers has been there what three weeks
and looked like he was, you know, right on the

(41:58):
same page, no questions asked, So that defensive effort was
just because it was already trending in an ugly direct.
I mean, you give what twenty eight points in the
first half to Jacksonville. I mean even in Jacksonville starting
eight and four, they're not starting eight and four because
of this offense.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
And that wasn't the Daniel Jones injury fault right out there.

Speaker 7 (42:15):
I mean, you know, obviously you had the early pick
that set up the first score. But so there's twenty
one other points in that opening in that opening half there,
they averaged like seven yards per play in the first half.
That is just an awful, awful number there. So again
helping Riley Leonard terrible from the Colts yesterday.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
All right, coming up in a moment, we will take
more of your phone calls. We'll get to the text
line in depth for the first time today. Got a
lot to talk about. What do you do next? If
you're the Indianapolis Colts, where do you go? How do
you move on now? Without some five year plan in
the back of your mind, because there's a things have
changed a lot in the last seventy two hours, forty
eight hours. We'll do it next ninety three five and

(42:53):
one on seven five.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
These see sed a fan morning show with the Shady
and Jeff.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Here's the staff.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
Fernando throws it up field, catches made at the thirty
four yard line.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Great grabs.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
Who's your don already Fernando Mendoza is on the ground.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
I did not see it.

Speaker 5 (43:12):
ball game.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Now he steps up. He's gonna be all right.

Speaker 6 (43:18):
And Mendoza takes the stat wants to throw it, fires
a down the field.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
It's free.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Elijah Soroadi makes the catch. It will be a twenty
eight yard field goal. Here's the stamp field and kicks
the ball.

Speaker 7 (43:31):
It is wide.

Speaker 8 (43:32):
It is wide Wood the lad he miss the Rendianda
has big deal House steaks. One team to cut right,
whoever the woes would be here, But now the hoo'ss
we're flipping chams.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Let's go.

Speaker 9 (43:50):
Playoffs are just start and now we're gonna get it
by and uh so you gotta.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Win three games. Glass of ball to be played.

Speaker 10 (44:01):
Here's an RCO and it's an interception and it's picked
off by Devin Lloyd. Lloyd started right cutting through, has left.
He's gonna be chopped down another twenty one yard line
all between the hash marks for Daniel Jones lowing back
of the backfield as Jonathan Taylor. Jones on a counter
gives off to Taylor knifing try to fight.

Speaker 7 (44:19):
His way into the end zone.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
He's in yes touchdown. Game is tied at seventh.

Speaker 10 (44:24):
Lawrence goes out of the gun ball the right hash
back to pass he's looking for to the right side
and it's caught for a touchdown of the end zones
to Jacoby Myers a fourteen yard pass. There's a flag
on the play and Daniel Jones is down. Daniel Jones
can't even make it over to the sideline.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
If you look at he is seated on.

Speaker 11 (44:42):
The turf and he just slams his helmet to the grass.
He is now limping over to the cold sideline.

Speaker 10 (44:47):
Flourens side of the gun ball the right hash and
he's gonna give off the right side to et In slashes.

Speaker 12 (44:52):
Inside that thirty. He's got an avenue. He's gonna go down.

Speaker 10 (44:55):
The right sideline into the infl for a touchdown untouched.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Daniel Jones has an a key lease. It could be
season ending. I don't have the full details on it.

Speaker 13 (45:04):
A lot of this stuff too. As you go through
a season, you're gonna have you're gonna go through some
storms and some diversity, and you've got to overcome those.

Speaker 1 (45:09):

Speaker 13 (45:10):

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yeah, the competitor in Shane Steichen feels that way. But man,
you're starting to lose ammunition left and right, whether it's
DeForrest Buckner, Sauce Gardner, now your quarterback, Daniel Jones. And look,
you talked about it and wrote about it, Kevin. When
it first happened, when the Colts three four weeks ago

(45:36):
made the decision to give up two first round draft
picks and Ady Mitchell to the New York Jets for
Sauce Gardner, they were essentially saying, we're all in for
the next several years. Here. We've got a quarterback, we've
got a stud running back. We like our wide receiver corps.
We know we need some help on the defensive line,

(45:56):
but we are going to have just a kick ass
secondary that's gonna help everything out on defense.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
We're all in.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Man. Since then, Sauce Gardner out for an undetermined amount
of time, and now Daniel Jones out for the rest
of this season and probably most of next year, if
not all up next year, and whether or not he's
even the quarterback. Remember he's on a one year deal.
There's a lot going on for the Indianapolis Colts all
of a sudden that they didn't even have to think
about forty eight hours ago.

Speaker 7 (46:26):
That's certainly true. We did it in seven o'clock hour.
I'll do it again here. I can't start with Colts though,
I gotta go back to Saturday night in just that
scene inside of Lucas so Oil Stadium, Caleb, thank you
for that, rejoiner, And here Don Fisher's voice. Honestly, yeah,
sex a little bit of fish on Saturday morning. He
got a kick out of the comments on Friday when

(46:46):
we said, you know, we should carry him by Pharaoh,
you know, like like like a pharaoh from Gambridge Field
House over to Lucas Soil Stadium. And now he's you know,
calling Indiana back in the Rose Bowl, which is just
absolutely and saying for the first time since what's sixty
sixty eight, So you know, I think in this market

(47:06):
as cruel as sports can be, and we've seen that. Certainly.
You have had certain fan bases get moments that have
led to tiers frankly positive seiers, happy tears over the
last few years. Obviously, the Pacers I think created that
this past you know, summer, this past spring with you know,
really kind of a Hollywood run all the way until

(47:27):
Game seven, you know, a couple of years ago, when
Purdue makes that Final four, and for fans that are
at that game in Detroit, and you know, whether it
is the Lance Shones three of the Zach e Edy block,
and to get to a Final four for the first
time in years for Indiana fans certainly haven't had in basketball.
And it's their football program that offers that on Saturday night.

(47:51):
And that's what I was struck by of just, you know,
so much of the day, the anticipation for Saturday night,
and obviously the basketball game doesn't go well at all,
but to have that in your state capitol, to have
it be Ohio State, to have all of a sudden,
the bracket pop up yesterday and the first team that
Rees Davis mentions is Indiana. It's just I have been

(48:12):
at a loss so many Mondays in the Kurtz Signetti
era of how to properly put it into context, and
I once again and at a loss for it. And
it's just beyond remarkable. It's the greatest coaching job in
my opinion, college or pro sports. I'll repeat what I
said in the seven o'clock hour. And I don't think
that is some hyperbolic you you know, happen to just

(48:33):
you know, be in market with that team. No, I
think it's true. And again that defense, like Fernando Mendoza
will hoist the Heisman coming up Saturday night. And he
made some big time throws and Charlie Becker made some
big time catches. Elijah Sharrott made a huge play on
third and eight there to I guess score the eventual
game winning touchdown. But their defense is just that story

(48:55):
is that might be the most amazing element because it's
I mean, Mendoza had a lot of hype as a transfer.
There was a lot of appeal to wanting for Nando Mendoza.
That defense is not littered with those types of portal
editions on it. There's some Jmu flavor to it. There's
the five nine d Angelo ponds to it. You know
there's a guy from Navy that that transferred, and yet

(49:18):
they just dominated that game and really the only touchdown
Ohio State score was because of that interception. So unbelievable
job by Brian Haynes, Pat Koons, Hold, defensive staff, everybody.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Yeah, it's so much fun to watch. And even yesterday
out and about whether I was visiting my mom for
most of the day or even later on when my
boys and I went out, all people wanted to talk
about was Indiana. And to your point, I think people
are still pinching themselves like they're used to Indiana basketball,

(49:51):
even though it's been a long time, right, last time
they went to Sweet sixteen was the Tom Creanier and
before that, you know, you got to go back to
the to the one Mike Day here. But nothing like
this ever, Kevin, And I mean, you grew up in
this state. You know what it's like. You know, Notre Dame.
They're bummed they didn't get to go to the college

(50:11):
football Playoff, Like it's almost a birthright expectation if you're
playing well and have a good season, and I get that,
but for Indiana to not just be in the college
football Playoff, but to be the consensus number one team
in the country and having knocked off the previous thought
to be number one team in the country. I don't
know that you'll even if they continue to do this,

(50:32):
I don't think you'll ever be able to replicate what
this feeling is like right now, can you?

Speaker 19 (50:36):
Well?

Speaker 7 (50:36):
I mean, who knows what conference championships are going to
be moving forward. I guess let's just start there. So
I mean to create that scene and to have that
scene in your state capitol against that opponent, you know,
of Ohio States beating you how many years in a row,
and how the game played out. Frankly, I thought, what's
his name, Ohio State kicker? I thought he almost missed
the first kick. The first kick was a chip shot.
I thought he almost that little curvy thing going to

(50:58):
off the left up right, and sure enough the second one,
and I just thought it was just some of the
softest coaching from Ryan Day not to.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Go to go for that.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Not my favorite guy.

Speaker 7 (51:08):
But okay, I mean, what what like go for it?
Like so you kick the field goal just to have
to wait and get another score later in the game.
No go, I mean you had really they had leaned
on Indiana a little bit there in that second half,
and it's like, Okay, how many body blows in the
Indian Evans is hanging in there, hanging in there, hanging
in there. But you are Ohio State and you don't

(51:28):
go for fourth and you know, really inches. I mean
they had two of those in the second half, third
and ones inside the ten yard line and you walk
away with zero points. And I thought it was I
thought Ohio State deserved Mendoza to Becker to ice the game.
Like by you being so cowardly and deciding to kick
it there and miss it, you deserve the Heisman moment

(51:51):
to occur. And again, Charlie b from Tennessee will be
ringing in my ears for a long long time. You
can think what you want about Gus Johnson, but I
thought every time he said that about Charlie Becker, uh
pretty pretty spot on there. What a uh well whatever
from him here over the final month and a half
of the season. You know, when injuries have occurred to
Elijah surat Omar Cooper Junior leaves the game early on,

(52:12):
doesn't sound like it's too severe on that front. But
for Becker to continue to step up for this team,
you know, that's part of building the college football program.
You know, depth is key. Injuries happen, can you do it?
And Indiana has withstood some of that and did it
on a grand stage Saturday night.

Speaker 16 (52:28):
Kevin I was also going to say too about the defense.
I know Jeremiah Smith had a lot of yards, but
D'Angelo Pons like some of the red zone reps that
he had on Jeremiah Smith where he is just that
third and one, he was on an island sometimes and
they I know they bracketed him a lot, but I
thought D'Angelo pons like was the story too on that

(52:48):
defensive side.

Speaker 7 (52:49):
Yeah, I mean he is another one and you know
when you look at his resume of the five to
nine frame and another guy that transferred up and you
know he missed. I think it was the Iowa game
earlier in the year. So that aspect, like what's the
best aspect of the Indiana football team. It's their defense.

(53:09):
I mean, I think more so than Fernanda Mendoza. As
crazy as that sounds, I think it is their defense
that is their true calling card. And I think they
sent quite a message to anyone they'll face here in
the quarterfinal round. Alabama Oklahoma or semi final round of
Texas Tech or Oregon, whoever it's going to be of.
You know, driving on us consistently is no easy task.

(53:31):
I mean, look at Oregon. Oregon struggled to move it
and they put up huge points all year long. And
then obviously look at Ohio State on Saturday night with
you Jeremiah Smith in there and Carneal Tate healthy and
Bo Jackson had some decent runs. And yeah, that that
defensive championship.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
One of the things I've said all along awe As
this season is unfolded, and you know how it is, Kevin.
Various radio stations or networks will call you every once
in a while, Hey can you come on and talk
for a few minutes about Indiana and what have you.
And I keep telling people this is a different football team.
You talk about that defense, Kevin, they are this team
even offensively along that offensive line. This is a physical

(54:10):
football team. Like they don't stand back from anybody. They
will go head to head with you in the interior line. Offense,
defense doesn't matter. You add to that the skill players
like Sarat, like Cooper, and I think people are starting
to figure out they got some pretty good running backs too.
But then you throw in what you've been talking about,
that defense, which is not only physical, but they can

(54:33):
cover you, and you talk about what they were able
to do in the secondary. They were talking about what
they're able to do, you know, for the most part,
just not letting Ohio State go on any big, big
runs at any point in the game. And I also
go back to something I saw a great interview not
too long ago. Kurtzik Nutty was on Dan Patrick and
Dan Patrick was like, could you've ever seen this coming

(54:54):
this path? And he goes, well, you know, this is
kind of how I got here. And he talked about,
you know, the lower divisions when he coached, and he
did it there, and then he did it again, and
then he did it at JMU, and when Indiana called,
he thought to himself, all right, why can't we just
do it there too? And that kind of goes back
to when he was saying, google me I win. He goes,

(55:16):
I didn't see why I wouldn't be able to build
what we had built in previous stops, doing the same
things that we did, finding the same kinds of players,
And you know, we can all say it's yeah, it's
a completely different level right now. But Kurt Signetty can
just flat out coach. You could make the case Kevin
that he's the best coach in college football when you
take a look at where he's done it, how he's
done it at every single level, at every stable single

(55:39):
position you could find yourself in. He's just gotten it done.

Speaker 7 (55:42):
It goes back to conversation we've had before. He was
the right type of coach at the right time. It
wasn't just that he had a winning resume and they
hired him. It was a he was a no nonsense
I'm gonna look at people in this athletic department, in
this fan base and tell you, no, that's the old way.
We're doing it my enough of thinking like loser old

(56:03):
Indiana football. We're not doing that anymore. This is how
it is going to be. I've told the story before
when we had them on at Colt Strandy camp a
few I guess it'd been just before his first year.
I compared him to Will Smith and Hitch didn't really
ring to Kurt Signetti necessarily, but like it takes a
little bit of the we're gonna think my way, we're

(56:24):
going to I don't care if that's how whatever Tom Allen,
Kevin Wilson, etc. Etc. Did it, or how old Indiana
football has done it, It's going to be this way.
And I think that was key. It's not just that
he won, it's that he's going to reshape how you think,
and not only for the players, but I think also
for the athletic department and the fan base as well.

(56:46):
It was huge. And one just last thing about their defense.
It really had think hit me during the Illinois game
because you know, fans of Indiana's football program, they've had
a wide out on occasion, they've had a cornerback on
occasion that's worthy of playing in the NFL. I mean,
how Tracy Porter made one of the biggest plays and
you know anti cold history. But they've never looked like

(57:08):
this in the trenches. Never, And that's the difference for me.
It's that, you know, skilled talent in Indiana. I mean
they've they've put up points before. That's not like that
outlandish of a thought. It's being a championship team up front,
and they certainly are that.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah, no question about that. Go to the text line
at two through nine, ten seventy and Charles says, ooh,
the possibility of an Indiana jmu semi final. Good luck,
it'd be a great story. Good luck to jmu on
that is what I would say. But he does make
a good point. Could you imagine, Kevin.

Speaker 7 (57:47):
Jam you would have to win what two games?

Speaker 2 (57:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (57:49):
Is that what it is?

Speaker 2 (57:50):
They'd have to get any of us.

Speaker 7 (57:51):
Got Oklahoma Alabama winner again New Year's Day, four o'clock
in the Rose Bowl for planning purposes for fans out there.
If they win that, they'd go to Atlanta for the
Peach Bowl. That's a Friday, January ninth.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Jam, you would have to be Oregon An Texas Tech
to make that happen. Suppose it could happen. I doubt it.
A lot of people checking in on on just how
much fun this weekend has been, and you felt that.
I don't know if you were out and about yesterday
at all, but you could just you could feel it.
There's Indiana garb everywhere, there's shirts, there's jackets, there's hats.

(58:27):
But you could just see people talking about that everywhere
you go.

Speaker 7 (58:32):
Yeah, it's I mean, you know again, I've said it
earlier in the show. It's how Purdue fans felt after
the Elite eate win over Tennessee a few years back.
It's how Pacers fans felt probably after what Game six
of the next series is probably how it truly got there.
You know, Miles turnerund the mike saying Indiana in gamebridge
Field House. That to me was kind of like Aiden
Fisher grabbing the mic Saturday night and saying, you know,

(58:53):
let's queue up the fight song inside of Lucas Oil.
So you know, it's a night where the security guards
have to beg you to leave. You know, there are
many times a sports fan where you probably want to leave.
Saturday night wasn't one of those you wanted to sleep
inside of, you know, get out some sleeping bags in
the bud light zone because we're gonna We're gonna be
here for a while.

Speaker 4 (59:14):
Man.

Speaker 16 (59:15):
I love that Kevin, like just camping up makes some
make some sausage and eggs in the morning, you know.

Speaker 7 (59:22):
Kegs and eggs and started off morning.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
You knows, Kevin went right to Kegs toos Hell.

Speaker 7 (59:29):
Colts fan's gonna need to drown their sorrows.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
Uh. To that point, Darren writes in should be a
Hoosier's day and week of enjoyment. I know, you guys
have to say siate a lot of different sports fans.
I get it. The one thing I've been harping about
on the Cults for over two years is that Shane
needs to give up or have taken away his play calling.
How is this not more major story focus on head coaching?

Speaker 9 (59:49):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (59:49):
A lot of people all over the place on the
cults and what they should do and how they should
do it. But isn't part of the strength of Shane
Stiking supposedly is play calling?

Speaker 7 (59:56):
Yeah, honestly, right now the grape of Shane's sikeing. You're
two and eighty aint Houston and Jacksonville. The last three
years in the Change second era, you were two and
eight against the Texans and the Jaguars, the two teams
that matter the most on your schedule. And look at
the Texans and the Jaguars over the last three years.
Jacksonville's changed coaches. Trevor Lawrence seems to be the one

(01:00:18):
that they can't wait to get rid of. Houston changed
offensive coordinators. C. J. Stroud's been in and out of
the lineup. And yet you're two and eight against those
two teams. And it's not like you're this overwhelmingly touchdown
ten point underdog every time you face them. And that's

(01:00:39):
the reality of where you're at right now. You know,
so much of this is go back to Chris bowart season,
Nay press conference, we need more tough guys. We don't
win the games in December and blah blah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:00:47):
Well, the two biggest games of the season, Houston and
Jacksonville back to back weeks, so far lost loss.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Chris says, who would have ever thought i U football
would win the conference before basketball gets back to the
final four in the Big Ten Basketball tournament. Incredible, You
got Indiana football and the college football Playoff before Indiana's
even been back in the conference tournament.

Speaker 7 (01:01:08):
Shout out to Tom Crane in the one a few
what was at twenty thirteen.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Yeah, it's been a while there. By the way, a
lot of Colts headlines coming in. We'll get to those
a little bit later on. So I know Mark is
not here today, if you want to send those on
the text line two, three, nine, ten seventy. We'll get
to those a little bit later on today. In the meantime,
we got a lot to talk about. Caleb. Let's check
this thing down.

Speaker 15 (01:01:29):
Right the morning Checkdown on ninety sweet five and one
oh seven five the Fan.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
As expected, the Indiana Hoosiers are the number one seed
in the twenty twenty five college football Playoff after a
thirteen to ten win in the Big Ten Conference championship
game against Ohio State in downtown Indianapolis at Lucas Oil
Stadium on Saturday night. I would imagine there are a
lot of people couldn't even get to sleep till three
or four o'clock in the morning. Kevin just so fired up.

Speaker 7 (01:01:58):
Yeah, it was quite the same their post game, to
say the least, there I think again, happening in your
state capitol, happening inside of Lucashola State. I remember a
few years back, Indiana played Louisville at Lucas Soil in
a regular season game. I remember Mark and I chatting
during the break being like, dude, I had no idea
that football game was even going on. Like, here is
IU football playing in the NFL stadium in the state capitol,

(01:02:22):
and I didn't even know what was going on. And
then you have a scene like Saturday Night of Taylor
Swift like mania for tickets, and then it plays out
in the manner that it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
Did man, so one big snub in the college football
playoff selection Notre Dame on the outside looking in, and
they'll talk about the head to head loss to Miami.
That's fine, but I think you and I are both
more concerned about a couple of other things, chief among
them three loss Alabama, who hasn't looked good in five weeks,

(01:02:50):
getting in no matter what after their loss in the
SEC Championship game where they were just boat raced by
Georgia Tech or by Georgia not Georgia tat.

Speaker 7 (01:02:58):
Yeah, I'm gona give some thoughts on the other side
on it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
All right, We'll let you do that at that point
in time, and we'll break all of that bracket down.
I Meanwhile, in the NFL yesterday, we've also been talking
about the fact that the Colts were thirty six nineteen
losers in Jacksonville. They still haven't won there since twenty fourteen.
But more than that, oh much more than that, Daniel
Jones goes down with what looks like an achilles tear

(01:03:21):
in his right leg. We'll get confirmation on that a
little bit later on today. But where do they go? Now?
What do the Colts do? Now?

Speaker 7 (01:03:30):
I know?

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
For the immediate it's probably Riley Leonard, maybe Brett Rippon.
But where does this team go? You can't really count
on Daniel Jones A to be healthy next year. But
what is Daniel Jones? We had all those questions before
this happened. What do you do now if you're the
Indianapolis Colts. What's the future look like?

Speaker 7 (01:03:47):
Yeah? A million questions with answers that are difficult and
not ideal at all. Yeah, it's just it's a really,
really sour, sour time to be a Colts fan. I
wish I could say it in a different light, but
that's the reality of where you're at. If indeed this
season continues to go the way it is going, I

(01:04:09):
guess for those holding to any hope because the thing
about it, Jeff, it's not like you can tank. What
are you thanking for? Like people want the Pacers to tank? Well,
the Pacers have the top five pick potentially waiting for him.
The Colts have the what forty fifth pick? I don't know.
I mean they are their first rounder, so wherever their
second round pick is going to be. So yeah, it's

(01:04:32):
just it's a kick in the kicking the you know
what region.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
Also, the Houston Texans went again last night on Sunday
Night Football to beat the Kansas City Chiefs by a
score of twenty to ten. Jacksonville, of course, with the
head to head went over. The Colts remains in first
place in the AFC South and with that, when the
Texans move into second place in the AFC South. And
later on tonight Monday Night Football, Philadelphia Eagles take on

(01:04:56):
the Los Angeles Chargers. All of a sudden, there's a
rooting interest there, Colts fans.

Speaker 7 (01:05:01):
Yeah, So if you are holding out for that playoff, hope.
I would say the Chargers have one of the most
difficult schedules the rest of the way. They are currently
eight and four, so a loss tonight, they're eight and five.
If the Colts have the same record as the Chargers
and it's just those two teams, the Colts would get
in based off their head to head. But I mean,
right now, are you betting on the Colts to win
another game the rest of the season.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
It's gonna be tough. You look at that schedule right
now and it doesn't get any easier. We talked about it,
but Jacksonville was you know you're gonna play them twice.
You've already lost the first one. Now you play Seattle,
so you play San Francisco Jacksonville again. In Houston's it is,
We've always known this is gonna be a tough one.

(01:05:41):
Now you're gonna be playing with one hand tye behind
your back.

Speaker 7 (01:05:44):
Well in Seahawks and forty nine Ers the next two weeks,
they're still going for the one seed and trying to
get a home game. I mean, the NFC West probably
the best division of football this season. So yeah, just
a brutal, brutal schedule.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
All right, NBA. Later on tonight, field House will be
the scene of the Indiana Pacers taking on the Sacramental Kings.
But no, no Devona Sabonis in the building, or at
least not on the court tonight, Kevin.

Speaker 7 (01:06:06):
Yeah, Kings have been pretty bad this season. Shout out
to the Pacers got their first road win of the
on Friday night. Pascal Siakam, Great Benedict Mather, how about
the story of Ethan Thompson. Didn't we all go to
school with a guy named Ethan Thompson.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
All I know is I look up and the guy's
making shots all over the.

Speaker 7 (01:06:21):
Place, bacon shots, hoping Rick Carlisle share this story with us,
But it sounded like all of a sudden they realized
Ben Shepper was going to be out. Ethan Thompson just
joined the team. He was playing with some of their
developmental guys, and Carlisle called over to the United Center.
This is like whatever. Friday afternoon, it was like, hey,
get Ethan Thompson off the floor. We need him tonight
to play for the Pacers. Not only did he play,

(01:06:41):
he started the second half and played really well. I thought,
uh so, just you know, the Pacers have had a
couple of these stories this season, but first road win
Kings and then they really have a lot of practice
time awaiting the next two weeks. So if they're ever
going to get those back on track, Aaron E. Smith's
return potentially by the end of this month, and then
you know, maybe it'll happen.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
All right. Also, college basketball, yesterday one game in the UNDA,
State beat Southern Indiana seventy seven to fifty five, And
of course it was a tough one on Saturday at
mac Arena, a twenty three point loss for the Purdue
boiler Makers at home against Iowa State. Iowa State, it's
a good team I wouldn't have been shocked if they'd

(01:07:22):
have won that game, but not the way that they
did win it.

Speaker 7 (01:07:24):
Kevin Bone, Yeah, you don't see Perdue get absolutely run
out of their own building in the manor that they
did on Saturday. Trey coffmin Ran really struggled in the
first half there. Yes, I do think Iowa State is legit,
but still I was most disappointed in the start to
the second half. You know, I thought the first half
would be a wake up call for Matt Painter's bunch.
But a first non conference home loss since twenty nineteen.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Seasons over in Division three four DePaul they lose to
Wheaton forty nine to twenty four. Anything else you want
to throw in.

Speaker 7 (01:07:54):
Yeah, that was a rough loss for Butler too at
home on Saturday. Yeah, I mean you can't ignore all
of it there. I mean Boise State, I you know,
from a resume standpoint, that hurt what Butler is built
up here. So they'll have a Northwestern upcome. They'll start
the Big East play here. I want to say it's
this week and then we'll get that Indie Classic a
week from Saturday, so that'll be preduing Auburn. Butler and

(01:08:14):
Northwestern there at shout out to the Notre Dame basketball team.
Jalen Harrelson, the five star looking every bit like it.
Marcus Burton leaves early at TCU Friday night. I said
it to you guys on Friday, I would take a
Notre Dame out of the playoffs for the basketball team
to win at TCU, and the sports gods literally said,
are you sure about that?

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
There may be some revision? Is his watch going on there?

Speaker 16 (01:08:36):
What's the percentage of Notre Dame basketball football fans that
are like you? Because I don't think there's many that
would say that. Respect to you, Kevin.

Speaker 7 (01:08:46):
I think Ryan Bowen's the only other one I've ever
met in my life. What a great win at TCU,
A great week for Notre Dame basketball last week. Jalen
Harrelson outstanding. It's a shot to send it an overtime
cole Certa hitting the ree small over the state of Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
Let's go, man, let's go.

Speaker 7 (01:09:04):
It's basketball season in South Bend.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
Baby, there will be a basketball game tomorrow Night's Big
Ten Indiana hoasting Penn State at eight thirty tomorrow night.
There you go, Kevin, what's going on? Let him rest
on that one. He said what he had to say.
He's taking a drink of water.

Speaker 16 (01:09:23):
He's got to get ready to give his thoughts on
the Notre Dame football team.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
I do so we be for an hour. I'm gonna
let you go. You might want to take another sip
of that water, because I've seen you worked up out
in the coffee hall too. We'll do it all next
ninety three five, one oh seven five the fans.

Speaker 6 (01:09:38):
And Mendoza takes the staff wants to throw it, fires
a Dawla field, It's free.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
Elijah Sorotti makes the touch.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Tech down.

Speaker 8 (01:09:50):
Here like like the seret seventeen yard pick for today,
and Indiana's.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
Back on top.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
Indiana would stay on top after a late missed field
goal by Ohio State and just unbelievable defensive play throughout
the game. Indiana goes on to win the Big Ten
Championship thirteen to ten. They are the number one seed.
Let's say that again, Kevin Bowen. They are the number
one seed in the college football playoff in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 16 (01:10:18):
Waffle House, right, yeah, open, twenty four to Seve.

Speaker 7 (01:10:21):
Right waffle House what they call Elijah sarat fifty to
fifty is eighty twenty when you throw it to hand.
That play looks so much like the Oregon play from
earlier this season. Third and eight, so on the Ohio
State corners shift onto Sarat right before the start of
that play, did not matter, back shoulder Sarat and making
that play looking back like his healthy self there all right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
So they are the number one seed in the college
football playoffs, which were announced yesterday just after noon. The
top four seeds. It'll get a buy Indiana, Ohio State
is number two, Georgia three, Texas Tech four. I keep
looking up and down even this morning, knowing what I know,
and I see jmu in, I see Tulane in and

(01:11:03):
I get how they got in. I don't like the setup,
but that's how it works whatever. But then I see
three loss Alabama in who's lost two of their last
four games, lost by three touchdowns to Georgia in the
conference championship. And if you want to go all the
way back to the beginning of the year, which the
committee didn't have a problem going back and look at
the Miami Notre Dame game to see what they saw.

(01:11:25):
In the first game of the season, Florida State was
a two touchdown winner over Alabama. Other than name recognition
in the fact that there's a heavy, heavy SEC bias
on these things, How the heck is Alabama in over
Notre Dame at this point in time?

Speaker 7 (01:11:39):
Jeff, what is the committee's job.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
To get the twelve best teams into this football playoff
under the criteria they set, which includes JMU and Tulane
and their paths to get in. Fine, whatever, I don't
agree with it, But outside of that, it's to find
the best football teams and ran them in order. You
cannot tell me that Notre Dame, who by the way,

(01:12:03):
went from number nine in their own rankings to all
of a sudden, they went one spot behind Alabama before
the conference championship games, didn't play a conference championship game
while Alabama got beat by three touchdowns and then goes
from being number nine in their rankings to out all together.

Speaker 7 (01:12:21):
Yeah, I knew Notre Dame was screwed a few weeks
back when the committee chair on live television did the
six to seventh thing.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
That's that's his legacy.

Speaker 7 (01:12:30):
By the way, as soon as I saw him, I said,
are literally bleeped. There is no chance in hell this
thing is going to run smoothly here over the next
few weeks. In the history of the college football playoff,
which again expands back over a decade, we've obviously had
the four team playoff before that. Alabama is the only
team to lose on Conference championship week and not move back.

(01:12:52):
Notre Dame the only team in that top twenty five
poll yesterday to have not played this weekend and move
back Alabama to me is the bigger gripe. Two weeks ago,
you had Notre Dame ranked higher than Alabama. What's happened
since then? Okay, Notre Dame went on the road won
by thirty over an ACC team in Stanford, Alabama. Over

(01:13:15):
the last two weeks. You just brought up what they
did in the SEC championship game. They had negative rushing yards,
by the way, in the SEC Championship game, negative rushing.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
Yards, and their quarterback was off. Win in the game.

Speaker 7 (01:13:25):
The week before that, they beat Auburn who had one
SEC win. That one SEC win was over an Arkansas
team who happened to be the Committee Chairs team. Well,
the committee chair the ad for Arkansas had to all
of a sudden fire his head coach this season, which
game was that after when Notre Dame went to Arkansas

(01:13:47):
and won by forty earlier this season. So Alabama in
two weeks they beat one SEC win Auburn and if
anybody watched that game, they watched Auburn have eight drops
in that game. Then they go the SEC championship game,
they get absolutely dog walked out of the Georgia Dome,
just get rolled and again negative rushing yards for the game.

(01:14:12):
And yet in the first time in eleven years, we
have a team lose on championship weekend and not drop
in the rankings at all. That makes absolutely zero sense
to me. We had the committee chair last night again, Hunter,
you're a check. I believe his name is Arkansas d
He is bringing up some of Alabama's wins from earlier

(01:14:33):
this season with teams that were previously ranked in the
top twenty five since win is that part of the
criteria because Notre Dame has several wins this season where
those teams were ranked at the time, and then they
fell out of the rankings largely due to Notre Dame
and those teams beating them. So that made zero sense
for me, and I still have the Miami gripe. When

(01:14:56):
the polls were debuted, whatever it was a month ago,
Notre Dame was eight spots ahead of Miami eight eight spots.
In that time Notre Dame did this, They won by
thirty nine over a nine win team. The next week
they go on the road to play an eight win
ACC team, they win by twenty two. The next week

(01:15:18):
they play another ACC team, they win by sixty three points,
and then that last game of the season, like I
just mentioned, they win by thirty over another ACC team
on the road. So in four weeks Notre Dame eight
spot lead on Miami. They win by thirty nine over
a nine win team, twenty two on the road over

(01:15:40):
an eight win team, sixty three over another ACC team,
and then thirty over another ACC team on the road.
Four wins, two over former top twenty five teams by
thirty eight points per game, and that eight spot lead
turns into a loss. It becomes a nine spot difference

(01:16:01):
with Miami jumping them in the final poll. It make
no sense to me whatsoever on how Alabama or Miami,
based off the rankings that we have seen with the
committee over the last month, how it plays out in
that manner. When Duke won Saturday, night, I thought Notre
Dame was out because I thought to myself, there's no
way they're going to leave the ACC fully out. And

(01:16:23):
for those that weren't totally following Duke at whatever, they
were seven and five were not going to be ranked
higher than James Madison. So James Madison was going to
get the last automatic berth, which meant that because the
ACC is too dumb to have Miami in their conference
championship game, which they should have had in the first.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Place, terrible tiye breaking.

Speaker 7 (01:16:41):
If the ACC puts Miami in their conference title game
based off the tie breaking rules, which should be on
the selection committee's rankings, then Miami theoretically wins Saturday night,
they get the automatic berth, and now we have Alabama, Miami,
and Notre Dame all in the playoff, which should be they.

Speaker 2 (01:16:56):
Screwed the whole thing up. But I also think there's
an element of we know that this committee is largely
influenced by the SEC and certainly to an extent, by
the Big Ten. There's no question about that. And I
know for a fact that behind the scenes, because I've
talked to some of these peoples over the years, these
conferences do not like the fact that Notre Dame has
been independent. They have their own network deal. They don't

(01:17:18):
have to share any of their their their basketball tournament revenues,
any of their their TV revenues with any of the
other teams. It's long been a source of consternation from
from conferences like the SEC. They couldn't wait behind those
closed doors to have an excuse to say, oh, sorry,

(01:17:39):
you're not going to take any of our money, You're
not going to share in any of our stuff. You
don't want to be a part of a conference and
share your stuff, Well, this is going to be part
of that consequence. I don't care what anybody says. I'm
not the biggest conspiracy theory guy in the world. There
is no way that didn't play a large part in
why Notre Dame. To your point, Kevin, there is no

(01:18:01):
logical way for them to have dropped in the rankings
the way they did, just based on what you outlined
right there, other than the fact that we don't have
to share with you, and this is how we're going
to justify it. And if you want to be a
part of what we're doing in the future, why don't
you hurry up and go ahead and try to join
a conference where we're tired of sharing our money with you,
mister independent.

Speaker 7 (01:18:21):
Now again, I firmly believe Notre Dame should have been
in I've got grape, like I just laid out over
both Bama and Miami. But I will repeat what I
said late last week. When you are ten and two,
you're not bulletproof. And Notre Dame lost to Miami in
text A and M and part of Notre Dame not
being in a conference, I don't necessarily think this means

(01:18:41):
they should join a conference. Let me be clear, but
part of not being in a conference means the start
of your season will be front loaded. You'll have Miami
in Texas A and m out of the gate. So
when you do and you're starting a freshman quarterback and
you're bringing in a new defensive coordinator, be wary because
if those games don't go your way as you're easing
into the season, it might come back to bite you.

(01:19:05):
And that is the reality of where they're at from
the schedule they obviously want at Texas A and m
A couple of years ago to start the season. That
I do think is a very real factor that Notre
Dame has got to live with and that more of
these teams are not gonna want to play you in
October and November and interrupt their conference schedule, so that
means August and September is going to matter more for you.
And if you watch a Miami text A and m game,

(01:19:28):
Notre Dame had growing things. They didn't trust j Carr.
In the Miami game, their defense looked awful against sex
A and m Now they lost by four points total.
They easily could have won both of those games. But
that is the reality of where Notre Dame is that
right now. Having said that, I thought that committee chair
is an absolute jackass moron.

Speaker 16 (01:19:47):
He's kind of just a meat shield for the whole process.
I mean, he is the face of it all, and
he doesn't help himself by the comments he says. But
I think the larger problem, Kevin is the other people
in that room too. Everybody's abiding this process that is
obviously flawed, and that's just the one guy that gets
to go on ESPN and answer good questions from Rhys

(01:20:07):
Davis and good pointed questions and he and he looks
terrible when he answers those questions.

Speaker 7 (01:20:12):
Again, the goal is to get the best let's call
it whatever, ten teams if you want to, you know,
group of five, put them to their I'm fine with
having one Cinderella in the in the in the twelve
team field. By computer tests, by eye test, Notre Dame
is easily one of the ten bests Jeff on Sunday morning.
If you looked at the National Championship odds, Notre Dame

(01:20:34):
was fourth on that list. You ask any of these
teams that made the field, they don't want to see
Notre Dame get you leave them out?

Speaker 2 (01:20:43):
Are you not getting an argument for me? I'm gonna
let it sit right there.

Speaker 16 (01:20:47):
Are you okay with them leaving or withdrawing from the
bowl game.

Speaker 7 (01:20:52):
Yeah, I'm not ready for that one yet. Maybe maybe
sometime in the nine o'clock hour we can.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
That really goes back to what I was talking about
that telling the folks at ESPN who were in bed
with the guys from the SEC and everybody else for
bowl games, Well, you're not going to get us to
profit off it. Here's the other thing about bowl games.
Schools don't make money from most bowl games.

Speaker 7 (01:21:13):
Yeah, Caleb, I don't love love it, but I also
think it's getting a tad overblown in this twenty twenty
five era of jewels. I mean Notre Dames played in
two balls under Marcus Freeman when they didn't make the playoffs.
It's not like Notre Dame annually. Besides, hey, we're not
going to play in the bowl game because to sum
up what Notre Dame football has had to deal with
in a bowl game recently, Sam Hartman decided to opt

(01:21:36):
out of a bowl game. Sam hart When Sam Hartman,
future seventh round NFL draft pick, is opting out of
a bowl game, we have issues with bulls. In the
year of twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
Three twelve, just had to find Iowa State in Kansas
State because they decided to not take invitations to bowl games.
Iowa State saying, not only do we have a bunch
of players hurt, but we don't have a head coach. Right, Yeah,
bowl games aren't what they used to be. Coming up
at a moment, we'll take some of your feedback again

(01:22:07):
on the text line and the fan call in line
two nine ten seventy is the number. Will do it.
As we continue on a Monday morning.

Speaker 10 (01:22:16):
All between the hash marks for Daniel Jones, going back
to the backfield is Jonathan Taylor. Jones on a counter
gives off to Taylor knifing trying to find his.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
Way into the end zone.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
He saying yes, touchdown.

Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
Good morning and welcome into the fan morning show. Lots
of celebration for IU, lots of heartbreak for Matt Taylor
in the Indianapolis Colts right now along with Kevin and
I'm Jeff Rickard James Boyd traveling back from Jacksonville. Right now,
Let's go to the phone lines at two nine ten
seventy and let people have some thoughts in saying of
their own, as we've been talking about this stuff all
morning long. We'll start with Jeff at two three nine

(01:22:52):
ten seventy. Good morning, Jeff, hope you're having a great Monday.
What is on your mind?

Speaker 19 (01:22:55):
Sir?

Speaker 18 (01:22:56):
It is a great Monday. Just a few points on
the IU game Saturday night, Saturday night, and my voice
is still a little rafty. Sorry about that. Well earned,
well erned to see that place. I think eighty percent
IU fans against Ohio State was incredible. Been there several
times and it's usually a very pro OSU crowd, so

(01:23:16):
that was fantastic. Shout out to the coaching staff and
the continuity of that coaching staff, because I think people
are asking, how is this possible that Signette has done
this in two years, and really I think it's a
ten year build. And shout out to him for understanding
that continuity and that coaching staff is critical.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
Compare that to what happened with Tom Allen.

Speaker 18 (01:23:37):
When he lost a couple of good coordinators. And thirdly,
I was confident in this team in August, put a
little bet down for IU thirty five bucks to win
the Big Ten championship game. And I'm going to use
that twelve hundred dollars payout to go to Pasadena.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
So all right, pretty damn good weekend. That's a good dal.
Get on on the Hoosiers earlier getting it back. Now,
your dad did some similar with the Cults, right, Caleb.

Speaker 7 (01:24:01):
Thank you Jeff for the call.

Speaker 16 (01:24:03):
Yeah, that that's correct. He just sold the forty nine
or Monday night tickets for the Colts.

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
And now that's still the game before the game.

Speaker 16 (01:24:12):
And and now those ticket prices will probably drop in
the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
So he thought was he was going to put that
money into playoff right.

Speaker 16 (01:24:21):
Right, And and now I guess he just has a
couple extra dollar bills for the pocket.

Speaker 7 (01:24:26):
So and again for I fans and Jeff, thank you.
You know that sort of sentiment from Saturday Night. You
know I shared with you at the start of the show.
I you know, married into a i'd say a pretty
big EU football family. And you know, my sister in
law was at the game, my brother in law was
at the game, my father in law was at the game.
And just to hear them, you know, share those memories,
it was. It was just a reminder of as cruel

(01:24:47):
as yesterday was for a cult fan or a Notre
Dame fan, or for Saturday for a pur new fan.
There there are those moments and sometimes you feel like
they're never going to occur, but what a scene. And then,
as you said, Pasadena, January first, four o'clock, I you
will play Oklahoma or Alabama. We know that. And then

(01:25:08):
if they move on, it would be Atlanta for the
Peach Bowl that next Friday. I want to say it's
January ninth. If seeds hold, you would face Texas Tech
potentially a rematch with the Oregon Oregon's the five there
and then the National Championship Game is Monday, January twentieth
that is in Miami, so honestly, it's a long flight

(01:25:28):
out there to California. But after that Atlanta, Miami, we
got a lot of directs to those various airports.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Just get all your money for Christmas. Just go go,
go see all of them.

Speaker 7 (01:25:39):
Well, easier said than done, but yes, no, it's much.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
Easier said done. But we see people do crazier things.
Men mortgage the house. Don't do that. Don't mortgage your
house for this stuff. Let's go one more quick phone
call before we break. Lewis wants to talk Colts this morning. Lewis,
what's on your mind?

Speaker 20 (01:25:56):
Yes, I don't think a lot of people understand how
bad situation the Colts are in. I mean, we gave
up two first draft draft picks for a saft gardener
and it looks like we're not going to go to
the playoffs. And I don't think even if Carli Ersay
wanted to replace Chris Ballard, I know if I'm an executive,

(01:26:18):
I wouldn't want.

Speaker 19 (01:26:18):
To come into this crap show. I mean, you don't
have two first round traff picks, you don't know who
your quarterback is going to be, and to make it
work you have money tied up in positions that really
aren't skilled positions, like in.

Speaker 20 (01:26:31):
The offensive line, the linebackers.

Speaker 19 (01:26:34):
That's a terrible situation.

Speaker 14 (01:26:36):
We're looking at least.

Speaker 20 (01:26:37):
About a four to five year rebuild just to get
underneath the mess that Ballert created.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
Thanks so phone call. We've talked about that earlier well.
To address some of that more on the other side
as well, and I'll start to talk to Kevin about
what could the path what do the various paths forward
look like for this team, both in the immediate and
in the long term. We'll do it as we continue here.
On Monday morning nine, they.

Speaker 1 (01:27:08):
Sees the Fan Morning Show with Kabi Shaby and Jeff.

Speaker 7 (01:27:12):
Here's the staff.

Speaker 2 (01:27:13):
Fernando throws it up field.

Speaker 3 (01:27:14):
Catches made at the thirty four yard line.

Speaker 4 (01:27:17):
Great grab, here's a Hoo's your doll already, Fernando Mendoza
is on the ground.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
I did not see it.

Speaker 5 (01:27:23):
ball game.

Speaker 2 (01:27:26):
Now he steps up.

Speaker 1 (01:27:27):
He's gonna be all right.

Speaker 6 (01:27:28):
And Mendoza takes the snap, wants to throw it, fires
it down the field.

Speaker 2 (01:27:32):
It's free.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
Elijah Soni makes the catch, touch stem it's gonna be
a twenty eight yard field goal. Here's the stamp field
and kicks the ball.

Speaker 5 (01:27:42):
It is wide.

Speaker 7 (01:27:43):
It is wide wide to the left. He missed the dast.

Speaker 8 (01:27:51):
Ndiana has big meal half steaks.

Speaker 7 (01:27:54):
Another one team on the cut right.

Speaker 1 (01:27:56):
Whoever the dude.

Speaker 2 (01:27:57):
Would be here. But now the hoosas we're flipping champs.

Speaker 1 (01:27:59):
Let's go oh.

Speaker 9 (01:28:00):
Playoffs are just starting, and now we're gonna get it
by and so you gotta win three games.

Speaker 2 (01:28:06):
Glass of Bob to be played.

Speaker 3 (01:28:12):
Here's an RTHO and it's an interception and it's picked
off by Devin Lloyd. Lloyd started right, cutting through, has left.
He's gonna be chopped down.

Speaker 10 (01:28:20):
Another twenty one yard line all between the hash marks
for Daniel Jones long back of the backfield as Jonathan Taylor.
Jones on a counter gives off to Taylor knifing trying
to fight.

Speaker 12 (01:28:30):
His way into the end zone.

Speaker 1 (01:28:31):
He's in yes, touchdown.

Speaker 10 (01:28:34):
Game is tied at seventh. Lawrence goes out of the
gun ball the right hash back to to pass he's
looking for to the right side and it's caught for
a touchdown of the end zones to Jacoby Myers. A
fourteen yard pass. There's a flag on the play and
Daniel Jones is down. Daniel Jones can't even make it
over to the sideline.

Speaker 7 (01:28:51):
If you looked at he is seated.

Speaker 11 (01:28:52):
On the turf and he just slams his helmet to
the grass. He is now limping over to the cold
sidelin Florence.

Speaker 1 (01:28:58):
Out of the gun ball the right hand and he's.

Speaker 12 (01:29:01):
Going to give off right side. The ets lashes inside
that thirty. He's got an apterue.

Speaker 10 (01:29:05):
He's going to go got the right sideline in the
infl for a touchdown untouched.

Speaker 13 (01:29:09):
Daniel Jones has an achy lease.

Speaker 2 (01:29:11):
Could be season inding.

Speaker 1 (01:29:13):
I don't have the full details on it.

Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
A lot of this stuff too.

Speaker 13 (01:29:15):
As you go through a season, you're gonna have You're
gonna go through some storms and some adversity and you've
got to overcome those.

Speaker 1 (01:29:20):

Speaker 13 (01:29:20):

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
It's very complicated. Kevin Bowen, the highs, the lows, it's
what we I suppose love about sports. But man as
high as we saw that stadium on Saturday, night at
Lucas Oil with the Indiana Colts fans feeling pretty low,

(01:29:48):
and there's a great cross section of Indiana University fans
and Colts fans and they probably didn't know what to
do with themselves after yessay, except compartmentalize. That's all you
can do is compartmentalize at this point in time.

Speaker 7 (01:30:01):
Avril Levine complicated, Caleb excellent.

Speaker 2 (01:30:04):
There.

Speaker 7 (01:30:04):
I feel like I'm watching an episode of the Hills
from back in my high school days hearing that song,
you know, when Mendoza went down, and boy, that was
a that was quite the clip you played there early on.
You know, for a moment there, I'm like, they're literally
can't be nice things at all. I mean, can you
imagine if like Banana Mendoza had been hurt bad on
that hit by by the way, Kay and Gray from

(01:30:24):
Center Grove played a great game for for Ohio State there,
but you imagine if we had that and you know,
Higo State would have won that game. But nonetheless, Mendoza
pops up and the rest is history. A night to
remember inside of Lucas Soil Stadium for Indiana fans, just
the scene, you know, Aidan Fisher queuing up the crowd
in the fight song. That's probably a memory that always
having watching that and can only imagine what it was

(01:30:45):
like for people you know that were in the building
witnessing that. And you know, like I've said throughout the show,
Jeff defense, defense, defense, the Indiana defense is championship level
and that is the aspect of this team that stands
out the most. I know that Fernando Mendoza will lift
the high trophy on Saturday, and he made a huge
throw and catched Charlie Becker along with the one earlier

(01:31:05):
in the second half to him to ice that game.
But the Indiana defense, in particularly that defensive line has
really been the unit all year long. You know, Dante
Moore hadn't been sacked all season long. First play the
Oregon game sack. You go back to the Illinois game
earlier this season when I forget what the final number was,
seven to eight, it might have even been more than

(01:31:27):
that sacks that they had. And then what they did
to Ohio States offense on Saturday night, you know, you
think about it, the only touchdown Ohio States score was
because that an interception put them in a great field
position there, so that is what is the thing I
probably holding the highest regard abouts Indiana team. Again, the
curtzying Naty coaching job is right up there with any ever,

(01:31:47):
but that defense. It is championship worthy.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
It is championship worthy. And one of the things I've
liked about this team all year long is how physical
they could be. And they've shown that defensively all the time.
But they've also been able to be a physical football
team at times along the offensive line. Their running game
has gone underrated at some point in time because you
have these amazing talented receivers in sarat and Cooper and Becker,
and they've had a nice running game. It is and

(01:32:15):
you don't say this often, you know about any team, Kevin,
This Indiana team is a really complete football team. Wouldn't
you say it's a really complete team.

Speaker 7 (01:32:25):
They really have great balance, you know, I've special teams.
I've always thought their run game also is something that
you know, provides the offense, you know, again, really really
solid one two punch there. Yeah, they are, I mean
they you know, what is their weakness? It's really hard
to say.

Speaker 19 (01:32:41):
I know.

Speaker 7 (01:32:41):
At times, Kurtzignetti has mentioned that he feels like, you know,
maybe they're susceptible to the occasional big play, but you
know it's like Ohio State hit on that too too
much on Saturday. Yeah, you had the rare field goal
miss from them, and again I thought Ryan Day was
so cowardly and kicking that field goal there at the end.
I thought he deserved exactly what he got. I think
as soon as you make that decision, A, you missed

(01:33:03):
the kick, and then B Mendoza to beckert Ice the
game like that to me is just peak coaching softness.
I guess it's the word that's popping into my head.
And you deserve exactly what you got from there. But again,
credit to Indiana for putting themselves in a position to
take advantage of that, keeping Ohio State out of the
end zone for so much of Saturday night and pitching

(01:33:24):
a shutout and you know, one of the biggest moments
that program has ever had.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
So they're the number one seed in the College Football Playoff,
which means they'll get a buye the first week and
then they will play whom have Well we'll know the
winner of a game here in a second. But my
point is they next play at the Rose Bowl. Kevin
four o'clock. Is it New Year's Day?

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
Correct?

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
Now a day? Yep, as always. That's when the roseball.
That's one thing I like about the rose Ball. It's
either gonna be a three thirty or four o'clock start
on New Year's Day, regardless of what's going on.

Speaker 7 (01:33:51):
Yeah, you have one quarter final game on New Year's
Eve that will not be Indiana's. Indiana will be one
of the three. I think it's three games on New
Year's Day. They'll know their opponent coming up here. What
is it a week from Friday? I think Alabama Oklahoma's
the first. Yeah, that's first Friday night. That's the Friday night.

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
Yeah, that's a rematch game Oklahoma won by two at
Alabama earlier.

Speaker 7 (01:34:11):
This year on in Norman.

Speaker 2 (01:34:13):
Yeah, totally. Because those first those first round games are
all gonna be home games. So Oregon will be playing
at home against JMU, Oklahoma at home against Alabama, Ole
Miss home against Tulane in Texas A, and M home
against Miami, Texas A and M. That's one team people
keep talking about the fact that everybody should be afraid of,
but they got a brutal scuy if they would if

(01:34:33):
they were to go play in the national championship game.
They would probably have to beat both Ohio State and
Georgia just to get to the championship game.

Speaker 7 (01:34:41):
Yeah, I thought the draw for Indiana worked out really well.
I mean the fact that you have for one seed right, well,
it didn't last year. Yeah, that last year was if
you once seed was like almost one of the worst
last year. And you see Ohio State at the eight
and nine and I think that was the interesting, you
know element a little bit yesterday when you had some
of those projected brackets of potentially in the eight nine game.

(01:35:02):
But now that it's you know, Oklahoma and Alabama, I think,
you know, you you breathe a little bit. There's probably
always a little SEC element to it, you know.

Speaker 15 (01:35:10):
I know.

Speaker 7 (01:35:10):
I think last year, the fact that Notre Dame like
had to beat Georgia to get on their run, I
think that matters. I think for Indiana fans, you know,
beating the SEC team, not that Oklahoma and Alabama are like,
you know whatever, viewed as the best team in the
SEC this year, but still beating the team from that conference,
I think always matters a little bit more, particularly on
a neutral field, which is what you would get there,

(01:35:31):
So I don't know. I think that maybe just kind
of sweetens the potential path for them to make it
all the way to the national title.

Speaker 2 (01:35:37):
Can you imagine Indiana Ohio State again at the national
championship game.

Speaker 16 (01:35:41):
I'd sign up for it, I think. I think it's
as a fan, it'd be an awesome game. I think
those are two best teams in college football. And I
also want to add this Kevin too. And I'm curious
because we talked Friday about it, Like, I think both
teams really cared and again all the talk about conference
championships not meaning as much, both those teams played hard

(01:36:03):
and it was a fun game to watch. It didn't
get the pomp and circumstance because there were no real
consequences for the loser in a one versus two matchup.
But I just really appreciated that both teams won it.
And I think it makes the Ryan day point about
kicking that field goal all the more head scratching.

Speaker 7 (01:36:19):
Yeah, and I heard from some Ohio State fans on
Sunday of we expended all our energy in ann Arbor
the previous Saturday. Come on, Yeah, I know, but welcome
to Ohio State fans. But That is why I am
curious for a matchup for a rematch potentially here in
a little over a month, because is that real or

(01:36:41):
is that not? I think it is fair to say
the biggest game in Ohio State schedule before the national
title is the Michigan game. Like, I don't think there's
any ignoring that. I said it last week. It's why
I picked ay you, I picked IU in the win
because I did think that that game mattered more to
you than it did to Ohio State. So what would
that play out here in a little over a month.

(01:37:03):
But again, you know the fact that as a program,
you get to have that moment on Saturday night. Indiana
fans aren't going to care whether Ohio State circled it,
you know, more or less on the calendar and the
end of the day, they ended a thirty year streak
against Ohio State and won a Big ten championship in
the state capital. That's all they care about, and.

Speaker 2 (01:37:23):
It's people are still walking around on cloud nine today
as they should if they're Indiana football fans. They have
had an unbelievable dream season and it continues on. As
the top seed in the College Football Playoff, Notre Dame
on the outside looking in. We've talked about that a lot, Kevin,
did you get it off your chest? Do you feel
like you've cleared clear the air now? We gave you

(01:37:44):
a good twelve minutes a few minutes ago.

Speaker 7 (01:37:46):
Why does BYU drop but Alabama doesn't.

Speaker 2 (01:37:50):
Because they're Alabama and the SEC folks who make up
a large part of that committee and who drive these things.
There's Alabama's got three losses, and they've been awful in
the last month, and they got beat by three touchdowns
in their conference championship game. They don't deserve to be
in this playoff. The fact that they've actually risen in

(01:38:11):
the polls while they've been subpar for the last month,
and Notre Dame, to your point, has been ripping people
apart and has dropped consistently in the last couple of weeks.
Why even have the rankings?

Speaker 16 (01:38:23):
It just means more in the SEC, guys, you know
Tennessee and Missouri or quality wins, don't you know, like
those are good, hard fought football teams because the SEC
is just so competitive.

Speaker 7 (01:38:34):
I think I've bitched a moan enough. No one wants
to hear me a bitch of moon anymore. Uh So
you're telling me a fourth grader has never seen the
Colts win in Jacksonville ever, like fourth grade twelve?

Speaker 2 (01:38:47):
Is it eleven fair to say that from Rosie's perspective, it's.

Speaker 7 (01:38:51):
Been eleven years, right, twenty fourteen? You got to go back,
So I don't know, third grader something like that, you've
never seen the Colts.

Speaker 2 (01:38:57):
Even for the younger ones? Is it fair to say
that that in Rosie's lifetime, Trevor Lawrence is Indianapolis's daddy. Yeah,
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:39:07):
Said might be C. J. Strouds Stroud's one all three
times he's played in lucas Oo Stadium against the Colts.
That I mean both, I guess could be.

Speaker 2 (01:39:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:39:17):
It just of all the losses you could make an
argument of all the losses down there in Jacksonville, yesterday's
is the most crippling because of the long term ramifications
of it, of the cloudiness, the murkiness you put on
your franchise. Now and again, I don't think any of
the answers are obvious right now, Okay, Like it's very

(01:39:37):
easy to say fire everybody, but as we pointed out
all morning long, that means you're handing a new rebuild.
No first round picks, not for two years, not just
next year. Yeah, and again, in my very very twelve hour,

(01:39:58):
I want to give this more, but my first gut
is no, might as well just start Anthony Richardson in
twenty twenty six. Well, then he's under contract for one
more year. That's not the fifth year team option. Daniel
Jones with an achilles injury likely I guess out. And so, okay,
what do you do quarterback wise? You don't have a
first round pick. Are you really going to go out

(01:40:20):
there and spend major money? It's weird because so much
of your roster says will win now, because look at
Buckner's age, look at Nelson's age, look at Taylor's age.
You look at Franklin's age, look at Mooney Ward, Kenny Moore.
I mean, I can go on and on with all
the ages that you have with this roster, But what
it says to you that you should go out there

(01:40:41):
and all of a sudden spend more? And like, what
does the Daniel Jones contract look like? I mean, you're
not slapping the franchise. The whole franchise tag idea is
gone obviously, So what are you doing contractually with him?

Speaker 2 (01:40:53):
Are you ready? Here's the big question, are you ready
to blow the whole thing up and start over? I mean,
I thought that I should been fired last year.

Speaker 7 (01:41:01):
I wrote at the end of the season, talk about
the year Ballard and Gus Bradley with the two that
I thought should have gone last year. Yeah, there is
an element to that, Jeff. That thought has also crossed
my mind in the last twelve hours. You know, if
you start to trade some of these pieces whatever Buckner, Taylor,
whoever you want to view that could lend something in return,

(01:41:26):
all of a sudden, do you create draft picks that
get you back in the round one? Yeah, you are
blowing it up, but are you helping out the rebuild
a little bit more? I think it's a very real
conversation you have to have. And the unknown in all
of this is we have no idea how Carly or
say Gordon views.

Speaker 2 (01:41:42):
It and who would be in charge of the rebuild too.

Speaker 7 (01:41:46):
And as we've debated here really ever since Carly was hired,
are Chris should Chris Bouten? And change that can be
tied together because if we just gave out individual letter
grades for the two, they would not be the same
letter grade. But should gms and head coaches be tied
at the hYP no matter when they're hired.

Speaker 2 (01:42:04):
Well and the complicated party, I largely think.

Speaker 7 (01:42:06):
That, yeah, But at the same time, I don't view
Ballard and Striking in their individual jobs in the same light.

Speaker 2 (01:42:13):
And it's always too if you do bring in a
new general manager, the head coach is not necessarily.

Speaker 7 (01:42:18):
His guy, correct I mean, look at the Tennessee situation.
You know, it rarely goes well. I think San Francisco
maybe is one of the few times, right if I
remember correctly, where John Lynch was hired with Kyle Shanahan
already on staff and it's worked out. It's one of
the very rare instances in the NFL where you see
head coach in place, new GM comes in and somehow

(01:42:41):
that process works out. So, you know, I assume it'll
be Riley Leonard here over the final four weeks. That's
at Seattle, San Francisco, Jacksonville, at Houston, you know, weirdly
for the playoff crowd out there, maybe we can get
more into this. On the other side, there's not a
lot of like basically right now, if you look at
the AFC Playoffs. You could make the case it's eight

(01:43:02):
teams for seven spots. Yeah, and if the Chargers lose tonight,
the Colts do have the head to head and they
have the same record as them, and you could make
a case the Chargers schedule the rest of the season
is harder than the Colts schedule the rest of the year.
Now I say all that and say, are the Colts
gonna win another game? I mean, you could be looking

(01:43:26):
at I don't believe Alec Pearce's inconcussion protocol, will have
to see the injury update is. But let's just play
this out. You're looking at a game at Seattle on Sunday,
potentially without Daniel Jones, Braden Smith, the Forrest Buckner and Sausgartner.

Speaker 2 (01:43:40):
I don't feel confident and.

Speaker 7 (01:43:42):
You're a ten point underdog. So yeah. The amount of
questions that now must be discussed inside of Colts headquarters
at nine am today Verst where you were nine am yesterday,
is just amazing, amazing. There there are some comparisons to

(01:44:04):
the Tyres Haliburton thing. I think there are a lot
of differences as well. But man, and I'll just say this, boy,
I feel so so bad for Daniel Jones. You know,
I'm not going to pretend to know Daniel Jones super well.
He strikes me as a nice guy. Obviously he's been
pretty subdued with the media, but have heard, you know,
his greeammates love it good things about him, and just
to watch his frustration on the field and to see,

(01:44:27):
you know, I can imagine he's been through a lot
as a professional athlete and not working out in New York,
seemingly finding this success here and then all of a
sudden over the last month it doesn't go well. And
not to mention if you want to just bring up
the financials, he probably lost what I don't know, fifty
some million just with that injury. You know, wats to
see how it all plays out, but you wish you

(01:44:49):
could just turn off injuries sometimes in sports.

Speaker 2 (01:44:51):
Daniels Jones is what twenty eight?

Speaker 7 (01:44:53):
Ah, that strikes me. It's probably right around there, twenty eight,
twenty nine, something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:44:56):
So the other thing that that Chris Pallard and the
Colts have to figure out is you now have an
oft injured guy coming off and Achilles who will be
twenty nine. And although they loved what he did, the
first eight games of this season. How do you put
together a full evaluation?

Speaker 7 (01:45:14):
Now, Well, the most consistent thing on the Daniel Jones resume,
sadly injuries, is his injury history. That's the most consistent
thing on his resume. And again that's the one gripe
as we if you want to go back to the
Sauce Gardener trade and you had time constraints on it
because the trade headline was there, the one gripe would
be has Daniel Jones earned this? Is two months of

(01:45:39):
good football enough for you to make that move, because
Daniel Jones's resume would lead you to say, oh boy,
I don't think he has earned that. And I think
at the time it was a very fair conversation not
only just his own individual play, but probably more of
his availability.

Speaker 2 (01:45:56):
So the other thing I want to point out too,
for for Anthony Richardson, it felt like at the beginning
of the year, when they named Daniel Jones the starting quarterback,
that they had kind of made their decision to kind
of move on from Anthony Richardson as any thought of
being a franchise quarterback.

Speaker 7 (01:46:12):
It felt that way.

Speaker 2 (01:46:13):
Am I overstating that?

Speaker 11 (01:46:14):
No?

Speaker 9 (01:46:15):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:46:16):
And so now he's coming back off an injury, and
I know for the crowd that'll say, well, you know
he was eight and seven as a starter. Wasn't a disaster,
But you never felt like, hey, this is the guy
we're going to hitch our wagons too, and it's all
going to be good. Do you do you sign him?
Do you pick up that fifth year and say, Okay,
Anthony Richardson, show us what you got.

Speaker 7 (01:46:35):
Yeah, right now, I don't think you need to pick
that up. But you know, again, in my twelve hour thoughts,
I think Anthony Richardson potentially as your starting quarterback in
twenty twenty six is potentially the route to explore. I
don't know. If someone wants to present another option to me,
I'll happily open my ears and listen to it.

Speaker 2 (01:46:56):
All right, we'll get to some headlines from yesterday's game
coming up in a moment, but right now we've got
to check.

Speaker 15 (01:47:00):
It down the Morning Checkdown on ninety thwee five and
one oh seven five the band Kevin.

Speaker 2 (01:47:07):
We're going to start with the good news. The Indiana
Hoosiers are the number one ranked team in the nation.
They are the number one seed in the twenty twenty
five College Football Playoff. They have a bye in the
first round and they will be waiting for the winner
of Alabama Oklahoma. They'll play that game at four o'clock
in the afternoon New Year's Day at the Rose Bowl.

(01:47:28):
Georgia won the SEC championship game. They are the number
three seed, Texas Tech the four seed. Interesting that Ohio
State stays the number two seed and flip flop. And
I go back to what you said a minute ago.
You had a pretty good idea that if it was
a close fought game, that Indiana and Ohio State were
going to be the one in two seeds in this
college football playoff. Why did Ohio State just go for

(01:47:50):
it with really not much to lose there at the
very end instead of trying for a tying field goal.

Speaker 7 (01:47:55):
Hell, I thought the dude almost missed the first chip shot.
I thought that thing was going to Rickcochet. I thought
we're getting ano what's his name? Michael Badsley off the
left up right. Shout out to Blake Groupie kicking nicely
in the rain yesterday. But yeah, quite the cowardly decision.
And then Charlie b from Tennessee making another play to
quote Gus Johnson as he hauled that in from Fernando

(01:48:16):
Mendoza to kind of I think cement the game and
cement the Heisman trophy as well, and then quite the
scene played out from there.

Speaker 2 (01:48:24):
We also have to mention that Notre Dame was left
out of the College Football Playoff twelve team inchree. They
have decided to not play in any kind of a
bowl game. How are you okay? You okay with them
not playing in a bowl game?

Speaker 14 (01:48:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:48:36):
I probably should say that for a few more thoughts
on that, I don't want to. I think there was
a little bit more there than Matt I don't love
love it. I also can sit here and say when
Sam Hartman decided not to play in a bowl game
a few years ago as a future seventh round pick
in the NFL, I thought to myself, are we about
done with these bowl games? I mean, opt outs galore
galore in these bowl games, And like, there's part of

(01:48:58):
me that once the nil to be tied to plane
in a postseason game. Like if I'm whatever company here
or revenue sharing here, and I'm handing you this amount
of money, Jeff Record, I'm saying to you, I expect
you play in the postseason game, yep. And I don't
care if it's a playoff game or if it's a
bowl game.

Speaker 2 (01:49:16):
Yep. I would agree with that. NFL yesterday obviously the
Colts losing in Jacksonville thirty six nineteen, But the lead
is that Daniel Jones has an achilles injury. Will get
confirmation later today if it's torn. It seems to be
that that's going to be the case, and let's forego
the grand future. What are the Colts do in the

(01:49:37):
immediate quarterback Kevin Bowena.

Speaker 7 (01:49:39):
I assume it's Ryley Leonard, and they do have Brett
Rippen on their practice squad. He has started. I want
to say, it's a handful of games in the NFL.
The last time he threw a pass though, is twenty
Denver or was it? Yeah, I was in Denver. I
think he got in with Cincinnati earlier this year but
didn't throw a pass. So that was twenty twenty three,
so you know you could go there, but you know,
I to me, I just say, hey, treat Riley Leonard

(01:50:03):
like you treated them in the opening drive of the
National Title Game. Run him to death and throw a
couple jump balls to all of Pierce and see what happens.

Speaker 2 (01:50:10):
Colts now have to get ready for a game coming
up next Sunday at home against the Seattle Seahawks, and
we'll talk about that more as the week moves along.
Last night AFC South Sunday Night Football, Houston Texans come
up with a twenty to ten victory over the Kansas
City Chiefs. Speaking about fourth down decisions there in a
game that was still tied in close second half, Andy

(01:50:30):
Reid on his own thirty one yard line goes for
fourth and one and fails miserably, and he's taking some
criticism for that.

Speaker 7 (01:50:37):
Yeah, No, I didn't get that one at all, especially
against that Houston defense. So big, big win for the Texans.
Chiefs on life support and right now with that win,
that did knock the Colts out of the playoff picture,
so they are the eighth seed currently. Houston goes above
Indianapolis and.

Speaker 2 (01:50:54):
Later on tonight Philadelphia playing Los Angeles on Monday Night Football,
the Chargers version of the Los Angeles That is an
interesting game from the Colts perspective.

Speaker 7 (01:51:02):
Kevin, Yes, if you are a fan of the Colts
making the playoffs, you want the Eagles badly tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:51:08):
Mark not here today, but I did want to mention
that the Green Bay Packers did beat the Chicago Bears,
because he's probably listening somewhere right now. I want to
throw that in. Okay, Who've got a big grin on
your face?

Speaker 16 (01:51:19):
You'll have to answer and June tomorrow, so all right.

Speaker 7 (01:51:22):
Oh and Mark, he's going to remember that one.

Speaker 2 (01:51:24):
NBA later on tonight. The Abana Pacers, coming off of
victory Friday night on the road in Chicago, will be
taking on these Sacramento Kings. If you're a Demana Sabonas fan,
you will not be able to see him tonight. Kevin
Pacers favored. I like that, it doesn't happen very often.

Speaker 7 (01:51:38):
Again, nice road win their first one of the year
on Friday. Siaka matherin great and the Ethan Thompson story.
You'll probably get more into it tomorrow. Th Rick Carlisle,
but it makes his NBA debut plays well for the team. Unfortunately,
the Pacers have had had a few of these stories
this season, but really cool to see.

Speaker 2 (01:51:55):
Also in the NBA last night, Oklahoma City Will went
over the Utah Jazz by thirty points. Are twenty three
and one. KB they are rolling through not just the
Western Conference, but all of the NBA right now. College basketball. Yesterday,
Indiana State a winner over Southern Indiana seventy seven to
fifty five was the final score. There. One other football

(01:52:16):
game I didn't want to bring up over the weekend.
Depau seasons come to an end in Division three. They
lost their second round playoff game to Wheaton. Forty nine.
Twenty four was the final score in that one.

Speaker 7 (01:52:27):
Yeah, only other one I wanted to mention. Shout out
to the volleyball programs in West Lofie. Adam Bloom met
in both in the sweet sixteen. For IU, it's really unprecedented.
I think they've getten number one Texas coming up here
in the sweet sixteen round. Perdy has had a great
run under Dave Shawn Down. They are back in the
sweet sixteen.

Speaker 2 (01:52:43):
All right, that's going to wrap it up for the Checkdown.
We'll talk about the Colts and maybe some people thoughts
on that. You can hit us up on the text
line two three, nine, ten to seventy all about the
Achilles I think for the Colts, and we'll talk about
it next ninety three five one or seven to five.

Speaker 10 (01:53:00):
On second down kids off to Jonathan Taylor powering. He
lost the ball inside the thirty yard yards and it's
picked up by the jack walls. Taylor was fighting for
extra yards and in the process the ball came out.
It's a recovery by Jerry and Jones, the cornerback of
the Colts, have just turned it over in their own territory.

Speaker 2 (01:53:23):
The highs the lows. Being a sports fan Indiana on
the way to the college football playoff the number one seed,
watching video right now at ESPN off Daniel Jones limping
off the field in Jacksonville yesterday, and we'll get confirmation
later today whether or not he did in fact tear
that achilles. But all you need to see is him
slamming that helmet down on the sideline and going immediately

(01:53:45):
to the blue tent. Kevin, that was the look of
a man who knew exactly what had just happened.

Speaker 7 (01:53:50):
Yeah, fell awful for him. Yeah, everything he's been through
leaving New York and you know what he's found here.
And I know his play had dipped a little bit
over the last month. I thought it was a really,
really bad interception to start the game yesterday. Unfortunately, Yeah,
you just fell off of for him, it seems like
a good dude and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:54:10):
People still want to talk about the defense, though, Dude
from Cicero says, enjoy the show a couple of things though,
Can we finally talk about the defense always gaps, giving
up the big play and third down conversions consistently all season?
Every season they looked amazing first two weeks, steady declined
since and I understand they mostly keep points low, but
thirteen ten is still a loss. A game like yesterday

(01:54:30):
makes everybody feel about how this defense is ninety five
percent of the season. So just not happy generally with
the Colts as the season has progressed, and we've talked
about that. So one of the reasons they went out
and got Sauce Gardner, and for the most part they
just haven't had a consistent pass rush along that defensive front.
And you know, got even harder when DeForest Buckner goes

(01:54:52):
out because now he's not even demanding a there's nobody
there demanding a double team, even in the middle of
the of the line.

Speaker 7 (01:54:56):
Yeah, I think if you were looking at the season
as a whole, what are the Colts fourteen games in
something like that? Thirteen you know I'd put that defensive
effort yesterday up there with one of the worst of
the year. And I get no Gardner, no Buckner, Jacksonville
en counter and say, we didn't have our left tackle,
we didn't have our leading pass catcher. Okay, season high

(01:55:16):
Trevor Lawrence doesn't look like that all year. For those
that have not watched the Jags, that was the best
game in that weather Trevor Lawrence produced that You did
not hit or sack him one time. How do you
not just fall into one of those? How does Trevor
Lawrence not just like trip and fall and you know
Samson ebucom just steps on them.

Speaker 2 (01:55:35):
And that offensive it wasn't at full strength either.

Speaker 7 (01:55:38):
No, they were without their left tackle. Like I said,
it just yeah and big picture like meeting the moment.
It's weird for me to say the moment is Jacksonville
and Houston, but those are the teams in your division
and in the Stiking era. You're two and eight against
him against the Tech, and we don't talk about the
Texans then Jags, like we talk about you know, other

(01:56:02):
vaunted teams in the NFL. You know, no one is
talking about them in the top five ten I don't
even know if they're talking about in the top fifteen
of the league over the last three years. Hell Jacksonville
fired their coach, so I think that is bothersome. I
didn't I know we touched on a little bit earlier.
I want to go back to that sequence late first half,
because I thought the game was still real right after

(01:56:23):
Gover Stewart got the force fumble. I think in the
rain games, anything could happen.

Speaker 2 (01:56:27):
Jack turn over here, maybe get a pick, right.

Speaker 7 (01:56:29):
I mean, we saw fumbles there on the second quarter
by by both teams. And when you got that force
fumble and you are across the fifty and it's now
under two minutes, I'm thinking I said, okay, you get
score here. Now you go into halftime, get the ball
to start the third and now potentially you know, we're

(01:56:50):
looking at a tie game or we're looking at a
three point game, four point game, and now game pressure
is back on. And when you got the third and
one and the fourth and one, and with Ryley and
where is Riley Leonard gifted with his legs, either running
it purely or just making you know, plays, whether he
scrambled and keep a play alive like the first third

(01:57:10):
down conversion. He had to pierce. You know, he rolls
out of the left, he all of a sudden keeps
a play alive. Then he throws that little dump pass
kind of to Pierce. You threw a pocket pass, which
is not Ryle Leonard's strength at all to Moiley Cox.
Now that sets up fourth and one. Everybody in the
world knows Jonathan Taylor's gonna get the ball on fourth
and one. After you threw it on third and one, boom,
Jacksonville blows it up. To me, that was way too

(01:57:32):
greedy from shane'sagin in that weather. Rookie quarterback first meaningful
snaps in the NFL, played his strengths. Or just run
it with Taylor on third down and then if you're
in a fourth down you run it again or cross
that bridge when it comes. That's how I would have
approached hell Q be sneaky with Leonard.

Speaker 2 (01:57:53):
One thing that was interesting, and J. J. Watt talked
about this a little bit too, Is there any kind
of fear that Look, Riley Leonard does run the ball
all well, but if you start to utilize him a
lot as a runner and he gets cracked and he
gets hurt. Now, what do you do?

Speaker 19 (01:58:07):
Well?

Speaker 7 (01:58:07):
Who cares?

Speaker 2 (01:58:08):
You got to try to win a football game, right,
who cares?

Speaker 7 (01:58:10):
I mean, we can't be playing with kid gloves. I
mean you're on your're in the NFL, go play, You're
on your six string or your sixth round pick at quarterback.
One thing I also wanted to bring up from the
game because I know we got this a lot of
this debate last Monday. Remember one of the big discussion
points last Monday, Jeff was why does Stiken take the
ball to start the game. It was funny as I

(01:58:32):
saw the weather forecast play out Friday, Saturday Sunday, it
hit me because all the weather forecast pointed to more rain.
As the game moved along, it hit me like, if
you win the coin toss, you take the ball. You
want the ball when it's the best weather, when you're
not dealing with the That was a rare break in
the weather for the first conditions. The first quarter was

(01:58:55):
actually rather tame, and sure enough, the Colts win the
toss and they defer, And I thought to myself, boy,
I get that that's the common thought. But in the
weather games, you often see teams like play to the
wind in the weather Hey, I want the wind, you know,
when a we have the ball if possible, If not,

(01:59:15):
I want to try to get it in the fourth quarter,
you know, or something like that, when I know what
score and time is and all of that. I actually
thought that was a mistake yesterday. Now having said that
Daniel Jones threw a pick in the perfect weather, so
or I say perfect in the best weather that there
was yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:59:30):
Samford Newcastle says, looks like ar next year and maybe
the return of Jones the year after. I don't know
if it's quite that simple right now, Kevin.

Speaker 7 (01:59:37):
Again, all of these questions are fair to be asked.
All of them have very difficult answers. I saw someone
point out in the text line could Riley Leonard show
you anything over the final four weeks of the season
that leads to him being in a quarterback competition for
next year? You wouldn't just give the keys to him,
of course, but would you have a quarterback competition? I just, man,

(02:00:00):
if you're not laughing at some of this, you're going
to be crying.

Speaker 2 (02:00:03):
Quick time out. We'll finish up strong with a couple
more of your thoughts here on the fan text line
at two three nine, ten, seventy, get you ready to
go for a Monday where at least if you're an
Indiana football fan, you can celebrate today and you should
be celebrating and lean into that. It's all coming up
on ninety three five and they're.

Speaker 3 (02:00:21):
At the eighteen yard line where they'll snap it two.
It'll be a twenty eight yard field goal.

Speaker 2 (02:00:27):
What a great job by that defense and putting a
little peer got in this offense not going for it.
Here's the snap field and kicks the ball.

Speaker 14 (02:00:35):
It is wide, It is wide wide to the left.

Speaker 7 (02:00:40):
He missed it.

Speaker 3 (02:00:43):
It'll take over the football and they have the leader.

Speaker 2 (02:00:46):
At thirteen to ten. Feel good for Don Fisher spoke
in his voice and that enthusiasm for every Indiana who's
your football fan ever, Kevin, because man, did that moment arrive.
And now, as the coach said on the on the

(02:01:08):
on the state, on the the big platform afterwards, he's
got two weeks to get these guys hungry and humble again.
Three and a half, right, three and a half. Well, yeah,
before they get back to work, you know, really get
back to preparing for a specific opponent.

Speaker 7 (02:01:22):
The year's day, four o'clock. Uh, Fernando Mendoza's high school coach.
You're going to join us coming up tomorrow, So we
should have Rick Carlyle and Dave Dunn, who I know
is really close with Fernando, and shout out. Anthony Calhoun
from WISH is all caught up with Fernando's mom who
has MS. Post game there, you know, I know we've

(02:01:43):
talked about the story before on air. Fernando's brother partner
from an NIL standpoint, help brate some money for MS
and his brother got to play a play his brother did. Boy,
how about that moment? That was scary, too unbelievable. What
a hit from Cayden Curry, legal hit from Caiden Caiden
Curry the center Grolve product weight though played really well.

Speaker 2 (02:02:02):
Took Fernando a moment to get his faculties and name
ranking Cereal number all straight again.

Speaker 7 (02:02:06):
You imagine if that injury would have occurred and then
coupled with what we just witnessed on Sunday, I think
that was the classic.

Speaker 2 (02:02:11):
You literally had the wind knocked out of you a
kount of mine, wasn't.

Speaker 7 (02:02:14):
It a lot of wind? I feel like I was
knocked out of him with that hit there, So new
year's day, Alabama or Oklahoma for Indiana in that quarterfinal matchup.
Oklahoma can't move the football and Alabama's really banged up
and has played pretty bad football over the last month.

Speaker 2 (02:02:32):
All right, are you ready for the list of free
agent quarterbacks on the market next year in the NFL? Kevin, No, geez?
You ready for this?

Speaker 7 (02:02:41):
Are we really there?

Speaker 2 (02:02:41):
Are you ready for this? Daniel Jones, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson,
Marcus Mariota, Zach Wilson, Tyrod Taylor, Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett,
Jimmy Garoppolo. It's essentially the usual suspects.

Speaker 7 (02:02:57):
I'd rather put my oil on my coffee then hear
that list.

Speaker 2 (02:03:04):
That's the list, guys.

Speaker 7 (02:03:06):
Again, all these questions are now having to be asked,
Do you re sign Daniel Jones? Do I like, what
does that contract even begin to look like? Yeah? I mean,
are you essentially like giving them money to red shirt
if you sign them to like a multi year deal?
And then does he just get the keys for twenty

(02:03:26):
twenty seven?

Speaker 2 (02:03:27):
I don't know you have any better option, though, do you?

Speaker 7 (02:03:29):
Right? I mean again, I need more time to process
at all. Part of me just says, let Anthony Rigdon
playing twenty twenty six and see what you have. But
you know, blowing the whole thing up might have to
be a part of it, which goes against so much
of what they've been or what they've tried to do.
But if you're going to have as advantageous as a

(02:03:50):
rebuild as possible without two first round picks, I think
you have to almost go down that path.

Speaker 16 (02:03:57):
Do you think Kevin, You know you talk about Shane
styke In and Chris Ballard being tied at the hip?
Do you also think Daniel like it's a three people
tied to the hip, Like can you see a world
where Chris Ballard and Shane steike In are here? But
it's another And I know next year you have no
choice if they're here, But then even looking two years

(02:04:18):
down the line, a different quarterback being here, like, I
don't see how that's the case. I don't How do
you begin to process that is just like three people
tied at the hip?

Speaker 7 (02:04:29):
Is my question? Yeah, I mean, you know a lot
of people would think that way about the pillars. You know,
to me, the pillars of the organization are quarterback, head, coach,
and GM and they all should be tied together. Yeah,
it's it's a fair point to bring up because anytime
you bring in a new regime, no one safe, no
one safe. That's just the rawity of how these things
work in pro sports. So yeah, I just it's amazing

(02:04:54):
how quickly it can unravel for you. Just one month ago,
you're the one seed, and here you are, and obviously
it was starting to slip that were starting to see
you know, even yesterday before the Jones injury, it wasn't
going well. But then to have the injury likely take
him off the field for the twenty twenty sixth season,

(02:05:16):
that just adds a whole another layer on it. You know,
if he would have whatever, if that would have been
a strained calf and he would have missed two to
three weeks, you know, that's probably a different conversation. I
get that some people were still skeptical of Jones even
before yesterday.

Speaker 2 (02:05:33):
Yeah, there were still a lot of people that were
not completely sold on that. And so again I sound
speechless because I think we all are like, what do
you do? Like, what do you do? At this point?
I don't can No, there's no obvious path, there's no
you don't have draft picks to build around. You're not
getting any younger at a lot of these positions. Daniel Jones,

(02:05:57):
even if you keep him and going to be available
to you for most of, if not all, of next year,
I don't know what else you can do except turn
it over to Anthony Richardson at this point in time.
What are your options?

Speaker 7 (02:06:08):
Well, and not that Anthony Richardson has like earned the
right to dictate terms, but is there any part of
Anthony Richardson's camp that says, I don't want to do this,
I need a fresh start. I mean, we do see
guys around professional sports try to demand that at all times,
and like do the Colts, Does Anthony Richardson deserve another change?

(02:06:31):
Like you know, all these question's not like Anthony Richardson's
injury history has gotten any cleaner this season. As sad
as that is, so it's just all of it sounds
complicated as hell. I mean, this is a season where
you've had guys injured and everybody should be an EYU
football fan for the next month.

Speaker 2 (02:06:46):
Yeah, no doubt. The last thing was good about the Colts.
This is a season where you've had injuries, multiple game
injuries suffered in pregame warm ups or in the locker room,
and then you throw the day Daniel Jones thing on
top of that. And then right after you trade two
first round draft picks for Sauce Gardner, he gets just

(02:07:09):
after a couple of weeks injured for multiple games. I mean,
that's been the entire season right now. It's insane to me,
just insane to me. That's going to wrap it up
for us today. You continue talking about all of this,
of course, with the Jay Query coming your way at
noon today, then JMV does his thing from three to six,
and I'm sure that is going to be a ride

(02:07:29):
of rides today as well. But congratulations to Indiana football.
They are on the way to the Rose Bowl. They'll
skip the first round of the college football playoffs. They'll
be the number one seed. They'll play the winner of
Alabama Oklahoma. Hove yourself a terrific day. Thanks for all
the text and phone calls today. We appreciate it. We'll
talk to you again tomorrow. JB. You'll be back. Enjoy
your Monday

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