1/20/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Look ahead to tonight's National Championship game between Ohio St and Notre Dame. Plus the Bengals have hired some new coaches and recap of this past weekends slate of College Basketball games.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To the home of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Thank you, Dave. What's up? It's five minutes after three
o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening. I'm oegar.
Hopefully you are enjoying a three day weekend, and if
you're not, hopefully had a good weekend. And if you didn't,
I'm sorry. Hopefully you're staying warm today because right now
it is thirteen degrees and I'm sure outside it feels

(00:27):
much much much, much, much, much much much colder than
that frigid out frigid I say, in twenty minutes, actually
less than that. At about fifteen minutes, our buddy Dave
Biddle from buck Nuts is going to join us from Atlanta.
He is there for the first ever twelve team college
football Playoff National Championship game, Ohio State taking on Notre

(00:49):
Dame tonight. He is going to join us coming up
at three twenty in the four o'clock hour. One of
my favorite people to talk draft with We're not really
going to talk draft, Ryan Roberts Rise and Draft is
somebody that we have on every year to talk about
the Bengals and the draft and what they should do.
But he also covers Notre Dame football, and so we're
going to talk about the game tonight. Obviously, Notre Dame

(01:10):
versus Ohio State, the Fighting Irish substantial underdogs tonight in Atlanta.
But it feels like the betting favorite to be the
Bengals defensive coordinator is Al Golden, which is something I
feel like we could have said and did say late
last week. So we're gonna be watching Notre Dame, I
think differently than we might ordinarily be if it didn't
feel like the Bengals were going to hire their defensive

(01:32):
coordinator to be their defensive coordinator. And so I want
Ryan's thoughts on Al Golden. We will get them coming
up in the four o'clock hour. It was a busy weekend.
A lot happened the weekend in college basketball, a home
win for the Bearcats, a road win for the Musketeers,
a tough home loss for Kentucky. We'll get to all
of that a little bit later on. And we had

(01:53):
baseball news that has everybody mad at baseball and mad
at one team. Some of that anger is being misdirected,
but I do want to spend some time on it.
Specifically as it relates to the Reds, and I want
to know what you're willing to put up with in
order for baseball to get what so many wants it
to get, which is a salary. Cat would do that

(02:16):
a little bit later on. We do have some Bengals
news today. They have made some coaching hires. Scott Peters
has been hired as the team's offensive line coach and
Michael McCarthy, no, not the coach. Former coach of the Cowboys,
Michael McCarthy has been hired as the team's assistant offensive

(02:37):
line coach. Peters was the Patriots offensive line coach last season.
He previously served as assistant offensive line coach for the
Browns from twenty twenty three twenty twenty three, Zach Taylor says, quote,
you wanted a quote from Zach Taylor, didn't you give
it to you? Quote? Zach is a great fit for
our offense. He is passionate about the position, and he's

(02:59):
done a great job of both developing young players and
helping veteran players continue to grow. He is familiar with
the AFC North and knows what it takes to win
in our division. I am excited to have him on
our staff. He was an All Pack ten center at
Arizona State, picked by the Eagles in the two thousand
and two draft in the fourth round, and bounced around
the league from O two through two thousand and nine,

(03:20):
spending time with five NFL teams, and saw action in
seven regular season games for the Giants in two thousand
and three. So Scott Peters is the Bengals new offensive
line coach. McCarthy also was with the Patriots last year
he was an offensive coaching assistant. He has coached primarily
on the college level for the past six years prior

(03:44):
to twenty twenty four, spending the twenty eighteen season as
an offensive assistant at Rutgers before coaching the offensive line
at Brown University from twenty nineteen through twenty twenty three.
He was an offensive quality control coach for the Browns.
In twenty fifteen, spent a couple years with the Lions,
holding the title of offensive quality control slash assistant offensive

(04:05):
line coach with the Lions, and then has spent time
at the college level at North Carolina, Central, Tulane, and
the College of New Jersey, which when I read the
press release I just found out exists so there you go.
Offensive line coach Hires, I don't have a take. I
have a take, but I guess it would be this

(04:27):
that the Bengals haven't had an elite level offensive line
since twenty fifteen. So we're coming up on the tenth
anniversary of the last really good, high end Bengals offensive line.
That twenty fifteen team that you had the bookend tackles
Andrew Whitworth and Andre Smith and a really good group,

(04:52):
a really really good group of offensive linemen, and the
Bengals had an offense that year that was terrific. They
had a team that year that was terrific. And since then,
the offensive lines performance has at times been okay and
has time at times been better than okay, but usually

(05:14):
has been much worse than okay. That offensive line that
year was Whitworth left right, Whitworth, Bowling, Bodeine, Zeitler, Andre Smith,
terrific offensive line. It's been ten years, so the new
guy has been given a piece. He's been given a
piece on a Marius Mims has been given up a
piece in Orlando Brown, and now, depending on what they

(05:35):
do in the draft and what they do in free
agency on the interior, I think we all expect Ted
Carris to be back. It really comes down to the
guard position. Can the Bengals acquire and develop better guards
for twenty twenty five and can they have better offensive
line death where does Cody Ford fit in that mix?
Scott Peters will be helping to answer some of those questions.
More on that as we say a little bit later on.

(05:59):
And I don't think if anybody is going to be
surprised tonight is the championship game, Notre Dame is playing
in it. Al Golden will coach Notre Dame tonight. I
don't think anybody will be surprised if, maybe as soon
as tomorrow we find out that Al is going to
be the defensive coordinator replacing lou Anarumo as for the

(06:20):
game tonight. It feels and I thought this, and I
said this before Ohio State played Texas and it ended
up being a game that who knows where it goes
if Jack Sawyer doesn't make that amazing play forcing a fumble,
a sack and then running the ball back eighty two
yards for a touchdown that essentially sealed the game. But
felt going into that one like it was big Ohio

(06:42):
State and little tiny upstart Texas just in how we
in terms of how we talked about the game itself,
how the two teams were portrayed against each other, It
sort of feels similar tonight than a Notre Dame team
that has been part of the playoff pushing its up
position around is kind of being portrayed as this plucky

(07:04):
group of upstarts and the team that from a physical standpoint,
has very little chance of winning against an Ohio State
team that has an offense that for the most part
has been clicking, though Jeremiah Smith was obviously shut down
pretty good against Texas at a defense that right now
might be the best in college football. I told Chad

(07:26):
I didn't hear the segment where he said thirty four
to seventeen, that's kind of about where I have it.
Ryan Day is on the verge of completing a pretty
remarkable in season comeback. Less than two months ago, Ohio
State loses to Michigan, and there was no shortage of

(07:50):
columns or radio segments or television segments where somebody didn't
know Pine that, you know what, There's no way they
can bring them back. There's no way they can keep
them after a fourth consecutive loss to Michigan. And look,
I understand the frustration that comes with watching your favorite
team lose a rivalry game, but we are in this age.

(08:12):
And I tried to make this point at the time,
and it didn't hit home with a lot of Ohio
State fans because they were caught up in the emotion,
the raw emotion of watching their team lose that game
to Michigan. But my point then was we have minimized
the impact of individual regular season games in college football.
They matter a lot. They matter more than regular season

(08:36):
games maybe in any other sport, and certainly rivalry games
matter more than any right. I mean, that's how it works,
Like it doesn't matter how good or bad your team
is that game on the schedule. Michigan wasn't very good
this season, but they can at least claim we beat
the buck Eys, we beat the most important game or
the most important team on our schedule. You know, you

(09:00):
had those folks after the after Ohio State lost to
Michigan who would say stuff like, what doesn't matter if
they win a national title, or it would be better
if they just wouldn't play in the playoffs so they
can go find another coach. I thought that those people
who are saying that were not the majority, but they
were allowed minority, and frankly, they represented a foolish minority

(09:20):
of morons who have placed a disproportionate amount of importance
on a regular season game when regular season games in
college football don't matter nearly as much because of the playoff.
And maybe if there's one takeaway from the way we
determine a champion now, it's that individual regular season games

(09:42):
actually don't nearly matter as much. And so, yes, you
want to beat your rival. Yes you're tired of losing
every year to your arrival. Yes, it was certainly fair
to call into question some of Ryan Day's tactics and
strategies during that game against against the Wolverines. And that's
not the first time we have said that. But maybe
if there's one lesson from the college Football playoff twelve teams,

(10:05):
which this has been a smashing success, it doesn't mean
it can't be tweaked. It should be tweaked, and probably
down the road will be tweaked. It's been a smashing success.
It's been awesome. But if there's any major takeaway from it,
regardless of who wins, tonight. But I think specifically, if
OSU wins as everybody expects them to tonight, it's you

(10:26):
know what, these rivalry games matter and there's a great
amount of importance on them, and you want to win them,
and coaches are in part defined by how they doing them.
But it's not quite the end all and be all
that it used to be, and so perhaps we should
not act like these games are the end all and

(10:46):
be all that they used to be. If that makes sense,
maybe it does. I think Aha State it's gonna win
a game thirty four to seventeen. David Biddle's gonna join
us from Atlanta here in just a few minutes. We
do have to talk about the NFL playoffs weekend. Chad
asked me during Quick Hits, if I'm over the whole
you know, the Chiefs get all the calls thing, and

(11:07):
kind of I kind of enjoy it. I'll be honest
with you. I put this on social media yesterday. My
second favorite team in every sport is chaos and content.
I love chaos. I love the chaos that unfolds when
the Chiefs win a game. I love the chaos that
unfolds when a Kansas City team that has not been
that dominant, keep stacking wins and has advanced to a

(11:29):
seventh consecutive AFC Championship game. I love the chaos that
comes with the Chiefs benefiting from bad calls. I don't
think the bad calls, or the unfortunate calls, or the
mistime calls, or the bad non calls, they're not limited
to Kansas City games. The league isn't fixed, The league's

(11:50):
not trying to help the Chiefs win. But there is
a problem. There is a problem for me. I don't
know if it's a problem though for the NFL. I'll
explain that a little bit later on, and we'll spend
some time on the baseball as well. You can watch
the show preview video on X at moegar thanks to

(12:12):
our friends that United No, thanks to our friends at
Emory Federal Credit Union, which is close today but open
tomorrow and so you can be like me and become
a member. Go to emery FCU dot org. Five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. We will have at
least one, maybe two, maybe more poll questions at moegar

(12:32):
on X that is thanks to our friends at United
Heartland Insurance go to UHIMS dot com, but first let's
go to Atlanta. Dave Biddle on the Buckeyes and their
quest for a national title. He joins us next seventeen
after three ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, twenty three
minutes after three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm

(12:54):
oegar the College Football Playoff National Championship game. By the way,
you could hear it down the hall seven hundred WLW
Ohio State and Notre Dame. Dave Biddle covers the Buckeyes
for buck Knots dot com, joining us from Atlanta. You've
done this before. You You've been to championship games, playoff games,
a lot of postseason games. I know it's cold down

(13:15):
there in Atlanta. Describe set the scene for me. Describe
the vibe in Atlanta for me.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Dave, Yeah, So it reminds me a lot of ten
years ago mo with the even that was the first
year of the four team playoff. Everything was new. Ohio
State had to play in three postseason games that year
because they played in the Big Ten championship game. This
year they'll play in four. Notre Dame will also play
in four. So it reminds me a lot of the
first year of the four team playoffs and now with
it being the first year of the twelve team playoffs.

(13:41):
So it's and some of the similarities are very interesting,
very striking between Ohio State ten years ago in Ohio
State right now, because a lot of people left Ohio
State for dead a couple of different times. In twenty fourteen,
you know, I sure did. They lost a very mediocre
Virginia Tech team. Before that, Braxton Miller was lost for
the season and J. T. Barrett was lost for the season,
left for dead. They win the national title while I

(14:01):
was there, was left for dead after the Michigan game.
And here they're on the on the doorstep of the
national championship and there a Dames, a tough, gritty team.
They're talented. I mean, this is going to be a
good game.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Remove all the emotion, which is impossible to do. I
get it in the aftermath of what happened against Michigan.
But if I would have said to you that night
that the buck guys will be playing in the championship game,
you would have said, what, Oh.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Geez, I would have I thought they had a chance.
I did say after the Michigan game. Okay, once the
bracket came out, I'm like, if they can get past Tennessee,
they could be a problem. I did say that many times,
so every once in a while get one right. I
just felt like, if they could emotionally get past Tennessee,
I didn't expect to have like a blowout, but they
just came out there ticked off, like they came out
there pass it, and like, you know, whate was me.

(14:47):
I was thinking Tennessee could beat them, like definitely, and
I thought that was a strong possibility. And I mean,
I picked Ohio State, but I picked them in a
close game. But I remember saying, like, if they could
get past Tennessee, they're gonna be a problem because they're
still very talent, and it just felt like they had
not played their best football yet. Their defense was starting
to peak, but then the offense, like you know, went
went way downhill against Michigan. So and now everything's just

(15:10):
come together for them and it's been a pretty magical run.
When you beat Tennessee at the Horseshoe, then you beat Oregon,
who beat you earlier in the season in the Rose Bowl,
then you beat Texas in the State of Texas. Can
they finish the deal here in Atlanta against this Notre
Dame team.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
The prevailing sentiment is going to be that if if
Notre Dame has a chance, they've they've got to they've
got to ugly it up. They've got to turn it
into a rock fight. The way to do that, I
guess would start with doing what Texas did with Jeremiah Smith.
Can Notre Dame use that blueprint? For those who don't know,
he had one catch for three yards against Longhorns.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah, and then when Will Howard threws interception, he's trying
to force it to Jeremiah Smith that they had like
three guys on So yeah, I think that. I mean,
that's it'd be foolest not to copy what Texas is.
You know what they were doing. But here's the thing.
Bo look Al Golan, who hopefully will be the bengals
future deep coordinarils if that happens. I love him. He's
a heck of a good defensive coordinator. But he loves

(16:01):
to play man covers. Now they play I've heard people
say all Notre Dame does is play Man. That's not true.
They've mixed in zone. He's pretty exotic there's times we'll
have man coverage on one side, zone on the other side,
will mix it up after the snap. I mean they
do some things that are just like next level on defense.
I'm very impressed. So yeah, I mean you can do that,
and I'm sure Al Goolham's gonna come up with something.
He might not mimic exactly what Texas did, but I

(16:23):
have no doubt he's going to come up with a
plan at least a limit Jeremiah Smith. The problem, then,
of course, is they've got two other really good receivers
with the Mecha Buca and Carnel Tait. So to pick
your poison type deal.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
I I'm sure I could ask ten Buckeye fans their
opinions on Will Howard and get ten different opinions as
somebody who's much more reasonable, give me your assessment of
his overall season, but I guess specifically how he's played
here in the postseason.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
Yeah, that's a great way that you asked that question, right,
and think if you have ten to Buckeye fans, you
would get ten different answers about Will kind of similarbout
everybody would say something different because some people it's like,
oh yeah, Will Howard's great. Some people's like Will Howard
isn't good at all, will never play in the NFL. Yeah,
I'm somewhere in between. I think he'll be like a
fourth round pick. I don't see him be in like
a starting quarterback in the NFL. But as far as
how he's played, he's played really well in the postseason,

(17:12):
specifically against Tennessee and Oregon. That was the most accurate
he's been as far as throwing deep balls, I mean
he was putting just dropping dimes. That that's like Joe
Burrow's style, bros. And I don't say that lightly, and
I'm serious, Like you know, a Mecca that his catch
the second touchdown of the Rose Bowls. He had to
catch it like one that even the dB did a
great job, got a hand on a Mecca end catch

(17:32):
it with one hand because the ball was placed perfectly,
like perfect throw, perfect coverage and a perfect catch. Everybody
did their job on that. So he's been really, really
good in the postseason again Texas, he was a little
shaky though a little shaky against Texas. So here's the thing.
Notre Dame and they know this Will will put the
ball in harms way he did it against Texas, did
it against Michigan. He's he's usually good for about one

(17:53):
or two bone headed plays a game where you're like,
what in the heck was he thinking there? But overall
he's had a good year. You know, he was third
team All Big Ten. I thought he might be second
team All Big Ten. So he's like, you know, that's
about right. He's like a second team, third team All
Big Ten quarterback. He's not like an All American or
anything like that. He's not going to be, you know,
a second round pick or anything anything. And he could
slide into the third round because NFL teams will like

(18:15):
his leadership, they'll like his toughness, will like his thighs.
He's a legit six to four. He was looked at
six to five.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
At Case State.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
They listened at six to four here, So yeah, he's
a good college quarterback.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
You mentioned Al Golden, the Notre Dame defensive coordinator, and
I think most of us fought if you feel like
he's the uh the favorite to be the Bengals defensive coordinator,
perhaps as early as tomorrow, which is fine, that's all well,
and good will he be coaching Jack Sawyer next year? Oh?

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Gosh, i'd be a good pick you replaced. And I
love Sam. I love Sam Hubbard, but that's you know.
I read Paul Danner story the other day and I
completely agree that I means, can't be paying Sah Sam
Hubbard ten million dollars now when you're trying to pay
all these other guys and say, I love Sam, but
his production's gone way down. Not probably not, and he
fault of the zone. He's just he came to injuries.
Older Jack Sawyer as a replacement for Sam Hubbard be

(19:05):
really good, especially with Miles Murphy doing absolutely nothing for
real first two years.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
As many sacks as me last year. Let me talk
about a Notre Dame offensively, I think they're best described
as competent but not explosive. What should worry Buckeye fans
about what the Irish do on.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Offense, Well, he's not done it.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
He's done a better job late in the year, but
they haven't done a great job against running quarterbacks. I
think something Texas should have used more, especially down the
goal line. I can't play then put Arch Fanning in.
They did it once early in the game and it worked,
and then they never went back to it. Okay, okay,
thank you. So Riley Leonard is a heck of a
good running quarterback. I know he's a little banged up,
but like I think the time off, he's gonna be fine,
more than fine. He's tough, he's physical, he's athletic, he's big.

(19:48):
And then they also have a really good running back
in Jeremiah Loves. That's all you can just say, Okay,
we're just gonna spy Riley Leonard. And he's really good
at throwing the ball and third down like, yeah, he
just doesn't put up like sparkling stats or anything passing wise,
but or like maybe the best team in the nation
at converting third down. So third down conversions is a
big win. Containing the QB run, you're not gonna stop it.
Containing the qb'rerun, containing Jeremiah Love are the biggest concerns.

(20:12):
And turnovers. I don't think Notre Dame can win this
game mode maybe I'm wrong. I don't think Notre Dame
can win this game if they don't win the turnover battle.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah, that sounds about right. So Ohio State's heavily favored.
Let's say they win tonight, Ryan Day hoist the trophy.
How many days will you give him before people start
asking him about the twenty twenty five Michigan game.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
At the press conference as the postgame presser. Here, here's
what I say that like, obviously Ohio State's fans, that's
probably you can't say, well, Ohio State fans won't care
about his record against Michigan. If they win the national championship,
they'll still care, like did much rather before and one
under Ryan Day with the national championship than if they
win one and four against Michigan with the national championship.
But they would take the national championship in one and

(20:57):
four one hundred times out of one hundred times out
of being four to one against Michigan in no national championship.
But he'll be asked about it a lot. He'll be
asked about it a lot. But he'll be a legend
in Colymbus forever. He's able to take care of business tonight.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
I would agree with that. I can't thank you enough.
I have a lot going on. Enjoy the game tonight.
It should be a lot of fun. Appreciate the time,
Thank you, Appreciate you man. That's our guy. Dave Biddle
from Atlanta Bucknuts dot com Ohio State Notre Dame kicking
off at seven forty five tonight, that is four hours
and fourteen minutes away. Sports headlines are next. We'll take
a look at the weekend in college basketball on ESPN

(21:29):
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Stations. Kelsey Chevrolet Home of Lifetime,
our training Protection and I guarantee credit approval from their
family to yours for life kelseyschef dot com. Bengals have
hired Scott Peters to be their offensive line coach and

(21:49):
Michael McCarthy to be their assistant offensive line coach. Both
come from New England. Peters was the offensive line coach
for the Patriots last year. Prior to that, he was
assistant offensive line coach for the Browns from twenty twenty
three twenty twenty three. Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting
that Ben Johnson, formerly of the Detroit Lions their offensive coordinator,

(22:10):
he is taking over as head coach of the Chicago Bears,
which the Lions lost on Saturday. And I kind of
felt like they were America's team because everybody loves Dan
Campbell and the Lions haven't won a Super Bowl, haven't
been to a Super Bowl. They were so fun, so
good during the regular season, and Jared Goff kind of
turned into a pumpkin jade and Daniels is awesome. That

(22:32):
Washington team is really, really good. I think there are
folks who don't realize they won twelve games during the
regular season. We saw first hand here week three how
good they were. And Detroit did some gimmicky stuff during
that game offensively, but I'll admit this, they did execute
successfully the greatest shovel pass I have ever seen. As

(22:54):
an on the record hater of the shovel pass. They
did a shovel pass for the pitched it to one
running back who then shoveled it to the other. That
was cool. Maybe he could use that with the Bears.
College football Playoff National Championship game is tonight in Atlanta,
Ohio State taking on Notre Dame. Buckeyes looking for at
program's first national title since twenty fourteen. Notre Dame looking

(23:17):
for its first since nineteen eighty eight. College basketball tonight
on ESPN fifteen thirty. It's the Mark Pope Radio Show
at six o'clock. Kentucky coming off a very entertaining, extraordinarily
well played though I'm sure for Wildcats fans frustrating home
loss to Alabama. The Wildcats are ranked ninth in both

(23:38):
major polls. The Shawn Miller showed tonight at seven o'clock
on fifty five KRC. The Musketeers coming off of maybe
the most surprising outcome of the weekend, a win over
Marquette that was a little bit more difficult. You might
argue that it needed to be. Nonetheless, they go on
the road, score fifty nine points and beat the at

(23:59):
the time and ranked team in the country. Hockey This
afternoon Downtown, the Cyclones lead Toledo two zip at the
end of two periods, and tonight the Blue Jackets skate
in New York against the Islanders, the college troops from
over the weekend. Let's start with the Musketeers. They go
to Marquette after the consecutive home wins, and you know

(24:21):
they had to win over at Villanova where they did
such a good job on Eric Dixon. But the headline
in that game was Ryan Conwell going off for thirty
four points twenty eight in the second half. It was
an unbelievable offensive performance that saved the season. He made
all the right plays at specifically the right times and

(24:41):
it was great, but you were being fair if you
wondered after that game, okay, is that what they're going
to have to do every single game? What happens when
Ryan Conwell isn't awesome well offensively? At least against Marquette,
Ryan Conwell was the opposite of awesome because he had
a wopping six points and went oh of eight from three.
Xavier went two for seventeen from behind the arc. Chad

(25:02):
was talking about this during sincey three sixty. It was
a picture perfect game plan defensively by Sean Miller. Dalan
Swain was awesome on the perimeter. It felt like it
felt like at times he was guarding two people at once.
He was active, he deflected passes, he forced the turnover.
He was terrific. More than anything, the Musketeers have pulled

(25:24):
themselves off the mat, and you know, Chad said, I
think best they're not yet on the bubble, but they're
playing themselves onto the bubble. And they can maybe play
themselves even more onto the bubble by going to New
York and beating Saint John's, who beat them here. They
play the Red Storm on Wednesday night. This was a
team a week and a half ago we were talking

(25:44):
about being one in four and how bad might things
get and what happens when they go into that gauntlet
that starts with that game on the road against Marquette.
They obviously had to hold on for dear life at
the end. They've got some good play from their big
dudes and figure out a way to win a road
game where they score fifty nine points against a top
ten team, a good team that beat them here. Now

(26:06):
can they do it again against a more physical Saint
John's team on Wednesday? We will obviously find out. The
Bearcats did just enough on Saturday. I've harped on this
now for weeks. You gotta win your home games. Now
they obviously lost to Arizona and Kansas at home. You
gotta win your home games. Last year's team, and I

(26:27):
know I've beaten this to the point that it's we're
probably looking down at a dead horse four and five
in the league at home, a bunch of close losses,
none by more than nine points. You cannot finish below
five hundred at home in conference in the Big twelve
and expect to see your name on TV on Selection Sunday.
You cannot so digging from an zero to two hole.

(26:50):
They did just enough against Arizona State. I thought it
was a game where the good outweighed the bad. I
thought it was a game where they overcame bad shooting
by playing good defense, by not turning the ball over,
and by making their free throws. Arizona State that team, frankly,
I think, given some of their individual parts, should be better,

(27:12):
but not a very good team. They play a better
team in Texas Tech tomorrow night. Got to win your
home games. I talked about this going into Arizona State
the next tour, must win. I still cling to that
from a metrics perspective and from an emotional perspective. The
difference between the Bearcats being three and four in the

(27:32):
conference with a Q one win, which is what beating
Texas Tech would be, and having three consecutive victories and
instead being two and five, being one and three at home,
and having to go on the road for consecutive games
against BYU and Utah is massive. Massive. I'll say this.

(27:54):
UC's offense has been talked about a lot, and from
a bunch of different perspectives, shooting, execution, and the design
of the offense. I'm not sure this should make anybody
feel any better about UC's offense. I thought the design
and the execution of the offense on Saturday was better
than it had been since Big Twelve play started. Guys

(28:17):
just missshots. I did like what I saw from Dylan
Mitchell on Saturday. They used him at the five and
he scored a couple of times, threw people over people,
and c J. Frederick is getting minutes.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
C J.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
Frederick, Look, there might be a limitation to what he
can give them because of well, just he's had a
career filled with injuries. He can still shoot it, and
he's a high basketball IQ guy. This team needs both
of those things. I referenced this before Kentucky on Saturday.

(28:51):
There was a bunch of really good games if you
were watching, for instance, yesterday before the football came on,
Michigan State versus Illinois, just a high level college basketball game.
Have been so many of those this year. Alabama versus
Kentucky fit the bill. I think it was. I think
Saturday was more about Alabama just doing a great job
offensively and getting to the free throw line. They're to me,

(29:13):
the most fun team to watch in college basketball. They're
the team that when you watch them at their best
I think is the best team in college basketball. If
you went into that game worried about Kentucky on the
defensive side, he came out of that game even more
worried about Kentucky on the defensive side. I'm not sure
that game in itself should have changed anybody's mind about
Mark Pope's team. More than anything, I just thought it

(29:35):
was a really entertaining SEC game. I feel the same
way I did about Kentucky going in, and I feel
the same way did about Alabama going in. More tonight
in the Mark Pope Show at six on ESPN fifteen thirty,
and Dayton got a thrilling win in ot on a
last second alley loop over Loyal to Chicago as well,
which as a flyer as a Dayton grad was great

(29:55):
to see if you're a Bearcat fan. Dayton winning and
Xavier winning those things help. It was a good Saturday
for UC basketball in that regard. Fourteen away from four o'clock.
We'll have a poll question here in just a few
minutes at moegar thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Go to

(30:17):
uchions dot com.

Speaker 4 (30:18):
It was.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Another quiet weekend in baseball for twenty nine teams, and
then there were the Dodgers, who have tremendous financial advantages
over everybody else, and so they they made more additions,
they deferred more money. They're deferring a lot of money.
And the team that won the World Series last year

(30:44):
is loading up this offseason to maybe win another one
this year. This has a lot of folks deeply, deeply frustrated.
We'll spend a few minutes on that coming up in
just a bit, and the NFL playoffs this weekend. Lamar Jackson,
I'm told to being treated unfairly. I don't think he's
being treated unfairly, not if you use history as a guide.

(31:08):
That's coming up in the four o'clock hour to a
few minutes on the officiating when we come back on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. At u S Health,
you'll find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your
best tomorrow possible. That's boundless care for better outcomes. Expect
more at ucehealth dot com. Westbound two seventy five before
Winton Road accident cleared away, three lanes are blocked off
from a crash eastbound two seventy five. That at seventy

(31:44):
one seventy five. That's got traffic stop and go back
from Minneola Pike. A fifteen minute delay on that. He's
not like with traffic.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Eight it is eight away from four o'clock. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty on Oegar. Luenromo, according to Ian Rappaport
of NFL Media, is said to be the new defensive
coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts, a team that defensively this
year was very much middle of the pack averaged five

(32:16):
point five yards given up per play Cincinnati on the
season five point four. Congratulations to Lou, and I think
if you're a Bengals fan, you're rooting for Lou to
have a success in his new place, working for Shane Steichen,
who I don't think is very good. But we'll see
if Luke can help Shane look better as a head
coach by doing the job as a defensive coordinator. The

(32:37):
NFL playoffs this weekend, the opening weekend. The games weren't
great this weekend, they were extraordinarily entertaining the last five
minutes of Buffalo and Baltimore had the sort of tension
in the air, and Jim Nance said it on the
CDs broadcast. The snow added sort of a cinematic field
to it like that felt like in important game. And

(33:02):
Philly and the Rams was a really fun game as well.
And as much as everybody was rooting forward Detroit watching
the Commanders just kind of do whatever they wanted offensively
against the Lions, that was a lot of fun. And
the game on Saturday between the Chiefs and Texans was
entertaining as well. It did not come without controversy. We

(33:22):
know what the calls were. We saw the two roughing
the passer penalties that well, one was roughing the passer,
the other was the unsportsman like penalty there was. We've
seen the calls, right, We've we've seen them, We've heard
Troy Aikman go off on them, and we've seen the
people who have gone out of the way to make
the allegation that the league is fixed. The NFL is

(33:46):
not fixed. Does anybody who says that do they actually
stop watching football? Like you, if you believe the league
was rigged, you would not be watching this coming weekend
when the Chiefs play again, and game that I think
is going to be immensely fun to watch between the
Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. The games aren't rigged,

(34:08):
the officials aren't trying to help the Chiefs win. Those
things aren't true. But here's what is true. And this
is what's frustrating for me as a fan and to
a degree problematic for the NFL. We talk about officiating
way too much. And like this weekend, you had Jade

(34:33):
and Daniels, you had Saquon Barkley, you had the Bills
breaking through and getting to the AFC Championship game. You
had the Chiefs doing just enough to get to a
seventh consecutive conference title game. And yet we've spent way

(34:53):
too much time talking about the officiating, and understandably so,
because there have been some, if we're being gentle about it,
controversial calls and in some cases terrible calls that have
had an impact on the game. And as I think
of the NFL this year, I go back to the
game in Baltimore between the Bengals and Ravens Now. I

(35:16):
say this as a Bengals fan, but I think you
could also make the same assertion if you are an
objective observer. Bengals and Ravens in Baltimore early November. Played
a great game, that was a great television product, and
if you add an emotional stake in the outcome, then

(35:37):
you know, maybe that affects how you viewed the game.
But like just step away, if you just turned on
Amazon Prime that night as a fan of neither team,
I think you walked away feeling like, that's a really good,
well played game between two good teams, two really good quarterbacks.
It's a great game. But unfortunately, in the immediate aftermath

(36:00):
of it, the conversation revolved around the misscall on the
Bengals attempted two point try or two point attempt where
Joe Burrow had blatantly had his face mask grabbed, and
it wasn't the only infraction that could have been flagged
on that play. Now, in a vacuum, all right, we

(36:20):
could talk about that should be reviewed, that should be reviewable,
we could talk about why it went against the Bengals,
how do you miss that call? But on a macro level,
it was yet again a good game, not the only one,
A good game, a high stakes game where all the
stuff that went on during the game was obscured by

(36:45):
the conversation about officiating. And that's what I get frustrated with.
It's not that the calls go for or against one
particular team. You watch sports long enough, every team's going
to benefit from bad calls, every team's going to benefit
from non calls, and every team's gonna be hurt by
bad calls and non calls. It's that, in the aftermath

(37:05):
of great games, signature games, we are still spending way
too much time on the officiating. That's no fun, that's frustrating,
that's not good for the NFL. It's coming up on
four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (37:20):
It's PN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Stagious sound effects in that one. Huh yeah, it's up.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon on mowegger to
appreciate you listening. Hopefully you are staying warm today. What
are you at now? Hang on? Hang on? That's still
thirteen degrees. This thing doesn't tell you what it feels like,

(37:44):
does it, does it? It feels like ten. It feels
like ten right now. Ten. Now, I know if you
went to the super Bowl, that's not that cold. It's
almost tropical. Spare me, thank you, or the freezer Bowl. Yeah,
what did I say?

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Super Bowl?

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Super Bowl? If you went to the Freezer Bowl, God,
if you went to the Freezer Bowl. I know that
when it feels like ten degrees outside, that's not that cold.
I get we get it. We understand you went to
the Freezer Bowl. It was really really, really really cold.
I understand. I get it. I've heard the stories. Fifty
nine below was the windshill. That's what it felt like.
I get it. So ten degrees is like being in

(38:23):
the Caribbean. There you go, h one of my favorite
people to talk NFL Draft with. We're not gonna have
him on to talk about the NFL Draft because he
also covers Notre Dame football, Ryan Roberts, and what we're
gonna talk about tonight's game obviously Ohio State versus Notre Dame.
Ryan's like a personnel guy, and so I want his
thoughts on, you know, really how large the talent gap

(38:45):
is between the Buckeyes and the fighting Irish tonight and
how Notre Dame can figure out a way to pull
off an upset. We'll do that coming up in just
about fifteen minutes. But also Al Golden is the defensive
coordinator at Notre Dame, and it feels like there's at
least a very good chance he's been reported as one
of the two favorites. I would call him the betting

(39:06):
favorite right now. Doesn't mean he's going to be the
guy to be the new defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals.
And so I'm gonna ask Ryan if I should want
that to happen. If you missed it, Luann Rumo has
been hired as the DC of the Indianapolis Colts. Congratulations
to Lou Plus, we gotta stop comparing the Reds and
Dodgers that coming up here in just a few minutes

(39:31):
the playoff. You know how this was gonna go last
night that whichever quarterback lost, Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson
the two guys that are most likely to be named MVP.
And I feel like it's gonna be Lamar. Lamar would
get my vote. That whoever lost was going to take
an avalanche or criticism. Now for Lamar Jackson, you know,

(39:53):
he gets the ball deep in his own end, goes
down the field, has what is going to be a
game tying draw if Mark Andrews can catch a pass
on a two point conversion try, which obviously he drops,
and if Mark Andrews catches that pass and the game
goes to overtime and the Ravens win and overtime, we're
saying a whole bunch of really nice things about Lamar

(40:14):
Jackson and we're dumping all over Josh Allen. You knew
whichever quarterback lost that game was gonna take some criticism. Now.
Lamar deserves some of it because for the first time
all season long, he had multiple turnovers. He played unevenly
in a game like that small margin for error, even
acknowledging the weather was an ideal. You make mistakes, it's

(40:37):
gonna drive the outcome one way or the other, and
it did in that game last night. So does Lamar
deserve some credit for nearly bringing his team back on
that game ending drive. Absolutely? Should he still be the
MVP if you felt that way going in, Look, it's
a regular season award. Those votes have been cast. I
still feel like the guy should be MVP, but his

(40:58):
playoff track record is checkered at best, and his play
in that game last night wasn't the only reason why
Baltimore lost. There were a lot of reasons why Baltimore lost,
but it was a reason. This is how it works quarterbacks.
Until they win, they get criticized for not winning. And
this is gonna come Joe Burrows way. I've talked about

(41:20):
this a lot with Joe, like these guys at that position,
the most important position in all the sports. The longer
you go without winning, the more heat you get, the
more intense scrutiny you get, the more people wonder can
he win the big one? And it's gonna come with
the territory. Now, Joe has made two conference championship games,
He's played in a super Bowl. He hasn't really played

(41:42):
terribly in any postseason game. He also really doesn't have
yet a signature postseason performance. But that's okay. This is
how it works. And so Lamar doesn't win, the Ravens
don't win. He hasn't won consecutive games in the playoffs
in his career. He has not made the super Bowl yet,
and so until he does, there's always gonna be a

(42:02):
yeah but attached to him. That doesn't mean that he's
not marvelously talented. He is. It doesn't mean that he's
not uber fun to watch.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
He is.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
It doesn't mean that he's not worth investing in if
I'm a Baltimore Ravens fan, I'm more than happy with
Lamar Jackson as my quarterback. And by the way, if
the Bills lose this game to the Chiefs on Sunday,
Josh Allen's gonna get a lot of this as well,
a lot of gaudy stats, a lot of viral moments.
But you know what, against the Kansas City, arguably their
weakest team in the last seven years, Josh Allen and

(42:32):
the Bills couldn't get it done. This sort of discourse,
as it relates to quarterbacks is often portrayed as something
that's relatively new. I buy product of the hot take
era or a product of the shouty shows where they
yell at each other about sports all day. And that's

(42:57):
not really the case. Far be it for me to
put anybody on my lap and teach him a history lesson.
But I've been watching this league for a while now,
and I like I remember, I was there for John Elway,
who early in his career went to three Super Bowls
in four years, and he lost each one of those

(43:19):
three that he was in. After the eighty six, eighty seven,
and eighty nine season, each one came by a more
lopsided score than the previous one. The first one he
lost by nineteen, the next one he lost by more
than that, and the next one he lost by more
than that. I think it was fifty five to ten.

(43:40):
And so I remember what it was like in the
nineties that you had this quarterback in John Elway, who
had been to Super Bowls and by the way, I
had put together some awesome postseason moments. Browns fans will
tell you about the drive, and there were a number
of those, and yet he makes the Super Bowl. The
Broncos dude late in his career, right the ninety eight

(44:00):
and ninety nine seasons, they play in consecutive Super Bowls.
First they beat the Green Bay Packers, who were the
defending champion, and then they beat the Atlanta Falcons. And
before that game against the Green Bay Packers, there was
this like Elway needs this man, Elway needs Oh, he's
a Hall of Famer and he's played for a long time,
and he's got good numbers, and he's won postseason games,

(44:24):
but dot dot dot his failure to win the Super Bowl.
He's got to rectify that. He did. He wins these
two games, the second of which he was kind of
more of an accessory for and because he did it
forever has changed how we talk about him. I was
there for Peyton Manning. Like Peyton Manning is this revered

(44:45):
beloved figure now right quarter zips Manning cast. He's on
every commercial, hosting SNL. He's funny, he's roasting Tom Brady
like we've like Peyton Manning's beloved two super Bowl winner,
four time Super Bowl participant. I was here for the
mid two thousands when Peyton Manning was associated with postseason

(45:09):
failure games where the kicker couldn't make a kick, games
were he and the Colts were non competitive early playoff
exits at times against massively inferior teams while they had
gaudy records playing at home, and Peyton Manning took a
ton of crap for it. They lost a game to
the Jets once in the postseason forty one. Nothing, no

(45:31):
amount of good quarterback play could have done anything to
overcome that doesn't matter. Peyton Manning had to wear it
more than anybody else in that organization. I was here
for that. I was there for Steve Young, who takes
over for Joe Montana enjoys massive regular season success, but
for years, can't get over the hump, can't get past

(45:52):
the Cowboys. There is the famous scene in the locker
room after winning the Super Bowl where Steve Young is
ta making an imaginary monkey off of his back. It
was weird then thirty years later it's still weird. But
it was a reference to the fact that you couldn't
talk about Steve Young without referencing postseason failure, postseason shortcomings,

(46:13):
not winning the big one. This has been, whether it's
right or wrong, how we talk about quarterbacks for ever.
And by the way, the guys I just mentioned Hall
of famers, guys that if you look at their resumes
now you and even will wait a minute, people doubted
that guy. People, Yes, yes, Dan Marino never won one.

(46:33):
Still where's it to this day? Like in his A
Football Life thing on on the NFL network, was asked,
how does it feel to be called the greatest quarterback
to never win the Super Bowl? Like, but that's that
was the first question in the piece, Like that can't
be much fun. So, you know, some of the criticism
might be outsized because there's, you know, so much new

(46:56):
media and different outlets, and there is sort of an
need to kind of have a take that's hotter than
the previous one. When it comes to talking about QBS,
I think you're able to do it if you're doing
it right in a very measured way, where you talk
about Lamar's successes and what he brings to the table,
but also it's fair to mention postseason shortcomings, which were

(47:18):
obviously not limited to last night. You also have to
include the fact that is shorthanded tight end not only
dropped a two point try that you've got to catch
ten times out of ten, but he also had a
fumble on a play where he started to run the
wrong way. This is how we do it. This is
not a new thing. And if you're my age or
maybe a little bit younger, certainly older, you know this.

(47:41):
But I saw some of this on social media last night,
and there's nothing like social media after an NFL playoff game. Nothing.
It's why it's among the many reasons I will never
leave Twitter is I just love the chaos that unfolds.
And you would have thought the Bills didn't win the game.
It was all about Lamar and the Ravens and how
much regular season winning they've done in recent years without
getting two a super Bowl. And what this means for hardball,

(48:03):
what this means for Lamar, was this their best chance?
Can they run it back again with the same team.
Is Dereck Henry gonna have nineteen hundred more yards next season?
But how Lamar? You can't include him in the absolute
upper tier until he has a legitimate postseason breakthrough and
at least gets two a Super Bowl. Might sound unfair,

(48:26):
might be harsh, might ignore some of the things he
did that were really good in that game last night.
But in my entire life, that's how we've talked about quarterbacks.
This is not a new thing. I was there for
the mid nineties when John Elway was called a failure.
That guy sailed in the Canton with ease. I was

(48:46):
here for the mid two thousands when Peyton Manning was
called a failure and sailed in the Canton with ease
and is now a cherished and beloved figure. If those
guys got that heat, Lamar's not going to get it.
Josh Allen's not gonna get it. And maybe one day
down the road, and I'm gonna guess if we're doing
this a year from now and the Bengals are on

(49:08):
the outside looking in, we're not playing for a conference
championship game. Joe Burrow is gonna get it. You get
it until you win one. That's not a new thing.
That has been the case my entire life as a
football fan. Sixteen minutes after four o'clock, our phone lines
are five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty and

(49:28):
eight six six seven oh two three seven seven six.
You want I bet baseball to have a salary cap.
And by the way, I am open to the idea.
Would you be willing to let baseball go away for
a year or more in order to get it? That
is coming up, But first, Notre Dame plays in Ohio State tonight.
We talked with Dave Biddle last hour about the Buckeyes.

(49:50):
Ryan Roberts Rise and Draft on the Irish and Al
Golden Next on ESPN fifteen thirty. It is U twenty
one minutes after three o'clock. This is esp IN fifteen thirty.
M Oeggar thrilled that you are with us today. Our
buddy Ryan Roberts from A to Z Sports is with us.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
This.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Ryan's one of these guys. Tremendous draft evaluator joins us
every year in the run up to the draft to
talk about Bengals draft possibilities. He also covers Notre Dame
football for a to is the sports follow him on
x at Rise and Draft ends with an N Rise
and Draft. There's a lot of want to get to.
Let's start with this. There is a talent gap. I

(50:34):
don't even think it's perceived. I think most of us
would agree there's a talent gap between Ohio State and
Notre Dame. You're a player evaluator guy, how wide is
the gap?

Speaker 6 (50:43):
I mean it's pretty wide when you especially think about
just kind of the impact of the injuries have thatat
on Notre Dame. I mean they are down multiple offensive
line at this point, they've lost a couple of really
talented defensive ends. Obviously, Rodney Mills has been out to
the playoffs, and defensive tackle Benjamin Morrison was playing like
six fooks before having his season ending hit injury as well.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
So I think the talent gap is there.

Speaker 6 (51:06):
I would say though, that the thing that has been
kind of the saving grace for Notre Dame though, is
and this has been the biggest plus transition from Brian
Kelly to Marcus Freeman is Marcus Freeman and his recruiting prowess.
He has done such a tremendous job of putting together
complete classes right Like Brian Kelly would have some recruiting
classes where the top was really strong, but then you

(51:26):
would only sign one wide receiver in a class, or
you wouldn't sign any defensive tackles in a class, and
there were just too many holes. There were too many
gaps and you would just miss on certain positions. So
I think the saving grace so right now to why
Notre Dame is fourteen to one, I think can have
a competitive football game and perhaps even winning its Ohio
State is that the depth that coach Freeman in this
staff for Notre Dame has created has been able to

(51:47):
kind of just kind of soften those blows. So I
think the top end talent Ohio State has the advantage,
but I do think the depth for Notre Dame is
something that is keeping them in this football game and
will make it a competitive game in.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
My opinion of people. But also say they've got to
control the clock, which makes a lot of sense to me.
How do the fighting Irish do that?

Speaker 6 (52:06):
Yeah, I think I think it comes down to one.
Your offensive line. You've had a little bit of maneuvering
with the injured Anthony Naplast last game, but I think
that one again, the saving grace, kind of going back
to that cliche, is Charles Jagosaw coming back from injury,
who was supposed.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
To be your starting left tackle before the year.

Speaker 7 (52:22):
You got him back.

Speaker 6 (52:23):
Penn States played a lot of the game at right guard,
specifically in the second half, and he will dominant now
they're moving him over to left tackle.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Rock with Spindler's good to go.

Speaker 6 (52:32):
So I think your offensive line is as big as
it's been all season, like the pure mass, plus I
think it's a talent that it's been all season now.
Charles Jagisill hasn't play a snap that left tackle this
year because of the preseason injury that he was supposed
to play a left tackle, But I do think you
have the talent up front compete with Ohio State. Jeremiah
Love getting ten days off now at running back, I
think it's gonna be big for him just kind of

(52:53):
being as fresh.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
As he's been probably in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 6 (52:55):
So I think him and then the other big thing
I think is Riley Leonard, you know, just having me
as I expect this to be a game where we've
seen his quarterback design runs kick up the last couple
of weeks. Now, if they're in the playoffs, I wouldn't
be surprised if they kind of throw the whole kitchen
sink at Ohio State and they really run the football
well tonight, and I think it's gonna be a huge
decider if they're able to win the football game or not.

(53:18):
But I think that's kind of how you move the chains,
kind of less than the football game. And I think
that you need to probably steal a possession here and there,
like whether that is a turnover or a quick swing
like whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
Maybe you fake punts.

Speaker 6 (53:31):
Like I don't know what it is, but I do
think you need to try steal possession against Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
You need to you need.

Speaker 6 (53:36):
To force a couple turnovers, I think in this game
to truly have a chance to win.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
And if you do, I think.

Speaker 6 (53:40):
It's gonna be about if you can control the line
of scrims on the offense side of the ball.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
A lot of folks here in Cincinnati are going to
be watching this game closely through the lens of the
Bengals might hire Al Golden and I want to ask
you a question about him specifically here in a second,
but tonight, what is the fighting Irish plan defensively against
Ohio State.

Speaker 6 (53:58):
I think you have to mix the mass cover. I
know there's been a lot of talk about Notre Dame
being an almost exclusive man system on the back end.
You know they want to mix the match zone, and I.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Think they will.

Speaker 6 (54:08):
I don't think there's gonna be a game where Notre
Dame is super stubborn and they just refuse to play
zone coverage.

Speaker 7 (54:14):
They we've seen that against all have shit. I mean,
obviously Notre Dame.

Speaker 6 (54:16):
I'll have seth they play this year, but they played
the two previous years and Notre Dame had great game plans.
He's on the State the previous two years one including
against CJ. Stroud obviously in those boys Marvin Harrison. So
I think that it's a mix and match coverages. You
need to try to confuse Will Howard a little bit defensively,
So I expect man zone kind of mixed.

Speaker 7 (54:34):
In a little bit.

Speaker 6 (54:35):
And Notre Dame has been really good this year with
mixing a lot of second level pressure.

Speaker 7 (54:39):
So I think you're going to see some man.

Speaker 6 (54:41):
But I think when you see man, I expect the
free blitzer to come. I expect a linebacker to come.
I expect maybe a blitz off the slot. Like you
need to be able to create pressure and confuse Will Howard.
If you can, I think you can keep this game again.
You want to make this game ugly. If you're Notre
Dame like you do, you want to see a little
bit more low scoring than what Ohio State wants it
to be, even though they just had a low scoring
ward with the Texas. But if Notre Dame has a

(55:03):
chance to win the game, I think you want to
make this one a little bit ugly. And make it
ugly means turnovers, second level pressures, confused Will Howard, I
think is the key to trying to win this game.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Was there a blueprint offered by Texas, especially with Jeremiah
Smith who had one catch in that game. Were there
parts of that blueprint that the Fighting Iris could use themselves.

Speaker 6 (55:24):
I think so in the sense that they ran a
lot of zone in that game, and it was a
lot of not just showing what you're doing pre snap.
There was a lot of post snap, you know, just
kind of rolling to different coverages.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
I think nerready needs to use some of that.

Speaker 6 (55:35):
Again, they are a very talented team on the secondary,
even without Morrison. They have Christian Gray, they have Leonard Moore,
they have Xavier watts Don Shure, they have a lot
of really good defensive backs.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
But you would be just idiotic.

Speaker 6 (55:48):
If you just went, I am playing man coverage ninety
nine percent of the time against Jeremiah Smith. They make
a buka like that just would not be Why so,
I think the thing that you take from Texas is
that you saw what what posts snap movements? Maybe gott
will Howard into a little bit of trouble, right like,
what did he see that made him a little bit
of confused, a little cause a little bit of confusion.

(56:10):
You're not gonna use it a lot because he had
seen it at this point. But if there's a big
moment in the football game where you know, whether it's
you know, rolling from too high and seeing guy down
in a robber coverage or whatever, you need to pick
and choose your spots and try to find a area
that I think, well Howard.

Speaker 8 (56:25):
Is going to get confused by You mentioned Marcus Freeman,
and you know he's obviously someone that in this part
of the country we are very familiar with, and one
of the storylines tonight is he's coaching against his alma mater.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
He was a defensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati,
and I remember my role doing the pre and post
game show one of the first times I talked to Marcus,
thinking to myself like, Okay, this guy's not going to
be here for long like this, this dude's going to
be a head coach. He's just he's an impressive guy,
and I think that comes across when you watch him
talk in public settings. It comes across when you get
a chance to talk with him one on one. You

(56:57):
talked about what he has done from a recruiting standpoint,
and there's a lot of U see guys on that
staff as well. Gino Goduli, Mike Denbrock was here as well.
But just give me some impressions three years into this
watching what Marcus has done to the program, even above
and beyond the recruiting that you talked about.

Speaker 6 (57:14):
Well, I think the big thing for him is that,
like he's very self aware of himself, which is like
a huge thing because in this in this profession, like
you need to have a lot of understanding of where
you're strong and where you're weak, and then in order
to have that self growth, like I think you need
to be aware of where your gaps are, right, And
I don't think we gave enough. I don't I don't
think we gave him enough credits early on and a

(57:36):
little and not enough understanding of you were never he
was never a head coach before, like his literally his
first head coaching job was in his mid thirties at
the University of Notre Dame.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Like that is a daunting thing for.

Speaker 7 (57:48):
The other coach.

Speaker 6 (57:48):
Man, it is not easy, right, And he had a
couple of struggles this first year right like you saw it,
you know, losing to Marshall, losing to Stanford.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
It was just like, man, like this is is just it.

Speaker 6 (57:59):
But then now a couple of years down the line,
you're like, Okay, maybe he needed that, right because he
used that to be able to understand this is what
we can do, this is what we can't do, and
any given Saturday we can lose. Obviously we've proven that.
But if we do those things the right way, we're
gonna lose, We're gonna win more often than nots right,
So he's shown a lot of self growth. But I
think just from him from a personal level, he's a

(58:20):
perfect mixture to me, because you mentioned it, like in interviews,
he's great. He's got kind of this like stoic energy
to him right where he just kind of seems like
he's always cool, calm and collected, but when the players
talk about him, like he has a really good balance
of being the being the guy that needs to be
a little bit of a dictator at times, but also

(58:41):
like I'm approachable, like come talk to me, we can
figure this out.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
So I think it's the balance that.

Speaker 6 (58:45):
He has from energy, from being stoic, from being just
a good person overall.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
So I think he's a.

Speaker 6 (58:51):
Great leader, and I think that balance is something that
really stands out about him all the time.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Ryan Roberts with us A to C Sports covering Notre
Dame college football, the NFL on X at rise in Draft.
Let me go back to Al Golden here because he's
the favorite I think to be the new defensive coordinator
for the Bengals and the obviously coach linebackers here before
he went to Notre Dame. Do I want him to
be the DC of the Bengals.

Speaker 6 (59:16):
I think so, man, I've been so impressed with coach Golden,
especially the last two years, because he was another guy.

Speaker 7 (59:21):
In the twenty twenty two season, when it was.

Speaker 6 (59:23):
His first year at Notre Dame, a lot of Notre
Dame fans were not sold on him at all because
I kind they have let up like twenty one points
per game his first year. But again, he had not
called a defense since like two thousand and five when
he was at the University of Virginia. Like, he had
not called a defense in a long long time. But
there's a reason he was a head coaching.

Speaker 7 (59:40):
Commodity on the college level.

Speaker 6 (59:41):
There's a reason that the Cincinnati Bengals wanted him as
a linebacker coach in general, and why so many.

Speaker 7 (59:46):
NFL people have such a high opinion of him.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
And he's really smart, Like.

Speaker 6 (59:50):
He is just such a he's got kind of it's funny,
it's a different energy, but like he also comes off stoic,
similar to Coach Freeman, like he just he has the answers,
it seems, and he doesn't ever seem like he's frazzled,
like he just like he doesn't have it, like he
doesn't have an answer. Even if he doesn't have it,
he doesn't show it, which I think is a big
thing for a coordinator, especially the growth that we've seen

(01:00:12):
from year one to year two, last season with coach Golden,
and then year two to year three. I mean, he's
built a team that when he first got there, they
could not force turnovers like they just couldn't well for
whatever reason, they just were.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Not a team that could take the ball away.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
Well.

Speaker 7 (01:00:25):
They had like thirty two forced.

Speaker 6 (01:00:27):
Turnovers this year. Defensively, they leave all college football. And
a big reason for it is he's incredibly smart with
his second level pressures. He's gonna play a lot of man,
but then he's gonna sneak in that occasional Robert coverage
or something that's gonna get a quarterback in trouble. And
more than anything, I think that this is very important
for building a culture in a program. He's consistent with everything,
Like even after the year one struggles, he didn't say

(01:00:50):
I'm gonna scrap everything because that didn't work. Year one
was about growth, Year two was about growth. It's always
about we're doing what we believe in and we're gonna
get better at it.

Speaker 7 (01:00:59):
So I cannot think more highly of a coach.

Speaker 6 (01:01:02):
Goal And I called it an unconventional hire at first,
because again, he hadn't been he had not been a
main defensive play caller in a long time, and he
was just a linebacker coach in the NFL. So it
was just a very strange hire. And strings doesn't mean bad, it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Doesn't mean good.

Speaker 6 (01:01:17):
It's just it's unconventional, Like we just don't know what
to make of it. But three years downline, he has turned.
If he's not the best defensive coordator touch football, then
the guy he's going against, Jim Knowles, it probably is
for Ohio State. Right, So I think it's a tremendous hire.
He's obviously been in the NFL. He's been with Cincinnati.
He kind of knows that program, the organization inside and
now so I think he's going to do a tremendous job. Man,

(01:01:39):
he's gonna be a big loss if he does leave
Notre Dame, but he he's done a great job with
the Irish absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
All right, one more put on your NFL draft evaluation
cap for me? Do I want Al Golden to coach
Jack Sawyer in Cincinnati next year?

Speaker 7 (01:01:55):
It's an easy one, right because obviously you know the
Ohio State Cincinnati thing or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
But there are a lot of.

Speaker 6 (01:02:01):
Parallels with him and Sam Hubbard, who I knowed you
guys know very well obviously in Bengals world, right so,
and obviously in the Ohio State the Cincinnati connection there too.
So I think it's a really easy one. I won't say, though,
I would like Cincinnati get a little bit more dynamic
on the other side of Trey Hendrickson, Like he's obviously
been one of the more productive passwordsus the NFL, but
I want somebody on the other side that's gonna really

(01:02:21):
kind of take attention away from him. And I kind
of think of Jack Sawyer a similar to how I.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Think about Sam Hubbard.

Speaker 6 (01:02:26):
I think Sam Hubbard Jack Sawyer are gonna be really
good run defenders in the NFL, and they're gonna be
They're gonna be key to a pass rush, right like,
they're gonna maintain gap integrity. They're going to, you know,
get some cleanup.

Speaker 7 (01:02:39):
Sacks and cover sacks.

Speaker 6 (01:02:40):
But I don't think there's anything necessarily dynamic about him,
So I think it's a clean fit. I wouldn't be
I wouldn't mind it if it was at the right valuation.
But I do think that I still would like, for
Cincinnati's sake and that defensive stake, because I know they've
not play well at all this year, to get a
little bit more dynamic upfront on the other side of
Tree Henderson.

Speaker 7 (01:02:58):
Like I think that finding somebody.

Speaker 6 (01:02:59):
That's an impactful dude that sometimes you're gonna do one
on one with Trey Henderson instead because you just can't,
you know, put enough bodies on player X across from him.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
So I think we'd like a little.

Speaker 7 (01:03:11):
Bit more dynamic in kind of just that second guy.
But I do think that.

Speaker 6 (01:03:15):
Jack Sawyer is a high floor player who's been play
in the NFL for a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
YO, I would agree with that. I'll let you run, man.
Ryan Roberts rise in Draft on x A to Z
Sports covering the NFL Draft and Notre Dame the Fighting
Irish obviously taking on Ohio State tonight. Good stuff from
Ryan will have you back as we get into draft season,
which we're not there yet. That doesn't kick into hyperdrive
until we get to the combine and we're still a

(01:03:40):
few weeks away from that. Nonetheless, we appreciate the time
twenty minutes or twenty five minutes away from five o'clock
sports headlines, and you got to stop comparing the reds
of the Dodgers. That's next to ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks glad.
We decided to work today? Well, for me, the answer
is pretty simple. Today is a company. Now, the show

(01:04:01):
must go on. They don't turn the radio stations off, right,
this is the business. You know, people get into it
and you tell them like, all right, man, you gotta
work nights and weekends. Well what do you mean, Like, well,
you know, do you think we're just on from nine
to five during the week No, like or a twenty
four hour day. Business. The show must go on. But
here's here's my philosophy when it comes to the winter

(01:04:21):
holidays and if for me, and you know, everybody's different
for me, you know, I chose to work today for
two reasons. Number one, you know, you gotta let you
I'm pulling the curtain back for anybody who cares. You
gotta let folks know that you work for Like, all right,
I'm gonna take that day off. You got to let
them know a few weeks in advance. And so I

(01:04:43):
was asked about today, it's a company holiday, Mo Martin
Luther King Junior Day, Are you gonna work or are
you gonna not work? Now? If the Bengals are playing
and they're let's say they were in the divisional round
this weekend, we would have a Tony and Mo football show. Well,
you want to be on for those like I. That's
that's why you do this, to be on for those shows.
So of course I would want to be on. So

(01:05:04):
if the Bengals were playing yesterday, win or a lose,
I'd want to be on the air. That that goes
without saying that obviously is not the case. So you know,
I could have taken the company holiday. It's ten degrees outside.
So my philosophy is better to work when it's ten
degrees outside and take the comp day that you could

(01:05:24):
use when it's ninety degrees outside or seventy degrees outside
or seventy five degrees outside. So I have perfected this
every year I work this day, I work President's Day.
I would much rather use those days when I can
go outside and do something, because God knows that's not
happening right now. So that's why I'm here today. Not

(01:05:47):
that anybody really cared sports headlines or a service of
a Kelsey Chevrolee home of lifetime power train protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life
kelseyshev dot com. Bengals have an offensive line. They've hired
Scott Peters, who was the offensive line coach for the
Patriots last year. Prior to that, he was the assistant
offensive line coach for the Browns from twenty twenty through

(01:06:11):
twenty twenty three. Congratulations to a Scott. Michael McCarthy, not
the former Cowboys and Packers coach, has been named an
assistant offensive line coach. He's the guy that I guess
will hold the blocking sled. Lou An Rumo has been
hired as the Colts defensive coordinator. That according to Ian
Rappaport of NFL Network and Ben Johnson said to be

(01:06:31):
the new coach of the Chicago Bears. That according to
Adam Schefter, college football, tonight, the season comes to an
end Ohio State taking on Notre Dame. The game is
in Atlanta. It is going to kick off at seven
forty five. The game can be heard on seven hundred
w l W College Basketball. The Mark Pope Show is

(01:06:52):
tonight at six on ESPN fifteen thirty. Kentucky is coming
off that home loss to Alabama. The Wildcats and the
AP Top two and coaches poll are the ninth in both.
You see got votes in both. They got four votes
in the coaches pole and actually I lied, they got
no votes in the coaches pole, but they got four

(01:07:12):
got four votes in the AP none of the coaches.
It doesn't matter neither the Xavier, but the Musketeers aren't.
Coming off a really good road win against Marquette. Sean
Miller will talk about it on the appropriately titled Sean
Miller showed tonight at seven on fifty five KRC. The
Cyclones played this afternoon at home, beat the Toledo Walleye
two to one, and hockey. Tonight, the Blue Jackets take

(01:07:38):
on the Islanders on the road, the New York Islanders
on the road. I'm having a hard time talking today,
which is a problem when you talk for a living.
Less than idea, less than ideal, I say so. It
was a busy weekend for the La Dodgers, who have

(01:08:01):
continued their off season of just signing everybody they can
and call it what it is, taking advantage of their
resources and the rules that allow them to take advantage
of their resources. They signed Tanner Scott, who I think
most would agree was the best relief pitcher on the market.

(01:08:25):
He gets a four year deal seventy two million bucks.
The deal includes a twenty million dollars signing bonus and
twenty one million dollars in deferred payments. This according to
ESPN dot com, the offseason for the reigning World Series
champions has included signing Blake Snell, bringing back to Oscar Hernandez,

(01:08:47):
signing Michael Confordo, signing Koreans second baseman Heisi Young Kim,
extending Tommy fam and they have also picked up one
of the winter's biggest prizes, Lord Phenom Roki Sasaki. They
lorded him to La. You could tell I was reading
that busy offseason. Spend a lot of money, deferring money.

(01:09:11):
A lot of folks don't like it. There are a
few different things here. Number one, don't blame the Dodgers.
The Dodgers are playing by the rules. I can never
get mad at anybody for playing by the rules. This
company owns eight radio stations. There are people who don't
like it. Well, those are the rules. We are allowed
to own eight. Sorry, playing by the rules. The Dodgers

(01:09:34):
are playing by the rules. If I was a Dodgers fan,
which I'm not, I would want them to use the
resources they have, the revenue streams they have that others don't,
and to leverage that against everybody else and acquire as
many great players as possible. And if you got to
defer money, well the rules let you do that. Defer
the money, do it, No problem with it. The Dodgers

(01:09:55):
are playing by the rules. We can debate the rules,
and we could talk about the rules and how they
they get fixed in a couple of years when there's
a new CBA. I'm here for those discussions because I
think they're nuanced, and frankly, I think they're really interesting.
But we localize it and it's well, the Rads can't
do what the Dodgers are doing, and that's fine. Likes

(01:10:17):
that's now, I don't. I don't give major League Baseball
teams and owners who have generational wealth. I don't give
them a pass, and I don't feel sorry for them.
But I will be the first to acknowledge that the
Dodgers have revenue streams that don't exist in Cincinnati. That's fine.

(01:10:39):
The comparison should not be the Dodgers. Like if you
want to look at the rules and you won't let it,
look at the Dodgers and you want to go, oh,
the Rads can't do what the Dodgers are doing. Fine,
I have no problem with that. Now there is a
slight difference between can't and won't. But if you want
to say can't, that's okay. I don't want the Reds

(01:11:01):
to try to do what the Dodgers are doing. Well,
that's not true. I would love it if they could
try to do what the Dodgers are doing. But if
we are going to go ahead and agree with a
can't because of their position financially in the sport versus
the Dodgers, that's fine. The comparison is not the Dodgers.
The comparison is, well, the Milwaukee Brewers, who have consistently

(01:11:25):
fielded winning teams now for a while. I know the
people in Milwaukee are looking at the Dodgers going, man,
I wish we could do that, But they still find
a way to win and compete. And you know, they
haven't broken through and gone to the World Series, but
they're in it every single year. Or the comparison can

(01:11:45):
be the Cardinals. The Cardinals in recent years haven't been great,
and their primary objective this offseason, stated by ownership, has
been to trade Nolan Aeronato, which, boy, nothing stirs fans
more than stating that your primary objective is to shed payroll.
But okay, at the same time, for quite a while now,

(01:12:05):
the Cardinals have an established track record of being relevant.
One ninety loss season this century. That's a good comparison
or the Tampa Bay Rays. And I honestly don't want
the Reds to operate like the Rays, because I want
the Reds to actually care about drawing fans, and that's
not something that Tampa Bay Rays really worry about. And

(01:12:26):
they trade away good players at every opportunity, and I
don't really want the Reds to do that either. But
the Rays have been viable on the field now for
a while, consistently competitive in a division that includes a
team from New York and a team from Boston or
the Minnesota Twins of the Kansas City Royals, like you
get my point here, right, Like all right? They can't

(01:12:46):
do what the Dodgers do. They don't have the revenues
the Dodgers have. The rules work for the Dodgers and
against the Reds. That's okay. But the rules don't just
work against the Reds. They work against a lot of
other teams that have, somehow, within the framework of how
baseball's economics work, found ways to put winning teams on

(01:13:06):
the field and at least legitimately contend for and compete
for championships. You bang your head against the wall and
complain that baseball's economics are what they are. Man and again,
I'm all for solutions. I'm all for ways that can
make the sport better and increase the odds of a

(01:13:28):
team like the Reds competing and level the playing field
if you're looking for that, and there's some really good
discussions to have there. I don't want the Reds to
do what the Dodgers are doing, because I get it.
It's silly. It's it's rooting for something that is not
going to happen. You know, it is pointless. What's not
pointless is demanding that they achieve similar results to teams

(01:13:53):
that are doing the same thing. When they look at
the Dodgers wondering are we ever going to be able
to do that? Why can't we do that? Should they
be allowed to do what they're doing by deferring money
exceeding the luxury tax and having such a built in
financial advantage. There are a lot of teams that have

(01:14:14):
figured out how to do this. You might not like
to hear me talk about the Milwaukee Brewers, but over
the last six seven years, they've they've contended consistently. We
say this all the time in baseball, like all you
gotta do is get in and you have a chance.
I mean, the Dodgers, for all of their financial might,
for as good a job as they have done of
producing big league talent, and they're underrated, massively underrated in

(01:14:38):
that regard. I mean, they have only one two World
Series since this run of National League West Division titles,
so obviously nothing they do guarantees a championship, and even
less so because we have more playoff teams and we
have more playoff rounds, and we have more playoff games.
So I don't look at the Dodgers and start thinking

(01:14:58):
about the Reds. I look at in the standings every
year and I see teams at a similar competitive and
financial disadvantage as the Reds to the Dodgers, who are
winning more frequently. There's no reason why the Reds can't
be the Brewers, and hopefully soon one day will be.
By the way, not every move the Brewers makes makes
a lot of sense. I do not understand why they

(01:15:19):
traded Corbin Burns before last season. And I'm thrilled that
Willie Adamas got away and he's no longer in the division.
And if you don't want it to be Milwaukee, look
at a team somewhere else. But of course, of this
century we've seen reasonably sustained periods of success by teams
like Minnesota, Oakland, Tampa Bay, Kansas City. Even for a

(01:15:44):
while Pittsburgh. Comparison isn't to the team with the advantage.
The comparison is to the team that are at the
same disadvantage. Many of them are winning a lot more
than Cincinnati does. Eight away from five o'clock at Muleger
on X. We have a lot to get to between

(01:16:06):
now and six. I do have a question about baseball
and a cap and how they can change things around
and make things a little bit easier for teams like
the Reds. I don't know if we're going to get
that to today or tomorrow, but we're going to get
to it. On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:16:23):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:16:29):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. At uce Health, you'll
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Expect delays in the area on that eazelic with traffic.

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This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios. Rapid Radios are instant.

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It is four minutes away from five o'clock. This is
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(01:17:27):
Podcast of this show are a service of Long Neck
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I want to go out. I want to brave the elements.
I'm going to put on some layers and I want
to go to Long Necks and watch the game. Well,
the good news is they have a roof, and they
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Speaker 1 (01:17:57):
Are you ready for some football? We are. This is
Dave Lapplock and you're listening to the Home of the
Ready for some football SPN fifteen I am.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
I am indeed ready for some football.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
Five after five ESPN fifteen thirty on Oeger. Thank you
for listening. Hopefully your hopefully your weekend is still happening.
If not, hope you've had a great Monday. I hope
you've had a great Monday, regardless of whether or not
you were off today, and more than anything, hopefully you
have stayed warm. We have a lot to get to
this hour. Big night tonight college football playoff National title

(01:18:31):
game Ohio State versus Notre Dame. We're gonna get to
that coming up in just a second. Bengals did hire
an offensive line coach, Scott Peters, with the o line
coach with the Patriots last year, was with the Browns
from three through I'm sorry, from twenty twenty through twenty
twenty three, he was the assistant offensive line coach, so
he replaces Frank Pollock. Cincinnati also hiring a guy named

(01:18:53):
Michael McCarthy to be the assistant offensive line coach. Meanwhile,
we wait to find out who the defensive coordinator is
going to be. It is feeling, and this certainly doesn't
mean it's certain, but it is feeling more and more
likely like the guy is going to be Al Golden
who coaches tonight for Notre Dame against Ohio State. The
title tilt tonight. You know, really, I'm a fan, frankly

(01:19:18):
of neither. I don't spend much time in my life
anymore rooting against teams. I get this all the way.
You're a Bearcat fan, so you hate Ohio State? No,
not really. They're not rivals. They're not. I mean they're not.
They've played some games against each other, most of them
have not been that competitive. Sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:19:38):
I just.

Speaker 2 (01:19:40):
As I have gotten older, I have spent less energy
rooting against and more energy rooting for great games and
great stories. If my team can't win, That's what I'm
looking for. I think with Ohio State and Notre Dame,
beyond the nuts and bolts of the game itself, which
is this is going to be a very uphill battle
for the fighting Irish, you have a really interesting coaching matchup.

(01:20:05):
You know, Marcus Freeman, and you know you've you've heard this,
and I'm I've rooted like mare. I've rooted for Marcus
since he got the Notre Dame job because of the
job that he did at you see, and you know,
just having a chance to interact with him here and there,
being around the program, He's a very easy guy to
root for. There are other members of that coaching staff
who spend time at UC and had a lot to

(01:20:27):
do with the program success when Luke Fickle was the
head coach that I'm I'm really happy that those guys
are getting this moment. But with Marcus in particular, you
have a guy who took the Notre Dame coaching job
as his first head coaching job. Now the circumstances around
that we obviously talked a lot about as they were

(01:20:48):
happening with Luke Fickele in twenty twenty one. And you know,
who knows what Notre Dame would have done had UC
not been in a position to play for a national championship.
It's irrelevant. Marcus Freeman has his team sixty minutes away
from a national title in his third year as Notre
Dame's head coach, but as a college football head coach.

(01:21:11):
And I'll be honest with you, man, there have been
times we're watching and watching it from a distance where
I've watched it and thought, especially like they lost in
Northern Illinois this year, and I was watching the end
of that game with somebody and I said out loud,
like I'm fearful, this isn't gonna work. God was I wrong.
They have been great since he's updated their recruiting. He's

(01:21:32):
taken advantage of nil. And I've also heard a lot
of people say this about Marcus Freeman because he is
such a likable guy that he has made Notre Dame likable.
Maybe you agree with that, maybe you disagree with that,
but it's still a pretty cool story. And I mean,
you know, you think about this, for a guy who's
note yet forty years, I'd just turned thirty nine with

(01:21:53):
the day after they beat Penn State, he's got a
chance before he hits forty to check off. If the
box win national title in his third year as a
college head coach, that's pretty awesome. And then with Ryan Day,
and whatever criticisms of Ryan Day's coaching in the Michigan

(01:22:15):
game or out there, most of them are valid, not
just this season but beyond. I thought, like everybody else
that he coached scared against Michigan. It's not the first
time I have thought that he was subjected to and
deserved a whole slew of criticism that came his way
for how he coached that game and how his team

(01:22:38):
played in that game. And maybe winning a national title
or playing in a national title game isn't going to
wash away that criticism. It's there, and it was valid
and it was fair. But then there was the criticism
that I thought was a little bit too much, like
let him go now, don't even worry about playing in
the playoff. The worst thing that would happen would be

(01:22:58):
if they advanced and beat Tennessee. And he's still the
coach like all that stuff was cartoonish. I'm not sure
how many the people who actually said that stuff meant it.
I don't think those people represented the majority, but still
it was out there to go from a coach who
less than two months ago, some were wondering, how can
you bring him back? There's no way he can come back.

(01:23:22):
You gotta move on now.

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
How do you do this?

Speaker 2 (01:23:25):
Can you let him go and still play in the playoff?
To go from that having a chance to win a
national title in the most unique postseason we've ever had
in college football is if it happens they win, the
night is pretty remarkable. So you have two I think,
pretty interesting coaching storylines to night the game itself. I

(01:23:48):
guess what I'm kind of wondering is if Notre Dame
can make it ugly and if Ohio State. I saw
this and one of the many things I read about
this game, and I agree with it. If Ohio State
can win the toss, take the ball early, make Notre
Dame play from behind. Everybody has said that the Fighting
Irish their best chance of winning this game involves them

(01:24:08):
making it ugly, turning it into our rock fight, uglying
it up muddying it up. Well, it's a lot easier
to do if you're not playing from behind, and so
can Ohio State throw a knockout blow early? And if so,
can Notre Dame respond? I think we're also going to
be watching closely through the lens of the new defensive coordinator,
possibly one might say likely being on the sideline for

(01:24:32):
Notre Dame, Al Golden. And if he indeed is the
guy and it feels like he's the favorite to be
the guy, how quickly after tonight does that announcement come.
That'd be interesting. Ohio State's a sizeable favorite. Ohio State
should be a sizeable favorite. I do feel like though
the game is sort of being portrayed as the big, tough, strong,

(01:24:56):
big bad Big ten Buckeyes versus this plucky group of
upstarts in Notre Dame who are coming from a place
where you know, the fighting Irish never get a stage
like this. They've played in a bunch of big games
and in a bunch of College Football playoff games. They
have been outclassed in pretty much all of them, at
least in the CFP. Not so much this year. We'll

(01:25:18):
see if they are Tonight game's gonna kick off at
seven forty five down the Hall. They'll carry the feed
via ESPN Radio on seven hundred WLW. The NFL playoff
games this weekend were massively entertaining, much more so than
the wildcard round. And you know, I was talking about
this before. I get frustrated with bad officiating, not bad

(01:25:41):
officiating that just impacts my team, although that's frustrating, more
frustrating than if it involves a team that you're not
rooting for. I get frustrated by bad officiating because what
I love most about sports are the players. What I
love most about sports are talking about great players doing
awesome things and strategies and coaching decisions like that's the fun.

(01:26:05):
Part of talking about officiating is not fun because everybody
feels like their team is getting screwed more than everybody else's,
which is not the case. It isn't, it's not And
I don't think that the Chiefs get a larger percentage
of calls than everybody. Maybe they do if they do whatever.

(01:26:27):
I guess that is what comes with sustained success. But
I will acknowledge something that for me as an NFL fan,
has become problematic, but only to a certain degree. What's
become problematic is this we spend too much time talking
about officiating on the Monday after games. I mean, I

(01:26:49):
think of this season, and I used the example before
of the Bengals Ravens game in Baltimore where You Burrow
basically had his head ripped off on the game decide
two point try, and there were other penalties that could
have been called during that play, and it leaves such
a bad taste in your mouth. I was thinking about

(01:27:10):
this driving in today. If I'm a Baltimore Ravens fan,
what's the more difficult pill to swallow? Your player making
a physical mistake with the season hanging in the balance,
like Mark Andrews did last night, or a call affecting

(01:27:33):
the outcome of that play or determining the outcome of
that play that's not the right call. Let's say it's
Mark Andrews doesn't just drop the ball, he gets blatantly
interfered with, tackled before the ball gets there, the pass
falls incomplete, and there's a flag and there's no flag
and the game ends like that's that's more frustrating that

(01:27:57):
that's tougher to swallow. I mean, if you're a Ravens fan,
the way they lost is a really bitter pill and
a lot of things that went into that game, but
you can handle and you can maybe even relate to
or rationalize. You know what, our guy had the game
in his hands and he just dropped it, and he
can't drop it, and it's the worst time to drop it.
And if that happens on a second and nine play

(01:28:20):
midfield on a random Sunday and September, no big deal.
But it happened on a Sunday night with the season
hanging in the balance and a chance to advance the
AFC Championship game at stake, and they lose, and they
lose in large part because of that. That's tough. What's
tougher to take is you'll lose because the officials got

(01:28:41):
that call wrong. And so that Bengals Ravens game back
in November was a great game. Like, find me someone
who watched that game who wasn't entertained by the quality
of play, the back and forth nature of it, how
good the two quarterbacks were, some of these strategic decisions
that were made, and yet all of that got washed

(01:29:02):
away by a bad non call. Call it what it was,
it was a bad non call, Like, it's not sour grapes.
It just it was a bad non call. It's not
the only reason why the Bengals lost. That came out,
but it was a bad non call. So if that
they lose to a point, try to win the game
and Joe Burrow throws a pass and it goes through
the hands of Jamar Chase a catchable pass, or all

(01:29:23):
he's got to do is catch it and they win
and he drops it, or it's t Higgins or Chase
Brown or Mike is Sicky or anybody else, it's tough
to take. It's even more tough to take though win
in the aftermath. The outcome of the game was affected
by bad officiating. And it feels to me as an
NFL fan, that we spend way too much time talking

(01:29:44):
about officiating because the officiating is problematic. Now, I don't
know what the solution is. A sum will say, well,
make them full time employees. I don't think that'll work
because if you're one of these officials. Let's say you're
one of the better officials and they come to you
and say we want your full time occupation to be

(01:30:05):
NFL ref Well, wouldn't you have questions like, first would be, well,
so I have to give up my primary vocation that
might be higher paying, or might have better benefits, or
you just might find emotionally rewarding. I have to give
that up because I got to be a full time official. Okay, well,

(01:30:27):
how many mistakes am I allowed to make? Like you
kind of want to know that at any job?

Speaker 3 (01:30:33):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
Well, okay, well, how much like if I if I
make a bad call in one game? Is my career,
my full time job, my primary way of supporting my family?
Does that come to an end? I wouldn't want that job.
Some have suggested adding more replay reviews. I'm opposed to
that because replay reviews are boring. Some have suggested put

(01:30:57):
more officials on the field. I'm not entirely appos to that.
I don't know what the fix is. I do know
two things. Number One, I feel like the officials get
talked about way too much because there are so many
damn officiating controversies. And it's not just the Chiefs. You

(01:31:19):
had them in the Lions Commander's Game. It's not just
the Chiefs, not just the team that always wins on
a week to week basis. I feel like I could
do multiple topics on officiating controversies around the NFL. That's
deeply frustrating as an NFL fan. At the same time,

(01:31:43):
if you say, well, look, the league's got a problem
on its hands because of the officiating issues. Okay, fine,
is it costing them business? Like, That's how I identify
a problem. Is it costing this business? Is costing eyeballs?
Is there anybody who's not going to watch on Sunday

(01:32:04):
the two conference championship games? Is there anybody who went
to bed mad and how the Chiefs benefited from the
officiating in that game on Saturday, who didn't turn around
and assuming they didn't have another obligation, watch those games yesterday? Like,
the league has never been more popular. And so there's
a part of me that goes, well, if I'm Roger Goodell,

(01:32:26):
if I'm an NFL owner, if I'm working for the
league office, I'll hear about my officiating and how it's
so problematic, and I'll go cool, Are we losing business?
Are we losing customers? Are we losing clients? Are we
losing television? Eyeballs? A problem in business is only really

(01:32:47):
a problem if it's costing you business, and so yeah,
for me, it's deeply frustrating the fact that we talk
about this area of the game that we shouldn't even
have to acknowledge. We talk about it way too much.
I find that problematic. But if the league isn't losing
business because of it, should they find it problematic? Twenty

(01:33:08):
minutes after five o'clock, I was talking about the Dodgers before,
and you know, they had a big weekend, signed Tanner
Scott deferring more money, taking advantage of their financial advantages.
I want to spend a few more minutes on that.
We'll get back to the college football Playoff national title
game tonight Ohio State versus Notre Dame, and a few
thoughts on the college basketball from over the weekend as well.

(01:33:30):
On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's Eaybe maybe
on a Bengals defensive cording, maybe more on the college
football Playoff national title till tonight, which you can hear
down the hall on seven hundred w WELW. The ESPN
radio broadcast goes on the air at six thirty. Kickoff

(01:33:50):
is they're saying seven thirty kickoff is going to be
right around seven forty five. Now you know quickly on
the baseball thing, and you know, whenever a major market
team like the Dodgers flexes its muscle and spends a
lot of money on a free agent, invariably and understandably,
here come the calls for a salary cap. And I

(01:34:15):
think this is an interesting question, and I'm going to
get to it tomorrow. We're gonna put a poll question
on X tomorrow about this Baseball's had work stoppages. We
had a lockout a couple of years ago that was
kind of pointless. It did not It did not really
impact anything. No games were missed. Spring training started a
little bit late, but you know, it was an off

(01:34:36):
season lockout, and there was a florry of activity right
when the lockout ended. But it really didn't. It didn't
cost any games. It didn't take away what we all
care most about. We've obviously had a strike in ninety
four that canceled the World Series that went on to
shorten the season in ninety five. We had the strike
in eighty one which condensed the season. We had a
strike in seventy two, We had a one day strike

(01:34:57):
in nineteen eighty five. We had a lockout in nineteen ninety.
These lockouts and strikes rarely achieve much of anything for
the owners who have been looking for in essence of
salary cap now for a while. This was the central
issue of the ninety four baseball strike, and invariably owner's

(01:35:22):
cave and don't get the salary cap they're looking for
because the players union is really really strong. And so
I did this a couple of years ago when a
lot of folks were man that baseball had a lockout,
I said, like, if you want, if you want baseball's
economic structure to be different, if you want a cap,
if you want some of the things you see in

(01:35:43):
the other sports, then you want the owners to hold
their ground and essentially win a game of chicken against
the players. That's going to involve a long work stoppage,
a long one because the Players Association is really powerful,

(01:36:04):
very well funded. Players have done a very good job
of stockpiling in the event of a work stoppage, and
let's face it, owners have obligations to their media partners,
to their sponsors, to their ticket holders. They also don't
want to take the financial hit that would come with
not having a season, and as a baseball fan, none

(01:36:26):
of us want to not have a season. As a
baseball fan and as a human being, I don't want
to see the collateral damage that would come with not
having a season. You know, we saw teams furlough and
lay off employees during the lockout, and again, the lockout
didn't involve any missed games. I don't want to see that.
I don't want to see businesses that are at least

(01:36:46):
somewhat adjacent to baseball teams suffer from not having baseball games, right,
think of bars and restaurants near the ballpark, that sort
of thing. As someone who works for a company that
carries major League Baseball games and not just the Reds,
I don't want to see people, Nor do I want
to lose my job, and I don't want to see

(01:37:08):
people lose theirs because you know what, the revenue that
would come with carrying baseball games we don't have, and
so you know, now we've got to make cuts. But
if you are wanting to see baseball take on a
salary cap, then you want the owners to hold their ground,

(01:37:29):
and holding their ground would probably have to involve locking
out the players for such a long period of time
that not only would games be missed entire seasons might
not be played. I think we all understand there's a
lot of collateral damage that comes with that, with fans

(01:37:50):
turning away, bad pr things of that nature.

Speaker 3 (01:37:53):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:37:53):
I still talk to people who say they've not forgiven
baseball for the strike thirty one years ago. So I
guess here's my question, and we'll spend a little bit
more time on this perhaps tomorrow. If I told you
that baseball is going to change its economic structure and
have a cap and put teams like the Reds and

(01:38:14):
the Dodgers on a more level playing field, but it
will require the sport to go away for that to happen.
Would you be okay with that? My guess is the
instant reaction for a lot of fans would be yes.

(01:38:35):
But would you really be okay with the game going
away for a year? I think that's the question you
have to wrestle with MLB trade rumors today as a
piece about this topic. Like the history of work stoppages
and negotiations of a new CBA, the owners usually cave

(01:38:56):
and never really come up with a proposal that the
players will accept in order to cave themselves on the
salarycap issue. So would you be okay with the sport
going away if it meant that at the end of
a work stoppage you got the salarycap More on that
tomorrow we'll have a post question for you on X

(01:39:18):
as well. It is twenty nine away from six o'clock
dueling Voices on the National Championship Game next on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's twenty five away from
six sports headlines are a service. I'm Kelsey Chevrolet, home
of a lifetime power train protection and guaranteed credit approval

(01:39:38):
from their family to yours for life kelseyshev dot Com.
Bengals have hired an offensive line coach. Two of them. Actually,
one is the offensive line coach. His name is Scott Peters.
Last year was the o line coach with the Pats.
Michael McCarthy is the assistant offensive line coach, not the
assistant to the offensive line coach. The assistant offensive line coach.

(01:40:00):
He was an offensive coaching assistant with the Pats last year.
Louie Romo is moving up I seventy four to be
the new defensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts. That was
originally reported by Ian Rappaport of NFL Media. Adam Schefter
of ESPN reports that Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is
no longer a Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson because he

(01:40:22):
has been hired as the head coach of the Chicago Bears.
I Meanwhile, tonight, it's Ohio State and Notre Dame squaring
off in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. More
on that coming up in just a second. College basketball
Tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty. Excuse me, it's the Mark
Pope Radio Show on ESPN fifteen thirty. Kentucky coming off

(01:40:45):
their loss to Alabama. The Wildcats are ninth in the
AP Top twenty five pole and ninth in the coaches poll.
Also tonight, seven o'clock fifty five KRC, it's the Sean
Miller Show. A terrific win on the road the Musketeers.
We talked about this after they beat Villanovo on Tuesday
of last week. All Right, Ryan Conwell was awesome, twenty

(01:41:06):
eight in the second half. Is that gonna believe? Is
that going to be the blueprint moving forward? On Saturday,
it was naughty had six points missed all light of
his three point attempts. Xavier offensively left a lot to
be desired, especially over the last twelve thirteen minutes. They
were awesome defensively. Dalen Swain put on a clinic defensively,
so did Sean Miller. X goes on the road. They

(01:41:28):
play at the time the seventh ranked team in the country,
Marquette has since fallen tenth in both polls, and they
hold him to fifty seven points. They win on a
night or a day where they go two of seventeen
from behind the arc score just fifty nine points and
beat a team that beat them in Cincinnati. Up next
for XU a tilt against Saint John's at Madison Square

(01:41:48):
Garden on Wednesday. Uc did get a couple of votes
in the AP Top twenty five pole. The Bearcats with
back to back wins. I said this on Friday, the
next two are must win home games. I've beaten this
horse to death. They've got to win their home games
four and five. Last year, if that's six and three,
which is what it should have been, They're a tournament team.

(01:42:10):
Lost their first two, didn't beat Kansas, didn't beat Arizona,
did beat Arizona State. I thought they took a step
in the right direction. Defensively, they were fine. They didn't
turn the ball over. We saw them at times played
downhill a little bit, which I love. Want to see
this team run more. Saw some good stuff from Dylan
Mitchell at the five. More than anything, they missed shots.

(01:42:34):
They did not shoot it well, shot less than forty percent. Again,
but I thought the offense worked. I thought they had
good looks. I thought guys were open. Now those shots
have to fall tomorrow night with the Bearcats take on
Texas Tech. Earlier this afternoon, the Cyclones were home winners
over Toledo by a score of two to one, and

(01:42:55):
the Columbus Blue Jackets take on the Islanders tonight on
the road, the Jackets coming off a loss to the
Rangers the other night in the first game of their
New York Swing. What else do we have? I think
that's pretty much it. Twenty one away from six o'clock
all right, College roll playoff national title games tonight Ohio
State versus Notre Dame. Earlier today we were joined by

(01:43:16):
our guy, Dave Biddle of buck Nuts, who I asked,
what should worry Buckeye fans about Notre Dame's offense?

Speaker 3 (01:43:25):
Well, I of State's not done it. He's done a
better job late in the year, but they haven't done
a grea job against running quarterbacks. I think something Texas
should have used more, especially down the goal ande I
can't play then put arch Banning in. They did it
once early in the game and it worked and then
they never went back to it. Okay, okay, thank you.
So Riley Leonard is a heck of a good running quarterback.
I know he's a little banged up, but like I
think with the time off, he's gonna be fine. More

(01:43:45):
than fine. He's tough, he's physical, he's athletic, he's big.
And then they also have a really good running back
in Jeremiah Loves. That's all you can said. Okay, we're
just gonna spy Riley Leonard, and he's really good at
throwing the ball and third down, Like yeah, he just
doesn't like sparkling stats or anything passing wise. But they
were like maybe the best team in the nation at
converting third down. So third down conversions is a big win.

(01:44:09):
Containing the QB run you're not going to stop it.
Containing the QB you've been containing Jeremiah Love are the
biggest concerns and turnovers. I don't think Notre Dame can
win this game. Mode maybe I'm wrong. I don't think
Notre Dame can win this game if they don't win
the turnover battle.

Speaker 2 (01:44:22):
I would agree with that. Will Howard. It's interesting if
I ask ten observers or even ten Ohio State fans
to give me an opinion on Will Howard, I'm probably
getting ten different opinions. So I asked Dave for his
assessment on how Will is played here in the postseason.

Speaker 3 (01:44:39):
Yeah, that's a great way that you asked that question, right,
I think of yes to Buckeye Fancy would get ten
different answers about Will. Kind of similar, but everbody would
say something different because some people it's like, oh, yeah,
Will Howard's great. Some people's like Will Howard isn't.

Speaker 1 (01:44:52):
Good at all.

Speaker 3 (01:44:52):
Will never play in the NFL. Yeah, I'm somewhere in between.
I think he'll be like a fourth round pick. I
don't see him be in like a starting quarterback in
the NFL. But as far as how he's he's played
really well in the postseason, specifically against Tennessee and Oregon.
That was the most accurate he's been as far as
throwing deep balls. I mean he was putting just dropping dimes.
That that's like Joe Burrow's style, Bros. I don't say
that lightly and I'm serious. Like, you know, a Mecca

(01:45:15):
that his his catch the second touchdown of the Rose Bowls.
He had to catch it like one that even the
dB did a great job about a hand on a
Mecca catch it with one hand because the ball was
placed perfectly with like perfect throw, perfect coverage and a
perfect catch. Everybody did their job on that. So he's
been really, really good in the postseason again Texas. He
was a little shaky though a little shaky against Texas.
So here's the thing. Notre Dame and they know this

(01:45:37):
will will put the ball in harms. Weck, he did
it against Texas, did it against Michigan. He's he's usually
good for about one or two boneheaded plays a game
where you're like, what in the heck was he thinking there?
But overall he's had a good year. You know, he's
third team All Big Ten. I thought he might be
second team All Big Ten. So he's like, you know,
he's that's about right. He's like a second team third
team All Big Ten quarterback. He's not like an All

(01:45:59):
American or anything like that. He's not going to be,
you know, a second round pick or anything. I think,
and he could slide into the third round because NFL
teams will like his leadership, they like his toughness, or
like his thighs. He's a legit six to four. He
looked at six to five at case date. They listened
to six to four here. So yeah, he's a good
college quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:46:16):
I would agree with that. Dave Biddellbucknuts dot Com. We
also had with this our guy Ryan Roberts does an
awesome job covering Notre Dame for a to Z Sports.
You know, it was interesting Texas took away Jeremiah Smith.
The buck Geys have a lot of other weapons. But
I asked Ryan if a Notre Dame can use the
Longhorns blueprint tonight.

Speaker 6 (01:46:36):
I think so in the sense that they ran a
lot of zone in that game, and it was a
lot of not just showing what you're doing pre snap,
there was a lot of post snap, you know, just
kind of rolling to different coverages.

Speaker 1 (01:46:45):
I can already need to use some of that. Again.

Speaker 6 (01:46:47):
They are a very talented team on the secondary. Even
without Morrison, they have Christian Gray, They have Leonard Moore,
they have Xavier watts, Don Schure, they have a lot
of really.

Speaker 7 (01:46:56):
Good defensive backs.

Speaker 1 (01:46:57):
But you would be just idiotic if.

Speaker 6 (01:47:00):
You just want I'm playing man coverage ninety nine percent
of the time against Jeremiah Smith a Mekeabuka like that
just would not be wise. So I think the thing
that you take from Texas is that you saw what
posts snap movements. Maybe God will Howard into a little
bit of trouble, right Like, what did he see that
made him a little bit of confused, a little cause

(01:47:21):
a little bit of confusion. You're not gonna use it
a lot because he had seen it at this point.
But if there's a big moment in the football game
where you know, whether it's you know, rolling from too
high and seeing guy down in the robber coverage or whatever,
you need to pick and choose your spots and try
to find a area that I think Will Howard is
going to get confused.

Speaker 2 (01:47:38):
By Ryan Roberts, a to Z Sports covering Notre Dame. Obviously,
Notre Dame and the Bengals are intersecting because of the
possibility that Al Golden leaves Notre Dame to be the
Bengals defensive coordinator serve in the capacity here that he
served in with the Irish. So I asked Ryan if
Bengals fans should want Al Golden to be the new DC.

Speaker 6 (01:48:02):
I think so, man, I've been so impressed with coach Golden,
especially the last few years, because he was another guy.
In the twenty twenty two season when it was his
first year at Notre Dame, a lot of Notre Dame
fans were not sold on him at all because I
think they have let up like twenty one points.

Speaker 1 (01:48:14):
Per game his first year.

Speaker 6 (01:48:16):
But again, he had not called a defense since like
two thousand and five when he was at the University
of Virginia. Like, he had not called the defense in
a long long time. But there's a reason he was
a head coaching commodity on the college level. There's a
reason that the Cincinnati Bengals wanted him as a linebacker
coach in general, and why so many NFL people have
such a high opinion of him. And he's really smart,

(01:48:36):
Like he's just such a he's got kind of it's funny,
it's a different energy, but like he also comes off
stoic similar to coach Freeman, Like he just he has
the answers, it seems, and he doesn't ever seem like
he's frazzled, like he just like he doesn't have it,
like he doesn't have an answer. Even if he doesn't
have it, he doesn't show it, which I think is
a big thing for a coordinator, especially the growth that

(01:48:58):
we've seen from year one to year two last season
with coach Golding, and then year two the year three.

Speaker 7 (01:49:03):
I mean, he has built a team that when he first.

Speaker 6 (01:49:05):
Got there, they could not force turnovers, like they just
couldn't well for whatever reason, they just were not a
team that could take the ball away. Well, they had
like thirty two forced turnovers this year. Defensively, they leave
all college football. And a big reason for it is
he's incredibly smart with his second level pressures. He's gonna
play a lot of man, but then he's gonna sneak
in that occasional robber coverage or something that's gonna get
a quarterback in trouble.

Speaker 7 (01:49:27):
And more than anything, I think that this is.

Speaker 6 (01:49:29):
Very important for building a culture and a program. He's
consistent with everything, Like even after the year one struggles,
he didn't say I'm gonna scrap everything because that didn't work.
Year one was about growth. Year two was about growth.
It's always about we're doing what we believe in and
we're gonna get better at it. So I cannot think
more highly of coach Gold. And I called it an

(01:49:50):
unconventional hire at first, because again, he hadn't been he
had not been a main defensive play caller in a
long time, and he was just a linebacker coach in
the NFL. It was just a very stream hire.

Speaker 1 (01:50:03):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:50:03):
Ryan Roberts a to Z Sports covers the NFL Draft
and the Notre Dame fighting Irish Ohio State versus Notre
Dame tonight and again the game can be heard here
in Cincinnati on seven hundred WLW. It's fourteen away from six.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:50:21):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:50:26):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. At uce Health,
you'll find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your
best tomorrow possible. That's found less care for better outcomes.
Expect more at ucehealth dot Com. Accident cleared away southbound
two seventy five. That's after Milford Parkway northbound seventy five

(01:50:47):
after Western Hills via Doc Lutlane, blocked off from a
disabled vehicle and at disabled vehicle eastbound Fifer Road at Kenwood.
I'm at Ezelek with traffic, which is.

Speaker 2 (01:50:58):
Just a delightful, just delightful. And while I'm breaking stuff
at a studio, Mark Pope show is coming up. In
just a few minutes, Colin and I call in talk
to the coach of the Wildcats from six to seven
UK losing to Alabama on Saturday and what was a
thoroughly entertaining, well played college basketball game. I'm a big

(01:51:23):
basketball fan. I love basketball, so I love the NBA.
I love college I probably don't love them equally. I
like college more, but I do love the NBA. The
NBA product this year has been talked about a lot.
I'll admit it's not great. The college product I think
this season has been awesome. Not every game, certainly, not
every team, but like at the highest levels. I watched

(01:51:46):
a game yesterday Michigan State in Illinois, which from a
tip to the final horn was just extraordinarily well played,
good flow, entertaining guys making plays in that game too.
Good coaches. I thought Alabama Kentucky was similar. You're being fair.
If you're a Wildcat fan, you wonder if they play

(01:52:06):
enough defense to win the sort of games in March
that you hope they can. But still really fun to watch.
That came on Saturday. It's fun to watch, and the
Mark Pope Show will be fun to listen to. In
just five minutes tomorrow on our show, Paul Danner Junior,
it's Tuesday, so today's not Tuesday. Tomorrow's Tuesday, so Paul's
going to be here on a whole host of Bengals

(01:52:28):
related issues. Go read his stuff at the Athletic because
there's a lot to talk about and maybe even more.
We are looking forward to that.

Speaker 1 (01:52:38):
We're done.

Speaker 2 (01:52:39):
Music's on means we got to go. My thanks to
Tarran Bland for producing, and my thanks to you for listening.
Stay warm, enjoy the rest of your night, enjoy the
game this evening. We'll talk to you tomorrow at three
oh five on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station

Speaker 1 (01:53:03):
Than