2/27/25 - The Mo Egger Show w/ Chad Brendel

Chad fills in for Mo Egger talks Bengals, Reds and of course UC Hoops

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
No one covers the Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's
sports station.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Thursday in the Queens City. This is Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
I'm Chad Brenda and from Moagar. Where's mo You might ask?
Is in the Red's game? I thank you for choosing me.

(00:41):
Is he there yet, tarn Or? Is he like en
Root to Goodyear? I believe he's in row. Okay, he's
not at the Reds game yet, but like tomorrow when
I'm on air here, he'll be at the Reds game.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Good for him.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Maybe I should ask him because he gives a live
segment from them raising any.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
We've done that in years past when he is because
he takes this trip every year, we have called him
during the game if there was a game going on
to get a a feel for the festivities in Goodyear.
The Threads are in action here like right now. They
they're starting right now. But you're gonna stay here and

(01:19):
then we'll keep you updated. Line up today, Freedom and
center leading off McLain. I got to practice this like Tarren,
like it's preseason for us two. So we got to
get back into to line up reading. So you know,
McLain batting second at second, Dela Cruz at short, batting third,

(01:40):
Hayes in left batting cleanup freely and right batting fifth,
Candelario batting sixth at first, Steer the DH batting seventh,
espinall at third, batting eighth, and Trevino behind the dish
batting ninth. Graham ash Craft on the bump for the reds.

(02:03):
Like I said, that one is just now getting underway.
We will talk some reds here in our number one.
The thing I want to get to today is the
manager's in place. I think everybody is very excited to
have Terry Francona. The lineup for the most part, feels

(02:25):
like it is. You know, you have a pretty good
finger on it. You got a pretty good grasp on
what it's going to look like most every day, what
it it'll look like against righty's, what it'll look like
against lefties. You know, maybe still some development figuring out
exactly what the bench is going to look like, what
the starting rotation is going to look like, what the

(02:46):
relief staff is going to look like. Those things will
all come into picture as we get a little bit
farther into the spring and a little bit closer to
opening day. The question for me, because I don't think
think they've done a good job with this over the
past two seasons. The question for me is what does

(03:08):
the leadership in the clubhouse internally look like? Who is
that guy to step up, Who is that guy to
take the bull by the horns and say this is
my team. I expressed this on the air regularly over
the last couple of years, two years mostly when when

(03:28):
this really started. But I hated the notion that Jonathan
India was the was the unquestioned leader of the clubhouse.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
And that's not a knock on India.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
That is a realization that India was still a very
young player. India was still a guy fighting for even
though he was a Rookie of the Year, fighting for
his future in Major League Baseball. And then you're going

(04:08):
to saddle him with up tag. You're it, You're the leader,
it's your clubhouse. Good luck. I don't think that's fair
to Jonathan India, and I think it showed over the
last two years when they tried to make it, make
it so like you don't just make leadership, you don't
help that guy's your leader. The clubhouse has to follow.

(04:31):
And when you hear what was said at the end
of last season going into the offseason where they you know,
they talked about, you know, guys weren't showing up early,
weren't getting extra work in. That was potentially a reason
that the defense was a little more sloppy than it
should have been. The base running was a little more
sloppy than it should have been. That is something that
your internal leadership should handle. And that was out of

(04:59):
Jonathan and his depth. And like I said, I don't
think it was fair to Jonathan India to expect that
of him because he was still finding his way as
a major league baseball player. You can't be both. You
can't be a guy that's trying to find your way
and be expected to be the guy that's standing up
in front of the room leading everybody else.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
So where does that come from this year?

Speaker 3 (05:26):
I was talking to Austin about it in one of
the breaks during Sincy three sixty and he said they
had broached this topic a little bit last week when
Hunter Green had the interview I think it was with
Fox nineteen where where he said, you know, this is
this isn't all on Terry Francono like, we hired Terry

(05:48):
and now it's his responsibility that we're going to improve.
And he said his pick was Hunter Green. I so
worry about some of those same things I mentioned with India.
With Hunter Green, the difference being Green has gotten that
contract in place that avoids arbitration and avoids, you know,

(06:09):
all the things that would have been coming for him
as a young baseball player. And two Hunter Green, I
think we all agree, very mature for his age, So
maybe it's something he can he can handle. I think
it's probably gonna have to be somebody else, So I'll

(06:29):
give you that answer in the next segment. Bengals, taren,
I got a couple. I got four numbers for you. Okay,
four numbers. Four numbers, fifty, forty, thirty, and twenty five.

(06:54):
You know what those numbers are, No, roughly their estimations.
Joe Burrow of fifty, Jamar Chase, forty, T. Higgins, thirty,
Trey Hendrickson twenty five. That's one hundred and forty five

(07:15):
million dollars. That is half of the NFL salary cat
that would be for one year. The Bengals are are
saying the right things to appease Joe Burrow because Joe
has said this is what he wanted, and now the
Bengals are parroting, well, yeah, this is this is what

(07:37):
we've always wanted. One If this is always is what
you've always wanted, then you completely mishandled the t Higgins situation,
and you completely mishandled the Jamar Chase situation last offseason,
because if this is what you've always wanted, I mean,
your plans have been all along for those guys to
be here long term. And if those were your plans
and we are now here where we're at, where instead

(08:00):
of signing t Higgins two years ago for eighteen million,
nineteen million, maybe you broke the bank for Tea and
he got twenty you would have been in a much
better place. You would have already paid out his bonuses,
he would be in year three of a four or
five year contract, and he would be to a to

(08:22):
a certain extent cost controlled. You could have gotten Jamar
Chase done last year for thirty five. Now it's gonna
be forty. Trey Hendrickson. If you're gonna do Trey Hendrickson,
he's gonna want twenty five million dollars one hundred and

(08:46):
forty five million dollars for four players. Is that a
winning formula for the Bengals? Are they doing the right
thing by appeasing Joe? Because this all could very much.
We've seen this before, Tarm with the Bengals. They say
the right thing, and then when the wrong thing happens,

(09:08):
or when the thing that they say they want to
happen doesn't happen, it's the we tried, we did all
we could. We did all we could, did you? But anyhow,
irregardless of the past, in the present, they have now
backed themselves into a corner. Your quarterback wants these three

(09:30):
guys all to be part of the future of the
Cincinnati Bengals. In a perfect world, all four of those
guys would be the mount Rushmore of the franchise right now.
But you still have an offensive line to fix, and
you have a defense that was dreadful a season ago

(09:55):
and two seasons ago. Can you fix all that with
half half of the cap? Obviously, all of this is
in conjunction with the conversations about the hour, the that
the combine about you know, getting these guys re signed,
And we heard from Duke Tobin and Zach Taylor and

(10:16):
you know some assistant coaches, including Al Golden Will will
if we've got time.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
We'll try to get to some of that stuff today.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
I can't guarantee it, but we'll we'll, we'll aim to
work it in if possible. Are they Are they thinking clearly?
Four guys at the top of your roster making half
of the hour cap. Is that a winning formula? Is

(10:46):
that a winning strategy or is it something you have
to do because your quarterback is I won't say Joe
is not happy. Joe is letting it known, letting it
be known, the path to his happiness and or unhappiness. Right,
He's telling you, he's giving you the answers to the

(11:08):
choose your own adventure. You can choose PATHA and Joe
will be happy. You can choose Path B not so much. Well,
here from Wes Miller press conference today for the Bearcats
as they prepare to travel down to h Town to

(11:28):
take on the machine that is the Houston Cougars on
Saturday four point thirty CBS.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Did Sean Miller talk today? Do we know Taren?

Speaker 4 (11:42):
Not sure? I'd look it up.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Okay, if Sewn spoke to the media today, I've been
in my own little bubble, so I haven't checked if
Sewan spoke to the media today. We will hear from
him as well. Xavier with a monster game coming up
against Creighton on Saturday as well, and I'm sure we'll
get to a lot more of those conversations tomorrow. But

(12:05):
we will get that path started today. And then I
wanted to talk some NIL a little bit because I
think some of this has stems from a conversation I
had with Dave Simone on the BCJ podcast last night
on Bearcat journal dot com. You can find that on YouTube.
Just look up Bearcat Journal. Do you see? And Xavier

(12:32):
are in this very tricky place as the NIL world
has developed. They have a good deal of money to
spend on their roster, but they don't have elite money
to spend on their roster. When you look at the
top twenty in college basketball, I think I can find

(12:54):
two teams that don't spend a significant amount of money
on building their roster, and just in the top ten,
those are all teams paying very well. Duke, Auburn, Houston, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama,
Texas Tech, Wisconsin, Gonzaga, Michigan State, a lot of money
going into those rosters. Cincinnati and Xavier have taken very

(13:20):
opposite paths to the same destination to this point. Cincinnati
went with a kind of a moneyball approach. They retained
their players from a season ago. They banked heavily on
those players improving and as a result, the record improving

(13:45):
in the Big Twelve. It was a disaster in January.
It has been much better in February. Xavier kind of
hit the reset button, brought in a bunch of new guys.
What they did, what Sean Miller did last year felt
like it didn't work. So they collected some more nil

(14:07):
to help move them up and build their roster. And
they've been inconsistent and they've struggled to finish games. One
or two of those games that Xavier had a lead
in the final five to six minutes. If they hold on,
we're having a much different conversation about Xavier right now. Instead,

(14:32):
they have a very much must win game against Creighton
on Saturday. So two schools, from what I know, they're
they're very similar in nil dollars. They built their rosters
very differently, not only in the way they spent the money,
but in the way that they the players that they targeted,

(14:56):
and they're both sitting at about the same place, and
it makes me wonder how much more difficult is it
going to be for both to make it in this world,
a world where I don't know if there's enough money
in the city to go around to support both programs
at the level of Duke Auburn, Houston, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama,

(15:20):
Texas Tech, Wisconsin, Georgia, Gonzaga, Michigan State, Missouri, Arizona. I
can keep going Kentucky, Maryland, Purdue, Saint Mary's, Clemsing like
there's a couple in there. And I don't think Saint
Mary's is spending a boatload of money. I don't think
Purdue is spending a boatload of money. I don't think
Iowa State is spending a boatload of money. But the

(15:41):
other twenty, the other seventeen teams on that list of twenty,
they're investing heavily in basketball. Is there a path to
keeping up? Got Richard Skinner at four twenty. That's our
only guest for today. Phone lines are open, we can
talk all day, whatever you want to talk about. Those

(16:03):
are the things I would prefer to talk about. But
we can go anywhere you want to go. Give us
a call five one three, seven four nine, fifteen thirty.
Thanks for tuning in. It's the Moagger Show. Let's get
this bad boys started right here on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (16:21):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 6 (16:25):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Around forty percent of
cancers are preventable. Lifestyle changes and screenings can make a difference.
Call five one three five A five UCCC southbound Hamilton
Middletown Road is blocked off from an oversized vehicle that
between Roaden Park and Rochester Hills Drive, most found two
seventy five approaching the Indiana state line. It's the left

(16:48):
lane blocked from an accident. A little bit of slow
traffic back from the Petersburg exit. I'm at Ezelek with
traffic this.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Big exactly.

Speaker 7 (17:00):
Let's get Hill's right, calling your flo when it comes.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
To You're trying to give me in a good mood,
aren't you? The last month course, you know what it takes.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
Who goes there?

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Reds and d bacs in the top of the second.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Nothing nothing.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Spring hand ashcraft on the mound. He has uh, he's
eleven pitches so far. Good first inning, like.

Speaker 7 (17:36):
A click click.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Reds went down uh in order in the first La
Daylight Cruise struck out to end the inning. So uh,
he did not hit another home run. The Reds have, Man,

(18:04):
I'm confused about Ashcraft. Has he's turned twenty seven pitches.
I'm sorry he has not thrown eleven pitches. I thought
that was good twenty seven pitches Right now, the Diamondbacks
have the bases loaded.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
In the top of the second with.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
One out, Matt McClean with an error to put the
first runner on, and then a fielder's choice with an
error by Graham Ashcraft. So two errors for the Reds
in the inning and then walk tarn that fundamental baseball

(18:50):
that we were talking about.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
They're not They're not having a good second inning on
that front.

Speaker 4 (18:58):
Ye, at least not right now.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Nope, not a good second inning.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Looking at this this team, there's a lot of reasons
I think to be optimistic. There's a lot of reasons
to you know, wonder what exactly the grind of one
sixty two is going to look like. You have heard
me for you know, so all of last season and
into this going into this season, talk about my concern

(19:28):
that you still have a majority of your starting staff
and it's a little bit better with the addition of
Brady Singer, but a majority of your starting staff never
having thrown one hundred and fifty innings in a season,
and if you're going to be a team that's in
the playoff hunt, that means you've got guys that are

(19:52):
going to be in late August, early September through September
pitching above what they have, what they have ever done before.
And I think that's, you know, something to at least,
if not be concerned about, at least to keep an
eye on. Can some of these guys that had bad

(20:12):
or injury shortened or less than the type of success
you wanted to see second seasons Matt McLain with the injury,
Christian and Karnaci and Strand noelbe Marte, you know, are

(20:32):
those guys going to be able to get back and
give you the type of promise that we saw from
them in their first season when they showed up in
Cincinnati and all those guys made you feel really good
about the young core of this team. But I think
the thing I'm curious the most, who is going to

(20:56):
be that clubhouse leader. Who is going to be that
guy when you know they're on a three game losing
streak in June, that rallies the group that you know
they've they've they've lost three in a row, they've lost
five of seven, like playing a tough stretch of games.
Things just aren't clicking for you. Who's the guy that

(21:19):
gets them back on track. Who's the guy that says,
all right, fellas, enough, let's go out there today and
get this one. The thought was that was Jonathan India
that for whatever reason that that didn't work the most
likely guy for me. And I'm interested in in what

(21:42):
you think. Five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty.
You know, you're you're still trying kind of in that
void where you lost Joey Vado, who was such a
steady voice in that locker room for you know, a
long time, almost two decades. Who is who is the

(22:03):
next guy to step into that role, the one that
jumps out to me right away?

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Do you have a name that pops up to you, Terren?

Speaker 3 (22:10):
We haven't talked about this shit, No, no, no one.
Uh yeah, I think it's Tyler Stevenson. He had a really,
really strong season last year. He has the type of
personality where he's not over the top, but he's not quiet,

(22:32):
like you know, he's gonna make his voice heard, but
he's not gonna like force it upon you. He is
now entering that stage where I think he's a veteran.
He's under team control until twenty twenty seven. I think
if he has another good year, I think the Reds
look at potentially getting a deal done with him to

(22:55):
keep him around. I think a lot of these guys
they're close enough range wise in age that they see
him as a peer. But he's been around and had
the type of success that I think you can have
this group look to him as a calming influence, as

(23:17):
a loud voice in terms of leadership, in terms of
pushing the team forward, in terms of getting the best
out of the group that's there every day. The concern
I have though Taran is kind of echoed by you.

(23:37):
If it's not Tyler Stevenson, who is it? Because I
just don't think it's fair to Hunter Green and Elie
de la Cruz. Although Hunter has an extra year of
service in the BIGS and he is a very mature dude,
but I'm not quite ready to like just assume he's

(23:59):
ready for that role. If it's not Stevenson, who is it.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
Maybe isn't that why you bring in a guy like
looks guy with Postlely's experience, championship experience.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Yeah, I mean I think that's fair. I think it's
I think it's difficult unless you're a guy that's like
Scott Rowland, you know what I mean. I think it's
difficult year one as everybody's getting to know you and
and like you know, you're you're building friendships and relationships.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
I think that's hard in year one, don't you about
It could be, but that's what's spring transfer. That's what
this time, this time's for.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Yeah, I think it takes longer than like six weeks
in Arizona. And and maybe he does. Maybe it maybe
that's like you know, it's Stevenson, uh is like that
front facing guy, and and Lux gives you a secondary guy,
a guy behind him that's won and played at the
highest levels and played in big games. You know, there

(25:00):
can be a secondary voice. And then you know, maybe
it elevates as the season goes along and he becomes
more and more of a leader. I just think it's
really difficult to be like, hey, here's your contract, here's
your cleats, you're the team leader. I just think it's
it's an incredible challenge to do things that way.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
It could, but I also think he could bring it
like in and like I said, a different perspective. Yeah,
obviously this is mostly the same roster who's been on
losing streets before. Maybe he can offer something like, hey,
we tried this out here in LA to to get
his out of the font core and.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Then the Reds look at him and go, we dominate
the Dodgers. Bro we dominated your team, bros A. That's
an interesting one. That's an interesting one. Definitely one that
needs consideration. I don't think it's freedom or freely personally,

(26:01):
and it could be. I guess those guys have been
here for a while. They they're grinders, they've worked their
way up through the system and earned their playing time.
So it could be one of those two guys.

Speaker 4 (26:13):
There's one guy on there I like who could do it,
But I just don't know if he's gonna make the roster.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Okay Benson, Yeah, I like that a lot. It's will
he be here? Yeah? Will will?

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Will he be here? I don't know?

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Like, I keep pulling for him Taran, and he's got
all the raw tools in the world, but it just
hasn't clicked yet. And I don't know if your leader
can be a guy that isn't going to crack your
your regular starting rotation, much less potentially make the team.
Now he is listed as the number two center fiel

(27:00):
and the number two right fielder. You would hope that's
enough to get you, you know, a fifth roster like
a fifth outfielder spot.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
But I don't know.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
You know that you've got a guy like Gavin Lux
that that you can play in a bunch of those positions.
I hate to say this, Terry. Would you take Benson
or would you take Fairchild?

Speaker 4 (27:22):
Oh? Me, bencon personally?

Speaker 3 (27:24):
I mean I think I personally would too. I'm not
the biggest Stewart Fairchild fan, but I think you know
more of what Like, you know, Fairchild has like a
role he can hit lefties, and if you're talking about
a bench bat like you want to be able to Okay,
I know this. I can put this guy in there
and he can hit lefties. Are you sure Benson is

(27:48):
a guy that can that can thrive on coming off
the bench and hitting Righty's I'm not positive. Spring is
gonna be very interesting for Will Vincent phone lines are open.
Let's get your thoughts. Who's your leader? Who steps up?
Is it Wade Miley? That's a name we haven't talked

(28:11):
about more after this since at He's ESPN tifteen.

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UCCC Southbound Hamilton Middletown Road remains blocked off due to
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Speaker 9 (29:06):
Is this man, I get more butt th ass trees?

Speaker 10 (29:09):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
You're on the hits today.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
I did tearing, I had a kelsey, played a volleyball
tournament up in Hamilton, and Spooky nook over the weekend, okay,
and I promise Saturday morning, got in the car at
like five fifty to head that way, nothing but bangers
for an hour.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Like Pandora.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Pandora on on random was just unbelievable on fire unbelievable.
I'm like, it should not I should not be in
this good of a mood at five point twenty three
at six twenty three on a Saturday morning and Kelsey's
like headphones in cover pulled over her head, like, honey,

(29:54):
you are missing some great music right here.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
It was foreshadowing because the cast to win.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
They did the Cat's got to win and they went
They went three and one on Kelsey went three and
one on Saturday. Yeah, so it's foreshadow it was. It
was the sign of a great day.

Speaker 4 (30:08):
Maybe you need to try again this Saturday.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Mama cooked a breakfast with no hog anyhow.

Speaker 10 (30:20):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Wes Miller spoke to the media today, Uh, getting ready
in advance to play Houston four point thirty CBS on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Let's hear from the Bearcat's head coach Houston.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
It kind of speaks for itself, right, like you know
what you're the type of fight you're getting into as
you get in there. You guys have had some games
where you've played them close, You've had some games where
they've they've had their way. How do you approach it
this time any different than the past or just put
your boots on and go to work.

Speaker 11 (30:54):
Yeah, I think their success speaks for itself in the
last that the four years that I've competed against them,
it speaks completely for itself. And it's not Their success
hasn't been exclusive to playing against Cincinnati. It's been against
everybody in the country.

Speaker 9 (31:09):
I think they've won.

Speaker 11 (31:10):
More games in the last four years than anybody in
college basketball.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
So it speaks for itself.

Speaker 11 (31:16):
They second Big twelfth title regular season speaks for itself.
We know how the league is. We just have to
to have a great prep and go down there and compete.
And I think that it's that simple.

Speaker 12 (31:30):
What makes their half court defense and that entire unit
so difficult to break down?

Speaker 9 (31:36):
Yeah, they're physical.

Speaker 11 (31:39):
They throw a lot of bodies at the ball, their
hands are very, very active, and you know, there's a
lot of familiar faces, right, So it's guys that have
been doing it there for a long time that understand
their principles and their rotations. But then you know that
they obviously have a very principal based defense. It's very

(32:00):
consistent over a long period of time. But it's not
just the principles, it's the way they bring them to
life with their activity. But I think it's difficult for opponents.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
You mentioned before Coach Williams with your teams would take
the buckets off and just practice going after the ball.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Is that that happened once?

Speaker 11 (32:18):
But yeah, well that's to mention.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yeah, I mean, is it is it?

Speaker 13 (32:22):
I don't even know how you prepare for these guys,
and I'm just it's.

Speaker 11 (32:28):
Just it's a game in the Big twelve. You know. Again,
their their success speaks for herself. We have tremendous respect,
but it's a game, and you prepare the same, prepare
for every game. Like as Chad mentioned in his question,
we've played against them a number of times in the
last three years, and there's a couple of games where

(32:48):
we've been right there within a you know, maybe with
the lead in the last minute one time down there.
So it's I'm not saying we've had success. Success would
be winning games against them, but it's not like we
haven't had moments we were able to compete and you know,
we didn't do anything out of the ordinary in those
moments or in those games to prepare for. So you

(33:09):
prepare like we prepare for games all year. These guys
on our team at this point have played a number
of big games against really really good opponents and in
really tough environments. Then we're gonna have to rely on
that experience in wisdom.

Speaker 12 (33:22):
As Dylan Mitchell, do you think tapped into anything differently
over the past few games with how efficient he's been
and just his major impact at both ends.

Speaker 11 (33:31):
Yeah, I think it's it's probably the boring answer, but
he's consistently improving. Like I don't think that like in
the last week, he's a different guy. I think he
just every week, every couple of weeks, when you look back,
he looks like he's just added something or found a
little more confidence in a certain area of his game.
And we've talked about that here. You know all year

(33:52):
that like his he's a great player, but there's so
much more in there and getting out there making mistakes,
continuing to gain confidence in other areas that maybe he
didn't have experience in as a college player. It's going
to get better and better as the year goes on,
and I think that's been the case, Like he just
seems to get more comfortable in different spots on the floor,

(34:12):
and he keeps improving.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Steamous played seventeen minutes after missing two games.

Speaker 12 (34:17):
How did he feel the next day or how was
he feeling now after getting back to playing.

Speaker 11 (34:22):
Yeah, it didn't get worse, which that was one of
the questions we had as a staff too, because he
practiced the day before our game against Baylor. But you know,
day before the game in February, guys that you know,
we're not killing each other as much as I'd love
to go out there and practice like that every day,
but he did. He practiced for an hour and twenty
minutes or so going into the Baylor game and made

(34:45):
it through, which was a good sign. And then he,
like you said, he played seventeen minutes in a big
twelve game and woke up the next day. And I
don't think we've had any setbacks as as that I'm
aware of as of now.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
When you look at the way they've played maybe through
the first half of conference play compared to the past
two or three weeks and watching them, it feels like
Milo Zuzan.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Has really elevated his play.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
How much does that maybe change them, not that they
needed it, but giving them even another offensive option.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
I think he scored twenty.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Two against Texas Tech that you know, he's not just
a guy that's blending in anymore.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
He's starting to be a guy that's standing out for them.

Speaker 11 (35:27):
Yeah, they he's like you can see him finding his
role within their team as a league plays continued, and
we know how good he is because we've played against
him in Oklahoma last year and he was a huge
piece of what they were doing. He played him twice
last year. So yeah, I think beyond just that, I
mean that, yeah, I agree. You know, I'm not going

(35:48):
to just say what you said, it's all accurate. Beyond that,
I think one of the things that makes this Houston team,
you know, so dynamic is the three point shooting, you know,
and and Uzon has a lot to do with that,
especially the way he's shooting it here recently. But you know,
between Crier, Uzon and and Gosh, he's such a best

(36:12):
year in the country in sharp Yeah, I mean, like
between those three, you know, they're one of the best
three point shooting teams in the country and for all
the things they've done well here over the last handful
of years. They they haven't been able to shoot the ball,
but they haven't been in that kind of a category
in three point shooting. So I think those three make
them a little different in terms of their offensive attack

(36:34):
because of the way that they shoot the ball and
how consistent it's been over the course of the year.
And as you mentioned, Uson's fine in the different different
rhythm there, and I think that makes them even more dynamic.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
It's just it's got to be depressing having to talk
like watch the tape on Houston and talk like talk
about what it takes to beat them, because you have
to be damn near perfect. They've lost four games all year.
They lost to Texas Tech in overtime a couple of
weeks ago, Tarran. You know when their last loss was
before that, no conference, right November thirtieth. They've lost one

(37:11):
game since December one, and it was in overtime on
the road. They've lost four games this year. They have
not lost a game in regulation. Should have five. Kansas
does the pool that chip job, Yeah, But I mean
that's Houston. They just keep coming at you and coming

(37:33):
at you. And coming at you and coming at you,
and then eventually you buckle. Eventually you buckle. And it
took them a little, you know, it took them a
month to figure out how to replace Jamal Shd because
Shed was a critical part of who they were for
so long.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Yep, But then they figured it out.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
I asked this last night on the bcjpod Terran, who's
a better coach in America right now than Kelvin Samson?
Maybe Bruce Pearl?

Speaker 4 (38:09):
Maybe I would eaves, no, because Bruce Pearl has an
old ass team.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
The only other guy I said that I would maybe
put in the same category as Samson right now is Natoates. Yeah, okay,
those are my top two over the past like three year,
four year window whatever. Natoates has been that guy at
Alabama and they're scoring one hundred like right with ease,
which just doesn't happen in college basketball. We will discuss

(38:43):
a lot more in depth tomorrow on Houston, but my goodness,
they're a problem. Let's take a break. Our number two
coming up after this. This is The Moeger Show, Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (38:57):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.
Around forty percent of cancers are preventable. Lifestyle changes and
screenings can make a difference. Call five one three five
A five U SECC southbound Hamilton Middletown Road is now reopened.
That after an oversized load was stuck trying to get

(39:19):
through the construction zone between Road in Park and Rochester
Hills Drive northbound Coleraine Avenue. It's an accident that one
before ray and drive and he's found two seventy five
an accident at Lebanon Road. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Here we go our number two Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Thank you for choosing me. Let's keep this.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
Let's keep this show rolling right along as we power through.
I was just talking to my dad in northern Kentucky Terran.
Apparently it's pouring there. Looked out. I was like, there's
blue skies here. It's a little cloudy, but I can
see blue, so it looks like the The drive home

(40:33):
might not be a lot of fun today, Tarren might
not be a lot of fun, but we'll survive. Let's
get to Let's get to some Bengals talk first. An
update on the reds Arizona leads Cincinnati one to nothing

(40:53):
in the top of the Fourth's have one hit so far.
Jamie or Candelario has the one hit.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
The Diamondbacks only have one hit, but that has turned
into one run for them. Graham ash Crab pitched two innings,
one hit, one run, earned, two walks, three strikeouts for him.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
Kravitz pitched the third. Lenny is that Lenny Kravitz? I'm
not sure? And Petty is on in the fourth. I
love spring training. No idea who some of these guys are,
Chase Petty, I know Kravitz.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
I do you know who that is?

Speaker 10 (41:46):
No?

Speaker 3 (41:46):
Is it Lenny's cousin son, Evan Kravitz. Evan Kravitz. Uh,
probably no relation to Lenny.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
Twenty eight years old from Miami, Florida.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
There you go, Evan Kravitz. Maybe the only time we'll
mention Evan Kravitz on this show. Hopefully so. They are
rolling down in Goodyear as the first week of spring
training games comes to a close tomorrow, so almost one

(42:18):
week in the books. Ellie has been great so far.
I've seen some success from McLean And and Karnasi on strand.
Both those guys hitting home runs yesterday. Austin Hayes is
having a good spring so far. So we'll keep you noted,
we'll keep you updated. Let's turn our talk to the Bengals.

(42:40):
The combine happening now. A lot of talk yesterday on
this show and then on three sixty earlier on the
interviews from the Combine Duke Tobin and Zach Taylor, al
Golden Dan Pitcher. The messaging is is very clear. The

(43:02):
organization is all in on the Joe Burrow plan, which
is to bring back t Higgins and to find a
deal to make Jamar Chase the number one paid non
quarterback in the NFL. What exactly does that mean. I'm
not sure. Generally that means like average annual salary. I

(43:25):
would guess that's what they're talking about, but you know,
it could go a couple different ways. But they have
made it very clear they value Jamar as the most
important non quarterback in the NFL. Probably right you might
Tarn might have Justin Jefferson ahead of him, but you know,

(43:51):
he just won the Triple Crown and the things that
Jamar can do are elite. And then Trey Hendrickson, the
National Football League leader in sacks a year ago. He
is getting a little older. He will be thirty two,
I believe for the twenty twenty five season making a

(44:13):
decision on Trey on what is the appropriate value for
a defensive end that is a lead at getting to
the quarterback, not a noticeable run stopper that really makes
a difference in that phase of the game. But the
name of the game in the NFL in twenty twenty

(44:35):
five is quarterback play in the passing game, and having
a guy that can sack the quarterback at the rate
that Trey Hendrickson has is very valuable. But as I
brought up in the opening of this show, fifty plus
million dollars for Joe Burrow, and I don't think Joe

(44:57):
is at that stage where you restructure is contract yet.
That would create some dead money, and it would I
don't think it helps you the way that you want
it to help you this early in his contract. So
Joe's gonna get fifty plus Jamar's probably if they're gonna
make him the number one. You know that number right

(45:19):
now is Jefferson at thirty five. I think they could
have gotten Jamar for that price last offseason, but the
price poker went up. You know, you're playing in a
poker tournament. The longer you play, the more the blinds
go up. Tarn, the blinds went up on Jamar Chase.
They're not gonna get him for thirty five. So let's

(45:43):
just say fifty to forty for your top two guys.
That's ninety million. The NFL salary cop Is is just
under three hundred million for twenty twenty five. That's ninety
And then you have Tea, who is probably going to

(46:04):
be the going rate for a number one wide receiver.
Of his value is in that thirty million dollar range.
Maybe you get him to take a little bit off
the top. I don't know why he would because he's
he can be a free agent, although it sounds like
the Bengals are going to tag him, but that probably
in that thirty million dollar range. Now you're at one

(46:27):
hundred and twenty and then you have Trey Hendrickson, who
I think is probably going to be valued in you know,
around twenty five million dollars. That's my estimation. It might
be more than that, but that's my estimation. Twenty five
million dollars. It's one hundred and forty five million dollars

(46:48):
in four guys. There's nobody in the NFL that is
paying four guys that type of money that portion of
their salary cap. Is it a winning strategy, especially on

(47:13):
a team that doesn't have a lot of answers defensively.
Right now, you're talking one hundred and forty five million.
The cap in twenty twenty five is two seventy nine
two hundred and seventy nine million. It's more than half.

(47:35):
It's more than half. You've got to go patch up
your offensive line. You need at least one guard, if
not two. It sounds like from the offensive line coach
meeting with the media yesterday, they think there are some
things with Cordell Volson they can fix. He's one of

(47:58):
the three worst guards in the NFL last year. You're
gonna have to go get a guard, a starting guard
for sure, because I don't think Alex Kappa you can
do that anymore. I expect him to be cut. So
you need one starting guard. They know they need to

(48:19):
upgrade at linebacker. They know they need a tight end
if it's Kiseki or somebody else. They're not great at corner,
could use some help there. They probably are gonna need

(48:41):
a safety, if not a starter, a very quality depth
piece that you can plug and you keep, you know,
moving down the list on things that need fixed. And
you're gonna do it with four guys making half of
the money. Now, I think realistically the Bengals probably hopefully

(49:04):
realize this that I just don't know that it's a
sustainable model. If it was a sustainable model, you know
what other teams would be doing teran, they'd be paying
four guys that much money because the number of elite
guys like, the more elite guys you have, the better.
Don't you think everybody wants to do that? Now, maybe

(49:27):
this jump in the salary cap in the offseason changes
the math a little bit.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
It went up a pretty substantial.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Amount, twenty four million dollars.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Maybe that allows you to add a.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
You know, to give Trey Hendrickson an extra I think
it's if he gets to twenty five, it's what an
extra seven million dollars over what he was making. I
think he was making eighteen. So instead of paying him eighteen,
you pay him twenty five. That adds seven million. But

(50:01):
I just failed to see the vision. With all the
things that need to be patched up, with everything that
needs to be corrected from what we saw in twenty
twenty four that you can do it properly unless you're
elite at drafting, and we know they're not elite at drafting.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
We know that.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
Can you really rest your hopes on they'll figure it out.
They're gonna get this one right. That's the definition of insanity,
isn't it aran doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results. I don't see how you
can feel reasonably comfortable saying they're going to go into

(50:53):
the draft and they're going to solve two three starter
positions with rookies drafting in the middle of the first
round or drafting in the middle of each rown. You know,
if they were if they drafted like Kansas City, or
if they had the savvy of Philadelphia and building a roster.

(51:17):
Detroit has done a great job of it lately. I'll
give you your your vikings credit. Minnesota's done a great
job of it lately, but the Bengals haven't shown that.
So it makes me wonder how much of this is
a smoke screen, how much of this is saying all

(51:39):
the right things to keep Joe happy and you and
you pay Jamar, and you you take care of one
of the other two and then if you have to,
you know, if there becomes a realization that Trey is
looking for more than you're willing to give him, or
he doesn't fit, you know, because they didn't tell us,

(52:01):
and of course not they didn't tell us, like what
what the plans were, what the the internal number is
on each of those guys that they have. And you
go to Joe and you say, look, man, we did
everything we could. We we took care of Jamar, we
took care of Tea, we did everything we could on Trey.
But you know, we're gonna we're gonna use that money

(52:22):
to go fill you know, try to fix this, Try
to take care of the defense. Try to give us
two starting defenders for that twenty five million dollars.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
That we didn't have.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
I think Joe would be okay with that, and if
you got the majority of what he wanted done taken
care of. But I don't think there's any harm other
than maybe to your fan base for doing what they
did yesterday and saying, yeah, yeah, we're on We're in
lockstep with Joe. We want to get all that stuff
taken care of. We agree, because if you come out

(53:00):
out and you and you say, well, it doesn't really
I don't know if it fits. I don't know if
you know, getting spending one hundred and forty five million
of our two hundred and eighty million cap. The right
way to do it is to spend that on four players.

(53:22):
So it would be interesting to see exactly how this
plays out. And Duke Tobin said they need they want
to get this done as quickly as possible, especially with
with T and Jamar T because of the franchise deadline,
which is is March fourth, but more importantly, free agency

(53:45):
starts in two weeks. What are you really gonna be
able to accomplish in free agency if you don't know
exactly where you're at in paying those three guys. The
point being they got a lot to figure out. They

(54:08):
got a lot to figure out. Let's take a break.
Richard Skinner from Local twelve is going to be with
us to talk about all of those Bengals topics and
some Reds topics and if we can get to it,
maybe a little college basketball too. More after this the
Mowager Show. Since that he's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (54:34):
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Speaker 3 (55:06):
This report is sponsored.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Damn it feels good.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
To be a Gangster's good to be a gang Well,
welcome back to mel Eggers Show, Cincinnati, ESPN fifteen thirty.
Let's go to my favorite gangster. Richard Skinner Local twelve
Digital content editor, Skinny, Are you still in Indy?

Speaker 7 (55:34):
No? I came back yesterday afternoon. I had a game
at Beechwood. We played a district tournament game with Holy
Cross last night, so I left Indy about three o'clock.
After we talked to the two coordinators and three three
new position coaches and did some transcribing. So yes, I'm back.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
I am, I am, the Combine is on, and I
am watching fat guys do cone DROs.

Speaker 7 (55:56):
Yeah, I don't pay any attention to any of that.
It is literally the most over you know, it used
to be kind of cool, right, but now it's now
you understand all these different athletic testing RAS, scores and
all those things. You know, none of this really means anything.
I do think for the for the coaches and GMS
and and those, and Zach Taylor makes a point of
this to Tobe to make a point of this that

(56:17):
it's the meetings and and and the few minutes you
get a chance to spend with the players that is
is really the wor the most worthwhile part of of
the combine. I mean, you know, a bunch of guys
chose not to participate. You know, the hell heal their
pro days. It's a more controlled environment. It's quarterbacks thing.
The guys they know, in settings they know, and so yeah,
I mean the Combine has really become for all these

(56:38):
other teams just just mostly getting to know these players
a little bit better.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
Sorry, I'm I'm having some fun with the the sales
staff around here, Skinny I thought, I.

Speaker 7 (56:58):
Thought maybe the heilstorm that just came through the Kentucky
got you.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
Yeah, my dad was telling me it was nasty, Like
we've got some blue skies here in Kenwood, and he
said it was pretty nasty down in northern Kentucky.

Speaker 7 (57:07):
It was was halo. The sun was out.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
South of the moat.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
Yes, exactly, Okay, my math says fifty Joe Burrow, forty,
Jamar Chase, thirty, t Higgins twenty five Trey Hendrickson, if
that were all to get done. My math also says, skinny,
that's more than half of the salary cap for twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 7 (57:32):
Yeah, but a lot of that will get lumped into
the twenty twenty five cap, don't forget. I mean usually
the first year tap hit for new contracts is actually
less than what it becomes. And that's the thing I
was want people. When you see a contract, and let's
just use round figures here. Let's just say, using your math,
Trey is three years of an extension at seventy five,
and it's seventy or seventy five mel. That's an amateur
twenty five year point A chunk of that's a chunk

(57:54):
of that's pro rated pro rated signing bonus. Another big
chunk of that usually is base salary in the last year.
That allowed you, in that last year of contract to say, yeah,
we're not paying the twenty nine million of base salary.
We're gonna get out from underneath this, and that's where
you get salary cap casualties. And most teams at structure
contracts are smart about doing that. You know, this year
the Bengals got out from underneath Shoulder Rankings, cutting him

(58:15):
and saying eight and a half bill. They can save
nine and a half mill by cutting Sam Hubbard. They
can say five point six mil by cutting Jermaine Pratt.
They can save and I don't think they're gonna do
this based on the conversation with Al Golden yesterday. They
can save, you know, five milish if they cut Geno's Stone.
They can save I think three and a half mil
if they cut Zach Moss. So most contracts, you see
the number, and the raw number is usually as gaudy

(58:37):
and people either freak out good or bad about it.
But it's you way more nuanced than that. A lot
of times, like you said, a lot of times, the
initial salary cap in year one, the salary cap it
isn't so bad. I mean, Joe Burrow's relatively speaking, wasn't
so bad. Now it's gonna start to escalate and exclate
very quickly, as your point whatever, that percentage is moving
forward for those guys over the next you know, two

(58:58):
or three years, if they do get them all time, Yeah,
it's going to be a significant portion of the cap,
which means, guess what you have to do well? You
better draft well and have guys participating and playing significant
snaps on rookie contracts. That's what good I mean. Listen
for all the creativity Philadelphia did, they did a great
job drafting and have guys plan on rookie contracts, and
that's that's the nixture you have to have. Hey, your stars, yes,

(59:20):
but if you if you really trust that you're good
at drafting and good at developing, which the Bengals have
not been, then you have a bunch of guys on
rookie contracts that make you allow you to afford those
other pieces.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
Why why should I have confidence that they're going to
get the draft? They just they've done. They've done nothing
to make me confident that they're going to get the draft, right.

Speaker 7 (59:40):
Yeah, So there was a group of about six of us,
seven of us that got a chance to do some
It wasn't off the record, it was on the record
with some off the podium stuff with both Zach and
and then more so did Duke Tobin. And in the conversation,
one of the questions it was asked the Duke was,
you know, I know you trust the process and all
those would why would you be opposed to having more scouts?

(01:00:01):
Are you opposed to having more scouts? And he said, listen, yeah,
I don't think we don't have enough eyeball on people.
I think we do. He said, I want to have
guys whose opinions I trust. I mean, if I bring
other people in, you know, how long is it before
I trust their opinions? And I understand that to some degree.
There's also a part of me that says, more eyeballs
are never going to hurt. The opinions are never going
to hurt. I think that's that's fluish in my opinion.

(01:00:24):
But they feel like they're doing the process right. I mean,
the proof is in the pudding over the last few years. Yeah,
can you argue that you got Joe Burrow right? You
sure did. Did you get Jamar Chase, right, you sure did.
Did you get t Higgins at the top of day two, right, yeah,
you sure did. Did you get Logan Wilson right when
you were literally holding your breath through round two that
you get him around three? Yeah, you sure did. But
that's not enough. I mean, that's not enough of this span.

(01:00:45):
I need third, fourth, and fifth rounders to be on
this roster playing. I need Charlie Jones to be the
slot receiver he's not. I need Jermaine Burton to do
more than get addicted from places he lives he is not.
And those are the things that you have. And all
those are the things you got to hit on. To
hit on those middle all of them. I'm not here
to tell you that every team hits on all of them,
but you got hit on some and they had hit already.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
Any I mean, do you go back to the Chiefs
a couple of years ago when it looked like that
defense was about to fall apart, and then they hit
a home run draft oh guys, and next thing you know,
their defense is one of the best in the NFL.
I just.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Tell me if I'm crazy here.

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
I you know, for the longest time I've talked about
the scouts thing. I've made the joke a million times
that you see as a larger scouting department than the Bengals,
which is wild to even like process. Would a salary
cap expert help this team, because I feel like they
are in a large sense skinny. What they do is
hustling backwards because they push everything off, and they push

(01:01:46):
everything off, and they push everything off until the end
of the line, and then they get stuck having to
pay t Higgins the top of the market. They get
stuck paying Jamar Chase top of the market. Like in
their effort to save money, they cost themselves money. Would
a salary cap guy help them with that?

Speaker 7 (01:02:04):
No, I didn't, Katie. Believe it or not, Katie Blackbird
does a really good job with a salary cap. The
Bengals are never in salary cap hill. I mean, if
you look this offseason, I'll give you one team as
an example, and there's others. You know, The New Orleans
Saints are on Yeah, fifty two million dollars in salary
cap space. Now, listen, they had a window where they
thought they could go for it. They had to sign
a bunch of guys that it was kind of when
Drew Brees was, you know, finishing up his heyday. And

(01:02:26):
I get that to some degree. But I don't think
the Bengals ever want to put themselves in a position
where they just have to whack to whack guys. I
think they always want to give themselves a little wiggle rooms.
While you always see a little bit of rollover money,
they do a good job of holding some money back
for obviously paying for a full roster, paying for signing
players when they're injured. I think it was that Steelers

(01:02:47):
in twenty one or twenty two. I don't even think
they could fill a full, a full fifty three man
roster at the end of the year because they didn't
have enough bodies to put on it. I mean, so
they do a good job of that. Yeah, And honestly,
I think they handled the cap well. I do. I
think you're just in that crazy stage right now where

(01:03:07):
you've got the mega superstar wide receiver, the megastar quarterback,
and a guy a wide receiver that other teams clearly,
in my opinion, think is a number one. I'm not
sure I do, and certainly the injury history gives me
a little cause for pause depending on where that line
in the sand of money is drawn. But clearly other
teams are can probably be willing to pay for Tea

(01:03:27):
over thirty mil. Again, I don't know if that's where
the Bengals draw the line in the sand or not.
So I don't think they cost themselves money. I mean,
like Jamar Chase, in my opinion, they didn't cost themselves money.
I truly believe that the fact that that they've already
made it pretty public and did it the other day
that they're gonna make in the highest paid non quarterback
in the NFL. They think they always knew that. So
if you're gonna do it, do it at the last

(01:03:48):
second possible that you have to do it. I mean,
maybe the number last year is the number they're at
right now. Of again I'm using round figures, you're forty mil.
I don't know if that's the fact that you know
it is a forty mil on average. Another gear and
T's kind of where they thought they were eventually gonna get.
So why spend on that a year early when you
had him under contract at a decent rate for twenty
four You've got him under a contract for twenty five.

(01:04:09):
I can't blame them for kicking that can down the road,
you know, I don't, you know, even going into last year,
I'm not sure where I was with T Higgins either.
I mean, T was a good receiver, he's never proven
to be a number one, he's had an injury history. Well,
the injury history crept up again this year now when
he did play. Obviously, the numbers were terrific. The numbers
belie a guy who you could argue, let's just call
him a one a for lack of a better term.

(01:04:32):
And I get that, But I also understand that I'm
paying seventeen game checks and what I'm paying you, and
yet you're giving me twelve games in production value. I
gotta wait that. I just have to.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
I get it to an extent. But isn't part of
the job like projection, isn't it? Isn't it understanding Like
Joe's gonna want Tea around, Joe's not gonna want us
to go find another guy. And we have a chance
to save ourselves five seven million dollars a year because
we can get him at at now. But if we wait,
it's going to be twenty five. I compared it earlier

(01:05:03):
to the Bengals are the guy that slow plays at
the poker table and next thing you know, the blinds
are eating you alive because the blinds keep going up.

Speaker 7 (01:05:14):
What if that number right now from there campus thirty
one or thirty two, where's the comfort level? Where's the
I don't know that said, I actually don't. But but
are we in that strategy where you just have to
give the pause of we just can't go there. If
another team's willing to do it, so be it. But
we that's not a number, and I listen, I think
that's the thing we're going to find out here. If
we find out the Bengals low ball, then we can

(01:05:36):
be angry at the Bengals. And we find out that
he just literally kind of priced himself out of the market,
then I'm not so sure I can blame then, depending
on where that number goes. If you can't just be
at in tonight and it just can't be right in
a blank check and go hey, just fill it in agree.
You and Joe figured out you guys, fill it in
force and we'll take your work for it again. I
just don't know where that is. And you know, hope
we're in some transparency in this negotiation process. At some

(01:05:58):
point where we do know where the Bengals fair in
their offer. Was teeth Camp outrageously asking or is there
another team that's willing to pay that and you just
aren't willing to go to that price? Or did the
Bengals just go no, we said twenty three and a
half twenty five mil, and you know we weren't going
to higher that. Well, then shame on you in that regard.

Speaker 3 (01:06:14):
I guess here's the ultimate question in all of this
before we talk a little red skinny, what has to
get done to make to keep Joe happy?

Speaker 7 (01:06:24):
That's a great question. I mean, obviously he has made
a very public he wants t back. I mean again,
the Bengals made no bones about they're going to make
tomorrow the highest paid non quarterback. You say that if
you're not going to do it, or don't you already
have a sum structure in place to do that?

Speaker 10 (01:06:38):
You know?

Speaker 7 (01:06:38):
The trade one's interesting because I don't again, I don't
know where that number goes. You know, if if if
he doesn't come back, well then you have to show
Joe that. Listen, you know, we're gonna take those resources
and go get another good wide receiver on the market,
and we're going to draft another wide receiver early that
that's going to be a quality player for us. You know,
we've seen it. I mean T Higgins was was you know,

(01:07:00):
orderline first round pick, obviously high second round pick, top
of the second round, and and the Bengals you know,
made that payoff. Jamar Chase is the first round pick.
The Bengals made that pay off. You can high in
the draft, in my opinion, get a plug and play guy.
When you get deep second round into third round, then
you're kind of rolling the dice a little bit. You know.
It feels like we've had a run here of every

(01:07:22):
years of the Jamar Chases, justin Jefferson elite neighbors is
now the Bengals, unfortunate aren't drafting at the top end
of that to get, you know, a guy of that ilk.
But there's some guys in that mid first round level
that I think to be productive players of Mecca A. Buca,
the McMillan kid from from Arizona. There's some guys in
there that that certainly seen NFL ready. I don't know

(01:07:43):
if they're T Higgins ready, but listen, if they're guys
that give you seventeen games of you know, averaging five
and a half catches a game for seventy yards a
game that's you know, eighty five catches for twelve hundred yards.
That's kind of t Higgins production if he plays the
full season. So I don't think it's just my opinion.
I listen. I think he's a terrific player. I think
he's a pro. I think he's a great piece for

(01:08:05):
this offense to have. But if it gets to just
a certain price point, I just again, this is only
my opinion. I'm just gonna shrug my shoulders and go, okay,
move on to the next.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
It's gonna be fascinating. How much of Red's mode are you?

Speaker 7 (01:08:19):
It is enough, I mean, yeah, enough to where it's
been fun to look at box scores on it on
a daily basis and go, oh wow, Austin Hayes did this,
and Ellie has done that, and Matt McLean did this,
and Gavin Lux did that and oh too, it's from
Nick Martinez. Nice performance, Brady Singer. And we all know
spring training numbers, both good and bad, can be you know,

(01:08:40):
over hyped, over over analyzed. But I would tell you
this what some of those guys are doing. Sure beats
on Austin Hayes going one for twenty with eleven strikeouts,
and he goes he doesn't have going right now, saying, hey,
you know last year, clearly it was the injuries and
and and the health issues. And now he's back to
twenty twenty three Austin Hayes, who was an All Star,

(01:09:02):
and you know, maybe you don't get quite that production,
maybe you even get better. He's not an old man,
for goodness sakes. And then you look at La and
you go, man, is he really gonna do what I
think he's gonna do this year? And has put up
ridiculous numbers. I mean, you can envision. And then I
think we all hold our breath of McLean light because
we haven't seen him in a year and he hasn't
really played a lot of competitive baseball at all in
a year. So you don't know what that Russ will do.

(01:09:24):
It seems like the rust is off as it is
that dude. That dude's an All Star caliber.

Speaker 3 (01:09:29):
Player who is the leader in the clubhouse for this group.
But I was talking about it earlier. My guess is
Stevenson that's my guess.

Speaker 7 (01:09:38):
Yeah, I mean the goofy part last year was it
was a lot of ways from what I understand was
Luke Mayley. I mean, that's that's a weird place for
your backup catcher to be your clubhouse guy, right, India.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
Was a part of that put India in that position.
And India was put in that position he wasn't ready
for it. He was still trying to learn how to
be a big league ballplayer.

Speaker 7 (01:09:57):
Yeah, no, that that's that's a tough spot. I mean,
that is a great question because there's just not a
lot of Yeah, I think Stevens is probably the right answer.
I mean, catcher's usually your natural leaders because they're the ones,
you know, involved in the vast majority of the game,
you know, controlling the game, et cetera, and being a
big part of the game. I mean the rest of
the guys, I mean, Candelaria hasn't been here long enough.
Steer probably hasn't been here long enough. You know. McClain's

(01:10:19):
a young guy. Da La Cruz is a young guy.
Uh see, he as is a young guy. TJ. Friedel
is a young enough guy from in terms of playing,
you know, take Fairley's a platoon player. I don't think
platoon guy's a leader, so that's a great lie. Yeah,
I guess I would go with Stevenson, and maybe he is.

Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
That part's going to be fascinating to me because I
think that's where they faltered last year. And you heard
him talk about it when the season ended. Guys weren't
coming in early, they weren't putting in extra work. They
they weren't getting to that maximum effort. They were showing
up when they're supposed to show up and then leaving.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
Yep, quickly thereafter.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
And you know, just as well as I do, that
extra work makes all the difference, you know, as you're
going through one hundred and sixty two games. So that part,
to me, I just look at it and go hmm.

Speaker 7 (01:11:07):
And when you see a Joey Vado do it when
he was doing it, you go huh. I mean, if
it's good enough for him, it's got to be good
enough for me. Right, Yeah, you can't you can't help
but do that, but you're right when when that's not
taking place. Since a bunch of kids to goo, Yeah,
I had my four abst today and yeah, I'll I'll
come in what times batting practice three fifteen. I right, cool,
I'll be here at three. No, how about we go
two and do some extra stuff. And I think that's support.

(01:11:29):
That that's support. I think Terry Francona will will will
smooth out.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
All right, Appreciate it. Man. I wanted to get some
college basketball, but Tarren jelling at me.

Speaker 7 (01:11:38):
All right. All I can tell you is you see me.
It's a big win Saturday. And that's about it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
So does Xavier and so Zavier.

Speaker 7 (01:11:44):
Yes, they do all right in fact as well.

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
Thanks Kenny, appreciate it. You find them at Local twelve
Skinny on Twitter. Let's take a break more after this.
This is the Moeger Show, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:11:56):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty from the.

Speaker 6 (01:12:01):
UC Health Traffic Center. Around forty percent of cancers are preventable.
Lifestyle changes and screenings can make a difference. Call five
one three five A five UCCC east bound two seventy
five after Montgomery Road, the right lane blocked from an accident.
Looking at a thirty minute delay from Mostellar Road, Glendale,
Milford rode another accident, this one near Redding Road, westbound

(01:12:24):
two seventy five. Disabled vehicle on the right shoulder between
Dixie Highway and seventy one seventy five. I'm at exelic
with traffic.

Speaker 13 (01:12:32):
This reporting sponsored by Repo.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
Welcomac The Mulagger Show. I'm Chad Brando filling in today
from O. Let's get out to the phone.

Speaker 14 (01:12:51):
Jack.

Speaker 3 (01:12:52):
How you doing, Jack? You're there, I'm here, good, heyd On.

Speaker 14 (01:12:56):
Joe, Well, A couple things for and Skinny. I just
love Skinny. I remember when Skinny was first week working.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
Gosh, you're.

Speaker 14 (01:13:08):
Young, but I'm in Florida and it's seventy eight degrees
today and smelling.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
You're way better than me then, so you're.

Speaker 14 (01:13:17):
You're concerned about nobody's spending four check out the Eagles
because that's what Borrow said. He wants the model like
the Eagles. The Eagles are paying for a whole bunch
of guys that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
Kind of money, not that much, like, Oh yeah, I.

Speaker 14 (01:13:31):
Think it is. I think it's over half of their set.
I think it's on four or five guys. I think
it's five or six guys are over half of their caps.
This is a team, Okay, But you know what I
think the Bengals ought to do is they should use that,
not the tag tag. That the tag that where if

(01:13:53):
somebody makes him an offer.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
That's what they'll have to use on.

Speaker 14 (01:13:57):
T and they don't match it, don't they get two
first round draft picks.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
Yeah, that's what they'll have to use on T. You're
not allowed to use the exclusive tag on a guy twice,
so if they have to realize that, Yeah, if they
have to tag T, it has to be the non
exclusive tag by March fourth.

Speaker 14 (01:14:16):
Well, you know what if it's if it wants that
much money, it's and somebody else wants to offer him
a crazy number over thirty. And I don't think he's
I agree with Skinny. I think he's a great one
A or a two. He's not a one to one.
And if they get two first round draft picks and say, hey, Joe,
we're going to get you two good guys. Yeah, and oh,

(01:14:37):
by the way, nobody's talking about the real problem, which
is the line and the defense.

Speaker 3 (01:14:41):
That's what I talked to. That's why I'm worried about
spending all that money on four guys, because you have
to fix the line and you have to fix the defense.
And the other thing I will say about the Eagles thing.
I trust Howie Roseman because I've seen how Howie Roseman drafts.
I've seen how Howie Roseman builds his roster to you know,

(01:15:01):
they they've had one of the best rosters in the
NFL for years now, so he has earned a level
of trust that that I don't give to Tobin right now.

Speaker 14 (01:15:12):
Well, I agree with you so, but I think I
agree with Skinny though, and that Ted is pretty sad.

Speaker 7 (01:15:18):
I think you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:20):
Honestly, I think I asked that question wrong because they've
done a good Like one of the complaints about them
is they usually have like fifteen to twenty percent of
the cap every year that goes unused.

Speaker 14 (01:15:32):
I don't think it's that high.

Speaker 3 (01:15:34):
But well, they when they start the year it's about
at that level, and then they have some wiggle room
to sign guys, you know, throughout the year if they
need to add a body whatever. But they don't spend
all the way to the cap, and they certainly don't
go over it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
I think my thing is more.

Speaker 3 (01:15:50):
Allowing the Jesse Bates situation to happen, allowing the t
Higgins situation to get to hear Like, I think there
are people that are experts in the end at looking
at that stuff and saying, Okay, we can do this
now at this price, and but if we you know,
if we wait two years down the road, it's going
to be probably around this price. Like, I don't think

(01:16:14):
it would hurt to have somebody else in the room looking,
you know, ahead at and maybe they do. And I
just don't think they've done a good job at it, Jack, honestly,
because I think they've put themselves in too many situations
where they've waited and then and then they've either had
to like grossly overpay or let the guy walk, where

(01:16:34):
if they would have handled it a year or two earlier,
they would have been able to keep the guy. Like
I that's the part that that if you're not going
to be a team that's great at drafting, then you
damn well better make sure that you're hanging on to
the guys that you.

Speaker 14 (01:16:50):
Get, right, right, I agree with that. Cool And And
the one thing is the linebacking line and on both
sides are all as important as key Higgins.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
Yes, agreed completely, all right, I.

Speaker 14 (01:17:06):
Think the safeties are all going to be okay. I
think I heard some coach will help with that. I
hope you so Hey, it was worth waiting to talk
with you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:13):
I appreciate it. Jack. You just had to wait and
you got to listen to Skinny in the process. It's
all good.

Speaker 7 (01:17:17):
I did.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
Thank you man. Appreciate it. Enjoy Florida. Enjoy seventy degrees
in sunny.

Speaker 3 (01:17:25):
Let's take a break more after this the Mowaggers show
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:17:29):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:17:34):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Around forty percent of
cancers are preventable. Lifestyle changes and screenings can make a difference.
Call five when three five eighty five UCCC East phone
two seventy five after Montgomery Road, the right lane blocked
from an accident. Traffic stop and go for a Mostellar road.
That's a thirty five minute delay on Glendale Milford Road.

(01:17:56):
It's an accident near Redding Road southbound seventy five accident
in your Freeman Avenue. That one off on the right
shoulder on that He's that like with traffic.

Speaker 13 (01:18:05):
This report here.

Speaker 5 (01:18:14):
We go on was upon a time not long I
got people Live life.

Speaker 3 (01:18:19):
Slog welcome back. Since Nati's ESPN fifteen thirty. I can
I mean we got what like three minutes left, I
could just do this.

Speaker 12 (01:18:26):
Was misled by an Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
It's not that long. It's a quickness.

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
They did the job.

Speaker 4 (01:18:35):
Money came with as, but one couldn't stop.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
It's like rolling right along.

Speaker 3 (01:18:38):
Since Nati's ESPN fifteen thirty, let's continue with the Bengals
talk no guests an hour number three. So whatever you
want to talk about Rad's Bengals, Bearcat, Xavier, Uh, give
us a call. I am open to talk about all
of it. I have thoughts on everything, Darren. I know
that's surprising to you.

Speaker 4 (01:18:55):
Not really, you know tomorrows have you been heavy? Bear casterday? Correct?

Speaker 2 (01:19:01):
Bearcats and Xavier. I'll give Xavier some love tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
That is a essentially two teams that are fighting for
their NCAA tournament life, and that fight would become significantly
easier with wins on Saturday for both teams. We're gonna
get the top of the next the next segment we do,
it's gonna be a lot of Xavier and Uce talk

(01:19:26):
because I think I'm trying to get my brain like
usually have a pretty good understanding of like where fans
are at and why their brain is at the place
that it's at Like I've been doing this long enough now,
owning a message board community and like, you know, dealing
with fans for a long time, almost twenty years in

(01:19:47):
this role. I'm still trying to grasp if they understand
the gravity of like where we're at in paying players
and how early we are in this process. And we'll
get to it. We'll get to it. Continuing on about

(01:20:10):
the Bengals to end this segment. That's the thing, Like, yeah,
Joe Burrow says, go go be the Eagles. Awesome, Yes,
go be the Eagles and their GM who consistently for
years and years and years and years has built one
of the most complete rosters in the NFL, Like typically Tarran,

(01:20:33):
when you look at the Eagles, like, can you find
a like a legitimate weakness. No, They're good on the
offensive line, they get after the passer, they defend the run,
they defend the pass. You know, they're usually pretty good
at quarterback. Like that's because Howie Roseman knows how to
do the job of general manager in the NFL. I

(01:20:55):
would hang up tarn if that man ever called me like, hey,
I got a trade idea. Nope, no, sir, La La
La la la.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
I'm not talking to you.

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
I'm not letting you put that worm in my ear
because somehow he makes it sound good and it never
turns out good for anybody but the Philadelphia Eagles. And
that man knows how to draft, That organization knows how
to identify, locate and draft.

Speaker 2 (01:21:25):
I don't have that faith in the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (01:21:29):
To hear Duke Tobin say that yesterday, like it. It
almost made my brain melt. Well, if I bring in
a bunch of people, uh, I don't know how long
it's gonna take for me to trust them. And you
don't have anybody in football that you trust to come
in and be a scout for you. What you have

(01:21:55):
one of those two smallest scouting departments in the in
the NFL. And that's your reason for why. That's not
the reason for why Terrn, you know the reason for
why they won't pay for a legitimate scouting department. They believe,
genuinely still believe that when the season ends, your assistant
coaches become scouts. Those guys' job is not that of

(01:22:20):
a scout. Those guys' job is that of a coach.
They're great at coaching. That doesn't mean they're great at
sitting down and breaking down tape. There are like it is,
you know, this is not nineteen ninety four anymore. There
are people out there that their job is specialized breaking

(01:22:42):
down tape watching players. You know what those guys do
during the entire season. They travel around the country and
they go to practice. And what do they do with
those practices? Not only do they watch practice, but then
after practice they go in and meet with the coach,
They meet with the strength coach, they meet with the
athletic trainer, They find out information, they dig on all

(01:23:06):
of these guys. I see scouts at every UC practice.
The Bengals are right down the road. I see them
maybe twice a year. Does that make any sense to
you that you're you know, you're not sending your coaches

(01:23:29):
out on the road to gather this information in preseason
camp and during the college football season. Your coaches can't
do that, they're busy. Your scouting department does that, and
the Bengals are understaffed. They don't have the eyes and
ears on the road. So either Duke is blind to

(01:23:54):
it and doesn't see it, or he doesn't have the
budget to do it. Taron, which one do you think
is most likely. Your silence speaks volume. You don't have
to answer. I it's probably that the front office says.

Speaker 4 (01:24:15):
I'm miss taking phoning screen the phone. Oh okay, that's
my bad, my bed.

Speaker 3 (01:24:19):
The reality is it's it's probably the latter. It's probably
that they are not willing to spend the money to
build a full scouting department and then send them on
the road and pay for the flights and the hotel
stays and the rental cars and all of those things
that that adds up tarn for an NFL franchise that's

(01:24:40):
worth four trillion dollars. It's a billion, I know, but
we exaggerate when we talk money these days.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
That's how things work.

Speaker 3 (01:24:49):
I just I look at the entire operation and I
say it, it should be done so much better. It
should be done so much more effectively, inefficiently. Let's take
a break. Our number three coming up right after this,
Cincinnati ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
At Genesis Diamonds Art.

Speaker 1 (01:25:10):
Covers the Bengals, Like ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station.

Speaker 3 (01:25:28):
Our number three, Here we go, the Moegger Show. I
am Chad Brendle filling in for Moeggar. You can buy
me on Twitter, x whatever, at Chad Brendle, Faircat Journal,
pretty much everywhere else, including faircatjournal dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:25:51):
Let's keep this ball rolling.

Speaker 3 (01:25:53):
We'll get into some some NIO conversation here in a minute.
But I know I'm not supposed to do this at
the top of the hour. I'm gonna do it anyway
because I don't want to make these guys wait. So
let's go to the phones. John, how you doing?

Speaker 15 (01:26:07):
Hey, Chad, how are you doing today?

Speaker 14 (01:26:09):
It's pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
I'm having a wonderful day.

Speaker 3 (01:26:11):
John.

Speaker 15 (01:26:12):
How are you uh? Sitting in traffic on two seventy
five eastbound?

Speaker 2 (01:26:17):
I don't want to hear that.

Speaker 7 (01:26:18):
Usual.

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
I gotta leave here in an hour. I don't want
to hear that.

Speaker 3 (01:26:21):
John.

Speaker 16 (01:26:23):
I'm sorry, man.

Speaker 15 (01:26:24):
I hope it stand down by the time you get
to Chad. Two quick questions, one on the Bengals and
then one on n C DOAA possible coach of the
year just in my opinion? On the Bengals, Chad, let
me ask you a question on these four that they're
talking about signing, Henderson, Higgins, Chase and I get who

(01:26:44):
that one was anyway, is hang up? You think off
the guaranteed money.

Speaker 3 (01:26:53):
It's the structure, like that's the biggest thing in the NFL. Now,
Skinny talked about that some like that. That's the hang
up the bas The Bengals generally don't want to guarantee
more than one year so that they can get out
from under it if they need to. Obviously, players want
more guarantee than that. Agents want more guarantee that because
than that, because it means more guaranteed money for the

(01:27:14):
agent for the player.

Speaker 2 (01:27:17):
That is.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
That is a sticking point that that guys haven't especially
you know, coming into the Bengals, because you're on the
open market and other teams do it so differently, why
would you go to the one place that doesn't do
it like the others?

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
If that is very.

Speaker 3 (01:27:35):
I think the ultimately the cutting out the jargon in
the NFL language. It's much more friendly what the Bengals
do to the Bengals than it is to the player.
And if you're a player, you don't want that to
be one sided. So I do think it hurts them
some in free agency in terms of signing your own

(01:27:57):
Like those guys have been here, they know the deal right,
like they understand what this organization's about. I don't think
it hurts him as much on that front.

Speaker 15 (01:28:05):
And and that's cool. I appreciate you explaining that to me.
My second question and wanted your opinion on this, and
a lot of people haven't talked about this. Gentleman, I'm
I'm I'm a season ticket holder at UK and what
Pop's done there is unbelievable. Well, cal Ferry left and
took with him. Granted, I do not knock those kids
that left and went with Cal one bit. I don't them.

(01:28:28):
It's Cal recruited them. They went with him, and I
get that. I mean, covered was there when Pope got there.
He only had two guys basically, the two kids from
the state of Kentucky. And what he did with that roster.
And my mom and I talk all the time. If
you'd have told us back in April last year where
we would be at right now, we just said, you're crazy.
We need to go to Saint e and have you

(01:28:49):
checked out. They saw, you know, just what he had
to build in the time that he got there. My
question is this to you in your opinion, Dennis Gates
and Missouri, he goes oh and eighteen in the conference
last year in eighteen chat and he's ranked now I believe,

(01:29:09):
in the top fifteen and got a conference record I
want to say maybe nine to four, ten and four
something like that. But for a turnaround of that magnitude
is absolutely to me.

Speaker 7 (01:29:25):
I believe it.

Speaker 15 (01:29:26):
And don't get me wrong, I get what Kevin Sampson's
done in Houston the last four years. I mean hell,
when he got there, he was He basically built that
team from a transfer portal when he got there as well.
But I just wanted to throw Dennis Gates his name
out there as somebody that I think that also should
be mentioned and coach of the year with the turnaround

(01:29:48):
that he has done at at Missouri, I.

Speaker 3 (01:29:50):
Definitely agree he deserves mentioned. Yeah, you know, to go
from winless like and last year the SEC was good,
but it was there's nowhere close to what it is
right now with you they are having maybe the been Look,
I'm a Big East guy, like old Big East, not
new Big East with the pretend version of the Big East.

Speaker 14 (01:30:14):
The Big East, right.

Speaker 15 (01:30:17):
The Big East we'll call it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:20):
So to see what the SEC has done this year,
I mean, legitimately, it is so good. There are there
are legitimate conversations about teams that are going to finish
six and twelve and eleven and seven and eleven in
the league being like, not not on the bubble, being
in the tournament because they those seven wins have included.

Speaker 15 (01:30:41):
Chad a couple of weeks or just maybe a week ago,
he had fourteen.

Speaker 2 (01:30:46):
I don't think it's going to be that many.

Speaker 15 (01:30:48):
No, but I'm just saying, I think you, Cad, do
you think realistically it's twelve?

Speaker 3 (01:30:53):
I think twelve is probably the right number. I think
eleven is the record the big East set. I think
twelve is probably what the SEC gets. That seems right
to me.

Speaker 7 (01:31:05):
Chad.

Speaker 15 (01:31:05):
Thanks, thanks man, take care of have a good day.

Speaker 3 (01:31:07):
Man, appreciate it you too, And let's go talk to
our good buddy Mike. Mike, have you broken free yet?

Speaker 2 (01:31:14):
Are you? Are you on the loose?

Speaker 16 (01:31:17):
I'm finally getting out of here at six pm this evening.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
There we go.

Speaker 7 (01:31:23):
And then going.

Speaker 16 (01:31:24):
Back home to stay in a point. So I'm happy
about that. And thank you for asking. How's the family, my.

Speaker 2 (01:31:32):
Friend, Everything's going very well.

Speaker 3 (01:31:34):
We're uh, you know, in the middle of AAU volleyball season,
so uh, three days a week with that, and uh,
we're getting ready to start spring football for the Bearcats
in about a week and a half. So, uh, that
mixed with mo takes is going to take a lot
of days off apparently in March. So I'm gonna be

(01:31:54):
here a lot. You're gonna hear me a lot as
we go through March madness. So if things are good.

Speaker 16 (01:32:01):
Yeah, and it's springtime's coming in my hometown, so that's
a good thing always where everybody's ready for spring in
Cincinnati or anywhere in the Midwestern So that's a great thing. Yeah,
So I'm happy for that. Any hot tips on any
restaurants that you haven't mentioned in the last six months
to me, any.

Speaker 3 (01:32:19):
Hot I have not gone out to eat much lately, Mike.
I have been eating at home a lot lately. Uh,
And people tell me, I'm I'm getting back to my
trim figure from many moons ago. So maybe that is why.
Maybe the reason is I have not been, uh been

(01:32:39):
dining out much.

Speaker 2 (01:32:41):
It's too expensive anymore, man, No, it is ed.

Speaker 16 (01:32:45):
It's getting stupid. It really is getting stupid. Are you
there tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (01:32:50):
I am here tomorrow. Mo is in Goodyear.

Speaker 16 (01:32:53):
Oh that's right. Okay, So if I can swing by
there tomorrow if it's okay with you and Karen, can
I come.

Speaker 14 (01:32:59):
Up and give you and say, hey, I don't mind
the studio, I don't mind.

Speaker 3 (01:33:04):
Okay, you'll have an easier time getting a hold of
Terran because I'll be you know, talking into a microphone.
But yeah, that's fine, you.

Speaker 16 (01:33:13):
Know, one of the brakes or something like that. To
meet the other time. I also wanted to give a try,
I'll tell you man, Terran Bland. I listened to a
lot of sports talk, especially the last year or so
when I've been ill all over the country, and uh,
I really think Karen is the best. You know, I

(01:33:34):
don't know the technical aspects of producing, but it seems
like whenever he does the show, there's no major gut
baz or anything. Plus, Karen is so personable when he
screams the calls, and you don't find that a lot.
So I just want to give a tribute to Taren

(01:33:54):
Bland because he's my buddy. But but he's earned that
being a buddy because of how kind he's been to me,
and he jokes with me and laughs at me. So
I just think the world with Karen, and I want
all you people out there listening to know how good
of a man Karen Bland is.

Speaker 3 (01:34:11):
I completely agree, Mike. And one of the reasons I
love doing this show is because I enjoy working with
Teraren as much as I've enjoyed working with anybody in
the business in my twenty almost thirty years of doing this.

Speaker 16 (01:34:26):
And you can tell the camaraderie between you and Karen,
if nothing else, just with the bump of music and stuff,
but there's a camaraderie there, and that comes through the audience.
At least to me it does, is it doesn't of
these other knuckleheads all that's their low because they're missing
out on a lot of good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
I appreciate it. Mine.

Speaker 10 (01:34:44):
How in the hell do we go to Houston and
we're in this can There's no way the name in
this game would that be. And that rebounding how can
what they got to shoot seventy percent like Nova did
against George down in eighty four.

Speaker 3 (01:34:55):
There are some things that I like about the matchup, Mike. Obviously,
rebound Cincinnati has has been bad on the glass for
most of this year. That worries the crap out of you.
You know what worries me the most Mike right now
is that they played Texas Tech on Monday and they

(01:35:15):
allowed Texas Tech to get seventeen offensive rebounds. So Kelvin
Samson is going to murder them in practice this week
on the defensive glass.

Speaker 2 (01:35:28):
That that scares the crap out of me.

Speaker 3 (01:35:30):
But a couple things, and I've talked about this a
lot with UC this year. They are good defensively, but
there is a there is a split against teams that
that operate off the bounce, teams that that operate kind
of more in isolation. You know, they're trying to get downhill,

(01:35:50):
drive and kick things like that. Cincinnati doesn't agree more
NBA style, uh some of the NBA and you'll see
the teams that that move the blank BYU Texas Tech.
You know, there's a couple of teams in this league.
Baylor to an extent is one of them that really
move the ball via the pass, and those are the

(01:36:13):
teams that give Cincinnati fits. So it's just a you know,
it's it's a defensive style. The way Cincinnati defends ball screens,
the way that they communicate their stuff, it's much easier
to for Wes's system to defend the dribble if you're

(01:36:35):
if you're a really crisp passing team like Mike. When
you watch a good college basketball team that moves the
ball via the pass and you watch it pop bing
bing bing, right, a defense can't keep up with that.
There's very little a defense can do if you're moving
them via the pass, because once you get them scrambling,

(01:36:57):
you're going to get it to you know, and this
is the key. Teams that pass really well, they pass
until they get it to the open guy, right. But
the great passing teams get it to the open guy
and then the open guy finds the really open guy,
if that makes sense, the extra pass to beat the

(01:37:19):
defense because now the defense is all moving this way
and you make that one final pass and you got
a guy catching in rhythm, you know, on the wing
or in the corner, or cutting down the lane for
a dunk. Like Those teams give Cincinnati's defense a lot
of trouble. Houston plays off the bounce a lot. They're
one of the lower assist rate teams in the conference,

(01:37:41):
so that is a plus. The thing that worries me
probably more than anything, is tempo Cincinnati when they as
they have turned this thing around in the second half
of Big Twelve play, they have played with better tempo.
Houston is like the fourth slowest team in the country.

Speaker 16 (01:38:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:38:03):
Yeah, they're slow on offense, they're slow on defense. They
grind you out, chew you up, and spit you out.
And when Cincinnati has been in those games, it has
been really, really difficult for them to score because they
are not a great half court team.

Speaker 16 (01:38:19):
Well, when you talk about the efficiency of passing and
how it can find the ultimate open mass, that's how
Bobby Knight won a couple of championships. Indiana was a
tremendous pass It was still one of the best passing
teams I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 3 (01:38:33):
You know the other things, you know, the other thing
that they were great at. Hit me something that you
see is terrible at and it drives me crazy, and
it's something Wes Miller needs to fix.

Speaker 2 (01:38:45):
Free throw rate.

Speaker 3 (01:38:46):
Bob Knight was the one that kind of created the
philosophy that we want to make more free throws than
you take.

Speaker 16 (01:38:58):
That's really it. Observation. I never thought of that ship.

Speaker 14 (01:39:01):
That's really cool.

Speaker 16 (01:39:02):
See every time I talk to you, I learned everything.

Speaker 2 (01:39:06):
Thank you.

Speaker 16 (01:39:06):
It's true.

Speaker 7 (01:39:07):
It's true.

Speaker 16 (01:39:08):
I'm not blowing smoke and one quickie on the Reds,
I know you gotta go. I'll tell you what now.
Now Austin made fun of me today, but he can
go ahead. I've been watching this with a Hello a
lot longer than he has all this stuff, and uh,
he's been playing Stewart Fairchild a lot. Now. You can
look at that a couple of ways, as he on
the cuss and not making the team, or does Terry

(01:39:30):
Francona as he's taken a liking to this guy. I
personally have liked Stuart Fairchild. They say, well, where's he
gonna play? Well, there's plenty of places to pray because
Freedoll don't play that much. He's always hurt yea, and
Framley's always hurt. And this guy is a great defensive player,
and he's got some pop in that bat. And I'm

(01:39:52):
not so sure that if he can play on a
more regular basis that he could contribute chid.

Speaker 3 (01:39:57):
I'm not a huge fan Mike. I think there's too
many holes in his fundamentals. I think he can make
the spectacular play pretty regularly. I think this team needs
more guys that can make the routine play regularly. So
that's why I'm I'm not as big on him as.

Speaker 17 (01:40:15):
Some problem is when it comes to that, I think
I think in terms of the infield, making them more
routine plays because a lot of times there are more
plays in the infield and I don't maybe stress that
enough on the outfield. But anyway, you taught me again.
Thank you, Jess.

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
I appreciate it. Mike, have a safe trip back if
I don't hear from you tomorrow, but I better hear
from you tomorrow.

Speaker 16 (01:40:39):
Yeah, you will, Thank you to Thanks to take care
there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:40:42):
Got some phone calls in phone lines still open for
the rest of the day, well the rest of the hour,
I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:40:49):
Let's take a break.

Speaker 3 (01:40:51):
This is The Molegger Show, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:40:55):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic us bound.

Speaker 6 (01:41:00):
To seventy five after Princeton Pike right lane blocked from
an accident. Traffic is stopping. Go from I seventy five
with a ten minute delay on Harrison Avenue. It's an
accident at Montana Avenue. Southbound seventy five traffic stop and
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Speaker 13 (01:41:18):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radio.

Speaker 3 (01:41:29):
Jeny worked up, adjusted myself in my chair, tearing.

Speaker 4 (01:41:42):
A Thursdays Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:41:44):
Now I'm bouncing a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:41:49):
And and me, do you think he would qualify as
like a guilty pleasure like if I was like making

(01:42:10):
a list of my favorite rappers, like Mystical would be
my my guilty pleasure rapper. He could be, you know
what I mean, like he might. He's probably not for everybody,
but when I hear a Mystical verse, there is an
instant smile on my face.

Speaker 4 (01:42:27):
Instant I think he qualifies.

Speaker 3 (01:42:29):
Okay, like he's not my favorite rapper of all time,
but every time I hear him, boy, I'm happy.

Speaker 2 (01:42:39):
As soon as I hit that beat, all I could
think was, oh man, this verse is so good.

Speaker 4 (01:42:44):
I think that's anybody from No Limit really.

Speaker 3 (01:42:46):
Yeah, but Mystical, like I don't know what, Like you know,
I was, I was very big into No Limit in
like ninety eight ninety nine. Uh, into like when I
moved out to l A and and he just like
he just hit for me. It was like because Buster
Rhymes was kind of big at that time, right, and
Mystical was like, uh, like Buster Rhymes is good for

(01:43:12):
like the guys that are yelling at you. But Mystical
was just like, oh, people don't care Taran, but I care.
Tupac cares that. Don't nobody else care? Just remember that.

Speaker 2 (01:43:25):
Is he dead? Is he alive?

Speaker 3 (01:43:26):
I saw him on TikTok the other day? Yeah, I
saw him on TikTok the other day. Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, no,
that wasn't him. You know, he's sure. I mean it
looked a lot like him. Apparently that guy's mom knew Tupac.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Are you thinking what
I'm thinking?

Speaker 4 (01:43:45):
Think?

Speaker 7 (01:43:45):
So?

Speaker 2 (01:43:46):
All right?

Speaker 3 (01:43:48):
The DNA tests, Hey, the risk quarter run? Hey, three
to one, bottom of the eighth. I mean that game
is just fly. Feels like every time I look, it's moved.
Two innings. Arroyo single on a ground ball to third,
and then Hector Rodriguez on a ground ball to first.

Speaker 2 (01:44:13):
Who scored?

Speaker 3 (01:44:15):
Uh Bence or Will Banfield and Will Banfield scored? Bases
loaded with a ridge bottom of the eighth, basis loaded?
How many outs?

Speaker 4 (01:44:26):
One out?

Speaker 3 (01:44:26):
I see baseloaded one out in the bottom of the
eighth and the Reds looking to do some damage tarn.

Speaker 2 (01:44:31):
The Red Legs are three and two so far this
week in goodyear.

Speaker 3 (01:44:40):
So sometimes, and this is one of the things I
love about my job. And it doesn't always happen, but
one of the things I love about my job is
getting to sit in postgame press conferences with guys like
Scott Drew, a national championship coach, a guy that everybody

(01:45:01):
says does things the right way.

Speaker 2 (01:45:03):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:45:03):
I love his offensive system. I love the way he
has built that Baylor program for sustained success. So postgame
Tuesday night, I asked Scott Drew about josh Oganua. I
think I have that down right by now, Ogenua, who

(01:45:28):
has lost for the season. He was the starting center
for Baylor, who's lost for the season, And I asked
him about that. You know that they've struggled since since
he's been out, and he said something that I haven't
been able to shake because it's.

Speaker 7 (01:45:45):
You.

Speaker 2 (01:45:45):
I spend a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
Of time trying to get my mind around this nil
like world as it's evolving, and you know, the people
that don't want to hear the reality of it will
say things like, oh, you're making excuses. It's like, no,
I'm I'm I'm talking through it. I'm trying to understand
it because it's still new and it's still evolving, and
it's gonna change again in July when revenue share starts

(01:46:09):
and becomes a new thing that we have to figure out.
But I asked Scott Drew about Ojinua and not you
know what the impact on the team has been not
having him, And what he said was, essentially, this would
not have been as nearly as much of a problem

(01:46:29):
a couple of years ago, meaning pre nil, Baylor has
a bunch of money to spend on nil, but they
don't have infinite money to spend. So you're gonna spend
a little more here, and you're gonna allocate a little
bit more for this and a little bit less for that,
and you just hope you survive. He said, three, four
or five years ago, this wouldn't have been a problem

(01:46:51):
because I would have had somebody on my bench good
enough to come in and make an impact.

Speaker 2 (01:47:00):
Money like that got hurt.

Speaker 3 (01:47:01):
But now, because of the nil dollars, they spend a
bunch of money on Nord chad Ome here rightfully, so
they spend a bunch of money on VJ.

Speaker 2 (01:47:09):
Edgecombe did you watch that game.

Speaker 3 (01:47:11):
Tearn None, I missed it, man, J watch Bailor sometime
just to see VJ. Edgecombe for a little bit. I
mean that dude makes NBA shots. He made three threes
in a row on Tuesday with the guy just the
guy's draped all over him and just caught it.

Speaker 2 (01:47:27):
Rise up bang. He's so good.

Speaker 3 (01:47:31):
But spend a lot of money on him, Spend a
lot of money on jaydon Nunn, spend a lot of
money on Jeremy roach from Duke. And then you get
to a point where, okay, like we've got six or
seven guys, but we don't have enough money left to spend,
and then you take that gamble and guess what happens.
The gamble doesn't pay off because you lose your starting

(01:47:53):
center for the season. So even the teams with a
lot of nil money are are dealing with the things
that I'm I'm about to talk about. You seeing Xavier
in about the same tax bracket, if you will, in
the nil world this offseason. My understanding is both were
somewhere in like the three and a half to four

(01:48:14):
million dollar range for their rosters. They built their rosters
in entirely different ways Xavier went with more shooting, more skill,
not as athletic, not as you know, internal or like initially,

(01:48:34):
like when you're looking at the roster on paper before
the season started, maybe not as physical. Didn't expect them
to be a good defensive team. They've they've actually developed.
At times this year their defenses look better than their offense,
which you know, the the Xavier medium machine before the
season was talking about out they'll just you know, score

(01:48:55):
a hundred, They'll put a hundred on people. And now
they've kind of won some games grinding it out because
Sean Miller is a really really good coach and has
you know, kind of adjusted his team strength as he's learned.
His team you see was retention and Dan Skillings and
Sima's Lucacius and Gisel James and disease, and you bring

(01:49:15):
in Dylan Mitchell and Connor Hickman, and you know, your
roster construction goes a completely different avenue. But the reality
is these two teams built entirely different, were built on
the same money, and at the end of the day,
they're in almost the exact same place. And I think

(01:49:41):
when I hear people say, well, just got to get
it done, like you just have to make it happen.
You got to get it done, figure it out. I
think the problem is this is so new that there's
not a blueprint for what works in quote unquote figuring
it out. It's easy when somebody cracks the co It's

(01:50:02):
easy when teams sten a moneyball for example, like right
that was cracking the code in baseball, figuring out how
to game the the free agent system, and the ability
of you know, the Yankees and the Red Sox to
just look around and say, Okay, we're gonna wait for
you to develop stars and then we're gonna take them
from you. We haven't gotten to the point where this

(01:50:27):
has been around long enough that there's anything to copy.
So like you know, twenty twenty three, or you know,
two years ago, Sean Miller coming off the Sweet sixteen team,
and he got in a rough spot because Jerome Hunter
and Zach fremanle got hurt after kind of the normal

(01:50:48):
player acquisition window, the talent acquisition window. But they built
that team one way, and some of it was they
were building it on freshmen and they were gonna, you know,
start a new a core and they were gonna let
that build up and be effective over time in the
Big East, and it didn't work out and they missed
the NCAA tournament. He scrapped that plan and he started

(01:51:08):
a new plan this year, and Wes Miller near one
in the Big Twelve did it again, completely different.

Speaker 2 (01:51:18):
He went with bigs.

Speaker 3 (01:51:19):
He went with Aziz Bandego and Vic Lockin and Jameo
Reynolds and Odio Guama and you know, just a bunch
of size, thinking this league's gonna be super physical, I'm
gonna need a bunch of size, and didn't really anticipate
how much more offensively.

Speaker 2 (01:51:37):
Talented the league was.

Speaker 3 (01:51:40):
And then adjusted this year and I think he's going
to adjust, need to adjust a little bit more next year.
But in reality, if they had more money, if this
wasn't a town that is spread very thin, Reds Bengals,
you see football, you see basketball or Xavier basketball, FC Cincinnati, like,

(01:52:03):
there's just not the money in this town to do
what you do at in Alabama or an Auburn where
everything revolves around the university. Do you think it's coincidence, Terran,
Do you think it's coincidence that all of a sudden,
the SEC is the best conference in college basketball, like
as nil Is really took hold. Nope, right, they have

(01:52:26):
the most money, They have people that care more than
anybody else, They spend more than anybody else, And all
of a sudden, you're talking about they might get fourteen
teams in the tournament, get sixteen teams in the league.
They might get fourteen teams in the tournament. Why because
they know how to win the arms race. And I

(01:52:47):
think when you're trying to create on the fly answers
for a test that doesn't have any answers, it's difficult
because there's a very small margin. Forreyerr for Xavier two

(01:53:08):
years ago, it was Fremantle and Hunter getting hurt. That
team would have looked a lot different if it had
those two guys. This year for Cincinnati, it was counting
on three guys that just didn't perform over a probably
six week stretch at the level that you paid them
to perform. But don't you think that would have looked

(01:53:29):
a lot different if they had a million and a
half dollar stud that was also on the team. Wouldn't
Savior look a lot different if they if they had
an elite point guard running the show with Ryan Conwell
and Zach fremantle. So look, I get that people, the

(01:53:57):
fans don't want they invest their time, they invest their money.
They don't want to hear that this is still a
work in progress being figured out. I get that I've
been doing this eighteen years. I'm not going anywhere. I
got time, tarn I got time. Fans want results, and

(01:54:20):
they should. They're investing a lot of time and energy
and effort and money into the program. But sometimes you
have to look out and say, this is an ever changing,
ever evolving world, and there aren't a lot of answers
out there right now. So you've got to hope that
you get a year where you don't have the injuries
and you get the evaluations exactly right. If you're not

(01:54:42):
going to have top half money, you better figure out
a way to have everything go perfect. And if it
doesn't go perfect, I'm probably gonna find yourself hanging around
the bubble trying to find a way in the final
week and a half of the season to make sure
your bubble doesn't pop. More after this The Moulagger Show,

(01:55:04):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:55:07):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:55:10):
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I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 13 (01:55:42):
This report is sponsored by Rapid RADIOSSPN fifteen.

Speaker 5 (01:55:46):
Thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (01:56:02):
Get all right.

Speaker 3 (01:56:24):
Down the home stretch, Final segment of the day. Rime
Reds tied the game, Taran, That's exactly what I was
gonna get to. It is now three to three, top
of the night.

Speaker 7 (01:56:37):
Here I go.

Speaker 3 (01:56:40):
We're just gonna answer back to ourselves. Here I go
the rest of the show. Here I go, uh trying
to sort through everything here, Red Scott RBIs from cam
call your uh Dune Garden r B. I Uh, Tommy

(01:57:01):
Callahan is that from Tommy Boy Tommy Callahan?

Speaker 2 (01:57:05):
He got an RBI?

Speaker 4 (01:57:06):
Yeah, Sex fly.

Speaker 3 (01:57:07):
Yep, Tommy's from Sandusky. That's where you've never seen Tommy Boy,
have you? Okay, that's where the movie was set San Dusky, Ohio.
I mean David Spade, Chris Farley really m hmm, too
white for you? No comment, It's it is funny, like

(01:57:32):
I would recommend. I think you would even get some
laughs out of Tommy Boy. It's stupid, but it's funny.

Speaker 17 (01:57:38):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:57:39):
But but there's your three RBIs the reds now three
to three in the top of the ninth?

Speaker 9 (01:57:45):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:57:46):
The duh?

Speaker 2 (01:57:48):
A brat?

Speaker 10 (01:57:49):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:57:51):
Yeah, a bray you on the mound for the Reds.
It's got two outs. Albert, Albert a bray you just
thrown some heat ninety six point four mile sinker. All right, Well,
I'll try to put Albert Abreu's name in my memory.

Speaker 2 (01:58:15):
We'll see how it goes. I'm bad at names, Teraren.

Speaker 3 (01:58:18):
It takes me a while every new baseball season takes
me a while to learn. Like the the full bullpen
and like the guys on the back of the bench.

Speaker 4 (01:58:27):
Yeah, and I don't think they dropped off the ridge
like media guy this year to give us the players.

Speaker 3 (01:58:32):
Yeah, I mean I've I've looked at, you know, box
scores and kept up with the games. But like there's
a certain point in a spring training game where I'm like,
I'm not gonna say I check out, but I might
not be as checked in. And it's once the starters,
once the guys I know start coming out of the
game and going to the bench, I might get interested

(01:58:54):
in other things this real quick before we get out
of here. The player survey, Tarren, I'm sure you and
O talked a good deal about this yesterday. A lot
of good grades for the Bengals. They fixed the locker
room a plus third in the NFL. The training room

(01:59:14):
is is is really good now. The training staff is
really good now though. The strength coaches really good, team
travel really good. They love Zach Taylor. I would say, though,
are you gonna give in an anonymous survey if you're
a player, are you gonna give your strength strength staff
a bad grade? Probably not, and then have them see
it and have the team walk into the conditioning room

(01:59:37):
the next day.

Speaker 2 (01:59:39):
Probably not.

Speaker 3 (01:59:41):
But they get a C for ownership, a C for
nutrition Dietitian. Everything else was a's and b's CE in ownership,
CE and nutrition Dietitian an F in food and dining
area and an F minus in treatment of families.

Speaker 2 (02:00:02):
F minus? Did they have to put the minus in there?

Speaker 4 (02:00:06):
They need to express how bad it was or it is.

Speaker 3 (02:00:11):
Isn't this a thing we've been hearing about the Bengals forever?
Why does this not get fixed? Why?

Speaker 10 (02:00:19):
Why?

Speaker 2 (02:00:19):
Why can I they not take care of the food?

Speaker 3 (02:00:24):
For one, I think a lot of it like that
I've heard today and the talking heads talking about is
that they don't get three meals a day and the
dining area is terrible, and the food's not very good.
And if you've eaten at Paul Brown Stadium, guess what
foods not very good. Why isn't there a staff, a

(02:00:46):
high quality staff that takes care of feeding and fueling
these players.

Speaker 2 (02:00:52):
Why isn't there.

Speaker 3 (02:00:54):
Some path to better tickets for the families of the players,
better day care for the families of the players.

Speaker 2 (02:01:01):
Like is all that stuff?

Speaker 3 (02:01:04):
It's like what I talked about, Like if they hired scouts,
tarn they if they went and hired a bunch of scouts,
you know what they'd have to pay for, had to
pay for a bunch of plane tickets, had to pay
for a bunch of hotel rooms had to pay for
a bunch of rental cars if you've got a big
scouting staff. I firmly believe that's part of why they
don't want to do it, because they try to cut corners.

(02:01:24):
Is that really how you win the Is that really
that important Taran to save a couple bucks on how
you handle the food and how you handle treating a
player's family.

Speaker 2 (02:01:36):
It's really that important.

Speaker 4 (02:01:41):
That depends what you ask. I'm not pretty sure. Like
the top players are getting like they dare.

Speaker 3 (02:01:44):
Well, yeah, Trey Hendrickson said, like they're great to his family.
Yeah guess what, Yeah, you're you're one of the best
players in the NFL. But did they treat how bad?
If they treat him great to get an F minus,
how bad do they treat the guy that they just
signed to the practice squad?

Speaker 7 (02:02:04):
Like?

Speaker 3 (02:02:04):
It's just it's it's so many things with this organization
that feel like they would be such an easy fix,
and they just they don't want to go the extra mile.
They don't want to build an indoor facility. I will
build a bubble. They don't want to have a real

(02:02:25):
training facility that you know a lot of these places
tarn go look your homework for tomorrow. Go look at
the Texas Tech football count and look at the facility
that they just built for Texas Tech Red Raider Football,
like two hundred and sixty million dollars. Unbelievable, little stuff. Man,

(02:02:50):
you gotta do the things right, all the things right
to get where you want to get.

Speaker 2 (02:02:56):
And the Bengals don't love doing that.

Speaker 3 (02:02:58):
That's it for me.

Speaker 2 (02:02:59):
I'll be back tomorrow. We will see you then.

Speaker 3 (02:03:03):
Cincinnati's ESPN twteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (02:03:08):
This is my.

Speaker 2 (02:03:11):
And I'm listening to the radio.

Speaker 11 (02:03:14):
I'm listening to a sad girl fang saing about us,
and you got.

Speaker 17 (02:03:18):
A corn thro he woo me to tosto.

Speaker 2 (02:03:23):
I just want me something that too.

Speaker 9 (02:03:25):
When you alone, it gets bidy.

Speaker 14 (02:03:28):
Who don't act as if you did?

Speaker 7 (02:03:30):
Talk to know?

Speaker 9 (02:03:31):
She let me play with her.

Speaker 2 (02:03:34):
I'm working late, I said, I'll soon be home.

Speaker 4 (02:03:37):
All about the girl was home.

Speaker 9 (02:03:40):
Let me tell you what she's crying for.

Speaker 2 (02:03:43):
Why Because I'm flying, super flying.

Speaker 13 (02:03:48):
Nay, I'm flying.

Speaker 9 (02:03:52):
You know, he's super flying with me.

Speaker 2 (02:03:53):
I'm a louper duper and I'm super duper flying flying.

Speaker 5 (02:03:57):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (02:04:00):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. Around forty percent
of cancers are preventable. Lifestyle changes and screenings can make
a difference. Call five one three five A five UCCC
westbound two seventy five after Princeton Pike right lane blocked
from an accident. Traffic is stop and go from IS
seventy five with a ten minute delay on Harrison Avenue.

(02:04:22):
It's an accident at Montana Avenue, stothbound seventy five. Traffic
stop and go from hoppele Street down to Fort Washington Way.
I'm at ezalic with traffic.

Speaker 13 (02:04:32):
This reporting