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October 31, 2023 • 58 mins
Chip Scoggins, Ryan Burns and Justin Gaard review a huge day for Jordan Nubin and the Gopher running game in a 27-12 over Michigan State. How does the Big Ten West race look with a month to go? Former Gopher administrator Beth Goetz made a huge move in Iowa City with the news that Brian Ferentz will not be on staff next season. We were also reminded of a very special memory for Burnsie's parents as we remember the 1991 Halloween Blizzard.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Glenn Mason said a long time agoat the University of Minnesota, you need
a Pair and a Spare. Yes, thank you, PJ. It is
that time. It's time again foranother edition of The Pair and a Spare
podcast, presented by Jack's Cafe Jaxcafedot com. Justin Guard from the Fan
that's me, Chip Scoggins from TheStar Tribune, and Ryan Burns from Gopher
Illustrated dot Com. Happy Halloween,everybody. This is not quite the Halloween

(00:22):
blizzard of nineteen ninety one, whichI remember very well. Burnsy was probably
not even born yet, or maybelike one year old. Do the math.
I was born August of ninety two. That's right. Hey, we've
talked about this. Yep, wetalked about this, the blizzard. Baby.
Well, congratulations to your parents,then, I yuess exactly. I
love you. Everybody brings up Halloweenin ninety one. I give memories.

(00:44):
I absolutely stumbled into it, butI was thinking about the snowstorm because it's
snowed today. I didn't intend totalk about your conception, and your mom
and dad were up too rough toa band thirty two years. I don't
think my parents years ago. Yeah, nineteen ninety one thirty two years ago.
Your dad Bill, right, yeah, and your mom Tammy. Bill

(01:08):
and Tammy, they'll be thrilled tohopefully never hear this. If you know,
Bill and Tammy, give him ahigh five for us. And uh,
but I only brought up the snowbecause it took Chip like four chip
Oregon trail to hear today. Doyou get a text so worked up from
Chipskogin's worried about the snow driving?I don't even call it driving. I

(01:29):
was sitting. Yeah, I wastexting and sitting. So what happened?
Rex? Snow snow? Other thispodcast? Why do we live here?
Other than this podcast? No?I know, I'm I'm counting down the
days. I mean, I've toldyou my kids are going to have no
familial pressure to live in the Midwest. I'm going to show them. If
they say I'd like to go lookat Saint Thomas for school, I'm gonna

(01:51):
say the island. Saint John's gonnasay the island, Yeah, because you
ain't going to Collegeville. Sorry,I'm not. I know. Patrick Royce
says it's the best place to watcha college football game ever. And we
all love Glenn Caruso or going southall my kids. That's what I'd say.
No, it sucks. Yeah,I'll send you a postcard. As
soon as I get the the youngestthrough college, I'll send you, guys

(02:13):
a postcard where I land. Ilove the snow. Yeah, that's stupid.
I know I'm in the minority here. I'm not trying to change anybody's
minds. You should have seen metrying to get the three kids out the
door today with the bag for theirHalloween costume because Halloween party day, and
the bag of their snow gear.It's like there, it's like we were

(02:34):
going on some type of month longRV trip with all that luggage. I
was talking about this is my wifelast night. It's like, so when
we were growing up, you neverhad to worry about like when you got
a costume, I got to seeit here. You never wear coats over
it, right, yes? Orenough? You got to get it big
enough to put the coat on andthen over the top. Correct, Like
if you win as like a footballplayer, if you win as Randy Moss,

(02:57):
you can theoretically get your jersey onover your jacket. But I remember
when our kids were young, We'relike we're spinning. I don't know where
we spend one hundred bucks a couplehundred bucks on for all of them.
And you were like, and thenthey're gonna wear coats and it's like,
yeah, it's terrible, it makesmuch sense. No, but that's what
it is. I mean, Iremember vividly the picture of ninety one of
my sisters were like Dalmatians because onehundred and one Dalmatians the original was a

(03:22):
big movie. I don't remember whatI was, probably a probably Kirby Pucket,
Yeah, you know, probably somethinglike that. And there's a picture
of us in the entryway of ourhouse in our costumes, and you can't
look. It just looks like it'slike we're just going out the shovel snow.
Yeah, so no, I know. My actually, my oldest just
caught onto that. He's like,well, what are we gonna do if
it's thirty five degrees? Wear ajacket, bud. Yeah, like that's

(03:44):
what we have to do. Sorry. She would have looked at me and
said, oh, honey, thirtyfive, it's gonna be like twenty seven
degrees. Sure, you guys arerunning around, Yeah, I'll be in
a tree thinking of chip, handingout candy. You walking the streets of
Danaus. I'm trying to get tryingto play a little robin hood still like
I haven't lived any Dinah in twentyyears, and you still bring that up.
I live in Minnetonka, burn Ilive in Minute Tanka. Okay.

(04:05):
I know it's all the same foryou, truly, all the same to
me. East Metro, all thejust what is the cake a little bit
different? Upside that it is alittle bit different. It's a little richer
over there. It is. Yeah, it is. And it's not our
fault that you live in Wisconsin toby the way, you're mad about coming
twenty five minutes or as I didSunday coming back from uh lambeall lambell.

(04:29):
It's to be home in three anda half hours. It's kind of nice,
but not when you're coming to theparent of Spare podcast. Two downtowns.
I got to go through two downtowns. Nobody asked you to live in
a Claire, man. I mean, there's a whole big metro area.
There's a whole big metro area,all right, So that's yeah. I
had the kids Halloween to parties today, had the we'll have the Halloween tonight

(04:49):
with the Jackets, and congratulations againto Bill and Tammy. I hope you
haven't. I can't believe it likethat should be an alert that I get.
In fact, I'm going to setit for next year. I'm going
to make sure that I don't forgetthis. I'm going to set an anniversary

(05:10):
burns Y burns Ey Halloween. That'sall I'm gonna I completely forgot. I'm
mad at you. Can I justleave you? Can you guys just complete
the rest of this. I wasso distracted by my commute that I forgot
about his how he got here.Halloween's very special for me as it should.
Think about all the rum runners thatwould not have been drank if not

(05:31):
for the Halloween Blizzard of nineteen ninetyone. All right, let's move on.
Go first, get the victory againstMichigan State. I believe the final
what was the final twenty seven thatwas gonna be my guest, twenty seven
to twelve. It was ten tosix for a very long time. I
guess this will forever be known dependingon where his career goes. As the

(05:54):
Jordan Nuban game, we'll talk aboutthe offense in the first half, the
fumbles, the penalty. He's theself inflicted wounds. I thought eighth and
played well in the second quarter.We'll talk about that, but it really
just turns into you know what Ilove about college football? That at hunting
to Bank Stadium, Burnsy on Saturday, how many people at what point do

(06:15):
you think most of the crowd realizedthere was another Nuban? At what point
do you think they realized that,Oh, it's Tyler's brother, and oh
and he's going to be our runningback and he's going to get forty carries.
Like that's what I love about collegefootball. I can't imagine anybody except
maybe Tyler because he did say postgame, I told my brother this was going
to happen. This postgame interview.No one saw this one coming. Jordan

(06:39):
Nuben forty carries, two hundred andsome yards, a couple of touchdowns,
and Big Ten Offensive player of theweek. I think they saw coming.
After the second play of the gamewhere Seawn Tyler gets his first carry.
Poor kid and he just has headabout the worst runout he could have possibly
imagined since transferring here from Western Michiganhehe fumbles the ball again. There's things
like I've seen, you know,in he's on the sideline where like the

(07:01):
and you just saw it with Cousinsright where you just know that it's over,
Like Sean Tyler knew it was over. Yeah, like just watching him
on the sideline like there's people aretrying to pump him up and they went
back to him on that pass likeMatt Simon's trying to hit his shoulder pads.
But the guy knows, he goes, he goes. I just spent
a month in Fumble jail, Likeit's it's these freshmen are coming back like
this was my shot. It's unbelievable. But sorry. And then after we

(07:26):
see that, I tweet out JordanNuban's gonna get thirty carries? Isn't he
half joking? And he turns outhe gets forty carries. But it's just
I mean, when you're RB five, because you think about it, you
got Darius Taylor out with injury,Zach Evans out with injury, Bryce Williams
out with injury, Sean Tyler andFumble Joe and Jordan nuben never even played

(07:46):
running back in high school, right, I mean, it's this thing just
keeps moving a long tip. Yeah, he's I mean it was impressive.
I mean, Michigan State is awful. Let's say that. I mean,
to me, they're the worst teamin the Big Ten that I've seen.
Interesting, Okay, you think they'reworse than yes, Indiana? Yes,
okay, yeah, Well we'll talkabout that. Burns. He has a

(08:07):
little quiz for all of us comingup here in a minute. Well,
I haven't seen the Indiana, butI'll say the worst thing that I've seen
this year. But if you dothat against any Big Ten team, that's
that's impressive. And give him credit. I mean, you know, he
had a lot of help. Ithought his I thought the offensive line in

(08:28):
the blocking and we'll throw Chris offMan bailing there that you know, whether
that was the league or not,I don't know. Nice block, he
had great blocking, but kudos tohim for taking advantage of his opportunity.
Well, and I liked too thatin the second half, once Athan threw
the pick and then once every runseemed to be six yards, like you
knew it was Curtain's PJ even saidit Monday. He said, you guys

(08:48):
know me, and once it's sixyards and I can see we can do
it. Like That's what I'm gonnado, and but they really wore them
down. I mean by the endof I mean, I give credit.
Somebody had the nugget of how manydifferent backs pj's had run for two hundred
yards and then one hundred yards.The one hundred yard things since twenty seventeen
is like fifteen guys. Yeah,and that's honestly because and it's not like

(09:09):
nobody knows that the Gophers want torun the ball. But honestly, that's
because of scheme, that's because ofthe linemen, that's because of how they
work together. It's impressive. Itis because he was shut down the passing
game and they commit to it.They well, when you practice the run
as much as they do, youknow it's it's gonna look like that.

(09:31):
But I would say this Chip,I mean, Michigan State I think was
the top twenty run defense coming intothat game. I know that their horriball
offensive banged up and they kept gettingbanged up as a game. I mean,
guys, did they lose it?It had to have been like four
Gophers kept punishing them though, Imean every team, like every play for
a while, they had a guygetting hurt. The offense from Michigan State

(09:52):
though, is I'm let's talk aboutthe quarterback play in the Big Ten.
I'm astounded by how poor it's beenacross the board. Astounded. I think
it plays a part in kind ofthe quiz and I was going to get
us into it. I guess wecan get into it now and just come
back to Minnesota. As in GuardianI talked about it Sunday, you have
Michigan, Ohio State mini tier belowthe Penn State. Yeah, Chip,

(10:16):
who's the fourth best team in theBig Ten? And that's the point,
right there is there's no answer.There is no answer, no answer.
I can pick like six teams froma tier, but it's such a far
tier down below. And what's thebig part of that is Michigan State's got
JJ McCarthy. Ohio State's got KyleMcCord, who's playing not Ohio State level

(10:39):
quarterback, but he's still playing well. Drew Aller's only throwing one pick on
the year. And then you getdown to who's four through ten. Part
of it's no one has a goodquarterback. Yeah, it's been, and
I think that's reflected in the youknow, in the stats and with what
we see too. I mean,but you look at the I was looking
at stats last night, just quarterbackplay, yeah, and offensive and scoring.

(11:03):
Is like, these teams are allnear the bottom of college football,
and it's it's not just Big tenWest. There's a lot of Big ten
West in there. Yeah, butno, I mean there's a lot of
East too. Yeah. Just alot of really poor offensive play and really
poor quarterback play into Big ten shops. Well, do you remember what we
were talking about coming into the year, is the only Big Ten West team
that didn't have a brand new transferstarting a quarterback was Minnesota. So everybody

(11:24):
else's got a transfer quarterback and itstill looks like this. So yeah,
I was thinking about that last night. Is like, how many quarterbacks of
all the unknowns would you say haveplayed to what you thought they would play,
or better or worse. I wouldsay most of them are worse.
I'd say most of them are varyingdegrees of worse. I don't think anybody's

(11:46):
better than we thought they would be. No, right, Well, it
also doesn't help Like Tanda Mordecai's hurtMac, but he was not having a
good year. He was okay.I don't think Caid McNamara was much good,
But he was in for most ofthe time. Considering what happened in
that open practice that Iowa got injuredat camp. Yeah, Hudson Card's been
okay for Purdue. Nebraska's run througha couple of guys. I think.

(12:11):
I think Luke Altmeyer's actually been prettydecent for Illinois. That's just that whole
thing. I'll take your word forit. Well, you're going to see
this weekend that kid can move.Oh okay. But I mean, so
where are all the quarterbacks here?Because you've talked about this before, Like
I think at some point we haveto have a reckoning. And you've been
on this for a while that andI'm trying to get on board. I
mean, in the NFL, howmany teams have a quarterback they like tennish.

(12:35):
I mean we argue like I'm onCousins condos, you know, board
of directors. Because I've spent mywhole life forty one years trying to get
a decent quarterback here for the Vikingsfor a sustained amount of time. We've
gone through a lot of guys,Yeah, at a lot of stages of
their career. So by definition,by the transitive property of bad quarterback play,

(12:56):
if thirty two NFL teams can't finda guy that they like, let's
say fifteen can't. Yeah, howmany FBS teams are there, one hundred
and twenty six. Yeah, Likeyou look around like everybody's turning through like
every week. It seems like,oh, they're going with this guy.
They're going with this guy. Thisguy was a four star, but guess
what he sucks. Like there's justand you look at the teams at the
top. Georgia, Michigan, OhioState, Florida State, Washington, Oregon,
Texas, Alabama, Penn State.I mean, I'm guessing most of

(13:18):
them have good quarterbacks. Alabama's gonethrough three though, Yeah, like they
went where they're at in passing nashallynot probably good, right, very very
low. I think they might bebelowly go for it. And so how
are they winning because Alabama's defense,they like, you either have a quarterback
like you have a quarterback like Washingtondoes, or you have everything else like
these Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Florida States have the rest of these

(13:41):
teams, It's like if you're poppingin here, it's because you maybe found
a quarterback or you you've caught lightningin a bottle or whatever, like college
quarterback play just kind of is whatit is. Well, I would say
this year there's I think the highend quarterbacks in college football or the story
of college football, because they're justreally I think there could be five first

(14:03):
round there could be five or six. Yeah, and what does history tell
us about those six? Half ofthem are going to suck. They're gonna
go to NFL flame out, they'regoing to play in the XFL. Or
Vince McMahon's always wondered this. I'vethought about this for a while now.
It's like when you think about allthe specialized training that quarterbacks get from the
time they're eight years old, you'vetalked to them, they go to camps.
Yeah, you know, I dida story for my football cross minsold

(14:26):
on this UH trainer. They doseven on seven maybe more than any position
that gets more specialized ye training.You know what I would tell everybody,
you can't find them. They saveyour money, is what I tell them.
No disrespect to the trainers, becauseeveryone's got to make a living.
But go play with your friends.I mean, seriously, go play out

(14:48):
back like it's not working and different. Then you watched the game like last
night and Jimmy Garoppolo, who couldn'the couldn't complete a pass. It's like,
how is it that you can't findthirty two of them in the world.
Yeah, they're really really good.Because it's hard. I know,
I know the position is hard.It's the hardest position in sports. But
but I will say, like we'veall been field level for some version,

(15:09):
like have you ever been field levelfor an NFL game? How fast it
is? It's just preposterous how fastit all is. I know. And
three hundred pounders are coming flying atyou and by the way you need to
put it, put it about thesize of a quarter twenty five yards down
the field. But this dude aboutto hit you, and otherwise we're going
to be pissed. It's just it'sa it's really hard. It's it's extremely

(15:31):
hard. And I think you seethat reflected in it Is It All?
The reason I don't know? Andand the other part too is because people
The thing I don't like, andthis is kind of we've kind of derailed,
but I like the conversation. Theother thing that we've talked about that
Dan and I have talked about onBumper to bumper is well, and if
there's eighth then I mean, andthen if you have no one to go,
if there's no one ready behind you, then that's an indictment too.

(15:52):
It's like, no, it's twentytwenty three. There's no football. There's
not good quarterbacks playing. There's certainlynot good quarterbacks way to play in twenty
twenty three right there. If they'renot playing. I mean, we have
high school quarterbacks. I have astory of a guy whose dad like after
the first game as for transcripts,because like, we're leaving what we didn't
get to play in the first game. So quarterback parents are the craziest people

(16:15):
on the planet. Like, becausepeople go out, we're investing in a
lot of ethan. They don't evenhave a backup. It's like, yeah,
because number one to get him,they thought he was pretty good,
right burnsy. They essentially had tosay, we're not taking a quarterback.
I can take a quarterback in theclass in the next class. And there's
not a lot of dudes just goingyeah, I think I could sling it
for thirty five hundred yards. ButI find yeah, I'm fine sitting here
and waiting my turn while I watchedwhile I watch like, that's just not

(16:37):
realistic, that's not The quarterbacks areflying all. I would say it's probably
the most portal position, wouldn't wouldn'tyou say, yeah in twenty twenty three,
it's certainly because people want to playwell. And I always said too,
even before the portal, that ifyou're a backup quarterback, I sort
of understand transfer because there's only oneNow, there's injuries that happened, and

(16:57):
you you know you can't but youcan't predict that. And if you feel
like you're better than the guy,and for whatever reason, you know,
I completely understand that. And that'swhy I mean to circle back to Ethan.
I mean, you basically have fourgames now, right or five with
the with the Bowl game two determineare you going to commit to two more

(17:19):
years of him being your quarterback ordo you have to go out into the
portal and find something. Because you'renot going to go to the portal and
tell a guy we want you tocome here and compete with the guy who's
been in the system for two yearsof field out who's going to be a
starter. I don't think that's gonnawork. Right. If you go to
the portal. You're telling a guyyou're you're gonna be our quarterback next year.
Well, wink wink, Yeah,I mean at least compete, I

(17:41):
would say, But I've got quarterbacksis gonna come here? Here's my here's
my question. What quarterback is gonnacome here with little promise of nil.
You're gonna have to get an FCSguy. You're gonna have to get a
Group of five guy, because ifyou're trying to go get a four star
Power five guy. Yeah, Imean we've just spent ten minutes talking about
quarterback play sucks everywhere. Yeah,And I think about three of the four

(18:03):
teams coming into the Big Ten nextyear. Bo Nicks is going to be
gone from Morgan, Michael Pinnox isgoing to be gone from Washington, Caleb
Williams is going to be gone fromus C's those three dudes right there,
Like all three dudes could go inthe top two rounds the next draft,
and so they're all going to bebreaking in brand new quarterbacks. They're all
going to be in the portal hunting, right. Yeah. So it's exactly
because those three guys were all portal, right. I mean, Caleb was

(18:26):
technically didn't play for Oklahoma, buthe went, well, he's at Oklahoma,
yea, he went with did heplay there at all? I don't
remember. He played his freshman yearthere, I think, Okay, And
then Pinnicks. That's what's the reasonwhy Tom Allen got eight figures, got
million dollars buyout. Yeah, ye, and then bow Knicks obviously played against
the Gophers in the Outback Bowl.In the Outback Bowl. Now he's going

(18:47):
to be a first round draft pick. Yeah. And I don't you know,
I don't know what their situation is, their backup quarterbacks, but I
assume those schools are probably because thesuccess they had, and I mean they
look at the portal, right,I mean, to guards's point, they
got four stars, potentially five starsbehind them. But you just don't know
about any of these quarterbacks until thebullets start to fly. So we'll see

(19:08):
how it all continues to go.But you want to get to eighth and
the second quarter to bring us backto the Gophers, Well, yeah,
let's bring it back to Minnesota,and let's bring it back. We mentioned
Jordan Nuban was outstanding. They ranat nineteen straight times after I think twenty
one. If you count the kneeldowns. The offense did not start well.
We mentioned Sean Tyler and then eighthin fumbles, and it's a miracle

(19:29):
they were only down six nothing.Can you imagine how pair shape that thing
would have got if it was tenor fourteen nothing? Yeah, well,
yes, and no, because Ididn't think they were going to score again
Michigan State. Because the quarterback wasbad. The offense was bad, although
they did make a few plays downthe field where I was like, huh,
but they just couldn't sustain it.Yeah, six to zero because they
got three and out after each ofthose fumbles. So it was six to

(19:52):
zero and essentially the Gophers finally gotsome stuff clicking in the second quarter.
PJ during the halftime interview, Isaid, what clicked in the second quarter?
He goes, well, nothing isclicked. There is no click.
Something you cannot click. We arenot clicking something along those lines. It
was great, It was awesome.I got multiple texts just to click click,
click click. He's like, nothingcan click. When you fumble twice,

(20:14):
when you have a hold, whenyou miss a field goal, there
is no click. And I'm like, is the defense clicking? Yeah?
Defense is good. I like thedefense. Okay, cool, click roll
the boats got you my go go. First, I thought Ethan was pretty
good in the second quarter. Ithought, just you know, the throw
to brevinspan four, the throws toDaniel Jackson, like that's that was a
step forward. I thought for Athanhis performance in the first half, what
did you finish twelve or seventeen whatever, it was, thirteen to eighteen for

(20:37):
one to ninety as the first half, that's pretty good. The second half,
yeah, exactly went through it fourtimes and yeah, stopped throwing it
after the pick and one was abad interception, which you've said all year.
Like I said this after the eyeof game. I don't know if
I said it to you. Iknow I said it to someone on the
field, like at some point,you just gotta let the guy play,
like you gotta let him sling ita little bit and see what's and let
him go through some stuff, letthe receivers go through some stuff. I

(20:59):
mean, he just slings Itto Brevinspan Ford, who's probably the toughest catch
he's made all year, and bythe way, one of the only ones
he's made all year. Yeah,because he's dropping all the easy ones.
But at some point you just gotto let him go and play. Yeah,
it's it's I think it's probably beenmore the inconsistency's been more pronounced than
I thought it was going to be. I thought there'd be a little more
good than the bad with with Athan. You see those moments you're like,

(21:22):
man, the arm talent. Hecan do some things. And then you
see the pick, You're like,oh my goodness, that's you know,
you got the second quarter which isoff platform throws where he just the the
arm talents on display. I thinkDaniel Jackson continues to ascend to a guy
he's good. I think he waslike seven for one in a touchdown and
all seven catches went for a firstdown. That's exactly right. And I

(21:47):
mean I thought coming into the yearhe was going to be pretty good.
I tried to bang that drum prettyloud and over the summer. But I
mean the way he's been able toascend to where everybody knows he's the first
guy that's going to be getting alook. I mean, he just continues
to win routes inside and out.But you're gonna have to hope that that's
the game that spring boards Brevan toin November to remember for him. Yeah,

(22:08):
because they need him in the worstway. If they're gonna have a
shot to go three and one andhope that Wisconsin or Iowa slip up or
guards these team, the Nebraska cornHuskers as well, watch out for that
team. Yeah. Now looks thatis not aged poorly. I know the
week that I've said it. Bythe way, the all the all the
stuff we mentioned offensively, the golfersare still up ten to six, they

(22:30):
get at halftime, they get theball out, they're all their five or
six line in eight quarters almost andthat drive is you know when I think
I mean Ethen's four for four onthat drive. I think it's like twelve
nineteen thirty and twenty two is likethat's what you want. Yeah, three
of them to Daniel Jackson, wonto Corey Krumes, another guy who needed
to bounce back after you know,some drops in Iowa. But it's like

(22:51):
in the final couple of minutes ofa half to just say, well,
we're not you know, knowing PJ. When you get it at the five,
like I'm thinking he's going to runthe ball a few times and try
to try to just chill and getit into halftime, and they said no,
we're going to throw it. AndEthan was really good that drive and
gave him the lead. And that'swhy, you know, I know the
booze came out in that drive inthe game management that one, didn't I

(23:12):
know, he let fifteen seconds orso run off there before he called that
time out. PJ. Yeah.But I thought they were in good shape
because the past the krewms got himat the twenty with like a minute fifteen
left. I'm like, all right, they're in good shape there. The
only thing I didn't like about itis it just didn't seem like they all
knew what they were trying to do, you know what. It just kind
of felt wasn't like I get itif if everyone knows you're trying to milk

(23:33):
it and this is what we're doing. But everybody down there just kind of
seemed like, well, that's whytwenty seconds came off the clock, and
it was like, okay, areyou to guard his point? I think
Fleck can say what he wants.Yeah, they weren't all on the same
page there, which is why thetimeout was in a weird and he tried
to do it. Is I don'twant them to have any time, which
I don't know why you'd be scaredof Michigan's office. I mean, I'm
just being honest. It wasn't Michigan'soffense. No, that kind of made

(23:56):
sense the other time. Yeah,But even before there was the penalty,
there was something with one oh nineleft and PJ was yelling to the booth
that the clock was going to startwhen they set the ball. Was that
injury, Yes, there's an injury, yeah, And he was saying,
they're gonna run it, so let'sget the play going. And even then
there was a couple emotions and theclock ran a little bit, so he
was aware that the clock was goingto run. Yeah, But then it

(24:19):
just didn't seem like they knew whatthey wanted to do, and he was
clearly bothered with the booing. Afterwards, he said, I want to educate
some you know, I mean,that's people we'll get into the head coaches,
trying to educate that. What hehas to understand too, is like
this wasn't an outlier. This isI mean, I bet if you pulled
a thousand gopher fans, I said, you know, what's your biggest gripe?

(24:40):
With PJ would be game management andlike, uh even think back to
the Viking Packer game. Vikings getthe turnover, what is KOs He dials
up a shot and he hits itto Addison, whereas Minnesota. You know,
as we've seen Minnesota gets a turnover, they're going to run it three
straight times like they did against Iowa, and then they're going to take the

(25:02):
points. And we've just seen timeand time again where they just it's so
methodical and slow and no urgency,and you're like, are you playing for
field goals here? I mean,what which leads into your stats? Which
like last night, because I waslooking through stats and we know PJ loves
time and possession. Like I onceasked him, what's the first stat you
look at after a game? Hesaid, time and position. So there's
seventh Nashley. There are one hundredand eight one o eight in scoring,

(25:26):
which for an offense to be onthe field that much, it is funny,
more than all but six teams incollege football, and to be one
of the worst in scoring, it'salmost it just seems almost impossible to do.
They're just so conservative in the redzone. And I think the other
stat that I saw on the broadcastwas Minnesota is one of two teams in

(25:48):
college football to not have any pointson their opening possession. Correct, Yeah,
it's them in Iowa State. Sothey haven't been good early and that's
just self inflicted wounds. And thenwhen they've gotten into the red zone,
it's I think the head coach justgets his fingerprints way too much over the
offense and just the way his defensehas been playing, which we'll get to.

(26:11):
He just wants the points and hejust wants to ride it out.
There's also the who do you trustin the passing game too, like because
it's it's outside of Daniel Jackson,I would argue that I don't trust anyone.
Well, I think that's I don'teven make it's arguing. I think
that's fact of how they do havehow they have run stuff. Because even
some of the red zone stuff,when they've had to settle for field goals

(26:32):
where they've been throwing, it's DanielJackson. Like, let's try that.
We talked about this last week,so hopefully, I mean, this is
a week where you get somebody elseinvolved, because I can't imagine a cornerback
loves covering Brevin span Ford in thered zone. Yeah, you know what
I mean, Like it would seemlike a mismatch, would seem like they
would target him in the D.That's what I mean. I don't think
he has a single red zone targetin eight games. Well, he had

(26:53):
one, the one he had onein Iowa. Yeah, where he got
two hands on it and it didn'twork. Yeah, you hope that,
You hope that game, you know, gets him going, makes him feel
better about where he's at, becauseI can't imagine, Uh, he's got
more than he's been giving. Yeah, right, I mean I think we

(27:15):
all agree on that. Yeah,he's got more than than he's been putting
out there, which I think everybodyagrees with. Defensively, you're doing what
you're supposed to be doing against twobad offenses. Right, You're not letting
them, You're you're not giving themany breathing room. Yeah. I mean
the defense is obviously playing a lotbetter near where early in the season.
How much is that because they're justplaying some really really limited offenses. I

(27:38):
think the defensive line is the thingthat I need to They've been good all
year, that's been the you canargue that's been well, they took it
up the best part of their defenseright now. Yeah, they took it
up a notch in October, andthat's where I asked about it yesterday.
I mean, I personally think thismight be the deepest defensive line FLEX had,
and I think just the sheer amountof makers at that shot. If

(28:00):
you think about the Iowa game whereDanny Strigau gets the huge sack after the
Cooper Degen play, Jaylenen, LoganRenning gets a sack, and then last
week you have guys like John Joyner, Yeah, stepping up, guys like
Kyler Bass stepping up. But Ithink it's been and then they've Justa and
Smith and what they've brought to them, those who can play taking a step.

(28:22):
I mean, I think Rossie wouldtell you they're both ahead of schedule
because you got a third year guyand a second year guy in Smith.
I think they're ahead of schedule ofwhat they thought they were going to be,
especially Eastern. I think Eastern's beenthe biggest surprise for them. But
they've just completely shut down. Imean we've just spent twenty minutes talking about
quarterback play. Well, turns outif you can stop the run, which
they did against Iowa thirty three runningbackyards last week against Michigan State forty nine.

(28:47):
If you force a big ten quarterbacknot named JJ McCarthy, Yle McCord
or Drew Aller to beat you,it's probably going to go well. Yeah.
So, I mean that's been thething to me is that's the recipe
going forward here in November. Ifyou can keep stopping the run and forcing
these big ten West quarterbacks to beatyou, it's probably gonna go well.
It's interesting with Michigan State, andI know, you know, the backup

(29:10):
comes in there, he has nothingto lose and just kind of play him.
You know, Well, he justrun. You sure looked a lot
better than the starter. I don'tknow, well until he came in before
and replaced him, right or gotit? Yeah, he played a couple
of series, so he obviously hasthe touchdown drive where I think he runs
for thirty five yards. ROSSI adjustson the next two drives and plays a
spy. And what happens picked thekid realizes he can't run, He sticks

(29:33):
in the pocket. He commits twoturnovers in the game. Well, I
gotta be honest, I thought thecoach did that team of disservice too with
the honestie kick. That was interesting. I mean, you're trying to catch
up, I know, is theelement surprise and you're almost five in a
row and it's like who ke Kellygot eviscerated? Yeah? Ahead, and
that should have been a taunting andwell it. But but at that point

(29:53):
you've you know, you finally havesome life. This quarterbacks come in and
giving you a spark and there's likeeight nine minutes, eight and a half
minutes left. Kick it deep andwho knows if Minnesota starts feeling the pressure.
If there, you know you're downthere. But as soon as you
don't get it, now you havethe short field and they feel good.
Right, It's like, I understandyour season's lost. What the heck?

(30:14):
Just so? But I would dothat. I would. I would coach
that way when I'm in a gameI have no chance to win, Like
that game was up for the grabsteel well. And like you and I
have always said, you mess withGopher special teams at your own peril.
If you're the opponent you met.You know, not everyone's agreed, but
he does, like you go aheadand test go for special teams. We
said it all along. You goahead and test see if Winger's crew is

(30:37):
ready to go and see what happens. Okay, Michigan State. But so
you and I weren't surprised that theywere right there. I was ready to
make a play. I was watchingthe play back last night and they all
start running back. So good awarenessby him to you know, stopping his
tracks and come get it. Whichspecial teams do you think helped on it's
your favorite question, Which special teamshelped their team on Saturday? Well,

(31:00):
are we all forgetting that we hada field goal block? That's right?
Yeah, I'd call it a netneutral, which is a win for Minnesota
specialties, you get. Yeah,Quintin Renny gave like his second punt return
of the season in the eighth gamefor ten positive punt return. He kind
of straddled the sideline there for aminute. Yeah, you had Ryley Kelly

(31:22):
actually make a play on the onside return. But getting a field goal
blocked was I mean that was ondragging to me? That thing was a
was a low liner. Yeah.Do you remember watching the next field goal?
He would have thought he it waslike a pooch punt the way how
I Love kicked he kicked that thing. He said, there's not a shot
you're gonna be able to touch thisone from thirty Yeah, because it was

(31:45):
like it wasn't like a it waslike a thirty yard field goal. Yeah,
you don't need to The guy Iblocked it, I don't think had
like a forty inch vertical he wasgoing to. Gravity was working against him
and his just went up there andblocked it. Yeah, I don't think
he was jumping. Well, it'sfunny to hear Fleck after the game took
responsibility for the on side recovery.I'm the on side kicker in practice.

(32:08):
Yeah, so every Thursday, seeeven flex like, we can't give Rob
win with any credit for this.This is all PJ. Fleck. That's
funny. That's funny. All right, anything else we need to talk about
Gopher related before we talk about theWest Division and how it may or may
not shake out here in the monthof November. Anything else from Saturday.
Now you get Illinois, which BrettBielima nine and zero in his time,

(32:31):
So let's talk about Brett when wecome back. Well, Pad's here to
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(32:51):
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Boys? Is that time of yearto get to Jack's. I want
to go for the Hunter Special?What is that? When is that again?
That was November seventh, the annualHunter's Dinner. Hunters Dinner a week

(33:15):
from today. They've got a giftcard sale going on, and they've got
a great holiday schedule of when they'reopen for dinner. You know, New
Year's Eve stuff, Christmas stuff,all of it. But the kids have
been asking about the brunch. Thekids were asking about the brunch an you
know the wh when the weather turnsto me, like brunch almost feels like
a like a fall slash winter thing, Like it's not a summer thing for

(33:35):
me. Right where I'm going outon that beautiful patio. It's like,
we need to go warm up.What do we need to do? We
need to go have some brunch.Yeah, I might not go to a
place that has all the great foodand chip, great parking. The uh.
We had a friend, my friendGeorge went took his wife on their
anniversary last week. You saw youtweeted at us, right, yeah,
yeah, and he they had agreat time. Obviously thirty years right,
it was a thirty year hours.Was it thirty or thirty five? Yeah,

(33:59):
it was something like that. Georgeis my buddy from Woodbury and got
the custom match. But yeah,any any he remarked about how great the
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but it is. Everybody's got something, whether it's the food. I
know, the food's great, thedrinks, the service, the ambiance,
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(34:22):
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thanks again to Bill for hooking upa Parent of Spirit listener with tickets.
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(34:44):
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Yeah, the beat them a ballBrett nine and all I think,
right, Evan and o it Wisconsinand then two and zero at Illinois,
and this game's essentially been bet nowdown to a pick him. He kept

(35:07):
them out of the Big Ten titlegame a couple of years ago. Everybody
wants to talk about the Bowling Greengame from twenty twenty one. The damaging
loss was a puzzling one to anot very good Illinois team last year.
It kind of made sense. Theyhad Chase Brown, they were good,
they were decent, their quarterback wasokay, had three NFL members in their
secondary two years ago. Made nosense. And that was the game that
hurd him more than any I've alwaysbeen of the bleep that he's a good

(35:30):
coach. He's a good coach,there's no doubt, you know. It
bugged me when he couldn't get outof Barry shadowt Wisconsin's like, oh,
he's just you know, it's justBarry. No, it's not. After
a certain amount of years, you'reyour own coach, it's your own program.
Yeah. Yeah, I haven't seenhim the last couple of weeks.
I saw them early, was notimpressed. I was yep, I thought
they might be kind of a sneakypick for the West this year. So

(35:53):
Burnsy well, it wasn't even sneaky. By the time the season rolled around.
It got a lot of Yeah.So, I don't know, are
they playing better now? Are they? I don't know where they they should
have been Wisconsin. They absolutely melteddown against Wisconsin and there was a questionable
targeting call against one of the bestplayers in the Big Ten for Illinois,
Jerson Newton, who's going to bea first round draft pick for them at

(36:14):
defensive tackle. Why is that importantbecause he's going to miss the first half
of the Minnesota game because they triedto get an appealed to the Big Ten
they had a bye week last week. It was denied. So they're arguably
the best defensive tackle in the BigTen is going to miss the first half
So if you're Minnesota in this game, boy, if you're going to be
trying to do something, you bettertry and do it in the first half
because Newton is going to wreck themlike he wrecks everybody else in the second

(36:37):
half. But I think with Illinoisit's just been they've been undisciplined at times.
I think specifically defensively, they missedthose three NFL guys. They've tried
to kind of play the same defense. But when you don't have NFL guys
back there, turns out that's anissue. They've had some penalty issues.
You know. Their tailback that they'veturned to is a true freshman. Okay,

(37:00):
six three two and forty pounds,Wow, Derrick Henry light geez.
I mean, I can't remember thelast time Minnesota's played a running back that
is essentially my size. Yeah,I mean that's a big dude. Yeah,
brayln Allen's a big dude, buthe's not six three two forty so,
and then they got a quarterback fourstar transfer from I think Ole Miss

(37:20):
that loves to run. He's gotthe second most rushing yards among Big Ten
quarterbacks behind the the Nebraska kids.So they're going to have their hands full,
especially with Illinois getting an extra twodays to prepare for them off the
by Illinois is three and five onthe season, one and four in the
Big Ten. They were up doubledigits in the fourth quarter right against Wisconsin.
It was like an eighteen point leadsomething like that, and a left

(37:43):
tackle caught the game winning touchdown forthe Badgers. She's not good, you
know, not good to be fooledon that. No, not good.
I'm sure beelim it. Didn't likelosing to Wisconsin that way. Yeah,
yeah, having Joe Thomas beat him? How dare you forget about the Jim
Leonard revenge game aspect there? AndI can't believe Illinois. Yeah, that
hurts your boy. Jimmy's he okay? You send him a text, you

(38:04):
send him an edible arrangement, makesure he's okay. I'm still not ready
to talk about it. Yeah,I understand. So let's talk about the
West here quickly. Technically, Imean, the golfers do control their own
destiny. Ohio State's part of thatdestiny, which is a little dicey.
I'm not necessarily going to go outon the limb and pick them at the
horseshoe but we've talked about it.I said it the week after. I

(38:29):
just have a feeling that Northwestern gameis going to come back and haunt them.
The loss does not look as bad. Northwestern keeps winning games, they
might go to a bowl game.However, you're up thirty one ten in
the fourth quarter, and you couldbe four and one right now with Iowa,
Wisconsin, and Nebraska all at threeand two, and you'd have a
tiebreaker over Nebraska and Iowa. WithWisconsin still on the schedule. Man,

(38:49):
you'd be in a really nice spot. What is Wisconsin. What is Nebraska's
remaining schedule? It's it's very easy. And again Nebraska, man, that
is what they wanted. Five oftheir last six. They have won five
of their last six. Yes,yes, Nebraska. I said it last
We hate the forward pass chip.You should see the win. Nebraska's winning

(39:10):
games right now. They're going.Chris Streveler on the bit with Henry Harber.
Thirty one fourteen was the score againstPurdue, which it should have been
like thirty eight nothing. It's thefirst three game winning streak for Nebraska since
twenty sixteen. Here is their remainingschedule at Michigan State this Saturday, Maryland

(39:32):
at home, Maryland lost two.Maryland's lost three in a row, including
to Northwestern YEP last week, Marylandat home, Maryland in Lincoln at Wisconsin
Black Friday home against Iowa. Everysingle one of those games, including the
one this weekend, even though MichiganState's what are they two and six now?

(39:52):
Yet six? And I think thespread on that game this weekend in
East Lansing is like two points.Still, yeah, because that makes sense.
Well, every team in the BigTen outside of the top three is
essentially okay what team wants to showup on a given week. Here's the
Caesar Sports book on ESPN dot com. Nebraska is a three point favorite in
spread. They're not going to bebig because none of these teams can score.

(40:14):
That's right, Well, right,we'll get to you. We'll get
to the lowest over under in moderncollege football. But I'm in it here.
But that's why I said it becauseonce I saw Nebraska won again against
him, like, oh man,they're winning now. I looked at their
schedule, It's like that's doable.I mean, they're doing it the way
the Gophers do. You got tobe feeling pretty good if you're them their

(40:36):
defense is good exactly since they switchquarterback. They were here that first night.
Yeah, defense was terrible. JeffSimms was terrible. Which Jeff Simms
gets healthy, Hardberg still starts.I don't know if you saw this last
week. Jeff Simms gets one snaplast week, Yeah, bumbles it loses
it. That poor kid from Georgiatech man. He and Sean Tyler of
a book somewhere. Yeah, butthey go on tour somewhere like they're just

(40:58):
they can run the ball, theycan play really good defense, like we
talked about in September, after wewatched that team play Minnesota. You saw
that three three five give Minnesota fitsand how good they were upfront. I
think you've start to see that inthe last month. Yeah, because I
you know, we watched the firstweek and then at Colorado where Sam's had
all those turnovers again there and theythey hung We walked into Huntington together that

(41:21):
day, if you recall, andthey hung around forever. If they just
were not turned the ball over,they would have won both of those games.
And the damn just burn had achance to better chance to win both
them. Yeah. Then they beatNorthern Illinois and Louisiana tack. They got
routed by Michigan, who hasn't twentyto seven against Illinois, seventeen nine against
Northwestern, thirty one fourteen against Purdue. Now you could say, not exactly
murderer's row in terms of who they'veplayed, but not exactly murderer's row coming

(41:44):
up. No, So it's notas you said on Gopher grid Iron as
Luke said, it's not non zero. It's not non zero. It's probably
like twenty percent they went out.But the more likely scenario here is you
could look at Iwas schedule, whichis easy. You could look at Wisconsin
schedule, which is easy. Minnesota'sI mean, Minnesota doesn't exactly have murderers

(42:04):
row with Illinois, Purdue and thenI mean they have the toughest of the
four teams that are tied there withOhio State and Wisconsin end. But what
Minnesota needs here is for Wisconsin,Iowa, and Nebraska to just kind of
cannibalized one another when they play us. Yes, like everybody goes one and
one against each other, because ifsomebody wins out, there's just no shock
because you're gonna lose it. Whatabout Northwestern at regular field that'd be helpful

(42:27):
if Northwestern could be could handle twentynine, could handle I total in that
game. The other thing, theother game that i'd watch for if if
your Iowa was they have Rutgers atKinnick, and Rutgers is now six and
two and playing pretty well, doingexactly what Big Ten teams are doing,
playing good defense with a quarterback theydon't really know what to do with.
Well, it's Big Ten football rightnow. I walked away from that game

(42:47):
at I was like, this teamwill not win out. I think they'll
lose it Nebraska. Chip. Ialso can't tell you how many people have
come up to me in the lasttwo weeks or just texted me or messaged
me and said I'm surprised Chip continuesto come in and do the podcast the
way he's disgusted. After watching Iowa'soffense the last two weeks, I can't
believe he still likes college football.That's it's hard. It's hard. I

(43:12):
love college football, but some ofthese offenses are hard to watch. Yeah,
it's just we can tell. Wisconsinhas Indiana, Northwestern, Nebraska,
and the Gophers with five and threeat Indiana when Northwestern at home, when
Nebraska at home. That's the onethat's going to kind of determine how much
of a shot Minnesota's got in thatfinal week. And at Minnesota and they

(43:34):
are three and two and Wisconsin.The Gophers don't need Wisconsin to do anything.
They just have to beat them.Yeah. But again, if we're
going to talk Wisconsin, remember Mordecai'sout. They're on their quarterback too.
And oh, by the way,Brayln Allen gets injured in the first half.
Yeah, I think it was aleft leg injury. Doesn't return,
he's got a boot on his foot. Okay, So what is Wisconsin gonna

(43:57):
look like offensively without Chess, MlucyRail and Allen and their second string quarterback?
Like a Big ten West team?I would say, what's been the
distinction every single one of these games? Because now we got full slates every
week because everybody's done with byes,there's fourteen games that are going forward.
It is just gonna be you know, I was I was texting with our
one of our mutual friends that worksin the athletic department, is like,

(44:21):
this conversation we're having right now,as bad and as flawed as these teams
are, we're still having this conversationbecause there's divisions. We're gonna miss it.
We're gonna miss it this year,the divisions, because yes, if
it's if this was next year,we could just cut out these five minutes
the last week. I don't knowwhat we would talk about. We'll shoot

(44:43):
even look at the World Series,the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers,
and I don't believe either one ofthem won their division. That's true,
but you had to be. Youhave to. I mean, teams need
something to play for. You couldsay, well, they don't deserve it.
They're offenses are terrible. You know, yes, their offenses are bad,
but all of them. Yeah,it's like collectively, that's again what

(45:07):
I'm saying about just college football ingeneral. At the moment, there's and
really this isn't any different, Likethere's like four good teams the rest of
us, rest of them. Yeah, we're just kind of fitting in and
hoping for a moment we're gonna havethe same four playoffs. The playoff rankings
come out tonight, right, Yeah, Okay, I'm gonna guess Georgia,

(45:27):
Michigan, Ohio State and pick yourfourth. What year is this? Yeah,
twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, twentyseventeen, Like that's just how college
football has rolled. So yeah,it doesn't offend me as much as it
offends others, where it's like,oh, but everybody sucks, yeah,
or it's just they're all just kindof the same, or chip. Think
about the four teams competing for theWest title, all right, yeah,
think about the quarterbacks. You goteighth and caliac mannis Henrik Harberg. I

(45:51):
think it's Brayln Locke. And thenwe'll see if I was sticks with Deacon
Hill or what they do. BecauseBrian Fern's news came out, should we
get to this? We got justa couple of minutes left in the show.
This was this is We're not evengoing to get to the acc coaches
losing their mind. They'll do itagain. They'll do it again. Coaches
are going to coach they Eve Smithgetting screamed at, Tyler from Cleberg and

(46:16):
Tyler from Spartanburg. Tyler, I'venever failed at anything. That was brilliant.
Whoever screened that call is getting fired. No, that's the beauty of
it that I didn't know coaches stilldid that. College football, man,
that's why a lot of them don't. But I see, I see both
sides that when google Dabbo Sweeney,if you're wondering what the hell we're talking

(46:36):
about. Former Golfer administrator and interimathletic director Beth Getz didn't do didn't make
a move quite this big when shewas interim athletic director here. She did
give Tracy Clays a three year contractextension or three year contract that was basically,
you're our coach and we'll let thenext person decide what you want to
do. And Mark Coyle got hereand said I'm gonna do something else.

(46:57):
Thank you. Beth gets is nothalf stepping into this interim role. Put
out a statement on Monday, itis not my practice to be involved in
assistant coaching decisions and certainly not tomake public such a change during the season.
Our priority is to put all studentathletes in the best position to have
both short term and long term successon and off the field. Our football
team is a group about saying toyoung men in talented athletes, so at

(47:20):
six and two have a lot toplay for. As a former athlete,
I know every opportunity to put ona jersey is a cherished one, Why
what is this statement about that?Beth get said, I've met with coach
Farence, I've met with Brian Ferrence, and we've told him that Brian will
not be part of the staff nextseason. Not only will he not be
the offensive coordinator, he will notbe on the staff. I Kirk is
scheduled to talk today. He's theonly member of the Iowa football program that's

(47:44):
going to talk. No players thisweek, no players this week. I'm
interested to hear what his reaction is. Going to be a lot of speculation
on that. We'll talk about thatobviously next week. But you know the
move that I mean, it hadto be made. There had to be
some type of change. I stillgo to you talk about it, Burnsy
with Minnesota. I go to thehead of the snake more than I go

(48:04):
to whatever's underneath and what people Ithink recognize down there in Iowa. From
just gauging the reaction, it's like, unless Kirk makes a dramatic change with
who the next one is, ifit's even Kirk, who knows, maybe
maybe what's the percent chance Kirk Farnscomes out and says at the end of
the yarm retiring it's not nothing.I was going to say forty Yeah,

(48:29):
I'm curious about it, because,well, you have a new ad.
Yeah, an ad who just toldyou how you hit you have to run
your staff. You still might beable to. Yeah, but Gary Barda
most certainly did not know. Well, we said this last week that you
know, Beth Guests is stepping intoa tough situation, but you could not
let this go on. Now,I was a little surprised she did it

(48:50):
before the end of the season,but that tells you how heavy it got
in that town that for the adto come out and say, well,
we've all seen how Iowa fans haveacted during the bi week. They're doing
great, they're doing well, Gibletsand Junipers. Even last night the freaking
World Series. They still don't understand. They still to lead a horse to

(49:15):
water, but you can't make themdrink. I'm so far you are over
It's just I'm so over it.I don't even care. But to this
decision, I'm curious to see howthe team responds, how responds, if
there's any noticeable I mean, youknow, the town is what it is.
I mean, yep, you can'tchange. They still go with Deacon
Hill in the final four games.They know you're down to your third I

(49:37):
don't know, but it's a guythat played okay against Kentucky in the in
the Music City Bowl last year,This labist character. It's like, give
him a shot. It can't getworse. It can't get worse, that's
the thing. And so yeah,I now I give you know, I
know, I think we you andI kind of disagree on this because I
don't blame Brian as much as otherslike it's it's the head coach's philosophy that's

(49:59):
put them here. Sure, ina couple of years ago, Brian was
being hailed as a guy who hadgotten Kirk to change. They were crushing
USC in the Holiday Bowl. Hewas doing jet sweeps things we hadn't seen
in Iowa City for years now ithasn't happened. And they did lose their
quarterback. They lost their tight endslike they've had like And by the way,
somebody pointed out, there's like eightteams in the Big Ten that are

(50:20):
averaging what I was averaging offensively rightnow. They're not the only ones.
But because of the nepotism angle,and it's year over year over year,
it got a little bit hot,and and and Brian is the is the
scapegoat. Yeah, I mean thenepotism thing is I mean, you can't.
I mean that's not just a minorpart of this discussion. And that
ball is rolling so fast right nowyou can't stop it. I don't know

(50:44):
what it is that they did.So I'm curious to see how Kirk handles
this because he's not being used.He's not used to being told what to
do. No, by the way, well earned to own this on.
Yeah, we put in that position. So and this is still an Iowa

(51:04):
team that is probably the favorite outof the four, at least with their
schedule and everything not in chip size. I just I don't I honestly don't
think there is a favor right now. I don't think anything to your point,
I think larger that you're making withthat statement. I just don't think
anything would surprise us in the finalfour weeks of the year here with any
of these offenses with Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa. That none of

(51:29):
them are good. They all gotgood ish defenses, good to good.
I mean, yeah, and itjust comes down to which one of these
teams shows up in a given weekwhen they start to play each other head
to head, it's it's going tobe fascinating here each week to come do
this podcast. So do we thinkthe winner of the Big Ten West is
going to be six and three orfive and four? I think six,

(51:52):
six three three, I think sotwo. I think so too. I
don't think Iowa or Whoever's going tolose two more games. I think six
and three will win it. Yeah, we've talked about Wisconsin, Iowa,
and Nebraska schedules much easier than Minnesotais considering Minnesota's gotta go to the Horseshoe.
But I mean even asking one ofthese three or four teams to go

(52:13):
three and one in this stretch,they're all liable to potentially go two and
two, and then it gets evenmore complicated if everybody's five and four,
and then maybe David Bron's team canpotentially sneak into that conversation, which will
be wild. This thing is crazy. They've won the West twice. It's
two more times in the golfers,two more times than David Broun wins two

(52:35):
more games in November to get themBowl eligible for the first time since it's
been a few years nineteen, probablydoes he keep the job twenty does he
keep the job and he fires theFitzgerald's staff that were a part of the
whole thing and then bringing his ownor does it doesn't It just doesn't matter
at that point. What do youthink, Chipper, I don't know.

(52:59):
It's dramatic, no answer. Ireally thought you were coming up with something
there that's extremely dramatic for I don'tknow. But I don't know either,
because who knows who's making the higherat Northwestern, I mean the president.
I was thinking about this at MichiganState. Chris isn't a bad I was
thinking about this with Michigan States,like they just look so dysfunctional to me.

(53:23):
That whole athletic department we talked aboutit at the time, is so
outside of tom Izzo, is justcomplete dysfunction. But you wonder if the
coach is going to come in thereand pull, maybe not to the level
that Dion did, but say,you know what, we're going to change
over this roster and have a totalnot total, but you know, yeah,

(53:43):
a mass changeover of personnel here talentwise and obviously coaching. You know
that that's that's a well they alwayshad to do a job. Does you
know we were walking out Michigan State. It's a good job their NL specifically
support. Yeah, that's that's afactory and now that Michigan is a good
recruiting area, especially compared to Minnesota. But like, and Ohio's in the

(54:06):
mix there, I mean, youcan. I mean, that's how Mark
D'Antonio got to go on. Michiganand Ohio State were both down at the
same time, and he just likegrabbed every grab every good player from Youngstown.
I'm curious to see what kind ofcoach they can hire. They'll hire
a good one because they'll pay aton of money and it's the Big Ten
and divisions are gone, so Imean, you can you can win eight

(54:27):
nine games at Michigan State, andpeople are interesting to see as we continue
to just as November goes on,to see who are some of the names
that the Bruce Feldman's of the worldstart to put out, Because all these
hires are going to have to bemade before signing day, which means between
Thanksgiving and Christmas, you're gonna haveto make that specifically, that week after
Thanksgiving, you're gonna have to makea hire yeah, and so is it

(54:49):
going to be like for Michigan State, it's somebody like Sean Lewis. Well,
my hunch is the number one liston number one name on many mini
lists is Lance Lighthold. Hmmm.I don't know if him. I think
what he's done in Kansas is remarkableand they're building a you know, they're
they just poured a ton of moneyand project for Oklahoma with their backup quarterback

(55:10):
there. He is a tremendousquas andI've gotten see him a lot obviously with
my daughter going to school there inperson and on TV. And he would
be number one of my lists ifI was Michigan State. But I don't
know that he would leave Kansas forthat job. It's gonna be some interesting
jobs to talk about as we continueto go forward. Yeah, even like
what Matt Campbell's doing. Yeah,they're there. They talked about them.

(55:32):
They're hanging in well, they're like, what are they four and one in
the Big twelve? Yes, yes, exactly. That. I was just
like, I wonder if Matt Campbell'sname if they continue to play this,
well get steamed and he gets oneof these yeah, yeah, and finally
tell you know what this is howhe's finally Michigan state type of opportunity.
He sees how hard it is tokeep it going. It's very hard at

(55:53):
a lot of these places. Andthat's what. Let's see what because Leipold
signed a big extension last year abouttime. He just did a mess of
facilities produce. But everybody's got those, right, but they haven't had that
there. Yeah, but I meanhow much is that going to help them?
Though? You know what I mean, like it just gets them equal.
I don't know. Everybody's got facilities. How much are you gonna pay?

(56:15):
And now how much do you haveto pay the players? Yeah,
I mean those are the things,right, I mean the barbershop and the
waterfall like in the bowling alley thatten years ago. Now, I showed
this to if you go to uh, you know, we got to run
here. But if you go tothe Kansas website their football roster and you

(56:35):
click on their player's name, let'ssay the quarterbacks name in the same you
know they have the biographical his stashfrom all that, it has his n
I L information there, what hecharges per social media. It's unbelievable,
really, Yes, check it out. It's pretty phenomen I'm gonna start doing
that on my Twitter. Right,Here's what I charge, Here's what I
charge. All right, Well we'llsee you guys at Huntington Bank Stadium on

(56:57):
Saturday. Well, yeah, we'llsee if there has aler from Spartanburg moment
up in the press box, ifBrett somehow becomes you know, two thirty
kickoff, so Chip will be there. What eleven, I missed you this
past week? Yeah, I hadto do the Yeah, happy belated birthday.
By the way, Chipper, thankyou. Spin at Walsaw that was
lovely, magical, Yeah, magical, wassaw Man. How we stayed there

(57:21):
night before the game for the PackersI suppose Vikings Packers once again. Congrats
to your parents. I hope theyhave a great night. I hope they
have a great week. My brotherin law listen to this podcast Happy.
I can't wait for him to textme this because he's never gonna he's never
going to Happy Halloween to the Burnses. If you where do your parents live
right now? Okay? Are theygoing to treat because they're liking to be

(57:44):
on or off? Tonight's kids?It's because we know it was off in
nineteen ninety one. I'm out.Is it going to be on tonight?
If the kids want to get somecandy. He's leaving the room for Ryan
Burns and Chips Coggins and Jack's Cafe. I'm justin guard. Thanks everybody for
listening to the Parent Despair podcast.Please tell a friend that we are here,

(58:05):
and thanks as all is Jaxcafe dotcom, Jack's Cafe make your holiday
dining reservations. Hi,
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