2024 Week Ten Review: Gophers Finally Beat Bielema!/Narrative Street Game

Chip Scoggins, Ryan Burns and Justin Gaard react to the Gophers finally knocking off longtime head coach Bret Bielema with a back and forth effort against Illinois on Saturday. They discuss how the ground game got going, how Darius Taylor has been used and how the defense held up as the day went on. They also preview a game Burnsie has been waiting for for months: Gophers at Rutgers! Finally, Burnsie outlines a few travel issues he had getting to and from Champaign. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Glenn Mason said a long time ago at the University
of Minnesota, you need.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
A Pair and a Spare.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Thank you, PJ. It is time for another edition of
the Pair and a Spare podcast. I'm justin guard from
the fan. He's back. Ryan Burns, Randy Byrne is on
assignment from Gopher Illustrated dot Com, and Chip Scoggins from
Football Across Minnesota, which I read today and was very good.
This is the parent of Spare podcast and we're brought
to you by our good friends at Jack's Cafe. How's
everybody doing? Everybody good this week? Or? Chip voted back

(00:27):
in July, so he put that took care of that, Bersey.
Have you voted yet on this election day as we recorded?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
No, I haven't voted this morning yet. We'll do it
after work with the misses. But hearing Chip voted probably
around I don't know independence state. Chip, we got your vote.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
When did it open up that you could start doing?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
We have no idea.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
You mail it, you go in person.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
No, I didn't person. I didn't person. I think it
was it was some time in October. I can't remember
what it was, but it was, you know, seamless walk
right in.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm sure the polling is open at nine am. That
they got there the mixture.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I was there early. I was there early. There was
no wait, they welcome me in. Hey, how about the
how about the uh uh the photo that one of
your your readers, Uh the picture? I want that shirt.
That's we got to get a sure that was awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
We need that teacher. Did you tweet that out yet? No?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I uh, I'll tweet it off off the parents far
account here.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Oh, it's so great. I wish I could do I
wish I had the technology, uh, technology savvy be able
to do that, because that was outstanding. Whoever made.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Conspiracy theory going around on my site that you're actually
one of the most active members there in this wholelogy.
You don't know what you're doing. You're actually in n
a a savvy people we've ever met, and this is
all in act. Can I imagine that for the amount
of interactions we've had where readers here.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
There's I wish that was the case. I wish I
was a double agent where I could really understand technology.
But no, that is not me. I am. I do
get on your site though occasionally, and uh, when you
tweet or when you textas stuff like that, I had
to go find it. So that was outstanding.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
You do fit the profile of some type of secret government.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Five just kind of blend in.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, you blend in. You're gone mysteriously. You never know
if we're going to be able to be here for
a Tuesday podcast. Yeah, there's a lot of things that
actually make sense about you being a government spy. So
I think it warrants further investigation and maybe we'll do that.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Well, we've begot to guard the appreciation thread going unprompted
by some of the members as well. I'm sure you
shed it tear.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, you sent that to me. You want to talk
about does guards you have a burner account. I don't
think I could have put that to guard the any
better myself. Yeah. I showed it to Grim because he's
not to find it. Was like Chip is also not
very technologically savvy, and so I had to show it
to Grim because he got some good He got some

(03:07):
flowers thrown his way too, So yeah, that was nice.
That was nice. Yeah, because that's people always ask me about.
Do I like going to the State Fair with kfa An?
I say yes because it's the it's the opposite of
social media. Social media, you only hear how bad you
suck all Yeah, State Fair, people actually come up to

(03:28):
you and say, hey, we like you, we like your show,
we listened to you. It's like a two tire pump
for the Yeah, that was good. I do want to
start the show, though, with an apology. Guys, I need
to apologize. And this has been weighing on me for
a couple of days. It's been weighing on me, probably
since last Thursday. I want to officially and completely apologize

(03:52):
to Ryan's mom because the Halloween thing, the hollow baby things,
has taken on such a life of its own. We
were sending each other the tweets back and forth on Halloween,
the one about Burnsley's about to have a much better

(04:15):
have been snowfall started coming down on Thursday, and we
thought maybe for a minute, we were gonna have thirty. However,
many years later, how old are you, Burnsy, I'm so
thirty Two years later, thirty three years later, another Halloween blizzard,
and Ryan was about to have a much younger brother
or sister. That was the one that did it for me.

(04:35):
But I feel like we need to apologize to Ryan's
mom because she's catching strays in this whole thing. It
doesn't mean I'm gonna stop seeing the next Halloween, but
I just want for the record, I do feel somewhat
bad about Ryan's having to explain to his mom why
the Halloween blizzard thing has become an inside joke. So

(04:56):
that's my public apology to missus Burnsey.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, she'll never listen to this, so you're fine. I'll
pass along your regards. I'd tell you I probably got
like fifteen tweets, which, look, it's my fault for bringing
it up. I think it's in good fun. But yeah,
the amount of its great fun that once it started
snowing on Halloween, the amount of people that were like
you called your mom and it and it's goodness.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Just remember there was no candy at the Burnsy household
to the Halloween. The lights are out, the lights are out.
The kids just have to skip that house on Halloween,
year after year after a year. All right, So we
talked football. The Gophers finally did it. I like how
you phrased it, Burnsy. They finally conquered Mount Beeloma, They
got to the top. They finally knocked off the old

(05:46):
Badger coach the current ALIGNI coach. It was. It was gritty,
it was ugly, it was grimy. It really was Big
ten West football I thought at its best on Saturday,
and Champagne Burnsy you were there, will start with you.
You've had a couple of days to decompress and digest,
and I assume watching a time or two again, how
did the Gophers get it done to finally pick up

(06:06):
a really big and important victory when you factor in
where they are in the standings now and everything.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Well, I think their offensive line probably had their best
day of the season. And that's where that's with a
brand new right tackle, Philip Daniels making his first career start,
which slid Quinn Carroll inside. And why don't you know it,
Quinn Carroll is the PFF's right guard of the Week
across the entire game of college football because he played
so well. Greg Johnson played really well. I mean, you
look at the rushing numbers for them, even that Darius

(06:33):
Taylor long touchdown run. You're able to see Greg Johnson
get to the second level barry a guy into the turf,
which is something he did frequently at prior Lake. But
if you're going to beat Red Bielima, you better be
really good up front. And I thought Minnesota was good
enough on the defensive line to make some splash plays,
which we could talk about John Joyner only playing eighteen snaps,
but I think it comes down to the offensive line

(06:55):
playing well. And then, for the umpteenth straight time, in
the fourth quarter, chip Max Prosmer didn't have his best day. Yeah,
but what does he do in the fourth quarter. He
delivers on some really key throws and leads Minnesota do
a touchdown drive.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah. I mean the one the deep ball to Jackson
was just beautiful. We can't throw that one any better.
Perfect timing too. But to me, I watched that game
and I have a huge already had a huge appreciation
for this guy. But I thought Darius Taylor was outstanding.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
I mean, that's one of the best days. When people
ask you about Darius Taylor going forward, this is going
to be a game to me where you're like, this
is where he really started to separate himself.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, I'm going to write about him later this week
that you know. I've covered all the special backs here
in the last twenty years, and they're all different. But
his patience and footwork and vision to be able to
cut those those runs backside. And there was one. It
was third and four where he's running parallel to the line.
He should have been lost. It should have been a

(07:58):
five yard loss, and the announcers were saying that Erstrie
held on it, but he put his foot and got
up field and got the first down, like a key
first down. I can't remember if they got points on
that driver or what, but I just thought he was
the best player on the field. I thought he I mean,
catching the ball, running the ball. You know, it wasn't

(08:22):
a monster game probably statistically, but I thought he was
just really, really good. And then the other guy, I thought,
Anthony Smith was that's the guy that you've been wanting
to see for a long time. I thought he was
so impactful defensively. And the other guy kind of quietly
I thought, had a really good game. Spencer big catches.
I mean, he was he was money. That guy is

(08:42):
really After last season, I got be honest, going in
this season, I was like, I don't know, I mean,
he had a lot of drops. It just didn't live
up to the hype that what we saw in training
camp last year. But he's really turned into a really,
really good number two receiver for them.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Well, we're gonna stick on Darius for a second. I
mean thirty one for one hundred and eighty nine yards
a touchdown, nine receptions, including some huge third downs. Yeah,
one where they put him out wide on the linebacker,
he runs a stop and go come back. I mean
I can guarantee Darius Taylor has only run that route
a couple of times in his life. Now we go
back to he was a high school receiver and all

(09:18):
but huge play there, and then you have the option
route where he gets on another third down. But here's
the thing I want to run past you, guys, is
as much as it is about Darius. And we talk
about the thirty one touches, this is only the second
game he's had over twenty five touches this season, which
I think is outstanding. Yeah, because to me, that proved

(09:39):
that Pleck and Harbow figured out maybe we should stop
running guys into the ground in October so that when
we get to November, which is now Darius Taylor's that
was his eighth consecutive game that he's played in. Yeah,
he's not at one hundred percent. I think there were
three different stoppages where he had to get scorted off
the field to then see guards he's face on the
sideline seeing if he got attention or not. But they're

(10:00):
finally limiting these touches to where in a big spot
game and a road game ranked road game in the
Big ten and against the coach, you have a beat,
you can then throttle him up. So what do you
guys think about that?

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Well, yeah, and they're different touches. I mean, he has
forty three catches, which is the second most for a
running back in college football. So those are forty three
different touches versus handing the ball off and taking you know,
slamming into the line and having you know, eight or
nine you know, whatever guys he has to they're going
to try to drill him there where you may have
one tack or you may get out of bound. So
I think they're different touches. But I think he PJ

(10:33):
probably also said, hey, he's not Mo. You know, we
can't treat every running back like Mo. Mo was a
just a different running back than we've seen in terms
of workload and being able to just give him the
ball one hundred times a game. It's better to manage
Darius in a way that allows him to, you know,

(10:53):
be able to play in November and not have to
sit out. And so they've been smart about it. But
I think just the different touches with using him as
a receiver is really smart. And also it's helped the quarterback.
And you mentioned the third down. I mean it felt
like every time he touched it, it was an important down,
it was getting a first down. I would love to
see how many of his touches went for a first

(11:15):
down because either either a run or a pass.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah. Yeah, I think it was eleven or twelve of
his thirty one touches resulted in either a touchdown or
a first down.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
That's crazy. Yeah, I mean that that just tells you
how but you're right, I think they came in with
a different plan this year.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
I would also say that the fact that they have
other guys that can impact the game that they've spread
it around to all season. It used to be you
needed a running back. I think about like David Cobb,
Like you had Max Williams, but you didn't have a
ton after that. You know, drewla Tarski or kJ May
would be your guy and he didn't have a quarterback
that could throw it like Max, like they have other guys,

(11:52):
whether it's Daniel Jackson or Elijah Spencer or the tight ends,
like they can move the ball without having to just
give it to the running back and say, go get
us five yards of carry. So that's been beneficial. But
it took them nine games. But Pj's been saying all year,
we need to be able to throw to run the
ball this year, And this was the first time a
defensive staff actually said, you know what, they're gonna throw first,

(12:12):
They're gonna they want to throw the ball a lot.
We need to make it tougher on their quarterback. We
need to make it tougher on their wide receivers. Burnsy,
you know the all twenty two better than me. But
I have to imagine that was as few run blitzes
straight up that we've seen all year. I have to
imagine that's as even a box as they've seen in
a really long time. Because they weren't gonna let Brozemer
just sit back there and throw it, you know, thirty

(12:34):
for thirty five times for three hundred yards like Maryland
was so strangely willing to do. So the Gophers, to
their credit, stay patient with the run game, and they
I thought, got huge dividends because of it.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, I mean they and third down specifically, where Minnesota
go seven to fifteen on the day, chip on the
fifteen to third downs their average distance to go with
seven yards. So they've seen different essentially third and longs
and they can have them.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Which is crazy.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
Yeah, but with the run game stuff, I mean yeah,
they finally were able to run into some more even boxes.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Now.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
It helps that Illinois's best linebacker leaves the game early.
I believe he is a dislocated ankle now, which is
unfortunate for him. But take Cody Lindenberg off this go
for linebacking corps, just like that player was for Illinois. Yeah,
I'd be running directly at his replacement too. But you
wanted to see the offensive line step up, and you
wanted to see what Philip Daniels look like, and Queen

(13:29):
Carroll and all these guys moving around a little bit.
And I think they answered the bell with if your
offensive line is finally playing consistently into November, that's exactly
where you want him to beer.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
They get their best five out there finally.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
I think so which is you know what the biggest
takeaway after that was from the press conference other than
some Rutgers talk, was I, so he's Pj's talking flowingly
about Quint Carroll and his leadership and how Philip Daniels did,
And so I immediately hit him with the follow up
of okay, so are you going to get Philip Daniels
right tackle going forward if Carol wants to stay at guard?

(14:02):
And he played really well there. Fluck actually said yes
when in the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty four,
it's p J Fleck actually giving discernible depth chart updates.
He's turning a new leave look at it.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, well the person that you know, But are you
gonna say no? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well, usually he'll go we'll see, yeah, we'll seeh I'll
say something like we've got some other guys we like.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Do we'll see kickoff.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
I just love how Burnsy because this is Burnsy's job, right,
this is Burns's life. He is entrenched in Gopher football coverage,
recruiting and the current team that the littlest lights chip
that you, yeah, don't think about more than like five
minutes after the fact after maybe like a joke when
somebody's five seconds burnsy just tipped, and it just festers

(14:54):
for all day lost, all life five. Whether it's special teams,
whether it's injury updates, whether it's depth chart stuff, it
just festers with them. An I know your brain must
just be this permanent doom scroll of things that TJ.
Fleck says that you don't like because you can't help yourself.

(15:15):
But just you don't scratch that. It's you bulldoze that
every single day.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Just like you wish he was a little bit more transparent.
But again at the end of the day, well that's
where I've I've gotten a lot of anti Fleck talk
thrown at me since this win, which has been very
strange to me. I just wish he was a little
bit more transparent like some of the other coaches.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
But it is what it is, Like how many coaches.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Okay, Beilima this week because PJ doesn't give any He
was the one who was like, you'll find out two
hours ahead of time, and then like the moment guardsy,
you guys landed, and he's like, Beelim is timing out
when the Gophers land and then he's like, yeah, Pat
Bryan's a play, Yeah, like.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
I do like how he tweeted out the update. I
thought that was pretty clever to you. And let's send
out another home cut or you know, home message. Scott Studwell,
former ALIINAI gave a great message. They all have a
former player come and talk to the team, the whole
bit and looking forward to seeing everybody there. And then
he named the three players that were questionedaball a week. Hey,
they're gonna play, show up to Memorial Stadium. I did

(16:25):
like that. That was very cool.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
That was including Pat Brian who's wearing sunglasses during the
week in practice, is somehow clear for a game of
the concussion protocol, which all right, I've.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Heard I've heard before. By the way, on concussion stuff,
there's a reason why in football the protocol is five days.
There's a reason why they said it in five days.
It just so happens that that starts on Sunday and
they could out on Friday. And that was directly said
to me by someone years ago. There's a reason why

(16:55):
the protocol was set at five days. Let's just leave
it at that. And and if you have and some
every concussion is different. There's some I've heard that if
you if someone gets really knocked out and hit. They
say that's almost better because the brain just like resets.
It's like a computer. It's like my computer burns. Eve
when we were trying to record on Saturday night and
it just restarted out of nowhere, says, it's worse if

(17:16):
you're just like kind of dizzy and kind of like
those are the ones that like mess around. I don't
know what Bryan's was, but the point of that was
it's possible for someone to come back that quickly depending
on what type of concussion they have, and that's why
they have that protocol is if they're good.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
And the last Gopher player that returned in a week,
because Minnesota had two players missed because of the concussion
protocol this week, Tyler Cooper and Zekwon Bryan got banged
up the previous week. And I think every single player
I've heard about having a concussion has missed this year
for the Gophers. Now, to your point, as someone who
including myself, who has had I think I've had four

(17:51):
concussions in my life. Every one of them was different
with how long it was to return to play. But
I would say I'd love to know what the hit
rate is Illinois in terms of returning in one week
on concussion versus Minnesota another after the clown show officiating crew.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah, what did me think about the officiating? He was
mad about a couple of different things during that game.
I couldn't believe they let him talk to them for
so long.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
On one of them, they give him this time out back.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, yeah, it was. That was very strange.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Well, so I don't think he called time out. I
think they anticipated. I don't know what the fishating crew did,
but the fact that that thing went on forever, that
conversation and it was very heat and then there's no flagging,
He's getting his time out back. It was just basically, okay,
do over. Let's just you know.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
I was watching him the whole game and he was
just berating, yeah, my god, to the point where in
the fourth quarter I remember looking down and the sideline
officials got his back to him. He finally turns around
and it looked like guards he's scolding his his oldest
son for too much candy. And I was thinking myself
and I turned to you. I think, Randy Johnson, your

(19:08):
colleague there, and I was like, I've never seen that before.
We're an official turns around and it looks like he's
just braiding Beel him a back. But that's the way
he was all day with that officiating group.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
He'd had enough. Some point you have to say, I've
had enough. We're not gonna keep doing that. Would that
job would be they have to stand on the sideline
by the coaches and no matter what who throws a flag,
you're getting it right, You're getting the full run of
their their tirade. And so but yeah, I'm sure the
official just said I've had enough of this. You know
I'm gonna snap too.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
You know, I'll just tell you from my experience, enough
gets said all the time. Yeah that's enough, Like I've
I've heard you, Yeah enough. If this is going we're
throwing the flat. Basically, it's yeah, no, it's yeah. Because
they're always arguing about something. And then what's always funny
is they'll they'll call each other the worst of names,

(19:59):
and then there'll be a time on the field and
then they'll can then they'll talk. Then by the end
of it they're laughing and smiling. It's like the most
it's the most bizarre relationships ever. Yeah, and that they're
they're trying to work together. And but you just got
screamed at and sworn at thirty seconds ago and now
you're laughing and smiling. It's just a well, it's an
unnatural way to go about life. But that's sports, and.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
These guys are in real life. These guys are probably
so callous to it, right, all the things that they've
been called and heard and said over the years. I mean,
if they've done it for ten years, imagine the things
that they've heard. And I've been You've been there, and
I'm sure that you know it's it's an emotional stressful
it's you know, and and guys coaches are high and

(20:42):
strung and they you know they So I'm sure there's
they go into it knowing and I'm sure there's coaches
that are like, Okay, I'm gonna hear this all day long.
And you know they they have an aptitude to put
up with a lot of getting stuff screamed at them.
But I'm sure at some point you just reach your
endo the rope where he's say, okay, that's it enough,

(21:05):
I'm not gonna listen anymore.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
I do say that to my kids, So you're right
there this morning to my kids as we were getting
ready enough, all of you enough.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Here's a side judge, here's the.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Actually, if I had a flag, I would throw it.
Enough guys enough And that was like six thirteen in
the morning. Yeah, they're there, teachers problems.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Now, Hey, uh, what do you guys think about Broser
I thought he was it's funny. I thought he was, uh,
characteristically off. I thought he got a lot of pressure
on him too. That I think you have to give
some craft the Illinois. I think they, uh, they did
a good job of making him uncomfortable too throughout. But

(21:51):
he you know, when he in moment of truth, he
made he made the throws. But it was u I
think it's a combination that he was a little wild
and I thought Illinois got some pressure them that made
him wild. And how many throwaways did he have too?

Speaker 1 (22:03):
You know, he had a bunch and there were also Burnsey.
I don't think the receivers had their best day consistently,
right you were talking. You always see the lack of
separation from the press box. I can't see it very much.
Illinois was ready for him. Illinois knew that they didn't
want they wanted to throw the ball, and we talked
about it all week that Illinois wasn't going to let
them just do what they wanted to do. Illinois gets
you to play the game on their terms. They're very

(22:25):
big ten westy in that way, Iowa, They're not going
to let you just be comfortable back there. Team.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Something that was brought up to me all week by
people over there was this will be one of the
best schemes they go against. There's a reason why Ryan
Walters got a head coaching got a job because of
that scheme and how effective it was. I think this
word I'm about to use is overused in especially in football,
but I would characterize Max's day as gritty, like, yeah,

(22:52):
it wasn't great, but in the fourth quarter he showed up.
And I think the thing that I also took away
more than anything that is if that is his war, Yeah,
where he's at right now a sixty completion percentage with
no turnovers and a touchdown. Like there's one throw I
think in particular that stands out to me that was
turnover worthy, which off his back throat, off his back

(23:15):
foot to Jamison Gears near the end zone is a
bad decision. But if that's his floor chip, yeah, I
mean what a floor that is wolf the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, well, and he did a good job, Like when
he got flush, he just threw it away. He wasn't
forcing things in. He didn't make bad decisions, and so
you're right of his of his in that completion percentage,
there had to be four or five throwaways, you know,
and so he made he made good decisions and and
you know a couple of times he was high or

(23:46):
missed on his thing, but that's.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
The decks in a couple of times, which unfortunate.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, But but in the.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
First mister Daniel was the one, Oh, that should have
been an easy touchdown, remember the one which one that
was moving right to left was yeah, yeah, yeah, wasn't it? Yeah, guys,
and he was wide open and it was just yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
And then it was a third down in the red
zone to Daniel Jackson again where it's a much more
difficult throw. But Daniel had some separation there in a
double team and he missed it. But go ahead.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, but no, But I just like the fact that
on a day that uh, it wasn't in rhythm, that
when they needed big time plays they made him Like
that's that's that's the mark of mature quarterback. That Okay,
no matter what's happened up until this point, when you
need me, I want to make the And that throw
to Jackson a deep ball was just I mean throwing

(24:35):
catch was beautiful. I mean that that is as as
perfect of a play as you can have. And soh
there to take the lead. Yeah, I don't know what
yeah yeah, wide open, Yeah wonderful. So so uh was
PJ saying he overheard the conversation on the headset and

(24:59):
he's like, wait a second, what are we doing?

Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah, so that's what I don't know what he said
with you guards, but we asked him about it and
he said he heard the play call and he kind
of went, oh, that's what we're doing. And that's where
like apparently every offensive assistant was like, yeah, great call, Yeah,
great call. And then apparently the offensive line coach, Brian Callahan,
who never talks on the headset, went I can't do
a gravelly Brian Callahan voice, but he was yeah, let's

(25:23):
do it, and Black green lighted it wide open and
Gears gets redemption for an earlier drop.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
But like, I wonder how often you rep that in practice,
Like you repped that that week in practice in case
you get it or is that just something you you've
had your back pocket.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
For Redone probably had in their back pocket because you've
had the two S twist in there. You got to
have a counter off of it. And yeah, he's got
to prepare for that. But I mean that is a
gutsy position to be able to get that in and
they were able to execute it.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yes, happened now twice this season where Pj's talked about
hearing the call and having a reaction to it. The
third and two to Lamechy Brockington at the Rose Bowl
on that last drive was the one where he's like, oh,
we're gonna do that. I will never.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Forget that play for one reason because of PJ. I remember,
right before that play, I looked over at Fleck. He
is crouched down picking the grass because he's so nerving.
He couldn't even.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Wash, he.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Can't even watch.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yeah, he does that a lot when they're in the
red zone because it is I mean, in these games,
like the difference between three and seven is monumental. The
reason why the Gophers, Gophers could have blown Illinois out
on Saturday at times they just because they kept kicking
fugals right that their defense was playing so well. But yeah,
he does the whether field terf or grass when they're
in the red zone and like the deep red or
the green as they call it, because that's where the

(26:43):
money's made. He's always grabbing the pellets or he's always
grabbing the grass. And he said that U c l
A One Harbo called to play and then basically turned
his microphone off. He's like, that's just the play. What
we're doing is it?

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Is this a new PJ in terms of just listening
and saying okay or versus no, no, no, no, we're
not doing that, We're doing this.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
I do think he has improved in that area, and
I think it sends back to Max. I think he
trusts Max to execute whatever the play call is, and
he trusts Harbo that. Now, Harbo's build up enough equity
in these big spot, third down, red zone, whatever it
may be, and they've executed so many times where he
may get anxious about it and he may give some feedback,

(27:27):
but they're going to stick to it now. Which again,
this is an offense we're talking about that has not
turned the football over in over fourteen quarters. Yeah, so
for a man who models his program after the ball
is the program. You've got no turnovers in the last
fourteen quarters, and then defensively, I believe they've got including
turnover on downs, like eleven takeaways in that time.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, I did the I put it in my football
cross miss, So I think they're Their turnover ratio is
one point three three. They're six in the country and
turnover ratio correct one point three to three. That's how
you win four straight games into big ten.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Let's talk about the defense when we come back. But
here's a number for you to put a bow on
the Max Brozmer conversation. This is a Trenton sid Now
he's like director of social media for Gopher football. So
he's jumped in with us Max in the fourth quarter
in the past four games twenty three to thirty. That's
seventy six point seven two and fifty five yards, two touchdowns,
zero picks. I didn't even know a QB rating could

(28:28):
get this high, but it's one seventy point one. Well,
so he's been pretty good in the fourth quarter, Young
Max Brozmer, thank you treading for that stat. Defense when
we come back, but first, let's talk about our friends
at Jack's Cafe. They have a one hundred and seventy
point one are Our Our restaurant rating. They are phenomenal.

(28:50):
They are great. Holiday dining is right around the corner.
If you want to just suggest a cool place. Maybe
you've got some friends coming back into town for the holidays,
the night before Thanksgiving something like that, or just want
to hang out in December, or go watch some college
or NFL football. The bar is a great spot at Jack's.
If you want to go out to a nice family dinner,
You've told you it's a wonderful spot to do it.
And if you want to have a full blown four

(29:11):
hundred person holiday party for your long lost relatives or
Halloween babies across America, you can all be there at
Jack's Cafe. They've got room for you. Thanks for getting
that turnsy fifteen to four hundred. They've got room for
your group, and they've got something for everybody at jack Fa.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
You always had that singer reader, Hey, it's almost holiday season.
What I would say, I'm a big gift card guy,
right Like, Yeah, if you're gonna get somebody some give
them a gift card. They can go pick out what
they want. That would make an incredible stocking stuffer or
present for a relative family member. Gift cards, the Jacks

(29:50):
treat them to a you know, a nice dinner out.
I'm sure they would be happy to load some money
on that gift card for you, put it in the
envelope and give it to your a worker or your
family member.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yeah. I think the holiday party angle two guardsian. Not
only is it they have the space inside to be
able to handle fifty one hundred or whatever it is. People,
they've got the parking to be able to handle that
cadell not just having the space inside it. Okay, well,
if we're gonna have it here, there's got to be free,
adequate parking right next to it if we're gonna execute this,
and they certainly do so. If you want to make

(30:21):
a reservation, where do I go?

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Justin Well, you can just look straight down Burnsey on
the YouTube channel. The parent as Fare podcast is presented
by Jack's Cafe, and you can make your reservations. I'm
gonna look right now at Jack'scafe dot com. That's Jaxcafe
dot com. We don't often get to talk about the defense,
finishing the drive or finishing the game, and I talked

(30:44):
to Cody Lindenbergh on the field, and that was my
question to him. I said, we always get to talk.
We've gotten to talk to Max about what was going
through your.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Head on the last drive?

Speaker 1 (30:52):
How did you finish this one off? We don't get
to do it on defense very often, but they did
get to do it. And how about the symmetry from
a year ago burns eat You have a third and
thirteen I think it was a third and something, You
get a strip sack on Illinois, but you don't recover
the football and Illinois gets to run a fourth down
play with a ninth string quarterback who I think is

(31:13):
in the crowd at the game. Now out of football.
That just shows you how ridiculous that whole situation is.
Out of football. Tim Brando was trying to spell Devin
Gardner on he'd be a great candidate for the UFL. Terrific.
That's wonderful, But they don't get the fumble a year
ago on the final Illinois drive on Saturday, they got
the strip sack John Joyner, as you mentioned it again,

(31:36):
second second game this year that he's basically wrecked it.
Thinking back to USC and his stat line is not
going to be impressive, but his impact cannot be understated.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
That was the only play that he was in on
that drive, by the way, because he only played eighteen snaps,
which is a season low for him. Because I asked
Fleck about it on Monday.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Oh boy, here we go.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
Well quarter injury with two minutes left with you're up
four touchdowns or four scores, Like why is he in
the game that he only plays eighteen snaps? But it's
he looked healthy on that one. And this is now
the third game between the two cooy parrots interceptions and
now this job Joiner forrest fumble, Danny Strada recovers that

(32:18):
they're able to end that game because of it, because
they're rolling right down the field. I mean, there was
just a huge third down run by Altmeyer, but this
defense just continues to flummox quarterbacks. I mean, we're talking
about a third quarter in which Luke Altmeyer didn't complete
a pass and he almost had two pick sixes between
a tip pass that Maverick Baranowski is two feet away

(32:40):
from running under in stride, and then Cody Lindenberg has
one deflect off his hands. It's a defense that now
leads the Big Ten and takeaways. But I also think
we got to give some as the kids would say,
Chip Flowers to right after Minnesota goes back in front,
Carrie Brown comes. I mean we've spent a lot of
time talking about a different freshman safety. Yeah, but Garry

(33:03):
Brown continues to play really well. I mean he comes
in on the third down with the tackle for loss,
he's the man defending the receiver and coverage on fourth down.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
What Danny Collins has done with coy Perrich Carry Brown
and even Aiden Gooseby, who has been very, very good
for about the last month now, I mean, I just
don't think it's been talked about it enough.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, and I thought had a tough game.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
I think that was his roughest game collegiate player, which ship,
you know, it's always easier to learn after a win.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah. Well, I mean, you know the ponte Let roll
and then he was the last line defense on the
long run where he missed a tackle there. But Carry
Brown continues to make splash plays when he comes up
in support. He had the two fourth down stops the
previous week, big stops again, Like he makes these splash plays.

(33:55):
These splash plays were, uh, they're game altering and so
that's a that's a credit to him, it's credit to
Danny Collins, it's credit to the scheme. I still think
there's they're just obviously a direct correlation between the pressure
that they're getting with their with their guys up front,
with creating uh, errant passes, rush passage passes, hurried passes.

(34:20):
I think I thought Striga was good. I thought, uh again,
I thought Anthony Smith was really good. I thought he
was powerful and pushing his guy back, uh and creating pressure.
And so we talked about last week, like rushing coverage.
I mean, this is why they're they're creating so many
turnovers because they're they're making these quarterbacks either confused or

(34:43):
or feeling jumpy in the in the pocket, and they're
rushing throws and so, uh, they have some they have
some playmakers on this defense, and when they're healthy, they've
got some serious playmakers that that they're putting them in
in good places to the scheme fits them.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
And so.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
You know, when you're creating the kind of turnovers that
they are, you're gonna win games. Because that's obviously that
is the number one stat in football. It's like when
you can create this many turnovers and you're not giving
the ball away. I mean, I know he joke about it, Pjsata,
It's true, Like that's the formula to winning, and that's
why they're being so successful right now.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
Well, a week after you had twenty five pressures and
no sacks and two tackles for loss, you're able to
get eight tackles for lost, four sacks in this game.
But that just continues to be the mo of this
defense is you don't know where the pressure's coming from.
It could be John Joyner, it could be Anthony Smith,
or it could be Kerry Brown blitzing Koy Parrots, blitzing
Cody Linnenberg off the edge. And it makes this defense

(35:42):
so difficult, especially in passing down situations second and third
and long. They're gonna show you five six guys at
the line of scrimmage, and they've got a couple of
corners and Justin Wally and Ethan Robinson who can cover
ad and who'll be Kerry Brown Cooy Parrots they can cover.
And if there's an errant throw right now, you know,
maybe for the last couple of years, when the ball
didn't bounce Minnesota's way in the turnover luck department. Yeah,

(36:04):
they've got everything rolling right now. Even with their first
turnover the day where Justin Wally gets some stop, Danny
Strigau comes in with the right club. If Wally picks
that up clean initially, that might be a scoop and score.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
He was trying, Yeah, he was trying to who. I
think their linebackers. I think their linebackers are playing really
well too. Mavericks. I thought he had a nice game.
Cody's now that he's healthy, he's playing physical. You know,
Henderson shows up making splash plays too. You know, I
thought it was interesting last week. I think, as you've Burns,

(36:37):
he had asked Logan rating at a press conference, like
in the in the defense line room, do you guys
talk about stats and and those things. He's like, no
impact of quarterback. That's the only thing that that's the
only stat or the only thing they talk about impacted quarterback.
And so I know, we get fixated on sacks and
who has how many and whatnot, but pressures can do
have the same effect. Right now, you're not losing the yard,

(37:00):
but you're creating turnovers. I think, you know, I think
a lot of their interceptions are coming because of the
pressures that they're getting.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Well to that point. I think going into last week,
I had somebody bring up to me that Minnesota was
thirteenth in the Big ten and sacks for their defensive
line group specifically, but they were number one in quarterback hits.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yeah wow, Yeah, So.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Yeah, you might not be getting home on the quarterback
to make it second and eighteen or kill a third down,
but your pressure in the face. I mean, I think
about so many of Koy Parritch's interceptions. There's pressure in
the face. Koy is instinctive and he makes the play,
but he needs that pass to just be a little
errant or whatever it may be. Yeah, And that's the
thing with this defensive line right now. They're healthy ish.

(37:42):
Now they're going to need the bye week, especially to
get joint or healthy. But if they can get that
type of pressure again this weekend, I think there's going
to be some more opportunities for turnovers.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
All Right, We've got a lot to get to here
in our final handful of minutes. We want to go
around the Big ten. Burnsey also needs to air some
grievances before the government with some travel experiences that he
had getting to Champagne Burnsley, you are thirty two years
old correct, true statement. Thirty two years old, so you
are one year older than the punter at the University

(38:15):
of Minnesota, Mark Crawford. If I needed you to get
twenty yards on a forty twelve big punt, could you
get it for us?

Speaker 3 (38:22):
As a thirty two year old man, I'd pull a
plod about ten yards into it.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
God, do you think the last time Mark Crawford really
opened up, took the governor off and really opened her up?

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Like the Governor off.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Asked himself to you, asked himself to you. Nobody asked
Mark Crawford to do that. Mark Crawford has the ability
to decide for himself if he wants to do that,
and God bless him, he almost made it. If one
of the the up guys could have actually gotten a
piece of the linebacker or whoever ended up making that play,
he might have gotten there. But I just love the

(38:54):
fact that are two very personable specialists here in Minnesota,
Dragging Kessich and Mark Crawford now have their own holiday
card pictures that they could just be side by side
together with passage making a complete mess of his fake
field goal at the Quick Flame Bowl and now Mark
Crawford the last Quick Flame Bowl, by the way, it
has a new sponsor, and Mark Crawford calling his shot

(39:16):
and calling his own numbers on fourth and twelve in
the fourth quarter and coming up just a few yards short.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Yeah. His I still can't believe he did that. And
I know the people that I like. It almost worked
my guy yea, yes, the former rugby player. But I
bet you he hasn't run twenty five yards and six
months since like summer conditioning.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
No chit. I asked him, by the way, I asked
him on the plane. He was very funny about it
and self deprecating after, but I said, hey, what's the
you know they wear those catapult vests? He how fast
you're running? You know you got guys who are running
like twenty two miles an hour? And so this is
my favorite part. I said, So, what's the fast when

(40:00):
you wear the catapult? Feel like everybody does. What's the
fastest you've ever been clocked at? And he looked at
me and he goes, I don't wear the catapult, mate, mate,
he doesn't need to. Why do I need to wear
the catapult? I'm the punk I'm not going anywhere. I'm
going two steps that I'm kicking and then I'm jogging
to the sideline. So nobody knows how fast Mark Crawford
has ever been clocked at because they haven't found it

(40:21):
necessary to check.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
I know he has the green light. Maybe put the
red light up, you know, like, I appreciate the man's confidence.
But time and score screen, we say a basketball.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Time, you know, more than twelve Oh, my player hasn't
completed a pass yet in the second half, Not only
does he have to get the twelve yards, he's twelve
yards deep, right, Yeah, he's got to run like a
total of twenty five to thirty yards because yeah, great line. Yeah,
do you want any indication that no one knew this
was going to happen outside of Mark Crawford. To your point,

(40:57):
with the upbacks, one of them is Derek Lacaptain, who
is the most punk. He is the Chipskoggins of the
Gopher football team. With how punctual he is. You don't
think if he would have known, he would have blocked
the one guy, yeah, or at least got a piece
of him that actually made the play. Crawford comes up
pr short. I just think I cannot believe that the

(41:18):
thirty year old psychology major of all things, was like, okay,
time space situation. Crawford's actually having a really good punting
day at the time. Yeah, yeah, the offense wasn't doing anything.
Let's pin him deep, but he attempts on the twelve
yard fourth and twelve. I just couldn't. I was telling

(41:39):
you we were all losing our minds up there.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Well, on his defense, at least it happened so early
in the fourth quarter. If you would have pinned him
inside the five and Illinois went down and scored, they
might not have had enough time to come back. So
he gave him four plays later they were in the
end zone. And after all of that, it was seventeen
sixteen Illinois, And you're thinking, are they really gonna find
a way to not win this game again? Whether it's

(42:03):
and when I say this game, I mean the Big
ten West game, whether it's Iowa Wisconsin, you know, go
down the list Illinois certainly the last few years. Are
they really going to find a way to not win
this game? But as we said earlier, Max Brozemer and
Daniel Jackson and then Elijah Spencer and Greg Harbo safety.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Got message of all people too. Yeah, big ten Special
Teams Player of the Week four or four, including big
field goal before halftime or even the last field goal
that he made, I mean, huge spot there. You're up
twenty two to seventeen. Your future NFL left tackle false
starts on the first attempt, so it pushes it back
to the forty six and he drills it right down

(42:40):
the middle. And now he's now six to six on
field goal attempts since the bye week. We knew that
there are were going to be games in this three
game stretch that Minnesota is now two to and oh on,
that they were going to need their placekicker to find it.
And the fact that he is six and six and
Minnesota is now two to zero. I mean, I give
a lot of credit to Castrich. We actually got to
talk to him after the game, and I mean he

(43:03):
chronicled that it wasn't the start he wanted. He needed
the bye week to kind of correct some things mentally
and with his technique, because he even brought up, you
look on all six of his misses, they're all to
the right.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
So you got to reset huge in that game on Saturday, they.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Needed all of it, and now they've won four in
a row and are six and three in the top
what like five of the big ten right now. mL Yeah,
they put themselves in a nice situation to have it.
You know, knockoff Rutgers this weekend. See what happens the
last two games. They're going to be in a nice
situation here for the Bowl game January third, is the

(43:40):
Duke's male Bull Burnsy, How excited would you be for
that one? I know I'm hoping for Nashville, But unfortunately
for you, as your bull representative out there, knows they
were just there. Yeah, the way you tell me, every
single b even of late yeah, of late the forty

(44:02):
five second version. People wonder the Gophers have had multiple
seasons where they should have been in the mix for
the Music City Bowl, which now a lot of people.
You know, twenty years ago, when Chip was going every
single year, it wasn't that cool to go to Nashville.
Nashville had not yet become nash Vegas and the bachelorette
capital of the world and the beer game capital of
the world. And I was talking with someone highly affiliated

(44:26):
with the Guaranteed Rape Bowl in Phoenix who could not
believe their luck that a couple of years ago Minnesota
dropped to them, which, by the way, was fun. It
was fine, We had a great time. Of course Chip
didn't come, but Burnsey and I were there and it
was awesome. Right, it was a great experience. People that
went had a great time. We talked to me chronicled
the debacle of letting opening the roof before the rain

(44:47):
came in and the field was a disaster, but the
Bowl experience was good. And within this conversation with this
person affiliated with the Guaranteed Rape Bowl, they were talking
to me about, Yeah, we couldn't believe that we got you,
and you know, Nashville had told us that you'd you know,
been there pretty recently, so we didn't want to, you know,
so that's why they dropped. And I said, well, what
he said, Yeah, there's a there's a board member on

(45:09):
the Music City Bowl that is just like anti Minnesota
basically because they've been there a lot. And I said,
I don't think Minnesota's been at the Music City Bowl
since like two thousand and five, twenty years at the latest,
two thousand and six. And this person, again, this shows
you how ludicrous the bulls are in general of who's
running these things. He's like, huh, really, it's been that long.

(45:33):
I'm like, do you guys, do you guys do your
own research? I mean, is there anybody there like with
a packet that says, you know, here's the teams and
here's where they've been, or how do we do this
and so, cause there's been multiple times Nebraska. I think
the last bowl game Nebraska went to was the Music
City Bowl. Minnesota absolutely should have gone over them that year,
but all they wanted to they wanted to get in Nebraska, who,

(45:54):
by the way, doesn't travel very well for bowl games
because they're used to winning national championships in the nineties
and that's all they care about. But I digress. That
just shows you why it's been so long as there's
like one person on the Music City Bowl committee that
apparently has no concept of time and doesn't understand that
two decades is not just when it comes to Minnesota

(46:17):
being there. Think about how many Minnesotans would go to
the Music City Bowl. Oh, like, with how the demographic
is now of the fan base, we've seen it, We've
talked about it extensively. Think about how many I could
be way off. But I feel like, especially how much
fun this this team has been for the for the
hardcore fans that go, it'd be insanity, and it's always

(46:38):
insanity in Nashville, but Gopher fans would absolutely go. So
hopefully that happens, that would be great.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
I'm gonna be so upset if they somehow I have
to go playing another baseball stadium. I'm so over baseball
stadiums in these games in.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Baseball, here's we wouldn't take the Fenway with Sabbi Bowl.
If we got that one somehow, someway, I would take
that in a thousand easy.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Well win this weekend, and you definitely are not going
to be going to a any type of guarantee Raider
pins tray pull.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Okay, good to know. All right, let's been around the
big ten here real quickly, because I do want Burnsy
no believe it or not, Burnsy hasn't aired his grievances yet.
He's just been salt.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Either.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Oh yeah, we gotta get to narrative Street. All right,
go ahead, we gotta get to narrative Street. This is
your week, This is your super Bowl. If last week
was your dad's week. For reasons that we've discussed this
week is this week?

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Is your week?

Speaker 1 (47:37):
The one you've been waiting for since the schedule came
out on November ninth. Piscataway, New Jersey, Shi Stadium, the
Fighting caliac Manus's, the Fighting flex the Fighting Brozmers, the
Fighting Shirakas, the Fighting Chianos. They all get to meet
up in Piscataway at high noon East Central.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
It makes an eleven am game in Piscataway a lot
more interesting.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Electric would you say?

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Electric?

Speaker 1 (48:05):
It's going to be there.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
You're gonna be able to cut the tension in the
air during warm ups. I can guarantee it. But I've
had a couple of people be like, what's narrative street
this week? And all I can think of is like
the Grinch's face getting really.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Well.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
We'll talk about it. So you got Fleckin' Chiano going
back to their Tampa Bay days, and most recently, you've
got Chiano hiring away Kirk Shiraka from him for a
second time, of which the offensive coordinator for Rutgers. Kirk
Sharaka has worked for PJ three different times now. And
now is it Rutgers. You've got Joe Harris Simak, the
defensive coordinator with here at Minnesota during that magical twenty

(48:43):
nineteen run. I believe you've got Corey Heatherman, whom Minnesota
took from Rutgers, who is Harris Semia's number two. Those
two are very close. You've got Greg Harbow was the mentor.
His mentor is Kirk Sharaka for so many years. And then, oh,
by the way, the opposing starting quarterback is Athan cali
Akmannus who anytime there's kind of a quarterback separation from

(49:07):
the school, it's not always clean. I don't think there's
really much ill will at this point, but I can
assure you that while Fleck and his staff this week
are just going to say it's another game, it's it's
the human element of emotion between all of these guys
that know each other, or even just Ahan against his
former team, or maybe even Brozemer trying to prove that,

(49:30):
you know, he's going against the former quarterback and he
was the better option. It's it's something to where you
can't take the emotion out of it. You can tell
us that you're not you can tell us that you're
not spun up about it. And that's where I would
tell you. I've talked to some people over there, and
they're well aware of my narrative Street and that's why
they're not going to talk about it, and they're just
it's another game. Like if you read Pj's quotes, they're

(49:52):
that some of the shortest quotes you will see from PJ.
Fleck all year when addressing whether Rutgers ethan whatever it
may be. But they're well aware of all the different connections,
and that's where it's going to be. You know, Kirk
or excuse me, Greg knows how Kirk likes the game plan.
Corey Heathman knows how Harris Simeak likes the game plan.
They know each other very well. So I will say this,

(50:15):
I'm very curious to kind of see the first twenty
minutes of this game because Rutgers had an extra week
to prepare, which Kirk shiaka off of bye week has
been a very good thing for whoever the opposing offense is.
But I also want to see how Athan is because
he hasn't played that bad. I know the stats don't
look great, but I think he's been better, which was

(50:38):
always the most likely outcome that Minnesota was going to
be better. Off Ethan was going to be better off
in his second year. I would just say, while the
coaches aren't going to address it, I'm going to assure
you the players aren't going to address it. Everybody knows
about the elephant in the room this week, and it
makes a piscataway game a little bit more interesting to follow.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Well. Yeah, I mean, here's human right, and things didn't
go well here for Athan and all the hype that
we built up, it didn't go well. They bj went
out into the portal the day after the season looking
for a quarterback, you know, so it's like, of course
he's gonna be amped up. Of course coaches are gonna

(51:19):
you know, the one thing about the coaches like there
are no secrets. These guys know each other better than
they're good friends. They know each other, they know their tendencies,
they know how they think, they've been on each other staff.
So there's gonna be no surprises to me. It's just
gonna come down to whoever executes better and whoever is
able to harness their emotions and all the adrenaline and

(51:39):
all the feelings that they have about trying to prove this,
you know, whatever they want to prove on Saturday if
they can harness that and not get you know, out
of character, out of whatever, because there's gonna be nerves.
You know, you're these guys. Are you think Athan doesn't
want to have the best game of his season on Saturday?
Of course he does. You think Max do want to

(52:00):
have the best game he'll see? Of course he does.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
And so callers where it's like you know, or like
Heatherman knows exactly what Harris Samyak wants to or Greg
knows what Kirk wants to do. So you don't think
there's gonna be like a moment or two of hesitation
when you're thinking yourself, is he going to try to
counter this because he knows I'm thinking, yeah, there are
some in my mind, in my opinion, some mental hoops

(52:24):
that these guys, whether they want to address.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
It or not.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
Yeah, well, human element of this game, and they're not going.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
To talk about it obviously because that feeds your narrative
and you get your clicks there, Ryan, So you know, yeah, no, no,
I mean, that's uh, that's p R one O one.
Nobody's gonna talk about the elephant in the room when
there's one there. But but we can't. We will will
write about it to stop them prevent us. We're still

(52:51):
going to ride it so and talk about it. So.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Unlike Mike Sandford versus Joe Rossi, which burns he tried
to get burning a couple of years ago, this is
an actual, this is legit time narrative for this is
there there's narratives. I mean there's like narrative Street, and
then there's narrative Lane, and then there's narrative Boulevard, and
then there's narrative Avenue. And they're all just little cul

(53:16):
de sacs. And here's the Caliakmanus one, Here's the Shiraka one,
Here's the Chiano one, here's the Brosber one. This is
a big neighborhood. There's a big neighborhood on narrative Street. Right.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Well that's the thing is like you think Fleck doesn't
want to beat Ciano is mentor. I mean, this is
narrative highway. This is this is a narrative. This is
a six lane highway going here. So it'll be fun.
I mean it'll be you're right, a Minnesota Rutgers game on,
you know, uh, outside of the two markets, probably don't,
but there's you know tours, uh storylines.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
It's a kid, It's on NBC at eleven am.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
There's there's great storyline. If you're NBC is like, hey,
this is you can tell these storylines all day long. Yeah,
for sure.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Well, and the Gophers, you know, actually they drop pretty
well ball wise, you know, naturally all these Big Ten
teams do. I don't know if Russ necessarily does, but
Minnesota does. And this is a big game for the Gophers.
I mean, you break down all the narratives, like you
think about all the good will that they've built up
over the last month of position that they put them in.
We just talked about it, that they can set themselves
up for a really nice bowl game in the Big
ten pecking order and one that fans have heard of,

(54:19):
whether it's the Mayo Bowl or Nashville or one that
they've heard of the good weeks exactly. So you're putting
yourself and you know, we saw Wisconsin is a wreck
right now. You've got them on the schedule, Penn State,
who knows what off of your buy, what kind of
shape they're going to be in. You've got James Franklin yelling,
and fans they lost to Ohio State again at home,
the whole bit. So you've got an incredible opportunity in

(54:41):
front of you, not to win the Big Ten West,
like we've talked about so many times over the years here,
not to go to the College Football Playoff, but this
is about you're coming off the Island Michigan game. You
can't ask for a better opportunity than what you've got
here in these final three weeks. And that starts with
a game where you're favored, right Burns E on the road, right, No,
the touchdown favorite on the road.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
Six point wow. Yeah, because Rutgers has lost four in
a row. Right and before he before he came on here,
I was looking at their schedule. You don't get a
schedule like that very often in terms of schedule. Yeah,
they have to be uh kicking themselves when you look
at who they've played. You don't face Ohio State, Oregon
or Penn State. You've lost four in a row and

(55:22):
you're at the bottom of the uh they're what next
to last or near the bottom of the Big Ten
in the standing. So it's with that schedule that's uh,
that's not what I'm sure that's not what they envision
for their season, and.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
They've been very banged up, which plays a part in this.
And we'll see who comes back, including their running back
Kyle Manung Guy, who is very much Mo Ibraham reincarnate
with not the biggest guy in the world, but he
is the king of making somebody miss and getting the
hard yards after tackle. So Minnesota's gonna have to tackle well.
I mean, it's going the game plan if your Corey
heather Man is going to be stop Manong Guy and

(55:57):
then make eighth and caliak Man has beat you for
sixty minutes. Because we talked on this on this podcast
last year, first half eight in versus second half, Ethan
was always very different. Now Ethan strings together sixty minutes
of football, good for him. But that's what it's going
to be, is force eighth and calliak Manison Kirk Sharaka
to drop him back forty times.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
To beat you. All right. I don't want the salt
to wear off, Burnsy, because I could tell the wound
is so freshed from whatever you dealt with on the
way to Champagne, Illinois. We've got about five minutes to
just let you go and we'll give you some advice
and as seasoned travelers here. But when I saw you
Saturday morning in the Memorial Stadium press box, you just

(56:38):
didn't seem to have that usual burnsey pet. It seemed
like you went through some stuff on Saturday. So what happened?
And what can we help you with?

Speaker 3 (56:44):
Boy? Or even Sunday morning, I was delayed four and
a half hours in the Champagne airport, which you can't even.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Call in sport.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
There are two weeks. There are literally two gates.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
There's not even have electricity to charge your phone.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
That was the only thing they had. They didn't even
have like coffee anything. How do you not have coffee
at an airport at five in the morning. But here
here are my grievances. Now, I've traveled quite a bit
on an airport in my life. I've been very fortunate
in that regardless.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
Blessed.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Yeah, I still cannot believe the amount of people that
I see. I saw four different people I counted between
my travel on Friday and Sunday take off their shoes
with no docks on the Yeah, that's do we have
no self awareness as a society anymore?

Speaker 1 (57:29):
No, we don't know.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
No, Yeah, that's a that's a uh.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
I don't understand that one either.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
That's that's a penalty flag. That's that's a fifteen yarder.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
So my next one would be the only here's hold on.
The only way where that's acceptable is if you're sitting
with your family, if there's three people in the row
and like this. Now, I wouldn't do this.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
It's your kids. It's your kids.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
But if you're sitting window and then you've got your
wife or husband or spouse or kids or grandma or
whoever next to you, and there's no one else around
you in your row, I might even say it has
to extend to the other side of the aisle too.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
You can have the whole six where no.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
One has to be exposed or see your feet. That's
my only amendment to this. But I'm with you one
hundred percent. I would I don't take my shoes off
on the plane, of course not. But that's it happens
all the time. The best is one they'll like actually
like cross their legs with their belt feet or put
their feet near your arm rest. It's like, what are
we doing here?

Speaker 3 (58:27):
We need to get people out and about. More often
somebody needs to have some conversations with them.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Now.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
The second one would be I had one person next
to me on the airplane, uh, crack open a brand
new bag of beef jerky, and the other one had
a tuna sandwich from like one of those grabbing old places. Guys, wow,
whoever you are, ye, I don't care if you're next
to me.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
I bet you.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
I could smell that jerky five rows behind or a
tuna an egg sandwich onto the air at the airport.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
No, or egg sandwich or eggs out. Yeah, I'm a
beef jerky fan, but I won't do it on a plane.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
That's uh that that's that's a that's a that's a
penalty flag too.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
Like cracking open a fresh bag of like it was
like karaokee jerky. The entire plane doesn't need to smell
it for this hour flight. You could have just hummed.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
I was just in a mask. The smell of the
feet at least maybe that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
In like foot.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
That it was quite the Was it the same person?

Speaker 3 (59:35):
No?

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (59:36):
Which made So you've got feet, you've got jerky. You've
got to what else did? All right?

Speaker 3 (59:42):
So here's the last one, and this is.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Gonna want to be the one was a miserable flight. Man,
was this like the flight from Hell?

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Man? You had the connected old hair, which is miserable.
Connect you. I've had to do exactly, Yeah, I had
to exactly what you do. Fly to a hair, get
on a bus, you have no idea if you're on
the driving on some you know, random terminal, and then
you then you have to go up the stairs. You
don't know where you're going. Oh, hair is a nightmare.
I mean, we are so lucky. Like I usually don't

(01:00:09):
do the cliche, oh, this airport's this and that with O'Hair,
I will O'Hair is O'Hair is tough sledding. Man. Oh
that's tough sledding. But go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
So the last one is, and I know I'm gonna
get the most amount of pushback from our listeners and
from you guys, but this one is I am so
against reclining seats where yeah, I had two different people.
Now on my flight back, I got automatically rebooked by Americans.
So I was in a middle seat, which is a
six foot four guy. I'm very self conscious of that. Yeah,

(01:00:41):
because I know the whole man spread. I have wide
shoulders like I'm sitting there knees together, trying not to
take up too much space because nobody wants to sit
next to me. I know that, we all know that.
But I had two different people, Like on the way down,
I had a guy who couldn't have been in Look,
this is gonna sound very highest of me. He's like
five to six in front of me. Clind the feat immediately. Yeah,

(01:01:07):
here's my thing. If you want to recline your seat.
What I think is the acceptable thing of notion here
is you turn around, you make eye contact with them,
and then you recline it. Either they go like yeah,
that's fine, or like you just don't put it back.
He got asked to put it up by the flight
attendant before we took off, and then the moment she

(01:01:28):
went away, he tried to put it back instantaneously. And
let me tell you, my knees have ever been so
far forward in my entire life, letting him know, like
what does he need the extra space for? At what point?
Like I understand, like I try to book exit rows
anytime I can, because look, I'm a tall guy. But

(01:01:48):
I can tell you with definitive knowledge, I have never
once in my life reclined my seat, and I just
think it's insane, like recline your seat without looking behind,
find you to see because it's not you. Oh great,
you get to go back another ten degrees like yeah,
remind you to see? Like, okay, so what do you

(01:02:09):
I am?

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
I am? I'm team no recline. I know the argument.
I pay for the seat, I can do whatever I want.
I just think it's a courtesy thing.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
I don't recline.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
I don't recline either burns eat, but I will say
they shouldn't make them reclinable if that's not an option
for people. Yeah, like that, all the seats are reclinable.
I also agree with you, you have to have some
awareness of your surroundings.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Look around, Yeah, I see who's behind you?

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Yeah, is there somebody that's you know? And thank god
you have those broad shoulders for all the weight you're
carrying here on these bright But if I turn around
to go, this is already uncomfortable. I'm not going to
add to their discomfort. I think that's always fair. But again,
I don't recline. Just same thing as Chip I just
because I've been reclined on and it's not fun, especially

(01:03:00):
if you're packed in one of these planes and you've
got a bag underneath your seat in the whole bit.
So I agree with you, like a guy like you
should not be reclined on because you're already in a
tough situation. Yea, given that you know, you were born
six foot four and you've got the broad shoulders and
all of that. So but that was mant here, hold
on a second, you've gotta get something for you. You're

(01:03:23):
gonna get something for you game or can we can
we get this burns or in the water. You've got
to get to You've got to get to Newark, New
Jersey this week. You're gonna be able to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
Yeah, well, how salty?

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Was him? Bare feet? Jerky and a guy that's five him?

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
The people that man, it was just like first time
on an airplane. That's where thankfully this weekend, Guardsy we
get to go on a NonStop on Delta, of which
I got eggs.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
It rose.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
So then I get a little bit extram like, Look,
I know how large I am, so I try to
make it easy on myself for everybody else around me.
It's just let's have some common sense with some of these.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
Things on an air Yeah, there's something happens between the
lines at the airport. People get there and they lose
they lose all sense of anything. They just can't do it.
It's a great experiment in the human whatever. Human condition, Yeah,
human condition. Yeah, none of us, I don't think are
at our best at the airport. And it's just what
degree are you going to have a total meltdown of

(01:04:34):
some sort? People just do you know whether they can't
figure out their bag, they can't figure out this they're
hoarding at the gate to try to board, they're standing
when it says walk on the moving walkway like it's
just they're forgetting things in their pocket. It's security, like,
it's just no one is their best self at the airport.
It's just it's a stressful situation for some people.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
And I'm the same guy.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
Yeah, well that is the one thing you consistent.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
I consistent.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
You're neurotic everywhere every day, your stress levels up. This.
Do I have enough charge of leaving my house early
on the mass stadium early enough? Yeah? Your life? You try? Yeah,
you're a mess academically athletically short.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
If anybody has a disagree with us, you can send
an email to Randy burn It's.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
He was to hear from you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
All right, well, Chip, are you coming to Newark? You're
gonna join us?

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
No, oh okay, Chip's gonna miss it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:37):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
He made it to l A. At least that was great.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
I'll be at I'll be at Penn State Home and
Wisconsin Road.

Speaker 1 (01:05:45):
There we go love it the final two games of
the season. Burns, we will see you in Piscataway or
someplace near there. I don't know exactly where we're going
to be. I don't know exactly where you're going to be,
but we'll get it all done. Reminder a couple of reminders.
Subscribe to the new YouTube channel if you want to
see how far Burnsey reclines his chair when I talk
about his seeing a Halloween baby, or if at last

(01:06:06):
weeks for a dad. There's a good recline right there.
You can see how many times Chip takes a drink
during the show if you like. And you can see
my game balls if you want, and my Plem Haskins
play Hard Towel from nineteen ninety six. All of that
here on the YouTube channel, the apparent Spair YouTube channel.
I'd love it if you subscribe, leave a rating, leave
a review, leave a comment for us there, subscribe to
the podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and make

(01:06:27):
your reservations for an unbelievable dinner, date, night, holiday party,
whatever it is at Jackscafe dot com. That's Jaxcafe dot com.
Have a great week, everybody. We will talk to you
next week on The Pair and a Spare Podcast