2025 Week Eleven Review: Gophers Off Bye, Iowa/Oregon, Penn St/Indiana, Fickell Back

Chip Scoggins, Ryan Burns and Justin Gaard are back and with the Gophers coming off a bye week they spend a ton of time on the big games last weekend in the Big Ten. Oregon out-Iowa'd Iowa in terrible conditions at Kinnick, Indiana had an epic drive for the ages to rally against Penn State and we got word that Luke Fickell will return to coach Wisconsin for a 4th season next year. We also shout out a couple having their wedding reception at Jax Cafe!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Glenn Mason said a long time ago at the University
of Minnesota, you need a pair and a spare you. Yep,
Whether I'm ready or not, it's time for another edition
of the Pair and a Spare podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Burns take it away.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
We get the Justin Guard flu game edition who gets
to fight through cold?

Speaker 4 (00:24):
And that means we're gonna have a lot of me
and Chip today. So chip O things for you. How
is your bye week?

Speaker 5 (00:30):
This is why we have That's why we called it
a pair and a spare, Right, you need extra guys
to step up. Seriously, when the when the radio play
by play anas voice goes in the morning of a
big game, this is We're in dire situation here. This
is he's drinking his tea.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, Chip barely saw any games. I can't.

Speaker 5 (00:49):
I didn't see any games. Yeah I know, so yeah,
I spent my I spent my bye week in a
Madison hospital.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
All right, to need more details before?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
So I messages come in saying it's Chip okay, So Chip,
I don't know, Yeah, sure, everything.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
But my son's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:12):
We got to call it five o'clock on Friday afternoon
for my son. That paint in his in his abdomen
and I've I've had my appendix removed twenty years ago,
which I have a great story about that.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:29):
But he was asking me what it was and it
was similar symptoms. So we double timed it uh to
Madison and got there late at night and he had
surgery early next morning. He's doing good. Appendix is out.
You don't need it anyways. So I didn't get to
see really much football at all on Saturday. I did
listen to be honest.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Be honest, you just wanted to go to Washington with
you couldn't miss that game.

Speaker 5 (01:55):
Well we did, uh after he got discharged. He's right
there on campus, so we were fighting the tailgaters and
the people walking across the street to get him back
to his apartment so he could rest. But I did
listen to the Iowa Iowa game in the car on
the way home, so that was fun. I didn't get

(02:15):
to see it. I got to listen to it, and
that was made the time passed by quickly, but yeah,
by by my quick story of my appin decked to me.
This was two thousand and it would have been five
and Greg Slinger was our sports Person of the Year.
I remember Slinger when the Outland and the Remington that
year all Americans, so he was the start to beting

(02:37):
sports person in the year. And I was doing the
story and it was all set to right it and
I had a interview set up with Chad Greenway, who
was at Iowa, and they had had some good battles.
I knew those two had kind of communicated, so I
had set up this interview. All of a sudden, I

(02:57):
had an emergency appendcted me at like eleven o'clock at night.
The interview with Greenway was the next morning. I totally forgot.
Next morning, I'm in the you know, got the ivy
in here and all these things, going into the hospital gown,
laying in the bed, and Greenway calls my phone, and
I knew it was a one shot deal, right. I
wanted this, So I was like, I apologize if I

(03:19):
come across a little goofy here, but I'm on narcotics.
I'm in a hospital bed right now, but can we
do this interview? So I wound up interviewing from the
hospital bed there.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 5 (03:27):
We would still laughing about it after we got here
and talk about it. Yeah. So yeah, it was. That
was my introduction to Chad Greenway, doing an interview with
him from a hospital bed.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
See, this is the type of stories, Chip where I
just am like, how do you remind yourself in these scenario?

Speaker 5 (03:43):
Well, Phil Hattie, you know guards you know Phil Hattie,
the old I totally forgot. You know, it was the
lasting in my mind when I was, you know, in
pain going to the hospital, and I totally forgot I
had this interview for the next morning. So I'm scrambling
trying to get a piece of paper from the nurses
so I can write down quotes. Man misquoted him? I
don't know, but.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, I'm actually gonna pull up that story on the
archives here while we're talking, and I'm gonna see what
Greenway quotes you've got and see if it actually sounds
like the Chad Greenway we all know now, or if
you just made things right. I'm gonna find this story.
I'm gonna find this story.

Speaker 5 (04:15):
But yeah, my son's good and everything's all right, so.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Unbelievable, all right, Well, yeah, this is this is good.
This is gonna be a great show. I can already
feel it, so Burnsy, what game do we want to start?
With do you want to start with Iowa Oregon and
then talk a little Oregon go Ferst Maybe we'll do.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
It that way.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, because this was I said this the other day.
This was Kevin Warren's dream to have an eleven o'clock
game with two good teams go down to the wire
and then funnel it right into CBS two thirty having
Iowa and Oregon also go right down to the wire
and what looked like a dreadful game, a dreadful experience

(04:53):
to be sitting in the rain at Kinnick Stadium, Dale
Anning refusing to wear any rain gear. Just my sweatshirt,
my hair and my scowl. That's all I've shot and
that's all we're gonna need. He's a braver man than
I But what do we think of? What are our
takeaways from this game? And yes I did get the

(05:14):
fourth member of the podcast heartbroken thoughts on the way
that it finished at Kinnick.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Well, it was the disgusting type of game that Iowa
needed in terms of you had to get them in
a locker because it's very tough to hold organ under
twenty points, and they found a way. But when you
have the uncharacteristic unforced airs in Kinnick where there's a
long snap that goes four hundred feet over the head
of the punter who then just kicks it out the
back of the end zone and then you lose by

(05:42):
two points or even Caden wheat Gen Yeah, fumbles it
within the red zone.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
There huge bubbles.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yeah, you can't.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
Have those type of unforced airs and then expect to
pull an upset of a top ten team. And Gronowski
did everything that he possibly couldn't have.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Fourth quarter gets them the lead.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
But as you saw Dante more Is, I mean, he
looks like the former five star that he came out
as a few years back. I mean, he is a
tremendous player, made a heck of a throw in great
coverage to set them up for the field goal. But
it's very difficult to be the top ten team no
matter who you are, even Iowa. I mean Oregon to
an extent out Iowa to Iowa. But if you have

(06:25):
that many critical unforced airs against the top ten team, Chip,
it's just I mean, it's tough, man, It's tough.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
To way, you know. Yeah, what's interesting to me is
is that Oregon can win multiple ways. Oh yeah, and
you know they obviously had their top receiver out maybe
top two receivers out right, and lost another guy during
the game. So they just run the ball. And if
you look at they're one of the best running teams
in college football. And so they can two.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
Hundred and sixty one rushing yards on IOWA in Kinnick.

Speaker 5 (06:54):
Yeah, I mean we think about them as this, you know, passing,
got a great quarterback passing offense, a lot of skill
at the at the receiver position, which is which they do.
But they were beat up and injured there, so they
can run the ball too. And and that's two impressive wins.
You know. Now maybe it doesn't look the same way

(07:15):
going into Penn State and winning as it did at
the time, but that one's you know, to win that
way when they were not healthy at wide receiver and
find a way and when you had you know, one
of those gotta have it drives right. And when when
I was scored, when Gronowski score, it was funny because

(07:35):
we were in the car and it was was that
a third or fourth that's fourth down right, fourth, fourth
and three. I was telling my wife is like, Grodowski run,
you know this is coming.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
It's clear day, to be honest.

Speaker 5 (07:45):
Yeah, it's like Gradowski is gonna run. I mean, you
just know it's coming. Then he scores, but it it can't.
It was a minute and something. I was like, they
just left them too much time. I mean, this is
felt like Oregon's gonna do what they do and make
some plays and and the quarterback was good, you know,
So give them credit for finding a way to win
when they were injured at a at a key spot.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, it's just you don't often see teams going to
Kinnick and put up two hundred and fifty rushing yards.
And that's where Oregon is one of the best rushing
offenses in the country. Their top three in the entire country.
They have more twenty plus yard runs than anybody else
in the entire country. Like they they went from last year.
You'll remember they.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
Struggled to run the ball oft times.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
I think about when that Jason ec Idaho team, like
they essentially shut them down in early September, and they've
come a very long way, and they.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
Can just beat you in so many different ways. And
they oh, by the way, they have the number two
defense in all of college football. Yeah, this is a team.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Now that they actually got out of Kinnick alive, which
it took everything in their power to have that happen, certainly,
and they they're likely going to be the third team
in this playoff unless you know a USC or Washington,
which again both teams are ranked, or they at least
they were like they I mean, they'll have a shot.

(09:07):
But this is an Oregon team that is very worthy
to me of a college football playoff spot.

Speaker 5 (09:12):
Yeah, I think they're register as looking at their excuse me,
their game notes today. They're one of three teams Indiana
and Texas Tech who you know.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
To be in the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (09:26):
You're going to be in the playoff, and you can
make an argument for either one of those teams. But
that rank top fifteen in total offense, scoring offense, total defense,
scoring defense. So they're just good, like they're not. They're
they're good in a lot of areas right that. This
is a well rounded, really good team. And oh, by

(09:47):
the way, they're hard to beat at home.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
They're so physical.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, you don't think about that, like you don't you
think about Chip Kelly flashy speak, sixty points.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
We're faster than everybody.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Our helmets are chrome now, It's like, no, they're gonna
like you could see these guys wearing leather helmets. Yeah,
not care, not flinch, They're just I mean to blow
back Iowa and run the ball like that was to
me incredible, and when you really had no threat of
passing because you know, neither quarterback threw for that many yards.

(10:21):
I think my Iowa friend reminded me today because my
thing is, like, as good as Gronowski is, you do
have to be able to throw the ball a little bit.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
At times, and he still misses too many throws.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
He wanted me to know that Gronowski had more passing
yards than Dante.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
More he did.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
And so the point of that is though, like, but
Oregon didn't have much of a threat to run and
they took it to Iowa on the ground, which I
you know, we've seen the Gophers do that a couple
of times. Remember Mode did that once. We did that
down in Iowa City one time. But like you gotta finish,
you know, it doesn't happen very often. It's like surprising
when it happens. They're just such a physical group.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
I mean, that's where I don't know how it's gonna
end up. We'll see Friday night. I think Oregon's defensive
line might be better than Ohio States, like even the
way that they were able to stop the run, because
we're talking about an Iowa rushing attack that's very very good,
an Iowa offensive line that's very very good, and Gronowski

(11:17):
and their primary tailback, Mari Moulton had thirty five carries
for something around like one hundred and twenty yards. I
mean you slowed down those two to about four yards
of carry in Kinnick in an absolute meat grinder and
a slog of a game and forty degrees and spitting
whatever that was h precipitation. And again, that was going

(11:37):
to be the recipe for Kirk Farns to try and
out Iowa Oregon, and they weren't able to get it done.
Why because the Oregon offensive line, the Oregon tailbacks, who
are also a tremendous group of tailbacks, plus that defensive line.
I'm telling you they got some creatures on that defensive
line for organ And that's how you go into Kinnick
and you're able to hold on at the very end there.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
And what's what's the stat I think the handler knows
that they have the most twenty yard runs in college
football and giving up the second fewest twenty yards runs
in college football. So they get explosives and they don't
give him up. And you don't do that without dominating
the trenches, right, I mean that's.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, that's like Big ten West football right there. Yeah,
I know, that's like what the three schools we talk
about the most always.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Wanted to do.

Speaker 5 (12:23):
Guardsy, did you see Lannings when he sat down his chair,
He's like, well, I guess that's why they call it
Big ten football, right. Yeah, he's probably talking about the weather,
but I think he is more talking about you've got
to be able to run the ball in November.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, what what we're Gronowski's running numbers, Burnsy, you have
that pulled.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
Up, that's what carries for twenty five yards.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
That's your ball game, right And he never had one
of those forty yard runs or you know, multiple first
down you know, because we know he's he's going to
make a couple of passes, which he did, but he's
been such a threat, you know. I think about the
Penn and State game where he had the big run late,
like be able to bottle him up and at least
just keep him at bay while you figured out your

(13:04):
own stuff. Pretty impressive, pretty impressive stuff.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah, Oregon is just even when you look forward to
this weekend where the Gophers.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Travel out and we'll see.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
I'll ask you, Guardsy, I heard Kyle Potter on with
you yesterday, how many of the three Beat writers that
will travel, myself, Andy and Randy, how many of flights
do you think we get canceled on the way out thereat?
I know myself and I think Randy are going into Eugene. Specifically,
I think I think Andy's.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Is going to Portland. Yeah. So I'll say it this way.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
I've been told, Kyle told me that the flights that
are being canceled are the ones that where it's going
to be the fewest amount of people that they have
to rebook. And so if you have a full flight
to a rare spot where they don't have a lot
of flights every day, you have a better chance of going.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Then.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
I would imagine the Salt City to Eugene, Oregon on
a Friday of an Oregon day is going to be
pretty full.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
I would think, so, yeah, I would think so yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
So, now your Golden Gophers get to come off a
bye where they watch the same Iowa Oregon game. Oregon
gets the return home on a short week play Friday
night on Fox. But we talked about even back when
when the Gophers played in this Friday night on Fox
Spot earlier, I had the stat where the home team
in those games was just I mean, they had just

(14:28):
been performing so well. I think that's still true, and
I think that plays a part and why your Golden
Gophers are twenty five and a half point road underdogs.

Speaker 4 (14:38):
Is a six and three team against an eight and
one team. Now, it's also.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Within that the the Gophers haven't shown up on the
road at at really any point this season. They've been
outscored one hundred and ten to twenty, and now they
get to face a team that is a college football
playoff team.

Speaker 5 (14:54):
So yeah, I'm not saying it. You know, I don't
think you may go pick an up set, but you're
coming off a bye against a team that just played
an incredibly physical game on a show.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, it's set up well for you to not get
blown out.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Don't get blown every other time on the road, like exactly, Yeah,
you have the advance. Even Dan Landing talked about their
schedule before the season, like they have these kinds of
discrepancies all over the place, like a team going back
west on a Friday night after that bloodbath at Kinnick,
like where they kept losing player, Like you should be
the fresher team. You should be ready to go, like

(15:29):
you sho should beat yourself in.

Speaker 5 (15:31):
That's you should be fresh. You know, I don't know
what their injury situation is a wide receiver still if
if some of those guys are coming back. I don't
think their top er, Idris sires, but they may get
one of them back. But that was a physical, physical
game and you have one less day to recover from it.
You know, you it is set up where again I'm

(15:56):
not going to predict an upset, but but.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
You like to see you're planting the seeds in case
something crazy happens.

Speaker 5 (16:03):
No, I want to see a better performance on the
road than what we've seen cal They were just incredibly sloppy. Right,
They're in a different league at Ohio State, that's you know,
they were outclassed there, and they didn't show up at Iowa.
So it's like there's been three different scenarios I think

(16:24):
on the road and they've gotten just three really poor performances.
I want to see them play well on the road.
So it's not just to change the narrative, because if
they go out there and get wiped off the field again,
it's going to be this team beat a bunch of
bad teams and got blown out by everybody that was
quite decent.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
We'll get to the bad team comment because I think
after this weekend that is one that's a statement that's
continuing to bother me, especially the way Wisconsin and Penn
State played against ranked opponents. But I think the thing
for this weekend is your lines need to show up
like That's the thing to me is your offensive and
defensive lines have yet to get off the bus. They

(17:04):
haven't even like started the bus at any point. I
think about that Iowa game specifically, and the defense gets
three three scores on him right away, the offensive line
gets blown back.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
They can't run the ball.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
You know, I'm sort of optimistic that Darius Taylor might
make another return.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Now, is that right?

Speaker 3 (17:24):
It's been about three weeks. We'll see think as we've
seen like, we'll see how long he plays, We'll see
what the injury situation is. But if the offensive and
defensive lines from Minnesota. Just don't get off the bus again.
By the time it's ten pm, we'll be tucking Chip
into bed with some tea because it'll be twenty four

(17:45):
to nothing. Oregon's gonna rush for three hundred and fifty
yards and this thing will be over by about eleven
pm local time. So I mean, if if they are
going to pull the upset, okay, I'm gonna tell you
right now, the Gopher defense which has not forced they
takeaway in a month, which I knew. I knew it
had been a couple of games, but then I went

(18:05):
back and looked they haven't forced to take away number
one on the road this season, which it's been three games. Also,
they haven't forced to take away and that being an
interception or a fumble recovery in their last three games.
I mean, we're talking. The last takeaway in that aspect
was Cooy Perrich's pick six against Purdue. They've played three

(18:27):
games since then. And if you're gonna beat a top
ten team as a twenty five point underdog, you got
to be plus two in the take off and you
got to be able to hit some explosive plays on offense.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
So and that's your Ryan Burns recipe. Is that where
we're Yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
That's also going to be by the way. I don't
know if for those of you who are traveling out
to Eugene as we speak, I hope you packed the
rain gear, yeah, because it looks like it's going to
be forty seven degrees light rain missed, just like it
was when Wisconsin kept it close. Now I also tell you,
I mean we talk about what were part of the
reasons why was Junson kept it close that night? Well,

(19:02):
Rutgers was where Oregon was the week before, So not
only did they have to go from Eugene to Piscataway,
which I don't know what that flight was, but I'm
I assume five plus hours, yeah, and then return home
to play and what it seems like a very similar
type of environment potentially this weekend. If you just don't
match their physicality, there's nothing I can tell you statistically

(19:25):
that this.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
Game should be close.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
But if you do match their physicality and then you
get a couple of takeaways, I mean, this thing can
get very interesting, very quick.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Chip.

Speaker 5 (19:36):
Yeah, and it's I mean I watched when Oregon played
was wisconsint out there and that was played in a monsoon.
Obviously they played in terrible weather Saturday. I think Oregon's
just kind of this is what they are, Like they've
had like five bad weather games in a row here, So.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Do you think they have rain capabilities in their indoor facility?
Like you think they have an irrigation system because.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
Coming down?

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, Like I know PJ would want that if he
could get it, because these guys are maniacs. But wouldn't
that be great like to have because they I'm sure
they're practicing with wet balls this week, right like everybody does.
I'm sure Pj's got his little spray bottle, you know,
spraying people in the face. Like I'm sure he's doing
all that stuff, but I envisioned because Dan Landing is
a maniac, like in a good way.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Like you guys know how much I love that guy.
PJ loves that guy.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
He says he's like the greatest guy of all time,
which I'm so grateful for because he was gonna it
was gonna ruin my if you never want to meet
your heroes image and I've never met him, But when
I asked PJ, I go, what kind of what kind
of guy is Dan Landing, and he goes, you'd love him, like, yes,
I'd like, I do love him.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
I do love him. So I'm glad.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
But he's a complete psychopath, so much so that people
people were sending out pictures after the Penn State game
like he was doing drugs on the field, like everybody
calmed down, like calm down because of his facial expressions
and all this stuff. So anyway, but I wonder if
they do practice in the rain, they probably just practice
outside when it's raining.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
That's probably how they think. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Can we talk about the Iowa side of this thing
real quick, because think about like they've obviously had some
unbelievable seasons, right And by the way, I got the
story pulled up your chip.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
For Greg Eslinger.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
You did a nice job kind of laying it out
like the coach, the teammate, the future. And then the
opposition said that Chad green Way and Greg Eslinger shared
a quiet moment on the field after the victory. I
just wanted to thank him for being such a great competitor.
It was a positive experience for me to play against him.
You can ask anybody in the Big Ten. They will
tell you there's not a better representative for our league

(21:43):
as far as talent and sportsmanship and playing the game.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
The right way. That was the quote you got from
Chad while you were drugged up in.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
A hospital bed hooked up the ivys.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
That sounds like Chad, by the way.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
So that's why Chad was such a you know, he's
still a great guy, right and stuff like that. All right,
the Iowa portion of it, because man, they've had some
close calls this year. I mean, they're probably thinking about
what the season could have been. Here's the fourth member
of our podcast, Chad. It's a really long one. I'm
gonna try to try to get through it here, he says,

(22:17):
as I mentioned late Saturday, I'm talking to late Saturday,
disappointed things didn't go our way. Iowa was close, but
obviously not quite there with the top teams in the
Big Ten. The ninety three yard touchdown driving the fourth
should have been the stuff of legends, but there was
one hundred and eleven seconds left. Too much time for
a really good Oregon offense. I feel like we need
music behind me. That's you with my voice.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
A top tier.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Team doesn't make mistakes, and they definitely don't make the
same mistake twice. I can understand a high snap on
a punt in conditions like that, miserably cold or rainy.
I can't believe in Iowa team normally so buttoned up
on special teams would do it again. That's all caps
again on the next punt snap. As the adage goes,
you can't make those mistakes and expect to win. Oregon
found a way to run the ball against iowa'sd while

(23:01):
keeping Iowa's run game in check. That is often the
recipe unless you are perdue to beat Iowa. Oregon is
a really good team. Iowa's good, not great. In the end,
they lost by two points to a top ten team.
They're close, but not there. Oregon made the plays needed
to escape a tough environment in lousy conditions with a win.
The throw more made for twenty four yards on the
final drive couldn't have been covered any better, and it

(23:23):
was a dime. This one stings. Like I said in
our text exchange, Iowa has lost three games to three
ranked teams by total of ten points, and they have
to beaten a ranked team in the last eleven tries. Now,
fairness to them, they have to play Nebraska at the end.
Of the season when it's already bottomed out. They don't
get to play them when they're a soft five to

(23:45):
one and get gifted at twenty fifth ranking. So that's
fairness to them. They've beaten Nebraska a lot, who are
always ranked, you know, in a much too early preseason
poll and usually by October if they've won more games
than they've lost. But pretty good synopsis there from the
fourth member of the hot.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Well.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
I was just enjoying as you were taking SIPs off
that new port in between or even that game for
Iowa this weekend, where like, if Iowa wants to continue
to remain in this and again we'll see.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
What continues to happen.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Even then Iowa USC game this weekend, which I don't
know if you guys know what the line is.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
I believe that wins out. I think it's out in LA.
I want to guess what USC ioways. Who's face.

Speaker 5 (24:32):
By six?

Speaker 2 (24:35):
I was gonna say like four and a half USC.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
Chips, right, it's about USC six and a half seven.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
That's too many, Sorry, that's too many.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
We're going to see if USC wants to show show
up in the trenches, and we're going to see if
Iowa wants to travel to the Western time zone, but
I mean their physicality again, that's the thing to me
that has been traveling is Yeah, I mean it's Iowa
making unforced airs to your buddy point. It's just like
even on special teams where it just continues to happen
where again I remember that Penn State game, Faran's attempting

(25:07):
like the sixty five yarder. Yeah, what are you doing, Like,
you're just asking for trouble there and you've got trouble
with that being returned. But it's very uncharacteristic things at
times for Iowa, which is going to be I'm sure
for this season for Iowa fans if they do go
eight and four, whatever, it may be kind of season
of what if from that organ game of that's the

(25:28):
one if we just don't shoot ourselves in the foot,
that could have propelled us to potentially a playoff.

Speaker 5 (25:34):
Yeah, that's probably the hard thing is like when you're
right there and it's a player you're three plays, could
you know make your season feel a lot different?

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
But good teams are on the right side of those,
and good teams, you know, when the weather's terrible and
they they're not able to throw the ball because it's
you know, whether the weather, injuries, Oh we're going to
run for two hundred and sixty yards against Iowa. That's
what good teams. They figure it. Whatever they need to
do that day, they do. And that's what Oregon, you

(26:07):
know they did. And but I think you're I think
our fourth member is right, Like I was a good team.
But to get to that next level, you've got to
play not perfect, but you've got to make the winning plays.
And they did it. You know, they open open the
door with their mistakes, and so I still think they're

(26:28):
a good team. I think they're you know, well constructed.
But the Ohio States, the Indianas and the Oregons I
think are just a notch different than everybody in this league.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Well, here's why it's tough, because it's not like this
team is building to the next team because the quarterback's
gone right, Like it's kind of the same thing, like
wouldn't you love to rerun the clock with Max Brosmur
a year ago? Burnsy, You've said it, and I think
you've been right. That team left a lot on the table. Yeah,
partly partly not knowing really what they had in Max
right out of the gate, and maybe some of that

(27:02):
was Max was just figuring his way too, right, because
Gronowski kind of scuffled to start the season, right, They
didn't really get him going. You know, he had some
moments and obviously he had an injury in the offseason.
But like, it's not like you just run it back
with Gronowski next year, you like, and I know, they
just got a big commitment from a quarterback, a Utah quarterback,
I think, and I know they've they've got some other

(27:24):
guys that they like potentially, But you got to go
back and you got to figure out the quarterback again
for next season, regardless of what else is coming back.
So I think that's the tough part when you have
these one year QB all in type things. Now, if
you don't hit it, hit it, and they're gonna have
you know, they're gonna finish with eight and nine wins.
So it's not like they're having a bad season. They
they're they've had a really really good season and their

(27:46):
quarterback has kind of changed everything for them. But that's
where I think you probably do wander off into the
what ifs more. I know I do with Brosmer. You know,
what if they what if they fit? What if they
allow him to throw more early? What if they what
if he what if they allow him to throw again
Stiola in the second half after he went up and
down the field a couple of times. What if they
actually started the game at Michigan before realizing Michigan wasn't

(28:07):
that good?

Speaker 5 (28:07):
Like, what if they had tackled North Carolina would have been.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
Helpful to that When we got off the field against
Penn State where you're down at one point, you get
the ball back, or you give Penn State the ball
six minutes left, all three timeouts and you never see
the ball again.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
And they run a fake pun on you well for three.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
Different fourth down conversions.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
And then yeah, the Rutgers implosion on the offensive line
in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
So yeah, so there's now I will might not have
as many as those.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
That's a long list.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
That's a longer list that I remember.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
But they've got to be thicket it right, like, Yeah,
for sure, especially with a guy who has proven that
he is clutch like. Even though everybody including Chip and
Amy Skoggin's in their car on Interstate ninety four driving
aimlessly through the night. Knew that Mark Kronowski is going
to keep the ball on fourth and three, and it
didn't matter because that's how good he's been.

Speaker 5 (29:01):
Well, and you talk about the quarterback, talk about that
offensive line, Yeah, how often do you get offensive line that?
I mean, now, they're always you know, they tend to
replenish there. But again, that's that's a really good offensive line.
And you're right, I mean, these are the you know,
if you get blown out, okay, you're just not good enough.
But when you're right there and you and you, what

(29:22):
do you say, three losses by ten points, it's all right,
that's all ranked teams. I mean those and we said, man,
if you win that game, you're in the end, you're
in the college football playoff discussion for sure, you know.
And now you're now you're just looking at a trying
to improve your bull standing.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
All right?

Speaker 1 (29:38):
Should we plause and then come back and talk about
the game that preceded this one, Indiana Penn State, which
was a wild one. All right, let's talk about our
friends at Jack's Cafe Jaxcafe dot com. We got a
shout out, we got the wedding, we got a wedding
coming up at Jack's Cafe for some parentis spare listeners.
I think it's next Saturday, right, I think I feel
like I feel like we should crash the I don't

(30:01):
know what you guys think, ye Burnssey, I'm sure you'll
be on the six o'clock flight out of Eugene.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
So you're going to be back, right, aren't you going
to be back?

Speaker 4 (30:09):
I'll be back. Yeah, I mean faa willing, I'll be back.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
So apparently John and Jessica are getting married on Saturday,
and they are pairent a spare listeners, which is phenomenal,
which is great. I don't know if that's the only
reason they picked it, probably shouldn't be. But hopefully that
maybe we made be aware of it. I don't know,
but it shows you that you can have your rehearsal
dinner there, you can have wedding receptions there. They've got

(30:35):
room for everybody. If you just want to, you know,
have brunch the morning after your wedding. What a great
opportunity that would be as well if you are not
interested in getting married but just want a good date night.
Jack's Caafe is good for you there if you don't
want to even go on dates and just want to
have a happy hour with your bros. Jack Scaffes got
you covered.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
There?

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Am I getting the point across in my raspy voice
that Jack says something for everybody?

Speaker 5 (30:58):
How special do you think that place is going to
be for John and Jessica's reception? You know it's gonna
be first class. I mean, you're gonna have just the
best time, the best a lot of room for all
your guests. Imagine you pull up there and you see
you pulled there, and you see a parking lot and
you're having You're having a reception. Everybody's gonna there's gonna

(31:20):
be no circle in the parking lot, none of that nonsense.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Right, you can't put that on the registry because that
kind of thing can't be bought like that.

Speaker 5 (31:27):
Absolutely not. But and then they're gonna step inside. It's
gonna be a magical It's gonna be a magical night
for John and Jessica. And I'm glad they're having it.
And uh what what what better place? They picked the
best spot to have their their magical day there.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
So cong imagining the father of the bride of the
groom when he does his toast, go on and how
about that parking.

Speaker 5 (31:47):
Why wouldn't Why wouldn't you?

Speaker 2 (31:51):
I would We know you would.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Anyway, So support toes that support us, and I mean,
we can't even talk enough about how much Jack's Cafe
has supported us and our audience and our listeners and
you guys, Bill loves it when you come in there
and say that you heard about him or heard about
Jackson the parentispare. So make your reservations or learn more
at Jack'scafe dot com. Where do we put that catch?

Speaker 5 (32:23):
Indiana one of the best, one of the best of
all time.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Great throw the quarterback. I don't think even thought the
receiver was gonna go up and get it. He kind
of like hesitated, like, oh that's going out of bounds
and yeah, crazy, crazy to get.

Speaker 5 (32:42):
Your foot down in that situation, you know, considering you know,
the magnitude of what Indiana's doing right m and then
too not only catch the ball, I don't know that
there's he had another blade of grass to give with
his I mean he had the last blade of grend
to get his foot down. I mean that was that.
That's an all timer. I mean, that's you're not gonna

(33:06):
see twelve.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
But if he was a thirteen. He's out of bounds
for sure, Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
But I mean this is part of what I wanted
to talk about with with you, Chip, is uh, we
gotta stop saying the bottom of the Big Ten is bad,
like that Penn State team is owen six in the
in the Big Ten now, but they took Indiana to
the lit I mean, they took one of the best
catches you'll see in college football to stave off Indiana.

(33:34):
Or even we talk about Wisconsin, who had looked absolutely dreadful,
and we haven't even talked about McIntosh coming out and saying,
you know, we're gonna support Fickle and he's coming back.
And then they go out and they beat a ranked
Washington team Like you made the comment earlier even today,
and I agree with this that Oregon, Ohio State, Indiana

(33:55):
are in a tier of their own.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
But I just.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
Continue to believe four through eighteen largely it all depends
where the game is played, and that's where with this
game being played in Happy Valley or even the Badgers
pulling it off at home there, winning in the Big
Ten for seventy eighty percent of games this season is
like in it's it's a coin flip.

Speaker 5 (34:18):
I don't. I don't think there's layups in this team,
in this league. There's not bad as in Northwestern State
or whatever that team they played there, that's a bad team.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
Right, check on Northwestern States.

Speaker 5 (34:31):
But what as Parcel says? You are what your record says,
and you can't tell me that Wisconsin. Yeah, a team
can rise up and play good on a specific day, sure,
but if you're ranked one hundred and twenty eighth in
offense nashally and you don't have a win, I'm not
going to say you're a good team, you know. I mean,
I'm not going to say there's four through eight or

(34:52):
good teams and then three league teams. I mean there's
bad teams there, just are. I mean, if you don't
win games, you're not a good team. Be competitive in games,
you can be in competitive. You can rise up and
have a moment. But good teams win more than they lose.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
The Penn State thing is fascinating. That's why Franklin's no
longer there.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
I get it.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
But the amount of drafted guys that Penn State's going
to have, I think I've seen somewhere between like five
and eight. Yet they can't win a game in the
Big Ten. Now, I also think their interim coach has
not been himself in the greatest of spots.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
He's had them.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
It's I feel bad for him and the team because
he's had he's kept them together, and he's had them
ready to play yes, and then he just makes critical mistakes.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Ye judging wise, where like Likeday.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
To Friday, he gets them ready and then on Saturday
he gets in the heat of the moment and he
makes every like every button he pushes, it just explodes.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Is yeah, yeah, like Iowa.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
You know, he fakes a punt for no reason, like
obviously he uses the time out for no reason last
week and again, and who knows if that's the difference,
But like little stuff like that matters. We just spent
the first half hour talking about little things and how
and the margins. I would say this, there's there's obviously
bad teams, but I would say it's harder to beat

(36:14):
the bad teams than it's ever been, if that makes sense.
It's not easy to beat the bad teams like it
used to be. There's not going to be a lot
of unless Minnesota goes to Iowa forty one three blowoups,
Like yeah, because I don't think Minnesota's a bad team,
but they had a crap day, and like they're the
middle of the road average two above average team depending

(36:34):
on the Saturday. Like, it's just it's harder to beat
the bad teams than it's ever been.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
I think it's fair to say.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
Yes, because it's just the talent's so spread out.

Speaker 5 (36:43):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah, and it's home.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
I mean, for whatever reason with these eighteen to twenty
three year old specifically being at home matters. I mean,
there's no team that personifies that more than your Golden Gophers,
who are six and oh at home and they're all
in three on the road. Like, the margin for air
within the Big Ten is just again, it's any given Saturday,
who's at home, who's not. And that's where I even

(37:06):
think about a team or a game this weekend, like
Northwestern Michigan. Yeah, Michigan's got to travel down play at
Wrigley Field.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
That'll be an interesting environment.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
I will also say, I don't understand for the life
of me why the Gophers Northwestern game got six day
flex like every other game did, because isn't.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
Historically here every Wrigley Field game at eleven a m
under the lights.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
I don't have the I don't have.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
But I'm like the history of Wrigley Field football behind
my I don't have that book. I'm not sure.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
I'm not sure what shock anyone at all if Northwestern
either wins the game outright, I mean Northwestern stuck with
USC and then there was the whole quarterback punter number
thing that got like an explanation. I mean it was
like almost on site kick. Michigan asked after with how
quickly that everything was ramified?

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, you know under alignment, having a pick or out there,
they had to pick six turned into a touch back
Northwestern and then USC scored on the next play. I think, Yeah,
that's devastating. That's like Glenn Mason Gopher stuff, you.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
I've a few of those where you.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Can't believe that you just saw that, like a pick six,
You think everything's changing, and then no touch back of
the USC houses in the next play.

Speaker 5 (38:30):
Yeah. Yeah, it's you know, it's uh, this league is showing.
It's like if you don't show up, if you're flat
or whatever, you're going to lose and or or it's
going to be a more competitive game than it should be,
and you may come out on top, but it's you're right.
I think the right way to say is it's harder
to beat the bad teams than it used to be,

(38:53):
transfer portal, whatever reason we want to say, just better recruiting,
what have you. But to go back to Indiana game,
and I don't know if Mendoz is gonna win the Heisman.
I think he's going to be one of him or
this is.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
Me asking you to give your your Hesman VP right now,
Chip because I already know you turn in your ballot.

Speaker 5 (39:10):
You'll be getting your baout soon. You know, there's always
a Heisman moment, right The Heisman winner always has a
moment and if he if he wins it. That play
and that drive, I mean the final catch was an
all timer, but they were like three catches on that driver.
Like these guys just make ridiculous plays and ridiculous throws

(39:33):
like that that drive will you know, if they go
into the playoffs and do something even if done like
people will talk about that drive and certainly that catch forever.
But that was I did get to see some you know,
I think people are you know, uh, we're tweeting it
out so when I was in the hospital, was like
seeing every play that was happening. I was like, this
feels like a Heisman moment, you know.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
For this quarterback after Penn it was either Penn State
would heat him up and sack him for like a
dramatic loss of eight yards, or he'd throw an absolute
dot in the heat of pressure. And Indiana receivers do
not drop balls. Burnsy, you always talk about contested catches
and things of that nature, like we don't talk enough

(40:16):
about them, right because they are very, very good. And
talk about Oregon going in and taking some punches and
winning some games. Indiana's done the same thing, right Iowa City.
They had to battle that one to the end, make
a play at the end of the game. And then
obviously what happened Saturday and what I liked about it.
I'm curious what you guys think about this. I really
wanted Penn State to win, just because I like the underdog,

(40:37):
even though Penn State's not. I think the cooler story
was Penn State, you know, finally getting something. But I
like the fact that had Indiana lost that game in
the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't have hurt them
that they'd still be a playoff team, you know, yea,
they if they won the rest of their games like
that wasn't going to eliminate them from the playoffs. So

(40:58):
I kind of watched it with so there's pressure, of course,
you want to win the game they're playing for, you know,
home field and number one overall seed potentially at the
Big Ten title game. Obviously that would have been you know,
maybe up in the air if they lost that game.
But I just like the fact that, like they could
have dropped that one and no one would have said,
I'll told you, Indiana is terrible. Like we've been saying

(41:18):
for two years. They have enough equity now where they
could be a one lost playoff team And I like
that with twelve.

Speaker 5 (41:24):
Well that's what I like. Yeah, that's what I like
about it because as much as you know it created
drama when it was you know, certainly two teams or
four teams, it always seems kind of counter productive to
be like a team loses in early October, well they're out,
they're done. There's you know, they can't recover from this.

(41:45):
It's like, well, why they didn't if they didn't play
bad and they just lost to in a good game,
that you should knock them out of being one of
the best teams. And I was, I was, I'm all
in on the Indiana man. I want them to go
win the national title. I just think that coach is
a cool dude. I like the way he approaches things.

(42:05):
What was it, uh he got asked on the sideline,
was it Jenny Taff ask them about Indiana's never won here?
And he's like, this team hasn't played here. Yeah, it's
a great response, and like and then his other one
is like, there's is no concern. Let's just go fly
around and be aggressive and play. His mentality approaches is

(42:26):
like filtered throughout that program and what he's done there.
I think they're just an incredible story and so but
you're right, it's like they're one of the best. They
are one of the you know, even if they lost
their one of the twelve best teams. I mean, they
should be able to be a play you know, they
shouldn't knock him out of anything. So that's why I
like to expand the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Anything else about that game bury no.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
I think or even again, I think those three teams
from the Big ten are very worthy and I wouldn't
be surprised to see Indiana, Oregon or Ohio State, I
mean make a deep run in the playoff or not
win this thing. I think any Ena is absolutely worthy.
I mean you mentioned Heisman earlier. We haven't really talked
about it yet, and I know, oh good for us.
All three of us are Heisman voters. But it's an

(43:13):
interesting year with just a few weeks left, because I mean,
I think all three of us all speak for myself,
like there's always been kind of a non traditional guy
in terms of say Aiden Hutchinson a couple of years
ago from Michigan. When you think about that national championship
team or even Travis Hunter last years.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
It feels like this.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
Year it's very quarterback heavy, whether you want to say
Julian Sayan, Bernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson, Diego Pavilla. I mean,
there are some other guys like the Notre Dame back
and among others, and it used to be the Miami
defensive lineman before Miami's kind of falling out of the
discussion here.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
But curious where you guys are at here now. Again
we're not saying who we're voting for and anything like that, but.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
How do you kind of view this Heisman thing shaping
up with just a few weeks to go.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Well, it has been you know, for the president of
the Minnesota Chapter.

Speaker 5 (44:06):
Yeah, that's right. For stretches there, it was a quarterback award.
It became that right because it was just all, you know, quarterbacks.
I think it's going to be similar to that this
year because the quarterbacks on the best teams are playing
at a really high level right and it's hard to overlooked.
At mean, you know, I love when there's a you know,

(44:30):
non quarterback that does something, whether it's Hunter or Aiden
Hutchinson or you know, a defensive player does something. But
I just think the quarterbacks are playing so good right now,
and their stories are so good, their teams are so good.
So I I don't know if all the finals are
in New York are going to be quarterbacks, but I
wouldn't be surprised.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Yeah, I feel like it's QB.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
I just feel it's because like what Chip said, you
think about like Mendoza coming to Indiana, what's that?

Speaker 2 (45:00):
What that meant? You know, Pavia going to Vanderbilt.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Now he won't end up you know, because they've dropped
a game, you know, they've dropped some here. He's not
gonna end up in the same category probably, But two
three weeks ago we understood why he was right because
he was playing so well and they were winning, and
they were a national story and the whole deal. What's
interesting is saying is gone from a guy that Ryan
da didn't let throw a pass against Texas to you know,

(45:24):
and he even said he goes he probably could have
done more, but we wanted to play it close to
the vest or whatever. He goes from that to all
of a sudden, shoot, he might be the favorite, like
if he keeps playing like this, but then how do
you how do you eliminate like his best wide receiver,
like Jeremiah Stith. Like you guys remember Tyler Warren was

(45:47):
like my wild card last year. I was like, if
I always like to do a wild card for third place,
I mean, you know, sue me, google me.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
So I don't know, maybe that'll be my wild card
this year. I haven't thought too deeply about it.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
But other than that, I can't see many getting past
many quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
Yeah, I mean, I love what Jeremiah Love is doing
for Notre Dame.

Speaker 4 (46:13):
And we'll see what ends up.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Happening with the Notre Dame discussion, or even like Rvel
Reese for that Ohio State defense, Like the Ohio State
defense has just been again they're the number one defense
in college football. And as much as it is Julian saying,
and he's throwing at two first round receivers too, like
I mean, Dante Moore, I'm sure is going to be
in this discussion with the way he continues to play.
It's but it does feel like a very quarterback type

(46:38):
of heavy one. Now, again, we'll see how this thing
shakes out with a few weeks to go. But after
a couple of years of non traditional guys whereas you,
I mean you mentioned Tyler Warren, you got to Travis Hunter,
Aiden Hutchinson going back a couple of years more, It
is very interesting to see how this thing's gonna end
up shaking out.

Speaker 5 (46:57):
Well, And you know, a lot could happen to me
now and the end the season, towards the end of it.
But the voting is going to be fascinating. It's going
to be a close vote, I think, because I think
there's gonna be a lot of opinions on you know,
most times it's we all can guess who it is,
right or the top two. I'm not sure as we
sit here today you would find a consiensus on the

(47:17):
top two, which.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Is why I like it. I think that's cool.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
I'm also and I hate that I even have to
say this, but it's like, all right, I think as
I'm pulling up the odds here what they are at
least on FanDuel in the top three are Julian San,
Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson. It's too big ten and
one sec. I say this with the utmost peace and
love to the South. Chip, are your folks going to

(47:41):
actually vote or big ten guys over say Ty Simpson
or you know Marcel Reid at Texas A and m
per Se.

Speaker 5 (47:51):
Well, that's what I'm saying, is like, you know, we
have a couple more games to let this thing play out.
But you know in the South, Simpson is going to
get a lot of votes as he you know, and
he's had.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
Like there's a lot of great choices.

Speaker 5 (48:05):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. If you said who's your
top two right now, You're going to get a lot
of different opinion. Top three I think most people would
say those guys would be your top three. But there
might be other people that say yeah, you know, love
or saying I mean, I mean, or the Texas A
and M.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (48:21):
So, but Simpson is going to get a lot of
votes in the South.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
Yeah, this thing is going to be very interesting as
we get a lot closer to thanks him. And I'll
say that I think it's going to be very fun.
And I know that we don't have to make our
ballots public, but I think three of us we do
talk about it on here.

Speaker 4 (48:38):
I think I seed out too.

Speaker 5 (48:40):
Yeah we did last year.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
Yeah, it's like I feel like this is a great
year to do show your work, Like why why did
you vote the way you do? For such Again, it's
a very prestigious award and I know again, hell, three
of us are honored to do it, but like why
you got to where you got to? I feel like
the process is as important as you ever as ever
and something.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Like this, I'm gonna be like that top twenty five
voter and say I didn't put any thought into it
because that went over That went over well for her.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Yeah, that ended really well for her.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
So in our final couple of minutes, Burns, you mentioned it,
Chris McIntosh. The idea Wisconsin did basically a media tour.
You know, it was very calculated media blitz. If you
have a show or a podcast, if we were repairing
to Sparreon, Wisconsin, we'd be talking to Chris McIntosh right now.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
Yeah, how about that?

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Because he basically got up and did the rounds, talk
to everybody, ESPN Madison, ESPN, Milwaukee newspapers, the Athletic, all
of it on three rivals, two four seven.

Speaker 5 (49:41):
But you have to considering the temperature over there. You
had to do that.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
But the main point he was making was or announcement
was where Chris McIntosh is coming back or I'm sorry,
Luke Fickel is coming back for year four and the
institution is committed to providing better resources to the football
program to make sure that we get back to eating
that championship level where we expect the Wisconsin Badger football
program to be. General reaction to all of this, Burnsey.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
It had to have been to me that behind the scenes,
you couldn't find money to buy them out and also
hire somebody who you thought was going to be better
than the results that you were going to get with
Fickle for next year. Now that's a very arbitrary discussion
point of who would have been better. Could they have
gotten say, Lancelipold to come back, Could they have gotten

(50:31):
Jason Eck, Could they have gotten Jake Dickert again, a
couple of Wisconsin natives right there. But I just cannot
imagine the amount of vitril that was flowing in. And
how vindicated do you think that he felt when Fickle's
team actually stood up and they had a very i'll
say Minnesota versus Purdue or Minnesota versus Michigan State type

(50:55):
of performance where they got out rushed and out gained,
but they had a couple of turnovers that they're able
to do. I mean, you look up at the scoreboard
and the win probability wasn't very good. Now, the Gophers
have been the beneficiary of that a couple of times,
but it is fascinating chip to see they put out
the call for money, and my assumption is that they

(51:15):
couldn't find it. So, yeah, we're not going to pay
the twenty something million dollar buyout because we don't think
we can get anything better if we are going to
have to put the buyout, right.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
Yeah, I mean it's the buyout probably played a rolling
or maybe it was the driving factor. I was surprised.
If money's not a if money wasn't a factor, does
this happen? Probably not, is my guess, because you know,
the temperature there is hot, you know, and ready for

(51:46):
a change, And.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
I would say it's the opposite. It's frozen.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
It's frozen. Yeah, it's empathy now like things are.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Going yeah, yeah, but either way.

Speaker 5 (51:54):
And how do you because you know, you guys know
we've done this so long that so much of this
is public perception and optics and selling and marketing. What
do you sell to your fan base that with this
regime that says this is what we see that we
think is going to get better right now? The only
thing I could say is they've had some terrible luck

(52:18):
at quarterback with injuries in his time, like just terrible luck.
So you could say, Okay, he one, he hasn't been
given enough time and you got to have some patience.
I agree with that. And guards you, I think you
said you just cycling coaches. Is recycling coaches is never
really the answer. He said terrible luck with his quarterbacks.
Now I think he made a fundamental flaw with the offense.

(52:40):
He chose coming in there with the air raid. That
was not it was just a bad fit, right. I
think he would probably if he if he gave him
true serve, he'd probably say, I blew that right, Like
I thought he was a home run higher when they
did it. I don't think he's a bad coach. Now,
maybe it's a bad fit, and maybe he made a
bad mistake picking his offense. But maybe that's what they're

(53:00):
telling him too, is like, Okay, let's let us play
a little bit more of the money. The buyouts way
more than we can digest right now. We don't have
that money. Let's give him instead, it's spend a twenty million.
Let's give him a million dollars to go find a
quarterback in the portal and see if that can help
kind of turn this thing around.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
What's going to be the fascinating part for Iowa and Wisconsin.
He's going to be who do they get out of
the portal to play quarterback for them next year. I
don't think they want to turn it over now. I
know Wisconsin finds a way to win a football game
where the punter is the highest passing yardage.

Speaker 4 (53:30):
Man, I don't know that I've.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
Seen that too many times in my lifetime. But that's
how you win a football game as an on five
football team sometimes. And I know that they like the
Carter Smith kid who came in and he was essentially
just running.

Speaker 4 (53:43):
For them, doing a lot of running back there.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
But like I am very curious because he went and
during his rounds is talking about how we're going to
put a lot of money into this football program.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
Okay, what's a.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Lot of money and what does that mean? Where?

Speaker 4 (53:59):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (54:00):
From? And from?

Speaker 1 (54:00):
What is it from rev share? Or is it we
have to go raise, we have to find more NIL deals?
Is it hiring more support staff? Like what does that mean?
Because that is an arbitrary statement.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
So is it going from say twelfth in the Big
ten and how you're allocating your house settlement money to sixth?
But even that that's percentage points, I mean, because they're
all very very similar to one another. But did you
find a donor willing to give an additional three to
five million for NIL for you to go out and
upgrade your offense?

Speaker 4 (54:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
But it's going to be a fascinating January because with
the one portal and the one portal window where you
got to hit the portal by I think mid January
to find a new home.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
We're going to see.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
How they again, if they get to swing above their
boots a little bit like then you're going to see, yeah,
they actually did, at least in our opinions, like get
some more money to go, get some higher profile guys
that they were battling. But if they kind of remain
where they were and you kind of see who they
get at quarterback now again, Billy Edwards has been hurt

(55:08):
the entire year and I'm sure the only game he'll
be back for is the Gopher game at.

Speaker 4 (55:12):
The end of the season, because that's how the thing goes.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
But you're such a Minnesotan.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
I've seen it too many times again.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
I even think about who is the Iowa quarterback, like
a few years back, who the starter gets hurt and
then he just chucking bombs to Charlie Jones.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
Alex Yeah, yeah, yeah, how.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Do you forget that game? Grim brings it up to
you every time he sees.

Speaker 4 (55:36):
In between his love for Derek Shelton though.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
Yeah, yeah, it's it is an interesting move by Wisconsin's
athletic director. But I just come back to they must
not have been able to find the money to feasibly
do it. And I understand profit and loss, and I
understand they got to run a budget, but like they
must not have had the donor support to make the move.
So if you don't, then yeah, you got to go

(56:00):
all back in, Luke Fickle.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
That is the interesting thing about Wisconsin is because we
all have the perception of Camp Randall and jump around
in Rose Bowls and Ron Day and Barry Alvarez, and
it's just been this money factory for thirty years. They're
not in Ohio State or Michigan in terms of how
they spend it, right, And that's not a criticism, like
so I hope nobody takes that as a but that

(56:23):
was part of the reason why Gary Anderson left right
or Brett Bielma, wasn't you know he first of all,
people were bored with him there a little bit, which
to me is hilarious because he had taken you to
three Rose bowls, so cal him down. But assistant salaries
were not where they probably should have been, right Burnsey,
They definitely weren't under Barry Gary Anderson kind of the

(56:43):
same thing, like, you know, wasn't you know getting the
help from admissions that he wanted. Wasn't getting the help,
you know, from salary stuff that he wanted for the staff.
So they're not one of these you know, money's free,
you know, smoke him if you got them crazy schools
where that you know, Jean's Smith's going. Yeah, we went
thirty million in the red because we wanted to be
good at football. That's not happening at Wisconsin. So in

(57:08):
even that you mentioned the donors, like their biggest donor
a couple of weeks ago basically said, I don't know
why we would fire him, Like once that comment's out there,
you don't have your big, big money guy, like, you've
got no chance because they also don't have they have
some corporate support. They obviously have donors, but they don't
have they don't have the Phil Knight either, you know,
or a guy that's just feeding money constantly. So I'm

(57:31):
sure part of it played into it. Honestly, I'm glad
you guys know how I feel about the whole situation.
Like I think the whole situation has been jacked up
from the beginning. Of course, he made a mistake and
how he wanted to run the offense, and he probably
doesn't connect as well as you know a guy who
played there or one of them. But I mean, I
don't need to go through all the things that have
bothered me about this thing, but I'm glad. I feel

(57:53):
happy for the players that they've hung in and like
actually got rewarded, especially the defense who's shown up pretty
much every week. Right If I'm if I'm a Badger fan,
I'm looking for a thin read of hope in this
situation is that, yeah, they've gotten blown out a couple
of times, but it's not because the defense didn't show up.
It's because the offense could move the ball and the

(58:13):
dam burst a couple of times. Like they've been ready
to go, you know, they were ready to go against Michigan,
they were ready to go against Iowa, and then the
dam burst and it's over. So I'm fascinated to see
where it goes because it's not a popular decision over there,
as you can imagine.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
But he probably isn't making it for the right reason.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
But we'll see what they mean when they say invest
at a higher level, and then what does next year
have to be for them?

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Then?

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Because that's the other thing. Do you think you're just
gonna pull up on a ten and two in the
new Big Ten. I don't know what their schedule looks like,
but it's hard to you know, are you gonna be
okay with a six and six or seven and five
because that's going to be team six through sixteen probably
next year?

Speaker 2 (58:53):
Are you is that going to be progress?

Speaker 5 (58:55):
Well that's the other thing. You know, you look at
their schedule this year, you're and realistically, even if you
had a good team, what was your record going to
be when you played that schedule?

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Right?

Speaker 5 (59:05):
And then you add on top of it, you lose
two quarterbacks? Now, what's your schedule going to be? So,
I mean there's there was things that there are arguments for,
and we know like when things go bad, the first
reaction is fire everybody right where you know, anytime the
Vikings lose the game, they want to fire Kevin O'Connell,
right like, that's that's the natural reaction. But when you

(59:25):
sit there and think it and you start adding, okay,
the buyouts umongus, we don't have, you know, the donors
that were willing to do that. The schedule is tough.
The quarterback things, it makes sense if you sit back
and you actually put down the reasons why you want
to move forward with him. It makes sense. But it's

(59:46):
also like when you look out there and see a
half empty stadium and fans are saying, where's this thing going?
It's it's hard to ignore that too, you know, because
you're you need fans to come to your games to
support it.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
You know, it's so bad that the their students are
getting appendectomies after watching the game's.

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
I'd rather be in the hospital getting appendect.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
It's hard to distinguish stomach pains from watching football or
my appendix burst. Like that's what these mot kids in
Madison are having to go through right now.

Speaker 5 (01:00:15):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Yeah, anything else fellas how the voice hold up? You
think I can better?

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
As it went on, I think Newports the Camel Blues,
things kind of evened out for you.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
On that end.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
I went unfiltered.

Speaker 5 (01:00:29):
Just I will say, I'm I will leave with this
part of thing. I'm incredibly jealous of you guys. You know,
Oregonson Stadium has long been on my bucket list and
I was hoping I could do it, but not in
the cards. So enjoy it. It's one of you know,

(01:00:50):
college football best spots. Loudest spots. I'm just completely jealous
that I don't get to be there and experience it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
I mean, nothing's stopping me from heavy. Your wife put
your credit card in the Delta app. That's true, I
mean nothing. Say it doesn't always have to be a
freebe chipper, you know, as Mace would say, to work. Yeah, yeah,
well you don't have to go to work. Just come out.
Look at your ticket. I can find a ticket for you.
There's a lot of Gopher fans hopefully making the trip.

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
Yeah, there's gonna be a lot there.

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
And trust me when I say from this audience and
I know there's a lot of you, they could find
a ticket for misters theres find.

Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
Me a tailgate two that'd be fun.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Oh, We've got all that. We've got all that. I've
also done some due diligence on a friend of mine
has a friend who hasn't like essentially a yacht in Seattle,
that maybe we'll work on some salegating possibilities next year
when the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Golfers going to Washington.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
So we're just putting that out there, so we'll see,
we'll see friend of a friend, friend of a friend
of the pod so we'll be we'll be in good
shape out there, all right. Well, yeah, I think I'm
ready for Gophers Marquette tonight. I think I'm ready to go.

Speaker 5 (01:01:58):
You did good man, you made it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
I think I'll be ready. So again, John and Jessica,
I have a great wedding. If you're listening to this
because you have nothing else going on this week, I
hope you're spending time listening to your favorite college football podcast.
Make your reservations at Jackscafe dot com and we will
talk to you next week on the parentis Bear Podcast