2025 Week Six Review: Buckeyes Rout Gophers, Defense, Penn State Problems

Chip Scoggins, Ryan Burns and Justin Gaard are back to discuss the Ohio State rout of the Gophers: What started nicely ended quickly as the defense couldn't stop them and the offense couldn't sustain anything after the first drive. The next month will tell the tale of the season with 3 of the next 4 games at home. The guys wrap up the show talking about a Mark Coyle comment that got some attention and the Penn State problem after losing to UCLA.

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.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Thank you, PJ.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
It is time for another edition of the Parent a
Spare Podcast. I'm justin guard from the fan, Chipscoggins from
the Minnesota Star Tribune and Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated
dot com. We are presented as always by our great
partners and great friends at Jack's Cafe. You see it
on the bottom of the YouTube channel right now. You
can make your reservations at Jackscafe dot com Jaxcafe dot com.

(00:26):
How are we doing, guys? Did everybody recover from another
night game? Burnsey, how are you feeling? How's your sleep?
And are you ready for another night game this weekend
at Huntington Banks Stadium.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Banes of my existence outstanding opportunities for fans to get
to see. This is one of the things we talk
about with Jack'scafe. By the way, because of these night games.
You know what you get an opportunity to do on
a weekend morning or early afternoon is if you want
to earn some Brownie points each of the next two weeks,
this is your opportunity. With two night games go to
a brunch, Go get some lunch whatever it may be,

(00:59):
a jack and then you get to spend the whole
day and then come on over to see me. Chip
and Guardsy over a hunting a bank. I got a
couple hours of sleep, but I know Chip was tearing
up the nightclub scene from what I've told.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
I made it back to watch the second half to
my hotel. That tells you how old I am in
my nightclub scene. But yes, in New York City, my
daughter moved from I guess Chicago wasn't big enough and
lively enough or so she had to move from Chicago
to New York City for a job transfer.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
So my wife and I went for the weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:32):
To help her get settled in, make sure everything was
put away in her new apartment. And so we uh
that was there Friday, Saturday and flew home late Sunday,
So almost three full days there.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Give us the rundown. Give us the.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Because you know, I'm very jealous. I'm excited, I know,
jealous of your daughter. I would live in New York
in a second, Burns you would have no shot. He
would hate every second of it. I could do there tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
It's uh, it's definitely. I don't you know.

Speaker 5 (02:00):
I'm trying to think if I was young when I
want to do it, I could. I can totally understand
walking through there at night and all the and she's
in that kind of Lower east Side, West Village east Side,
you know, all those neighborhoods that are so trendy, and
it is amazing walking around there at night, and all
the streets that are closed off and all the restaurants

(02:21):
and bars that have the I mean it's not patio seating,
it's street seating. You're up there, sidewalk seating. Yeah on
just amazing. I mean just street after street after street,
and all the young professionals that are out there. It's
you know, it is chaotic and energetic and noisy. Maybe

(02:42):
a little bit too much for my small town, southern upbringing,
but my daughter loves an adventure and she's all in.
I mean, she's you know, she thinks she's found heaven.
And so it was a fun weekend.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
It was.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
I'm happy for her and happy for all those young
people that the experience. And I was texted with you about,
you know, the bars to go to and there's you know,
nine million of them that you could stop. And I
didn't hit nine million, but we hit a few of
them and uh.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Not too wild. I was so tired from walking and
helping her move and put stuff together for apartment. But
it is a it is an interesting, fascinating it is
a scene.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, so did you not were you not able to
do the brick oven pizza? Were you not able to
go to Brooklyn?

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Because we did, Actually we did go to Brooklyn.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
Where she lives is just a short subway right over there.
You can see the Brooklyn Bridge right from her apartment.
So we we did make it over to Brooklyn. But
oddly enough, we went to Target because we had to
make a Target run. We had to buy some uh
some things there. So yeah, but.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
It was fun. Yeah, and I'm I'm you know, it's
tough to have a little bit farther away than Chicago,
but it'll be fun to go.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Visit Burnsy you ready to lock in, ready to go
cover Rutgers football and live in Manhattan.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
I just want to know if Chip paid the New
York City bar prices of what I'm sure is eighteen
bucks for a michelob or whatever.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 5 (04:18):
You know, we actually found some places that were morecono.
But yeah, I actually paid bought some twelve dollars beers.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Which I don't know. Is that different than a lot
of places not to meet. It's not that couple dollars more. Yeah,
it's not that different.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
You're spending too much time on You spend too much
time on Facebook.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
You're spending too much time on Facebook. Burns y.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, if you want to spend fifty dollars a drink
in New York, yes, you certainly can. But you don't
have to. You don't have to go to those places.
They have something for everybody. I'm not saying you're going
to get a dollar you call. It's like you're in
a college town. But you can find something that's a
little bit more economical.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
As chip Or said, But as I say, you know,
dinner Friday night in little Italy, I'm most splurge a
little bit.

Speaker 4 (05:02):
As you should.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, you've earned it, You earned it all right.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Speaking of splurging, the Ohio State Offense had a feast,
So did the Ohio State Defense.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Look at that transition.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
That's why I'm in charge, why I have the big bike.
You're the pro on the YouTube channel. Yeah, it was
a feast. The training wheels were taken off. My line
during the broadcast was people wanted to know if Julian
Sayin's training wheels were going to be taken off. I said,
not only were the training wheels taken off, he was
given an e bike. He didn't even ride a regular bike.
He went right from and Bernsley doesn't have kids.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
He doesn't get it.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
The training wheels, regular bike e bike that are going
forty miles an hour down residential streets, and towns are
trying to have to figure out exactly should this be legal?
Should be lett nine year olds run around on little
mini motorcycles?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
That was Julian saying.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Unfortunately for the Ohio State Buck guys, if you're a
Gopher fan, the training wheels were taken off. Burnsy and
I know you got a lot of thoughts.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
I'm still trying to picture nine year olds on an
e bike. I didn't know that was a thing.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Come on over, yes it is.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Come on over and just stare out the window and
I'll be like you used to put the you know,
slow children at play, which my late uncle had a
great lines. You'd always say it's too bad those kids
are so slow.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Just come up.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
You put the slow children at play sign out, not
for adults anymore. You put it for kids tearing through
the block. And of course what do my kids want?
They want e bikes, And I said, nope, we're not
getting you those. So come on over, Burns any time
you want to see it. We've got like we're basically
like a Hell's Angel motorcycle gang of e bikes over
here in Minnetonka.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
It's it's a ride, no pun intended.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
The Minnetonka. Something's over there. Look at just I don't goodness, gracious,
I'm learning all types of things today. Yeah, the Gopher defense.
Here's my question to you two. And I wrote about
it after the game, and I know that's why guards
he brings it up and Chip, I'll ask you first,
what is the And it's not just the Ohio Steak game,
it's all three the last three games again, powerful competition.

(07:01):
What is the identity of this Gopher defense?

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, it's it's going into it the season. I thought
it would be.

Speaker 5 (07:12):
The frontline of Anthony Smith, Devon Eastern and Company wreaking
Havoc and Coy Perrits and Kerry Brown playing center field
and and making plays and and creating turnovers.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Clearly is not that right now, I went back.

Speaker 5 (07:29):
I was looking at the national rankings for takeaways this season,
and again we're not counting game two. That doesn't count.
To me, I'm sorry, you get four turnovers against that team,
it doesn't count other than that game. Two turnovers in
four games.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Worse for you.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
And tell you they have two defensive takeaways in their
last seven FBS games.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's that's gonna be hard to win.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
It's I and I asked the head coach about it yesterday.
Loves talk about the tight percent explosive plays, turnover margin,
and miss tackles. They've missed forty five tackles their last
three games. The Gopher defense has they have two defensive
takeaways in their last seven games, and they don't get
enough pressure to generate explosive plays around the quarterback. And

(08:15):
when you're also not getting takeaways through the air, you
get to have discussions like this one to lead off
podcasts across the country of what do they do well
right now? And I don't know that they do much
particularly well because in those three games against cal Rutgers
in Ohio State, they're also not getting off the field.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
On third down.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
There's sixteenth in the conference at fifty four percent of
third downs are being converted against them. I just I
don't know that they got the horses. That's and that's
one of the other things I'll pose to you too,
is Fleck loves to talk about three things when he's evaluating.
So let's do the same thing the head coach does.
Is it players? Is it coaching or is it scheme?

(08:55):
That have you the most worried considering where we've what
we've had to watch here these last three weeks.

Speaker 5 (09:03):
Is players tied to scheme and that they know they
can't do certain things. I think you're probably one in
the same correct.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
They're they're closely tied together.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, yeah, I did.

Speaker 5 (09:12):
I didn't realize the third down was that bad. I mean,
I knew they were having trouble. I didn't realize it
was over fifty percent. And I go back a couple
of years ago.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
I mean, you remember they were up towards the top nashally,
and that's why they always rank so high in time
and position, because they ran the ball and then when
the opponent got it, they got the field on third down,
and so the time of possession got skewed.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
But if you're not getting off the third down and
you're not creating turnovers, then you're not doing really anything well,
but you're not stopping them and you're not creating as
close to play. So I just thought with their playmakers
that this would be a team. I thought they would
give up yardage because they had so many questions at

(09:53):
their corners and.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
In their depth.

Speaker 5 (09:56):
But I thought they had enough playmakers that they would
create turnovers to kind of offset that.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
They should.

Speaker 5 (10:04):
Yeah, they should when you look at them, the players
that they have, I mean they have you know, parrots,
Kerry Brown, Anthony Smith createing sacks, and I mean they
should have guys that create these kind of opportunities.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
But it's.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
It's not happening.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, I don't know scheme well enough.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
I'm not Daniel House, even though I am a subscriber
to Gophers guru dot com and I think everybody should
be because he explains things very well. They're just so inconsistent.
Burns Ey like even just the Rutgers game. The Rutgers
game was a tale of like four different defensive stories
right that they couldn't do anything for the first couple
of minutes or first couple of possessions, first three really,

(10:44):
then Rutgers couldn't do anything, and they sacked them how
many times?

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Six times?

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, six or seven times, and all of a sudden,
it looks like, wow, they understand how to get pressure.
They obviously had the turnovers there and they probably could
have had more. Even the cow game, like the quarter
plays pretty well. Then they shut that down for a
little bit, get some pressure. Well guess what. Then call
of a sudden starts running the ball in the third
quarter out of nowhere, and it's almost like they're just
half step behind and everything, and and you know, the

(11:12):
playmaker stuff like Koy could have had a pick on
Saturday night right like he was one inch away from
having a pick right at the goal line. I'm assuming
Ohio State scored in that drive, because they scored on
like they scored on like every single drive. But I
just feel like there's been a lot of those too,
of just half step slow, half step behind. Whether that's

(11:33):
not seeing something quickly enough, whether that's you're doing something
else you shouldn't be, whether you're just not good enough.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
I don't know. We'll see how it goes this weekend.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Well, the takeaways tend to be.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
That's one of those things it's hard to quantify because
they know you can do all the right things and
just not they not come right.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
You don't get opportunities. The tackling is a problem.

Speaker 5 (11:55):
And if we go back to that Rutgers game, that
last drive, I mean they got bailed out by a
bad you know, bat snap missing whatever eighthan not how
many tackles they miss on that drive where the you know,
a guy bounces off in a three yard game turns
into a thirteen yard game. Would you say the number
was Burnsey forty five and three game.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
I mean, that's just.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
You know, and I know it's you know, you can
practice it and do the thud and all the different
things that they try to simulate tackling because you're not
really tackling and you know, in practice. But to me,
that's the that is the probably the most glaring thing
is that they're giving up so many yards after what

(12:39):
should be short gains. Sure, and and it's probably I'm
guessing that's tied to the third down percentage too. Why
it's so high because of miss tackles.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
Yeah, I'd say guys are on the right spot. I
think you go back and watch the Ohio State game.
They missed a lot of tackles, but there's guys right
there to make the play in Ohio State makes a
miss instead of second and it's second and one are
a first down, or even against Rutgers guards, he references
the Koy Parritch one against Ohio State. Fleck has now
said it to me in the media the last two weeks,

(13:10):
catch the ones they throw you. Against Rutgers, they had
four or five of those where they could have come
away with them and they didn't. Some of it's bad luck,
some of it's a bad execution. But I think specifically
with the Ohio State game, I know a lot of
people and we see all of the comments and things
like that, is, well, Ryan, what do you expect they're

(13:31):
fifteen yards off or Ryan, they're playing press man, what
do you expect? I mean, Carnel Tait and Jeremiah Smith
are just insane, and so you got Picker Poison plus
Bo Jackson. I know it's not tech Mobile nineteen eighty five,
but he's a very good player too. It's just anything
they tried to do Ohio State just because of what

(13:52):
they have as a counter and so that's where you
look at the game coming up this weekend. Specifically, I
mean loves to throw the football. This is like Drew
brees Perdue with how often they're throwing the football right now.
Gopher defenses against power four quarterbacks, Chip, you're ready for
this one. Completing sixty eight percent of their passes for

(14:14):
two hundred and ninety passing yards per game. They've got
eight passing touchdowns in just one interceptions. There's going to
be some points. Put up a hunting a bank on
Saturday night is the way I view it. But for
Danny Danny Collins, Minnesota defensive coordinator, I think the crux
of it is this. Anthony Smith is tremendous. He's got

(14:35):
sixteen and a half tackles for lost in his last
twelve games. But someone else on the defensive line needs
to do something because Dalen Logan Reading and Devin Eastern
have not been what I think you myself guards he
thought they were going to be coming into the season.
The Jackson Howard and Carter Mens. I think Carter Mens
has been getting better, but they need to find ways

(14:57):
to move quarterbacks off their spots. Because you watched Julian saying,
I mean he he had all the time in the world.
He never got moved and he if you don't, if
you have time, and with Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tait, may
the Lord bless you and keep you chipper.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Well that's it.

Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah, I mean, you're right, and we I mean we
thought that their their starting defensive line would would be
impactful and be really good. So far it's just been
basically one guy who's been really good. So yeah, you
need the Logan ratings and those guys to to show up.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
And and we saw.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
It too, like when they didn't get pressure on Athan,
he was able to sit back there and pick him apart.
And then they got pressure on him and he disrupted him.
But early on they weren't getting pressure on him and
he just kind of sat back there and found his guy.
So that's that's the And we've said it from the beginning.
It's like they're not good enough in to back in

(15:50):
to think that they're gonna win there. They're gonna need help,
whether it's whether it's where yeah, the corners, and you're
you know, it's tough because like you know, I got
to see the second game, second half of that game,
is like the talent discrepancy on the two sides was
just reflected in the score.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
I mean, it made it.

Speaker 5 (16:11):
They made it look pretty easy with pitch and catch,
you know, nestor trying to cover those receivers, which is
not gonna work.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
You know. I mean.

Speaker 5 (16:22):
And Ohio State, I think they're the best team in
the country. I think, you know, I think, as I
said last year, when they play at their if all
teams are playing at their best, I think Ohio State's
the best. Like you know, if they play at their peak,
they're gonna be tough to beat. But you still got
to find a way to you know, generate something, you know,

(16:45):
And this is like to me, these next four I've
been thinking about this since I saw the quote from PJ.
We're a good football team. Forget whether we're good football team.
To me, these next four games are going to either
show that or not show it.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's your season. Yeah, the next time.

Speaker 5 (17:01):
I'm count I'm account Michigan State as October. But these
these next four games in October, evenough it's November. First Perdue, Nebraska, Iowa,
Michigan State.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Three of those are at home. This is your season.

Speaker 5 (17:15):
This is your chance to say, is this a good
team that's just obviously not in the same category as
the elite teams. I don't know what we PJ say
this is a good team. I don't think I can
sit here and say this right now. Say they agree
with him. They have to show it this month to me.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
Well, here's here's the thing I'll say back to you,
is Okay, we talk about that four game stretch. I
think they'll be favored in two of them, Perdue in
Michigan State. Two, they'll be underdogs at Kinnick and against
Friday night at home against Nebraska. What is a successful
now you can interpret that word specifically successful, What is
a successful run for that stretch four and four? Is

(17:55):
it two and Two's three and one? So four and oh?
How do you view it?

Speaker 1 (17:59):
If you're a good teams three and one?

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, I think three and one.

Speaker 5 (18:03):
If you're a good team, I say three and one.
If it's two and two, you're an average team. You're
an average team, big team, you know, Yeah, because if
you if you go two and two, I think you're
gonna finish seven and five more likely.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
I still got Northwestern in Wisconsin, Wisconsin.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, yeah, I think three and one means you're a
good team, which would be eight and four.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Technically, and that's what I said into the.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Average team would be seven and five probably. I mean,
one game makes that much difference.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
I don't know. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think
three and one. I mean, I just.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
I just don't really know what this team is yet.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
Which is strange to say considering Saturday is going to
be the halfway point of the season.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Am I wrong? Though?

Speaker 5 (18:51):
I mean, I just I don't get it. I don't
get a sense of what this team's good at. Yes,
I think the quarterbacks can be pretty good.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah, the quarterbacks good.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Their their best offensive player has been out since yeah
for a month, so that's part of it too. But
I think the quarterback's good. I'll talk about Darius in
a minute. But yeah, there's still yeah, there's a lot
still up in the air for sure, Like you don't,
there's a lot of more questions probably than answers. But
if the quarterback's good, I mean, it's nice to have
that one answered.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
I think.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
I think the thing I keep coming back to, like
we all thought they would get blown off the field. Sorry,
nothing there surprised me.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Now, Burns he will tell you I had a weird feeling. Yeah,
well there was just like no, I wasn't Maybe I
was just tired.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
But I'm like, you should have seen his cup but
was filled with maroon and gold color kool aid up
there in the press.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
But I'm watching UCLA beat Penn State. I'm watching all
this craziness. I'm like, man, I just think they'll play well.
And then the first drive, I'm like, yeah, perfect, this
is what you need. You have run seven minutes off
the clock and would have been nice to get a touchdown. Yeah,
that's why you don't bet your feelings.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:53):
But then I keep coming back to that that Cow game,
and they were so poor that game, you know, so
they they played poorly, you know, had a nice win
against Rutgers, even though the defense had.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Issues get blown off the field, you know, against Ohio State.

Speaker 5 (20:07):
So it's like, I don't know, I think that just
need to see more to kind of know like what
this team is.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
One of the things on my agenda for this week
is to look up what the record is for road
teams in night games Power four and Power four, because
I don't think it's very good this year. I think
about Illinois going into Indiana on a national televised game
and getting absolutely sucker punched in the face, and then
bouncing back. Minnesota's now had to play in two night

(20:37):
games and they've still got Oregon on a Friday night.
So I would imagine that hopefully in theory it bounces
back in Minnesota's direction, where now they've got two straight
night games at home. Hopefully it bounces back. But if
they're going to go three and one in that stretch,
which I think all three of us agree would be successful,
it's going to have to be because of Drake Lindsay

(20:58):
and the offense putting up thirty points a game that
there's just no way around it because of the things
we're talking about defensively, and Darius is back now, which
we can touch on, But if they're going to go
three and one in that stretch, we're going to spend
the first bye week talking about Drake Lindsay and Greg
Harbow and Darius Taylor having to carry the load for

(21:20):
this thing, because I just I don't know that I
see it defensively outside of it's tough for carry Brown
and cooy parrots to get interceptions when there's no pressure
on the quarterback that don't get to play center field
if you don't get any pressure around the guys. So
Danny Collins has got a lot to figure out with
how to get more pressure on quarterbacks coming up here.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
All right, So we talk about the offense quickly for
Ohio State and then we can pivot to some things
in our final half hour or so. Yeah, it looked
like a great first fifteen, right. The script looked good.
Whatever they came up with. They figured out, Yeah, we're
gonna move the ball a little bit against his defense.
They kicked the field goal, they're up three zero. They
got a stop too, right right after that, and so

(22:00):
you're thinking this is okay, solid. Obviously it didn't last.
Darius Taylor didn't last. I think eight carries right Burnssey
for twelve yards. You are way up there on the
top of Ohio Stadium with your own version of the
all twenty two?

Speaker 4 (22:13):
Is gracious? Are? I felt like I was watching the
game from thirty thousand feet up there?

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, I get I get afraid of heights at at Ohio.
I'm not gonna lie like I look out because it
feels like you're right off the booth. You're like oh Man, like,
I don't want to be anywhere near this edge. That's
how soft I am. But they want you to see
the band Burnsy. I know they want you to see
the band formation because it's a really good band. They
don't mind telling you.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
Yeah, well, hopefully I can get a press box seat
next time.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah I figured out that. Yeah we're not Yeah, we're
not going to do that. Yeah, what do you think?

Speaker 4 (22:51):
Yeah? The opening drive Ohio State had historically under Matt Patricia,
now only four games have been a very zone heavy team,
play a lot of zone in the opening drive. Lindsay
can understand how to find the soft spots on his own,
and he did, and it's unfortunate that his lone I
won't say a bad pass, but certainly wasn't a good one.
Was just a fingertip too far for Javon Tracey or

(23:12):
else that had been a touchdown on the opening drive.
They still get points, still, the first opening drive that
Ohio State has allowed points. But this is where Ohio
State is just different compared to Minnesota. Chip they said, Okay,
I'm gonna play man in Minnesota's skill position can't get
open against man, and then their offensive line which saw
four different guys at new spots, really struggled to keep

(23:35):
Drake up right. And when you can't run the football,
you can't get open on the outside against Ohio State's athletes.
That's kind of why you're gonna have one of eleven
night on third down.

Speaker 5 (23:45):
Yeah, and when you can't run the ball, obviously they
can just tee off on the freshman quarterie.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
What was the.

Speaker 5 (23:54):
What was the conversation about shuffling so many guys on
offensive line? That's to me, that's odd that you're halfway
through season and you don't even know what you're You're
moving four different guys on your offensive line.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Why did this not get settled in train camp?

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Well, my argument is why didn't they make these changes
off the bye week. You had a whole bye week
too if you wanted to, with three games of data
to shuffle things around. And now you decide to do
it for the first time in front of one hundred
and five thousand fans and you're doing a silent count
the entire game. I just don't think they're a very
physical offensive line. I think guys like Nathan Roy and

(24:33):
Greg Johnson are athletic. I think Ashton Beers is fine,
but I posed it to this way to PJ. Fleck yesterday,
is why don't you get knocked back up front? You
watch these these runs, and there's too many times, specifically
on the interior or the offensive line. By the time
the running back gets the football, both guards are two

(24:53):
of the three interior guys are three yards into the backfield.
That's not how this is supposed to go. Like, they
are just struggling to get any knock back. And I
hear everyone and I agree with them that third and
fourth and short. I looked into the statistics. They are
the worst conversion team in that regard. And I have

(25:13):
also said this the last couple of weeks. I think
Greg Harbow should take shotgun runs the third and fourth
and short and punt them to the moon, eviscerate them
in the ether. You can choose your phrase. I hate it.
I hate it so much. I just and Darius being
back now I think will help mitigate some of this.
But I'd also encourage folks go watch those runs and

(25:37):
go watch the offensive line get pushed into the backfield.
And we know that Fleck is adamant about running the
football there, and he's we've seen it, no matter the coordinator.
I just that's the one thing they got to figure
out is they stink in third and fourth and shorts.
And Darius Taylor missed the last three games and him
being back now and I expect a twenty carry workload

(25:59):
on Saturday against Purdue. But yeah, chip shotgun runs.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 5 (26:05):
I don't understand, especially you had two failed ones, you know,
against Rutgers at the end the first half, and it's like,
I don't, for a life of me understand why don't
you just go under center with a big quarterback and
sneak it or you know, give it because if you
feel like Darius is back, okay, that's going to improve that.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
But still it's.

Speaker 5 (26:26):
You're making it that much more difficult. Now you've got
to get six yards or seven yards when you're in
I don't. I just that baffles me, and I.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Would love to know.

Speaker 5 (26:38):
I wish we could have a conversation with them more
than you know, five questions at a press conference, like
what's the philosophy, What do you like about that formation
in shotgun when you're in third and one? Why do
you feel like that's effective versus being under center? You know,
they're gonna lose that game regardless. But it's just I
don't understand it. So when you said their last and

(27:01):
third and short, assume that's Big ten nun Yeah, that's a.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
Big time on look and that checks out like with
what you're thinking in your head. That adds up because
they have not been good at it. They have not
been good at it.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Yeah, it's and now you get to face a Purdue
team who is allowing thirty three points a game to
Power five competition. They've allowed more explosive passing plays than
any other Big ten team. They struggle to generate pressure
that they're a rebuilding team in year one. I mean
this is setting up to be a very Drake Lindsay
type of Rutgers performance if things go well. And this

(27:35):
isn't going to be Ohio State defensive backs locking you
down across the field. So I think they're going to
continue to mix things up up front because it can't
get any worse.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Again.

Speaker 4 (27:45):
I think Nathan Roy and Greg Johnson are a great
starting point, and I think Ashton Beers has been largely
fine in his first year. Is the guy at center.
It's it's khalite to five on a mel cart in somewhere.
Can we find him? Is he healthy yet? You paid
some money for him out of the portal. I'd love
to see him in a game at some point this year.
You saw Dylan Ray get replaced by the Pride of

(28:06):
Tracy Minnesota Tony Nelson in the second half. I would
keep mixing things up, Chip, because if you just keep
it the same. I think about that quote that's always
attributed to Albert Einstein of the definition of insanity is
doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Well,
just keep trying different things and eventually something's gotta work,

(28:28):
because I know that's starting five that they tried it
out in the non conference is not the answer.

Speaker 5 (28:32):
Sorry, I was just looking up the down conversions where
they ranked nationally. It's sixty eight nationally at forty percent.
But that's obviously probably skewed by.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
Yeah, and that's one of the last week against Ohio State.
You take out Ohio State, they've actually been pretty good
on third down, but.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
It might be skewed by the other you know, against
softer opponents too.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (28:51):
I understand juggling and trying to find your best combination there,
but I'm not sure that I just can't remember doing
this mid seas before where you're just basically saying, we
don't know who our best five linemen are and we're
just going to keep rotating and moving guys to different
spots and you know, until we figure out who they are,
which typically you do that in the off season and

(29:14):
training camp.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
To me, it just feels like, I don't know why
this wasn't settled, and.

Speaker 5 (29:18):
Maybe that's part of the problem that you don't if
you don't know who your best five is going into
the season is a problem.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
You're answering your question.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
And when you think about how they had to go
to the portal to get some guys, right, yeah, like
you don't. It's not like the old days where you
just a couple of guys leave and all of a
sudden there's three or four guys just.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Sitting there waiting for their turn. Right. That's just kind
of changed. You know.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
People have talked about that a lot, like the linemen
going the portal as much as anybody right burnsy because
especially the left tackles, they can make a lot of money.

Speaker 4 (29:48):
Daniel's at Ohio stated.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Well, that's it.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
I mean, you lose him right, not not unexpectedly, but
you're probably not necessarily counting on it, right because they've
been pretty good at retention.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
And you want have to go home line recruiting.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
To your guys's point with why they had to go
so portal heavy for the offensive line. If you want
to look at a horror show, go look at the
Gopher offensive line recruits from twenty twenty one to twenty
twenty three. Many of them aren't even here. Those should
be a red shirts sophomore, juniors, and seniors. They did
not recruit well out of high school, so now you
had to mitigate it with the portal, and your portal

(30:21):
guys haven't been very good so far. I don't know
what the answer is, but I just wouldn't keep trotting
out the same five.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
You got to the bottom of Well we didn't get
to the bottom of it, but you addressed it with
the head coach burns e that.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
Which the court? Which way we go with this one?

Speaker 3 (30:37):
Well, no, I'm just saying the h what was your
favorite choy parritch on offense moment? Which which one did
you guys enjoy? Which which part? Because it looks like
that's over and the head coach basically said, yeah, we
said we'd all this whole time. He said, we're going
to see what he can handle and let him do
what he can handle. And I guess they found even

(30:59):
Koy Parritch has limb. It's at least in their opinion,
because they have not tried them out there for the
last two games.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Are we good with that? Are we okay with that?

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Or would we like to see him go back to
that at some point?

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Chip, he's your boy. You've got the jersey hanging in
the background.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. I don't
know if it means it's completely gone, but I think
they probably found, you know, after what happened at Cal
maybe just.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Said let's let's focus on let's pair this down.

Speaker 5 (31:32):
Let's let you go back to being just good at
one thing, or good at you know, try to maybe
two things and not.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Just spread so thinly. And you know, I didn't.

Speaker 5 (31:40):
I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it the
other day, Guardian, when we were saying it's hard when
you don't get a break during the game. And I'm
not just talking about physically, I'm talking about mentally emotionally.
Just be able to just shill for a minute, sit
down and chill and get your your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
I'm serious.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
I don't think I saw him sit for the first
three games like I think he went to the sideline
and stood, And I.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Don't think that's excuse making for anything.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
I just think it's realistical and nobody else is doing that.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
I thought it was a great point you said. I
thought about it.

Speaker 5 (32:12):
I was like, you know, you need to be able
to just kind of focus in on what you're doing
on defense, and you know, special teams too. So I'm
fine with it. You know, they can revisit it. I
think that they probably will. It was probably smart to say,
let's pull this back just a little bit and let
him not be so consumed with all these different things.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
He's been playing better. I still think he's got to
clean up a lot in the mistackle game where he's
part of the you know, he's coming down playing in
the box quite a bit, and he's met some of
the mistackles at the line. He's missed multiple tackles in
each of the last three games. I hear flex saying it,
and then he's talking about how we want to use
him in the return game. And then you see him
against Ohio State, fair catch everything. And I know that

(32:55):
bothered me and some others and so us media jackals.
I know that we never ask a tough question in
our lives, but that came up. Weird how that happens.
Flex's answer was he didn't want to start drives within
the fifteen or twenty of Ohio State if Koy were
to return it and not go anywhere. And because he's
he's told me to which one of us he told

(33:17):
it was? You know the statistics are the statistics there?

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yep?

Speaker 4 (33:20):
Okay, Well that's very fleck risk averse esques for those
of you wondering. So I hope that he can break
one of the return games soon. I hope he cleans
up the mist tackles, and if he does, it wouldn't
surprise me if they allow him to go back on
offense by the end of it. But he's got to
continue to play much better in terms of the miss tackles.
That's the thing for him to clean up here against Purdue.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
No fairness to him, he's having to make a lot
of tackles. He has a million tackles against Rutgers too, right, Yeah,
half I'm old enough to remember my first year on
the sidelines when Kim Royston Creton Durham Hall's head coach,
had like four hundred tackles.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
It's like, yeah, he's a good player. That's good.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Good thing.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yeah, can anybody else make one? I mean, do we
need to do we need Kim to have fifteen every game?
That's that's not ideal, right, And I think Kerry Brown
and Coy were the leading tacklers at least through most
of that game on Saturday, those two were the leading tacklers, right.
Can you have to make a lot of tackles, Berns,
You're going to miss more than other people too, by definition?

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah, Oh my goodness.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Yeah. So he needs to be a part of the
solution on defense. And if he is playing the way
we know he's capable of playing, then I think the
team will continue to find success. So they need to
get him playing better.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
Can I bring up a topic because I was reading
your transcript from PJ yesterday, I assumed it was you asked.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
The question, Burnsy, because it's right up your ballpark, probably
the kicker.

Speaker 5 (34:48):
Like I was trying to read PJS, trying to understand
maybe I should have watched the video, but just reading
a transcript, I have no idea what the hell he
was talking about. When he was like, you have facts,
you have reality, you have I didn't understand what that was.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah, that question. I was sitting in his office and
I asked him that one. And the interesting part about that.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
Nice flex flex congratulations on your newly found access.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
I'm very very grateful for you should be people over
at the football facility.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
I'm glad you should have that access. So I'm glad.

Speaker 4 (35:24):
The thing I took away from that chip is he
was noncommittal. There was not a committal of this is
the answer with Brady Denibergh, We're going to commit to him.
He essentially does say, for those of you who haven't
read it, what's happening in practice and what's translating over
to games is different, and so I have to continue
to evaluate everything. And if I'm not, I'm not a
good head coach. To me that says we're going to

(35:46):
have another week of how does it look between Brady
Dennibergh and your boy, the pride of football across Minnesota himself,
Daniel Jackson. You might be able to get on the
field this weekend. Because the forty plus yard field goal
thing he had, Brady Deniberg is now five in his
last five attempts. He hasn't made a forty plus yard

(36:06):
field goal since twenty twenty three at Syracuse. That's a
problem for a man who I looked into these stats too, Chipper.
No Big Ten team has attempted more field goals in
twenty twenty three than Minnesota, twenty twenty four than Minnesota,
and now that they're struggling to make forty plus yard
field goals in twenty twenty five, I think Fleck is
going to have to adapt and adjust. So the hope

(36:28):
would be how much longer is this leased for Denniberg
from forty plus because from forty and in he's been
very good. But Fleck loves forty plus yard field goals.

Speaker 5 (36:37):
Well, if you have a kicker that's missing everyone from
forty yards, you're gonna have to change how you call games.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
I mean, just much different in theory. In the headset
to Harbo, I'd turn down knowing.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
That, yeah, because it's like what more, At some point
you have to say this is not working. We can't
put it on it because I mean that miss was
a mile why you know. And it's like you wonder
if it's not in his head too now, I mean,
the kicker knows it. And so I think as the
head coach and play card, you gotta as you're nearing

(37:10):
that area, you've got to think, Okay, do we trust
leaving this up to a kicker, or do we have
to be more aggressive here and think, Okay, we're gonna
have two play calls here because we can't just think
that we have an automatic three points if we're getting
this in this area of the field. So they're gonna
have to either change kickers or just how they call
the game.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
Well, why it matters is you've got we just talked
about the upcoming four game stretch. I'm gonna assume every
one of them is gonna be plus or minus one possession.
I agree with you, Yeah, you're going to need a
kicker to win you a game at some point in
the next four That's just the reality of how this
is gonna go. And they got to get it cleaned up.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
And that to me was I know, people got mad
that that PJ played that field goal the other night.
To me, that wasn't had nothing to do with that game.
That game was long gone.

Speaker 5 (37:53):
This was about I got to build some confidence or
figure out this guy can win a game for me
later on in the season.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
That's one hundred percent what that whole decision was about.
And so.

Speaker 5 (38:05):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you know, I
understand that you see one thing in practice and you're
not seeing it in game, But games matter too, you know.
It's like you got to be able to and it
is there is going to be a game that comes
down to a kick.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
You just for sure.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
They play in so many close games and we've seen
it time and time again, and the way they play,
you have to be able to trust that the kicker
is going to be able to make a forty three
yard field goal.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Yeah, and I can confirm that did not hit the
skycam cable, like what happened? Yeah, yeah, which I can't
believe knowing like I have one hundred percent believe it
hit the cable. I know people are like, ah, it's
an optical illusion. I'm not sure. I think the one
video shows it. I can't believe it doesn't happen more.
By the way, yeah, that thing's flying around all over

(38:52):
the place. But no, the the Gophers ones have not
hit the cable, so we can't we can't blame.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
It on that.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Although Burnsy, I don't know if it was the high altitude,
but you had to be feeling things you hadn't felt
in a long time watching Tom Weston punt.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
On Saturday Night.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
I mean beating heart plus just booming punts. They were
probably at your eye level up there on floor eight.
You must I mean you must have, like I said,
you just had a flutter, a heart a flutter. You
must have thought your your watch was probably thinking you
were having some type of heart episode, because that was
some pretty good punting there.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Burnssey flipping the field.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
Heck yeah, man, Yeah, seven punts over fifty average and
until the last one was like a fifty five average.
We've been pleading for that. My heart was a flutter.
I thought the Chicago Bears kicker and Tory Taylor put
on a jersey over there at the Buckeye Stadium. If
that guy shows up, the one that I'm sure Fleck

(39:46):
was like, we can't get killed here. Y'all need you
to boot this. Well, you did a pretty It was
great in the field. They're gonna need that to keep
showing up.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Yeah, next act right, exactly right, All right, let's pause quickly.
We got a couple a couple more things to talk
about on the apparent of Spare this week, including what
to do at Penn State. It was a great college
football story on one side and not so good on
the other with Penn State and UCLA. Want to remind
you about our great partners and great friends at Jack'scafe.
Jaxcafe dot com is the website, and we want to

(40:17):
remind you about their Hunter's Dinner that's coming up Tuesday,
November fourth, And we went through it all last week.
You know, just the menu, guys, I mean it's all
kinds of crazy stuff. I mean, kangaroo cannot be sea
urch and sushi, bluefin tuna. You know, You've got Icelandic
Wolffish tacos. You've got split pea soup with wild boar, proscudo,
wild rice salads here, duck breast. I mean, it's all

(40:40):
these things that burns E goes out and spends months
in a deer stand with all his trail cams trying
to get or out in the middle of the lake
trying to catch Jack's already has all of it. You
don't need to do any of that. You can just
go and eat all this great stuff. You have to
call for this one the numbers on the website, but
at six one two seven eight nine seven nine seven
Extension one online reservations for Tuesday, November fourth not accepted.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
You've got a call.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
But this is the kind of stuff that they do
with Jack's Cafe on top of everything else any other
day of the week. Just great food, great ambiance, great vibe.
They put together special events like this Chipper.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
I have never hunted in my life, but I would go.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
With me neither take part.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Oh, I would love that. I mean, did you see
that menu?

Speaker 2 (41:22):
I just read most of it.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Yes, it is unbelievable. Like for Bill, it shows how
creative they are. Not only they do like.

Speaker 5 (41:28):
There's staples that they've had for ninety years, right, and
they do that so well, but the creativity to come
up with the menu like that and think about the
hunters out there in the season, it's incredible and you
know that it's just going to be outstanding, really good service,
really good food, and a fun night. So really cool
thing that Bill puts together because he always does cool things.

(41:49):
And so I hope a lot of hunters and non hunters.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
You don't have to be a hundred at part taking
in I'm not a hunter. I would love to have
that meal.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
Yeah, just a bunch of different foods that you've probably
never tried, and just to be able to go to
a place where you feel very comfortable knowing that it's
going to be prepared well and it's not gonna taste gamy.
Like I know, so many people are so afraid of
Jack's Cafe. This hunter's dinner. It sounds outstanding.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Coffee crusted ostrich with Jimmychury.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
I bet you it's outstanding. I bet it is.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
I'm sure it's really good. Yeah, I'm sure it's great.

Speaker 3 (42:21):
So if that's a little too exoged for you, they
have steaks and seafoods and salads and burgers and everything
else that you could possibly want, and a great brunch
vibe and a great brunch scene and probably a few
more weekends on the best patio in the Twin Cities
for brunch. Jackscafe dot Com is a website. You can
see it on the YouTube channel here on the bottom
right underneath Burnsy Jaxcafe dot Com. Last thing on the

(42:43):
Gopher is real quick, because we got about ten minutes
or so left here. Mark Coyle made made a little
bit of news again Burnsy and Our the pregame interview
that he does with me.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
It happens from time to time.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
I know it's one of your favorite pastimes, is reacting
to things that are set on the on the pregame show.
But explain what got people's atennas up about my most
recent interview with the athletic director.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
Yeah, I know that there were some folks that didn't
quite understand that maybe the athletic director was speaking a
bitt in hyperbole. But here was the direct quote.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
That he shared too much, by the way, but go ahead.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Here was the direct quote from Mark Oyle to Justin
guard here on the pregame show was Ohio State makes
more in one home game in ticket sales than we
do all year. I mean, think about that for a second.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Now.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
I understand math can be very confusing for people, especially,
and I also know that maybe there was a bit
of hyperbole, like I said within there maybe a stretch
or two, But think about it, where Ohio State is
one hundred and five thousand people that attended the game
on Saturday night and I understand that Minnesota's got a
fifty thousand c stadium. So you're thinking yourself that math

(43:55):
doesn't math Minnesota draws I don't know, Ryan three to
four times times more. Yeah, Ohio State also charges three
to four times more and they sell out every freaking game.
Plus I'm sure the seat licenses.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Seat license are different.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
Yeah, I bet you, it's not too far off. And
so if they get seven of those, and then you
look at how much they do in athletic department revenue,
there's a reason why Ohio State does nine figures more
in athletic department revenue than the University of Minnesota does.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Did it really surprise people?

Speaker 5 (44:34):
Like I always always I tell this story and this
is a different school, but it's the same thing. At
the Michigan press Box, you can there's a a window
right by outside the eighties booth, and I remember being

(44:54):
down there one time with Joe MATUREI and it overlooks
that golf course where they park seventy thousand cars at whatever.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Twenty dollars a pop YEP.

Speaker 5 (45:04):
And we were standing there before a game one day
and looking out and just car after car after car,
and they were just as far as you can see
cars line up. Joe, we were just standing there. I
was like, be nice, wouldn't it. He just kind of
turned up me and smiled. It's like the difference between
revenue at Ohio State and Michigan on a game day.
It's a different universe. And so I don't maybe it

(45:27):
was hyperbole, but not really. He was stressing a point
that they're in the same conference, but they're not in
the same league.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
In terms of what they're generating in revenue.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
And there, I mean, we probably shouldn't have ledged this
in at the end. And again, none of this is
really new, but because I had the same experience at
Penn State, Chipper when I looked out the back of
that old press box and you see all the car
basically RV's, well, it's just the RV's basically in the mountains.
Aren't that going that way? So you can basically see
the Pittsburgh from there, and it's just car after car

(45:59):
after car after car, and you're like, yeah, there's going
to be one hundred eight thousand here, right, same deal. Yeah,
And I mean we learned in the gene Smith, you know,
and in fairness to mark what it got brought up
because I was asking him about this private capital investor
thing that now I think is going to happen, and
it's not so much private equity as there is going
to be some type of big investment from somebody that

(46:21):
where it's not you know, they're going to own the
league now and everything the league does is going to this.
And he and Mark brought up the deficit. You know
that that has been written about their budgetary deficit, which
I think is like eight to nine million, right Burnsey
somewhere in that and last year they had to fight
and scratching claw to have a balanced budget. And so
fairness to Mark, I brought that up because I said, yeah,

(46:42):
it's great that that's kind of what you're thinking about
with the revenue and this this new revenue because now
you've got to pay the players and all of this.
And you know, we're at a place where the former
athletic director said, yeah, we're going thirty million in the
red because I want to be good at football my
last year and the next guy, I'll figure it out,
you know, I mean, which we've talked about, right, Like
that's that's I'm not exaggerating that quote, right, Jean Smith said,

(47:06):
we needed to have football win in my last year,
and I left the mess for my predecessor to figure
it out. And it was thirty million bucks. And so
we learned that in that time they had two fewer
home games or whatever, and they had it like eight
or nine million dollars a game. Gophers probably make between
one point five and two I would guess, you know,

(47:27):
something like that, maybe a little bit more. So it
really isn't that far off what he said. And I
don't know why that would offend people. And then you
get people going, we'll make more money, like oh, okay,
no problem, yep, any ideas, any thoughts, because it's not
as easy to just go, well, we need to make
more money. Let's make more money. Like it just kind
of is what it is. But that's where I think.

(47:48):
You know, the Gophers have beating Ohio State seven times
in history. Do they get three wins over Ohio State
and the rest of our lifetimes in the next four
when you just think about where they are and what
they can do. And again I'm not saying that to
be critical. I'm just trying to They've won. They've won
one time in my life two thousand the year before
I was born in nineteen eighty one. They also beat

(48:10):
the Buckeys Mike Cohen c Jay Carroll. So one time
in forty three years they've beaten this team. Do we
think they're getting another two or three? Like just when
you guys have all been there, we've all seen it,
and I just think it's real life.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Unfortunately.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
I mean, if you're going to do it, you got
to do it at home. But I mean to your
point that the discrepancy in money now just translates to
the talent on the field, and that's the reality of
what this thing is turning into. And maybe in five
ten years, when there's a collective bargaining agreement, maybe there's
a salary cap and floor like this thing becomes much

(48:49):
more attainable. But I certainly understand the premise here.

Speaker 5 (48:52):
Well, there's a talent gap. There was a talent gap
way before nil. I mean, it's a history and all
that goes into it. And now you add, hey, now
you can give nil, and now we'll always you know,
we go back to the revenue share. You can match
whatever Aisle State does. What you can't match is nil.

(49:14):
You can, but you're not going to because of their
You know, uh, the deep pockets they have. But in
terms of revenue share, you can give the same percentage
as they do. But the difference is, you know, they
have all this revenue coming in from tickets, parkings, licensing,
you know, sponsorships, donors. I mean, I always said when

(49:36):
I went there, is like there are a few places
that just feel like.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
And you know I come from the SEC background, you know,
don't hold against me, but it felt like the SEC
win at all costs, you know, like huge event. Obviously,
Ohio State's one of those, and Penn State feels that
way too when I go there.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Yep. So anyway, it's always funy make a little new.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Speaking how about my segue. You see, That's why.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
I'm the pro welcome in. I can't say I saw
that coming. Maybe I should have.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
You doubted the three time zone theory. I don't know
why you doubted it.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
Yeah, well, and we've seen it. We saw it with
Penn State and USC last year. They struggled for a
half and then got their act together. UCLA had not
led in a game all season, and with the son
of Rick Newheidel, Jerry getting his first crack at offensive coordinator,
which what tremendous hair first of.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
All hairs everywhere.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
That was I mean, that is why you like college football,
right not if you're a penn State fan. You're obviously
just you're mad that you lost to Oregon. Then you think,
all right, here's a get right game. Let's just get
out of here against one of the worst teams this
conference has seen in a while. And Jerry new Heidel
and the Fighting Bruins had different ideas. And what a moment,
What a moment, What a time is dad watching on CBS?

(50:59):
That was great, crying after the game, the whole bit.
It was very very cool.

Speaker 5 (51:03):
Well we always said, now, no one saw that coming,
right obviously.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
But.

Speaker 5 (51:09):
I think we said last week in college football, if
you are not ready to play in your head, is
somewhere else things happen, you know, I mean, you know,
I can't imagine the heat, what the temperature is like
in Happy Valley in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
And all that area there.

Speaker 5 (51:33):
I you know, the question's becoming is you're seeing it, Nashley,
what do you do with James Franklin is a time
for both of the mutual separation. I'm guessing he's one
of the highest paid coaches in college football.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Probably top five, not top ten.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Right, allegedly because Penn State is a private university. We
don't know, but I know the buyout number I've heard
thrown around from those in the know is north of
forty million.

Speaker 5 (52:00):
Yeah, I'm guessing he has to be top ten if
Penn State it's not a private university.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
It is, you can't.

Speaker 5 (52:07):
It's called a If there's a difference, it's called a
land grant. I think is the term because when I
was on the beat and I would always do try
to get contracts to compare them in Northwestern word, the
two that you couldn't get.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
Thank you for standing up for me, Chip, I appreciate
by Ryan.

Speaker 5 (52:22):
I'm sorry looking up, but I think it's called has
it land grant. It's something where they're not technically probably.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Surprised if the guy who never graduated from college doesn't
understand what's private and what's public. I went to five USC.
You don't have to do either now because private, Yeah,
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
So I don't. I don't. I I is he the
coach at Penn State next year? I can't see it
fifty to fifty at this point.

Speaker 4 (52:46):
I don't know to go from being in the College
Football Playoffs semi final to being fired the next year.
It's crazy, But I also understand the side of they
just don't win these games anymore, the top ten games.
His record there, and then you go in and you
have what I would argue, and you both give me

(53:06):
your opinion on this. They were that's an oh to
fourteen beating the ap top ten team. It's the first
time it's happened since nineteen eighty five? Is that the
worst loss in the modern era for Penn State?

Speaker 2 (53:22):
I mean, I don't have.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Their Yeah, I probably have to be up there.

Speaker 4 (53:27):
Finished off. Couldn't do in twenty sixteen guards.

Speaker 5 (53:31):
I think you mentioned firing, and I don't know, like
how many soft landings are there spots where he would
be willing to go. Would it be one of those
situations where he's like, you know what, right, it's sort
of mutual, you know, yeah, But how many he's not
gonna go?

Speaker 1 (53:48):
I want to go?

Speaker 5 (53:49):
You're gonna have to go backwards a little because there's
a few programs that have Penn States. There's only you know,
a hand you know, a handful does or whatever they have.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
I would I would imagine if this does happen, we
can spend the whole month of November figuring it out
because they're going to have crucial games against Ohio State
that are going to dictate this. But I would imagine
they would probably be a negotiated down buy out at
that point because I'm sure James is tired of answering
the questions and Penn State wants to get out, and
I would be fascinated to see because that's a very

(54:21):
appealing job for a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Oh yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
State, Oh they line up a mile long.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Get that job, five or six or seven.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Yeah, I mean for sure with their resources and.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
Especially going in a new press box coming up, Like
I think that's about to be done, Like they're even
for them, going above and beyond what they have done historically,
which has been a lot.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Oh yeah, that's a great job.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
But how cool for UCLA where there's like did you
see the shot to open the game? I'm sure that
the producer because there's like seven people in the stands.
I've never seen so many open seats at the Rose
Bowl in my life. Yeah, Penn State played that way.
I mean you Seela goes out to a seven on
Lea they recover an on sidekick, make it double digits,

(55:06):
and then they just never looked back. And then that
moment between new Heizel and his kid, and yeah, that's fun, man,
it's great.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
It's great, and you feel happy for the players that
hang in, you know, because that's what I've always what's
always struck me that people don't understands like these guys,
even the bad teams, are working their asses off, you know, job,
it's just doing a lot of things, like you know,
going all the way back to January, and they might
not go on spring break and they're on campus all summer.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Like I get it. There's a lot of.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Them are getting paid now, right, a lot of them
are making money. You get you get a free education,
you get the food. Like, but still when you put
in all that work and then get your ass handed
to you and your coach gets fired, like it's hard
to just keep showing back up, like having no idea
if it's gonna work or not. You know, like odds
are you're gonna get boat raced by Penn State, but

(55:54):
you still got to get there at six am for waits,
you know, Like that is tough.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
So I always feel I always feel good for that.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
What was the line on that game.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
Twenty five or something? Yeah, yeah, it was three touchdowns plus. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
Yeah. My other favorite stating out from that game is
we're in the month of October and Penn State has
not beaten a Power five team yet.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
Right, and they didn't play well before Oregon, you know,
like this, it's just been kind of sloppy, and so,
you know, sometimes the things don't lie. What what you're
seeing doesn't lie. You can't just say you're going to
turn it on all right, Burns you, I know you
want to talk Wisconsin and Iowa before we go, the
two border rivals. This is a big one. This is
a big one. Wisconsin hung around with Michigan for a while.

(56:38):
I don't think either of those teams are great. They
might just be, you know, we know about Wisconsin. Michigan
might just be a middle of the road Big ten
team too. The quarterbacks talented. He made some really nice plays.
Wisconsin's defense is good, but you know, their quarterback situation,
you know, for no fault of their own, has been
has been rough. But what do we what do you
want to get off your chest about Wisconsin, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan,

(56:59):
whatever you got there.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
I think it's a huge game for both teams where
Fickle needs to try and continue to write this ship.
And now they're on quarterback three as they were starting
a kid from Southern Illinois over Danny O'Neill, who is
clearly available for that game. And then on the flip side,
you've got Iowa coming off of bye week, and we
have no idea what the status of Mark Ronowski is.
I know that he was listed on the depth chart,

(57:21):
but I also know I've seen the media reports of
he's week to week, and the last we saw from
him as we sit here today ten days ago, was
he couldn't return to the game because he couldn't decelerate. Yeah,
that sounds petrifying to me if I'm a Hawkeye fan.
So I think the line for this game is in
the thirties. It's at Camp Randall. This needs to This

(57:43):
is a huge game for both teams, and that's why
I'm a little upset that this game is at the
same time as the Gophers. Roughly it's going to be
at six pm on FS one. But it's I am fascinating.
I think this is a great slate just overall in
the Big ten because you've got Ohio State traveling Champagne
at eleven am. You've also Inanna going to Oregon at

(58:05):
two thirty. Heck, even the Friday night game, which is
Rutgers taking a five and a half hour flight to Washington.
If you chaka off a bye week for generations now,
be really good. I think it's an outstanding slate.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
You know, it's interesting.

Speaker 5 (58:19):
I told you guys, I was looking at, excuse me,
the takeaways. Nashly, Purdue is dead last in college football.
They have one toke away in five games. I was
down at the bottom too. They only have three takeaways?

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Right?

Speaker 5 (58:34):
When is the Iowa defense only had three takeaways in
five games? I mean that to me, we know their formula, right,
so that that really jumped out to me that their
defense hasn't been as opportunistic as we've seen. And so, uh,
maybe this is the week that change. Obviously, you're going
against a you know, a backup quarterback. Maybe that's but
I'm sure Phil Parker does something. He stresses like this

(58:55):
is not typically their DNA, that they they're not taking
the ball away defensively, So that surprised me. But yeah,
that's gonna be a low scoring game there mass and
I assume and it'll probably come down to turnovers. Who
can create them?

Speaker 3 (59:08):
Yeah, especially if Gronowski is injured. If I think if
Gronowski is healthy, I'm just not a believer in Wisconsin
right now. I just think the vibe is so bad
and I just I'd be stuting. You know it's going
to turn if things aren't going very well. You know,
the grumbling the fan We've talked about their fan base,
you know they they have not been happy with anything

(59:30):
that's gone on. So if gronowskis is somehow playing which
burns you laid out his timeline, what we know about it,
I just wouldn't. I just think I was going to
win that game pretty comfortably. But maybe I'm under selling
the Badgers. Maybe the Badgers are still going to hang
on and they know that they don't have a lot
of great opportunities like this, right, that's part of their problem.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
Well, I'm sure the equivalent is in Wisconsin is having
the same conversation, what an opening drive?

Speaker 2 (59:56):
Yeah, what happened?

Speaker 4 (59:59):
Yeah? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
Yeah, you're right there, and you look at your schedule,
like how much you have to see your spots? Right
and They're probably saying, this is our one. You know,
we don't only have a few of these left.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
So you mean they don't have a shot after this
game when they take on Ohio State in Oregon? What
do you mean? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
And rivalry games are weird, rights are weird. It's an
important game for both programs. Always has been used to
be the winner of the Big Ten. West came out
of this game, right, yeah, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
Well, I lost a bet with myself. I lost a
bet with myself. I tried to play Burnsy Bingo today
and I couldn't. I couldn't go, I couldn't get I
couldn't get him to say what I wanted him to say.
I wrote it down because I wanted proof and I
gotta be fair when I say that, I get burnsy.
And I tried to these last couple of minutes, limping in.
I'm just gonna pull this up. What does this say?

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
I knew there was something about the way you brought
that up.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
I almost did it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:55):
I almost talked about Wisconsin up. I almost did it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
I didn't you. I can tell.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
That's why I kept throwing it out there for people
not watching on YouTube. I like to write out things
I know burns Ere is going to say, and he
has loved the fact that Wisconsin has done forty two
push ups every day this offseason for how many points
they score they let Iowa score last year, I wrote
it down just before we hit record and God, you
were close, weren't you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
I almost had you.

Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
I love to play the hits every listener.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Damn it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
I'm so mad, and that makes me more mad. I
wish you would have said, Oh, I didn't even think
about it. But the fact that it was right there
and I just didn't make the right play. I didn't
put the right ember in the fire to stoke the flame.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
That bothers me. That really bothers me.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
It's a good job next week, I'm sure. Yep, yep, yep,
I will all right. I have a great week.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
Remember check out the Hunter's Dinner at Jack's Cafe, or
just any dinner at Jack's Cafe, whether you want to
eat the great menu on Hunter's Dinner night or not.
It's all there for you at Jaxcafe dot com. And
we will talk to you next week on The Pair
and a Spare Podcast.