Tough Cover Show -- 8/26/23

Mark Henry Jr. and Sean Barnard talk college football (WEEK ZERO IS HERE!), some Sixers-James Harden, RIP Bray Wyatt, Phillies, and more.

Kevin Kinkead joins the show in the second hour.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Time to get ready for the day'saction, from the sides to the totals
and everything in between. Nobody doesit better than the Tough Cover with Mark
Henry right here on the Gambler.What do you see the color how I've

(00:33):
been? I'm the person a wislacandy. I'm the colt personnalting the color
personnality, the color personality on linenormals A sneaks make shot line, so

(01:37):
should need to be. I'm asmile place table. I'm a focal person.
It's one year stood to the main. I tell you what xpl the

(02:01):
foal person dies not ter starting.I'm finding the count of personality, the
cult of personality, the cultu personhat me on mine what the fat meets

(02:36):
me dies? You follow only youset to Hello and welcome to the Tough

(02:57):
Cover Radio Show right here on FoxSports to Gambler. I'm your host,
as always, Mark Henry Junior.We've got Jeremy Horwath all the ones and
two is over there at Jay Horwatheleven and my coast over here. We
got Sean Bernard on the second mic, messing around on the social media's trying
to make sure everything's all right.We're scrambling over here a little bit before

(03:20):
the show, a little inside baseball. But we're scrambling because it's a big
show. We got a lot totalk about. We're starting to get into
the swing of things. I wastalking last week. Football changes this radio
station, it changes this show.It changes, you know, the course
of my week, my work week, my real life week, my everything.

(03:42):
Football makes everything a little different.And now that means I'm not gonna
have to come up with any fancyopens most of the time. I'm not
gonna think. I have to thinkabout these cliffhanger opens and get into the
second segment. The script rights itself, script rights itself. I give out
the picks. I win people somemoney. College Football Week zero is upon

(04:04):
us. We are finally here,We finally made it. I can't wait
to talk football. Can't wait totalk college football next week. Next week
is when it's gonna get insane.It's gonna be this show. I don't
even know how, like we're gonnahave enough time to fit everything in.
I said that all fall last year. Mark's gonna come in with fifteen picks

(04:25):
every week again. Yeah, Ican't wait for that. It's gonna be
Mayhem. It's gonna be absolutely Mayhem, and then obviously have NFL in two
weeks now, right, two weeksaway for the NFL. Yeah, I
mean, it's absolutely crazy and we'repumped. First hour pretty much all college
football. Second hour, twelve o'clock. They still playing baseball. They're still

(04:46):
playing baseball. Work the sky's stillfalling for the Phillies. Or how are
we doing right now? Let mecheck in fight we're talking about the fightings.
Just check the second ago on BaseballReference ninety four percent playoff chance right
now, I was that starting toBaseball Reference. I thought the season was
over in May, I was toldand then I was told it again in
June, and then I was toldit again in July, and then I

(05:08):
was told it again in August.And you know, it turns out the
Phillies are actually pretty good baseball.It seems like they're just pretty good.
So it's almost like we don't havea lot to discuss with the Phillies.
Like Vibes, We're gonna talk aboutthem, I'm sure in the pick segment,
maybe in the second hour. I'msure we'll bring him up with Kincaid
a little bit. We haven't talkedat Kincaid and I just gave it.
I just buried the lead. That'sbad hosting by me. Kevin Kinkaid coming

(05:29):
on the show. Awesome follow overat Crossing broad and he got in the
mud with me and Pacoa, Meand Pecoon were arguing and he told us
to go to our rooms. Hesaid, you know, you guys need
to stop arguing. So I DMedhim and I was like, Oh,
I gotta have you on the show. He's followed, we followed each other
for a very long time, soI'm pumped to have him on. I
think it's actually the first time we'vehad him on the first time. I'm

(05:51):
pretty sure. I have to Ihave to verify because I've talked to Kevin
and other and other, you know, in other locations, so I get
it mixed up sometimes my head.But I think he's the first time we're
on the Tough Cover radio show.So I believe pumped to bring Kincaid on.
He's a he's a big get.We're gonna we're I'm handing the reins
over to cham Bernard there. He'sgonna have to come up with some union

(06:12):
questions too. I am I justbecause this is a dumb way to open
the show. I got a lotto talk about. But cham Bernard said,
I'm gonna have to ask him somemessy questions. And when I heard
that, I was like, messy, Like what is there drama? Is
there is there something afoot that I'mnot aware of? Like what's going on?
Is there is there a scandal withthe union? He goes no,

(06:34):
like like MESSI And I was,that's where on that in terms of soccer?
And you say messy, I'm stillthinking something needs to be cleaned up,
not not you know, not ofa soccer player. But let's move
on and let's do what you guysare here for. Let's make you some

(06:55):
money. It's week zero. Wehad a heck of a football season last
year. We had any better footballseason two years ago that I'll never be
able to replicate, to be quitehonest. But let's try to approve upon
last year. And let's see howmany college football picks we got on the
board today. We've got six collegefootball picks on the board today, and
it's only on two games. Ionly have two games. There's only eight

(07:15):
games in general, so it's ashort slate. There's only two real teams
playing I don't know, two realgames. Is that offensive? Real teams
just just just got me off guards. I have real teams. I would
say real teams and real games wereseparate conversations for this, because the real
teams are obviously Notre Dame in USCare. The two highlights there are those
games are we got a twenty anda half point spread and then what is

(07:38):
it thirty and a half? Oryeah, thirty and a half for USC.
So neither of those games I expectto be, you know, adrenaline
rushers are where or scratching out thegame itself. But there are some closer
matches. I disrespected Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt'sa real team, even though they're gonna
win like four games this year.They're in the Power five. They're an
SEC team. You know, I'llrespect that. I was not awful.

(07:59):
Ohi, Ohio, Ohio, yousaid, Iowa, Iowa. Yeah,
I don't think I was playing itsOhio. I always got a Utah state.
I'm I'm not seeing this. I'mmissing this. I don't know.
I think it might be for nextweek. I think that might be next
week. But this is bad.Is bad radio on my part let's let's

(08:20):
give out the picks that I haveon these two games. I got one
at two thirty and I've got oneat nine o'clock. One in a big
game. One in a game thatI mean, you shouldn't you shouldn't want
to watch. But this is thisstuff that makes you want to watch it.
You put a little money on it, you got a little interest in
it. I've got four picks onthe Notre Dame Navy game, and I
think you guys know where I'm leaning. I might be showing my bias with

(08:43):
the jersey I'm wearing here, butI have Notre Dame minus twenty, and
I also have first half Notre Dameminus ten and a half. New coach
for Navy, new staff, nota ton of returning production. Notre Dame
put up thirty five in the firsthalf last year with a high school quarterback
who then turned into a shell ofhimself at the get hit a few times.
That won't happen here. Sam Hartman'sgonna throw it all over the yard.

(09:03):
Audrica steam May is gonna run itall over the yard. Navy's defense
will not be able to handle NotreDame, and their offense is not quite
yet advanced enough to hang on.Give me also, even though I said
that, give me the over atforty nine and Notre Dame Navy. I
know Brad Power is a really goodcollege football follow has been all over this.
Gave it out on pick Central thisweek as well on Barstool. Last

(09:24):
twelve meetings between these two teams haveaveraged sixty two points per game. You
think a Navy, you think lowscoring. That has not been the case
in this rivalry. Navy's allegedly goingto run more shotgun and pass a bit
more. That should keep the tempoup. But if you don't want to
rely on Navy to score, I'malso going to go with Notre Dame team
total over thirty four and a half. It's a beat down spot for Sam

(09:46):
Hartman. He put up forty fiveon Vandy last year, forty on Liberty,
forty five on Army, forty threeon Boston College, forty five on
Syracuse. In twenty twenty one,he put up thirty five plus points at
Wake Forest in every single game exceptfor one against a great Clemson defense on
the road, and he put uptwenty seven in that game. Notre Dame
put up thirty five plus in threeof the last four years against Navy,

(10:09):
with one that they put up thirtyfour they've done in eight of the last
eleven years against Navy. And thelast time these two teams played in Dublin
it was back in the Stone Agesin nineteen ninety six, so I was
not yet one years old. Theyfifty four to twenty seven. They weren't
even passing the ball back then,they didn't know what the forward pass was.
I'm joking. That's that's a littlebit of a mean joke for old

(10:31):
for the old folks listening. Butand then nine o'clock, this is what
this is where the real money's made. Oh yeah, this is where the
real money's made. You don't makemoney on betting on the big teams most
of the time. I do thinkyou have an opportunity there with Notre Dame
Navy USC. I'm staying away.It's so many points, like I think
that they could so easily give upenough points for that to in garbage time

(10:52):
for that to not hit. Butat nine o'clock, Florida International and Louisiana
Tech Game of the Weeks stuff righthere, I mean, this is the
stuff that you absolutely need to haveyour eyes on. Give me FIU plus
twelve and a half at Louisiana TechFIU plus three sixty on the money line.
This violates a cardinal rule of sportsgambling of mine. So I'm going

(11:16):
against my rules in week zero.A little bit concerning to do that so
early on in the year. Youget in trouble when you stop betting on
teams and you start betting against teams. I understand that I'm pooning up and
belling up to the kiosk and bettingon an abysmal joke of a team in
Florida International. But how is LouisianaTech favored by twelve and a half against

(11:37):
anybody? Why is LOUISIANATACK all ofa sudden on some other level than FIU.
FIU went four and eight and LouisianaTack went three and nine. Last
year. Both went two and sixin the conference. We're buying in on
Lawtech because I Hank Bachmeyer really theguy that got benched in September last year
by Boise State. F I useone of the most aggressive teams in the

(11:58):
country. They might stink, butthey'll make you work. They go for
it on fourth a ton they gofor two, they blitz, they do
a ton of things that can eitherlead the blowouts or it can lead to
narrowing the talent gap a little bit. I think they could lose this game
by fifty, but I also thinkthey could legitimately win the game. I
like this pep because absolutely everyone isbetting on law Tech. I'll be a

(12:20):
contrarian in Week zero to open upthe year, and not to say it,
you know, not for nothing,FIU won this matchup last year,
so I think twelve and a halfpoints feels like a lot in week one.
Week zero actually where we don't evenknow what these teams are, and
I'll jump in. I wouldn't sayI'm laying a bunch of picks for the
Week zero slate. It is slimpickings for it. The thing that I'm

(12:41):
most excited to check out today isthe quarterback play Sam Hartman, you touched
on from a Notre Dame. Ithink there's a real chance that he's the
missing piece of the puzzle for NotreDame. I really like this kid,
the way he plays, what hebrings the table. He's a proven veteran,
the number one transfer in the marketthis year. I think that's an
awesome edition. They need to lethim play it, let him be free
and see what he can do tothis. I think it was a real

(13:01):
chance that he ends up very muchup there in the Heisman conversation at the
end of the year, and thenfollowed it up with the defending Heisman guy
and Caleb william Caleb Williams last year, so I'm very excited to see him.
I do think he's the real deal, a guy who pretty much has
the one pick pretty much penciled nextto his name at this point, so
high expectations for him. They defendingHeisman winner USC almost has a little bit
big target of their back on theirback entering this season. But I do

(13:22):
think he's built for it. SoI'm excited to see both these guys live
up to the challenge and they can't. They have a chance to make a
real statement by having a blowout performanceand racking up those stacks in week zero.
So that's the biggest thing that I'mwatching for this day, is to
see these two kind of dog itout for not that I think there's a
conversation for who's the best QB,because Caleb Williams obviously has the edge on
that. But I think both theseguys are gonna be up there with the

(13:43):
headliners of college football this year,and I'm excited to see a first look
at it. Yeah, I'm hopingthat Notre Dame's offensive staff and receivers are
good enough to support Sam Hartman inthat conversation. I think Sam Hartman will
put up numbers. It's gonna comedown to winning games, and it's gonna
come down to what does Sam Hartmando and what does Notre Dame do?

(14:05):
Team success wise against USC, Clemson, and Ohio State. Can they win
one of those games? If theywin two of those games, he will
be in the conversation. If theywin one of those games, he could
be. If he puts up insanenumbers and they go ten and two,
they lose all three of those games, and you lose all three of your
chances on big TV against your threetop ten preseason opponents, that probably knocks

(14:28):
him out of the conversation. Andhonestly, if I had to project all
of those games right now, Iwould tell you that I think they'll probably
lose all three of those games.But that has less to do with Sam
Hartman and more to do with stillbeing early in the Marcus Freeman kind of
era. It's year two. Iknow that there are people out there who
would tell you, you know,he's been recruiting there for three years now,

(14:50):
and this is going to be thestart of when we see kind of
the young the younger generation at NotreDame take a step up and start filling
in the roles around some of thep that have been there for a couple
of years now. I think that'sprobably next year. I don't know,
which is a shame because then Idon't know who the quarterback is next year.
Yeah, there's a lot of questionswith Notre Dame. I honestly,

(15:11):
what I want to see today isI just want to see them bomb it
all over the field. I know, I know Audri Kastee makin run the
ball, and I know Sam Hartmancan throw the ball. I just want
to see what happens when the receivershave to beat someone one on one,
when the receivers have to go deep, can anyone get separation? They have
a bunch of guys, five orsix guys. They don't have that number

(15:35):
one dude, that number two dudeeven yet defined. I think everyone's gonna
get a bunch of snaps, sothat'll be entertaining to see Caleb Williams.
He's mad, he's generational. It'sTrevor Lawrence part two, but it's more
exciting because he's a more exciting He'smore pasting homes to me like stylish Shley
in the way they play, andI do think that is something that he's
becoming more of the norm across footballin general, not just college, not

(15:58):
just NFL. It is this moread live backyard style football. That's Caleb
Williams. That's the way he plays, and it's it is electric to watch
when guys do it right, likePat Mahomes. And this is obviously huge
praise that we're throwing on Caleble Williamsalready, but it's that kind of style
that I think jumps out to peoplethat people love. He can do that
at a very high level, andI think he has a chance to take
it up another notch this year.So I was a little bit of a

(16:18):
Caleb williy of skeptic just as faras the names that this guy's already being
mentioned in. But I kind ofwent on a rabbit hole of diving down
the highlights last night, and Ican't help but be excited for the game
tonight, and I'm excited to seehim kind of build his case. There
has not been a Heisman repeater sinceArchie Manning was the last one. Been
quite sometimes chief Archie Griffin running back, Yeah, running back in the sixties.

(16:40):
You'd think Archie Manning, You'd thinkit'd be a lot of people,
Tim Tebow, you think all thesedifferent people that have won two championships or
have been in New York three orthree times, two times, maybe even
four times for the Heisman ceremony.But yeah, it's pretty crazy that there's
only been one repeat guy. AndI say this, I feel like every
time that there is a guy whocomes back, feels like that's going to

(17:00):
change this year. It feels likeCaleb is a really good chance in that
offense, and he should be.Yeah, he absolutely should be the favorite.
And it's gonna come down to whatUSC can do in a loaded pack
twelve. And that's gonna be oneof the conferences that we preview coming up
here the next forty minutes after wetake this break, full stop, full
throttle College Football Power five Preview,I'm gonna give you every team's record that

(17:23):
I'm projecting in the power five allfive conferences. We're gonna jam pack all
the conferences eight minutes or less each. We're gonna tell you who's winning each,
who's the basement and a couple acouple of wind total bets sprinkled in
there, as well as some futuresso on the other side, keep it
with us on the top of aradio show right here on the Gambler.

(17:44):
If you get wager on it,we're talking about it. It's the Gambler

(18:14):
overall. Bump bump, bump bump, dum dump uh dun bump up.
Welcome back to the Tucho Radio Show. That's a beautiful song. I mean,
that just warms my heart. Itgets me going. I mean that's
just nothing makes me feel better ona Saturday afternoon than hearing that about six

(18:36):
or seven times after some touchdowns.So I would I would love I would
love to hear that a whole lottoday, at least at least five times,
over thirty over thirty four and ahalf. I guess you're counting extra
points. Let's say six times.At least six times, I'd love to
hear that today. But let's Isaid you know what I said, Power
five. I said, we're gonnacover all five conferences. You know who's

(18:56):
in the Power five, but it'snot in a conference. Who's that Notre
Dame, the Independence Notre Dame.I will just say I kind of gave
it away last last when we weretalking there. I have them losing all
three other big matchups this year.So it's not the most optimistic view.
They're over under is exactly nine Ithink they have. I think they're gonna
win nine games, nine and three. Yeah, and they, by the

(19:18):
way, not the easiest schedule outsideof those three. You have Duke,
you have Drake May in North Carolina. You have a brutal, brutal,
brutal schedule for Notre Dame this season. But I think that they'll make it
through those games. I think MarcusFreeman will do a better job against the
bad teams this year and a worstjob against the good teams last year.

(19:40):
He did pummel Clemson, so thatgives you a little bit of hope against
Clemson this year. But I dobelieve that that game is in Death Valley.
So that's the concerning part about thatone. Notre Dame playing in Dublin.
By the way, today, Idon't think we mentioned yeah, good
call, good call, that youdidn't. I mentioned it a little bit
just because I said the first onehad X amount of points. But that's
a good call. It's really cool. I mean, that's a really cool

(20:00):
sat I think all those overseas kindof thing, and especially when there's like
the tradition like Notre Dame Ireland obviouslyall those things. I think it's very
cool when they do kind of aspecially game like that, so change things
up, get us kicking off theright way. So cool that they're doing
that. Totally agree, Totally agree. I think it's just happened in twenty
twenty and it got canceled. Lastyear Northwestern in Nebraska went over and played
there. It didn't really make sense. I felt like, I feel like,

(20:22):
if it's gonna happen, it shouldprobably be Notre Dame. Yeah,
but I also understand Notre Dame probablynot wanting to use that as a home
game. That might be like,but it is home game for them for
sure. I mean everyone's got tobe there. You are a fan favorite
for sure. Yeah, there's nodoubt about that. But they probably make
enough money to make make up forit. But Notre Dame is like,

(20:44):
they play a lot of games againstthe ACCY. They're an ACC, they're
part of the a SEC in basketball, but they're independent football. So let's
transition over to the ACC. Andthis is a two horse race really in
terms of who's gonna win it.The conversation they're they're both of The win
totals are ten. You have FloridaState coming off of kind of a resurgent
year under Norvelle Jordan Travis an excitingquarterback for them, and Clemson also at

(21:10):
a win total of ten. Kaideclub Nick people are lauding as kind of
the savior after Djulola. I thinkput up better numbers than people realize.
If you go look at it.Who's better than people remember? But people
he didn't live up to people's expectations, especially after his first game when he
came in against Notre Dame when TrevorLawrence got COVID a couple of years ago.
They lost the game in Notre DameStadium, but he put up like

(21:33):
thirty eight points and he looked reallygood in that game. Has never really
looked that good since kay club Nickreplacing him people think he's kind of the
savior. I don't see it.I'm not a kid club nick guy.
They Also, the thing about Clemsonis they're not getting Travis Etns anymore.
They're not getting Mike Williams anymore.Like they don't have these beastly justin Ross,
Like they don't have these beastly guyson the outside and in the backfield.

(21:56):
Will Shepley's good. I don't thinkhe's with Travis Etni, But I
just don't think Cleson has the specialdifference makers on the outside to make their
quarterbacks look better than they are.Whereas I think Florida State is just recruiting
at a high level now, andit seems like Florida State is doing a
really good job in the transfer portaland they're returning so much talent with a
quarterback in Jordan Travis, who I'msure is going to be one of the

(22:18):
ten to fifteen best quarterbacks in thecountry, maybe even one. I think
he's like second or third in Heismanodds to be honest. So I'm all
in on Florida State, I'm allin on Jordan's Travis. And when I'm
saying I'm out on Clemson. Ihave them at their win total at ten.
I have them pushing their win total. I have them winning ten games.
I have Florida State going twelve andOzero and winning this conference, winning

(22:38):
the winning the conference championship, andgoing to the College Football Playoff. What's
your take? Oh, well,we got mister krackback chiming in here in
the comments here, so I wantto jump this. First off, he
says college football is back. Whatis the over under for Caleb Williams passing
artist tonight? Three hundred? SoMarke Tief thoughts on that, I'd have
to take a look. I'd haveto take a look at his game logs
from last year and how he performedin and the games against bad teams.

(23:02):
Did did Lincoln Riley leave him outthere? Or did did he kind of
pull him early? So I'm takinga look here as live and at the
beginning of last year, it lookslike, yeah, they put up sixty
six on Rice, but yeah theytook him out early, only two hundred
and fifty yards. Yeah, theyput up forty one on Stanford, three
hundred and fifty yards. I'd sayit's probably over under three hundred and a

(23:26):
half Okay, I think he goesover that too. I think today's a
statement game from Calen Williams out ofthe mix that he still means business,
that he's not satisfied with the oneHigsman. And I think that's gonna be
the the USC mindset that they're gonnabe out there to step on a throat
tonight, and Caleb Williams is obviouslygonna be leading that charge. So I
don't see him getting taken out earlyin this. I think they're gonna let
him coat the stats a little getoff to a nice, nice start there.

(23:47):
I'll go under. I'll go underjust because you look at down the
stretch when he was in close games, and honestly, in the losses he
had the most yards that he everhad. I mean he had three eighty
one and a loss to Utah forsixty two and a lost two lane three
sixty three against Utah. He didhave four seventy and a win against UCLA
for eleven and a win against Arizona. It seems like he honestly turns it

(24:11):
on when they needed a little bit. But I don't have a strong,
strong opinion on it. He couldhe could throw for five hundred if he
wanted to to. Yeah, itjust comes down to what their game plan
will be once they're up by thirtyeach sure, which is why I'm a
little concerned about the spread. That'swhy I'm staying away from that minus thirty
and a half number. Do youhave a take on Florida State Clemson?
Yeah, And I'll bring up onemore comment from Mr Crockbite on the Clemson
FSU here. He said Bo Collinsis a big time sleeper guy to watch

(24:34):
for Clemson wide receiver with nice size, and I just want to bring up
the running game I think goes alittle underay with Clemson. Will Shipley is
awesome over a thousand yards last year. You don't like Will Shipley? He's
good. He's good. Is helike elite? I think when you pair
him in the background, he's alittle bit He's I wouldn't say he's your
prime time every down back college numberone guy. I've seen some talk of

(24:56):
like some potential offensive player of theyear buzz. I don't know if I
go would go that far, butI do think he's very good. I
think he can catch out of thebackfield. Only thirty eight receptions last year,
but He's the guy that you putit in his hands. He's got
a little shiftiness to him. Ithink Kate Clubnick has better weapons around him
than kind of the perception is.I know that they're not the the prime
time at the prime time when youlook at the Alabamas, the Georgia's,

(25:17):
things like that, But I thinkhe has enough to get the job done.
He has the experience, and Ithink Will Shipley goes a little under
the radar, so I think Igive Clemson more of a chance. I
probably still lean Florida State. It'stheirs to win, but I think this
is going to be, as yousaid, a two horse race, and
I think it's gonna be one thatgoes throughout the whole season that we're kind
of up and down with. Yeah, I'm so, I'm definitely not the
biggest Will Shipley guy, but I'mmostly probably comparing it's a Travis ccn am

(25:41):
I here, which is historic runningback high bars for sure. So and
they had guys before et N twothat would that it seems like we're just
a little bit more impactful all aroundthan Shipley is. But Shipley's definitely one
of the better running backs in thecountry. Moving on to the next segment.
Here at the ACC you've got thestate of North Carolina as my three
four five. I have North Carolinathird at nine and three, with a

(26:04):
special talent at quarterback in Drake Mayand absolutely nobody on the defense. Their
win total is eight. I havethem winning nine. I wouldn't bet that
Duke is. This is where weget into a win total that I like.
Duke eight and four, give meit. They went nine and three
last year. They return a tonof production. Their win total is six
and a half over six and ahalf. Riley Leonard one of the most

(26:26):
underrated quarterbacks in the country. Heis an absolute electric factory. So really
really fun watch there. Number five, I've got NC State going eight and
four over six and a half.I don't love that, but I do.
I would take it. Brendan Armstrongtransfer from Virginia, was elite two
years ago, really bad last year. They're pairing him back with his OC

(26:48):
from two years ago. So Pete, there's some hope there in NC State
that he can fill in for DevinLeary, and he can be He can
be pretty good. Devin Leary,who has since transferred to Kentucky. Speaking
of Kentucky. Next, I've gotLouisville at seven and five. They've got
Jack Plumber. I'm pretty sure that'sJake's kid. I could be totally wrong
on that. Look look that upfor me. Look up if Jack Plumber

(27:10):
is Jake Plumber's kid. Jack Plumberis starting a quarterback for Louisville. He's
seven and five. People are reallyexcited about Louisville. I've kind of done
the research. I'm not sure why, Like, I think they'll be better.
I'm not a big sadderfield guy.No relationship relations I don't know why
I thought that because of the name. Obviously. The next, we've got
Pittsburgh at seven and five. PhilDjerkovic or Jurkovich. He was a former

(27:33):
Notre Dame guy, I should knowthat. But Notre Dame transferred to Boston
College since his transferred to pitt Bythe way, this is insane. Nowadays
you're seeing quarterbacks that play for likefour teams. So yeah, it's Sam
heartbrazy, we just one. It'shis second, that's at least, but
he spent four years before making thetransfer, so you know he's turned in
twenty five. Yeah, yeah,yeah, it's funny. It's done,

(27:56):
and Bennett just got out of here. That man was like thirty five heading
in the NFL. Yeah, yeah, and then I'm not gonna spend too
much time on the rest of it. Lake far Ast six and six,
I'm under six and a half,Miami six and six, I'm under seven
and a half. Syracu six andsix. I am under six and a
half. Georgia Tech five and seven, I am over four and a half.
I actually like the coach there.I think it's I think the name's
Jeff Collins. I could be wrongon that. I like the coach there

(28:19):
twelve, Virginia Tech four and eight, thirteen, Virginia four and eight,
fourteen, Buston College four and eight. Those three are very clearly the seller
of the ACC and I do likeBoston College under five and a half.
If I was making win totals inthis in this conference, i go Florida
State over ten, Duke over sixand a half, Miami under seven and
a half. I'm not a MarioCrista ball guy. Don't believe in Mario

(28:41):
Crista ball. That guy's a fraud, one of the biggest frauds in sports.
High pressure year for him too.He's a loser. He's just and
you know what, it's unfair forme to say under seven and a half
because his m O at Oregon waseight and four, eight and four,
nine and three, nine and three, nine and three. He's just never
gonna get you to where if you'reMiami, eight and four, nine three

(29:02):
should not be what you're thinking about. You should be thinking about getting a
ten and two eleven and one beinga contender, especially once this twelve game
playoffs starts. I don't think KristaBall is the guy to do that,
And honestly, with what I sawlast year, I'm not sure we're even
going to get to that Oregon spotwe got with him, because I think
he came in at Oregon when theywere riding so high. He didn't have
to rebuild them at all. Hejust kept them where they were, whereas

(29:26):
with Miami, he took them ata pretty bad spot and he has to
rebuild it a little bit. Therecruits are there, he's doing a good
job recruiting. I think he's abad coach. And mister Krakback's still chiming
in the comments. I appreciate youfor dropping these in. A guy has
tapped into college football. I do. And by the way, I just
want to say this. I doa podcast every week with mister Krakba and
with Shane Half on BGN Radio wherewe are breaking down each week and previewing

(29:52):
draft prospects. So that's something we'redoing for Bleeding Green. We had the
opportunity to do the Draft the predraft podcast for Bleeding Green, so we're
really excited to do kind of morewith them going forward, and we're doing
one every week. We broke downweek zero, so if anyone is feeding
for some college football content, goand check it out. Dives is killing
me and Shane way ahead of usin terms of our draft research for twenty

(30:15):
twenty four. But that's what thisshow. This show is the gambling side
of things. That show is tryingto get me ready for twenty twenty four
draft, and we're gonna be doingthat every week and I'm really excited about
that. So thanks to mister Krakbofefor chiming Hi. Yeah, I wouldn't
be surprised. I he's rolling outas top twenty twenty seven prospects next week
on the Easy or something like that. He's a way ahead of the game.
But comedy. He would rather theEagles go to in fifteen this year,

(30:36):
get that and get the first pickand Caleb Williams and trade Jalen Hurts
for a bunch of picks, thenwin the Super Bowl. I truly believe
that about Dives. I love itabout Dives. But he's an insane person.
Yeah, I think he feels thatway about the Joel Embiid conversation for
another day, but he's chiming insane. Also, if you're a good wide
receiver, then you transfer to USC. It's now an unwritten rule, which

(30:59):
is funny there. And he doesagree with my Will Shipley take, saying
Will Shipley is a beast. I'llbuy his stock over Cave Club. Nick,
So, any thoughts on that.I do think both are NFL talents
Club Nick, Yeah, you don'tthink we haven't seen it yet. I'm
just I'm skeptical on Cave Club.Nick. So, he looked so bad
at certain times last year when theythrew him in. It's tough, but

(31:21):
sure, sure, I'm just nota fan. I haven't seen it enough,
but I know I hear people sayI'm just surprised you were so cavalier
about I mean, I wouldn't.I don't think he's I think he's a
notch below these top guys. Theguy that I did want to dig in
a little more on is Drake mayWe kind of brushed over the North Carolina.
How special do you think Drake mayAs is a quarterback? Because I
mean, he's obviously impressive through forfour thousand, three hundred and twenty one
yards last year, thirty eight touchdownsjust seven interceptions. Also got it done

(31:45):
on the ground seven hundred yards thereand seven more touchdowns. Those are ridiculous
for all numbers. But I thinknow this year more expectations on him,
that the game changes for North Carolina. Do you think he's ready for this
next leap? And he's a guythat's very well expected to be in the
Heisman mix as well, So Ithink he'll cement himself as the second best
quarterback in the country. And I'mthe second pick of the draft next year.

(32:05):
North Carolina's defense is so bad.I have them at nine and three.
I do have them over their windstotal, but I have them at
nine and three because of that defense, So I think but if anything,
I think that'll help Drake May's numbersand it'll help him, give him more
opportunities to show like I can airit out because they'll get behind in some
games and they'll be in some sixtythree to fifty two games. Like it's
gonna be crazy. North Carolina's gonnabe one of the most fun teams to

(32:28):
watch next week. North Carolina,South Carolina. That'll be fun. Banger,
Yeah, absolute banger. South Carolina. We'll get to we'll get to
it. But I'm really high onSouth Carolina so and I'm high on North
Carolina. So those offenses Spencer Ratlerversus Drake may gonna be an absolute blast.
Let's get to the Big Ten.This is a fun conference, and
you know, let's let's you knowwhat, Let's zoom through the West.

(32:50):
No one wants to talk about theWest. We're not gonna talk much about
the West. So let's because Iwant to get to the East. That's
where all the interesting stuff is.It's where my bets are. The West.
I have Wisconsin with Luke Fick takingover there, going ten and two,
winning that conference. They own theBig ten. West, Tanner Mordecai
coming in. I think they'll bejust good enough to get by a pretty
easy schedule there for Wisconsin. Samething with Iowa. Nine and three.

(33:13):
They have an over under of eightand a half. Quarterback transfer and Kade
McNamara coming from Michigan probably the bestquarterback at Iowa in twenty years or at
least in my lifetime. And I'mnot even a big Kade pactamer guy.
But he's a professional, not professional, but he's a legitimate college quarterback going
to Iowa. Do you know aboutthe the o C. I was just
about to bringing this up. Yeah, that he the Iowa must average twenty

(33:37):
five points per game as an offenseor the offensive coordinator is fired. That
that's contractually in his agreement. There'sa couple other stipulations that the game's also
come with it, things like that, but I've never heard of that before.
That being that black and white onthe radar on the record of that
being whether or not you keep yourjob. And by the way, they
average seventeen points per game last year. YEA, twenty five is gonna be
tough. Yeah, McNamara should help. They should get to the twenties pretty

(33:58):
easily, but twenty is gonna betough. He's an idiot. Brian Farren's
and it's also the coach of SonKirk, so the offensive coordinator is the
head coach of Sons. They almosthad to do this. It's pretty rough,
yeah, and Iowa fans are nothappy about it. The rest of
this conference, we're not going tospend much time on Illinois seven and five.
I have them over six and ahalf. Perdue seven and five,
I have them over five and ahalf. Minnesota six and six, I

(34:20):
am under seven, Nebraska six andsix, I'm under six and a half.
Northwestern two and ten. I havethem under three. Northwestern is gonna
be a mess this year. Let'sget to the East and these are the
three heavyweights. You gotta dogs,you gotta high whatever order. Actually,
you have Michigan, you have aHigo State, and you have Penn State.
Most people are going to probably putthem in that order, at least
that's how they were ranked in thein the preseason top twenty five. Personally,

(34:45):
I have Ohio State as very clearlythe best team, going twelve and
zero nine and oz in the conference, obviously winning the Big Ten championship over
Wisconsin and making their way back tothe College Football Playoff as the number two
seed to play Florida State, whowe just talked about. That would be
a fun, fun matchup Ohire StateFlorida State in the college football playoff.

(35:07):
I don't think that's happened because FloridaState has only been to one playoffs in
this era. But Ohio State,I just think I don't care if the
quarterback is. Marvin Harrison Junior andEgma Bucca are the top two receivers in
the country. People are going totalk about Marvin Harrison Junior. Eg Bucca
is going to be the second receiverdrafted next year. I feel like I've
brought up high has been a lotalready, but I think Marvin Harrison Junior

(35:30):
is worth a flyer that's really lowon the odds. Yeah, it's worth
of flyer. You can get himat a plus two thousand four it.
I think he's that special that hemight be one of these rare position players
that will have their name in theargument. And if he has a good
enough season, which I think there'sa real chance. The bars already crazy
high for him, but I thinkthat there is value there and that's worth
taking a little bit of a flyeron. He's going to be up there
in the top picks of the draftnext year, and he's gonna be eight

(35:52):
number one wide receiver in the NFLfor ten plus years following this year.
The problem I have with it isI think Egbuca is gonna have like fourteen
hundred yards. So if he haslike eighteen hundred and the other saver has
fourteen hundred, I think the quarterbackwill probably get some attention and it'll all
just I think it'll all just eataway at his case. And every everything
came together so perfectly for DeVante atAlabama because no one wanted to give mac

(36:13):
Jones credit and Jo Waddle got hurtand we all knew mac Jones was kind
of a bag of milk throwing theball like it's kind of it'll be interesting,
But I mean, he's by farthe best non Caleb Williams player in
the country in my opinion, maybeeven he might be better than Caleb Williams,
to be quite honest, he's thatspecial. My number two team in
the Big Ten is not the MichiganWolverines. It is the Penn State knit

(36:39):
me Lyons I have at eleven andone. They're back. I am all
in on Drew Aller. I'm pushingmy chips in on Drew Allers kids a
special talent. I like what Isaw. He's got all the size,
got all the traits, all theattributes. You can move, you can
throw it deep. He's accurate,But I mean he's the best prospect Penn
States had at quarterback in a longtime, and easily in the James Franklin

(37:00):
era. I was never a ShawnClifford guy. I think this is a
massive, massive improvement for Penn State, even though like it's an unknown we
don't know yet, we haven't seenit fully. I think the upside is
so high and you look at therest of that roster. They have so
many first round pick prospects. ChopRobinson as an edge rusher who was a

(37:21):
big recruit. I'm pretty sure theyhave someone in the secondary that I'm forgetting
the name of. They have Olufor shan who on the offensive line.
Noah Singleton in their backfield is beingcompared to Adrian Peterson by Bruce Feldman.
I am all in on this PennState team. I think it's by far
the best team that James Franklin hashad in his time there. People know
not a big James Franklin guy.But I think this is a really good

(37:44):
team. He's a really good recruiter. It'll come down to having to beat
Michigan in Happy Valley. I thinkthey can do it. So give me
Penn State at eleven and one,and then that means give me Michigan at
ten and two. What are yourthoughts on me me going Ohio State,
Penn State, Michigan there. Yeah, I'm more in on Michigan than you,
for sureff For me, this feelslike the year where the chips are
finally all in order for hardball totake this Michigan to a true contender that

(38:06):
wasn't when they played TC freaking yeahplayoff last year, the team that lost
sixty three to seven. Yeah,I think this Michigan buzz. And everyone's
saying, oh, well, they'reeasily number two in the country, and
oh they'll be in the playoff,and oh they'll go twelve and oh and
oh they'll beat Ohio State and PennState. Does anyone remember what happened in
the playoff last year? A prettywatch, not a pretty watch whatsoever.

(38:29):
J J. McCarthy threw the gameaway. And now I'm seeing them ranked
as a top ten quarterback. Dudeat two pick six is in the playoffs.
DCUs stunk, yeah, and thenthey proved that they stunk on the
national championship games. So we allsaw that. From what I'm a hater
by the way, I am ahate J. J. McCarthy for Michigan
and J J McCarthy too, ButI'm also like people have called me and

(38:49):
accused me of being a Penn Statehater at many, many times, so
I'm kind of stuck between two ofa rock and a hard place here.
I think Penn State's a better team, I really do. I think both
these teams both more pro talent.I should say that for sure that I
definitely agree like J. J.McCarthy is in the same breath of college
tier quarterback I believe is the otherguys were mentioning, But I don't see

(39:10):
nearly the upside when we mentioned theDrake Mays, the Cable Williams, all
these things, and even though statisticallyI think I'll put up a similar thing,
there is a guy that I lookmuch for it potentially an NFL backup,
not a guy that I see isa starting caliber guy. But at
the college level sometimes that is whatserves you best, and when you see
these teams that win that they don'tnecessarily translate to successful pro careers. But
I do think I think contrary toyou a little bit, I think both

(39:31):
for Michigan and for Penn State,that this is kind of the timeline for
their years. Drew Aller, asyou mentioned, the highest ranked recruit that
James Franklin has had at a quarterbackat Penn State, that feels like their
leap, their chance to make aleap as a team for him to the
upside is just there in a waythat he hasn't had. So I like
both these teams. I think Istill put Michigan finding way to get to

(39:52):
eleven one and end first in thatconference. It's gonna be a toss up,
it's gonna be in the mix.But I think I'm more of a
believer in Michigan. I know theygot pun the mouth and national title game,
but well in the College football playoffs, and I hate that the College
football playoffs stunt last year. Thatwas really disappointing. Every game was brutal.
Well, High State Georgia was reallyokay, yeah, that's right.
As the ball dropped. Yeah,do you think there's a chance all three

(40:14):
go eleven and one. No,I can't see that happening. The scenario
Brandon Walker has been pitching this,Penn State beats Michigan and Happy Valley,
Michigan beats Ohio State in Michigan.Ohio State beats Penn State in Columbus.
Wow, it's not that crazy thatcould happen. I saw. I forget

(40:35):
his exact quote, but it wason the money too that I thought it
was on I think it was.I'm gonna mix it up. I believe
it was Ohio State is built tobe a national championship and Michigan is built
to beat Ohio State, which Ithought it was an interesting way to look
at it and pretty I think spoton as well. Where what my opinion
is, I think Ohio State thisyear is going to be in the mode
where everything's geared to beat Michigan,and the way that Michigan was two years

(40:57):
ago where everything was geared to beatOhio State. I think that's I think
Ryan Day really took that loss hardand it's talked about it a lot.
So I just believe I do thisevery year. I always believe in Ohio
State. You look at the names. You look at the offense, you
look at the prospects, and it'slike, and yeah, obviously the offense,
that's what everyone's gonna say. Thequestions on defense. Brad Power's really
good following for college football set andhe follows recruiting really well. He's like,

(41:22):
there is no team in the countrywith more talented sophomores and juniors on
the defensive side of the ball thanOhio State. They shifted the recruiting focus.
We haven't seen it yet, andI don't I don't think people realize
that, like when recruiting starts tohappen, twenty twenty three is recruiting,
it's probably gonna start affecting twenty twentyfive. Like you're not gonna see that
for the first year or two.So I think this is where we could

(41:45):
see Ohio State's defense start to reallytake a leap where they haven't been that
the last couple of years. Sothat's where I'm at with that. Let's
move on. I've got Maryland atnine and three. That's pretty high.
Totalio Taga Valoa, I'm a twoand non believer. I'm also you know,
I'm also a Tulia guy. I'min on both of them. Now,
so yeah, I'm a big Tuliaguy. Do you know about bryceis?

(42:06):
Do not? Bryce Young? That'shis Uh, that's his fan club.
Oh, I did not hear that. Part of part of my take
listed a bunch of different fan clubsfor the quarterbacks. Daniel Jones is Dantifa,
Bryce Young is Bryceus. I believewhat was the other way? I
can't remember. Obviously two and onthat's that's a famous one. But there
was a bunch of them. Therewas this pointed a Qugan and fell apart

(42:29):
from Kyle Pagan. That was theshortest run, the shortest run of a
bit of all I remember because he'she He's said he has a good bit
going on right now with Trey Turnerbecause during the whole Trey Turner struggles and
he was buying stock diamond Hans Pagan, Kyle Pagan, we've had him on
the show a bunch, former cohost of mine when we used to do

(42:49):
the podcast together. He was jokingwhen Trey Turner lost that game in Miami
before the standing. Oh but he'slike, man, this might be the
shortest run of a bit that I'vedone. Quan, Yeah, that did
not go, well, let's moveon to the seller here, Michigan State
four and eight. Why are peopletrying to act like Michigan State it's gonna

(43:09):
be good, they're over under fiveand a half. But yet every time
I hear people talk about Ohio Stateor Penn State or Michigan schedule, it's
like a tough game against Michigan.They're bad. They were terrible last year.
They are going to be even worsethis year. They lost their quarterback
Rutgers four in eight, Indiana threeand nine. My overs Ohio State over
ten and a half, Penn Stateover nine and a half, and my

(43:30):
under is Michigan State under five anda half. Let's skip the Big twelve.
We're gonna skip the Big twelve.We'll see if we can get to
it. At the end of theshow. Big Towel is not that interesting,
not really a playoff team in myopinion. Texas. Maybe I have
Texas at ten and two and thenI have them losing in the Big twelve
championships, so they're like the nextlevel down from from playoff contender. For
me, I get why people aresaying that. I think it's next year

(43:51):
or maybe the year after. ButI don't think they're I don't I don't
think they're quite ready yet. Ihave Kansas State winning the conference. I'll
just give these out. I haveKansas State over eight and a half.
I have Kansas over six, whichi'll give out later and why it's one
of my favorites. I have Oklahomaunder nine and a half, sorry Shane
half. And I have West Virginiaunder four and a half, sorry Kevin
Kincaid, which we'll talk about whenhe comes on the show. And then

(44:15):
coming up right here, should wedo PAC twelve or SEC PAC twelve?
Pack twelve? All right, let'sstalk PAC twelve. We talked a lot
about USC. We don't have totalk too much more about them. Caleb
Williams, they're over under is tenwins. I have the middle eleven and
one winning the conference. A lotof people would say a lot of the
experts out there are low on USC, and they have. There's a lot

(44:36):
of teams to be high on inthis conference. It's easily easily the second
best conference behind the seas. It'sit's tough because the top three and the
Big ten is so good. Therest of it's not very good. But
the PAC twelve is so deep thisyear. I think it's I think it's
seven deep with legitimately really good teams. So I have USC at eleven and
one. I have Washington and Oregonboth at ten and two, which goes

(44:59):
over nine and a half for bothof those teams. I have Utah at
nine and three, of which goesover eight and a half. The thing
is, I think they're just asgood as Washington and Oregon and maybe even
better. Their schedule is brutal,just a brutal schedule for Utah, even
before they get to the Pac twelvewhere they have bad luck with who they're
playing on the road. They getFlorida next week and then the week after

(45:20):
they get Baylor. I think they'llprobably win both of those games. You're
not getting Tarlton State and a bunchof easy matchups to start the year,
like a lot of teams do.I mean, who's USC plan That's kind
of that's the difference, Like canyou see is playing I don't even Sanjose
State? Yea at San Jose Stateand Utah is playing Florida. It's a
big difference. Even though I thinkFlorida's six. I have Utah at ninety
three. I have Oregon State alsoat nine and three. Joe Tanzy is

(45:44):
organ State to win the Pack twelve. Dj Unglay transferring from Clemson to Oregon
State. Oregon State went nine andthree last year with some of the worst
quarterback play in the sport. Theydid not have a quarterback, and I've
seen a lot of like, wellthere's still don't we ungle Like go look
up djung the stats at Clemson.He's not as bad as people think.

(46:07):
You're killing these pronunciations, by theway, hold on, that's a tough
one. Yeah, that's one I'veheard that he was. He was a
frontline starter at a big school fora long time. I should have to
learn that one. That's like Ihad to say that? How many times
did I have to say that lastyear? You think, Jeremy, he's
not even paying attention. He's lookingat MLB line, He's doing the immaculate
grid over there. I don't evenknow why I asked him, But do
you remember that name? That namering a bell? Dj we Ungle along.

(46:29):
Oh yeah, I had to saythat a lot last year. I
think I'll be having to say ita lot this year. Oregon State will
be relevant they'll be in the mix. You can go back to doing your
immaculate grid over there was good.And I just want to jump in and
talk about the Pac twelve as awhole. I should have mentioned quarterbacks there
is that what you're gonna say.I was more just gonna say as a
conference, it feels like them takinga step forward as far as being considered

(46:50):
legit. Like when I think it'sa shame because they're breaking up year,
they're all leaving next year and it'sfinally good. Like when I think of
Pac twelve football, I think oflate nights, the last thing on flipping
on that it's on in the background. Business is gonna be primetime television when
these teams play like a Pack twelveteam hasn't made the fourteen playoffs since Washington
in twenty sixteen, and three ofthe past four Pack twelve champions had three

(47:10):
or more losses. That is notgoing to be the case to share.
They have four of the top tenquarterbacks in this conference. Yea, there's
no way around it. Caleb Williamsnumber one, Michael Pennox probably had top
three stats at the position last year. He's one of the one of the
people you can point to as theultimate successes of the transfer Era was considered
like a non factor at Indiana atquarterback. Transfers to Washington completely reshaped his

(47:32):
career. He's like an NFL draftprospect now. Like that's the positive of
kind of the transfer portal Oregon anotherextreme positive with transfer portal bo Nix.
Yeah, unbelievable at Oregon an otherguys played college football forever. It feels
like it because he's played at Auburnand he was in such big games,
but he was not this guy atAuburn. He's been that Oregon and Utah

(47:52):
cam Rising. He's coming into theyear a little hurt. That's another kind
of concern for next speak against Floridathat he might not they might not have
their quarterback back in that game.But he's stud as well. We just
mentioned DJ for Oregon State. WashingtonState has a really fun guy, cam
Ward. He came from like incarnateword two years ago. Last year,
he's like kind of an improvisational guyall over the backfield. He played really

(48:15):
had a really fun game against Ithink Wisconsin last year. But Washington State
they're being slept on a little bit. I like there. I like them
at eight and four, and thenI know Philly fans don't want to hear
about it. Ucla chip Kelly gota five star prospect, Dante Moore,
DTR, Dorrian Thompson Robinson drafted wentto Cleveland. He actually looks good,
I was gonna say, And theyjust traded away Jobbs, Yeah, Tredway,

(48:37):
Josh Dobbs and cut Kellen Mohns.So he's the guy there. He's
gonna be there number two. Andlike, there's a chance that I actually
liked a lot of what I sawfrom him. I think there's a chance
that somebody takes a flyer on himor he gets thrown in there at some
point this year. Yeah. No, I like Dorrian Thompson Robinson. I've
been a big fan of his fora long time. Him and Charbonnet in
the backfield. There was I lovedwatching UCLA last year. They let me

(48:59):
down by losing a couple of gamesthey absolutely shouldn't have. But that defense
is a true problem in classic chipKelly fashion. I do think Dante Moore
is exciting. He could end upbeing just a special talent in a way
that DTR was. But he wasa higher prospect than dtr Chip had to
coach DTR up for five years toget him to where he was last year,
So it'll be interesting to see whatmore is right away. Any love

(49:22):
for Colorado Coach Prime, No,No, No three and nine, which
is under three and a half,but they're just it's such a steep incline
to try to rebuild that rawster.Yeah, I'll give you that. I
don't think this year that it's amassific deal, but I yeah, I
do believe in Deon Sanders and coachPrime to build things up there. I
think we flash forward this conversation wantedtwo years from now and we are talking

(49:44):
about them close to this top tierof packed twelve football or who knows where
the conferences will be at that pointand where anybody has feels like it's changing
all the time now. But anyway, I do believe in coach Prime and
Dean to get things done. Ithink Colorado is on the come up.
Let's take a break and actually realquick, just I'll run it down before
we take the break. I gota couple of these other ones, Arizona
five and seven, Cal five andseven, Arizona State five and seven,

(50:06):
all five, All three of thoseteams they're over under is exactly five.
I pushed for all three. Ididn't even do that. I didn't know
that before I did it, butthe schedule makes it pretty easy to do
that. So Arizona State, ArizonaCal all at five and seven, Colorado
three and nine, Stanford at twoand ten. Stanford's going to be an
abomination this year. But let's leavethe SEC for the other side. We're
gonna shuffle some things around, actuallyall the other side. We're gonna give

(50:30):
the SEC preview before talking to KevinKinkaid. So keep it locked. It's
a tough cover radio show right hereon the Gamblers Taste. The back back

(51:21):
of Stans stands broken, Rest inPeace. Ray Wyatt h It's like,

(51:50):
don't really have I Normally, Ifeel like I would leave the show was
something like that, or and tryto come up with a monologue about it.
And I don't think I'm ready forthat, to be quite honest.
And I know that sounds weird forlike a fan to be like so broken
up about something like that. ButI couldn't watch SmackDown last night. Bray
why It's one of my favorite wrestlersof all time. I had I should

(52:15):
have done this with Jeremy and hereso he could talk about it. But
I'll bring it back up at theend of the show again. But I
had the pleasure and as it JohnJanssen actually of being in the stadium at
in Philadelphia in twenty twenty two whenhe made his return after a year plus
gone off TV, and it wasone of the most magical moments I've ever

(52:38):
seen in sports, concerts, wrestling, any sort of live event. It
was something I'll always remember now aboutBray. And it's a tragedy obviously.
The human element of it is justbeyond awful. With h you know,
such a young family, It's awful. I mean, it's terrible, and

(52:59):
it seems like every time happens inwrestling, it's the guy that nobody has
anything negative to say about. Yeah, and it's I don't want to drive,
I don't want to dwell on itand talk too much about it.
But it's beyond terrible and I don'tthink I've ever been affected by the death
of a public figure like this.Not the only other thing I know people
will say Kobe For me personally,it would be really holiday, but yeah,

(53:22):
right, this one felt even morefake when when I when I heard
the news, and yeah, it'sjust absolutely terrible, absolutely awful. I'm
sure at some point this weekend I'llwatch SmackDown. I've already seen some of
the tribute stuff and I've clicked away, like because I'm just like, man,
I don't want the waterworks coming aboutabout this. So yeah, it's

(53:45):
it's terrible, it's awful, butlet's talk about the sec Let's move on.
There's no good way to segue,no good way to transition from that
another cool it was one more thingbefore I get to that. My dad
and my little brother very much casualwrestling fans, not like me. My
dad was a big fan in theeighties and the nineties, but casual wrestling

(54:05):
fan, and my little brother noteven a casual wrestling fan, just watched
when he was around me, hewatched when he was a kid growing up.
And even both of them, hemy little brother likes horror movie,
so he always thought the fiend characterthat Bray Wyatt portrayed and where he's mister
Rogers in the Firefly fun House andthen he's this evil guy with the masket

(54:27):
and wrestling, he thought that wasso cool. And I remember he thought
that the return, he saw thereturn that I was at on TikTok and
he texted me when I was onmy way home from the stadium, like,
yo, you were at that,and so even he thought that was
calling My dad thought, Sister Abigail, the finishing move was like the coolest
move he'd ever seen. He wasall in on Bray wide it was always
his guy of this era. SoI mean, telling both of them yesterday

(54:51):
the news was just beyond awful.But yeah, it sucks. And even
my my fiance loved him too.She loved the firefly fun house stuff.
We went. We went to aelimination chamber right after he lost the title
in Saudi Arabia in twenty nineteen ortwenty twenty, right before COVID, and
he didn't come out, and wewere crushed. We all we wanted to

(55:14):
see what was Bray because he wasfacing Sena a month after that at WrestleMania,
so we thought we were going tosee both of them. We didn't
see either, but happy I wasable to see the moment that Bray had
in Philly, which, as sadas it is to say and as awful
as it is to say, that'skind of his final, his final huge
moment. He had a couple ofmatches after that, but he had that

(55:35):
was his final huge moment. Andthe thing I'll say he just wanted to
talk more about it. But thething I'll say about that night was there
was eight or nine matches listed onthe card going into that that were built
on television. But for a monthor two prior they had built up the
return of Bray. They hadn't saidwho was coming back. With QR codes
all over the screen. It wasthe most unique thing I'd ever seen.

(55:59):
Apparently it was all Bray's idea.Bray was one of the most creative minds
of all time, and for along time, I think under Vince Wickman
that was stifled, and I thinkunder Triple H we would have really seen
it excel. And I think wesaw it excel in his return, and
it's a shame that we don't getto see more of it. But he
returned that night at the end ofthe night, the entire night, pre

(56:21):
show, during show, during themain event, we were chanting we want
Wyatt and singing He's got the wholeworld in his hands and doing all that.
The entire night. If he didn'tcome out at the end of that
night, it would have been amassive disappointment. Everyone would have been mad
online and it would have been aterrible show. He saved the show.

(56:43):
He was the entire star of theshow. That night was his in a
way that I haven't really seen ita wrestling show, because most of the
time, you're excited for the mainevent, you're excited for the big match,
you're excited for the guy coming outwho you haven't seen before. This
was different. We were awaiting areturn, even though we knew he was
probably just gonna walk out. That'swhat he did. He just walked out
and blew out the lantern. Butit was one of the most holy blank

(57:06):
we started chanting holy blank at aguy coming out and entering. But yeah,
I actually want to talk a littlebit. I'm gonna ask Kay a
couple of questions about him because Isaw he wrote a really good blog post.
So anyway, we're gonna run throughthe SEC real fat, real fast,
and it's probably not doing the SECenough justice to run through it as
fast as we're going to big dogs. They are the big dogs in the

(57:27):
SEC East. It's obviously Georgia's division. It's George's conference, it's Georgia's sport,
George's world, it's Georgia's sport,it's Seorgia's world. Yeah, George's
gonna go twelve and oh, they'regonna go eight. No, they're gonna
win. They're gonna win the SECand guess what, spoiler alert, They're
gonna win the National championship again.They're three peating. I have no doubts
about it. Wow, I haveabsolutely no doubts. And they're the odds
on favorite. It's boring for meto say that, but I believe it.

(57:52):
After that, it's a it's jumbledmess. I have Tennessee at nine
and three. I have South Carolinaat nine and three. I have Kentucky
at nine and three. I haveall three of those teams lining up at
nine and three, tying for secondplace in the SEC East after that big
drop off. Florida at five andseven, Missoo at five and seven,
Vanderbilt at four and eight. I'mhigh on South Carolina. I liked they're

(58:15):
over at six. I'm high onGeorgia obviously, like they're over at eleven
and a half. Kentucky might bethe least talked about team in the country
year after year, and especially cominginto this year with Devin Leary, who's
gonna outplay Will Levis. People lovedWill Levis. He's a draft prospect.
Devin Leary's a better college quarterback thanWill Levis, who stinks out loud at

(58:35):
football ever was so I think Kentuckygets better with the loss of Levis this
year while adding Leary. Mark Stoops, one of my absolute favorite coaches in
the country, the most underrated coachin the country, Mark Stoops Florida Graham
Murtz stinks, I don't get it. Give me the Florida under at five
and a half. Give me theTexas saying, oh that jumped a gun.
Sec West Alabama ten and two,LSU nine and three, Arkansas nine

(58:58):
and three. I think that's topthree. I could see any of those
three teams winning that conference or thatdivision. I don't see any of them
as special contenders. I think LSUhas a chance. I'm I like Jaden
Daniels a whole lot. I thinkthey could win as many as eleven games
in the regular season. So here'shere's the big question. What's that next
week? LSU Florida State. Yeah, it's a big one off the bat,

(59:20):
it's in Orlando. I still thinkI lean Lsu. I think I
give Lsu a notch above Florida haveto do something on the show. Then
allis who's favored by two and ahalf. Florida State plus two and a
half might be a game of theyear for me. Okay, Florida State
in that game, l big game. Brian Kelly starts season slow. He's
done it his whole career at NotreDame. He gets his teams get better
throughout the year, and that's apositive. Most of the time. That's

(59:43):
a positive. But because most ofthe time you're playing bad teams to start,
and you can get by with it, and you can play close games
and you escape, You're not gonnabe able to escape against Florida State.
Jordan Travis is gonna pour it on. So I would love Florida State to
get them off to an O andone start, and then from that point
it's just you're gonna lose one ortwo games in the SEC. And I'm
almost everyone but Georgia does and primeAlabama, which this ain't This ain't your

(01:00:07):
dad's Alabama anymore. This ain't yourfather's Alabama. So that's how I feel
about that conference. I could seeLSU winning that division easily well and going
to face Georgia, but I pickedAlabama. But you could sway me to
say an LSU wins their matchup evenin Tuscaloosa. But that's why I lean
Alabama. If the matchup was inDeath Valley, I might lean LSU.
It's that simple. After that,I've ole miss at eight and four.

(01:00:29):
I have Mississippi State at seven andfive, Texas A and M at five
and seven. I've never been aJimbo Fisher guy. I'm done, I'm
throwing. I'm throwing in the towel, and Auburn at five and eight.
My overs and unders there, Ilike Arkansas over seven. I like Georgia
over eleven and a half. Ilike South Carolina over six. I like
Kentucky over seven. I like TexasA and M under eight. I like

(01:00:51):
Auburn under six and a half andsome overall futures. To keep in mind,
I like Florida State plus one seventyto win the ACC. I love
Kansas State plus five fifty to winthe Big Twelve. The Big twelve is
not very good. I think WillHoward is really good. They were five
and two and games Will Howard playedlast year. The two losses a loss

(01:01:12):
to Alabama and a road lost bya field goal to TCU, So I
think Will Howard is a really goodquarterback. I don't have the updated odds
for these teams. That's going tobe somewhere between plus one eighty and plus
three hundred, but three playoff odds. I would take a look at Florida
State. They're my number three teamin the playoff. USC they're my number

(01:01:34):
four team in the playoffs, andthen my number one team, who's my
top team being left out of theplayoff is the Penn State Nitney Lyons.
So I think, go eleven andone and get left out in the cold,
and people are not going to behappy about it. I have the
interesting setup. USC is a twelveand one Pac twelve Conference champion champion and
it improved pack twelve Versus Penn Statebeing eleven and one with a win over

(01:01:59):
Michigan, that's an interesting resume kindof matchup. I put it out a
poll. USC won the poll.So I have USC as my fourth team,
Penn State as my fifth team.I could easily see Penn State getting
into the playoff this year, soI would look at the playoff odds for
all three of those teams. Tomy official playoff Georgia's the one seed.
They're going up against four seed USC, and we have Ohio State as the

(01:02:21):
two seed going up against three seedFlorida State. I have Georgia beating USC
by forty and I have Ohio Statebeating Florida State. So you got a
rematch of last year's really good onlyplayoff game, which was Georgia State Ohio
State. CJ. Stroud's not aroundthis time. I don't think it'll be
as close. Give me Georgia toin the national championship. So that is

(01:02:43):
my college football preview. I'm happywe were able to jam pack all that.
And by the way I said allthat, I didn't even say the
name of Georgia's quarterback. It's CarsonBeck. It's probably good. He could
be good. He's a big timeprospect, could be better than Setson was.
Stetson wasn't a big time prospect,but he got the job done,
and I think that's all Carson Beckwill need to do. He will just
need to get the job done.So that is my college football preview.

(01:03:05):
And coming up next, we're gonnatalk with Kevin Kincaid, who's a West
Virginia alum. I don't think he'sfeeling very good about Neil Brown and his
Mountaineers coming into the year basketball,Bobby hugging this tough times all. I
can't even think about that. That'swrong, that's even that's rougher. But
yeah, we're gonna talk about We'regonna talk with Kevin. You can go
everything. He's a wrestling fan,you can talk a little. I thought

(01:03:28):
he had a really good article aboutthe Phillies that I wanted to touch on.
I thought he had. Obviously,he does a lot of great stuff
about the Eagles, and we'll seeif we can even get him to talk
a little bit about the Sixers.So keep locked to Fox phl the Gambler
for the Tucker Radio Show. Hgot a lot coming up after this,
so keep it locked right here.The Gambler, Phillies Home for all things

(01:03:50):
sports, Gambling almost him West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountain and the river.

(01:04:11):
Life is old there, older thanup trees, younger than the mountains,
growing like a reef country. Roll. Take me Home to the play line

(01:04:32):
to West Virginia Mount Take Me Home, Country Roll. Welcome back to the
Tough Cover radio show, closing itdown in the twelve o'clock hour with a
great guest here, Kevin Kincaid fromCrossing broad You can follow him at Kevin

(01:04:55):
Underscore, King Kaide. You couldcheck out the It's Always Soccer and fiel
A Healthia podcast. Kevin, thanksso much for coming on. Man.
How you doing. I'm doing great. How you guys doing. We got
a lot to talk about. Imean, we're all over the board.
We're right getting into the swing ofthings in a lot of different areas.
And of course the Sixers keep pokingtheir heads into the conversation and making us

(01:05:17):
talk about them. But we gota lot to talk about. Let's start
it out on a weird on aweird note. Actually, I'm gonna I'm
gonna talk about the Phillies real quickoff the top here. We haven't talked
much about them on the show becauseI feel like after the seven to win
right now there's there, they're kindof just they're locked into the playoffs.
In my opinion, there's not aton to talk about like there has been

(01:05:38):
as of late when there's been somuch controversy. But you wrote a really
good blog I'm crossing broad when youwent to the game. You're in the
stadium for the walk off home run, and you said how nice it was
to be in the stadium where fanskind of didn't give up as soon as
they got down in the game,and you weren't on Twitter and watching all
the comments come in and all thenegativity. And I agree with that totally,

(01:06:01):
and I've talked about that that onthis show too. The the environment
at the stadium is so much differentthan what you see on like Phillies Twitter.
So part of why we brought youon you you yelled at me and
Nick Pacone and told us to goto our rooms correctly. When me and
Nick Pocone were yelling at each other, I wanted to see what you what
your thoughts were on kind of thishas kind of been a season long argument

(01:06:26):
between me and Nick Pocone. Arepeople being too negative about the Phillies as
a whole? Why where do youthink that discourse is coming from. Is
it just based on the expectations ofmaking the World Series last year or what
do you think about kind of howthe fans have talked about the Philly I
think it's it's turned since the standingoh a big time, but before that,

(01:06:48):
and even still when we lose,the sky still falls a little bit.
But what are what are your kindof thoughts on kind of the season
long argument me and Pacona have beenhaving. Well, I mean, I'm
a pragmatist, right, so Ithink there's probably too much Nagadelphia and Philadelphia
in general, you know. Imean our big thing on crossing Broad during
the Eagle seasons, all the Gannonstuff. You know, it's like,
well, you know they're eight,no, but are they playing too soft?

(01:07:10):
Right? You know? And thenit's like when they lose their first
and then they lose their first game, it's like you get the polls they're
asking if Jonathan Gannet should be fired. You know. So it's not trying
to like, you know, considerthis big like macro level shift. I
think like a younger generation of Philadelphiasports fans are a little bit more,
you know, they don't do theknee jerk emotional reaction thing as much,
and they're willing to kind of likelet it breathe and let things live a

(01:07:32):
little bit, you know, andit's harder to do, and base baseball
is easy to kind of flip backand forth because there's so many games.
It's such a short amount of time, you know. I mean here like
ride and high one night before andthen you know that's you know, less
than twenty four hours later. Youknow, somebody's going over four of the
plate, right. So, Imean it's kind of kind of lends itself
to that kind of roller coaster ofemotions and whatnot. But I need to

(01:07:54):
look. I think expectations are justifiablyhigh after last season, but I mean
ever since they kind of turned itaround after the poor start, I mean,
they've been playing pretty good baseball fora couple of months now. You
know, this is not some newnot some new thing. Which it makes
me laugh about the trade turner pivotpoint, because you know, they had
they had been one of the bestteams in baseball even before that, you

(01:08:15):
know, that month, the monthbefore that. Yes, when I see
these like tweets like well, youknow, the trade turner evasion saved the
season, I'm sitting there thinking like, well, I mean they were pretty
damn good, you know, inthe month leading up to that, you
know, and uh, you know, like ironically like the trade the thing
that the genesis of the trade turnerevasion was a fielding error, you know,
not not anything at the plate withhim. But yeah, it's funny
how that kind of got it unstuck, and I think it's just unlocked kind

(01:08:36):
of that fan kind of kind ofbuying, you know what I mean.
I think it was less about youknow, what they were doing on the
field, more like, okay,turning point, Like I think this team
starting to I think we're vibing withthis team now, and I think some
people who were kind of you had, like a foot dangling off the bandwagon
are are squarely back on now.Yeah, I agree, and I think
that there there is kind of thatthat bandwagon mentality that Jimmy Rollins caught us

(01:09:00):
out about a long time ago andeveryone got all upset about. But he
was absolutely right, to be quitehonest. But kind of speaking speaking of
expectations and moving over to the teamthat you know, half of that fan
base that's Negadelphians for the Phillies aregoing to forget the Phillies exist because the
Eagles are about to play. Sothe Eagles are coming on, They're they're
you know this is about to bethe time where the Eagles take over the

(01:09:23):
takeover the Phillies sports world from thePhillies at least until the playoffs. And
speaking of expectations, I don't thinkthat there has ever been as sky high
of expectations for a team in mylifetime, honestly as there is for the
Eagles. And you could say,obviously the year after you win the Super
Bowl and the year after they wonthe World Series in oh eight, I

(01:09:45):
almost feel like you don't have thepressure though that this team has kind of
because they want to know eight andthey want in seventeen. I think you
could argue that this is the mostsuper Bowl or championship or bust season that
we even in a while in Philadelphiasports. Would that be a fair characterization
for the Eagles this year? Yeah? And normally, like I would laugh

(01:10:08):
off something like that entirely, butbut for real, I mean, like
the truth is, like you know, because people who are saying, like,
well, they should go back tothe Super Bowl, I mean,
like, what are the odds?How often does it happen that a team
goes to Super Bowl two years ina row? Right? I mean you
just look at the numbers, gameon that. But I mean when you
look at their competition in the NFC, what it would is precluding them from

(01:10:28):
getting back there San Francisco and Dallas. Really, I mean, like that's
it. Yeah. Is there anyother team in the NFC that any of
us can sit here and legitimately sayis is a huge threat to the Eagles
this year? But I don't.I don't see it. You know,
Washington, the Giants, the Vikings, the Lions, I mean, Naron
Rodgers is gone. You know.The South looks terrible on paper, you

(01:10:53):
know. So so I don't thinkthat's crazy. And normally I would say
that's crazy. You're gonna have thosekinds of high expectations. But but I
don't think it is. I mean, the offense is going to be just
as good as not better, butit was last year on the question marks
are on the defensive side, youknow. But now I don't think that's
that's crazy. On that's a deviationfrom what I would what I would normally
think. Yeah, it's not somethingI would normally say either, to be

(01:11:15):
quite honest, and I would throwmy whole thing this all season has been
I'm a big Seattle guy. Ilove what they did this all season and
they I love what they did inthe draft. I think they'll improve on
it. I mean, it's hard. I think they will win, like
I think they're gonna win a lotof games in the regular season, but
it's hard for me to say.I think that they're a legitimate playoff contender
with the Eagles, and it's justtough. I don't know. I'm not

(01:11:35):
as high on San fran or Dallasas a lot of people are either,
So I just think the NFC isreally bad. So I'm totally with you.
I got Sean Bernardi, who's gonnaask a question about two teams you
just mentioned there? Yeah, andKevin. You put up an awesome blog
on crossingbroad dot com which was titledforty nine Ers put the final nail in
Trey lance career by trading them tothe Cowboys. We saw that breaking news
yesterday. The forty nine Ers,just two years after trading three first round

(01:11:58):
picks in a second four Trey Lanceship him off to Dallas for just a
fourth round are really giving up fornothing. I think it's a horrible management
of assets overall. But what's yourwhole take on the situation there? Yeah.
I mean, look when you lookat what they traded to go up
and get him, only to turnaround and flip him for a fourth,
it's just, you know, it'sit's so weird. It's such an outlier
for what San Francisco has been ableto do and roster building otherwise, you

(01:12:21):
know. I mean they've got agreat defense, they always have a great
defense. They've got weapons all over, you know, the offensive side of
the ball. But it's like theyjust like the quarterback position for them just
always seems to be like, no, now we're just gonna whatever guy we're
we're on right now, We're gonnaput him in there, you know,
Jimmy G. Brock Purty, TreyLance, you know, whomever. And

(01:12:41):
uh, it's just that's like reallyjust the thing holding holding them back.
I don't you say what you wantto say about Trey Lance. And he's
come back from injury, he's notready, you know, he still needs
time to develop. That's fine,but I don't I don't think brock Purty
and Sam Darnold are the answer,right, you know, And I wish,
you know, in a way,I wish that he didn't get injured
in the NFC Championship game last year, because I would have liked to see

(01:13:03):
the Eagles bury the Niners with himin there, just to eliminate the whole
de those Samuel and you know,all the complaints afterwards of well, you
know, we would have won ifour quarterback didn't go down and all that
stuff. You know, I'm notlike, is anybody out there a Brock
Party believer? I mean, aserious question, you know, But yeah,
I mean, it's just strange thatthey bungled the Trey Lance way they

(01:13:24):
did from a from an organization,but otherwise, you know, it's pretty
flushed with talent everywhere else. Yeah, definitely, And it feels like like
Trey Lance is almost the outlier inthe way they viewed quarterbacks that there's all
this talk about like the plugin playguys, that Jimmy Garoppolo is the Brock
Party. It's very clear the Ninersare very much on board the Brock Party
wagon. And he really can savethe face of this trade by being the
quarterback, if that is guy.But I just don't see the ceiling for

(01:13:45):
him in the way that I don'tknow if they do. Like, honestly,
if I was to pick a ceilingfor Brock party, it's probably like
Jimmy garoppolo. And say what youwant about Trey Lance. I know the
injuries, he's still very unprone,but at least there's some sort of juice
there and some sort of other thingsthat he could do, elements he could
add to an offense. So Idon't know, it's confusing to me to
just give him away rather than atleast hold onto it until Brock pretty shows

(01:14:06):
he's the guy. But yeah,I was very surprised by that, and
I honestly don't hate it from theCowboys perspective of adding it for just the
mid round pick. Yeah, No, I mean it's it's a it's a
buy low, you know, it'sa it's a low risk, high reward
kind of kind of move on theirpart for sure, you know. And
uh, you know, I don'tyou going back to like the Jimmy G
thing too. I don't can anybodylike really say that Brock Purtty ceiling is

(01:14:28):
gonna be getting higher than Jimmy Gceiling was No, No, Yeah,
I mean, so that's that's mything. Like it feels like a lateral
move at best, going from goingfrom Jimmy G to Brock pretty I know
people talk about you put him ina shanahand kind of offense, you can
plug and play kind of anybody inthere. But uh, I don't know
if if the ceiling is some kindof like Alex Smith, kind of like
game game Manager, and I don'teven use game I don't even use game

(01:14:49):
manager in a derogatory term. Ithink that's a I think that can be
a compliment in a way because justsomebody who plays within themselves and it doesn't
try to do too much. ButI don't, I don't, I don't
see I think I think Brock Purty'sfloor certainly is much higher than Trey Lances
for it, but I think hisceiling is lower. Yeah, Lance ceiling,
do you know what I'm saying.I think that's definitely fair. And

(01:15:10):
everyone's gonna kill San Fran for makingthe trade in general to get Trey Lance.
And I still kind of think likeif that would have worked out,
I think it would have. Youknow, I understand the move still,
like I was a high upside moveand they ended up being too good to
kind of let it wait around.Yeah, I just think that the timelines
never matched up there. But Imean sometimes. Look, I'll give you
an Eagles like example in that regard. You know, like they went out

(01:15:30):
and got Andre Dillard in the firstround. He ended up not working out,
but the Diamond in the rough seventhround guy did and Jordan my a
lot. Yeah, So I meanthat's kind of a Trey Lance brock Purty
first round, seventh round kind ofdevelopmental thing that you still don't expect it
to work that way, but sometimesit does. So but yeah, I'm
look, they went for it.I think everybody thought at the right at

(01:15:50):
the time it was the right thingto do, and you know, some
of those work out, some ofthem don't. Yeah, No, that's
a great example. That's a greatcomparison. And I'm gonna do a complete
one eighty shift here over from theEagles all the way over to the world
of professional wrestling because I saw obviouslyhad two blogs and it's been a rough
week for wrestling fans. Obviously,Terry Funk one of the all time legends

(01:16:15):
or the business ECW legend for thoseout there who aren't wrestling fans. ECW
was basically Philadelphia's wrestling promotion. Obviously, it was all across the Northeast and
big in New York, big inChicago, big, kind of and a
lot of I think it even wentdown to Florida for a couple of like
hardcore Heaven, a couple couple ofpay per views in that era. It
was definitely also down there in Floridain that area, but Philadelphia was the

(01:16:36):
home base, obviously in South OnSouth Philadelphia, the corner of Swanson and
Writtener Terry Funk, all time legend, great blog that you posted. I
know you're a big ECW guy.And then also, obviously the more heartbreaking
news, obviously just due to thelife circumstances of it, is Bray Wyatt
passing away, which I talked aboutin the last segment at the age of

(01:16:58):
thirty six, which is just insaneand just beyond sad from a human standpoint,
from a wrestling standpoint, from fromevery standpoint, just absolutely awful.
What do you obviously you talked aboutTerry Funk, Why do you think that
Terry Funk is so iconic and evenfor LABS fans for bray Wyatt, because

(01:17:20):
I was talking last segment, howI knew a couple of LABS fans and
even they were drawn to Bray Wyattbecause it was kind of a from a
past era from a LABS fan perspective, What was kind of your thoughts on
Bray Wyatt and obviously your thoughts onTerry Funk. Yeah, Terry Funk Man,
I mean, like he was.The longevity of his career was incredible.

(01:17:42):
I think I don't know if peopleeven realized this when he came to
uc W and the nine, doyou see it already been wrestling for twenty
five to thirty years, you know, he had a couple of decades in
Japan. I think he was aw c W. I think he had
nearly stint with WWF before going backthere and doing the Chainsaw Charlie routine.
But I'm so this this guy was, you know, in South Philly wrestling
as like a fifty something year old, you know, doing all this crazy

(01:18:05):
hardcore stuff with guys who are likehalf his age, you know, and
and not skipping a bally. TerryFunk still a lot of blood in South
Philadelphia, you know. I meanhe was just as crucial to you think
of guys who were like known forlike their their start in ec W,
or who made a big and ecW in your your rob Van Damn sav
Who's and Taz is that there's alot of guys who had wrestled before they

(01:18:27):
came in and who were who evenelevated themselves at different levels. I mean,
he was just a perfect fit forthat. And we were talking to
it to Brian Heffron, the bluemeanie local guy who's still really active in
the scene, earlier this week,and he was he just he said his
name with Terry was just like hewas always there for the younger guys,
and you know, and there waspeople gate keeping and saying like, you
know, we're not gonna let youin. You know, he was kind
of opened all the young talent comingup and saying, hey, let's let's

(01:18:50):
develop your gimmicks. Here, sidfights, here is what you can do,
and and and all that kind ofstuff. So so yeah, I
mean for his you know, whathe did for younger guys and just you
know how hardcore he wasn't how perfecthe was for Eacy. I mean that's
what I remember Gray why you know, look, I mean I stopped watching
wrestling consistently probably in two thousand andfive, but I remember, like,

(01:19:12):
you know, his dad Irs waslike a huge was huge back in the
day, and so he comes fromthis pedigree of like this wrestling family that's
like heralded, you know. AndI just remember even just watching Casualty,
like the themed entrances and all theshowmanship and whatnot, the craftiness and the
creativity and the artistry of like thegimmick was just was just incredible, you
know, especially when you get toa point where a lot of things in

(01:19:33):
wrestling have been done, you know, over X amount of years. I
mean, it just felt like likerefreshing, and his stuff is unique and
yeah, just sad circumstances at thirtysix years old, you know. So,
yeah, that was tough to see. Yeah, a tough week for
the wrestling world, man, youknow, just yeah, that's absolutely brutal.
And what you said about you know, ECW not just starting careers,

(01:19:55):
but allowed people to to kind oflevel up. And obviously the the two
iconic ones are fully in Austin.And what I want to say, because
I heard someone else mention this whenthey were talking about Terry Funk's death,
I don't think you can even talkabout Terry Funk without talking about Mick Foley
at this point, because I thinkto the to the to the wrestling public

(01:20:17):
and not just to the ECW fanor what the w W fan, whatever
it is. I think Mick Foleyhas done such an incredible job at making
sure nobody forgets Terry Funk's legacy andmaking sure that when people talk about mcfoley
is the hardcore legend all that stuff, he's like, no, I mean,
that's Terry Funk, Like he hegave that to me, and I

(01:20:38):
think that's you know, McK foley'slike my personal probably first or second favorite
wrestler of all times. So well, they were like attached at the hip
for a long time too. Imean, like you know, Cactus Jack
and Chainsaw Charlie wrestled together at wW, They've they wrestled against each other
in ECW and other promotions. Imean they were like interconnected, you know,
one A and one D really andI don't know, it's funny because
you know, Nick Foley took offand became this huge super start, but

(01:21:00):
I mean Terry Frank was kind oflike yeah right there every step of the
way. You know, maybe hedidn't have the gimmick or the character or
whatever they kind of put him overthe top on the national stage, but
I mean he had so much respectfrom from from everybody in the community that
yeah, right, I mean whenhe when he passes, you know,
you look just google his name andlooking all the tributes that are out there
for him. That tells you whatyou need to know. Yeah, And
it's this is the thing with Braythat I said in the last segment.

(01:21:21):
It's it seems like every time thishappens, it's like, you know,
it's always the guy that nobody hasanything negative to say about. It's always
the guy that you know, thewhole locker room seems to love. It's
like the Owen Hart thing where it'sjust everyone's favorite guy, it seems.
And it's just brutal. And toswitch gears at again, yeah, I'll
let's Sean get back to get backto sports instead of depressing wrestling deaths.

(01:21:42):
But yeah, yeah, we're kindof hitting on everything here, of course
talking with Kevin Kinkaid of crossing Brad. But I know you had a six
years kind of I guess here takinga break from a little while, but
diving back in. I would beremiss if I did not bring up the
holiday we were cell bringing today isit is James Harden's birthday. So,
Kevin, I just want to geta little three thoughts on your out look
for these sixties as a whole withthis James Harden situation. I guess my
question for you specifically is who blinksfirst that do you think Darryl Morny gives

(01:22:06):
in and trades James Harden? Arewe going to continue to see this drag
out and see James Harden continued tocause the noise that he is currently causing.
Oh god, well, it can'tbe any word, can't be any
worse than the Ben Simmons thing.Kenn It. I mean, that thing
went until you know, it couldn'tgo anymore. You know, I don't
know the whole thing. It's justlike like I'm defeated. You know.

(01:22:26):
I put the moratorium up on thewebsite because I just didn't want to do
anything more with it than Kyle Pagandecided that he was just going to break
the moratorium to write whatever he oneis. I was like, you know,
what if you want to handle allthat crap, that's final minute.
I mean, you write all theJames Harden updates, you know. It's
just I mean, part of thisis a part of this is a byproduct,
like honest to god of like theplayer empowerment era, So like,

(01:22:47):
yeah, he's the Harden is notthe only sloppiness going on in the NBA,
right, Like he got Dame Lillard, he got all these other situations
that are always like that, youknow. But I think it's I haven't
even recovered from Benson thing yet.So I just wish that these guys could,
I feel like just putting Harden andMore in a room and saying,
just figure it out. Just actlike grown up to here, figure it

(01:23:09):
out. If Morey, if yousaid something this guy, if you give
him a handshake, wink wink,you gotta honor that, you know.
And James Harden, if you knowyou look you opted in, man,
are you here or you know,do you want to be here? Did
you have to be here? Yeah, it's just it's just exhausting. It's
just like it's just childish stuff,you know, and it should. The
NBA has got to step in andthey gotta they gotta curb this, this

(01:23:30):
ridiculousness of the player empowerment era,which has just resulted in guys just deciding
they're not going to honor their contracts. They're gonna force trades, they're gonna
player where they want to play,and it's just not good. So it's
the only thing it's good for isgossip headlines like on TMZ and crossing broad
and it doesn't that it's not goodfor anybody else that that Kyle from San
Francisco here, I mean breaking themoratorium. He's a real rule breaker,

(01:23:50):
Kyle from San Francisco. Yeah.Yeah, he kind of does what he
wants, you know. But whenyou have artistic types like that, you
just, uh, you know,kind of kind of let them, let
them do their things to be grudgingly, you know. And you did make
the comparison to the Ben Simmons situation. Now, I would go as far
as say that I do think thatthis is worse than the Ben Simmons situation.

(01:24:11):
And the reason that I would saythat is, at least there was
kind of an ounce of hope duringthat era that it felt like maybe this
works out at least, you know, Joel didn't get along with Ben already
that we've seen the playoffs, shortcomings, the issues that Ben Simmons had,
this feels like the end of theroad. That it feels like this was
the move. The all in movewas get James Harden. That's the addition.
I know that Tyrese Maxe could takeanother leap, but there's really just
not that much more that we haveto work with. So do you think

(01:24:33):
that there are in a worst spotnow than they were in the past.
Holdout? It's ridiculous that we evenhave holdouts to compare to and all those
things. But I guess how wouldyou stack up these Simmons versus hard and
hold out and the outlook for theSixers? Yeah, rank your top five
sixers hold out? Yeah, no, But it's a it's a good point
because right, it's like, wheredid you go from here? I mean,

(01:24:53):
at least it Ben Simmons. Everybodykind of inevitably knew that, like,
you're going to be able to getsomething back for me still a young
player with upside, you know thereis a a tangible path to traverse here.
But right, I mean, andin that case, we everybody kind
of thought it was his camp versusthe Sixers, and that you know,
you know that he was kind ofthe head case, and you have the
whole mental health thing and all thatstuff. In this case, it's like

(01:25:13):
Darryl Moorey. Yeah, there's concernsabout like, hey, is he doing
the right thing or the crack startingshow and the Sixers front office armor,
you know what I mean. Buteven even before this whole sloppiness, we
were sitting here saying to ourselves,like what move is out there that the
Sixers can do that makes them betterthan just bringing back Hard But I mean
that was a discussion before the optin and I'll hold out and all that

(01:25:35):
stuff, right, I mean,like what trade is available, what free
agent move can you make? Whatmakes you better than what you were last
year? You know. I meanwe're trying to talk ourselves in the idea
of running it back with a differentcoach. You know. So even before
all this, I'm not sure whatthe what the move was, right,
I Mean, there wasn't any obviousthing, you know, in front of

(01:25:56):
them, so that that's the thingto considered too. I mean, I
this is extra sloppiness that I thinkthere was some concerned general concern going into
the off season even before it happened. Yeah, and to swing it full
gear, we'll jump into another sporthere and dive into this like our fifth
sport or topic we're hitting there flyingis what I do, man, and
how many other people can do this? This is the jack of all trades

(01:26:19):
for real? For real. ButKevin Kikaid one of my sources for Philadelphia
Union News. Him and Joe Tanziare the two guys that I get most
of my news from, for sure. I did want to ask first,
bring it back to the messy comingto Chester there a couple of weeks ago.
Now one of the cooler sporting eventsreally in the failure area that I've
seen throughout my lifetime. That itwas cool, how excited generally everyone got
for that? What were your thoughtson that game? Obviously super disappointed to

(01:26:41):
see the Union come out flat,and for me, I think it was
personally frustrating that that felt like apremier moment where the Union kind of had
these spotlight and to see him comeout flat, to see the quick goal
and to see things fall apart fromthere. How much damage do you think
that does? I love the damage. I mean it was a disgraceful embarrassment
of the performance. They played scaredthey were set up to lose, and
you know they should be embarrassed bythat performance. Yeah, they were starstruck

(01:27:05):
in in a place that they normallyplay pretty well. You know, Andre
Blake didn't look anything like himself.Jim Curtin got it wrong from the beginning,
and you know it's frustrating because yougo you go on, you know,
like I did a radio show theday, I love that game,
you know, talking about the Unionand yeah, they're pretty good. You
know, maybe you watch them andyou know, maybe give them some love

(01:27:27):
them, but you know, everytime it feels like they get to uh,
they get somewhere, then they kindof fall flat where it's like,
you know, they suffer a defeatlike that, and then you have people
saying that, well maybe this teamactually stinks. You know. So you
know, you get these opportunities andthen you blow them. It's like that
guy in Greek mythology who kept pushingthe boulder up the hill and then every
time you got to the top theboulder which just fall back down. You
know. So that was certainly frustratingfor sure. Yeah, they salvage.

(01:27:51):
They got third place in the tournamentand they qualified for the Champions League next
year, so that's a good silverlining on that. But you know,
twice this year they've gotten to thesemifinals with a cup competition and then they
were just totally outclassed. So youknow, it's like it's not only that
they're hitting the ceiling like they're they'resmashing their head on the ceiling, like
bumping it, like very hard onthe ceiling. Yeah, and there's two

(01:28:11):
guys that you brought up there,and as a whole of the Union season
has been pretty impressed and pretty solidoverall, but it is frustrating these kind
of moments. But Andre Blake youtouched on. He's been a guy who's
been a foundational piece of this Unionteam, been with the organization for years
now and really has grown into oneof the stars across the MLS as far
as goalkeepers go, and just asa talent overall. It was super frustrating
to see him be a guy thatcame up small in the moment that he
just looked a little caught off guard. And then Jim Cart and you also

(01:28:34):
brought up there's a growing reputation ofJim Cart and not being able to win
big games, and that's frustrating becauseon all their other accounts, he's been
terrific as the head coach, thelongest tenured head coach in Philadelphia at this
point, And what is kind ofyour thoughts on the balance there and do
you think it was just a badgame for Andre Blake, one of those
they get you or is there anythingmore to that? No, I don't

(01:28:55):
think there's anything more too. Ithink it just came out flat than the
moment was a little too big forhim. You know, It's just funny
because if I went back and ifI told you before the game that the
biggest concerns would be a Jim currentand Andre Blake, you know, he
would have looked at me like Ihad three heads or something. But no,
look, I mean Jim, Jimhas done so much with so little.
You know, he oftentimes, youknow, he gets the semifinals or

(01:29:16):
a cup, finally gets into theplayoffs and he does not have as much
talent to work with as as theopponent does. But look, I mean
the reality of the situations that ifyou're good enough to get there, then
you shouldn't you know, fall offas hard as you do in some of
these occasions. You know that thisgame from last week of a week before
they had the Champions League semifinal thisyear where they lost three up and in
the second like twenty eighteen US OpenCup Final, they lost three and up

(01:29:40):
and then we're just blown off thefield by Houston. So there's there's there's
some instances where they played tough andthey just didn't have enough talent where I
would not blame Jim for any ofthat at all. But there's some occasions
in these big games where they justcome out completely flat and they're not ready
to play and they just kind ofget their doors blown off. So I
think it's fair to ask that question. I certainly think that Jim is still
carrying his uh yeah, his niceto a gunfight. Right to pick an

(01:30:02):
analogy there, but right, yeah, I mean it's fair you can answer
those questions. Thanks so much forcoming on, Kevin. Kevin Kincaid,
that was great stuff. Like yousaid, I mean, who's covering all
those basses? Who who's got soccer, baseball, basketball, football, w
w EEC. I mean that waswe hit all the all the stuff we
needed to hit there. Thanks somuch for coming on, Kevin, those

(01:30:24):
great stuff. Yeah, no problem. Next time we'll get into astro physics
and yeah, yeah, pick whatyou want to throw it at me.
I'll try got you you can checkout Kevin at Kevin Underscore Kincaid. Check
out his stuff over at Crossing broadHe does great stuff over there, him
and Kyle from San Francisco, KyleKagan, and check out the Crossing broadcast

(01:30:46):
that they do weekly. Yeah,it's it's great stuff over there Crossing broad
I am going to about I'm gonnagive you four baseball picks in under sixty
seconds. How about that instead ofdocky brains, will ray the donkey brains.
I'm not getting Jeremy, I won't. I'm sorry, nor no Bray
Wyatt talk. But I did it. I did it for when when you

(01:31:06):
were in the bathroom. It wasgreat stuff. Go check it out any
under twenty seconds. Any thoughts,Jeremy, Oh, I just restI peace.
Gray Wyat just one of the mostcreative minds and all the wrestling business
and uh really sad and touching.Yeah, it's it's beyond beyond brutal,
beyond brutal. But let's let's talk. Let's shift gears. No way to

(01:31:26):
do it, but four picks inthe MLB my least favorite pick. I
don't have any stats on it.Eight ten over nine reds, d backs,
two gas cans on the mount Idon't have any stats on it.
One unit play they both both thosepitchers stack at four ten over eight and
a half. Royals, Mariners,Mariners, along with every other team in
baseball of great BVP numbers against JordanLyles. He's the worst pitcher in baseball.
Surprising part is the Royals hit fourhundred and forty four at bats against

(01:31:48):
Logan Gilbert is my best bet ofthe day. Four units. Rules are
ten and three in their last thirteento the over. Mariners are ten and
two in their last twelve to theover, five straight overs, and their
five games this year between Seattle andcase c at six ten. I like
over eight and a half. AstrosTigers. Hunter Brown has deteriorated down the
stretch, as has Houston. Tigershit three O eight against him. Astros

(01:32:08):
have hit a ton against EDWARDO.Rodriguez, and they hit two eighty eight
eight and two in the last tenfor the over for Houston, three and
one in the last four for theover for Detroit. Three of their last
four games have went over this year. Phillies minus one and a half.
My take from watching the Cardinals lately, they stink. Give me the Phillis
minus one and a half because they'vehit the coda. Hudson. Well,
they hit two eighty six against themin fifty at bats. Wheeler has dominated

(01:32:30):
the Cardinals Phillies minus one and ahalf two units. Any thick, I
got nothing, nothing, nothing,all right, that's fine, that's fine.
Any any take this rock. TheBryce Harper home run line is something
you should be watching on a regularbasis. That the power is back with
Bryce Harper checked that values on anightly basis, and I think that's what
has happened on pretty often. AllRight, there you go, Bryce Harper,
red hot. That's gonna do it. For the Tough Cover Radio show,

(01:32:54):
it was hectic. I had.This was you know, it's like
week zero for me. This wasthis was my week zero Tough Cover Show.
Next week we'll be ready for weekone. Oh we better be.
Oh yeah, there's a slate coming, so keep it locked. The Green
Legion Radio coming up next at oneo'clock right here on the Gambler. But
for now, Tough Cover Country,that's right,