October 3, 2017 • 50 mins
Doug explains what the difference is between being the best team and being the best available team in the NFL. He also shares the one team no one else is talking about who should consider drafting USC QB Sam Darnold or UCLA QB Josh Rosen. Plus Washington State head coach Mike Leach joins the show to talk about their win over USC and why QB Luke Falk needs more recognition as a Heisman candidate.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of the Done Gottleif Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Boom, What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio, coming to you from the City of Angels,
where we're told major League Baseball's playoffs get underway. Only
it's a play in game tonight, arguably the most important
(00:21):
play in game in the history of the play in
game since baseball started the play in game couple of
years ago. Yankees taken on the Twins. Look, Minnesota, you cute,
your lovely. I can't wait to be there for Super
Bowl Week. I can't wait to be there. But no
one really wants you here, right, just no one? Really?
(00:43):
This is the this is the really, this is the really, really,
really nice, reputable girl at a wild party, Like, look,
you don't want to be around here, man, stuff is
gonna go on here after dark. You known on any
part of so thanks to ends, but everyone's rooting for
the Yankees. TV is rotten for the Yankees. Radio is
(01:05):
rooting for the Yankees. Major League Baseball rooting for the Yankees.
And what's interesting, maybe or most interesting about it is
the fact that the Twins have on multiple occasions gotten
a chance to take down the Yankees in a series
and have been unable to win in Yankee Stadium. Now
you get you cannot get a better a better scenario
(01:27):
for the Twins, right, They just now got their best
player back healthy. The Yankees are starting a complete unknown
in regards to a twenty three year old starter. We
have no idea how he'll play in the pressure of
a one game playing game, playoff, and all you have
to do is win one game. But no one's rooting
for you. All right, more on that to come. Last night,
(01:48):
in what I think was a fantastic Monday night football game,
no question, bad beat. If you had the skins as
I did, if you had the over, if you had
the under, excuse me, if you had the Skins and
the underboy, that was a That was a bad way
to end a great football game. But um, look it
ends up. But the Kansas City Chiefs remain undefeated. Just
(02:13):
you know, the line was a seven and a half
and forty eight and a half was I believe the
overunder number. But the Kansas City Chiefs win a game
and Kareem Hunt continues to be the story of the
quarter pole. But but this is one of those forgive
(02:34):
me Kansas City. If I don't take you as seriously
as I should. I mean, like, look justin Houston is
and they have unbelievable talent at certain spots. Houston is
their rush end hunt does their running back Torek Hill,
who you feel like, at any point in time, could
(02:54):
catch the ball, could take a handoff, could uh a
few of the punt could take a kick off to
the house. He is that sort of talent at any
point in time. That's what this guy could do. And
though Alex smith Is is maligned. Though Alex smith Is
(03:19):
is maligned, it's also safe to say that Alex Smith
is steady as she she goes right. He's been in
the playoffs. He's been in the NFC Championship game. He's
played pretty well in the NFC Championship Game. He's one
playoff cans before. They've done some good things, and um, look,
he's one playoff game for the kanc Chiefs, something that
(03:42):
no one else has done for twenty years. And they've
had some good quarterbacks. But what happened here on the
way to the Kansa c Chiefs becoming quote unquote the
best team in the NFL is they're not really the
best team in the NFL. They're the best team available
in the NFL. Let me tell you the difference between
(04:03):
the two. We came into the year thinking that the
New England Patriots, some believe they had a chance to
go undefeated, right coming off a Super Bowl winning year,
Rob Gronkowski back healthy as he was injured last season.
They made additions on offense. I mean additions on defense,
adding guys in like Stefan Gilmore, adding in help on
(04:25):
the defensive front, adding in new running backs, adding in
Brandon Cooks is a wide receiver to take off the
top of a defense. All of that stuff led us
to believe, Hey, maybe the New England Patriots could go undefeated.
And to this point their defense looks terrible and worse
yet confused. On the other hand, the offense is actually
(04:48):
quite good, even though the offense is playing without Julian
Edelman for the entire season. Patriots or just two and
two and maybe mean more troubling if your New England
there one and two at home. They in up a
hundred and twenty eight points on the season. Uh that
is second most in the NFL by a large margin.
(05:09):
Tennessee is given up one the Colts have given up
one thirty six, So it's those three and outside of that,
only two other teams are getting up over a hundred
points this year. But because their defense is still being
put together, they're still trying to figure out. They're still new.
You can't consider the Patriots among the NFL's the league.
We thought it was the Patriots and we're not. The
(05:31):
Pittsburgh Dealers somehow lost to the Buffalo lost to the
Chicago Bears, and though they're three and one, they're kind
of a disappointing three and one. Antonio Brown has been ticked.
Ben Roethlisberger has been great, Levan Bell wasn't sharp. This
is the same Pittsburgh Steeler team that beat the Kansas
City Chiefs on the road last year in the playoffs. Uh,
(05:56):
the Houston Texans took a while to figure out who
their quarterback was. The Denver Broncos are three and one,
but they've only won their three home games. The Oakland
Raiders have lost two road games, plus Derek Carry is hurt,
and so teams that we thought should be since Nanty
Bengals were terrible to start the year change coordinators and
suddenly now are decent on the offensive side of the ball.
(06:18):
These are teams we thought had a chance to be
the best team in the a f C, then the NFC.
The Cowboys have played a more difficult schedule and they're
just two and two. The Lions no one takes seriously
as an elite team, but have been pretty damn good.
The Green Bay Packers have had all kinds of injuries
and fell to Atlanta and they're only they're three and
(06:38):
one on the season. The Atlanta Falcons are three and one.
They lost this past weekend at home to those same
Chicago but no to the Buffalo Bills. They didn't have
Mohammed sanw didn't have Julio Jones, the Rams of the
surprise team because the Seahawks. The point is that I
guess it's because of record. I guess it's because they've
(06:58):
beat in New England. In New England, Kan City has
been good. I get to beat San Diego. In San Diego.
They beat the Eagles at home, two at home, two
on the road, including beating the Patriots and the Redskins.
Two people, two teams. People think our playoff teams, But
if you had to bet every dollar you had on
(07:21):
one team in the NFL winning a Super Bowl. Would
it be the Chiefs. Maybe that's history. Maybe that's Andy Reid,
maybe that's Alex Smith. Maybe it's just Cancie Chiefs franchise history.
I'm not really sure, but it kind of feels like
you went out thinking, man, I can't wait to have
sushi at night. We gotta sitter, gonna get some sushi.
(07:44):
And then you remember my wife doesn't like sushi. Well,
my wife actually never tried sushi. She's allergic to soy
and doesn't like fish. All right, check that off. I'm like,
you know what, chick fil A down the street. Oh,
I love chick fil A. You know what, Screw going
out to a restaurant, pay the tip. I'm just gonna
go to Chick fil A, get some sweet tea with
my wife. And it's Sunday. See, chick fil A's not open.
(08:06):
You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go to that new
Mexican place my buddy's been telling about. They have this
carne asada, which is remarkable, remarkable. You pull up huge
line outside by the time you get to the front, Sorry, sir,
we don't have any carne asada. So what do you do?
What do you do r mm hmm. I guess I'll
(08:27):
take some fish tacos which were delicious. Nothing wrong with
some Encinada style flip fish tacos, some refried beans, chips, salsa, guawk,
maybe a little or chata right, nice meal, lovely. Was
it what you intend and initially intended thought you would get. No?
(08:48):
Was it your second best option? No? Was you your
third option? Not really, but nothing wrong with it. Maybe
it's the fact that you didn't go out that night thinking, boy,
I could really use some fish taco. Maybe it's the
fact that we didn't go out thinking KANDC Chiefs. They
since midpoint of a season and a half ago, they've
probably been the most consistent best team in the NFL.
(09:09):
And no one coaches him up better in the regular
season than Andy Reid, and he puts his team in
position to succeed in the postseason even if he hasn't
had an elite quarterback to take him over the top.
All that would be fair. But the fact is the
Kancy Chiefs are your fourth fifth option. We are settling
on them. They are not the best team, they're the
best available at this point. Be sure to catch live
(09:33):
editions of the Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm
Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Dave Robert Skipper of the Dodgers, joins
us on The Doug Gotlip Show. Dave, how are you hey?
I'm doing well. How are you doing good? How would
you characterize your season? H characterize our season? Very successful. Um,
(09:54):
we set out to win his many games a regular
season and win the division and and that's what we did.
We set up to do something, we accomplished it. So
very successful. Okay, but you look, the season started kind
of whole hum about forty games in and then all
of a sudden you were beating everybody at at the
at the very very peak, you were what ninety one
and thirty six, and then the bottom fell out. What happened?
(10:20):
I think a combination of things that that's the hitting.
Your pitching just went south at the same time. And
when that happened, is tough to win baseball games. So yeah,
that that two and a half week stretched was something
that was un what precedented. So I'm glad we weathered
it and we righted the show. Yeah, you want eight
(10:41):
out of your last ten to finish the season with
the best record in the league one oh four and
fifty eight. Um, you weren't freaking out, at least to
the media, right, you didn't appear to be losing your
mind to the media. But inside or when you would
close you know, every every Major league baseball locker room has,
you know, a manager's office when you close that door,
(11:01):
and you had your coaching staff around at at any
point in time losing six seventeen where you're freaking out,
I wouldn't say freaking out because obviously we put ourselves
in a very good position, you know, prior to that stretch.
But it was a point of you know, you're asking
the coaches and and you're asking yourself, can we do
anything different? Can we do anything better? Um? And for me,
(11:23):
it was just that same answer as we just got
to continue to move forward. You know, guys are playing hard,
preparing the same way. We're just not winning baseball games.
So that was kind of the mindset. There was definitely
no panic in our clubhouse, and fortunately things turned around
and I think that we're in a good place going
into Friday, so we'll get ready for for Friday. But
(11:44):
you personally, um, what have you learned from the past
that prepares you for this playoff run. Um, well, I
think that. I think the thing is is that every
playoff game is essentially a must win game and it's
very unpredictable. So I think that to have everyone everyone
(12:05):
on board for whatever situation that presents itself. Um, I
think that Obviously for me, having already gone through the
coaches and the players, I think it I expected to
slow down a little bit and I think that we
we played well, got through it last year and had
a lot of fun. But again, I think my main point,
in my main takeaway is it is so unpredictable and
(12:25):
just to have all the guys ready for whatever role
that might be expected or unexpected. You know, the two
teams in the National League West that are going to
play in the playoff game, both of them had success
against you, especially the Diamondbacks. Now I know it wasn't
always your top starters going against them, good thing or
bad thing, that you actually didn't have success against, especially
(12:48):
the Diamondbacks in the regular season. Honestly, I don't even
know what our what our record versus Diamonds BACS was,
and I don't think that anyone cares. I don't think
that we care about who we a and there is
something to the regular season versus the postseason. So I
don't think that if we had our way with them
or they had our way with us. Conversely, it would
(13:08):
have really mattered, because right now we've got a five
game series against either one of those teams, and all
I know is our guys gonna be prepared. Okay, So
what about Kershaw? You know, look, look, he missed some
time in the middle of the regular season, which many
people think will allow him to be sharper as opposed
to warn down getting ready for the postseason. What's your
sense of Kersh heading into the postseason where, in spite
(13:29):
of the fact that his his regular season career is
as good as anybody we have ever seen in the sport. Uh,
the narrative is, hey, seventh innings, more specifically against the
Cardinals have have have been his undoing even if he's had,
you know, last year, he's had some great starts, even
on short rest. What's your sense of Kersh heading into
the playoffs. I'm happy he's on our team. I know
(13:52):
that I know he's gonna be starting Game one, and uh,
there's not a manager in baseball that wouldn't want him
as their number one guy. So um, I don't think
that claims too concerned about his past, you know, performance
in the postseason. And I really honestly that I don't
know the numbers I've heard it, um, but I think
that this isolated game Game one, he's focused, he's healthy,
(14:15):
he's in a good place. We're in a good place.
So uh. I know Dodgers said, who's gonna be rocking?
And I know the coaching staff, myself, front office, we're
all prepared, starting art work already on both these clubs,
and we expect to win one baseball game, and after
we do that, we'll be ready to go on Saturday.
Of course, everybody remembers the famous stolen base. You guys
are down three, three games and none when you remember
(14:38):
the Red Sox, and you guys ultimately beat came back,
beat the Yankees, greatest comeback in the history of the sport,
maybe in the history of any sport. End up breaking
the curse of the Bambino winning a World Series. Not
quite those same numbers against you with the Dodgers a
ton of success historically, but haven't won a World Series
since in all candor does any of that way on
(14:58):
these players. Um No, I don't think so, because I
think that even when I was when when I was
on that two thousand four Red Sox team, Uh, you know,
you're talking about eighty six years, so obviously we weren't
alive then, and I know that we felt the the uh,
the sense of urgency from the media and the fans.
(15:20):
But I think that speaking for the twenty four other
players in the clubhouse at that point in time in
two thousand and four, we wanted to win a World
Series for ourselves and for the city. And I think
that there's nothing wrong with that. And I think that
our players here feel the same thing. And um, you know,
you Darvis, we just acquired at the deadline, so I
think that he doesn't relate to the twenty eight year
(15:40):
drought or twenty one year drought with the Dodger. So
we want to win a championship here, bring it to
Los Angeles. We feel we have the team to do it,
and now it's our jobs out there and executed and
play well. What was the toughest decision you had to
make in setting your lineup? Uh, well, we're actually still
having finalized things some of it has contingent upon our
potential opponent. Uh. So we'll be meeting here working out
(16:03):
the next few days and getting together the coaches, front
office and kind of going back and forth. So it's
gonna be the bullpen, the extra player off the bench,
and what gives the best chance to win win some games.
I mean, who the fourth starter? You know, I think
that's still we still kind of wonder about that. Um,
But I mean like, look, these are all kind of
good do you have? You have first world problems, right,
(16:23):
you have too many starters as supposed to, too few starters. Yeah,
we've got the first world problems, first high first class,
high class problems. So, um, we've got a lot of
good players here in this clubhouse and a lot of
guys that deserve to have an opportunity to be on
this postseason roster. So yeah, there's gonna be some tough conversations.
But I think at the at the end of the day, UM,
(16:45):
I know that the decisions we make in the players
all understand that these are decisions that we feel are
the best for our ball club to give us a
best chance to win a championship. Look, I I and
I'm not I'm not trying to be negative, Nancy, because
living in Los Angeles, having been to the eight World Series,
we love nothing more than to see you guys win
the whole thing. But um, one of the things we
have a tendency to do in sports trader I think
(17:05):
fans do this is, well, Hey, if the Dodgers don't
win it, the season wasn't a success. You won more
games than anybody in the regular season, and and you
went through a level of dominance which had never had
not been seen in Dodger or Major League Baseball history.
I point out nine thirty six at one point time.
So if you don't win the whole thing, can this
(17:26):
season still be seemed deemed a success? Well, I obviously
we we would all be uh, you know, I think
that you brought up a good point in the sense that, uh,
you look at the regular season and you look at
the ultimate Gold there's only one champion. So obviously it
would be a very big disappointment for all of us
(17:47):
in the club house, the organization if we don't win
a championship. But um, you know that being said, I
think that you hit on a little bit as far
as being in the media, where you can want it
um and I hope it happens, But I think in
the clubhouse it's more of the all in mentality where yeah,
you're setting yourself up for a big disappointment if it
(18:08):
does happen. But us in the clubhouse are only focuses
to optimistic and expect, expecting to win a championship. And
you know, right now, we can't control the World Series,
we can't control the Championship Series. So we're focused on
whatever opponent we have in the division series and at
that next point we're gonna try to take care business.
Then so at the end of the season, well we'll
(18:28):
look at the whole body working. See. The last thing
is we saw this a little from Terry. We saw
actually a lot from Terry Francona last year with his
use of his bullpen, his use of his his his
best reliever. We've seen it some from you with using
Kenley Jansen uh sometimes in in high leveled situations, but
not in the traditional high leveled situation. What's your sense
(18:51):
of of just for you personally, how you choose to
use him, you know, like, hey, sixth inning, you got
bases loaded. Do you bring in Kenley jon who has
been almost unhittable this year, right in comparison to a
mineral leaver who is solid, but it's it's his normal role.
How do you balance out the do I bring in
this ultimate weapon um or do I save him to
(19:12):
close the game but there might not be the the
opportunity to close the game. I think that that's a
great point. And I think that you know six inning,
which which we did last year in DC. Um you know,
when you're talking about a an elimination game. But like
I said, those those uh unforeseen situations possibly could happen.
(19:33):
And I know that you know, Kennley is that guy.
He's he's our best reliever in in that highest leverage
that could be that that could be the game. So
that's something that made the coaches will definitely think long
and hard about that and Kenley, whatever situation we have
for him, and obviously it's going to be the highest
of leverage situations, we will deploy him. And uh he's
(19:54):
a big horse, he's our guy at the back end.
So um yeah, that that's the fun part about the
Post's so Doug, so make sure you tune in and
uh you know, uh I will I just again, I
think that's fascinating. I think the fact that the home
run rate up is up so high that, you know,
does that carry over into the postseason? Um, you know
(20:15):
when traditionally teams that hit a lot of home runs
can go can go stale in the post See. I
think I think it's I think it's gonna be fascinating
to watch. Listen, I know you've got a ton of
things to get to, far more important than this. We
wish you the best of luck and we'll talk to
you soon, all right, As Dave Roberts, who's the skipper
of the Dodgers, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
(20:35):
at Fox sports Radio dot Com and within the I
Heart Radio app. Under a vamped format, the two captains
of the NBA's All Star Game will will select from
a pool of players voted as starters and reserves, making
selections without regard to conference affiliation. So there's twenty four
All Stars, twelve players from each conference earning spots, ten starters,
(20:59):
two guards, three front court players per conference. Will continue
to be chosen by a combination of fans vote, current
players vote, basketball media vote that by the way, weighs
too strong, too heavily in favor of the fans, but
that's okay. The NBA's head coaches will select the fourteen reserves,
voting two guards, three front court players. YadA, YadA, YadA.
(21:19):
So I I like it, but I think it's halfway.
Like twenty four players. Dude, that's three teams of eight.
Or add a player and do five teams of six
and play like pick up all. Right, play with the clock.
(21:42):
I don't mind if you play the clock. You know,
play play just a quarter, ten minutes and then play.
You know, first team to win four games wins, everybody
wins a million dollars something crazy like that, and you
know you donate half of the winnings to charity something
like something somebodal like that. Like that would be awesome.
(22:03):
But you can't go like, hey, let's go pick up ball.
Only it's not really pick up all pick up all.
There's a couple of things that you have to remember
about pick up all. Usually the guy that calls game
is the worst player, Like I got game, Like, I
mean the guy guy wasn't gonna get picked up, so
he got there and called game. Um guy who opens
(22:23):
the gym guy who opens the gym always in the
first game. First game is always longer than the other games,
which to me is just dumb because most times you
go and play pick up ball music. Do you ever
play pick up basketball? I guess they're not pick up
beast place ramas you pick up all player recently or
the past in general. No, not in general, but past. Yes, okay,
(22:47):
so in the past you have uh first game being
longer is I think the intent is, well, it's the
first game. You gotta reward guys for getting there early, whatever.
But because guys aren't loose, nobody makes shots or at
least the first game last like a hour. You're like,
ah man, then you're tired for the rest of the game.
You wear down whoever wins, You wear down whoever comes
in and waits for the game like that. All that
(23:08):
stuff sucks so to me. And then here's another one
is never people say run it back. You start taking
off your shoes, it's over once you like, I gotta go,
I got my kids, got something, my wife's got something.
One don't don't put your shoes back on once you
they've you unlaced him. But I like the idea of
(23:29):
it mixing and my and matching. It still feels like
you're gonna end up getting Kevin Durant Lebron James, and
you're still gonna pick their sides and pick their teams anyway,
and you're not. You're gonna get hat fields against the McCoy's.
I think it would have been better with three or
four teams. It also proves, though, that All Star formats
are super boring. When they start shuffling things up, you
(23:51):
know that you've got a problem. I have. I haven't
watched an All Star possession of a of an NBA
Basketball All Star Game since Aggie Johnson hit the last
shot of his basketball career. If you guys remember that
when he came out of retirement just playing the All
Star Game. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Doug gott Leaps Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. So,
(24:15):
the NFL today came out and said there is zero
discussion about the Chargers moving back to San Diego. That's
that it doesn't mean that this has been in a
resounding success. Remember, other teams have moved to other places
for far different reasons. It's like people in Nashville like, oh, well,
(24:37):
when we got them, Remember they played in Memphis and
we got him and we've been sold out and we hey, Nashville,
you didn't have anything. You know, you went from Vandy
football and Predator hockey to the National Football League. And
by the way, the Titans were good when they got there.
(24:59):
Um pick another team. When the Ravens moved moved to
Baltimore from Cleveland, remember they were the Cleveland Browns. They
moved to Baltimore, the Ravens had previously lost a team
and they were they didn't they were wanting for a
football team, completely different city, completely different desire, and they
(25:23):
were essentially getting back a football team that they had
previously lost. You're bringing in a rival team from a
small market and you had already given a team to
the city the week before. But the NFL's ratings in
Los Angeles for the Chargers, we're actually the worst of
(25:47):
of any games on TV. So not only they have
in trouble putting people in the stadium, they have trouble
getting people to actually watch the games. And some of
this comes from the fact that the Chargers were the enemy.
Some of it comes from the fact that the Chargers
have bad pr because of how everything's been handled and
something because of the fact that they're owing four in
(26:08):
the season. But it's also important to mention that while
the Chargers are owing for help is potentially just around
the corner. This year in college football, at least this
year in the NFL Draft, is about two maybe three quarterbacks.
Right looks say, Kwan Barkley will be a top pick,
(26:31):
but outside of that, you've got Sam Donald and Josh Rosen.
Both of them are quarterback college quarterbacks in Los Angeles
who will probably go one two in the draft. And
with Philip Rivers fading, Philip Rivers was never all that
into moving to Los Angeles from San Diego. Still hasn't
(26:52):
moved from Saneo. Does the drive up every day? Why
isn't the discussion about Sam Donald, maybe to a lesser extent,
Josh Rosen being the quarterback of the l A Chargers
right like it gives you. It checks so many of
(27:14):
the boxes. And think about it. The Rams did this
with Jared Goff. They traded up and went and got
Jared Goff, and it took a year, and you know what,
now they're exciting. By the way, the Rams haven't drawn
flies the last I don't know eight games, five games
last year, a couple of games this year. They're not
drawing well. They will now, do you know why? Because
(27:36):
they're good and they're watchable. It's a weird thing somehow
in l A you get criticized for actually kind of
being smart. L A is not a bad sports market.
It's a phenomenal sports market. The Dodgers draw four million
every year. The Angels draw three million every year. There
(27:57):
are not one, but two professional soccer teams. They draw
very well. The Kings have done well, the Ducks have
done well. And while USC and u c l A
USC draws well because they're USC, especially when they're winning.
Chill A, I guess does poorly. But for a for A,
(28:19):
a university that doesn't have it on camp facility plays
an hour from their campus has never been a traditional power.
Putting sixty to seventy thousand people in a hundred thousand,
ninety thousand seed stadium in bed Oh yeah, by the way,
we got other stuff to do, and lots of people
still grew up other places. You can still go to
(28:43):
the beach, you can still go to the mountains. You
can still go to the river every weekend day, and
so to me, Um, I look at it as it
The risks are greater, but the reward is far greater.
The Chargers are worried about three years from now, not
(29:04):
about this year. They want to be competitive, they want
to win, and they need to be better than to
find a way to win these games. They should have
beaten the Broncos, should have beaten the Dolphins. Probably should
have beaten the Eagles as well. Maybe not. The chiefs
of the defense did a great job against the Chiefs.
But the issue becomes this. If you need excitement in
(29:26):
three years, what's more exciting than Sam Donald? And in
the meantime, if Sam Donald was to play in Carson,
that's like thirty minutes from where he grew up in
Saint Commenty. You draw in USC fans, you draw in
football fans who wants something young, something exciting, and you
find the either immediate successor or air apparent to Philip Rivers.
(29:51):
It checks so many of the boxes. It brings excitement
and interest, and it gets you ready for the real
battle for l a which is not gonna be one
in the short Term's route one in the long term,
how much fun would that be to watch Donald on
one team golf on the other. Something to think about.
Everybody thinks about the Jets and the Browns. Maybe the
(30:15):
Jets and the Browns do end up finishing one too,
as the Charges are gonna win some games and the
Jets are gonna start losing more games. But remember the
Rams did not have the number one pick. They traded
up to acquire it. Why they knew they needed a
quarterback in l a in order to get attention to
play the style they wanted to play. Fox Sports Radio
(30:36):
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app. Mike Leach joins
us here on the Doug got Leave Show. Coach, how
are you. I'm doing good, Yeah, just trying to get
ready to tee it up for another one. We game
planned until late last night and looking forward to practice
(30:59):
and meetings a day. All right, So you got Oregon
this week, Organs FOURD one, and I saw your press
conference yesterday. You said, Hey, they're just as good as
a team we played last week. Is that is? Is
that a vote of confidence for Oregon or a shot
at SC. No. I think both are extremely good. I mean,
you know, if you look at kind of the recruits
(31:19):
they've gotten over the last four years and things like that. Um,
you know, both are extremely good teams and very talented teams. Uh.
You know Oregon is uh characteristically really fast. Uh yeah,
I guess what makes USC so scary when you play them,
as they're not just fast, but they're big fast, you know.
(31:42):
I mean USC is kind of kind of thick fast.
I mean they're not just uh you know, little guys, uh,
you know, little birthty guys. They're they're thick fast. But
now Oregon's got real good speed and got one of
the best running backs in the conference. And so you
(32:05):
were up there at OX and then uh it should
be a great environment, great game, but you know that
that's a tough team. You know. It's interesting, Um, you
pointed out at halftime of the SC game that you
thought you should have had more points, and it's like,
as good as your team was because Luke Folk was
in the second half, there were times really in the
game in which he misthrows that he normally makes. Was
(32:25):
it did you have to settle him down? What was
what do you say to your team at the half.
I thought we had to settle the receivers down more
than anything. We dropped seven balls, and um, we dropped
seven balls. But the one thing is is, uh, you know,
kind of a everybody's very anxious, and you know, it
(32:46):
was a big build up for the game, and I
thought that our guys did a pretty good job of
of sticking in there. I thought Luke was real steady.
And then as uh the rest of our guys settled down,
I U, we got better and better as a team.
And then I also thought that our offensive line played
(33:07):
pretty well. And then, um, really all three sides of
the ball for us, I thought, you know, we played
extremely hard, sloppy at times. And then the first half
the ball really didn't roll our direction very well either.
I mean, we had a freakish chip ball, but you
know they end up on like the two yard line
(33:30):
or something. We end up holding him to a field goal.
But you know, the first half the ball didn't really
roll our direction. Second half, you know, I thought it was, uh,
we were a little more fortunate that way. And then
uh hung in there and it was pounded back and forth.
I thought we moved the ball good the whole day
(33:51):
at the ball almost thirty five minutes. So um, and
then we won, and of course everybody was excited. You know,
it's interesting team because there's some uncharacteristic or at least
traditionally in your career. Some of the some of the
things that you guys have been able to do this
season and specifically against USC are not characteristic of what
your teams and your offense had done the past. And
(34:13):
and tell me if I'm wrong, but like, look, you
ran the ball effectively, especially when you needed to, something
that you haven't always wanted to or tried to do.
You know, Morrow had not just ninety one yards did
on six carries and then Williams said had thirty or
four I thought important yards. Um. Your defense, as you
pointed out, you've got some huge stops, like when you
got to stop at the two yard line, when you
(34:35):
got stopped late and uh and and then um, you know,
I I just I felt like you were able to
really pressure the passer consistently, and like these are things
that in the past you your teams hadn't been able
to do. Is it this team? Is it you evolving
as a coach? Why why some of the things that
people would classify as not Mike leached team things, have
(34:57):
you guys been able to do? I think it was
a kind of I think it's a combination. I think
for one, um, defensively, we uh, you know, we well
as a team both sides of the ball. We're a
young team. We're a real young team. Last year played
a bunch of guys that were freshmen, and so now
(35:19):
they're sophomores, but at least their experience sophomores, and we're
still a pretty young team. As a team were predominantly
sophomores and juniors, and so I think that's paying some
dividends this year's as guys know their role in embrace
the offseason. Uh. As far as the back said, people
(35:41):
have that all screwed up. I mean, last year we
are backs were the most productive backs in the pack twelve.
If you had up their yards, whether on the ground
or in the air, our has had the most over
the entire conference, which, um, if we don't leave the conference,
were close a lot. Um you know, of course we'll
(36:01):
have some receiving yards and other teams may not have
very many, but those yards have a funny way of
spending exactly the same, you know, and then um, of course, uh,
you know, the last two years, we've had pretty good
years around here. So what are you doing? What are
you currently doing at this very well? Are you brushing
your teeth? Now? I was, I did wash my hands.
(36:26):
I've thought i'd slip that in so that you and
your listeners. I mean, it's uh, it's a morning here
getting ready to go to the meetings, and I wanted
to share that with with you and the good listeners
in Los Angeles. And uh, I've got coffee going and
just trying to you know, make my tail a little
bush here here as I get ready to go in
(36:47):
there and eat that for practice and get another good
week going. How do you take your coffee just black?
Is there any special thing to obstruct the harsh bitter tape?
Are you? Now? Are you like a Folger's guide? Do
you have a specific kind of like I know how
head coaches are, like, I want it how I want it,
and that's how I want Is there a specific kind
(37:09):
of coffee that you like? Not really just whatever is
laying there? And then as the day goes on, and
then I become kind of a green tea guy. But
the thing is this, the the part that's disturbing is um,
you knows, you as your mind kind of speeds up,
you know, you know it's it's so like almost kind
(37:30):
of a chain, a chain green tea habit developed, you
know where where you might have a cup sitting there
with you know, half full of tea tea bag there,
and then you're up getting another one. You know what
I mean. Yep, now you start you start change chain
drinking tea. I read a story where early on when
(37:51):
you were coaching with how Mummy at at Iowas and
this is before you guys left and you went to
Valdosta State and you went to eventually went to Kentuck
key in the Kentucky to Oklahoma, Oklahoma, that you always
wanted to coach at at a high school in Key West. Right. Well,
as I went to Key West, I did, Um, I
(38:15):
guess that started. Let me think here probably in eighty
nine or ninety when I first went down to QS,
I first wanted to go there. Then once I went there,
I thought wouldn't be great to coach down here. Yeah,
that's I mean about things when all that happened in
(38:35):
the job opened at Key West High and you applied
for it and didn't get it. No, I didn't get it.
Who got it? It was a fellow from and I
don't know his name. It was a fellow from New Hampshire.
Sounded like he was going to retire down there, and then,
uh in Key West. One thing, because it's hard to
(38:58):
make a living. Um in Key West. I mean everybody
has splits time. It's like a cab driver or a
bartender or something to make ends meet. Anyway, he was
already heading down there to begin with, so um, it
might have appealed to him that that he was already
(39:19):
going to be there. And then that was towards the
tail end of UH. When I would interview for jobs
and I'd say, well, you know I did this, I
did that, I studied this, and you know, I just
want to know how I did on the interview so
I can improve, you know, And the guy would say
get older, you know, And so then I went off
(39:40):
and I got older. You successfully accomplished. I think now
you would get that job if you if you so,
if you still apply, if you decide to retire down there. Um.
It was pointed out numerous times. You guys haven't left
the police yet for a game. Obviously that changes this weekend.
Five of your last seven are on the road. Um,
(40:01):
and so I guess the question becomes, you thought you
had You said you were not surprised by beating sc
like you thought you had a good team that come
to your place and you beat him. It didn't. It
didn't surprise, didn't raise your blood temperature at all. Um,
what do you still have to learn about your team?
As you guys travel for your last seven games, five
of which on the road. You know, we've just got
(40:23):
I always see the season and increments of weeks, and
you've got to take a step and improve a notch
each week is how I always see it. And um,
you know we have to do that. I mean, we
have to be a better team today than we were
last Friday. I think that's an important part of it.
(40:44):
And then, uh, you know, heck, they did a freaky
study and we were one of those teams that we
weren't the only one. They did this weird study last
year where the road team won most of the teams
in our conference. And it's it's a strange thing, but
it seems like road teams fare better in this conference
and home teams on a lot of occasions and where
(41:07):
they actually won more or something like that. So you know,
we're going to take that overwhelming advantage and going to
ops and stadium and do the best we can't. Luke
has sixteen touchdowns, two interceptions, You're already thrown for seventeen
yards you go back in the I mean like, look,
he's the picture of consistency. And and yet when you
when you hear the discussions about Heisman trophies, when you
(41:30):
hear discussions about NFL quarterbacks, you don't hear his name mentioned.
No one knows more about the quarterback position, uh than
you do. What's your assessment of Luke Falk, especially as
you you saw Sam Donald come into your building last week. Well,
I think Luke's an extremely good player, I think, you know,
I think it's uh well documented. He's won more games
(41:53):
in the back twelves than any active quarterback. I think, uh,
I think he will go to the NFL. And I
think that a lot of times it's just media base,
you know. I mean, UM schools and bigger media bases
have more media coverage around them, and I think that, uh,
you know, of course, names that those schools will get
(42:15):
elevated because they want to have something exciting to cover
down there. And and but that you know Luke's numbers,
Luke's results, all that Luke folks best quarterback in the conference,
and I you know, and it's pretty much indisputable anyway.
You measure it better than Rosen, better than breakout is numbers,
(42:38):
breakout looks. And then we're not talking by a very
close margin either. I think what I don't think it
comes down as much. Some of it is market size
or school name, but I think a lot of it
is I think respect for the fact that you've had
so many quarterbacks who have put up numbers. Like you know,
you go back to tech and you go back to
when you're at ou Mike All, you go back to
(42:58):
to UH to couch when you're at Kentucky, Like, the
one thing you can always count on is your quarterback
will have ridiculous numbers. How do you come at that,
I don't know, just good coaching and clean living, you know,
coffee in the morning, green tea in the afternoon, and
(43:18):
wash your hands as often as possible. It's not about right, Yeah,
you have good hygiene. Two as I as I say
that I probably haven't showered in two days and getting
ready to walk to school. You know, I have a walk.
I have a walk or tea you could throw that in.
How long is three and a half miles, but it's
hilly and then I can do all my phone calls
(43:40):
and things. Actually, um, um, you're fortunate because this is
kind of on the front end. There is about it.
There is a hill about a half a mile long,
and it's pretty steep. As I'm coming in the back
side of campus. It's not unusual, um for me to
be huffing and sing on some of these interviews and uh,
(44:02):
but we try to kind of make it, you know,
genuine rust to all those things. So um yeah, going
up to the back side of that hill doing an interview,
I try to let the interviewer do most of the
talking so I can catch my breath. Great, well, listen,
We'll allow you to get get your walk, gets your day,
gets your meetings. Congratulations on the wind, save travels to Eugene.
Hopefully you come back to Pullman with with the W.
(44:25):
Appreciate you join us on Fox Sports Radio. Well, thanks
so much. It's always uh, it's always great to talk
to you. And man good to hear from me and
tell everybody to buy my book Swing your sword in
the book I wrote on Geronimo. Make sure I picked
that one up at Amazon. Thanks so much, Coach Mike
Lee joining us on The Doug Gottlieb Show. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays
(44:48):
at three p m. Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. LaVar Ball says
he's gonna pull the mellow ball from high school now.
LaMelo Ball goes to a high school called the Chino Hills.
Chino Hills is in the Inland Empire. Um, it smells
a cow poop there there. It is. It just is
(45:08):
lots of horses, lots of cattle. Um. Inland Empire is
a place in which, um, it's less expensive to live.
And you can get to Los Angeles, you can get
to Orange County, you can get to Las Vegas far easier.
But it's hotter, dustier, and of sometimes a little bit smellier.
Good people there. I just I'm not pointing out anything
(45:29):
that's it's developed. It it kind of blew up as
a development. I don't know, twenty years ago, and then
of course when the recession was bad, that part of
it got just crushed because the housing was so over valued.
People who made thirty a year, we're buying a couple
hundred thousand dollar homes and unable to make their payments.
So what happened was, uh, Dennis Lattimore took over. Now
(45:54):
a lot of more played in college. He's coach college
basketball before, played Arizona Plate, Notre Dame, and you replace
Stephen Gilling, who, of course um LaVar Ball chased out
of town. Dennis Lattimore wanted to play a more traditional
style as opposed to the way Chino Hills played before,
which is press and just shoot crazy, three point shots crazy,
(46:19):
And so LaVar Ball says, uh, it's a new coach,
and I don't like him one bit. LaMelo's on track
for U C l A. But he doesn't have to
be dealing with those nutleheads. I'm not letting them mess
with his head anymore. You can put that on the
principal and the coach over there. The coach has his
own frame of mind. You want on how he wants
to play and who he picks in his team. Okay,
y'all got this going. Let's see you do it without
(46:41):
my tutelage, without me training those players at my house.
It seems like anybody who's training over there, that coach
doesn't want him with the team. Look, I'll point out,
my dad nearly pointed pulled me from my high school,
and I a really good high school coach got named
Andy Ground who's now the head coach at um Stadtleback
Community College, but wildly successful high school, and your college coach,
and like, look this happens, all right, We're like, I'll
(47:04):
pull him, I'll send you a prep school. We'll we'll
we'll move, we'll go to a different district, etcetera, etcetera. Uh.
I actually think the best thing for LaMelo would be
to play for somebody else, to play for a different style,
to understand that at some point you've got to play
real basketball. I wildly disagree this, especially because though it
(47:27):
worked for Alonzo, it did. Alonzo ball was an All American,
won a state championship, went to u c l A,
completely turned around U c l A. Was the number
two pick of the draft, and now he gets to
play for the Lakers. Like those are winds. But LaVar
was different then he wasn't this bigger than life character
(47:48):
making bull bombastic statements that we tweeted about or talked
about or people wrote about. And LaMelo is different. You
can raise kids exactly the same in the same home.
Anybody has kids knows this. Ramo says, kids, he knows this.
You can raise kids the exact same way and they
(48:09):
turn out differently or because they're different. LaMelo Ball is
different than a Lonzo Ball. He is selfish as Lonzo
is unselfish the Lakers. I touched some Lakers coaches last
night before their exhibition game against the Nuggets. They're like, look,
we gotta tell Alonzo to look to score more, to
be more selfish, or look to make plays more. Instead,
(48:31):
he's just give. He just getting the rid of the
ball too quickly. And then I saw this from Nancy Armor,
who I don't know Nancy, she may be a super
talented writer. This is a bad piece. This is a
bad take, This is a hot take. Congratulations LaVar Ball,
You've finally done the impossible, not create the world's greatest
(48:52):
basketball player. He's still out on that for a while,
but early indications are not promising. So now she's taking
shots at Zo Ball who has played in one in
a quarter, one a quarter exhibition games. Not that I
think the Alonso is gonna be the greatest player ever,
but one in a quarter. Uh. Nor did you create
(49:13):
the model athletic experience or dynasty that will be remembered
for years to come. Not anything positive. Now, what what
Ball has done is finally supplant Marvin Mnovich as the
worst parent ever, a title Murdovich had a lot grip
on for some thirty years. Now, part of this is
I'm friends with Marvin Merevich. I'm friends with Todd Renovich.
(49:33):
And though Nancy Armor may put all of the post
career disaster that is Todd Murdovich on Marvin Mirovich. Tom
Rovich was the first round draft pick of the l
A Raiders, starting quarterback as a rookie start at USC
(49:56):
All America. Now he didn't have a great life. I haven't.
He has had a great life in terms of being
balanced and staying out of trouble when he got involved
in drugs. But laying all of the drug problems on
the foot of parents is well taken away any sort
of accountability from the kid. Additionally, so I don't think
(50:17):
Martin Rivage is even the worst parent ever, and I
definitely don't think la our Ball is. I mean, you know, look,
I don't agree with a lot of stuff LAVR does.
I won't do it for my kid. I'll criticize it,
but I also won't say he's the worst parent ever.
(50:39):
Bad piece after a bad decision by LaVar Ball
This is the best of the Done Gottleif Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Boom, What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio, coming to you from the City of Angels,
where we're told major League Baseball's playoffs get underway. Only
it's a play in game tonight, arguably the most important
(00:21):
play in game in the history of the play in
game since baseball started the play in game couple of
years ago. Yankees taken on the Twins. Look, Minnesota, you cute,
your lovely. I can't wait to be there for Super
Bowl Week. I can't wait to be there. But no
one really wants you here, right, just no one? Really?
(00:43):
This is the this is the really, this is the really, really,
really nice, reputable girl at a wild party, Like, look,
you don't want to be around here, man, stuff is
gonna go on here after dark. You known on any
part of so thanks to ends, but everyone's rooting for
the Yankees. TV is rotten for the Yankees. Radio is
(01:05):
rooting for the Yankees. Major League Baseball rooting for the Yankees.
And what's interesting, maybe or most interesting about it is
the fact that the Twins have on multiple occasions gotten
a chance to take down the Yankees in a series
and have been unable to win in Yankee Stadium. Now
you get you cannot get a better a better scenario
(01:27):
for the Twins, right, They just now got their best
player back healthy. The Yankees are starting a complete unknown
in regards to a twenty three year old starter. We
have no idea how he'll play in the pressure of
a one game playing game, playoff, and all you have
to do is win one game. But no one's rooting
for you. All right, more on that to come. Last night,
(01:48):
in what I think was a fantastic Monday night football game,
no question, bad beat. If you had the skins as
I did, if you had the over, if you had
the under, excuse me, if you had the Skins and
the underboy, that was a That was a bad way
to end a great football game. But um, look it
ends up. But the Kansas City Chiefs remain undefeated. Just
(02:13):
you know, the line was a seven and a half
and forty eight and a half was I believe the
overunder number. But the Kansas City Chiefs win a game
and Kareem Hunt continues to be the story of the
quarter pole. But but this is one of those forgive
(02:34):
me Kansas City. If I don't take you as seriously
as I should. I mean, like, look justin Houston is
and they have unbelievable talent at certain spots. Houston is
their rush end hunt does their running back Torek Hill,
who you feel like, at any point in time, could
(02:54):
catch the ball, could take a handoff, could uh a
few of the punt could take a kick off to
the house. He is that sort of talent at any
point in time. That's what this guy could do. And
though Alex smith Is is maligned. Though Alex smith Is
(03:19):
is maligned, it's also safe to say that Alex Smith
is steady as she she goes right. He's been in
the playoffs. He's been in the NFC Championship game. He's
played pretty well in the NFC Championship Game. He's one
playoff cans before. They've done some good things, and um, look,
he's one playoff game for the kanc Chiefs, something that
(03:42):
no one else has done for twenty years. And they've
had some good quarterbacks. But what happened here on the
way to the Kansa c Chiefs becoming quote unquote the
best team in the NFL is they're not really the
best team in the NFL. They're the best team available
in the NFL. Let me tell you the difference between
(04:03):
the two. We came into the year thinking that the
New England Patriots, some believe they had a chance to
go undefeated, right coming off a Super Bowl winning year,
Rob Gronkowski back healthy as he was injured last season.
They made additions on offense. I mean additions on defense,
adding guys in like Stefan Gilmore, adding in help on
(04:25):
the defensive front, adding in new running backs, adding in
Brandon Cooks is a wide receiver to take off the
top of a defense. All of that stuff led us
to believe, Hey, maybe the New England Patriots could go undefeated.
And to this point their defense looks terrible and worse
yet confused. On the other hand, the offense is actually
(04:48):
quite good, even though the offense is playing without Julian
Edelman for the entire season. Patriots or just two and
two and maybe mean more troubling if your New England
there one and two at home. They in up a
hundred and twenty eight points on the season. Uh that
is second most in the NFL by a large margin.
(05:09):
Tennessee is given up one the Colts have given up
one thirty six, So it's those three and outside of that,
only two other teams are getting up over a hundred
points this year. But because their defense is still being
put together, they're still trying to figure out. They're still new.
You can't consider the Patriots among the NFL's the league.
We thought it was the Patriots and we're not. The
(05:31):
Pittsburgh Dealers somehow lost to the Buffalo lost to the
Chicago Bears, and though they're three and one, they're kind
of a disappointing three and one. Antonio Brown has been ticked.
Ben Roethlisberger has been great, Levan Bell wasn't sharp. This
is the same Pittsburgh Steeler team that beat the Kansas
City Chiefs on the road last year in the playoffs. Uh,
(05:56):
the Houston Texans took a while to figure out who
their quarterback was. The Denver Broncos are three and one,
but they've only won their three home games. The Oakland
Raiders have lost two road games, plus Derek Carry is hurt,
and so teams that we thought should be since Nanty
Bengals were terrible to start the year change coordinators and
suddenly now are decent on the offensive side of the ball.
(06:18):
These are teams we thought had a chance to be
the best team in the a f C, then the NFC.
The Cowboys have played a more difficult schedule and they're
just two and two. The Lions no one takes seriously
as an elite team, but have been pretty damn good.
The Green Bay Packers have had all kinds of injuries
and fell to Atlanta and they're only they're three and
(06:38):
one on the season. The Atlanta Falcons are three and one.
They lost this past weekend at home to those same
Chicago but no to the Buffalo Bills. They didn't have
Mohammed sanw didn't have Julio Jones, the Rams of the
surprise team because the Seahawks. The point is that I
guess it's because of record. I guess it's because they've
(06:58):
beat in New England. In New England, Kan City has
been good. I get to beat San Diego. In San Diego.
They beat the Eagles at home, two at home, two
on the road, including beating the Patriots and the Redskins.
Two people, two teams. People think our playoff teams, But
if you had to bet every dollar you had on
(07:21):
one team in the NFL winning a Super Bowl. Would
it be the Chiefs. Maybe that's history. Maybe that's Andy Reid,
maybe that's Alex Smith. Maybe it's just Cancie Chiefs franchise history.
I'm not really sure, but it kind of feels like
you went out thinking, man, I can't wait to have
sushi at night. We gotta sitter, gonna get some sushi.
(07:44):
And then you remember my wife doesn't like sushi. Well,
my wife actually never tried sushi. She's allergic to soy
and doesn't like fish. All right, check that off. I'm like,
you know what, chick fil A down the street. Oh,
I love chick fil A. You know what, Screw going
out to a restaurant, pay the tip. I'm just gonna
go to Chick fil A, get some sweet tea with
my wife. And it's Sunday. See, chick fil A's not open.
(08:06):
You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go to that new
Mexican place my buddy's been telling about. They have this
carne asada, which is remarkable, remarkable. You pull up huge
line outside by the time you get to the front, Sorry, sir,
we don't have any carne asada. So what do you do?
What do you do r mm hmm. I guess I'll
(08:27):
take some fish tacos which were delicious. Nothing wrong with
some Encinada style flip fish tacos, some refried beans, chips, salsa, guawk,
maybe a little or chata right, nice meal, lovely. Was
it what you intend and initially intended thought you would get. No?
(08:48):
Was it your second best option? No? Was you your
third option? Not really, but nothing wrong with it. Maybe
it's the fact that you didn't go out that night thinking, boy,
I could really use some fish taco. Maybe it's the
fact that we didn't go out thinking KANDC Chiefs. They
since midpoint of a season and a half ago, they've
probably been the most consistent best team in the NFL.
(09:09):
And no one coaches him up better in the regular
season than Andy Reid, and he puts his team in
position to succeed in the postseason even if he hasn't
had an elite quarterback to take him over the top.
All that would be fair. But the fact is the
Kancy Chiefs are your fourth fifth option. We are settling
on them. They are not the best team, they're the
best available at this point. Be sure to catch live
(09:33):
editions of the Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm
Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Dave Robert Skipper of the Dodgers, joins
us on The Doug Gotlip Show. Dave, how are you hey?
I'm doing well. How are you doing good? How would
you characterize your season? H characterize our season? Very successful. Um,
(09:54):
we set out to win his many games a regular
season and win the division and and that's what we did.
We set up to do something, we accomplished it. So
very successful. Okay, but you look, the season started kind
of whole hum about forty games in and then all
of a sudden you were beating everybody at at the
at the very very peak, you were what ninety one
and thirty six, and then the bottom fell out. What happened?
(10:20):
I think a combination of things that that's the hitting.
Your pitching just went south at the same time. And
when that happened, is tough to win baseball games. So yeah,
that that two and a half week stretched was something
that was un what precedented. So I'm glad we weathered
it and we righted the show. Yeah, you want eight
(10:41):
out of your last ten to finish the season with
the best record in the league one oh four and
fifty eight. Um, you weren't freaking out, at least to
the media, right, you didn't appear to be losing your
mind to the media. But inside or when you would
close you know, every every Major league baseball locker room has,
you know, a manager's office when you close that door,
(11:01):
and you had your coaching staff around at at any
point in time losing six seventeen where you're freaking out,
I wouldn't say freaking out because obviously we put ourselves
in a very good position, you know, prior to that stretch.
But it was a point of you know, you're asking
the coaches and and you're asking yourself, can we do
anything different? Can we do anything better? Um? And for me,
(11:23):
it was just that same answer as we just got
to continue to move forward. You know, guys are playing hard,
preparing the same way. We're just not winning baseball games.
So that was kind of the mindset. There was definitely
no panic in our clubhouse, and fortunately things turned around
and I think that we're in a good place going
into Friday, so we'll get ready for for Friday. But
(11:44):
you personally, um, what have you learned from the past
that prepares you for this playoff run. Um, well, I
think that. I think the thing is is that every
playoff game is essentially a must win game and it's
very unpredictable. So I think that to have everyone everyone
(12:05):
on board for whatever situation that presents itself. Um, I
think that Obviously for me, having already gone through the
coaches and the players, I think it I expected to
slow down a little bit and I think that we
we played well, got through it last year and had
a lot of fun. But again, I think my main point,
in my main takeaway is it is so unpredictable and
(12:25):
just to have all the guys ready for whatever role
that might be expected or unexpected. You know, the two
teams in the National League West that are going to
play in the playoff game, both of them had success
against you, especially the Diamondbacks. Now I know it wasn't
always your top starters going against them, good thing or
bad thing, that you actually didn't have success against, especially
(12:48):
the Diamondbacks in the regular season. Honestly, I don't even
know what our what our record versus Diamonds BACS was,
and I don't think that anyone cares. I don't think
that we care about who we a and there is
something to the regular season versus the postseason. So I
don't think that if we had our way with them
or they had our way with us. Conversely, it would
(13:08):
have really mattered, because right now we've got a five
game series against either one of those teams, and all
I know is our guys gonna be prepared. Okay, So
what about Kershaw? You know, look, look, he missed some
time in the middle of the regular season, which many
people think will allow him to be sharper as opposed
to warn down getting ready for the postseason. What's your
sense of Kersh heading into the postseason where, in spite
(13:29):
of the fact that his his regular season career is
as good as anybody we have ever seen in the sport. Uh,
the narrative is, hey, seventh innings, more specifically against the
Cardinals have have have been his undoing even if he's had,
you know, last year, he's had some great starts, even
on short rest. What's your sense of Kersh heading into
the playoffs. I'm happy he's on our team. I know
(13:52):
that I know he's gonna be starting Game one, and uh,
there's not a manager in baseball that wouldn't want him
as their number one guy. So um, I don't think
that claims too concerned about his past, you know, performance
in the postseason. And I really honestly that I don't
know the numbers I've heard it, um, but I think
that this isolated game Game one, he's focused, he's healthy,
(14:15):
he's in a good place. We're in a good place.
So uh. I know Dodgers said, who's gonna be rocking?
And I know the coaching staff, myself, front office, we're
all prepared, starting art work already on both these clubs,
and we expect to win one baseball game, and after
we do that, we'll be ready to go on Saturday.
Of course, everybody remembers the famous stolen base. You guys
are down three, three games and none when you remember
(14:38):
the Red Sox, and you guys ultimately beat came back,
beat the Yankees, greatest comeback in the history of the sport,
maybe in the history of any sport. End up breaking
the curse of the Bambino winning a World Series. Not
quite those same numbers against you with the Dodgers a
ton of success historically, but haven't won a World Series
since in all candor does any of that way on
(14:58):
these players. Um No, I don't think so, because I
think that even when I was when when I was
on that two thousand four Red Sox team, Uh, you know,
you're talking about eighty six years, so obviously we weren't
alive then, and I know that we felt the the uh,
the sense of urgency from the media and the fans.
(15:20):
But I think that speaking for the twenty four other
players in the clubhouse at that point in time in
two thousand and four, we wanted to win a World
Series for ourselves and for the city. And I think
that there's nothing wrong with that. And I think that
our players here feel the same thing. And um, you know,
you Darvis, we just acquired at the deadline, so I
think that he doesn't relate to the twenty eight year
(15:40):
drought or twenty one year drought with the Dodger. So
we want to win a championship here, bring it to
Los Angeles. We feel we have the team to do it,
and now it's our jobs out there and executed and
play well. What was the toughest decision you had to
make in setting your lineup? Uh, well, we're actually still
having finalized things some of it has contingent upon our
potential opponent. Uh. So we'll be meeting here working out
(16:03):
the next few days and getting together the coaches, front
office and kind of going back and forth. So it's
gonna be the bullpen, the extra player off the bench,
and what gives the best chance to win win some games.
I mean, who the fourth starter? You know, I think
that's still we still kind of wonder about that. Um,
But I mean like, look, these are all kind of
good do you have? You have first world problems, right,
(16:23):
you have too many starters as supposed to, too few starters. Yeah,
we've got the first world problems, first high first class,
high class problems. So, um, we've got a lot of
good players here in this clubhouse and a lot of
guys that deserve to have an opportunity to be on
this postseason roster. So yeah, there's gonna be some tough conversations.
But I think at the at the end of the day, UM,
(16:45):
I know that the decisions we make in the players
all understand that these are decisions that we feel are
the best for our ball club to give us a
best chance to win a championship. Look, I I and
I'm not I'm not trying to be negative, Nancy, because
living in Los Angeles, having been to the eight World Series,
we love nothing more than to see you guys win
the whole thing. But um, one of the things we
have a tendency to do in sports trader I think
(17:05):
fans do this is, well, Hey, if the Dodgers don't
win it, the season wasn't a success. You won more
games than anybody in the regular season, and and you
went through a level of dominance which had never had
not been seen in Dodger or Major League Baseball history.
I point out nine thirty six at one point time.
So if you don't win the whole thing, can this
(17:26):
season still be seemed deemed a success? Well, I obviously
we we would all be uh, you know, I think
that you brought up a good point in the sense that, uh,
you look at the regular season and you look at
the ultimate Gold there's only one champion. So obviously it
would be a very big disappointment for all of us
(17:47):
in the club house, the organization if we don't win
a championship. But um, you know that being said, I
think that you hit on a little bit as far
as being in the media, where you can want it
um and I hope it happens, But I think in
the clubhouse it's more of the all in mentality where yeah,
you're setting yourself up for a big disappointment if it
(18:08):
does happen. But us in the clubhouse are only focuses
to optimistic and expect, expecting to win a championship. And
you know, right now, we can't control the World Series,
we can't control the Championship Series. So we're focused on
whatever opponent we have in the division series and at
that next point we're gonna try to take care business.
Then so at the end of the season, well we'll
(18:28):
look at the whole body working. See. The last thing
is we saw this a little from Terry. We saw
actually a lot from Terry Francona last year with his
use of his bullpen, his use of his his his
best reliever. We've seen it some from you with using
Kenley Jansen uh sometimes in in high leveled situations, but
not in the traditional high leveled situation. What's your sense
(18:51):
of of just for you personally, how you choose to
use him, you know, like, hey, sixth inning, you got
bases loaded. Do you bring in Kenley jon who has
been almost unhittable this year, right in comparison to a
mineral leaver who is solid, but it's it's his normal role.
How do you balance out the do I bring in
this ultimate weapon um or do I save him to
(19:12):
close the game but there might not be the the
opportunity to close the game. I think that that's a
great point. And I think that you know six inning,
which which we did last year in DC. Um you know,
when you're talking about a an elimination game. But like
I said, those those uh unforeseen situations possibly could happen.
(19:33):
And I know that you know, Kennley is that guy.
He's he's our best reliever in in that highest leverage
that could be that that could be the game. So
that's something that made the coaches will definitely think long
and hard about that and Kenley, whatever situation we have
for him, and obviously it's going to be the highest
of leverage situations, we will deploy him. And uh he's
(19:54):
a big horse, he's our guy at the back end.
So um yeah, that that's the fun part about the
Post's so Doug, so make sure you tune in and
uh you know, uh I will I just again, I
think that's fascinating. I think the fact that the home
run rate up is up so high that, you know,
does that carry over into the postseason? Um, you know
(20:15):
when traditionally teams that hit a lot of home runs
can go can go stale in the post See. I
think I think it's I think it's gonna be fascinating
to watch. Listen, I know you've got a ton of
things to get to, far more important than this. We
wish you the best of luck and we'll talk to
you soon, all right, As Dave Roberts, who's the skipper
of the Dodgers, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
(20:35):
at Fox sports Radio dot Com and within the I
Heart Radio app. Under a vamped format, the two captains
of the NBA's All Star Game will will select from
a pool of players voted as starters and reserves, making
selections without regard to conference affiliation. So there's twenty four
All Stars, twelve players from each conference earning spots, ten starters,
(20:59):
two guards, three front court players per conference. Will continue
to be chosen by a combination of fans vote, current
players vote, basketball media vote that by the way, weighs
too strong, too heavily in favor of the fans, but
that's okay. The NBA's head coaches will select the fourteen reserves,
voting two guards, three front court players. YadA, YadA, YadA.
(21:19):
So I I like it, but I think it's halfway.
Like twenty four players. Dude, that's three teams of eight.
Or add a player and do five teams of six
and play like pick up all. Right, play with the clock.
(21:42):
I don't mind if you play the clock. You know,
play play just a quarter, ten minutes and then play.
You know, first team to win four games wins, everybody
wins a million dollars something crazy like that, and you
know you donate half of the winnings to charity something
like something somebodal like that. Like that would be awesome.
(22:03):
But you can't go like, hey, let's go pick up ball.
Only it's not really pick up all pick up all.
There's a couple of things that you have to remember
about pick up all. Usually the guy that calls game
is the worst player, Like I got game, Like, I
mean the guy guy wasn't gonna get picked up, so
he got there and called game. Um guy who opens
(22:23):
the gym guy who opens the gym always in the
first game. First game is always longer than the other games,
which to me is just dumb because most times you
go and play pick up ball music. Do you ever
play pick up basketball? I guess they're not pick up
beast place ramas you pick up all player recently or
the past in general. No, not in general, but past. Yes, okay,
(22:47):
so in the past you have uh first game being
longer is I think the intent is, well, it's the
first game. You gotta reward guys for getting there early, whatever.
But because guys aren't loose, nobody makes shots or at
least the first game last like a hour. You're like,
ah man, then you're tired for the rest of the game.
You wear down whoever wins, You wear down whoever comes
in and waits for the game like that. All that
(23:08):
stuff sucks so to me. And then here's another one
is never people say run it back. You start taking
off your shoes, it's over once you like, I gotta go,
I got my kids, got something, my wife's got something.
One don't don't put your shoes back on once you
they've you unlaced him. But I like the idea of
(23:29):
it mixing and my and matching. It still feels like
you're gonna end up getting Kevin Durant Lebron James, and
you're still gonna pick their sides and pick their teams anyway,
and you're not. You're gonna get hat fields against the McCoy's.
I think it would have been better with three or
four teams. It also proves, though, that All Star formats
are super boring. When they start shuffling things up, you
(23:51):
know that you've got a problem. I have. I haven't
watched an All Star possession of a of an NBA
Basketball All Star Game since Aggie Johnson hit the last
shot of his basketball career. If you guys remember that
when he came out of retirement just playing the All
Star Game. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Doug gott Leaps Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. So,
(24:15):
the NFL today came out and said there is zero
discussion about the Chargers moving back to San Diego. That's
that it doesn't mean that this has been in a
resounding success. Remember, other teams have moved to other places
for far different reasons. It's like people in Nashville like, oh, well,
(24:37):
when we got them, Remember they played in Memphis and
we got him and we've been sold out and we hey, Nashville,
you didn't have anything. You know, you went from Vandy
football and Predator hockey to the National Football League. And
by the way, the Titans were good when they got there.
(24:59):
Um pick another team. When the Ravens moved moved to
Baltimore from Cleveland, remember they were the Cleveland Browns. They
moved to Baltimore, the Ravens had previously lost a team
and they were they didn't they were wanting for a
football team, completely different city, completely different desire, and they
(25:23):
were essentially getting back a football team that they had
previously lost. You're bringing in a rival team from a
small market and you had already given a team to
the city the week before. But the NFL's ratings in
Los Angeles for the Chargers, we're actually the worst of
(25:47):
of any games on TV. So not only they have
in trouble putting people in the stadium, they have trouble
getting people to actually watch the games. And some of
this comes from the fact that the Chargers were the enemy.
Some of it comes from the fact that the Chargers
have bad pr because of how everything's been handled and
something because of the fact that they're owing four in
(26:08):
the season. But it's also important to mention that while
the Chargers are owing for help is potentially just around
the corner. This year in college football, at least this
year in the NFL Draft, is about two maybe three quarterbacks.
Right looks say, Kwan Barkley will be a top pick,
(26:31):
but outside of that, you've got Sam Donald and Josh Rosen.
Both of them are quarterback college quarterbacks in Los Angeles
who will probably go one two in the draft. And
with Philip Rivers fading, Philip Rivers was never all that
into moving to Los Angeles from San Diego. Still hasn't
(26:52):
moved from Saneo. Does the drive up every day? Why
isn't the discussion about Sam Donald, maybe to a lesser extent,
Josh Rosen being the quarterback of the l A Chargers
right like it gives you. It checks so many of
(27:14):
the boxes. And think about it. The Rams did this
with Jared Goff. They traded up and went and got
Jared Goff, and it took a year, and you know what,
now they're exciting. By the way, the Rams haven't drawn
flies the last I don't know eight games, five games
last year, a couple of games this year. They're not
drawing well. They will now, do you know why? Because
(27:36):
they're good and they're watchable. It's a weird thing somehow
in l A you get criticized for actually kind of
being smart. L A is not a bad sports market.
It's a phenomenal sports market. The Dodgers draw four million
every year. The Angels draw three million every year. There
(27:57):
are not one, but two professional soccer teams. They draw
very well. The Kings have done well, the Ducks have
done well. And while USC and u c l A
USC draws well because they're USC, especially when they're winning.
Chill A, I guess does poorly. But for a for A,
(28:19):
a university that doesn't have it on camp facility plays
an hour from their campus has never been a traditional power.
Putting sixty to seventy thousand people in a hundred thousand,
ninety thousand seed stadium in bed Oh yeah, by the way,
we got other stuff to do, and lots of people
still grew up other places. You can still go to
(28:43):
the beach, you can still go to the mountains. You
can still go to the river every weekend day, and
so to me, Um, I look at it as it
The risks are greater, but the reward is far greater.
The Chargers are worried about three years from now, not
(29:04):
about this year. They want to be competitive, they want
to win, and they need to be better than to
find a way to win these games. They should have
beaten the Broncos, should have beaten the Dolphins. Probably should
have beaten the Eagles as well. Maybe not. The chiefs
of the defense did a great job against the Chiefs.
But the issue becomes this. If you need excitement in
(29:26):
three years, what's more exciting than Sam Donald? And in
the meantime, if Sam Donald was to play in Carson,
that's like thirty minutes from where he grew up in
Saint Commenty. You draw in USC fans, you draw in
football fans who wants something young, something exciting, and you
find the either immediate successor or air apparent to Philip Rivers.
(29:51):
It checks so many of the boxes. It brings excitement
and interest, and it gets you ready for the real
battle for l a which is not gonna be one
in the short Term's route one in the long term,
how much fun would that be to watch Donald on
one team golf on the other. Something to think about.
Everybody thinks about the Jets and the Browns. Maybe the
(30:15):
Jets and the Browns do end up finishing one too,
as the Charges are gonna win some games and the
Jets are gonna start losing more games. But remember the
Rams did not have the number one pick. They traded
up to acquire it. Why they knew they needed a
quarterback in l a in order to get attention to
play the style they wanted to play. Fox Sports Radio
(30:36):
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app. Mike Leach joins
us here on the Doug got Leave Show. Coach, how
are you. I'm doing good, Yeah, just trying to get
ready to tee it up for another one. We game
planned until late last night and looking forward to practice
(30:59):
and meetings a day. All right, So you got Oregon
this week, Organs FOURD one, and I saw your press
conference yesterday. You said, Hey, they're just as good as
a team we played last week. Is that is? Is
that a vote of confidence for Oregon or a shot
at SC. No. I think both are extremely good. I mean,
you know, if you look at kind of the recruits
(31:19):
they've gotten over the last four years and things like that. Um,
you know, both are extremely good teams and very talented teams. Uh.
You know Oregon is uh characteristically really fast. Uh yeah,
I guess what makes USC so scary when you play them,
as they're not just fast, but they're big fast, you know.
(31:42):
I mean USC is kind of kind of thick fast.
I mean they're not just uh you know, little guys, uh,
you know, little birthty guys. They're they're thick fast. But
now Oregon's got real good speed and got one of
the best running backs in the conference. And so you
(32:05):
were up there at OX and then uh it should
be a great environment, great game, but you know that
that's a tough team. You know. It's interesting, Um, you
pointed out at halftime of the SC game that you
thought you should have had more points, and it's like,
as good as your team was because Luke Folk was
in the second half, there were times really in the
game in which he misthrows that he normally makes. Was
(32:25):
it did you have to settle him down? What was
what do you say to your team at the half.
I thought we had to settle the receivers down more
than anything. We dropped seven balls, and um, we dropped
seven balls. But the one thing is is, uh, you know,
kind of a everybody's very anxious, and you know, it
(32:46):
was a big build up for the game, and I
thought that our guys did a pretty good job of
of sticking in there. I thought Luke was real steady.
And then as uh the rest of our guys settled down,
I U, we got better and better as a team.
And then I also thought that our offensive line played
(33:07):
pretty well. And then, um, really all three sides of
the ball for us, I thought, you know, we played
extremely hard, sloppy at times. And then the first half
the ball really didn't roll our direction very well either.
I mean, we had a freakish chip ball, but you
know they end up on like the two yard line
(33:30):
or something. We end up holding him to a field goal.
But you know, the first half the ball didn't really
roll our direction. Second half, you know, I thought it was, uh,
we were a little more fortunate that way. And then
uh hung in there and it was pounded back and forth.
I thought we moved the ball good the whole day
(33:51):
at the ball almost thirty five minutes. So um, and
then we won, and of course everybody was excited. You know,
it's interesting team because there's some uncharacteristic or at least
traditionally in your career. Some of the some of the
things that you guys have been able to do this
season and specifically against USC are not characteristic of what
your teams and your offense had done the past. And
(34:13):
and tell me if I'm wrong, but like, look, you
ran the ball effectively, especially when you needed to, something
that you haven't always wanted to or tried to do.
You know, Morrow had not just ninety one yards did
on six carries and then Williams said had thirty or
four I thought important yards. Um. Your defense, as you
pointed out, you've got some huge stops, like when you
got to stop at the two yard line, when you
(34:35):
got stopped late and uh and and then um, you know,
I I just I felt like you were able to
really pressure the passer consistently, and like these are things
that in the past you your teams hadn't been able
to do. Is it this team? Is it you evolving
as a coach? Why why some of the things that
people would classify as not Mike leached team things, have
(34:57):
you guys been able to do? I think it was
a kind of I think it's a combination. I think
for one, um, defensively, we uh, you know, we well
as a team both sides of the ball. We're a
young team. We're a real young team. Last year played
a bunch of guys that were freshmen, and so now
(35:19):
they're sophomores, but at least their experience sophomores, and we're
still a pretty young team. As a team were predominantly
sophomores and juniors, and so I think that's paying some
dividends this year's as guys know their role in embrace
the offseason. Uh. As far as the back said, people
(35:41):
have that all screwed up. I mean, last year we
are backs were the most productive backs in the pack twelve.
If you had up their yards, whether on the ground
or in the air, our has had the most over
the entire conference, which, um, if we don't leave the conference,
were close a lot. Um you know, of course we'll
(36:01):
have some receiving yards and other teams may not have
very many, but those yards have a funny way of
spending exactly the same, you know, and then um, of course, uh,
you know, the last two years, we've had pretty good
years around here. So what are you doing? What are
you currently doing at this very well? Are you brushing
your teeth? Now? I was, I did wash my hands.
(36:26):
I've thought i'd slip that in so that you and
your listeners. I mean, it's uh, it's a morning here
getting ready to go to the meetings, and I wanted
to share that with with you and the good listeners
in Los Angeles. And uh, I've got coffee going and
just trying to you know, make my tail a little
bush here here as I get ready to go in
(36:47):
there and eat that for practice and get another good
week going. How do you take your coffee just black?
Is there any special thing to obstruct the harsh bitter tape?
Are you? Now? Are you like a Folger's guide? Do
you have a specific kind of like I know how
head coaches are, like, I want it how I want it,
and that's how I want Is there a specific kind
(37:09):
of coffee that you like? Not really just whatever is
laying there? And then as the day goes on, and
then I become kind of a green tea guy. But
the thing is this, the the part that's disturbing is um,
you knows, you as your mind kind of speeds up,
you know, you know it's it's so like almost kind
(37:30):
of a chain, a chain green tea habit developed, you
know where where you might have a cup sitting there
with you know, half full of tea tea bag there,
and then you're up getting another one. You know what
I mean. Yep, now you start you start change chain
drinking tea. I read a story where early on when
(37:51):
you were coaching with how Mummy at at Iowas and
this is before you guys left and you went to
Valdosta State and you went to eventually went to Kentuck
key in the Kentucky to Oklahoma, Oklahoma, that you always
wanted to coach at at a high school in Key West. Right. Well,
as I went to Key West, I did, Um, I
(38:15):
guess that started. Let me think here probably in eighty
nine or ninety when I first went down to QS,
I first wanted to go there. Then once I went there,
I thought wouldn't be great to coach down here. Yeah,
that's I mean about things when all that happened in
(38:35):
the job opened at Key West High and you applied
for it and didn't get it. No, I didn't get it.
Who got it? It was a fellow from and I
don't know his name. It was a fellow from New Hampshire.
Sounded like he was going to retire down there, and then,
uh in Key West. One thing, because it's hard to
(38:58):
make a living. Um in Key West. I mean everybody
has splits time. It's like a cab driver or a
bartender or something to make ends meet. Anyway, he was
already heading down there to begin with, so um, it
might have appealed to him that that he was already
(39:19):
going to be there. And then that was towards the
tail end of UH. When I would interview for jobs
and I'd say, well, you know I did this, I
did that, I studied this, and you know, I just
want to know how I did on the interview so
I can improve, you know, And the guy would say
get older, you know, And so then I went off
(39:40):
and I got older. You successfully accomplished. I think now
you would get that job if you if you so,
if you still apply, if you decide to retire down there. Um.
It was pointed out numerous times. You guys haven't left
the police yet for a game. Obviously that changes this weekend.
Five of your last seven are on the road. Um,
(40:01):
and so I guess the question becomes, you thought you
had You said you were not surprised by beating sc
like you thought you had a good team that come
to your place and you beat him. It didn't. It
didn't surprise, didn't raise your blood temperature at all. Um,
what do you still have to learn about your team?
As you guys travel for your last seven games, five
of which on the road. You know, we've just got
(40:23):
I always see the season and increments of weeks, and
you've got to take a step and improve a notch
each week is how I always see it. And um,
you know we have to do that. I mean, we
have to be a better team today than we were
last Friday. I think that's an important part of it.
(40:44):
And then, uh, you know, heck, they did a freaky
study and we were one of those teams that we
weren't the only one. They did this weird study last
year where the road team won most of the teams
in our conference. And it's it's a strange thing, but
it seems like road teams fare better in this conference
and home teams on a lot of occasions and where
(41:07):
they actually won more or something like that. So you know,
we're going to take that overwhelming advantage and going to
ops and stadium and do the best we can't. Luke
has sixteen touchdowns, two interceptions, You're already thrown for seventeen
yards you go back in the I mean like, look,
he's the picture of consistency. And and yet when you
when you hear the discussions about Heisman trophies, when you
(41:30):
hear discussions about NFL quarterbacks, you don't hear his name mentioned.
No one knows more about the quarterback position, uh than
you do. What's your assessment of Luke Falk, especially as
you you saw Sam Donald come into your building last week. Well,
I think Luke's an extremely good player, I think, you know,
I think it's uh well documented. He's won more games
(41:53):
in the back twelves than any active quarterback. I think, uh,
I think he will go to the NFL. And I
think that a lot of times it's just media base,
you know. I mean, UM schools and bigger media bases
have more media coverage around them, and I think that, uh,
you know, of course, names that those schools will get
(42:15):
elevated because they want to have something exciting to cover
down there. And and but that you know Luke's numbers,
Luke's results, all that Luke folks best quarterback in the conference,
and I you know, and it's pretty much indisputable anyway.
You measure it better than Rosen, better than breakout is numbers,
(42:38):
breakout looks. And then we're not talking by a very
close margin either. I think what I don't think it
comes down as much. Some of it is market size
or school name, but I think a lot of it
is I think respect for the fact that you've had
so many quarterbacks who have put up numbers. Like you know,
you go back to tech and you go back to
when you're at ou Mike All, you go back to
(42:58):
to UH to couch when you're at Kentucky, Like, the
one thing you can always count on is your quarterback
will have ridiculous numbers. How do you come at that,
I don't know, just good coaching and clean living, you know,
coffee in the morning, green tea in the afternoon, and
(43:18):
wash your hands as often as possible. It's not about right, Yeah,
you have good hygiene. Two as I as I say
that I probably haven't showered in two days and getting
ready to walk to school. You know, I have a walk.
I have a walk or tea you could throw that in.
How long is three and a half miles, but it's
hilly and then I can do all my phone calls
(43:40):
and things. Actually, um, um, you're fortunate because this is
kind of on the front end. There is about it.
There is a hill about a half a mile long,
and it's pretty steep. As I'm coming in the back
side of campus. It's not unusual, um for me to
be huffing and sing on some of these interviews and uh,
(44:02):
but we try to kind of make it, you know,
genuine rust to all those things. So um yeah, going
up to the back side of that hill doing an interview,
I try to let the interviewer do most of the
talking so I can catch my breath. Great, well, listen,
We'll allow you to get get your walk, gets your day,
gets your meetings. Congratulations on the wind, save travels to Eugene.
Hopefully you come back to Pullman with with the W.
(44:25):
Appreciate you join us on Fox Sports Radio. Well, thanks
so much. It's always uh, it's always great to talk
to you. And man good to hear from me and
tell everybody to buy my book Swing your sword in
the book I wrote on Geronimo. Make sure I picked
that one up at Amazon. Thanks so much, Coach Mike
Lee joining us on The Doug Gottlieb Show. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays
(44:48):
at three p m. Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. LaVar Ball says
he's gonna pull the mellow ball from high school now.
LaMelo Ball goes to a high school called the Chino Hills.
Chino Hills is in the Inland Empire. Um, it smells
a cow poop there there. It is. It just is
(45:08):
lots of horses, lots of cattle. Um. Inland Empire is
a place in which, um, it's less expensive to live.
And you can get to Los Angeles, you can get
to Orange County, you can get to Las Vegas far easier.
But it's hotter, dustier, and of sometimes a little bit smellier.
Good people there. I just I'm not pointing out anything
(45:29):
that's it's developed. It it kind of blew up as
a development. I don't know, twenty years ago, and then
of course when the recession was bad, that part of
it got just crushed because the housing was so over valued.
People who made thirty a year, we're buying a couple
hundred thousand dollar homes and unable to make their payments.
So what happened was, uh, Dennis Lattimore took over. Now
(45:54):
a lot of more played in college. He's coach college
basketball before, played Arizona Plate, Notre Dame, and you replace
Stephen Gilling, who, of course um LaVar Ball chased out
of town. Dennis Lattimore wanted to play a more traditional
style as opposed to the way Chino Hills played before,
which is press and just shoot crazy, three point shots crazy,
(46:19):
And so LaVar Ball says, uh, it's a new coach,
and I don't like him one bit. LaMelo's on track
for U C l A. But he doesn't have to
be dealing with those nutleheads. I'm not letting them mess
with his head anymore. You can put that on the
principal and the coach over there. The coach has his
own frame of mind. You want on how he wants
to play and who he picks in his team. Okay,
y'all got this going. Let's see you do it without
(46:41):
my tutelage, without me training those players at my house.
It seems like anybody who's training over there, that coach
doesn't want him with the team. Look, I'll point out,
my dad nearly pointed pulled me from my high school,
and I a really good high school coach got named
Andy Ground who's now the head coach at um Stadtleback
Community College, but wildly successful high school, and your college coach,
and like, look this happens, all right, We're like, I'll
(47:04):
pull him, I'll send you a prep school. We'll we'll
we'll move, we'll go to a different district, etcetera, etcetera. Uh.
I actually think the best thing for LaMelo would be
to play for somebody else, to play for a different style,
to understand that at some point you've got to play
real basketball. I wildly disagree this, especially because though it
(47:27):
worked for Alonzo, it did. Alonzo ball was an All American,
won a state championship, went to u c l A,
completely turned around U c l A. Was the number
two pick of the draft, and now he gets to
play for the Lakers. Like those are winds. But LaVar
was different then he wasn't this bigger than life character
(47:48):
making bull bombastic statements that we tweeted about or talked
about or people wrote about. And LaMelo is different. You
can raise kids exactly the same in the same home.
Anybody has kids knows this. Ramo says, kids, he knows this.
You can raise kids the exact same way and they
(48:09):
turn out differently or because they're different. LaMelo Ball is
different than a Lonzo Ball. He is selfish as Lonzo
is unselfish the Lakers. I touched some Lakers coaches last
night before their exhibition game against the Nuggets. They're like, look,
we gotta tell Alonzo to look to score more, to
be more selfish, or look to make plays more. Instead,
(48:31):
he's just give. He just getting the rid of the
ball too quickly. And then I saw this from Nancy Armor,
who I don't know Nancy, she may be a super
talented writer. This is a bad piece. This is a
bad take, This is a hot take. Congratulations LaVar Ball,
You've finally done the impossible, not create the world's greatest
(48:52):
basketball player. He's still out on that for a while,
but early indications are not promising. So now she's taking
shots at Zo Ball who has played in one in
a quarter, one a quarter exhibition games. Not that I
think the Alonso is gonna be the greatest player ever,
but one in a quarter. Uh. Nor did you create
(49:13):
the model athletic experience or dynasty that will be remembered
for years to come. Not anything positive. Now, what what
Ball has done is finally supplant Marvin Mnovich as the
worst parent ever, a title Murdovich had a lot grip
on for some thirty years. Now, part of this is
I'm friends with Marvin Merevich. I'm friends with Todd Renovich.
(49:33):
And though Nancy Armor may put all of the post
career disaster that is Todd Murdovich on Marvin Mirovich. Tom
Rovich was the first round draft pick of the l
A Raiders, starting quarterback as a rookie start at USC
(49:56):
All America. Now he didn't have a great life. I haven't.
He has had a great life in terms of being
balanced and staying out of trouble when he got involved
in drugs. But laying all of the drug problems on
the foot of parents is well taken away any sort
of accountability from the kid. Additionally, so I don't think
(50:17):
Martin Rivage is even the worst parent ever, and I
definitely don't think la our Ball is. I mean, you know, look,
I don't agree with a lot of stuff LAVR does.
I won't do it for my kid. I'll criticize it,
but I also won't say he's the worst parent ever.
(50:39):
Bad piece after a bad decision by LaVar Ball
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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