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January 7, 2025 • 20 mins
Tony talks Red Brick Legacy and Miami Redhawks sports with Kyle Decker, on ESPN 1530!
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back our three since e three to sixty on
the home of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
All Bengals, all the time, and rightfully so. There's a
laundry list of things that this team needs to accomplish.
What we got a long offseason to do. So two
massive college basketball tilts locally tonight with Xavier with UC.
You could throw Kentucky in there as well, also plays.

(00:22):
But let's spend some time. Let's revisit with my guy
Kyle Decker from the Red Brick Legacy. All things Miami
going on right now? What's up?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
What's up?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Snoop Dogg Man, Last time we spoke getting ready for
bowl season. Since then, the Snoop dog bowl Snoop Dogg.
I'm watching Snoop in attendance. I'm watching Chuck Martin get
in the back of the car. They go down Miami
and wins the bowl game. Just the excitement because bull
season is different now, and I like what Snoop did

(00:50):
because Snoop I believe, pays the players to play in
the game because he doesn't want everyone's sitting out. But
it felt like in a season where people lose sight
of bowl games, one of the bowl games that is
growing and building excitement with what Snoop is is obviously
bringing to the table. So just a recap from your
standpoint of of what you've heard and how good that

(01:11):
that bowl game was.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, by all accounts, it was the coaches, the players
just said it was incredible, you know, taking selfies with
Snoop Dogg and everything else, like it was just top
of the you know, top class bowl game. But he
on the twenty twenty four Bingo card, I didn't expect
to see Chuck Martin and a low rider hanging out
with Snoop Dogg with a chain on, and but no,

(01:33):
it's great for the guys, I mean, to finish off that,
you know, finish the season like that, you know, Brett Gabbert,
I don't think you'll ever see a six year yeah
quarterback at one school, Matt Salapek, five years, you know
all you know all Mac defensive player of the year
the previous year. Just guys like that. It was one
of those I'm so glad that they finished off on

(01:53):
the high note and just to see them have fun,
you know, beautiful out and there's forty thousand people out
that ball game. Yeah, you know, Tom Brennaman here locally
was doing the game, so he you know, it was
just awesome to see all of uh, you know, Miami
being represented out and Tucson and beating Colorado State, not
just beating them, you know, responding from the disappointing MAC

(02:15):
championship and coming out there and showing what we did
against Colorado State was it was a big statement.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
I want to dive into why we'll probably not see
players like that anymore because in the portal age, very
rarely are you going to get a guy that stays
at a school five or six years before we do
into that. Austin, you'd be happy to know as well.
I got swagged up today. I've got a I've got
a Snoop Dogg Bowl, i got a backpack, I've got
Miami gear. So tides are changing a little bit around here.

(02:41):
I'm starting to getting taken care of and in the
city here locally, so we've got some changes that are
being made. I've got swag from Miami of Ohio now,
which changes things, makes things a little bit different, especially
with the Snoop Dogg Bowl.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
I just can't wait, Austin until I see a picture
of him in the year So I tell you what.
The Lulu Lemon, Lululemon Snoop Dogg backpack for Tony Pike
here come on, amongst some other stuff. But you're gonna
look good, I think, Snoop Dogg. I think we can
all agree. Snoop Dogg gear looks good on anybody.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
I think he knows what he's doing. He knows what
he's at this point. So the season ends and then
madness ensues. We see it all over college football, and
by now it's almost a daily occurrence of either someone
is entering the portal or someone is is coming into
the portal or joining a team leaving a team. It's
almost for me, it's hard to keep up with. I
almost wait kind of weeks to go by and then okay,

(03:31):
now let's see where we're at. But I know that
since the season has officially ended, uh Miami has already
been very busy and already made a lot of key
additions to the roster. What are some of those additions
that that the RedHawks have made.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, super busy. Spent most of my Christmas break talking
to players and agents and the coaches free agency.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
I love the school I love this, but at the
same time, what what can I make.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
It's it's it's uh, it's it's crazy. I don't know
how any other way to explain outside of it's me
and coach. We're talking about it. The twenty twenty four
and now twenty five recruiting. It's so much different than
it used to be. Obviously, you don't talk to a
kid for years or months, they don't respond tech circ
phone calls. Next thing you know, they come on campus
and then commit within twelve hours. Like it's just a wild,

(04:17):
wild time. But with that said, we're super excited. I
think we got one of the best non power five
portal classes if you look at on three twenty four
to seven sports. I think it'll come out well. We'll
be right up there with the top of the non
power five as far as our portal class. To Kwan Finn,
former MAC champion last year from Toledo, but he went

(04:39):
to Baylor and got hurt. But he was Miami, Florida, Michigan,
all those schools after he left Toledo. We're looking at
him so he'll be top notch. We're going to circle
around him similar to like a pro style offense. Like
Lamar Jackson and obviously hardball connection. We're gonna really.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's the first like, no matter what you do, yep.
And we've learned that at any level, you've got to
get quarterback in place because I feel like somebody, you
grab a receiver, you've got it, but you really don't
know who and what you're going to be because of
the quarterback mode.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
And I think to get your guy, and I think
that's the key thing to not just cast a huge
net and hope you let but to go out and
get the guy you wanted is a huge start for
that staff.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, no, huge start. I mean we were looking at
tons of quarterbacks and that's you know, negot you talking
about dollars, that's where the money's at, but the tons
of quarterbacks and it was, you know, back and forth,
But we got our guy. The Kwan Fin is a
stud and we're super excited announcing here. It'll be announced today,

(05:39):
so we're here first. Darien Williamson from Florida State will
be committing today. Ie, so really excited about that for
your guy down there that will becoming difference maker. Cordel Russell,
receiver from Colorado two Big ten tight ends. Really excited
about these guys. Grant Leaper from Iowa, Bradon Coason from Indiana.
We've got two tackles, which was a big need. We

(05:59):
lost some there, Peyton Kirkland from Colorado and Austin Yuke
from Stanford. And then on defense we got a little
bit more work to do. But right now we got
a cornerback from Purdue, Coy Beasley in an edge rusher
from U. See. There's a rotational guy, but we hope
he'll be a big impact guy for US. Cam Wilson.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
I think it's also unique to see the types of
players that you're getting Florida State, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Colorado.
I mean, these are big time schools and if you
look at Iowa as a perennial contender in the Big Ten,
the year Indiana had, the year Colorado had. So not
only you're getting players, but you're getting players that have
been around winning programs and winning teams and played at

(06:39):
very high and physical levels. And it's not like I said,
it's not just all right, let's go grab some smaller
school guys and bring them in, but to get the
big school quote unquote players that can now come in
and have experience in those big games is a huge step,
I would say in the right direction.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah. I mean I bet some of these guys on
their visits. I mean they're dudes, right, I mean Indiana,
in in in Iowa and Colorado that they've practiced against
the top of the top. A lot of these guys
have played. Yeah, and uh, you know, I think our
main mission is from now to theirs to build the culture.
I think Chuck Martin's done a great job of creating

(07:15):
a really good culture and this will be our biggest
portal class in Miami football history. Really excited what Red
Brick's done to be able to acquire these type of players.
I mean, it's a it's a big lift, but we're
we're getting a lot of talent, and you know, with
with the Kwan Finn at the home, we feel pretty excited.
With some of the weapons we've had, and.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
How much have you learned already with the nil world,
with Red brick legacy of you know, it just it's
never going to stop, you know. I think that's the
one thing that people always look at. I would just
go get someone in the portal we could do. You're
spending money to do that, and then you've got to
replenish that. And it's the it's the the continual, the
continual the donations or raising the money that you need

(07:55):
to do so that you can go out and make
these types of splashes every single offseason, not just one
big off season and everything dies back. So just the
knowledge and the understanding that you've already learned with with
money and how to raise that to be successful and
give this team a chance to compete year in and
year out.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh yeah, without you know, without a budget, we wouldn't
be able to acquire these players. And you know, we
talked about do we rebuild or do we reload. We
got to reload. You know, there's not a rebuilding at Miami.
And you know, our goals to make the college football playoffs,
you know that's that's a it's a big goal. But
for non Power five there's an automatic bid. We feel
with Boise moving into the Pac twelve, you know that

(08:34):
obviously opens up more spots for there, and it really
comes down to Memphis, Tu Lane from the AAC and
maybe Liberty and a couple other schools like Navy Army,
you know, some Independence and then you got the MAC
in my opinion, the Mountain West is dropping back. I
think if we can build it right, you know, that's
what we're going to try to do in a couple
of years. Our schedule, you know, if we go twelve

(08:55):
and one, let's just say in twenty twenty six we're
playing Pitt and UC, say we upset one of those guys,
or run the table or beat both. You know, we're
legitimately in the in the conversation, in my opinion, and
that's what we got to build for. And obviously the
resources are a critical component.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
I mean, twenty twenty three, you start the season with
a loss against Miami, but from there you run the
table until the Toledo game. And you just imagine in
a setting, if you lose the opener and run the
table the rest of the way going forward, what does
that look like? Does it change at all? Because I
always think of Miami and I think, man, they go
through that brutal stretch of non conference and it always

(09:31):
we talked to Chuck Martin when we had them on
the show, it always seems to get them ready for
MAC play. But when you talk about the vision of
college football playoff and being that team that represents does
it change a little bit of perhaps the non conference
scheduling of Okay, wins are now more valuable, yep, and
can you get the one big win and then finish

(09:51):
up the rest. But does that change a little bit
of the thought of scheduling.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, we've we've definitely changed. If you look at our
future schedules, you'll see, you know, a third game you
typically played, you know, three power fours, if not three
power fives. Now you'll see us, you know, slide in
a little bit of a different like next year we
play Wisconsin. We're at Wisconsin, at Rutgers and home against
UNLV and then an FCS. So we we're going to

(10:18):
continue to probably tailor back a little bit versus playing
at Notre Dame. Like at Notre Dame you see, and
at Northwestern. You know, when you have three power fours
or three power fives, that's a brutal start. So you'll see,
I think a little bit changing our scheduling moving forward
already has just to just to set us up for
an opportunity to you know, be twelve, you know, thirteen

(10:40):
and one, and obviously the max is going to get better.
So as much as the non conference we need to
do what we have to do. I think the MAC
is getting a lot better, as you mentioned. I think
there's a lot of players coming to us.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
I think the crazy thing is to now just at
the forefront of NIL. To have that now in the
arsenal for Chuck Martin and Miami is going to do
a big thing. The portal itself. We see it at
every level. We're seeing coaches that are essentially saying I'm good,
I'm done, I'm stepping away. It's the wild wild West.
You now, are you have your pulse on this better

(11:11):
than a lot of people that we're able to talk to.
What are what are some of the problems that the
portal is bringing right now that maybe we don't get
to see on the outside every single day, but they're
certainly causing issues.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah. I think I think for us, Tony, the biggest
disappointment or the biggest challenge is the amount of deals
that were offered to our players, you know, from coaches,
from high school coaches to agents before the MAC Championship
are on as as the players were having success, and
we're happy for those guys. Those a lot of you

(11:44):
know who left our program. Their lives are changed for
the better from a monetary perspective, but the fact that
these guys have to Before the MAC Championship, we had
multiple players and we're talking millions of dollars that they're
thinking about. You know, what if they get hurt? What
if they do this? You know, think some student athletes
we're seeing can handle it, some can't. And I just
think from a student athlete and from a school's perspective,

(12:06):
you know, how do we you know, how does the NCAA,
you know, at some point step in and create some
sort of boundaries. You know, you know, I don't know.
Coach and I were talking about it. It's like, are
they really going to go to you know, Texas Tech
and say, hey, you know, can't do this anymore? You know,
I don't know if that's so. We we have to
play with with how we you know, I think what's

(12:28):
great is, you know, we truly have not you know
almost factually myself and the coaches tampered or offered guys
deals that we're on other teams. That has happened tremendous
like last year. This year you're talking, you know, coaches
at these schools are dming them, yeah, saying hey, we'll
offer you X, and you know that's a tough thing

(12:51):
to deal with. So I think that, to me is
frustrating being part of this is like if we're doing
it the right way and then our guys are you know,
not able to kind of focus on the task at
hand and say, hey, after the season, you know, if
you're gonna hit the portal, go get yours. But how
do we prevent those conversations happening until it's the right.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Here you're seeing it now. Teams that are still playing
have guys that are in the portal that may be
playing and then leaving or may have already left the team.
Is there is there a solution? Is there is there
something where you can unify the portal? I mean that
was a talk when the Ohio State fans were losing
their mind when Ryan Day lost to Michigan. It's like, well,
now you're you're behind the eight ball because you're going
to the college football playoff, but the portal is going

(13:32):
to be open, so you're preparing for a playoff game,
but the portals also happening and you mentioned all the tampering.
Is is there a solution that can come out of
this that that can start getting this thing a little
bit under control.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well, you'd hope. So, I mean you think about the college.
You think Penn State their backup quarterback. What if their starter,
if aler goes down, right, the backup had no choice
because these spots are getting filled, So it all.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Says he's gonna come back. So it's one of these
situations like, Okay, I get it, yep, but now you're
you're putting the team in a.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Right situation that if all gets hurt, you know that
backup is formidable. You know, he could he could he could,
he could go. And so it's just I would say,
you know, I'm learning this, But I think a lot
of it comes down to when there's two different portals.
There's the you know, December to January portal, and then
there's the April May. There's two different how do you
condense maybe into one portals? When I hear from coaches

(14:23):
and my thought is it's all starting when school starts.
How do you get say, hey, the national championship this
year is January twentieth. From January twentieth to you know
X period, you could open have an open portal that
before that there's nothing, but you have an extended one
portal that says okay, hey you have this, and then
those schools work to say you could start a mid

(14:46):
semester class or you're eligible to practice, and then you
just start class starting in summer or fall. So a
lot of it starts around when classes start, you know,
that's when the kids officially are in the school also,
so there's a lot of timing of when school starts,
when the season ends, when the portals are there. But
it's got to you know, I know on college game days,

(15:07):
like who's going to be the commissioner and Nick Saban's like,
I'm not doing it, and then they're saying, well, Chris
Peterson the ex Boise State coach, but someone needs to
do something because this is not healthy for coaches. You're
seeing the coaches like wake Forest step down. Yeah, you're
seeing more coaches in college basketball. The student athletes, I
don't think it's healthy for them. You know, there's opportunities

(15:30):
to make this better.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, it's hard on all accounts, and at some point
the schools that are tampering, there needs to be some
type of punishment to get them from stop doing. If
it's a slap on the wrist, or hey, stop doing that.
They're going to continue to do that because everyone's looking
for an edge, everyone's looking to bend the rules or
to get by. You have to eventually find a way
to govern this and it needs to be someone that

(15:52):
oversees this all. But the more it happens, the more
it turns into the wild, wild West. And we're seeing
now at unbelievable levels. You know, the sport that I've
grown up loving of the culture and the team and
putting everything first, to players now saying well, if I
don't get mine, I'm gone. And it's creating these toxic
environments where you're not now biding your time and working

(16:13):
and saying, Okay, it's not my time this year. I'm
gonna work my tail off and give an opportunity next
year it is I'll just go somewhere else, and I
always try to find the room where the grass is greener.
And it just makes it hard to develop these young
student athletes in that sense as well.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, we had here's a great story too that happened.
We had an agent call us current player that was
on a current team and this is how we operate, right,
And they're like, well, this is how the world is,
and if you don't operate like this, you're gonna be behind.
But it's like, we didn't talk to that kid, you know,
we denied until he officially got in the portal and

(16:48):
then we weren't interested anyway. But when I talk to
these agents, they're like, Kyle, this is just the way
it is, and until someone steps in, these agents are
going to do that. You know, like I said, you'd
be preparing for the BCS game against Florida or wherever
you were in your career, and you know, you're getting
an offer from you know, Miami Florida for one point

(17:08):
five million, and you're trying to figure out how to
beat Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer and you're getting a
you know, an offer for one point five million to
go to Miami Florida right you know, or quin yours
right now. You know, it's getting offers from who knows
who but millions of dollars. And it's like, how do
you focus? You've got to be a great you know,
mentally and physically multitasking. And then they say a lot

(17:30):
of times too, that we were talking is that these
agents are saying, hey, if you have a good MAC
championship game, you might make an extra hundred thousand. Their
high school coaches are saying that, hey, you got to
go ball out. So if that kid's not getting the ball,
you start to watch their demeanor, You start to watch
their body language. They're getting frustrated a lot more, and
you're like, what's going on here?

Speaker 1 (17:48):
It's not the same player we watched.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
All You know, we have certain players, you know, last
off season that we're thinking of spring portal that are
you know, not hitting field goals because maybe someone's talking
to them. You know, like there's a lot of you know,
there's a lot of things that are happening behind the
scenes that the fans don't see. They can speculate, but
it is happening and it's impacting their performance. And is
that fair to the players as well?

Speaker 1 (18:09):
You know, uh, the competition is going to continue to
push for the n A L.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Role.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
So what you guys are doing at Red Brick Legacy,
how can folks find out more? How can they be
a part of everything that's going on? What's the easiest?

Speaker 2 (18:20):
We'rout absolutely the website RedBrick Legacy dot com. Matt, who
was here with us last time, is in a heck
of a job. We are actually going to go on
a red Brick tour this this may maybe we get
a Tony Pike again, you know, showing We're going to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland,
Columbus and we got some support up there. So we're

(18:42):
we're we're gonna we're gonna hit the road. We're gonna
call it the Red Brick Road Show. More will come
out on that, you know, really excited. We finally got
the uh, the the the bourbon logo kind of created
and that will be out and rolling. So but anything
you can do, you know, please reach out to us. Obviously,
we need to continue. You can see the work we're doing.

(19:04):
Imagine if we can do more. Obviously, to get to
a college football playoffs, we're gonna have to have a
multimillion dollar roster. You know, we're not there, but we
would like to make a college football playoff run. That's
our goal between twenty you know, who knows next year
with the roster we're putting together, but definitely twenty six
to twenty eight, you know, and we need all the
help we can get.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Change his division twelve teams, change his division of the
top that you can get to. So awesome stuff there
follow along with red Brick legacy. We got to get
to a break when we come back college hoops tonight,
and should mention Travis Steele the RedHawks nine and four,
big game at ball State tonight.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Nine and four. Travis is cooking tough. I went to
a practice. Those guys are tough, man. I'll tell you
what this Peter Suter guy dropped forty two cam crafts
shooting threes. You know they'll sleep on the RedHawks.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
A lot of big games tonight the Bearcats at Baylor
Xavier with Saint John's. We'll get to all that when
we get back our three since he three to sixty
thanks to Penn Station on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports
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