1/10/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Dan Strake, you have what's up? Good afternoon, Imboegger. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you so much for joining us.
First and foremost, hope your weekend is off to a
good start. If you are driving, I have no idea
what the roads are like. I'm broadcasting from my house,

(00:22):
but I hear what the roads are supposed to be like,
if not now, a little bit later on. So hopefully
you and your fellow motorists are being safe and you
get to where you need to go in one piece. Second,
it's it's awesome to be here. This is our and
I said this to Tony and Austin. It's our first
Friday show since August twenty third. Typically, obviously during football season,

(00:45):
Bengals pep Rally is on, which is, let's be honest.
It's a better show than this one. It's horrid, it's lap,
it's Box Miller, it's guests like, let's let's let's be
let's be painfully honest about it. That show's better than
this one, but so are most anyway, So typically I'm
not here on Fridays, or at least in the final

(01:06):
third of the year, not here on Fridays and Let's
be honest. We all wish the Bengals were playing in
the postseason this weekend, or even better, maybe one day
this will happen. They get a bye and they could
sit the first weekend out, but Bengals pep Rally would
be on either way. And not that I'm not thrilled
to work, because I love my job and I love

(01:26):
coming to work. I'm not Jermaine Burton. I like coming
to work. I like coming to work when I'm broadcasting
from my house, although I like being in the studio more. Nonetheless,
we got a show today. I wish Bengals pep Rally
was on, but if over the course, it'll last a
few months. You've gotten used to Friday afternoons not hearing me? Well, sorry,
here I am. We have a lot of ground to

(01:47):
cover today. Dave Biddlebucknuts dot Com on the Cotton Boltonight,
Ohio State versus Texas. Those two teams with a lot
to live up to after last night. A fun interesting
for a while, sort of old school Big Tennish football,
not great quarterback play. I can't find anybody who is
not excited for and thrilled for Marcus Freeman, his team
advances to the National Championship Game. And I look, I'm

(02:10):
not a Notre Dame fan. I don't subscribe to the
belief that college football needs Notre Dame to be good.
I think it's fun when Notre Dame is good, like
I think it's fun when Notre Dame is really good.
I also think it'd be a blast if we don't
have an SEC team in the National Championship Game. Ohio
State can take care of that. Dave Biddle will tell

(02:31):
us if they will coming up in just about fifteen minutes.
I've wanted to do this all week long, and we're
gonna get to it in a little bit. So we're
obviously more than a month away from the start of
spring training, but it's getting closer. Even though we're gonna
be digging out from worsnow this weekend, you can start too,
if you might have to strain a little bit, but

(02:52):
you can start to think about the upcoming baseball season.
And there's always excitement for baseball, and there's gonna be
excitement for some of the players the Reds. I want
to know, and mind you, there is a difference between
hope and expectation. It has been a while I believe
since we went into the season legitimately expecting the Reds

(03:14):
to contend for a title. Now contend for a title.
We'll get to what that means in a bit. Are
we doing that this year? Are we doing that this year?
And if the answer is no, isn't that kind of
a problem. We'll do that a little bit later on.
Get to some college basketball. You see his favorite against
Kansas tomorrow, which I think has surprised a lot of people.

(03:37):
The Internet. The Internet exists really for one reason, I
guess right now, for two reasons. Number one is those
people who are enjoying dry January to tell us all
that they're enjoying dry January. I don't go on the
Internet without seeing somebody telling me that they're And if
you're enjoying dry January, by all means awesome, you don't

(03:59):
have to tell us every day. The Internet exists for
that reason. It also exists for people to lose their
mind for chaos. I love chaos, Like I'm a fan
of my sports teams, but I'm a fan of chaos
nearly as much, not quite as much. It's why, Like
I was asked like a month ago about the Chiefs

(04:21):
and I said, like the Chiefs winning in the Super
Bowl this year. I'm a fan of chaos. I would
enjoy just sitting back and watching the chaos if that happened.
I like chaos. I like watching people lose their minds.
So the Internet was losing its mind today because during
a TikTok live session, Dejon Anthony, who just finished his
rookie season with the Bengals, said this about the new

(04:44):
Bengals defensive coordinator. Quote, yes, bro, it's gonna shock a
lot of y'all. I'm excited man new journey. And then
he was asked like about, well, okay, did they hire somebody?
And he goes, quote, I think today, earlier today, meaning yesterday.
This TikTok was done yesterday. I mean the first I'm
not a I'm not on TikTok. I TikTok is gonna

(05:05):
be banned. I guess, so I don't have to be
on TikTok.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
So.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
But that's what Dejon Anthony said. So the Internet has
been losing its mind. Who could it be? Who's it
gonna be, Who's gonna break it?

Speaker 2 (05:16):
I haight?

Speaker 1 (05:16):
A buddy of mine text me. In fact, he was
the one that brought this to my attention. I was
making my my daughter and her friend's lunch and I
got a text, who's the new DC? And I'm like,
I don't know. I'm making microwavable mac and cheese right now.
I don't know. And then I caught wind of what
was happening on the internet, and I, you know, called
some folks and I don't think they've hired anybody. Our

(05:37):
friend Kelsey Conway, who was on the show yesterday, tweeted this, uh,
just about an hour and forty five minutes ago. She writes,
the Bengals have not made a decision on their new
defensive coordinator, Persaurce with knowledge of the situation, So maybe
tap the brakes a little bit and we will, you know,
we will see. We'll see if Dejon Anthony is correct.
I don't. I don't what to you mean today? John Anthony,

(06:00):
who I certainly hope has a bright NFL future and
is perhaps most well known for being flagged for past
interference on the fourth and sixteen against Kansas City, and
I hope, and frankly I don't think his rookie season
had to be defined by that, because he went on
to do some nice things this year, but nothing against Dejon.

(06:21):
I don't know that I am going to put a
ton of stock into what Dejon Anthony says. This is
a guy who just finished his rookie season. I don't
know to him what defines shock. I don't know what
he has heard. I don't know if he is interpreting
an interview with a guy getting into I don't know.
Maybe Dejon Anthony knows a lot. I will also guess

(06:45):
the people that he works for aren't exactly nuts with
what he had to say, But you know, it's his prerogative.
I don't know if that I'm putting any shock in
any stock into what Dejon Anthony says. Here's the other
thing that I want to know, legitimately in a day
and age where nothing is shocking anymore, realistically and again,
like realistically, like Bill Belichick is not going to be

(07:08):
the defensive coordinator number one. He has a job, and
if he leaves North Carolina to go coach in the NFL,
it's not going to be to be some team's defensive coordinator.
So like, realistically, who would be shocking, Well, like legitimately,
who would be shocking? I put this on the show
preview video which is up on x now thanks to

(07:30):
Emery Federal Credit Union. You are Credit Union with hert
since nineteen thirty nine, gonna EMORYFCU dot org. And I
asked this in the show preview video and somebody responded,
Rex Ryan, I think that would be surprising. I don't
think that would be shocking. Obviously, once back in the
NFL has interviewed with the Jets for their head coaching job.
But if you're a Rex Ryan, who's renown as a

(07:51):
really good defensive mind, had success as a defensive coordinator
with the Baltimore Ravens, and you want back in, if
you don't get the Jets job, well, then the next
wrong is defensive coordinator. Now, because I think we have
sort of we have focused a lot on younger guys,
although Al Golden's been talked about a lot. Kelsey talked
extensively about him yesterday. By the way, that conversation is

(08:13):
available on the iHeartRadio app. I think because he's not
one of those younger up and coming guys, Rex Ryan
would be surprising. But I don't know that that would
be shocking. I've seen folks joke on the internet about
Marvin Lewis. I think that would be the closest thing
to shocking that we would have, right because it's the

(08:34):
old Bengals head coach. That would be shocking. It would
be shocking because I can't imagine Marvin Lewis would want
to do that. I don't know that Marvin Lewis wants
to be a coordinator. He was helping out Antonio Pierce
with the Raiders and apparently didn't help out enough and
could still be looking for a gig. And I don't
know what Marvin's gonna do next. And Marvin obviously is

(08:55):
a defensive coordinator orchestrated one of the greatest defenses of
all time High But I don't know if I'm Marvin,
do I want to go back to Cincinnati and work
for Zach Taylor. I don't know. Now, Why don't I
think that would be totally shocking because the Bengals have
brought back former coaches before they fired, Well, they Bruce

(09:15):
Coslin quit and then it came back and worked as
a tight ends coach or whatever it was for a year,
and Dick Lebou had multiple stints with the team, Like
there have been coaches who have come back there have
been former head coaches who have come back. I would
be stunned if Marvin Lewis was the that would be stunning,
But I'm not sure how realistic that is. What would
be shocking, what would legitimately be shocking? It is shock

(09:42):
only good? Or is shock bad? And does shock matter?
Like I'm looking for, I have no remote idea who
the defensive coordinator is going to be. We've seen the
names that have been made public that have in with
the Bengals, and you know, when you're talking about coordinators

(10:03):
from the Raiders and Patriots, neither team was very good.
Both teams have bounced their head coaches. Let's be honest.
From a name brand recognition standpoint, from an excitement standpoint,
neither registers. I don't know how much Al Golden does. Again,
Al's worked for the Bengals before, could be brought back
right now, He's busy with Notre Dame. He no longer
addresses like he's the major d at TGI Fridays on

(10:27):
the sideline, but that name has been brought up. I'm
looking for characteristics and traits more than I am name
recognition or or even or even being impressed by which
teams they came from like and this is not something
we're gonna know at the outset. I want to know
one thing, how good are you at developing young players

(10:49):
and having almost instant success with them? Because that was
Lou Anarumo's downfall. What the Bengals are not going to
do is do what set Lou up for success. They're
not going to just throw a bunch of money at
the defense. Now that doesn't mean they're going to sit
out free agency, that doesn't mean they're not going to
prioritize a player from outside. But what they did, the

(11:12):
way they built those defenses that Lou and Rumo had
success with was they threw money at it. They threw
money at Trey Hendrickson and DJ Reader and Shoudobi A
Woozier and Von Bell and it worked. It worked. DJ
Reader when he signed his contract was made the highest
paid nose tackle in NFL history. How many of you

(11:33):
knew who DJ Reader was when that happened. They threw
money at it, and Lou got those players to play
and combined with players that he walked into. He inherited
Sam Hubbard, and he inherited Jesse Bates, and you know,
got a lot out of those players, got a lot
out of players like Logan Wilson Early and Jermaine Pratt,
but the backbone of those defenses, for the most part,

(11:56):
players who came from outside that the Bengals could just
throw a bunch of coin at. And then in later years,
well they had to be a little bit more selective
with who they added from outside. They whiffed in free
agency this past year. Sheldon Rankins did not work out,
Genostone did not work out, but neither have a whole
number of young players. Now, there are some really young
guys on this year's team that look like you can

(12:17):
build around them moving forward. But Miles Murphy has been
a whiff, and Joseph Osaigh has been a whiff, and
Dax Hill has been a whiff, and injuries are a
reason why. But there are a lot of players. Cam
Taylor Britt in the role of number one corner I
thought did a good job bouncing back after he got pinched,
but you know, relative to what they were asking him
to do this year kind of a whiff. The planet
safety has not worked, and so the reason that Lou

(12:41):
was not here anymore is because he didn't get it
done with younger players and guys they drafted. The new
guy is going to be asked to do what Lou couldn't,
so more than anything else, this is the characteristic that
I'm interested in more than schemes, more than hum they
yell and scream, and certainly more than shock value or

(13:03):
name recognition. Can you develop young guys and get almost
instant success with the defense that has a bunch of
young guys contributing and contributing a lot. Our phone numbers
are five point three seven, fifteen thirty. You know we've
resolved were we're kind of past Bengals season, so not

(13:25):
as guest heavy. To talk to more people one of
my new Year's resolutions, and we've lived up to it.
This week. We've heard from a lot of folks. Five
point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty is the number.
Eight sixty six seven two three seven seven six works
as well. You could also send me a tweet on
x at Moeger thanks to a Delta Dental. Delta Dental
is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all good at

(13:46):
Delta Dental ohh dot com. Speaking of oh Ohio State
plays tonight in the Cotton Bowl with a chance to
advance the National Championship game. Dave biddles our Ohio State guy.
Been a while since we had Dave on Bucknuts dot com.
He joins us next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
Cincinnatis after three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Wee

(14:15):
search party out for Dave Middle It's supposed to be
on with this right now. Ohio State and Texas in
the Cotton Bowl. You could hear that game down the
hall on seven hundred wlw.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
While we wait for Dave, we'll talk to some folks
five one thirty. We'll have a couple of poll questions
up here momentarily on x as well at molegar thanks
to United Heartland Insurance. Good at uhis dot com. Chris
in Alexandria, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty, Chris, Good afternoon, MO.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
I am sitting out on my patio and Alexandria with
the heaters on, smoking a Perdomo Champagne ten year anniversary.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (15:00):
I am not smoking anything right now. I'm sitting in
my basement and you're having more fun than I am.

Speaker 4 (15:08):
I gave up on my week.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
I just gave up.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
I punted, Hey, go ahead, all right, Yeah, that's fair.
I think a lot of people did, Hey, I have
a question for you, looking for an honest response. The
people that I trust, like, I listened to a lot
of the Sincy three sixty with Tony in Austin, and

(15:32):
it seems like a lot of people steel like the
line for the Bengals now is trade Hendrickson while he's
at his peak value. Try and get Higgins because you
know what you're getting and you're gonna have him for
a while. Keep the offense intact, and pray to God
we can hire a defensive coordinator that can work with
what we have and bring in some defensive draft picks.

(15:53):
Am I kind of correct there? And that seems to
be the line right now that everybody hopes for or see.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
I don't know if it's the consensus. I don't know
what the consensus is. I think that is an idea
that has been talked about. How seriously they would take
that idea, you know, in the front office, I I
don't know, but I certainly believe you will find people.
I've talked to people who who would advocate for the
exact plan that you just outline being the one they

(16:23):
go with.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
Yeah, And I can see that, and I'm starting to
feel like it's very scary the thought of getting rid
of someone like Hendrickson, right, It's it's nerve wracking to
be like, man, he's such high production. And then and
then the other thing that I worry about is, you know,
can they get the coaching call right? Because what you're
doing there is you're hanging out someone. You're hanging out

(16:47):
the idea that someone's going to come in and be
able to turn this defense around with what with the
young guys that we have. And I think we all
agree we saw some things with the young guys at
the end of the year and they did start to
get some things right. But what we saw in the
first half of the year was it can't be worse
than that, even with Trey. So you know, the question
about it, I worry about that, and I wanted to

(17:09):
get your take on it. What you think. I don't
see a world where they can sign Higgins and Hendrickson. I, frankly,
at the beginning of the year didn't see a world
where they were going to sign Higgins at all. But
now you start to hear all the stuff, and you
see what Burrow's doing and it's like, man, okay, Like
the offense is good. Can they get There's a lot

(17:29):
of moving parts here that it seems like they got
to get right.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
And that makes me really nervous.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
You're taking more calls, so I wanted to be one
of those people, and I appreciate you taking my calls.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
All right, here's what I'm gonna do. I appreciate the
phone call, enjoy the cigar. I am gonna address that
in ten minutes. But I don't want to make our
guest wait any longer because we found them. Dave biddles
with us bucknots dot Com on Ohio State versus Texas.
David has been way too long. How are you.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
I'm doing great, mother, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
I appreciate you doing this. Oh I was saying before
that this game tonight. Ohio State's played great in these
two playoff games, gotten off to a great start on
both sides of the football. Neither game has turned out
to be close. I kind of feel like, look, Ohio
State's a significant favorite, and they should be, but that
we're almost discounting the possibility that Texas could pull off

(18:21):
the upset. You're a little bit more of a realist.
What should concern Buckeye fans about the Longhorns.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Exactly that, Like Nick Saban used to say, drinking that
rat poison is like the biggest concern. In addition to
Texas being very very talented. I mean, coming into the year,
everybody's talking about Georgia, Texas, Oregon, and Ohio State is
the foremost talented teams in whatever order. So Texas is
very talented. Starks, you know, he can game plan and
call plays with the best of them, and you know

(18:50):
Mo can Ohios. They keep that edge just like you said,
Like now they've gone from everybody doubting them, even playing
in their home stadium against Tennessee almost feeling like an underdog,
even favored by seven, and then even in the Rose
Bowl they were barely favored, but they had lost to
Oregon already a lot of people were picking ore Goon
to win the game. They went in with an underdog mentality.
Now they're going to the state of Texas to play

(19:12):
Texas who and now everybody's telling Ohio say how great
they are, So that is a big concern. Can they
keep that level of intensity up and listen man, I
think Ohio State fans should be nervous right now. This
is going to be a tough game. It's not like
Ohio State's favored, not that it's worked out well against Michigan.
It's not like it's favored by three touchdowns. Here, they're

(19:32):
favored by six points like this is. And you look
at ESPN's FPI, for whatever that's worth. They give Texas
a fifty point five percent chance of winning this game
Ohio State forty nine point five, basically a coin flip,
but they give Texas the flight edge. So I expect
a great game tonight, and if Ohios States offensive line
can hold up, I think it's gonna be a good
night for the Buckeyes. But we shall see.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Where do they have an obvious advantage over Texas.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Ohio State's defense is at the right time, and Texas
has given up a lot of sacks this year thirty
three sacks. Now you know they've got a very talented
offensive line. I look at some mock drafts and everybody
as Kelvin Banks Junior in the first round. Some have
him as the number one offensive lineman off the board.
Most have Will Campbell, but even Cameron Williams. He's a
little banged up. I've seen some mock drafts that have
him as a first round pick. So they're talented, but

(20:21):
they've given up a lot of sacks. Now, quin Ewers
mos not. I wouldn't call him a statue, but he's
like statue at jascent, you know, so he so part
of that's on quinn Ewers too, But quinn Ewers can
be ice cold, like that man fourth and thirteen Starks
out there calling a play like he's up like twenty eight,
nothing in the second quarter, like there's nothing going on,

(20:41):
and like your seasons on the line, and like Quinn's like, okay,
cool and then just throws a dime and Golden's a
fantastic receiver. So but yeah, I think that is the
advantage of highest State has done a great job since
the first Oregon game. They quote unquote re engineered their
defense after that. Wherever they've done his work, They've been
one of the best teams in the country getting after
the quarterback since then, culminating with what they did against

(21:04):
Dylan Gabriel and the Rose Bowl getting eight sets against him.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Do Texas have any answer for Jeremiah Smith.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
They've got a really good secondary, like Ohio State's played
two legit good defenses so far in the CFP. But
you know Oregon's defense mo is like, you know, a
lot of smallish guys, like talented, fast, but like a
lot of five ten, five nine guys like Texas has
like NFL dudes, dudes that we would like to see
playing for the Bengals one day. Like they're like a

(21:33):
they're they're good, They're I have a lot of respect
of Texas defense, and they hit I like their corners.
Now here's the thing, though, if you if you do
contain Jeremiah Smith, and you got a mechanic Buca who
in my opinion, would be the best number two receiver
in the country. And if you contain him, then they
have Carneal Tate, who might be the best number three

(21:54):
receiver in the country. I think Carnell Tate's a guy,
a sneaky guy to watch tonight. It's too bad we
can't do prop bets anymore in the state of Ohio.
Do I think Carnell Kate whatever is over receiving yards
would beat tonight. I would be all over that because
I think Texas is going to focus on Jeremiah Smith,
Why wouldn't you? But this is a this is a
very good Texas defense overall and a very good secondary.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
So so obviously, especially the Tennessee game went down against
the backdrop of all the criticism that Ryan Day got
for the way the Michigan game played out for his
overall record against Michigan. Much of that criticism very fair,
some of it, at least from where I sit over
the top. He's won two playoff games, Like is he good? Now?

(22:36):
Does he have to finish this after they have to
win the next two? And if they do, does the
conversation turn to yeah, that's cool, neat trophy beat Michigan?
Like realistically, where does this go?

Speaker 2 (22:48):
It's crazy because like, yeah, right now, I love that?
Is he good? Like right now, Ohio san fans and
be like, yeah, he's good, but he better win tonight,
Like get on our message board tomorrow. If they lose tonight,
that would that will not be a good day for
Ryan Day. But but yeah, man, I mean, it's so crazy.
He could lose four straight times to Michigan and then

(23:09):
win the National Championship and then he's a legend for life.
It's just so hard to win a national championship. Ohio
State in my lifetime has won two. They've been close
a lot. They won in two thousand and two, they've
won in twenty fourteen, and before two thousand and two,
before our time, I mean, they had gone thirty four
years without winning a national championship. Nineteen sixty eight was
their last real national championship. They claim nineteen seventy. That's

(23:31):
not a real national title. It's so super hard to
win a national title. They win this this year, and
I do think they will. Ryan Day no matter the
fact that he's well, I shouldn't say he's owing for again.
He did beat Michigan his first year in twenty nineteen,
so he's won in four against Michigan. But if he's
able to win a national championship, man, he'll be a
legend in Columbus forever.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
All right. Well, because you and I both heard people
who were like, ah, they win the national title, it
doesn't count. I think those people have probably changed their
tune and will if they pull this off a week
from Monday. But it's been interesting because I watched the
Tennessee game and I heard all the stuff you did,
and that looked like a team. They were better than
the volunteers, man for man, but I that looked like

(24:14):
a team that was that rallied around its coach, that
was really really into playing for their coach. And that again,
the Ryan Day got a lot of fair criticism in
the aftermath of the Michigan game, but I that's that's
what stood out to me more than anything after watching
the Buckeyes play the volunteers.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
It's a great point. They do they really love him,
the players do. They talk about that openly. But you know,
as Marvin Lewis used to say, I see better than
I hear, and I see and I hear it like
I see it and I hear it, Like these players
really do love Ryan Day. And yeah, if they can
keep that ad again that to repeat myself, but they
just they just the mental side of sports is so important,

(24:54):
and they just came in like, you know, we don't
care about anything. We're gonna play with our pants on fire.
We're gonna be a rest that, we're gonna be angry,
We're gonna do what we do. If they can keep
that attitude tonight, I think it's gonna be a good
night for Ohio State fans. But like that's hard to do.
It's easy to say, well, you wouldn't be human if
you wouldn't be fired up for the college football playoffs,
semi finals, chance to go to the national championship game.

(25:15):
I get that. But now you've had what nine days
everybody telling you how great you are. So I don't know, man,
I think this is jeez, it's just uh. I think
I think Ohio State's gonna win, but I think this
is gonna be a tough game.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
I'm looking forward to it. Love having you on. I
know you're busy. I appreciate the time.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
I appreciate you move. Thanks, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
You got it, you got it. That's it's our guy,
Dave Biddlebucknuts dot Com. Ohio State and Texas in the
Cotton Bowl tonight. Winter takes on Notre Dame a week
from Monday. All Right, I gotta answer Chris's question about
Trey Hendricks, and I will. I'm sure he and the
rest of the Try State waiting patiently to hear what
I have to say. But first, a break on ESPN

(25:59):
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Stage. Headlines are a service of
Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of Lifetime Powertrain Protection and guarantee credit
approval from their family to Yours for life, kelseyshev dot Com.
Jamar Chase and Trey Hendrickson named first team Associated Press
All Pros. Joe Burrow third in the voting at quarterback.

(26:19):
Correct me if I'm wrong. They only do first and
second team. There is no third team All Pro. It's
not like the Pro Bowl whe there's twelve alternates. But anyway,
congratulations to Jamar and Trey. First time since twenty fifteen,
I believe the Bengals have had first team All pros
and they have two college football tonight at Ohio State
and Texas and the Cotton Bowl. You can hear alive
on seven hundred WLW Buckeyes or Longhorns. Looking for Buckeyes

(26:42):
and Longhorns, both looking to advance to championship game a
week from Monday against Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
NFL playoffs start tomorrow, Chargers Texans first game late afternoon,
and then it's the Steelers and Ravens at night. Three
games on Sunday, Denver, Buffalo, Green Bay, Philly, and what
I think is going to be the most interesting game

(27:03):
of the weekend Washington and Tampa Bay on Sunday night.
On Monday night, it's the Vikings and Rams. That game
has been moved to Arizona in the wake of the
devastation and the wildfires in the LA area. College basketball, Tomorrow,
Cincinnati is hosting Kansas at two. That's on seven hundred WLW.
Xavier battles to Paul in Chicago at four. That game

(27:25):
is on fifty five KRC. Also tomorrow night, it's the
Kentucky Wildcats taking on Mississippi State. You can hear that
on ESPN fifteen thirty NKU has a home game against
Greg Campy's Oakland Grizzlies. That game is going to be
on Fox Sports thirteen to sixty, tip off at six pm.
Also tomorrow, Miami battles Western Michigan. Indiana takes on Iowa,

(27:48):
and Louisville battles. Pit Cyclones are off tonight. They're on
the road each of the next two days at Atlanta
nineteen away from four o'clock. So was it? Chris from
Alexandria about ten fifth minutes ago asked about Trey Hendrickson.
I don't know if this is the consensus, but you
will find a lot of folks who would say okay

(28:09):
with the Bengals could do this offseason understanding this about
Trey Hendrickson. Last year, Trey asked for a contract extension
and the Bengals didn't give it to him. And again,
I don't think either side was wrong. Like, Trey was
awesome in twenty twenty three, tried to take his great
year in parlay that into a better financial situation for him,
And I don't blame the Bengals for what they did.

(28:30):
They looked at a guy who was going to turn
thirty in the upcoming season and they said, dude, you've
got two more years left on your deal. There's a
lot that can happen. So they didn't trade him. He
ends up playing this year and he was awesome. Could
be the defensive player of the year like he's in
the running. He was that good, led the league in sacks.
And so if a year ago you asked for a
better financial situation and you've since had a better season

(28:53):
and now there's one fewer year left on your contract,
it stands the reason that the likely outcome would be
that Trey comes back to the Bengals and says, I
want to get a deal done. I want an extension.
I want more money now. Well, the Bengals look at
it differently because Trey has one year left on his
deal versus two. Maybe here's what it comes down to

(29:16):
for me. We've kind of made it t or Trey.
T is not under contract next year. Trey is. Trey
is due to play for the Bengals at a cap
hit of I think just a little bit more than
I think eighteen and a half million dollars. It's like
eighteen six. Trey Hendrickson is under contract to play for

(29:36):
the Bengals in twenty twenty five. T Higgins is not.
So you could obviously get a deal done with t
It's a long term deal. Trey and t are on
the same team next year, and Trey walks in free
agency at the end of twenty twenty five. You could
do a long term deal with Trey, a long term

(29:57):
deal with t a long term deal with Jim. Mathematically,
could you do that? Sure? Does it become then a
little bit more difficult to address other areas on the
roster with money, Yeah, it does. Sure. Here's what it
comes down to for me this offseason, are you better

(30:18):
off rebuilding your defense and fixing your offensive? Line with
the draft capital you have and having Trey Hendrickson on
your team, or doing those things, adding draft capital and
subtracting a player who might never be as good as

(30:40):
he was this past offseason. I will admit to you,
I could go either way on this. Trey Hendrickson was
on a bad defense last year. He was there one
consistently good player might be viewed as the best defensive
player in football with hardware in a few weeks. I
don't think he's gonna win it, but he could. You're

(31:02):
gonna take away your one good defensive player like That's
a good and fair way of looking at it. At
the same time, this defense needs an overhaul. They have
a lot to do that. They have a good corps,
they have Joe Burrow, they have Chase Brown that they
have some a pair of good offensive tackles, some younger

(31:24):
players on defense who look like they are building blocks,
maybe not cornerstones, but building blocks. But they have a
lot of work to do this offseason. They're gonna make
the offensive line better. They could use more depth at
running back. They might be replacing t Higgins, should be
replacing Jermaine Burton. Maybe at some point there's a tight

(31:46):
end they could add via the draft, and so they
don't have to you know, the constant turn of these
one year proven contracts. Oh and by the way, they
need help on the interior of the defensive line. They
need help on the exterior of the defensive line. They
need help it linebacker, they need help at corner, they
need help and safety, they need help everywhere. Well, you

(32:07):
have a better chance of addressing more areas if you
have more picks. How can you get more picks trade
away established players? Well, who would get anything in return
more than Trey Hendrickson Probably nobody, So I could understand
that approach too. I don't know right now that I
feel like there's a right or wrong way to do it.

(32:31):
Like if Trey Hendrickson's a Bengal in twenty twenty five, awesome,
But what he's looking for is beyond twenty twenty five.
Are you okay not giving it to him? Because like
Tray was great this year, he was great last season,
He's probably gonna be at worst very good in twenty
twenty five when he's thirty two. With his year, he

(32:52):
turns thirty two during twenty twenty six that season, how
good is he gonna be Is he gonna be as
good in twenty twenty six as he was in twenty
twenty four? Probably not. So do you really, for a
team that has often balked in recent years at giving
a guy a contract past the age of thirty thirty one?

(33:12):
Are you really looking to pay him top dollar for
his age thirty two season that's twenty twenty six. If
the answer is yes, then you're signing Trey Hendrickson. If
the answer is no, are you okay letting him walk
at the end of the season, hitting free agency, playing

(33:34):
it out and between now and then? Can you win
a title? Same conversation we had last year with T Higgins?

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Right?

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Can you win a title? If the answer is no,
then you work on a trade. If the answer is yes, okay,
then how are you gonna make the answer yes with

(34:03):
the resources you have this offseason? I hope I'm making
this make sense, Like I don't. There are certain things
where I feel like, hands down, this is the best approach.
I thought the best approach last season with T Higgins
was don't trade him and try to win a title
with him in twenty twenty four. Obviously, in twenty twenty four,
it didn't work out this one. Trey Hendrick. Trey Hendrickson

(34:27):
is on your team next year, that's awesome. Can you
win a Super Bowl with Trey Hendrickson on your team
next season at not the draft capital that he would
bring back in a trade. Can you really fix all
the areas you need to fix without acquiring more draft capital?

(34:52):
Like these are the things they have to weigh. I
don't think it's clear cut. I don't know if Chris
was looking for something clear cut with me banging on
the table saying there's no way you can trade Tree Hendrickson.
I think there is a way you could trade him.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
That.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
The argument would be he just had a great year
at the age of thirty. We don't think he's ever
gonna be as good as he was. This is the
quintessential sell high stock and we're gonna get a lot
in return. That makes sense. It also makes sense to say, yeah,
we have ten other positions we have to fix this.

(35:25):
Dude's fine. We we we didn't have a pass rush
even with Trey Hendrickson on a consistent basis this year,
So whatever we do, we're gonna build our defense around
this guy. Like that's that's that's right too, right, Like
that's that's right too. And and you know what, what

(35:48):
makes this maybe a little bit easier is if T
Higgins walks. And that's another part of this as well,
Like we make it in black and white terms. When
it comes to Tea, sign them, don't sign him. Well,
T might want to be a Bengal, but does T
also want to see what else is out there? I would.

(36:08):
I'd love to stay and catch passes from Joe Burrow,
but I've worked really hard to get to free agency.
I've earned the right. There is a part of me going,
you know what, am I sure I can't get high
end wide receivers somewhere? Like that's also a part of this.
We make it cut and dry. Sign Tea. Tea has

(36:31):
said all the right things. There's every reason to want
him back on the team. Are we sure he isn't
interested in at least seeing what else is out there?
And now that he has got the ability to do
so that he didn't have last year and didn't have
the year before. If they are resigning him financially, what
does that look like? What is Jamar signing for? Is

(36:53):
Joe Indeed, as many have speculated, going to offer to
restructure his deal, which would be nice, but he certainly
shouldn't feel an obligation to do so. Like there are
there are still so there are still more questions than
answers even with that, and then you add the Tray
thing to it. But do I think that you can
have a team in twenty twenty five that has t Higgins,

(37:14):
Jamar Chase, Joe Burrow and Trey Hendrickson. Yeah, the question
is about twenty twenty six. And the question with Trey
is about, all right, he's thirty now, he'll be thirty
one by the end of next season. Do we have
this sort of team that we can win with Trey
on next season? If the you feel like the answer
is yes, and you can get this roster fixed without

(37:35):
draft capital, go ahead and keep Trey Hendrickson, signed t
Higgins and let Trey walk. If the answer is no,
then maybe it's time to Maybe it's time to move
on from Trey and see what you can get in return.
And I know a lot of people also like they
look at t who's twenty five and Trey who's thirty,

(37:55):
and it's a no brainer. By the way, it's not
like Joe Burrow is banged on the table and said
we got to get a deal done for t Hendrickson.
That hasn't happened. And again he's got it. He's under
contract for next season. But it's It's why I started
talking about it with with Tony Pike and with with
Paul Dayner Junior two weeks ago, because I think this
is among all the different interesting things the Bengals have

(38:16):
to deal with this offseason, this to me is most
interesting because again, like Duke Tobin, has a lot of
work to do this offseason, and if I was Duke Tobin,
I'm going, all right, how what's the best way that
I can get more picks and maybe clear up some money.
Trading Trey Hendrickson clears up eighteen million dollars. He could

(38:37):
also get you picks back at the same time, I've
already got a hell of a rebuilding effort in front
of me. I have one really good defensive player. Now
he's not on the team if I trade him, but
it maybe makes it more feasible to keep Tea or
if I let te go. All Right, I'm walking into

(38:57):
Trey maybe for another year. But now I've got to
fill t spot and I've got less draft capital to do, so,
then I would have if I traded Trey. I don't
know if the right analogy is whack a mole, but
that's what's interesting about this, Chris. I don't know if
I gave you an answer. I'm just sort of I'm

(39:19):
trying to run through all the different things you would
have to think about if you were Duke Tobin and
the Bengals, and I don't feel strongly one way. I
feel strongly this. I would love if t Higgins is
a Bengal next year. I would love if Trey Hendrickson's
a Bengal next year. But they have work to do
beyond those two players. Can they get that work done
without adding draft capital? Trey Hendrickson is a guy that

(39:42):
you could use to get draft capital, but then you
got to replace him. It's a fascinating discussion, and we
have months to engage in it with It's seven away
from four o'clock. Let's get to the Reds next. I'm owegger.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
Order for Jennifer.

Speaker 6 (40:04):
CPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yes, Hi, good afternoon. It's three minutes after four minutes
after four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty on my ledger,
thank you for listening today. I have not been outside.
I don't have a window near me. I have no
idea what's happening on the Tri State roads. I follow

(40:29):
a lot of meteorologists on social media, and they've all
gone out of their way to tell it it's coming.
But it's it's not. It's not gonna be as bad
as it was on Monday, but it's it's also not
gonna be or Sunday. I guess Sunday and Monday, but
it's also it's it's gonna be treacherous out there on
the roadways. If it is, hopefully you're being careful. And
if it's not, hopefully you're being careful. And hopefully your

(40:52):
weekend is off to an awesome start. Two poll questions
up on X that we'll get to here in a bit.
We have to put the spotlight on one area basketball player.
And remember what we all said late July of twenty
twenty three about twenty twenty five. I do, and we'll
see if we're still saying that thing.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
I'm doing a good job today of saying things that
don't make sense before we do that, though, we have
folks waiting patiently. Patrick, thanks for your patients. You're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon.

Speaker 7 (41:27):
Hey mo, how are you doing?

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Man?

Speaker 1 (41:30):
Man, I'm doing wonderful. How about yourself?

Speaker 7 (41:33):
I'm doing okay.

Speaker 8 (41:34):
I can give you an update from.

Speaker 7 (41:35):
Where I am on col Raine. This snow is coming
down a little bit, but it's kind of it's kind
of weak out there, man. I've been off of work
three days out of five, and I haven't been off
this many days since high school and that's been like
twenty years ago, if not longer. So kind of weak
to me.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
But anyway, my daughter is sat in school two days
this week. We are I think we we getting dumber.
I think we have noticed because he had Christmas break
which was two weeks, and then she was off Monday
and Tuesday and then no school today, Like we can,
we are watching her in real time get dumber.

Speaker 7 (42:13):
Well, I mean, my buddy, he has a few kids,
and I don't know that they've gone back to school
since school started back up. I don't know for sure,
but it's it's nuts out there, and I'm sure parents
are ready for kids to start going back and getting
a little smarter. So yes, yes, on that note, I'm
just wanting to bring up something that maybe people might

(42:34):
have touched on. I haven't heard a lot of it.
I really like Wes Miller. I like the passion he brings.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
I like what he tries to still in the players.

Speaker 7 (42:45):
I just wouldn't make the point of kids for argument's sake.
If he doesn't make the tournament this year with the
team he's got, in the town he's got, do you
really have to start looking at John Cunningham Because I've
been looking.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
At this for the last year or so.

Speaker 7 (43:01):
I thought since the moment Luke Fickle left and they
hired Scott Saddlefield and it was a scared hire, that
it was just a desperate hire. And you know, he
hired John Brandon and he cut fait with him.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Mike Bone, hang on really quick, Mike Bone hired John Brandon.

Speaker 7 (43:21):
Fitty Okay, all right, I was okay, I'm sorry, I'm
wrong on that. I'm usually wrong on one out of
three or four things I bring off that, But I
but I just you gots, I think he's got to
start kind of looking at him if this doesn't work out.
I because you know Scott Scott Saddlefield, you know, barring

(43:43):
him invoking his inner Luke Fickle, Brian Kelly or Marcus Freeman.
Now I don't see them doing much better. And I
really wanted to work out for Wes Miller. I like him,
I like him a lot, but I just don't know
where to go. And I think you got to start
looking at the higher ups if this doesn't pan out
this year.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Look, athletic directors are judged more than anything else by
their hires at the two most high profile sports. So
John Cunningham hired Scott Saderfield. He is going to be
given year three to turn things around, and I hope
he does. But right now you have a football coach
who is first of all, not very popular, and secondly

(44:25):
that I think most are skeptical that he is going
to get this thing turned around to the point that
it should be turned around at which is then competing
to make the playoff. And so all right, there's one
and then the men's basketball coach. Now, Wes Miller still
has counting the Big Twelve Tournament eighteen games to get
this season back on track. I'm hopeful that he does.

(44:47):
I still believe that there is a pathway to the
NCAA tournament, though I have not loved how they have
played over the last couple of weeks. But let's say
that Wes does fall short of the NCAA Tournament. I
don't think Wes is going to his job, but you
will have a basketball coach, a men's basketball coach whose
popularity will have sagged significantly just in the last year.

(45:10):
John Cunningham hired him too. That's not a good place
to be if you're an athletic director. And let's just
say that that you see football this season, they they
perform poorly enough to justify firing Scott Saderfield. They're gonna
have to pay a hefty buy out, right all right,
So we have to buy out and pay to go
away the coach that you hired. How many more chances

(45:32):
are you gonna get to hire a football coach. We
can apply the same thing to basketball. If if you
wanted to fire Wes Miller at the end of the season.
I believe the buy out if you fired him before
March thirty first, would be thirteen million dollars. Okay, well,
we have to pay him to go away. That's the
coach you hired, how many more basketball coaches should you
be allowed to hire? So yeah, I think until at

(45:55):
least one of the programs gets to the point where
number one the coach has a high approval rating and
number two the team is performing as everybody hopes. Until
that happens, you're being completely reasonable if you talk about
the person who is ultimately in charge of hiring coaches
that you see, Yeah, I.

Speaker 7 (46:13):
Just it almost. I mean we're early three years removed
from when they went to the playoff and you know,
kind of tying into the bang. It was only a
few years removed from them making the AFC Championship game,
and it's like it just feels kind of hollow. I mean,
there's I mean, you see it by no, by no
means already at laughing stock.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
But it's just I.

Speaker 7 (46:33):
Can't remember a time that they've fallen out. Well I say,
I can't remember a time that they've fallen But after
Brian Kelly left in a few years down the road,
they went to Tommy Tuberville. I guess I stand corrected.
But that's what it feels like, is that as much
as Scott Sudderfield is, he seems like a nice guy.

Speaker 8 (46:50):
He feels like.

Speaker 7 (46:50):
He's Tommy Tubberville two point zero, and that's what we
were trying to avoid. I can't hear any I can't
hear any more press conferences with a G.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Dolly af Shuck's mentality were just about their.

Speaker 7 (47:02):
Kind of thing going on, and they got it.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah. I mean, if you look at if you look
at the last you know, essentially thirty three thirty four
years at U. See uh, I don't think there have
been many stretches where the football program and the men's
basketball program were quote down right, like you know, when
Brian Kelly had UC and consecutive BCS title games, McK

(47:25):
cronin was still trying to rebuild UC basketball. Uh, and
ultimately he got that done. But football was carrying the
thing right for folks were excited about football. And then
you know when Tommy Tumberville came here. And yes, Scott
Saderfield actually shows up to work and is in his
office for more than an hour a day, so he's
better than Tommy Tumberville in that regard. But when Tommy
Tumberville was here and the football program created and Luke

(47:47):
Fickle had to get it rebuilt, well, mc cronin had
the basketball program clicking out. I think what's frustrating about
this is and I'm not sure that I'm willing to
say the basketball program is down. I again, we said
at the beginning of year they're gonna make the NCAA tournament.
I still think that that can happen. But relatively speaking,
there's always been a football coach or a men's basketball

(48:08):
men's basketball coach that had a good approval rating, at
least one. Right now, it's it's hard to say that
either has a very good approval rating. And when that's
the case, the arrow gets pointed straight at the athletic director.
And until that changes, there are gonna be a lot
of folks like you wondering if UC has the right
guy when it comes to hiring and firing the two

(48:29):
most high profile coaches.

Speaker 7 (48:32):
Yeah, and that's really all I had to say, and
I guess I'll end it with I mean, I really
wanted to work out for west Miller, but so far
I find myself missing Nick Krohn. And as you know,
time goes by because he I mean, I never thought
this should have got rid of him, and I know
he was not polarizing in the city. I know a lot.
He had a pretty good approval rating, but I know

(48:52):
he was still battling with the ghost of Bob Huggins
around here. But he's a heck of a coach and
I just hope it works out for Westerno. But anyway,
I'll let you get back to him.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
Man.

Speaker 7 (49:03):
I appreciate you taking my call.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
I appreciate you chiming in. Look, I hope that by
this time tomorrow, which is about when the UC Kansas
game will have ended, that the conversation has shifted. You know. Look,
I guess there's two things about that Number one. You know,
with Mick Cronin, who certainly had his detractors, and you know,

(49:31):
let's be honest, the lack of postseason success was frustrating.
It just was for all the success that mcatti made
the Sweet sixteen one time, and you know, things really
kind of cratered with that lost in Nevada, which I've
tried to forget in twenty eighteen. But there was at
least this baseline level of Number one. Here's what his

(49:55):
here's what his teams look like, Here's how they're going
to play, here's the programs I identity and number two.
Every year you thought worst case, Cincinnati is going to
pop up on the screen on Selection Sunday, And for
the most part, I think it always did. From eleven
through twenty nineteen, it did every single year, and you
woke up on Selection Sunday knowing you see was going

(50:16):
to be in the tournament. It's a really good place
to start again. I mean, did were there times where
you wanted to see a more aesthetically pleasing brand of
basketball being played? Yes? Or were there times where you wondered, like,
why can't they offensively just be better? I thought that
often it was the lack of postseason success frustrating, without

(50:37):
without a question, without a doubt. But I think one
of the frustrating things about you see basketball right now
is it's just it's hard to figure out, like what
what's the programs, what's the program's true identity? And when
is it going to get to a point in a
better league than Mick was coaching in the last what

(50:57):
five six years that you see in the American When
are we going to get to a point where year
after year after year you know there are going to
be a tournament team. And by the way, I think
those concerns exist with Xavier fans right now as well,
despite the fact that Sean Miller has a more established
and longer coaching pedigree. So there's that. There's also the issue,

(51:23):
and I make it about Scott Sadderfield here for a second.
I gave Scott Sadderfield almost a total pass for year
one because, and I know I have said this a bunch,
I don't think it's ever been more difficult in any program.
I don't think it's ever been more difficult to be

(51:45):
a coach in a new place or a new coach
at a school. And I remember late during Saderfield's first season,
looking at all the coaches in their first year at
their respective schools, which it was like twenty. I think
there were two that in that had winning records. Two
one was the guy at Liberty and then there was
another one. Everybody else had a losing record. I don't

(52:06):
think it's ever been more difficult. Players can leave, you've
got to rebuild your roster on the fly like it's
I don't think it's ever been more tough. And with
Scott you add to it the level up in competition
moving to the Big twelve. So I gave him a
total pass for the first season. I do think it's

(52:27):
never been easier. Maybe easier is not the right word,
but there have never been more ways to get things
turned around quickly in years two and three, because of
the portal, because of NIL, because of the way the
players can move around, because we have free agency, and
the Big Twelve being more of an asset than the

(52:48):
American Athletic Conference ever was. Now, you see what was
five and two, seven games into the season, and then
it felt like they went backwards and five and seven,
it was really hard to feel like that was a
successful year. So I think with him specifically, you're wondering, like,
what's success in twenty twenty five. This past year we said,

(53:12):
you gotta go six and six. Six and six isn't
gonna work in twenty twenty five. No one's gonna feel
good about that. I think most of us looked at
it and said, all right, year one, just get things
on solid footing, which is hard after a coaching change.
Year two, six and six, get to a Bowl game.
Year three, Okay, now, now we gotta start talking about

(53:32):
you being a factor in the league race. Oh and
by the way, if you're a factor in the league race,
you're not that far from being talked about as a
possible playoff team. Frankly, right now it feels like we're
all ways away from that. So how long until we're
back there? And how long does Scott Sadderfield get to
get them back there? And then if you decide at

(53:56):
the end of this season like it's time to move on.
It's like we said with Zach Taylor, right, Like Zach,
you only get so many coaching overhauls, coaching staff overhauls.
You only get so many opportunities to you know, change
coordinators and change position coaches before at some point, like
it falls on you. And I think that's coming up
this season with the Bengals. That's where we are, right, Like, Buddy,

(54:17):
Like next year, if we're doing the same thing nine
and eight, Burrow is awesome. Your team's on the outside
looking in, Like, dude, it's gonna be on you if
you have an athletic director who the first coach that
he hired is not a success and you got to
pay him to go away, all right, man? Like how
many coaches do you get to hire? And that question

(54:39):
gets amplified if you look over at men's basketball. And
I'm not trying to slight any of the other programs
Olympic sports or women's basketball or women or volleyball or
anything like that. But the two most high profile, most
profitable sports are men's basketball and football. Right, And so, okay,
you got an unpopular football coach that we might have
to pay to go away. How's basketball doing, Well, there's

(54:59):
a coach here that's growing in unpopularity. We'll put it
that way. And you know, huh uh, if we could
get to a point where if the the nit runs continue,
And again, I don't think Wes is going anywhere at
the end of this year, and I'm not really sure
he should if they missed the postseason or missed the

(55:20):
NCAA tournament. But there is a point where U see's
on the outside looking in the year after year after
year after year, it's like, all right, well now, well
wait a minute, now you get to hire a new
basketball coach and we gotta pay this one to go away,
and we also had to pay your football coach to
go away. Like, dude, at some point, you have to
go away, Like that's just John would be the first
one to tell you that, Hey, John Cunningham is for
the most part of an effective administrator but as an

(55:41):
athletic director, you're you're judged most at least by fans,
people with an emotional investment by the performances of your
football coaches and your basketball coaches men's basketball coaches. Now
with you see this season, you know what was frustrating,
And I said this on Wednesday Show about Tuesday Night.

(56:03):
I thought last year was a success. It had its failures,
it had its moments of heartache and disappointment, But I
thought last year was a success because in year one
of the Big Twelve, I just wanted to see a
team that fit in and then the players who fit
in most. I wanted them to keep and then recruit

(56:23):
better players to join those players, and that happened. They
lost one Big Twelve game last season by more than
ten points. They fit in. They fit in so much
you could say that they should have gone seven into
at home because of games that were there for the
taking but weren't. So what was so frustrating to me,

(56:44):
at least about Tuesday Night was was the first time
that I felt like they were totally outclassed, outmanned and
didn't look like a Big twelve team. And that wasn't
against a great Baylor team either. We weren't supposed to
be seeing that by now. Now, the coming days and weeks,
including tomorrow obviously, will tell us if that was just

(57:07):
as Wes kind of tried to portray it, just a
bad night, you know, dog days on the road and
a series of bad events and just one of those
games that happens, And maybe by the end of the
season that proves to be the case. I think for
a lot of us though it has. It has made
us rethink whether or not we overrated this team at

(57:28):
the beginning of the season. And look, man, the expectation
coming into the year was they would finish in the
top half of the Big Twelve, they would finish with
at least a five hundred record in the league, and
they would end the school's NCAA tournament trout. And this

(57:50):
was the first year where I think we actually talked
about legit expectations for UC basketball. So does a coach
get a shot to rebound from the first season of
legitimate expectations? Yeah, I think he should. But how many
of those years do you get? And again, two months

(58:13):
to go, right, a lot of seventeen regular season games left,
lots of opportunities for good wins. And I do think
there are players on this team that, like a lot
of schools would want, many of them have to play better.
That conversation for me starts with Gisel James. We'll get
to that a little bit later. On five point three
seven four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number. Speaking

(58:36):
of expectations the Reds for twenty twenty five, we'll get
to our pole question one of two on x next
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's ESPN backed myself in the face
with my headphones. Sports headlines. No, it's not sports headlines
time yet. It's Pole question time. I don't know what
time it is. I'm a complete and total disorganized messed

(58:59):
this Friday. Yeah, Pole questions, it's Friday. It's our first thing.
I mentioned. It's our first Friday show since the middle
of August. Our Pole questions come your way thanks to
our friends that United Heartland Insurance. Your place to go
for insurance go to uh in, s dot com. Could
be your car, could be your boat, could be anything
you gotta get insured during the snout your home, UHI

(59:21):
and s dot com. We have we have two pole questions.
Are you ready for them? First? One. We've been talking
about the Bengals hiring a defensive coordinator, or they're trying
to hire a defensive they're interviewing candidates to be their
defensive coordinator. What's the most important characteristic The new Bengals
defensive coordinator must have a ability to develop young players.
B skeep being a schematic genius or c being good

(59:44):
at yelling and screaming. I'm like you and I both
know there are a lot of us who are suckers
for especially on the defensive side, or like an offensive
line coach, suckers for a coach who will do a
lot of yelling and screaming. I'm most interested in somebody's
ability to develop and win with young players. Question number two,

(01:00:06):
what is the expectation not hope expectation. There's a difference, right, Like,
I don't know what your expectations are this weekend. Your
hope might be run into a bar and run into
somebody who looks like Sidney Sweeney and she gives you
her number. That's your hope. Probably shouldn't be your expectation.

(01:00:27):
Expectation for the Reds in twenty twenty five, ninety plus
wins sneak into the playoffs or losing record. This one's
interesting to me because you know, the twenty twenty three
season was a lot of fun, and it was it
was kind of came from nowhere. The previous year was miserable.

(01:00:49):
It re energized the town when it comes to baseball.
Folks went back to the ballpark. There was this almost
endless parade of fun, good high end, high upside young
players like a blast. But we talked often during that
summer about, you know, should they make the team better

(01:01:09):
at the deadline? Is this sustainable? But we also talked about, like,
all right, expectations, expectations this year. Maybe they're a little
ahead of schedule, right, You heard that often they're ahead
of schedule. So what was the schedule? I think most
of us said, Well, twenty twenty three was about kind
of just getting out of the muck. Twenty twenty two
was miserable. One hundred losses where you're gonna go bad team,

(01:01:31):
bad players, just a just awful stew of bad and
suck that was miserable from almost day one. So the
next year was about like, let's just let's just get
out of this morass. Let's start to identify the players
who could be here when they're good. Let's let's let's
get people interested in what they have. Let's get people

(01:01:52):
talking about the Reds. Let's avoid ninety losses, like let's
just let's get out of that. That was twenty twenty,
and then it was all right, twenty four compete, which
they really didn't do. Twenty five contend that I seem
to remember kind of be in the timeline that most

(01:02:15):
of us nodded along and said, like, that's it right
a little bit. I had a schedule in twenty three,
so maybe not have wild expectations for twenty four, which
I did not, and then by twenty five it's like,
all right, this is our team. We're gonna contend means
not meaningful baseball in September. No, contend means like we're

(01:02:36):
trying to compete for championships, Like we're not sneaking into
the postseason. Let's win eighty four games and hope. No,
it's like, let's win ninety two games, let's win ninety
four games, let's get a first round by let's have
a team that can win a championship. I don't think
that's the expectation this season. Now, there might be good

(01:02:57):
reasons for that. You can certainly bring up all of
last year's injury and not just you know, the McLean's
and the cees. But like I keep coming back to this,
a lot of good starting pitching with upside the starting
pitching that was largely wasted last year, but not a
whole lot of guys who have gone through a full
big league season uninterrupted. They're still more unproven than proven.

(01:03:22):
There's still more questions and answers, and so you know,
we're excited for Terry francona great hire, and they've done
some things in the offseason that in a vacuum you
can't dislike. And I think we all acknowledge this, Like
the success of the twenty twenty five Reds. I watched

(01:03:42):
a video with Nick Kirby on Chatterbox who talked about
this extensively. And Nick is a rosy eyed optimist but
loves the Reds and does a really good job breaking
down stuff, and he said, you know something, to the
effect of the success of this team this year is
really going to depend upon players who were here last
year like this, some of those players getting better, some
of those players improving, some of those players being healthier,

(01:04:05):
some of those players maybe being better utilized, some of
those players actually playing, unlike you know, a guy like
Matt McClain who didn't play at all. But it still
does feel like when it comes to true contention, that
there there are ways away and that the hope is
for genuine, true and I'm like, true contention for me

(01:04:29):
isn't like, well, god, you know what, a ball bounces
their way and they get a break or two. You know,
they a couple of years ago eighty four wins, when
I like, I'm like, dude, let's we're gonna win the division.
We could run away with it. We're gonna we're gonna
compete for a bye Like that's the goal is to
be there one day, right, Like the goal is the

(01:04:49):
goal should be for the expectations to be through the roof,
along with hopes. It it feels like the timeframe has
shifted and that we're no longer looking at this year
through that lens. A year and a half ago, if
I would have said twenty twenty five, what's the expectation,
I think everybody would have said, dude, we're ready, We're in.

(01:05:14):
This is the year. We're not going to be hearing
about the future anymore, and it's going to make sense
to really go for it. Let's be honest. This offseason,
it doesn't feel like they've really gone for it, and
it doesn't feel like the expectation is that they truly
truly contend. And let's be honest, this could change based

(01:05:37):
on maybe the rest of the off season and what
they do. It could certainly change based on how they
play early in the season, but it doesn't feel like
we're expecting them to really contend. We're hoping they do,
and I think all of us see ways that they can,
and I think we're for the most part, still really
excited about what some of these individual players can do.

(01:06:03):
But are you expecting this team to win the NL
Central this year? And to me, that's like true contention
starts with that I'm going to win the division. Would
you pick the Reds to win the division because you
expect them to, I honestly don't know many who would
five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty eight sixty

(01:06:26):
six seven oh two three seven seven six. More of
your phone calls are coming up. I want you to
ask yourself a question about the Bengal that we have
talked about this week, the most coming up and sports
headlines on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:06:41):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Brain Protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family to
Yours for Life, Kelsey chev dot Com, Jamar Chase and
Trey Hendrickson first team All Pro Jamar was unanimous congratulations
to both Joe Burrow and third in the voting among quarterbacks.
College football playoffs semi final tonight, the second one in

(01:07:06):
Dallas at Jerry World the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State taking
on Texas. That game at seven thirty on seven hundred
w wel W. The NFL Wildcard Playoffs begin this weekend.
By the way, you know we we don't do Locks
of the Night or Locks of the Weekend anymore on
SINCY three sixty. Well, and we may we're you know,
we're We're still still looking for a sponsor and then

(01:07:30):
we can negotiate my cut, and if so, Locks of
the Night will come back. But I'll tell you this,
I'm looking at FanDuel right now. Buckeyes are laying five
and a half. If it gets to six, I'd feel
comfortable taking the points. I think Ohio State is gonna win.
I also like the over fifty three and a half

(01:07:53):
NFL playoffs this weekend Tomorrow, the Texans always played the
four to thirty game. They've made the playoffs eight times.
They've played the four to thirty game eight times, including
twice against the Bengals, Chargers, and Texans in Houston. I
like LA LA two and a half. I do like
both Joe Mixon props, including well, there's a few Joe

(01:08:14):
Mixon props, but I like his receiving yardage total over
Baltimore and Pittsburgh. In the nightcap Sunday, it's a triple
header Broncos, Bills, Packers, Eagles, Washington and Tampa Bay. I
like the Bucks LA three. And then on Monday night
in Arizona because of the Wildfires, Vikings and Rams. College

(01:08:37):
basketball this weekend, it's a busy slate UC and Kansas.
Speaking of betting, Bearcats are favored in this game. Two pm.
Tip tomorrow, seven hundred WLW Xavier into Paul in suburban Chicago.
That game tips off at four on fifty five krc
NKU home for Oakland at six, Fox Sports thirteen sixty
Kentucky's at Mississippi State at eight thirty on ESPN fifteen.

(01:09:00):
He also tomorrow Miami battles Western Michigan, Indiana takes on Iowa,
Louisville plays pitt and the Cyclones are on the road
tomorrow and Sunday for consecutive games against Atlanta, eighteen away
from five o'clock. I had something else quickly here we
were talking about, you know, UC's sports, and John Cunningham

(01:09:23):
is in a lot of people's crosshairs, and like I
do not in any sport, particularly the two most high
profile ones, I do not discount the difficulty in moving
into the Big twelve. Like I don't. I do think
that with UC basketball last year, the expectations for this
season were largely based on things that happened last year.

(01:09:44):
And with players from last year's team, you know, they
I remember walking out of that arena and teraor hoe
where Indiana State plays, after Indiana State had beaten UC
in the NIT last season, and I thought like, all right,
this year was okay. They didn't make the tournament. It
didn't bother me that much. There are players that if

(01:10:06):
they come back, this team should be playing in the
NCAA tournament next season. And this team should really really,
you know, seriously, not contend for a Big twelve title,
but we should be talking about winning them winning more
games than they lose. And then what happened, like Gisel
James came back, and Simas Lukashis came back, and Dan
Skillings came back, and is Ease Mandego came back, and

(01:10:29):
Dane Thomas came back, and they have brought in some
transfers who have upside. They brought in transfers from high
major programs right like a lot to really really like.
And so that's what they did last season, and what
they did with last season's players created the expectation for
this year. I'm sensitive about picking on any I'm not

(01:10:53):
picking on him, so I'm not that sensitive. But you know,
you know how it works. You talk about one player
and them needing to play better, and people feel like,
you know, singling him out. I think Gisel James has
to be better, you know. And let's be honest. A
year ago, at this time, there were a lot of
us who were clamoring to see him play more than
Dayda Thomas and maybe see him start ahead of dada

(01:11:13):
A Thomas and see both players on the floor together.
There was so much to love about Gisel his freshman
season so much that we couldn't wait to see what
we what we saw from him, We couldn't wait for
year two, right, couldn't wait to see how much better
was he gonna be and how would he be better
surrounded by better teammates? Like what would what would year

(01:11:34):
two look like? It's not been terrible. Statistically, it's not
been what I had hoped it would be. I often
talk about like the second half of year two leap.
I apply this to pros. You know, Joe Burrow. I

(01:11:54):
did that in twenty twenty one. People got mad at
me because it said I was a was being I
was not considering the fact that he had missed so
much time is his first year. But I'm like, the
second half of year two leap, I think is real.
And what do we see from Joe Burrow in the
second half of year two? He was awesome. It was awesome,
And it applies to college basketball players as well. Second
half of year two we're entering that with Gisel James.

(01:12:15):
I'm looking for a leap. This team badly needs it.
Like I think of Gigsel at his best, and I
think of this offense when he's at his best, and
I think of him going downhill and creating havoc for defenses.
We haven't seen that this year. I think of him
creating scoring opportunities. I think of that mid range shot,
which we saw him be so good at last year
and saw him be so good at at the beginning

(01:12:36):
of this season. That pull up jumper. We just you know,
Chad and I talked about this yesterday, and you can
go listen to that interview if you want on the
iHeartRadio app. But I like what's happened with Gisel James.
He's not been bad. I don't believe. I think you
would agree if you're a Bearcat fan. He has been
as good as we thought he was going to be,

(01:12:56):
and I don't think he has been as good as
we believe he can be. The player we believe he
can be has to show up starting tomorrow. There are
other guys, you know, If Simas Lukachis continues to shoot
it as poorly as he has, this team's ceiling, at
least offensively is very very low. And there are other

(01:13:18):
players you'd like to see more from. There are other
players you'd like to count on a little bit more.
But when we talked about this team this offseason. We
focused a lot on players who showed glimpses last season.
No one was talked about more than Jisel James. Let's
start to see the guy we were hoping to see
starting tomorrow. More of your phone calls are coming up

(01:13:41):
five point three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. Uh. I
do want to ask what you think Joe Burrow would
say if we would ask him about Jermaine Burton. That
coming up in the five o'clock hour and more on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Due it is ten
away from five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Mo

(01:14:06):
riger is my name, this is our show. You know,
we should have done some some weeks where we did
like a Friday show, like we practiced a Friday show,
like just so we were ready when the real Friday
show started. We should have done that. Put that on

(01:14:27):
the list for like next December. I'll come in on
Fridays and we'll do practice shows so I know I
how to do a Friday show once we actually have to,
which hopefully we're not gonna have to do Friday shows
until like the middle of February next year. Tabby. That's true,
that's right. If the Bengals could avoid slow, you know,
the Bengals head slow. So you're right. Our Friday show,
one might argue off to a because you know what,

(01:14:50):
Monday through Thursday just awesome. Those shows just nothing to
work on there. It's just Friday. It's a Friday problem.
It's no issue with the abundant lack of talent for
the w No, no, no, it's it's just it's because
it's Friday. Uh, Dobby, You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. What's
going on?

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
All right?

Speaker 7 (01:15:08):
What's going on more?

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
We haven't heard from you in a while.

Speaker 6 (01:15:11):
Where you been, hey man, just been in Atlanta?

Speaker 7 (01:15:15):
Just Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:15:16):
I got my health built from the ground up just
a year ago. So it was a lot of work
put into that, you know, designing it how you wanted,
you know. So that was where I was at, you know,
this past year, you know, and everything, just making sure
that the wife, you know, they say a happy wife,
happy life, you know. So that's what I've been doing.

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
Both.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
Yeah, I want to.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
Know two wives. I understand that that's true. Go ahead.

Speaker 6 (01:15:42):
I just wanted to know, like, how do you feel
about you know, all the coaches did get fired, the
defensive coach, defensive line coach, linebacker coach. Why isn't nobody
talking about Dick Derby. I think that's his name. The
front office. No, why they didn't fire him, you know,
because he hasn't He did a full job in draft.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
And I think, yeah, well, Dick Turban is the United
States Senator, Duke Tobin is here you're referring to.

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
That's why Tom Okay, there we go.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
Dovey is a fair question. I think it's one that
a lot of us have. I think with Duke, there
is this understanding or this belief, or this this resigned
belief that you know what, Duke Tobin is almost like
he's he's not a blood relative, but he he might
as well be. Like he is so deeply embedded into

(01:16:37):
the Bengals that he's he's almost teflon. Whether or not
that's the case, I don't know, but I think a
lot of folks view him that way, so they think
it's almost not worth talking about him. Look, Duke Tobin
has had his successes, right, But I do think if
you look at the composition of the roster, like the
approach and free agency this year, it didn't work. Whatever

(01:16:57):
they saw in Sheldon Rankins it didn't work. Unfortunately, he
was ill for the second half of the season. It
didn't work. Geno Stone played better. Geno Stone was a
prized acquisition this offseason. It didn't work. What they've tried
to do to replace the players that they lost, What
they tried to do to replace Jesse Bates didn't work.
That's on Duke Tobin. What they've done to try to
replace DJ Reader hasn't worked. That's on Duke Tobin. The

(01:17:18):
work they've done in the offensive line, in many respects,
you could argue is Duke Tobin the Jermaine Burton failure.
I don't blame them for taking a chance on him,
but look, you are held accountable in many cases for
the results you achieve in player acquisition and roster development
and player retainment and having a plan to replace players

(01:17:40):
that you lose. And I think you're being very fair
if you viewed Duke Tobin's role in all of that
as the major reason why this team is on the
outside looking in. And I think you're being completely reasonable
if you are skeptical that Duke can get this thing
fixed in one offseason. I think whatever heat you want
to throw his and I think he would be the

(01:18:01):
first to tell you is well.

Speaker 6 (01:18:03):
Deserved because I'm looking at it, like, Okay, Marvin Lewis
was our coach for more than ten years, and now
we've got Joe Burrow his fifth year and we still
don't have an offensive line. That is the problem I
have with dix Man. He still does not have an

(01:18:27):
offensive line. And that's the reason why I said something
is wrong upstairs with him, because you've guessed to have
an offensive line Joe Burrow or we just gonna waste
the greatest talent quarterback we ever had in Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Yeah, they played with fire this year, Like Joe stayed
healthy and was active for seventeen games. If he is
on the run and under duress and hit as often
as he was this year, next year he won't get
through the season. And it's not been because of lack
of effort. Right They used a first round draft choice
on an offensive line and by the way, a Marius

(01:19:02):
Mems I think we like him. They have spent money
in free agency. They acquired one in free agency last offseason,
and Trent Brown didn't work out, Whyle Collins didn't work out.
Ted Carris has worked out. Okay, Alex Kappa, I guess
worked out for a while. But they've never built a
really good offensive line. And that predates Zach Taylor. It
predates not only Frank Pollack, but it predates the offensive

(01:19:24):
line coach before him, Jim Turner. What's the common denominator,
Duke Tobin?

Speaker 6 (01:19:31):
They told because if you look at Denver, you look
at Denver, they got an offensive line. The coach ain't
being there long. You you look at the charges Hombalk,
He's being there long. But the first thing he do,
he get it right. I'm just trying to say, man,
I mean sometimes when people don't get it right, there's

(01:19:52):
something wrong with their eyes. And Dick have a real
football background. Where do he come from? How did he
get that job? Because I would like to see somebody
else in there.

Speaker 7 (01:20:06):
I forget that guy to be.

Speaker 6 (01:20:07):
On NFL network's He used to be an NFL A
zeg but he no talent. And I'm just saying, if
we really want to change the franchise, man, I think
dig gotta go. Hey, thanks for Macomo.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
Okay, Dovey, thanks very much, And it is Duke. But look,
Duke Tobin did a very good job. He was Executive
of the Year I think after the twenty one season.
But what he did in twenty one I think was easy.
It wasn't It was easy relative to what he has
to do now. And this is not at all the
It's not the first time I've brought this up today.

(01:20:43):
What Duke Tobin did to build the Super Bowl team
in twenty twenty one was they stumble into Joe Burrow.
I don't want to say they stumbled into Jamar Chase,
but they got Jamar Chase with a top five pick
and then went to work throwing a bunch of money
at a defense. And it's easier to build a roster

(01:21:06):
when you have almost unlimited amounts of capital to spend.
They still have money, they have cap space, and they're
gonna let some players go and we'll have more cab space.
It is, in many respects more difficult to build a
roster when you have to be a little bit more
judicious about how you spend money. But yeah, look, I

(01:21:30):
mean the roster the Bengals had this year wasn't good enough.
The quarterback was wide receiver was one of the defensive
ends was The roster wasn't good enough, Duke Tobin builds
the roster. The roster they had two years ago wasn't
good enough. Burrow got hurt, and they're probably a playoff
team if he doesn't put the roster top the bottom.
The defense was terrible. Duke Tobin was in charge of

(01:21:54):
the roster of players on the defense. Whatever heat you
want to send his way, he has earned. And I'm look,
Duke's been in the NFL for a long time. He's
been with the Bengals for a quarter century. Like, I'm
not gonna call in a question his bona fides. I
will call in a question the results he has achieved.

(01:22:17):
And in the NFL, you are held accountable, at least
from the public based on the results you achieve. It's
coming up on five o'clock on Moweger. Let's do one
more Bengals thing and then update our poll questions. So
much more coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:22:32):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 9 (01:22:40):
Traffic northbound seventy one to seventy five at Fort Washington Way,
the lept lane blocked from an accident up to about
a twenty minute delay from Kyle's Lane East found two
seventy five. The right two lanes are blocked from an
accident between Springfield and Princeton Pike. On that EAZELK with
traffic from the UC Health Trap.

Speaker 4 (01:22:59):
Hoard joined Dave Lapham and me for every play of
every game on the official home of the Bengals, ESPN
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
Right, it's five oh five is ESPN fifteen thirty. Good
afternoon on Oleger. Thank you for listening. Hopefully your weekend
is off to a great start. Hopefully the roads are okay,
and hopefully the snow melts soon. I did see it's
gonna it's supposed to be above freezing on Sunday, which
then we're gonna have to deal with flooding. I guess

(01:23:27):
I'm over it. I'm over it. Let's see, let's see.
We'll update our poll questions here in just a bit.
By the way, I was just chatting with Dobby and
offensive line play has come up on a couple of
different occasions today. Understanding that offensive line rankings and offensive
line evaluation is I think there's always some subjectivity when

(01:23:53):
it comes to evaluating players. You know, we we we've
talked a lot about Joe Burrow's MVP can and frankly
he doesn't realistically have much of one because his team
didn't win. But we don't just look at the numbers
and give the award to the player who has the
most touchdown passes or you know, the one who you know,

(01:24:14):
put together has the best stats. We apply criteria. Everybody's
criteria is different. There's some subjectivity, but it's I think
a little bit easier to wrap your brain around, you know,
quarterback play versus offensive line play. There we have more information,
we have Pro football Focus, we have different metrics. But
I was just kind of wondering, like, has anybody tried

(01:24:35):
to rank the NFL offensive lines based on their play
in twenty twenty four and the website pro Footballnetwork dot
com which Jane Morrison used to contribute to, which we
have used on this site, which there's if you do
a deep dive on profootballnetwork dot com and you like
football betting, there's there's some good stuff there too. But

(01:24:57):
one of there, they just did this two days ago,
ranked the NFL offensive lines from one to thirty two.
Ben Rolf did this, and they have a metric they
use called ol plus. I'm not gonna get into how
they use their metric, but they that's the metric they use.
I'm not gonna get into what the formula for the
metric is because that would it would bore me, and

(01:25:20):
I'm sure it would bore you. Ranked the Bengals twenty ninth.
Now you might not believe there are twenty eight better
offensive lines. You might believe the Bengals are the worst.
The point is this, every single year, when you look
at those rankings, you know they're not going to be
in the top ten. Whether it's Pro Football Focus, whether

(01:25:40):
it's a website, FTN Fantasy does it during the season
they ranked the offensive lines based on how they played
the previous week. A season ending exercise like this, you
never look at it expecting to see the Bengals in
the top ten. And I just I'm dying for this,
just once. To go into a season feeling like Joe
was gonna play behind a great offensive line. Play behind

(01:26:03):
a great offensive line certainly doesn't guarantee that a quarterback
is never gonna get hurt or play every snap. It
only takes one hit. By the way, you can play
it behind a great offensive line and hurt yourself tackling
a guy after an interception like Andy Dalton did in
twenty fifteen. Like, it doesn't guarantee anything, but you watched.
If you watch seventeen games worth of Joe Burrow this
season and saw him personally excel, you saw him do

(01:26:27):
so while constantly being hit, while being under the run,
while having to you know, do crazy things with his
legs to buy time. Part of what made Joe so
awesome this year was he did what he did without
really ever having a chance to stand in the pocket
and go through progressions and get the ball to one
of his weapons. Just once. I want to see him

(01:26:48):
play behind a great offensive line, not league average, not well,
you know they're okay, no like one of the just
not even one of the best of the best. That's
probably too much to ask for. Top ten an offensive
line once. I want them to have an offensive line
that I can look at metrics like this, I can
look at rankings like this and think, you know what,
maybe they'll be in the top ten. Are they the

(01:27:12):
twenty ninth best offensive line in the NFL? I have
no remote idea. I know they're not one of the
ten best. At some point I'd like for that to
change the way that it changes is you go heavy
on the draft and not ignore other positions, not taking
an offensive lineman in the first round every year. But
when the Bengals were drafting of Marius Mimms, look man,

(01:27:35):
I let the offensive line experts evaluate a Marius Mimms.
But my take was, if you're ever gonna build a
high end offensive line, it's gonna have to happen through
the draft and then you can plug in a guy
from outside if you need.

Speaker 3 (01:27:49):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:27:49):
I want that process to continue this year when we
talk about team needs in the draft, Yes, they got
a whole bunch of defensive issues they gotta fix to
continue the work toward building toward an offensive line. By
the way, they're not totally starting from scratch because they
have Mims and because they have Orlando Brown. And I
think there's a place in the league for Cody Ford
as is starting a starting a guard as well. But

(01:28:14):
just once, just once, one more thing here on the
Bengals and Burrow, and we'll take some phone calls and
we have a good interview coming up at the end
of the hour. We've talked a lot about Jermaine Burton
this week. Jason Williams has a column at Cincinnati dot
Com about how the Bengals goodwill from the Super Bowl

(01:28:34):
run seems long gone now and it's not just a
column about Jermaine Burton, but he is at the center
of the column and you should go and read it.
I have no problem with the Bengals drafting Jermaine Burton, none,
because I do think you know, I don't think it's fair.

(01:28:55):
And Jason makes allusions to the Bengals public image pre
Zach Taylor with so many guys who got in trouble
off the field, and Mike Brown often viewing his role
as owner of the team as being a redeemer. I
think this current version of the Bengals since twenty nineteen

(01:29:18):
has been one of bringing in good dudes, quality guys,
like even in the recent drafts, like you watch like
Amarus Mims and he just he looks like a guy
who gets it. And Chris Jenkins just looks like a
guy who gets it. And Eric All by the way,
that's one of the storylines this offseason. Can Eric All

(01:29:39):
get healthy and help next year? Eric All like just
looks like a guy who gets it. And Chase Brown
just comes off like a guy who who really gets it.
And if you want to go back even further, like
T Higgins, who's a second rounder, like a beloved player.
Just guy gets it. So I think when you have

(01:30:00):
a track record of hey man, we've taken all these
guys who get it, We'll take a shot because the
guy has high end talent. He's a freak athlete, and
let's see if he can do some growing up being
surrounded by guys like T Higgins and like Jamar Chase,
and like some of the guys we have here. Let's
try it and it didn't work out. Now I want

(01:30:22):
to move on one hundred percent. I want to move
on for a few different reasons what we have found
out this week regarding the alleged off field incident and
the nine to one one call. Like I think it'd
be cool to see the Bengals or any NFL team
do more than pay lip service to stuff like domestic violence.
I would, but I had made up my mind about
Jermaine Burton already, Like I just I'm not interested in

(01:30:44):
the workplace and having people who just you know, aren't
mature enough. I don't blame them at all for giving
it a shot. It hasn't worked. Move on, Joe Burrow
publicly is probably not going to say anything bad or
mean about Jermaine Burton. It doesn't do him any good.
But you know, we have framed most Bengals conversations over

(01:31:07):
the last five or six weeks around Joe's stated public
desire for t Higgins to play for the Bengals next season,
like this was a debt issue, this was done, and
then Joe said, I want ta. Ta is in need.
He is a necessity we need Tea. I want ta.
We should get it done. And it's caused all of

(01:31:30):
us to look at this a little bit differently. Ask
yourself this, if you had Joe Burrow alone. First of all,
if you did, I don't know why you would bring
up Jermaine Burton. But if you did have him alone
and wanted Joe's take on Jermaine Burton, what do you
think you'd say. I think he'd say, yeah, I tell

(01:31:51):
you what we need Jermaine Burton. Joe Burrow, who has
shown exasperation over the last season, who has talked often
about like I've got certain standards, think you think he
wants that dude around? My guess is no. So if
we're gonna put stock into what Joe says, because we

(01:32:11):
want them to keep t Higgins, and we we got
to do what Joe wants. And by the way, I'm
here for that. Ask yourself what Joe would say. I've
bet a guy who had four catches last season and
couldn't get to work on time. Five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number if you're

(01:32:34):
a University of Cincinnati athletics fan supporter. The school has
a new volleyball coach who spent the last fourteen years
working at Bowling Green. Terrence on the matter Bowling Green,
and she comes from Bosnia, and she has an awesome accent.
And I had a chance to talk with her yesterday
and we'll have that conversation for you. I think if

(01:32:56):
you like UC sports, you'll enjoy it coming up at
five four you and I between now and then on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, but broadcast from home today.
Are you enjoying the Makers and Coke? Crown, Crown and Coke? Okay,
we do Makers and Coke? Friday, give me switched up
to Crown and Coke. I have before my wife. My

(01:33:19):
wife bought our daughter and some of her friends this
like red and blue. There's separate coloring, and it's flavored,
and you make snow cones. You go and you take
a bowl or a cup and you go outside into
the snow and you look, you clean snow, like freshly
fallen snow, and then it's fun make snow cones with it.
I have informed my wife that tonight is going to

(01:33:41):
be adult snow cone Night. I'm going to do the
exact same thing. And we are forty minutes away from
the start of adult snow Cone Night, and and go
do the same thing, except the coloring is not going
to be red or blue. It'll be brown. It's not
only the yellow snow. There's no when it's not yet. No, oh,
it's fresh. It's like you know, you get it before.

(01:34:02):
It's yellow like it's freshly. You don't want the yellow
snow like it's the freshly fallen stuff. We have, god knows,
just miles and miles of nothing but snow. Uh clear
for the naked eye. Adult snow come night. I've got
went upstairs before and the kids are enjoying snow cones.
That's great.

Speaker 2 (01:34:20):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:34:20):
No red, no blue, it's gonna be brown. Uh what
do we have? Our guy Mike, Mike's on hold. Mike,
You're on ESPN fifteenth Mike, how you doing out there
in l a Man, what's going on?

Speaker 3 (01:34:32):
I'm okay. You caught me off start a little bit.
I'm sorry, right, Are you okay? I'm okay just for
a second here, but be all right.

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
You want us to would you like for us to
put you back on hold so you can catch your breath?

Speaker 2 (01:34:49):
Do you mind that?

Speaker 3 (01:34:50):
It would be awesome?

Speaker 1 (01:34:52):
Sure, we won't carry the entire show to you, Mike. No,
that's all right, don't you get okay? Mike is Mike,
Mike okay, very good? All right. I don't think we
have ever I don't think in the history of us
doing this show we have ever done that. So hopefully
Mike is okay and catch his breath and enlighten us

(01:35:13):
with whatever is on his mind. In the meantime, thanks
for the first time in a while, we'll chat with Jeff. Jeff,
where if you've been. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 10 (01:35:21):
Oh no, I've been out and about, in and out
and all around. Happy New Year too, you I've not
talked to me, talk to you for a while, yeah, exactly.
Croth looks great. All your pictures look great. Seems like
everything's going well.

Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
Everything is going well. And Jeff, we're thirty eight minutes
away from adult snowcone night.

Speaker 2 (01:35:39):
Oh.

Speaker 10 (01:35:40):
I mean those days are long past memo, but I
do vaguely remember them. Definitely, And Mike, we hope you're okay,
and I'll try to keep it brief because we want
to get you back on Definitely. I think I just
saw the OSU line move to plus six. I thought
you said you'd hit that if it moved that way, right.

Speaker 1 (01:35:59):
Yeah, So it's been Uh I've seen five and a
half all day. Six. I think Ohio State is gonna
win the game. That is a big number. I think
I'm I think I'm taking those points.

Speaker 10 (01:36:10):
Yeah, I just think that, you know, you never know
the unknown if if he ever decides to get rid
of yours and put Arch into game, you never know
what's gonna happen with Texas. I think, uh, six is
a lot of points, definitely, and a quick change. When
when you were a harping on U see football and
basketball the last hour, I couldn't help but compare it

(01:36:31):
to my Maryland experience. I think we're both in the
same boat right now. You know, I was in school
with len bias against Michael Jordan and live through all
the Maryland Duke years and all that stuff, and nothing
would make me happier than what I heard today. If
the New York Jets hired Mike Loxley to be their
head coach, that I.

Speaker 1 (01:36:53):
Saw the same thing, Like, that's that can't be what
they do, right Uh.

Speaker 10 (01:36:58):
They would kill two birds with one stone for me, absolutely.
And you know, we we've got Mick coming in tonight
and we are in the exact same boat that you
see is in right now. You know, we had reasonable
expectations nobody's gonna dominate the Big Ten this year, but
we go out to Washington and Oregon and we lose

(01:37:19):
by both games by big numbers to two just terrible
basketball teams. And I hear the tone in your voice,
and I was like, man, I got to call in
number one. I haven't talked to Mo forever, but I'm
in the exact same boat you are right now.

Speaker 1 (01:37:34):
It's it's a frustrating place. It's a frustrating place to be.
You talk about like you talk about what should be
two angry teams. Tonight, Mick Cronin with the way his
team has played this week, and with what Mick has
said about his players, which a lot of people have
been critical of Mick, I mean not so much. Uh,
And then what the Terrapins are going through. I watched
a fair chunk of their game against Oregon and they

(01:37:56):
played okay, right, played all right. But Kevin Willard is
mixed guy. Those are boys. So one team's gonna yeah,
they're they're really.

Speaker 10 (01:38:09):
We have talent. This Queen kid is obviously going to
be a one and done. We do have talent, but
you know, you you can always lean back on the
van excellent Kenyon years, and I have a whole history
to lean back on. And I know it's not sane
to have the right expectations, but still it's just so
frustrating right now that it's it's it's unbelievable. So we'll

(01:38:32):
see how we hold up against U C.

Speaker 2 (01:38:34):
L A.

Speaker 1 (01:38:34):
And uh, well, go ahead and get all right, Jeff,
it's good to hear from you. I will be honest
with you. I root for mixed team. So I hope
the Bruins gonna win, but nonetheless should be interesting till Yeah,
Mick and Kevin Willard are like real time. I think
they were both at the same time on Rick Patino's

(01:38:56):
staff at Louisville. I could be absolutely dead off on that,
but I think they were both assistants at Louisville at
the same time. But yeah, they are. They are tight,
they are close. Uh all right, we got a few
minutes here. We want to try Mike again. Mikey all right, Okay,
you better catch your breath.

Speaker 3 (01:39:14):
Yeah, I caught my breath. Okay, No, I'm okay. I'm
just a little disheveled. I can't find my glasses, but
that's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
Well, that's all right. Take take a breath. You don't
You don't need your glasses to talk on the radio.
And take a breath. There's no rush. Here's what I
want to know. Okay. First of all, you're in Los Angeles.
It looks apocalyptic out there, are you. Okay? You in
a part of the area that's in danger.

Speaker 3 (01:39:42):
Uh no, But these things are flashing up everywhere, so
you really don't know who's gonna get hit. That's what's
scary about.

Speaker 1 (01:39:52):
How far how how far away are you? How far
away are you from the closest wildfire?

Speaker 3 (01:40:01):
About fifteen miles, which isn't that far. See, I'm down
in Orange County. But just things jumping all over because
there were two winners in a row with a lot
of rain and that was great because it helped hove
up the reservoirs and everything. But but now we haven't
had any rain for eight months and so everything it's

(01:40:25):
just an ongoing problem. It's never gonna end.

Speaker 1 (01:40:29):
So fifteen I know, I know that's a huge area.

Speaker 4 (01:40:33):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:40:33):
I don't know as much as I maybe should about
the spread of wildfires. Is fifteen miles that is considered close,
Like are you considered possibly in danger where this thing
could spread to where you are?

Speaker 3 (01:40:49):
No, because if I was, they would have evacuated this clinic.
But it's all it's all about the Santa Ana win see,
and you don't always know when they're going, where they're
going to go when they come up over the mountains
from Nevada, Arizona, you know, Idaho, wherever, and whatever track

(01:41:10):
they take will determine. So fifteen miles with virtually no wind,
the firefighters can can deal with that, they can put
the barriers down. But if the Santa Ana start blowing
up at ninety one hundred miles an hour. That's fifteen miles.
Can eat that up in ten minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:41:31):
Yeah. I saw aerial aerial photos and we all have
it's it's so sad. And I saw an aerial photo
of one particular area of devastation and they held it
up against Manhattan, right, And Manhattan's obviously a huge island,
and this area in Los Angeles that had been just

(01:41:53):
destroyed by fires was larger than Manhattan. And to me,
that's that's kind of when it hit home. You know,
I don't know a lot about Los Angeles. I know
it's a huge, widespread area, but when I saw that,
it's it's it hit home for me, Uh, exactly what's
going on out there, and it's it's it's really been
something to watch from a farm. Well, I'm glad, Mike

(01:42:13):
you're safe. What is on your mind?

Speaker 3 (01:42:16):
Well that leads me to well, I'll get to that
in a little well with the rams in the and
and their put in the vitings. But you're you're you're
more excited about Gavin Lux than I am. And I
know Gavin's a nice guy and everything, but no, he
just never produced the way they thought he was going
to here because he's been hurt a lot off and
on over the years. He gave all the stats the

(01:42:37):
other day. I heard them all, but I'm not so
sure that Jonathan India for a here and now I
wouldn't rather have than than Gavin. Sorry Gavin, but.

Speaker 1 (01:42:49):
John, you know, I don't know that I I don't
know that I would characterize myself as excited. I think
given what they were trying to accomplish, which was to
find a suitable replacement for Jonathan India, I think they did. Okay.
I mean, look, first of all, I get it that
the Dodgers, the defending world champions, viewed Gavin Lux as expendable.

(01:43:12):
So fine, we're taking this is maybe not the most
semantically responsible verbiage, but we're taking the Dodgers trash and
that's our big, at least offensively offseason acquisition. But understanding
what they were trying to do, they essentially turned they
turned Jonathan India into a reliable arm and then, in
an effort to replace a twenty seven year old, they

(01:43:34):
didn't go get a guy who was in the minor
leagues last year. They didn't get a guy who's washed
up and whose best years are way behind him. They
got a guy with a similar profile, who has a
little bit more versatility in the field, who doesn't hit
for nearly as much pop. But I mean, look, in
the second half of the season last year showed some upside.
You saw it up close. Is Gavin Lux. Is his

(01:43:57):
acquisition going to be the reason why the Reds are
dramatically better this year? Probably not, but that's okay. You
need you know, if Gavin Lux is coming off your bench, MIC,
that's okay too, And that to me has been one
of the things this year. I don't know that they
acquired him to have him come off the bench. But
let's say Matt McClain stays healthy, and let's say they

(01:44:18):
maybe are they get more than some of us are
expecting from the guys they have in the outfield, and
maybe Gavin Lux is a guy who ends up being
moved all over the place. That's okay. One of the
reasons why this team's chances were sunk early in the
season is they weren't prepared for injury. They their depth
was tested and they failed that test. And so you know,

(01:44:40):
I mean, they need more big league caliber players. Gavin
Lux is one, and he's at least a suitable replacement
for the guy that they flipped for the sort of
starting pitcher they need. So am I excited? I don't
know I him excited. But do I think it's a
decent move. Yeah, sure, I have no problem with it
at all.

Speaker 8 (01:44:59):
And the thing with Gavin and is he really he's
always positive, He's always got a good attitude. I've always
felt sorry for him because he was just the Dodgers
had such high hopes for this guy and it just
never kind of happened. So but anyway, maybe with the
Reds and the smaller ballpark and you feel less pressure,
and hell, he might hit three hundred. But but anyway,

(01:45:20):
I just wanted to share. I got to share this
with you. I know you've probably got to go. But
when it comes to two things, when it comes to
trading Hendrickson, which you articulated this first that I recall
way before Tony and.

Speaker 3 (01:45:36):
Austin about Hendrickson being the.

Speaker 2 (01:45:39):
Best trade base.

Speaker 8 (01:45:41):
But the thing is, if you've picked up more draft
ticks mode unless they get better at drafting, I don't
even know if that helps.

Speaker 1 (01:45:49):
Well, but if you view it the way that I do,
if you go there's there's luck involved in the draft. Right,
So let's say that each draft choice is a raffle ticket.
You have more chances of winning the raffle the more
tickets you have. So let's say you have I think
the Bengals this year are supposed to have six picks.

(01:46:11):
Let's say they have six picks, and you're hopeful that
in the draft they get three good players. Well, your
odds of getting three good players increase if you have
let's say eight picks instead of six, or seven or
nine picks instead of seven. I hear this argument all
the time, they're not good at drafting anyway. Well, you

(01:46:32):
have a better chance of nailing it into the draft
the more picks you have. So you know, look, man,
I am not banging on the table saying the Bengals
should tray Trey Hendrickson. But if you want to utilize
the draft to make the team better this year, you're
gonna need more picks. How else can you get more
picks beyond moving Trey Hendrickson?

Speaker 3 (01:46:54):
Yeah, I don't think. Well, you know it's better. I'm
sure you've put a lot of loot in it. There's
no other liable player to trade.

Speaker 1 (01:47:02):
There just isn't correct. I mean, I'm I'm I'm sure
if they may Chase Brown available that you know, there'd
be a lot of team we're talking about like realistic
guys to trade. There's just realistically. And again, man, if
Trey Hendrickson's a Bengal next year, awesome, Like nobody wants
to trade him. But if if you're looking at the offseason, going, boy,

(01:47:25):
they need to nail it in the draft, you have
a better chance of nailing it in the draft the
more picks you have. How are you gonna get more
picks You're gonna trade away an established player who's coveted.
Trey Hendrickson is an established player who will be coveted, Zach.

Speaker 3 (01:47:39):
And one last thing though this I'm with you. This
Tampa Washington game is the one that really well. Of course,
the Chargers in the Rams, I'm into that, But this
Tampa Washington game is like an eight to nine pick
in the uh in the in the March madness right
and uh when I started looking into this, and man,

(01:47:59):
this this left tackle does Tristian work. This guy is
the only play and he's still relatively young. He is
the only player in the NFL history that's been on
All Pro at right tackle and now at left tackle.
He had one thousand play He played one thousand snaps
this year, gave up one sack, one pressure, and one hit.

(01:48:25):
That is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (01:48:27):
It's pretty remarkable. And I'll tell you this because you
called me earlier this week and we were talking about
this game. I think this is the most interesting game.
You swayed me to bet on the Bucks because you
talked about Bucky Irvin. So if you watch Philadelphia against Washington,
the Eagles did a number on Washington with explosive runs.
Since Bucky Irving has taken over the bulk of the

(01:48:49):
carries from Rashad White, Tampa Bay has turned into a
reasonably formidable running team. Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans get
all the pub but they're a little bit more balanced
than they were earlier in this season. Washington's run defense
is not good. I like Tampa Bay. I think that's
the most fun game of the weekend and I can't
wait for it. Mike, I got a run. I hope

(01:49:09):
you're okay. Stay safe out there, man, have a good weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:49:14):
You're a total gentleman. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:49:16):
Mom.

Speaker 1 (01:49:18):
Many would dispute that it is twenty five away from six.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station nineteen away
from six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. On my leg
or yesterday, at the University of Cincinnati, a new volleyball
coach was introduced, Daniella Tomach, who spent the last fourteen
years as the volleyball coach at Bowling Green. Terren's on

(01:49:41):
the matter. I had a chance to swing by the
University of Cincinnati, attend the press conference and spend a
few minutes chatting with the new volleyball coach. Here is
that interview on ESPN fifteen thirty. I guess let's start
with this. It's hard to leave a place like Bowling
Green when you've been there for as long as you were.
To have been a really good opportunity to compel you

(01:50:03):
to leave. Why the University of Cincinnati.

Speaker 11 (01:50:07):
You're right, it was a bitterswee decision to leave Balling Green.
That was my home for thirteen years. Just relationships and
had just a team that we built and a culture.

Speaker 12 (01:50:18):
Was tough.

Speaker 11 (01:50:20):
But with that being said, this was an opportunity I
couldn't pass. A few reasons, the culture of this program
and the university just the sense of excellence and growth.
Just if you drive around the campus, you see all
the buildings, and I love to build. I love to
see that process. It gets messy in building process. But

(01:50:45):
I wanted to be a part of I wanted to
build another championship program, and I wanted to make sure
that the leadership right is right. The values of the university,
of the institution, the athletics department aligned with my values,
and the Big twelve conference was appealing. Competing against some

(01:51:07):
of the best programs in the country.

Speaker 12 (01:51:10):
It checked all the boxes. And then the city.

Speaker 11 (01:51:13):
Everybody, everybody I talked to friends when I asked them
about Cincinnati, everybody just said it's an unbelievable city. But professionally,
it was a no brainer for those reasons that I mentioned.

Speaker 1 (01:51:28):
Obviously, you introduce yourself to a lot of people. John
Cunningham met with the media, perhaps most importantly your players.
What are those meetings like both when it's you and
all of them and you and each of them individually.

Speaker 2 (01:51:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:51:41):
Well, the first time I met and was on the
twenty third, when the news was in the press, when
I was announced the next coach. I met first with
my BDSU team team to tell them that I was leaving,
and then met the players on zoom and.

Speaker 12 (01:51:57):
It's nothing like meeting them in person.

Speaker 11 (01:51:59):
And I spent a few days connecting with most of them,
just one on one video calls, just chatting and getting
to know them. As a coach, I need to know
my athletes. I need to know their story. I need
to learn what their again goals, dreams are and help
them on their journey.

Speaker 12 (01:52:17):
And the more I.

Speaker 11 (01:52:19):
Talk to them, the more I knew that I made
the right decision. They're just good, good young women, and
I'm so excited to get to know them better and
help them again on the journey. Get get in the
gym next week and start working on being you know,
getting closing that gap very from where we are now

(01:52:41):
and where we.

Speaker 12 (01:52:42):
Want to be.

Speaker 11 (01:52:43):
But when it comes to the character and the level
of the type of a person that coach Alby and
her staff recruited, I really kuld as to them because
they recruit some good, good young women.

Speaker 1 (01:52:57):
You talk about recruiting or whenever there's a coaching change
in any sports, there's always a little bit of a
pause in recruiting, right because the program is in so
many words, it's in limbo, so kind of take us
through what's next in that regard.

Speaker 11 (01:53:10):
Yeah, well, we we need to fill some positions. I
know we're looking for a middle blocker for this fall,
et cetera. I think we're good with outsides, but once
we get in the gym, I'll again have a better
idea where our gaps are, what our strengths, what our
weaknesses are. Recruiting never stops, so I've been recruiting since

(01:53:33):
day one, but we'll hit the road this weekend. Club
season starts, so it's a never ending story.

Speaker 12 (01:53:44):
I know that to compete again.

Speaker 11 (01:53:46):
For the championshipship in championships in the Big twelve, we
need physicality, we need the athletic season, we need size,
we need skills, we need like everybody that every every
top program is looking for.

Speaker 12 (01:54:00):
But I also I'm not going.

Speaker 11 (01:54:02):
To compromise the type of a person that we are
bringing to to this university, and I believe that we
can recruit both.

Speaker 12 (01:54:10):
I've done that at all of my schools.

Speaker 11 (01:54:12):
I have players who I recruited for mid majors who
could play at power floor level, and that's what we're
going to do here. Finding the right person for the
University of Cincinnati, and for this program and for our
values and who are also really good and volleyball.

Speaker 1 (01:54:28):
This is a part of the country, it's a part
of the state you have recruited before. I know a
lot of volleyball dads who talk about the level of
competitiveness at the high school level and at the club
level here. How good is this area when it comes
to girls and young women's volleyball.

Speaker 12 (01:54:43):
I mean it's really good.

Speaker 11 (01:54:44):
I mean the coaches from every part of the country
are coming to recruit in the Midwest, from Ohio, Indiana,
and Kentucky. It's going to be the key is going
to be again finding making the appealing case why they
want to why they need to.

Speaker 12 (01:55:04):
Choose and should choose Cincinnati.

Speaker 11 (01:55:06):
But when it comes to the amount and the number
of talent here, it's it's very rich. And that was
another piece actually of my decision making, because I knew
I already have established relationships here and it would be
an easier transition than going to completely different parts of
the world where I needed to start from scratch, like

(01:55:26):
I did when I moved.

Speaker 12 (01:55:27):
From Florida to Ohio.

Speaker 11 (01:55:30):
So I'm excited again to just be in high school
gyms and meet more high school coaches. They see those
players every day, you know, in high school, and then
club coaches, and then see them at the tournaments, and.

Speaker 12 (01:55:43):
Yeah, well find you know.

Speaker 11 (01:55:45):
My approach philosophy, I guess in life is a philosophy
of abundance and not scarcity. I think there are plenty
of good players. We just need to find the right
ones for us.

Speaker 1 (01:55:56):
It feels like this sport is really taking off. The
Final Four was on a Thursday night, and I'm out
to dinner and everybody's watching the national championship game is
on national television.

Speaker 12 (01:56:09):
We have household.

Speaker 1 (01:56:10):
Names in women's volleyball in college. It's got to be
really exciting to be a volleyball lifer and be a
part of the sport and seeing what's happening with it.

Speaker 11 (01:56:19):
You're absolutely right. I mean, this is I'm not going
to even call it a renaissance. I don't know what
word I should use, a boom, but we knew that
for us who have been in this sport, we have
seen this coming up. It's just that the rest of
the world. I think TV ESPN has finally caught up.
People want to watch volleyball. I can tell you from

(01:56:40):
the fans. We we developed a big following in Balling Green,
I mean just a big volleyball community and they just
absolutely love the game. And then they get to know
the game and they start to understand the game better,
which we're gonna do that.

Speaker 12 (01:56:53):
We actually will do.

Speaker 11 (01:56:54):
Chalk talks for our fans for we will sell season tickets,
we will tickets volleyball here.

Speaker 1 (01:57:00):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (01:57:01):
We will educate them about a game wev We share
our scout reports like and once you understand the game better,
you even have a bigger appreciation for it.

Speaker 12 (01:57:08):
And now with pro leagues, I mean we have two.

Speaker 11 (01:57:11):
Of our Cincinnati and alumni are playing tomorrow, I believe.
Today in pro leagues in this country and then overseas,
it's just it's unbelievable. The records, attendance records are being
broken every weekend.

Speaker 12 (01:57:25):
And that's what we're gonna do here.

Speaker 11 (01:57:26):
Actually, I'm gonna get the numbers to see attendance numbers
and set a goal to break the record next to
next season. But once people come and experience the game,
and when they get to know the players and they
see the quality of people that we have in the program,
they get hooked. And I'm gonna I'm gonna tell I've
been saying this for thirteen years in Bowling Green, and

(01:57:48):
I'm gonna say it here. If you come and you
don't love it, you don't love seeing our team play,
I'm gonna refund you the tickets. Okay, So that's what
I'm gonna do. Nobody has taken me on that offer.
That's how much I believe in the in the in
the in the program that we're gonna put here. So
come and check it out and then uh bring bring

(01:58:08):
a friend or two and help us again break the records.

Speaker 1 (01:58:12):
Are two more because you've been very generous with your time.
I watched an interview you did. I think I might
have been right after you were hired at Bowling Green
and you talked about as as a teenager, you were
reading coaching manuals. Right, So obviously you've you've had volleyball
in your blood for all of your life, but you
knew at a young age you wanted to be a coach.

Speaker 12 (01:58:32):
I don't know why.

Speaker 11 (01:58:32):
I mean, I just my middle school teacher gave me
a book for volleyball, like a book with it was
Asian inspired, like books uh drills and how to do
things and I remember practicing roles and like reading like
practice designs. And then when I was a teenager, I

(01:58:53):
went to like a training camp for the national team,
and they had a coaching clinic in conjunction with so
when my friends were going on the beach, I actually
went and I listened to the coaching clinic.

Speaker 12 (01:59:05):
I don't know why.

Speaker 11 (01:59:06):
It just I guess when they say somebody's professions are calling,
I feel like I've been just called to do.

Speaker 1 (01:59:13):
This, and.

Speaker 11 (01:59:16):
I'm so grateful. I mean, what a better job than
to do this and impact young people and be a
part of their life journey those crucial years of eighteen
between eighteen and twenty two, I feel like I hit
the jackpot. So why it happened, I don't know. My

(01:59:36):
mom or dad didn't play sports.

Speaker 12 (01:59:38):
They were not.

Speaker 11 (01:59:38):
My mom was a teacher. I think that teaching gene
I got from her. Both of my sisters had teachers,
so maybe that but vulnerable, I don't know. It was
love at first sight. I remember the moment when I
saw vulleyball for the first time and I fell in love.

Speaker 1 (01:59:54):
And I guess it was meant to be so regardless
of what sport you coach at the University Cincinnati. Invariably
you're going to be asked about playing Xavier the athletic
director's or former boss. Have you had a chance or
will you have a chance to talk to Greg about
your new rivalry.

Speaker 11 (02:00:10):
Yeah, great, Christopher. I apologize I forgot to mention his name.
He hired me at BGS who I have a lot
of respect for Greg. We haven't stayed in touch. I
know that he's still Xavier. I you know, when me
play Xavier, what I want to do is I want
to be the Xavier. So I'll, you know, say hello
and chat with him after. But it's a great I

(02:00:35):
think it's a great thing that we have at Riverley.
Those games are fun for the fans and fun for
building the excitement about the game. So I look forward
to playing Xavier. Coach, thanks so much, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:00:49):
There you go, Dan yell at Tomich the new volleyball
coach at the University of Cincinnati. You can spend your
weekend listening to stuff you might have missed on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Everything from our show, Oh everything from since
E three to sixty, Tony Mo Football Show, the season finale,
Chaed Brendel, Rick Boring, Kelsey Conway, Paul Danner Junior, and
a whole host of others. Catch all that on the

(02:01:11):
iHeartRadio app. Thanks to our friends at Long Next Sports Grill.
No better place to watch the NFL playoffs this weekend
than Long Next Sports Grill, Wilder, Hebrin and Richwood. We
are done back at Monday at three zero five. Have
an awesome weekend. Stay safe on the roads. Thanks to
Tarren Bland for producing, and thanks to you for listening

(02:01:32):
to ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (02:01:34):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 9 (02:01:44):
East found two seventy five after Princeton Pike, the right
two lanes are blocked from an accident northbound seventy one.
After Martin Luther King Junior Drive, it's the right lane
blocked from a crash and the center lane blocked from
an accident northbound seventy one. After ridgjab On that he
sell like with traffic, Hey can you

Speaker 6 (02:02:03):
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