12/31/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show w/ Chad Brendel

The Final Show of 2025!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Here we go the Moweger Show, New Year's Eve, not
Moeger Chad Brendle filling in for the day. Glad to
have you guys. Thank you for choosing me. Tarren Bland

(00:43):
on the Ones and twos, Taran and I both satisfied.
Excellent lunch today, first time, first time spot.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Taran. I love when we do a first.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Time spot and it's actually good and it Bones Burgers
in Montgomery, Arren said, I want to burger and fries. Okay, okay,
find the start looking the best burgers and fries around
the studio. Bones Burgers one the day, Beer, cheese and

(01:16):
bacon for Terran phenomenon.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah, combliments to the chef.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
I had the U.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
I had the smoked the smokehouse burger, bacon, grilled jalapenos
and barbecue sauce. Very good parmesan fries. Love giving a
shout outs to to new spots that we try, love
it well. Are we going party mode today, Tarran? Or

(01:45):
are we doing party theme?

Speaker 4 (01:47):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
In like New Year's theme? Party theme? Bumper music?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Today? Do we do?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
We have a theme for today? We're talking about uh
not ship. You see how it see how it comes.
Do you see how it flows? I don't think we
ever got to We didn't. You weren't here Wednesday of
last week Christmas Eve, or you were a different scenario,
so we didn't get to do like Christmas and Hollis

(02:13):
Queen's my all time favorite Christmas song. I have to
work that one in. But it's a delightful New Year's
Eve in Cincinnati's. It's a little gray, a little chilly,
but I'll take this over what we've had the past
couple days. Although if we could go back to, like
the seventy degree weather we had right after Christmas, that

(02:35):
would be great.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah, and just casually drop down. Let's not go from
seventy to twenty. Yeah, that was perturbing.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
You know, you get the you've got to when you've
got the weather app on your phone, it gives you like,
tomorrow it's going to be four degrees warmer than your location.
Tomorrow it's going to be forty one degrees colder in
your location.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
What are we doing? But pretty good?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
You know, if you're going out tonight, stay safe, get
a driver, don't don't get behind the wheel, get a driver,
use an app, do something, no need to drink and
drive on New Year's Eve. But I hope everybody has
a good time, and we will. We'll work as kind
of a pregame as you're you're getting ready, maybe finishing

(03:24):
up with work, getting ready for the New Year's Eve
festivities to bring in twenty twenty six. Let's hope twenty
twenty six is better than twenty twenty five for sports
in Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
It's not been a great year, Darren.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Listening to Lance and Moe and Tony and Austin, there
was not a lot of fun stuff to talk about
in that year and review show hope twenty twenty six
has something better in store for us. We'll get to
the Bengals. Joe Burrow. I don't know if he's done

(04:01):
or not, if he's still talking, We'll have Joe. We'll
hear from Joe Burrow, who is addressing the media down
at pay Corse Stadium right now.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Hear from him. In our number two.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Rick Broering joins us at three forty five to discuss
Xavier and Yukon tonight, Danny Hurley and the boys come
into town. So that's a big one for Xavier, you know,
don't I don't think there's a lot of expectation for
them to win that game. But you got to give

(04:34):
Richard Patino a lot of credit. Like they have been there,
they have taken some lumps and bounce back every time.
That is not the most talented team that Xavier's ever had,
by any stretch of the imagination, But Richard Patino's figuring
things out, and I think, you know the metrics, they're

(04:56):
probably not in position to where they're going to play
for an that large bid in the NCAA tournament. But
if you look at where expectations were, and you look
at you know you had one of your best players,
maybe you're the player that you paid the most has
not played this year in Pizzato, the way he has

(05:17):
navigated that team through the first through the non conference
and into the start of Big East play. Even you
get blown out by Creighton, the doubt starts to creep in.
And then you go on the road and you beat Georgetown,
and it'll be interesting to see how they how they
stack up tonight against a really, really good Yukon team.

(05:41):
But even if that doesn't go well, I think if
you're a Xavier fan, I think you look at it
and you say you know what, I'm pretty confident that
Richard Patino is going to figure out a way to
navigate through this conference schedule, because, for being honest, it's
not a very good Big East this year. It's a
Big East that is solid, but outside of really uh Yukon,

(06:09):
Saint John's, Creighton, I guess is starting to get things together.
But overall, I mean there's not a lot of thump
in that Big East is a good way to put it.

(06:29):
Yukon at seven, and Ken Palm, Saint John's at nineteen,
Villanova at twenty five, and then it drops all the
way down to the forties with Creighton with Seaton Hall
who's having a bit of a surprise, and then then
Butler Providence at seventy five, Xavier at ninety nine.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
You know, there's.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
There's a long way to go to the top half
of the standings for Xavier, but I mean, most of
these games you should feel like, if you're a Xavier fan,
you have a shot. And I think that's a testament
to the job that Richard Bettino is doing coaching that team.
So that that's at five o'clock tonight, Taran, we get

(07:14):
We'll get some in game updates from the Musketeers and
the Huskies. You know, we probably could have had Danting
from stores on. I didn't want to ask him if
he was going to come on like two hours.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
Before tip off. Seems like a little much. Seems like
a little much.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
But h yeah, we'll get to some Bengals stuff as well,
including Look, you ere at this point. You're not in
a position where now you're in play for a for
a really high level draft pick. You're gonna be drafting
in that nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, you know, depending

(08:01):
on how some of the other stuff plays out this weekend,
but you've kind of fallen out of that mix for
an elite top five, top seven draft pick. Go out
and win, Go out and feel like you got this
thing back on track. Down the stretch, feel like, okay,

(08:24):
the defense, it's still not great by nobody's confusing them
for one of the better defenses in the NFL. But
guys started to emerge down the stretch of the season.
DJ Turners had a great year. Miles Murphy has picked
up his play, Dax Hill has picked up his play.

(08:45):
And when you're talking defense, the most important positions are
edge rusher and corner Those are the guys that get
paid the most. Those are the guys that you rely on,
that that your team counts on with regularity, And all

(09:06):
of a sudden, it looks like the Bengals have a
little hope for the future at edge rusher and at
both cornerback spots. And that's one of the good things
you can take from what has happened over the past
couple weeks. It's okay to be frustrated that that they

(09:29):
didn't get the job done this season, that they're for
the third year in a row, they're on the outside
looking in. That's frustrating, especially for a franchise that has
Joe Burrow. That should never happen, but it has, and

(09:50):
it doesn't look like changes.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Are going to be made. That's just the reality.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
But you have a team that is now starting to
play well, play with some confidence, and you're starting to
find a couple pieces on defense to build around. We
know they're going to have to go into the offseason
and make quite a few changes on the defensive side
of the ball, but you're not going to change eleven starters.
And the reality is you did have a new defensive

(10:18):
coordinator that was coming in and trying to figure out
a young group. You did not give Al Golden a
veteran group with tons of experience. To hit the ground running.
That involves a lot of experimentation, a lot of figuring
out what do these guys do well, what do they
do that fits into what I want to do? How
can I best utilize the guys that I've got in house.

(10:43):
I think some of that has happened over the past
three four weeks. They've had a really good pass defense
over the past couple weeks, in large part because they're
getting after the quarterback a little bit better. And you've
got two corners, two outside corners that are playing well.
That's a necessity in the NFL. That's why those guys

(11:06):
get paid a lot of money. And the good news
is you're gonna need to make changes on defense, yes,
but you're not gonna have to look for two starting
corners and your number one edge rusher. It doesn't look
like looks like those guys are in house. So go
out beat the Browns in the season seven to ten

(11:28):
and at least feel like going into twenty twenty six,
you've got some momentum because the Ravens and the Steelers
feel very ordinary going forward. They don't feel like this
doesn't feel like a Ravens roster right now, and we'll
see what they do in the off season. Of course,

(11:50):
this doesn't feel like a fourteen to fifteen win version
of the Ravens going into this offseason, and the Steelers
are perpetual nine, eight, ten and seven, so there's something
to work with. And I'm not always the most optimistic
guy on the Bengals. My question on the Reds as

(12:14):
we go into twenty twenty six, we have been watching
this rebuild for a couple of years now.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
We have seen.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Some guys spike, some guys look good, some guys feel
like they're the future of the franchise. We've seen some
guys tease with it and then and then fade back,
have the sophomore slump, whatever. But here's my question. We
have seen this franchise again, and they're doing it right now.
They're in the middle of it right now, finding a
bunch of reclamation projects, finding a bunch of guys that

(12:50):
need a, you know, a one year kind of reset.
They just took a guy that was dfaid from the
worst franchise in baseball, the Oakland a's and they're selling
it as a positive because he was a former number
four overall. Pick yeha. If this wasn't the year for

(13:17):
the front office to say, Okay, we went through the
rebuilding phase, we found our young core. We let those
young guys get a couple of years of experience. They're
now not quite a couple of them, or you know,
at that arbitration phase, but the bulk of them are
going to be coming up into arbitration the next year

(13:38):
or two. You've got Hunter Green, You've got Nick Lodolo,
You've got Andrew Abbott at the top of your rotation.
You've got Ellie d la Cruz. You've got guys like
Noel vi Marte and Matt McClain and Spencer Steer. Now
you add what's his name, the new guy south Stewart.

(14:02):
Now you add south Stewart into that mix. If this
wasn't the year for the front office to say, let's
be a little bit more aggressive and look, sure they
tried to get Shorber, I would contend, if you're going
in five million dollars less a year, you didn't really
try to get shorter. You threw your name in the

(14:24):
hat knowing it was a pr stunt. It was, you know,
driven to make people say, hey, oh look Shorber, let's
go Now.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
I don't buy that for a second.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
If you have this young core, isn't now the time
to say, Okay, let's go we've got two or three holes,
let's go fill them with a with a splash and
free agency, or make a trade with our minor league
system that benefits the major league club. Let's try to

(15:00):
ach a run at this thing, because the Cubs and
the Brewers are really good, and in order to win
the division, we got to catch them. And instead they're
still shopping in the discount ben because apparently getting the
fourth wild card is okay whatever, the third wild card

(15:23):
it's not. It's not.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
We'll get to that. We'll talk about the state of
college sports. That's been a big topic of late.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
You're starting to hear a lot of the people in
and around college sports say the thing that I've been
saying for years, which is interesting. We'll talk some Bearcats.
We'll take phone calls. Phone lines are open five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. Like I said, Rick Brewering at three forty five,
Richard Skinner at five twenty let's get this New Year's
Eve show on the road.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
I'm Chad Brendall. This is Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
Thirty, but against the.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Cruising right along.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
New Year's Eve in Cincinnati out with twenty twenty five
and with twenty twenty six. Wasn't a great twenty twenty
five in the city. The Reds did make the playoffs
and then quickly bounced by the Dodgers. Xavier made the
NCAA Tournament, but it was the play in game. They

(16:41):
did beat Texas and essentially I guess it cost them
Sean Miller, who it sounds like now Xavier fans are
are happy to be gone from and into the Richard
Patino era. You see, did not make the tournament last year.
You see, did not make a bowl game last year.
They did make one in the twenty twenty five season,

(17:01):
but it came with a four game losing streak in
November that took them from seven to one and the
potential for a great season to seven and five and
a trip to Memphis against Navy in the Liberty Bowl.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
It's rough.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Bengals started two to zero. Things kind of fell apart
from there. Joe Burrow gets hurt. Joe Flacco comes in
and plays amazing could have been And if you think
about if the Bengals win against the Bears, and the
Bengals close out the game against the Jets and they

(17:41):
played really well against the Patriots and lost, they played
well against the Bills and lost, you win three of
those four games that you probably should have won. Joe
Burrow comes back with a chance to We're talking about
a playoff berth on the line Sunday against the Brown.

(18:02):
Things just nothing felt like it went right in Cincinnati
in twenty twenty five. Everything just felt a little a
little Cincinnati. I don't want to say curse, because I
don't think there's a curse, but man tarran like it

(18:24):
felt like there were a lot of things that were
right on the cusp and this town could never get
over the hump.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
In twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
So it's on to twenty twenty six and hoping that
the Red's young core carries you a little bit farther,
that the Bengals finally get back into the playoff playoffs.
And I mean cass twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine,

(18:56):
Burrow's prime.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
He's missed the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
After the beginning of his career going to a super
Bowl in an AFC Championship game. You follow that with
three years of missing the playoffs, two significant Burrow injuries
that probably cost them the playoffs in two of those
three years, and then the year in the middle, Burrow
has an MVP season and they don't make the playoffs.

(19:25):
MVP caliber season. I guess to be exact, that the
Bengals were better Joe Burrow wins the MVP last year,
but they weren't, so they didn't. And then on the
UC side, the adjustment to the Big twelve has not
been has not been a lot of fun yet. Wes

(19:49):
Miller's at a point where the reasonable conclusion is NCAA
tournament or bust. This will be his fifth year. I
know a lot of people hated the extension that he
got in year two. I understand why it was done.
It hasn't worked out. Why it was done was you're

(20:13):
taking a significant step going from the AAC to the
Big twelve. It was done for stability. It was done
to allow the program the opportunity to get up to speed.
In the Big Twelve. They won seven games in year one.
In the Big Twelve, they won seven games in year

(20:34):
two in the Big Twelve, they have put themselves behind
the eight ball at eight and five going into Big
Twelve play. You're probably gonna need minimum eleven wins in
the Big Twelve to get on the bubble. They did not.
I mean, Dayton is the only win of any relevance
on this resume going into Big Twelve play, and you

(21:00):
didn't do yourself any favors. That's the reality of the situation,
you see, football man. The conversation could be so different
if they managed to win a game or two in November.
If this is an eight or nine win team and
we're talking about a much more significant bowl game that

(21:24):
UC's playing in, they very easily could have been in
that spot that TCU was in last night. Or TCU
pulls out of thirty twenty seven win over USC in
the Alimable, but instead you're playing against an AAC opponent

(21:46):
in Navy. You se could have been in the Kenders Bowl.
Houston beats LSU thirty eight to thirty five. I think
BYU probably probably would have stayed in the Pop Tarts Bowl,
to my dismay, because I think that would have been fun.
But BYU wins twenty five to twenty one over Georgia Tech.

(22:09):
There was plenty of opportunity for UC to finish strong
in football, and instead you win two more games than
you did the year prior. But the people feel like
you're kind of stuck in neutral. You in the twenty
twenty four season on a five game losing streak, You
in the twenty twenty five season on a four game

(22:29):
losing streak. Plus you have to play Navy now in
the Liberty Bowl, which is not going to be easy
by any stretch of the imagination. They haven't done themselves
any favors. And you got to play Navy without Brendon Soresby,
probably without Dante Corleon, probably without Jake Golday, three of
your marquee talents right there are not going to be

(22:51):
on the field if I had to guess on Friday
when that thing kicks off. Not a lot of fun.
Not a lot of fun. Let's take a break. Well,
we'll talk some Bengals when we get back. Sincanati's ESPN
fifteen thirty. You keep talking to her. It sounds like

(23:25):
a technical issue in the booth. Okay, now we're good, Okay,
now we're good. All Right, then let's take a break.
Sin Sinati's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (23:39):
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(24:02):
in Ohio westbound two seventy five. Still got that crash
between seventy one and Reed Hartman Highway on the left
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Speaker 1 (24:10):
This report is Sponsoredvice Super Sure.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Do you own a small business?

Speaker 4 (24:15):
The Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
Oh, you can't even say yeah, baby, I like.

Speaker 7 (24:30):
It, Yeah baby, I like it.

Speaker 8 (24:34):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Okay, okay, give me, give me the cold take it away.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
You don't bring this one out very often.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
Special.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
I mean this is a special occasion. New Year's Eve,
wed B. Anything that's so good, Rest in peace, ODB.
Legend of the game. Legend of the game. Let's let's

(25:14):
get back into the Bengals here as they they attempt
to move to seven and ten uh and and continue
ending the season on a high note. I will say this.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
The frustrating part about these last three games the Dolphins,
the Cardinals, and then and then the Browns to end
the season, as I think we all looked at them
and said, man, you know what, they got a chance
to go into the playoffs feeling pretty good about themselves,

(25:56):
and then things fall apart and you lose what one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
You lose eight of nine with Burrow out, and there's
there's not a lot of hope, not a lot of optimism,
not a lot to build on at that point in time,

(26:17):
going into that that ray of game at Baltimore on Thanksgiving,
you're you're thinking, you got what maybe maybe one guy
on defense that you feel comfortable building around and DJ
Turner at that point, Miles Murphy hadn't like fully ascended yet.

(26:39):
He was playing better, but I don't think he had
done anything prior to that where you're like, man, that
that's a guy that that you feel really good about
going forward. He has sense put himself much more in
that position. But the feeling around the franchise was was bad.

(27:01):
How in the world do you get this back on track?
How do you even with most of the offense under contract,
even with you know, a belief that a healthy Joe
Burrow takes this team to where they want to go,
you still had a situation where probably should have beat

(27:25):
the Jets, not probably, you should have beat the Jets,
You should have beat the Bears. You had a chance,
even after the Ravens game, to beat the Bills and
really make this thing interesting, and you let all of
those games get away. You were dominated against the Vikings,

(27:46):
against the Broncos, against the Lions, really even against the Packers.
So I think, while I normally am in the camp
of this team needs high level draft picks more than
anything because they haven't proven that they can be successful

(28:10):
by and large with drafting in the middle or late
portions of each round. You are what your resume says
you are. You are what your record says you are.
Their record says really good when drafting at the top
of drafts, really bad when drafting anywhere else. So of course,

(28:36):
you look at this thing coming down the stretch, and
you're four and ten and you've got a chance to
be one of those higher draft picks. At least it's
there for you. But for this group, for this group
where they stand, I do think it's been official to

(29:01):
stack up some wins against bad teams. There's nothing good,
there's no positive momentum. Losing to a bad Dolphins team,
losing to a bad Cardinals team this weekend, losing to
a bad Browns team at home, you're gonna end up.

(29:22):
I mean they're gonna end up what eight to twelve
probably in the draft, somewhere right.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
In that range.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
A win isn't gonna change a whole lot, and I
don't know where things would have necessarily ended up, but
you're still talking a lot of teams that would have
been at or below where the Bengals are at. Jets
with three wins, Titans with three wins, Raiders with two wins,

(29:53):
Giants with three wins, Cardinals with three wins. So you're
still four or five wins. You're still probably talking six seven, five,
six Saturday, six, Savenay. Do you see six to seven
cam the other night at the UC game? What do

(30:15):
you think about that?

Speaker 3 (30:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (30:18):
I think it's it's fun for the kids because that's
what they did is essentially they played six to seven
cam and they just showed a bunch of preteens and
they'd lose their mind doing the six to seventh thing
on the jumbo tron. It's dumb, but we all done
dumb stuff. There have been dumb trends all of our lives.

(30:39):
This is just one in a line of many. The
Browns with four wins, like I just don't think if
the Bengals would have lost out it would have changed
their draft status.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
All that much. A couple of picks, a couple of
picks here and there.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Maybe you get six, maybe you get eight instead of
avoided at that time you see that, maybe you get
eight instead of twelve if they win this weekend.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
But ultimately.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
You weren't going to get one of those premium top three,
top four picks. There's just too many teams that were worse.
So go find some guys that are making plays. Go
find some guys that are building some confidence, and that
can be a part of the solution that can be

(31:35):
on the next Bengals team that wins the AFC North,
gets in the playoffs and tries to make some noise
because guess what it feels like, am I wrong on this, Terran.
Does it feel like Lamar's declining.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
A little bit?

Speaker 4 (31:52):
It's a little bit.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Does it feel like Mahomes is declining a little bit?
I mean now he's dealing with a torn ACL. Josh
Allen's still great, but that Buffalo team doesn't feel like
a juggernaut. We went from the AFC two years ago
talking about man, there's eleven really good teams in the AFC.

(32:17):
Who do you feel great about now? In the AFC
the Broncos, I'll take Joe Burrow over bow Nicks, the Chargers. Clearly,
I'll take Joe Burrow over Justin Herbert. The Patriots. Drake
May has been outstanding. I'll take Joe Burrow over Drake May.

(32:42):
So you hope this momentum and this ability to identify
some guys that you can build around on defense help
you out stick a break more after this Since at
He's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Traffic from the uc Health Traffic Center from non invasive
to surgical treatments. The uc Health Backneck and Spine Center
offers every option to improve quality of life with convenient
locations across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Learn more at
UCHealth dot com. Still got an accident on westbound two
seventy five on the Ohio side between seventy one and

(33:23):
Reed Hartman Highway. A vehicle they're going into the wall
police on sen as well. One more crash on seventh
over at Walnut. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
This report is sponsored by.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Closing out Hour number three here on the Mo Eggers
Show every Wednesday. In this spot you hear from Rowing,
publisher of Musketeer Report dot com, and the color voice
of the NKU Norse Big One coming up for the
Musketeer here in about an hour or so, Rick the

(34:04):
Yukon game aside, if you're a Xavier fan, you have
to be pretty thrilled with what you're seeing through the
non conference and into the start of Biggies play from
Richard Patino.

Speaker 7 (34:17):
Yeah, I mean, I you know, it's tough to say.

Speaker 8 (34:19):
Savior fans are going to be thrilled with the you know,
losing to Creighton the way they did or losing to
Santa Clair the.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Way they did.

Speaker 8 (34:26):
So there have certainly been some frustrating losses along the way,
But to your point, I think the things that I
would be creating a coach on going into this year,
which you foster building, is a big part of it.
But you can kind of put that aside to some
extent in a first season, especially one that was as
crazy as last year's transfer portal, and look at what

(34:47):
have they done from a coaching perspective, and I think,
you know, the willingness to make changes to the lineups,
the willingness to change the style of play, doing the
things necessary to give the team a chance to win,
and then and winning the close games that they've been in,
finding ways to make the necessary plays and adjustments down
the stretch of those games to come out with wins

(35:09):
has been a big bright spot I think for the
Zager fan experience so far this season. And if you're
trying to grade Richard Patino, I think a lot of
the things that you'd be grading him on would receive
pretty high march to this point.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
Rick, you and I have been doing this for far
too long now. We've been around a lot of coaches.
You see a lot of stuff, You see a lot
of ego, You see a lot of guys that are
are hesitant or slow to change. I think what you
mentioned is what I've maybe been most impressed about with
Richard Pattino is his ability to adjust on the fly

(35:44):
and say, Okay, I know I thought it was going
to be this, but it looks like it's going to
be more that I thought this guy would be the
number one guy. Maybe this guy is the number one guy.
It feels like from game to game, like the the
three days in between or whatever, that man is putting
in a significant amount of work to evolve this thing

(36:08):
into whatever. The future of Xavier basketball begins to look like.

Speaker 8 (36:13):
Well, and I think you're going to find that it's
going to be more and more difficult for the coaches
that say do it my way and only my way,
or we just have our system and we only play
a certain style to find consistent success because in the
transfer portal era, where you're turning over your roster at

(36:35):
least the core pieces of it every single season, you're
just not going to be able to thread the needle perfectly.
When it comes to putting together the right pieces. You know,
you're not going to have the point guard necessary to
play your style, or you're not going to have the
center necessary to play your style. In a given year,
and I think it's going to be hard for those
coaches that are very rigid and find their system to

(36:57):
be super precious to where they won't and go away
from it to have a lot of consistent success. It's
not to say they will still be successful, because a
lot of guys that have coached that way have done
great things in this sport. But they'll have their years.
But I just don't think they'll be able to dominate
the sport doing that the way they maybe have in
the past and so far at Xavier, Richard Patino has

(37:19):
shown to be the exact opposite of that.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Tonight is going to be a tough one that this
is another really good Yukon team For Danny Hurley, what
do you look for from Xavier tonight when it comes
to this matchup. I know it's probably not the most
favorable matchup in the world, but how do they keep
this thing closed and try to give themselves a chance
at the end?

Speaker 8 (37:44):
Well, I think the first thing that you look at
with this matchup is one, what do they do inside
against Terris Reid. I think this is one of the
first really physically imposing big men that they've gone up
again said they saw some big guys in the non
coup and schedule, but this is like a low post
punisher that likes to bury you deep underneath the rim

(38:05):
when he's running the floor, and he does good and
pick and roll actions and can get those and ones,
and he's a monster on the class at both ends.
He blocks a lot of shots. So I'm curious to
see how them playing that smaller lineup with Jovan Malikovich
at the center spot, how they'll counteract Terris Reid inside.
That would be the first thing. And then the other
thing that I'm really looking at is Zaeger has struggled

(38:29):
mightily giving up cuts points off of cuts to the basket,
and that can be defined as you know, actual what
we would think of as off ball movement and a
guy like backdoor cutting to the rim or also just
driving and dumping it off to a big man.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
And letting him finish.

Speaker 8 (38:44):
And part of that has been because of the way
that they overplay on the perimeter defensively, you know as
well as I do against this dan early offense, that
they cut and move off the ball so well, they
score so many points off of cutting to the basket
that could get really if Savior doesn't take those opportunities away,
so that the I mean, really, when it comes down

(39:05):
to like the overall perspective going into this game, I think,
quite honestly, and it may sound like kind of a
weak perspective, I think you're looking for Savior to just
keep it close. Given what happened against Creighton, you don't
want to see another historic loss in the Centa Center
like that, And Yukon's the type of team that's talented
enough to deliver that type of blow. So that would

(39:28):
that would be really what I'm looking for. If Savier's
able to keep it close or come out with some
type of winning this one.

Speaker 7 (39:34):
I would be very oppressed.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
The good news is, though, looking around that Big East,
like how Saint John's isn't the big, big time UH
team that we thought they could be going into the season.
Really it's Yukon, and then there's there's winnable games outside
of that.

Speaker 8 (39:54):
Yeah, I think that's right, you know what I mean.
When you look around the conference, there's a lot of
just kind of mah and bloss.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Saint John's is okay, but they're good.

Speaker 7 (40:03):
Yeah, they got a.

Speaker 8 (40:04):
Really talented They've got a really talented roster. I think
when you look around the rest of the league, though,
you see a lot of teams that struggled in last
year's transfer portal to put together the type of roster
you used to seeing in the Big East. And so
that's why you've got kind of a weaker middle and
bottom of the conference this year, and that should help
Xavier remain competitive. It's going to be interesting to see

(40:26):
what it looks like after they get through this Yukon
game and get into some of those teams that you're
talking about.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
Real quick, give us a look at at the Horizon
and NKU. They're kind of in that upper second group,
it feels like in the Horizon right State and Oakland
at least on Ken Palm, the teams that are kind
of setting the pace. How was the non con and
where do you think they're at in terms of getting
ready for this Horizon League regular season?

Speaker 8 (40:55):
Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you what, especially coming off
the win at Robert Morris, I don't know how anyone
would define the top of the conference in the Horizon
League right now. I mean, and I'm not just talking
about the top two or three teams. I'm talking about
six seven deep in the league this year all look

(41:16):
very similar and competitive for potential championships. I'm not talking
that all of those teams will be there at the
end of the year, because obviously someone will fall off,
someone will start to lose some games, someone will face
injury adversity. But right now as it currently stands, if
you told me any of those top I mean, really,
I think six or seven teams in the league right now,

(41:37):
we're going to win it by the end of the year.

Speaker 7 (41:39):
It would not.

Speaker 8 (41:40):
Surprise me one bit. And NKU is certainly in that mix.
Winning that game at Robert Morris. You know, if you
ask them about it, they'd probably tell you it's early,
it's just one game. But I think if you asked
the rest of the league or someone who's following the
conference from a storyline and narrative perspective, it felt like
a lot more than that. You know, if they lose

(42:00):
that one, you're saying, are these guys for really? They
keep losing all their close games against good competition. But
the way that they were able to go on the
road and win this one and come back from a
thirteen point deficit where they started so poorly and do
it in a game where they only made three three
point shots. You know, they had to do it with teamwork,
with defense, with being gritty and tough and getting to

(42:22):
the free throw line and finishing inside. I think that
said a lot about where this teeth, this NKU team
is headed, especially as they fix their defense. And that's
something that we see Darren Horn's teams do every year.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
You doing the double dip yukon tonight and then up
to Indy tomorrow or that that's at on right, that's
at home.

Speaker 8 (42:39):
It's that truest arena. Yeah, so I will be able
to stay home and cover both.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
Of them, all right, and enjoy it? Man, Where can
they find you?

Speaker 7 (42:47):
Hit me up on Facebook? Just Rick Bryan?

Speaker 3 (42:50):
All right, appreciate it, brother, have a good night.

Speaker 9 (42:53):
All right.

Speaker 4 (42:53):
Thanks.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Yah, there you go, Rick Browering, Musketeer report and radio
analyst for the Ink You Norse. We'll hear from Joe
Burrow after this. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
All right, welcome back. It is the Moleger Show.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
I am not Molegar right here on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty,
rolling along on New Year's Eve. I thank you for
choosing me, and you know what, you know we're gonna choose.
We're gonna choose Joe Burrow, as he spoke a little

(43:50):
bit ago down at pay Course Stadium. So let's hear
from the Bengals quarterback heading into Week eighteen.

Speaker 10 (43:57):
Go on and play well and play hard and show you, yeah, Joe,
if you can think big picture.

Speaker 11 (44:02):
I know it's difficult at times on a Wednesday like
this to think about your career. You're almost six years done, now,
what you've done so far versus what's still ahead?

Speaker 9 (44:11):
What do you still want to accomplish?

Speaker 11 (44:13):
What do you think still needs to be done for
me to accomplish the best of the best.

Speaker 10 (44:19):
Obviously, you want to win a super Bowl, you want
to win MVPs, you want to be in the.

Speaker 9 (44:22):
Playoffs every year.

Speaker 10 (44:24):
But my goals at this point are just going out
and playing as good as I can and continuing to improve,
finding ways to.

Speaker 9 (44:36):
Continue to be great and continue to find self improvement.

Speaker 11 (44:41):
How many times will you have conversations with not just
coaching staff, but top of the organization going into the
off season about certain things that need to change or
grow or improve to make this team better.

Speaker 9 (44:52):
I don't know, we'll see, We'll see how it goes.

Speaker 11 (44:54):
Is that something you try to go after those conversations?

Speaker 9 (44:57):
I mean, as much as you can.

Speaker 10 (44:59):
We have great line of communication me, Duke, Kay, Troy,
mister Brown, Zach's uh, we have great communication.

Speaker 9 (45:08):
Is it kind of maybe? Then?

Speaker 12 (45:09):
What's it been like kind of not being able to
have as much control as you would maybe like of
other parts of the team and sALS like You're like,
I can control what I can.

Speaker 9 (45:17):
Has that been a bit of.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
A challenge as you kind of gotten older in your career.

Speaker 9 (45:21):
I wouldn't say that I think I'm not sure.

Speaker 10 (45:23):
I would say I'm not sure.

Speaker 4 (45:29):
I would.

Speaker 10 (45:31):
Agree with the first part of your statement. I'm not
sure I want to be a quarterback. I don't want
to I want to work in the front office. I
don't want to be scouting guys in the off season.
I want to do what I do and I want
to do it at a high level. And I have

(45:52):
and I'm going to continue to find more and more
ways that I can help myself get better, help the
team get better, and put a selves and good positions.

Speaker 12 (46:00):
It's a better way to ask that would have been
has it been Have you just been trying to focus
on everything you can control and just kind of say,
you know what, this is kind of what I can
deal with. Let me try to handle that as best
as I can. Has that been a bigger point of
emphasis is here for you think?

Speaker 4 (46:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (46:12):
I would say that's fair. I think my job is
to number one, play as well as I can. Number
two continue to improve, and number three be the conduit
between coaching staff front office in the locker room, relay
feelings that players have, Relay sentiments in the locker room,

(46:35):
because you know, coaches in front office are not down
there every day and they don't understand a lot of
the things that go on in the locker room. And
so I think, you know, as quarterback, your job is
to relay some of those things.

Speaker 13 (46:49):
How important is it for this franchise this offseason to
make whatever the moves are with the necessary moves So
a year from now, we're not saying outlooks the final games.

Speaker 10 (46:59):
Yeah, we want to we want to be competing for
championships every year. We don't want to be in the
spot that we're in now. So something's got to change,
whether it's players that we have continuing to improve and
get better, and playing championship caliber football or bringing guys
in that will or whatever it may be.

Speaker 9 (47:19):
Obviously something has to.

Speaker 14 (47:22):
I don't know how much college football you watch over
you know, twenty three, twenty four. I asked this because
you know, shitters just can be starting for Cleveland on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Did you get cho used to watch him?

Speaker 9 (47:30):
And if so, what do you think of his game?

Speaker 14 (47:32):
And also kind of how he's handled the unusual spotlight
that's kind of come with him.

Speaker 7 (47:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (47:37):
I really enjoyed watching him in college. I thought he
made a lot of plays. I thought he could throw it.
And then obviously Steven who his dad is. He he
knows how to handle the media, knows how to handle
the spotlight. Certainly been under more of a microscope than
any other what do you get drafted fourth round, fifth round,

(47:58):
certainly under the microscope more than you know their fifth
round pick that's ever been in the history of football.
And every clip that I see, you know, he seems
to be handling it well, says most of the right
things in the media. Is who he is, He's himself.
That's what you want out of a football player. So

(48:19):
he seems to be handling it the right way.

Speaker 14 (48:21):
Has he ever come up in conversations that you and
Flacco have had at any point considering you know, Flako
was with him, you know, in Cleveland up until he
came here.

Speaker 10 (48:29):
Yeah, you talk about a lot of different players across
the league, and that's typically you know, you get a
new guy, you figure out he was with this guy
I was with, or he was with this guy.

Speaker 9 (48:43):
I wonder what he thought about about him.

Speaker 10 (48:46):
That's kind of you know, the initial conversations that you
have with new guys that come into the locker room
and try to find some common ground in that way.

Speaker 14 (48:53):
Is there anything between the conversations you've had with Joe
about Shador that you could share anything like that.

Speaker 9 (48:59):
Or keep that between keep that in the locker room if.

Speaker 15 (49:03):
You picked, If you picked, Joe's bringing all on the
Cleveland defense kind of rare rocketunity to get the guy's.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
No, not really.

Speaker 10 (49:14):
They they do what they do for the most part.
They're pretty simple on defense. That certainly doesn't mean that
they don't provide problematic looks and disguises, and certainly doesn't
mean that they're not good on defense, and they're, in
my opinion, the best defense in football.

Speaker 9 (49:33):
So it's certainly going to be a challenge. But the
number one of.

Speaker 10 (49:38):
The the players that they have, number two of the
coach that they have, understands the strengths and weaknesses of
his players and puts them in good positions that you.

Speaker 16 (49:48):
Take more than hack anything maybe you've gleaned from them.

Speaker 10 (49:55):
Yeah, there's certainly, you know, I take things from from
a lot of different people across the league. And certainly
when you get a chance to sit back and watch
somebody else go have success the way that he did,
you in a style.

Speaker 9 (50:09):
That I don't play, and that not a ton of
people do play in the league anymore.

Speaker 10 (50:15):
You know, you certainly take some things from from watching that,
and you know apply to yourself.

Speaker 9 (50:22):
Not that I care share throughout your career.

Speaker 13 (50:24):
Whenever you guys play the Browns or comes up about
Miles Garrett. He's going for the sack record on Sunday.
I don't know you've answered this before, but what is
it that makes it so difficult that he's so different
Miles Garrett?

Speaker 4 (50:36):
What about him?

Speaker 10 (50:37):
He's more athletic than everybody else on the field. He
is bigger, stronger than everybody else. He has a mindset
that he's not too high or too low at any point,
which is pretty unique for a defensive lineman. I think
he's probably got a unique mindset as far as that
position goes.

Speaker 9 (50:58):
But it's one that you can appreciate.

Speaker 10 (51:01):
He's a guy that I've kind of gotten to know
over the years, and you know, I like him as person,
and he takes his job very seriously, and I's a
guy to have a lot of respect.

Speaker 9 (51:10):
For your thoughts and potentially sacking you for the record,
He's got me a lot, got me a lot, Joe.

Speaker 11 (51:19):
You've talked about wanting to have a lot more fun
in recent weeks.

Speaker 9 (51:22):
Are you having fun right now?

Speaker 11 (51:23):
Even though the season has been a losing season these
last couple of weeks, scoring a lot, has that been
fun for you?

Speaker 9 (51:28):
I have had fun. I think I have fun playing football.

Speaker 10 (51:34):
It's uh, certainly difficult when you can't.

Speaker 9 (51:40):
And you know I had fun last.

Speaker 10 (51:42):
Year too, certainly frustrating at times. That's life in the NFL.
That's life of playing sports, and that's you know why
you play it. At the beginning, you feel emotions that
you don't feel in other parts.

Speaker 9 (51:55):
Of your life.

Speaker 10 (51:56):
High as lows, all the above, everything in between. That's
why people fall in love with sports. Fans feel it,
we feel it, coaches field, everybody feels it. And uh,
that's why you fall in love with it from a
young age, and that's personally why I do it.

Speaker 8 (52:14):
I'd beg for this offense to continue what you've done
over the past couple of weeks against bad defense.

Speaker 9 (52:19):
Yeah, we want to go out and play well, obviously, we.

Speaker 10 (52:24):
Anytime you step out there and you want to execute
the playing at a high level and put points up.

Speaker 9 (52:28):
And play well.

Speaker 10 (52:30):
But anytime you play divisional opponent, the stakes are raised
a little bit.

Speaker 12 (52:35):
Give know what you said a few years ago about
the window being your whole career. How do you kind
of square that with how the last few seasons of Gonde,
given what you expect to accomplish agin to be true?

Speaker 10 (52:43):
Yeah, I feel confident every time I stepped foot on
the field bit and we have a great chance to win.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
And you know, really this.

Speaker 10 (52:50):
Year, you know, I've played, I've played, however many games,
and we've won more than we've lost, and I feel
good about that.

Speaker 9 (53:00):
All I can do is go out and.

Speaker 10 (53:04):
When I'm out on the field, try to play well,
try to win, and go from there.

Speaker 9 (53:08):
Chill with the calendar year ending today. What's your new
Year's resolution?

Speaker 14 (53:12):
Yeah, yeah, you know obviously with Miles, you know, one
sack away from the record. How obviously I know you
and the entire demare.

Speaker 9 (53:23):
Respect for him.

Speaker 14 (53:24):
How do you how do you weigh you know, trying
to not let him, not necessarily let him have the
record against you, versus not having so much focus beyond
him that it takes away from what you're trying to do,
trying to do as far as winning the game.

Speaker 9 (53:36):
Yeah, I'm certainly.

Speaker 10 (53:39):
Not gonna overcompensate either way. I'm not gonna go out
of my way to not let him get the record,
and I'm not gonna go out of my way to
let him get the record either. I'm gonna go and
play football. There's gonna be situations that a sack is
the best of the bad outcomes of that play, and
maybe I take one. There's gonna be other situations that
I'm about to get sacked and I need to throw

(54:00):
it away in that situation. It's such a situational game
that I don't think you can go in thinking one
way or the other. Every play so different.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
All right, there you go, Joe Burrow getting ready for
Week eighteen. Honestly a team that he's probably struggled with
more than anybody defensively in his time with the Bengals.
It's interesting, he mentions. They don't do a whole lot complex.
They're just defensively, fundamentally pretty sound, and they can get

(54:33):
after the quarterback, and they can guard Tea and they
can guard Jamar and that usually makes it a pretty
tough day for Burrow when they play the Browns. Let's
take a break, Let's talk some college supports when we
come back.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
More after this. Since Anti's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 6 (54:56):
From the uc Health Traffic Center from no invasive to
surgical treatments. The uc Health Backneck and Spine Center offers
every option to improve quality of life with convenient locations
across Greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Learn more at UCHealth
dot com. Police are on the scene of an accident
on westbound two seventy five between seventy one in Ohio

(55:18):
and Reed Hartman Highway. That one is off on the
left shoulder and one more accident. It is on seventh
over at Walnut. I'm at Eazel like with.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
Traffic in the NATI brought to you by bell Terra
Casino and Belterra Park on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 16 (55:39):
People, let's get help.

Speaker 17 (55:45):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (55:48):
Calling you and when it comes to six yeah, don't.

Speaker 17 (55:54):
Hear the last month?

Speaker 3 (55:55):
I like this, Aaron.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
You're playing party music, but specific what music we played
at my New.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
Year's Eve party?

Speaker 4 (56:02):
Yes, I mean today your show.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
It is it's New Year's Eve.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Like I might have to put a playlist together tonight
just to listen to of of the stuff that Tarran
played today. Is there a clean enough version of make
them say oh that you can play?

Speaker 7 (56:22):
Or no? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (56:23):
Serious?

Speaker 3 (56:24):
Is it just the Uh, it's just the chorus.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
It's not any of the it's not any of the verses.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
Let's get to it. Rolling along in hour number two. Uh,
we we have.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
We are starting to reach critical mass with with the
Dilemma in College Sports. Phone lines are open, by the way,
five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty Terran, I
did get a message from my daughter who was very
upset with my six seven bit earlier show me shut up.

Speaker 4 (56:57):
You'll hear about it when you get home. I I
absolutely will, I absolutely will.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
You're starting to hear Tom Izzoh and coach cal and
Rick Patino and some of the loudest voices in college
sports speak out about where the state of the game
is at.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
Can we play that cale audioda?

Speaker 3 (57:19):
If you'd like to do you need a minute to
find it?

Speaker 2 (57:21):
No, I have it right here. Okay, go ahead. I'm
gonna laugh at this. By the way, when we're done.
The hypocrisy is wonderful.

Speaker 17 (57:30):
Well, look, I don't blame coaches.

Speaker 18 (57:33):
You know, I've got friends that are playing with twenty
seven year olds and they feel bad.

Speaker 17 (57:37):
I said, don't feel bad. We don't have any rules.
Why should you feel bad? But let me give you
this real simple. The rules bes the rules.

Speaker 18 (57:50):
So if you put your name in the draft, I
don't care if you're from Russia and you stay in
the draft, you can't play college basketball. Well that's only
for American kids. What if your name is in that
draft and you got drafted, you can't play cup because.

Speaker 17 (58:10):
That's our rule. Yeah, but that's only for American kids.

Speaker 18 (58:12):
Okay, okay, now here's the next lawsuit.

Speaker 17 (58:18):
Well, we don't have a say.

Speaker 18 (58:21):
Over European players. You do if they're playing in college basketball,
so that means you don't have a say over.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
High school kids.

Speaker 17 (58:28):
So whatever a high school kid does before he comes here,
don't you do one thing because there's a suit, Because
what you're.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Saying is.

Speaker 17 (58:37):
If he's in Europe, we don't have the same rules.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
What is it funny to you tearing that that the
guy that has lived in the gray area is upset
because the rules aren't really enforceable right now and his
entire career is built on having the rules and then

(59:02):
knowing like his success is knowing where that gray area is.
Now there's no gray area. Everything's like everything's out in
the open. And you could you could make a similar
case with Rick Patino, who for a long time at
Louisville and they got in trouble for this was having
Adidas work outside the rules, work in the gray area

(59:23):
of the rules to get players to Louisville, to make
Louisville the best that they could be. I find it
funny that the people that have have done their most
impressive work living in that that middle ground are now

(59:45):
upset that there are no rules for them to live
in the middle ground. Of that's a little bit ironic
to me not to say that those guys cheated, even
though there's, you know, for both, some evidence that they
have broken rules in the past. But I have been

(01:00:08):
saying this for years, ever since ANIL started. And realignment
really screwed up the foundation of what was college sports,
and that was regional rivalries and conferences where there had been,
you know, things established over decades and decades and decades

(01:00:32):
of playing against each other. And I get there was
some realignment that was I don't want to call it necessary,
but that was sensible. And then there's having Oregon and
Washington and USC and UCLA and the Big Ten, and

(01:00:53):
there's having Collin Stanford in the ACC.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
What about that makes it sense? None of it?

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
The NCUBLEA, which is remember and here's the funny thing,
and Danny Hurley's in town tonight. He talked a couple
of days ago about the need for a commissioner in
college basketball. I don't disagree with him, but there is
essentially a commissioner in college football and college basketball. It's

(01:01:25):
the president of the NCAA. Who's the NCAA run by
the NCAA is run by the schools. The schools determine
what the NCAA is about what the NCAA rulebook looks like.
And we have a rule book that we are finding
out that had a whole bunch of rules that do

(01:01:46):
not stand up in a court of law. They have
a whole bunch of restrictions and rules on players that
wholly benefited the schools. Why because the schools were making
the rules. So of course the table is going to
be slanted towards the schools. Well, now now that it

(01:02:10):
has become obvious that if you challenge the NCAA in court,
the players have all the power, and the pendulum shifted
swiftly all the way the other way, and now you're
in the player empowerment area era. There's only one fix
for this, and it's not difficult. And I've been saying

(01:02:31):
it for years, and now because this has pushed all
the way the opposite way, you're starting to hear everybody
talk about it. The only way to fix this is
collective bargaining, where you sit down and you have the
schools and the universities and the conferences on one side,
and you have players on the other side, and you

(01:02:53):
develop a system that allows them to meet in the middle.
That is fair and equitable for both sides. Getting Congress
involved and providing antitrust exemptions isn't going to fix anything
other than give all the powers back to the schools.

(01:03:16):
The schools don't want to make these guys employees. That's
the easiest answer. Make the player's employees. And if you
make the players employees, then the players unionize and you
develop a system where the two sides can sit down
and figure out a middle ground that is best for

(01:03:39):
the future going forward of college sports. But the NCAA
does not want to give up that power because they've
always had it and they feel like they should get
it back. But the only way they get it back
is to swing the pendulum all the way back to

(01:04:00):
the other side, where they get all the power. They
get all the say they have all the control on
who plays where and when and why and how. Should
there be NBA guys back in college, No, they shouldn't,
But if you're going to pay people, you have to

(01:04:25):
open that experience up to be fair and equitable for
everyone that's a qualified basketball player that might be interested
in participating in your entity. The good news is for
most NBA guys, they're not gonna need college basketball because

(01:04:46):
they have NBA contracts for a guy like James ng
who's going to Baylor. The outrage was that he was
drafted to the NBA. Guess what, He never signed an
NBA contract. He never played a minute in the NBA.
In fact, I think the only thing he did was
make an appearance in the Summer League. So he's never

(01:05:07):
played in the G League. He's never played in the NBA.
He is a foreign basketball player that was drafted by
the NBA, that has stayed in Europe and pretty much
stayed under the confines of what almost all of the
European players are held to when they come to play
American basketball. The only difference is he has that tag

(01:05:30):
on him that he was drafted in the NBA draft.
But guess what, that's not Scott Drew's fault. Scott Drew's
job is to make his team better. Scott Drew's job
is to win and compete for a national championship. So
if he can make his team better at Christmas Break,

(01:05:50):
that's his responsibility to do so, just like it's the
player's responsibility to make as much money as they can
while they still can play basketball, and somebody is going
to pay them for it. The problem is not the coaches.
The problem is not the athletes. The problem is the system.
The system. If you go through the NCAA rule book,

(01:06:12):
as we're finding out, almost all of it is illegal.
Almost all of it slands entirely towards the schools and
entirely away from the labor force. Is that fair? Does
that make sense to anybody? Do we all wish it
could go back to a time period where money had

(01:06:34):
not been thrown at these institutions college football and college
basketball in droves? I mean sure, but that toothpaste isn't
going back in the tube. So unless both sides find
a desire to meet in the middle, college sports will

(01:06:57):
continue to remain broken until there is an actual move,
an actual desire for collective bargaining for one side and
the other side saying, hey, this is what I need
and the other this is what we need. Okay, let's
hammer this out. Let's work on an official stance on.

(01:07:19):
You know, the NBA has the NBA does not want
straight to high school guys in the NBA Draft. The
players could want that, but they have decided it's more
important to focus on the veteran guys and keeping the
veteran guys around longer, so they want these kids to

(01:07:39):
go to college for at least a year. That's collective bargaining.
Salary cap, salary floor, how much guys can make, how
much guys can't make, When can you transfer? When can
you not transfer? Do you have to sit out? Do
you have to not sit out? All of those things
can be negotiated in collective bargaining. And we're starting to

(01:08:03):
hear people talk more about the reality that it needs
to happen, which tells me at least that eyes are
opening and we're seeing this thing needs to be fixed.
And if it's not fixed, who knows. Who knows what
the next two three years looks like. Just take a

(01:08:24):
break more after this. Phone lines are open. Five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty. This is the Moegger Show on
Cincinnati Sports station ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
You've been listening to Football in the NATI on ESPN
fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:08:48):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center from non invasive
to surgical treatments. The uc Health Backnecans Fine Center offers
every option to improve quality of life with convenience locations
across Greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Learn more at uc
health dot com. There is good news for you this afternoon.
On westbound two seventy five an accident now cleared off

(01:09:11):
in Ohio between seventy one and Reed Hartman Highway. A
vehicle had struck the wall in through there.

Speaker 16 (01:09:17):
Earlier. I met e Zelic with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
This report is.

Speaker 7 (01:09:32):
Tame.

Speaker 16 (01:09:33):
Don't have the big we have the big bank.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
The president of the New Orleans University basketball team, yeah,
I mean you know you probably should have got his
son to play for him.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
All they could afford him.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
Bearcat fans will get to see him on Saturday.

Speaker 4 (01:10:01):
I will too. You going to the game, Yes, I'm
gonna find a lak ticket to get.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
Him, just to see Mercy Miller.

Speaker 4 (01:10:07):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:10:09):
You think I don't think he will be there?

Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
No? No, he won't.

Speaker 3 (01:10:13):
Probably busy.

Speaker 4 (01:10:14):
Do you think that DJ knows to play master P?

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
I don't know. I'll check with the train and make
sure he knows. Although you don't want to play stuff
to like like hype up your opponent.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
I mean you see master P two.

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
Yeah, But there's son. His son doesn't play it Cincinnati.
His son did play at one of his other son
did play a Xavier.

Speaker 4 (01:10:38):
For a year. Well dressed as Xavier.

Speaker 3 (01:10:41):
Yeah, he was on the team.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
A lot of a lot of college football going on today.
T Iowa takes down Vanderbilt. It has been it's been
a tough start to Bowl See. Most of ball season
for the SEC has not looked good at all. Tennessee
loses last night. Vanderbilt falls today to Iowa. How do

(01:11:07):
you let Iowa score thirty four? That's not good. That's
not a good Iowa offense. They put up thirty four.
They beat Vanderbilt in action right now. Duke leads Arizona
State twenty eight twenty four. That is in the third quarter.
Michigan and Texas a good old good one and the

(01:11:29):
cheese at Citrus Bowl. That one's tied at seventeen and
then Utah got down early, but they have bounced back.
They are up seventeen fourteen on Nebraska two minutes left
in the first half. And then tonight, tarn are you
out of here by seven thirty?

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
No? What time are you out of here?

Speaker 4 (01:11:52):
At eight o'clock?

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
Where are you going? Do you know I'm going home,
You're going straight home. Just catch it at home. You
know you can't watch it with people. Yeah, no, no,
Ohio State and Miami tonight eight or seven thirty excuse me,
in the Cotton Bowl and then the Big Ones only
three games tomorrow. Do you like that they've they've shifted

(01:12:16):
New Year's Day and now it's just playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:12:22):
Yeah, I think that works. You've got at noon.

Speaker 4 (01:12:27):
Because these those playoff games like they be long.

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
Yeah, I mean they give them four hour windows. Remember
on games used to be three hour windows, and you'd
have like you wouldn't get to watch like the whole
first quarter of your game, yep, because the other game
was still on. Then they moved it to three and
a half. And still you run into some problems. They
are going four hour windows on ESPN tomorrow Oregon Texas

(01:12:50):
Tech at noon, Alabama Indiana at four, and Old Miss
Georgia at eight. Tarren and I will we'll take a
dive into those games in the final segment of the
show today. You want to take one more break, stay
on the clock this hour? You want me just take it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
To the end.

Speaker 4 (01:13:11):
Yeah, we only got like three minutes to feel here.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
Okay, we'll take it to the end. You see basketball
sticking with kind of the college theme of this hour.
You see basketball back in action on Saturday against Houston.
I felt tarn I was like, man, Houston's young, it's

(01:13:34):
the start of conference play. There's a chance you can
maybe catch them a little off their game. And then
Houston goes out and kind of lays an egg on Monday.
They win, but they did not play well against Middle
Tennessee State. There were multiple points in that second half

(01:13:56):
where it was like a four or five point game.
Houston started to pull away, the Middle Tennessee got it back,
and then you hear Kelvin Samson after the game basically
apologizing to the Houston fans that were at the game
that they did not play well, that they did not
play hard, that they got outplayed, that they got out hustled,
that their effort was not good, and tarn there is

(01:14:19):
no worst sign for a team in college basketball. Then
getting ready to play Houston and Kelvin Samson being unhappy
with their effort. I joked yesterday on the bcjpod with
Dave Simo and that we do for barkat Journal, they

(01:14:39):
might not even put the the they might not they
play with They'll practice a lot with that round bubble
that goes over the hoop, so everything is a rebound
that nothing can go into the basket that might not
have come off the rim yesterday and today as Houston
gets ready for Cincinnati on Saturday. It's an interesting Houston

(01:15:03):
team because Kelvin Samson has generally stayed pretty old with
his rosters.

Speaker 3 (01:15:10):
They have generally.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Relied on kind of that foot soldier mentality, next guy up.
And this year they went out and they got a
bunch of freshmen and they still have three really good veterans.
Jojo Tuggler, they're big guy is very good, Shadon Sharp,
the shooter is very good, and then Milos Uzon their

(01:15:38):
point guard. Those three guys are all excellent. Their best player, though,
I think, is a freshman in Kingston Flemings, who plays
the wing. Excellent scorer, can score from all three levels,
can get to the rim, good at the free throw line,
not a great defender yet, but he's our most dynamic

(01:16:01):
offensive weapon. And then you have Chris Sinak who plays
the five for them, who is a five star and
as physically talented is just about anybody in the country,
especially for big guys. But that is not something Kelvin
Samson is used to over the past five six seven years,
six seven, five six years that the Cougars have really

(01:16:25):
been on this run. They've got foot soldiers that come
off the bench, They've got guys that know their role.
They've got bigs that come in with fouls to give
and know to be aggressive and exactly how Houston wants
to double the post and get the ball out of
the hands of your best players and apply pressure. And
that is not yet who this Houston team is. But

(01:16:49):
I don't think you're going to catch them with their
guard down coming off a game that Kelvin Samson was
that upset with their performance.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
So we'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
I'd like to be optimistic that Cincinnati could pull off
the massive upset and get this win to start Big
twelve play. My hopes aren't ultra high. Let's take a break.
We'll talk some Reds when we come back, and Richard
Skinner as well, coming up on our three of the
Moegger shows.

Speaker 3 (01:17:20):
Since ATI's ESPN twteen.

Speaker 1 (01:17:21):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:17:27):
From the UC Health Traffic Center from Non invasive to
surgical treatments. The uc Health Backnecans Fine Center offers every
option to improve quality of life with convenient locations across
Greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Learn more at UCHealth dot com.
There is good news for you this afternoon. On westbound
two seventy five. An accident now cleared off in Ohio

(01:17:50):
between seventy one and Reed Hartman Highway. A vehicle had
struck the wauled in through there earlier. I'm at Ezelac
with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:17:58):
This report is sponsor advice.

Speaker 15 (01:18:00):
The season and the Bengals are looking to finish with
a win. To do it, they have to beat the Browns.
I have some comments about Cleveland, but I probably shouldn't
share them. Will Zach Taylor's team pull off the Battle
of Ohio the Bengals Battle of the Browns. Get the
call live from Dan Hord and Dave Levin. The game
kicks off at one VA, with coverage starting at nine

(01:18:23):
am Someday. Stream for free are the new and improved
iHeartRadio app or ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of
the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Here we go our number three, The Mullager Show. Since
Atti's ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm not Mowegar. I am Chad
Brendle here for the last hour of the year. Thank

(01:19:10):
you as always for choosing me. It has been a
pleasure to share the airwaves with you. In twenty twenty five,
we will We'll go to Bengals game plan. So what's
after this? Bengals game plan? After this? But as far
as the in studio shows on the regular schedule here

(01:19:34):
at ESPN fifteen thirty, this is the officially the last
show of the year. As you get paid double for this,
I should be getting paid double for this Christmas Eve,
New Year's Eve. I was here the day after Christmas,
I was here on Black Friday. But you know that
is tarn, just the life of the filling guy for

(01:20:00):
a producer, like you're you're screwed anyway it goes. You're
hear all the days here, all the days right, There's
there's nobody on the bottom of the totem pole that
you're like, hey, you're going to work today.

Speaker 3 (01:20:14):
I'm going to take the day off, is what it is, unfortunately.
But but you.

Speaker 2 (01:20:22):
Get to spend your holidays and days in and around
holidays with tarn and I and that's that's a good thing.
Over at the Centas Center, Yukon and Xavier have tipped off.
They are underway, Yukon out to an early nine to
three lead. I was kind of trying to, uh just

(01:20:44):
stall there to see Xavier's at the free throw line
to see if Malik Massina Moore would make the second
free throw, and he does so. Now it's nine to four.
Xavier trails in the first segment. Over at Sentas Center
against the Yukon Huskies and the world's biggest Bengals fan,

(01:21:07):
Danny Hurley. You think he just sticks around at Sunday's
a long way away. Probably not gonna get stick around
for the for the game. It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate. All right,
let's let's let's get to a little bit of.

Speaker 4 (01:21:25):
Reds here as they play anyway.

Speaker 3 (01:21:30):
Oh that's right. I don't know what day it is.

Speaker 2 (01:21:34):
I am bad when holidays fall, like like midweek, late week.
I just absolutely lose track of what day it is.
It's Wednesday, right, Wednesday? Tomorrow's Thursday? Yes, okay, good, so yeah,
that would make sense. They're playing today and then you
play again on the weekend. Let's get to some Reds

(01:22:00):
as I'm just curious with when you talk about the
direction of the Reds, the planning, the intention, the strategy
that comes into running a professional sports franchise, and it

(01:22:31):
doesn't make a lot of sense to me the way
that a lot of things are done here, because it
feels like there's no long term vision, there's no long
term outlook on how this plays out. Because if you

(01:22:52):
remember twenty twenty three, that was basically years you started
Spencer Steer up in the major leagues. You had already
had a season of Green and Lodolo, you had Matt
McLain and Elie de la Cruz waiting in the wings.
They were brought up later in the year. The youth

(01:23:14):
movement continued throughout that year. That was twenty twenty three. Okay,
twenty twenty four is the first full season for all
of those guys minus Matt McLain who missed with an injury.
Then twenty twenty five, second full season with all those guys,

(01:23:35):
and the arbitration clock at that point is ticking. You've
got Hunter Green going into year four, You've got Lodolo
going into year four, You've got Abbott going into essentially
year three, de la Cruise into year three, Steer into
year three. McLain because of injury, only into year two.

(01:23:55):
But you've got Noelle ve Marte that came up and
started showing some promise. Now you've got South through Ward
that came up and showed some promise. You got a
lot of good young arms in the bullpen that you
have under team control. You have good pitching throughout your organization.
Did they not sit in twenty twenty three and say,

(01:24:18):
let's gain experience, let's build these guys up, and then
when we get to twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven,
we have a chance to really make a splash as
much as low market mid market teams are going to
have to make a splash because there's no urgency. It

(01:24:46):
doesn't feel like to me the Schwarber thing, they were
not serious about landing Kyle Schwarber. That was a pr stunt.
If you think otherwise, I don't know what to tell you.
They did not make a serious offer with the intention
of making it impossible for Schwarber to say no to

(01:25:08):
the World Series caliber franchise.

Speaker 3 (01:25:11):
That he's playing with.

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
He's gonna turn down five million dollars a year that's
the hometown discount. You are outside of your dagone mind
over the length of that contract. That was an extra
year that the Reds weren't willing to give him. Five
year contract five million dollars a year, twenty five million

(01:25:35):
dollars he was going to leave on the table because
he's from Middletown.

Speaker 3 (01:25:37):
Come on.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
But the point being, the clock is ticking on this core.
There's somebody standing at the finish line with the stopwatch.
We know how this works. These guys are not gonna
be Reds in the seventh, eighth, ninth year of their
professional careers. You've got them for the first six and

(01:26:07):
you just happened to hit a spurt where you had
a bunch of them that came up together. Last time
that really happened the early twenty tens, Quato and Volkez
and Bruce and Todd Frazier and Brandon Phillips and Joey
Vado was still young really essentially at that point in time,

(01:26:29):
and they had a team that could go for it.
So the question I have is do they not have
DoD They either a not have a plan, which is
very possible for this ownership group. Do they not have
a plan, and every year they're just winging it. Let's

(01:26:53):
let's get to the off season, we'll figure out what
the books look like, and we'll decide. Okay, this year,
we decided we have twenty million dollars to spend in
the offseason. That is, to retain or replace the guys
that were on last year's roster on top of making
this year's roster better. What have they done to make

(01:27:16):
this year's roster better? At this point tomorrow is January.
Spring training starts in February. They've added guys. Maybe maybe
one or two of these guys they've added turnout to
have a good year. Okay, great, What have they done

(01:27:39):
that's got anybody talking about? How demonstrably better the twenty
twenty six Cincinnati Reds are going to be than the
twenty twenty five version that won eighty three games, because
it looks like this is what they want. Eighty two
wins in twenty three, seventy seven wins in twenty four,

(01:28:01):
eighty three wins in twenty five. They want to be
right in that variant around five hundred couple games over
a couple games under. They finished third in the division
in twenty three fourth and twenty four, third and twenty five.
And if you watch the Brewers and the Cubs last year,

(01:28:22):
they are miles ahead of the Reds miles, which means
you have to be active, you have to do something.
Where did this team need it in the middle of
the lineup and they haven't gone out and done anything.
Schwarber was not happening. I think we all deep downnew that, like, yeah,

(01:28:50):
it's nice to think about kid from Middletown. Okay, that
would be great. It wasn't happening. So now you have
this franchise that is sitting in the middle of the
window with a young core that is all very talented
and has the ability if you get them some help,
to maybe make some noise, and instead you have once

(01:29:14):
again put all the weight, all the pressure on this
young group to do it all themselves because the front
office wants to do it on the cheap. The only
guy they have on a long term contract out of
that young core Hunter Green, And really all they did
was buy out his arbitration so that they could get

(01:29:35):
it cheaper, because if he went to arbitration, it's going
to cost a lot more than what that contract is
giving him. This fan base for the Reds deserves better
than an ownership group that's just interested in being okay,
that doesn't have a long term plan. If you had

(01:29:59):
a long term plan, you just sat in those big
offices in twenty twenty three and structured okay, twenty four,
twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven, Let's see what these
next four years look like, and let's try to go
for it. When these guys are in their mid twenties,
entering their prime, at their best, get them some veteran

(01:30:19):
help build a real contending ball club around them. Good
pitching staff, good young fielding, but they need help on
the at the plate. And instead you're getting guys that
have done things like slash two twelve batting average, three
h four on base percentage, you know, six hundred and

(01:30:40):
fifty seven hundred slugging, and you think that's not only
going to get you to the top of this division,
but to the top of the National League. It's frustrating
because if they don't have a plan, why should we
Why should we have optimism that this franchise what they're
doing moving forward?

Speaker 3 (01:31:03):
Just take a break.

Speaker 2 (01:31:04):
Richard Skinner from Local twelve up next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:31:10):
He's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:31:14):
From the uc Health Traffic Center from non invasive to
surgical treatments. The uc Health Backneck and Spine Center offers
every option to improve quality of life with convenient locations
across Greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Learn more at UCHealth
dot com. There is good news for you this afternoon
on westbound two seventy five. An accident now cleared off

(01:31:36):
in Ohio between seventy one and Reed Hartman Highway. A
vehicle had struck the wault in through there earlier. I'm
at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:31:44):
This report is sponsored by This is Football in the NATI,
brought to you in part by Postman Law and Vice.
Skyline Chilly on ESPN fifteen thirty to the official home
of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 4 (01:32:09):
Damn, it feels good to be a gang.

Speaker 3 (01:32:11):
Welcome back, rolling through hour number three.

Speaker 2 (01:32:14):
Oh real, things not going well at the Centas Center.
It's twenty five to six yukon about eleven or about
nine minutes excuse me, nine minutes into the game over there,
so uh not off to a great start for the Muskies.
As Danny Hurley and company are hot. Let's get to
Richard Skinner, the digital sports editor at Local twelve. You

(01:32:38):
can find him on the Twitter machine at Local twelve.
Skinny Skinny knew this was probably gonna be a tough
one for the Muskies, but twenty five to six is uh,
it's a hard one to swallow.

Speaker 8 (01:32:51):
It.

Speaker 7 (01:32:51):
Just texted me to see you ticket holder, and he said,
between the Creton game and this crap, it's like sixty three.
I'm like, yeah, it's a good point. I was overmatched.
I mean, I don't think it's gonna be the case
in a ton of big but in certain ones like today,
ye're overmatched.

Speaker 2 (01:33:10):
And look, I think in spite of Creighton and what's happening,
I think that makes the job Richard Patino has been
doing even more impressive.

Speaker 7 (01:33:20):
Yes, no, I agree with you. I listen. I mean
he got to build a roster fairly late in the process.
That's always hard to do. I know Mark pulled that
off of Kentucky last year, but that's probably the exception.

Speaker 2 (01:33:30):
Is a lot more money to spend at Kentucky.

Speaker 7 (01:33:32):
Correct, No, no, correct, I mean yeah, I mean all
the things you want to have in your favorite you
have them at Kentucky, so he get that going for him.
But yeah, I'm with you, and it's funny. I went
to a game early in the year against Lemoine, and
you know, their bottom of the barrel, you know, in
the pecking order, and they and Xavie looked awful, like
they couldn't keep those dudes in front of them. And
I honestly just watching it, but they are gonna win

(01:33:54):
eight games total if they're lucky. And yet he did
the lineup tweak and it worked, doubt and it's probably
not a lineup it's gonna work against teams like this
today because you're just not physically good enough. But you know,
I know you want to say you measure yourself by
games like that. Don't think you do. I think you
measure yourself against the teams that you have a chance

(01:34:15):
to beat in the league. I mean, at Georgetown, winn
can't be discounted. I don't think Georgetown's great, but I'll
bet you they give Saint John's a game today or tonight.
You know it's it's at Georgetown, and Saint John's has
been fairly middling. I like Saint John's. I do think
they're good. But at the same time, they haven't proven
the world beaters yet, So yeah, today, I think today
was always going to be ugly. I mean it's still

(01:34:35):
early in the game. But I don't know how that
gets that gets turned around, because it probably doesn't. It
probably snow Ballsy Morse.

Speaker 2 (01:34:40):
Well, it's gone five though Yukon since we started, so
now it's thirty to.

Speaker 3 (01:34:43):
Six instead of.

Speaker 7 (01:34:46):
Yeah, that's worked out great.

Speaker 2 (01:34:48):
It looks a lot like you see and Clemson that
first half where Buddy, maybe we'll get to UC and
West Miller before we get done here, but let's get
to the Bengals. Normally, in situations like the end of
this year where they have done so much losing and
really didn't have much hope for this season if you

(01:35:12):
look back three four weeks ago, I actually have been
okay with what's happened over the past couple weeks. I
think guys are developing. It's hard to tell how much
against two pretty bad teams that they've played the last
two weeks. But Skinny, you had to find something to
build around on this defense because you can't get eleven

(01:35:32):
new guys, and I think you're starting to see at
least al Golden's system.

Speaker 3 (01:35:38):
Looks like it's okay.

Speaker 2 (01:35:39):
They played bad teams and the defense looked like trash
earlier in the season. They look better now. The past
defense looks okay. Murphy looks like he's given you something.
DJ Turner and Dax Hill look like you can build
around them. Mccorner, I have not been as upset as
I thought I would be on a team that should
be battling for draft positions but instead is trying to

(01:36:01):
build momentum for twenty twenty six.

Speaker 7 (01:36:04):
Yeah, and listen, I mean you you play the game,
and you coach the game to go win, play it
to go tank, right. I mean that there's a rule
and there's excitement to winning. You know, that's what you
that's what you work a whole week for in the NFL,
is to go win. I know fans don't want to
hear some of that because they want the draft position.
They don't want the front office to be Buffalo, and
I don't either. I listen to your point. I think

(01:36:26):
that's the biggest takeaway. I wrote it after the Miami
game of Hey, these guys should feel good that they
got to win, and you're starting to see a little
bit of progress from individuals, but the front office can't
get forward into thinking all is right because all is
still not right. It's not even close to being right.
But you do want to see the individuals take steps forward.
I talked to god Soil for a little bit today
for a story on Friday. I mean, he has really

(01:36:47):
solidified himself as a quality outside corner in this league.
And you know they bounced him around. You played a
little bit there last year to start the year, then
got hurt. He's played safety slot. I mean, it feels
like you've got to really good outside corners at the
moment moving forward. That's a step forward. Is Miles Murphy
gonna be all Pro at any point? Probably not, but
has at least shown you at the very least he

(01:37:08):
is a solid you know, Sam hubbardish type player. Was
still some upside to go. Yes, the rookie linebackers still
have their issues, and you may need to bring in
a veteran that play alongside in one of them next
year as a starter, but maybe not. Maybe you when
you decompress the season, you say, man, each week they
got better at doing this, and the little thing started
getting better, and the game slowed down and now we

(01:37:30):
have a whole kind of off season and and you
know in the Aples and the Maze and then the
mini camps to kind of get them even further along
in the program. But you do to your I mean,
you still need a lot, You need at least a
three technique. You need at least a veteran quality safety
that can start. You need again, buy another edge to
add to the mix. But it's not so much like

(01:37:52):
if you'd ask me this at the buy and I gone, yeah,
I got DJ Turner in PEN. I got nobody else
written down and Penn at the moment you feel everybody
the other guys I might haven't a field on the pencil,
I got none of them in Pen. I got DJ
Turner at PEN. I think now you can at least
pen in some other guys and say yeah, they taking
enough step forwards to believe that there are at least
some level of cornerstone to this defense.

Speaker 2 (01:38:11):
And the nice part is like you're talking your number
one edge rusher and your number one and two corners.
Those are the most expensive pieces on defense. Yes, so
you have to you have to remake the defense, but
you don't have to do it at the at the
top a spots.

Speaker 7 (01:38:27):
No, that's the other part. And I think if you
if you address most of your needs there in free agency,
you know, the offensive side of the ball doesn't need
much addressing. Could you use a little more depth of guard? Probably?

Speaker 19 (01:38:39):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (01:38:39):
Well, who've you have resigned ault riser? Yeah? Probably, and
it probably won't cost you a ton. Could you use certainty?
When could you? You? Could you need a swing tackle,
a backup swing tackle at least add to the mix there.
But otherwise, do you need a quarterback? You need a
backup and that might be Joe Flacco. You could use
a better third wide receiver than what you got, but

(01:39:01):
it's not pressing. You got a ton of tight ends.
And you are gonna get Eric all back. I don't
know what you know level he's gonna be into another
knee injury. But you get Eric all back and he
was greatly he was healthy last year. You're finding it
running back. I mean, you don't have much to address
on the offensive side. So it does give you some
clarity of here are the positions of need and for me,
it's it would be three technique safety, edge rusher. And

(01:39:24):
then let's see where we're at in the pecking room
and probably cornerback as well, somewhere in that mix. But
it's not like you need ten now, you need you know,
five or six, and that's a better place to be.

Speaker 2 (01:39:35):
You feel a lot more confident going into the offseason
you need five or six than oh my god, our
entire defense needs blown up and we have to start
over again.

Speaker 7 (01:39:44):
No I thought. I thought, honestly, at the buy this
looked like at least a two year overhaul and not
to asking a lot to go through two more years
of Joe Burrow, maybe not making the playoffs because you
had to overhaul the defense again. I don't think we're there,
and I think I think it proves in the putty.
I mean since the bye wee can to your point,
I mean, the last TEW team's have been awful. I mean,
nobody's got sugarcoat that. You're not trying to sugarcoat that either,

(01:40:04):
and they have been awful. But since the bye week
they've only allowed one offense to score more than nineteen
points on them, and that was Buffalo. And even in
the Buffalo game, it was a pick six that gave
some points, then another tipped interception that led to some
points that The defense again wasn't great, and they obviously
gave up a big scramble late in the game. They
did give up some yards to Josh Allen in the game,

(01:40:25):
but for the most part, they've played winning football since
the bye week, and I think that's all you can
hope for. And then you've got the Joe Burrow offense
that that goofy Baltimore week and Baltimore game aside, where
I'm just gonna I'm gonna red exit and go that's
the biggest outlier game and outlier week. I think we're
ever gonna see from from him and from that offense,
they've gone, you know, thirty two points, thirty four points

(01:40:46):
against Buffalo, forty five points against Miami, and thirty seven
points calling off the Dogs early in the fourth quarter
in this last game. Yeah, you could argue an opponent,
but that's what this offense is capable of, because you
know why, Chad, We've seen this offense do that.

Speaker 3 (01:41:00):
Yeah, we saw him do it with Joe Flacco, much
less Joe Burrow.

Speaker 7 (01:41:02):
Yeah right, No, that's right, that's right. Yeah, the Jets
game in the in the Bears game specifically.

Speaker 2 (01:41:07):
Yeah, again, I just I thought I would I'm generally
in a place with this franchise that says they stink
drafting outside the top five, so try to get into
the top five. Well, when you look at the standings
in the NFL, I don't think they're going to be
I don't think that even if they lost out, they
were going to get in the top five, or if
they went one and two and boy, how terrible would

(01:41:27):
you feel about things if the defense was still bad
and they went one and two against three dregs of
the NFL down the stretch. I like, I think it
would be even more panic mode than the fact that
they're seven and ten. If they beat the Browns and
what they're going to draft probably tenth, eleventh, twelfth, I
can deal with that.

Speaker 7 (01:41:48):
Yeah, No, I'm with you on that. I you know,
I get it. I mean, you want to be as
high as possible to get the reset button started. But
let's just say that the Joe Burrow Baltimore performance was
turned in by two more Jill Borough performances where you're like, oh, brother,
what's wrong with this guy? What is wrong with this
Instead it's literally you just go okay. So was gong
on that week with him? He sounded like a kook.

(01:42:10):
He played like a kouk. But it's only one week
and he bounced back from that, and so, okay, I
don't know what happened there, but I'm just gonna take
it and say it just it happens. Just occasionally this league,
goofy stuff happens, and it was a goofy week for him.
It's a goofy week for them. They gets shut out,
but otherwise he's bounced back from that. Looks like vinctage
Joe Burrow. The last two.

Speaker 2 (01:42:29):
Weeks he has typically had some issues with this Cleveland defense.
Do you expect another one this week where it's like,
we're not sure exactly what Joe we're gonna get because
Cleveland does a has historically done a really good job
defending Joe Burrow.

Speaker 7 (01:42:45):
I mean they're good. I mean they're they're averaging I
think two dred and seventy eight yards per game allowed.
It is a quality defense against a lot of teams.
But yet, to your point, they've kind of had a
Joe Burrow's number. I mean, even the one year here
a few years ago, Hayden gets a picket Picke at
the goal line and runs nine nine or other, Denzel
Ward brother gets a pick at the goal line, runs
niney nine yards the other way for a touchdown. I'm

(01:43:08):
fascinated by this game just because the offense is clicking,
and they're all healthy, and the offensive line is playing well,
and Chase Brown is adding juice. I am fat if
they turn in another really good performance. I don't know
that's gonna be the thirties or not against this team,
but at least, you know, a winning performance. You put
up yards, you don't really sputter because you keep converting

(01:43:30):
third downs and all those things. Then you go, Okay,
that's that's a good way to finish this season. Otherwise
you know it's not. Then you can maybe look and go, gosh,
they still have their number. I. I do fear my
only fearing this game, and I'm not the only one
that's gonna say this and the only one that's gonna
believe this. I just fear my house, Garrett. I just
I mean fear him in the way of him coming

(01:43:51):
clean and doing something to your borrow. That would be
my one fear here is the dude's going for the
sack record. Yeah. The Bengals wild put a lot of
focal point on him him, and they do anyway, but man,
we've seen him wreck them sometimes and I just man,
that's when I one fear is if Joe Burrow, just
in this game, can for one time just say hey,

(01:44:12):
I hear him coming. I'm getting this out of my hand.
I'm not going to try to be brave. That would
be a good thing for all.

Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
I agree. I have a question on the redskinny. Sure
does it bother you? In my view, this franchise knew
in twenty twenty three, Okay, we're gonna we brought this
young core up. The window is open, the clock is ticking,
and then you go. Twenty twenty four was really the

(01:44:40):
first year with a lot of those guys together. Twenty
twenty five the second year. Now you're building. You made
the playoffs. Shouldn't there have been a plan that hatched
in twenty twenty three that in twenty twenty six and
twenty twenty seven there was an opportunity to go an
opportunity with the this window open, with this young core,

(01:45:01):
with Hunter Green, with Ellie Daylight Cruise, to say, let's
go out and make ourselves significantly better in this little
window that we have. And what does it tell you
that they didn't or haven't.

Speaker 7 (01:45:16):
Well, well, I think part of the plan was always
going to be Matt McClain was going to turn into
a dude Christian and Caronascio Straam was going to turn
into a dude. Ellie was already turning into a dude.
And I don't blame them for that part of the
plan changing once you kind of realized. But even in
twenty four when you kind of realize, ces ain't it.
McLain is hurt and we don't know what he's going

(01:45:38):
to be. And then after you come off the year
you just came off of where you scratch away into
the playoffs and you know are clearly a big bat
away at a minimum from taking the next step forward.
There had to be a plan this offseason and that's
why Listen, I don't mind the moves they made this
past week. Those are death piece, isn't it? But there
there has to be another move. There has to be
another move for a bat, whatever that is, trade, whether

(01:46:01):
it's a signing, and the scene that confounds me, and
it's I think the most frustrating part is the whole
narrative of well we were gonna spend up one hundred
and thirty million for Kyles Swarber. No, you weren't easy
to say that when you knew where the bar was.
And even if you said that knowing where the bar was,
it wasn't gonna make any difference. But now that that's supposed,
that narratives out there, Okay, do something with a hundred
and thirty million you said you were gonna do with

(01:46:21):
Kylis sh Warber, right, I mean, that's the part that
confounds me, that that if you said that that's where
you're gonna go with Kyle Schwarber, why can't you use
that money for somebody else?

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
I think we both know they never had it, and
like they would have, they would have not they would
have panicked at a level hard to even fathom. If
Schwarber would have been like, all right, cool, I'll take it.

Speaker 7 (01:46:44):
Yeah, no, correct. And that's the that's why it's so
easy when when and that's and I'm not blaming Jeff Passing.
He was a terrific baseball rider and he was the
one that reported that's what the Reds were gonna do.
But it's so easy for for a source to say, hey,
we're gonna send up one hundred and thirty mil. If
you put that in your story, I mean, that's what
we're gonna do. Sweetees Hey, listen, man, I got fifty grand.
I go to the Ferrari deal and the Ferrari guy goes, no,

(01:47:06):
it's seventy five grand. Well, I still have my fifty grand. Right,
I go buy a different car fifty grand. Right, a
nice car for fifty grand. Why can't they do that
with one hundred and thirty grand.

Speaker 3 (01:47:15):
It's frustrating.

Speaker 2 (01:47:16):
I'm just frustrated with this franchise because it feels like
they should have had a sense of Okay, we know
this is building, and then twenty six, twenty seven, boy,
let's hit it. Let's get this thing, go get that
big middle of the order bat and whatever, you know
whatever pieces that they felt that they were short, because

(01:47:37):
I don't think there are a lot of pieces short,
but there are a couple glaring pieces short.

Speaker 7 (01:47:42):
Yeah. No, I I'm going to give them small benefit
of the doubt at the moment, because you got about
another solid month to do some stuff. They will do
something before they report to spring training, but it's not
barring that, Chad. I think this has been an extraordinarily
disappointing offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:47:57):
It's like the guy, the meme of the guy with
the put like poking the dead guy, Like do something,
do something, do anything anything? College Sports, Skinny, Is this savable?
Is this fixable? Is the only way to fix it?
What I've been saying since we were doing the college
basketball edition of the Skinny Podcast, Collective bargaining is the

(01:48:19):
only thing that saves this.

Speaker 7 (01:48:22):
Yeah, I think it's the only way, because, uh, it's
the whole you know, this kid in the G League
coming in and the NBA guys being talked about coming
into play. Good luck, good luck if that goes to court,
the NCAA winning a stoppage of that, right, I won't. No,
that's my point. And so it used to be that,
you know, in the amateurs and days of if you

(01:48:43):
were paid anything professionally, you couldn't play. Well, those days
are going now because the kids are being paid, which
is fine. That's where we're out with this. But that's
opened that loophole now for other ways to go. Wait
a minute, guys, and eligibilly left my guy in the
G League. You can make more money here with us
for a couple of years and then go back and
improve your stock. And I know everybody's you know, yelling
and moaning about it, and I get it. I probably

(01:49:04):
would be too, but I mean, you know, way, God
love Baylor for looking to going here's the loophole. Let's
go exploit it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:10):
Uh before I let you go, ken palm? What do
you think ken palm predicts the final score of UC
Houston will be on Saturday.

Speaker 7 (01:49:20):
Okay, I'm gonna I don't want to be mean, but
I'm gonna go Houston seventy one. You see forty.

Speaker 2 (01:49:25):
Six ken palm, which is skinny. You know this ken
palm is usually very close to where the betting line opens, right, yep, yep, yep.
Seventy to sixty three. How fast are you going to
your phone to bet Houston if it opens under eight.

Speaker 3 (01:49:43):
And a half.

Speaker 7 (01:49:44):
Yeah, that's that seems like a pretty logical Houston play.
I know it's on the road, and I hate playing
road favorites no matter how good they are. Houston's just
stinking good man.

Speaker 3 (01:49:54):
I Dan Calvin's pissed off basketball.

Speaker 7 (01:49:57):
Yeah right, They're my favorite team in college basketball. You
know what. To his credit, he has he has a
team that he knows what he wants the identity to be.
He recruits to that identity, he coaches that identity, and
they are just they're just going to hit you in
the chest and they're gonna take your offense and they're
gonna move it forward. You want to run it about
fifteen feet further out in the court, and you're gonna
look around the end of the shot clock going why
am I here? And why do I have the ball

(01:50:19):
in my hands? And by gosh, I got a chuck one.
And this is not a knock on just you. That's
against everybody, but especially against this UC team which is
offensively challenged. I think it's a huge ask on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:50:29):
For me, it's you conn in Houston, because you know
who they are every game. You know who they are,
you know what they want to be, and they go
out and they do it.

Speaker 7 (01:50:35):
You know who they are. Yep, you know who they are.

Speaker 2 (01:50:38):
All right, man, I appreciate it. You have a great
New Year's Eve. I know you'll probably be out at
the bars tearing it up. You're you're you're a big
you're big amateur night guy.

Speaker 7 (01:50:47):
You know that's called to me, that's called Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
most Sundays of every week.

Speaker 3 (01:50:51):
But yes, sure, just days that end and why that's correct?
All right?

Speaker 7 (01:50:57):
Man?

Speaker 3 (01:50:57):
Thanks Kenny Year, you too have there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:51:00):
Richard Skinner Local twelve UH digital content editor. You can
find him on Twitter at Local twelve Skinny.

Speaker 3 (01:51:07):
Let's take a break.

Speaker 2 (01:51:08):
One more segment to the day coming up right after this,
one more segment of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:51:13):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:51:15):
You've been listening to football in the NATI, brought to
you by Cincinnati Tax Resolution powered by Tope Sheldon on
ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 6 (01:51:34):
The uc Health Traffic Center from non invasive to surgical treatments.
The uc Health Backneck and Spine Center offers every option
to improve quality of life with convenient locations across Greater
Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Learn more at UCHealth dot com.
Eastbound Glenway Avenue, it's an accident at Cleaves Warsaw Pike.

(01:51:54):
Traffic being directed around that spot westbound seventy four disabled
vehicle after two seventy five i'd the white Water split
on the left shoulder.

Speaker 16 (01:52:02):
I'm at the zelic with traffic. This report.

Speaker 2 (01:52:12):
Theme song of twenty twenty five tearn it ain't all good.
If I didn't love this song so much, i'd say
we're leaving this in twenty twenty five, But we're bringing
it to twenty twenty six. Also, I've gotten a couple
of text messages tearing from friends of mine that were
out in the car with their teenage and preteen children

(01:52:36):
when I six said six seven a earlier, and the
parents are not happy with me. We're probably not. I mean,
we probably should, but I don't think we're gonna. I
don't think the utes are gonna let that happen. It
could be a little bit more upfront. Rest in peace,

(01:52:57):
True Boy, the Dove Plug two Real Quick tarn Some
good ones going on still today. Duke trailing Arizona State
thirty nine thirty five five minutes left, Texas up twenty
four to twenty on Michigan, Utah pulling away from Nebraska
thirty one to fourteen. Iowa beat Vanderbilt early today thirty

(01:53:19):
four to twenty seven.

Speaker 3 (01:53:21):
Let's get to the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:53:22):
Arran Miami, Ohio State buck Eyes eight and a half
point favorite. I know you know, flashback to the last
time these two met in the championship game, many many
moons ago. How confident are you the buck guys get this.

Speaker 4 (01:53:39):
Done almost not. Somebody came in and rented me.

Speaker 2 (01:53:43):
Oh okay, well tell them to get out. We're trying
to talk here. You're the Ohio state expert and I
can't get Ohio State content. But you know that's fine.
We're we're gonna win. We're gonna cover the spread, win
and cover eight and a half. Carson Beck sucks, are right?
The interesting one tomorrow for me? Oregon Texas Tech noton

(01:54:04):
kickoff on ESPN at the Orange Bowl. I think Tech's
good enough to win this game. I think they win
this game. I think they make Derek Moore uncomfortable. He's
really good, but I don't think he's been pressured like
DJ Moore. Sorry, I don't think he's been pressured like

(01:54:25):
Texas Tech is going to pressure him. I like the
balance of this Texas Tech offense. I like the way
that they play defense, the aggressiveness they play defense with.
I think Texas Tech's better than Oregon and Oregon's two
and a half point favorite.

Speaker 3 (01:54:40):
I don't see it.

Speaker 4 (01:54:41):
Texas Tech can play with anybody in this tournament. Yes,
their defense is not one. They could run the ball.

Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
In Indiana Alabama, I use seven point favorite. I don't
know about that. I think Indiana is a little bit
better than Alabama. I don't know about seven points better.
I think Indiana wins. But if I was betting Terran,
I think i'd bet Bama and take the seven points.

Speaker 4 (01:55:05):
I'll take Indiana. There's supposed to rain into Rose Baltimore.

Speaker 2 (01:55:08):
Yeah, I mean I'm taking Indiana. You're taking Indiana plus
or you're giving the seven Yes, okay, okay, I like it.

Speaker 3 (01:55:15):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:55:16):
And then finally Ole Miss and Georgia. Georgia a six
point favorite. I think Georgia blows out Ole Miss. There's
so much weird stuff going on there. There's six guys
coaching Ole Miss that are leaving, like as soon as
the game ends to go coach lsu that from from
the reports around that program, there's been a lot of

(01:55:37):
tampering from those coaches. And you had the quarterback yesterday
or the day before, like, uh no, I haven't uh
I'm not allowed to talk to Lane Kevin right now. Wink, wing, nudge, nudge.
I think there's too much outside noise. Georgia in the
Sugar Bowl. I think give me. I'll give Ole miss six.

(01:55:57):
I might give Ole miss twelve. I think Georgia wins
big there.

Speaker 4 (01:56:01):
I think Old miscovers that one. Really half there.

Speaker 2 (01:56:04):
You don't think there's not you think there's that. There's
not enough. There's not too much turmoil going on there.

Speaker 4 (01:56:10):
Okay, the kids, I mean, yes, they're being talked about about.
I think the kids they just want to play.

Speaker 2 (01:56:17):
I agree they want to play. It's just how much
what the focus is. Like, Uh, Navy Cincinnati on Friday.

Speaker 4 (01:56:24):
I'm sorry, but Navy five million.

Speaker 2 (01:56:26):
The more I look at this, I don't know. Man,
their defense is bad. They have not beaten a good
team really all year. I think CINCINNTI wins a close game,
mainly because I want it for Brady Lichtenberg. He's been
a good soldier his whole career. Go get that win
on the way out the door. That's my take on that.

(01:56:49):
And then Cincinnati Houston, it's gonna come out like Houston
eight and a half. Get it before it jumps that
then will be thirteen before you can blink.

Speaker 4 (01:56:57):
Taran Oh trust me.

Speaker 2 (01:56:59):
All right, I know, get to have notifications on your
phone for when that line drops. All right, man, Happy
New Year, Tarren. It was a blast doing another one
of these years with you.

Speaker 4 (01:57:12):
Looking forward to doing another play more in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (01:57:14):
All right, that's gonna wrap it up. We will see
you in twenty twenty six. Since I's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 9 (01:57:20):
Thirty, I'm listening to the radio.

Speaker 19 (01:57:23):
I'm listening to a sad perl sing say about us.

Speaker 7 (01:57:27):
He got a torn thro bo to stove.

Speaker 3 (01:57:32):
I just want me something that too.

Speaker 19 (01:57:35):
When you're alone, it gets sidy. Don't act this. If
you did talk to know she let me play with her.
I'm working late, I said, I'll soon be home. All
about the girl was home up home.

Speaker 3 (01:57:50):
Let me tell you what.

Speaker 9 (01:57:51):
She crime phone?

Speaker 3 (01:57:52):
Why because I'm flying.

Speaker 2 (01:57:55):
Super science.

Speaker 7 (01:57:57):
Nay, I'm flying.

Speaker 3 (01:58:01):
Super and I'm super duper.

Speaker 1 (01:58:06):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from.

Speaker 6 (01:58:11):
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eastbound Glenway Avenue. It's an accident at Cleves Warsaw Pike.

(01:58:31):
Traffic being directed around that spot. Westbound seventy four disabled
vehicle after two seventy five the Whitewater Split on the
left shoulder.

Speaker 16 (01:58:39):
I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 17 (01:58:41):
This report is spawn