2/6/25 - The Mo Egger Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Entered this nationwide keyword on our website day that's pay
enter it now.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
No one covers the Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's
sports station.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Nobody I say, or that guy said, what's up kid?
Afternoon Mulegar, ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening today.
Hopefully you're having the single greatest Thursday of your life,
and thank you for making us a part of it.
The show Rundown is on Twitter right now at mullegar
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(00:37):
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(01:00):
and they'll step up for you. So go watch the
show preview video on Twitter at Moe Egger. Go do
that now, Go do that now. We have a ton
to get to today. Later on this hour, our buddy
Chad Brundle's going to join us from a Bearcat journal
on last night's You See when fueled by dodgeball, the
Bearcats had to start somewhere, had to start somewhere. I

(01:23):
don't know that I'm ready to tell you that they're
on the verge of making a run. I don't know
that I'm going to tell you that I've even checked
what the metrics say about where they are and their
NCAA tournament chances. I haven't done any of that. I
don't care about any of that right now. I care
about them playing better basketball, not just for a night.
The good news, though, is last night they played good basketball.

(01:45):
They played the brand of basketball I thought we'd see
all season long. More on that coming up in just
a bit. If I wanted to, and you might argue,
this would be better content, But if I wanted to,
and if I truly had time, I could spend the
entire show playing Joe Burrow audio from the myriad of

(02:06):
shows that he has been on. He's been on a
bunch today making the rounds at Radio Row, and which
is is awesome. It's it's content, and it's I think
it's content that we all care about. I've got some
of it for you here that we're going to play
in just a second. I have I have two basic
thoughts on just the Burrow part of this. Right, there's

(02:29):
the Bengals part of this, which is what are they
gonna do with this offseason? What are they gonna do
with t Higgins and Trey Hendricks and Jamar Chase and
all their free agents? And we're gonna get to all
of that. But there are two basic thoughts I have.
One of them is more of a question to you
if you're a long time Cincinnati sports fan, more than anything.

(02:52):
Before I get to those two things, let's play some
of the Joe Burrow audio, and again you named the
national platform in New Orleans. He went on to today,
I have no idea what he was plugging, nor do
I care. I'm not being paid to mention it. He wasn't.
He wasn't plugging anything.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
Oh, he did this volunteer, on his volunteer.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
He did this on his own. See that's it. So
he wasn't there on behalf of a product.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
Nope. He's there in a white playing white T shirt.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
But like at the end, he's not plugging headphones or
grocery stores. Now that is interesting. That is interesting, all right,
Well that that's actually that actually throws a different dynamic
into this entire thing. All right, So Joe's down there
and he's doing all the big national shows down there
in New Orleans for Radio Row. And so the audio
we're gonna play for you is from a first take,

(03:38):
which is that show that Steven A. Smith is on,
and he got Shannon Sharp, and he got Molly Molly Kierram,
Molly Quorum, Molly Kiarum, you got Chris mad Dog Russo
and some other folks, and and so here is Joe
reiterating what he has been in a bang in the
table for on huh banging the table, what he has
been talking about for a while, which is he thinks
the Bengals can gets done with everybody. Go ahead and

(04:01):
play the audio.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
I got a problem with your team, though, I got
a problem with the fact that five of the last
six years y'all started out oh to two and in
the month of September, I've.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
That's not the right one. That's okay, that's okay, we'll
play that one later. Because Joe's answer to that is important.
That's an important theme. But now here's here's the one
we meant to play this. This worked in rehearsal.

Speaker 6 (04:23):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Here's Joe talking about, Yeah, we can we can sign everybody.

Speaker 5 (04:28):
This is Cincinnati now, I mean, this is that ownership.
You confident that they're gonna be They're gonna be willing
to keep all of those guys.

Speaker 7 (04:35):
The cap is going up each year, we just got
new TV deals, continue to go on money.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
We're laughing at them.

Speaker 7 (04:42):
You know, we're we all want to stay together, so
we're all going to do what it takes to do that.
And you know, we have great players that have done
great things and deserve to be paid. They're going to
be paid what they're worth, whether we do it or
somebody else. I hope we do it. I think you know,
we've had the discussions that the guys are gonna get
paid that need to get paid, and so it's a

(05:03):
it's a big offseason for the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
He's right about that. Can get cue that up for
again for a second there, Terry, have you ever been
in a situation like that where you're asked a question,
you give the answer, and as you're giving it, everybody
just starts laughing at you. This has happened to me
on god knows how many occasions. Uh, that audio that's
this is if you're Joe Burrow, this is not a

(05:27):
very comfortable place to be hit that audio against.

Speaker 5 (05:31):
I mean, this is that ownership. You confident that they're
gonna be They're gonna be willing to.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Keep all of those guys.

Speaker 7 (05:37):
The cap is going up each year. We just got
new TV deals, go on laughing at them, and you know,
we're we all want to stay together, so we're all
going to do what it takes to do that. And
you know, we have great players that have done great
things and deserve to be paid. They're going to be
paid what they're worth, whether we do it or somebody else.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
I hope we do it.

Speaker 7 (05:59):
I think you know, we've had the discussions that the
guys are gonna get paid that need to get paid.
And so it's a big off season for the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
So there you go, Joe Burrow on first take today.
There's a couple of important points there, and at the
end of the day, we're all sort of wishing and
we're all sort of guessing, and to a degree, not
that many people are speaking with a tremendous amount of
certainty as it relates to some of the things that
the Bengals have to do this offseason. But he said
a couple of things that are pretty important there. One is,

(06:29):
we're all gonna do what it takes. We're all gonna
do what it takes. Now what it takes specifically, your
guess is as good as mine. But you know, we
can draw conclusions, and I think they are fair conclusions
to draw. We're all gonna do what it takes. Well,
what it takes might be take less, take less than

(06:52):
you might be able to ordinarily force the Bengals to
pay you, or less than you might be able to
get elsewhere, or less than you're due right now now,
or work under a different contract structure than you're working
under right now. That's that's interesting. And again, all you
could do is listen to Joe's words and and and
arrive at certain conclusions. We're not going to get conclusions
for a couple of weeks. But he also talked about

(07:15):
we've had discussions, so you know, you come back to
something we talked about on December the ninth and tenth,
which is, you know, when the Bengals played the Cowboys
and everybody kind of forgets about the game. And we
remember the post game when Joe reignited the conversation about
t Higgins, many of us wondered, like, is Joe talking
from a place of information? Well, again, what what you

(07:39):
you have where we've had discussions? Would suggest, Hey, we've talked,
we've we've had discussions, We've we've outlined what has to
happen with each other, and so now I'm comfortable talking
about this publicly. And again, you you are, I think
foolish if if you're going to try to speak definitively

(08:01):
about what's gonna happen either way. But you do also
have to ask yourself like, this is Joe Burrow. This
is a smart guy. This is the guy who knows
what the questions are going to be right by now
he goes on first take or any of these other shows,
he knows what he's gonna be asked about. He's gonna
be asked about Tea and Jamar and Trey and keeping

(08:21):
the band together and signing guys in the Bengals history
with money and the Bengals reputation sometimes undeserved for being cheap.
Like he knows what's coming. He knows what the questions are,
He's had time to think about the answers, and so
you're gonna get a well thought out answer. Among the
well thought out answers were phrases like quote, we're all

(08:43):
gonna do what it takes, and quote we've had conversations,
and those conversations have apparently put Joe in a place
where he's comfortable saying what he's saying. You could take
that way, or you could say, well, they've had conversations,
Joe's not hearing what he wants, and so now he's
just gonna go turn the pressure up even more. I

(09:04):
don't know what to believe. I don't know. Here's what
I do know that I've never seen anybody in the
history of Cincinnati sports do this legitimately, man, And if
I'm ignoring someone or forgetting someone. We've seen athletes try
to flex their muscle. We've seen athletes try to force

(09:25):
their way out. We've heard athletes state their preference about
what they would like to see the team do. I
can't recall I can't recall anybody ever doing this. I
can't recall anybody really being in a position to do
this like Joe Burrow but I can't recall anybody doing this,
even Lucho Acosta. Luco Acosta to Laurel Faylor, who's going
to join us at four thirty three, basically didn't. Basically

(09:48):
he threw his team's general manager under the bus. I
mean that is unlike anything I've ever seen. But here
you have a guy famous, one of the faces of
the sport, at the top of his craft, tons of respect,
uber popular, and the dude is publicly and vocally throwing
his weight around and flexing his muscle and making people uncomfortable.

(10:14):
And that's to me the best part of this, regardless
of how this unfolds with Tea specifically, but also Trey
and even Jamar, He's making people uncomfortable. I'm here for it.
More on that in just a minute. The bear Cat

(10:35):
game last night, I just want to see them bottle
the way they played, right. The takeaway from the game
on Sunday wasn't that they lost, wasn't that they lost
by a fair amount of points. It wasn't what the
loss sent their record to. It was what that looked like,
how unbear Cat like it was, how unlike it was

(10:58):
anything we thought we were going to see. The season
was just getting underway. It was how they played. The
takeaway last night is not that they won, although that's
obviously important, it's not okay, well, you know, you know,
maybe they're not dead yet. Perhaps you now they're back
to being on the bump quad one win like that
stuff matters, But it doesn't matter to me right now,

(11:18):
because if we're gonna start talking about that stuff, it's
only really gonna happen if they start to win games,
right games, if they start to stack wins, win a
lot of games in a short amount of time. The
only way that happens for me, at least is if
they play a certain way. It's not just play hard,
it's a style. What I saw from the Bearcats last night.
Maybe UCF isn't very good, but what I saw from

(11:39):
the Bearcats last night is the style that I thought
I was gonna see back in October. What I saw
last night was a team that ran and dunked and
put pressure on the defense and wasn't standing there having
one of the point guards just pal nails for twenty
seconds while everybody stands there. They initiated the offense quickly,

(12:00):
They got good shots, they made shots, they defended the
three very well. Every time UCF did something, the Bearcats
had an answer. The point guards last night were terrific.
Dayda Thomas. A year ago, at this time, Dada Thomas
was like public enemy number one for Bearcat fans. He
put the team on his back in the first half
last night. They might not have won that game without

(12:22):
his performance in the first half last night. The second
half was not all about Gigsel James. He had plenty
of help from his teammates, but it was a lot
about Gigsel James. Just give me that, give me that,
give me that effort, give me that style, give me
that brand, give me that bottle that and apply it
over the next nine games. Will they win them all?

Speaker 8 (12:45):
No?

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Will they win enough to make the tournament?

Speaker 9 (12:48):
No?

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Could they make things kind of interesting? Sure? Will they
perhaps change the conversation, which over the last month or
so has not been very pleasant? Yeah? Quite possibly. Will
it be a I'll have a lot more fun to
watch without a doubt. Bottle that from last night. Let
me see it on Saturday, and if that results in
a win, and then they can win the next one

(13:11):
after that, a Utah team that they should have beaten
in Salt Lake City last week. Then let's start to
talk about what the season can turn into. Until then,
I just want to know if what I saw last
night is going to be the new norm or a
fun outlier on a Wednesday night in early February. Our
phone lines are open five point three seven four nine,

(13:33):
fifteen thirty eight six six seven oh two three seven
seven six at moegar on Twitter. We'll throw some poll
questions up there in just a bit. Also, Travis Steele,
Miami University head coach, recently got a contract extension and
as a reward he gets to come on our show
at five thirty three. Lots of ground to cover. Let's
talk about Joe Burrow and discomfort next three o'clock. This

(13:57):
is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moeger. Thank you listening today.
If you miss anything, go get it now or later
on the iHeartRadio app. Podcast of this show are a
service of a long neck sports girl. On yesterday's show,
fun stuff, good, really good conversation with Jordan Bischel. He
is the baseball coach at U SEE, and we talked

(14:18):
about his team, talked about year or two of him
running the Bearcat program. But I think college baseball is
interesting from like the standpoint of nerdy stuff like coaches
still calling the pitches or not calling the pitches, and
you know, in college basketball you get these creepy dudes
who are like scouting seventh graders. And we talked about

(14:39):
like when you can identify whether or not a kid
is you know, maybe d one material. So really good
stuff with Jordan. It was so good that multiple times
he kept telling me how good my questions were, which
we might start to require of guests moving forward. Rick
browing on the Musketeers and the Norse NKU winners last
night against a good Cleveland State team. Evan Cohen for

(14:59):
me being radio on the Joe Burrow debates that are
out there, and our buddy Sean Sayah, the breakout superstar
of Radio Row. He's going to be too big for us.
He joined us as well to talk about some Bengals
offseason topics, a little draft stuff, and some super Bowl speaking,
of which Lee Sterling's gonna help us make some money
on the super Bowl coming up in just about ten

(15:19):
minutes from Paramount Sports. You think of the Bengals, you
think of a lot of different things, right, but comfort
has often been one of those things. And you know,
let's be honest, the Bengals, to their credit, in recent years,
have stepped out of their organizational comfort zone. In the
winner of twenty twenty, suddenly they were major players in

(15:41):
free agency and they were like, whoa dude, they were
one of those teams. Folks were talking about the Bengals overpaying,
like what Bengals overpay? And even last year they didn't
get a deal done, which they should have, but they
stepped out of their comfort zone and they negotiated with
Jamar Chase when he still had two years left on
his deal. That's good is stepping out of their comfort zone.

(16:03):
Bengals are really comfortable doing things a certain way. This
Joe Burrow offseason and really the end of the season
where he started to talk after most games about t
Higgins and the desire to see him stay and how
it can happen and how tea is a need. I

(16:23):
love it, you love it. I mean, if you're a
Bengals fan, how do you not like this? First of all,
if you're a Bengals fan, much less one who has
a microphone and three hours to do a talk show
with every single day, Like it's fun to talk about
the Bengals. It's fun to talk about the Bengals and
the different things they have in front of them this offseason.
It's fun to see your quarterback get the national treatment, right.

(16:44):
Andy Dalton was never a Radio Row star. Heck, we
went to Radio Row once. No one was talking to
Andy Dalton, which is how we got him. It was
literally like, Andy, how's it going? You want to come
on with us? Like Joe Burrow is in demand and
as a Bengals fan, that's fun. But one thing I
think that is fun here is to think about the

(17:06):
discomfort that he is causing at what used to be
called Paul Brown Stadium.

Speaker 10 (17:13):
Like it.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
What Joe is saying may be based on assurances he
has been given. That's a possibility. What Joe is saying
may be based on what he has been told about
what he's not getting. What Joe is saying may not
really matter that much as it relates to the decisions made.
It may carry a lot of weight. But I'm gonna

(17:38):
guess that, especially on a day like today where he
was everywhere in New Orleans, that's creating at least some discomfort.
How could it not, even if you're the Bengals and
largely uncaring about the criticism you get. I mean, and
I think for the most part, you know they care,

(17:59):
but they don't care that much. Right, they know what's
out there about him. Here is the face of your franchise,
and he's putting public pressure on you in ways that
no Bengal before him has ever put public pressure on you.
That has to make you at least a little uncomfortable.

(18:22):
And he's getting laughed at by the hosts of First Take,
and he's getting grilled about the Bengals history when it
comes to spending on free agents and paying their own
guys and against some of that criticism I think is unfair.
But you can't tell me that the folks down there
today knowing that Joe was going to go on a
bunch of shows. You can't tell me that, like Duke

(18:46):
and the folks who were on the team woke up
this morning in eager anticipation hearing what their quarterback was
going to be saying, I think this is good. I
think it's really good to take this team that has
had its way of doing things the way they're comfortable
doing things and making them a little uncomfortable and also
kind of and to me this is at least the

(19:09):
overarching point to all of this Joe Burrow stuff. It's
whether or not he gets what he wants, and the
pluses and minuses of him getting what he wants, but
also the okay, you're on notice if you don't give
him what he wants. This is something we've talked about
a lot. It's it's not so much not bringing back

(19:30):
t Higgins, which I think they can do and I
want to see them do. It's not so much about
that though. It's like, Okay, I told you I wanted this,
I didn't get it. Now what I mean it's almost
and it's maybe not the best comparison. If someone works
for you and you give them a project and they

(19:50):
don't get it done, it's not done on time. Okay,
well what have you been doing with your time?

Speaker 9 (19:58):
Now?

Speaker 3 (19:58):
The answer may satisfy it may not satisfy you. But
it's putting pressure, I think, on the Bengals to get
something done with these players. But more than anything, it's
putting pressure on the Bengals to build the kind of
team that ensures that Joe Burrow isn't making the rounds
on Radio Row the week leading up to the super
Bowl that he's preparing to play in the super Bowl instead.

(20:23):
I love this. I love this, and I don't love
it for selfish reasons. I love it because it's unlike
anything we have ever seen. It's refreshing. It's not coming
from a place of malice. It's not coming from a
place of selfishness. Joe is not out there banging the
drum for his own contract extension or his own pay raise.

(20:43):
He's banging the drum for how he wants to see
things get done because he thinks his way of doing
things is best to ensure that he's playing in the
Super Bowl next season and not making the rounds leading
up to it next season. It's creating discomfort. It's rattling cages.

(21:06):
This is an organization. Frankly, this is a city that
could use some rattled cages. Lee Sterling helps us make
some money on the Super Bowl.

Speaker 11 (21:18):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (21:23):
This is Dave Laflock, and you're listening to the Home
of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Twenty six from four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty During
the football season. During the regular season of college and
pro football on Thursdays. We were joined by our guy,
Lee Sterling from Paramount Sports, who made us a lot
of money on college and pro football. And when the
regular season came to an end, we said to Lee, Lee,

(21:49):
we'll talk to you on the Thursday before the Super Bowl.
Guess what today is. It's the Thursday before the Super Bowl.
Paramount sports dot com. Lee Sterling is with us to
talk about Sunday's game and more. It's good to have you.
What's up?

Speaker 12 (22:03):
I'm great, I am great. I wish football would continue
because how about this?

Speaker 9 (22:10):
Not only have we had a winning season.

Speaker 12 (22:12):
Or nine and oh in the NFL playoffs, wow, going
for maybe a perfect first time ever? Ten and oher
record in the NFL PA wasn't And it wasn't like
the College Bowls were bad either. We went sixteen and seven.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
There, unbelievable, unbelievably well good stuff. Do you want to
start with the line on the game itself, or do
you want to go into prop bets first year calls.

Speaker 12 (22:38):
Let's go with the prop bets and let's start with
the one we love to do. My daughter's prediction every
year on the national anthem, and this year it's John Baptiste.
He's singing the national anthem. She says, he's a musical genius.

Speaker 9 (22:54):
I wasn't real familiar with him. Were you familiar with
him at all?

Speaker 3 (22:57):
No?

Speaker 12 (22:58):
Okay, So he plays a lot of instruments. He sings,
And here's.

Speaker 9 (23:04):
What she says.

Speaker 12 (23:06):
If you're going to play this prop, make sure it
is him singing the entire time, because he is very
well noted for singing in the piano and also the guitar.
He could start off singing the guitar. He could start
singing and then bring in the piano and then finish
with singing the national anthem. So if you can find

(23:31):
a prop where it's him singing from start to finish
and only singing, she feels it we'll go under. She
feels he's probably gonna be in the one fifty to
one fifty five range, and it's anywhere from two minutes
and one seconds to two minutes and five seconds. They're
really going to protect themselves after what happened last year
where Reba McIntire she ended up repeating the last line

(23:51):
over again and went over and they pretty much had
they had to pay both sides.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
Yeah, No, it was unlike it we had two things
that I had never that I that I've always hoped
we would see. Well, one that I had always hoped
we would see in one I never thought we'd see.
I'd always wanted an overtime super Bowl because I make
that that every year, and we got it last year.
And then we got to see sides on both of
the national anthem prop get paid, which was fun.

Speaker 12 (24:17):
Right, Yeah, So yeah, that was fun. And going to
the player props, you know everyone is going to be
probably honed in on Sequon Barkley over under one hundred
and sixteen and a half rushing yards. Think about this,
there's only been one rusher since the year two thousand.
It's going over one hundred and seventeen yards. And who

(24:38):
was at Michael Pittman for the Tampa Bay Bucks in
two thousand and three hundred and twenty four yards of
the Bucks over the Raiders. So I think that Steve
Spagnola is going to come up with a game plan
here to limit him. He knows that if he gets
off and has a huge game, they're in trouble.

Speaker 9 (24:56):
So I'm going to go under one hundred.

Speaker 12 (24:59):
And sixteen a hal rushing yards for some of Kwon Barkley.
People also seem to be favoring A. J. Brown and
Dallas Goddard over receiving yards. I like DeVonta Smith better.
Three games he's played against these Bagnola defenses, He's gone
for seven catches for one twenty two, seven for one
hundred and six for ninety nine. So I like the
over fifty and a half receiving yards. They're also the

(25:22):
over twenty and a half longest reception from DeVonta Smith.

Speaker 9 (25:26):
And then on the.

Speaker 12 (25:27):
Kansas City side, I like the most first downs plus
one oh five. They just slowly matriculate down the field,
whereas Philly is more of a big playoffense and Kansas
City also under eight and a half players catch a pass.
They've kind of shortened their receivering and also tight end
cores since the playoffs started, so I think under eight

(25:50):
and a half players will catch a pass for them
and shortest touchdown. This is with both teams combined. I
love under one and a half yards. Remember you can
have an interference. They bring the ball out to the one,
and Philadelphia with the tush push is almost unstoppable. And
then on the other side, a lot of times they'd
like to bring Travis Kelce in motion. He stops at

(26:13):
the center and he goes for the for the quarterback
sneak so small shortest touchdown under one and a half yards.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
Also, Lee Sterling Paramount sports dot com. Is there anything
and you talked about the anthem, is there anything tangentially
related to the game that's not a hardcore football prop
that you like? Not really?

Speaker 12 (26:33):
You know, I went to six hundred and thirty props.
There was nothing that I would personally play, but it
took me two days to go through all the props.
So a lot of maths involved there also, and kind
of figuring out the way the game goes here. And
I'm not going to give out the game because we
sell that to our clients. But how about this for
a long shot MVP. Now, we pretty much got a

(26:55):
good idea that the public is pretty burnt out on
the Kansas hitting the Patrick Mahomes angle there and in
all three games that he won, he got the MVP.
Not throwing for as many yards as normal this year.
How about Travis Kelce, He had a poor game, one
of his worst playoff games. In the last game, Let's
say he catches balls for seventy to one hundred yards

(27:17):
and a touchdown, and he has maybe a sneak for
a touchdown or a inside shovel pass for a touchdown
if he gets in the end zone once or twice
and they win the game. I have a feeling they
might go with Travis Kelcey. He's only a goin probably
another year or two after this of playing in the NFL.
So I think they might go for a tight end.

(27:38):
And I think Travis Kelsey's their guy at plus sixteen
hundred if that happens. When you call me before March Madness,
the call before probably the Bora bar there.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
You Gomount sports dot com. All right, so if you
want the game, go to Paramount sports dot com. And
folks should do what all.

Speaker 9 (27:57):
They need to do is go to the website.

Speaker 12 (27:58):
We won three the last four Super Bowls, for the
last five college championships, another huge winning season. You can
get the game and also our top ten prop plays
just ninety seven dollars hop on board. That happened an
incredible year, record year, just one place. Paramount sports dot com.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Well, I talked to you before the tournament.

Speaker 9 (28:19):
Yes, we're gonna do it the Tuesday for the tournament.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
All right, book it looking forward to it, man, Thanks
so much, Lee Sterling, go to Paramount sports dot com.
Made us a lot of money this season. I do
like the DeVante Adams over his yardage total, the Travis
Kelcey longshot MVP. I heard I heard a prop bet
on the Bill Simmons podcast that I love, which is

(28:44):
it's basically Patrick Mahomes versus the field, and it's not
plus odds. I think minus one forty. You're basically betting
against Kansas City to win the game. But all right,
you know Patrick Mahomes this year play unevenly at times,
and he was more of an accessory to their wins
than at any other point in his career. And so

(29:08):
you get ninety one players. The book gets Patrick Mahomes.
I like that one. I got some more. I got
a list. You know, we don't do Locks of the
Night anymore, or we won't until it's sponsored and I
get my cut. But I might break out some props
on this show tomorrow. We'll see see how good I'm feeling.
We're at Twin Peaks tomorrow, by the way, from a

(29:28):
three to six Twin Peaks in Westchester tomorrow afternoon so
we'll do the show there and if you're in the area,
come by and say hi. We'll say hi to Chad Brendle,
bearcatjournal dot com. Next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 11 (29:39):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

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The UC Health Traffic Center. Heart disease is the leading
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(30:07):
Fort Washington Wade. That's a three minute delay and northbound
seventy five slow traffic Mitchell Avenue to Paddock Road. I'm
at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
This report is sponsored by Rapping Mitchell Correct. It is
twelve away from four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
on Moeger. You see one last night and looked good
and looked like they were having fun doing it. It's
amazing what a game of dodgeball will do for you.

(30:37):
Chad Brendle's here Bearcat journal dot com on Twitter at Chadbrendle.
Is everybody on Twitter and on your message boards happy now?

Speaker 14 (30:49):
Some of them still are not mo and I. If
you can't be happy when your team wins, you should
find something else to entertain you.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
I enjoyed. I enjoyed myself.

Speaker 14 (31:06):
I did too. I mean, look, Central Florida's defense is
uh not exactly the eighty five Bears, but uh, you know,
they did what they were supposed to do. They have
played multiple defenses that aren't very good and the offense
still look like crap. Yeah, so last night was a

(31:29):
nice change of pace.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
It started with dodgeball. Should they just make that a
part of the irregular practice schedule?

Speaker 14 (31:38):
I think like you got to mix it up a
little bit, right like dodgeball, maybe some like kick the can.
You know, just find a way to do it a
little different so you don't want it to get boring,
Right like dodgeball, if you do it every week, you
can get a little boring. So you want to find

(31:59):
some other things, you know, Uh, I don't know, I'm
coming I'm coming up in a blank. For teams that
we played with.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Ball with flet ball tournament, Yeah, I mean you can
do something like that. You could play a game of kickball,
you could just play tag. I mean, there's there's lots
of different things you could you could do. And so
we'll see if if Wes Miller incorporates that. In terms
of what we saw last night, like I I want
to bottle just the way they played. You know, it's

(32:30):
it's important that they won, but let's face it, this
team has a very uphill battle to get to where
we wanted to go. I just to me, it was
all about how they played and can they bottle it.
What are they most likely to bottle from last night
and use on Saturday.

Speaker 14 (32:48):
I mean, the easiest thing to say is pushing tempo
and getting out in transition, playing a little bit faster,
because they have proven if they get to like fifteen
seconds on the shot clock, a good shot is probably
not going to follow. So if you can play with

(33:09):
a little bit more of the purpose that we saw
them play with last night, or they're getting up and
down the floor, and even if it's not necessarily all
fast break stuff, they're not like settling down and trying
to like grind out bad offense. I think that's been
the biggest problem this year. They grind out a whole
lot of bad offense. So I think that's hopefully and

(33:33):
we've seen a couple glimpses of it this year that
they have been able to do this a little bit better,
but it hasn't been sustainable. It hasn't been consistent. I
think that has to be the takeaway from yesterday. Get
the ball up the floor, make a decisive action or two,
and then try to get a shot up on the

(33:53):
rim and go from there.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
I just I like seeing them put pressure on the
other team's defense. And you're right, I mean you as defense,
that's easy to pressure. I like that. I also felt
like every time and again, you're you're not I understand,
you're not playing Kansas, you're not playing Arizona, but the
Bearcats have struggle with teams that aren't quite as good
as those. When UCF felt like they were a possession
or two away from taking control of the game, the

(34:17):
Bearcats had an answer.

Speaker 14 (34:20):
I think that was very encouraging, and that is a
UCF offense that can splat out score. It's not it's
funny to say this that it's not conventional in how
they do it, because how they do it is they
had three Elite one on one basketball players and they
pushed the ball off the floor and then they find

(34:40):
the one that has the match, the mismatch that they
like the most, they throw it to him and then
they have that guy go get a bucket, and it's
not easy to stop. Go. Look at their scores against
Houston and Kansas and Iowa stating some really good defenses.
They're still scoring seventy five eighty eighty five points, so
it was it's difficult to stop them. That was my

(35:01):
biggest concern, tho Kansas or you see after is going
to score eighty five points. Going into that game, I
felt like, can this team score seventy five? Because I
don't think they can. And then they did, so I
felt a lot better about the way that they were
able to answer and respond.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
They got contributions from Dan Skillings in the second half too,
and you know, Wes talked about him in the postgame
show with Dan and Terry. I went to bed last
night hoping and maybe unrealistically that that's the light bulb
coming on, because it's going to have to at some
point if this team's to be taken seriously down the stretch.

Speaker 14 (35:44):
What was the difference in those those two buckets that
he made mo He was decisive. He caught the ball
and shot it. He was open. He caught it and
shot it. He was open on the wing. They pushed
it up to him. He went right at the rim,
got a bucket and got There was no dilly dallying,
there was no trying to, you know, show the world

(36:05):
how good of a ball handler he is.

Speaker 9 (36:07):
He's not.

Speaker 14 (36:09):
And that's what Dan has to get back to. What's
the thing that you know, when you go back to
like last year and thinking about how was he effective?
It was always the first step right, catch and go,
not catch and dribble and then try to, you know,
make three moves through the lane like that spin movie

(36:30):
he had in the first tab. Twice it took it
from him. There was a guy standing there waiting for
him to pick his pocket. Stop doing that. Be decisive
and if it's not there, move to basketball.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Can they beat by you?

Speaker 14 (36:49):
Is by you're gonna make fifteen threes? I mean that's
the other thing that I thought was a pretty big
positive from last night is they got back to U
s F. When you know when they're right, they got
those three dudes can really shoot it, like they got

(37:11):
three dudes that can fill it up from deep, and
Cincinnati did a good job defending the three. If they
can defend the three and then run BYU off the line,
I think they've got a chance. B Yu is going
to pack the paint. They're gonna do what they did
last time, where they almost always have four or five

(37:31):
guys with you know, one step away from the paint.
You're gonna have to shoot them. Shoot them out of
it a little bit.

Speaker 10 (37:37):
Mo.

Speaker 14 (37:37):
Hey, there has to be a game at home and
conference play. They shoot the ball? Well, right, I keep telling.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
Myself that, I uh, I would like to think so.
All right, man, uh, I appreciate it. Fun to talk
to you after they win. Well, we'll see us on
Saturday Saturday night. Thanks so much.

Speaker 14 (37:54):
All right, sounds good things.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
Well, that's our guy, Chad Rendel, Bearcat Journal dot Com.
It is coming up on four o'clock. We're guest free.
Told four point thirty Lucho Acosta just went scorched earth
on his team's general manager. To Laurel Failure of the
Queen City Press, she is going to join us at
four thirty, three weeks before the season begins. Hey, we
talk about like the Bengals in chaos FC Cincinnati. He's

(38:17):
got a ton of chaos as the season gets closer.
That conversation coming up at four thirty three, Travis Steele
in the last hour of this show. So we've played
a lot of Joe Burrow. We're gonna play some more
Joe Burrow. I'm not a capologist, I'm not a mathematician,

(38:39):
but I think I know what I know and I'll
share it with you next where else?

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Now your chance to win one thousand dollars. Enter this
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Speaker 14 (38:51):
Green.

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That's green. Enter it now. I'm not eligible, so I'm
not going to do that. What's up? Good afternoon, bo.
Thank This is esp In fifteen thirty. Thank you for
listening and hopefully whatever you're doing on this February Thursday,
it's it's fun. You imagine like Joe Burrow has going

(39:13):
on a media tour. Here, you're gonna hear more from Joe.
Here in a second, which show are we play? In
the audio from tarn I've lost track of all the
shows Joe was on today. This is the one with
Chris Carton. All those I'll make an admission here those
FS one shows all, they all blend together. I know

(39:35):
they've redone their lineup. There's The Herd with Colin cower Heard,
which has been on that network for like ten years.
The rest of those shows, I think Nick Wright is
really good at what he does. But the rest of
those they all sort of think breakfast Ball with Chris
Carton who went to jail for a while. So that's
nice breakfast Ball. You're gonna hear show Burrow from something

(40:01):
called breakfast Ball, which is a golf reference. I get it,
something called breakfast ball on but you got there's uh
doing this off the top of my mind. On the
top of my head. You got breakfast Ball. Then there's
the facility, and then they're undisputed is not a thing anymore? Right?

Speaker 4 (40:18):
Nope?

Speaker 3 (40:19):
And then what's the other one they got? First? First
things first, Okay, who's on that one?

Speaker 4 (40:25):
I can't tell you.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Is they come back to work? Was he on the day?

Speaker 4 (40:34):
I'm not sure I've seen them?

Speaker 3 (40:35):
Yeah, I hope. So, I mean he he literally like
started his show on Monday. Then he's like, I'm sorry,
I'm gonna get sick. I gotta go. And he was
not on his show on Tuesday, and Colin has his critics.
I Colin Colin's show is on at the same time
as since He three sixty and I listened to sincey
three sixty. But I actually do think that as sports

(40:56):
talk radio host, go Colin Cowhurt is excellent. And it's
not been because I agree with his takes. In fact,
I disagree about fifty percent of the time, but I
tune I turn him on what I do because I
don't know what his take is gonna be. And I
just think he's really good at the fundamentals of getting
in an out of breaks and stuff. It just as

(41:18):
a nerd, I think he's good at what he does,
so I hope he's'll get the rest of those shows.
I have no idea that's neither here. You're gonna hear
Joe Burrow on breakfast Ball in just a second. But
could you imagine Joe Burrow going on breakfast Ball and
just tossing Duke Tobin under the bus. Lucho Acosta did
that with his team's version of Duke Tobin. Luciano Acosta

(41:38):
was the MVP two years ago of the entire league
for FC Cincinnati. FC Cincinnati is getting set to started
season and you know he when they lost in the
playoffs last year, started to talk about like I might
be done here, and he told Laurel failure of a
Queen City Press, my move out of Cincinnati is because
of Chris Albright and then he go go subscribe to

(42:02):
her newsletter. It's terrific. I'm not going to give away
all her content, but basically says like I'm cool with
everybody here, I'm cool with fans, I'm cool with the teammates,
like everybody's good. I just don't like this dude. This
dude is the reason why you know, we can't hang
on to players and we haven't won. I mean, he
tossed him under the bus. So Laurel had this story

(42:23):
yesterday and she is going to join us in just
about twenty five minutes. But it's basically, Joe Burrow is
not an MVP. He's an MVP finalist. But FC Cincinnati's
Joe Burrow through their duke Tobin under the bus and
did it to Laurel. And she published a piece like
right when we were going off the air yesterday, So
we got her on this afternoon right now. More from

(42:46):
a Joe Burrow's media blitz down there in New Orleans
Radio Row. He was on Breakfast Ball. Has Craig Carton?
And do we know who else is on that show?

Speaker 4 (42:58):
Well, when Burrow was on there, like Mark.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Mark, Mark Shlahrish, marsh Lare does games for Fox, was
on ESPN for a while.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
One more dope, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
There's one more dope that we don't know. So you
got Craig Carton, a former felon uh and you got
Mark Schlareth who played in the NFL, and some other
dope and they're on breakfast Ball, and so is Joe Burrow.
And here's part of that audio.

Speaker 15 (43:22):
Do you have the faith in the Brown family and
the Bengals organization to do what Philly has done San
Francisco has done, and that spend and spend and spend
so that they don't waste these prime years of a
generational quarterback?

Speaker 9 (43:37):
Yeah? I do. I do.

Speaker 7 (43:38):
You know we have the capsudates to get it done,
and I know you know I want to make it happen.
Everybody involved, Trey t Jamar, Mike Gee, we all want
to stay together. And so when you have guys that
are motivated like that, I think you know you can
get those things out.

Speaker 15 (43:52):
So they said, hey, we need you to restructure.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
It's something you would consider.

Speaker 15 (43:56):
Not knowing what the numbers are, you belong to least
have that type of conversation to keep the core guys together.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Of course you got him right. There's a Joe Burrow
with Craig Craig cart and all kidding aside is and
I don't watch that show, but when he was on
WFA and in New York was terrific. And also on
that show as Danny Parkins, who was a former sports
talk radio host in Chicago, who is awesome. Yeah, these
guys never talked about me on their show. SHO, why
should I talk about that? But anyway, there's Joe Burrow

(44:23):
and he said, we got the cap space. He folded
into the conversation Mike Kasicki. I heard him reference Mike G.
I don't know if that's what we're gonna start calling him,
but Mike Kasicki and he said, we have the cap space,
and they do have the cap space. And they have
the cap space because you can create more cap space.
There are three c's here to this entire dynamic. Start

(44:45):
with cap space. The Bengals have the cap space. Now
understand Trey Hendrickson, he's under contract for next year, and
Jamar Chase is under contract for next year. Like that's
those are things those players cannot walk. Those are things. Now,
you might want an extension for Jamar Chase, but that's

(45:07):
really not going to have a huge impact on twenty
twenty five. T Higgins is not under contract, so his
extension has a major impact on twenty twenty five. You
could extend Trey Hendrickson and not really impact what he's
getting in twenty twenty five. But they do have cap space,
especially if you look at the lengthy list of players
that should at least be considered for cuts, like unfortunately

(45:33):
Sam Hubbard, right, and like Jermaine Pratt, and like Alex Kappa,
and like Sheldon Rankins, like Gino Stone, and there are others.
But and you know, like this is this is a
departure from how the Bengals have done things in the past,
where if you signed a contract with the Bengals, and
if it was a four year contract, you were going

(45:54):
to play there for four years, they were not going
to cut you. They've changed over the last decade or so,
and so there are a lot of players, some you
might argue could use a change of scenery and be
better elsewhere. And some, you might argue, are still useful,
but not for what they're due financially, Sam Hubbard. Some
might be useful with a different coordinator, let's say Geno Stone.

(46:16):
But based on what we saw last year, there's a
long list of guys who collectively represent an enormous chunk
of money that if you got rid of all of them,
suddenly you've got even more cap space. They've got cap space.
That's one of the seas. Another one of the seas
is cooperation. Joe was just asked about a restructure. He's

(46:41):
open to it. He's talked in other interviews about you know,
we've we're all gonna do what it takes. We're all
gonna do what it takes. That's cooperation. Hey, look, I
understand some of the financial issues here. I understand what
do Tobin and the front office have to accomplish. They've

(47:02):
got a lot of holes to plug, we've got a
lot of areas to fill. We have a lot of
work to do. But I want to keep these guys
together on the team with me. We've talked about it.
There's cooperation. What we don't know is Paul Danner Junior
and I talked about this on his podcast yesterday, The Growler,
which obviously you should be listening to. We talked about

(47:24):
T Higgins and he asked me point blank, if you
were T Higgins, would you take less to play in Cincinnati.
It's easy for me to say, I am a Bengals fan.
B it's not my life, but I would take less
to play with Joe Burrow and be an icon in
this town. If he leaves elsewhere and goes and makes
more money, good for him. Good for him. He's earned

(47:45):
this right. But there at least seems to be an
insinuation that T. Higgins is at least open to taking
less to play in Cincinnati. Will he I have no idea,
Should he? That's up to him. Does he have an obligation?
Of course not so. There does seem to be a
level of cooperation here. There's also creativity. Look, Joe Burrow

(48:14):
is putting pressure on the Bengals to sign T Higgins.
I'm sure he also understands we've got to upgrade the
offensive line. We've got a defense that needs a lot
of fixing. We've got a lot of things that have
to get done. This offseason. He said, how huge this
offseason was. We've got an offense where we've got to

(48:37):
We've got to nail at this offseason. So what are
the Bengals gonna have to do. They're gonna have to
be creative. They're gonna have to be creative and free agency.
There's gonna be money to spend on other free agents.
Not every free agent's a star. Not every free agent's
a household name. DJ Reider was not a household name
when he came here. Now, they're probably not gonna be

(48:58):
overpaying for a player I could DJ Reader this offseason,
especially if they pay everybody else. But not every free
agent acquisition is a household name. Did you know who
Mike Hilton was before the Bengals got him great acquisition?
Did you know anything about Trey Hendrickson before the Bengals
got him great acquisition? So they're gonna have to be
creative and free agency find players who fit fine, players

(49:20):
who are still as sending. You know, this is why
I was all in on the Geno Stone thing and
it didn't work out, because it felt like that guy
is still on the way up, So get him while
he's still on the way up. Not at his peak.
There are players like that, many of whom I believe
you can get for a relatively small amount of money.

(49:42):
And then there's the draft. Man. I keep coming back
to this, the Bengals track record in drafting is spotty
at best. Now, they took some players last year who
I think have a chance to be really good. And
if you look at the top of this draft, removed
Jermaine Burton for a second. And if we judge the
draft by what you do the first couple of days,

(50:03):
there's a chance that the twenty twenty four draft for
the Bengals is going to go down as a pretty
good one. With the Marius Mems and Chris Jenkins and
McKinley Jackson. Like, there's some some good players there, and
they've recently drafted you know, Chase Brown two years ago.
They've they've had their successes. But if you look at
the draft choices on defense, a lot of misses, a
lot of misses. That has to change. But it has

(50:26):
to change no matter what they do with t Higgins.
This is a theme we touched on in great detail yesterday.
The problem isn't letting great players get away. The problem
is their plans to replace them never work. That's a
drafting issue, it's a development issue. That's a drafting issue,
and a development issue that's got to change. That's gotta
change no matter what they do with t. So the

(50:48):
onus is on Duke Tobin and the front office. And yes,
the onus is on Duke Tobin in the front office
to satisfy Joe Burrow and give him what he wants.
And he obviously wants tea, and he obviously wants an
extension for and he obviously wants a nice tidy ending
to the Jamar Chase thing. He will acknowledge there are
other things to get done well, if you have the

(51:09):
cap space, if you are creative, if you're resourceful, if
you're good at your job, you ought to be able
to get those things done. And by the way, like
this team will have needs next season. At the end
of the year, we will be talking about Bengals team needs.
Bengals had team needs when they went to the Super
Bowl in twenty twenty one, didn't they Right, They had

(51:30):
a big, major one in the offensive line. So everything
doesn't have to be fixed to perfection. You're not gonna
have a Pro Bowl player in every position. Right, You're
not gonna have the best player at his position in
the league at every single spot. It's got to be
fixed well enough for Joe Burrow to take what you
build for him and get you to the super Bowl,

(51:52):
which he thinks he can do and most of us
think he can do. The Bengals camp situation is pretty enviable,
all things considered. Where the Bengals are starting from is
pretty enviable all things considered, because they've got one of
the best quarterbacks in the sport, maybe the best. They

(52:14):
have players who want to be here, like, don't discount
that either man. For all the noise that Trey Hendrickson
made yesterday, he didn't say he wants out. Dude wants
to be here. So does t Higgins. He's never said
I want out. Jamar Chase wants to be here. That's

(52:35):
a pretty damn good place. The NFL gives teams seven
draft choices, seven young, cheap players every year. There has
never been more importance on the draft than right now.
With quarterbacks getting what they're getting, with the upper class
players getting what they're getting, you need cheap labor to

(52:57):
help you immediately. You can't have a Dax Hill. You
can't have a Miles Murphy. You can't have players that
you're still waiting two three years in to find out
what they can do. So that's on Duke Tobin, that's
on the personnel department, that's on the scouting department, and
that's on the coaching staff. This is the case no

(53:18):
matter what. But you're gonna get a bunch of really
cheap players in the draft, a bunch of them. Any
guys that can help you immediately, man immediately, that's going
to be the case, with or without t Higgins. You've
got to nail it in free agency. It's admittedly easier
to nail it in free agency the more you can spend,

(53:41):
but boy, there are plenty of instances in this league
of general managers maybe not having as much to spend
and still finding solutions. Duke Tobin a few years ago
was the Executive of the Year and deserved it, But
now is really when we find out how good he is.
Can you satisfy your quarterback? Can you work with him

(54:02):
and others to keep that group together? Can you use
the draft choices? Can you be creative and free agency?
If the answers are yes, let's see what Joe Burrow
can do and judge him on the results. Cab Space,
Creativity and Cooperation twenty minutes after four o'clock. Your phone

(54:24):
calls are welcome. Five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty.
Laurel Faylor will be on this show in fifteen minutes
to find out why Lucho Acosta is mad at his
general manager and if there's any chance of him playing
for the team this year. And Travis Steel joins us
at five thirty five on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 11 (54:41):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 13 (54:47):
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(55:09):
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Speaker 3 (55:19):
It's sponsored by We're broadcasting tomorrow from Twin Peaks in Westchester,
So you should come to Twin Peaks in Westchester and
have a beer, start your weekend with us, get a
meatball skillet. We you know, we haven't done the Tony
and Mo football show in like a month. And then
you know because we're there every Monday during football season.

(55:40):
And then we typically do two shows at Twin Peaks.
And Tony won't be with me tomorrow, but two shows
at Twin Peaks. We do the show the Friday before
the Super Bowl, and then we do a show on
the Monday of the college basketball National Championship game. And
so we go this long stretch of time where on
Mondays at to Twin Peaks during football season, I get

(56:03):
the meat ball skillet. And then not that I don't
swing by Twin Peaks here and there, but I don't
live in Westchester and i don't live in Florence, so
I've got to be in the area. Tomorrow will be
at Twin Peaks and I'll get my meatball skillet. So
I invite you to join me and get a beer
and a meatball.

Speaker 4 (56:23):
Skill it any chance somebody can drop a meatball skillet
off at the station.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
Okay, we'll see if anybody will swing by Twin Peaks
tomorrow and then come here and bring a meat ball
skillet to Terren Bland.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
I mean, I'm part of the show too. I would
like to some food.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
Well, yeah, that's fine. I'm gonna be busy doing the show.
But if during the show we can get someone to
stop off to go to Twin Peaks in Westchester and
then get in their car and drive to Kenwood and
bring the meatball skillet to Terran, You'll be the ESPN
fifteen thirty listener of the week. How's that saying? What

(57:00):
are we doing here? Let's see I need more mice
in the studio. Rob, You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon,
how are you. I'm doing great.

Speaker 10 (57:10):
Mo.

Speaker 8 (57:11):
I just want to say I'm on the same page
you are. I mean, let's look at the facts. Jeeb
BurrH is the best quarterback we've ever had. The guys,
gave up his body numerous times, been through hell. Give
him what he wants. I'm totally on the same page.
T Sign Trey Tamarr, everybody else in the organization. Figure

(57:34):
it out. So I've been hearing about Mo Mo Mo
or not Mo, but doup Dooke let's play the game,
Mo Tobin, your first pick in the first round, and
one free agent that you want to see signed.

Speaker 3 (57:49):
Well, I am ill qualified to give you the player
that I want to take in the draft right now,
because I haven't even started with that. I am I
will admit to you to being complet deletely ill prepared
to answer that question because my my brain hasn't gone
there yet. So I'm I'm looking if i'm if I'm
looking for like you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna spend

(58:11):
a lot of money and make a big splash. First,
I'm gonna do so on the offensive line or defensive line,
and probably more likely the defensive line, and so, you know,
just in large part because I feel like, I feel
like they're gonna be guards available. I need, I need,

(58:31):
I need an upgrade at one position on the offensive line.
Now there are two of them guards. I feel like
I can do that in the draft and by finding
a free agent who's not an absolute, you know, top
tier guy. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna start on the
defensive line, and I'm gonna start on the interior of
the defensive line because I feel like, once upon a
time when they rebuilt their defense. They started with the

(58:52):
DJ Reader, And so I am. I am gonna look
first and foremost, and this is this is probably an
absolute pipe dream, but I'm gonna look at Milton Williams,
who's gonna play on Sunday.

Speaker 8 (59:04):
And I love that pick because he's athletic and he
brings some pass rush from the three techniques.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
Absolutely graded very high as a pass rusher this year.
Graded very high as a run stopper two years ago,
not quite as high this year. Still just twenty five
years old, not a lot of wear and tear. Kind
of a rotational guy in Philly up until this year.
So you get him fresh, you get him young, you're
gonna have to pay him a ton. I'm the first
to admit that you gotta pay him a ton of

(59:30):
What that looks like, I don't know. But if you're
just making it about the player, I watch what he
did against the Commanders in the NFC Championship game. Monster,
absolute monster. I see. I see specifically what they need.
A pass rusher from up the middle, a guy that
can occupy blockers, a guy who has had success against
the run, a guy who is not coming off of

(59:52):
major injury. A guy who doesn't have a lot of
wear and tear, a guy who's an anchor of a
good defensive line in Philadelphia, he might exceed their price range.
But if you're just making it about who is the
number one player in free agency that I want, that's
the guy.

Speaker 8 (01:00:10):
All right, man in the in the draft, I mean,
you gotta go. It's coming in a half hour in
the draft. I've been doing some research, keeping out on
the old myths. D lineman. He's very athletic and strong.
He's about two hundred and eighty pounds actually ten ninety five.
And watch out for there's a few linemen. There's a
lineman from Bolson's Bolson's College really good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
He's really good.

Speaker 8 (01:00:35):
And needs to be there for us. And in the
first round or second round.

Speaker 16 (01:00:39):
He's very good. Guard center.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Yeah, they're gonna have to rob thank you. They're gonna
they're gonna have to They're gonna have to find better guards.
And and I'm I'm I'm of the belief that you
can find a quality guard in free agency that's not
going to break the bank. And I think you have
to prioritize that position of the draft that might not
necessarily mean a first round pick, but they they used

(01:01:04):
a second rounder in twenty twenty one on a guard.
Didn't work out. But yeah, that's it's funny. I jotted
down for next week combine guests, because then we'll start
the draft process. I've been completely ignorant as to such

(01:01:25):
developments to this point. But watch Mount Williams on Sunday games.
It's about the player, the player in the position. That's
that's that's The guy might not be able to afford him,
or he may get at a lot of offers. He
may get an offer that's more money elsewhere. But young, versatile,

(01:01:48):
ascending this year. He was not equally good in pass
rush and run stop, but he has a track record
of being good against the run. So that's my guy.
And against Washington, go back to the NFC Championship game,
he was awesome. What is also awesome is when a
star player just rolls his GM under the bus. Maybe

(01:02:10):
it's not awesome for the GM, but it's fun to
talk about. Lucho Costa did that in a story Broken
by a Laurel failure of the Queen City Press, which
is her newsletter, and awesome. She joins us.

Speaker 11 (01:02:20):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from.

Speaker 13 (01:02:27):
trusts the experts at U. See help for innovative and
personalized heartcare. Expect more at UCHealth dot com. On Mary
Ingles Highway, it's an accident between New Richmond and Painter Road.
Traffic is being directed around that area. Please use an

(01:02:49):
alternate route. And northbound seventy one accident on the right
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with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
This report is ESPN fifty thirty im oegor thank you
for listening today. Yesterday, right when we were wrapping up,
I subscribed to Queen City Press, which is the FC
Cincinnati publication newsletter authored by Laurel Faylor, who does an
awesome job covering the Orange and Blue, and and she

(01:03:18):
published a piece yesterday where Lucho Acosta kind of went
scorched earth on Chris Albright, the GM of FC Cincinnati,
and says, look, this guy's pushing me out, and I'm
cool with everybody else, but I'm not cool with Chris.
The situation with Chris running the clubs not working on
paraphrasing him here. If you want to read the piece,
go get it. You should subscribe if you're a fan

(01:03:39):
of FC Cincinnati Queencitypress dot net. Uh and so I
wanted to get Laurel on to talk about this because
the season's about to start and it feels like chaos
is unfolding with FC Cincinnati. It's it's good to have you, Laurel.
How are you.

Speaker 10 (01:03:53):
I'm doing okay. Thanks for having me on. I was
happy to talk some FC Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
Well, yeah, and there's and there's a lot to talk
about and the season hasn't even started. There's a lot
here that you wrote about yesterday, and I think the
fallout is going to be interesting to follow him. I'm
kind of curious when when Lucho Acosta is kind of unloading,
for lack of a better term, on Chris alright, and
you're his audience, what's going through your mind?

Speaker 10 (01:04:19):
I would say it's it's a little stressful because obviously,
you know, I cover the club. I need to you know,
I am there for players. You know, I try to
give a voice to the players. But you know, he
had some pretty, you know, not great things to say
about Chris Alright. So, I mean I had to go
to the club, and in that sense, you almost feel

(01:04:42):
like you're betraying the player because I'm basically taking what
he's saying and giving it to the club and they
get to respond. So but you know, that's the job
of a journalist is to try to be fair and
at the club did deserve a chance to respond. I
did try to reach Chris all Right specifically, and he
he did not respond. The club just wanted to go

(01:05:02):
on and do a statement. So yeah, I mean, it
was just it's kind of feels like he said, she
said things when you get into this type of stuff.
But something we deal with in sports where players are
going to be unhappy with their situation and if they
get frustrated enough, they want to air it out. And
so that's that's kind of what happened here. You know,

(01:05:24):
the club is supporting Chris all Right through this. So
Luke chosen preseason with the team right now still training
off to the side, and there's just a lot of
uncertainty I think about what happens next.

Speaker 3 (01:05:37):
Yeah, uncertainty, and I'm sure, at least to a degree,
some awkwardness. Where where did this start to go wrong.

Speaker 10 (01:05:45):
Well, he takes it back to the end of the
twenty twenty three season. Now, that was the year that
FC Cincinnati won the Supporter Shield. He was the league
MVP and he just got a contract extension at the
end of it. He and his statement to me went
through some of the players that he felt like the
club turned its back on or you know, there were

(01:06:09):
the roster did get overhauled basically after that season, which
was I would say pretty surprising just to have a
Supporters Shield season and then basically five returning starters the
next year. Now a lot of them they couldn't bring back.
Brandon Vasquez, they sold, Alvaro Barrial wanted to move on,
and then you know yours and Maskira was only here

(01:06:31):
on loan, so he had to go back to Wolverhampton
in the Premier League. He's not gonna stay here. But
there are a couple of guys that had options declined
that they you know, the club did try to negotiate
to bring back, which he mentioned like Junior Marino and
santi Arius, two guys he was really comfortable with, He
was good friends with them. He felt like there was

(01:06:53):
too much overhaul. Basically that they needed some continuity and
the roster, which makes sense. But at the same time,
you know, he's not a GM and Chris alright has
a vision of how he's going to build a roster.
He does have a salary cap he has to deal with,
so depending on what salary demands were like, he might
not have been able to work it out with those players.

(01:07:13):
So I kind of see both sides, like it's a
tough job for a GM and a salary cap league.
But you know, you also see that Lucho probably when
he signed that extension as a league MVP felt like
they building around him and he had some players he
was comfortable with, and the club ended up kind of
turning away from those guys, as he put it. So

(01:07:35):
that's kind of where it started. Then he goes into
kind of just he didn't have a good relationship with Chris.
Chris wasn't returning his text messages and so I don't
you know, it's I know, last year was a really
challenging year for him personally too. He mentioned at the
end of the season that he had some family matters
that he was dealing with, and so I think it's
just all all the frustrations of you know, he's very competitive,

(01:07:58):
and they ended up losing the first round of playoffs.
That factors into and so I think we saw a
lot of those emotions come out right after the last
playoff game, when he kind of told us that he
was looking to move on. And then, you know, I
don't know, I know the club was working on trying
to move him this off season and that didn't work out.
So he's reported late to the preseason. It just seems

(01:08:21):
like it all kind of came to a head here
recently and he just kind of wanted to let the
fans know what why he wanted to leave.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
Yeah, it's it's pretty interesting laurel failure. At Queen City Press,
you you know, you cover this team very objectively, and
so what's interesting to me is, you know, we get
folks on who called these games and talk FC Cincinnati,
and they always talk about well, Pat Newton and Chris
Albright and what a great job they've done, and I mean,
the results certainly in twenty twenty three spoke for themselves.

(01:08:51):
And so I guess there's a part of me that's like,
wait a minute, this guy who has been given a
lot of credit for you know the way this this
club has turned into, and you know, one of the
best teams in Major League Soccer in a very short
amount of time. Suddenly a guy who's a league MVP
is unloading on him. And so, from where you sit,
what what criticisms of Chris Albright are are fair and

(01:09:12):
maybe which ones are a little bit unfair?

Speaker 10 (01:09:17):
I would say, I mean, there is kind of a
theme that we're hearing with because this is an odd preseason,
and that Luca is not the only one that didn't
show up. Luca Origano and Yuya Kubo we're both late
as well, and you kind of start to wonder there
the communication aspects of somewhere these guys are either not

(01:09:40):
understanding how the roster is being built, they don't understand
the salary cap. Is that something maybe needs to be
communicated better from the GM. I would say, if it
gets to the point where they're not showing up, then
that's where maybe Chris needs to have some I don't know,
I'm not there, I'm not in the room. I don't
know what conversations he has had, but it just seems
like they're not on the same page in that regard.

(01:10:03):
You know, you can't really, uh, there's not much as
far as the roster. They you know, look at where
they were their first three years in MLS. You you
have to see that when Chris Albright got here, it
was a complete change. He brought in Pat noon In.
He had a lot of the pieces that were brought
in by former general manager Gerard and I Camp and

(01:10:24):
like Luco was signed by him, and a lot of
the pieces that have really led to a lot of
the success of the team did come from that former GM,
But it took bringing in a guy like Pat noon
In that really and really a GM that understood the
mechanisms that MLS. You know, all their roster rules are
really unique and it's challenging for a foreign GM to

(01:10:45):
to manage. So Chris came in and really did a
strong job of find finding ways to maneuver those intriccees
that are involved in building an MLS roster, and they
ended up with the first trophy for the club in
MLS in twenty twenty three. So, you know, he obviously

(01:11:06):
understands what it takes to win in MLS. You could say,
you know, he hasn't done great at the forward position.
The forwards he's brought in to this point, Aaron Bupenza
ended up being a train wreck and they ended up
having to terminate his contract. They tried at the deadline
in the summer, they tried, you know, really hard to

(01:11:26):
bring in some really good forwards, and as Chris put it,
they were kind of left at the altar at the
end and they ended up having to bring Nico Giochini
on loan and he ended up with no goals, no assists,
and he was on a DP spot. So there is
questions to what he can do at that forward position,
and that's a position that's really impacting Lucco, like he's

(01:11:47):
the creator and he needs the forward he can work with.
They did bring in Kevin Denka that there's a lot
of high expectations for him. He was a top goal
scorer in Europe over the last two years in Belgium,
so there's hope there. But it's just a little concerning that.
You know, Luco's not on a field to work with
him at this point. There's a lot of uncertainty there.

(01:12:09):
So I would say just the criticisms with what he's
done at that forward position are probably valid to this point,
but it's still kind of a well, we got to
see how it goes this year, and then maybe we
can reevaluate that he's had some you know, he took
a risk on Aaron Bupenza and it didn't work out.
You're not gonna be perfect on every signing, so that

(01:12:30):
would be probably the main thing that I think could
be a valid At this.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
Point, preseason training begins and maybe a week or so
in Pat noon and kind of sounds off on the
guys who aren't there, And there were a lot of
us who found that pretty refreshing. What did you make
of what he had to say about the players who,
at least at the time, weren't at preseason training.

Speaker 10 (01:12:53):
Man, I'm stillful of writing about all this. I can't
imagine how it is for Pat. You're having to deal
with all this. Like he he's the guy that's supposed
to be able to work with these players, and from
my understanding, like the players do have good relationships with him.
He's gotten a lot out of the players that have
been brought in, and you know, he's done a pretty

(01:13:14):
solid job as as a manager of this team. But yeah,
he doesn't have these pieces on the field. There's a
lot of injuries right now. It's just feels like they're
had I mean that two weeks from there, from the
first game, and there's just a lot of uncertainity if
they don't have a left back in yet. So he

(01:13:35):
is trying to deal with all this. I think he's
very frustrated. From those comments, you could tell he was
trying to put pressure that they have an obligation to
the team. You know, they do have contracts, so that
is a real thing. But to me, it's kind of
like Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase are, you know, going

(01:13:55):
through contract disputes right now. You could kind of equate
it to that if you want to. Lujo is the
Joe Buro of FC Cincinnati, and so the fact that
he's not on the field they don't have a replacement
for him is pretty concerning, and you can kind of
feel that frustration from Pat Noonan in every interview he's
doing at this point.

Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
Yeah, it feels it feels chaotic. And the season doesn't
start in April, it starts here in two weeks. I
will admit to you this as a newer soccer follower
over the last ten years, that sometimes when I read
about transactions, I get really confused, So explain this to me, Like,
I'm like, I'm nine years old. What's next for Lucho

(01:14:37):
and is there any possibility that he is in the
Orange and Blue when the season starts actually playing games.

Speaker 10 (01:14:45):
Well, he did have an opportunity to transfer to Argentina,
so it's kind of like a trade. They can sell
Luco to another team in another league. They can also
trade him with in the league. Now there's these cash trades.

Speaker 14 (01:15:03):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (01:15:03):
Previously you had to trade for allocation money, which is
just a way to buy down players salaries so that
they're under the salary cap. But right now, the biggest
opportunity that seems on the table is is what would
bring them back to his home country in Argentina. FC

(01:15:25):
Cincinnati and Studiantes in Yeah, in Argentina have come to
a transfer an agreement on a transfer fee, so they
agree on what would be paid to SC Cincinnati to
buy Luco's contract, But Luco has not agreed to a contract,
and my understanding is the verbal discussions they're pretty far apart.

(01:15:49):
Luco's making four point two million dollars here and I
think the highest paid players there are making about a million,
So I don't know what the offer is, but I
don't see that one happening, and unless there's an MLS
team that's going to swoop in, which could happen. Teams
are kind of at the end of the you know,
right before the season, you kind of tend to see

(01:16:10):
a flurry of movements just trying to finalize his rosters.
There's a player named a vander that's with Portland and
he's on in camp with them right now. He's kind
of dealing with some things with them and that he
wants to leave, and he would be a suitable replacement
for Luco. They're very similar in their attacking skills. But

(01:16:33):
I would say right now two weeks from the season,
unless you know, I guess you have to kind of
plan on Luco being there. But if he's not even
in training with the team at this point, it kind
of seems like they're really trying to move on.

Speaker 3 (01:16:48):
So one more, you're generous with your time. Laurel Faylor
Queen City Press. You know, he's the MVP two years
ago and they had the best team at least in
the regular season in the league. And even though last
year kind of got sideways over the second half of
the season, you know, they were still considered a contender
in the Eastern Conference, and Luco at times last year
it felt like they were asking him to do way

(01:17:09):
too much. If you take him off of this year's team,
how many wrongs do you knock him down?

Speaker 10 (01:17:16):
I mean, I think by the summer they they would
be able to rally. I think they have enough talent
on this team that they can still you know, the defense.
I think if Matt Miask is back, I think they're
gonna be a lot better defensively. Hopefully that can keep
them in a lot of games. But I mean, he
is You saw anyone that watches this team when Luco

(01:17:39):
was not on the field because he's injury or whatever
was going on, it looked a lot different. So it
is a huge piece to be missing. It's like relying
on you know, Big Browning instead of Joe Burrow. You know,
they did okay, you know, but they didn't make the playoffs,
and yeah, so I would say it, it doesn't look

(01:18:03):
great not having him on the field. He is there, creative.
They'd spend all this money, sixteen point two million dollars
to bring in this new forward, Kevin Denka, and they
have no one to throw them ball to him to
put it in football terms, like he's I guess the
Jamar chase now, So yeah, it's it's gonna look a
lot different without Luto. That's why it's so critical that

(01:18:26):
they either figure this out and get a replacement in
as soon as possible, or I just I don't know
how they're gonna manage without him.

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
This points Subscribe to Laurel's work, go to Queencitypress dot net.
It'll be worth your time and your money. If you're
an FC Cincinnati fan, I can thank you enough for
doing this. I hope you do it again and enjoy
what's left of the preseason. It feels like every day
there's something new, so we'll be reading. Thanks so much,
thank you, you got it. Laurel Faylor, Queen Citypress dot net.

(01:18:56):
A chaotic preseason and offseas for FC Cincinnati. We associate
the Bengals right now with chaos. Chaos is the word
of the day there with the Orange and Blue. With
the season opener closing in very very quickly, eight away
from five o'clock, Joe Burrows media tour was kicked in
the hyperdrive today. He didn't say much that was new

(01:19:19):
but he did talk. I love it. We'll get to
that the Bearcats won last night, which is important. How
they won matters a lot more, and we'll spend a
few minutes with Travis Steel as well. Coming up at
five thirty five, plus a poll question that I just
put on Twitter at Moeger Thanks to my friends and
yours at United Heartland Insurance. A lot to get to

(01:19:40):
between now and six on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 11 (01:19:45):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 13 (01:19:50):
trusts the experts that you see. Help for innovative and
personalized heartcare. Expect more at uc health dot com. Northbound
seventy five after Mitchell Avenue disabled vehicle moved onto the
right shoulder on northbound seventy one. Accident on the right

(01:20:13):
shoulder between Red Bank and Stuart Road and Kellogg Avenue
and accident at eight Mile Road. I'm at Ezelek with
traffic this report.

Speaker 3 (01:20:21):
It's sponsored by Staples Stewart w Here's.

Speaker 4 (01:20:23):
The Bengals now.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
Like ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:20:31):
His word's not mine. It's five. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty on Molegran. Thank you for listening, how for having
an Austin Thursday.

Speaker 10 (01:20:43):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:20:44):
In thirty minutes, Travis Steele joins us Miami. Miami is
a good team this year, one loss of the MAC.
They've bounced back nicely from their game against Akron, which
call it what it is. They got blown out, but
they have They have bounced back nicely. They are offensively,
really fun to watch, and their next two games were

(01:21:04):
at home. So m u's head coach is going to
join us. Always enjoy having Travis on the show and
have for many years, so we look forward to that.
Coming up in thirty minutes, you'll hear Wes Miller in
the aftermath of his team's performance last night. The takeaway
from the UC win last night is similar to the
takeaway from UC's loss on Sunday. I'll explain why coming

(01:21:26):
up in just about fifteen minutes. The Joe Burrow media
tour really got underway today. Today was his day in
the spotlight. So he's down there. He's in New Orleans.
All the major sports talk shows, all the major TV shows,
all those shows where they shout at each other. I
guess they're all down there in New Orleans, and so
Joe is making the rounds and he's being asked a
lot of the same questions, and you know what the

(01:21:47):
answers are going to be. I'll play one of the
pieces of audio for you. This is from first take.
He's on first take, and I want you to listen
to Joe's answer to the question that he gets here
from Steven A. Smith. I also want you to listen
to the reaction that Joe Burrow gets from the people
that he's talking to on first take, Tar and go
ahead hit that.

Speaker 5 (01:22:06):
I have to confess I'm very worried about you with
what you're saying. We got to keep Jama Chase, we
got to keep t Higgins, we got to keep it.
You got to keep a whole bunch. This is Cincinnati now,
I mean, this is that ownership. You you confident that
they're gonna be They're going to be willing to keep
all of those guys.

Speaker 7 (01:22:24):
The cap is going up each year, we just got
new TV deals, continue to go on money, yep. And
you know we're we all want to stay together, so
we're all going to do what it takes to do that.
And you know, we have great players that have done
great things and deserve to be paid. They're going to
be paid what they're worth, whether we do it or

(01:22:44):
somebody else. I hope we do it. I think you know,
we've had the discussions that the guys are going to
get paid that need to get paid, and so it's
a it's a big offseason for the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (01:22:55):
He got laughed at. He's giving his answer. Can I
get Taran get one more time? Because I just this
is just it's funny. We we've been in that situation
where like you get asked a question and while you're
answering it, the person is maybe it just happens to
me and Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow and I have that
in common. You're giving the answer and you're getting laughed.

(01:23:16):
I give that to me one more time.

Speaker 7 (01:23:19):
The cap is going up each year. We just got
new TV deals for continue to go a money yep,
and you know we're we all want to stay together,
so we're all going to do what it takes to
do that. And you know, we have great players that
have done great things and deserve to be paid. They're
going to be paid what they're worth, whether we do

(01:23:39):
it or somebody else.

Speaker 3 (01:23:40):
I hope we do it.

Speaker 7 (01:23:41):
I think, you know, we've had the discussions that the
guys are going to get paid that need to get paid,
and so it's a it's a big off season for
the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (01:23:49):
It's a big off season for the Bengals, you know.
Austin Elmore, part of Since E three sixty before us
from Noon to three on ESPN fifteen thirty, made the
point that Joe Burrow is putting pressure on the Bengals,
and that's obviously something he has been doing now for
quite a while, but he's also to a degree, putting
pressure on his teammates. Austin mentioned this today on Since

(01:24:12):
He three sixty and put it on social media as well. Like,
you know, he keeps talking about like we we're gonna
do what it takes. We're all gonna do what it takes.
I mean, to a degree that is kind of it's
pointing the finger at the front office, and maybe to
a degree it's pointing the finger at himself. But there's
also like we want guys to get paid, but like
guys getting paid and doing what it takes doesn't mean

(01:24:33):
handing over a blank check. Jamar Chase, more than anybody
in this conversation here, has earned the right to demand
a blank check. He was the best wide receiver in
the sport. Last year, he won the Triple Crown. He's
been awesome since he got here. The asking price was
enormous and understandably so last summer and since last summer

(01:24:54):
he had an unbelievable twenty twenty four. Might be named
the Offensive Player of the Year tonight, and so blank
check for him. They're not going to give a blank
check to t Higgins and that they're not going to
give a blank check to Trey Hendrickson. And so there's
something to that here. It's it's about Duke Tobin, it's
about the front office, and it's about Joe Burrow throwing
his weight around or putting a squeeze on him. But

(01:25:16):
it's it is to a degree, it's also about his teammates.
There are two parts of that that you just heard,
beyond them laughing at him, that you can you can
choose to read into. One is the we're all gonna
do what it takes now, We're all is it's it's
him in the front office. It's him and Tea. It's
him and Trey, it's him and Mike is sicky, it's

(01:25:37):
it's him and Jamarga. We're all gonna do what it takes.
And he also talked about we've had discussions those two things.
I think you could try to read into and and
and you can read into it this way, hey, based
on knowing that we're all gonna do what it takes,
and based on the discussions we've had, I can speak

(01:25:58):
with confidence that this can be done and will be done.
That's good. Or you could read into it this way
based on the discussions we've had. I'm gonna have to
put more public pressure to get what I want. This
is awesome. It is creating discomfort. The Bengals are having

(01:26:22):
their cage rattled. That's not a bad thing. This is
a franchise that has long existed in its own comfort zone.
They've deviated from it in recent years on a few occasions,
but it is a franchise that has often existed in
its it's its comfort zone. I'm going to guess that

(01:26:42):
Joe Burrow doing this makes them at least slightly uncomfortable.
That's okay. By the way he's putting pressure on the Bengals.
He's also kind of putting pressure on himself. Like in
any situation, if you go to your boss and you say,

(01:27:03):
I need this, I need this, I need this, I
need these things, do what you gotta do to get them,
and then you don't get the job done, guess who
the finger gets pointed at. Hey, you think about it,
like Joe Burrow. The Bengals didn't make the playoffs this year.
Joe Burrow got and deserved a pass that there are

(01:27:27):
people who yell and screen that he's not elite because
the Bengals didn't make the postseason, which makes it feel
like it's on Joe. But it's not like we love
Joe's an MVP finalist. Joe has a popularity rating in
this town that is unlike any that I've seen from
an athlete in a very long time, and understandably so.
Right he is viewed as kind of a sympathetic figure

(01:27:49):
in some circle. Scott, poor Joe Burrow. Yeah he's great.
Yeah he's getting paid, But guy's not gonna make the playoffs.
Guys can't compete for a championship. He's telling you, here's
what I need, So I mean he's he's putting pressure
on the franchise. He's putting some pressure on his teammates.
As Austin pointed out, he's also kind of putting it

(01:28:10):
on himself because if they do it his way and
it doesn't work, Okay, Joe, we did it your way,
it didn't work, that's on you. Now what's the fallout
from that? You know, who knows. But that's when Joe
gets talked about more. That's when you get annoyed at
what they say, we about Joe Burrow. Now, wait till
Joe gets his way and they don't win, then it

(01:28:32):
becomes a Joe Burrow problem. Then it becomes a reflection
of Joe Burrow. So yeah, I mean, because the easy
way out is eh, you know, they do it not
my way. We don't win, not my fault. I don't
get blamed. He's putting pressure on himself. He's making people uncomfortable.
I like it. We got folks waiting on the hold.

(01:28:55):
We'll talking about the Bearcat game last night here in
just a few minutes, and you'll hear Wes Miller talking
to out Dodgeball. But first I I You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty, Good afternoon.

Speaker 17 (01:29:07):
Hey man, So I'm losing sleep. Man, I'm just worried.
You know, I'm sitting here thinking the issue with drafting
and that fails of previous years and all of the
instances that we've been talking about, thinking about what is

(01:29:28):
realistic with the Bengals front office bringing in like some
other specialists that helps analyze these potential picks. Is that realistic?
Or am I far off? Would they just stick with
the same old group are they when they have this

(01:29:49):
scrutiny and talking about rattling a cage? They want to get,
you know, some more professional people to come in. I
know they keep it smaller. It's just I'm really wondering
about that.

Speaker 9 (01:30:02):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:30:02):
I think there's a there's a difference between modernizing and expanding.
I think the Bengals have modernized. I think the Bengals
use I mean, they use analytics, they have an analytics person,
They've they've used more modern methods of player evaluation. Uh
So I don't worry so much about that. I think
it's fair to wonder about the size of the scouting department,

(01:30:25):
the personnel department, just because I think more voices means
more information, which could lend to better decision making, and
in that regard, my guess is what they're at now
from a from a body count perspective is not going
to change.

Speaker 17 (01:30:41):
K another thing. Yesterday or the day before, you were
talking about what is it called the nile or the
transport for portal and then talking about players getting money
like before getting out of college and going to pro lead.
I don't disagree with your point.

Speaker 2 (01:31:03):
But I just think that maybe you see is a good.

Speaker 17 (01:31:07):
Example of when it fails, it really fails. Maybe is
there a way that they can add incentive to say,
you get Dutch and such money if a performance incentive
to keep these.

Speaker 3 (01:31:21):
Guys in check?

Speaker 17 (01:31:23):
Or is that wildly to out there. I just wonder
about that.

Speaker 14 (01:31:27):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (01:31:28):
Well, I mean the players are allowed to pursue their
their own deals in addition to what they might be
getting from a from a collective. My guess is, and
it's it's a fair question. My guess is that deals
with certain businesses or collectives would dictate that, hey, we
we at least need you to, you know, finish the season.

(01:31:50):
I don't know that you could structure an NIL package
that is based on points per game or minutes played
or things of that nature. But you know, look, there
are three hundred and fifty Division I college basketball programs.
Maybe not all of them have great NIL packages, but
many of them do. Some it's not gonna go well.

(01:32:14):
Some it is gonna go well like that. That's that's fine.
And anecdotally, man, you might have a player who goes, look,
I especially a guy who's like not going to make
the NBA. I got my money, I'm good. Or I
got my money, and you know what, now I've gotten
a taste of it, I want to go get more
I got I mean, it can affect people, right, but

(01:32:35):
you got to identify the people that doesn't affect. And
so it's not the portals issue. It's not the the
nil's issue. It's it's an issue with having the right people.
If you if you hire somebody and you pay them
a fair wage and a good amount of money, and
you give them what they want, and you know what,
they don't get the job done. It's not the money's fault.

(01:32:56):
It's not. It's not the fault of the compensation package.
You iired the wrong person, and I think the same
thing kind of applies.

Speaker 17 (01:33:06):
I'll end with this man bold prediction. I really think.

Speaker 14 (01:33:10):
I don't understand it feels.

Speaker 17 (01:33:12):
Like I'm in some kind of alternate universe. People not
thinking very high on the Ces. I don't understand it.
I think he's gonna be a monster. And I also
think that Andrew Abbot is a really good chance to
just really impress people. I think that guy's got a

(01:33:32):
really well rounded game and he's just something about him. Man,
and that that's all I got.

Speaker 3 (01:33:37):
I'll buy, I'll buy, and I will buy all the
Andrew Abbott and Cees stock that that nobody wants. I
was gonna do this today and I'm probably gonna have
to push it to tomorrow. I will make this Red's admission.
I have no idea. Like we were talking about it
in the office, the Baseball Perspectives project that had him

(01:34:00):
winning seventy three and a half games. I don't agree
with that. It's not implausible. And I don't think it's
implausible to think about this team as a playoff team either.
Like the range of possibilities this season feels enormous, and
I know I kind of went down this road a
little bit last year, but I've never had I've never

(01:34:25):
had less. I'm not going to be able to tell
you with any amount of certainty where I think the
Reds are going to finish win loss wise. Maybe I'll
change my mind by the time spring training is coming
to an end. I don't know, and so I might
turn that into a little bit of a topic tomorrow.
But I'm a big Andrew Rabbit guy. I mean, you know,
he's still just twenty five years old. He's not gotten

(01:34:48):
through a full big league season. But when he was
on the mound last year, there wasn't much to not like.
I thought he was consistent. I thought he built upon
what he did last year. I would have loved to
have seen him get through the entire year. But I
like Andrew Rabbit a lot.

Speaker 14 (01:35:04):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:35:05):
I thought, you know, in August he wasn't very good,
But to the course of the season, if you look
at his numbers from the beginning of the year until
things kind of fell off a cliff in August, he
was really really good. And cees, we're not that far
removed from drooling over what he did when he got
called up in twenty twenty three. And I'm not discounting
that just because last season was a lost one for him.
Nineteen minutes after five o'clock Travis Steel in fifteen minutes,

(01:35:28):
Wes Miller on Dodgeball and thoughts on his team.

Speaker 11 (01:35:31):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC.

Speaker 13 (01:35:38):
Health Traffic Center. Heart disease is the leading cause of
death in the US. If you're at risk, trusts the
experts at you see help for innovative and personalized heartcare.
Expect more at UCHealth dot com. Southbound Dixie Highway. It's
an accident ne or Kenton Lands Road on Mary Ingles Highway.
An accident between New Richmond and pain to road. Traffic

(01:36:01):
being directed around that area. And ken Log at eight
Mile Road. It's an accident that he's like with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:36:08):
This report twenty four after five. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Join us tomorrow at Twin Peaks in Westchester. We're doing
our show from there, so that's why we're telling you
to go. And if if you come to Twin Peaks
and say hi and then order to go a meatball
skillet and bring it to the radio station for Tarren Bland,

(01:36:31):
you'll be the ESPN fifteen thirty listener of the Week.
And I can't think of a more prestigious title.

Speaker 4 (01:36:39):
I'll return the favorite when we do our ESPN fifteen thirty,
adding for the risk Indussue.

Speaker 3 (01:36:43):
Oh yeah, Taran, we'll return the favor. What are you
gonna Are you gonna buy their ticket? Buy a beery
snow cone.

Speaker 4 (01:36:49):
I about them, I about them A cheap ticket.

Speaker 3 (01:36:51):
Bye, a cheap ticket. Very good? All right, all right,
well keep that in mind now all my man watches
a meatball skillet. You see. All I wanted was to
see the barricad win last night, which they did, and
they look good doing it, especially offensively. The key, according
to Wes Miller, was not so much anything that has
to do with basketball, but another sport.

Speaker 6 (01:37:14):
I think people sometimes like I don't listen to the
criticism and all that, Like I don't read the you know,
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:37:21):
I just my personality.

Speaker 6 (01:37:22):
I'm too edgy and I just want to fight everybody,
and that that's not healthy.

Speaker 3 (01:37:26):
So I learned as a player a long time ago.

Speaker 6 (01:37:29):
I'm not the type person that it's not healthy for
me to read it or listen to it. But people
that I have relationships with, you know, tell me all
the time, you're so.

Speaker 4 (01:37:36):
Reserved during the games.

Speaker 6 (01:37:37):
I'm like, come to practice, I'm you know, and I'm
I drive hard and I've been driving very hard, and
so I think the kids expected that on Monday. So
we came to they they lifted, they stretched, and they
came to the jump circle and I said, all right, guys,
we uh when I was in college, one time we
went through a bad stretch.

Speaker 3 (01:37:56):
It's true story.

Speaker 6 (01:37:57):
And you know, my college coach took the rims off
off the all the goals in the practice gym and
he said, hey, we're gonna go practice. This ain't about
the story, he said. My college said, hey, we're going
to go practice in the practice gym. We're gonna run
into the practice gym and we're gonna practice here all
week with no rims. And I mean, we're playing full
practice shooting three pointers. To know it was I mean,

(01:38:18):
and he said that we're gonna call it the pit,
and I mean, it's one of those things that we
all still talk about. And I said, guys, I said,
let's go down to the practice gym. And you know,
we ran down to the practice gym and that some
of them looked like they, you know, were ready to
It was like a death march. But we go down
to the practice gym, and you know, they come to
the center circle. I said, all right, guys, what did

(01:38:39):
I say. I said, we're gonna take their rims off?
And I said no, no, no. I said, that's what
we did in college. I didn't say we were going
to do that today. I was just telling your story.

Speaker 4 (01:38:47):
I said.

Speaker 6 (01:38:47):
All I said is we're going to the practice gym.
Let's play some excuse my lane, Let's play some freaking dodgeball.
But gosh, remy you sorry, Let's play TENZ.

Speaker 3 (01:38:53):
Pay attention back in the studio. We may need you
to hit that pause button. My mistake, but let's go.

Speaker 6 (01:38:57):
Let's play some dodgeball and uh and quite frankly, I'm
not into gimmicks. That's not what I believe in. But
what I will say is that they had a blast.
We played as coaches, and shoot, I wasn't in a
good mood. I had a blast because we lost ourselves
and just competing, just pure competition, and.

Speaker 3 (01:39:23):
Like it was better than I thought. They played dodgeball.
There you go. Went into the coaching aids and went
on to talk about how he's not a gimmicky head
coach went into the bag of gimmicks and pulled out dodgeball,
and it worked. They scored ninety three last night. They
had thirty eight made buckets. In the previous two games combined,

(01:39:45):
they had thirty nine. My take on Monday after the
game on Sunday was, it's not the loss. It's not
what it means for their tournament chances, which are needless
to say, hanging by a thread. It's not what it
means metrical. It's how it looked, how they played. I'll
say the same thing today. Yes, they needed a win. Yes,

(01:40:08):
if they have any hopes of having a successful season
that everybody's gonna feel good about, it had to start soon.
Last night might have been a starting off point. Talk
to me next week if they win their next two
about what the rest of the season may look like
and their chances of maybe still making the tournament. I
not concern with that at all. It's how they played

(01:40:31):
and its effort and its energy. But it's also loose.
And they initiated offense early, and they attacked the defense,
and they ran, and they had an answer for when
UCF would make things a little bit uncomfortable, and they
got great point guard play that looked like an unburdened
team that looked like a team playing in an open
gym setting, and it wasn't disorganized by any stretch that

(01:40:55):
I want to see more of that. WHI chat with
Travis Steel.

Speaker 11 (01:40:57):
Next Cincinnati's PN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health
Traffic Center. Heart disease is the leading cause of death
in the US. If you're at risk, trusts the experts
at u SE help for innovative and personalized heartcare. Expect
more at UCHealth dot com. Mary Ingles Highway. It's an

(01:41:19):
accident between New Richmond and Painter Road. The double A Highway.

Speaker 13 (01:41:23):
A good alternate route cell found seventy one seventy five.
It's an accident on the entrance ramp from Donaldson Roade.
The right shoulder blocked off there at Eazelic with traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:41:33):
This report sponsored.

Speaker 2 (01:41:35):
PN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:41:38):
Nine away from six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moeger.
The Miami RedHawks are having an excellency's. Travis Steele's team
is seventeen and five, nine and one in the MAC
and was rewarded with a new contract extension, certainly well deserved.
His team has a consecutive home games, starting with a
one o'clock tip off against Troy on Saturday. They do

(01:42:01):
a tailgate told tip off promotion before the game on
Saturday where you can get three dollars drinks, two dollars
hot dogs and you're going to see a team that
offensively is among the best in the country and is
really fun to watch. It's always fun to have the
coach of the RedHawks on with us, Travis Steele. It's
it's good to have your coach. How are you.

Speaker 18 (01:42:21):
I'm doing well, mode, Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 3 (01:42:23):
I appreciate you doing this. I was watching I was
watching your press setting when you talked about the contract extension,
and he said, we're not where we want to be,
but we're not where we were referencing. You know when
you took the program over. I've got to think, just
based on the way things have unfolded since you got
to Oxford, you're really excited about where this could go.

Speaker 8 (01:42:45):
I am.

Speaker 18 (01:42:45):
You know, you know I got the trajector you know
I got this quote right above. My best says, be
obsessed with trajectory and not necessarily the result. And you know,
the first couple of years were tough. Mo to say
the least. I mean, then we took some losses and
and lost lost by forty a couple of different times.
And but we've grown, our talent's grown, our culture has

(01:43:07):
gotten a lot better. Just holistically as a program, we
were really adding in the right direction. And you know,
I've made every decision based on year three kind of
long term. You know, I didn't want to do any
short term things when building when building the program back
to where it should be. And because this hasn't proud,
there's a really really proud tradition here is all time
winning his program in the back. Albeit it's been a

(01:43:30):
while since we've won though, which is crazy to think
we're still the all whitting his program. So we just
got to get it back to that. And I'm very
fortunate to be here with President Crawford and and our
athletic director David Saylor. We got great leadership here at
the university.

Speaker 3 (01:43:45):
Well, and if and if you're going to play the
long game and target year three, you know you you
you've got to work for people who kind of have
the same vision in mind, right, Yeah.

Speaker 18 (01:43:55):
I told them before I took the job. I said, Hey,
I just want you guys to know I think it's
going to take two years to probably turn it, to
get the culture back to where where I want it.
And when I and I gave them the vision exactly,
I told them how I was going to be, how
it would look, the whole deal, and they said, no problem.
They were really patient with me, which I really appreciate,

(01:44:17):
and it's allowed me to build the right way and
not have to make any short term decisions or you know,
things that may hurt you in the long run, but
just that are good for the short term. So we've
been able to make every decision based about, you know,
what's best long term. And and again I'm very appreciative
of having that support from our athletic director and president.

Speaker 3 (01:44:37):
So the goal is is year three. And yet I'm
sure as the season is unfolded and you have a
lot of basketball still in front of you, there have
been things that have happened with your club that maybe
have surprised you. Give me one or two of those things.

Speaker 18 (01:44:50):
Yeah, you know, I think you know, we're really young.
We have one senior on the team, and to be
honest with you, that senior is not really in the rotation.
So I've been very pleased with how we've been able
to close games. I've been surprised we've been as good
as we have been in that area. Now we especially
with the youth that we have. Now they're good players,

(01:45:12):
then they're smart. You know, a couple of local guys,
Evans all right over there, Cuffcat, he's a point guard
and he's just he's a winner. You know, he's been
that way his whole life. But he is young. You know,
he's only a sophomore Ian Elmer tap product. He's young,
he's only a sophomore. But he's been thrusted at these
big moments his last two years. And and you know,

(01:45:32):
so I think that surprised me. The other thing that
I would say, Mo and I think this is the
strength of our team. It's just it's how we recruited him.
But you never really know to get everybody together. It's
just the connection that our guys have to one another
off the court. I think is really showed well on
the court. You know, like our guys have a true

(01:45:53):
love for each other. And you could tell our team
defense and our team offense, the way that we move
the ball, and there's just a great connection on our team.

Speaker 9 (01:46:03):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:46:03):
I don't want to bring up a bad memory. But
you know, there was I think a lot of interest
in the Akron game. But you guys both went in
unbeaten the league, and you go there and it doesn't
go your way. I call it what it is, and
so I'm always interested in, like, all right, what's the response, right, Like, okay,
you took one on the chin. Uh, there's a lot
of season in front of you. What's the response. Three
straight wins? I know, like the the Ou game, you

(01:46:25):
would have liked to have maybe finished that a little
bit stronger. The Central Michigan you get off to a
great start game, they come back, and you still figure
out a way to win. What did you learn about
your team in the aftermath of what happened against the Zips?

Speaker 18 (01:46:38):
Yeah, it was. It was a tough loss. Man, it's embarrassing,
you know. I told our guys afterwards, you know, take
all emotion away from Ox. It's my brother up there
at accurate. It's like, man, I really there's a game
you want to win. I want to beat my brother.
I mean, so there's a lot of bragging rights that
are that are out there both for the whole year.

Speaker 14 (01:46:56):
Uh.

Speaker 18 (01:46:57):
But but I you know, like against an aborty and
I told the guys and sid fellas, we haven't looked
like that the entire year. And give Acro credit. They
played phenomenal. They could have probably beaten the Boston Celtics
that day, that's how good they played. And we played really,
really poorly. And I don't know if our program was
quite ready, you know for that moment. Both teams are

(01:47:21):
six and zero and getting a lot of national pub
and a lot of buzz, and you know, we haven't
been in that moment in a long time, probably twenty years,
you know, twenty some years. So it's Acron's been in
those moments, you know, and we want to be you
know the way and the way to succeed as you
have to fail a little bit, you know, that's part
of the part of the process. And we got right

(01:47:42):
back to work. I could tell right away with the
practices we had leading right after that Acron performance, I
was like, man, I got zero zero concerns. We got
such great player leadership with our three captains, evideb Sorrow
and Peter Souter who's a junior, and then Dan Lewis,
who is a senior with the Bishop Fenwick High school.
We got great leadership and those guys man like I said,

(01:48:04):
they they're winners, So I get head zero concerns about
how we'd respond.

Speaker 3 (01:48:09):
There's recruiting players who fit the culture, and you've done that,
and there's acquiring talent and you've done that. But there's
also assembling a roster and getting the guys to play
with each other. And I think that's what stands out,
especially on the offensive end with your guys, not dislike
what you guys are on the other end of the floor,
but offensively, you guys are really fun to watch. Walk
me through the process of getting the guys that fit

(01:48:31):
your system, and the system at least to this point
in the season, having worked the way it has.

Speaker 16 (01:48:36):
Yeah, I think number one.

Speaker 18 (01:48:37):
Getting guys that have won before, you know, guys that
will put the team first, I think is super super
important in today's landscape. And I can get as many
guys out there that know how to play, they have
a basket YQ and that can shoot the ball. I mean,
I listen, are our ball really moves, we are affected
field goal percentages incredible, or a great shooting team or

(01:48:59):
high assist team.

Speaker 14 (01:49:00):
We play fast.

Speaker 18 (01:49:01):
I just let those guys loose, we give them. We
teach those guys how to play, and we don't run
many set plays. We just allow them to play. And
I have great trust in those guys.

Speaker 9 (01:49:12):
Man.

Speaker 18 (01:49:13):
They make the right basketball plays. And it's hard to scout.
It's hard to stop, especially because we have nine We
go nine deep most so it's like, you know, if
one guy's off that certain day, you know, odds are well,
we're gonna have somebody else step up. You know, we
have nine guys who can all start on our team.

Speaker 3 (01:49:31):
Uh, you and I have talked about this before. This
is this is kind of a weird time of year.
We call it the dog days right where you've you've
been at it for so long, you still have weeks
of regular season games in front of you. You want
to challenge, uh for for a Mac regular season title.
We're gonna need Acronus slip up for that to happen.
You want to be at your best going into the
postseason tournament. Give me one or two things that you

(01:49:52):
feel like, okay, between now and then, we've got to
get better at. Yeah, I take number one.

Speaker 18 (01:49:57):
You know, like you look at this thing and it's
like the MAC right now is a one big league, right,
it's called what it is. And you know, so it's like, man,
we have to win three games in three days in Cleveland,
and in order to do that, in my opinion, it's like, listen,
we're a great offensive team, but you're probably going to
have one off ninth out of those three. Can you

(01:50:18):
win that game? And the way you win that game
is you got to be really good on the defense
of that do you got to go to repound the ball?
Those two things will always give you a chance. And
I do think our defense is getting a lot better,
but it's still got a lot of areas to improve it.
And I think like as we continue to grow those
that's how we can. Like, for example, you mentioned earlier

(01:50:40):
in Ohio you game and it's like, man, we were
up by fourteen. It's like, man, can you put them away?
You put them away with your defense, right, it's to say,
thanks Central Michigan, you can we extend that fifteen point
lead to twenty. The way you do that is with
your defense. So we're never going to have an issue
scoring the ball with our crew. You know, we'll be

(01:51:01):
one of the top offensive teams, but the best teams
in March can do both. You got to be really
good on both ends.

Speaker 9 (01:51:07):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:51:07):
You had Wally's Urbiak in the house uh for that
game against ou and and you talked afterward about you know, look,
I first got here, you could hear a pin drop.
I know it's not where you want it to be,
But are you starting to feel like the campus community
is starting to, you know, to buy in. Are you
starting to feel some of that buzz that I know
you were trying to capture when you first got to Oxford.

Speaker 18 (01:51:31):
Yeah, you know, it's it's it's taken a while. Well,
you know, we've got to give them a product to
uh for our you know, it starts with our students,
right like you know here we get over twenty thousand students.
We've got to get students to the games, and we
got to put a product out there that's worthwhile to
come watch. And and I think this is the first
year we've been able to do that. And I was
shocked when we came back. Our students just got back.

(01:51:54):
They call it ja term here, so basically all January
is off, they're on Christmas break. They get the longest
Christmas break in America here at Miami, which things for
men's basketball, man.

Speaker 9 (01:52:05):
You know, but it is what it is.

Speaker 18 (01:52:06):
And when we came back, we had Eastern Michigan as
our first home game with students, and like the thing was,
there were students in the whole student section. I was like, oh,
pretty good. Yeah, I was surprised. That's the first time
I had seen that since I've been here at Miami.
And then the Ohio You game was unbelievable. That's the
biggest crowd we've had in twenty some odd years. So

(01:52:27):
it's just a process, man. It's like getting the marketing right.

Speaker 9 (01:52:32):
You know.

Speaker 18 (01:52:32):
Obviously winning is big, the experience is huge. Like when
you do get them there, you want it to be
fun right for the kids, you get to speak their language.
And it's been a process to get it there. But
I do think it's definitely ending the right direction, which
again Malet was like a library before. I'm just telling it,
like you could go in there and you could. It's

(01:52:53):
like people were studying.

Speaker 9 (01:52:54):
Instead of sharing.

Speaker 18 (01:52:56):
It's like, gote, like, how do we get this thing flipped?
You know, it takes a little bit of time and effort,
but we definitely got to ebb the right direction.

Speaker 3 (01:53:04):
Hopefully that continues on Saturday, the red Hawks taking on
Troy at one o'clock. I've got to think, though, I mean,
I know it's not good for attendance, but that's got
to be a decent recruiting tool the longest Christmas break.
Had I known that when I was looking for a school,
I would be a Red Hawk, Like, I mean, hey,
you don't have to go to class for two months
for Christmas. That's pretty good.

Speaker 18 (01:53:23):
Yeah, it's incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:53:27):
All right, Well enough said, I appreciate you doing this.
Congratulations on the contract extension and the season you guys
have had so far, and hopefully we can do it again.
Thanks so much. Coach, you got it. Travis Steele, head
coach of the Miami RedHawks. One o'clock on Saturday, a
good and fun MU team takes on Troy and they

(01:53:48):
do the Tailgate to tip off promotion before the game,
which runs for an hour beforehand to get three dollars drinks,
two dollars hot dogs, and they are really, really fun
to watch. Travis Steel has always been good to us,
and I know the first couple of years were a
tough putt, but this year he's got a team offensively
among the best in college basketball. They did have the

(01:54:09):
one game against Akron, which was, you know, you heard
coach talk about it a bit of a disaster. But
since then they've won three straight a game at a
first place in the MAC. And Travis is a good
guy and I root for him, and it's it's good
to see him having some success in Oxford. You might argue,
right now, man, like the team, they are one bid league.
I get it, they're gonna have to win the MAC Tournament.

(01:54:30):
They're gonna, you know, maybe have to play Acron again.
But you would be not unreasonable if you had to
bet on one team to make the to make the
big dance. Putting that coin on the RedHawks one o'clock
on Sunday against Troy. It is sixteen away from six o'clock.
We'll try to squeeze a phone call or two in

(01:54:51):
next ESPN fifteen to.

Speaker 11 (01:54:52):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 13 (01:54:57):
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(01:55:19):
seventy five accident on the entrance ramp from Donaldson Road
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Speaker 3 (01:55:28):
This report game on Sunday starts at like six thirty.
I'm picking the Eagles. It's Eagles by ten turn away
from US six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. A couple
of quick things, very quickly, or else they wouldn't be quick.
Ryan Day gets a contract extension from Ohio State. Remember

(01:55:49):
two months ago, there's no week you can come back.
I just got a contract extension. And uh tonight is
that NFL Honors Show where they they hand out the awards.
Obviously Joe Burrows and then MVP finalist and the odds
on favor to be comeback Player of the Year Jamar
Chase Offensive Player of the Year candidate, Trey Hendrickson Defensive
Player of the Year candidate. We're also going to find
out what the Hall of Fame class is going to be,

(01:56:12):
and Willie Anderson is somebody We're all rooting for He
did put on Twitter that the people who are who
know they're going in or in New Orleans because they've
been told already, which is so they had to go
to New Orleans to be a part of that show tonight,
intimating that he is not among them. I am praying
and hoping that Willy is ropodoping us and he's in
New Orleans and will be announced tonight because he deserves it.

(01:56:33):
All right, Uh, we got like four minutes, five minutes, Taren,
how are we doing on time? Four and a half,
four and a half minutes. Very good, Jason, thank you
for your patients. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Nobody, I'm
good man.

Speaker 16 (01:56:47):
So maybe I'm look good at this over simplistically, but
it seems like Trey Henderson's Trey value is never going
to be higher than it is right now.

Speaker 3 (01:56:57):
I would argue it was higher last year, but yeah, correct.

Speaker 16 (01:57:01):
Okay, it just seems to me we need to trade
him and use that for Tea and Jamar. They blew
up the coaching on the defensive side. Let's just blow
it up and start over. Say here you go out,
let's move on, show us what you got.

Speaker 3 (01:57:24):
I agree, with merrit to merit to it, by the way,
go ahead. I was just going to say, there's merit
to that. By the way, if you say there are
so many holes to plug on the team that you
could use the extra draft capital and take that money
and use it in Jamar and t or elsewhere on the.

Speaker 16 (01:57:40):
Team, yeah, exactly. And so nobody has any confidence in
the front office as far as draft picks. I agree
with everybody. You Austin, Tony, I agree with everybody. So
the more pitch you have, the less likely is you're
gonna whiff on.

Speaker 3 (01:57:56):
Everybody, right, Yes, correct.

Speaker 16 (01:57:58):
And I'm only saying that half jokingly. But what they
have six picks right now? Yeah, yeah, so give them
eight maybe possibly dying.

Speaker 19 (01:58:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:58:09):
The more the more, the more raffle tickets shoul buy,
the better you have a chance of winning a prize.

Speaker 16 (01:58:14):
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:58:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (01:58:15):
So I just think it's a no brainer. Just just
trade them and use it for something else.

Speaker 3 (01:58:23):
Now I don't know that it's a no brainer though,
because you know, imagine telling Al Golden, you've got to
fix this defense, but we're going to take away the
one good player from the defense that you walk into. Like,
I think that's that's it, and again the counter to
it makes sense. Money. We could pay the wide receivers
the draft capital. He's probably never going to be this good.

(01:58:44):
We're not interested in extending him and I'm I'm here
for that. But you know, at the same time, you're
telling Al Golden get the defense fixed. You had no
pass rush with Trey Hendrickson last year. Now we're going
to take them away. When you're looking for instant results,
I think you'd have to acknowledge that is a tough
thing to ask a new DC.

Speaker 16 (01:59:02):
It is, but what they were what right, twenty fifth,
twenty sixth last year with them?

Speaker 3 (01:59:08):
Yeah, that's that's fair. I mean yeah, So, I.

Speaker 16 (01:59:11):
Mean, you know, if you're gonna blow it up, blow
it up, let's start over and see what we've got.

Speaker 3 (01:59:17):
You know, I think Jason, thank you very much. I
think it would be really interesting to see. First of all,
do they dangle him in a deal. Secondly, if the
idea is to get the best possible offer, what does
that look like. It's a realistic scenario and it's one
that the Bengals have to explore. It's not really my

(01:59:40):
first choice, but it's one they have to explore. Mike,
you can have the last word. We don't have a
lot of time. What's going on?

Speaker 19 (01:59:48):
Yeah, okay, like lean around? Thanks?

Speaker 3 (01:59:50):
Well?

Speaker 6 (01:59:50):
Sure?

Speaker 19 (01:59:51):
Why okay?

Speaker 9 (01:59:52):
Yes or no?

Speaker 19 (01:59:53):
Or a quick answer? Why aren't you at radio roll
because Pittsburgh's down there, Saint Louis is down there, Pampas
down there, but we're not down there? Why not?

Speaker 9 (02:00:02):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (02:00:03):
I think it's bad radio if if your team's not there.

Speaker 19 (02:00:07):
Okay, number two. I laugh at you all the time
like they did at Burroughs, and.

Speaker 3 (02:00:14):
So does everybody else.

Speaker 19 (02:00:16):
Yeah, that's fun. I mean, that's that's how we have fun. Right, Okay,
next thing real quick. I know I'll talk to you
tomorrow about the best general managers in football warners Jason
White's from Mike. Yeah, unintentional, but it was good radio. Okay.

Speaker 4 (02:00:35):
Top five?

Speaker 19 (02:00:36):
Can you give me the top ten coaches in all
time wins in NTA basketball with eight hundred wins or more?

Speaker 3 (02:00:44):
The top seven coach? So Bob Knight, right.

Speaker 19 (02:00:48):
He's in there yet, Mike Skowsky, yep, he's the leader.

Speaker 3 (02:00:52):
Uh is this just men?

Speaker 19 (02:00:57):
Yes?

Speaker 9 (02:00:57):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (02:00:58):
Now, Bob Knight, Mi Chewsky, Bob Huggins, Jim.

Speaker 2 (02:01:03):
Calhoun yep, Beheim yep. Oh, Roy Williams, yep, look at you.

Speaker 3 (02:01:16):
All right, I got at five. We have to go.
All right, Well, I'm gonna hit you.

Speaker 19 (02:01:22):
Let me hit you with this one. That's gonna blow
your mind. Cliff Ellis is number ten, Cliff Ellis and
he's still actively coaching at Coastal Carolina.

Speaker 3 (02:01:30):
I never would have guessed, Mike, we have to go.
Have a great night. Thanks to Terran for producing, Thanks
to you for listening. Join us at Twin Peaks in
Westchester tomorrow on ESPN fifteenth thirty

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