5/3/24 - The Mo Egger Show w/ Chad Brendel

5/3/24 - The Mo Egger Show w/ Chad Brendel

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
ESPN fifteen thirty. I know someof you are mad right now, It'll

(00:25):
be okay. It's just a Friday. Thank you for choosing me, or
thank you to the ones that justturned their channel. I'm sorry, And

(00:46):
somebody tell me today, Taren,every time they hear that song, they
change the channel. You may oweUGK and ol castin apology. Yeah,
they do, definitely. I gotin the car today, Tarren, I
plugged in the phone. The Pandorakicked on automatically. I got skew It

(01:07):
on the barbie. I got misfatBooty for Most Deaf, and then I
got International Player's anthem first three songs. Okay, all right, it's gonna
be a good Friday. Although thething we talked about before the show today,

(01:27):
do we want to do that everybreak or do we want to mix
it in? I think we mixit in. I don't think. I
don't think we have to do everybreak. A disc track that's aggressive for
a Friday, distrack like Distract Tuesdaymight be a thing. Distrack Friday,
we usually party and have a goodtime. I don't know. You can

(01:48):
party with some distracks, okay,but it's not the same as you know
Bobby Brown and New Addition are comingto town this summer. I did,
look, I think that's my daughter'sbirthday. I don't. I don't think
she's gonna understand. You want togo to daddy, Want to go with
Daddy to the New Addition concert afteryou stuck out that stuck with her for

(02:12):
the Taylor Swift concert. Yeah,I don't think she cares. I don't
think she cares at all. AnyWho, we got a lot to get to
today. Very big show, reallybig shoe, really big shoe. Uh.
Red's one month then they are gettingready to enter a brutal month of

(02:35):
May in terms of the schedule.Did they do enough in April to build
a cushion? Do we think theway that they played in April shows us
that they're ready for what's to come. I think we've learned a couple of
things. I think we've learned thepitching has a chance to be as does

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you know that best case scenario Ithink is what we saw in April.
The starters are really good for themost part. The bullpen held it down.
Yeah, there was a couple,you know, stinkers here and there,
but over a month of a baseballseason. You're gonna have some ups
and downs. You're not gonna justblow everybody away unless you went out and

(03:23):
spent, you know, a billiondollars on your pitching staff. The Rets
did not do that, so Ithink you're more than happy with the pitching
staff. I think Ellie Dela Cruzhad a month of April that puts him
in every conversation you could have atthe you know, at the top of
the sport. If you want tocall in today and say, I think

(03:46):
Eli Dela Cruz is one of thetop two or three candidates coming out of
April four National League MVP, Iwould agree with you. The home runs
were there, the average was there, the stolen bases. The RBI's RBI
is that RBIs runs batted in asplural. It's not runs batted ins.

(04:11):
So it's just RBI corrected myself beforesomebody corrected me on Twitter. Uh.
Other than that, what are youhanging your hat on? Through? This
first month of April? Spencer Steergot hot, then he cooled off drastically.
He picked it up over the finalcouple games of the month. Uh.

(04:33):
Back out in San Diego, he'sbeen okay. Other than that the
offense has been abysmal, abysmal.Most everybody is batting below or right at
two hundred. This looks like thatteam. What the COVID season, the

(04:58):
shortened sixty games season, where Ithink their team batting average was like two
oh seven. This feels a lotlike that. I had alan zinter flashbacks
looking at the stats yesterday getting readyfor this show. And that was against

(05:19):
a not so great month of Aprilin terms of what you faced on the
mound. Now you get into May, oh, it ain't pretty. In
terms of the type of pitching thisteam is going to face over this next

(05:39):
month. I know you hope thateverybody starts to come out of this slump.
What did Tony say at the endof sinc three sixty They've had ten
different guys go on at least ohfor ten slumps, some of them up
into the for twenties. For thisteam to reach its peak, to reach

(06:03):
its potential, it has to bea team that we talked about last year.
A team that we talked about haddepth in the lineup that made pitching
staffs work one through nine. Thathas not been this team through the first

(06:26):
month. So we'll touch on thatWe'll talk to Klay Snowden, our guy
from Just Baseball, to get histhoughts on the reds April and where things
are at heading into May. Wegot a big one, Tarren. Justin
Williams, national writer for The Athletic, joins us in the four o'clock hour.

(06:47):
I mean, yes, he hastime for us. Well, I
didn't. I approached it the wayyou have to approach it. Now.
Would you like to come on andtalk about the future of college sports?
If you ask him to come onand talk about Cincinnati, you know he
doesn't want to do that. He'sgrown out of that was That was so
twenty twenty three. Justin Williams,twenty twenty four, new man. If

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you text him to come on andtalk about Cincinnati, he sends you the
new phone. Who this meme?He's probably in his car listening right now,
picking up his kids from school,So I just wanted to make sure
he heard that. Look, man, there's seismic change coming in college sports.

(07:33):
There is a lawsuit going through rightnow that covers name, image and
likeness and back pay and revenue sharing, and there is talk of settling the
future part of this lawsuit by introducingrevenue sharing in college athletics, which means

(07:57):
paying the players in house, whichmeans the fallacy of amateurism will officially be
dead and it will be a newera in college sports, a new era
that is wildly unknown. And Ithink it's fascinating because we have talked about

(08:24):
the NC DOUBLEA dragging their feet andsticking their head in the sand, the
schools not wanting to come to gripswith the reality that you're now billion dollar
industries that are trying to keep allthe money to yourself and not pay the
people that are supplying the product onthe field. That's not going to work

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in today's day and age, mainlybecause we know that the NC DOUBLEA they
can't win a lawsuit to save theirlife, and everything is going to court.
So the NC DOUBLEA sees the writingon the wall. Things have to
change, and that is very muchin progress right now and a lot of

(09:11):
the next five years in college sports. How that plays out is going to
be decided in the next forty days. The other thing in college sports that
I'm interested in your thoughts on,and I will open the phone some later
in the show because I want totalk about this. Xavier had a freshman

(09:33):
today, Jonathan Powell request his releasefrom his national letter of intent. Jonathan
Powell, an excellent shooter, playedat Centerville right outside the top one hundred.
Some places have him as a fourstar, others as a high three
star, very good player. Butthe reality is, with the way Xavier

(09:54):
recruited in the transfer portal, JonathanPowell was going to be in a similar
position to what Rayvon Griffith was inlast year for Cincinnati. Ravon decided to
red shirt, but that's not acommon decision in college right now. Guys

(10:15):
want to play. And the situationhe committed to at Xavier, Quincy Oliveri
was going to graduate. They wereneeding desperately shooting. That was going to
be a void on their roster asit was constructed going into the offseason.

(10:37):
But what did they do. Theywent out in the transfer portal and they
got shooting, and they got old. They got veterans, third, fourth,
fifth year guys that have played aton of college basketball. What are
the odds of Jonathan Powell beating outthose guys? Not great? And guess
what, they spent a lot ofnil money because that's what happens if you're

(11:01):
successful in the transfer portal, itmeans you've spent a lot of nil money
to get good players, so you'reinvested in those players much more so than
you're invested in a freshman. Butthe bigger picture, Tearan is and I
was just having a text with acollege coach minutes before we came onto the
air about recruiting high school kids andhow much more difficult it is now to

(11:31):
commit to that because the reality isin April, you're gonna go out and
you're gonna get veterans to fill yourgaps, to fill what you need on
your roster, because the veterans aremuch more likely to do what preserve your
job. It brings me back toan old mccronan quote that I loved.
Every October you get tied to therailroad tracks, and it's your job to

(11:58):
get untied by March because the trainis coming every year. No matter how
good you are, the train iscoming. So you got to win enough
from October to March to get offthe tracks. And you know what,
you don't do that with right nowin this landscape in college basketball, freshman

(12:20):
look no further than the Big twelve. Last year, Gisel James was one
of the most successful freshmen in theBig Twelve, played about eighteen minutes a
game. Jacoby Walter from Baylor wasreally the only freshman on a good team.
Oklahoma State had three freshmen that playeda lot. They finished last.

(12:43):
Jacoby Walter was about the only freshmanin the league that played like significant minutes
per night. Was a significant partof his team. And that's a top
five kid that's going to go inthe lottery. What that means is the
days of falling in love with theguy, the days of Trayvon Blewett,

(13:07):
the days of Gary Clark, thedays of Kenyan Martin. Remember Kenya Martin
didn't play a whole lot as afreshman, was kind of a role player.
As a junior, he was astarter, but he was he wasn't
a star, and then he becamea star. What the writing on the

(13:30):
wall says is those are going tobe very much the exception. You know,
you know, Also, why whatdid we just see with des Claude
spent two years at X, hada good freshman year, had a great
sophomore year, and yesterday he committedto USC out of the transfer portal.

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The days of seeing your school,have guys play for four years and then
that that was part of the funof college basketball, wasn't It was getting
to see those guys develop, getbetter, win a bunch of games for
your team. Now you're looking attwo year windows, and those two year

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windows aren't going to include many freshmen. So we've got some of that stuff
to get to talk about some Bengalsin the five o'clock hour. Free agency
is done, draft is done.I think there's one very simple question I'm
gonna ask you right now. Wellyou want me to wait and to ask

(14:43):
you in the five o'clock hour,I'll let you think about it right now.
Is this defense good enough to wina Super Bowl? Because right now
this is Super Bowl or bus modefor Joe Burrow and the Bengals. Super
Bowl or By for Joe Burrow andthe Bengals. Is this defense good enough

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to win a Super Bowl? Ihave my doubts. I have my doubts.
Richard Skinner will join us at fivetwenty Little Derby preview talk, some
Bengals talk, some Reds. Youmight want to just block off the back
half of that five o'clock hour withSkinny calling in. I have a lot

(15:26):
to talk to Skinny about we coulddo. I could do a podcast with
Skinny guaranteed for an hour on thiscollege sports stuff. Terren's like, no,
please don't. I got commercials torun. Bro, this show might
end at five thirty five and justbe twenty five minutes of commercials. Well,
they's not my commercials, but up, all right, let's get to

(15:50):
it. We'll be back after this. Cincinnati, ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnatis.
I mean, if we're gonna dodish track Friday, really though,

(16:11):
this is just gonna be all allbleeps. I'm afraid to even try to
wrap along with this because I mightslip this one you can vibe to though,
Oh yeah, is this the bestone ever? Top? This is

(16:37):
no vaciline. I think Park camehard, but it was harder on this
than than they were on Hit ThemUp. They're on on no vaciline.
Though this was aggressive, like wehad never heard anything like this when this
came out. I mean that firstline is because your way off right,

(17:00):
whoa whoa whoa? What what?What? What? What? What?
Like? No vaciline was kind oflike fun? Is that the right way
to put it? Like the beatwas kind of poppy or not no Vaciline
but uh yeah, like that wasit was kind of poppy. I mean
the beat was, but you actuallythe lyrics weren't, but the song was

(17:23):
kind of like dancy. That's howI feel who Hit Him Up is too?
Though, No, I think HitHim Up is aggressive nothing. I
think Pak is just aggressive, butI think the beat is kind of I
don't know, yeah, maybe,I mean Pak was just aggressive, aggressively
aggressive. The word aggressive was like, whoa hey, because I forget the

(17:44):
song POC sample Like the song pocksample like is a like it's like a
party record on most Okay, Iguess I just pos POC's lyrics happened so
early in that one. I don'tknow. No Vasiline sounds like like a
dre record right, like like aWest Coast like, I don't know.

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Let's talk Reds for a minute.We got to Clay Snoden coming up.
Yeah, Barry Gordy produced the originalbeef for Hit Him Up. Okay,
so yeah, yeah, this franchisewent out and did very little in the
offseason. What they did, theythey talked about as preventative measures. So

(18:33):
this team would not have be ina situation where it's its depth was tested.
Well, that got blown out thedoor right out of the gate with
the injuries coming out of spring training. I mean, I'm just figuring,
are you any different than me?Taren? I'm figuring we won't see Matt
McLean this year. They say maybeAugust, like he could come back.

(18:56):
I'm just not counting on. Iguess when I'm looking at projecting this team
over the course of a season,I'm not doing it with Matt McLean in
mind. Correct, So Matt McLain'sgone. I guess David Bell just spoke

(19:17):
TJ. Friedel. They're going tosee how he does this weekend and make
a decision he should be back soon. That will hopefully alleviate some of the
concerns. But now you're dealing withthe guy that's that's been hurt and has
not had spring training, and you'rejust gonna throw him right into the wolves
with a team, you know,against teams that have been going for months

(19:38):
now. Don't feel great about that. I understand where the front office was
coming from in some of the movesthat they made, but I think some
of this arran was inevitable because guesswhat's going to happen when you have the

(20:00):
number of rookies that made it tothe BIGS last year, Your minor league
system is going to take a littlewhile to recover. Seven, eight,
nine rookies were major parts of thisorganization last year. You don't just snap.

(20:21):
I don't care how good your farmsystem is, you don't snap your
fingers and replace that. And thenyou have one of the cornerstones of your
minor leagues is out for the seasonwith an injury. One of the young
guys that's supposed to be here isout with a ped suspension for half the

(20:44):
season, and now your depth istested. But I don't know what else
they could have really done to changethat equation. So they have to keep
battling. Hope they get Friedel backthat stabilizes the outfield sum. I think
Freedol, Benson and Frehley is solid, more than solid for your outfield rotation.

(21:11):
Less fair Child, Les Martini,more major league guys instead of four
A guys. They're in a toughspot and it's about to get tougher.
Let's take a break. Let's sortit all out with my guy Klaisenden when

(21:32):
we come back. Since Nati's ESPNfifteen thirty. Cincinnati's ESPN. I don't
love them guy to kill myself.Here we go back at it, Cincinnati's

(21:55):
ESPN fifteen thirty. It's the LaggerShow. I am not mo Lagger.
Chad Brendle, bear Cat Joennal.You can find me on Twitter at Chad
Brendle. The Red's lineup is out. Brought to you by Made Well Restorations,
India dh Deayla Cruise. It's short, steering left my mind. Stevenson

(22:15):
behind the dish, batting clean upin Carnascio and Strand at first, Candelario
at third, Espinol at second,Frehleian right, fair Child and center Hunter
Green on the mound. Once again, that brought to you by Made Well
Restorations. Let's get to my guy. I haven't talked to him far too
long, and I was excited toget him on the show today. Welcome

(22:37):
back my good friend from Just Baseball, Klay Snowden Clay, how are you
can't be doing any better? Chat? Hopefully this rain clears up. Yeah,
they say it's supposed to be veryspotty tonight. If anything, so,
it sounds like the game should getin. I canceled fire Pit Friday
because they were calling for heavy rainall day and knowing my luck, it's

(22:57):
not going to rain tonight because Ihold everybody not to come over. Okay,
well I've never got the invite tofire Friday. You live in Louisville.
Next weekend? You live in Iwill be in Louisville next weekend.
Okay, I have a car.Uh Frankfurt Avenue beer depot Friday night.

(23:18):
How about that? Okay, haveyou ever been there? I have not.
Oh it's delicious. It's delicious.I know. Yeah, one of
those old school barbecue joints that hasthe giant pit smoker in the front parking
lot. Oh yeah, it's outstanding. It's outstanding. Uh, let's talk
some rats, Clay. That's whatI brought you on for. We could
talk food the whole time. Iwouldn't care, but I think the people

(23:41):
would get mad at me. Andthere's already enough people mad at me online
right now that you know. I'msticking to, uh what I'm supposed to
do. This team had a solidApril. They come out of it a
game over five hundred, or atleast they come into this series a game

(24:02):
over the five hundred. The pitchinghas been excellent, the hitting has been
very Eli dependent offensively. Did alanZenter take back over is the hitting coach?
What is happening? Why are somany guys below the Mendoza line?
Why are so many guys going onthese for ten over fifteen, oh,

(24:26):
for twenty streaks. I'm I'm ata loss because it's not like they've been
facing dominant pitching. They're just strugglinga ton, right, and we need
to put the caveat you know,they are missing Marte, McLarin, they've
missed Frehley and Freed all. Youknow, we can go on the list,

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but this is why we were poundingthe table on the show back over
the winter and in spring training thatyou shouldn't have been comfortable with exactly where
their roster is. I understand StuartFairchild can hit, love tanna defense,
even though I don't really think he'sa great platoon player to begin with,
good base runner, good defender,like you can upgrade from that. And

(25:10):
when push comes to shove and hehas to get shoved into the lineup against
righty's, it's not very pretty.You're you have Nick Martini, who I
know everyone thought was awesome. Youknow, after his opening day performance with
two home runs, he's been terrible, as one more home run than you
and I. Since opening that,he's been horrid. And that's why,

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you know, I understand there areplayers like Fernando Cruz who are thirty something
year old breakouts career minor leaguers,but you got to play the percentages with
those type of guys. If youhad one, you're probably not getting two,
three, four. And that's whyMike Ford's unlikely to be the savior
to this lineup. I know heopt out of his contract and they could

(25:52):
call him up still, but that'swhy you've got to just surround this team
with better veterans. And that's whyI like the Jamber and Candelario signing in
the offseason, because I looked atthe roster and said a lot of sophomores
on here. We know how oftenwe saw with Jonathan India a couple of
years ago, the rookie season iskind of a toss up, what are

(26:14):
we going to get? We don'tknow. The league starts to adjust in
the sophomore season, in third,third year, or really when you decide
what you have in a player andI was worried that somebody would take a
step back, someone you know,someone take a step forward like you see
it from Steer for stretches, andby at the end of the day,
Jamer Candelario was brought into bring abaseline one ten, one fifteen WRC plus

(26:37):
you know what you're gonna get hithere, and he just simply has not
been that CS you know, wasfalling into that kind of sophomore slump I
was describing. And when you addall this up and injuries, it makes
an equation that equals ugly. Yeah, and I talked about this a segment
ago, and I think you wouldagree with me that the reason that we

(26:59):
were were bothered by them not doingmore in the offseason was because given the
amount of young guys that broke throughlast year, you weren't gonna be able
to rely on the minor leagues supplementingyour major league roster like it was.

(27:21):
I don't It wasn't a casual number. It was an astronomical number of young
guys that moved up and made thatjump. And it's going to take a
little bit of development before your minorleagues replenishes. Because what you're supposed to
do is have two or three guys, okay, and then the next year
two or three guys, and thenext year two or three guys. They

(27:41):
what nine rookies that made a significantcontribution a year ago. You could not
count on the farm system, soyou had to go out and be aggressive,
and I do want to say Iwas a little unfair. You know,
a couple of those injuries did comelater and spread, so you know,
it obviously depleted the health. Andthen you had, you know,

(28:03):
one of those like you were quotingtwo or three guys who had come up
potentially as Blake Dunn who is inTriple A and is an outfielder, and
he was injured to begin the seasontoo. So it's just like this whole
litany of bad things happening, andyou know, everyone might say, go
out and make a trade, okay. Name the amount of trades that have

(28:25):
happened this year, Very very fewneedle moving trades ever happened even before May
right or even before June really,so I think that they were just kind
of dealt. Saying that they weredealt and all things considered, they played
pretty well. But as you openedwith Ellie dependent that could not be any
more true. This guy has absolutelycome onto the scene. And as much

(28:48):
as a fan as I am withhim, I had my you know,
reservations before the season. We sawa guy who looked a bit lost at
times last year, kind of swingingout of his shoes and chasing. He
did improve, and I was countingon the talent taking over, but I
wasn't comfortable saying, like, yep, this guy's going to come in and
be a All star right away.In year two, I thought maybe he'd

(29:11):
get closer to a league average andyou know, kind of a more traditional
developmental path and improved by ten percenteach year until he plateaus. And instead
he's went from a bit concerning toabsolutely electric and really the heartbeat of the
lineup right now. Well, ifhe wasn't that, he's like the pacemaker,

(29:34):
because if he stops taking, Idon't know that you might have to
call in the resuscitation team with theway that this offense has been without him.
And here's my fear, Clay.Now, they get into the meat
of the sed the hardest month onpaper, the hardest month of the year,
and they haven't been able to hitpitching against a drop down in competition

(29:59):
they are going to face some elitepitching in the month of May, and
I don't feel warm and fuzzy aboutthem all of a sudden, turning it
around as things get tougher. Yeah, and that's one of those deals where
a few years ago I used toalways buy into the schedule talk, and
more often than not, we've seenit, Oh my gosh, you know,
these teams weren't what we thought theywere, or we steal some games

(30:22):
here and lose the easy ones.And at this point it's just I don't
even look too far ahead in theschedule and worry about it. Just plays
in front of you. See who'shealthy then, especially with the amount of
elbow and rurs. It's it's crazy, but you're right, you're right.
This is no longer a white Soxon the schedule and Angels on the schedule.
It's getting tougher, and right nowis the time where, like I

(30:47):
said, Candelario seees like they haveto step up. There is we're starting
to get that samples high now whereyou know, one hundred at bats and
you can start to have some takeaways. It's no longer just you know,
dusting off the cobwebs, so Idid think that Cana Laurier the other day.
I guess it was when it wasa Wednesday, when he had a

(31:10):
double. I thought that was agood swing, one of the better swings
I've seen from him recently. Butyou know, the day or two before
that he had four strikeouts. Right, give us a little preview of this
Orioles series. Baltimore might be thebest team, if not the best team
in baseball, one of the twoor three best teams in baseball. Yeah,
And it's really just a measuring stickright now. Where do you stand

(31:33):
against a team that's a very similarbuild in terms of young players driving Now
they have a few more you know, bettering guys too, but essentially their
rookie, second third year guys thatare leading that team. And that's kind
of what the Reds are as well. So where do you stack up?
How do you stack up? Andthat's really going to tell us a lot

(31:56):
this weekend on the bump tonight.Are you satisfied with what you've seen in
month one? From Hunter Green intwenty twenty four, I am, I
am, and I understand where youknow, it's our own fault. Too
many people hype him up, asyou know, and that happens with every
prospect, right, oh, topprospect, top twenty in all of baseball.

(32:20):
He's going to be amazing immediately.How often is that the case?
Right last year, we're spoiling outa lot of that. He's developed extremely
well, and he's having one of, you know, a great start to
the season. And I think peopleforget how little baseball he has played,
considering he was drafted years ago,but injuries, injuries twenty twenty like,

(32:40):
he has come along without having playedthat much baseball, honestly, and I
think he's getting better and the resultsare starting to show. I know he
can become more efficient and go deeperinto games with less pitches. That's the
next step, and that has moreto do with just relying on your stuff,
using your stuff, And I thinkhe's getting there, all right,

(33:02):
brother, appreciate it. Enjoy theDerby weekend. It's a wonderful thing in
the state of Kentucky. You're actuallyin a better spot in Lexington because Louisville
is chaos this weekend. Yeah.I used to fun fact, I'll make
it quick. I used to workat Churchill Downs as a tour guide back
from like twenty two thousand and ninethrough twenty twelve. So I've done the

(33:28):
Derby thing. Used to be ableto name every winner of lost all my
knowledge. I think I drank itaway in college. That too much baseball
kicking around in there? Yes,yes, tell them where to find you
just baseball dot Com on Twitter atClay underscore snow SnO. All right,
you're the man. Thanks Clay,appreciate your brother, have a good one.

(33:50):
Thanks. There you go. WhenI want to talk baseball, I
want to talk rads. I wantto talk Clay Snune. There's no verse
simplification of things. He's not toohigh, he's not too low. He's
right down the middle. He's gonnatell you exactly what he thinks. He's
my favorite Reds guy right up there. Him and jefff car love it.

(34:13):
Just take a break. We getto a couple of phone calls when we
get back. Since now he's ESPNfifteen thirty. Here we go, winding
down hour number one. Let's getout to the phones real quick. Mike
in La, what's going on?Brother? How are you? How are

(34:37):
you feeling? Man? I'm doinggood. And it was it was supposed
to be a crappy, rainy dayand it has not been that yet,
so I'm good. Oh that's coolbecause it's really definitely the antistist of that
here in Data Point. Let metell you, I gotta love it because

(35:00):
you've been there. You know whatI'm talking. Oh, I know,
I know. Well, heads don'tknow, see, they just know what
they see on TV and all that. My daughter's already planning our twenty twenty
five family vacation back to La SanDiego area. So smart, young lady,
very smart, young lady. I'min Crest. You love it too,

(35:20):
you know? Oh yeah, Ido. What's up? Let's say,
if you USC offers you the jobwith what you're doing now, you're
moving. Uh, UCLA already didand I said, no, oh god,
why did you do that? Well, that was back when Kelly was
sick, and you know, Kellseywas young, and it was right when
Mick got hired out there. Theguy that owns the site was like,

(35:40):
hey, uh, nobody knows Mickbetter than you. You want to come
out here and do this out here? And it's like, do I want
to? Yes? Can I probablynot? Dog bonn shit, Oh yeah,
I'm back in the chemo again.Dude. I can't even Sorry,
brother was crap. But anyway,let's get off that. I like your

(36:02):
thesis regarding this Bengals defense, andI couldn't be more agreeable with thee.
They are not a super Bowl defenseand they're not gonna win a Super Bowl
with this defense. It's just notgoing to happen. I know Zimmer's really
good and hopefully safety and I'll getinto it at the start of the five
o'clock hour. Hopefully safety was kindof the piece that fell apart last year

(36:24):
and that should be better this year. But I don't see a great pass
rush. I don't see a greatrun defense. I don't see great linebacker
play. It's they're okay at corner. Like just the pieces on defense,
Zimmer would have to work miracles forthis defense to be a Super Bowl defense.
Yeah, I'm with you. Iwill say one thing, Justin Herbert

(36:45):
is can't stop smiling with these twostud bookend tackles with all and now Slater
Beck, what a lucky guy heis, right, Yeah, and he's
got a coach that actually should knowhow to coach that they they could jump
into the mix pretty quick. II with their old regime. They were
an afterthought, they were not afactor. They were not anywhere near the

(37:08):
level of the Chiefs, the Bills, the Bengals, the Ravens. I
think Harball could very much have themin that mix. Yeah, and there's
historical proof with his success in thepast in the NFL. He's just a
winner. He is. You mightbe a goof I don't care about goofball
or not. You can't put nowins on the book. That's all we

(37:30):
care about. Yep. I gotabout one minute left before the bottom of
the hour, Mike, Okay,JJ Reddick, Darren, listen to me
and listen to me. Good.By the end of the weekend, JJ
Reddick will be the new head coachof the Los Angeles Lakers. Wow.
Every Yeah, The LA Times isreporting it, the Orange County Register,

(37:51):
everybody is reporting it. Jeanie Bussloves him, Magic loves him. His
basketball IQ goes without reproach. That'sgonna be the new head coach of LA
Lakers. Be a bold choice.I love JJ though. I love I
mean listening to his podcast, listeningto him talk basketball. I am definitely

(38:12):
a big fan. Did you seethe clip the other day that he was
on a podcast They were giving hima hard time about scoring forty nine on
MLK Day like that, you know, and JJ took it in stride like
you could tell there was a greatdeal of respect. It was really funny.

(38:36):
Yeah, I wish I was seeingit. Hey, I'll tell you
what, though, you look atthe Lenna, I know you gotta go.
Since nineteen sixty sixty one when theymoved from Minneapolis to LA they've had
twenty five coaches. Now, let'sbreak that down. They've had three what
you'd call great coaches, Bill Charmon, pat Riley, and Phil Jackson.

(38:58):
Other than that, it's been amerry around. So yeah, same old
thing. You got a great roster, you got you're a great coach,
right, Absolutely, Bill Belichick witha bad roster was not the best coach
in the NFL in the history ofthe NFL. Still isn't. No.
He was good at high He's likehe's like Andy Reed. He's good at
hide and hurt players. See.I never started realizing this. These guys

(39:21):
will hurt, they'll kind of hideguys. They'll still play, but he'll
change the whole game plan based aroundcertain guys that are dinged up. Maybe
can't eat this is what's the brillianceof these great coaches? Right yep?
I got a run though, Mike, appreciate your brother, buddy. We'll
talk too. Give me out.I'm here every Friday pretty much for the

(39:42):
except for next Friday. I thinkI'm here every Friday the rest of the
month. Mike, give me acall. Let's take ad break hour number
two coming up, Sincenati's ESPN fifteenthirty. This Cincinnati's sports station, ESPN
fifteen thirty. Here we go,our number two, rolling right along.

(40:15):
We'll be joined here in about fifteenminutes by Justin Williams of the Athletic A
lot to talk about there. Collegesports is in a it's in a wild

(40:36):
place. And this is speaking assomeone that spends every day covering it and
reporting on it and talking to folksall over the college sports landscape. Things
are things are wild, and thereis hopefully some stabilization on the horizon,

(41:00):
but it's gonna get even probably alittle bit more bumpy before we get there.
And I was Taran and I weretalking about this before the show.
What's crazy now is you know youget this portal deadline right May first,
midnight May first, Portal closes.Well, then you have there's quite a

(41:20):
few schools out there that have thesegiant nil war chests, right, like,
all this money and they missed ontheir targets. You know, you're
swinging for the top of the portal. Right, we got all this money,
We're swinging for the top of theportal. And then John Cali Perry
leaves Kentucky and goes to Arkansas,and then Mark Pope goes to Kentucky,

(41:43):
and then Michigan is open, andDusty May gets that job, and Indiana
is in desperation mode. You know, Mike Woodson has to win or he's
going to be let go. Andthey're out there throwing a bunch of money
around, and all of a sudden, there's not a lot at the top
of the food chain, and yougot a bunch of money to spend.

(42:05):
You're sitting in the middle or thebottom of the sec You got three,
four, five million dollars in niland we're at May first, and you've
added like one guy to your roster, and you have four or five open
scholarships. So then you just startplaying Oprah. You get a million dollars,
and you get a million dollars andyou get a million dollars, and

(42:28):
all of a sudden, there's guysthat probably should have been valued at excuse
me, guys that should have beenvalued at reasonably five six hundred thousand dollars.
Good players, guys that were winnerson you know, Power five Conference,
Power four Conference teams, and thoseguys are doubling their worth because people

(42:57):
missed, and those schools are callingaround saying, hey, if you if
you're getting a portal, I gotseven figures over here for you. So
a guy that could be on agood team, a team that's projected top
fifteen, top twenty, could beon a good team. Next thing,
you know, you're at the end. You think you're you've about made it

(43:20):
to where your roster is going tobe set for the upcoming season, and
boom, one of your star playersis in the portal. And now that
you know, you've got to figureout how to replace him, and there
ain't a whole lot left and theprice of poker just went way up.
It's a wild deal, man,it's a wild deal. Let's get out

(43:45):
to the phones before we get tojustin hear in about ten minutes, mister
Ace, long time, no talk, My friend, how are you marin,
mister CMB, you normally try andhit you up, of course,
Actually just man is so frietay,Now that I know your schedule, I
might be checking in a little bitmore on Priorday to get a little bit
of stuff our hair. It's gotme busy. But what do we do

(44:08):
from the car office? As wewould say, rolling up and down the
streets are the greatest Cincinnati area today. I was supposed to be in Atlanta
this weekend. I heard that manI would joking with tearing about an outcast
home. I was talking to himbefore you put me on hold. So,

(44:29):
hey, if you do go downto the A, you know the
ball I can't. I got Igot. I got stuff with the with
the little one. She's not solittle anymore, she's a teenager. But
I got stuff with the young onethis weekend. So I will not be
making it to the A this weekend, but I'll be back there soon.
That's fine. That's fine because you'respending some time for her this weekend.
She'll get the special time you takeher to go see new editions by the

(44:52):
Brown And yeah, yeah, thatmeans they got so much stuff. In
terms of stuff, they can do. But when they did their show in
Cincinnati, my wife and I wentfor our anniversary. I think it was
two years ago, and Johnny GillI didn't know that he was really the

(45:13):
show. Yeah, he was biggerthan Bob, Like he was bigger than
Bobby until Bobby, you know,exploded cruel too. Bobby Brown still came
on stage. I think it wasWhitney Houston said Bobby Brown is her superstar.
We would leave that alone. Hey, Bro, you know I got

(45:36):
jokes today's man, But I hardto talk about the NFL draft, And
I though on my little Barb Poke, I guess on that concert with his
daughter. I think that the CincinnatiBengals draft. I mean, hey,
you did what you did with theplayers you were able to draft. Now
it all comes down to player development. We'll see how good they developed on

(45:59):
man, push them out there andhow they do what they do. And
now I've canna be that. Imean, yeah, ambiguous. I mean,
it was a fascinating draft for theBengals. It's a fascinating draft for
the Bengals because in the Zach ZachTaylor era, they have been pretty conservative

(46:21):
in how they've drafted. They they'veThey've taken guys that have been hurt that
they knew weren't even gonna play theirtheir rookie season like they they they haven't
taken any character rists they have.They have been very tried and true to
building the culture that they wanted insidethat locker room. It was very interesting
to see this draft, to seethem gamble a little bit, to see

(46:44):
them roll the dice more than acouple of times on guys now not necessarily
character issues. Burton, I guessis is you You You have to stay
on him and make sure uh thathe that he keeps himself motivated and in
the right mindset. But I don'tthink he's a bad guy per se.

(47:06):
They drafted some bad guys in thepast. Let's not be Let's be honest
with each other. But it wasinteresting to see that that conservative conservative approach
take a little bit of a turnbecause guess what, they know what we
know, win the super Bowl now, not three years from now, Win

(47:27):
the super Bowl now. Yes,it's definitely that. Plus Joe's up here
trying to rehab his name, man, because you got haters that head Colin
Joe Burrow last Joe, Yeah,and I mean, I'm not trying to
do the might Tyson punch out reference, but on the Friday Ay, that's
the best job I could pop.But I mean, considering this is definitely

(47:47):
a make it or breaking year becauseespecially you got all the cash money millionaires
that will have what I seen nextyear that are like making crazy cash run
into the bank and cashing crazy checksevery week with Joe and whatever Jamar's gonna
get. And if it's some way, somehow the t Higgins decides to stay

(48:09):
to help make this a dynasty andwide receiver shoot, we definitely had some
decisions we'll have to make this yearand move forward. I think that the
Trey Hendrickson situation, I kind offind that a little bit laughable that we
gave you more money because your yourcontract on your production show that you probably
deserve more money. You overperformed yourcontract so far. But it's like the

(48:32):
to go back and like, allright, I just gave you a pay
increase last year, now you wantmore. I mean it's like, dude,
that's a little bit greed. That'sa little bit like you should have
bet on yourself a little bit morelast year when we offered the bump at
that point. But you bet onyourself last year and get paid this offseason,
that's wo right, Like you shortedyourself. You played the short game,

(48:55):
you wanted it now, well,then you're not gonna get it a
year for now you already you alreadyplaced that bat. You don't get to
come back and double back on thatbet and make it again. Proof now
with this franchise. You know whatthough, that's kind of like the NIL
set up. But I'm not goingto go into that that name image of

(49:15):
likened stuff that I think that's crazyconsidering, as I tell folks time and
time again, I lived down inAlabama for seventeen plus years when I went
to college and after college, therewere plenty of trash talk from the best
of Alabama and aubur fans. AndI would definitely say knowing that nil was

(49:36):
going on before there was a realsuch thing as nil. It's just certain
teams got caught, right, doyou know what they do? You know
the phrase they created in the secyou ain't cheating, you ain't at home.
Well that but they had one whereone of their former coaches he ended
up coaching the Troit State and thisstatement to one of the guys that he

(49:59):
paid to go to when he wasan assistant coach that was keep it down
home, because yo, and Ithink he gave them. I forget how
he gave the money, but hegave him some money. Guys like I
just hit this right quickly, shutup, man, because I know you
got your other guests, but youhad guys like Cadillac Williams, You had
guys like Ronnie Brown. You hadguys, of course, the infamous scam

(50:22):
Newton Cam Newton that were known tohave gone to Auburn and had questions around
their recruitment. It's more stories thatcould be shared. But as far as
the money that was exchanged with Alabamaplayers, most of that stuff, you
really didn't hear about as much cheatingdirectly as you did with Auburn players.

(50:45):
And that's just some of the warststories I could tell you. And then
like the trash talk man fan trashtalk s now, y'all think I hop
on Austin elmore like a badly fuckingblood man man. Them fans down there,
they tossed some trash. I'm gone, bro, appreciate you talked to
you a couple of Fridays. Definitelythere you go. Let's get to Bob

(51:07):
and Florence. Bob, what's goingon? My friend? Hey? How
you doing you? I'm good?You well good, But I'm no longer
Florence man. I'm Bowling Green,Kentucky. It's well, it says Bob
and Florence, but Bob and BowlingGreen. I was in Bowling Green a
couple months ago. I was inOwensboro. I was in Owensboro last weekend.

(51:29):
It's it's actually worked out very good. And my wife and I kind
of got trapped in uh a crowdtoday at Western Kentucky. We we didn't
mean to go to the campus,but we we actually grove on to it,
and of course I have some studentsgraduating today, so we spent about
forty five minutes in traffic. Butit was cool. That main drag with

(51:52):
all the restaurants and the mall andeverything is chaos. Well yeah, but
actually further down, like in theguy time part of town, yeah,
is where Western is locus. Iknow, I'm just saying that. Like
when we stayed down there for volleyball, we played on campus, but we
stayed in that main drag where allthe restaurants and everything are and like coming

(52:13):
in on a Friday trying to getto your hotel. My goodness, Hey,
keed two things for you. Iwanted to ask, well one question
in one comment. First off,in terms of the Reds, I'm a
huge Cardinal fan, which I knowMoe is very very well aware of.

(52:36):
And they are three games under fivehundred right now. And here's my predictions
and number of games I can't reallysay, but I would say after about
fifty games this year, the Cardinalsare going to decide if Ali Marmole is
actually the guy and if he's not, YadA year Molino is going to be

(52:57):
their next manager. That wouldn't surpriseme at all. It wouldn't surprise me.
I mean, he means so muchto that franchise. Like I think
that's even like, you know,everybody talked for a while like Barry Larkin
was the heir apparent to be thenext Reds manager and it still might happen
at some point, but I mean, Yadi Air Molina, like that's the
Cardinals. Like I could see thateasily. Yeah, And you know it's

(53:23):
funny because some people, even threeor four years before he retired, said
he was already the pitching coach andbasically so, yeah, and I think
I think that's a no brainer.But to Chan, I wanted to ask
you also, did you see haveanybody that put their name into portal in

(53:45):
basketball? Yeah? They had threeguys, uh, Sage Toltino, Jamil
Reynolds and Victor Lockin OK and thenwas eligible for another year. Huh Yeah,
I mean he's he's still he's gota year left. He had done
three schools in four years, andthen he has a COVID year. He's

(54:06):
going back home to Tampa to playat USF. Well, tell me this.
He was he was not able toplay for the first month and a
half of this last year. Soyou can transfer again. You can transfer
all you want now. There's nomore restrictions on that. As long as
you are in good academic standing.You can transfer wherever you want to go,

(54:27):
whenever you want. Gotcha, allright, Jed, All right,
thanks for the inteling, you go, no problem, Thanks, Bob.
Let's see Tony hang on, we'llget to you in a little bit.
We're going to take a break justinWilliams. We're going to talk to State
of College Sports. It is thingsare interesting right now. More after this.
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Welcome exCincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, Rolling on

(55:07):
in hour number two. I'm ChadBrindle, I'm not my wagger. I
think will be back on Monday.I think today he's out somewhere celebrating Oaks
Day, getting ready for the Derbytomorrow. College sports is in It's in

(55:29):
a strange place. It's in flux. It's in h a transition period.
And as things are are starting tocome clearer into the picture and you're starting
to get an understanding of what thingsmight look like down the road, it's

(55:52):
important to keep everything straight, keepwhat's happening as as simple and detailed as
possible. And when I do that, I go to my guy, none
other than Justin Williams from the AthleticJustin. Everybody was very impressed that I

(56:13):
was able to throw my power aroundand get you onto the show today.
Welcome. You know. My secretarywas just hey, Hey, Chad's Colin.
Chads Colin again and again, andI was happy to clear a little
space for you in my Friday afternoonschedule. I was trying to talk about
you while you were in the carpicking up the kids. Did you catch

(56:34):
any of that? I did notbelieve it or not. My kindergartener does
not approve of ESM fifteen thirty.When I pick her up from the bus,
I mean, are you the bossor is the kindergartener the boss?
I won't answer that. I knowthat answer. Yeah, you know,
I'm not sure who the boss isin this household. But I know where
I'm at at the bottle. Youknow that it's not you. I only

(56:59):
I only have two people in myhouse, and I come in second.
Justin the There is a settlement nearingin the antitrust suit against the NC double
A in terms of revenue sharing andpast wages and future wages. And explain

(57:24):
in as simple as terms as youcan what this is likely going to mean,
because this is coming. Here's whatI don't think people grasp. This
settlement is coming. It is mandatedthat it happened in the next forty days
or the NC double A is probablygoing to be out of billion dollars.
So where are we headed when thishappens? And you do need to when

(57:45):
you talk about anti trust lawsuits againstthe NCAA, they can't win a lot
more. We have to be alot more specific than that too, because
there are multi thirty of them.So this is the house one house versus
the NCAA, which is, youknow, people have kind of talked about,
written about. This is the biggestone that the NCAA is facing because

(58:06):
it's set to go to trial nextJanuary twenty twenty five. It's obviously not
going to get there because if theywere to go to trial and lose,
the NCAA would be on the hookfor like best case scenario, maybe four
billion dollars and like we're you know, we're talking about bankruptcy, you know,
the end of the NCAA if itgot to that point. So it's
clearly not going to get to thatpoint. There is going to be a
settlement, and this involves nil backpayments for athletes who are suing basically saying,

(58:31):
hey, if I could have madeANIL when I was in college,
I could have made money. Butthen the other part of that is going
after the revenue sharing of these conferencemedia contracts. So there's kind of two
pieces to it. So when yousee this reporting about there's going to be
damages of back pay for nil payments, and then on top of that,
there's going to be future revenue sharing. That's why, because there's kind of

(58:51):
two pieces. Now. The onething the settlement could do if it does,
you know, if the NCAA isable to come to an agreement,
is that the NCAA hopes that itwould knock out a couple of these other
anti trust lawsuits that are givest themsaying all right, we'll pay some back
payments and these, but then theseother anti trust lawsuits about pay for play
in the Austin payments, this isgoing to kind of account for those as

(59:12):
well, and then we're going toset up a revenue sharing And it seems,
like you said, it seems likewe're moving towards the settlement. I
think the thing that still needs toget hammered out is how much are the
damages going to cost? How muchare the future revenue sharing going to cost
going forward? And then what doesthat look like in terms of which schools
can actually afford to pay that andwhich schools are really going to kind of
be struggling. And this is allpart of this, you know, bigger

(59:36):
shift towards whether athletes become employees oryou know, collective bargaining, all that
kind of stuff. So yes,there's going to be a settlement, there's
going to be a change, Buthonestly, I think it's just the stop
gap, you know, measure.I think this is just one change in
many that's going to have to happenhere the next five ten years. Justin
are you of a similar belief tome that one of the only ways that

(01:00:00):
this ever really gets finally resolved,as with collective bargaining, is with some
sort some version of a player's union. I don't know what that looks like.
It's people far smarter than me aregoing to have to decide it,
but I know Trent Dilferd just hadthe entire UAB team sign up to unionize

(01:00:22):
at athletes dot org. It feelslike we are going to continue to run
into the similar troubles until the athleteshave at least some level of representation,
some level of seat at the table, because if not, they're going to
continue to be taken advantage of,because let's face it, the system has

(01:00:45):
no interest in treating them equally right. And that's why this settlements feels like
a stopgap measure, because any revenuesharing figure that would be agreed upon wouldn't
be agreed upon by like a collectivelybargained players orzation. It would just be
like they're talking about percentage of athleticdepartment revenue. So even if they got

(01:01:05):
to that point, you know thatthere's going to be someone saying, well,
wait, this still isn't fair forthe you know, the players,
because they don't get any say andhow much of this money is going towards
revenue sharing. So I do agree. I think the ultimate outcome again,
how we get there and how longit takes to get there. I'm not
smart enough to know that, butit's either going to be the NCAA is
given an anti trust exemption from Congressor players become some version of employees and

(01:01:30):
are able to collectively bargain. Andeveryone that I've talked to, no one
thinks that an anti trust exemption fromCongress is something that seems that realistic,
at least right now. So yeah, I think the more likely, most
likely ultimate scenario is we get tosome version of these college athletes being employees
and part of that is collective bargaining. Now, whether that's a super league

(01:01:51):
or whether that's the NCAA kind offiguring something out, or whether that's Congress
coming down with some law that determinesthat your guess as good as mine.
But I'm totally with you there.It seems like we're into that direction one
way or another, and it's that'sa good thing. Like they need representation
because even if you look at thisresolution to this anti trust suit, they're
suggesting revenue sharing at twenty two percent, and that's on you know, that's

(01:02:15):
not just on the TV revenue.That's on TV revenue, ticket sales,
merch sales, like everything that comesin there. They're suggesting roughly twenty two
percent. If you look at theNBA, if you look at Major League
Baseball, if you look at theNFL, those numbers are all very near
fifty percent that the workforce gets overownership, and it's about even that twenty

(01:02:40):
two percent ain't nowhere close to even. And that's why the settlement, like
I said, I think, wouldbe a stopgap because even if they agreed
upon that, someone wouldn't basically,it wouldn't prevent future lawsuits. Even if
they took care of a couple ofexisting lawsuits, somebody else could just come
in and say, oh, actuallytwenty two percent is not nearly enough for
these athletes. So now we're goingto suit to be able to click clearly
bargain the higher number. So you'reright, if you know, the sport

(01:03:04):
has become college sports, mostly football, men's the bestbut to a certain degree,
it's become professionalized. And you knowthat that has happened in pretty much
every way imaginable except for player compensation. So it feels like we're going to
get there one way or another,even if it happens kicking and screaming,
which the NCAA seems, you know, heart set on making it happen that
way. Oh yeah, they don't. Look, they do not want to

(01:03:25):
give up the money, period theyhave. They've worked long and hard to
perfect perfect, protect, protect thegolden goose, and they they don't want
to share it with anybody. Theother question I guess in all of this
that that will become major eventually isname, image and likeness, and these
collectives that have popped up everywhere aroundthe country. I don't think the players

(01:03:51):
are going to allow that to goaway. Even when revenue sharing becomes a
thing, they are still gonna wantwhatever money that they can get. Do
you see as a protection for that, these collectives becoming much like like at
U CAT Cincinnati, at UCATS soit's their donor program. Do you see
sincy Rains going in house, thetwo percent UH group at Xavier going in

(01:04:18):
house uh to kind of change theway that that stuff is done. Yeah,
I mean that was all part of, you know, that that subdivision
proposal that Charlie Baker put put outin December. But I also think there
was some hope that like, ohhey, if if we bring in Ale
in house, then we can avoidthe revenue sharing and the employee status,

(01:04:38):
which again was just really short sightedto me, because what the biggest thing
that no one understands is, allright, if Nile comes in house,
is it beholden to Title nine?Right now, collectives andile payments are not
beholden to Title nine, meaning youdon't have to give the same amount two
men's athletes or women's athletes or certainsports. If if that were brought in

(01:05:00):
else within athletic departments, does thathappen? No one seems to know the
answer to that. So part ofme wonders, like, okay, if
we have to deal with the youknow, from an athletic department perspective,
from an NCAA perspective, they haveto deal with the headache of revenue sharing
and player compensation regardless, do theythen want to add the nil part on
top of that, because the otherpart you mentioned, which I think is
true for some of these schools,is they're going to say, all right,

(01:05:21):
we have revenue sharing, so playersare going to get a certain amount
of money if they come here,but we also have this collective on the
outside. If you're a school witha bunch of resources and a bunch of
money, big money donors, thenyou can offer whatever your revenue sharing is
of these athletes, plus they canmake nil money on top of that.
To me, it just seems likeit's going to be, you know,
a continuing competitive advantage for those schools. So we'll see. You're right,

(01:05:43):
it's something that's being talked about.It's something they have to figure out.
To me, it just seems like, why would they want to invite another
headache of trying to figure out howto bring it in house and maybe just
leave anie on the outside and kindof have it be the wild West,
which is what it's been, youknow, so far to some degree.
But when you first got into thisand we became friends, we talked a
lot about college sports and the landscape, and one of the things I told

(01:06:05):
you a lot was some things arebetter left out of house, some things
are better outside the umbrella because they'reoutside the umbrella. And I think nil
might be one of those things we'llsee. Yeah, you were always talking
about, like, Yo, youknow, this is one of the things
that maybe the coaches don't want tohave a lot of input on, right,
And you know there's obviously some input, but you're right, the more

(01:06:29):
legitimized it becomes, the more likeinput they would have to have. And
this is one of those things thatmaybe you just want to be able to
feign ignorance and have it outside yourpurview. The other thing I'm interested in
your thought on and this is moremy world in recruiting, but I think
it leaks over into fandom. Italked about it this at the beginning of
the show. Jonathan Powell had hecommitted from or asked for his release from

(01:06:53):
his letter of intent at Xavier.Today we saw Ravon Griffith red shirt last
year at Cincinnati. UH. Whenit comes to recruiting, because of the
portal and the reason Jonathan Powell islooking, he he when he signed up
at Xavier, it was a greatsituation. They were gonna lose Quincy Olivari.

(01:07:15):
They didn't have a lot of shooting. They were gonna need somebody to
come in and give them some shootingon the perimeter. And then they go
out in the transfer portal and theyadd three guys on the wing that you
know, shooting is that, ifnot their strength and certainly one of their
strengths. And Jonathan Powell goes froma guy that you look like might make
a you know, make some solidimpact as a freshman, at least as

(01:07:39):
much as you saw if you're aXavier fan, Trey Green and Dalon Swain
make last year. But then theopportunity for minutes is not there. He
gets a release from his name andhis letter of intent. Are we at
the end of the rope? Onthese on Trayvon Blewett, on Gary Clark,
on Kenyan, these guys that comein and take the slow path to

(01:08:03):
you know, early, you know, you play a little bit as a
freshman. As a sophomore, youbecome you know, a heavy rotational piece.
You're an upper part of the rosterguy. By your junior year,
you're a star. By your senioryear. Now, if you're not on
the floor in two years, you'rein the transfer portal. And if you
are on the floor in two years, you're typically des Claude who then went

(01:08:26):
and got paid and went to USCLike this, this part where fans get
four years sometimes five years to watchthese players grow is pretty much dead,
isn't it. Yeah? Like youknow somebody we know, well, Tray
Scott, right like, does doesthe Tray Scott experience that? Does that
even make sense? Or that everhappen in college sports? And there's plenty

(01:08:48):
of other examples like that. Butyou know a guy who comes in bas
just hits the bench for two threeyears red shirts and then becomes an All
conference player, goes on, youknow, has a professional NBA career.
You know, it certainly doesn't happenat one school. What you're gonna happen
bouncing around the thing I do thinkis interesting. You're right, it seems
like right now that's never gonna happenagain. You're never gonna have a four

(01:09:09):
or five year player somebody that develops. I do wonder, you know,
there's always like a market correction,of course, correction as a transfer portal
just becomes you know, multi transfers, no penalties, nil, basically roster
rebuilding every year. Is there gonnabe some coach somewhere, Maybe it's that
more of like a mid major school, But who's like, I'm just I'm
gonna do this. I'm gonna havea four or five year plan. I'm

(01:09:30):
gonna develop players and see what happens. Maybe there's gonna be like this visionary
coach out there that figures out away to go back to that to basically
zag or everyone else is digging.But if it happens, it's it's gonna
be the exception, right like thisis that's not gonna be the norm,
because you're you're totally right that there'snot gonna be this experience anymore of Oh
yeah, this freshman red shirted andthen he played a little bit one year,

(01:09:53):
and then he played a little bitmore than next year, and now
he's a starter. Now he's anAll conference player. That's gonna happen,
But it's gonna happen at guys bouncebetween four or five at different schools.
It feels like justin his name isMike Pointon and he was fired, So
maybe Mike finds it at a differentplace. I mean, that's what Oklahoma
State they like. They they wentyoung. They went three starters, three

(01:10:15):
freshmen, starters that were really talented. And if they would have stuck with
them in a year two, OklahomaState was going to be really, really
good in the Big twelve. Butone year year one in that conference,
three starting freshmen, guess what,they weren't really good. They finished last
Mike Boyton got fired, and nowthose three freshmen are no longer at Oklahoma

(01:10:36):
State. It's crazy, you know. Now they're gonna get better somewhere else.
You're right, you know again,maybe it's it's a long shit.
It does feel like someone's gonna,you know, figure out whatever the market
inefficiency is. But it's gonna it'sgonna to be a special situation and it's
going to be the exception because youknow that that kind of traditional path is

(01:10:56):
is not the traditional path anymore.No, it's not all right, man,
preciate you taking time out of youralways very busy schedule, and thank
you for allowing me to kind ofrub it in on Tony and Austin that
you know, you're too big fortheir show, but you're not too big
for me. Hey, I sawAustin out the other night. He was,
you know, he was trying tothink he was like most body guy
while Mo was rooting for the nextgame. But but it was it was

(01:11:19):
good to see Austin out and about. And yeah, next time you see
him, let him know that you'reable to You're able to get me booked
on the show. All right,I appreciate it. Thanks man, we'll
talk soon. There you go,William Justin Williams. That's at Williams underscore
Justin on Twitter. He is.He is rising up the ranks. He
will be one of the biggest namesin college sports reporting before long. And

(01:11:43):
hopefully he doesn't forget us, orI'll just keep calling his secretary until she
picks up, which by that bythen might be his now kindergarten daughter.
Let's take a break. We'll goto the phones when we come back.
Five one, three, seven,four, nine, fifteen thirty Cincinnati's ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnatist chall set it off. Used to be hord not get just

(01:12:08):
win ser You was like, hey, k and now seeing the video with
mich Lake, look at lot streakingposs I saw it. Kelly that's why
I went so low and stump wheny'all straight out of Compton. See he
doesn't, he doesn't sound as angryas popped it white man till then,

(01:12:33):
who you're fooling you? I putthat on my mom and my dad's house.
You're a boy than your team,so you're losing, yo, Dray
stick to produce it. This tome is more of like an up like
you can dance to this at theclub trying to hit him up. You

(01:12:55):
just stop and you're like, damnfrom the DJ oh boy so good.
But those are the best two.We're done. We're done with this.
If we played the best too,there's no more to play. Yeah,
I mean, you know, Iknow this new generation will say nas ether

(01:13:18):
but it ain't the same. Although, like I mean, Kendrick Lamar was
was. It went after Drake prettyhard, which was deserved. That Drake's
corny, Drake's corn Basically, KendrickKendrick Lamar is like, look, Drake,
you're not invited to cookout anymore.Don't come like we don't want you

(01:13:40):
here. And he's right, anyAmerican cookouts anyway, at one in Canada.
All you want to Yeah, youknow what I mean, like they're
making French food. They're not makingburgers and dogs at the cookouts that Drake
can go to. Tony has noclue we're talking about, but we're gonna

(01:14:00):
go to him anyway, my guy, Tony from dry Ridge, What's what?
What's going on? My friend?What's your take on raptors? Uh?
You're right, I have absolutely toptop Kim Krocher the Beatles and I
will talk all right, but seeI can do that too. I'm versatile.

(01:14:21):
Oh operator greatest breakup you know saidlove song of all time for Crochy.
But anyway, Uh, Paul dida speak of a little bit of
not heartbreak but sadness and expected schnstardgoing to the buck Eyes, and so
tell Austin to drop the Oscar Robertsonhandle he has on the chucker, or

(01:14:45):
that guy's no longer maybe one.That guy's no longer around. I ped
him into oblivion or bolivion, asMike Tyson would say. Okay, well,
if Austin gives you a dirty looknext time or in the studio,
you'll know why. Uh. Butanyway, Uh, with LUSI to Travis
Brandam and he of course you know, and there's fall way of makesteak crams.

(01:15:08):
He said, well, yeah,I thought one of the reasons he
said he thought served the law ofstate he brought up. He said,
Cincinnati, just in Cincinnati, wouldn'tgo to Manstin and Ill. I don't
know it. I don't think that'saccurate. He doesn't seem like he likes
us. Three months but then hementioned the name and they asked him,
Okay, where do the buck guysad next? And he mentioned the kidnames

(01:15:30):
Caton. I think development who havealso seen this. I don't think no,
I don't think so. There's acouple of names I'm working on.
I'm not ready to go. Uh. I'm still still waiting on a couple
of contacts to get me back.But I don't think I don't think they

(01:15:51):
are looking at backup options. Idon't think they are to the point.
I think they're still ready to takesome swings now. I think if you
get to the end of the road, you do still need another big you
know, if something happens to hisease, you have aren't in Paige and
Tyler McKinley, as you're only twobig men on the roster. I think

(01:16:12):
those two are going to be reallygood players, but in the Big twelve,
that's asking a lot of those twoguys. So I do think there's
a couple other things that you know, they're kicking the tires on. Hopefully
I have a little bit better handleon that as we go through the weekend.
So I know you will do this. But for those out there that

(01:16:34):
don't know, the Bearcat Journal messageboard will be where where those things go
public or at least go private.But I've been I've been monitoring my phone
throughout the day as I've been sittinghere waiting for a couple of return texts.
But I don't think they're done swimmingin the adult pool. If you

(01:16:56):
will, yeah, because the onething she had that really bother, I
mean last year on it. Andthe reason I think they really do need
the big is there was two orthree games last year late one big defensive
rebound would have got it. Andyou know, Vic had got some big
defense and rebounds until he went intoliving in the middle of last year.

(01:17:19):
Steve Newman's fouled out and it seemedlike it was ease didn't get the rebounds.
Then it wasn't that we were givingup the offense to rebound, but
it would get knocked out of bout. You know what I'm saying, we
didn't go get it. Well,that's the same if not get it.
And there was one game in particular, the Oklahoma game, they end up
getting three attempts the last twelve secondto kid finally rose in a three you

(01:17:45):
know, off and out of boundsplay. So yeah, that's why I
really really think that even if theguy just turned and had a lay up,
or a guy who just don't forthe guy, that if disease didn't
out there or you know, andthe thing about it just too I think
people are going to realize they talkabout miss John Newen's defense, John got

(01:18:08):
some really tough rebounds latest in thegames. Yeah, yep, for sure,
I think that's a must. Yep, stay tuned. There's still the
portals closed, but there's there's goodnames in there that they are still available.
So we'll see what West can pulloff. Think Chad one last week,
I've seen the you know, earlynext year, regional barricat is sixteen.

(01:18:31):
Like Kentucky you killed Dad, theremay be another road tripping both of
us. All right, that soundsgreat. I will be there thanks Tony.
Appreciate you, Tony from dry Ridge. There you go. All right,
let's take a break. Breneman andJones on baseball. Coming up next,
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, ESPN fifteenthirty, and away we go our

(01:19:05):
number three, Themagger Show. Iam not Mowager. I am Chad Brendle,
filling in on a Friday, havingsome fun. It's been fun so
far. We have talked a lotof Reds talk, some college sports talk,

(01:19:30):
some bear Cats talk, some Muskies. Our number three. We are
gonna go heavy Bengals, and we'regonna be joined by my guy, Richard
Skinner. Maybe talk a little KentuckyDerby. Thank you for choosing me.
I appreciate it. Thanks to thoseof you that did not turn off the

(01:19:54):
show as soon as you heard theintro music. You're my people. We've
been listening to disc tracks just too, the main two, the Top two.
Other than that, it's been alittle bit of a party Friday.
I'm sure tarn Is gonna is reallygonna turn it up and get us to
the weekend. For the rest ofthe show. Honestly, we will gonna

(01:20:18):
have one more segment, Loo,because once you went, Skinny gets on.
Oh, we know Skinny has hisintro. So yeah, I'm gonna
try not to take that. Youknow, Skinny, He'll join us here
in about fifteen minutes, and I'mgonna try to make sure that that doesn't
take us to the end of theshow because we have Kentucky Derby to talk
about, we have Bengals draft totalk about, we have Reds to talk

(01:20:40):
about. I told you I coulddo an hour with Skinny just talking about
the state of college sports. Maybethat's something maybe I need to look to
have Skinny on one of the BCJshows here coming up next week to talk
about the state of college sports,because him and I could go on that
topic. But now we're gonna we'regonna first we'll get to the Madewell Restoration

(01:21:10):
Cincinnati Reds starting lineup as the lineupis out remember six' ten tonight first
pitch. So as soon as we'redone here, we will be on the
air down the dial at seven hundredWLW with the the Reds and the Baltimore
Orioles. For my money, amI wrong? Taran? I think they

(01:21:30):
might be the best team in baseball. If not, they're in the conversation.
They're in the conversation. So thisis gonna be a big weekend set
for the Red Legs. India leadingoff at d H daylight, Cruise at
short batting second, Steer and leftbatting third, Tyler Stevenson in the cleanup

(01:21:55):
spot behind the dish in, Carnacioand Strand at first batting fifth, Candelario
at third, batting six, Espinalin the seventh hole at second base,
Frehley in right batting eighth, andfair Child in center field batting ninth.
On the mound, Hunter Green,who has been off to a really really

(01:22:17):
solid start to the season, seeif he can can carry on. We're
gonna talk a lot of Bengals thishour. We'll get there with Richard Skinner
and hopefully we'll get there with youon the back end at five point thirty

(01:22:38):
to the end of the show.Whatever I allow after the skinny interview,
it won't be much time. WhateverI allow, the phone lines will be
open for ninety seconds or so atthe back of the hour. Look,
I can't help it. When Scotttold you, I will if I am
struggling on a drive home either fromlike you know, AAU basketball coverage for

(01:23:02):
Bearcat Journal or now more recently,coming home from volleyball trips, I will
call Skinny because I know we'll talkan hour easily, and the topics will
be all over the place, andthe conversation will be good and it'll keep
me awake and alert in that portionof the drive. So we and we've

(01:23:26):
done podcasts together for years, andit's just kind of Skinny and I doing
a podcast. So I'll try tokeep it as short as possible. We'll
see how it goes. The Bengalsare done with the draft, and I
think it was a good draft.I think they address needs. I think
they were a little more aggressive thanthey have been in the past. I

(01:23:49):
think they took a little bit,maybe some more risk than they have allowed
themselves to do in the past coupleof years, when that used to be
kind of their is. Okay,here's the guy with the first round grade.
We're here in the third round.He slipped to the third round because
he might not be the greatest dudein the world. There might be some
stuff off the field, but we'regonna take him anyway. I don't think

(01:24:13):
they went to that extent, butI do think they went a little bit
more out of their comfort zone thanwe have seen. But it's becoming kind
of like college sports, especially forthe Bengals, Like when's Aran Who's the
last Bengals first round rookie to reallymake a splash? And this year they

(01:24:38):
drafted a guy that is expected tosit behind two starting tackles. You have
a wide receiver in the third roundthat that you're going to expect to probably
play a ton as the replacement,potential replacement for Tyler Boyd, but there's
some questions there. You got acouple defensive linemen, a couple defensive tackles

(01:25:02):
that, let's face it, evenif they have great careers in Cincinnati,
probably not going to be DJ Readerin year one. I think the Bengals
are fine on offense, and Idon't think that's uh. I don't think

(01:25:24):
that's going out on a limb.Think that's a pretty pretty safe take.
That is not that does not enterme in the conversation for hot take of
the year that I think if JoeBurrow is healthy, with Jamar Chase,
with T Higgins, with a qualitystable of backs, with a veteran offensive

(01:25:45):
line, I think the Bengals aregoing to be pretty good. On offense.
Am I you think I'm I'm outover my Skis there tarn or you
think it's safe to say that thegoing to be now? I guess the
question is rookie offensive coordinator. Iknow they have a lot of belief in

(01:26:06):
Dan Pitcher, but he's never doneit before. Zach Taylor will still call
the plays. I know a lotof people have had problems with that in
the past. So while I'm notexpecting them to be the greatest show on
turf rams, I do think there'smore than enough half answers on offense that

(01:26:29):
the offense should consistently be pretty goodas long as Joe Burrow is healthy.
Being the main caveat there Joe Burrowon the field, Bengals offense good.
We saw the defense take a drasticdip a season ago. That was not
plain and simple. Even if JoeBurrow stayed healthy, that was not a

(01:26:54):
super Bowl quality defense. They gaveup big plays every week all over the
field. They read the rum wrongas safety, Let's just be honest,
and then Chidobia Wuzia wasn't himself andthat was costly because they weren't where they

(01:27:18):
needed to be at cornerback. Youmoved Dax Hill to cornerback. I am
not certain that they are great inthat room still, but I think they
will be considerably better at safety Vondella'sback. You hope Jordan Battle takes another

(01:27:42):
step forward in his progression and youget some free agency help. But are
they significantly did they make improvements gettingafter the quarterback? Because what happened last
year it was Trey Hendrick center bust, and unless Miles Murphy takes a significant

(01:28:12):
jump, it is probably still goingto be Trey Hendrick center bust when it
comes to pressuring the quarterback. Now, you hope Murphy is ready in year
two that that he learned in yearone and made the type of progress that

(01:28:33):
you wanted from him, and hebecomes a significant factor in the Bengals pass
rush. I worry about the Bengalsat linebacker tarn I don't think they were
they were very good there last year. I think they were probably average to

(01:28:56):
a little below average, and theydid really nothing to address the linebacker room.
They are running it back in yearspast, you feel like they could
kind of hide the linebacker flows withthe well they couldn't last year because their
run defense was bad. Yeah,prior to last year. Yeah, so

(01:29:19):
I'm not sold at linebacker. Theydon't really have that big space eating run
stuffer up the middle, So Idon't know how good the run defense is
going to be. You hope safetysolves the big play problems. You hope

(01:29:41):
getting better there is the answer.But let's be honest. One of the
reasons they were so good there fortwo years is because they had an elite
safety Jesse Bates. But what doI always talk about. I always talk
about how many guys do you havethat grade out as top ten guys in

(01:30:08):
the league at their position. JesseBates was a top five guy at his
position, if not a top threeguy at his position, and he solved
a lot of this defense's problems withhis ability to make plays any race mistakes.
It's kind of like a shop blockerin basketball, right that last line
of defense, and Jesse Bates wasable to do that, and him and

(01:30:32):
von bell worked incredibly in tandem.Von Bello is back. Guess what Jesse
Bates is not in stead, He'san All Pro, meaning he was the
best guy in his position in theleague last year. I am not confident

(01:30:55):
at this point, looking at thisroster and saying this is a championship defense.
I am very confident in their abilityto scheme and game plan and put
themselves in the right position from acoaching standpoint, but the players have to

(01:31:19):
go out and execute those schemes.And there was enough chaos, there was
enough trouble, there were enough holesthere last year that it didn't feel like
running it back was the answer.But that's essentially what they've done minus DJ

(01:31:42):
Reader. Now you wonder how muchthe DJ Reader's situation would have changed had
he not gotten hurt at the endof the year. Would they have prioritized
him more, even though he's aguy that is getting to that point that
his expiration date in Cincinnati was aboutto expire. As it is, they
don't like it if you're over thirty. In fact, if you get to

(01:32:03):
thirty, they want a divorce.That is how this franchise has operated since
Zach Taylor took over. That istheir identity in roster construction. So they
have gone younger, specifically younger atthe point of attack and in the trenches.

(01:32:27):
You don't see a lot of winnersin year one. You don't see
a lot of twenty two year oldsbesting the grown ass men that are across
from them in the AFC North.So I look at this defense and I

(01:32:50):
say, I think they're talented toan extent. I think they have some
really good peace. But I thinkit's an incomplete puzzle. And I think
it's an incomplete puzzle that when Iremember, how did the Bengals make the

(01:33:15):
Super Bowl? They rode the defenseto the Super Bowl. They almost rode
the defense to a championship. Arethey good enough to carry the load in
November and December and in the playoffs. I have my concerns. Let's take

(01:33:36):
a break, Skinny. Coming upnext, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's Damn
it feels good to be a gangster. There we go, rolling along three

(01:33:57):
o'clock hour. Let's get right toit. No time to waste words,
no time to men's words. Tarran, my guy, Richard Skinner Local twelve,
Skinny on Twitter X whatever the hellyou want to call it, joins
me. Now we have a lotto get to Skinny. Arran is concerned
that you and I are just goingto take it to the end of the
hour. I'd be concerned if Iwas tearing as well. Just as long

(01:34:20):
as you've got time to get commercialsin at some point. Right. Look,
there's a lot to get to.The first the first thing I need
to get to Kentucky Derby. Youare a horse racing guys, horse racing
guy, Tony, and I figuredyou are on the back porch with a
hard copy of the DRF right now. I know. Actually I have it

(01:34:44):
on my my I believe it ornot, I would have a hard copy
if I could find one. I'vegot it on my laptop though, like
you have that. I'm surprised youdon't have that thing delivered to your house.
I know. I used to lovethe hard copy of Before Man.
It's one of my favorite publications.Look, there's nothing like like sitting down
on with the hard copy and raceby race, track by track, going
through the deal. Uh break itdown for us. Who are you keeping

(01:35:06):
an eye on? How much doyou have to factor in conditions when you're
doing this? You do? Now? I will say to this, I
warn this. If you make abet early in the day and it has
stopped raining, you know, earlyin tomorrow morning. If that again,
that's a big gift. If that'sthe case and it stops laying that track

(01:35:26):
drives really really fast, So ifyou are doing some handicapping for an off
track, I would just say buyerbeware for that, but you would.
Yeah, it could be certainly considered. It's been a consideration all day to
day on the on on Oaks Dad, because it's been a slappy track for
the portion for the since the daybegan. They actually took a race earlier
race off the turf as well,but they left the stakes races on the

(01:35:47):
turf. So yeah, it isa factor, There's no question about it.
And so if it is a muddysloppy and I like this horse,
either way, there's a horse catchingfree, I I means eight to one
on the mor you're actually eight toone right now. I think it was
eight to one on the morning lineas well. Was Grace five times has
three wins and a third place finish, but one of those races was on
turf, So on the dirty he'sthree for four winning races, and on

(01:36:10):
an off track he's he came in. He showed he came in third on
on an off track, so hehad a pretty good performance there. There's
no doubt. You have to payattention to the favorite fierceness. I mean,
he checks every box except for hehas to be on the lead,
and in the Derby sometimes that's ahard thing to navigate. There's a lot
of bumping and banging, and Joscelyn, if he gets to the lead,

(01:36:30):
and he gets to a comfortable lead, you can forget about this race.
It'll be over. And right nowFierce has actually kicked up. He was
five to two morning line. He'snow three to one, and I honestly
think by tomorrow that may go downto two to one. When all is
said and done. There's a lotherworks to pay attention to, and this
one's hard to handicap because he's racedin Japan, and there's been no Japanese
horse that's ever come over and andwon in the States, won the Derby.

(01:36:53):
It's forever young, and he's gettingthat pretty good. He was ten
to one morning line, down toseven to one right now is five for
five lifetime with two million dollars inearnings. So the money's there. But
he says he's raced in Dubai.He's raised in Japan, obviously, and
so it's it's kind of hard tonavigate that. I will say he's won
twice on an off track, wontwice on an off track, and earned

(01:37:14):
five hundred thousand dollars, So certainlyone to watch and one that I he's
been bet Actually he's actually going upnow, he's nine to two. Sierry
Loans a hot name. Mean there'sa second choice in the morning line.
But I'm just not quite there withSiria Leone. I probably put him on
as a fifth or sixth choice ona pick four pick free ticket. I'm
not stupid enough not to put himsomewhere, but I think on a on

(01:37:38):
a ticket that I put on justthat race itself, I don't think I'm
gonna put serial le on on top. And you can never go wrong betting
place money on Derby Day. Ialways say that place the place pool is
a great place of value because there'sso much money that it's so spread out.
For example, you know Ferry Loansnine to two, that would pay
eleven dollars to win. Usually that'sin the five dollars range to play.

(01:38:00):
He's tricky tod He's probably gonna bein the six dollar range to play.
So there's just added value in theplace pool. Find a couple of horses.
If you you know, if you'renot sure who you want to win,
put a couple of bets on acouple of horses to place, and
you know, one of them getsin, you're probably gonna come out ahead
and come out ahead pretty handsomely dependingon how what you put on it.
Uh, how much are you lookingat it? Is there anyone that might

(01:38:24):
take this thing out fast and andset at an early pace that kind of
messes with the finish? I meanthat that's one of the things I always
kind of keep an eye on whenwatching. I don't I'm not the handicapper
that I you know, used tobe, uh when I worked at Turfway
Park, but uh, it alwaysfeels like sometimes in the derby, you

(01:38:44):
got to watch for that horse thatjust flies out of the gate. Yeah,
doorknock potentially down on the water hole, just because if he doesn't get
out, he's gonna get trapped downthere. And he really has more of
a front running style midpac front runningstyle. So if he decides, hey,
I'm I'm done in this thing justso I can get get up in
the pack and not get squeezed downto the rail, that could possibly mess
with fearness, fierceness. Fiercens isthe one that's gonna want the lead,

(01:39:08):
or you're gonna want the lead ata sensible pace. But to that point
said, if some knucklehead goes outand decides the hell with this, I'm
just gonna doune it and see whereit goes, and fierceness has to lay
second or has to fight that horsefor the lead back to compromise fierceness as
well, there's probably gonna be anotherone or two that opt to do that,
either a to to get out oftraffic, or it is some it
is for some of these it istheir running style. I mean a lot

(01:39:29):
of these in the Derby or achunk of these, I should say.
They're used to making the lead becauseof the fastest horse and a lot of
races they're in, and you're usedto making the lead easily, and then
you know, controlling the pace.Now, some of them obviously have been
trained to lay off or to laymid pack, and there's a handful of
those two, but there's enough,you know, a twenty horse field where
there's like two or three that usuallyyou're like what are you do? And

(01:39:49):
you're messing with the race. Butif they decide not, if they're afraid
of fierceness, and fierceness makes thatlead, I'm just afraid the race is
gonna be If he's on an easylead making that first turn, I'm just
afraid the race is going to beover at that point. Tony specifically said
he needs some winners and he's countingon you, so give made a couple

(01:40:11):
of tickets that you might have himplay tomorrow. Well, I can't divulge
all of that because I will tellyou this, I'm a big pick three,
pick four guy, which means youhave to pick three races in a
row to win, or pick fourraces in a row to win. I
spread myself out quite a bit whereI'll take four horses in a race.
Maybe then i'll single a horse andI'll come back with two horses and I'll
go back to six or seven deepin the derby. Those tickets can get

(01:40:31):
a little bit expensive on the youknow, the sixty to eighty buck range.
It's what your guy Dan Cronin does. Dan's terrific at that. He's
really good at multiple race wagers andhe's been proving successful in doing that and
that's the way to go. It'sit's hard to sometimes just pick a race,
which I get. People just wantto bet the Derby. They want
to pick a color, they wantto name, they want to have a
rooting interest. But for me,I usually try to get myself into that

(01:40:56):
race where I have six or sevenhorses in that race, trying to get
a a really good price out ofit. Tony to throw darts. Sometimes
that's easier. Get give me,give me a one, two, a
box one, just say something,give me something, skin me alright.
If I if I were boxing thisrace, I'd probably box catching Freedom with
fierceness, and catching Freedom with OhHonor Marie, which is the seven horse

(01:41:20):
of twelve to one, and probablyagain, and let's tell you how much
I'm in with catching Freedom, andthen probably catching Freedom with Forever Young,
the Japanese horse you gotta eat toone in a seven to one that could
probably get you one hundred dollars plusexactly for a couple of dollars. Bet
all right, there we go,there you go to and I got him
on record. Bengals, we're throughthe draft. We are through three agency.

(01:41:43):
God, I thought you loved thedraft. I do but I will
tell you, and I don't knowwhat needs sorry for what we do?
You deal with it? You're gillingright now, all the transfer portal stuff.
It is just stuck. It feelslike Thursday night Hits. We joke
around for three hours until the Bengalspicked in the Bengal pick and you look
up and it's Saturday at ten o'clockat night, which it was felt like,
and then we all go have abeer. But yeah, I enjoy

(01:42:06):
it. It's just you know,when you have ten picks is a lot.
I'm glad the years when they haveseven, but ten picks gets to
be quite a lot. But yousteal yourself for it. You know it's
gonna be that weekend. You know, Sunday you're gonna sleep in because you
probably had a little bit too muchto drink and get a little suitful and
you're exhausted on top of it,which is exactly what happened. But yeah,
I know it's behind us. Thedraft is over, free agency is

(01:42:29):
over. This roster is for allintents and purposes. Set I said this
for all intents and purposes. Ofcourse, there are the other things that
are going to come along, butthe meat and potatoes of the roster is
pretty much in place. I wouldsay, I still think and I can
tend and they haven't done it yet, and they get a chance to get

(01:42:49):
on the field next week. Iwas telling tern they got a Tuesday on
field. It's very light. We'renow in the second phase of the off
season program. They have a coupleof weeks of just working out and stuff.
But they'll still start something next week. I'm still the olk they're going
to go sign a veteran corner fordeath purposes. I just don't think you
can go into the season hoping thatDak still makes that conversion. I think

(01:43:10):
he will. I really think you'llcompete for a starting spot too, But
you can't hope for that. Youknow, you drafted a kid in the
fifth round, Josh Newton, thatthat's not your number one I can't be
your number one death piece. Yeah, I know dj Ivy's back, but
when is he back? Because he'scoming off acl surgery from an injury that
occurred in December, so that's notgoing to be, you know, anytime
soon. You know, Alan Georgeis another corner, but you know,

(01:43:30):
God love me, he's made theroster up and down and practice squaded it
and has cut himself a nice,nice piece of change for a kid who
was an undrafted breeze and he hasn'tplayed very much. That can't be your
backup corner back room with them,I just can't be. So I do
think they go get a veteran corner. Okay, I think the offense is
fine. I think as long asJoe Burrow is one hundred Joe Burrow,
the offense is fine. Is thisdefense good? Is this defense good enough

(01:43:53):
to win a Super Bowl? Ithink it is because I think they're better
on paper today than they were ayear ago. And I listen, I
was one to believe they could survivethe loss of Jesse Bates, but when
they lost Bates and Bell that thatwas a death now it really was,
because I think the hope was vonBell was going to coach Das Hill along
still be the main communicator, allowedDax to understand what it takes to play

(01:44:16):
back there. And and this iswhere everybody's you know, everybody's kind of
crapped on backs. And I understandit because he was not very good.
He's a first round pick, butit was really quite unfair that he's back
there with Nick Scott, who wasa free agent sign who obviously didn't pan
out. Plus he wasn't in thesystem before. So you got two guys
back there that really don't know thingsinside and out. It's certainly not even
close to the way Vaughn and Jessedid. And then midway through you had

(01:44:40):
to throw a rookie and Jordan Battle, and Jordan doesn't know. I mean,
he's a rookie. He has noidea what he's going back there either.
And so Gino Stone and Von Bellis the two starting safeties this year
in my opinion, with with Jeordiarotating in is a huge upgrade. And
again, and I don't want thisto the smirk DJ reader because DJ served
a great purpose and he was agreat pro for us in the media.
Was a go to guy winner tolose, just a PROS pro. But

(01:45:02):
you got younger and more athletic atthe defensive tackle positions with this draft.
You know McKinley Jackson is a onedown run stopper. It's what you kind
of needed. You may not evengo to him, you may you may
find out. Chris Jenkins. ChrisJenkins next to BJ Hill is really good
at the defensive tackle position. Andthen when you go to your sub packages
and it's Sheldon Rankins, maybe SamHubbard inside, maybe Joseph O'sai inside,

(01:45:26):
Miles Murphy and Trey Hendrickson outside,you have a dynamic pass rush package.
So I think this team Jet isjust better on paper defensively, and that
defense has to be better. Youcan't. You can't go on this shore
evening with Joe burg and I We'regonna win for your thirty shootouts every week.
It just can't happen. Yeah,that's kind of my concern. Is
this defense cratered last year? Imean, there's no other way to put

(01:45:47):
it. The reason that they playedin the Super Bowl, the reason that
they played in an AFC Championship gamewas because when the offense hit a bump,
the defense nicked it up. Defensehad their back. And I look
at this and I hope you're right, because it's a lot more fun around
here when they're winning. I justdon't know that it's a Super Bowl Championship

(01:46:10):
level defense. But no, Ithink I think, Kid, it doesn't
have to be. It has tobe mid packed because the offense is super
Bowl caliber. Yeah, So Iin that regard it. I mean even
the twenty twenty one they are whatever, it was twenty twenty two one,
they weren't super Bowl caliber. Defensively, they were down the stretch. Yeah,

(01:46:30):
and they had really good moments.Mike Hill with the interception near the
goal line in Tennessee. You know, the three interceptions of Ryan Tannehill in
that game, the interception in theovertime period with Vonn and Jesse, and
shutting down Patrick Maholks in the secondSo they had to clearly had their moments.
I just again, I think lastyear there was a real belief that
they could survive the loss of JesseBates. They were not prepared to sell

(01:46:51):
and hell lue Remote told his sisterto comeby, It'll be a dark day
if I lose both of those guys. Well guess what you did loost the
boat. It was a dark day. Yeah. Uh. Finally, Reds
I'm gonna I'm gonna go back toa Jerry Narron quote because I have to.
I have to believe it's true.I'm already these guys are going to

(01:47:13):
hear it. These guys are goingto hit it because they've got what seven
guys under two hundred under the Mendozaline that they have. They have ten
guys that have had at least aten game or a ten at bat over
streak, like Elie de la Cruzis carrying this team offensively. And if,
especially this stretch in May, thebats don't wake up, they're one

(01:47:35):
game over five hundred, They're gonnabe a lot of games under five hundred
by the time we get to June. Yeah, that's a fair point,
just because a heart more is startingwith tonight, arguably because they haven't won
anything major. Arguably the best teamin the game at the moment. I
mean, Baltimore is ridiculously did andand it's the Dodgers this month, and
it's Arizona this month. Ten tengame trip, yeah, yeah, ten

(01:47:59):
game triple me. This is justan insane month. I was also early
today on a station at the dialof what would be positive coming out of
this month, and I said,a game or two above five hundred overall,
which means probably about a five hundredmonth. And if you could do
that and still be very much init Memorial Day, you feel good.
But to your point, yeah,I mean, there's no back of the
baseball cards for Christian and Carson inpronouncion strength and major league level other than

(01:48:21):
what he did last year. ButI'm such a firm believer in that kid,
and I hope I'm I hope itdoesn't go on justified because I just
really thinks he's a probes pro asa hitter, and I maybe that injury
they didn't even know he had theheal broken bone bothered him and hopefully,
you know, he can overcome that. You know, Spencer Steer started hot
and slumped. I still believe inhim. I think he's one of those

(01:48:43):
guys that is a streaky guy andyou just have to live with it.
We can eat more out Jonathan India. I mean, he's back to the
lead off spot tonight. They didn'tclean up what a couple of times in
the podra at least once in thepod gre series. I felt out of
touch, but I get it.The one thing they've really struggled with Chad
is left handed pitching, and theother part is they've struggled at the top
of the line up. You know, I truly think he's not too far

(01:49:03):
removed from having to put Ellie somewherein the middle of the order. I
get he's tried to let him relax. I mean, I love the fact
he left him in the sixth holejust to let him ease into the season.
And Ellie had a couple of stretcheswhere things weren't going well, which
didn't care because he's hitting six andstill doing unicorn like things. But he's
got to be in that middle ofthe line up here at some point.
In my opinion, and listen,TJ. Fred'll be on a rehab assignment

(01:49:23):
is huge because it means you're gettinghim back pretty soon, and I think
you plug him back in the topof that lineup. I think it changes
the offense dramatically. I wish Icould say the same that it was him
and Matt McClain, because I trulybelieve those two guys were gonna be one
hundred run scores, table setters,heart and soul of this offense and everything
else was going to fall into place. And when they didn't have them,
it is just messed with things.But yeah, some of these guys have

(01:49:44):
to start hitting. Yeah, it'sthe pitching has been excellent, Uh,
Ellie has been excellent. There's gonnabe some other parts that are going to
have to step up. That's that'sthe I'm playing week pitching here, got
to start to kick us up.You're playing with your teams. But hey,
maybe if the edict they start hittingagainst these guys, complaence level goes

(01:50:06):
up and they start rolling. Ijust think to get to a Memorial Day
two games above five hundred, andI'm gonna take my chances. Yep.
All right, thanks Kenny. Iappreciate it, and we will talk soon,
and uh have a great weekend.Enjoy the derby tomorrow, you bet
you. This is always a playersticker, all right, there you go.
Let's take a break more after this. Since now he's ESPN fifteen thirty,

(01:50:29):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from theUC Health traffic. It makes me,
It makes me feel like, howlong is this song? Two four

(01:50:49):
minutes? How much time do wehead? Left? Five? You're gonna
put this video out, aren't you? We're now recording. You hate yourself

(01:51:14):
for that, don't you. Iwish we were though end it over to
west and uh sack, but thatI will send it over to coach west
and and so I mean, youcan just put it on the internet.
I don't care, you know,I have no shame. I don't care.
Go viral. Yeah, I don'tcare. Hey, you don't stop,

(01:51:40):
don't stop at it, don't stop. So good. Skinny disagrees with
me Taren. He thinks the Bengalshave improved on defense. That's the thing.
That's why I love Skinny. II was almost certain he was going

(01:52:01):
to agree with me on that thatthey didn't do enough on defense to elevate
over where they were a year ago. Isaig he zagged. He says he
thinks they did enough. He solong term. I think I agree with
him because I think you had toget younger. But the problem with getting

(01:52:23):
younger is it sometimes it takes ayear or two. Remember two years ago
the Chiefs got younger on defense,and everybody talked about, man, this
defense is they've they've got like theylook better, but they're young and they're
still making young team mistakes. Theystill won the Super Bowl. Uh so,
I guess they weren't that young,but that was there. That was

(01:52:45):
their retooling of their defense to goyounger. And maybe that's maybe that's what
he's looking at, is Cincinnati hasmade this attempt. I don't think it's
maybe what he's looking at. Hetold us it was what he was looking
at. Cincinnati has gone younger,and he thinks that is an improvement over
where they were last year. Iwant to believe that is right, because

(01:53:15):
after this year, I think there'sa lot of change coming for this franchise.
The Borough contract really kicks in.You're gonna have to pay Chase Higgins
is going to be gone. Boydis gone. You might have to replace
most of the large majority of youroffensive line. Like this is a critical

(01:53:40):
window for this team. Critical.The Chiefs are humming right now. By
the way, what the hell werethe Bills thinking handing them Xavier Worthy?
Hey guy, that draws up thebest plays in the league. Here's the

(01:54:01):
fastest dude ever to play football.Gee, thanks, what unbelievable. He'll
be so fly on that football field. He'll be flying all over the place
with the ball in his hand.Well, this was a lot of fun.

(01:54:26):
It had been a while I missedyou. Likewise, thanks to our
sponsor, Penn Station. One ofour sponsors, Penn Station for lunch again,
the best Penn station in the worldright here in Kenwood. That was
delicious today. And we can saythat because they're a sponsored let's get out
of here. I'll be back ina couple of weeks. Don't miss me

(01:54:50):
too much. See you next time. Sam Oegers show. Since Naty's ESPN
fifteen thirty and I'm listening to theradio. I'm listening to a sad girl
sang sang about us. You gota card, thro movie, your post

(01:55:11):
off. I just want me somethingto ma. Youro When you're alone,
it gets dy old. Don't actas if you didn't know. She let
me play with her Rod. I'mworking late, I said, I'll soon
be home. All the while thegirl was home home. Let me tell
you what she's crying for. WhyBecause I'm flying, super flying. Nay,

(01:55:40):
I'm flying. You know need superfly. But me, I'm slipper
uper and I'm super duper flying fly