8/12/24 - The Mo Egger Show w/ Chad Brendel

Bengals suffer a injury already to the Offensive line, Chad Brendel from Bearcat Journal is here to talk about it. Plus Reds losing series to the Milwaukee Brewers and UC Bearcats

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Here we go Monday in the Queens City, August twelfth.
Chad Brindle in from O Eggar, who is off today.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good FROMO will be enjoys his off day.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Thank you for choosing me. Boy. We are busy today, busy, busy, busy,
got some great guests. Three point thirty. Bottom of the hour.
Richard Skinner will be joining us live from down at
Camp Bengals training Camp. Get the Good. Skinny's opinion on

(00:57):
what we saw on Saturday from the Bengals first preseason game.
Little Joe Burrow action successful first drive. Joe Burrow looked
very sharp in orchestrating a touchdown drive. That's exactly what
you want to see in the preseason. When you give

(01:18):
your guy a drive, We're gonna get you out there. Okay,
throw a quick route, throw a little hot route, attempt
a deep ball, make a nice throw on the sidelines,
get a pass interference that extends the drive, and then
you get a touchdown. Bing bang boom, Joe Burrow right

(01:41):
down the field. Everything you could ask for. I don't
know how much we learned yet outside of that, and
we'll discuss today. You know, I'm not expecting the second
team defense to be stout. Why because the first team

(02:02):
defense stunk last year and a lot of effort and
time and money went into fixing that first team defense.
You're not gonna fix all You're not gonna plug all
of the holes in one offseason. I think they plugged
a lot of the holes with that first team defense.

(02:23):
But are you really expecting that, like they're just gonna
fix all of the top of the roster problems and
add considerable depth. No, I don't think that's realistic. They
struggled to stop the run. We know that DJ Reader
is gone. They did not replace DJ Reader with a

(02:46):
DJ reader type player. Sheldon Rankins is a different type player.
I guess if you want to be concerned about anything
from Saturday, well now we have two concerns, one of
them being the running game did not look great, and

(03:07):
we know this is a team looking to get more
on the ground. Even if they're not going to run
it a ton, they are still going to need to
be more effective and efficient in that category. That's just

(03:31):
you know, there's not much else you can say because
we all know. I mean, they have thirty six rushing
yards in a preseason game. It's not good enough. And
then The other big story coming out today from down
at training camp was that Amarius Mimes, who has by

(03:54):
all accounts had an outstanding camp and was trending to
be the starting right tackle as a rookie in Week one,
has a a peck injury. Zach Taylor said that will
limit him for several weeks, but did not rule out limiteding,
limited limiteding. Oh, it's gonna be one of those, Tarran,

(04:18):
It's gonna be one of those him starting when the
season begins. So we'll see what the severity and the
length of that is. On Memes, who, like I said,
by all accounts his has had an outstanding camp to date.

(04:38):
The uh, the Bengals now will will go into a
practice week with the Bears. Is this the Bears week, right, Tarran?
Thursday they start, they startday well, they play Saturday, but
Thursday they start the joint practices. Yeah, the Bears. It

(05:02):
doesn't sound like we will see Joe Burrow the rest
of the preseason. Zach did say we will see him,
uh in the in the the The team open practices
this week and I believe next week, so they'll still
be getting some work, still be getting some live action,
but probably not going to see him in the two

(05:25):
remaining preseason games. Aran, what did you What were your
thoughts on doing the starters week one instead of you know,
everybody normally used to do it week like week four
when they had four preseason games.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Now week one, I mean, then you gotta switch it up,
especially Joe Burrow missing so much time, you gotta gotta
switch it up this time.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Here's the thing I think is important there. Uh, now
that there are only three there is a week off
after that third preseason game, So I don't think you
get the bump that that you used to get, where
it would be a lead in we play this week,
We'll get our starters out there, and then the next
week is the start of the season. After Week three

(06:11):
this year, like now, you have a bye or an
off week. So I don't think that gets you the
return on getting those guys in the last game and
then carrying it over into game week for the start
of the season. So I think there is some benefit
there because now, just like Amrius Mims, guess what would

(06:31):
have happened if a Marius Mims got hurt in Week
four and was going to be out several weeks. We
would know he's going to miss week one and week
two and maybe week three. Now there's still a couple
of weeks until we start the season, So doing it
in week one, I think gives you a little bit
of extra cushion between that game and the start of

(06:55):
the season, so if there is anything that pops up,
you're it a little bit. So I think it's I
think it's fairly smart. I can see plus and minuses
for both. But given that you're not now going directly
into the season, I like the idea of doing it
week one instead of the way that they did it.

(07:17):
Tough week for the weekend for the Red Legs against
the Brewers. They fall eight to three on Friday. That
one was rough, never really had a chance. They scored
a couple runs late, but Milwaukee was in control the
entire game. The Reds had a runner thrown out at
home trailing eight to one. I don't understand I hate

(07:41):
the contact play. You know else hates the contact play.
Tarren Billy Hatcher. Billy Hatcher was a UC practice today,
not a fan of the contact play. Saturday, Brewers win
won nothing. That was a heated pitchers duel home run
in the box of the eighth gives the Brewers the

(08:02):
one to zero advantage that they held onto and then
yesterday the Reds get off the schneide and are able
to take the final game of the series to avoid
getting swept. Buck Farmer gets the blown save and the win.
Love when that happens. It just shows how stupid win
loss is in Major League Baseball. But the Reds win

(08:22):
four to three. They are back at it tonight six forty.
Sonny Gray on the mound for the Cardinals. Andrew Abbot
takes the bump before the Reds nearly identical eras Sonny
Gray three point sixty five Andrew Abbot three point seven
Gray eleven and six, Abbot nine and nine. Still, one

(08:46):
of the things about this offseason that annoyed me was
that the Reds allowed the Cardinals to outbid them for
Sonny Gray, when I think this team would have looked
a lot different if Sunny Gray would have been at
the top of that rotation with Hunter Green and Nicolodolo

(09:07):
behind him and Andrew Abbott. But I digress. We do
have a lineup tarn this early. We do, and it's
an interesting one. Who do you think is playing second
base and batting leadoff, and you Spencer Steer, Yeah, you

(09:31):
heard that right, Spencer Steer. Who when's the last time
do you remember? I don't remember the last time Spencer
Steer played second base? Has he played second base for
the Reds? So Steer will lead off in place second
Daylight Cruise will bout second at shortstop. Tyler Stevenson batting third,
I catcher, TJ. Friedel in center batting cleanup, Jamie or

(09:55):
Candelario the DH batting fifth, ty France batting at first base,
Jake Fraley in right field, batting seventh, Noel v Marte
batting eighth at third, and Wilbinson in left field and
batting ninth, Andrew Abbott on the mound. We will get
to Klay Snowden in our number two, So Skinny coming

(10:20):
up here at the bottom of the hour, Klay Snowden
in hour number two at four to twenty, Clay from
Just Baseball is going to talk some Reds and my
biggest concern as this thing. You know, we have to
find angles, we have to find things to talk about,
and just watching the Brewers brutalize the Reds once again,

(10:41):
there's a reality that we're staring at that it's not
a lot of fun when you consider the Reds as
they enter into the meat of what is you know,
supposed to be kind of a golden era with so
many homegrown talents now coming up from the miners into
the red system. And I'm a little concerned, not gonna lie.

(11:04):
So we'll talk to Clay and then we will talk
some some bear Cats. Camp is ongoing and we are
out at higher ground. Taran, how was your higher ground
lunch today? It was enjoyable. Yeah, you did warm me.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
I think over the phone last week that they switched
nutritionists this year, but it was enjoyable.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Well, the nutritionists is the same. Last year was her
first year. I think now she's just getting away a
little bit more. Look, if you've seen me, you know
me and nutritionists are not going to agree on lunch.
It's just it's just how it is. Taran knows. Tarren.
Can you imagine if a nutritionist came to my house

(11:46):
and cooked us up lunch every time I had radio.
You wouldn't eat many lunches, would you? Not at all?

Speaker 4 (11:53):
No?

Speaker 1 (11:53):
But today was solid. Today was solid. They had some
beef strogan off, some Philly cheese steaks, some collar Green
where the Kyler Greens better with the Hot Sauce team
Hot Sauce definitely helped. Okay, okay, uh but yeah, so
uh well, we'll talk some some Bearcats camp. We'll talk
to Keithan Nicholson at four to twenty. We'll talk to Tony

(12:14):
at the end of every hour at three forty five,
four forty five and five forty five. We've got Brenneman
and Jones on baseball, and we'll talk maybe a little
Olympics tarn was was Was that the greatest shooting display
you've ever seen from Steph Curry Saturday?

Speaker 3 (12:31):
But now his moment in the Garden like uh like
at twenty sixteen was was a little bit better but
that but that was a great, great game.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
The stakes weren't quite as high correct at that in
that Garden game in twenty sixteen, with with a golden
medal on the line, he blacked out like he just
he blacked out and ended France, which without Steph, I
think France, without Steph doing what he did, I think
France ends up winning that game without stuff I don't

(13:04):
even think would be Thurby. It's probably also true because
he was out of his mind in that one as well,
but it was I thought it was a great great Olympics.
I thought NBC did a fantastic job. I think they are.
They have done as good as anybody listening to kind

(13:26):
of like the pulse of the viewers, what the viewers want.
Make these things a little bit more fun, make these
things a little bit more entertaining, while still giving great commentary,
and still like really, you know, if you're wat, if
you're if they're broadcasting a sport that's not mainstream. I
thought they did a good job explaining it, like what

(13:46):
you were watching, what the strategy was, whatever, and then
they added so much fun around it. Snoop was phenomenal.
Kevin Hart and uh Kenan, Keenan Thompson were outstanding. Did
you see any of the Colin Joe's stuff. I did not.

(14:07):
Colin Jost was in Fiji at the surfing venue for
the entire time. What a tough gig, that was, right,
But I guess he got like he got. He was
he went out to surf and cut his foot on
a coral reef and like it got infected. So he
was doing the whole thing like barefoot with one foot,

(14:28):
like completely wrapped up so that was that was good.
I just I thought NBC did a fantastic job. The
ratings were massive. I think it's the perfect time. Like
you know, you wake up every day at six seven
o'clock in the morning and the Olympics are on. Yes, absolutely,
so we'll hit on maybe a little Olympics toward the

(14:50):
end of the show. But let's get this ball rolling.
We will. We'll hear a little bit from Zach Taylor next,
and then we'll talk to Skinny at three thirty since
Naty's ESPN fifteen thirty. Let's get it moving. Uh, real quick,

(15:12):
Zach Taylor spoke to the media before practice today. Uh,
we don't have a lot of time to get to this,
so let's let's just do it real quick. Let's hear
Zach Taylor on uh, Amarus Memes and his his injury.
Uh and what it meant?

Speaker 5 (15:27):
What it means, Yeah, Marius Mems has a strained pick,
non surgical, so he'll miss several weeks. So that's you know,
I think, I think, you know, it's unfortunate he'll miss
several weeks, but expecting to make a full recovering beater roll.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
So so there you go. Uh and then Zach went
into the definition of several uh to uh to to
discuss how long it was going to be. He did
the same thing with Burrow's calf injury. Unfortunately that lingered
for like five weeks into the regular season. So I
don't know if we feel great about about Zach joking

(16:08):
about that, but mems, you would like to think that
he'll be able to bounce back from this pretty quickly. Taren,
did you see the video that they just put out
or that Kelsey Conway tweeted out of Trent Brown taking
a team rep. No, he did not look explosive out

(16:33):
of his stance. Let's just put it that way. It
looked like it took him about thirteen seconds to get
up and really get moving. He's a ten year vet.
He knows what he's doing, but you can he looks
like it's day one for him. Literally since last season.

(16:55):
It's neither here nor there. Let's take a quick break
when we come back, well, we will connect with Richard
Skinner live from camp, and then later we'll this hour,
we'll connect with Tony Pike, also live from camp. Since
nat He's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 6 (17:10):
Thirty Cincinnatis p PSPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
All right, here we go. Let's head down to the
fields just adjacent to pay Course Stadium and talk to
our guy, Richard Skinner from Local twelve. Skinny, how we doing.
I'm good, I'm good. How's your pack? Are you ready
to get in it? Right tackle?

Speaker 4 (17:44):
I'm too old for that. A. But Pete, my peck
is in much better shape than a Marius MEM's, unfortunately,
and that's I think you rather have his peck be
better than my peck at the moment.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Although I just watched a video of Trent Brown, and
you look like your get off might be a little
better than his. He looked a little look a little
slow out of the stance, Skinny.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
Yeah, he is a. I mean those two guys are.
Of course, size doesn't wow probably you and I from
basketball to even your sport. But just the enormity of
those guys, just size length wise and just size wise
is insane to see. And especially athleticism or guys and
size is just ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah. The only guy that really, there's a couple I want.
A guy named King Grace, who I called a high
school game of his.

Speaker 7 (18:31):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
He ended up playing in the NFL for a long time. Uh.
I think he swallowed an elder running back at the
old Ryle Sports Fest. I remember that, and then I
remember the first time I stood next to near Andrew Whitworth.
Uh wow. And then Mims Mims is right.

Speaker 8 (18:50):
Up there with that yes, yes, indeed.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Uh do they seem does the vibe seem pretty hopeful
that it's not a long term thing.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
I think they don't know. And I think that was
kind of the point when Zach Keller gets getting peppered
with that question, and you know, even brought out the
old you know several weeks. According to Webster's the meeting
is more than two and less than Benny. I think
the unfortunate part to this is is the practice reps.
He's gonna miss out on the chance to go against
one yeah of the Bearers and the Colts in those

(19:22):
joint practices and really continue to make progress heading into
the regular season. You know, he may be physically okay
to play come week one, but you then have missed
all that time and reps, all those reps that he needed.
He's missing some weight training because obviously it's gonna be
hard to pump weights with the Peck injury the way
it is, so he's probably gonna have to regain some strength.
So you know, the hopeful part for me now would

(19:44):
be he just comes back and as a functional player
and Trent Brown doesn't get hurt. You know, I do
think it was it was trending towards Ben's job to lose,
and he wasn't really losing it at this point. I
think he was gaining traction, and that's that's just unfortunate
for everybody involved.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, I mean, it's seem like he was easily the
story of camp outside of the guy standing in a
baseball hat missing his thirteenth consecutive practice. But yeah, it's unfortunate.
Any big takeaways from preseason game number one other than
that's exactly one of what you wanted to see from
Joe in the first team offense.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
Yeah, I mean that's one of them. I got a couple,
but yeah, you know, look at the two incompletions. Want
he threw a fifty fifty ball to t Higgins, he
get pretty good coverage, and not the way an the
other one. He threw the ball in the dirt to
avoid a sack on a blown up screen pass. Other
than that he was really really sharp, and I think
the fact that he tested that ball, the long ball
and showed that he still got the arm strength to
tuor hopeing he had all those things. I think the

(20:40):
only thing that really didn't get crossed off the checklist
was him getting hit because I think that's the final
hurdle of how does he react when he gets hit
and lands on that rist? Is there a bat reaction?
Is there? Oh that doesn't steel?

Speaker 9 (20:54):
Right?

Speaker 4 (20:54):
Reaction? Is there a no reaction at all? Because it
is completely healed? And you know he's gonna fall the
risk any times. Uh, and he didn't. You know, he
was even touched on on on Saturday, and see that's
a good thing, right, But eventually he's going to get hit,
and he's even talked about needing to get hit, and
now that it doesn't, you know, it's trending towards him
not playing this week. I doubt they play the starters
in that regular season finale on the short turn round week.

(21:16):
I mean, the first time he's gonna get hit in
is gonna come in that opener against New England.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
And I I to me, I just think he needed
to be tested and if he gets hitting one of
those joint practices there there, we're going to see a fight.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Right, they're tell to pay exactly, No, it's you know,
it'll end that joint practice because you're right to fight
one too, and and we'll go from there. I thought
a couple other things. I thought it was weirdly interesting
Jermaine Burton entered the game as late as he did,
you know, I and Joe Burrow alluded to this, you know,
and he's gett his playbook more, all those things, and
maybe that's maybe that's what it all was all about.

(21:49):
It just sending a bit of a message because I mean,
he did show what he can do. He can run,
and he ran right past the corner twice and and
made a couple of nice plays off of that. So
that was a that was a little bit odd to
me in in a way and then in a bad way.
I mean, Jackson Carvers performance was just simply dreadful. And
you know, now with M's down and again you don't
know how long you know, what happened to the tackle
position where they have to go to the waiver wire

(22:10):
when final cuts and had had a bide. Now Deontay
Smith is not practicing and he's another one. But you know,
Deontay was on the fifty three man roster last year
and didn't take a I don't think to the single
offensive snap for this team to see. Maybe he did
in the last game, but he didn't take many snaps.
So you know, you are thinned now at the position.
And I don't know, you know, you don't know how
long that gin is going to last.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Thirteen Russia is thirty six yards two point eight yards
per carry. We know that Moss was not there. He
was he was ill. But I know they don't want
to run the ball much. But you got to run
the ball better than that.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
Yeah, And honestly, I thought some of it fell a
little bit on shotbot Chase bron I had a couple
of opportunities for cutbacks, one on a play that I'm
not so sure he wouldn't have gone all the way
for a touchdown. Now, some of it, you hear this
the term of you know, you want the running back
to stay on his track, right, here's where the play
is designed to go, and pretty much kind of follow
where you're supposed to go. But there's also a feel

(23:05):
to the position and you know, again it's really easy
when I'm sitting in a press box looking down watching
the whole hole open up.

Speaker 9 (23:11):
It's a different thing to do.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
At at ground level, at game speed like him. But
you know, maybe when he looks at the film and realizes, man,
I probably should be I need to look for some
stuff like that more because that's the thing he's capable
of doing. He's capable of taking that one play where again,
maybe it's a little unscripted where he goes takes the
right right cut and there's just enough of a hole
and he's gone and and this this was a wide
cutback zone bit that he missed. But yeah, to your point,

(23:34):
when you're lead, you know, had the longest rush on Saturday,
quarterback Logan Woodside on the very final offense to play
at the game when he scrambled out to his left
for seven yards. Yes, I mean, yeah, you've got to
run the ball better than that.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
And then the run defense not great either, gave up
four point two yards of Carr one hundred and thirty
six yards on thirty two touches.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
Yeah, I you know, it's only a preseason game, but
I wanted to see more. I was hoping to see
more out of Chris Jenkins, but he got man hitting
a little bit. And I will say this. You know,
Tampa didn't play many starters, but they did play. Their
two guards and their center were start our starters, and
those were the only offensive stars they played. So he
was battling against them, which is Cody could bring the

(24:17):
battle at but he really didn't win a whole lot there.
You know, Bj Hills, Sheldon Rankins probably helped out a
ton when they play, so I'm gonna chalk that up.
But yeah, I mean one hundred and thirty two yards
a couple of big gash plays against backups. It's just
you'll want the trend to start now because it was
a terrible trend last year.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
It did feel like the past defense. What we saw
early of the guys that are going to play was better.
It looked it didn't look as disjointed and words that
I can't use without hitting the dump button clusters.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, I thought there were some moments, you know, it
comes from crossing routes where guys got lost. For the
most part, I'm with you. You know, Dak Still, he
was in coverage on a play that he actually hit
a pretty big pass on our kind of a corner route.
He just didn't get his head around. But other than that,
he ends up breaking up three passes, shows some athleticism.
I thought really was told up well. And but Josh
Newton did the same, I mean, had the interception, but
I thought he played pretty well too, so uh, and

(25:11):
he's actually having another here at camp. He's really played
well the fifth round pick. So yeah, I again like
to see it against ones at some point, and he
was full no more this Thursday when they go against
the Bears ones and even though it's rookie Caleb Williams,
it's still there Ones. And then next week when the
Colts come to town for the joint practice and the
Ones go against the ones.

Speaker 8 (25:30):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Is there anything when these joint practice practices kick off
that you're going to be keeping close eye on Thursday? Right? Thursday?

Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah, I think the trenches because again it's one's battling ones,
and I think that's a good thing. You know, how
much run does Trent Round get this Thursday? Do they
just give him a little bit of run because he's
been running with the first team today for the most part,
seeing Cody Ford in there a little bit of right
tackle too, But does he get the run with the
with the one flood and the world is that going
by us right now? Holy cow, this thing was loud.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
Sorry about that's all right?

Speaker 4 (26:02):
No, the you know, the ones against the ones in
the trenches. For me, it doesn't not like Sam Hubbard's
gonna go in the joint practice this week, but that'll
open up some snaps for Miles working Joseph Osida play
against the ones of Chicago's offensive line. The trench battles,
to be are always the fun ones when you get
ones versus ones.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
And that's usually where the fights start.

Speaker 4 (26:22):
And that's usually well, and here's the thing, and they
usually start when you have a second day. There's been
a lot of this year on when they've been just
one day at doing practices, fights starting around the league.
But it used to be, and it happened, you know,
when the Rams were here a couple of years ago.
It's usually that second day. And last time it was
Cordy Glenn was coming back from injury, okay, fact like
alcohols was coming back from injury and wasn't having a

(26:43):
very good day and that kind of started it all.
And you know, two days of bang against each other's
probably two days too many. I think that's what most
of these teams now have settled into, having a one
day of joint practice when they have it figured. Hey,
when it gets too heated, it'll be late enough in
the practice anyway, and if we have to call it
then we will have got most of our work done.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
Thankfully. Aaron Donald won't be around looking to use his
helmet as a weapon of mass destruction.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
Correct, he used the helmet as a weapon of mass destruction.
But yeah, he was sailing away with that thing for sure.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
And still watching Jason Kelse throw his helmet almost all
the way out of the lower bowl at Nippert Stadium
is one of the more impressive I think he could
have done. I think he could have been an Olympic
medalist in discus.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
Well, speaking of fights, that lit'll break a stone on
here at the moment.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
All right, you get back to it there, Oh.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
Yeah, Tony can let you know who this last fight
was between the start begetting to it again today?

Speaker 1 (27:36):
All right, thanks, Kenny, appreciate it. Man. There you go
at Logan twelve Skinny on Twitter x whatever you want
to call it. Fights breaking out as we speak, live action.
Let's take a break more after this. Since that He's
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (27:52):
This is a training camp report. Brook to you boy,
Kimbo on ESPN fifteen thirty. Officials, welcome back.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Since at E's ESPN fifteen thirty Chad Brendall and fromoeger
Let's head down practice fields. Microphone just took off on me,
Terry it to a left turn it Albuquerque. I got
it back, caught it. Let's go back down to the
practice fields at Paykorse Stadium to talk to Tony Pike. Tony,
who was the fight? Who was the scuffle? Was it

(28:29):
a skirmish? Was it a Donnybrook? What happened?

Speaker 9 (28:32):
It was?

Speaker 10 (28:32):
It was nothing but a dust up. It wasn't an individual.
It was just a couple of players pushing back and forth.
It is I mean, Skinny's gotta understand. We're weeks in
the training camp. Now this this this stuff's gonna happen.
But I can tell you Jake Browning, who has not
looked great coming from preseason game number one, had a
rough practice up to this point, just finished off a
nice touchdown drive and Joe Burrow, trying to get a

(28:54):
screen out to the flats, actually missed the screen. And
Jermaine practice had an interception, so account Bow just to
his second interception of training camp.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
Still in a good shape.

Speaker 10 (29:04):
He's still a lot of passes, a lot of touchdowns.
But so far today I think the defense has a
little bit of the upper hand.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Joe Burrow trending down. You heard it here first from
Tony unbelievable. Unbelievable. Uh, Tony. Is there any end in
sight to the Jamar Chase saga? And if not, when,
when is it okay to maybe raise an eyebrow about
like win there's an end to this thing?

Speaker 10 (29:32):
I think, I think we're already at that point. I mean,
there's there's no indication to any of these practices that
he's anywhere close. It's it's almost like it's not even
brought up anymore in these ZAC tailor press conferences, so
that there is you would think, not much getting done.
And now the thing is Chad, It's like, all right,
if if Jamar has been willing to go this whole time,

(29:54):
what would make him stop holding out now? I Mean
my concern is when you look at the salary of
what Jamar Chase is going to make this year, it's
not like he's making twenty eight thirty million dollars. It's
not like he's making twenty one million dollars. And I
know this is much different because I'm talking about an
NFL salary, But the NFL game check for Jamar Chase

(30:16):
this year, he can afford to sit out if he
really wanted to. And I wonder the longer this goes on.
We're now in the week. I mean, think of how
the schedule breaks up now ched here we are today, practice, Tomorrow, travel, Wednesday,
joint practice, Thursday off, Friday, game, Saturday, come back, and
then you'd get the finale on.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
A Thursday, so a very short week.

Speaker 10 (30:38):
With the Indianapolis coach coming in. So you know, we're
at the point of camp now that the season is
right around the corner. And if you don't get something
moving in the right direction, then the next step of
this would be, is Jamar Chase willing to sit out
regular season games? And if so, with Kansas City looming
Week two and a Super Bowl deliver team ready to

(31:01):
go into the regular season not the case without Jamar Chase,
what does that do to this this organization?

Speaker 1 (31:06):
It can't be good. It can't be good. Marius Mems
what's kind of the vibe you're getting on on this injury,
Skinny Seid, He felt like it was it was unknown.
Uh what what read are you getting?

Speaker 4 (31:21):
Well?

Speaker 10 (31:21):
The weird thing is he talked after the game about
how much he enjoyed the game and the atmosphere and
and the game that he was able to play. Now,
whoever just throw by like that. He's got to be
a cool guy, one of the cool.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Give me a break, come on, let's go guy.

Speaker 10 (31:37):
It's unbelievable. But the men's side for me is concerning
on on different levels. One, it's a peck injury. And
if you watch offensive lineman player, you know anything about
the position. You're using that punch, that violent punch pretty
much every snap, whether it's a quick set, whether it's
to to stunt the defensive lineman that's running at you,

(31:59):
whether it's to top a twist game. You are constantly
using that pushing motion. So a peck injury is not ideal.
So I think that's why they're airing on the side
of caution. But the back end of this skinning, the
number one Mars vn's coming out of Georgia was the
lack of reps and now he's not going to get
practice reps during training camp, So the next reps likely

(32:21):
he would get would be going into the regular season
when it's not ones versus ones, when it's scout team.
So he's missing out on a bunch of reps. And
now if he's out, let's say he's out three weeks, Jed.
If he's out three weeks, can he do much upper
body lifting in three weeks? So how long does it
take him physically to get back to where he needs
to be mentally to where he needs to be. And

(32:43):
then there's a lumining fact that now Trent Brown is
back in at right tackle and they have shown no
ability to have backup debt based on what we saw
a tackle on Saturday's preseason opener.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
I just saw a rep of Trent Brown getting off
the ball on a snap and he looks like he
has a ways to go.

Speaker 10 (33:03):
Yes, he has a way to go. Can you imagine?
And and and again you hope that the MEM's injury.
There was probably no one more upset about the MEM's
injury than Trent Brown.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Of course, of course.

Speaker 10 (33:14):
He talked about it openly. He talked about saying, you know,
I've got I've got a month to get myself ready,
and now, based on how the other tackles were playing
and the MEM's injury, he's being thrown in there because
he now needs to take these reps because if Mems
can't go, he has to be the guy. You cannot
consciously put Joe Burrow out there for another snap in
a game like setting if it's not Trent Brown or

(33:36):
Marius Man is blocking for him.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Yeah, I mean, Brown looked like me trying to get
out of a reclining chair in the rep that I
saw wasn't great and.

Speaker 10 (33:43):
Was probably better than the rep that we the reps
we saw from Jackson Tarbat.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Just got another flag for holding.

Speaker 9 (33:52):
It's incredible.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
All right, ton Well, you enjoy yourself and we'll talk
to you in an hour.

Speaker 10 (34:00):
We'll talk to Chad.

Speaker 9 (34:01):
Thank you, all.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Right, thanks Tony. That's Tony Pike down at pay Course Stadium.
I love the NFL preseason. I hate the NFL preseason
like it's it's a it's an evil necessity. Unfortunately, you
don't get to call up like in college. You don't

(34:23):
get to call like a NFL Europe team to play
Week one to get you ready to go. Like they
do in college with FCS teams. But what that's that's
why you don't see many starters out there. We got
a couple of minutes. Let's go to my guy Mike
in l A. Mike, Kay passaigo, I gotta, I gotta.

Speaker 9 (34:51):
I got a couple of things and one to talk
with you.

Speaker 7 (34:53):
Bro.

Speaker 9 (34:53):
If you can't, I can't.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
That's what I'm here for. They pay me for it.

Speaker 9 (34:57):
Actually, yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
We had a couple. We got a couple.

Speaker 9 (35:05):
Karen the intro music to Chad, that that seen song
you always play today.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
It hit me straight up the head.

Speaker 9 (35:13):
I felt like I was getting off the bus in
Detroit nineteen sixty eight going to see a little a
concert with Little Anthony in the Imperials, Mark and the
Vandellas and George Clinton in the Parliaments. That's how it
hit me, Bro. It's good stuff. Chance that is.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
I love old school funk.

Speaker 9 (35:30):
That's that uptown baby. You just cannot beat it. Little
Anthony in the Imperials.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
What somebody actually used the original song in a commercial recently,
and I had people hitting me up like was that
that what you play? And I'm like, well, that's that's
the sample they took it from, but that's the original.

Speaker 9 (35:52):
Yeah, No, I didn't hear it. I wish I could have.
That would have been sweet. The surfing champions you mentioned it.
I'll tell you what the most iconic photograph that I saw.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
The guy with the board and the one finger up. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (36:08):
Yeah, he came out of that barrel and hit it
perfect and it looks like a pose, But it's just antaneous, instantaneous, incredible. Uh,
fight against gravity. You know it really is, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
I Trent Brown is having that fight against gravity today
at kidding.

Speaker 9 (36:31):
Yeah, he got that big old he got a bunch
of Jim Blai in that big butt. Is what's going
on with that big big ass?

Speaker 4 (36:41):
Uh?

Speaker 9 (36:42):
Milwaukee's for real? And I didn't know how great their
team speed was. Their team speed is. You talk about
a team that could have made excuses all year long.

Speaker 11 (36:52):
They lose their pop starters, Yellows gets hurts is out
most of the year.

Speaker 9 (36:58):
No excuses for that team.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Go win games?

Speaker 9 (37:04):
Yeah I did, and they will continue to.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
The Thing that amazes me about this Reds team, Mike,
I've been thinking about this and I'll do it as
a topic probably in the off season the way that
all of a sudden, this thing shifted from We're bringing
all these guys in to be contact hitters and to
be good on the bases, and you know, to to
to having a high a high OBP and drive up runs.

(37:31):
You know what, they've turned into home runner bust, walk
home run bust. Like I all out of nowhere this
that you know, they're they're all hitting below two fifty,
some of them below two twenty. There's no contact, there's
very little getting on base, and they just swing for
the fences. And that is organizational. They are being taught that.

(37:53):
They are being taught launch agle and you know, do
everything you can to hit for power. And uh I
I feel like we've been lied.

Speaker 9 (38:01):
To make especially in that little ballpark. They should have
they should have the highest home run totals in the
end of the MLB.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Well they do, but they're not doing anything else. The
only runs they can score are hitting home runs. That's
not what we were sold as.

Speaker 12 (38:16):
Like the they supposedly switch the philosophy of the franchise,
they just got different pieces and keep teaching the same philosophy.

Speaker 9 (38:28):
Yeah, I got a food thing I want to mention,
and then I got a special announcement on a donation
I want to make to you and your publication if
you would like it.

Speaker 11 (38:38):
Okay, I'm starting to go through stuff and get rid
of stuff based on my situation. Okay, but I actually
tasted enchiladas that the actually the masa. The masa in
the enchilada actually was flavored and cooked to perfection. Because
most masa is garbage like like you know, it just

(39:01):
it's nothing. It is a blob of crap to take
up state.

Speaker 9 (39:05):
And I thought of you when I was eating it.
You know, I said, I got to mention this I've
never had.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
I don't love anchiladas because of that.

Speaker 9 (39:15):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Uh So I would is out. Next time I'm out
in California, I'll stop and find them.

Speaker 9 (39:24):
Yeah, when I talk to you next, I'll get the
name of the joint that they took us to the
other night to disabled that's took us suicide.

Speaker 7 (39:31):
Cool.

Speaker 9 (39:32):
Okay, So from back in the sixties, my dad was
a huge UC fan and uh it was a City
of Cincinnati firefighter. And I was going to games when
I was nine ten years old when they were winning
the championships. So I've got on three for five jerseys.

(39:53):
Oh wow, original and and are autographed down at the
at the he at the bottom. I got a Paul Hogue,
a Ron Bottom, a George Wilson com tacker, and a
Tony Yates that would donate them to you and your
paper or your organs. Say if you if you want.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Sure, I'll find something to do with them. I'll find
something good to do with them.

Speaker 9 (40:18):
And then I finally am going to get you your
loyal and Mary mount Lyons. Had to promise you last
year when I sent everybody else something, I found it
with dust on it. This morning.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
My guy, my guy left Loyola. He is now the
director of operations for Rick Patino at Saint John's.

Speaker 9 (40:36):
Yeah, I think you might have mentioned it to me.
I can't remember, but anyway, Uh, I don't know. You
gotta somehow get me, uh maybe off there. Well, Terren's
got my email or my text or something my phone number.
Just text me and tell me where you want me
to send them within the next week or so. Okay,
sounds good and I'll have my buddy do it.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
Thanks, Ed, appreciate you, Mike. You have a great day,
all right? Our number one in the books. Let's take
a break talk. Some Reds coming up next. Clay Snowden
from Just Baseball joining us in the four o'clock hour,
and then we'll talk to Tony. We'll get Brennaman and Jones
on Baseballs. A busy hour coming up. Let's get to it.
Since Naty's ESPN thirteen thirty. This report is sponsored by

(41:19):
OH Cincinnati's sports station. I think I've made a mistake
during the break terror. We talk about it in a second.
Welcome back, Cincinnati's ESPN thirteen thirty. This is the Mowagger Show.

(41:41):
I am not Mowegar Chad Brendle filling in today while
Moa is off. Thank you for choosing me. So, you know,
Tarr and I usually will grab a bag of Grippo's
before this, you know, coming into the show, yus. We
don't have a vending machine anymore. Yeah, rest in peace.

(42:04):
So if you want something, you better bring it with you.
I opened the bag of grippos and made the error
of not like checking the bag ninety five percent of
the time, not a problem. Crammed about three grippos in there,
and it turns out it's one of those like Neon

(42:25):
red bags of grippos. We got a rare one best.
You got a box of Grippos in a bag? Yeah,
I mean, I'll show you these things during the next break.
Who about three of them? Deep? I was like, oh,
I have to talk in looking at the screen forty
three seconds. I'm on fire a little bit in here, Tea.

(42:46):
I love them. Theyre might you know it's my favorite,
but uh, I'm starting to sweat a little bit. That's
a good idea. I have to bring a box of
clippos and just keep it just like yeah, like when
you put the tie on them and you sit them
in the corner of the studio and then you've got
Grippo's anytime that you want them, especially when they're like,
say their neon red, like you see, Oh, they were hot.

(43:07):
They're hot. They're hot. Maybe one day I'll grab you
a box from Kroger and bring it in Our number
two Bengals lose their preseason opener seventeen to fourteen. I
don't think really anybody is concerned with the final score.

(43:29):
What you wanted to see. Joe Burrow and the first
team offense minus Jamar Chase were out on the field
to open the game. They marched right down the field
and got a touchdown and then put on the baseball
caps and that if you're only gonna get one series,

(43:50):
that's exactly how you want it to look. First down,
took the snap, RPO, fired off a quick hitter to
T Higgins. They got Chase Brown involved a little bit,
got T Higgins involved, and look like you know, vintage
Joe Burrow in the process almost hit a a long

(44:13):
touchdown to T Higgins that Higgins had in his grasp
and the safety came over and knocked it away. So
I don't think you could ask for for much more
if you're a Bengals fan, although unfortunately it comes at
a at a price. Giant human Amarius Memes strained his

(44:37):
peck and it was a little bit of a surprise.
I've seen this happen a couple of different times, where
it's not all that uncommon when you deal with these
guys that I don't think the average human has any
understanding of how much pain they are in at almost
all time when they all times when they start playing games.

(45:00):
And Mims pretty clearly got this injury during the game,
did not come out played all the He played the
first series and I think he stayed out for one
more series, and then you know, a couple hours after
the game or the next day, when they come in
for treatment, they're like, if some doesn't feel right over here,

(45:21):
and then they look and you have an injury. And
I've seen it with acls Tarn, like a guy just
coach some doesn't feel my knee feels a little unstable,
and then they go get it looked at, and they
come back the next day and like so and so
towards ACL and you're like, he practiced the whole time.
I saw him after practice, walking around, laughing and talking

(45:44):
to people, and then that night, you know, swells up
a little bit or starts to feel uncomfortable, and so
hopefully it's it's nothing major. It's sounds you know, it
sounds like they've already looked at it, diagnosed it as
a strain, and a couple of weeks being the time frame.

(46:04):
Let's get into some Reds here in our number two.
And this, I think for me, this kind of comes
up every time they play the Brewers, because the Brewers
are just on a three four year run of dominating.

(46:25):
The Reds had to head just absolutely dominating, like thirty
thirty something and nine over the last three seasons something
like that. It's embarrassing how much the Brewers have just
manhandled the Rats. And we're supposed to be of this

(46:47):
belief that the Reds are entering kind of a golden
era of roster stability and talent, hitting on both and
you're you're you're starting to see some of that payoff. Right.
You have a guy that I think Hunter Green, He's

(47:07):
probably not gonna win the Cy Young, but he's going
to get votes. He's going to be in the conversation
for the Cy Young Award. Elie de la Cruz probably
not gonna win MVP, but he's going to be in consideration.
He's going to be talked about because of the type
of season that he's having. Nicolodolo when he's on the

(47:30):
mound has been good, Andrew Abbott has been very good.
There is enough talent that you feel like, you know,
things should be pretty steady and on the right upward path.
But man, when you when you feel like there's a

(47:51):
team that has your number, and that team is I mean,
the Brewers are rolling. They are seven and a half
games up in the division. Saint Louis is in second place,
seven and a half games behind the Brewers, and the
Brewers traded their two best players, They've been dealing with

(48:14):
a litany of injuries, and they're seventeen games over five hundred.
The Reds are four games under tarn Am I right
to say the Reds are not in the same stratosphere
as the Milwaukee Brewers right now? No, they're not. Am

(48:35):
I wrong in saying, I'll believe the Reds are as
a franchise ahead of the Saint Louis Cardinals when I
see it, that's fair. Thirty years, how many times have
they finished above the Cardinals? Like three times, four times?
It's not been a lot. I bet I could count
it on one hand. If you go back to let's

(48:57):
say two thousand, you mean twenty five seasons, I bet
I could count on one hand the number of times
the Reds have finished ahead of the Cardinals. The Pittsburgh Pirates,
they're struggling right now. They're one to nine in their
last ten. They have the best pitcher in baseball, who

(49:17):
is a rookie. They also have a very young and
very talented roster who it feels like they're even or
a little bit ahead of the Reds. The Cubs even
are a little bit ahead of the Reds. You know
what the Cubs have that the Reds don't. Money Now,

(49:40):
they've been a little stingy on spending it more so
than normal, but if you look at their roster, it's
pretty clear their pockets are deeper than the Reds. So
we are entering in what we believe to be like
in terms of talent, a window where the the you know,

(50:00):
the opportunities should be there. The chance to play high
level baseball should be within the reach of this group,
should be, should be I have I can't get them
above fourth place like in the division when I'm talking

(50:21):
about where I think some of these teams are headed.
And that's not a great sign for winning a World Series,
is it? Tarn How long is it going to take
for them to catch the Brewers? Because guess what if
you didn't catch them this year when they traded Corbin Burns,
like they restructured their roster, Yelich hasn't played much like

(50:44):
this is when you should like, you should have been
ready to catch Milwaukee this year. Miss me with the
injury excuse, because the Brewers have dealt with injuries and
a depleted roster all season. Long do we have to
listen to all the injuries? Like, do we have to
listen to that about the Brewers?

Speaker 9 (51:02):
No?

Speaker 1 (51:03):
You know what they do. They go out and they
win games. You know why you play the game? Tern
I thought I was to win. You play to win
the game. And I look at this Reds team and
I look at this Reds franchise as it stands, where
they continue to cut corners, they continue to do things

(51:26):
like not spending an extra couple million dollars to get
Sonny Gray and instead settling on Frankie Montas. How much
different would this team's fortunes have been if you take
out Frankie Montas and you sub in Sonny Gray. Now, look,

(51:48):
I get it. The offense has been the massive problem
for the Reds and Sunny Gray doesn't fix that. I
understand that side of it, But you get my point.
How much have we talked about As soon as the
injuries started to pop up, all of a sudden, this
team was depleted and had no depth and no answers

(52:08):
in the minor leagues and no willingness to go out
and answer the questions outside of the organization, outside of
looking at every team around Major League baseball. You know
what the Reds do in like the the Winter Meetings tearing.
They look over like whoever's sitting next to them, and
they got like, you know, half a piece of chickens
sitting on their plate, and the Reds g aar, are
you going to eat that? You done with that? Can? I?

(52:33):
The Waiver wire and guys that are dfad like what.
That's not how their peers act. That's not how the Brewers,
the Cardinals, the Pirates have acted like that for a
long time. But it feels like the Pirates are are

(52:55):
not going to act like that anymore, at least for now.
With Paul Skeens fourth fifth place in the division, even
with when healthy, do you think this is a division
winning franchise right now? I wish I did. I don't.

(53:17):
Let's take a break when we come back place notden
from Just Baseball joins us. I'm gonna ask him the
same question because he's smarter than me, and he'll have
a better answer since that he's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 13 (53:28):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC Health TRAFFICY.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Bounce with it, let it bump up. Uh huh uh
huh excup It Rolling Hour number two Floor Red's Talk
this Hour, and when I want to talk Creds, one
of my favorite people to go to none other than

(54:05):
Clay Stoden from Just Baseball. Clay, how the hell you been?

Speaker 7 (54:11):
I'm doing about as well as you'd expect from somebody
who watches the Reds.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
I'm having a wonderfully spicy bag of Grippo's potato chips.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
Good.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
Oh, They're so good. It's one of those ones that like,
when I first ate them, I wasn't looking. I was
like scrolling the monitor and getting ready for the next segment,
and I took put like three of them in my mouth,
and all of a sudden, I was like, oh, I
probably I probably should have looked. There was a little
struggle to start the last segment. But they are delicious.
Can you get those where you're at?

Speaker 8 (54:45):
Now?

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Are you in Lexington or Louisville? Where the heck you at?

Speaker 9 (54:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (54:48):
Yeah, I'm in Lexton. There there you can even buy
like the seasoning, the Grippos seasoning or whatever to put
on you know.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
Terrence said he was going to get a box of
Grippos and keep him in the producer's room.

Speaker 7 (55:00):
Yeah, Well, I'm not have to come up there then, Clay.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Every time the Reds play the Brewers, it brings me
down a little bit one because they get killed for
like three years in a row.

Speaker 4 (55:14):
Now.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
It's never pretty, but it gets me thinking about the
Reds in their position, just in this division alone. And
I just said this to Terrn, Like the Brewers are
in a different stratosphere right now than the Reds in
terms of performance. I will believe the Reds are consistently
better than the Cardinals when I see the Reds be

(55:35):
consistently better than the Cardinals. The Cubs have the biggest
war chest in terms of if they want to spend money,
they can spend more money the will The Reds will
not spend the type of money the Cubs can spend,
not that they have, but that they can. And then
the Pirates have just as much, maybe more young talent

(55:58):
than the Reds. And it gets depressing because of like
we see all these guys that we like, right, all
these this talent that we think these guys are going
to be really good big league ball players. But then
I look around the division play and I go, they
got a lot of work to do, Like that they
are not in a position where okay, just roll the

(56:18):
baseball out there and we're going to be good.

Speaker 7 (56:21):
Yeah, and exactly what you said. Starting with the Brewers,
that's an organization that's kind of proven that they can
turn and burn talent and you know, if they lose
a big free agent. I mean, they lost Corbyn Burns,
one of the best pitchers in the game last year,
and look where they are. They're still doing well. They've

(56:43):
proven that they have a step ahead on development and
player ID than other teams, and that's always going to
be a tough team to beat. We see that with
like the Guardians, the Rays, teams like that. So I
think the Brewers are going to continue that until we
see otherwise. And you know, the Cardinals, like you mentioned,
like you know, that's a really good organization as well,

(57:05):
that's been successful year after year. They're a little bit
older than probably most teams would like to be, but
again they've shown that we shouldn't doubt them. And yeah,
the Cubs have always been kind of a strange team,
but they have young talent coming on the way. We'll
see how good they are, and like you said, at

(57:26):
any moment, they can flip the switch and start spending
more money. It wouldn't surprise me if they signed Alex
Bregmant to play third base, or well, they just got Parade,
so that's a little different. But either way, they could
do that if they wanted to, you know what I mean,
they can go out there and get the top three
agent and the Pirates says a young core. That's that's good.

(57:48):
And they were, you know, rumored in trade tall talks
that they were going to try to add this season,
and they did add a little bit at the deadline.
But when you look at just Baseball's top one hundred
that arm Lateton just put out last week, the Reds
have two top one hundred prospects. Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, and

(58:09):
Pirates all were ahead of them in terms of just
sheer number of top one hundred prospects. You know, that
doesn't say, wow, this is terrible, but it just shows
right now the proven, kind of high end closer to
the majors ty prospects aren't there A lot of them

(58:29):
recently graduated and joined the Reds. But you know, we're
kind of looking at a team that's not awesome, and
we have these young players who are kind of performing
sometimes slumping and you know, just trying to ride Ellidal
agrees as long as possible.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Yeah, I mean that's you know, the Here's what I
guess annoying about it is you're in a position right
now where you know what I feel, Clay, I feel like,
for the health permitting, I feel like for the next
three or four seasons, we're gonna see Hunter Green and
the Cy Young race, and Ellie de la Cruz and
an MVP race. And if my favorite team has one

(59:10):
of the best pitchers in the game and one of
the best players in the game, I should not be
worried about the Pirates and the Cubs and the Cardinals.

Speaker 7 (59:18):
Absolutely right. And it's it's lining up in a way.
And you know, you could say I'm delusional, you know,
or I would never do that, not you personally seeing
the lovely millions of listeners of this, Okay, I actually
think that they're in a great position to be aggressive

(59:38):
this offseason if you just look at the way the
contracts are lining Up's kind of where they all are
with Ellie still pre Ard and McLain and all of
their you know, young talent that we've talked about for
the past three years. That have arrived and yeah, I've
said it before. Rather we think it's a good enough corps.
Not the front office does. Yes, you know this do

(01:00:01):
and until they trade one of those players or anything
like that, I'm going to believe that as well. You
have plenty of even if you want to operate under
the quote unquote Red salary cap. You know it's one
hundred and thirty millions old. They're they're uther spent in
the year. There's going to be money to be spent.
And what better time to do it than now. Like

(01:00:22):
you know, they got Candelario. Now, I know that hasn't
worked out, but you know you can add players in
that fifteen to twenty five million dollar aad type range
on even a shorter deal and improve this team. Now
it's all about finding that talent, getting them to want
to play in Cincinnati. And you know you could say,

(01:00:42):
oh well, then trade for it. I just went over
to top one hundred prospects that Yeah, you know you don't
have the top end trade capital. Now you could package
together a few of those guys still get a player.
We'll see if the Reds are willing to do that,
but they have in the past when they when I
got Matt Lakos when that team was looking like they

(01:01:03):
were ready to turn the page. Yeah I'm sorry, ready
to take a step. And they had that season when
they signed Mustakis and all of those free agents. Again,
it doesn't always work out, but we're not talking about that.
We're talking about the team just showing that they're willing
to do and they have to an extent at times
that they felt it was right. And this offseason has

(01:01:25):
that feeling of yeah, it has been a really down year,
but we still think this team's talented. They need some
help around them. We have a better understanding of where
that help needs to be. Let's go get an outfielder,
maybe a starting pitcher, you know, round out a bullpen
and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
The thing for me is Clay I mean, I guess
here's a reason for optimism. If I'm going to be pessimistic,
I like to try to also add some optimism in
to balance things out. This team has been hurt. I
hate the injury excuse because there are teams around the
league that have been injured that are not using it
as a crutch nearly as much as some Reds fans are. However,

(01:02:06):
the injuries are undeniable. They are unfortunate. They have clearly
taken away some of the pop that this team was
expecting kind of to have. They have to they have
to be able to get up into that one fifty
to one sixty million range in payroll. I just I
look at it and I think the problem that we

(01:02:27):
talk about every year, like we're surprised by the injuries. No,
it's one hundred and sixty two game season. Guys are
gonna get hurt. They're gonna miss a month, they're gonna
miss two months. Like what you have to be as
an organization ready and prepared for that. And I don't
think you can do it at one hundred and twenty
to thirty million, not anymore.

Speaker 7 (01:02:47):
And just the way it works as players like Candelario,
who are you know, a solid track record, not gonna
win you World Series, but those type of players are
the fifth sixth best player on your team. It costs
fifteen million dollars a year. It's not more, you know
what I mean, Like it's not cheap to do that,
but they have to do it. If they're not going

(01:03:10):
to get there, then it's just going to be another
year where you're hoping and praying too many things go
right and the likelihood of that happening. As we've seen
this year and plenty of other examples, just how quickly
a season can be derailed if you don't have depth,
and you don't have quality depth. And I think some
of the players on this roster right now who people

(01:03:34):
like just fine, could be great quality depth and remove
them from starting roles. And you know, I just keep
going back to the outfield. Find a way trade sign.
I don't care. The outfield has far too low of
a floor and a pretty mediocre ceiling in my opinion,

(01:03:58):
even if that means someone like you know, you add
to the point that Spencer Steer is kind of your
bens overest, light play all over, find him ways in
the lineup, but he's not necessarily, you know, a quote
unquote starter, but you know, injuries and poor performance will
get him in the lineup three three times a week.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
Will Benson has two hundred and eighty six at bats,
he's hitting one ninety six. They have to be they
have to be able to do better than that in
the outfield. I am a Will Benson supporter. I want
it to work out.

Speaker 7 (01:04:33):
It is not Will Benson is one of the nicest people, energetic,
everyone Lovesvehouse. He leads the team in friendships. However, that
doesn't really get you very far. If you're going to
be a platoon player like him, you have to hit

(01:04:54):
extremely well, not just ten percent above league average, extremely
well against varieties. You know, him being a lufty and
you know at times he showed it last year in
kind of a skewed sample where his expected stats were
significantly worse than his actual stats. And this year it's

(01:05:15):
looking more like what his expected SATs looked like last year.
There's a lot of swing and this, and I get it.
There's some speed there, there's some tools, there's some power.
We've given him now two seasons to show he can
be more than depth and he just hasn't. I'm in
no way willing to run into next year with him
being a plan A. You can option him. You could,

(01:05:40):
you know, just have him as a fourth outfielder, or
you could just move on from him if it made
sense of the trade. I know that that would not
be the prettiest of you know, transactions for him. But
you know, we're talking about a team that needs to
get better, and if we get attached to these fringe
players like a Stewart Fairchild. For whatever reason, the fan

(01:06:01):
base is obsessed with a zero point you know, can
sometimes hit lefties, Like we need to upgrade those players.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Yeah, yeah, you hit right. He's about as well as
he does. I will give them the flowers, say that,
I will give them their flowers. Santigo Espinal has been
way more than anticipated and like in kind of a
spring training afterthoughts sort of a deal. He has been
exactly what the doctor ordered in that utility role. He's

(01:06:35):
had a pretty steady bat. It gets a big RBI
this weekend, Like, I guy will give them their flowers
on Espinal, but I will say it's a guy that's
gotten o PS of six seventy four, So like that's
we're giving out flowers for average now, for not for
not being terrible. Yeah, for not being terrible, you get
flowers in this franchise.

Speaker 7 (01:06:56):
And to me, it's like that exact player has been
a nice player and like the you know, fans are
pretty excited about him right now, but when you really
take a look at into his stats and you realize,
like the collection of a year has been below average
for him, Like that's just the truth. And as a
bench player, he's fine right now, He's kind of had

(01:07:20):
to be a little bit more than your regular backup
due to injuries and performance and whatnot. That yeah, okay,
if you want to bring him back and he is
fighting for a spot on the roster next year, that's fine.
But we have to get to a point where Santiago
Espinals of the world are fighting for the last spot

(01:07:41):
and not guaranteed a spot. Right the debt has to improve.
We can't attach ourselves to these mediocre players and expect
all of them to take a leap. I think that's
kind of what happens going into really high expectations of
a lot of young players taking massive leaps, and some

(01:08:04):
of them did, like Ellie, and some have had kind
of a rocky back and forth. Now it's not over
for those players. They're far from a finished product, but
the playing being needs to be stronger.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Agreed, all right, Clay, I mean, I know we didn't
talk a lot about the day to day stuff, but
my brain is in bigger picture. If I'm going to
talk rads, it's gonna it's not going to be about
tonight's game against Saint Louis. I can't do it. I
can't do it.

Speaker 7 (01:08:30):
How does the bullpen look tonight? Who's rested?

Speaker 9 (01:08:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Yeah, I don't care. I really don't care. Appreciate you, brother,
Thank you, and uh we will talk soon.

Speaker 7 (01:08:40):
Thanks, have a good one.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
All right. Clay Snowden from Just Baseball, Clay Clay you
there still?

Speaker 7 (01:08:47):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
What's the Twitter hand? Clay underscore snow There's a double
underscore somewhere there. That's right, Okay, Clay underscore snow I
got it. Thanks brother, We'll talk soon. All right, there
you go, let's take a break. What do you want
to do, Terran? You want to talk to Tony when
we come back. Yeah, we'll talk Tony, Dan Brendiman, and

(01:09:09):
Joel Okay, sounds good. More after this. Since ant He's
ESPN thirteenth.

Speaker 13 (01:09:12):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from.

Speaker 6 (01:09:18):
Hollywood Casino, Lawesburg on the ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Yes, since that, He's ESPN fifteen thirty. Chad Brendall was
sitting in for Mo Eggar, who is off today joining
some tennis. Joined some tennis. Ah, very nice. I hadn't
heard what he was doing. It's good to hear. It's

(01:09:46):
a delightful day for it. I was a camphire ground
earlier this morning, and that's about as perfect of a
camp morning as you can get. And I would assume
it felt pretty much the same this afternoon down at
pay Corse Stadium, Tony.

Speaker 10 (01:10:05):
Just a delightful day, isn't it, even if it's a
small glimpse. Doesn't mornings like it is right now? Doesn't
it just give you the confidence that falls is right
around the corners? Yeah, we're so close to football season.
You know, the humidity goes down a little bit. There's
a chill in the air that to me, you know,
is football. And I know it'll be hot the first

(01:10:27):
couple of weeks, but I cannot wait until we are
just consistently back with the low temperatures and just that
level of comfort outside.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
You know what the worst is, Tony? Like, do you
have a dog, right, yes?

Speaker 9 (01:10:40):
Or like that?

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
You know that first time you let the dog out,
and you let the dog out and you can already
feel like it's like eighty four degrees outside and you're like,
today is gonna suck. Like I know as soon as
I step outside, I'm gonna sweat as opposed to today.
You open the door to let the dog out and
you find yourself stay out on the deck watching the dog.

(01:11:01):
You know, like like ha, this is great.

Speaker 10 (01:11:06):
This is offping up the chest, maybe having a cup
of coffee. That's what these mornings are for.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
Now, ripping a heater. If you're me, I mean we
do things different. Was there anything fun at the the
end of practice, the back half of practice today?

Speaker 7 (01:11:22):
No.

Speaker 10 (01:11:23):
I thought the defense won overall for the day. You know,
it was a it was an off day for Joe
Burrow and those days happened. But on a on a
three pass stretch to finish up his team sessions today
through two interceptions. One he overthrew a screen pass uh.
The other was a looked like a miscommunication with Andre
Yoshi Vash and him on Yoshi Vosh pulled up. He

(01:11:45):
thought it was a one high deep safety look. Burrow
read it is too high, so Burrow let the ball
push down the field. It was a read that they
messed up on. So a couple interceptions, which is baron
Kenny because I only had him with one interception leading
up to dead to day and try so he surpassed
that total of one day so I do. I think
the defense won today, and let's be honest, the defense

(01:12:08):
needed that as well. I thought the defense got beat
up a little bit as the game went on. On Saturday,
I thought the first team offense looked really good. So
it just felt like one of those days in camp
where you know we're in the the backstages of camp.
There's one more practice tomorrow than you had to to
Chicago than it's a short week for Indy guy that
you can just tell guys are are ready to start

(01:12:30):
playing actual games.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
Two picks tone start bench cut, Burrow, Browning and Woodside Man.

Speaker 10 (01:12:39):
I'll still give Burrow a slight at Okay, okay, Browning
the second, but Browning better start playing a little better.
Browning played down to Bay like the guy that knew
he played really good in the regular season last year
and doesn't have to compete as a backup anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:12:52):
Yeah, that's not where That's not how you want your
backup to be hungry. You know this town.

Speaker 10 (01:12:57):
Look though, Yeah, but that's what it looked like, right, Yeah. Yeah,
it didn't look as sharp from Jake Browny as it
has And you wonder how much last year playing it
plays into that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
You never did that in Carolina, did you.

Speaker 9 (01:13:07):
No?

Speaker 10 (01:13:08):
No, no, no, no, there's no calling it in at
all in Carolina. Remember when I was seventh on the
depth chart at.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
You see, you don't get the statue that you have
in Charlotte. Without you, you're with poor work ethic. Let's
put it that.

Speaker 10 (01:13:22):
Way, Thank you. That's why the statue was built.

Speaker 1 (01:13:24):
Yeah, exactly, All right, ton I got, I got. Marty
and Tracy are sitting here staring at me, so I
we'll come back to you an hour three. Okay, thanks
chev All right, there you go. That is Tony Pike
with the camp report for the four o'clock hour. We'll
talk to him again before we get out of here.
Burnaman and Jones is next. Since that he's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
I'm John Waalzac, host of the new podcast Missing in Arizona.

Speaker 9 (01:13:49):
And I'm Robert for sure, one of the most wanted men.

Speaker 7 (01:13:51):
In the world.

Speaker 1 (01:13:51):
We cloned his voice using AI in two thousand and one.

Speaker 8 (01:13:55):
Police say, I killed my family and rigged my house
to ESPN fifteenthird, Cincinnati sports station.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
Here we go. We are cruising through a Monday afternoon.
Chad Brenda and from Mogar will be back tomorrow. Thank
you for choosing me you can. You can find me

(01:14:40):
at Chad Brendle on Twitter, find me at Bearcat Journal,
pretty much everywhere else. We'll talk some bear Cats this hour.
Excited to do that and if you want more bearcats tonight,
go to YouTube, go to twitch at eight o'clock and

(01:15:06):
the Bearcat Bounce podcast, which is part of the Bearcat
Journal network. We will have former Bearcat wide receiver and
partner of Dan Horde on UC Radio broadcast Jim Kelly,
who has been at most every practice so far of camp,
and we'll be getting his views on the Bearcats as

(01:15:28):
we quickly quickly head towards the start of the twenty
twenty four season. Keing and Nickoson will join us here
in about thirteen to fourteen minutes and we will talk
some Bearcats there as well. Amar's memes. Kind of the

(01:15:50):
big news of the day, the massive tackle out of Georgia.
The Bengals first round draft pick is out, or what
Zach Taylor has deemed several weeks and did so by
giving a Dictionary definition of several more than two less

(01:16:12):
than many, I guess is the way that he put it.
So Yeah, that's it's a tough blow for a guy
that was trending towards being the starter at right tackle
when the season begins. Now attention turns to Trent Brown,

(01:16:33):
who had his first practice of camp today, first live
practice of camp today. So the race is on for
Trent Brown to get fully in game shape. He started
the camp on the pup list. The Bengals will now

(01:16:54):
practice tomorrow, take Wednesday off, and then head to Chicago,
go for a joint practice and take on the Bears
in their next preseason game, and then you get the
Colts next week, and then it is all systems go
for Week one against the Patriots for the Cincinnati Bengals.

(01:17:19):
If you watched any of the preseason game on Saturday,
which that was a tough task. Taran preseason game on
one of the most perfect evenings of the year, that
was a that was a tough task. I got through
the first half and a little bit of the start

(01:17:41):
of the second, and then it was you know what
it was time for? I mean, how could you're not
there was a fire pits Saturday. I said, perfect. I mean,
if you're gonna if you ever have enjoyed sitting by
a fire, Saturday. Was was the exact weather that you
do so, so I did that, but I watched all
of the first half, a little bit of the second,

(01:18:03):
and you saw within the first twenty minutes, you saw
what you wanted to see. Bengals got the ball. Joe
Burrow drove the team straight down the field with the
first team offense touchdown. Okay, like the rest is semantics.
Some things to worry about, the run game, stopping the run.
Neither of those things went particularly well. Both of those

(01:18:26):
things are on the list of if this team is
a Super Bowl contender. These two questions need to be answered.
And I don't think you have an answer part of it.
Because Zach Moss was sick. He was not there. Chase
Brown got the majority of the looks. They produced thirty

(01:18:50):
six yards rushing, not a glowing endorsement of improvement in
the running game. In the post Joe Mixon era, Red's
back at it Tonight, they take on the Saint Louis
Cardinals at six forty Andrew Abbott on the bump for
the Reds. He is nine and nine with a three

(01:19:12):
seventy ERA. He goes up against an old friend in
Sonny Gray eleven and six three sixty five era for
the Cardinals. The Reds lineup is out Steer at second
and leading off. I haven't seen that this year. I
don't believe de la Cruz batting second, Stevenson, Friedel Candelario, France, Frehley,

(01:19:39):
Marte and Benson. Your Reds lineup on the hill, like
I said, Andrew Abbott facing Sonny Gray. So there you
go at your Bengals and Red's update off the top,
and let's talk some some bear cats a little bit.
It's in because over under said for the season at

(01:20:04):
five and a half. If you listen to the people
that really know college football, those people were not bullish
on the bear cuts last year. There was a lot
of I think the over under last year was set
at four and a half, and a lot of the
people that are very good at this nationally that understand

(01:20:24):
the national scene looked at it and said they're gonna
have a tough time. They're probably not gonna go bowling,
They're probably gonna have a tough time winning five. And
the under might be the play and being around it firsthand,
you try to be a little bit more optimistic because

(01:20:46):
you have to do it every day and you look
at it and I think my message last year was
they could be anywhere from four and eight to eight
and four. I was wrong. They were three and nine
and everything that essentially could go wrong last year, outside
of the run game, everything that could go wrong went wrong.

(01:21:11):
And the message, it seems, is a lot different this year.
You know, Phil Steele was on with MO last week.
He was a little bullish on the Bearcats. He thought
the talent level was up. He thought quarterback plays should
be see an improvement over what they saw a year ago.

(01:21:31):
He liked it. And I think everybody likes the way
the schedule, excuse me, sets up for the first half
of the season and if they can, you know, build
a little momentum. And this team that I think tearing
the number is fourteen, thirteen or fourteen. There's only thirteen,

(01:21:51):
fourteen guys on this roster that took a snap in
a practice for a Luke Fickele coach team. That was,
you know, December twenty twenty two that Luke Fickle left.
That was not a significant amount of time ago. That

(01:22:12):
was last offseason and this offseason. Seventy players have turned
over essentially since then. You had an eighty five man roster,
and you're looking at seventy essentially new guys that had
been brought in from the Scott Saderfield higher I think

(01:22:35):
what I know, I do expect quarterback play to be better.
I'm very high on Brendan Soresby, with the caveat that
he is still a red shirt sophomore that has only
started seven games. The talent is there with Soresby. He's
a tough kid, He's got a big arm. He seems

(01:22:57):
to be a guy that understands what they want out
of the offense, how they want the offense to navigate
and operate. I think he is going to have a
weapon that he throws the ball to a lot in
Joe Royer, the transfer from Ohio State elder product. He
looks like he is out of central casting for big

(01:23:19):
time tight end. I still have concerns about stopping the
run with this team. That would like, if you ask me,
my biggest concern for the Bearcats going into twenty twenty
four in a league that is just littered with weapons

(01:23:41):
running the football. West Virginia was a top ten team
in the country last year running the football. Central Florida
was a top team in the country, Top ten team
in the country last year running the football. Kansas runs
the football a ton. Kansas State runs the football a ton.
Iowa State runs the football a ton. You're looking at

(01:24:02):
a league that is built right now on running the football,
and you're looking at a defense that at the moment
does not have Dante Corleone. Now, people seem pretty upbeat
and positive about the you know, the ability for Corleon

(01:24:22):
to return, and when he will be back for Cincinnati.
The feeling is it will be sooner than later. I
don't think we're looking at like second half of the season.
I think it would be sooner than that. And if he,
you know, continues to progress, maybe much sooner than that.
Do I expect to see him Week one against Towsand no,

(01:24:42):
I don't. I think anything is possible after that. Yeah,
Jalen Hunt, who was slated to back up Corleone and
potentially play with Corleone, has missed the three practices and

(01:25:03):
we don't exactly know the status of Hunt going forward.
That's not a good thing to hear. The one thing
I do think can help them against the run is
they are much deeper and much more athletic at linebacker.
And much deeper and much more athletic at safety. The

(01:25:27):
bad news is, you know what, you don't want to
have tarn a bunch of safeties leading you in tackles
in a run first league. It's not ideal when your
third level of defense, you know, is going to rack
up a lot of tackles. But I think between the

(01:25:48):
way that Tyson Bite, the new defensive coordinator, runs his
defensive system, you're going to see the linebackers in the
safeties asked to do a lot in run support. They
have to be better corner because teams were able to
beat them over the top with regularity last year. If

(01:26:10):
and you know, the general belief is they got better
at three positions. They made significant improvements at three positions
that weren't quarterback, wide receiver, linebacker, safety. If that's true,
I think this is a team that is looking at
six to seven wins. I cannot and you know, hopefully

(01:26:34):
they proved me wrong in this regard. I haven't been
able to get myself above seven. But given the disaster
that was last year, I think every UC fan would
take six wins as a solid sign of progress, as
a you know, a signal that things are turning back

(01:26:56):
in the right direction. Can they get there? That's a
million dollar question. Let's take a break. We'll talk to
Keegan Nicholson from Bearcat Journal dot com right after this
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Yes, sir, yourself cracked my own

(01:27:24):
up the back of a hole, just smelling mustard dusk
and the crack of the doll. We go to episode
too like attack of.

Speaker 2 (01:27:30):
The Clothes, what till we break it back and you'll
hear the crack of the.

Speaker 4 (01:27:32):
Phone to get back to get out.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
I mean, I talked to Kegan all the time. If
the decision is talked to Keegan or listen to this song,
it's a it's a tough one for me. Yeah, I'm
not going to ask you if you know teleb quality, Keegan,
because I know you don't.

Speaker 8 (01:27:52):
No, I just want to be audience to know how
I'm treated.

Speaker 1 (01:27:55):
I mean, look, that's that's all.

Speaker 8 (01:27:57):
That's all I want.

Speaker 1 (01:27:58):
I talk to you all the time. I don't hear
that song all the time, you like, and Taran Tarren
has it in like semi rotation, so like it's probably
been three or four episodes with Taren since I've heard it,
so I'm just saying it's a good song, that's all.
Not that I like you in us Keigan nikoson Bearkui

(01:28:23):
journal dot com. Uh, Keegan, we are on the back
half of Camp higher ground. I think we are out
there until Thursday, back at Nippert Stadium on Friday, and
then camp moves back to campus. What would you say
is your biggest storyline of camp through the first ten practices.

Speaker 8 (01:28:49):
I would just say, how much deeper the wide receiver
room is Cincinnati lacked in that area last year. You
had David Henderson come in and had a great season
that says tools were there and he proved it on
the field. But then kind of surrounding that, you had
Braydon Smith who had a decent year and d Wagans
who had kind of an underwhelming season. But now you've
surrounded Zager Henderson with a veteran kind of do it

(01:29:12):
all guy and Tony Johnson and they take the top
off the defense yards after Cats super shifty guy and
Tireance Smith. And then you have guys like Jimoy May's
coming in behind him, Barry Jackson, and then some talented
you refreshmen who were going to get the room a
lot of depth. Aaron Turner is one of my favorite guys.

(01:29:36):
It just flipped my mind. I know it's a third
down guy that makes catches in big situations, but I
think that they have the weapons to surround X with
and it's going to free him up for a lot
of options. It's going to make the job easier on
the quarterback, and it's just going to make the offense
flow smoother. And it's kind of somewhere on the defensive
side with the linebackers, like they had three to four

(01:29:58):
guys last season that could hold their own in the twelve.
Now they have eight. So it's just the simple thing
of death is gonna make It's going to make this
team have an easier time winning games, and it's just
going to make them a better team overall.

Speaker 1 (01:30:12):
I'd argue safety as well, because they had zero guys
that could hold up in the big twelve at safety
last year and it feels like five or six.

Speaker 8 (01:30:21):
Now, oh yeah, and a lot of veteran leadership, a
lot of guys who have played a lot of games
in the safe room. We talked to Josh Lincoln today,
Louisville Kid from the Louisville Louisville area. His dad played
at Louisville, but he wanted to reunite with coach Satt
coach Brown when he was here at the DC. But

(01:30:42):
he's had a really good camp and it's look like
he's going to be one of the main guys in
the safe room that's going to provide their leadership. And
then he's around him with Derrick kntein. You know, I
think it's a sixth year guy, maybe a fifth year guy.
And then the Kay Miller played at Miami Ohio and
then went to New Mexico State, And when we talked
to him today, he said, you know, when for the
victory bell, I was on the wrong end of it

(01:31:03):
by a lot twice, and I want to taste of
the victory bell on the right end of it. So
a part of him coming to Cincinnati was having the
opportunity to get back at mid New Ohio. So keep
an eye on number twenty on defense when Cincinnati goes
to Yegrit Stadium.

Speaker 1 (01:31:19):
It's interesting because the running back, the running the running
game was so strong last year. I don't feel like
we've seen a ton of it so far in this camp.
Although today was probably the most run heavy day that
they had. It makes sense to kind of you know,
you don't you don't want guys out there smacking each
other around a meek a week before, a month before

(01:31:40):
the season, but as things draw closer, you definitely want
to get some live reps. I think you're with me.
Corey Kiner is going to be great. I you know,
Evan Pryor has been a little more quiet, although I
thought he had a good day Saturday in the scrimmage.
But I love Chans Williams, who was outstanding today.

Speaker 8 (01:32:04):
Yeah, he's like a video game player. Basically, he's just
wherever he wants to go. He goes in the blink
of an eye and he bounces all around the field.
He has really good speed. He hits the hole really well.
He had a good day Saturday. Well, he didn't have
the explosive runs like Evan Pryor did, but today it
was probably his best day of the fall. I think

(01:32:26):
he had a forty five to fifty yard touchdown run
and multiple chunk games after that. And it's like you said,
it's Kinner's job and then everyone comes behind him. But
as Brad Glenn, the offensive coordinator has said before that
number two running back spot has a lot of hidden importance,
and I'm not sure exactly what you see coaches want

(01:32:46):
out of that spot. Is someone who holds their own
in pass pro Is it someone who can get out
and catch passes, which that seems to lean more towards
Evan Pryor than Chance Williams. But you know, they ran
three pretty consistently last year with Brian Montgomery and Miles Montgomery,
so it won't be a surprise to see all three
guys out on the field this season.

Speaker 1 (01:33:08):
Is there a fourth guy in that running back room?
Because as I continue to watch camp, I think there
might be a fourth guy in that running running back room,
and it's it's walk on.

Speaker 4 (01:33:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:33:20):
And it looks like he's going to get a lot
of reps in the at the goal line or in
the red zone because Victor Dawson is just racking up
the goal line touchdowns. I talked to some coaches and
they are super super high on him. I mean, he
was a scout team guy last year. You barely even
saw him, and now he's coming in this year and
he's gaven away to the point where he's getting more

(01:33:42):
carries than Manny Kobe and he's getting more carries than
Jacry and Kathy. The true freshman is coming in. So
he's not really just okay with being a scouting guy.
He's trying to let these coaches know that, you know,
if he needs to be relied upon, that they can
rely on Victor Dawson in whatever situation. But he is
getting a lot of work in the red zone and
at the goal one m Now.

Speaker 1 (01:34:03):
We talked a bunch about the incoming freshman coming into camp,
and while they are still noticeable at times, I think
we've seen them, I don't want to say fade, but
maybe not splash as much as they did now that
things are are ramping up. But I still think when

(01:34:25):
you look at guys like Jakwan Sanks, Marquavius Sabor, Gravy Johnson,
you know, Daniel James, who I think was the highest
rated recruit in this class that the class from a
season ago, and then on offense, Gavin Grover, Jakarie Anderson,

(01:34:47):
and cal Woodburn. We've seen a little bit. This has
the makings of a really good freshman class down the road.
I would say we're not We're not noticing them flash
as much as things kind of you know, gear up
towards the season.

Speaker 8 (01:35:05):
Yeah, And I think that's what you want because a
lot of the true freshmen. The true freshman that flash
flashed last year was Barry Jackson, and that was in
the spring, and that was because I think he was
the third scholarship receiver on the roster. So like, it's
good that he's making plays and it's good that he's
holding his own, But then there's the part about well,

(01:35:26):
who's going to play that's played in college this upcoming season.
So it's good that these guys are being able to
be eased into college ball and not being relied upon
and be like, Okay, it's in the case where Simeon
Coleman can play because he's shown that he can and
not because he has to. Yeah, And same thing as

(01:35:46):
the Radion Johnson. He's shown he can not because he
has to. And I think those guys are really impressed
coaches Raygon Johnson. When I talked to Carry Colmes, he
kind of compared him and in price to Sauce in
terms of their length, in terms of their speed. It
was very clear that they aren't sauce yet, because Sauce

(01:36:07):
is sauce. But they've got some really high ceiling impression
guys that they like and I think and they're and
the coaches wishes they want to eat them in as much.

Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
As they can. Are there are there any guys that
maybe are under the radar offense or defense that are
kind of, uh, you know, catching your eye and you
think that that's going to be a guy that maybe
we're not talking a lot about now, but by the
end of the season, you know, will be more of
a household name in the UC community.

Speaker 8 (01:36:40):
Yeah, two guys on offense. Jimoy May's a Chattanooga and
UAB transfer. Spent the spring semester or the winter semester
at I don't know, spent the spring semester at u
AB kind of decided that that wasn't the situation he
thought it would be transfer to since got here this

(01:37:00):
summer so has really barely been there, but he's making
catches all.

Speaker 7 (01:37:05):
Over the field. He's shown his catch radius.

Speaker 8 (01:37:08):
And another guy that's played a lot of football who's
gonna have some opportunities I think in that second line
behind ex Tony Johnson and tern Smith and then another
guy too. I mean, you want to talk about nasty
Natty and the nastiness of Cincinnati football tight end Francis
Sherman from Louisville by way of Arkansas, where he spent

(01:37:30):
last season under Stan Pittman. I think a lot of
people are going to get very, very familiar with him.
When he first came in, I just thought he was
the h back, like hybrid fullback tight end kind of guy.
But he's been running a good amount of routes and
he's very very familiar with this Cincinnati zone run scheme.
Josh Stepp told me that he makes his living attached,

(01:37:52):
so he's going to get down and dirty and shout
out to Ryan Warrior, put his face in the fan,
and get as much blocks as he can and just
try to do it's best for the team. Not necessarily
a flashy guy, but fans are going to really recognize
number forty four on offense come this season.

Speaker 4 (01:38:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:38:09):
That I couldn't agree with you more on that one.
For me, that Sherman would be the guy that I
maybe I expected the least from him in terms of like, yeah,
like numbers, you know. I figured he would be a
guy that was going to be involved in the run
blocking game, going to be involved as a pass protector,

(01:38:31):
I was not aware of his increased abilities being able
to run routes and being a safety valve for the quarterback.
So I would agree with you there. I don't do
that often.

Speaker 8 (01:38:42):
Yeah, he's longer than he appears to be, and he's
shown that throughout camp. He goes across the middle. I
think he's even gotten some deep shots. Yeah, but he's
going to be a really good guy for Devin de
Hirski and Gavin Gerber to learn from this season in Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (01:39:01):
Yeah, anything else that that's caught your eye that you
want to talk about.

Speaker 8 (01:39:07):
Gavin Grover is looking really good in the passing game.
It's he has a ton of size.

Speaker 9 (01:39:12):
I think he's six six six sevens.

Speaker 8 (01:39:14):
A lot of people are just assume that he's going
to be physical with the point of attack. But he
had a pretty nasty double move today that ended in
a touchdown. And that's a true freshman, So I would
I'm really looking forward to seeing how he continues to
develop in his game. Ohio guy from the Columbus area,
But I think that he could be a stud like

(01:39:36):
kind of that Josh Wiley, Leonard Taylor, Josiah Deguara type
that the offense can just we need a third down conversion.
Let's go to Gavin Grover.

Speaker 1 (01:39:46):
We need somebody in the red zone to make a play.
Go to Gavin Grover. See if somebody just make a
play in the red zone, I'm down for that. So
they have what a couple more days the rest of
this week or most of the rest of this week
at higher ground. They head back to campus on Friday.
Uh over under five point five wins? Kegan, are you

(01:40:10):
going over or under?

Speaker 8 (01:40:13):
I'm going to take it over, and I'm going to
be generous and I'm going to give them seven.

Speaker 1 (01:40:20):
Okay.

Speaker 8 (01:40:21):
I think that they start the season four to ozher Pitt, Miami, Towson, Houston.
I think where it gets shoddy is then having to
quote unquote steal a game at Colorado or at UCF.
So I think if they can somehow steal one of
those games, they'll find a way to get the seven.

(01:40:42):
I've also looked at PCU at home as kind of
a loss, but from what I've seen from TCU last
season and going into this year, I think if you
can have six through seven wins by that point, that
game could be interesting. To try to beat the horn
Frogs at home. Because I think if you're still in
contention for a Bowl game, and if you can have

(01:41:03):
a good Big Twelve record, and you know, with the
competitive balance in the Big Twelve, there might be a
six and three Big Twelve team in the Big Twelve
Championship that last week and.

Speaker 1 (01:41:14):
Sunny Dice is still the coach there, right, Yes, Okay,
go ahead, so I guess.

Speaker 8 (01:41:23):
I guess his record at Nippert Stadium isn't exactly the greatest,
so they'll they'll have a chance there.

Speaker 1 (01:41:29):
If you're a Snyke fan, his record at Nippert Stadium
is not great.

Speaker 8 (01:41:33):
Bob, that last week and the Big twelth play could
be very very important. Yes, But I think where they
will be in their potential will be dictated in the
first four weeks because if you lose in Miami or
if you lose to pit at home, the fan base
is going to be down on this team because those
are two games that you expect to win, especially Houston

(01:41:55):
at home.

Speaker 1 (01:41:56):
I think asking a three A team to finish three
and nine and looked pretty pretty bad at the end,
I think foreign expecting four and oh off the the
rip is maybe ambitious. If they're at three and one.
I think everybody should be happy, and I think that.

Speaker 8 (01:42:15):
They're on track with the lost being to Pitt.

Speaker 1 (01:42:19):
Maybe, I don't know, they really need to get back
on track at Nippert Stadium. Yeah, Pitt and Houston. So
you know, I think I think four and oh is reasonable,
but a team coming off at three and nine season,
it feels like they could stub their toes somewhere in

(01:42:39):
those first four games.

Speaker 7 (01:42:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:42:43):
Don My thing is that the amount of pressure on
the coaching stet and the completely overhauled roster, it's at
a point where these fans are going to want this
coaching staff to win games that they're supposed to win.
And I don't think you can look at a team
like Pitt and Houston and say that they should be
able to come in the Nipbrit Stadium and win. So
it's just going to be a momentum saying for me,

(01:43:03):
I think if they can carry the momentum at four
and oh, then they could get to six or seven wins.
But if you just have that lingering feeling of we
lost to a team we should have beat, I think
that's going to impact them greatly.

Speaker 1 (01:43:16):
Yeah, we saw it, you know, in twenty eighteen, Luke
Fickles team goes and gets that win at the Rose Bowl.
And before that season everybody was saying, just make it
to a bowl game, just make it to a bowl game. Yeah,
and they hit double digits. So so I think this
team's going to hit double digits. No, I do not,
but momentum can be an interesting thing. Absolutely, all right, Kegs,

(01:43:40):
I appreciate you. We are going to take a break
and I will see you tomorrow morning, bright and early,
Camphire Ground.

Speaker 8 (01:43:48):
Absolutely where can they find you at k nikoson forty
two on X. Make sure you're subscribe to Barricat Journal
just published a great story. I talked to linebacker's coach
Court Browswell about the amount of depth in the room,
the transfers. They got the true freshman and you have
to be a VIP subscriber to get access to that article.

(01:44:09):
But that that series of talking to the position coaches
has been great and there's going to be more in
the future.

Speaker 7 (01:44:14):
To make sure you're subscribed.

Speaker 1 (01:44:15):
I was going to have you on the BBP tonight,
but then Jim Kelly said he would come on so soon.
Maybe that carries Yeah, he beats me, he does. He
beats me, Yeah, but not by much. You're you're right there,
You're right there with him, all right, Keith, appreciate it man,
All right, there you go. That's keithan Nicholson. Let's take
a break more after this. Since that He's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 13 (01:44:36):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic, Harvard Choice parents.

Speaker 8 (01:44:52):
Stop and hobbin like a webbed.

Speaker 9 (01:44:54):
Want to take the deal?

Speaker 8 (01:44:54):
Or well you know what?

Speaker 1 (01:44:55):
That's that happened? I'll leave begging the good would tell you.

Speaker 9 (01:44:58):
Let's do.

Speaker 1 (01:45:01):
We welcome back? Since not E'SSPN fifteen thirty, winding down
said on a Monday talk to Tony Pike here in
a little bit to uh to close things out, last
report of the day, tearing Olympics. What was your overall

(01:45:21):
take on the twenty twenty four Paris Olympics.

Speaker 3 (01:45:26):
The events and the events themselves phenomenal, the stuff outside
of the Olympics, the open ceremony, just read some of
the stuff that some of the athletes had to deal with.
An Olympic village, wasn't a big fan of.

Speaker 1 (01:45:40):
Yeah, I mean, has anybody gotten the Olympic village right?
Like I we hear complaints about the Olympic village every
every Olympics, don't we right, which I I mean, I
guess it's understandable. You're bringing like, however many thousand people,
uh and just plopping them in and being like all right, uh,

(01:46:00):
you're get you've got to compete at the highest levels
in the world. Uh, here's a little shock to live in, right,
uh until until until you're done. Like I yeah, the
Olympic village stuff. I don't know. I mean, what would
you what would you what would be the right way
to do it? Like you build what are eventually going

(01:46:21):
to be used as like apartment complexes, you know what
I mean? Like you build like three new apartment complexes
in like uh like four you make like a square
out of it, and then you let those people stay
there first before you start renting it out. Yeah. But

(01:46:41):
that's yeah, that's just I say, like, what do you
so what would you do with it once the the
Olymps is over? Just rent it out to normal people? Yeah,
it becomes like an apartment complex. So like what you
would do is you would build it ahead of the Olympics.
Try to have it ready, like you know, two three
months before the Olympics to give you some some time.
Uh uh, you know, if there are delays and then

(01:47:03):
you open it up, the athletes stay in it through
the two weeks of the Olympics, and then when the
athletes move out, then it becomes like an apartment complex
apposed of it. I think that would be probably the
the LA. LA has to get it right, yeah, or
they just you know, they just take over like a
homeless encampment and they let everybody live there. That's if

(01:47:27):
you're gonna get the feel for LA. Like that's by
the way, if you thought Snoop was all over for
oh goodness in LA, I mean he was already at
the closing ceremonies right like they he was back in LA.
He just he hopped in the transporter, uh and and
landed back in La crip walking like it. I mean,

(01:47:48):
it's gonna be it's gonna be wild having it in LA.

Speaker 3 (01:47:52):
But you know that game, that's Serbia game, I mean
that French game. Like I just enjoyed the moment like
Steph Curry and we talked about it early. Oh, it's insane.
Crazy is insane.

Speaker 1 (01:48:04):
But I mean Kad earlier in the tournament, like you know,
is he gonna play. Is he not gonna play? And
then he came in and made what his first like
eleven shots. Yeah, and it was like, Okay, Katie's all right,
are you a little sad tea? Because that's I don't
think we're gonna see Bron, Steph or Katie in the

(01:48:25):
Olympics again. Yeah. And I said it before the Olympics.

Speaker 3 (01:48:28):
I was like, just enjoyed a moment because that's I
think that's the last time all three of them is
going to play meaningful basketball in their careers.

Speaker 1 (01:48:34):
Yeah, together, but like for a team USA. Yeah, I
mean you never know one of them late. You know,
it's already late in Lebron's career. But like Katie, you know,
KD could go anywhere and chase a chases chase a ring.
He don't care, but you know you could. I can't
imagine stuff leaving Golden State. But we've said that about
athletes before and they end up somewhere else. Uh, you know,

(01:48:58):
trying to grab one last ring. Tom Brady at worked
like Joe Montana didn't. But it was kind of the
end of an era for the men the women. The
next time we see the women's national team is going
to look completely different.

Speaker 3 (01:49:11):
Crazy, Like I think I think the twenty twenty eight
might be like their version of the Dream Team.

Speaker 1 (01:49:18):
If you look at if you just looked I see
the lost earlier, what it could look like. Yeah, my god, yeah,
I mean, I you know, gymnastics was outstanding. Although if
you're if you're you're not giving the medal back, right, no, no,
come get come get it, like, don't don't blame me
like that. Foresid they were four seconds late. Give me

(01:49:38):
a break, Give me a break. But everything else, I mean,
the US that ties uh China for the gold medals,
they win the overall medal count. I think it's the
second largest medal count in history for the United States.
A smashing success. In tearn I love I love sports

(01:49:59):
on at six clock, seven o'clock in the morning when
I wake up. We need to find a way to
do more of that. Yeah, but now in LA would
have been Oh, it'll be perfect for everything. Yeah, everything
will be perfect because it'll be three hours the other
actually some of that stuff, it's gonna be two o'clock
in the morning, which I don't I don't mind. Yeah, no,
all right, two o'clock in the morning. Yeah, yeah, that'll

(01:50:21):
be eleven o'clock in LA, so there'll be stuff going
on at two o'clock in the morning here. Who knows,
I got four years Maybe I can fly out there
for Kelsey was like, Dad, we're going to LA for
the Olympics. I'm like, Kelsey, you will be eighteen at
that point in time, So if you want to pay
for a trip to the Olympics, more power to you.

(01:50:42):
All right, Tony probably coming up next, since he thirty six,
or since he's who man Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, I'm
John Walsach posting.

Speaker 6 (01:50:53):
It's just a training camp report, prove to you by
Skylight Chilie feeling good. It's Skylight oclock of at esb
in fifteen thirty, the official home of the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (01:51:04):
Yes, all right, we're back winding it down five o'clock hour,
getting ready to get out of here on a Monday.
But let's take one last trip down to pay Corpse
Stadium to talk to to Tony Pike and get his
camp report. Anything in closing on Bengals practice today other
than the Amarius MEM's strain pech strain that that'll keep

(01:51:29):
him out for several weeks. According to Zech Taylor.

Speaker 10 (01:51:33):
Yeah, that was the main story today, and you know
you you started this talking about it feels like it
felt like a Monday at practice. It wasn't as sharp
as we've seen. Burrow wasn't as sharp as as we've seen.
The backups weren't getting the It just didn't feel like
as sharp of a practice as we've seen in the
last couple of weeks. And maybe that's me as an

(01:51:53):
a former offensive guy who won the offense struggles.

Speaker 1 (01:51:56):
The defense won today, So you're pissed the defense.

Speaker 10 (01:51:59):
The defense would say it was a great practice for them,
because I thought the defense did win most of the day.

Speaker 4 (01:52:04):
So it did.

Speaker 10 (01:52:05):
It just felt like a Monday, and Doc hit on
this last week, Chad. Tomorrow, next Monday, and next Tuesday
are the last three practices of this team before training
camp breaks. Yeah, the last three times this team is
on the field together. Now that doesn't include a joint
practice or a preseason game vers Chicago joint practice, preseason
game vers Indy. So with off days build in and

(01:52:27):
the schedule, it's Tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday are the last
practices where it's just this team going ones verse ones.

Speaker 1 (01:52:34):
You know what else is at the end of the road.

Speaker 8 (01:52:36):
Tone your show.

Speaker 1 (01:52:38):
This radio show, We're gonna get out of here. Thank you, Tony,
very well done. I'm off for a couple of weeks,
so i'll see in a couple of weeks. That's gonna
do it. It's the Ma Laggers Show right here in Cincinnati.
ESPN fifteen thirty. Did see the Everything