December 1, 2025 • 39 mins
In todays 1 hour show the guys discuss Lane Kiffin's controversial jump from Ole Miss to LSU, the Clippers misery compounded by the fact that OKC owns their first round pick and the Rams losing in Carolina along with the Chargers beating the Raiders
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, all right, here we go, Here we go
on a beautiful Monday, Rodney Peak. Adam Austlin is in
for Fred Rogan today. We got a quick sprint, Adam.
How you doing, man, I'm good, Rodney.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Let's get into it, Adam, let's get into it. You
have a good Thanksgiving brother.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I ate weigh too much. I've gained at least five pounds,
so yeah, I did pretty well for myself.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Don't you always go into it say hey, this Thanksgiving,
I'm gonna work out before. I'm not gonna eat that much.
I'm just gonna eat a little bit. And then you
get into it and it's not even that, it's not
even Thanksgiving Day for me, Adam. It's it's really it's
the leftovers.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's the leftovers, the leftovers. And then after you go
in so hard on Thursday, it's like, well, I might
as well take a couple more days off and turn
this into a whole Thanksgiving weekend and eat a little
bit more. Now it's Monday, and now I'm getting serious again.
I got to work out coming in today.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'm telling you, you got oh you you're going to
at eight.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I'm going double up. I have to at this point.
It's the only way to get back to Stacey's mode here.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
You know. Yeah, my workouts over the weekend, I was
walking the dogs. I was just feeling like the dogs
were crazy. So I was like out walking the dogs
probably three times a day. They're probably more tired than
I was. It's like we're going out walking again. I said, yeah,
I gotta move. I gotta get out of here, man,
because this is not working out for me. I'm eating
way too much and every time I ate, I say,
(01:32):
come on, let's go walking dogs 's go.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's like the only way to digest with how much
we're eating. I was like doing laps like screws McDuck
used to on ductails, just like pacing around the dinner
table after word, just to try to digest everything so
I could eat more.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh, man, I know, I know. Now it's over. We
got to get back to the grind. Man. We are
back to the grind today our show, because we've got
Clippers are back east and uh, what time is pre game? Adam?
He got pregame at three thirty four.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
They're back east, but there's also South at the moment
with their five and fifteen record, get that game.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
At pregame at three thirty with my man and we
will uh yeah, we'll get into the to the Clippers
and and also the Lakers. But but Adam, I want
to I'm want to start with with something that has
kind of happened over the weekend and I think everybody
kind of knew it was it was coming right, and
(02:31):
it's I know it's not LA and it doesn't necessarily relate,
but it does because he spent time here as a
us HE head coach. And I'm talking about Lane Kiffen
and him leaving Ole Miss after they played the Egg
Bowl and beat Mississippi State and you know, finished the
season I think eleven and one and headed for the
for the playoffs and made the decision to leave Old
(02:57):
Miss to go to LSU. First off, Adam, just your
first of all your thoughts on him leaving as a
team gets ready to go to the playoffs. And obviously
he can't. Oh Miss administrator is athletic, nobody wants him
to coach the team that he's leaving, so that's not
gonna happen. But your thoughts on him leaving for LSU.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It's his ride. He can do whatever he wants. It's
our right to be able to criticize him for doing it.
And I just don't understand in today's college football landscape
why you have to leave. And it always looks like
he's looking for that next opportunity because things have never
ended well. You can go back to the Raiders Tennessee,
(03:39):
USC Alabama, him getting let go before the National championship
game and now this. So there's this recurring pattern with
Lane Kiffin, and I almost feel like he just wants
to be hateable. You know all they talk about you
just want to be the main character. He just wants
to be the main villain in every story. That's what
it feels like right now. He gets off on this stuff, trolling, tweaking.
(04:02):
You know the picture he took that was suggestive after
his hot yoga with two attractive women, Like this is
Lane Kiffin, this is his personality, this is his legacy,
this is what he's going to be known ass or
he just feels like, as long as I win a
couple of national titles with LSU, the ends justify the means.
Here I got out for the right reasons. I understand
if you feel like college football continues to evolve rapidly
(04:26):
right now, and you always want to have the inside
track and all the advantages you can have in college football,
and you'll get those at LSU. You'll have all the resources,
you'll have all the advantages. But your team could be
playing for a national championship this year at old Miss.
And to me, I look at it like what we
talked about with Lebron James winning one in Cleveland and
(04:49):
that meaning more than winning two in Miami. It's the
same thing. You win one at ol Miss, you're a legend.
They haven't won there since the sixties since, like jam
K was in office. So they win eleven games, they
look like they're knocking on the door. Being ranked in
the top five of the College Football Playoff Committee. They
(05:10):
could almost have home field.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
How do you want? They got money right, Apparently they're
gonna be able to compete. They wouldn't be able to
compete unless they can compete with the nil money that's
going on. Ole Miss has got a lot of money
to throw at it.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
That's not the issue. The money's not the issue. He
just wants to go to the next best thing. And
I don't know how if you're a kid getting recruited
by him. How you can fall for a sales pitch
at this point, because every other college football coach is
going to say, you're gonna fall into the trap of thinking,
this guy is going to stay all four years with
you if he has any success, is he going back
(05:47):
to the NFL?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Hey, come on, what are we talking about next? You know,
he's there at LSU and he'll you know, stay maybe
two three years and build it up, or even if that,
at the next if he has a good year and
there's the next NFL job that opens up, he's going.
He's going.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
He might go Obama opened up again. You wanted that job.
I ole miss has a chance to win it all
this season. It's so confounding that you can leave a
school in this spot. And I know it's not the
same as feeling bad than I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Okay, let's let's let's play the other side of it.
Adam Okay. So they're putting the pressure on old mess
is saying, you gotta let us know. You gotta let
us know right away, soon after, right after the Mississippi
State game, the Egg Bowl. You gotta let us know
what is going on. Are you gonna stay? We're offering you.
This is the contract we're offering you. You gotta stay. You're
gonna go where LSU is calling. LSU got LSU got
(06:46):
Georgia money in that sec They got that, They got
that big time money. They got money. But but Ole
Miss is no slouch, don't get me wrong. But LSU
there's a reason why everybody gravitates the LSU for that,
because it's like, I don't know what it is. It's
it's baton rouge, it's endless, it's hidden, I don't know it.
Just from Saban and Kelly leave a notre dame to everything.
(07:09):
Everybody you know finds a way to get to LSU.
And you know it was our man who was my
sc guy, Eldon. Yeah, you know mister Bayou himself. Absolutely,
they're still paying him. I think it's another thing, though.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
N You can be ed O, you can be less Miles,
you can be Nick Saban all these guys that have
won there recently, or you can carve out your own legacy,
be the guy that everybody else has to follow at all.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
He would be a uh no one used it lightly
and I'm not saying he's a god. But if he
wins the title at Old Mess. It would be so
much bigger than him win the title. L s U. Absolutely,
he would own the state, he would own the region,
he would own a so many things if he was
able to bring that to two Old Mess. And my
(08:00):
thing is, there's nothing I don't there's nothing you can
do because look the way the recruiting set up, the
way everything is set up, and the way the length
of the season. LSU say, we got to find us
a coach because we're going to be behind in recruiting,
We're going to be behind in all these other things
that we got to get going, nil transfer portal, all
(08:21):
those things. And thank god, I think they moved the
transport portal transfer portal back and there's only once I
think in the spring. But but the urgency to make
this happen, not allowing a guy to finish out the season,
or if you're Old Miss, say get us through the season.
(08:42):
What do you think about that? Because should it be
something in college football that you can't poach until teams
are out of the national championship title or how do
you fix that? How do you fix coaches leaving because
it happened year.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
The calendar's a mess with what first signing day coming
up in less than forty eight hours, the transfer portal
coming up in the middle of the playoff. That plays
a role here. But you look at it, you know,
two lanes letting John summerl he can still coach there
while he's gonna end up going to Florida. Uh, other guys,
(09:24):
we'll talk. We'll get to UCLA in a little bit.
Other guys are letting their coaches continue to coach. But
it's different because he's going within the same conference. You
can't leave Ole miss for LSU and expect to be
able to still coach that team in the playoffs when
you're gonna try to take all your guys with you
(09:45):
and leave the cupboard as bear as possible, Like, that's
not gonna happen. They're hated, there's a rivalry. There's no
way you can let that happen. This isn't some step
up going from James Madison to UCLA. You're going with
in the SEC. You're leaving from within the conference.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
And isn't it different though in in the SEC too,
because they all feel let's face it, when it comes
to college football, at least football basketball is different because
different different schools like Duke and North Carolina and schools
like that got got some got some extra money. But
in college football, there's a number of those SEC schools
(10:25):
that got that old school got that money. Ole Miss
is one of them. L s U certainly Alabama, we're
finding out doesn't have what they thought they had. They
it was good undersaving, but their their program is not
as deep as Georgia. Georgia got a lot of money.
Apparently Florida's got a lot of Tennessee is another school
that's got a lot of money. He left there, so
(10:49):
I think you're right. The fact that he's going If
he was going to if he was leaving Ole Miss
to go to u C. L A and UCLA went
crazy and game of fortune, they might have said, okay,
coaches out right, But yeah, you're right, going to another
SEC school that they're going to compete against, coaching his coaches.
(11:11):
You see the coaches getting on the plane. They were
like three or four of their assistant coaches got on
the plane.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's all on the offensive side. It's like the defense
isn't very good, and now they're promoting the coordinator to
head coach. Of course those guys are staying. I don't
like the fact. In that interview with Marty Smith, it
seemed to me like Lane Kiffen was trying to present
himself a little bit as the victim here that he
did all he could to try to fight, to coach
(11:35):
his guys and see this thing through while they're on
the doorstep of winning a national championship. Nobody's buying that,
and I don't like him also seemingly hiding behind. The
toughest question from Marty to him was what's the biggest
difference to you? What's the deciding factor in going to LSU?
(11:56):
And he was like, Oh, I don't know. It's just
something we prayed about a lot, a family decision. So
nobody can question that, right. You can't question a guy's
faith or his heart or anything. He hides behind that stuff.
It looks bad, but that.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Looks Tennessee in the middle of the night to go
to USC.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
He's got this rep he's got this reputation. It precedes him.
So we thought he had really rehabilitated himself a little
bit at Ole miss who kind of took a chance
on him coming after FAU and just being that reclamation project,
and that's the school he decides to leave at this time,
(12:33):
in the eleventh hour, when they have a chance to
win it all. It's just it's not so much like
it used to be. Worse you'd leave because you leave
the kids in the lurch. It's still that. Now kids
have a transfer portal, there's nil money. It's not the
same college football world where it's like, what about the kids?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
What about the kids? Mountain said Adam wonder if he
came out and said, I want to coach these kids
all the way through? He tried to say, does LSU
hire somebody else?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Uh? Yeah, I mean I'm sure it was you come here.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
To say weak wink wink wink. Hey, I got to
coach these guys through. I've been winning up for the
last three years. These guys have battled for me. I
got to coach him all the way through. See, we
can go win this day.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I don't know if you could keep it a secret
enough or enough of a secret to where he could
keep that under wraps and have a handshake deal with LSU.
Where wouldn't have gotten out to then where old miss
would you know? It would be even a bigger disaster
or a bigger distraction for them.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, if you're smart at Old Miss, you would have said,
you got forty eight hours to sign this contract, this
new deal, or we're going to relieve you of your
duties here. Yeah, because they wouldn't. They wouldn't have not
they they would not have allowed him to coach without
a commitment going forward.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
And what about this. You can say, Oh, he's going
to bring all his guys and they're going to be
in the college Football Playoff next year with LSUS. So
what does it matter that he's turning down this opportunity
when he's going to have more of them or more
of a sure thing getting to the college football Playoff
every year with LSU? Is it? I don't know. Brian
Kelly seemed like a sure thing when that happened.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It did too. Yeah, him leaving Notre Dame, the whole
reason was, Oh, we're gonna have more resources to get
more players and more recruits, and I could do more
things and more freedom at LSU than Notre Dame. And
look what happened.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
The grass is not always greener something that people are
using against Lane now because he posted I think a
tweet about that in twenty twenty one. Take it from me,
The grass is not always greener, like he hasn't learned
his lesson apparently. Now, if he goes on to win
three national titles and he turns into the new Nick
Saban or something like that and just has this historic
(14:42):
run there like Saban did at Alabama, then I guess
he made the right call. And I guess winning. You know,
the ends will justify the means for a lot of
different people, but that is the bar is going to
be that high for him. It's not just about winning
one to justify this decision. It's gonna have to be.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Nick Saban run. Yeah, he's gonna have to put on
a Nick Saban run otherwise because and on top of that,
you know, let's let's remember the Nick Saban got out
for a reason. The Savan got out the reason that
nil competition is real. And so it's not like l
s u back in the day or Alabama back in
(15:23):
the day where nobody's watching and we're gonna we're gonna
get these guys in here and hush, hush, wink wink,
and we'll get the best athletes. Everybody's on the same
plane field. Now, you know they're gonna have to They
gotta Michigan's got a nice and Ohio State's got a
nice thing. I don't think Indiana's now gonna wake up
and go, hey, there's something to this. Now, let's put
(15:46):
some money into this Penn State. I mean it is
they got to compete with multiple teams. It's not the
the l s U or even USC of the mid
early two thousands and the Alabama's of the two thousand
and tens and through the twenty with Saban. It is
a whole different ballgame right now.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That's what I think confuses people so much about this decision.
It's not, well, if you can't beat them, join them. No,
he did beat LSU this season. His program is in
a much better spot and he turned that thing around there.
He has ownership over what's happened there with Ole Miss.
But we thought maybe Lane Kiffin people were holding out
(16:29):
for the Wolf of Wall Street moment where he was
just going to troll LSU and then eventually end up
staying at all Miss and it would be a heel
turn to being the face or the hero and it
was a full circle moment for Lane Kiffin. But instead,
once again, this decision reveals his true character. Character is destiny.
(16:52):
This is his true nature. This is just who he is.
He's always gonna be looking for that better opportunity out there.
And hey, if it is a family decision and he
just prayed about it in a ton, more power to him.
But it looks bad right now, and it looks like
more of the same from Lane.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
All right, Adam, what does it look like for the
for the clips? Man? Is it more of the same
for the clips? And there's some people talking about a
certain lottery pick that's out there, Adam, that is that
is deserving some folks. We'll get into that next. Adam
Auslin in for Fred Rogan. Am five to seven LA Sports.
(17:38):
Oh yeah, come on, come on back on a happy Monday.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend. UH one
hour sprint for US Today Clippers are playing back East
pregame at three point thirty. Our man, Adam Auslin is
in for Fred Rogan. We'll get into it, but I
just want to shout out real quick that it's always
(18:02):
good to be U. C.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
L A.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And I'm always good and we can we can we
can touch on that later, but I just had to
get that out, you know, before I know We're in
a one hour sprint, so I didn't want to miss
and be be yelled at for not mentioning that on
the radio. You know, it was a sluggish game, but
still beating UCLA is always good no matter what the
record is. So it was a good It was a
good It was a good weekend for me.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You know, as an Organ Ducks fan, I kind of
feel the same way when they beat USC now all
the time. I'm like, hey, you know, it's always a
good time to be usc.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Where'd you? I forgot? You grew up in Eugene. We're
in Oregon, Bend, Organ, Where is it?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I only had buddies up in Oregon because I was
up in NorCal. Okay, you're right, You're right. I didn't
go to school there.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Okay, Cal Stanford, I mean, where is that? Love?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Look, I was a Biola University grad and we don't
have a football team. I was a free agent and
I chose Organ and I still tasted plenty of pain.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
All right, deal, all right? So okay, So Adam, I'm
gonna let you go real quick because you gotta tell me.
You got to explain to me going into the season,
which to me, I wouldn't say extremely high hopes, but
there was there was some hope for this Clipper team
(19:18):
and we look up now and it's so ugly right now, Adam,
what is going on with the Clips?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
They're five and fifteen. There have been five teams ever
that have started this slow since they expanded the playoffs
to sixteen teams in the early eighties that have made
the playoffs after starting five and fifteen. So the Clippers
are just in a brutal spot. And the strangest thing
to me is just going from the third best defense
(19:49):
last season Rodney to be in twenty sixth in defensive
rating this season. Hey, I can understand some of the
struggles going on. You had Kawhi miss ten games, then
Bradley is out for the season, then they lose DJ
for six weeks. But it's not like they had a
ton of guys to start off last season where Kawhi
didn't come back till you know, midway point of January,
(20:12):
and they still hung their hat on their defense each
and every night. And that is really concerning because it
makes you wonder about the buy in with this team
right now and the effort, because a lot of defense
is effort. And guys not covering for one another on rotations.
And this Clippers team is just completely out of sorts.
They're a mess on that end, and they're basically inventing
(20:34):
ways to lose. Now they've gotten to that point. They
have the most double digit losses this season. They've lost
thirteen games in the month of November for I think
the first time since twenty ten, when Blake Griffin was
drafted but missed his entire rookie season. They are in
the worst spot that I've seen since I've been with
(20:56):
the Clippers since twenty sixteen. Remember, this team has the
longest current winning streak of consecutive winning seasons in the
NBA at fourteen. They've won four. They've had fourteenth straight
years of winning seasons. Well, that's in jeopardy now. And
as you mentioned, the expectations were much higher coming into
(21:16):
this season, where we thought, hey, they won fifty games
last season while only getting thirty seven from Kawhi, so
he gets a healthy offseason, you expect him to play
at least fifty games this year. What does that mean?
Could they win fifty five? Could they get upwards of
fifty eight wins this year? And now we're wondering if
they're gonna win forty games. It's incredible, is.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
A is this a roster situation or is this a
TYLERU may have lost this squad situation.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I think it's a collective failure. I do think a
lot of it's on the roster right now because a
lot of the guys they brought in we knew they
were old. But brook Lopez was still coming off a
good season. CP three was very good last season for
the San Antonio Spurs. And sometimes you know better than anybody,
guys can age quickly overnight, where you go one season
(22:11):
too long and all of a sudden, it looks like
you don't belong on the court. And CP three is
really struggling right now, and so was brook Lopez. CP
three at forty, brook Lopez at thirty seven, and they
already had an older team. So those two guys get
old overnight. Bradley Beal, who was thirty two and has
been out for thirty games plus over the last couple
(22:31):
of seasons with the Phoenix Suns, he goes out after
I think six games for the entire season. It's just
it's a culmination of factors. But the age factor has
bitten them in the ass where they were counting on
guys to give them one more good year, and unfortunately
they're looking like they're aging out of the NBA quickly.
(22:53):
So now you're starting to play younger guys. You got
Kobe Sanders out there, you got Cam Christie, brother of
Mac Christy, Yannick Koenan Niederhauser is probably gonna start playing more.
But that's not what everybody's signed up for. It's just
hard to integrate the young guys with then Kawhi with
James Harden and guys who are scrambling defensively right now.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
To figure this is turned in into a see if
the young guys can play season and rebuild kind of
season or how do they salvage this.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I think it started out of necessity, just because they
need some warm bodies out there. But yeah, we may
be headed that way. The only way is to get
back to playing better defense. It has to start there.
But also, I mean, there's a myriad of problems they're
giving up. Everybody's shooting forty percent from three against them,
everybody's having their best game against them, Like Cooper Flag,
he drops thirty five on Saturday best game so far
(23:48):
of his young career. He looked like he's already gonna
be a Hall of Famer based upon what he did
against the Clippers. Everybody is going for career highs against them.
They go into games on a heat check. This Clippers team,
they're walking in feeling like they're on fire.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
This is the one I get right, This is the
game I could right. That's unfortunate. That's unfortunate because not
too long ago, Paul George Kawhi signing, it was high
hopes for the Clippers. They're going to get at least
one title out of this situation. They trade away SGA
to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City gets a boatload of whatever,
(24:28):
and now it's not whatever, it's very significant. And you
look up, he's MVP of the league with a championship
and the Clippers don't have anything to show for it.
And on top of that, now there are folks screaming
that Oklahoma City who just first team to twenty wins.
I think they're twenty and one right now, playing better
(24:49):
than anybody looks like they are. Oh, the Clippers' first
round pick, which if the Clippers keep going this direction, Adam,
there's gonna be a lottery pick.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
I said this, I think I said it with you
guys last week. But OKAC might be the last dynasty.
And a big reason for that is because of the
PG trade, which was really to get Kawhi Leonard to
come there back in twenty nineteen, where you give up
five first round picks. They're still owed this season a
first round pick and next season a first round pick
(25:21):
swap with the Clippers, so they're taking the better of
the two first round picks. It's the reason the Clippers
have doubled down so much on this era is because
they haven't had those picks, so you might as well
win because losing or taking those picks are going to
okay see anyways, So there's no incentive to lose. So
(25:42):
that's why they've been trying to hold on and bring
in James Harden and try to keep this thing together
and try to win fifty fifty games every year. But
this season, in spite of that, they're losing and the
wheels are coming off, and you know, nothing ends pretty
when it comes to older players in an era where
it looked if they had won that championship that you
(26:04):
talked about, when you have a season like this at
the end of an era. Let's call it the Kawhi
Leonard era with the Clippers. This is year six or
seven now with him well, Seasons like this happened when
guys start to get older, and he has played well
so far, but it hasn't mattered because collectively they're not
playing well together. But these things happen. But what you
(26:25):
are able to hold on to, what you're comforted by,
typically is that championship you won four or five years earlier, and.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
If you're the Clippers that can that can carry you.
Sometimes with clubs that haven't won six, seven, eight, nine,
ten years when it could have carried the Clippers, they've
had they won one.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Look at Toronto with the Milwaukee like now, we've had
the same success since. But they got those rings and
that's all that matters, and you can look back fondly
upon the era because of it. The Clippers didn't get it.
And I think the beginning of the end, and I've
been worried about this since the day it happened, was
Kawhi tearing his acl I think that might have shut
(27:08):
the door on this era of Clippers basketball. And that
was just year two with him on the Clippers, and
it felt like they were gonna go on to win
it all and it wasn't gonna be Milwaukee if they
had Kawhi Leonard healthy that season. I mean, they took
Phoenix to six games in the Western Conference Finals without him,
they look like the best team. But Clippers luck, their
superstar goes down with an injury. And now it's feeling
(27:29):
like there are similarities between his tenure here with the
Clippers and Bill Walton when he originally came to San
Diego with the Clippers high hopes, but your superstars ten
years marred by injuries. And it's just, I know, Clipper Nation,
this is as bad as I've seen it. And I've
got a pretty big pulse of Clipper Nation since you know,
(27:51):
I've been taking calls post game for almost ten years now,
and this is the worst I've seen it with how
people are feeling. Because if you were losing and you
still had hope for retaining that first round pick, there
was something to look forward to.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Right, Okay, Okay, now we got to tank it. Now
we got to really go get that first round pick.
Now we can we just say Boozers already is going
to Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Now, god, by the way, OKAYC hasn't even been healthy
so far this season. They just got j dub back. Like,
if they want to win seventy games, they're winning seventy games.
That's that's how good they are right now. It's insane.
And yes, they can get better. They can get better,
and the Clippers will be aiding them. So the rest
(28:37):
of the league is upset because they're making.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Right. I know that, you know, these grumblings with these
execs like I mentioned that, Oh, you know, they're afraid
that the best team in basketball is going to get
the lottery pick and they shouldn't and should be you know,
worse the first and that's how you pick. And all
of a sudden, okay, see sitting up there at the table,
and they could get the number one pick in the draft.
There's nothing you can do about that, right.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Unless the other teams just elect to start losing to
the Clippers so they make their record better and therefore, okay,
so he doesn't get his high of a draft pick. Yeah,
I mean, this is it's brutal. Now the Clippers, because
they have no incentive to lose the pressure is on
them to figure it out. And La Murray of The
Athletic wrote earlier today that you know, Steve Baumer's talked
(29:23):
to TYLERU and Lawrence Frank and told them, you gotta
get this right now at this point when you're five
and fifteen. I mean, I'm talking on postgame shows like
I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know who's
gonna be here. I was wondering who's gonna be on
the plane for the road trip where they're in Miami,
and then they got four more games after that. But sorry,
(29:45):
I don't know. These are desperate times, like everything has
to be on the table. I don't want to see
La and Kiffin situation here. I don't need that. But
you're five and fifteen and you are hoping to win
fifty plus games this season and being a contender in
the Western Conference. To this, Meanwhile, the Lakers have won
(30:06):
seven straight. Everything's coming up roses for them, And.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Okay, that's not good when the team you know, you
used to be able to stay in the same building,
but at least you can't say that anymore. The team
across town is on a heater themselves. That's that's not
that's that's not that's not good for the for the
Clips right now. But we will see, man, I just
(30:32):
that would be bad. Okay, See get the first pick
in the in the draft because the Clippers are so bad.
That just add a lot of insult to injury.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
The pain like the depths of the pain right now.
There it's bottomless. It's like bottomless Fries and Red Robin
like there's no bottom. It's not ending right now. I
can't believe they lost two games this past weekend on
a home back to back, get into a Dome against
a Memphis team that was missing half their squad and
then Dallas team that have just played the night before
(31:02):
and they were missing half their guys too, and the
Clippers still find ways to lose.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I yeah, it's brutal. It's brutal, all rights being a
brutal too. Rams lose to the Panthers and the Chargers
beat the Raiders. But not all good?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Is it? Also? UCLA gets a new head coach. Let's
get into it afterward. Adam Austlin in for Fred Rogan
one hour show today in five to seventy LA Sports
All right, back down the home stretch on this one
hour show Adam Austin in for Fred Rogan on a
(31:45):
beautiful Monday, Adam the over the weekend, the Rams had
a golden opportunity to take a stranglehold on the NFC
as a whole and really solidify that number one seed.
And they go to Carolina and Carolina plays like they
(32:05):
played in two thousand and three. When I was there, Adam.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I'm saying, I thought you were out there with Jake
dell Ome. I thought I saw Julius Pepp First.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Goodness Smith, Oh my goodness. Bryce Young looked like that's
why they drafted him number one. But U just an
unfortunate game for the Rams lead to to lose. Do
you think differently now of the Rams because they lost
that game to Carolina? Or are they still the best
team in football.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
It's interesting because that was all the talk heading into
this game this past week, where everybody accepted that, Okay,
the Rams look better than everybody. Matt Stafford's the MVP,
Sean mcvay's doing it again. They got the weapons on
the outside, Pooka making that crazy snatch with the right
hand where was almost like a no look catch with the.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
One there it was I was going to go it
was a catch of the year until I saw the
one last night from the Commander's guy. Yeah, it was
that Burks.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Trying to do this best impression of OBJ exactly. But
this Rams team was flying high and our Panthers had
to take them down a notch. They had to ground
them once again. I do think it's a massive loss
just because you had who was the Detroit Lions losing
(33:21):
and the Eagles losing in the NFC and now the
Bears are the number one seed and the problem is
in the NFC West for this Rams team, they still
got to go on the road and play at Seattle
once more. They still have another game I believe, against
Detroit here and you can go from because they sorted
out with the four division winners getting the top four
(33:44):
seeds in the conference. If you end up losing the division,
even if you have a better record, then let's say
whoever wins the NFC South between the Panthers and the Bucks,
you're gonna drop down from having a number one or
number two spot to being bit numbers six.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah, it's brutal.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
So after travel and after travel and you could very
well travel to well right now, it's Green Bay or
you know, Chicago, or like you said, travel down to
Tampa and we just saw what Carolina did to them.
But so you know, it's it's not an easy role. Look,
Seattle was given a gift yesterday their quarterback situation. They
(34:27):
got to be they had to look across the way
at Sam Darnold and go, we got a bird in
the hand who won fourteen games for us last year,
had an unbelievable year, and we let them go. And
look where we are now.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
The last two weeks, if the Vikings quarterback just spiked
it every down, it would have a higher QBR than
what actually occurred in those games. And now it's like, hey,
JJ McCarthy might be out of concussion protocol for this week. Awesome, Great,
they're going nowhere fast a brutal yeah, yeah uh.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
And then the Chargers beat the Raiders. That's kind of
you know, kept that one off. The Raiders are just
I don't know, I don't know where they go from here.
I really don't. I hate that. I don't want to.
I'm not ready to say that that. Pete is kind
of pasted it and can he he can't revitalize his
(35:27):
team after one year. I think if he is allowed
to do what he wants to do, then he maybe
he can. But Geno Smith, the guy that he brought
in and he wanted, he fought for, has just been
a disaster. And I don't know if it's just lack
of talent around him or is he just reverting back
to the New York Jets Geno Smith, but it is
(35:50):
awful the guy right now.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, now, every Raiders fan wants to up or cut him,
and he's going back and forth and then through the
media talking about blame me, blame me for everything. Did
you see there was some Raiders fans that had a
sign and it was a side by side of JaMarcus
Russell's face morphed with Geno Smith's face, basically saying the
same player.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I didn't see that.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
It's looked that bad this season. However, I will say this,
you tell me what you're seeing. But the offensive line
has been a disaster and that has got him, I think,
seeing ghosts out there to where he always feels like
he's under pressure even when he's not.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Now Rodney, yeah, yeah, I agree with that. And sometimes
when you get that kind of pressure and you got
that not you know, you don't have that kind of hope,
and you're you are seeing ghost number one and then
you got happy feet, and then you're trying to make
plays that are not there, just trying to get something done,
and you're feeling it because the organization believed in you
(36:51):
to begin with. They paid you the money, they gave
you the contract, and you feel like you got to
go perform, and when it's you don't have the supporting
cast around you other than brock Bowers. He had, he
had a Catchers of the Year, he had he had
one of the catchers of the Year as well, that
one hander Heath scored with.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I don't know, I always scooped that thing up.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Other than him, there's no other real weapons that he
has to work with. So now you're trying to manufacture
stuff and it just it doesn't It doesn't work out well.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
And the problem is Geno Smith owed he's got eighteen
million guaranteed for next season. Yeah, so people are wondering
why are they still going with him. First of all,
they don't have a great backup option. They didn't draft
should Do or Sanders, so they could have a little
bit of hope there, and they gave him a lot
of guaranteed money, so money plays a lot of the time,
or at least gets the first shot to fail.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Right, You aren't gonna have eighteen million sitting on the
bench when you don't have a better option or a
future option that says, okay, this is our next guy.
And then we've seen it all the time, you know
where you know, maybe it is the number one draft
choice that you drafted and he's going to play like
they could have paid Sam Darnold, but they shipped him
(37:56):
out of town because they believed that we drafted JJ
McCarthy for a ree until we got to let him play.
And now they look up and going to miss the playoffs.
All right. Before we get out of here, UCLA hires
the new head coach, and contrary to what's happening at
Old Miss, they're gonna allow their new coach to coach
in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Adam Well appairly they didn't think Bob Chessny was going
to burn the place down on the way out like
Lane Kiffin was trying to do it Old Miss. But
I did get some intel from mister Bruin over here,
who takes ownership on all UCLA Bruins news. That would
be Timmy cats Uh huh. And he said, I'm allowed
to say that he's going to be the new Kurt Signetti,
(38:38):
that this is how good Bob Chessy's going to be.
And to be honest, really it's a great hire for them.
Penn State fans are upset. They get them.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
I think so too. He's a culture builder. I think
he if they just be a little patient and allow
him to kind of implement what he wants to implement,
they'll be fine. And I said this, I think the
city is better. Sc is better when UCLA is better.
I think it's better for everything when both schools are
(39:06):
really good in this town. It was a quick show. Man,
appreciate you. Thank you so much for all the details,
all the insight. My brother Kevin, Ronnie, thank you guys
so much. We are out of here, see you tomorrow.
All right, all right, here we go, Here we go
on a beautiful Monday, Rodney Peak. Adam Austlin is in
for Fred Rogan today. We got a quick sprint, Adam.
How you doing, man, I'm good, Rodney.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Let's get into it, Adam, let's get into it. You
have a good Thanksgiving brother.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I ate weigh too much. I've gained at least five pounds,
so yeah, I did pretty well for myself.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Don't you always go into it say hey, this Thanksgiving,
I'm gonna work out before. I'm not gonna eat that much.
I'm just gonna eat a little bit. And then you
get into it and it's not even that, it's not
even Thanksgiving Day for me, Adam. It's it's really it's
the leftovers.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's the leftovers, the leftovers. And then after you go
in so hard on Thursday, it's like, well, I might
as well take a couple more days off and turn
this into a whole Thanksgiving weekend and eat a little
bit more. Now it's Monday, and now I'm getting serious again.
I got to work out coming in today.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'm telling you, you got oh you you're going to
at eight.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I'm going double up. I have to at this point.
It's the only way to get back to Stacey's mode here.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
You know. Yeah, my workouts over the weekend, I was
walking the dogs. I was just feeling like the dogs
were crazy. So I was like out walking the dogs
probably three times a day. They're probably more tired than
I was. It's like we're going out walking again. I said, yeah,
I gotta move. I gotta get out of here, man,
because this is not working out for me. I'm eating
way too much and every time I ate, I say,
(01:32):
come on, let's go walking dogs 's go.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's like the only way to digest with how much
we're eating. I was like doing laps like screws McDuck
used to on ductails, just like pacing around the dinner
table after word, just to try to digest everything so
I could eat more.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh, man, I know, I know. Now it's over. We
got to get back to the grind. Man. We are
back to the grind today our show, because we've got
Clippers are back east and uh, what time is pre game? Adam?
He got pregame at three thirty four.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
They're back east, but there's also South at the moment
with their five and fifteen record, get that game.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
At pregame at three thirty with my man and we
will uh yeah, we'll get into the to the Clippers
and and also the Lakers. But but Adam, I want
to I'm want to start with with something that has
kind of happened over the weekend and I think everybody
kind of knew it was it was coming right, and
(02:31):
it's I know it's not LA and it doesn't necessarily relate,
but it does because he spent time here as a
us HE head coach. And I'm talking about Lane Kiffen
and him leaving Ole Miss after they played the Egg
Bowl and beat Mississippi State and you know, finished the
season I think eleven and one and headed for the
for the playoffs and made the decision to leave Old
(02:57):
Miss to go to LSU. First off, Adam, just your
first of all your thoughts on him leaving as a
team gets ready to go to the playoffs. And obviously
he can't. Oh Miss administrator is athletic, nobody wants him
to coach the team that he's leaving, so that's not
gonna happen. But your thoughts on him leaving for LSU.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It's his ride. He can do whatever he wants. It's
our right to be able to criticize him for doing it.
And I just don't understand in today's college football landscape
why you have to leave. And it always looks like
he's looking for that next opportunity because things have never
ended well. You can go back to the Raiders Tennessee,
(03:39):
USC Alabama, him getting let go before the National championship
game and now this. So there's this recurring pattern with
Lane Kiffin, and I almost feel like he just wants
to be hateable. You know all they talk about you
just want to be the main character. He just wants
to be the main villain in every story. That's what
it feels like right now. He gets off on this stuff, trolling, tweaking.
(04:02):
You know the picture he took that was suggestive after
his hot yoga with two attractive women, Like this is
Lane Kiffin, this is his personality, this is his legacy,
this is what he's going to be known ass or
he just feels like, as long as I win a
couple of national titles with LSU, the ends justify the means.
Here I got out for the right reasons. I understand
if you feel like college football continues to evolve rapidly
(04:26):
right now, and you always want to have the inside
track and all the advantages you can have in college football,
and you'll get those at LSU. You'll have all the resources,
you'll have all the advantages. But your team could be
playing for a national championship this year at old Miss.
And to me, I look at it like what we
talked about with Lebron James winning one in Cleveland and
(04:49):
that meaning more than winning two in Miami. It's the
same thing. You win one at ol Miss, you're a legend.
They haven't won there since the sixties since, like jam
K was in office. So they win eleven games, they
look like they're knocking on the door. Being ranked in
the top five of the College Football Playoff Committee. They
(05:10):
could almost have home field.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
How do you want? They got money right, Apparently they're
gonna be able to compete. They wouldn't be able to
compete unless they can compete with the nil money that's
going on. Ole Miss has got a lot of money
to throw at it.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
That's not the issue. The money's not the issue. He
just wants to go to the next best thing. And
I don't know how if you're a kid getting recruited
by him. How you can fall for a sales pitch
at this point, because every other college football coach is
going to say, you're gonna fall into the trap of thinking,
this guy is going to stay all four years with
you if he has any success, is he going back
(05:47):
to the NFL?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Hey, come on, what are we talking about next? You know,
he's there at LSU and he'll you know, stay maybe
two three years and build it up, or even if that,
at the next if he has a good year and
there's the next NFL job that opens up, he's going.
He's going.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
He might go Obama opened up again. You wanted that job.
I ole miss has a chance to win it all
this season. It's so confounding that you can leave a
school in this spot. And I know it's not the
same as feeling bad than I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Okay, let's let's let's play the other side of it.
Adam Okay. So they're putting the pressure on old mess
is saying, you gotta let us know. You gotta let
us know right away, soon after, right after the Mississippi
State game, the Egg Bowl. You gotta let us know
what is going on. Are you gonna stay? We're offering you.
This is the contract we're offering you. You gotta stay. You're
gonna go where LSU is calling. LSU got LSU got
(06:46):
Georgia money in that sec They got that, They got
that big time money. They got money. But but Ole
Miss is no slouch, don't get me wrong. But LSU
there's a reason why everybody gravitates the LSU for that,
because it's like, I don't know what it is. It's
it's baton rouge, it's endless, it's hidden, I don't know it.
Just from Saban and Kelly leave a notre dame to everything.
(07:09):
Everybody you know finds a way to get to LSU.
And you know it was our man who was my
sc guy, Eldon. Yeah, you know mister Bayou himself. Absolutely,
they're still paying him. I think it's another thing, though.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
N You can be ed O, you can be less Miles,
you can be Nick Saban all these guys that have
won there recently, or you can carve out your own legacy,
be the guy that everybody else has to follow at all.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
He would be a uh no one used it lightly
and I'm not saying he's a god. But if he
wins the title at Old Mess. It would be so
much bigger than him win the title. L s U. Absolutely,
he would own the state, he would own the region,
he would own a so many things if he was
able to bring that to two Old Mess. And my
(08:00):
thing is, there's nothing I don't there's nothing you can
do because look the way the recruiting set up, the
way everything is set up, and the way the length
of the season. LSU say, we got to find us
a coach because we're going to be behind in recruiting,
We're going to be behind in all these other things
that we got to get going, nil transfer portal, all
(08:21):
those things. And thank god, I think they moved the
transport portal transfer portal back and there's only once I
think in the spring. But but the urgency to make
this happen, not allowing a guy to finish out the season,
or if you're Old Miss, say get us through the season.
(08:42):
What do you think about that? Because should it be
something in college football that you can't poach until teams
are out of the national championship title or how do
you fix that? How do you fix coaches leaving because
it happened year.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
The calendar's a mess with what first signing day coming
up in less than forty eight hours, the transfer portal
coming up in the middle of the playoff. That plays
a role here. But you look at it, you know,
two lanes letting John summerl he can still coach there
while he's gonna end up going to Florida. Uh, other guys,
(09:24):
we'll talk. We'll get to UCLA in a little bit.
Other guys are letting their coaches continue to coach. But
it's different because he's going within the same conference. You
can't leave Ole miss for LSU and expect to be
able to still coach that team in the playoffs when
you're gonna try to take all your guys with you
(09:45):
and leave the cupboard as bear as possible, Like, that's
not gonna happen. They're hated, there's a rivalry. There's no
way you can let that happen. This isn't some step
up going from James Madison to UCLA. You're going with
in the SEC. You're leaving from within the conference.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
And isn't it different though in in the SEC too,
because they all feel let's face it, when it comes
to college football, at least football basketball is different because
different different schools like Duke and North Carolina and schools
like that got got some got some extra money. But
in college football, there's a number of those SEC schools
(10:25):
that got that old school got that money. Ole Miss
is one of them. L s U certainly Alabama, we're
finding out doesn't have what they thought they had. They
it was good undersaving, but their their program is not
as deep as Georgia. Georgia got a lot of money.
Apparently Florida's got a lot of Tennessee is another school
that's got a lot of money. He left there, so
(10:49):
I think you're right. The fact that he's going If
he was going to if he was leaving Ole Miss
to go to u C. L A and UCLA went
crazy and game of fortune, they might have said, okay,
coaches out right, But yeah, you're right, going to another
SEC school that they're going to compete against, coaching his coaches.
(11:11):
You see the coaches getting on the plane. They were
like three or four of their assistant coaches got on
the plane.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's all on the offensive side. It's like the defense
isn't very good, and now they're promoting the coordinator to
head coach. Of course those guys are staying. I don't
like the fact. In that interview with Marty Smith, it
seemed to me like Lane Kiffen was trying to present
himself a little bit as the victim here that he
did all he could to try to fight, to coach
(11:35):
his guys and see this thing through while they're on
the doorstep of winning a national championship. Nobody's buying that,
and I don't like him also seemingly hiding behind. The
toughest question from Marty to him was what's the biggest
difference to you? What's the deciding factor in going to LSU?
(11:56):
And he was like, Oh, I don't know. It's just
something we prayed about a lot, a family decision. So
nobody can question that, right. You can't question a guy's
faith or his heart or anything. He hides behind that stuff.
It looks bad, but that.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Looks Tennessee in the middle of the night to go
to USC.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
He's got this rep he's got this reputation. It precedes him.
So we thought he had really rehabilitated himself a little
bit at Ole miss who kind of took a chance
on him coming after FAU and just being that reclamation project,
and that's the school he decides to leave at this time,
(12:33):
in the eleventh hour, when they have a chance to
win it all. It's just it's not so much like
it used to be. Worse you'd leave because you leave
the kids in the lurch. It's still that. Now kids
have a transfer portal, there's nil money. It's not the
same college football world where it's like, what about the kids?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
What about the kids? Mountain said Adam wonder if he
came out and said, I want to coach these kids
all the way through? He tried to say, does LSU
hire somebody else?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Uh? Yeah, I mean I'm sure it was you come here.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
To say weak wink wink wink. Hey, I got to
coach these guys through. I've been winning up for the
last three years. These guys have battled for me. I
got to coach him all the way through. See, we
can go win this day.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I don't know if you could keep it a secret
enough or enough of a secret to where he could
keep that under wraps and have a handshake deal with LSU.
Where wouldn't have gotten out to then where old miss
would you know? It would be even a bigger disaster
or a bigger distraction for them.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, if you're smart at Old Miss, you would have said,
you got forty eight hours to sign this contract, this
new deal, or we're going to relieve you of your
duties here. Yeah, because they wouldn't. They wouldn't have not
they they would not have allowed him to coach without
a commitment going forward.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
And what about this. You can say, Oh, he's going
to bring all his guys and they're going to be
in the college Football Playoff next year with LSUS. So
what does it matter that he's turning down this opportunity
when he's going to have more of them or more
of a sure thing getting to the college football Playoff
every year with LSU? Is it? I don't know. Brian
Kelly seemed like a sure thing when that happened.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It did too. Yeah, him leaving Notre Dame, the whole
reason was, Oh, we're gonna have more resources to get
more players and more recruits, and I could do more
things and more freedom at LSU than Notre Dame. And
look what happened.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
The grass is not always greener something that people are
using against Lane now because he posted I think a
tweet about that in twenty twenty one. Take it from me,
The grass is not always greener, like he hasn't learned
his lesson apparently. Now, if he goes on to win
three national titles and he turns into the new Nick
Saban or something like that and just has this historic
(14:42):
run there like Saban did at Alabama, then I guess
he made the right call. And I guess winning. You know,
the ends will justify the means for a lot of
different people, but that is the bar is going to
be that high for him. It's not just about winning
one to justify this decision. It's gonna have to be.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Nick Saban run. Yeah, he's gonna have to put on
a Nick Saban run otherwise because and on top of that,
you know, let's let's remember the Nick Saban got out
for a reason. The Savan got out the reason that
nil competition is real. And so it's not like l
s u back in the day or Alabama back in
(15:23):
the day where nobody's watching and we're gonna we're gonna
get these guys in here and hush, hush, wink wink,
and we'll get the best athletes. Everybody's on the same
plane field. Now, you know they're gonna have to They
gotta Michigan's got a nice and Ohio State's got a
nice thing. I don't think Indiana's now gonna wake up
and go, hey, there's something to this. Now, let's put
(15:46):
some money into this Penn State. I mean it is
they got to compete with multiple teams. It's not the
the l s U or even USC of the mid
early two thousands and the Alabama's of the two thousand
and tens and through the twenty with Saban. It is
a whole different ballgame right now.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That's what I think confuses people so much about this decision.
It's not, well, if you can't beat them, join them. No,
he did beat LSU this season. His program is in
a much better spot and he turned that thing around there.
He has ownership over what's happened there with Ole Miss.
But we thought maybe Lane Kiffin people were holding out
(16:29):
for the Wolf of Wall Street moment where he was
just going to troll LSU and then eventually end up
staying at all Miss and it would be a heel
turn to being the face or the hero and it
was a full circle moment for Lane Kiffin. But instead,
once again, this decision reveals his true character. Character is destiny.
(16:52):
This is his true nature. This is just who he is.
He's always gonna be looking for that better opportunity out there.
And hey, if it is a family decision and he
just prayed about it in a ton, more power to him.
But it looks bad right now, and it looks like
more of the same from Lane.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
All right, Adam, what does it look like for the
for the clips? Man? Is it more of the same
for the clips? And there's some people talking about a
certain lottery pick that's out there, Adam, that is that
is deserving some folks. We'll get into that next. Adam
Auslin in for Fred Rogan. Am five to seven LA Sports.
(17:38):
Oh yeah, come on, come on back on a happy Monday.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend. UH one
hour sprint for US Today Clippers are playing back East
pregame at three point thirty. Our man, Adam Auslin is
in for Fred Rogan. We'll get into it, but I
just want to shout out real quick that it's always
(18:02):
good to be U. C.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
L A.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And I'm always good and we can we can we
can touch on that later, but I just had to
get that out, you know, before I know We're in
a one hour sprint, so I didn't want to miss
and be be yelled at for not mentioning that on
the radio. You know, it was a sluggish game, but
still beating UCLA is always good no matter what the
record is. So it was a good It was a
good It was a good weekend for me.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You know, as an Organ Ducks fan, I kind of
feel the same way when they beat USC now all
the time. I'm like, hey, you know, it's always a
good time to be usc.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Where'd you? I forgot? You grew up in Eugene. We're
in Oregon, Bend, Organ, Where is it?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I only had buddies up in Oregon because I was
up in NorCal. Okay, you're right, You're right. I didn't
go to school there.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Okay, Cal Stanford, I mean, where is that? Love?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Look, I was a Biola University grad and we don't
have a football team. I was a free agent and
I chose Organ and I still tasted plenty of pain.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
All right, deal, all right? So okay, So Adam, I'm
gonna let you go real quick because you gotta tell me.
You got to explain to me going into the season,
which to me, I wouldn't say extremely high hopes, but
there was there was some hope for this Clipper team
(19:18):
and we look up now and it's so ugly right now, Adam,
what is going on with the Clips?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
They're five and fifteen. There have been five teams ever
that have started this slow since they expanded the playoffs
to sixteen teams in the early eighties that have made
the playoffs after starting five and fifteen. So the Clippers
are just in a brutal spot. And the strangest thing
to me is just going from the third best defense
(19:49):
last season Rodney to be in twenty sixth in defensive
rating this season. Hey, I can understand some of the
struggles going on. You had Kawhi miss ten games, then
Bradley is out for the season, then they lose DJ
for six weeks. But it's not like they had a
ton of guys to start off last season where Kawhi
didn't come back till you know, midway point of January,
(20:12):
and they still hung their hat on their defense each
and every night. And that is really concerning because it
makes you wonder about the buy in with this team
right now and the effort, because a lot of defense
is effort. And guys not covering for one another on rotations.
And this Clippers team is just completely out of sorts.
They're a mess on that end, and they're basically inventing
(20:34):
ways to lose. Now they've gotten to that point. They
have the most double digit losses this season. They've lost
thirteen games in the month of November for I think
the first time since twenty ten, when Blake Griffin was
drafted but missed his entire rookie season. They are in
the worst spot that I've seen since I've been with
(20:56):
the Clippers since twenty sixteen. Remember, this team has the
longest current winning streak of consecutive winning seasons in the
NBA at fourteen. They've won four. They've had fourteenth straight
years of winning seasons. Well, that's in jeopardy now. And
as you mentioned, the expectations were much higher coming into
(21:16):
this season, where we thought, hey, they won fifty games
last season while only getting thirty seven from Kawhi, so
he gets a healthy offseason, you expect him to play
at least fifty games this year. What does that mean?
Could they win fifty five? Could they get upwards of
fifty eight wins this year? And now we're wondering if
they're gonna win forty games. It's incredible, is.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
A is this a roster situation or is this a
TYLERU may have lost this squad situation.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I think it's a collective failure. I do think a
lot of it's on the roster right now because a
lot of the guys they brought in we knew they
were old. But brook Lopez was still coming off a
good season. CP three was very good last season for
the San Antonio Spurs. And sometimes you know better than anybody,
guys can age quickly overnight, where you go one season
(22:11):
too long and all of a sudden, it looks like
you don't belong on the court. And CP three is
really struggling right now, and so was brook Lopez. CP
three at forty, brook Lopez at thirty seven, and they
already had an older team. So those two guys get
old overnight. Bradley Beal, who was thirty two and has
been out for thirty games plus over the last couple
(22:31):
of seasons with the Phoenix Suns, he goes out after
I think six games for the entire season. It's just
it's a culmination of factors. But the age factor has
bitten them in the ass where they were counting on
guys to give them one more good year, and unfortunately
they're looking like they're aging out of the NBA quickly.
(22:53):
So now you're starting to play younger guys. You got
Kobe Sanders out there, you got Cam Christie, brother of
Mac Christy, Yannick Koenan Niederhauser is probably gonna start playing more.
But that's not what everybody's signed up for. It's just
hard to integrate the young guys with then Kawhi with
James Harden and guys who are scrambling defensively right now.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
To figure this is turned in into a see if
the young guys can play season and rebuild kind of
season or how do they salvage this.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I think it started out of necessity, just because they
need some warm bodies out there. But yeah, we may
be headed that way. The only way is to get
back to playing better defense. It has to start there.
But also, I mean, there's a myriad of problems they're
giving up. Everybody's shooting forty percent from three against them,
everybody's having their best game against them, Like Cooper Flag,
he drops thirty five on Saturday best game so far
(23:48):
of his young career. He looked like he's already gonna
be a Hall of Famer based upon what he did
against the Clippers. Everybody is going for career highs against them.
They go into games on a heat check. This Clippers team,
they're walking in feeling like they're on fire.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
This is the one I get right, This is the
game I could right. That's unfortunate. That's unfortunate because not
too long ago, Paul George Kawhi signing, it was high
hopes for the Clippers. They're going to get at least
one title out of this situation. They trade away SGA
to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City gets a boatload of whatever,
(24:28):
and now it's not whatever, it's very significant. And you
look up, he's MVP of the league with a championship
and the Clippers don't have anything to show for it.
And on top of that, now there are folks screaming
that Oklahoma City who just first team to twenty wins.
I think they're twenty and one right now, playing better
(24:49):
than anybody looks like they are. Oh, the Clippers' first
round pick, which if the Clippers keep going this direction, Adam,
there's gonna be a lottery pick.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
I said this, I think I said it with you
guys last week. But OKAC might be the last dynasty.
And a big reason for that is because of the
PG trade, which was really to get Kawhi Leonard to
come there back in twenty nineteen, where you give up
five first round picks. They're still owed this season a
first round pick and next season a first round pick
(25:21):
swap with the Clippers, so they're taking the better of
the two first round picks. It's the reason the Clippers
have doubled down so much on this era is because
they haven't had those picks, so you might as well
win because losing or taking those picks are going to
okay see anyways, So there's no incentive to lose. So
(25:42):
that's why they've been trying to hold on and bring
in James Harden and try to keep this thing together
and try to win fifty fifty games every year. But
this season, in spite of that, they're losing and the
wheels are coming off, and you know, nothing ends pretty
when it comes to older players in an era where
it looked if they had won that championship that you
(26:04):
talked about, when you have a season like this at
the end of an era. Let's call it the Kawhi
Leonard era with the Clippers. This is year six or
seven now with him well, Seasons like this happened when
guys start to get older, and he has played well
so far, but it hasn't mattered because collectively they're not
playing well together. But these things happen. But what you
(26:25):
are able to hold on to, what you're comforted by,
typically is that championship you won four or five years earlier, and.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
If you're the Clippers that can that can carry you.
Sometimes with clubs that haven't won six, seven, eight, nine,
ten years when it could have carried the Clippers, they've
had they won one.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Look at Toronto with the Milwaukee like now, we've had
the same success since. But they got those rings and
that's all that matters, and you can look back fondly
upon the era because of it. The Clippers didn't get it.
And I think the beginning of the end, and I've
been worried about this since the day it happened, was
Kawhi tearing his acl I think that might have shut
(27:08):
the door on this era of Clippers basketball. And that
was just year two with him on the Clippers, and
it felt like they were gonna go on to win
it all and it wasn't gonna be Milwaukee if they
had Kawhi Leonard healthy that season. I mean, they took
Phoenix to six games in the Western Conference Finals without him,
they look like the best team. But Clippers luck, their
superstar goes down with an injury. And now it's feeling
(27:29):
like there are similarities between his tenure here with the
Clippers and Bill Walton when he originally came to San
Diego with the Clippers high hopes, but your superstars ten
years marred by injuries. And it's just, I know, Clipper Nation,
this is as bad as I've seen it. And I've
got a pretty big pulse of Clipper Nation since you know,
(27:51):
I've been taking calls post game for almost ten years now,
and this is the worst I've seen it with how
people are feeling. Because if you were losing and you
still had hope for retaining that first round pick, there
was something to look forward to.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Right, Okay, Okay, now we got to tank it. Now
we got to really go get that first round pick.
Now we can we just say Boozers already is going
to Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Now, god, by the way, OKAYC hasn't even been healthy
so far this season. They just got j dub back. Like,
if they want to win seventy games, they're winning seventy games.
That's that's how good they are right now. It's insane.
And yes, they can get better. They can get better,
and the Clippers will be aiding them. So the rest
(28:37):
of the league is upset because they're making.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Right. I know that, you know, these grumblings with these
execs like I mentioned that, Oh, you know, they're afraid
that the best team in basketball is going to get
the lottery pick and they shouldn't and should be you know,
worse the first and that's how you pick. And all
of a sudden, okay, see sitting up there at the table,
and they could get the number one pick in the draft.
There's nothing you can do about that, right.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Unless the other teams just elect to start losing to
the Clippers so they make their record better and therefore, okay,
so he doesn't get his high of a draft pick. Yeah,
I mean, this is it's brutal. Now the Clippers, because
they have no incentive to lose the pressure is on
them to figure it out. And La Murray of The
Athletic wrote earlier today that you know, Steve Baumer's talked
(29:23):
to TYLERU and Lawrence Frank and told them, you gotta
get this right now at this point when you're five
and fifteen. I mean, I'm talking on postgame shows like
I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know who's
gonna be here. I was wondering who's gonna be on
the plane for the road trip where they're in Miami,
and then they got four more games after that. But sorry,
(29:45):
I don't know. These are desperate times, like everything has
to be on the table. I don't want to see
La and Kiffin situation here. I don't need that. But
you're five and fifteen and you are hoping to win
fifty plus games this season and being a contender in
the Western Conference. To this, Meanwhile, the Lakers have won
(30:06):
seven straight. Everything's coming up roses for them, And.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Okay, that's not good when the team you know, you
used to be able to stay in the same building,
but at least you can't say that anymore. The team
across town is on a heater themselves. That's that's not
that's that's not that's not good for the for the
Clips right now. But we will see, man, I just
(30:32):
that would be bad. Okay, See get the first pick
in the in the draft because the Clippers are so bad.
That just add a lot of insult to injury.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
The pain like the depths of the pain right now.
There it's bottomless. It's like bottomless Fries and Red Robin
like there's no bottom. It's not ending right now. I
can't believe they lost two games this past weekend on
a home back to back, get into a Dome against
a Memphis team that was missing half their squad and
then Dallas team that have just played the night before
(31:02):
and they were missing half their guys too, and the
Clippers still find ways to lose.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I yeah, it's brutal. It's brutal, all rights being a
brutal too. Rams lose to the Panthers and the Chargers
beat the Raiders. But not all good?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Is it? Also? UCLA gets a new head coach. Let's
get into it afterward. Adam Austlin in for Fred Rogan
one hour show today in five to seventy LA Sports
All right, back down the home stretch on this one
hour show Adam Austin in for Fred Rogan on a
(31:45):
beautiful Monday, Adam the over the weekend, the Rams had
a golden opportunity to take a stranglehold on the NFC
as a whole and really solidify that number one seed.
And they go to Carolina and Carolina plays like they
(32:05):
played in two thousand and three. When I was there, Adam.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I'm saying, I thought you were out there with Jake
dell Ome. I thought I saw Julius Pepp First.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Goodness Smith, Oh my goodness. Bryce Young looked like that's
why they drafted him number one. But U just an
unfortunate game for the Rams lead to to lose. Do
you think differently now of the Rams because they lost
that game to Carolina? Or are they still the best
team in football.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
It's interesting because that was all the talk heading into
this game this past week, where everybody accepted that, Okay,
the Rams look better than everybody. Matt Stafford's the MVP,
Sean mcvay's doing it again. They got the weapons on
the outside, Pooka making that crazy snatch with the right
hand where was almost like a no look catch with the.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
One there it was I was going to go it
was a catch of the year until I saw the
one last night from the Commander's guy. Yeah, it was
that Burks.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Trying to do this best impression of OBJ exactly. But
this Rams team was flying high and our Panthers had
to take them down a notch. They had to ground
them once again. I do think it's a massive loss
just because you had who was the Detroit Lions losing
(33:21):
and the Eagles losing in the NFC and now the
Bears are the number one seed and the problem is
in the NFC West for this Rams team, they still
got to go on the road and play at Seattle
once more. They still have another game I believe, against
Detroit here and you can go from because they sorted
out with the four division winners getting the top four
(33:44):
seeds in the conference. If you end up losing the division,
even if you have a better record, then let's say
whoever wins the NFC South between the Panthers and the Bucks,
you're gonna drop down from having a number one or
number two spot to being bit numbers six.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah, it's brutal.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
So after travel and after travel and you could very
well travel to well right now, it's Green Bay or
you know, Chicago, or like you said, travel down to
Tampa and we just saw what Carolina did to them.
But so you know, it's it's not an easy role. Look,
Seattle was given a gift yesterday their quarterback situation. They
(34:27):
got to be they had to look across the way
at Sam Darnold and go, we got a bird in
the hand who won fourteen games for us last year,
had an unbelievable year, and we let them go. And
look where we are now.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
The last two weeks, if the Vikings quarterback just spiked
it every down, it would have a higher QBR than
what actually occurred in those games. And now it's like, hey,
JJ McCarthy might be out of concussion protocol for this week. Awesome, Great,
they're going nowhere fast a brutal yeah, yeah uh.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
And then the Chargers beat the Raiders. That's kind of
you know, kept that one off. The Raiders are just
I don't know, I don't know where they go from here.
I really don't. I hate that. I don't want to.
I'm not ready to say that that. Pete is kind
of pasted it and can he he can't revitalize his
(35:27):
team after one year. I think if he is allowed
to do what he wants to do, then he maybe
he can. But Geno Smith, the guy that he brought
in and he wanted, he fought for, has just been
a disaster. And I don't know if it's just lack
of talent around him or is he just reverting back
to the New York Jets Geno Smith, but it is
(35:50):
awful the guy right now.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, now, every Raiders fan wants to up or cut him,
and he's going back and forth and then through the
media talking about blame me, blame me for everything. Did
you see there was some Raiders fans that had a
sign and it was a side by side of JaMarcus
Russell's face morphed with Geno Smith's face, basically saying the
same player.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I didn't see that.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
It's looked that bad this season. However, I will say this,
you tell me what you're seeing. But the offensive line
has been a disaster and that has got him, I think,
seeing ghosts out there to where he always feels like
he's under pressure even when he's not.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Now Rodney, yeah, yeah, I agree with that. And sometimes
when you get that kind of pressure and you got
that not you know, you don't have that kind of hope,
and you're you are seeing ghost number one and then
you got happy feet, and then you're trying to make
plays that are not there, just trying to get something done,
and you're feeling it because the organization believed in you
(36:51):
to begin with. They paid you the money, they gave
you the contract, and you feel like you got to
go perform, and when it's you don't have the supporting
cast around you other than brock Bowers. He had, he
had a Catchers of the Year, he had he had
one of the catchers of the Year as well, that
one hander Heath scored with.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I don't know, I always scooped that thing up.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Other than him, there's no other real weapons that he
has to work with. So now you're trying to manufacture
stuff and it just it doesn't It doesn't work out well.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
And the problem is Geno Smith owed he's got eighteen
million guaranteed for next season. Yeah, so people are wondering
why are they still going with him. First of all,
they don't have a great backup option. They didn't draft
should Do or Sanders, so they could have a little
bit of hope there, and they gave him a lot
of guaranteed money, so money plays a lot of the time,
or at least gets the first shot to fail.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Right, You aren't gonna have eighteen million sitting on the
bench when you don't have a better option or a
future option that says, okay, this is our next guy.
And then we've seen it all the time, you know
where you know, maybe it is the number one draft
choice that you drafted and he's going to play like
they could have paid Sam Darnold, but they shipped him
(37:56):
out of town because they believed that we drafted JJ
McCarthy for a ree until we got to let him play.
And now they look up and going to miss the playoffs.
All right. Before we get out of here, UCLA hires
the new head coach, and contrary to what's happening at
Old Miss, they're gonna allow their new coach to coach
in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Adam Well appairly they didn't think Bob Chessny was going
to burn the place down on the way out like
Lane Kiffin was trying to do it Old Miss. But
I did get some intel from mister Bruin over here,
who takes ownership on all UCLA Bruins news. That would
be Timmy cats Uh huh. And he said, I'm allowed
to say that he's going to be the new Kurt Signetti,
(38:38):
that this is how good Bob Chessy's going to be.
And to be honest, really it's a great hire for them.
Penn State fans are upset. They get them.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
I think so too. He's a culture builder. I think
he if they just be a little patient and allow
him to kind of implement what he wants to implement,
they'll be fine. And I said this, I think the
city is better. Sc is better when UCLA is better.
I think it's better for everything when both schools are
(39:06):
really good in this town. It was a quick show. Man,
appreciate you. Thank you so much for all the details,
all the insight. My brother Kevin, Ronnie, thank you guys
so much. We are out of here, see you tomorrow.
Roggin And Rodney News
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