September 1, 2025 • 53 mins
College football is back, and Miller, Shirley, and Byrum break down a wild opening weekend packed with marquee matchups. From Florida State’s statement win over Alabama to questions around Arch Manning and Texas, the crew calls out the highs, lows, and questionable ESPN rankings. They dive deep into Baylor’s battle with Auburn—celebrating bright spots, pointing out tough lessons, and even debating officiating drama. Plus, thoughts on Lee Corso’s farewell, the Cowboys’ shocking Micah Parsons trade, and whether the Rangers have enough left for a playoff push.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Football is back. Football is back, and we had some
really good matchups this past weekend. I'm Scott Miller. Joined
as always on my conversation with the Crises is Chris
Shirley and Chris Byram Byram, I'm going to start with
you this morning. I want to give credit because we
(00:22):
have criticized college sports over the last few years, all
the nil and the changes, and it's becoming more and
more of a pro game versus the college game we
grew up watching and loving. But they did something right.
Byram we had more, in my opinion, we had more
(00:43):
marquee matchups for week number one. You know, usually you
have one or two, but it just seemed like we
had a ton of marquee matchups this weekend. How great
was it to just soak in college ball? We're talking Texas,
Ohio State, you know, we're going to talk about Alabama.
(01:06):
Was it supposed to be a big game? Last night's
game with Notre Dame in Miami? I mean, how are
you feeling about this particular weekend and all the matchups
we got to see?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Okay, it was awesome. I'm worried if we're ever going
to see him again, but it was awesome. SEC had
a in the end, really a bad week. ACC had
an awesome week. Big twelve other than one game that
we really care about, had a pretty good week. But yeah,
(01:36):
it was it was awesome watching some of the games.
But here's the thing that worries me. I'm cutting to
the chase today, Scott.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm bring it. It's Labor Day. We got to get
right to it.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Have you seen the ESPN FPI ratings that were released
that you know, the SEC is saying you got to
use these for the college playoff?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
No, I have not.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Explain to me why Texas is still number one, And
explain to me why Ohio State is number three. Alabama
is still ranked in like the top fifteen, and here's
Florida State, who kicked Alabama's rear end, is not even
in the top twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But has this been updated though?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I mean yes, it was updated Sunday morning, and everybody
is up in arms over it with reason, because it's
clear ESPN and SEC is rigging this thing. And I
guarantee teams see this. Why are we taking the risk?
And it's ridiculous, It is absolutely ridiculous. I mean, what's
(02:42):
the point you're gonna make Texas number one when clearly
their defense is really good, their offense needs some help.
But it's a joke, and I think ESPN is going
to lose a lot of credibility, credibility if they stick
with this. But it was a great weekend. It's still
(03:05):
going to continue tonight. We're gonna get to see TCU
gets their rear ends kicked. I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Surely Byron has had some Chicken minis this morning. He
has fired up you and I are probably still waking up.
But if you had to pick one game that stuck out,
you know so far, and to Byron's point, we got
the TCU North Carolina game tonight, what was the one
game that that you felt like was the best matchup
(03:33):
of the weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So I did not watch last night's game against Sundre
Dame in Miami, which looks like that might have been
the game of the weekend. But I did watch Alabama
Florida State, and I thought that was up up until
last night's game. Probably in my mind, the game the
game of the weekend. It was a it was a
(03:56):
great battle, you know, back back and forth than Florida State,
you know, It's funny. You know, obviously they had a
really bad year last year, but everybody forgets two years
ago they were undefeated and left out of the CFP, right,
so they're only they're only two years removed from an
(04:17):
undefeated season. They reloaded obviously through the transfer portal, and
you know, look to be a team that's to be
reckoned with in the ACC and man, they just they
looked fantastic against Alabama. They've got a transfer quarterback that's
a running quarterback, and it was almost like deja vu
(04:40):
was watching, you know, Jackson Arnold run all over our defense.
Again watching the Florida State quarterback run all over the
Alabama defense. So glad to know it's not just our defense.
They can't stop a running quarterback. So anyway, in my mind,
that was that was one of the best game of
(05:00):
the week and one of the best matchups of the weekend.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
A couple of interesting coaching notes about that game. Surely,
first of all, you got to talk about Kellen de Boor,
the head coach of Alabama, saw an interesting statistic that
in his you know, two year tenure with Alabama, he
has now lost to four unranked opponents. Now, I haven't
(05:23):
verified this stat. This could just be social media, you know,
out there kind of throwing shade. But they said that
equal the amount that Nick Saban lost unranked opponents in
his entire tenure. That is an amazing stat. So, you know,
Crimson Tide, man, they are just in full panic mode
when you're when you have a program and you guys,
(05:45):
I mean we all know people when you have a
program that has won that many titles, they become the
band wagon team, right. I mean there's all these people
that come out of the word works. I mean, I
know people that I grew up around that were you know,
Baylor grads, and they're always saying roll Tide. I'm like,
roll Tide, you went to Baylor. You know what's going on.
(06:06):
So a lot of bandwagon fans that are probably waking
up this morning looking for a new team. But the
second note, surely I find interesting is the offensive coordinator
for Florida State used to be the coach of Auburn.
So how fired up do you think he was for
Saturday's game?
Speaker 3 (06:23):
The gus bus the gust bus, right, yeah? Yeah. And
and you know it's funny, you know, in church pastoral circles,
you know that the joke used to be you never
want to be the guy to follow a long tenured pastor.
You want to be the guy after the guy. I
(06:44):
think the same is true in college football. You know,
you don't want to be the boor who has to
follow the legend that is Nick Saban. You want to
be the guy after the guy. So you know, I think, yeah,
his his seat is trom endously hot because he has
a you know, they're just the expectations are so incredibly high.
(07:10):
But I did think, I do think I've read this
weekend his buyouts like seventy million dollars.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, so he'll take that.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, I mean we got another Jimbo Fisher on.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Our hands, you know, But yeah, I don't Maybe Alabama's
coffers are that deep if oh, I'm sure they are. Hey,
but let me let me take your analogy just one
step further, because I like that pastoral analogy and both
of you have been pastors, so this probably resonates with
you guys you know more than most. But you know
(07:41):
it's it's uh, not only is he the guy following
the guy, but the guy before him still lives in
the same town and still goes to some games. It's
like the pastor emeritis. Right, he got that still glooming
pressure building. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
It was an office there.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
He has an office there. They named the stadium after him.
I mean he's you know, I know he does college
game Day, but he's had a lot of Alabama games.
Like I said, he and Miss Terry still live in town.
So that has to be tremendous pressure for any coach.
But what does this mean for Alabama? So, you know,
I realize week one, let's just be real here. Byron
(08:24):
Week one, you know, is there's just a lot about
your football team you start to learn, but the biggest
improvement is always between week one and week two. So
certainly whatever happened this week for any program is not
going to define the season per se. But if you're
you know, walk me through from your perspective, you know,
first talk about how Alabama what, you know, what their
(08:47):
path is going forward, and how this sets up for
Florida State. Could Florida State be a really good team
or could they be on you know, could that have
been their super Bowl and they have a big let
down week two?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Oh yeah, that's that's gonna be interesting to watch because
now Alabama's got to win a lot of games, and
they got to hope Florida State wins a lot of games.
And if those two things that have happened, then you know,
Paul Feinbaum's gonna say Alabama needs to be in the
playoff if they're six and six. But that got war on,
(09:20):
So I mean, all you got to do is look
at his picks of the weekend. But like I said,
I'm salty today. But you know, they've got a tough
path ahead of them because that was a demoralizing defeat.
There was a lot of trash talk that Alabama is
used to winning, and they just pretty much got trashed.
(09:42):
And they got trashed by a guy that they don't like,
which is the Gus bus, which that is my I
think that's my new favorite nickname. But yeah, Florida's in
acc looks salty too. So this is going to be
an interesting year in it may be honestly a slight
(10:04):
down here in the SEC. So Bama maybe can come
out of this ahead. We're gonna have to wait and see,
but they've got to of course, I don't think they
play anybody of significance for a while. But they've got
to play better next week? Are that seat is going
to be a lava flow?
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And to be fair, when we say the SEC didn't farewell,
I mean across the board, the vast majority of their
teams won, but it was the teams that were ranked high.
The highest ranked teams did not farewell this weekend. That'd
be in Texas and Alabama. And then you go, you
mentioned the ACC. I mean Clemson. Clemson lost their game
(10:46):
against LSU. And how about LSU. You know they had
a five season opening game losing streak going into Death Valley,
and you know, you thought, is this going to be
six in a row? So you know, surely do you
feel like l s U is on the rise? Now?
You know they got that that you know that that
(11:06):
quote unquote as a saying goes a monkey off the back.
You know, as far as not being able to win
the first win of the season, how does this set
up the Tigers in the SEC going forward this season?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah, I I think I think l s HUS is
going to have a really good season. I think they
really do have a shot at competing for the SEC championship.
I really like Garrett Ussmayer. I like I like him
as a person, and he's a you know, he's a
(11:37):
he's a follower of Jesus and he's not ashamed about
about that. But he has a you know, I think
he's a really good, solid, well rounded quarterback, maybe you know,
the the best quarterback in this upcoming draft. And we'll
see how the season goes. But he I thought he
played really well against Clemson on you know, on Saturday.
(12:03):
So I definitely think LSU is a is a team,
a team to watch.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Since you mentioned quarterback Byron, that's a great transition to
talk about arch Manning. I again, I love you know,
you go to X after games. This is when X
gets fun, you know for me, because it's just you know,
watching the sports hate, which to me is like you know,
most of the time and said in fun. But you know,
(12:30):
arch Manning was really picked by a lot of people
as the as the front runner of the Heisman race.
And I saw one comment which I found very interesting,
is like, you know, here's a guy who played for
two a high school, he played four quarters of college football,
and because of his last name, he was put as
(12:50):
the number one Heisman candidate. Arch didn't have a great
Saturday up in Ohio, did he you know, of all.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
The throws he made, he only had three good ones,
and that that's a little rough. I think the other
thing that Texas didn't do that they should have done
is let him run a little bit more. But you know,
Texas is into protecting him at this point, and so
I do think it was a very rough outing for him.
(13:22):
If you are only going to average tenure. No, he
only had one hundred and seventy passing yards and most
of that was in the fourth quarter. I think Texas
has reason to be concerned a bit. They better see
some improvement early on this season after that. But yeah,
(13:43):
their defense is fine, but they've got a lot of
receivers who the balls were not thrown well, but they
should have dug him out, which makes me wonder how
good is their receiving corps too. And I think they've
got some issues.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I mean again, I don't I don't know what all
we can really take away from uh, you know, the
first game of the season at number three defending champion
Ohio State. Uh. I think the expectations on arch Manning
are just completely unrealistic. You know, everybody has put him
(14:21):
on this pedestal, you know, and and he's a he's
a kid who just made what his third starting in college,
you know, and so yeah, I give it. I think
I think everybody just needs to needs to calm down,
you know, give the kid an opportunity to to get
(14:42):
some games under his belt and develop, you know, I did.
I was not impressed with Texas receiving corps. Now, I
don't know if that was that. Is that because the
secondary for Ohio State is really that good, or is
it because you know, Texas receiving Corps is not what
(15:05):
it was a year ago, and obviously they lost some
major weapons this last year. So man, I don't I
don't know. They certainly didn't look like the number one
team of the country, we'll say that. But yeah, I
think time's going to tell.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Time will tell. And that's the thing about about football teams.
They do get better the you start to understand a
little bit more as you get into October Septembers. And
really these most of these, all these games so far
have been played in August, so we will certainly see
Before we dive into Baylor, I just I want to
(15:42):
make a note of something that is worth talking about
and getting both of you to kind of weigh in
your thoughts. But man the great, you know, we've kind
of we've kind of commented that he probably needed to
retire a few years ago, but he does just honorly
coursal for a moment and what he's done for or
the college football game. And I'll start off by just
(16:03):
giving you a statistic that I have found, again very fascinating.
Every one of Corsol's team that he that he coached
or played on one over the weekend, which I thought
that was a very fitting sit off send off Byron.
But you know you've watched college game day. I mean,
(16:23):
it's it's been part of our fabric for college sports
for a long time. We get excited when they come
to Waco, you know, and everyone kind of tunes in
or at least wants to know what headgear the coach
is going to pick. You know, it's an end of
an error.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, it is. He is to me a national treasure.
Scott not only did every one of the teams he
coached at or played at win every one of the
picks he made on game day one. I mean, that's
a heck of a way to go out. Fox Sports
simulcast his final headgear headgear pick. That's how much the
(17:02):
guys respected. It was kind of fun to watch, and
it was fun to watch some of the old headgear picks.
My favorite two are when he picked Houston over SMU
and he uttered his famous cuss word on air.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Still remember the apology during the halftime of that game.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
That's what made it even better because you could tell
someone wrote this up and he's having to read it
on air. And then my other famous one that in
one that if you go back and watch it really
quieted him a lot, was when he was at Baylor
and Jeff Dunham was picking the Memphis Tiger Houston Cougar
game and he said, it sounds like a dating service
(17:45):
for Corso and Corso. Everybody cracked up so much Corso
could not make his next pick. It was awesome. But yeah,
I love the guy. It's been hard to watch him
get old and that's been sad, but it he is.
He is a national treasure.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yeah, he's definitely going to be missed. That was something
obviously that everybody always looked forward to on Saturdays was
college game Day and his head gear, you know, picks
and is not so fast and all that. I thought
ESPN did a really good job. I don't know if
you guys watched those. I think it was a one
(18:25):
hour special they did. I think they started running it
Thursday or Friday. I think I watched it on Friday,
you know, just to him over the years, and I
thought it was really well done. I thought it was
neat how you know, they they broadcast live at the stadium.
(18:46):
You know, his his final at gear pick and you
know he picked he picks the winning team, so, which
by the way, was the very first head gear pick
that he ever made. Was brutus. So I thought that
was really really He'll definitely be miss but it has
been painful the last several years just watching him, you know,
(19:07):
after his his stroke, he just just kind of you know, lost,
He wasn't he wasn't the same.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, So my favorite coach moment has actually pre dated
when he went live to the stadiums and even did
the famous first headgear pick. You know, the show started
off as a studio show. Never met the coach, but
I just I love telling the story. So I was
a sophomore at Howard Payne University, a small Baptist college
(19:40):
for those who don't know, in Brownwood, Texas. That's where
I graduated, met my wife. But I was into sports
broadcasting and the great Dallas Houston. He has retired, but
he did play by play for Hard Pain Gosh nearly
fifty years. But he would allow students interested in doing
sports broadcas casting to be in the booth with him
(20:02):
for home games and he would kind of teach him
and he taught me how to do sports broadcasting. But
our first game of the season my sophomore year, we
were opening up against Prairie View A and M, who
at the time had lost seventy seven straight games. And
Prairie View A and M decided, as a D two school,
let's schedule D three. Howard paying to try to get
(20:24):
a W and it became a national headline that week,
to the point that ABC was airing the Notre Dame
game that night, but sent a satellite truck down to
Brownwood to do live cut ds to see will this
losing streak finally end? So I'm watching ESPN that morning
there was a night game, so I'm watching that morning again.
It was a studio show when they came to the picks,
(20:46):
and they put that as one of the picks because
again big story and there is a coach Corso saying
Prairie View is playing who Howard Johnson the hotel chain
obviously you know a little fun shade there, and as
a story ends, Howard Payne won. So that that that
(21:06):
loose streak went to seventy eight. I don't know where
it ended before PERI review finally won. But anyway, great
for the game. As someone said, you know, he's kind
of he's like you know coach v you know on
for football. You know there's another great or Dick, Dick Findell,
(21:27):
So who I'm thinking of you think about when he retires,
and that may be coming soon as well. So just
an air of our childhood and really more of our
adulthood as that kind of came in in the mid nineties.
But it's just it's just it was fun to see
him get his final pick. Well, let's talk about the
game that is near and dear to our heart, and
(21:47):
for those who are listening, we will cover Parsons here
coming up. But you know, surely you got a chance
to see the game on television Byron and I were
there in person, and so I'm gonna start with you, you
know from your perspective, r G three back in the booth,
how do you feel Baylor looked on television? Is it
(22:08):
something that you felt like was a was a good
look for Baylor overall? Obviously we didn't get to win.
But now that you've had a couple of days to
think about the game, what are your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, So, first of all, the new chrome Dome helmets
Chrome Dome point two point zero looked fantastic on TV.
Looked great. So shout out to uh, you know, aur
whoever was responsible for making making that decision on on
those new helmets and bringing those back man r G three.
(22:42):
Great to have him, you know, back in the the
broadcast booth. He did a fantastic job as as usual. Yeah,
So the game obviously disappointment for for us. You know,
we were really you know, hoping to you know, come
come out of there with with a victory over an
(23:05):
SEC team, and that that obviously didn't didn't happen. You know,
I think, you know, one of the sports morning shows
that I listened to here in the f W the
day after a Cowboys game will always do Star Up,
Star Down. So I thought about doing uh, Bear Paul
(23:28):
up and Bear Paul down or something like that. I
don't know anyway, Yeah, I mean bear Paul up man
our our offense, specifically our receiving core man, that receiving core,
that receiving room, that wide receiving room is loaded this year.
(23:49):
I am so excited to see, you know, how how
our passing game progresses this season. I think I think
we have the ability uh to be able to uh,
you know, a number of these guys can can break away,
can score. I'm really really excited about that. You know,
(24:11):
I thought Robertson did a did a pretty good job.
I mean, I know, his his QBR is only sixty
five and a half, but he threw four hundred and
nineteen yards on an SEC defense. And by by the way,
that's the second SEC defense in a row that he
has just gone off on, you know, from a passing standpoint,
(24:33):
and so I think that that really bodes well, you know,
for us and for him, you know, moving forward the season.
So definitely start up or bear paw up, I should say,
our our receiving corps man, Bear Paul up our secondary.
What what a huge leap from last year to this year. Now,
(24:57):
let me let me asterisk that by saying Jackson Arnold
is not going to be setting any passing records. Okay,
let's just establish that he is a run first, throw
second quarterback. And we obviously all saw that. But you know,
supposedly Auburn is supposed to have maybe possibly the best
(25:20):
wide receiver duo in the SEC, and we absolutely shut
them down. So I think that was you know, again,
bear Paul up to our secondary, thought they did a
fantastic job, and that was without one of our starting
safeties who's still coming back from an injury. So man,
thought our secondary did a fantastic job, all right, Bear
(25:43):
paw down. That would be our run defense. Oh my gosh.
Our defensive line. In fact, I would say both of
our line, let's just say offensive line and defensive line,
as far as offensive line blocking for our running attack
and defensive line trying to stop their running attack. Absolutely horrible. Man.
(26:11):
I mean I know that, I know that we lost
one of our best, if not our best, defensive linemen
to Florida after spring practice if I'm not mistaken. Uh,
and then we lost Jackie Marshall in the you know,
probably our best lineman, you know, in the first quarter
(26:32):
of the game Friday, night. So obviously that made an impact.
But man, our defensive line and our linebackers as well,
just stopping the run, man Bear Paul Down offensive line
opening up holes for our running game. Bear Paul Down
just got some major work. You know, I think I
(26:52):
think to do their Bear Paul Down to Dave Randa
in an adjusting to what Auburn was wanting to do. Obviously,
they came in saying, okay, we're we're gonna run the
ball and we're going to stop the run. And uh,
(27:13):
you know, Dave's side of the ball is defense, and
he's supposed to be a defensive guru, and he never
made the adjustments. You know, I think we were so
afraid of Auburn's wide receivers burning us deep that we
kept that to that too high safety shell the entire
night and we never ever adjusted. Uh. Man, if you
(27:33):
see somebody is just gashing you at the run, I
mean you've got to take a chance, right, You got
to gamble. If this is beaten us, we need to
try to stop it. Even if they find another way
to beat us. Make them do it right. Make Jackson
Arnold beat you with his arm. I don't think he's
going to, but he absolutely crushed us with his legs.
So I don't understand the lack of adjustment. I don't
(27:55):
know why we didn't. We didn't bring some you know,
bring the safety in and try to help stop the run.
I don't I don't get that at all. So, you know,
all in all, it was disappointing, but there were definitely
some bright spots, you know, for for us to to
look at and build upon, you know, moving forward into
(28:18):
this next game.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, and I agree with a lot of it. I'm
gonna disagree on two points, Okay, one On the offensive line,
there were issues. I'm not going to argue that at all. However,
I don't think it was as bad as it looked.
Auburn was running some unbelievably exotic blitzes on us in
(28:39):
the run game too, And Scott, if you remember, I
commented to you that they are throwing blitzes at us
that I've never seen before. Right, and as an offensive lineman,
your head's on a swivel trying to figure out who
am I going to pick up. They got a couple
of sacks, but in reality, our pass protect got better
(29:00):
as the game went on. On defense, yes, we were
playing our safeties in Bell County. Yeah, and I noticed that,
and the reason for that was to keep the receivers
in front of us. Randa did adjust to try to
stop the quarterback. We put a spy on Arnold beginning
(29:20):
late second quarter, early second half. The problem was our
linebacker couldn't keep up with him. Arnold just ran right
by him. The reason why I don't think Randa adjusted,
and I don't necessarily have an issue with it, is
because we were still in the game and Randa was
trying to slow the game down, keep the receivers in
front of him while dealing with an incredibly undersized defensive
(29:45):
line against an incredibly physical offensive line, and I think
Randa was hoping he could get one more stop. The
two things that killed us in that game were really three.
Marshall going down. Marshall going down was huge. Two Marshall
played eight plays. Two the fourth down in the first
(30:07):
quarter where we could have gone up ten to nothing,
and in all honesty, I think going forward on fourth
down may have been a bad decision there. Three the
kickoff return, because we were in that game until that
kickoff return, and I think that's in Randa was going
to stick with his game plan. I do think we
(30:30):
have serious personnel issues right now. On defense, we have
one linebacker who played well. The rest of the linebackers
played like crap, and that's on Randa. The defensive line,
they got pushed around all night. And the reason whyse
is you know, they're giving up sixty to seventy pounds
(30:51):
a guy and Martin Randa's defense does not work unless
you've got a really big rear end in the middle
and lost that. And in all honesty, you know we've
lost the three biggest rear ends we've got because we
lost Marshall, we had bats transfer out, which you can
(31:13):
discuss that all day long, and then unfortunately we had
another guy die. And if he would have pulled the
safeties in, my fear is and I think there's a
lot of reason because I've read a couple of analysis
by some really good retired football coaches who said, if
(31:34):
he would have pulled the safeties in the way their
receivers were going, they were going to run right by us.
And they were running go routes on RPOs all night
when Arnold was breaking loose. And I really do think
if we would have pulled them in, they would have
just gone over our heads and scored that way and.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
It would have been a blowout potentially and Baylor losing
by fourteen. I agree that kickoff return.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Like that point, it was just hard to kind of
overcome because time was against you can I give a
bear Paul down to the officiating crew, and I'm not
I'm not gonna say that the officiating crew cost Baylor
of the game because I I think in general this
just was some some interesting no calls and some interesting
(32:21):
uh was that really a penalty? Like I think there
was a there was a blatant you know, face mask
that was missed, right, I mean that was so blatant,
like everybody like there was Auburn travels well and I'm
going to tell you there were Auburn fans around us
that agreed that should have been a face mask. And
then two players later there was a pass interference who
(32:42):
were like, Okay, that was a makeup call. I don't
think that was really pass interference. But then there was
a couple of times where it's like, uh, there was
like a pass interference that they called when it was
like a run play or something like that. It just
was bizarre and this was the SEC crew. So I'm curious, like,
who decides this. Is it part of the negotiation between
(33:03):
the two schools that says, hey, we'll play each other,
we want the first game in Waco. Fine, you can
have the first game in Waco, but we want an
SEC crew. I mean, it's it's just baffling to me, Like,
I mean, I've always seen it where like this is
a perfect opportunity for you know, I don't know, an
ACC crew to come out there and officiate the game
(33:25):
like someone that's neutral. But you guys realize that every
single replay was going to the SEC headquarter office. Yes,
and they're making a decision on if it's a penalty
or not.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
It's negotiated. It's negotiated in the contract, and it is
a general rule of thumb in college football. In fact,
if you look at it was an SEC crew at
the Ohio State Texas.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I saw that, Yeah, And the rule.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Of thumb is if you're going on the road, you
get to bring your ref crew. And it was a
huge advantage because Auburn is pro probably the most physical
football team will play all year, and they called that
game as an advantage to a physical football team. They
also missed a blatant hands to the face foul early
(34:12):
one that would have kept a drive going for us. Yeah,
that was massively bad. I mean, our center is running
off the field with blood coming down his face. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I didn't know if y'all could see that on TV.
I mean, literally, blood is pouring down this kid's face.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yeah, we saw it on X Yeah. Yeah, that was crazy.
So that means next year, I guess that means next
year when we go to Auburn it's going to be
a Big twelve.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
It will a big twelve crew. And when Ohio State
comes to Texas next year, it will be a big
ten crew.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
So that means I'm just going one little. That means
next year's Auburn Big twelve game will be five hours
long with twenty replays.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Go ahead, Shirley, Yeah, I was just gonna agree with you, Scott.
I mean, this game, you know, no no game. I
would say, no game. Most games are not decided by officiating, okay,
but and we didn't lose this game because of the officials.
But I absolutely agree. I mean, obviously, the most egregious
was the you know, it was the missed face mask
(35:18):
that were you know, I think it was Hawkins got
his helmet taken off. But there there was a there
was a key There was a key call late in
that game that, you know, I think what was a
determining factor in the final score. And that was when
(35:41):
I mean it was it was thirty one twenty four
and Auburn was driving and we got a we got
a holding call on a I think it was a
tight end, uh And you're right, Scott, it was a
running play and we stopped him right it was. It
(36:02):
was fourth down and they threw the flag. And if
you look at the replay, he the our linebacker hits
him at the line of scrimmage like it's at the line.
This is perfectly legal. He hits him at the line
of scrimmage and all he does is bump him. He
doesn't hold him at all. He bumps him. And because
he he is he's our defender, is focused on on
(36:25):
the run, like he sees this a running play, it's
not a pass play. So he bumps the guy and
then takes off after the runner and we get called
for holding, and that turned what was a fourth down
into a first down for them. And I think just
a couple of plays later, you know, Jackson Arnold, you know,
runs for a touchdown on us. So like that was
(36:47):
that was a huge call right there, because we'd stopped
him and we had an opportunity to go and tie
this ballgame up. So, you know, again not on the officials,
but there were definitely so calls that were very questionable
in that game.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yeah, I think we made it so odd was you know,
you get an officiating crew that gets a flow, and
the flow meaning like okay, they're gonna let these boys play.
They're not calling p i's tonight, and so then you
just kind of go with it and you know that
and coaches will adjust to that. Or man, there are
really quick to throw the yellow hanky and coaches will
(37:26):
adjust to that. But it seemed by room it just
was sporadic, like you didn't know if the if the
laundry was coming out or not.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Yeah, there were a couple of times they called p
I are holding, which is the substitute for PI. Then
I'm just sitting there going, you know, I swear I
watched a defensive back mug another receiver and you didn't
do anything right. Well, so why why why? I mean
there were outright crimes going on on that field. So
(37:53):
it was inconsistent, and it heavily favored a physical football team.
Now I'm not saying that. I think they called it
the way they call it in the SEC. And the
unfortunate thing is they were they were inconsistent, and so
you know, it is what it is. And SEC officials
(38:17):
don't have the greatest reputations, and that's that's a fact,
and neither do Big Twelve. In fact, neither does any official.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
I just want to, you know, just kind of end
the segment just by saying this. I mean, I think
we're all in agreement here. We're not going to face
an offensive a defensive line like this, you know, the
rest of the season until we make the CFP, right,
so you know, I think we can at least, you know,
kind of take take that away. You know, they're just
(38:49):
this shows you the difference, right between building a especially
a defensive line in the Big twelve as opposed to
building a defensive line for SEC play. Like we really
did see that difference on Friday night. So man, I still, again,
as several of our players said, man, everything wants in
(39:10):
front of us. So let's see how we bounce back.
Against SMU, who I mean, I know they scored forty
two points, but actually two of those were returns or
pick sixes, So their offense only scored twenty eight points
against what it was at East Texas A and M.
So that doesn't scare me, you know, going to Dallas
(39:31):
this next week.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Well, I've just one more final note on the Baylor game.
I'll say, first of all, thank you to Baylor University
for actually scheduling a meaningful game to start off the season.
It just felt different to be in a packed McClain
Stadium playing an SEC opponent, first SEC opponent I think
(39:54):
I heard in like thirty years to come to Waco,
and so that was great. You know, we weren't playing
some you know, small Texas college where we're kind of yawning,
you know by the second quarter. So that was fun
to see. The other interesting note that we cannot get
past because it just is an interesting little antidote that
(40:17):
caused my jaw to drop and I looked at Byram
like wow. In the pumped up video before the team
took the field. First of all, Mike Singletary's on the
video that's awesome, and that in itself, you know, he's
had a little bit. He was a little bit hurt
when he didn't get the head coaching job when he
(40:39):
wanted it and Dave Randa got it. So seeing him
there that was great. Although the stadium crew has to
work on syncing up the audio, but that's a side note.
But then, all of a sudden, you see Art Briles
on the jumbo tron and one of his famous scenes
in the locker room after they won a conference championship,
(41:00):
saying let's go and celebrating. Never thought I would see
that again. You know, they've done as much as they
can to erase the history of Brills. That was shocking,
and I just want y'all's thoughts on it, and not
to you know, kind of give you both sides of it.
But to me, I thought it was awesome. But then
I saw another fans reaction saying, you know, after they
(41:23):
made him the scapegoat and treated him that way, they
shouldn't have the right to even use his image. So
where do you guys stand on all of a sudden,
you know, first time in a long time seeing Art
Briels on the jumbo tron.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Well, I thought it was great. I don't agree with
the other guy that the one you just quoted. People
need to get over it, and I think Baylor's trying
to say we're getting over it. And I thought it
was great, I really did. And I think we need
to slowly begin to re embrace that because what we're
(41:56):
finding out is a lot of schools did things pretty
close to that. We just weren't very smart in how
we dealt with it, and that goes for everybody involved
in it. And so yeah, I think we should start
embracing it again. It's it's not a pariah anymore. Let's
just hey, we we we screwed up. Now, let's let's
be nice. And there are still people who think we
(42:19):
should hire Brill's back. That's not going to happen, and
we just need to come to grips with that. But yeah,
it was a great time in Baylor football that ended
way too soon, and I was happy to see it.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Surely you didn't you weren't there, but you know, hearing
about it, do you like it?
Speaker 3 (42:38):
I'm indifferent, really, I really am. I mean, that's that's
fine if they want to try to, you know, begin
to acknowledge that era and Baylor football again. But I
don't really have a strong opinion about it.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Alrighty, well, now it's time for our next segment. How
about them Cowboys doubt well as Cowboys trade Parsons that
you know, became the story of the early NFL season.
Let's see. Surely I'll start with you. I know you
got an opinion on this one. Was this trade something
(43:16):
that number one you were expecting and now that it's
happened and you've had some time to kind of process it,
do you think it was something that was a positive
for the Cowboys organization long term or just another reason
that Jerry Jones just needs to fire himself as a
general manager.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Okay, So I was I was a little bit surprised
that it ended the way that it did, with him
being traded literally right before the season started, So you know,
I but you know, am I am I opposed to
(43:56):
the trade at all? No, In fact, I thought I
thought they should have tried to have traded him during
the season before the trade deadline this last year, you know.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
And so I.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Obviously, if you look at a Parson Parsons is a
is a fantastic player. All right, Let's just admit that
he is. He's one of the best edge rushers. But
in the you know, in the four seasons that he's
been been here, you know, you see his production start
(44:31):
off really high and then by the end of the season,
especially into the playoffs, a significant drop off. So I mean,
I think that's that's number one. Number two, do you
do you do you really fear the Cowboys? Do you
really want to allocate you know, forty seven million dollars
a year to an edge rusher who again has that
(44:55):
kind of history and has shown that teams can scheme
against him and pretty much make him, you know, ineffective. Right,
I don't personally, I don't want to put I don't
want to throw that kind of money at an edge rusher.
I would rather I'd rather put that money elsewhere, you know.
(45:17):
And so that that's kind of a take on that. However,
as far as as far as Jerry Jones is concerned,
you know, my my my frustration with with him is that,
you know, if he acknowledged in the press conference, so
this was something that they had that they had been
(45:37):
thinking about for a long time, and one of our
one of our local media guys even pressed Jones on, so,
why didn't you do this if you were thinking about
this before the draft, Why didn't you do this before
the draft, right, so that you could use you know,
one or more of those picks that you get back
for this year's team, you know, to impact at this year,
(46:02):
rather than having to wait for the impact of this draft,
you know, these draft picks for you know, the next
couple of years, you know, which I thought was an
actually valid question, and again Jones didn't have a good answer,
and so, you know, in my opinion, had they had
they done this last season before the trade deadline, you know,
(46:24):
usually in those scenarios, you are trading to a team
that's like, okay, we're one player away. We're willing to
really deal. We're willing to really give up a lot
to get this player because we really think this player
is going to push us over the top. When you're
dealing with a team before trade deadline, you're dealing with
a team that's desperate, you know, to to get a
(46:47):
certain player or a certain position filled. And so normally
in a situation when you're desperate, you're you're going to
get more back in return. Right. If you're dealing with
a team that's desperate, they're willing to give up more
than then. I would argue a team in a situation
where they've just filled their roster, they've just made their cuts,
(47:08):
they're about to enter the season, they pretty much liked
the team that they have, and oh yeah, it'd be
great to add this piece. We'll be We're willing to
give you know, this up, whereas a team may have
been willing to give up much more had you done
this at a different time. So that's the major issue
(47:28):
that I have with the trade is the timing of it.
I think we could have gotten back more if if
we had if we had done this earlier.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Chris Byram, you're the general manager of the Cowboys. You're
in the situation. You got an athlete that has had
some success. But to Shirley's point, NFL started to kind
of figure them out. But then you have a locker
room issue. You know, a guy hanging out in the
training table, not wearing the jersey, walking in the stadium
(47:58):
eating nachos, clearly sending some different vibes. I've heard about
the podcast that the other players didn't like. What would
you do if you are general manager Chris Byrom, do
you agree with this trade?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
I agree with Shirley. It should have been made at
a different time. The timing of this was terrible, and
it's the whole locker room issue. I blame Jerry for
part of that, because Jerry is giving out ridiculous contracts
to guys who haven't earned them, and then he gets
stuck in a situation like this where he doesn't want
(48:35):
to spend the money because he doesn't necessarily have it
under the cab and so now he's behind the eight
ball trying to make the trade. And then he gets
up there and he has the intestinal fortitude to say
this is similar to the herschel Walker trade. Now it's not.
It's not even close. And don't forget the biggest problem
(48:58):
with this is he's going to be making the draft picks.
So I really don't have any confidence in this whole
Dill saying, you know, we did this because we can't
stop the run. Well, now you can't rush the passer,
So what are you going to do? Jerry? And it's
it was a cover your rear end press conference, and
(49:19):
I just he needs to hire somebody else, And yeah,
I know that'll tick him off, even though he doesn't
listen to me. And I don't blame him.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
It would somebody and his team listens to this podcast.
I'm convinced no.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
Okay, well let's hope. So, but yeah, he needs to
get someone who knows what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
Well.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
So here's my thoughts on it. I think, I mean,
I'm not going to disagree. You know, the timing could
have been better, but I think I think Jerry Jones,
I'm going to give him some benefit of doubt here.
I think he legitimately was was played and he was
a little hurt for that played in the sense that
(49:58):
you know when you hear his side of the store.
Parsons came into his office, asked for the meeting. The
two of them sat down, you know, they talk salary,
They went back and forth, and then, as I guess
this is normal protocol, then he kicks it over to
his son Steven, co owner COO, who then kind of
negotiates the finer details and they got down to what
(50:19):
the Jones family felt like was going to be a
fair deal for all involved, making him the highest paid
non quarterback to play for the Cowboys. And then Parsons says, okay,
quick talking to me. Now talk to my agent negotiate
the deal. And this is where ego comes in and
the Jones family, particularly Jerry, has ego. You know, I
would say that you can't be an owner in the NFL,
(50:42):
or even a general manager in NFL, or a coach
or a player and not have some ego. And you
think about it, and so you know, Jerry's like, no,
we already negotiate it, and that's where the standoff happened,
and things has got progressively worse. I think the trade
is good. I agree with what Herbstreet even said. Good
for the Cowboys trading him. I think Green Bay is
(51:03):
going to get a player that's going to have some
good games and gonna have some bad games. I don't
think he's worth what Green Bay's paying him, but you know,
if we went off what I could afford, then I
couldn't even compete in in the XFL or even you
know pee wee football my salary. So it's just a
lot of money. But it'll be interesting to see. Now
(51:24):
I don't know a lot about this pro bowler coming in.
It'll be interesting to see. I know that, you know,
from what I'm hearing, they're selling him as a leader
in the locker room, someone who takes other players, you know, aside,
meets with him outside of practice, has him over his house,
kind of teaches him the game. So that could be
a you know, you know, an interesting dynamic. Time will tell.
(51:46):
I do think you know, the Cowboys are not going
to win a week one for sure though Philadelphia has
had a lot of changes in personnel, so we'll have
to wait and see. Time for one more thing. And
since we've been talking about the Cowboys byrum, I'm gonna
let you go first today with the one more thing.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yeah, Leroy Jordan, Cowboys middle linebacker for years, played for
Bear Bryant in Alabama, passed away this week. Really good
player in the Ring of Honor in just another one
of the Landry eraic Cowboys to leave us. And it
is said he was a good guy and is kind
(52:30):
of on just barely on the outside looking and at
the Hall of Fame, but a really good football player.
And like I said, just one more of the real
Dallas Cowboys who have left us.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Sureley, you got one more thing for us?
Speaker 3 (52:45):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (52:45):
Today, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you one more thing though,
all right, quietly, surprisingly, our Texas Rangers are still in
the wild card race down the stretch. And so I'll
end my one more thing with just a question, a prediction.
(53:07):
Do the Rangers have enough mustard to pull off and
eke into the playoffs? Surely you first?
Speaker 3 (53:15):
No, they keep trying to pull me back in and
I refuse this time around.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Okay, Byron, what do you think.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
With surely on this one? I just don't think it's
gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
I think it will happen because that's just what sports
does to us about the time we're like, we're done
with that, We're onto football, Then all of a sudden
they'll make it, and then we'll care, and then they'll
disappoint us again. That's my prediction. Lots to talk about.
College football is back, and the next time we talk,
we'll be talking about the NFL season, which is getting
(53:50):
underway this week. For Chris Shirley and Chris Byram. I'm
Scott Miller until next time. So long, everybody,
Football is back. Football is back, and we had some
really good matchups this past weekend. I'm Scott Miller. Joined
as always on my conversation with the Crises is Chris
Shirley and Chris Byram Byram, I'm going to start with
you this morning. I want to give credit because we
(00:22):
have criticized college sports over the last few years, all
the nil and the changes, and it's becoming more and
more of a pro game versus the college game we
grew up watching and loving. But they did something right.
Byram we had more, in my opinion, we had more
(00:43):
marquee matchups for week number one. You know, usually you
have one or two, but it just seemed like we
had a ton of marquee matchups this weekend. How great
was it to just soak in college ball? We're talking Texas,
Ohio State, you know, we're going to talk about Alabama.
(01:06):
Was it supposed to be a big game? Last night's
game with Notre Dame in Miami? I mean, how are
you feeling about this particular weekend and all the matchups
we got to see?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Okay, it was awesome. I'm worried if we're ever going
to see him again, but it was awesome. SEC had
a in the end, really a bad week. ACC had
an awesome week. Big twelve other than one game that
we really care about, had a pretty good week. But yeah,
(01:36):
it was it was awesome watching some of the games.
But here's the thing that worries me. I'm cutting to
the chase today, Scott.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm bring it. It's Labor Day. We got to get
right to it.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Have you seen the ESPN FPI ratings that were released
that you know, the SEC is saying you got to
use these for the college playoff?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
No, I have not.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Explain to me why Texas is still number one, And
explain to me why Ohio State is number three. Alabama
is still ranked in like the top fifteen, and here's
Florida State, who kicked Alabama's rear end, is not even
in the top twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But has this been updated though?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I mean yes, it was updated Sunday morning, and everybody
is up in arms over it with reason, because it's
clear ESPN and SEC is rigging this thing. And I
guarantee teams see this. Why are we taking the risk?
And it's ridiculous, It is absolutely ridiculous. I mean, what's
(02:42):
the point you're gonna make Texas number one when clearly
their defense is really good, their offense needs some help.
But it's a joke, and I think ESPN is going
to lose a lot of credibility, credibility if they stick
with this. But it was a great weekend. It's still
(03:05):
going to continue tonight. We're gonna get to see TCU
gets their rear ends kicked. I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Surely Byron has had some Chicken minis this morning. He
has fired up you and I are probably still waking up.
But if you had to pick one game that stuck out,
you know so far, and to Byron's point, we got
the TCU North Carolina game tonight, what was the one
game that that you felt like was the best matchup
(03:33):
of the weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So I did not watch last night's game against Sundre
Dame in Miami, which looks like that might have been
the game of the weekend. But I did watch Alabama
Florida State, and I thought that was up up until
last night's game. Probably in my mind, the game the
game of the weekend. It was a it was a
(03:56):
great battle, you know, back back and forth than Florida State,
you know, It's funny. You know, obviously they had a
really bad year last year, but everybody forgets two years
ago they were undefeated and left out of the CFP, right,
so they're only they're only two years removed from an
(04:17):
undefeated season. They reloaded obviously through the transfer portal, and
you know, look to be a team that's to be
reckoned with in the ACC and man, they just they
looked fantastic against Alabama. They've got a transfer quarterback that's
a running quarterback, and it was almost like deja vu
(04:40):
was watching, you know, Jackson Arnold run all over our defense.
Again watching the Florida State quarterback run all over the
Alabama defense. So glad to know it's not just our defense.
They can't stop a running quarterback. So anyway, in my mind,
that was that was one of the best game of
(05:00):
the week and one of the best matchups of the weekend.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
A couple of interesting coaching notes about that game. Surely,
first of all, you got to talk about Kellen de Boor,
the head coach of Alabama, saw an interesting statistic that
in his you know, two year tenure with Alabama, he
has now lost to four unranked opponents. Now, I haven't
(05:23):
verified this stat. This could just be social media, you know,
out there kind of throwing shade. But they said that
equal the amount that Nick Saban lost unranked opponents in
his entire tenure. That is an amazing stat. So, you know,
Crimson Tide, man, they are just in full panic mode
when you're when you have a program and you guys,
(05:45):
I mean we all know people when you have a
program that has won that many titles, they become the
band wagon team, right. I mean there's all these people
that come out of the word works. I mean, I
know people that I grew up around that were you know,
Baylor grads, and they're always saying roll Tide. I'm like,
roll Tide, you went to Baylor. You know what's going on.
(06:06):
So a lot of bandwagon fans that are probably waking
up this morning looking for a new team. But the
second note, surely I find interesting is the offensive coordinator
for Florida State used to be the coach of Auburn.
So how fired up do you think he was for
Saturday's game?
Speaker 3 (06:23):
The gus bus the gust bus, right, yeah? Yeah. And
and you know it's funny, you know, in church pastoral circles,
you know that the joke used to be you never
want to be the guy to follow a long tenured pastor.
You want to be the guy after the guy. I
(06:44):
think the same is true in college football. You know,
you don't want to be the boor who has to
follow the legend that is Nick Saban. You want to
be the guy after the guy. So you know, I think, yeah,
his his seat is trom endously hot because he has
a you know, they're just the expectations are so incredibly high.
(07:10):
But I did think, I do think I've read this
weekend his buyouts like seventy million dollars.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, so he'll take that.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, I mean we got another Jimbo Fisher on.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Our hands, you know, But yeah, I don't Maybe Alabama's
coffers are that deep if oh, I'm sure they are. Hey,
but let me let me take your analogy just one
step further, because I like that pastoral analogy and both
of you have been pastors, so this probably resonates with
you guys you know more than most. But you know
(07:41):
it's it's uh, not only is he the guy following
the guy, but the guy before him still lives in
the same town and still goes to some games. It's
like the pastor emeritis. Right, he got that still glooming
pressure building. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
It was an office there.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
He has an office there. They named the stadium after him.
I mean he's you know, I know he does college
game Day, but he's had a lot of Alabama games.
Like I said, he and Miss Terry still live in town.
So that has to be tremendous pressure for any coach.
But what does this mean for Alabama? So, you know,
I realize week one, let's just be real here. Byron
(08:24):
Week one, you know, is there's just a lot about
your football team you start to learn, but the biggest
improvement is always between week one and week two. So
certainly whatever happened this week for any program is not
going to define the season per se. But if you're
you know, walk me through from your perspective, you know,
first talk about how Alabama what, you know, what their
(08:47):
path is going forward, and how this sets up for
Florida State. Could Florida State be a really good team
or could they be on you know, could that have
been their super Bowl and they have a big let
down week two?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Oh yeah, that's that's gonna be interesting to watch because
now Alabama's got to win a lot of games, and
they got to hope Florida State wins a lot of games.
And if those two things that have happened, then you know,
Paul Feinbaum's gonna say Alabama needs to be in the
playoff if they're six and six. But that got war on,
(09:20):
So I mean, all you got to do is look
at his picks of the weekend. But like I said,
I'm salty today. But you know, they've got a tough
path ahead of them because that was a demoralizing defeat.
There was a lot of trash talk that Alabama is
used to winning, and they just pretty much got trashed.
(09:42):
And they got trashed by a guy that they don't like,
which is the Gus bus, which that is my I
think that's my new favorite nickname. But yeah, Florida's in
acc looks salty too. So this is going to be
an interesting year in it may be honestly a slight
(10:04):
down here in the SEC. So Bama maybe can come
out of this ahead. We're gonna have to wait and see,
but they've got to of course, I don't think they
play anybody of significance for a while. But they've got
to play better next week? Are that seat is going
to be a lava flow?
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And to be fair, when we say the SEC didn't farewell,
I mean across the board, the vast majority of their
teams won, but it was the teams that were ranked high.
The highest ranked teams did not farewell this weekend. That'd
be in Texas and Alabama. And then you go, you
mentioned the ACC. I mean Clemson. Clemson lost their game
(10:46):
against LSU. And how about LSU. You know they had
a five season opening game losing streak going into Death Valley,
and you know, you thought, is this going to be
six in a row? So you know, surely do you
feel like l s U is on the rise? Now?
You know they got that that you know that that
(11:06):
quote unquote as a saying goes a monkey off the back.
You know, as far as not being able to win
the first win of the season, how does this set
up the Tigers in the SEC going forward this season?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah, I I think I think l s HUS is
going to have a really good season. I think they
really do have a shot at competing for the SEC championship.
I really like Garrett Ussmayer. I like I like him
as a person, and he's a you know, he's a
(11:37):
he's a follower of Jesus and he's not ashamed about
about that. But he has a you know, I think
he's a really good, solid, well rounded quarterback, maybe you know,
the the best quarterback in this upcoming draft. And we'll
see how the season goes. But he I thought he
played really well against Clemson on you know, on Saturday.
(12:03):
So I definitely think LSU is a is a team,
a team to watch.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Since you mentioned quarterback Byron, that's a great transition to
talk about arch Manning. I again, I love you know,
you go to X after games. This is when X
gets fun, you know for me, because it's just you know,
watching the sports hate, which to me is like you know,
most of the time and said in fun. But you know,
(12:30):
arch Manning was really picked by a lot of people
as the as the front runner of the Heisman race.
And I saw one comment which I found very interesting,
is like, you know, here's a guy who played for
two a high school, he played four quarters of college football,
and because of his last name, he was put as
(12:50):
the number one Heisman candidate. Arch didn't have a great
Saturday up in Ohio, did he you know, of all.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
The throws he made, he only had three good ones,
and that that's a little rough. I think the other
thing that Texas didn't do that they should have done
is let him run a little bit more. But you know,
Texas is into protecting him at this point, and so
I do think it was a very rough outing for him.
(13:22):
If you are only going to average tenure. No, he
only had one hundred and seventy passing yards and most
of that was in the fourth quarter. I think Texas
has reason to be concerned a bit. They better see
some improvement early on this season after that. But yeah,
(13:43):
their defense is fine, but they've got a lot of
receivers who the balls were not thrown well, but they
should have dug him out, which makes me wonder how
good is their receiving corps too. And I think they've
got some issues.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I mean again, I don't I don't know what all
we can really take away from uh, you know, the
first game of the season at number three defending champion
Ohio State. Uh. I think the expectations on arch Manning
are just completely unrealistic. You know, everybody has put him
(14:21):
on this pedestal, you know, and and he's a he's
a kid who just made what his third starting in college,
you know, and so yeah, I give it. I think
I think everybody just needs to needs to calm down,
you know, give the kid an opportunity to to get
(14:42):
some games under his belt and develop, you know, I did.
I was not impressed with Texas receiving corps. Now, I
don't know if that was that. Is that because the
secondary for Ohio State is really that good, or is
it because you know, Texas receiving Corps is not what
(15:05):
it was a year ago, and obviously they lost some
major weapons this last year. So man, I don't I
don't know. They certainly didn't look like the number one
team of the country, we'll say that. But yeah, I
think time's going to tell.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Time will tell. And that's the thing about about football teams.
They do get better the you start to understand a
little bit more as you get into October Septembers. And
really these most of these, all these games so far
have been played in August, so we will certainly see
Before we dive into Baylor, I just I want to
(15:42):
make a note of something that is worth talking about
and getting both of you to kind of weigh in
your thoughts. But man the great, you know, we've kind
of we've kind of commented that he probably needed to
retire a few years ago, but he does just honorly
coursal for a moment and what he's done for or
the college football game. And I'll start off by just
(16:03):
giving you a statistic that I have found, again very fascinating.
Every one of Corsol's team that he that he coached
or played on one over the weekend, which I thought
that was a very fitting sit off send off Byron.
But you know you've watched college game day. I mean,
(16:23):
it's it's been part of our fabric for college sports
for a long time. We get excited when they come
to Waco, you know, and everyone kind of tunes in
or at least wants to know what headgear the coach
is going to pick. You know, it's an end of
an error.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, it is. He is to me a national treasure.
Scott not only did every one of the teams he
coached at or played at win every one of the
picks he made on game day one. I mean, that's
a heck of a way to go out. Fox Sports
simulcast his final headgear headgear pick. That's how much the
(17:02):
guys respected. It was kind of fun to watch, and
it was fun to watch some of the old headgear picks.
My favorite two are when he picked Houston over SMU
and he uttered his famous cuss word on air.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Still remember the apology during the halftime of that game.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
That's what made it even better because you could tell
someone wrote this up and he's having to read it
on air. And then my other famous one that in
one that if you go back and watch it really
quieted him a lot, was when he was at Baylor
and Jeff Dunham was picking the Memphis Tiger Houston Cougar
game and he said, it sounds like a dating service
(17:45):
for Corso and Corso. Everybody cracked up so much Corso
could not make his next pick. It was awesome. But yeah,
I love the guy. It's been hard to watch him
get old and that's been sad, but it he is.
He is a national treasure.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yeah, he's definitely going to be missed. That was something
obviously that everybody always looked forward to on Saturdays was
college game Day and his head gear, you know, picks
and is not so fast and all that. I thought
ESPN did a really good job. I don't know if
you guys watched those. I think it was a one
(18:25):
hour special they did. I think they started running it
Thursday or Friday. I think I watched it on Friday,
you know, just to him over the years, and I
thought it was really well done. I thought it was
neat how you know, they they broadcast live at the stadium.
(18:46):
You know, his his final at gear pick and you
know he picked he picks the winning team, so, which
by the way, was the very first head gear pick
that he ever made. Was brutus. So I thought that
was really really He'll definitely be miss but it has
been painful the last several years just watching him, you know,
(19:07):
after his his stroke, he just just kind of you know, lost,
He wasn't he wasn't the same.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, So my favorite coach moment has actually pre dated
when he went live to the stadiums and even did
the famous first headgear pick. You know, the show started
off as a studio show. Never met the coach, but
I just I love telling the story. So I was
a sophomore at Howard Payne University, a small Baptist college
(19:40):
for those who don't know, in Brownwood, Texas. That's where
I graduated, met my wife. But I was into sports
broadcasting and the great Dallas Houston. He has retired, but
he did play by play for Hard Pain Gosh nearly
fifty years. But he would allow students interested in doing
sports broadcas casting to be in the booth with him
(20:02):
for home games and he would kind of teach him
and he taught me how to do sports broadcasting. But
our first game of the season my sophomore year, we
were opening up against Prairie View A and M, who
at the time had lost seventy seven straight games. And
Prairie View A and M decided, as a D two school,
let's schedule D three. Howard paying to try to get
(20:24):
a W and it became a national headline that week,
to the point that ABC was airing the Notre Dame
game that night, but sent a satellite truck down to
Brownwood to do live cut ds to see will this
losing streak finally end? So I'm watching ESPN that morning
there was a night game, so I'm watching that morning again.
It was a studio show when they came to the picks,
(20:46):
and they put that as one of the picks because
again big story and there is a coach Corso saying
Prairie View is playing who Howard Johnson the hotel chain
obviously you know a little fun shade there, and as
a story ends, Howard Payne won. So that that that
(21:06):
loose streak went to seventy eight. I don't know where
it ended before PERI review finally won. But anyway, great
for the game. As someone said, you know, he's kind
of he's like you know coach v you know on
for football. You know there's another great or Dick, Dick Findell,
(21:27):
So who I'm thinking of you think about when he retires,
and that may be coming soon as well. So just
an air of our childhood and really more of our
adulthood as that kind of came in in the mid nineties.
But it's just it's just it was fun to see
him get his final pick. Well, let's talk about the
game that is near and dear to our heart, and
(21:47):
for those who are listening, we will cover Parsons here
coming up. But you know, surely you got a chance
to see the game on television Byron and I were
there in person, and so I'm gonna start with you, you
know from your perspective, r G three back in the booth,
how do you feel Baylor looked on television? Is it
(22:08):
something that you felt like was a was a good
look for Baylor overall? Obviously we didn't get to win.
But now that you've had a couple of days to
think about the game, what are your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, So, first of all, the new chrome Dome helmets
Chrome Dome point two point zero looked fantastic on TV.
Looked great. So shout out to uh, you know, aur
whoever was responsible for making making that decision on on
those new helmets and bringing those back man r G three.
(22:42):
Great to have him, you know, back in the the
broadcast booth. He did a fantastic job as as usual. Yeah,
So the game obviously disappointment for for us. You know,
we were really you know, hoping to you know, come
come out of there with with a victory over an
(23:05):
SEC team, and that that obviously didn't didn't happen. You know,
I think, you know, one of the sports morning shows
that I listened to here in the f W the
day after a Cowboys game will always do Star Up,
Star Down. So I thought about doing uh, Bear Paul
(23:28):
up and Bear Paul down or something like that. I
don't know anyway, Yeah, I mean bear Paul up man
our our offense, specifically our receiving core man, that receiving core,
that receiving room, that wide receiving room is loaded this year.
(23:49):
I am so excited to see, you know, how how
our passing game progresses this season. I think I think
we have the ability uh to be able to uh,
you know, a number of these guys can can break away,
can score. I'm really really excited about that. You know,
(24:11):
I thought Robertson did a did a pretty good job.
I mean, I know, his his QBR is only sixty
five and a half, but he threw four hundred and
nineteen yards on an SEC defense. And by by the way,
that's the second SEC defense in a row that he
has just gone off on, you know, from a passing standpoint,
(24:33):
and so I think that that really bodes well, you know,
for us and for him, you know, moving forward the season.
So definitely start up or bear paw up, I should say,
our our receiving corps man, Bear Paul up our secondary.
What what a huge leap from last year to this year. Now,
(24:57):
let me let me asterisk that by saying Jackson Arnold
is not going to be setting any passing records. Okay,
let's just establish that he is a run first, throw
second quarterback. And we obviously all saw that. But you know,
supposedly Auburn is supposed to have maybe possibly the best
(25:20):
wide receiver duo in the SEC, and we absolutely shut
them down. So I think that was you know, again,
bear Paul up to our secondary, thought they did a
fantastic job, and that was without one of our starting
safeties who's still coming back from an injury. So man,
thought our secondary did a fantastic job, all right, Bear
(25:43):
paw down. That would be our run defense. Oh my gosh.
Our defensive line. In fact, I would say both of
our line, let's just say offensive line and defensive line,
as far as offensive line blocking for our running attack
and defensive line trying to stop their running attack. Absolutely horrible. Man.
(26:11):
I mean I know that, I know that we lost
one of our best, if not our best, defensive linemen
to Florida after spring practice if I'm not mistaken. Uh,
and then we lost Jackie Marshall in the you know,
probably our best lineman, you know, in the first quarter
(26:32):
of the game Friday, night. So obviously that made an impact.
But man, our defensive line and our linebackers as well,
just stopping the run, man Bear Paul Down offensive line
opening up holes for our running game. Bear Paul Down
just got some major work. You know, I think I
(26:52):
think to do their Bear Paul Down to Dave Randa
in an adjusting to what Auburn was wanting to do. Obviously,
they came in saying, okay, we're we're gonna run the
ball and we're going to stop the run. And uh,
(27:13):
you know, Dave's side of the ball is defense, and
he's supposed to be a defensive guru, and he never
made the adjustments. You know, I think we were so
afraid of Auburn's wide receivers burning us deep that we
kept that to that too high safety shell the entire
night and we never ever adjusted. Uh. Man, if you
(27:33):
see somebody is just gashing you at the run, I
mean you've got to take a chance, right, You got
to gamble. If this is beaten us, we need to
try to stop it. Even if they find another way
to beat us. Make them do it right. Make Jackson
Arnold beat you with his arm. I don't think he's
going to, but he absolutely crushed us with his legs.
So I don't understand the lack of adjustment. I don't
(27:55):
know why we didn't. We didn't bring some you know,
bring the safety in and try to help stop the run.
I don't I don't get that at all. So, you know,
all in all, it was disappointing, but there were definitely
some bright spots, you know, for for us to to
look at and build upon, you know, moving forward into
(28:18):
this next game.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, and I agree with a lot of it. I'm
gonna disagree on two points, Okay, one On the offensive line,
there were issues. I'm not going to argue that at all. However,
I don't think it was as bad as it looked.
Auburn was running some unbelievably exotic blitzes on us in
(28:39):
the run game too, And Scott, if you remember, I
commented to you that they are throwing blitzes at us
that I've never seen before. Right, and as an offensive lineman,
your head's on a swivel trying to figure out who
am I going to pick up. They got a couple
of sacks, but in reality, our pass protect got better
(29:00):
as the game went on. On defense, yes, we were
playing our safeties in Bell County. Yeah, and I noticed that,
and the reason for that was to keep the receivers
in front of us. Randa did adjust to try to
stop the quarterback. We put a spy on Arnold beginning
(29:20):
late second quarter, early second half. The problem was our
linebacker couldn't keep up with him. Arnold just ran right
by him. The reason why I don't think Randa adjusted,
and I don't necessarily have an issue with it, is
because we were still in the game and Randa was
trying to slow the game down, keep the receivers in
front of him while dealing with an incredibly undersized defensive
(29:45):
line against an incredibly physical offensive line, and I think
Randa was hoping he could get one more stop. The
two things that killed us in that game were really three.
Marshall going down. Marshall going down was huge. Two Marshall
played eight plays. Two the fourth down in the first
(30:07):
quarter where we could have gone up ten to nothing,
and in all honesty, I think going forward on fourth
down may have been a bad decision there. Three the
kickoff return, because we were in that game until that
kickoff return, and I think that's in Randa was going
to stick with his game plan. I do think we
(30:30):
have serious personnel issues right now. On defense, we have
one linebacker who played well. The rest of the linebackers
played like crap, and that's on Randa. The defensive line,
they got pushed around all night. And the reason whyse
is you know, they're giving up sixty to seventy pounds
(30:51):
a guy and Martin Randa's defense does not work unless
you've got a really big rear end in the middle
and lost that. And in all honesty, you know we've
lost the three biggest rear ends we've got because we
lost Marshall, we had bats transfer out, which you can
(31:13):
discuss that all day long, and then unfortunately we had
another guy die. And if he would have pulled the
safeties in, my fear is and I think there's a
lot of reason because I've read a couple of analysis
by some really good retired football coaches who said, if
(31:34):
he would have pulled the safeties in the way their
receivers were going, they were going to run right by us.
And they were running go routes on RPOs all night
when Arnold was breaking loose. And I really do think
if we would have pulled them in, they would have
just gone over our heads and scored that way and.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
It would have been a blowout potentially and Baylor losing
by fourteen. I agree that kickoff return.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Like that point, it was just hard to kind of
overcome because time was against you can I give a
bear Paul down to the officiating crew, and I'm not
I'm not gonna say that the officiating crew cost Baylor
of the game because I I think in general this
just was some some interesting no calls and some interesting
(32:21):
uh was that really a penalty? Like I think there
was a there was a blatant you know, face mask
that was missed, right, I mean that was so blatant,
like everybody like there was Auburn travels well and I'm
going to tell you there were Auburn fans around us
that agreed that should have been a face mask. And
then two players later there was a pass interference who
(32:42):
were like, Okay, that was a makeup call. I don't
think that was really pass interference. But then there was
a couple of times where it's like, uh, there was
like a pass interference that they called when it was
like a run play or something like that. It just
was bizarre and this was the SEC crew. So I'm curious, like,
who decides this. Is it part of the negotiation between
(33:03):
the two schools that says, hey, we'll play each other,
we want the first game in Waco. Fine, you can
have the first game in Waco, but we want an
SEC crew. I mean, it's it's just baffling to me, Like,
I mean, I've always seen it where like this is
a perfect opportunity for you know, I don't know, an
ACC crew to come out there and officiate the game
(33:25):
like someone that's neutral. But you guys realize that every
single replay was going to the SEC headquarter office. Yes,
and they're making a decision on if it's a penalty
or not.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
It's negotiated. It's negotiated in the contract, and it is
a general rule of thumb in college football. In fact,
if you look at it was an SEC crew at
the Ohio State Texas.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I saw that, Yeah, And the rule.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Of thumb is if you're going on the road, you
get to bring your ref crew. And it was a
huge advantage because Auburn is pro probably the most physical
football team will play all year, and they called that
game as an advantage to a physical football team. They
also missed a blatant hands to the face foul early
(34:12):
one that would have kept a drive going for us. Yeah,
that was massively bad. I mean, our center is running
off the field with blood coming down his face. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I didn't know if y'all could see that on TV.
I mean, literally, blood is pouring down this kid's face.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yeah, we saw it on X Yeah. Yeah, that was crazy.
So that means next year, I guess that means next
year when we go to Auburn it's going to be
a Big twelve.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
It will a big twelve crew. And when Ohio State
comes to Texas next year, it will be a big
ten crew.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
So that means I'm just going one little. That means
next year's Auburn Big twelve game will be five hours
long with twenty replays.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Go ahead, Shirley, Yeah, I was just gonna agree with you, Scott.
I mean, this game, you know, no no game. I
would say, no game. Most games are not decided by officiating, okay,
but and we didn't lose this game because of the officials.
But I absolutely agree. I mean, obviously, the most egregious
was the you know, it was the missed face mask
(35:18):
that were you know, I think it was Hawkins got
his helmet taken off. But there there was a there
was a key There was a key call late in
that game that, you know, I think what was a
determining factor in the final score. And that was when
(35:41):
I mean it was it was thirty one twenty four
and Auburn was driving and we got a we got
a holding call on a I think it was a
tight end, uh And you're right, Scott, it was a
running play and we stopped him right it was. It
(36:02):
was fourth down and they threw the flag. And if
you look at the replay, he the our linebacker hits
him at the line of scrimmage like it's at the line.
This is perfectly legal. He hits him at the line
of scrimmage and all he does is bump him. He
doesn't hold him at all. He bumps him. And because
he he is he's our defender, is focused on on
(36:25):
the run, like he sees this a running play, it's
not a pass play. So he bumps the guy and
then takes off after the runner and we get called
for holding, and that turned what was a fourth down
into a first down for them. And I think just
a couple of plays later, you know, Jackson Arnold, you know,
runs for a touchdown on us. So like that was
(36:47):
that was a huge call right there, because we'd stopped
him and we had an opportunity to go and tie
this ballgame up. So, you know, again not on the officials,
but there were definitely so calls that were very questionable
in that game.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yeah, I think we made it so odd was you know,
you get an officiating crew that gets a flow, and
the flow meaning like okay, they're gonna let these boys play.
They're not calling p i's tonight, and so then you
just kind of go with it and you know that
and coaches will adjust to that. Or man, there are
really quick to throw the yellow hanky and coaches will
(37:26):
adjust to that. But it seemed by room it just
was sporadic, like you didn't know if the if the
laundry was coming out or not.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Yeah, there were a couple of times they called p
I are holding, which is the substitute for PI. Then
I'm just sitting there going, you know, I swear I
watched a defensive back mug another receiver and you didn't
do anything right. Well, so why why why? I mean
there were outright crimes going on on that field. So
(37:53):
it was inconsistent, and it heavily favored a physical football team.
Now I'm not saying that. I think they called it
the way they call it in the SEC. And the
unfortunate thing is they were they were inconsistent, and so
you know, it is what it is. And SEC officials
(38:17):
don't have the greatest reputations, and that's that's a fact,
and neither do Big Twelve. In fact, neither does any official.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
I just want to, you know, just kind of end
the segment just by saying this. I mean, I think
we're all in agreement here. We're not going to face
an offensive a defensive line like this, you know, the
rest of the season until we make the CFP, right,
so you know, I think we can at least, you know,
kind of take take that away. You know, they're just
(38:49):
this shows you the difference, right between building a especially
a defensive line in the Big twelve as opposed to
building a defensive line for SEC play. Like we really
did see that difference on Friday night. So man, I still, again,
as several of our players said, man, everything wants in
(39:10):
front of us. So let's see how we bounce back.
Against SMU, who I mean, I know they scored forty
two points, but actually two of those were returns or
pick sixes, So their offense only scored twenty eight points
against what it was at East Texas A and M.
So that doesn't scare me, you know, going to Dallas
(39:31):
this next week.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Well, I've just one more final note on the Baylor game.
I'll say, first of all, thank you to Baylor University
for actually scheduling a meaningful game to start off the season.
It just felt different to be in a packed McClain
Stadium playing an SEC opponent, first SEC opponent I think
(39:54):
I heard in like thirty years to come to Waco,
and so that was great. You know, we weren't playing
some you know, small Texas college where we're kind of yawning,
you know by the second quarter. So that was fun
to see. The other interesting note that we cannot get
past because it just is an interesting little antidote that
(40:17):
caused my jaw to drop and I looked at Byram
like wow. In the pumped up video before the team
took the field. First of all, Mike Singletary's on the
video that's awesome, and that in itself, you know, he's
had a little bit. He was a little bit hurt
when he didn't get the head coaching job when he
(40:39):
wanted it and Dave Randa got it. So seeing him
there that was great. Although the stadium crew has to
work on syncing up the audio, but that's a side note.
But then, all of a sudden, you see Art Briles
on the jumbo tron and one of his famous scenes
in the locker room after they won a conference championship,
(41:00):
saying let's go and celebrating. Never thought I would see
that again. You know, they've done as much as they
can to erase the history of Brills. That was shocking,
and I just want y'all's thoughts on it, and not
to you know, kind of give you both sides of it.
But to me, I thought it was awesome. But then
I saw another fans reaction saying, you know, after they
(41:23):
made him the scapegoat and treated him that way, they
shouldn't have the right to even use his image. So
where do you guys stand on all of a sudden,
you know, first time in a long time seeing Art
Briels on the jumbo tron.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Well, I thought it was great. I don't agree with
the other guy that the one you just quoted. People
need to get over it, and I think Baylor's trying
to say we're getting over it. And I thought it
was great, I really did. And I think we need
to slowly begin to re embrace that because what we're
(41:56):
finding out is a lot of schools did things pretty
close to that. We just weren't very smart in how
we dealt with it, and that goes for everybody involved
in it. And so yeah, I think we should start
embracing it again. It's it's not a pariah anymore. Let's
just hey, we we we screwed up. Now, let's let's
be nice. And there are still people who think we
(42:19):
should hire Brill's back. That's not going to happen, and
we just need to come to grips with that. But yeah,
it was a great time in Baylor football that ended
way too soon, and I was happy to see it.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Surely you didn't you weren't there, but you know, hearing
about it, do you like it?
Speaker 3 (42:38):
I'm indifferent, really, I really am. I mean, that's that's
fine if they want to try to, you know, begin
to acknowledge that era and Baylor football again. But I
don't really have a strong opinion about it.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Alrighty, well, now it's time for our next segment. How
about them Cowboys doubt well as Cowboys trade Parsons that
you know, became the story of the early NFL season.
Let's see. Surely I'll start with you. I know you
got an opinion on this one. Was this trade something
(43:16):
that number one you were expecting and now that it's
happened and you've had some time to kind of process it,
do you think it was something that was a positive
for the Cowboys organization long term or just another reason
that Jerry Jones just needs to fire himself as a
general manager.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Okay, So I was I was a little bit surprised
that it ended the way that it did, with him
being traded literally right before the season started, So you know,
I but you know, am I am I opposed to
(43:56):
the trade at all? No, In fact, I thought I
thought they should have tried to have traded him during
the season before the trade deadline this last year, you know.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
And so I.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Obviously, if you look at a Parson Parsons is a
is a fantastic player. All right, Let's just admit that
he is. He's one of the best edge rushers. But
in the you know, in the four seasons that he's
been been here, you know, you see his production start
(44:31):
off really high and then by the end of the season,
especially into the playoffs, a significant drop off. So I mean,
I think that's that's number one. Number two, do you
do you do you really fear the Cowboys? Do you
really want to allocate you know, forty seven million dollars
a year to an edge rusher who again has that
(44:55):
kind of history and has shown that teams can scheme
against him and pretty much make him, you know, ineffective. Right,
I don't personally, I don't want to put I don't
want to throw that kind of money at an edge rusher.
I would rather I'd rather put that money elsewhere, you know.
(45:17):
And so that that's kind of a take on that. However,
as far as as far as Jerry Jones is concerned,
you know, my my my frustration with with him is that,
you know, if he acknowledged in the press conference, so
this was something that they had that they had been
(45:37):
thinking about for a long time, and one of our
one of our local media guys even pressed Jones on, so,
why didn't you do this if you were thinking about
this before the draft, Why didn't you do this before
the draft, right, so that you could use you know,
one or more of those picks that you get back
for this year's team, you know, to impact at this year,
(46:02):
rather than having to wait for the impact of this draft,
you know, these draft picks for you know, the next
couple of years, you know, which I thought was an
actually valid question, and again Jones didn't have a good answer,
and so, you know, in my opinion, had they had
they done this last season before the trade deadline, you know,
(46:24):
usually in those scenarios, you are trading to a team
that's like, okay, we're one player away. We're willing to
really deal. We're willing to really give up a lot
to get this player because we really think this player
is going to push us over the top. When you're
dealing with a team before trade deadline, you're dealing with
a team that's desperate, you know, to to get a
(46:47):
certain player or a certain position filled. And so normally
in a situation when you're desperate, you're you're going to
get more back in return. Right. If you're dealing with
a team that's desperate, they're willing to give up more
than then. I would argue a team in a situation
where they've just filled their roster, they've just made their cuts,
(47:08):
they're about to enter the season, they pretty much liked
the team that they have, and oh yeah, it'd be
great to add this piece. We'll be We're willing to
give you know, this up, whereas a team may have
been willing to give up much more had you done
this at a different time. So that's the major issue
(47:28):
that I have with the trade is the timing of it.
I think we could have gotten back more if if
we had if we had done this earlier.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Chris Byram, you're the general manager of the Cowboys. You're
in the situation. You got an athlete that has had
some success. But to Shirley's point, NFL started to kind
of figure them out. But then you have a locker
room issue. You know, a guy hanging out in the
training table, not wearing the jersey, walking in the stadium
(47:58):
eating nachos, clearly sending some different vibes. I've heard about
the podcast that the other players didn't like. What would
you do if you are general manager Chris Byrom, do
you agree with this trade?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
I agree with Shirley. It should have been made at
a different time. The timing of this was terrible, and
it's the whole locker room issue. I blame Jerry for
part of that, because Jerry is giving out ridiculous contracts
to guys who haven't earned them, and then he gets
stuck in a situation like this where he doesn't want
(48:35):
to spend the money because he doesn't necessarily have it
under the cab and so now he's behind the eight
ball trying to make the trade. And then he gets
up there and he has the intestinal fortitude to say
this is similar to the herschel Walker trade. Now it's not.
It's not even close. And don't forget the biggest problem
(48:58):
with this is he's going to be making the draft picks.
So I really don't have any confidence in this whole
Dill saying, you know, we did this because we can't
stop the run. Well, now you can't rush the passer,
So what are you going to do? Jerry? And it's
it was a cover your rear end press conference, and
(49:19):
I just he needs to hire somebody else, And yeah,
I know that'll tick him off, even though he doesn't
listen to me. And I don't blame him.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
It would somebody and his team listens to this podcast.
I'm convinced no.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
Okay, well let's hope. So, but yeah, he needs to
get someone who knows what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
Well.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
So here's my thoughts on it. I think, I mean,
I'm not going to disagree. You know, the timing could
have been better, but I think I think Jerry Jones,
I'm going to give him some benefit of doubt here.
I think he legitimately was was played and he was
a little hurt for that played in the sense that
(49:58):
you know when you hear his side of the store.
Parsons came into his office, asked for the meeting. The
two of them sat down, you know, they talk salary,
They went back and forth, and then, as I guess
this is normal protocol, then he kicks it over to
his son Steven, co owner COO, who then kind of
negotiates the finer details and they got down to what
(50:19):
the Jones family felt like was going to be a
fair deal for all involved, making him the highest paid
non quarterback to play for the Cowboys. And then Parsons says, okay,
quick talking to me. Now talk to my agent negotiate
the deal. And this is where ego comes in and
the Jones family, particularly Jerry, has ego. You know, I
would say that you can't be an owner in the NFL,
(50:42):
or even a general manager in NFL, or a coach
or a player and not have some ego. And you
think about it, and so you know, Jerry's like, no,
we already negotiate it, and that's where the standoff happened,
and things has got progressively worse. I think the trade
is good. I agree with what Herbstreet even said. Good
for the Cowboys trading him. I think Green Bay is
(51:03):
going to get a player that's going to have some
good games and gonna have some bad games. I don't
think he's worth what Green Bay's paying him, but you know,
if we went off what I could afford, then I
couldn't even compete in in the XFL or even you
know pee wee football my salary. So it's just a
lot of money. But it'll be interesting to see. Now
(51:24):
I don't know a lot about this pro bowler coming in.
It'll be interesting to see. I know that, you know,
from what I'm hearing, they're selling him as a leader
in the locker room, someone who takes other players, you know, aside,
meets with him outside of practice, has him over his house,
kind of teaches him the game. So that could be
a you know, you know, an interesting dynamic. Time will tell.
(51:46):
I do think you know, the Cowboys are not going
to win a week one for sure though Philadelphia has
had a lot of changes in personnel, so we'll have
to wait and see. Time for one more thing. And
since we've been talking about the Cowboys byrum, I'm gonna
let you go first today with the one more thing.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yeah, Leroy Jordan, Cowboys middle linebacker for years, played for
Bear Bryant in Alabama, passed away this week. Really good
player in the Ring of Honor in just another one
of the Landry eraic Cowboys to leave us. And it
is said he was a good guy and is kind
(52:30):
of on just barely on the outside looking and at
the Hall of Fame, but a really good football player.
And like I said, just one more of the real
Dallas Cowboys who have left us.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Sureley, you got one more thing for us?
Speaker 3 (52:45):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (52:45):
Today, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you one more thing though,
all right, quietly, surprisingly, our Texas Rangers are still in
the wild card race down the stretch. And so I'll
end my one more thing with just a question, a prediction.
(53:07):
Do the Rangers have enough mustard to pull off and
eke into the playoffs? Surely you first?
Speaker 3 (53:15):
No, they keep trying to pull me back in and
I refuse this time around.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Okay, Byron, what do you think.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
With surely on this one? I just don't think it's
gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
I think it will happen because that's just what sports
does to us about the time we're like, we're done
with that, We're onto football, Then all of a sudden
they'll make it, and then we'll care, and then they'll
disappoint us again. That's my prediction. Lots to talk about.
College football is back, and the next time we talk,
we'll be talking about the NFL season, which is getting
(53:50):
underway this week. For Chris Shirley and Chris Byram. I'm
Scott Miller until next time. So long, everybody,
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