September 2, 2026 • 20 mins
Petros Papadakis in Los Angeles joins Dave Softy Mahler to discuss - and get triggered by - the small USC crowd for their season opener last weekend, what Lincoln Riley is doing with the Trojans’ program, the Apple Cup coming up this week and the future of the game, UCLA firing their Athletic Director at a weird time, and Lane Kiffin’s behavior.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for our weekly conversation with college football analyst
Petros Papadakis.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Not that I'm a smart guy, I'm stupid.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Brought to you by Sweet James Accident Attorneys.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
41 yards. If you're hurt in an accident.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Call Sweet James right away at 800-500-5200. Sweet James will
be sweet to you, but tough on insurance companies that
will bully you. Baruch atah Adonai, baruch atah u'shalom. And
now with Petros, here's Dave Softy Muller.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Losers.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
All right, boys and girls, here we go on a
busy Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Apple Cup week, baby.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, right here on 93.3 KJRFM.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
And I cannot think of.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
A better way to celebrate this great week of college
football rivalry action. And by spending a few minutes with
one of the premier sports talk radio hosts this country
has to offer, beloved Southern California, and I mean beloved
Southern California media figure, one half of the Petros and
Money Show, one damn fine Greek-American, former USC football star,
(01:08):
father of the year, husband of the day, and my friend.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Petros Papadakis. Brought to you by... Sweet James, the dead
spirit of justice.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Somebody that can come through for you if you've ever
been in a motorcycle accident or a car accident or
maybe bit by a dog.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Sweet James and his.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Wonderful attorneys will come through for you. Give them a
call at 809-800-900-000. Don't trust that insurance company. Trust Sweet
James at 809- or sweetjames.com. Well, we're all getting ready
for the Apple Cup on Sunday. I just have one
question for you. Will there be more people at Husky
(01:51):
Stadium Sunday than we saw at the USC-San Jose State game?
I saw you on Twitter. I saw you on X
going after Seth Davis.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You don't know who we are. You don't know what
we are. Pipe down, weirdo.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Listen, say whatever you want about Los Angeles. Look, first
of all, you sound like a jackass.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Ha, ha, ha. Like, can you just not start? Like,
I have anxiety. I have to travel. Could you just
not start the show? Like, it sucks. Okay? Like, I'm
already having a, like, come on, dude. Jesus. Pipe down, weirdo.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
First of all, what I don't need is Seth Davis,
these people who come to Los Angeles who never leave, like,
one little suburban enclave. who know nothing about the giant
sprawl of the city or the way people are and
sit there and try to define what LA is and
who will show up for what and why. Shut up,
(02:55):
Seth Davis. But you're right. It is embarrassing. There will
be more people at the Apple Cup, of course. And
USC is supposed to be, as Lincoln Riley described yesterday,
a blue blood program. I know that things are different
as far as college football on TV and competition in
town with the NFL. But USC football, for the amount
(03:19):
of people in this town, should be a draw. And
I think it has to do with Lincoln Riley. I
think it has to do with Lincoln Riley's inability to
excite the city or reach out to the fan base
or alums or really do anything that makes him uncomfortable. Hell,
they had to hire a GM just to drag him
(03:40):
out to meet people at the local high schools.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Right. So....
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I think what happened with USC on Saturday against San
Jose State is a product of a few things, but
I think most of it is an indictment on a
program that has had a lot of expectation for a
long time and underachieved.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
All right, well, first of all, I'm sorry that you're
having anxiety. All right, well, don't be a d * * *.
I'm not being a d * * *. I'm trying
to empathize with you. What do you mean? That's you.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I know that you suffer from anxiety. I know it's
a real deal for you. I know how much you
hate travel. I know how much you hate people, and
I'm trying to be a little bit sympathetic to you. Fine.
I mean, fine.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
God, F off, man. Holy crap. For all the crap
that you give me.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
About my social media takes and Twitter behavior, I can't
throw it back at you just a little bit?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Huh? Come on, man. I didn't do anything.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I thought that that crowd over the weekend was embarrassing,
but it wasn't surprising. I mean, wasn't this the game
that they scheduled to replace like Notre Dame or something?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
I suppose. And there's nobody there.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Or Fresno. I mean, they were supposed to play Ole Miss.
They were supposed to play Texas Tech in a few weeks,
and Lincoln Riley doesn't want to play any of that.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And I think Lincoln Riley closes practice. He does nothing
with the media. This time, a few years ago, we
had a bunch of different.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Issues. Remember when he was trying to ban that media member? Right,
the kid. Yeah, the kid.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, it never ended. Like, this has been, this is
not a good fit. And it's not just Lincoln Riley.
I think it has something to do with the leadership
at USC, top to bottom. Presidential and the AD and Lincoln.
First of all, they're not on the same page and
they haven't been on the same page in years. And
that has caused problems for the university way beyond Lincoln Riley.
(05:36):
And I think that they haven't done enough to sell
the program in a time where there's more competition in town.
I played in the hottest game in the recorded history
of the Coliseum.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
And that was.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
1998 against Purdue and Drew Brees' first start. We didn't
know who he was and he came out looking like
freaking Drew Brees, and it was shocking. And we had
a bunch of cheerleaders and freaking band members on IVs
at halftime and all that, and.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
There were 85,000, 90,000 people there.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
2009, Matt Barkley's freshman year when he was a starter,
Pete Carroll's last year before he went to Seattle. They
played San Jose State in the opener. There was 80,000,
85,000 people there. They played Western Michigan a few years
back on a very hot day, and there was a
(06:30):
whole bunch of people there. USC's raised the prices. I
think it's a big problem that they have down at
San Diego State, too. They've made it too expensive. They've
raised the prices. They've made the tailgate situation super expensive
and very, very limited. It's just not as desirable as
it used to be. And I think that they have
to look at themselves and say, what are we? And, okay,
(06:51):
I think it's great that you beat San Jose State.
You petered out in the third quarter like you always did.
I don't care who you played.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And then San Jose ends up having a great second
half and being able to celebrate their quarterback on social
media and all that and feeling positive about the trip.
And at the end of the day, USC beating San
Jose State by 16 points if you're trying to get
into the college football playoff later in the year. I
don't think that helps as much as playing Notre Dame
(07:19):
week one. So all of it is just very, it's
all very, it's pretty standard operating stuff for our talks.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
About USC over the years, Softee. Okay. All right.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
But will there be more people at the Wofford-Kent State game?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Than there was at the USC. Is it at Kent State? Yes,
it's at Kent State. How many does it hold?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I have no idea. I got no idea, man. I
didn't realize this was such a sore spot for you.
I thought you were the guy leading the charge.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
No, no, it's not. I'm not in a bad mood.
USC has to change that.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
No, no, I'm just in a bad mood. USC, look,
I don't know. Fresno's going to be a tougher, more
physical opponent.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And it's going to be a Friday night. They're playing
tomorrow night or the weekday after tomorrow. And it's, are
you giggling?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
A little.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Why? Can I not laugh? No, you can laugh all
you want.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I'm sorry. I feel like Forrest Gump. You know, it's
a Labor Day weekend, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
What was the name of the game?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Friday, Labor Day weekend, Los Angeles traffic, Friday night, the Coliseum.
I don't know how many people are going to be there, Softie.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
What was the name of the character that Tom Hanks
played in Castaway? The guy that was on. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Hey, remember all the crap you gave us for the
George Springer thing? You wouldn't let up. Remember all that?
Remember how mad I got at you on the air?
This is just kind of giving you back a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It's just nothing like that. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, how'd they look, though? Because we're going to see
you guys in week five. Hopefully you'll be doing the
national radio call. Is that done, by the way? Yes,
that is done.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Great. Great.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So we'll see you then. But we're coming down there.
You guys got the Ducks before you play UW. How
did Jaden Maiva look? You talked about him petering out
in the second half, which a lot of teams do that.
Lay off the gas. I don't know if that's what
Lincoln did. He looked okay. He missed a couple reads.
San Jose's a lot better than they were last year,
I think. And they weren't that bad last year, but
(09:19):
they had some hard luck losses. But they're a way
spread out team. Sometimes it's hard to gauge because San
Jose State's style, they have the big splits on the lines.
And they have everything as a run read or a
RPO type of read with the offense. Half of their
runs come off of a double read. So it's not
(09:43):
the traditional offense that you would play in college football
week in and week out. They played a lot of
young people. And they have this big DN, Wayfull, who's
supposed to be a big star. And Bowman, who's a
big star, and then Mosley, the receiver, who's a big star,
and they're all freshmen, and that's great, but... I mean,
(10:04):
when you have a bunch of freshmen and they're playing
and you're touting up your freshman class, to me it
just sounds like you're going to lose five games and
you're going to sit there and tell everybody, you can't
fire us.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Look at this class that we have. Look at our
freshman class.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, well, UW's playing a lot of guys against the Cougs.
They got three guys starting on the line of scrimmage
as 18-year-olds. Two defensive linemen and then one kid named
Cody Green who spent a couple years at Matter Day.
and then came back to Seattle. He's going to start
at left tackle against the Cougs on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
But I don't know. There's a lot of folks up here.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Petros think the Apple Cup might be going away after
the next couple years.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, you said that last time. I think that's sad.
I think they should play the Apple Cup.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
And I think who knows.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
We never know what kind of shape Washington State football
is going to be in. And last year, Washington State
football was not a helpless team. And the year before,
they were a really good team with a very, very
special quarterback. So I don't know why anybody would say that.
I don't know why that would be a topic. I
don't think it's an unwinnable game year in and year out.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Cougar fans don't care. They don't care. They don't want
to play the game anymore.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Did you hear about the latest controversy with the Cougar
marching band, by the way?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So they're pissed off that the Huskies are not giving
them good enough free seats for the game.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
So they're not coming to the game Sunday. What do
you mean?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Well, you don't want to tuck. I mean, it's the
Apple Cup. You don't want to tuck the band up
into the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I mean, they should be featured. They stick the opposing
band in the upper deck in the corner, like Oregon.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
That's where they go. Is that what you guys do
to them? Or is that what they do to you
when you guys.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Are in Pullman?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, they play in a high school stadium, so they
don't have really an upper deck to stick us. Yeah,
but do they put you up higher? All right, you're
going to be like this about it.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
You're going to be insubordinate. It's the truth. Their stadium's
half the size. What do you want from me? I
don't want anything.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
You know, I want the Apple Cup to continue. I
think you're being very difficult. I don't think you're representing
the argument in.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
The way that it's supposed to be represented. What argument?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
The ban goes up in the upper deck. I think
that Patrick Chung, or what's the name of your... Pat Chun,
your AD, should do a better job of accommodating the
Cougar band.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
No! Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Well, they can sell those tickets for a lot of money.
That's what the Big Ten's doing now. I think they're
all sticking their bands up in the upper deck now.
That's what everybody does.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Well, okay, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You can Big Ten yourself to death, but this is
the Apple Cup, and it's not really a Big Ten thing.
It's a Washington, Washington State thing. Even though you guys
have a Big Ten logo on the jersey. So you're
taking the side of the Cougs. You're taking the side
of the Cougs on this one. In this regard, I am.
But in the regard that Cougar fans don't want to
play the Apple Cup anymore, I'm taking the side of
the dogs.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Well, I'm not sure if the dogs want to play
it either.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
To show my impartiality. I'm sure the dogs want to
play it. I'm not sure about that. We're going to
talk to Pat Chun on Friday. We'll get his thoughts
on all that on Friday's show. But, I don't know,
Petro's with us. You're heading to Michigan this weekend. Where
are you going this weekend? What game do you have?
This weekend, I have Michigan State hosting Toledo, which will
be interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Pat Fitzgerald's debut. Former Northwestern coach, right.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, and he's a very celebrated coach, especially in the
Big Ten. So that'll be cool. And then I'm coming home, actually,
to do the second one. So I'm going to do
the second one remotely on Saturday night. Maybe the only
one I do remotely all year. And that will be Albuquerque,
New Mexico's team with Jason Eck hosting Central Michigan.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well, he's a hot name. Jason Eck is a great coach.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And I was really impressed with him last year from
what he had done with the Idaho football team. And
he did the same model as Signetti in many ways
with the Indiana. And then Bob Chesney, same school with
UCLA from JMU. And then this guy at Toledo, who's
playing Friday night, Mike Jacobs is the Mercer coach. And
(14:18):
half their players are from.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Mercer that they brought.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
They had a lot of success in Georgia, the Mercer team,
at a lower level. So, I mean, it's just a
big formula. But Jason Eck was the guy who did
that with Idaho. and brought his son, who's the Mike
linebacker and a big star and the captain of the team,
and he's a really likable guy. And you meet him
and you like him and you want to be part
of his team, you know, it feels like when you
(14:43):
get around him. They have never had anything like that
at New Mexico. And Bronco did a pretty good job
there a couple years with that quarterback, Zampier, or Dampier,
and I think that obviously Erlacher and all that, but
this is... This guy's a special coach. I'm not sure
how long he'll be there, but we have them on
Saturday night. Well, Friday night, Toledo, Michigan State from East
(15:05):
Lansing on FS1 at 5. You can check out Petros
on TV. Why did UCLA fire their AD so close
to the start of the football season?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I think they fired their AD like a year ago.
They just didn't know it?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, he didn't know he was fired, and he was
still collecting a check, but At UCLA, it takes a
really long time to get anything done.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Get the word to somebody that they've been terminated.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, ask your old friend Jim Mora about it. I mean,
that was one of the things that frustrated Jim Mora
for a long time, that if he wanted to fire
a coach or hire a coach, it took him, you know, two, three,
four times as long through the UC system. And all
the different approval you have to get, all the signatures
you have to go through, all the bureaucracy of, of
(15:54):
California education and what is called the UC system. So
I think that probably had something to do with it.
This guy's been operating at a pretty heavy debt. And
beyond that, and they can blame that, no one's going
to say anything because the debt's been embarrassing. And they
were in debt before they started playing players. UCLA's in
debt because they have like a cat juggling team. They
(16:17):
have a team for everything ever in the history of sports.
But I think that he got fired because whatever you
feel about Chip Kelly, you can't say that Jarman didn't
screw up the Chip Kelly situation. And then letting him
go and hiring Deshaun Foster like that was going to
be okay, nobody, no AD was going to survive that.
(16:41):
So that's what happened. It just takes a long time
to get the word. It's like the Pony Express, like
you said, at UCLA. You didn't know the Civil War
ended until like three months after.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
It was over. Right. We landed on the moon. By
the way, did you see this story?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
There's a book out about Lane Kiffin, some guy named
John Talty, I think is his name, and Vanity Fair
ran an excerpt from it today where there's a quote
from Nick Saban when they were at Alabama together, and
Saban said, according to one former coach, you've got to
keep Lane away from the girls that are in college.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Just keep them away from the sorority girls.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Make sure they've graduated college or are working a job,
said Nick Saban. Does that surprise you he would say
that about your old buddy Lane Kiffin?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
No. God, he is just, you know what?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
What?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
What do you want me to say about it? No,
you were going to ask a question. That he's a clown?
Is that what you want me to say?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
No.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Well, is he? Well, it seems so. According to Nick Saban.
I did not think he could get any greasier, man.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I mean, there are as many stories about Lane Kiffin
than there are about Errol Flynn.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
You know, like, it's, you know. Let's just say Mike
Price is not even close. Really? Yes. It's that bad?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Wow well yeah you know and the thing that really
bothers me the most about it is he's like into
hot yoga and it's like I do hot yoga you
know what I mean and it's like I'm a hot
yoga bad name right yes it totally is like I'm
not in there to be all creepy and look at
everybody's ass or anything but I mean I don't know
if he is either but that's not the first time
I've heard that about Lane Kiffin it's not the first
(18:32):
thing I've I've I've it's not the first vibe I've
gotten and I'm sure it won't be the last well
did that book just come out Yeah, apparently, yeah. It's
like an expose book about Lane Kiven. You should talk
about it on your show today.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Maybe I will. That's an idea.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
All right.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Hey, text me when you land in East Lansing so
I know you're safe. Will you?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Why?
Speaker 3 (18:57):
What's the matter? I just want to check on you, man.
I know it's a hard thing to do to travel sometimes.
It'll be early in the morning for me. That's fine.
Shoot me a text. It's the red eye, which really
also upsets me. Oh, that sucks.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And then I land and I can't go to sleep.
I have to go straight to the meetings. And, like,
whenever I do the meetings after the red-eye, like, the
coaches are always like, what's wrong with that guy?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
It's like, dude, I'll tell you what's wrong with me.
I get it, man. I get it.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
All right, have fun out there as much as you can,
and we'll talk in the Applecast. Well, I'm supposed to
do this thing called Petros' Postcards and, like, take pictures
of myself wherever I go, and it's like, I'm miserable.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Anyway, sorry for yelling at you. That's okay. That's okay.
It was embarrassing for USC. All right. Well, I'm glad
that you admitted that. We'll wrap it with that.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I mean, when Tosh Lupoi and the guy in Lubbock,
Joey McGuire, like when Cal is making fun of you
about attendance.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
That's bad. That's bad. All right. We'll talk in a week.
We've got to run.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
See you, man. Petros Papadakis with us. We're going to
break Larry Stone at 5, talking Mavis and more. Courtesy
of the Ram on 93.3 KJRFM. All the things you
say to me on Twitter, all the things you do,
It's time for our weekly conversation with college football analyst
Petros Papadakis.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Not that I'm a smart guy, I'm stupid.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Brought to you by Sweet James Accident Attorneys.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
41 yards. If you're hurt in an accident.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Call Sweet James right away at 800-500-5200. Sweet James will
be sweet to you, but tough on insurance companies that
will bully you. Baruch atah Adonai, baruch atah u'shalom. And
now with Petros, here's Dave Softy Muller.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Losers.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
All right, boys and girls, here we go on a
busy Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Apple Cup week, baby.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, right here on 93.3 KJRFM.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
And I cannot think of.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
A better way to celebrate this great week of college
football rivalry action. And by spending a few minutes with
one of the premier sports talk radio hosts this country
has to offer, beloved Southern California, and I mean beloved
Southern California media figure, one half of the Petros and
Money Show, one damn fine Greek-American, former USC football star,
(01:08):
father of the year, husband of the day, and my friend.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Petros Papadakis. Brought to you by... Sweet James, the dead
spirit of justice.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Somebody that can come through for you if you've ever
been in a motorcycle accident or a car accident or
maybe bit by a dog.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Sweet James and his.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Wonderful attorneys will come through for you. Give them a
call at 809-800-900-000. Don't trust that insurance company. Trust Sweet
James at 809- or sweetjames.com. Well, we're all getting ready
for the Apple Cup on Sunday. I just have one
question for you. Will there be more people at Husky
(01:51):
Stadium Sunday than we saw at the USC-San Jose State game?
I saw you on Twitter. I saw you on X
going after Seth Davis.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You don't know who we are. You don't know what
we are. Pipe down, weirdo.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Listen, say whatever you want about Los Angeles. Look, first
of all, you sound like a jackass.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Ha, ha, ha. Like, can you just not start? Like,
I have anxiety. I have to travel. Could you just
not start the show? Like, it sucks. Okay? Like, I'm
already having a, like, come on, dude. Jesus. Pipe down, weirdo.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
First of all, what I don't need is Seth Davis,
these people who come to Los Angeles who never leave, like,
one little suburban enclave. who know nothing about the giant
sprawl of the city or the way people are and
sit there and try to define what LA is and
who will show up for what and why. Shut up,
(02:55):
Seth Davis. But you're right. It is embarrassing. There will
be more people at the Apple Cup, of course. And
USC is supposed to be, as Lincoln Riley described yesterday,
a blue blood program. I know that things are different
as far as college football on TV and competition in
town with the NFL. But USC football, for the amount
(03:19):
of people in this town, should be a draw. And
I think it has to do with Lincoln Riley. I
think it has to do with Lincoln Riley's inability to
excite the city or reach out to the fan base
or alums or really do anything that makes him uncomfortable. Hell,
they had to hire a GM just to drag him
(03:40):
out to meet people at the local high schools.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Right. So....
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I think what happened with USC on Saturday against San
Jose State is a product of a few things, but
I think most of it is an indictment on a
program that has had a lot of expectation for a
long time and underachieved.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
All right, well, first of all, I'm sorry that you're
having anxiety. All right, well, don't be a d * * *.
I'm not being a d * * *. I'm trying
to empathize with you. What do you mean? That's you.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I know that you suffer from anxiety. I know it's
a real deal for you. I know how much you
hate travel. I know how much you hate people, and
I'm trying to be a little bit sympathetic to you. Fine.
I mean, fine.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
God, F off, man. Holy crap. For all the crap
that you give me.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
About my social media takes and Twitter behavior, I can't
throw it back at you just a little bit?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Huh? Come on, man. I didn't do anything.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I thought that that crowd over the weekend was embarrassing,
but it wasn't surprising. I mean, wasn't this the game
that they scheduled to replace like Notre Dame or something?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
I suppose. And there's nobody there.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Or Fresno. I mean, they were supposed to play Ole Miss.
They were supposed to play Texas Tech in a few weeks,
and Lincoln Riley doesn't want to play any of that.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And I think Lincoln Riley closes practice. He does nothing
with the media. This time, a few years ago, we
had a bunch of different.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Issues. Remember when he was trying to ban that media member? Right,
the kid. Yeah, the kid.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, it never ended. Like, this has been, this is
not a good fit. And it's not just Lincoln Riley.
I think it has something to do with the leadership
at USC, top to bottom. Presidential and the AD and Lincoln.
First of all, they're not on the same page and
they haven't been on the same page in years. And
that has caused problems for the university way beyond Lincoln Riley.
(05:36):
And I think that they haven't done enough to sell
the program in a time where there's more competition in town.
I played in the hottest game in the recorded history
of the Coliseum.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
And that was.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
1998 against Purdue and Drew Brees' first start. We didn't
know who he was and he came out looking like
freaking Drew Brees, and it was shocking. And we had
a bunch of cheerleaders and freaking band members on IVs
at halftime and all that, and.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
There were 85,000, 90,000 people there.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
2009, Matt Barkley's freshman year when he was a starter,
Pete Carroll's last year before he went to Seattle. They
played San Jose State in the opener. There was 80,000,
85,000 people there. They played Western Michigan a few years
back on a very hot day, and there was a
(06:30):
whole bunch of people there. USC's raised the prices. I
think it's a big problem that they have down at
San Diego State, too. They've made it too expensive. They've
raised the prices. They've made the tailgate situation super expensive
and very, very limited. It's just not as desirable as
it used to be. And I think that they have
to look at themselves and say, what are we? And, okay,
(06:51):
I think it's great that you beat San Jose State.
You petered out in the third quarter like you always did.
I don't care who you played.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And then San Jose ends up having a great second
half and being able to celebrate their quarterback on social
media and all that and feeling positive about the trip.
And at the end of the day, USC beating San
Jose State by 16 points if you're trying to get
into the college football playoff later in the year. I
don't think that helps as much as playing Notre Dame
(07:19):
week one. So all of it is just very, it's
all very, it's pretty standard operating stuff for our talks.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
About USC over the years, Softee. Okay. All right.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
But will there be more people at the Wofford-Kent State game?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Than there was at the USC. Is it at Kent State? Yes,
it's at Kent State. How many does it hold?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I have no idea. I got no idea, man. I
didn't realize this was such a sore spot for you.
I thought you were the guy leading the charge.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
No, no, it's not. I'm not in a bad mood.
USC has to change that.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
No, no, I'm just in a bad mood. USC, look,
I don't know. Fresno's going to be a tougher, more
physical opponent.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And it's going to be a Friday night. They're playing
tomorrow night or the weekday after tomorrow. And it's, are
you giggling?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
A little.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Why? Can I not laugh? No, you can laugh all
you want.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I'm sorry. I feel like Forrest Gump. You know, it's
a Labor Day weekend, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
What was the name of the game?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Friday, Labor Day weekend, Los Angeles traffic, Friday night, the Coliseum.
I don't know how many people are going to be there, Softie.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
What was the name of the character that Tom Hanks
played in Castaway? The guy that was on. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Hey, remember all the crap you gave us for the
George Springer thing? You wouldn't let up. Remember all that?
Remember how mad I got at you on the air?
This is just kind of giving you back a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It's just nothing like that. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, how'd they look, though? Because we're going to see
you guys in week five. Hopefully you'll be doing the
national radio call. Is that done, by the way? Yes,
that is done.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Great. Great.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So we'll see you then. But we're coming down there.
You guys got the Ducks before you play UW. How
did Jaden Maiva look? You talked about him petering out
in the second half, which a lot of teams do that.
Lay off the gas. I don't know if that's what
Lincoln did. He looked okay. He missed a couple reads.
San Jose's a lot better than they were last year,
I think. And they weren't that bad last year, but
(09:19):
they had some hard luck losses. But they're a way
spread out team. Sometimes it's hard to gauge because San
Jose State's style, they have the big splits on the lines.
And they have everything as a run read or a
RPO type of read with the offense. Half of their
runs come off of a double read. So it's not
(09:43):
the traditional offense that you would play in college football
week in and week out. They played a lot of
young people. And they have this big DN, Wayfull, who's
supposed to be a big star. And Bowman, who's a
big star, and then Mosley, the receiver, who's a big star,
and they're all freshmen, and that's great, but... I mean,
(10:04):
when you have a bunch of freshmen and they're playing
and you're touting up your freshman class, to me it
just sounds like you're going to lose five games and
you're going to sit there and tell everybody, you can't
fire us.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Look at this class that we have. Look at our
freshman class.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, well, UW's playing a lot of guys against the Cougs.
They got three guys starting on the line of scrimmage
as 18-year-olds. Two defensive linemen and then one kid named
Cody Green who spent a couple years at Matter Day.
and then came back to Seattle. He's going to start
at left tackle against the Cougs on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
But I don't know. There's a lot of folks up here.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Petros think the Apple Cup might be going away after
the next couple years.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, you said that last time. I think that's sad.
I think they should play the Apple Cup.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
And I think who knows.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
We never know what kind of shape Washington State football
is going to be in. And last year, Washington State
football was not a helpless team. And the year before,
they were a really good team with a very, very
special quarterback. So I don't know why anybody would say that.
I don't know why that would be a topic. I
don't think it's an unwinnable game year in and year out.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Cougar fans don't care. They don't care. They don't want
to play the game anymore.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Did you hear about the latest controversy with the Cougar
marching band, by the way?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So they're pissed off that the Huskies are not giving
them good enough free seats for the game.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
So they're not coming to the game Sunday. What do
you mean?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Well, you don't want to tuck. I mean, it's the
Apple Cup. You don't want to tuck the band up
into the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I mean, they should be featured. They stick the opposing
band in the upper deck in the corner, like Oregon.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
That's where they go. Is that what you guys do
to them? Or is that what they do to you
when you guys.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Are in Pullman?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, they play in a high school stadium, so they
don't have really an upper deck to stick us. Yeah,
but do they put you up higher? All right, you're
going to be like this about it.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
You're going to be insubordinate. It's the truth. Their stadium's
half the size. What do you want from me? I
don't want anything.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
You know, I want the Apple Cup to continue. I
think you're being very difficult. I don't think you're representing
the argument in.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
The way that it's supposed to be represented. What argument?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
The ban goes up in the upper deck. I think
that Patrick Chung, or what's the name of your... Pat Chun,
your AD, should do a better job of accommodating the
Cougar band.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
No! Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Well, they can sell those tickets for a lot of money.
That's what the Big Ten's doing now. I think they're
all sticking their bands up in the upper deck now.
That's what everybody does.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Well, okay, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You can Big Ten yourself to death, but this is
the Apple Cup, and it's not really a Big Ten thing.
It's a Washington, Washington State thing. Even though you guys
have a Big Ten logo on the jersey. So you're
taking the side of the Cougs. You're taking the side
of the Cougs on this one. In this regard, I am.
But in the regard that Cougar fans don't want to
play the Apple Cup anymore, I'm taking the side of
the dogs.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Well, I'm not sure if the dogs want to play
it either.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
To show my impartiality. I'm sure the dogs want to
play it. I'm not sure about that. We're going to
talk to Pat Chun on Friday. We'll get his thoughts
on all that on Friday's show. But, I don't know,
Petro's with us. You're heading to Michigan this weekend. Where
are you going this weekend? What game do you have?
This weekend, I have Michigan State hosting Toledo, which will
be interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Pat Fitzgerald's debut. Former Northwestern coach, right.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, and he's a very celebrated coach, especially in the
Big Ten. So that'll be cool. And then I'm coming home, actually,
to do the second one. So I'm going to do
the second one remotely on Saturday night. Maybe the only
one I do remotely all year. And that will be Albuquerque,
New Mexico's team with Jason Eck hosting Central Michigan.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well, he's a hot name. Jason Eck is a great coach.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And I was really impressed with him last year from
what he had done with the Idaho football team. And
he did the same model as Signetti in many ways
with the Indiana. And then Bob Chesney, same school with
UCLA from JMU. And then this guy at Toledo, who's
playing Friday night, Mike Jacobs is the Mercer coach. And
(14:18):
half their players are from.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Mercer that they brought.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
They had a lot of success in Georgia, the Mercer team,
at a lower level. So, I mean, it's just a
big formula. But Jason Eck was the guy who did
that with Idaho. and brought his son, who's the Mike
linebacker and a big star and the captain of the team,
and he's a really likable guy. And you meet him
and you like him and you want to be part
of his team, you know, it feels like when you
(14:43):
get around him. They have never had anything like that
at New Mexico. And Bronco did a pretty good job
there a couple years with that quarterback, Zampier, or Dampier,
and I think that obviously Erlacher and all that, but
this is... This guy's a special coach. I'm not sure
how long he'll be there, but we have them on
Saturday night. Well, Friday night, Toledo, Michigan State from East
(15:05):
Lansing on FS1 at 5. You can check out Petros
on TV. Why did UCLA fire their AD so close
to the start of the football season?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I think they fired their AD like a year ago.
They just didn't know it?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, he didn't know he was fired, and he was
still collecting a check, but At UCLA, it takes a
really long time to get anything done.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Get the word to somebody that they've been terminated.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, ask your old friend Jim Mora about it. I mean,
that was one of the things that frustrated Jim Mora
for a long time, that if he wanted to fire
a coach or hire a coach, it took him, you know, two, three,
four times as long through the UC system. And all
the different approval you have to get, all the signatures
you have to go through, all the bureaucracy of, of
(15:54):
California education and what is called the UC system. So
I think that probably had something to do with it.
This guy's been operating at a pretty heavy debt. And
beyond that, and they can blame that, no one's going
to say anything because the debt's been embarrassing. And they
were in debt before they started playing players. UCLA's in
debt because they have like a cat juggling team. They
(16:17):
have a team for everything ever in the history of sports.
But I think that he got fired because whatever you
feel about Chip Kelly, you can't say that Jarman didn't
screw up the Chip Kelly situation. And then letting him
go and hiring Deshaun Foster like that was going to
be okay, nobody, no AD was going to survive that.
(16:41):
So that's what happened. It just takes a long time
to get the word. It's like the Pony Express, like
you said, at UCLA. You didn't know the Civil War
ended until like three months after.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
It was over. Right. We landed on the moon. By
the way, did you see this story?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
There's a book out about Lane Kiffin, some guy named
John Talty, I think is his name, and Vanity Fair
ran an excerpt from it today where there's a quote
from Nick Saban when they were at Alabama together, and
Saban said, according to one former coach, you've got to
keep Lane away from the girls that are in college.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Just keep them away from the sorority girls.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Make sure they've graduated college or are working a job,
said Nick Saban. Does that surprise you he would say
that about your old buddy Lane Kiffin?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
No. God, he is just, you know what?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
What?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
What do you want me to say about it? No,
you were going to ask a question. That he's a clown?
Is that what you want me to say?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
No.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Well, is he? Well, it seems so. According to Nick Saban.
I did not think he could get any greasier, man.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I mean, there are as many stories about Lane Kiffin
than there are about Errol Flynn.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
You know, like, it's, you know. Let's just say Mike
Price is not even close. Really? Yes. It's that bad?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Wow well yeah you know and the thing that really
bothers me the most about it is he's like into
hot yoga and it's like I do hot yoga you
know what I mean and it's like I'm a hot
yoga bad name right yes it totally is like I'm
not in there to be all creepy and look at
everybody's ass or anything but I mean I don't know
if he is either but that's not the first time
I've heard that about Lane Kiffin it's not the first
(18:32):
thing I've I've I've it's not the first vibe I've
gotten and I'm sure it won't be the last well
did that book just come out Yeah, apparently, yeah. It's
like an expose book about Lane Kiven. You should talk
about it on your show today.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Maybe I will. That's an idea.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
All right.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Hey, text me when you land in East Lansing so
I know you're safe. Will you?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Why?
Speaker 3 (18:57):
What's the matter? I just want to check on you, man.
I know it's a hard thing to do to travel sometimes.
It'll be early in the morning for me. That's fine.
Shoot me a text. It's the red eye, which really
also upsets me. Oh, that sucks.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And then I land and I can't go to sleep.
I have to go straight to the meetings. And, like,
whenever I do the meetings after the red-eye, like, the
coaches are always like, what's wrong with that guy?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
It's like, dude, I'll tell you what's wrong with me.
I get it, man. I get it.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
All right, have fun out there as much as you can,
and we'll talk in the Applecast. Well, I'm supposed to
do this thing called Petros' Postcards and, like, take pictures
of myself wherever I go, and it's like, I'm miserable.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Anyway, sorry for yelling at you. That's okay. That's okay.
It was embarrassing for USC. All right. Well, I'm glad
that you admitted that. We'll wrap it with that.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I mean, when Tosh Lupoi and the guy in Lubbock,
Joey McGuire, like when Cal is making fun of you
about attendance.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
That's bad. That's bad. All right. We'll talk in a week.
We've got to run.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
See you, man. Petros Papadakis with us. We're going to
break Larry Stone at 5, talking Mavis and more. Courtesy
of the Ram on 93.3 KJRFM. All the things you
say to me on Twitter, all the things you do,
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