Sports Talk 12/26/25

Mo is in for Lance. He names his top Cincinnati Sports Story of 2025. Mo says the late season improvement of the Bengals doesn't let Duke Tobin off the hook. And more Bengals talk with The Athletic's Paul Dehner Jr.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
The following takes place between six pm and seven pm.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
You want answers. I think I'm entitled.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
You answer the truth.

Speaker 4 (00:12):
You can't handle the truth. Truth anight and tonight you're
not gonna get Lance. McAllister. Good evening. Hope your Christmas
is going well. Merry Christmas.

Speaker 5 (00:21):
Although a little bit late on moegar in for Lance,
Lance is back on Monday night for Bengals line.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
This is RNL Carrier Sports Talk.

Speaker 5 (00:28):
Presented by Kelsey Chevrolet on seven hundred wl W.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
Hope your weekend.

Speaker 5 (00:33):
Hopefully your weekend started like on Monday or Tuesday. Nonetheless
is a Friday night. Hopefully your weekend is off to
an awesome start. Let's begin with a Bengals update. The
Bengals are getting set to play their second to last
game of the season against the Arizona Cardinals at home.
That game at one o'clock on seven hundred wl W.
Zach Taylor today ruled Joseph Osai and Charlie Jones out

(00:55):
for that game.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
I'm not sure either.

Speaker 5 (00:57):
As a surprise, Noah fan officially listed at questionable, was
a full go at practice today. Sunday's pregame coverage from
the Holy Grail begins at nine o'clock. College football news,
the University of Michigan is set to agree to a
five year contract with former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham
to replace Sharon Moore. Whittingham just wrapped up a long,

(01:19):
lengthy and successful run as coach of the Utes. When
he stepped down, he said he's not retiring, just needed
a change. That change will occur in ann Arbor. Ohio
University has announced that John Hauser has been elevated from
defensive coordinator to head coach. He was the interim coach
for Ohio's bowl game victory over UNLV on Tuesday, after
being elevated to the interim role following the ouster of

(01:41):
Brian Smith, who was fired a week ago yesterday following
allegations of quote serious professional misconduct that included claims he
had a romantic relationship with a student and an allegation
of public intoxication. College bowl games there are three of
them on this Friday. One of them took place earlier
today the game alone Sports Bowl Northwestern knocked off Central

(02:04):
Michigan by a score of thirty four to seven. The
Rate Bowl is happening right now in Arizona, New Mexico
Leeds Minnesota six nothing. Florida International takes on Utsa later
tonight in the First Responder Bowl. The Miami RedHawks are
playing Fresno tomorrow in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Best
of luxA Chuck Martin's team. You might have heard this

(02:25):
in the six o'clock news with Matt Reeese. If you
have tickets for tonight's Cincinnati Cyclones game, I've got bad news.
Not gonna be a game tonight. The ECHL players are
on strike, so no game tonight's The two sides have
been negotiating publicly now for about a week or so.
If you have tickets, you'll get a refund. You can
go to Cyclones Hockey dot com. But no hockey tonight.

(02:47):
Cincinnati was supposed to play the Kalamazoo k Wings at
the Heritage Bank Center. That ain't happening tonight, So if
you have tickets, got to go find something else to do.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
There you go.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
There are your sports headlines on an otherwise quiet Friday
after Christmas. We do have a lot of ground to
cover between now and nine o'clock when Sterling comes your way.
We've got the Bengals in the game on Sunday, which
doesn't matter all that much. In fact, it really doesn't
matter at all, except except it can help solidify something
that I think is very important. And we're gonna get

(03:19):
to this coming up in the seven o'clock hour, because
there is something very important about this team that we
have to keep in mind as we wonder how the
off season is gonna unfold, and Sunday can maybe help
solidify what I'm gonna talk about in the seven o'clock hour.
That is a very long winded tease, but we'll get
to that a little bit later on. We've got some

(03:39):
college basketball to get to as well. It is remarkable
that if you're a UC basketball fan, we are where
we are with this program five years into the West
Miller era. We'll spend some time on that. Do some
college football coming up in just a bit. One thing
that I think is interesting, and I just mentioned that
Michigan said to hire a new head coach, and I
think he would be the proverbial adult in the room

(04:00):
for a program in Ann Arbor that feels like.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
He needed it.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
It's interesting the reaction from fans of Ohio State in
the immediate aftermath of what went down with Sharon More
and you can to a degree understand their glee and
joy at watching that program and Ann Arbor just get
dragged through the mud, but be careful what you wish for.
I'll get to that a little bit later on. We
did recorded this show on Tuesday, and if you needed

(04:28):
something to listen to yesterday, maybe you heard it the
year end review show that we do sports talk Year
in Review show with Lance myself, Tony Pike, and Austin Elmore,
and we spent two hours reviewing twenty twenty five in
Cincinnati sports and then along with that a little bit
of a look ahead to twenty twenty six. If you
missed it, you can go listen to it right now

(04:49):
if you want, on the iHeartRadio app, or maybe make
some plans this weekend to listen to it on the
iHeartRadio app. We kind of divided the show into separate categories,
you know, just sort of an overall look at the
high points in Cincinnati sports in twenty twenty five, some
of the low points in Cincinnati sports in twenty twenty five,
and then kind of went through the year that was

(05:10):
with all the major entities in town, and in the region.
We didn't do stuff like Cincinnati Sports Story of the Year.
We didn't do Cincinnati Sports Person of the Year. Lance
does those things. I think this year's Sports Story of
the Year was pretty obvious and it leads us to
and what I think is going to be the sports
story of the next two months. We'll get to that

(05:32):
after Traffic and Weather Together, which is coming up right
now on seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
Today night.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
This is RNL Carrier's Sports Talk. We are presented by
Kelsey Chevroleigh. Lance McAllister is off this evening. Moegor My
show is typically heard on ESPN fifteen thirty from three
to six weekday afternoons. It invites you to check it out,
and that includes the Tony and Mo Football Show, which
airs on Mondays during football season.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
We have two of them left.

Speaker 5 (06:01):
Will be a Twin Peaks in west Chester right off
Ice seventy five at the Union Center Boulevard Exa Tony
Pike Me. Hopefully you talking Bengals Cardinals, NFL Week seventeen,
the Playoff Picture, do some college football playoff stuff, and
so much more.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
We hope to see you at Twin Peaks in.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
Westchester on Monday, that show from three to six on
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
I mentioned we did the Year in Review show.

Speaker 5 (06:24):
Tony was a part of that with Lance Austin and
myself and we talked about, you know, the year that
was for the Reds, the Bengals, the area colleges, FC Cincinnati.
I think the sports story of the year in twenty
twenty five, at least with five days to go, was
the Reds made the postseason. Now, you know, it kind
of got drowned out as October went on and November

(06:47):
went on.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Joe Burrow getting hurt, obviously was a huge story.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
The Bengals failing to make the postseason for a third
consecutive year was a big story. Fans turning on the
Bengals and what felt like very nineteen nineties esque ways
was a big story. You know, what's happened with the
UC football team losing five consecutive games to end the season,
or I should say I guess four consecutive games to
end the season a year after they lost five consecutive games.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
That's a big story.

Speaker 5 (07:14):
The area college basketball teams have in and on themselves
been big stories f C Cincinnati, But I think the
story of the year is rights made the postseason.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
That's not insignificant.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
When you are a franchise that hasn't made the playoffs
in a full season in over a decade and you
get there just a couple of seasons after losing one
hundred games, it's a pretty big deal. We could we
could debate how huge of an accomplishment it was, and
they petered out very quickly once they got to the postseason.
But I think of all the stuff that happened in

(07:44):
twenty twenty five, that's the biggest story, right to get
to the postseason, to show tangible proof that, at least
to this point that their their plan, their rebuild, their build,
however you want to phrase it, is working. Is not
in significant now. It occurred during a year that was

(08:04):
often very, very frustrating. It was frustrating watching Ellie de
la Cruz not hit home runs over the final two
months of the season. It was frustrating hearing management make
excuses for Elie de la Cruz yet continuing to run
him out there. They had a lot of guys who
had some very frustrating seasons. The way that the front
office handled the trade deadline, you could argue frustrating because
their biggest weakness was offense and their big acquisition was

(08:27):
a guy who doesn't hit.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
But at the end of the day, they made it.

Speaker 5 (08:32):
After a fun, thrilling, interesting, chaotic, at times agonizing last
couple of weeks of the season, after Game one sixty two,
they were the six team left standing in the National
League and played in the postseason. That to me, was
the sports story of the year in Cincinnati. What I

(08:53):
think the story of the first few weeks of the
year is going to be is what do they do
to take this coming year's team and give it a
better chance to be better than this past year's team.
Like the story of the year in Cincinnati sports would
have been the Reds acquiring Kyle Schwarber had they been

(09:15):
able to pull that off. And I think for about
five hours on that Friday going into the weekend that
Kyle Schwarber ultimately signed, I think there's a lot of
us who kind of convinced ourselves that maybe they had
a chance. I think there's people with the Reds who
convinced themselves they had a chance to get Kyle Schwarber.
Obviously they did not, but trying to get him was

(09:38):
at least an acknowledgement that they have a big need
for a guy who could for a guy who could
hit the ball out of the ballpark. Easy for me
to say they obviously didn't get Kyle Schwarber said. The
question becomes now what and the calendar is set to
flip from twenty twenty five to twenty twenty six. The
Luise Robert rumors did not take a day off because

(09:59):
of Christmas. Been connected with the Reds Now for a while.
He has been connected with the New York Mets. He
has been connected with a handful of other teams. Luise
Robert has been the subject of trade rumors with the
Chicago White Sox for seemingly ever, certainly the last year
and a half, and when he has been brought up
in connection to a trade, one of the teams that

(10:19):
often gets that often gets brought up is the Reds
twenty seven year old outfielder who had a terrific season
in twenty twenty three. I guess the question for me,
and I can ask it to you at five point
three seven four nine, seven thousand, if the big obvious
play didn't work, which was a dude who had fifty
six home runs, last year that was going to be,

(10:41):
you know, the guy that addressed the glaring need on
this team, which was for pop protection in the middle
of the order, but more than anything, a dude who
can hit the ball out of the ballpark. If just
going after Kyle Schwarber was an acknowledgment that we need
a guy who can hit the ball out of the ballpark.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
Does Luise Robert.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
If they get him, satisfy that need coming off of
season where he hit forty six fewer homers than Kyle Schwarber.
And I guess more than anything, whether or not they
acquire Luis Robert via trade, and you would have to ask,
what is it going to cost? Will they have by

(11:20):
the time spring training gets here, and certainly by the
time opening day gets here, well, they have sufficiently addressed
what was easily the team's biggest weakness last year. They
got to the postseason largely in spite of their relatively
anemic offense. Anemic might be a little harsh, but they

(11:42):
got to the postseason largely in spite of an offense
that was league average at best in some categories and
well below league average in other categories. Can they do
enough over the next couple of months to take an
eighty three win team from last year and make it
even better or this coming season, because you know, I

(12:02):
was asked this often in the immediate aftermath of the
series against the Dodgers, when the Reds went down in
two games, pretty quietly, what was this season of success?
And in a vacuum, I think it's hard to say no, Right,
they made the postseason, had made the postseason in a
full year since twenty thirteen, which was forever ago. But
my real answer was, Oh, ask me in a year,

(12:23):
ask me in two years, ask me at the end
of the decade. Because if the twenty twenty five season
ends up being a jumping off point, if it ends
up being something that sort of, you know, is a
step along the way to things that are bigger and
better than getting to the postseason with eighty three wins
as the sixth seed and losing in two games. If

(12:44):
last year it just proves to be a step along
the way to advancing in.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
The postseason, maybe winning a World.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
Series, then yes, we'll look back on twenty twenty five
as a success. If it turns out to be the
high point of this stretch of time, If it turned
to be the high point of a rebuild that started
really after the twenty twenty season. Then, frankly, it's going
to be hard to call the twenty twenty five season
or anything else the Reds have done a success. So

(13:13):
what do you do to make next year's team better?
What do you add to a team that has good
starting pitching? Has some dudes? I think that they still
want to build around that they still believe can perform
better this coming season than last year. And can they
realistically go to spring training without any major addition from
outside that addresses a clear weakness and convince any one

(13:34):
of us they're going to be better this coming season,
Or if they successfully acquire Luise Robert offensively, can that
be the centerpiece? And can that take a team that
had an offense that was league average at best in
most categories last year and help propel the club as
a whole to something much much better than eighty three wins?

(13:54):
At Muleger on Twitter, how you can hit me up
thanks the Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building healthy, smart,
vibrant community for all good at Delta dentalh dot com.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
That is the central.

Speaker 5 (14:04):
Question facing the Reds as we get set to turn
from twenty twenty five to twenty twenty six. Different type
of question faces the Bengals. We'll get to that after
the six thirty News On seven hundred WLW twenty one
from seven o'clock, this is RNL Carrier's Sports Talk presented
by Kelsey Chevrolet on seven hundred WLW moleg or four.

(14:26):
Lance McCallister, don't forget Sunday morning. We're at the Holy Grail.
Kick off at one o'clock. Bengals and Cardinals pregame Sports
Talk starts at nine o'clock. It is an absolute blast.
This job is awesome for a thousand different reasons. Getting
a chance to be on before Bengals home games with
Ken Brew and Tony Pike is at the very top
of that list. We have an absolute blast. We'll obviously

(14:47):
have a lot to discuss as the Bengals get set
to play their second to last game of the season.
I just heard in the forecast it should be warm,
but should be rainy for the game on.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
Sunday. You know many of I wonder if.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
The Bengals win their last three games, which they should.
They crushed the Miami Dolphins, which was not a surprise,
especially once Miami bench two at Tenga Mailoa. There are
seven point favorites on Sunday, although they will have their
hands full with Arizona's tight end Trey McBride, and they're
gonna be favored at home against the Cleveland Browns Week eighteen.
We'll see who for both teams is playing in that game.

(15:24):
But the Bengals should finish with three consecutive wins to
end the year. And many have wondered, and understandably so,
is success by the team at the end of the
season going to impair judgment by people in a decision
making capacity once the offseason gets here.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
It's a fair question.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
In this franchise's history, there's a pretty well documented history
of late season results at the end of a poor
season influencing decision making. Maybe look no further than Marvin
Lewis was brought back at the end of the twenty
seventeen season when it felt like he was a goner
up until the very end, and yet on New Year's Eve,
they beat the Baltimore Ravens, knock them out of the postseason,

(16:01):
put the Bills in the playoffs. All the Bills fans
support Andy Dalton's foundation, and they bring Marvin back for
one more year, it can happen. I guess what I'm
more curious about than anything else is if we assume
that Zach is going to be brought back, and you know,
there's reasons for him to there's a lot of reasons

(16:21):
for you to think that Zach Taylor shouldn't be brought back.
But if we assume he will be back, and if
we assume that Duke Tobin's going to be back, and
as much as he has been in the public's crosshairs
more than at any point during his time as the
de facto general manager, I don't recall anybody saying, you know, what,
Duke's seed is hot. And if we believe, and I
think this is a fair assumption too, that Al Golden's

(16:43):
going to be brought back, I guess the main question
of the offseason becomes this, how do you make changes
without firings. Now that's not to say that everybody in
the coaching staff's job is safe. But if we believe,
and this is the general assumption right now, that it's
going to be status quo in the front office, status
quo with Duke, status quo with Zach status quo among

(17:06):
the main particulars on the coaching staff, how do you
make changes without firings? How do you make changes if
you're not changing out the people that are many believe
most responsible for this season gone awry. Now, the main
reason why this season spiraled out of control is Joe
Burrow missed most of it, like I would love to

(17:28):
despite all their deficiencies and they have many, despite all
of their issues on defense, despite all the games they lost,
where you know, the offense put up a bunch of
points when Joe wasn't healthy and not playing quarterback, the
games they lost when Joe Flacco did more than enough
to win. I would take my chances with this year's
team in a down year for the division and a
down year for the AFC, playing the full season with

(17:50):
number nine s QB. And I think if they do that,
they're a playoff team. I really believe that. Don't know
if i'd call them a championship team. Don't know if
i'd you know, have them winning the AFC or winning
the Super Bowl. But I think they're a playoff team.
But we can't do that. It's neither here nor there.
What we can say is that Joe Burrow spent years
kind of masking this team's issues, and many of them

(18:12):
kind of bubble to the surface once Joe Burrow was
no longer there. So how do you fix this? How
do you fix this? And how do you make changes
without firings. I don't know that any of us believe
that the Bengals will do these things, but they are
capable of being done. Like number one, you can make
changes without firing people by hiring people like you could,

(18:36):
you could, you could add And as much as the
Bengals get a lot of very fair criticism for you know,
not having the world's largest scouting department, not having a
full front office compared to a lot of NFL teams,
They've hired some some folks in the in the front office.
They've hired an analytics person. Hire more, and don't just
hire just to hire, and like, hire good qualified people,

(18:57):
have more good qualified voices in the room. You can
do that, you can and I'm gonna guess they don't
do this either. But this is this is kind of
where I would start above and beyond, you know, fixing
the defense, which is Duke Tobin's main direct of this offseason,
examine Zach Taylor's role in the offense. You know, I

(19:19):
am the first to admit that I don't know the
first thing about what goes into calling an NFL play,
and so I kind of roll my eyes when I
hear people talk about play calling. But you know, even
when the Bengals offense has been whole and everybody's been healthy,
they've gone through very long lulls. It's been something we've
talked about since twenty twenty one, right the year they

(19:40):
went to the Super Bowl. How come, in spite of
their weaponry and in spite of having a quarterback who
is among the league's best offensively, they just have a
few too many hiccups. Go back to the first game
of this season against the Cleveland Browns, which feels like
eight lifetimes ago. They won that game, but remember that day,
six year QB said, the year head coach. All the

(20:02):
offensive personnel for the most part being you know, holdovers
from last year and the year before and the year before,
and like they were still having a hard time getting
the play in. Or go back to the game almost
two weeks ago where they got shut out against Baltimore
and they're down three scores in the third quarter, and
it looked and felt like they were simply running out

(20:22):
the clock, like there was nobody in Joe's headset to go, Hey,
let's put our foot on the gas here, let's let's
go up tempo, let's play with some urgency here.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
I just I've wondered this for a.

Speaker 5 (20:32):
While that even if you, as I do, believe that
Zach has a lot of really good qualities as a
head coach, is there something about how the offense functions
that could be better? And is one of those things
Zach Taylor relinquishing play calling duties. I think something else
you could change is, you know, how they evaluate college players.

(20:54):
You know, Schamar Stewart still may end up having a
terrific NFL career, may end up really helping this team.
And I actually think there's some things to suggest that
that will happen if you go back to how he practiced.
We'll see his rookie season so far has been a wash.
But when they drafted him, you know, we all remember, God,
they drafted a guy who had one and a half

(21:15):
sacks last year, and they drafted a guy who in
his three years at Texas A and M had four
and a half sacks, and they bypassed other dudes who
maybe didn't have Shamar Stewart's measurables, but when you watched
him on film, they did more. And so is there
something to be said about prioritizing what college prospects put
on tape and maybe not prioritizing nearly as much the

(21:39):
measurables what they do at the combine what the tape
measure shows, how they look in their underwear.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
That sort of stuff you can make.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
That change, you can change in your philosophies when it
comes to roster building. And you know, frankly, when the
Bengals got good in twenty twenty one, that was a
result of the Bengals embracing more modern ways of roster building.

Speaker 6 (22:00):
Now.

Speaker 5 (22:00):
They kind of had to because they didn't have any
good players in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty. But they
used free agency, and they used it wisely, and they
overpaid some guys, but they needed to. It's not like
the Bengals have whifted in free agency every single year.
They've tried to nail it in free agency. That twenty
twenty one defense had Trey Hendrickson and Von Bell and
Mike Helton and DJ Reader and Chaudoba a Woozie, all

(22:24):
dudes acquired from other teams. Well go back to being
more aggressive in free agency. And that doesn't necessarily mean
mean paying the most. It doesn't necessarily mean, you know,
getting the first wave of guys. It doesn't necessarily mean
you know, you overpay. But it does mean you do
what they didn't do last offseason, which is take one
or two guys and then just sort of hope everybody

(22:46):
else performs better in twenty twenty five than they did
in twenty twenty four. I don't know that the Bengals
will do any of these things. I don't know if
the Bengals will do one of these things but not
the others. But like this is this is the question
of the next couple of months, before we get to
the first wave of free agency, which will be in
early March, or before we get to the draft, which
is obviously going to be in late April, are there

(23:08):
things being done behind the scenes that reflect a shift
in how they do things, whether it be adding people,
taking a good heart look at how the offense operates,
going through a shift in priorities as it relates to
evaluating college players, getting back to I mean, I cannot imagine,

(23:29):
and I know it's the Bengals, so I guess anything's possible.
I would have a hard time imagining that they look
at this year's defense and don't touch it at all.
In free agency, my guess is they're gonna add or
try to at least add NFL caliber starters at nearly
every position on that group. But that's the thing, Like

(23:51):
you know, many have said, well, it's going to be
status quo if you bring everybody back, and it may
be like Duke Tobin has exhausted a lot of trust
and goodwill, Zach Taylor has two, and that's fair. I'm
not sure I trust either right now. But if they
are gonna bring back those guys, I think Thennett's worth

(24:11):
at least asking will the same people do things differently
and the answers can be yes, like people evolved. We
see it in sports. I've used this example, like you know,
back in the day, Mike Skrzhewsky didn't want to, you know,
recruit one and Dons, and then he saw the direction
college basketball was going, saw the success other programs like

(24:32):
Kentucky were having, and decided, you know what, I'm gonna
go get one and dons and won a national title
like you can. The Bengals, even off the field, have
done some things they've never wanted to do before, stuff
that might not matter as much as winning and losing,
but they have Ring of Honor, uniform, stuff like that,
so it is possible. If it's impossible, then you might

(24:53):
as well just shut down the entire franchise. But it
better worked this offseason because, barring something unforeseen, that's going
to be the same collection of people that have that
have been the target of a lot of fans I
are now all season long. Can Duke and Zach at
all do their jobs better, different and put together a

(25:18):
team better capable of achieving better results In twenty twenty six,
five one three nine seven thousand is our phone number.
A college football program just hired an adult.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
We'll get to that next.

Speaker 5 (25:30):
RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey chevroletout seven hundred
WLW seven hundred wl W. This is r NL Carrier
Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet. Lance is off tonight.
He is back on Monday for Bengals line. More on
the Orange and Black coming up after the top of
the Allen Uh, the big college football story today, the

(25:54):
University of Michigan is hiring Utah's Kyle Whittingham. Kyle Whittingham,
you know when the Utes were in the Mountain West
ushered that program into the Pac twelve and then helped
usher that program into the Big twelve. Thirt team this
year U see played them and that that's kind of
when it is when the four game losing streak started.

(26:16):
That was a good team they had in Salt Lake
City this year wildly respected won sixty six percent of
his games, and when he stepped down made it known
I'm not retiring now. I don't know how much the
Michigan job was on his radar. Who knows if Alabama
loses in the college football playoff week, you go to Oklahoma.

(26:36):
If Caitlin Debora is the head coach of Michigan, I
do think it's interesting. You know, it's remarkable how much
things have changed in a year as it relates to
OSU versus Michigan were a year ago at this time,
you know, Ohio State had played in and won a
college football playoff game, but Ryan Day had lost to Michigan.
Again was in a position where a lot of folks

(26:58):
felt like he was going to have to win a
national championship to save his job. I'm not sure how
much any of that was based in reality, but he
was basically Sharon Moore and prior to him, Jim Harbaughs
Pinata for a couple.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
Of years, and losing that game.

Speaker 5 (27:14):
Added an element to pressure in the college football playoff
that is already there if you're the head coach at
Ohio State. A year later, Ryan Day has won a
national title. He has a team that right now is
the odds on favor to win the national championship again,
and the Michigan program is in tatters. What's been interesting
about that to me is like, I get it when

(27:35):
your arch rival is in tatters, when your arch rival
is going through scandal, it's fun and it's fun to
watch your arch rival have to hire a new head coach.
But it is interesting to me. And I don't know
a ton of Michigan fans, but I know enough that
even before we found out the particulars of the weirdness
that Sharon Moore's situation involved, much of which has little

(27:57):
to do with football, most Wolverines fans that I either
know or watched react to that news. We're pretty excited
about the fact that Sharon Moore was never going to
be their coach, and it does feel like they have
hired at least an adult in the room for a
program that felt like it badly needed it. Whether or
not they're going to be able to compete at a
national level, compete for Big Ten championships, knock off Ohio State,

(28:22):
make regular appearances in the College Football Playoff, I have
no idea, but I do feel like Michigan upgraded from
one coach to the other, even if the route they
had to take was an unfortunate one, We'll put it
that way. We'll see, we'll see. But that story dominated

(28:43):
the couple of weeks leading up to the College Football Playoff,
and a lot of folks were having fun and making
great jokes at Michigan's expense, and the one thing it
felt like they needed was like a grownup. Kyle Whittingham
seems like a grown up. More on that coming up
here in just a bit. We actually have a good
Ohio State guest coming up in the eight o'clock hour.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
Duke Tobin's job is hard, but not that hard.

Speaker 5 (29:05):
That coming up after the seven o'clock news, which is
happening right now on the home of the best Bengals coverage,
News Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
And the following takes place between seven pm and eight pm.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
That's us eight minutes after seven o'clock.

Speaker 5 (29:31):
This is RNL Carrier Sports Talk on seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
We are presented by Kelsey Chevrolet.

Speaker 5 (29:36):
Hopefully you're having an awesome Friday night, a great Christmas holiday,
and going into what should be really fun sports weekend
full NFL slate. The three games yesterday were dogs. All
the college bowl games like the college bowl games, you know,
folks now with the college Football Playoff and the emphasis
on it and the era that we're in with the
transfer portal and opt outs. Look, we have coaches opting

(29:58):
out of bowl games to crying. How the Bulls, the
Bulls as we know them, are going like. Both games
haven't been important in years, but they're still fun to
wageer on. So you have a bunch of them. Tomorrow
Miami plays Fresno State. All of this leading up to
Bengals and Cardinals on Sunday. Reminder, our pregame coverage from
the Holy Grail on seven hundred WLW will begin at

(30:20):
nine o'clock. The Bengals offense. You know the thing about
the game on last Sunday against Miami, a lot of
folks walked away from it going, Okay.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
What's the big takeaway?

Speaker 5 (30:29):
What's kind of the big macro level takeaway from the
game against Miami? And for me, it was Bengals beat
a bad team they should have beaten badly, a bad
team that started Quinn Ewers, a seventh round pick from Texas,
making his first NFL start. But more than anything, it
was that's that's what it should look like like.

Speaker 4 (30:50):
That's what it should have looked like all season long.

Speaker 5 (30:52):
And had Joe Burrow not gotten hurt, maybe it's what
it would have looked like all season long. An offense
that is damn near impossible to defend because of all
the weaponry, an offense with an offensive line that is
performing better.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
This is right now.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
It's not a great offensive line, but it's easily and
this is a low bar to clear, easily the best
offensive line that Joe Burrow has played behind, and they've
got some younger pieces in the offensive line that are
obviously worth moving forward with a defense that was solid,
not great, opportunistic that has holes, but the offense was
good enough to overcome in the Bengals won a blowout.

(31:30):
To me, what it was more than anything else, it
was it was an offense on display that as we
talk about what this offseason is going to look like,
you say to Duke Tobin, dude, if you can just
fix and I hate the whole like just need a
league average defense thing, but I'll use it if you

(31:53):
can just fix the defense to a degree that it's okay,
look at what you have over here, offense. And I
say that knowing that in the game prior to the
one against Miami, the Bengals offense looked broken. Joe Burrow
looked checked out. Offensively, they were a disaster. They got
shut out against the Baltimore Ravens. But as a general rule,

(32:14):
this season, the offense has been fine. Think of all
the games they've lost where they've scored enough points to
win but didn't Jets game, the Bears game, the Bills game,
games where the offense was really, really really good but
maybe not perfect, and because it wasn't perfect, they didn't win,
Like Duke, all you gotta do, It's not that unlike

(32:37):
Nick Crawl for the Reds, where he's got this really
good collection of starting pitchers Hunter Green, Andrew Rabbit, Nick Lodolo,
And it's like, Man, if you could just find a
bat or two and then get some guys to be
better this year than they were last year with that
starting pitching, you got a shot to be a really
good team in twenty twenty six. I have a quarterback

(33:00):
who last year probably wins MVP if they sneak into
the postseason, a guy who when he is at his best,
is clearly one of the best in the sport. Offensive
weaponry that is not going anywhere. If you can just
take this one part of your team, this one part

(33:21):
of your team and make it okay, you'll be in
the playoffs next year. Now I'm making that sound easier
than it actually is. Duke Tobin last season had a
defense that was atrocious and did nothing really to it
that mattered.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
Right.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
They signed Oron Burks who's done nothing this year, TJ. Slayton,
who's done nothing this year, and drafted a bunch of
players on defense who have made little to no impact
this season, some of whom I don't know. If you're
like me, I'm really okay with not being a part
of the team next year, we'll see. But if you
assume that they're gonna be a little bit more aggressive

(34:00):
this year, dude, all all you have to do is
build a defense that is good enough to allow your
quarterback to make an occasional mistake. All you have to
do is build a defense that is good enough to
allow your offense to not have to score every single
time they touch the football. All you have to do

(34:21):
is build a defense that is good enough to not
consistently waste performances where they score thirty five to forty points.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (34:29):
I think the other thing about this offseason is it's
they've had. Last year I think was one of them.
It's what was so mystifying about the entire offseason last
year for me is they had a lot of stuff
to fix on defense. They also had some uncertainty on
the offensive line. This year's offensive line, and I referenced
this a few minutes ago, this year's offensive line has
performed capably, not great, you know, not league league best,

(34:56):
but capably, and they've done so with Dylan Fairschild, who
I think we're all very much on board with the
Bengals moving forward with Amarus Mims, who probably eventually is
going to be the team's starting left tackle, and you
know the acquisition of Dalton Reisner has worked out at guard,
and they've got some questions about what's going to happen

(35:16):
long term with Orlando brown spot, with Ted Carris's spot.
But I think for the first time in quite a while,
they will go into the offseason without offensive line being
listed as among their most pressing team needs. Now you
can never have enough depth may still be an issue
long term solutions. You should still be looking for them

(35:38):
at a couple of different positions, but the rise of
that group has I think streamlined the offseason to do
list for Duke Tobin, where it's a starting caliber player
at every level of the defense, with money to spare,
with money to spend, with cap room at your disposal.

(35:58):
I think the other thing that's important, Duke Tobin gets
beat up for his draft classes and his draft decisions,
and god knows, understandably so.

Speaker 4 (36:09):
They they've had a.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
Hard time replacing so many of the players they acquired
to make a part of the defense in twenty one
and twenty two, and they've struggled so much to replace them.
They're still trying to figure out how to replace Jesse Bates,
who last played for the Bengals in twenty twenty two.
They're still trying to figure out how to replace DJ Reeder.
It's taken them a while, though the outside corner play
recently has been pretty good. They've struggled for a while

(36:33):
to replace Chudobi a Wuozie. They've had entire draft classes
full of guys that you go, Okay, what does this
guy do? Or when is this guy gonna start to contribute?
If you look though at the twenty twenty three draft class,
you'll see a group of guys that I think you're
excited about being on the team next year, and in

(36:56):
many cases perhaps even beyond.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Here.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
Down the stretch in the second half of the season,
Miles Murphy has played like an actual dude.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
And later than any of us would like.

Speaker 5 (37:10):
Nobody is saying they have to extend him, but I
think clearly they'll pick up his fifth year option like
he's played like a legitimate dude, and maybe not having.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Trey Hendrickson here has help that.

Speaker 5 (37:20):
I don't know DJ Turner, I don't think anybody really
cares about the Pro Bowl games, but DJ Turner should
have been a Pro Bowl starter as far as I'm concerned,
has been awesome for most of the season. Chase Brown
is a very good player, still has a shot for
what it's worth it being a one thousand yard rusher
still I think one hundred and twenty five yards away

(37:42):
from eclipsing last year's total and yards from scrimmage a
terrific threat. Perfect Piece fits great that we all like
Chase Brown. Andre Yoshavas as a sixth rounder from Princeton,
has been a good pick. I wouldn't let his presence
on the team preclude me from finding a better options

(38:04):
the number three wide receiver. But I think we're all
on board with Andre Yoshabaz being on the team.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
Think anybody would have any major issue with that. Like that.

Speaker 5 (38:16):
Class Jordan Battle. Jordan Battle is going to be a
starting safety next year. Again, his presence on the team
shouldn't necessarily preclude them from finding solutions that safety in
free agency or in the draft. Like, there's five players
and you could maybe add Charlie Jones as a kick
return guide to it. There's five, maybe six players from

(38:36):
that twenty twenty three class that look like Piece is
worth moving footward with and a number of those guys
on defense. So you know, six seven weeks ago we
were all talking about, man the offseason overhaul. The defense
probably gonna move on from Trey Hendricks, and you basically
have one guy in DJ Turner.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
They have a lot of work to do.

Speaker 5 (38:57):
But I think there's two pieces of good news. Number One,
that offense next year is going to be pretty much intact.
Everybody's going to come back. It's an offensive line that
is as as good as shape going in new offseason
as they've been in quite a while. And there are
at least some building blocks from that twenty twenty three
class that are moving into what should be the primes
of their careers, who you not only are comfortable being

(39:19):
a part of the team next year, but you may
want to build around for the remainder of the decade. Again,
and this doesn't get let Duke off the hook for
the way this team has played this year. Doesn't let
the Bengals as an organization off the hook for the
way they have failed for a third consecutive year to
miss the playoffs while Joe Burrow was in his prime,
But as as much of an overallaul as they seemingly

(39:42):
have in front of them. It's a little bit easier
to start the overhaul when you have some building blocks
that twenty twenty three class. While maybe slower to as
send than we would like, it's provided some building blocks.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
And the offense is elite.

Speaker 5 (40:01):
It's been elite this year, even when Joe Burrow wasn't healthy,
even when they were losing football games.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
It sounds like a lot of work, and it is.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
And you know, they've got to find players in the
draft who don't take three years to make an impact,
and they have to find free agents who can make
an impact almost immediately. And they have to keep number
nine healthy because, as we've seen multiple times now, when
when he's not, the whole thing falls apart. But they're
they're starting from There are a lot of there are
a lot of like gms or personnel people around the

(40:31):
NFL who have to figure out a way to take
a team that didn't make the postseason this year and
turn them into a playoff contender or a playoff team
in twenty twenty six. How many of those general managers
would like to have one side of the ball that
is pretty much set.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
Duke Tobin has that.

Speaker 5 (40:48):
Again, like you may want a different person in charge
of the roster may want a different person in charge
of the draft. I can't argue with you, but how
many people in his shoes, how many people in a
similar job have one side of the ball that is
pretty much set and not just pretty much set, but
when it's set, is among the best in the sport.

(41:10):
And that is the case this year. Five one, three, seven, four, nine,
seven is our number. We'll get to a couple of
guests coming up in the eight o'clock hour, one on
the Bengals, one on the Buckeyes, Sterling coming up at
nine o'clock.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
It's twenty after seven o'clock.

Speaker 5 (41:24):
This is RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet
seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 4 (41:31):
This is RNL Carrier Sports Talk.

Speaker 5 (41:34):
We are presented tonight by Kelsey Chevrolet on seven hundred WLW.
The Bengals and Cardinals on Sunday will be played amid
warm temperatures but probably some rain drops. Pregame covers when
the Holy Grail starts at nine o'clock, Can Brew, Tony Pike,
and myself as the Bengals played the second to last

(41:55):
game of the season Cardinals. Here they are playing out
the string, according to most who cover the league, looking
for a new head coach to our plays Jonathan Gannon
and then the Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
Cleveland's going to be interesting.

Speaker 5 (42:10):
Because there are a lot of younger players on that
team that showed flashes this year. One of them, quin
Shawn Judkins, got hurt last week. We'll see what his
offseason entails. It feels like that game a week from
Sunday is going to be a showdown, so to speak,
between Joe Burrow and Shadoor Sanders. I don't know that
the flashes of promise that Shadoor Sanders has shown is

(42:31):
going to be enough to make them not want to
draft a quarterback in Cleveland. And obviously there's a lot
being written and said about the future of Kevin Stefanski,
a two time NFL Coach of the Year that seems
to have exhausted his time with the Browns. We will
see could be an offseason of transition for both Ohio
professional football teams.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
We are going to get to that coming up here
a little bit later on.

Speaker 5 (42:54):
We'll do some college football in the nine o'clock hour
as well. Five point three seven four nine seven thousand
is our phone number. And uh eight hundred the big one.
Let's uh, let's talk to Kevin Kevin and Columbus. Kevin,
you're on seven hundred W l W Kevin, good evening,
How are you, Kevin and Columbus?

Speaker 3 (43:16):
Are you there?

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Hear me?

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Kevin? Kevin? What's all loud and clear? What is going on?

Speaker 5 (43:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Okay, yeah, yeah, great, thank you.

Speaker 7 (43:26):
Remember when Peyton Manning was a Colt quarterback, they had
the same problem. They had the best offense and the
worst defense. I can't remember how exactly long ago that was,
but what they did is they tired Tony Dunge as
they're head coach, and his his job was to, you know,
don't touch the offense and fix the defense. And I'm
not suggesting fire our coach, but they had the same

(43:47):
problem just the other Their defense was horrible. I can't
remember what year it was, but it was when Peyton
Manning was a quarterback, you know.

Speaker 5 (43:54):
Yeah, they had Jim Moore in the early two thousands, right,
and they had a team that constantly got to the
post season and then constantly defensively was a train wreck.
Once they got to the postseason, and ye couldn't stop anybody,
but it illustrated. It illustrated that eventually, because they tied
a lot of money into their offense, they eventually broke

(44:14):
through and at the end of that two thousand and
five season won a Super Bowl despite the investments they
had made on offense, and they made some smart acquisitions
in the draft, a handful of smart acquisitions in free agency.
Maybe never had any elite level defense, but they didn't
need one. They just needed one that allowed Peyton Manning
to be good, but didn't need him to be perfect
every single week.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, and why can't we do that? I mean, I
don't know how we would do that, or.

Speaker 7 (44:39):
Whether it's firing the head coach, but Bobby, that's what
they need to do, and they did it. Why can't
we Yeah, Well, the answer is, I.

Speaker 5 (44:47):
Mean, you know, if you go back to when the
Bengals made the Super Bowl nearly five years ago, they
had a defense that they could just throw money at.
You know, they signed DJ Reader, who at the time
was the most expensive free agent acquisition on the interior
of the defensive line in the history of the sport.
And a lot of folks said, well, God, they overpaid

(45:08):
for DJ Reader, and they had to because the only
way you were gonna get good players to want to
come here was to overpay him. And they acquired Trey Hendrickson,
and they went god should Obiah Woozia, and they went
god Von Bell and Mike Hilton, and those signings all worked.
Plus they traded for bj Hill, they acquired Larry Ogunjobi Like.
They got a lot of established NFL players from other teams.

(45:30):
The problem is they haven't been able to replace a
lot of those guys, and even some of their homegrown players,
like Jesse Bates, they haven't been able to replace him
using the draft. Dax Hill is playing well right now.
It's taken forever for Dax Hill to find a role
in the NFL. The plan to replace him or replace
Jesse Bates with Dax Hill didn't work out. They haven't

(45:51):
been able to replace Choudobia Wuzia, they haven't been able
to supplement Trey Hendrickson, they haven't been able to replace
DJ Reader.

Speaker 4 (45:57):
And so they haven't been able to do that using
the draft.

Speaker 5 (46:00):
Until they draft well consistently, they're going to have some
of the same problems we've watched unfold this season.

Speaker 7 (46:06):
Yeah, you can't just hope everybody plays better.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
Next year cross your finger. That seems the Reds to
do the same thing.

Speaker 7 (46:12):
But hey, I just want to hear what you had
to say, what they might do about next year, because
he only got Burrow a few more years, right, So yeah.

Speaker 5 (46:20):
Four more years. End of the decade and time is
ticking right. You don't want to be thank you for
the phone call, Kevin. You don't want to be in
the same position a year from now that you've been
in this year, which is not only on the outside
looking in of the postseason, but on the outside looking
into the postseason, with your quarterback expressing some level of
dissatisfaction with where things are in his career.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
You know I have.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
I have grown fatigued with the Joe Burrows psychoanalysis as
much as anybody. But do you want to do this
in a year where Joe is publicly expressing some level
of discomfort emotionally and mentally with where things are going
with his career.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
You don't.

Speaker 5 (47:03):
That doesn't mean he's gonna pull a Carson Palmer do
what Andrew Locke did, but you don't want to do it.
You don't want to tempt fate. They've got to be
better at drafting players. Who can make an immediate impact.
I just talked about the twenty twenty three draft class,
which is right now proving to be useful. The problem
is it's taken almost three full seasons for us to
talk about that class. Duke Tobin last year talked about

(47:24):
the need to draft players who can made an immediate
impact defensively.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
That didn't happen now. Maybe Barrett Carter.

Speaker 5 (47:32):
Ends up being really good one day, Maybe Demetrius Knight
ends up being really good one day. Maybe maybe Shamar
Stewart ends up playing like a first round pick. None
of those things have happened this year. This is a
cheap labor league. There's never been more of a premium
on draft picks making an instant impact. It just hasn't

(47:53):
happened here. What will happen right now is the seven
to thirty News on seven hundred WLW on a Friday
night edition of Rnell Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey
Chevrolet on seven hundred WLW, Sterling coming your way at
nine oh five. Lance is obviously off tonight on Moweger
from ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (48:14):
Lances back for Bengals.

Speaker 5 (48:15):
Line on Monday evening Bengals line, airing for a half
hour on seven hundred WLW before moving to Fox Sports
thirteen sixty on I'm Sorry on ESPN fifteen thirty. On
Monday night, we have UC basketball as the Bearcats on
Monday play their final non conference game of the season,
the tilt against Lipscomb, And you talk about twenty twenty

(48:37):
six and the coming months ahead. You can't help but wonder,
if you're a UC basketball fan number one, with five
losses already and Big Twelve play looming starting a week
from tomorrow with a home game against Houston, how bad
might the next few weeks and months get for Wes

(48:58):
Miller's team. You know, go back a year ago at
this time, Cincinnati was getting set to start league play.
They played Kansas State in the first Big twelve game,
and the Bearcats got through the non conference part of
their schedule with one loss, was a game against Villanova
they lost on the road, got through it with one loss,

(49:18):
and yet still didn't come close to making the NCAA tournament.
This year they have five A bad home loss from
a metrics perspective, and.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
What other other other perspective you want to use?

Speaker 5 (49:37):
A bad home loss against Destern Michigan, the loss on
the road to Zayvier in the Skyline chilea Crosstown shootout
a not great Xavier team, and then losses each of
the last couple of weeks to Georgia which ended up
not being very competitive after the Bearcats had a lead
in the first half, and then a Clemson loss where
the Bearcats were down thirty to five in the first

(49:58):
half before playing very copetitively in the second half and
losing by three, but still a loss. This plus the
neutral floor loss to Louisville five losses going into the
Big Twelve, a league that has six teams in the
top twenty four of the Kenpalm dot com rankings, and
so a season that I think for most was defined

(50:20):
by Wes Miller year five. If he doesn't get to
the NCAA tournament, UC is going to be in the
market for a new head coach, not only not making
the tournament, perhaps, but not making the tournament and not
even coming close, and not even coming close in ways
that you know weren't a part of last year's conversation.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
They have eighteen Big Twelve games.

Speaker 5 (50:47):
They're going to be huge underdogs and a lot of them.
And if you just take the quality of that league
with how the Bearcats have played, they largely despite the
addition of Gisel James, like the same team here at
the end of twenty twenty five as they looked in
early November. You can wonder how bad might it get

(51:15):
and could they end Big twelve play with I don't know,
thirteen fourteen, fifteen losses or more.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
Let's think about that.

Speaker 5 (51:23):
A season that was defined by, well, the Bearcats must
make the NCAA tournament, we're now wondering if they could
avoid like as many as twenty losses combining non league
and Big twelve play. So, you know, I like Wes
Miller a lot. He has been very good to me
since he's become Cincinnati's head coach. He's easy to work

(51:44):
with on UC basketball broadcasts. I've rooted like hell for him.
But if it was NCAA tournament or BUS and I
think for a lot of us it was like, all right,
NCAA tournament or bus, But like, what does it look
like like do they do they barely miss it? Do
they did they miss it? Because you know they were
one of the first four out. They were team number
sixty nine or team number seventy and you know, they

(52:06):
played great down the stretch, and the committee just didn't
like their resume where there are a whole bunch of injuries.
You know, what did it look like? What's the context?
I'm not sure any context is going to be needed.
If this season ends and there's an eighteen and nineteen
or twenty next to Cincinnati and the lost column.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
It is remarkable that.

Speaker 5 (52:24):
That's where we are in year five, year three of
the Big Twelve, where it's not are they going to
make the tournament, but it's how bad might it get?
And if you watch some of the teams in the
Big Twelve, Houston, Arizona, who I watched them a week
ago on Saturday against Alabama, they looked like an NBA team.
Texas Tech, Iowa State byu UCF has played very well,

(52:47):
Oklahoma States played very well. I haven't even mentioned Kansas again.
Go back a year ago. They had one league loss
and I'm not sure anybody felt great about how they
were playing, but they had built in cushion, and I
think the prevailing thought was, well, if they go five
hundred in the Big Twelve, they're going to be okay.
I think that would have been the case they did
not finish five hundred in the Big twelve. Five hundred

(53:13):
the Big Twelve this year would feel like a miracle.
So it's certainly an uphill battle for Wes Miller's team.
And you know, then you start kind of a larger
conversation about UC athletics. Scott Saderfield is going to be
back for year four, but the reality is part of
that program's current brand is that they fall apart in November.

(53:37):
I think they've lost their last ten games in the
month of November. I believe Scott Sadderfield has won and
eleven in the month of November. And while they did
a lot of really good things this year, this was
a team in twenty twenty five that was sort of
the culmination of a lot of guys choosing to come
back and play at UC despite maybe having a chance
to make more money elsewhere, some guys maybe taking a

(53:58):
hometown discount them, you know, spending money to add players
via the portal, and it all adding up to a
seven win season that went down with four consecutive losses
at the end. They obviously have a Bowl game still
against Navy a week from Friday, a week from tonight,
in Memphis.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
But still, and as you know, I.

Speaker 5 (54:17):
Look online and I see all the you know, anger
aimed at the basketball coach and all the anger aimed
at the football coach. But the common denominator becomes the
person who hired both.

Speaker 4 (54:27):
And if you're a.

Speaker 5 (54:28):
Director of athletics, and I think is a general rule,
John Cunningham is a pretty solid administrator, But you're ultimately
judged by the coaches you hire, and mainly the coaches
you hire at the two highest profile sports. Scott Saderfield
may have earned a fourth year at you see, but
I would stop well short of saying that he's popular,
and I would imagine he, for a lot of fans,

(54:49):
is going to go into year four with a specific
mandate to not only win more games, but along with that,
of course avoid the late season meltdown. And a men's
basket fotball coach who is in his fifth season is
overseeing a team that has five losses already going into
conference play. Oh and by the way, and I know

(55:11):
Lance has mentioned this, A bunch has a lot of
dudes from last year's team which underwhelmed, who have at
least contributed to high major programs elsewhere. So I think
one of the interesting storylines for Cincinnati sports in twenty
twenty six is going to be like, is there a
new basketball coach and how much patience is there ultimately

(55:34):
going to be with the person and hired in charge
of hiring the basketball coach and ultimately overseeing the football program.

Speaker 4 (55:41):
We'll see.

Speaker 5 (55:42):
But I'd be a line to you if I'd told
you I thought, you know, we'd be here at the
end of this year with UC sitting there with five losses,
is still looking to make the NCAA tournament for the
first time since twenty nineteen that was forever ago, And
yet it feels extraordinarily unlikely, as much as I hate
to say this is a Bearcat fan, that Cincinnati is

(56:03):
gonna come even close to having its name called on
selection Sunday, And like you know, invariably, they're going to
be comparisons to what's happening with one program to the
other across town.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
And Xavier has its issues.

Speaker 5 (56:15):
The Musketeers next game is going to be at home
against Yukon on New Year's Eve, and the Huskies will
present a world of problems for a talent efficient Xavier team.

Speaker 4 (56:25):
But I do think in terms of how they've been coached.

Speaker 5 (56:28):
Richard Patino deserves a lot of credit because number one,
they have gotten better, and number two, they bounce back
pretty nicely after getting destroyed in the most lopsided loss
in the history of the Cintas Center and playing well
enough to be an Okay Georgetown team. Maybe Okay's pushing
it a little bit, and so yeah, there's a little
bit of a talent issue, but you do see a
team that is responding to his coaching, and you do

(56:50):
see a team that, relative to what they were putting
on the floor very early in the season, has improved
for the most part, and it's still going to be
a very uphill battle for them in Big East play.
It's year one with west Miller. Unfortunately, it's a year five,
and without anything to kind of hang your hat on
to point to as a track record that indicates that
things will get better, you can't help but conclude that

(57:14):
they're going to finish with way, way, way more losses
than anybody ever would have imagined. And in the season
that is defined by does he make the tournament? If
they don't come even close, I think most of us
at that point assume what the outcome is going to
be how many more coaches John Cunningham gets to hire
is certainly going to be up for discussion as.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
Things continue to.

Speaker 5 (57:39):
Progress the way they appear they will be progressing seven.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
Forty nine at maleger on Twitter.

Speaker 5 (57:45):
Five point three seven four nine seven thousand is our
phone number. You'll hear my conversation with Paul Danner Junior
from the Athletic coming up at eight twenty as we
talk Bengals, including a guy in T Higgins who will
spend a few minutes on when we come back. But
this is our and L Carriers sport Stock. We are
presented tonight by Kelsey Chevrolet and awesome to have you

(58:07):
with us. I hope you had a great Christmas sterling
Coming up at nine oh five. Back to the football
coming up at to the top of the hour and
we'll do some Ohio state stuff as well as we
look ahead to the college football playoff, OSU taking on
Miami on New Year's Eve, which tons of defensive talent
on the field for both of those teams, and it

(58:28):
will be interesting to see how the Buckeyes bounce back
after losing the Big Ten title game, which feels like
about seven months ago. Yeah, I started the show by
talking about the Reds and one of the more mystifying
things to me about the Kyle Schwarber pursuit, I guess
there were two. One would be this, Kyle Schwarber is
from Middletown, you may have heard, and it felt like

(58:49):
that was ultimately what drove their pursuit of him.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
And by the way, I like a fun story.

Speaker 5 (58:56):
And so if had the Rads brought in the reigning
National League home run champion due to it fifty six
bombs last year, and you know, part of the dynamic
was he gets a chance to play in his hometown,
that would have been fun. That never should have been
the primary motivator behind going after Kyle Schwarber. And what
has not made sense to me in the weeks since

(59:16):
we found out the Reds didn't get Kyle Schwarber, is
is why none of the other sluggers in free agency
were apparently viable options like Pete Alonzo, who recently signed
with the Baltimore Orioles signed for I think five million
dollars more than Kyle Schwarber. The Reds made an attempt
at Kyle Schwarber. We could debate how Earnest of an

(59:39):
attempt it was. We could debate how serious of an
attempt it was, but there was an attempt. Why do
you go after Kyle Schwarber but not Pete Alonzo? Why
do you go after Kyle Schwarber and not Cody Bellinger?
Like the pursuit of him acknowledges not just that he's
from here, but it acknowledge is he satisfies a very,

(01:00:03):
very big need, the need for a guy to hit
the ball out of the ballpark. In the in the
week since we found out they're not going to get him,
it is mystifying to me why seemingly the primary, maybe
the sole, real motivator was the fact that he's from
here and could have sold some tickets, like what I'm

(01:00:27):
looking for as a guy who can hit the ball
out of the ballpark.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
So there's that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
I guess.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
The other one would be.

Speaker 5 (01:00:33):
Why would you really allow five million dollars a year
to get in the way of signing a guy who
could totally remake your franchise if your franchise has a
valuation of one point two billion dollars. And I know
bringing this up makes a lot of people really uncomfortable
because one thing that baseball owners have done successfully is
get people to care about their bottom lines. But Kyle

(01:00:55):
Schwerber signed with the Phillies five years, one hundred and
fifty mil. The Red's offer was reportedly five years and
one hundred and twenty five mill. Now, in the real world,
that's that's a lot of money, right, that's a lot
of money. But in baseball terms, it's five million bucks
a year. Five million bucks a year, And really, if
you kind of understand how inflation is likely to work
over the next five years, it's probably closer right now

(01:01:16):
to like three to three and a half million dollars
a year.

Speaker 4 (01:01:20):
Was not getting that guy.

Speaker 5 (01:01:22):
Worth saving the twenty five billion dollar twenty five million dollars,
especially when your franchise valuation is one point two bill
I know, when you talk about how much a franchises
work worth, it's not like they have one point two
billion dollars sitting in a drawer that they can go
ahead and pay people. But still, a one point two
billion dollar entity allowed a guy that could have remade
their team to get away for five million dollars a year.

(01:01:45):
That is head scratching as well. Guess the other thing
I would wonder is this if the the Luise Robert
pursuit doesn't work out, and I'd be the first like
Louise Robert doesn't do it for me. I'm interested in
guys who are like good now, who are in their
primes now. Louise Robert's only twenty seven years old. It
has been a couple of seas since he was an
All Star. The Chicago White Sox have been trying to
unload him forever. And as they've been trying to do so,

(01:02:06):
one thing that you constantly read is they're waiting for
him to play better so he can increase his value.
The problem is he's never really played better, and so
if he ends up being the centerpiece of their offseason,
how much better is the team really going to be?

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
And if they don't get Luis Robert, then what.

Speaker 5 (01:02:27):
There are a lot of guys on last year's team
who need to perform better this year. That would have
been the case with or without a major addition. And
there are some guys from last year's team that I
think you can reasonably expect to produce more.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
Of this season.

Speaker 5 (01:02:41):
Start with Sal Stewart, right, That guy had five home
runs in September. He certainly looks somebody who could help
solve your lack of pop issue. But you're really going
to go to spring training with just a whole bunch
of dudes from last year's team and no bona fide,
no established in his prime slugger added from outside?

Speaker 4 (01:03:03):
And if it's.

Speaker 5 (01:03:04):
Luis Robert, is that really somebody who satisfies the need
for a slugger from outside in his prime?

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
AH, count me among the more skeptical.

Speaker 5 (01:03:13):
U five point three seven four nine, seven thousand is
our phone number. Bengals, UH and Cardinals. You know, the
game against the Miami Dolphins solidified something that I have
believed for almost one calendar year. In fact, it was
last year's game Week seventeen against the Denver Broncos. It

(01:03:34):
kept the Bengals playoff hopes alive. There's an indelible image
from that game that I think has continued through this season,
and I thought of it often during the game against
Miami last Sunday. We'll get to that coming up after
the eight o'clock news, which is happening right now in
the home of the best Bengals coverage, News Radio seven
hundred WOW since ant.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
The following takes place between eight PM and nine pm.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
Sure does.

Speaker 5 (01:04:10):
It is seven after eight o'clock on a Friday night.
Hopefully you're having an awesome Christmas weekend, an awesome long
maybe an awesome two weeks off. I don't know, whatever
it is. I hope it's awesome. That's the key word.
I'm oeger in for Lance McAllister. This is RNL Carrier
Sports Talk. We are presented by Kelsey Chevrolet on seven
hundred WLW. Here it's on nine. Sterling takes over at

(01:04:33):
nine oh five. Looking forward to that, you'll hear my
conversation with the great Bengals beat writer Paul Danner Junior
from The Athletic and the Growlar podcast coming up in
just about ten minutes. As we look ahead to Sunday
more than anything, and we'll spend some time looking back
on Saturday. Saturday was another example of why T Higgins.
I think T Higgins is the most beloved Cincinnati Bengal

(01:04:56):
And that might not be the best. It's not the
best wide receiver on his own tea, and you know,
Joe Burrow might be in a class onto himself. But
you know, a year ago, it was almost exactly a
year ago, Bengals beat the Denver Broncos in overtime in
a game that we all thought at least might be
T higgins last home game in a Bengals uniform. That

(01:05:18):
obviously turned out to not be the case. But he
had the walk off touchdown grab and it just you know,
that would have been cool no matter who caught it.
It was a game that it was a win that
kept the Bengals very faint playoff hopes alive. But I
remember that night putting on social media something like that.
There's I don't think there's a more beloved Cincinnati Bengal
and always will be than T Higgins. And then you know,

(01:05:42):
there's what he did last week. Now, let me make
two admissions here. Number one, I would not be opposed
to all the Bengals best players not playing these last
two games, not playing these last three games, if he
count the Miami game, like Joe Burrow, was terrific against
the Dolphins, but like you can't help but watch it
through your fingers, like ah Man, because if something bad

(01:06:05):
were to happen, you know that risk is implied with
every play of every game, but it's it's a little
different when the games have no real meaning. I'll also admit, like,
I'm not entirely sure T Higgins should have played against
the Miami Dolphins, but I'm not a neurologist. He was
cleared to play, he did, and I think what he

(01:06:27):
did in order to play is pretty admirable. You know,
this is a player who two years ago, if you remember,
the Bengals played the game Week seventeen against the Chiefs,
Jake Browning was the quarterback. Bengals had to win that night.
They didn't. T Higgins had gotten hurt just a couple
of weeks prior tried to play that night, came out

(01:06:48):
of the game with a hamstring injury, and was like
putting himself back in the game without the knowledge of
his coaches, which may say something about the quality of
the coaching they're getting, but he was just willing himself
on to the field in an effort to try to
help his team extended season. Bengals cannot extend their season. Here,

(01:07:09):
you have a guy who was in the concussion protocol
for a second time within a couple of weeks, who
was like flying to go talk to concussion doctors in
Pittsburgh just so he could be cleared to play in
a game that has no bearing on the playoff picture,
no bearing on the standings whatsoever. Like I think there's

(01:07:32):
a lot of players who would have and you couldn't
have blamed him for doing this. Who would have said,
screw it, we're not going anywhere. I got a future
to think about. I got a contract I'm playing under.
I'm trying to collect every dime of it I can.
I'm done, I ain't. I'll see you next year. This
is a guy who signed up to play here, and look,

(01:07:53):
he's making gobs of money.

Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
We all know that.

Speaker 5 (01:07:57):
But you know, I thought about this the Thursday night
game where the Bengals beat the Steelers with Joe Flacco
playing quarterback, which was probably the high point of the season,
not that there has been all that many, but that
was a really fun night and it was a fun
night that made you think, like, you know what, Flacco
can keep them afloat.

Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
They won that game. They were three and four.

Speaker 5 (01:08:18):
The next couple of games seemed winnable, and that night
Jamar Chase was otherworldly. Sixteen catches one hundred and sixty
one yards, made up a play running down the sideline
where he blocks for Chase Brown, and the next day understandably,
all anybody wanted to talk about was Jamar Chase. That night,

(01:08:40):
T Higgins had six catches for ninety six yards. He
he was terrific, caught a touchdown pass that night, had
a critical catch that set up Evan McPherson's game winning
field goal, and yet he was a footnote. Think about

(01:09:02):
what you've come to understand about players who played that position. Right,
They make a lot of money, but at the end
of the day, like they for the most part, like
they want to be the man. There's been a lot
of good number two wide receivers who have like just
chased opportunities to be a number one wide receiver elsewhere.
T Higgins signed up to be at times a footnote

(01:09:23):
to Jamar Chase. Where that night team makes great plays,
nobody talks about it because of how awesome Jamar Chase was.
T Higgins willingly signed up for four more years of that.
Like I just I don't know, man. There have been
a lot of popular Bengals players. There's been a lot
of popular Bengals players on bad teams. Have been a

(01:09:43):
lot of popular Bengals players on good teams, and some
who have been on both. T Higgins has been on both.
Jamar Chase is obviously very very popular here and understandably so.
I think the connection that T Higgins has, though, is
just a little bit different, and I think there's I
think there's something about you know, a lot of the
writers this week wrote pieces about T Higgins, and again

(01:10:03):
you can understand why, Like that's for a franchise that
has been long associated with not winning and at times
associated with players who don't do the right things, Tevin
Guy led T Higgins to kind of build around for
whatever's next is pretty important. So you know, do they
win while both these wide receivers and Joe Burrow are

(01:10:25):
here for the next few years.

Speaker 4 (01:10:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:10:28):
Nothing that happened in that game against Miamy Dolphins should
mask some of the other larger issues the Bengals have,
And god knows, I've talked about him a bunch, but
as jaded and as cynical as every Bengals fan can be,
and I would argue should be, it's still pretty cool

(01:10:50):
to see a guy like T Higgins who just comes
off as being about all the right things. And again,
man like it didn't have the world's biggest statistical packed
on that game, against Miamial though the catch he made
from thirty five out sort of set the tone for
the afternoon for the Bengals offensively.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
But you got a guy who just there.

Speaker 5 (01:11:10):
There's more than a few instances of this guy putting
the team before himself, and I thought he did that
last week. And I think that's among the reasons why
this is just a beloved player on this football team.

Speaker 4 (01:11:24):
And uh, you know, I thought that was the case
when the team was good.

Speaker 5 (01:11:29):
I think what he has done in the face of
some adverse conditions has solidified that. And I think it's
at least worth mentioning amid what has been a pretty
rough season.

Speaker 4 (01:11:40):
Paul Danner Junior.

Speaker 5 (01:11:42):
You'll hear him talk about T Higgins because he wrote
about him here in just a few minutes. Five win, three,
seven four nine, seven thousand is our phone number will
talk Ohio State Buckeyes with the great Bill Rabinowitz coming
up at eight forty five, and we are most definitely
looking forward to that.

Speaker 4 (01:11:56):
It is a quarter.

Speaker 5 (01:11:57):
After eight RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet
on seven hundred WL.

Speaker 4 (01:12:02):
Dowty nineteen after eight o'clock.

Speaker 5 (01:12:04):
This is our and L Carrier Sports Talk presented by
Kelsey Chevrolet on seven hundred wl W. I am with
Tony Pike on Monday at Twin Peaks in Westchester for
the Tony and Mo Football Show.

Speaker 4 (01:12:15):
We hope you join us.

Speaker 5 (01:12:17):
We'll talk Bengals, Cardinals, NFL Week seventeen, the College Football Playoff,
and so much more. Covering the Bengals for the Athletic
and the Growler Podcast. Is my buddy, Paul Danner Junior.
You know, here's here's among the many things I liked
about how the Bengals played against the Miami Dolphins. Is
it at least gave us a rest bite from all
the Joe Burrow psychoanalysis.

Speaker 6 (01:12:38):
Yes, we don't have to take the temperature of how
Joe Burrow is feeling, which is happiness scale today and
we can just kind of enjoy a day where everybody
was definitely happy. Everything looked the way that you would
expect it to look. They played like an offense that

(01:12:58):
is built to win a lot of games, even though
it hasn't won many this year, and you can just
sort of accept that for what it is right now.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
So what is the best way to process Sunday?

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
Is it? Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:13:10):
You know, bittersweetness. This is what it could have been,
is it? This is what it can be. Is that
they're going to use late season success to cloud their
decision making, is that they're going to screw up their
draft positioning. How should I process Sunday?

Speaker 6 (01:13:25):
Well, I think there's different aspects to all of that.
The drafts isitioning thing you can missmu with that I
don't really like. First of all, the draft is not
that great in the top ten anyway, so you're going
to be seeing a lot of similar prospects in the middle.
And come on, man, these guys need to go win games.
There's too many. I'm just not I'm not doing that.
But I will say I think the lens it is

(01:13:47):
bitter sweet because this is what it was supposed to
look like. I mean, the Bengals, even in their best times,
haven't eviscerated teams like that. I mean, that's that is
the way they played offense.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
Defense.

Speaker 6 (01:13:58):
Special to all of it together is the way it's
supposed to look on a team that is capable of
making a run in January.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
And here they are at the.

Speaker 6 (01:14:07):
End of December looking like a team capable of making
a run in January, but none of it matters because
everything that happened over the course of the season, and
that is bittersweet and that's a little hard to swallow.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
But I will say this, I don't think it's meaningless.
You do worry.

Speaker 6 (01:14:21):
What you mentioned is the biggest concern of all of
this is that it's like, well, I see all of
these players playing, well, they're coming along. We're just gonna
bet on them next year and run run the whole
thing back. I mean, I think there's very clear positions linebacker,
defensive line that have to have significant, you know, a

(01:14:43):
raising of the boats happening there. Like there's got to
be some higher level play veterans brought in that can
be reliable and bring you some juice and let the
players that are currently here either find a way to
play above them or b role players, which is probably
kind of of where they sit.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
They just need a couple more starting level players in there.
That said, this entire year was going to be.

Speaker 6 (01:15:09):
Based on the development of all of these young defensive players,
and it had to happen at some point, and here
we are.

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
It didn't happen fast enough.

Speaker 6 (01:15:21):
Everything that happened in the first ten games of the
season or whatever happened, there's no way around that. But
I think the important element to look at it is, Look,
you're seeing these young pieces start to actually look like
they are individually developing and taking a next step. And
that's not just from one game, that's from a continued

(01:15:41):
trend this whole second half of the season.

Speaker 5 (01:15:44):
Did Duke Tobin actually oversee a successful twenty twenty three draft?

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
It's like you're reading my notebook right now. I have
a whole story, a.

Speaker 6 (01:15:56):
Whole story that is I'm a about to have published
for tomorrow on the success of the twenty twenty three
draft and more importantly, the opportunity it affords the Bengals
to change how they operate and to look at things differently. Yes,
they absolutely had a successful twenty twenty three draft. I mean,
if you're talking about what constitutes a good draft, you're

(01:16:20):
talking about what you want to get three starters out
of it, and that's like, man, that's a good draft.
You know, that's just the way that. However, you got
to find a way to do that. They have far
more than that. I mean you're talking Miles Murphy, DJ Turner.
I mean, they look like real solid level pieces. Jordan
battle is a part of this team's future. Certainly he

(01:16:41):
seems undeniably going to be a starter for them next year.
Chase Brown is a top running back in this league.
Andre Josubasi is a solid three or four receiver. However
you want to view him, like to find those pieces.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
That's real value. I mean, that's that is a good draft.
It took till year three.

Speaker 6 (01:17:03):
Sometimes it takes to year three for guys to come around,
but yeah, I think you look at that way. But
now they're extension eligible. Now you're gonna see this. How
are they gonna do this? Is it going to look
like t Higgins and Jesse Bates and the Jamar Chase
stuff that was all the off field drama and trade
requests and bickering over how good they actually are or

(01:17:26):
are we going to see an Eagles style early investment
in some of these guys. These are hits. They look
to be coming together, like you're seeing that. Go out
and pay these guys before next season starts and get
those done and avoid all of the bickering and.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
Off field stuff that happens.

Speaker 6 (01:17:43):
I think what we have now is an opportunity for
them to say, hey, look we are doing some things differently.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Now will that happen?

Speaker 6 (01:17:51):
I'm probably not holding my breath on a lot of it,
but I do think it's a great.

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Opportunity to do some of the things that maybe Joe.

Speaker 6 (01:17:59):
Burrow is referencing, do things a little differently, be a
little more creative. This would seem to maybe be an
opportunity to do some of that with a couple of
these guys from that track.

Speaker 5 (01:18:06):
Yeah, man, you know to me this this certainly doesn't
let Duke Tobin off the proverbial hook. Whatever amount of
criticism he has gotten, I believe he is deserved. I
certainly believe his role with the organization should be examined.
But I'm also a believer in giving credit words due.
And admittedly it's taken Miles Murphy longer than a lot
of us would like. It's maybe taking Jordan Battle longer
than a lot of us would like. I certainly wouldn't

(01:18:28):
use him as you know somebody that, hey, we're not
going to take a safety because we have Jordan Battle.
But he's played well. Chase Brown is terrific. DJ Turner
should be a pro bowler. Andrea yoshabas for a sixth
rounder from Princeton was an excellent pick or all five
of those guys players that could still be here in

(01:18:48):
twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 4 (01:18:51):
I you know that to be seen.

Speaker 2 (01:18:54):
I think it's possible.

Speaker 6 (01:18:55):
You get I mean, you get into the dynamics of
can you pay everybody?

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
How much do they want?

Speaker 6 (01:19:02):
Is there going to be a franchise tag decision of
all of those things, you know, Miles Murphy, if your option,
there's a lot of dynamics and ways to go about it,
and so all of them, I mean, yeah, I think
I think a good amount of them. I think they've
got to find a way to do draft, develop Britain
and still be about that and prove it they're about
that and this is the best way to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
There's a I mean a long.

Speaker 6 (01:19:25):
Way to go to get to that, right certainly, and
a lot of things that happened, But I do think
they have the ability to do it, and it's a
chance for them to prove what they really want to
be about in terms of how they build their roster
by making sure that a vast majority of those guys
are around for the long haul.

Speaker 4 (01:19:44):
All right, So I read your mind.

Speaker 5 (01:19:46):
I know what you're going to write about now I
want to talk about what you did write about I
didn't think and I you know, the big takeaway for
me after the Denver game, same basic point in the
season last year, though they were playing for something, was
T Higgins is cemented as a beloved figure forever. That's
before he signs his second contract. That's before we see
him do what he did this past week, culminating with

(01:20:08):
his performance on Sunday. I think there's a good conversation
about whether or not he should have been out there.
That's fine, But the fact that in a game that
had no bearing on the playoff race, in a season
that has gone awry, you have a dude doing everything
he can to get on the field and then contributing
and playing his ass off like.

Speaker 4 (01:20:28):
This is I've said this before.

Speaker 5 (01:20:30):
I'm not sure there's a more beloved player than T
Higgins and I've had people say really, and I go, dude,
you it's it's not just that he's good, it's it's
dragging himself on the field against Kansas City in the
game they had to have a couple of years ago.
It's willingly playing second banana behind Jamar Chase, which a
lot of guys wouldn't do. It's what we saw this
past week, culminating with his performance against Miami.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:20:52):
I mean just talking to him afterwards and him discussing
the process and how hard it was, you know, and
I just sort of asked them because I can't imagine
what it's like to be getting on a plane flying
to Pittsburgh knowing that you're about to see a concussion
specialist and wondering what they're gonna tell you, and how
hard that must be to go through, and to go

(01:21:15):
through it all with the idea of wanting to go
be out there and playing the seemingly meaningless game, and
then to go out there and do it like that,
to be thankful to even have been a part of it,
to have played well, and to care about being out
there and being a part of this. These are the
type of guys you invest in. These the type of
guys you want their locker room. It's topic guys they

(01:21:36):
don't have probably enough of that. The team matters that much,
being a good teammate, being accountable, being available matters that
much to Tea.

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
And doing it the right way like this was not haphazard.

Speaker 6 (01:21:52):
I'm going to go out there and try to play
through it and beause like, I don't want to ever diminish.
It's very murky waters talking about that, but going through
and making sure everybody, including the top specialists in that field,
has said it's okay, and going out there and then
embracing and saying I want to go do it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:09):
Nobody and guys said this afterwards. Nobody would have given.

Speaker 6 (01:22:14):
I would have cared at all if he would have said,
I'm done, I'm done with this year.

Speaker 2 (01:22:18):
I've got these concussions.

Speaker 6 (01:22:19):
I just want to make sure I'm right, and no
one would everyone would totally understand it. But the fact
that he did do it, I think proved how much
he is about this team, how much he does care
about their success, and how much he cares about being
a good teammate.

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
And that wins you games.

Speaker 4 (01:22:36):
No question about that.

Speaker 5 (01:22:37):
Paul Tanner Junior covering the Bengals Forthathletic dot Com as
well as the Growlar podcast. Paul, we appreciate the time.
Don't forget Bengals and Cardinals On Sunday at one o'clock.
You will hear the game live on seven hundred Wlwrpre
game coverage begins at nine o'clock in the morning with
Tony Pike, ken Brew and myself at the Holy Grail.

Speaker 4 (01:22:55):
We are excited for that.

Speaker 5 (01:22:59):
If you're a Ohio State fan, you're excited for the
college football playoff. You should also be excited to buy
Bill Rabinowitz's book about last year's national championship team. We'll
spend time with Bill, coming up right around eight forty five.
We are here till nine o'clock tonight before Sterling takes
over at nine oh five. Right now, it's time for
the eight to thirty news for yours sports talk show

(01:23:20):
presented by Excuse Me, Kelsey Chevrolet on seven hundred WLW.
Lance McAllister is off tonight. He will be back for
Bengals line on Monday evening. Mullegger from ESPN fifteen thirty
filling in excuse me. Let's roll through a couple of
things that either have happened earlier today or are happening
right now. Bengals Update Bengals Today, Zach Taylor announced that

(01:23:43):
Joseph O'sai and Charlie Jones both ruled out for the
game on Sunday. I'm not sure either one of those
is a surprise. We'll see if Noah fan can go
Noah Fan listed as questionable. Was a full go of
today's workout one o'clock live on seven hundred WLW. Sunday
afternoon pregame coverage from gil begins at nine toh five.
The green Bay Packers are gonna be without quarterback Jordan

(01:24:05):
Love for their game against the Baltimore Ravens tomorrow night.
Love was downgraded from questionable to out after he sustained
a concussion in that epic game against the Chicago Bears
last Saturday night, So Malik Willis will start green Bay.
With Detroit's loss yesterday has clinched a playoff berth Baltimore
likely without its starting quarterback in the game. They have

(01:24:25):
to have Lamar Jackson listed as doubtful because of a
back contusion obviously taken out of Baltimore's last game, so
Tyler Hunley is set to start for the Ravens. Baltimore
has a tragic number of one in the AFC North.
As I mentioned, green Bay is in the playoffs, but
they can still win the NFC North if they win

(01:24:47):
their final two games and the Chicago Bears lose their
last two games. The University of Michigan has a new
football coach, Kyle Whittingham is going to replace Sharon Moore.
Kyle Whittingham just retired or didn't retire. He stepped down
as the head coach of the University of Utah recently,

(01:25:07):
where he had a terrific run. His winning percentage of
six sixty six or six sixty seven, I guess perhaps
not entirely reflective of the job he did there. He
had been the head coach since two thousand and five
up until this past year. He takes over as the

(01:25:28):
head coach at the University of Michigan. You heard Matt
Rees mention this that John Hawser is going to be
the new head football coach at Ohio University. He took
over as the interim head coach for the Frisco Bowl,
and the Bobcats beat UNLV in that ballgame seventeen to ten.
There are three bowl games happening, actually one happening right now,

(01:25:49):
two earlier today. If you care about ball games, I'll
tell you that in the game above, Sports Bowl, Northwestern
was victorious over Central Michigan by I score at thirty
four to seven.

Speaker 4 (01:25:58):
The Rate Bowl in Pena went to overtime.

Speaker 5 (01:26:01):
Minnesota holds off New Mexico by a score of twenty
to seventeen. And FIU is taking on the University of
Texas and San Antonio in the Serve Pro First Responderabowl,
and FIU leads that game in the first quarter by
a score of fourteen to nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:26:16):
There's a whole bunch of ball games.

Speaker 5 (01:26:17):
Tomorrow and one of them will pit the Miami RedHawks
against Fresno State.

Speaker 4 (01:26:21):
That is the Snoop Dog Arizona Bowl.

Speaker 5 (01:26:23):
Of course, the UC Bearcats playing the Liberty Bowl a
week from today in Memphis against Navy. As a matter
of fact, I was looking at the unofficial depth chart,
and there are some things that can happen between now
and next Friday. Many have said, and I think understandably
so that if you're playing in one of these call
them what they are, lower tier bowl games, that the

(01:26:46):
last type of team you want to play is a
service academy because there are no opt outs, and the
players go to the ball site and they're not out there,
you know, they're living by military, Navy or Army rules,
Service academy rules, and things are maybe a little bit

(01:27:08):
different for you know, a school that could have opt out,
so maybe the players aren't taking it quite as seriously.
But I did notice. I guess there were two things
in the depth chart that stood out to me. Number One, yes,
the Bearcats will be without Brendan Sorosby, who has entered
the transfer portal, but the entire offensive line is still practicing.

(01:27:30):
Most of the weaponry was listed on the depth chart,
including Evan Pryor, and so there are some players who
could still decide to opt out. There are some players
who could decide they're gonna hit the portal. But on
the depth chart that came out earlier this week, as
was released by the Liberty Bowl, most of UC's main
offensive guys are listed on it. Defensively, it's a little

(01:27:54):
bit of a different story, although it was worth noticing
that the Bearcats didn't list their play in a three
three five alignment, which I think most of us agree.
You simply cannot play against Navy. We will see how
that game unfolds. One other note, and you heard Matt
Reeese talk about this in the news. The ECHL hockey

(01:28:16):
players have gone on strike, and they've complained about a
lot of things that I think are reasonable. The travel
schedule in the EHL. You might not follow the Cincinnati Cyclones,
or if you do, you may only pay attention to
when they're at home. But they will have weekends where
they play games like three games in forty eight hours
in like two different cities, and so there have been

(01:28:39):
discussions about the schedule. There have been discussions about equipment,
properly sized helmets, stuff like that, and so the EHL
players have gone on strike, leading leaving EHL teams to
refund ticket money for games that are not going to happen,
and one of them would have been played at the

(01:29:00):
Heritage Bank Center tonight. The Cyclones were set to play Kalamazoo.
Obviously that game didn't happen. You will get a full
refund if you bought tickets to that game. And there's
a number of Cyclones hockey games coming up. One of
them is on the twenty fourth, which is one of
the best, one of the best nights they have on
the calendar, which is their Teddy Bear Toss, which that
game is in the afternoon on January the twenty fourth,

(01:29:21):
and now that, along with all the other games, is
in jeopardy because of the ECHL player strike, and the
EHL has issued a statement saying our last and best
offer and This is always part of the posturing you
have with sports labor disputes, where you'll hear the league say,
or you'll see the league say, this is our last
and best offer, and it turns out to not be
their last and best offer. We will see, but nonetheless,

(01:29:44):
the cyclones dark for the foreseeable future, including obviously tonight's
originally scheduled game against Kalamazoo. If you're looking for something
to listen to this weekend, this was a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (01:29:58):
So obviously Lance hosts this show.

Speaker 5 (01:30:00):
I have my show on ESPN fifteen thirty from three
to six, and then my buddy's Tony Pike and Austin
Elmore do the show that's on before me noon to
three since he three sixty on a ESPN fifteen thirty,
and so we do this once a year. We take
the hosts of the three regularly scheduled sports talk radio
shows and the four of us get together and we

(01:30:20):
do a year in review show where we also look
ahead to the next year. And we've done this for
years and it's always a lot of fun. It's like
the one time of year all of us are in
the same room together and we recorded it on Tuesday.
It aired yesterday morning. Maybe as you were opening presents
you listen to Lance, Me, Tony and Austin.

Speaker 4 (01:30:42):
If you missed it.

Speaker 5 (01:30:44):
It is podcast and it's a really fun show because
we look at some of the high points of twenty
twenty five and there were some like the Reds making
the postseason, like FC Cincinnati beating Columbus, and then some
of the low points, and there were many of those,
like this entire Bengal season for the most part, and

(01:31:06):
then we did segments on each of the individual.

Speaker 4 (01:31:09):
Entities in town.

Speaker 5 (01:31:09):
We kind of combined college basketball all into one or
college sports all into one, and then we did a
look ahead for twenty twenty six and if you want
to listen to it, you can go find that on
the iHeartRadio app, where you could also find it on
my page at seven hundred wow dot com. And it
was a lot of fun to do and hopefully a
lot of fun to listen to. A book that's fun

(01:31:30):
to read, and I say this as a diehard UC
football fan, is the book that Bill Rabinowitz wrote about
last year's Ohio State National championship team. Bill covered Ohio
state sports, among other things, for years with the Columbus
Dispatch and now does his own substack. But his book
about last year's Buckeye's team came out a few months ago.

(01:31:51):
If you're an Ohio State fan, you need to read it,
and you'll enjoy it, and you'll enjoy reading about last
year's team even a easy even as you hope that
this year's team can do what last year's team did.
That is a very long winded way of me saying
that Bill is going to join us to talk about
the book and the Buckeyes. Next on seven hundred WLW

(01:32:11):
New Moweger for Lance McCallister. This is RNL Carry or
Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet Sterling. Coming up after
the top of the hour. If you're an Ohio State fan,
obviously you are gearing up for the college football Playoff
quarterfinal tilt against the Miami Hurricanes on New Year's Eve nights,
but perhaps also still basking in the glow of last

(01:32:32):
year's national championship run. Bill Rabinowitz is covering both for
his sub stack. He has written a book, Buckeye Brotherhood,
How Ohio State navigated a new world to win a
national championship. It is a terrific read and I say
that as a Bearcat fan. Bill covered Ohio State for
years for the Columbus Dispatch and kind enough to join us.

(01:32:52):
I guess when you look back to a year ago
and kind of what everybody was saying about Ryan Day
and coaching for his job, and a year later he's
won a national title. They're the odds on favorite to
win another one. The Michigan program has been in tatters.
What a difference a year makes, Bill.

Speaker 8 (01:33:08):
Yeah, it is crazy to think how things changed. I mean,
I think everyone went to that Tennessee game thinking, you know,
which team's going to show up. Are they going to
mail it in or are they going to come out inspired?
And they blew the doors down and then rolled through
the playoffs in one of the great turnarounds in college
football history. I mean, they were as low as a
team can get after losing the Michigan because all those
guys came back primarily.

Speaker 3 (01:33:30):
To beat Michigan.

Speaker 8 (01:33:31):
You know, oh yeah, they wanted to win the national championship,
but that was the most immediate goal is to beat Michigan.
When they lost that game, inexplicably, they're like, what do
we come back for? Then they had the you know,
team meeting, it's kind of become famous, and then they
went on that role and yeah, it's crazy, and you
think about what's happened in Michigan since then, and looks

(01:33:52):
it was kind of in some ways a bit of
a house of cards there.

Speaker 9 (01:33:55):
Right especially after Harball left. And it is sad because obviously.

Speaker 8 (01:34:00):
There's you know, the human the toll it's taken, but
the boy it's the programs are on different footings right now.

Speaker 5 (01:34:07):
I hear about brotherhood and football, and sometimes it can
sound cliche.

Speaker 4 (01:34:10):
I actually talked with Patrick Ryder, who played for.

Speaker 5 (01:34:12):
The Bearcats this year, was on that Ohio State team
and outline just for me, you know how how legitimate
and real that was. That is I think one of
the it's the central theme of your book. You've been
around a lot of Ohio State teams. Was this the
most close knit one?

Speaker 8 (01:34:29):
I think so, just because they've been through so much together.
They you know, they stayed for four years, which is
pretty unusual. And honestly, if you had asked me at
the start of the process of writing the book whether
I would have a title like Buckeye Brotherhood, I probably
would have said no, because it seems like a cliche, right,
every team is, oh, we're a family, we're so close,
or so this, and usually it's it's kind of a

(01:34:51):
this is not really the truth. But these guys were,
I mean, and and time after time, that brotherhood sustained them.

Speaker 3 (01:34:57):
And as I kept doing their research, and it just.

Speaker 8 (01:35:01):
Was obvious that that had to be the title, because
that was that's what it was. I mean, you can
kind of roll your eyes at it, which is the temptation,
but it was real and I think that's what carried
the day for them. That's really what got him through it.
That and the fact they were really talented too. I mean,
they don't overlook that they were really talented.

Speaker 5 (01:35:18):
That that brotherhood, if you will, it's hard to achieve
in the old way the college football was played.

Speaker 4 (01:35:24):
I think that's what stands.

Speaker 5 (01:35:25):
Out to me, right and in this era where you're
you're seeing coaches across sports have a hard time, you know,
cobbling together teams and building culture and and and keeping
it keeping it going from one year to the next,
I think to me, and you're much closer to it
than I am.

Speaker 4 (01:35:39):
Obviously, that's what made what they had last year stand out.

Speaker 9 (01:35:44):
Yeah, again, you know, these guys could have gone to
the NFL, could.

Speaker 3 (01:35:48):
Have made you know, look they at nil money.

Speaker 9 (01:35:49):
It's not like they were you.

Speaker 8 (01:35:51):
Know, poor, but they could have in some cases made
a considerably u you know, the bigger amount and gotten
closer to the second contract every NFL player, every football
player once. But they they just felt like it was
unfinished business, that they couldn't in good conscience leave Ohio
State without having beaten Michigan and making a run at
the national Championship and and to have the adversity that

(01:36:14):
they did, to have, you know, to have lost to
Oregon in October, which was a tough loss but not devastating,
but then lose to Michigan was devastating. It was not
a good Michigan team. And and they did not expect
Nobody expected that. I don't think missig expected, you know,
that that outcome. So yeah, that was that was a
big part of it. But also, and I think the

(01:36:34):
heart of the book is the are the personal stories
that I that I really tried to dig deep and
get to ryan days background. I mean, you know, most
Peolhiostate fans know that his father died by suicide when
he was eight. You know just what that impact was
on his life, and and that was kind of the
first chapter of the book. And then there are other
players these stories. Jack Sawyer has a had an arc.

Speaker 9 (01:36:58):
To his story where, you know, five star guy from Pickerington,
a suburb of Columbus, and his career was just kind
of okay until the end of his junior year.

Speaker 3 (01:37:07):
Then senior year, he.

Speaker 8 (01:37:08):
Wanted to make a big splash and he was one
minute late to a workout and thought that he'd blown
his chance to be a captain, you know, and he
obviously makes the most famous play of the season.

Speaker 9 (01:37:19):
That's the cover shot of the book is the Sawyer
scoop and score against Texas.

Speaker 8 (01:37:24):
And I've got a whole chapter on just that one play.
Just what guy sat, he hits from every angle, what
he saw, what coaches saw, what players and coaches and
ross By Orke the ad what they experienced watching that
Play's that's kind of one of the fun chapters of
the book is his people reliving that play. But the
heart of the book is just the stories of these players,

(01:37:46):
one after the other, who overcame adversity, whether it was
injuries or whether it was not feeling like their career
had gone the way they wanted it to.

Speaker 3 (01:37:56):
That was kind of That's the essence of the book.

Speaker 5 (01:38:00):
Buckeye Brotherhood, How Ohio State navigated a new.

Speaker 4 (01:38:03):
World to win a national championship.

Speaker 5 (01:38:06):
Bill Robitdowitz, if if you are thinking of a very
last minute gift for an Ohio State fan, highly recommend
really quick. With the college football playoff quarterfinal looming, how
much should the performance against Indiana's defense in the Big
Ten title game give folks pauses they look ahead the
next I guess next Wednesday night.

Speaker 9 (01:38:29):
Well, we'll find out. But I do think it could
be a blessing in disguise. I think that day that
was kind of a weird week. It was signing day
the Brian Hartline took the South Florida job. They had
to try to hold onto Chris Henry Junior, of course,
the son of the former Bengal receiver.

Speaker 3 (01:38:44):
It's weird.

Speaker 8 (01:38:45):
I covered Chris Henry as a Bengal for the Dispatch,
and now I'll recovered Chris Henry Junior. And I saw
him at a recruiting thing last year, camping last year,
and I told him, man, he was a man, You're old,
but had a weird week, and uh yes, I think
that they probably they will probably help them to be

(01:39:06):
humbled some and and realize that they're not invincible.

Speaker 3 (01:39:12):
But they have to fix some things too.

Speaker 9 (01:39:13):
You know, the offensive line did not play well in
that game, and they've got to get some things sticked.

Speaker 8 (01:39:17):
But I'm not convinced that Jeremiah Smith or Carnell Tate
was all that healthy in that game.

Speaker 3 (01:39:23):
I think it. You know, we'll see.

Speaker 8 (01:39:25):
Look, you'd never know last year all the teams they
had to buy lost. Now some of those were the
teams that probaly shouldn't have gotten a buy. But you know,
there is that concern, and Miami is talented enough to
beat them, and I'm not sure that they.

Speaker 3 (01:39:37):
Have been consistent enough and they've got some holes.

Speaker 9 (01:39:40):
But but you know, that's gonna.

Speaker 3 (01:39:41):
Be an interesting game. We'll see.

Speaker 8 (01:39:44):
Look and probably to answer a question you might be thinking,
or somebody might be thinking, no, I do not have
plans to write another book.

Speaker 4 (01:39:54):
Championship. You write a book. That's how it works.

Speaker 9 (01:39:58):
It's a little tough, you know, doing a book in
four months with the level of reporting that I that
I do is I don't think mentally or physically I
can do that back to back years.

Speaker 3 (01:40:09):
But but I do.

Speaker 8 (01:40:10):
Ohio State fans follow me on substack Bill Rabinowitz dot
substack dot com. That you know, I left the Dispatch
in September on very good terms. It was my decision strictly.
I've just been looking for something different and substack gives
me freedom to write, you know, covered team the way
I've I've always wanted to do it. Yeah, yeah, I

(01:40:31):
am charging. I mean, you could get a free subscription,
but I obviously you know what pays the bills of
the paid subscription. So I appreciate if people would do that,
you know, and I want to keep doing what I do.

Speaker 3 (01:40:41):
And so.

Speaker 8 (01:40:43):
Yeah, it's been a weird year because they didn't really
have much of a regular season that was that had
any drama. I mean it was Texas the beginning and
Instring at the end and not much in the middle.
But now it heats up, you know, now it gets interesting.

Speaker 5 (01:40:57):
No question, uh, Bill on the Buckeye Substack and Buckeye
Brotherhood available as we say, Bill, where you get your books.
Appreciate the time, man, have a great Christmas.

Speaker 3 (01:41:06):
Thanks so much, all right, thanks mo, appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:41:09):
Good you got it.

Speaker 5 (01:41:10):
That truly is, and yeah, I'm as big of a
uc football fan asi'll find that is an excellent book.
Bill Rabinowitz a longtime Ohio State beat writer for the
Columbus Dispatch. Check out his substack and fine Buckeye Brotherhood
wherever you get your books.

Speaker 4 (01:41:25):
Ohio State and Miami.

Speaker 5 (01:41:27):
On New Year's Eve night next Wednesday, This coming Wednesday,
I guess in the Cotton Bowl for the right to
move on to the Fiesta Bowl to take on either
Ole Miss or Georgia. A couple of things before we
get out of here. Don't forget Sunday morning, we're at
the Holy Grail Ken Brew, Tony Pike and Me for
pregame sports talk that starts at nine am, kickoff at
one o'clock with Dan and Laponi on seven hundred W

(01:41:49):
wel W Tony and I back for the second to
last Tony and Mo football show of the year. Will
be at Twin Peaks in Westchester from three to six
on Monday afternoon. We have an absolute blast. And so
if you're not working next week, and God God help you,
I hope you're not, come on out and join us.
It is going to be a lot of fun. Anything
you might have missed. You can find on the iHeartRadio app,

(01:42:11):
or you could just go to my page at seven
hundred WLW dot com and you could follow me on
social media. I'll just I'll go with the big two
as they relate to my life. You got Twitter, which
I still call Twitter at moegar and Instagram as well
at moegar, and we post. We also have a YouTube
channel now, so all that stuff on social media and YouTube,

(01:42:32):
be sure to follow and subscribe. We're pretty much done.
Sterling is coming up after the nine o'clock News. I
want to thank Russ Jackson the return of Russ Jackson
for producing tonight, and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
The nine o'clock News is next on the home of
the best Bengals coverage, News Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati.