IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular (Weekend of October 19, 2024)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting from Aledo to Alton, from Champagne to Chicago, and
from Robinson to Rockford. This is the Sports Spectacular, powered
by a lineiguys dot Com.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's the week we've been waiting for, Michigan Week, Red
Grange Week, the Alani Guys.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
We are here.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Larry Smith, Bradsturdy, Mike kek leg Glader with us as
we get into mid October, right now, one hundred years
and a day since Red Grange did his thing, and
we'll talk about that here. Coming up, big show ahead.
Matt Stevens of Alani Guys will join us here at
the bottom of the hour. We'll hear from how things
are going to Smith's Center this week Illinois five and one.
Despite that crazy went over Perdue that some thought might

(00:46):
have knocked them out of the top twenty five, they
actually went up in both polls and right now they're
twenty second in.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
The AP poll.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
In a few minutes, we've got Steve Karnaki, not that
Steve Karanaky, but the guy who is a veteran covering
Michigan Wolverines. We've talked with him before, or he'll give
us the wolverine side of things. As we get into
this weekend and a bit later on make up A
Kewen joins as our friend from the WNBA on Ion
also does ESPN NBC. She'll talk a little women's hoops
as we've got a lot to come. It is Red

(01:13):
Grange Week again and we'll visit again with Doug Billhard
Here part of the interview that Mike did with him
about his new book talking about the legendary Harold red Grange. Guys,
start with the Michigan Illinois.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Once again. It's a season of not having things on
your Bengo card.

Speaker 5 (01:29):
Both of these teams being ranked and Illinois having a
better record than Michigan at this stage two things that
I would have missed on had you asked me six
weeks ago.

Speaker 6 (01:39):
It's very interesting, you know, Michigan being a essentially a
football blue blood against Illinois and Illinois ranked higher. Illinois's
got a better record, Michigan's looked and Illinois has as well,
but neither teams looked like invincible. They've both had their
moments when they've looked good and bad. But you know,
Michigan just hasn't looked like Michigan. And I know that
they have a coach change their inability to pass the

(02:02):
ball has been really tough on them offensively. And then
the other issue is that the defense was supposed to
be like well, I think we talked about this a
few weeks ago before the season started. It was supposed
to be generational, like you're supposed to be generational defense.
It is not a generational defense. A good defense, but
not generational with that offense.

Speaker 7 (02:21):
It needs to be.

Speaker 8 (02:23):
Yeah, it needs to be maybe too generational.

Speaker 9 (02:27):
I do think I had Illinois at three and three
at this point in the season, not five and one,
and I expected them to lose to both Michigan and
Oregon and then have to close hard to get six
and six. I think this program is in an incredible place,

(02:48):
but I think both the players and the fans have
to be prepared for two tough weeks and they have
to walk out of these two weeks with some degree
of confidence.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, Illinois, By the way, this seemed just some unprecedented visibility.
You had the Saturday night game on NBC at Penn State,
you have the Friday night game that was against the
Nebraska on Fox, the great overtime game.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
It was just a thriller.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
And then this week and next week both the Marquis
three thirty Eastern, two thirty Pacific, two thirty Central Times.
I'm sorry a kickoff on CBS. I mean, we've got
Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson in town, the former Purdue
quarterback to do this one. They'll do next one next
week in Eugene. Also when they go out to face
number two Oregon. Want to get your thoughts crazy win
last week fifty to forty nine, Illinois up twenty four

(03:35):
three and halftime twenty seven to three. Early second half,
they allow forty points in less than twenty three minutes.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
Find a way to win?

Speaker 10 (03:42):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Is that a Does that experience help this program moving
forward or does.

Speaker 11 (03:48):
It hurt them?

Speaker 6 (03:50):
Well, they won, so there's always a worse, worse outcome, right,
But no, I think it was a little bit shocking.
You know, when it's twenty seven three, you think, oh,
they're going to cruise right, I mean, they're going to
handle this, and then all of a sudden it just
went downhill and you know you had the sack for
a touchdown, the on side recovery, all those things had

(04:11):
to go right for Purdue to score the many points.
But it's definitely a I don't know that it really
has an impact on the future in the sense, but
it may be a wake up call, like it may
have been good to win this game and not play
your best because they've got some things they need to
work on. We were talking in our text thread during
that game in the first half if they have to
stop the run, and they never did really produce stopped themselves,

(04:34):
So we were talking about that, and yet in the
second half it came to fruition.

Speaker 7 (04:38):
But maybe they needed this to learn what they have
to do against Michigan.

Speaker 9 (04:42):
Yeah, it was amazing that they scored forty points in
slightly under twenty three minutes. Yeah, because they didn't score
until just a little under the eight minute mark of
the third quarter. But I think at the same time,
what's more important than what happened is what has been
going on since, because I'm assuming that other teams are

(05:05):
looking at that, and Illinois's staff has to figure out
how would I stop you know, how would I attack
it so that they can stop it, because something has
to be different from the kickoff against Michigan.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, Purdue averaging seven and a half yards per carry
on the ground last week in that game, and they
went to the air in the second half. They couldn't
stop that either. To you right, more than five hundred
yards allowed on that one. So a team that scored
forty points less than twenty three minutes, as Mike mentioned,
that scored only forty four points total in four games
against Power for conferences. But again, to your point, you

(05:40):
get the win. And we saw in our text threads.
We saw in the message boards on a line I
guys dot com where we live that people were saying, oh,
this is over, this is over. And even Brett be
able to mention on Monday that people were saying, yeah,
Illinois usually doesn't win that type of game when that happens,
when the wheels come off, they stay off. But they
found a way to get the win and go to
five and one. It's Red Grange, guys, your thoughts. I mean,

(06:01):
obviously only Mike was alive when Red Grange played, was
at that game, but put your thoughts on growing up
in central Illinois and the legacy that is that is
Red Grange.

Speaker 6 (06:13):
You know, the only thing I regret is not being
able to see him play live. He's one of those
guys that was would have been would have loved to
see him like Mike did. But you know, it's been
I guess I gotta see him every week for the
seventy seven yard the Galloping Ghost Dash, so and he's
pretty dominant there, so it's pretty fun. But no, it's
a he's an icon. I mean, there's just no other
way to put it. When you think about Illinois football,

(06:35):
there's Dick buck Cussen, there's Red Grange, and those are
really the things you think about.

Speaker 9 (06:40):
He was an icon of the nineteen twenties. I didn't
realize that until reading a couple of books, including Dougville
Hard and Chris Willis's books. And when you think of
somebody who was on par with Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey,
there was a big three in the twe and that's
who it was. And I thought the most interesting fact

(07:04):
was is that Hollywood executive producers tried to get Red
Grange to retire from football to be a full time
movie star. Red said no, and then they went out
and won the NFL title a couple of times. So
it was really interesting how history for the Bears and
the NFL could have changed had he decided to be

(07:26):
a big star.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
Yeah, and to your point, this is the time when
the NFL was nothing.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, I mean he was.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
You know, people try to talk him out of a
going pro at that point. You're exactly right. We'll hear again.
More from Doug bill Hard later on the second hour.
Great stuff from Craig last week too, talking about Red
Grange as there's just a big it's exciting and it's
great to get a chance to know we'll all be there.
Be sure to stop and say hi to us as
we walk around Grange Grove there before the game.

Speaker 4 (07:50):
Can't wait to see history in the making.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Sell out crowd more than sixty thousand ab Memorial Stadium
in this rededication game from one hundred years ago. Brett
Bieli about earlier this week talking about his LINEI team,
starting off with the question was how does Illinois keep
winning all these close games? Now two to zero in
overtime games for the first time in the season ever.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Here's coach.

Speaker 10 (08:10):
One of the things I always say, I love to
read the quotes of our opponents that we're playing against. Right,
For the most part, I think you get a real
honest assessment either before the game, during the game, or
after by what players say. Right and coaches are a
little bit more savvy. You know, they know their responses,
but players usually regurgitate what they believe in, what they feel,
and they do it in the most critical moments. And

(08:33):
Brett and I've been together announce since we had here
four years ago, and he always sends me quotes.

Speaker 12 (08:40):
From our players and what they say.

Speaker 10 (08:41):
And the one thing that just resoundedly keeps coming back
is the way that we prepare, is the way that
we play right, and the moments we put these guys in.

Speaker 13 (08:50):
I think during practice I spent a lot of time.

Speaker 10 (08:52):
I spent I don't know how many hours this morning
already just kind of working about Tuesday's practice, right. So,
Michigan is a very scripted football team. They play very
very good football. They're sound fundamentally offensively, defense pest teams.
Their offense has been on the field for seventy four
percent of their staffs have been early downs, and their
defense seventy seven percent of their downs.

Speaker 12 (09:10):
Right, So.

Speaker 10 (09:12):
The reason we practiced early downs on Tuesday is the
large part of the game. Seventy five percent of the
game is played on early downs, So we got to
learn to play like that. So and answer your question
like I think the thing that gives our guys the
moment to have those things to be successful is they've
been prepared.

Speaker 13 (09:28):
They've been put in that position, they visualize it.

Speaker 10 (09:30):
And also a little bit of some of the paint
of the past. Right, So some of our number one
season goal this year was remember the past, prepared for
the future. And I think literally every week that comes up.
I give you know, Aaron, I'm sure you guys just
shot a lot of questions at him, right, But when
they were out at the coin to us, I literally
clicked over the defense to the guys, said in the
postgame press or, I said, Hey, these guys score a touchdown,

(09:51):
they're going for two. I don't know what's going to happen,
but I'm just telling you that's what's happened. As soon
as I saw him score and I saw their whole
staff put up two, we had already called what we
wanted to call defensively, think Aaron had it down to
two calls and.

Speaker 12 (10:01):
He called the play that that ultimately won the game. Right.
So a lot of fun. And now.

Speaker 13 (10:06):
Can you Josh's played this game for a while, you
guys have made it something figured what does this moment mean?

Speaker 5 (10:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (10:15):
You know, the last one was pretty big, right, And
then the reason I just got chugged up is you
got probably what happened last time we played, right, So
the last one was big.

Speaker 13 (10:23):
I thought we had a good enough football team to
go up there and win.

Speaker 10 (10:25):
Unfortunately it didn't, right, And there's a lot of things
that went into it, things we could have done better.
So we didn't get to rematch these guys last year,
so we got a chance to rematch them this year.
Those things mean a lot to I think even in
league play it's changed a little bit now, but this
year we had six rematch games we're through. Four of
them were three and one. Last year again, those same
four teams were going four, right, So.

Speaker 13 (10:48):
I think our guys know the growth they've had.

Speaker 10 (10:50):
But I told them last night there is nothing more
challenging than to have a team that has continued to
play well and continues to move forward, to keep doing
the same things.

Speaker 13 (10:59):
That have brought your success, right, don't get bored doing
things well.

Speaker 10 (11:02):
And you know that's why it's gonna be a huge
Empasius on Tuesday's practice.

Speaker 12 (11:05):
We had to have a huge learning day yesterday.

Speaker 10 (11:08):
But the fact that Josh, you know, did everything he
could to get this game to be here on this date,
in this moment. I know a lot of other people
did as well, but to make it a big game
has been awesome for me as a head coach. I
know that this is Michigan leek right from the outside world.
But for us, it's got to be the same preparation
day in and day out, just as much as as
it was this past week against Purdue, just as much

(11:29):
as what it will be next week against Oregon, all
the things that matter.

Speaker 14 (11:33):
You hinted at it's a little bit Saturday night, but
can you walk us through the nightmare that it is
when you know a quarterback change is happening and maybe
you're gonna see something completely different and oh.

Speaker 12 (11:42):
By the way, we only have like twenty four hours
to prepare for this.

Speaker 10 (11:45):
Yeah, I think that's you know, I've been a coordinator.
I remember I learned through that exact moment. I had
a great idea. We were at Kansas State. We were
playing Texas. I forget who the starting quarterback was, but
we're like, hey, we're gonna get after these guys. We're
really gonna do it, you know, and if we get
him out right they're going to bring this young guy
that really hasn't played yet. His name was Vince Young

(12:06):
completely come in and run about for two hundred fifty
yards on weakside option, some play we'd never saw a year, Right,
So I kind of learned early in my career that
sometimes these moments that be can sneak up on you.
And I knew this right as soon as I saw
Hudsone was out, I knew he'd probably been injured in
the Wisconsin game, right, he got thrown around like a
rag down that fourth quarter. Right, So, however it Pley

(12:27):
had played out, I knew that whoever is calling the
plays or whatever they do, and they were scripting from
Sunday on against our defense, and you know, the preparation
that they had of an entire week was going to
play out in front of us.

Speaker 15 (12:39):
Right.

Speaker 10 (12:40):
We did some things in the first half was probably
kept it at the score as it was, and then
I think it was just a perfect storm. You know,
we gave up three plays that accounted for about almost
one hundred and eighty yards in a matter of like
literally real time, like twelve minutes, and it's just it
just scripted out to work really hard against us. The
great thing is we survived with the w I think
there's a lot of times people I've been around a

(13:01):
lot of Illinois fans. I took my family to dinner
a Saturday night afterwards the country club, and I think
like four people grabbing me aside and said, we've never
seen that before.

Speaker 12 (13:09):
Right, we always lose that game.

Speaker 10 (13:11):
And so fortunately the things that are starting to turn
in the right direction, but nothing is going to help
usrry forwarding Saturday.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Why it's Brett Bielman once again, then talking guys. You know,
here's the thing. Let's and Brady mentioned a moment ago,
you're five and one in ranked. Let's enjoy the ride, right.

Speaker 6 (13:26):
No question, Brett Beiman Prebby was some very good at
winning close games.

Speaker 7 (13:31):
I've talked about this before on the show.

Speaker 6 (13:33):
This is something that comes down to they've been able
to wear teams down and have success. Except for Preduy,
they didn't wear them down. Maybe they tired them out
because for the overtime by letting them run so many yards.
But but no, reality is that Beilama has been great
in close games.

Speaker 7 (13:47):
I mean that's kind of his thing.

Speaker 6 (13:48):
And you know they don't necessarily blow people out a lot,
but they are competitive, and that's what you know. Enjoy it, right,
I mean, if you can win the close games, you're
gonna have a successful year.

Speaker 7 (13:59):
I mean it's just that simple.

Speaker 6 (14:01):
And it's not always going to work out, but right
now they're doing something right.

Speaker 12 (14:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (14:07):
In four years since nineteen ninety has Illinois had a
five and one or six and oh record? Two of
them twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four are Brett Beilam.
The coach teams, the team's going in the right direction.
Appreciate it, and just imagine how much fun it will
be if there's actually some nil contributions to get closer

(14:27):
to Ohio State's twenty million and there you go.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
Only need a few of those. That's a quantum leaf.

Speaker 8 (14:34):
That's that's Larry Smith money.

Speaker 4 (14:35):
There you go, baby, I got the check book in hands,
you know.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Speaking of I think I saw some stat last week
Brett Beilima only the third coach in only history to
have at least five wins in his first four seasons.
I believe it was I'm not sure who the other
two were, Mackovic, I don't think Mike White did, but
it had it in there anyway, it's rare.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
Let's just put it that way. Hey, We've got lots
on the way.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
We'll hear from Steve Kernaki on the Michigan wolver Reeds next,
followed by Matt Stevens is on his way as well
from Alati guys and talk about this big matchup. We'll
also talk a Lotai basketball. They had a scrimmage a
few days ago. We'll get Brad's take on how that went.
Just getting started. It's a sports spectacular powered by Alti
Guys dot com.

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Speaker 2 (15:42):
Aliini Red Grange wasn't just a football player, he was
a legend. Discover the untold story of Alnai Great Red
Grange in a new novel by Doug Vilhard called the
Golden Age of Red. This captivating book takes you back
to the nineteen twenties what a humble young Illinois player
trans formed into the galloping ghost and electrified the nation.

(16:04):
Get your copy of the Golden Age of Red by
Doug Vilhart today, available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

Speaker 4 (16:23):
Welcome back, don't forget.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
You can always reach out to us info at Alani
guys dot com. Be sure to follow us on x
as well Illini Underscore Guys for all your latest to
Alini updates, and of course you can also join us
on alan Hi guys dot com free seven day trial
right now Alantic guys dot com. You know we're here
on the weekend, counting down to kickoff two thirty pm
at Memorial Stadium, Michigan, Illinois. But you know, earlier in

(16:47):
the week, our good man here, Mike Keckley always reaches
out to the opposing team and talks to an insider
to get their perspective, and just a great guy this week,
as Steve Kornaki, he is not the Steve Karnacki, the
political guy you see on TV. This is a He's
a veteran Michigan reporter there's some great stuff called the
Karnaki Wolverines Report on substack dot com and joining us

(17:10):
said this week on the iamy Lini podcast and talking
about first off, obviously of the history behind this matchup
one hundred years after the Red Grange game.

Speaker 17 (17:19):
I love the history. And Red Grange was the Babe
Ruth of college football and they played at the same
time and the Trowney's and you know what, you know,
he does compare very favorably to Babe Ruth, and in
those kinds of ways, because one time I looked it up,
in the year that Babe Ruth had sixty home runs,
it was more than any other team in the American
League hit more home runs than any team in the

(17:42):
league hit. So that you know, it's like Ruthiean or
Grangian or you know whatever. Those guys are just often
starts tremendous impact players who popularized attending attending big sporting events.
I mean, people wanted to go see Day Ruth. They
wanted to go see Red Grange, and that must have

(18:04):
been a heck of a day.

Speaker 9 (18:05):
There was one other one in the Big Three, which
was Jack Dempsey. And so you had Jack Dimsey drawing
one hundred thousand people or ninety something thousand to watch
a boxing match. The thing that makes Red Grange so
interesting to me, We've had on two authors. One was
Doug Vilhard, who wrote a historical fiction about Red Grange,

(18:28):
and the other was Chris Willis, who works for NFL Films,
who did a biography of Red Grange. And the interesting
thing is, Red Grange did everything that a modern player
wants to do. He got an agent, which in those
days was unheard of. He then went to a professional sport,

(18:49):
so he did that. He went to Hollywood and made
movies and they were very popular. In fact, he was
asked by Hall would producers to retire from football and
just make movies, and he said, no, I'm a football player.
And then when he was done with his career, before
anybody really started doing it, he started doing football games

(19:13):
on radio in Chicago, and then he did football games
on television for college football and even did some bowl games.
So he did everything that a modern player would like
to do. I'd like to be a movie star, I'd
like to be on TV. If Red would have come
along a little suiter, he probably would have been a
podcast or two.

Speaker 17 (19:32):
Who knows and he was a model for Tom Harmon.
I mean what you were saying there, Mike, that's Tom
Harmon's career, you know. He he you know Tom Harmon
of Michigan. They made a movie about him and he
ended up marrying an actress and they had they had
a son and a daughter who both went off to Hollywood,

(19:53):
and the son, Mark Harmon obviously all everybody's heard of,
but he had a sister who also was a popular
actress and probably bigger in the de Tried area, yeah,
anywhere else. But you know, so Red Grange kind of
you know, set the not set the tone, but set
up Mark. He was the temple Tom Harmon and others

(20:15):
to you know, be a star.

Speaker 9 (20:17):
Basically, I didn't put that into perspective until Chris Willis
of NFL Films and I were talking about it, and
you're like, holy cow, he was blazing a trail and
it was only one hundred years ago when he started
blazing it. So anyway, so let's zoom in here. Illinois
comes in five and one, only the fourth time they've
been five and one or better since nineteen ninety. They

(20:41):
did it in two thousand and one, they did it
in twenty twenty two. They did it in twenty twenty four,
so two of those times were Brett Bielma, and they
were five and one those three seasons. And of course
everybody remembers the infamous twenty eleven season where they started
six and oh under Ron Zuck and then needed to
lose the next six games. But this is unusual, and

(21:05):
of course Michigan comes in with a four and two record.
I expected them to struggle against Texas. I was not
expecting them to struggle so much against Washington.

Speaker 12 (21:19):
I'm kind of with you exactly.

Speaker 9 (21:21):
And so there's two things I'd like you to give
your opinion of. The first one is, I know there
was a lot of things going on in the offseason
because Jim Harball was involved. I get it, but I
think it was just crazy that they didn't go after
a quarterback in the portal if nothing else, has an

(21:42):
insurance policy. And the second thing is I really thought,
and the season isn't over yet, but I really thought
this was going to be a generationally great Michigan defense.
And it's been a good defense, but it hasn't been
that level that I expected.

Speaker 17 (22:02):
Yeah, that's correct, and you know it is surprising that
this defense hasn't hasn't been more dominant because it has
dominant players. You know, you got Will Johnson, who's acclaimed
by everyone as the best cover cornerback in college football.
And he had another pick six in the in the
USC game.

Speaker 12 (22:20):
His third third pick six.

Speaker 17 (22:22):
Jeez, that's pretty dwn good, I mean. And so many
big games Will Johnson made huge Ohio State last year.
Had an interception early in the game, Big ten championship games, interceptions,
you know, late in the game.

Speaker 12 (22:37):
He's just he's.

Speaker 17 (22:38):
Really set the tone. And and well, he hasn't had
a bad year. I've seen him. I've seen him get
beat not on deep passes, but on like intermediate passes
unlike he ever has before. And he's a junior, not
a lot, but some you know, he used to be
like Texas didn't even throw at him, you know, and
and and so you know he's kind of not taking

(23:02):
this step up that he has been hurt in his
defense at times. But you know, and then they've got
Kenneth Grant and and Mason Graham in the middle of
those two guys are beefs in Michigan. You know, I'm
going to look at my notes. Now Pro Football Focus
has them as the top pass rush unit in the
country and their thirteen sacks lead the Big Ten and

(23:28):
fifteen or the sack leaders as Josiah Stewart with five.
So they bring the heat, and any quarterback who can't
handle the heat usually usually wilts against against Michigan And
and if that's a real challenge, you know, the constant heat,
and they really thump you too. I mean, they they

(23:48):
bring guys down, and they bring them down hard, and
it's almost like the old Al Davis, you know, Oakland
Raiders owner and coach, the monster.

Speaker 12 (23:59):
The quarterback must go.

Speaker 17 (24:00):
Down on the first possession. And you know he said
it much more graphically than that. Yeah, but but his
point was that, you know, you got to get in
the quarterbacks head immediately, and these guys will do that.
And they still have that. They're still a pretty good
tackling team. But last year in Michigan was the surest
tackling team I ever saw. It was phenomenal. Every game

(24:22):
it seemed like there's only one guy who broke a
tackle and went another five yards second. That's a game
like never like if there was somebody close to him.
You know, Now, it's like three times a game that happens,
and it's there's still a very good defense, but they're not.
I mean, I think they really missed Mike Sanderstill, Zeke
Barry has done a good job and that that that

(24:44):
role in the backfield. But I think Saindristill it didn't
get as much pub as he deserved.

Speaker 12 (24:50):
And uh and he's already.

Speaker 17 (24:52):
Making an impact as as a pro football player, getting
you know, demanding the time and getting it, and I
think they miss him. And here's the other thing. They
lost thirteen players to the NFL Draft last year. And
something that never gets talked about is there's ten it's
a ten man coaching staff. Only three of these guys

(25:13):
were here last year. And Grant Newsom was the tight
ends coach. Now he's the offensive line coach. I think
he's gonna be a really great offensive line coach, but
it's his first year, right and so you know, and
Kurt Campbell is back. He was the quarterbacks coach. Now
he's also the offensive coordinator. And Ron Bellamy is back
again as the wide receivers coach. But everybody else has changed,

(25:35):
you know, and that's something that doesn't get talked about
a lot, but you've got new players with new coaches,
so you almost have.

Speaker 12 (25:43):
A new program. In some ways, the cor of it
is the same.

Speaker 17 (25:48):
They demand you know that these kids are extremely hard workers,
extremely great teammates, selfless. The culture is still the same.
There's a love among them, the teammates and the coaches
that that that Searan Moore has maintained. But you know
it's taken them a while and they're still trying to

(26:08):
pull everything together because there's so much that has changed.

Speaker 9 (26:12):
The guy I looked at was when Malik Murphy left Texas,
big strong arm quarterback who was stuck behind quinn Ewers
and then of course had the unenviable task of being
the guy right ahead of arch Manning. Why wouldn't Michigan
try to throw their hat in the ring and see
if they can outbid Duke And.

Speaker 12 (26:33):
That's a good point.

Speaker 17 (26:35):
My son Derek, who co writes the Kornacky Wolverine Report
and takes photos, you know, he was one of the
first to say, why didn't they go on the portal
and get somebody because none of the quarterbacks that we've
seen look like the kind of quarterback that who can.

Speaker 12 (26:50):
Win a championship. They just don't.

Speaker 17 (26:52):
I mean, they've got good qualities and their first time starters,
and so that's not easy. But the guy who looks
the most able to lead a team to victory as
Jack Tuttle, but then he's self destructed down the stretch
with a fumble and an interception in the fourth quarter
of the loss to Washington, a team that Michigan should
have beat, even on the road, I believe, So, you know,

(27:17):
it is what it is. They do have a standing freshman,
Jaden Davis, who is a four star recruit from Fort Mills,
South Carolina, who really loves it here and you'll see
him on the sidelines, and for whatever reason, he's not
gotten a chance to you know, and he's got to
be the next guy to get a chance. And and

(27:38):
you know, we don't go to practices, so we don't know,
you know, where he is as a player. If he's
not ready as a player, he's not ready. But I
think that the time will be soon that he may
have that experience and that they will put him in.
And he's a guy who can throw and run and
supposedly do it all. So I'm sure he'll be on

(27:59):
on on the trip champagne.

Speaker 9 (28:00):
Sharon Moore is the man who called thirty two straight
runs against Penn State. Illinois has struggled. I will give
Aaron Henry Brett Bielma. The defensive players. They knew the
defensive line was paper thin, they knew the linebackers were
not as deep as they hoped to be. And yet
throughout this five and one start, Illinois has given up

(28:24):
run yards, but they've suckered teams into passing.

Speaker 17 (28:29):
You know, this this could be a game where if
Michigan has has success running, they might only throw thirteen times.
You know, they might just throw a handful of times
a quarter, you know, to keep things honest. If they
can move the ball on the ground. Yeah, they in
that Penn State game last year. You know that the
thirty two straight times there was a pass in there.

Speaker 8 (28:46):
Oh there was there was.

Speaker 17 (28:47):
An incomplete pass, all right, So so all the yardage
was was on the ground in those in that that
amount of time. And yeah, they and at times they've
shown like that they can really you know, you know,
they can really run, like last year when they had
an offensive line that all went to the NFL. And

(29:10):
they've got some young kids and at times they look
really good. But what they do have is Kleel Mullings,
who his second effort, I mean, he we thought he
saved the season, but then the post to Washington, Yeah,
you know against USC with just an unbelievable sixty three
yard run with such great second effort and spun away

(29:31):
and bounced off a guy and outraced him and finally
got pulled down, you know, near the goal line. This
kid has a tremendous spirit, kind of like Blake Korum,
you know where you know, he just will not be denied.
Just he has he has another gear that even a
lot of great running backs don't have. And then Donovan Edwards,

(29:54):
who some thought would be a Heisman Trophy candidate this
year and I wondered if he might be. And he's
doing OK, but but the starter is now Claile Mullings
and and and Donovan's had some good plays and his
blocking has really improved, and he's real close to becoming
the receiving UH leader as a running for the for
a running back at Michigan. Let's see what does he

(30:16):
have here? He is fifty one yards away from passing
Anthony Thomas. Wow, for the most received receiving yards from
a Michigan back. So he does a lot and he's
a great leader, he's a great kid. But Michigan, you know,
definitely has again. Max Brettison, the fullback, is an unsung
hero on this team. He's a tremendous blocker, a really

(30:39):
tough kid, and so they really come at you, you know,
out of the backfield. And while the line isn't as
good as last years, it's it's a totally new line.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
You know.

Speaker 17 (30:49):
Coaston Lovelin is back at tight end. He's he's fantastic.
He's also a very good blocker. Some think he'll be
a first a first round pick and the first tight
end drafted.

Speaker 12 (31:00):
So yeah, to.

Speaker 17 (31:02):
Answer your question, Mike, if Michigan has success running the ball,
they could they could just keep handing it off and
you know, pass when it's there and pass enough to
keep things honest.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
Once again with Steve Kornacki of the Kornaki Wolverine Report
on substack. You can hear the entire interview on the
I on Thelani podcast. You can find that on the
Alani guys dot com front page or wherever you download
your podcast. Stay with us A quick time out Matt
Stevens joins us up next, plus a big honor this
week for Brett Bielba Just ahead.

Speaker 18 (31:29):
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need OSF on Call Urgent Care. With OSF on Call
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(31:51):
three sixty five. Get started today or find a clinic
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Speaker 1 (32:01):
You're listening to the Sports Spectacular powered by a Line
Guys dot Com on the ALIGNI Guys Radio Network. Now
let's get back to the studio.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Hey, welcome back to the show. We promised a little
Alani basketball update. Is hard to believe. We are just
about a week away. This is hard to believe. It's
already here.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Illinois going down.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
To Oxford, Mississippi to take on Ole Miss in a
Sunday morning scrimmage. I mean usually these things happen in
the afternoon or evening or something, but they're gonna like
get up and I guess go to early service church
and then and then go to that. But anyway, Brad
Sturty the Alini hosting Butler last week in a secret scrimmage.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
What do we learn about the team?

Speaker 6 (32:40):
Well, I think that the talent shown out if they're
young still, but I mean the young talent are guys
that are experienced. When you've got like Casparas Jacucioni's there,
they're very experienced. Even though he's only eighteen years old.
He's played internationally so much and at a high level
of the league. But he's he's the best player on
the floor pretty much. When he walks on the cord,

(33:00):
he's gonna be the best player. That's why new mock
drafts are putting him anywhere from six to ten on
the mock drafts. Scouts have been in to see him.
They love what they've seen. And he was he was
dominant in this this scrimmage, I was told and Will Riley,
the other freshman, was very good. You have you know,
they all played a role. You know, had a lot
of guys they showed what they can do. Whether it

(33:20):
was you know, Trey White was a guy who was
talked about a lot, you know, playing really well and
doing a lot of good things, and Ben hum rick
House too, So I think this team has a lot
of depth.

Speaker 7 (33:29):
I think they have a lot of length.

Speaker 6 (33:31):
That's what everybody talks about is how big they are,
even without you know, when they get Thomas slav Uh playing,
you know, Ivasich ready to go, then this team's huge.
I mean they have a ton of size up front,
they have a ton of size when they can go
really big in the backcourt. So this is a really
impressive group. I think that's what you learned is that
length can be really devastating. Their defense was although they

(33:52):
make a lot of defensive mistakes right now, the defense
was better than expected just because they can use.

Speaker 7 (33:57):
That length and size to to change and altar shots.

Speaker 9 (34:01):
I think the interesting thing is is with the positional
size that Brad Underwood has been talking about, this team
may have different scorers based on who they're playing, because
some teams may not be able to deal with hum
rick House and then the next night they may not
be able to hear to handle with Casparis, And because

(34:22):
of this positional size, they can almost play the mismatch
a little bit and then The other thing that Underwood
can do is he can drive coaches nuts with lineups
that are designed to exploit the other team, where he
brings in two or three guys, goes big, goes fast,
goes whatever he wants to go. They're going to be

(34:43):
a team that people won't like to deal with. And
in theory, a couple of their freshmen really aren't freshmen.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
Yeah, well that too.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
And you know, you think about last year's team where
you sometimes had a lineup where nobody was shorter than
six six. You could had that same thing now to
your point, you know, but yet you've got a lot
more talent, a lot more athletic talents on the court,
no question about that. So again, they play next Sunday
as the Exhibition and the Lope in the week after
that at home against EIU. Back to football now. A

(35:14):
great honor for Brett Bielaner this week is he's named
to the mid season watch list for the Bear Bryant Award.
I mean, you know, twenty seven names of the list,
so a lot of guys there, but still the fact
that people around the country are noticing what he's done
this season in his fourth year with the Alani Yeah.

Speaker 6 (35:29):
No question, it's a good honor. It shows that he's
on the national radar. I do wonder how Ryan Day
and Kalin de Bor got on there. I mean they
both have lost and Ryan Day hasn't looked like a
coaching juggernaut, and Devor lost to Vanderbilt, So I don't
know if that's I don't know how to get on there.
Just sometimes it's just the blue blood factor, right.

Speaker 9 (35:50):
Well, at least they didn't put Jerry Jones on there.
They got that going for him.

Speaker 8 (35:55):
I do think it's great. I do think it's great.

Speaker 9 (36:00):
That Brett gets a little bit of recognition because he's
five and one. Ryan days five and one. If you
compare the recruits on each team and the dollars spent
to get those recruits or retain those people, you know
which coach you'd rather have?

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, Brett, Yeah, once again five and one, and hopefully
that this is a year that things kind of turn around.
We heard last year when they stumbled a bit with
some you know, different defensive coordinator and some different personnel
on the field. Johnny Newton a slow start, but yeah,
it didn't kind of write things until late. But maybe
finally you can get some recognition for the job that

(36:39):
he does year in, year out and the expertise that
he brings to this program. Speaking of let's go right
now to our experts. The guy with our expertise, Matt Stevens.
He's a lot of guys dot com football and writer
and analyst for a lot of guys dot com.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
Matt, great to talk with you, big week.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
We've all had this circle on our calendar for the
past year, knowing that this was gonna happen. Didn't give
be you know again, five and one and uh with
Michigan coming in, But.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
Talk about it.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
What's the atmosphere around Smith said of this week, it
seemed like watching the coaches talk earlier in the week,
the news conferences you were at, that everyone's pretty excited
for this. Obviously for big reasons because it's the Red
Grange game, but the fact that they're five and one and.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
This is one that the nation will now be paying
attention to.

Speaker 14 (37:21):
Yeah, I think it's they're acting like it's the biggest
game of the Brett Beel in my era, and probably
because it is. You know, I I sold you guys
hard starting in August that Kansas was the biggest game
of the bel in my era. I think we've reached
the next one, next biggest game of the bel of
my era, because now you can get to another tier.
If you win this football game, you get to another tier.

(37:43):
And this staff is going to start to recognize and
start to you know, I think prep themselves and prep
the nation really hard that if we win this football game, okay,
and then we go to Eugene and are really competitive
and we end you know, God forbid, we end the
year ten and two, we should be in the college
football Playoff. Like it's not Halloween, guys, and we're talking.

(38:06):
We could talk legitimately about Illinois chances to make the
college twelve team college football Playoff.

Speaker 12 (38:12):
If they win this football game this weekend.

Speaker 14 (38:13):
And I think with Brett Beelma having so many opportunities
at Wisconsin to play in games like this and so
many opportunities at Arkansas to play to coaching games like this,
you know, there's there's no hiding the idea that this
is a huge game, that this is a huge game
on national television. Illinois hasn't been on CBS since nineteen
eighty three. They haven't been anything like there hasn't been

(38:36):
anything like this, and and for bred Bealan would have
stand up there and tell fans, hey, we need this
to be an electric atmosphere. You need to take some
ownership and be part of this on Saturday. I've never
heard him do that before, and I think that that
that was a sign that hey, this is this is
this is where you know, I know we he said it.
I know we have to get certain to get to

(38:58):
certain levels in our in our rebuild and our program development.
But we've got to get some We've got to make
some steps in fan development too, because we haven't done
this in a while too. And I think he recognizes
that that Saturday could be an electric atmosphere if everybody
takes ownership and what their part can be.

Speaker 6 (39:15):
Matn Let's just hope they don't leave at halftime when
Illinois goes up twenty seven to three. Right, No, this
is a sellout, huge atmosphere. You know, it's obviously important
game for Illinois, and I feel like they can win.

Speaker 7 (39:28):
What do they have to do to win this game?

Speaker 14 (39:30):
Though physically not. I think I think the team that's
the most physical is going to win this football game.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
Ha ha.

Speaker 14 (39:38):
Like I don't think that that's either team is really
trying to hide what their philosophy is, how they feel
like they should play. Look, Illinois has has thrown the
football very, very effectively. If Illinois can figure out a
way to run the ball effectively, they will win the
football game. If Michigan can figure out with Jack Tuttle,
how to throw the ball effectively, they will win the
football game. Because I think both team's defenses, short of

(40:01):
what you saw in the second half against Penn State,
have been pretty solid. I think Michigan's defense is pretty
solid for five and a half quarters of play this year.
Illinois's defense has been pretty solid. I think there's a
specific reason in the Smith Center that they know why
the second half against Purdue happened. But I do think
that if they're physical enough to match Michigan, and they

(40:23):
did not do that against Penn State. Penn State was
a heck of a lot more physical and a lot
more a lot more combative at the line of scrimmage
than Illinois could handle. But if they can match Michigan's physicality,
I think they can win the football game.

Speaker 9 (40:38):
What is the what is needed by this team? What
do they do differently against Michigan to meet that challenge
because while Michigan hasn't played up to their expectations, they
still have the best defensive tackle duo that the Big
Ten scene in ten years.

Speaker 12 (40:57):
Yep, they need Look, you need it.

Speaker 14 (41:00):
You need a great game out of Brandon Henderson, who's
probably going to play it right guard. You need a
great game out of Josh Getzky, who's probably going to
play it left guard. You need a great game out
of Josh Krutz, who's going to be your center. That's
that's a fact. And then when you try to pass protect,
your two tackles, Melvin Priestley and j. C. Davis are
going to have to be on point because Michigan still
has rush ends that can go get the quarterback. And

(41:22):
and that was one of the things I felt like Washington,
if there was you know, you know, five or six
or seven more minutes in that football game, Will Rogers
was was was really under duress in the second half
of that football game under Michigan's defense in their pass rush.
So Michigan can still get after it. And then what
what what Illinois is going to have to do up
front on defense is Troy Edwards has got to play

(41:44):
in the in a way that's going to make NFL scouts,
you know, stand up and go, Okay, we need to
draft this guy, because if if Donovan Edwards or or
anybody else in the Michigan running game gets going, that's
that's a problem because what that allows Tuttled to do.
Who's I think completely healthy now, but I'm not completely
sure is he's the third quarterback that Michigan has used,

(42:07):
and the reason they're using him is he's a seventh
year player who has some comfort level and what they're
whether he's being asked to do and what he's been
asked to do at this level. I fully believe that
he if he'd been healthy the whole year, he'd he'd
have been michigan starting quarterback the whole year. But there's
there's there's a there's an element to to get him comfortable.
They have to get in in second medium and third

(42:27):
and shorts. And if Michigan can do that, they're on
their way to a very very progressive and probably point
scoring drive. But if Michigan is in third and longs
and even maybe even third and mediums, that puts a
lot of pressure on Jack Tuttle to make plays. I'm
not sure he's capable on a consistent basis of doing that.
In order to do that, Tira Edwards and I'll even

(42:49):
put Dylan Rosie act the middle the linebacker. Illinois's got
to be on point. They have to be on point
because I think that Michigan is going to run right
up the middle and at the point of attack on Illinois.
And there again, there's just no hiding what they do
in ann Arbor, just like there's really no hiding what
they do in Champagne. This is not this is This
is one of those games, guys where both head coaches
can walk over their play sheet to the other coach

(43:11):
and say, here's here's what we're gonna do.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
This is about execution, right exactly.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Yeah, we all know that. There's no question. I do
love what Luke Altmeyer has shown this year. Fourteen touchdowns,
only one interception. I think it's lost a little bit
in in you know that crazy second half that look,
Purdue takes the lead, three point lead with forty six
seconds left.

Speaker 4 (43:30):
This is a second half that has knock on well
for Illinois.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
And what's lost a little bit, I think, and hopefully
not not too much by fans, is that this guy
was so cool when he stepped up, never got rattled.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
He had a couple of incomplete passes.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
He got sacked, but completed two big passes to Bryant
and then to Beaty to get down and for that
David Lono field goal to tie it at the gun
and then we go to overtime. Then of course the
touchdown pass it overtime as well. So it's just a
different it's a different field for this team, and hopefully
that translates to Saturday.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
Matt.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
We will be right there with you in the press
comes Saturday at two thirty. Cannot wait for that. It
would be good to see you and look forward to
all your good work before and after the.

Speaker 4 (44:05):
Game as well.

Speaker 12 (44:06):
Not a problem, have a good one, guys.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
I appreciate Matt Stevens once again. He's a football writer
and analyst for alani guys dot com. Some great stuff
on there, in fact, talking about Brett Bilima as we're
mentioning a moment ago, encouraging the fans to make this
a home field edge sixty six hundred.

Speaker 4 (44:21):
There, Everyone get loud.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
This is will be one of the best games you
will see in the Immemorial Stadium in quite some time
that you have seen in quite some time. Hopefully more
to come. All right, stay with us, much more coming up.
We still second hour. We talked to David Molten of
CBS Sports about this matchup and about how excited the
Eyeball network is and what they did to get this
game on their air. It's still an hour number two.
This is a sports spectacular on the Alani Guys Radio Network.

Speaker 18 (44:45):
When life isn't easy, you need healthcare, that is, you
need OSF on Call Urgent Care. With OSF on Call
you need it. Of an appointment online or walk in
on holidays. Virtual visits are also available twenty four to

(45:08):
seven three sixty five. Get started today or find a
clinic near you at OSF on Call dot Org slash
Virgin Care.

Speaker 4 (45:28):
Come up here on the top of the hour hour
number two.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Still on the way, and again we've got David Moulton
from CBS Sports, also Mega McEwan coming up. But to
talk a little women's hoops both WNBA and Big ten
and also again part of the conversation that Mike had
with Doug Vilhart has a great book out on.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
Red Grange, really really good stuff.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
But you know, Mike mentioned it earlier, and so we
thought we go ahead and just let him crowd his misery.

Speaker 4 (45:50):
Here Jerry Jones and the meltdown. What is Jerry now?

Speaker 19 (45:54):
Hi?

Speaker 4 (45:54):
How old is he?

Speaker 8 (45:56):
Seventy seven? Seventy eight?

Speaker 3 (45:58):
Really?

Speaker 4 (45:59):
I thought he was like eight plus.

Speaker 8 (46:01):
This doesn't I don't know, I don't know. You know.

Speaker 9 (46:03):
The bottom line is is really they Dallas got beat
so bad last week. It was like watching that Saturday
Night Live skit where Peyton Manning burned out the little
kids and threw the ball at him. Couldn't figure out
what was going on. That's how bad Detroit made the
Cowboys look. And then Jerry gets on his show and
somebody asked him questions about it just a week after

(46:24):
he talked about the buck stops at him, you know,
and and he's and he's all mad because it's like
they they basically said, you know, it's your fault. The
roster is a joke. You've paid three players, you know,
one of them's injured, the other one's Dak and Ceedee
Lamb is the highest paid number two receiver in the

(46:45):
in the league. They're they're toast Mike.

Speaker 6 (46:50):
I I have to say, I thought that this was
a reenactment. If you're a call, you know, Cumberland College
against Georgia Tech. I thought they were re enacting that
two and twenty two to zero game for a while, so.

Speaker 8 (47:04):
Did the Cowboys.

Speaker 6 (47:06):
And then Jerry's eighty two eighty two okay, means he's.

Speaker 7 (47:11):
Almost perfect presidential age.

Speaker 6 (47:14):
So and he's got the same level of competence, yes,
of the of the old men.

Speaker 9 (47:22):
Here's the thing. He fired the football brains when when
Jimmy Johnson left the room back in ninety ninety three
and ninety four, it hasn't been the same since.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
Here's what's scared now. Listen.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
As a businessman, he's built this into a multi bi franchise,
God bless him.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
But on the field, think about this.

Speaker 5 (47:44):
The Cowboys are on the verge of going thirty years
since their last Super Bowl.

Speaker 8 (47:48):
That's just.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
Shocking. I mean, it's you know almost I mean away.

Speaker 6 (47:55):
The Cowboys are the Yankees of football. I mean, when
the Yankees going to the Yankees win, That's what I'm saying.
The Cowboys should win more than they do.

Speaker 8 (48:04):
Right, Really, I got none to argue with here.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah, that was such a blowout even the team that
the network ran out of commercials.

Speaker 9 (48:12):
Here's the funny thing is that was the first week
with Kansas City not playing and Cowboys getting destroyed. This
is the first week that the NFL ratings were lower
than prior year.

Speaker 8 (48:24):
Wow, Cowboys.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
All right, well, Mike, we'll dig out of here. We'll
move on. We've wollowed for three please please exactly.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
A little college football now, great story brewing as we
talk about looking forward to this new world conference realignment
and no more divisions and nil and the twelve team playoff.

Speaker 5 (48:42):
How about Army and Navy both teams six and zero
at the same time. But the first time since nineteen
forty five, I mean.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
One of the world is going on here with you know,
Johnny lu Jack and Notre Dame and Era Parsigian and
you know, well he's not that New Rockety all the
other names.

Speaker 7 (48:58):
Yeah, it's wild. I mean the you know, it's really cool.

Speaker 6 (49:03):
I mean, the history, the all the stuff that comes
with that is really neat. And and now you have
teams that can beat Notre Dame, which is even makes
it even better. I mean, because that really is I
mean because if you can beat Notre Dame, that means
it's a good week and a good year for anyone,
and that's around the country.

Speaker 9 (49:22):
Yeah, and producer Tony Cardero is going to get either
a Navy and or Army tattoo if they beat Notre Dame.
So I think we should all be hoping that those
two teams win and then Tony can get one underneath
each I.

Speaker 7 (49:43):
And if he gets a D then he'd have a.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, Yeah, I'll go ahead.

Speaker 8 (49:57):
No, we're done. Yeah. We threw a couple his microphones,
so this is great.

Speaker 7 (50:03):
You can't defend himself. It's the best.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
Exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
We have a guest on so all of a sudden,
the forearm comes up on the camera so everyone can
get atter day tattoo. Put that army tattoo right next
to that, buddy. I was trying to think of some
Heisman Trophy winners Johnny Lujack of course, forty seven Notre Dame,
Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis the back to back for
armyeteen forty five and forty six. Thank you Wikipedia, Hey,
real quick, what do you get this in before we
have to get a break out in Colorado Travis Hunter,

(50:28):
maybe the best player in college football is Deon Sanders.

Speaker 4 (50:31):
Using him too much, kind of burning him out out
there in Boulder.

Speaker 7 (50:35):
I think it's conceivable.

Speaker 6 (50:36):
I mean, we've seen this in other sports, maybe not
in football as much, but we've seen that in baseball,
you know, pitchers getting overused, throwing too many evenings in
college and I think they were seeing this because the
two way stuff.

Speaker 7 (50:47):
And I get it at times.

Speaker 6 (50:49):
You know, Charles Woodson did some of both, but they
have a primary and they they you know, they used
them in different different ways. I feel like he's just
kind of playing him too much, and he's obviously dinged
up all the time.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Now.

Speaker 9 (50:59):
Yeah, and I do think that Dion, if everything works out,
Dion will say that he made him. And if he
gets tired, Dione'll just say, well, you know, my fault,
I just did what he asked me to do. But
I think this kid is an incredible talent, and you
just hope he doesn't get fatigued, you know, from being
used too much, because that's when the serious injuries happened.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Yeah, no question, By the way, Love the KSE eight
quarterback you scores and then does the deon dance in
the end zone Chef's kiss.

Speaker 4 (51:25):
That was awesome, all right, top of the hour, hour
number two coming up for most of you.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
We've got David maulton the CBS Sports and ESPN coming
up next to talk more in college football.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
Next on the Sports Spectacular.

Speaker 12 (51:48):
This is Brad Underwood.

Speaker 20 (51:49):
You're listening to the ALIGNI guys, Sports Spectacular.

Speaker 4 (51:56):
As we continue right now.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
One of the big games this weekend, of course, is
ILLINOI number twenty two and the coach is politicing on
twenty fourth ranked to Michigan. Rare to have CBS at
Memorial Stadium. I'm not sure it's happened. I think maybe
nineteen eighty three. The great game. David Williams is going
that winning touchdown, I is Illinois won the Big Ten,

(52:18):
first and only team to go nine to zero to
beat every other conference opponent on the way to the
Rolls Bowl, where of course it was UCLA. I want
to talk about that anyway. David Moulton is with us.
He is part of the CBS broadcast team. David, great
to have you back on the show. I want to
start first off talk about this this game, and I
know you're a historian like I am, and it's the

(52:39):
Red Grange game and how exciting is this for college football?

Speaker 21 (52:42):
Well, and for the longest time, this game was kind
of earmarked for Big ten Network, and there were a
lot of us you know, the Fox and CBS and
NBC and who picks first what week and that sort
of deal. But every team has to play a conference
game on Big ten network, and so the network kind
of because I think they didn't think Illinois was going

(53:03):
to be this good, but they knew it was going
to be a big occasion because of the opponent and
the Red Grange jerseys and all that, and they thought
this would be a really nice marquee game for Big
ten Network. Well then obviously Illinois starts winning games and
you're looking at the schedule that week and the networks
were kind of like, uh, hey, Tony Pettiti, is there
anyway you know, not the begrudge Big ten network.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
But yeah, I don't know there anyway.

Speaker 21 (53:28):
This could be available for you know, non cable, you know,
just you know, whether it's.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Fox, CBS, NBC. So we're thrilled.

Speaker 21 (53:38):
Our executive producer Craig Silver, I think was a part
of the eighty three broadcast in some way, shape or form.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
He remembers Illinois football from the eighties.

Speaker 21 (53:50):
You know, I have not found CBS at Illinois since
eighty three.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
I looked up that.

Speaker 21 (53:58):
I looked up the schedules for the the eighties, because
remember being on network television in the eighties was a
big deal, and so if you look it up, they
will list, you know, not every game was televised. In fact,
most games were not televised. So the three or four
a year that were CBS or ABC or what have you,
it was like, oh, wow, if if Illinois has played

(54:22):
a home game on CBS since nineteen eighty three, I
was unable to find it.

Speaker 4 (54:29):
Wow. Yeah, I'm not surprised.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
And to your point, you need to be a winning team,
and let's just be handed, Illinois has not been a
winning team. I think the four to one start was
only the third since like nineteen fifty two or something.
I mean, it's it's it didn't have very often. I
recall the last game. I went about thirty years in
between games just because I was, you know, always in
the South and I was always in studio with CNN,

(54:53):
so I didn't get a chance to go to games
for a long time. I went to a game back
and we was nineteen ninety one and Houston comes at
David Klingler and Illinois defense just destroyed him. And that
was on ABC.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
Right well, to your.

Speaker 21 (55:08):
Yeah, because CBS also by the late eighties, right around
nineteen ninety the broadcast package changed and they couldn't get
their hands on Big Ten games. And then of course
by the mid nineties they're showing the SEC.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
Nationally and getting mocked for it.

Speaker 21 (55:22):
Kind of like, you know, who outside of the South
is going to be interested in these games? It turned
out to be an okay thing. Here's another thing, Larry,
is when's the last time Illinois played Michigan and they're
the higher ranked team?

Speaker 2 (55:38):
You know, I was looking for that and I got
interrupted by a phone call. Didn't finish it because I
want to say the last time ranked and undefeated was
maybe two thousand and one when only won the Big Ten.
But I think I think they were still the bigger
I would be I would say probably never, or you
got to go back into the nineteen forty or something.

Speaker 4 (55:58):
Do you have the age?

Speaker 3 (55:59):
I mean, I'm one in one of the rich Rod years.

Speaker 21 (56:01):
If by chance, you know, Illinois might have had a
better record and was more highly thought of, but I
don't know if they were ranked. But so yeah, I
mean we're fired up, and not just saying that we're
fired up, because also, you know, Brad and Gary have
history with Brett Bielima, going back to his Wisconsin days
and then of course his Arkansas days, and so and

(56:22):
I personally, for what that's worth, enjoy his style of football,
and it's Michigan's style of football. Also, so I love
a game in a film booth. I have no problem
if the game is first one to nineteen even.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
No problem at all.

Speaker 21 (56:42):
I find I find every play to have more meaning,
to be honest with you, not that obviously it wouldn't
have enjoyed fifty to forty nine last week, but if
this one's nineteen seventeen, I'm in yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
Well, I think to you enjoyed the chess match and
instead of us, do that to your points and when
you've got kind of the point counterpoint and that happens.
Of course, obviously, the only fans a little worried, you know,
I think many said, well, you know, we'll fall out
of the rankings.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
They didn't do that.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
They actually went up in both polls after that, which
I think is a sign of respect that Illinois football
fans aren't used to. It's a sellout already, four straight,
four games already this year, fifty thousand plus fans. That
doesn't happen a Memorial stadium. So good things happening right now.
And I'm happy for Bett Bielman and the staff because
to your point, it's now year four. Illinois has only

(57:28):
had three head coaches ever ever win back to back
eight win seasons, not not ten win seasons, not conference championships,
eight wins in back to back years. Biela is trying
to become the next I mean, you know, so it's
it is, it's uphill, but you'd like to think that
now he's got some things in place.

Speaker 4 (57:49):
He's put his culture in place.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
And last week's game is a game that I think
only fans say, you know what, Usually we lose that
kind of game, but they found and I think Luke
Altmeyer's has been what he's done this season has been
outstanding at quarterback.

Speaker 21 (58:00):
Well, yeah, the final thirty eight seconds of regulation. We
may look back and you know how big was that.
I mean to blow at twenty seven to three lead
two scorers in the final ninety seconds, Essentially, that is
going to be a devastating loss. You're going to fall
out of the rankings, you know, any contention for the
best possible bowl game, you know, and or even a

(58:20):
spot in the Big Ten title game. I mean, all
that stuff would have fallen completely.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
Out the window.

Speaker 21 (58:26):
So you know, I hope and I hope this does
not come across as a backhanded compliment or disparaging.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
I actually really enjoy schools who know who they are.

Speaker 21 (58:43):
Yeah, and I have always admired Wisconsin once Barry Alvarez
got there in all sports, they said, this is who
we are, this is how we're going to field good
competitive teams, and this is the style of play we're
going to have in basketball, in football, etc. And it's
worked and not every time. Sometimes they get, you know,

(59:05):
beat and they don't have a great year. But for
the longest time, you knew exactly what you were getting
with Wisconsin football and basketball. And now it's interesting now
with Luke Fickle coming in, he's trying to change it,
to take that next step, but he's running the risk
of falling three four steps down the ladder. Now he

(59:28):
seems to have figured it out here in the last
couple of weeks. I think what Brett sold to Arkansas
and I felt they bailed on him with one bad stretch,
they bailed on him. And what I know he has
sold to Illinois is that, listen, this is who we're
gonna be. We can recruit to this, we can win
this way.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
All right.

Speaker 21 (59:51):
Don't know if we're winning the Big ten, but we're
gonna win games, We're gonna get on national TV. We're
gonna be relevant three out of five years.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
If you know. To me, it's.

Speaker 21 (01:00:04):
Important that we all self scout, and I think Illinois
is effectively self scouting. And Brett, certainly, he's got a system.
He's got a theory as to how to play a
certain style of football and to win doing it. And
Larry I go back to the old Chuck Nole quote

(01:00:25):
he started one of his final years zero and three,
and he was asked at a presser, has the game
passed you by? And he said, well, when it becomes
about something other than blocking and tackling, yes, the game
will have passed me by. And sure enough, here we
are thirty five years later, and guess what the game
is largely about blocking and tackling.

Speaker 8 (01:00:47):
Yeah, yeah, no.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
I totally agree. Should be a very good game with that.
I want to ask you Agains. We're talking with David
Malton's CBS Sports also works with ESPN as well. In
the Monday night telecast. Tell us from a CBS perspective,
how was the Chemen this year? In terms of to
your point, CBS had that three thirty Eastern time SEC
kickoff for decades. The big change now with the Big
ten early Fox mid afternoon with CBS at nine time NBC.

(01:01:12):
From your perspective, how has that change affected the college
football landscape?

Speaker 21 (01:01:17):
Well, and I'm not just putting a positive spin on this,
but I grew up in the Northeast and lived in
the Upper Midwest for a while, and so you know,
Big ten football, I kind of grew up with it.
Gary grew up in Michigan, went to Purdue, spent the
first nineteen or no sixteen years of his network career

(01:01:37):
with ABC, when for the most part he was doing
a ton of Big ten and some Big twelve games
with first Brad Nessler and then Brent Musberger and Brad's
from Minnesota, Okay, all right, and obviously spent a long
time with ABC ESPN doing a ton of Big Ten games.

(01:01:57):
So for all of us personally professionally, this is like
a homecoming. I mean to see Brad and Gary walk
into stadiums and you guys know, the volunteers and the
support staff are the same people who were there when
Brad and Gary left and go to CBS.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
I mean, and they know him by name.

Speaker 20 (01:02:17):
You know.

Speaker 21 (01:02:18):
And so it's been, for lack of a better word,
neat you know it. I will say this, the intensity,
the fervor around the stadium and in the stadium is
not week in, week out in the Big Ten what
it is in the SEC. The slogan it just means
more well right now it does. However, this Saturday could

(01:02:42):
be different. This is a BFD Okay, you know, this
is going to be just like Eugene on Saturday may
only hold like sixty thousand, and other stadiums hold ninety
one hundred thousand. Was that atmosphere lacking Saturday for Ohio
State organ Help? Do we think the atmosphere is going
to be lacking in any way, shape or form Saturday

(01:03:04):
for Michigan Illinois.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
Uh huh no, yeah no, And so.

Speaker 21 (01:03:08):
In that sense, you know it it's similar, it's it's
it's a little different. It's true, it's a little different.
But you know, I love the fact going to Champagne,
going to Kinnick. You know, I think I'm going to
get to Eugene. I think CBS is announcing Illinois Oregon
in a couple of Saturdays.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
You know, I've been to Eugene before.

Speaker 21 (01:03:29):
So this stuff for me is, you know, personally, it's cool.
I think Brad and Gary are enjoying the homecoming. If
you know what I mean, I mean a quick story.
I don't think you'd get mad at me for telling this.
So we did the Notre Dame Purdue game week three,
Oh boy, and uh yeah, oh she lacking. So now
Gary took a lot of grief when he was in

(01:03:51):
the SEC. And you know, it's the high profile game
and Gary is not shy about rendering his opinions. And
you know, if you don't say nothing good things about
a person's team, they hate you. So Gary took a
lot of grief. So we show up at Purdue and
there's a line of fans. Well, they want his autograph

(01:04:11):
and they want his picture and Gary poses for everything,
signs everything, turns, looks at us and says, well, you
could tell we're not in the SEC anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
And what was great about that, You guys did a
great job of actually showing Gary's apartment where he lives
senior year, like the house the building still stands wherever
he rented that senior year, and that was such a
great touch to see that. It's real that you know
by the way these guys, we hear him every week
and feel like we know them. But to your point,
I mean, you know this was is there a real

(01:04:44):
homecoming for him to go back to ross Aid And
I'm glad you shared that story. Want to kind of
get your thought very quickly on the changes in conference realignment.
I think it's been fantastic. I think more changes coming.
But I got to tell you that when I'm home Unsad,
I sit down and I now don't watch NFL because
I don't want to give up both weekends to watching football.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
But I sit down. The games are compelling.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
You get different teams like Illinois at five and one,
Indiana six and zero. It's been by US undefeed and
it's been great to watch these teams and these new
matchups and how the teams respond, and I think it's
it's great for college football.

Speaker 21 (01:05:24):
And it's a TV show, and it's important for these
conferences to have enough depth, especially the Big Ten that
has three different windows on three different networks, so every
network wants a game that they can sell. If it's
it's I could argue it's more important for the Big

(01:05:45):
Ten because they have three mouths to feed than it
is even for the SEC because it's the same big mouth,
if you know what I mean. But I think an
unintended consequence that I don't know if you guys, but
I didn't see coming is with the way college football

(01:06:05):
is now. I didn't see the transfer portal and NIL
helping schools that were in the second tier, not the
top twenty five, but twenty six through fifty. I think
we're all worried that they might suffer and there might
be a bigger chasm, and it's actually turned out to.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
Be just the other way.

Speaker 21 (01:06:27):
Okay, that school's twenty six through fifty, our finding they
can get steel guys from the Sun Belt and the
mac and what have you, but also they can get
the kid at Ohio State and Georgia who wants to
be a starter and does not want to play twenty
five snaps a game. He wants to play fifty five
snaps a game. And next thing, you know, Illinois is like,
well you can play fifty five snaps here, okay, boom

(01:06:49):
And so now I think that's why we're seeing so
many schools that are like, whoa wait a minute, when
did they get this good? Well, you know, if you
plug the right eight four to six, like Illinois did.

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
A tremendous job.

Speaker 21 (01:07:03):
Now looking back at plugging in, we had these three deficiencies.
What do they do they plugged in those deficiencies. Huh.
Suddenly if you have a competent quarterback and you plug
in your deficiencies, all of a sudden, you can play
winning football.

Speaker 7 (01:07:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
Yeah, Well to your point, Altmeyer, coming from Ole Miss
in his second year at Illinois where he wasn't playing
behind Jackson Dart, he leaves Zakari Franklin huge career at
UTSA comes in has been a nice deep threat for
them on a side on the other side of Patrick
Bryant t Ry Edwards, helping to fill that gap of
the defensive line. When Johnny Newman and Keith Ranolf went
to the NFL. And I think, you know, outside of Illinois,

(01:07:40):
probably no bigger name right now in college football than
Diego Pavia, the quarterback at Vanderbilt. You can pick him
out of a lineup a month ago. And yet he's
become a darling, you know, with two huge wins against
Alabama and then this weekend Kentucky as well at quite
as big on that. David, always so good to talk
with you. We can't wait for Saturday's game. Can't wait
for next week's game. Alloy Oregon as well, and the

(01:08:01):
rest of the CBS slate. Good to have the Big
ten on CBS, my friend, Thanks so much for your time.
We can't wait to talk to you again soon.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
So do you like the theme music?

Speaker 21 (01:08:10):
I had a buddy of mine who's an Iowa fan
when actually, yeah, Iowa, I think, But we did Iowa
State Iowa week two and he texts me as the
game is beginning and he says, to hear and see
our game with your guys. Theme music actually brought tears
to my eyes. I went, wow, wow, how about that?

(01:08:32):
And it turns out it's undefeated Iowa State here we
are ranked in the top ten in mid October for
goodness sakes.

Speaker 2 (01:08:40):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah, it is.

Speaker 4 (01:08:43):
It is so cool. I think I think it's cool.
I think it's great.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
I don't you know, maybe one day Kevin Warren now
with the Chicago Bears will get credit as a Big
commissioner for putting this together, this NFL type TV package
for the Big Ten that we hadn't seen before. And
to your point, it's huge. Big Ten's got all the
TV markets and so it's a lot of fun to
be here and kind of watch it grow and to
see where it goes from here.

Speaker 4 (01:09:05):
David, good to talk to my friend. We'll talk to
you right.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
Hope to do it again soon, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Definitely, we'll reach out soon. David Milton went to get
at CBS Sports. Also with ESPN as well, but again
the big game this weekend Illinois Michigan. Be sure to
go to a loti guys dot com. A lot of
stuff over there on the Red Grange game, if you
don't know. One hundred years and one day after he
scored the six touchdowns that was a record that stood
for decades against Michigan. All right, keep it here We've
got more to come after this.

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Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
Redgrange wasn't just a football player. He was a legend.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
Discovered the untold story of a Lini great Red Grange
in a new novel by Doug vill Hart called The
Golden Age of Red, available on Amazon and wherever books
are sold.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
You're listening to the Sports Spectacular powered by a LINEI
Guys dot Com on the ALIGNI Guys Radio Network. Now
let's get back to the studio.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Sports Spectacular ALNI Guys dot Com. Larry, Mike and Brad
still here with you as we get ready for the
big game, the big rededication of Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
It is number twenty four, Michigan at the twenty second
ranked Illinois fighting a line, and what a season it's
been right now for the Orange and Blue again five
and one, a better record than Michigan and of course
higher ranking as well. That's only happened six times since

(01:11:50):
rankings began back in nineteen thirty six. There are some
parallels though, of this game. No Redgrange here, although we
look forward to the guy addresses Red Grange doing his
sprint thing of this and half as those of you
who go to the game, no sellouts on Saturday, just
like a ones back in October of nineteen twenty four,
one hundred years and one day from the day when
Red Grains just went off on the Wolverines' six touchdown

(01:12:13):
performance that stood as a record in college football until
Howard Griffith did his thing and scored seven times back
in nineteen ninety. Earlier this year, Mike caught up with
Doug Villhart. He wrote a book, The Golden Age of Red,
a novel of Redgrange the Galloping Ghost. We talked to
Doug back then as the book was about to come out.
It has now been released. A great podcast in the

(01:12:36):
Irony Alani series and let's listen into a part of
that right now, Mike asking Doug about the parallels of
that Michigan team back in nineteen twenty four and this
Wolverinees team here in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 4 (01:12:47):
Let's listen it.

Speaker 20 (01:12:47):
So let's go to nineteen twenty four for a second.
We've got Michigan coming to play Illinois at this big
dedication first time. We have almost seventy thousand fans at
Memorials Stadium, Michigan national champions the year four. That sounds familiar. Yes,
Michigan not only not lost a game in the U
in a long time, almost two years, they've only given

(01:13:09):
up four touchdowns in two years, right, So, just an
absolute powerhouse coming in and and it was a matchup
they wanted to see because Illinois had had a great
season the year before too with with with Red Grange.
So it was a great matchup. Although I'll get in
a moment, I'll tell you why the national sports guys
were not there and why that why that mattered at

(01:13:31):
this game. So so here we are one hundred years later,
as you all are aware, Michigan's national champion hadn't lost
a game coming in on our big day right at Illinois.
Then it was the dedication. This is the re dedication,
and and they know Red's good. They know he's good.
He was an All American the year before. They know

(01:13:52):
that he's good, and they decide, you know what, here's
what we're gonna do. We're gonna kick off to him
and we're gonna smear him. We're knock him out of
the game. And jaws dropped.

Speaker 12 (01:14:03):
What does he do?

Speaker 20 (01:14:04):
He runs it back for a touchdown, right, runs it
back for a touchdown. Okay, so all right. The reset
They had an option. The way that they played football
then was they took field position, took field position over possession.
So so Red runs it back and they score, and
then Michigan says, you know what, instead of you kicking

(01:14:25):
it off to us, we're gonna kick it off back
to you again. Isn't that kind of mind blowing that
that was their strategy. So they just got scored on
and they said, well, let's kick it to him again. Okay,
he didn't score. Next two plays he did, though, So
we're talking four touchdowns, four touchdowns, and this is a
world where a good football player, no, no, let me

(01:14:45):
just say a great football player might get fifty yards
a game, right, he had over four hundred yards in
this game, over four hundred yards, four touchdowns in the
first quarter. And the rule we can get into rules later.
They're really fun too. But if you get taken out,
you can't go back in the game.

Speaker 8 (01:15:04):
Oh it was like soccer.

Speaker 20 (01:15:06):
Yeah yeah, except what you can go back in the
next half, take it out in the second half, you
can't go back in Okay, so playing both sides of
the ball.

Speaker 12 (01:15:14):
So anyway, it is.

Speaker 20 (01:15:15):
If I'll be at that game on October nineteenth, twenty
twenty four this year, and if we get the ball,
or if they kick off to us and a kid
runs it back, I'm going to lose my mind. Yeah,
you know, and we're going to experience what it was
like one hundred years.

Speaker 9 (01:15:33):
I'll really lose my mind. If Sharon Moore chooses to
kick back off to us again again.

Speaker 20 (01:15:39):
Yeah, if that happens, and then we've gone back in time.

Speaker 9 (01:15:42):
What other rules were different back in football in those days?
Because even the diehard football fans really don't know this
type of stuff.

Speaker 12 (01:15:49):
No they don't. So we.

Speaker 20 (01:15:53):
First what first, short, quickly, what was the same?

Speaker 12 (01:15:56):
What we had?

Speaker 20 (01:15:57):
We had figured out sixty minutes of football four quarters.
It took us a long time to figure out touchdowns
where six points extra points were with one point field
goals three like we had that structure. But get some
of these coaches can't coach during the game, can't call
in place. In fact, they can't even stand up. They

(01:16:18):
have to sit on the bench and just watch the
game straight watch the game. So all of the call
making playmaking is by the players. Oh goodness, zero by
the coach. Okay, so just start with that for a second.
Substitution rules. Yeah, you come out of the game. You
can't go back until the next half. Come out in
the second half. You're out. So they talk about like,

(01:16:39):
you know, the whole rub dirt on it, get back
in the game type thing. I mean, this is real.
You're gonna lose Red Grange. You can't come out for
a second and take a drink of water, you know
if you will, or have somebody look at his knee.
He just got to go right back in and keep playing.
And I'm holding here, I'm holding here the equipment that
they had. This is a other helmet. The difference between

(01:17:02):
this and just my head is not a lot of
difference between this and that maybe it was really designed
not for concussions design if you're tackling me, that you
don't scrape my ear off. That they were more interested
in saving their ears, you know, than they were anything else.
So just just you know, fascinating the way the rules

(01:17:22):
were different than at the time, the the toughness of
the guys to play both sides of the ball, and
you know, they didn't they didn't keep stats really until
the forty stats weren't a thing. So the way that
they know what Red did was that going back and
look at these newspaper articles and historians like trying to
replay the game and figure out yards and such like that.

(01:17:44):
But Red also also very well might have been the
greatest defensive player of all time.

Speaker 8 (01:17:49):
Now you never hear that. Nobody loves about that.

Speaker 20 (01:17:52):
Yeah, and in that game you had two interceptions. Oh wow, right,
I mean right, your mind just it's just it's just
kind of mind blowing some of the differences that they had. Also,
the ball was huge. The ball was huge. I mean,
think about like a rugby ball, or think about like
a volleyball, and like you can't throw that sucker very

(01:18:13):
far or very accurate too, so so that's not really
part of that's not really part of the game. And
then one of my favorite things about this is the
goal posts are in play. The goal posts are on
the goal line, so it is strategic actually if you
have the if you're of the ball in the one

(01:18:34):
yard line and you're about to score, you can actually
use the goal posts as blockers. It's like two extra blockers, right. So,
so it was it was fun researching this. It was
fun talking about the strategies of the day and then
trying to figure out how you know, in a in
a novel to like drop that exposition so that today's

(01:18:54):
audience can understand that the rules rules.

Speaker 9 (01:18:57):
You mentioned earlier that the media was not the game.
What was the cause for them to miss this seventy
thousand person event.

Speaker 20 (01:19:05):
Exact same day, exact same time in New York, drawing
similar number of fans. Was the annual Army Notre Dame.
And guess who's playing for Notre Dame. If you know
a little bit about college football, you may have heard
of the four Horsemen.

Speaker 12 (01:19:22):
Yes, are playing for.

Speaker 20 (01:19:23):
Notre Dame, right, and who what is that that is?
That's a quarterback, two half backs, in.

Speaker 12 (01:19:30):
A full back.

Speaker 20 (01:19:31):
That's their back line, and they are destined to be
the first entire entire, you know, offensive scoring threat to
be All Americans. So all four in the offensive backfield
to be all Americans. And that's the game that they're
at and they're destined to be All Americans until this
game starts coming over the wire of what grains Red

(01:19:54):
Grange did in that particular year when the All American
Accolade come out, three of the four horsemen are all Americans.
The fourth, no way, Red Grange was the So isn't
that kind of fun too? He took he knocked one
of the horsemen out.

Speaker 9 (01:20:11):
That's awesome. As an a LINEI fan who had to
watch for years Notre Dame get the best out of
the Chicago Catholic League and across the state of Illinois,
it's nice to get a victory, even if it was
forty years.

Speaker 8 (01:20:23):
Before I was born.

Speaker 9 (01:20:25):
Now, you talked about Bob z Upkey all the things,
maybe we should talk a little bit about what he
the innovations he created, and then how frustrating it must
have been for him to sit on the bench and
not be able to coach during the game.

Speaker 20 (01:20:39):
Yeah, yeah, So First of all, Bob bob z upkey
is I don't know his exact height. For fun, let's
say he's five foot. He's not five foot. He's not
five foot, he's five foot something, not very much. He's
a tiny, tiny little guy.

Speaker 12 (01:20:53):
He did so.

Speaker 20 (01:20:54):
He was not an elite athlete right himself. But he
is the best, best in the locker room, the best
at getting you mentally prepared for the game, and a
genius in terms of strategy. And the other coaches, Fielding Yost,
who was the famous coach at Michigan, and Newt Rockney,

(01:21:17):
the famous coach at Notre Dame, they called Bob's upkey.
Is this a derogatory term, mister razzle dazzle, Mister razzle dazzle.
They hated it for they would have just much rather
get the biggest boys that they could give them the
ball and pounded up the middle until somebody wins, and
they would just prefer the game was still that way.

(01:21:38):
But Bob's upkey did crazy things for the time, like
a huddle. Like a huddle, so sort of sort of
like a little I don't need to scover it, a
huddle is it's sort of like a little time out
in the middle of the game for his players to
readjust so that was a fascinating innovation. The flea flicker, right,
so tossing an underhand to one guy only to have
him pass it back to the other. This is a

(01:22:00):
Bob is Upkey innovation. The screen pass, the snapping, the
ball spiral for your legs back back to the quarterback.
And many more too, including the fake punt, including the
fake punt, which is really tricky because another thing they
did at the time was often punt orned first down

(01:22:21):
to catch you off guard and to get better field positions.
So he would do a couple of those and then
fake it for example. So this was a team you
never knew what was going to happen with the Illinois's
Upkey team, and they won four national championships, you know
with this. So he basically shook up the way football
was played. And if next time you go to an

(01:22:41):
Alana game, looked down on the field, it says Bob's
up Key field. It's not just the name. That's a
genius that way that we have in the Illinois family.

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
Again, the author Doug viill Hard in the book The
Golden Age of Red, a novel of Redgrange The Galloping Ghost.
You can find it on Amazon as well as other
places where you buy your novels. Great great read and
so we're so thrilled for Doug to stop by and
talk with us here getting ready for Illinois, Michigan Saturday afternoon,
two thirty kickoff at Memorial Stadium.

Speaker 4 (01:23:10):
We've got back with the more. We'll have our picks
for this weekend next on the Sports Spectacular.

Speaker 16 (01:23:15):
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Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
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Speaker 4 (01:24:00):
Hey, welcome back to the show.

Speaker 2 (01:24:02):
It is very exciting for me because I get to
chat with one of my besties. No I got a
chance to do the w NBA and Ion Studio show.
It's our first year of the show and someone who
I just adore so much gets to join us right now.
I've not talked to her in a few weeks. Megan
McEwan of the w NBA on Ion. Also she does

(01:24:25):
Big to Network, she does NBC Peacock and she's joining
us here once again.

Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
My friend, how are you good to see you?

Speaker 23 (01:24:30):
I know we had to have a little catch up
before we started this because we are so used to
our weekly car rides to the studio for Ion, and
obviously we solve all the world's problems on those car rides.
So I'm missed seeing you every week. But it's nice
I get to catch up with you now.

Speaker 4 (01:24:46):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
Yeah, same here. Well, let's get into the women's basketball.
First off, w NBA obviously last week and we came
out of the weekend too thrilling games. They were tied up,
you know, a game of and the series is gonna
wrap up here very shortly. It kind of came down
to what we thought it would We thought it would
be probably Minnesota and New York, and here they are.

Speaker 4 (01:25:07):
It's been a great season.

Speaker 23 (01:25:09):
It's one of those rare situations where the truly the
two best teams are the ones that are in the finals.
And I tell you what, Like Larry, we kind of
talked about it throughout our show this season, like how
good Minnesota was and how they flew under the radar
because nothing they do necessarily is super sexy, but they
do all the right things. And it starts at the

(01:25:30):
top with Cheryl Reeve, who's won four WNBA championships. She
knows how to put together a roster. There's a reason
why she was the head coach of Team USA that
won a gold medal. And she breaches defense. And Minnesota
is a team that is so disciplined defensively, and then
on offense, they have like players at fly under the

(01:25:52):
radar who are just so good. Alana Smith being one
of them who like sets great screens, she can knock
down open three. She finishes plays like she's not the
first option, but she's so valuable to their offense. You
have like a Bridget Carleton who can knock down threes.
You know, Minnesota was the best three point shooting team
in the league all season. Cayle McBride led the league
in three point shooting at more than forty percent, and

(01:26:14):
then of course you have any feast of Collier, who
was the runner up for the MVP Award. So they
have so many great pieces. They're not necessarily super deep,
but they have experience. They've been able to stay pretty healthy,
and I just I love their team. And you saw
how they came back from down like twenty in game
one to win at New York, Like that doesn't happen.

(01:26:35):
They shattered every single like w record that you know
how ESPN pulls up these crazy stats and you're like,
how did you calculate that? But they became the first
team to come back from such a huge deficit in
the finals game. And then of course, like New York,
I call Connecticut Sun games as well, and in person,
New York was the best team I had seen. And

(01:26:55):
they are more of like the sexy team in terms
of They've got Stewie, they have Sabrina Unescue, they have
John Quella Jones like Corney Vanders so it's coming off
the bench, but she's won a WNBA championship with Chicago.
So like, they have really nice pieces that are great scorers.
They have they're more flashy and they're really good defensively,
but like their biggest issue has been, like they are

(01:27:18):
really good at starting out games. They started out game
as well, but then they like take their foot off
the gas pedal, and it's kind of been like the
kryptonite all year long. So it's you can't do that
against Minnesota. You can do that against a lot of
other teams in the league and still win, but the
Minnesota is too disciplined in order to to relax at
any point.

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
It's been fun to watch the chess match with a
couple of coaches who both have NBA titles, obviously minche
Cheryl Rave and then Santa Bundelo the other side as well.

Speaker 4 (01:27:43):
I can't wait for that. Curious to get your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
Want to move on to the college game, but very
quickly WNBA Now in the offseason, they're already going to
make a lot of changes, expanding to forty four game
schedule next year. They're adding a thirteenth team in Golden State,
two more teams at least coming into twenty six. What
are the changes do you look forward to here between
now and next May when they start up the twenty
twenty five season.

Speaker 23 (01:28:07):
I'm so excited to see what happens with the expansion draft,
so that means that every single team in the league
has to they can protect. I believe it's up to
six players on their rosters, but then like Golden State
can kind of pick who they want from the lot
and then of course they'll have the drafts coming up
as well, so that's going to be really interesting. It's
a great time to be a part of the WNBA,

(01:28:27):
despite the fact that like you're going and playing finals
games on Sundays, they're still getting over a million viewers, Like,
and you're going up against the NFL. I mean, Larry,
when I like you knew the WNBA had arrived a
couple of times this season, but for US, I think
it was a second to last week of the regular season.
We had the fever on our air. It was the

(01:28:50):
NFL in Brazil. It was like that random Friday night
NFL game. It was two Americans playing in the US
Open in the semi finals to go to the finals
for the first time in forever for the American and
we still had over a million viewers watching a regular
season WNBA game on Ion, Like this is the time
for women's basketball, so you're gonna keep seeing teams come in.

(01:29:10):
You have Golden State coming in, You're gonna soon have
Toronto come in, and Portland and Kathy and Globbert's talking
about having even more teams and expanding this thing even more,
as it should, because there's way too much talent in
women's basketball. Only have one hundred and forty four players.
You're seeing leagues like Unrivaled come out and athletes unlimited.
So you have a lot of opportunities now year round

(01:29:31):
for players to stay in the States, which just from
like a safety perspective, is really big as we've seen
over the years. So yeah, no, it's a good time
to be in women's soups as you and I know,
and we're excited to be along for the ride.

Speaker 2 (01:29:44):
Yeah, it's so much fun. We had so much fun
this year and it can't wait for next year.

Speaker 4 (01:29:48):
Exactly right.

Speaker 2 (01:29:49):
The college game about to tip off now as well.
No Caitland park at Iowa, No lease a blueter at Iowa.
She retired, Kitlyn moved on, but still now it's time
to move on there they still it's still Iowa basketball.
There's still a team that's going to be very competitive
in this Big Ten.

Speaker 23 (01:30:05):
I'm really interested to see Iowa and like to your point, yes,
at Canna Stolki is still one of the best players
in the Big Ten returning you now add Lucy Olsen
from Villanova who is one of the top scorers in
the country last season, and she kind of comes in
to probably pick up that that Kaitlyn Clark esque role.
But I was going to be really interesting to me.
One they have a new head coach and Jan Jensen,

(01:30:27):
who is like one of the top five greatest people
you'll ever meet in your life. She's just like a
wonderful human but also a fabulous basketball mind. H and
was Lisa Bluter's right hand forever. And I'm curious to
see what changes, if anything, but I know a lot
of similarities or a lot of things rather will stay
the same in Iowa City with Jan as the head coach,

(01:30:50):
there's a lot I still need to see for Iowa.
To me, there's a lot of question marks, just because
for the last four years we've known what Kaitlyn Clark's
going to do, i Aways been pretty predictable. And then
i was also traditionally had a dominant back to the
back post player who has been excellent. Megan gustuson Monica Sinano,

(01:31:11):
Like that's going back into the last eight years when
I was there, Like Bethany Doolittle was one of them.
Like there's always kind of that. They can play through
the post, they can get that inside outside game going,
and they play fast. So I'm just curious what their
identity is going to be. It's going to look a
little different, but I still think it's going to be
pretty effective because I don't bet against Iowa. That's one

(01:31:33):
team that I just I don't bet in general, and
I don't know Vegas that much, but I can tell
you right now, if I was in Vegas, I wouldn't
bet against Jan Jensen and Iowa.

Speaker 4 (01:31:41):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:31:42):
Yeah, No, Caitlin Clark, but yeah, Lucy Olsom is just
outstanding for Villanova.

Speaker 4 (01:31:45):
You're exactly right.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
We add in the four teams from the Pac twelve
and not a surprise at USC at UCLA right there
at the top of the preseason rankings and Juju Watkin's
only a sophomore named the preseason Big Ten Player of
the Year. That also wasn't a surprise, A potential number
one overall pick coming up in the twenty twenty six.

Speaker 23 (01:32:02):
Yeah, I mean, like she could probably if she West.
She can't go to the draft this year, but she
would probably be the number one overall pick if she
got to come out of college this year in the draft.
Juju Wakins She's just so freaking smooth with her game,
Like it's beautiful to watch, Like it's like she floats
on air whenever she's playing glides. So I'm excited to

(01:32:24):
see what she does.

Speaker 14 (01:32:26):
USC.

Speaker 23 (01:32:27):
We're almost in like a revival period right now with
Southern calv you know, the all time great Cheryl Miller
went to USC, Lisa Leslie went to USC. Like USC
had like some serious juice, and then the last couple
of years hasn't necessarily been as prominent, and now it's
like had this revival and everybody wants to go there.
USC picked up the best transfer in the country in

(01:32:48):
the portal and Keiki erie Affen from Stanford who can
grab the rim, and she will be a top two
or three pick in this year's WNBA draft coming up.
So they have so many strong pieces. They have multiple
mc donald's, all Americans coming in as freshman. It's it's
going to be fun to see and you know, like
Caitlin Clark was number one of the country in points

(01:33:08):
per game. Juju is right underneath her. She dropped fifty
against Stanford. Like Stanford's a really good defensive team. That
doesn't happen in Taro Vanderverer's last year. So like, you know,
it's that's going to be a really fun team to watch.
UCLA is going to be right up there. It's funny
I called their NC DOUBLEA Tournament game two seasons ago
and looking at their roster now, like not much has changed,

(01:33:30):
like Charizona Osbourne is in the league now, but other
than that, like they still have Keiki Rice, Lauren Betts
is back, They like London Jones. So like there's so
many great players on that team, and they just are
coming off as Sweet sixteen births. So you have a
lot of NC Double A Tournament experience. You have great
transfers coming in, and you have veterans, so those are

(01:33:50):
going to be key when you come into a league
like the Big Ten.

Speaker 2 (01:33:53):
Yeah, and it's and so many teams you know that
we look to see what they're going to come back with.
Ohio State, Indiana obviously, you know, love me some. SHAWNA Green,
Illinois has almost her entire starting five back plus adding
McDonald's All American and Barry Wallace. You know, she is
Gretchen Dolan, the former New York scoring champ in high school,
coming in excited to see what she will will happen there,

(01:34:13):
and she's had a great recruiting start so well. So
for a program that has never mattered much, they're actually
talking about Illinois women's basketball in Champagne.

Speaker 23 (01:34:22):
As they should. I mean, like, you know, I'm also
part of the Shauna Grand fan club, Shawna Green fan club,
rather like that's uh, that's my girl, and so happy
with the job she's done and not surprised at all
by how quickly she's done it. And for them like
to have Makyro Cook come back and to have Genesis
Bryant back, like Kendall Bostik, these are names that I bet,

(01:34:45):
I'm like, are they seriously still on this roster?

Speaker 19 (01:34:47):
This is crazy?

Speaker 23 (01:34:48):
But like they have in the era at Nil and
the transfer portal, they love playing at Illinois for SHAWNA.
Green and that just is kind of unfortunately a rarity nowadays.
And so you know you have something special when you
have these players that want to be at the school
they're at and they want to win with that team,

(01:35:10):
and it's not about you know, getting paid. It's nice
to get paid. I don't know what their NIL deals
look like, but from just a pure like love of
the game standpoint, that's why. Like I'm a pre I'm
an AP voter, and I had them in the top
twenty five, like as for my preasons of pole that
I submitted. So they're a team that has experience or
coming off a WBIT championship, which might not mean much

(01:35:32):
to some people, but I don't think like normal people
who who don't know sports well realize the importance of
ending a year on a high note. Only three teams
got to end the season with a win, and Illinois
got to be one of them, and to bring almost
every single person back from that roster, add a couple
people and as freshmen through the portal, like, that's big time.

(01:35:52):
Seana Green is going to keep things going down there.

Speaker 2 (01:35:54):
Yeah, and you're right, only her third season she's about
to begin with Illinois. That's been exciting. Well, listen, everyone
else got a chance to experience what you and I
go through went through. Every single Friday in the green room,
we would sat and have these kinds of conversations.

Speaker 23 (01:36:10):
Yes, good that And you know, Larry, we would Larry's
the best because you know you let me in Autumn
give you a hard time and you play it along
with our jokes and our bits. So you're the best.
We'd love you to death and we are just You're
so thankful to have you.

Speaker 4 (01:36:25):
Likewise, likewise, miss and my friend. Great to talk with
you is.

Speaker 2 (01:36:28):
Enjoy the week and enjoy the games and hopefully we'll
talk you again here once the season begins and get
your thoughts again.

Speaker 23 (01:36:33):
Amazing. Sounds like a plan, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:36:35):
Thanks buddy, my bestie, Megan McEwan, Thanks so much, Megan,
as you as again, Megan and Autumn Johnson I doing
the WNBA and I on show and we'll be back
next May.

Speaker 4 (01:36:45):
We can't wait for that. We're counting down the weeks
until that happens. So Megan again, appreciate your time. Hey,
we've got much more to come. Keep it here.

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Speaker 19 (01:38:38):
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Speaker 4 (01:39:02):
Boy, it's been a really busy hour.

Speaker 2 (01:39:04):
But get to our best part of the hour for us,
and that's making our picks famous. Picks all did pretty
well last week. So let's see what we did how
we're going to do this week. Starting in the Big ten,
the Big Red Grange Game. It's Michigan at Illinois, top
twenty five matchup.

Speaker 6 (01:39:19):
Who you got, It's a tough one. I mean, I
really think I think Michigan is susceptible. We saw two
years ago Illinois go up into ann Arbor and give
them all they wanted. So I man, I really think
that the emotion from this game. I think Illinois finds
a way to pull this one out at home against Michigan.

Speaker 9 (01:39:38):
I'm gonna go with Illinois as well. I'm thinking that
they knew Michigan was on a bye week and they said,
you know what, We've got to demotivate them for this weekend.
It's twenty seven to three, let's make it look close.
And Brett Bielma is playing chess while everybody else is
playing checkers.

Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
You know, I'm with you, guys. It's a really tough matchup.
And I think that the history, we tend to lean
Michigan because it's always gone that way most years.

Speaker 4 (01:40:08):
But I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
I think this Illly team there's something different, there's something
special about it. It's just there's just a different field,
and I think that they find a way to get
a close win at home, sellout crowd.

Speaker 4 (01:40:19):
I'm going to line a by as well in this one.
Nebraska Indiana.

Speaker 5 (01:40:22):
How about the Hoosiers that they win this seven and
oh really, I mean this is.

Speaker 6 (01:40:27):
This is crazy stunning. I mean, Indiana is good. I
think they're good, and you know what, Nebraska's pretty good too.
This is a really good football game. I'm gonna pick
Indiana just because they're at home, but it would not
shock me to see Nebraska pull this one out because
if Raola, you know, has a big game.

Speaker 9 (01:40:48):
I think it's going to be a very hard game
for Nebraska to win. And I'm going to pick them
to win because I think Rayola is going to put
it all together against this Indiana team, and Nebraska has
a lot of motivation to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:41:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:41:02):
Yeah, it's a very good matchup. I'm gonna take Hoosiers.
I think they stay up one more week at least.
Let's go to the big game in the SEC. Number
one Texas hosting fifth ranked Georgia almost kind of a
must win for the Bulldogs.

Speaker 7 (01:41:16):
It really is.

Speaker 6 (01:41:16):
I mean, it puts them you're in trouble if you've
already got two losses at this point in the season
to make the playoff, and obviously, Georgia, if you go.
If you don't make the playoff, it's an unsuccessful year.
And that's just reality. I think Texas this is an
opportunity for Texas to show they are legit because I mean,
to be honest, the Michigan win doesn't look as good
as it did back when they won it right now,

(01:41:39):
this is their chance, and I think that Texas gets
it done.

Speaker 9 (01:41:42):
I think Texas takes this one. I think Georgia is
not the Georgia of the last couple of years, and
Texas is going to assert their dominance in year one
in the SEC.

Speaker 4 (01:41:54):
Yeah, ID two.

Speaker 2 (01:41:54):
I think again, at the top four teams last year
in the playoff, they're the one that carried over the
most and so I think that again just the experience,
they've kind of been here, no moments too big for them,
and they'll prove that in this that they can stop
Carson back. I'll take the long courts. Finally, Alabama at Tennessee.
Great matchup here in the SEC, and again both teams
already with one loss.

Speaker 6 (01:42:14):
Yeah, this is a this is an our game where
the loser of this game is almost playing that playing
the rock in the fine line of getting eliminated. I
think Tennessee is kind of I thought they were gonna
be really good.

Speaker 7 (01:42:25):
They've been okay.

Speaker 6 (01:42:26):
I think Alabama's gonna be really motivated for this one,
and I think Alabama wins this one.

Speaker 9 (01:42:31):
I have a hard time picking this one because neither
team looked particularly confidence inspiring last week. I'm gonna go
with Tennessee because they're at home. That is the sole reason.
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:42:42):
Yeah, I think I'm gonna go Alabama. I think that
they just realized that this is this is it, Like
this week. We don't we don't lose three times in
a season, so and this would r be number two
with still some of the challenges they had. We will
see how we did. We were all out of time.
We appreciate it all again as always, hopefull you enjoy
the weekend and enjoy the games. We'll see the same
station next week.

Speaker 4 (01:43:00):
I L L I n I.

Speaker 1 (01:43:01):
This has been a presentation of L NBC Sports, LLC
and JAM Talent productions. We'll be back next week on
the Aliani Guys Radio Network on these same stations across
Illinois

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