February 4, 2025 • 35 mins
While the season may be over, college football news stops for no-one. So on this episode the Chaps talk over what has been grabbing the headlines during February, including...
- Co-ordinators jumping ship for big money. Is this sustainable as a revenue sharing model comes into view?
- Is Matt Rhule right about cancelling his public Spring practice?
- Are expectations for Arch Manning wholly unrealistic?
- ESPN extends contract with ACC thru 2036 : can the conference (in its current state) remain together? Or is divorce (FSU, Clemson) inevitable?
- Trent Dilfer is 7-17 in two seasons in Birmingham, AL but will return for a third season. What say the Chaps?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm not going to comment on that. I'll get fined
for the rest of my life if I get comment
on that.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Natural championship.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
That young stirl.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Hey everyone, and welcome to the College Chaps podcast. On
this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about
the news because, as as everyone knows, the college football
season has ended, but does it ever really end? And
the news just keeps on coming. So we're going to
talk about some of the highlights. The first we are
the College Chaps and I am joined by the dynamic
(00:49):
duo of Ollie and Alex. How are you both, gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
We're dynamic and where are you at?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Correctly correct?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Okay, thing that's actually been correctly seven twenty twenty five
on this podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I believe Yeah, I'm good. Ha whi.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
He started spring practice with twenty five football season yesterday,
So football, you're right. Football never does stop by so early. Absolutely,
Hawaii's always is. It's probably presumably the heat presumably the
heat in Hawaii is or rain or something. I don't know,
but Hawaii is always a good, good chunk before everyone else. Obviously,
(01:29):
they play weeks.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Aero as well.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
We Spring also refers to the semester, right rather than
the time of year. This is spring semester, so spring
practice happens at some point during spring semester, right, So.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, the rest of the programs don't start a little
bit later. Whai is always like ahead of the game.
I think it's I'm guessing it's a heat thing or
do they have monsoons in yeah, April, Yeah, that must
be it, that must be yes.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
No, it's good. It's good to be back. I I'm
hoping that my general manager doesn't watch this podcast on YouTube,
considering I'm sitting here with the wrong kid supplier on
in the office at work. But you know, is what
it is, this this bart zip is nicer than my
newer quartersip. So I've got it on. Yeah, they're not
(02:24):
gonna they're not gonna listen.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
They so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
But I'm excited to be back and talking college football
with you, talking college coaches with you, because that's something
that I am way too invested in. Like sad, it's
almost sad how invested I am in coordinators and coaches.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Great segue into many of the segments as Alex has,
like the cat out of the bag, where are going
to talk about some of the coaching changes that are happening,
or some of the country changes that haven't happened, which
have caught its base price. But let's start with a
coordinators who just just seem to be jumping left, right
and center. There is a there's a theme just now
(03:04):
about some going to the NFL, some coming back from
the NFL. I guess the headline was Jim Knowles leaving
Ohio State to go to Penn State, because I think
you would look at all the other coaches and you
would make a general assumption that they were moving on
to a better job. Now that's not to say that
(03:25):
Penn State is not a better job, but he's leaving
the National champions to go to Penn State. I guess
my question to you both was really the money that's
being paid to a lot of these coordinators, and I
read today that Jim Doles have been paid north of
three million dollars. He's got some add ons. I know
(03:47):
it's all with spots and maybes, but that would push
him into the four territory, which which I think is
that something like it would make them higher paid member
of staff than something like forty college football coaches, which
as a remarkable start to be honest, I question to
you both then, is in this age where we may
(04:10):
be moving to a revenue sharing model, can this absurdity
of high paid salaries for coaches continue. I'll leave it
at that.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Obviously, the revenue sharing model is capped, so the biggest
schools are always going to be able to still afford
to pay out money to high ranking coaches because it's
going to be capped at the kind of a median
level where a lot of the schools can can still play.
So I don't think we're going away from this. If
(04:41):
the best school is one of the best coaches, they're going.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
To keep well, so can they Alex because we saw
that Texas made a loss, so texts made a small profit,
and there was a there was a school who made
a loss.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
State lost ten million dollars as a as a athletic department,
which you know that that can't continue. Maybe boosters make
up some of that loss, but at the same time
they don't have that deep of a pocket. You know,
these boosters are not going to lose their whole personal
(05:16):
fortune on on athletic departments and these universities and sport
always makes a loss right everywhere in the world and
everywhere in the NCAA apart from men's football, men's basketball,
women's volleyball, most and even a lot of the programs
(05:37):
in those sports make a loss their loss making, So
you know, these programs being loss making is not the
end of the world. Losing ten being ten million dollars
in the hole as an athletic a whole athletic department,
that's not great. So I do think that we're going
to hit critical mass. But I still think coaches will
(05:57):
still be well paid and the best schools will still
pay the most money to the coaches, but that might
come down from some of the numbers that we see
right now.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Holly, there's been greatly so focused on head coaches being
paid lots of money. We've seen that in the SEC
here Nex Shaban was getting paid fwelve million dollars a year.
Are these are are these are coordinators with some of
these huge contracts that are being paid out Just now.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, and just touch on your first point. I think
what you'll see more and more is and I think
we've touched on this in previous episodes or certainly been
a comments on story and in college football media is
I think what you will Is coaches getting paid so sorry,
guaranteed money being woven in less into coach contracts because
(06:50):
what you've seen as a revenue revenue sharing comes into
plays the conversation around whether the coaches can actually be
the programs can afford to fire coaches and move on
from coaches left, right, and center or under this new model.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
And a lot of people pointing into.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Mike Norvell at Floridas, the state has been almost too
expensive to eat his contract and bring in someone of
the A level to drive that program because of the
revenue sharing situation. So I think that's the key thing
where that's concerned. You look at, let's use Jim Nobles
as an excuse, because we kicked off with Jim Knowles
as an excuse, that's the wrong word. Example. Let's use
(07:30):
Jim knows as an example for the offensive coordinator conversation
because if you're right, he's the highest paid offensive coordinator
in the highest paid coordinator full stop, in the history
of college football. And there's a reason for it, right
you look at and we talked about it before the
national championship, after a national championship background when we talked
(07:53):
about it, but the reason Ohio State won the National
Championship is because of what they did on defense. We
can talk about what Kelly brought to the offense. We
talk about Ryan Day as a head coach. Jim Knowles
came into that program at the end of a twenty
twenty one season where Ohio State had one of the
worst defenses in college football, and they've just won the
National Championship on the strength and one of the best
(08:14):
defense in college football. And that's what Penn State's three
point two million or whatever it was base salary is
buying them. It's interesting because Penn State actually deffensively all
from big games. Penn State's defense hasn't been the issue,
like the inability to turn up on offense has been
a big problem. Ian Harris the Penn State defense, which.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Is way way better than.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Anything that he walked into that Ohio State defensive room
in twenty twenty one. So it's interesting. It's a big
swinging Dick move for Penn State because you bring in
the National Championship defensive board nator, you bring him in
from a Big Ten Conference rival. As you alluded to, George,
it's not necessarily a an upward move with a lot
(09:01):
of respects. It's a sideways or backwards move for Jim Knowles,
but it gives him that opportunity to prove that he
was such a pivotal part of the Ohio State success.
Because if you can deliver a national championship Spen State,
it'll be worth every single penny. So I do think
a guy like Jim Knowles is absolutely worth the money.
(09:21):
That would be some other offensive and defensive coordinators who
proved to be absolutely not worth that money and moving forward.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
But I think Jim Knowles is a prime example of
a guy.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Who's tangible, Like the difference is made to that programming.
Why would you pay him any less than you'd pay
Ryan Day for that success?
Speaker 5 (09:42):
And there is also on the gymnoles side of it
that he now goes to work for a guy in
James Franklin who doesn't comically die his facial hair, so
he hasn't got a look at that shiny black bears
for the rest of the rest of the days. That's
a big part for me, right, like you trading one
head coach for the other, Like I don't have to
(10:05):
look at something that's probably going to make me laugh
every day. I just that that would be quite hard
in a professional environment to.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Keep stayed reportedly off with him in the ballpark of
the same sort of the mau. So that clearly was
a define impact. You know, was the just a man
the fact.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
He had some he had some interesting words to say
about Ohio State, didn't he?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Right?
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I mean, it doesn't look as if it was necessarily,
you know, an amicable parting of the ways as as
such a in many ways it could to Alex's point,
it could be construed as quite a wise move because
if he if he creates something at Paen State and listen,
(10:52):
you know, we we know have been picking about for seasons.
We we we almost make a living out of the
fact that Paenn State are kicking about for a period
of time. But I haven't made that breakthrough. But they
made the breakthrough because a lot of coordinators will move
to a head coaching role, right, and that isn't always
the best move for these people, so, you know, across
(11:14):
the Penn State and then maybe, you know, maybe doing
something with that might be might be end up being
quite lucrative. A head coach that we've let's talk about
head coach that we talked about in the past is
Matt Ruhle and some interesting news this week that role
had quite a bit to say about tampering, as a
(11:36):
lot of coaches do, but so much so that he
is considering canceling the public spring practice. That just seemed
like a lot of hyperberly to me, to be honest,
I think it just felt like a head coach wanted
to make a lot of noise about stuff that's going
on that he's probably participating in any way. But what
(11:59):
are your thoughts? So they're not being a public spring practice,
which for a lot of teams is actually a bit
of an event.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Well, I think it's less shutting it off to the public,
right and making but more making sure it's not streamed
or not on TV.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Soorry you're right, Yeah, not having it on TV.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Which I think is.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Is a good idea, you know, But then the coaching
coaching fraternity is small, right if But there's there's sort
of two sides to this. The only people that aren't
going to see that practice are media members and people
members of the public that can't go to the practice.
If coaches want to see film from Nebraska Spring practice,
(12:45):
they will find a way to get their film from
Nebraska Spring practice by that the way this business works. No,
there's so much trading a film behind the scenes, there's
so much. There's so many backhands deals done, so many
people that know one another on different staffs, that have
worked together, that have connections that they will find a way, right, someone,
(13:08):
someone will find a way. So you know, all you're
doing by not having it on TV is you're hurting
the chance of your athletes to start building draft profiles
for the ones that are draft eligible the next year.
You're losing the opportunity for those athletes to make a
name for themselves and potentially secure nil deals. And also, yeah,
(13:32):
if you can't compete, that's that's the free market, right
If you're if you've got a breakout star in your
program and you can't do what you need to do
to keep them there, he's going to transfer. That's that's
his prerogative or their prerogative as an athlete, Like if
they're best fit as elsewhere, then they're going to go
and transfer elsewhere. And I think you have to be well,
(13:55):
you have to get to a point as a coach
where you are so confident in the environment that you
create that the lure of an extra few thousand dollars
in deals isn't enough to take that person away from you?
And I think, yeah, it is tough with a sportlight
football where there's such big rosters, but they have a
(14:17):
lot of resource, they have a lot of coaches, and
I think rather than always trying to chase the next
sometimes these coaches need to look at their environment and think,
how can I make this a place where athletes want
to play whether they get paid or not. And I
think that is you see a lot of athletes taking
(14:39):
less money at the pro level to go and play
in good situations for good coaches. And I think we've
not reached that level of college football yet. We're still
in the arms race of how can I offer this
kid the most money to make sure that he plays
for my team? And I think Matt Ruhle needs to
rather than working out how to keep kids on his
roster by denying them opportunities, he needs to work out
(15:04):
how to keke kids on his roster buy offering them opportunities.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
It's a fine balancing act, isn't it. Ali Because he
needs to market his program. There's a huge interest in Nebraska.
We know that they've got a massive fan base. He's
also and I think he's already said this, he's got
a difficult job in the Big Ten, being where Nebraska
is in attracting kids from other parts of the country.
(15:31):
Surely needs all the exposure that he can get for
his his team and notoriously or infamously, and Nebraska sells
out there their spring practice game. It's it's a huge
event in that part of the world. And I know
we're not talking about the game itself, but that's the
kind of thing you want to be showing off. And
(15:52):
aren't we really we are where we are in the
portal as it is, right, I mean, it's naive of
them to think that the only way that teams are going,
you know, be attracted to his players as if they
see them on TV.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, you make a great point about the spring game
situation with Nebraska in terms of profile of that game
is probably one of the more high profile spring games
in terms of attendance, And like you said, you want
to draw all eyes to the program, and the RASCER
is supposed to be enjoying this rejuvenation as a national
(16:28):
force under that rule, and you know that needs all
the exposure it can get. And I honestly don't think
that in buy However, many years, for six years of
doing this podcast and four years of covering college football
for Pro Football Network and College Football Network, that I've
(16:48):
seen anything in a spring game that has been that
out of the ordinary and then translated to the college
football season, Like how often do you see it just
doesn't happen. Nebraska isn't undergoing a lot of change schematically.
You know, day a holding, some boot got bought at
the end of the year to be offensive coordinator, that
(17:10):
obviously Tony White left for Florida States. There's nothing great
we've changing schematically that's not therefore, you know, a whole
more beneficial scheme for a defensive back for example, wide
receiver or tie. And there isn't a guy that is
going to suddenly magically come to the four in the
spring game. But then you know, James Franklin or Ryan
(17:34):
Jay or Clayland the Boar or you know whoever, Steve
Sokys and whatever isn't sort of magically.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Going to go, oh.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, that's the guy that we need on our roster.
Because the biggest teams aren't going to have a lot
of drop off of talent free of the transfer port
or window in the spring, so they're not going to
need to replace any in the spring, which is essentially
the problem that that rule is his reference and is
trying to get around and avoy is we did see
last year, we did see a number of players enter
(18:03):
the transfer port after the spring game because that's when
the spring transfer portal window opened. How many of those
were guys that legitimately had their head turned by another
program in that moment. Most of the guys that entered
the spring transfer portal there guys who are looking to
play football and they realized they won't be after the
spring game. After spring practice, they realized that they're not
(18:24):
going to be a big part of that team as
a starter moving forward, and they're looking for opportunities to start.
And that's the spring. That's what the spring spring transfer
portals for in Matt rule canceled. The Nebraska spring game
isn't going to help keep any more of those guys
on his roster than.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
You know, than it will by having.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
It, and it's on ahead. It's a lot about the
portal window or windows and trying to align them appropriately.
A player that many wished we're heading the transfer port isn't,
and I think we can officially say that Manning Mania
(19:06):
has started. It will probably be fed up listening to
the name of arch Manning over the coming months as
a build up to the game comes along. But I
think what struck me from some of the stuff that
I s read this week was that expectations are sky
high in Texas and Alex knows this more than anybody did.
(19:30):
I say that Quen Yours was impacted by someone else
last season, right, because whenever quin Yours didn't look as
if he was having the best of games, the clamor
for arch Manning was just getting heavier and heavier. It
does feel as if he's going to have the way
of the world on his shoulders. But perhaps he he
(19:53):
knows that he's a very, very high profile school. But
can the way of expectations be too much for arch
Manning think?
Speaker 5 (20:01):
I mean, obviously it could, but I think he's had
the training and the he's had his uncle's telling him
that this is how it's going to be, probably for
the last ten years coming through. At this point, he's
he's ready for it. He's ready to hold that pressure
(20:23):
on his shoulders because at the end of the days
his kid who loves to play football. So you know,
the more that he can keep it as yeah, just
that game that he goes out and play, he's the
more likely he is to come out and be successful
in holding off that pressure. But yeah, I think he's
(20:44):
got the mentors to guide him. He's got people that
he can turn to. He's, like I said, he's said
he's had the training to be that guy who carries
a program. I'd be more worried about a kid who
comes from nothing and hasn't had their help and and
he's maybe this uber athlete that has this super high
(21:08):
recruiting grade and doesn't have the people to turn to.
When when you have the people to turn to, you
can learn their lessons, yeah, from the mistakes they made
and not have to make the same ones yourself. And
I think that puts arch Manning in a really really
good spot coming into this season. You know, you've got
to he's got to go out there and prove it.
(21:29):
Still he hasn't done that yet. He's looked looked okay
in in games. There's talent there for sure, but Texas
has got to do a good job of putting him
in good positions and he's got a good do a
good job of executing. So yeah, until that happens, until
we see the really the season start, because going out
(21:52):
there throwing against air in the spring game essentially, yes,
the defense will play hard and they'll try and they'll
try and win that game, but it's going to be
schemed in a way that makes him look good. There'll
be lots of easy throws. There'll be lots of vanilla
offense and vanilla defense in that spring game. So really,
(22:13):
we won't know properly until the first week of the
college football season this year. And that's what's exciting about
this sport is you think you know it going into
week one, but you don't really know it. So yeah,
I think he'll be a success, but he'll never reach
the expectations that people have for him. Even if he
goes on and wins a national championship for Texas and
(22:34):
wins the Heisman, and you know, he'll never be as
good as there'll always be someone who says, you're not
as good as I thought.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
You were going to be.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
But you know, I'm confident. I'm excited to watch him play,
and that's what matters to me.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
I guess same we said for Ela, right, but he
could never match what Peton had done in the game.
And look at that tunder it. Well, the good thing
is only that pressure is off a touch because people
already directed their attention to the next Manning. And I
(23:09):
saw Marshall Manning throwing the ball at the Pro Bowl,
so but already scouting the next the next generation.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Honestly, I didn't even think this segment was going to
be about Arch Manning. I presume it was always going
to be about Marshal Manning when I saw the script,
but arches after for now really like people are clamoring
for Marshall Manning. You've got if you've got a headline
writer with your salt, getting Marshall Manning into a headline
(23:38):
is probably going to make you pretty penny over the
next ten fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
I saw one clip on Twitter, followed by about a
million after that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Hey, look, honestly, you want to get a TV camera
in front of Henry trying to lobby his lego cards
through our TV screen, Like, it's probably a better quote
about than Marshall Manning.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Right now, Well, you heard it first, and in the
class of twenty thirty four, we'll wind this back a
couple of things I wanted to talk about before we
before we wind up, and I think we're just going
to be able to fit them in. Only ESPN extended
(24:23):
the contract with the ACC until twenty thirty six. Now,
that doesn't really put to bed the issues that the
conference has got, but it certainly provides some certainty in
terms of who legally requires to be part of that
(24:43):
conference in two years time. But do you think a
divorce is inevitable in this conference or do you think
we're going to get a period where maybe camheads prevail
and sit down and have a chat about it.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah, I've been sat.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
The extension of the deals to me anyway, signifies that
there's a little bit of stability coming to the ACC.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Then the noise that was.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Very, very very loud ahead of the two thousand and
four college football season about f sguing about Clemson leaving
that conference.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Has been very quiet. It's been very quiet.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I know there's you know, there's a lot of legal
ramifications behind what canon can't be said, but it's been
very quiet. It's gone very quiet. For me that the
extension of that media rights deal kind of suggest that
that stability they've kind of they've kind of settled that
this is how it's going to be moving forward. And
I think again it comes back to what we talked
(25:40):
about it on the show in the off season, where's
fs you're going to go because no one wants them?
So I do think that this is where we're looking
at a status quote for the ACC for the foreseeable future.
And there's a lot of conferences that I don't think
there's a lot of status quote for going forward, including
(26:03):
the Mountain West I good friends commissioning Navarres kind of
rowing a boat through some very very stormy waters where
the Mountain Western pac twelve are concerned. But yeah, I
think the ACC is for me anyway. I think there's
an element of stability for that going into this offseason
(26:24):
compared to the twenty twenty four off season that we
went through.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Yeah, I wonder as well if they look at they
look at Oklahoma and see how Oklahoma's fared in the
SEC and in year one, and you know they're middle
of the pack, And do you want to trade Clemson?
You know, you made the College Football Playoffs this year
by winning the ACC. Do you want to trade that
(26:49):
chance to go and be the middle of the pack
in the SEC, because you probably will be well, you
may be upper middle of the pack, but are you
going to compete with Georgia and Alabama and Texas and
le s u A Football? Maybe maybe not, you know,
and the SEC is full of sleeping giants. You know,
if Florida get on a roll, that machine starts recruiting again,
(27:12):
and that then becomes becomes dangerous as well. So like
Tennessee similarly again could could very very quickly become a
top tier program or snowball into a top tier program.
So I think there's a lot of sense in these
top tier programs staying apart from one another in conferences.
(27:33):
So I agree with Olie. I think they they may
have seen that and stayed a little bit calmer. I think,
moving moving forward.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
It's interesting, isn't it. In one hand? Financially, I think
Clemson and Florida State and North Carolina and whoever else
that may be interested in moving would would jump at
the chance of training the a SEC. But Clemson has
just proved that you can get into the college shootball
playoffs as it currently stands, right, and as to Alex's point,
(28:05):
that wouldn't be quite so easy and moving into the conference,
and I'm in no way close to us or just
what stuff I was reading through the week. Maybe we
need to get Eric onto to talk us through it.
But I don't believe that either of the schools have
relinquished a lid their their lawsuits at this moment in time.
I think they are still kicking about So although you
(28:26):
would you would you'd probably want to see that through
to his conclusion, right, because the lawsuits about their ability
to leave the conference and the financial compensation they would
get for doing it, right, So you know that would
seem sensible to take that to a conclusion, and then
you know where you stand. We started this podcast off
about coaches who were at the top of their game
(28:48):
and and touting their their trade elsewhere for large sums
of money, but we thought we'd finish a podcast on
a slightly less favorable note. Trent Dilfer is seven for
seventeen in two seasons in Birmingham, Alabama, but has been
(29:10):
invaded back for a third season. That seems to have
caught a number of people by surprise. Would you Chaps
surprised by this?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
And then if Alex has got opinion on this, I've
got quiet deep entrend's opinion about it. So if Alex
wanted to go first with whatever opinion he has, I'm
more than happy to then players as a heart with
this is the breathing.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
It was UAB that put out a statement right in
like late November early December about Trent dil for returning
because of the quality of human being that he produced
at UAB, Right was that someone else? Someone did? Someone
did about how you know, team team high academic scores
(29:58):
and things under under his watch, and they were going
to give him another year too to turn things around.
Like you know, I hate seeing coaches get fired. That
twinges me a little bit every day because you know,
I'd quite like to not be in that situation myself.
(30:19):
But you know, eventually the results. It's a results business, right,
so if you can't produce the results, eventually, you're going
to get fired. I think I like the fact that
they're giving him some time to try and build something,
but that also brings with it some pressure because if
you're not building anything and they give you more time
to start, you've got to start working your ass off
(30:43):
at that point and start winning some football games. But
I think he's in a tough situation being seven and seventeen,
even returning he's well on the hot seat.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
God, I'm surprised you got as you see, like stand
on to be able to or sit on as.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
You would with a seat if you understand on it.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
And that just got to be made of charcoal by now,
because Trent Dilfer, for me, is the head coach that
I think is most inexplicably still in the job at
the end of the twenty twenty four college football season.
And a large part of it is the results. But
I look at a program like UAB, which has been
(31:25):
in previous years, has been one of the better Group
of five outlets that has got you know, has always
had a pride and a tradition about it in the
recent years and has produced some some really talented college
football players that have gone on to make appearances in
(31:46):
the NFL. And I think Trent Dilfer has taken that
program that was once a proud part of the Group
of five football and turned it into a joke and
happ in stock. And it's the results on the field,
but it's the person that is offered as well. And
you look at the sideline Shenanigans that that that you
(32:07):
saw with U A B this season. You know, when
coaches get help Alex as well as everyone though, you know,
I can't imagine you smashing someone around the head of
a clipboard or anything of that nature, but you know,
coaches do get This is a passionate sport. It's a
passionate job, and sometimes it needs shouting and sometimes it
needs tender love and care. But Trent Dilfer always comes
(32:28):
across as he's just shouting to be the loudest voice
in the room. You know, I think the results on
the field, the shenanigans off the field. You look at
how Brian Vincent, who was the interim head coach there
for one year, and all the fans wanted him, and
(32:49):
you know, rightly or wrongly.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
You know, we talk about college football fans as being.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Wildly you know, over exaggerating expectations, but they have a
pulse on the program and UAB fans didn't want Brian
Vincent to go. UAB fans. I haven't been happy with
Trent Delver from a minute he walked in that door
to the minute we're.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Talking about him right now.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
You look at with the job that Brian Vincent's done,
at Louisiana Monroe, where program that has consistently been a
bottom feeder and group of five football level that was
within a game of being Bowl eligible this season, had
an incredible year behind Brian Vincent, a program that you know,
supports its players, is communities led and community based and
(33:33):
everything that should be good about a group of five
program at the college football level, and Brian Vincent embodies that.
And he could have been the UAB head coach, but
instead he of Trent delf who you know consistently looks
out of his depth and underqualified for the job they have.
So yeah, I think you talk about coaches being on
the hot seat. It's February, Will let's have our hot
seat special now and we'll talk about Trent dil.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
For how he used to.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Talk about Jim Harbor before he won a national championship
and you just talking about Ryan David.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
Maybe maybe that's it, Trent Dilford, you av national champions first.
There's no excuse for hitting somewhere arond the heead of
the clipboard, like you should be fine.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, I mean he didn't do that, Like that was
just then over exaggeration of an example. But you see
some of the shouting and roaring, and you know, for me,
it crosses the line between what you should expect a
push to see on the sideline.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
I think it goes beyond some of the beyond beyond that.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
So I mean he just just relaxed, bro, Like, it
makes your life better when you relax a little bit
when you're coaching.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Trust me, he's seventh seventeen. There's not much relaxing on Alex.
I tell you that he's probably more surprised than anybody's
got a tough season out of it.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Yeah, fa, not everyone can be in conferences.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
It's fine.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
You blow your trumpet, Alex. You feel free to blow
as much as you want. That's all from us on
this episode. We thank you for listening. We don't typically
look at our viewing figures, but at the year end
we had a quick look and we're roumain a little
staggered by a number of people who actually listen to us.
So thank you for that. Thank you for to all
(35:21):
you and Alex for their brilliant input. Thanks for listening,
Stay safe from me out and catch all next time.
I'm not going to comment on that. I'll get fined
for the rest of my life if I get comment
on that.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Natural championship.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
That young stirl.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Hey everyone, and welcome to the College Chaps podcast. On
this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about
the news because, as as everyone knows, the college football
season has ended, but does it ever really end? And
the news just keeps on coming. So we're going to
talk about some of the highlights. The first we are
the College Chaps and I am joined by the dynamic
(00:49):
duo of Ollie and Alex. How are you both, gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
We're dynamic and where are you at?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Correctly correct?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Okay, thing that's actually been correctly seven twenty twenty five
on this podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I believe Yeah, I'm good. Ha whi.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
He started spring practice with twenty five football season yesterday,
So football, you're right. Football never does stop by so early. Absolutely,
Hawaii's always is. It's probably presumably the heat presumably the
heat in Hawaii is or rain or something. I don't know,
but Hawaii is always a good, good chunk before everyone else. Obviously,
(01:29):
they play weeks.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Aero as well.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
We Spring also refers to the semester, right rather than
the time of year. This is spring semester, so spring
practice happens at some point during spring semester, right, So.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, the rest of the programs don't start a little
bit later. Whai is always like ahead of the game.
I think it's I'm guessing it's a heat thing or
do they have monsoons in yeah, April, Yeah, that must
be it, that must be yes.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
No, it's good. It's good to be back. I I'm
hoping that my general manager doesn't watch this podcast on YouTube,
considering I'm sitting here with the wrong kid supplier on
in the office at work. But you know, is what
it is, this this bart zip is nicer than my
newer quartersip. So I've got it on. Yeah, they're not
(02:24):
gonna they're not gonna listen.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
They so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
But I'm excited to be back and talking college football
with you, talking college coaches with you, because that's something
that I am way too invested in. Like sad, it's
almost sad how invested I am in coordinators and coaches.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Great segue into many of the segments as Alex has,
like the cat out of the bag, where are going
to talk about some of the coaching changes that are happening,
or some of the country changes that haven't happened, which
have caught its base price. But let's start with a
coordinators who just just seem to be jumping left, right
and center. There is a there's a theme just now
(03:04):
about some going to the NFL, some coming back from
the NFL. I guess the headline was Jim Knowles leaving
Ohio State to go to Penn State, because I think
you would look at all the other coaches and you
would make a general assumption that they were moving on
to a better job. Now that's not to say that
(03:25):
Penn State is not a better job, but he's leaving
the National champions to go to Penn State. I guess
my question to you both was really the money that's
being paid to a lot of these coordinators, and I
read today that Jim Doles have been paid north of
three million dollars. He's got some add ons. I know
(03:47):
it's all with spots and maybes, but that would push
him into the four territory, which which I think is
that something like it would make them higher paid member
of staff than something like forty college football coaches, which
as a remarkable start to be honest, I question to
you both then, is in this age where we may
(04:10):
be moving to a revenue sharing model, can this absurdity
of high paid salaries for coaches continue. I'll leave it
at that.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Obviously, the revenue sharing model is capped, so the biggest
schools are always going to be able to still afford
to pay out money to high ranking coaches because it's
going to be capped at the kind of a median
level where a lot of the schools can can still play.
So I don't think we're going away from this. If
(04:41):
the best school is one of the best coaches, they're going.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
To keep well, so can they Alex because we saw
that Texas made a loss, so texts made a small profit,
and there was a there was a school who made
a loss.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
State lost ten million dollars as a as a athletic department,
which you know that that can't continue. Maybe boosters make
up some of that loss, but at the same time
they don't have that deep of a pocket. You know,
these boosters are not going to lose their whole personal
(05:16):
fortune on on athletic departments and these universities and sport
always makes a loss right everywhere in the world and
everywhere in the NCAA apart from men's football, men's basketball,
women's volleyball, most and even a lot of the programs
(05:37):
in those sports make a loss their loss making, So
you know, these programs being loss making is not the
end of the world. Losing ten being ten million dollars
in the hole as an athletic a whole athletic department,
that's not great. So I do think that we're going
to hit critical mass. But I still think coaches will
(05:57):
still be well paid and the best schools will still
pay the most money to the coaches, but that might
come down from some of the numbers that we see
right now.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Holly, there's been greatly so focused on head coaches being
paid lots of money. We've seen that in the SEC
here Nex Shaban was getting paid fwelve million dollars a year.
Are these are are these are coordinators with some of
these huge contracts that are being paid out Just now.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, and just touch on your first point. I think
what you'll see more and more is and I think
we've touched on this in previous episodes or certainly been
a comments on story and in college football media is
I think what you will Is coaches getting paid so sorry,
guaranteed money being woven in less into coach contracts because
(06:50):
what you've seen as a revenue revenue sharing comes into
plays the conversation around whether the coaches can actually be
the programs can afford to fire coaches and move on
from coaches left, right, and center or under this new model.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
And a lot of people pointing into.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Mike Norvell at Floridas, the state has been almost too
expensive to eat his contract and bring in someone of
the A level to drive that program because of the
revenue sharing situation. So I think that's the key thing
where that's concerned. You look at, let's use Jim Nobles
as an excuse, because we kicked off with Jim Knowles
as an excuse, that's the wrong word. Example. Let's use
(07:30):
Jim knows as an example for the offensive coordinator conversation
because if you're right, he's the highest paid offensive coordinator
in the highest paid coordinator full stop, in the history
of college football. And there's a reason for it, right
you look at and we talked about it before the
national championship, after a national championship background when we talked
(07:53):
about it, but the reason Ohio State won the National
Championship is because of what they did on defense. We
can talk about what Kelly brought to the offense. We
talk about Ryan Day as a head coach. Jim Knowles
came into that program at the end of a twenty
twenty one season where Ohio State had one of the
worst defenses in college football, and they've just won the
National Championship on the strength and one of the best
(08:14):
defense in college football. And that's what Penn State's three
point two million or whatever it was base salary is
buying them. It's interesting because Penn State actually deffensively all
from big games. Penn State's defense hasn't been the issue,
like the inability to turn up on offense has been
a big problem. Ian Harris the Penn State defense, which.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Is way way better than.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Anything that he walked into that Ohio State defensive room
in twenty twenty one. So it's interesting. It's a big
swinging Dick move for Penn State because you bring in
the National Championship defensive board nator, you bring him in
from a Big Ten Conference rival. As you alluded to, George,
it's not necessarily a an upward move with a lot
(09:01):
of respects. It's a sideways or backwards move for Jim Knowles,
but it gives him that opportunity to prove that he
was such a pivotal part of the Ohio State success.
Because if you can deliver a national championship Spen State,
it'll be worth every single penny. So I do think
a guy like Jim Knowles is absolutely worth the money.
(09:21):
That would be some other offensive and defensive coordinators who
proved to be absolutely not worth that money and moving forward.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
But I think Jim Knowles is a prime example of
a guy.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Who's tangible, Like the difference is made to that programming.
Why would you pay him any less than you'd pay
Ryan Day for that success?
Speaker 5 (09:42):
And there is also on the gymnoles side of it
that he now goes to work for a guy in
James Franklin who doesn't comically die his facial hair, so
he hasn't got a look at that shiny black bears
for the rest of the rest of the days. That's
a big part for me, right, like you trading one
head coach for the other, Like I don't have to
(10:05):
look at something that's probably going to make me laugh
every day. I just that that would be quite hard
in a professional environment to.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Keep stayed reportedly off with him in the ballpark of
the same sort of the mau. So that clearly was
a define impact. You know, was the just a man
the fact.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
He had some he had some interesting words to say
about Ohio State, didn't he?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Right?
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I mean, it doesn't look as if it was necessarily,
you know, an amicable parting of the ways as as
such a in many ways it could to Alex's point,
it could be construed as quite a wise move because
if he if he creates something at Paen State and listen,
(10:52):
you know, we we know have been picking about for seasons.
We we we almost make a living out of the
fact that Paenn State are kicking about for a period
of time. But I haven't made that breakthrough. But they
made the breakthrough because a lot of coordinators will move
to a head coaching role, right, and that isn't always
the best move for these people, so, you know, across
(11:14):
the Penn State and then maybe, you know, maybe doing
something with that might be might be end up being
quite lucrative. A head coach that we've let's talk about
head coach that we talked about in the past is
Matt Ruhle and some interesting news this week that role
had quite a bit to say about tampering, as a
(11:36):
lot of coaches do, but so much so that he
is considering canceling the public spring practice. That just seemed
like a lot of hyperberly to me, to be honest,
I think it just felt like a head coach wanted
to make a lot of noise about stuff that's going
on that he's probably participating in any way. But what
(11:59):
are your thoughts? So they're not being a public spring practice,
which for a lot of teams is actually a bit
of an event.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Well, I think it's less shutting it off to the public,
right and making but more making sure it's not streamed
or not on TV.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Soorry you're right, Yeah, not having it on TV.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Which I think is.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Is a good idea, you know, But then the coaching
coaching fraternity is small, right if But there's there's sort
of two sides to this. The only people that aren't
going to see that practice are media members and people
members of the public that can't go to the practice.
If coaches want to see film from Nebraska Spring practice,
(12:45):
they will find a way to get their film from
Nebraska Spring practice by that the way this business works. No,
there's so much trading a film behind the scenes, there's
so much. There's so many backhands deals done, so many
people that know one another on different staffs, that have
worked together, that have connections that they will find a way, right, someone,
(13:08):
someone will find a way. So you know, all you're
doing by not having it on TV is you're hurting
the chance of your athletes to start building draft profiles
for the ones that are draft eligible the next year.
You're losing the opportunity for those athletes to make a
name for themselves and potentially secure nil deals. And also, yeah,
(13:32):
if you can't compete, that's that's the free market, right
If you're if you've got a breakout star in your
program and you can't do what you need to do
to keep them there, he's going to transfer. That's that's
his prerogative or their prerogative as an athlete, Like if
they're best fit as elsewhere, then they're going to go
and transfer elsewhere. And I think you have to be well,
(13:55):
you have to get to a point as a coach
where you are so confident in the environment that you
create that the lure of an extra few thousand dollars
in deals isn't enough to take that person away from you?
And I think, yeah, it is tough with a sportlight
football where there's such big rosters, but they have a
(14:17):
lot of resource, they have a lot of coaches, and
I think rather than always trying to chase the next
sometimes these coaches need to look at their environment and think,
how can I make this a place where athletes want
to play whether they get paid or not. And I
think that is you see a lot of athletes taking
(14:39):
less money at the pro level to go and play
in good situations for good coaches. And I think we've
not reached that level of college football yet. We're still
in the arms race of how can I offer this
kid the most money to make sure that he plays
for my team? And I think Matt Ruhle needs to
rather than working out how to keep kids on his
roster by denying them opportunities, he needs to work out
(15:04):
how to keke kids on his roster buy offering them opportunities.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
It's a fine balancing act, isn't it. Ali Because he
needs to market his program. There's a huge interest in Nebraska.
We know that they've got a massive fan base. He's
also and I think he's already said this, he's got
a difficult job in the Big Ten, being where Nebraska
is in attracting kids from other parts of the country.
(15:31):
Surely needs all the exposure that he can get for
his his team and notoriously or infamously, and Nebraska sells
out there their spring practice game. It's it's a huge
event in that part of the world. And I know
we're not talking about the game itself, but that's the
kind of thing you want to be showing off. And
(15:52):
aren't we really we are where we are in the
portal as it is, right, I mean, it's naive of
them to think that the only way that teams are going,
you know, be attracted to his players as if they
see them on TV.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, you make a great point about the spring game
situation with Nebraska in terms of profile of that game
is probably one of the more high profile spring games
in terms of attendance, And like you said, you want
to draw all eyes to the program, and the RASCER
is supposed to be enjoying this rejuvenation as a national
(16:28):
force under that rule, and you know that needs all
the exposure it can get. And I honestly don't think
that in buy However, many years, for six years of
doing this podcast and four years of covering college football
for Pro Football Network and College Football Network, that I've
(16:48):
seen anything in a spring game that has been that
out of the ordinary and then translated to the college
football season, Like how often do you see it just
doesn't happen. Nebraska isn't undergoing a lot of change schematically.
You know, day a holding, some boot got bought at
the end of the year to be offensive coordinator, that
(17:10):
obviously Tony White left for Florida States. There's nothing great
we've changing schematically that's not therefore, you know, a whole
more beneficial scheme for a defensive back for example, wide
receiver or tie. And there isn't a guy that is
going to suddenly magically come to the four in the
spring game. But then you know, James Franklin or Ryan
(17:34):
Jay or Clayland the Boar or you know whoever, Steve
Sokys and whatever isn't sort of magically.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Going to go, oh.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, that's the guy that we need on our roster.
Because the biggest teams aren't going to have a lot
of drop off of talent free of the transfer port
or window in the spring, so they're not going to
need to replace any in the spring, which is essentially
the problem that that rule is his reference and is
trying to get around and avoy is we did see
last year, we did see a number of players enter
(18:03):
the transfer port after the spring game because that's when
the spring transfer portal window opened. How many of those
were guys that legitimately had their head turned by another
program in that moment. Most of the guys that entered
the spring transfer portal there guys who are looking to
play football and they realized they won't be after the
spring game. After spring practice, they realized that they're not
(18:24):
going to be a big part of that team as
a starter moving forward, and they're looking for opportunities to start.
And that's the spring. That's what the spring spring transfer
portals for in Matt rule canceled. The Nebraska spring game
isn't going to help keep any more of those guys
on his roster than.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
You know, than it will by having.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
It, and it's on ahead. It's a lot about the
portal window or windows and trying to align them appropriately.
A player that many wished we're heading the transfer port isn't,
and I think we can officially say that Manning Mania
(19:06):
has started. It will probably be fed up listening to
the name of arch Manning over the coming months as
a build up to the game comes along. But I
think what struck me from some of the stuff that
I s read this week was that expectations are sky
high in Texas and Alex knows this more than anybody did.
(19:30):
I say that Quen Yours was impacted by someone else
last season, right, because whenever quin Yours didn't look as
if he was having the best of games, the clamor
for arch Manning was just getting heavier and heavier. It
does feel as if he's going to have the way
of the world on his shoulders. But perhaps he he
(19:53):
knows that he's a very, very high profile school. But
can the way of expectations be too much for arch
Manning think?
Speaker 5 (20:01):
I mean, obviously it could, but I think he's had
the training and the he's had his uncle's telling him
that this is how it's going to be, probably for
the last ten years coming through. At this point, he's
he's ready for it. He's ready to hold that pressure
(20:23):
on his shoulders because at the end of the days
his kid who loves to play football. So you know,
the more that he can keep it as yeah, just
that game that he goes out and play, he's the
more likely he is to come out and be successful
in holding off that pressure. But yeah, I think he's
(20:44):
got the mentors to guide him. He's got people that
he can turn to. He's, like I said, he's said
he's had the training to be that guy who carries
a program. I'd be more worried about a kid who
comes from nothing and hasn't had their help and and
he's maybe this uber athlete that has this super high
(21:08):
recruiting grade and doesn't have the people to turn to.
When when you have the people to turn to, you
can learn their lessons, yeah, from the mistakes they made
and not have to make the same ones yourself. And
I think that puts arch Manning in a really really
good spot coming into this season. You know, you've got
to he's got to go out there and prove it.
(21:29):
Still he hasn't done that yet. He's looked looked okay
in in games. There's talent there for sure, but Texas
has got to do a good job of putting him
in good positions and he's got a good do a
good job of executing. So yeah, until that happens, until
we see the really the season start, because going out
(21:52):
there throwing against air in the spring game essentially, yes,
the defense will play hard and they'll try and they'll
try and win that game, but it's going to be
schemed in a way that makes him look good. There'll
be lots of easy throws. There'll be lots of vanilla
offense and vanilla defense in that spring game. So really,
(22:13):
we won't know properly until the first week of the
college football season this year. And that's what's exciting about
this sport is you think you know it going into
week one, but you don't really know it. So yeah,
I think he'll be a success, but he'll never reach
the expectations that people have for him. Even if he
goes on and wins a national championship for Texas and
(22:34):
wins the Heisman, and you know, he'll never be as
good as there'll always be someone who says, you're not
as good as I thought.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
You were going to be.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
But you know, I'm confident. I'm excited to watch him play,
and that's what matters to me.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
I guess same we said for Ela, right, but he
could never match what Peton had done in the game.
And look at that tunder it. Well, the good thing
is only that pressure is off a touch because people
already directed their attention to the next Manning. And I
(23:09):
saw Marshall Manning throwing the ball at the Pro Bowl,
so but already scouting the next the next generation.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Honestly, I didn't even think this segment was going to
be about Arch Manning. I presume it was always going
to be about Marshal Manning when I saw the script,
but arches after for now really like people are clamoring
for Marshall Manning. You've got if you've got a headline
writer with your salt, getting Marshall Manning into a headline
(23:38):
is probably going to make you pretty penny over the
next ten fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
I saw one clip on Twitter, followed by about a
million after that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Hey, look, honestly, you want to get a TV camera
in front of Henry trying to lobby his lego cards
through our TV screen, Like, it's probably a better quote
about than Marshall Manning.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Right now, Well, you heard it first, and in the
class of twenty thirty four, we'll wind this back a
couple of things I wanted to talk about before we
before we wind up, and I think we're just going
to be able to fit them in. Only ESPN extended
(24:23):
the contract with the ACC until twenty thirty six. Now,
that doesn't really put to bed the issues that the
conference has got, but it certainly provides some certainty in
terms of who legally requires to be part of that
(24:43):
conference in two years time. But do you think a
divorce is inevitable in this conference or do you think
we're going to get a period where maybe camheads prevail
and sit down and have a chat about it.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah, I've been sat.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
The extension of the deals to me anyway, signifies that
there's a little bit of stability coming to the ACC.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Then the noise that was.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Very, very very loud ahead of the two thousand and
four college football season about f sguing about Clemson leaving
that conference.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Has been very quiet. It's been very quiet.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I know there's you know, there's a lot of legal
ramifications behind what canon can't be said, but it's been
very quiet. It's gone very quiet. For me that the
extension of that media rights deal kind of suggest that
that stability they've kind of they've kind of settled that
this is how it's going to be moving forward. And
I think again it comes back to what we talked
(25:40):
about it on the show in the off season, where's
fs you're going to go because no one wants them?
So I do think that this is where we're looking
at a status quote for the ACC for the foreseeable future.
And there's a lot of conferences that I don't think
there's a lot of status quote for going forward, including
(26:03):
the Mountain West I good friends commissioning Navarres kind of
rowing a boat through some very very stormy waters where
the Mountain Western pac twelve are concerned. But yeah, I
think the ACC is for me anyway. I think there's
an element of stability for that going into this offseason
(26:24):
compared to the twenty twenty four off season that we
went through.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Yeah, I wonder as well if they look at they
look at Oklahoma and see how Oklahoma's fared in the
SEC and in year one, and you know they're middle
of the pack, And do you want to trade Clemson?
You know, you made the College Football Playoffs this year
by winning the ACC. Do you want to trade that
(26:49):
chance to go and be the middle of the pack
in the SEC, because you probably will be well, you
may be upper middle of the pack, but are you
going to compete with Georgia and Alabama and Texas and
le s u A Football? Maybe maybe not, you know,
and the SEC is full of sleeping giants. You know,
if Florida get on a roll, that machine starts recruiting again,
(27:12):
and that then becomes becomes dangerous as well. So like
Tennessee similarly again could could very very quickly become a
top tier program or snowball into a top tier program.
So I think there's a lot of sense in these
top tier programs staying apart from one another in conferences.
(27:33):
So I agree with Olie. I think they they may
have seen that and stayed a little bit calmer. I think,
moving moving forward.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
It's interesting, isn't it. In one hand? Financially, I think
Clemson and Florida State and North Carolina and whoever else
that may be interested in moving would would jump at
the chance of training the a SEC. But Clemson has
just proved that you can get into the college shootball
playoffs as it currently stands, right, and as to Alex's point,
(28:05):
that wouldn't be quite so easy and moving into the conference,
and I'm in no way close to us or just
what stuff I was reading through the week. Maybe we
need to get Eric onto to talk us through it.
But I don't believe that either of the schools have
relinquished a lid their their lawsuits at this moment in time.
I think they are still kicking about So although you
(28:26):
would you would you'd probably want to see that through
to his conclusion, right, because the lawsuits about their ability
to leave the conference and the financial compensation they would
get for doing it, right, So you know that would
seem sensible to take that to a conclusion, and then
you know where you stand. We started this podcast off
about coaches who were at the top of their game
(28:48):
and and touting their their trade elsewhere for large sums
of money, but we thought we'd finish a podcast on
a slightly less favorable note. Trent Dilfer is seven for
seventeen in two seasons in Birmingham, Alabama, but has been
(29:10):
invaded back for a third season. That seems to have
caught a number of people by surprise. Would you Chaps
surprised by this?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
And then if Alex has got opinion on this, I've
got quiet deep entrend's opinion about it. So if Alex
wanted to go first with whatever opinion he has, I'm
more than happy to then players as a heart with
this is the breathing.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
It was UAB that put out a statement right in
like late November early December about Trent dil for returning
because of the quality of human being that he produced
at UAB, Right was that someone else? Someone did? Someone
did about how you know, team team high academic scores
(29:58):
and things under under his watch, and they were going
to give him another year too to turn things around.
Like you know, I hate seeing coaches get fired. That
twinges me a little bit every day because you know,
I'd quite like to not be in that situation myself.
(30:19):
But you know, eventually the results. It's a results business, right,
so if you can't produce the results, eventually, you're going
to get fired. I think I like the fact that
they're giving him some time to try and build something,
but that also brings with it some pressure because if
you're not building anything and they give you more time
to start, you've got to start working your ass off
(30:43):
at that point and start winning some football games. But
I think he's in a tough situation being seven and seventeen,
even returning he's well on the hot seat.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
God, I'm surprised you got as you see, like stand
on to be able to or sit on as.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
You would with a seat if you understand on it.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
And that just got to be made of charcoal by now,
because Trent Dilfer, for me, is the head coach that
I think is most inexplicably still in the job at
the end of the twenty twenty four college football season.
And a large part of it is the results. But
I look at a program like UAB, which has been
(31:25):
in previous years, has been one of the better Group
of five outlets that has got you know, has always
had a pride and a tradition about it in the
recent years and has produced some some really talented college
football players that have gone on to make appearances in
(31:46):
the NFL. And I think Trent Dilfer has taken that
program that was once a proud part of the Group
of five football and turned it into a joke and
happ in stock. And it's the results on the field,
but it's the person that is offered as well. And
you look at the sideline Shenanigans that that that you
(32:07):
saw with U A B this season. You know, when
coaches get help Alex as well as everyone though, you know,
I can't imagine you smashing someone around the head of
a clipboard or anything of that nature, but you know,
coaches do get This is a passionate sport. It's a
passionate job, and sometimes it needs shouting and sometimes it
needs tender love and care. But Trent Dilfer always comes
(32:28):
across as he's just shouting to be the loudest voice
in the room. You know, I think the results on
the field, the shenanigans off the field. You look at
how Brian Vincent, who was the interim head coach there
for one year, and all the fans wanted him, and
(32:49):
you know, rightly or wrongly.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
You know, we talk about college football fans as being.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Wildly you know, over exaggerating expectations, but they have a
pulse on the program and UAB fans didn't want Brian
Vincent to go. UAB fans. I haven't been happy with
Trent Delver from a minute he walked in that door
to the minute we're.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Talking about him right now.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
You look at with the job that Brian Vincent's done,
at Louisiana Monroe, where program that has consistently been a
bottom feeder and group of five football level that was
within a game of being Bowl eligible this season, had
an incredible year behind Brian Vincent, a program that you know,
supports its players, is communities led and community based and
(33:33):
everything that should be good about a group of five
program at the college football level, and Brian Vincent embodies that.
And he could have been the UAB head coach, but
instead he of Trent delf who you know consistently looks
out of his depth and underqualified for the job they have.
So yeah, I think you talk about coaches being on
the hot seat. It's February, Will let's have our hot
seat special now and we'll talk about Trent dil.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
For how he used to.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Talk about Jim Harbor before he won a national championship
and you just talking about Ryan David.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
Maybe maybe that's it, Trent Dilford, you av national champions first.
There's no excuse for hitting somewhere arond the heead of
the clipboard, like you should be fine.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, I mean he didn't do that, Like that was
just then over exaggeration of an example. But you see
some of the shouting and roaring, and you know, for me,
it crosses the line between what you should expect a
push to see on the sideline.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
I think it goes beyond some of the beyond beyond that.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
So I mean he just just relaxed, bro, Like, it
makes your life better when you relax a little bit
when you're coaching.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Trust me, he's seventh seventeen. There's not much relaxing on Alex.
I tell you that he's probably more surprised than anybody's
got a tough season out of it.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Yeah, fa, not everyone can be in conferences.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
It's fine.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
You blow your trumpet, Alex. You feel free to blow
as much as you want. That's all from us on
this episode. We thank you for listening. We don't typically
look at our viewing figures, but at the year end
we had a quick look and we're roumain a little
staggered by a number of people who actually listen to us.
So thank you for that. Thank you for to all
(35:21):
you and Alex for their brilliant input. Thanks for listening,
Stay safe from me out and catch all next time.
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