Spanier and Torres: 12/29/2018

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports. Oh right, everybody good, anything
is We're coming to you live from the guy go
Fox Sports Radio Studios. Did you know that fifteen minutes
could save you fifteen per cent or more in car insurance?
What do you gotta do? Visit guy? Could I come
for free rate? Quote? He's Aaron Torres. I'm already span
your I keep want to say filling in for somebody,

(00:23):
but no, this is our slot now, So we're not
filling in for anybody tonight, Torres, we are not. And
I must say, Arnie, I am very proud of you.
I did not think that you were gonna show tonight
because it's talking a little bit of an embarrassing display
for you. Well, Mr, I heard all week. Oh none
of these these bowl games matter. We gotta go to
eight teams in the playoff. Notre Dame gets blown out,

(00:46):
Oklahoma is getting blown out. As Alabama scores another touchdown,
they're about to be up eighteen points. You want to
add teams to this playoff? I think we need to
subtract teams to this playoff. Of all your takes, this
might be the worst one. I gotta say you. Today's
games make a case why we should add teams to
the players. But before I even get to that, a
lot look lots to get to Aaron underscore Torres. I'm

(01:08):
in stinking genius one. Obviously we'll get a reaction. We'll
talk about the games. We'll get you ready for Week
seventeen and the final weekend of the NFL. We'll go
to Vegas with Bertie Fratto in the Power Hour. You'll
get our pixel lots to get to. Let me start
with this sarum. We'll just get right into it. Your
initial comments on this Alabama Oklahoma game. First, you're just

(01:29):
your initial thoughts as it right now? Uh, Alabama scores again.
It was a eleven point lead. They score again to
make it what is a thirty eight twenty now? So
what are your initial comments on this game? Well, I'll
say that when Alabama jumped out to a twenty eight
to nothing lead, uh, you know, we thought it was

(01:51):
gonna be another blow. I do give credit to Oklahoma
for battling back, for making some stops on defense. But
I will say this game has done nothing to dispel
the belief that I've had since the night the Heisman
Trophy was handed out that it was a highway robbery
to take it away from two by the way to
a twenty one of two ninety yards three touchdowns. Already,

(02:13):
this is the man that was the runner up for
the Heisman. You've got to be kidding me. Just before
we came out, it was thirty one twenty Oklahoma was
making a semi come back, and the first thing I
was thinking of is before we came on the air,
was what if what if if they didn't get out
to that twenty eight nothing lead. What if um Oklahoma
would have gotten a break or you know, would have

(02:33):
woken up before it was a twenty one nothing we
did at the end of the first quarter with this
game could be completely different. Would it be a one
score game? Would Oklahoma actually have the ball with a
chance to take the lead? Do you do you not
think that? Or do you because you see like you're
going back to No, it was never gonna be like that,
and Alabama's just taking control and it's going back to
being a blowout. Yeah no. I mean, look, I give

(02:56):
Oklahoma credit for battling back, but if you're asking me
who the better team is, I don't don't even think
it's comparable. I mean, you know, Oklahoma just absolutely blitzed
out of the gate. Again, it's a credit to them
for kind of holding serve after Alabama. But I think
it's more Alabama struggling, uh and kind of getting flat
after the first you know, first couple of minutes than

(03:17):
it is anything great Oklahoma has done. So to me,
this this totally proves that Alabama is still the best
team in college football. But I do think they'll have
worthy competition next week against Clemson, and it proves that
to a tong of I oh, this should be the
Heisman Trophy winner. I don't know why. Well, no, that
doesn't mean that just because he's dominating this game. It's
not a one game award. But I'm not even to
go and start with that. Why because there were blowouts

(03:40):
or maybe both games will be a blowout? Do you
think that there should be less teams? That should only
be two teams and that is it. You give us
two teams in a playoff and that's all we get
because there's been a couple of blowouts. Explain to me
why because of that you want to change the rules
right away. Well, first of all, I don't want to
change the rules. I like it at for I think

(04:02):
that anyone that has been arguing for the last month
that it should go to eight teams. Hey, if you
want to argue that, that's fine, but you can't also
then argue when Notre Dame falls, you know, gets crushed
by Clemson or Alabama runs away from from from Oklahoma tonight.
You can't then tell me that those teams don't belong

(04:24):
in the playoffs because guess what we're gonna have. There's
not six other Alabama's and Clemsons that are sitting home
right now. If we add to this playoff, if we
add more teams, we're going to get more bloods. It's
gonna be less interesting. Everyone thinks you add more, Uh,
that means that it becomes a better product. I will
argue to my death that it is actually gonna make

(04:47):
it a worse product if you if you put more
teams in this playoff. So four more teams Georgia, Ohio State, uh,
maybe a Central Florida, that this would have been a
worse playoff with those three plus whoever else in there.
Right Well, we agree that Notre Dame was better than
all the teams that are out. So if you're telling
not not if you ask people now, so exactly, and

(05:10):
that's my point. You can't go back with revisionist history.
And yes they yeah to whiter they do. Uh, but
I don't think listen, that's my biggest gripe. You can't
have both. If you want to expand the playoff, that's fine,
but you can't then complain that Notre Dame isn't worthy

(05:31):
or that Oklahoma isn't worthy. Because here's the bottom line.
Those teams would not only be in, we'd have more
teams like that. We would have a Washington potentially nine
and three as a pack twelve champ. We would have
a Central Florida. So to me, it's just it's absurdity
and uh and uh, I just don't like it one bit.
As I speak here to a just excuse me, Kyler

(05:51):
Murray just got hit really really hard. Yeah, you know,
just one thing on that. I think that one of
the main reasons I want to go to eight. And
I don't know if this is other people's thinking, or
maybe they want to go ahead and have the automatic
bids and and then four at large, or maybe they
want to see a central floor to get in to
see if they can pull off the upset or whatever
your reasoning is. My rationale is if you have if

(06:12):
you go to eight, then I have what I want,
home field advantage on campus, no more of this neutral
site stuff, take away the bowl games, and that way
you could be at Alabama or you could be at
the campus of Oklahoma, because I don't like this neutral
site stuff, and I think it makes it much more
exciting atmosphere. You know, I I see some students there,

(06:35):
but this is not what it's like during the course
of the year, you know that. I know that I
think we gotta go back to campus and get these
kids there, and I think that's what I would enjoy
a lot more. That's one of my reasons why I
want to go to eight. I think that's awful because
if if Notre Dame got blown out like that on
a neutral field today, can you imagine how bad it

(06:55):
would have been in Death Valley? It is what it
is then, I mean, you know, but you know what, also,
if you go to eight, at least you may have
some close games with like a four or five seed
against or or three against the six seeds, So you
may have a couple of close games that builds up
a little bit momentum, So we're adding bad teams. So
then about bad teams? What makes Georgia bad team? Because

(07:16):
they lost eight uh to Alabama, that makes them a
bad team. Georgia had two games against elite top tennis
type teams all season long. They lost by twenty plus
at L s U. So now the argument is, okay,
we include Georgia. I saw them play on the road
against the top ten team. They got embarrassed, and you're
telling me that that's a team that deserves a shot

(07:37):
in the playoff. You know, also, you gotta take a
look at the conference. You know, some conferences beat each
other up so bad. By the time they get to
the finish line, you know, there's almost nothing left in them.
And I I know the SEC is number one, but
that's beside the point though. Right now it's all Alabama.
But I thought Oklahoma came back and put up a
pretty good fight. What what kind of mood do you

(07:58):
think My Sunday partner, Chris Planke, isn't right now. I'm
guessing he's not doing very well. It's gonna be a long,
quiet drive back from from Miami to Oklahoma if he
is in fact driving. But no, I mean, look, I
I don't know what his stance was, obviously, I know
you guys do your show every Sunday. But there's a
reason Alabama was a two touchdown favorite, and it isn't

(08:20):
just because Vegas loves Bama. Vegas thought that they were
about fourteen points better than Oklahoma even with the supposed
alleged quote unquote Heisman Trophy winner in their backfield. So
I think that speaks to the you know, what Alabama
had coming into this game, what Oklahoma was up against,
and I think we're seeing exactly that on the field tonight.

(08:41):
I think this game also solidifies as you mentioned that
to us certainly is the superior quarterback out of all
the other quarterbacks as kids or whoever. You Lawrence or
you like Lawrence though you think that's a whole nother difference.
So you like Drevor Lawrence. I just think his skill
set is through the roof. And look him, he's not
even close to the level that two it is right now.

(09:02):
You're out of your mind. You're out of I'm not.
It's it's a fact. He's he's a very good quarterback.
He's still not as skilled as two. It is right now,
and I would add, by the way, that first of all,
you know how I know he's good because Clemson had
a yes, an a C C Championship caliber quarterback and
Trevor Lawrence just flat out beat him out. How's this true?

(09:24):
Freshman Trevor Lawrence completing sixty percent of his passes he
has thrown as we speak. I'm just making sure these
these numbers are up to date. Twenty four touchdowns, four interceptions.
He has great numbers. I'm I'm not debating that. I'm
I'm giving you a guy that's right now four almost

(09:46):
three yards and at three touchdowns leading out Alabama to
another chance to win a championship. So there's really no
comparison here. Yeah, no, I listen. I I just think
doesn't get that Alabama defense. You know, I think Trevor
Lawrence his upside in like the next ten years is
higher than any either of these guys, to be perfectly honest,
But I would also say that two I should have

(10:07):
won the Heisman this year. There's no doubt in my mind.
All Right, you want to get in Uh, it's real simple,
Aaron underscore tourism. It's thinking genius. One first thing I
do want to know is Should I uh text plank
during the game. Should I leave him alone? Should I
do something snarky? Should I be sarcastic? Should I pretend like, um,

(10:29):
I feel sorry for him, but I really don't. I
don't know him on air live right now? Call him
right now? He should I can't call him live by
the air right now. He's not busy, he's got nothing
to talk about in this game as teams getting boat raced. Yeah.
Can you see him just sitting on some bench behind,
you know, just like with his hands over his face.
I could see that, actually, Chris Blank, and he did

(10:51):
such Why are you calling me? What do you want
for me? You would have to call from a fake number.
He definitely wouldn't pick up if he saw you, if
he saw my my numbers blocked during games. That's what
I was gonna say. I'm not allowed to tweet, text, call,
or send smoke signals like he's not taking anything from
me during the game. See, Chris Blank and I are
kindred spirits because we have to deal with you for

(11:13):
three hours every week. So I feel bad enough for
him where I don't think I need to to pour
any more salt in the wound. My wife actually got
mad at me when remember that first drive with Alabama fumbled,
We didn't know who was going to get the ball,
Alabama got it back punched and making seven nothing. I'm like, yeah,
I'm I tied, and she looks to because like, why
why can't Chris Plank be happy for once? Why do

(11:35):
you have to be miserable for him? Why do you
have to root against him? It's my tied. Why can't
I root for Alabad? But who do you? What do
you care who I root for? You can't root for Oklahoma.
It has nothing to do with Chris Plank. It has
to do with the fact that TA got robbed of
the Heisman Trophy. We're all team to A right now.
TOA was so unbelievable, Arnie. It was he was out

(11:57):
every third quarter of every game he ever played a
fourth quarter till the sec champion of the game. Guy,
I don't even care though, So, I mean, obviously that
bothers you about the Heisman to be. That's just the
meaningless award to me. It's more important about who wins
the semifinal games, who goes to the finals, how far
you go in the NFL, how where you're drafted. I
mean the Heisman. That to me, you know, whether he

(12:20):
still wanted or he shouldn't have won it, that that
that doesn't make a difference. Now, especially in the semifinal game,
it makes a huge difference. I mean, look at Tim Tebow.
He won a Heisman, he's got the he's got a
five hunt he you know, he's one half of the
playoff NFL playoff games he's ever played, and he's got
a higher win percentage, probably than Tom Brady in the playoffs. Okay,
I'm not sure what that means. He's one fifty percent
of his player. I'm just saying, I'm just stating facts.

(12:45):
He's one of it. So if you win the Heisman,
that makes you a better NFL quarterback, because it's actually
the other way around. So I'm not sure your boy,
Baker Mayfield, he's about to finish above five hundred. You
love Baker Mayfield, held I do, and I'm glad he's
won there. I just don't just you know, just because
two was having a great game. Now he was pulled

(13:06):
in the third, alright, they gave it to Kyler Murray.
I don't get so worked up in about the m
v P Award, the Heisman Award, Offensive Player of the
Year awards. Those don't bother me, I guess as much
as you. I just think too was absolutely robbed. I mean,
over the course of the season to a completed and
an astronomical just under sixty eight percent of his passes

(13:28):
thirty seven touchdowns, four interceptions, and that was without playing
in the fourth quarter. I saw a stat earning he
threw about two hundred passes less than Dwayne Haskins from
Ohio State, who finished in third place. If if Ta
had thrown the same number of passes as as Dwayne Haskins,
he would have been on pace to throw for over
sixty touchdown passes. Part of winning the Heisman is you

(13:53):
were so good you never even played in the fourth quarter.
Like I said, I think he was robbed. All right,
Aaron underscore tories. You get hold of their incongenious one
is where you can get a hold of me. We'll
come back. I'll tell you what Kelly had to say
after the game. I'm a little curious about that. Plus
not tre Dame. What kind of effort was that? So
all that's covering up next right here on Fox Sports

(14:14):
or radio. All right, What does it mean when Geico
says just fifteen minutes could save you fifteen per cent
or more in car insurance? What does it mean? It
means you're probably should have gone to Geico dot com
fifteen minutes ago easier in Torres. I'm Marni span You're busy,
busy Saturday night. Oklahoma back on the board. Um getting
a little interesting. Thirty twenties seven, eight thirty one left

(14:37):
in the fourth in the game, and this one you're
still not thinking? What if? What if Alabama had not
gotten out to that twenty one nothing first quarter lea
twenty twenty eight nothing first first half of that lead.
Oh no, I'm thinking about it. And it's a credit
to Oklahoma. I think that Alabama has gotten complacent. I
think that the play calling from Alabama. Look, I'm not

(15:01):
a coach here, right, but I do think that they
got up early and it automatically went into whatever term
you want to use, conservation mode, clock chewing mode. I
mean I saw it right away. I mean in the
middle of the second quarter, they're trying to run the
ball rather than run their offense. So listen, all of
a sudden, it's an eleven point game. Here with about
eight minutes to go. But I would still say Alabama

(15:21):
has unquestionably been the better team, and uh, Oklahoma is
gonna do the onside kick, so they're not gonna waste
a round. They're gonna say, let's go ahead and try
to get this thing and and try to score again.
They didn't, so Alabama is gonna get some great field
position thirty twenty seven. I don't think I could blame
them from going that, But if you're if you're gonna
do it on side kick, then you should have thought

(15:42):
about going for first downs instead of kicking two field goals,
because you're not gonna be Oklahoma when you're down twenty
eight nothing by kicking a couple of field goals. And yes,
I know it was what fourth and sixth on one
of them, but you gotta take the chance on one
of them, don't you. I was just thinking that aren't
either down eleven right now. Yeah, obviously you don't know
what would have happened, what could have happened, But at

(16:02):
the same time, I do think if you're exactly what
you just said, if you're gonna if you're gonna go
on side kick with eight minutes to go, maybe you
should have gone gone for it on fourth down early
in the game when you're down twenty eight nothing, and
I think it was twenty eight to ten or thirty
one to ten when they kicked the second, Yeah, thirty
one to ten, That make a thirty one thirteen. I
understand it was fourth and six, But you gotta go ahead,
and you gotta take a chance sometime when you're down

(16:24):
twenty eight nothing, you've got to go ahead, and you know,
reach into your bag of tricks. So that's what they
obviously did here. And especially two things. One when you
have the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, a guy that, even
though I know I've been whining about two and not
winning it, Kyler Murray is a phenomenal player that can
change the game on any given play with his arms
or his with his arm or his legs. And also,

(16:47):
your defense isn't very good. So I'm with you in
in agreement that not only not only am I okay
with that onside kick, but I would have been okay
with them going for it on fourth down rather than
kicking field goals earlier in the game. Roger tweets in
problem with playoffs isn't too many teams. It's the committee
thinking it's nine and selecting Notre Dame over Georgia or

(17:07):
Ohio State. Um Rod j Alson says, showing his millennial
roots by only caring about individual accolades over team accomplishment. No,
the Heisman's a team award. That's all any But whenever
they win it, they say, I gotta think my old
line and I gotta think my running backs. And this
is a team award. It is a team award that
was better another one. As an Irish fan, I'm disgusted.

(17:29):
Brian Kelly has made us an above average team, but
we are not a lae. He has almost ten years.
Time to fire everyone. Blow it up. Initial thoughts thirty
to three. First thing I want to say about this
is owen six of those what BCS New Year's Bowl games.
That means nothing when it comes to next year. I
hear people go, oh, they were all five. This is
why you don't take them, because of their path. It's

(17:51):
a year two year thing, all right. This is not
like a lifetime achievement award, because if it was, we'd
put Army into the four team playoff. Okay, doesn't work
that way. You don't get to say because the team
has been bad in BCS Bowl games or New Year's
Bowl games, that they don't deserve it next year. And
if Notre Dame's arendefeated again next year and they're you know,

(18:12):
and they beat some quality teams, they deserve it again
in spite of what happened today or the five other
games before this. Well how about think about it like this.
How about last year Clemson gets blown out by Alabama
in that second playoff game. Do they not deserve to
get back in this year they're undefeated, right, exactly exactly, So, yeah,
I thought it was a big difference between that and
oh and six though, let's be honest. Yeah, sure, no,

(18:34):
Now Clems has been competitive before, but I think it
brings up your point, Arnie, that every year is an
individual thing. And my problem is, is all this revisionist
history of oh this is so it was so obvious
that Notre Dame didn't deserve to be in. No one
was arguing a month ago when we got down to
that championship Saturday that Notre Dame didn't deserve to be
in a lot of people questioned if Oklahoma should be

(18:56):
in with that defense over Georgia Nobody was talking about
Notre Dame though, and I know Notre Dame lost by
the way, Arnie, But that guy that says that Brian
Kelly blow it up, start over. Let me ask a
simple question, Arnie, Right, who are you getting that's better
than Brian Kelly? Oh, you're not gonna get. Look, they
wanted to blow it up. What was it about three years?
Two years? They went three and nine and everybody wanted

(19:19):
him gone. He comes back, they go, they win ten
games last year, and then he comes and then they
make the playoff this year. That's why you can't listen
to fans. And let me tell you what Brian Kelly
said after the game today, quote unquote, I do not
feel that there's an overwhelming difference in terms of talent.
Talking about the game today, if we coach better, we
made plays that would have been making all year, we

(19:39):
would have had a pretty good darned football team going
into the fourth quarter. I think he also says that
it was oh yeah, he goes It was four big
plays that were the difference, and that the Irish issue
Saturday were technical and tactical, not talent based. Do you
buy that when you lose thirty to three. They were dominated.
Do you believe though what he said to some point? Okay,

(20:02):
so I actually do. And it's gonna sound like I'm
being an apologist or I'm whatever forgiving him, But look,
if you if you watch that game, and I know
you were watching Arnie Saturday afternoon like I was, it
was first of all, it was three to three after
the first quarter. Clemson touchdowns in the second quarters three
three at the end of the first right, and the
first year Sorry if I misspoke there, No, that's go ahead.

(20:24):
I'm just trying to remember that. But yeah, fifty two
yard touchdown, past forty two yard touchdown pass, and all
of a sudden it's sixteen to three and the game
is basically over. And then the play right before the
halftime though exactly right, the big touchdown that I thought
sealed it, that just about sealed it. But I do
think Brian Kelly has something there. And in look, they lost,

(20:47):
Clemson deserve to win. Clemson is a better team if
we have Clemson fans listening. I'm not trying to take
away from what you did. Notre Dame kind of shot
themselves in the foot in the first half a little
bit though, he didn't you think. I mean a lot
of drop passes, a lot of just dumb mistake and
then those big plays. I mean I watched that game.
I didn't feel like it was an overwhelming talent discrepancy.

(21:08):
Maybe you disagree, but I didn't feel like there was
an overwhelming gap between the two teams. No, I'm not
gonna say overwhelming. Hey, Clemson one, they were the better team. Uh.
They won over the spread, so the game should have
been a lot closer. I thought not youre Dame came
out really. I don't know if it was nerves. They
had two fumbles in the first four plays. One of
both of them could have been called the fumble. Uh.

(21:30):
The second one certainly was a fumble. Uh. And still
with all that, they did a good job defensively, they
just didn't have enough to do it for four quarters.
And eventually Clemson was the better team. And we knew that,
Trevor Lawrence, at least I didn't know until after the
game though. But Trevor Lawrence, you were tweeting about him
and people were talking about that. You just love the guy. Look,
I know you love it. I was he six six

(21:52):
or or something to that effect. He's gonna be a
good pro. But if you're asking me who I want
between him and maybe Hasking or tuh or anything like that,
or Kyler Murray, if you ever went to the NFL,
sign me up for two? Or where do I sign?
Right now? Yeah, I could see that argument right now.
I mean two has got more experience. As he throws
another touchdown pass, it is now yeah, forty four to seven.

(22:17):
I thought I was watching a replay seven pending the
extra points six oh eight left. Two of pumps his fist.
He says, give me that Heisman. Now I'm kidding. I'm over.
I'm over that brant over. But um, but no, I
mean I look, I think you can make the argument
that today two is better. And look, maybe it's just
a case where they're both really good quarterbacks. We've seen

(22:39):
this throughout the history of football. I mean, guys that
are contemporaries in college you know, whether it's Marino and
l Way, whoever it might be. I know I'm dating
myself there, and they didn't necessarily play against each other,
but there have been plenty of examples where you get
more than one good quarterback out of kind of an
era in college football. I'm just saying, Trevor Lawrence, true

(23:01):
freshman didn't start till Week five this year, and he's
dropping dimes on Notre Dame's defense. I just thought he
was fantastic today and he said, maybe you should uh
tell Pranke you'll pick him up a it sucks to
be me shirt for him. So yeah, I may do that.
I may have one of those. I sure I can
find one of those around out there. All right, we're
gonna come back. The big question is now everybody asking,

(23:21):
is about time that Notre Dame joins a conference or
we'll get that into coming up next. But first, let's
check in with the saga. See what's trending out there.
What's going on to sea Good evening, gentlemen. College football playoffs, guys,
it's been around for now five years, so we've had
ten total semifinal games, roughly eight blow outside of the
ten if you include this one. Arnie wants to expand

(23:41):
the playoff. That's right, that's right. I don't mind expanding
it as long as you expanded to six and the
top two get the first week off. There should be
some if especially this past couple of years where the
top two have been so good, you should get some
sort of advantage for being that much better than the
rest of the field. Bam is going to be fourteen
and oh their ranked number one. Clemson is fourteen and

(24:03):
oh their ranked number two in the last four years. Now,
this will put Alabama's record at fifty five and three,
Clemsons record at fifty four and four, And it looks
like we're looking at a fourth straight year of Alabama Clemson.
The first three finals between those two have been superb
or the first the last three finals, I should say
with Alabama involved, have been superb. That Georgia game went

(24:26):
to overtime. Remember last year when Bama wanted on the past. Tonight,
Obama is winning forty five seven over Oklahoma. About six
minutes to go, it was Obama twenty eight nothing lead
early in the second quarter. At the time, yardage totals
to thirty nine to twenty four. Sooner started one for
five passing. Now, Kyler Murray in this game does have

(24:47):
a hundred yards rushing on fourteen carries. He's over two
hundred fifty yards passing two touchdowns. But it's looking like
the season ends tonight for the Sooners in Arlington, Texas.
The other semifinal went to number two Clemson thirty two
three over Notre Dame. The Tigers led nine to three
late in the first half and then scored two touchdowns
in the last two minutes before halftime. Freshman quarterback Trevor

(25:08):
Lawrence three t d passes in the second quarter, three
twenty seven yards through the air for the game. The
Peach Bowl went to number ten Florida, beating seventh rank
Michigan forty one fifteen. Virginia won its bowl game twenty
eight nothing against South Carolina and in overtime Nevada edge
Darkansas State sixteen thirteen. Bowl games will resume on Monday.
The New York Jets, according to NFL Network, are expected

(25:30):
to fire coach Todd Bowles after the regular season ends
tomorrow and two NBA games still going early third quarter,
Golden State leads at Portland's fifty six Clay Thompson with
nineteen points in counting final minute before halftime. In l A,
Spurs ahead of the Clippers fifty six to fifty three
LaMarcus Aldridge already twenty two points. Wizards guard John Wall

(25:52):
will have heel surgery. He'll miss six to eight months,
so he's done for the season. Washington did win at
home one thirty to one twenty six over Charlotte despite
forty seven points from Kemba Walker. Boston came from nineteen
down in the third quarter to win at Memphis Denvers
just one again one at Phoenix Jamal Murray forty six points.
Back to you, all right, thanks for the second. We're

(26:12):
coming to you live from the Geico Fox Sports or
radio studios. Remember now, it's easy to say fifteen for
seven more in car insurance with Geico. Just go to
Geico dot com or give him a call one eight
hundred nine for seven auto. And the only hard part
figuring out which way is easier. He's Aaron Torres, a
Marty Spaniard. Alabama leads fort twenties seven five twenty eight

(26:34):
left in the game. Wow, these three and a half
four hour games. There little log. That first quarter dragged
the log time, Torres, Oh my, the last two minutes
before the half, I thought I wasn't gonna make it
into work because they're kept being penalties and this and that.
Aren'ty real quick? I want to ask you. So we're
now five minutes away from a third Alabama Clemson final

(26:55):
in the last four years. Oklahoma has of course made
three out of the five college football playoffs. Ohio State,
Georgia always in the mix. Do you think, and maybe
this goes to your a team playoff argument and I
just mean, but do you like that it is always
virtually the same team? Do you think it's bad for
the sport? I think it's very bad for the sports,

(27:16):
same way that we talk about Golden State, how that's
bad for the NBA, which is kind of the same thing.
You have, like the same four or five. I don't
even even know if you have the same four or
five in the n B. A. UM, we love the NBA,
the NFL, but as we say it as parody, we
love the parody. How many times have we talked over
the last week filling in that it's wide open in
the a f C, in the NFC and we're so

(27:36):
excited about that. UM and another reason I want to
go to eight. Can you imagine, you know, the staker said, well,
you've got to go ahead and give them some reward
for being so much better than everybody else. I'm gonna
give you a reward. I'm gonna give you a home game,
I'm gonna give you a home game on your campus
so your fans can come, so you can go ahead
and get that money and maybe come up with more

(27:58):
scholarships for the kids or whatever. And I know there's
tons somebody being made anyway, but have it on your
home campus. Have it there so you're alumni and the
students can enjoy it, just like the team. That's what
it's really about. I mean, I disagree. I just think,
first of all, I think that if we're gonna expand
the playoff, first all, I don't like the idea of
expanding the playoff at all. And this is something that

(28:20):
Jonas Knocks and UH our buddy Rob Parker have said
over the last couple of days as they filled in,
or at least Jonas has on the odd couple. You know,
these are still, at the end of the day, unpaid athletes,
and I don't like the idea of adding more games,
more wear and tear on these kids bodies. And I know,
ultimately it's only two teams that are gonna play that
extra game where you're gonna just take one less out

(28:40):
of the conference and stuff like that, and I and
I think that would be the logical next step, right
we go to eleven eleven regular season games. I also think,
by the way, we have to get some kind of
continuity on conference games, as far as some schools or
some conferences only play eight conference games, some conferences play nine.
But this is all a long winded way of saying
I don't think we need to add a game to

(29:01):
the schedule unless we're gonna take one off somewhere along
the way. Um. But I also just think that the
four team playoff is awesome as it is. I like
the idea of these two semifinal games. I like the
idea of of teams that truly deserve to be there.
We're not letting in a Georgia that lost to Alabama

(29:21):
when they had a chance to win it. We're not
letting in a two or three lost Pack twelve champion.
We're not letting in other teams that Look at Michigan,
if there was an eight team playoff, Michigan would have
been in. They got embarrassed today. So you know, I
don't know, I just I just think that I just
think you gotta draw the line somewhere. I'm one of
those people, and you know where I stand, Arnie. I
like it for Aaron underscore, Torres, I'm at stinking genius

(29:45):
one if you want to go and get on. And
you talked about the conferences. So now the big question
is is about time that Notre Dame joins everybody else
that are going in the super conferences. It seems like
and they joined a conference. Uh, Notre Dame is no
longer special. It's a great academic institution. They've got a
great history when it comes to college football. My old

(30:06):
boss when I used to work in Chicago was a
football star for Notre dameon ended up coaching Notre Dame,
like back in the thirties or something like that. His
name was Terry Brennan. So I I know the history.
I saw the pictures on his wall. I know the
respect that it is. But I gotta say this, Torres,

(30:26):
Notre Dame is no longer like that. They're not special,
They're like everybody else. They've got to join the conference
and join us in the century. So let me ask
you a question. Annie, About three or four weeks ago,
we found out that your dog was a little bit overweight. Yes,
and for a time you went on a diet with

(30:47):
a dog with the whole family, had to go on
a diet, okay, and then at some point you started
sneaking a piece of chocolate here, a hamburger there. You're
not on that diet anymore, you know, not at all.
And the reason is because you can get away with
if eating a hamburger when you want. And I think
it's the same deal with Notre Dame. They they're not
gonna go to a conference because they can get away
with it. I think at some point there will be

(31:10):
a time where they get screwed for lack of a
better term, for not being in a in a conference
like this season, for example. But it could be like
the Big Twelve who didn't want to go and have
a conference championship. So the selection commtee said, well, now
we're not gonna take TCU and we're gonna bump them down.
All all of a sudden, they have a conference championship.
And I was gonna say too. And if you remember
this year, there was a very interesting conversation that started

(31:32):
to happen about middle of November, late November, when Michigan
was sitting at ten in one whatever, and we're saying,
if Michigan wins the Big Ten, if they beat Ohio State,
even with that lost to Notre Dame, should they get
in ahead of Notre Dame? And so I think that
if Notre Dame had lost one game, if they had
been eleven and one, they wouldn't have gotten in. And

(31:53):
if Michigan, but if they would have been eleven and
one in the conference, they would have gotten in. Well, technically,
if they had been eleven and one in a conference,
the would have goten smoked by Clemson in the a
c C championship game. But but no, I know what
you're saying. I know what you're saying. But but the
point is is that as of right now they can
get away with it. They have a seat at the
big boy table. If they go undefeated, there in a
playoff spot. If they don't go undefeated but have one

(32:16):
or two losses, they're going to a really good bowl game.
This is all about the money, though, Is that why
they want to stay an independent? Because Texas gets its money,
they've got their own network, Oklahoma makes their money. What
is it about them that they don't want to join it?
They think they're still special out there? Well, they are special,
and I don't I listen, I don't think they're special
and you don't think they're special, but the people that

(32:37):
run college football have allowed them to remain special. Right
They still, like I said, they're undefeated. They get in
Central Florida has been undefeated for two years. They don't
get in um you know. Uh, but that's because of
the history. Though they don't that's no longer the case. Now.
You shouldn't be doing that, you know. And I know
the network NBC, and you know they pumped them up.

(32:58):
But still you you can't fall into that trap. Listen,
I'm with you. But this is the way the current
thing is structured. This is the way the current situation
is structured. But I would also say this in defense
and other name I saw all day. Oh they you know,
they need to be in a com and if they
had been in a conference, this and then the other thing.

(33:18):
Let's also remember that their schedule this year. They played
Michigan to open the season, they played at USC, they
played at Virginia Tech, they played Florida State at home,
and and they played a really challenging schedule. Not just
so happened that some of the teams on the schedule
weren't as good as they usually are. USC and Florida
State specifically. But let's not act like they don't schedule

(33:41):
their butts off and they don't have a challenging schedule
a year in a year out. If you want to
argue they need to be in a conference to make
the playoff, I have no problem with that. But let's
not act like they don't play anybody during the course
of the regular season. No right on that. I just
would like to see them in a conference. I think
we would give her US a better parameter on how
good they are our plus, uh, they would have to

(34:01):
win a conference championship. What makes you think they would
go to the a SEC is that where you were
putting them? By the way, well, all their other sports
are in the a SEC. That's where their basketball team is.
And they also, if you remember, they have that quirky
set up where they have to play for a CEC
tape every for a CEC teams every single year. So
this year they played Florida State, they played Virginia Tech,

(34:22):
they played pit they played Syracuse. So I'm thinking Big Ted,
my friend, you know, I think the Big Ted makes
more sense geographically. By the way, it's also a bunch
of slow teams from the Midwest. Just like they are.
But but you know, right now they're aligned with the
A C C. And I think for all intents and purposes,
that's where they would be if they join a conference.
Alabama forty five, Oklahoma thirty four three five and count

(34:44):
think we're gonna come back. I got some thoughts about
Nick Saban on the sideline, and we'll talk a little
bit about Kyler Murray. So all that's coming up. We're
just crushed our number one. He's Aberon Torres. I'm Areny Spaniard.
This is Fox Sports Radio. All at this segment of
the show, brought to you by Geico. Go to Geico
dot com or give him a call one nine four

(35:05):
seven otto. He's Aaron Torres. I'm Marty Spaniard. In I
don't know if you could hear that in the background, Torres,
that is everybody in Vegas that went ahead and bet
Alabama minus the fourth team. They take a knee for
the last minute at the five or six yard line.
They win the game thirty four, so they win by eleven,

(35:29):
but it hits right on seventy nine, which was the over.
Under went down to like seventy seven and seventy eight,
and then may have popped back up to right around
seventy nine. Vegas nailed that one. Unbelievable. Huh, it is
absolutely amazing. It is. I mean it is. And we
were sitting here last night, Iowa State, Washington State. I
know nobody cares. Line was was somewhere between two, two

(35:53):
and a half or three. It ends up being a
two point Washington State win every single game. It's amazing,
aren't it really is amazing. I'm not gonna make a
big deal about this. Um and I've watched a lot
of Alabama games? Am I wronging to say that Nick
Saban was not only a little bit more animated on
the sideline, a lot more animated. I thought he was
over the top. I think he was actually starting to

(36:14):
become a distraction for his team, uh and more of
a hindrance than helping them. The throwing the headsets down,
the screaming on the two um procedure penalties that made
them kick a field goal, and there was some other
obviously some dumb plays, but he was just losing it
on the sideline. I felt he was starting to become
a distraction. I could see that argument. I kind of

(36:38):
feel um of the belief that that is what makes
Nick Saban Nick Saban, That's why Alabama is playing for
national championship. He didn't think he was a little bit
more today than usual, or am I overthinking that? Well?
This was this was, um a real challenge for them,
and I think that's okay. I mean, you know, you
can say what you want about Saban, but um, Oklahoma
came to play it well after the first quarter. I

(36:59):
suppose it. Um they made it competitive, and I think
Saban was trying to rally his troops. I think he's
trying to say, guys, this thing ain't over yet. I
know we were up twenty eight nothing, but this thing
ain't over. Man, Let's get going, Let's get in gear.
And look, Alabama deserve to win. They were the better team,
but Oklahoma played toe for toe with them after that
first quarter. Yeah. I just I just thought that that

(37:20):
he was a little bit over the top starting to
become a problem. I don't know. Maybe the players used
to him. I just never saw him like that on
the sideline. I've seen him animated. I just thought this
was maybe one notch above. Now I want to ask
you about Kyler Murray. Now that the game's over, and
you've seen what he was able to do. Uh do
you think, uh, you have less of of of his

(37:43):
opinion or less of his skills in the NFL than
you did before. I get a feeling that you no
longer think he's a first round draft pick. I've never
thought he was the first round draft picks. Certainly not
with um, certainly not with the baseball option as well.
It's one thing for an NFL GM to take a
risk on a hundred seventy five pound quarterback that's five
ft nine. It's another thing to have him take a

(38:04):
first round pick on a five seventy five pound quarterback
who is splitting time with baseball. And look, Kyler was
awesome tonight. If he wasn't splitting time with baseball, though,
and he just said I'm fully committed to football, you
still don't think he'd be that high of a first
round pick, or you don't think he'd be a first
round at all. I think you can make an argument,
but I also think at the end of the day,

(38:25):
we saw today. Look, when he was on the run,
he was all right, he was fine. But in the
pocket he finished nineteen for thirty seven. Arn'ty so under
over three hundred yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, ran for
a hundred yards. I think I've got more respect for
him that was a quarterback than I did before the game.
I think he made some tough throws. I also think that, um,

(38:45):
you know, he also was on the run the whole game.
And I just don't think that guy that size. I
really don't. People are saying, oh, Baker mayfields this. Russell
Wilson's the same height. Russell Wilson's probably got thirty pounds
on Kyler Murray. So today's aim didn't make you say
what didn't make you sit up would have been said, hey,
this kid can play in the NFL. He could, he

(39:06):
could play against some tough defenses. That didn't make him
sit up and notice it more. I don't know. I
mean I thought he was fine, Like I I thought
he was on the run the entire game. I thought
he did everything that he could to keep his team
in but he was never settled in the pocket. He
was never comfortable. And you can't make a living at

(39:26):
the NFL level trying to do what Kyler Murray has
to do to be successful. I mean, look, Cam Newton
got knocked out, Kim new was like two pounds two
hundred fifty pounds. He got knocked out this year, Kyler Murray.
At some point, you're gonna have to sit in the
pocket and make throws. I'm not saying that he's not
capable of doing that. What I am saying is that

(39:48):
he is not capable of staying healthy when he does
have to go on the run and and get out
of the pocket. You can't expect in the NFL to
sit in the pocket and not take hits. And when
he takes hits, I just think that I to worry
about him, all right, the precess for the first time,
I agree with your partner with the Saban thing. I
whether if a lot more people agree with me. I

(40:08):
really thought, you know, if he's usually eight out of
ten or seven out of ten, I thought he was
a nine out of ten with uh, you know, with
the screaming and the yelling, I thought he got out
of hand. I really, I really was. It was bothering me,
to be honest with the error was starting to bother me.
I disagree. I just think that's what makes Nick Saban
Nick Saban, I think that's what makes a great coach
a great coach. Keeps his team engaged, keeps him motivated,

(40:30):
keeps him realizing. By the way, hey guys, this game
in over. Yet they get to win. That's all that
matters our one in the books. We just cruised right
through that. We're gonna come back reset the games. I'm
gonna tell you what the line is for that first
game between Alabama and Clemson. We'll give you the latest
on that. Errand Underscore touris. I'm a stick of Genius one.
This is Fox Sports Radio. Oh right, everybody, good evening

(40:58):
is We're coming to you live from the Geico Fox
Sports Radio studios. Did you know that fifteen minutes could
save you fifteen percent of more and car insurance? What
do you have to do? Visit Geico do com for
free rate quote he's Aaron Underscore torres if you want
to go ahead, and tweeted him, I'm at stinking Genius one.
The finals are in. We've got our finals. Now it's

(41:20):
gonna be Alabama taken on Clemson. Alabama wins at thirty
four over Oklahoma had a pretty enjoyable second half of
that game. And Notre Dame beats excuse me, Clemson beats
Notre Dame thirty to seven. The Irish fans wish it
was the other way around, Torres. So one game a blowout,
the other one a semi not really blow out. We

(41:43):
just say or what h Yeah, that's the thing, right.
So I think a lot of Oklahoma fans, a lot
of people are saying, you know, I just put out
on Twitter at Aaron underscore Torres. I think that this
game proves beyond a reasonable doubt that two a tongue
of viola was robbed to the Heisman Trophy. He finished
havan four touchdowns. Kyler Murray throws for three hundred yards,

(42:03):
but it's on about a fifty percent completion rate. He
also rushed for a hundred yards. But the bottom line
is the game was never closer than eleven points after
the first quarters. So I guess we're giving Kyler Murray
credit for putting up a bunch of yards when Alabama
is gon prevent defense and trying to hold onto the win. Um.
The point I'm trying to make is that Alabama, even

(42:25):
though the game felt a little close at time, it
was never really out of Alabama's hands. Uh, Vegas screwed up,
I believe what do you think the line would be
or it's going to be on the Alabama Clemson game
because they already posted it. I think they made a
major mistake. I believe that our buddy Todd Ferman says
it's about Clemson minus six and a half, because that's

(42:46):
what I said. It was going to be, sick like,
no that clemsonbody. You mean Alabama minus six and a half?
Did I say Clemson? No, Alabama six and a half.
I'm sorry. It opened up at minus nine and has
dropped down the seven right now, so heavy money. Trevor
Lawrence be in bet immediately on Clemson plus the points
to not get down two full points already. I thought

(43:08):
it was gonna be six. I thought about six six
and a half was where I was gonna put it,
and it's probably gonna get down to under that magic
number seven. Should be interesting right now at seven? How
much more money is gonna come in before it drops
to six and a half and all those Clemson takers
are gonna be on that one. I don't think there's
gonna be a lot of Alabama money until it goes
under seven. Era and yeah, because I do think that

(43:31):
Clemson profiles pretty similarly to Georgia the team that obviously
gave Alabama a bunch of trouble in that SEC Championship game.
Great defense, great defensive front, quarterback that's not really an
elite playmaker like Kyler Murray, but does have a good
strong arm, good wide receivers. Six feels about right to me. Nine.
If I was in Vegas and I saw nine, I

(43:51):
would have spent through the window myself. Right during the
course of the year, during the course of college football.
Of course, we're on every Saturday, so we're doing the
college football rap. We've talked about our and Meyer. We
talked about Harriba, we talked about Nick Saban, all right,
We've talked about Kelly. We've talked about all the great
coaches and how much they're good or they're bad, how
much credit they should get. Are we ever going to
mention Dabo Sweeney in that same level as a maybe

(44:14):
a Nick Saban? I mean, when how much longer is
it going to take for him to start getting the
respect that like an urban Meyer got or as he
already reached that plateau. No, he hasn't, and it's it's
a shame. So yes, I crunched the numbers today, Arnie.
This is the last four seasons for Dabo fifty four
and four overall, that's pretty good. Fifty three and two

(44:38):
against teams not named Alabama, So two of the four
losses that he's had our to Alabama. Basically, if Nick
Saban was never born, Clemson could potentially be playing for
their fourth straight national championship and he doesn't. And and
it's got to be harder to win it Clemson because
they weren't the football power or had the you know,
the history that in Alabama does. So why doesn't Dabo

(45:01):
get on that same level all those other coaches I mentioned?
I think it's just, you know, I I do think
that sometimes in sports, we we generally go with the guy,
especially with coaches with athletes sometimes too, we tend to
kind of believe in the guy that's been there longer,
that's done it longer. Like if I told you today,

(45:22):
you know, who would you rather have as a quarterback,
Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes, I think most people would
still say Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, and like, but let's be honest,
we all watched these games. If you had to win
one game tomorrow, based on the way they played this season,
I would probably take Patrick Mahomes, I would probably take
the younger guys, Russell Wilson, you go on and on

(45:42):
down the list. So I just think it's it's something
about um, you know, just being kind of Dabbo is
still kind of new to the scene. But if you
look at what he's done, as I said, four straight
playoff appearances, four straight ACC titles. We're talking about a
guy now that has one, uh ten or more games
and I think seven or eight straight years, eight straight

(46:05):
years he's won at least ten games. Aren't that's unbelievable?
Has already doubt in your mind that out of the
four teams I played today, Clemson looked the best, or
I might making too much of them because they played
Notre Dame and Alabama had to play a tougher team
in Oklahoma? Am I wrong on that? Also? Uh No,
I don't think that's unfair, um, because I think look,
Notre Dame did have a statistically a very very very

(46:27):
good defense, and Oklahoma obviously had one of the worst
defenses in major college football. And Alabama after that first
quarter really wasn't great moving the ball. So if you
want to say that Clemson start to finish, just completely dominated,
I wouldn't necessarily argue I think it was except for
the first quarter pretty much they did. I would say
that pretty much. I was gonna say the exact same

(46:47):
thing is after the first quarter was close and Clemson
over the last three quarters ran away with it. The
actually actually the exact opposite, with Bama dominated the first
quarter and Oklahoma actually outscored them in the second. In
the final three quarters, So if you want to sit
here and say tonight Saturday, with these two games haven't

(47:08):
been played, that you believe Clemson is gonna upset Alabama
in a week from now, I wouldn't argue with you
one bit. Of course, I get my news from Twitter,
from all you millennials out there. Okay, why were so
many people outraged at the first blow We've had bloods
and and what six of the eight games, eight of
the ten games? Whatever the sakers said, when what was
today's blood had? Why is today's any different than all
the other blowouts? I think it's because, Arnie, what we

(47:29):
were talking about a minute ago, It's because it's Notre Dame.
It's because what did you say, oh n six in
their last six Big Bowl games? Is that we well
BCS slash New Year's Ball games. So there you go.
And I think it was people reacting so we shouldn't
be expecting it. Then. Yeah, I think people are reacting saying, oh,
this proves they didn't deserve to be there. No, they
deserve to be there. Yeah, I agree with you, they

(47:51):
deserve to be there. They didn't have a great performance,
but you know what, Clemson got blown out in last
year's playoff. Ohio State got blown out two years ago
in a playoff game that I was actually at in Phoenix,
So every year is different. Notre Dame had a resume
worthy of being in the playoff this year. You know,
when I look at Clemson, I'm not so sure. You know,

(48:14):
they're on that same level of Alabama either. You know,
I was like, what are you talking about? To just
see the games today. Even Oklahoma was able to go
and make some stops against Alabama, Clemson, all they did
was stop Notre Dame. I thought Notre Dame also shot
themselves in the foot. The early turnovers, the two fumbles,
the penalties that given up the ash Kelly said, the

(48:34):
four big plays, but that one right before halftime. They
were done when they got that one right before halftime,
it was all over. They were never coming back after that.
Errand oh absolutely. But it does bother me though, how
we switch up the narratives. Not you and I. I mean,
we're great at what we do, but all these other
uh media people that are jerks and losers like like,

(48:55):
it was amazing to me how quickly it became, oh,
Notre Dame should have never been in the playoffs. This
proves like nobody was saying that. The day of the
conference championship games, people were question more though, I think
a lot of people were questioning whether Oklahoma with that
embarrassing defense, should be in the four team playoff. I
don't think anybody was questioning Notre Dame, though I do

(49:16):
question Notre Dame. When it comes to the conference. Uh,
we're progressing. Look at what we got going now with
the Power five. We're also going to progress even more
super conferences. So how could you be that lone person
on an island when now you're gonna have the Pack
twelve and maybe merging with let's say the the Big
twelve or you know, or you can just have a

(49:38):
North Southeast West regions. People are merging. They're not just
staying by themselves, they're not getting smaller. Errand yeah, I
mean I think that the conferences as of right now
this second uh seem to be pretty stable. But as
you know, things change when there's money on the table
and the Big ten or somebody can add the SEC

(49:58):
they will. But it's like I said a minute ago already,
is that I truly believe that Notre Dame hasn't joined
a conference because they didn't have to. They were rewarded
this year for not being part of a conference. Now,
you brought up a great point. The Big twelve got
screwed out of a playoff birth a couple of times,
and that led them to add a conference championship game.
At some point, if it becomes a trend where two three,

(50:19):
four times Notre name gets left out of this playoff
with a good record with maybe a quote unquote worthy resume,
than maybe Notre Dame reconsiders you and I argue, and
so does everybody else. Four teams, six teams, eight teams,
neutral site put it back on campus. Um, we love
the NFL playoffs. Why don't we argue about the NFL playoffs?

(50:41):
Why are we so much happier way the way the
NFL playoffs are, but we're not happy with the way colleges.
And I'll tell you why. One because the NFL playoffs
are right away too. It's because you have home field three,
because there's more teams involved. So right off the bat,
we should learn from the NFL and do what they're doing. Right,
I disagree. I think it's two different. But you don't

(51:02):
enjoy the NFL playoffs. I mean it's easy to sit
here and say that we do. We also get a
lot of really bad games on wild card weekend. We
don't think about that because listen, it's one of those
things in the moment, you always think everything is the greatest,
is the worst thing ever, the greatest thing ever. Right, Like,
like I said, for the last month, i've heard about

(51:23):
how great at eight team playoff was. This proves we
need an eight team playoff. Well, Notre Dame looked pretty
bad today. I don't think that we need to add
more teams of Notre Dames quality. Um, and so when
I talked, but that was just this year. How do
you know next year we won't have six really really
good teams or ten really really good teams. When have

(51:44):
we had ten really good teams on I don't know.
I don't I don't have all the years in front
of me. But what you're telling me, out of all
the football teams we have in college football, we can
never have eight or ten good teams. I don't think
we're gonna have eight or ten teams the quality of
Alabama Clemson by the way we have. Do we have
twelve great teams in the NFL playoffs? No, but we
love them. I don't know, Arnie. I'm looking at last

(52:04):
year's NFL playoffs Jacksonville ten, Buffalo three on wild card
because that one you're telling your grandkids about is that
you want more of that? Arn'tie. No, but but I'm
showing you though we you know, we don't go ahead
and every team in the NFL playoffs they're not gonna
win at all. But we enjoy, you know, watching all
the teams get in there, especially with the home fields. Though,

(52:26):
by the way, Seattle Detroit to six the year before,
Pittsburgh thirty to twelve over your Miami Dolphins. You're gonna
read me all the blowouts now, yeah, Because adding games
doesn't make the competition better, I think you would actually
make it worse. We saw what Notre Dame would do
Clemson or not clemsing U c F. I'm sorry, I'm

(52:47):
a UCF guy. That team would have gotten embarrassed if
they played Alabama Clemson because they would have been an
eight or a seventh seed. I agree, but at least
let's get him the chance. Rob says, are buddy. Rob
Collins says, if Notre they've joined the Big Ten of
the Big twelve, they would never make the BCS playoffs.
And I think that's fair. I mean, I think it's fair, right,
I mean, I don't think it's inconceivable. Why why would

(53:11):
they struggle if they were in the all of a sudden,
if they were there, they have to be Clemson to
get to a playoff. I don't know, I I know,
but things change though now It's like that now if
they were in the Big twelve, sure they may be
the best team in the Big twelve. In the Big
tenant's it's a few teams on top of but things
change around after years. Oh yeah, everything cyclical, by the way.

(53:33):
And this goes back to what we were talking about
a minute ago. Is it good or bad for college
football that these teams keep keep winning? I think It'll
be a great thing for college football when Nick Saban retires,
because it's gonna give these other teams in the SEC
a chance. We'll get an l s U and we'll
get a Georgia, we'll get a Florida all of a sudden,
you want more teams out there? Is that what you want?

(53:55):
More diversity? I listen. I listen, by the way. I'm
not somebody that's bothered by Ella him. I love watching greatness.
I love tuning into the NFL playoffs to either root
for or against the New England Patriots. I'd rather see
the Patriots in the Jacksonville Jaguars. Sorry to anyone listening
in Jacksonville, that's a fact um. But I also think
that it wouldn't be the worst thing if we could
have gotten some fresh blood in. It was nice to

(54:16):
see Notre Dame. Would have been cool if say Michigan
had made it. Uh So, I do think that that
I think that's a concern for these people that that
do run the playoff. It is Alabama again for a
championship for the third time in four years. He's Aaron
underscore Torres. If you want to get ahold of him,
I know We're getting a bunch of tweets. We have
to keep up on that of its thinking genius. One
will come on back more on that Oklahoma Alabama game

(54:39):
of A few thoughts on uh Murray and how great
of an NFL quarterback would if he committed to the NFL.
All that's covering up next right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Great song, alright, Good evening everyone, Aaron Torres, Arnie Spaniard.
What does it mean when guy goes it's just fifteen minutes.
Con gave you fifteen percent of more in car insurance.

(55:02):
What does that mean? It means you're probably should have
on the guy dot com fifteen minutes ago. Arnie. I
will give you thirty dollars if you can name this song.
M I was listening to onto it with my eight
track on the way and I damn, I can't remember
what is it? Okay, I'll give you twenty bucks if

(55:22):
you can name the rapper. It's jay Z. It's technically
called Io, but it's it's a fantastic vanilla ice. Wow. Wow.
As you say, I remember, I remember driving around in
high school three hub caps on my four tires, jamming
out to this. Oh the ladies love me, aren't. Wiggans

(55:45):
tweets said, Hey, Artie, what do you think of your
five nine future NFL quarterback? Now this is exactly what
we're talking about. Though. Why after this game, you guys
looked at this game and and laughed and said, well,
now we don't see an NFL quarterback. But I think
of the opposite. I saw this game and said, Wow,
I've got a new found respect for a guy that
just tore up the number one defense that everything is

(56:07):
like an NFL defense. I'm like, this kid can't play
in the NFL if he decided to fully commit the
playing quarterback, Aaron, did he really tear up the defense? Arnie,
he didn't do a good job. He did a lot
better than I'm sure you thought he did. He finished
nineteen of thirty nine passing. Most of his rushing yards
came when Alabama was just trying to get out with
the win. I would say it was a fine performance.

(56:30):
I don't know that it was true him. Then I
guess I think exactly what I thought of him. I
think he is a phenomenal athlete. He's probably too small.
If he could listen, if he had the best offensive
line in the history of the NFL, and I knew
that he was never gonna have to leave the pocket,
then I'd say, yeah, go ahead and sign him. Well,
that's gonna be tough, though to throw at five done,

(56:50):
I guess it's gonna be tough. But he's just not
physically big enough. Arnie. I mean he got there was
a couple of hits where he just got Clawbert. And
I'm telling you, if I just truly believe, if Cam
Newton at two d sixty pounds can't stay healthy, Kyler
Murray has no chance. And this was one game. By
the way, this is one game. Imagine if he had

(57:12):
to do this weekend and week out for sixteen straight weeks.
Let me ask you, Aren'tie, You're an NFL GM. There's
no great quarterbacks in this draft class. I mean maybe
Dwayne Haskins. You and I discussed him. He I think
he'll be really good in the NFL. If you you're
you're you're a Giants fan, you're a Dolphins fan. If
you're the Dolphins GM, you about the six eighteenth pick,

(57:32):
whatever you're you're risking your career on Kyler Murray hundred
seventy pounds. No dog is bigger than Kyler Murray. Well,
easy on that. I want to I would certainly want
to Or Lawrence. I do like him. I just think
two has got more of an upside. But that doesn't
mean Lawrence is gonna be a good quarterback either. But
if I could somehow get to I would draft him
now and wait two years for him. You just can't

(57:54):
do that anymore. Oh yeah, no, I don't disagree that
Tah and Trevor Lawrence are both gonna be really good
NFL quarterbacks. But you're the guy that's standing up on
the table banging the table for your boy Colin. The
reason I do that is is you know people like, oh,
this guy should be like a third round pick or something. No,
this guy is a first round pick. This guy can
play in the NFL, and he couldn't be a good

(58:14):
quarterback in the NFL. I'm not saying he's an Aaron
Rodgers or anything like that, but today showed that he
can go up against major defenses, take ahead and still
and still come out and and put up some decent numbers.
I don't know what you guys were watching, but I
feel pretty good if he was quarterback in my team
and in the NFL, or at least the backup then
if if if you're telling me he's not good enough

(58:35):
to start, is that what you're saying. No, I think
he's good enough to start again if if I can,
if I can get the what do they called him,
the wild Hogs or whatever from the red Skins about
twenty five years ago, John Riggins and all them the Hogs. Yeah, like,
if I can get them, then it's one thing. But
I just don't believe that if he has to leave
the pocket, if he has to make plays with his feet,

(58:55):
and let's be honest, the big reason why you're draft
him is because he can make plays with his feet.
I don't believe that he can stay healthy over sixteen games.
I mean I barely thought he got out of this
game being fully healthy. All right, Aaron underscore Tours, I'm
at stinking genius one. Let me asking about Nick Saban.
He's just a better coach than everybody else because him
getting all those uh five star recruits, that's got to

(59:17):
help a little bit. It isn't like coach k Is
is coach k Is such a better basketball coach that
everybody else in college basketball? Or does it help that
he gets every McDonald's all American. Well, the funny thing
is with coach k I mean, if you look at
his track record, he gets knocked out when you get
to the sweet sixteen bingo bingoes. Right, So I'll say this,

(59:37):
but you know what I'm saying though, when it comes
to recruiting, Yeah, yeah, no, I think what Saban has
done is incredible because of the fact that, as we've
discussed about this show, in college football, you lose one game,
you might be out. You lose two games, you're not
making this college football playoff. We still haven't had a
team with two losses make the college football playoff. So

(59:58):
to me, that's been the most incredible thing. Yeah, he
recruits great players, but you know what, USC has great
recruiting classes every year. Ohio State has great recruits. But
you're you're not telling me that Nick Saban could be
the head coach of my Arizona Wildcats and they're gonna
be in the championship. That Jackson, you know, helping your
GM of the Knicks, How did that work out? You

(01:00:18):
know what, GM and coach are two different chils. Okay,
Luke Walton when he was head coach at Golden State. Uh,
he just rolled the ball out. What what thirty and two?
How's it working out with the Lakers? I mean they're
in like third place right now. You know what did
to work out before he got Lebron. You understand it's
all about how many good players you have, now how
great of a coach you are? So then how did

(01:00:40):
Nick Saban take Alabama from below five hundred the year
before he got there to the number one team in
the country in a second? It would be tough to
turn around Alabama if you just get the right guys,
if you know how to recruit. It's all about recruiting.
You understand that thought. But it was before what do
you think you have special plays? But these guys are
just like four star athletes, but they have the special
plays that make them better. But it was before he

(01:01:01):
was able to recruit his own guys. He was coaching
Mike Schulers guys when he got him to number one
in the country. Well, maybe Mike Shula wasn't a good
coach and we know that. Oh he was not a
good coach. Yeah, no, that that's a fact. So you know,
a guy get saving credit. Yes, obviously he's doing everything right,
but let's not acting because of his special plays. He
gets a lot of five star athletes down there, oh
for sure. But you know who else gets a lot
five star athletes? Georgia. You know who else gets a

(01:01:23):
lot five star athletes L s U for you know,
for going to the four team playoff L s U.
Oklahoma gets a lot of five star athletes. Alabama just
dominated them. Ohio State gets a lot of five star athletes.
Not allowed to play defense if you're Oklahoma, so oh
they yeah, No, I don't know. I don't disagree. I
mean a lot of people on social media right now
are upset because, uh, because their team lost. But no,

(01:01:44):
I think uh, I think Alabama. I think see. To me,
that's what's incredible about what Saban does is that he
he recruits a really great caliber of athlete. But I
don't think he recruits any better than Ohio State does,
Oklahoma does, l s U does, etcetera. Something is going
on in that building where he gets more out of him.
I'll add this to Ernie is that there has never

(01:02:06):
been a time in college football where the field should
be more balanced. You know why, because all these teams
have a ton of money. They can pay a million
dollars for their defensive coordinator, for their offensive coordinator. They
can have the fanciest training facilities and meal plans. It
wasn't like this twenty years ago, but it is now
Every team in in the Big Ten and in the

(01:02:27):
SEC is making a ton of money. And Nick said,
we don't have parody, though I know it's unbelievable. It's incredible.
And that's what I'm saying, is it's incredible that year
and year out, Nick Saban is able to continue the street,
keep it going. I wonder where all these other five
star athletes, and you mentioned Georgia and all that, but
you know, you take a look at the Pack twelve

(01:02:47):
and how miserable they've been. You gotta wonder what's going on.
Is it the coaching? Is it that these kids are
all going to the SEC Conference because they want to
play in the South, or because they have better television,
uh so they can get their exposure, or but they
don't want to play on the West Coast because they
started so late at night. I wonder if all those
things are a factor too. Yeah, I saw something where

(01:03:08):
somebody was saying I think it might have been Rick
new Heisel. I really would have to go back in
fact check, but basically was saying that the PAC twelve
hasn't um I don't know what the right words. I
guess invested in college football the way that these other
conferences have, I don't know that I buy that on it.
I mean, the best teams USC, I've seen their training
facility at second to none, U c l a second

(01:03:29):
to none, Washington's got great facilities. Oregon gets whatever they want.
I just think I don't know what it is. I
don't know why the PAC twelve is so bad consistently.
I just know when Nick Saban's doing is unbelievable a out.
I also think the region has something to do with it. Also,
Sharon Aaron underscore Torres, I'm a stinking genius one. By
the way, uh, Oklahoma failed to score their first three possessions,

(01:03:51):
scored on six of their last seven. Uh. It just
goes to show you. I love Lincoln Riley. I think
he's the next hot coach. If he's not the hot
coach or right, I think he's gonna be a great
NFL coach. There's a reason that he is the guy
that all these NFL teams want and I think what
would be interesting is, and it might even happen at
the college level, but imagine at the NFL level, where

(01:04:13):
you really do have unlimited resources, and you could just
hire that guy, almost like Sean McVeigh. Just let him
run the offense. Hire some fancy defensive coordinator. I don't
know who would be the guy out there, but I mean,
let's be honest, Sean McVeigh has basically turned over that
defense to Wade Phillips. Now you could say they're not
playing well this year, but the point is, find a guy,
pay him whatever it takes on the defensive side of

(01:04:33):
the football. Just let Lincoln Riley run your offense. There's
a reason that he is the guy that is in
hot command right now. With NFL teams. It's gonna be
Alabam mcclemson, let's get a jump on everybody else. Will
be the first to discuss it. But first let's check
out what's trending with our buddy, the saga. What's going on?
To say, good evening to you. It's UFC two thirty
two in progress. By the way, they have started round

(01:04:55):
three at the Forum, Jon Jones against Alexander Gustafson, or earlier.
Amanda Nunius knocked out Chris Cyborg in under a minute.
The college football semifinal winners Number one Alabama and number
two Clemson each is fourteen and oh. They'll play each
other in the championship game a week from Monday in
the Bay Area in Miami, tonight, Bama led Oklahoma twenty

(01:05:16):
eight nothing early second quarter forty thirty four. The final
to Otago Boloa had four touchdown passes, so he had
more TVs than in completions tonight because he was twenty
four for twenty seven through the year, three eighteen yards.
Number two Clemson played its semi in Arlington, Texas, today
and beat Notre Dame thirty to three. It was a
nine to three lead late in the first half, but

(01:05:38):
then the Clemson Tigers scored two touchdowns in the last
two minutes before halftime. Freshman QB Trevor Lawrence three t
d passes in the second quarter. Bowl wins for Florida,
Virginia for Nevada in overtime. The New York Jets, according
to NFL Network, are expected to fire coach Todd Bowles.
In college basketball, Western Kentucky beat number fifteen Wisconsin eight
three seventy six instant with a win at seventeenth ranked

(01:06:01):
Arizona State sixty seven sixty six. In the NBA, Cleveland
lost its sixth straight game. The Knicks lost their seventh
in rrow. Boston was down nineteen and the third quarter
and still one at Memphis Denver one again. Golden State
has won at Portland one fifteen, one oh five, despite
forty points from Damian Lillard in the late game in
l A. It is San Antonio leading the Clippers one

(01:06:23):
oh seven to eighty seven with about seven minutes to
go back to you. All right, thanks for at the sagas.
We're coming to you live from the Geico Fox Sports
Radio studios. It's easy to say fifty percent of Morning
Corn trance with Geico. Just go to Geico dot com
or give them a call one eight hundred nine four
seven auto and nearly hard part. Well, that's figuring out
which way is easier. So we know who's in the finals.

(01:06:45):
It's gonna be Alabama Clemson. By the way, Torres, What
am I supposed to do with the Stanford pit Michigan
State Oregon game Northwestern Utah? That? What is that? Like?
The extra breadsticks you get before your meal comes, and
you're filling up on the and and and you know,
making yourself fat before the dinner comes with the good
stuff comes. This is what you should do, aren't You

(01:07:06):
should take your panties out of a bunch and enjoy
all of this football. It's not breadsticks. What it is
is solid to it's it's that big ice cream Sunday.
You don't need it, it's not necessary, but just grab
a spoon and enjoy that end of it. We're not
at the end this. We're waiting for the championship on
the seventh. So while I'm waiting for my meal, while

(01:07:28):
I'm waiting for my steak, with my with my potatoes
are grotten and all that, you're filling me up on breadsticks.
With the North Carolina State A and M game and
the Mississippi State Iowa game and and and stuff like that.
You just you just got your steak, and because college

(01:07:48):
football loves you, you you get another steak next on two
steaks for the price of one. Yes, it's like happy hour.
It's like the two for one deal at your local
place that you go to dinner at four pm every
day because you're crazy old man. Uh, it is great.
I don't understand why can't If you don't want to watch,
just don't tune in. It's just there's no meaning. Like

(01:08:09):
I said, if if I asked the next ten callers
who played tonight, they wouldn't know except for the semifinals game.
They would have no idea about the other games. And
that's the way it should be. I mean, who really
cared about the other games? About that when we had,
you know, the big games today by the way, obviously
now Alabama Clemson. Alabama opened up as a nine point
favorite from what I hear already down the seven. We'll

(01:08:30):
ask Bernie coming up next hour, Bernie Fratto, uh, you know,
from our Vegas Insiders. So we'll go ahead and see
what he's got to say about that. I think Alabama
is the better team. I don't know. If I would
lay nine, I would lay six. I think we're gonna
have a pretty good championship game, though I think it
could be pretty close. I do too, And I will
say and you and I kind of started this show
by arguing four versus eight, versus whatever. I think it's

(01:08:54):
very clear that at this point there is a top
two in college football. And then there's a pretty big
drop off after everybody else. Do you want to say
George's kind of right there? Oklahoma's maybe right there? It's
Alabama and Clemson. It has been for the last four years.
As I told you a minute ago. Well what's the
difference between those two schools and everybody else? So don't
give you the Notre Dame game? What is it? Just

(01:09:16):
one win, one loss less by Ohio State, by Georgia.
Georgia lost Alabama. You know what more do you want
from them? They had to win that game for them
to be on the same level or what Clemson to
beat Notre Dame? Is that if Georgia Georgia. Yeah, I mean, look,
George's played five top ten teams over the last year

(01:09:38):
year and a half. They've lost four of them. They
are the only team they beat was Oklahoma and last
year's College Football Playoff. Uh when they when they um,
when they had a Oklahoma was in complete control and
Lincoln Riley actually choked, he took the ball out of
Baker Mayfield's hands. So look, Georgia has had every opportunity.
They had Alabama last year's National Championship game, they had

(01:10:00):
l s U on the road this year, they had
Alabama again and by the way, they were up by
fourteen points in the fourth quarter and they couldn't close out.
I mean, how many chances did they get? Arnie this.
I don't understand this argument for Georgia, not just from you,
from all these people like like, if Georgia gets in
the playoffs and bring it up now because of what
happened to Notre Dame. So I mean the next response,

(01:10:21):
I mean, people like you are ripping noture. They didn't
deserve it, but they did deserve it even though they
lost thirty to seven. So if they lost thirty to ten,
they did not deserve it. If they lost thirty to seventeen,
thirty to twenty four, what was that number you needed
for them to deserve or not deserve it? Then Notre
Dame or Georgia, No, no Tre Dame. Notre Dame did
deserve it. No Dame serve to be there. What I

(01:10:42):
mean people are saying they got clavered, Well, if they
lost by two touchdowns, would that have made it better?
You can't. You cannot use revisionist history with this stuff.
I don't get it. Well, I do get it. Look,
everyone has an agenda Everyone wants their team, their conference, whatever.
But you can't say now that Notre Dame didn't deserve
to be there. When a month ago the argument was

(01:11:04):
Ohio State or Georgia versus Oklahoma for the fourth spot,
very few people, if any, were arguing that Notre Dame
didn't deserve to be there. They played a tough schedule,
they beat everyone on their schedule. They deserve to be there.
It's like I said a minute ago, Arny Clemson lost
big in the College Football Playoff last year to Alabama.
Nobody was saying after Clemson and deserve to be he there?

(01:11:25):
How about the first college football Playoff, Jamis Winston and
Florida State lost by like thirty to Marcus Mariota and Oregon.
Nobody was arguing that Jamis Winston and Florida States deserve
to be and four touchdowns. Uh he did nothing, but
you know, show everybody that he really is the best
quarterback in the country. He's phenomenal. If he was coming

(01:11:47):
out this year, he certainly would be the number one
pick overall. Uh NFL GMS gotta be drooling for a
guy like this. I was gonna say, how upsetting is
it for you? I guess it worked out kind of
well for you as a Giants fan. You have another
season to be abysmal, maybe even worse than this year,
and you might end up with toa. But I mean,
you don't know that the worst teams may already have

(01:12:07):
a quarterback already. You know it's you have no idea
how that's scoring to turn out. Well, I think you
gotta feel good about it, right, I mean, look, the
Raiders are still gonna be terrible, but we'll see what
happens with Derek Carr. But I mean you look at
all these other kind of bad teams in the NFL,
A lot of them are set at quarterback. I mean
Arizona you would think is set with Josh Rosen. Who. Yeah,
I was gonna say, who knows what it's gonna be

(01:12:29):
like a year from now, But you gotta feel good.
San Francisco they got Nick Jimmy, I mean Jimmy g Yeah,
I mean Jimmy gi Nick Molan is my guy. Hey,
I know you love him out there. Aaron Underscore Torres,
I'm at stinking genius one. We'll come back. We'll check
in with the Saga lad scores, late news and notes
and more. About two of us. I got a couple

(01:12:50):
more comments about that. You're listening to fuck sports radio.
This segment about you, my Geico, go to g commor
give them a call. Seven Auto. Let's check in with
the Sager. What are the late scores and news and notes?
What's going on out there? Hey, that's your favorite song

(01:13:10):
playing in the background. It's just about everything. Final in
the NBA, by the way, three minutes left in l
A Spurs leading one sixteen, one oh three over the Clippers,
LaMarcus aldred thirty eight points. Well, no wonder they're losing.
And also in l A. U f C two thirty
two was tonight at the Forum in Inglewood, moved from Vegas.
John Jones wins by third round knockout over Alexander Gustafsson.

(01:13:34):
And before that, Amanda Noon has knocked out Chris Cyborg
and under a minute, and yes, he would just say
that that shocked me. That is shocking because she had
gotten years without losing Cyborg. But not tonight. You had
the college football playoff semifinals, and of course the focus
was in Miami tonight and Alabama just beat up Oklahoma
early and forty thirty four eventually the final, you guys

(01:13:55):
mentioned the Heisman Race, which of course was a Saturday
Night award we talked about in a lot out on
the show a few weeks ago. Kyler Murray, the Oklahoma quarterback,
wanted he beat out to in first place votes about
five hundred to three hundred. In fact, he finished first
in five of the six voting regions, all except the South.
He's the first player in FBS, though, to pass for
at least four thousand yards and rush for at least

(01:14:17):
eight hundred and adown passes. Why are both of you
guys hung up on the Heisman thing from a couple
of weeks ago? Why is that still bothering storyline? It's not,
it's not, it's not bothering anybody, but it's part of
the pres they were. It's It's also like when when
Steph wins the m v P going into the finals
and everyone knows Lebron's better than lebronow plays him, it's

(01:14:39):
still a topic of conversation. So a, oh, I got
you there, aren't you say? You could say I'm right
in your room, because I'm not. I'm not a big
Heisman guy anyway, But the fact that you know they
do this all year long and it finally ends we
awarded and I don't know, like two or three weeks later,
because we see one game and one quarterback has a

(01:14:59):
better again then the other. Like see I told you, uh,
you know one guy deserved it over another. One game
doesn't decide it, especially after the voting has already been
turned in. Totally agree, A whole season determines it. And
two outplayed Kyler Murray for the whole season. You just
didn't play into the fourth quarter because his team was
so dominant, because he was so dominant, So that if
you were con strictly in statistics, and that's the way

(01:15:20):
people voted, though the voters got it wrong to approved
it tonight. It's fine, but you got all of the
touchdowns and all of the passing from Kyler Murray. Plus
you got about a thousand yard rusher, which you didn't
get from any other candidate this year. As for tonight's wins,
it means we have that Clemson Alabama matchup fourteen and
oh against fourteen and a week from Monday. I guess

(01:15:42):
seven and moved the six and a half, so I
gotta correct myself on that. So Alabama favored by about
a touchdown, yeah, by, But I thought it was gonna
be about six. I guess it was nine if you
wanted to bet it without knowing who was going to
be in it. And they were just mixing up the
four teams before the semifinal game. But now opened up
at seven and now down the six and a half.
I think you know Oklahoma has had blowout losses at

(01:16:04):
the end of the season before. I looked it up.
Just a few years ago, Clemson beat Oklahoma forty to
six in a bowl game, a late December bowl game,
and I mentioned on an earlier show, you remember when
it was Oklahoma against Matt Lard in USC for the
National Championship. That was an Orange Bowl and it was
sc fifty five to nineteen the final, and it wasn't
that close. And here tonight Oklahoma was down twenty eight

(01:16:27):
nothing early second quarter. At the time, the yardage was
to thirty nine to two. And I asked, I was
asking you, guys, we've had blow once before. Why today
are we making such a think about it? On Twitter?
People screaming from the rooftops. We've had blow up. It's
got to be said again, it's mostly blowouts in the
college football semifinals for five years now, I've decided that

(01:16:48):
no matter what happens, people want to complain. Yes, absolutely,
Like all we see is we need to go to eight.
Oh Notre Dame doesn't deserve to be here, so we
gotta go back to four, Maybe go down to three,
Maybe we just give some do you like? It's everything
that happens people want to complain about. That's right, And
eventually it's if we only had sixteen instead of eight.
You know, I just hate that they're screwing around with

(01:17:10):
the great regular season of college football. I mean, it's
bad enough that the bowls are being thrown out the
window essentially, because if it doesn't matter whether you're a
four or five seed or a seven, it does if
you have home home field advantage, it makes a big difference.
If it's an advantage, no, if you have it. But
if you're one through four, we're gonna put you on

(01:17:31):
your own home campus. Yeah, correct, But it depends on
what the matchup. If if they go strictly four against
five and number four Oklahoma is playing a team in
its region, for example, or if or if UCF on
some planet gets a four seed or no Notre Dame
gets a four seed and Oklahoma or whoever gets a five,
I mean, No Dame still getting their buck kick. Probably

(01:17:54):
you don't know about that, you know. I looked up
the stats for the season. The top two scoring teams
in college football for the year, we're Oklahoma and Alabama.
They average forty nine and forty eight points a game, respectively.
It's really Alabama, but Oklahoma. Yeah, Oklahoma gets to tonight,
and of course Alabama keeps scoring, and it's a thirty
one to ten halftime scored game against like the Citadel

(01:18:17):
and stuff like that. You know, Citadel game was ten
ten at the head put up a tougher fight earlier,
put up a tougher fight than you're Oklahoma sooners, aren't you?
Why is it Sitadel game? Exactly? What's seventy two team playoff?
Like Arnie wants will get That's it's eventually what college

(01:18:37):
basketball cf right now? You know, Uh, well, let me
give it one more of their college note and then
I want to make sure to get an Arizona Wildcat
note before we close out in a couple of minutes.
But the other game, the Clemson game, it was only
nine three over Notre Dame late first half, but thirty
two three was the final. And how about the stars
for Clement. You've got a Clemson a freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence,

(01:18:58):
three touchdown passes, second quarter, freshman wide receiver had two
of those TV catches justin ross almost a hundred fifty
yards receiving. And a sophomore running back Travis E. T
n who's well over fifteen hundred yards rushing for the season,
over a hundred yards rushing in this game. So Dabo
Sweeney has been sensational about as good as Alabama has
been for the last four years, and they are just

(01:19:19):
as young, they are just as loaded, they keep recruiting.
It's really been more phenomenal to see it from Clemson
because let's be honest, it's kind of out of the blue.
Five six years ago. Would you have guessed this at
the Clemson Tigers. That's why I say that's why you
need more teams, because you never know who's going to
turn around a program. And how these teams now they're
like a power and we're saying they're too good over
everybody else that will change around. That's four straight years

(01:19:43):
that they've done this, though, aren't four losses in four
years for Clemson, three losses in four years for Alabama.
Florida won the Peach Bowl. By the way, the Clemson
defense got six sex Florida defense got six sexs. Today
against Shape Patterson in Michigan, fortif was the final Gators
were up. It was thirteen to ten early third quarter,

(01:20:03):
but then four touchdowns second half. And it's a Michigan
team that, remember this year, had won ten straight before
finishing the year now with two left life and losses,
and they had four starters sitting out today as well.
But Gators turned around with the new coach four and
seven record last year, ten and three this year. Not
only whipping Michigan, they gotta win in October against l
s U as well, Virginia with its first bowl win

(01:20:23):
since two thousand five. They got a touchdown each of
the four quarters today they do. Actually at seven and five,
they were in a bowl game and beat South Carolina
twenty eight nothing. Now they had this in Charlotte in
an NFL stadium seventy four thousand seats. Attendance was forty
eight thousand today, a season low and yardage for South Carolina,

(01:20:43):
and attendance was thirty two thousand in Tucson for the
Arizona Bowl and Nevada's down seven three late in regulation
total of five interceptions in the game combined, Nevada punted
nine times and still won the game in overtime against
drandit Ark and so State. Now that was the Bowl
game in Tucson. From the Arizona Wildcats. DeAndre eight and

(01:21:07):
now with the Phoenix Suns, he became the first NBA
rookie score thirty points or more plus ten rebounds. Offensive
rebounds are more in the games since Chris Webber over
twenty years ago. Tonight he was great sixteen of twenty
shooting from the floor, but Phoenix lost a close one
to a great Denver team because Jamal Murray had forty
six points for the Nuggets. I remember when I said

(01:21:27):
he was gonna be great, and all you guys doubted
me on that. So yeah, I know, but I'm gonna
say you doubted me anyway. It makes me look better.
Two hours, Thank you to say your two hours or
in the books will come back. Power Hour wrap up
the college football gets you ready for Week seventeen. Burnie
gonna stop by here on Fox Sports Radio. Oh right, everybody,

(01:21:51):
good evenings. We're coming to you live from the Geico
Fox Sports or Radio studios. Did you know that fifteen
minutes could save you fifteen per cent or more car insurance?
What do you have to do? Just visit guy? Could
I come for free rate quote? Bernie Fratto will join
us in about twenty minutes from now from straight out
of Vegas. We'll take a look at the Vegas lines,

(01:22:11):
not only for the Alabama Clemson game, but also Week
seventeen of the NFL have a lot of Vegas stuff
to look at. I'm very concerned, Torres, because remember when
you came out to Connecticut a couple of weeks ago,
like a month ago, and you saw Connecticut lose to Arizona.
You tweeted out congratulations to Arizona. Was a fun game, YadA, YadA, YadA.

(01:22:31):
I just looked on Chris Plank's Twitter account. Nothing. Nothing
is he okay? Has something happened to him? Nothing? Since
the game started, He's nowhere to be found. It's actually
really offensive that you are not the first thing he
thought of when the can't believes lost. Yeah, it's it's
actually embarrassing really on his behalf. I mean, I think

(01:22:54):
maybe he's doing post game or whatever. But you know
what he's gonna say, Lincoln Riley, hang on a second,
Kyler Murray, relax. I gotta get to Artie Spanning right now.
I mean, come on, that's the only fair thing, right.
I want to do a pole. Can you put up
a poll on Twitter on whether Plank is showing is
going to show up to work tomorrow? I need to

(01:23:15):
see a pole. I don't think he's going to show
up to work. I think I'm either gonna do the
show myself or they're gonna call you up and say,
would you like to work with Artie because Planke's not
coming in today. He has a nine point seven temperature? Wow?
Is he by the normal ninety eight point six? Right? Yeah? No,
he will say he has ninety eight point seven and
he can't work because he's just doesn't feel well. Nine

(01:23:36):
point seven. That was That was how many points Alabama
was on pace to put up there until they took
the What do you the foot off the gas? What
do you think you think he's covering the way. I
don't know. He can't be found now. I don't even know.
He might have left the stadium and not even finished
the post game show, let me ask you a question, really,
really seriously. On so we've spent a lot of time
talking about the deficiencies of Notre Dame. Oh my goodness,
they didn't serve to be there. Whatever. How about Oklahoma, Like,

(01:23:59):
if you're in Oklahoma fan, this is now however many years,
but really feel good about yourself if you're an Oklahoma
fan that you feel good about yourself, because here's my
question is, first of all, Kyler Murray was phenomenal tonight whatever,
but it's very clear that while you're good enough offensively
to beat the rest of the Big twelve, you are

(01:24:21):
not good enough defensively to compete with the elite teams
in college football. You lost four and the score was
never closer than eleven points. He was never covered the spread,
so it was people thought it was going to so
Lincoln Riley had money on the game, and he's happen
not say he had money on the game. But it
shows you if you're gonna talking whether the game was
a blood or not not a blood when it's the

(01:24:42):
eleven point game. And really it came to the point
where if Oklahoma just got one break, it would have
been a one score game or the exact opposite of
Alabama got to come about. We got the breaks, it
was nothing. What are you talking about? I don't know that,
ain't They got that first break when it was zero
zero and they fumbled on the one yard line, but
he didn't fumble because not conclusive. Not conclusive. So no,

(01:25:02):
But I mean, look, at the end of the day,
you play to win the game, right and so to me,
I just wonder what the psyche of an Oklahoma fan
is right now. Look, you're I'm not saying Lincoln Riley
isn't a great coach. I'm not saying you blow things up.
That's not what I'm saying at all. But we spent
so much time today crushing Notre Dame, and I'm just
wondering what people think or what you think about Oklahoma,
because I think it's fair to say, like Oklahoma is

(01:25:25):
a school that expects to compete for national championships and
they've struggled in these big games. Are you asking me
if we should be ripping Lincoln, right, That's not I
just said that, no, because the reason they're ripping Kelly
is because of the M six and Bowl games. On
New Year's Day, and and the BCS that that's the
reason why. Though I don't think he deserves it, to
be honest with you, I think I think that's misplaced.

(01:25:47):
I think that he did a phenomenal job this year
and they deserved to be an Unfortunately, they just had
a bad game. Now, do you agree with Brian Kelly?
But he said it was just four big plays that
really made the difference, that we were really just on
the same par with them. Yeah, By the way I'm
looking right now, Oklahoma has lost all three college football
playoff games that they've been in, and also lost a
bunch of other big games in previous years. So back

(01:26:09):
to Brian Kelly, I do think there is something to
be said about that, Aren'tie is? If you watch that game,
and I know you and I both watched very closely.
It was three to three after the first quarter, and
it was a couple of big plays that really broke
open the game, and then Notre Dame just got in
a position where they couldn't play catch up. Now, I
think part of it is, Uh, Notre Dame's offense just
wasn't diverse enough. They you know, it was funny. Now,

(01:26:32):
let me let me take a different direction. I was
thinking about this today. We spend so much time. We
all agree that the NFL is a quarterback driven league,
of course, and we we seem to think that college
football is a coach driven sport, right like, oh, you
gotta have a great of the six teams that were
really kind of considered for the College Football Playoff, the

(01:26:54):
four teams that made it, Georgia and also Ohio State.
In addition to those four teams, five of them have
really good quarterbacks like Dwayne Haskins and Jake from will
be very good NFL quarterbacks. And of course Kyler Trevor
Lawrence into a tongue of viola. I see. It's interesting.
We all we we don't think of college as a
as a QB sport, but all the elite teams except

(01:27:14):
Notre Dame did have an elite QB. And we saw
what happened to Notre Dame in the game when they
didn't have that guy. I could argue with you that
it's really not The elite quarterback is the reason why
those teams are in that position. All right, take two away.
How did Alabama do with Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts has
lost what two games in his whole college career and
as one of championship. So you know, did they just

(01:27:35):
have two of the elite quarterbacks? Can't? We said the
same thing for Clemson when the young man transferred and
he was he beat out of what a five star athlete?
Did he not? Lawrence did? So? Did they just have to?
Um all? America didn't know Tripe Dame switch quarterback from
wind Bush. So you're you're you're talking about what three
of the teams that had quarterback changes? Did they not?

(01:27:58):
It's an interesting point, AREN'TI It's a interesting point by you.
Maybe it is more than everybody else on these teams.
I just found it interesting. We don't. I think five
out of the six teams that were in playoff consideration,
if you include Georgia and Ohio State probably have first
round caliber cortex. It was just really Ohio State that
what would Haskins? There was really wasn't much of a
controversy there. I'll give you that. We knew that Georgia

(01:28:20):
was gonna going from unless there was a major injury
again and there was gonna be a problem. But yes,
you can make a case for that. The other teams
had two quarterbacks that were possibly good to lead a mind.
Would Clemson have been anywhere or worse for the wear
if uh, they didn't have Lawrence a quarterback. They were
undefeated at the time, also, were they not? They got
a close win against Oklahoma or against Texas and m

(01:28:44):
excuse me earlier in the year. And actually, our buddy
Ryan Fowler was the one that told me this, and
this was Ryan's theory. Ryan Fowler, for people who don't know,
he hosts a radio show in Tuscaloosa. He said that
he believes that Dabbo Sweeney saw Kelly Bryant against Alabama
in the playoff last year and if you remember, Clemson
got crushed and Dabbo Sweeney said, we can beat everybody

(01:29:08):
in college football except for Alabama. I have to make
the change because Trevor Lawrence is the brighter prospect, bigger upside,
bigger arm. I don't know if it's true. I just
thought it was. But he didn't make the change until
this year though, until a couple of games, and so
he was looking for the reason to make the change. Yeah,
and I think Trevor Lawrence just outplayed Kelly Briant. And
it's funny because I remember you and I coming on

(01:29:28):
this show and talking about, oh did Dabbo just screw
everything up? There? Not a better team today than they
were last week? But now I don't know. Man, Trevor
Lawrence looks so good today against our name. You mentioned
what Brian Kelly said about those big plays. Well, a
lot of it is that Clemson has an NFL caliber
quarterback with a monster arm playing quarterback next year When
we're doing this show, am I gonna hear from you

(01:29:49):
or the listeners or Twitter or whatever the new hot
social media is that people are gonna talk about what
look what note Day did last year and then the
five games before that. I don't want to hear at
when it comes to picking the four teams next year,
because that has nothing to do with next year. Totally agree,
And look, I just said it a minute ago. Oklahoma
has been in the playoff twice. They've lost twice coming

(01:30:10):
into this year, so they're now owing three in playoff games.
If they have another Heisman caliber quarterback next year, which
I think they will because Lincoln Riley is a fantastic
offensive mind. If he's still there, of course, um, then
I think they're going to be in competition again, it
should the fact that they've lost the last two years
with a Heisman Trophy winner last year Baker Mayfield against Georgia,
this year Kyler Murray against Alabama. Should that keep them

(01:30:32):
out of the playoff if they're one of the four
best teams? Of course not. And it's the exact same
thing with Notre Dame. We don't agree on much, Arni,
but I do think we agree on this one. Why
would Lincoln Riley be a good NFL coach? If Nick
Saban really wasn't a good one, and if that was,
Sweeney's not gonna go to the NFL, why are we
pushing Lincoln Riley to go to the NFL? I think
it's the offensive revolution. You know you talked about the

(01:30:53):
hot new social media app. Well, the hot new thing
in the NFL is throwing the ball all over the park.
And we've seen the success us that Sean McVeigh has had,
that Man Nagi has had, that Andy Reid continues to have.
Everybody's looking for the next Sean McVeigh. I don't know
if the guy that guy exists, but Lincoln Riley, what
he's done on offense is pretty incredible. Aaron underscore Torres.

(01:31:13):
I'm at stinking Genius one. So how do you see
the finals? Uh? I don't think it's gonna be as
high scoring. I don't know what the over under is.
I'm gonna assume what like sixty three sixty four less.
I'm coming up too high on that. I I don't
think it's gonna be that much. Yeah, I think it's
a similar score to probably the Georgia Alabama game in
the SEC Championship game, which came down to the wire.

(01:31:36):
We know how it went down. We know that Alabama
ended up winning that game thirty eight thanks to Jalen
hurts her Rois. I think it'll be that kind of game.
I mean, these are the These are respectively, the best
defenses that either of these teams has seen all year.
Alabama's got a good taste of it with Georgia. Both teams.
If you want to kind of compare Alabama Georgia to

(01:31:57):
Alabama Clemson. Clemson has a similar quarterback to Georgia, Jake
from Trevor Lawrence. Pocket passers, not super mobile. Do you
think that's a fair analogy comparison. I think it's kind
of The matchup is kind of similar. The matchups a
little similar. I would agree with you on that. I
want to see how Lawrence, as you mentioned, is going

(01:32:18):
to go ahead and handle the pressure because I'm blitzing him.
I'm coming after him with a ton of bricks because
he seems like a tough guy to go down, and
I can't have him, uh my team missing him on
the first chance and I have him walking around back
there and picking us apart. I gotta put a lot
of pressure on that guy because otherwise he's just gonna
destroy me. Totally agree, and I think that's what we

(01:32:41):
saw early in the game tonight or this afternoon with
Notre Dame. His Notre Dame was able to get some
pressure on him early. They looked good early and then
he made a few of those big throws and Notre
Dame at that point kind of I don't know if
they got nervous afraid to uh to pressure him all
that stuff. By the way, as you see this Arnie
the eagle that flew in the first game and he

(01:33:02):
landed on a Notre Dame fan, did you no? No,
I didn't see that. They're showing it on TV right now,
so obviously they released a bald eagle at the start
of the Notre Dame Clemson game during the national anthem,
I guess it's a sign of patriotism or whatever. Uh.
And it went rogue. It went rogue and just started
flying around and landed on a Notre Dame fan. It
was unbelievable. I love it. I absolutely love it. By

(01:33:26):
the way, are you gonna be watching these other Bowl
games during the course of the week. I bet you
can't wait to seecret teeth into them. Big boy? Do
I like ice cream after my meal? Of course? I
not only am I gonna be watching these games Tuesday afternoon,
Your boy is going to the Rose Bowl for about
a half then I gotta leave to come do this
show with you, well, show with you. Look at you.

(01:33:47):
I know I'm Mr jet Center. I'm going to the game.
You can never get out of the Rose Ball. That's
that's so tough to get out of there with all
the traffic. I think I'll be safe as long as
I leave at halftime, unless it's a Notre Dame Clemson
type deal and it gets ugly really early. But I'm
gonna I'm gonna take the chances. You can handle the
show though, of course, of course, and of course the
championship Monday, January seventh. UM. I'm not sure exactly what

(01:34:10):
is at eight o'clock Eastern, I believe, but when they
officially tip our or tip off, when they officially kick off,
I think it's more like a fifteen twenties. So I'll
be right around that. It's gonna be a late night
for the people on the on the East coast because
these games go about four hours, you know what I mean,
They drag on, no doubt about that. Era. Well, also,
it'll be interesting to see I mean this one tonight.
Obviously Oklahoma falls down early, they start passing the ball left, right,

(01:34:33):
the other thing, the other. This game coming up Clemson Alabama,
you think would be a little more in the trenches,
teams trying to establish the run. There's obviously gonna be
a lot of passing and a lot of highlighting of
those two quarterbacks. But maybe, I don't know, maybe you'll
get to bed by midnight. I don't know. What do
you do? You think the public will be pulling for
the upset and want Clemson the win, or will the

(01:34:56):
overall public one Alabama gonna win. It's interesting, I don't know.
I mean to me. I kind of wonder because I
don't think Alabama's is hated as let's say, the Patriots
or the Golden State Warriors or other super teams. And
here's the other thing too, It's not as though Clemson
as a real underdog, right, like we we were talking
about this, no, no no, no, like in the eyes of

(01:35:17):
the public, Like it's not like Alabama facing not only
forget u CF, but like Washington or something like where
they would be a significant even Notre Dame. I don't
thinknybody would expect Alabama to lose to Notre Dame. With Clemson,
I think we all kind of agree that if if
there's a one B to Alabama's one A, it's Clemson.
So because of that, it's not like you get the

(01:35:39):
casual fan rooting for the underdog. Clemson is kind of
an underdog in in points spread only they are every
bit of the program of Alabama. ROBERTA tweets and you
and Aaron have have to be eating in these sports
talk marathon eight or nine nights in a row. I'm
on Tomorrow than Aaron and I are on Monday and
Tuesday again, So just just keep adding him up, right,

(01:36:00):
I may be on tomorrow, depending on what happens with
your boy Chris Plank. If he may be passed out
in the gutter right now, who knows. He's the one
I was gonna say, he's not driving back tomorrow. He's fine. Yeah,
exactly what we get back though. Bernie will join us
from straight out of Vegas. We'll go to Vegas, we'll
get the latest lines, what's going on, how much money's
coming in on that championship game, and we'll get you
ready for week seventeen. He's Aaron Torres, I'm Marty Spaniard.

(01:36:24):
This is Fox Sports Radio. Does a Bernie's song too?
Oh my goodness, this guy will sing anybody's song. Great news,
everybody does. A quick way to save money, just switch
the guy. Go go to geo dot com and in
fifteen minutes you can say fifteen percent more on car insurance.
Let's go to our guest you check about. He comes

(01:36:46):
on right after us out of Vegas. Straight out of
Vegas with Bernie Fratto. Bernie, what was the opening line?
How much has it changed? What's the overrun there for
that Clemson Alabama game? Good evening, Arnie. Sorry for the confusion.
Back on December two when the final four was announced,
there were rotation numbers as signed and various lines posted
based on the potential combinations. And at that time Bama

(01:37:10):
was nine. Tonight, when you know it hit the board
at seven, it was six and a half right away.
It's six in some spots, including the West Gate. Currently
the consensus is six and a half and the totals
around sixty sixty and a half, and uh, and there
you have it. Wow, let's uh, let's go to the NFL.
How do you guys kind of handle a day like tomorrow.

(01:37:31):
There's some games where there's so much at stake, there's
others where, let's be honest, there's nothing at stake. And
then there's a game like say Dallas Giants, where Dallas
is resting guys, Giants are playing guys. I mean, it
just seems like a weird, tough, challenging week for you guys, Aaron,
It's like the perfect segue. Week seventeen can be very cryptic,
kind of like the preseason and Yogi Berra might say

(01:37:52):
they have different similarities because you have questions about motivation.
We'll starters play and then there are what I call
correlation situations. For instance, let's take the Pittsburgh game. They're
gonna be uh scoreboard watching for sure, because if Baltimore
falls behind the Cleveland, that's gonna put some lead in
their pencil and Pittsburgh might step on the gas. On

(01:38:14):
the other hand, if the reverse happens, then Cincinnati in
those fourteen points look very enticing. And by the way,
there's a situation in that game you really can't poo poo.
I call it to Marvin Lewis meaningless December contract extension
drive to her Yeah, eleven and one against the spread
the final two weeks in seasons where Cincinnati has already

(01:38:36):
been eliminated. So when Marvin's eliminated, he turns into Vince Lombardy. Wow.
I like that's that. That's a good one. Wow. Bernie
Fraudle joining us here straight out of Vegas a couple
of games I did want to look at. I'm wondering
how much people are jumping on him, kind of like
the Patriots and the Jets, where the Jets have nothing
to play for. They're gonna lose their coach, that's already

(01:38:57):
been seen. I don't know how much motive vation their
players have. Patriots have to win. They can still get
the number one, number two or number three seed if
they lose. I expect Patriots to just win one by
like three or four touchdowns on this one. Bernie, Well, uh,
that's the side you might look at. But let's unpack
it for just a second. The Patriots are a Gaudi
eighteen and one straight up and fourteen and five against

(01:39:19):
the spread when they're playing a home game versus a
team coming off consecutive losses. But guys, we have to
be a little careful here because right before our eyes,
the Pats have been transformed into kind of a ball control,
field position team who plays very conservatively. They're no longer explosive,
as evidenced by the fact they ran the ball forty
seven times last week against the Bills. So it's not

(01:39:40):
a game I'll be involved in. However, I would say this,
we all know the Pats want to win dearly. They
have to win to keep that number two seed. What
about that late Sunday night game everyone's paying attention Indie
and Tennessee. What do you make of that one? Well?
I really love Indie in that game. And the situation
you have here is the quarterback situation. Obviously for the Titans. Uh,

(01:40:06):
you know the Colts really, they're the moment's rage right now.
They've won eight out of nine and they've looked good
doing it. Their offense has been number one and third
down efficiency. They're converting in a cool forty nine point
three percent. They're averaging four hundred and seven yards on offense.
And Andrew Loved he's back. He's still in thirty six
touchdown passes, that second only to Patrick Mahomes. We know
luck has never lost to Tennessee. The Colts owned this series.

(01:40:29):
They're twelve and two overall, five and one on the
road against Tennessee, and in the last fourteen games in
this series, India owns a point differential plus one o nine.
You gotta look to the Colts here, Bertie, I'm surprised
the betters are not jumping on one team and you
give you all the numbers you one, I don't really care.
That'd be Kansas City against Oakland. I mean, Oakland's pretty

(01:40:50):
much they're just dead. Kansas City is the living. They're
the ones that have to go ahead, and you know,
make sure they hold on to that number one seed.
There are two touchdown favorite. Why don't you lay the
fourteen with them. I'm Lana Marnie. I think it's a blowout,
and I'll tell you it was sort of funny. John
Gruden in the post game press conference last week after

(01:41:11):
the big win in Oakland, which is most likely the
final game ever in the Oakland elam To County Coliseum,
he made the following statement, it's good to get a
win in the season. John, did you forget you got
to go to Kansas City this week? Did you guys
hear that? No? I didn't hear that. Well. Look, motivation
is a big buzzword in this week's games, and I
frankly think the Chiefs have it. Let me just cut it, Arnie.

(01:41:34):
Let's not bury the lead. We don't need to handicap
this game. It's got written all over it. Lay the
points go to sleep and that kind of I was
gonna say, that's kind of a trickle down to my
next question. Patrick Mahomes, of course, battling Drew Brees, maybe
another guy or two for NFL m v P. Where's
the money coming in as far as MVP futures are concerned. Uh,

(01:41:56):
it's pretty even. I think depending on where you sit,
it's tough not to give it to breeze. But Holmes
has had such a hat, such a you know, transcended season,
and obviously he's been the missing link in terms of
making Kansas city of power. But I do not like
the Chiefs in the playoffs. Guys, we all know since

(01:42:16):
n Chiefs are oh and six at home in the playoffs,
averaging only fifteen points per game, and those losses they're
only win in the Andy Reid Era was at Houston
against the infamous Brian Hoyer. So crazy, unbelievable what they've
got through. Last thing before we let you go, Pertie,
what about betting to win the Super Bowl? Is that
a sucker bet? Because you've got they say it's so

(01:42:37):
wide open? Are are the Are the pros gonna go ahead? Uh,
you know and say you know it, give me like
a Seattle to one, or give me the Texans attend
to one, or I'll take the Colts at twenty one
or something like that. What what? What? What are some
of the long shots? Do you think you're worth it
taking that? Are people gonna bet that? Well? Absolutely aren't
because what happens is it creates great hedge opportunities. And

(01:43:00):
last week on the show, before Indianapolis one, and we know,
you know, they need to win their final two games.
If you're a feeling saucy, you could have got them
at fifty two one at the West Gate. So you're
ulding a fifty to one ticket. You've got some tremendous
hedge opportunities starting tomorrow because they're a favorite on the road,
and so if they lose tomorrow, you could lock in
a profit. And I'll tell you, I'll tell you what.

(01:43:21):
The cults are gonna be a tough out in the playoffs.
So as I said, if you're feeling saucy, and by
the way, Seattle was to one, I don't trust him
to go on the road. But I think Indie's got
a weird vible bottom and I think this is a
wide open tournament in the n f C. Right He's
Bernie Fratto. You could check about right after us his
show Straight out of Vegas. Always loved that, Bertie. How

(01:43:41):
well have you lived in Vegas? Uh? Be nine years,
Arnie in February. So you're a newbie out there, you haven't,
But I've been coming here since nineteen seventy nine. Is
a matter of fact. The first show I ever saw
was at the Stardust Rich little open up for Joan
Rivers Arnie. I was gonna say, I also feel like
living nine years in Vegas is like living forty years somewhere.

(01:44:02):
That's true. Yeah, I have to come out so we
can buy a dinner. I'm there tonight. I'll be there tonight.
I'll be Here's a spoils my favorite city on the planet.
Bernie will be listening to you tonight. Everybody will be
with bated breath to hear what's going on out of
Vegas for Week seventeen of the NFL. Appreciate you stopping

(01:44:24):
on by Bernie Fratto. Everybody straight out of Vegas, you'll
have to check about comes on right after us. Always
excited to hear from him. And Vegas is the best place.
I totally missed. I haven't been there in a long
long time. Once you get to go, but I love it. Yeah,
when's the last time you've been there? Remember, No, I
have no idea. I think what I had a mustache, ponytail,
and I was single. I think that's pretty much it

(01:44:45):
was the last time. Wow, I didn't I didn't even
know the United States had expanded out far that that
far out West. So I don't know if we had
fifty states that I'm not even sure about that. Well,
it's okay. You had hair, so you had something going
for you. Hey, whenever somebody offers you a free meal
in Vegas, you take that. I promise you that you
and I will get a little bit into week seventeen.
We have ignored it enough. That's coming up next. But first,

(01:45:07):
let's see what's trending with our buddy Steve the Sega.
What's happening out there to say, unless it's the people
on the sidewalks offering you, if it's out of the
trunk of a car, don't take it. This avoid the
trips to Hey, you'll get a free breakfast if you
look at the condos. No, no, this avoid Number one Alabama,
number two, Clemson, each fourteen and oh at college football.
Now they'll meet in the National Championship Game a week

(01:45:29):
from Monday. After winning their semis tonight, Obama in Miami
eliminated Oklahoma forty five thirty four. Alabama's lead was twenty
eight nothing. Early in the second quarter. The Sooner started
one for five passing. Eventually, Kyler Murray had three total
touchdowns over a hundred yards rushing, but to a tonga
Iloa four touchdown passes only three in completions. He was

(01:45:49):
twenty four for twenty seven through the year three hundred
eighteen yards. So in the last four years, Alabama's record
now fifty five and three. Clemson is fifty four and
four after another in today. Three of those losses are
to each other, and this now is the third final
in recent years of those two against each other. Hopefully
it's another classic. A week from Monday at the forty
Niners Stadium, Clemson beat Notre Dame thirty to three. Notre

(01:46:13):
Dame for the year had allowed only five plays of
forty yards or more. Clemson today had three such plays
for touchdowns. It was a nine three Tigers lead late
first half and a couple of touchdowns in the last
two minutes before halftime. Eventually Clemson had almost five hundred
fifty yards. The Irish held under two hundred fifty yards
of offense. So Notre Dame still has not won the

(01:46:33):
national title since, reminding me of the Dodgers in that sense,
famous brand offening contention not winning at all. The Irish
have lost in fact eight straight New Year's Six Bowl games,
peach Ball winner was Florida, dominating Michigan in the second half.
Virginia shutout South Carolina and have had it in overtime.
Vat Arkansas State Bowl games resume on Monday with six

(01:46:55):
more New Year's Eve, including on Fox Monday three pm
Eastern Oregon again Michigan State in northern California, and then
on FS one New Year's Eve seven pm Eastern from
southern California, top twenty five match up Northwestern against Utah.
NFL network says the Jets are expected to fire Coach
Todd Bowls and at UFC two thirty two tonight, John
Jones won by third round knockout. Before that, Amanda Nonaz

(01:47:18):
knocked out Chris Cyborg in under a minute. Back to you,
Thank you the sagas. We're coming to you live from
the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios. It's easy to say
fiftcent of more incentrance with Geico. Just go to Geico
dot com or give them a call one eight hundred
nine four seven auto. And the only hard part, well,
that's figuring out which way is easier. Of course, Week seventeen,
it's NFL Sunday. And notice how we call it NFL Sunday, Aaron,

(01:47:42):
because the NFL games mostly are on Sunday, Yester, you
got the Mondays and the Thursdays. Once in a while
you'll get a Saturday. But we know Sundays as NFL football,
just like we know college as Saturday football. My quick
question to you is, before we take a look at
Week seven team, is the n c double A getting
it right when we played the championship on a Monday? Uh?
And I know it's gonna be tough. You can't really

(01:48:04):
play it. It'd be tough to go up against some
of the NFL wild card games. But when you're used
to college football on Saturday, having a championship on a Monday,
isn't that kind of defeating the purpose? Because we have
NFL on Sunday, we play the Super Bowl on Sunday? Right? Well,
I will tell you what I said a few days
ago when people are arguing with me about the popularity

(01:48:24):
of the NBA. Last year's College Football Playoff National Championship
game drew twenty eight million viewers, So I would say
it's doing just fine in that Monday Well, okay, but
would it get more on Saturday and Saturday? There's gonna
be the first round of the wild card but those
games are usually like what four and eight eastern? What
happens if he had leading up to the wild card

(01:48:45):
games the n C double a championship in around what
o'clock eastern or No, that's not gonna give you the
optimum ratings. I would think it'd be the opposite. You
put the championship game after the two wild card games,
you campau is one of them will start at eight
o'clock eastern. Then you're talking even start night. You start
starting the normal one pm Eastern four thirty pm Eastern windows.

(01:49:06):
You know what, They're probably better to just do it
on Monday then, because you want to have the whole
day to yourself and you don't want any other anybody
else around you, you know. I agree, And I think
people are already in football mode from the weekend of
the NFL where used to Monday night football, albeit, as
you said, from the NFL ranks, not the college ranks.
But I think it's a nice little tune in there
for the end of the season, right who gets in

(01:49:27):
cults are playing the Titans. That's the last game. So
we'll start with the last game. The Sunday night game. Uh,
coltson Titans. We'll see what's gonna go with the quarterback situation.
With the Titans culture a three and a point favorite
there eight one in their last nine. Andrew Looks had
a year where I never thought he would have a
year like that again after coming back from that injury
that he's had that kept him out the better part
of the what with the last year or the half

(01:49:48):
two years, whatever it's been, the Titans have been a
remarkable turn around, especially after losing their opening game to
Miami and that like ten hour extravag hands up. I'm
kind of leading toward the Titans because they've got a
better defense. I'm not sure Andrew Look we'll be able
to put ports points on the board. Remember look kind
of tough time against Jacksonville where he got shut out. Yeah.
I thought what Bernie said was kind of interesting is

(01:50:10):
that the the cults are kind of the flavor of
the month. But if you go through this whole season,
and I think you can even go back to last season,
it does feel like every time we just count out
the Titans, right, there's nothing sexy about them. They play
good defense, but they don't have that big star. They
don't have JJ Water, Khalil Mack, Marcus Mariota, who's obviously

(01:50:30):
not even fully healthy at this point. He doesn't kind
of move the needle as a quarterback. Yet every time
we count them out, they get that big win. They
got a big win in the playoffs last year. They
obviously just beat the New England Patriots a few weeks ago.
They've had some success down the stretch here. For all
the talk about how well the Cults are playing, the
Titans have won four straight coming into this one. They're

(01:50:52):
playing well. I do think the Titans get to win.
The Jets are pointing the Patriots, and the Patriots look
very pedestrian against the Bills. Even though they won a game,
they'll play the Jets. They'll probably win this one or
will they any chance for an upset this even though
they're changing the coaching staff. If the Patriots struggle in
this game, it really shows that there could be a
changing of the guard, because they're supposed to destroy a

(01:51:13):
team like this, especially with the one, two or three
seed on the wide. These are games that not only
Belichick doesn't lose, they're not even close. They destroy the
other team and they play him at home. Well, you
just said it. Belichick doesn't lose these games. I just
don't see it. Todd Bowls has gone. Everybody knows it.
A win doesn't change that. It's not like um and

(01:51:35):
sometimes you know, we'll see this in from time to time.
Is one win could quote unquote savior coaches job. It
ain't happening with Todd Bowls. They're moving on. I think
to quote uh inside the NBA T and T the
Jets are ready to go fishing right now. Yeah, but
that doesn't make Brady getting any better. He very pedestrian
against the Bills. We'll see how he looks against the Jets.
But it looks like they'll be running the ball more.

(01:51:56):
That doesn't spell good for the Patriots when the playoffs
come around. Yeah. I don't disagree with when the Patriots
come around or when the playoffs come around, that the
Patriots could struggle. But I also look at them and
I say they're probably gonna get a first round by
They're probably gonna get the two seed. If they do,
they could play Houston, who they've already beaten at home.
They could play k C down the road, who they've

(01:52:18):
already beaten this season. So I I get the idea
that the Patriots aren't looking good, but I also look
at what they've done over the course of the season.
They've actually had a lot of success against teams that
are actually going to be in the playoffs this year
five and oh against those teams bingo and so. Obviously
that would change if Tennessee wins tomorrow, but the points
still remains. They're good in big games. They'll get at

(01:52:38):
least that first game at home if they win tomorrow,
maybe the second one, depending on how things shake out.
I'm not as worried as a lot of other people.
Why nobody jumping on the Cowboy bardwagon. Usually this time
of year, all the Cowboy fans are all in. They're
gonna win the division. They're not gonna go up and down,
So they'll probably play Seattle in the first round. I
don't believe in them because I don't think their defense
is that strong and offensive. We I just don't believe

(01:53:01):
that they could put up enough points on the board
to beat anybody. I don't have a lot of trust
in Dak Prescott. I think out of all the teams
in the NFC, pits are excuse me, the Cowboys are
the least likely team, UH to make it to the
Super Bowl of anyone in the NFC. You're saying anybody
in the NFC or AFC as a matter of fact.
I all I would say is if Minnesota were to

(01:53:22):
get in, I don't think Minnesota is gonna make the
Super Bowl. So the point is they are in that
bottom bottom tier of teams that even though they had
a good regular season, are they a realistic threat to
win to win the Super Bowl? I don't think so.
I just think they are what they are, Arenie. I mean,
they run the ball really well, but they can't play
from behind, they can't play in a high scoring game.

(01:53:43):
They rely on their defense, they rely on their run game.
To me, there are a lot like the Baltimore Ravens
at the end of the day, great story, but at
some point you gotta be able to score points to
win the playoffs with all these great offenses that any
team is gonna face, and I don't know if the
Cowboys have that. How's the story? Good? And for the
Philadelphia Eagles, Nick Foles gets a million dollar bonus if
he plays intent of the games, which he will by

(01:54:05):
the end of the game tomorrow, and if he leads
them to the playoffs, well that's a whole different story. Though.
I gotta tell you what he has done has I've
been absolutely phenomenal. I know Eagle fans are gonna say
that there's a quarterback controversy. There really isn't. Carson Wentz
is the quarterback of the future. Though if money and
years were the same, uh, nick Foles would be given

(01:54:28):
a serious run for his money. I just love what
Nick Foles have been able to do. I'm curious to
see how this will play out. Well, Minnesota beat Chicago.
If not, Philadelphia has a chance to sneak on in.
I'll tell you this, regardless of who they would play,
he does anybody want to see Philly if they can
get in with Nick Foles? Oh yeah, I want to
see what he could do as a team as you know.

(01:54:50):
Yeah right, I just say no, no, I wouldn't want
to play him if they If they get in, that
would mean then in the last three weeks they won
at the Rams, they beat Yeah, they beat the Hexans
when the Texans were playing the clinch home field advantage,
playing well at the what like through their last ten games? Bingo,
So to me, I think they're the proverbial if they
do get in there, that team that nobody is gonna

(01:55:13):
want to see, especially with Nick Foles. You know, all
respect to the Browns and Baker Mayfield because he's really
done a phenomenal job, But I look at this game
and say, the Ravens defense is just too tough. The
Ravens are playing for a playoff spot, they're playing to
go out and winning the division. They made such a
great change during the course of the year. They got
Lamar Jackson's the quarterback. Now Flacco is gonna be gone.
I don't even know how the Browns are gonna be

(01:55:33):
able to keep this one close with that Ravens defense.
I think they can conceivably keep it close. But we
had one of the gambling guys on earlier in the week, Aren't,
when we were filling in for Jason Smith, and they
said that in a large portion, more than the majority
of the money is coming in on the Browns. When
I look at the Browns, there are they've won five
of their last six, but of those five game wins,

(01:55:56):
zero of the teams are in playoff contention. The only
real team they played was the was the Texans. They
lost by two touchdowns. I think they got hot against
bad competition. I'm with you, I like the Ravens tomorrow.
What's at stake for Pittsburgh not only a playoff spot,
not only a division, but what is going to happen
if they lose. People are gonna be screaming for Tomlin.

(01:56:17):
They're gonna be screaming the fire, the coordinators. They're gonna
be talking about Levian Bell. I mean, things can get
real heated in the off season. I don't think they
lose the Cincinnati, but I guess it will all come
down then They'll have to see what happens in that
in the uh in in the Cleveland Browns game for
them to get on in. But what a horrible year
for Pittsburgh. They were seven two and one and they've

(01:56:38):
gone what one in four in their last five I believe. Yeah,
It's so fascinating to me, right because we talk about
the thing with the NFL. You think week one doesn't matter,
You think, oh, we can get we can come back
from whatever. You know, whole we dig ourselves in that
tie to the Browns in week one could cost them.
Same thing with Indianapolis when they got the loss instead

(01:56:59):
of a I absolutely, yeah, oh yeah, no, absolutely they did.
And they also, by the way, Indian Week one had
a double digit lead against Cincinnati, they blew that lead.
They ended up losing that game. So and by the way,
Pittsburgh also a loss to the Raiders earlier this year,
and so certainly if they're out, people are going to
demand change. I don't know if it will come, but

(01:57:21):
I do just find it so fascinating that in this
league every week really does matter, whether you think it
at the time or not. Right when we get back,
we'll give you our official picks, tell you who we
like against the spread. That is next. He's Aaron Torres.
I'm Marty Spaniard. This is Fox Sports Radio. Alright, this
segment brought to you by Geico. Just go to Geico
dot com or give them a call one eight hundred

(01:57:41):
nine for seven auto. He's Aaron Torres. I'm Aarti Spaniard.
But it's not waste any time. Give us a little music,
put us in the mood. We got Week seventeen of
the NFL and a whole bunch of picks, and I'll
start things off, Aaron, because Oaklands in Kansas City. You
heard me talking about this earlier with Bernie Oakland nothing
to play for. They're done, They're going on the road.

(01:58:04):
Kansas City still has to go and secure that number
one seed. There are fourteen point favorite that's a lot
of lumber. But I see a big blow out here.
I don't see how that Oakland offense is even gonna
be able to come close to keep it up with
Kansas City. Give me the Chiefs minus the four team.
As Bernie mentioned a couple of segments ago, John Gruden
wasn't even aware that the Raiders had a game this weekend.

(01:58:26):
So you add that in with the fact that the
Chiefs are trying to clinch home field advantage throughout the
a f C playoffs, with Patrick Mahomes trying to keep
himself in the m v P race if the if
the vote hasn't been decided already, I like the Chiefs
and the points as well. I'm gonna stick with that
same rational Take the Patriots minus the thirteen and a half,
especially because it's under the magic number of fourteen. They're

(01:58:50):
changing their coaching. The Jets have nothing to play for.
They're gonna roll over. Patriots could either be a one seed,
two seed, or three seed. Last thing they need to
do is keep this game close, or even lose it
and drop down too a three seed, not get that
first round by and have to play a wild card
game that's not gonna happen. Give me the Patriots minus
the thirteen and a half, just for the sake of

(01:59:12):
mixing it up. I will go to Houston again. It's
all the same kind of concept, right, Houston trying to battle,
hoping the Patriots lose so they can get home field
advantage for themselves. Get that by. They are gonna be
playing hard Jacksonville. That places a mess. They don't know
who their quarterback is. Doug Morone is probably back, but
who really knows. I don't know what they're playing for.

(01:59:34):
I know exactly what Houston is playing for. They win,
they cover the seven points at home. You know what's
interesting that way, I actually opened up at ten and
a lot of money came into the Jacksonville went down
the seven. So I'm not sure why not listen to
the show. Well though, everybody's taking Jacksonville. I know this.
I'm saying they're not listening to the show. They're taking Jacksonville.
I'm not sure why that's the big play there. One

(01:59:55):
game that's meaning was that we shouldn't even play the game.
But I'm gonna take it. Is Buffalo MINU five against Miami.
Miami is gonna move on from Tannehill. I don't think
they'll move on from Gates, but obviously they'll move on
from some of the other coaching. Also, Buffalo still likes
to play tough at home. Lay in five not a
big factor. They'll win this one like thirty four to
three or something like that. Give me Buffalo, Mine is five,

(02:00:16):
al right, So I will stay with another game with
playoff implications, Cincinnati at Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh opened at seventeen. It's
actually down to fourteen and a half, and with good reason. One,
the Steelers are always erratic. Two. By the middle of
this game, they could know that they have nothing to
play for, depending on what happens with Baltimore. Clear, but
they start at the same time. Though, they're gonna be

(02:00:36):
scoreboard watching. As Bernie said, I don't know if there'll
be that much scoreboard watching. Oh, they'll be pay attention.
I think by the middle of the third they will
know that they have nothing to play for. They might
still get the win, but I like Cincinnati to cover
the fourteen and a half. Let's get to jump on
everybody else. It's gonna be Monday, January seventh, Alabama Clemson.
We'll call Alabama a six point favorite for now over

(02:00:59):
under of sixty and a half. I think Alabama gets
out to an early lead. Clemson's defenses of the show
that they're not gonna let them run away from them.
I think they will be some scoring. I got Alabama
winning the game right now, thirty three, twenty four, So
that means to take Alabama, mindus the sixth and go

(02:01:20):
under sixty because I gotta go in fifty seven. Look,
there's a reason that this game open tonight at around seven.
It's already down to six. The Clemson Tigers phenomenal on
defense and on offense. Trevor Lawrence is developing. He has
the best arm of any quarterback that Alabama has played.
Clemson very similar personnel to Georgia. But not only they

(02:01:43):
have similar personnel, they have that championship pedigree. They don't
choke down the stretch like the Bulldogs do. I will
call for the upset in Vegas. Clemson is your tent
eighteen national champion. Even though technically be crowned in twenty nineteen.
Wow like that? Huh what would you have a final
score on that? Or what I'll say? Thirty one twenty

(02:02:04):
eight tigers. I'm writing that one down. Write it down, baby.
How about wants from You? How about Dabo sweeney Man?
We talked about it earlier, but this guy, that's a
program that's not Ohio State Alabama traditionally. What he's done
there is unbelievable. All Right, we gotta thank the crew,
thanks to Ryan Burrt Singer who was our producer today,
Steve this Seger on the updates, and of course who

(02:02:26):
was running the boarder Alex Tisher was running the border?
Was that Iowa Sam or was it both of them?
I have no idea at this point. The hell oh
it was ready to rye and that's who it was.
I totally forgot. Uh Bertie coming up next right here
on Fox Sports Radio.

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