0:06

Hello and welcome.

0:09

My goodness, does it feel good to say this to the

0:11

MMQBAT podcast. Albert Brears

0:13

here, I'm conraor. I

0:15

will address this very quickly at the top of the show,

0:18

and then I'm sure we can talk about it at some other point

0:20

if you guys are still interested or whatever. Thank

0:23

you, thank you, thank you for sticking

0:25

with us. I know the production schedule

0:27

has been inconsistent,

0:30

the episode has been going up and not going up,

0:32

and the you know, I think we will

0:34

eventually all that stuff, the whyse,

0:37

the hows, all that stuff will

0:39

you know. I will leave that to other people

0:41

to discuss and to bring out. But I just

0:44

want to express my sincere appreciation

0:46

to you guys for hanging out and letting you know

0:48

that we're back. We're up, we're

0:50

rolling. SI is great, We're

0:53

doing awesome. Albert and I are here. The

0:55

full football team is back. So

0:58

we're all thrilled to

1:00

be able to say that we're grateful to be

1:02

part of this. Working here is an

1:05

incredible privilege, and hosting this pot

1:07

is an incredible privilege. So we're back,

1:10

and you know, weekly episodes from here on

1:12

out, So no one, yeah.

1:14

Nobody has to go on Twitter and post their favorite

1:16

SI covers from the last forty five years.

1:19

I'm happy to be done with that. Everybody,

1:22

everybody who had their own like

1:24

like reached for a clout

1:26

there and pulling up like the

1:28

Jim Vilvano cover from nineteen

1:31

eighty four or whatever, you know, need

1:33

to do that. And I look

1:35

like I I'd be remiss if I didn't say,

1:38

you know, I'm I'm and this is gonna be kind of

1:40

like self congratulatory and

1:42

people can be patient with that for a second. We'll get

1:44

into all the draft stuff here, but I'm

1:47

just really grateful for the group that's around us. Like, I don't

1:49

think like that our NFL team

1:52

took their foot off the pedal. Obviously

1:54

there were some challenges associated with everything in the

1:56

last three months, and you know,

1:58

I think like it takes a toll on people going through

2:00

stuff like that. But I mean, from

2:02

John Plume to to you Connor to

2:05

Matt and Gilberto, you

2:07

know, I don't think like if you didn't know

2:09

what was going on, that you would know anything was

2:11

going on with the job that our

2:14

NFL team did over the last

2:16

three months. And you know, I hope

2:19

that that shows to our audience that

2:22

the same sort of coverage that you expected from

2:24

us before all of this is the

2:26

same sort of coverage you're going to get from us

2:29

after all of this.

2:30

And you will be able to find all of our work.

2:32

You know, it was being kind of pure.

2:34

Whether you like that kind of coverage is up to you or

2:36

not. Just make that clar right.

2:39

You will be able to find all of our work again at SI

2:41

dot com, the magazine, all that stuff.

2:43

I mean, we are you know, it's it's it's

2:45

back to normal, it's back going. And

2:47

I just again, I mean, you know, we

2:51

can say, you know, we can be like coaches in

2:53

lines, say that we don't read stuff, but

2:56

you know, it means a lot

2:58

that you know, obviously there's just

3:00

horrendous things on the internet, certainly, but

3:03

just everybody reaching out asking where

3:05

we can find the work, still saying

3:07

that you miss it, you know, all that stuff.

3:10

I mean, it really does. It

3:12

means a lot, and so just know that

3:15

it worth Albert and I are thrilled to be

3:17

back. I'm not going to speak

3:19

for Shelby, our producer, but I'm sure he feels the same

3:21

way too, you know, speak

3:24

for himself, yes,

3:27

yeah, I don't know if that's good or bad, but so

3:30

thank you guys, and just in

3:32

time. Right, we got the draft coming up.

3:35

We got a solar eclipse today, and

3:38

the Orioles are in third place in the Al East,

3:41

so like everything is good there.

3:43

I think the solar eclipse hits our area

3:46

around like three thirty, so you must be a little

3:48

earlier than us.

3:49

Three twenty four for the park

3:51

near our house, okay, is

3:53

going to be when it hits. And so I have to

3:57

I'm gonna have to run to pick up my son. And

3:59

then I'm gonna pick up my son. We have to go to

4:01

my wife's office where she is hosting

4:04

a solar eclipse party,

4:07

and I have to pick up the glasses.

4:09

You have the glass, the

4:12

other three D glasses, the three D movie

4:14

theater glasses.

4:15

Yeah. I don't know how much of a scam this is,

4:17

like when you can get them for like seventy

4:19

nine cents on Amazon, Like what it's

4:22

really protecting us from? But I guess just

4:24

so we don't look like Trump in twenty sixteen, and

4:26

we're just staring directly into uh, you know,

4:28

uh, staring directly into the sun. But yeah,

4:31

so my wife's hosting a solar eclipse

4:34

party. They had sun kissed soda and moon

4:36

pies and Milky Ways and

4:38

starburst and so every kind

4:40

of like solar themed candy.

4:44

Yea space themed candy. Uh

4:46

and and you know, but my son's daycare

4:49

is locking is locking it down? They're

4:51

free. Yeah, they're like no, like it.

4:53

Starts going to they're.

4:55

Going it starts too, and they're going to

4:57

keep them away from somebody because

5:00

I guess they're worried because they're very little, that the kids

5:03

are gonna be like whoa and then just stare at.

5:04

The sun, which makes

5:06

sense. Yeah, so yeah, although

5:09

I did have like I did ask somebody the other

5:11

day, so like, you

5:13

know, you're not supposed to stare at you're not supposed

5:15

to look at the sun, but you like you can without

5:18

going blind.

5:18

You could kind of like squint at it.

5:20

Yeah, right, Like so I asked somebody, is

5:22

it different than that? And they're like no, it's like

5:24

not more dangerous. It's the same thing. So whatever

5:27

it's worth.

5:28

Everybody tells me how good sunlight is, why can't

5:31

I just stare directly into it, you know, just

5:33

just mainline it, you know, really get it. In there.

5:36

So today we're going to talk about the quarterbacks, which

5:38

I'm excited about. I know that in

5:40

my uh uh, I'll call this

5:42

last month that my church Hill period. I was

5:44

just in the uh. We're basically in the wilderness

5:46

a little bit. But I'm very excited to disseminate what I

5:48

know to you, and I'm sure Albert is too. I

5:51

think we essentially have and

5:54

I'm curious what you think.

5:57

But we have a

6:00

a top guy

6:03

in Caleb Williams, and

6:05

then there is this sort of twenty

6:08

eighteen to me, twenty

6:10

eighteen sort of middle ground

6:12

there where there's like a Josh Allen and then

6:14

there's like a Sam Darnold and you know there

6:16

might be Lamar Jackson in there.

6:18

And so you see you have your like Trevor

6:20

Lawrence and then underneath

6:23

that or is this like twenty twenty

6:26

where you had Burrow and then

6:29

Herbert and Tua there was disagreement

6:31

on which one was better, and then you had Jordan Love

6:33

who was sort of like the I

6:35

don't know, like seeing like then as like the he

6:38

was sort of like the Josh Allen in that class, like the

6:40

wild Bronco that needed to be tamed, you

6:42

know what I mean. Like, so, I

6:44

don't know, there's there's a few analogies in there.

6:48

I am.

6:50

I'm excited about this class, and we'll

6:52

start here. I'm excited about

6:54

this class because, you know, I was talking to Andy

6:56

Reid about this not too long ago, and

6:59

I asked him, I love that asking Andy

7:01

about quarterbacks because the first thing

7:03

he always has the same response, which is,

7:06

like, Andy knows the quarterback position better than anyone.

7:08

But if you ask him a theoretical question

7:11

about the quarterback position, he always goes,

7:13

well, you know, we don't really have to worry about that, Connor,

7:15

you know, because and he says it every

7:17

time. But then he gives a very

7:19

smart answer, which is that they

7:22

are thrilled. People in the NFL are

7:24

thrilled because these guys are throwing

7:27

more than they have ever thrown. And

7:29

we have guys like bo Nicks,

7:32

Jaden Daniels, Michael

7:34

Pennix who are have been playing

7:36

for four, five, six seasons. They

7:38

have somewhere between eighteen nineteen

7:41

hundred attempts, you know, anywhere

7:43

between forty three and fifty nine games.

7:46

Bon Nicks's first college start

7:48

was against Justin Herbert and

7:50

Justin Herbert is in his fifth NFL

7:52

season. Think about that.

7:54

That's crazy, yeah wild?

7:57

Then yeah yeah, and they won bull

8:00

Nicks through like an incredible last

8:02

second touchdown pass.

8:04

It wasn't that one of those like Week one like

8:06

games at like the Georgia Dome or not the Georgia Dome.

8:08

I guess Mercedes Benz now right, like in like

8:11

the be like the Chick fil A Kickoff

8:13

Classic or something like that.

8:14

Yeah, you know, yeah, there was branding attached.

8:16

But I think that if my

8:19

theory, my hypothesis is if

8:21

you don't get Caleb Williams, which

8:24

almost everyone is not, I do think

8:26

that the land it's going to be a softer

8:28

landing for some of these teams.

8:30

So I do let's

8:33

hit Caleb first, okay, because

8:35

I do think like we should pay

8:37

homage to the sort of prospect. This is

8:39

yes, And I want to thank you

8:41

for putting me in touch with your buddy Will Hewlett,

8:43

who was awesome talking about Caleb. Yes,

8:46

and you know, Will brought

8:48

up something that was fascinating to me and

8:51

this is real like football dork stuff,

8:53

but so like he was, you

8:55

know, talking, he took me through some of the biomechanics

8:58

with Caleb, and I asked him. I was like, so, what makes

9:00

him so unique? And this was

9:02

like absolutely mind blowing to me. So

9:04

he said that generally a quarterback only

9:07

has four miles per hour range on his ball,

9:09

like when you're trying to simulate game conditions,

9:11

right, so a touch throw might be forty seven,

9:14

a drive throw is fifty one.

9:17

He told me that Caleb Williams has ten miles

9:19

an hour who range on his ball, so

9:23

in essence, he can control

9:25

it between forty six and fifty six miles

9:27

an hour. And that level of control

9:30

and that level of being able to change speeds

9:32

and you know, you sort of look at it like a

9:35

pitcher, you know, a pitcher who's got a great change

9:37

up and who can put the ball where he wants

9:39

to put it, and not only that put it

9:41

in the spot, but get it to that spot the way he

9:43

wants to get it there. You know, I

9:45

thought that was a really interesting thing that sort

9:47

of I'd say, maybe a little overlooked,

9:50

right, Like with Caleb is like just

9:54

the gifts that he has as a

9:56

passer and not just a creator, you

9:58

know, and not not just a thrower,

10:00

but as a passer, you know. And so I

10:03

I think there's so much about Caleb

10:05

that it's so interesting in that he

10:08

has the comp to Mahomes, but he's a better runner

10:11

than Mahomes was coming out right, and

10:15

he sees the field really well.

10:17

Now, is he as big and strong as Mahomes?

10:19

Probably not, Like that's probably where Mahomes

10:22

has a little bit of an edge, like arm strength and

10:24

size. But there's

10:26

just I mean, there's just so much to like about him, And

10:29

I mean the best thing to me is like

10:31

the situation he's going into, Like this isn't

10:33

like the first year of a build, you know

10:35

what I mean. Like he's going into a fully formed situation

10:38

where Maddie Reflues and Ryan Poles

10:40

have been building for three years. So he's

10:42

going to be throwing to DJ Moore and

10:45

to Keenan Allen and to Cole Comet,

10:47

and he's going to have DeAndre Swift

10:49

behind him and Darnell right in front of him. Like

10:52

a markedly better situation than Justin

10:54

Fields was in the last two years, you know. So

10:58

I just think there's a lot to like about where Caleb

11:00

is now and maybe where he's going presuming

11:04

those guys all make it through this year, you

11:06

know, because obviously things can change in a

11:08

hurry.

11:09

Certainly. I mean, I think it was a good idea.

11:12

You know, it was a good

11:14

idea to go Rams Tree for

11:17

the offense because you know, you

11:19

know, Caleb Williams had the Cliff

11:21

Kingsbury influence, and Cliff

11:23

Kingsbury doesn't necessarily run a Rams

11:25

offense. But to say that Cliff and Sean

11:28

aren't incredibly close would

11:31

be a lie. They understand what each other

11:33

does intimately. And

11:36

I think that it's not going to be like

11:38

a situation where like if Kyler Murray

11:40

in a new offensive coordinator like Caleb's

11:42

going to be able to handle this offense really

11:45

well. And Shane Waldron

11:47

outside of Russell Wilson, has

11:50

proven himself to be a phenomenal

11:52

play call. Oh yeah, And so I

11:54

think I think it's all going to work.

11:57

I think what my question

12:00

is going to be when

12:02

Caleb puts it on the table and says

12:04

no, no, it's got to be like this, how

12:07

does Shane respond to that? And so, and

12:10

I think the give and take in the work

12:12

between the two of them is what's going to be

12:14

interesting to me.

12:15

Yeah, I'd agree with that, Like I think that there's that

12:18

like okay, like you

12:20

know, because like one thing that's interesting somebody

12:23

like in talking to some coaches and I've really

12:25

started digging on the quarterbacks and talking to executives

12:27

and coaches and trying to get like the most

12:30

honest like assessments of all of them.

12:32

There is like this, it's

12:35

what you heard on Zach Wilson, right, like, only

12:37

this is not This is a much more talented player

12:39

than Zach Wilson, much more productive player.

12:41

It does remind me a little bit of Zach though, But there was

12:43

like.

12:43

The one thing that came up with the Zach thing.

12:46

Connor was like that, and I

12:48

remember hearing this about Zach and this really

12:50

crushed Sack in the end, right, like I think it killed

12:52

him. Was a couple of his critics

12:55

that I talked to before the draft in twenty

12:57

twenty one said, yeah, he makes

12:59

these speak acula plays, but you're watching it and

13:01

it's like, oh my, there's that outlet

13:04

there and he could have gone here, and he could have gone

13:06

there, and he's turning like down layups,

13:08

you know what I mean. He's turning down like

13:10

mid range jump shots to shoot

13:12

from from from half court, you know,

13:15

and so like I

13:17

don't know like at that part of it, Like he's

13:20

like he's gonna have to learn to play.

13:22

They're gonna have to put some guardrails on him,

13:24

right, They're gonna have to put some level of like, okay,

13:27

like we want to retain

13:29

your creativity, but we got

13:31

to figure out like where those lines are for

13:33

you right now. Because there are plays like that one

13:35

that brought was brought up to me that I thought was

13:38

fascinating. A

13:40

coach I talked to the other day said there

13:42

was a play where it was like, I don't know, third

13:44

and nine, right, and so Caleb,

13:46

Caleb takes a snap, takes his drop and

13:49

there's a slant. I think it was Brendan Rice who

13:51

was opened right over the middle West Jerry's kid who played

13:53

for USC last year, right, And

13:55

the coverage is there too, And if you look

13:58

at it, it looks like he you it

14:00

would have been an easy completion, but he probably

14:02

wouldn't have picked up the first down, right, But

14:04

like if you watch the structure of the play, it's like he should

14:06

go to Rice in this play and hit him right over

14:09

the middle. It

14:11

probably would have gotten seven yards, they're and fourth

14:13

and two day punt. Instead, he

14:16

pulls the ball down and starts running

14:18

around and breaks off like a twenty

14:20

five yard run. Now, if

14:24

you're a team, what are you gonna do? You're gonna go into the meeting

14:26

and say, Okay, what are you thinking here? Because you want to know

14:28

that he saw that right, saw

14:31

the completion there, and had it in his head that

14:33

he did the math like that's not going to get the first down

14:35

and ran around and picked up the twenty five yards.

14:38

And you also want to know that he knows that those

14:40

equations might not work the same way in the NFL.

14:43

So I think that there's some really interesting stuff when

14:45

it comes to that in Caleb Williams. But his

14:48

ability is off the charts. I

14:50

think, you know, he's coming into the league at the right

14:52

time when you know, I think,

14:54

you know, guys like Mahomes and Allen have opened

14:57

people's eyes to a different style of play.

15:00

And and

15:01

yeah, man, like I I would

15:03

I would put I would. I would bet he's

15:05

going to be really successful in the league. Now, WILLIEB.

15:08

Mahomes, that's a different question. But I bet he's

15:10

going to be really successful.

15:11

I mean that's up to him a little bit, and

15:13

it's up to I

15:16

mean, what's what's tough about this? And I

15:18

mean, let's just come out and say it is that

15:21

if if this team

15:23

is four and six, you

15:26

know we're going to be talking about a coaching

15:28

change, you know. And this

15:31

this was kind of the one complaint,

15:33

you know, because I don't know, I won't speak

15:35

for you, but November of last

15:38

year, it was like, Okay, the Bears

15:40

are probably going to switch things up. I mean, that's

15:42

what I was under. That's what I understood

15:44

the situation to be at least, and you

15:47

know.

15:47

New team president, which was part of it, and all

15:49

of.

15:49

That team president. But credit

15:51

to Matty Bberflu's coach really well down the

15:53

stretch, played played some good teams,

15:56

tough.

15:56

You know, and the defense

15:58

really came on.

15:59

Defense really came around. And so, okay,

16:02

you give it one more chance. But

16:05

when you extend that to the

16:07

point where you don't start over with new

16:09

coach and new quarterback, you then set

16:11

yourself up for a situation where

16:14

maybe Caleb has to oh season

16:16

two seasons.

16:17

It's like almost like damned if you are damned if

16:19

you don't right right because if if he doesn't

16:21

play well or they don't have a good year, everybody's

16:24

getting fired. If he plays great, he's losing his

16:26

offensive coordinator.

16:27

Right, yeah,

16:31

and we'll see, right, we're we're

16:33

we're way ahead of ourselves. The Bears are probably going

16:35

to trade this pick to the pit. No, I'm just kidding. You

16:38

know, we're we're way ahead of ourselves. But I

16:41

do think it's worth considering

16:43

a landscape when when we get to

16:45

that point. Now, what I want

16:47

to know is I know who my number two

16:50

is. I know who Daniel Jeremiah

16:52

has as his number two. He's like the new you

16:55

know, Daniel Jeremiah is now like the gold standard.

16:57

Right, Mike Mayock doesn't do like you

16:59

know, does Mike Mayock still do a mock draft

17:01

DJ?

17:02

I mean we both worked with DJ.

17:04

DJ's the best.

17:05

Does an incredible amount of work,

17:07

Like he knows these guys inside out, and

17:09

he, I would say, like he approaches

17:12

it like a GM would approach Yeah,

17:14

the draft process like he. I

17:17

can just tell you like and I, you know, deal

17:19

with a lot of these guys that are a lot of guys I got a lot of respect

17:22

for you know, I've Mayock

17:24

obviously was the gold standard forever. I

17:26

think mcsha has done a phenomenal

17:28

job over his career, and I really enjoy talking

17:30

to him and DJ. I put

17:32

DJ up there with any of them.

17:34

Can I tell you my two favorite I

17:36

have a favorite mcshae story and a favorite

17:39

I'm sorry, a favorite Mel Kiper story,

17:41

and a favorite dj or Mayock story.

17:44

And then they're very quick, and then we'll go on, Okay,

17:46

favorite Mayock story. Mike Mayock.

17:49

He you know, Mike Mayock does

17:51

ten hundred thousand interviews

17:54

around this time of year, right, And

17:56

I was doing a story for SI on Doctor Z who

17:59

did an insane mock draft where he

18:01

got like fourteen of the first

18:04

fifteen write and both trades

18:07

like NonStop believable.

18:11

Yeah.

18:12

So I'm interviewing Mel Kuiper and

18:15

he's calling me Ryan the whole time. He's

18:17

like, he's like, well, you're right, Ryan, that's a good

18:19

question, Ryan. And you know, Ryan, I'll tell you this, you

18:21

know, Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, And I'm like, Okay,

18:23

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna interrupt.

18:25

And it gets the point where it's gone a little too far where

18:28

you can't correct.

18:28

Him, right, So Yeah, like we got

18:31

We're ten minutes into this thing, and I have all

18:33

the respect in the world for Mel, and so I was

18:35

like, you know, I'm just whatever. You're you're the goat.

18:37

Whatever.

18:38

And so about ten minutes later,

18:40

I go downstairs. I was at my parents' house and I

18:42

was like, you know, I told my dad because my dad loves Mel

18:44

Kuiper. And he's like, oh, that's hilarious. I get another

18:47

phone call. It's Mel Kuiper and

18:49

he I pick up and I was like hello, and he goes, oh

18:51

my god, your name is Connor.

18:54

I'm so sorry. And

18:57

I was like, Mel, it's fine,

18:59

Like you are the legend, don't

19:01

worry about it. But he was like, I just want to let

19:03

you know that I know that, and I'm sorry,

19:05

and he hung up and that like that was

19:08

like the coolest thing ever, Like, yeah,

19:10

this guy is so busy.

19:12

Yeah yeah.

19:12

And then Great Mayock my first

19:15

week, one of my first few weeks at the NFL

19:17

network. He was like untouchable

19:20

during most of the season

19:22

because he was just working constantly on prospects

19:24

and everything like that.

19:25

He called games during the season and all of

19:27

that.

19:27

Yeah, he did notre Dame that year. And

19:31

I still, by the way, think he was awesome at Notre Dame

19:33

and they pulled him off because he was getting too technical

19:35

on the air.

19:36

But like because it was like it was like sort of like

19:38

over I did. The whole

19:40

thing was like it was over like the layman's

19:42

head.

19:42

Right, Yeah, and then we got Jason Garrett. So thanks

19:44

guys, you know, uh, you know, really worked out

19:46

for us. But he I

19:49

guess they said it some sort of they said

19:51

it a content meeting. They're like, Connor's going to do

19:53

a story on Joel Botonio, and

19:56

so Mayock happened to be like listening to like

19:58

the content meeting and then like

20:00

through four back channels, I get a text

20:02

from like the head of content and NFL Network

20:05

that just was like, you have to call mayok now

20:07

because he's so passionate about Joel Buttonio

20:10

that he needs to talk to you for this story.

20:12

And I was like, and like, you know, it's

20:14

like a second round guard out of Nevada,

20:17

you know, at that point, and it's

20:19

just like this is just a window into

20:21

these guys, like we all kind of see

20:24

them as these ubiquitous like Okay, there's the draft

20:26

and they're gonna do all their mock draft stuff, but

20:29

genuinely DJ Mayock,

20:33

DJ Mayock and uh

20:36

and and Kyper and McShay phenomenal

20:39

people. Just good people, really hard working people

20:41

who know their stuff. I know who all of them

20:43

have is their number two quarterbacks? I know

20:45

who I have. I'd like to know who is the number

20:47

two quarterback on your board, and I want to see if we agree

20:49

or disagree.

20:52

I've gone back and forth on this a little.

20:54

I think it will be Drake, like I just

20:57

okay, I don't know. I mean, I there

20:59

and I I love Jayden Daniels. I

21:02

just think so. I said

21:04

this on TV up here in New England last

21:06

night because we were discussing because there's the assumption

21:08

Jaden's going to be gone too, and

21:11

then New England's going to be picking between Drake and JJ.

21:14

I just think in this environment right

21:17

now, especially if

21:19

you're in the AFC, you almost

21:21

have to swing for the fences. And

21:24

my biggest fear is the quarterback that

21:26

you're okay with the first couple of years and then you're

21:28

looking to replace after four or five years. It's

21:30

like the Jared Goff thing, you know, and

21:32

Goff's a really good quarterback, and he's

21:34

led two different teams to conference title games.

21:37

But eventually the Rams got to the point where it's like, we need

21:39

someone to put us over the top, you know. And

21:42

I like, look at the landscape of

21:44

the AFC. If you're one of these teams in the AFC

21:47

looking at quarterbacks, and you know, you've got a bunch

21:49

of NFC teams that are in that market now. But the

21:51

Patriots are in the AFC. Is

21:55

Jaden Daniels, Drake May, JJ

21:58

McCarthy. Are they going to be enough to

22:00

eventually get you behind that little velvet

22:02

rope and into the club that the Bengals

22:04

are in, that the Chiefs are in, that the Chargers

22:07

in that, the Ravens are in, that

22:09

the Bills are in. Right? Are they gonna

22:11

be good enough to eventually have

22:14

that bouncer lift the velvet velvet rope and

22:16

let you in the club. And

22:19

Like, I just look at Drake and I'm like, that's

22:22

the one, you know, that's the one

22:24

that like physically is so gifted

22:27

and he's so young. I had somebody,

22:29

I had a coach point this out to me over the weekend. I

22:31

didn't realize this, Like he

22:34

has only played two

22:36

years of football out of the last four. His

22:39

senior year in high school was canceled because of COVID,

22:41

and then he was red shirted two years ago. Then

22:44

he had the year last year where he played for Phil Longo

22:46

at North Carolina, had a great year.

22:49

They had a bunch of kids go to the NFL off

22:51

that offense, and then this year everything

22:53

went sideways. So you think about that, like

22:56

the amount of growth potential, the fact that he had

22:58

to carry the offense this year. Right, I

23:00

think he's not as talented as Josh

23:02

Allen, but there's a lot about his trajectory

23:05

that screams Josh Allen to me, you know,

23:07

like just the athleticism, the

23:10

arm strength. And it was interesting because

23:12

he gets compared to Herbert a lot, right, Okay,

23:15

so and we've all heard that I think physically that

23:17

might be the comp it is Herbert. When

23:20

I talked to another scout on this one

23:23

thing that came up, this is almost the reverse of

23:25

Herbert, right, where both

23:27

of them their last year in college they played in an offense

23:30

that wasn't great. They had like sort

23:32

of stripped down, like the personnel around them was a

23:34

little stripped down and they they

23:37

adapted differently. Like with Herbert,

23:39

what happened was the disappearance of the spectacular

23:42

play. So you didn't have bad plays, but

23:44

you didn't have overly great plays either. Right

23:47

with May, it was

23:50

you still have the spectacular plays, but now you had

23:52

all these bad plays too, you know So,

23:55

and that's what like, that's where the Josh Allen comp because that's

23:57

what I remember about Josh Allen coming out of Wyoming

24:00

is you had like these plays where you scratch your head

24:02

and like what is he doing? You know? But

24:04

you also had the spectacular plays. And

24:07

I don't know, Connor, it's just like hard, like can

24:10

you have Brock party unless

24:12

you're incredibly talented around

24:15

him and compete at the highest

24:17

level in the NFL today? And remember parties

24:19

in the NFC, not the AFC, you know So

24:23

I just I don't know, Like I look at this environment

24:25

where you're especially again if you're

24:27

an AFC team and you're gonna have to beat

24:29

some combination of Burrow, Mahomes,

24:33

Alan Lamar, Who

24:36

am I missing Herbert in succession to

24:39

get to a suit just to get to a Super Bowl. And

24:41

that's sort of why towards May.

24:44

Yeah, mister mister inevitable.

24:46

Minor setback for a major comeback in Pittsburgh.

24:49

That's right, Okay, So

24:51

I you know what.

24:52

I'm saying, though, Yeah, I don't. Yeah,

24:54

man, I just think the ceiling's highest, that's

24:57

all.

24:57

That's funny because that's

24:59

the reason. And I like Jaden

25:01

Daniels it too, and

25:03

it could be a total eye of the beholder

25:06

thing, but to me,

25:09

uh Daniels, so you

25:11

know, it's crazy. He said,

25:15

uh, same same thing where he

25:17

got you had mentioned kind of the advanced

25:20

like the mile per hour stuff. On Caleb Williams.

25:23

There was a point in his career where

25:26

he was doing all the three D motion stuff

25:29

and figured out

25:32

that he was he

25:34

was a little like he leaned forward too far

25:37

when he was throwing and revamped his whole

25:39

motion. And when he throws

25:41

a ball now it looks

25:44

like like if you watch him

25:46

just uncork a pass on an

25:48

empty field, it looks like Steph

25:51

Curry shooting in a gym. It is just

25:53

like the sound, the like

25:55

the violence of it. Like I

25:58

just feel like I'd have a hard time as a ski out

26:00

standing in there. And I know that scouts can't

26:02

be predisposed to this kind of stuff. But

26:05

my goodness, like just the

26:08

everything that it gives

26:10

off like shock waves, almost like the earthquake

26:12

you and I survived last week, you

26:15

know, but I loved it

26:18

like a.

26:18

Little, like I think, a little like a little

26:21

glass vase. And my house moved

26:23

an inch, so

26:25

so our West Coast I didn't even notice anything

26:28

at all.

26:28

Our West Coast listeners are going to be like, okay,

26:31

bro, welcome to our welcome

26:33

to our everyday existence.

26:34

Well yeah, it's like, now we're the

26:36

guy. And like, now, now

26:38

we're the guy. In Atlanta when it like snows

26:41

like half an inch, you know what I mean, we

26:44

go what was

26:46

it?

26:46

Charlotte, they had the snowfall, and everyone was like, why

26:48

the whole town just shut down?

26:50

Now we're that guy. So

26:52

I uh.

26:53

We have like floor to ceiling

26:56

windows in the back of our

26:58

house, like looking out into the backyard, and so

27:00

my kids are little, and it's just started. We

27:02

were on spring break, and so the house starts rumbling,

27:05

and my first thought was I was about to

27:07

turn to my wife and say, did you seriously

27:09

overload the washing machine again? Because

27:11

that's what it sounded like like. Sometimes she'll

27:13

throw like four throw

27:16

four comforters in there, and then it sounds like we're

27:18

kidnapping someone in the basement and he's trying

27:20

to get out. And so I looked at I

27:22

gave her the side I like, I can't believe

27:25

you would do that again, Like I gotta go down there and

27:27

fix it, and you know, but

27:29

then it kept like the house kept shaking,

27:31

and then all of my kids and

27:33

me and my wife all ran

27:36

to the floor to ceiling windows to look outside,

27:38

which is the absolute worst thing

27:40

that you can do during an earthquake.

27:43

And so afterwards I was, like I

27:45

said to my wife, I was like, okay, like the bad

27:47

dry run, we weren't prepared

27:50

for an earthquake at all, but

27:52

now we know.

27:53

So somebody told me, like, you're not you.

27:55

Got to get in the doorway or you got to get in the bathtub.

27:57

So like right, like so, like my friend Tanya

28:00

Gengoul used to cover the NFL, she covers the NBA.

28:02

Now she was telling us on our text group

28:05

that that's not true anymore, like.

28:07

That, get away from the windows.

28:08

They've met, they've amended the doorway.

28:11

Thing, they've amended the protocol, the

28:13

doorway thing.

28:13

Yeah, like so and she she's from

28:16

California originally, and so she grew

28:18

up going through the earthquake drills, you

28:20

know. And she said, yes, they've

28:23

amended that now. So I don't know why.

28:25

Something really bad must have happened.

28:27

But the doorframe collapsed

28:30

on someone or something.

28:30

Yeah, yeah, so

28:33

like I don't know why, but like she said

28:35

that, they have amended that, and they no longer tell you

28:37

to stand in a doorway.

28:39

They no longer tell you to stand in the

28:41

doorway. Okay, so it's all it's all bathtub now

28:43

right, you got to get in the back, yes, so.

28:45

Yeah, yeah, Or like in school, wouldn't

28:47

it be go under your desk? Isn't that what they say?

28:50

I mean, it makes the most sense, Like you have.

28:52

This stuff might be falling from the roots, the ceiling

28:54

or whatever, so you want to protect your head.

28:56

You get like the debris I loved.

28:58

Within like eleven

29:00

minutes there was the you

29:03

know, the the guys in New York

29:05

who sell like the I'm from New York FU

29:07

t shirts, you know, like in the Little Things thet

29:10

Yeah, they had eleven minutes later

29:12

they had a T shirt that said I survived the

29:15

New York earthquake twenty.

29:16

I know I saw that, so like the guy, the

29:19

guy who did that, did he have like

29:21

a story? He must be it must have been like a fall on store

29:23

then, right, you must have been yeah,

29:26

right, yeah, I mean good for him.

29:29

I mean you can't like way to capitalize

29:31

on the moment, you know, that's all it's

29:33

all about. But anyway, that's how I felt when I

29:35

watched. I had a good tweet, by the way,

29:37

during the earthquake, and it didn't

29:40

get the steam that

29:43

I thought it would. And right after

29:45

the earthquake, I tweeted I now know how

29:47

Hugh Jackson felt when he watched Robert Griffin

29:49

throw for the Browns. Remember he

29:52

told Jeff Darlington that I felt the

29:54

earth move under my feet when

29:56

I saw RG three throw, And I

29:58

was like, I posted a screenshot and

30:00

you know RG three loved

30:02

that.

30:03

Oh yeah that, Like I

30:05

wouldn't be surprised if he filed for some sort

30:07

of copyright like on that, like in

30:10

the immediate aftermath.

30:12

RG three is is the man

30:14

I once before when he was with the Washington

30:17

My wife and I when we were dating, used to go

30:19

to Cadoba every every

30:22

Thursday, I would go to a meter at the mall

30:24

at Short Hills and we would go to Kadoba and

30:27

the Jets were playing Washington that day

30:29

and me and Argie three were at the same Cadoba.

30:32

We're hanging out. Oh, I mean, we didn't

30:34

hang out, but I was like, Hey, that's RGI three.

30:35

It's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah,

30:38

but I think he's an interesting name. If you want

30:40

to get back to Jayde and Daniel.

30:41

Yes, that's where we should go. Yes, let's get back to.

30:44

I do think like so that's my

30:46

concern with him is, like

30:48

one thing that's continually come up is that he runs

30:51

like RG three. And RG

30:53

three was obviously a phenomenal

30:55

athlete. It was almost like an Olympic level sprinter

30:57

if I remember right, yes or heard Lord

30:59

whatever it was, and

31:02

like set the league on fire as a rookie. Part

31:05

of RG three's problem was he like would

31:07

open himself up to these comically

31:10

big hits, and he was built like a basketball

31:12

player, Like his build is like kind of like wiry,

31:15

you know, And eventually that was always

31:17

going to catch up to him. And I

31:20

somebody told me, I haven't found it yet. I got to

31:22

look it up. But somebody told me there was like a

31:24

a Jaden Daniels reel on Instagram

31:27

or Twitter or something where it's like

31:29

a Looney Tunes theme of the

31:31

hits that he takes because he looks like a Like.

31:33

The whole thing is, he looks like a Looney Tunes character

31:36

when he takes a hit, Like, just takes these massive

31:38

hits and it's a credit to him because he's

31:40

tough right like, and he bounces back on

31:42

all that stuff like, but at

31:45

the NFL level, is not going to catch up to you if you

31:47

continually open yourself up to those hits.

31:49

And here's the other problem with that. So

31:52

somebody mentioned, like, a, I, this

31:54

is one of these things that a team brought up to me,

31:56

and then I had like three or four other people confirm

31:58

it. One thing that worries

32:00

me about him is when he runs when he pulls

32:02

the ball down, he's running to run,

32:05

not to throw right as you almost

32:07

never see him pull the ball

32:09

down, scramble and then throw

32:11

it downfield. And you would think

32:13

with Molik Neighbors and Brian

32:17

Thomas there would have been plenty

32:19

of opportunity to do that in the LSU offense

32:22

and I understand it to some degree. When you

32:24

run like he runs, like, of course, it's always

32:27

going to be an appealing option to do that. I

32:29

just don't know. I

32:31

don't know if you can coach that out of a guy, you know

32:33

what I mean. I like, that's one

32:35

of those things that's so instinctive. I'm not sure, so

32:38

that would worry me a little bit. Like how reliant

32:40

he is in those spots on his legs and how

32:42

he opens himself up to hits, Like

32:44

you combine those two things with his build, and

32:47

I think that that's where the concern would be because he's

32:49

outrageously talent. He's a really gifted passer too,

32:51

Like he's really really talented. But like

32:54

the how he'll hold up

32:56

thing, how reliant he is on running the ball,

32:58

I think is a fair question and ask

33:00

he.

33:02

You're right that I was actually just watching

33:05

the low light reel and he

33:08

he really does. Yes, I found

33:10

it, and he does get he does

33:13

get lit up, and he's not a good like

33:15

like Bryce Young had so much practice with

33:17

it that he was a good faller. He

33:20

fell well like I always say

33:22

that it looks like he looks like a

33:24

foldable beach chair. Whenever anyone

33:26

comes up to him, he just sort of like, you know,

33:28

folds up and gets down and doesn't really you

33:30

know, take a shot, whereas Jayden

33:33

is big, and I think is you

33:35

know, he's an alpha and you know he wants

33:37

to he wants to be in there and he wants

33:39

to get in the mix. But obviously you kind of pay the

33:41

price for that a little bit. But I wonder.

33:45

If you some of these hits now, I've got

33:47

like, I don't know if I found the real but somebody,

33:49

these hits are just unbelievable.

33:52

I'm watching them behind a thing where it says

33:54

you have to sign up now, like I have

33:56

to sign up for TikTok. So I'm like, I'm

33:58

kind of inferring, but they look bad.

34:01

One of the one of the one of the hits

34:03

they had. Remember

34:06

in Sonic when you get like when you get hit, like

34:08

all the rings would pour

34:10

out of you, like one of them as I'm

34:12

getting hit and like all the rings are pouring

34:14

out of them.

34:16

Yeah that's uh where this is a great

34:18

Sega crossover pod but

34:20

last few actually, but yes, so

34:24

if you could, if

34:27

you could coach that out of him,

34:30

I think he's got mahomes

34:33

arm talent, mahomes size, and

34:35

mahomes athleticism, and

34:38

wouldn't you like, isn't

34:41

that more appealing to you? I don't

34:43

know, Like, because you're talking about the

34:45

highest possible ceiling,

34:48

especially in the AFC, doesn't

34:51

that push him in that direction

34:53

for you just a little bit?

34:55

I don't know. And I think no. I think I Like,

34:58

I don't think he's gonna have a choice. I think he's going to. I

35:00

don't think it's gonna be like a question because I think he's going to

35:02

Washington anyway, So I think he's.

35:04

Gonna Wint Daniels is going to too.

35:06

Yeah, I think he's going to. And I think like,

35:08

and I think there

35:11

are a couple of teas like I've gotten some i'd

35:13

say from the ground, some like tea leaves,

35:15

just talking to other people who've talked to the

35:17

Washington people who've sort of hinted at it. You

35:20

know. The other things that has sort of come up

35:22

consistently is how he fits Cliff

35:25

Kingsbury's offense. And Cliff

35:27

really likes having, you know, the quarterback

35:29

with the option to run, and so that's

35:31

one and then two, you

35:34

know, having a defensive head coach. A lot

35:36

of times, guys will tell you, like

35:38

GMS will tell you, the defensive head coach is

35:40

always going to go for the guy who

35:43

he has the most trouble defending, and

35:46

more often than not, that's the super athletic

35:48

guy. Is like, that's the guy who

35:50

keeps you up at night, that's the guy who's you

35:53

know, like, that's the that's the guy

35:55

who's the reason why you're staying in the office till

35:57

one or two am on Wednesday, right. Like,

35:59

So, I think those two elements

36:01

of it certainly would indicate that

36:04

that Jade would be a fit in Washington. And I think,

36:06

like to some I think like that's a good

36:08

result for him. I mean, he winds

36:10

up there. I think

36:12

they'll be able to build a productive run game. They've

36:14

got some depth in the backfield. And then you look

36:16

at like receiver and he's gonna be throwing to Terry

36:18

McLaurin and Johan Dotson. Like it's not a bad

36:21

result.

36:21

No, do you want to hear

36:23

My favorite tidbit that I've uncovered

36:26

about Jade and Daniels from talking to people about

36:28

him. Sure, he regularly

36:32

takes his offensive lineman out to dinner.

36:34

Do you know where this

36:37

is a move?

36:38

Hold on, hold on, this is a throw move, by

36:40

the way, he's lsu So it has to be

36:42

a place.

36:44

No that don't no, no, no, don't

36:46

think about no, don't think about that.

36:47

Don't do that. Okay, don't do that.

36:50

Chain restaurant offensive but like

36:54

good chain not it's not

36:57

Chili's.

37:00

I mean, it's not PF. Chang's. I

37:03

was going to use it like a Mark Davis joke there, but I'll

37:05

keep that one in the holster. A

37:11

good change, capital girl, close

37:15

Ruth Chris. Okay, there you go. So

37:17

it is in the right family.

37:18

You're taking five guys out there to Ruth

37:20

Chris and I mean you're you're

37:23

dropping. Oh yeah,

37:26

you know.

37:27

You're bringing the big boys with you. Now is it just starters

37:29

or.

37:30

Is it the back that's a good question. But it's

37:32

like, you know, I think that

37:34

that is a pro move. I

37:36

think that is super pro move. I

37:38

think he gets it. Uh and uh,

37:41

I don't know.

37:41

I'm I think like the other thing

37:43

is too. He does have the you

37:46

know, he has the the Brock party

37:49

thing, which is the high volume of.

37:50

Super high volume of starts.

37:52

Yeah, I think he's fifty five because Bo Nix

37:54

is at sixty I believe, is that right?

37:57

Nicks is at like one hundred and twenty.

37:58

Yeah, And I think Penix

38:00

is only a forty one. Penix might be forty one

38:02

because of the all the games he lost to injury.

38:04

And I think Jayden Daniels is like fifty five.

38:07

I want to say Bo Nix is at sixty. I'm almost

38:09

positive that's number for Knicks, because I think I know Nicks

38:11

is a high of the guys.

38:12

Oh no, they don't have on Sports

38:15

Reference. They don't add up this column. All

38:17

right, here, we're gonna here we go.

38:18

Fourteen does have it,

38:20

though, you know you know who does have it, though I

38:22

believe it or not. Wikipedia. Wikipedia

38:24

does have the game started thing. That's one thing I have learned.

38:26

Let's let's see if I can do this live though.

38:29

Okay, okay, twelve plus actual

38:31

number in front of me too, all right, all right.

38:32

Twelve plus four is sixteen, and

38:35

then sixteen plus thirteen is

38:38

twenty nine.

38:39

Yep.

38:39

Twenty nine plus twelve

38:43

is forty one.

38:46

Yep.

38:47

Forty one plus fourteen is

38:50

fifty five.

38:52

You got it? Fifty five?

38:53

Oh ye?

38:55

Take so that's I

38:57

mean, i'd have to look at Brock Purty, but

38:59

I think Brock was right around there. And that's one

39:01

of the things you I mean, you and I have

39:03

both done stuff on this. I'm like, how maybe

39:05

the effect of parties,

39:09

the effect of party's success

39:11

would be evaluation valuing

39:13

starts. Yeah, it's actually more he's got He had forty

39:15

six starts in college. So but

39:18

you know, I've talked to Brock about that too.

39:20

Where it's just the volume of things

39:22

you've seen, you know, and it's the fact that

39:25

you've had to like all right, like now this, you

39:27

know, defensive coordinator has seen me in game

39:29

plan me twice, so what's he going to do the

39:31

second time around? It's just it's

39:34

this, it's another and it's also

39:36

having to go through some level of failure. And

39:38

Jayden Daniels certainly had to do that at

39:41

Arizona State, you know. So

39:43

it's just the amount of experiences

39:45

you have, the amount of things that you've seen,

39:49

you know. I think that that's a big plus

39:51

when you're talking about Jaden Daniels, especially

39:54

if it's like Jayden Daniels versus Drake, Like I said,

39:56

like Drake is still very much like a puppy,

39:58

you know, like he you know, lost

40:00

his senior year high school, lost that first year

40:03

of red Shater, that first year of college, and then

40:05

you know, played the last two years. That's

40:08

a lot less time on task than Jayden Daniels

40:10

has had.

40:11

The quarterback that I want to be

40:13

educated from you about and I know the least about,

40:16

and I figure you would know the

40:18

most about because you love Michigan is

40:21

is JJ McCarthy. And I don't know how

40:23

much smoke because this

40:26

is it's weird, right when you play for a really

40:28

good quarterback centric coach and

40:30

then and then and then that coach

40:33

has the cachet that Harbaugh has, Like is

40:35

he in some way artificially

40:38

inflating the stock?

40:39

You know?

40:40

This was a guy that I don't think we really thought

40:42

about, at least I didn't necessarily

40:44

like. To me, I always had Caleb

40:47

Drake Jaden in that first

40:50

tier, and then I really liked

40:52

Bo and Pennix and

40:55

and some of those guys in that second tier.

40:57

But to me, like everyone's talking about him

40:59

being a tough ten picks. So I don't know what

41:01

are you hearing on JJ? What are your thoughts?

41:04

I think he will go in the top six or so Oka

41:06

and I there's

41:09

a lot to like about him, you

41:12

know, I think, you know, like the he's

41:14

a five star recruit first of all, so like

41:16

this was a major gat for Michigan after

41:19

Ohio State told him, no, I'll slide that in there,

41:22

but like it was a major get for Michigan.

41:25

You know, he went out and he beat out a kid who

41:27

turned things around for them, right like in twenty

41:30

twenty one, like Cade McNamara was

41:32

at the center of their resurgence and JJ

41:34

winds up beating him out. And

41:37

you know, I think like there's from a physical

41:40

standpoint, he's a very loose athlete.

41:42

You can see the toughness.

41:45

You can see like when he gets

41:47

going, he is like he can run away

41:49

from people, and like

41:52

the arm strength is really good, and he's got

41:54

a good head for the game. The intangibles are off the charts.

41:58

I'd say. The drawbacks are like a the

42:00

size right like, and you know, like I

42:02

think he sort of checked that box a little bit at

42:04

the combine and putting on the weight

42:06

that he did, but it's still a question like a little

42:08

bit more of a narrow frame and

42:11

then I thought this was really interesting,

42:13

Like the people who you know, you get people

42:15

who really like him, and then you get people who don't just don't

42:17

see it with him, right, And people who don't

42:20

see it with him will tell you, yes,

42:23

he's got a strong arm. But if you watch him, like if

42:25

you put him side by side with Caleb or Drake,

42:28

look how much he has to put into the ball to

42:30

get to get it there, like, And that's essentially when

42:32

you watch him throw, you can see

42:34

like his whole body's getting put into it. Yes,

42:37

And what a guy like that needs is time

42:39

and space, right, Like, a guy like that's probably

42:41

gonna need a little more space to throw the ball. If

42:43

he's gonna wind up, right, he's going to need a little

42:45

more time to throw the ball. And

42:47

that's why I thought it was really interesting when a coach

42:49

gave me the comparison a rock party, because

42:52

it's like, if you look at him at Michigan, they

42:55

were I mean, that was a really

42:58

really good team that ran the ball exceptionally

43:00

well, that had really good offensive lines in front

43:02

of him, and so he had that time in

43:05

space. So what's going to happen when consistently

43:07

that time and space is taken away. What's

43:09

going to happen when the pockets closed down on him?

43:11

Which is going to happen in the NFL. And

43:13

if you look at it with Purdy, one thing

43:15

you notice is like he doesn't

43:18

play from muddy pockets a lot, you know,

43:20

like he doesn't like he does a lot of things really

43:22

well. I just thought that was

43:24

a really interesting comparison, you know, because

43:28

it's it's not so much are

43:31

you going to be I've come to look at

43:33

it this way. It's not so much are

43:35

you going to be happy with him after a year or two

43:37

years? I think you probably will be. It's

43:40

when you get five or six years in are

43:42

you going to be looking to replace him? You know? And

43:45

you know I mentioned the golf thing earlier with

43:48

like are you in that spot where the rams are where

43:50

they replace golf with staff Ord? Gof's a really good

43:52

player, and I actually think there are some

43:54

similarities between Golf and McCarthy just

43:58

in their build and kind of like the way

44:00

the whip. I think McCarthy's a better

44:02

athlete. Off's probably a little bit better of a passer,

44:05

but like just the whip, you know, like the way

44:07

they throw the ball, there's some similarities there,

44:09

so that would be my biggest question. Mcarthy. I think

44:12

like he can be a really good He can

44:14

be a really good player, and probably a really good player

44:16

right away. It's just you know, we're

44:18

talking about getting yourself into that club, you

44:20

know, with the Buffaloes, with the Cincinnatis,

44:23

with the Kansas City's, with the Baltimore's and

44:25

the Chargers, Like is he gonna

44:27

be good enough to get you there? Or four or

44:30

five years now from now? Are you going to be sitting there?

44:32

Like okay, Like do we need to replace

44:34

this guy to level up? I think that's the question.

44:37

The It's

44:40

interesting, right, Like I I love

44:42

Jim Marba. I mean he's I think he's great for the NFL.

44:44

Part of me, though, is like, Okay, if he's that good,

44:47

didn't trade just grudgingly?

44:48

I love Jim too, He's great.

44:50

I'm yeah, like how could you not? But okay,

44:52

if you love him that much, then trade trade Justin

44:54

Herbert, you know, right?

44:56

And that's exactly what yeah, I mean, because

44:58

then.

44:58

But he's not going to the reason that

45:00

he took that job is because Justin Herbert's there, you know what

45:02

I mean?

45:02

No, I mean because yeah, Like, on one

45:05

hand he says like, I uh.

45:08

On one hand he says like JJ McCarthy

45:10

is generational and he's mahomes

45:12

and all that, and then

45:14

in the next breath it's like, yeah, you know,

45:17

sometimes I just like to call Justin just to see how

45:19

his day's going. Yeah, he's

45:21

like similarly obsessed with Justin Herbert,

45:23

you know what I mean. Like, so, look,

45:25

I I you can't fault Jim. I mean, like

45:28

JJ meant a lot to him. You know, JJ

45:31

was one of these guys who helped change

45:33

the face of that program and deserves

45:35

a ton of credit for it. By

45:37

all accounts, a really good kid and

45:40

really smart and tough, like all

45:42

the intangible stuff checks all those boxes.

45:45

And so if you're Jim, of course you're going to be grateful

45:47

for that. And I think Harbaugh deserves credit for that,

45:50

like for showing his gratitude towards a

45:52

player who is really really important to accomplishing

45:54

what they accomplished at Michigan. Does

45:57

that mean I think deep down like he want

46:00

wants to trade the you know, trade Justin

46:04

and and and and take JJ. No,

46:06

I don't think that's what it is, because if you went to

46:08

the Patriots right now and offer Justin Herbert

46:10

for the third pick. The Patriots would do it, and then you've

46:12

got jj.

46:14

Uh

46:16

right yeah, I mean, like it's

46:18

never gonna happen. So let's just you know, you

46:21

know, but how close is Michigan, by

46:23

the way to creeping up in Ohio

46:25

State? For most national championships.

46:29

Like Michigan actually technically has more, but

46:32

but most of them

46:34

happened before the invention of the car and

46:37

this was actually their first, like

46:39

this was their first like

46:42

consensus national title since

46:44

the Truman administration. So Ohio

46:47

state has it has eight I think it

46:49

is now eight. The

46:52

eight though, like most of those have

46:54

happened like you know, in the air of color TV.

46:56

So that's the difference.

46:57

Minnesota, sneaky has a

46:59

lot, lot four. That's

47:01

a lot.

47:02

Doesn't Princeton or Yale or Harvard one

47:04

of them has like fifteen or something like that. One

47:06

of the ivys hasn't seen them out.

47:09

That's there was also huh

47:11

that's solid. Minnesota

47:13

has six.

47:15

Yeah, look at Aero wagon

47:17

back in the day.

47:18

Ohio state has as many national

47:21

championships as Harvard.

47:24

See I told you, how does that?

47:26

How does that land with you.

47:28

Again, Like, you know, was this like in the days

47:30

of FDR probably, I mean Harvard.

47:32

You know, the last one was in nineteen nineteen,

47:35

so you know, uh.

47:38

That trout could be broken any day though.

47:39

Yeah, I mean, you know, the one hundred

47:42

year anniversary has has since passed.

47:44

Maybe maybe in the next hundred.

47:45

Yeah.

47:45

Princeton, Yeah, Princeton is fifteen.

47:49

And I think Rutgers

47:52

Priston Prinsident Rutgers was the first.

47:54

First college football game.

47:55

And then is that right? Yeah?

47:56

Yeah, Yale has eighteen so

48:00

wow, Nick Saban.

48:01

Because Pop Warner was the coach at Yale, right,

48:05

who is the other one? Amos Alonzo

48:07

stag? I think? Is that right? Like

48:09

Yale had some super famous coaches.

48:14

Now I have to look up amos Alonzo's stag

48:17

from West Orange, New Jersey. By the way, Yeah

48:20

he was at Yale.

48:22

Yeah, and

48:24

stop Warner?

48:25

Am I right about this?

48:26

Stockton College Susquehanna.

48:30

All these guys that have.

48:32

The older brother, the older brother of a

48:34

good friend of mine is like I

48:36

think he still is like the punt and kick return record

48:39

holder at Susquehannah.

48:40

Wow, yeah,

48:43

yeah, all these

48:45

guys have all these guys

48:47

have coached like nine sports.

48:50

Oh here we Oh, I missed a big one, dude,

48:53

I missed a very big one. Walter Camp was

48:56

the he was the Yale coach.

48:58

Okay, yeah, so you know.

48:59

Wal Walter Camp is a big one.

49:01

Pop Warner I think was was.

49:04

Was that wrong about Pop warn Cornell?

49:06

He was at Cornell. He

49:08

was also at Iowa Agricultural,

49:11

Carlisle, Pittsburgh, Stanford

49:14

Temple, and then he ended his

49:16

career as the assistant coach

49:18

at San Jose State, which is just really

49:20

funny.

49:20

Like, oh, the picture of Walter Camp

49:23

is great too. Here, I'm gonna send this to you the

49:25

Wikipedia age. The guy like legitimately

49:27

looks like your insurance agent. Hold on, it's

49:31

a.

49:32

I'm gonna teach you how to bundle home and auto.

49:35

Yeah, there you go, Connor, check that out,

49:37

real quick, man, Walter Camp.

49:40

It's a great picture.

49:42

Look at this.

49:44

Originally born new but he only coached five years

49:46

at Yale. Though, I

49:48

wonder why the father of American football.

49:51

Man, that's a mean

49:53

stash. I respect that he went horseshoe bald,

49:56

you know, because.

49:58

Oh he was a player, coach, player coach.

50:01

I don't have as a bald. I didn't

50:03

have it in me to watch myself

50:05

go full horseshoe

50:07

bald, so I went, I went bald, bald.

50:10

So this is interesting. It looks like he defected

50:12

in the middle of the eighteen ninety two season.

50:14

I'm looking at his Wikipedia page, defected

50:16

from Yale to Stanford. He

50:19

had gone sixty seven to two in five

50:21

seasons at Yale, but then it looks

50:23

like he finished the eighteen ninety two season up and

50:25

up at stamp.

50:26

I remember that eighteen ninety two season. That was

50:28

a big year.

50:29

Well I mean by that, but back back then it must

50:32

have taken him like a full week to travel across the country.

50:34

So doing that, like in.

50:35

The middle of the season, they missed two games because

50:37

they were like, God, when's this guy gonna get it?

50:39

They were waiting for walterro Camp to arrive.

50:42

By the new thing called the railroad. All

50:45

right, So we have of

50:48

the sort of credit

50:50

to Gary Grambling, our former

50:53

incredible editor. He used to call it the goulash.

50:55

But like from there, we have,

50:58

at least to me and

51:00

I don't know about you, but we have this sort

51:02

of gulash of quarterbacks left.

51:04

We have Bonix, We have Michael Pennix,

51:08

we have, I don't know, am

51:10

I am I missing anyone else that we haven't talked

51:12

about.

51:12

I mean, Spencer Rattler. I think you can throw in.

51:14

There, Spencer Ratler, the Rattler.

51:17

Okay, maybe maybe even if you're feeling

51:19

froggy, you could throw a Bazuka Joe in there, Which

51:21

is the greatest nick name I

51:23

think I've heard in the last few years for a kid

51:26

coming into the draft. Jill Milton, Yes, Bazuka

51:29

Joe is a great nickname.

51:30

Is there are any of those guys? To

51:34

you? I mean, I don't know, do you have

51:37

do you have any sort? Yeah?

51:40

You like Pens Penix is the

51:42

one to me, like we're I just he

51:44

is fascinating because so I'll

51:47

tell you this, like I tweeted this the other day.

51:50

You know, sometimes you notice little trends when

51:53

you start making these phone calls around

51:55

two different teams and stuff, and

51:58

it's like forever and ever, I've felt like the NFL

52:00

was not nearly as high on Michael Pennix as the

52:03

general public, like right, like I would have

52:05

told you, like in November December when everybody

52:07

was hyping up like Michael Penix

52:09

always said, yeah, I think he's gonna be a second or third round

52:11

pick. I would

52:14

say, over the last two weeks,

52:17

what I have noticed is coaches are

52:19

way higher on Michael Penix than scouts

52:21

are. And so I asked

52:23

around, like, what's like, how would you explain that.

52:26

I had one guy who knows Penix say

52:29

to me, he thinks it's because

52:31

Penix does things well that you can't coach,

52:34

like the dead eye deep ball accuracy

52:36

you cannot coach, like being able to

52:38

get the ball downfield and put it in spots down the field.

52:41

You cannot coach that. He anticipates

52:43

you cannot coach that, like that's normally

52:45

something. Either you have that

52:47

and you can throw guys open, or

52:50

you're the guy who needs to see a guy come open

52:53

before you let go of the ball, right, Like that was justin

52:55

Field's downfall in Chicago was that he was

52:57

that second guy.

53:00

So that makes Penix really interesting

53:02

to me. Doesn't move great in the pocket, you

53:04

know, we've seen he's a good athlete because he ran four

53:06

or five. Doesn't move great in the pocket,

53:10

you know, and he's got the injury issues, but

53:12

he throw and like underneath

53:14

like and I'm gonna use a basketball analogy here. I

53:17

had a couple of people tell me this is a three he's

53:19

a three point shooter, right Like, he is a

53:23

guy who is deadly from deep but struggles

53:25

mid range, struggles with layups. Like

53:27

some of the things are inexplicable that you would see

53:29

on tape, and I think some of that's shown up in some of his

53:31

workouts too, So can you fix that? It's

53:34

just a fascinating thing with him, because

53:37

I almost feel like he would

53:39

be like an Al Davis quarterback right

53:41

the old school like or the

53:43

or Norv Turner offense back in the day,

53:46

right like that Cowboys offense where they're going

53:48

downfield to Irvin and Harper, Like,

53:50

I feel like he's that type of quarterback.

53:53

Can you fix the other stuff? And

53:55

what complicates that is he's been in college

53:58

six years, so you're

54:00

at least going to have people thinking to themselves, well,

54:02

you know, if he was going to fix it, this isn't like, you

54:05

know, like Caleb Williams or or

54:08

or JJ McCarthy or Drake May where

54:10

there are three year college guys like this

54:12

guy was a senior in high school and those guys were

54:14

freshmen, you know, So I

54:17

don't know, like I just think I'm fascinated

54:19

to see what becomes of him. And then he's throwing the lofty

54:21

thing too, you know, Like I'm just I'm

54:25

really really interested to see what becomes of him because

54:27

a lot of people have told me, like he wouldn't be a great

54:29

fit in like a Shanahan offense, right, like

54:31

in one of those offense. So like

54:34

where is his home? Like where does he find a

54:36

place that's that's

54:38

willing to you know, let him be who

54:40

who he is. There is this great

54:42

dead deep ball thrower, this guy who you

54:45

know, can really operate from the pocket, who's

54:47

got a ton of experience. He brings

54:49

a lot to the table, but there's that other stuff that

54:51

you worry about.

54:52

I love DJ's Sam Bradford

54:54

comp on him, which feels like

54:57

so apt, you know, But Pennix,

55:00

you know, I'll say this in defensive Penix.

55:02

I mean, I don't think that this guy was

55:05

in a really functional offense

55:07

until his until

55:10

his first year at Washington, So like you

55:12

could say, and you know, just

55:15

kind of digging around a little bit, you know, when he was in high

55:17

school. I think, you know, you

55:19

have you have a difference between like bow Knicks playing

55:22

in high school for his dad and running a pro legitimate

55:24

pro style offense. A lot of these guys running

55:26

legitimate wristband pro style offenses.

55:29

I think someone said that Michael Pennix had like eight

55:31

plays in high school that they ran and saw

55:33

one.

55:33

Cover that Tampa Tech. Actually, I've got

55:35

a buddy who coached against that school. So yeah, no, no, I

55:38

mean that one's really interesting.

55:40

This is not And I do think that when he

55:42

got the chance to beat

55:44

around elite players, elite

55:46

program, elite coaching, really good

55:48

offense. I mean, listen his offensive

55:51

coordinator, uh, you know,

55:54

and his head coach. I

55:57

mean you know, now they're at Alabama,

55:59

you know. So it's it's one of those

56:01

things, and there's a reason for that, you know.

56:03

I think I think it's interesting too, because he's got to see

56:05

both sides of it, right, Like so calein de Boro was with him

56:07

at Indiana. But

56:09

for that Indiana team that like they had a great

56:11

year during the COVID year. For

56:14

that Indiana team to be what

56:16

it was, he needed to be the best player

56:18

on the field on a really consistent basis, right,

56:20

Like they like Indiana's just going

56:22

against the Ohio States and Michigan's and Penn States

56:25

like in that division of the Big Ten, Like it's

56:27

really tough like for a team like that,

56:29

And so he had that experience early

56:31

in his career of having to be the best player weekend week

56:34

out. And then he also had the experience

56:36

of like having a loaded group around him and he

56:38

had Fatanu on his offensive line, and he had

56:40

a Dunza McMillan and Polk to throw to

56:43

and you know, playing in this like great

56:46

scheme like. So he does have

56:48

that experience too of having seen both sides of

56:50

it, right, like, and having six years in college counts

56:52

for something. So I'm just

56:54

fascinated to see what becomes of him. Like, he's

56:56

just such an interesting prospect. And I

56:59

wouldn't be if he goes in the first round. I wouldn't

57:01

be surprised if he goes in the third round, which I think

57:03

adds another layer to it too.

57:05

Played pretty good against Michigan considering they knew

57:07

all the plays.

57:09

Yeah you know what I mean, Yeah, yeah, just the Spies

57:11

were up there, you know, so they just had

57:13

to figure out a different way to do it. After they got busted

57:15

the first time.

57:17

I don't think they ever stopped. That's my

57:19

uh.

57:20

I will say this. I will say this though, like that, and

57:22

that's part of the concern is that, like they had

57:24

so Jesse Minter, who I think is a fantastic

57:27

hire by Jim Harbaugh with the Chargers and

57:30

was the DC there at Michigan, Michael

57:34

Penix had to go up against a pro style defense

57:37

in the championship

57:40

game. And I said that thing about the three point shooter right,

57:42

like, well, I had gotten I'd picked that up.

57:45

In the week leading up to the championship game. I asked around

57:47

to different scouts about McCarthy and Panis to try

57:49

and preview the game, and that three point shooter

57:51

thing, like I got it early in the week and then I vetted

57:54

it with some other people and I'm like, yeah, that's the case. And

57:56

what I saw if you go back and you watch that game, what I

57:58

saw was jes mentor basically

58:02

daring Washington to

58:05

go underneath, to chip away, to go on

58:07

ten play twelve play drives,

58:10

and it looked like Pannix could do it. And it's

58:12

hard for me to get that part of it out of my head too.

58:14

Yeah, I mean, listen, Zach Wilson is

58:17

such a cautionary tale. Now you know that inability

58:19

to work to sustain the drives.

58:22

It's it's out there. I mean, people

58:25

are afraid of it, and there's no doubt.

58:27

Maybe when you're a team like the Jets and you take a big swing

58:29

and a miss on that it scares the hell out of

58:31

people. I have one sleeper, and I'm

58:33

gonna ask you if you want to give me a sleeper at the

58:35

end.

58:35

That's it's a Joe.

58:37

It's not Bazuka Joe. But

58:39

I'll just say this about bo Nicks.

58:42

Show me a quarterback again.

58:45

Huge recruit coming out of high school, started

58:48

his true freshman year at Auburn. This

58:50

kid had to I think

58:52

broke his ankle at one point, got benched,

58:55

had to transfer to Oregon. His

58:58

freshman year at Alburn, he threw fifty

59:00

seven point six completion percentage.

59:02

His senior year at Oregon, set

59:04

the NC double A record at

59:07

seventy seven point four a

59:10

one eighty eight quarterback rating. I

59:12

don't care what conference you play in. I

59:14

don't care if you're playing like you know,

59:17

Mercyhurst. This is that's

59:20

hard to do. That's hard

59:22

to do against air and uh,

59:24

I'm I I like him. I like

59:26

him a lot. I think that there's something to

59:29

that guy. I think he's special.

59:31

So somebody, I've had a couple of people

59:33

say, if he's going in the first round, it's going to

59:36

be to Denver.

59:37

Yes, because I can see sort of like a.

59:39

Sean Payton type of point guard quarterback,

59:41

you know, like an athlete who really

59:44

is going to be able to come in and you know, coaches

59:46

sign all that different stuff like where

59:49

he

59:52

he's just made of the right stuff, you know,

59:54

which I think is probably part of what made it

59:56

helped him survive. And I, you know, I do this

59:58

stuff before the year where I'll call around

1:00:00

to people and I work with

1:00:03

with Jordan Palmer and Trent Dilfer

1:00:05

on this stuff too, because they've seen these kids since they

1:00:07

were teenagers. And Jordan

1:00:10

worked with bo Nix coming up, and you

1:00:13

know, I remember talking with Jordan about it and it's like,

1:00:15

this is a really important year for him because

1:00:17

they had a non offensive coordinated Oregon guy by

1:00:19

the name of Kenny Dillingham who left to go to Arizona

1:00:22

State who's seen is like this, like I

1:00:24

don't know I guess like a Sean McVay on

1:00:26

on the college level, right, like really really

1:00:28

smart, everybody's trying to steal his offense

1:00:30

all that, and so, like

1:00:32

there was this question going into this year. Is

1:00:35

bo Nicks's ascension from

1:00:38

Auburn to Oregon a result of that? So

1:00:40

I think the fact that he sustained his performance and

1:00:42

even got better in some areas after losing

1:00:44

that OC is

1:00:47

definitely a notch in his belt when you're talking about

1:00:49

his NFL stock.

1:00:51

Yeah, I

1:00:53

don't know. I just I think that there's something

1:00:55

to that, and especially if you're picking in the back end

1:00:57

of the first round, you need a guy like

1:01:00

man I. You know, I could

1:01:02

be wrong, but

1:01:04

but I don't know. That's what I think. Is Bazuka

1:01:06

Joe gonna be your sleeper, because I'm gonna give you a sleeper,

1:01:09

ass sleeper, a real sleeper.

1:01:11

I mean, I think like the one that I kind of

1:01:13

like have my eye on would be Michael Pratt.

1:01:17

I'm sort of yeah,

1:01:19

I'm sort of interested to see what happens from

1:01:21

him, just because you hear enough

1:01:23

about him and I take rattler

1:01:25

out of it, Like I do know some people that like Rattler.

1:01:29

But Pratt just seems to me like he's

1:01:31

a guy you take in like the fifth or sixth round.

1:01:33

And what's interesting about is that we're always

1:01:35

going to compare these now to proc Perty, right, because

1:01:37

I think people probably aways say the same thing about Party

1:01:40

when he came into the league. But it's like, all

1:01:43

right, is this guy like a is

1:01:46

this guy a starter or a backup? Like either way,

1:01:48

he's probably gonna last a long time in the league. Like

1:01:50

that's the sense I've gotten talking to people about

1:01:52

Pratt. And it was interesting because

1:01:54

I believe he was in the transfer portal

1:01:57

and thought about going somewhere else and then chose to

1:01:59

just go to the Pro. So he'd

1:02:02

be one that I'd have, you know, an eye on

1:02:04

somewhere in day three.

1:02:05

My my sleeper is a

1:02:08

NC double a national champion.

1:02:12

He's played at three different schools, twenty

1:02:14

twenty two New Orleans Bowl, MVP

1:02:17

and the twenty twenty two

1:02:19

Conference USA Newcomer

1:02:21

of the Year Austin Reid

1:02:24

of the Western Kentucky Hilltop.

1:02:25

Oh. So, I actually did get a chance

1:02:27

to watch him because they played at the Horseshoe

1:02:29

this fall. Love he's a good player. And

1:02:32

so they have a little receiver too who's

1:02:34

really freaking good. And I can't remember his name now,

1:02:36

but he's going to probably be another one of these like late

1:02:39

picks. But it was really really good

1:02:41

and I can't remember his name. I bet offense.

1:02:42

It's fun I was talking to I actually a chance to

1:02:44

talk to Austin about the Ohio State game. And it's

1:02:46

funny that you say mentioned that. So

1:02:49

there was and people

1:02:51

talk about all this stuff all the time. Oh, this guy's

1:02:53

got this kind of memory. Isn't it cool that Sean McVay

1:02:56

knows the entire other team's roster all

1:02:58

this stuff. I'm talking to Austin Reid and

1:03:00

he's just walking around and I was like,

1:03:02

hey, you know that Ohio State game.

1:03:05

I was like, you know, you were putting something together on that

1:03:07

first drive. I was like, I don't. I don't expect you

1:03:09

to remember this, but there's I thought you should have gotten

1:03:11

p I on that one call. And he's like, oh, yeah, on

1:03:13

the on the deep post to whoever, and

1:03:15

like name the play, name the time

1:03:17

on the clock, named the down, named

1:03:19

the cornerback who he thought, you know,

1:03:23

committed the past interference. Yeah, and super

1:03:25

impressive.

1:03:26

When he wrongly accused of holding.

1:03:29

Well, you know, we all know how corrupt college

1:03:31

football is, Albert, and you can't let you

1:03:34

know. You couldn't let Caitlyn Clark

1:03:36

lose in the final four to Yukon. You can't

1:03:38

let Ohio State lose to Western Kentucky home.

1:03:41

It's true. I just wanted to seventy

1:03:44

something, So yeah, I.

1:03:46

Just wanted to sneak that take in there. By the way, you can have.

1:03:48

Some bas some issues covering Marvin Harrison in that game.

1:03:50

Yukon women got robbed, see

1:03:53

you think, So I just wanted

1:03:56

to say it to somebody.

1:03:58

Are you see, I'm

1:04:00

like sort of the mind.

1:04:01

You have to let them take that shot.

1:04:04

That was very clearly a foul

1:04:06

though. I'm I've watched like she was

1:04:08

moving like I like, I don't like, here's

1:04:12

the thing, Like I I like the let him

1:04:14

play thing and everything else. But if

1:04:16

like something like that happens right in front

1:04:18

of you and you're the ref, what the hell are you supposed

1:04:21

to do?

1:04:21

Pretend that you didn't see it, and

1:04:23

like.

1:04:24

Look at the clock and be like, oh, well, there's only thirty

1:04:26

seconds left, so I better not call this

1:04:28

one.

1:04:29

You swallow the whistle completely.

1:04:31

I just I don't. I don't

1:04:33

know. I have a hard time with that, by the way. That

1:04:35

how I'm scarred though. I'm scarred

1:04:38

though by like the toxicity of youth hockey.

1:04:40

And I've seen so many parents yell at so many

1:04:42

officials now it is so much worse

1:04:44

than any other sport, Like it's worse than all the other sports

1:04:46

combined in youth hockey, and

1:04:49

so like, I guess maybe I'm

1:04:51

a little more sympathetic to the officials

1:04:53

than I was a few years ago. So I'd

1:04:55

say, like, what do you when you see when

1:04:57

you see a foul, what are you supposed to do?

1:04:59

Look the other on, Come on, Connor,

1:05:01

give Gino Rima the chance to

1:05:04

pull off the upset. I

1:05:06

don't know. I'm so happy though.

1:05:07

I love that Gino is like the White Knight and this whole thing

1:05:09

now too, that's a that's a role change for him, isn't

1:05:11

it is?

1:05:12

I was so happy though. I love watching Caitlin

1:05:14

Clark play basketball. That was, Oh, she's such

1:05:17

I mean a fun And then and then South

1:05:19

Carolina, like that.

1:05:21

Team South Carolina

1:05:23

is a wagon.

1:05:23

I mean not know anything. They were so I.

1:05:27

Got crushed for this on Twitter. I

1:05:29

think I'm probably still getting crushed for it on Twitter.

1:05:31

But if

1:05:34

you put if you could take

1:05:36

Caitlin Clark, and I think this is a compliment

1:05:39

to both sides. You could take Caitlin Clark

1:05:42

and trade her for any player,

1:05:44

anyone player in the South Carolina roster, and

1:05:47

South Carolina wins by forty.

1:05:50

You could put she for

1:05:53

sure, yes.

1:05:54

Yeah, like like because

1:05:56

because South Carolina is so deep and has so many

1:05:58

players and there's no one there was

1:06:00

no one on the court that could lift everyone the way that Caitlyn

1:06:02

Clark did. The most fascinating

1:06:05

thing to me is, this is our fourth year in Iowa.

1:06:07

She sees things so fast her

1:06:10

teammates like really struggle to

1:06:12

keep up with it. Like you can see it. Like there's

1:06:14

so many times when she sees something that her teammates

1:06:17

don't see yet where she'll fire the ball

1:06:19

from half court like like over

1:06:21

to the other side as as someone's

1:06:23

cutting across and like the

1:06:26

player like on the other end of it

1:06:28

will not be ready for the ball to come. And

1:06:31

this after four years of playing with her, you

1:06:33

know what I mean, Like she

1:06:36

she's like got like that basketball

1:06:38

genius thing where she just it's like she sees

1:06:40

things like a step or two ahead of

1:06:43

everyone else.

1:06:43

I will say this though, and no one came

1:06:45

here for my women's basketball takes. And again I'm

1:06:48

like, I'm gonna be but.

1:06:49

They're here for them now.

1:06:49

But I'm just gonna be upfront with the fact that,

1:06:52

like, you know, so I watched all

1:06:54

of her games in the tournament. Those were the

1:06:57

Those were the women's college basketball games I watched

1:06:59

this season. You know, I'm not I'm

1:07:01

not an expert, but I will just say generally, being

1:07:04

a fan of basketball, ball

1:07:07

movement in women's college basketball is

1:07:09

so much better than men's Like there

1:07:11

are so many mind blowing

1:07:13

passes in the women's

1:07:15

game, and it's like across the board. It wasn't

1:07:17

just Kaitlyn Clark. Like the ball movement

1:07:19

in that sport is awesome. And I'm now

1:07:22

like I'm in like I and that's

1:07:24

a credit to her, Like, well that's.

1:07:26

Why like people like I don't know, like I think there's

1:07:28

that whole thing, like you know, a soccer fans, where

1:07:30

like there's that like segment of soccer

1:07:32

fans that don't really want the game, don't want

1:07:35

more people watching. Yeah, I get like and we'll

1:07:37

get all like up aty with you when

1:07:39

you like try to say something about the good sport,

1:07:41

like well, actually, like you're

1:07:43

a moron because ABC and

1:07:46

D that you said isn't true or you sound

1:07:48

like an idiot when you say it. And

1:07:50

I feel like that like sort of started to bubble

1:07:52

up over the last three days, like during

1:07:55

the women's Final four, where you say

1:07:57

something nice about Caitlin Clark, what

1:07:59

about South Carolina. It's

1:08:02

like, if we're all being honest, the reason everybody

1:08:04

was talking about it over the last three days is

1:08:06

because of Caitlin Clark. All

1:08:09

these people would not be watching those games

1:08:11

if it's not for Caitlin Clark. So

1:08:13

except that as a good thing,

1:08:16

that is like the front door for people walking

1:08:18

through to come and watch women's basketball.

1:08:21

Yeah, like, don't look at it like, well you should

1:08:23

have known about this, and they're not getting enough credit

1:08:25

here everybody. I mean, all I had to do was

1:08:28

look down at the little score box and see that South

1:08:30

Carolina was thirty seven or no, which by the way, I didn't

1:08:32

know before yesterday before turning it

1:08:34

on. That's true, and know they're a great team and

1:08:36

then you watch five minutes in it's like, oh, yeah, this

1:08:38

is the best team. Like, it's

1:08:41

not a bad thing that Caitlin Clark opened the door for

1:08:43

everybody to come to walk through, you know what I

1:08:45

mean, Like that's not a bad thing. And

1:08:48

don't don't sit there and take shots

1:08:50

at people who were

1:08:52

who got interested in this because of her.

1:08:54

Yeah, like I hear it now.

1:08:56

It's a great thing. It's a great thing.

1:08:58

I am. I

1:09:00

love the LSU coach. I think

1:09:02

she's like just Kim, She's just

1:09:04

so wild, like the whole Like again.

1:09:07

I thought she was. I thought with the whole Kent ba thing, and

1:09:09

I'm buddies with Kent. I love you know, yeah,

1:09:12

like Kent's great, Like Kent's one of the

1:09:14

best sports journalists in America. I

1:09:18

sort of wondered at the end of this is like was there a whole

1:09:21

was there like a little like evil genius

1:09:23

thing going on here with Kim Malke Because I

1:09:27

I read Kent's story and it didn't

1:09:29

make me hate her. It just didn't.

1:09:32

Like I read it and it's like, oh, well, you know,

1:09:34

she's a sort of a product of where she's from,

1:09:36

and you know, like sort of old school,

1:09:38

and like everybody's had coaches in their past that

1:09:40

were like that were tough, you

1:09:42

know. Like, so it didn't make me hate her. It

1:09:44

made me more think like, oh, she's just a very

1:09:47

much a product of her environment where she came

1:09:49

from, her upbringing all that, right, Like she's a product

1:09:51

to all that. And then

1:09:53

I thought about it, and I'm like, Okay, So,

1:09:56

like Kim Malke came out before, and

1:09:59

I thought it was st upid when she did it, because

1:10:02

when she came out, like on the front end,

1:10:04

it was like, oh, you're just calling more attention to a story

1:10:06

that's gonna be really bad, you know, and

1:10:08

like like there are a lot of people that wouldn't be paying

1:10:10

attention to this otherwise. And then I realized,

1:10:13

oh my god. So on the back end of this,

1:10:15

what ended up happening was that

1:10:18

people who liked her and who

1:10:20

were supporting her are only

1:10:22

embold and further that like

1:10:26

this was a hit job, right, like

1:10:28

and and like there was a lot of like, oh the

1:10:30

Washington Post hit job missed, which that wasn't what

1:10:32

Kent was doing, but like embolden

1:10:34

people to think that way. And then

1:10:37

people on the other side of it were like Oh that wasn't

1:10:39

so bad. So was there like an evil

1:10:41

genius thing going on here with Kim Milky

1:10:43

where she had the whole thing gamed out? Right?

1:10:45

Yeah?

1:10:49

I just like people

1:10:52

that go to that level, you

1:10:54

know what I mean, Like, I just love

1:10:56

like the you know, I don't know.

1:10:59

And so again, I'm so it.

1:11:01

Was great for Kent too. I mean, like Kaptain Kim

1:11:03

Milk both kind of came out of this winners, you

1:11:05

know.

1:11:05

Yeah, I

1:11:07

And I'm so grateful for that experience

1:11:10

because now I'm in like next

1:11:12

year, I'm gonna be like, what's Don Staley

1:11:14

doing, What's Kim Mulkey doing? You know? Uh,

1:11:17

you know, I I you fall in love with

1:11:20

some of the other players on IOWA at

1:11:22

that point, and then you'll start following them next

1:11:24

year, and you know, because you know, there's still a lot

1:11:26

of talented players there. But I don't know, I had

1:11:28

a lot of fun this This whole March

1:11:31

madness was great. It

1:11:33

was a much needed break for the NFL for me,

1:11:35

Like, I just tonight'll

1:11:38

be great too.

1:11:39

I was Zach Edie, who has been in college for roughly

1:11:41

thirty three years.

1:11:42

He's the bonix of Purdue yeah,

1:11:45

yeah, and I,

1:11:47

uh yeah, I have Purdue, so

1:11:51

oh do you yeah, because.

1:11:52

I did you pick him at the beginning?

1:11:54

Yeah, I picked Perdue all

1:11:57

the way because everybody else in the

1:11:59

bracket had Yukon And

1:12:01

I'm in a bracket. Oh yeah,

1:12:03

I'm in a bracket with like a uh

1:12:06

a d one coach from

1:12:09

the women's side who knows the game like incredibly

1:12:11

well. And so it's like, okay, oh so

1:12:13

you gotta fight fire with you got it. You got to take

1:12:15

a back door in there somewhere. I mean, she you know,

1:12:17

these these guys are way smarter than I

1:12:19

am.

1:12:20

So so I don't know if this is true.

1:12:22

Have you heard this that Zaki Dy can't get an A a

1:12:24

OL money because he's Canadian?

1:12:26

What?

1:12:27

Yeah, so somebody told me

1:12:29

that. I get like great research

1:12:32

by me not looking this up first, but like, yeah,

1:12:34

so someone told me that Zakidy

1:12:36

cannot get an i OL money because he's Canadian.

1:12:40

And there's a twist in the rules or whatever, which sucks

1:12:42

because like this is a conduc it's

1:12:45

true. Okay, there

1:12:47

you go, so we have to Yeah that sucks

1:12:49

because this guy like isn't like a great NBA

1:12:51

prospect. Just because he's kind of like from a different

1:12:53

he's like a player from a different era. So

1:12:56

this is the guy who you'd want to like cash

1:12:58

in while he's in college. And I'm

1:13:00

sure he'll play in Europe forever or whatever if

1:13:02

he doesn't make it in the NBA. But yeah, I

1:13:04

don't know why, but like because he's Canadian, he

1:13:07

cannot accept an I all money.

1:13:08

That's terrible, poor Zach Edie.

1:13:11

Well let's get him a national title tonight, then let's

1:13:13

go.

1:13:14

Yeah, let's say I'm I'm I'm

1:13:16

all in for the Big ten, So go Boilers.

1:13:19

All right, Well, thank you guys again. I mean,

1:13:21

like we said, uh, it's

1:13:24

it's so good to be back. Obviously,

1:13:27

any of these things, these situations are bittersweet,

1:13:29

you know. But for

1:13:32

those of us who are are here with

1:13:35

you guys, I mean we're just we're we're really

1:13:37

we're really grateful for that, and so we will

1:13:39

we will see you next week. I'm very happy to be able

1:13:41

to say that Matt and Gilberto

1:13:44

will be you know, as

1:13:46

as we're going along, I think we'll get back

1:13:48

into the fold as well. But

1:13:51

you know, Albert and I are here, and uh,

1:13:53

we're we're looking forward to its

1:14:01

content.

1:14:03

And controls. Contro