Best of The Herd

Summary

The Herd with Colin Cowherd (Guest Host: Jonas Knox)

Episode: Best of The Herd (Sept 1, 2025)
Podcast by: iHeartPodcasts and The Volume

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Main Theme & Purpose

This Labor Day "Best Of" episode, hosted by Jonas Knox filling in for Colin Cowherd, revolves around the opening weekend of college football, the impact and value of the expanded College Football Playoff, early overreactions to key games and players (especially Arch Manning and new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer), and the much-anticipated debut of Bill Belichick as a college head coach. Knox uses sharp humor, relatable sports analogies, and direct quotes to offer perspective on knee-jerk reactions and the shifting landscape of college football.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Expanded College Football Playoff: A Safety Net for Elite Teams

Timestamps: 03:44–11:25

• Jonas Knox opens with praise for the expanded playoff format.

• Main Insight: In previous years, an early-season loss could doom even top contenders. Now, teams have a greater margin for error, allowing them to challenge themselves with tough out-of-conference games without risking their entire season.

  • Quote: “Thank God for the expanded College Football Playoff… there’s a lot of teams out there… ran into a little bit of a difficult situation. At least we’re going to have some time to sort through these things.” (Jonas Knox, 04:18)

• Draws a parallel to boxing/UFC:

  • In boxing, one loss could be career-ending; UFC fighters can lose and still headline big fights. This change, Knox argues, makes for a more entertaining and forgiving college football season.
  • Quote: “This used to happen in boxing all the time. Fighters would protect their O because it was looked at as like this… man, listen, if you are undefeated, it meant… Then all of a sudden the UFC came around… that's the way this stuff goes.” (Jonas Knox, 06:07)

2. Arch Manning’s Tough Season Debut and Media Overreaction

Timestamps: 11:25–18:12

• Play a direct postgame quote from Arch Manning after Texas’ loss at Ohio State, noting the high expectations for him in just his third college start.

  • Arch Manning: “Didn’t start fast enough. Took a whole half for us to even get the ball down the field. So that starts with me…” (11:25)

• Knox argues the narrative that Manning was “the next Heisman” was unreasonably set by the media and fans, not by Manning himself or by rational observers:

  • Quote: “My expectations were a little different, but I don’t know what people thought they were going to get from a guy who has two starts in his career, who’s going on the road against the defending national champions at their house…” (Jonas Knox, 11:47)
  • “Who wrote the first [Arch Manning] one? We got two pages in and everybody was like, ‘Oh, this is the greatest novel I’ve ever seen.’” (Jonas Knox, 14:55)

• Knox keeps it light with humor about the Ohio State crowd and rumors about Coach Ryan Day. He draws a line between honest mistakes and mob mentality, calling for patience before making judgments about young quarterbacks.

• Compares the hype/self-destruction cycle around Arch Manning to past cases like Johnny Manziel and RG3—no one was touting them before their breakout seasons.

3. Alabama’s New Era: Kalen DeBoer Feels the Heat

Timestamps: 22:10–35:02

• Focus shifts to Alabama's early season defeat at Florida State—its worst opening in recent memory.

• Plays DeBoer’s post-game remarks:

  • Kalen DeBoer: “I choose to believe we got a good football team… but we can’t play on our heels… last year isn’t this year and it’s going to be an uphill climb for us…” (25:21)

• Key Insight: The most difficult job in college football is following a legend—specifically, replacing Nick Saban.

  • “That job at that school with that program and those expectations is a different level. It just is.” (Jonas Knox, 28:50)

• Offers colorful context about the SEC’s football-obsessed culture, describing Alabama’s fan base as uniquely passionate and demanding.

  • Memorable Moment: Describes an Alabama fan on TV reacting to the loss by just flipping the bird without care—“that’s Alabama. That’s the way they operate.” (Jonas Knox, 27:12)

• Comparisons: Kalen DeBoer already has as many losses vs. unranked teams as Saban did in 17 years ("We got a problem. It's a problem. Okay?” 29:21). The standard is almost impossible.

4. Perspective on Tough Openers and Scheduling “Cupcakes”

Timestamps: 38:35–41:30

• Knox defends coaches who schedule easier opening games (“cupcakes”) due to the lack of preseason, drawing insight from Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham: “It’s always the one I worry about the most because you’re just not sure…”

  • Coaches now risk season momentum by scheduling hard games but the expanded playoff gives them a cushion.

• Re-asserts: Teams such as Clemson, Texas, or even Arch Manning shouldn’t be written off after a rough opener—“everybody just relax.” (Jonas Knox, 38:51)

5. Bill Belichick’s Wild College Football Debut: What to Expect?

Timestamps: 41:30–50:30

• Bill Belichick is set for his first game as head coach at North Carolina (against TCU) in a high-profile, standalone spot.

  • Jonas’s Take: The intrigue around Belichick is less about expectations and more about curiosity—the ultimate “what if?”
  • “I don't think anybody has an expectation for Belichick. Cause I don't think anybody knows what the hell this is going to look like.” (Jonas Knox, 46:29)

• Sees this as a “revenge tour” for Belichick:

  • Belichick is still frustrated with how his time in New England ended (“He’s made it a point on multiple occasions to point out all the success he had there.” 45:05)
  • Jonas predicts this is a temporary stop and sees Belichick returning to the NFL, perhaps to a rival like Miami—“If they're going to make a change… imagine Belichick going to Miami, going back to that division to see Robert Kraft twice, twice a year.” (Jonas Knox, 47:54)

• Compares the Belichick intrigue to Deion Sanders’s first year at Colorado—no one really knows whether it’ll work, but everyone’s watching.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the expanded playoff culture:
  “A loss isn’t the end of the world. It’s not the end of the road. It’s not the end of your career. It’s why people loved Manny Pacquiao over Floyd Mayweather… Pacquiao had balls.” —Jonas Knox (08:31)

• On Arch Manning expectations:
  “My expectations were a little different, but I don’t know what people thought they were going to get from a guy who has two starts in his career, who’s going on the road against the defending national champions…” —Jonas Knox (11:47)
  “Who wrote the first one? We got two pages in and everybody was like, ‘Oh, this is the greatest novel I’ve ever seen.’ ” —Jonas Knox (14:55)

• On Alabama's fanbase:
  “That fanbase has a certain level of expectation… That certain level of expectation is because of Nick Saban. He’s the greatest to ever do it. And Kalen DeBoer has taken over a near impossible job…” —Jonas Knox (28:30)

• On taking over for legends:
  “Whatever Kalen DeBoer does, short of Nick Saban, is not going to be good enough. He took on an impossible task. He’s expected to take over and replace the greatest ever do it.” —Jonas Knox (31:30)

• On Bill Belichick’s new gig:
  “We are going to get later on tonight the debut of Bill Belichick, the college football coach. And I cannot wait […] I don’t think anybody has an expectation for Belichick. Cause I don’t think anybody knows what the hell this is going to look like.” —Jonas Knox (41:48, 46:29)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Expanded College Football Playoff discussion: 03:44–11:25
• Arch Manning struggles and media’s role: 11:25–18:12
• Kalen DeBoer/Alabama’s loss and SEC expectations: 22:10–35:02
• Joking about early season “cupcake” scheduling and first-week struggles: 38:35–41:30
• Preview/Commentary: Bill Belichick’s UNC debut: 41:30–50:30

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Tone Highlights

• Jonas Knox brings a blend of sharp analysis, comedic flair, and frank realism characteristic of “The Herd,” especially in his willingness to push back against mainstream narratives and overreactions.
• Uses playful irreverence ("Did you watch this weekend? It was awesome... There were people trying to figure out whether or not Ryan Day had a nipple piercing...") and self-effacing sports-lifer humor ("I'm a degenerate. Proud of it.") to keep even critical points light and engaging.

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Summary

Jonas Knox, subbing in for Colin Cowherd, delivers a fast-paced review of college football’s opening weekend, focusing on the bigger picture behind headline wins, losses, and overreactions. He defends ambitious scheduling and the new playoff format, urges patience with young quarterbacks like Arch Manning, and unpacks the unreasonable expectations placed on Alabama’s new coach. He closes with a look at Bill Belichick’s surprise foray into the college world, treating it as the most intriguing experiment of this year’s football cycle. Throughout, Knox injects humor, real-world context, and memorable stories, making the episode as entertaining for diehards as it is instructive for casual fans.

Transcript

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Thanks for listening to the Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports radio and noon to 3 Eastern, 9am to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the [e-mail] or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Thanks for listening to the Herd podcast.

[Jonas Knox]

You know, there's a lot of things that people complain about in the world of sports, but one thing, as it turns out is going to be coming a little bit more valuable as the season goes on. We'll get into that for you coming up here in just a couple of moments from now. Jonas Knox in for Colin here on the Herd here on Fox Sports Radio. You can find this show on the iHeartRadio app. You can also find us on hundreds of affiliates all across the country as we take you all the way up until 3pm Eastern Time, noon Pacific. And I was thinking about this as we are still in the midst of the college football Labor Day weekend extravaganza where you've got like 700 games over a four day span or whatever to five day span. And that's not to be disrespectful to Week Zero. All right, a lot of respect for Week Zero. That still counts. I don't know why it's called Week zero. It's kind of odd. But we've got this giant college football weekend and I was thinking about this. Thank God for the expanded College Football Playoff because man, there's a lot of teams out there that are like, you know what, we don't get a preseason kind of ran into a little bit of a difficult situation. At least we're going to have some time to sort through these things. And you're looking back at last year and you go, man, Ohio State won a national championship. If you would have told them on the field as Michigan is celebrating at the Horseshoe in Columbus that hey guys, don't worry about it. You're going to win a national championship. People probably wouldn't have believed you. They probably wouldn't have cared. But the expanded College Football Playoff has given teams an opportunity to maybe not be so punished for a loss. And God forbid, a loss, when you go into a difficult situation like some of these teams went into this weekend, whether it's Texas going to the Horseshoe and taking on the defending national champions, whether it's Notre Dame going to Miami and taking on the Hurricanes, mean Brian Kelly credit to lsu, but do you really think, looking at that game now, do you think Clemson, when it's all said and done, is going to be a forgotten team in the College Football Playoff? Who knows? Maybe they melt down. Maybe Kate Klubnick suffers an unfortunate injury. Like, who knows? But the point is you've now got the opportunity to make up for your O that you lose. If you have the balls to take on somebody early in the season, that would be a difficult matchup. This used to happen in boxing all the time. Fighters would protect their O because it was looked at as like this ne. Oh, man, listen, if you are undefeated, it meant. And then all of a sudden the UFC came around and we're like, yeah, whatever, Things happen. Got caught in a choke, got clipped, Got hit behind the ear. Yeah, what happened? You know, listen, this, that's the way this stuff goes. And you now start looking back and going, who are the greatest fighters of all time? George St. Pierre's in the conversation. Losses. Everybody loved Conor McGregor. Lot of losses. Daniel Cormier, losses. Jon Jones has got one by technical. But it's like, you look at it, you go, yeah, a loss isn't the end of the world. It's not the end of the road. It's not the end of your career. It's why people loved Manny Pacquiao, maybe over Floyd Mayweather. Floyd Mayweather, undefeated, great career. Manny Pacquiao had balls, took chances, took fights he probably didn't need to take. Took dangerous fights, fought in a dangerous style because he wasn't so fixated on keeping his perfect record. And college football has now given teams an opportunity to do that. Like, he got some people that were looking at it going. Yeah, but if you expand the College Football Playoff, then you know it's going to diminish some of the impact of some of these games. No, it's not. No, it's not. To take away from the entertainment value. Did you watch this weekend? It was awesome. It was great to have college football back. And I got news for You. The quality of games weren't even that great. Ohio State, Texas wasn't that great of a game. You want to know how good of a game Ohio State Texas was? There were people trying to figure out whether or not Ryan Day had a nipple piercing. That's how. That's. That's the kind of. Kind of quality game we were talking about here. But it didn't matter. It was the atmosphere. It was finally back. People were starved for it, and in a lot of ways, it delivered. You did see sloppy games, but the atmosphere was there. And more than that, you saw teams take chances. Teams look at this as an opportunity to make a statement. But even if you come up short, you're not going to be punished unfairly to where it would have happened in years past. And as I mentioned, open up. Look, these guys don't get preseason games. That's why it looks like this. That's why the first game of the year in Dublin was awful. In the first half, turnovers, rain, great. It's like sloppy, sloppy sl. It's going to happen. So when you look at college football and you look at the landscape of college football, I know there may be some people who don't like the expanded playoff. They don't like the fact that we've got so many teams. Dude, it's going to save seasons and give teams an opportunity to make up for, God forbid, suffering a loss. It's no longer boxing. You're not going to be punished or. Or judge differently. If you suffer a loss, especially early in the season, you're going to have an opportunity. And the expanded playoffs is giving these teams an opportunity they would have never have had in years past. At the Jonas Knox on X is where you can find us. By the way, you can follow along on Instagram as well, too. At Jonas Knox show on Instagram is where you can find us. All right, so now, speaking of the college football weekend. All right, let's go back to Columbus and no, we're not talking about Ryan Day's nipple piercing. We're not. We're not getting into that. Some people have said that's a fake photo. It looked like a ball. It didn't even look like a hoop. It looked like a bar, which, look, you know, guys getting after it a little bit. Maybe he polishes his beard, maybe he doesn't. You know, the great Petros Papadicas was the first to point that out. I'm not here to judge. I've got. I've made awful decisions. I've had piercings. I Got dumb tattoos. I'm not here to judge. Ryan Day wants to go get his nipple, Pierce. Go get his nipple, Pierce. But maybe it was a fake photo, maybe it wasn't. The other story to come out of that game, outside of whether or not Ryan Day hit up a piercing shop in Columbus and got his breast stabbed by a guy with 35,000 tattoos. The arch Manning reaction. Now, to be fair, let's give the man an opportunity to talk. Let's listen to Arch Manning. Here he was following the difficulty performance and difficult game and difficult setting he was in in Columbus.

[Arch Manning]

Yeah, it didn't start fast enough. Took a whole half for us to kind of even get the ball down the field. So that starts with me, get back to square one and get back Monday and go prepare for San Jose State. Yeah, Ultimately not good enough. Obviously you don't want to start off the season. 01. They're a good team, but I thought we beat ourselves a lot, and that starts with me, and I got to play better for us to win. Can't wait till the second half to kind of get things going.

[Jonas Knox]

All right, that was Arch Manning. I don't know who did this. I don't know who's responsible for this. And look, I'm not trying to blame other people in the industry or in media, all right? I'm just pointing out the fact that I was not one of these people. I felt like I had a more rational understanding of what the expectation should be. My expectations were a little different, but I don't know what people thought they were going to get from a guy who has two starts in his career, who's going on the road against the defending national champions at their house in front of a hundred plus thousand people in his third start in week one, when, as I mentioned, things are going to be a little sloppy, not just for Arch Manning, but for a lot of teams in college football, because, as I mentioned, you don't get a preseason. And I'm seeing like this referendum on Arch Manning. Oh, my God. The. The Heisman odds have dipped. The. The Heisman odds have dipped. Okay, you want to talk about some of the other things that you could gamble on throughout the course of time? All right, anybody else want to talk about. You want to talk about the fact that people were betting on where was the next place a sex toy was going to be thrown on the court at a WNBA game? Okay, Like. And that got more action than a futures bet on who was going to win the WNBA championship. You can bet on a lot of things all right? So let's take that with a grain of salt. And that's not to insult my friends in the gambling industry. I'm a degenerate. Proud of it. Okay? But let's not look at it. Go. Oh, my God. The. The Heisman odds. Who. Who set the odds? Who perpetuated this story? Who's the one that was pushing Arch Manning out there to be the next big thing on two starts? And I got news for you. Maybe he turns things around, maybe against San Jose State or some of these other schools, he's going to find his rhythm. He looked a little better in the second half, but yeah, he's going to struggle. My guess would be a lot of quarterbacks would struggle in that environment against that team. And credit to Matt Patricia, the defensive coordinator for Ohio State. But this idea that all, like, all. Yep. The book is written on Arch Manning. Really? Who wrote the first one? We got two pages in and everybody was like, oh, this is the greatest novel I've ever seen. You're two pages in. He started two games. Who pushed that out there? I didn't. Cuz it doesn't make sense. We've seen this when it comes to college football in the past. Nobody was talking about Johnny Manziel. Nobody was talking about Johnny Manziel. I can remember the one guy, there was one guy who was trying to tell people about Johnny Manziel and he kept calling him Johnny Football. I'm like, dude, John Frickey, former Fox Sports radio host, I remember working with Frickey and I remember him saying, Johnny Football. Got to watch out for Johnny Football. Nobody else was talking about Johnny Manziel. You couldn't even get an interview with the guy. I tried Texas A and M said, no, he's a freshman. We don't let freshmen do interviews. The point is RG3 being a Heisman. Nobody had RG3 winning the Heisman. And then he lit everything up. The first week of the season, everyone's like, oh, that guy might be a contender, but this idea that going into the season off two starts, oh, he's the Heisman favorite. He's this, he's that. He's a first off. I'm not gonna say it's unfair to him. His last name is Manning. We know that comes with the territory. But who pushed this notion out there? It was unrealistic, the entire idea that Arch Manning was gonna be out there and he was gonna light up Ohio State. And they got. They got problem, dude, it's the first week, it's his third start and that's Ohio State. This doesn't mean that all of a sudden he's a bust. It doesn't mean that, you know, Archman, no, it's gonna take some time. And maybe he wasn't as good as everybody built him up to be yet. But whose fault is that? Arch Manning, it's not his fault. His granddad's talking about, well, he wants to stay in school. He wants to say in this, people are talking about, well, you know, the Saints are trying to take form or tank form. And Arch Manning's like, I look, I don't know where anybody's getting this from. Like, I haven't made any decisions like what is happening here. So for everybody out there who all of a sudden is, has decided on what their opinion of Arch Manning is after one game, maybe we should revisit your opinion before that, after he started two games to get a better understanding as to how realistic the idea of what you thought was going to happen really was. Jonas Knox in for calling here on the Herd on Fox Sports Radio, by the way, brought to you by Rocket Mortgage, the home you've worked so hard for is ready to work hard for you with a home equity loan from Rocket Mortgage. To learn how you can turn your home's equity into cash, visit RocketMortgage.com today. Rocket Mortgage, LLC, licensed in 50 states. NML lsconsumeraccess.org number 3030. All right, so we are going to have some fun here on the Herd as we again take you all the way up until noon Pacific Time, 3 Eastern Time. We will have the Herdline news, all sorts of shenanigans. College football's back. We got a big debut coming up later on tonight. All of that is yours here on this three hour extravaganza. Up next, though, the shade has already started. Somebody already throwing shade and they didn't even need to like outsource anybody for this idea. They just stayed local in the world of sports. Find out who that is next. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeartRadio app.

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[Jonas Knox]

So somebody in the world of football already feeling the heat. Already feeling the heat. We'll explain who that is coming up here in just a couple of moments from now. Jonas Knox in for Colin Cowherd here on the Herd on Fox Sports Radio. You can always find this show on the iHeartRadio app. You can always find us on hundreds of affiliates all across the country and wherever you you are making us a part of your Labor Day Monday. We appreciate you doing so as we take you all the way up until 3 o' clock Eastern Time, noon Pacific. By the way, I do a show during the week. If you're not familiar with Levar Arrington and Brady Quinn called two Pros and a Cup of Joe, which you can hear on these Fox sports radio affiliates. 6 to 9am Eastern Time, 3 to 6am Pacific Time. You can also catch me on Saturdays here on fox Sports Radio, 2 to 4pm Eastern Time, 11am to 1pm Pacific Time. And I bring up Saturday because this past Saturday, you know, doing a show, the Ohio State Texas game is going on and I'm watching the reaction to Arch Manning struggles and then just kind of seeing maybe the overreaction to some things throughout college football. I was making this point earlier. I said, look, I mean, I like the fact that the College Football Playoff gives teams an opportunity to suffer a loss, to struggle a little bit early on. I like that because it allows you to go through those difficulties and still not be punished so much that you can't play for something bigger right this isn't like boxing where you would be punished if you lost your perfect record. All right? They're more like the UFC where like, hey, you got a couple of losses, whatever. If you're next in line for a title shot, you're getting a title shot. Like, look, whoever's next in line, you got to do the work. But whoever's next in line, you're going to get your opportunity. The college football playoffs allow teams to do that. So you could lose early on in the season, you could be a Clemson and lose and everything's going to be fine. You could be a Notre Dame and lose to Miami and everything's going to be fine. Christ. Notre Dame lost last year to Northern Illinois and still figured out a way to get in. Like you can be in Ohio State and lose to Michigan and you're still gonna have an opportunity. And then there's Alabama and then there's Kaylin DeBoer and take it over for Dick Saban and eh, you open up this year, you take on Florida State who won two games a year ago and you just get annihilated at the line of scrimmage. Which just didn't happen when Nick Saban was the coach at Alabama. Right. It just looked a little bit different. And so they go into Tallahassee and get stomped out. And all of a sudden Kaylin Deborah is feeling the heat. And he spoke about the performance of Alabama following the loss to Florida State.

[Caleb DeBoer]

I choose to believe we got a good football team, but you know, we can't play on our heels. Like we're not going to be what we think we can be what we want to be if that's the case. And so again that falls on everyone. Don't just put the point, the finger at the players, you know, gave the, I know the both sides of the ball. I mean you kind of know what you're going to see but going into the game but you know, with new coordinators, but we got to, you know, we talked in the locker room. There's, there's no excuse about what happened. We step on the football field, they step on the football field and we got to play ball, we got to play our style of ball. And you know, last year isn't this year and it's going to be an uphill climb for us, but you can't think of it in the big scope of things. You got to focus on the moment and the next moment is, is what happens tomorrow.

[Jonas Knox]

That's Calen DeBoer, the Alabama head coach following the loss to Florida State. All of that makes sense. And all of that is the probably the right outlook to have, especially after losing that. And as I mentioned earlier, look, these are difficult games, especially if you go on the road. If you go on the road in a difficult environment early on, it's what makes the LSU win so impressive. But if you go on the road early on, I don't care what Florida State was last year. They're, they're not a two win team. Like, I don't see Florida State winning one more game the rest of the year. That's a difficult place. Everybody's fired up. Fans have been licking the lid in the parking lot for hours at that point. Probably stayed up from the night before. But that's a, that's a fiery environment. So I look at that, I go, look, man. Yeah, it's a, it's a difficult loss. I get it. But you can bounce back, much like Texas, you can bounce back, but it's Alabama. And that's the problem. And that's the issue. And that's why there are differences here. It's what makes college football great. To where I'm not condoning poisoning a tree. That's been there for 200 years, okay? But that happened and it happens in college football. Did anybody see the Alabama fan who went viral? Somebody zoomed in on an Alabama fan as they were getting stomped out by Florida State and the guy just literally threw up a middle finger. He knew he was on camera, he knew it was in the stadium. He was, he was your typical Alabama fan. Polo shirt, a slouch hat with the, with the bill curved so much that you could barely see his eyes. Camera pops up on him and he just throws him the bird. Couldn't even care less. That's Alabama. That's, that's the way they operate. As somebody who worked and spent time in SEC country doing radio back in the day, somebody who's been to Alabama, that fan base has a certain level of expectation. And that certain level of expectation is because of Nick Saban. He's the greatest ever do it. And Kaylin DeBoer has taken over a near impossible job because to be the guy after Nick Saban is a real pain in the. It just is like that. That's a difficult task to have to take over that job. And that's why when Caleb DeBoer took the job was like, I get it, he's getting paid, but that's a lot to ask. Just to give you an idea, the level of success that Nick Saban had at Alabama, just to give you an idea, Kaylin DeBoer, already in his time at Alabama, has four losses versus unranked teams. Nick Saban had four losses versus unranked teams in 17 years. Like, we got a problem. It's a problem. Okay? There's already people calling for Kaylin divorce job. All right? There's already. The, the fans are already out. They. They are already out in full force. There's gotta be some changes here. The things have got. It would, you know, we gotta. Somebody's gotta do something. This is unacceptable. And Alabama's probably gonna turn out to be a pretty good team. And look, because of the expanded college Football playoff, maybe Alabama's gonna bounce back. Maybe they'll go on a run in the sec. Maybe everything's gonna be fine. Or Alabama fans are finally realizing, yeah, that's not Nick Saban. And it doesn't mean that Kaylin Devore is not a good coach. He did great things at Washington. It doesn't mean he's not a good coach. He is. But that job at that school with that program and those expectations is a different level. It just is. I was born and raised in Southern California. Now some people call it the 805, right? But I was born and raised in Thousand Oaks, California. I liked college football growing up. I was a fan of college football, obviously. You know, the great Miami teams back in the day. I like college football, of course, the traditions, all that stuff. But I didn't get college football. I liked it, but I didn't totally get it until I started doing radio in the south. And I realized, oh, God, it's just different here. It really is. And that's not to dis. Diminish what USC did with Matt Leinert and Reggie Bush and those guys and Pete Carroll. That's not to diminish them. But even then, at the height of USC and the dominant program that they had, even then, some of the great players and greatest teams we've ever seen, it's not even close to what it is in the south during college football season. It isn't even, not even a fraction. And we're talking about like mid tier SEC teams like South Carolina when I was there and Steve Spurrier was the coach, they were okay. They weren't competing for a national championship. That wasn't happening, but they were okay. Fan base is nuts. What do you think Alabama's like? Alabama then. And that was before Nick Saban put it, put together this legendary run in Tuscaloosa. That was even then. That fan base was crazy. Like they, they live and breathe and die. College football, that's all they care about. So while Kaylin DeBoer is a very good coach who can withstand a lot of the heat and other places in Tuscaloosa, that's a tall task. That's a really tall task. Nebraska, great program, right? They couldn't wait to get rid of Bo Pelini. And Bo Pelini was winning nine games a year constantly. Not good enough. Not good enough. See ya. Okay, how's that going? I mean, Matt Rule, maybe he has him back to prominence, maybe he can get him there, but that wasn't good enough. And whatever Kaylin DeBoer does, short of Nick Saban is not going to be good enough. He took on an impossible task. He's expected to take over and replace the greatest ever do it. And on top of that, in a place that is obsessed with that program, obsessed. They care about football in the south more than you care about your kids. They are obsessed. And so whatever Kaylin DeBoer says after the game and maybe they'll bounce back and maybe they'll respond and maybe they'll go on a heater, there's still going to be majority of Alabama fans that are like, yeah, but he's not Saban. And I got news for you, he's never going to be Saban. He's going to feel the heat because he took on the impossible task of replacing the greatest ever do it. And more often than not, that never ends well. Hejonasnox onasknoxshow on Instagram is where you can follow along as we are in for the herd here on Fox Sports Radio. By the way, we are brought to you by Rocket Mortgage. The home you've worked so hard for is ready to work hard for you with a home equity loan from Rocket Mortgage. To learn how you can turn your home's equity into cash, visit RocketMortgage.com today. Rocket Mortgage LLC licensed in 50 states. NMLSConsumeraccess.org to 3030. All right, so the proof is in the numbers. Okay? 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[Jonas Knox]

It's a herd here on FOX Sports Radio. Jonas Knox in for calling. You can find this show on the iHeartRadio app. You can find us on hundreds of affiliates all across the country. Wherever you are, making us a part of your Labor Day. We appreciate you doing so. Now. I am normally on the air during the week, Monday through Friday, 6 to 9am Eastern Time, 3 to 6am Pacific Time with Levar Arrington and Brady Quinn. It's called Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. This is always a very interesting and bizarre world to live in. Looking around and there's actually daylight out, cars on the road, you know, not, not anybody wandering the streets with paraphernalia like spoons with burn marks on the bottom and other things around the the mean streets of Sherman Oaks, California. Always a different world when there's actually a light around than driving in at 2 in the morning. Always a different world. But we, we are having a good time here on this Labor Day Monday. Lot of college football to discuss. And my point on the college football weekend is it used to be back in the day where and I never, I never judged these two. I never did. If Nick Saban or one of these other schools scheduled a quote unquote cupcake early on, I never complained or never judged because I could understand why would take that approach. Because with no preseason, with no, you got to get yourself going. So the idea of opening up in a difficult place on the road is a lot to ask for. We had a chance. We talked with Kenny Dillingham a couple of weeks ago and just kind of asked him like, hey, man, with no preseason game because there's a lot of people like, well, you know, the NFL preseason, do we really need it? Et cetera, et cetera. I said, look, in college football, you don't get a preseason that's Kenny Dillingham. Like, hey, if you look with no preseason, how do you feel about the first week of the year? And he goes, it's always the one I worry about the most because you're just not sure, like you're dealing with, you know, 18, 19, 20, 21. Well, now it's college football with the portal, like 35 year old kids. It's like now, now, I mean that part of its change. But the point is like when these teams do schedule really difficult matchups, I'm never overly judgy on how that goes. Like Brian Kelly and LSU had been hearing for a long time about their struggles. Early on, I think they had lost five straight openers. Brian Kelly was.03 and openers. Remember last year they opened the season against USC in Vegas and Brian Kelly opens a year and they lose again and it's like, oh man. But, but ultimately LSU figured it out and they were making a run late and USC was awful. It's like things change after the first week. And for Brian Kelly and LSU to come from Death Valley, go to Death Valley and win that game the way they did, that's impressive. But Clemson, it's not going to be a knock on Clemson. Clemson will, you know, bounce back and figure it out. They've got a potential Heisman candidate and Kate Club, Nick, like, they've got an opportunity to make a run, win that conference. They're going to be fine. Texas, Ohio State, I mean, look, yeah, it's a tough loss for Texas, but Texas will bounce. They're going to bounce back and Arch Manning struggle. It doesn't mean he's going to be, he's going to struggle this much the entire year. Just maybe he wasn't exactly what everybody presented him to be, but that wasn't his fault. Whoever's, whoever started that, you got to look back and go, man, why would we think that a guy coming in on two starts was going to go into Columbus and just light up the Buckeyes, who by the way, just won a national championship. So like you look at these week one debuts of these new teams and you look at how they're presented and you look at, it's like, everybody just relax. Everybody just slow down. Things are going to look a lot different. Right? Things are going to look a lot different, which is what makes this debut that much more entertaining because we are going to get later on tonight the debut of Bill Belichick, the college football coach. And I can not wait. I love this version of Bill Belichick parading around with a. Can't wait. Parading around with a rocket ship. They're doing trademarks. He's dressed up like he's the Vandy Camp's mascot. They're doing photo shoots in Nantucket. I don't know. Yeah, you do. You were there. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Anything else? Yeah, we got, like, an hour. Answer the question twice. I'm not even asking you anything, Bill. Let me speak for you, Bill, okay. Because you are now going to be taking part in the banana land that is college football. And of course, he opens up the year in prime time in a standalone opportunity. Like, listen. Like, he did many years in the NFL, and it's going to be Bill Belichick in North Carolina against tcu. And what's so fascinating about this debut for Bill Belichick is, don't worry, there's only going to be one of these because he's probably gone after this year back to the NFL. That would be my guess if I was betting right now. Bill Belichick is coaching in the NFL next year. Try to do what's best for the team. If. If North Carolina wins eight, nine games and he's successful, Belichick's gonna be back because he's got a little bit of a red about the way that he was portrayed by Robert Kraft and the New England Patriots. He's multiple times pointed out how things got sideways. How. When Robert Kraft says, oh, well, you know, my. My. My most successful risk that I took was joining was hiring Bill Belichick, who. And Belichick was like, no, it was kind of a risky job that I took. Like, he's made it a point on multiple occasions to point out all the success that he had there. Talked about when they were successful in New England and how that ties into the college football atmosphere when they were su. Successful, there were less cooks in the kitchen, so to speak, et cetera, et cetera. Like, Belichick has made it a point to let everybody know I'm still not over the way that I was represented after I left. The fact that I wasn't interviewed for more jobs other than the Falcons was preposterous. The fact that the Falcons didn't hire me because you had insecure people in the front office who didn't want to collaborate with Belichick because of the power that he might have is ridiculous. The fact that nobody else brought him in for an interview is insane. And so Belichick's like, all right, cool, I'll go coach College football. And what if he's successful? Like, what if this works? What if this one works? What if this debut for Belichick works? Like, we're talking about the Arch Manning stuff and it's like, oh, boy, what a disappointment. It's like, well, the expectations were a little bit out of whack. I mean, the Heisman odds, et cetera, et cetera. I don't think anybody really has an expectation for Belichick. I think everybody's just really intrigued by it. But it's similar to the Deion Sanders stuff when he took over Colorado. You could say whatever you want about Dion's run in Colorado, and look, they lose the opener. Some clock management issues, you know, some things that, you know, looked a little bit, a little bit odd there, but nonetheless, say whatever you want about Deion Sanders. They didn't win a conference championship. They haven't won a national championship. Here's what I do know. That program he took over was a diaper fire. Dion took him over a year after a one win season. They were having rap concerts before games. He completely changed the program. But I don't think anybody looked at Deion Sanders in Colorado and were like, God, oh boy, this is going to be this and it's going to be that. I think we were just really intrigued. I was. Same thing with Belichick. I'm fascinated to see how this is going to go. We've never seen it before. He's the greatest of all time and he's trying to do it at the college level. We've never seen him do this before, but I think this is just part of the revenge tour. This is the first stop. Eventually, he's going back to the NFL. If you were asking me to bet money on which team's gonna hire Belichick next year, I'm betting on the Dolphins. I'll take Miami. Not I like Mike McDaniel. But if, you know, if we were talking earlier about things, feels like things are going to go sideways there in Miami. If they're going to make a change, you imagine Belichick going to Miami, going back to that division to see Robert Kraft twice, twice a year. So while this is a debut for Belichick and I'm fascinated to see what it looks like, I don't think this is the end of the road for his coaching career. Like, I don't think he just goes to college and says, I'm good here. Nick Saban may or may not come back. Who knows? There's some people like, ah, you know, we we feel like he's gonna come back and, you know, maybe he won't. Like, who knows? A lot of Alabama fans would like him back in Tuscaloosa. I can't imagine he would go back there after walking away from the whole thing. Maybe he has a better understanding about. But like, I think Belichick's gonna be back. I think this is a pit stop. He's on tour. It's a revenge tour against Robert Kraft. It starts at North Carolina. But whatever expectations there were for Arch Manning or any of these other programs going into this weekend, I don't think anybody has an expectation for Belichick. Cause I don't think anybody knows what the hell this is going to look like. It's going to be odd to see Belichick on the sideline for North Carolina. Like the entire, the entire story this offseason. Like, you didn't hear anything about the football roster. All you heard about was the stuff with his girlfriend. Like all these, like, deep dives and investigative YouTube reports and all this stuff. I don't think anybody has a real idea what this is going to look like. Mike Lombardi running things behind the scenes there. Belichick on the sidelines coaching North Carolina. That's what makes this one more interesting in my mind than any other debut or presentation we've gotten this weekend. Because we're going to get to see something we never thought we'd see and we've never had the opportunity to see before. And it's Bill Belichick coaching at the college level. And it all starts tonight. But ultimately I think it ends with him back in the NFL at the Jonas Knox on X. At Jonas Knox show on Instagram is where you can find us. Alright, so coming up next here on the Herd, somebody in the NFL gets a lot of love, gets celebrated a lot. But if you think about it, there's not a lot that separates him from one of the worst in the league. I'll tell you who that is. Next.

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