Colin Cowherd Podcast - Eagles Best In The NFC? Bench Kirk Cousins? Aaron Rodgers Looks Washed, Ohio State STUNNED By Michigan

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Title: Colin Cowherd Podcast - Eagles Best In The NFC? Bench Kirk Cousins? Aaron Rodgers Looks Washed, Ohio State STUNNED By Michigan
Host: iHeartPodcasts and The Volume
Release Date: December 2, 2024
Duration: Approx. 86 minutes

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1. Introduction to the Episode

In this episode of The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Colin Cowherd engages in an in-depth discussion with former Philadelphia Eagles scout Doug Gottlieb. They delve into the current NFL landscape, analyzing team performances, player trajectories, and organizational dynamics. The conversation spans multiple topics, including the dominance of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC, potential quarterback movements, Aaron Rodgers' declining form, and the shocking upset of Ohio State by Michigan in college football.

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2. NFC Dominance: Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions

Colin and Doug open the discussion by evaluating the top teams in the NFC, with a particular focus on the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions.

• Philadelphia Eagles' Resurgence:

  • Colin: "I may take Philadelphia as the NFC's top team. What say you?" ([02:55])
  • Doug: Highlights the Eagle's strong defensive additions and the impact of players like Jalen Hurts and Zach Bond: "We could make this guy a middle linebacker and I think he's going to be an all-pro this season." ([04:42])

• Detroit Lions' Performance:

  • Colin: Emphasizes Detroit's well-run organization and defensive prowess: "Detroit is the number one in the NFC, followed by Philly." ([07:53])

The duo concludes that Philadelphia and Detroit are leading the NFC, with Minnesota and Green Bay as strong wild card contenders.

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3. AFC Analysis: Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, and Bengals

Shifting focus to the AFC, Colin and Doug assess the conference's competitive landscape.

• Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills:

  • Colin: "Kansas City's the 1 seed, Buffalo 2." ([07:53])
  • Doug: Acknowledges Chiefs' remarkable record but points out their flaws: "They're pretty flawed." ([06:15])

• Baltimore Ravens:

  • Doug: Critiques John Harbaugh’s strategy and the Ravens' inconsistent performance: "There is no disputing it at this time. They also had a weapon in their back pocket." ([06:41])

• Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow:

  • Colin: Questions the Bengals' long-term viability: "You're just basically offloading him and you know your owner... what are really his options?" ([29:39])
  • Doug: Discusses the Bengals' dysfunctional front office and defensive issues: "Cincinnati's defense is atrocious." ([07:42])

The AFC is portrayed as quarterback-driven but fraught with organizational issues that could impact playoff outcomes.

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4. Aaron Rodgers' Declining Performance

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to evaluating Aaron Rodgers' recent struggles.

• Performance Breakdown:

  • Doug: "He was 8 of 14 from 40 plus coming into the game. Then he missed two more." ([06:41])
  • Colin: Expresses skepticism about Rodgers' future: "It's almost a legacy. Affecting, like year, like, he has aged much faster than I thought." ([40:28])

• Comparisons to Other QBs:

  • Doug: Compares Rodgers to legends like Drew Brees and Peyton Manning, noting deterioration in his fundamentals: "He doesn't know where his receivers are going." ([48:28])
  • Colin: Draws parallels between Rodgers and Dan Marino, emphasizing decline due to aging: "He got smoked on the final throw today, destroyed." ([43:42])

The conversation underscores concerns about Rodgers' accuracy and physical decline, suggesting a potential end to his illustrious career.

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5. Sam Darnold and the Cincinnati Bengals' Quarterback Situation

The discussion shifts to Sam Darnold's resurgence and the implications for the Bengals' quarterback position.

• Darnold's Improvement:

  • Doug: "Sam Darnold has really done what they hoped he would be." ([06:15])
  • Colin: Highlights Darnold's recent performance: "Sam Darnold now once again had a winning drive." ([18:58])

• Future Prospects:

  • Doug: Advocates for keeping Darnold over Kirk Cousins: "I would rather have Sam Darnold every day of the week." ([22:35])
  • Colin: Discusses the potential for Darnold to become a key player: "He has the best season of his career." ([24:24])

The partners express optimism about Darnold's impact, suggesting he may become the primary quarterback for the Bengals moving forward.

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6. Chicago Bears' Organizational Challenges

Colin and Doug critically examine the Chicago Bears' management and coaching decisions.

• Front Office Dysfunction:

  • Colin: Points out the Bears' ownership issues and coach Eber Fluss' shortcomings: "The Bears are looking at being one of the more embarrassing franchises in the league." ([58:44])
  • Doug: Emphasizes the challenges posed by the McCaskey family's outdated management style: "It's one of the more embarrassing three or four game stretches that I ever remember." ([59:16])

• Impact on Team Performance:

  • Colin: Highlights recent poor performances and strategic failures: "It's the worst situational coaching I've ever seen in my life." ([59:04])
  • Doug: Discusses the lack of effective leadership and poor player utilization: "This is one of the more embarrassing franchises in the league." ([59:16])

The Bears are portrayed as a team struggling with leadership and organizational inefficiencies, leading to subpar performances.

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7. College Football Upset: Ohio State vs. Michigan

A pivotal moment in the episode is the analysis of Michigan's stunning victory over Ohio State.

• Game Breakdown:

  • Colin: Describes the upset as the biggest in the rivalry's history: "It's got to be the biggest upset." ([61:18])
  • Doug: Critiques Ohio State's coaching and game strategy: "Ryan Day... falls short against Michigan." ([64:44])

• Ryan Day's Coaching:

  • Colin: Voices disappointment in Ryan Day’s inability to maintain consistency: "Ryan Day doesn't have a formula that works." ([67:31])
  • Doug: Highlights Day’s failure to adapt and compete against top teams: "They're regressing four straight times in Michigan." ([69:11])

The discussion underscores the significance of the upset, attributing Ohio State's loss to ineffective coaching and strategic missteps.

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8. USC and Notre Dame Football Situations

Colin and Doug explore the challenges faced by USC and Notre Dame in the current college football landscape.

• USC's Struggles:

  • Colin: Discusses Lincoln Riley's predicament at USC: "They can't buy him out. They're not going to do it." ([75:20])
  • Doug: Analyzes USC's underperformance despite high-profile recruits: "They are regressing four straight times." ([73:55])

• Notre Dame's Coaching:

  • Colin: Considers potential NFL interest in Marcus Freeman: "The Chicago Bears are interested in Marcus Freeman." ([75:41])
  • Doug: Questions Notre Dame's ability to retain talent and compete: "They don't have enough good offensive talent." ([77:00])

The segment highlights the difficulties these prestigious programs face in maintaining competitive edge amidst changing recruiting dynamics and coaching challenges.

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9. Concluding Thoughts

Colin and Doug wrap up the episode by reiterating the main points:

• NFL Outlook: The NFC, led by the Eagles and Lions, appears strong, while the AFC grapples with quarterback issues and organizational flaws.
• Player Futures: Concerns loom over Aaron Rodgers' decline and the potential rise of Sam Darnold.
• College Football Dynamics: Ohio State's unexpected loss signifies deeper coaching and strategic problems, with USC and Notre Dame also facing significant hurdles.

The conversation paints a comprehensive picture of the current state of both the NFL and college football, providing listeners with nuanced insights and forward-looking perspectives on key teams and players.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Colin Cowherd ([02:55]): "I may take Philadelphia as the NFC's top team. What say you?"
• Doug Gottlieb ([04:42]): "We could make this guy a middle linebacker and I think he's going to be an all-pro this season."
• Colin Cowherd ([07:53]): "Kansas City's the 1 seed, Buffalo 2."
• Doug Gottlieb ([06:15]): "There's no disputing it at this time. They also had a weapon in their back pocket."
• Colin Cowherd ([18:58]): "Sam Darnold now once again had a winning drive."
• Doug Gottlieb ([48:28]): "He doesn't know where his receivers are going."
• Colin Cowherd ([43:42]): "He got smoked on the final throw today, destroyed."
• Doug Gottlieb ([59:16]): "This is one of the more embarrassing franchises in the league."
• Colin Cowherd ([61:18]): "It's got to be the biggest upset."
• Doug Gottlieb ([64:44]): "Ryan Day doesn't have a formula that works."
• Colin Cowherd ([75:20]): "Leave Notre Dame making $10 million a year to the Bears?"
• Doug Gottlieb ([77:00]): "They don't have enough good offensive talent."

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the critical discussions and insights from the episode, providing a clear and detailed overview for those who haven't listened to the podcast.

Transcript

[Doug Gottlieb]

This is Doug Gottlieb from All Ball with Doug Gottlieb. Listen, I'm gonna get serious for a minute. The hate in our country is getting out of control. In fact, it's sadly at an all time high. But it's gonna take all of us to stop it. I mean, we're all on the same team in this country. So let's take a break from our hate so our team can regroup. We need to take a time out against hate. Visit standuptoallhate.org to help and join me in calling for timeout against hate by following at what's up with Hate or posting the Blue Square emoji.

[Colin Cowherd]

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[Jon Stewart]

Card Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Ears Edition Podcast Join late night legend Jon Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews and more. Now this is a second term we can all get behind. Listen to the Daily Show Ears edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Colin Cowherd]

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[Doug Gottlieb]

Yeah, when I, when I see a headline of Jamal Adams signing with the Detroit Lions, you know they got, you know, they got issues with injuries. I think the star of the day and he's gone a little under the radar because Saquon looks, I don't know, like Walter Payton right now is Vic Fangio. I mean they wanted him two years ago and that Jonathan Gannon, he got the job last minute and it threw Howie and they're hiring off and he ends up in Miami early in the season. It didn't quite look right. Right. I would say this last month. I mean the young dbs, Mitchell, their first round pick is a star. Cooper dejean looks fantastic. Immediate plug and play slot receiver or slot corner which is now a starter in the NFL. Right. Because every team. And then how about this Zach Bond guy? He looks like Brian Urlacher out there running around. He. You cannot watch an Eagles game all season long without him making, I would say over under four impact, impact place. And this was a one year player who didn't sign for much. That was an outside pass rusher, special teams guy. And it's been well reported and Fangio looked said, I think we can make this guy a middle linebacker and I think he's going to be an all pro this season. And obviously the pass rush, I mean Jalen Carter has really kind of done what they hoped he would be. So it's to me it's Fangio and the talent on defense showing.

[Colin Cowherd]

I feel like the AFC is all about the quarterbacks and the NFC is all about the front offices. Green Bay, I mean they haven't missed on a tight end or a wide receiver pick or Jordan Love, Detroit, Philadelphia, I feel like those three teams and I like Matt LaFleur and I like Jalen Hurts and Jared Goff and Matt LaFleur. I think the NFC is ruled by front offices because you don't have as much star power at quarterback. I think Green Bay is a year away, but they hammered Miami, I think was embarrassing. I look at Philadelphia and you know what's funny about Baltimore? I mean, the league, they're league leaders in penalty yards and flags, you know, missed field goals. I like John Harbaugh. I love Jim Harbaugh. It's not that they're. They just don't quite feel. You know what I mean? I kind of. When I watch Baltimore the other week in a game they played, Bill Belichick was ripping them on, like the espn, like the Manning cast. He's like, okay, that's Philadelphia. That's Philadelphia. And you could tell he was kind of like. As if he kind of was taking a shot at John Harbaugh. Like, this team's got a ton of talent. They're never buttoned up. Is that fair? And again, it's not that I don't like John Harbaugh, but, man, penalties, they just sometimes leave. They leave points and plays on the sideline.

[Doug Gottlieb]

I like the Ravens a lot coming into this game because I thought they matched up well against the Eagles. I'm like, well, their run defense is awesome. And offensively, how can you corral Lamar in this offense? And it actually flipped. They broke the run defense with Saquon as the game went on, like you said with the fighter. I think when you look at Harbaugh, like I would say in the Lamar era, him and Lamar have been disappointing in big spots.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yes, yes.

[Doug Gottlieb]

There's. There's no disputing it at this time. They also had a weapon in their back pocket. Yeah, like when I was a kid, if you had a guy that could hit 40, 50 home runs in the early 90s, it was a big curveball like not many teams had in golf. If you could hit a 300 plus yards 25 years ago, Justin Tucker is now shot. Yeah, I did some math during the game. He was 8 of 14 from 40 plus coming into the game. Then he missed two more. So you're talking about a guy that felt like he was automatic from anywhere from 45 to 55 yards, who now is a 50%, you know, chance of missing the field goal. And let's face it, in this game, when they lined him up to kick the field goal, did you have any faith that he was going to make it? Because I had none, which is crazy. Just two years ago, you would have Said like, that's a lockdown. So I. You look at a team now that, you know the AFC is pretty open. We'll see how Buffalo looks tonight and how they finish down the stretch. Obviously, the Chiefs have a remarkable record, but they're pretty flawed. Pittsburgh, they actually look pretty good today, But Cincinnati's defense is atrocious.

[Colin Cowherd]

Atrocious.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Harbaugh has guys you've never heard of getting pick sixes, and that's how he's been doing it his whole career. The AFC is not quite what it's been at the top, so that that benefits them. If you just get in, you got a shot.

[Colin Cowherd]

So if you look at the AFC again, we're doing this before the Bills play. Kansas City's the 1 seed, Buffalo 2, Pittsburgh 3. Ravens, 4. Excuse me, Texans, I believe 4. Then it's Ravens, Chargers, Broncos would be, as of now, the wild card teams. So I really like the top two teams, obviously, in the afc. Detroit is the number one in the nfc, followed by Philly. Seattle is the third seed. Atlanta right now is the fourth seed. And then it goes Minnesota, Green Bay, Washington. So I like the wild card teams, Minnesota and Green Bay today, more than I like Seattle and Atlanta division leaders. Atlanta is really. We'll get into that in a bit, but I kind of feel, I do feel overall, and I talked about this last week, I think the top of the NFL is really strong. If we just said Philly, Detroit, Kansas City, Buffalo, would we agree those are the four best teams in the league?

[Doug Gottlieb]

Yes.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah. And then I think 100%, and then I think we get into this space where I would. I, Minnesota, Green Bay, and Pittsburgh and Baltimore are all capable of winning a playoff game.

[Doug Gottlieb]

I actually right now like Green Bay and Pittsburgh more than I do Baltimore, because every time I'm like, I think Baltimore can win the Super Bowl. You watch today, you're like, no, they can't. What am I talking about? And Pittsburgh, you know, Russell has given them so much life on offense and defensively, on any given moment, TJ Watt can just create a touchdown. Like at the snap of a finger, it feels like Lawrence Taylor or Reggie White. And that's how many teams have that in their back pocket. Like, even Kansas City, like Chris Jones has had moments, but I view TJ Watt right now as the more dominant player. Now maybe Chris flips a switch come the playoffs and, you know, the Eagles kind of have that. It feels like with just all their playmakers on defense and without Aidan Hutchinson. You're watching Detroit, which sucks for them, usually when you play on Thursday, you get that mini buy. Well, the NFL, right, over the last four or five years has taken the two best teams that play on Thursday and put them on the following Thursday. So you just get a normal work week.

[Colin Cowherd]

Right.

[Doug Gottlieb]

So Detroit today was basically their Tuesday, which sucks, given that was crazy on Thanksgiving. How many guys were going down. It was. You kind of started feeling bad for them. Yeah, I did.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah. I want to pivot to the Steelers. Pittsburgh 44, Cincinnati 38. This defense for Cincinnati, listen, the Steelers offense had 520 yards, 8 yards of play, 28 first downs. It was one of the great games in Russell Wilson's career. There was a real moment after the game when Mike Tomlin came up and embraced Russell Wilson. And I think it's pretty redeemable. You know, we're talking about Aaron Rodgers like he still has it. Aaron's lost nine straight starts. I mean, like to Denver and Bo Nicks when they weren't even a thing yet. Russell Wilson deserves a lot of credit. He has worked harder and been more focused than Aaron Rodgers. You can say all you want about Russell Wilson, but he's a workaholic. He's totally committed to it. Sometimes he's almost hopelessly optimistic. But you know what? I. When he first got there, he thought, God, you know, it's such a kind of a working class, tough guy culture. And, you know, he's Ciara and Russell Wilson and the brand, we have to give him credit. He has acclimated well. He is fit really well. I don't know. I look at him and there's two things that he does. He can extend plays. Not like he used to, but he can extend plays. And he throws a beautiful deep ball. Jon, I'd argue that that's enough for them to win multiple playoff games.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Well, especially if they're at home, right? And being at home is something that has not been kind to them because they've been playing on the road so often, because they've been winning nine or 10 games in the regular season beside the 2020 season. So the stat when we rattle off, they haven't won a playoff game since 2016. Well, they haven't been a great regular season team for a lot of those years. And when you're playing on the road, especially in the afc, you're talking, especially the last five or six years, you're talking Kansas City every year, New England for a long time. Now Buffalo. These are very, very tough places to go play. We saw last year they went into Buffalo like no. 1. The game would have to get so weird for them to have a chance. And it kind of did. But I think the best part about football, and you see this in college and the pros, like, yeah, he does not feel like a Pittsburgh Steeler, right? The way he talks and his brand. But if you make plays and you win, no one gives a shit, right? In college, if you're not from the south and Alabama or LSU hire you and you immediately start rattling off 11, 12 win seasons and being in the semifinals in the national championship game, no one cares. But if you didn't play well, they would have turned on Russell, came right in and elevated them. And today's a good example. I mean, the game opened up with him throwing a pick six. Now it was, you know, Pickens fell, but still I went, ooh, this could get weird. Burrows hot. You know, you spot them seven. Even Tomlin, I saw, I watched a clip of his press conference. He's like, you know, impressive. We spotted them seven points before you could even blink. And they never. And listen, Cincinnati's defense is atrocious.

[Colin Cowherd]

It's atrocious.

[Doug Gottlieb]

It is really fair. I mean, Joe Burrow's having a great season and it's. They don't have a shot.

[Colin Cowherd]

I talked to a GM yesterday about, I said, if you're Joe Burrow, you're trapped. You know, we look at Caleb Williams, which we'll get to later, and you think, oh, he's trapped. But like Joe Burrow, T. Higgins may not be a great one. He's probably a 1A somewhere. He'll be the winner in this. He'll go to a really good team. Jamar Chase and Burrow are going to be in Cincinnati. Tobin, the gm. This has never been an organization that's been a deal making organization. They're the opposite of the Philadelphia Eagles. They're passive, they're not aggressive. It's a dysfunctional front office. They're not well heeled. They don't have a lot of, they don't have a lot of money. Cincinnati is the Eagles opposite. They just, they'll keep paying Marvin Lewis or Zach Taylor forever. They'll never allow dead cap coaching money. They're just different. And I, and I was looking at T. Higgins today and I'm thinking, you know what? He'd be better off ending up with a really good football team. Like, I don't know, you can name it wherever you want to go, but there's going to be a football team out there that goes, you know what? We're a receiver away. We Want to go get a grown up wide receiver? Because these days, John, people will pay for one big receiver. It used to be years ago, you know, you'd pay a receiver, you know the old term diva receiver. You'd be like, oh boy, what are we into now? T. Higgins is no problem. He'll go out and play. But I just watch Pittsburgh and for years we've always acknowledged they draft and develop well. They're great underdogs, they're tough, but they, they, they lack the creativity offensively. And Russell, between the deep ball and the movement, he gives them a little creativity. By the way, when Ben was younger and moved well, he gave them the deep ball and the ability to create. I'm not saying Russell's Big Ben in his prime, but it does look a little bit like those teams.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Well, I think Tomlin had a big problem on his hand the last couple years with the offensive coordinator. Yeah, I can't even think of the guy's name, but he, it was, it was getting pretty ugly. Remember last year he got fired in season.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

And he hired Arthur Smith and it's completely changed them. And you've watched as the season has gone on and they went to Russell, like, how did they seal the game today? They went with the Justin Fields run. So they've been able to incorporate like Justin Fields for a backup. He's probably one of the more famous backups in the league, if not the most famous. And obviously Russell, at one point, I know he was kind of injured, was also the most, by far the most famous backup he has. It takes a pretty special personality to handle that. And then it takes a good offensive coordinator because it's not like Tomlin sitting in on the quarterback meetings and the offensive install. So a lot of that is on Arthur Smith, where you see North Carolina is interested in him. Of course they are. Like, he's clearly a pretty impressive offense of mine. And anytime you have these CEO head coaches, John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll, whoever they hire, especially for the offensive side of the ball with John, Mike and Pete can make or break their season. And that Arthur Smith, you could argue him and Fangio, two of the better coordinator hires in all of major college in the NFL this off season, because how would he not be in the mix for coordinator of the year right now? What they're doing in Pittsburgh, Najee Harris, how about him? I thought he was kind of a bust. He looks fantastic this season.

[Colin Cowherd]

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[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Edition podcast. The Daily Show Podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture. You get hilarious, satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors. The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else, like extended interviews and a roundup of the weekly headlines. Listen to the Daily Show Ears edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah, we have a bunch of games we can hit on. I don't know if this is the next most interesting game I want to talk about the Bears, Seahawks, Jets, Chargers, Atlanta, a lot of college football. But Minnesota today beat Arizona 23 22, and I think most people view Kyler Murray is this superstar player and, you know, a little enigmatic, but a superstar player. But it was Sam Darnold who in the last three games is 3 0, 112 passer ratings, six touchdowns, no picks. Kyler had an egregiously bad interception and on a couple of big drives, yeah, two, one was atrocious. And Darnold now once again had a winning drive. He wasn't great. On third down, they didn't have the ball a lot, but they were hyper efficient. They only had three penalties. And I keep waiting because, you know, I love Darnold. I preferred him over Baker. I thought he was a bigger, more athletic, with a better deep ball arm. Baker better as a pure passer in the pocket with time. But I keep waiting for the shoe to drop. And I gotta be honest, today Kyler was reckless. And I watched Sam Darnold and I'm like, you know what, you brought this up last week. You think J.J. mcCarthy is better, but often injury and they go get Daniel Jones. I don't know what they do. What happens if Sam Darnold wins two playoff games, John? Because today I'm watching him and Kyler and I'm like, I trust that Darnold late in that game more than Kyler Murray. And I'm a huge Kyler Murray fan.

[Doug Gottlieb]

This is where I feel bad for the Lions. They're having the greatest season of all time for their franchise. And if they lose to the packers on Thursday, which is a fantastic Thursday night game, and the Vikings win, they will have the same record. It's. If I would have told the Minnesota ownership, the Minnesota front office, the Minnesota coaches and every Minnesota Vikings fan. It's pretty underrated. Fan base.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah, it's great fan base.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Yeah. That December 1st you would be 10 and 2 and coming in today, I think he had 21. So if he threw, he has. Sam Darwin would have 23 touchdowns. You would be 10 and two and one game behind. With the Lions leaking major oil with injuries and in prime position to win the division, which we all agree, top three teams, best division in football right now, easily. They would not believe. They would not have believed you. And this is, I don't know if you saw the story that I think Jeremy Fowler put out that you know, the Falcons, if Cousins doesn't get it together, they will look to trade him this off season. Hell, he could be benched over the next couple games. One, he's got a no trade clause. Atlanta, you're not exactly in control of this. That's a conversation for another day. But Sam Darnold to me, if I was a team and you said Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnold, oh God, Darnold. Not even factoring in money. It doesn't even 100%. And then when you factor in one guy's making $40 million and you're like, is Sam, is he getting that? But even if he did, I would rather have for if all money's equal, I will take Sam Darnold every day of the week. And again, look who likes him. Kyle loved him. And they didn't want to lose them. They just, they couldn't compete with a 10 million dollar. You know that what Minnesota gave him and look what he's done. And I stand by it because today I was watching halfway through that game you went, God, Minnesota finally coming back to earth. They're going to lose.

[Colin Cowherd]

Oh, I thought too. Listen, Arizona, by the way, if you go look at the yards, they dominated time of possession like 36 and a half minutes to 23. Marvin Harrison, seventh touchdown. They, if you watch the game up until the end, you felt like, oh yeah, this is Arizona, who by the way, totally schizophrenic. I mean Seattle, they lay an egg and then they go on the road and I'm like, oh crap, they're back.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Yeah. And when he threw that touchdown to Marvin Harrison you went, you know, maybe this is just they, they lose 25 to 10 or something. And then I fell down the stretch. It wasn't even just that final drive. Sam Darnold was really good in the second half and Minnesota's got really good coaching. I, I just don't see with a guy who's now had multiple knee surgeries who was a major project. Clearly your team with your coaching staff is just built to win. This is the nf. It's not the NBA where you're worried like the spurs have been worried about five years from now for five years. It's like the NFL. You're just worried about week by week next season. No one's tanking. Carolina's playing their balls off every week. It. No, everyone's trying. And now you're 10 and 2. Minnesota internally could be like, why couldn't we if we were to win the division, what if we were to get the one, why couldn't we win the suit? Why couldn't we get make it the Super Bowl? Right? I mean they are. And if again a lot will ride on these January games, especially because probably some of them are going to be against the packers and the Lions, who you're very comfortable playing and they're comfortable playing you. But this Sam Darnold thing, I'm not. If things keep going like they're going, I'm not just letting him walk out the door because I just drafted a guy. We see it all the time. You've been hammering this home. People pivot faster than they ever have in the NFL. You make a decision even they don't even necessarily know it's wrong. I just can't afford to let this guy walk. He's not 38. This isn't rich Gannon at the end of his career with the Raiders. 26, 27, 28 years old. I mean, a lot of guys play for 10 more seasons in the prime of their career.

[Colin Cowherd]

Quarterback. Yeah. And Sam has. I know him a little bit. First of all, very coachable. I think the year with Kyle Shanahan was huge. So his last two stops, he's gotten elite coaching. He's a very coachable guy. And, you know, I think the other thing, there was a couple of plays late in the game. It may have been the last drive or the next to last drive. And Sam was rushed and the pocket got muddy really fast and he squirreled around and he, you know, Sam was head up looking to make a throw. And I'm like, sam, eat it, eat it, don't. And he didn't. And he went through a stretch this year in the middle. He had a couple of really bad picks, but again, he didn't early. Remember, we were surprised early. Ooh, new Sam. Then he got a little. He got a little. The game got a little fast and he got. I think he's trying to make plays. He's living up to the hype. And now he's come back down to earth. He had a really bad Jacksonville road game. They were 0 for 5 in the red zone. I don't know. I watched Minnesota. And also, we have to acknowledge this. You pointed this out. Let's say this again. I talked to, I went to dinner with Steve Keim last night who now runs the football for Clutch Sports, and he said, listen, you can say what you want about Brian Flores, but their personnel, they're overachieving. Like he's doing a big job. He's going to get a job. So this may be one of these lightning in a bottle. D. Darnold has the best season of his career. Brian Flores is there before he gets hired. Sometimes it happens like you get lightning in a bottle. This is not the Chiefs. It's not going to endure for 12 years or whatever. But again, last three games for Darnold, six touchdowns, no picks, lots of movement, 112 passer rating and this is how much I've pivoted. When he gets the ball late between the coaching Sam and Justin Jefferson, I'm like, yeah, he's going to get him into, he's going to get him into field goal position. He's going to get.

[Doug Gottlieb]

I just, I think if we just put him in a category and people are going to think I'm nuts. But his physical skills, and this is why people never in the league always believed in it and wanted to work with them. It's much closer to like the Mahomes and Josh Allen in terms of the way the ball comes off his hand now. He wasn't playing well. You know Matt Rule in Carolina like I watched Matt Rule in Nebraska, can't win games. Maybe Matt rules just a little bit overrated of a coach, right? Adam Gase, I haven't heard that name in five years. I don't think he works in football anymore. So like I see this guy with Kyle Shanahan and obviously with Kevin O'Connell like his skills and his maturation as a player. Not everyone just hits the ground running. Most players cannot overcome dysfunction. Peyton Manning's an all time outlier. He could have carried any franchise and made them relevant. Tom Brady could not have.

[Colin Cowherd]

Right.

[Doug Gottlieb]

At 22, 23, 24 years old, Sam Darnold clearly could not. And now he's good. Is he like a Hall of Famer? I'm not acting like we still a long way to go in his career but he has been excellent this year. Like I'd have to really study the NFC quarterbacks but you know Jared Goff I'm sure is the lock Pro Bowler but he would have to be in the Pro bowl mix for the three NFC guys, right?

[Colin Cowherd]

Absolutely. No question. Our week 13 reaction presented by Uber Eats. Get game day deals all season long at Uber Eats. It's time to look at this weekend's tastiest matchup. Okay. The LA Chargers go on the road. This would have been a loss for the Chargers most of their history beat the Atlanta Falcons 17 to 13. The Chargers are 8 and 4. I mean it is remarkable what Harbaugh and Jesse Minter have done to the defense. It's the same damn guys. And now it's the best defense in the league. And what I loved about this game, this reminds me of Minnesota. That's why I want to go to this next. Minnesota was dominated at time of possession, few penalties, big Drives, efficiency. The chargers, Justin Herbert, 16 completions, 147 yards. They only had 187 yards total. They're on the road and yet they. First of all, four picks, the pick six up the sideline. I don't even understand what it was. It was like, AI. Somebody slowed it down. It was like. It was. That's the one where I'm like, oh my God. Kirk Cousins is washed. That, that, that is a 74 mile an hour major league fastball.

[Doug Gottlieb]

He threw bad.

[Colin Cowherd]

It was bad. And it was just like, holy shit, he has no fastball. So. But I thought, I thought my big take was it may be Michael Penic's time. You may give Kurt one more start, but this is a game the Chargers have lost my entire life. You're on the road. You don't really. Your offense just doesn't. It's getting, you know, you just don't have a lot of playmakers. We talked about this a couple weeks ago when they, I think they lost to the Ravens. We're like, they just don't enough. They need a Zay Flowers. They need a number one. They don't have playmakers. So let's, let's attack. I'll attack it from that. Your thoughts on what to do with Cousins. Are we in the Michael Penix mode now?

[Doug Gottlieb]

Yeah, I mean, I would start them next week. Like, this is. What are we doing here? The four interceptions now they, you know, Tampa won today somehow in overtime since we started recording this. So they're six and six.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Now they have lost to Atlanta twice.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yes.

[Doug Gottlieb]

They're also 6 and 6.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

And the Saints losing the Chargers today, obviously they're out of it. So it's, it's basically a two horse race. But Raheem Morris had comments at the beginning of the season when asked why his coaching staff was so large. And he said, because we're going to win. And when guys get hired off of our staff, we will have replacements already on them. It's like, Raheem, I like you and obviously you've resurrected your career. Making comments like, let's just. This league's really hard.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

You know, ask Andy Reed. Ask, you know, Jim Harbaugh's John. Like, come on, let's just take a deep breath before you start kind of pumping his chest out. And your quarterback's Kirk Cousins, who's we. We've all come around on. And then he tore his Achilles. And like you said, when that happened in real time, the pick six, it just looked like a normal out route. The Guy jumped. When I saw the replay a little later, you're right. It felt like the ball floated in the air extra long. I mean even the DB kind of had to stop and then you had to. Here's the thing though, I got it. I got a text from Daniel Jeremiah who calls the games with Matt Money Smith and he said Harbaugh's out here winning games with defensive players and cast offs that most people couldn't point out of a lineup. Hashtag coaching matters. Yeah, and this I had to immediately google that player who had the pick six who was a fifth round pick. Like they that's not Derwin James who also had the game winning pick. Yeah, but you know, some of these plays are being made by randoms. Ladd McConkey is a good young player. He is their go to wide piece. And this team is about to win 11 games. I think Jim Harbaugh, like Andy Reid and Bill, you know, Bill Belichick probably, it's hard to ever surpass the six Super Bowls. Two as an assistant and he probably ends up with another one. You know, four Super Bowls he won, was an assistant. Like these guys are all time like Lombardi levels. How many coaches can just go back and Jimmy Johnson, college, college pros never left. Jim goes, dominates college, comes to the pros, dominates, goes back to college, wins a national championship, comes back to the pros and wins it. Who could do that? Like I don't see who has that pitch. Yeah, like most guys really thrive in one. He's coming and now he's in his style. Like he has a specific way of playing his sport. And it not only translates, it immediately dominates. Yeah, like there were four interceptions against a guy that just got $100 million and made him look like a third string quarterback.

[Colin Cowherd]

Well, and also Jim does it with culture. So his fastball is culture. You know, he is what Ohio states Ryan Day isn't, which is Ryan Day. The schemes are fine, but what is Ohio State? You immediately I can remember when he was at Stanford, Harbaugh goes in as a 40 point dog to the Coliseum, beats Pete Carroll. And I mean they had like a confrontation at midfield and it was like he made. Pete was reeling. It was like what in the hell this is before they got good. And I can remember like his second year, I was talking to a friend, he was at Stanford. Stanford, he replaced, I believe Buddy Teivens. They were a mess. And I remember this because it was about the second year and Pete Carroll was still in the conference. And I said, you're going to think I'm crazy. They're the most physical team in the conference. Stanford by year two. And nobody was paying attention to him then, what he's doing to the Chargers. They are so physical. And he also. I was talking to Jordan Schultz the other day. You know, his dad's Howard Schultz, Starbucks founder.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Yeah, yeah.

[Colin Cowherd]

And I said, what's your dad's greatest strength? And he said, my dad's a really great delegator. His ego wasn't in control. He hired really good people and he delegated. And I've heard that before from really good CEOs. Harbaugh does that, like with his general manager, with Jesse, Mentor. He knows what he doesn't know and what he does know. He's relentless in attacks. You watch this Charger team. It is. I mean, the other thing, like, Brandon Staley may never get another job. I mean, he will not get another head coaching job. It's the same players. In fact, I'd argue it's worse because they don't have Keenan Allen, Mike Williams. They have no playmakers.

[Doug Gottlieb]

It's much worse. You know, by the way, on Jordan's dad, Howard, the Acquired podcast with Howard Schultz on how he built Starbucks, it's basically just him talking to these two guys from start to finish. How they. How they built Starbucks. Amazing. Listen, they are much worse. Keenan Allen just had a couple touchdowns on Thanksgiving. Still a good player. What would Keenan Allen. What would they do? And listen, I know they chose. They had to. And who did Harbaugh choose? The two guys in the trenches. What did he do with the first pick? You know, part of what I think you see a lot of this. And the Giants got crushed for this. And we've talked about this over and over. They have a clear identity of what they want and what they need. There's no guessing game. They're not just feeling it out as they go. You know, go back to the Michigan game, which Michigan's best players are still Harbaugh's guys. Those defensive linemen, especially those defensive tackles. And the offensive lineman, like, he knows. Go back to Stanford. Where did they start dominating before Andrew Luck showed up? Offensive lineman and running backs. And he wore people out and that. What is Howie doing right now with the Eagles? Jalen Hurts is not thrown for 400. He doesn't look like Joe Burrow. He's not throwing for 350 yards a game. They are hammering you. They're wearing you down. Even the Ravens, who have all their defensive line men, every team in the league would line up to sign all of them. And they just get worn down over time. Why? Because I got a first rounder at right tackle, I got a second rounder at right guard, I got a center that I drafted in the second round. I got a left tackle that was a former first round pick. You know, you just go down the hardball is the same thing. And everyone thought he was crazy when he took alt number five. You need wide receivers like what the fuck are you guys talking about? At the tip of my spear is my offensive lineman. And that's coming from a former quarterback. And I think a lot of guys pivot from their strategy, you know, and he never did. He never did. And I don't know if it's just full on belief in himself, if it's just the only way he knows, but a lot of guys would have got scared off at different points in time. I mean look at Ohio State, they've completely revamped. They're much more of a spread slinging around. That's not the Ohio State that's dominated my entire life. Yeah, and you know Harbaugh, this team like they have a ceiling obviously because it's the NFL and you know they only have so many guys. But what he's. They won five games last year, five games to pick Kirk. I mean that might have ended Kirk Cousins Atlanta career. It's. I wouldn't like bet my life savings on it but I mean there's a decent chance that by Monday or Tuesday it's like Kirk Cousins has. They're going to try Michael Penix this week. Right.

[Colin Cowherd]

And by the way, if that works, it's very Flacco to Lamar Jackson where Flacco started has had like a rough three week stretch or four week stretch and they said we're going to go with Lamar. If I recall what happened, they went with lamar in week 11 as rookie year. Well, Penx would go in like week 13 or 14 that I had never had a Kirk Cousins. Michael wasn't ready. Kirk Cousins gets you to six and six, you lead the division, he pivots out, you segue to Michael Penck who's been able to now sit and learn from a pretty good oc. I wouldn't be surprised if Penix went in. You don't know how to defend him. Nobody's got tape on him. You have no idea what to do with him.

[Doug Gottlieb]

My issue, and I know you and a lot of people you know the quarterback position quadrupling down on it. My issue with it was Michael Penix at the time free agency hit people, a lot of people didn't think he was a first round pick, so they had the eighth overall pick. So if they really did love him as much as they ended up loving him, they would have known they could acquire him. Why not allocate your resources, help give Sam Darnold $18 million for one year? Like, I think it shows a little haphazard. They kind of fell, the coaches fell in love with him more in April and they had already signed Cousins because now you're in this weird spot. Cousins had a lot of leverage when he signed there. He has a no trade clause now. If he's not going to start in 2025, it's not like he wouldn't waive that. But his value clearly is not as high as it just was this last offseason. Games like that. Yeah, you know who's. You're just basically offloading him and you know your owner, which is not the GM or coach's money, but gave him a lot of cash and it impacts your salary cap. So it's just you're now six and six. And who's picking them in the first round against Green Bay or Minnesota? I mean hell, or even Detroit? Not a soul. They'll be an underdog at home, won't they? In that game, I would imagine.

[Colin Cowherd]

Absolutely. Sunday Night Football brought to you by Uber Eats is the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL. Uber Eats has the best game day deals all season long. Order now. I often do for game day.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back in the host's chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. The Daily show podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture. You get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors. The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else, like extended interviews and a roundup of the weekly headlines. Listen to the Daily show ears a disaster on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Colin Cowherd]

Seahawks 26, Jets 21. Aaron Rodgers, ninth straight loss. Seattle's now taking control of the NFC West. And by the way, Seattle gave this game is weird. You had to watch it. So Seattle, Geno Smith, they had this weird red zone where they had seven tries from the five yard line. He got zero points out of it, but it was really interesting. The jets, by the way, John, are in the running for the number one pick. So the Jags, Raiders and Giants have two wins. New England, the Jets, the Titans, and I think it's Carolina have three wins because Carolina lost in overtime when we hadn't started this. The jets are in the mix for the number one pick. But what was really interesting after the game, first, Aaron failed on another comeback drive in the fourth quarter. Okay. Darnold had another successful one. Baker, by the way, wins in overtime. Aaron has another. I think he's had six this year. A half dozen chances to win a game late. It's been one or two plays. But what was interesting is Aaron missed a wide open Garrett Wilson in the end zone. And it was a pretty pedestrian play. It would have given the Jets a 28 to 7 lead. And on the road, Seattle, I don't know if they have the firepower because Sauce Gardner was given DK Metcalf troubles. I mean, he'd kind of taken him out. I don't know if the Seahawks win that game. And after the game, Aaron said, you know, it's always one play. And I wanted to just go timeout. It wasn't. It was one play. It was your miss. And then, by the way, he had a pick six. Remember, right after that, it was a pick six. And it was like, okay, total game changer. But I. When that happened, that pick six, I started writing notes down and I just said, where would I put Aaron right now in the league? And J. Mac and I have talked about this on the Herd. He is not a top 15 quarterback. I don't care what anybody says. Like, I'm watching him. I don't trust him late. He's got a little mobility. Not as much as most guys. I don't know. I don't know what you do with Aaron Rodgers. This thing. I don't remember a great quarterback, John, ending a career like this. I mean, Favre, remember, was 8 and 3 with the jets, right? Got hurt. He went to Minnesota and just tore the league up the next year. This is a really. I almost think it. I mean, he's going to be a Hall of Famer, but it's almost a legacy. Affecting, like year, like, he has aged much faster than I thought.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Well, a couple things you need to copy. Go to the NFL page, get the Leonard Williams highlight of that pick six and copy it and send it to Lincoln Riley and say, you need more guys that look like this that you guys used to have. That's what you need. You know, I thought early in that game, when the jets look good. Yes, like, God, are the jets going to blow these guys out? Well, they Had a bye week. And what happens when, like, Steph Curry or LeBron James miss a couple of weeks? They usually look good when they come back. Why? They're fresh older guys. And as the game went on, he's an inaccurate player. You said top 15 quarterback. I don't think he's a top 25 quarterback. I mean, he was 21 to 39. Like, he's objectively inaccurate when you're watching.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yes.

[Doug Gottlieb]

These balls. The Garrett Wilson play is one for. I don't know. Up until he tore his Achilles, he would make with his eyes closed with his left hand. And there are other plays over the middle where, again, I don't know. He's not seeing ghosts, but he's so rattled and sporadic in the pocket because he knows he can't really run around early in the game. He had a couple runs. You're like, oh, that looks like a little old Aaron. But as the game goes on, I don't know if it just kind of slows down. Older guy, then he doesn't move as well. And inaccuracy. Like, one thing he dominated. He had an arm like Favre, yet he was accurate like Drew Brees. Now I feel like when the ball's coming out of his hands, he doesn't know where it's going. And I think he was so pinpoint accurate. I mean, that separated him when he was with Green Bay. He would hit these guys in the hands on every different route, whether it was short, intermediate, or long. And now you're watching these balls on pretty basic, like, over the middle, crossing routes, guys reaching behind them, getting destroyed over the middle. I just think. I don't know all the body mechanics. But from the Achilles, if he doesn't trust his lower body, there have been stories about him being banged up, which I'm sure, like, no one's ever questioned. Like, Aaron's tough. Like, Aaron's been getting hit hard for a long time. Like, no one's questioned.

[Colin Cowherd]

He got smoked on the final throw today, destroyed.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Honestly, I was like, is he going to get up and, like, it's not. The toughness is not his problem. I think his skills now are, like, tangibly deteriorating. And that's where, you know, you go back and forth about him playing next year. I. I just think that the new coach and the new gm, whoever comes in, you are going to want a fresh start. And if you're Aaron Rodgers, are you going to want to keep going through this? You know, I think Schlereth has been saying this for years. Every player worth their Salt notices themselves first on, on film and goes, this is hard to watch right before your career ends. You're like, that, is that me? That's not me. That can't be me. And Aaron has to walk. I mean, this is one of, what do you think? Top five talents of all time at that position.

[Colin Cowherd]

Oh yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

And now he's making plays that people that he's been laughing at for a decade and a half. He can't even come close. You missed the Garrett Wilson one, which is bad for him. I think it's more of the basic routes his receivers and are missing behind. He doesn't know where they're going and it's, it's tough to watch. And this team, they are no lock to win any game. Any game.

[Colin Cowherd]

You know, he's aging like Dan Marino. So. And, and I have compared Marino and Aaron Rodgers because aesthetically they're just beautiful throwers of the football. But at the end, Marino couldn't move. His legs were shot. He wasn't putting in the time. I mean, he didn't, he. When Jimmy Johnson got there, he, he wouldn't show up for off season workouts. I mean, he wouldn't show up. Well, Aaron is going to Egypt. I mean, Aaron's doing his own thing. And when you're told how beautiful you throw a football and how great you are, yet Brady, even as he was winning Super Bowls in New England, people said, oh, he's a system quarterback. System. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes constantly hears, well, it's Mahomes or it's Andy Reid. I mean, Mahomes is great, we know that. But I mean, let's be honest. Mahomes throws a lot of bad picks. He's got the smartest coach, Travis Kelce and that stuff it, you know, or Lamar Jackson, you're not a good passer. Josh Allen, you can't beat Mahomes. It motivates these guys. Aaron was basically told for 15 years, you are the, you're better than Brady. Marino was told for years, you're actually better than Elway. And I think you're human. I think if, you know, I've always been driven by the critics, not by, you know, positive press or whatever. So I kind of, I think Aaron hasn't put the time in and I think you can tell how hard people work. Like Drew Brees at the end had lost his deep ball. He was crazy accurate. He was tremendous. At the line of scrimmage, Drew Brees slowly, gradually eroded. Aaron has gone off a cliff. Big Ben, by the way, not known as the hardest off season workout guy got old really fast. Cam Newton aged very quickly. Aaron reminds me of Marino like he is just not. He is. I said top 15. I mean if I said to you I'll name a quarterback and you tell me if you take this quarterback or Aaron Baker. Mayfield.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Baker Mayfield.

[Colin Cowherd]

Sam Darnold.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Darnold. You're going to struggle to name guys.

[Colin Cowherd]

Okay, let me.

[Doug Gottlieb]

I mean it's what I'm telling you.

[Colin Cowherd]

Last three weeks, Bryce Young.

[Doug Gottlieb]

I was Bryce Young. I've watched him. Carolina's played well for a month. That's right, because of him.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah, I know he's played great. No, so you're with me on this. I just don't think, I think he's been adored for so long he hasn't put the time in. And now you can see it. By the way, since Robert Salah has been fired, the Mets have two wins and the jets have one. That tells you about Robert Salah being fired. What a catastrophically dumb move it was.

[Doug Gottlieb]

I think his whole game, I mean I would say his pass. When you, when you close your eyes and you think of Aaron Rodgers, it's backpedaling off the back foot and throwing a dart where. When you think Brady and Manning, his, you know, when you think the three guys of his era, it was Brady, Manning and Rogers. Two guys had nothing in common with the other. I mean Tom Brady once said football is the most unique sport. I couldn't play any other position in high school, let alone the NFL. They didn't move outside of a couple yard radius. It's why they practice fundamentals. If you went to a Tampa Bay practice when Tom Brady was 45 years old and showed up for the first 20 minutes, he's in a full on sweat practicing his footwork. Well, Aaron never had to because he could always get away with that. It's like a basketball player who's the best athlete in the league, who's not a great shooter. Now Aaron technically was, but once the athletic ability deteriorates, you're in major trouble if your fundamentals aren't great.

[Colin Cowherd]

Right.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Chris Paul's never been that fast, so he's always been able to play a certain style. Brady and Manning. Manning fell off a cliff because his arm like Drew Brees did not work. Not because he didn't know everything to do. Aaron Rodgers doesn't play like those guys. And you watch him play now the way he's kind of willy nilly with his foot. Jordan Love is a carbon copy of him. But Jordan Love in the prime of his career right now. That arm, it fires out. You're like, geez, Jordan, Love's got a hose.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Aaron's arm, you know, let's face it, just a little older. It's not as great. And whether it's again, the biomechanics of his lower body with the Achilles not being the same, doesn't. It's just off. But he doesn't sit in there and work his footwork like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, or Tom Brady because he's never had to. And that was always the knock. And the one year he had a bad season, you know, the McCarthy year that McCarthy got fired. And then his last year with LaFleur, he kind of gets off doing his own thing. And when he gets a little off, the fundamentals go out the window with him. They never, ever. Peyton Manning sucked because he could not throw in his shoulder, let him down. Not because his footwork and his body was off in the pocket. Same thing with Drew Brees. Same thing with Tom. At the end, Tom just didn't want to get hit. Don't blame him. 45 years old, Aaron's mechanics and. And I would say fundamentals are just not good. They never have.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

And he got away with it. And now it's. You're watching them. I have a hard time seeing him play next year. And listen, I understand not many jobs, no jobs, unless you're like the CEO of Apple are going to pay a 40 plus million dollars a year. But he's made a lot of money and now he's getting peppered. He's 40 years old. Who's going to trade for him if the jets don't want him? Like, what are really his options? Like, it's. It's probably a situation that you don't even have a chance to win in the summer. Like, it's pretty clear. So I, if I had to guess right now, we're the last. We're down the home stretch of Aaron Rodgers playing NFL football.

[Colin Cowherd]

I want to go back to Thursday and talk about one team. So the Chicago Bears Eber Fluss has been fired off that insane, egregiously bad coaching snafu. So I saw Caleb Williams Saturday. I went to the Notre Dame USC game and I sat in Jen Cohen, the athletic director's box. He was there, so was his dad. I said hi to Caleb and talked to his dad for a second. Remember before the draft, I went on the air and I said, you know, I've heard Caleb's got some reservations about the Bears, but he didn't want to be the bad guy. And the next day Caleb came out and said, no, no, no, no, no, not true. I'm going to go to the Chicago Bears. I'm going to go to the Chicago Bears. Well, the truth is Caleb didn't want to hurt his advertising market, his influencer market and he was going to be a good soldier. But I trusted my source is that, you know, you can't look at the Bears. An educated, reasonable person and that's Caleb can't look at the Bears and go, this is a great place to go. And you're seeing basically what we predicted. I was told in the last month by an NFL GM he thought the McCaskeys were the worst owners. Bidwell's second McCaskey's the worst. They're some of the poorest. Just an odd group. The guy, the president is a former Big Ten president. You know, a lot of opinions, not great on the details. I've been told Eber Fluss over his skis. Ryan Poles has done okay. There's been. I love the Montez sweat move. I love that move. Chase Claypool people take swings and miss. I'm not going to judge him. Some of his drafting Jaylon Johnson. I like the Kenan Allen pickup. I talked to Cole Comet this weekend. He was in the box with Caleb Williams. There's.

[Doug Gottlieb]

I don't know if Ryan polls extended Komet. I mean he's there for a while.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if he drafted him, but he extended him. But this organization. What is happening now is what Caleb and any reasonable person feared is that I thought Caleb was good enough. He was the only quarterback in this draft like Andrew Luck didn't get the right gm. An impulsive owner. His coach got fired. Bad O line. He was good enough. And Andrew Luck. Now I don't think Caleb's as good as Andrew Luck as a prospect, but I thought he was one of these top 10 prospects. But the difference is this division is so damn good. Is as good as Caleb is. I'm sorry again. Minnesota's well run. They don't have Super Bowls. I've always felt they're pretty well run. Green Bay's exceptionally run Detroit now is well run. I worry that Caleb Williams is going to just be stuck having to compensate for an organization that's arguably the weakest in the league because the Andrew Berry is a very good GM in Cleveland. We don't love the ownership, but we like the coach and the gm. I have a feeling here the Bears right now along with Carolina and people like Dan Morgan as a gm, they don't love Tepper. Are the Bears the most dysfunctional franchise in the league?

[Doug Gottlieb]

It has to be right up there. I mean, I personally have always thought once you have a lot of money and you run a business and you still are really cheap on things that really matter. Like you kind of have a disease. Cincinnati business back. You see this in all walks of life, even outside of football. Like eventually you got a pivot like Walmart. Sam Walton was notoriously very cheap. There came a point in time where he had to pivot with some of the big expenses with the company. And there were stories this weekend and I gobbled up everything. Abraf loose, the firing of them. When they interview coaches, they fly them out and they put them in coach. And I had a buddy in the NFL that said when they were interviewing GMs, they put them all in like a shuttle. I mean, just things that in the NFL, in college football, at the highest level that are just viewed like any industry, there are certain standards for the highest level of your CEO, for your head coach, that is pretty embarrassing. And this, this is a franchise. This guy, a chiropractor at the gym who just whenever I see him, he loves this Sunday show with me and you. He found me through you. And he's a die hard Bears guy and he was, he was hammering, you know, the Kevin Warren situation. And he's like, people don't realize this franchise has been owned by this family since the 20s, I would imagine for 60, 70 years. The economics of the league for the McCaskey, you know, Papa Hal was a little different than it's become the last 20, 25 years. But philosophically, their thoughts on everything have kind of been engraved, you know, from their grandparents, like the way they think about this. Hell, the. Is it the grandma or whatever. Virginia McCaskey is like 100 years old.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Do you think she views things like Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman or like Les Sneed and Dan Kroenke? How can she compete against that? Jed York's 45 years old, running around with Silicon Valley people.

[Colin Cowherd]

How about this? We knew that Al Davis was a pioneer and a visionary and in the last 10 years got really murky and bad.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Yeah.

[Colin Cowherd]

Jerry Jones, visionary, maverick, last six to eight years. That's a bad roster. So those guys weren't, I mean, that was an 8 to 10 year stretch where you're uncomfortable. I feel like Chicago's been like this for 25 years.

[Doug Gottlieb]

And I think whenever you have Ownership that doesn't know what they're doing. Kevin Warren has kind of reported this morning that he's running point on the coaching search and Ryan polls will assist him. Colin, that is insanity. This is a guy that was hired to run the business and get them a stadium. You know the geography of Chicago better than me. But again, through my buddy said that they basically laid it all out for him in the suburbs and they want to stay in the city, yet everything's there for them. They already own the land. It's like you got to get the stadium built, not hire the coach. That should be Ryan Pole's job and the owner. But the owners want no part of it because they don't know what they're doing. And it's, it's pretty sad. And this is where in the NFL like Caleb was in a tough spot. This has gone worse than I didn't think it was going to go well. Like, I didn't even view him as a playoff team. It's obviously been way worse. You know, Jay, his report today, Jalen Johnson lost it on Eber Fluss as he just gave his post game. You know, hey, guys, there's adversity. It's like, no, this. We're not given the, the cliche speech anymore in here, Matt. And he should have been fired in January.

[Colin Cowherd]

Absolutely.

[Doug Gottlieb]

He should have been fired in January because now you're repeating the same thing over and over. But who's. It's interesting. You go, who's going to want this job? Actually, on paper, it's a pretty good job. They got a lot of players and a GM that comes from Kansas City who's a former offensive lineman. I do think the Kevin Warren thing is as big of a red flag if I have to answer Eber Fluss and Ryan polls this year answered to him, not the owner. Like, Mike Vrabel's hanging up. He's not answering to Kevin Warren. Obviously, Bill. They probably wouldn't even interview them. Ben Johnson's going to have enough leverage. Like, I'm not answering to the team president that does not own the team. You know, in Denver, Penner, who is married into the Walton family, it's like it's all the same umbrella. So it's like, yeah, I answer to him. He is the family. Right?

[Colin Cowherd]

It's.

[Doug Gottlieb]

It's not. This is. This guy's an independent. This guy could be fired tomorrow. Kevin Warren. And if I'm variable, I have to answer to him, who I don't think knows anything about football. Remember, he was the guy Leading the charge to cancel football up through the middle of August. And if it wasn't for Jim Harbaugh and C.J. stroud in the Big Ten, he would have canceled football. And I know there's tumultuous times, especially depending on where you live, but that's, that's something that to me, that's why Jim Harbaugh, like Jim Harbaugh, was never working with him. Last year a lot of people thought that they could hire him. And I just think the Bears, man, they are. That's got to be one of the more embarrassing three or four game stretches that I ever remember. Like I saw some bad Jim, Tom Sula, you know, that year, but he didn't have specific games over and over. It was just a bad, like a joke. But these specific moments on Thanksgiving, I mean, how many people were watching that game? 25 million. The clock just kept ticking. It's insane what's going on here.

[Colin Cowherd]

It's the worst situational coaching I've ever seen in my life. Not first of all, rookie quarterback against Detroit, short week, but throw him a life preserver. Like, if it's year three, I'm on Caleb's ass. He is a rookie on a short week on the road. Call a timeout. You can see him. Everybody's flailing.

[Doug Gottlieb]

I had a lot of scouting buddies crushing Caleb. Like, you know, he's the quarterback. 21, 22 years old, short week, late in December. Never played this long. Probably exhausted. Had led them back. Yes, right.

[Colin Cowherd]

Second half.

[Doug Gottlieb]

That's the coach, he's the defensive coordinator. He does nothing on offense. His only job is to watch the clock. Clearly they're discombobulated. He should have called the clock the moment his knee hit the ground. When he was sacked. It was a no brainer. And honestly, I was surprised they fired him. Weren't you? Or was it just so bad they had no choice. I expected the Bears to play it out the rest of the year.

[Colin Cowherd]

Now for a segment called Making it look easy, brought to you by Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Today, Russell Wilson, three touchdowns, 414 yards in the Steelers wild win over the Bengals. Just like Russell made it look easy, Morgan and Morgan does the same thing to submit a claim over 100 offices nationwide, more than 800 lawyers, $15 billion recovered for their clients. They have a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation. Morgan and Morgan has been fighting for the people for over 35 years. And if you're ever injured, just go to forthepeople.comcollin or dial 529 to check out America's largest injury law firm. Winning in the NFL is hard. Hiring Morgan, and Morgan is easy.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. The Daily show podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture. You get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports, and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors. The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else, like extended interviews and a roundup of the weekly headlines. Listen to the Daily Show Ears edition on the I Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Colin Cowherd]

Let's go to Michigan 13, Ohio State 10. We, we have to talk about a couple of college football situations. So I did not think, I think this is the biggest in the history of this rivalry. It's got to be the biggest upset. Michigan pass for 62 yards, had two picks on the road and still won. I mean, Michigan hasn't thrown the ball. Michigan's a very easy team to defend. They can't pass. You could be hyper aggressive. So I thought, I thought. One of the things I compared today in my car, I did a little thing on Twitter. I compared Ryan Day, the Ohio State coach. I wouldn't fire him, but there's a clear hole. He's Mark Richt. So Mark Richt had been a quarterback coach like Day, was an offensive coordinator like Day, and then got a blue blood job. And I always felt when watching Georgia under Mark Richt, he had several top 10 finishes. But in the big games, you never felt they got the most out of the roster. And that's exactly how I feel about Ryan Day, is that he can recruit like Richt, he's a nice guy like Rick. But those Georgia teams never had an identity. They just had really good players. Even when they had like, I think Matt Stafford, he had, like, he would have, they would, they would have moments and you'd be like, oh my, this team's the best in the country. And they won a lot of big games. He won three out of four games he coaches. And Ryan Day wins five out of six games he coaches, but they have no identity. And I thought that game. Here's my take. So Ryan Day is one of those guys that, you know, Urban Meyer, he went to Bowling Green, he went to Utah, he went to Florida. By the time he gets to Ohio State, he has got a lot of confidence. His shit works. Jim Harbaugh, my shit works, right? Ryan Day, what does he fall back on? So remember when he got really defensive? When old Lou Holtz took a shot at him and they won a game in the post game? He takes a shot at rickety old Lou Holtz and I'm like, wait a minute. Why do you care about that? Because he doesn't have a history of success. Mark Richt didn't either. Is that when you, you know, Saban, Michigan State, lsu, Alabama, NFL people can take shots at you. You have a formula that works. Ryan Day doesn't have a formula that works. He's 2 in 4 in Bulls. He can't beat Michigan now four years in a row. And I thought the game plan was fascinating. John. He was trying to prove how tough Ohio State was in the first half. Say, bro, you have major matchup advantages at wide receiver. He wanted to prove, hey, people say we're not. This. This game's always decided by rushing yards. I'm going to prove. I'm going to blow this hole. I can't coach tough football teams. Because he got very defensive with Lou Holtz questioning that. And this is Ryan Day, and we'll get into Lincoln Riley in a second. He's a little lost when you start worrying about voices outside the building and narratives and it starts changing your game plan. Their first half game plan was embarrassing. Like, what? What was it? He was trying to prove we can win tough. Just win the damn game.

[Doug Gottlieb]

You know, I've had this theory with politics for a while that sometimes the media is detrimental to candidates and a certain party. And I think, you know, CNN and msnbc, right, Are in the headlines a lot, a lot that no one's watching them anymore. They're losing a lot of viewership, but their clips go viral. And I'm on a million text chains that see them constantly. And they're constantly lecturing people that whether it was Biden's cognitive ability or that Kamala was a great candidate, and eventually the people are like, yeah, just come on, pump the brakes. And I think for a long time, there has been a media apparatus that has told everybody, you Ohio State fans are lunatics. Get lectured them that they're lunatics and this guy is X, look at his record. And it's like, guys, most human beings now over 30 years old, have been alive long enough to see Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Kirby. Smart dabble. Like, they know what a really good coach looks like. They also know that the Big Ten beside a team or two every once in a while. Is not very good anymore. Most of these teams, like beating Nebraska and beating Minnesota, when you're at Ohio State and you have unlimited resources, is not that impressive. So you are basically paid to beat Penn State, Michigan and the other top teams that you play, whether it's Notre Dame or whoever you play in the playoffs. And Stu, that's it. Like, no. 1, you get no credit for beating the shit out of Minnesota, Nebraska, whoever. You better win those games. But no one cares. It's like James Harden scoring 50 against Sacramento Kings in January. Like, I'm sorry, no one puts any stock into that. After a while. And I think everyone getting lectured constantly about Ryan Day. Ryan Day, it's like, guys, we've. We've seen him in these big games and it's. Something's off, right? Something's off. And in this game specifically, right. The last couple of years, Harbaugh has had a team that was elite. So you get beat. That happens. Kirby Smarts lost.

[Colin Cowherd]

Last year, Michigan had better players than Ohio state.

[Doug Gottlieb]

They had 70 guys drafted or whatever. This year you, like, I've. We've all seen crazy games in College. We've seen 20 plus years of insane. That to me, obviously we've seen bigger outcomes. Like Vince Young, that was a national championship game. Right. Or even Ohio State lost or won national in a regular season game. I think that's one of the craziest outcomes I've ever seen in my entire life. I was shocked start to finish, because not, not a person in the world, especially a Michigan fan, would have bet on Michigan. And as the game was going, you kept thinking to yourself, this can't be happening. But he tried to get into a heavyweight fight with the one thing Michigan can do. And Chip deserves blame to run it up the middle. It's like they're two good players with the defensive tackles. You have three NFL guys. But I keep thinking that after the game and everyone's shitting on Ryan Day, it's like, well, they've been lectured for five years that he's a great coach. And it's like, I'm just waiting for him to beat another. Like, we don't care that he's beaten James Franklin now four straight times.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Like, you can't beat Michigan, which in this program clearly is borderline the equivalent of like the national title game at this point. And he loses against the other good teams when he plays them in big spots. So you're watching him and you go, the cockiness, the third base comment. Most guys that get those jobs, Jim Harbaugh to get the Michigan job, had to coach at San Diego, Stanford and then win at the 49ers. You know this guy had never been a head coach and he got the job and handed to him by one of the greatest coaches of his era. So Ohio State fans literally know what it looks like with Urban Meyer and you go, well we're not that physical. We have this pass and here's. I was thinking about this too because I've been critical of this guy for a long time and Sarkeesian has got Texas in the SEC championship year one and I'm watching him last night and I went to watch him live. Sark takes is offensive guy like Ryan Day. Well he's also the play caller. So half the game is his baby. Right. And the program's his baby. But the play calling, well, Ryan Day is like turned into this CEO even though he's this offensive minded guy. He has to hire Chip Kelly and you're watching him on offense just look terrible against a Michigan team. Their best corner, Will Johnson, who might be like a top five pick. It's like Travis Hunter 2.0 at corner is out. You're slicing. What are you guys doing? Like you're supposed to be an offensive mind yet chips calling the place and then your team's not that tough. And I do think the look after the game where they plant the flag and he stands there and it just. Listen, they're in the playoffs so you're not going to fire him today. I don't see how this moves forward. I because I, I think it's very possible that this type loss, they could just lose immediately in the playoffs depending on who they play.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

But I do think Ohio State fans and I, I'm an Ohio State hater. But if I was in their shoes I'd be tired of being lectured constantly by and listen, I get it. Joe Klatt and all these guys like Ohio State is a huge part of the business and they're awesome. I like watching them too. But like we have to Ryan Day like Kirby smarts the Nick Saban's like he's not Urban Myers. He's not even remotely on their level.

[Colin Cowherd]

No, he's not.

[Doug Gottlieb]

It's not even debatable.

[Colin Cowherd]

No, no. He is much closer to Mark Rich who you know, George is better now without Mark Rich who's a really nice guy. But I mean I had an NFL GM tell me years ago he loved drafting Georgia guys under Mark Richt. He goes. Because they were. He goes if you drafted a Nick Saban guy at Bama, he'd already squeezed all the juice out of the player. Yeah, he goes, these Georgia guys, like, they still had two gears of shifting, you know, like you were always like, oh, they're way better than you think. The other thing is that the transfer portal in the NIL have actually created parity. And I was talking with a guy today who's a. He runs a message board for Ohio State. And I said, you know, you used to be able to years ago when you had 125 scholarships in the John McKay era for USC. You'd take like four running backs in the west coast just to hog them even if you didn't play them. And then we got down to 85 scholarships and you can still do a little bit of that. Nick Saban can do it. Kirby Smart. Well, now a backup left tackle at, let's say, Ohio State, Louisville comes in and says, we'll pay you $300,000. You're a starter for us or a right tackle in Ohio State. Well, he's. You want to be a left tackle and show the scouts that, you know, whoever's got money, whatever team, Texas A and M could say, come here, start at left tackle so there's less depth. And then an Ohio State could lose an elite offensive tackle. Where it's always been my whole life. The top programs have two or they have backups that would start, except for there's a first round guy in front of them. Well, that guy now just goes and plays at a lesser program.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Gone.

[Colin Cowherd]

And so if you have an injury, so let's say you're Georgia and you lose, you know, Brock Bowers and then a tight end gets hurt and the other tight end who you had, he got purchased by Wake Forest or somebody or Oregon. Well, now you're. Now your tight end is no better than the guy at Purdue. So these teams like Alabama and Georgia and Ohio State, if they have a key O line injury or a linebacker injury, they don't have great backups. Those guys have been purchased in the NIL to go to lesser programs. And I mean, I know a program that was, I mean, Washington, I mean, they were in the Harbaugh, Michigan teams. They were like, okay, who's not starting that we recruited? Who's a five star guy who's behind a, you know, a sophomore who's got two more years there. That's the game.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Now, I think Ohio State, though, if you look at this off season, you know, it's well reported they spend 20 million. Yeah, I think these numbers, yeah, could be 25, could be 18, could be 12. You know, who knows the actual number? But they spent a lot relative and I think widely considered the most of any college football team. And they bought Ferraris. I mean, Caleb Downs would start for every NFL team immediately. He's great. Yeah. They bought multiple sweet players and then they signed Kansas State's quarterback who some believe was not going to be their starter anymore because the other kid that was coming up that played this year, they were going to go to him a little more dynamic. And you look and you go, well, shouldn't. If you're going to buy a Ferrari and a Range Rover and not have a garage, like it's pretty risky move. You know, Cam Ward was clearly the guy. But you go, chip Kelly, Ryan Day. I bet they wouldn't really love Cam Ward little bit. You know, that's not really their type player, especially Chip.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah. Doing his own thing.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Will Howard your. Or Will Howard. That's. Yeah. Was much more their type guy. And you watch Kyle McCord at Syracuse who just takes down Miami. He's had a pretty good year. They blamed everything on him last year. And listen, he was up and down for him. But I think sometimes in this nil era, when you're paying people, especially quarterbacks, a lot of money, you can start doing finger pointing where in the history of the sport, you would just give that guy a couple years to be your starter. And maybe that one year you look back, you win the national championship the next year and you go, we live through that. Look what Harbaugh did with J.J. mcCarthy and that crew of guys, they lost that devastating game to tsu. Tcu. Right. It was hard to stomach a couple years ago. Everyone came back and they won it. Well now in the nil era, if you like, you're just pointing the finger. You make a couple guys transfer, they're not good enough. You upgrade, you watch. How could you lose a game where the opposing team. If I told you at the start, how much money would you put on Ohio State if they're starting quarterback, threw for 60 yards and through two picks you'd be like, I bet they win the game 40 to 10.

[Colin Cowherd]

I thought I predicted kill them. I thought it was going to be. I honestly thought 38, 13 would be close. I thought it was going to be a blowout.

[Doug Gottlieb]

You just can't, you just can't fake toughness. And I've been around these coaches long enough and know these guys in these NFL teams and these programs, some guys have it and some guys don't. And a small percentage truly have it, like Urban Meyer, Nick Saban. It's not about, like, your size or your coach, but you're like everyone. When you walk into the room, they kind of their. Their shoulders. Kirby clearly has it right. It's a small percentage of guys. And Ryan, he's not bad, like, but he was also handed, I think, the best program in the country with unlimited resources and will do whatever he wants. And they are regressing four straight times in Michigan. I think he's a loss. We'll see who they end up playing in the first round. Let's just say they play Tennessee.

[Colin Cowherd]

That's what I thought.

[Doug Gottlieb]

They play a team like, and they lose. I mean, you. Now, who are they going to hire? Like, that's. Mike Vrabel's not coming to college football in this era. Right? So it's like, who, you know, do you hire? The Iowa State coach? There's no. It's. You might just get the same thing. Like, you're probably not getting Nick Saban or Urban Meyer, you know, the Verge, the next version of that. So you're just. This is where they're kind of, you know, it's not that bad, but it's clearly not good enough. Because if you can't get Michigan now, like, you just beat a team that was so desperate they paid a kid 12, $15 million to be their quarterback who's 17 years old. That's the team you just lost to.

[Colin Cowherd]

All right, I want to finish up usc, Notre Dame. By the way, Marcus Freeman, the coach for Notre Dame, Peter Schrager, is reporting this. And this is the second person I've heard it from. Marcus Freeman. The Chicago Bears are interested culture builder, so just throw that out there. That's being talked about in NFL circles. Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, would you.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Leave Notre Dame making $10 million a year to the Bears?

[Colin Cowherd]

No.

[Doug Gottlieb]

If you had the answer to Kevin Wilson, absolutely not. I would not either.

[Colin Cowherd]

No. But it's interesting. They can't get rid of Lincoln Riley. His contract turned over. So it's nine years, 90 million left. They just put 300 million into the facilities. Their collective's up to 18 million. So it's not a money issue. Their collective is now up to $18 million. I was told by an agent yesterday that's not it, but it's. So they're not going to get rid of Lincoln. They're not going to do it. USC is not going to buy him out. It's not the sec. And his best talent is young and their Defensive line talent they've recruited the last two years is much better, blah, blah, blah. But this goes back to the Ryan Day thing. So he was handed an Oklahoma program and the culture was set and he was very clever. He was a better offensive guy than Stoops. So he goes to USC and he doesn't really have to build a culture because Caleb Williams is so much better than everybody else in the conference. And they win 11 games, should have beaten two lanes, should have won 12 the following year. About halfway through you're like, wow, they have to replace the defensive staff. He deserves credit for that. But if you. I believe, and somebody said this to me, they said, he's getting. Why isn't he replacing offensive coaches? They have one good, not great offensive tackle in the program three years in. The backup left tackle is 6, 2, 3, 10. He's a center. They have one really nice draftable running back in three years he's leaving. They don't have a draftable defensive player on this team. I think Kamari Ramsey, the safety is draftable next year. Notre Dame's a better football team, should have won. It's not that. But now we're going into year four. Forget the defense, which is better but not elite. They don't have enough good offensive talent. This quarterback they have is a Hammond Egger. I mean, he either he can't read the middle of the field or they don't trust him. Everything's up the sidelines, everything's bubble screen up the sidelines. They don't throw the ball in the middle of the field. What I am hearing is he has alienated LA high school coaches. I mean their LA recruiting stinks. So USC is trapped here. They can't buy him out. He's gotten stubborn on the offensive coaching where they're just not getting outside a receiver. They still have good enough players. Forgettable running backs, forgettable tight ends, don't have any tackles outside of Elijah Page left tackle. When they sign him to a 10 year deal, you thought you were getting a steal. This is the first time I look at it and I'm like, wait a minute. They're getting worse every six games. From the beginning of Caleb's first year to the next six, to the beginning of year two, to the last six. This team beat LSU at the end of the year. The last three years, they're not a very good football team. That is bad coaching.

[Doug Gottlieb]

If I would have told you in August that they would have one more win on December 1st than UCLA, he would have said, john, put down the drugs. I thought UCLA was going to win like two games this season. And honestly, it's not like they beat the brakes off them. That game probably could have gone either way.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah, the fourth quarter, it was close. Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

UCLA being 5 and 7 and you being 6 and 6, what a disaster for USC, for the Big Ten.

[Colin Cowherd]

UCLA has no money in their collective. USC has 18 million. So it's, it's, it's not a fair fight.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Well, let's. You know, we talked about Ryan Day. He inherits Ohio State. The recruiting mechanism was already set in place. Like what Lincoln had in Oklahoma under Bob Stoops. It was already the guys flowing there. He just had to keep it rolling. And he's done that. It's why his disasters are 10 and 2. Everyone wants to fire him. Lincoln would die for that. Lincoln had to start it from scratch. To me, if you don't nail the best players in California, obviously the transfer portal has changed classes a little bit. That's pretty embarrassing. And I get this is not the Pete heyday, but like why do Kirby and Nick and the guys that win in the south win? Because they nail the players in their region.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yes.

[Doug Gottlieb]

And there it's harder because you have to recruit if you're at lsu, at Georgia, at Alabama, you know, Florida ever got good. Now Tennessee are all recruiting against each other. Like obviously Oregon has to come down to Southern California, but you still have a huge advantage and everything. The nostalgia of the Reggie Bush of what it used to be, it's just gotta be gone. If you meet someone now and young people that work for you and you know, I'm around young people like a 25 year old was born in 2000. Right. So that guy in the heyday of Liner and Reggie and Lindell White was 5 or 6 years old. So those guys that are now 18 years old, think about it, they were like the Clay Helton era. So this, this nostalgia of what used to be exists to me and you or older people, not to the people that matter the most. And if you piss off these high school coaches, like the high school coaches are the lifeblood of someone's program because they funnel you guys. I mean, they're very, very important. Obviously now money changed hands, but, but to me, SC like Caleb Downs, whoever that, the equivalent of those type players every year they should, it should be between Ohio State, USC and Texas. Like if they're not in on every. And why are Stark in Ohio State's roster so good? Because they're buying all the sweet players who are available and obviously they recruit really well. Is Lincoln going to have a top 10 recruiting class this year in the nation?

[Colin Cowherd]

Top 20, 12, 12 to 14.

[Doug Gottlieb]

And here's the problem. Ohio State, even with Ryan Day is not going anywhere. If they keep him for the next five years, they're going to win 10 or 11 games every year. Oregon clearly is going nowhere.

[Colin Cowherd]

And listen, we can Washington see what James Jed Fish can recruit. So Jed Fish will get that puppy to nine wins fast.

[Doug Gottlieb]

And I've heard that they did not use much nil money this year because they wanted to take a deep breath. They're going to be blowing it this year. So they will be aggressive. And Penn State, we've already seen the stats over the last six years or seven years. If they would have the playoffs, they'd be in it every year. And the one thing James hangs his hat on is recruiting.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah, right.

[Doug Gottlieb]

It's one thing you say James Franklin is great at recruiting, right? In game, coaching, recruiting. So I, you could argue this could just. Nothing could change. I, you know, 6 and 6, maybe they're 8 and 4, but I don't know. They'd have to catch lightning in a bottle. I, I don't know if you're ever going to see the Lincoln that they bought. I think this might be the new normal, you know, which is when you're paying that type of premium. What that building. Was that a home game for Notre Dame?

[Colin Cowherd]

No, it was 75, it was 80, 20. USC, it was A. Notre Dame was.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Not an apathetic group yet. But they've got to be pretty down, right?

[Colin Cowherd]

The Big Ten saves them because the Nebraska's, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State travel so well. That's what really saves them. They'll have good revenue because of their collective and let's be honest, 20,000 Big Ten fans in the winter, they're going to LA to watch that game.

[Doug Gottlieb]

To me, where you have no excuse. Like listen, you lose Oregon, you lose Ohio State, like maybe you're not as good. You cannot be losing to the middle.

[Colin Cowherd]

Of the pack, Maryland.

[Doug Gottlieb]

And when you look at the middle of the pack in the Big Ten, what is the difference between UCLA and Rutgers and usc? Like that, that's, that's what would really shake me if I was a USC fan is we're not just middle of the pack. From a talent standpoint, when I watch him play, it looks the same. It's always been my defense of the sec. It's like you just watch the SEC looks different. Like yeah, there's just more. Obviously Ohio State and Oregon have the equivalent, but the middle of the Big Ten and the middle of the sec, even if their records are the same, the talent discrepancy is obvious. And USC is. They kind of had an easy schedule this year. Did they play Ohio State?

[Colin Cowherd]

They did not play Ohio State, nor do they play Ohio State next year. So if you look at, I mean, Lincoln got a big break. He didn't get Oregon or Ohio State this year. He doesn't get Ohio State next year. So even it's funny you ask, I looked at USC schedule yesterday, and they have the home and aways. It's a really. They get Michigan at home. They get a couple of their, you know, they get a couple of their tough games at home. So they're getting. They don't have an LSU on the schedule. They play like Georgia Southern, Southwest Missouri State. They do an SEC out of conference schedule. So if you look at the schedule next year, John, it is. By Big Ten standards, it is a cakewalk.

[Doug Gottlieb]

The other thing is, and obviously football at USC is way bigger than in basketball.

[Colin Cowherd]

Yeah.

[Doug Gottlieb]

But Musselman kind of has a history of winning and just kind of playing the part, Right? So he's just. God, he just can shake some hands. He can put on a smile, he can play the part. Like, you don't get to be just Grumpy Belichick in college, Right. You can do that in the NFL as long as you win in college. You do have to shake hands. Donors nil. And now they're going to be comparing him to Eric Musselman, who's been winning at all these places. And then you got Lincoln, kind of ornery, scowls, not smiling. I think you ask yourself, and this is what I said from the beginning, does he even want to be there? Did he just get an offer so gigantic that no human could turn down where it's like he was already so rich he's looking at his bank account. My life, do I regret this? I think he got to say if he could do. If he could do it over again. Is he the coach at USC right now? I think you'd have to say no, right?

[Colin Cowherd]

I still think he believes based on the recruiting, the interior defensive line recruiting the last couple years, I think he believes next year's the season. But they don't have a quarterback. They don't have an elite quarterback, so, shit, who knows? John Mittelkoff, former NFL scout, as always. Crushed it, buddy.

[Doug Gottlieb]

Thanks, Colin. Talk to you soon.

[Colin Cowherd]

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