← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Colin Cowherd Podcast - Ohio State COOKS The Ducks, Texas Barely Escapes ASU, Can PSU Win It All? Saquon Sitting Out
01:06:30
Loading summary
Transcript123 lines
- [00:00]
T-Mobile Representative
You can count on T Mobile to help keep you connected from big cities to small towns on America's largest 5G network. Switch the T Mobile keep your phone and they'll pay it off up to 800 bucks per line via prepaid card. Learn more@t mobile.com heap and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service port in 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption. Acquired card has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [00:37]
Eric Zimmer
Do you want a shortcut to the best version of you? Here it is. Feed the Good Wolf I'm Eric Zimmer, host of the one you feed. Every week I talk to brilliant minds and brave souls about the art of small, powerful choices. Our listeners say it all.
- [00:56]
Podcast Listener
This is a lifeline transformational, the best antidote to a bad mood I've ever heard.
- [01:03]
Eric Zimmer
Join the pack and start feeding your best self. Listen to the one you feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:16]
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. Join late night legend Jon Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extension, 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 Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:45]
John Middelkoff
The volume College Football reactions presented by JLab. JLab has the best audio products in the game. They're ready to take care of you this football season. Traveling to watch your favorite team or or just streaming the game at home. Find the Blue box at Walmart, Target, Best Buy or go to jlab.com love their stuff. The Blue Box. All right, John Middelkoff and I are doing a special edition Wednesday afternoon podcast. It'll range from Will Chris Ballard survive with the Colts? Brock Purdy's dismal showing against the Lions in the second half, Saquon Barkley resting. That's at the end of it. Let's start with college football. So listen. Ohio State's leading 34 nothing at half and John and I decided it's a good time to do the podcast. So listen. A 13 member committee selected, you know, the teams to get in and this is what bureaucrats and you know, people who are political create is that nobody thought SMU and Boise State, they didn't look the part in the regular season. You know, they play in weaker Conferences. But the thing that really outraged me was Oregon's first game against the winner of Ohio State, Tennessee, which is a much tougher path than Penn State gets against SMU and Boise State. So the failing of the committee and committees are created to innately fail. I mean, it's 13 different people with 13 different opinions. We know juries in this country have let the wrong people walk in my life. I just look at Oregon season and they were the best team on the field. And it's very hard to ask somebody to beat somebody for a second time. I picked Ohio State to win it. I didn't think it would look like this, but that not, not the inclusion of Boise State or smu. This is what bothered me.
- [03:45]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, I mean, I clearly Oregon got a raw deal. But let's face it, the way Ohio State has played the first game and the way they look in the second game, I don't think anyone would sniff them right now. They would beat everyone in the country easily. But I hear you. I mean, I think part of it is they were so. There's so much CYA of not getting sued. We had to include a non Power 4 program. And Boise showed out decently, I thought. Yeah, right. And so did ASU who plays in the Power 5 conference. But we all look at Big 12 like, are they any good?
- [04:16]
John Middelkoff
Right.
- [04:17]
Colin Cowherd
I think you could argue also Oregon, these teams, you're all tied in with the Bulls with this money. So many people with their hands in the cookie jar. How does Oregon not get a home game? How do these teams, Texas, I mean, it's a pretty big advantage to play in these neutral site games. What's the point of playing all season?
- [04:32]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, I mean, Oregon did not get a home game. That to me is just. You gotta be kidding me. I mean, Notre Dame lost to a directional school and got one. It's like, it's crazy. Not even a good directional school. Let's talk about Ohio State. And listen, when you go to a movie, if you went to a movie that took a while to build up, but the ending was great, I always thought that was Usual suspects. It's a good movie. You go home feeling great. If a movie starts fast and dies out, you never feel satisfied. College football now has a bigger, more dynamic ending to the season, but it does. And we knew this was coming. John, it's not that the regular season doesn't matter, but Ohio State not only lost a horrible game, they lost it late. And they looked like garbage against Michigan and they still got in. Now, I don't Have a problem with them getting in. I don't mind the regular season meaningless because I'm still going to watch the games. I watch the NFL. I know that you can start off 1 and 4 and make the playoffs. I still watch the games. I think we put, I think the narrative that it's going to kill college football. College football ratings this year were good. It's just what it means is if you're a good team with lots of blowouts, you can even lose a really ugly game late and you get in. And my take is, yeah, the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Raiders late in the season last year and won the Super Bowl. You shouldn't be punished severely if you're excellent just because you lose in November and not in September. So I'm. That part of it has never bothered me that the regular season will mean less. I'm still watching the games.
- [06:14]
Colin Cowherd
I think there's a magnifying glass. I was just thinking, listen to you talk. I don't think there's a game that actually means more a non playoff game in college football or the NFL than Ohio State versus Michigan. I think it's clearly separated as the game that means the most. Saban recently went off. He can't comprehend because even in his mind he was able to make every game the same. Even though they had Auburn as one of the biggest rivalries in college football. Tennessee is a big rivalry, but it never felt any different than when they played Ole Miss, than when they played lsu. He was Belichicky in that way. Every opponent meant a lot at Ohio State. It just doesn't. I mean, even Ryan Day said like, this can never happen again. That was three days before they lost. You know, so the emphasis that has been put on that game and I think Harbaugh helped take it to another level. And then Ryan Day starting to lose. And I just think that game feels like five games in one. And then the way they lost. And in fairness, you watch Michigan 24 hours ago against Alabama. Now I understand Alabama had some opt outs. They look pretty good. They're coming to play. They have a defensive coordinator that makes two and a half million dollars. That was just coaching at Baltimore a couple years ago and was viewed as one of the best defensive minds in football. So it's like that's a real, real defense. And I just think you look at that game, it was hard not to overreact.
- [07:27]
John Middelkoff
Yeah.
- [07:27]
Colin Cowherd
But it might have just been as simple as the coaching staff, specifically Ryan, the players, they got a little tight because the way they've looked now it's like a looseness. We have been talking about their roster and the talent on their team. Like to me the difference of them in Texas. Texas man for man is loaded as well their quarterback. I'm sorry, I just don't trust on a play in play. Yeah, well Howard's playing pretty well right now.
- [07:49]
John Middelkoff
Yeah.
- [07:49]
Colin Cowherd
If the will Howard we have seen in the first playoff game and the second playoff game is going to look like this. They're just not going to lose.
- [07:56]
John Middelkoff
Right.
- [07:56]
Colin Cowherd
And they have a, they have a wide receiver, an 18 year old kid. It looks like he weighs 230 pounds. That is unstoppable. Listen like Oregon's not trying to cover him. They just can't.
- [08:04]
John Middelkoff
You're, you're a former NFL scout because Travis Hunter wants to go both ways. If you told me today Caleb Downs and Jeremiah Smith of the Buckeyes were in this draft, I would take them one and two in any order because Travis Hunter, I do not like this high profile, want to play both sides of the ball. Eventually you're going to have to pick a side. I think Caleb Downs is a better corner than Travis Hunter. I think he's one of the best college players I've seen in the backfield. I'm not kidding when I say this. I was told by an NFL general manager that Calum Downs will be the number one pick next year. He said, I don't care who improves. He goes outside of a star quarterback and we may have one. If Drew Aller at Penn State flourishes, he may come out this year, next year, whatever. But Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs and they're not eligible for the draft. Those guys are not college players. They're pros playing on Saturday. So my takeaway is Ohio State has two players, one on both sides. They're just not college players. I felt this about Jamar Chase at lsu. It's like, okay, that's not a college player. It's a pro playing on Saturdays. If he was a basketball player, he'd be in the NBA.
- [09:21]
Colin Cowherd
I think the problem with Travis Hunter and I saw Dion say this within the last month, do not draft him if you don't embrace him playing both ways because that's the game plan. And to me, Deion not only speaks as his coach, it feels like he speaks as his parent, feels like he speaks as his agent. Like that's his representation for Travis Hunter. And I do think that's going to be complicated because he is truly dead set on that. And based on what he's doing in college. I understand that mindset. I don't believe it can work because of the wear and tear.
- [09:47]
John Middelkoff
Same.
- [09:48]
Colin Cowherd
But like you say, those other two guys just have defined roles. It's very defined because my thing with Travis Hunter is if you're my best corner, my best wide receiver, if you get injured, I lose two players. You know, where those other guys, you also get rest. So I. Yeah, I hear you. The Jeremiah Smith thing, I don't remember seeing a wide receiver this dominant this early where his body type was that physically developed. Yeah, I mean, it reminds me look so big.
- [10:14]
John Middelkoff
When I was a sportscaster in Las Vegas, I covered Larry Johnson, the basketball player at unlv. And that was before weightlifting was a part of sports in general. I mean, it was out there, but it wasn't like basketball players weren't spending a lot of time in the gym. Larry Johnson was so physically dominant that at the college level you got 26 points just on putbacks, just on second opportunities. He weighed 45 pounds more than other forwards and was stronger than all of them. So I just look. And here's the thing about Will Howard. I mean, to me, he's a big strong kid who's mobile, so he's a draftable player. You know, I saw him play at Kansas State. I thought, that's a big strong kid. Now you give him star players. I don't know if he's an NFL starter, but I think right now Ohio State has the best combination of coaching and talent. Whether they have better talent than Georgia or, or, or Texas, you know, who knows? But last year Michigan only had like three five star guys. Alabama had like 18. You know, Georgia has 15 over the last couple years. So talent's hard to do. You get the most out of your talent. But I don't think we're overreacting to say that the last two games, Ohio State's hitting harder, they're more explosive. They don't look these, these games, they're intimidating. Oregon, they intimidated Tennessee. They looked like Tyson at 21 years old, like other big men feared him in the ring. Ohio State looks, I think Oregon like surrendered about eight minutes in. It was like it was over.
- [11:52]
Colin Cowherd
Well, the irony was when the other game ended and you came right to the game and it was seven nothing and you're like, whoa, where this. There's a minute into the game. And then Fowler was like, yeah, it was a two play, 70 yard drive. You're like, oh, that's going to be a problem. But we had just seen the same thing with Texas, and then they slowed down immediately. Ohio State, their foot never came off the pedal. I do wonder if after, because they tried to get into a heavyweight fight with Michigan instead of just slinging the rock around where Michigan wouldn't slow him down, and they lost and it bit them. And I think everyone called out their manhood and their toughness. Like, you think you're a tough program. We've seen you against this Harbaugh level operation. And I would say Michigan still has that soul in them, the way they play, and you're not as tough as them. And they go, we are a tough team. We've paid a premium for all these guys. I mean, you see the physicality and the speed in which they have, and it's almost like they got to reset and take it personally because they've come out with a violence that you just haven't seen in college football.
- [12:48]
John Middelkoff
I mean, I think one perfect word is violent. They look violent defensively.
- [12:53]
Colin Cowherd
We'll see. And hopefully this, you know, Georgia, Notre Dame game actually gets played. But I think there's only one other team that can truly match their violence, and that's Georgia. And we saw them do that. I think the first time they play Texas in Austin, you're like, jesus, that's what Ohio State has come out on defense. Because we know offensively, if they just are playing a B minus, B plus, you know, somewhere in the B, they don't even need an A game. They're going to be hard to beat because they can score points. If their defense is going to look like this, I mean, good luck, because Georgia doesn't have that explosion. Obviously, Notre Dame doesn't have that explosion. Texas, you just can't trust. Their offense just goes through terrible spurts. Penn State I think, is probably the one team would be comfortable because they've seen them, they know their personnel wouldn't be intimidated by them. But that's, they still got a. You know, we got a long way to go before we get that matchup.
- [13:40]
John Middelkoff
Let's, let's talk about Texas 39, Arizona State 31 and double overtime. So let, let's not, let's just start with the targeting infraction that wasn't called and that gave Texas. It was a. That gave Texas an opportunity. Because in my opinion, if they call targeting, which it looked like to me, then Arizona State, do you believe they go on to win the game?
- [14:08]
Colin Cowherd
Well, I think it would have changed, yeah. I mean, it would have dramatically changed the situation.
- [14:13]
John Middelkoff
All right, so targeting, I looked it up. It's forcible contact with an opponent that goes beyond a legal tackle. The rule is intended to reduce concussions. And you can't lead with the crown of your helmet. Well, that's three for three targeting. I almost felt like watching the game that referees didn't want to decide it that the crown of the helmet because if it's forcible contact with an opponent, that goes beyond a legal tackle. Well, a legal tackle, you can't lead with a helmet. It was helmet on helmet. I felt like officials thought, you know what, it wasn't necessarily the crown of the helmet. It was more helmet on helmet. And there are helmet on helmet hits a lot in college football and pro football that aren't called. But I thought the officials. I think in the first quarter, that's more of a targeting. I think in the third quarter it's targeting. I thought in that moment refs were like. It's almost like NBA refs in a playoff game. Game seven, they're going to give you more contact. They do not want the NBA Finals decided at the free throw line.
- [15:17]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, to me, in college football, they call that every time.
- [15:20]
John Middelkoff
Yes.
- [15:20]
Colin Cowherd
I thought they. There was a play earlier in the game or the second half where Arizona State picks yours and the other player last second, the other defender turns his body but still takes out the wide receiver. Massive collision. I think 95% of the time they call that. And I was going to throw up if they had called that because that would have dramatically changed the game as well. And I was surprised, honestly, they didn't. But I think the moment they didn't call that and you could say, well, he turned last, he still took him out, his head flew back. They call that. I watched college football for three straight months. That's called every single, every time, which I hate. I hate targeting because I hate the rule. In general, college football is way more punitive than the NFL because they kick these kids out for a game and then they miss the half of the next game. Most of these guys aren't Ed Reed. They're not going to the NFL. So they only get to start a couple of years in college. I think we have moved past this point of five, 10 years ago, the CTE, the lawsuits, it has been coached out of the game. No one is trying to injure anybody. And I think all this stuff, it's. The game is played so quickly. We saw it a couple weeks ago when Trevor Lawrence slid and the dude from the Houston Texans, Elshire, took him out. No one's trying to hurt anybody. These things, it's so easy to judge everything from your couch. This has been coached out of the game, actively coached out of the game, from the lowest levels up through the NFL. I think we need to get rid of it. Honestly, in general, I hate even having these debates. It should just be like forever. It wasn't called. And then they overreacted because of the CTE lawsuits. And now the level of hard hits to me are so few and far between. And even when they happen, it's more just because you have two athletes running at rapid speed. And that play when yours was was picked and that kid ran into him like what was he supposed to do? Float away? And even on the Texas kid, the ball's tipped like he's not trying to hurt him, he's just trying to tackle him, he's trying to make a play.
- [17:14]
John Middelkoff
You and I, I just think we.
- [17:15]
Colin Cowherd
Need to get rid of that rule in general. I freaking hate it.
- [17:18]
John Middelkoff
Yeah. So I mean you and I both believe it is targeting. We both hate the rule. I wouldn't have called it, but I would never call it. And I hate the punitive nature. In the NFL they experiment with calls in the preseason. They'll over be overly punitive on a call in the preseason in early September. Have you ever noticed that in the NFL if it's a certain call and they're, they're creating it, they'll go really? They'll make a point, a point of emphasis in the preseason in early September and then they'll scale back. In college, you know, you don't before this year, you kick a great player out of a big game, you lose the game, you're done. You can't play for a natty. So you and I both agree is I thought it was targeted.
- [17:56]
Colin Cowherd
Think of the standards too. You're holding 19 and 20 year old guys too. It's like these guys. No one's trying to hurt anybody in 2024. I believe that to my core. So I think we need to get rid of it personally, but I doubt that's going to happen.
- [18:12]
John Middelkoff
Well, it's the most wonderful time of the year for getting in on all the basketball, football, hockey action at DraftKings sportsbook. It's the season of giving, so we're being gifted. College football and basketball, pro football, basketball, pro hockey too. Almost 24 7. It's an absolutely great time of the year. So a lot of games every day. So many opportunities to place your first bet. Now if you're gonna bet for the first time, just make it simple. Pick a team to win any team. Go to DraftKings Sportsbook. They have an app. Download it. Ninety seconds. Here's the gift for all new customers. Bet five bucks. Just five bucks. If your bet wins, you get $150 in bonus bets. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. The code is Colin C O L I N New customers. One hundred and fifty bucks in bonus bets. If you bet five bucks and it wins, happy holidays from DraftKings. Crown is yours.
- [18:57]
Gambling Advisor
Gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler in New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive reward. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG co B Ball.
- [19:29]
T-Mobile Representative
You can count on T Mobile to help keep you connected from big cities to small towns on America's largest 5G network. Switch the T Mobile keep your phone and they'll pay it off up to 800 bucks per line via prepaid card. Learn more@t mobile.com Keep and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service port in 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [20:06]
Eric Zimmer
Inside you, two wolves are locked in battle. One thrives on fear and anger and doubt. The other, courage, wisdom and love. Every decision, every moment feeds one of them. Which wolf are you feeding? I'm Eric Zimmer, host of the One youe Feed. I've been there. Homeless, addicted and lost. I know the power of small choices to turn your life around. On this podcast, I sit down with thinkers, leaders and survivors to uncover what it takes to feed the good wolf.
- [20:48]
Podcast Listener
This podcast saved me. It's like having a guide for the hardest parts of life.
- [20:54]
Eric Zimmer
The wolves are hungry. What will you feed them? Listen to the one you feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [21:06]
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 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [21:51]
John Middelkoff
Two takeaways. First, Kenny Dillingham, who was an offensive coordinator briefly at three schools, is a sensational coach. They had 510 yards. They had 28, 17, first down advantage 97 to 60 play advantage 28 to 17, first down edge. And I don't believe they have a five star athlete. One the level of coaching and you know what I like they don't. I mean Cam Skettable is one division one offer now he's going to end up getting drafted. As you've talked about, this is the best running back draft in a long time. Jesus. I mean good God, the Penn State. Penn State has that Singleton kid. He didn't get talked about instead of Ashton Genty. If Singleton goes to the right team with a better offensive line, he could end up being the better running back in the NFL. So there's just running backs everywhere. But I mean I like Sam Levitt a lot. He's a very young quarterback. He will be a Pro 6, 2 and a half, 210 dual threat, mobile. You know, again you can see him and think, oh that's, that's what a pro is going to look like in two years. I think he's like 20 years old in two years. And so the, so the quarterback's good. But to have that kind of dominance, 37 to 22 minute time advantage when Texas has, I bet you at least 16, 14 to 16, five star guys and 44 star guys. To me, I thought if I was Sark coming out of that game, I'd be a little embarrassed. I thought it was a coaching mismatch.
- [23:22]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, I thought he even kind of mentioned that like that was. We got to play a lot better. He was in his post game interview on the field it looked like he was pretty shell shocked. I mean at one point in time it was 4th and 13. I mean it's basically 4th in Texas or the game's over and then they score that touchdown on that deep ball.
- [23:39]
John Middelkoff
Yeah.
- [23:39]
Colin Cowherd
Geez Louise. You know one thing, you know the Boise State team that we saw play Penn State is not as good as Chris Peterson's Boise teams.
- [23:48]
John Middelkoff
That's right.
- [23:49]
Colin Cowherd
But they just have an all time great player.
- [23:50]
John Middelkoff
Yep.
- [23:51]
Colin Cowherd
This ASU team, the more and more I watched them today, reminded me a Lot of those Chris Peterson teams because probably has more guys that you realize that probably end up going like sixth, seventh round. And they just had a grittiness and a toughness to them. The quarterback was really fantastic. I mean he had to pull plays out of his, you know what, Just to give them an opportunity.
- [24:12]
John Middelkoff
Yeah.
- [24:12]
Colin Cowherd
And that running back, I mean, I thought, listen, the hype on him, this kind of is easy for everyone to latch onto. This white guy running guys over. He might have had the flu or something today because he was clearly sucking some win and throwing up. He single handedly gives them an edge and obviously the double pass, but he was freaking fantastic. And breaking tackles against those guys.
- [24:34]
John Middelkoff
30 carries, 143 yards. I watched him and I thought he's the guy that played for Tampa years ago. The big All Stott.
- [24:46]
Colin Cowherd
Mike Allstott.
- [24:47]
John Middelkoff
Yeah. It's like he is a. There's a Mike Allstot component. I think he's got a little better speed. Maybe he doesn't, but he's a kid. I think he's out of like Sacramento or something. He had like one scholarship offer that is a pro. But I think Dillingham, you know, he grew up Chandler, Arizona. He always wanted to be Arizona State's coach. This is his dream job. This is not a stepping stone. Like this is the job he always wanted. And it's cool because I think Arizona State's always been one of those programs we think is a little bit of a sleeping giant. Like why aren't they better? And I think they found they're Chris Peterson. I think they found a brilliant coach. But the Texas thing, and I wrote this down and listen, Sark, Saban loved him. Washington had a good AD that loved him. USC hired him. Texas is ad. Crista Conte is maybe the smartest AD in the country. Smart people hire Sark. Okay, John, like three schools with big football brands have hired him. NFL teams liked him. Saban loved him. We know he's a good coach, but one of the things. And we know he can scheme plays. I mean, they have, I thought today they had a couple of different crisis situations where they had good scheme plays. But I will say his teams feel loose. So it's easy from a couch, from somebody to say he's overrated. But if Saban thinks you're a good coach and he won assistant of the year in college under Saban and he's had three different programs hire him and again, he may end up in the national, you know, I mean, this, this guy is in the right Spot, Right. He's, he's in the playoff. How do you define him? My knock on him is that his teams always look loose, like they're just not buttoned up. Which is interesting because he coached under Saban, who's the opposite. That, that's my take. And I don't know, I don't know what his comp is but I just feel like too many times on the passing game, it's a jump ball. Like he doesn't have defined reads too often. It's just like let's just get better players and throw a ball at the sideline. Is that yours or Sark?
- [27:03]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah. To me I've been as critical and Sark as anyone over the years. I bet an astronomical amount of money when my guy DeBoer played him last year and I thought that was it should have been easier. But I'm going to defend him here. I think you can look at Ewers box score. It doesn't look that bad. He's 20 of 33, 22. To me he's a liability. And I just, I mean for, for the talent that they have. Because the one knock you've had on Sark, if you've just watched them coach over the years, like ah, kind of a soft operation. A little like Lincoln Riley. Well, he pivoted pretty well. Use that checkbook. Their defense is not soft. I mean look today, I mean the way they got back into the game was a freak double pass where the guy's covered and he comes back scatter boo under throws him. You know, I, I, the kicker missed a couple kicks. I mean it hadn't he been nails all season long?
- [27:50]
John Middelkoff
Yeah.
- [27:50]
Colin Cowherd
So it's, it's a little freakish the way they came back. I mean that game was one for the ages with the stuff. I think you look at Quinn yours, who again if you just look at the box score doesn't look that terrible. This a national championship roster without a national championship quarterback. I actually think Sark has grown a lot. I think he tries to call plays around this player sometimes. I think he gets into situations where he doesn't trust them. You know, that's the thing with Dillingham. Like they have full trust in that court. Doesn't have a choice. You know, I think sometimes just like, hey we could just run some bubble screens. Our athletes are better than your athletes. Right. And sometimes for whatever reason how this team 53 yards rushing. 53 yards rushing against ASU like you would think with the amount of talent they have on their offensive line and the talent they have at running back. If you would have said, what do they rush for coming into this ASU game, I would have said easily 140 yards. And they just had. It wasn't working. They just abandoned it. And ASU sell it out. Like make Quinn Ewers beat us, which ironically kind of did in the overtime because you didn't cover anyone in the end zone. But for most part, the reason they got back into it, the interception. How many times this year have Texas been in a position where they can really put the nail in the coffin and Quinn Ewers turns the ball over or they're down in a game against George, they're coming back and he turns the ball over. There. There is just an element of. I mean, if he was an NFL player, he would be highly, highly criticized. And I would imagine the Texas Reddit community and the football community, he's a pretty polarizing guy. And everyone's like, we're going to archbanding next year. No if, ands or buts about it. If I was a Texas fan, I'd be like, why is he just playing right now? Because if he's as good as everyone says he's going to be and he's a Manning, I mean, who. The only team that I've seen that could even remotely play with us would be Ohio State. We can't beat Ohio State with this player. That's what I would be thinking. And there's a loyalty. And listen, I think this is where coaches sometimes are different than personnel people, definitely different fans. They're very loyal to a guy. Clearly him and Quinn have a long standing relationship now. He's rode with them this long. They've had a lot of success. Right. Last year they were in the playoffs. This year they're now in the Final Four. But man, I think you have this great. I mean, their defense, how many of those guys look like NFL players? I mean, they have freshmen that look like they're going to be top 10 picks. And what are they going to be against Ohio State? Would you guess? Six point underdog?
- [30:01]
John Middelkoff
Oh, yeah, I would. That's a. That's a great question. I. I would take Ohio State -6 to me. I wouldn't take Texas until we got into like seven and a half. Yeah, you know, it's just funny these.
- [30:18]
Colin Cowherd
So I thought it was a great offense. Texas offense has been their problem. Their defense for the most part this year has been fantastic. And to me, it's not Sark. It's the quarterback. Because the quarterback is Just not that good relative to what they, their standard and the way they're playing. I mean if they had some of these quarterbacks that we've seen in college football over the years, the guys Bama has had, the Joe Burrows, the Trevor Lawrence's, I mean I think this, we would be looking at Texas and Ohio State like equals. But when you have a quarterback who's just not. I mean that picky through was just terrible. And even who is Jesse Palmer's like, you can't put that much air under the ball. And ASU's DBs are not, you know, Deion Sanders, Ned Reed back there. You just make it too easy. And he does it all the time. His, his interceptions are really, really bad.
- [31:04]
John Middelkoff
Yeah. Penn State 31, Boise State 14. Boise State for the record, had the ball in the red zone. I counted four times, it could have been five and didn't get any points. So Penn State gave them multiple opportunities to make that game much closer. Boise State had a. That was called back because of a holding penalty. So it was 31 to 14, but it was, it didn't look like a blowout. I mean there was multiple opportunities for.
- [31:34]
Colin Cowherd
It was a good game.
- [31:35]
John Middelkoff
It was a good game. So it's really interesting. So first of all, Carter is a top five player. He got banged up. Great player. Nick Singleton, who was like Gatorade player of the year in high school. He's going to be a stud. Pro running back Drew Aller is fascinating. Big guy, big arm. There are stories out there that NFL scouts think he may still go pro and many say he would go number one simply on arm strength and size. I look at Penn State and I have great respect for the program, but they remind me a little bit of a poor man's Ohio State. They're just never quite. They don't have quite as many NFL guys. They're just not quite as good. People criticize James Franklin, but the guy wanted Vandy. So he's fine. He's a great recruiter. Can Penn State win the Natty.
- [32:30]
Colin Cowherd
I think they'd need Carter to be healthy because early in that game he had one pass rusher like, holy, that looks like Micah Parsons in number 11. And then when you go with the other guys, I told you, I think last week, I think they could win the whole thing. But he's. I mean you lose a top five player, I don't care how good your recruiting is, it's pretty damn good. That, that'd be a big blow. But how good does Warren look? The running Backs look fantastic. The quarterbacks playing great is do you just trust James Franklin? I think the one thing we saw with ASU and Boise, there's a grittiness and a toughness that just. Even Ohio State, Ohio State showing it now, but they go for a long period of time without it because they don't need it. Yeah, Boise State for 25 years is built on that. And I think Kenny Dillingham has brought that to Arizona State. And that's why they can go toe to toe with a team where they don't have one guy that would start for the other team. I mean, that's, that's truly. If you remove Genty, which, I mean, Genti would technically start for Penn State, but they would rotate the other guys in.
- [33:27]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, Singleton. Singleton's a great running back. Yeah.
- [33:31]
Colin Cowherd
So I actually learned more about Genti in that game than I do with some of his 250 yard games against New Mexico. Running over Penn State, it was an impressive, just gritty effort by the guy running for every yard was contested. Running his ass off. He's a, he's a big time player.
- [33:45]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, he, he doesn't fumble, but he did twice in this game and that's freaky. Yeah, he only averaged three and a half yards of carry. I think part of Genti strength, I mean, I don't put him in the class of Zeke or Saquon. Adrian Peterson or McCaffrey is an NFL first round running back. I don't. He'll go first round because it's a.
- [34:02]
Colin Cowherd
Weak draft, but he's 5, 8. I mean, that's kind of a, you know, it's not ideal.
- [34:06]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, I think his strength is that he is so small and so powerful. He is hard. You know, like with running backs, you don't want a 6, 2 running back. I think he's hard to get that pad level low enough to get him a shot. And so what you end up doing when you tackle him, it's almost always arm tackles because he's five, eight. So when he lowers he. So when he runs and lowers his head, it's like tackling a five, five and a half guy. He always has the center of gravity and he always has sort of leverage on you, hips down. And so it's like Penn State guys held him to three and a half yards of carry, but he broke so many arm tackles. And so it's like I look at him as a first round running back in a weak draft. I don't look at him as an NFL superstar. I don't Think he has the juice of Saquon. I don't think he has the strength or speed of Adrian Peterson. I don't think he's as talented as McCaffrey, who's also small. I think part of the package with him is you just can't get under him and his size is. And I think in the NFL he'll have success. But I don't know. As I watch him, my take is he'll need the right fit in the NFL to be a star. But he is a starter.
- [35:20]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah. Well, to me, he's going to get drafted really high. I think he's going to be a good player in the NFL. I would struggle, you know, if, let's say somewhere between 15 and 25. I think a lot of people think that's the range he's going to get picked. Well, if I'm drafting 20th and then my next pick is 50th, why wouldn't I? If I could take a corner or an offensive lineman at 20th, I can get one of these other good running backs at 50th. So it's kind of supply, demand. It's always why a lot of people. Why did Jim Harbaugh take the tackle at five and then take lad McConkey in the second round? Because there's a ton of wide receivers in every draft. So I'm going to get a guy that starts in the second round. We see it every year with wide receivers. Like, you know, would you take a wide receiver in the top 10? Well, if I'm drafting after you, I hope you do so I can take another position. I can take a wide receiver later. So, I mean, every game I watch Henderson for Ohio State, he's an NFL player. All these teams have NFL players at running back. So why would I take a running back in the first round if I think I get 95% or 90% of that guy? Maybe in the third round if I get Scatter Boo. Scatter Boo is going to run like a 4, 7, 5. What if I can get that guy in the third? Right. You don't think Jim Harbaugh is going to like Scatter Boo? Does that guy have Charger written all over him?
- [36:29]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, well, I mean, it's. I think I told you this recently. Woody Marks for USC is their best back since Reggie Bush. He may be a fifth round back now. Maybe Genti's better than him. He's not that much better than him. Like, it is a loaded. I mean, this, this Singleton kid at Penn State was the National Gatorade player of the year was the Big Ten freshman of the year. He Singleton is again, I don't know his measurables but he's like 6ft 227.
- [36:59]
Colin Cowherd
Look small to me with a burst.
- [37:02]
John Middelkoff
It's like if anybody dropped in the first round I could see genty dropping. Not because he's not good but because of the depth of the position.
- [37:11]
Colin Cowherd
You know, the one thing, yeah, I'm with you. I just think it's if he measures in at 5, 8, you know, remember Darren Sprouls who was as dominant of a college player in the last 25 years as there was now times have changed a lot with size but he was same thing. 5, 7, 5 8. He went in the fourth round. Now that modern day player would go much higher. It is difficult to pull the trigger on a guy in the teens or the low 20s. That is five, eight, no matter how dominant he is, you know. And again I think that teams are going to hesitate. They're going to really like I haven't texted a scout that doesn't love the player but that height thing is just something with GMs and coaches that is just. That's where Drew Aller right now, today, you know, I know Drew Aller has committed to go back to school, right. Which is worth millions of dollars, I'm sure. I would say a month ago he was not viewed as a lock first round pick. I don't see how he would not go in the first round today. I don't know what pick he would be a first rounder. Right?
- [38:06]
John Middelkoff
No question. No question.
- [38:09]
Colin Cowherd
So now we start going, well, we know quarterback inflation, they go higher, people are going to nitpick These other two quarterbacks, I mean he's bigger, he's stronger and now he's playing really well under the brightest lights. He wins another game, he's playing with all these other guys. Abdul, Carter, if he's healthy, he's going in the top five or six picks. How much is Warren helped his draft stock the second half of this year? I mean that guy's going to be. It's not a great draft. You're telling me he can't go in the top 10 or 12 picks?
- [38:35]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, I mean if you count Aller, Singleton, Carter and Warren, those are four star players. So the idea can they win a national championship? I don't know. I feel like they're a little bit of a poor man's Ohio State. But again, I mean how many games in a row can Ohio State play perfect football? There is something to be said. I mean Ohio State now looks like the world's best team. It is hard to play at this level for that long.
- [39:03]
T-Mobile Representative
You can count on T Mobile to help keep you connected from big cities to small towns on America's largest 5G network. Switch the T Mobile keep your phone and they'll pay it off up to 800 bucks per line via prepaid card. Learn more@t mobile.com heap and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service port in 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier. Timely redemption required. Cart has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [39:40]
Eric Zimmer
Inside you, two wolves are locked in battle. One thrives on fear and anger and doubt. The other courage, wisdom and love. Every decision, every moment feeds one of them. Which wolf are you feeding? I'm Eric Zimmer, host of the One youe Feed. I've been there, homeless, addicted and lost. I know the power of small choices to turn your life around. On this podcast, I sit down with thinkers, leaders and survivors to uncover what it takes to feed the good wolf.
- [40:22]
Podcast Listener
This podcast saved me. It's like having a guy for the hardest parts of life.
- [40:28]
Eric Zimmer
The wolves are hungry. What will you feed them? Listen to the one you feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [40:40]
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 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [41:24]
John Middelkoff
I want to do three NFL Topics Number one Saquon Barkley. They're not going to play him in the final game. So I've said this before, John. I'm not an awards guy. I'm not. I just don't care. I mean, I just do not. I don't know how many Pro Bowls and all pros Tom Brady have he. I know his Super Bowls, so I don't care. I don't think most athletes care. If my athletes care too much about Pro Bowls, unless they have bonuses, I'm worried about them. I would not play Saquon. I didn't like Them feeding him the ball 31 times. The only position left in football, college or pro, that you can hit anybody, anywhere, anytime is a running back coming through the line if you hit. Nobody's going to throw a targeting foul if a running back squeezes through and you go helmet to helmet from the side. So to me, it's the last position in football that's a little bit of a pinata. And you have to consider that when they play. I remember years ago, Leonard Fernett and McCaffrey bowed out of bowl games and I said, quarterback, bother me. Star receiver. I'd wonder if he's soft. Running back in the Liberty Bowl. Bow out. I got your back. So I don't have a problem at all with Saquon and the Eagles decision, do you?
- [42:44]
Colin Cowherd
No, Wolf. If I'm the Eagles, my quarterback's already got concussion and you know, I don't even know if it's. He's officially cleared a week and a half out. The two guys that I can't afford to get injured are my left tackle and my right tackle. Lane Johnson surely is not going to play in this game. And the left tackle, the Australian guy, my Lotta, I doubt he's going to play either. So right off the bat, my star quarterback and the running element with him and Saquon is a huge, you know, addition to our success. And my two star offensive linemen are out and I'm going to play my running back in week in a game that up until. How long have we been playing? This last game for an extra three years didn't even exist. So we already won. We stole him from the Giants for not much money. And no one will ever forget when we probably got everyone in the Giants fired and he ran for 2,000 yards. You know, football's not really a record sport. What's the most record for yards? No one could tell me the exact yardage. No one cares. But if you run for 2,000 yards, like that's a historic moment. They already got the record. Even if it doesn't actually count. It happened stolen from the Giants. He ran from two. It was one of the great wins of all time. Howie, the Eagles, Sirianni Saquon. This was a home run. Can you imagine if you were going for this record, which is not apples to apples because they did not play the same amount of games. We can argue should we care or not. It is kind of a big deal if you didn't. It was a genty Barry Sanders thing. It was like, well, he played way more games than Barry Sanders. But if Saquon Barkley broke his ankle in a game that literally means nothing, even if other guys were playing, how would the only thing that matters, the only thing that mattered from the start of the season for the Eagles was January. We all knew that they were going to get there. And then actually they got way hotter than we thought. And it's like, God, they're incredible. But if he got injured in this moment, or let's say Lane Johnson got injured in the game trying to get him the record, this is, there's too much on the line. This team has been building this thing for three or four years to get this good. They won, Collin. Like they. The Giants lost, they won.
- [44:45]
John Middelkoff
Baseball is the record sport. Basketball is the aesthetic sport. There's a beauty and an art to it. Football's about winning, always has been, always will be. It's about winning and you protect your best players as they keep lengthening the season. Now there's 17 games within two years. My guess is we have 18 games. The one position I'm going to try and protect and you know, is running back. And it's interesting, a couple years ago people were saying running backs have no future. You know, the winner in an 18 game schedule, John, is running backs. I think every team will carry another running back. You won't carry another, you won't carry another Mike linebacker. I think every team now will say, probably need another running back on the roster. And I do think with 18 games, roster expansion will happen. And I'm going to want an extra, I mean, let's be honest, I'm going to want an extra running back, probably an extra offensive lineman and maybe an extra linebacker because of the hits they, you know, they incur. But running backs are doing quite fine. The league has obviously pivoted to more of a running league with many of the best teams. So I know everybody was freaking out about that, but running backs are back.
- [45:53]
Colin Cowherd
Did you see a story floating around there on the Internet? I don't know how much validity there is to this, but I know that, listen, it's, it's pro sports. A lot of money in the line. I've heard crazier is that the jets would entertain going all in and making Howie Roseman basically the czar of football. And I don't know if this is even possible. Offering him equity and obviously making him paid because even if GMs make a lot, they make six, seven million dollars. We have some of these coaches make a double, triple that. Yeah, you know, so, and how he's Got a lot of juice. But listen, you, you, you pay me $20 million a year. You know, GMs don't usually get leveraged like coaches that often to really put the hammer down and get paid. So listen, this could be a little bit of a leverage play by Howie who's, you know, him and Tannenbaum are closer. Just. If I was the Jets, I'd take a Hail Mary on a guy like Howie to be, you know, he's from Brooklyn. That's where he grew up. I was like, yeah, I think if you're Woody Johnson that you could do way worse than that.
- [46:50]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, I mean, I, over the course of my life, I'm 60 years old now. Over the course of my life, one thing has been universally true. There's very little great. And when you get great, you never let it go. You build around great. And Howie Roseman feels like he's in a class by himself. And that includes other GMs I like. He's the most aggressive.
- [47:12]
Colin Cowherd
He's leading his job for sure.
- [47:14]
John Middelkoff
And I just think there aren't many people like that. So, you know, I mean, great endures great separates. And I don't care if it's. If you're, you know, a firm in New York, on Wall street, if you have a great stockbroker, you can get me three good ones. They don't equal one great one. So to me, Howie Roseman, if, if he broke the bank, would deserve it. Okay, let's go two more topics. Brock Purdy. So you're obviously an NFL scout and whenever, you know, I tend to let you lead on that stuff because it's what you do and know much more about it. I've never been a huge Purdy fan. I have kind of a base belief that if the great quarterbacks are not if quarterbacks. Joe Burl's great battle line, shitty defense coach can't figure the clock out. He wins and he produces. You're not always going to win if you don't have good people around you, but you'll be wildly productive. Burrow is a great example of that. Even Herbert finally has a good coach, but he was breaking rookie records as a rookie with a bad coach in the 32nd ranked offensive line. Purdy to me has always been an if quarterback. If the protection's good, if he's got a lead, he's, he's. Now I think we have to acknowledge he is not a good fourth quarter quarterback. He's not a good quarterback. Trailing now. That's not, that's not six Games or eight. It's a pretty big sample now. And I do think the separator in this league beyond some traits, size, movement, hand size, arm, but beyond some of that is how do you play from behind? Some guys have it, some don't. I could not pay Purdy early. I could not pay him a number at five. But he's going to have leverage because Trey Lance didn't work if the Vikings franchise. Darnold, what do you do? Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, as somebody who has done this for a living, as somebody who was a fan of Purdy and has peeled back a little bit, if you ran the Niners, what do you do? Do you draft Riley Leonard in the third round and just. I mean, what do you do?
- [49:21]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, to me, I just played out another year and I think as concerning as the two interceptions were, and they were bad interceptions in a game that an interception lost the game, one interception was going to lose the game. Jared Goff couldn't afford to do it. Purdy couldn't afford to do it and he threw two. And even Kyle admitted after the game, we lost the game with the two turnovers. That was the type game we were in. His elbow nerve issue, like, I don't think that he has a nerve issue with his hand just randomly with the UCL thing. A couple of years ago now, luckily he didn't tear his UCL but he's already had Tommy John and then he has, I would say a relatively, I don't want to say innocuous, might be a little light. But he was not throttled. They kind of. He tackled him as he was rolling. It wasn't just. He didn't just get Molly Whop sitting there in the pocket and he couldn't grip it. And he said his arm was on fire. Right. So you're telling me your arm's on fire, you can't grip it when you've already had an elbow issue? That would gravely concern me, Colin. So the play had already really disturbed me. The second half performance this year had not been good. Specifically these last three games. They were 6 and 7 in that Rams game. They win it, boom, they're playing Miami, they're playing this game, they have a chance to make the playoffs and he throws five interceptions or four interceptions. Two picks that lose the Miami game and the Rams game, and then the two interceptions in this last game. So the game's kind of unraveled on his watch. The other thing is over the middle of the field sometimes when the pocket's a little muddied, I don't think he can see that well. And sometimes I think balls balloon on him and he gets lucky. Sometimes Kittle's tall and can make some miraculous catches. But some of his picks happen when Debo, little shorter guy, not able to, you know, overcorrect in the air and balls fly and his picks feel like he did throw the one to Juwan out outside. A lot of them in the middle of the field. It goes back to last year and I do think that's an eye issue. Can't see. If you can't see, you let it go and you're like, oh shit. But he doesn't know that when there are guys in front of him and this notion he. Everyone's like, well, he's having a great game. Well, the Ram or excuse me, the Lions defense was a practice squad unit beside two or three players.
- [51:28]
John Middelkoff
That's right.
- [51:29]
Colin Cowherd
And he was eviscerating him, which is. He's a good player. I hope so. Everyone's been eviscerating them. But then the picks happen in the fourth quarter that just can't. I've told you before, he's got to hang his hat on decision making because his skill set is not going to be outrageously special here.
- [51:46]
John Middelkoff
I'm going to throw this at you and this is one of my favorite topics in all sports is cultural changes. So you and I both admit that guys like Drew Bledsoe or a more recent events example, Carson Palmer, they didn't have seven on seven camps. They didn't have 10,000 throws by the time they were 12 years old. These kids are better now and faster at quarterback is. There's a cultural shift happening with quarterbacks. If you go Back to the 2018 draft class now, that's the one I think with Darnold Baker, Lamar, Josh.
- [52:23]
Colin Cowherd
Lamar, Josh.
- [52:24]
John Middelkoff
Okay, so four guys who are stats. So. And that's not the only draft class that that's happened in. We also had the Herbert Tua Burrow draft class. I think Jalen Hurts was second round in that draft class. I may be wrong, but I think he was. We now have, you and I growing up. They always talked about that one great draft class. Oh, Marino and Elway since 2018. Now we have multiple quarterback draft classes where four guys hit four okay. Like it's now a regular occurrence. This is a weak draft class. Last year's. We may have the best draft class ever last year. Jaden's unbelievable. Bonix is good. Penix looks good in brief duty. Caleb's a sensational talent. Drake May will be good when he gets players. And J.J. mcCarthy looked unbelievable in the preseason. We may have a five for five. So you go back to the Darnold Baker, Lamar Josh class. You go to the Herbert Tua Jalen Hurtsborough class. You go to this last class. This is a weak class. But now we have three draft classes. You're getting four high end starters or more. And my take is next year if you really do your homework, I think Riley Leonard's going to be the late mid round guy that pops this year. Maybe I'm wrong, but somebody I think will pop third, fourth round. I think it's Notre Dame's quarterback. Next year is supposed to be a much better quarterback, especially if Drew Aller comes out next year is. What about this? You just roll the dice and say we're not signing Darnold to a huge deal. Aaron doesn't interest us, Cousins isn't playing well, we're not signing Purdy. And you just roll the dice and say we're going to have. We think it's going to be another four quarterback draft class. I know that you don't like to do that, but you know, as scouts, you're two years ahead of where I'm at. I think culturally we're just getting these four quarterback classes on a regular basis. Why not roll the dice?
- [54:34]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, I mean my thing specifically with Purdy is the NFL I grew up on. It was like, okay, we're not paying you right now. Play it out. And that kind of has dropped by the wayside these last four or five years. The teams kind of get pushed around by the agents. Why can't you go, we got one more year of a contract. We're going to play it out. You're making millions off the field. You benefit from being the starting quarterback of the 49ers. If you're a great player and you're a $50 million player. I just saw their schedule came out. They're playing a last play schedule. The 49ers should dominate. The other thing is what make Kyle Shanahan so special. One with Jimmy Garoppolo, one with Brock Purdy. Should he be able to find some other guy to win with? Right. I mean, it's like if you're not going to get a Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, you should just be able to win with any kind of quarterback at a pretty decent clip. Your team's pretty good. So I'm with you. I would personally just roll it out another year, but it feels like these teams and you Talk to some of these contract negotiators now. They say it has turned into a little bit more, you know, the players, because the money's so big now that they're so hesitant to like you. I'm not going to show up. Which we've always seen some holdouts. They are a lot more prevalent now because even a random player is getting 60, $70 million guaranteed. And, you know, these quarterbacks, at minimum are getting $150 million guaranteed. But I would play hardball, especially if he's injured. It's the conversations made already. It's like, yeah, we can't sign an injured player or there's question marks about the injury. So I've said forever. The 49ers drive a hard bargain. I. I'd be stunned if this thing is easy. And I think everything's on the table right now. I think Kyle, you know, I think they were so desperate for the Trey Lance thing, and it blew up in their face. And I think that's kind of a one off that 2020 draft with the COVID that it's. We're not going to see anything like that again. And I think he feels comfortable with this, but I think he's not an idiot. Like, he kind of. You saw his face when Purdy threw one of those picks. And he puts the thing over because he knows Monday Night Football. He doesn't want to go viral. Of him just going nuts. Who knows what he was saying. But he did that specifically to cover his mouth because he was like, we can't. How can you throw that ball? He was hanging his hat on it up here. Like he was going to be like a Drew Brees with a little more mobility. Drew Brees separating factor was decision making, right? Some of these other guys can get away with some dumb throws because they also make 10 incredible throws. Purdy has to not turn the ball over and four turnovers the last three games with their season on the line in winnable games, it'd be one thing if you're down 20 or up 20, like these are tie game, you're playing the best. And the one thing I do respect why I think the NFL is just crushing. Lions had nothing to play for whether they won or lost. That game. Minnesota game meant the same thing. The 49ers are dead and gone, season's over. And you had all these star players playing that game like it's means everything to them. And it was just like, I just. I just enjoy the level of spirit and energy that the star players in this league give us on a weekly basis. I mean, the Lions have one of the biggest games in the franchise's history coming up in six games. They have to fly five hours home in the middle of the night. They're at a huge disadvantage and their guys laid it on the line like that was a playoff game. I mean, that's if anyone wonders why the NFL is king. You turn on Monday Night Football. Everyone knows game means nothing definitely for the 49ers. And it's like these team teams are throwing the kitchen sink at each other.
- [58:01]
T-Mobile Representative
You can count on T Mobile to help keep you connected from big cities to small towns on America's largest 5G network. Switch the T Mobile, keep your phone and they'll pay it off up to 800 bucks per line via prepaid card. Learn more@t mobile.com heap and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service port in 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [58:37]
Eric Zimmer
Inside you, two wolves are locked in battle. One thrives on fear and anger and doubt. The other courage, wisdom and love. Every decision, every moment feeds one of them. Which wolf are you feeding? I'm Eric Zimmer, host of the One youe Feed. I've been there. Homeless, addicted and lost. I I know the power of small choices to turn your life around. On this podcast, I sit down with thinkers, leaders and survivors to uncover what it takes to feed the good wolf.
- [59:19]
Podcast Listener
This podcast saved me. It's like having a guide for the hardest parts of life.
- [59:25]
Eric Zimmer
The wolves are hungry. What will you feed them? Listen to the one you feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you you get your podcasts.
- [59:37]
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 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [60:22]
John Middelkoff
Finally, Chris Ballard, probably in some trouble as the GM of the Colts. So you know, it's interesting because I think he hired the right coach in Shane Steichen. I don't think they Had a choice on quarterback. I mean, listen, when Jim Ursay impulsively told them to get rid of Carson Wentz after he had 27 touchdowns and seven picks because he had a bad game against the Jags down in Florida, which the Colts have played poorly there for years, it put Chris Balder and the entire organization behind the eight ball. I think the Colts are one of those teams that we think are well run because Ballard does a really good job, but they're not because basically Irsay is one of the more impulsive owners. He's likable, but his personal life is well documented. And when I look at that franchise, I think that Carson Wentz, they had to go and get Philip Rivers, and they've been basically bailing water. They've had the worst quarterback luck. Andrew Luck retires right before a season. You're effed. Carson Wentz, owner tells you, get rid of him. But he's a big, strong, mobile guy who had a good season. Get rid of him. Philip Rivers was the least athletic quarterback in the league, but again, they won with him. And Anthony Richardson, he was available. They didn't want to give away the farm for a quarterback. We had questions coming in, and he can't complete a high enough level of passes. And it's one thing to be talented and get off to a slow start. Caleb Williams, we know he's talented. We know he struggled. Anthony Richardson, he was a total question mark, not a great college quarterback, and now he's struggling here. I think you have to cut ties with him. I don't think it's a Chris Ballard issue. I think if they. I think if this team had C.J. stroud even, it made the 8th best quarterback in the league. I think they're a playoff team, but I think it wears on a team when you have to constantly overcome a quarterback. And I think in that Giants game, you saw it, you constantly, literally, as a coaching staff, I mean, you talked about this with. With Sark and Quinn Ewers. I watched the Colts and they coach around Anthony Richardson. And I think that when you do that, you can win games, but you will eventually have stinkers. You're just constantly coaching around the most important position. I have a relationship with Ballard. I like him. I like the roster. Do you think he survives?
- [62:46]
Colin Cowherd
I mean, I think everything's on the table after this week when McAfee puts out the tweet and then their coach admits to, yeah, guys are showing up late. But, hey, guys show up late. It's like, no, they actually don't. You Think guys are showing up late to Andy Reid's meetings or Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVeigh's meetings. And if they do, there aren't heavy repercussions. So they clearly have kind of a loosey goosey ship. And to me, that's less. That's on the coach.
- [63:11]
John Middelkoff
Yeah.
- [63:11]
Colin Cowherd
When it comes to meetings and stuff. And you just wonder, this transition from being a coordinator, which he was a hot shot coordinator, and being the lead guy, everything's on the table. When the quarterback taps out of the game and that becomes the biggest controversy in the NFL, you have to answer for that three times a week instead of the coordinator just once. Like, that's your problem. How do you handle it? Do you bench them? It's all your decision. When a guy gets in trouble, when a guy says something stupid on a podcast, it's on the defensive side of the ball. And I do just wonder if Shane Steich is a little bit over his head as a head coach. Because when a story comes out that he had that, hey, you guys are showing up late. You're like, God, you better shoot that down. And then, yeah, we've had guys show up late. But hey, people show up late all over the place. No, I don't think so, like, because I think that snowballs into other things. Then are you not practicing well or guys screwing around? And I think this all gets back to the Anthony Richardson tap out thing. People questioning, like, he gets injured a lot, but are they serious injuries? There's all. And no one really knows what's going on. And they feel like they've taken on back to what you say. Jim Ursay's personality. Well, unreliable and who knows what the hell's going to happen.
- [64:17]
John Middelkoff
Listen, Norv Turner, everybody loves Norv Turner. Jimmy Johnson swears by him. Troy Aikman swears by him. Could never do it as a head coach. And he was a brilliant, brilliant coordinator. There are guys, you know, you see it in politics. Some guys are vice presidents, some guys are presidents. You see it all the time. A guy will be a great sales manager at a company, but you wouldn't want him running the company. You know, he's a little loose, a little late night, but he's a great sales guy. And it's quite possible that Shane Steichen is one of these sort of modern coaches that is softer on players. He's pro players. I mean, Brandon Staley was a very good defensive coordinator. I mean, the Rams defense was excellent. He was a disaster. And it just got worse and worse. And Worse and the details and it got looser and looser. And I think, you know, it's quite possible that Steichen, like I've said this about Ben Johnson. I think Ben Johnson is a great coordinator. Now, it is easier when you have like eight Pro bowl players on your offense. And I don't when I see him talk and when I listen to him, I don't see. I've said this about Mike McDaniel. I don't see a culture changer and a leader of men. What I see is a really smart guy. And by the way, Mike McDaniels is a very modern, progressive pro player. Coach, what's our knock in Miami? They're soft. Shane Steichen, modern, progressive guy. What's our knock on him? Pro player. He's soft. So I think there is this hard ass component to football coaches. This Harbaugh Vrabel, this sort of intense Tomlin Belichick that still stands true. Like, yeah, I said this the other day, very rarely do these culture changer coaches flail. They don't all have great seasons, but very rarely do you hire a culture changer. And it's a disaster. You know, these coordinators, John, these brilliant offensive coordinators, about one out of two flame out fast. They just don't work. So I think there's a possibility that Steichen maybe is a little bit Mike McDaniel who the media loves because he was kind of dorky and a little nerdy and very smart. Looked like a sports writer. Like they kind of related to him. But in the end is Miami to me is maybe the least trustable team in the league if it's over 40 over, under 40 degrees.
- [66:43]
Colin Cowherd
Well, and think last year they had Vic Fangio, who's one of the best defensive coordinators of my life, and it didn't work. The players were bitching and moaning. He wants out. It's like, Mike, you get this guy working for you, you never let him leave. You fire the players before you fire this guy.
- [66:57]
John Middelkoff
He worked everywhere.
- [66:58]
Colin Cowherd
We'll take him immediately. Yeah, you know, and I so to me, I heard your Pete Carroll rant. I think Pete Carroll is no shot because of his age. Fair or not, I just don't think anyone's going to hire him. I mean, I think that was a big part of Belichick too. You look at these guys, 72, 73 years old, and you just go, well, in five years I'll be 78. I think it's really working against him. Even though Pete is the youngest 73 year old, the history of human beings. But if Pete Carroll took over the Bears next year, I think they are guaranteed to make the playoffs in one of the next three years. Yeah, if Ben Johnson takes over the Bears, I think there's a 50, 50 chance. It's an all time flame out because you just don't overcome it. And like you said, you watch his personality, you watch the way he carries himself. The toughness of the team is built through Dan Campbell and the drafting and he's done a good job with schemes and the place. He's a brilliant play caller. We have seen Pat Shermer, remember him on the Minnesota Vikings the year with Case Keenum. It's like this guy's a brilliant play caller and then he becomes a head coach for the second time. It's the same thing in disaster. Not everyone is meant for that role and most guys are not. Just like in life, like the older you get, you kind of. I try to look at myself like, what do I want to do? Where do I want to go? What are my strengths and weaknesses? And the best part about the NFL, if you're a number two your whole life, it pays you $5 million a year to be the offensive coordinator. And listen, someone's going to pay him 10, $15 million. I get it. And he's. It sure feels like it. But two years ago, rumors that I had heard was he was scared, he thought he was overwhelmed, so he didn't even really entertain it. Last year was pretty embarrassing. I mean the Washington football team, clearly not your old Dan Snyder operation. Pretty high level group was flying in a private jet to come talk to him and he called them on the flight to say, hey, I'm out. Pretty low level thing like that feels like something that no one like Pete Carroll, Mike Varabel aren't doing that even if they're going to go in a different direction, the way he handled it. And I just think you hire these coordinators, everyone thinks you're getting the next Kyle or McVeigh. McVeigh is a good example. Like he's really built more like Tomlin and Kyle really is built like more like the whiz kid. But Kyle is kind of like this old school hard ass, like keeps everyone on their toes. I mean he's miked and he's got video cameras in every room. Like everyone's kind of on edge in that building because he, look at him, he's high stress. He's just, he's an intense, he's kind of a dick, which is a Compliment sometimes for football coaches. And he's built up the equity now. People know he knows what he's doing so he can ride guys in the building. I think it's hard for a young coordinator who's never had any success outside of being a coordinator if things don't go right early. And the other thing is the, you know, the, the elephant in the room with the Bears is like this Caleb Williams situation is like there's so much pressure on making him good. Let's just say there's a chance, I mean his history would say that five out of the five guys in the draft are not going to become like 10 year starters.
- [69:47]
John Middelkoff
Right.
- [69:47]
Colin Cowherd
Some of them are going to miss. Well, you wouldn't bet against Jaden at this point. And with Sean Payton, as long as he's the head coach, you're not going to bet against Bo Nixon. Maybe I'm one of the only high guys on Michael Penix. Like the way Michael Penix plays translates to the NFL, Caleb, the holding onto the ball, some coaches will tell you, your boy Sean Payton will tell you too. That's something that you can't always coach out.
- [70:06]
John Middelkoff
Yeah.
- [70:07]
Colin Cowherd
And it is, you know, for all the things that we want, the offensive line is not Caleb's fault. But the holding on to the ball for way too, that was something Russell always battled. But Russell was, I don't know, their defense was a lot better. He had Pete Carroll, their infrastructure was better, so they could kind of coach around it, but they always butted heads over that. It's like Russell let it go, but he became a star playing that way. Not many guys can play like that and consistently. Deshaun Watson for a brief moment played like that and then it unraveled because most coaches go play within the offense and they just don't want it. And Caleb I think struggles with that a little bit. It's why I push back sometimes this year. On the Caleb like. Well, some of these throws. Well, yeah, he's down 30 to 7. So he's just made a couple throws. Who cares? That's. I wonder if that job, as much as the administration, the Kevin Warren thing, if the Caleb, yeah, he's like this ball of clay, but is he really a ball of clay or some of those. The way that he plays going to be always the way he plays and that holding on to the ball, you know, accuracy I think is something we've seen. Like you can improve a little bit. Especially in this modern day NFL. Guys are a little more open. There's no John Lynch's in that waters killing people. So you can. You can be a little more inaccurate and still complete balls. I do think the, like, the feel in the pocket of holding that ball, some guys just do it for whatever and some guys just have the knack to get rid of it. I mean, that's one reason Kyle loves Purdy. You know, now it's going to the other team sometimes, but he will get rid of the football. You watch Caleb, you're like, throw the ball. And Russell used to take a lot of sacks. Remember the offensive line used to get crushed. And you'd hear people in the NFL, it's like, yeah, the offensive line, half those sacks run him now. That's why he would always tell you it's like it wasn't always on the offensive line, but they always got shit on for it.
- [71:48]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, Peyton, that's one of the reasons, the primary reasons it was a personality clash and Russell Wilson's inability to let go of the ball in Denver. Okay, obviously, Notre Dame, Georgia's been pushed back a day because of that unspeakable tragedy in New Orleans between a madman because of a madman driving a car full speed. I just saw the video. I watched it once, and that was enough. Somebody driving full speed into a crowd. 15 dead at this time. Again, just incredibly unspeakable. College football fans down in. You know, what has always been sort of an outdoor city in the winter. You go outdoors, you're in the streets, Bourbon Street. So just a grotesque tragedy. And so that game has been moved. I like Notre Dame, but I'm not sure how strongly I feel about that after watching Ohio State dismantle Oregon and Tennessee. I think the only strong opinion I have is Ohio State is the best balance of talent and coaching right now. And I also think I am happy for Ohio State because I think everybody thought Ryan Day was a good coach. But, you know, good coaches have bad, bad Saturdays and Sundays. I mean, they do. It's okay. Like, people have. I've had bad shows. You know, you as a scout, you probably missed on a player. Politicians have bad speeches. Ryan Day had a bad day coaching against Michigan, and he has had two great days coaching against Tennessee and an Oregon. And I'm happy for him. I think it's pretty cool.
- [73:18]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah. I mean, if he wins the national championship, people will forget about the four losses in Michigan pretty quickly. You know, and let's hope this game, I mean, obviously, like you said, you wake up to that news. You have to wonder if the. The administrations from Notre Dame and Georgia are a little uneasy, you know, you, some of the bombs and stuff about even how can anyone guarantee the safety of everybody? I was honestly like, would they move this game? It becomes so difficult logistically. Just hope it gets played and everyone can stay safe. Because I know if I was going to the game, I'd be a little, I'd be hesitant at this point. I mean, I've, I've only been to Bourbon street one time when I was in college. It is not very wide. You know, this isn't the Vegas strip where there's just a lot of room. This is a pretty tight corner where you would be a sitting duck. And I'm with you. I watched that video. It's one of those, you just turn off your phone and you're just, you just can't even fathom what you witnessed.
- [74:08]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, there's going to be, obviously your news organizations are going to have more. So I'm not going to speculate. I saw a picture of the guy. He was an army vet, born in Texas. That's what we know.
- [74:20]
Colin Cowherd
But think about, you got New Year's Eve with this game the next night, the amount of alumni from places like Notre Dame and Georgia, the amount of people that would be there. Naturally, it's got to be one of the most popular nights on Bourbon Street. It's just, just beyond awful.
- [74:36]
John Middelkoff
It is. John Middelkoff, former NFL Scout A special Wednesday podcast over an hour. What a pleasure. What a treat. Congrats to Texas, Ohio State and Penn State. And let's get ready for Notre Dame and Georgia tomorrow. Good talking to you, bud.
- [74:56]
Colin Cowherd
See you. Colin the Volume.
- [75:03]
Eric Zimmer
Do you want a shortcut to the best version of you? Here it is. Feed the Good Wolf. I'm Eric Zimmer, host of the One youe Feed. Every week I talk to brilliant minds and brave souls about the art of small, powerful choices. Our listeners say it all.
- [75:22]
Podcast Listener
This is a lifeline transformational. The best antidote to a bad mood I've ever heard.
- [75:29]
Eric Zimmer
Join the pack and start feeding your best self. Listen to the one you feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [75:42]
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. Join late night legend John 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 Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.