Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Matt Snyder on MLB Playoffs, Bill Bender talks College Football & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports

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Matt Snyder on MLB Playoffs, Bill Bender talks College Football & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

• 0:02
  Our number 2, Mallory Condon, welcome back.
• 0:05
  The Iowa Sports Radio Network flag shipped out of Des Moines
• 0:08
  sports station One O 6.3 KX&O bottom of the hour, Bill Benner
• 0:12
  from the Sporting News on college football trends, plays
• 0:16
  of the day. They are sponsored by Circus
• 0:18
  Sports. Let's get to our friend Matt
• 0:19
  Snyder. CBSSports.com.
• 0:22
  CBSSports.com for Matt. Good to talk to you.
• 0:25
  Matt Snyder on we go. Championship series underway to
• 0:29
  nothing. Seattle battle the Brewers fall
• 0:31
  last night to the Dodgers. I guess let's start there in in
• 0:35
  Milwaukee. I really don't want to talk
• 0:37
  about Toronto, if that's OK with you too.
• 0:38
  Just going to skip it. Yes, just gloss over that.
• 0:44
  But the play that, I mean, we're not, we don't remember.
• 0:46
  Blake's now struck out 10 Brewers, which was remarkable
• 0:49
  feet in itself. But just that play, nobody's
• 0:51
  ever seen it before. And, and I truly believe that.
• 0:55
  And you, you know, you watch games and all, you see
• 0:57
  everything once that was it for a lot of people.
• 1:00
  What a bizarre 8 to 6 to 3 grounded into a double play.
• 1:04
  Unbelievable. That's my favorite part was the
• 1:08
  the official registry making it a grounded into because if if
• 1:13
  somebody didn't see it and you wanted the best way to describe
• 1:16
  it in the least number of words possible, I think you have to go
• 1:19
  with there was a 404 foot in the air ball that ended up being
• 1:24
  grounded and do a double play. And then they would their mind
• 1:27
  would be so blown. They would be like, OK, please
• 1:29
  tell me more. How so?
• 1:32
  OK, trying to sort it out. The Dodgers runners, I think
• 1:39
  they've got to see that ball hit the wall and then, you know,
• 1:43
  they've got to, I think. I know it's easy to say when
• 1:46
  you're not in it and there's so much going on and it's so loud.
• 1:49
  Got to try to find that umpire and see a safe signal so you can
• 1:53
  run. And the third base coach, maybe?
• 1:56
  Yeah, yeah, I just, I got asked about that this morning and my
• 2:00
  only thing was at least the guy on 2nd.
• 2:02
  It's way too loud to hear the third base, man.
• 2:04
  Third base coaches got to be right there with the guy on 3rd.
• 2:10
  You can understand why they retreated to the bases,
• 2:12
  obviously. What I don't understand is
• 2:15
  getting thrown out at home. That's a long way away, man.
• 2:17
  You're 400 feet away. All you got to do is run 90 feet
• 2:20
  for the throw and then for the runner on 2nd to not get to 3rd.
• 2:25
  And Contreras didn't even have to throw it.
• 2:26
  He just ran the third. If the Dodgers lose that game, I
• 2:30
  I think you point to two things. First of all, their meltdown
• 2:34
  bullpen in the 9th, which has to be concerning because it was
• 2:38
  Roki Suzaki and the thought was Suzaki's one of the only guys
• 2:43
  that you can count on down there at this point and now you can't
• 2:45
  count on him. That's trouble.
• 2:47
  But you would also go back and look at that ending and say it
• 2:51
  all unraveled. There was bases loaded one out
• 2:53
  and frankly, I know it was a fluky play everything, but it's
• 2:58
  also bad base running. And instead heading into the
• 3:00
  series that the one of the reasons I picked the Brewers and
• 3:05
  I thought they were inevitable is they just don't make mistakes
• 3:08
  like, you know, a botched bunt or bad base running or throwing
• 3:13
  to the wrong base on defense or anything like that.
• 3:15
  And sure enough, that play kind of illustrated what I was
• 3:18
  talking about. Even though it bounced out of
• 3:20
  the glove and hit the wall and went back in the Freelix glove
• 3:24
  immediately throw it straight all the way home and they get
• 3:26
  the out there and immediately Contreras looking at the
• 3:29
  Baselunner and goes and beats in the 3rd to get a double play and
• 3:31
  get out of it. Those are the little things that
• 3:33
  the Brewers do now. They did lose game one and it
• 3:36
  was because of Blake Snow and let's sprinkle in a little
• 3:40
  Freddie Freeman there. But that's why I still think the
• 3:43
  Brewers can come back and win the series is these are going to
• 3:46
  be close games and they're a little things team.
• 3:49
  Now hindsight being 2020, yes, bringing in Blake trying to get
• 3:54
  that final out was the right move because it worked.
• 3:56
  However, was it the right move? You mentioned Sasaki, he is the
• 4:00
  best guy in that bullpen. He had walked a couple of guys
• 4:02
  still with a with a base open on top of it.
• 4:07
  I just hated the decision there from from Dave Robertson.
• 4:10
  A long list of decisions throughout the years that I've
• 4:11
  hated from Dave Roberts. Yeah, I it's one of those
• 4:16
  things, you know, is a little bit damned if you do, damned if
• 4:18
  you don't. Because if you just leave Suzaki
• 4:20
  out there and he blows it, then it was like, hey, how did you
• 4:22
  leave him out there and let him give up all that stuff when he
• 4:24
  clearly didn't have it? You can go to other guys.
• 4:28
  You could go to try Vessia. You could try Banda, but it's
• 4:32
  not like they've all been amazing down the stretch.
• 4:34
  You could try Sheehan, but he's got knocked around a little bit.
• 4:36
  The plastic. It just was a great illustration
• 4:41
  of how this is going to be difficult for the Dodgers to
• 4:44
  repeat, especially as theories are no longer than the five
• 4:47
  games and they had that extra day off in the first series,
• 4:50
  which enabled them to use Tyler Glass.
• 4:52
  Now in game one in relief, they can't do that anymore.
• 4:55
  They need their starters to be starters and they need them to
• 4:57
  go deep in the game like Snell did last night.
• 5:00
  Is it repeatable to expect in this day and age to get 8
• 5:03
  innings out of a starter every single game and the second you
• 5:06
  take the starter out you have a Bolton meltdown?
• 5:08
  I don't know if it's repeatable for seven more wins.
• 5:11
  No, I agree with you. It's going to be tough.
• 5:13
  I think I'm with you. I think the Brewers are very
• 5:15
  much alive in this thing. I can't say the same about the
• 5:19
  Blue Jays. Seattle just looks as though
• 5:21
  they're the better ball club. I hate to make excuses for
• 5:25
  Toronto, but it seemed like their goal was to beat the
• 5:27
  Yankees and everything else after that seemingly was
• 5:30
  secondary. I know that's not the way great
• 5:32
  is, but it seems like that they partied so hard.
• 5:34
  They celebrated so hard after knocking off the Yankees.
• 5:37
  Yosevic was was good. He wasn't great yesterday.
• 5:40
  I thought the Razzarini was struck out.
• 5:42
  He was walking back to the dugout and they kind of imploded
• 5:45
  after that. Gave up a three run home run to
• 5:47
  pull. No, that was to Rodriguez.
• 5:49
  They can't get Polanco out. We'll get to him at some point,
• 5:52
  but I just think Seattle's the better team and it seems like
• 5:55
  inevitable they're going to play for a World Series.
• 5:58
  I agree. Right now the The thing is, man,
• 6:02
  they, they had such an advantage coming into the series with the
• 6:07
  Mariners pitching being in such a disarray after game five
• 6:10
  Friday night. And not just the pitching, it's
• 6:13
  you play 15 innings until the middle of the night and then you
• 6:16
  got, I mean, how long of a flight Seattle to Toronto, It's
• 6:18
  got to be like 6 hours every week.
• 6:22
  And then they've got to play, you know what, a day and 1/2
• 6:26
  after they probably landed in Toronto.
• 6:28
  And meanwhile, Bryce Miller shouldn't even be in the playoff
• 6:31
  rotation. That was out of necessity
• 6:32
  because Brian was hurt and not coming back to the middle of the
• 6:35
  series. Meanwhile, Castillo and Gilbert
• 6:38
  and Kirby all had to throw in Game 5.
• 6:41
  Bizardo got extended way too far in Game 5.
• 6:43
  They've had to get a lot of outs out of Munoz.
• 6:45
  Like their pitching was completely indiscerated to the
• 6:48
  point that it looked like game one was almost the Mariners
• 6:52
  punting going with Bryce Miller, their 5th or 6th best starter on
• 6:57
  short rest. There's no way they can win this
• 7:00
  game, right? And they go out and Bryce
• 7:02
  Miller, after he gives up the lead, lead off home run and he
• 7:04
  was on the ropes in the first inning.
• 7:06
  Yep. If the Blue Jays lose this
• 7:08
  series in like 6 or seven games, we can go back to the first
• 7:12
  inning of game one and say not tacking on right there, that was
• 7:16
  it. Because if you get 3 or 4, all
• 7:19
  of a sudden one of the Mariners do here and they probably fall
• 7:21
  apart. The Blue Jays get game one
• 7:23
  instead. No one got out of it.
• 7:25
  And then he settled in and then they got the Raleigh home run to
• 7:27
  tie it. And then the Mariners just
• 7:30
  started doing what they've done all season, which is they hit.
• 7:32
  They can hit the ball on the road there.
• 7:34
  I've said this last week when we talked about it, they're very
• 7:37
  underrated offensive team because T-Mobile Park absolutely
• 7:41
  crushes their stats at home. We have seen comebacks before,
• 7:45
  but going on the road now, got to win four out of five and what
• 7:49
  is the path here for the Blue Jays?
• 7:50
  Is it just you got to mash your way slow pitch softball to
• 7:53
  victory? Well, they can't do that in
• 7:56
  T-Mobile. That's true, yeah.
• 7:58
  How hard it is in those Tigers to score there?
• 8:03
  I think it's going to have to be timely hitting and it's just
• 8:05
  what I talked about in game one there where they had the traffic
• 8:09
  after the spring or home run and they didn't score anybody in
• 8:12
  that ballpark. You're going to need to come
• 8:15
  come. If you can string together like
• 8:17
  a hit and a walk and then you get a well timed 3 run, home
• 8:20
  run, something like that, it's going to be timely hitting.
• 8:23
  It's going to be preventing the Mariners from timely hitting.
• 8:28
  You're just going to have to grind it out.
• 8:30
  And if they grind out wins and games three and four, all of a
• 8:34
  sudden this is a series again. But that's what I think.
• 8:40
  If they don't win both of those, it's definitely over.
• 8:43
  Obviously. I mean, even if they only get
• 8:45
  one of the two and it's three games to one through 4 games, I
• 8:47
  just don't see them beating the Mariners three times in a row.
• 8:50
  But if they somehow get games three and four, which will be
• 8:53
  very, very difficult, they've got a shot because then they'd
• 8:56
  have two home games left. But then they'd have to hold
• 8:58
  calm field advantage, which they did not do so far.
• 9:01
  No, and Bieber has not been great late and he'll go in game
• 9:04
  #3 we'll see how that works out. Let's talk about some of the
• 9:07
  teams that are out and put a kind of a bow on their season.
• 9:10
  You mentioned Friday night. What a classic baseball game.
• 9:12
  God, that was good. It was so much fun.
• 9:16
  Scooble is such a big game pick pitcher.
• 9:18
  He really and truly is. I mean, I think he's far and
• 9:21
  away the best pitcher in the American League.
• 9:23
  That's saying something. Crochet is good as well, but
• 9:25
  Scooble's just a bulldog course skeens in the National Leagues
• 9:28
  on. He breathes different air,
• 9:30
  doesn't he? My God, he's something.
• 9:32
  But, but Scooble and the Tigers, we were surprised they got in
• 9:36
  two years ago. They got back again this year
• 9:38
  after struggling in September. What a pitcher Scooble is.
• 9:42
  What a game that was Friday night.
• 9:44
  Yeah, that was amazing. It was.
• 9:46
  Yeah, it was, man, it was excellent, excellent theater.
• 9:48
  Just the the back and forth, knowing that runs are at such a
• 9:51
  premium there and it's every single time a base runner gets
• 9:54
  on, you're going to have to sweat it out.
• 9:56
  And then the clutch Polanco hit to play at the Polanco at this
• 10:00
  point for the mayors. Yeah, that was fun.
• 10:03
  And I think I, I still would be pro the automatic runner on 2nd
• 10:10
  in extra innings. But a game like that, I think
• 10:14
  that the people who are very anti the automatic runner in
• 10:18
  extra innings, that's the argument right there.
• 10:21
  It's playoffs. I'm with you.
• 10:23
  Yeah, there was still high drama.
• 10:24
  It's the playoffs. Make them get guys around the
• 10:27
  bases instead of giving them one on scoring position
• 10:30
  automatically. That if someone wanted to argue
• 10:32
  with me on that, the first thing they should do is bring up that
• 10:35
  game. And I would say, uh oh, you're
• 10:37
  already cutting me off at the legs right now because that was
• 10:40
  amazing. It really was.
• 10:41
  And but you know what games, one through 162, I have no problem
• 10:44
  with it. Just like in hockey, right?
• 10:46
  They go three on three in overtime.
• 10:47
  They don't do that in the playoffs.
• 10:48
  They play it out until somebody scores.
• 10:50
  Every sport. Every sport changes their right
• 10:52
  exactly in extra time, extra innings, overtime.
• 10:55
  Every sport changes its rules to try to end the game sooner.
• 10:59
  Yeah, phenomenal. Want to go back to Dodgers,
• 11:01
  Brewers last night and train strikes out high fastball for
• 11:04
  him. Trying fastball, but his eyes,
• 11:07
  yeah, if it's yeah, if it's up there, you can leave it up
• 11:10
  there. But he was almost hit by the
• 11:11
  pitch. And I know that there's and it's
• 11:14
  social media and they're idiots, but you, this is instincts
• 11:20
  taking over. This is not yes, you would love
• 11:23
  him to wear it and it's a 2 two game and we're having a
• 11:25
  different conversation. But how could anybody knock the
• 11:28
  guy? And it's just your instincts
• 11:29
  take over in a moment like that. Yeah, and some people are have
• 11:34
  different instincts because there are a lot of guys who
• 11:37
  would have worn that. I mean, it look, it's easy for
• 11:41
  me to remember my first example in my head, but Anthony Rizzo,
• 11:44
  Anthony Rizzo absolutely would have just turned his leg and
• 11:46
  taken that and started running the first right away.
• 11:48
  It just by no means does it mean they're better instincts or
• 11:52
  worse instincts because there are a lot of players who have
• 11:54
  excellent on field instincts. Like just to go back into my
• 11:58
  Cubs bag of tricks here, Javier Baez has great instincts.
• 12:01
  A lot of time I feel like he would have gotten out of the
• 12:03
  way. Just a gut feeling.
• 12:06
  Like some guys are just like it is a split second decision.
• 12:11
  I do think as you're going up and you know, easy to say when
• 12:16
  it wasn't me obviously, but I do think that there's something to
• 12:21
  when you're going up, you're thinking any way that we can get
• 12:23
  this guy home possible. I've got to do it.
• 12:25
  Whether it's a walk, whether one comes at me and I take it hit by
• 12:28
  pitch, I've got to be ready to do that.
• 12:30
  If he just had that quick thought, the second the pitch
• 12:33
  comes at him, he takes it and wears it.
• 12:35
  So he obviously didn't think about that before he was going
• 12:37
  up to the plate and he was probably thinking about trying
• 12:39
  to get it, which is why he swung at a bad pitch on the next
• 12:42
  pitch. I do think that, yes, people on
• 12:47
  social media should lay off of him.
• 12:48
  And it's not like, oh, he refused to take one for the
• 12:52
  team. No, it just wasn't in his head.
• 12:53
  It wasn't in his head. It was a gut reaction to move
• 12:55
  out of the way. Yeah, you're 1000% right.
• 12:58
  Let's talk about the Cubs. They fall in 531 to get beat by
• 13:03
  by the Brewers, obviously who move on.
• 13:04
  Now your thoughts on the Cubs season?
• 13:07
  How will how will you remember the Cubs season and what do they
• 13:10
  priority number one this offseason should be?
• 13:15
  Mostly very, very good. A lot of fun moments, especially
• 13:19
  in the first half of the season. Great, great, fun moments,
• 13:22
  especially in April and May when they looked amazing and the
• 13:25
  offense was great. Overall a success, but not an
• 13:28
  overwhelming success because they hadn't been to the playoffs
• 13:31
  in a real season since 2018. They hadn't won a playoff series
• 13:34
  since 2017. So they're advancing.
• 13:36
  That's a success. You took a step forward.
• 13:39
  It was not an overwhelming success because they blew a 6
• 13:41
  1/2 game late to the Brewers. I'm going to say the Brewers
• 13:44
  stole it. They still had a hand and blow
• 13:45
  it it they could have continued to play at 101 pace and they
• 13:48
  didn't. They fell off and then they lost
• 13:51
  to the Brewers in the NLDSI Don't think that that should be
• 13:54
  an acceptable result. If you are Jed Hoyer or Tom
• 13:57
  Ricketts losing to the Brewers and the playoffs, that's not OK.
• 14:01
  So that that that kind of brings back a little bit of those good
• 14:04
  vibes. But yeah, overall successful top
• 14:07
  priority. It it it is.
• 14:10
  It's not Kyle Tucker anymore. No, I don't think so.
• 14:14
  I don't think so. But there there's not a ton of
• 14:18
  free agents. The rest of the team, like the
• 14:20
  entire infield is still intact, most of the rotations intact,
• 14:23
  which includes Justin Steele coming back at some point from
• 14:26
  Tom's surgery next year, which includes Kate Horton now looking
• 14:29
  like a frontline starter. Matthew Boyd probably will have
• 14:32
  a little bit more stamina and won't run out of gas down the
• 14:35
  stretch. So they they need to bring back
• 14:39
  some of the bullpen guys. They need to do the thing where
• 14:41
  they grab some bullpen guys on the cheap like they did for this
• 14:43
  year, and we're very successful in doing it.
• 14:46
  The outfield could be minus Tucker, you could run it back
• 14:50
  with Saya and Peaker, Armstrong and Ian Hap.
• 14:54
  You could just yeah, you could. You could have Casey in the mix.
• 14:57
  You could just put bias arrows at the age they basically don't
• 15:00
  have to do that much and they would still look like a 90 ish
• 15:03
  went peak. But going back to my first
• 15:06
  point, is that acceptable to just be a 91 team and to
• 15:10
  probably be the second best team in the division of the Brewers?
• 15:12
  Or do you want to get a little bit more aggressive and go for
• 15:17
  the jugular and say we're going to go out and find ways to push
• 15:21
  the chips to the center table and say we're going to try to
• 15:23
  win a World Series now, which is you have a very deep harm
• 15:25
  system. You have deeper pockets than
• 15:28
  anybody else in the division. So is it trade either half or
• 15:32
  say a Suzuki and try to bring in a star to make room there?
• 15:37
  Is it you try to go out and you get an ace type pitcher in any
• 15:41
  way necessary that that is? And there are several frontline
• 15:44
  starters in free agency this year such as Dylan Sees, Michael
• 15:48
  King from the Valdez. Are those guys good enough?
• 15:50
  Do you want to commit to those guys or can you try to trade for
• 15:54
  somebody who might be a frontline starter?
• 15:55
  Maybe the Marlins have some guys available there if the Tigers
• 16:00
  do. I don't think they should.
• 16:02
  But if the Tigers make Scubal available, playing for the
• 16:05
  fences on Scubal, it's a big, big talking point right now on
• 16:09
  social media. He's only one year away from
• 16:12
  free agency and Boris is his agent.
• 16:14
  So that's why everybody but that, that's where I am.
• 16:18
  It is what path do you want to take?
• 16:20
  Is just being a pretty good wild card contender good enough?
• 16:24
  Or do you want to act like the Dodgers and the Yankees and say
• 16:27
  it's not good enough unless we win the World Series?
• 16:30
  And if it's not good enough, unless we win the World Series,
• 16:33
  this team has composed, I don't think is good enough.
• 16:36
  I think it's good enough to do what it did this year again next
• 16:38
  year. So the last time we saw Shoda
• 16:41
  Imanaga wasn't very good. Yeah.
• 16:44
  Now there's this weird kind of complex scenario with him.
• 16:49
  They can pick up the club option, but it's three years,
• 16:51
  20,000,020 million 17. How old is he?
• 16:54
  He's 32. Didn't go very well at the end
• 16:58
  yet. What are also you going to go
• 17:00
  out there and spend or not spending on Kyle Tuck?
• 17:02
  I just this is an incredibly complicated one because it's not
• 17:06
  just as simple as picking up a standard one year player club
• 17:09
  option. It's a three-year one on top of
• 17:11
  it. What's going to happen here?
• 17:12
  Take us inside and and. Just a very weird scenario with
• 17:15
  Shoda. Yeah, look, I love Shoda as a as
• 17:19
  a dude. He is such a likable guy.
• 17:21
  He's accountable when he makes mistakes.
• 17:23
  He said he cost them the game in game two.
• 17:26
  He seems like a really, really good teammate, but nobody can
• 17:29
  judge unless you're in their clubhouse with the team.
• 17:33
  I just don't. And just the winners in charge
• 17:35
  of club meet are dinners, team dinners.
• 17:37
  So that's already looked after. The wind has blown in so much
• 17:42
  the last three years that the only ballpark in the last three
• 17:45
  seasons that was more pitcher friendly than Wrigley Field was
• 17:48
  T-Mobile in Seattle. Really.
• 17:49
  For real? I would never guess that if that
• 17:52
  changes and it starts blowing out more, so does fly balls and
• 17:57
  his home run issues become a. Big, big, big.
• 17:59
  Problem, and they're only going to get worse as he ages.
• 18:02
  But I think you probably need to just not take up the option if
• 18:06
  he wants to come back to you and talk about less money, OK.
• 18:10
  Because you need the depth in the rotation.
• 18:13
  But I think with steel coming back, with the emergence of
• 18:15
  Horton Assad as an option, you've got Boyd, you've got Ray,
• 18:21
  I believe, for one, No, Ray's a free agent.
• 18:23
  But you could bring back Ray on the Jeep.
• 18:25
  Actually, yeah. He was great.
• 18:27
  I think I would rather raise than Imanaga moving forward,
• 18:30
  which sounds hilarious because Imanaga was an All Star last
• 18:32
  year. But I think that down the
• 18:35
  stretch the the home run, the fly balls turning into home runs
• 18:38
  just became too big of an issue. And that was already the big
• 18:41
  concern when he came over here was how many home runs is he
• 18:44
  going to allow the wind patterns change in Wrigley?
• 18:47
  And all of a sudden he's a major, major problem.
• 18:50
  So I I think you're good to just let him walk.
• 18:53
  Last thing, we've got 8 openings with Mike Schultz to decide he
• 18:57
  no longer wants to be the skipper.
• 18:58
  Good for him, got it on his own terms.
• 19:01
  Angels, Braves, Giants, Nationals, Orioles, Padres,
• 19:05
  Rockies and the Twins seemingly. If you had your pick you would
• 19:09
  probably choose the Padres or the Braves.
• 19:11
  I would guess is the 2 best jobs out there.
• 19:15
  Would that? Is that how you see it?
• 19:17
  Yes, yeah, I think the Braves are going to be there.
• 19:20
  They've had a lot of pitching injuries that are going to start
• 19:23
  to alleviate heading into next year.
• 19:26
  And it's a, it's a very well run organization.
• 19:28
  They have the offense. We saw it on the stretch.
• 19:30
  They got good in September when it was too late.
• 19:34
  So they'll be good. Yeah.
• 19:35
  And the Padres, the only issue with the Padres for me is I
• 19:39
  don't know about the how the new ownership situation since Peter
• 19:43
  Seidler's death is going to work itself out.
• 19:45
  There's lawsuits involved. There's a bunch of people and it
• 19:47
  doesn't seem like they want the team to spend as freely as
• 19:50
  probably spending under Seidler. So they have a few deals that
• 19:54
  could get really, really bad in a few years and things might
• 19:58
  just completely fall apart of the scenes for them.
• 20:00
  So which is why Preler, to his credit, is trying to win it all
• 20:03
  right now while he's going out, making the trading a guy a
• 20:05
  prospect in Class A. For Mason Miller, because he's
• 20:08
  trying to win it all as quick as possible, but it feels like it's
• 20:11
  going to become a House of Cards here in a couple of years,
• 20:14
  though I'd probably go Braves if you want the long term
• 20:17
  stability. Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com
• 20:20
  CBSSports.com. Matt, thank you.
• 20:22
  We'll run you down next week, assuming you're not on an
• 20:25
  airplane headed to game one of the World Series.
• 20:28
  Good stuff. If you are, we'll find you at
• 20:29
  some point. Thank you buddy.
• 20:30
  Appreciate it, sounds good. Yeah, good to talk to you, Matt
• 20:32
  Snyder, CBSSports.com, as we talk MLB.
• 20:37
  To the end, aren't we? Sadly, yeah, sadly.
• 20:39
  I love baseball. You love baseball.
• 20:41
  It's a long regular season, but boy, the payoff is unbelievable.
• 20:44
  Is these playoffs are incredible.
• 20:46
  Time to, well, some use. We can help somebody to pay off
• 20:49
  some bills, potentially. How about a chance to win $1000
• 20:52
  in this nationwide contest? You can head to kxno.com.
• 20:56
  The keyword this hour is money. Money at kxno.com.
• 21:00
  Your chance to win $1000. Money at kxno.com.
• 21:04
  Let's talk college football with Bill Bender when we come back,
• 21:07
  Miller and Condon talking sports with you on the Iowa Sports
• 21:11
  Radio Network. Hi, Miller.
• 21:13
  Condon, welcome back. 1:30 on a Tuesday, Transplays of the Day
• 21:16
  circus sports sponsor those those still to come.
• 21:20
  I'll get to those here in about 20 minutes.
• 21:21
  Bill Bender covers college football and other sports for
• 21:25
  the Sporting News, sportingnews.com.
• 21:27
  Bill Trenton, Ken, thank you so much for doing this.
• 21:29
  I have to give you credit because I had not seen this name
• 21:34
  on the list of potential replacements for James Franklin,
• 21:37
  who was out at Penn State Trenton.
• 21:39
  I did a big thing on that in our television show earlier.
• 21:42
  I'm not sure this coach's name was on that list.
• 21:45
  And this coach makes all the sense in the world, at least to
• 21:47
  me, because he's not coaching. And I don't think you can get an
• 21:50
  SEC or a Big 10 coach to accept the job now, especially if
• 21:55
  you're going to be playoff bound.
• 21:56
  And that's where I would believe that they'd be shopping.
• 22:00
  It's Pat Fitzgerald, and I think it's brilliant and I think for a
• 22:03
  lot of reasons, played in the Big, I played in the Big 10,
• 22:05
  coached in the Big 10. He's not working right now.
• 22:08
  He could get on the ground and start doing what he needs to do.
• 22:12
  That's a really good name, Bill. I think that'd be 1 to watch.
• 22:14
  What's the likelihood at least he gets an opportunity?
• 22:19
  Yeah, I, you know, I hope Pat gets back into college football
• 22:23
  and, and specifically the Big 10.
• 22:25
  I think, you know, at 50, he's still got plenty of time.
• 22:28
  One of the classier guys in the business, always fun to deal
• 22:31
  with. So I think he's like on our wish
• 22:37
  list. It's at best behind, you know,
• 22:39
  Kurt Zignetti, Matt Rule, obviously Eli Drink with and
• 22:45
  Manny Diaz. Manny Diaz might be the name
• 22:47
  that kind of fits among that bunch.
• 22:52
  Mattie Diaz, also a guy that Hurricane fans are saying, yeah,
• 22:54
  go take him. He he did not do a very good job
• 22:57
  for us, obviously in our outpost.
• 22:59
  There are two names on this list that we need to talk about.
• 23:02
  Matt Campbell. I think nationally people don't
• 23:06
  realize how difficult it is to win at a place like Iowa State
• 23:09
  and the successes that he's had. And of course, as you mentioned,
• 23:12
  Matt rule, take us down the path of both those guys.
• 23:14
  Why? It makes a lot of sense.
• 23:16
  And maybe there's going to be pushback on either of those
• 23:18
  candidates. Matt Campbell, I've done I don't
• 23:22
  know how many lists. Since I've done this.
• 23:24
  Morning News. I wonder if I could go back and
• 23:27
  look at every coaching list I've ever done and how many times
• 23:29
  I've put Matt Campbell on it. Probably pretty high percentage
• 23:32
  of the year. This stock is varied.
• 23:34
  But you said it, Trent, like I don't the appreciation for what
• 23:37
  he's done versus, you know, would he ever want to take a
• 23:41
  shot at a different program? You know, it's there.
• 23:44
  So I think he's the one. And then who's the other
• 23:46
  candidate? Matt Rule.
• 23:49
  Oh yeah, I think he's the guy for this job.
• 23:53
  You know, he just, if you, if I typed in Penn State coach, I
• 23:57
  think that room might come up. They'll play there in the 90s.
• 24:02
  Has that look. And you know, one of the classy
• 24:04
  guys program remodeler. Is that a word?
• 24:08
  I don't know. But that's what he does and he's
• 24:10
  done it. The tricky part though, right,
• 24:12
  is 1 and in the playoff race. So there's no way he's leaving
• 24:17
  now. When does Pat Kraft want to make
• 24:21
  this hire or name this hire? Because if he's going after
• 24:24
  Diaz, I guess Duke is still alive in the ACCII know Signetti
• 24:29
  is very much alive. I don't know if Kiffin's on the
• 24:31
  list. He's been on some lists I've
• 24:33
  seen. Ole Miss is very much alive.
• 24:36
  Drink of which is alive in Mizzou.
• 24:38
  Can you announce you? You can't.
• 24:40
  If your team's a playoff contender, the last thing you
• 24:43
  wanted to be is a attached or B even named as the successor.
• 24:48
  That won't happen. Bill, I don't think you.
• 24:51
  Can and I don't think you should and I think this shouldn't
• 24:53
  happen till the end of the regular season.
• 24:55
  If you want to back channel it, that's fine.
• 24:58
  But you know, like if the Titans go get, I don't know, let's say
• 25:03
  Jeff Hapley, since I'm a Packers fan, if they go hire Jeff
• 25:06
  Hapley, they're not doing it in three weeks, right?
• 25:09
  There's still a season to be played.
• 25:11
  And, and I think I've seen some interesting content the last
• 25:14
  couple of days. Why can we do NFL coaches like
• 25:17
  we do college coaches? I think it just makes more
• 25:19
  sense. You know, that direction,
• 25:23
  something we talked about off air before the show began today
• 25:26
  is now with the portal window closed in the spring, how much
• 25:30
  does that change the timeline not just for Penn State, but for
• 25:33
  all of these coaching jobs? Because you don't have that
• 25:36
  spring portal window where you can fill in some gaps here.
• 25:38
  You need to hit the ground running.
• 25:40
  You need to have your team and your players ready to go right
• 25:43
  away and and know what your team is going to look like for the
• 25:45
  following season. So how much does that change the
• 25:47
  timeline in these coaching searches you.
• 25:50
  Know, I I think one of the things me that that we're
• 25:55
  dealing with is, you know, can you somebody posed this question
• 25:59
  to me, should Matt rule Penn State job in three weeks?
• 26:04
  And I just think if something like that happened, the blowback
• 26:06
  of leaving your program in the middle of the season would be
• 26:09
  something on that. The three of us are old enough
• 26:11
  to remember the Bobby Katrina thing.
• 26:14
  Yeah, with the Falcons, right. So like blowback would follow
• 26:17
  you the rest of your career, especially in a in a play
• 26:19
  phrase. I think the calendar to me, if
• 26:22
  you're switching a job, especially the major program,
• 26:26
  Penn State's going to be the first Test for.
• 26:28
  Hey, should you have done that? Should you have, should have you
• 26:32
  do you guys? Let me ask you guys a question
• 26:33
  because I've, I've kind of tried to get as many opinions as I
• 26:36
  could. Do you think Penn State made an
• 26:38
  emotional decision, or do you think that was this in the
• 26:41
  works? I think it was an emotional
• 26:44
  decision based on last three or 15 days, 13 days, whatever it
• 26:48
  was. What about you?
• 26:49
  What do you what kind of what's the consensus you're hearing
• 26:51
  back, Bill? I just, I can't.
• 26:54
  I, I was at that, as you guys know, we talked, I was at that
• 26:57
  Oregon Penn State game waiting in traffic afterwards.
• 27:01
  And I just could not have fathomed in that moment that,
• 27:03
  hey, you know, James Franklin's going to be fired in 14 days
• 27:07
  after losses to Northwestern. And and here's the thing, an
• 27:11
  embarrassing season. There's no question.
• 27:15
  I'm not sure they should have fired him, but in fairness I'm
• 27:18
  probably the same guy that wrote I'm not sure they should have
• 27:21
  fired him with Mark Richt way back at Georgia.
• 27:24
  Yeah, fair, fairpoint, fascinating where it's going to
• 27:27
  go. Let's beginning of let's stay in
• 27:29
  that conference. Ohio State's defence is with
• 27:32
  Matt Patricia. It means otherworldly.
• 27:34
  It truly is something to watch. Indiana is a wagon right now.
• 27:38
  Are they? Have those two separated
• 27:41
  themselves from the rest of the Big 10 in your mind, Bill?
• 27:44
  Yes, I I didn't have any hesitation putting Indiana #3 in
• 27:49
  my poll over the weekend. Like, none.
• 27:50
  There wasn't enough. Well, maybe no, they're they're
• 27:53
  really good. High stakes, allowing 6.8 points
• 27:57
  per game. The only national champion since
• 28:00
  the start of the BCS era that allowed fewer points through six
• 28:03
  games was Georgia in 21 at 5.5. And we know how good that
• 28:08
  defense was. They're the two.
• 28:11
  And then I think Oregon's probably 3.
• 28:13
  The trick is finding that 4th class team if you want one.
• 28:16
  If they want one, USC to go to Notre Dame and win this weekend.
• 28:21
  Knock Notre Dame out if they do. And put themselves in position.
• 28:25
  I mean, that was one thing that got lost in the weekend to me a
• 28:29
  little bit is how USC just kind of punked Michigan, especially
• 28:35
  with their offense without their leading rusher, went out there
• 28:39
  and just dominated the Wolverines out of the Coliseum.
• 28:42
  Well, we'll get some separation or maybe a better idea this
• 28:45
  weekend coming up in the SEC. It is convoluted.
• 28:48
  I mean, we're talking about Alabama's, you know, one of the
• 28:50
  best 345 teams in the country. They lost to a terribly below
• 28:54
  average Florida State team and got blown out and did look close
• 28:56
  in that one. You got LSU, Vanderbilt ranked
• 28:59
  matchup, old miss Georgia ranked matchup, Tennessee Alabama rank
• 29:03
  match matchup. Mizzou finally has to go on the
• 29:04
  road to Auburn. Do you feel like we're going to
• 29:07
  know more after this week, or are we going to be even more
• 29:09
  confused? Oh, we'll be more confused.
• 29:12
  I'm more I'm more confused every week.
• 29:15
  You know, the SEC in particular when you look at that line and
• 29:18
  you see Vanderbilt favored Georgia, looks like they're
• 29:21
  favored by too much against Ole Miss.
• 29:23
  I Tennessee, Alabama is going to be just an awesome game and this
• 29:27
  this and Texas A&M, the team that like doesn't have all those
• 29:31
  heavy hitters on the schedule is the team we're starting to hate.
• 29:34
  You know, not me, you know what I mean?
• 29:35
  Like if you're rooting for a school trying to get in, you
• 29:39
  know, you're why can't Texas A&M lose?
• 29:40
  So that's going to be 8 remaining power, 4 unbeaten,
• 29:47
  another game. I'm really looking forward to
• 29:49
  you called BYUI. Never missed that one.
• 29:51
  It's amazing. Yeah, and I think Utah's played
• 29:54
  so well. Personally, I think BYU's kind
• 29:56
  of got a fake resume when you look at who they've played.
• 29:59
  But there's something about that game.
• 30:01
  I agree. Let's go to Group of Five.
• 30:02
  This will be my last thing for you, Bill.
• 30:04
  Obviously, Navy's off to a terrific start.
• 30:06
  Memphis, likewise. What what South Florida did
• 30:10
  going just beating that crap on a North Texas who I thought was
• 30:14
  going to win that football game. Boy, shame on me.
• 30:17
  This group of five, whoever wins it, it's coming out of the
• 30:19
  American Conference. I'm pretty sure I'm pretty safe
• 30:22
  saying that. How's the American going to
• 30:24
  shake out? It's a fun conference to watch
• 30:26
  football wise. Well, Memphis.
• 30:28
  Memphis has got all the tough ones at home and I think that's
• 30:31
  that's the important thing. I love Navy and Horvath.
• 30:34
  Horvath is a a local kid here in Columbus.
• 30:37
  He went to Hilliard. You know, that ending to the
• 30:40
  Navy Temple game, Incredible, wasn't it?
• 30:45
  And then South Florida, I thought the game would be a lot
• 30:48
  closer. Me too.
• 30:49
  South Florida just kind of destroyed them.
• 30:53
  And I love their linebackers. I like Mac Harris a lot.
• 30:55
  He's really disruptive. So if I had to pick and you
• 30:59
  press me for it, I think Memphis is the projected team.
• 31:02
  I like South Florida. They've got some scallops, no
• 31:06
  doubt about that. Hey, James Franklin's name is
• 31:08
  already coming up for Oklahoma State.
• 31:10
  Is there something to that? Possible.
• 31:12
  I mean, he, he fits a lot of places.
• 31:15
  That's the thing. I mean, you have a six 97698
• 31:18
  winning percentage. You fit places and you know, 1
• 31:22
  And I'm not don't like a headline story, But let's say
• 31:26
  Belichick moves on, OK, Wouldn't he fit there?
• 31:30
  Yeah, but that'd be. Great.
• 31:31
  I think you'd do a great job there.
• 31:33
  Makes. A lot sense, but more sense than
• 31:36
  a lot of the things that have been mentioned.
• 31:38
  Certainly with the final thing for me, Bill saw the Big 10
• 31:41
  issued a fine to USC. They had a running back after
• 31:45
  more injuries hit to them against Michigan.
• 31:47
  That was listed as out. Brian Jackson deal with turf
• 31:49
  toe, well, he wasn't out because he played.
• 31:51
  Because of those injuries, they were fined $5000.
• 31:56
  That's it. What is stopping anybody now
• 31:58
  from just lying on this again? If it's a $5000 fine, doesn't it
• 32:03
  feel like it needs to be a little bit more hefty if we're
• 32:05
  actually going to stop teams from screwing around with this?
• 32:09
  Well, I I go back to last year with Texas and Quinn Newers and
• 32:13
  remember they said like after the season while he was playing
• 32:16
  hurt all year, not on the injury report.
• 32:19
  You know, what do we have these things for?
• 32:21
  Not I'm not like raising a huge a lot of this.
• 32:26
  It happens. If anything, it would happen.
• 32:28
  Imagine the NFL fine though. That'd be a lot more 0.
• 32:33
  I bet you would. They would lose it.
• 32:35
  Like if the Bears would have buddy last night.
• 32:38
  You'd probably lose a draft pick, no doubt.
• 32:40
  Last thing, Bill Arch Manning, Is he turning his season around?
• 32:45
  I hope so. Anybody.
• 32:47
  Had I'm. With you, anybody had a right to
• 32:49
  wave goodbye to everybody? It was him last week, that's for
• 32:52
  sure. Played very well in the third
• 32:54
  quarter and that's work in progress.
• 32:56
  I talked first bowls about him last week and kind of had the
• 32:59
  same opinion that we're not. I'm not saying he's back in the
• 33:02
  Heisman next or anything like that, but let this kid play it
• 33:05
  out and I think you're going to be pleased with the results that
• 33:08
  you'll get into next season. You know, I think that's his
• 33:12
  development curve. It's not right away into next
• 33:14
  season. He'll be even better for Texas.
• 33:16
  Good stuff, Bill Bender. Appreciate it, as always.
• 33:18
  Grab you next week, Bill. Thank you.
• 33:20
  Anytime guys, thanks for having me.
• 33:22
  Yeah, good to talk to you, Bill Bender.
• 33:23
  He's already, he's already Luke Fickle replacements.
• 33:28
  As they should. As they should.
• 33:29
  It's going to get ugly Saturday. This from the Big 10.
• 33:33
  In a statement to CBS Sports on Saturday, USC listed a student
• 33:37
  athlete as out on its availability report for the game
• 33:40
  against Michigan, but that student athlete later
• 33:42
  participated in the game. The student athlete had
• 33:44
  previously been sidelined due to injury and did not initially
• 33:47
  dress in uniform for the game. However, following the sequence
• 33:51
  of unfortunate injuries that occurred in the first half at
• 33:54
  the student athlete's position, he was medically cleared to
• 33:56
  play, suited up and later entered the game.
• 34:00
  They continue those circumstances are unfortunate
• 34:04
  availability dot dot dot only use out designation if there is
• 34:09
  no circumstances under which a student athlete could parts
• 34:12
  anticipate in the game. Now kind of reading further, I'm
• 34:15
  OK I think with the wrist. Slap too, now that you mentioned
• 34:17
  it that way. What was he wasn't even dressed.
• 34:20
  What was his name? I'm looking at.
• 34:22
  I'm looking at their character. Brian Jackson, He ran it twice.
• 34:25
  Well. He's down here.
• 34:26
  Is 55 OK, yeah. 5 for 35 yards. But Eli Sanders, we know that
• 34:31
  name was out. Jordan was out.
• 34:33
  They had the former Walk on kid that was running all over
• 34:36
  Michigan. Still, the circumstances are
• 34:39
  incredibly weird in that one. Yeah, maybe the fine was OK for
• 34:42
  this. I'm with you.
• 34:43
  He wasn't even dressed. And that was only the second
• 34:45
  game he's played this year. He played in week #1 and then
• 34:49
  hadn't played since that time. Yeah, I'm with you.
• 34:52
  That, that one. If everybody got hurt, you mean
• 34:55
  you kind of running back, right, Right.
• 34:58
  We'll take your time out. Trends, plays of the day are
• 34:59
  coming up next. Circus Sports sponsor those.
• 35:02
  Miller and Condon, glad you're with us on the Iowa Sports Radio
• 35:05
  Network. Hilary Conner and welcome back
• 35:07
  our final segment on a Tuesday. Top of the hour off the bench on
• 35:11
  Roberts, Lucas Strain take you until 5/5 to six overtime.
• 35:15
  I went tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM.
• 35:17
  It's the first quarter with Alec and Heather, 6 until 9:00.
• 35:22
  Tomorrow you'll be headed to Iowa City covering men's
• 35:24
  basketball. Iowa men's basketball media day.
• 35:28
  So plans are you'll be there, I'll be here.
• 35:30
  You'll get Sturtz at what time? 10 afternoon.
• 35:34
  Yes, 1210 for Bennett Sturtz will be stopping by the setup
• 35:38
  12:45 We will also have coach McCullum good stop it in for a
• 35:42
  little bit in the in between Mitch Holtis, the voice of the
• 35:45
  Chiefs, and David Kaplan on Chicago sports.
• 35:48
  So a busy Wednesday around the. Absolutely.
• 35:51
  So you'll head over there, get all set up, Where are you?
• 35:53
  Where are you doing the show your portion of the show from?
• 35:56
  Cover Hawkeye Arena. I'll be in media row in the.
• 35:59
  By yourself. I'm sure there'll probably be
• 36:01
  some other people looking in doing things there.
• 36:03
  I think Matt Randazzo who used to be TV guy over the Quad City
• 36:07
  is now doing the pre eat. Shows up on my Twitter feed.
• 36:09
  All yes and does a whole lot over there I think he's going to
• 36:12
  be set up with his show that he does daily on YouTube so
• 36:15
  there'll be other people milling around and to talk to some of
• 36:18
  the players talk to the coaches and.
• 36:20
  Would Habian banks be a part of it?
• 36:22
  It's a good question. I bet he will.
• 36:24
  Why wouldn't he answer the questions right?
• 36:26
  Right. Yeah, yeah, Get out, get it out
• 36:28
  there. Answer the questions.
• 36:29
  The time is now as opposed to it's.
• 36:31
  Precisely. Totally agree with you.
• 36:33
  All right, let's get to your place.
• 36:34
  So we've got 1 baseball game. Yes.
• 36:37
  You're not betting hockey. No, there's no college hoops, no
• 36:41
  NBA. No, there is preseason.
• 36:42
  But please. You know who you're talking to,
• 36:45
  right? You're betting NP.
• 36:47
  I've I've not, I've not. However, you wouldn't put it
• 36:49
  past me, would you? My.
• 36:50
  Kid is Korean baseball. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 36:55
  I got 3 plays for today. All right, let's start with the
• 36:58
  easiest one. I'm going back to the well again
• 37:00
  with the Dodgers. I know you and Matt Snyder still
• 37:02
  believe in Milwaukee. I don't.
• 37:05
  I like you. I'm a motto.
• 37:06
  A touch better than Peralta in the spot.
• 37:08
  So I'm going to take the dodgers -118 at Circa Sports.
• 37:12
  I'm also going under Freddie Peralta in his out total.
• 37:16
  What is it? So let me guess, they're down 1,
• 37:20
  nothing 17? Way below that, really, 14 1/2,
• 37:28
  Really, it's going to be a quick hook and knowing you can't dig
• 37:31
  yourself an O2 hole. That's the handicap part of this
• 37:34
  one. Under 14 1/2.
• 37:36
  I think if there's any signs of trouble for Peralta, they're
• 37:39
  going to pull him very quickly in this one.
• 37:41
  So Penn was used a lot yesterday.
• 37:43
  It was and that's a concern. Plus 1/30 though, like the price
• 37:46
  there with Peralta and then finally playing some college
• 37:49
  football tonight. Of course you are.
• 37:50
  Yes, let's go to the Fun Belt where the Hilltoppers welcome in
• 37:54
  Florida International. Now, the Florida International
• 37:57
  pass defense is not very good. Didn't you play them earlier
• 37:59
  this month? Maybe.
• 38:01
  Probably, however, they're getting healthier.
• 38:05
  I think the health of the defensive backfield will be
• 38:07
  enough OK to allow them to hang around.
• 38:10
  Give me FIU plus the 10 1/2 at the Hilltoppers tonight.
• 38:14
  And what? Who has that television?
• 38:16
  ESPNU. EU.
• 38:19
  Two O 8 on your DIRECTV. How about Brent Venerables
• 38:22
  talking about the difference? Did you see the quote?
• 38:24
  No, in the SEC it's like 1 possession.
• 38:26
  League is in like Big 12 days where Oklahoma destroys
• 38:30
  everybody. The Big 12 conference Twitter
• 38:32
  account tweeted back. Coach Venerables lost 8
• 38:36
  conference games in two seasons in Big 12.
• 38:39
  Love it. Good for them.
• 38:40
  Enable's going to talk down to his former conference.
• 38:44
  The conference. The Big 12 fired back and
• 38:47
  reminded him of his abysmal record when his team played in
• 38:51
  the Big 12. That's good stuff, boy, that's
• 38:54
  we got ourselves a hell of a weekend, do we?
• 38:55
  Not? A college football.
• 38:56
  Mentioned it to Bill, and I think Bill's right.
• 38:59
  I think we're going to be more confused in the SEC than
• 39:01
  anything. Yeah, you could be right.
• 39:03
  You could be right. And then Monday Night Football,
• 39:07
  we got a double header again, but how about the And that's got
• 39:10
  to be right where Aikman and Buck don't they have to be at
• 39:13
  Tampa Bay, Detroit. I would think so.
• 39:15
  I would Houston. At Seattle.
• 39:17
  They're not going. There, they're not going.
• 39:19
  There, Seahawks might be a survivor.
• 39:20
  Pick. Oh, well, we're going home.
• 39:23
  You have to. I'm going home.
• 39:25
  Tread sticks around. So does off the bench with Lucas
• 39:28
  and Sean. Thanks for being with us on the
• 39:30
  isports Radio Network.