Latest / The Ian Furness Show / Ian Furness 9/30 H2: More from the VMAC, plus a visit with Stewart Mandel and the daily power play!

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Ian Furness 9/30 H2: More from the VMAC, plus a visit with Stewart Mandel and the daily power play! · The Ian Furness Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, headlines are brought to you by Frostbrood Coors Light.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Cold as the Rockies. Day two of the MLB playoffs.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Wild card round continues. Do you have the game up there?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Do you know what the game of the score is? Oh, yeah,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I got it. I still got it.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: 1-1.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: 1-1, top of the seventh. I found it as well.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I can always use it. I have a thing called
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a smartphone, Ashley. I guess I could use that as well.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you could.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Phillies Braves 1-1. Braves winning in dramatic fashion yesterday with
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Take a one game to none lead. Remember, just if
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: you need a refresher, these are all best of three series.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Wild card round. We weren't in it last year here
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: in Seattle. We were actually having a bye. We were
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: enjoying a bye week last year. Oh, remember that? Ah, memories. Ah,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: remember those days, Ashley?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Remember those days?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: That was good.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: That was good.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Who are we going to play in the next round?
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Looking forward to those things. Ah, the memories.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they've got the graphic up right now showing the bracket.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: We were in the next bracket. Yes, yes, yeah. That's fun.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: That's kind of fun.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Doesn't hurt.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: This doesn't hurt. Not at all. White Sox-Astros play later
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: today at 2. White Sox trying to close that one out.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: We'll get to that in a second. Oh, Astros. Yankees
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: lead the Red Sox one game to none, game two
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: at 5. Padres... Up 1-0 over the Cubs. Game 2
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: at 7. Fernando Tatis, by the way, couldn't hit home
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: runs at all this year. His first home run came
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: almost 60 games into the season. First playoff home run.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Game 1. Sure. Why not? Gamer. That's what he is. Gamer.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: NHL season underway last night. A couple overtime games. Panthers
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: beat the Hurricanes 1-0 in overtime. Of course, Hurricanes won
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the Stanley Cup last year. Canucks beat the Oilers 6-5
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: in overtime. NHL games today. There's three. Kraken season starts tonight. Tomorrow, tomorrow,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: the puck will drop tomorrow. Calgary, 6 o'clock. We'll have
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that game for you. 5.30 pregame with the captain, Mike
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Denton and company. 5.30 pregame, 6 o'clock, drop of the
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: puck game. First game of the season. Remember, the home
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: opener for the Kraken is Sunday at Climate Pledge Arena.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Jaden Reed, season over. The Packers wide receiver suffered a
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: neck injury in week two. Reed expected to undergo surgery.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Not expected to be career-ending. Seahawks getting ready for the
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: week four matchup. With the Chargers on Sunday, we'll get
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: to their news in just a couple minutes. Here we go,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: hour number two. Virginia Mason Athletic Center hanging out today.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Good conversation there with Gray Zabel. Appreciate him coming by.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Very good stuff with him. Real quick, we'll get to
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: more of the news of the day. Corbin Smith will
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: join us in here in our little oasis of a
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: room at 2 p.m. this afternoon. Julian Love is expected
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: to practice today. In what form, we're not sure. That
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: would be the headline story. And probably, if this is
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: from Mike McDonald just a short time ago, he's in
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the midst of his media availability. Again, we'll kind of
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: recap it with Corbin at two, maybe Greg before then,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: we'll see. But Julian Love is expected to practice today.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I would bet the mortgage if he is practicing today.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: it'll say limited next to his name, Ashley.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I would assume so, yeah.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to be like, full go. Yeah.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Ty Okada still will not practice. And that's a hard
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: one for this team. Julian Love is such a good
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: football player. And if you missed our hardcore football segment
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: on Monday with Hugh, go back and take a peek
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and take a listen. He was so good, was Hugh.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And as he said, you forget how good Julian Love is.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: You just forget. Uh, how, how absolutely just, and I think,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you know, one of the things I was talking to
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: you and I don't know if this is on the,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: on the air or not, cause I had a nice
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: conversation with you on Monday night too. But like you said,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: he's like, like when you look at who Julian Love,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: he's not the fastest, not the hardest hitter. Like he's not,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: he's not a guy that you just go like, like,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: you know, like, but he's just really good at everything,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: you know? And he's a great leader. and a great leader,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: never out of position. Just those are the things that
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: make this guy so invaluable to this football team. And,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: you know, when Mike McDonald's been working with John Schneider
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to build out a roster and a team, you know,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Julian Love is an integral part of this football team. And,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: you know, he's not the biggest name in the league.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: You know, you look around the league, people, oh, you know,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: so-and-so's hurt, so-and-so's hurt. Yeah, that's great. And those guys
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: are probably big-time contributors. This guy's importance to the football
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: team was on full display. absolute full display on Sunday
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: against the Commanders. It was 100%. Just no number 20,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and you took an L. And Ty Okada is right there.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: And Okada is just the unassuming... He's one of the
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: guys that Marshawn and Hard Knocks, he looked over, because
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: the other guy was Maxon Hooks, who was actually activated
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: for the game. And Okada's kind of walking around, and
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Hooks is walking around, and Marshawn never says anything. How
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: many white guys do we have in the secondary? What's
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: going on here? I do, yes. But Ty Okada, same thing.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: He's not big. In fact, he's small by NFL standards.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: But again, one of the smartest football players. We had
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a chance to have him on the show a bunch
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: of times over the last couple years, Ashley. I love
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: talking to the guy. And him being out is also
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: an underrated thing. And when you listen to Cosell, I'll
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: ask Cosell about him on Friday. Cosell loves himself some
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Ty Okada. Kind of an extension of the coach in
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: terms of how he thinks. Those are two big losses
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: for this football team. The DeAnthony Bell situation is there.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: We'll get to that a little bit later with Greg
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: and or Corbin or Corbin and or Greg. We'll get
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: to that a little bit later as well. All right,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I got a couple minutes here. We got Stuart Mandel
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: coming up at 1.20 today talking college football. And we
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: spent a lot of time talking about USC and Washington.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: We're going to do a lot of that because I
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: think this game on Saturday is– Like across the country,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Ohio State, Iowa's like the game that everyone's talking about.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Like that's the biggest game of the weekend.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I think, and the biggest game obviously in the Big
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Ten as well, I think this is one of the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: more important games, pivotal games of the season too. Now,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I do find it interesting everyone's completely written Washington off.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Like it's just, they're like, they're not even in a
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: conversation right now in terms of people talking about, you know,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: chances of college football playoffs and so on and so forth.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: This team was ranked in the top 20 in the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: preseason polls, and people can poo-poo that all they want.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I get that. The expectations for Washington this year in
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: year three of Jet Fish were not to go 7-5.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: That was not the expectation. USC, the expectations were exactly
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the same. Not go to 7-5 or 8-4, but to
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: get to the college football playoff. So we'll talk to
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Stu about that and much more coming up at 1-20 today.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Do we like it when the Astros are having problems?
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Do we enjoy that?
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I feel like, and I ask you this, Ashley, because
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you're probably a much better person than me. Maybe I'm
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: a bad human when it comes to things like this.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I'm very petty. I'm sports petty. Oftentimes, you've probably learned
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: that already. Oh, I am as well, and I'm fine
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: with it. Okay, good. Because watching anything go bad for
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the Houston Astros, I find completely enjoyable.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Like, highly entertaining. So, we talked yesterday with Joe Sheehan about,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and I still, I'll stand on this one forever. I
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: think it's ridiculous that Major League Baseball playoffs are on
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: during the daytime. Like, a lot of them are on
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: during the daytime. Yeah.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: I mean, like.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: They're obviously not, you know, the 11 o'clock game in
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Atlanta didn't start at 11 in Atlanta.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Started at 2.
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: It starts to take a half day.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: If you work.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Like, if the Mariners would have been in the playoffs,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: they would have played yesterday at 2 o'clock, and they'd
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: play again today at 2 o'clock. Yes. Like, if you
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: just look at the bracket, look at where everybody is,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: look at what happened last year, they would have been playing,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: you know, at 2 o'clock. Like, the late game tonight
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: is Cubs-Padres. It's not because of the Padres. It's because
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: it's the Cubs. It's a national brand. That's the late game.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: And it's very easy, honestly, to do this. There's different networks.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: NBC's got these first-round games, but Peacock is available. NBC
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Sportsnet is available. You've got TNT, TBS. You've got different
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: TV partners. The NBA and the NHL do it right.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: There are games stacked up. You have a choice. I'm
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: going to watch the Panthers and the Hurricanes. I think
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to watch the Golden Knights. and the Chicago Blackhawks. Playoff-wise,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going to watch the Sixers and the Knicks. Or,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: you know what, I don't think I'm going to watch
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the Sixers and the Knicks. I don't think I'm going
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: to watch San Antonio and the Dallas Mavericks play. They're
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: on different networks. You have alternatives. They play these games
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: during the day. There were thousands of empty seats in Atlanta,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: 2 o'clock start. There were thousands of empty seats for
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: a 4 o'clock start in Houston. Well, that didn't go unnoticed, Ashley,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: as you pointed out. Tell people what you sent me
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: last night. This was awesome. I made my night. I'm
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: just sitting there watching some hockey, kind of hanging out,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and tell people what you sent me.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Well, so basically, the fans in Houston were booing Houston
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: when they went down early, and then Houston, one of their,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: I think it was a reliever, Sousa, got all pissy
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: that the fans were booing, and then basically bashed the fans, saying,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: you know, if the seats were full, maybe this would
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: make a difference, but, you know, if we were in Chicago...
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: They'd have full, their seats would be full.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: It was, what's the pitchers? It was Bennett Sousa. Yeah,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Bennett Sousa. I knew it was somebody Sousa. Yeah, Bennett
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Sousa and Christian Walker. Walker said the booing was, quote,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: extremely frustrating as a home player. And said, we'll just
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: have to come together and have to do it for ourselves.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: That's a middle finger to the fans. Because you're not
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: going to help us as big fans. what they're saying.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Sousa said, the fans here are definitely spoiled with a
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: lot of ALCS and World Series runs, and we have
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to earn that right to bring. That's his apology today. No,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: that was what he said yesterday. Yeah, yeah. Because he
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: did apologize today. But then he said, quote, that being said,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: when this team was in their first series 10 years ago,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Minute Maid Park was packed. It makes a big difference.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: If we were in Chicago, it would probably be loud
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: as blank.
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Well, then they decided to apologize. Yeah.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Somebody got to them. Better apologize. Sousa says as following,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry for the comments I made about our fan base.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Anyone that knows me knows how much I care about
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: this organization, this city, and our fans. Okay, buddy. No, no, no.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: You meant every word of it. Well, and they meant
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: their booing. So, you know what? There you go. And so...
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: You're lucky to be, you're 81 and 81. You're the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: worst playoff team ever.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Here's the funny thing, though, is if I'm a fan,
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: I'm booing too. They didn't even put in a starter.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: They had relievers start the game.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: I know. They went with a bullpen day. Yeah.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: So I'm like, so that's how you start the playoffs?
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: If I'm a fan, I'm booing you too.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And they got whacked. And then they had a couple
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: horrible at-bats late in the game with the tying runs,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: either on base or at the plate. Looking at called strikes,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: challenging balls that were obviously strikes and not balls, and
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: they just melt. But that's who they are. They're a
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: bad baseball team. Right. They're 81-81.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Just like if we would have made it into the playoffs,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: we are a.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Bad baseball team. Well, and I think, you know, you
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: never know what's going to happen in a playoff series.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: But you never know what's going to happen in a
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: playoff series. And Seattle's got better starting pitching. But sometimes
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you are what you are. And I would think for
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the Houston fans, now, listen, I'll side with the Houston fans,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: not with the team. One, it's a late afternoon game. Now,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: four o'clock is probably much, it's doable, right? Would we agree?
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: That's kind of doable. I think so. There's no excuse for, yeah,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, four o'clock. You could take a half day.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: You could take a half, like two o'clock or earlier,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: that's a hard one. People have legitimate jobs, work, and
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: not everyone can just absolute bail and leave their job
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and go to a baseball game and what have you.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: So there is reality there. But part of it is
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: these guys, if you're a Houston fan, you're like, God,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: we're in the playoffs.
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: Great.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: We're always in the playoffs. This team's not going anywhere.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Why do I care? They are spoiled. I think what
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Sousa said is kind of true. They kind of are spoiled.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: They kind of are spoiled. We don't have those issues here.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: We're not spoiled. No. No. We're not spoiled at all,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: to the contrary. All right. Let's take a break. Should
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: we talk some college football? Let's do that. Stuart Mandel
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: from The Athletic joins us coming up next.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: From scratches and dings to major repairs, trust the folks
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: at Absolute Auto Body for quality work at fair prices.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: Visit them in Linwood or Everett or online at absoluteautobody.com.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: Absolute Auto Body, when only the absolute best will do.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: Now with Stuart Mandel, here's Ian.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: All right, here we go. Stuart Mandel, weekly visit, talking
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: all things college football from The Athletic and, of course,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the great Audible podcast. Joining us right now is Stu,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: what are we like? Are we like a third of
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the way, 25%, a quarter of the way through the
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: football season, the college football season? It feels like as
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: we end this month of September, it's wild how fast
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: it goes. It does.
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: You wait all summer for it, and then it flies
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: by pretty quickly. But I always like this time of
• 13:23
  Speaker 6: year as we get through the kind of early non-conference games,
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: and now we kind of get into the harder conference play.
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: Should be a fun month.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Should be indeed. Let's get to some of the storylines
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: from last week and then we'll look ahead, obviously. We'll
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: just start in the L.A. Coliseum with what took place
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: down with Oregon and USC. Obviously, the Ducks winning was huge.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Lots of questions about Lincoln Riley and then, of course,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the situation with Dante Moore and the hit and the aftermath.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: We've all had some time to process it. Emotions are
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: always high. Suspensions have happened. Apologies have taken place. What
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: was your read on everything that took place with that hit?
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, I think the aftermath, the real takeaway
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: has been that it's just, I feel like it's been
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: a turning point in the wrong direction for Lincoln Riley.
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: And I think a lot of people there had, I mean,
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: he himself had said, like, the window's open, right? We're
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: in a much better position now to compete. We have
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: this great freshman class. And I don't know that he
• 14:25
  Speaker 6: had to beat Oregon necessarily, but the way it happened,
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: both in terms of terrible defense against And then lack
• 14:35
  Speaker 6: of discipline. And this was obviously a very extreme example
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: of that. And it just left a lot of people
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: there feeling like this is just never going to change.
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: Why do we keep getting our hopes up every year?
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: It's the same thing.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess you wrote about it, too. I thought
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: it's a very interesting situation with Lincoln Riley. And I
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: think I'm wondering about buyer's remorse. for him going there.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I wonder also about his former school. Is there buyer's
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: remorse going to the SEC? Maybe not with the payouts
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: and the money involved, but let's just start with what
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Lincoln Riley has been able to work with at USC
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and the pressure he's under right now. One of the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: proud programs in the history of our sport, going back
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: obviously to John McKay, John Robinson, and certainly through Pete
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Carroll's era as well. He did so well in the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Big 12 at Oklahoma. It has not translated necessarily to USC.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Why do you think that is?
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: I think, you know, I wrote about this in the mailbag, but,
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: you know, hindsight's 20-20. I'm not going to claim to
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: have picked up on this at the time, but you
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: look back and you think, oh, he was dominating in
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: a conference in the Big 12 that was just not
• 15:45
  Speaker 6: nearly as strong as first the Pac-12 when he got
• 15:48
  Speaker 6: there and now the Big 10. You know, Oklahoma and
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: Texas were in this position in the Big 12 where
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: they were the two alpha programs where they recruited at
• 15:57
  Speaker 6: a higher level than everybody else.
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: And then on top of.
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: That, when he was there, Texas was a mess. So
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: they ruled that conference. And since going to conferences that
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: have lots of other programs that recruit at a high.
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: Level, that have a lot of money, he's really been exposed.
• 16:14
  Speaker 6: And It's hard to say why after all this time,
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: and he's been a head coach since 2017. He's been
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: a head coach for a decade. Why the same mistakes
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: and the same shortcomings keep coming up, but I think
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: it's pretty telling that he hired Gary Patterson, Hall of
• 16:31
  Speaker 6: Fame coach at TCU, one of the best defensive coaches
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: at our time, and the defense got worse. And so
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: it tells you maybe Alex French got a lot of
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: heat at the time, like the DCs always get a
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: lot of heat, but You know, maybe it's a head
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: coach problem.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was thinking that because when I read what
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: you wrote and thinking about this a little bit, you know,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the first thing I thought of was Alex Grinch. And,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: you know, we know him well at Wazoo. He was
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: brought in with a lot of fanfare by Mike Leach.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: And first game he ever coached, he gave up like
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: a zillion yards to an FCS school. And then somehow
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: he finds his way up the ladder at Oklahoma. That
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: never worked. Ohio State, what have you. You know, because
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: you can always blame the coordinators, but it has to
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: be the head of the snake at some point. Stuart,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you just a bigger picture question.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: You've covered this sport for a long time, and I'm
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: fascinated by this. As we go through the Protect the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: College Sports Act and the debates back and forth, and
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of conversation about, well, players are trying
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: to limit players' money, what the players can get, and
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the players' salaries are NIL, I guess, so to speak,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and transferring. And I always come back to one thing,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: because people will bring up coaches. I just feel like
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: in college sports, and maybe in all sports it's the case,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: but certainly in college sports, college basketball specifically, but college football,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the coaching position is just so darn important, is it not?
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, USC is a great example. Before Pete, they
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: struggled for a while, right? And then they brought Pete in.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: They did well. Post-Pete, they didn't do well. USC, is
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: it the brand or is the coach in college football,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: do you think? Because I think we can make that
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: argument for Oklahoma. We can make that argument for a
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: lot of schools across the country.
• 18:05
  Speaker 6: Well, I think the brand is your starting point, but
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: you still have to have the right coach. And a
• 18:13
  Speaker 6: great example of that is as Teflon as Alabama seems,
• 18:18
  Speaker 6: they went through a long period in the nineties and
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: pre Saban who came in 20, 2007, where.
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: They were just another team.
• 18:25
  Speaker 6: They were sometimes good, sometimes mediocre, sometimes bad team in
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: the sec. And I took getting obviously a Paul Finn
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: coach to get that back on track. So, Um, everybody
• 18:37
  Speaker 6: in college football for the most part has gone through
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: a down period. Um, except for Ohio state, Ohio state
• 18:43
  Speaker 6: has been, it doesn't seem to matter who the head coaches, they,
• 18:46
  Speaker 6: they do extremely well, but, um, yeah. And, and, uh,
• 18:52
  Speaker 6: by all accounts, Lincoln Riley should have been that guy.
• 18:54
  Speaker 6: I mean, it's one of the great mysteries, how you
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: could win at that high level at one blue blood,
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: go to another blue blood and go eight and five
• 19:02
  Speaker 6: a lot.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: It's a great point. I mean, we can even just
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: transfer down to the SEC.
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: Florida.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think a lot of us were just
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out how can Florida not be Florida?
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: There's a team that's won national championships not too long ago,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: and then they go through some really down times. The
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: right coach and the right brand, John Summerall, right? Look
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: at the turnaround. I mean, Florida's one of the better stories,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: unless you hate the SEC or what have you, but
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: they're one of the better stories in college football this year, right?
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: The bounce back that Florida's had.
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: Yeah, in Florida, another example where they won– Steve Spurrier
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: turned them into a national championship program. Urban Meyer won
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: two national championships. And then it's just been a run
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: of mediocre coaches.
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: And bad hires.
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: And I was really high on the John Summerall hire
• 19:49
  Speaker 6: because to me, if you see a guy do it at.
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: More than one school, that's a good sign.
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: And John Summerall won big at Troy, went to Tulane,
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: won big again there. And that's at a time when
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: you're in a group of six, like having any sort
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: of continuity from year to year is really hard.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: So, and then he walked.
• 20:08
  Speaker 6: Into a situation at Florida where You know, they went
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: 4-8 last year, and the Billy Napier regime was a mess.
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: But you had Jaden Baugh there. You had Dallas Wilson
• 20:18
  Speaker 6: and Vernell Brown there, the receivers. Like, this wasn't a
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: clean-the-house kind of situation. There was talent there. And then
• 20:24
  Speaker 6: he made a great OC hire, Buster Faulkner, brought his
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: quarterback with him.
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: And, yeah, they got it going.
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: I think it's a little early to say, oh, yeah,
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: this team can win the SEC. But there's certainly not
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: just better, but a lot more sightings. than they have
• 20:40
  Speaker 6: been in recent years.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Jaden Baugh, the running back, he's, I mean, as far
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: as a Heisman goes, I mean, him, Smith, Chambliss, right?
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Those guys have to be the three guys at the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: top of the list right now in the conversation.
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: Yeah, those three, Camario Taylor, Mississippi State. I think this
• 20:57
  Speaker 6: weekend's game where he's going against Keelan Russell from Alabama,
• 21:02
  Speaker 6: whoever wins that game, whoever has the.
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: Better game is probably going to be a big part
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: of that conversation.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Stuart Mandel brought to you by Absolute Auto Body. Absolute
• 21:10
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• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Absolute Auto Body, when only the absolute best will do.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Let me move back to the Big Ten. Focus here, obviously,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: in Seattle for so many. Washington-USC this weekend. It's a
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: massive matchup that maybe will fly a little bit under
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the radar screen. Washington not ranked, for people nationally at least,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: because Washington unranked, losing to Minnesota. USC coming off that loss,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: albeit their first one of the year, to Oregon last weekend.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Just a huge game for both programs. Let's handicap that
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: a little bit. Let's first start with the importance of
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: it for USC and Lincoln Riley.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: Must win.
• 21:57
  Speaker 6: Because you look at the rest of their schedule, this
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: is not one of the harder games, frankly. They're going
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: to play Ohio State. They're going to play Indiana. They
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: need to win this one. And Washington is, right now,
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: not looking that great. So I think if they do
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: lose at home to them, it suddenly becomes a matter
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: of when, not if, they have to make a coaching change.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: What's your read on what's going on up here in
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Seattle with Jed Fish in Washington? DeMond Williams, there was
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the drama in the offseason, Stu, and he looked like
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: he was on his way to LSU. The Big Ten
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: specifically kind of held him to the contract, brought him back.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: He comes back. Everyone says, hey, everything's good and fine
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: and all that. Yet they go out. They've been unimpressive
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: so far in the first few weeks of the season,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: struggling for three quarters before pulling away against Wazoo, struggling
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: most of the game against Utah State. Obviously, what happened
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: last week against Minnesota, which maybe Minnesota's better than we think.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: And they've got maybe an NFL quarterback along the way.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: But that loss to Minnesota late night at home was
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: a tough one for Washington in Jed Fish's third year.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: They can't run the football. They're getting beat at the
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: line of scrimmage. But what's your read on Washington? And
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you this, too. I'll leave you with this.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: The expectations here this year were quite high and maybe unrealistic,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: but quite high. There were people here, most people in town.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: talking about the possibility of a college football playoff team.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: And that looks like it's very far fetched now.
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I mean, they were number 16, right.
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: In the preseason poll, like there was, this was a
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: team being talked about as a, as a possible playoff team.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: And, and a lot of that had to do with
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: the Mon Williams, you know, the idea that he.
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: Is now, you know, it was coming into his third year.
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: It was going to be one of the star quarterbacks
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: in the sport. And obviously that has not been the case.
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: Now you're right. They cannot run the ball.
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: They, you know, We all underappreciated Jonah Coleman at the time.
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: I know there's been injuries, too.
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: You can't run the ball, and you're putting basically the
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: onus of the whole offense onto Mont Williams. It hasn't
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: gone well. That doesn't mean they can't snap out of
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: it and improve. You asked about Lincoln Riley. This may
• 24:05
  Speaker 6: have looked like more.
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: Of a toss-up kind of game before the season, but
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: now it's like a game that USC should win.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: USC should win. Washington thinks it has to win as well.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I got a tough schedule coming up, including a little
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: team called Iowa, which is another good. You wrote about
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Kirk Ferentz. I thought that was an interesting thought. Longtime
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: coach at Iowa, the evolution of college football. Nick Saban
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: saying last week, I didn't leave because of NIL. I
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: just left because I was getting older or whatever. He's
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: still working every week on ESPN. I don't buy that.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: It's like I don't buy Tony Bennett didn't leave coaching
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: at Virginia because of NIL. Those guys are old school thinkers.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Kirk Ferentz has kind of been that way, too. What's
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: been the turnaround at Iowa? They got a huge one
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: this week, by the way. Their game this week against
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Ohio State is massive, coming up at 1230 on Saturday.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: That's a great matchup, fun game to talk about, but
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: how has Kirk Ferentz been able to evolve with the
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: college sports landscape?
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: That's a program that has an identity and sticks to it.
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: So many programs, not only do you have head coaching turnover,
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: but even from year to year, depending on what your
• 25:12
  Speaker 6: record was, well, we were playing a 4-3, but now
• 25:15
  Speaker 6: we're going.
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: To go to a 3-4.
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: We were running this kind of offense, but we've changed
• 25:20
  Speaker 6: the playbook, and it's like, Kirk Ferentz does what Kirk
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: Ferentz does, year in and year out. Tough defense, physical
• 25:26
  Speaker 6: running game, great special teams. Is it going to get
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: you the national championship? No, but I think that is
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: the rare fan base where everybody has really realistic expectations,
• 25:36
  Speaker 6: and As long as he's winning eight, nine, ten games
• 25:39
  Speaker 6: a year and taking them to bowl games, everybody's pretty happy.
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: I thought the Michigan win was significant, though, because we've spent, what,
• 25:48
  Speaker 6: a decade making fun of Iowa's.
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: Offense and Iowa's quarterbacks.
• 25:52
  Speaker 6: And I'll admit I didn't know much about Hank Brown.
• 25:55
  Speaker 6: It wasn't like he'd come out and lit the world
• 25:57
  Speaker 6: on fire. But those were big-time throws to win that
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: game at the end. They clearly have a couple of
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: really good receivers. And so it makes you think, huh,
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: Maybe the ceiling's a little bit higher than usual. If
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: they do have that element of their game, they're never
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: going to be a team that tries to score 45
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: points on you. In fact, the only hope they have
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: against Ohio State is they're going to try to drag
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: Ohio State into playing their style of football.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: But if you have a quarterback you can count on,
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: it makes a big difference.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: A lot of people are saying karma came into play
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: because of the way the game ended. For people that
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: missed it, Hank Brown, the quarterback for Iowa, threw a
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: late touchdown pass in the final second from the 16-yard line,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: and they won the game. By the way, a lot
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: of things went into that. There was a long pass play.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Michigan has a player hurt, so the clock stops. Because
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: they had a timeout left, Iowa didn't. They were able
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to benefit from that, but they still had to put
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the ball in the end zone. They got lucky in
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: a sense, did Iowa, because of the injury and the
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: timeout and all that, but then Brown still had to
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: make the play. And that's what was pretty amazing. Now,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: people say it was karma, whatever. Michigan's still 4-1. It
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: was one of those wild innings, but that's what made college. Still,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to go with this. I love the sport.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: You love the sport. You cover the sport every day.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Games like that, finishes like that, we don't see that
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: necessarily in the NFL, the unlikely finishes like that. That's,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: to me, what makes college football great. Of course, that's unless.
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: You're– Sorry, if you do see a finish like that
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: in the NFL, right?
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: It was probably Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: It wasn't Hank Brown.
• 27:36
  Speaker 6: And that's what I think people love about this sport
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: is the unlikely heroes.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. And again, Who's Hank Brown? Iowa
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: has a quarterback. What are we talking about here? What
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: kind of world are we living in right now? Stuart
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Baddell from The Athletic, The Audible Podcast, joining us here
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: on the Beacon Plumbing Hotline. Just a couple other thoughts
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: on games this weekend. We'll just start with Tennessee's got Auburn.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Tennessee had some high expectations. They get blown out or
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: get kind of taken control of by Texas. Let me
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: start with Texas just for that standpoint. Texas, that's a
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: heck of a bounce back for Sark, isn't it? I mean,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: we talked about the emotions. I think we saw the
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: emotions with Ole Miss, right? Not being able to pick
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: up their emotions and carry that into their next game.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Texas coming off a tough loss. They go out, get
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: a big win. The emotional ups and downs of a
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: sport in which, unlike the NFL, one or two losses
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: can cost your season. That was an impressive day by Texas.
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that was, you know, a tough, tough atmosphere they
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: were going into. And it was a real... eye-opening, wow,
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: is Texas' defense good? They had 10 sacks.
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: We saw it, obviously, in the second half against Ohio
• 28:48
  Speaker 6: State as well. But if that's how they're going to
• 28:51
  Speaker 6: play this year, look, this is not any visions people
• 28:55
  Speaker 6: had that Arch Manning was going to be a 350
• 28:58
  Speaker 6: yards a game kind of quarterback.
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: Clearly, that's not going to be the case. That's not
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: their identity. But they have a defense that they can
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: really trust.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I wonder if Arch not throwing for– that feels like
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: a conscious effort. Even with a running back banged up
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: in that game, they've got kind of a two-headed monster there.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: It feels like that's how they want to play, though.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Defense wins it. You can ball control offense, make the
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: occasional play on offense as well, big play. But for
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the most part, it's win by defense and running the
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: football in Texas, right?
• 29:26
  Speaker 6: It's a very NFL model, which is not surprising with Sark.
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: But look, if Arch was truly– the kind of superstar
• 29:36
  Speaker 6: they thought coming in. I'm sure they would throw the
• 29:38
  Speaker 6: ball around a lot, but he's the 79th.
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: Rated passer in the country right now.
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: He is amazingly even lower than, than John Mateer, Oklahoma, like,
• 29:50
  Speaker 6: you know, but he has that fourth quarter comeback against
• 29:53
  Speaker 6: Ohio state that so far has, you know, been the
• 29:56
  Speaker 6: enduring image of his season.
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: So, I think you're right.
• 30:00
  Speaker 6: I think Texas is going to try to win a
• 30:01
  Speaker 6: national championship in kind of more of a traditional NFL way.
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: And knowing that, you know, Arch does have it in him, right?
• 30:10
  Speaker 6: He might not be able to carry you for four quarters,
• 30:12
  Speaker 6: but he has come through in the clutch in several
• 30:15
  Speaker 6: big games.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: And for people that think I'm sometimes heartless when it
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: comes to guys that transfer and leave my beloved school
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: that got beat by Arizona this week, I did text Stu.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: You can confirm this, Stu. I actually almost feel bad
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: for John Mateer right now. Like, it's so bad. Like,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I feel bad for this guy. Like it just isn't
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: like those, the fumble, the ball that fell out of
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: his hands for the scoop and score was just atrocious.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: And that just tells me that that guy is as
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: rattled as it gets. And I talked about buyer's remorse
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: earlier with, uh, with our friends that, uh, you know, with,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: with Lincoln Riley, God, Oklahoma, man, going to the big, uh,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: going to the sec, it's just not, not going well.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: And obviously with, with material, they got some, they got
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: some issues going on with him right now.
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: You can just tell his confidence is completely shot. And, um,
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: And everybody wants to bench him, but nobody knows who
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: the backup quarterback is.
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: So easier said than done. It's one of the more puzzling. Also, frankly,
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: the regression of Marcel Reed at Texas A & M
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: also has been pretty dramatic. But I think the difference
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: is John.
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: Mateer was so good at Washington State. He was a
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: star that year. And you didn't get it last year.
• 31:27
  Speaker 6: But Oklahoma went to the playoff, so it was kind
• 31:30
  Speaker 6: of all is forgiven. But, you know, it's looking pretty
• 31:33
  Speaker 6: bleak right now for him and for Oklahoma.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Well, I might be speaking ill-informed here, but one of
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the things that made Mateer great at Wazoo was there
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: was always the threat of a designed run. Not just
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: a scramble and he can maybe elude somebody or a
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: third and one and what have you. There was always
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the threat that he was going to just flat out
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: run the football. Big, strong, fast kid. I'll go back
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: to Washington. Jed talked about this this week. I think
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: there's a thought that maybe I know nobody knows who
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: the backup at Washington is. I actually asked their sideline guy,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: our afternoon guy, who's the backup? I don't even really know.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, like, geez, like, okay, good. So you don't know.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: But like with DeMond, he's much more slightly built. But
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: there's no doubt Washington's offense is better when DeMond Williams
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: is running and not just scrambling for his life, but
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: actually design runs. Same thing with John Mateer. But it
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: brings us to the final thing I'll talk to you about.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Not every team is Oregon and has a quality backup
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: quarterback in the country in today's day and age, right?
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: Very few.
• 32:34
  Speaker 6: And it's not a coincidence that one of the richest
• 32:37
  Speaker 6: programs in the country has the five-star two-year Nebraska starter
• 32:42
  Speaker 6: as its backup quarterback. And I think a lot of
• 32:45
  Speaker 6: teams find themselves right now in a really tough spot.
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: You invest a lot of money in your starting quarterback.
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: The season is riding on them. They're not delivering on that. Well,
• 32:56
  Speaker 6: we didn't really have a plan B. So Oregon obviously
• 32:59
  Speaker 6: had a great plan B. And frankly, I mean, Rayola
• 33:03
  Speaker 6: came in and looked way better than he ever did
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: in Nebraska. He wasn't bad at Nebraska, but he didn't
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: look like that. So that's a really good situation they
• 33:10
  Speaker 6: have going there. I don't know that a lot of
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: teams have that.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Good stuff, as always, Stu. Tell people about the Audible
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: podcast with you and Ralph as well. You guys do
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: a great job with that every week. And Bruce, tell
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: people about that, what you got going on there.
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: We will be live Sunday morning, like we always are,
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: recapping the weekend live.
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: At 8.30 a.m. Pacific. And you can go on YouTube
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: at Audible Show.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: I love it. And also check out Stu's work at TheAthletic, TheAthletic.com.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Wednesday is the mailbag, which I love. Also, you get
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: the recap of the weekend games on Sunday as well.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: And sometimes Stu throws in sprinkles and some other fun stuff, too.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: So make sure you check that out at TheAthletic, TheAthletic.com.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you next week, my friend. Thank you.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: Thanks, Ian.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: That is Stu Mandel. Much more to come. Don't forget
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Factor Fiction 235 and 93.3 KJR FM. This is the
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Daily Power Play.
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: The Power Play.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Kraken hockey, baby. Montour off the bench.
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: Score! On your home for the Kraken, Sports Radio 93.3
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: KJR FM. Hey, hey, what do you say?
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: The Seattle Kraken.
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: The Daily Power Play is brought to you by Issaquah
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: Honda Kubota, the largest inventory of Kubota equipment in King County.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Same.
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: Now your daily look at the National Hockey League and
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: the Seattle Kraken with Ian Furness.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: All right, Daily Power Play, your home for the Kraken,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: 93.3 KJR FM. Kraken open up season six of their
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: existence tomorrow. Calgary, Alberta, Canada against the Flames. Six o'clock
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: drop of the clock. 5.30 pregame right here on your
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: home for the Kraken, 93.3 KJR FM. The captain, Mike Benton,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: will get you going with the pregame show as well.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Speaking of Benton, he was with many out there at
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: the Kraken Community Iceplex today before the team headed out
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: for Calgary. And a lot of the questions going to
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: the captain, Jordan Eberle, in terms of getting ready for
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the season, including what he and the other leadership group
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: members are doing to get this team ready.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: You know, guys are having fun here. I think they
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: enjoy playing for one another. That's an important piece. having
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: everyone connected and, you know, just the compete that we've
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: had too. Those are some common words that we've used
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: in this restroom for a while this year. And, you know,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: it just feels like a good energy. I think the
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: guys want to prove people wrong. The way that the
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: season finished last year, I think it left a bad
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: taste in everyone's mouth. And, you know, I can just
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: feel the, the, the anxiousness and the excitement and, you know,
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: the raring to go. And I think that's all, those
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: are all positive things to have in the season. We
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: have a plan and, You know, if there's going to
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: be highs, there's going to be lows throughout the season.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: I think that's pretty common. I've played quite a few years,
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: and that's always a perfect season. So, you know, we
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: just got to, you know, ride with each other and,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: you know, stick together.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: First few games, first month.
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: How much do you believe that simple is better?
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, for sure early on you try to keep
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: your game simple. But at the end of the day,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, we need to have some confidence in this
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: group that we can win hockey games and some belief.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: I know we do. But there has to be plays
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: to be made. You don't want to just chip it out,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: chip it in. But at the same time, yeah, you
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: want to be simple. There's a way and a formula
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: that we know that we can have success with. And
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: you stick to that, and when you create time and
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: space and skill comes out, we have a lot of
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: that too.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: We'll see how much skill they have as they get
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: ready to take on Calgary tomorrow. There's a lot of
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: questions around the team. Expectations... Do you have high expectations?
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I get asked that all the time. I don't know.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: The beautiful thing about sports is oftentimes things don't turn
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: out the way you think. Sometimes it's in a disappointing way.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a, well, the local baseball team is a
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: good example of that. This year, that was the most
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: talented team, best roster by anybody. It didn't matter who
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: you asked. Everyone would say best roster, not name the Yankees,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: the American League, and we saw where they ended up.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: We just talked to Stu Mandel just a minute ago,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: and we didn't get into UCLA, but no one expected
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: UCLA to be doing what they're doing right now, like nobody.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Mississippi State, same thing. Iowa, same thing. So sometimes teams surprise.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: The expectations nationally for this team are low. The expectations
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: in that side of that locker room are much different,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: but I feel like this could be like season two
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: when they got to the playoffs, just the collective group.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: is good enough to find their way into enough wins
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: to get in. And then once you get in, you
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: never know. You get a hot goaltender and you can
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: take a run. But everything's going to have to go right.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: They can't have injuries to key guys. There's like four
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: or five guys that can't get hurt. We'll do a
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: little bit more of a preview tomorrow. But I'm holding
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: out hope. I'm holding out optimism. And I believe in
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the coach. And I think that's the big thing. I
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: believe in the coach. I think the coach... is good.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: I think Lane kept that thing together last year and
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: almost got them to the finish line. And hopefully that'll
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: happen next year. And away we go. I mean, Vancouver
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: beaten Edmonton last night. It's one out of 84, but
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: that was telling. And they played hard. Vancouver played really
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: hard last night. So hopefully this team will give us
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: something to be excited about throughout the dark, dreary winter
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: months in the Pacific Northwest. Oh, I sure hope so.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Seahawks practice, by the way, just getting underway. It was
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: out there just in the commercial break a few minutes ago.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: So we can't talk about what we saw so far,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: but we can talk in general terms also. We'll recap
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: what Mike McDonald had to say a little bit coming up.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Corbin Smith's going to join us as well. I do
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: have a little news from the NFC West, Ashley, before
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: I get to the break here. Sean McVay saying today
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: that Puka Nakua will be limited, but he should play
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: against the Eagles. Aaron Donald is not practicing. He has
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: a back issue.
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Like what happens when you get older, that kind of
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: back issue?
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: I was going to let you say that, not me.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: I'm older and I have back issues. Me too. We
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: all do. Me too. But I don't play in the NFL,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: so that's a little bit different as well. All right.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: We'll take a quick break. We'll come back with more
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: 93.3 KDRFM.