Latest / Say Who, Say Pod / Say Who, Say Pod, Ep. 208

Transcript

Say Who, Say Pod, Ep. 208 · Say Who, Say Pod

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Pod.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Pod.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode of Say Who Say Pod.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: He's Danny O'Neill in a sports coat.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Must be time to start the football season.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Christian Caple.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: The whole stadium is going to be chanting.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Did you see that?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: I legitimately got kind of like there's a little tear in my eyes.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: I heard I saw the Twitter post and Lincoln Kennedy and Lawyer Malloy invoking
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: the it's kind of the the deep cut of Husky chants.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I inquired as to whether it was official athletic department stance that it was okay
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: for the whole stadium to shout the expletive.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I was told that's not the official stance,
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: but I don't think they're necessarily against it either.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: The official stance is to say something, something?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think there just is no stance.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's, hey, the chant is what it is.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think, by the way, that the...
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Intent is for the whole stadium to do the chant verbatim.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're basically just trying to do
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: the old one-side call-and-response go Huskies chant, but with say who, say what.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know,
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: if you want to yell say pod instead,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I won't be upset in a very monotone voice, though.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: I have college entrances.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: It is one of the things that is very cool about college football is the different entrances.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: But the way they happen is so different.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's Virginia Tech that comes on to Metallica.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's not the most steeped in tradition.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: That song isn't that old.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: But it's also like it fits for...
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: That school and sort of the culture that got established under Beamer, it fits.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm excited to hear and watch how this one plays out.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: I've always thought that there's room for an upgrade on how the Huskies take the field.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: There was a period of time under Sark where they were taking it to that Eminem song,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: which I was like, oh, this... Till I Collapse.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: I don't dislike Eminem.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: Till I Collapse is probably my favorite song of his.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: That was a bad entrance song.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: It didn't work, in my opinion, at all.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Have you seen the guy on,
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: I see it on Instagram,
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: I assume it's on TikTok originally, but who does the early 90s Eminem impressions?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's uncanny.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's perfect.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Susan.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's game week.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's Apple Cup week.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Sunday Apple Cup week.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: You fired up?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: I am excited.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: I am.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: Watching games on Saturday, week zero, I watched the TCU-UNC game from Dublin.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Saw some of...
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: I've enjoyed a little bit of the USC attendance scrutiny.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, that's always one of my favorite sports dialogues is the...
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: The allegation of LA fans being Fairweather fans,
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: the response to that,
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: then being invoking Dodgers,
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: then it being generalized to the West Coast,
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: and all of the hand-wringing that goes on with that.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I feel like I'm in the spirit for a proper college football week.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Lincoln Riley has no choice but to answer that question when he's asked.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: It is insane that USC addressed it otherwise with an official statement.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: That was crazy.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't get that at all.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Just let people talk.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to talk.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: This didn't need to be addressed.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: What?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: So mechanically, how do you think that happened?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you don't know what we're talking, USC released an actual statement.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_03: I assume it was from their Twitter account,
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: but it might have gone out as an actual press release.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: But it was an actual university communication on their account,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: basically saying that the rumors
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: of our poor attendance have been greatly exaggerated.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: We understand the factors and we expect better attendance.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: You have to shut up, though.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: You just have to sit there and eat that.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: There's nothing you can say that is going to make that better at all.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: Lincoln Riley can say something when he's asked about it,
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: but he should be mumbling about how they have great fans and we're looking forward
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: to all the support this year.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: And you absolutely in no way should start trying to create a counter narrative
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: or this is fake news sort of thing.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: That's insane.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you laugh it off, you move on.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: You just let it go.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: I did laugh that part of Lincoln Riley's response when he was asked about it was
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: that it's a lot of people who have never set foot in the Coliseum.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, it is a lot of people who have never set foot in the Coliseum.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's part of the issue, Lincoln.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's the problem here.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: If they win, they're good.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: They got big-time opponents coming in.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's going to be people there.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: And even if there's not, it's just not something that you need to treat like it's a scandal.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: If you think that Lincoln Riley has pathetically thin skin
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: that greatly affects his ability to be a head coach,
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: as I do, this only reinforces that.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: That's the only thing that this whole...
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah!
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: Look at that pivot!
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: Look at that pivot!
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: You can throw any defense you want at him.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: He's going to assess the defensive front and he's going to get you in the
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: right play
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: for Chuck Colson-Kia.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Locally owned and operated since 1964.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Family owned and operated by a family of University of Washington graduates,
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: whether it's 95 or 55 degrees, that is.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Friendly low pressure sales staff and a competitively priced selection of vehicles
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: at Chuck Olson Kia.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: We hope you'll check him out.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: When you do, we hope you'll ask for our friend Henry Olson.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And when you talk to Henry,
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: we hope you'll tell him that Say Who Say Pod sent you with or without the expletive.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: This episode of Say Who Say Pod also brought to you by our friends at Husky Mobile.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Husky Mobile is partnered directly with the University of Washington
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: to offer affordable phone plans for the Husky community with up to 7%
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: of each bill going back to UW Athletics.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Subscribers can also enjoy game day perks like FastPass lanes,
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: seat upgrades, and giveaways, all while on T-Mobile's nationwide 5G network.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Use code OnMontlake at checkout to get your first month free when transferring your number.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: You can do that at GoHuskyMobile.com.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks again to Husky Mobile for supporting today's show.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: We have a special guest on Tuesday.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: My good friend Adam Lewis,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: a friend of mine since he was in college,
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: since I was just out of college working at the Moscow Pullman Daily News,
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: a Washington State graduate,
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: a diehard Washington State Cougars fan, a,
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: I guess,
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: former member of the Seattle sports media,
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: used to cover some Seahawks,
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: some Mariners, some Huskies, still occasionally contributes columns to CougFan.com.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: More importantly,
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: he is just a very engaged,
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: plugged-in fan of Washington State,
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: and I thought it would be fun to bring him on the show and talk Apple Cup,
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: get his perspective a little bit.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: He's not so different from you in that he is a journalist by training and brings
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: a keen journalistic sense to things, but also is very avidly behind his alma mater.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's head of a journalist,
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: heart of an idiot, is how I like to appraise my own perspective on college football.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Here's our conversation with Adam Lewis.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned, we are joined today by my good friend, Adam Lewis.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I won't pretend like that's not the biggest reason we're having him on the show,
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: because he is my buddy, and I do like talking college football with him.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: However...
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: He was a member of the Seattle sports media for a time,
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: working for the esteemed Arthur Thiel and SeattlePI.com.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: He is still an occasional contributor to CougFan.com.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Most importantly,
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: and most relevant to this week's discussion,
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: he is a diehard Washington State fan, and I figured...
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: No one knows anything about this Wazoo team, really, right?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's a complete unknown, first-year coaching staff.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about the Apple Cup from a fan perspective a little bit.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing, Adam?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing well, Christian.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me on.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: You bet.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: I should say,
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Adam is such a good friend that he hates Washington and the Washington Huskies more
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: than anything in the world,
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: yet still listens to this show regularly, which Danny and I very much appreciate.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've gone through stages in my UW hate because,
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: for a short time after college,
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Art Teal,
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: who I was interning for,
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: would send me out to Montlake on Mondays for the Steve Sarkeesian press conferences
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: and then Chris Peterson.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I was able to put my...
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, you know, with the Pac-12
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I felt very bad about the way the Pac-12 collapsed in general,
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: but Washington's role in abandoning Washington State specifically.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: However,
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: Over the past couple days,
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: for the first time since that happened,
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: I've found myself chuckling at the Cougars' expense.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I kind of feel that things are returning to normal because I've gotten
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: a great deal of enjoyment out of the whining about the Cougar band tickets
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: that were offered.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I'm coming back, baby.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: I'll be able to be sarcastic and mean about the Cougs again because I've just felt
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: so bad for a couple of years.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm going to apologize in advance for my snarkiness.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like you have like, yeah, you're a very empathetic person, Danny.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like you have, but you're also kind of a smart ass in a funny way.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like those two, those things are, you know, battling each other.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, a good, a good band spat for, you know, before the, before the big game.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I love that.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: That adds a little spice.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, there's no band spats in the NFL.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, God.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: When Softie yesterday posted,
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was to Jamie Vinnick,
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: that we could have held their hands and walked them down to the field to make sure
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: that they could participate.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh, we're so back up.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: We are so back up.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: Patronizing Washington fans.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Are you going to the game on Sunday?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I've had like...
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Most Coug fans like very mixed experiences at Husky Stadium in my life,
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: like some traumatic stuff and some some great things.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll probably be like a morning of check tickets.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I live, you know, just south of Seattle in like Des Moines, Federal Way area.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Weather looks looks decent.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I might end up there somewhere.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was hoping our friend Matt Pence would get some comped tickets from Boeing,
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: who he works for, but I haven't heard back from him yet.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I was there in 97.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: That was like one of my first Cougar games for the Apple Cup to go to the Rose Bowl there.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I definitely had like a...
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Very unrealistic introduction to WSU sports.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like as a, you know, child, like, oh, this must happen every year.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: we just march into Husky Stadium and beat a top 20 ranked team and go to
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: the Rose Bowl.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Storm the visiting field.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: With Ryan Leaf stomping on the, you know, UW logo on the end zone.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think the next time I was there was 03.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Was that Reggie Williams?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Touchdown in the corner.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was Corey Williams, but Reggie Williams was playing for them.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, Corey Williams.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting in my great-uncle's tie-ee,
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: UW tie-ee seats on the 20-yard line,
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: just getting, oh my God, harassed like you wouldn't believe.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: What were you, like 13?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it was,
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think the Cougars led the whole game,
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: like kicked like four or five field goals in the second half instead of,
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: it was a classic WSU come from a head loss.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I've gone back and forth on my experiences there as a Coug.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's tough.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's a tough week.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a week that we've necessarily looked forward to.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: So your grandfather is a TIE member.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: Where did things go sideways for you then?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how did you, how did you, because it was before you went to school there.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: Where did you go wrong?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So my grandfather played for, he walked on at the University of Washington, Bill Dernan.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And my great uncle, Bill Lewis, was also a long time.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: He found, helped found dogs in the desert in Palm Springs.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I believe Dogs in the Desert is where we got
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: the infamous Steve Sarkeesian bar tab.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that was Post.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my great aunt,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Margaret,
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: loved Rick Neuheisel,
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: who had a very large crush on him,
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: and helped found that event, partially with my great Uncle Bill RIP.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so where did I go wrong?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: My dad, who was also a Husky fan growing up, his room was painted purple.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: He...
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Decided, like,
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: I guess the University of Washington journalism program was not that strong in 1976
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: or whenever he went off to school.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so he ended up going to WSU instead.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have a family of Huskies, basically, on both sides, my mom and dad's side.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then my dad ended up going to WSU.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And just as a kid, yeah, going over to Pullman, those long drives spent with him.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: we'd go pheasant hunting and very classic Coug experience,
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: staying like this little crappy motel in Colfax.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, those were some like really good teams growing up there.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of fell in love with that part of Eastern Washington and then ended up going
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: to school there myself for journalism.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: And you guys hunted pheasants?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: We could talk for hours.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_03: My dad grew up and I learned to hunt chukar, which is... Oh, fun.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: Tough to hit.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: They are.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: They're wily.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: And they swing around.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's not a hunting game.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not much of a, I didn't end up like falling totally in love with the hunting aspect.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: I like sitting in the truck and eating Kit Kat bars and being the stopper in case
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: a bird flew my way.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because pheasant hunting is difficult.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're up at 6 a.m.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's 28 degrees in St. John, Washington.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: but had some really fun, fun,
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: memories growing up and then Went to school there,
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: obviously,
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: and really had a good,
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: good experience, despite, you know, it being the Paul Wolf era.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Your dad was fairly spot on about the UW journalism program.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just I'll just throw in there.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, no.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Even 25.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Even 30 years later, I guess.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: So.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like Washington State was a complete unknown last year going into the season
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: under Jimmy Rogers,
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: new head coach,
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: total roster overhaul after Jake Dickert had left,
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: and feels like another new roster this year under Kirby Moore.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Some familiar faces, some guys are back.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's Am I incorrect in saying it feels like, again,
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: the expectation is that the defense will be their strength and that
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: the offense is kind of TBD with maybe the main difference that they do know who
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: the starting quarterback should be and is the right guy to begin the year this year?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: What are you expecting from this team?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea what to expect.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're correct in that, like,
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Making the assumption that the defense will be ahead of the offense to start
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: the year.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think defensively,
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: we will have more athleticism than what we had last year under Jimmy Rogers
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: because Jimmy basically took South Dakota State's entire defense and
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: then just brought, we were like South Dakota State North last year in Pullman.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they were really well coached and they did a nice job
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: in pretty much every game other than the Apple Cup.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And at North Texas, like they went to Ole Miss and held them in the 20s.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that was, you know, a pleasant surprise this year.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like most of those guys were 22 to 24 years old.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: They were all like fifth year, sixth year seniors.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the one,
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I guess,
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: silver lining about Jimmy leaving one year after his contract is that or one year
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: into his contract with WSU is he had a fairly significant buyout that I think he had
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: to pay.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: As part of leaving to go to Iowa State,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm almost positive we used those funds to acquire some decent talent on
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: the defensive side of the ball.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have a transfer from Vanderbilt, who's come in to play defensive end.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: We've got another from Idaho, Matthias McLean, I think is his name, that people are high on.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: So there's pretty good depth on the defensive line.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty good depth in the secondary.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have a fairly proven defensive coordinator in Trent Bray, who,
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think we, like,
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: it obviously didn't go great for him at Oregon State,
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: to say the least, being the successor to Smith, but...
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're optimistic that, like,
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: it'll be a pretty well-coached unit that won't be,
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: as I would guess,
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: would not be as physically overwhelmed by, like, UW as Jimmy's South Dakota boy.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, last year in the Apple Cup, I was there.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it was just a very stark talent difference,
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: you know, with WSU's defense compared to, you know, UW's offense.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping, like, defensively we can hang around for maybe a few quarters.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Big expectations, I know.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: Last year, going into the Apple Cup, the North Texas game had happened.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: And the Apple Cup was pretty lopsided.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: And there was really a feeling of like, okay, the bottom might be dropping out.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I remember,
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_03: and Christian was really good about this,
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: of like, look, I've covered that team before.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: The idea that this is the worst it's ever been.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, that's just not true.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like after going through the Paul Wolf era.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then they rebounded and were really competitive.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like you mentioned the Ole Miss game.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like that was a road game.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: They played really well.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: I guess looking from the outside, I feel like things have stabilized for Wazoo.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like, yes, Jimmy Rogers left.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: But in Kirby Moore,
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: you not only got like a young and aspiring coach,
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: but that's a guy with really deep roots on that half of the state.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_03: His dad, Tom, is legendary longtime Prosser coach.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_03: His brother, Kellen, in the NFL.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: But like someone that you really look at and can build around.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: And now you're in.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to say real conference,
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: but having the Pac-2 or the Tupac,
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: it was always a short-term,
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_03: you've made it through that gap and now are in a conference
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: where conference crown means something
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_03: and it feels like you can start building again.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: A hundred percent, Danny.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And like the last couple of years,
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: like in addition to like how traumatic it was for WSU to be completely left behind
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: with the conference collapsing,
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: it also just really sucked to have no conference to play in.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like we had this sort of zombie partnership with the Mountain West the first year
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: where they were charging us a ton of money to play like Idaho and Utah State,
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: or excuse me, Utah State and like Hawaii and Pullman.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: But we weren't competing for the...
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just like a scheduling agreement.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then last year, we were really out in the woods.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: We were playing like Toledo in October,
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: and we had Louisiana Tech come into Pullman for like a 7.30 kickoff in November
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: with like 12,000 people.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just hard to get, like,
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: fired up because, yeah,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: you weren't really playing for anything other than pride after the,
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: the Apple Cup and,
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: you know, a couple games against Oregon State, which is your natural rival.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: So with Kirby, I think...
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: WSU fans aren't under any illusion that he's going to be like Chris Peterson
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: and stay here, you know, 11, 12, however many years he was at Boise State.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: But we do,
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think we do hope that,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: he could give us four or five years,
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: you You know,
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: in Pullman, he's got obviously roots in the Northwest, like you mentioned.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he's got family in Palouse, Washington.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: His grandparents live in Palouse, which is a 15-minute drive away.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping that he can build his career, have some success.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And turnover has kind of just been the constant.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: WSU since Leach, you know, left for Mississippi State, right?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: You had the Rolovich disaster,
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: and you had, you know, Dickert stayed around for three and a half years, four years.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, and then, yeah, we've cycled through.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not historically like an anomaly.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Cougars, from 76 to 80, I think we had four coaches in four years.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, but I'm hopeful that, you know, this can sort of be a positive turning point for us.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: I know you attend a fair amount of booster events and night with Cougar football type things.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: You get a chance to be around people who are in the know.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: I hear things from you about certain things that you might not hear from just anybody.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: So you still have those journalistic instincts, I know.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Based on what you hear,
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: the messaging you hear from Wazoo Athletics about Maybe not big picture financially,
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: but like player payroll relative to the new Pac-12.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Where are they?
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Where do they want to be?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Where do they need to be?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Which programs do you think are kind of setting the pace that way in the league?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: And if you zoom out,
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: maybe not just from a 2026 perspective,
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: but generally speaking,
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: looking at who Washington State's new conference peers are,
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: where does Washington State see itself in the new Pac-12?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think when they went out and took the top teams from the Mountain West,
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: the thought was like,
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to be the,
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: one thing I heard was like, we're going to be the USC of the new Pac-12.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we're going to be the most well-funded.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: From a financial standpoint, I know that there's still work to do in getting to that goal.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: WSU reappropriated $20 million from the education budget to basically go...
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Which is good,
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: given that there was some inherent tension with Kirk Schultz and the Board
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: of Regents, our last president.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I think in this new world, we should be upper half of the conference.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we're going to be number one, honestly.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think ticket sales, that still drives a big part of revenue, especially now that our media...
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, distribution isn't obviously going to be what it was in the Pac-12.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: But like Boise State, I think will be the leader.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: They have like, they probably have nearly double the season ticket holders that we do.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And they've just built, you know, this pretty...
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty, I wouldn't say iconic brand, but like big, big brand among college football.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think they're the top dog.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have like,
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: you have us,
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: you're going to have maybe Fresno State and Oregon State and us,
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like are kind of going to be football wise,
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: you know, right there behind them.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe San Diego State.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: I know they don't get like a ton of fan support on the football side,
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: but they seem like They're fairly well-funded,
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: you know, great location, obviously, brand new stadium.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we have some work to do still.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean this in a not at all patronizing way.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I want to preface it.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you mentioned I can be a smartass.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not trying to be.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm not.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_03: Because...
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm curious from your perspective as a Coug fan,
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_03: how the reorganization of college football has affected you,
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: if it's made you less of a fan of college football or the Cougs at all.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: Because, I mean,
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_03: from my perspective,
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: I did not like that Washington left,
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: just regardless of the necessity of it,
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_03: like all of the different arguments that I've heard about why they had to.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_03: But I've also seen like the Cougs.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: Cougs are part of what makes college football great or what I loved
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: about college football, which is it was the smallest setting in the Pac-12.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: It was remote.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_03: It made no real sense that that sort of school was part of this, but it made all the sense.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: And everybody that's like, I went to Washington.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: I love my time there.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: The times that I went over to Pullman.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: There's a little bit of jealousy I have because it is truly like this small college town.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's just this beautiful place.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I've hated the fact that that has kind of been wiped away
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: as college football shifts toward the NFL light.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm wondering from your perspective as a fan,
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: how has it changed your feelings about the sport and the kooks?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it definitely hasn't helped, just to say the least.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, being sort of put in this new, like, G6 conference, you know...
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make a big impact on me emotionally,
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: like the fact that instead of $22 million in media rights revenue,
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: now we're only getting eight.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: And now I don't love WSU or going over to games and tailgating and having
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: a great time with family and friends and Getting to experience that sort
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: of special atmosphere that you get to experience when the Cougs are going in
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: the fall.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're playing for a Pac-12 championship against Boise State in December
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: in Pullman, that would be freaking crazy.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: The best.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that would be so fun.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the last two years have obviously been really tough.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: It has hurt it.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think the big thing, too, is, like, it's so hard to get attached to, like, players, right?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because WSU has probably been hit harder with, like,
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: good players departing in both football and basketball than I would contend,
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: like, any other school.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know of a school that's, like, lost Cam Ward to Miami, John Mateer.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Who's an absolute stud, obviously, at Oklahoma now.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: On the basketball side,
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: if you look at some of our transfers when Kyle Smith was here and we had no NIL,
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: if we would have kept those guys,
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: it was a team that could have made a deep tournament run, given where they ended up.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm proud that we've punched above our weight in continuing
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: to field competitive teams and hold it together under Jimmy last year.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah,
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: it's hard when you're You're just rooting for laundry at some time,
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: like the Jerry Seinfeld thing.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're rooting for the logo.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're rooting for the school to do well.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And there's still—you can get some joy out of that,
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: but it's not as fun as watching a guy develop from the time he's 18,
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: gets into school,
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: plays a little as a freshman, and you get to watch him all the way through.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like I did when Klay Thompson was in school, right?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Klay Thompson is not— He's not staying.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: If we somehow landed a Klay Thompson in basketball, he's not staying for more than a year.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that part of it is a bummer.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: How about the Apple Cup?
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_03: What do you feel like?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: Has it intensified your feelings about the Huskies going into the Apple Cup?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've gone back and forth with this.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've listened.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's just a very wide range.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Range of opinions from Cougar fans on how they feel about this game now.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: For me, when the Huskies left initially and were just like,
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: see, I think I was like, okay, let's maybe play it out a few more years and then...
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think my worry is that the financial disparity would be so great
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: that it would be like every game would be just us getting our ass kicked.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then I like I've come around the last few years,
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: like even this week with like the the spat over the bands like that's
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: that is still like this tradition.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And like playing your in-state rival is like really what makes college football great.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: And like if the financial disparity gets to the point where it's like,
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: oh, we're losing eight out of 10 now instead of seven out of 10.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is that really or nine out of 10 instead of seven?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think historically, right, we've lost about seven out of 10.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: So or even more.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Christian, you can check my math on that if you want.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: But so I kind of like it being early in the season.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: At first, I was like, ew.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: But then, you know, historically, WSU has not had great depth.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, when we've had talent.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so we used to get through the Pac-10 schedule.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time we got to Washington, you know, I think a great example is like 2022 with Penix.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, our Nickelback, Armani Marsh, was hurt that game.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then...
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Penix, like,
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: threw for, like,
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: 500 and however many yards by just picking apart our nickel,
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: our backup nickel, by going to Jalen McMillan over and over again.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I like that there's, like,
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: this element of,
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: I guess, randomness now to playing in, you know, the opener in September.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, weird things happen week one, so maybe it'll be fun.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: Personnel-wise, I mean, who are you most excited to see on Washington State's roster?
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I really like our running back, Kirby Voorhees.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I got to sit with him at night with Cougar Football in March at Victory Hall in Seattle.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I got to know him a little bit.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just super, very laid back Midwest, unassuming, like 5'10 running back.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Just like built like a little mini Max Borgie.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: He had a long touchdown run last year in the Ole Miss game.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just...
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's just a very, like, fun, like, he bounces off people.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's low center of gravity, kind of like a little pinball.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking forward to, like,
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: if our offensive line can,
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: like, move, maybe not UW, but at least in, like, the regular Pac-12.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to him having a big season.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm interested in the quarterback transfer.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea how Caden Pennick is going to perform.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: It sounded like,
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get over for any fall camp, but it sounded like he struggled quite a bit.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then,
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: that's like the age old question, like,
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: oh, is the defense good or is our quarterback, like, do we have a problem here?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: Defense always a little bit ahead of the offense early in training camp.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: The truisms of camp coverage.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's universal.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: A universal factor.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's not big.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, he's like five, like he's barely six foot.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: And like,
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen UW fans this week,
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: bringing up his performance in his first, I mean,
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: rightfully bringing up his performance in his first college game last year against
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: the Huskies where he threw for like under 100 yards, got picked a few times.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think got beat up too.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't watch the UC Davis UW opener last year, but I was told it didn't go well for UC Davis.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: But you missed that one?
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's an 8 o'clock kickoff, so I don't blame you.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, like,
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think there could be, yeah,
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: a wide range of, like,
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: outcomes on how he performs this year,
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: and we don't have, like, a ton of depth at quarterback.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm very interested to see how he hangs in there.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hopeful because he had a pretty decent season,
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: and I think he was sought after to some degree in the portal
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: after he finished strong last year at UC Davis.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, you just have no idea, right?
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like, okay, coin flip.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hope he's good.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hope he can play at Zevi's level.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Zevi had some
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: juice, man.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: He could play.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: When I joke,
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: and it's been a recurring joke,
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: but when I joke about them not figuring out who their quarterback was,
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: it's mostly about Zevi is clearly the best guy.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: You saw what he could do in the bowl game after Mater left the year before,
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: and you saw what the other guys kind of couldn't do,
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: and it was like, what are we doing here?
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: Get Zevi Eckhaus in there.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was just a very odd...
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Odd sort of process that Jimmy went through last fall camp.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he's his own guy, man.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: I met him one time,
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: didn't seem like he wanted to be at the Cougar football function, was very annoyed.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was only in Pullman 10 months and then kind of was pre-hired at Iowa State.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, we loved Zevi.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: He had some moxie.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: He had his flaws, certainly, but the offense looked different when he was in.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_03: I was going to ask about that exact thing with the quarterbacks,
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_03: and instead I'll ask about Jimmy Rogers.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_03: Is he the most disliked of recent Wazoo coaches?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: What are the feelings about him?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was definitely anger initially.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then when we made such a feel-good hire with,
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: like, kind of bringing the guy home, it's like, oh.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then we got the buyout money, too, when we're, like, so financially strapped.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: you know, like,
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Jim Moore was like,
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to root against Iowa State every single week this year.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think they're picked to finish last.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's so unlike Jim Moore.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Shocking, right, that he would hold that sort of grudge.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: I just think he, I don't really, it's hard to like get much emotion like going on my end.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think initially I was like, wow, that's weak.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're only there for like 10 months.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Did you even, were you staying in like a apartment on College Hill?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like where were you living?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like he clearly hadn't set down any roots in Pullman.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: the anger,
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: it's just like,
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: and also college football now is like such,
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Such a transient world, right, where guys are moving, you know, all the time.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy that he kept us, like, during a crappy year, like, kind of somewhat interesting.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't have that much anger toward him, honestly.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was earlier this week I saw my first story
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_03: about how Jed Fish may be positioned for a big raise or something after this season.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, it's just the nature of the sport these days.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_03: Do you get a sense of what kind of offense Kirby wants to run?
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think it'll be like kind of a traditional maybe spread attack.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be like Jimmy's where, I mean, that was such a departure last year.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: We had like, you know, all these sets with like one or two riders.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure that Kirby will,
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: you know, veer back towards that sort of traditional, you know, WSU offense.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard him talk a little bit about, like,
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: this is kind of coach speak, but,
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: like, kind of adapting to, like, where your strengths are, you know, offensively.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Which, you know, what coach isn't going to say that, right?
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: But at wide receiver, like, we've got a bunch of transfers.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: And, like, I...
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: A few of them were banged up during camp.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we have a Florida transfer named Tank Hawkins, who's like a little, you know, slot guy.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Tony Freeman's back, who was probably our most productive offensive player last year.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think had a fairly good Apple Cup in 24 when we won at Lumen Field, if I remember.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Had some big catches there.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're going to throw the ball.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: They'll probably try to be balanced.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: You would think that you would go back to some sort of spread attack.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Missouri ran the ball very well last year,
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know, that they were among the top teams in the SEC.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: I would think fans gravitate toward Voorhees as well because he's a guy who came
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: to Washington State with the last coaching staff.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: They leave, go to Iowa State, and
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: he sticks around.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: He chooses Washington State over the staff.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and there was a few guys who stayed back when Jimmy left,
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: you know, who had come with him from— From South Dakota State.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maxwell Woods,
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: another running back who performed pretty well last year in limited time,
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: decided to stay back.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think the offensive guys,
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if Jimmy had a big,
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: like he was definitely a defensive first type coach.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think he had a, you know, super close relationship with the other side of the ball.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, like if a guy stays two years in Pullman now, we're like, kook for life.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: This guy bleeds crimson.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to be here.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: He loves going to the Coug and Valhalla and,
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: you know, he's ingrained himself with the student body.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't take much for us to, like,
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: really worship a guy who will maybe forgo a little NIL money to stick around
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: and play for us.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: Have you guys adopted the Mad Max Fury Road?
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_03: We Will Shine Forever in Valhalla?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: You've got the environment there to be able to really... Yeah.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: We should.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: We should.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, certainly Max Borgie was a fan favorite for many years.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was a chant in our section when he was – I was always,
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: in some level of intoxication yelling at Mike Leach to hand the ball off to him more
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: because he was so – Well, he was so explosive.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like he was like, he's one of the best running backs that we've had in like my life.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like Jerome Harrison and like.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, he was a good back.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was very, he, Stanford wanted him like really badly.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, it was like one of our biggest recruiting wins of like my life was getting him.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then he was like, just good.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: I like that.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: This game's not in Pullman, but I'll close with this question anyway.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: When you go back, what is your go-to restaurant these days?
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: I always try to go back to South Fork when I'm there.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: South Fork's good?
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think Black Cypress is probably, you know, the top spot.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like it's always packed.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty small.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, that's like for a nice night out.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if I can get the Mac and the Cougar Gold Mac and Cheese at South Fork,
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: you know, I'm going to be a pretty happy camper.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't take much to make me happy on the food front.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: You guys and your canned cheese.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: We love our Cougar Gold, man.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's good, man.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's expensive, but it's good.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're in Pullman,
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: it's like you got to pick it up because it's like in West Seattle where I was living
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: the last few years, you know, you're talking 60 bucks for a can.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're at Dismores or Safeway in Pullman, it's like 25.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: I had no idea Dismores closed.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: We went there last year.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's a Rose Hours now.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful, large Rose Hours.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't go in, but it looked very nice from the outside, but I was a little disappointed.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are you missing your time in Pullman at all, Christian?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I always like going back.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: you had a good introduction to the sports writing universe with that Mike Leach sort
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: of era.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: It was.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was thankful to start with him.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: like I said,
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: January 2012 was when I started at the Spokesman Review,
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: and he had only been there a couple months.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know,
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: kind of got used to the way he did things,
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: being a brand new reporter without stepping in and,
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: feeling like I was kind of the new kid at school and everybody else was up to speed
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: on things.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everything was new.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel like that was good timing.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: He genuinely liked you, too.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, in a way that he did not like other reporters.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you guys... You guys had, like, a nice little rapport.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think he respected that, like, you were, you know, a good writer and reporter and...
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't love the student report.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_03: He didn't feel the same way about the students.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_03: I think what he liked about Christian was that he knew he could be kind of annoyed
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_03: with Christian and Christian wouldn't bristle back.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I think that he kind of respected the give and take and,
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: like, Always knew that Christian could be professional.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_03: Because I've been in other interviews with Mike Leach when he has not felt that way
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: with the other person,
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_03: such as when he expressed his hope that the owl in his backyard would come down
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_03: and fly off with Jim's dog, which was a memorable one.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: That was great.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot about that.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or yelling at Ugg Withers post-game at Auburn.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, another, like, very respected.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: It don't matter.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: So.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, he had his run-ins.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't hold back.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, good times.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hoping Saturday is like, it could be like relatively competitive.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: We can hang in there for a few quarters.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Cover 23 and a half.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like us to cover, I'll say.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, we might get pasted, but yeah, we'll see.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_03: This puts me back in the, now I feel bad again after making fun of the Cougar band.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_03: I want a more snark from
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: you, Adam.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_02: You're too nice.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's hard to get too riled up for anything these days.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I would say that, like, you know, in 2018, the UW van, they drove off the road on I-90.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it had a really bad crash.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: Horrible crash.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: We played their fight song.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: We honored them.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there we go.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is how you repay us.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, I respect that.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: But apparently they do that for everyone now, so I don't know.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's fine.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's the band, so.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's why you got to keep the rivalry alive.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's true.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us, Adam.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: Good chatting with you.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was an honor.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be happy to come back for the next Apple Cup.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully there's a few more of these.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have you back in 2029 when they renew the series.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds good.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, guys.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: See you, man.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks to Adam for joining us.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that was a good way to kind of get into some of the big picture issues.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I really, truly don't know what to expect from Washington State.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit like trying to analyze Washington ahead of the 2024 season
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: when Jed Fish was brand new.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_03: It does feel different this season than it did last year,
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_03: though, that not in terms of I know more about the team.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like I know more about the direction of the program,
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_03: though, even though they're with a new head coach.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_03: It felt like last year.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_03: Last year was sort of that was if things were going to bottom out,
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_03: that's when it was going to happen.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_03: And it really honestly didn't.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_03: They were a competitive team,
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: certainly more competitive as the season wore on than they looked initially.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_03: I'm excited to see what their team looks like this year,
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_03: whereas last year,
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_03: and this is where I'll revert to my annoyingly patronizing situation.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't enjoy winning the Apple Cup that much last year,
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: mostly because I felt bad about just the overall direction of the Cougs program.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_03: And this year,
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_03: I think I'm going to take some satisfaction about the path that Washington takes
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_03: to victory.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: In the new Pac-12, they are picked to finish around fourth or fifth this year.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: So they're kind of expected to be a middle-of-the-road team,
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: which makes sense, I think, with so many unknowns.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_01: I would think that if you assume relative stability for...
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: And most of the programs you'd kind of consider that be the upper echelon of
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: that league,
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: if Washington State and Oregon State can kind of get their feet under them
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: a little bit and...
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_01: Boise State's going to be what it's going to be.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_01: Fresno State and San Diego State have their own expectations.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_01: Texas State is a bit of a wild card.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think you'd like to think that
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: the former Pac-12 schools can pretty consistently be competing for
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: that conference championship.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it happens this year or not, I don't know.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: But it's just good that there's, kind of like we talked about, there's a league again.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_03: It is.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm grateful for that.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_03: You want to hear something funny that happened while we were talking to Adam?
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_03: So he brought up Trent Bray, who is the Cougs defensive coordinator.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, oh,
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_03: I remember when Trent Bray recruited his son out of Pullman High School to go
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_03: to Oregon State.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_03: And then there was a point where he like decommitted and went to Washington State
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_03: because the dad had gotten mad over something that happened.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_03: It was like, hey, you're not going to end up here at Oregon State.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_03: But this is back when Erickson was the head coach.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then I looked, Trent Bray is the kid.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna say, that was a while ago now.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_03: It's his dad is Craig Bray, who unfortunately has passed.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_03: But Craig Bray was part of like one of Erickson's longtime assistants.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_03: And Craig Bray went to OSU with when when Dennis went there
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_03: and they were recruiting Trent out of Pullman High School.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_03: And apparently something happened.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so Craig,
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_03: being a dad,
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_03: basically told him like, well,
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know how the hell you're going to get into Oregon State,
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: but you're going to have to go find somewhere to go like this disciplinarian sort
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_03: of thing.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_03: Trent was like, I don't know, I guess I'm going to have to go to Wazoo.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_03: He committed to Wazoo,
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: and then Craig was like, I wasn't talking about we'll stop recruiting you.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_03: And then he did end up, Trent Bray did play at Oregon State.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's really funny, though,
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_03: that my brain is fully 20 years ago, like early 2000s when all this happened.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: I thought that was pretty funny.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_01: It makes sense.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_01: Increasingly,
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: as I approach my 39th birthday,
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm encountering names of guys where I'm like, is that so-and-so's kid?
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it is.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was talking to a former UW player my age,
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: my exact age, same high school class, who had his hip replaced recently.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, that's
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: where we're at.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a little bit older.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'm now watching guys that I covered in high school be NBA coaches.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, God, no kidding.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_03: Mitch Johnson.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_03: He's super young.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, well, he's young for a coach, but he's not super young for a coach.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_03: He's coach's age.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: Mitch Johnson and his O'Day teammates made me very sad one March evening in 2005
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: when they beat my alma mater in the state championship game my junior year
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: of high school.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_03: Bill Backbus was a hell of a coach.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: He was.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now enjoying...
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: Retirement,
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: following his son Rem's assistant career,
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: he's an assistant at Texas Tech, assistant basketball coach at Texas Tech.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: Good for him.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_01: Seems like things are going well.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_03: That's absolutely fantastic.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_03: What do you expect from Washington?
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_03: They should be putting their best foot forward.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_03: The game against the Cougs,
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_03: this should be the audition or the first step of building momentum toward,
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_03: hey, we've got a serious shot at a playoff berth this year.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think...
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oregon scored 26 points against them last year.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_01: That was the most that they allowed in a game.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_01: So starting from there,
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: that's got to be the expectation this year,
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: that you don't give up any more than that, right?
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like...
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a Washington fan, you should feel like the defense is better.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_01: The offense is a little bit TBD just
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_01: because you are replacing some pretty important players at running back
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: and receiver, though I do think the offensive line is better.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think their special teams should be better.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think that they should be more competitive in the field position battle,
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: which is going to matter when you get into Big Ten play.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know,
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking for,
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: can they not only kind of fulfill that expectation of keeping opponents off
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_01: the scoreboard,
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: but like their defense has talked about all camp,
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_01: you know, are they going to be more attacking?
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: Are they going to be more aggressive?
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: Can they create more turnovers like they've really emphasized and sort of be
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: the offensive on defense rather than just trying to stop teams from scoring?
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_01: I want to see if that shows up.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you do think that of their defense.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm interested to see how Jed Fish tries to attack Washington State's defense.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: Not knowing a ton about them,
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_01: but having some idea of how Trent Bray calls defense and some of the things he likes
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_01: to do at Oregon State.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure they're studying a lot of Oregon State film.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_01: Do they say, hey, I don't care that Jonah Coleman's not here anymore.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is a team that's going to try to establish the run behind this offensive line.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: And Give Quaid Carr an opportunity to really have a coming out party and be
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: a breakout player and show people in week one,
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_01: like, hey, this is why you've been excited about this guy.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: Do they just hand the keys to DeMond Williams Jr. and say, yeah, no Denzel Boston, but...
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_01: I got faith in our receivers,
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: and in you to go out and,
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_01: find Desmond Roebuck eight or nine times and show that you've got faith
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: in Rasheed Williams being a really reliable outside receiver,
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: even though he hasn't played much.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is what we've been talking about with Christian Moss and show that you've got,
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: from Jed Fish's perspective,
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: that you do have the playmakers on the outside,
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_01: even if that's a little bit of a question mark.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious to see who they really choose to feature offensively outside
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: of Damond Williams Jr.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_03: Two things that I'm watching for their offense,
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_03: and I agree with everything you said about their defense.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_03: The first one is the rushing attack.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_03: What does it look like with Quaid Carr?
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_03: Does the offensive line, I think the expectation is that the offensive line is better.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_03: Do you see that?
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_03: Does Jayden Lamar play?
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_03: You'd mentioned seeing him with a boot and what is his workload?
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_03: What does that look like for him?
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_03: But mostly it's watching Quake Carr and to see How much DeMond Williams is involved
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_03: in the run game.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_03: My suspicion is that they'll probably not want him to run very much here.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_03: That if he needs to be a big part of the run game, that that's something.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's something that you want to save for later on.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_03: But maybe that isn't the way that they're going to look at it.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, hey, he is part of our rushing offense, his threat to run and how it looks.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_03: And then the second part is how much of the offense happens within sort of
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_03: the structure of it,
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_03: within DeMond Williams' progressions and how much is him creating in the backfield.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_03: I think you go into any game,
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_03: and especially a game that you feel fairly confident about winning,
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_03: thinking like, hey, hope he doesn't have to improvise too much.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_03: But I think those are the things that I'll be watching,
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_03: is what does the rushing game look like,
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_03: and how does their structured offense, how does their structured passing game look?
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_01: Big emphasis on him not taking hits he doesn't need to take.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_01: Which would seem to go hand in hand with like,
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_01: you're not going to design a ton of runs for him.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_01: However,
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_01: if you feel like you have the size and speed advantage on offense against
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_01: the opposing defense,
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: well, a big piece of that is having a quarterback who can really run too.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that can be a difference maker.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't want to take it off the table either.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's a hard balance.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_03: I know I've talked about I think he takes unnecessary hits at the end of runs.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure if that's something you can coach out of him.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so that question becomes, then do you avoid hits by not having him do some of those runs?
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_03: Because...
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_03: Russell Wilson was a great example of this.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_03: Russ was really good about not taking a hit at the end of the run.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like he was really good and it does, it costs you four or five yards.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like when you're downfield in a run,
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_03: it means stepping toward the sideline instead of cutting it back inside
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_03: and maybe trying to throw a spin in there.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_03: I think the trade-off is worth it,
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_03: but that's hard to,
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_03: especially when you're talking about someone as quick as Daman Williams, of, look,
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_03: part of the reason that he's as good a runner as he is is because he is decisive
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_03: and reactive,
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_03: and it's hard to eliminate that part of just say,
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_03: like, once you get 12 yards down the field, I no longer want you to take any hit.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like, it's just, that's not how a player's mind works.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah,
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_03: it is in everyone's best interest if he not get hit in the small of his back at
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_03: the end of a 17-yard run.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_01: Colt Dietrich at center.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_01: Landon Hatch is still recovering.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_01: How does that go?
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_01: Everything, is the operation clean there?
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_03: Should I be worried about this?
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel like I'm kind of like, it's a wrist injury from October.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_03: But it's been a difficult recovery.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm starting to read things into this.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_03: Am I wrong to do that, Christian?
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't think they expected it to take quite this long.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_01: I know he mentioned,
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_01: Landon mentioned that it's just sort of unpredictable to an extent with,
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's the scaphoid bone, I think is the proper term for it in the wrist.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, it just, it hasn't healed, I think, on the timeline that they may be expected.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Jet Fish said he expects him to play in September.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I saw that quote in your story that it was,
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_03: we do expect him in September,
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_03: which is, if that's true, none of it really matters all that.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't matter if he's available for week one.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_03: It matters if he's available for week four, five, six, and seven.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you don't want your starting center to miss any amount of time or to miss
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_01: the practice time that he's missed.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure it's been very frustrating.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's been very frustrating for him.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_01: But if it does heal on that timeline and he is back,
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_01: and not just back,
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_01: but healthy and not feeling effects from it and everything,
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_01: and able to block and do all the things he needs to do without feeling it...
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_01: You will be able to look back and say, hey,
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_01: at least it was good to get Cole Dietrich some experience at
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_01: a position he'd never played before.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you do need to call on him again in the future,
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: there's some time on task, as coaches like to say, to build on.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, I...
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_01: I do continue to wonder when they decided in the spring, hey, let's get Colt Dietrich snapping.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_01: Was it because they maybe anticipated that the timeline was going
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_01: to either not be exactly what it was, but at least right up against the season?
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_01: And hey,
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_01: let's get somebody going who you feel really good about athletically and physically
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_01: and just hasn't played the position before and get the reps with Garen Hatchett out
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_01: at that time also.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_01: So one thing to watch with that offensive line up front.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_01: Jane Lamar, it sounds like, is expected to play.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_01: But again, you know, he's been limited.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's been kind of stop and go with bringing him back.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how available is he, right?
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_01: Could he carry eight to ten times?
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_01: Will it be, you know, will it be more like Third down, pass blocking type duty, a mix of both.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty confident in saying Quay Carr is going to lead them in carries,
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_01: but now involved is Trey Cooley.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_01: Does Brian Bonner get on the field?
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_01: This is not a program that has typically gone four deep at tailback,
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_01: and it does sound like they expect Quay Carr and the two veterans
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_01: to be their rotation.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I won't be surprised if you don't see Bonner in the game,
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: but at least these first three weeks,
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_01: some of that could be dictated by score and situation too.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's going to be fun to just watch, see them get out there.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I would say I definitely feel differently about the Apple Cup than I have
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_03: the past two years or since the move to the Big Ten.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_03: I'm excited about the Apple Cup being their first game.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I do hope the series continues.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_03: I...
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, what's your sense of that?
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_03: The likelihood that after the current arrangement is done,
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_03: what they've got three more games that are on the books,
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_03: the likelihood that it continues?
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this year and two more.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't think there's any way to know right now because I think it all flows
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_01: from the college football playoff.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_01: And until it expands and we know like, okay,
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_01: is it 24 teams and What's going to make most sense for Washington from
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_01: a non-conference perspective?
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_01: What's going to make most sense for Washington State from
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_01: a non-conference perspective with that G6 CFP bid as the goal every year?
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_01: Does it make more sense to try to boost strength of schedule in the non-conference?
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_01: Does it make more sense to try to schedule three games that you know you're going
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_01: to be favored in?
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of the way that probably makes the most sense for Washington to operate,
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_01: knowing it's going to have to play a Big Ten schedule.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: Where are we going with conference governance, right?
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, Jed Fish was asked this question on Monday and said,
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_01: and you know,
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think he's wrong,
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: that like, soon enough, this is going to be out of our hands, was his quote.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is like, I don't know that Yeah.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_01: Does the conference office,
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_01: as part of its self-governance,
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_01: if we are headed there, take over non-conference scheduling?
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_01: And instead of it being an individual campus by campus, like, oh,
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: we'll pay you this much for this game,
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_01: and we got so-and-so on the books for 2031, and...
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, they've got a home-and-home with Tennessee's schedule for 2029-2030.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_01: 2029 would be the first year after the Apple Cup series ends.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_01: They can't do both.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_03: There is so little chance that that Tennessee series happens.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think there are games on the books right now that it makes more sense to operate
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_01: under the assumption that none of them are going to be played than that any
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_01: of them are.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_01: The Apple Cup is under contract through 2028,
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_01: and I don't have a reason to think it won't be played or anything.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I think so little is known about the future of college football governance,
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_01: especially if you're in a Power II conference.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the college football playoff that like I just I have no clue.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_03: You bring up a good point that sort of the central the the move toward
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_03: a potential central governing body, though,
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_03: if these past couple weeks can be any indication, man,
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_03: it is hard enough to get teams within a conference to agree on an approach,
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_03: let alone like some sort of national consensus.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_03: I am I am thoroughly enjoying how worked up everybody in the SEC is about Lane Kiffin and LSU.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_03: Should we get to Ian right quick?
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_03: Our weekly conversation with IP McFarland.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_02: Good morning, gentlemen.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's game week, which is crazy.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_02: It always sneaks up on me despite longing for it for months and months.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_02: Even after watching week zero games, I'm not necessarily ready to watch a UW game on Sunday.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_02: By the way, my Detailed analysis from Week Zero is that Florida State super sucks.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that's a genuinely bad football team.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_02: And they have a ton of talent.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_02: They probably have more talent than the University of Washington.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_02: They're close.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_02: And a coach that has seen high highs,
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_02: like, it must be Willingham-level work ethic from Norvell to make them that bad.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_02: Neither here nor there.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_02: Predictions time for the Huskies.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_02: I assume you're going to go through and make your predictions for the season.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_02: I have them 9-3 and missing the playoff.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_02: But a very, very good season with a tough finish.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_02: Need to know who has the first rushing touchdown,
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_02: first receiving touchdown, leading receiver, leading rusher.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_02: And who is the breakout player?
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_02: Who's the guy that Husky fans didn't know?
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_02: Except for readers from Montlake and listeners to say who to say pop.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, they know everything.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_02: But who do Husky fans not know today that they will know by the end of the season?
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_02: Getting on a plane tomorrow.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_02: This is my first Apple Cup in...
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_02: Person in like 20 plus years.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's always the game I miss because I'm always down here for Thanksgiving.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_02: And now there's no excuse.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_02: So looking forward to it.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_02: Have a good week.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_02: Go Dawgs.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to save my game by game prediction for onmontlake.com.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_01: Make you wait a day.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's fair enough.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe not even a day.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_01: It actually might be published by the time I get this up.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_03: I think the Huskies are going to go 10-2.
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_03: I do think that they're going to make the playoffs.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_03: I believe that they are going to lose to Indiana but beat Oregon.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_03: And will have a loss earlier in the season.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_03: I think the most likely candidates in my mind,
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_03: it's kind of that at Nebraska, USC game could be like Penn State.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_03: They'll lose one of those three games and then they'll split that final,
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_03: the Widowmaker turn at the end.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I think they get in.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_01: Leading rusher, Quade Carr.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_01: Leading receiver, Desmond Roebuck.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_01: Leading tackler, Jacob Manu.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_01: Breakout player.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is a good one.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_01: So in your mind, does Ryland Dillard Allen qualify?
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I was going to...
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_03: I was going to ask the same about a different player.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_03: Rylan Dillard-Allen or Dylan Robinson was the one I was going to ask.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_01: So sort of in the same bucket.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_01: I would say they do because, look, I think Dillard-Allen started three games last year.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_01: Robinson started five.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_01: Their snap counts, I think, wound up pretty similar.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_01: Dillard-Allen played more in games he didn't start than Dylan Robinson did.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was enough to give you a sense of their athletic ability.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think that what they're both going to be asked to do and the platform that each
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_01: of them will have this year to prove who they are as players is going to be
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_01: so much greater than last year.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_01: I would say both qualify.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_01: Rylan Dillard-Allen is going to be my pick,
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_01: certainly defensively,
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_01: as a guy who,
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_01: even if you're excited about him,
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_01: even if you liked what you saw last year and thought,
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_01: okay, I like that that guy will be starting in 2026.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see what he can do.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think he'll be a bigger name by the end of the season than he is now.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'll put it that way.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I feel the same way about Dylan Robinson.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that Like they put together after the draft when you'll see
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_03: the next year's potential draft list following the 2027 draft.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_03: I can see Dylan Robinson being a guy they talk about as a first round pick as
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_03: a corner after his third year.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_03: So similarly of just...
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_03: We all know he's good.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's not like he's a player that's going to emerge from nowhere,
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_03: but I think he's going to vault into a different stratosphere.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_03: My number two pick in that would be Rainy Solly.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was going to say, very similar, right?
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_01: You might be listening to this thing,
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_01: like, whoa, I already think Sadrius Rainy Solly is really good.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's not,
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_01: but you look at the snap counts
• 1:08:14
  SPEAKER_01: and what he did last year really truly is just scratching the surface.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_03: He's got a rare ability as what I saw last year.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_03: His ability in pass coverage is really unique for an inside linebacker,
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_03: and I think you're just starting to see the beginning of what he'll be able to do.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_03: By the time it's all said and done,
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_03: I think he'll be a first-round pick as an inside linebacker,
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_03: which is pretty impressive.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_01: You got Ramzak Fruin as a relatively easy choice as a defensive freshman to watch,
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_01: but also don't rule out Derek Coleman-Brusa.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_01: We got Two pretty strong choices there defensively.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_01: A third, Jaron Jones, who shouldn't be ruled out either.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like that is a tighter battle than I was anticipating between him
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_01: and Rashawn Clark at nickel.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_01: He can also play corner.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_01: I would imagine he'll be their sixth DB when they go heavy in coverage.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_01: So he'll have an opportunity to play a lot this year.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, offensively, like...
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_01: Could Rasheed Williams be a breakout guy?
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_01: He's a fourth-year player.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_01: He was a starter to start last year,
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_01: but just because of injuries and he just hasn't really had a chance
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_01: to actually do it yet.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_03: I also wondered, because you can't put Desmond Roebuck on there.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_03: Roebuck is already someone that we see.
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_03: No, he broke out.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_03: Chris Lawson, too, is a candidate there.
• 1:09:47
  SPEAKER_03: He's got a couple different spots, and he kind of played his way up the depth chart.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_03: He probably helped himself the most over summer and fall, the fall camp.
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_01: Just from a snap distribution standpoint,
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm probably more interested to see how often he gets on the field and where
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_01: than I am their running back division of carries even.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Just because in a perfect world,
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_01: if everybody's healthy,
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think Jed Fish and Kevin Cummings would love to have so much confidence
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_01: in their top three starting receivers that they take them off the field as little
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_01: as possible.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_01: But It's also pretty ideal to have a fourth guy who you think is so good and
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_01: who is putting so much pressure on those top three and is continuing to make plays
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_01: in practice the way that Chris Lawson has that you feel like,
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_01: well, this guy's got to get on the field too.
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just curious to see that push and pull,
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_01: especially as you mentioned,
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_01: a guy like Lawson who I think is probably the best fit in that Z role outside
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_01: at flanker,
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_01: the position that Rasheed Williams plays,
• 1:10:50
  SPEAKER_01: but also has been very productive in the slot in practice when he's
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think they'd be too shy about putting him in at X if circumstances dictated there.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious to see just how much he plays.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_01: How much does he get on the field?
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_01: How many plays?
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_01: How many targets do they get for him?
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And is there anybody behind him?
• 1:11:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_01: Justice Williams is a guy who's had more opportunities throughout camp
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_01: with Jordan Clay kind of dinged up.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_01: How much do either of those guys get on the field?
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_01: How deep do they go at receiver?
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's usually a pretty tight rotation in this offense.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's going to be fun to see, man.
• 1:11:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm pumped up to see.
• 1:11:29
  SPEAKER_03: I'm excited to see the season kick off.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_03: I started feeling pumped up watching the games last week.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm looking forward to this.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's going to be fun.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_01: It will be fun.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_01: As Ian said, I think he summed it up well.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_01: It always does kind of sneak up on you.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_01: You spend all year hoping for games, and week one arrives.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_01: How bad did TCU look against North Carolina?
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they looked pretty terrible.
• 1:11:51
  SPEAKER_03: There was a funny—they've got a transfer quarterback from Harvard,
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_03: and there was—I don't mean to pick on him,
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_03: but there was a reporter— I remember seeing the tweet where I was like,
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_03: oh, that's interesting.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'll see how that goes.
• 1:12:03
  SPEAKER_03: And then watching him,
• 1:12:03
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, yeah,
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_03: sources were like a coach that was sitting there really hoping
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_03: that it came out differently.
• 1:12:09
  SPEAKER_03: TCU looked terrible.
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_01: With that said,
• 1:12:26
  SPEAKER_01: if I had a team with real stable coaching staff,
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_01: veteran roster,
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_01: big expectations for the year,
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_01: and they're opening in Dublin,
• 1:12:36
  SPEAKER_01: I would still have no idea what to expect from them in that game.
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be like, well,
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_01: this is probably going to be really ugly in a coin flip because this is just
• 1:12:44
  SPEAKER_01: a weird way to start the season.
• 1:12:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't...
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_01: I won't cross TCU off the list of teams that could make something
• 1:12:52
  SPEAKER_01: of their season just because of the way they performed in that game.
• 1:12:54
  SPEAKER_01: But boy, was that ugly.
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_03: How about crossing TCU off your list for revoking
• 1:13:00
  SPEAKER_03: the Dallas Morning News credentials for covering a crime?
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, talk about the reaction making something a bigger story
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_01: than it would have been otherwise, as many others have pointed out.
• 1:13:12
  SPEAKER_03: Just so stupid.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're not following it, the Dallas Morning News reported that it was a transfer.
• 1:13:18
  SPEAKER_03: He was a defensive back.
• 1:13:20
  SPEAKER_03: There'd been a fight in the locker room.
• 1:13:22
  SPEAKER_03: And he'd been kicked off the team for it.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_03: TCU responded by revoking the Dallas Morning News credentials.
• 1:13:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then that was followed up by the player who...
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_03: Initiated the fight, being charged.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_03: He got arrested and charged with assault.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_03: And then after that, it came out that the player who got hit, they waited.
• 1:13:45
  SPEAKER_03: They were watching and monitoring him after the fight.
• 1:13:48
  SPEAKER_03: But after about two hours, they took him to the hospital and he's diagnosed with a brain bleed.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so a really serious situation.
• 1:13:55
  SPEAKER_03: So you go from being a team that handled a difficult life.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_03: Where are you watching the game?
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right here in Midtown or in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
• 1:14:29
  SPEAKER_03: Could be having a couple UW grads come over to watch it with us, but I'll be watching it here.
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Are there other UW grads in New York?
• 1:14:38
  SPEAKER_03: There are a fair number.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, a pretty healthy alumni chapter.
• 1:14:42
  SPEAKER_03: Dogs on Wall Street.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we got a few number of us.
• 1:14:45
  SPEAKER_03: I met one guy.
• 1:14:46
  SPEAKER_03: God, it was just a week ago.
• 1:14:48
  SPEAKER_03: I was walking over to Trader Joe's.
• 1:14:49
  SPEAKER_03: He was wearing a UW hat.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_03: Turned out his name was Melvin.
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_03: He'd gone to live from Everett, living here for two or three years now.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_03: Not sure if Melvin's going to come over, but yeah.
• 1:14:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we got dogs represented.
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_01: You think they cover 23 and a half?
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:15:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think I'm picking Washington by about 21.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 1:15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Got Wazoo with the slight cover.
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think Washington's covering.
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the game.
• 1:15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the season.
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Say who?
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk to you next week.
• 1:15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Say pot.