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Best of Ian Furness 9/16 · The Ian Furness Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, from the Star Reynolds Sports Desk, your 93.3 KKRFM
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Sports Headlines.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Headlines are brought to you by Frostbrew Coors Light Cold
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: as the Rockies. I'm going to read this verbatim. This
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: is what Ashley Ryan wrote down. Put a fork in them,
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: they're done.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: It made me really sad to write it.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: I'll ask all of you, fill in the blank, who
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: is she talking about? You get one guess. Mariners pitching
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: showed up last night at Anaheim, thanks to Logan Gilbert.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: And company, the bats were nowhere to be found. They
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: lose 2-1 to the Angels. Third loss in a row.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: They now fall six and a half games behind Houston,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: the AL West. Just ten games left. Mike McDonald is
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: speaking any second now at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, which,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: by the way, is where I'm at right now as
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: we speak. We'll get an update on Sam Donald's unique
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: backside injury. Meanwhile, the Seahawks continue preparations for Week 2
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: with Drew Locke under center. Devils are hiring former Kraken
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: assistant coach Jessica Campbell as manager of player development. Of course,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: she was the first woman to serve as a full-time
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: bench coach behind the bench here in Seattle. Kyler Murray,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: by the way, limited in practice today. Maybe he comes
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: back sooner than expected for the Minnesota Vikings. The team
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: itself actually announced that a short time ago. Let's get
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: the show started. Here we go.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: The Ian Furness Show is presented by Snoqualmie Casino. Text
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: us at 49451 and hit the talkback mic on the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app. This is the new Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: All right, welcome in. As I mentioned, we are, I am,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: not Ashley. She's back in the studio.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Story of my life. Everyone goes to fun places and.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I sit here. I know, I know. That was the
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: complaint from one Anderson Hurst and or... Jessamyn McIntyre, when
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: they were doing the show for all those years. But yes,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I'm at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. It's Wednesday. It's
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: kind of the first real full day of the week
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: for the Seahawks. We got here. I met one Greg
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Bell here early. We're the first ones here at about
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: 9.30 this morning. Rolled in. Seahawks were just getting out
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: of their meeting in the big auditorium, which you saw
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: a lot during Hard Knocks. It's right next to where
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: we are at in the media room. Walked in and
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: saw the players making their way out. Actually saw Sam Darnold, too,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: walking out of the meeting and They're getting ready for
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: their preparations for the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Riley Mills
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: is going to come by in just a couple seconds.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Seahawks defensive lineman. Excited to talk to him. I've never
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: had a chance to sit down and talk to him.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: And so we'll talk to him here in just a
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: few minutes when he pops in here. Mike McDonald's scheduled
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: to speak any second now. So we'll kind of monitor
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: what he's saying. We'll probably play some of Mike McDonald
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: coming up in the 2 o'clock hour as well and
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: get the latest. We'll see if... We'll see what the guys...
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: About 25, 30.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: Feet from me.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Two.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Walls away, can get out of Mike McDonald as far
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: as Sam Darnold's situation is concerned. They'll try. Our guy
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Greg Bell and others will try, but we'll see what
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: he actually says. Busy show coming up today. Stuart Mandel
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: talking college football with us coming up at 120 or
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: 130 today, depending on Riley Mills when he pops in here.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: We'll ring up old Stuart Mandel. Big weekend in college
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: football coming up, and we'll get to that with Stu. Also,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: at 1 o'clock, I had a chance to sit down
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: with John Harlow. He's Washington State's athletic director. Extended conversation
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: with him. And before you say, hey, Furness, too much
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Cougar talk. This is going to be bigger picture college
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: football and college athletics. I find myself right now. In fact,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I was just talking to one of the guys out here,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: my man Doug, who's a news photographer for Como. We
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: were just talking a minute ago. And he says, man,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: I'm so turned off right now by college sports and
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  Speaker 2: college football.
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  Speaker 4: And I'm like, God.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the numbers don't say that. But I hear
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: that a lot. that people are turned off by it
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: and are tuning out or not really caring. And yet
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: you look and see some of the numbers are massive.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I think it was 14 million for Ohio State, Texas
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: the other day, Ash. And I'm a weirdo. If I'm
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: not doing a hockey game, I'm a fanatic. I'm watching
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: college football for 12 to 14 hours a day on
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: a Saturday afternoon or Saturday during the fall. But not
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: everybody's like that. And one of the things I want
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to ask them about is this Protect College Sports Act,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: which made its first... significant step towards becoming a law
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: yesterday with a vote. And I'm kind of more curious
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: what it is, because there's a lot of people out
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: there that are arguing for it, high-profile people, like Deion
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Sanders is on the commercials that are bought and paid
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: for by whomever. Nick Saban has been very outspoken about it.
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  Speaker 2: I think if you take the politicians, our own Senator
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Maria Cantwell and Senator Ted Cruz from Texas aside, bipartisan bill,
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  Speaker 2: first of all. Like, both sides of the aisle are
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: represented here. But if you take them away from it,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: because in today's world, if you attach oftentimes a politician
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: to something, there's a negative undertone immediately, right, Ash? Like,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: it's right away.
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  Speaker 3: 100%.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, like, Ted Cruz is doing it. I don't like
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Ted Cruz. Maria Cantwell, I don't like her. That's what happens.
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  Speaker 3: Instantly dismissed.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm going to ask John what he thinks, because
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  Speaker 2: I think this is something that I believe– Power Four
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: and Group of Six schools are all unified in wanting
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: to see happen. But we'll kind of get a little
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: one-on-one on that and where we're at in college athletics
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: these days. So may even get into Bandgate a little bit.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: You have to.
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  Speaker 3: Got to find out what happened there.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: May get into Bandgate a little bit, too, and the
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: future of the Apple Cup. I want to ask him
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: about that. Nothing's off limits. So that's coming up. 2 o'clock,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: we'll probably hear from Mike McDonald. I think we're going
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: to try to grab Corbin Smith if he's out here
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: in the media room as well to join us to
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: talk Seahawks too. So we've got a lot coming up.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Before Riley pops in, and he could pop in any
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: second now, I kind of joked about what Ashley wrote
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: in the headlines. Put a fork in them, they're done. Ash,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: I'm a sicko, man. I watched that game last night. Oh,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: me too. And then I stayed around for the postgame show. Oh,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: that is sick.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Do you learn anything new or was it a tough one?
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I felt bad for Dan. And here's why.
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  Speaker 4: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: It's obviously the tough ones become a thing. Yes. Tough
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: one and nice become a thing. And first of all,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: great job. Let me give a shout out to my buddy,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Ryan Divish. Seattle Times does not allow him to come
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: on our radio station anymore because they're quite petty. But
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Divish was, when he first got here working with TNT
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: doing high school sports, he's a a friend and also
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: a friend of the station for years before he got
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: cut off at the knees. I just think he does
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: a terrific job. And it's hard when you're the only person,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: and Piper goes through this sometimes too, with the Kraken
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: on the road. It's hard when you're the only person
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: asking questions. I don't know what the Mariners are doing.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: They don't have a digital team on the road. It's
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: very odd to me. And they only have one reporter,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: and that's Brad. He's on the field. He can't be
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: two places at once. The investment is, I'll just say,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: quite small by the Major League Baseball team and their product.
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  Speaker 2: So it leaves Divich there by himself asking questions. And
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  Speaker 2: Dan was struggling for answers. And maybe now is the
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: time to get the answers. But I think the tone
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: of the questions that Ryan was asking are the tone
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  Speaker 2: that most of us are thinking. And it's, this thing's over.
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  Speaker 2: It's over, like Ashley just wrote.
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  Speaker 4: It's over.
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  Speaker 2: Logan Gilbert then was on afterwards, and I thought it
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  Speaker 2: was fantastic. Ryan's story's up. I think the morning guys,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: or maybe even Greg and Jess ran the stuff. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Logan was kind of searching for answers too,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: but the gist and the summary of what he said was, hey,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: we all thought it was going to turn around. And
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: he said, I think, these are Logan's words, I think, paraphrasing,
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  Speaker 2: I think we have a lot of talent in that
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  Speaker 2: room and it just never worked out this year. I
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  Speaker 2: think all those things are true.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: So now you got to think, Ash, how do you
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: fix it? Right. How do you fix it? Because if
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: you have the talent in place, right, how do you
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: fix it?
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  Speaker 3: Right. I mean, because imagine how angry people are going
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: to be if you're like, yeah, we've got all the talent.
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  Speaker 3: We're doing the same thing. We're coming back out next year,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: and we're just going to assume it was a fluke year.
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  Speaker 3: People will lose their ever-loving minds.
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  Speaker 2: Did you almost swear? Did you almost have to dump
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  Speaker 2: a button on yourself? I did almost. That would be
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  Speaker 2: a new one.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I almost said the F word.
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  Speaker 4: It's true.
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  Speaker 2: They got me. You know what?
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: That's what the Mariners do to me.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: I'd probably get in trouble for that one.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: We'll see.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: She never had a problem in the morning. She'll put
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: her on the afternoon with you. It's your fault. It's
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: all your fault. It would be my fault. Chuck and
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Anders were talking about it this morning. They had a
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: talkback call in and the guy said, look, he kind
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: of railed on the whole team. He says, we don't have...
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: What did he say?
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: It was great.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: We don't have a third baseman. We don't have... We
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: don't have a third baseman. We don't have a left fielder.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: We don't have a right fielder. Our center fielder is awful.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: He kind of went through the whole roster. And Chuck
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: vehemently argued push back against the guy. Well, here's the thing.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: The reality is they don't have a third baseman.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Okay. They're going to lose their left fielder in free
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: agency in Randy. Do they have a right fielder in
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Dominic Kinzone? Probably. I mean, they finally figured out he
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: can hit left-handed pitching.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he can hit really well.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: It took two years, but, you know, they're finally, they
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: put the iPad down, and he's actually able to hit
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: left-handed pitching.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: It's crazy what happens when you actually just do and
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: don't just look at stats.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Weird, strange, right? Crawford's gone at shortstop, but that'll be
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Cole Demerson, and Cole Young will be your middle infield.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: The problem is what you just said, though, Ash, is that,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: in theory, you could, you know, run it back with
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: that core, assuming that Montez and Canzone, maybe Platoon, DH,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: slash Outfield. Maybe Montez plays left field. I don't know.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: But you could run it back. No problem. But people
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: will lose, would you say, ever-loving mind?
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: That was it. What does ever-loving mean?
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: But I've heard it before, so I used it.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: It seemed appropriate.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: Better safety.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Than the F word. Very much so. FCC doesn't mind that. Yeah,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I think with this, they've got the core in place.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: The concern I think most people would have is, what if,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: what if, Julio continues to regress and doesn't get better.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: And if you want to look at the one part
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: of it is, it's the defense. Right? It's the defense. Yeah,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: it's been sloppy. It trickles down from there. He used
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: to be an elite center fielder. Is he a center
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: fielder anymore?
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: I think he still is, but I just think he
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: is a product of what this whole team has been,
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: which has been brain fart moments. Yeah.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: And at times.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Not laziness, but just, I think it's just mostly been
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: brain fart moments, honestly, because it's things he knows how
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: to do, and he's got the athletic skill to do it.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I, you know, Cal, I think, is giving
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: you hope that he can bounce back next year. I
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: hope so. The last 25 games. But as our friend
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Nathan Bishop pointed out, in those 25 games in which
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Cal has bounced back, You know, he's been one of
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: the best players in baseball in the last, you know, whatever.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: You can always pull out numbers in baseball. The last
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: 33 games, the last 25 games, the last 25, but
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: there are 11 and 14 in those games. And, you know,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Nathan also pointed out something I thought was really interesting,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: and that is the fact that this team, the Mayors,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: they are in pace right now to have the worst, well,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: possibly could have the worst second half of the Jerry
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: DiPoto era. Like think about that.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Like the worst second half of the DePoto era. That
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: would be amazing because normally, and Joe Sheehan brought this
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: up yesterday. Normally what happens is DePoto goes out and
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: his second halves are built on making, making deals at
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: the deadline and going from there. Right. Yeah. But right now, God, Nathan,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: it's just a treat. Um, If the Mariners finish 5-5
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: or worse, it'll be the worst second half of the
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: DePoto era. And remember, only two of these teams have
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: ever made the playoffs during the DePoto era. But right now,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: their second half, their final 81, they're 29-42 with 10 games.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Is it 10 games left?
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, 10 games left.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: 10 games left. 29-42. Hang on a second. Come in.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Come in. How we doing? All right. Ashley Riley Mills
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: is here. Ian, how are you, man? That's good. We'll
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: have you throw that headset on. We're live right now
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: on KJR. How about that? You've done this before. Notre
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Dame guy. Smart dude. Knows how to do these things. Yeah, huh? Yeah, yeah.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: How are we doing? Okay.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: Let's see.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Can you hear me okay?
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: All right. Riley Mills. Ashley, Riley Mills is here. Say
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: hi to Riley Mills.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: Hey, Riley. How are we doing?
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Great. Yeah, we're doing good today. Thanks for popping in.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I haven't had a chance to talk to you. I
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: wanted to do so because a lot of Seahawks fans
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: talking about a guy they saw, even though he played
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: in the regular season last year at the end, made his...
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: appearance in the Super Bowl, and then last week, big
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: game as well against the Patriots one more time. Do
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: you just like playing against the Patriots? Is that fun
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: for you?
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess. I don't know. It's my favorite team
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: right now to go against.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Hey, I want to have some fun real fast before
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: we go. The Hard Knocks thing. Did you watch Hard Knocks?
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: I watched an episode, and I really tried not to.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Did you watch the episode where you guys were doing
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: the sledgehammer thing?
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I got it sent to me by my mom
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: and stuff.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Any doubt you're going to win that?
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: No, I mean, when I was doing my knee rehab,
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: all I did was shoulders for like eight months. So
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: I was like, all right, cool. At least I didn't
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: pick like, you know, right knee extensions or something.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: That's good. I want to go back. When you were
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: drafted in April of 2025, and it was day three,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: and we all were upstairs actually in the defensive meeting room.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: That's where they put the media. And we're all sitting
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: up there. We're all doing the shows and talking, and
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: it's day three. And they take this guy out of
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Notre Dame, and I think most of us were like, oh, yeah,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Riley Mills. Yeah, got hurt, right? Got hurt. And Schneider
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: gets up there, and he's effusive in praise about you. Now,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: they do that oftentimes, the day three guys, and we're like, yeah,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: I tell you right, if this guy would have been healthy,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: he would have been a second-day pick, maybe a first-day pick.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: In the 20 years I've been covering this team, in
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: the 17 with Schneider, heard that a lot. But I
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: think what you proved, that that's the case. How difficult
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: was that for you to not only get hurt, but
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: also see the dreams of being an early draft pick
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: and getting to the NFL and knowing what the challenge
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: would be? How hard was that year from the end
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: of 2024, draft of 25, to December last year when
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: you finally got on the field?
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I feel like, you know, obviously like initially getting
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: the news, it's probably like worst case scenario.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: So it definitely like, it crushes you a bit when
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: you first heard it, like it was a shock for me,
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: but it's kind of funny. Like, I think the more
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: I've kind of gotten like distance between that happening, I
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: kind of feel like it's the best thing that could
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: have happened for me. I think, you know, in some
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: weird way, like I had to be in Seattle, like
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: I had to be with AD and Heinz and, you know,
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: I really feel like that whole process really made me reevaluate,
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: you know, the kind of player I want to be
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: and the things I want to do. Cause I felt
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: like my last year I was, I was playing really
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: good football and then you know, got it taken away.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: And I think that just put a different kind of
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: drive and hunger in me. And, you know, honestly, like
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: I remember like when I, when I got out of
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: the surgery and I was doing like, just trying to
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: lift my leg, like the only thing I could think
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: of was like, man, I can't wait to take my
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: next nap. Um, so, you know, for me, I think
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: it was a blessing in disguise and it had to
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: be like that.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: So Riley Mills with me and for us with you
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: here at Seahawks headquarters, Virginia Mason athletic center. I, I
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: get the feeling that you love football and I like,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: like if you're playing at this level, You're probably doing
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: it because you like the game. Maybe you love the game,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: but there also is a paycheck. But some guys love
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: the game. And I'll go back. The story that you
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: told us on that draft day when you did the
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: speakerphone thing and you dial in and we talked to
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: you and you talked about driving down because you couldn't fly, right?
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Driving down to watch your boys play in a bowl game.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: That tightness, but that also tells me you love the game.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: You want to be around the team. That's part of that, right?
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Is that kind of your personality?
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I love football. I love my teammates, too. I
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: couldn't imagine not being with them, especially at a big game.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: But I think that's what's so cool. At Notre Dame,
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: we were all a super tight brotherhood. Even here, you
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: get to Seattle, and every guy in this locker room
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: is super cool. I feel like we just have a
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: great group of guys. I love football. I love playing
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: with great guys and just having a great locker room.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: It's just kind of everything about it. I love it.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: I have to ask about that because you come in
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: as a rookie, and you're hurt. And that's hard. And
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: guys don't know what– you didn't get hurt here, but
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: they just see the rookie standing there with a sleeve
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: on his legs, watching practice during training camp. They're busting
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: ass in 90-degree heat. But you were accepted, it feels like,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: right from the get-go. How did that work? Who were
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: the guys that just said, hey, get through it. We're
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: here for you because you talked about that brotherhood in
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Notre Dame. Who wasn't here when you were kind of
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: the outside guy coming in that really kind of took
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: you in?
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like the older guy– we especially have
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: a vet room in the D-line room. So I think
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: it was definitely Leo and Jay Reed.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: You know, Chena and those guys. It was cool because,
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: you know, Chena had a quad injury or whatever he
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: was going through. So, it was kind of, you know,
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: I just watched him a lot and saw what he
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: did and tried to copy his process because I know
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: he's had a lot of success. But, yeah, it's not
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: the easiest room to come into, like, when you can't
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: do anything. So, for me, I was like, all right,
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: everything outside of off the field I'm going to try
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: to do great and, you know, stay on top of
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: my recovery. But then even, like, when we went out there,
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: you know, for me, I think it's like I don't
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: want to have anything mental. So, I would, like, I
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: would walk through every drill we did. I would you know,
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: me and the other rookies would go out, we'd walk
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: through like all the, all the fronts, all the adjustments.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: So I felt like mentally I locked in so I
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: can kind of prove myself in some way that like, Hey,
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: I kind of know what's going on here.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: So when you stepped on the field for the first time,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: you felt comfortable, not just physically, but mentally you like,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: I know what to do.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: I felt great. And I felt like, you know, AD
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: and Heinz did a great job of kind of preparing
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: me for that. Like, you know, even though I wasn't playing,
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: they still, I was in, you know, 80s office watching film,
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: watching offenses. So I felt like that made it easier, honestly,
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: because when I came back, it was, really just about like, hey,
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: making sure the knee's good. But everything other than that,
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: I felt pretty comfortable with.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Riley Mills with me right now. Riley, one of my
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: favorite guys to cover over these years, and he's had
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: the two stints here is Jaron Reed.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: Love the guy.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: He's just a fun guy to talk to. He's the
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: alpha male, man. And he learned under all those other guys,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Michael Bennett and Cliff Averill and that group of dudes.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: What's Jaron Reed like for you guys in that room?
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: He's funny, bro. He might be the funniest guy on
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: the team. I just think he just kind of says
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: what's ever on his mind, but he's funny. I think
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: like I don't know. We have to call him Big Slime.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: That's his nickname. So I'm like, we all call him that.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: He's good with that?
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. He's really good. But yeah, he's just like,
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: he's different, bro. He's a different guy, but he's funny.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: He runs the show though, right? Like he sets the
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: tone in a lot of ways.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he does. Yeah, we kind of, we feed off him.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: So like when we go out for game day, you know,
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: he's giving his speech. Give me two barks or something. Yeah,
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: he's always got something.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: And for you to work with a guy like Leo.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: What's that like, just to kind of be a guy
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: that can watch him and how he prepares, how he
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: handles himself on and off the field, all those things?
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, he does everything the right way. You know,
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: it's cool for me because I feel like I haven't
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: really played with a D tackle that was, like, really
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: my size, like, had my height and stuff. So it's
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: cool to see how he handles, you know, different things,
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: different adjustments. And I feel like I've been learning a
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: lot on, like, how to use my size and length.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: I want to ask you about that, because you are
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: different body type. So is he. Longer, taller than guys
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: that play kind of on the inside a lot of times,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: and there's leverage things and all that. How much do
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: you have, because in college you probably were able to
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: bully guys, and that's just the way it is, but
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: you get to the NFL, you're not doing that as much,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: so how much is the technique, the little techniques and
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: things like that, especially with body type, does he help
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: you with?
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think a lot of just getting yourself in
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: the right positions. I think it's stuff that he might
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: not even think of, but it's like, alright, he's lining
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: up in this adjustment, or he's in this technique because
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: he knows this is coming, so I've just been watching
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: that a lot and just trying to take as much
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: as I can because he's going to go down as
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: a Hall of Famer.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: He's something else. Riley Mills for a couple more moments.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Jadarian Price, you know him well. When he cut back
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: and had 13 yards, I don't know if you were
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: standing on the sideline or not or watching or getting
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: ready to go out there, but 13 yards in his
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: first carry a little cut back in the nfl and
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: i think all seahawk fans are waiting to see that
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: like okay okay we're good we're good what what should
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: fans know about your former teammate.
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah i mean i think exactly what he put out
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: there i think he's just he's hungry for an opportunity
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: and you know honestly when he got that first 13
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: yards i was like yeah that's what i expected i
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: figured he'd go out there and ball out so He's
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: going to have a great year, and I think the
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: more he gets comfortable and he gets adjusted, I think
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: the sky's the limit for him. So it's going to
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: be awesome.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: You get to go against another ex-teammate this weekend. What
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: are you expecting from Mr. Love?
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: There we go. He's quick, man. He's quick. But it's
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: going to be cool. It's cool to see him. He's
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: doing his thing, and he's getting adjusted. But I think
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: I'm excited for it. It's going to be fun.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: For you personally, before I let you go, I feel
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: like you're scratching the surface. Are we just seeing the
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: start and the beginning of what you're about? I mean,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: we saw you make some plays again against New England,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: all joking about the Patriots. I think that's the two
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: games that have been really kind of big ones for you.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: We've seen you jump out. How much more is there
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: for you?
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like I'm just getting started on what
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: I can do. I think the work I put in
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: camp and the confidence I have, I think just every
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: day I go out there, I'm getting a little bit better. Yeah,
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: I feel like I'm just getting started.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: How much fun is it playing? You played in one
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: of the great stadiums, one of the great programs in
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: the country. You come here. I always feel like there's
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: a little collegiate atmosphere in Lumen. What's it like playing here?
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: I think it's almost even crazier. I think that game
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: on Wednesday was probably one of the coolest games. Next
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: to the Super Bowl, I think that was one of
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: the craziest atmospheres. This is probably my favorite stadium all
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: the time.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: When Joe made that pick, could you feel the place
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: shaking a little bit?
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: Oh, my God. Yeah, I couldn't hear. I think we
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: went back to the locker room, and I was like,
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: I think my ears are still shaking.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. Hey, much more to come. Congratulations on getting
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: this thing going. Great to see you healthy out there
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: and just getting things started. Riley Mills, thank you. Appreciate it.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: We'll take a quick break. Riley Mills stopping by. Coming
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: up next, we'll talk to Stuart Mandel, all things college football, next.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: F for the Athletics, Stuart Mandel. Brought to you by
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Absolute Auto Body. From scratches and dings to major repairs,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: trust the folks at Absolute Auto Body for quality work
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  Speaker 1: online at absoluteautobody.com. Absolute Auto Body, when only the absolute
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: best will do. Now with Stuart Mandel, here's Ian.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Alright, welcome back. Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM. Ian Furness
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: with you at Seahawks headquarters today. And in full transparency,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: this is a taped interview. We had to tape this
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: a little bit earlier because I'm juggling some things with
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: the NFL team. But Stuart Mandel is with us, the athletic.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: You guys all know him. Audible podcast as well. And
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: he's joining us right now as he does every single week. Hello, Stu.
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: How are you?
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: I'm good, Ian.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: How are you?
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: I'm great.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I'm great.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: We're going to get into everyone's favorite topic in Seattle.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: That's Oregon struggling. We'll get to that in just a
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: couple seconds. But before we do that, you wrote a
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: story over the weekend. I think it was posted Sunday
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: or early Monday. Interesting dynamic. And John Harlow, Washington State
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Athletic Director, is going to be with me coming up
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: at 1 o'clock today. And I'm going to ask him
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: about the Protect College Sports Act. It got through one
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: of the stages yesterday in Congress. So maybe getting closer
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: to a vote, we'll see. I'll ask John to kind
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: of give me the one-on-one, but I think the dynamic
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: you wrote about was interesting to me. And I think
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: a lot of people, the amount of time ESPN spent
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: on college game day, normally a show that's previewing college
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: football games on a topic like this, how surprising was that?
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: What jumped out at you about that?
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: I mean, going back to the episode, the first week
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: Nick Saban, who is kind of the face of the
• 23:14
  Speaker 6: protect our sports act used a segment about LSU and
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: the NFL players to just kind of completely unchallenged, obviously.
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: This is why we need to pass the Protect College
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: Sports Act. And then the next week, Ted Cruz asks
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: to come on to talk about it, and they give
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: him the floor.
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: They got a lot of blowback for it.
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: They actually had the president of NAACP on SportsCenter Tuesday
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: to give the rebuttal. But I have to give Ted
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: Cruz and all those people a lot of credit. Their
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: messaging has been very effective. And like you said, that
• 23:46
  Speaker 6: first procedural vote, 76 senators out of 100 are in
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: favor of it right now. And that's despite the fact that,
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: you know, we think we all, we can all agree
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: that college sports is a mess right now in a
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: lot of different ways, but they have done an incredible
• 24:02
  Speaker 6: job of convincing people that there's this crisis that only
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: the Senate can save them from.
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: You know, actually your home state Senator Maria Cantwell put
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: out this big report yesterday about, you know, lots of
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: charts and graphs about how the spending is out of control.
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: And at no point does anybody ever blame that on
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: the schools themselves. It's those pesky players. They had the
• 24:27
  Speaker 6: audacity to go to court and start getting paid. And
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: now we're all going to go bankrupt. And, you know,
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: the same, I've been reading the same headlines for 20
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: years about how these schools are struggling to, to, you know,
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: stay above water and they're spending more than they have. And,
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: and that's because of coaching contracts and buyouts and facilities
• 24:47
  Speaker 6: and all these other things. So, um, it looks like
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: the Senate bill is going to pass and that's a
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: big milestone for them. Then there's this whole other, well,
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: is it going to pass the house and you have
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: midterm elections coming up. So I don't know that it's
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: close to the finish line, but it was a big
• 25:02
  Speaker 6: step for them.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: It was a big step. I think it's, I find
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: it fascinating just from the standpoint of it's, you know,
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: we were coming up on, on midterm elections here in a,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: in a month or a month and a half or
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: so in our country. And, you know, everyone's, you know, the,
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: how you vote and vote by mail, that's a big topic,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: but you know, who's going to control the, the, you know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Washington DC, what's that going to do for the white house?
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: All those things are coming into play. This thing I
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: find interesting because there is some money behind it. Like
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: you can't watch a college football game now without seeing
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: three or four ads. Deion Sanders, the face of it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: I find that an interesting dynamic real quick. I want
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: to get football, but I find it interesting that Deion
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: is very much front and center promoting this, you know,
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: protect college sports act when the NAACP is very much
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: against it. Um, It doesn't take a lot to read
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: between the lines what's going on here. I mean, protect
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: the players on one side, and Deion's trying to protect
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: programs and rosters and so on and so forth. But
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: there's some money behind this thing. There's no doubt about that.
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's really been several years. I mean, the conferences
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: have been lobbying Congress for about five years now. Tony
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: Petitti told me at Big Ten Media Days he's been to–
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: I don't remember the exact number, but he's been to Washington, D.C.
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: a lot since he started on the job, right? And
• 26:12
  Speaker 6: for a long time, they couldn't get anywhere. And so
• 26:15
  Speaker 6: all of a sudden in the last couple of months,
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: they've gotten a lot of momentum for this. But yeah,
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: I mean, they've done gone on a full on blitz.
• 26:20
  Speaker 6: They've spent millions of dollars in lobbying and now these ads.
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: And I don't know that you saw a lot of
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: opposition because I don't think the rest of the people
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: who weren't pro were even all that engaged on it.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: It just wasn't that big a priority. And now it's
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: basically at the finish line. Suddenly there's.
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: Well, wait a minute.
• 26:36
  Speaker 6: Chris Murphy, the senator from Connecticut, like now maybe we
• 26:39
  Speaker 6: should speak up about it. But I don't think that's
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: going to change much in the Senate.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Well, Stuart Mandel joining us from the Audible podcast, The
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Athletic as well. His mailbag is out today. You can
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: check that out. Oregon is a big topic of conversation.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Maybe a salary cap would be good for teams like
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Oregon who are paying quarterbacks $ 8 million a year to
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: go on the road and get upset by Oklahoma State.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know. That might come into play. You know,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: in today's world with 12 teams, Stu, a loss by
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Oregon or a loss by Ohio State, they're very different losses.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: One was to a top five team. The other one
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: was to an unranked team. Let's start with Oregon. How devastating,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: how bad can that loss be in the big picture
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: for what they want to accomplish?
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, obviously we don't know. Oklahoma, there was
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: nothing fluky about that.
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: And it may be that Oklahoma State losing to Tulsa
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: in week one was the big fluke and that they're
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: going to go on to have a great season. They
• 27:31
  Speaker 6: certainly have a lot of firepower. But for Oregon, I'm just,
• 27:36
  Speaker 6: it didn't totally happen in isolation. We saw against Boise State,
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: their defense didn't play well in that game. And then
• 27:42
  Speaker 6: we see them just get shredded against Oklahoma state. I'm
• 27:45
  Speaker 6: not even as concerned as much about Dante Moore who
• 27:47
  Speaker 6: didn't have a great game either. But like, if that's
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: Oregon's defense this year, if they're not going to get
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: much better than that, they're not going.
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: To make the playoff. They play USC in less than
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: two weeks.
• 27:57
  Speaker 6: Jaden Mayava could absolutely shred the defense we saw the
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: other day. However, we know teams get better, teams get worse.
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: And it's not a question of talent. Oregon has a
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: bunch of guys that could have gone to the NFL
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: last year. Um, frankly, the D-line and the linebackers are
• 28:13
  Speaker 6: all seniors, which makes it all the more surprising. But
• 28:16
  Speaker 6: what did change, obviously, is Tasha Lupoi going to Cal.
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: He was Dan Lanning's original DC there. So he was there, what,
• 28:23
  Speaker 6: four seasons? He leaves, they promote the safeties coach, and
• 28:27
  Speaker 6: it doesn't look the same, at least through two games. So,
• 28:30
  Speaker 6: you know, that's more concerning to me than Ohio State
• 28:32
  Speaker 6: going on the road and losing by a point to
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: a top five opponent.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: With Oregon, Stu, I think there's a narrative out there
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: that that Dan Lanning doesn't do well in big games.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: And I don't know if that's entirely accurate. There have
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: been some well-documented high-profile losses against highly ranked teams, Indiana
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: a couple times, et cetera, Ohio State, Rose Bowl, things
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: like that. But by and large, I know that it's
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: wild in this sport, right? People just kind of get
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: attached to things. Well, Dan Lanning can't win big games
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: against top 25 teams. That's not necessarily true, is it?
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: He's 15-9 against ranked teams. He's 6-6 against top 10 teams.
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: Like to me, those are perfectly respectable numbers. The problem
• 29:12
  Speaker 6: is when he does lose, oftentimes it's by a lot.
• 29:15
  Speaker 6: And people get that image from the Rose Bowl a
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: couple years ago, obviously the Indiana game in the playoff
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: last year. And even he said, right, like 39-31, it
• 29:25
  Speaker 6: was not as close as the final score. So it's
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: like they lose all those big games in kind of
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: embarrassing fashion. And I think people obviously remember that. But remember,
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: they shut out Texas Tech in the CFP quarterfinal last
• 29:39
  Speaker 6: year right like they scored a gazillion points against James
• 29:43
  Speaker 6: Mattis and I'm sure people will downplay that but the
• 29:47
  Speaker 6: year that Ohio State clobbered them in the Rose Bowl
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: they beat Ohio State earlier that year when they were
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: ranked number two in the country so no I think
• 29:54
  Speaker 6: that's a bit of a misnomer but I get why
• 29:57
  Speaker 6: I get why it comes up, and I also get why,
• 29:59
  Speaker 6: if you're an Oregon fan, you come into this season
• 30:03
  Speaker 6: expecting this team to be even better than last year's team.
• 30:07
  Speaker 6: And so you're pretty alarmed at what you're seeing so far.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: I think, as you mentioned, too, you have a chance,
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: this team does the rest of the year in a
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Big Ten, to get plenty of good resume wins on
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: the table, and they'll very much get right against Portland
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: State Friday night. The Texas win by Stark. All the
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: other stuff aside that everybody's talked about, I'll move on
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: from that with Holly Rowe and Laura Replidge and all
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: the interviews and Sark being Sark and Arch doing stuff.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Let's move past that just on the field. How significant
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: a win was that for Sark in Texas?
• 30:41
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, it was big because they looked like
• 30:44
  Speaker 6: they were going to get run off the field and
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: that would not have gone over well because when you're
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: a Texas coach, you're always in the hot seat. So
• 30:50
  Speaker 6: not only did they get the win, first win over
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: a number one team there and I forget 70 years,
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: something like that. That's the kind of thing that can
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: have a lot of momentum. How does, and I'm talking,
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: and I think specifically about Arch Manning, who for three
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: quarters or maybe two and a half quarters look like
• 31:09
  Speaker 6: this was going to be another he's overrated kind of game.
• 31:12
  Speaker 6: And then he, he caught fire. Is that what vaults
• 31:16
  Speaker 6: Texas to having a great season? Because I do think
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: what they showed is they could win the national championship.
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: They do have that kind of team. It's just a
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: matter of consistency, right? And arch in particular, that's, that's,
• 31:27
  Speaker 6: that's what makes him such an enigma to me is like,
• 31:29
  Speaker 6: you see the good moments like that second half of
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: the A & M game last year when they beat
• 31:33
  Speaker 6: an undefeated A & M team.
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: But sometimes the first two, three quarters are brutal.
• 31:38
  Speaker 6: And he, you know, he had a couple fluky plays
• 31:41
  Speaker 6: where the receiver were camp Coleman, right?
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: The ball deflects off of him and it's an interception.
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: He also had a lot of really shaky play. So,
• 31:53
  Speaker 6: So it's what they needed. If this is going to
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: be a national championship kind of season, they needed that
• 31:57
  Speaker 6: for sure.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that first interception, definitely not his fault. And then, yeah,
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: I thought a couple drops along the way as well
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: in the first half. But when it was on the line,
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: he stepped up. There's no doubt about that. I think
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: Indy was a great way to put it. Stu, a
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: little shorter this week. So before I let you go,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: let me just throw this at you. We've got, I
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: can't even fathom what the atmosphere is going to be like.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: A lot of our friends, my friends went down to
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Ole Miss last year. for the game with Washington State
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: played at Ole Miss against Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss team,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: and they just marveled at what a great atmosphere that is.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: That was nothing compared to what we're going to see
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: on Saturday. Lane Kiffin comes back to take on his
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: former team, LSU, Ole Miss. It's the marquee game this weekend.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: I can't wait to watch it. I can't wait to
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: see what goes on. I hope it all stays somewhat civil.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if that will happen. What are your
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: thoughts on this thing coming up?
• 32:50
  Speaker 6: We've never seen anything like it. Obviously, you see coaches
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: go back and play their former team. But it's usually
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: not this soon. And it's usually not Lane Kiffin leaving
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: on the brink of the playoff, stabbing them in the back,
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: saying in Vanity Fair this summer that he would lose
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: recruits there because of the racial history. He's just done
• 33:11
  Speaker 6: everything he possibly could on the way out after he
• 33:13
  Speaker 6: left to stab them in the back a little bit more.
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: I hope everybody stays safe. I really do.
• 33:20
  Speaker 6: I mean, I'm sure Lane will have sheriffs around him
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: at all times. I'm a little more worried about, I mean,
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: if LSU fans go there, that.
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: Could be nasty. It's going to be nasty. There's no
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: other way around it.
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: He had a golf ball thrown at him in a
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: mustard bottle at Tennessee, and that was more than a
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: decade after he left there. This is three weeks into
• 33:42
  Speaker 6: the next season.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: It's going to be nuts. Who's got the advantage here?
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: At quarterback, Sam Leavitt or Trinidad Chambliss?
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: Oh, definitely Trinidad Chambliss.
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: I mean, I think we need to come around to
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: the idea, if we haven't already, that he might be
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: the best quarterback in the country. He's dangerous. He's so
• 34:00
  Speaker 6: good at improvising. I think Sam Leavitt's pretty good. He
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: had a rough start against whoever they played last week.
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: It's escaping me.
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: Yeah, he had a rough start in that one for sure.
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: He had a couple of interceptions.
• 34:13
  Speaker 6: But in the Clemson game, We saw a side of
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: him that we didn't really see that much at ASU.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: I think he ran for over 100 yards. It's going
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: to be a great matchup.
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: I think the key will be we saw Ole Miss
• 34:26
  Speaker 6: defense really struggle in.
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: The fourth quarter against Louisville.
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: They're going to have to get that together because LSU's
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: got a lot of weapons.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a great weekend. Can't wait. Things
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: are starting to heat up. Final weekend really for the
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: most part of non-conference games, and we'll really ramp it
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: up next week. But that game's going to be fantastic.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: Tell folks about the Audible, Stu.
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: The Audible is myself, Bruce Feldman, Ralph Russo, three days
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: a week. You can join us live on YouTube for
• 34:49
  Speaker 6: our Sunday morning reaction show at 8.30 a.m.
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: Pacific at Audible Show.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: It's fantastic.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: And, of course, you can read Stu's work at theathletic.com
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: college football tab. I've got great recaps and also the
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Wednesday mailbag is one of my favorite columns as well
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: for all college football fans to catch up to. But
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: make sure you subscribe to The Audible. We'll talk to
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: you next week, Stu.
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: Thanks, Ian.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Stuart Mandel joining us. We'll take a break.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: Come back.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: John Harlow, Wazoo Athletic Director, with me coming up at
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: 1 o'clock. Much more to come at Seahawks Virginia Mason
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: Athletic Center.
• 35:16
  Speaker 7: 93.3 KGRFM.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: All right, welcome back in. Sports Radio 93.3 KGRFM. Ian
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Furness with you, and I'm excited to have in studio
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: today the Athletic Director of Washington State University. John Harlow
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: is over on the west side. He's kind enough to
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: come in studio. Lots of stuff to discuss. Bigger picture
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: college football, college athletics, and as well as Washington State
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: as well. And John's stopping by. How are you? I'm good.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. This is good. I appreciate you
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: coming in. It's way better than a phone interview or
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: Zoom or something like that. I want to start with
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: this just because I think there's a lot of college...
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: sports fans. I was going to say college football, but
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: basketball and all college sports. We're watching ESPN game day
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: last weekend, and you're watching games all last weekend. And
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: it was interesting because all throughout those games, ESPN, the
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: pregame show, they had Ted Cruz on set. And then
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: during the games, there's spots running for the Protect College
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: Sports Act, which is being sponsored by Senator Ted Cruz
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: out of Texas, who was on set. And then Maria
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: Cantwell from our state, Senator Cantwell. And there's just this,
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: it's wild, this backlash and back and forth and people
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: get upset. I think sometimes it has to do with
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: much as anything, just because there's politicians involved, even though
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: they're on two sides of the aisle. It's a bipartisan act, Bill,
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: but there's a lot going on there. I'm going to
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: ask you just, can you give us a 101 on
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: what it is and what we're looking at?
• 37:00
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a great question. And it has kind of,
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: it's been polarizing for a number of different reasons. First off,
• 37:06
  Speaker 7: to your earlier point, to get act or bill this far.
• 37:09
  Speaker 7: That's bipartisan. Kudos to Senator Cantwell and Senator Cruz for
• 37:13
  Speaker 7: taking this on, this initiative. They've done tremendous work over
• 37:16
  Speaker 7: the last several months. I'm supportive of it. Our institution
• 37:20
  Speaker 7: is supportive of it for a number of different reasons.
• 37:22
  Speaker 7: It kind of brings some logic back to what we're
• 37:25
  Speaker 7: doing here. It's been hectic with the transfer portal, house settlement, NIL,
• 37:29
  Speaker 7: rev share. You can't get through a classic game day
• 37:32
  Speaker 7: experience anymore without hearing those terms. But here's a couple
• 37:35
  Speaker 7: of different, I guess, just initiatives that it tackles. It
• 37:38
  Speaker 7: does limit transfer opportunities for student athletes, brings those down
• 37:41
  Speaker 7: to one opportunity to transfer, which I think we can
• 37:43
  Speaker 7: all get behind that. Five for five back, whether you're,
• 37:47
  Speaker 7: you know, injury or you transfer or whatever your red shirt,
• 37:51
  Speaker 7: whatever it is, you have five years to complete five
• 37:53
  Speaker 7: years of eligibility. It also puts some anti-protection or antitrust
• 37:57
  Speaker 7: act protection in from the NCAA. So we can continue
• 38:00
  Speaker 7: to do our jobs that have been the threat of
• 38:02
  Speaker 7: getting sued this left and right, like has been the
• 38:05
  Speaker 7: case historically. It also puts some student athlete protections in
• 38:08
  Speaker 7: there around from these rogue agents that I think are
• 38:11
  Speaker 7: taking advantage of these young people here. Puts long-term medical
• 38:16
  Speaker 7: care opportunities for protections with the students. So it brings
• 38:19
  Speaker 7: all the logic back. It puts a true cap on
• 38:21
  Speaker 7: what this rev share amount, NIL amount for these rosters
• 38:24
  Speaker 7: can be. And then it puts parameters and framework around
• 38:27
  Speaker 7: the enforcement because the enforcement has been pretty laxed on that.
• 38:30
  Speaker 7: And everybody wants rules until it applies. And now we
• 38:32
  Speaker 7: can have an opportunity to stand behind those. And there's
• 38:35
  Speaker 7: ramifications if you don't stick to what we all agreed
• 38:38
  Speaker 7: upon in the previous iteration, this house settlement. So it
• 38:41
  Speaker 7: puts some logic back into it, levels of playing field
• 38:45
  Speaker 7: in certain places, and it kind of brings some, I
• 38:48
  Speaker 7: use air quotes here, stability back to what we're all
• 38:51
  Speaker 7: working through. So I'm extraordinarily supportive of it.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the thing that is mind-boggling to me
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: at times, and I think a lot of fans, is
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: I think we all agree that student-athletes who generate revenue
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: should probably be compensated, right? I think that makes sense.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: And more so than just the education and the stipends
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: that they get. I don't think anybody would argue with that.
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think as most of us would say, hey,
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: you know what, that should be enough. Not anymore. There's
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: too much money involved. And the TV networks are paying
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: too much. The thing that I just, no other sport,
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: and we'll just use college football and college basketball, men's
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: college basketball, women, I guess, to a certain extent, but
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: those two sports to a certain extent. No other sport,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, Major League Baseball, nobody
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: has unlimited free agency where it can happen at any time.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: And you can just, hell, you can tap out in
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: the middle of a season. and say, I'm done for
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: this year, I'm going to go enter the portal, and
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get... No other leagues have that. And yet,
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: there's people that seem to think it's a good idea
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: for 18, 19, 20, 21-year-olds to just not fulfill their
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: requirements in terms of what they've signed, if it is
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: an NIL deal and all that. So that seems to
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: be common sense. Why is there pushback on this bill?
• 40:10
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it's just there's... because it is bipartisan
• 40:13
  Speaker 7: and there there's, there's just some opposite views. Once you
• 40:17
  Speaker 7: get down to the nitty gritty and there's always things
• 40:19
  Speaker 7: that are trying to be put in there to get
• 40:21
  Speaker 7: it over the hump or not over the hump. And
• 40:23
  Speaker 7: so I think it's just, it boils down to politics,
• 40:25
  Speaker 7: not to oversimplify it, but I know it does, but
• 40:28
  Speaker 7: I think we've lost our way in, in the, in
• 40:31
  Speaker 7: college athletics is keeping education as the North star of
• 40:34
  Speaker 7: our guiding light here. Money has infiltrated this. It's always
• 40:37
  Speaker 7: been a part of it, but now the monies have
• 40:39
  Speaker 7: never been higher as they are now. And so, Yeah,
• 40:42
  Speaker 7: I agree with your earlier point. I absolutely think when
• 40:44
  Speaker 7: you think our student-athletes will take football, for example, hit
• 40:48
  Speaker 7: the facility at 6.30 or 7 a.m., and they've got class,
• 40:51
  Speaker 7: and they've got weightlifting, and they've got all these different things, practice, film, study, meetings, whatever,
• 40:57
  Speaker 7: they don't leave there until 8, 9 p.m.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: At night.
• 41:00
  Speaker 7: And we are monetizing their ability to be out there
• 41:03
  Speaker 7: and represent our institution and represent it well. And so
• 41:06
  Speaker 7: the challenge with that, though, is the market has gotten absolutely... Bananas,
• 41:09
  Speaker 7: I think, is the technical term. So this puts some
• 41:12
  Speaker 7: framework back around that. But again, anytime you get politics involved,
• 41:17
  Speaker 7: there are things that they're trying to get across the line.
• 41:21
  Speaker 7: But I'm hopeful they can work together and get this
• 41:22
  Speaker 7: thing through.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: I see a guy like Deion Sanders pumping it up
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: in a commercial, who's always been a guy that I
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: think would pay a guy. I mean, his kids, whoever,
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: would pay him whatever. Mark Few, who, Gonzaga, pays guys
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: a lot. They bring guys in. So they're for it.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: Who's against it? Is it the bigger power? Is it
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: sec big 10 or not? Yeah, I think they're still
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: split a little bit too. Um, not, there's not necessarily
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: groups to point out here. There are just some of
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: the pilot, uh, some of the representatives in those particular
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: States that are still, um, you have some that are
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: on board in the sec and the big 10, some
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: that are not. Um, and it's just, again, they're, they're
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: continuing to have conversations. These have been around the clock, uh, conversations, but, um, Yeah,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: there's still some minor sticking points that they've got to
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: work through. John Harlow is the athletic director at Washington
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: State University joining us here. So with that kind of
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: as a framework, where are we with college sports now?
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, I turn on the games. Ohio State, Texas
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: was phenomenal. Just an absolute, just a ton of fun
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: to watch. The games, when you watch them on TV,
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: feel the same. They look the same. The pageantry is
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: all still there. All those things are taking place, which
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: is a good thing, like a really, really good thing.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: But.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: that does feel like there's a little bit of a
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: cloud hanging over things right now. How would you describe it? Yeah,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: and I think that that's accurate. I understand the sentiment
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: and where the fans are coming from because it's not
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: the classic college football that we're all used to. However,
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: the talent level has never been higher than it is
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: right now. What you're seeing out on the field, the
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: product itself is mesmerizingly different than what it was 10
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: years ago. Just like everything else, it's changing. That's why
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: this PCSA is so important. I do think it gets
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: us back to.
• 43:04
  Speaker 7: Somewhat of a framework instability to get us back to
• 43:07
  Speaker 7: what that, what that felt like now, but it's still
• 43:10
  Speaker 7: competition on a college campus, which I still believe is
• 43:14
  Speaker 7: necessary to student life and the experiences that we, that
• 43:17
  Speaker 7: we bring there. There's still an opportunity to educate these
• 43:19
  Speaker 7: young people, the, the, the rev share and all those
• 43:22
  Speaker 7: dollar signs, get all the flash in the, in the conversation.
• 43:25
  Speaker 7: But at the end of the day, we're still educating
• 43:27
  Speaker 7: these individuals and still providing an opportunity for them to
• 43:30
  Speaker 7: get education. And you still got, and I realized there
• 43:33
  Speaker 7: was some conversation about this previously, but I'm going to say,
• 43:36
  Speaker 7: of the bands in these college stadiums and some of
• 43:39
  Speaker 7: those types of things. So there's still competition, students that
• 43:43
  Speaker 7: are representing us on a national level in the heart
• 43:45
  Speaker 7: of a campus, and there's still some emotion attached to that,
• 43:49
  Speaker 7: more so than you see in the pro.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: College athletics have always been important to most institutions in
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: terms of enrollment too, right? Like, I mean, I think
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: that's the thing that's, I feel like this is one
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: of those things. Lavelle Edwards famously said, if you have
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks. Then there's a lot
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: of coaches that have taken credit for that same saying.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: I remember President Floyd, late President Floyd, said the same
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: thing about, hey, athletics are the front door. Maybe he
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: wasn't the first guy to say that because a lot
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: of school presidents say that. Not just Washington State. You've
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: been other places. How important are college athletics to the
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: institution in terms of being the front door, enticing kids
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: to come, whether it's a college football Saturday in Pullman,
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: whether it's in the kennel in Gonzaga, whether it's an
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: experience at Motlake for a Husky fan, Husky student? How
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: important are college athletics to the business of the actual university? Huge.
• 44:41
  Speaker 7: Nothing has the reach and the scope that athletics does
• 44:43
  Speaker 7: for an institution. That's why I'm so grateful for President Cantwell.
• 44:46
  Speaker 7: She understands that. She's vocal about that. she understands the
• 44:50
  Speaker 7: need for us to have success, particularly in football long-term for,
• 44:53
  Speaker 7: for us to continue to have visibility. As you look
• 44:56
  Speaker 7: at even our, our social channels, um, that we do
• 44:58
  Speaker 7: as an athletic department versus other campus extension, nothing has
• 45:02
  Speaker 7: the reach and the scope and the following that our
• 45:04
  Speaker 7: athletic programs do, especially as you look at the new, uh,
• 45:07
  Speaker 7: the new scope of the, of the new PAC 12,
• 45:09
  Speaker 7: we're into different markets down into Texas, uh, in the
• 45:13
  Speaker 7: Denver market. Um, in places up and down the West
• 45:17
  Speaker 7: coast that we are still heavily focused from an enrollment
• 45:19
  Speaker 7: standpoint that we can bring in new out of state
• 45:22
  Speaker 7: and certainly want to still focus on the in-state. But
• 45:25
  Speaker 7: nothing has that reach. And as I can't speak for
• 45:28
  Speaker 7: every campus, but we don't view ourselves as a separate entity.
• 45:32
  Speaker 7: We're an extension of the mission and we can help
• 45:34
  Speaker 7: bring awareness of what we're doing, incredible things on the
• 45:36
  Speaker 7: research side or what we're doing as an academic enterprise.
• 45:39
  Speaker 7: And so when we get opportunities in front of 7
• 45:42
  Speaker 7: million people, like we had, a couple Sundays ago on NBC,
• 45:45
  Speaker 7: we can tell the story. That gives more people interest.
• 45:47
  Speaker 7: We can get into more homes through successful athletics than
• 45:50
  Speaker 7: you can through anything else that we do as an institution.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: I hear people talk about this. John Harlow, athletic director
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: at Washington State, joining me. I hear the thought sometimes, well,
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: they'll sell the rights to the name and the jersey
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: and whatever to just make it completely a pro sport.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: I shudder when I think of that. I went to
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: class with Ruben Mays. And a week later, he's running
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: for 400 yards against Oregon. Like he sat in, like
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: actually people went to class back then. He probably went
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: more than I did. And in fact, I know he did,
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: but like, I just can't fathom just having guys come
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: in and play minor league football, effectively representing the school
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: that don't step foot on campus. I can't, it nauseates me,
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: but I hear people talk about that. Do you ever
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: see a day where that could come? I know there's
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: a lot of chatter about it. I hope wholeheartedly that
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: it does not get to that because there's still education
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: is supposed to be at the focus of what we're,
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: what we're doing here. It's not a pro sport. We're not,
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: We're not hiring these people. We're not firing these people.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: We're still educating them, providing access. They're the representatives of us, certainly,
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: and they are on our campus. But if that ever
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: goes away, then to your point, we have completely lost
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: the mark and we are no longer the entity. It's
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: got to be, and our AD group talks about this
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: a lot. We've got to keep education as the focus.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: We're still supposed to be educating students and building character
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: in these young people. That's at the heart of what
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: we do, not just sport performance. I love it. John Harlow,
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: Athletic Director, Washington State. Can you stick around for a
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: few more minutes? Absolutely. We'll take a quick break. Come back.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: You mentioned it. I'll bring it up. Band gate. Just
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: what you wanted to hear, right? Fair enough. We'll do
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: that coming up next. All right, welcome back in. John Harlow,
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: Athletic Director, Washington State University, joining me in studio. Appreciate
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: him coming by today. All right, let's get into some
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: other stuff, good stuff on the Protect College Sports Act
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: and just kind of give us a good feel on
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: where we're at in the world we're in right now.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about our world. I'm going to get this
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: out of the way because I think it was much
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: ado about nothing, but it was something that still people
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: want to know. You and I talked about this on
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: the phone a couple weeks ago, the whole band gate situation.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: And I was like, my bigger thing was like, Wazoo,
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: control the narrative. All these stuff's coming out. Walk us
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: through exactly why the band wasn't here. And let me
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: just point out, I'm not going to have you say this,
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: I will. Washington's band's only traveling to one game this year,
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: and that's Oregon. So it feels like it's a trend
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: across college sports or football, what have you. But what happened?
• 48:11
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I appreciate the question. And I've said this before,
• 48:14
  Speaker 7: I'll say it again. We have a tremendous partnership with
• 48:17
  Speaker 7: Cougar Marching Band.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: They're awesome. Dr.
• 48:19
  Speaker 7: Sweet.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: They're not part of the athletic department.
• 48:21
  Speaker 7: They are not. They are part of College of Arts
• 48:22
  Speaker 7: and Sciences. So we had conversations early when looking at
• 48:27
  Speaker 7: the game. And as it was discussed, hey, they'd play pregame,
• 48:31
  Speaker 7: they'd play at halftime, and this and that. We sat
• 48:33
  Speaker 7: down with Dr.
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: Sweet.
• 48:35
  Speaker 7: Courtney Meehan is the Dean of the College of Arts
• 48:37
  Speaker 7: and Sciences. Again, we talk to them weekly. We have
• 48:40
  Speaker 7: great conversations with them and how they They make Cougar
• 48:43
  Speaker 7: football Saturday. But as we talked about, hey, if you
• 48:46
  Speaker 7: play pregame, it's going to take you half the first
• 48:48
  Speaker 7: quarter to get up into the 300s. And then if
• 48:50
  Speaker 7: you want to play for halftime, you're going to miss
• 48:51
  Speaker 7: the second quarter. You're going to be traveling down the
• 48:53
  Speaker 7: whole time. Then you're down and you play. And by
• 48:55
  Speaker 7: the time they get back up, they'll miss the third quarter.
• 48:57
  Speaker 7: They'll be in their seats for the fourth quarter. With
• 48:59
  Speaker 7: the difficulties and logistics there, just thought, hey, and again,
• 49:03
  Speaker 7: these were conversations back and forth with the band. Hey,
• 49:06
  Speaker 7: that's probably not the experience, just to be going up
• 49:08
  Speaker 7: and down, up and down, for them to make the
• 49:11
  Speaker 7: impact or have the experience there for the travel, for
• 49:14
  Speaker 7: them to get over there that they would be used to,
• 49:16
  Speaker 7: or they've been used to in the past. And so, um,
• 49:19
  Speaker 7: you know, again, thankful for them and the cooperation that
• 49:22
  Speaker 7: we have and the partnership and dialogue that we do
• 49:24
  Speaker 7: have with them so often. But, um, at the end
• 49:26
  Speaker 7: of the day, it just, for the time they'd be
• 49:27
  Speaker 7: in their seats and more of a, just up and
• 49:30
  Speaker 7: down those stairs, up and down those elevators, um, well,
• 49:33
  Speaker 7: wasn't worth their time to be over there from an
• 49:35
  Speaker 7: experience perspective.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: And we, everyone knows I'm a big protector of Washington.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: I'm always a supporter of the Huskies, uh, 10 and cheek,
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: but this wasn't a, this is something they've done for everybody.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: It's a change in the policy with the big 10.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: You have great, I think you have a pretty good
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: relationship with the athletic director, right? He hired you. I
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: absolutely do. Yeah. So I'm sure you had conversations with
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: him as well. Yeah, we did.
• 49:53
  Speaker 7: This was nothing, uh, you know, as part of the
• 49:55
  Speaker 7: rivalry or them doing anything different than, than what they
• 49:57
  Speaker 7: do to others. Um, it's a monetization game anymore, right?
• 50:02
  Speaker 7: So as part of what they've done was selling their tickets,
• 50:05
  Speaker 7: they've moved the band to the 300s. And I get that.
• 50:08
  Speaker 7: We don't have an upper deck on the other side
• 50:11
  Speaker 7: to move an opposing band to for us, but they've
• 50:13
  Speaker 7: sold season tickets in that area. So they repositioned the
• 50:16
  Speaker 7: band over there. And yeah, some schools choose to travel them,
• 50:19
  Speaker 7: others don't.
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's just what it is. So it's good
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: to know. What about the future of the game? there's
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of folks that... You're not going to let
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: me off the hook. No, I'm not. John, you're here.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: John Harlow, Washington Athletic Director. It's... There's a lot... I mean,
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: and I think this is where the rivalry does come
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: into play. The emotion of the rivalry, right? It's... There's
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: a lot of fans that just are... As soon as
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: Washington left, I was one of them. Screw it. Let's
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: not do it anymore. I can see both sides. And
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: that goes for the other sports on campus as well.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: But as far as football is concerned, that's the marquee event.
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: It... My opinion is this. It doesn't feel like the
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: Apple Cup. It's in September, whether it's in Pullman, Seattle,
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: or Montlake. It doesn't feel like it. It's odd. And
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: I think for me, the bigger thing, John, is this.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: It's no longer a conference game that really you can
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: make or break your season and vice versa. Now, the
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: stakes aren't that high. Sure, it's in-state, but really they
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: don't care about us. We don't really care about them,
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: what have you, back and forth. So what What would
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: you say, there's what, three years left, two years left
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: in the deal? Two more. Okay, so what do you
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: think the future is in those discussions taking place between
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: you and Pat?
• 51:29
  Speaker 7: Yeah, to your earlier point, if you pull our fan base,
• 51:31
  Speaker 7: they're 50-50 down the middle. And Pat and I continue
• 51:34
  Speaker 7: to have conversations about this. You're right, it's not the
• 51:37
  Speaker 7: same as what it was because there's not as much
• 51:38
  Speaker 7: on the line at the end of the season. That's
• 51:40
  Speaker 7: part of that nostalgic feeling, I think. It's a great
• 51:42
  Speaker 7: opportunity for us to show off to Washingtonians all the
• 51:45
  Speaker 7: different things that go on in our state. It's a
• 51:47
  Speaker 7: great celebration of that. They want to win a Big
• 51:51
  Speaker 7: Ten championship. we want to win a Pac-12 championship. Both
• 51:55
  Speaker 7: want to get to the CFP. CFP continues to change
• 51:57
  Speaker 7: the criteria of how your schedule composition works. They're going
• 52:00
  Speaker 7: to be adding or potentially adding some additional conference games.
• 52:04
  Speaker 7: And so we have to figure out, and again, we're
• 52:06
  Speaker 7: in ongoing conversations. Does this make sense for either school
• 52:09
  Speaker 7: when the bigger picture is not just to win a
• 52:11
  Speaker 7: game against a rival, it's to get to the CFP
• 52:15
  Speaker 7: or to win a conference championship. So conversations will continue
• 52:18
  Speaker 7: to happen. We just have to make, not lose the
• 52:21
  Speaker 7: bigger picture in scheduling one game going forward.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: There's folks that'll say, hey, Washington State has to do
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: it because of the money. Correct me if I'm wrong.
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: I think it's good for Wazoo financially because you know
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: you're going to sell a game out in Martin Stadium
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: every other year. But this isn't like going and playing
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: an SEC school in a one-off or a Big Ten
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: school in a one-off or even a Big 12 or
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: ACC school in a one-off. They're not writing a check
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: for seven figures for you guys, right?
• 52:50
  Speaker 7: Correct this has just been a classic other than obviously
• 52:52
  Speaker 7: we played in lumen um and did some different rev
• 52:54
  Speaker 7: share things there but this is a classic home and
• 52:57
  Speaker 7: home scheduling agreement it's not a buy game or a
• 53:00
  Speaker 7: sell game where you're getting a million plus if you're
• 53:02
  Speaker 7: traveling to an a4 school elsewhere so this has just
• 53:05
  Speaker 7: been hey we're gonna play there and play there it
• 53:07
  Speaker 7: may be a small stipend that you exchange three four
• 53:10
  Speaker 7: hundred k whatever to help with some of the travel
• 53:12
  Speaker 7: logistics as part of the contract but um no not
• 53:15
  Speaker 7: the way it's been historically set.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: Up john would you be This is, I mean, this
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: is a loaded question, but would you in a sense
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: financially be better off playing another sec school or another
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: big 10 school in a one-off?
• 53:26
  Speaker 7: Well, there would certainly be upside there financially, financially.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 53:30
  Speaker 7: Um, and as we know, our fan base loves to
• 53:33
  Speaker 7: go see new college towns. We saw it in Oxford
• 53:35
  Speaker 7: against Ole Miss last year. We saw it in Manhattan, uh,
• 53:38
  Speaker 7: this past Saturday, our fan base travels extremely well and
• 53:41
  Speaker 7: they always make friends with those, those communities that they
• 53:44
  Speaker 7: traveled to. And so, um, from an experience. And then
• 53:47
  Speaker 7: I do believe we'd be able to capitalize on a
• 53:49
  Speaker 7: higher level of investment if we were to do something different.
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It feels, just for me, it would feel like,
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, I'm torn a little bit.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: I don't like the Apple Cup of basketball after being
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: played for a couple of years, going away, and then
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: having an exhibition game here. I'll tell you, that leaves
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: me a sour taste in the mouth. I wish David
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: wouldn't have done that. I just think it's it makes
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: us look small if I'm being honest with you. And I,
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: I don't like that. I play in Seattle. You are,
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: I think there's a tournament in Seattle against Seattle U, right?
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: There's a correct. Right. I, I, I'd rather see more
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: games in Seattle, whether it be at CPA or show
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: or center or up in wherever, Tri-Cities as opposed to Spokane.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: I'm kind of that way too. I'm throwing it all
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: at you right now. No, I like it.
• 54:30
  Speaker 7: Cause those are conversations that we've continued to have.
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: And I'm saying when students are on campus is my point.
• 54:35
  Speaker 7: Absolutely.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 54:36
  Speaker 7: Cause that's a game, that's a game changer.
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 54:38
  Speaker 7: And, We know that the lion's share of our fan
• 54:41
  Speaker 7: base is over on this side of the state. So
• 54:42
  Speaker 7: whether that's men's and women's basketball, volleyball, soccer, or even baseball,
• 54:47
  Speaker 7: we've continued to have conversations with different facilities over here
• 54:50
  Speaker 7: about how we can bring the Cougs over to the
• 54:51
  Speaker 7: west side. So stay tuned for that.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: Okay. New Pac-12. The TV deal, first and foremost, seems
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: to be pretty good. It's not necessarily ESPN, but that
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: means also, I should point out the ESPN thing. The
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: Oregon Ducks... got thrown over onto ESPN News and then
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: back to like, they were on three different ESPN networks
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: in the middle of their game the other day. That's
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: not a great TV deal. I don't care if you're
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: on ESPN or not. I like the USA production. I
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: think CW's done a pretty good job as well, just
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: from a TV standpoint. I think they've done a good job.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: What's the reaction so far on the new media rights deal?
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: It's been really good. From an exposure standpoint, all of
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: our games are on national TV, whether that's CW, USA,
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: or CBS. We've had great opportunities thus far, and USA
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: has continued to make investments in that. They want to be,
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: you know, the next big thing in college football. So
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: they've made that a priority. There's a lot of Cougs
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: involved there. Um, obviously Ryan leaf, um, calling the games.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: We're going to have Alex Brink calling a game here, uh,
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: for us here this weekend, I believe on USA. And
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: so they've continued to make it a priority and they've
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: made us feel like a priority in that too. And
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: so we love the exposure that's given the conference. Is
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: the revenue what you expected?
• 55:58
  Speaker 7: I mean, it's never enough, right? It doesn't matter what
• 56:01
  Speaker 7: the deal is worth, but, um, you know what it,
• 56:04
  Speaker 7: there's a trade off that there, there has been a
• 56:06
  Speaker 7: trade off there. It's not the dollar figures that we
• 56:08
  Speaker 7: had previously. However, we are again on national TV and there's,
• 56:12
  Speaker 7: there's a relevance there to keeping our brand across every
• 56:14
  Speaker 7: device across the country. And so that's tough to put
• 56:17
  Speaker 7: a price tag on, but, but what it's giving us
• 56:19
  Speaker 7: from a national landscape is, it's been really, really good.
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: John Harlow, athletic director Wazoo with me. All right, let's,
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: let's get into the brass tacks. What's going on on
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: campus right now. First of all, not the start we
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: all wanted in football. So, Strong performance, I thought, for
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: the most part in Seattle. Washington then struggles against Utah State.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: We don't know anything this time of the year with
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: college football anyway. They struggle with Utah State. Kansas State,
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: really good team. To me, they're easily a top 25
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: team in a Big 12 contender watching Avery Johnson in
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: that defense and so forth. I know you have discussions
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: all the time with Kirby. I'm sure he's not thrilled
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: with how things have gone so far, but, uh, your
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: assessment of the football program.
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 56:57
  Speaker 7: Really proud of our, of our student athletes. First and foremost,
• 56:59
  Speaker 7: they've competed their tails off in, in both games, both
• 57:02
  Speaker 7: really good programs. And I think we're going to see
• 57:04
  Speaker 7: continue to, to climb up the, up the scales as
• 57:06
  Speaker 7: the season goes on. We expect to win every game.
• 57:09
  Speaker 7: Coach Moore expects to win every game. So no one
• 57:12
  Speaker 7: is content with a loss and it doesn't matter how
• 57:15
  Speaker 7: that loss looks. A loss is a loss. And so, um,
• 57:18
  Speaker 7: he knows that's not the standard. He knows those aren't
• 57:20
  Speaker 7: the results. Adjustments have to be made. And I know
• 57:22
  Speaker 7: he's already been committed to doing that. We have continual
• 57:25
  Speaker 7: conversations often. And he holds himself and his staff to
• 57:29
  Speaker 7: a really high standard. And so no one's content with
• 57:32
  Speaker 7: how we've played thus far. But again, really proud of
• 57:34
  Speaker 7: the group and the effort that they continue to put in.
• 57:37
  Speaker 7: And the great thing is we've got 10 games left
• 57:40
  Speaker 7: and there's still an opportunity to compete for a Pac-12
• 57:42
  Speaker 7: championship on the table. We've learned a lot through these
• 57:44
  Speaker 7: first two games against really tough opponents. So The Kansas
• 57:47
  Speaker 7: State game was scheduled 10 years ago. Apple Cup, a
• 57:49
  Speaker 7: handful of years ago. They're obviously as well. We'll see
• 57:53
  Speaker 7: how those impact how we schedule going forward, but this
• 57:55
  Speaker 7: was a really tough test.
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you could have a harder opener
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: than at Washington, at K-State. That's fun. On a short week.
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: On a short week. Duquesne this week, that would have
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: been nice to have the first week, although it's funny because, again,
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: I'll reference my friends in Oregon. They're down there saying,
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: why couldn't we have seen Portland State week one with
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: two new coordinators, and then Boise State, and then go
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: to Oklahoma, although Oklahoma State hadn't, I mean, former Wazoo, uh,
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: coach Morris, uh, cranking things up, you know, and good
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: for him, uh, and Mestemaker. The, what is it about
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: Kirby Moore that attracted you to him?
• 58:29
  Speaker 7: He's obviously got a high football IQ. He's had a pedigree, um,
• 58:32
  Speaker 7: obviously his dad, a football coach for a number of years, um,
• 58:36
  Speaker 7: learned under some, you know, uh, Chris Peterson, um, coach Drinkowitz, uh,
• 58:41
  Speaker 7: Jeff Tedford. He's done it at a high level.
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah.
• 58:44
  Speaker 7: And he, and those two talk quite a bit. Um,
• 58:46
  Speaker 7: So you can tell from early in our conversations that
• 58:51
  Speaker 7: he understands the importance of football at WSU. Growing up
• 58:53
  Speaker 7: as an Eastern Washington kid, he lives, eats, and breathes it.
• 58:57
  Speaker 7: The other piece, non-football related, is how much he cares
• 58:59
  Speaker 7: about the student athlete. And he talks about this often. It's, yes,
• 59:03
  Speaker 7: he absolutely wants to win every game, push them to
• 59:04
  Speaker 7: their potential from a football standpoint. But he equally cares
• 59:08
  Speaker 7: as much about their offensively. the field their character and
• 59:11
  Speaker 7: what they do in the classroom so he talks about
• 59:13
  Speaker 7: chasing two dreams your football related dream and then whatever's
• 59:15
  Speaker 7: after football and that's important because again back to our
• 59:18
  Speaker 7: north star we want to educate these kids we want
• 59:20
  Speaker 7: them to grow when they're on our campus and so
• 59:22
  Speaker 7: um can't argue with i think he's like 39 and
• 59:24
  Speaker 7: 16 as a coordinator from fresno and mizzou something something
• 59:27
  Speaker 7: like that um He understands the game at a high level,
• 59:31
  Speaker 7: and there's a lot of upside there.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he goes to Kansas State or Husky Stadium.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: He's coached on the sideline of SEC games. He understands that,
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: and it's just a matter of getting guys there. I've
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: made the argument that I believe in Brennan Huffman from Rivals,
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: a big friend of the show, a big close friend
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: of ours. We help him with some charity stuff. And
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: with Huff, I had this conversation with him a couple
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: weeks ago down at Georgetown. We were doing our beer
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: release for his foundation, among the others. And I said,
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: it feels to me like Wazoo is still getting the
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: exact same players out of high school they always have.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: And I would make the argument Oregon State is too,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: Boise State is too, and so is Washington and Oregon
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: and USC, et cetera. The difference in college football now,
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: and maybe even college basketball, but certainly in college football,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: is that you get those guys, and instead of watching
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: a guy develop for three or four years, Will Durting
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: comes from the dirt fields of the Okanagan or wherever
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: the hell he's from, and then all of a sudden
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: ends up being– M. Crystal Bruce, great example, Liberty high school,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: you know, quarterback, good friend of our show. And MK
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: comes in and it's like that guy at Liberty high
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: school was under-recruited. He would never stayed four years at Pullman. Yeah.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: Marcus Trufant, would he have stayed four years at Pullman? No,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: that's the hard thing right now. Is that the biggest
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: challenge that these guys are facing is you can't really
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: develop players anymore. And how do you change that? Is
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: it even possible?
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 7: Yeah, that, that absolutely is the, is the biggest you've,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 7: you've in some of these situations, you've got one or
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 7: two years, um, to see what they're made of, and
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 7: then they may make a choice to go elsewhere. We
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 7: still believe that we developed them at a high level here.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 7: And that's, again, both on and off the field opportunities.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 7: We're not always going to be able to change or
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 7: to win the money game.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 4: We're not.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 7: But we can't control the culture. And I think that's
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 7: what I take great heart in and belief in and
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 7: dedication to is we can wrap these kids in all
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 7: sorts of support while they're here. And then if we
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 7: can show incremental investments– they know that they're going to
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 7: have one of the best experiences here because they feel
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 7: supported from a community, from mental health, academic, whatever you have,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 7: then we'll at least make them think twice before they
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 7: just hop for the next, for the next situation. We know,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 7: and I have hard data other than conversations. We know
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 7: that several of the guys that have left our teams
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 7: thus far missed their time in Pullman because they were,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 7: they were growing as a, as a human, they were growing,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 7: you know, and obviously their game continues to develop too. But, um,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 7: That's the hardest part is especially for our fan base.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 7: And I get that used to see him for four
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 7: or five years. Now you get him for one or two.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 7: That's where, from an athletic department standpoint, we have to
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 7: do a better job of telling the story who's underneath
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 7: the helmet. I get, and this is the best part
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 7: of my job. I get to know all of our
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 7: student athletes, you know, and I'm around them every day.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 7: That's the, that's the therapy for me is one hour.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 7: I get to practice or whatever else. And they are incredible.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 7: group of young people, that being a Coug still means
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 7: something to them. They don't know conference this, conference that, whatever.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 7: They know that they're still representing Washington State and that
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 7: Coug still means something to them. It's important to them.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 7: And they hear it from our 250,000 living alumni. And
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 7: so it's still important. I wouldn't expect us to recruit
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 7: any differently than we always have. And whether they're here
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 7: for one year or two or three or four, I
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 7: hope they're here the whole time. And we're going to
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 7: do everything we can to make that happen. But again,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 7: whether it's a short time or a long time that
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 7: we have them, we're going to lean into them. And
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 7: they're going to know that they are cherished, loved members
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 7: of this WSU community from the moment they step off
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 7: campus to whenever they choose to do something next.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: I'll wrap it up with this. John Harlow, Athletic Director, Wazoo.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: You mentioned your one-hour therapies with student-athletes because the other
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: 19 hours of your day are probably spent in a
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: world that's a lot different. Athletic directors used to be administrators.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: Now athletic directors are administrators probably second, fundraisers first, if
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: I'm not mistaken. And that's the biggest challenge. You guys,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: and I've always, I've never liked this woe-is-me attitude out
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: of Pullman of, well, we don't have the money and
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: all that. I'm sure if we were able to do
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: like the, really look at a roster of the Fortune
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: 500 companies in our state, and there are plenty, and say,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: how many are Wazoo alums? There's probably plenty on there
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: that are up very high on the depth chart of
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: CEOs and other things like that and CFOs, whatever. Money people,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: other people that have invested. You drive along Lake Washington,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: there's hundreds of homes that are all worth 10, 12,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: 15 million. Some of those have to be Cougs. And
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: then on the other side, you've got the wheat farmers
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: and the orchard guys and all the agriculture community that
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: are wazoo people. There's plenty of Cougs out there that
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: have done well and have money. We've never found that money.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: How do you find that money? I know that's your
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: biggest challenge. So what's the secret sauce?
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think part of it is somewhere we became
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 7: a bit transactional there too. And we've got to get
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 7: back to being relationship-based. That's what makes WSU, WSU. being
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 7: a Coug, being a Coug. And so we've got one
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 7: of the larger alumni bases in the new PAC-12, 250,000
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 7: living alumni. We've got 2,800 members of the CAF at
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 7: a $ 100.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: Point of entry.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 7: That's pretty low. And so we've been super aggressive over
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 7: the last couple of months, just getting across the state.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 7: I think I've been, if there's 260 some calendar days
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 7: thus far this year, I've been on the road, 160
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 7: of them, like 60 some percent, just going wherever people
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 7: will listen, quite honestly. get in front of Cougs because
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 7: I don't want to come out to people with just
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 7: my hands open. I want to explain the vision. I
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 7: want to explain the impact that these young people, what
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 7: the opportunity they have in front of them and the
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 7: impact that these individuals can make on them. And then
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 7: if you buy into that vision, you believe in it,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 7: make the investment come along with us because our ceiling
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 7: is championship level, but we can't do it unless we
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 7: activate everyone. And so it's just about getting out, being
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 7: amongst Cougs and it doesn't matter, you know, We're up
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 7: and down this I-5 corridor. We didn't try cities. We're
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 7: in Spokane. We've been to Ritzville and anything in between.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 7: There are cougars that want to have a conversation. They
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 7: want to complain to me. That's fine.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: I want to listen.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 7: I want to know how we can get better. So
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 7: we don't know what we don't know, and it's just
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 7: about getting out there and having conversations.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: It's a hard thing because you mentioned this Cougar Athletic Fund,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: and there's also the NIL world, right? And so people
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: want to know, what do you donate to? What do
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: you write a check to? And then there's the guilt
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: that comes. There's people that are doing it. Hey, you
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: can't complain about the Cougs unless you were writing a
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: big check, and not all people can afford to write
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: a check. And it's like there's that balancing act that's hard,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: but where do you write the check?
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so I always encourage individuals to write a check
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 7: to our Cougar Athletic Fund. which is a university foundation
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 7: component there. It goes to the excellence funds that our
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 7: coaches control that then can make investments in their roster.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: So CAF fund can go to student athletes and NIL money. Correct. Okay.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 7: And let me, because this is when NIL.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: First- It's very confusing.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 4: It is.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: It's very confusing.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 7: NIL is name, image, likeness.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 7: And what true NIL is, is a relationship between a
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 7: business and a student athlete.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 7: There's an exchange of goods or they do something For
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 7: this company or whatever, an appearance, autograph, whatever. That's true NIL.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 7: What the institution can invest in, what you hear about
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 7: this house settlement, this cap, is rev share. So you
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 7: can pay up to around $ 22 million in rev share.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 7: So when you donate to the CAF, it goes to
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 7: an excellence fund, and then we can give rev share
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 7: to these student athletes at the coach's discretion. It's tax deductible,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 7: just as any other donation would be to our foundation.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 7: We have direct control over that. Coaches do. They can
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 7: invest the money where they want to. Same place that
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 7: we take in donations for scholarships. And obviously, we keep
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 7: those separate. But if rev share is not your thing,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 7: I get that. We need it, but I get it.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 7: But scholarships still at the heart of what we do.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 7: And we still need dollars to go towards that as well.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: That makes sense. Because, I mean, it's– and the NIL thing,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: we got to go. The NIL thing is funny. Ashley
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: is sitting here. Like, in our world, we do NIL.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: We do endorsements. You know, Ashley has a bunch. I
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: got a couple. I mean, it's– we do endorse– That's
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: what name, image, and likeness is. It feels like we've
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: gotten away from that. You know, I mean, I think
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: Simply Seattle, they're a big sponsor. They do a good
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 2: job with Washington athletes. You know, they have guys signing autographs,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: things like that. That, to me, Valley Buick GMC, I
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: think Caden Penning's driving a truck from them. The first
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: truck they gave was Cam Ward's. Imagine that. And he
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: can buy the place now if he wanted to. But
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: that's what it is, right? And so I think I
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: look at all those things, and I think that's where
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: the confusion comes in.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 4: As well.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: But good stuff. Can we do this again sometime? Absolutely.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: You're over here a lot, so I might bother you
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: again at some point as well. So great to have
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: you in studio, John. Thank you so much. Thank you.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: Go Cougs. That is. Go Cougs. That's John Harlow, Athletic
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: Director of Washington State. We'll take a break. Come back
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: for more 93.3 KJR FM.