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Shehan Jeyarajah on the tampering in the transfer portal, CFP National Championship Game preview + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: God, you tune to the Sean O'Connell Show from the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Seven hundred and ninety two to one.
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  Speaker 3: Alf M College National Championship Game is tonight Indiana seven
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  Speaker 3: and a half point favorites over the Hurricanes of Miami.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: If you don't know where you're going to watch it,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I have the answer to that question for you. It's
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a little place called Big Willie seventeen seventeen South Main Street,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Utah's number one sports bar, number one pool haul. They
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: have incredible drink specials and food specials going on tonight.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: The National Championship Game will be all over the TVs.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: They will have trivia, they will have giveaways. It's going
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  Speaker 1: to be an absolute blast tonight at Big Willie's seventeen
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  Speaker 1: seventeen South Maine as we crown a national champion. Joining
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  Speaker 1: us to talk about how we think this one's going
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  Speaker 1: to go. Shahanji and Raja national college football insider at
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: CBS Sports.
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  Speaker 2: Shahan welcome again. How are you?
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  Speaker 4: I'm doing great? Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 2: All right Indiana, Miami.
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  Speaker 1: It takes center stage tonight, But before we get there,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the college Football Transfer Portal closed on Friday, and not
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: before another big splash story with this Darian Mensa and
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Duke news.
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  Speaker 2: Duke fans unhappy about it.
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  Speaker 1: Duke, the university seems to want to fight this one
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  Speaker 1: out a little bit, or at least did seem like
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  Speaker 1: they wanted to fight this one out. It seems that
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  Speaker 1: the Miami Hurricanes are heavily involved in that conversation as
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  Speaker 1: a potential landing spot for Mensa. Did you think we
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  Speaker 1: were going to get a big story like this just
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  Speaker 1: as the door was closing on the transfer portal?
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  Speaker 4: Well, you always wonder, right, So I think that it
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  Speaker 4: was kind of obvious heading into that last little bit
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  Speaker 4: that Miami and Tennessee were kind of those last two
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  Speaker 4: spots where you thought maybe some chaos could happen, And
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  Speaker 4: especially on the Miami front, we had been hearing that,
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  Speaker 4: you know, over at CBS, that it was possible that
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  Speaker 4: they were trying to entice some players to head in.
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  Speaker 4: Now I was a little surprised that it was Darien
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  Speaker 4: Menta because one Duke has obviously taken very good care
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  Speaker 4: of him over the last two years. They wont an
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  Speaker 4: acc title. He has a two year contract as well.
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  Speaker 4: But you know, I think that's for Miami. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: he clearly is one of the best quarterbacks in college football.
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  Speaker 4: I think that, you know, if they do ultimately manage
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  Speaker 4: to land him, which is kind of the expectation at
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  Speaker 4: this point, that it would be a game changer for
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  Speaker 4: what Miami can accomplish in twenty twenty six. So it'll
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  Speaker 4: be interesting to see. Like you said, I mean, Duke
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  Speaker 4: at this point really has no incentive not to fight this,
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  Speaker 4: and it's going to be interesting to see what form
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  Speaker 4: that ultimately takes.
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  Speaker 1: When we talk about, you know, the encouragement of players
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  Speaker 1: to enter the transfer portal, which is a friendlier way
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  Speaker 1: to say tampering, do we know what that looks like yet?
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  Speaker 2: Do we know that, like who is doing it?
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  Speaker 1: I know that these coaches have to keep several degrees
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  Speaker 1: of separation between themselves and what on paper at least
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  Speaker 1: is a rules violation, so I imagine they each have
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  Speaker 1: their own system for it. But when we talk about
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  Speaker 1: these guys that are pretty obviously tampered with, do we
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  Speaker 1: know how that process is taking place or who is
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  Speaker 1: doing it?
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  Speaker 2: Well?
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  Speaker 4: I think that it's it's kind of a mix based
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  Speaker 4: on individual cases, right, But the short answer is I mean,
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  Speaker 4: all of these people, you know, let's take a player
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  Speaker 4: like Darien Mensa, right, all these people have different people
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  Speaker 4: in their corner who aren't you know, specifically them that
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  Speaker 4: could be of course an agent. There's really no rules, frankly,
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  Speaker 4: that govern agents and their conversations with others that can
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  Speaker 4: be family members or high school coaches or you know,
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  Speaker 4: skills trainers or anybody who's kind of been in their
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  Speaker 4: orbit early. And again, you know, there's just really no
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  Speaker 4: clear way to govern, for example, a program having conversation
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  Speaker 4: with an agent that, by the way, my represents another
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  Speaker 4: player on your roster, another player that you're involved with.
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  Speaker 4: So you know, again, in the NFL, for example, I mean,
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  Speaker 4: there are sort of very strict, collectively bargained rules about
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  Speaker 4: what kind of contacts are considered tampering and impermissible. Well,
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  Speaker 4: that's not the case in college football. And I think
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  Speaker 4: that programs understand that, you know what, we can go
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  Speaker 4: out there and have an opportunity to converse and have
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  Speaker 4: kind of background conversations and encourage youle and say, look,
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  Speaker 4: this is what might be waiting on the other side
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  Speaker 4: if you make that decision.
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  Speaker 1: I want to ask this question the right way because
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  Speaker 1: I know the young man's father.
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  Speaker 2: He's a friend of mine. I love him.
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  Speaker 1: He's a cool guy who's an important part of the
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  Speaker 1: Utah football culture that created the environment we live in now.
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  Speaker 1: Celessie Moa was a big member of the signing class
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  Speaker 1: for the University of Utah back in December. They flipped
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  Speaker 1: him from Tennessee and then unfortunately it didn't work out,
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  Speaker 1: and now he's headed off to Michigan. And he decided
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  Speaker 1: after entering the transfer portal, before he's even played it
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  Speaker 1: down of college football, he decided he also wanted to
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  Speaker 1: make it like a public announcement as part of the
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  Speaker 1: Polynesian Bowl All Star Game and things like that. And look,
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  Speaker 1: obviously Utah fans have a problem with this. I think
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  Speaker 1: that old school football fans found ways to have a
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  Speaker 1: problem with it. Do we know how coaches feel about
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  Speaker 1: this type of situation where it's like there's been a
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  Speaker 1: lot of conversation, there's been a lot of fanfare before
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  Speaker 1: this young man has even played a single down of
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  Speaker 1: college football.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm using him as the example.
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  Speaker 1: He's certainly not the only one who's been one of
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  Speaker 1: these cases where you talk.
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  Speaker 2: About it, you talk about it, you talk about.
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  Speaker 1: It, and we still have to wait and see how
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  Speaker 1: they're gonna be as a college football player. Is there
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  Speaker 1: any level of fatigue from the recruiting and coaching standpoint
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  Speaker 1: on the amount of attention paid before a down is
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  Speaker 1: even played.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think that's kind of the way to think
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  Speaker 4: about it is. I mean, I don't think coaches really
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  Speaker 4: are even given the opportunity to think much about it, right,
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  Speaker 4: because every second that you're trying to retain a guy,
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  Speaker 4: to say, on your roster, you're also trying to go
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  Speaker 4: after a guy who might be on another roster, right,
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  Speaker 4: And you kind of constantly have to be available in
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  Speaker 4: that way, You kind of constantly have to be thinking
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  Speaker 4: about it in that way, and you know, again, yes,
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  Speaker 4: it's absolutely exhausting. I mean, there is no sport on
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  Speaker 4: the planet where we have perpetual free agency in the
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  Speaker 4: literal sense, right of any player almost any day could
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  Speaker 4: decide to play somewhere else. But you know, I think
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  Speaker 4: that for coaches, like, yes, they'd obviously like that to change,
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  Speaker 4: but they also you know, I mean, one thing that
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  Speaker 4: I've said before is that ultimately, I mean, I think
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  Speaker 4: that's like one of the biggest reasons that we have
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  Speaker 4: this hectic sort of ecosystem, and all that is because
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  Speaker 4: coaches want to get players on campus in time for
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  Speaker 4: springs football. We can solve all of this by saying
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  Speaker 4: that the only transfer window is after May and it's
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  Speaker 4: after the season, and it doesn't mess with anything at all,
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  Speaker 4: and that would change the timeline of coaching hires and
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  Speaker 4: all this sort of stuff. But again, it's because coaches
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  Speaker 4: want these guys to get on campus that they can
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  Speaker 4: have him for string football. So ultimately, I mean again, yes,
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  Speaker 4: I think that they're very frustrated with all of this
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  Speaker 4: attention paid and all this tampering and all this sort
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  Speaker 4: of stuff, but it's also sort of a creation of
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  Speaker 4: their own design as well, and they you kind of
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  Speaker 4: have no choice but to benefit from it when you
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  Speaker 4: get the chance.
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  Speaker 1: Jeanji Roja is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show,
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  Speaker 1: and now we get to the matter at hand, a
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  Speaker 1: preview of this college football National Championship. You and I
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  Speaker 1: have talked all season long about what Indiana is becoming
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: and what has become and the fact that Miami is back,
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  Speaker 1: as much as Mario Cristobal doesn't want to say it
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  Speaker 1: or admit it. He doesn't want to speak it into existence.
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  Speaker 1: He wants to let it be a thing first, and
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  Speaker 1: then maybe he'll acknowledge it. And it all comes to
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  Speaker 1: a head tonight. You've got this old school team that
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  Speaker 1: has stirred the echoes of its glory days, and you've
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  Speaker 1: got previously the most hapless and helpless program in the
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  Speaker 1: history of college football that is now a heavy favorite
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  Speaker 1: in this game and darling in a lot of ways.
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  Speaker 1: Are we viewing Indiana still as the sort of cultural
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  Speaker 1: underdog or should we start to accelerate our distaste for
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  Speaker 1: them because they are a product of this big machine
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  Speaker 1: of nil and transfer in the new world of college football.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I'll tell you what I think that in my opinion,
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  Speaker 4: and I'm out here actually at hard Rock Stadium about
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  Speaker 4: to watch the game, very excited for that, But I
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  Speaker 4: think that Indiana at least deserves tonight. Once they win
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  Speaker 4: the title, they can become Goliath, right, But this still
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  Speaker 4: is the team that won until November was the losingest
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  Speaker 4: in the history of college football. This was, you know,
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  Speaker 4: a team that you know, I think there's been a
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  Speaker 4: lot of conversation about the transfer portal, but like a
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  Speaker 4: lot of the transfers that they brought in were guys
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  Speaker 4: who started their career at James Madison and have been
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  Speaker 4: with the staff for five years. And you know, you
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  Speaker 4: talk about Fernanda Mendoz obviously from the city of Miami.
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  Speaker 4: He was a two star recruit who only got major
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  Speaker 4: college interests at the eleventh hour. So, like, I think
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  Speaker 4: that there's plenty of time, I'm an opportunity to elevate,
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  Speaker 4: you know, Kurt Signetti and Indiana to being sort of
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  Speaker 4: the paragons that everybody's trying to tear down. But I
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  Speaker 4: think in this moment, you know, I think that this
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  Speaker 4: is the moment where it happens. Then I say the
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  Speaker 4: same about Miami, right, I mean, I think that if
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  Speaker 4: Miami wins this game too, they become a villain. They're
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  Speaker 4: obviously the one too, you know, against the allegedly tampered
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  Speaker 4: with Darien Mensa and all this sort of stuff. There's
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  Speaker 4: a lot of stuff that people are frustrated with about it,
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  Speaker 4: but this is also the first time that they've been
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  Speaker 4: on this stage in more than twenty years. I think
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  Speaker 4: that at least for tonight, we get to enjoy.
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  Speaker 1: That are both teams here to stay. If we get
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  Speaker 1: ahead of ourselves and we just say, all right, it's
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  Speaker 1: a great game tonight. Are both of these teams here
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  Speaker 1: to stay back as national powers for the foreseeable future?
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  Speaker 4: So I think that, you know, if you ask me
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  Speaker 4: about the twenty twenty sixth season, I'm probably a little
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  Speaker 4: more mixed. When you start talking about in the next
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  Speaker 4: three to five years, I think the answer is yes.
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  Speaker 4: And I say that for a couple of reasons. One,
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  Speaker 4: I think that Indiana on Kurt Signetti, has created a
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  Speaker 4: level of credibility in the recruiting process that's just different.
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  Speaker 4: And you know, we've talked to sources over at CBS
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  Speaker 4: Sports that say, you know, the level of transfer four
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  Speaker 4: examples that they have been going after is just a
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  Speaker 4: different level than it was in twenty twenty five or
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  Speaker 4: twenty twenty four. Kids who are entering the portal, or
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  Speaker 4: kids even who are coming up through high school understand
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  Speaker 4: that this is a place where I'm going to be maximized.
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  Speaker 4: And obviously, I mean Bryan Haines, or defensive coordinator is
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  Speaker 4: on the short list of highest paid coaches now in
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: the sport as an assistant coach and for Miami. You know, again,
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  Speaker 4: I think if they've created a process that makes a
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  Speaker 4: lot of sense. I mean, I think that honestly for
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  Speaker 4: both these things, but Miami especially, I mean they've done
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  Speaker 4: such a good job of recruiting the offensive line and
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  Speaker 4: creating it again the system that works well for them.
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  Speaker 4: So I think that long term, yes, these are two
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  Speaker 4: coaches that I have a lot of trust and faith in.
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  Speaker 4: These are two universities that I think are investing in
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  Speaker 4: a smart way. They've continued to be forward thinking and
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: create systems that work well for them. So yeah, again
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  Speaker 4: I'm very curious to see in twenty twenty six, especially
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: with Indiana, how they deal with all that turnover. But again,
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: when you start looking long term, I think that these
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: are programs, yes, that.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Are here to say, since you're down there, what is
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the crowd mix gonna look like? I mean, obviously it's
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Miami's home stadium, so they've got a built in advantage there.
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  Speaker 1: But I imagine there are a lot of Hoosier fans
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  Speaker 1: that are taking this once in a lifetime opportunity. Do
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: you know, walking around the city or seeing what you've
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: been able to see so far, have you gotten a
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: sense of what the split might be like?
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  Speaker 4: So it's interesting, right. So you know, we stayed in
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: downtown Miami, like at our media hotel, and it was
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: all all Indiana. Like there was Indiana everywhere. But I'll
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: say since we got to hard Rock Stadium, all the
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: tail getting outside to this point has been Miami fans.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: And look, I mean, obviously Miami fans aren't going to
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: be spending as much time in downtown Miami as visiting fans.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: I think we're actually going to get a very even
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: competitive crowd. Now I would probably personally give actually a slight,
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: slight edge to Indiana, but I mean, I think it's
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: at most going to be like a fifty five to
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  Speaker 4: forty five. It's gonna be interesting to see because I
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: think that, you know, something that I didn't even learn
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: until the last couple of weeks was like Indiana has
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: the largest alumni days in all of college football or
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: I mean universities in general. There's also a lot of
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: money at the University of Indiana, and so I think that,
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: especially with some of those last minute competitive tickets, I
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: do think that Indiana is gonna buy up a small edge,
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: but I expect this to be packed. I expect to
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: be competitive, and again I think that both teams will
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: be very well represented.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Who's gonna win?
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: Shahan, Well, it's very scary to walk into a national
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: title game and to there be an eight and a
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: half point line. But I do think that Indiana is
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: the better team in this game. I think that when
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: you look at Indiana, they have played essentially perfect football
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: in the College Football Playoff. They've avoided mistakes, They've created
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: mistakes for opponents. You know, when you look at Bernanda
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: Mendoza eight touchdowns to five in completion. Their offensive line
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: is played at a high level. I think that this
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: is just a team that can beat you in so
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: many different ways. And my big question for Miami is
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: how consistently will you be able to move the ball
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: and can you avoid some of those mistakes on offense. Now,
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: I think that Miami's defensive line is the best that
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: Indiana will have faced in twenty twenty five, twenty six,
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: So they do have the opportunity and ability to create
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: some turnovers, create some issues. But I ultimately do think
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: that Indiana walks away with their first ever national championship.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I don't find any room in me to try to
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: argue against that. It just seems like this story is
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: going to get its final chapter tonight and be one
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: of the best we've seen in all of college sports.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Want to turn around if Kurt Signetti can pull it off.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: We're jealous that you get to be there in person, Shahan,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: but as always, we appreciate you giving your time and insight.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me, Shahan jer Rajah.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: He's been a valued guest all season long for US
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: as a national college football insider.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: He's down there at hard Rock