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Bills Recap, Ravens Preview · Steelers Country Weekly

0:01
Speaker 1: Today on Steelers Country Weekly, we break down the Steelers
0:04
Speaker 1: big loss to the Buffalo Bills at home, look ahead
0:08
Speaker 1: to the matchup against the Ravens in Baltimore, and then
0:11
Speaker 1: talk about the college coaching carousel and what it might
0:14
Speaker 1: look like if it was translated into the NFL. I'm
0:17
Speaker 1: Nick de Tulio, and as always I'm joined by the
0:19
Speaker 1: world famous account to Eric vaminshowten, Eric, how's it going tonight?
0:24
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm doing pretty good, just hanging chilling. We've got
0:29
Speaker 2: some snow here in Cincinnati. You know, you always kind
0:35
Speaker 2: of feel like a true suburban night when you got
0:41
Speaker 2: a shovel snow to get out in the morning.
0:43
Speaker 3: So that's how I felt this morning.
0:47
Speaker 1: I don't have that problem right now now, But no,
0:51
Speaker 1: I understand. I remember all the day shoveling snow and
0:57
Speaker 1: then going over to family members to help shovel their
0:59
Speaker 1: snow too. So I know from my family being teachers
1:06
Speaker 1: and then my nephews up there as well, that school
1:08
Speaker 1: was canceled today for most of the city. So good
1:11
Speaker 1: for them. No such luck down here in Atlanta. The
1:15
Speaker 1: snow did not fall. Yeah, but we are not here
1:22
Speaker 1: to talk about snow days. We are here to talk
1:25
Speaker 1: about the Pittsburgh Steelers, and folks, if you thought that
1:30
Speaker 1: we hit rock bottom against the Chicago Bears, I have
1:35
Speaker 1: some very bad news for you. We may not have
1:40
Speaker 1: hit rock bottom yet, we might still be on the
1:43
Speaker 1: way down. But this matchup on Sunday against Buffalo, I
1:47
Speaker 1: think we both predicted a blowout and it happened, and
1:52
Speaker 1: it was a really sad blowout for a lot of reasons.
1:58
Speaker 1: But I think the thing that was most disappointing to
2:01
Speaker 1: me was that the Bills didn't look like a dominant
2:07
Speaker 1: team other than James Cook having a great game on
2:12
Speaker 1: the ground. They were sloppy, they had turnovers, The Steelers
2:15
Speaker 1: had the leads seven to three at halftime. This was
2:21
Speaker 1: a game that the Steelers quite literally looked horrendous in
2:27
Speaker 1: against a team that looked okay at best. But they
2:31
Speaker 1: had a good quarterback who made plays when it mattered.
2:34
Speaker 1: Was the big difference, and then a couple big plays
2:37
Speaker 1: defensively as well for the Bills. But when you lose
2:40
Speaker 1: a game in a blowout, I don't know if you
2:44
Speaker 1: take comfort is the right word. But if the other
2:46
Speaker 1: team looks good and is firing on all cylinders, you're like, Okay,
2:50
Speaker 1: I get it here. This was just a matter of
2:53
Speaker 1: the Steelers looking like garbage for sixty minutes of game time.
2:58
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I.
3:01
Speaker 2: Will say the first half was not nearly as bad.
3:09
Speaker 3: Obviously.
3:09
Speaker 2: I think we went to the halftime with the lead, right,
3:16
Speaker 2: So honestly, the defense didn't look they gave up a
3:21
Speaker 2: lot of rushing yards to James Coke in the first half,
3:24
Speaker 2: but overall they did keep you.
3:31
Speaker 3: Know, they allen in check.
3:33
Speaker 2: So I mean, look, the doors just got blown off
3:40
Speaker 2: us in the second half. I mean just mistake after mistake,
3:44
Speaker 2: we dug ourselves in the hole.
3:46
Speaker 3: And you know, we just obviously we I sent you
3:53
Speaker 3: a clip of Ben basically saying when.
3:56
Speaker 2: I was part of the team, we made the us
4:00
Speaker 2: you know, second half adjustments.
4:02
Speaker 3: We always were prepared. We could always adjust and rebound.
4:08
Speaker 3: This team just does not have it in them.
4:11
Speaker 2: They just flat out get out coach. They they don't
4:18
Speaker 2: seem to have the willpower, they.
4:20
Speaker 3: Don't have the discipline.
4:22
Speaker 2: I even texted you how I was frustrated with Cameron
4:26
Speaker 2: Hayward because he got.
4:28
Speaker 3: A stupid personal foul penalty, and we just this team
4:37
Speaker 3: just doesn't want to be like a team.
4:42
Speaker 2: You know, we're just a collection of individuals, and it's
4:47
Speaker 2: very frustrating because they still have the talent to do it.
4:52
Speaker 2: They just aren't putting it together. They're not putting it
4:56
Speaker 2: together as three units. They're not putting it together for
5:01
Speaker 2: four quarters. And obviously we're saying this unfold is that
5:06
Speaker 2: they can't put it together for a seventeen game season.
5:10
Speaker 1: I was a lot more critical of the team in
5:15
Speaker 1: my recap. Let's just go through the game here. So
5:22
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers came back to play, but he had a
5:27
Speaker 1: brace on his left hand, and the reason that this
5:31
Speaker 1: was concerning was because it meant that he couldn't take
5:34
Speaker 1: any snaps under center, nor could he hand the ball
5:38
Speaker 1: off on the right side of the ball.
5:44
Speaker 3: In that.
5:46
Speaker 1: I can't believe that I have to talk about this
5:48
Speaker 1: or say this out loud talking about a professional sports team.
5:52
Speaker 1: But no matter how good the quarterback is, when you
5:57
Speaker 1: have to limit your playbook so soly because of a
6:02
Speaker 1: situation like that, I think that's problematic from the get go.
6:06
Speaker 1: And Aaron Rodgers is not a quarterback that's going to
6:09
Speaker 1: be scrambling or moving around a lot in the pocket
6:12
Speaker 1: either at this point.
6:13
Speaker 3: So and let's be real.
6:15
Speaker 2: This isn't This isn't thirty one year old Aaron Rodgers.
6:19
Speaker 3: This is forty Is he forty two today?
6:23
Speaker 1: Actually? Happy birthday, big guy.
6:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go. Yeah, you know, there's been.
6:31
Speaker 2: He's a pretty tough guy, honestly, you know, maybe not
6:36
Speaker 2: far from cut from the clock, but always playing through injury.
6:40
Speaker 2: But like, he's a pretty tough guy. I think he's been.
6:45
Speaker 2: He's had a major collar bone injury and they had
6:47
Speaker 2: the achilles injury, but otherwise, any bumps and bruises, he
6:52
Speaker 2: powered through it. But look, if you have a capable quarterback,
6:56
Speaker 2: why are we backup quarterback?
6:58
Speaker 3: Why are you or you do it?
7:01
Speaker 1: You know that's my point, right, Yeah, and he had
7:06
Speaker 1: to come out at one point for one series and
7:09
Speaker 1: the result was an interception.
7:12
Speaker 3: So yeah, I just.
7:15
Speaker 1: Don't understand it. But anyway, I digress. The defense I
7:24
Speaker 1: was really unhappy with because we always talk about the
7:31
Speaker 1: you know, Steeler stopping the run and all this garbage.
7:36
Speaker 1: And after the quarterback, yeah, the Bills were down two
7:41
Speaker 1: starting tackles and I believe another lineman got hurt in
7:45
Speaker 1: the middle of the game as well. Zero sacks and
7:49
Speaker 1: James Cook and the Bills had more rushing yards on
7:52
Speaker 1: the Steelers at home since nineteen seventy five, and TJ.
7:57
Speaker 1: Watt after the game even mentioned that he's never see
8:00
Speaker 1: a team run the same place so many times.
8:02
Speaker 2: So going back, did you see how many times like
8:06
Speaker 2: I saw so on that film study they looked at it,
8:10
Speaker 2: how many twenty nine times they ran the same play?
8:15
Speaker 2: So professional team, I don't have him right in front
8:17
Speaker 2: of me normally runs I think like seventy plays. So
8:23
Speaker 2: three out of seven plays was the same exact play.
8:30
Speaker 1: That bounce out run. Yeah, So first of all, that
8:36
Speaker 1: means TJ. Watt is out of position if he's the
8:38
Speaker 1: end and if he's playing on the edge and that
8:41
Speaker 1: guy's able to bounce outside of him. So that's problem
8:43
Speaker 1: number one. Problem number two. You talk about halftime adjustments,
8:47
Speaker 1: really any sort of adjustments. Team runs that same play
8:51
Speaker 1: a couple times, fine, but I think by time four
8:54
Speaker 1: we should probably start, you know, planning about that or
8:58
Speaker 1: talking about it at least the next time were on
9:00
Speaker 1: the sideline like, hey, guys, it looks like they're running
9:03
Speaker 1: this play. If you see them line up in that formation,
9:06
Speaker 1: let's do this, Yeah, literally do anything. But the fact
9:12
Speaker 1: that most of their yards on the ground came from
9:16
Speaker 1: one play. Again. Crazy, Yeah, it is incompetent, and that's
9:25
Speaker 1: putting it nicely, I think. And look I all I
9:31
Speaker 1: can say is, well, no, there's one other thing I
9:34
Speaker 1: want to talk about. The Steelers did have the ball
9:36
Speaker 1: at one point toward the it was either the third
9:39
Speaker 1: or the fourth quarter, when there was still a chance
9:41
Speaker 1: that they could make a comeback. It was fourth and two,
9:45
Speaker 1: fourth and three, and they did a draw play. It
9:47
Speaker 1: was the weirdest decision I've seen them make. And of
9:53
Speaker 1: course the guy I don't even know if it was
9:55
Speaker 1: gain Well or Warren, and it was probably gain Weell
9:59
Speaker 1: got tackled behind the line and they didn't convert it.
10:01
Speaker 1: And it's just crazy to me that we're seeing a
10:06
Speaker 1: team that is so defeated, so not giving a damn
10:13
Speaker 1: and the I don't want to segue too soon into
10:20
Speaker 1: the next topic about what I wanted to talk about
10:22
Speaker 1: it what went on in the game. I want to
10:23
Speaker 1: stick to the game itself for now, so we'll hold
10:26
Speaker 1: off on anything of the extracurriculars that happened. But yeah,
10:30
Speaker 1: to your point about Cam Hayward that you made getting
10:33
Speaker 1: a stupid penalty, he said, Josh Allen need me or
10:36
Speaker 1: need me in the stomach, Like are you really my guy?
10:41
Speaker 1: You know that scene in the UH and remember the
10:44
Speaker 1: Titans where the sunshine like flips the player over his
10:48
Speaker 1: back and the coach wants unnecessary roughness and the roughs
10:52
Speaker 1: like on the quarterback. Are you kidding me? That was
10:55
Speaker 1: that was my That was my response, Like boohoo, man,
11:00
Speaker 1: Josh Allen need you You were drawing at them all
11:02
Speaker 1: game after his team throttled you when they didn't even
11:05
Speaker 1: play that good particularly, I mean, I just.
11:10
Speaker 3: Yeah.
11:10
Speaker 2: And also it's just which all this stuff happened with,
11:15
Speaker 2: like Jamar Chase, I mean at a certain point, yeah.
11:19
Speaker 3: You know what, Like I.
11:22
Speaker 2: Remember reading about Bill Romanowski and how he used to
11:25
Speaker 2: like eye goug and grab people's groin area and do
11:29
Speaker 2: this and that just to agitate the other team. Don't
11:33
Speaker 2: lose your head. I mean, you're fifteen years in the league.
11:35
Speaker 2: I mean every once in a while, yeah, there might
11:39
Speaker 2: be something that happens in the pile, there might be
11:42
Speaker 2: something that happens at the line, and you might not
11:45
Speaker 2: like it.
11:46
Speaker 3: Tear their freaking head off on the field.
11:48
Speaker 1: And honestly, I'm more inclined to believe that Cam instigated it,
11:52
Speaker 1: and then Josh Allen responded than the other way around
11:55
Speaker 1: at this point too.
11:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I that was what I was taught,
12:00
Speaker 3: was just if.
12:02
Speaker 2: Like someone's doing something to do on the field, getting
12:07
Speaker 2: a penalty against your team isn't helping the cause.
12:10
Speaker 3: No, But like Josh Allen, you have every chance.
12:16
Speaker 2: It's not like a kickoff where you're only gonna see
12:18
Speaker 2: them twice three times in the game.
12:21
Speaker 3: He lines up every single play and can just demolish him.
12:28
Speaker 2: But was he choose he chooses to play outside of
12:31
Speaker 2: the whistles and give up fifteen yards and ruin his
12:36
Speaker 2: chance of his team's chance of being competitive in this game.
12:40
Speaker 3: Stupid?
12:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was dumb. The other thing I
12:45
Speaker 1: wanted to mention too was Rogers' stat line was pretty atrocious.
12:49
Speaker 1: It was ten of twenty one for one hundred and
12:51
Speaker 1: seventeen yards, and there was a few plays where he
12:54
Speaker 1: missed people and you could tell there was miscommunication, and
12:59
Speaker 1: in the you couldn't really tell whether it was him
13:03
Speaker 1: or the receiver. Obviously he thinks it's the receivers, and
13:10
Speaker 1: he made a comment in the post game that basically
13:13
Speaker 1: implied that people aren't showing up to film study sessions, which,
13:18
Speaker 1: if true, is one shame on the people who are
13:22
Speaker 1: not showing up like that will That will always kind
13:27
Speaker 1: of leave me flabbergasted when these guys who get to
13:30
Speaker 1: do this for a living don't have that kind of
13:32
Speaker 1: work ethic. But I guess if you've never had a
13:34
Speaker 1: real job before, you know, maybe that's lost on some
13:39
Speaker 1: of them.
13:41
Speaker 3: I mean, I will say.
13:43
Speaker 2: Mike as a defensive back, like they always make a
13:47
Speaker 2: joke about defensive backs, are guys that.
13:53
Speaker 3: Didn't have the hands to cut as a wide receiver.
13:57
Speaker 2: No, it typically is because we're the ones that don't
13:59
Speaker 2: have the god guilt given it ability as a wide receiver.
14:05
Speaker 2: And from my experienced wide receivers are some of the
14:08
Speaker 2: laziest people that you'll.
14:12
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, there's that stereotype about that being divas
14:14
Speaker 1: too right, I always wanting.
14:17
Speaker 3: Them have seen that.
14:19
Speaker 1: That makes sense too, But I thought we got rid
14:21
Speaker 1: of them along a couple of years ago, at least
14:24
Speaker 1: at this past offseason with one of them. But he's
14:27
Speaker 1: having a stellar year, so what do we know. But anyway,
14:32
Speaker 1: that's also an indictment on the coach. And there's plenty
14:36
Speaker 1: of fire around the coach right now. If you can't
14:41
Speaker 1: get guys even showing up to film study, then that's
14:45
Speaker 1: that's a problem. But uh, and for Rogers to come
14:49
Speaker 1: out and say it publicly, I I really didn't feel
14:53
Speaker 1: like he was trying to throw people under the bus.
14:55
Speaker 1: I thought that he was kind of calm and collective
14:58
Speaker 1: in his answers. I know that the sound bite and
15:01
Speaker 1: the clip makes it look like he's throwing that all
15:04
Speaker 1: on them, but he also made a point to say,
15:06
Speaker 1: you know, the players have to take responsibility, myself included,
15:10
Speaker 1: and I will, which I appreciated.
15:15
Speaker 2: But well, I mean, look like I think there's a
15:19
Speaker 2: difference of like throwing a wide receiver under the bus
15:23
Speaker 2: because he said like.
15:26
Speaker 3: He was supposed to run this route.
15:29
Speaker 2: You know, they actually said it during the game, like
15:32
Speaker 2: he was pissed off at Jonah Smith because you know,
15:37
Speaker 2: he told him to break in. He broke out. Okay,
15:41
Speaker 2: that's fine. If he said in the press, are like, yeah,
15:45
Speaker 2: he screwed up. I made the right call.
15:49
Speaker 3: I'd be kind of like annoyed by that.
15:51
Speaker 2: Right, But players kind of calling out coaches. To me,
15:57
Speaker 2: it's different because the coach should be the lead. We
16:01
Speaker 2: talk about players being the leader all the time, and
16:04
Speaker 2: you do need that on the field, but honestly, the
16:08
Speaker 2: leadership should come from the top down, and for me,
16:12
Speaker 2: it's always starts with the coach.
16:15
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because they're the ones who are leading the
16:19
Speaker 1: locker room, right.
16:21
Speaker 2: And Aaron Rodgers can't tell DK Metcalf to go watch
16:25
Speaker 2: film study. Tomlin needs to do that, or he needs
16:28
Speaker 2: to say you're gonna hit the bench until you do.
16:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he can. I would hope that they've
16:34
Speaker 1: got the relationship where he can talk to his receiver
16:37
Speaker 1: and get some work done. And I don't think DK
16:40
Speaker 1: is the one who's skipping the film study either. Yeah,
16:44
Speaker 1: but it's more so too, like Aaron Rodgers can't tell
16:47
Speaker 1: someone on defense or special teams what to do or
16:51
Speaker 1: what they should or shouldn't do. If I mean, he can,
16:53
Speaker 1: he can try it, but he's probably gonna look like
16:55
Speaker 1: a jerk in the process, right, or at least that's
16:59
Speaker 1: what the dea the defender's going to say. So I
17:04
Speaker 1: guess that's a good segue to talk into the other
17:06
Speaker 1: things that happened at this game. Two things happened that
17:09
Speaker 1: I thought were funny. Well, one was funny. One was
17:13
Speaker 1: kind of sad. The sad thing was we finally saw
17:17
Speaker 1: the crowd in the stands chanting fire tomblin. And the
17:22
Speaker 1: thing that was kind of funny, which I think is
17:24
Speaker 1: kind of indicative of the franchise overall, is when the
17:29
Speaker 1: game was already out of reach, they turned on renegade
17:32
Speaker 1: at the stadium, big Steelers tradition for like the past
17:35
Speaker 1: twenty five years or so, and the crowd booed that
17:38
Speaker 1: because it was very obvious that it was unnecessary and
17:42
Speaker 1: it was just gimmicky at that point, right, And the
17:46
Speaker 1: lack of awareness, I think is what is what did
17:50
Speaker 1: me in and had me thinking it was symbolic of
17:53
Speaker 1: the franchise as a whole. So they asked Tomlin about that,
17:59
Speaker 1: and I mean, I thought his answer was fine. I
18:02
Speaker 1: don't really know what the best answer to that is,
18:05
Speaker 1: but it was basically like, do you acknowledge what they
18:07
Speaker 1: were saying? And he basically said, I share their sentiments.
18:11
Speaker 1: We're not playing well and we're in the football entertainment
18:14
Speaker 1: business and when we're not winning, it's not entertaining fair enough.
18:19
Speaker 1: And then they asked him today about is the team
18:22
Speaker 1: identity and he said it's six and six. It sucks.
18:26
Speaker 1: So that kind of gets us to where we are today.
18:32
Speaker 1: And I guess I'll ask you kind of your thoughts overall,
18:36
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about it a little bit later too,
18:38
Speaker 1: more broadly. But I guess the question I wanted to
18:43
Speaker 1: ask you, and I can get your thoughts on everything
18:45
Speaker 1: else as well, was I don't think Mike Tomlin or
18:49
Speaker 1: anyone in the coaching staff is a dummy. They can
18:53
Speaker 1: see the record, they see things happening. They're presumably showing
18:56
Speaker 1: up to film sessions theirselves. So if they know that
19:00
Speaker 1: everything sucks, why are we here, Like, why haven't we
19:05
Speaker 1: seen significant changes over the last like seven weeks?
19:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, we we kind of talked about
19:17
Speaker 3: this with.
19:19
Speaker 2: Brady and Milichick right with the with the.
19:23
Speaker 3: Whole who was the reason for winning?
19:27
Speaker 2: And I think what we're maybe seeing is Ben did
19:33
Speaker 2: contribute a lot to the knowledge base of the team,
19:37
Speaker 2: probably not even just offensively, but probably defensively as well.
19:42
Speaker 1: Mh.
19:44
Speaker 3: And because of.
19:45
Speaker 2: That and because you had you know, we talked about
19:48
Speaker 2: the leader of.
19:52
Speaker 3: What a coach is supposed to do.
19:54
Speaker 2: But you know, maybe that can get covered up if
19:57
Speaker 2: you have a strong enough leader. On the field, and
20:01
Speaker 2: this team I feel like has not been able to
20:05
Speaker 2: adjust and chameleon into their strengths since Ben has been out.
20:11
Speaker 3: I mean, I.
20:13
Speaker 2: Didn't want Ben, with his dying arm and body and
20:17
Speaker 2: dragging himself across the finish line to turn out two or.
20:21
Speaker 3: Three more years.
20:24
Speaker 2: But we probably won more games because of him than
20:29
Speaker 2: we lost.
20:29
Speaker 1: So.
20:31
Speaker 3: I guess that's to say, I.
20:34
Speaker 2: Think we're maybe starting to see that Tomlin might not
20:37
Speaker 2: know more than we thought he knew.
20:42
Speaker 1: I I agree with you. I've through this season especially,
20:48
Speaker 1: I've actually gotten more respect for what Roethlisberger was able
20:52
Speaker 1: to do on the field because the timeline is important.
20:56
Speaker 1: You remember, Tomlin comes in and it's all the cowerd guy,
21:00
Speaker 1: and everyone knows that story. And that's what the earliest
21:03
Speaker 1: critics of Tomlin will say is he won with Cowers guys,
21:07
Speaker 1: which isn't totally unbased. But you know he's.
21:11
Speaker 3: Still a Hall of Fame quarterback.
21:15
Speaker 1: Well that's what I'm getting at. He's one of cowards
21:17
Speaker 1: guys too, right, But I just mean he comes in,
21:23
Speaker 1: he's got Big Ben at very early in Big Ben's
21:26
Speaker 1: career too, right, because they won the Super Bowl and
21:28
Speaker 1: Ben's second year. Cower was there one more year and
21:32
Speaker 1: then retired, so he gets tom Tomlin comes in during
21:35
Speaker 1: Ben's fourth year in the league and then as the defense,
21:42
Speaker 1: and that first wave of players starts to retire. Then
21:45
Speaker 1: we get Tomlin's rebuilding.
21:46
Speaker 3: Right.
21:46
Speaker 1: We had a few eight and eight years in there,
21:48
Speaker 1: and then we really got into Big Ben's prime as
21:51
Speaker 1: a passer, and to your point, I think he carried
21:58
Speaker 1: those teams. And what we're seeing is Tomlin has won
22:06
Speaker 1: a playoff game in four of his nineteen years. So
22:13
Speaker 1: this lack of playoff success is not a new thing,
22:17
Speaker 1: and it's not something that just started with I think
22:22
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen was the last year we wanted a playoff game.
22:27
Speaker 1: It's probably been going on longer. But like you said,
22:30
Speaker 1: Big Ben was able to mask a lot of that. Now.
22:37
Speaker 1: I don't know really what the grand point I was
22:39
Speaker 1: trying to make here other was then, other than to
22:41
Speaker 1: just back you up and talk about how smart you
22:43
Speaker 1: are for making that comment first. But no, you're exactly right.
22:48
Speaker 1: It's very similar to the Belichick and Brady scenario. I
22:57
Speaker 1: don't know, man, I mean, even if they did get
23:00
Speaker 1: a spend a first rounder on a quarterback, a little
23:04
Speaker 1: bit earlier than Kenny Pickett a couple of years before
23:07
Speaker 1: when they still had Roethlisberger. Who's to say we would
23:11
Speaker 1: have developed that guy the right way, right, we could
23:15
Speaker 1: have looked at one of them and been a thought
23:17
Speaker 1: they were a bust and it was really the coaching
23:20
Speaker 1: all along.
23:20
Speaker 2: So I mean we got that with Yeah, like Kenny,
23:26
Speaker 2: I don't think that he was ever going to have
23:28
Speaker 2: the stuff to do it, but yeah, I mean there's
23:35
Speaker 2: plenty of examples of good quarterbacks that got turned out
23:38
Speaker 2: by bad coaching. Tomlin's a defensive coach anyway. So and
23:44
Speaker 2: he's never hired and we've I've harped this on he's
23:48
Speaker 2: never hired anyone that's basically expanded his coaching tree.
23:55
Speaker 1: So, and I was gonna commend you on that point
23:58
Speaker 1: today because you've been saying that for years and he literally,
24:03
Speaker 1: like just today and yesterday, I've seen people in their
24:05
Speaker 1: criticisms in the national media start to say that too, like, hey,
24:09
Speaker 1: wait a minute, what's going on here? No, he doesn't
24:12
Speaker 1: have a coaching tree that you're You're exactly right. So,
24:19
Speaker 1: and I don't know if it's because he's hiring all
24:21
Speaker 1: these older guys that have already been defensive coordinators like
24:24
Speaker 1: Terrell Austin or.
24:28
Speaker 3: The coordinator hires he took.
24:31
Speaker 2: Todd Haley have failed NFL head coach he took, Arthur Smith,
24:35
Speaker 2: failed NFL head coach. You know, I'm not to say
24:40
Speaker 2: that these guys aren't good like they're not good coaches
24:48
Speaker 2: like they could be, and the you know, these guys
24:50
Speaker 2: obviously were good enough to get head coaching gigs. But
24:55
Speaker 2: I mean, at the same time, I think he's I
24:58
Speaker 2: don't think he likes buck.
25:00
Speaker 3: That could be smarter than him. That's why I've always
25:04
Speaker 3: thought about It's just he is.
25:07
Speaker 2: Intimidated by other people might being able to bring success
25:13
Speaker 2: and then attributing it to him.
25:17
Speaker 1: I don't even know that I'm gonna look at it
25:19
Speaker 1: that deeply. But no, you're you're, you're exactly right. It's
25:25
Speaker 1: it's never the offensive coordinators like a Ben Johnson, who
25:29
Speaker 1: that you see getting hired as an offensive coordinator or
25:33
Speaker 1: a head coach somewhere else that was enough.
25:36
Speaker 2: You had chances to hire Joe Brady, who from the Bills,
25:41
Speaker 2: you know, like they he came from LSU, and then
25:46
Speaker 2: I think he like got fired from like the.
25:48
Speaker 3: Saints or something. Like that he could have.
25:50
Speaker 2: Been our offensive coordinator. Didn't want to go with that
25:54
Speaker 2: that type of cedigree.
25:55
Speaker 3: So I don't know, I just it's annoying me.
26:00
Speaker 1: Well, and the other thing that I thought was interesting
26:02
Speaker 1: too that I saw today was and I completely forgot
26:04
Speaker 1: about this. Do you remember this past offseason where the
26:07
Speaker 1: Bears reached out about trading for Mike Tomlin and the
26:10
Speaker 1: Steelers just flat out told him no or just didn't
26:14
Speaker 1: even respond to the request.
26:17
Speaker 2: I've seen like so many things over the years about
26:20
Speaker 2: like Tomlin getting traded.
26:23
Speaker 3: I've never put stock in anything.
26:25
Speaker 1: So this actually happened. I swear it happened, and the
26:28
Speaker 1: Bears were the ones who initiated it. So I'm just thinking, Okay, well,
26:34
Speaker 1: the Bears might have gotten the better end of that
26:40
Speaker 1: deal by not making the deal, I should say, but
26:44
Speaker 1: that's a world where you're looking at the Steelers and
26:46
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, well it's clear that something's not working here.
26:51
Speaker 1: And again I had a lot of patience for the guy.
26:55
Speaker 1: I maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy now, and
26:58
Speaker 1: just once I my fuse runs out, I'm done.
27:04
Speaker 3: You're now just getting grumpy.
27:06
Speaker 1: No, I'm getting old and grumpy. Now, I've always been grumpy,
27:11
Speaker 1: but I know, I just mean, I don't want people
27:14
Speaker 1: to think, like, oh, this guy was a Tomlin defender
27:17
Speaker 1: until three weeks ago. It's not exactly true, but I
27:21
Speaker 1: think I've hit the straw that broke the Campbell's back
27:23
Speaker 1: point in my in my tenure now. But anyway, it's
27:28
Speaker 1: just interesting that in theory, the Steelers could have done that,
27:32
Speaker 1: sent him over there and gotten a first round pick
27:35
Speaker 1: or more, and then they could.
27:36
Speaker 2: Have been what that would have been the compensation for him.
27:40
Speaker 1: I mean, they gave us a second rounder for Chase Claypool,
27:43
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think so. But anyway, my point is, yeah,
27:52
Speaker 1: I mean I could I mean, in theory, they send
27:56
Speaker 1: him there and the Steelers could have gotten someone like
27:58
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson as the coach. Now how would that work out,
28:01
Speaker 1: I don't know. But anyway, I just am trying to
28:09
Speaker 1: say that it's crazy it could have happened, and now
28:14
Speaker 1: here we are sitting at six and six, and we
28:16
Speaker 1: should probably talk about Baltimore at some point.
28:19
Speaker 3: But yeah, but I mean, we're in an existential crisis.
28:25
Speaker 1: Well, and that's actually a good point. Yeah, we are
28:27
Speaker 1: an existential crisis. But the very last thing I sent
28:30
Speaker 1: you in my like big text block of the recap
28:34
Speaker 1: was that our division is so bad you wouldn't know it,
28:39
Speaker 1: but this game that we're playing will literally be for
28:42
Speaker 1: first place in the division.
28:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you want to hear something crazy, sure, so
28:51
Speaker 2: because the Steelers and Ravens have started sputtering, the Bengals
28:57
Speaker 2: are lurking behind us because they want on things because
29:01
Speaker 2: it just got Joe back, so like there's no room
29:08
Speaker 2: for air from the Ravens game, or because the like
29:13
Speaker 2: you said, the division is so bad that even the
29:16
Speaker 2: Bengals dead in the water, maybe historically worse defense in
29:22
Speaker 2: the league could actually have a chance at the division.
29:27
Speaker 1: And you know what would have really helped everyone out
29:30
Speaker 1: here not losing that first game to them by two
29:33
Speaker 1: points with Flacco coming off a short week. So when
29:38
Speaker 1: we and everyone else talk about you have to win
29:40
Speaker 1: the games you're supposed to win, it's so that you
29:43
Speaker 1: don't have stupid scenarios like this where a team that
29:46
Speaker 1: has no business even being in playoff contention has a
29:51
Speaker 1: chance to freaking win the division, let alone get into
29:54
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Right, yeah, oh my gosh, All right, let's
29:59
Speaker 1: talk about the Ravens. I'm just gonna get into it.
30:03
Speaker 1: The Ravens and the Steelers are both sitting at six
30:07
Speaker 1: and six. This game is for first place in the division.
30:11
Speaker 1: As it stands at this exact moment, the Ravens are
30:13
Speaker 1: technically in first with the tiebreakers, and I will say
30:19
Speaker 1: the Ravens are going through a very similar season to
30:23
Speaker 1: the Steelers. They've had some pretty significant injury to Lamar Jackson,
30:31
Speaker 1: and they started the year was it one in four
30:35
Speaker 1: or one in five?
30:36
Speaker 3: Let's see what that was real quick, one two three four.
30:41
Speaker 1: They started one and five, so god no, not good.
30:48
Speaker 1: They get they get Lamar Jackson back. Then they one
30:51
Speaker 1: two three, win five in a row. They lose their
30:54
Speaker 1: last game, Like you said, to the Bengals, they didn't
30:57
Speaker 1: look great at all in that game, and in some
31:00
Speaker 1: of their other games that they did have during that
31:03
Speaker 1: win streak they looked kind of sloppy as well. So
31:06
Speaker 1: they're kind of hanging on by the skin of their
31:08
Speaker 1: teeth too. That being said, I think they're a little
31:15
Speaker 1: more functional than the Steelers for a lot of the
31:17
Speaker 1: same reasons that I think the Bills were able to
31:21
Speaker 1: play well against the Steelers this past Sundays because they
31:26
Speaker 1: do have Lamar Jackson. He did have a rough game
31:28
Speaker 1: against the Bengals, but the man's a two time league MVP.
31:32
Speaker 1: I trust this Ravens quarterback situation more than I trust
31:36
Speaker 1: the Steelers situation. And like we talked about last week
31:43
Speaker 1: with the Bills, at this point in the season and
31:46
Speaker 1: just with everything that's going on right now, I trust
31:49
Speaker 1: the Ravens to make adjustments after a loss more than
31:51
Speaker 1: I trust the Steelers to make adjustments after a loss.
31:54
Speaker 1: Like we said, they couldn't make adjustments when a team
31:56
Speaker 1: ran the same play twenty nine times against them. They
32:00
Speaker 1: make adjustments in between games. So I think if the
32:06
Speaker 1: Steelers are gonna win this game, it's gonna come down
32:08
Speaker 1: to defense. And I think Lamar Jackson's going to have
32:12
Speaker 1: to have another terrible performance, another multi turnover game that
32:16
Speaker 1: the Steelers capitalize on. I think that it's unlikely that
32:22
Speaker 1: that's going to happen. But I don't really know what
32:27
Speaker 1: else to say about this team. It's just if the
32:29
Speaker 1: defense doesn't show up and if Lamar Jackson doesn't play poorly,
32:32
Speaker 1: I don't think the Steelers are going to get a
32:34
Speaker 1: win here.
32:36
Speaker 2: Look, I mean, I've told a lot of people. I feel,
32:40
Speaker 2: like I've said on this podcast, Lamar Jackson's kryptonite is
32:44
Speaker 2: the playoffs, and the Steelers hee has some real stinkers
32:50
Speaker 2: against us. So is it possible? Yeah, it's definitely possible.
32:59
Speaker 2: Could we see a games similar to the Colts where
33:01
Speaker 2: they just implode and turn the ball over in our
33:05
Speaker 2: offense literally cannot be so inconfident that they get no
33:08
Speaker 2: points from them.
33:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, that could happen. I don't see it.
33:14
Speaker 2: I look, this is just a team that has no direction,
33:23
Speaker 2: no leadership, no one that I feel is capable of.
33:30
Speaker 3: Performing even up to.
33:31
Speaker 2: Their ability, not much out less outperforming their availability.
33:36
Speaker 3: So why would we trust it to change now?
33:40
Speaker 2: Against the Ravens at Baltimore?
33:46
Speaker 1: All Right? I have no trust, no faith, no nothing,
33:51
Speaker 1: no nothing, no nothing, no nothing. The games in Baltimore too,
33:56
Speaker 1: for what it's worth. So it's not like, well, the
33:59
Speaker 1: Baltimore fans might be friendlier than the home fans would
34:01
Speaker 1: be at this point. So yeah, I mean, look, I
34:07
Speaker 1: don't know what Aaron Rodgers' injury status is gonna be.
34:10
Speaker 1: I hope that the wrist is better this week and
34:12
Speaker 1: he can actually run all the plays. I hope that
34:18
Speaker 1: the guys are showing up for film study, and I
34:22
Speaker 1: think Rogers even made a point that just this wasn't
34:25
Speaker 1: even their best week of practice, and I don't know,
34:30
Speaker 1: just it seemed like everyone's checked out. So look, I
34:38
Speaker 1: just think that I think we're gonna see the wheels
34:42
Speaker 1: start to come off here. I'm sure that some way,
34:47
Speaker 1: shape or form, they're gonna find a way to get
34:51
Speaker 1: to nine and eight or eight eight and one or
34:55
Speaker 1: whatever it is. I just I don't know how, and
34:58
Speaker 1: I don't see it. So I can't pick the Steelers
35:01
Speaker 1: to win, and frankly, unless they do a one eighty,
35:04
Speaker 1: I don't see myself picking them to win any other
35:06
Speaker 1: game here. So I think the Ravens are gonna win.
35:10
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a big one for the Ravens.
35:13
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna take care of business here.
35:17
Speaker 3: Let's say.
35:20
Speaker 1: Twenty eight to ten Ravens.
35:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna go twenty four to thirteen Ravens.
35:30
Speaker 3: All right.
35:32
Speaker 1: Well, the happy, positive guys you used to know in
35:36
Speaker 1: love on Steelers Country Weekly are dead and gone, replaced
35:40
Speaker 1: with the two grumpy old men from the Muppets.
35:44
Speaker 2: Right.
35:45
Speaker 1: That's us just living the dream.
35:48
Speaker 3: Right.
35:50
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Well, a couple of things happened today
35:54
Speaker 1: in the Steelers front office. They did part ways with
35:57
Speaker 1: Darius Slay. I think that's fair. They signed him typical
36:04
Speaker 1: Steelers move. Sign a veteran who's probably past his prime,
36:07
Speaker 1: but you hope they can get or complement the rest
36:09
Speaker 1: of your team well and make plays when you need
36:11
Speaker 1: him too. He just he was not a good fit
36:14
Speaker 1: and he was not playing anywhere near the peak of
36:18
Speaker 1: his abilities.
36:20
Speaker 3: So he's gone.
36:22
Speaker 1: And conversely, they signed or claimed Adam Thielen off of
36:29
Speaker 1: waivers after he was released by the Vikings. So I
36:35
Speaker 1: guess I don't know what your thoughts on that move are.
36:39
Speaker 1: My thoughts are why not. I mean, you're past the deadline,
36:45
Speaker 1: and I mean you gotta try something, right, So I
36:50
Speaker 1: just don't expect it to have a significant impact.
36:53
Speaker 3: Now.
36:54
Speaker 2: I mean, we're talking about Scantling four weeks ago, so
37:05
Speaker 2: why all of a sudden word another move.
37:10
Speaker 3: Matter? When I think Scantling played with Rogers.
37:15
Speaker 1: Right yes, in Green Bay, so.
37:21
Speaker 2: At least he had that comfortability where Feeling's never played with.
37:27
Speaker 3: Rogers or Mason Rudolph or anything like that. So for
37:32
Speaker 3: him to come in make an impact right.
37:34
Speaker 2: Now when we don't throw to wear wide receivers anyway,
37:39
Speaker 2: it's more of a scheme.
37:40
Speaker 3: Thing than a player thing right now in my mind.
37:43
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, I guess at least theling was
37:50
Speaker 1: playing and not picked up off the street. But but yeah,
37:55
Speaker 1: I just.
37:57
Speaker 2: Kind of right if your wave, if you're waved, you
38:01
Speaker 2: kind of are on the street right.
38:03
Speaker 1: Well, in a manner of speaking, Yeah, but he was
38:05
Speaker 1: playing on the Vikings and they're they're hot garbage now,
38:08
Speaker 1: and the way they're spinning it is he has to
38:10
Speaker 1: be released so he can have a greater role somewhere else.
38:15
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe I thought you're gonna say greater team poor guy.
38:20
Speaker 1: Well he did say he wants a chance to compete
38:22
Speaker 1: for a Super Bowl.
38:24
Speaker 3: So it looks like he has no choice in that matter.
38:30
Speaker 2: And that.
38:32
Speaker 1: Kind of brings me to another point that's interesting is
38:37
Speaker 1: in the AFC this year, the top teams are the
38:40
Speaker 1: Patriots and the Broncos. The rest of the AFC is
38:44
Speaker 1: completely wide open. So in theory, teams like Pittsburgh or
38:50
Speaker 1: Baltimore could get their act together and make a run
38:56
Speaker 1: at it. I just don't see it happen. I mean,
39:01
Speaker 1: this division was the Steelers to lose, and by god
39:04
Speaker 1: did they lose it.
39:06
Speaker 3: Yeah?
39:07
Speaker 1: All right, Well, our fun topic tonight was going to
39:11
Speaker 1: be talking about the coaching carousel a little bit of
39:14
Speaker 1: college and then how that would impact the NFL if
39:18
Speaker 1: the NFL acted on that same timeline here. So, the
39:23
Speaker 1: college coaching carousel is ridiculous right now, and right before
39:27
Speaker 1: we recorded, I saw a figure that said there has
39:31
Speaker 1: been two hundred and twenty eight million dollars distributed out
39:36
Speaker 1: this carousel just in coaching contract buyouts and crazy. It's nuts, yes,
39:44
Speaker 1: But I think the point that you were trying to
39:47
Speaker 1: get at is these coaching changes happen while the season
39:51
Speaker 1: is still going on. Usually it happens during the bowl
39:59
Speaker 1: season or the playoff offseason. But what I've noticed with
40:04
Speaker 1: twenty four to seven media being a thing in social
40:07
Speaker 1: media in particular, we're getting better ideas and better details
40:14
Speaker 1: and reporting around the fact that these conversations are going
40:18
Speaker 1: on much longer than that, particularly when a school like
40:24
Speaker 1: Penn State, for example, fires their coach in September. If
40:29
Speaker 1: your ad is not incompetent, you'd think he's working the
40:31
Speaker 1: phones right away. Right. So let me turn it over
40:37
Speaker 1: to you here real quick. This is your suggestion for
40:41
Speaker 1: a fun topic, and I think it's an interesting one too.
40:45
Speaker 1: Just take us through your thoughts on how the college
40:49
Speaker 1: coaching carousel works right now and what your thoughts are,
40:53
Speaker 1: and from there, I guess we can talk about what
40:55
Speaker 1: would happen if the NFL operated that way.
41:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I do think that the timeline has
41:06
Speaker 2: moved up a bit when.
41:08
Speaker 3: It comes to the carousel, and I think that they have.
41:15
Speaker 3: I think the main thing they have a problem with
41:17
Speaker 3: is I don't think it's fair to the players.
41:20
Speaker 2: People will gripe all the time about player not playing
41:24
Speaker 2: in a ball game. Our Homa maters actually saying it
41:28
Speaker 2: with our quarterback being unsure about whether he's going to
41:31
Speaker 2: play in the ball game, which I don't blame him,
41:35
Speaker 2: but you know, all of a sudden, the coaches can
41:39
Speaker 2: leave mid season or right after the regular season and
41:43
Speaker 2: then leave them you know, strand it in the.
41:46
Speaker 3: Playoffs or the bull game.
41:50
Speaker 2: So I think that for me, it's always been as
41:55
Speaker 2: long as you're being fair to the players, you just
41:59
Speaker 2: gotta do whatever you think is best. Like it feels
42:04
Speaker 2: like tampering, like you see it in a lot of
42:07
Speaker 2: professional football, like professional leagues in general that you can't
42:11
Speaker 2: talk to someone's personnel during the season, So I feel
42:19
Speaker 2: like there could I think that that's a probably way
42:23
Speaker 2: you could do it.
42:25
Speaker 3: You know, the NFL also has this.
42:28
Speaker 2: Legal tampering and then they have free agency, So I
42:34
Speaker 2: think that there that's a way that you could probably
42:37
Speaker 2: help navigate the coaching carousel.
42:44
Speaker 3: Is trying to put those buffers in place.
42:49
Speaker 2: You know, I look at you know, I don't blame
42:55
Speaker 2: some of these coaches for trying to grab a better job.
42:58
Speaker 2: I mean, hell, the guy from Tulane. Which to hear
43:06
Speaker 2: that a coach from Tulane is now going to go
43:08
Speaker 2: over to Florida. You said that in ninety six, when
43:13
Speaker 2: Spurrier is winning the championship, people would say, you're freaking crazy.
43:22
Speaker 3: So I think college has evolved a lot.
43:29
Speaker 2: Where I don't maybe see the same type of trajectory
43:34
Speaker 2: in the NFL, only because typically coaches in the college
43:43
Speaker 2: ranks will go to a better conference, a better school.
43:49
Speaker 2: I think that you could probably rank NFL by ownership,
43:53
Speaker 2: Like there's definitely the marquee ownership that you want to
43:56
Speaker 2: be a part of and the ones that you definitely
43:58
Speaker 2: don't want to be a part of but other than
44:02
Speaker 2: that and having a rock star quarterback, I don't see
44:08
Speaker 2: how coaches would have preferability in the NFL.
44:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't see the coaches in the NFL leaving
44:18
Speaker 1: for other jobs, And I'm with you. I think in
44:21
Speaker 1: college when you have the conference prestige, and not even
44:26
Speaker 1: just within the between conferences, but different prestige within conferences.
44:32
Speaker 1: Like we just saw Lane Kiffin left or miss for LSU,
44:37
Speaker 1: both in the SEC, and he's not the first person
44:42
Speaker 1: to do that either. I think it's tough because we
44:48
Speaker 1: all want the same thing, right. We wish that the
44:51
Speaker 1: coaches would stay until the end of the year and
44:54
Speaker 1: then leave or whatever. But it's the calendar that's messed up,
44:58
Speaker 1: and people do I tend to forget that this is
45:02
Speaker 1: based around a school calendar. The guys are there to
45:06
Speaker 1: go to school, despite what some of them may say
45:09
Speaker 1: on Twitter about not going to play school. So it's
45:14
Speaker 1: difficult to move that around too. And I think that
45:18
Speaker 1: what it comes down to is the coaches are going
45:23
Speaker 1: to continue to leave when the opportunity comes. Like you said,
45:25
Speaker 1: I don't blame them for taking a better job. Lord
45:30
Speaker 1: knows if I was in the same position as them,
45:33
Speaker 1: and someone was throwing one hundred million dollars at me,
45:36
Speaker 1: It'd be very difficult to say no to that when
45:39
Speaker 1: you've got a family to think about. So I think
45:44
Speaker 1: what it's going to come down to is as long
45:48
Speaker 1: as you're honest with the players about what's happening and
45:52
Speaker 1: treating them right, like you said, that's the best you
45:55
Speaker 1: can do. Some schools are going to let you continue
45:58
Speaker 1: to coach, and other schools or not. So you mentioned
46:01
Speaker 1: John summer All from Tulane to Florida. He's going to
46:05
Speaker 1: continue coaching Tulane through the rest of the year. Lane
46:09
Speaker 1: Kiffen and ole Miss. There was a lot of reporting
46:13
Speaker 1: back and forth about why this is the case, but
46:16
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, Ole Miss doesn't want
46:19
Speaker 1: Lane Kiffen to coach the team anymore for the rest
46:23
Speaker 1: of the year, even though it looks like LSU is
46:26
Speaker 1: going to let him do. That could be a personal reason,
46:31
Speaker 1: could be they just don't want him half focused on
46:34
Speaker 1: the playoffs and half focused on his other job. I
46:39
Speaker 1: think that's what it's going to come down to. I
46:41
Speaker 1: think with college though, my biggest thing right now, and
46:44
Speaker 1: we've talked about it a couple weeks ago. I think
46:46
Speaker 1: was and I mentioned it at the start of this topic,
46:49
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty eight million dollars in buyouts. Like
46:54
Speaker 1: these schools do understand that not everyone can win ten
46:58
Speaker 1: games a year. It's it is mathematically impossible, so someone
47:06
Speaker 1: has to have some losses every once in a while.
47:09
Speaker 1: And looking at the schools that fired their coaches, it's chaotic.
47:17
Speaker 1: So as someone who has been a Mike Tomlin defender
47:20
Speaker 1: for a long time, that's the kind of chaos that
47:24
Speaker 1: I'm trying to avoid, or that I would like to
47:26
Speaker 1: have avoided. I don't want to be the team like
47:30
Speaker 1: the Browns that fires their coach every one to two years.
47:36
Speaker 1: It's just it's too much, right, But at a certain point,
47:42
Speaker 1: the straw breaks the camel's back. So not to keep
47:45
Speaker 1: dumping on the man on this podcast, but you talked
47:49
Speaker 1: about if that kind of approach in college was brought
47:53
Speaker 1: to the NFL, how would that look. I think it one,
47:56
Speaker 1: it's impossible because of the timelines and the that you mentioned.
48:01
Speaker 1: You've got the now tampering, you've got the free agency
48:04
Speaker 1: and all that. It's based around a calendar year, and
48:09
Speaker 1: there's no school involved here, just the School of hard
48:12
Speaker 1: Knocks and the School of life. And if it were
48:17
Speaker 1: to happen like that, let's just say that the Steelers
48:21
Speaker 1: fired Tomlin tomorrow and he got hired by Let's see,
48:30
Speaker 1: who's another team that looks like they might lose their
48:33
Speaker 1: coach to do. Let's just say the Browns, even though
48:41
Speaker 1: it would not be the Browns. So he gets hired
48:44
Speaker 1: by the Browns in a week. We know the Browns
48:48
Speaker 1: aren't making the playoffs, So I don't know what he
48:53
Speaker 1: would realistically do right now, since you can't work with
48:57
Speaker 1: other players on other teams or contact them, and the
49:04
Speaker 1: trade deadline's over, so it's not like you can start
49:06
Speaker 1: stockpiling picks for the draft in the upcoming year. The
49:10
Speaker 1: only thing you could really do is what scout watch
49:16
Speaker 1: team film for your team that may or may not
49:18
Speaker 1: or for your people that may or may not be
49:20
Speaker 1: on the team next year. It all it would do
49:25
Speaker 1: is give him a three month vacation until they're able
49:28
Speaker 1: to hire him for another team.
49:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true.
49:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely the different circumstances.
49:39
Speaker 3: So I think.
49:44
Speaker 2: What I'm curious though, because you mentioned the ole Miss thing,
49:49
Speaker 2: do you think that ole Miss should have allowed Lane
49:53
Speaker 2: Kiffen to continue the run.
49:59
Speaker 1: If I were the athletic director, I don't know how
50:04
Speaker 1: feasible this is, but I would have I would have
50:07
Speaker 1: left it up to the players. I would have had
50:10
Speaker 1: a team meeting without him, and I would have said
50:14
Speaker 1: this is what's going on, what do you guys want
50:18
Speaker 1: and gone from there.
50:20
Speaker 3: Democracy approached.
50:22
Speaker 1: What's Yeah, I guess, but I mean if the players
50:25
Speaker 1: are unhappy with how he treated them then and they
50:28
Speaker 1: don't want him around, then fine. If if he did
50:34
Speaker 1: treat them right and was and was honest with them
50:36
Speaker 1: that said, hey, people are talking to me. I'm not
50:40
Speaker 1: sure what's going to happen. I'm considering it, but I'm
50:42
Speaker 1: here now, and they understood that, then fine. It sounded
50:47
Speaker 1: like there was There had been different reports about he
50:51
Speaker 1: was trying to poach players and or not players, staff
50:55
Speaker 1: and things. So I don't know what exactly went down
50:58
Speaker 1: or how it happened, but but that would have been
51:01
Speaker 1: My approach is just leave it to the players, like
51:05
Speaker 1: do you guys want to or do you want do
51:07
Speaker 1: you want an interim head coach? Which it sounds like
51:10
Speaker 1: they didn't even mess around with the carousel at all.
51:13
Speaker 1: They just said, whoever the DC Pete Golding, Hey you're
51:16
Speaker 1: the head coach now, good luck? Yeah, what would you
51:20
Speaker 1: have done?
51:22
Speaker 3: Uh? I just think that like Ole Miss is not.
51:27
Speaker 2: Like a perennial team that can go, so I would
51:33
Speaker 2: do whatever.
51:34
Speaker 3: You can do to maximize this window. And we know
51:39
Speaker 3: this window is now like a month's time. Yeah, So I.
51:48
Speaker 2: Look, I just think that circumstance circumstantially, I I have
51:54
Speaker 2: a hard time understanding why they didn't allow him to
51:57
Speaker 2: do it unless it was so toxic. But if it was,
52:02
Speaker 2: I feel like the records would have shown that. I mean,
52:11
Speaker 2: I actually got into it with like because I'm a
52:15
Speaker 2: part of those like bearcat Facebook groups. Was I should
52:18
Speaker 2: not be because I feel like they always are so
52:22
Speaker 2: cynical and nonsensical. But yeah, there was like someone that
52:29
Speaker 2: was like saying, ole Miss, I feel your pain, you know,
52:34
Speaker 2: talking about like Brian Kelly and stuff like that, And
52:39
Speaker 2: I was just like, can we get over it?
52:41
Speaker 3: Like I happened fifteen years ago.
52:45
Speaker 1: And we're not the little program either.
52:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, But the way I view it is okay, So.
52:54
Speaker 2: Ole Miss had a choice. We didn't have a choice.
52:57
Speaker 2: When Brian Kelly left, he high tailed out. You know,
53:03
Speaker 2: I don't defend how he did it, but at the
53:05
Speaker 2: same time, I'm like, I'm over it.
53:08
Speaker 3: He's nine old girlfriend, Get over it.
53:12
Speaker 2: I just feel that ole Miss could feel the regret
53:16
Speaker 2: of the what if if they don't win.
53:24
Speaker 1: I understand, and I think I would probably lean toward
53:31
Speaker 1: letting him coach if the decision was solely up to
53:34
Speaker 1: me in my own, in my own hypothetical. But yeah,
53:39
Speaker 1: I get it, I get it. You're right. Ole Miss
53:43
Speaker 1: is not historically the best school. They've got some good
53:46
Speaker 1: seasons in there, but I think it's pretty well accepted
53:49
Speaker 1: that this is arguably their best single season, and they.
53:57
Speaker 2: If Luke Fickle got the Wisconsin job the year that
54:03
Speaker 2: we were.
54:03
Speaker 3: In the college for and he gave.
54:05
Speaker 2: Us that that choice, I think ten now, ten times,
54:11
Speaker 2: you're gonna take Luke Fickle to continue his voyage versus say, no,
54:17
Speaker 2: I'm so mad at you. We're gonna go hire Ciderfield,
54:24
Speaker 2: you know, run this ship for us.
54:26
Speaker 3: No, no, no.
54:27
Speaker 1: But the difference is Fickle wasn't even entertaining those discussions
54:33
Speaker 1: while the team was still competing. Yeah, and that's that's
54:38
Speaker 1: the big difference, and it cost him. Well, I don't know,
54:43
Speaker 1: monetarily how much it cost him, because I honestly don't
54:46
Speaker 1: know his contract figure compared to others. But the talk
54:51
Speaker 1: at the time was Notre Dame wanted him, and that
54:55
Speaker 1: was the big opening, and it was no, I'm not
54:59
Speaker 1: gonna I'm not gonna interview. I'm not gonna leave before
55:02
Speaker 1: the playoffs are over, so you're gonna have to wait.
55:05
Speaker 1: And that's when they bumped up Freeman. So it may
55:09
Speaker 1: very well have cost him the Notre Dame job, which
55:12
Speaker 1: probably would have worked out better for him if I
55:15
Speaker 1: had to guess, than what he's going through right now.
55:19
Speaker 1: So yeah, Well, I think we've talked enough about coaches
55:26
Speaker 1: in the coaching carousel and who we want to coach
55:31
Speaker 1: the Steelers and or who we don't want. I should say,
55:36
Speaker 1: was there anything else you wanted to talk about that
55:38
Speaker 1: we didn't hit yet?
55:41
Speaker 2: Is there one coach higher that's happened yet that you're
55:45
Speaker 2: a fan of.
55:53
Speaker 1: Let me think about this. So we got goldsh at Auburn,
55:57
Speaker 1: we got little Can used honestly on Arcan saw hiring
56:03
Speaker 1: Memphis head coach. That's okay, though summer all went to
56:07
Speaker 1: Tulane Kiffin to Ole Miss Ole Miss hired the DC.
56:14
Speaker 1: Penn State still hasn't gotten anyone. That's another crazy coaching search,
56:17
Speaker 1: by the way.
56:19
Speaker 4: With the fact that they haven't gotten anyone when they
56:22
Speaker 4: went after BYU's coach and he's staying at BYU because
56:28
Speaker 4: the crumble Cookie CEO outbid Penn State.
56:33
Speaker 1: Who's the other one, it looks like Chesney's going to UCLA. Honestly,
56:41
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, Franklin to Virginia Tech. I think that
56:49
Speaker 1: I understand the logic of why they got rid of him.
56:53
Speaker 1: I do think it was just a hair premature though,
56:57
Speaker 1: But again, this is the guy who's defended Tomlin for
57:01
Speaker 1: years now, so maybe I don't know. But he went
57:06
Speaker 1: over to Virginia Tech, which is in the same footprint,
57:08
Speaker 1: same northeast region as Penn State. He's brought a lot
57:14
Speaker 1: of recruits in flipped a road, a lot of people
57:17
Speaker 1: that he recruited to Penn State over to Virginia Tech.
57:21
Speaker 1: I suspect he's going to get a lot of Penn
57:22
Speaker 1: State transfers to and I think that he is going
57:26
Speaker 1: to have Virginia Tech competing at the top of the
57:29
Speaker 1: ACC in short order. Virginia Tech's a They're an interesting
57:36
Speaker 1: school because they have all the success, They've got a
57:40
Speaker 1: lot of players, they had Frank Beemer there for a
57:42
Speaker 1: long time and then just ever since he's retired, they
57:45
Speaker 1: haven't really found that footing yet. So I think with
57:49
Speaker 1: his experience at programs that have those historic leaders, he's
57:55
Speaker 1: good at establishing the culture back, getting the culture established again,
58:01
Speaker 1: and getting things going. I just think that that fit
58:06
Speaker 1: made the most sense out of all of them, and
58:09
Speaker 1: I think it's I think that's gonna work out the best.
58:12
Speaker 1: If I had to be honest.
58:13
Speaker 2: With you, Yeah, I think I think you're spot on. Yeah,
58:20
Speaker 2: I really like that hired too. That struck me. One
58:28
Speaker 2: that I think is gonna be under the radar, probably
58:30
Speaker 2: not as high profile.
58:32
Speaker 3: Is I really like.
58:33
Speaker 2: The North Texas coach going to Oklahoma State, you know, because.
58:44
Speaker 3: For me, I do think especially like if you.
58:48
Speaker 2: Don't have the means like they have two Boone cook
58:53
Speaker 2: ends the bank roll that that program, but they don't
58:58
Speaker 2: really have the prestige of some of the open positions
59:01
Speaker 2: right now. So I think you gotta get a person
59:04
Speaker 2: that geographically makes sense the go into Texas, go into
59:10
Speaker 2: Oklahoma and grab those recruits. And so to get a
59:15
Speaker 2: guy coming from North Texas and buzzing on the forty
59:20
Speaker 2: five points per game. So he seems like he's got
59:26
Speaker 2: a good offensive. Mind, you get a quarterback there, and
59:33
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean the big the Big twelve doesn't
59:35
Speaker 2: have in Ohio State or Michigan or Bama or Georgia
59:44
Speaker 2: like someone that's like constantly. You got a knockoff and
59:51
Speaker 2: so you.
59:52
Speaker 3: Get a good coach like that and off to the races.
59:57
Speaker 1: So yeah, I completely forgot about that. And that was
1:00:03
Speaker 1: one where Gundhy was there for so long. He kind
1:00:09
Speaker 1: of similar to Tomlin in the sense, young guy gets hired,
1:00:13
Speaker 1: is there forever and finally things just get a little stale.
1:00:18
Speaker 3: Ye.
1:00:18
Speaker 1: So it'll be interesting to see what their their new
1:00:21
Speaker 1: guy comes in and does. And I'm with you, it'd
1:00:23
Speaker 1: be interesting too in a wide open conference to see
1:00:27
Speaker 1: what a rejuvenated Oklahoma State would do too. So, Larry,
1:00:33
Speaker 1: you have it, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State coming to
1:00:35
Speaker 1: a championship near you soon. I don't want Yeah, why not.
1:00:42
Speaker 3: The Battle of the Orange.
1:00:44
Speaker 1: There you go, all right, Well, I think that's gonna
1:00:48
Speaker 1: do it for us. We've been going for an hour
1:00:50
Speaker 1: here and that's a that's a long one for us,
1:00:52
Speaker 1: So I think we need to wrap it up and
1:00:54
Speaker 1: get to bed. Here so the two grumpy old men
1:00:58
Speaker 1: need their nighty night for the for the world famous
1:01:01
Speaker 1: accountants Eric van beIN showten. I am Nick Detulio and
1:01:04
Speaker 1: this has been another episode of the GameHouse dot COM's
1:01:08
Speaker 1: Steelers Country Weekly