Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Shehan Jeyarajah previews CFP semis, Can Miami win it all (?), Unenforceable NIL contracts "unpalatable" for college football + more

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Shehan Jeyarajah previews CFP semis, Can Miami win it all (?), Unenforceable NIL contracts "unpalatable" for college football + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're listening to a Sean O'Connell show from the
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  Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
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  Speaker 1: to one af AM.
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  Speaker 2: All right, college football playoff games tonight tomorrow. You can
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  Speaker 2: listen right here on ESPN seven hundred Sports and on
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  Speaker 2: ninety two one FM. Shahanji Raja covers the college football
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  Speaker 2: world for CBS Sports. He's a friend of the program
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  Speaker 2: who is kind enough to once again lend us his expertise.
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  Speaker 3: Shahan, welcome back. How are you, sir?
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  Speaker 4: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 3: It's always great to hear from you. So tonight, You've
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  Speaker 3: got a weird underdog story that I never thought I
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  Speaker 3: would call Old miss Like an underdog I rooted for,
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  Speaker 3: but given the fact that their coaching staff has been
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  Speaker 3: decimated by Lane Kiffin's move, and the fact that these
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  Speaker 3: players have been abandoned, I find myself kind of hoping
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  Speaker 3: that they can pull this one off. It's it seems
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  Speaker 3: like nobody there in that coaching exchange really believed they
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  Speaker 3: were even going to beat Georgia, and now they have
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  Speaker 3: an opportunity to punch a ticket to the National Championship Game.
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  Speaker 3: Can Old Miss do it given what they're up against,
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  Speaker 3: not only with Miami, but with what they're missing from
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  Speaker 3: their own roster slash coaching staff.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they can. And you know, you look
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  Speaker 4: at this matchup against Miami obviously is going to be
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  Speaker 4: a really good one and a different kind of matchup,
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  Speaker 4: certain than the first couple of weeks that they've had,
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  Speaker 4: because you know, the irony is this is that Oltmiss
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  Speaker 4: really hasn't faced the defensive line like they're going to
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  Speaker 4: see during their entire time in the SEC. But what
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  Speaker 4: that said, I mean, I think that there's a couple
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  Speaker 4: things that still work in their favor. One is, I mean, obviously,
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  Speaker 4: the emergence of quarterback Trinidad Chambers has been so huge
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  Speaker 4: for this team. He made huge plays down the stretch
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  Speaker 4: against Georgia and really has all season long. The other thing, too,
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  Speaker 4: is that I was really impressed actually with how much
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  Speaker 4: they're defense has come together, including in that game against Georgia.
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  Speaker 4: If you think back to the first Georgia game, it
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  Speaker 4: was their defensive early collapse down the stretch, I think,
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  Speaker 4: allowing nineteen points in the last quarter and a half. So, look,
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  Speaker 4: this is going to be a tough challenge, But certainly
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  Speaker 4: I don't think if there's anything about Miami that should
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  Speaker 4: scare Ole Miss away at this point, this is going
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  Speaker 4: to be a huge opportunity for them.
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  Speaker 3: What is Miami's best chance here? You know, they they
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  Speaker 3: have great quarterback play. You mentioned that defensive line Mario
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  Speaker 3: Cristobal where those of us who spent time in the
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  Speaker 3: Pac twelve world had some brushings with him when he
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  Speaker 3: was up at Oregon. What makes what makes Miami most
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  Speaker 3: dangerous in this game? In your mind?
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  Speaker 4: Well, Miami. I said this even heading into the playoff,
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  Speaker 4: I feel like Miami might be the best trench team
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  Speaker 4: in the entire college football playoff, and in that game
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  Speaker 4: against the Ohio State they proved it. Of course, Ruven
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  Speaker 4: being in the key, mesidor on that defensive line are
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  Speaker 4: the headliners, but really they're all offensive line is kind
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  Speaker 4: of the unit that I think has been the biggest
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  Speaker 4: advantage for them in twenty twenty five. You know, you
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  Speaker 4: think back to those last two games, they've been able
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  Speaker 4: to take them over with their running game, especially Mark
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  Speaker 4: Flesher really being a breakout star for them. And I mean, again,
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  Speaker 4: like you said, with Carson bek when he's able to
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  Speaker 4: play in structure. He's really really special and that was
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  Speaker 4: something that at least for the first two and a
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  Speaker 4: half quarters of that game against Ohio State they were
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  Speaker 4: able to do in a big way. And so I
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  Speaker 4: think that this is a big opportunity for them. To me,
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  Speaker 4: they're the favorite heading into this matchup tonight, and if
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  Speaker 4: they're able to really control the trenches, like this is
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  Speaker 4: a team that absolutely can not only beat Ole Miss,
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  Speaker 4: but can beat anybody in their way as well.
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  Speaker 3: It's not tonight, but it is tomorrow. Oregon Indiana. We
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  Speaker 3: get a rematch from earlier in the year and the
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  Speaker 3: Hoosiers looked really good in that one. Can Oregon turn
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  Speaker 3: the tides this time?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's going to be a big opportunity for them.
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  Speaker 4: I think that organ is definitely playing better football than
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  Speaker 4: they were at that mid season point. But you know,
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  Speaker 4: this Indiana team right now is just, i mean, similarly
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  Speaker 4: playing kind of perfect football right now, right I mean,
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  Speaker 4: you look at that game against Alabama where they're able
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  Speaker 4: to shut them down and essentially every single way Oregon's
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  Speaker 4: going to be a lot better. Oregon creates a lot
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  Speaker 4: more advantages for themselves. But I think the big question
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  Speaker 4: to them is can they create some explosives in the
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  Speaker 4: passing game. That was a huge issue in that first matchup.
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  Speaker 4: They lose thirty to twenty, but by the way, seven
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  Speaker 4: of those twenty points came on a pick six as well.
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  Speaker 4: I think their defense is going to have a decent time.
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  Speaker 4: It's really whether their offense, which obviously has tons and
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  Speaker 4: tons of talent, can stretch the field and make Indiana's
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  Speaker 4: job difficult. That wasn't able to happen in that first game.
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  Speaker 4: I think it'll happen more in this second game. But
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  Speaker 4: I still give the advantage to the Hoosiers.
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  Speaker 3: All right, less fun to discuss, but equally maybe more
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  Speaker 3: important right now in the college football world. How how
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  Speaker 3: is this Demand Williams situation gonna work out with Washington?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah? This is this is fascinating. I think that you know,
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  Speaker 4: last year we had a situation with Xavier Lucas, a
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  Speaker 4: Wisconsin defensive back who ultimately unenrolled and enrolled himself at
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  Speaker 4: Miami even though he had signed a repshare contract. Well,
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  Speaker 4: that happened essentially during kind of you know, a gray
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  Speaker 4: area period because technically the house case hadn't started as yet.
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  Speaker 4: This is going to be the first time that we
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  Speaker 4: have a truly high profile, you know, sort of enforcement
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  Speaker 4: of this contract opportunity. And I think the other piece
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  Speaker 4: of it too is that one it's a quarterback. Two,
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  Speaker 4: I mean it's Lane Knelosi allegedly involved in this. And
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  Speaker 4: three I think that if you're Washington, you kind of
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  Speaker 4: have no choice but to try to challenge this. So
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  Speaker 4: I think this one's legitimately going to go all the way.
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  Speaker 4: I think that it could go to court. You know,
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  Speaker 4: we'll kind of see what it looks like. Now, let's
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  Speaker 4: let's talk about sort of the different parts. Right from
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  Speaker 4: one perspective, I don't think that they're going to be
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  Speaker 4: able to prevent Demond Williams from going to ls You
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  Speaker 4: I imagine that there's going to be probably some sort
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  Speaker 4: of injunction to you know, to impact, uh, you know,
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  Speaker 4: some part of this contract. But I don't think that
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  Speaker 4: ultimately Demond Williams is going to be prevented from going
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  Speaker 4: to LSU. Expect them to play this year. I think
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  Speaker 4: that also the court will determine that if he does,
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  Speaker 4: you know, if he was forced to sit out, that
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  Speaker 4: would be irreparable harm. But the question is going to
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  Speaker 4: be this Okay, what what what is the timeline of
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  Speaker 4: all of this? Uh, the other piece would be, you know,
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  Speaker 4: depending on the language in this contract in Reger and NIL,
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  Speaker 4: does Washington have some exclusive rights to compensate him. Does
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  Speaker 4: it impact Elsie's ability to compensate him either internally or
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  Speaker 4: externally with outside NIL deals. That's going to be I
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  Speaker 4: think a huge question for this. And then long term,
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  Speaker 4: does this result in him having to pay some sort
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  Speaker 4: of damages or fines?
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  Speaker 2: You know?
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  Speaker 4: The big thing is this is that when Wisconsin tried
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  Speaker 4: to enforce the Xavier Lucas situation, they went to Miami
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  Speaker 4: and basically tried to get them for camping. Well, here's
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  Speaker 4: the question, does Washington actually try to enforce it against
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  Speaker 4: demand Williams himself because he is the one who's breaking
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  Speaker 4: the contract. We haven't really seen an example at this
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  Speaker 4: point of a school going after an individual player, but
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  Speaker 4: this is probably as prime to situation that you're ever
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  Speaker 4: going to get to try it.
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  Speaker 3: If the if the contracts are not enforceable, what what
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  Speaker 3: are the implications for college football? If a guy can
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  Speaker 3: sign and four days later he can change his mind
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  Speaker 3: and he can go somewhere else. I mean it feels
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  Speaker 3: like kind of get off my lawn type of opinion.
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  Speaker 3: But also, I genuinely don't know if if these contracts
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  Speaker 3: don't actually mean anything, if they're not worth more than
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  Speaker 3: the paper they're printed on, I don't know what happens
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  Speaker 3: with college football after that.
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  Speaker 4: No, I mean, I think it's completely unpalatable, to be frank.
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  Speaker 4: And the other thing too, is that, yeah, there's obviously
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  Speaker 4: the perspective of, well, you know what if players can
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  Speaker 4: leave two days after they sign a new contract, But
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  Speaker 4: there's also the perspective of, well, then our university is
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  Speaker 4: just going to decide not to pay guys like and
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  Speaker 4: then on top of that, it sort of brings up
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  Speaker 4: this bigger question of like, well, then what is a
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  Speaker 4: cap if there are no contracts technically, like, what does
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  Speaker 4: that even mean? Necessarily? I think that it's a really
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  Speaker 4: existential situation and I'm very curious to see how the
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  Speaker 4: courts deal with it now. I think the other piece
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  Speaker 4: of this as well is that, you know, certainly there's
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  Speaker 4: sort of this short term flexibility of the players that
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  Speaker 4: they're benefiting from. Long term, it's going to be interesting
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  Speaker 4: to see, Okay, but you know, let's say that this
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  Speaker 4: demand William, this thing happens and they say, well, you
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  Speaker 4: can't enforce this contract, and everything is you know, all
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  Speaker 4: this is built on a you know, on a house
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  Speaker 4: of cards, and none of it's really real. I think
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  Speaker 4: that also, if you're you know, a player advocate, you've
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  Speaker 4: also got to start to asking yourself, Okay, at what
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  Speaker 4: point does this become per se ridiculous enough that you
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  Speaker 4: know that Congress is spurred to act or you know,
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  Speaker 4: the executive branch is spurred to act, and maybe you
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  Speaker 4: get a much worse feal than you would have gotten
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  Speaker 4: in the first place. This is kind of like the
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  Speaker 4: other piece of all this. I mean, the reality is
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  Speaker 4: just that nobody at this point really has much incentive
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  Speaker 4: to work with each other. And again, I mean, here's
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  Speaker 4: here's the deal, right, It's like there is no sports
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  Speaker 4: on the planet where players are perpetual free agents. But
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  Speaker 4: that's just that's not realistic. That's not how any of
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  Speaker 4: this works, right, And we're kind of reaching that moment
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  Speaker 4: in college athletics. And I do think that again, this
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  Speaker 4: is going to be a bliss as we try to
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  Speaker 4: figure out what's next, but certainly exists now it's not palatable.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, It's going to be very fascinating to see how
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  Speaker 3: this one works out and what kind of precedent it
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  Speaker 3: sets for the entire industry, for the entire sport. And
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  Speaker 3: I can't say that I'm feeling optimistic about it, but
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  Speaker 3: I am happy that we have real football to watch tonight,
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  Speaker 3: tomorrow and all weekend. I didn't ask you about Indiana
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  Speaker 3: and Kurt Signetti, so before I let you get out
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  Speaker 3: of here, I want to do that. This is a
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  Speaker 3: guy who's done an unbelievable job at the college level.
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  Speaker 3: His name has been attached to at least a couple
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  Speaker 3: NFL openings, although it doesn't seem like he's a prime
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  Speaker 3: candidate for those, and it does appear that Indiana's prepared
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  Speaker 3: to do whatever it takes to incentivize him to stay.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think Kurt Signetti is really considering NFL jobs
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  Speaker 3: or NFL jobs really considering Kurt Signetti?
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I think the NFL opportunities would be smart
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  Speaker 4: to take the tires on him. But you know, I
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  Speaker 4: mean I think that Kurt Signetti he is very much
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  Speaker 4: a college football coach. And the other thing too, that
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  Speaker 4: you at least have to consider with the NFL is like,
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  Speaker 4: you know, yeah, obviously you flip over guys every one, two,
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  Speaker 4: three years. But you know, I think that also, like
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  Speaker 4: his age does start to become a factor when you're
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  Speaker 4: talking about somebody entering the NFL for the first time.
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  Speaker 4: I don't believe that he has any NFL experience at
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  Speaker 4: this point unless he had something very very early in
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  Speaker 4: his career, and so you know, you'd really be thrusting
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  Speaker 4: him into a brand new context at sixty six. And
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  Speaker 4: you know, I think that certainly he is a good
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  Speaker 4: enough coach that you consider it. But if you're the NFL,
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  Speaker 4: and if you're Kurt Signetti, like I don't know, it
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  Speaker 4: just makes a lot more sense to stay where you're at.
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  Speaker 4: He had the opportunity to go to any number of
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  Speaker 4: blue chip programs this season. I mean, he could have had,
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  Speaker 4: you know, LSU or Penn State or Michigan or any
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  Speaker 4: of these jobs if he really wanted them. He decided
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  Speaker 4: to stay at Indiana, and he'll be compensated very well
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  Speaker 4: for doing so. So I don't necessarily think that there's
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  Speaker 4: much there's much a realistic chance that you'll consider those
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  Speaker 4: outside opportunities, But there are only thirty two of those
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  Speaker 4: NFL jobs, and certainly if you're Kurt Signettian. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: let's say you win a national championship this year, maybe
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  Speaker 4: kind of say, all right, well I did that. Maybe
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  Speaker 4: there's something else to try.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we'll see how it plays out. I can't believe
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  Speaker 3: we're getting this close to the end of this college
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  Speaker 3: football season, Shahan. I appreciate your time again today. Hopefully
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  Speaker 3: we'll talk again before that national championship game.
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  Speaker 4: Sounds good. Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 3: National college football insider over at CBS Sports. Shahanjay Rajah
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  Speaker 3: one of the best in the business.