Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Miller and Condon Hour 2 7/29/2025

Transcript

Miller and Condon Hour 2 7/29/2025 · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

• 0:00
  Hour number two, Miller and Condon, welcome back.
• 0:02
  Trent on vacation. Ken Miller solo with you until
• 0:06
  just before the top of the hour. Off the bench, Lucas Strain,
• 0:09
  David Icolt until 5:00. Bottom of the hour.
• 0:12
  This hour, a Bill Bender from The Sporting News will join me.
• 0:16
  But to kick off hour number two, as promised, Sam Burnaby, the
• 0:19
  general manager of the Iowa Cubs, 42 years at his post,
• 0:23
  mentioned I'm going to carve out a couple of segments to talk, a
• 0:26
  couple of old guys talking about sports.
• 0:29
  Bill Fenley will join me on Thursday.
• 0:31
  Sam Burnaby joins me right now. Thanks for doing this, Sam.
• 0:35
  Good to talk to you. Appreciate it.
• 0:36
  Obviously, since we spoke yesterday afternoon, the tenor
• 0:39
  of our conversation is going to change, at least in the
• 0:42
  beginning. I do want to get to your career
• 0:44
  and what you've seen down there. But Ryan Sandberg's passing, he
• 0:47
  spent a lot of time seemingly in Des Moines coming back to
• 0:50
  events, autographed signings, etcetera.
• 0:54
  How do you how will you remember Ryan Sandberg, Sam?
• 0:58
  You know, Rhino was just a he was just baseball all the way
• 1:03
  around. He was everything that baseball
• 1:06
  epitomizes, whether it's the game on the field or dealing
• 1:10
  with fans or making appearances or charitable contributions.
• 1:16
  If you if you had to look up what the perfect baseball person
• 1:21
  would be in Webster's dictionary, you'd see a picture
• 1:23
  of Rhino at this bottom line. He he, he was just, he was just
• 1:28
  so friendly to everybody and cared so much about everybody.
• 1:32
  And frankly, he just got cheated. 65 is too young that to
• 1:36
  happen And and you know, it, it, it really, it hurts my heart
• 1:42
  leaves a hole in my stomach. I just it, I just feel terrible
• 1:45
  about the about everything that he's gone through and and the
• 1:49
  end result. When was the last time he was
• 1:51
  here, Sam? Well, let's see.
• 1:55
  I know he was here for a card show earlier this year.
• 1:59
  Wow. I believe he made an appearance,
• 2:02
  there was a card shop that through that had a appearance
• 2:05
  that made arrangements for to bring him in, which was great.
• 2:08
  Very nice of them to do that. That would probably be the, I
• 2:11
  know that's the last time he's been in Des Moines that I aware
• 2:14
  of. And I have regular contact with
• 2:18
  Ryan and his wife Margaret. So, you know, if it ever worked
• 2:23
  that I knew he was going to be in the area, we always tried to
• 2:25
  at least get together or, or hook up in conversation.
• 2:29
  But you know, beyond that, it's probably been a while.
• 2:33
  And, you know, the, the one year that I had him was in, in my 42
• 2:39
  years of doing, certainly the, the year that I had him as my
• 2:42
  manager was one of the top two or three in my career.
• 2:46
  What, what, what an enjoyable time.
• 2:48
  And I just, it was just so fun to watch a Hall of Famer, you
• 2:53
  know, and, and the epitome of baseball go to work every day.
• 2:56
  Did he at the time did, did it strike you as he does want to
• 2:59
  become a Major League manager? Obviously he's putting in time.
• 3:01
  Or was he more of just a, you know, a teacher at that point
• 3:04
  just trying to pass things on? Give me give me a couple of of,
• 3:08
  you know, things that stood out from his managerial time down
• 3:11
  here in Des Moines. Well, he was, he was on his way
• 3:14
  up. I mean, he was making his way
• 3:16
  through the, the ranks of the Cubs system, I think with the
• 3:20
  idea and the hope that he would become the, the manager on, on
• 3:23
  the field in Wrigley Field. And it didn't work out that way.
• 3:28
  He finished his year with us. He, but he was the Pacific Coast
• 3:32
  League Manager of the year, 20 games over 500, something of
• 3:37
  that nature. We didn't make the the playoffs.
• 3:41
  In fact, he of all things he got, we were, he got down to the
• 3:45
  last game of the season and the end of the we needed to win the
• 3:49
  game in order to make the playoffs.
• 3:50
  And seeing we were playing, I don't remember who it was, they
• 3:53
  needed to beat us to beat the playoffs.
• 3:55
  In fact, I think it was Albuquerque and and he got
• 3:59
  thrown out in the second inning of the ball.
• 4:01
  Game. Oh my.
• 4:02
  Way out of character for him. And, but he was so expensive,
• 4:06
  you know, in, in, in trying to win the game and do everything
• 4:09
  right. And, and it comes when there he
• 4:13
  fleeted the foreign director of the time, Paul being, you know,
• 4:15
  and said, what the hell happened?
• 4:17
  And I said, well, he, you know, he's not protecting his player.
• 4:19
  And, and you know, but we, we, we probably could have used
• 4:23
  Rhino that entire ball game in order to help our chances.
• 4:27
  We inevitably lost the ball game, but but Rhino was on his
• 4:30
  way up and it didn't work out. Lou Pannella, I believe was the
• 4:35
  manager at the time in Chicago and was he had resigned midway
• 4:39
  through my quality, took the interim managing position and
• 4:45
  finished the year and did a really good job.
• 4:47
  And Jim Hendry gave him the manager's role the next year.
• 4:51
  Which would you know where Ryan would have been?
• 4:53
  You know, he's, he was hopeful that it had been him and
• 4:56
  constantly left the organization and went over to the Phillies,
• 5:00
  became the manager of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the AAA team
• 5:04
  for the for the Phillies did a year or two there.
• 5:08
  I think he did two years there. And then he became the manager
• 5:10
  of the Philadelphia Phillies and went there 20/13/2014 and then
• 5:15
  started the 15th season and did not go well.
• 5:18
  I think he was 18 games under, 20 under and he decided to
• 5:22
  resign and end his managing career at that point.
• 5:25
  Did he, I mean, I know he was brought in.
• 5:27
  He was in the Philly system as a young player.
• 5:30
  He played a few games, right? I mean, obviously the vast
• 5:33
  majority of his games were in Cub uniform, but he was a
• 5:36
  Philly, was he not early in his career?
• 5:39
  I don't know what cup of coffee he had in Philadelphia.
• 5:42
  If it was any, it was not very. Much.
• 5:43
  No, it wasn't, I don't think. Yeah.
• 5:45
  But but Dallas Green came in, you know, he was the GM of the
• 5:49
  Cubs in 1984 and, and made that big trade and brought those guys
• 5:54
  over and, and, or 83, I believe it was.
• 5:57
  And, and you know, that just was the beginning of, of coming out
• 6:02
  of the doldrums of not making the playoffs.
• 6:04
  So we we made the playoffs for the first time in 1984.
• 6:07
  And it was the core of those guys, Rick Sutcliffe and Berg
• 6:11
  and Larry Bow and that that company of people.
• 6:14
  January 27th, 82 Philly straight, Larry Bow and Ryan
• 6:18
  Sandberg to the Cubs for Yvonne the Hey Soos.
• 6:20
  That would work out pretty well. Yeah.
• 6:22
  And then they followed with the Sutcliffe and Eckersley, I
• 6:25
  believe, was not too far behind that.
• 6:27
  And Eckersley was a starter at the time, right?
• 6:30
  Yeah, he was. He was the focus of his career,
• 6:33
  was all starter. That easy and got into the Hall
• 6:36
  of Fame as a as a relief pitcher.
• 6:39
  Probably could have been in as a starter as well, yeah.
• 6:41
  Yeah, good stuff. Well, let's talk about your 42
• 6:44
  years at the at the helm as the GM, obviously.
• 6:47
  Let's start with the ownership. I remember these are the, this
• 6:51
  is how I see it from my memory, Granquist to the Gartner to the
• 6:55
  group that has it now, Ken Granquist, his wife Linda,
• 6:58
  obviously very great people, just great people.
• 7:02
  Is that who had the franchise when they hired you?
• 7:05
  Yeah, Ken and, and the other two owners, active owners Don
• 7:10
  Silverman and Dick Easter, were at the winter meetings in
• 7:14
  Nashville. And I was there looking for an
• 7:16
  internship out of graduate program, Graduate School program
• 7:19
  in Western Illinois. And I ran into them into going
• 7:23
  into a bar that they were coming out of.
• 7:26
  I knew who Ken was. I know that shocked you.
• 7:29
  The the Ken was coming out of the out of the bar and I knew
• 7:34
  who he was. And so I just pulled him aside
• 7:37
  and said, hey, I'm, I'm just going to introduce myself and
• 7:40
  I'm looking for a job. He said, why don't you go back
• 7:42
  to Des Moines? And I said OK, And that's how it
• 7:44
  all kind of began. So the 1983 was my when they
• 7:48
  hired me and 84 was my first full season and and they that
• 7:54
  was under Ken, Ken's ownership. And then Ken passed away in
• 8:00
  April of 99 and Michael Gardner and Mike Judasessi and, and they
• 8:06
  brought me in as the as a partner in October of 99 and we
• 8:11
  closed and they may be the president of the team.
• 8:14
  We went all the way to December of 2021 and, and sold the team
• 8:20
  and, and all of our stock to the company that has it now, Diamond
• 8:23
  Baseball Holdings. And that's where we sit.
• 8:27
  So the Cubs got the affiliation began when like 1980, correct?
• 8:32
  Somewhere in that time period. 82. 82 OK.
• 8:37
  And it was the White Sox prior to that, if memory serves.
• 8:40
  There was several. There was.
• 8:42
  The A's. There was the A's, A's kind of
• 8:44
  started the, the AAA baseball when the association American
• 8:49
  Association was resurrected in 1969, was with the A's, then
• 8:53
  bounced into the White Sox, bounced.
• 8:55
  There was one year with the Astros back to the White Sox.
• 9:00
  Those were the those were the affiliates at the time and, and
• 9:03
  it was not a good ballpark. And they were there, you know,
• 9:06
  the relationship was all related to, well, which one is open, You
• 9:10
  know, at that time, as we built the business and understood what
• 9:14
  the importance of of, you know, drawing fans and putting people
• 9:17
  in the ballpark. Mr. Granquist and company made a
• 9:21
  deal with CV Davis, the farm director of the Cubs at the
• 9:26
  time. They, I believe they were in
• 9:28
  Wichita. And he said, why don't you come
• 9:30
  to Des Moines? And, and I'm not, I'm sure there
• 9:33
  were at that point there was no such thing as tampering rules.
• 9:36
  But you know, I'm sure there were side conversations being
• 9:40
  made. And suddenly we had a new
• 9:42
  building for a locker room and we had box, new box seats and
• 9:46
  was, had some attention to it. And all the sudden the Cubs were
• 9:49
  in Des Moines and then the I Wokes one year and then they
• 9:53
  became the Iowa Cubs the following year.
• 9:56
  We've been the same ever since. Has there ever been a time where
• 9:59
  you thought the Cubs might pull their AAA franchise and put it
• 10:02
  somewhere else? Was there, Was that ever close?
• 10:05
  No, I don't I don't think so. My at least my ego doesn't think
• 10:10
  it it'll allow me to say it. I I don't think so.
• 10:13
  I think we, you know, that's the relationship between the city of
• 10:16
  Des Moines, the Chicago Cubs and the, and the fan base here in
• 10:21
  the central Iowa area. That's what the one that I
• 10:23
  coddled the most is, is to make sure that when, when they say
• 10:27
  John, we, we say how high. Yeah, well, let's talk.
• 10:31
  Let's talk about the ballpark. So I get here in 89.
• 10:33
  I met for like Dayton second night.
• 10:35
  I was here, made my way to at the time SEC Taylor Stadium.
• 10:39
  Joe Girardi was in, was in the lineup.
• 10:42
  Couple of other the guys had a bunch of catchers.
• 10:44
  I remember at the time and I remember Girardi.
• 10:48
  But then I moved to Denver and I come back and all of a sudden
• 10:50
  there's this brand new ballpark in downtown Des Moines,
• 10:54
  principal Park that had been built.
• 10:55
  I mean, what a contrast right from SEC Taylor, which served
• 10:58
  its purpose. I'm guessing it was, you know,
• 11:00
  obviously we've had to be 50 years old or somewhere around
• 11:03
  there by that point, But how did the how did the ballpark come
• 11:08
  about as far as the renovations and, and what it's now looks
• 11:12
  like today? Well.
• 11:13
  We. We got into the business of, of
• 11:16
  entertaining fans by using baseball to entertain them.
• 11:20
  And the marketing and the, and the formulas that we used to put
• 11:24
  bodies in the ballpark worked. And the central Iowa fans began
• 11:29
  to gravitate to it and understand, you know, we had to
• 11:32
  teach people how to come to the come to the old ballpark and and
• 11:36
  we were working towards success. And then suddenly the only way
• 11:40
  we could get more bodies in the ballpark was to put them out on
• 11:42
  the warning track and rope it off.
• 11:44
  And, and any ball that rolled into the into the fans, there
• 11:47
  was a ground rule double. And in this day and age, that's
• 11:50
  not going to work. We, we were, our revenues or our
• 11:54
  expenses were beginning to outpace our revenues just based
• 11:57
  off the stadium. And so something had to be done.
• 12:00
  And, and the city of Des Moines jumped in and it created a bond
• 12:05
  referendum that had a variety of things related to Parks and
• 12:09
  Recreation, pools, trails, and, and then the ballpark.
• 12:14
  And there was a bond that passed and, and suddenly we were, we
• 12:18
  were knocking the old one down and, and building the new one.
• 12:21
  In fact, we, we knocked the old one down.
• 12:23
  Actually we took ten days to take the asbestos out of the
• 12:26
  ballpark before we could do anything in it at all.
• 12:29
  And so as soon as the season was over in 91, that happened for 10
• 12:34
  days. Then we knocked the old one
• 12:36
  down, built the new one at 208 days and and we're ready to go
• 12:40
  for April 16 of of 20 or 1992. What year?
• 12:45
  What? When was the floods the
• 12:46
  catastrophic? Was it 92 or 93?
• 12:49
  93. 93. One of the one of the saddest
• 12:52
  days in my career. So we're standing on the
• 12:55
  opposite side of the Raccoon River looking across the river
• 12:57
  and small park underwater by brand new ballpark underwater.
• 13:00
  So it was tough thing for the ballpark and certainly a tough
• 13:03
  thing for the city. I was I'd always hope that that
• 13:06
  we'd never have to go through that again.
• 13:08
  And sure enough, here comes 2008 more we're dealing with flood
• 13:12
  again in 2010. We're pressured with flood.
• 13:14
  So it's the the 500 year flood is happened way too too many
• 13:18
  times in my 42 years. Yeah, no doubt about it.
• 13:21
  How about some of the players that have come through?
• 13:23
  Obviously, I don't think Sandberg did right because he
• 13:25
  would have been a Philly farm hand at the time.
• 13:28
  But Greg, but Greg Maddox did and I mean, there's been a
• 13:30
  litany of guys that how about some of the Hall of farmers that
• 13:33
  have been spent time in Des Moines.
• 13:35
  Well, certainly Goose Gossage is probably one that gets
• 13:38
  overlooked, but Goose was part of the of the Iowa Oaks for a
• 13:42
  time. Certainly Tony Larussa was not
• 13:47
  only a player but a manager for for the Iowa Oaks.
• 13:51
  Watching guys like Craig Maddox do their thing and learn how to
• 13:54
  learn how to pitch and, and become a, the Hall of Famer was,
• 13:58
  was certainly special. I think the most entertaining
• 14:01
  player I ever saw was one of the first, actually my very first
• 14:04
  full season in 84 was with Sean Dunst at shortstop and, and the,
• 14:09
  the things that he could do were just incredible.
• 14:12
  I, I, he could, he could get on one knee and throw the baseball
• 14:15
  over the center field wall and it was just just unbelievable
• 14:19
  things and as well as at the bat and and so forth.
• 14:23
  So I've been very fortunate to I, I, I don't know, it's
• 14:27
  countless number of people that, that have come through here at
• 14:31
  the AAA level, either headed to Chicago or any other big league
• 14:35
  team that, you know, played for the Louisville Redbirds and
• 14:40
  going to the Cardinals or Memphis Redbirds going to the
• 14:43
  Cardinals or, you know, now we get to see the Twins through
• 14:46
  Saint Paul. And of course, we've had many,
• 14:49
  many years of of time with and all the great players that came
• 14:52
  through and played in Kansas City just been very gratifying.
• 14:56
  Kenny, I got to be honest, it's an unbelievable long list of
• 14:59
  people I've gotten to see play baseball here.
• 15:00
  The 2016 world champion Chicago Cubs did the entire infield,
• 15:04
  were they here? I think, I think Rizal was here
• 15:07
  briefly after the trade. I I know that Baez was.
• 15:12
  I think Russell was. I know Kris Bryant was.
• 15:15
  That's an event story in of itself.
• 15:17
  But they were all here, all came through here, right?
• 15:20
  We had of the 25 man roster on the for the World Series, we had
• 15:24
  sixteen of those guys come through the point.
• 15:26
  So which was fun to watch and and you know, certainly felt a
• 15:32
  little bit of a a tie to that. Of course, we don't as operators
• 15:37
  that they might move up with player development or moving
• 15:40
  players around or we're dealing with where they're going to play
• 15:43
  and how they're going to play and how long they're going to
• 15:44
  play. But you know, you get you, you
• 15:47
  get a little ownership to go with it when when they're here.
• 15:49
  And all of a sudden they went in and and ironically, Kris Bryant
• 15:54
  was the minor league player of the year the same year that I
• 15:58
  was annoyed at the the minor league executive of the year by
• 16:03
  all America. And we got to accept our awards
• 16:05
  together and the lap we laugh about it occasionally.
• 16:11
  The the, the, the more gratifying thing out of all of
• 16:14
  that, that those guys being here and then winning in Chicago was
• 16:16
  Mr. Ricketts was kind enough to present me with one of the World
• 16:20
  Series rings that everybody got. Very nice.
• 16:23
  Really special for me. Yeah, I bet it was.
• 16:25
  No doubt about it. Sam Burnaby, the long time 42
• 16:28
  year general manager of the Iowa Cubs.
• 16:30
  Sam, what's next for you? I mean, 42 years, that's a long
• 16:33
  time. Do you have a target date or
• 16:36
  what? What?
• 16:36
  What's what lies ahead for Sam Burnaby?
• 16:39
  Well, I, I, I get a lot of people asking and my response
• 16:42
  is, well, jeez, it's a pretty good gig.
• 16:44
  They keep paying me, frankly, but it's, you know, they'll be,
• 16:50
  they'll, I would say probably the lights on at the end of the
• 16:53
  tunnel. I just don't know whether it's
• 16:54
  the end of the tunnel. There's a train coming down the
• 16:56
  tracks going to run over me. But you know, there, there will
• 16:59
  be a time here before 2 awful long where, where it'll be time
• 17:03
  to pass things off. And, and I got great quality
• 17:08
  people that that run the show every day.
• 17:10
  And I don't have to worry about the operation in the lease.
• 17:14
  You know, I've got ACFO that's been with me for 38, eight
• 17:18
  years. The groundskeeper has been with
• 17:20
  me 27 years. Stadium operations people have
• 17:22
  been maybe 2527 years. You know, certainly Randy Wave
• 17:26
  Hoper, who you know well. Good guy?
• 17:28
  Yep. He's with us in 2006, I think or
• 17:31
  seven. So he, you know, they're,
• 17:33
  they're veteran executives that know the market and know what
• 17:36
  they need to do in order to keep moving the support.
• 17:39
  And Alex Cohen is now up with Chicago Cubs.
• 17:41
  Of course, Dean Ellis had a long career as the play by play voice
• 17:44
  of the Iowa Cubs. Dean in retirement, ran into him
• 17:47
  relatively recently, still in the Des Moines area.
• 17:50
  So you had some good people come through the come through the
• 17:52
  franchise, have you not? Yeah, we've particularly on the
• 17:55
  broadcast side of things. You know, you think you think
• 17:58
  all the way back to the early 80s when I started, Steve
• 18:00
  Carroll was our broadcaster here in town and he's been the long
• 18:03
  time voice of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks through the Saint Louis
• 18:07
  Blues a little bit. You know, certainly the guys
• 18:13
  that have been through that, that that joined the Major
• 18:17
  League ranks are a lot frankly throughout here.
• 18:21
  And then the one regard I have in my career I felt was freely
• 18:24
  to anybody on my staff is I wish I'd have taken a picture of and
• 18:28
  written down everybody's name to know who's been with me, whether
• 18:32
  you were an intern, whether you were a full time staff member.
• 18:35
  Because I've had people go to the NFL and had people go to the
• 18:38
  NBA. Certainly lots of people, Major
• 18:41
  League Baseball, Jeff Lance, Jeff Lance in the Commissioner's
• 18:45
  Office. Now I've got Matt Nordby is a
• 18:47
  senior executive for NASCAR in Charlotte.
• 18:52
  You know, we've got them all over the place.
• 18:54
  It's really that's probably as or more gratifying than most
• 18:57
  anything is the success that they have or they've had by by
• 19:01
  moving into positions. In fact, I've just the intern
• 19:05
  the we had an intern that worked for us for two years is now the
• 19:11
  general manager of the Norfolk Pies, the AAA team for the mess
• 19:16
  and in or the Orioles. I mean in Norfolk.
• 19:20
  So that that's fun. He he was just on a call with us
• 19:23
  and it just kind of made me smile.
• 19:25
  Listen to his conversation with the rest of the group.
• 19:27
  Absolutely. Turn on a Texas Rangers
• 19:29
  television broadcast. There's Dave Raymond.
• 19:31
  Yeah, Dave Raymond, you know what a what a great voice he has
• 19:34
  been. Scatronio, who is the long time
• 19:36
  voice of the A's was a year 1988.
• 19:42
  You know, it's, it's just been really terrific to watch these,
• 19:45
  watch those folks excel and, and as good as they are and, and we
• 19:50
  knew they were when they were with us, they they proved to to
• 19:52
  be really good Major League people.
• 19:55
  Well, I had a blast doing our fantasy drafts or late March
• 19:58
  pizza beer in the press box at in the now Randy Peterson press
• 20:03
  box drafting our fantasy baseball teams back in the day.
• 20:06
  Those are some fun times. Go ahead.
• 20:10
  Started that when fantasy baseball started that, that's
• 20:12
  how we got to go that. So we can't do that anymore,
• 20:15
  right? That's considered betting on the
• 20:17
  game. Yeah, I got to stay away from
• 20:18
  that, but back in the day, we could Good stuff.
• 20:21
  Hey, Sam, Congratulations, brother.
• 20:22
  Appreciate it. Thank you for coming on and best
• 20:27
  of luck to you, Sam. We'll talk down the road, OK?
• 20:29
  Thanks, Kenny. Great to talk to you.
• 20:30
  Good to talk to you, Sam Burnaby, as we check in with
• 20:34
  Sam, 42 years at the helm. Unbelievable of the Iowa Cubs,
• 20:39
  downtown Des Moines. All right, back to college
• 20:41
  football when we come back. Bill Finley's going to do
• 20:43
  similar with me on Thursday. Well, I'm going to have a nice
• 20:47
  chat with Bill Fenley about his career and what he's seen.
• 20:50
  What's different. Obviously he's seen a bunch of
• 20:52
  different stuff, right? With all the NIL etcetera that's
• 20:54
  going on now, you know, what is he like, what's what if he could
• 20:59
  wave his magic wand, What we need to turn back.
• 21:01
  So Fenley coming up with me on Thursday.
• 21:04
  We'll take your time out. Come back Bill Bender from the
• 21:07
  Sporting News. He joins me next.
• 21:09
  Miller and Condon, you're listening to the Iowa Sports
• 21:11
  Radio Network. Nilan Condon, welcome back just
• 21:14
  past 130 on a Tuesday, Top of the hour off the bench.
• 21:20
  Lucas Strain, David Eichel take you until 5:00.
• 21:23
  Bill Bender, what? Trent and I and Lucas were in
• 21:25
  Las Vegas last week at Big 10 Media days.
• 21:28
  Bill hunkered down in Charlotte, NC ACC media days where Bill,
• 21:32
  good to talk to you. Bill, from the Sporting News.
• 21:35
  I'm guessing, and I don't think you even have to guess.
• 21:38
  I saw the I saw the social media around Bill Belichick's
• 21:41
  appearance. Not surprised by it, but boy,
• 21:45
  you know what? He seemingly is embracing his I
• 21:49
  guess he's always been a star. But at the college level, my
• 21:52
  God, he was popular. Was he not Bill?
• 21:55
  Yeah, and I would argue more popular than anybody outside of
• 21:58
  you. Would It's been media day.
• 22:03
  You're breaking up on me. Bill Belichick environment and
• 22:07
  where he was very friendly and even intriguing.
• 22:11
  Good question. You know what, Bill, we're going
• 22:19
  to try and reconnect with you. You're cutting out, you're
• 22:22
  breaking up badly. So we're going to hang up, try
• 22:25
  and call you, maybe get you in a different spot.
• 22:27
  But unfortunately, cell phones from periodically that's well,
• 22:33
  sadly more than periodically it's it's a problem.
• 22:36
  Want to pick his brain on the some of the teams at the top.
• 22:39
  Obviously there's a sleeper. There's a lot of Georgia Tech
• 22:42
  love out there this year for this for this school that they
• 22:45
  think if there is a sleeper team to be found, perhaps it lies in
• 22:52
  the NACC with Clemson. So that is certainly one to
• 22:55
  watch and we'll try and pick up on that.
• 22:58
  Is Clemson's going to be a factor.
• 22:59
  But Georgia Tech, is this a legitimate threat?
• 23:03
  Are they a legitimate threat to to contend in that conference?
• 23:08
  We will find out. SMU tries to get back playoff
• 23:11
  team from last year. So let's get back with Bill.
• 23:14
  Bill, we had a terrible sell spot.
• 23:16
  So appreciate you doing this again.
• 23:18
  So just finishing up on Belichick and you mentioned just
• 23:21
  how he was in a good mood. I'm not saying that's going to
• 23:23
  be the case after every week, but he certainly I think took
• 23:27
  some, caught some people off guard just by his frame of mind.
• 23:31
  Yeah, You know, I thought he was cordial.
• 23:33
  And you know, like I said, I've been to all these ACCSEC Big 10
• 23:36
  Media days and you've been around the big scrum.
• 23:39
  So that was up there with Urban, Sabin, all of them.
• 23:43
  And it's just a reminder of the presence that he has within the
• 23:47
  coaching community. I thought he was.
• 23:49
  Like I said, I asked him the question at the end about, you
• 23:52
  know, what drew, what really drew you to the college game?
• 23:55
  And he just said he loves it. He he loves watching college
• 23:58
  film. He loves watching high school
• 24:00
  games. Now we'll see how long term that
• 24:02
  really is, but at the surface value it was interesting.
• 24:05
  Yeah, no doubt about it. So what about his team this
• 24:07
  year? Obviously you're going to be a
• 24:08
  lot of eyeballs on them week #1A stand alone game, a big, big
• 24:13
  spot, Big 12, ACC, nobody. There's no other football being
• 24:17
  played on Labour Day evening as they will play come up against
• 24:21
  TCU. What are the expectations for
• 24:24
  the Tar Heels this year? Well, I mean, there's so many
• 24:28
  new players, hard to say. You look at, I'm Ken, I'm
• 24:32
  looking at September. Can they get through TCU and UCF
• 24:36
  and beat Richmond and Charlotte, no hiccups and and if they could
• 24:39
  go for no somehow. And that sets up a Clemson game
• 24:42
  where again, you know, Dabo was there.
• 24:45
  There's a loaded Clemson team that was at ATC kickoff with
• 24:48
  three or four first round guys. So and Dabo was happy to, you
• 24:52
  know, play that off and say, wow, Bill Belichick's here and
• 24:55
  all that, but you know, he has a really good football team.
• 24:57
  And then down the stretch, manageable, you know, be ups and
• 25:01
  downs. So is eight wins too much to ask
• 25:05
  for? I mean if he gets to 8 I would
• 25:07
  say that's a. Super successful season.
• 25:09
  Yeah, won six games last year. So I'm with you, Bill.
• 25:11
  As you go back a couple of years, you remember So what
• 25:14
  September was like for Colorado, right?
• 25:16
  They were the national talk. Everybody was talking CU
• 25:19
  football. Do we anticipate that with North
• 25:22
  Carolina? I think if they win, gotcha.
• 25:25
  Now, if they something, like I said, if they get to 4 and O and
• 25:28
  they beat TCU in that opener, much like Colorado beat TCU two
• 25:32
  years ago, then beat UCF and get to 4.
• 25:36
  And OI mean, the hype around that Clemson game would probably
• 25:39
  be just as much, if not greater than Colorado played USC a few
• 25:42
  years ago. Yeah, so.
• 25:46
  And because it's Belichick, it's easy to rally around.
• 25:48
  And we know like a lot of questions about Jordan Hudson,
• 25:51
  she wasn't there. Oh, OK.
• 25:53
  Nobody, we saw her there at least, but you know, you know,
• 25:57
  the Where's Waldo game of how they'll find her on the camera
• 26:01
  during the game. So I, I'm intrigued.
• 26:03
  I'm super intrigued for that Monday night opener against TCU.
• 26:06
  Yeah, I as as am I. Well, let's talk about Clemson
• 26:09
  there. Most people's pick to win it.
• 26:10
  I I bet them to win the national championship way back when the
• 26:13
  odds came out because I've I've been a club Nick fan for not a
• 26:17
  fan, but I I just think that there's something more and I
• 26:19
  expected him to pop a couple of years ago.
• 26:21
  Obviously last year I thought he took a big step and I'm I'm
• 26:25
  anticipating he's got one more. Clemson deserve it favored in
• 26:28
  the conference Bill. I think so.
• 26:30
  I mentioned the first round talent that they have, Kid Club,
• 26:33
  Nick Antonio Williams, TJ Parker, Peter Woods.
• 26:37
  I mean, these are guys and and I think Dabo knows he has that
• 26:40
  team. So he didn't take the bait on
• 26:42
  the LSU game. Nothing about Death Valley
• 26:44
  Junior or any of that. Just, you know, treated it as
• 26:47
  hey, this is another game and I've been around Dabo long
• 26:49
  enough to know it's kind of like card player.
• 26:52
  You know, he's got some cards down there.
• 26:54
  And so when you know somebody has the the cards, you're,
• 26:58
  you're very cautious. So I, I think they should be the
• 27:02
  favorite in the ACC. They probably will win the ACC,
• 27:05
  but it's it's almost like, OK, well, they lost three games to
• 27:08
  SEC schools last year, so can they answer the call against the
• 27:12
  South Carolina against the LSUI? Almost think they'll be measured
• 27:15
  more for those two games than anything on their ACC schedule.
• 27:18
  I think you're probably right. So why did Dabble finally catch
• 27:23
  up with the times and and decide to do some business in the
• 27:25
  transfer portal? What led him to doing that, to
• 27:28
  bringing guys in this year? Well, understand that, you know,
• 27:31
  Clemson, obviously they they've built that within.
• 27:34
  And I've said on your show and other shows for years, I, and
• 27:37
  maybe I haven't on here, but I think their rise to prominence
• 27:41
  is one of the most interesting, if not the best story of the
• 27:45
  last 50 years in college football.
• 27:46
  I mean that that doesn't happen in places like Clemson.
• 27:49
  So he's been able to build it from within and he holds to his
• 27:52
  convictions. But yeah, in the modern age, you
• 27:53
  have to use the portal a little bit and you have to use NIL.
• 27:58
  The way that they're they're using it now.
• 28:00
  And I think they have the facilities, they have the track
• 28:02
  record. I think a lot of it is the
• 28:03
  quarterback. So you know, when you go from
• 28:07
  Taj Boyd to Deshaun Watts to Trevor Lawrence and they've had
• 28:12
  a little gap. And now I'm wondering if
• 28:14
  Klubnick, a three-year starter who threw 36 touchdown 6 picks
• 28:17
  last year, is the next guy. There's a lot of love for
• 28:21
  Georgia Tech. I love these kind of under the
• 28:24
  radar teams. I'm not sure they're under the
• 28:25
  radar. They were, but they're seemingly
• 28:27
  on everybody's radar now. Brad Key's done a phenomenal
• 28:30
  job. Your thoughts on on Georgia
• 28:33
  Tech? Is this legitimate?
• 28:35
  Are they a legitimate? I'm not saying a playoff, but if
• 28:37
  they win the conference, they will be.
• 28:39
  Can they? I mean, they take a key from
• 28:42
  Brad Key. He's super tough and you know,
• 28:44
  you have Haines King, he's built like a linebacker.
• 28:47
  They've got good players back and you know, they they were,
• 28:50
  they're tough out. You know, they were at that kind
• 28:53
  of, it's a bad comparison, Ken, but they, you know, in some ways
• 28:56
  they were like Purdue when when Purdue would pick somebody off,
• 29:00
  you know what I mean? They did that to Miami last
• 29:02
  year, almost stood at the Georgia.
• 29:03
  But now it's can they do it every week?
• 29:05
  And I, I think they are going to be one of those X Factor teams
• 29:09
  in the conference. I don't know if they can win it,
• 29:11
  but certainly, and you know, guess who they're playing in the
• 29:14
  opener week one they get Colorado.
• 29:15
  How? About that is football college
• 29:18
  football back in the state of Florida.
• 29:20
  We saw the Gators down for a while, obviously Florida State,
• 29:23
  Miami, they've had some tough times.
• 29:25
  Both seemingly turn around arrows pointing up college
• 29:28
  football in the state of Florida back to where it once was or
• 29:31
  still on the rise. In progress, we'll see.
• 29:35
  You know, Miami won 10 games last year, but they need to get
• 29:38
  to a playoff. They need to win an ACC title.
• 29:41
  Florida had a great November, but can they do it every week in
• 29:44
  the SEC? And the reports of DJ Lagway
• 29:47
  being injured, you know, in a boot?
• 29:50
  And then there's Florida State, which I don't know.
• 29:54
  I mean, they go from thirteen wins to two wins.
• 29:56
  Mike Norvell very energetic in the press conference, counting
• 30:00
  on Tommy Testolano spend they they they got some bold talk at.
• 30:05
  Yeah, they do, yeah. I think it's because Nick Saban
• 30:07
  is not on the sideline. Yeah, that's probably true.
• 30:10
  Bell, I want to ask you about one of the topics that certainly
• 30:13
  reared its head in Vegas last week, and that was commissioner
• 30:17
  V commissioner, conference versus conference.
• 30:20
  It seems like Petiti and Sankey are on a collision course when
• 30:23
  it comes to the College Football Playoff expansion and their
• 30:25
  stance as to which model that they believe suits them best.
• 30:29
  It's going to be up to these two or we're just going to stay at
• 30:32
  12. December is a critical time.
• 30:34
  We have to have that decision made.
• 30:36
  If 2026, we're going to see a College Football Playoff
• 30:39
  expansion. What's going to happen between
• 30:41
  the Big 10 and the SEC? Who ultimately blinks, if
• 30:44
  either? Well, I hope somebody, I hope we
• 30:49
  have some compromises. You know, I talking to Jim
• 30:51
  Phillips, I mean, he's hoping that they can compromise and I
• 30:55
  don't know that we're going to get to 16 next year.
• 30:59
  I, I think I just from who I've talked to and nothing, you know,
• 31:03
  whether it's on the record, off the record, whatever, more on
• 31:06
  the record. I just get this sense from
• 31:08
  people that they're probably going to stay at 12 and but
• 31:11
  they, you know, Rich Clark did tell me and there's an article
• 31:14
  in Sporting News that he's really.
• 31:15
  Looking at it right now, Yep. Yet the commissioners can work
• 31:18
  together. You know the other thing?
• 31:19
  He said that was interesting? I asked him straight up, or
• 31:22
  you're going to compress this playoff schedule a little bit
• 31:24
  and there is no appetite to do that.
• 31:26
  That was probably the most surprising thing.
• 31:28
  So late January for a champion is what we're seeing.
• 31:31
  I think they're going to stay that way.
• 31:32
  And some of the things I didn't think about that he brought up,
• 31:35
  you know, they do have what's different with the College in
• 31:38
  the NFL is, yeah, they have commencements and finals and
• 31:41
  and, you know, they need that extra week in between the
• 31:44
  conference championship and the playoff.
• 31:46
  I understand that part. So it's just to me and then the
• 31:49
  logistics of going to these bowl games.
• 31:50
  But, you know, I I still was pretty upfront.
• 31:53
  I was like, you, you are going up against the NFL and that's
• 31:57
  something they're cognizant of. I wish the NFL would work with
• 31:59
  college football a little more on that.
• 32:01
  I. Want to go back a couple of
• 32:03
  weeks ago, Bill Big 12 Media days.
• 32:05
  I, I don't understand your mark stance that he, that he doesn't
• 32:09
  want the guaranteed 2 teams. I think most year they're going
• 32:12
  to get one. And, and I mean, I just don't
• 32:15
  see a scenario few and far between.
• 32:19
  Never is a long time that they, that they're actually 3
• 32:22
  legitimate Big 12 teams that can make a playoff, whether it's 12
• 32:26
  or 16. It would be 16 in this case.
• 32:28
  Why is your Mac so bound and determined to see this 5 and 11
• 32:34
  model? Yeah, I mean, it's aggressive
• 32:37
  and I do think their comp does offer parity, which I love and
• 32:41
  decided the fourth quarter, you know, lead changes and last
• 32:45
  minute touchdowns and everything that makes Big 12 football good.
• 32:49
  You know, I do think on any given year in a 16 team model,
• 32:52
  they'd probably get 2, maybe some years, 3.
• 32:54
  But what they really need, and he did address it, is they need
• 32:57
  a couple programs to stand out. And nobody wants to admit that.
• 33:00
  But, you know, for the Big 10, it's good to have Ohio State and
• 33:04
  Penn State and Michigan standing out.
• 33:06
  And then you can get those other teams involved with three or
• 33:09
  four bids. SEC, same deal.
• 33:12
  You know, ACCI would say, you know, it'd be great for the ACC
• 33:16
  if they had Clemson and Florida State every year.
• 33:18
  So that's what the Big 12 needs. And it'll be interesting to see
• 33:22
  if any of those programs can pop out and do that.
• 33:25
  I'll get you out of here on this and that goes back to Colorado.
• 33:28
  We spent the been in our conversation already.
• 33:30
  I I was floored yesterday listening to Dion.
• 33:34
  I I thought he was just getting away from the game.
• 33:36
  His sons aren't there. Wait.
• 33:37
  I know he'd had the health problem.
• 33:38
  He's had the the toes amputated. I had no idea.
• 33:42
  I don't think anybody did. I think Deion Sanders maybe
• 33:46
  changed some opinions of how we view him.
• 33:49
  He wants to be a coach. He wants to be on the sidelines
• 33:51
  and he's, you know, he's he's, he's upfront talking about his,
• 33:56
  he has control with his bowels, right.
• 33:58
  And then there's going to be a port, a potty on the sidelines
• 34:01
  and the, and the fact that, you know, for for a lot, he's going
• 34:04
  to do this in visiting stadiums as well.
• 34:06
  But man, oh man, Deion Sanders, he really moved up.
• 34:10
  But I think in a lot of people's books, mine included yesterday.
• 34:14
  We never see Dionne vulnerable. No.
• 34:16
  And and you know. That's a great way to put it.
• 34:18
  Yeah, and I I, you know, I lost my father to cancer, so I
• 34:23
  understand that end of it completely from the human side.
• 34:27
  Now. You know what?
• 34:28
  What's next for Dion? I hope he's able to coach.
• 34:30
  I'm hoping he's able to get through that stuff.
• 34:33
  But that's how I took it. I mean, you saw him very human
• 34:37
  with his doctors, still wants to coach.
• 34:39
  I love that. And you know, for the, he is a
• 34:43
  very polarizing coach, obviously, but I've always given
• 34:45
  him the benefit of the doubt. And, you know, I just think he's
• 34:48
  good for the game. And to have him in the game and,
• 34:51
  you know, with health issues like that, you've just got to
• 34:53
  respect the fight that he's going through.
• 34:55
  And yeah, I give him credit for being able to stand up there and
• 34:59
  do all those things. Like I said, if somebody
• 35:01
  family's been impacted by it, it meant a lot.
• 35:03
  Bill Bender, Sporting News, sportingnews.com.
• 35:05
  Bill, thank you as always. We'll talk to you down the road.
• 35:08
  Appreciate it, Bill. Hey.
• 35:09
  Anytime, Ken. Thank you.
• 35:10
  Good to talk to you Bill Bender as we check in on college
• 35:13
  football. Yeah, that was amazing press
• 35:15
  conference listening to Deion Sanders great word description,
• 35:19
  descriptive word vulnerable. That's exactly what we how we
• 35:22
  saw Deion Sanders talking about depending on depends.
• 35:25
  I mean, who does that right? Who's willing to put themselves
• 35:28
  out like that in front of the people and just say that, yes,
• 35:30
  there's going to be portable toilet on the sidelines because
• 35:34
  I'm at that point, sadly, that that he needs it.
• 35:37
  Good for him and glad that he's coaching.
• 35:40
  He's good for the game. I believe that.
• 35:41
  I really do look at the what he's done to that program.
• 35:44
  Can they sustain where they've been?
• 35:45
  We'll see. But that that program was in the
• 35:49
  dumpster and now it's back in Boulder.
• 35:51
  We'll take time out, come back, finish up the program here on a
• 35:54
  Tuesday. Miller and Condon, you're
• 35:56
  listening to the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
• 35:58
  Hi, I'm Millory Condon. Final couple of minutes here on
• 36:01
  a Tuesday. Again, top of the hour off the
• 36:04
  bench. Lucas Strain, David Eichold
• 36:07
  coming off the bench, talking sports with you from 2:00 until
• 36:11
  5 O clock overtime. Iowa.
• 36:13
  Snippet from the morning show, the midday show and the
• 36:16
  afternoon show make up the five to six O clock hour here on the
• 36:20
  Iowa Sports Radio Network. Well, coming up tomorrow, look
• 36:23
  forward to Frank Schwab joining me, Frank from yahoosports.com.
• 36:27
  He covers the NFL. He's done over the last 32 days.
• 36:31
  He's done a preview of started a team 32 and worked his way to
• 36:35
  tomorrow will he will anoint his team to beat in the NFL?
• 36:39
  There's only one left. Number 2 was the Baltimore
• 36:42
  Ravens. We have yet to see the
• 36:43
  Philadelphia Eagles make his charts.
• 36:46
  So I'm guessing tomorrow the Eagles.
• 36:48
  But we'll talk NFL with Frank Schwab, of course, Thursday
• 36:52
  night, Hall of Fame game, we will have some actual tackle
• 36:56
  football on our television. But Frank Schwab will be here.
• 37:00
  Mitch Holtis is back. He's got some sound from Travis
• 37:02
  Kelsey tomorrow. That's coming up about 12:45.
• 37:07
  David Kaplan, busy day perhaps for capital.
• 37:10
  The Cubs have made a move. By the way.
• 37:11
  I see Suarez, the third baseman who was hit in the hand last
• 37:15
  night in Arizona's game. He is not in the line up, I
• 37:19
  don't think or maybe it does. You never know, right.
• 37:22
  If they're if they found something, an injury that's
• 37:25
  going to keep him out. The MRI was clean, but maybe
• 37:29
  it's just precautionary because he got hit in the All Star game.
• 37:32
  The White Sox relief pitcher got him in the wrist.
• 37:36
  Now he took one in the hand yesterday.
• 37:38
  So baby, it's just airing on the side of caution because Suarez
• 37:41
  and those 30 something home runs a coveted commodity at the hot
• 37:45
  corner. He is out of the lineup.
• 37:47
  So Kathy will join us. Maybe the Cubs have made a move.
• 37:50
  Maybe they're back even with the Brewers or maybe just maybe the
• 37:54
  Brewers are opening up some daylight as they will play
• 37:57
  tonight. That's going to do it now on
• 37:59
  Baba Bob on the Big 10. Look forward to that as well.
• 38:01
  Will, nice job out of you. Thank you for producing.
• 38:04
  Back tomorrow, Miller and Condon weekdays, noon to two talking
• 38:08
  sports with you. Thanks for being with me on the
• 38:10
  Iowa Sports Radio Network.