Latest / The Appetizer Hour with Brett Kane / 9-02-26 - Measuring the Broncos success/ESPN's NFL Top 100, The Deion Conundrum/CSU set for success

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9-02-26 - Measuring the Broncos success/ESPN's NFL Top 100, The Deion Conundrum/CSU set for success · The Appetizer Hour with Brett Kane

0:02
Speaker 1: This is the Appetizer Hour with Brett Kane on demand.
0:06
Speaker 1: Check out Brett weekday mornings at 6 on Altitude Sports
0:10
Speaker 1: Radio 92.5 and on the Altitude Sports Radio app.
0:19
Speaker 2: All 31 teams is watching film. You know, they pick
0:22
Speaker 2: up on tendencies on different schemes defensively. And, you know,
0:25
Speaker 2: we got a variety of coverages of different sets up front.
0:28
Speaker 2: So teams can really pick up on that. So I
0:31
Speaker 2: think the main focal point is, you know, Vijay was
0:33
Speaker 2: talking about eyes and discipline because teams are going to
0:36
Speaker 2: lure us, you know, into more boot action, you know,
0:39
Speaker 2: more play paths and stuff like that. You know, we've
0:41
Speaker 2: been looking at that, you know, so far, and we've
0:43
Speaker 2: been getting that a lot. So, you know, I think
0:45
Speaker 2: defensively teams are going to try their best to stir
0:49
Speaker 2: our eyes a little bit. So, you know, I think
0:51
Speaker 2: the focal point for us is to lock in on
0:53
Speaker 2: our assignment.
0:55
Speaker 3: Pat Sertan talking about defensively what's going to happen. Teams
1:01
Speaker 3: will adjust to what the Broncos have done over the
1:04
Speaker 3: last couple of years, and I think that they are
1:06
Speaker 3: going to be prepared for it. They've seen it. I
1:09
Speaker 3: think they had a dose of it towards the end
1:10
Speaker 3: of last year, to be honest with you, when, you know,
1:14
Speaker 3: sort of the defensive numbers, I don't want to say
1:17
Speaker 3: fell off, but not as great. as earlier in the year,
1:22
Speaker 3: you start to find tendencies and you start to find
1:24
Speaker 3: ways to kind of break through and give a really,
1:32
Speaker 3: really good unit a different kind of look. Now, there's
1:38
Speaker 3: a number of different factors that I think that will
1:41
Speaker 3: lead to the Broncos defense and in pressure being applied
1:46
Speaker 3: to them in a way that Not to say it
1:52
Speaker 3: wasn't last year because it was, but just it's going
1:56
Speaker 3: to make it more difficult. And it's one of the
1:58
Speaker 3: things that we talked to Adam Schefter yesterday. I got
2:01
Speaker 3: to tell you, I was disappointed is the wrong word.
2:08
Speaker 3: That's not it. I was a little bit surprised. And
2:20
Speaker 3: I don't know how the NFL handles things. Every situation's
2:23
Speaker 3: a little bit different. But from every indication we got
2:27
Speaker 3: from Adam Schefter, it sounded like Jonathan Cooper's not going
2:31
Speaker 3: to be on the football field for the Broncos for
2:32
Speaker 3: a while. And I don't know if that's going to
2:34
Speaker 3: last all the way until his court date, which isn't
2:35
Speaker 3: until November 10th, which would take you through nine weeks
2:38
Speaker 3: of the season. I don't know when the cutoff is.
2:44
Speaker 3: But there's one thing that I've been talking about since
2:48
Speaker 3: the beginning of camp And it's the idea that the
2:52
Speaker 3: one thing that you do best is rush the passer.
2:56
Speaker 3: And in rushing the passer, when you eliminate John Franklin
2:59
Speaker 3: Myers and you eliminate Jonathan Cooper, two guys who are
3:04
Speaker 3: in a big way responsible of the group that makes
3:08
Speaker 3: up this historic unit over the last two years in
3:12
Speaker 3: that category, you take them out, it's different. It is just,
3:17
Speaker 3: it's not going to be the same. And so... When
3:23
Speaker 3: that is sort of in front of you, it's kind
3:28
Speaker 3: of like, well, where do you apply the pressure in
3:31
Speaker 3: other places? And I think that goes directly to your cue. Like,
3:38
Speaker 3: I think that goes directly to quarterback. Now, let me
3:41
Speaker 3: tell you this. I was looking yesterday. Jeremy Fowler sent
3:45
Speaker 3: out two different links, and it's to two different articles
3:48
Speaker 3: that are on ESPN. One is 2026 NFL rank predicting
3:56
Speaker 3: the top 100 players for this season. So this is
4:01
Speaker 3: one of those ESPN staff people all get together and they,
4:09
Speaker 3: they much like the NFL top 100 where the players
4:12
Speaker 3: pick it, they all put their guys in this big
4:16
Speaker 3: ball and in average out the numbers. Um, And on
4:23
Speaker 3: this list, Bo Nix isn't on the top 100. And
4:31
Speaker 3: in a follow-up article that says NFL executives picked these
4:35
Speaker 3: snubs from ESPN's top 100 rankings. So this is ESPN's
4:44
Speaker 3: NFL experts rated based on performance expectations of the 2026 season.
4:50
Speaker 3: Now it's a list of guys who should have been
4:52
Speaker 3: on there in some people's minds that weren't. Guess who's
4:55
Speaker 3: still not on there? Bo Nix. And this comes after
5:01
Speaker 3: a piece on the NFL Network yesterday where you had
5:07
Speaker 3: another example of a former NFL player that's been asked
5:13
Speaker 3: about the Broncos that has doubts about Bo. And I
5:16
Speaker 3: don't know where you guys are at on this, but
5:18
Speaker 3: this is why I've I've maintained this kind of from
5:22
Speaker 3: the beginning of this offseason. Whether we're talking about the
5:27
Speaker 3: defense and the pass rush maybe taking a little bit
5:30
Speaker 3: of a step back or talking about Bo Nix and
5:34
Speaker 3: this offense and Davis Webb needing to take a pretty
5:38
Speaker 3: sizable step forward. It's got to happen. And I think
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Speaker 3: more than anything else, this is going to be the
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Speaker 3: true judgment. of whether or not the Broncos are going
5:56
Speaker 3: to find themselves in a similar position to last year,
5:58
Speaker 3: which is winning the division, making the playoffs, competing for
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Speaker 3: a Super Bowl, it's going to give you a pretty
6:07
Speaker 3: clear indicator on what Bo Nix is. If Bo Nix
6:12
Speaker 3: continues to win, let me put it to you this way.
6:16
Speaker 3: If he continues to be somebody that goes out and
6:22
Speaker 3: just puts up dub after dub after dub like he
6:26
Speaker 3: did his first two years in a league, it's going
6:30
Speaker 3: to be really hard for even the most, I would say,
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Speaker 3: skeptical sort of analyst of his game to not acknowledge
6:41
Speaker 3: what he's doing is working. And I got to be
6:47
Speaker 3: honest with you. If Bo Nix just fixes the consistency,
6:52
Speaker 3: the style of game that he has is one that
6:56
Speaker 3: is conducive to pretty much everybody looking at the style
7:03
Speaker 3: of play and being like, that's pretty rare. The tools
7:10
Speaker 3: that he has available to him of athleticism, avoiding a
7:16
Speaker 3: pass rush, can get out and run, can make throws
7:19
Speaker 3: on the run. If there is a consistency factor that
7:24
Speaker 3: just amps up a little bit now in year three,
7:26
Speaker 3: I don't think there's any question that people around the league,
7:35
Speaker 3: people who view and watch the NFL and especially who
7:39
Speaker 3: get mired and bogged down in quarterback play, you don't
7:44
Speaker 3: have to convince yourself that that style is something that's
7:50
Speaker 3: aesthetically pleasing. You know, this isn't like watching some statue
7:55
Speaker 3: back there. And I think we start to associate this
7:57
Speaker 3: more with skepticism at the quarterback position. Um, then I'm
8:03
Speaker 3: as guilty as anybody. If you have a quarterback that
8:07
Speaker 3: can't really move, it just doesn't feel like it's going
8:10
Speaker 3: to go well for him. You know, uh, I think
8:18
Speaker 3: this happens, I'm trying to think of a quarterback right
8:20
Speaker 3: now that maybe gets, is better than people say he is,
8:24
Speaker 3: but because he can't really move at all, he doesn't
8:28
Speaker 3: get maybe the credit he deserves. Here you go, Goff,
8:32
Speaker 3: I think Jared Goff is one of those guys. Jared
8:35
Speaker 3: Goff over the last three years has thrown for, let's
8:39
Speaker 3: see here, 30 touchdowns, 37 touchdowns, and 34 touchdowns. Each
8:46
Speaker 3: season has thrown for 4,500 yards. Quarterback ratings of 100, 112,
8:52
Speaker 3: and 105 the last three years. That's really high-level quarterback play.
9:00
Speaker 3: Really high-level. And I don't think anybody views Jared Goff
9:04
Speaker 3: as a borderline elite-level quarterback because he can't move. Because
9:13
Speaker 3: he's somebody that is, if you get pressure on him,
9:16
Speaker 3: he's going to go down. And it's just hard, I think,
9:19
Speaker 3: for people to believe in that. It's easier maybe for
9:21
Speaker 3: a guy like Stafford who's, you know, he's older, so
9:24
Speaker 3: you give him a little bit of a pass for it.
9:26
Speaker 3: But think about the other quarterbacks that you would mention
9:28
Speaker 3: as some of the top guys in the league. It's
9:30
Speaker 3: Josh Allen. It's Lamar. It's people who can get out.
9:35
Speaker 3: It's Mahomes. It's Herbert. It's people who can move. And
9:43
Speaker 3: Bo Nix has all of those qualities. Now, a texture
9:47
Speaker 3: says Bo Nix is Jalen Hurts 2.0. He'll never get
9:50
Speaker 3: the love he deserves, no matter how much he wins.
9:52
Speaker 3: I actually think that's pretty accurate. And that's coming from
9:55
Speaker 3: somebody who thinks Jalen Hurts is just kind of like, okay, good.
10:01
Speaker 3: but for the moment I think that's pretty fair because
10:06
Speaker 3: there are games where Jalen Hurts is great and then
10:11
Speaker 3: there are games where you're looking at Philly's offense you're
10:13
Speaker 3: like how are you guys not scoring And I think
10:16
Speaker 3: Philly's a little bit different because they have had immense
10:19
Speaker 3: offensive talent combined with elite offensive line play. Now, Broncos
10:25
Speaker 3: have the offensive line, but they haven't had Saquon and A.J.
10:30
Speaker 3: Brown and Devontae Smith. We're getting to a point now
10:35
Speaker 3: where you bring in Jalen Waddell and you're like, okay, well,
10:41
Speaker 3: maybe you throw that in with Cortland Sutton and you
10:44
Speaker 3: got something cooking. But I think the Hurts thing for
10:50
Speaker 3: the moment is a pretty accurate one. And I've said
10:53
Speaker 3: for a while, I think that him and Jalen Hurts
10:55
Speaker 3: and Brock Purdy are kind of all put in this
10:59
Speaker 3: same sort of category of.
11:03
Speaker 3: I don't think anybody puts them in or would put
11:06
Speaker 3: them in an elite category despite the amount of winning
11:10
Speaker 3: that all three of those quarterbacks have done. They go
11:14
Speaker 3: more in this ball of, I believe... the team is
11:19
Speaker 3: more responsible for the winning than the quarterback is. Which,
11:24
Speaker 3: who knows? Maybe that's a fair assessment. I certainly have
11:29
Speaker 3: some of those thoughts regarding Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy
11:32
Speaker 3: and Bo. Like, the only reason you have an ability
11:37
Speaker 3: in the fourth quarter to come back and win as
11:39
Speaker 3: many games as you did, especially last season, is because
11:43
Speaker 3: your defense kept you in it. And also, this is important,
11:48
Speaker 3: Your defense has to keep you in it until the 4th.
11:51
Speaker 3: And then when you start to make a comeback, you
11:53
Speaker 3: can't make a comeback if your defense starts to dwindle
11:56
Speaker 3: and die at the end of the 4th either. So 303-504-0925.
12:05
Speaker 3: Broadcasting from the back is in Shanker Studios. Serious lawyers
12:08
Speaker 3: for the seriously injured. So myself, Nelly, Vic, we were
12:12
Speaker 3: all at Rooftop Social yesterday. Nelly was one of the
12:16
Speaker 3: fine referees in that contest. I got to tell you,
12:19
Speaker 3: I didn't know what to think of what that event
12:23
Speaker 3: was going to be. It was awesome. It was the
12:27
Speaker 3: coolest thing. I felt competitive juices being stirred up towards
12:33
Speaker 3: the end of that. When you're watching somebody go, you know,
12:37
Speaker 3: a best of seven in Rochambeau, you start to feel it.
12:42
Speaker 3: You're like, ooh, there's a lot of pressure here. Got
12:44
Speaker 3: to come back. Um, but shout out to everybody who
12:47
Speaker 3: came yesterday. That was a blast. It was so much fun.
12:49
Speaker 3: I'm sure we'll be doing something like that again really
12:52
Speaker 3: soon in the future. So again, um, a lot to
12:56
Speaker 3: get to this morning. Stick around.
12:57
Speaker 2: All right.
12:57
Speaker 3: I want to continue this here. Um, that top 100 list.
13:05
Speaker 3: I want to make sure that everybody is aware of
13:08
Speaker 3: a few things that are on there and I want
13:10
Speaker 3: to play an exercise, do an exercise here. The Broncos
13:14
Speaker 3: had in this top 100 on ESPN five players that
13:18
Speaker 3: were in it. They had a number seven, number 37,
13:23
Speaker 3: number 53, number 56, and number 79. Now, I want
13:26
Speaker 3: you just to do an exercise in your head, please.
13:30
Speaker 3: The exercise is this. Tell me who the five are.
13:35
Speaker 3: Just in your head, tell me who the five are.
13:36
Speaker 3: And then also... Tell me where they rank. So tell
13:45
Speaker 3: me who the five names in the top 100 are
13:48
Speaker 3: and tell me which order they're in. So it's seven,
13:52
Speaker 3: it's 37, it's 53, it's 56, and it's 79. So
13:59
Speaker 3: just in your head, try and think who goes where.
14:04
Speaker 3: I think the first one is the most obvious at
14:06
Speaker 3: number seven. It is Pats or Tans. After that, I
14:12
Speaker 3: was pretty surprised to see the rest of this list.
14:15
Speaker 3: I think you could put these in different order. The
14:18
Speaker 3: next highest ranked Bronco after Pat Sertan is.
14:26
Speaker 3: No, I thought it was Nick Benito too. It's not.
14:29
Speaker 3: It's Garrett Bowles. So he is at 37. At 53 is... No,
14:37
Speaker 3: that's not Nick Benito either. That's Quinn Miners. At 56
14:43
Speaker 3: is Nick Benito, and at 79 is Zach Allen. I
14:47
Speaker 3: think there's just something about the Denver Broncos where people
14:56
Speaker 3: are just very hesitant to fully believe in this. And
15:01
Speaker 3: I think Benito's the best example I can throw out there.
15:05
Speaker 3: He is an elite level pass rusher. Elite. So he's
15:12
Speaker 3: thrown in there at 56. That is behind Nick Bosa,
15:14
Speaker 3: who is at 55 for another edge rusher. He has
15:22
Speaker 3: been consistently one of the top sack dudes in the league.
15:27
Speaker 3: He's behind Daniil Hunter out of Houston. He is behind
15:37
Speaker 3: Max Crosby. He's behind a number of different people that
15:42
Speaker 3: I think you would look at and say, you know what?
15:47
Speaker 3: I think he's just as good as any of them.
15:51
Speaker 3: For this whole like historic level defensive line, edge rush,
15:56
Speaker 3: pass rush that the Broncos have had, he is the
16:01
Speaker 3: one that's responsible for it. He is the thing that
16:04
Speaker 3: makes it go. He is the leader. And over the
16:08
Speaker 3: last few years, I mean, he had 14 sacks last season.
16:11
Speaker 3: That was after getting paid a boatload of money. He
16:16
Speaker 3: had 13 and a half the season before. And if
16:19
Speaker 3: you're somebody who's going to average around 14 sacks a year,
16:23
Speaker 3: you're as good as anybody in the league. But it
16:27
Speaker 3: is funny to me how the amount of players that
16:31
Speaker 3: I think are, you don't get the 14 and three
16:35
Speaker 3: by not having talent. You certainly don't get to 14-3
16:40
Speaker 3: without these executives or these people at ESPN considering the
16:44
Speaker 3: quarterback a top 100 player without elite-level talent that surrounds him.
16:51
Speaker 3: But it's why I think I'm so excited about this
16:54
Speaker 3: season for the Broncos. It is going to be a
16:56
Speaker 3: true and real proving ground on whether they can.
17:04
Speaker 3: They have... the exact things that last year showed you,
17:11
Speaker 3: if that makes sense. There is part of me, by
17:15
Speaker 3: the way, that I do struggle with, that I do
17:19
Speaker 3: feel like the record was kind of a fraudulence too
17:25
Speaker 3: harsh of a word, but weird enough that it's going
17:33
Speaker 3: to be really hard to replicate. There is a matter
17:42
Speaker 3: of how the Broncos accomplished what they did last year
17:48
Speaker 3: that makes it hard to believe in repeating it. But
17:53
Speaker 3: I think that's the biggest thing for them this year
17:55
Speaker 3: is can you get over that hump? Now, in a
17:58
Speaker 3: much different way, we have college football that starts tomorrow.
18:06
Speaker 3: And I am equally as curious as to what's going
18:09
Speaker 3: to happen with CU. You have what is a very,
18:16
Speaker 3: very hard to predict and hard to get your mind
18:24
Speaker 3: wrapped around situation. I've really, I'm going to be honest,
18:28
Speaker 3: I don't know if I've seen anything quite like this.
18:31
Speaker 3: I've seen coaches that have gotten a lot of hype
18:35
Speaker 3: going into some place and have not worked. I've seen
18:38
Speaker 3: coaches that maybe stick around because you can't afford to
18:41
Speaker 3: fire them. What I haven't seen is the dichotomy of
18:46
Speaker 3: a coach that maybe from a results standpoint is not
18:50
Speaker 3: getting what the people expect, but from a pure financial
18:57
Speaker 3: standpoint is actually doing a lot for the university and
19:01
Speaker 3: makes it hard to let the guy go. You know,
19:05
Speaker 3: to a certain extent, it is kind of like this,
19:10
Speaker 3: a lesson in economics that And that's something that I'm
19:14
Speaker 3: not well-versed in. I'm a know-nothing moron who just turns
19:20
Speaker 3: his brain off and watches sports. That's all I am.
19:26
Speaker 3: And so, when you present to me the Dion, I'll
19:35
Speaker 3: call it conundrum, of we need results, kind of. Results matter.
19:42
Speaker 3: Kind of. Because of everything else he brings to the table.
19:48
Speaker 3: That's one thing that I just... I don't know how
19:51
Speaker 3: to handle it, so I always look at it from
19:52
Speaker 3: the perspective of a fan. And the fan does not
19:59
Speaker 3: care about the dollars he brings in to see you.
20:02
Speaker 3: Do you believe? I care about the results on the field.
20:05
Speaker 3: You don't believe? Well... I need to be given a
20:13
Speaker 3: reason to. Next question. Nelly has about a hundred of
20:20
Speaker 3: those back there, by the way. I could have a
20:21
Speaker 3: full conversation with Dion, by the way, if I wanted
20:23
Speaker 3: to right now. Oh, the extra and the media laugh.
20:34
Speaker 3: There is nothing like a good media laugh at a
20:37
Speaker 3: mediocre joke. By the way, did you say the top
20:41
Speaker 3: 100 ranking that you just gave was from CBS? I'm
20:44
Speaker 3: not doing nothing with CBS. Next question. It's okay, Prime.
20:47
Speaker 3: That was from ESPN. You're okay. ESPN showed you a
20:52
Speaker 3: lot of love. Who do you use? ESPN, I said.
21:00
Speaker 1: Dick is a snicker.
21:01
Speaker 3: Okay, well, that's it, I mean. It has nothing to
21:04
Speaker 3: do with anything. Where was I again? Sorry, I got
21:10
Speaker 3: caught up in my convo with Dion for a second.
21:12
Speaker 3: I think you were talking about the weird standard for Dion.
21:15
Speaker 3: It's like, well, he's losing, but he's bringing in revenue.
21:18
Speaker 3: How do we evaluate him properly? The funny thing is, like,
21:21
Speaker 3: here's what I don't get. When I'm just talking about
21:25
Speaker 3: a fan, if I was having a conversation with the
21:27
Speaker 3: athletic director or somebody who is in charge of the
21:31
Speaker 3: financial stuff at CU and they wanted to be like,
21:32
Speaker 3: do you know how much money he brings in? From
21:35
Speaker 3: their perspective, I'd be like, sure, I totally get your
21:38
Speaker 3: angle on this. When I talk to somebody who is
21:41
Speaker 3: just purely a CU fan and they start talking about
21:49
Speaker 3: how prime is bringing in money for the university. I'd
21:56
Speaker 3: be like, why do you care? From what I understand,
22:00
Speaker 3: CU's not going under. They aren't bankrupt. There's a bunch
22:05
Speaker 3: of beautiful buildings and a bunch of people on campus.
22:09
Speaker 3: Pay a lot of money to go there. The sole
22:12
Speaker 3: concern for a fan is about wins. That's it. Is
22:19
Speaker 3: it nice to have the stadium sold out for the
22:21
Speaker 3: most part again?
22:22
Speaker 2: Sure.
22:22
Speaker 3: And I think Prime is totally responsible for that. But
22:27
Speaker 3: all I want is I want CU to be a winner.
22:33
Speaker 3: That is the driving thrust in making the hire for
22:36
Speaker 3: Deion Sanders. You can say there were other things involved
22:40
Speaker 3: and there certainly were. The main motivation for paying a
22:45
Speaker 3: coach $ 10 million a year is to be a winner.
22:50
Speaker 3: And to do that in a conference that is not
22:53
Speaker 3: the Big Ten in the SEC shouldn't be too much
22:57
Speaker 3: to ask. And that's what is odd to me. The
23:03
Speaker 3: expectations are thrown out of whack. Now, I've been in
23:06
Speaker 3: two pretty, with this one, actually three. I've been in
23:12
Speaker 3: three markets that love their college football. It's here, it
23:17
Speaker 3: was in Michigan, and it was in Nebraska. And what's
23:20
Speaker 3: funny is, I don't feel like any of the fan
23:24
Speaker 3: bases had the proper expectations for their team. And here's
23:27
Speaker 3: what I'm talking about. This one is different. When I
23:31
Speaker 3: was in Nebraska, people were expecting them to win the
23:34
Speaker 3: Big Ten. Every year. I'm like, guys, you stink right now. Terrible.
23:41
Speaker 3: There is not going to be a winning the Big
23:44
Speaker 3: Ten anytime in the next couple of years. You're bad.
23:49
Speaker 3: You need to acknowledge that. You need to set a
23:51
Speaker 3: reasonable expectation. You need to be like, can we get
23:53
Speaker 3: to 8-4 and maybe build from there the following year?
23:57
Speaker 3: They're like, nope, we need to go 11-1 and win
23:59
Speaker 3: the Big Ten and go to the playoff. And I go, well,
24:02
Speaker 3: I think that's going to take a minute. And so
24:05
Speaker 3: because of that, when expectations get thrown out of whack
24:07
Speaker 3: on the higher end, then maybe you make hasty decisions
24:10
Speaker 3: on coaches, you fire them too early, you move on
24:13
Speaker 3: from quarterbacks too early, something like that. In this market...
24:18
Speaker 3: I feel like the expectations are so low for CU
24:23
Speaker 3: that it's going to be even harder to have success
24:25
Speaker 3: when you accept a substandard level than you should. And again,
24:30
Speaker 3: I'm not going out and saying, like, CU needs to
24:33
Speaker 3: win the Big 12 this year. But CU needs to
24:36
Speaker 3: prove that they're on an upward trajectory, that they're going
24:39
Speaker 3: to be capable of doing that in the next two
24:40
Speaker 3: to three years. You weren't competing with Michigan and you
24:45
Speaker 3: weren't competing with Ohio State and you weren't competing with
24:49
Speaker 3: Oregon and Penn State and USC for Big Ten titles.
24:55
Speaker 3: Texas Tech has become a program with an influx of
25:01
Speaker 3: money that is now a pretty serious contender in college football.
25:07
Speaker 3: You have teams like Utah that are always difficult. But
25:11
Speaker 3: let's be honest here. If you're in this conference, the
25:17
Speaker 3: expectation should be every three to four years with a
25:22
Speaker 3: coach that you're paying this much money for, we're in
25:25
Speaker 3: the title game. We're competing for a college football playoff spot.
25:31
Speaker 3: You go through the list here. Arizona State, Arizona, BYU, Baylor, Cincinnati, Houston,
25:37
Speaker 3: Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Okie State, Texas Tech, UCF, Utah,
25:42
Speaker 3: West Virginia, TCU. That ain't exactly a murderer's row. There's
25:47
Speaker 3: a whole bunch of solid teams in there. But you
25:53
Speaker 3: should be beyond solid occasionally. And that's why I think
25:58
Speaker 3: this is a huge, huge year for CU. It's also,
26:03
Speaker 3: I think this first game of the year against a decent,
26:09
Speaker 3: good Georgia Tech team last year has questions now about
26:12
Speaker 3: Haynes King at quarterback of what their offense is going
26:15
Speaker 3: to look like and how good they can be. But
26:18
Speaker 3: you go back to last year for Georgia Tech, a
26:20
Speaker 3: game that, by the way, you should have won in
26:21
Speaker 3: the opener outside of some blunders. They started the year 8-0.
26:25
Speaker 3: kind of fell off towards the end of the year,
26:26
Speaker 3: lost three of their last four, including the bowl game
26:30
Speaker 3: that they had. But that's a nine-win football team from
26:32
Speaker 3: last year. I am basing a lot of the expectations
26:36
Speaker 3: that need to be had for Colorado on that first
26:41
Speaker 3: game tomorrow. I want to see how competitive are you.
26:47
Speaker 3: And to be honest, can you go and win a
26:50
Speaker 3: tough game on the road? Can you do that? Because
26:55
Speaker 3: it's been a minute since that happened. The wins last
27:01
Speaker 3: year for CU were against Delaware, Wyoming, and Iowa State.
27:11
Speaker 3: You didn't win a road game last year. You go
27:18
Speaker 3: back the previous year, you won a few. That was
27:22
Speaker 3: Shador's last year here with Travis Hunter. And the texture says, Brett,
27:28
Speaker 3: the university isn't going under, but the football program came
27:31
Speaker 3: back from the brink of extinction when Prime was hired.
27:33
Speaker 3: That's why it matters how much money he brings. The
27:37
Speaker 3: money's now there. This is what I'm trying to get at.
27:42
Speaker 3: I can't keep going back to when Dion first took over.
27:49
Speaker 3: I can't go back to 2023 over and over again.
27:51
Speaker 3: You can't make the comparisons to, well, did you see
27:54
Speaker 3: what this team was in 2022? It's four years later. Again,
27:59
Speaker 3: in the traditional sense of college recruiting, it's an entire
28:03
Speaker 3: recruiting cycle. You aren't dealing with the baggage of the
28:06
Speaker 3: previous stuff anymore. Deion's promise when he got here was
28:11
Speaker 3: he was going to come in and he was going
28:12
Speaker 3: to recruit. He was going to bring his Louie. Here's
28:16
Speaker 3: the problem. Pop quiz. How many people from CU were
28:23
Speaker 3: drafted last year? The answer was zero. None. That's a setup.
28:31
Speaker 3: That's how you kind of evaluate what kind of talent
28:34
Speaker 3: you have on your roster. You base that off of, well,
28:37
Speaker 3: how many dudes are pros? And when your answer is none,
28:41
Speaker 3: that puts you in some trouble. Again, I'm not, I'm
28:49
Speaker 3: not ignoring where CU was before this. I am acknowledging
28:55
Speaker 3: that it's pretty far in the rear view mirror. And
29:00
Speaker 3: that you need to have a level of success to
29:06
Speaker 3: hold on to and move forward with. If you don't,
29:10
Speaker 3: then I'll ask the question that I've asked for the
29:11
Speaker 3: last year and a half regarding CU football. What is
29:16
Speaker 3: this supposed to be?
29:18
Speaker 2: What happened to get you like this?
29:23
Speaker 3: What is this program supposed to be? Because when he
29:28
Speaker 3: was brought in, it was first of all about a turnaround.
29:31
Speaker 3: And then it was going to be about being at
29:34
Speaker 3: the peak of the Big 12. It's why you made
29:36
Speaker 3: the move over. It's why when- everybody was bailing from
29:42
Speaker 3: the Pac-12 and you lost Oregon and USC and UCLA
29:45
Speaker 3: and all these different teams, and we were like, oh God,
29:48
Speaker 3: is CU going to find a home? They were one
29:49
Speaker 3: of the first ones to go to the Big 12.
29:51
Speaker 3: And I thought to myself, what an opportunity. What an
29:54
Speaker 3: opportunity to be in one of the, quote, lesser conferences
29:57
Speaker 3: and try and be a dominant force in there. And
30:00
Speaker 3: I think it's time to start showing that you're capable.
30:05
Speaker 3: So 303-504-0925. Shop Mazda Tech Slam. One price, one person,
30:10
Speaker 3: one hour. Still a lot to get through. Stick around.
30:11
Speaker 3: All right, a couple texts coming through here. As she says,
30:14
Speaker 3: I do agree they need to step up this year.
30:16
Speaker 3: I do think it's hard just based on a lack
30:18
Speaker 3: of NIL money relative to most of the good teams
30:20
Speaker 3: in the Big 12. And I like Dion, but I
30:23
Speaker 3: don't think he's a very good coach and I'm a buff.
30:26
Speaker 3: I hope he has hired better coordinators and position coaches
30:29
Speaker 3: this year. that he would let them run the show. Well,
30:32
Speaker 3: here's been... Like, I've had this thought from the day
30:37
Speaker 3: that Dion was hired. And I don't mean this disrespectfully,
30:41
Speaker 3: but when we talked about Dion and coaching ability, people
30:50
Speaker 3: pretended like Dion was this grizzled veteran.
30:54
Speaker 1: Who.
30:57
Speaker 3: entered this with years of coaching experience. I'm like, he
30:59
Speaker 3: coached high school and he coached his kids at Jackson
31:04
Speaker 3: State for a couple years. Not exactly the exact path
31:10
Speaker 3: you would take to getting a power five job in
31:13
Speaker 3: college football, but you can point to like previous playing
31:17
Speaker 3: experience and say, well, he's played the game. I would
31:20
Speaker 3: agree with that. That helps too. But I know plenty
31:23
Speaker 3: of guys. who played that find it very difficult to coach.
31:29
Speaker 3: Magic Johnson's one of the best players who ever lived.
31:31
Speaker 3: He was a terrible coach. Barry Bonds was a hitting
31:37
Speaker 3: coach for a minute in the MLB. He was terrible
31:39
Speaker 3: at it. There is a level to when you are,
31:44
Speaker 3: especially when you are as good of a player as
31:47
Speaker 3: Dion or Barry Bonds or Magic Johnson, whoever we're talking about.
31:51
Speaker 3: A lot of times, like, that's just God-given. I was
31:55
Speaker 3: born and worked very hard to hone the skill. But
31:59
Speaker 3: you were born with something that made you an all-time great.
32:03
Speaker 3: You know, I always talk about this with speed. Like,
32:08
Speaker 3: you're either fast or you're not. Now, you can work
32:13
Speaker 3: and grind and do things to make yourself faster. But
32:17
Speaker 3: Usain Bolt was born... With a God-given ability to run
32:22
Speaker 3: like the wind. That's the truth. I could work from
32:31
Speaker 3: the time I'm five years old all the way to
32:34
Speaker 3: 28 on nothing but just trying to make myself fast.
32:39
Speaker 3: I would never be as fast as Usain Bolt. Doesn't matter.
32:47
Speaker 3: But I do think, um, As a coach, you can
32:54
Speaker 3: work your way into it, but I thought with Deion forever,
32:56
Speaker 3: the biggest appeal that Deion had was his ability to
33:00
Speaker 3: recruit when he first got here. It's to bring talent
33:03
Speaker 3: on campus. And you saw it. I mean, he just
33:06
Speaker 3: took hand in hand Shador Sanders and Travis Hunter over here.
33:09
Speaker 3: But then he goes out and he gets a Jordan
33:11
Speaker 3: Seton and he finds a couple of wide receivers who
33:13
Speaker 3: are really talented. My question was always, when it came
33:19
Speaker 3: down to X's and O's stuff, where would he be
33:21
Speaker 3: in that category? And the answer's not great. Like, there's
33:29
Speaker 3: a lot of clock management issue stuff going on. There's
33:32
Speaker 3: not a lot of development that I've seen over the
33:34
Speaker 3: course of the year. And like I said, I only
33:36
Speaker 3: bring this up to tell you, my expectations are pretty
33:39
Speaker 3: high for the Buffs this year. You need to be
33:44
Speaker 3: able to get on a winning path. And the texture says,
33:47
Speaker 3: what about the team out in Fort Collins? Much different story.
33:55
Speaker 3: And I think that they're in a great position right now.
33:58
Speaker 3: Now we have no results to base anything off of,
34:01
Speaker 3: but I've always thought that CSU is a place that
34:10
Speaker 3: if they were to find a perfect coach, For me,
34:16
Speaker 3: a perfect coach at CSU looks a lot like when
34:19
Speaker 3: Frank Solich went to Ohio and coached there for like
34:23
Speaker 3: 20 years. You want somebody that maybe is on the
34:28
Speaker 3: back end of their coaching career that doesn't want a
34:30
Speaker 3: job with the high stress of get me results every
34:34
Speaker 3: single year or we're going to fire you. But also...
34:40
Speaker 3: You're probably going to be one of the most experienced
34:44
Speaker 3: and best coaches within this new conference that you play in,
34:47
Speaker 3: which will be a gigantic advantage, and you could win
34:49
Speaker 3: a lot of football games that way. I think the
34:52
Speaker 3: more a hire, I really don't know if I could
34:56
Speaker 3: choose a better option for the moment at CSU than
35:01
Speaker 3: that guy. So I'm very excited about what they could
35:04
Speaker 3: be this year and what they're going to be in
35:05
Speaker 3: the future. At the same time, it's year one. I
35:11
Speaker 3: don't know what this is going to look like. They're
35:14
Speaker 3: favorites heading into this opening game against Wyoming. I have
35:24
Speaker 3: a lot of high hopes for CSU and what's going
35:27
Speaker 3: to happen over there. You know, they've tried since I've
35:31
Speaker 3: been here, these different iterations of Adazio and Norvell and
35:38
Speaker 3: I think Norvell was one that I was excited about
35:40
Speaker 3: that had some promise. It's just for, I think, the
35:45
Speaker 3: style he wanted to play, it became very difficult to
35:50
Speaker 3: get that totally under control at CSU. I'm pumped about Mora, though.
35:56
Speaker 3: I think that it's a perfect situation for both him
36:00
Speaker 3: and CSU. I think they're in a great place. For
36:07
Speaker 3: a starting point, I think it's great. So I can't
36:12
Speaker 3: wait for both of these this weekend. We were talking
36:15
Speaker 3: about this yesterday. The entire first week of college football,
36:20
Speaker 3: only 11 games are ones that have single-digit spreads. And
36:26
Speaker 3: CU and CSU are two of the 11. So 303, 504, 0925.
36:28
Speaker 3: A couple other stories real quick. We told you that
36:39
Speaker 3: the Live Golf Tour is like not paying their vendors
36:43
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. We have somebody that lives and
36:46
Speaker 3: works here in Colorado that shot a whole bunch of
36:49
Speaker 3: stuff for him at the beginning of the year that
36:50
Speaker 3: is still yet to be paid. So Front Office Sports
36:54
Speaker 3: has this. Jon Rahm is reportedly owed $ 100 million or
37:00
Speaker 3: more from Live Golf, and he's not alone. Former vendors
37:04
Speaker 3: and contractors remain unpaid. Lawsuits are piling up. And Saudi
37:08
Speaker 3: PIF may be on the hook as Liv heads towards
37:12
Speaker 3: a potential bankruptcy filing soon. You went over to the
37:18
Speaker 3: Liv tour if you're a golfer to get money. That's
37:21
Speaker 3: what you did. You signed up for the gigantic check.
37:30
Speaker 3: And if a lot of these guys who signed up
37:32
Speaker 3: to go over there still haven't been paid, haven't gotten
37:37
Speaker 3: their money, that's going to be a tough one. It's
37:44
Speaker 3: a tough one to live with. You went over for
37:47
Speaker 3: the money, and we all kind of thought this. This
37:49
Speaker 3: is what's, there's going to be like, they don't do
37:52
Speaker 3: ESPN 30 for 30. It's what they do now. Untold's
37:56
Speaker 3: on Netflix. There's going to be one of those documentary
38:01
Speaker 3: things that are done about this league And the biggest
38:04
Speaker 3: question I have, because here's what's the bizarre thing. This
38:07
Speaker 3: does not apply to, like, the vendors. The people who
38:10
Speaker 3: are hired to do a job and then didn't get
38:14
Speaker 3: paid for it, like our friends here in Denver did.
38:18
Speaker 3: But for the golfers, the number one question everybody asked
38:25
Speaker 3: when this league started up was what? How are you
38:28
Speaker 3: guys paying for this? Right? It was the number one thing.
38:32
Speaker 3: It's like, you're spending... billions of dollars on just attracting
38:37
Speaker 3: PGA talent to go over towards this league. Where's the money?
38:42
Speaker 3: And I just thought to myself, I'm like, is there
38:45
Speaker 3: just some Saudi Scrooge McDuck out there that just has
38:49
Speaker 3: more money than he knows what to do with so
38:51
Speaker 3: he just can throw billions around and not care? And
38:54
Speaker 3: there probably is. But When you're hearing that Jon Rahm's
39:02
Speaker 3: owed $ 100 million or more and they're heading towards bankruptcy,
39:07
Speaker 3: it goes back to that initial question of, well, yeah, duh.
39:13
Speaker 3: Everybody asked the question of how are you going to
39:16
Speaker 3: afford to do this at the very start? The only
39:19
Speaker 3: way that league gets off the ground is by severely
39:23
Speaker 3: overpaying talent. And now you find yourself at a place
39:28
Speaker 3: where everybody was asking where's the money coming from? And
39:31
Speaker 3: the answer is like, yeah, they didn't really have it.
39:35
Speaker 3: It's bizarre. So 303-504-0925, by the way, what a party. No,
39:43
Speaker 3: we had last night a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. Jake
39:46
Speaker 3: is headed to Kansas City for the opening game of
39:48
Speaker 3: the year, and we gave away dozens of prizes along
39:51
Speaker 3: the way. So thanks to everyone who came out to
39:53
Speaker 3: Rooftop Social and Bud Light, the official beer sponsor of
39:58
Speaker 3: the Denver Broncos. A lot to get to this morning.
40:02
Speaker 3: I do want to get back to this list here
40:04
Speaker 3: and what I think this says more overall perception-wise. for
40:10
Speaker 3: what the Broncos are and who they are. So we'll
40:14
Speaker 3: get to all that in just a couple of minutes.
40:16
Speaker 3: You can always watch the show live on Twitch. Twitch.tv,
40:18
Speaker 3: search Altitude SR on the search bar, the Altitude TV simulcast.
40:22
Speaker 3: You can also watch on YouTube. Subscribe to the channel
40:26
Speaker 3: and don't miss anything from Denver's number one sports station,
40:29
Speaker 3: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5. A whole bunch to get to
40:35
Speaker 3: this morning. We'll continue to take a look. You know,
40:37
Speaker 3: we're a day away from CU's opener. Against Georgia Tech.
40:42
Speaker 3: A lot to get to. Moshe Lombardi came next.