Latest / Hutton & Withrow Show / Hutton & Withrow: Billy Liucci Sounds Off on Mike Elko, Alabama-Tennessee Showdown & Mike Ditka's Legacy | Hour 1

Transcript

Hutton & Withrow: Billy Liucci Sounds Off on Mike Elko, Alabama-Tennessee Showdown & Mike Ditka's Legacy | Hour 1 · Hutton & Withrow Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are out of the gates on Sport and State.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: It's the Hutton and Withrow Show. Glad you're with us.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: We're presented by Hard Rock Bet. Jam-packed show.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Billy Lucci is going to join us.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: We've got Billy's cesspool discussion coming up in about 15
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: minutes or so. Chad Withrow, well-deserved time with the family.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It's fall break. He's down in Florida. He'll be with
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: us coming up later this hour. Primary complaint, we have
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: going for the bundle with Hard Rock.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Bet and much more.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we've got plenty, including Mike Ditka and Coach Mack.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Dave McGinnis, a great story about how Mack could have
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: followed Mike Ditka as the head coach of the Bears.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: He had the job for six hours, didn't know it
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: for three. That story coming up in roughly 30 minutes. First,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: let's look ahead to the bad, badass weekend.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: It's going to be awesome. So we're going to be
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: in Knoxville. Myself, Chad Withrow. Also, next round. The next
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: round will be with us. Looking forward to hanging with them.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: They'll be with us in Gatlinburg on Friday morning in
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Knoxville Friday night. And it's Tennessee and Alabama on Saturday.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: It's the third Saturday in October.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Let's go. Can't wait.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Nobody, and I mean nobody, is safe in the SEC
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: week to week. The proof is, look at the carnage.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: that we've witnessed over the last, what, three, four weeks
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: or so. Texas comes into Knoxville in week, what, four.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: They're ranked number one. They get out of Knoxville. They
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: escape 20-17. Then they lose to Oklahoma this past weekend,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a team that had just been blown out by Georgia,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: like 41-13, I think. And they had awful offense. I
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: lost my bet on that one. I was expecting that
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: to remain the same because they had been awful against Texas.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: But then Arch Manning and Texas, they fall 27-24. LSU,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: they go on the road to Lexington, and they lose.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: You have overtime in that game. Kentucky's gone back-to-back weeks
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: with one-point wins in overtime.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Thrillers.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Ole Miss, they beat LSU, and then Florida gets them.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And then Missouri comes and gets Florida, and... South Carolina
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: doubles up with Florida as well. Even Missouri just had,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: they suffocated Texas A & M. They get over 200
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: yards rushing in that game. And then we see the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: resume from what has happened in Starkville. Alabama takes care
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: of Mississippi State, but Mississippi State took care of Missouri.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: No one is safe.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I still think Vanderbilt's going to get one of these
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: teams coming up. Was it last week? It wasn't even
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: a close first half, not even close first quarter. We'll
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: see who keeps it close this weekend in October 17th.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: So it continues this Saturday. The trap doors are wide
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: open here. Alabama, Tennessee, Kelly in Vegas is texting, chatting
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: to myself last night, trying to figure out which way
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: we're going. We'll disclose that coming up, but she's going
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to fade us, obviously. And we'll probably win this weekend
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: because I don't think she's going to be right on this.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Alabama 5-1 coming off the emotional, physical game against Georgia
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: where Keelan Russell, he took four sacks and now they
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: lost a fumble as well. So now they come into
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Knoxville and Neyland Stadium against a good Tennessee front, a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: 5-1 Tennessee team whose only blemish is a three-point loss
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: to Texas. So you've got a physical game there. They've
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: had physical games against Auburn. Arkansas certainly always has been.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Great line by Mike Keith, voice of the Vols, in
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the open for the broadcast, says it's a double-digit.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Spread once again. It's always been that way.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: But Arkansas for Tennessee has been the car on the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: interstate who won't get out of the way. And that's
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: exactly how this game played out. If Bama has a hangover,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: from the Georgia game, Tennessee will be in and out
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: of Disneyland Stadium with a win, just like they were
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: in 2022 with the field storming. One of my favorite
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: games hanging with Clay and Chad. So Missouri-Ole Miss coming up.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: We have– that game is at Oxford. Both teams sitting
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: with one loss. You have the de facto maybe a
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: college football– elimination game here. SEC's not going to get
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: six teams in, I don't think, and we're going to
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: see these teams battle each other out at the playoff
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: more so than maybe battle and win in because the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Big Ten's going to be beating each other's brains out
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: against the lower opponents in competition. The big matchups are
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: happening right here in the middle of the season for them.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Florida heads to Texas. This is 11 a.m. Central game
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: in Austin. You've got Kentucky and Oklahoma. That will be
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: at night, 630 Central in Norman. Texas coming off the
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Red River shootout loss. You have Oklahoma, who is coming
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: off that emotional high and win. Their best game they've
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: had in a long time. Mateer looked like the quarterback
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: that we thought he was going to be. And we
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: get a red-hot Kentucky team once again. We'll see how
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: they play. So who's going to step forward? Who falls back?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Between now, past.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: halloween into thanksgiving um i if i had to buy
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: or sell i'm going tennessee believe it or not um
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: i like their defensive front i i look at this
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: and think if they can get brandon back that i
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: like their chances more just because uh he i thought
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: he was going to be banged up longer than this
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: we'll talk with chad about this but there's a story
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: out that he may be coming back sooner rather than
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: later that's a great sign for them um It's how
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: they're winning. They aren't just winning with these finesse games.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: They're having to really dig their way out and make
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: some plays or get a stop or overcome some bad decisions,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and they're doing that. Chad made a great point. It's
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: like a 5-1 team, and we've never felt worse. I
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: came out of the game thinking they're not going to
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: be very much in the mix towards the end of
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the season because, well, McIntyre's not the guy. Not with
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the conservative play calling we saw from Heupel. But if
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: he gets his quarterback back, maybe we get more of that.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: He's a starter for the reason. I thought we were
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: going to see him sit more. I kept hearing that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: he's really banged up. But what we saw in a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: report may not be the case.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: It's great.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: And they've got the defense that travels. They're getting Alabama
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: at home. I wish this game was at night. But
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: it's a scheduling advantage right now in Tennessee's favorite, Neyland.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Best home advantage that we've seen. Certainly played a factor
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: in a home field advantage earlier this season with Auburn.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Missouri.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I'm buying Missouri. I've been selling Missouri. I have to
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: take the Tigers right now. Holding Texas A & M
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: to six points. What, 30 rushing yards? Missouri, they're proving
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: that they can stick and fight these games. Roberts playing well.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: You've got a team that no one's really been talking
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: about that's about to splash forward and be a big
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: national storyline if they get this win and they continue
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to stack wins and only have that one loss. I
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: like Missouri as well. Teams are falling back for me.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: LSU's already got two losses. I'm looking at a team
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: like Oklahoma. I don't think they're going to sustain what
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: we saw in the Red River shootout. And A & M,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of course. I mean, I went on tech sags at
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the SEC media days. Marcel Reed played right here at
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville. And I'm a big fan
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: of Marcel Reed. We called the state championship game for him.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: And he's a battler.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: He's a leader.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: He's the son of a head coach, former head coach
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Rod Reed of the Tennessee State Tigers. And I think
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that's an advantage for him on the field. He's taken
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: a big step back. And it's hard to find out why.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: We're going to find out with Billy Lucci, who's going
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: to join us in about five minutes or so. But
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I'm disappointed because I expected more. I expected him to
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: be what we're seeing from the quarterback play at Kentucky,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: quite frankly.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Consistent. And it's been anything but. It's been the opposite.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Very inconsistent is the only consistency that we've seen. Who
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: can survive through November in an SEC slate? And a
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: group of teams that will bring it week in, week out.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: South Carolina didn't give up. They go on the road
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and win in Florida. It doesn't appear that we're going
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: to see Texas A & M throw in the towel.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: And I think that's largely due to Lucci not stirring
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the pot. I think he deserves credit there. Because I
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: think other sites, if they're called out like this, immediately
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: respond to the cesspool comment. And stirred this up. And
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: he did the opposite in real time. Johnny Menzel called him,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: funny enough, and said, hey, don't reply. Take a beat.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Because he had always been doing that for Johnny. Johnny
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: didn't listen. Billy did, apparently. I'm fascinated by the reasons why.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: most would stir the pot and charge the fan base up.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: A & M fans are pissed, but they're also very patient.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: And the techsags.com, the subscribers, and those that are not
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: subscribers but visit that site, that's the vast majority of
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: your fan base. That's where you go if you're an
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Aggies fan and Lucci and the Lucci company did not
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: pounce on the head coach who's feeling, uh, pressure last year,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: playoff expectations of trying to get back into the playoff
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: fall back. And he doesn't respond that way unless he's,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: he's hearing the chirps and he says, he doesn't listen
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: to that stuff. I'm sure the family members do. Someone's
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: always telling you something. Um, Yes, we've got– Lucci's going
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to join us in two and a half minutes from
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Looking forward to that. We have plenty to get to.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: With stories of Mike Ditko that I've heard from one
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: of his coaches of the past in Chicago.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: And Cam Ward.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Cam Ward in the fourth quarter versus what we've seen
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: from Cam Ward in year two through quarters one, two,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and three. In garbage time, things pick up a little bit.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: There's trailing by two scores, and they're passing the football
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: a lot. But beyond that, they're not doing much, if anything,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: to move the football in the first half.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: They're awful.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: And in the third quarter, they come out and they
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: don't do much to move the football then. Fourth quarter
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: garbage time is padding some stats. And it's hard to
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: overlook that. But if you're just looking at the stat sheet,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the numbers are the numbers and they're awful. But they
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: would be so, so, so much worse. If they weren't
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: forced to throw the football, being down by two scores
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and the opponent separating the score with them on the scoreboard.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Billy Lucci joins us in two minutes.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Looking forward to that. We're presented by Hard Rock Bet.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: We're Sporting State. It's Hutton Withrow.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: This year, the party's getting even bigger.
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• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Welcome back.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Hutton and Withrow here on the Sport and State Network.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you. Glad you're with us today. You
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  Speaker 1: to $ 500 in those sweat bets. We welcome in, well... Well,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the president of the cesspool, Billy Lugy. Does that mean
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I'm a member?
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: You are, right? I'm a foundational member?
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: You are, of course.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Lord of the cesspool. Yeah.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Hey, in all seriousness, that thing blew up, and I'm
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: curious where you were when you found out about what
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Elko had said post-game.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: I actually, it was right after the Missouri game, and
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: I was in.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Fort worth the night before at a concert was going
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: to fly with some friends to Columbia.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: Uh, the next morning did decided not to go watch
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: it on TV. So I was at a buddy's house, uh,
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: North of Dallas driving from the end of the game to, uh,
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: you know, if you know, Dallas, everything's far away. So
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: prosper to count, you know, where my hotel was in
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: Dallas is 45 minute drive. So I was in the
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: car and I got a text actually from, uh, one
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: of my friends in media who works for, uh, you know,
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: one of the national networks that was there that I think,
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: I believe I'm not positive. He, if he did or not, uh,
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: ask the question, Carter, he had messaged me, Hey, did
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: you see what Elko said in the presser?
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: I was like, Oh man, no. What? You know? And
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: then send it to me. Uh, you know, I was like, wow,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: like this, that ain't good.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: Um, and at first I was really, I was really pissed,
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: you know, like on a personal level.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Just, I think everyone would be.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: And then I thought, then I thought about it and
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: it was more of like, Oh man, that's, that's going
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: to be brutal for, you know, the, uh, coach and
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: the fan base and the fan base with the coach
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: more particularly. Yeah. And I just was like, man, that was,
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: he made a bad, uh, really bad misstep there. That
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: was completely, as I wrote, like completely unnecessary, uh, So
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: then I was just like, I need to get somewhere
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: and start log on and start getting ready for the fallout.
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: So that was a crazy afternoon, night, next day. But
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, it was my personal thing was I was
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: pissed off for a little bit. And then I was like,
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: this is just going to be a big drama for
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: the next few days.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I seriously mean this, Billy. I'll tell you my initial
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: reaction to it in a moment. Yeah. But I think
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: the way you handled it saved him a lot of
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: future grief here.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Based on like the site could go all in on this.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: And stir up the fans. Yeah. And that would stick
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: around for a while.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: And I think the way you handled it with the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: initial response on social media, which was you're going to
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: hold your comment or whatever.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Um, I think that was, that was class seriously.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: And, uh, I think that also, um, initiated everything that
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: happens with the statement afterwards where he, you know, he
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: had to, I said yesterday he had to kiss, kiss
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the ring. Um, I mean, I mean, I don't know
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: how you feel about that. I know he probably.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Called you, right?
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we talked and we talked, you know, he called
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: me Saturday and we ended up talking on Sunday.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: And it's fine.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: Like within two seconds, like that's someone I've known for
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: a long time.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: I root for him.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: I support him. I didn't like seeing him screw up.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: And as soon as I could detach myself personally from it,
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: everybody jokes with me. They're like, it was your name.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: It is personal. So many people texted me. It was great.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: Just having my back and, But I was just– every
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: time I got that text in my head, I'm like,
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: I'm not at war with him. He's got to mend
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: fences with the fans, you know.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: And that's going to take time.
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: Because, you know, it's hard to do that in the
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: short term when you're losing football games. And unfortunately, and
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: we'll talk about this in a minute, I think they're
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: going to continue to lose football games, you know, even
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: if they mix in a win here or there.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, overall, it's going to be a really rough season.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: So– That part of it is where I was like,
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: that's the hard part.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: It's not me.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: But I am defensive of the forums and the message
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: boards and the people because I know what people think.
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: And I know there's a bottom percentile. And that's the case,
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: I think, in anything. There's a bottom percentile of a
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: locker room. There's a bottom percentile of a sports team.
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: You know, the players that you get your top in
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: and your bottom in. There's a bottom percentile on politics,
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: whether you're in the right or the left.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: There's a bottom percentile of every forum on every fan base,
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: every school. And there's a bottom percentile of social media.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: And you just can't geo-target that and say that. Because
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: even if everyone agreed... Right. Everyone agreed.
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: And they said, yeah, you know what? Coach was right.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: You're still not changing that bottom percentile.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: So and then when you're exciting the the that base.
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: And if you miss, then you're saying it about the
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: entire entity.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: And a lot of those people. You know, are incredibly supportive.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: Financially with their passion, just simply, you know, the person
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: that can just afford one single season ticket or one
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: game ticket, they, they make it makes their whole year
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: to come to Kyle field for one game, all the
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: way up to the top line donors. So all the
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: way across the board, it's, it's pretty crazy. You know,
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: that it was not crazy. It was just, he didn't
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: think before he spoke. And I think, emotion and got
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: the best of them. I've seen that happen so many
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: times with coaches. Frankly, it never ends up working out.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: It's almost like.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: The worse it's getting on the field, the more concentrated, thoughtful,
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: and guarded you have to be when you get there
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: on the microphone.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: I think it's as simple as that.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: My initial takeaway was, man, he's lumping Texags with the very,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: he said, you know, he acts like it's a very
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: small percent.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: I'm like, that's the fan base.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Like it's, it's a huge portion of the Texas A &
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: M fans. I mean, that represents like, I just, that.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Ain't because of me. Well, that ain't because of me.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: They're there. You know, I'm, I'm like the, the, the
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: guy that gives them the information.
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: I'm the one that gathers the information, but they're going to,
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: they're there because they're, they're like, it's a giant family.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: You know, and it is Kyle Field in a forum.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: I know it's not a hundred, I mean, there are
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: more than a hundred thousand on that site, non-paid. There's
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: way more than a hundred thousand, but paid premium, if
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: you're talking about my forum, there's a lot of people
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: in there and there's no like class or structure it's
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: not like oh we're all going to listen to this
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: guy because he donates more they're all just fans and
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: they love A & M and they love Aggie football
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: and they want to love Mike Elko they do but
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: they're also going to be fairly you know critical and
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: to you and me being critical of a coach or
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: a game or athlete or performer might look like this
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: and everybody goes yeah that's okay that's rational and then
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: somebody else their personality or their delivery might be past
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: your comfort level. It just is what it is. But
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: the one thing they all are is.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: They're all Aggies, and they all love A & M,
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: and they love Aggie football.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: So I'm telling you, that guy appreciates this place and
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: the fan base, and I actually think he appreciates Texas Aggies.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: It's probably part of the issue is he's on there.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: Not lately, but I think he– not to be, oh,
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: I got to read what people are saying about me, Hutton,
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: but to kind of go– I'm almost like it's not–
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: you can't do it, but mentally a lot of these
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: coaches think they're kind of protecting their realm of going,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: this is what the parents are reading, the recruits, the players.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Let's make sure what the temperature is there.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Well, let's– okay.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's not a coach that comes to that
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: campus that doesn't want to speak to you about– you know,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: getting ready for a potential job. That's, that's your credit
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: and your staff that fantastic work. Having been there one time,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: I know the fan base is as loyal and passionate
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and patient, quite frankly, compared to others.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: But I'm curious about this in the future. You mentioned like,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: there's going to be more losses.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: A response like this from the coach tells me he's
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: feeling some heat. Like he's, he's, he's defensive of at
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: least that area of criticism. What's, this is coming off
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: of a year where you, you had the college football playoff.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: So I'm curious, Billy, like what's the, what's the vibe,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: what's the sentiment and, and what happens if the losses continue?
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: I don't think, I don't think anything, let's say happens.
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: Like in other words, I don't think Mike Elko is
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: getting fired. I do think there'll be a lot of
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: pressure going into the off season and, and obviously entering
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: next season, which, you know, you would not have expected.
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: We'd be talking about six games in. I do think though,
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: that like, he's going to have to make some tough
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: decisions in terms of, you know, his staff. I also
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: think that portal wise, you know, look, they did an
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: amazing job in the portal previous to this year. And
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: it's not just the portal Hutton it's portal plus how
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: you evaluate your roster. Cause that's when you decide how
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: far into the portal you need to go at a position.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Or as a whole you've developed.
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: So they have to revisit all that and go, what
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: did we do wrong? Versus what we did right previously
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: when we built a play. And you can say what
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: you want about who they played. A & M, if
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: you watched them play last year, that was a top
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: 10 team in the country.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: And they finished that way.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: Were they smoke and mirrors if you were comparing them
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: to Ohio State and Indiana?
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: If you want to say that, fine.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: I mean, I also watched them in a tie game
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: with Miami with 90 seconds left that went on to
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: almost win the whole thing. So I don't even know
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: if that's really accurate. But this year is a completely
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: different team. Last year's team would boat race this year's team.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: I think it's very clear. Last year's Marcel Reed would
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: run circles around this year's Marcel Reed.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: I'm stunned by.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: His play this year compared to what I expected, man.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: I really am. You know I really like you.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: I know, and I do too.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: And I thought, look, you lose four or five starters
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: up front to the NFL, and there was a real
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: risk there if that struggled and there was not a
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: running game. I actually thought if that's the case, the coaches,
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: as long as the O-line didn't stink, could work around
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: it because of Marcel's right. Dual threat ability. And because
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: the receivers were good, I thought we're going to be
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: so good, but all of that's been a disappointment. But
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: my point is his, his, his big thing now is
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: going to have to be, look, you can flip it
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: in a year. I mean, I just watched a Missouri
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: defense that lost replaced 11 starters, shut down a and
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: M in Florida back to back. And that's replacing every
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: single starter. And they lost probably their best guy to Miami, right?
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: The pass rusher.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: So I, you can, you can do that, but you
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: have to make the decision that like, Hey, we got
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: to unexpectedly turn this on its head, or maybe you don't,
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: but they have to look into that and decide what's
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: the right path. Cause to answer your question and going
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: all the way back, I mean, I don't think it
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: gets better from now until end of season. So he's
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: got to make it better as soon as the offseason begins.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, again, they could beat Tennessee at home. They
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: could beat South Carolina on the road. They could upset somebody. Hell,
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: I don't think they would do it. They could upset
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: Texas at home. Crazier things happen in a rivalry. But
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: what does that, barring doing all of those things, you're
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: in a dogfight to get to 6-6 is the reality.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: They win their fourth game this weekend against Citadel. And
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: you've got to win two out of Tennessee, South Carolina
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: on the road, OU on the road, Alabama on the road,
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: and Texas at home. You've got to go two and
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: three in those five just to get to 500. So
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: it's not going to be a successful season, even if.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: They do get better.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, it's a Music City ballpark probably, you know,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: which is great for us because you get to come
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: to Nashville.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, at best. But, yeah, right now I'm like,
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: sign me up.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: Because, by the way– Hutton, to do that, they've got
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: to get a lot better to win those two. So
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: right now they wouldn't be favored, I don't think, in
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: any of them. And I don't know what the big
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: change could be on offense other than just slow, steady
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: improvement maybe. Defensively, they look like a team that's getting
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: noticeably better the last couple weeks. Elko said he turned
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: over play calling in-game duties to Lyle Hemphill. So it
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: has looked like it's picked up a little bit there.
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: so he can focus more on, you know, just being
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: the head coach on game day.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Man, Tennessee-Bama, I'm curious on your thoughts here, just based
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: on what we've seen from Tennessee quarterback play a week
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: ago compared to this past Saturday, and Bama in the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Georgia game, fantastic football game for college, but, you know,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: they're coming off.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: The loss as well.
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: I was texting with somebody in college football, and I
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: said that was, I think it was Roman Harper.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: I said that was the first game i watched this
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: year where i just said that is just high level
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: yeah like what we expect sec national championship college football
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: so both those teams to me had kind of taken
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: a step back from that and they'd gone back to
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: the to the pack a little but we're still sitting
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: you know obviously georgia above most of the pack alabama
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: was still you could but they're a playoff team but
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: that was more like Nick Saban, prime Will Muschamp, George Obama,
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: that looked different than anything I've seen this year.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: And I think Texas took a real physical toll on Tennessee.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: For sure. Particularly at quarterback.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: And also, he's just a true freshman there. I know
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: what that rivalry is. Talked earlier about A & M
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: in Texas. We saw OU pull off a miracle on Saturday.
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: I think Bama is too.
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: I think it would be a pretty shocking upset because
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: Bama also plays defense. I think Tennessee is going to
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: have a hard time scoring enough points. It might be
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: a close competitive, old-school SEC, roll your sleeves up and
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: go at it. It might not be Keelan Russell and
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: Ryan Coleman, like shredding them or things like that. But
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: I do think Bama will come out on top of
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: that one and be smoking the cigars.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: And then Ryan Coleman-Williams is out for this game.
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: True.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: But the quarterback– But.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: They don't have to– the coach doesn't have to play conservative.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I think Heifel's going to have to do that. He
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: did that at Arkansas and nearly lost the game.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I just think– I think a lower scoring game,
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: not Bama running a DeBoer and Grubb track meet. But
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: I just think they're so much better now, in my opinion, defensively.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: Just their profile, what they look like. And I think Bama–
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: I think they're a top. five team in the country.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: I think Tennessee is, what are they ranked? Now they're
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: top 15. I think they're a top 20 team in
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: the country, you know, and that, you know, I think
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: it would take, it will have to be an outlier
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: in both of these team seasons, which happens. And I'll
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: tell you what, I root for the team with the
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: checkered end zone whenever they're not playing A & M.
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: I'm a, I'm a state of Tennessee fan. I'm a
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: Tennessee Vol fan. I was my favorite, destination so far.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: I think I've seen all but one. It's my favorite
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: destination in the SEC.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Which one have you not seen?
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: Believe it or not, it's Auburn, of all things.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Really?
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: Actually, Kroger Field at Kentucky, because A & M' s never
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: played there. I've been there for basketball several times to Lexington.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: It's my number one basketball one.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: But, yeah, Auburn, who.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: They played every other year in the SEC, but it
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: was just, I didn't go the first, because there's been
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: a couple times where I knew A & M was
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: going to blow them out. There's been a couple times
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: where I knew Auburn was going to beat A & M.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: And more often than not, that's turned out to be
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: wrong that's been a weird rivalry so I kind of
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: and then sometimes it's like week three of a three
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: game road trip and I was like I'm going to
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: skip that one I skip a game or two a
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: year or you have a concert yeah I have a
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: concert or something but I've never I've actually never been
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: there and.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Most people say it's the closest thing to.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: A & M like Environment-wise, and I've had coaches here
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: at A & M tell me whether Auburn's good, bad,
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: or indifferent, or whether good, bad, or average, that is
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: as tough an environment as anywhere in the SEC.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: I was watching this past Saturday, as we let you go,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: with an Aggies fan. I asked him who he was
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: rooting for, Oklahoma. He goes, anybody playing Texas, I want
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Texas to lose.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: It's just so bad. Yeah, you'll appreciate that.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: I do, I do.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Thank you for the time.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Uh, and, uh, by the way, great job with, uh,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: with Barstool and the Manziel deal.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Go make sure Manziel gives.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: You more PR, guys.
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: He laughed about that. He laughed about that. Cause I've
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: made that call to him so many damn times. I
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: don't know how, what percentage he, he actually listens, but, uh,
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: he tries. I mean, he, he appreciates it. And I,
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: I actually did appreciate it back from him too, because, uh,
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: It is. It's like, that was kind of like a,
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: Hey man, you, I know how many times you've done
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: this to me.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: So hear me, hear me out.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: And then a couple of people I called, but I mean, again,
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: that went away, that, that, that emotion went away really quickly.
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: And then it was more like, all right, this is here.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: This is a circus.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: You're class act though, man. Keep up the great work
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: and get to Nashville sooner. Or maybe we get to
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: college station.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: We'll see.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: That would be fun too. But yeah, I was talking
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: to a few of our, mutual friends here in the
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: last couple of days, two separate groups and Nashville definitely
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: came up.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: So we need to make that happen soon. Music Citadel
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: or not.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Hey man, take care and I'll catch up soon.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: All right, buddy. See ya.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: There's Billy Lucci, Tex Ags, founder, owner. Stay tuned.
• 31:40
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• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Good to see you, bro. Good to see you, Hutton.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: You get to pull abroad. Yeah, yeah.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: It was a little bit chilly this morning, so I
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: put this on. Also, running out of clean clothes. Didn't
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: quite pack well enough, so going long sleeves this morning
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: with you.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Good to be on with you. Hutton, I know that your.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Grandfather was big into aviation and a pilot. I'm going
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: to go see the Blue Angels today for the first
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: time here in Pensacola. So a Blue Angels show. I'm
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: headed to go watch right when we're done with the
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: show today, so looking forward to it. I didn't know
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: specifically where you were, but my aunt and uncle have
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: a spot down there, too.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Next time you can use their spot if you want.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: We are in Perdido Key, which is about 30 minutes
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: from Pensacola in Florida, right on the Alabama-Florida state line.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he loved planes. We went to Oshkosh. At one point.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: And it was a huge airplane deal. I remember doing
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: that when I was really young. It was maybe one
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: of my first memories. I was probably four or five.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know. That's awesome.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And beyond that, I mean, he built two airplanes. So, yeah,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: he would love the Blue Angels. And I have a
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: feeling you're going to be wanting to watch Top Gun afterwards.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Probably.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: You're going to see a lot of naval aviation while
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: I'm down here. My youngest daughter, Lucy, who's seven, is
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: the one that is the most gung-ho about going to
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: watch this.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: So she's really pumped to go see it.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: So, you know, we're going to get there a little
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: bit early. I think the show's at like 1030 here,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: local time and take that in. I'll have a full
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: report for you tomorrow.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by this because it's, you know, I'm trying
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: to think about what they can do other than just,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: I want to know how crazy some of this stuff is.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: You have to be, to me, you'd have to be
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: pretty crazy to try to pull this off. It's nuts
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to me. Um, also crazy Titans leadership. Um, PK had
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the story. I think Stillman has talked about this some
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: specifically with the non-football leadership of the organization removed from
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: the website of the Titans, the official website. Initially, they
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: were looking for the Burke-Nihill name, of course, on the website. Well,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: it turns out all of the non-football members of the
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: execs are lifted.
• 35:05
  Speaker 6: Why?
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, other than just trying to not have their
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: names on this because of embarrassment, I don't know why
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: you remove your name and make it a story. It's
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: very bizarre if you're not going to speak on behalf
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: of ownership and you're going to remove your name from
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the website. That would be a Burke decision. It's bizarre.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I don't know what this serves, Chad. Yeah, I think
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Burke Nihill is very uncomfortable with how many times his
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: name has been mentioned on shows like ours and other ones.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: That's the only thing I can come to. You're right.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Is that conclusion that he now is a public figure
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: and that's not necessarily what he wants.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: But when you take a job.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: As the mouthpiece of ownership of an NFL franchise and
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: you're the CEO and president, I hate to break it
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: to anybody, but you're in the public eye at that point.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: And you are a very important player in the game
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: of professional football, which is the top game in town.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: So if you're going to take that role, then you're
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: going to be in the public eye and removing yourself
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: from a website isn't going to do anything to detract
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: from that. I think it's a cowardice move. It's very odd.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: It also does, once again, hunt and bring unnecessary attention
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: to you by making the move to remove yourself from
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: the website, not like people didn't know who you were
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: and couldn't find you otherwise. It's another baffling decision. I'll
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: go back to the decision to take away Jared Stillman's credential.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: It's just an unforced error. Why do it at that point?
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: You're going to bring unwanted attention and give a ton
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: of attention to someone you don't like.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: In Stillman.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: And that's exactly what they succeeded in doing. So look,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: it's just another unforced error in a string of so
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: many of them.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: You know, the word is like they, they, they, they
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: being the website, um, you know, producers, um, editors, they
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: were told to remove all non-football execs from that when
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: they fired people last week.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: Weird.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I just, it, it definitely makes no sense other than
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: just to remove the people that are gone from the organization. Um, Chad, uh,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Speaking of bad leadership, the Bears, right after Ditka was
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: gone from Chicago, we'll get to that in a moment,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: but Mike Ditka passes away.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: The aviators, the sweater vest, the stash.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: If you wanted to explain the soul of football from
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: that era, it's him. It is Mike Ditka, 1985 Bears.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Before he became the pop culture celebrity and the SNL's
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Da Bears. I mean, he literally invented the modern tight
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: end position. Without Iron Mike playing tight end, do we
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: have the path paving the way to Gronk or Kelsey?
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Maybe not the same way. Super Bowl champion as a player.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: He did it as an assistant, as a head coach.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: He was loud. He was demanding.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Very generous with his money in donations and things like that.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: Just randomly giving people money. And 100% authentic. You know,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: there's never going to be another Ditka. And everybody wants
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: to be known by one name. This is the legacy
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: that they're talking about. We're here at the condo and
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: the whole family at halftime of that Bills game on
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Monday Night Football fired up YouTube and started watching old
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: clips of super fans on SNL with Bears and Ditka.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: And even the one where Ditka makes a cameo appearance
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: on SNL in the sketch.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great. And I'm watching this and.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Thinking, how many coaches, not just football coaches, but coaches
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: in general, have set the aesthetic and the standard for dress,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: for male grooming with the hairstyle and the mustache the
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: way Ditka did. Ditka, he actually brought about what a
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Bears fan looks like.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, that sketch is reality.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Men wanted to grow a mustache like that when he
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: was coaching in the 80s. He was a male fashion icon,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: as funny as that sounds. I'm trying to put into
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: perspective how much he meant, not just to the Chicago Bears,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: but to masculinity in a lot of ways in the 80s.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Tom Selleck certainly had a lot to do with the
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: mustache also, but I look at Mike Ditka and I think,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: this guy represented an entire market, a group of hardworking people,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the hair slicked back, the mustache, everything about him, it
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: reflected an entire city.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: In Chicago.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, Bear Bryant and the houndstooth, I guess, was
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: replicated by.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: A lot of Alabama fans. It still is today.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: But how many coaches can you go down the list
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: and say, he set the market for what people were
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: going to dress, act, talk like, everything else. And it's just,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: it's sad because I see it. And I'm like, once again,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: It feels like a generation of men that are passing
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: away that we keep seeing more and more. Gene Hackman
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: was one. It's like we're not going to see actors
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: like that as much anymore. Just the man's man, the
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: character actor who becomes a star. I feel that way
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: about Mike Dick and others when these guys of that
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: age start to pass away.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: Just such an icon. Yeah. Well done.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: It's just fitting in a way. They're playing the Green
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Bay Packers. Well done by the Green Bay Packers and
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: the way they honored him pregame.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: We've got that.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: And it was just a very nice way to send
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: a tribute in Green Bay, sorry, and the way that
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: they set that up pregame. So that leads me to
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: another story. And I'll keep this short and sweet, but
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: it ties into Ditka because Dave McGinnis, who also recently
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: passed away, got a job as a linebackers coach for
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Mike Ditka when he was 32 years old. He was
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: looking for a job, leaving Kansas State, had interviewed a
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: little bit, and all of a sudden he gets a
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: call from the Bears.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: Hey, you want to interview? And so he ends up
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: in Chicago.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: He's interviewing with Ditka, and he's right across the way.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: He gets the gig, and he was really nervous about it.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: And he said, randomly, he was talking with Ditka, and
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: Ditka said, kid, If I didn't think you were going
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: to be good, I wouldn't have hired you. And from
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: then on, they just hit it off. So Ditka's out.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Mack is the head coach for six hours and didn't
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: know it for three. So the story is Michael McCaskey
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: was in charge of doing this deal. Virginia and Ed,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: the other owners, he's the owners, they're at the Super Bowl.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: So they're down in Florida.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: And this is going on where Michael McCaskey is supposed
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: to be getting the deal done with Dave McGinnis. So
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: McCaskey screws this up royally because of the way this
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: all went down. He scheduled a press conference to announce
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Dave as the new head coach, and Mack didn't know
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: anything about it. He's in the hotel room waiting for
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: a call to go back and interview again. Now, he
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: had Mike Marks lined up to coach with him and
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: Leslie Frazier. That was a part of the interview process.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: But the bears were not going to give his assistants
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: the type of pay that was necessary to make them
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: feel secure. So, you know, he wasn't going to sign
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: the deal. And they were negotiating all of this over
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: a yellow notebook, notepad. So he's like, I don't feel
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: good about this with my assistants. He tells his wife, Kim,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: there's no right way to do the wrong thing. And
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: he ends up walking the job. When he left the
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: facility the first day, McCaskey was trying to get him back.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: They had the general manager trying to get him back
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: over there. They had Virginia and Ed called him and said,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: will you please just go back tomorrow morning?
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Stay the night. And he did.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: And the next morning, Michael McCaskey tried to get them
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: at the coffee shop.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: Instead of the facility because he wanted the press to
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: be there.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: And because it was leaking out that he wasn't signed yet.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: So come to find out Mac was, he knew what
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: this was happening. He's like, no, we're going to do
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: this facility. I'm not coming. So they end up, um,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: talking in like a minute later, he's like, I'm out.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: And he's walking down the, the airport here.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: And it's a.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: Classic where he walks the job. He could have followed
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Ditka and he ends up turning it down Do we
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: have that video, guys? Yeah, here's the video of the airport.
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: Dave McGinnis, like Michael McCaskey, wouldn't go into specifics on
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: why he withdrew his name from consideration, but McCaskey said
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: it wasn't about money and suggested McGinnis just got cold feet.
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: I don't understand it fully, and you'd have to ask him.
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: I think he considered it a question of whether this
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: was the right time and the right fit.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: I'm just telling you how I feel, because if I'm
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: in that situation.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: And.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: I want to be a head football coach in the
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: National Football League.
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: So we couldn't reach an agreement. I mean, it started,
• 44:21
  Speaker 6: you know, there was an announcement made, obviously, before we
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: had even agreed to any terms. And then, you know,
• 44:27
  Speaker 6: it went downhill from there. This has not been, you know,
• 44:31
  Speaker 6: a confrontational type deal. I mean, it's been very amiable. And,
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: you know, this stuff happens in this business. I mean, it's...
• 44:38
  Speaker 6: It doesn't, Dave.
• 44:39
  Speaker 5: It doesn't happen like this. I mean, this is unbelievable.
• 44:41
  Speaker 6: Well, I guess you're never announced before you're offered the job.
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, I understand that, Brad.
• 44:45
  Speaker 5: When Dave McGinnis wakes up tomorrow morning, maybe all this
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: will seem like a bad dream. But it's going to
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: be a while before the Bears can make the nightmare disappear.
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: This once-proud franchise has become the laughingstock, not only of
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: the city, but the National Football League. From Hallis Hall,
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: Brad Palmer, ABC7 News.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: Chad, how fitting is that story? where you mentioned the
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: cultural aspect of Ditka. Matt could have followed that. He
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: was with Ditka. He was called the kid. He could
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: have followed that legacy, walked it for the right reasons.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: And you heard the end of that piece. They've become
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the laughingstock of the league. That's what the Titans are now.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Crazy. That video, too, was just so early 90s it hurts,
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: and I loved it so much. How about that, man?
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: From the newscaster there, ABC7 News. And the guy, well,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: this doesn't happen, Dave, not very often. And Coach McGinnis
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: letting him finish and then break it in. So, well, also,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: you're not normally offered the job before you accept it.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Great stuff from Coach Mack on that one. And that
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: kind of embodies who he is, that he wasn't going
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: to take it, even though it's a great opportunity for
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: him to be the head coach because he didn't get
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: the contractual terms he wanted in security for his assistant
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: coaches that he was going to bring along with him,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: which was going to be a problem for him.
• 45:59
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Did you? Terrific. I love that time capsule, though. That's awesome.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Of the styles and the video and the newscaster and
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: everything to go with it. What a legendary photo this is, too,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: right here. That's Mac's wedding right there. Look at Coach Ditka.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: Look at that guy. Candid photo.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: And the airport thing, Chad, just real quick. The airport,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: he just walks right on the plane. He doesn't give
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: a ticket. Does it seem real when you see that now?
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: No security, just walking through with all the cameras. Also,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Matt greeting the attendants of a flight. He's hitting the
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: baggage handlers and shaking their hand and greeting.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: All of them and walking.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: That's classic Coach Mack right there. He's getting on the plane.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: He's talking to everyone that's working the gate.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: It's great.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, two legends right there. RIP to both. Chad, when
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: we come back, primary complaint, pissed off for greatness. We've
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: got it. I've got a good one. JT normally brings
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: a good one. Chad's always locked and loaded. And we've
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: got him for you next. Carol Dundee-Withrow.