Missouri Head Football Coach Eliah Drinkwitz on the New College Football Playoff Format

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Brought to you by NHTSA. Welcome back to the Rich Eisenle's show. Tom Pellicero in the chair. So much NFL we're still going to get back to throughout the course of the show. Getting to the AFC North, the NFC North. We are 50 days away from NFL football. We're actually less than that away from college football and one team that is going to be absolutely fascinating to watch in 2024. The Missouri Tigers, their head football coach Eli Drinkwitz joining us right now on the show.

Eli, thanks a lot for being here. Summer's winding down. 43 days out from you guys kicking off against Murray State. How are we feeling? Yeah, I feel pretty good. Yeah, summer's over. I kind of feel like that moment before you're going to ride a rollercoaster, that little nervous feeling in your stomach as you're getting ready to go up.

The difference is a rollercoaster's over in about 70 seconds. This is going to go on for the next six months. But other than that, we're ready to go. In the current college football environment where you've got NIL and you got multiple transfer windows and you got traditional recruiting, do you go to an island and like fish for a week? What does an off season look like for you?

Man, I'm glad you asked. I spent two days in Disney, spent a week in Annamarie Island, and then I spent five days in Montana. So, I kind of hit all the senses there and did everything. I rode a horse, fly fish, hiked eight miles around Lake Como to see some waterfalls, rode Guardians of the Galaxy and Tron, and saw the wildlife and the ocean, saw a manatee and stingrays. So, I've had enough vacation.

I'm going to get back to it. I'm just glad you did some other things after the two days at Disney, because I would think just the stress level, at least for me, taking two kids there, you need at least another week of vacation just to wind down from that experience. Yeah, I would say that was the best decision that we made on the trip was we went to Disney first. And so, everything after that was a lot simpler than having to worry about what ride we were going to ride next, how do we get fast passes, how much money is it going to cost to go have a snack to get the ice cream Disney and figure out our next step there.

So, that was a good planning. So, it's been a long time, I think, since Missouri football was the sexy team going into the season, one that every top 10 rankings has you guys somewhere in there, especially going into a season with an expanded college football playoff. It's the first time I've heard at an SEC media day, a Missouri coach have to kind of temper some expectations. But if you're being real about how you feel about this team, what do you think you have in 2024?

Well, it depends. It depends if you ask the sports writers or you ask the creators of college football 25. You know, they don't think we're very good.

So, maybe they know more than we do. But I think we have a talented competitive football team. But the reality of it is, that doesn't make anything. You're going to have to go out there and prove it on the football field. That's kind of the same thing I told our players about that whole college football game.

Like, who cares, man? Like, what really matters is how much we developed during the month of August, and then what do we prove each Saturday. And I think the unique and exciting thing about college football now is, without divisions, it's clearly going to be, after 12 games, you put your record up, and this body of whoever it is, is going to decide who are the 12 best teams that we think deserve a shot to compete in the playoffs. And if we know anything from the NFL, is that if you make the playoffs, anything can happen.

And if you can get hot, it's the right matchups, anybody can win. And so for us, it's clearly about being competitive and having the competitive depth that we need, and then focus on being 1-0 each week. Have you played the college football game, or are you just dealing with the fact that every player around the country got the game instantaneously, and are all like, what is this? What are we doing here?

This is what they think of us? No, I don't have time to play that game. And if I did, I'd get my butt whipped, but I can coach. So it would probably be better for me if I had somebody else play the game, and I just coach them on what I want them to do.

It's kind of like me and my friends. It's kind of like me as a player. I'm a terrible player.

But coaching is something that I like. So tell me about your offense. You got a lot of starters back on that side of the football. You got a guy like Luther Burden, who's a really, really good player. What's kind of the upside, and what's your biggest challenge on that side of the ball here in 2024?

Yeah, I think the biggest upside is the amount of starting experience we have coming back. I've got a three-year starter at quarterback returning, Brady Cook, who is very efficient, takes care of the football, very athletic, runs the ball very well, can beat you in multiple ways. I've got the deepest wide receiver room that I've ever had, and one of the most talented wide receiver rooms in the country.

It starts, obviously, with Luther Burden. Everybody knows the returning 1,000-yard receiver, potential NFL prospect. But right next to him is Theo Weese, who I credit with, really the maturation of that room.

Theo Weese is a very good, faster-than-you-think football player, an excellent deep ball wide receiver, can single up and run routes on anybody. You got Mookie Cooper on the outside. You got Marquise Johnson, who's one of the fastest players in college football. Josh Manning, Makai Miller. You got Courtney Crutchfield, who is the number one wide receiver, or number one wide player in the state of Arkansas. So James Madison, coming from St. Thomas Aquinas.

That room is really deep. Combined with an experienced quarterback, you have to have the ability to be explosive on offense. And then we have a tight end, who is a freshman All-American, Brett Norfleet, who I think is a complete tight end NFL prospect, if there's ever been one.

Blox is as physical in the run game as any tight end I've ever been at, been around, but he's got incredible hands. With all that being said, I know this is an NFL driven show. We all know that in order to win football games at a high level, the biggest challenge is the O-line and running backs.

We're replacing a left tackle who was drafted in the fourth round by the Jacksonville Jaguars, a left guard who signed a free agent deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and obviously the SEC's leading rusher, Cody Schrader. So that's really where we have to develop a set of chemistry and understanding, because we all know there's going to be times when the pass game's not working. You're going to have to be able to run the ball. And we talk about in the fourth quarter, you got to run to win.

And so that's where we've got to really decide and figure out how we can be at the best. Now, I still think we're very capable of those positions. Our center started 22 games last year. Our right guard has 29 career starts. Our right tackle's got 18 career starts. I think he's the best right tackle in the SEC, which would make him the best right tackle in the country, Armand Nimbu. I think the left tackle, Marcus Bryant, started 29 games, two-time all-conference player at an AAC institution. So transferring up to the SEC, what's the adjustment there?

Caden Green, left guard, started six games as a true freshman. So the abilities there, it's just the cohesiveness, the togetherness, who's going to emerge as the leader. Are we going to be able to sustain competitive excellence if there's an injury? That's probably the biggest challenge at the offensive side of the ball. I don't want to give away your approach 43 days out from Murray State, but it sure seems like the way you're describing this roster, you've got a team that people are going to fear the pass and you guys have kind of created running backs and created a running game with regardless who was in the backfield. Is it fair to say that?

Yeah, I think that's a pretty fair assessment. And we've got some elite players at the running back position. I mean, we've got two transfers, Marcus Carroll and Nate Noel, who both were their leading rushers at their respective teams last year. We've got Kewon Lacey, who was one of the elite running backs in this class, who is coming in as a true freshman. And Tawarce Jones and Jamal Roberts consistently do the things that they're asked to do.

So there's plenty of talent in that room. But I do think you're going to have the ability to be feared because of the threats you have at a wide receiver and a quarterback. But if you can effectively run the ball, man, you really have an offense that is dynamic.

And that changes the game. So the landscape of the SEC has changed a lot for a variety of reasons. You know, Nick's not at Alabama anymore. You got teams like Oklahoma and Texas coming in. Just give me the state of what's long been the toughest conference in college football and kind of how you see this thing moving forward in coming years. Well, I think it's interesting because you just added two blue bloods of college football in Oklahoma and Texas. And, you know, Oklahoma is used to competing for the conference championship every year.

And I thought Coach Venable's answered that question excellent yesterday. Like they're not running from the SEC. They're running to it and their expectations of their programs not changing. So they're expecting to be a contender every year. I know the state of Texas expects to contend every year. So you're adding two teams that have championship aspirations each and every year. Combine that with other schools in our SEC, rabid fan bases that fire coaches if they're not competing for the championship every year. So I don't think the competition is going anywhere.

I think it's just going to elevate it. Now, I think that the dynamic that has changed is that without divisions, everybody is uniquely running their own race. Like, you know, we don't play Texas this year. We don't play Georgia, we don't play Tennessee, we don't play Florida, we don't play Kentucky, we don't play LSU.

And so, you know, we're not having the same crossover games as everybody else. We have a unique schedule that's uniquely ours. And we have to play that schedule. And then at the end, we'll see if that gets us an opportunity to compete for the conference championship or not. I think one of the unique things that's not really been discussed right now is what is the SEC tiebreaker? Because in theory, there's three teams that could go undefeated in the SEC and how are you going to break that tiebreaker? And there's multiple teams that could have multiple losses.

And so I think that's something that is yet to be finalized that we got to figure out. That sounds a lot like some of the debates that happened pre-playoff when you had split national championships, you had everybody, you know, hanging a banner and deciding they're the ones. Your schedule, it is interesting going through because I'm looking for the same things you just mentioned, which is you don't play Texas this year. You got a stretch of at Alabama, October 26th, a buy and then home against Oklahoma, which I know you're going one game at a time, but that seems like kind of where some of the separation might take place. And your fans had to be through the roof of something like a conference game against Oklahoma at home in November. Like that's just, as storylines go, that's a lot of fun.

Yeah. I mean, I think with X and social media, I mean, everybody's looking forward to the November 9th game. In fact, I was getting drilled about it yesterday at SEC media days, but as a head coach and as a team, you realize that the only way that November 9th game is really significant is if you take care of the games prior to that. And, you know, there's no chance that this football team is going to overlook a Boston college who beat us in overtime three years ago. There's no chance that we don't have a tremendous amount of respect for going to College Station and trying to win in front of 105,000 screaming fans with the Yaleville and all that different stuff. And Auburn at home, I mean, that's a really good, I know firsthand how good an Auburn football team is from coaching there. So there's a tremendous amount of respect for what our schedule presents.

And people look at it off the cuff and are like, oh man, you got an easy schedule. I promise you, if you put our schedule up against a lot of schools and other conferences, ain't none of them trading for it. We have the 29th hardest schedule in the country. And there's a lot of schools at other P4 conferences that wouldn't hold, they would wilt if they put up our schedule.

So, you know, it is what it is as far as looking at it, but I have a lot of respect for what we have to do in order to have the success that we want. As a Boston College graduate, I appreciate it. I haven't heard many positive things said about the program in like 15 years here, but Bill O'Brien coming in, it'll be interesting to see exactly how that entire thing plays out. Jeff Halfley whipped my butt three years ago up there. Overtime field goal beat us.

They rushed the field. I'll never forget that. It's one of the lowest points in my career.

So if they don't think they've got my full attention, they're absolutely crazy. You talked about the pressure cooker that every SEC coach is in. When you suffer a loss like that, like personally, how do you deal with, you know, any loss, any big game, small game, whatever it is, like how do you personally deal with losing? I think the realization for me in the SEC is it doesn't matter if you lose an SEC game or a non-conference game. Everybody expects you to win and that's what they pay us to do.

And so if you think that there's any type of saving grace about losing football games, there's not, there's no excuses for it. So I don't know how you deal with it. I usually look like that screaming and yelling. I didn't take the photo, Eli. You take it up with the control room on that one.

No, that's a great photo. It's a great, great segue right there. I think the reality of it is for us as college football coaches, you got to find a way to move on to the next play or the next game. And you have to go back and figure out what caused us to lose, take the emotion out of it. What were the tactical errors that we made mistakes in that prevented us from winning the game? And whether that's, we weren't talented enough. Okay, we got to go back and revamp how we recruit so we can become talented enough.

Or did we make mistakes in an X as an O standpoint? Did I make mistakes as the head coach? You know, two years ago, I went back and said, Hey, I'm making a mistake by calling plays. I can't call plays anymore. I got to go hire somebody who's better than me at calling plays.

And that was a way that we changed in order to be successful. Last thing for you real quick, Eli, I really appreciate your time here. Excited to see you guys out on the field this fall. You made a point yesterday in your preamble at SEC media day to talk about Mike Leach and say he deserves to be in the college football hall of fame. I think that we all, you know, people who cover the game or in the game, we all know the impact he's had schematically and otherwise he was a great character. What's your favorite Mike Leach story? Whatever it might be? What's your best Mike Leach story?

I've got two of them. The first one is when we're me and him joined the SEC at the same time. Now when I say joined at the same time, that's the same year. But when we go to meetings, he was never on time. He would always walk in late, but he would sit right next to me. And so then it was like that student in class who would want me to catch him up while commissioner Sankey is talking. He's like leaning over, like, Hey, you got a pin. Hey, what's he talking about? I'm looking over like, dude, shut up.

If you would just show up on time, we wouldn't have this issue, but that was uniquely Mike. But the second thing is, and this is the one I appreciate the most. I actually still have the screenshot saved is me, coach Leach and Lane Kiffin were in a group text. And when they played each other, I sent those to a text message of them being at Washington State and USC talking pregame. And then I sent a text message of them pregame of Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

And just the commentary from those two is priceless to me because of how big of personalities both of them have. And I think fondly of coach Leach, he absolutely deserves to be in the hall of fame, simple, easy way to do it would say, Hey, delete the COVID year. Okay. COVID year. None of that year should count towards anybody's records, because now it doesn't affect the Howard Schnellenberger camp. It doesn't affect anybody else's camp. It just, Hey, that year didn't happen. His winning percentage is clearly above the 60% threshold. If you take that out, his primary games that he coached in were at Texas Tech and Washington State, and he's clearly above the 60% threshold and is clearly a Hall of Famer with those games on the record book.

And so I think that's the easiest way to do it. And so I think if the CEO of the College Football Hall of Fame would take that, it's easy way to put him on there and have the discretion to do that. Well, if it's the logic, because if the COVID year never happened in terms of eligibility for players, everybody got an additional year for that, then why would this count against coaches? It makes sense.

That just was kind of its own animal. Eli- And we played an all SEC schedule. It was 10 SEC games. Never been in the history before. I think their record, they ended up beating us that year. I think they were four and six, but they didn't have the ability to play in non-conference games. So again, you take that game, you take that season out from his record and clearly a Hall of Famer, and this is a non-starter conversation, but somebody has to bring this attention onto it because in my opinion, that Hall of Fame is incomplete without Mike Leach. Best of luck this season, Eli.

Thanks for coming on. Don't play any PlayStation 5 or anything before the season. You don't need to see it.

You can call the EA folks after the first couple of games and maybe we'll see how some of those rankings change. A MIZ in the picture of Luther Burton is atrocious. I have no idea who that is, but that is not Luther Burton. Eli, thanks a lot, man. Thanks a lot for coming on.

Thank you. That's Eli Drake, which Missouri head coach, one of the greats in the game. You can a hundred percent see Mike Leach coming into the meeting late and then just kind of mumbling under his breath the entire time.

Dude, shut up. We got to take a break. Alan Shipnick is going to join us next. Longtime golf writer and author, British Open, teeing off tomorrow at Royal Truman. How's it playing?

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Great conversation with Eli Drinkwitz in the last segment, the Missouri head coach. The awareness of the college football game is absolutely off the charts. It's Patrick Mahomes for the first time bringing a TV to training camps so he can play it. It's every player that I follow, college and NFL, in my X feed. They're all talking about playing the game, people posting highlights and and things like that.

These slights, it's like this is like the modern day. This is the 2024 bulletin board material. You don't even know what my star receiver looks like. You're just creating. It's name, image and likeness. You need the likeness part.

Otherwise, all you got is NI. Didn't they get like 600 bucks for opting in? It wasn't a drastically low number that college players got for opting into the game.

And there was a big controversy. But you get a free copy of the game. That was the thing. You got some cash plus a free copy of the game. So they're all playing it. Arch Manning wasn't going to be in it. And then he finally relented. Right.

But somewhere Luther Burden's going, like Eli said, who is this? Have they never seen a picture of me? This is what I got. You're going to lowball me. And it's not me.

That's funny. We'll get back to some NFL talk throughout the course of the show. Shane Mosley, Jr. Boxer wants a shot at the middleweight title. He's going to be in studio with us in just a little bit. We've also got the British Open teeing off at Royal Trune tomorrow.

And who better to discuss that and all things golf and longtime golf writer, author and nine books. Alan Shipnick joining the show right now. Alan, thanks.

Thanks a lot for being here. This is obviously not the the first time at Royal Trune. So in your, your lengthy and distinguished history covering the sport, what are you expecting over the next four days? Every British Open venue is weather dependent, but true and especially because it's not a very artful golf course. In that back nine, usually, you know, it's one of those those traditional links that goes out and back and the whole back nine plays into the prevailing wind.

And when the wind blows, it is a beast. It's one of the hardest tests in golf. So given how far the guys hit it these days and that the course is otherwise pretty defenseless, we need some weather. The forecast for tomorrow is pretty rough, which of course we love as golf fans and observers. You know, you don't want blue skies and short sleeves at the open championship. You want, you want pain and suffering. You want side wind. You want umbrellas being blown inside out. I mean, that's what it's all about.

So I think, I think we're gonna have a good championship. Obviously, the last time we were at Trune, the epic showdown through Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson. And even though I don't, I think it's one of my least favorite courses on the rota, to be honest, it has produced terrific winners. So I think it'll be a big boy leaderboard and, and hopefully we get another exciting Sunday. You mentioned the weather and that's always as, as a, you know, outside golf observer. That's always what strikes me at the British Open, because for one thing, for whatever reason, obviously with the transmission, the TV feed always looks a little bit off. Everything is kind of delayed. So you're watching guys and everything's kind of blurred, but also you can just see like their, their, their weatherproof vests almost being ripped off their bodies with every shot. And it seems like ebb and flow.

Sometimes it seems totally fine. You watch them on the next hole and, and you know, tigers getting blown over or something. It's, it's a fascinating type of a setting, I think, for golf. And yet you look at the, the favorites just in terms of the betting odds and it's exactly who you would anticipate being there, which is it's Scotty Scheffler and Rory McIlroy at the top. Yeah, it, in wind and, and weather, the, the ball striking is really crucial because when you miss hit a shot, the wind amplifies and exaggerates that.

Whereas when you hit it flush, it can kind of rip through the elements. And so, yeah, I mean, it, it's, it's going to be this, the, the ball strikers are going to rise to the top and the greens are pretty flat and slow. You know, it's not Augusta national. It's, it's not like Pinehurst where, where the art of putting is, is so elevated, you know, on these kind of slower, flatter, grainier greens, everybody can make putts.

And, and so it really, it really does. And it's not, it's not just hitting it flush, but it's having that creativity playing the different shots, using the wind, using the contours. So I mean, the British Open tends to, to reward the best ball strikers, but it also has the, a long history of kind of quirky winners. And so whether you're talking about Ben Curtis or Todd Hamilton or some of these guys who have come out of nowhere and the weather is part of that, you know, every other, well, the Masters is a small field, but the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, the other majors with full fields, they tee them off on the first and the 10th tees. And so the tee time window is compressed. The British Open is only the first tee.

And so they go from, you know, they tee off at six 30 in the morning and three in the afternoon. And so the, the draw you get and where you are in the course, when the weather comes in or blows out is really profound. Weather affects the open more, not just because there's more of it, but because of the way the tee times fall.

Guys, you can get totally hosed. I mean, we've seen that, you know, Tiger at Muirfield in 03 when he's chasing the grand slam, you know, shot 81 because he had to play into a hurricane. So there is a, there's a fluke-iness, an element of chance to the open, the way the ball bounces and your tee time versus the weather. So that's kind of part of the fun there. There's, there's a little magic still to, to who wins and loses. I honestly don't know the answer to this.

Alan Shipnuck is our guest. How do, how do the draws work for the tee time when it is, I mean, this is not like the coin flip at the start of a football game and it's like, okay, each team's going to get roughly the same possessions. Like it literally can be based on what time you get can be a completely different conditions. Is it a draw of a hat? Is it an NBA style lottery? Like how do they do it?

It's all, it's all done in secret by these, these dudes in tweed jackets, smoking pipes and wood paneled library. You know, the PGA tour week to week has a formula. There's an algorithm that, that with the tee times at, at the open it's made, it's just these old boys at the RNA. They just wing it. And so theoretically everyone gets an early and a late tee time.

The, the marquee players are in the TV windows. Of course, if you're a qualifier or a scrub, you're going to go really early or really late. They, they try and, they try and have the best players a little more in the middle of the day, but you know, it just depends on your morning and your afternoon wave.

Like when, when does, when does the weather get gnarly? So they, they try and balance it. So you have one morning and one afternoon tee time, but there's no accounting for when things are going to get nasty. So that, that's, that's part of the fun is part of the parlor game, how the RNA, the Royal and ancient golf club of St. Andrews, which handles the tee times, how do they, which by the way, isn't that just a great name, like as a ruling body, it's so funny, the Royal and ancient. But anyway, so yeah, there's, there's, there's, there's an art and a science and a lot of mystery baked into the tee times.

Yeah. Alan, Chris here, you talk about the draw and the tee times and you talk about a guy who's really come on. He's literally only been playing for a year, Ludwig Oberg.

He has a chance to really win this thing. And you saw him get frustrated with slow play last week. Now he's paired with Bryson DeChambeau and Tom Kim, two of the slowest players on door, like Ludwig's kind of getting screwed here. No.

Yes and no. I mean, the, the open is always slow because you know, playing at the resumes and a lot of guys backing off shots, trying to read the wind, you hit it into the Heather. It can be a long look for your golf ball.

Guys have misadventures in the pot bunkers. I mean, it's just never fast over there, which is ironic because if you go play recreationally and you know, the members of the clubs are up your ass, if you play, you know, lower than three hours and 45 minutes. So it's kind of a mixed message, but yeah, so it's, that's just part of championship golf. Unfortunately, the fast players usually have to bend to the will of the slow players.

It's rarely the other way around, which is unfortunate. And it's a competitive disadvantage for a guy like Ludwig, but that, that's part of the mental battle. You know, the US Open, the rounds can be five and a half hours because guys are shooting 85. So it's just, if you want to prevail at the majors, you have to learn to deal with all of the things that are coming at you, which is the media attention, much larger fans, all the hype, and obviously the exacting court conditions, but slow play is part of it. It just really is. I mean, it's an issue week to week. It's exaggerated the majors because the setups are so much tougher.

So unfortunately, he's gonna have to learn to walk a little slower and take a few more deep breaths and, and try and that's just one more thing you have to overcome. I, I just love that in, you know, the gambling era of, of all sports, right? And there's calls for transparency and there's all these things about like, we should know everything should happen in front. And you've still got the, the tweed blazers and the smoking pipes guys, like huddling together, deciding who's playing with who, who's getting screwed with who their playing partners are. They got to play early. They got to play late. It feels like something that should happen out in the open, but I understand you're, you're going to Royal True and you're in a little different category.

I love that. Also, Alan, you know, look at the last time it was here, Henrik and Phil kind of ran away from the rest of the field. I mean, Henrik was 14 shots clear of third place, Phil 11 shots clear. Do you anticipate another 20 under winning this week?

Well, again, I hate to keep hitting the same theme, but it really depends on the weather. If the wind doesn't blow hard, then definitely 20 unders in play. I mean, there is no golf course on the planet that's long enough to test the players.

It doesn't exist. And especially these, you know, 19th century playing fields, like without the wind, these guys will destroy the golf course. I mean, 20 under would probably get you seventh place if there's no wind.

But if it blows hard, it's just completely different animals. So with slower greens, flatter greens, and the absence of meaningful length, I mean, the course is utterly defenseless. So yeah, if you get four days where it's relatively still, then 20 under just gets you in the conversation. So, you know, you go back to the U.S. Open, of course, and how things played out with Rory, with Bryson DeChambeau, who happened to be the two faces of PGA and Liv and all that, which I want to get to momentarily here. But from all the people you talked to and seeing kind of an unprecedented type of a collapse from Rory, Alan, what is the state of Rory McIlroy? Who again, he's still the second highest betting favorite. He's on familiar turf here.

Just what's the state of him from the people that are around him after what happened? It's really one of the biggest questions in the entire sport is Rory's head. You know, it's been a maximum golf forever.

You can't play your best without, you know, a clear mind. And Rory's been in the center of this battle for the soul of the game. Probably people know, he filed for divorce and then just said, oh, take backsies, you know, a month ago. There's a lot swirling around in his noggin. And he's already been in this place where he's getting in his own way at the major championships. I mean, week to week, the guy is a dominant force. He's won all over the world. He's won the FedEx cup multiple times. He's won the European tours version of that, the race to Dubai multiple times. He's won the players championship. He's won the tour championship. He's won all these marquee tournaments.

So clearly his game is good enough to win anytime he tees it up, but he wants it too much. And the scar tissue has been built up so much at the majors over the last decade. And so, you know, nobody knows what we're going to get from Rory.

I don't think Rory knows. I mean, that's, that's part of his issue. It's like, he's kind of white knuckling it every time he turns up at this major, just trying to do the same thing over and over and trying to trying to find, get a different outcome at, you know, the heart of his prime when he hasn't been injured and he's been playing beautiful golf that he hasn't picked one of these off in a full decade now is, is stunning. And it just speaks to the what's what make tournament golf so thrilling. It's just a battle within yourself.

I mean, the ball's just sitting there mocking you and you're just alone with your thoughts out there. And Rory is a classic example of a guy who has all the physical talent, but there's, there's a missing piece in what he's doing at the tournaments that really matter. So I've given up trying to predict Rory. I mean, he could open 62 62 and run away with this thing.

I mean, that's within the realm of possibility, but it's just, it's never easy, right? I mean, I, I think, you know, when you think about like David Duvall, when he won his British Open, he made the cut by one shot. He barely made the cut.

He was, he was nowhere in there. And then he went crazy low on Saturday. And then Sunday, he just kind of hung on and nobody made a run. I mean, that might be the template for Rory, just kind of sneak into the weekend, do something incredible on Saturday.

And then everyone just falls apart on Sunday. I mean, a lot of majors have been won with that formula. He just hasn't, he has, he's been a little unlucky in that regard. No one's handed him one. You know, if you, if you contend as often as he does, usually one just falls into your lap. It hasn't happened for him yet, but it has to, you would think as long as he keeps putting himself there.

But yeah, the state of Rory is a fascinating subject. He's been so close to, he could have seven if you really think about it. He, he said, look, they don't owe me anything, but I feel like I'm kind of owed one. Does it feel that way when you're out there watching him?

Yes and no. I mean, I think about the old course, you know, I walked every, you know, two years ago, I walked every hole on Sunday with him. And, you know, the story was, well, Cam Smith shot 30 on the back nine and, and, and stole it, but Rory made so many little mistakes. He didn't make a bogey, but he squandered so many birdie chance, just so many soft pars on a course that was really defenseless that day. And he just never hit the right shot at the right time. He didn't make any putts that mattered. It was like, you know, he said, oh, I didn't make a bogey on, on Sunday playing in the last group of the major with, and I had a two shot lead.

That's usually good enough, but it wasn't good enough. Like there's, there's, there's always a moment in every, in every Sunday at a major when you have to do something, you have to hit a great shot. You have to, there's a do or die putt and Rory hasn't hit that shot and he hasn't made that putt.

So I guess he's unlucky that it just, that people have stolen it from him. You know, the way Bryson played on the weekend at Pinehurst, obviously that incredible shot in the bunker, like, but you had that feeling, even when Rory had the lead in the back nine, he, he was playing a little cautiously and Bryson was attacking. And you know, in sports, when one team is playing sort of defensively and one team is playing aggressively, you can usually see what's going to happen.

And over time, they're going to make up that deficit. And that's exactly what Bryson did. So it's just like Rory protects a little too much. He, he, the putter, he doesn't release the putter. It is just, he has to just freewheel it. He has to pretend it's Thursday at quail hollow, easier said than done, but we know he can hit the shots. I mean, you look at the shot hit on the same second hole to win the Scottish open last year, you know, that bullet firing through the wind, one of the greatest shots of this century. I mean, there's a plaque out there in the middle of the fairway for a reason.

It was, it was pure talent. There's a handful of guys that could hit that shot. I've ever walked the earth, but he, Rory just can't do that when it really matters. So can you find that missing piece? I don't know. We're gonna, we're gonna find out, but you know, this is, this is now it's do or die. It's eight months till Augusta. So if he wants to salvage his year, if she wants to flip the narrative, you know, these, this is Gloria's last shot as he used to call the PGA championship when it was the last major, now it's the open championship. He's got one more bite at the apple. We'll see if he can do it, but it's hard to feel confident. I'll say that.

Alan, last thing for you, really appreciate your time today. You know, you've written a book about live golf. There's the famous photo of Greg Norman, look like he's about to stick a four iron where the sun don't shine from behind you there. When you have, you know, a US open that plays out the way it did with Rory and it's Bryson and you have, you know, the reintegration of a lot of those live players into those major events. What is your level of surprise, if any, that there seem, we seem to have gone from, as you put it, Rory fighting for the soul of golf to what I think is a general level of an acceptance and a malaise that this is just now how it is and all the talk about blood money and everything else is just kind of a back burner to what it's always been, which is the golf. I'm still distracted by the image of Greg Ira, Greg Norman and the four iron.

How about a hybrid? It's got some smoother edges or something, but yeah, I mean, the insidious thing about sports washing is that it works. You know, the in 2022 when live launched every week, every press conference, there was so many questions, you know, this, the Saudi issue hung over everything. 9-11 Jamal Khashoggi, you name it. It was an inescapable talking point. And now it never gets brought up. It just a fatigue sets in among the fans, among the reporters, among the players.

And that's why sports washing is effective. So yeah, the larger geopolitical issues have largely receded from view. What it means for the sport and how it's going to get put back together, it remains a humongous question. I mean, they are very close to consummating a deal where the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia, which funds live golf is going to inject a billion or $2 into PJ tour enterprises. And at that point, we can lower the drawbridges and try and the tours are never going to merge.

That's been, that's been bad language ever since June 6 of last year, when, when it kind of first broke, they were trying to get this done. There's always going to be, as long as Yashir al-Rumaian is in power, he's the, he's the patriarch of live golf. As long as he controls the purse strings, there's going to be a full schedule on live golf.

Cause it's his baby and he cares about it and he's going to keep funding it. And so they're going to remain these parallel. There's going to be the live golf. There's gonna be the PGA tour. The question is if they can consummate this deal and if they can put down the guns metaphorically and create some, some on ramp.

So, so live guys can play on the tour and tour guys can play on live. Then we can start to put the game back together. But first the deal has to get done. And there's a tremendous amount of money involved.

There's a lot of ego. There's the legacies of some very powerful people are at stake here. And so they just can't get the deal consummated. There's an army of lawyers. There's probably three dozen lawyers who are part of this conversation on a regular basis.

It's just an absolute mess. And so I still believe a deal will get done sometime this calendar year, because the game is paralyzed. If you're out there in the marketplace as the tour or as live golf, you don't know what you're selling because you don't know which players you're going to have. I mean, Bryson has become the biggest star in golf and the tour doesn't know if they're gonna have access to them.

The sponsors don't. It's, it's an untenable situation. So I believe in my heart, a deal will get done, but the devil's in the details and what that's going to look like, how the players can flow back and forth, what kind of punitive damages the tour is going to seek from the guys who left, like all those things are mucking up this, getting it done. But I think we will have a more unified sport by the end of this year. But again, this story's been so volatile. And there's, there's so many, there's so many people who are part of the conversation, all with differing agendas. It's not a sure thing.

I'll say that. All right, Alan, the last one. I can't quit Rory, so I'm going to keep picking him, but who do you think ultimately lifts the cleric jug on Sunday? You know, I have, I have a sneaky feeling about Jon Rahm. He's been played very well on live golf and no one's been paying attention. He sent his press conference that his, his game is where he wants it to be. And finally, and he's a guy who has immense pride and he's been largely forgotten this year because he hasn't played well in the majors. He hasn't even won the live golf event.

And this is like, we were talking about with Roy, this is your last chance to change your whole year. If you win, if you win the open championship, it's been a spectacular year, no matter what else has happened. So he's one of those guys who hits it so good. He knows how to play over there. He's played a lot of links golf. I think, you know, what happened last weekend was Spain, the sort of the triple decker of, of the euros Wimbledon. And then even his buddy Sergio won the live event in Spain and his team won over there. I think Rahm feels left out.

I think he feels marginalized and I think he's tired of it. So I think he's going to bring it, but you know, again, Scottie Scheffler's the betting favorite for a reason hits a ball significantly better than anyone else in golf. And that's paramount.

So you can never go wrong, betting chalk on Scottie, but I'll take Rahm as kind of a, and a surprise choice. Alan, you're the best man. Fantastic context. Really appreciate you joining the show. All right. Thanks for having me guys. Appreciate it.

As Alan Shipnuck, you can read his books, follow him on Twitter, John Rahm. There you go. I like it.

Log on now. Brockman place your bets. Rory till I die. We got Shane Mosley Jr. Boxer going to be in studio here shortly after this though. We've got some, we've got some more of our NFL non-negotiables. Let's tackle the AFC North right after this.

Tom Pelissero in on the Rich Eisen show. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts people. You love their jingle. You're going to love their friendly, helpful service even better. Cause they're in the business of keeping your car on the road and the parts knowledge they have. It's all you need for your maintenance and repairs. They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock, either in store or online.

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That's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. This radio commercial was made to convince you to stop speeding. We can't use siren sound effects on the radio. So we'll use other equally jarring sound effects to get your attention. Like telling you that whether you drive a little over the speed limit or a lot, you can crash just the same. You could hurt yourself or worse others. And the damage you cause will be beyond repair. See, we didn't have to use crash or siren sounds after all. Speeding catches up with you. Brought to you by NHTSA. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show.

Tom Pelissero in for Rich throughout the course of this week. Shane Mosley Jr., boxer, wants a shot at the title. He's going to be in studio with us in just a few minutes here. Maybe show me how to take a punch, how to throw a punch. I think that'll be helpful in the big picture. Do you want to learn to take a punch or do you probably want to throw a punch? I'm more likely to have to take a punch than throw a punch. So I really need blanket both offense and defense. There's two sides of this here.

But first, let's get to some of our non-negotiables. The Bear, according to Mike Hoskins, our producer, nominated for 23 Emmy nominations, which is the record for a comedy series to which I responded, it's a comedy? Because I've watched the new season. I've watched every episode.

The last two seasons of Barry was a comedy and you're like, I'm watching Barry, not a comedy. It's a dark comedy. How dark?

Totally jet black. Let's get though to our NFL non-negotiables. We're going division by division throughout the course of this week.

AFC North. Hey Tom, before you start, maybe you should let them know what the non-negotiable, like for the Bear, if you don't know, they want to become a Michelin Star restaurant. Correct. And so it's basically the list of things that have to be a certain way. And then other people start coming to Carmi with their non-negotiables.

Carmi knows what it's like to work in Michelin Star restaurants. So he wrote out a list of non-negotiables. And he wants to get a star.

He wants to get a star for the Bear, which is the restaurant that they're building. Non-negotiables. There you go.

Hit that drop again. Non-negotiable. There it is. So the non-negotiables, AFC North. In other words, the things that absolutely have to happen for these teams to be factors in 2024.

Let's start out with the Browns. I don't think that this is, you know, breaking any news here, but it's time for them to get return on investment from Deshaun Watson. It's the guy has played very little football over the last three seasons. Sat out the entire 2021 season while in a, what was a contract dispute. There were allegations servicing, but it was also, it was about, he wanted out, I shouldn't say a contract dispute, they'd already resigned it, but he wanted to go someplace else.

They didn't feel like they could trade them at that point. Didn't play that entire year. 2022 serves, I believe it was an 11 game suspension. Plays six games down the stretch. Comes out last year, ramping up, plays the best game he's ever played.

Turns out he's playing through a completely busted up shoulder and misses the rest of the year. You need Deshaun Watson to play like a guy who's making 46 million a year. You gotta have Derrick Henry be an impact player.

It's simple as that. I'm very fascinated to see Henry's in a lot of his damage quarterback under center head of steam. Now you're playing with a quarterback who likes to be in the shotgun or the pistol a lot.

How's that going to work out? He's got to make an impact. We'll talk a ton about the quarterbacks. They gotta be the best on defense when they've been at their best. They've been a defense dominant team last year, 23rd in yards for play, sixth in scoring.

They gotta be even better. And for the Bengals, pretty straightforward here. Keep Joe Burrow healthy. If you call it what it is, he had one fully healthy season.

They went to the Superbowl. Every other year he's been dealing with something. He's been banged up. They've invested in offensive lineman guys like Orlando Brown to protect him.

It's easy to say harder to do. Keep Joe Burrow on the field. If you want to try to be worse to first this year.

Non-negotiable. And I think that that division is one of the most fascinating from top to bottom that there is in the NFL. In season hard knocks. And it will be in season hard knocks. Like Cam Hayward said, not thrilled about being on the show. I hope that he's watching the off season hard knocks, which as I said at the top of the show, it's the best behind the scenes football show I've ever seen. I understand it's also harder when you're in the season because then you've got schematics and you've got games, there's players involved. This one's, it's a smaller list of people who had to be on board for the giants.

I think it's gonna be a great show. Just the quarterbacks in that division alone. We think about that in one division, you got Joe Burrow, who has been to a Superbowl. You got Lamar Jackson, who's coming off his second MVP. You've got Deshaun Watson, who we've seen play at a Pro Bowl level, just not in years and coming off a significant injury. And then, oh yeah, in Pittsburgh, they have Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.

Everything pointing toward Russell Wilson, getting every opportunity to win that job. But as we talked about yesterday, Justin Fields is a player who no matter what situation he's in, he's going to flash. If you play him a quarterback in the preseason, he's going to flash. If you just get him out on the perimeter and you have to do gadget stuff, he's going to flash. If you play him on kick returns, which is something that the Steelers have at least toyed with, I don't think that we see it in part because if you're Justin Fields and you think I got a chance to be a 50, 60 million dollar quarterback, why am I going to agree to take a kick return back? One way or another, he's going to see the field.

Shane Mosley Jr., one of the best up and coming boxers in studio with us next. This radio commercial was made to convince you to stop speeding. We can't use siren sound effects on the radio, so we'll use other equally jarring sound effects to get your attention. Like telling you that whether you drive a little over the speed limit or a lot, you can crash just the same. You could hurt yourself or worse others. I'm at the scene of a collision. And the damage you cause will be beyond repair. See, we didn't have to use crash or siren sounds after all. Speeding catches up with you. Brought to you by NHTSA.