11-4-22 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

Throughout the 60s and 70s, you can download the free Odyssey app today. Three hours to go until the weekend, and even though it's a working weekend with a lot of great football and baseball on tap. It's still the weekend. Got a lot of yard work in my life on Friday afternoon.

Looking forward to it though, to breathe some fresh air and be outside and be a good kind of sore when I'm done. And then a little hiking with some friends. Actually, I shouldn't call them friends.

I don't know who they are. The older I get, the more I'm bold about joining groups of people I don't know to try a fun activity if I can't find people among my own friends to do it. So yeah, a special hiking excursion coming up on Saturday. I got some phone calls scheduled, teaching kiddos on Sunday morning, but a lot of football and a lot of baseball. And I actually am really looking forward to it.

I don't always look forward to working weekends, but this one will be plenty of drama. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

Do you need to know what it takes for a home to fit your budget and your family? Rocket can. Producer Jay and I will very soon put up your after hours game of the week poll. Who knew Philadelphia at Houston on Thursday night would qualify as one of the best games of the week. We do have a QB news to preview week number nine. Tom Brady, Geno Smith, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields.

There's a lot of good stuff that's coming up on Sunday in the NFL, though we do have fewer games because there are actually six teams that are on by this weekend. In addition to that, we also will get back to the World Series game five, Vintage Verlander. And by that, I mean, mentally. I mean, his toughness, his fortitude, his desire to not give in, right?

His stubbornness as a pitcher. So there's just a lot we wanna talk about on this edition of the show. I honestly thought that I was done talking about Kyrie for now. I had shared my opinions with you over the course of the last two or three shows. And essentially had tried to say that I didn't want to assume that because he shared what was an inflammatory and offensive video documentary, that that meant he automatically agreed with everything that was in it.

I know many of you think that I, actually some of you criticized me for being the same as Kyrie, for not ripping him hard. Now I do think that the NBA has been disingenuous or had been disingenuous to this point. I certainly told you that anti-Semitism is not only wrong, but it's brutally offensive. And it's just the same as any other type of discrimination based on race or culture or economic disparity or religion.

Any of those kinds of discriminations are abhorrent. My big question was why the heck can't the NBA decide what it wants to do? Why is a guy who uses a gay slur or a guy who tweets all lives matter dealt with much more harshly than a Kyrie Irving?

And it certainly does seem like there are special rules for those athletes in the NBA that seem to run the joint. So a lot of questions thought that Kyrie was forced into this joint statement with the Anti-Defamation League in the Nets, didn't think in any way, shape or form that he had changed his tune. And that was Thursday morning when we were doing the show. Well, as it turns out, the second that the Nets allowed microphones in front of his face again, he went right back to what he had said over the weekend. So Sean Marks had told us, we didn't like how it went when he had media availability over the weekend. We were frustrated. We did not hear from Kyrie what we wanted to hear.

He was defiant. And so we purposely kept him away from the media for a few days. We also heard that from Brian Lewis, was our Nets insider from the New York Post. So after the joint statements came out on Wednesday and the parties agreed to donate half a million dollars to the Anti-Defamation League, which is very powerful voice in this arena, maybe the Nets thought they were in the clear.

As it turns out, they were not. And so Kyrie stands in front of a scrum of microphones on Thursday, and he's repeatedly asked about his views. He's repeatedly asked about antisemitism.

He's repeatedly asked whether or not he's sorry. And you can judge for yourself. It sure sounded a lot more like the Kyrie Irving that we heard over the weekend, who was gonna hold the line and stand up for what he believes in. I'll take my responsibility for posting that. Some things that were questionable in there, untrue. Like I said, and the first time you guys asked me when I was sitting on that stage, I don't believe everything that everybody posts.

It's a documentary. So I'll take my responsibility. Kyrie, are you surprised that you did hurt people? Surprised that I did hurt people? Are you surprised that reaction and some of the things that you did hurt people?

Yeah, I think I can ask a better question. It's just, where were you when I was a kid figuring out that 300 million of my ancestors are buried in America? Where were you guys asking those same questions when I was a kid dealing with, learning about the traumatic events of my familial history and what I'm proud to come from and why I'm proud to stand here and why when I repeat myself that I'm not gonna stand down and it has nothing to do with this missing any other race or group of people.

I'm just so proud of my heritage and what we've been through and the fact that this has pinned me against the Jewish community. And I'm here answering questions or whether or not I'm sorry or not on something I didn't create. And it was something I shared and I'm telling everybody I'm taking responsibility then that's where I sit.

Kyrie said over and over, I shouldn't have to apologize for something that I didn't create. No, I don't agree with everything that's in the video but where were you when I? What about me? What about my story? What about my people? And I'm not demeaning his story or his heritage.

We all have that in our past in some way, shape or form. And yes, when it comes to Native Americans, when it comes to African Americans, certainly when it comes to Hebrews, Israelite race, Israelite people, the stories feature great tragedy and oppression. And I appreciate that Kyrie cares about those things. I appreciate that Kyrie wants to draw attention to and shed light on his own heritage and the tragedies and the discrimination and the prejudice and the horrific treatment that these people received in the past. But that's not what this is about.

That has nothing to do with the video. And every single time he was asked a question, he turned it around and made it about Kyrie. Instead of taking responsibility for sharing a video that includes gross conspiracy theories and complete and utter lies about the Holocaust, about the Jewish people. Again, I'm glad that Kyrie cares enough to be educated about his family, his heritage, his culture. Good for Kyrie, that's smart. What the hell does that have to do with being anti-Semitic?

Nothing. Again, he was defiant, he was stubborn, and he turned it all around to make it about Kyrie. As opposed to acknowledging that his lack of responsibility, his lack of awareness, or even his negligence, his negligence, maybe, just maybe, his willingness to stir things up with his social media.

It's one of those things, maybe it's all of those things. He tried to tell us, I'm just like anybody else, I'm nothing special, except he knows better because he doesn't wanna be in the spotlight, but he certainly wants the $37 million he's making that gives him this platform and this ability to play basketball when he feels like it. What Kyrie kept saying at this media availability at practice, nothing to do with whether or not he's anti-Semitic, which I don't think we should assume that he is. This is what I tried to say the last few days. Negligent, yes, irresponsible, absolutely.

But should we assume someone is anti-Semitic or assume someone is racist? That happens too often in our culture. So I didn't want to do that. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. All he had to do was say, I'm sorry that I hurt people. The Nets were willing to let it go. The Nets, as well as the commissioner, Adam Silver, who by the way is Jewish, were willing to let it go if he would say, I'm not anti-Semitic, I'm not anti-Jewish, I don't hate the Israelites or believe any of these theories. I'm sorry that I posted this video.

I didn't realize how much it would hurt people. That's all he had to say, but he wouldn't do it. Again, he was asked over and over, he had multiple opportunities to respond to whether or not he holds these beliefs of anti-Semitism. Again, I'm gonna repeat. I don't know how the label becomes justified because you guys asked me the same questions over and over again, but this is not gonna turn into a spin around cycle of questions upon questions. Told you guys how I felt. I respect all walks of life and embrace all walks of life.

That's where I sit. I think what people want to hear though is just the yes or no on that question. Yes or no.

I cannot be anti-Semitic if I know where I come from. Part of this is just Kyrie being stubborn. He does not want to do what the establishment, quote unquote, wants him to do.

He does not want to be told what to do, but that is a dangerous line to walk because he's an employee. Like it or not, he's under contract to the Brooklyn Nets. Like it or not, he's a member of the NBA.

Unless you are independently wealthy and you are free of all attachments, we all answer to someone. The NBA wanted him to decry anti-Semitism, say that that's not me and I'm sorry for the people I hurt and he would not do it. And this is what happened soon after. The Brooklyn Nets issued a statement, suspended him for at least five games. Where have we heard this before? At least five games without pay for his repeated failure to quote unequivocally say he has no anti-Semitic beliefs. Now, was Kyrie hinting at that? Do I believe that he's anti-Semitic again? I don't really think that that's something, a conclusion we should jump to. However, he wouldn't freaking say it because he's stubborn and he's entitled.

That's why. All he had to do was say, I do not believe that the video is true, that the theories are true and I'm not anti-Jewish people. I'm not anti-Jewish religion. I'm not anti-Jewish race.

I'm not anti-Israelite, anything like that. And again, everything that he tells us about his own heritage, you would think he would have a soft place in his heart for people groups who have been oppressed, for people groups who have suffered because of something they can't control, their race, their heritage, their background. You would think he'd have a little more empathy. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I can't in this case. He had every opportunity. The NBA and the Nets gave him a bazillion chances to take a stand to say, I don't agree with this. Anti-Semitism is wrong. It's all he had to say, three words and I'll bet you he would have avoided the suspension. Three words, anti-Semitism is wrong, but he wouldn't do it because he's stubborn. So he refused to apologize. The Nets labeled him currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets. We were dismayed today when given an opportunity in a media session that Kyrie refused to unequivocally say he has no anti-Semitic beliefs nor acknowledged specific hateful material in the film.

This was not the first time he had the opportunity but failed to clarify. Such failure to disavow anti-Semitism when given a clear opportunity to do so is deeply disturbing, is against the values of our organization and constitutes conduct detrimental to the team. Accordingly, we are of the view that he is currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets.

Good for the Nets. This is so much bigger than basketball. And again, shame on you Kyrie. You're the one who's standing up there talking about how my ancestors this and my ancestors that.

And yes, that's important, but so is this. So is this, you have a chance to show empathy and compassion for another people group that went through something very similar, millions and millions of them wiped off the face of the earth because of their race, but not their race, their heritage, their culture. It's hard for me to believe that he cares about anything other than Kyrie when he had a golden opportunity to change the narrative around him, to say, I'm sorry, I wanna clarify, this does not represent me.

Discrimination, prejudice against Jewish people is just as wrong as what my people suffered. It's not that hard to do, especially if that's what's in your heart, but out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and what's in the heart. The mouth speaks and what's in Kyrie's heart, selfishness, only cares about him, stubborn as heck. And one more time, the nets have to take drastic action.

We'll see how long the suspension lasts. Hours later, Kyrie did take to his Instagram post to say, I'm deeply sorry to have caused you pain and I apologize, too little, too late. Isn't that always the case with Kyrie Irving?

It's always the case. And as much as I wanna believe he's being genuine, I do, but I can't, he had every chance. They served it up on a silver platter for him. My God, they put the bow and a T for him.

All he had to do was swing at it and he wouldn't do it until the hammer drops. You can find me on Twitter, Alaw Radio, also on our Facebook page. After Hours with Amy Lawrence coming up, shifting back to football. As you can imagine, I don't wanna spend the entire show on this and there's a lot that we wanna get to, not only start of week nine in the NFL, but also a big weekend in college football. Thanks for hanging out with us, After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS.

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You are listening to the After Hours podcast. They line up again, double tight end. Brown and Smith stack to the fourth side of the field. And his fourth and goal from the two. And in for the touchdown goes Miles Sanders, his sixth of the season.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Eighteen play, eight minute drive. That's how the Philadelphia Eagles introduce themselves on Thursday night football to the Houston Texans in tying the game in that first quarter.

Literally the first two drives of the game took the entire first quarter. Meryl Rees on Eagles radio. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. So we're gonna shift now and we're really excited to welcome longtime NFL assistant coach, Kyle Kaske, who's been a guest on the show before. We are gonna talk about the two humongous college football games this weekend. But we also wanna talk a little NFL since that's where he spent most of his last 12 years.

So Kyle, thanks so much for hanging out with us. I've become really fascinated by the ball control game that so many NFL teams are playing right now. The Eagles, 18 plays, eight minutes with the football. At the end, they're able to go for a touchdown and score on fourth down. That kind of ball control is a game changer.

And we see it more and more with teams in the NFL now, right? Yeah, and the biggest thing about holding the ball and being able to ball control is a lot of these teams that run all this up-tempo pass game. If you just keep the ball away from them and you talk about these teams that wanna go two minutes all the time and they feel like they need to throw the ball all the time, just run the ball and have the time of possession be 36 minutes in your favor. And you'll win the game because you'll keep the ball away from them. That's how you beat those kinds of teams. And I think that's what Philly's doing right now.

And for them to be eight, no. And they don't play, they don't do anything spectacular. They don't do anything special. They just play football the way football is meant to be played. What else stands out about this team? Because they certainly do have a lot of weapons and the offense gets a lot of attention, but man, that defense has been really good too. Yeah, and then they got a lot of guys that can really run to the ball. They got a lot of speed on that side of the ball. And when you look at the front, I don't know if Fletcher Cox got hurt in the game or not, but I know that he having guys like him up front, but then having guys like Darius Slay in the back, in the back end, I didn't personally coach Darius Slay, but I was in Detroit with him for a little bit. And I got to see him firsthand in practice and all the things that that guy can do.

And I mean, all the guys they've got running to the ball, they have so much speed on that side of the ball. And then you go to the offensive side and you just look at Jalen Hurts just as a quarterback. He's really turned into a quarterback and everybody thought he was just a runner and having him convert himself and grow and become a true NFL quarterback, being able to run an NFL offense, they've got something good going there. The bright light for Houston, even as they lose another game is the rookie running back, Damian Pierce, who's out of Florida. He is fantastic.

It seems like regardless of what he sees in front of him, he's able to create room, create space. What do you like about him as a former running, not a former. I'm gonna call you current running backs coach.

You are a running backs coach. That he had one run. And I want to say it was in the third or the fourth court.

It was in the second half. And he just kept every, it was almost like every single defender for Philadelphia hit him and he didn't go down. He ended up running out of bounds. And right now he plays like he can't be tackled. And I think that a lot of times these young backs, they don't know what they don't know yet. And they don't know when to go down.

They don't know how to not take a hit. And this guy just runs. And I mean, he is, he's putting everything he has into it. And the fact that he, you know, has had so much success at this point, you know, as a fourth round draft pick out of, you know, out of Florida.

And I don't, I don't even believe he was used all that much in Florida in the time. So he's got a little, you know, he doesn't have a whole lot of miles on him. So, I mean, this guy's got a bright future. We're spending a few minutes with one of our favorite guests for a long time NFL assistant coach, Kyle Kaske is with us right now from Louisiana. So we're going to talk some college football coming up here after hours on CBS sports radio. Spent a lot of time with the Bengals, of course, a couple of years with the Lions as a running backs coach. And most recently last year with the Jacksonville Jaguars, they made a change to Doug Peterson.

It was clear that he and Trevor Lawrence were speaking the same language and it helped initially. They're back in kind of a tough hole with five consecutive losses. When a new coach comes in, obviously you're bringing in your new system. And I know Doug Peterson wasn't out that long, but at the same time, he was out for a year. And so he came in with some new ideas and those new ideas hit early and they had some success. And now they've just got to find a way to use the new talent that they've got because there's a lot of talent on that Jacksonville team that wasn't there last year, Christian Kirk, those kinds of guys, you know, they got Travis ETN back. I mean, that kid's been doing some spectacular things for Jacksonville this year and we knew he could do it, but he was hurt last year. And to get Trevor Lawrence just kind of into a flow of, listen, you don't have to make every play. You've got to just make sure that your guys can make the plays when you get them the ball because as a quarterback, your job is to get the ball to your playmakers. And I think once he kind of gets into his flow with coach Peterson and allows that to happen, because they do have some playmakers and Marvin Jones is still there. You know, I mean, they've got some guys that they can get the ball to, but I think he's just got to settle down a little bit. Were you surprised that they allowed James Robinson to go to New York? A little bit.

I text a couple of guys that I'm still close to down there. I said, what happened there? And they said, well, TJ, Travis ETN, they call him TJ down there. So they were like, he's doing a good job. And it was just kind of one of those things where there was some value to him and they found a way to get him up there. But for him to be traded to the Jets, you know, you go from two and five to five and two.

And I think that's gonna be good for a guy like James. And James Robinson doesn't talk. He's one of those guys that he just, he comes to work.

He literally, when I say he literally doesn't talk, he comes to work and he does this thing and you almost have to force him to talk to you. But he is, he's that focused into it. And I think that's the reason he's become what he has become from, you know, an undrafted free agent and everything. And it'll be good to see what he can do with the Jets. They definitely need someone after losing Breece Hall. The majority of your time in the NFL so far has been spent with Cincinnati. So you were there for nine years in a variety of offensive roles, including running backs coach. And I got to tell you, you were one of the first people I thought of when I was watching them against the Cleveland Browns. We were just talking about ball control and Cleveland had a plus 15 margin in time of possession, which is astounding, but they want to run the ball. They use Nick Chubb.

They try to keep it away from Joe Burrow. And on Monday night, it was extremely successful. However, Bengals have also lost Jamar Chase. Know you're, you're there in Louisiana. You're real familiar with that combination and LSU. So what stood out about that particular game and how they couldn't get their offense started?

Well, it's not by chance that I said 36 minutes of possession because I believe that's what Cleveland had the other day. And I actually call in three times a week in Cincinnati, just some radio stations there. So I still help those guys out and cover the Bengals a little bit. And my time in Cincinnati was great.

And I love the people there. And it was cool to see them last year become what they become, but became and then as you know, a Super Bowl team and all that. But here's the thing, that team has got to just understand that their players are good. They're, they got, they got top level talent on that team and not just the receivers, not just the quarterback. They've got Joe Mixon. They've got, they've got some offensive linemen that if they, if they just continue to use them correctly, the run game can get going, but that's the problem. You have 36 minutes of possession and that means you're not running the ball.

You're not, you're not running the clock. And one of the things they did this past week when Jamar Chase went out as compared to the weeks before, the weeks before, I guess Atlanta and New Orleans, Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase, you could see the connection. You could see the back shoulder throws. You could see the, the kind of the good, when they would look over at each other and they would see each other and they would, you know, you could see the adjustments being made and they would get the ball to Jamar and Jamar would make things happen. Cause he won the game in New Orleans with a big touchdown.

He had another big touchdown in Atlanta where he just caught a, you know, a 10 yard route and ran for 50. But what hit me and out, those other guys have got to step up. And if you go look at the routes, they're running, it's the same routes they ran against Atlanta the week before, but they weren't connecting to Tyler Board. They weren't connecting to T Higgins. They weren't connecting to, you know, Mike Thomas, the other kid that came in for Jamar Chase. They were trying to dump the ball off to Joe Mixon, but they have to, they have to just know we are the better team. We have better players than the team we're playing and dictate to the defense that we're about to just come up, we're coming at you today and not worry about trying, you know, trying to make up for somebody that's not there. And when they figure that out, and when Joe Burrow figures out that, listen, I can trust these other guys too.

Cause they're just as good, you know, that that's when they'll really take off. Little taste of the NFL with coach Kyle Kasky, 12 years in the NFL as an assistant coach with various teams, but he's been busy on film breakdowns in the college ranks because he's in Louisiana. So we've got Alabama, LSU, Tennessee and Georgia this weekend. And you want some insights, some keys to the game. Well, Kyle's going to give those to us next.

Hang on Kyle Kasky with us from Louisiana. It's after hours on CBS sports radio. You are listening to the after hours pod throughout the sixties and seventies. Is there something really absurd that skeaves you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball. A fear you can't shake. I'm going to leak ocular fluid on my cheeks. It's going to go into my mouth and I will perish. Whatever scares you. I want to talk about it. Join me, Larry Mullins, on my new podcast, Your Weirdest Fears.

Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. Cast. Our guys are so much more focused on what they need to do more than, you know, any former relationships that they've had with players to be quite frank. And I'm sure coach Saban is the same way. This is much more about being in the right emotional zone when you play the game and being locked in and focused. And I'm pretty certain that that's how it's going to be played.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Maybe you've heard about these important, yeah, we'll call them important critical games coming up in college football, Death Valley, LSU, Alabama. Man, there is history there, but we've also got number one versus number three, the defending national champion, Tennessee at Georgia. And we're so excited to spend a few more minutes with Kyle Kasky, longtime NFL assistant coach. Also has some years logged in the college coaching ranks living near LSU and Baton Rouge. And so we are, I mean, we're in for it this weekend, Kyle. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. We put the link up on our Twitter page, After Hours CBS. While Kyle is taking a sabbatical from coaching, he started a YouTube channel where he's doing film breakdowns.

They're extensive. Everything from the explosive LSU offense to trying to answer the question of whether or not Bama can stop LSU. And we're going to let him answer that question. But first, what's it like to be there under the lights, Kyle, for a game at LSU? Well, number one, the night game at LSU is made from the day of the game. It's not the fact that the game is at night. It's the fact that everybody has had all day to hang out outside the stadium and get ready for the game. That's nothing to do with the game being at 7 or 7.30 at night.

These people will be just out of their minds by the time it happens. So I'm going to tell you a little story. My dad played at A&M, played at Texas A&M just like I did. And his first game he ever started was in 1960. And it was at LSU in Tiger Stadium in 1960. And the one thing he told me about the experience of coming to Tiger Stadium was it smelled like whiskey when you came out of the tunnel. And I'm going to tell you right now, it still smells like whiskey when you come out of the tunnel.

So these people are ready to roll. I've actually only been to one tailgate so far. And it was the New Mexico game, which was a six o'clock game, I believe.

And I'm just telling you, even for the New Mexico game this year was crazy. My wife and I have plans. We don't have tickets yet to the game, but we're working on that, but we're going tailgating for sure.

So we're going to go see what's going on with the Alabama fans out there and see how they get treated by the LSU faithful. I feel like you should have an in there, Kyle. I don't think that should be too difficult to get into the stadium.

Yeah, we'll get in. I'm not worried about that. Uh-oh, Kyle's about to be sneaking into a stadium. You did not hear it here.

All right, Kyle. So one of your recent film breakdowns tries to answer the question of whether or not Bama can stop LSU. You also did a film breakdown of the Alabama offense. So for those of us who, you know, don't break down coaching film for a living, what are a couple of keys when you think about this matchup? All right, so when you look at LSU's offense, the last couple of games, they've kind of hit their stride. They've figured out that the RPO game, the quick game of just getting the ball to Kaishan Bute and Malik neighbors and their receivers and just getting the ball to their playmakers and letting them go as opposed to just, you know, letting the quarterback drop back and then run, which they were doing early in the year. So they're finding ways to quickly get the ball out. And I think that's a key against Alabama's defense because, you know, I mean, Alabama's defense is going to come at you. They've got some edge rushers that, you know, are top-notch, they're probably, you know, top 10 picks that are coming at you. And when you're looking at Alabama's defense and you think about Nick Saban, he's going to try to take away what you do best.

Well, what are they doing best? It's getting the ball out quick. So they're going to do everything they can to force them to have to throw it over their heads or run it against them, as opposed to just throwing it quick to get to their playmakers. So that'll be interesting to see if LSU can get the run game going and then obviously to see if they can get a couple shots deep on their DBs. And then when you flip it around and you're talking about LSU's defense against Alabama's offense and Bryce Young obviously Heisman trophy winner, but they got Gibbs, number one, the running back, the kids special. You know, they've got their receivers aren't necessarily as explosive as they've been in the past, but they're explosive enough, okay?

They're still four and five star players. So it's not like they're, you know, they just don't have the Jameson Williams and those guys that they've had in the past, but what they're going to end up doing is they're going to run the ball. They're going to run it until they can't run it, honestly, against LSU. And then once they do that, then it becomes the Bryce Young can scramble. He can make things happen. There's a couple of plays where he literally will scramble to the right, all the way to the numbers. He'll scramble all the way back to the left of the numbers and scramble back to the middle and then throw a pass.

And it's like, how did he even do that? But that's what that makes him what he is. And LSU has a player. His name is Harold Perkins. He's number 40. I'm going to throw this kid's name out there because I think everybody needs to understand who this kid is because they've got it. They've got another defensive MBJ or July, number 18. And they've got Ollie Gay, number 11. But this kid, number 40, he's a freshman, a true freshman.

I don't even know if the kid's not even 19 years old yet. And he might be the most explosive player on the field for this game. So keep an eye on number 40 for LSU's defense because he makes plays. Every time he's on the field, he creates havoc with the pass rush. He's a spy on the quarterback.

I mean, this kid's all over the place. He's going to be, I could guarantee you this, in about three years, when he comes out to the NFL, he'll be a top five pick. Kyle Kaske is with us here after hours on CBS Sports Radio right now from Louisiana, where he plans to get into the stadium somehow for Alabama and LSU. All right, so that brings us to number one, Tennessee. First time the Vols have been in the top four in the college football playoff system. They lead the country in scoring more than 49 points per game. They've had at least 34 points in every game, and they're on a tear right now, but they're going up against a Georgia team that's known for its defense. Now, they did lose a bunch of guys on their defense to the NFL in the first round last year, but they are still very stingy. Something's got to give, Kyle.

What is it? First off, just because Georgia loses some players to the NFL doesn't mean that there's not another 10 NFL players for next year, just waiting right behind them. So here's the thing about Tennessee. If you haven't watched Tennessee play, you've got to tune in and watch Tennessee play for this reason alone. They are the fastest offense I have ever seen, and I thought Auburn about five or six years ago was the fastest offense I'd ever seen.

No, this group goes so fast, and what they do is they put... So the college numbers are really wide. They're wider than the NFL numbers. These receivers stay out on those numbers. So you've got your five linemen, your quarterback, and your running back in on the hash, and you've got your four receivers. I mean, Dang, they're standing on the sideline, and it opens the field up so much, and they go so fast that it doesn't allow you to necessarily set up an exotic defense. So they're using the space of the field against the defense, and again, they're using the speed of their play call and to even add to it. So when you watch them, watch how many times they throw the ball in between the numbers and the hash and at like six yards deep, and then they go run. I mean, that's what they do, because there's so much space that they've created just in the alignment of their offense. And then with Georgia, Georgia's going to score points. Stetson Bennett's actually become a good quarterback. I believe he's progressed quite a bit from the guy that you saw last year that people kind of thought he was just kind of riding the coattails of a good team. He's actually going in there.

He's part of that good team now. So it'll be interesting, because Tennessee's defense has had some issues too now. As many points as they're scoring, they've been giving up some points too. So you're looking at a high-scoring game, so it'll be one of those ones, you know, it could come down to whoever has the ball last. I know that people talk about the difference in the atmospheres between the NFL and college football. Man, as we were talking about home field advantages earlier this week, a lot of people were pointing to various college fields and college stadiums, and certainly they're going to be on display this weekend.

Yeah, this weekend for sure, because you're talking about having two top-10 match-ups, like legit two top-10 match-ups, one in the West, one in the East of the SEC. I love the NFL. If I get back in, when I get back in, that's what I want to do. I want to coach the NFL.

I love that level. But the atmosphere of a college game can't be matched. When you're talking about people who went to school at this school, and that's why they're there in the stands, and their allegiance to that school is nothing like the allegiance to an NFL team somewhere. And they are hardcore. I mean, they are into it. The message boards are going crazy.

The internet just goes nuts. I mean, all these talk shows go nuts, and it's just a lot of fun to watch the college side of it. As a guy who's been in the NFL for a long time, I will say that the atmosphere at LSU, the atmosphere at Texas A&M, and I know it's not like a homer, I get it, but when those two teams are doing well and getting going, it's hard to match. It's hard to match when you've got over 100,000 people in the South at LSU, and it's warm. It's warm all year long, because like Michigan, you get 105,000 people, but it's cold there.

I'm sorry, but I mean, there's a point where you just kind of got to, the excitement goes away when you can't feel your hands. But when it's warm all year long and you come down here and you bring your team into somewhere like LSU or Georgia, Alabama, but I'd say LSU right now, because I mean, I've seen a lot of things in the last year that I had never seen before, just living down here and seeing how these people are. I love it. I didn't grow up an LSU fan.

Trust me, I went to Texas A&M. I'm on the other side of it, but I live here now and I cover the Tigers and it's pretty cool to see how excited and crazy they get. Absolutely, cannot wait. Let's see, lots of ways that you can connect with Kyle, first of all, on his Twitter at Coach Kyle Kaske, 12 years in the NFL, plus the college ranks. Now he's working on his Kaske's clicker, which is not just college breakdown, but NFL film breakdown. It's fascinating stuff.

I learned a lot and that link is on his Twitter as well. So good to catch up with you. We're gonna do it again soon because we're right in the heart of college football, Kyle. Thank you.

All right, just let me know when you want me back. Amazing, just good information for those of you who are college football geeks, and you don't even have to be to get into the games coming up this weekend in the wake of the first college football playoff rankings. But yes, every time Kyle posts a new video on his YouTube channel, he sends me the link and then quizzes me. Did you see it?

What did you like? Well, I'm like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Anyway, he's a lot of fun and he makes it very self-explanatory, easy to do on his Twitter, on his YouTube channel.

Make sure you support Kyle and soon he'll be back in the NFL. Man, we're halfway through. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. There's a lot to listen to.

So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. Throughout the 60s and 70s. Is there something really absurd that skeaves you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball. A fear you can't shake. I'm gonna leak ocular fluid on my cheeks.

It's gonna go into my mouth and I will perish. Whatever scares you, I wanna talk about it. Join me, Larry Mullins, on my new podcast, Your Weirdest Fears.

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