Michael Duarte | NBC Los Angeles Reporter

What's the strangest thing you're afraid of?

Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids, you know people who get surgeries to look like an animal, to giant statues.

If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of.

everything from animal people Switch Federal Studios hybrids, thatcircuit.com. and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your assaulting no Prom teamdie okay on okay and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. Attending the game, covering the game at SoFi Stadium in LA, our friend Michael Duarte from NBC LA. Michael, generally you're covering pro sports. How did college football and its big stage play at SoFi? That's a great question, Amy.

And first of all, a long time, no talk. So happy new year to you. I hope you're doing well. I do cover college sports. I cover USC and occasionally UCLA. I just came back from the Cotton Bowl recently with that crazy two lane USC game with two lanes, great comeback there at the end. But yeah, this was the first obviously big college football game I've seen at SoFi Stadium and the atmosphere played perfectly. Pre-game energy, excitement level was off the hook. Both bands were competing from opposite sides of the field. And from my perspective, which was the corner of the end zone and TCU end zone, if you were watching the game, as far as the painted purple and their logo there, it was a completely divided sea of red and purple throughout the stadium with the purple starting behind TCU's bench and kind of going all the way over to that corner end zone where the press box was.

And then that sea of red picking up going all the way across the other side. And it was divided and there was delirium going on early in the game. And by the end of the game, it was silence and just the sea of red because the purple had all evacuated the building and headed out into this horrific rain we're having here in LA. But yeah, I thought it was a perfect environment and atmosphere for a college football game. And the last thing I'll say, Amy, is SoFi Stadium got a lot of a gruff early on when they decided to build a roof saying, this is LA, why does the stadium need a roof? And it worked out perfectly today. Well, I'm glad you mentioned the fans evacuating.

That's the perfect word. Cause I was in the car listening on the radio. So I didn't see toward the end of the game what the stands look like. But I wondered if TCU fans left early, not only because of the score, but because of the notorious LA traffic.

At what point did the mass exodus begin? I started to see the max exodus around halfway through the third quarter. I'm not sure if Mattress Mac, who lost his 3 million bet on TCU was part of those unhappy fans heading for the exits. But yeah, I'd say right around midway through the third quarter, I started to see a purple wave leave SoFi Stadium and head out into the rainy night here in Los Angeles. So I was wondering if there would be a lot of LA sports fans, casual fans, people that just wanted to be part of this type of a huge event at SoFi.

It certainly didn't seem that way though. And maybe there were some of those corporate tickets, but it felt much more like the fans that were there, as you say, were divided and took ownership either of Georgia or TCU. Yeah, for the most part, as I walked around the stadium, it was just, like I said, a sea of red and purple, but I did happen to see some fans wearing Rams jerseys and Rams hats and UCLA jerseys.

And then other people just representing their own universities, Ohio State for one. I saw a couple of people wearing Alabama. So some of that, but for the most part, I think fans got the memo because you know, with Georgia, you could wear red or black, I suppose.

And with TCU, you could maybe go purple or gray. And it was just red and purple throughout that stadium. It seemed everybody got the notes to wear those two colors. And it was just looking perfectly, at least from my vantage point in the press box. According to Michael's Twitter, 72,628, the official attendance in that sea of purple and red. So as it started out, and I loved the national anthem with Pentatonix, that was phenomenal.

Oh my goodness. I hope that you could hear it, that it played well there, like in person. But the way that it started with all the fanfare and the excitement, and as you say, to end up with just Georgia fans, there is quite the contrast from beginning to end. But what stands out to you about watching Georgia in the way that it dominated? Yeah, and there was a lot of excitement and I did get to hear the Pentatonix national anthem. And it was great listening to that, especially kind of almost the barbershop quartet way they kind of sang it, which I really enjoyed. But Georgia rolled over TCU, like my dog rolls around the carpet after being in the rain, Amy.

And I know your dog Penny probably does it too. And that's how it felt, my takeaways early. And a couple of things I told your producer, James, before going on, this was the second easiest story I've ever had to write in my career. Obviously it being the biggest, largest margin of victory in the history of not just college football championship games, but college football bowl games, period. And poor TCU, back in 1920 in the Fort Worth classic bowl game, got beat by center Kentucky 63 to seven. So now they're part of two of the biggest bowl game, largest deficit they've ever been in the history of college football.

But this just was one of those situations. And I'll give you a little insight into just kind of how when I write stories that need to be posted on NBC's national sites and throughout the apps across the country in a game like this, I'll tend to write some notes on both sides and maybe a couple lead paragraphs in the opening regardless of the outcome. So in this example, I would maybe write a couple of paragraphs if TCU were to win and a couple of paragraphs if Georgia were to win. This was the first time I just had a gut feeling early on that I should just write if Georgia wins.

And as soon as they went up 17-7, I never looked back. I just wrote as if Georgia was gonna win and it worked out well for me. Doesn't always though, right?

I'm sure you've been at those events where you've started to write. You feel like you've got your game cap and your story and your angle. And then something crazy happens at the end and all of a sudden it all goes out the window. Yeah, like I mentioned that that Cotton Bowl with USC Tulane, I thought when it was, USC had a 15-point lead, a little over three minutes left. I thought it was over. I started writing as USC was gonna win and it was a massive rewrite there at the end.

So yeah, I've had it go the other way before as well. Michael Duarte is with us from NBC LA with that SoFi for this national championship. First major college football event taking place at the stadium. And yes, worth noting that the roof was very helpful.

Otherwise it would have been extremely messy. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. I don't think there was a closeup of Stetson Bennett, the entire broadcast, that he didn't have a ginormous smile on his face, almost as if he knew the secret and the rest of us were just about to see it play out, but that he knew this was going to happen. They looked so comfortable. They looked so confident.

And it really wasn't a bold and brash type of an attitude. I mean, there's swagger there obviously when you're a national champ, but it was much more about, we just know. We just know that when we play our game, it doesn't matter who is on the other sideline, there's no stopping us.

Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up. And first of all, wouldn't you have a smile on your face as being part of this game if you were Stetson Bennett, Amy? Stetson Bennett was deep in his bag in this game, like there was fries at the bottom. He had the highest passer rating in a college football championship history, 226.9.

I don't know if that will ever get beat. A couple of other stats I pulled out for you here. Georgia had 64 plays total in the game. They had 65 points. That means every time they snapped the ball, they were going to average over one point per snap. Their offense also averaged 16.8 yards per play.

So just think about that. Every time they snapped the ball, they were going to get a first down plus seven more yards every play. That's just how dominant the offense was. And obviously it could have been worse. It could have been 72 to seven. They led up there at the end to run the clock out. So I was just kind of looking to see how many records they would break in this game as far as just the magnitude of his blowout.

17 total records were broken in this game. But Amy, a couple of things on Stetson Bennett there. First of all, Kirby Smart said he will be the GOAT in Athens, Georgia for the rest of his life.

And I think that was apropos for him, especially a kid. You know, if you watch the Heisman Trophy ceremony, which I got to watch because Caleb Williams here of USC was in it. And another interesting factoid, Amy, Caleb Williams, after Lincoln Riley left around this time last year, thought about transferring to Georgia. And Georgia was trying to get him, which meant Stetson Bennett thought about leaving and potentially going into the NFL draft and going pro after last season's championship.

Caleb Williams ultimately ends up following Lincoln Riley to USC, paving the way for Stetson Bennett to come back and have this historic run. And Stetson Bennett said something after the game. He said, for the last three to four months, we've been out there waiting to see if any team in the country could beat us and nobody could.

And I thought that was just a great, great impressive line by him. And the last thing I will say to kind of tell you what I witnessed and observed out there and something that Kirby Smart told me. After Georgia found out, after they beat Ohio State in that amazing semifinal game, and they found out TCU would be their opponent. Obviously they probably watched them beat Michigan earlier. Their scout team went out for the next several days and just studied TCU's offense perfectly and made sure that like backup quarterbacks on Georgia and different players on offense literally did what TCU and Max Duggan does on offense better than TCU does themselves. And that is why Georgia was so prepared for the game, so confident for the game, and I'm sure everybody does it, but that's what they attributed to it.

They knew if they stuck and executed the game plan, as you mentioned before the game, Kirby Smart knew they would be aggressive and they'd be able to attack and they would have wide open guys because that was just the study and being able to put it in practice throughout the week ahead of the game. So wide open, so wide open. Michael, I have to tell you, I'm slightly disappointed. I mean, you're one of our favorite guests, of course, one of our top friends here on the show. And I was really looking forward to asking you if you had the chance to talk to Ugga or to meet Ugga. But unfortunately, Ugga did not make the trip to LA because the plane flight was too long for him. So I know there were other celebrities there. I saw some of your photos.

It doesn't matter. Ugga is the only one that I would have asked you about your encounter with. Correct, yeah, I wanted Ugga to be there too. He was not only the Georgia Bulldog mascot that I get to meet, and I also got to meet the Horned Frogs mascot.

Jason Kidd, Dallas Mavericks coach, and Luka Doncic were both on the sidelines. I ran to Lincoln Riley on the sidelines. But one of the biggest, of course, was Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who was a Georgia alum. Sexton Bennett said he was the goat for him growing up playing at Georgia.

That's awesome. He made an appearance. I got to see him on the sideline and say hello to him too. And he told me, Amy, for anybody who, you know, questioned whether he would retire, he will be back next season with the Rams, regardless of Sean McVay's decision to either stay with the Rams or leave. So Matthew Stafford's coming back.

L.A., if you're listening. Well, segue perfectly, of course. You read my mind, Michael, because yes, Matthew Stafford was part of the coin flip. He was out there.

Ladanian Tomlinson was representing TCU. And earlier in the day, they had their exit interviews, quote unquote. And once again, we want you to hear, well, not you, you've already heard it, but the rest of our audience, here's what Sean McVay had to say about 23. I'm going to take the next couple of days to really be able to kind of reflect obviously a lot of conversations with various people that will dictate and determine the decision that's best for me, my family, the Rams, and a lot of people. And that's kind of where we're at with that. What factors go into Sean McVay deciding whether or not he returns to the Rams?

That's a great question, Amy. If you had told me a week ago that Sean McVay would not be back with the Rams next season, I would have thought you were crazy. But now after hearing Jay Glazer's report yesterday, Sunday on what he was hearing inside the Rams facility and the thoughts from people with inside the organization is that he's more likely to leave and not return then come back. And then hearing his post game press conference today and his news conference today, that to me sounded like a man who's burnt out and is leaning towards if he had to make the decision right now towards walking away.

And that just surprises me for a 36 year old Super Bowl winning coach who has his core of his team intact. I think for him, the decision is probably mostly family-based. He got married in the off season to his wife, Veronica, whose family is in Ukraine.

That has to be a very high stress, scary, fearful situation for him. I know they wanna start a family. They wanna have a child. And I also know Sean McVay lives, eats, breathes, and sleeps football. And his wife and I might not like that if they wanna start a family.

She might want him to spend some more time at home and then take a little bit of a break so they could build this family. And then he can go back to coaching at a different time maybe in his career because he is still young. But I do know what's weighing on that decision outside of that part, which would lead me to believe maybe he's thinking about leaving, is the impact it would have on his coaching staff inside the organization. The players he's talked about.

Aaron Donaldson, the only reason he came back and didn't retire was for Sean McVay. Matthew Stafford had echoed similar sentiments. So I think the ripple effect, if he were to leave, what it would have on the organization, his coaching staff, the people that he built this family over the last six years with, I think also is gonna factor into his decision because he knows if he leaves, a lot of those people will be gone too and without a job. And it may have even more longer term impact on the Rams on the field. So I think those are the two things he'll be weighing here in the next couple of weeks.

And I hope regardless of his decision, he finds peace and clarity regardless. Before I let you go, it would take two sets of hands, all of my fingers, all of your fingers on our hands to count the number of significant injuries that the Rams suffered this year in finishing five and 12. Certainly not what they expected in attempting to defend their Super Bowl championship. What's another reason that it was such a year of complete opposite from their championship? Well, you nailed it and that's really what you point to is just they were absolutely decimated by injuries, but looking at what happened, obviously you need things to go your way.

And in that Super Bowl run, they got a lot of breaks. They got a lot of luck, not only just on the health side, but a ball bounces your way. A couple of times with the Rams, a ball was fumbled and it landed into the team who fumbled hands instead of in the Rams hands, which could have changed the outcomes of multiple games.

Flippery little sucker, that ball. Exactly, they don't pick up a first down here or there. It leads to one loss in Tampa Bay that I was at earlier this year that I can point to. So the luck that you need and the ball to bounce your way to win a Super Bowl championship, we saw that with the Rams in the 2021 season in that Super Bowl earlier in 2022. And then this season they just didn't have it. They seemed to have all the bad luck and then all the breaks not go their way. But they didn't address the offensive line in the off season last year and they didn't address the secondary. A lot of pieces walked away or retired like in the case of Andrew Whitworth. And they loaded up their money on the front end and their big stars and Aaron Donald and Matthew Stafford and Cooper Cupp.

They all got big, massive extension instead of spreading that money out to get more depth on the places they needed it, which was offensive line in the secondary. And once the injury started to fall like dominoes, you saw the impact on the Rams. I think if I'm Sean McVay and knowing his pride, I guess, this is not how he wants to go out. So I hope for the sake of Rams fans and for this core unit that's still here, that he does decide to come back or makes a decision somewhat quickly because you know another Sean's out there and Sean Payton that might be a good fit for the Rams as well.

So we'll see what he decides. I do hope he decides to come back and ride it with this unit because this is not a situation where the Rams are in like a complete rebuild. They still have that Super Bowl core intact and they still have a window here to win a couple more championships. It's a lot of information there. I've also heard Sean Payton connected to the Cardinals too, who are looking for a new head coach in the wake of letting Cliff Kingsbury walk. So we'll see how this plays out.

But yeah, the Rams have got some work to do. I definitely miss seeing Vaughn Miller and Cooper Cupp though. You can find Michael Duarte on Twitter at MichaelJDuarte.

We missed him as well. Yes, it's been a while, which is why I just want to point out you were my first choice. I had to know whether or not you were gonna be at SoFi.

And once we found out, I told producer Jay to make sure that he asked you first. We always appreciate your time, your insight. Happy new year to you. Good to talk to you again. Thanks, Amy. You too.

Enjoy the rest of your show. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, The Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal-people hybrids, you know, people who get surgeries to look like an animal, to giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants.

Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal-people hybrids, you know, people who get surgeries to look like an animal, to giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants.

Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums.