1.2.23 - JR SportBrief Hour 3

What's that sound? That's the sound of Downy Unstoppable's scent beads going into your washing machine and giving your clothes freshness that lasts all day long.

There it is again. It's like music to your ears. Or more like music to your nose. That freshness is irresistible. Let's get a Downy Unstoppable's bottle shake. And now a sniff solo. Nice.

Get six times longer lasting freshness plus odor protection with Downy Unstoppable's in wash scent beads. It is the JR Sport Reshow here on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.

Thank you to our super producer Ryan Hickey holding it down, coming to us live from New York City. Yep. January 2nd. Nope.

You are not confused. This is the first day in my new slot, my new time. The JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. We get started every single weeknight. Pay attention. Pay close attention. At 6 p.m. Eastern time, 3 p.m. Pacific. Yep.

That's when you could hear the show. And if you don't know what a weeknight is, that means I'm here Monday through Friday. Much love and shout outs to everybody on the highways, the byways, people still on vacation, people still on the road, people going to and from work, people deciding not to go home to their families.

I put this up on social media and you can find it at JR Sport Brief. I made it very clear. I am here for people who do not want to go home. I've had the feeling. I think a lot of us have had the feeling because you know what's at home. Maybe nobody's at home. Maybe you got a kid at home. Maybe you got a partner at home, a spouse, a wife, a husband. Maybe your in-laws is at home.

I think we have all had that. Well, you just go, damn. Here I am back where I live. This is my house.

I live here. But do I want to go inside? Do I want to sit inside the car for a few minutes? Do I want to take a deep breath? Well, for all you folks, I'm here.

I'm here for people who hate their families and the people who love their families, too. So don't worry about it. If you want to talk to me, don't worry about it. I love you. I got nothing but love for you, baby. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. I'm online, as I mentioned. I am at JR Sport Brief all over the place. I've been hanging out here with you for two hours.

Time sure does fly when you're having fun. We talked about what we know is going to be the national championship final in football of this upcoming Monday night. Last night, Michigan beat Alabama. We saw Washington stop Texas at the end of the game. They're going to move on and they're going to take each other on out in Houston, Texas, on Monday night.

That should be cool. Thank you to Emery Hunt from CBS Sports HQ for joining us. We talked about the Kansas City Chiefs and their Super Bowl aspirations. We've been able to talk about Lamar Jackson on his way, I believe, to another MVP. We discussed Russell Wilson.

Yeah, Lamar Jackson might be on his way up, up, up, up, up. And Sean Payton gave Russell Wilson the boot. And I told you, man, it's so dirty in the NFL, right?

So dirty that anybody can get got. Even Russell Wilson can get the boot. The NFL is ruthless. The owners are ruthless. They don't care who you are.

They don't care where you come from. And so in a second, I want to tell you about David Tepper, the owner of the miserable Carolina Panthers. We'll get there in a minute. I need to let you know this. In about, I don't know, 15 to 20 minutes from now, we will have a conversation, speaking of Michigan, with John U. Bacon. This man knows everything about Michigan. New York Times best selling author. His latest book is Let Them Lead. He does lots of public speaking.

I want to get his perspective because, well, he was there and he knows it all. So we'll talk about Michigan and figure out what the hell they need to do to go out there and stop Washington. That defense is going to have to go out there and do some work.

They're going to have to maybe score some points as well. But we'll get into that in a few minutes. I do want to hit the phone lines. We have a couple of folks who've been waiting patiently. And then I want to get into Mr. Tepper, a billionaire who got slapped on the wrist with a three hundred thousand dollar fine for throwing a drink at a fan. That's your customer. You're throwing a drink at him.

It don't matter what team they support. 855-212-4CBS. Dale is calling from Birmingham. You're on the JR Sport Reshow here on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Dale?

Hey, JR. I'm following you, man. I'm following you. Well, thank you for following me.

Happy New Year to you. What's up? First, can I talk about Alabama?

Oh, OK. Go ahead. Just the game. They threw the tight end one time. They didn't try to slow the rest down with middle screens. I just think the offensive coordinator they got from Notre Dame, he's not ready for the SEC. So do you want to deliver that message to Nick Saban or do you want to take his spot? What do you think Nick Saban should do? If they can get better, if we can coach in the SEC, be an offensive coordinator.

I thought he got caught on, but sure, Nick, they just didn't catch on. Well, I think, Dale, I think the most important thing and thank you for calling from Birmingham. How about it been nice if they didn't have to shuffle through quarterbacks at the beginning of the season? How about it been nice if they didn't have to go on a charge here towards the end of the year and beat Georgia to make their way into the college football player? You can't just blame it on the coordinator because we went down to one game. Maybe Michigan is better.

How about that? I ain't complaining about the offensive coordinator. Sometimes you got to look at the talent that you have out there on the field.

And let's be clear. I mean, you can be Alabama and you can be appreciative of how difficult it's been to get to this point. But now we're moving on to the longest drought since Nick Saban has taken over in Alabama. And they won't win a championship for third season. I mean, how about we just ball down to the talent? Let's think about some of the players that they've sent clear on into the NFL.

And they're not they're not in the same place in the same world. And things have kind of evened out here in the SEC. Dammit, dare I say, and today I don't have my Georgia hoodie on. But, man, if Georgia lost to any other team besides Alabama, I don't think Alabama would have made it in to the college football playoff. And so sometimes you just got to look at the talent that's out there. And I think Alabama does get a little bit of a boost because of their name.

It's simple as that. Hey, Ryan Hickey, let me ask you, man, what do you think? Don't you think Alabama's kind of come back down to earth? I thought obviously they were a threat to win a championship just based off of how hot they've been. But what are your thoughts on the program in whole?

I'm with you. For their standards, like they still recruit at an insanely high level. But like you said, like the development, especially at quarterback, at receiver, at offensive line. Like, I mean, more the last time, J.R., you saw a team just physically dominate a Nick Saban coach team. Maybe Georgia did it a few years ago with that elite defense ahead in twenty twenty one.

But it's few and far between in Michigan for what? Seventy five percent of the game did exactly that. Pushed him around. It's not the end of the dynasty, but like you said, maybe the closest they've come back down to earth since really saving got it going to know nine. Good. Good. You know, I mean, it's there comes a point in time where where everybody you want to see you want to see parody. And I know college football is going through such a massive and major change.

And we talked about this a little bit with Emory Hunt when he joined us earlier on in the show. I mean, just just the bowl games. Let's throw out the Sugar Bowl from last night. Let's throw out the Rose Bowl. How many of these bowl games have actually been interested? I mean, we opened up the show, right?

We were talking about a damn pop tart. I mean, come on. How many how many did you sit down and watch you were watching these games? I will say I was sick for a large part of this week. Yeah. So I did have a lot of free time to sit and watch and I will say outside of the big games the pop-tart bowl.

I was glued to I was hooked. They won that one. Yeah, you told me your favorite pop-tart is chocolate chip. Is that what it is?

That's right. Ryan when you don't want to share it. That's fine. But when's your birthday? June, June, June 24th, June 20. Hey, that's my big brother's birthday. No way. Let's go to brother Big Mike. Yeah, great day. I'm never going to forget that Ryan June 24th.

Good for you. So now I know when June 24th swings around you want like a box you want a bag of these. I'm chocolate pops. You got diabetes or do I need to be careful? Can we make it no diabetes? So if we make it a living mascot, I mean, wait a minute.

Let's just run it back here. Do I need I think Kellogg's has spun them off. Do we need to contact pop-tarts?

I think so. You want the mascot? You want to eat the mascot? I you know, I will say it after the cheese after the pop-tart bowl every other mascot or ever the bowl mascot sense as it's falling short and now I can't watch a game unless the mascots getting eaten afterwards. So I can't eat a pop-tart unless it's been living before. Well, I don't know man. We got some interesting mascots in the world.

What's that? What's that stupid gritty? Nobody wants to eat gritty. What is he from Philadelphia?

No, you're right about that. No, Mr. Met doesn't look edible. I don't know what mascot and there's none of them and put Mr. Met's head like a cake. I don't know a big-ass cake head a cake.

No, man, we can't I don't know. The only edible mascot is that's that pop-tart that that they ate. You know what? And everybody loved it. You know what? Let's hear that again.

Even the announcers on ESPN. They were effusive. They were enthusiastic. They were ecstatic because we saw a pop-tart on a football field hop out of a toaster and we knew his fate. He was going to be eaten by the winning team.

Listen to this. You just saw the edible mascot. He came out of a toaster a giant toaster minutes before kickoff.

Can you really put the frosty ones in a toaster though? Well, here's the sad part of the story after the game. He will be devoured.

He will die and he will be his own last meal. The last time I've ever heard that's the first and last time ever heard about a mascot dying and it being just kind of laughed at. And this is a long way to say the bowl games sucked. OK, I'm looking forward to the national championship. I'm looking for a team not named Alabama going out there and win it winning it. And as a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs who play right on down the road for me here in Atlanta, Georgia and Athens, Georgia. I can't complain like there are certain teams in the world of sports that you can you cannot complain about your recent success. If you're a fan of the Crimson Tide in Alabama. What you want it about?

You good. If you're a fan of the Golden State Warriors. What are you complaining about?

Why are you whining? And this this I don't understand. And shout outs to all my folks listening out in Houston, Texas, my folks in Houston who've listened to me on the loop on 610. Much love to everybody in Houston. I never understood why people would call me up from Houston and get upset because people were trashing. Pardon the pun.

My apologies. The Astros. I mean, even even Al Michaels was on television the other night. And he's making jokes about Astros and banging on garbage cans and what have you. If you're a Astros fan, why do you care what anybody thinks? You won the the championships. You won your titles.

Who cares? You know, I can understand Yankee fans. We've reached a point now where, you know, Yankee fans ain't been around for one hundred and thirty years.

So in 2009 is quite some some time. But some of the fans, man, just just be happy with your team. Be happy with your championships. And to borrow a phrase from a guy who gets on my damn nerves a lot of time.

Aaron Rodgers, just. Relax. Take it easy and.

Relax. It's nice to see Washington here, OK? It's nice to see Pennix Junior go out there and kind of shock everybody with the fact that he's been a quarterback in college for six years.

It's nice to see. I don't know so much Harbaugh. People are going to make jokes about him cheating. We're going to ask John U Bacon about that. It's like he is a good coach.

He just always comes with, quote unquote, baggage or he creates the baggage while he's at the organization or he's at the school or the university. And so congratulations to to Michigan for beating Alabama. Congratulations to Washington for beating Texas. The next time I see the Longhorns play. I want to see a quarterback behind center named man. You know, Arch Manning, I mean, he was showing up at media day for the Sugar Bowl and all anybody wanted to ask him about was, hey, when you going to play?

How are you feeling? And he is quite media savvy, if you couldn't tell. I mean, he should be. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to get into David Tepper throwing that drink. I see that we got. Oh, wow. Seven foot four freak.

Hey, Ryan. When Benyama he got it, he's going to grow some more, isn't he? Was 18 years old. Right. Doesn't sound like he's done growing.

What do you got? Three more years between 18 and 21. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. I'm sitting here in the studio. Victor, when Benyama is going to attempt to play basketball, which he does a good job at. And we'll get into all of that.

When we come back from break, we're going to stay on the college football line. We're going to have a conversation with John U. Bacon. This man is an author. This man is a public speaker. This man is putting books on the New York Times bestseller list. He wrote the book Overtime. Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the crossroads of college football. He knows it all.

We're going to have a conversation with John U. Bacon on the other side of the break. It's the JR Sport Brief Show. Where? Here on CBS Sports Radio.

Don't move. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the JR.

It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We do know that last night we had our we had our college football playoff. We're moving towards our championship of this upcoming Monday night down in Houston, Texas, Michigan knocking off Alabama. Twenty seven to twenty. You know, Washington knocked off Texas in that late game.

Thirty seven to thirty one down in New Orleans. And so in a few seconds, in a few minutes, we're going to have a conversation with someone who has been described as the poet laureate. Laureate of Michigan football. New York Times bestselling author John U. Bacon is going to join us momentarily. A matter of fact, I think we got John on the line right now. John, you're on the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to you, JR. Good to be back. Well, not good to have you here on the line, man. You know, all of the ins, the outs, the ups, the downs of Michigan football. I guess what are your initial thoughts after what we saw last night?

It seems like you might have another book in front of you. Yeah, I don't know if Alabama is Alabama. I know it's not the best Alabama team that Saban has produced.

They had a narrow, of course, scrape against Auburn loss at Texas, but it's still the SEC and they're still the SEC champs. And Michigan has not beaten a team like that in a couple of decades. So that for Michigan was a seminal victory to say the least. It was a sloppy game in some ways on both sides. Plenty of mistakes, but a lot of great plays and attention was constant. I think for Michigan fans, it was downright cathartic. I mean, it's been quite some time. I mean, we saw Woodson on the field the last time they walked away with a championship.

We got to go back. He's not a kid, is he? No, he's sitting around. I think he's doing insurance commercials right now.

You can write Nissan ads and all that. You got it. All of that.

John U Bacon is here with us, the Gerald Sportbree Show, New York Times bestselling author. When you think about this season and having Harbaugh suspended self-imposed at the beginning of the year and then being suspended at the end of the year, would this not be the cherry on top if he is to move on? There's no question. And if he did move on, I don't know even how upset Michigan fans would be insofar as they took over a program that was five and seven.

That was adultery. They went into the tank again in 2020 in the COVID year at two and four. Brought them back from the at again with three straight Big Ten titles. I don't think Michigan fans would regret him a whole lot if he did go. And if he does go, I mean, look, one brother is a Super Bowl champion.

One brother is a national NCAA champion, of course. And at that point, it's hard to argue about it. However, it's hard to say if that makes it more or less likely for him to leave. It really boils down more to what Michigan does than what the NFL or the NCAA does. So if Michigan can work it out, then Harbaugh will stay, I believe.

John U Bacon is here with us, CBS Sports Radio. So you're saying, and this is what we hear, it's almost a foregone conclusion, especially after his flirtations over the past few years, that he's going to exit Michigan win or lose. You think it just comes down to whatever dollar amount that they decide to throw at him out in Michigan?

I do not. I think they will throw the dollars, probably more dollars than the NFL will throw. Even though the Spanos family with the L.A. Chargers is the most likely and they've got deep pockets, certainly. What Harbaugh has always said, and if you look at his history, it backs it up. He just wants to be wanted. In 2010, when he was about to leave Stanford for either the 49ers or Michigan, Michigan gave him a half-closed shoulder under the previous AD, Dave Brandon. All the 49ers were mailing a box of swag for his kids, all appropriately sized for all three kids at the time. And that swayed him.

In 2014, when he was debating between the Bears and the Jets and the Oakland Raiders, he went to Michigan for less money because Jim Hackett, then the AD, gave him the full bear hug. So what happens this time around is whoever shows them the love, not the money, I swear to God. If they show them the love, President Santa Ono at Michigan certainly has. Yeah, life director Ward Manuel and Jim Harbaugh do not get along. That's a factor.

Versus whatever the Spanos family does. So Michigan's got, are we going to have to tie them up if they want to? And we'll see if they do. But if not, I swear to God, it's not the number.

The number is going to be crazy no matter what. It's the love. And that sounds corny, but you watch. John U. Bacon is joining us. He's the author of Overtime, Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the crossroads of college football.

We have heard so much about Coach Harbaugh over the years. For every stop that you just mentioned, you know, there's always conversations about, oh, he wanted more power, he wanted more influence. Why do you feel that those lines have been crossed? In terms of lines being crossed at Michigan, you mean?

Or? No, lines being crossed where there's the perception that he wants the power and the money, he doesn't get it, he's out. He wants the power more than the money, I think. In the San Francisco case, of course, he and Bauke, the GM president, did not get along. That's a factor there. So at Michigan, of course, it's been going very well for the most part with Jim Hackett, the previous AD. It was going well with Ward-Manuel for a while, it is not now. So, look, I mean, any top ten coach, whether it's Nick Saban or Kirby or name them, are going to be difficult on some levels.

I don't think too many presidents stand up to them, certainly not ADs. And look, who's harder to replace? An athletic director or a top ten coach who happens to have a perfect 1,000 on the academic progress report.

That should be a no-brainer from Michigan's point of view if it comes down to that. But almost every top ten coach is going to be demanding on some level, I'm sure Harbaugh is. So is Bauche, Sean Becklin, so is Bear Bryant, so is Woody Hayes.

It's kind of the territory you're in. One good line from the previous athletic director at Michigan, Dave Brannon, he said, If all your eggs are in one basket, you better watch that basket very carefully. In this case, the eggs are in the football basket. Yes, Michigan has won national titles in basketball and hockey and gymnastics and softball and you name it, but football pays for everything, just about. So if your football coach is winning and you're graduating your players, my advice would be do everything you can to keep them. And I'm not sure Michigan will.

John Eubakken is here with us, the JR Sportbreeze Show on CBS Sports Radio. We had mentioned that the program winning its last national championship in 1997. And we certainly know about the issues that have been over Harbaugh, the suspensions this past season.

And I can go online and we know there's a lot of people just spout off at the mouth and just say, ah, a bunch of cheaters. And the players are the ones, the students are the ones out there on the field. But do you feel that months from now, years from now, the NCAA will say, oh, well, y'all did this wrong or that there'll be fan bases with all Michigan cheated their way through this or he shouldn't have been there? What are your thoughts there? Well, I think you're not wrong that I think that no matter what the NCAA comes up with at this stage and really we have no idea what it must be said.

I've not seen their the materials, of course, their research, what they've found. And I think, J.R., you're an experienced sports expert. You dare say not make a prediction as to what the NCAA might do in a given situation.

So who knows? But certainly the reputational damage is already there. And I think no matter what Michigan does, there'll be a large portion of the college football fan base out there. Certainly Michigan's rivals at Ohio State, Michigan State, RNA, places like that, other places. We'll say, you know, the cheaters, no matter what happens next, whether it turns out to be jaywalking or embezzlement, it's not quite clear where this sin falls in the scale.

So that damage has probably already been done. But I will say, I mean, a guy like Paul Feynbaum, who is a friend of mine and does a great job in the SEC network. He is obviously an SEC backer, not a Harbaugh like her, not a mission like I would say, but really not a Harbaugh like her, has said that, look, I mean, whatever else has happened with the sign gate, whatever is discovered, the last six, seven games, everyone knows that has not been a factor. And they're still beating four of the top 20 teams in the country.

So I think each time they win a game like last night's game against Alabama, the case that this sign stealing has been such a huge advantage, starts getting diminished. This is a very good team and they're playing well. John, you bacon here with us on CBS Sports Radio when they get out on that field on Monday night. And I hope the game doesn't end past my bedtime.

That's first of all, John. Give me both, brother. Give me both. Trust me on that one. The Sugar Bowl last night. Man, I'm like on the East Coast, I'm like 1 o'clock in the morning. Can you give me a break here?

At least I saw the first one in California. What do you think, from a football fan's perspective, someone who knows all the ins and outs of Michigan football, what should we look forward to on Monday night? Well, I'm guessing more of the same of what you just saw, minus a lot of mistakes, mainly on special teams.

Michigan did not play a perfect game by any means. But enough great plays and enough great defense where five linemen all recorded sacks in the first half against a very good Alabama team. You've got to believe with PNX, of course, one of the best quarterbacks, if not the best in the country, Michigan's got to send a rush in him hard. That you're going to see.

They're going to be aggressive. Plenty of blitzes. And, crucially, J.J. McCarthy, Michigan's quarterback, seems now, for the first time in a month and a half, 100 percent healthy and can run.

And that running threat is essential for Michigan to succeed. So those two things you're going to see plenty more of next time around. But I've got to tell you, that Washington team I saw last night, and like you, JR, I'm there trying to keep myself awake at 1 o'clock in the morning. That's a damn good team, too. So I think so far this has been, in its last year of the 14th playoff, probably the best playoff so far.

Certainly the first two games were. So I think if you can stay awake next week, it should be a hell of a show. Well, let me ask you this, John.

You're the New York Times best-selling author. What is the ideal story over these next, I don't know, not just next week, but two months for Michigan football? Wow, I haven't gotten that one.

Good question. Well, clearly a Michigan victory would go a long way. And it's been 25 years since their last one, and before that it was 50 years.

So how about that for two in the last 75? So obviously that would be huge. That would also quell some of the critics that, OK, this is a serious team and sign stealing only was somewhat of a factor. Then, of course, Michigan ties up Jim Harbaugh for the future.

He is now 60 years old, just turned. And if they get him for the next five or so years, you probably have him for the rest of his career. So that would be the best scenario. And J.G. McCarthy does not jump to the NFL with $304 million available, probably in NIL money for him, he might stay. And crucially, three years ago, people talk about, of course, Connor Stallions, the sign stealing whiz, I guess. But the real thing was three years ago when Harbaugh was two and four and was given a do or die contract at half the income from Michigan, he swapped out six of his 10 assistant coaches. And that is a big boy bet. And if you're lucky, it works in two or three years, but he didn't have two or three years. So it was crucial that it worked right away, and it did three straight Big Ten titles.

Next step is how many of those coaches could he keep on staff? So if you want your standard wish list, that's a long one, and they're not going to get all of it. But that's what it would look like. Yeah, it seems like if they lost in half of what you just said, does it go into the toilet? Yeah, probably.

It's a possibility. You talk about the success here of Harbaugh getting this far to the national championship. He did have his pay reduced. He did have to, quote unquote, have it built back up. And if it's my understanding, he's made $10 million this season, and a lot of it's been added in incentives, no? J.R., you've done your homework well done. I hope your listeners appreciate it.

It's my job to follow this stuff, but you're following the whole country, so that's very impressive. Yeah, his pay was cut in half with, however, as you point out, enough incentive in there that he can make all the money back if they happen to win Big Ten titles and go to the playoffs. And he did.

And I don't know if anyone was expecting that. Certainly not three years in a row, beating Ohio State, getting to the college football playoffs, finally winning one of those games this year. So he's still making about what he would have made before, but he had to earn it in terms of incentives. And as one of his friends joked to me, when they were trying to cut his pay, that took about a weekend to change that contract. We're trying to put it back to what it was.

It's taken a year and a half. And that's where Michigan needs to pick up the slack and show Jim the love. Oh, yeah. Well, we'll find out what takes place on Monday night. John, I appreciate you taking the time to hop on. Where can people follow you and then also pick up your book?

Sounds great, man. JohnUBacon at Twitter. A lot of fun on there, of course. LetThemLead by bacon.com is the podcast. I just had a former Michigan quarterback on there, John Wangler, talking about his Rose Bowl victory as Bo. And the book is LetThemLead Unexpected Lessons in Leadership from America's Worst High School Hockey Team in JR.

I was the coach of that team, so check that one out. I love it. Thank you so much, John. Look forward to chatting it up with you soon. OK, Happy New Year. Anytime, my friend. Great stuff. Thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you to JohnUBacon for joining us. He is the he's the top of the totem pole all things when it comes down to Michigan football. Thank you to John for joining us. It's a rarity that you hear someone talk about Jim Harbaugh and just say he wants to be loved because in most cases it's like, hey, he wants the power and he wants he wants the money. I'm glad John also made it very clear to us that, yeah, he wants he wants the power and that, you know, what we heard with the 49ers and the beef and wanting more power wasn't wasn't wrong. Let's just put it that way. 855-212-4CBS is the number.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We talked about Michigan here with John. When we come back, I want to talk Washington. I want to talk about Michael Penix Jr. I want to talk about the dude who's been in NFL. Not in NFL. He might as well be in NFL at this point. He's been a college QB for six years, six seasons.

I'm going to go ahead and pick up the phone calls on the other side of the break. I want you to hear from Michael Penix Jr., especially from last night. We'll hear from his head coach at Washington as well, DeBoer.

And then we're going to get into David Tepper. We got a lot to do here on CBS Sports Radio. The J.R. Sportbrief show. You are listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the J.R. Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you so much to John U. Bacon, New York Times bestselling author and public speaker for joining us last break to talk about Michigan and the Wolverines. What their future can look like following or I guess definitely following this Monday night's championship game as they get ready to take on Washington.

I want to talk about Michael Penix Jr., the six year college football player. Hey, Ryan, that still sounds it sounds odd to say like we hear all these jokes about how long you in school. Eight years. Whoa, man. Eight years.

What are you taking? One class a year. But when you talk about a college athlete, they have these jokes about, hey, man, go get a real job.

Like get the hell up on out the way. I know he's been injured, but six years. Damn. Six years feels like an eternity. I mean, you got to have some sort of retirement plan at that point. Oh, well, damn. You added in your own joke.

A retirement plan? I think so. And we asked this question to Emory Hunt from CBS Sports HQ when he joined, you know, earlier on in the show. It's a matter of, you know, what is he going to do in the NFL? Twenty four years old.

You know, kind of what you see is what you get at this point in time. That's not to say he's not going to be a late bloomer. But when you when you draft somebody at that age, it's like, where is the upside physically? And then you think about the surgeries that he's had on his knee. You think about the injury he's had to his shoulder. It's a beautiful accomplishment to have this here at the college football to the national championship.

God bless Washington's defense for holding on, holding off Texas at the end of the game. But it makes you go, man, what could he do at the NFL level? I can't sit here and predict the future, but do I think he's going to be a starter?

No, I don't think so. The odds would tell you that he would not or is not going to be a starter. Maybe he can make it into the league as, I don't know, a backup.

I mean, we can kind of walk through a list of guys who have been younger and guys who have been around. I mean, even here in Georgia, if I got to think about Stetson Bennett, I know he's had his issues off the field. If I got to think about a Jake Fromm, where the hell are they starting?

If I got to think about Kenny Pickett, we talked about him earlier in the show going right from Pitt to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Where the hell is he? You know, Mike Tomlin a couple of months ago was saying, oh, well, he's good.

And if you take a look at the numbers, there's a you'd have a better idea how good he is. Well, now he ain't playing. And now they say he's healthy. You know, it's a what have you done for me lately league. And I'm not so sure that Michael Pennix Jr., unless he's going to be on some magic carpet ride, unless he's going to Kurt Warner his way from the grocery store. And I guess he's not in the grocery store, but he's in the he's been in the emergency room, the operating table a few times. I don't see him stepping into the league and starting. Unless he plays for the Browns and everybody gets hurt.

I don't know. A matter of fact, let's listen to Michael Pennix Jr. last night on ESPN. He said, I never doubted anything about myself, but especially my defense.

Listen to this. Watching the last drop from the sideline, you know, it was you know, it was just believing, you know, coach the boy. He always preached to us, you know, we're built for this moment, you know, and we believed it. And no matter, you know, the circumstances, you know, the adversity that we went through during that drive, you know, you know, I know everybody on the sideline continue to believe, you know, continue to believe in the defense that they were going to get that stop. Yeah, they had they had three chances. Texas did at the end of the game in Washington. They like I believe, if I remember correctly, they were at the 15 yard line and I was looking at it saying to myself, oh, no, they about to punch this in.

It did not happen. This is what Michael Pennix Jr. had to say about just just flat his emotions, how he felt after knowing he was going to the national championship is amazing. You know, everything that we've been going through, you know, led us to this moment, you know, to come out victorious in this moment. You know, but obviously, like you said, man, we got one more to go, you know, but we're soaking it in. You know, it has been a long journey and this team were built for it. You know, we've been built for it since day one and we're going to continue to keep believing and continue to put in the work to make sure that we we get the big the big ring that we've been looking for all year. Listen, they've been throwing that rock around all season long. We knew that between them and sexist, they were going to throw that rock around yesterday down in New Orleans.

And that's exactly what they did. Pennix Jr. throwing for four hundred and thirty yards to touchdowns. Yeah, I didn't look at him this season and say to myself, oh, my God, he's going to go out there and win the Heisman.

I never thought so. But look, he might walk away with a national championship. Michigan certainly going to send those pass rushers after him. And I think it really is a matter of whether or not, you know, Michigan's defense. I know this sounds very elementary, but is Michigan's defense going to put the stop on them or is Michigan going to be able to keep up with them scoring wise? I can change my mind.

But as of right now, I would I would lead towards Washington unless Michigan is going to stomp them out completely. Let's see. Eight, five, five, two, one, two, four CBS. That's eight, five, five, two, one, two, four CBS. Jason, he's calling from Birmingham down in Alabama. You're on the JR sport re-show on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Jason? JR, how are you doing tonight, man? I'm excellent. How are you? Happy New Year. Happy New Year, man. So listen, JR, I was listening to you earlier and you had a caller that you were discussing. The office coordinator, Reese.

Yes. And and you your opinion was that you really put no blame on him. And before I get into what I want to say, I want you to kind of reiterate why that may be. My my opinion wasn't that I don't put blame on him. I think when you look at the program and you look at the team and hold from the entire season, I think it has more to do with the offense. We can look at one singular game and say, oh, my God, well, Reese went out here and he didn't help us win the game. And his play calling was crap.

That certainly could be the case. But I think a larger issue for Alabama this season is that things have kind of evened out over the past few years, is that they don't have the same type of treasure trove of offensive weapons as they've had over the past few years. And Nick Saban has talked a whole hell of a lot over the past about defense, defense, defense, defense, defense. Over the past couple of seasons, he started pushing out guys like Bryce Young. We started to see larger offensive weapons who started to come towards the forefront. And you tell me when you look at this team now, where are those gigantic offensive weapons?

They're not there the way they've been in the past. So it's not absolving Tommy Reese for his play calling. It's looking at the roster in a hole and going, they don't have the same type of talent. And I understand what you're saying.

And as a matter of fact, as you say, as a whole, it makes me think. So you've got to take that as a game, as an OC, you've got to take that as a game by game decision. You've got, that's your job to read what is going on on the field at the current time. And I've got some, so let me throw some stats out here to you just because everybody wants to talk about the last play of the game. That was obviously the biggest play of the game.

And why they would call a quarterback draw on that play is beyond me, Jr. I don't know, because right here, I'm just going to read you off some stats. You got to do it quick. We're at the end of the break.

Go ahead. Jason McClellan averaged 6.2 yards with two touchdowns. Jalen Milro, 3.0 average. And that's on rushing. So quickly, like you said, let's just get right down to it.

And that's not even including Jason McClellan. Hold on, Jason. I want I want to make this point and I got to I got to stop you here because we're both going to get cut off by the break.

So I'm going to respond to you and thank you for calling and thank you for calling from Birmingham. I'm not disagreeing with anybody who wants to look at the play call. I looked at it, too, in overtime and I'm like, hey, well, what are we doing here? But the way I look at sports and for anybody listening to me right now, you'll learn this. I don't get up in arms about the deciding play of a game. You know, I don't look at it and go, oh, man, they went out there and played and they got to the final second and minute and the ref screwed it up. Well, the offensive coordinators screwed it up. You can always look at one play, but I'm looking at the whole game. It doesn't matter to me whether it's not it's the second quarter or the first or the third or the first half of the second or the therapy or the first.

Yeah, everybody wants to remember what took place at the end, but you got to look at the whole entire big picture. And the big picture for me with Alabama was, yeah, it took them to beat Georgia to even be here. Yeah, I'm not an Alabama fan.

I'm not I'm not here rolling and riding with the Crimson Tide, but I just find it to be a fact. I think talent for the entire season speaks more. Maybe the fans will care a little bit less as the season or the days or the times the months go by. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to take a break when we come back. I'm going to get some more of your calls. I'm going to talk about David Tepper throwing stuff on a fan and only getting fine 300K. Don't move. CBS Sports Radio.