Is LeBron James Washed? (Hour 2)

It is! The JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our super producer and host Ryan Hickey holding it down for us in New York City.

The JR Sport Brief Show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. That means I've been here for an hour. Where have you been? If you missed last hour, as we discussed the suspension of Aziz Al-Shaheer for laying out Trevor Lawrence at three games. If you've missed us talking about the latest ridiculous potential rule change in Major League Baseball, the Golden Bath rule?

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Unfortunately, LeBron James, his greatness might be cooked like Tom Brady's. In about an hour, we're going to have the latest reveal of the college football playoff rankings. Next hour, we're going to be joined by Jared Dubin, CBS sports writer, to talk some NFL. We're going to show some love to Bo Nix. Yeah, Jamis Winston might want to be delivered from throwing interceptions or pick sixes. Bo Nix is already helping deliver the Denver Broncos to the postseason. We got to show him some love.

He might win Rookie of the Year over Jayden Daniels. We'll get into that. So much to discuss. Of course, at the end of the show, we'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history.

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That's 855 212 42 20 is seven. You can find me online. I am on the Internet. I am at J.R. sport brief. I told you right before we went to break that Rob Manfred. And if you didn't hear about the golden bat rule or whatever it is, it's not not exactly going to happen. It's just an idea right now.

No implementation date. But Major League Baseball Rob Manfred said the owners are certainly entertaining the idea of allowing one time a game for manager to put whatever player he wants in whatever spot he wants in the batting order to just try to get a hit. So if it's the end of the game, you don't have to worry about your slug or the worst guy in your lineup getting on base to reset your order.

You just say, screw that. I need Manny Ramirez right now. You know, I need Frank Robinson right now.

You know, I need Freddie Freeman right now. I'm not waiting. I'm not a fan of it. But hey, times change.

And if it changes, hey, this is going to happen anyway. What am I going to complain about? I'll just tell you this. We also talked about Tom Brady. He's putting a little bit of the blame on offensive coordinators. He's putting some of the blame on on quarterbacks. He's like, don't blame the defenders for laying out QBs. You know, blame the offense for putting these guys in this position.

And by the way. Yeah, everybody's running the ball all over the damn place. We see how much easier it is to play the damn game.

If you can just throw it. Look how efficient. Look how much better Lamar Jackson has gotten over the years. It's undeniable.

There are people who used to say up and down. Oh, Lamar Jackson. Oh, all he could do is run the ball. You see the passing numbers he's putting up. He's a freak.

You're a freak in nature. And all things considered, I got to give him credit. This year he's been healthy. Last year was healthy. And so maybe he's learned a thing or two about throwing the ball as well.

Now, speaking of health. This was bad last night, man. It's been bad for a few games. Los Angeles Lakers playing their sixth game in 10 days. They lost to Minnesota last night, 109 to 80. LeBron James finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, four assists and had six turnovers in 31 minutes.

And this is a real kicker. This is real indicative of where LeBron James is right now today. I might even go as far to say in his career, the man is getting ready to turn 40 years old. LeBron James has now missed 19 straight threes in a row. At one point in time last night, LeBron James airballed a three.

And you could look at him. It was a corner three, which is one of the easiest threes to make because it's one of the shortest. It is the shortest three to make. LeBron James airballed a three is missing threes all over the damn place. And people are like, oh, my God, LeBron is just cooked. LeBron on the season is averaging 22 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Nine assists happen to be third in the league. And 22 points is his lowest since his rookie year. He's twenty ninth in the league there, eight rebounds, not shabby for a guy who's basically playing point guard and isn't necessarily even underneath the rim in the Los Angeles Lakers. Well, it's what happens when your best player, even though it's still LeBron James, Anthony Davis, please help is 39 years old. The Lakers are 12 and nine.

J.J. Redick, their first year head coach. This man looks like he hasn't slept and forget days. He looks like he hasn't slept in weeks. The next time they play basketball, the Lakers will be down in Miami. Maybe LeBron James will find a little bit of life. They'll play the Miami Heat tomorrow before coming here to Atlanta on Friday.

Let me say this again. LeBron James is thirty nine years old. LeBron James just balled out in the summer Olympics in Paris and helped Team USA win a gold medal. LeBron James is air balling threes, missing every three that he takes. And people are saying LeBron James is cooked. LeBron James. Let's ask him, are you tired?

Do you need to sit? Because it was only at the beginning of the season that LeBron said, I'm trying to play all 82. Listen to this. I mean, that's a goal. We see something I discuss. No, he doesn't want to think about it. OK, I get it. It's a goal.

Doesn't mean that it's going to happen. J.J. Redick, the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, decided I'm not doing this media thing. I want it. I want the stress of being a head coach. J.J. Redick was asked if LeBron playing all 82 is the best thing for the team.

I don't know. That's in the best interest of of him and us if he does that. But if he's feeling well and feeling good, then we should play.

But we obviously want to want to manage that as best we can. Oh, come on, J.J., but LeBron sucks right now. What do you got to say about him stinking a joint up?

Tell me about it. McDaniels, Randall Reed, Gobert, like they're big team. They give you know, if if you play stagnant against them, they're going to give you problems. LeBron is too slow for the defense right now. LeBron doesn't have the burst. LeBron James can't get past Julius. Well, these guys are 15 years younger than him. Think about that. 10, 15 plus years younger than him.

Like, what's the shock and the surprise here by a lot of people? LeBron can't do everything. All right. He's not one of the best. He's not a top five guy in the league anymore.

He's still absolutely amazing and freakish for a guy who's 40. But we're not looking at LeBron James to take the entire Los Angeles Lakers squad and carry him on his back and take him to a title. That's not the expectation. The expectation for years now has been for Anthony Davis to step up and just become an MVP. And there were certain points throughout the course of the year.

Well, damn it. Anthony Davis look like that early. And not so much. LeBron James is in the space right now. Let LeBron James be point guard. Let him figure out when and where he wants to pick his spots to play defense. He don't need to be manning up on a best guy on a team anymore.

It uses brain. He's still the smartest guy. He has more experience. He's seen it all. He's done it all. He's still an athlete. But LeBron shouldn't have to carry a team.

And then speaking of his own teammates, LeBron. What the hell is wrong with the entire squad? What do you all need to do? Good at times, obviously. Report at times. But I think that's what to expect with a new system, new coaching staff, new players.

We're trying to work on a new thing. So I wouldn't say I'll take it. I never want to say that. I'm just confined to that. But it is what it is. This is what our record. And we've got to continue to get better on both ends of the floor.

Because it's tough. The West is tough. We know that. Well, the West is tough.

We do know that. Houston Rockets are an improved squad. Memphis Grizzlies have a basketball player who's staying out of the. Well, he's put the guns down, which is nice for now. Good.

Thank you, John Moran. The West is tough. LeBron James is still tough. LeBron James is still good.

Yeah, he might be going through a down slump right now. Now, about yesterday's game, he had 10 points. By the way, playing on a back to back. How about Sunday night against Utah? He had 27 points. And he was still O of nine from three.

Where's all the LeBron is is trash then? And the game's prior is still a slump. 12 points. 16, 18, 18, 31, 26, 21, 15, 35, 19, 21, 39, 20, 27, 26, 11, 32, 21, 16. It's what LeBron James has done all season. Sounds about right for a guy who's going to be 40 years old. The matter of fact, it is still absolutely ridiculous for a guy who's going to be 40.

It's really this simple. That's just he's in a slump and he's tired. Played in back to back games.

I just told you they played six games in 10 days. The man is tired. I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. And of course, as you get older, I don't care how much money LeBron James is investing into his body. There's a reason why he can still do what he's doing today.

It's because of the investment that he's put into it for the better part of 20 years now. But everybody slows down, including him. He has slowed down and he's still amazing. So is he MVP, LeBron? No. Is he going to drag a team on his back, LeBron? No. But I still think in any basketball game on any team, LeBron James could help run your squad.

That's it. It's simple as that. I didn't say to be the best player, be the brains, help run the operation. And I'm not talking about from a managerial perspective. So don't don't beat me up. Not talking about LeBron James asking for a Russell Westbrook and then running him out of town.

That's not what I'm referring to. Strictly on the basketball court. He could help out any team, just basketball. So is he done? Is he cooked? Is he washed up? No. Did he fall off the face of the earth?

No. And LeBron James has been very clear in telling everybody, I'm not going to be lingering around if I can't physically do what I want to do. And right now, I think it is very apparent he's just tired. Instead, he's in a slump and he's tired. Anybody who's watched basketball knows when your legs are done and your legs are cooked and you don't have the burst and you don't have the movement and you are gassed. It takes so much energy, which has always been impressive about LeBron, so much energy to just burst and blow by your defender, elevate, go to the hoop and then run back on defense.

Man, if my heart did that, it would explode. He's older, a little slower. Been playing a lot of games, got a lot of miles, has the most points all time, is moving into field goals almost, is moving into men.

LeBron James get ready to own everything in 22 years. The guy takes a jump shot. He's like, man, I'm tired. I'm not running to the hoop. Man, air balls a ball. He's just like, man, I've been missing all these shots and now I'm aiming the ball. My legs are tied. He's not going to admit it.

This is what it is. I think with rest, like anybody else with rest, LeBron James could be at the top of his game for a soon to be 40 year old, which, by the way, is still a whole hell of a lot better than a lot of dudes in the league. LeBron James, is he cooked? Is he washed up? No, he's just older and he's still better than a lot of the guys that are out there. Give him a break and tell Anthony Davis.

I don't know. Hickey, what? Hickey, Anthony Davis, every time I watch, he's on the floor. He's like somebody scratched him in the eye. He's holding his back, holding his ankle, holding his knee. There's nothing there's nothing I can help him out in L.A. I don't think so, because what he needs to think is stronger than anything.

I guess us mere mortals on earth can create for him to keep him upright and healthy. Fred Warner has been playing for weeks with a broken ankle. Giving him a shot every game. He doesn't feel anything. Maybe we need to give Anthony Davis a shot before every game. Maybe if we numb him out, he won't feel the ankle sprains. Maybe he won't feel the scratch corneas. Maybe.

I don't know. Anthony Davis needs something. He needs to he needs to help out LeBron.

That's what he needs to do. He needs to play like an MVP. Anthony Davis needs to average 30 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks.

Do that, Anthony Davis, please. I know LeBron James goes home at night and he's not just stressed because of his knees and his back. He's stressed his son doesn't play any basketball. His son's not good. And I know he's stressed because Anthony Davis ain't helping him out. Somebody help out LeBron. He's still good. 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. He's not what he was when he was younger. No duh. But LeBron James, he's he's not cooked.

He didn't fall off the face of the earth. He's just tired. That's how it goes sometimes. That's how it goes.

855-212-4227. I'm going to get Hickey's thoughts on this on the other side of the break. And LeBron James, almost 40. We'll also talk about some guys.

Well, they're closer to the middle of their 20s. They might win NFL Rookie of the Year. I want to talk to you about Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels. We'll get into that as well.

Get Hickey's thoughts on LeBron James. We got so much more to do. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.

This is very important. I hope you're ready for it. We're going to talk about some guy that plays for the Broncos in a second. I'm going to tell you about the defensive player of the week sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union, who proudly serves the armed forces, DOD veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.

You can learn more at Navy federal dot org. Shout outs to Broncos defensive back Jaquan McMillan. He helped the Broncos pick up that victory last night, a 44 yard pick. Six less than two minutes to go as the Broncos beat the Browns.

Forty one to thirty two. McMillan, Nick Bonito. They each grabbed an interception for that man who just gives away picks like they can. Jameis Winston and pick six. OK, Denver now has a record of eight to five. And in a few minutes, we're going to talk about whether or not Bo Nix is playing himself. It's being this season's. Rookie.

Of the year. We'll see. We'll get there. We'll see. We'll talk about Jaden.

OK. Pick up an offensive game before we do that and talk about the young guys. Hickey, what are your thoughts? LeBron James washed up and not quite just just tired and old.

What do you think? Yeah, I mean, he's almost 40 years old, like in a way, he almost did himself a disservice with how well he's played despite how old he is. So it's like it readjusted people's expectations to just the point of unrealistic abilities to where they expect the earth, moon and the sun from him when he's playing like this is all natural. And you said it last segment.

I agree a million percent. People are talking about LeBron James. Always he washes he done.

Why is no one talking about anything? Davis like this, like LeBron declining should be expected of your surprise at 40 years old. Essentially, he's playing like this.

That's on you. The light should be on A.D. because he's still in his prime. He has all the talent. He should be the leader of this team. And with the Lakers struggling, it's not LeBron's fault.

It's A.D.'s fault because he should take the torch and has failed to do so. Yeah, about this. Anthony Davis probable for went probable, OK, at least probable.

He is probable for Wednesday's game against the E due to left foot plantar fasciitis, which apparently he had, you know, all the way through the summer as well. So there you have it. What else is new? Now, when you look at the numbers, not not too shabby. Anthony Davis is seventh in the NBA and scoring 28 points. He's averaging about 12 rebounds, seventh in the league and three assists. But to consistently see Anthony Davis just dominate, especially for a guy who's athletic as he is, it's up and down. You know, I read you LeBron James and, you know, his past scoring performances. Anthony Davis, 12 points, 33, 15, 19, 25, 14, 39, 26, 31, 40, 21, 22. He goes he goes through stretches where he's like, I got you 30 games. I got you three 30 point games in a row. And he's just like his 15.

And it's just like, no, you got to do it every night. Now, I'm not going to put him in the same category of a Mr. Joel Embiid who doesn't even bother to care to show up to go to work. Hickey, by the way, who knows? Is Joel Embiid been playing basketball? I feel like the last thing we really heard, he he pushed a.

Pushed a reporter for talking about his deceased brother, and then I don't even know if he plays. I've put the the 76 is in the back of my head, not even thinking about him. I don't I could be wrong.

I'm kind of with you. Oh, I don't think so. Hickey, the last time he played was November 20th. Yeah, he has something else going on. Joel Embiid has played four games this year for. And that last the last game he played against Memphis. And this ironically, this is the last game I remember hearing about.

He had 35 points after he had that crappy 11 point game. And I don't know. OK, here we go. Hickey, you ready for this? Keith Pompei, who was nice enough to join us here to talk about Joel Embiid and bead will not play tonight against the Hornets.

You will know why Hickey? Oh, let's hear it. Me and personal reasons.

Oh, mixed in the personal reasons. Hmm. Yeah.

Now, do you think that is a shield? I don't know. To lessen some of the criticism of him missing another combination, 50 percent need 50 percent personal reasons until the cows come home.

Why do they accept? You know, Hickey, this is going to sound terrible. Well, here's my my first thought. You ever met somebody that just lies and they do so much lying that they keep having to lie and you keep digging, digging, digging, digging?

You ever met somebody like that? It's like, right. It's like I'm going so far. I might as well keep going. I'm going. I'm digging. That's basically what it down, Maury and the 76ers have invested so much into this guy.

They're just like, you know, we just got to keep going. If you're down, Maury, this is your job. Also, by the way, who wants him? Who wanted him? You know, there was a rumor early last year prior to the off season about the Knicks and maybe the Knicks will get him. The Knicks should be happy they do not have this man, because if you thought Philadelphia would be killing him, New York would be destroying him if he went to New York and didn't play. The excuses would not have worked. It would just be awful for him.

Why did they extend him? My other analogy is just. I think you've heard about a couple staying together for the kids, right? They hate each other, but they're here for the kids. Right. That's just like what the six is doing with Joel and me. It's like, you know what? We don't like him anymore, but we we got it. We got to stick with him.

But unlike and like that analogy is used, you don't have to stay with them. If you that that's essentially like, you know, we're going to stay with it. And, you know, on top of that, we're going to go with it for the kid. We're going to have another kid on top of it. Just keep on prolonging the hatred.

How long we have to stay together for. Oh, you did. You put another baby in there. Oh, my God. Why?

Once he's 18 or she's 18, then OK, let's break up and live your happy life. And now you say, screw that. We're just going to have another kid prolong the timeline for what?

That's why you had the outs. You had a few more years of that. Screw it.

Let's just make it a life sentence. Mike. Well, well, is that does that equate? Does that line up? No. Yeah.

I like your analogy. I think it's perfect. And they just said instead of just counting out and running out the clock till we can, you know, get divorced, whatever. And the kids 18, they go to college or 21, whatever, you know, whatever barometer you want to use to stay together until it's finally you feel good enough to leave and get a divorce. You would never say, let's just have another kid and let's just delay the inevitable even longer, even though we can't stand each other.

They have Maxie and McCain and they basically have and be being an anchor, like tying and tethering them down for years. I still can't believe in the final year of his deal. Twenty twenty nine. Oh. What?

Twenty twenty nine. That's a contract option for him. Seventy million is seventy million bucks.

It's it's unbelievable to think about. And we got people who are saying that LeBron James is, you know, he's cooked. Joel Embiid is not even going to make it to 40 playing basketball. He's he turns 31 in March. Three hundred million dollar contract player option in twenty twenty nine where he can make 70 mil.

Thank you. Joel Embiid came to America and stole everything he did. He stole all this money. He stole an MVP.

He stole the he stole a gold medal and he robbed the Sixers. Do you think between now and twenty twenty nine he'll play in 70 games? Oh, a collective collectively. Oh, I think he's going to play in as many games where he can collect his money. Is it. So is that like 15, 20 a year?

I don't know. He's going to he's going to do he's going to do everything in his power. Well, the money is guaranteed. As far as I know, I don't think he has one of those Zion. You would think Zion Williamson would be like, hey, I'm I'm fat. I'm out of shape.

Let me try to max out what I can. But he's just happy with whatever check they give him. Otherwise he would care.

Yeah, it's it's sad. Bottom line is leave LeBron alone. People talk about LeBron like he is Patrick Ewing with the Orlando Magic or Seattle. They talk about LeBron over the past 24 hours past week, like he is a chemo, allows you on wheezing with the Toronto Raptors.

Now, those were all painful, painful sites. Give LeBron a break. Blame Anthony Davis. It's the J.R. sport. We show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. How about this? We got the college football playoff rankings.

The latest edition have been released. We only got one more after this, and that is just going to be what it is. We have some surprises. I'm going to fill you in on the other side of the break.

What took place? What we can look forward to at a conference championship weekend? It's the J.R. sport we show on the Infinity Sports Network. We'll talk some college football playoff action. We'll get into both next Jaden Daniels. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief.

It is the J.R. sport brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We have the latest edition of the college football playoff rankings that have been revealed. Alabama looks good. Well, Miami's behind Alabama. No championship game for them. And we got quite a few things to go through. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven is eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. We're going to go talk about this college football playoff rankings the next time we get some rankings.

That's it. That's that's what the brackets will look like. Then we'll have an idea who has the buys and then we'll have an idea what the playoff looks like. And then like we do every year, even though we've now expanded from four teams to 12, we're really dive deep, deep into who got left out.

Because somebody's going to complain. First of all, let me give you the updated rankings and then walk you through them here. You should I should do like them. Should I start? I do an all twenty five. You know, should I just to give some of these loser teams a bone?

Should I? Yeah. Come on. Memphis just cracked the rankings. Let's give a little love to Memphis at 25. Memphis is Memphis is at twenty five. Army, twenty four. Colorado, twenty three. Syracuse. OK, look at your coach who showers there. They're at twenty two.

Illinois, twenty one. UNLV, which is still crazy. Hickey, the quarterback quit earlier in the year. I still people don't talk about that. The guy quit and left because they wasn't paying him.

And now they're 60 minutes away from making the playoffs. What a story. Oh, you're the quarterback.

Boy, you stink. I'm like, people are not, you know, give them credit. You know, they were saying we needed to change. We needed it. This and that. For whatever.

We don't need anybody doesn't want to be here. Why isn't that a larger story? Am I missing something like that's a huge there was a huge story when I got quit because I didn't pay him. You're not wrong. It is interesting. And maybe that was just everyone want to get their takeout and OK, it's over. And then maybe people have forgotten about UNLV. And now it's like, oh, wow.

All right. They're this close. Quarterback was like the first major athlete who said, you only pay me. I'm leaving in the middle of the year. Quit on everybody. Shout out to UNLV here at 20. Mizzou is at 19. BYU, who cares?

They're at 18. Clemson at 17. Iowa State at 16. Arizona State at 15. South Carolina at 14. Ole Miss. They just go Ole Miss out there at 13.

Sorry. Now, this is where things get interesting. Miami is at 12. And we saw what just took place between Miami and Syracuse. Well, we saw Miami did.

They chose. Alabama is here at 11. We saw Alabama take care of Auburn in the Iron Bowl. But before before that, they saw or they lost to the Sooners.

That was 24 to three. Boise State is at 10. Indiana is at nine after that whooping that they took.

Oh, the Ohio State. SMU is at eight. Tennessee is seven. Ohio State. They are now at six after losing to Michigan.

They feel like they were riding behind Oregon the whole way. They now fall to six. The Bulldogs are at number five. Notre Dame is at four. Penn State is three. The Longhorns are two.

And never moved. The Ducks are number one. That's just how it stands right now today. And based on these current rankings, your four conference champs, the teams that would excuse me, would receive first round buys. You got Oregon, Texas, SMU. And Boise State. Now, Boise State uses loses to UNLV and the Mountain West Conference Championship, the winner of Big 12 championship game between Arizona State and Iowa State. They would probably end up the fourth highest rated conference champ, thus receiving a buy. So we got a lot to figure out between now and the conference championship games over the weekend.

But this is the part that everybody enjoys. And Hickey, I didn't see it this time. Did you see Ward manual? Did he have one the same shirt?

I'll ask your question or answer your question or the question. What do you think? Yeah, the same big ass white shirt. The tie was a little different. It actually looked pretty festive. It's like a goal. It's kind of actually kind of like the colors of the cultural playoff.

You know, it's kind of like that black and gold. It looked nice. All right. Nice. Nice tie. Big shirt, big blazer and a lot of neck room. I'm sure. But a few fingers down there. Oh, man.

Do you think I should send him a shirt? Like if I said if I found the ad, what do they get together at the Midwest somewhere? Right. What are you going to get? Texas.

I think it's grapevine, Texas, to be exact. So if I send if I send a box of shirts and say here, it'll get to him. It'll get to him. I may not receive the nicest message back, but it'll get to him.

What if you go one step further? What if you just send a tailor down there? Let's just fly a tailor out to grapevine, have him knock on like the couch wall playoff doors and say, before I go on TV, this is the one everyone's watching here. Let me get you a tighter neck. Let me get you a better fitting shirt. Let's let's bring some of this fabric in.

We could send we can someone over there. Well, he gave a few explanations. This is probably the biggest one right now. I told you that Miami is sitting in that final playoff spot right now there. They're at 12 after choking against Syracuse. Alabama is here at 11 the week before Alabama was on the outside looking into 13. Why did Alabama jump Miami?

Listen to what Ward-Manuel had to say on ESPN. What it came down to is, as we evaluated both teams and looked at how they ranked, obviously we think highly of both teams, ones at 11, ones at 12. But what it really came down to is Alabama is 3 and 1 against current top 25 teams. And Miami is 0 and 1. Alabama is 6 and 1 against teams above 500 and Miami's 4 and 2. Both have had some losses that weren't what they wanted out of those games. But in the last three games, Miami has lost twice. And so for us in evaluating their body of work, we felt that Alabama got the edge over Miami.

This is what it boils down to. And this is what has been said for quite some time here throughout the course of the year. Miami plays in the ACC. Like, I mean, it's not necessarily the same here with Alabama.

You can say so. Kirby Smart has been running around telling everybody who will listen to him. Man, the SEC is tough. Like, stop judging us because we play in the most competitive conference.

When you got teams like Miami who are smacking around. Let's pick a bum team. Here we go.

Oh, oh, Hickey, why is the HBCU school the first one that captures Miami? Who are you going to slander here? Howard? No, fam, you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on now. I'm like, man, they beat them. They beat them 56 to 9. That's what the Hurricanes did to basically start the year. Yikes. Come on.

Like, this is this is real. Everybody could run around and look at the records, but everybody's not playing the same quality of opponent. And that happens to be factual. Miami has lost two out of three. They lost to Tech, which I'm sorry, they got a bunch of nerds down the block from me building engineering stuff. And they just lost to Syracuse, a head coach who says I only shower when I win. This is who Miami just lost to.

And so I got no problem. We know they ain't winning no national championship anyway. I don't care if they get in or out the playoff because they're going to have to have Cam Ward just shoot them and keep them into the games just in the first place. At least with Alabama, we know this.

They got a pedigree. I don't care where killing the board just came from Washington. I don't care where Nick Saban is right now.

He might be on a rocking chair at his house. I don't know. None of that matters. Like, we know where the best teams play. It's in the SEC. That's just what it is. And so speaking of what we might see in the ACC with Miami, if they stick around and what might take place in the conference championship game between the Gamecocks and Clemson, Ward Manuel was asked, is there a way Miami or South Carolina could jump Alabama?

This is what he said. Any team that is not playing right now, we don't have a data point to to rearrange where we have those teams ranked. And so that is set in terms of how we see them going into the final week of championship week. There's no there's nothing that's going to change Reese for us to evaluate them any differently than we have now. Those teams who are not playing cannot be adjusted in terms of where they are compared to other teams that are not playing.

But the championship teams, we will evaluate that data point to determine if there's needs to be any movement based on how the performance of the game goes. Nikki, I'm glad I don't want to hear this, man. Does he get tired of doing this every week? I know you getting paid a lot of money, so maybe he doesn't care. Is he sick of this? He certainly talks, not very enthusiastic and does not give many answers, period. I actually give him credit. I'm glad he actually actually answered that question, because every I think every clip we've played over the last month or so, it's been, oh, we'll see. We don't live in hypotheticals.

You know, we'll see how it goes. This is that he'll say this is what the committee decided, but never actually give an explanation as to what went into the decision that they made to rank one team higher than the other. At least he said flat out, if you ain't playing, you ain't moving. That is probably the most direct answer we've gotten.

So I'll give him credit there. I guess maybe saving the honest answers for last. But yeah, I'm sure after Sunday he's going to go in hiding for a while and not miss these Tuesday interviews. Yeah, that's what I want to get to. I just I want to watch the games over the weekend. I want to get to Sunday. And then speaking of the ACC, let me remind you, if you've missed out, Clemson is at number 17. So don't don't don't get your hopes up about anything there.

I just want to get to Sunday. You know, what are the final rankings going to look like? Who's going to kick, scream and whine and complain about being left out? And Hickey, not realistically, I think the only school that could pitch a fit potentially if they weren't in is Miami, but then even if that's the case, who do they got to blame but themselves? Am I wrong? Is there another team that's on the line that like Ole Miss like who has a right to complain if they don't get in? Does anybody really?

No, no. Even Miami, they haven't played as tough of a schedule as some of the other SEC schools. And you lost to Georgia Tech and Syracuse in games where you should have won if you just defense get to stop or if Cam Waters plays a little bit better. Like they were they got lucky with two wins over Vatek and Cow in which some officiating gaps maybe should have prevented them from getting those wins in the first place.

When you flirt with danger the way they have, not win convincingly many games, not have any impressive wins in your resume, you leave yourself a small margin for error. They've known to blame about themselves. So no, I don't feel bad for Miami, South Carolina, Ole Miss.

It's simple, J.R. you want to get in, win games. They didn't do it. I'm with you. You only have yourself to blame. No one should feel screwed.

The only person that could feel screwed that could be interesting here. If Clemson wins, let's say, let's get nuts. They beat SMU. Beat the hell out of them. Would SMU or Alabama get in as the last team?

That's interesting. You got to put the SEC school in there. You put them in over SMU.

I would. That's then a team, I would say, with one less loss playing in a game that Alabama's not playing in. I would argue that if you want to say who should feel screwed, SMU would feel screwed.

I think it's only a matter if they get destroyed. They lose by field goal. You think they're like close game? Close game doesn't matter.

Yeah, they'll still get a close game. OK. We're not going to have none of that FSU nonsense from that. None of that. No, none of that Georgia Bulldog. We got 12 teams now. OK. Twelve of them.

Yeah. No complaining this year. It's the J.R. Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to talk more college football playoff rankings. We're going to get into a couple of guys who just left college football. They might be the NFL Rookie of the Year. Now we have Jared Dubin joining us to talk football from CBS. It's the J.R. Sportbree show. Don't move.