It is the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in all over North America.
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our super producer and host, Ryan Hickey in New York City. This is where we'll be for the next two hours. This is a four hour show.
Let me do some math. That means I've been sitting here for two hours already and two more to go. It gets started 6 p.m Eastern, 3 Pacific. You can always hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. Thank you to people listening on their local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. If you got Sirius XM, it's channel 158. If you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker, talk to the machine, tell it to play the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, and if you you like watching stuff, you can watch a live stream. Yes, I am live on YouTube.
Just search the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, YouTube is where I started my damn career in 2009. Look at it. It is now 2025.
Time flies when you're having fun. So if you want to watch the live stream, YouTube search the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, thank you to Billy Wolf. Thank you to Russ. Thank you to Daley. Thank you to Dave the Comic Conic. I need glasses. Give me a break.
Okay. So whether you happen to be in California, Kenny Pickett fan, Atlanta, New York, Vancouver, Chicago, man, you could be in Hawaii or Alaska. Thank you for listening to the JR Sport Reef show. You can also call up at any time. The phone number is 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. I'm online at JR Sport Reef. I'm all over the place. What a day. It's good to be back.
We talked about a lot. Thank you to Jordan Dejani for joining us. He came through from CBS Sports to talk some NFL on Black Monday, the day they get rid of all these damn NFL head coaches. Jerrod Mayo, he got the boot last night after the Patriots game, and then Doug Peterson to the shock of nobody. He got fired earlier today.
Somehow, some way the general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Balkey, Trent Balkey, he kept his job. How? I have no idea.
It's like six starters on his NFL team out of like almost 40 guys that he's drafted. So, hey, I don't know. Hickey, what is he doing to keep his job? Do we know? Any idea? Okay. Possibly.
Yeah, he might be doing that too. Anyway, that's not appropriate. But here's the deal, folks. We have so much more to get into.
How about this? In about 40 minutes, we're going to have a chat with Emery Hunt from CBS Sports HQ. He's going to come through and join us. Also, from football game plan, we're going to talk about the upcoming NFL draft and some of the prospects. We're going to get into the college football playoff. So there's so much to get into that we have not yet touched. A lot to do.
Now, I do want to say this. As we talked about hirings and firings and the draft and Aaron Rodgers and his future, a lot of future talk, college football playoff in a couple of days. I got to stop to show some love. I got to actually stop in this new era of NFL football.
And I've been waiting on this for a long time. New blood in the NFL, new players, new faces, new names, new opportunities for 20 plus damn years. We had the Tom Brady's. We had the Roethlisberger's, we had the Rivers, we had the Mannings, both of them.
We had the breezes, the breeze. We had him. I'm happy we got some new guys. Now we got Mahomes and Allen and Jackson, and now we have some other guys that are in.
A big shout outs to Bonex. I thought Sean Payton was going to have another quarterback who he absolutely hated. He hated Russell Wilson. He has a quarterback who he loves. A big shout outs to Jayden Daniels of the Washington commanders. A guy wins a Heisman and then helps take these commanders into the postseason. They're going to take on Tampa Bay Sunday Night Football from LSU to the playoffs.
You gots to love this. I'm so appreciative for all of the new blood that we actually have in the NFL right now. And all the quarterbacks are different. Yes, they're ridiculously athletic for the most part. They all run around and move. Even Bonex is capable of going out there and getting you some yards.
This is what I've been waiting for. So yeah, there's a lot of talk and we're going to talk about the Kansas City Chiefs and the Bills and the Eagles. I'm sure we got a lot of weeks to talk about those guys. I needed to show love to the rookie quarterbacks.
I'm going to talk more about them in a second. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. And we went from California with our last caller. Now let's go to Connecticut with our next. Let's talk to Rob. Hey Rob, happy 2025. You're on the JR sport re-show. What's up? Hey, happy new year to you as well JR. And I think this is actually the first time I ever have gotten a pleasure to speak with you. I listen to you all the time.
Your flow is awesome. I love Infinity Sports Network. I was just saying to Ryan, you know, for the pure fact that I'm legally blind, you guys are my eyes. So I listen to you constantly. I have my favorites, you know, like I can't wait till Bart comes on tonight. He's a trip. Carlos with the K, he's awesome. Everybody, you guys are all doing your job and I love it, you know.
And I crack up when I hear the other fans come on, the other callers and I sit here and laugh. So there's absolutely no way in hell that Kenny Pickett is a better quarterback than Jalen Hurst. Absolutely not. Kenny Pickett's hands are too small. Uh oh. Oh boy. Ah yeah, we heard about that. The hand exercises didn't work?
No, they didn't work? Yeah, his hands are too small. He can't even hold on to the football. But you know what, JR? Who do you follow? You're in Atlanta, so I assume the Atlanta Falcons.
You mean followers I'm a fan of or I mean by proximity? Yeah. Football. So yeah, the Atlanta Falcons. No, I like the New York Jets. I'm from New York and I like the Falcons. I've been here in Atlanta for a while.
Yeah, I like both. Okay. Well, I'm a Bills fan, so.
Oh, good. At least your team got a chance to win something. You think they actually gonna beat the Chiefs this year? Well, I mean, we got to get past Denver. No, come on now. I mean, the defense is good.
The defense is really sketchy, JR. I have to admit. Listen, I'm an avid listener of WGR 550 every single day as well.
My boys, Al Capaccio, Joe and Jeremy in the morning. So I get the ins and outs of what the Buffalo Bills are doing. I'll let you. It's your turn. No, it is.
Listen, I want you to listen to me very carefully. Think about this for a minute. Anything can happen. This is why they go out there.
This is why they play the games. Do you if you had to put money on it, are you telling me that the Broncos would beat the Buffalo Bills? Who'd you pick? You picking the Bills or you picking the Broncos? Come on now. Oh, I'm taking the Bills, but it's not going to be a blowout. Yeah, exactly.
They play the games, but I wouldn't be all that worried about it. Just enjoying it. I'm not too concerned, but your boy Ryan, talk to Ryan Hickey about that.
He got me all fired up last night. He was talking about how the Broncos are going to go in the Buffalo and beat them. Oh, well. I'll talk to him right now about it. Rob, thank you for the kind words. Okay. Hey, I wanted to just let you know that I listened to you. You do a great job. I love listening to you.
Stay, stay hot in hot Atlanta. All right. Oh yeah. I like hot. Thank you, Rob.
Appreciate you. Yeah. I only, all I know how to do is hot.
That's it. Hickey, you looking for an upset? Is Rob from Connecticut accurate? Is that what you said on your show last night?
He is accurate. I did predict a Broncos upset in Buffalo on Sunday afternoon. Are you just trying to set up a bunch of crying ass people in Buffalo?
Is that what you're doing? Is that the story that you want? Could you imagine all these years of, I don't know, 12 wins and 13 wins and 14 wins and going to the playoffs and then getting beat by the chiefs. Do you just want the story of the Buffalo Bills now losing to the rookie quarterback and Sean Payton, is that what you want?
It's not the storyline I want. I think Bill's Ravens would be a lot sexier in round two, but I think when you look at the matchups, I like right now the way Denver's playing. I think Bo Nix is not playing like a rookie quarterback.
He's playing like a veteran. It's a good defense. Like Rob said, I'm very worried about that Buffalo defense.
I think this is ripe here for a little 2-7 upset and then JR, don't look now, all of a sudden that sets up what? Another rematch divisional round Broncos chiefs and where the Broncos won 30-0 yesterday. Well come on Kansas City, who played for Kansas City?
I'm kind of joking. Yeah, I know you are, but do you know any of them guys besides the quarterback? Well I was going to say unfortunately no Carson Wentz, all too well.
That's it? But the first match up, they should have beat him. Block field goal. Could you imagine Bo Nix goes into arrowhead, pulls off the upset where he played well, decent enough the first time?
You're doing too much. Buffalo Bills are going to win. Okay, Patrick Sertan, I don't know, interception makes things difficult for Josh Allen, but this is why I got to give Bo Nix credit for what he's already done so far this year. I know he threw his four touchdowns yesterday against the Kansas City Chiefs team where nobody played.
They beat Kansas City 38 to nothing as Hickey had mentioned. Bo Nix absolutely amazing. He would be the rookie of the year if Jayden Daniels did not exist. 3700 yards passing, 29 touchdowns, 12 interceptions. Bo Nix is good. He's the opposite of Russell Wilson. Bo Nix actually likes to get rid of the football, then just make it happen.
Russell Wilson is trying to scramble around and made Sean Payton want to pull his damn hair out. He has a quarterback that he can work with. He has a quarterback that he's been able to mold. He has a quarterback who he can go to town with.
You got to appreciate this. Now, how about we actually hear from Bo Nix? The man who Hickey believes is going to go into Buffalo and lead an upset over the Buffalo Bills. Bo Nix talked about just the Broncos and what led them to a 10 and 7 season in success with a rookie QB like him. Not a lot of prima donnas on a team, not a lot of, you know, issue makers. And we just, we all have one goal and that's to go out there and win for our team.
And, you know, it's funny. We kind of doubled what a lot of people thought we were going to win. Man, we got plenty of time this week to get into it. Let me just tell you, I'm picking the Buffalo Bills. And if the Buffalo Bills cannot beat the Broncos at home, I'm done, done, done.
I'm finished, finished. It's one thing to not be able to get over the hump against the Chiefs. It's another thing not to be able, a rookie QB, I get it. I know about the defense of the Denver Broncos.
I understand it. But to not beat a rookie QB, Sean McDermott packing it, he might as well resign. And yeah, it would be, I wouldn't fire him for real. I would not. I know the fans in Buffalo would be calling for him to get the boot, but you got to go.
You gots to go. Like it's one, oh, you can't beat the Chiefs. One of the greatest teams period. And they're going to go down as one of the greatest teams in combinations in history. And Kelsey and Mahone, they're going to go down Kelsey and Mahomes and Reed. We know that.
You got to beat the rookie QB. Stop it. Stop. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. Come on. We got Santos from Arkansas. You're on the chair of sport re-show Santos. What's up? Hello, sir. How are you doing? I'm amazing. How are you? Well, I am well. Good. I just, I just want to tell you, welcome back.
I have missed your humor while you were on vacation. Well, welcome back. And I'm still a Saints fan.
You heard me? You're still a who? Saints fan. Oh, a Saints fan as you should.
But why would you not be a Saints fan? That's true. Yeah.
Right. I know they suck. You need a quarterback.
They need a coach. But why wouldn't you be a Saints fan Aaron Cap? Hell, but why wouldn't you be? I'm not here to hear the obvious. Okay. But yes, they proved it.
They proved it. Okay. So what are you looking forward to in the off season? What do you want to happen?
I'd like for the athletes to get healthy, get back in the lineup, get a good coach and the defensive coordinator and hopefully a good winning record. Oh, all right. Good luck with that one. I don't know about winning record. Thank you.
Thank you. Hey, listen, we won't know if they have a winning record for about a year. Well, not even.
We got maybe, I don't know, 11 months, 10 months. Okay. I will keep hope alive. It doesn't look good.
I will put a bandaid on it, but I will keep hope alive. Welcome back, sir. I missed your humor. Well, thank you so much. I wish I was being humorous.
I'm just being a jerk. Hey, Santos, thank you for calling from Arkansas. Okay. Well, thank you very much. You be safe and look forward to more of your commentations.
Well, thank you so much. Me too. I got a lot. Hickey, I got two more. Is it two more hours of commentations?
I got one hour, 45 minutes, but who's counting a lot of commentations. It's kind of weird to be sitting here. We got who's playing North Dakota state and Montana state.
Yeah. I turned that crap. Well, I'm not watching that. Not watching the FCS championship. I turned it off. I said, no, I'm not done. No respect for Ken Miller.
No, no, none. I was like, today's Monday. There's no Monday night. I said, no, I got to wait for all the football over the weekend. I got to wait for the football on Thursday.
Oh, Hickey. I know you're, you're ready, right? Are you going to be here on Thursday? You quitting on me? Um, actually I meant to tell you that I'm actually quitting on you on Thursday. I know you are. I know you were.
I can't, I can't be here. Who knows in my lifetime, if I ever see Penn state in a final four again. Oh my God.
You think they're going to the national championship? Uh, I'll just say this. I am planning on seeing you in Atlanta two weeks from now. Wow. Okay. You bring your singles. Okay. How much, how much money can you take on the plane before they think you're, uh, you know, you're trafficking.
Yeah. I'm going to test the limits. If they win, you bring $10,000 in singles. Well, I'll bring every, every pal to this.
I'll bring every penny to my name and I'll try to get, uh, in the hall of fame, like James Harden raised my Jersey to the rafters. All right. You want to go to magic city, blue flame, uh, strokers, which one you want? Dealers choice. I trust your judgment here. Honestly, if Penn state oil, I guess either way, I'll be either really sad or really happy.
So it won't really matter. So either way, uh, anywhere, I think we'll, we'll, we'll get the job done. I love to see you down here. That'd be a lot of fun.
That'd be good. You know what? Let's take a break. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.
That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Hey, congratulations to Bo Nix. Congratulations to Jayden Daniels. We got rookie quarterbacks here, uh, in the post-season we come back. Let's talk a little bit about the college football playoff because as Hickey said, he is going to a happy place to watch some football. Hopefully he's coming here to Atlanta for a championship. We're going to talk about the final four teams remaining trying to hoist that trophy here in Atlanta. It's the JR sport ratio, the infinity sports network.
Don't move. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport reshow here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.
That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. A lot of talks so far on the show about the NFL playoffs. I mean, damn it. We will blink by the time we get to Thursday, we're going to have more play off action. We got Notre Dame and Penn state down in Miami hard rock stadium. And then on Friday, the college football playoff continues as we have the Ohio state university getting ready to take on Texas. Now I'm not going to sit here and give you a damn recap about what took place over the past couple of weeks. I will just tell you this with the college football playoff, this has been ridiculously underwhelming.
That's it. I mean, we're down to the final four and I think I've watched all of these damn games and match-ups and a lot of them, I'm just like, what type of blowout crap is this? I mean, we saw what Ohio state did to Oregon 41 to 21 game. Wasn't even that damn competitive. This was, this has just been underwhelming.
That's just what it is. Hickey, whatever happened to that guy that called us for like three months telling us about how SMU was going to even get into the damn thing and win it all. Remember that guy?
Yeah. What do you think happened? He disappeared when they got blown out. Just like everyone else who runs their mouth and then can't back it up. That guy was calling us for like, like three months.
He's like, that's some new this. Oh, they're going to win the national chair. Where they at right now? And he even get in. And then we got Boise state, man, they ended up getting beat by Penn state 31 to 14 is like, can we just get regular seedings next year? I know the NCAA is not even an NCAA. It is the college football playoff.
Everybody runs by the seat of their pants. When it comes to college athletics, this is totally unrelated. Hickey. How about this? We got, we got Jim Lara Nego. He just woke up one day and said, I'm out. I'm not even doing this anymore. This is crazy. Did the old Tony Bennett. He did. He said, I'm gone.
I'm in the middle of the season. So I'm not doing this anymore. Quoting Michael Jordan bleeped those kids. I'm not here. Them kids need them kids.
He's like, I'm not doing this. Not what they pay me for. It's not my job description.
When I signed up to be here. And so, I mean, if everybody could just operate on a whim, they can certainly change the seedings next year. We don't got to give some other team. I'm sorry. A group of five team, a lesser team, a mountain West, no disrespect to the mountain.
Which is just the reality. Boise state didn't need no, uh, it need no leg up here. And so we got Notre Dame at Penn state. We got Ohio state at Texas. Uh, most people in their right minds, you look at what Ohio state did against Oregon. You would pick them against Texas. And then I look at Notre Dame and Penn state.
I think that's a little bit closer of a matchup. I would go with the Notre Dame and we even got SARC. SARC is ringing the bells and he's telling everybody that we're the underdog. Nobody believes in us. Nobody believes in my team.
Listen to Steve Sarkeesian cry the blues. We're going to need our fans. We're going to need our fans support. Uh, I need Longhorn nation to show out in Arlington. We're going to need everything we got to, uh, to try to win this game.
You know, you know, clearly we're, we're massive underdogs and nobody's going to give us a shot. So we're going to need all that, that we can, uh, to, to try to win this game. No. Okay.
Yeah. That's what you got to say that you got to get your guys going. You got to get your guys in the locker room, believing that nobody believes in them. This is classic coaching one-on-one not saying play the victim, but try to rock the boat just a little bit.
Nobody believes in us. The Ohio state had coach Ryan day. He's happy. He still has a job. You can't cry.
Maybe he'll cry over the weekend if he loses, but right now he's not crying. He believes Texas is tough. He says, look at their quarterback Quinn Ewers. He's actually healthy enough to play. Listen, talent of throwing the ball is just off the chart. You just see him flick his, flip the wrist.
And it's just very, very accurate. Uh, smart. Um, I can't, can, can anticipate he's a competitor. He's been in big games before, uh, won big games. Um, so one of the best quarterbacks in the country.
So it's going to be a great challenge for our defense. Flick at the wrist. I haven't heard that a long time. Flick at the wrist. Okay. Look at the, look at the wrist. Yeah. No, look at the flick at the wrist.
The drug dealing song though. Oh, that's it. I, I was saying that to myself. I have no idea what it means. Look at the flick of the wrist. No, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what that flick at the wrist.
That's stirring the pot hickey. Homemade, uh, homemade stuff. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. Mama's cooking. Yeah, that's right.
Mama's cooking. Well, anyway, uh, you, you have anything to say there? You know, Ohio state over Texas. You think Texas is going to outscore them? No. The defense. No.
Okay. I don't even know how they're going to keep it close. Ohio state just looks like they are the best team head and shoulders compared to everyone else.
Everyone else. National national champs. Yeah. Can't, can't beat, uh, can't beat Michigan, but what a national championship, right? Go figure.
One out of two is, uh, is not bad here. And do I even need to ask you about Notre Dame? You, you pick in Penn state over, uh, over Notre Dame, right? Unbiased opinion. Yes. Okay. All right. Why educate us? You, you watch more Penn state than I'll do.
Anybody really go ahead. I think Penn state offensively has more firepower than Notre Dame where Notre Dame can run the ball really well. By the way, the running backs hurt, which is a problem. And I don't think they can throw the ball. Uh, so I think no, uh, Penn state has more ways to beat the Irish. I think it matched up pretty well, but I like the explosiveness more of Penn state's offense to win a higher scoring 35, 21 game. What a world to even think about Penn state being this close to a championship right now. Telling me.
Oh my goodness. Hey, their head coach, James Franklin. He says, Penn state and Notre Dame. We got a lot in common besides having two black coaches.
Listen to this. I think in a lot of ways they're built similar to us. Uh, you look at their turnover ratio numbers, you look at their explosive play, um, um, defense in terms of defending and limiting explosive plays.
Um, you look at the middle eight, um, they're built in a lot of ways that I think we are in terms of emphasizing the statistics that matter. Um, and they do a great job of not beating themselves. Okay.
Yeah. I am going to go with Notre Dame over Penn state and said, I just Hickey, I cannot believe that Penn state is still here. Like national champion. Well, Hickey, if they go, they're going to get destroyed if they go, but this is nice, right?
This is good that they even here. I would agree. I did not anticipate before the season that they'd be in the final four. They'd be in the final four. Um, I would gladly take a trip to the national title, even if that means maybe getting destroyed by Ohio state. Maybe, you know, maybe. Listen, coming to Atlanta is nice. That'd be nice.
I hope you know what, because I would love to see you. I hope that I'm, I'm rooting for him. I'm rooting for him. I appreciate that.
Jr. Thank you. Yeah. You won't come visit me for nothing else, but I'd love to see you here.
It'd be great. I'll tell you this. I'm not coming back to New York, not for $9 in the city. Wow. Not doing that crap. No, no. That's going to keep you away. Huh? The pollution that Hickey, they lit a lady on fire in the subway and $9 to that privilege to get lit on fire in the subway. It's going to cost you now.
No, thanks. Hey, good luck to Penn state. I hope they make it. Hope Hickey comes here to Atlanta and good luck to Texas. Good luck knocking down a rookie wide receiver.
Good luck on that one. Eight five five two one two 42 27. Speaking of rookies, we're going to take a break. When we come back, this man is not a rookie, but he knows about all the rookies. He knows about college and high school and the pros Emory hunt is going to join us from CBS sports HQ, as well as football game plan. I'm going to ask him about the college football playoff. I'm going to ask him about the upcoming NFL draft.
I'm going to ask him about the NFL playoffs Emory hunt on the other side. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It's the JR sport brief show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network.
I need you to think O'Reilly auto parts for all of your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly auto parts. It's good to be back. First show back to start the new year. First JR sport brief for 2025 college football playoff is underway. The NFL playoffs are on the way.
The NFL draft, at least the lineup and the order has been set to talk about all things football from the playoff for college to the NFL playoffs to some draft prospects and, and what we can expect all the way through joining us as someone who knows football all the way through from the lowest levels of high school and lower to the pros is someone you might catch on CBS sports HQ. He's the founder and creator of football game plan. His name is Emory hunt.
Emory, how are you, man? Y'all my man. Happy new year's bro. I appreciate you bringing me on. Absolutely.
Thank you for the time. You know, we just had this conversation before the break. I had a great opportunity over the past two weeks to sit down and watch all types of football, including the college football playoff.
What are your first impressions with this new format, this 12 team format and the seedings that we just saw? First of all, I saw you in that bowl of cheeses too, man. I think I watched you out there, man.
Oh boy. Yeah. I was at the cheese at citrus bowl sitting in the bowl of cheeses. I had a good time. Okay. Emory. I had a good time.
I did. So I will say this to your question. I do love the 12 team playoff. Personally, I would like to see it expand to 16 teams or 20 teams because every we know this year, every winter workout, every spring college coaches around the country, you know, are preaching, Hey, we got to work hard and we can win our conference this year. We had a shot at the post-season. Well, that used to not ring true until they expanded the post-season, but now it's still only rings true for those in the power four and one lucky team out of the group of five. But if you can get the 10 automatic bids from the conference champions and everyone from the Mac all the way up to the ACC gets their conference champion in the post-season, and then you could just bring in 10 at large bids. It solves any question on who deserves to be in. How would you leave this team out?
It answers all those questions. And I think that's the way this should go in order to do that. I know they would never do this because it's money. They should eliminate the conference championship game, shrink the regular season down to about 10 or 11 max. And therefore we could be done by new year's day with this college football, national championship. Yeah, we will, as you said, it's all about the money. We know that's, that's not happening. Emory Hunt is here with us on the JR sport brief show.
What are your thoughts on the seating? I mean, you had mentioned a group of five. We saw what happened with Boise state. I've been underwhelmed by a lot of the games and how competitive they have been or not been so far. What are your thoughts on adjusting the seedings going forward for the college football player?
I feel like the seedings are fine. What they should do is eliminate the buy week. Now, if you are going to receive then yeah, it makes even more sense to eliminate the buy week because we saw those teams that got the buy, uh, that had those higher seeds all end up losing. So if you can just go from, you know, your last game into the post-season, you could, you can do that. Or if you do it like how they do it at every other level of college football, FCS, D2, D3, you get your automatic bid, the higher seeds, they receive the, the, the, um, the post-season in terms of like, okay, this team, the top eight, they get buys and they go by, you know, who's the stronger of the teams and they give those guys the buy. So they do recede every time the post-season.
So I don't know why the FBS tries to make this out to be difficult when they have a clear example on how to do it at every other iteration or level of college football. Emory Hunt is joining us from CBS Sports HQ. When you think about the final four teams that are remaining, we get back to the action on Thursday, Notre Dame and Penn State down in Miami on Thursday. On Friday, we get Ohio State taking on Texas out at Jerry's World. What are your thoughts on what we should look forward to with these final four teams?
Man, both match-ups are mirror images of one another. Penn State, Notre Dame are two teams that are very good along the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. They run the football rather well because they got two excellent backs each and they have good quarterbacks that are able to play above the X's and O's.
Now, Allard does it with his arm, Raleigh Leonard for the most part does it with his legs. And so this is going to be a super competitive game. I think this one will come down to the wire and it will be a low scoring game, kind of like what we saw in the first half of Georgia, Notre Dame. And on the other side, Ohio State, Texas, it's a ton of speed everywhere. We talk about the receiving core for Ohio State, the secondary for Texas is excellent. So that's a great matchup. Then you flip the field and Texas' receivers have a ton of speed and Ohio State secondary is excellent. And you have two quarterbacks that have been battle tested. Will Howard is playing on a different level this postseason and we've seen Quinn Ewers in back to back games have to lock in and lead his team to a victory when they've let a team hang around for the four quarters. And they also have like Penn State, Notre Dame, two excellent backs on each side.
So, so evenly matched. That one's going to be high scoring. The other one's going to be low scoring, but they're both going to come down to the wire because they're both great matchups. Well, who do you favor to win it all here in Atlanta in a few weeks? Emory, come on now. I like Notre Dame. Listen, wake up the echoes, 1988, Tony Rice, Rocket Ismail, get those guys out there on the field to watch the team win a national championship because I feel like they are so well coached. And Marcus Freeman, if I was the NFL GM, I would be called to Notre Dame to see about getting him to be my head coach because he's a culture setter and also underrated about Notre Dame is that they have excellent special teams.
We saw that play a huge role in the Georgia game and I think that's going to be the catalyst for them winning this national championship. With the current pretty much layout and state of college athletics period, is this what we can expect year after year, expanded playoff? There's so much teams and players and transfer portal. Can we just throw it up in the air year to year as to who's going to walk away as a champ?
I like it this way too. I think so because what has really leveled the playing field is NIL and transfer portal. So now, you know, we've seen this over the course of history of college football, you know, back in the late 70s, early 80s, where certain teams had a horde of talent, you know, Nebraska's Pitt, Penn State. And, you know, as TV starts to expand and you were able to see more and more teams on TV, no longer can you play that, you know, dangle that care like, hey, come to our school, we play on TV.
But now everyone plays on TV. In Florida, it used to be Florida, Florida, State, Miami, until FIU popped up. South Florida, Central Florida, FAU. And when those other schools started to pop up around those three majors, it was like, why would I go to the bench at Florida, State, Miami, or Florida? I can go start at Central Florida and that weakened those teams. So I'm saying all that to say, Georgia, Alabama, they'll still be able to get great talent, but they won't be able to hoard talent because those guys are hitting the portal and they're going other places to start. And now you have a balance of equality across the board at a lot of different schools. So it really makes it any given Saturday. We saw that play out this year, Vanderbilt beating at Alabama. We never thought we even utter those words.
And that's all due to the transfer portal at NIL. Emory Hunt is here with us from Football Game Plan as well as CBS Sports HQ. Let's talk about a couple of these programs that are not participating in the Final Four, but they garner a lot of attention. I mean, we can go to North Carolina where Bill Belichick is expected to save the day. What are your thoughts on how Bill Belichick will fit in the era at UNC? You know, in this iteration of college football, because it's NIL driven, it's really set up like an NFL organization where you have quote unquote a salary cap.
You got to deal with finances. Who better to mitigate that than a guy that has done it for 20 plus years at the NFL level, knowing how to balance a roster out. And Bill Belichick still has the cache of being the greatest football coach. So he still can go and get those recruits. He's not so far removed from football to where we remember Bill Belichick, but the young kids don't.
Everybody still appreciates him for being who he is. He just got out of coaching. So you combine that with his ability to the kids could see, oh, he can get me to the NFL.
He's going to have an easier time recruiting and he understands how to, you know, build a culture to where guys will get it and kind of build an Alabama or Georgia situation right there in Chapel Hill. You want to talk about another big famous coach at the college level. The biggest name probably next to Belichick is obviously Deion Sanders out in Colorado.
We know his son is moving on, Chidor. We know Travis Hunter is moving on. We just got the NFL draft order as of yesterday.
The Titans and one Browns two Giants three. What are your thoughts on how those Colorado guys are going to fit in at the top of this draft? You know, I do feel like we'll see both Chidor and Travis Hunter go in the top five because their talent warrants that. And with regards to Chidor, listen, disclaimer him or Cam Ward, you can't go wrong with either both guys or elite. We're in the process now where people will try to pit those guys against each other as if you can't have two good players at the same time. So they're both equally as talented.
But if I'm speaking about Chidor, to me, he's so similar to Joe Burrow based off his mental capacity. This is someone when the game is on the line, he's able to drive his team down the field to get points. How many 90 plus yard drives we've seen from him at Colorado at Jackson State. And yes, he may not be the 4-3 guy that can beat you with his legs, but he does pick up some yards that are there.
He does throw a timing touch anticipation. And yet you'll have to learn to not, you know, take too many sacks. But I think to help him out in that regard, he's gonna be able to run the football because he hadn't really had a run game at either Jackson State nor Colorado.
So you won't have to take all the sacks. He's not gonna be throwing the ball 50 times a game. So I feel like Chidor is a guy worthy of QB1. So is Cam Ward because he has that same dog mentality within this game. Reminds me so much of how Steve McNair look at all points. They just gotta make any throw on the field.
The arm arrogance he has is exactly what you want. Do you think that Chidor would be the best spot for the best selection by the Tennessee Titans? Yes, they need a quarterback.
So, you know, I'm saying like we just watch what the Will Levitt's regime look like. We watch what they've looked like late. They need a difference maker. And it's funny because had they just given a shot to Malik Wilson, not giving up on him and not really giving him a shot, we saw how he's looked so far in Green Bay. So, yes, they need a quarterback. So whether it's Chidor or Cam, they can't go wrong with that pick.
Now, if they take any other position outside of those two, then they're gonna be in trouble. Well, Emery, to talk about this upcoming weekend and the NFL playoffs sort of staring us in the face, is anybody going to stop these Kansas City Chiefs? It looks like they're going to be well rested. We got the Lions who they got the number one seed.
They're getting a little bit of a break. What are your thoughts on how the playoffs are going to shake out? You know, I think we get an upset in round one. I think the Broncos could actually up at Buffalo. You know, we saw that last year. They went up to Buffalo, Russell Wilson, those guys, and they beat the Bills. You know, they had to build to that five and five. Right. And so it's not out of realm with their defense and how they're playing and also their offense with a confident boat.
And they say how he's playing. I think they can go up there and get that win. But in terms of the question about Kansas City, I feel like Baltimore looks different this year, has it on their mind, will not forget to run the football. I'd like the Ravens to go and knock out Kansas City in the AFC title game and move on to the Super Bowl. Wow.
This is so we're fine. You think Lamar will finally get the job done, huh? I think he finally gets the sticky Lombardi like my guy Brian McFadden says. I think he does get the trophy.
And I think they'll beat the Philadelphia Eagles, who I also feel like on the other side of the bracket gets through the NFC and gets to the Super Bowl. And we are in store for a classic down there on poyagers. And listen, Lamar Jackson said at the minute he was drafted, he said, I'm trying to bring a Super Bowl here to Baltimore.
And if what you just said happens, we will certainly see that come to fruition. Hey, Emery, thank you so much for the time. As always, where can people follow you and all of your work on air, on TV, online, everywhere? Follow me on social media at F Ball Game Plan. Pre-order the football game plan 2025 draft guide at footballgameplan.com slash 2025 draft guide. I'm down here in Florida at the Hula Bowl doing my all-star game scouting.
So we have over a thousand individual scouting reports in that draft guide. So get your pre-orders right now and you can catch more CBS Sports HQ all the time. Just talking ball like we just did tonight. Hey Emery, always a pleasure. We'll catch you on down the line, okay? Appreciate you, my guy. Always a pleasure, man.
No doubt about it. That Emery Hunt founder of football game plan, you can always catch him as well all the time on CBS Sports HQ. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back on the other side. I'm going to get to your calls. 855-212-4227. We're going to give you a wrap-up if you've missed any minute or portion or second of the show. So don't move. It's the JR Sport Reshow, the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you, Emery.
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