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 everybody tuned in, locked in, listening, watching all over North America. This is halftime of the show.
The show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. We have talked about a lot. Antonio Pierce being fired as head coach of the Raiders after one season. We briefly mentioned, how about this, Justin Verlander continuing his career at 42. He's now a member, one year contract, the San Francisco Giants.
Mike McCarthy denied the opportunity to talk with the Chicago Bears. Does this mean that the Dallas Cowboys are going to keep him? We have no idea. So we have discussed a lot and we got more to do.
How about this? And about 20 minutes from now, Jason Cabinda is going to come through and join us. Used to play for the Penn State University. Also played for the Lions. We're going to ask him if Penn State could really win the championship. I'm going to talk about the Ohio State University in a minute. What the hell is the deal with Ryan Day with all this dysfunction in the NFL, not just the Raiders? I'm going to tell you about another team that surprisingly nobody is talking about how crazy they are. We have so much more to do. Zion Williamson is about to play basketball minutes from now.
It's a shock. Jimmy Butler is telling people where he doesn't want to play basketball. Tyreek Hill all of a sudden now he doesn't want to be traded.
I mean, there's a lot going on and we've discussed it all. You can always listen to the show on the free Odyssey app. Your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. Sirius XM Channel 158. If you got a smart speaker, ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. And if you got an Internet connection, if you have access to YouTube, you can now watch this show. Just search the Infinity Sports Network on YouTube or search the JR Sport Brief and boom, the live stream will pop right on up. Thank you so much.
I'm looking at the chat in the live stream. Thank you to Shadow Wings for saying hello. I appreciate you. If you want to be a part of the show, if you want to call up 855-212-4227, that's 855-212-4227.
You can also find me online. I am at JR Sport Brief where I don't want to say surprisingly. We got a whole lot of responses here.
We had asked a question and you can see this at JR Sport Brief as well. We got a lot of a lot of people. I asked what NFL team is the most dysfunctional? Now everybody is, well, a lot of well, a lot of people are saying the Jets, the Raiders, Dallas Cowboys fit the mold and all the normal ones. Hickey, I think I don't even know how many responses I see here. I don't know. Nobody. Hickey, nobody said the Tennessee Titans. Nobody.
They're the sleeper. Go under the radar. How?
How? Let's think about this. Everybody talks about Mike Vrabel and his availability. There's a reason why everybody, the Chicago Bears, the New York Jets, there's a reason why everybody wants to talk to Mike Vrabel. He's actually a damn good head coach and the only reason why he doesn't have a job right now is because of how bad the Titans are.
Now this is not a matter of being a man or a woman. But Amy Adams, the owner of the Tennessee Titans, she didn't buy the team. She inherited the team. And with her decision making, it appears that she doesn't know what the hell she's doing. She needs to hire someone who actually understands what's going on. And the reason why Vrabel is fired is because she don't know what she's doing. I mean, just last year, I want to take you into a time machine.
Not that you want to go back in time, but let's go back to January of 2024. Amy Adams explained why the Titans' future was so bright, why they got rid of Vrabel and then their GM, Rand Carthon, why things were so optimistic in front of them. Listen to this. And I will always appreciate what Mike brought and wish the best for Mike and his family. The last two seasons have been very disappointing. And the fans felt it.
I felt it. We made changes last year and I came to believe we needed to make a change to the coaching staff. I have high expectations and I'll never apologize for that. And these fans deserve a great team and they deserve a championship brought to the city. And that's what we're going to work towards. And I'm prepared to make the hard decisions to hopefully get us there sooner. This team has a bright future. We have Rand. We have a promising young quarterback.
I mean, the sky's the limit. We've got cap space. We've got a great draft position. Things are bright for the Titans.
I'm really very, very optimistic. I knew, I knew this from last year, but I knew she had no idea what the hell she was doing when she said we have a promising young quarterback. Will Levis, the mayonnaise man, the man who just has given the ball to the other team or Willie, the Will Levis. And then you heard her talk about the GM. That was a year ago. You want to know what took place today?
Listen to this news from WBIR. The Titans fired general manager Rand Karthon after just two seasons on the job. He was introduced as the first black manager back in 2023 and helped to hire a new coach. Tennessee controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said it was impossible to ignore that the team did not improve in the last two years. The Titans lost their final six games and clinched the number one pick in the 2025 NFL draft. Maybe it's you.
Maybe it's you. We had Deion Sanders. Oh yeah, by the way, you just heard it. The Tennessee Titans have the number one pick in the draft. Deion Sanders went on social media and was like, wow. Like, why is he saying that?
He'd be like, hey, this is a dumb ass decision. What are y'all doing? We had players on the Tennessee Titans who were tweeting like, what are we doing?
Like red flag. Why are we firing the guy who had the job for two years? And then we got rid of one of the best coaches in the league. What are they doing? She has no, she needs, and there's only one Tom Brady. Mark Davis got Tom Brady to help him out. I don't know who's helping out the Tennessee Titans.
They just might be lost. They might get lucky with the quarterback selection, or they might just select the quarterback and be screwed. Like not everybody go wake up and just have Bo Nix.
Not everybody go wake up and just say, oh, we got the Heisman winner and Jayden Daniels. You want to talk about dysfunction. You cannot talk about it without getting into the Tennessee Titans. And unfortunately, this is just another one of those situations where somebody has a lot of money and somebody just left them a sports team and the fans have to pay the price for the stupidity of someone who's just wealthy. That's it. Every now and then you get lucky. Hey, you want an example?
How about this? The New York Knicks are an example. James Dolan has been in charge of the Knicks for the better part now of 25 plus years. His dad, God rest his soul, basically gave him the team to babysit. And the New York Knicks for the better part of the past 25 years have been a disaster.
They went to the NBA finals in 99 in the strike short and season, and that's all she wrote. And Stefan Marbury has eaten Vaseline and Carmelo Anthony shows up. Amari Stoudemire got bad knee. It's just, it's wild. I can't even go into Isaiah Thomas and good luck to him.
He bells palsy. Phil Jackson falling asleep on the bus and all of a sudden, you know, James Dolan for as much money as he puts into the Knicks is dumb money. A lot of cases actually gets in a good head coach and a good man or run a team who comes from CAA and he just is in the background.
The Knicks all of a sudden actually good again. Picky, what's with, with, with wealthy people? What the hell is their problem? Why can't they do things right? Are they just full of themselves like Jerry Jones? I think that's part of it. They think they know best that they excel in one area of business, in some cases, and think that that translates to everything.
Other cases, like you said, just entitlement of this was handed to you and they screw it up. It's bad. It's crazy. My dad started cable so now I could run the Knicks. I sell wood so now I could run the Falcons. I sell papers so now I can have the Patriots. Good for him. He got Belichick and Brady. Good for him.
Must be nice to just be wealthy. Just make dumb ass decisions. Now in the case of Amy Adams, her dad had the team and what is she going to do?
I don't even know. It's like, okay, they just have to luck into a positive situation. So I just have to say out of all the ridiculous moves that we've had, Gerard Mayo fired after one year because Robert Kraft is hoping for Vrabel. The Raiders got Tom Brady basically running the show now. Come on now, he is.
And they're like, oh, I can fix things. I'm Tom Brady. Don't ignore the Tennessee Titans. I get it. They're moving into this fancy Nissan stadium.
It's going to be beautiful. I understand all of that. Even the Lions, they got better when the woman running their team is Sheila Ford-Hemp.
And she got lucky and then got the hell out the way. That's what we got to do sometimes. Sometimes you got to know better.
Smart people know that they don't know it all. Instead, good luck to the Tennessee Titans. We'll be chatting it up about them. And can't wait to hear her ridiculous statement. Anyway, speaking of ridiculous statements, Hickey, we discussed this.
I'm eagerly anticipating the college football playoff. We got to wait two more days before we see your school in action. We'll talk to Jason Cabinda. He'll be here with us in about 10 minutes.
I wanted a different perspective, Hickey. We know you love Penn State. We needed to chat with someone who actually played on the team. You found him. Jason's going to join us. I'm excited.
Jason's good. He's full of energy. Like you said, he knows the game well. He's been on the last Big Ten Championship Penn State team, so he knows what it takes to win a championship. I think it's going to be a lot of fun here in a few minutes. I can't wait to see before he joins us to talk about that Penn State matchup with Notre Dame.
I got to get this one out of the way. We do have Texas, so we got to wait an extra day for Friday. We got Texas in the Ohio State University, and I'm really looking forward to that matchup because I believe the champ is going to come out of that game, and I believe it's going to be Ohio State. And if it's not Ohio State winning the championship, I'm not going to say this is dysfunctional, but Ryan, are there enough tears for him if he's embarrassed in this game? Great question.
How quickly can you rejuvenate them? Because he spent a lot a month ago after that Michigan loss. A lot of tears. That guy was crying so much. People thought he was going to get fired. He thought he was going to get fired. He saved his ass recently, beaten Tennessee and then wiping the floor in Oregon here in the playoff.
But let's go back in time. Let's listen to what Hickey referenced, because after they lost to Michigan, Ryan Day, I thought he needed a counselor. I don't know, but I can just really go off of this game and what's going on in this game right now.
I think each game is a little bit different and unique to itself, like you said, but the results, the results. As hard as that is to say, we came up short here again today and not easy to swallow at all. That guy, he needed a hug. Now, listen to the opposite. That's after losing to Michigan. Listen to the opposite. That's after losing to Michigan. Listen to the opposite. Listen to the opposite. That's after losing to Michigan. Listen to this man at the Rose Bowl from last week. This team is resilient.
And when you surround yourself with great people, with great character, you find yourself working through difficult times. And at the end of the day, we wanted to win a national championship. And the way that we got here wasn't what we expected. It wasn't what we planned for. But nonetheless, we had an opportunity to come back and play Oregon and after we'd already played them early in the season. And that's the only thing that mattered. Hickey, unless he is embarrassed, he can go to the national championship game and be embarrassed, I think.
If he's embarrassed against Texas, I wouldn't be shocked if they gave him the boot. Really? Yeah.
What's his buyout? Millions? Probably. I have to look it up. I mean, it's Ohio State. You can afford it. Whatever it is.
It's affordable, let's say. So even after... Forget the Tennessee game for a second. Even after just the Oregon dismantling, if they lose to Texas, you think... Like, are you saying if you were Ohio State, you'd fire him? 37 mil. I wouldn't be shocked.
Wow. I wouldn't. The guy's record against Michigan is now what? One in four? One in four, four straight losses. How do you lose to post Harbaugh, Michigan? How?
How do you do that? With all the talent he has? I mean, he got wide receivers that just fell out the womb and he can't...
The defense is amazing. How can you not win? I wish I had an answer for you. I mean, clearly he has no answer.
As 21 point favorites with that little talent on Michigan, I mean... It's all in his head. Clearly, it's in his head because those receivers that you're talking about, he ignored them the entire game. Jeremiah Smith. I don't know, bro.
Here, I put it to you this way. I think the fan outcry, like you said, would be on a stake. I think he'd be on borrow time. He has a $37 million buyout. So do I think they're gonna can him?
Not really. Let's also be real. We're doing all this talking about Mike Vrabel.
There were silly rumors about a month ago after he lost to me. People are like, man, we got to get him the hell out of here and just bring in Mike Vrabel. It's a wild situation. I just hope for his sake, because it looks like watching Ryan Day at a press conference after a Michigan loss is uncomfortable for a grown adult.
It's uncomfortable for me to look at. I feel bad for the man. So I'm wishing him nothing but the best against Texas. I think they'll win. I'm not all that concerned.
Damn it. I think they'll be national champions. So I think we can close the book. But if there's an embarrassment coming on Friday, people are going to be ready to give him the boot.
And $37 million might be the only thing that saves his behind. It's the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about Penn State as they get ready to take on Notre Dame down in Miami. We're going to talk to someone who used to suit up for the Nittany Lions.
Jason Kombenda is going to join us. You're locked in the JR Sportbreeze Show coast to coast, the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sportbreeze.
It is the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, there's so much going on. Somebody, whoa, somebody told, Hickey, somebody said Zion got a rebound. Oh my God.
I don't know if that's- Exerting some effort. How about that? He can, he jumped. Is that what, Zion jumped?
Let me see what this is. Which I think that also, I guess also means that he did not get hurt in pregame warmups like you were wondering. So at least that's, check, check that box. There's still enough time for him to have a sandwich at halftime. So we'll see if the things work out. Jason Kombenda, we're waiting to see where the hell he is. I don't know. Maybe he's having a sandwich. I'm not mad at him, but we're going to see where he is. And is he, he's going to come on through and talk to us about Penn State and what they, or what we should expect from them as they get ready to take on the Fighting Irish. Over here looking at Zion's. Is he actually, is he playing basketball? What's he doing?
Typically you can find the stats right away. What are the- Oh, four points. Okay. Good for him. The Timberwolves are beating them 18- Oh, 25 to 13. Hold on. We'll see if Zion is actually moving. Let's see. Oh yeah. Four points in five minutes and two rebounds and assist and a personal foul.
Good for him. You want to talk about being dysfunctional? The Pelicans, man.
They are seven and 29. Brandon Ingram's hurt. Everybody's hurt.
Made the move on from that guy. He got another team, totally dysfunctional as well. I'd mentioned to you about Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat. Now Jimmy Butler got a list of teams that he said that he will not go to.
And so please believe it. It's not just NFL players who are trying to dictate the future. It's not just NFL players trying to tell everybody where they want to go or where they don't want- NBA guy's been doing this forever. And now when you have players making 50 and 60 million dollars a year like Jimmy Butler, how the hell can you be traded? I'm going to move you for two 25 million dollars scrubs.
Yeah, you can be- No disrespect, but you can be a middle of the road player making 25 million dollars. I want you to listen to Chris Haynes because he sat around, NBA insider, to the shock of nobody. Jimmy Butler who wants to leave Miami because he wants a contract. There are certain teams that Jimmy Butler does not want to go to.
You can't make this stuff up. Listen to this. League sources just relayed to me that the Memphis Grizzlies, along with a few other teams, have received word that Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler has no interest in being traded there. So the message is being delivered that a trade should not be attempted to acquire the All-Star forward. What makes this situation a little bit tricky is Jimmy Butler can become an unrestricted free agent this summer. So usually of a player of that caliber, teams like to have some assurance that he's willing to sign long term or a multi-year deal. So Jimmy in that regard does have some leverage in this case. He has some- Yeah, he does.
He's being bossy. And this is what turns fans off. And I get it from both the player perspective and the fan perspective.
If you're a fan, you have to come to the realization that you can root for the team, but please understand and get it. The majority of these players, they might as well just be hired mercenaries. And in a lot of cases, they are. They sign contracts. These are not life and death contracts. This isn't like some guy that you paid to come do your roof and he didn't do the job.
And so now you're mad at him. The players got leverage. They got leverage in the amount of money that they're making. And they can try to dictate as best as they can where they can go.
Where they go. You know, we talked about Tyreek Hill earlier on in the show. Tyreek Hill now deciding to be a full on jerk to try to get his way out of Miami to potentially test the waters. Well, Jimmy Butler is already there. He says he's lost his joy in playing the game of basketball in Miami.
He wants to find somewhere else to do it because he quit on the team. Pat Riley is now like, well, fine, we'll send you somewhere else. And now Jimmy Butler's just like, Grizzlies, I want to go. And so, yeah, even if the Miami Heat find the best situation for themselves to move forward, if that situation doesn't jive with what Jimmy Butler's doing in Miami Heat, it makes no sense for them to move.
It's just that we live in a completely different world on the sports side right now, where the athletes make so much money and Jimmy Butler doesn't care. Is he being a good teammate? No, he's not. He quit.
He quit on the team. Is Jimmy Butler being a fan favorite? No, he doesn't care. He cares about his money. Is Jimmy Butler burning some bridges? Yeah. Is Jimmy Butler tarnishing his reputation? Oh, yeah, he is. But at the end of the day, Jimmy Butler cares about one thing at the top of the list. That's getting a contract extension that pays him more than $100 million over the next two years. And so I don't know about you.
I can't speak for you or whether you're watching or whether you're listening. I don't know I don't know if you had a chance to make $100 million and then be a jerk, have a fan base mad at you. Your reputation is mud. But if you can get that $100 million to play basketball, would you do that or would you take 50 mil just to shut up and play nice? It's really as simple as that.
I think I might push the button for the 100 plus mil if it meant that my reputation was now going to be mud. And that's what we have a lot of athletes doing. But for the layman, for me, for you, for anybody, a lot of these athletes, they just they come across like spoiled brats. But this is the business part of things right now. Can I blame Jimmy Butler?
From an ethical standpoint, it's not the coolest thing to do. But when it comes down to money, that Trump saw like there's nothing else above it. Hickey, do you see things from Jimmy's perspective? Like he doesn't even play.
Now, that's wrong. Like he doesn't play in a regular season. He wants to play in a postseason and try to turn it up.
And he wants to try to roll. Like that's not cool. But he is just he's playing the cards that he's dealt and he's playing them perfectly if the end goal is to just get paid.
Reputation be damned. Yes. I guess my question is for his at his age and his lack of participation in playing games, does the heat obviously don't want to pay him? Does anybody? Like, is he destroying his reputation to the point where all 30 teams feel the same way as the heat and no one wants to pay him?
There's an idiot born every day. I think the best team that will have let's let's put it this way. The Phoenix Suns benched Bradley Beal yesterday. He came off the bench and had 25 points.
He made it very clear after the game. I'm no damn bench player. Like I'm a starter. I'm going to do what the coach says.
And we all know this. Bradley Beal, regardless of how you feel about him or his salary is guaranteed money and there's no trade clause. Bradley Beal is a starter in the NBA. The Phoenix Suns are basically trying to make him uncomfortable. So he waves his no trade clause.
That's what they're trying to do. And so if you're the Suns and you're all in on Durant, you're all in on who the hell is other guy? They got Booker. Why would you not say, well, Bradley Beal isn't working. Let's bring in a bigger forward in Jimmy Butler.
I think that might be a team. There's always somebody desperate. There's always a sucker out there. And right now it's probably Matt Ishbia. I guess. And if it works out that way, then then to your point, he wins. He's a bad guy. But at the end of the day, he gets his money, doubles his pay, gets some long term security. Big win for Jimmy Butler. If the Heat, I'm sorry, if the Suns are not that stupid team born yesterday.
Hmm. I think he's hurting his value in the sense of I don't know why any of the team right now at his age and his lack of production would say, yeah, sign me up for Jimmy Butler. And also, let's make it a long term marriage here and let's lock ourselves into a four year deal for whatever amount of money. And let's just marry ourselves to Jimmy Butler, who's declining, who can't stay healthy. That sounds like bad business.
It really depends how far. Are the Miami Heat going to go? They have said that we will entertain trade offers for Jimmy Butler.
We got another month. Until the NBA trade deadline. Are the Miami Heat, what's the rush if you're the Miami Heat? Are you going to wait another month until some team, maybe the Suns gets antsy and says, oh, we need to make this move.
This is an absolute must right now. Or if you're the Heat, you're Jimmy Butler, by the way. He can opt into his contract next year and make $50 million. But he doesn't want to do that. He wants $100. He wants to opt out and tack on two years and now have $100 million. Miami can just say, we're not going to do anything.
If you want your money, you got to play for us for $50. And then he's going to be an angry jerk with an expiring contract. So Miami, some way, somehow they got to move him. Even if Jimmy Butler comes to the realization that I got to get traded, like I got I got to move on. Even if it means I got to opt into my deal for one year and I don't get an extension, that might be the reality. So there may not be teams that want to just say, oh, well, Jimmy, sure, we're going to add your old ass that's always hurting, doesn't play and plays when he wants to.
Yeah, we'll add you. We're not going to give you a contract extension that that might be what it boils down to. And then depending on how long that is, that will also dictate pretty much how much the Miami Heat can get back. If he's signing an extension, if there's promise that he's going to get one, the Miami Heat want more value. If it's short term, Miami Heat may just want to say good riddance. This is just, this is very complicated all over the place. These players, they make so much money. We've entered into the realm where it's it's tough to move on.
It really is. 855-212-4227. Yes, 855-212-4227. You want to talk about lots and lots of money and moving on?
Oh, my God. There is a team in Cleveland, Ohio. I don't know how they move on. They got a lot of guaranteed money poured into a quarterback. And we also know that they need a new quarterback.
I'm talking about the Cleveland Browns and what the hell they do with Deshaun Watson, who, by the way, might need another surgery on his leg. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. We'll get into that on the other side. 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. We're down to the Final Four of the college football playoff. And we got a match up on Friday.
Can't wait to see it. The Ohio State University. We got a chance to see what they can go ahead and do if they can move forward against Texas.
But before we get there, we got to get to Thursday down in Miami. We're going to see if Penn State can knock off Notre Dame. And I want to say shock the majority of the country to talk about this as someone who suited up for the Nittany Lions. This man suited up in the NFL for the Detroit Lions as recently as last year.
He was knocking skulls on offense, on defense, linebacker, fullback. It's Jason Cabinda. Jason, thank you for taking the time to join us. Thank you for having me, guys. Appreciate you having me on.
Absolutely. Let's talk about things on the college side first before we get into the Lions. You were right there when James Franklin took over for Penn State. What makes him such a standout guy to have this program where it is right now? I think the thing with Coach Franklin that makes him so special, man, he's just such a good leader of an organization.
He runs the organization like a CEO. He really always has his finger on the temperature and the heartbeat of the team, keeping the guys even keeled, the right mindset. He's all about process. He's all about the little things. He's all about one day at a time when practice, taking what you learn from the meeting rooms off to the field. And I just think he does such a good job of managing that on a daily basis and throughout the year. And you can just tell, by the way, this team has prepared time and time again.
He's gone through a lot of challenges and adversities this year, and they just keep on coming back better and better. So I'm excited for this team. It's awesome to see them get those two big wins these past couple of weeks, and hopefully we'll be able to string together another win and get a really good Notre Dame team. When you think about the wins, you're referring to SMU and Boise State. People can debate with the expanded playoff or the quality of the opponent. What do you expect from this team on Thursday when they take on Notre Dame? Both coaches have said that with similar programs. Yeah, I think to me, I think what makes this matchup so interesting, like you said, it's such similar programs, even all the way down to the type of kids they recruit.
You know, you look at Notre Dame, you look at Penn State, always high character guys, you know, high academic guys, high guys on the field in terms of the talent, what they do on the field. So I think it's going to be a great matchup. And I think to me, the X factor is going to come out to the quarterback play, you know, Drew Allen and Riley Leonard, both guys who can make plays with their legs, Riley a little bit more dangerous with his legs, especially in the run game.
But I think that's going to be the X factor. You got two great defenses. Both teams have two great backs, Jeremiah Love and Price. We got Nick Singleton and Kaitron Allen, both tough, physical teams. I mean, it's going to be one hell of a classic. No names on the back of the jersey.
That'll be, you can ask for much more than this. And Jason Combendes joining us here on the JR Sport Reshow Coast to Coast. Hey, you won a Big Ten championship with this school back in 2016. And forget a Big Ten championship. A lot of people look at at Penn State and go, well, are you out there beating Michigan?
Are you out there beating Ohio State? What are your thoughts about them actually winning it all? I mean, I think to me, obviously, everybody's talked about the path that we've had and all, but now at the end of the day, it's the top 12 best teams in the country. And, you know, everybody can talk about the quality of the wins. But at the end of the day, the stakes were as high as they could possibly be these last two weeks.
And that's go, go win or go home. And you know, Coach Franklin's been able to go and win two games in a row onto a third with the possibility of, you know, going to a national championship. So I think this is huge for Penn State.
It's huge for Coach Franklin's legacy and really just putting Penn State on the map of the upper echelon in college football, really where they belong. I think we've got really got a good shot at it. And at the end of the day, I think we have a run game that travels, you know, every single week. And I think that's one of the things that can take you deep into the season when you got great tight ends, a great o-line, two running backs that can really run the rock, man.
You can go and do that anywhere. So I got a lot of confidence in this team, what they're going to be able to do down the stretch here. But Jason, you talk about legacy. It's crazy to think it's already been 10 years since you first played. It's been 10 years since Coach Franklin was there. Legacy, how easy is it, if at all, to maintain any type or build a legacy in the current landscape of college sports? It's like every year things change.
Transfer portal this, NIL that. I think that's what's making this run so special for Penn State. I mean, you look at even the quarterbacks and all the teams remaining, all transfer guys, you know, Drew Aller's a homegrown guy from PA. And Coach Franklin's just done such a good job of really just keeping this team even keeled and really in this landscape of college football, just keeping the main thing the main thing. I mean, these guys care about each other.
You don't see any opt-outs. You don't see guys sitting out not being able to play. You know, we saw Bo Prabula transfer out and that was really more because of the transfer portal and the academic calendar. But man, these guys love each other. They love Coach Franklin.
And you could see it in the way that they play for each other. Hey, Jason, before you joined us, we talked about Ryan Day and what things might look like if either game, and I assume they're going to move on, I'm going to take them over Texas. But if things get ugly, a lot of fans already got his head on a stake in Columbus. What do you think about the job that he's done so far leading the Ohio State University? Well, I mean, at the end of the day, if you look at all the games outside of the Michigan games, I mean, he's done extremely well. I think what makes it really tough for Ohio State fans and that fan base is the fact that even in that locker room and that organization, they go around every single year saying their game is the Michigan game. That's the game that they care about. Yeah, they want to, you know, win our division and things of that nature. But to them, being successful starts with beating Michigan.
And the fact that they haven't been able to do that the past three or four years, I think is really what's making Coach Daisy super hot. But at the end of the day, if you look at all his games outside of that, what he's been able to do and that transition from Urban Meyer, I think he deserves a ton of praise. And Jason Cabinda joining us here, played for Penn State, also played for the Detroit Lions.
You talk about coaches, whether it's James Franklin building up a system. Dan Campbell has taken the Lions just with his personality from the doldrums potentially to another Super Bowl. What makes Dan Campbell so special to be in a room with? I think the special thing about Dan, man, is the way he's able to relate to his players, man. When you look at Dan and the way he structures everything, you can just tell that he's been in our shoes.
And I think that really resonates with a lot of guys. When you have a head coach who's truly been in your shoes and done it at a high level, successful 10-year career, you know, he's played on multiple teams. You know, he knows the ins and outs. He knows when to slow down. He knows when to get going, when to work, when to pull back. And I think the fact that he cares so much, man, he cares so much and he believes so hard in his players, man.
I think his energy is just super, super infectious. And I was super blessed to be able to play for a coach like Dan Campbell. Well, Jason, we see with so many openings in the NFL right now, we got other former players, whether it's Sherrod Mayo, Antonio Pierce, they don't get that benefit. They get the boot after one year and we get coordinators who haven't necessarily played at the same level or at the highest level that get the chance over and over and over again.
Did Dan luck out in that regard? Why don't some of the other X players get a chance? Well, I think part of it honestly is just society where we're at right now. We're in such an instant gratification society and we're expecting to just turn around in one year, you know, and we have outliers like CJ Stroud is coming to Houston, Texas and them immediately having a great turnaround season.
And people are trying to emulate that, which is just so, so rare and it's hard to do. And I think what makes Coach Campbell and Brad Holmes run so special, they've really built it from the ground up. I mean, if you look at this team, this roster, if you look at their four or five first draft picks coming out of these last three years, I mean, these are guys that are starters, guys who are now pro bowlers. I mean, they've really, really hit in the draft and built this thing the right way to be able to overcome injuries, to be able to overcome playing on the road and all these things that we've seen them do this year. So on the way I look at it, I mean, I'm not surprised at this team and what they're doing at all, because Dan and Brad have been rebuilding this machine from this exact same way from the first day that they walked into those doors, man, and they don't sacrifice any level of our culture for talent. If you're not about the culture, if you're not about the work, if you're not about caring and putting it all out there for your teammates, you're not going to be a part of this team and they don't care how talented you are. And you could tell by the types of guys that are bringing the locker room that they were not about to sacrifice their culture for anybody. I think that's the reason why we're seeing this team play the way they're playing right now.
Hey, Jason, you were in that locker room. Do you favor them to win the Super Bowl in a month's time? Oh, I'm going with my boys all the way, man. Detroit won pride, baby.
I can dig it. Now to talk about another team, probably their stiffest competition, you think about the Eagles. We all know that Jalen has been dealing with the concussion, trying to get out of the protocol, but a former teammate of yours at Penn State, Saquon Barkley, had an opportunity to chase history.
They let him rest. It had been great to see him try to go out there and get it. Do you think that was the right move? That's a tough thing.
So it's a pretty much balance. It's hard to say whether it's the right move or the wrong move. He can go out there and then he gets hurt and everybody gets mad that you're playing.
I mean, it goes either way. I think to me, I wish he would have played and I especially wish he would have played because of the fact that he would have been able to do it against his former team that let him go, that didn't see the value in him that the Eagles were able to see. So I think it would have been quite the storybook ending for him to be able to break that rushing record. But I mean, I just love the selflessness of Saquon and the fact that you see him in press conferences saying, hey, at the end of the day, I didn't come here to break a record. I came here to do special things. When I say special things, I mean special things with this team. And you know, that's going to be able to win a Super Bowl. So kudos to him for having the maturity, you know, to be okay with the head coach's decision and him not playing. Yeah. Why not embarrass the New York Giants some more?
Hey, embarrass themselves. Hey, Jason, thank you so much for your insight, not just with Penn State, where you played also with the Lions. Where can people follow you today? You got to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, on YouTube at Jason Cabinda. I also host the Penn State pregame football show and wrap up show.
So tune in on GoPSU TV on YouTube if you're looking to see some content on Penn State football. Hey, Jason, I appreciate it. Good luck. I know you're going to be all locked in on Thursday.
Thank you for the time. Thank you. No doubt about it. That Jason Cabinda, former linebacker for the Penn State Nittany Lions, as well as the Detroit Lions. He just finished wrapping up playing last year for Detroit. I know he's going to be rooting for those Lions, as you heard him say. It's the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network, 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, I did mention the Browns. Let me give you an update on what the hell is going on with the Browns. Deshaun Watson, give you a wrap up on everything that took place this entire day, from the Raiders to the Dolphins to the Heat to the Suns, everything in between. It's the JR Sportbree show, so don't move.
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