It is the JR Sportbrief 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 and locked in all over North America. I hope you're well. I hope you're safe. I hope you are absolutely amazing. And if you're not, let me try my best.
I'm not a miracle worker, but let me try my best to help you have a good time. I'll be here for the next four hours. This is when the show gets started.
6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. How can you listen? How can you tune into the show? Easy. On the free Audacy app.
A-U-D-A-C-Y. It's free. You can tune in on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. If you got Sirius XM, it's channel 158.
You got a smart speaker. Ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. Man, there's so many ways and you can even now watch the show. Yes, you can watch the JR Sportbrief live stream on YouTube.
Just go to YouTube and pull up the Infinity Sports Network. We got a day in front of us or an afternoon or a night or an evening. We got Penn State, Notre Dame. Unfortunately, man, we got a basketball game in Los Angeles that's been canceled because of these wildfires.
The terrible situation continues out in Los Angeles. We have no idea what's going to happen with Monday Night Football wildcard version of it with the Vikings and the Rams. We got a lot of playoff action coming our way over the next few days. We got college quarterbacks who are hitting the transfer portal. Hi, Carson Beck. We got wide receivers who won't be available for the playoffs.
Hi, Zay Flowers. And then, of course, if you thought the Raiders just and we did this yesterday. I shared with you all a top six list of the most dysfunctional teams in the NFL and the Raiders.
Well, today they fired their general manager who was their general manager for only one year after they fired the head coach Antonio Pierce two days ago. I mean, you can't make this up when it comes down to the Raiders. So we got a lot to get into. We have a lot to discuss. Of course, in about 90 minutes from now, we'll all be paying attention to what's going on in Florida.
That Orange Bowl, this college football playoff semifinal matchup between Notre Dame and Penn State. Now, typically our producer, Ryan Hickey, would be hanging out here with us. He is an alum of Penn State, so he is locked into the game.
And we got somebody holding it down for us tonight, this evening, this afternoon. Nico is in New York City. Nico, how are you, man? I'm good. Excited to be here filling in for Ryan Hickey, who I'm sure is very stressed right now.
Oh, my God. Why would he? The game hasn't even started. Why would he be stressed?
I don't know. I feel like the before the game jitters is what would at least for me, that's where like sometimes I'm the most nervous. Like once the game starts going and you get into the flow of things, you calm down a little bit.
But before the game, oof, stress. How many beer are you old? You're old enough to drink a beer, right?
A couple of. Yeah. OK, good. Doesn't beer help it out? I mean, I don't know.
Right. See, I don't like to get too drunk before a big game because then you start getting too drunk and then you lose your focus. Like I want to be, you know, locked in, ready to go.
The drinking sometimes makes it worse. Don't say anything that's incriminating here, OK? Don't do that. I certainly understand.
I wouldn't be nervous. So what what team do you what are your teams, Nico? Fill us in.
All right. So we'll go NFL. I'm Giants. That's a lot of drinking. Keep going.
Baseball's Mets. More recently, less drinking. But historically, a lot of drinking. Yes. OK. Basketball is Knicks. OK.
Historically, lots of drinking. OK. And college football is Michigan. Now, I do want to preface a lot of people when I say that claim that I'm a front runner. I was going to say, did you go there? That's a lot of New York teams for you to like Michigan. I swear, since I was 12 years old, I've been a diehard fan.
Denard Robinson, when he was the quarterback back in like 2011. That's what got me into the team. I've been a fan for a while.
I did not jump on the bandwagon when they won last year. OK. Right.
Nothing wrong with that. Here's a question. I think you know the answer.
I think everybody does. Where's Michigan right now? At home.
Yeah, at home. Yeah, they're at home. So, hey, I guess one less beer or two for you and we'll see what happens in about 90 minutes from now as they get underway, they being Notre Dame and Penn State with a chance to advance to the national championship. And then we got to wait and see what happens tomorrow between the Ohio State University and then also Texas.
Hopefully they can get that game in without an issue. We know, as I mentioned, that weather has been a major problem out in Los Angeles. Tomorrow, they're concerned that there's going to be snow and ice in the Arlington area. And, yeah, as we talked about last night, the weather is just bananas all over the place.
A matter of fact, you don't even have to look further. I told you Los Angeles a couple of nights ago, a Kings game was canceled. And then today, the Los Angeles Lakers were supposed to take on the Hornets out in Los Angeles. That game ain't happening because of these wildfires that just keep getting closer and encroaching upon the city. A matter of fact, listen to this news report just a couple hours ago from CBS Sports HQ on what's going on in LA.
Breaking news, more fallout from the fires in Los Angeles. Tonight's Lakers-Hornets game in LA has been postponed. It's the second professional sporting event to be postponed in Los Angeles over the last 24 hours. Last night's Kings home game in the NHL was also postponed. The NBA has not announced when this Lakers-Hornets game will be rescheduled. We'll, of course, keep you updated with all the latest as it pertains to sports and those LA wildfires right here on CBS Sports HQ. Yeah, we know rescheduling sporting events is never easy.
It's never fun. These arenas all over the country, they're booked up way ahead of time. The NBA will fit it in. But more importantly, it's about the real lives, not just the athletes and the games, but the lives that are being affected. J.J. Redick's family affected. They had to be evacuated.
I understand that there was some damage to him and his family's house. Kawhi Leonard leaving the Los Angeles Clippers, not due to injury, but deciding to leave to be with his family, who happened to be in one of the areas where the fires are just kind of whipping all over urban Los Angeles. This isn't far away.
We're talking about right up in the hills. So all the best to everybody in Cali. And the NFL already has its contingency plan for Monday Night Football, wild card, the wild card version of Monday Night Football, as the Los Angeles Rams are going to host the Vikings.
If it's not happening in Los Angeles, it's going to happen in Glendale, Arizona State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals. So first of all, much love to everybody dealing with severe weather. I mean, even here in Atlanta, Georgia, people are losing their minds. They're buying all the bread. They're buying all the milk. Because we're expected in certain parts of the state, northern Georgia, central Georgia, we, you know, you got a couple of inches.
Whoopty do, right? I mean, I'm from the northeast. Snow doesn't bother me. L.A. is going to be four inches of snow tomorrow, three inches.
And I'm just like, OK, business as usual, but not when the infrastructure is set up. So if you happen to be in the south, I send you love. If you're in Texas, everybody traveling to go to Jerry's World tomorrow for the other college football playoff semifinal between Ohio and Texas. Much love to everybody coast to coast. If you want to be a part of the show, 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. We're going to talk some college football. We're going to get into it. A matter of fact, next hour, we're going to be joined by national writer, national reporter for the athletic, covers all things college football.
Ralph Russo is going to join us next hour. And then, you know, speaking of college football, I told you about Carson Beck leaving the Georgia Bulldogs. Good luck to him a little bit.
Not wishing him luck as he leaves. We'll get into that. Deion Sanders is now giving a few conditions as to how and why he would potentially leave Colorado and the buffalos to move on to the NFL. We'll hear from Deion later on in the show. But let me just get this out the way because there's only but so much that you can beat a dead horse and no disrespect to people out there who are horse farmers. I know we got listeners.
They deal with all types of animals, no disrespect to you, but there's only so much that you could beat a dead horse or repeat yourself or say the same damn thing over and over and over again. But I'm going to say one more time because we said it last night. The Raiders are dysfunctional. I tweeted this out earlier this afternoon when we all found out that the Las Vegas Raiders decided to let go of their general manager, their GM of one year, one season, Tom Tolesco. Hilarious that they gave him the boot in a similar way.
And this is equally as hilarious. I laughed when they hired him last year. Because if you know anything about Tom Tolesco and shout outs to all of our listeners in San Diego, everybody in Southern California, everybody in Northern California, the West Coast, Tom Tolesco was the long time general manager of the Chargers. Yeah.
Yeah. The Chargers, the team that constantly and I know they got Harbaugh now I'm talking about pre Harbaugh. This is a team that constantly just choked. This is a team that constantly brought in talent that just never lived up to top billing. I know we got Derwin James, God bless him.
He just won player, defensive player of the month and what have you. He can never stay healthy. Like Tom Tolesco, this guy's record as general manager of the Chargers.
Listen to this. This is as mediocre as it gets. Technically is worse.
79 in 83. This is the man with a losing record. This man had a losing record and the team that decided to hire him, I guess because of familiarity were the Raiders.
Yeah. Let's just bring in a guy who has a losing record. When you hire somebody, don't you want to bring in somebody who has a winning pedigree?
I guess misery loves company. One miserable ass record has to meet another one in the Raiders. So just days after they fire Antonio Pierce, after Antonio Pierce sat around and had a press conference, just days after Antonio Pierce is just like, well, I'm going to show up to work until they, they fired me, which they did. They fired the GM two days later.
Let's think about this. The general manager for the Raiders before Tom Tolesco was Dave Ziegler. He was basically a stop gap. The GM before him was basically hanging out with Gruden and we'll talk about Gruden as well. Can you imagine if Gruden gets another chance to coach all those nasty things he said in his email?
And I can't believe people are arguing about the fact that his emails were leaked publicly. If you're a nasty fill in the blank, then you just a nasty fill in the blank. Your emails will leak. The next time, don't be a nasty fill in the blank. Be a decent human being.
You got to worry about your emails, you jackass. But we'll talk about that later in the show. The Raiders are just mistake after mistake after mistake. The Las Vegas Raiders are that kid in the back of the classroom eating glue.
I'm sorry. The Las Vegas Raiders are that kid that takes the fork, the metal fork in the kitchen and looks for the socket and doesn't learn the first time that they got shocked. They just want to keep jamming it in there.
That's the Raiders. When the hell is Mark Davis going to learn that you should not eat glue and that you should not jam the fork into the socket. Stop it. Stop it. I feel like Tom Brady is the adult in the room who ultimately has to come and tap Mark Davis on the shoulder and go, no, no, I got this.
Just just just move away. Now, why did Tom tell us go get fired two days after the coach? Come on now. Who told him?
I don't know. Did a perspective coach say, I don't want to be here with this guy? Did Tom Brady ultimately tell him, come on, man, what we got to get rid of him so we could bring in somebody and start fresh like this is the Raider way. And I hope this is the end of it, because who the hell else is there to fire? You can't fire Mark Davis. He's not going to fire himself. I mean, if he's going to fire anybody, he should fire his barber. Nico, do you think he has a barber, right? He doesn't cut his hair itself, right? I would assume so. Okay. I mean, have you seen that haircut? No comment.
How complicated is it to just put a bowl on and just snip around? I don't know, man. What a world. Good luck to the Raiders. I hope this is it.
I hope this is the last sign. I hope this is it for the Raiders making dumb decisions. Just give it to Tom Brady. Send Mark Davis to a tropical vacation and just let Tom Brady run the team. Because we all know Tom Brady.
I think we talked about this a few days ago. I don't think Tom Brady has longed for a broadcasting job. I think Tom Brady is just like, hey, listen, folks, eventually I'm just going to run this team as he should. The Raiders need it. Now that I got them losers out the way. We have so much to do. We have so much to get into. Want to talk some college football playoff action.
That's right. We got Penn State and Notre Dame tonight. I expect this to be an ugly defensive battle. We got playoff action over the weekend. Looks like a wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens is not going to be in action.
What does this mean for their offense? We'll get into that. We got a playoff game tomorrow.
I already told you next hour. We're going to have a good old chat with Ralph Russo from the Athletic. We're going to get there's just so much playoff football in college. Playoff football in the NFL. We got coaches here and coaches there.
Dumb teams here. We got a lot to discuss. If you want to be a part of the show, you can. You can call 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. When we come back on the other side of the break. Yeah, I didn't mention this team yesterday.
Somebody messaged me about them. They're like, how you don't have this team on your dysfunctional list here in Atlanta, Georgia. The Falcons are playing games.
These aren't fun games. I'm going to explain on the other side of the break. We'll talk about Notre Dame and Penn State.
We have so much to do. Congratulations and happy Thursday. It's the J.R. Sportbree show coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network and streaming on YouTube. It is the J.R. Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. Thank you to everybody listening coast to coast. You can now also watch the J.R. Sportbree show live on YouTube. Just go ahead and search for the Infinity Sports Network and you could watch me ply my craft. You can see me sit here in the studio and talk to you. As simple as that.
You can find me online as well at J.R. Sportbree. We open up the show by sharing with you some of the news from earlier today that the Raiders, as ridiculous as they are, letting go of Antonio Pierce a couple of days ago. Today, they get rid of the general manager. So I guess it took two extra days to figure out to get rid of Tom Tolesco.
And what else is new? You know, before we get into some of the college football action that we're going to see in about an hour from now, I got to get this out the way since we're talking about ridiculousness. Earlier today, Terry Fontenot, the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, he decided to speak to the media. Well, I guess he didn't decide to speak to the media. It is his job to talk to the media, to communicate the decisions of the Atlanta Falcons. Why do we do this? And why do we do that? And why did the chicken cross the road?
And all of the questions that man has been trying to figure out forever. But one of the larger questions for the Atlanta Falcons, a team that didn't make the postseason, a team with a coach and Rahim Morris, who at times didn't know, it didn't look like he knew what he was doing. And for a team that probably put in Michael Pennix too late, I was wrong. I would have stuck with Kirk Cousins.
Well, either way, the results seem to be the same. The Falcons are not in the postseason. They're sitting around at home. Kirk Cousins, the man who they decided to give a gigantic contract to four years, $180 million. Kirk Cousins, he's still on the team. Michael Pennix Jr., who you selected at number eight overall, he's still on the team. Between these two guys combined, the Falcons are eighth in quarterback salary.
Eighth. You know what they're not? They're not in the top eight of anything. They're not in the postseason. And so what happens into the future with the Falcons?
You know, we've pretty much heard all of the rumors and I don't think it's a rumor. If you got Kirk Cousins on the team, it's just about impossible, right? You think Kirk Cousins wants to spend what's left of his career just sitting around on a bench? You think Kirk Cousins wants to be a babysitter?
Let's be real. Who wants to be a babysitter? Nobody. Except maybe your grandparents, right? But even your grandparents want to give you a damn kid back. Who wants to be a babysitter?
Somebody getting paid. Nobody wants to babysit no kids. Nico, you like babysitting?
Have you ever babysat a child before? Hell no. I will say though, if I was making $40 million to do it, I wouldn't mind it so much.
Just be if it was your path. If you had, well, I mean, Kirk Cousins, he's made about a quarter billion dollars. I don't think he needs the money, right? True. Would you take your 40 and play or would you want to babysit? I'd rather play. Oh, there you go.
But here's the deal. It appears, according to Terry Fontenot, the general manager of the Falcons, it appears that Kirk Cousins is going to get paid $40 million to be a babysitter to Michael Pennix Jr. Listen to Terry Fontenot, from earlier today about the status of Kirk Cousins for next year. But we're very comfortable moving forward with him as a backup. He's handled himself extremely well through the entire process from start to finish, from when he came in the building. And, you know, in these adverse situations, that's when you show your true character. Kirk's a great man, and he's been great support for my great, great teammate, great support for everybody in the building.
So we're very comfortable moving forward with him as a backup. What? Yeah, you want to? I forgot what show it was. Nigga was, nigga was Mari Povich. He would strap somebody up to a lie detector and then he would test, hey, you know, I think it was Mari. Is that the one where you're not the father?
I think that's what it is, I believe. Nico, you know what I'm talking about? I honestly don't, but. Good.
It's a good thing. I think they would give paternity tests. I don't know. Bottom line is there was a TV show where you could strap somebody up to a lie detector and you could figure out whether or not they were telling the truth. I'm here to tell you, if you do not know or understand what the hell I'm saying to you right now, Terry Fontenot was doing his job today as the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons. He lied. He lied. Like this is just a matter of posturing.
There's not a shred of truth. To the fact that they are very comfortable with keeping Kirk Cousins on as their their backup. Why? I mean, well, they made a I don't want to call it a dumb decision, but it was pretty stupid last year. I don't want to call it a dumb decision. It was pretty stupid last year when they decided to give Kirk Cousins all of this money. And then it was pretty stupid to select Michael Pinnix Jr. Because I guess you don't have faith in Kirk Cousins when a week a couple of weeks after you give him this big contract, you immediately draft his replacement at eight. So long as they got him in the second or third round, they got this guy in the first round, the eighth selection.
That means you want this man to be your quarterback for, I don't know, 10 plus years, if you can get it. So that was one dumb ass decision. So would I be surprised if Falcons had another?
The answer is no. But what he said is a lie. They don't want him on the team. Kirk Cousins has a no trade clause. They want Kirk Cousins to quote unquote push the button. Remember that scene in rush hour? The little girl had the bomb strapped to her body and she's like push the button and push the button, push the button, push the button.
You a punk, push the button. That's what's going on right now. We see this out in Phoenix, Arizona right now with Bradley Beal. This man is owed what, 40, 50 million dollars on the Suns? They basically put this man on the bench. He has a no trade clause. They want Bradley Beal to push the button. They want him to eject his ass up out of town. They want him to say, man, I don't want to play on the bench.
Start me. Now, Kirk Cousins is a nice guy. He's swag surfing in the regular season and he's wearing his teammates chains and he's having a good old time. He says the right things.
This ain't Tyreek Hill over here. This is a nice fellow. Gets his clothes from Kohl's.
Nothing wrong with that. It's a smart man. Great investment Kohl's. I think I've never bought anything out of Kohl's. I don't know what I'd buy.
Khakis? I don't know. But the fact is Kirk Cousins, his agent will push the button. I'd be shocked if Kirk Cousins was on the Falcons to start the season. It may take all the way through the summer. I'm talking all the way through training camp for Kirk Cousins to be sent to another team.
I don't know. Maybe some guy blows out his leg. Maybe there's a sucker out there that says, oh, we'll give you a fourth round, fifth round pick for Kirk Cousins.
But who wants that? The Falcons realistically might have to dump him or wait for injury. But the idea that Kirk Cousins is going to spend next year as the backup quarterback to Michael Pennix Jr.
I don't think so. And Terry Fontenot is saying he's comfortable with that. Yeah, he is comfortable enough with that until he could potentially get something in return. And what that is for a guy who tore his Achilles and came back and threw 18 touchdowns to 16 interceptions?
I don't know what the return is for that. But there's a sucker born every day. Somebody is going to try to bring him in. Terry Fontenot, good job. Congratulations. You're a full blown liar. And sometimes that's the job. Terry Fontenot's job is to improve the Falcons now and into the future. If he's doing a good job about that, well, we know right now he hasn't. He admitted as much today. His job is to tell the truth at a press conference. These press conferences are games.
Speaking to the agents. It's all about game. This is all a game. It's business. Don't take this man serious. I wonder if Kirk Cousins and Aaron Rodgers have like a chat together.
Two guys who blew out their Achilles at the end of their careers. Maybe Aaron Rodgers could learn a thing or two from Kirk Cousins. Just learn a little bit of class. A little less nutty.
More class, less nutty. I doubt it. I don't think Kirk Cousins would want to talk to Aaron Rodgers.
Aaron Rodgers is probably in a deep hole somewhere right now reading a book. Anyway, it's the JR Sport Reshow 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, we are almost an hour away from the beginning of one of the games that will determine one half of the schedule when it comes down to the college championship. In about an hour from now, we're going to have Penn State taking on Notre Dame.
The battle of defense. Hickey's not here. We talked about it yesterday. I'm actually rooting against, well, I'm still torn. You know, we're going to talk about that on the other side.
And you know, speaking of torn, man, this is crazy. Notre Dame is getting tore up in the locker room by the flu. They said the flu is going around in the locker room. Come on now.
Excuses for everybody. We're going to talk about Notre Dame and Penn State on the other side of the break. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. We're about an hour away from finding out one of the teams, or a little more than an hour. The game is going to start in an hour. We're going to find out one of the teams heading to the College Football National Championship taking place here in Atlanta, Georgia in a couple of weeks. We're going to see who advances between Notre Dame and Penn State. This is where we're at.
Now, I gotta be honest here. When I think about Penn State, I think about a team that is good, but historically is not good enough to get past Ohio State, who they may actually meet if they advance, or Michigan. That is the lot in life of the Penn State Nittany Lions. This is what it is.
Call a spade a spade. You know, James Franklin could sit around and do all the interviews that he wants, and he could pat himself on the bag, and he could be all of this. This man has had difficulty winning the big one. And then we have Marcus Freeman on the other side. This guy's 38 years old. And so we have an interesting dynamic here between a former player in the NFL.
He was no star. And then we got James Franklin, who was at Vanderbilt. And then he's been at Penn State, and he's just winning everything except for against big teams. And then we even have the larger storyline here that one of these guys could be the first black coach to move forward and actually win a national championship.
That would be amazing. You know what? If we go back a few years, James Franklin was actually sitting around.
He was being highlighted on HBO. And he admitted that as much success that he wants, of course he wants it for the team. That's a goal of his as well. Listen to this. I don't usually talk about this publicly, but my goal is to be the first African American football coach to win a college national championship.
That's something that's very historic. So and I spend very little time talking about because really my job is to help the players reach their goal. But that's something that maybe we can do together. If they reach their goal, then you reach yours. That's it, right? You need the players to go out there and win. You don't got no players.
You don't got nothing. It's as simple as that. And when you think about players on both sides of the football, this is I'm not expecting this to be no sexy matchup. I don't care what Penn State did against lesser competition. No disrespect to Boise State. No disrespect to SMU, especially no disrespect to that guy who called up for like three months, who swore up and down. Hey, J.R., hey, J.R., SMU is they can win the national championship.
They can win. Well, what happened? Where they at? Nico, where's SMU? In the same place as Michigan, right? They at home.
They at home. Come on now. We're going to see an ugly football game today.
I got to be honest. I'm more excited about the game tomorrow. These are two teams that are absolutely amazing when it comes down to defense. If you think about Penn State, points allowed per game in the entire country, D1, they're ranked seventh. You take a look at Notre Dame.
Defense points per game, second, 14 a game. You want to know the team that was number one? The Ohio State University. Except for I don't think either one of these two schools between Notre Dame and Penn State, I don't think they're going to go out there and light it up. Don't get don't get all excited now about Penn State dropping 30s on the scoreboard. Don't get excited about Notre Dame beating Georgia. I mean, they were playing against a backup QB. Give it a break. Give it a rest. This is going to be an ugly game.
And if we have to look at anything, there's some of the factors. How about this? This came out earlier today because, of course, everybody needs an excuse. It was reported.
Tyler Horka. He says the Notre Dame locker room has been dealing with a flu outbreak. Come on now. I've been told the flu was going around the Notre Dame locker room.
Those who have it have it bad. But it sounds like it's mostly backups and special team players. OK, who cares about those people, I guess. Right. Still, something to monitor. Come on.
The flu. I didn't know. I don't keep I don't keep up. I don't keep track. I guess I should. I don't know.
I come to this box of a studio and I leave. I see like one human being a day. Nico, people got the flu right now.
Is it like going around? Not that I know of. I mean, knock on wood, I'm pretty healthy right now. Do you know anybody who has the flu right now? I do not. Good. But that's a good thing.
Try to keep it that way. This is this is no different than yesterday. Today for Notre Dame, it's the the flu excuse. Yesterday, we had James Franklin, the man who can't win a big game to save his life. He was sitting around saying that Notre Dame has an advantage because they operate as an independent and they don't play as many games.
You need a reminder. I want you to listen to James Franklin as he sat next to Marcus Freeman and basically said, y'all had an easier path here. I think it should be consistent across college football. I think, again, this is no knock at coach or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game or no one should play a conference championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games. But just just the numbers are going to make things more challenging if you're playing one more conference game.
So I just think things need to be consistent across college football. Oh, yeah. Well, you know what?
Here's something for James Franklin. He should know this, right? Life ain't fair, bro.
Get over it. Like what happens? His top defensive player, edge rusher Abdul Carter, is dealing with a shoulder with a shoulder.
Everybody needs a fancy story. Either the guy is going to suck tonight or he's going to go out there and play with a bum shoulder and have like eight sacks. Like, I don't know. Like, I'm going to give them the edge because of their quarterback, Drew Aller.
Aller, Aller, Aller, Aller. This guy's a giant. This man says he's coming back to Penn State. If he wins a championship, he's not just going to go to the draft. I mean, what are you waiting on?
Might as well get the money when you can. Is it in college? Is it in the pros?
I don't know. I'd give them the slight edge, but I'll tell you this, as I think I told Hickey yesterday. I am rooting against Penn State. I'm rooting against Penn State because of their coach, James Franklin. For whatever reason, to me, he comes across as a little too cocky. It's like, sure, yeah, fine. You want to be the first black coach to win a national championship? Okay, great, fine.
That'd be absolutely amazing. But yesterday, you're coming up with excuses. And this is a lot of arrogance for a guy who, let me read it again, in his career at Penn State. He is 1-14 against top five teams.
Let me say that again. He won victory and 14 losses against top five teams. The only time he had a victory was against the Ohio State University in 2016. I can take a guess if they advance what type of team or what team they don't want to face. And it's the one that's in Ohio, the one in Columbus.
I don't think he wants to see it. If I expand that just a little bit more, okay, top five. That's too tough, JR. Top five is the best of the best. Against top 10 teams. 4-19.
4-19. This man is doing a lot of, I don't want to say trash talking, but he's certainly full of himself for a guy who has a losing record. Like I say this to the players, I say this to athletes, just go out there and prove it. You don't got to talk about it, especially when you got a losing record against good teams. In lesser terms, and I'll say it again, Penn State beats everybody except for Michigan and Ohio State. He has an amazing record. He has a winning percentage north of 60. Winning percentages closer to 70.
Except for, you guessed it, Michigan and Ohio State. So I think you should probably just pump the brakes a little bit. And then this was the cherry on top. He's sitting next to Marcus Freeman. And then he's, I don't want to say he's trying to treat him like he's his little brother. But he's kind of big timing him just a little bit.
Listen to this clip from their press conference. I'm looking over here at Marcus and how old do you know Marcus? 38.
38. I mean, look at the hairline on this guy. I mean, envious of his hairline in a lot of ways.
But Marcus has done a phenomenal job. It's innocuous, harmless, right? I'm the old guy. I'm bald. I'll make fun of the young guy with the great hair.
Yuck, yuck, yuck. He's done a good job. Look at him over there. Look at that young whipper snapper. He does good, right?
He might as well have gotten up and patted him on the head. Like nobody likes that guy. Nobody likes that old clueless guy.
He walks into the room and pulls up his pants and holds his belt. Hey, I'm cool, right? I'm cool. Nobody likes that guy.
Don't be that guy. I don't know what happened here with James Franklin. We're talking about Penn State. They haven't won a championship since 1986.
Hickey reminded us of this yesterday. We got Notre Dame. They haven't won a title since 1988. Yeah, these are the teams of the 80s.
I mean, we can't dig up Joe Paternal, but that's a completely different story. I am rooting for Notre Dame. I am rooting. Nico, I'm torn.
I don't know if you heard this yesterday. If Penn State advances to the championship, then I will be thrilled because Ryan Hickey will be here in Georgia. But then if they lose, Hickey doesn't come to Georgia because he doesn't like me. Oh, so he's going to go to the game if they advance to the national championship? If they advance, he will be here.
Yeah, he'll be here in Georgia. Yeah. Have you met him in person yet? Have I met Ryan Hickey in person? Yeah. Yeah, I've met him in person plenty of times. Oh, all right. Well, there you go.
I was going to say this would be like an exciting time. You guys could finally meet in person. Well, I don't know. You're in Atlanta. He's here in New York.
I don't know how the schedules work with you guys. Oh, you know, there's planes. You know, I've been on a plane. I've hung out with Hickey, not just here on the air. I've seen Hickey before. You know, I know Hickey.
Come on. You think I just talk to him on the air? I see him a couple times a year. You know, I see him. I would have loved to have him here in Georgia. Who do you think is going to win this ugly ass football game?
I'm with you. I'm not in on James Franklin, and I just don't think that he has what it takes to get it done against these top teams. And in fairness to him, Notre Dame actually isn't even a top five team.
But you mentioned the top 10 record, and that's not really any better. So I'm taking the Fighting Irish in this one to advance to Atlanta. And then they try to get too cute. You know, he tries to get fancy. Drew Aller is still a young guy. I don't know if he's going to help his change. Just go back to school next year, man. How about all these young quarterbacks just stay another year in school and take as much money as you can. Get the NFL money later. Soak up as much cash in college as possible. He'd probably make more money in college than he would in the pros. Go ahead and do that.
Easier for me to root for Notre Dame. I hope Hickey comes. I'd be happy if he comes down here to Georgia.
And if he doesn't, oh, well, I'll see him in New York. What's the temperature right now? Is it in the 20s? Today was actually 34.
Oh, my God. A heat wave. OK, yeah, the heat wave in New York. Well, I'll see Hickey in when it's like 60 in New York. That'll be fine unless they charge me nine bucks to drive around.
I think they do. Anyway, it's the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to have a chat next hour with Ralph Russo.
He's a national college reporter for the athletic. He's going to talk to us about everything going on in the world of college football, not just today's game, tomorrow's game that we got so much to get into. There's so much playoff action. A matter of fact, when we come back on the other side of the break, let's talk about some NFL playoff action because the Baltimore Ravens, they got an injury. They have a major injury to their offense. I'll tell you who's hurting on the other side of the break. It's the JR Sportbreeze show. Don't move Infinity Sports Network.
