It is! The JR Sportbrief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. So whether you happen to be in Portland, Oregon, California, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, Green Bay, New York, Maine, Vancouver, Miami, home to the Orange Bowl, where in about 45 minutes we'll see Notre Dame and Penn State.
One of these teams are going to battle it out and try to move on to the national championship game. Regardless of where you are, thank you for being here. This show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. You can always listen on the free Audacy app, A-U-D-A-C-Y. You can tune in on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. If you got Sirius XM, it's channel 158. And if you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. We have so much to do here over the remaining three hours of the show. If you missed a minute, go ahead and hit rewind on the free Audacy app. And thank you all so much to people checking out the live stream of this nationally syndicated radio broadcast on YouTube. Yeah, congratulations. You got a bonus. You can watch this show now on YouTube by pulling up the Infinity Sports Network and boom, the JR Sport Reef show is live right in front of your face.
If you want to be a part of the show, you can do that, too. Are you off from work? You driving in a car? You bored? Are you dreading going home to your, I don't know, your partner? Your wife? Your husband? Your kids? Your parents? Are you sick of them? You want to talk to me instead?
You can do that. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. You could also find me. I am online. I am on the internet. I am everywhere at JR Sport Brief. In about 20 minutes from now, we're going to have a conversation with Ralph Russo, who covers all things college football for the athletic. I forgot.
Well, this is what I forgot. Tonight's game is on ESPN. Okay, the college football game.
Notre Dame, Penn State. It is on ESPN. And so what I thought, what I assumed to be a start time of about 30 minutes from now, they lied.
I should have factored that in. They're not going to play for another about 40, 45 minutes because they got to give us another 15 minutes of stupid pregame. Anyway, I'll be here regardless. So, of course, we'll keep you up to date with Notre Dame and Penn State. We have Ralph Russo, who's going to join us. We'll talk about the game, not just today, tomorrow. We have some other news in college football. Carson Beck apparently is going to jump into the transfer portal. We got Deion Sanders, who is now giving conditions as to how and why he would leave coaching the Buffaloes to move to the NFL.
So we have a lot to get into as the show continues on. I do want to mention this. As last hour, I told you how dysfunctional the Raiders are. Today, they got rid of Tom Tolesco after firing Antonio Pierce a few days ago. We just talked about the game that should start in about 40 minutes between Notre Dame and Penn State.
Apparently, Notre Dame, some of their players have been dealing with the flu. And then I told you that the Falcons are just nutty. They're telling lies that they're going to keep and hold on to Kirk Cousins as their backup quarterback. Sure, right.
It's something for all of us to believe, hardly. But as we move forward, as we're in the midst of this amazing weekend of playoff football, college, the pros, we got a team with Super Bowl aspirations that's currently dealing with an injury. We got a team with Super Bowl aspirations that has one of their top, well, damn it, he is their top receiver.
He is not going to be playing this Saturday night against the Steelers. I'm talking about Zay Flowers of the Ravens. Zay Flowers was just named to the Pro Bowl. And I think people can look at some of the other individuals who were left off of the Pro Bowl team at the wide receiver position and go, how did Zay Flowers get it?
Well, he was deserving. Zay Flowers in his second season in the NFL, almost 1,100 yards receiving to go along with four touchdowns, he made the Pro Bowl good. People have been looking for a solid option, a solid receiving option for Lamar Jackson for years.
Everybody just can't roll out of bed and people compared this to this for a while. It's, well, what would Lamar Jackson do if he had Tyreek Hill? I'm not saying that Zay Flowers is Tyreek Hill. He is certainly not.
But he's a solid option. He will not be playing because of a busted up knee. Ravens will be fine. They got ground, got Mark Andrews. I think they'll be cool against the Steelers.
And by the way, the Steelers have their own issues unless you've been like MIA missing in action. I think they're going to be missing in action. A matter of fact, let's listen to Coach Harbaugh earlier today tell everybody, unfortunately, Zay, he won't be playing. Zay Flowers is not going to be able to make it to the game this week. So he'll get started again next week. And we'll move forward with the guys we have. And we're excited about the guys we have, which is everybody else. You only work with what you got, right?
You can only work with who's available and what's in the room, right? The Steelers, I don't want to call the Steelers a train wreck because the next thing I know, I'm going to have a bunch of people hit me up telling me how bad that Mike Tomlin needs to get the boot. And I don't think that's the case. I think it's a matter of talent when it comes down to the Pittsburgh Steelers. What a wild world. I think the Ravens will be fine. And God bless you, if you watch this game on Saturday night, Ravens, the Steelers, a good punchy in the mouth type of game. You got to watch it on Amazon Prime.
I know this. Hey, this is the streaming world that we live in. It's a new era. It's a new generation. Can't just watch stuff on television anymore.
Now you got to stream it. But Zay Flowers missing in the game is, they'll be fine. Andrews and likely and Derek Henry. I still think that they're the team with the quote unquote nuclear weapons on offense.
Take a look at the Steelers. Who's their biggest weapon? George Pickens? And it seems like George Pickens' biggest fight, his biggest defender isn't across from him.
It's his own head. It's like this guy's constantly fighting with himself to not get penalties and not get in trouble and pretty disastrous. When you look at at Pickens, Russell Wilson can't get to him. Mike Tomlin can't get to him. I think no Zay Flowers.
I think they'll be fine. And I want you to listen to John Harbaugh one more time. He feels confident because if you listen carefully, John Harbaugh didn't just state that Zay Flowers is going to be gone. He said he's going to be gone this week and he'll probably be available for the next round.
Listen to this. Zay Flowers is not going to be able to make it to the game this week. So he'll get started again next week. And and we'll move forward with the guys we have. And we're excited about the guys we have, which is everybody else.
Yeah, the next week, the next week. Now, that's not arrogance. That's confidence. I mean, you think about John Harbaugh. This is a man who last year stood in front of the media and told everyone, hey, Lamar Jackson can be the best quarterback ever. Damn it, Lamar Jackson might be staring at another MVP. A third one again? Already? The guy's not even anywhere close to 30 yet. And he might pick up another MVP award.
So I don't know. I'd probably bet on John Harbaugh and whatever the hell comes out of his mouth. Zay Flowers might be missing in action. I'm still going with the Ravens. The Steelers are just, they don't have enough talent.
And so much so, we brought this up yesterday. Peter King said, could you imagine a world where the Steelers say no thank you to Russell Wilson and they try to bring in Aaron Rodgers? The Steelers don't have enough talent, OK? Not to win the championship. And I don't think they have enough talent to beat the Ravens.
Not to say that they cannot. I'm not betting on it. Nico, holding it down for us in New York City. Saturday night matchup. And you going with the Steelers or you going with the Ravens? I'm taking Baltimore. I'm all over Lamar. I actually picked him to win the MVP over Josh Allen.
The numbers are what I look at. So I'm all in on Lamar. You think the Ravens are going to win the whole thing? You think they'll win the Super Bowl this year? I don't know if they'll get that far. It's still, you just can't bet against Patrick Mahomes yet until you see him lose in the postseason. So I'm going to say that they win this game, Baltimore, but I don't know if they go all the way.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat. When Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, when they finally get past Patrick Mahomes, they have to. Patrick Mahomes can't win every year. Eventually somebody else is going to get to represent the AFC. Maybe it'll be this year, but I'm not betting against Patrick Mahomes. I'm not, I'm not doing that. Sorry. No disrespect to other Ravens or the Buffalo Bills. Very, very interesting.
No safe flowers. I think the Ravens will still have it. And then also speaking of wide receivers, this man has been in the news all week. His team lost to the New York Jets. He pulled himself out of the game. He went on a whole rant after the game that he might have to leave and go somewhere else.
And he hasn't gone to the playoffs with this team and not this year. And he needs to find somewhere else to go. And that's Tyreek Hill. Well, now we've entered into damage control territory because we heard that Chris Greer, the general manager state that Tyreek Hill didn't demand or ask for a trade. We heard the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel speak to the media and say, well, yeah, I spoke to Tyreek Hill and he understands that's, that's not the route that he can go in. He can't just say things like that. He has to keep his emotions in check. He can't just pull himself from a game. He said that he doesn't believe the situation is broken.
That is something that can be fixed. That came from Miami to me. Tyreek Hill is just a guy who says whatever. His agent, Drew Rosenhouse, was having a chat with Pat McAfee earlier today. And Drew Rosenhouse basically said, no, no, no, no, everything is fine.
Nothing to see here. Tyreek Hill is just emotional. He's good. He's good.
Listen. What you see with Tyreek is very genuine. He wants to win.
It's not good enough for him not to make the playoffs. He's very passionate. Um, I think at the end of the day, he's committed to this dolphin football team. Uh, he had an excellent meeting with Chris Greer and Mike McDaniel. Uh, I, I believe that Tyreek, um, is a great asset to the dolphins. And, and I think he's the least guy that people should be worried about for this organization.
They have many more worries. Tyreek Hill is not one of them. Oh, come on now. By the way, he prefaced that, that entire spiel that you just heard. He told everybody that Tyreek Hill played this entire season with a broken wrist. He was advised not to play with that broken wrist. He still played on his broken wrist because he wanted to be there for his teammates until he did it.
Until he quit until he quit at the end of the year until he quit in the last game. I'm sorry. It doesn't matter. Okay. Yeah. He's tough.
Yeah. He showed up for his teammates and yeah, you can be passionate, but there's still a matter that you should carry yourself and at least showcase some type of, of maturity. And throughout the course of his career, that's something that Tyreek Hill has not done. And so yeah, Drew Rosenhaus, his agent can come out and try to paint the rosiest of pictures.
The best guys that have ever represented. They've always been passionate and yeah, he's his first time. He never made the playoffs, but he's, he's going to be fine.
Yeah. He'll be a good, good soldier until it's time to go somewhere else until Tyreek Hill can push another button to try to go out there and get what he wants. So Zay Flowers, first time pro bowler, not healthy enough to participate in the Ravens first post-season game on Saturday against the Steelers. And then you got a guy, a veteran wide receiver in Tyreek Hill. This guy's quitting on his team in the last game of the regular season, when he realizes that he and they can no longer make the post-season like Tyreek Hill do better, man.
They're paying you to play. And if you ain't going to blame your wrist and play and don't quit. And next time, I don't know, do, do like Pat Riley told Jimmy Butler. If you ain't going to go out there and play, then just shut up.
Tyreek Hill and the Miami Dolphins. I don't care what Drew Rosenhaus says. I don't care what Mike McDaniel says. I don't care what Greer says. I don't care what Tyree.
I don't care what anybody says. This is a relationship that is deteriorating. This is a relationship that ain't getting better. Let's also be real. The Miami Dolphins with Tyreek Hill. They ain't going to no damn super bowl. They can't win a game when it's, I don't know, cold outside.
How about that? When the lights are down, they can't win. And so Tyreek Hill is nothing but a headache and the Dolphins are going nowhere regardless. My apologies to my friends down in Miami, the Dolphin Bandits.
Those are some amazing guys. It's the JR Sportbree Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Speaking of championships, we got two games today. Well, over the next two days, over the next two days, we got a game tonight, minutes away. We got a game tomorrow that will decide who will advance to the college football national championship. We're going to talk some college football on the other side of the break with Ralph Russo, national football reporter, college this, college that for the athletic. You, you're locked into the JR Sportbree Show coast to coast all over North America on the Infinity Sports Network.
It is the JR Sportbree Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We are pulling up slowly but surely on a national championship in college football. We're down to the final four teams. We got a game that's minutes away from getting started between Notre Dame and Penn State tomorrow in Arlington.
Hopefully, it's not too icy, too snowy. We got the Ohio State University in Texas. We got players jumping into the transfer portal. We got a lot going on to talk about all things college football from coast to coast. Joining us right now is the national college reporter for all things college football via the athletic.
It is Ralph Russo. Ralph, thank you for taking the time to join us. You're very welcome. Good to be here.
Well, I appreciate that. Well, we knew we had a start time. ESPN told us it's 10 minutes.
We know that's a lie. But in about 20 minutes, we'll see Notre Dame and Penn State. What are your thoughts on what we should expect in this game? We have two of the top defensive teams in the country.
Yeah, I don't think you're going to see a ton of points. I think you could see this game play out probably a fair amount like Georgia, Notre Dame. I think Notre Dame and defense has been pretty elite all season. Now, in some ways, I know this is weird after you just played Georgia. Penn State's offense might be a little better than Georgia's right now.
It's nothing else just because you don't have a backup quarterback in there. So I think Drew Aller and Tyler Warren, the great tight end, give them a little more firepower. I would even consider Penn State's running backs probably a little better than Georgia's right now. So I think I'm leaning a little more towards Penn State in this game. But the line makers have had it somewhere between one and a half each way all week. So it's pretty much a toss up.
I would be surprised if you saw a ton of points. Riley Leonard and Notre Dame won with about 90 passing yards last week. I assume they'll do a little better than that, but they want to run the ball. Penn State's got a really good defense. It looks like Abdul Carter is going to give it a shot to play. They're a great pass rusher.
So again, I would imagine a pretty low scoring game for tonight's matchup. You talk about Drew Aller. This guy is a physical freak out there on the football field, still lacks a full experience. He says he's going to come back next year.
Do you think that changes if Penn State could move on another step and then maybe another one? I do. I don't think let's put it this way.
I don't think the book is closed. I know what he said. And that's not to call the kid a liar by any chance, by any means.
But circumstances change as you play more games. And in a quarterback class with, and there's no slight to Shadore Sanders and Cam Ward, but if you sort of put them in the perspective of last year's class, they probably would have been third, fourth, fifth best quarterback within that class, give or take, depending on who you ask. So there's an opportunity there for a kid like Aller who's 6'4", 6'5", 230 pounds. He's an enormous kid. I interviewed him.
The first time I met him in person was about a year or so ago when he took over the starting job. And listen, football players are big, right? So you're not overwhelmed by seeing a big football player. But he was a sophomore, 20-year-old kid. And he walks in the room and his offensive tackle is there in the same room.
And they're looking eye to eye. And, you know, he's not as big as Olufasenu, who's a first rounder athlete, but he is such a big kid and doesn't look at all dwarfed by this massive offensive tackle. So pretty good athlete, you know, big kid, has played well this year, definitely improved. So, yeah, I could see a situation where if he plays well tonight, plays well in the national championship game, that somebody gets to him and says, listen, you might be the first quarterback taken.
Ralph Russo is joining us courtesy of The Athletic. If we think about the quarterback who's going to be opposing him tonight, Raleigh Leonard, this is why the guy left Duke for a stage and an opportunity like this. Do you think he and Notre Dame, that offense, are they ready for prime time like this?
Listen, they have a way they want to play, right? Leonard fits the way they want to play, which is he's going to get some hard yards on the ground. He is not the, you know, not the most eloquent looking passer.
He has some accuracy issues. You know, we talk about like NFL type guys. He's an NFL type athlete. I don't know if he's an NFL type passer, so maybe he could project into that, but they play a game that's sort of, again, to his strengths. The other thing he's really good at though, he doesn't get sacked, and it's not just that he scrambles out. He's just so big he's hard to bring down.
He's not quite as big as Albert. He's a big tough kid who's really hard to bring down, so it helps them constantly sort of be on schedule, right? Even if they're not breaking off a bunch of big chunk plays, he's not one to scramble for 35, 40, 50 yards like Jayden Daniels would last year at LSU, but they always seem to be sort of in second and medium, third and short, second and medium, third and short, and that's the way they want to play, and he's good at doing that. Well, Ralph, if we think about the coaches, James Franklin, I don't even want to say over the past couple of days, he's just been a little bit more vocal about what he wants and what he expects, what he's happy with, what he's not happy with, and I'm just like, man, just go coach. The football game, is he not putting more pressure on himself, especially given his record when the lights are brightest?
Oh, I don't know. I think like, you know, James been in doing this a long time, and I think he, I think the difference between Franklin and Marcus is James has been in this for such a long time that I think he feels compelled to talk about big picture issues. So when he talks about, I would like to see everybody play semi-conference games, and I don't think he has anything against Notre Dame, but like this idea of like, hey, we should all be doing the same thing, and if our goal is all to be playing in the same playoff, everybody should have like a somewhat similar path to the playoff, and I think that's just the nature of Franklin, right?
Again, he's been doing this for a long time. The big game thing is interesting, you know. It's funny, like you're in the semi-finals, you've already won two playoff games, and we're kind of still talking about big games, and whether like, whether the first two playoff games counted, I do get it. I know what the record is against Ohio State and against Michigan. I do think Franklin probably gets sold a little short. I don't think Penn State is gifted 10 wins every year, right? Like, I don't, I think you might, we might overlook how hard it is to make sure your program gets to 10 wins almost every year, and that's what Penn State has been under Franklin. So, you know, again, I know we're still talking about that whole big game thing with James, and we'll see how it plays out tonight, but I think he tends to get a little undervalued for what he has done at Penn State, while we focus on the few things that he hasn't done. Ralph Russo is joining us here on the JR Sport Reshow Coast to Coast.
Ralph is a national college football reporter for The Athletic. If we look forward to tomorrow, and hopefully everybody driving out to Jerry's World has a smooth path and less snow and ice, what are your thoughts on what we'll see between Ohio State and Texas? A lot of people leaning OSU. Yeah, it's hard not to after what you've seen of them the last couple of games, and you know, again, like the weather is going to be good, but that the roof closes on that stadium, so you'll have another fast track for the Buckeyes to work with in Jerry World. Again, it's hard not to sort of lean into Ohio State. This is the best, I don't know, well, I don't know, and that's the thing, like, because you could say, well, this is the best team they've played so far. I do think it's the best defense they've played so far.
I'm not sure it's the best team, because I think you can make a case Oregon is every bit the equal of Texas, though built a little differently, more explosive offensively, and maybe not as good defensively. So yes, I can understand and I find myself leaning more towards Ohio State. I think, you know, after that loss to Michigan, I think that the question was, are they shook?
Is this a team that is now in its own head, or do you use Michigan sort of almost like, hey, we're past that, we have these games in front of us, let's right the ship, and that's what's happened, right? I think I almost feel like there's no team that needs to get off to a faster start, and they got off to a fast start against Tennessee, and it was just like a weight lifted off their shoulders, like yeah, like we can do this, we're the best team here. I think it's going to be really, you know, we talked about the offense because they've been so prolific. I do think it's going to be really hard for Texas to score. So then it comes down to, can Texas drag them into a game that's in the 20s? Because I think if Ohio State gets into the high 20s 30s, it might leave Texas behind. That seems like a lot of pressure to put on Texas's very good defense, but Texas's offense has been a lot of fits and starts this year, and against that Ohio State defense, which has been the one thing that has brought it all season. Ohio State has had, you know, some glitches at times offensively, but all season that defense has shown up.
So we'll see if Texas can handle that. You talk about showing up, but Ryan Day has gone through the highs and the lows from the fans in Columbus, the loss to Michigan and bouncing back and wiping out the Ducks. There's always controversy seemingly out of Columbus as to what the hell the fan base should do with him.
Are they going to kiss his behind in a couple of weeks and give him a break? Well, listen, I think there are truly some Ohio State fans who will never completely forgive him for losing to Michigan for straight years, especially this past year. But certainly, listen, if you hoist up a trophy, it becomes a very different conversation. Hey man, we still have a Michigan problem, but we're good. I would also contend at this point, like even if you lose to Texas, like, I don't know if you're, I mean, yeah, like there's been a little bit of like national championship or bust around Ohio State.
And I think that they've gotten where they are now. I don't think that we're in any, you know, talking about like Ryan Day, you know, losing his job if they don't win a national championship or things like that. But it is a weird relationship he has with that fan base right now because of the Michigan issue. I would also say, you know, we talk about, you know, James Franklin, the job is to put a team on the field at Ohio. At Ohio State, the job is to put a team on the field that can potentially win a national championship every year. He has done that. He just has failed to actually deliver on that championship.
But there's a lot of factors that go into that. And I think he does a pretty good job of putting the team on the field that could win, that can contend for a national championship every year. And we'll see again, right, wait a sec, the Buckeyes look like a wagon right now. I can understand them being a prohibitive favorite. I will also say that, like, I think Texas is probably better equipped to beat them than either of the two teams playing tonight. So if they do beat the Longhorns, man, I don't know if Penn State and Notre Dame got the kind of firepower to deal with the Buckeyes.
Oh, Ralph, we hear who your favorite is. Let me ask you this on the Texas side, past this game, Quinn Ewers, we talked about Drew Aller and what happens with him in a couple of weeks. What the hell happens with Quinn? Is he sticking around? Is he leaving? Is this going to be Arch Manning's team? What happens if he wins at all? Does Arch have to sit around?
Like, well, what happens? Yeah, I have a hard time seeing Quinn Ewers being back at Texas next year. Now, and we see this played out today with, you know, a little obviously very different with Carson Beck, the Georgia quarterback who has an injury.
And now he's in the transfer portal and he's trying to figure out NFL college, NFL college. Again, the injury creates a very different dynamic than what Ewers is facing. But I do think at this point Ewers is probably in his last few games at Texas regardless. Now, whether that means, hey, I've hoisted the trophy doing, as you said, what we talked about with Aller playing really well last couple of playoff games, boosting his value and maybe looking like a first round draft pick. Okay, then we're off to the NFL.
And if it doesn't work out that way, hey, man, we're in a new era. NIL, you come back one more year, you bank a million, million and a half, maybe two million, you know, maybe not quite as good as a rookie contract, but you make some money while also lifting your value, right? Like Ewers had dealt with some injuries this year. So maybe he looks at that and says, hey, I'll go find another team to play for. I'll have an even better year next year. And then I'll do the Bo Nix thing, right? Like that's what happened with Bo Nix. I'll find another team. I'll play an extra year in college more than people thought.
And maybe that gets me into the first round. But I'd be pretty surprised if Quinn Ewers is with Texas next year, whether he's in college or in the pros is TBD. Yeah, we're in a totally brand new world of college football and it's all changed so fast over, man, what would you say? Four years?
If that five pandemic, did that hit the fast forward button? I mean, listen, I've been covering this stuff for 20 years and it definitely ramped. Like it's definitely been changing over the time I've been covering it.
But yeah, I would say about 2020, we hit the, you know, we hit the fast forward button, right? We went from like methodical changes in college sports to boy, like everything just like, you know, we took an injection of steroids and it just became, it just exploded over the last four or five years. So it's a little head spinning. In many ways, it's good. In some ways, it's just not what it used to be.
But you know what? A lot of people still watching these games. Tons of people. We got a lot of people down in Miami getting ready to watch, Penn State, Notre Dame.
We got a lot of people out in Arlington getting ready to see the Ohio State University and Texas. Hey, Ralph, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow you and all of your work with The Athletic? The best place, well, first of all, the best place is to get a subscription to The Athletic.
So just give a pop there. But yeah, you can follow me on social media, you know, mostly on X at Ralph D Russo ATH. Ralph D as in Dominic, my middle name, Russo ATH. Hey, Ralph, thank you so much. Enjoy the football, enjoy the games. I know there's going to be plenty of news outside of that. So thank you so much for the time. We'll catch you down the line, okay? Thank you.
Anytime. No doubt about it. That Ralph Russo from The Athletic. It's the JR Sportbree Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We are minutes away from kickoff. The Orange Bowl, Miami, a spot in the national championship is up for grabs between these two teams. Notre Dame and Penn State will keep you up to date as they get ready to get going. But to get caught up to date with everything going on in the world of sports, it's time for a news flash with Rich Ackerman.
Well the college football semi-final, in particular the Orange Bowl, set to get underway momentarily between Penn State and Notre Dame. The Nittany Lions star defensive end, Abdul Carter, a projected top pick in the draft, perhaps as high as the top five, is playing with his shoulder heavily wrapped Jeremiah Love, the fighting Irish star running back is playing with a knee brace so neither a hundred percent but both on the field tonight in the lineup for their respective teams. After a disappointing season that ultimately ended with injury Carson Beck leaving Georgia entering the transfer portal. The Bill Belichick to the Raiders speculation grows with the team firing GM Tom Tolesco. After one season the move comes two days after Antonio Pierce was let go. Both Jalen Hurts and Jordan Love full practice participants today as they trend toward being on the field on Sunday when the Eagles host the Packers.
Aaron Glenn has rejected the Patriots overture to interview for their head coaching position. In the NBA tonight right now in the second quarter the Cavaliers winners of 11 straight and coming off a huge win last night over the Oklahoma City Thunder trail the Raptors 33 to 27. Also right now in the second quarter the Warriors in front of the Pistons 25-23 and the Timberwolves lead the Magic by a score of 29 to 18. College action tonight Ohio State in front of 15th ranked Oregon 52-44 and Purdue on top of Rutgers 55-43 both those games in the second half.
NHL action the Sabres in the first lead the Senators 2-0 Bruins and Lightning are scoreless Rangers on top of the Devils 1-0 it's a start to and the Flyers nothing. I'm Rich Ackerman. It is the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you to Ralph Russo from The Athletic covers all things college football across the country. Thank you Ralph for joining us to break down this college football playoff and even some of the the news that we have when it comes down to the transfer portal. We got Carson Beck who is going to be leaving the Georgia Bulldogs and apparently it's been reported that he is looking at a team like the Miami Hurricanes.
He wants to improve his draft stock and status and I guess with Cam Ward leaving he thinks that he can fill that hole and maybe put up some big numbers and stats that will improve his draft standing for next year. I wanted to let you know that this portion of the show is sponsored by Hyundai. Now you can buy a new Hyundai from the comfort of your new home at Amazon.
Visit HyundaiUSA.com for more details. We also got a little bit of news. I'm going to ask our producer Nico Scarlatos. Nico we got some NFL news that literally just came down the pipe. What what the hell is going on right now? Yeah so due to the unfortunate wildfires that are going on in California the NFL has decided to move the Los Angeles Rams Minnesota Vikings playoff game to Glendale, Arizona home of the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. It will still be Monday night it will still be at 8 p.m just a new location for this one.
Wow wow wow wow wow wow. Oh I mean we talked about this earlier in the show. Los Angeles Lakers had a game against the the Hornets that was cancelled tonight and we've heard this all week long how the Minnesota Vikings and the Rams this game might get moved they might move it to a new location and to think that this has been talked about for for the better part of a week now all since earlier this week and on Thursday the decision has been made. Obviously there's so many other logistics that come into play the travel the safety the friends the families you want to give the players a chance and an opportunity and so I'm not shocked that the decision was made today but it's it's really just wholly unfortunate when you think about the the traumas that people are dealing with and it's one thing to think about celebrities that we all know for instance JJ Redick it's been reported JJ Redick's house is gone like think about that for a minute JJ Redick's house is gone went up in flames everything that he I don't know what he took out that none of my business but I I just I can't imagine and when you think about SoFi Stadium SoFi Stadium is not a little bit further and further south from where the fires are the smoke travels it moves and I think all things considered not just the the safety and oh it just seems out of sorts when you have people being traumatized in in Los Angeles right now to have a football game and hey let's all travel to a football game I think people are more concerned we got we got we got more than a hundred thousand people that have been evacuated in Los Angeles in the city and to just put a football game on uh yeah I I get it NFL I'm not necessarily going to say I agree with everything that they do every move that they make but moving this game just seems like a good idea and you think about the Minnesota Vikings you know just from a football perspective just this past Sunday they had an opportunity to to host a home game to win the NFC North and by losing to the Detroit Lions this schedule their schedule is just kind of all thrown out of whack and well we we don't live in a could or should or what a world what happened happened Nico are you surprised that they moved the game at this point in time I wouldn't say surprised I think it's I mean I guess I didn't think of it until you said it with how soon they did it I thought they were going to wait till the weekend to see you know what transpired over the weekend but you're right they have to have enough time for the travel to get changed they have to give fans now a chance to apparently they're going to give Rams season ticket holders a chance to buy tickets starting I forget when at some point this weekend so there's a lot that goes into it so originally I was going to say they should have waited but I think you're right they do have to make a decision I think this was the right one yeah it's it's reasonable and of course you still want to try the best way that you can to reward the Rams for and I don't want let's be real are the Rams the the underdog in this game I would say Minnesota has performed better throughout the course of the regular season the Rams have certainly turned it on late but when you think about the the egg that Minnesota laid and people look at Sam Donald and whether or not he's going to just turn into a pumpkin at any moment now you still you still want to give the Rams fans and the organization not necessarily a pat on the back but you want to make it as much of a home game as possible even though we know it's it's impossible you can't make this a home game yeah you think about proximity Arizona closer to Los Angeles than Minneapolis of course hell yeah it is but this is uh this is eerie these are the type of things that you you don't want like I can't recall seeing anything like this because we had all them them Covid games let's be real neutral sight at least there'll be fans in there will the place be filled up I doubt it it takes a lot to move around and change plans but more important as I mentioned earlier you think about think about the lives and you think about life you move into football you move into football seconds so a news that just came on down the pipe there's no waiting here the NFL is moving the game between the Vikings and Rams it's no longer in Los Angeles and Inglewood at SoFi Stadium the game is going to take place the home of the Arizona Cardinals due to all of the wildfires in Los Angeles and so we send a lot of love it's everybody out there all the folks out in California who are dealing with this uh this terrible terrible weathering situation and maybe the Rams could bring a little bit of light a little bit of optimism a little bit of a distraction for people in California 855-212-4227 that's 855-212-4227 that's the number if you want to give me a holla we have so much more to get into again thank you joining us in the last break Ralph Russo from the Athletic to talk some college football we have that game underway right now between Notre Dame and Penn State it's early we knew this was going to be one of them punch you in the mouth games that was not necessarily going to be exciting and as of right now we got a score of absolutely nothing it's absolutely nothing we'll keep you up to date on the game as it continues on if you want to holler at me you can also find me online at JR Sport Brief when we come back on the other side of the break to kind of continue with this uh college football theme it's a real football type of show especially with all the championship games that we have in college and also the pros someone who's not even in a national championship game this man garners attention everywhere he goes every time he speaks his name is Deion Sanders what news did Deion Sanders make today what could this man have said that made people raise their eyebrows and go what what are you talking about now you'll hear from Deion on the other side I'm going to give you some insight Deion said he's going to stay at Colorado unless this one thing happens I'll let you hear from Deion on the other side of the break you want to call me 855-212-4227 that's 855-212-4227 you're locked in it's the JR Sport Brief Show Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network don't you move
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-09 22:27:45 / 2025-01-09 22:44:26 / 17