USA Soccer advanced to the knockout stage, and that's what matters

This is the Adam Gold Show. It could. She could go to the... Just go to the honey bag jam. Get in line at the ham jam.

Yes. That used to block my path home. Like I used to go home up Six Forks. Six Forks Road here in Raleigh.

And Six Forks already has a problem. Then the ham jam comes and then we're... We need infrastructure simply to handle ham jam. They literally put up signs saying delays, take alternate route, ham. I get it. What we need... That's literally up in Raleigh.

First of all, that little... This is so inside baseball to those of us in Raleigh, but everybody listening in Raleigh understands this. The parking lot where that honey baked ham is, which is adjacent to a Dunkin Donuts.

So I know Dennis, you know it very well. Yeah, I know to drive by it. So it is the worst... It's not just the worst parking lot for a fast foodish type place because it's chewed up and it wrecks your car. Coming in or out of the Dunkin Donuts, it's almost like going right off the curb. Yeah. It's just awful. But when I used to use Six Forks, I would frequent the establishment because Dunkin Donuts has great coffee. The honey baked ham, we've used the honey baked ham spot before, but what they need essentially is their own raised roadway, right above Six Forks.

So you got to go in a little ramp and you go above it and then everybody can kind of stay off the road because Six Forks is just a mess anyway. So incredible drama at the World Cup today. Real quick, Australia, who had already beaten Tunisia, I like the English pronunciation of Tunisia. I like Tunisia better. Australia who beat Tunisia had to win or draw versus Denmark today, who drew in their first match with Tunisia. And Australia scored in the second half and won one nil over Denmark.

Denmark's good. Denmark, without Christian Eriksen, their best player, made it to the semi-finals of the Euros. Was it two years ago? Two years ago.

Sounds right. Eriksen, before the tournament, nearly died on the field, right? He went into cardiac arrest in the field. Now he's fine. He's playing now.

He plays for Man U now. But that's a pretty big upset that Denmark did not go through the group. And that really goes back to drawing with Tunisia in their opening match. In the France Tunisia match, France didn't have to do anything. They just had to show up.

They didn't start anybody. They basically started Pepé Le Pew. Like seven versions of Pepé Le Pew.

I'm just kidding. They have a great team. And a mime.

That's right. Marcel Marceau played. But honestly, they didn't play well. And Tunisia wins 1-0. France actually scored the equalizing goal right before the final whistle. But they waved it off. I think they waved it off for offside.

I'm not really sure why. Yeah, it said offside. I had the sound off. So they waved it off for offside. Literally in the last minute of added time.

Super exciting. It didn't matter. France still wins the group.

But it matters to Tunisia. Their fans are going bonkers because they beat France. Awesome. Absolutely awesome. And we're going to start with more awesome. I mean, I could just shout USA, USA, USA. I won't. But I will tell you that the former Captain America started things off very well for the U.S. Yeah, but the U.S. takes the lead.

He did. Can I hear it in Spanish? Yeah, it's better. It's better. That's Andres Kento, right?

That's my man. Incredible. Good for Christian Polisic.

Two pieces I want to direct your attention to. Both of the guys who wrote it have been on this program. Recently, Mike de Courcy of the Sporting News wrote about Polisic's goal.

And Brian Strauss of S.I. also wrote about Polisic scoring the goal. And Christian Polisic has taken a lot of arrows from U.S. soccer fans, myself included. I am not the biggest Christian Polisic fan. But man, here is one thing you can count on Christian Polisic to do, and that is expend everything and move forward. That's all he knows, man.

Straight ahead. He's not a great passer, right? He's not even that good on set pieces anymore.

But he will get forward. And boy, he had a nose for the net last night. Superb service from Weston McKinney, who created the long ball that Sergio Dest headed across the box to Polisic.

But my gosh, what a gutty, brave finish in hockey. They calling it. They call it taking a hit to make a play.

That's what Christian Polisic did. Took a hit to make a play. He's hurt. We'll see if he's able to come back on Saturday for Netherlands very quickly.

There you go. Dest, I loved Sergio Dest in this match. Tyler Adams, the captain, is just the man. He controls the entire game.

And for U.S. soccer fans on Twitter. Just shut up about why didn't Berhalter do this? Why did they sit back?

I don't think they sat back. I think the game changed. The game changed at halftime. They almost got the second goal right before half. But the McKinney through ball to Tim Weah, which was a beautiful through ball, they were ruled offside. Which, the right call. I mean, we can't argue with it.

Technology told us that Weah was slightly off. But Polisic's out. Are you going to complain that they put Aronson on? Aronson wasn't great, but are you going to complain they put Aronson on? Half you idiots want Aronson in the starting lineup.

I don't mean idiots. We can't complain about every single thing. Why did we just sit back? The game changed. They weren't going to extend themselves and know that Iran needed a goal because Iran's good enough to score goals. And the United States has scoring problems. The last thing they wanted was to have to get another goal. They wanted another goal, but they didn't have to get another goal.

The game changed. If you can't recognize that, if you can't get out of your little bubble that you have to bash Berhalter at every step. I don't like Greg Berhalter really.

I'm not a Berhalter guy. But you cannot criticize him for what they did yesterday. They freaking got through the group. Geez, stop. Just stop. You're in the knockout stage.

Who cares what happens? And they can beat Netherlands. Taylor Twelman, tell us, can they beat the Netherlands?

There are multiple ways that you can try to get rid of the pain. But we are talking about not Aaron Rodgers throwing the ball and breathing. We're talking about a player that has to run on average seven to nine miles a game. Yes, they can beat the Netherlands absolutely 100%.

They need Christian Polisic. However, we haven't seen Giovanni Raina other than eight minutes against England. FIFA came into this tournament guys listing the top 10 players under the age of 23. Giovanni Raina of the United States of America was listed third and we've seen him for eight minutes.

Yeah, that that is a failure. I think of Berhalter in the first two matches. It was not a failure of Berhalter yesterday. That was not a match for Gio Reyna. Just wasn't. Unless they were going to bring him on instead of Aaronson, which I frankly wouldn't have because the way Aaronson plays is the way you need and play well, but the way Aaronson plays is what you needed in that match. You needed somebody who would hound the ball. I expect we'll see Reyna against Netherlands.

I do. I expect that we will see Reyna against the Netherlands but holy cow. If you're if the knee-jerk reaction is why didn't we do this? Why didn't we do that? They won. You know how many World Cup matches the United States has won ever? Not much.

I think six. Okay, they won a match. Gosh, get over yourself. And the only goal they gave up was a PK. Yeah, they've been incredible defensively. Yeah, incredible defensively. So Turner was good. Tim Rehm has just been a stud.

Gosh, Tim, 35-year-old Tim Rehm. Just unbelievable. All right, let me get to a couple of more things. We're actually going to talk more soccer here in a second. Ryan O'Hanlon of ESPN is going to join us. NC State with a win over William and Mary last night. Look, they did what was necessary, right? They state, they didn't have, they didn't qualify for the Big Ten ACC Challenge. So they went out and they scheduled the game against William and Mary.

That's fine. But here's how I know. By the way, Kasey Morsell had a big game. How do I know Kasey Morsell had a big game?

Listen to this. This is how I knew. Even during the Hurricanes game, we could tell that Kasey Morsell was having himself a night.

23.6 of 9 from deep. Like, I appreciate that we all, as Hurricanes fans, got a chance to hear that. I think that was fantastic. Terquavian Smith, Jarkel Joiner, Jack Clark, all good last night, but it was the Kasey Morsell show.

And that's good. They've needed some other guys to, you know, provide some offense. They were complaining about Morsell last year, so good for him. Kasey Morsell, 23.

And I, we're going to talk to Brian Geisinger later. State team is interesting to me. I don't know how good they can be because I'm not sure their defense is going to be great, but they're certainly going to be interesting offensively. UNC and Duke are both in action tonight. Heels are at number 10. Indiana Duke is home to 25th ranked Ohio State. Both teams coming off either disappointing losses or strange losses. Carolina lost 2 out of 3. In Oregon, Duke lost the championship game to Purdue. This is the final year of the ACC Big 10 Challenge. It has been five years since the ACC won this thing.

They are ahead 5 to 3 in this competition. The final fake rankings show for college football happened yesterday. Georgia, Michigan, TCU, and USC were the top four. I actually think that USC and TCU will flip even though TCU with a win over Kansas State in the Big 12 title game would be undefeated and Southern Cal would have one loss, but Southern Cal has a chance to avenge that loss when they play Utah. Their only loss was at Utah on a game-ending two-point conversion. I think USC will ultimately end up in third if USC wins the Pac-12.

Here's my question. How is it possible that Alabama is 6 and Tennessee is 7? Tennessee's got two better wins than Alabama. Alabama's best wins are against the state of Mississippi. Plus, Tennessee beat Alabama. They beat Alabama and they won at LSU. I can't fathom.

Boo Corrigan. What are we looking at on the committee, Boo? I think at the end of the day, we talk a lot about wins in this committee and we talked about that earlier this year with TCU. They kept winning games and they kept finding ways to win games. That's a team that over the last four weeks is, I think on defense, given up about 19 points a game. Obviously, winning these games does matter. It's something that we look at, something we talk about more than anything else.

Okay. Head to head's got to matter. Neither Alabama nor Tennessee has a game left. If it were me, if it were me, Tennessee would get the fourth spot if either Southern Cal or TCU fell apart. It would be Tennessee. I think Tennessee has, I know they lost to South Carolina. I know they lost to Georgia. Ohio State lost to the best team they played on their home field by a lot and really only played one other really good team all year.

All right, back to USA, USA, USA through to the round of 16. Ryan O'Hanlon from ESPN, author of Net Games, Inside the Beautiful Games Analytics. I'll ask you an analytics question just to get us started talking about the game. What did analytics tell us the final score should have been? What were the expected goals yesterday? Well, the analytics would tell us that the final score should have been something with a decimal point at the end. It would have told us that the final score was impassable. I think what the analytics told us was that the U.S. could have scored more than two goals in the first half, and then the U.S. did not come close to scoring a goal in the second half.

And Iran probably didn't create enough chances to score a single goal in the second half, but they were very close to creating enough chances to score a goal in the second half. And I guess I'm now realizing that everything I'm saying the analytics told us, you could have just watched the game. Yeah, we did. I did. I watched the game while I was doing the show, watched the first half of the game while I was supposed to be concentrating on my job, and watched the second half of the game. I'm just telling you this, Ryan. I'm not letting anybody else here watch the second half of the game on my drive home.

So let's get right to it. What you took out of this game, what was it? I think the team is just better than I thought it was going to be, I think is the main takeaway. We had this game where Iran is just a very good defensive team. Yeah, they did give up six goals to England.

That did happen, but England finished really well, and also England can just get on a heater, right? Because they have so many good players. But historically Iran is a great defensive team.

Carlos Quiros is a currently frustrating manager for people that root for his team, but he builds a great defense. And the way the group stages played out, this wasn't just a normal game, right? This was a game where Iran, they just needed to draw.

It had different incentives. And Iran just had everyone behind the ball. So when that's happening, it's very hard to create high quality opportunities, right?

Because there's just no space. So a lot of times you'll see maybe a deflection will lead to a goal, you'll see a set piece that leads to a goal. Those are the ways you break these teams down. You get a hand ball in the box or something, right? And then that opens the floodgates. But the U.S. didn't need any of that. They created an incredibly high quality opportunity because the U.S. now has a player like Weston McKinney, who plays for Juventus in the Champions League, who plays a perfect ball onto a perfect run from Zadino Dess, who plays for AC Milan in the Champions League, who heads it across the Christian Polisic, who makes, hasn't been talked about enough, in my opinion, the run he made was absolutely incredible. He's like 30 yards from the goal when Weston McKinney plays the ball in the first place.

And Polisic is, you know, the greatest American talker of all time. And he gets on the end of it. And it's, you know, essentially a captain into a near wide open net. And being able to create that champ against an Iran defense like that is something the U.S. would have never been able to do in the past, in my opinion. Zadino Hanlon from ESPN, author of NetGains, Inside the Beautiful Games, Analytics Revolution.

And that has nothing to do with what we're talking about right now. But it is a fascinating look into how that has sort of transformed the way we look at soccer. The thing about this game, I thought McKinney, even though he can't go very long because of fitness, he wasn't, he was injured and wasn't playing for Juventus. But we saw, I think, in the first half, we saw the value of McKinney's creativity.

And I think we saw the value of Sergino Dest, who was, I thought, part of almost every single American chance. McKinney had the through ball to Tim Wea, who was, I think his kneecap was offside. And that was enough to wave, to wave off that goal. But I thought that through ball might have been better than the ball he played in the air to, to Dest for the goal. Yep, I agree. The way he kind of had to, like, slice across it with the inside of his foot to create outside spin.

I think it actually was, was even harder. But yeah, he's the, Bruce Arena famously described Clint Dempsey as someone who, I can't really say this word on radio, but let's just say he described him as someone who just quote, just tries stuff. Right. Other than stuff.

And I think McKinney is like in that same boat, right? Like he'll give the ball away some, but like he does think, tries things that other players on the team don't try. And it leads to, you know, basically should have led to two goals against Jerome.

All right. From, from your perspective, and I, we always, we always talk about Polisic. We always talk about, you know, why we can't find a proper striker. I don't know that we ever talk enough about how good Tyler Adams is. I know I was listening this morning on Sirius XM to guys talking about Adams, not long for leads. Like he is destined for bigger and better. How, how good is Tyler Adams in your eyes?

Yeah. So I w I would love to be the guy who says, don't sign a player cause he does well at the world cup. It's a lower competition level and it's only four games. Like there's so much, such a larger body of evidence. But with Tyler Adams, I think you're seeing, like you're seeing an accurate representation of just how good he is. Like, I don't, I don't think he has a role maybe in a team like Manchester city. Cause they have such a specific way of playing where they, every player on the team has to be like a 99.9 percentile technician with the ball.

Right? Like that's the main requirements that they have. But like honestly, every other team in the world could use Tyler Adams. And if I think of like the team that could use him the most, like Byron Munich, right? Like they, they love to play this kind of high octane up and down style and Tyler Adams like is amazing at cleaning up the messes within that style. So he's, he's the real deal. Like he's, he's good enough in my opinion, if he stays healthy, which has been an issue in the past to basically play for any team in the world. And I do not think he's long for leads either.

Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of fascinated by watching leads, but I agree. I think, I think he is probably out the door. Maybe after this year, they get a lot, they might get a lot for him because he is so steady in the midfield. Who has surprised you?

And then I want to be, we've got like a minute and a half left here. Who has surprised you with how well they've played Matt Turner and not because I knew Matt Turner was a really great shot stopper, right? He's been incredible with the ball in his feet.

It looks terrible. He looks terrible at the ball to see, but he made a great line breaking pass that ultimately opened things up for the first goal. And then the goal that was ruled out, he made an incredible like 40 yard pass on the ground under pressure to McKinney that set him up to play that pass. And there was a bunch of other moments where Turner like broke pressure with his ability to, you know, play a quick one or two touch pass. And for all the things I thought Matt Turner had in his, you know, his tool belt, being good with the ball to see with not one and he's been like lights out in possession. He has been very good. I love everything about Matt Turner's game. You know, my son's a keeper. It's all about shot stopping for him.

There's so many other things. Real quick. Your, your thoughts on USA Netherlands Saturday morning? So Netherlands, they're not as good as the name suggests. It's not a vintage Netherlands team by any stretch of the imagination, but they're very similar team to the U S and that they kind of tend to dominate possession. And so you think they're like a quote unquote attacking team, but their real ability is suppressing goals, which is the same thing that the U S they don't score that much, but they don't give up any goals. So I think, I think it's going to be a very, like it's like a one zero or a zero zero into extra time potentially shootout type game. It's going to be, I think it's going to be a very close, like it's going to be decided by like who finishes the one or two decent chances that they get type game.

Just got it. Somebody has to figure out where Cody Gackpo is at all times. He has scored in each of their matches. He is phenomenal.

And one of those great young players, uh, Ryan O'Hanlon from ESPN. I appreciate your time. I've enjoyed talking. Hopefully we can continue talking well into this tournament.

If the U S continues to play well, we'd love to come back. Ryan. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. You got it. All right. Ryan O'Hanlon from ESPN, uh, hit him up on Twitter. Excuse me on Twitter.

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Simply go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today. This is the penultimate, actually, and I'm sorry, this is the last I was using penultimate in a different, uh, for a different story or a little bit later on. This is the final big 10 ACC challenge because the television contract, uh, with the big 10 has completely taken it away from ESPN. They will not have access to any home games played by big 10 schools. So they can't, the big 10 ACC challenge, which actually began as the big East ACC challenge was wholly created by ESPN.

It's been the only home of it. Now, theoretically they could split it, I guess, with Fox who now has the lion's share of the big 10 tournament, big 10, uh, contract, but I guess there was no interest in doing it. And there really doesn't have to be the big 10 ACC challenge.

Didn't have to be something that we had forever. It will be replaced by the ACC SCC challenge, which I heard, uh, our friends, Joe and Joe on the OG talking about it yesterday. Um, and I think it's going to be difficult to have North Carolina or Duke play Kentucky since both of those schools are involved in annual, uh, four team events with Kentucky, Carolina plays in that CBS sports, spectacular, whatever it's called. And Kentucky is one of the, one of the teams. So every third year, Carolina is playing Kentucky in that Duke and the champions classic is playing Kentucky every third year, theoretically in the year where both of both of them miss Kentucky, you could match them up, but it will not be, it's not going to be an annual.

You're not going to see those teams, uh, play that much, even if they probably will match up. The SCC has actually become a pretty, I mean, I'm not going to use the word competent, but, uh, I think a very credible basketball league. Uh, I mean the ACC could have also considered the big 12, which if you ask people today, they will tell you that the big 12 plays the best basketball. They're not traditionally the best basketball league, but the big 12 has more really good basketball teams right now, probably than any other conference.

And that's just the way that has fallen. Uh, state by the way, did not, did not make it in. They finish, when you finish last, when you finish last in the ACC in a 15 team basketball league going up against a 14 team league, like the big 10 is, then somebody can't play. And in this case it was NC state. That's the way they basically done it. If you finish last, you don't play. Uh, and that's, uh, and that's okay.

Uh, so, um, no big deal. We'll, uh, we'll, you know, state will do it. State will do it next year. Uh, cause I actually think state's going to be pretty good this year. Here's the one thing I like about NC state.

And we'll talk about this more with Brian Geisinger coming up in our third hour today. I think state has an unusually high number of players who can literally get their own shot. And I'm not saying that they're better than Carolina or better than Duke or anything like that.

They're different. And obviously Duke and Carolina are better, but I think in Duke's case, they struggle for offense. They struggle to create offense individually. That doesn't mean that they won't be able to solve that problem.

I do think they will, but it's going to take some time. They're also dealing with 1100 freshmen. Everybody on the team is a newcomer basically, except for Jeremy Roach, Ryan Young upfront. I mean, they've got Grant Grandison is a transfer and is the older player too, but they're all new.

Carolina's got a team where I think Caleb Love and RJ Davis can get their own, but for the most part, it's a, it's an offense that needs some rhythm and an offense that needs familiarity. So individually, Pete Nance would probably beat Brady Manick in a one on game of one-on-one, but I don't know if he's better than Brady Manick is as a player for that team. Certainly not the Brady Manick that we saw the last six weeks of the season. I mean, Brady Manick was, he was just, every time they needed a big play, he made it.

Every time. So that's, that's a pretty big hole to fill for Carolina. And we've seen the Tar Heels struggle in games this year that they won. They were, they struggled with Portland in the first game of the, whatever, where they were in the legacy or the invitational, I don't know which one of the Nike tournaments brackets they were in.

But they struggled with Portland. Deep into that game, it was a one possession game. And then they had a lead late on Iowa State and then Iowa State closed the game on a big run.

The Alabama game, four overtime. It could have won that game. I think it's going to take some time for Carolina to figure out, all right, this is how we play. It's the chemistry that happened at the end of last year was real and it enhanced what is, I think, a very good basketball team. We got caught up in the run that really accentuated how good a team they could be. But you have to allow that some of that was a team that just got on a roll. I'm not saying they were as bad as we saw at times, but they also weren't as good as we saw at the end.

It's closer to that, but it's not that. I think Carolina is definitely a team that will probably spend the entire year in the top 12. But I don't know that, I mean, the way I look at them, they could certainly get hot again and end up winning it all. But there's a lot of teams that fall into that category.

It's a ton of teams that fall into that category. As for Duke, we're just going to have to, we know they're talented. We know this team got a whole bunch of guys who are going to be in the NBA. But it's, I mean, Derek Lively isn't that good yet. He doesn't make great, big impacts on the game just yet.

Dereek Whitehead, same thing. We haven't seen it yet. The way any of these teams are, especially Duke, like you mentioned being such a young team, come January, February, they're going to look totally different than what they do right now in terms of how they play. These kids are just going to get better. Right.

I'm sure they will. So to this point, we haven't seen Derek Lively be the number one recruit or the number two recruit. And we haven't seen Dereek Whitehead be that guy. Kyle Filipowski was, I think, just off the top of my head, I think he was ranked like seventh.

I said, this might've been to Brian Geisinger, who's going to join us again in our third hour. I said, I think that Filipowski is going to lead Duke in scoring more games than anybody else. And I absolutely believe that is going to be true.

I think that will be clinched before the end of January. He just is a pure scoring big man. He can hit you from deep. He can score around the basket. He gets a lot of rebounds. He's going to score off offensive putbacks.

He's really, really good. But ultimately, that team needs the guys who break you down in the middle of their offense, whether it's Whitehead or Mitchell or Roach getting inside. Tyrese Proctor's going to have to beat his man off the bounce and get inside the lane just to create opportunities. But Duke's got a super array of talent. They just have to figure out how to play. They just have to do that.

So again, they're both going to be work in progress. But just getting back to NC State before we take a quick break. I like the fact that they have multiple guys that can beat you off the dribble, whether it's Joyner or Smith.

And now you see another shooter develop in Casey Morsell. It's going to be fun to watch them play throughout the year. I don't think they're very good defensively.

Not good enough. But I don't think they're very deep either. But they're going to be, I think, a fun team. They'll probably frustrate their fans because there will be games that State will lose that will make you mad, which always happens, I guess. But I think they're going to be a thorn in some pretty good teams this year because Smith can go for a big number and I think Joyner can too. And they can complement that with a little bit of interior offense. And they've got a bunch of guys who can make shots. And that's what it is. Isn't that what Sidney Lowe said? Got to make shots.

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Simply go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today. Spring training is right around the corner. So come for the games and have a ball in Arizona. With world-class resorts, unbeatable dining and nightlife, amazing scenery, and endless outdoor adventure. Make your visit unforgettable.

Plan your getaway at my spring training.com. The new head coach at the University of Nebraska, Matt Ruhl, who went on Peter Schrager from NFL network. He has a podcast call called The Season. And Ruhl was a guest on the podcast and discussed his former place of employee.

Listen to this. If you could do it all over again, what would be the one thing you would change looking back on it as obviously it didn't work out with Super Bowl victories or anything like that? I think I probably would just probably just, you know, probably take in another job.

You know, I mean, I think it's a great place, you know, the wonderful people, but I just don't know if I was a fit there. You know, at the end of the day, you know, we talked about, hey, we're going to have a four year plan, a five year plan. You know, if you tell me, hey, we got a two year plan, then I'm gonna go get signed a bunch of free agents and do it. So, you know, what was a four year plan became a two year and five game plan real quick.

And it's not about, hey, it's not, and I'm not angry about it, you know, at the end of the day, I understand. But if you're, if it's going to be that quick, then then we're going to sign some more free agents. We're going to, we're going to go make the blockbuster trade. We're going to do those things.

I think the trajectory that we were on was correct. It was to, it was to have a team that next year could make a big trade that could, you know, and I think you see the signs of it right now when they play well on offense, they win, you know, there's a good defense there. And I give Steve all the credit, I give the coaches all the credit, but I'm part of that building process. So that, that just stayed for maybe through this year and maybe made the big free agent signing this year to get them over the top. I think that the Panthers could win the NFC south for years to come.

Self-aware is a phrase that comes to mind here. First of all, that was all about David Tepper, which I think is fair, a hundred percent about David Tepper. Secondly, if you had control over personnel, final say over personnel, and you were the build it slowly, why in the hell did you trade for Sam Darnold? Why in the hell did you trade a future? What was it at three to move up to draft Matt Corral? That is not the behavior of somebody who is patiently building. So we're calling BS on that, but here's the real problem because the real problem isn't that the timeline got shorter under like right underneath Matt rule, the goalposts got moved.

That ain't the problem. The problem Matt rule is that you got worse as a head coach. The team performed worse as a head coach. We had this great defense last year and your team didn't play any better. You didn't perform any better as a head coach.

And then this year it was more dysfunctional. You didn't need Baker Mayfield. The world knew that Baker Mayfield was not a significant upgrade over anybody that the Panthers had on the roster.

We all knew that. The only people who didn't know that were named Baker Mayfield and the people who are married to NFL draft history. Well, he was a former first overall pick. Like, yeah, and we had seen him play. Now I had been saying all along that Baker was better than the player who stunk in Cleveland because I do believe that there was a fair amount of injury that hampered his ability to play well. But that doesn't mean that Baker Mayfield was the, you know, a middle of the road starting quarterback in the NFL. No, most people figured that out. This was not about a timeline.

This was not about a timeline. I love the, you know, the winning now, you know, I helped build that right. That whole thing, right? I was actually on with the Mac and Bone show down in WF and Z yesterday as you or as Matt as Matt rule rule was on because they had Steve Wilkes on before that. Like, oh, we got to bring on Matt rule too.

I literally said those same things right with them being like, oh yeah. Do we know that was Matt rule? Did you go on the the season podcast with Peter Schrager? Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. I mean, maybe Matt should have just set that out. Maybe right. Maybe you should have said, but he's but that's that's the line he has been on because he used that at Nebraska's introductory press conference.

You heard the clip from that where he talked about they asked him how fast can you win? Well, I really didn't shouldn't talk about timelines and timeline got me in trouble. No, man, the timeline didn't get you in trouble. The fact that you weren't helping them.

Forget about accelerate the timeline. You weren't giving anybody hope that you could even maintain your timeline because David Tepper didn't want to fire you. If he wanted to fire you, he wouldn't have let you come back for year three. David Tepper felt he had no choice but to fire you. I even said it was a mercy firing at the time because I believe the Tepper likes Matt rule and I think Matt is a likable guy. But that's delusional to think that you get fired because if it was I didn't realize it was going to be a two-year timeline.

We would have signed some free agents. What? You did. What was was Hassan Redick a free agent? Yeah, he was.

Okay. I'm maybe I missed it. Bobby Anderson. No, no, they did they sign him from the Jets or they get him in a trade with the way you brought him in.

Robbie Anderson, though was never that good. Is he doing anything in Arizona right now? I don't think so the look that I but he I saw a promo for the in season.

What is that HBO are not hard knocks the in season hard knocks. So I saw him on the sidelines at Arizona. I get a practice or something. So I saw a picture of him. So I have no idea if he's doing anything.

Look. The Panthers even though they are three and four under Steve walks, right three and four under Steve walks, which is good considering them. And by the way, winning the NFC South for years to come ain't that a big ain't that big a deal because if you think about the NFC South Tampa is old. And the bill is coming due for all of the players that they resigned and essentially paid their contract out over time, right? That credit card bill is coming due for Tampa. They are they don't who's the who's the quarterback next year for the Buccaneers?

Me might be might be. What's the future of the New Orleans Saints? They also don't have a quarterback for next year. What's the future of the Atlanta Falcons?

Marcus Mariota is not the answer. Desmond Ritter they drafted maybe maybe so winning the NFC South shouldn't be all that great of an achievement except that when you're the Panthers and I may have this wrong, but I don't think so in their entire history of never had consecutive winning seasons. It would seem although they have won the division, I think three years in a row. Shout out 781 781 won a division. So with with all that said they could be the team that could run that division for an extended stretch.

But that doesn't mean that is an incredible feat. So look, they have some really good players. I think what they need more than anything is stability. And they haven't really they had it really with with Ron Rivera, who wasn't a great coach. It's a good coach. But they had it with Rivera. And believe it or not, they had it with John Fox, who was a lesser version of Ron Rivera, but about the same type of coach, conservative defensive oriented, let's not beat ourselves type of thing. But he wouldn't go out and gonna go out and win games for you. So the the Panthers have a future but there's they still have a lot to build. I'd like to see Steve Wilkes get that gig.

I really would. I think I think he would be the perfect guy to help lead them forward. And I think he cares about the gig. I think I think it matters to him as a as a Charlotte guy. So hopefully it'll work out for him. But Matt rule is utterly delusional.

If he thinks this was a timeline acceleration problem, because it wasn't. But enjoy Nebraska. This is the Adam Gold Show. If you love to travel, you love cool experiences, you are gonna love Viator Viator is the world's leading travel experience marketplace. And for me, Sun Valley skiing is huge on my bucket list. So I just opened the Viator app search Sun Valley and boom, custom ski and boot fittings and tickets delivered right to our condo pretty unbelievable. Just download the Viator app now and use code Viator 10 for 10% off your first booking one app over 300,000 experiences you'll remember do more with Viator.