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You need Indeed. Good morning, everybody. I am Bart Winkler. Welcome to the Winklerverse.
It is the Friday heading into Labor Day weekend. I am joined by the former host of the Bart Winkler pregame show. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It is Ryan Horvat, now with BetMGM tonight, and starting next week, Brad Evans, your cohort. That should be fun. Yeah, it'll be fun. We're going to do more fantasy football, so we'll be taking phone calls, you know, kind of like how we did locally in Wisconsin on 1250 when Tim Allen would host on Sunday, we do the fantasy football show, which hashtag people forget. People do forget. And I took the calls.
That was always a pain in the butt. I'm going to try not to swear this year on the podcast because I want to get the picks and the information out to everybody, including the kids, you know. And kids, don't bet and do not start betting until you're at least 18 years old unless your parents are going to give you their money and you're going to be responsible. 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-GAMBLER. Everybody makes picks.
You circle your picks maybe every week in the newspaper. I don't even know if you do that anymore. So no swearing for me this year. This is going to be PG family friendly on this hair podcast. Okay, I think I've been trying to swear less. I had a guy on Friday who swore and we dumped it.
It was this week. We swore, dumped it, let it go. And then he swore again. And I got so mad at him because it was already like, you know how I like, if anybody lets calls go on too long in this business, it's me.
Oh yeah. But there's, because I always find, I feel like I always find the treasure. I can find the treasure with anybody, but this call was so bad that I got so mad. I apologize profusely for letting it go on as long as it did. Just a terrible call.
Yeah. You, you, you do still let the callers go a little long. I, I listen every night when I drive home and one night this guy called and he had to be about 45 deep. I don't, I don't think he knew which I think he was just calling just to call. I don't think he knew what she was actually calling. He was like asking him where Dave was or something like that. I don't know. It was very in Boston, very in Boston may have been, is that like a prank? Is that one?
Is that like cone roller? One of the boys? I don't know. Whatever. That guy's become established characters on the show. And I do cherish that.
Although, yeah, I could probably chop still even the best calls down a little bit. There is another show news. I have show news.
Oh, what do you got? So, uh, throughout August that Brandon Iook story was driving me insane. Say, so I kept putting an ultimatum.
I said, if they don't sign by Wednesday, I'm not talking about it. I won't talk about the story. And then I got so pissed that I said, I'm not, you know what? I'm tired of the Niners.
Everybody looks at them in a way. Everybody Peter Schrager wants to be John Lynch's best friend. I'm tired of this. I'm not going to talk about them all season. Unless Brandon Iook signs today.
He didn't, he signed Thursday. I did not mention the story last night. People were calling about the Niners.
I deflected. I am not going to talk about the 49ers at all the entire season. Even when I'm on and they play, I'll just only talk like Monday night football week one. I'll just talk about the jets. If they're in the Superbowl, I'm just going to talk about the other team. I'm not talking about the Niners in 2024.
I'm tired of it. Dude, hot take alert. I don't know that you're going to have to a whole lot because I think they might miss the playoffs. This is my hot take going into the season. I had that too and then I backed off on it.
No, I think you should come back on it. I think that they miss out and I think Dallas misses out because like maybe three teams get in from the North. Green Bay's getting in and Detroit's getting in and both are Superbowl contenders. I really want to hate the Lions, man, but I have so much money invested in them. Yeah, I think they're going to the, I think they're going.
Yeah, and I like won't even hate it. If it's Minnesota or it's Chicago, it's a different story. And then the Bears, I do think eventually are going to be good, but they're not in the same level this year as Green Bay. So I'm not really worried about them. I think the Vikings might be better than people expect, to be honest with you.
But no. So in that division, though, so with San Francisco, I mean, Trent Williams isn't at camp. And I love Trent Williams. He's one of the better tackles in all of football.
But at his stage, like this stage of his career, I don't know that he just shows up and he's dominant in the interior. That offensive line's not great. McCaffrey's been healthy the last couple of years. For his sake, I hope he stays healthy.
But I'm with you on the whole Brandon Aiyuk thing, man. Like if you were to leave, like, for example, like we got this huge slate of college football. Last night, we had a bunch of games and this story breaks while it's, you know, my show's going down and I'm getting these text messages from the boss. Like you would think like, you know, it's the biggest news ever. And I'm like, hold on, hold on. Like we have live football right now for the first time in six months.
College football. We'll get the Brandon Aiyuk. If he would have went elsewhere, went to Washington or went to a different team. There's nothing that you could have said that's different. Of course. I mean, it's the same.
Of course he signed. Yeah. But I think like if you're into betting and whatnot, I would play the Seahawks plus 500 to win that division. Everybody's all high on the Rams.
I get it. I think the Seahawks knocked it out of the park with their coaching hire with Mike McDonald, defensive genius. The Ravens were historically good on the defensive side of the ball last year. I think they have a really underrated secondary. I saw Warren Sharp.
I almost called the mustache. Warren Sharp did his like top secondaries and he had them 15. I think that's crazy. They got Rick Wolin. Not to Rick Wolin.
He changed his name. Rick Wolin. Then we have Devin Weatherspoon and he's going to be in year two. He was awesome as a rookie out of Illinois. And then everybody wants to write off Geno.
He's not writing back. I think Geno is going to have a monster year. Look at all the weapons they have still. DK Metcalf. JSN's another year in the league. He's probably only going to be better.
Your backfields, Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. I think Seattle might win that division. I think San Francisco takes a step back. I can't wait for Thursday, man, because I think that might be an NFC championship preview between Philadelphia and Green Bay. I really do.
I think it might be like a little bit of a out process or Friday. My bad. Yeah.
I still can't get that through my head. I think it might be like a little bit of a work in progress for both teams early on, though, just because Vic Fangio takes over as defensive coordinator. And obviously we all know Jeff Halfley takes over for Green Bay, but I'm excited, man.
I can't wait for football. I was talking Dallas last night, too, because you brought them up. Does Jerry Jones secretly want to break up with Dak or does Dak secretly want out in Dallas? Yeah, that's the other thing. I think they're the other team that misses the playoffs. I think they both want to be done with each other.
Yeah. I think I think like Jerry should just trade Dak. I think Jerry should just go away and retire, to be honest with you, man. I was I saw this today for whatever reason, like the only thing that's out in our gym is CNN. And today, you know, net worth the Cowboys number one franchise and pro sports over a billion dollars or whatever it is.
Yeah, they're so cheap. This goes back to the early 90s. And it used to be, though, Jerry would pay the quarterback. Troy Aikman would always get taken care of.
But like, remember the year after they won the Super Bowl? Emmitt Smith set out the first couple of weeks of the season because Jerry didn't want to make them the highest paid running back. I think like Thurman Thomas was. He did it with C.D. Lamb, who you had to pay. I know he paid him what he paid, but he didn't like get him for any less. He paid him.
Yeah, he gave him 100 mil. Guaranteed highest nonpaid quarterback in the league. But with Dak, yeah, I almost feel like if you're Dak, this is best case scenario, because if you ball out this year, you're going to be the highest paid quarterback in the league.
And if you don't, you could go elsewhere. You know, you could do the Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady thing and go find like a team that's ready to win. Because I think Dallas's window is coming to an end, man. I mean, you lose your defensive coordinator.
Blans already hurt. Diggs is coming back from an injury. You saw that that run defense look like last season. Aaron Jones torched them.
Oh, one more hot take. If the Packers missed the playoffs, which they won't, it will be because they paid a running back at 26. Josh Jacobs and let Aaron Jones walk.
I think that decision is going to come back to haunt him, man. I would have kept Aaron Jones. Sue me. Other than that, love everything else about the offense. I got my Jordan Love jersey in the closet. Every podcast I might wear it. Let's go. I love it. So here's the deal, folks. I'm Bart Winkler.
This is Ryan Horvat. Each week we've been doing picks forever. Little bit of a change because we want to get some college in there.
And historically, we've done all the NFL games, but some of them we just do not care about at all. Yeah. So this year, on Thursdays and or Fridays, we will be giving you five college football picks. Five NFL picks and sometimes maybe dashing a little more when necessary. Yeah.
Ryan Horvat, the host of BET MGM tonight, myself, the host of the Bart Winkler show. What background should I use for this? Should I use the into the Winkler verse? Let me see. That's what we got now. OK. Or I have another background. This one, the pink one. I think we got to go in. Then I throw my head up there. See?
Oh, actually, I kind of like this one. I know. But this isn't for the show. This is for the podcast.
So I got to go podcast. OK. Well, yeah. Just there you go.
All right. College football. Week one is underway. Colorado. I do want to mention that because they won last night. Dion was trying to cover late by throwing the ball downfield.
I think everything's the same about Colorado. The quarterback's great. The receivers are great. They cannot run. They are bad on defense. And the coach is an idiot. And then he gets to the podium. And this is what I did.
We were doing three hours, three hours on Colorado, bringing up. Nobody cared the minute I played a Dion cut about him being like, oh, we won. Everyone's mad.
Phone calls light up. Everyone wants to complain about Dion. Dion's got to stop making about himself unless he's because this is a sub 500 team again. Yeah, they're the same team as they were last year. I think they're probably a four or five win team. Maybe they make a bowl game.
That's probably the goal, to be honest with you. Like you said, Chidor, really, really good. Really, really good. Travis Hunter, best player in college football thinks that he's like they're like that dumpster fire program, because like imagine getting to watch him play both sides of the ball. Wisconsin.
That'd be nice. Notre Dame for me. Georgia.
Anywhere else. Just because like I don't want to. And this year, like I'm not a hater, dude.
I'm I was laughing when people were talking about Dion coaching the Cowboys or coaching any NFL team. Like those guys are making millions of dollars. They're not going to listen to that nonsense.
And that nonsense is cute until you do whatever you want. Yeah. Like even.
No, no, no. He'll go to he'll go to like Florida State or another school before he goes to the pros. Yeah.
What are you doing? Like I felt like my son like was was coaching that game. Like I was watching him play Madden and I'm sitting like above like right over. I'm like, dude, why don't you just run the football and run out? He said it's about getting first downs.
Yeah. I mean, that was dumb. Like he was throwing deep on first down. You get you get first. You want first downs at the end of a game so you can run out the clock. Dion got a first down and instead of running out the clock, try to then get a first down.
And you know, what's the wildest thing about the whole situation? Right. So like, here's the thing. Right. OK, so you're running like shot plays. You're running streaks down the field rather than I get. Maybe if you want to throw the ball and it's all about picking up first downs, then like scheme your guys open.
Right. Like run the DJU offense where you're throwing little bubble screens, you know, short of the sticks. Maybe you got great yak guys, obviously, but also in that situation, you really don't want to score when you think about it. You know, I mean, OK, trying to cover the spread. That's ridiculous. As a head coach, you're not worried about spreads.
The FBI might have to get involved if that happens again. And at the end of the day, like, you know, I sound like Giannis, but like, OK, so you go up 10 points. Right. And you're getting married this weekend.
Is he really. Yeah. Oh, hey. Congrats, Giannis. Big fan of the show. Giannis. We'll see you at the Calderon club coming up on Friday.
Send you a bottle of red for the wedding. But so. Oh, I know this is like, you know, zero point zero one percent chance this happens. But like there was also that percent that Reggie Miller was going to score nine points in 30 seconds or whatever it was. Right.
So you go up 10, 58 seconds to go. The back half of your defense, other than Travis Hunter, is atrocious. They throw a Hail Mary. They catch it. Touchdown. They kick onside. They get it right.
Like that's the dumb thing. You pick up the first down and then you take the knee. Did you not learn anything from Miami last season against Haynes King and Georgia Tech when Mario. Thirty years you've been in football. Like, what are you doing? That's why I'm out on Dion.
He's a clown. I said, well, let's take a look at games that are happening this weekend. We can give you the Badger game.
Dude, let's do it. Badgers play the Badger or the Badgers. Badgers.
Well, the Badgers will Michigan bad. I have the ESPN lines. What what do you have? I've got them. I want to use your lines. Yeah. So let's use mine because I could I could do is I'll give a shout out to Betstamp. I'm a huge fan of their their work over there. So I could actually give like the best line. Right. So if you want to bet Western Michigan, the best number you could get is plus twenty four and a half over a bet MGM.
I will give them a shout out because they pay me to. And then you want to bet Wisconsin. You could get a better number elsewhere at twenty three and a half. So we'll call Wisconsin a twenty three and a half point favorite. Total in the game is fifty six and a half.
And I might be on the wrong side here. Everybody I've heard likes the under in this game. I like the over or I might like a team total over on Wisconsin. A lot of people I know, a lot of smart people are betting Western Michigan. I'm excited for Wisconsin this year, man. Now, I don't know if Luke Fickel is going to do in year two what he did at Cincinnati.
I think you're one in Cincinnati. They went four and eight. Then year two, they won double digit games.
They won seven and five last season. But I'm excited. It hasn't been ridder with that.
Yeah. With Desmond Ritter. And now you have Tyler Van Dyke. And I know a lot of people want to write him off. He was beat up the last couple of years. You can write him off, but he ain't writing back. He ain't writing back.
He ain't writing back at all. Like he had injuries that people didn't even know about last year, though. He had I want to say I heard that he had like a tear on his throwing hand.
I don't know. It was crazy. But they're going to be able to run the ball with Chez coming back over two thousand career yards, gets a six year of eligibility. And you got Pauling coming back. I actually kind of like the receivers. I think Bryson Green will be a little bit better. The offensive line has four returning starters.
I like the over tonight. And I wouldn't bet Western Michigan. I think Wisconsin is going to be good this season. I think they're going to be good this season. And I think Nebraska is going to be good. Neither are going to win the Big Ten because there's two frickin NFL teams in Oregon and Ohio State. But I would bet the win total over on Wisconsin if their schedule wasn't such crap. I do like Nebraska this year, but Badgers over tonight. I think the Phil Longo offense is finally going to look like the offense that we thought it was going to look like.
You know, the air raid. It doesn't work when you got Tanner Mordecai and his noodle arm. But Tyler Van Dyke pushed the ball down the field two years ago. We were talking about him like he might be a top 10 pick. And I think he's going to ball out this year.
Oh, fingers crossed. I said that about Graham Mertz like three years ago, too. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. I think anecdotally, I could say either one of these things and Badgers fans would agree with me. Anecdotally, I could say it just feels like in these early season games, the Badgers don't like win is by as much as they should. But then I could also say, well, the Badgers always destroy these teams early. And like, I don't I don't know which one I don't know which one is true because they used to do that.
And then now it feels like they don't. Badgers. The reason I love the college football playoff the most, the new expanded one is because the Badgers season always ended week three when they lost BYU or Illinois or, you know, one of these teams that are bad. So now at least I can pretend like they have a chance a chance longer. I will take the Badgers to go out there tonight and cover.
Yeah, get some points. Friday night, Camp Randall College is back in session. The student section per my sources is already filling up now. So nobody will be unhappy about the situation tonight.
No screenshots will be sent. So let's go Badgers to cover the enormous spread. One more one more thing on that. Also, I know like a lot of people are going to fade to Wisconsin because of what you just said. But like, let's remember, this isn't your this isn't your Paul Chris Wisconsin team.
Right. This is this is this is Luke Fickle. You're too baby.
And, you know, I used to defend Paul Chris. I can't do it anymore. And you want to know why I can't do it. Let me read you this.
Let me let me let me read you this real quick. Tell me what quarterback this is. Completed 72 percent of his passes last season, 20 touchdowns, three picks, even though he played behind a terrible offensive line. What quarterback do you think that was in college?
Twenty touchdowns, three picks, completed 70 percent of his passes. I don't have the slightest idea. Well, it was. Come on, think real hard. Why? It was Graham Mertz.
Those are his stats with Billy Napier, who's on the hot seat this year at Florida. Why did you feel like you're like not prepared for me? Not to know. That's why he's out of here. Fickle's in.
I don't care. Give me the Badgers tonight. So you're taking them to cover?
Yeah, I'm going to take them to cover, too. I'm going to put like 50 bucks on it. Not your not your typical Ryan Horvath bet. But I mean, I'm a fan.
You know, is that one one tenth of a unit? Yeah, I'm just going to bet all my teams this weekend, except for maybe one spoiler alert. All right. On Saturday morning, number one, Georgia, number 14, Clemson.
What do you have for the line? So this one's really interesting, man, because I have not heard one one person make the case for Clemson this week. I have. Me, too. It went from 14 down to 12, though. So money's coming in on Clemson. The guy the guy who advocated for Clemson was Don Munson. The voice of the Tigers was on my show. And he says Clemson is going to win.
Win? Yeah. Well, shoot, if you like that, dude, it is plus three seventy five on the money line.
So well, this again, this is a play by play guy for the Tigers. You know what, man? I don't think it's crazy. I bet the line 12. Yeah, it's 12. I bet them plus 14.
I still bet him at 12. Georgia has 33 new dudes on the roster. Carson Beck's awesome. He's probably the number one quarterback in the draft next year. But you lose Brock Bowers, you lose McConkie. The defense will be good. And I know we say this every year about Georgia, but it's a young secondary.
And I'm a little worried after this offseason. They have to lead college football in moving violations. How many DWI is like like in like that's like not a joke or anything like this needs to be. I think DWI, DUI in prison.
Dude, never get your license back ever again. We've got to do something about this. It's been ridiculous. It's always been ridiculous. But another young athlete killed tragically today while we were before we record this. But like Georgia, man, like what's Kirby running over there?
What kind of programs are you running? It's becoming like Urban Meyer, Florida. Not that bad yet.
But I don't know. I think if ever like there's a year to bet against Georgia, it might be this year. That said, they'll win 11 games.
But I do think somebody beats them. I don't know if it's Clemson, but I think they keep this close. The Clemson defense is going to be real good.
I think Clemson is an underdog. The play by play, man. You know, got to me enough. I talked to him this week and he does basketball.
Baseball and football. And I always like to ask broadcasters broadcasting questions. Yeah. Who is the guy I talk to? I think when I talk to Noah Eagle.
Because I always like to be like, I've done play by play also, which I have. But I like I go, what sport is there a sport that you can't call? I asked Noah that and we agreed it was hockey. Hockey's impossible. Can't call hockey.
It's impossible. So I asked Don, I said, what sport do you feel the most like Don Munson? And he's like, well, I've never got people always ask me what I like the best, but never what makes me feel the most like myself. And he said basketball. He said basketball. Yeah.
Same here. I always call basketball is the best because there's always something going on football. You got to be like, all right, I got to call this formation and the plays real quick. And then the guy ran into the middle and I don't know who tackled him. And yeah. Yeah.
You need like a spotter. You're trying to get jersey numbers. Now, if you're calling like an NFL game, it's a different story, I would assume, or like a college football game. But yeah, like calling like, you know, St. Rita against Mount Carmel on a Friday night is kind of tough. I agree. I always love calling basketball, man. I would get really, really into it.
Oh, God. Weirdly, I like the baseball. That's it for three.
You can like every three starting of the sea. Even though there's like a bunch of downtime baseball, I always like because you get to be a storyteller. I would just make up random stuff, though.
I'd be like, you know, Jamison at the mound or Jamison at the plate hitting 287 this season. He's going to Iowa next year. He's a little torn between where he wants to where he wants to head. It's like a firefighter, you know, his mother, Sharon. Great, great at the bake sale. But basically doing local play by play is a different animal because you're not doing the broadcast like you normally would. You have to do the broadcast for their parents who listen to it later. Yeah.
To hear if their son's name was called. Oh, God. And if you say anything wrong or you get something wrong.
Oh, that was the worst. I would do P.A. and somebody would come up to the booth to tell me I'm saying a name wrong. I go, this is how your coach told me to say it, man.
You go talk to the coach. I hated P.A. I hated it. It was not worth the money, in my opinion. It just never is.
I've never I've never made good money doing it. It was like 20 bucks a game for me. I only got 100 to do forward Madison. Really? I drove out there. I didn't even cover the gas.
By the time I had gas and then food on the way. That's what I mean. Wasn't worth making 40 bucks. Yeah. Yeah.
I also like I don't like this about Clemson, but what's interesting about Clemson is the whole like colleges doing things a certain way, not Clemson. And I talk again, I talk to this guy who goes, they tried to get recruits. They tried to use the transfer portal. Did they?
That's what the guy told me. And he's like, they just they couldn't compete with the big, you know, the big money. They couldn't.
Who is this? Steve Homer. True.
Like this guy sounds like a huge homer here because Dabo openly said he's not going to use the transfer portal, which I think is a huge mistake. But yeah, I feel like they might be a sleeping giant in the ACC because everybody wants to write him off. And I'm going to keep saying that until Gina wins MVP this year.
But like Kate Klubnick is a five star. He just doesn't look like one. You have Lincoln Riley's brother calling the plays.
It's now year two. Will Shipley is gone, but I like their other back, Phil Maffa, and he's back. I think he's actually the better running back. The problem with Clemson on the offensive side of the ball, they haven't had a receiver that could create separation.
They haven't had like that T. Higgins, Sammy Watkins type guy in like four years. I do like the receivers a little bit more this year, so I think they at least hang within two score. So I like Clemson plus 12. I don't know if they win the game, though. I'd probably pick Georgia there.
Yeah, I'll take Clemson to cover Georgia to win. Also, at that same time, Penn State and West Virginia, which is getting more attention than it should because Pat McAfee's from West Virginia. So they went to do the show in West Virginia.
But it's going crazy. And I think that like. With West Virginia having some sense of importance that maybe they don't feel like they've had. And a Penn State team that always lets people down.
Might be right for an upset here, Horvie. So, you know, I know a lot of people that like Penn State. I obviously a lot of people liked West Virginia this summer because you got seven and a half. Yeah, it's down to seven and a half, eight in some spots.
It opened at eleven and a half and I hammered West Virginia. I think West Virginia is going to be better than some people project them to be. They won nine games last season. They bring back their starting quarterback, Garrett Green, which, you know, he's got to limit the turnovers.
But he's an explosive play waiting to happen. The defense kind of just is what it is. But Penn State, I do think that they're going to be better this year than they were last year on the offensive side of the ball because they bring back both backs. Katron Allen, Nicholas Singleton, they both kind of had down years. They had down years because everybody just stacked the box because Drew Aller, another five star quarterback.
They like didn't trust him. He didn't throw the ball down the field for whatever reason. I don't know if you remember the Michigan game. He threw for seventy seven yards in that game.
Seventy seven yards. When Michigan threw five passes. Yeah, that was the game.
Remember? But they got to be better. OK, so I don't like James Franklin, but he's not a bad coach. Every year he wins nine, ten games and he beats the teams he's supposed to beat. He just can't beat Ohio State. He can't beat Michigan this year.
Like he at least has to contend because they paid Kotal Nicky, Andy Kotal Nicky, the offensive coordinator from Kansas, seven point one million to go there and call plays because the offense has lacked explosive plays the last couple of years. So there is a good chance I'm wrong here in Penn State roles. But James Franklin on the road, more than a touchdown favorite. I liked West Virginia at plus ten and a half.
I'm still going to play him at seven and a half. I'm cheering for the upset. I hate Penn State. So I like cheering against them.
Yeah, me too. I'm going to take I mean, every time that I've. You think about Penn State, do they ever when it's a big game for Penn State, do they ever like?
No. Hey, Penn State won that game. That was a big game for them.
Yeah, like handily, too. No, never. So I'm going to go with West Virginia as well.
Later that night. Your boys. Oh, the fighting Catholics. Notre Dame heads to college. Huh?
I was saying I was. I was in and I was doing some Spanish there. What do we got for the spread? Three. It's up to three right now, dude. Number seven, Notre Dame.
A dog. And Texas A&M minus the three or about you are Notre Dame super fan. Your thoughts. Yeah, I bet I'm under ten and a half wins this season. I think they're going to be really, really good. But I just kind of got to see it to believe it. Like the Badgers every year. You know, it's like. You kind of just know your team. Right.
And I just kind of think. This is a 10 win team. I think they lose this game.
Let me rephrase that. Originally, I thought they were going to lose this game. And I bet Texas A&M on the money line because it was a pick minus 110.
And I thought Notre Dame was going to be favored in this game. But then, I mean, their offensive line is young. And they already lose Joel. And then the guy that was supposed to replace them got hurt this spring. And you have Mike Elko taken over as head coach for Texas A&M. Two years ago, Texas A&M had the best recruiting class in college football history. The problem was Jimbo couldn't coach him. So they bought out Jimbo Fisher for like five billion dollars because he sucks. Most overrated coach in college football history. They bring in Mike Elko, who spent a year at Notre Dame. I actually wanted Notre Dame to can Brian Kelly, that murderer, and give Mike Elko the job.
They didn't. So I just feel like I have this one all figured out. Mike Elko goes back. Well, the game's in Texas A&M. But, you know, takes over. And also the other storyline here. Notre Dame went in the portal and got Leonard Riley. But the problem is pretty cool.
Well, no, it's really cool. But who is this head coach last year at Duke? Riley Leonard. Jesus, Leonard Riley.
I'm tired. But his head coach. I don't know what we're talking about. His head coach. Riley Leonard's head coach last year was Mike Elko at Duke. You know, he got the job.
He comes over. Do you want to do this game over? Should we start this one over? No, it's just like everything tells you that Texas A&M is the side. But at plus three, I think Notre Dame is going to cover.
So I had to buy back some Notre Dame. Yeah, that's something that I can't when it's plus three, it's like it's a isn't that the Horvat special to take the. Well, no, you would it's a plus three thing. Notre Dame is going to cover its three. So, yeah, I can't imagine looking at a game and being like, oh, they're going to they're only going to lose by one or two. I mean, if you give me.
Yeah, you're looking for key numbers. So like if you gave me a three and a half, that's what I want with them. And I guess that's why you're on a gambling show and I'm just some guy that, you know, truckers listen to when it's the only station that comes in.
Well, I listen to it every night, too, on my drive home. Yeah. Then if they kick a field goal to beat you, then you get the hook. You put your you get the win.
You don't push. But yeah. All right. So in English, Riley Leonard, we're all excited as Notre Dame fans who is the quarterback at Duke for Mike Elko comes to Notre Dame. They pay him a bunch of money.
Right. But he's starting behind an inexperienced offensive line with better receivers and a really good defense. But he's going against his former head coach, Mike Elko, who knows everything about him. Defensive genius has a really good defense at A&M. And also, A&M has a five star quarterback, Connor Wigman. Remember the first five games of last season? They were good because he was healthy.
Then he got hurt and all hell broke loose. So that's why all the money came in on A&M and they went from being, you know, a pick to now three point favorites at home. But Notre Dame has a lot of talent, man. It's just like Ken Marcus Freeman coached them last year. We all remember the 10 men on the field.
I kind of got to see it to believe it. So I think A&M wins, but I'll take Notre Dame plus three because I'm taking them in the Badgers and I'm taking Green Bay next Thursday or Friday. So just stick with my hometown teams. Got to do it, especially to start a season. Sunday night, USC, LSU games being played in Vegas for some reason. Yeah. This is why we talked to Horvat about college.
I know I'm just going to take whatever I owe. I'm going to Texas A&M for the picks. Oh. Yeah, because I think people need to remember that A&M stands for.
Agricultural and mechanical. And so I think true to their name, they're going to plow through Notre Dame. I do, too.
And destroy them like a machine. Kind of do, too. And Johnny Manziel is going to be the guest picker at college game day, so he'll be at Kyle Field as well. USC versus LSU.
It's going to be weird this year. Big 10. Yeah, this is a Big 10 game. This is a Big 10 SEC game that people love to see.
And it's in Vegas, Big 10 country, which is weird, dude. So this was my biggest bet this summer. I bet this game in July it was a game of the year and it opened up USC plus six and a half. And I almost had to take out a small loan or something out of my 401K to get enough down on USC plus six and a half. And I still like USC at plus four. I think USC is actually going to win this game. I bet LSU is under at 10. It's down to nine and a half on their win total. I just kind of have Brian Kelly all figured out the defense. I don't expect the defense just to improve in one year. And you could say the same thing about USC. So, OK, it's a shootout. And you were telling me that USC six and a half points worse.
I just I don't know, man. I know that they lose Caleb Williams, but I think Miller Moss is going to be really good. And maybe even in the Heisman conversation towards the end of the year, if they're an eight nine win team, which you probably have to be, you know, to be in that conversation, we'll see with the expanded playoff.
But I like some of the guys on defense for LSU, like Harold Perkins is going to be probably a top 15, top 10 pick. Oh, I know. Yeah.
Yeah. But like they don't just have him rushing the quarterback again this year. They came out and said that they're going to be like dropping him back in coverage. They want to play him like a traditional linebacker. And then you lose Jayden Daniels, Heisman quarterback. And that's Meyer, Garrett Nesmyer, their their backup or their new starting quarterbacks. What a cool match of this sort of.
I didn't realize that last year. Caleb against Jayden. Yeah, exactly. One and two. And now it's like, I guess this is on a Sunday night.
Yeah, I think. But I think USC is actually going to win this game. I'm going to fade Brian Kelly in this spot. I think it's going to be a shootout.
I would only bet the over. But I mean, like, look at everything else you lost. It's just I know USC lost some, too, but they have really good skill position players. LSU lost Malik neighbors, Brian Thomas, Jayden Daniels.
Like all three of those guys could legitimately win Rookie of the Year this year. So give me USC plus the points when you got this many unknowns on a neutral field. I think it's going to be a field goal game. So the five games we got, we're both taking Wisconsin.
Oh, hell yeah. We're both taking Clemson to cover. Yes, we are.
And maybe even win. I'm taking West Virginia to win. And so are you. I am, too.
Yeah. I'm taking Texas A&M to win and cover. I'm going to take Notre Dame plus three. I think A&M.
I think A&M wins. I just think three is outrageous. Three points was way too many. And I'm a homer. So we'll go against each other on this one. Yeah.
And then I said I was going to do whatever you are doing here. We're taking USC and we're taking them pretty big. If they lose this game by more than. Well, I got six and a half. If they lose this game by more than seven points, you might not see me next week.
I might be in witness protection. Do you got any other games that are worth mentioning? Yeah. Yeah. Let me just I'll rattle off some picks.
All right. Also, I also have a college football show on Saturday. It's 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Time.
8 a.m. to 9 a.m. I believe. Does it air on 1250 a.m. the fan in Milwaukee? I don't think that it does.
I think it might. Well, I probably should know that, but I don't know. No, I'm proud. Yeah, because they run they run back, you know, on the weekends instead of infinity. I always was mad because I was never on the air. Well, really, I guess I am on there.
So, yeah, check it out. I like Oklahoma tonight. Minus forty two. I actually think that Venables has that defense looking pretty damn good this year. I like Stanford. I love Stanford tonight.
I bet I'm plus 10 as I look right now. They're nine point dogs against TCU at home. Whole new era of football for Stanford as they enter the ACC. I like the under and Marilyn Yukon under forty five and a half. I also like Yukon to cover. Marilyn doesn't even know who their quarterback is in the game kicks off in like 22 hours.
That's never a good sign. I love Syracuse. Not so much on the season, but I love them against Ohio minus 17. I think they're going to blow them out. They love Syracuse against Ohio.
How can that even be? Because they got Kyle McCord now. And I know he wasn't great at Ohio State, but I think he's going to be pretty good at Syracuse.
And they spent a bunch of money this season in the portal. I like. Oh, here's a great one. Miami, Ohio, plus three against Northwestern. They're going to beat Northwestern. Northwestern's coming back down to earth. This is at their new stadium.
Yeah. And then I like Miami to beat Florida. I might be wrong on that one, but I like Cam Ward. And he's the quarterback in Miami now. And they got Damian Martinez from Oregon State, too.
And Billy Napier is on the hot seat. And I bet Graham Mertz enough in my life. I'm fading Graham Mertz until the day I die.
But like I said, he was pretty good last year. So I think Paul Christian sucks. I think I'm going to retire the shirt. The collar's too low. Yeah, I hate when that happens.
You know, my wife, I keep adjusting it. Yeah. That once a collar does that, the shirts just got to go. But I don't know that I would retire the shirt. You could always use it. The shirt would be sweet if it was a long sleeve hoodie. Yeah, just a shirt. I don't know, though.
Even those then. I don't know. My wife is like obsessed with hanging my stuff up. Look at this. This isn't even a V-neck.
This is like a cursive U-neck. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of makes you look like a slob a little bit. I know.
See, that's what sucks for me. I have to be on camera every night. I miss the old days when we would just roll out of bed. You know, sometimes half in the can, sometimes in the can during the show, especially the draft show. Oh, always drunk.
I don't even know who my co-host is tonight and I'm doing the show from home. I might go get a case of Guinness right now. I'm not kidding you. I saw McAfee do it and everybody like praised it. Like if I did that, I would be thrown in prison in my day.
McAfee was just, you know what? I mean, he was hammered. He was drunk.
He was hammered. Ryan Horvat. We're going to do college picks five games and NFL five games each week right here. It's going to be fun. Always good to see you. Hey, you too, man. Bye, Horvat. Goodbye. Ryan Horvat, my brother in Christ.
Always good to talk to him. Again, you can, you know where to find them. Happy Place Hemp, you know where to find them too. In Muskego College Court, right across from Maddie's, which is in New Berlin. Now, you may not be in the Milwaukee area. That was a weird way to pronounce the city, but you may not be in the area.
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Gummies, tinctures, balms, CBD. It all works. Ryan Wood I talked to on Thursday night. I was going to talk to him on the podcast and then aired on my Infinity Sports Network show. Instead, I talked to him on the show. So I'm going to tack it on this podcast.
So everything Packers that you need to know. We've got the interview with Ryan Wood and then next week we'll be back with. We've got the weekly picks again going and I'm going to try to work another episode a week. Details still being discussed.
But from Thursday night, here is my conversation with Ryan Wood and I will talk to you on on on on. Don't say it part. Don't say it. Don't say it. The flippity flip.
There's been many versions of the Bart Winkler show. And no matter what version of it there is, it always finds a way to include this man, Ryan Wood of Packers News Dotcom and the Green Bay Press Gazette. I got a lot of nitty gritty things to ask you, but I guess I can start with some vague, generic, nationally digestible Packer ones. But my first question, Ryan, is how are you, friend? I'm good, Bart. How are you?
I'm very good. Are you at Lambeau now or what are they are they practicing right now? Closed practice tonight. So they practice under the lights this evening at Lambeau Field. They treated today as a night game in preparation for their opener Friday night next week against the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil. So that means they had the pregame script tonight before practice. They had meetings during the day. They treated it like a full day of a night game.
And then they closed the practice to the media. So we'll see what what comes of that. Yeah, it's it's coming up quick.
It's amazing how quickly it's all approaching. I mean, you've covered a lot of opening weeks. What I think or I guess would be the biggest difference, because this is not an opening weekend like the Packers have ever had before. They are opening the season on a different continent in a country that has never hosted an NFL game before. And I don't even know any like official NFL event of any kind.
It seems like Matt Leflore is not totally thrilled about this, but you know, you got to do what you got to do. You got to play who's on the schedule when and where. How different is the build up to this season than seasons you've seen in the past? Well, it's going to be unlike anything I've ever experienced before. This is my 11th season coming with the team.
I mean, think of this. How many of us have ever had a 10 plus hour flight in our lives? I know I haven't. Matt Leflore says he has and I was talking to Quay Walker in his locker the other day.
I asked him, he said, no, you know, it's rare. Not not a lot of us have had a 10 hour plus flight, which is what it is from Green Bay to Sao Paulo. And then, oh, by the way, they have to go play a football game after that.
It's different for sure. Now, obviously, the Philadelphia Eagles are going to have something very similar to that. So both these teams are in the same position.
It's a long flight. Go play a football game. The competitive balance is equal and whoever handles it the best and goes out and plays the best on September 6th is going to be the winner. I think that this season for the Packers, obviously, you know, for so long, they've had a Super Bowl or bust mentality, whether it was with Brett Favre at the helm or with Aaron Rodgers. And then last year, definitely different as Jordan Love was given the reins. And it wasn't the same as when Aaron Rodgers took over. They went six and 10 that year. But there was enough that people had seen that, OK, Aaron Rodgers is probably going to be a good quarterback here. Jordan Love, there were still a lot of questions. And really the whole year, I think last year was figure out if this guy is the answer.
He's the answer. And they played well and they won a playoff game. He then signs a massive deal. 55 million per is the sticker shock value.
I know there's different breakdowns of it. But there's still a lot of people that when I see these rankings and I see whatever, Jordan Love's not in the top 10 of these. And I only bring that up because we're going to do a ranking of our own tonight.
Spoiler alert. He'll probably be in our top 10 is because this is the guy I watch every week. This is the guy I see. And there are times where I see Jordan Love. I never thought I'd see that out of Jordan Love. He played as well last year. It's not just a half a season.
He played as well last year as I thought I've seen. I mean, from Rodgers even on different years. There is a succession here in the quarterbacks of Green Bay and Jordan Love will find out if he's going to be a Hall of Famer. But to people that say to you when you're asked, oh, why are you paying him for just a half a season? What is the answer you can provide where it's not just a half a season of good games that was why they are paying Jordan Love? Well, they're not paying him off of a half season. They're paying him off the next four starting this season. That's how the business of the NFL works. That's how contracts work. So you're paid off projection.
You're not paid off history. And so they're expecting Jordan Love to be the best quarterback or one of one of the at the top of the game over these next four years. And that's why he's getting paid at the top of the market.
Why is that? Well, the last two months of last season and I know sample sizes are everything, but that's that's not a flash in the pan. Two full months. Jordan Love had the best passer rating in the NFL. He's number one down the stretch. He went into Dallas first playoff game dang near had a perfect passer rating on the road against the Cowboys in the wild card. Absolutely blew them out of the water. He had every opportunity and he made some mistakes down in the fourth quarter against San Francisco the next week in the divisional round that every opportunity gets a very good 49ers defense to put them in the NFC Championship game. And this was his first time doing this.
You expect your first time doing something not to be your best time doing something. So the Packers certainly believe that Jordan Love and this team as a byproduct is going to be even better in 2024. Probably even better in 2025. And there's going to be a crescendo over these next few seasons as they continue getting better. Now, sample sizes being what they are. It's very, you know, I think this quarterback and this team are going to be very good in 2024.
I think they're a short list contender in the NFC to get to the Super Bowl. But we don't have the sample size we had in the Rogers era, right? Well, there were several seasons of seeing that Aaron Rodgers could bring this team take him on his back and get him to a certain level. We've only seen one season Jordan Love. And this is so there's a lot more questions going into the can there be an encore sophomore season? Can he back it up? We have to seize that. We haven't seen that yet. But there's every reason to think that that is going to happen, that that is the reality as they get into 2024. Talking with Ryan Wood as we cover the Packers tonight on the Bart Winkler Show.
You can find him at PackersNews.com, Green Bay Press Gazette online at BYRYANWOOD. One thing that I was dead wrong on last year was I didn't think that if you're going to develop your quarterback, I did not think you also were in a position to also develop all of your receivers at the same time. And there were some games early on where it looked like, what is happening here?
But these guys did all grow together. And now that Green Bay wide receiver core is, I mean, as deep as any. You know, you look at the top three, you match them against others. But whoever is wide receiver 4, 5, 6, I mean, they are the best wide receiver 4, 5, 6 in the league.
That is just a really strong room. Do the Packers, from what you've seen, because a lot of people in fantasy drafts are like, well, who's the number one? Who's the number two? Who's the number three? Some people think it's going to be Jayden Reed. Some people think that it's going to be Christian Watson. Some think it's going to be Dontave and Wicks. Do they know what a pecking order is, or is that just not what they are going to do?
They're getting the ball to who's open. This whole concept of number one, number two, number three. That's not how it's going to play with this room. Well, first of all, Bart, don't feel bad for being dead wrong about this. Because I think everyone was wrong about that. I remember this is week eight, week nine, late October last season. And I wrote a story basically saying, and it made perfect sense at the time, that the Packers weren't going to get a proper evaluation on Jordan Love in 2023. Because everything around him on offense was a train wreck.
It was in shambles. And it's not just Jordan Love that changed his game overnight last season. That young receiving corps did the same thing with him. And I don't think either one, Jordan Love or those receivers, get to where they got without the other. Which is a really awesome thing if you're a young football team to have. Because you can grow it again.
That's how you gel into something more than the sum of your parts. And no, they don't have a wide receiver one. But it's kind of, it's ridiculous to use that as a knock. Because on any given week, any of their top four receivers, Christian Watts and Romy Adob, Jaden Reid, Dontay Vee, Wish, any of them can be number one in the passing game. It depends on matchups. And oh, by the way, when you have that kind of depth, it changes how a defense covers you. I remember a few weeks ago talking to Christian Watts about last season. And I asked him, did you get a lot of cloud coverage, a lot of double coverage?
Did any of you guys get that? He's like, not really. Like Romy Adob had a heater in the playoffs last year for a couple weeks.
And there was some cloud coverage then. But that's rare. You don't see a lot of that. There's a lot of single matchups. And then you have a quarterback in Jordan Love that just spreads the wealth. He takes what the defense gives, what the playbook is allowing, and indiscriminately passes the ball to any of those top four guys. It's a really good system. It was a really good system last year. And everyone's really comfortable with that going into this season. You mentioned defense covering the Packers. Obviously the Packers' defense is going to be under the microscope again with Jeff Halfley coming from Boston College as the head coach and now taking over the Packers' defense, that side of the football. So how different does it look? Because for years they've had Mike Patton and Dom Capers and these different guys. And then Joe Berry, who I don't think made friends with anybody that was a Packer fan.
How different does it look? And will they finally – here's what I've always said about the Packers' defense. They, on paper, I think are a strong defense. They've got a lot of good guys.
They've got a lot of good names. And I think there's a lot of coordinators that can come in and make a really good defensive scheme out of the guys that they have. I don't know that Joe Berry was able to do that. Is Jeff Halfley the kind of guy that can do that?
Should be. But Bart, we've seen too much, right? How many years have we seen this Packers' defense with talent saying it should be a good defense and it just isn't? So at this point, I'm sure you'd agree. At this point it's kind of – you've got to see it to believe it.
But there is reason. Jeff Halfley talked today to the media and he said he's going to let it rip in Week 1. They've changed from a 3-4 to a 4-3, which makes sense because they're a 4-2-5 nickel defense like every other team in the league and they've got a really stout defensive front and they're playing with 4-3 principles, which is what they play in the 4-2-5 nickel. It's more fluid. It's more consistent from their sub-package to their base defense when they are in the base. This is a really talented defensive front anchored by Kenny Clark, Rashawn Gary. But there's a lot of depth, more depth than they've had, frankly, in years on the defensive front.
I think we saw that in camp. There's a lot more interceptions on the back end, something that this defense did not do worth a lick last year is take the football away from opposing offenses. The pass rush and turnovers are a marriage together.
You've got to have one to have the other. They have the makings to have all that. This should be a better defense.
But until we see it, Bart, you kind of hesitate to believe it's actually going to happen. The other thing, and again, I don't know that there's any other team that I would ask this question about. I don't know if it's because it's been that bad or if it's because I am a Packer fan. But this whole special team situation, the kicker, they drafted a guy last year, didn't go well. He missed, what, a 32-yarder?
He seemed to know, okay, I'm probably getting cut. They bring in a guy from Tennessee. They keep giving all these guys to Rich Bissaccia, the special teams coordinator. You guys may remember him from the Raiders when he was a head coach there. We had thought, Packers fans, that Bissaccia was going to come in and really just revitalize this unit, which has been a weak point for a while. They keep seemingly giving him roster spots to work with guys. They have not gotten the results that I think that they have been expecting from Rich Bissaccia, whether it's the kicker or the coverage unit. How much longer can this go on before they need to adjust their plans with the special team unit, whether it's personnel or coaching? Well, we'll see what happens this season because it can't go on forever. Look, kicking is a hard job no matter what level you're on.
You're the only guy out there. Oftentimes the fate of a game, the fate of a season is on your shoulders. And everyone knows the lineage at quarterback, the other position, by the way, that you're the only one out there. Everyone knows the lineage at quarterback for this Packers franchise.
Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to now Jordan Love, it sure looks like. But what kind of got forgotten is that for three decades the Packers had three kickers. It was Chris Jackie, Ryan Longwell, Mason Crosby.
At Lambeau Field in Green Bay, when they kick outdoors late in the season in inclement weather, they always had stability at one of the most unstable positions. And it's like, okay, the quarterback lineage, it sure looks like it could continue, but they've crashed back down to earth like everyone else now after being spoiled at kicker for three decades with the failed Anders Karlsson experiment. You've got to give Ryan Gutekent's credit because he drafted Anders Karlsson last year in the sixth round. And when you draft a kicker or a specialist in general, you are absolutely, the worst nightmare is getting one and done with that guy. Like that is as humiliating as it can get when it comes to draft misses. But Brian Gutekent's owned it, and he's made a lot of, he's had a lot of hits in the draft over the last few years.
This was not one, but he didn't compound the mistake. He's moved on. Now they've claimed a kicker from Tennessee, Braden Navarson. They hope that he's going to stabilize this position that's been unstable now for over a year. This is a contending team. This is a team that has designs of getting to the Super Bowl, as they saw last year, fourth quarter in San Francisco.
Kicks can change those plans real quick. They have to get this right. Should be interesting. It all starts next Friday in Brazil against the Eagles.
Ryan Wood, PackersNews.com, Green Bay Press Gazette. We appreciate your time and good to catch up and have a great season. I will be bugging you soon. You know what, Bart? It's always good talking to you, man. Glad you're doing well.
