Welcome to the jungle. My name is Jim Rome. Great to have you here. It is awesome to be here. It's even better to have you here.
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All right, so coming up today, I've got an interview with Andy Staples, one of my favorite dudes. Twelve forty, some really interesting matchups in the college game this weekend. Andy Staples from On Three at twelve forty. Coming up at one twenty, former major leaguer Jonathan Papelbon. Really looking forward to that.
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So where to start? Where to start? Let me think. Let me think. Hmm.
Oh, I know. How about right here? If you're getting ready for work right now, if you're getting ready for work right now, then you're probably not Tony Romo. If you're getting ready for work right now, then you're probably not Tony Romo. If you're getting ready for work right now, then you're probably not Tony Romo.
Did I pass this test? No, no, apparently not. Because as of this morning, Tony Romo is no longer a CBS Sports employee after they quote mutually end of quote parted ways. Yeah, sure, sure. They did not.
Romo and CBS mutually parted ways, sort of in the way that Alvin mutually hammers terrible phone calls. If by mutual you mean a completely one-sided decision, then yes, of course, it was mutual. But, but, but, don't worry, Cleveland. I am not going to give away your open. And spend it talking about CBS breaking off Romo because Cleveland, this open is for you.
Cleveland, this open is for you. Your Browns finally earned it, and I am not going to be the one running around today trying to tell you that this is not real and that this is not fun, or act like the bunkin. Isn't doing a great job because he is now. Yes, the Browns did commit another fourteen penalties last night, and yet somehow won.
So, what does that tell you? What does that game tell you more about the Browns or the Steelers? But they committed fourteen penalties and they still won. They turned it over two more times and they still won. They blew a double-digit fourth-quarter lead.
But guess what? They still won. All those stats are fine and working against them, but scoreboard—the only stat that matters. Look up at it. Look it.
Let me talk about stats. There are some wild stats. Check these stats out. Wild. Quote: No other team in NFL history has managed to have a winning record through four games, despite the following: despite having fewer TDs, fewer made field goals, fewer rushing yards, fewer net passing yards, more turnovers, and more penalties than their opponents.
The Browns have all of that, yet they've got a winning record after four games. And I think we all know what the Munken would say if somebody showed him all those stats. If that, that. If that, that. Because right now there is only one stat that actually matters today: three and one.
The Cleveland Browns are three and one. Who cares how they got there? Who cares who they beat? The freaking Browns are in first place in the AFC North. Browns are going to so Cleveland bask in it.
You have to take this rare opportunity to point up at the scoreboard. And point at the standings and puff your chest out, and I'm sure as hell not gonna be the one to stop you. I'm happy for you. I am. Hell, I'm even happy for Happy Hour with the Monken.
I'm down for that. Last week I was saying, you know what? I might be down for that. The week before that, I said, no way in hell. I'm spending any time with the monkey.
Now I might be down for happy hour with the monkey. In fact, we're actually working our way back. To a lunch with a monkin, lunch with a monkin, lunch with a monkin. That's not far off either, not if this guy keeps this up. I mean, you might not all be about the creep.
In fact, maybe none of you outside of Cleveland are about the creep. But if you're looking at the monkin right about now, who would want to have a beer with that guy? Guys doing a hell of a job. The vibes are so much better. And that was a very nice win last night.
Ask me, that was a nice win in the best worst game in quite some time. Because yes, there is plenty to clean up, and no, that was not a Super Bowl. That was not a divisional playoff game. They didn't win the division. But that was a nice win, man.
A nice win and a fun win and a win over a hated divisional rival in prime time. And yes, the energy in that stadium was incredible. And as much as it pains me to admit, that is now three times in a row that the creep has come through. I mean, really, is amazing what a little confidence and a little self belief has done for Deshaun Watson. Dude went from a total shell of his old self to almost, sort of, kind of looking slightly like his old self if you squint hard enough.
But I'll give him this much. He's moving around great for a dude who suffered a couple of shredded Achilles. Yes, the creep was pretty terrible in the second half and did play a huge part in letting the Steelers back in that game, all the way back in that game. Except he was great in the first half. That was the best first half he's played since coming to Cleveland, and then he did come through again in the clutch when he had to.
So I do have to give it to him, creepy or not. He has clearly shown that he is the Browns' best quarterback option by far. I mean, what happened to that Shador nation?
Nowhere to be found, nowhere to be seen. You too, Alby.
Sorry about you. Let's hear what else. What I've seen. Not that I didn't know this. Obviously, I knew this, but it really is pretty incredible to see.
What he has shown is fans will forgive nearly any transgression as long as that player wins. And right now, the creep is winning just enough to give every Browns fan amnesia. I mean, it was not long ago that he all but gave them the bird right before they announced him as the starting quarterback. I mean, they were all against him. They've all conveniently forgotten that he told them bleep off.
They don't care. In fact, Creeper Watson looks solid enough that the Browns are going to keep being a problem. The defense. Is definitely going to be a problem, and all of a sudden they've got some good young weapons on offense, and they have the Munken doing the Munken things and bringing his Munken vibes. Even the way he flipped the kicker, the game ball after he nailed the game-winning kick from 56 yards out, this was classic the Munken.
Drake, what's up, you? Good job, man. Appreciate that. That's it.
So funny, man. This is what I mean about the monkey working his way back to a possible lunch. He said, "Get your ass up here." Kicker comes up. Schmidt comes up. He says, "Good job, man." Schmidt says, "Appreciate that." He's like, "He's just looking at each other." Good job, man.
Appreciate that. Get the f out. That's it.
That's it.
Get the f out, man. The Munken loves him some f bombs, doesn't he? And I have to admit, the Munken's f bombs sound much better after three wins, and they sound much better when they're in first place. Munken saying, check that. The Munken.
I want to give him his proper respect. It's never Munken. It's the Munken, the Munken saying the Browns is the Browns f that actually sums up their entire attitude right now. That's exactly what feels different about this team. The Browns is the Browns f that.
Browns are gonna Browns that.
Now that one might have backfired slightly on Mike Tomlin, but I still think Tomlin is having a good old time. Tomlin is enjoying himself. I still think Tomlin is in a good spot, showing off his Minecraft city.
Well, Big Mike McCarthy bickers with Aaron Rodgers like they're a crusty old couple that's been married for like sixty years. Like you got the fat spouse bickering with the old spouse. I just got fat. Don't they seem like that? The the spouse that let himself go, bickering with the fitter spouse, the fat spouse bickering with the old spouse who's still in pretty good shape.
Did you see these two having at it right in the middle of the game, right in front of the cameras and microphones? All right, so I'm not gonna play the sound because I can't play the sound on the show. But we can all read lips. If you're watching on the stream, that's Aaron looking over the sideline, f-bombing the fat spouse. Let's try it with sound.
We bleeped it out. Listen. Aaron looking over for the. He did this a lot against Cincinnati last week. Kind of looking over the bench, like yeah.
Call it. Yeah, he's not happy. Wow.
So what you have is the old spouse infuriated because the fat spouse is not getting the play in in a timely manner.
So the old spouse is f bombing the fat spouse, and the fat spouse is kind of muttering under his breath his own f bomb. I mean, you can clearly hear Aaron f bombing Mike right there on the broadcast, right there, and then you can clearly read Mike's lips. In reaction to Aaron f-bombing him, and it doesn't take even an amateur lip reader to tell what Big Mike's response was. Check it out. And then that's not all.
Now you got T.J. Watt, who is demanding the headphones to get to the D coordinator. When's the last time you saw that happen? Like the hell is going on here? Why the Steelers signed up for any of this, I still don't understand.
And this is not hindsight being twenty twenty, and this is not Friday morning quarterbacking. I didn't get it then, I don't get it now, and I don't get it going forward. Who thought it was a good idea to try to force these two to try to make it work again when they didn't really make it work for that long when they were in their prime?
So I didn't get it then. I don't get it now. But I will say this: I do find the whole thing hilarious. Hilarious. Aaron dressing down the big fella like he's the big fella's daddy, right there for the entire world to see, is hilarious.
And then Big Mike pouting and rolling his eyes like an admonished, punished, chubby little kid, also hilarious. And it was still hilarious after the game when the big fella had to hit the podium and explain why he called his QB an effing a hole. Yeah, I think the biggest thing. Burke said some about some, some on the TV, but yeah, communication sometimes is not the best choice of words. But we're everybody's competing on the field.
I think. You know, what's said on the field, the way I grew up in this game, you know, usually stays on the field. That's not the case today. I understand that, but yeah, any negative communication on my part, I wish I wouldn't use those words. Yeah, go to your room.
No dinner. And by the way, you don't need dinner. You've had enough dinner. Go to your room. Yo.
Teenage fat man, you're grounded. Go to your room. No dinner. You don't need the dinner anyway. Big Mike looks and sounds like he just got sent to his room, and I never heard that saying before.
You know what's said. What's said on the field stays on the field. What?
So now it's Vegas.
So now the football field is Vegas. What happens here is supposed to stay here. Slight difference. Football games happen on live national television. There are a thousand cameras and a million hot mics everywhere.
Do I have to break out my leather helmet, Lee Evans joke? What do you mean the way you came up? What are we talking about? There are mics and cameras everywhere. It's the opposite of Vegas.
And by the way, there are cameras everywhere in Vegas.
So I don't even buy that whole notion of, "Hey, man, you're good here. What happens here stays here." The hell it does. Every single little thing in Vegas is taped and monitored. They know every inch of everything in that town. But anyway, if you want to play along with that, I will, Mike.
But it's a little different from the VIP room at the Script Club, or in your case, the buffet line at the Script Club. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would rather be in Cleveland's spot right now than Pittsburgh's. I definitely would much rather have the Monken running my team than the big fella. No lie, the guy waited till he was sixty plus to get a job, and he's only coached four games. And the big fella's been around forever and has a Super Bowl.
And I would still rather have the Monken right now. The craziest thing about the position the Browns are in is that there's a real chance they can keep it up. Look at their schedule; they're three and one. They're on top of the division, and the next four Browns games look like this: Jets, Ravens, Titans, Steelers. Again, there's a pretty good chance that a month from right now, the next time the Browns and the Steelers do play, that the Browns might be five and two.
I mean that sounds impossible, right? The only thing standing between the Browns and a five and two mark are the Jets and the Titans. And hey, maybe, maybe, maybe the Browns beat the Ravens at home too. Might as well dream big while the vibes are up. Seatown with the fan, Cleveland is flying to football, and the creep is playing in a high leverage situation.
And the Ravens continue to come from ahead to lose. Anything is possible. The Ravens are still finding way to lose games that they win. And with the vibe being what it is, and the creep settling in, and the way the defense is flying around, and the young weapons they have offensively, and the munkin bringing that munkin juice, they should bottle that man. They have Monkey Gin, for instance.
It's like it's actually very good gin. Monkey Gin. They have the Monkey Juice. They'd sell that stuff out, man. He's got his own branded juice.
See, see, down. I told you. I told you. I was not here to hate. I know you're happy, but I want to make the point one more time.
It does go to show. Almost regardless of transgression, we could talk about the accused sexual assault of more than two dozen women against the creep. But even if you don't want to talk about that, and I know you don't, Browns fan, how about the fact that he all told you to effectively go to hell? You also forgave him of that. If you win, almost anything will be forgiven.
This is a great example of that. But I'm not here to rain on your parade because I know what that win meant. You beat your hated rival in prime time at home. You're three and one. And what you're here to tell me, and I know you, Cleveland fan, you're here to tell me, Rome, life is good.
It is right now, and I got to give it to the monkey. It's working. It is working. One eight hundred six three six eight six eight six. Let me get you some reaction really quickly.
Stuck on radio quote: "The Steelers took a vacation in Cleveland." Do you like it? You think Cleveland's cool? I mean, I never heard anybody say I'm going to Cleveland on vacation. What's so good about Cleveland? It's all factories.
Hey, Joe. Hey, Joe. I know you tried to walk that back not long ago. Apology not accepted. That is forever.
That one's forever. We're not going to allow you to walk that back. Aquamoon two one three. You shut up when you talk to me. The two of these guys bickering like that.
A national TV, you know, and the whole thing too, like the narrative, like what a feel good story, you know. I'm big on both the guys in the booth for a prime, Alan Kirk, Alan Herbie. I'm big on both these guys, but this whole narrative that man, this is going to be such a great way to end, such a great career. Aaron, the big fella, back together. Why?
What?
Why is that such a good thing? It wasn't even a good thing when they were together the first time. I mean, it was for a little while, for a minute or two. They did win a Super Bowl, but it didn't end well at all.
So why, all these years later, when they're all much older and fatter, would it be such a great thing? Not sold on it. Will, Sam, and Mike. Which one is it? All three of you?
Are all three of you in? This is this guy's handle at Will, Sam, and Mike. Rodgers is still looking through his ear hole after last night. That's why he cursed. That's part of it.
He got battered. He got battered. But you know what? Part of that is who's playing in front of him, and part of that again is the Browns' defense. We're talking about a defense that lost Miles Garrett, a defense that lost Jim Schwartz.
And they are flying to the ball, and they're getting to the quarterback. And how about my dude, Jared Verse? All juice, all juice. I thought that was a really costly penalty on that two-point conversion, or it could have been. But I love verse.
I love the way verse has settled into Sea Town because I know for a fact he loved it here. And why wouldn't he? He loved SoCal. He played for the Rams. They're playing for Super Bowls.
They ship him off to Sea Town. He didn't see it coming. And I love the way the guys just leaned into it. Loves it. Accepts it.
Wants to be that guy. And I love his motor. And I love his energy. All right, let's take a break. One eight hundred six three six.
Eight six, eight six. Yeah, I can't win for losing. If I don't give the Browns credit, I'm a hater. If I do give the Browns credit, it's like, bro, why are you giving them so much credit? What have they really done?
You know what? Since I know that I can't satisfy all of you, I don't really give a damn. I'm just gonna do what I always do. Tell you what I think. Tell you what I think, and Sea Town.
I've always loved Sea Town. I know what that win meant to them last night. I know how much they hate Pittsburgh. They hate Pittsburgh, and they won again on a Thursday night. Go figure.
All right.
Anyway, I want to hear from Browns fans. I want to hear from Steelers fans. I know both sets are listening and watching right now. You hit me with your thoughts on what happened last night. Since I just spent twenty five minutes telling you what I thought about last night.
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My dough never sees a freezer. Fay Hollis makes the biscuits at Hardee's. I'm up at 5 a.m. every day making biscuits from scratch. Easy there, biscuit lady.
Ought to create the Hardee's two for five dollar breakfast menu. Try the new Oscar Mayer Bologna Biscuit, sausage and egg biscuit, smoked sausage biscuit, biscuit and gravy, or a cinnamon roll. The two for five dollar breakfast for a limited time only at participating Hardee's. I got up early. The least.
You can do is show up hungry. Oh, I forgot to shout out Chat. Hey, Chat. Hey, Chat. You're off to an especially bad start today.
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Yo, chat, what's going on? Other than you being worse than usual, let's see what we got here. Aaron in Iowa, Shidor is being legendary. Legendary holder of the clipboard, man. It's awfully quiet in that nation, isn't it?
Bossy Mo writes: The 1995 Browns are you already off to a bad start, dude? Who cares? What does the 1995 Browns have to do with anything? The 1995 Browns were three and one under Belichick until Modell announced the move to Baltimore midseason. Team completely collapsed and finished five and eleven.
And? The hell does any of that have to do with anything that's going on right now? Is the team going to move under the cover of night this year? Is Modell going to fall in the shower and bruise his scrotum again? Where's Belichick?
What's your point, dude? They're three and one today. They had a big win last night that they almost gave away, but held on and won at home in prime time against a rival they hate. I'm reacting to what I saw last night. Actually, I'm reacting to what I've seen last couple of weeks.
Joseph Price, 32-11. Browns winning is awesome. Browns slash Raiders AFC Championship, bro. I can pretty much promise you that's not going to happen. Emerald Mill Champ sixty forty one.
At this point, Jeff in Richmond would make a better head coach than McCarthy. And then this. A D's X eight H. The Browns are still gonna have a losing record, and the Steelers are still gonna have a winning record. You people are pathetic.
Which people, D's, and why are they pathetic? I'm going by what I saw last night. Did you not watch the game last night? What is this? The Steelers are still gonna have a winning record.
You mean like they do every year when they go nine and eight and never win anything that matters? They beat you last night. These. What did you not see? We're not talking about what's going to happen.
I hate to go the monkeying on you, but I'm just talking about what's happened so far. I'm talking about what's happened so far. I'm talking about what happened last night, and what happened last night was they beat your ass again. They beat your ass again, except this time it was in prime time, and everybody saw it, and nobody expected anything from this team. They got blown out in the opener by the Jags.
They lose the opener to Jacksonville, and it looks like the creep is one game away from playing for his career. Actually, and then they get back home, and then Shidor would get the start. But funny thing happened along the way. He won that second game, and then that third game, and then that fourth game, and now they're three and one, and they're in first place.
So, Dee's, if you want to double back at the end of the year when your team is sitting there nine and eight. And the Browns have regressed, maybe so. But what do you mean we're all pathetic? If we're all pathetic today, what was your team last night when you opened the game with a really impressive drive, only to do nothing until the fourth quarter, and by then it was too late? And then, and then, when your defense had to get the whole off the field and just make a play, just make a play, couldn't do it, couldn't do it.
It must have made you these longing for the good old days of terrible, terrible Austin. Couldn't even get out the field. All right, when we come back, talk some college ball. Andy Staples joins me. That is next.
You're listening to the Jim Rome Show. My dough never sees a freezer. Fay Hollis makes the biscuits at Hardee's. I'm up at 5 a.m. every day making biscuits from scratch.
Easy there, biscuit lady. Aught to create the Hardee's two for five dollar breakfast menu. Try the new Oscar Mayer Bologna Biscuit, sausage and egg biscuit, smoked sausage biscuit, biscuit and gravy, or a cinnamon roll. The two for five dollar breakfast for a limited time only at participating Hardee's. I got up early.
The least. You can do is show up hungry. That's true. It's about to get a hell of a lot better because I'm all about this guy. We are joined right now by a college football analyst for On Three.
He is co-host of the Andy and Ari Show with Ari Wasserman. He is the man. He is Andy Staples. Andy, I know how busy you are, man. I appreciate you making time.
How you doing, Andy? Oh, I'm just ready for another weekend of college football. A couple good games tonight. We get Northwestern's new stadium open up. Penn State in the house.
Got undefeated Pitt and undefeated Virginia Tech. Let's go. Let's go. I like it. You know, we have actually.
I am glad you started there. We finally have some Big Ten action, some interesting Big Ten action. Why don't we start first with number five Ohio State and number fourteen Iowa, coming off their last second win in Michigan. Do you think the Hawkeyes can hang with the freak show? There is Jeremiah Smith and the Buckeyes in Ames.
You know, it's interesting, Jim, because if if Jeremiah Smith is the only freak show. Yes, they have a chance because now, if he does what he did to Illinois last week, probably not. But Iowa's got a better defense than Illinois does. For you know, Illinois fired their defensive coordinator on Sunday. Iowa's not firing Phil Parker on Sunday, so.
Ohio State to this point has not really come up with a one B behind Jeremiah Smith. If you remember, I mean, last year it was him and Carnell Tate. Carnell Tate's the first receiver off the board in the NFL draft. The year before that, it's Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, Emeka Buka, and then you got Quinshon Judkins and Travion Henderson running the ball. That team won the national title.
Somebody young has got to step up for Ohio State if they want to be that national title contender. Because if you look at some of these games, like Miami game last year, is a good. Example, they sort of let Jeremiah Smith get his and contained everybody else, and Ohio State only scored fourteen points.
So. That's Iowa's dream right there. Find a way to hold Ohio State to 14 points, and maybe you have a special teams touchdown, and maybe you can punch one in. All right, so that's how you have to do it if you're going to beat them. Andy Staples joining us.
Speaking of if national title aspirations, you've got number four Indiana, and they should hammer Rutgers. But let me ask you this: all this narrative, this controversy, Andy, surrounding TCU transfer Josh Hoover at quarterback, while there was expected to be a drop off with Fernando Mendoza leaving. After a rough week against Northwestern last week, does Hoover need to elevate his play for the Hoosiers to have a real shot at winning in Natty once again? Given who they have to play, yeah, he does need to, Jim. But I will point out.
I think we're looking at a pretty good Northwestern team. We'll know a little more tonight when they play Penn State because they rolled over Colorado, and the way they played against against Indiana in the in the second half, because they weren't really scoring much in the first half. But that third and fourth quarter, if that offense looks like that, they're going to beat a lot of teams.
So I'm not I'm not ready to throw out Josh Hoover yet. Not ready to say Indiana is completely dropped off. I think we need to see. What they what they played, what they're up against, and I think Nebraska next week will be a nice test for them. Andy Staples joining us, right?
Andy, so you mentioned Northwestern.
So, what about Northwestern and tonight? What do you need to see? What are you looking forward to seeing tonight?
Well, I need to see more from Penn State because Penn State had a seventeen nothing lead against Wisconsin, and they just you know blew it. They couldn't get any. Production downfield. It probably, I'm sure, the Penn State fans were getting flashbacks to the late James Franklin era because I think they completed a pass to one receiver. Kobe Howard went out a couple weeks ago.
He was their leading receiver, and it changed the way their offense plays. If they can't find somebody else to make explosive plays, it's going to be a long year for them. But Northwestern, hey, you got that beautiful stadium opening up. Keep playing good defense. Look like you did offensively in the third and fourth quarter against Indiana.
You have a really good chance of winning this game tonight. It's not. It's not about covering. It's about winning outright. Andy Staples joining us.
Andy, back to Wisconsin. Then, since you mentioned that, does that game tell you more about Penn State or Wisconsin? And how big a win was that for my guy Luke Fickle? Huge! I predicted before the season that Fickle was going to coach his way off the hot seat, and and the reason I did that is because when they said they were going to keep him last year, that team galvanized around him, and they they beat Washington like two days later than they beat Illinois, and and at the time, based on their injuries, like they had no business beating anybody, and so I thought, okay, they are putting more resources into the roster, the team clearly appreciates Luke Fickle.
They they can be good, and the schedule this year much easier than it was last year. They had probably the hardest Big Ten draw this last year. This year it's one of the easier ones, so I'm excited to see what they do the rest of the way. Because like you know USC's got to go up there in a few weeks. That's not going to be fun for USC in Madison.
I can tell you that right now.
Well, I know for a fact it's not having been there. It's not going to be having living here and having been there. I agree with you, Andy Staples joining us speaking of USC.
So they're number eighteen. They look to rebound from that loss to Oregon. They host Washington. In fact, what about them, Andy? For instance, if Lincoln Riley cannot get the Trojans to the playoffs this year, how seriously do you think that school might consider a coaching change, even with a seventy million or so buyout?
Very seriously, because they paid for him to be in the playoffs, and and they paid for him to be in the playoffs long before this season. But now they've given him pretty much everything he needs. He's got the number one recruiting class. They got a brand new facility that they just opened up. And Lincoln Riley himself said it.
You know his rhetoric changed before this season, where before he was saying, "Well, look at look at the crap I inherited," and now he's saying, "The windows open, we got to get it done." So he gets it too. I think he understands. But the Oregon game was really disheartening because it's the same problems over and over again. Your defense lets you down. He's punting, or excuse me, he's going for it on fourth and seven.
Late in the game because he doesn't trust his defense to stop anybody. It's, it's, it's the same thing year after year after year, and I think that's what USC fans are getting sick of.
So the good news is they're four and one. It's not over yet, but. You better beat Washington, which has not looked great this season. They struggled against Washington State. They struggled against Utah State.
They got beat by Minnesota. Like you better beat them. If you can't, that accelerates this process. I mean, we said all the same things last week, right before Oregon, and they lost.
So you're right. They better beat Washington.
Now, point you made about the defense, like it's the same old thing about the defense. But that was all supposed to change when Gary Patterson got here. But it didn't. It's almost as if it doesn't matter who coordinates the defense because, like Alex Grinch. Who took a lot of blame when Lincoln Riley was at Oklahoma, and then he brought him to USC, and he he got buried there.
He's doing great at UCF now. Danton Linds at at Penn State right now. Gary Patterson, we know, is one of the best defensive coaches in the history of the game.
So, is it them? Or is it the culture around the team and the way the head coach chooses to practice and the way you know the offense gets treated at practice and the defense gets treated at practice and how much hitting they decide to do? Like that's. Really, what it boils down to. I remember writing a column off the the Pac-12 championship game, USC against Utah in Lincoln Riley's first year, and and Utah just bullied them in the second half of that game, and it was obvious.
Like this is a team that doesn't hit much at practice. And Lincoln Riley always said, "Oh, we're going to change things every time we brought in a new defense coordinator. It's we're going to make sure we play complimentary football." But it hasn't happened yet, and and at a certain point. You know, you you meet jerks three times. You meet jerk at nine a.m.
You meet a jerk at noon. You meet a jerk at three p.m. By five p.m., it's probably you're the jerk.
So that's that's the problem right there. I like that. You know, I don't want to get all hot take with you, but isn't it amazing that Bob Chesney comes in here and literally, seemingly within weeks, the culture has flipped completely, and that Lincoln Riley's been here for years and nothing has changed? It it's almost as if coaches know what their culture should be, and and and that's what they do if they if they feel like they've got a thing a good thing going. And the thing is, this has been Bob Chesney's culture in Division Three, in Division Two, in the FCS at Holy Cross, and in the Group of Five at James Madison.
He this is how his teams play. And he's taken it to UCLA. It's at a higher level. They're playing higher level opponents, but they look exactly the same.
So he knows what he wants, and he knows how to install it. And it's been amazing to see them. And as their schedule gets more difficult, I'm excited to see what they look like. How you know how how much can they contend with actual Big Ten title contenders this year? Because I think Curt Cignetti has.
Just warped all our minds by winning the the national title in year two at Indiana, but. I think if you hire the right guy, it's possible to get better very quickly. You're seeing that at UCLA. You're seeing that with John Sumrall at Florida. It's happening at various places.
You know, I was going there next. I was going to your alma mater next, and John Sumrall. The argument that you made about Bob Chesney about if you know exactly what your culture is and you know how to install it, you can do it quickly. Is he not doing the exact same thing? And then, what do you expect when they match up with Missouri tomorrow?
So John Sumrall is doing the same thing, but kind of differently than these other first-year head coaches, with the exception of Pete Golding, who obviously was was an internal hire, but. John Stubble kept a lot of what Billy Napier had at Florida. They let DJ Lagway, the quarterback, go, but almost everybody else that was a contributor, they kept. And they felt like, hey, this roster was already good. We just needed to add a couple pieces to it.
And that's one thing that I think has been really interesting about the way they've done it. But you know, going up to Missouri, Eli Drinkwitz is going to have to prove that he can beat a good ranked team because their record against ranked teams is is pretty dismal.
So this is this is his time. You're at home. You got a team coming in off a major emotional win against Ole Miss. Like this is a trap game for Florida.
So you're going to have to trap them. If you can't, you know, Florida runs for 300 yards on them just the way they did on Ole Miss. It's going to be a long day. I'm a big drink guy. I love drink.
I love drink. I look. I don't for a second not not respect John Summerall and what he's done. It's amazing what he's done. He just wins.
But I love drink. That's gonna be a real interesting game. We're talking Andy Staples. Andy, what about Mike Norvell? Like his seat seems like it's getting even harder.
Leave me with this thought: Who they fired their AD a few weeks ago? That's not good for him. Who is there anything at all to the crazy internet chatter? They might bring back Jimbo Fisher, and if not him, if the job were to open up, who do you think would be on that short list? I think it would be crazy to bring Jimbo back because one, there are people in Tallahassee who remembered how he treated them on the way out of town, so I don't think they're going to be too keen on it.
But also, he got fired at Texas A and they paid him a seventy-seven million dollars buyout because he was not able to win in today's game in today's environment.
So why would you bring him back? And the only good excuse I've heard from anybody is well, he'd be cheap. He would he would give us a discount. That's not a good reason. That's not a great reason.
So, if it opened, I do think there would be some people who might be interested in Manny Diaz at Duke, who is fantastic. He won the ACC last year. They're undefeated again this year. They have outpunched their weight every second that he's been there. He's a Florida State alum, so I think he'd be an interesting one.
I would go after Kenny Dillingham. Who worked at Florida State under Mike Norvell for a bit? He's done a great job at Arizona State. I think there are more people than you'd think who would want that job. But the thing about Norvell, you know, I think the administration, if they could, would love for him to just win a bunch of games so they don't have to pay him this massive buyout.
But the thing they already handicapped him; they didn't really give him much for the roster this year, so. They kind of made their own bed in this situation. There's not much he could have done.
So, it's it unless he can pull off a miracle here in these next few weeks, it's going to happen, and then they're they're going to have to go find somebody. He is a great analyst, Fran. Three great friend of the program. He is Andy Staples. Andy, appreciate you, man.
Great job. Have a great weekend. Thanks for doing that. Thank you, Jim. You're the best.
Andy Staples is so great. Love having him on the show. All right, when we come back, the start of hour number two.
Now get up in here, engage, call, write in, hit the chat, do whatever you have to do. Just make sure you find your way in. We'll come right back.
