REShow: Dave Aranda - Hour 1

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That's 877-ASK-DELL to save up to 48% on our latest technology. You have to fight T.O. in the parking lot of the Del Mar Country Club. Today's guests, Baylor head coach Dave Aranda, Browns beat writer for the Cleveland Plain dealer Mary Kay Cabot, Go Long founder Tyler Dunn, plus senior writer for GolfChannel.com, Rex Hoggard. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Ryan Leaf.

Welcome, welcome, welcome back everybody to the Rich Eisen Show. Ryan Leaf here, filling in for Rich today, alongside my tag team partners, TJ Jefferson, Michael Del Tufo, Chris Brockman. Any eventful items last night for you guys? You know, heading home, spending the day, anything crazy happening in LA for any of you guys?

I don't think so. TJ, you're always up to something. Right, nothing, man. You're back out there, you said. I will say this though, yesterday, stepping off the putting green here, I kind of turned my ankle. And it kind of, it swelled up a little, and I just want to let you guys know that normally I'm 100%, 85% man, that's about all I need to. Is that why you brought in your shoes today?

Yeah, you know, it's all about this, Ryan and Chris and Mike, this is what we're all about, you understand. We're going to get to that, we're going to get to that grit here in a minute. And I'm going to have to grit through this ankle injury is all I'm saying. Maybe if you put shoelaces in your shoes, you won't roll your ankles. Well, I mean, that's a good point too.

That's a good point too. This is Fresh Prince style, no lace, look ma, no laces. Let's go. I used to have those Jordans when I played in high school. Yeah? Yeah. When you were breaking backboards?

I was breaking backboards and doing that stuff. I thought we'd get into training camp a little bit. Hard Knocks aired last night, the Detroit Lions with head coach Dan Campbell, which we'll delve into his opening monologue on the show last night. But since it is kind of the dog days of training camp, right, getting right to the first part of, you know, preseason game start Thursday night for most teams. Of course, the Hall of Fame game was a week ago, but, you know, I want to kind of talk about what training camp was like for me. When I was in college, it was brutal because it was three days, right? We'd have two days practice where they were two and a half, three hour long practices. And in the evening, we'd have a special teams practice. And I was a holder, so I always had to go be part of the special teams practice too.

So it was just brutal. Of course, this day and age, things have changed immensely. We have Dave Aranda on a little bit later here to discuss what their training camp is going into his third season as head coach of the Baylor Bears. But even in the NFL, right, the CBA that has been negotiated, they've negotiated down to three preseason games as well as a limited amount of hitting, right? I don't think you're even allowed to hit or put pads or hit at the NFL level until like the seventh practice or so now. So it's interesting.

It really is. My rookie year in San Diego, I hadn't signed my contract yet, so I was a holdout. Of course, there was no rookie salary cap at the time, so your agent was incredibly important in negotiating a deal. And his process, Lee Steinberg was my agent at the time, his process with San Diego was that I was draft pick 1-B.

We were 1-A and 1-B. Either one of us could have gone number one, so therefore he was going to negotiate in kind for the highest contract ever. And it shouldn't be a huge discrepancy between Peyton Manning's and mine.

And that's what he did. And at the time that I signed, it was the highest, I think, contract ever in NFL history or at least for a rookie. I can't remember what it was. It might have been of all time. Now that got eclipsed about two days later when Peyton Manning signed his for about, I don't know, $250,000 more.

But for a moment, that was it. And I wasn't able to go to training camp. Like my agent said, you have to stay home. Let us get this done. The only leverage you have right now is holding out.

Let's get it negotiated. So I was going stir crazy, right? I'm in this new house in La Jolla there in San Diego watching the news of practice and things like that. And I wasn't there. And I'd never ever in my life not been to a fall camp before. So I'm like, I turned into the best housekeeper you can imagine.

I cleaned my house like a million times, just running around ragged like, what's going on? And I almost went to camp and just told my agent, I'm just going. I'm going to practice. I want to play.

Let's go. Finally, he gives me the call about the morning of the second day of training camp. I show up and it is a circus, everybody, right? There is a helicopter flying over the top of the practice facility we were at there in La Jolla. They had everything ready for me.

I walked out. The media was just everywhere. And there's a picture that was on the front page of the San Diego Union Tribune of me around a gaggle of reporters, just consumed by it from the backside with my name on my jersey. And I can only imagine my teammates watching this play out, right? And that's why I think when the rookie contract or the rookie salary cap came into play, can you imagine a guy who's never done a thing in the NFL? Not one snap, not one anything walks onto the football field with that kind of hoopla with the likes of Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison, Aaron Taylor, new offensive lineman with us, and he walks onto the field as the highest paid player on your team.

I mean, it can't feel great. You were hoping for the best because it means bigger contracts for you, assuming down the line. But in that moment, you've got to look at the kid, the 21-year-old kid. I may have turned 22, 22-year-old kid at the time, walk out on the field, and then already be on this pedestal and having done nothing. And that's where I was.

But the funny thing about it was I thought I deserved it. Like this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. I'm going to do exactly what I did in college.

This isn't going to be a problem. Our first meeting that I had, Coach Gilbride at the time, Kevin Gilbride, wasn't really a gung ho screaming and yelling type of coach. He was a coach that was very confrontational, right? He expected things done his way, and he had a bit of a struggle of a year the year before, but this was supposed to be something that could jumpstart everything, and a new quarterback, a big physical quarterback in the vein of Warren Moon to take his offense to the next level, right? And so when we went into practice, it was kind of like that, right? I loved every minute of it. I loved it.

I loved that it was all football. Like there was no worries about class coming up or anything like that. You were in the film room. My quarterback coach was June Jones, and him and I spent every waking minute off the field in that film room, right? I think sometimes I get labeled as a guy that didn't work hard, right? And that's kind of a caricature of me. You go back to that early camp, and June Jones is speaking glowingly about how much time and effort I'm putting in to being the starting quarterback, wanting to be the starting quarterback in the film room, and film was never an issue for me. I mean, I would fall asleep in my head coach's office in college, and he'd have to wake me up in the morning with the blue screen up on the wall because I fell asleep watching film in his office, right?

That was never the case. It was all about how I dealt with failure. That was where my downfall was. Incredibly talented, worked hard, and now, a few weeks in to camp, after my performances in early preseason games, I was named the starter, right?

It was everything I wanted. There was nothing that was going to hold me back from being the starter. Now, should I have been the starter in year one?

Probably not. Not because I didn't earn it, but just mentally, maturity, all of the things that come with being an NFL quarterback. Completely not ready, but there was nothing going to stop me from being it. That was like the competition that made me who I was, what I was supposed to be. If I wasn't, that would have been a knock on me, right? That would have been something's wrong with him.

How is he not the starter now, right? And so, once that was announced, as you guys know, there's a lot of rookie hazing, especially for the first-round draft picks. And they were taking guys after practice and taping them to the goal posts, dumping Gatorade baths on them, which is kind of endearing. I don't know, another grown man hauling me to a spot and taping me up is something I would be okay with. Outside of that form.

Right, outside of that form. But in itself, it was team camaraderie, all those things, right? Well, one night I was watching film and Junior Seau, the leader of that team, the leader of the defense, he walks into the film room there and he says, baby boy, that's what was my nickname from Junior.

Tyrese? I liked it. I mean, I thought it was pretty cool that one of the greatest players of all time in NFL history had, baby boy, we're not going to tape you this week, but you're going to take the defense out to dinner. And I said, well, I can't spend the time away.

I got to watch film here. Here's my credit card. There's some trust there, right? There's some trust there. So I gave him my credit card and he went with the defense and they went out and had a heck of a time.

I heard that some of the defensive guys just showed up for ten minutes, walked in, asked for a couple of bottles of Cristal and out they went. I think the bill ultimately was around $5,000 or just above that. That's not too bad.

Wow, I thought it was way higher. Right, right. Well, don't forget, back in 1998, it was a different monster.

I don't think we've had that $50,000 bill that Dez Bryant talks about all the time, right, that had come around. And also I felt like it endeared me to the team. I felt like I was part of the team. Not only was I doing something productive by watching film in the film room, but now I was giving it to, you know, being a part of it with the defense.

I don't care. I remember when the bill came back, I remember the first, you know, $5,000, like the most I'd ever spent in my life on anything, I don't know. I don't know, a hundred bucks at that point. A hundred Jordans? You know, my parents bought the Air Jordans, right?

So I don't know. I don't remember having spent any money up to that point on anything. So it was shocking, you know, but I was like, okay, okay. I mean, you know, I just got $31 million.

I guess $5,000 is okay. It's perspective on how you look at it. But I loved that it was – I loved where we were going. I loved where we were trending. And we went out to practice a couple days later. I threw a pick, and I was running it down, and Junior kind of cut me off and kind of lit me up in the practice. Oh.

Right? And I got up and went at him. And my old lineman loved that.

Loved that their quarterback got up, went after the defensive player. Yeah. Well, it got reported. It got reported by everybody that I was upset that Junior had gone into my room, stolen my credit card, and paid for the dinner. That was the story that the Union Tribune went and that I went and complained to management.

Oh, geez. And this story hung in the air forever. And I never commented on it because I just thought it was so foolish. Junior didn't either. And then years and years and years later, it continued to become this fable that just got regurgitated and more and more about – and just a few months ago on a podcast, someone was talking about how – I think Garrett Wilson was talking about how he wasn't going to dish out a bunch of money for a hazing thing like that.

You can do whatever the hell you want to me, but you're not going to spend $100,000 of my money before my rookie year starts. And so they brought up the Junior Seau Ryan Leaf story and they said, yeah, it can totally backfire. Like, Junior Seau stole Ryan Leaf's credit card and Ryan was so pissed, he went to management and then went after him in practice.

Wow. It turned into one of those cut a fish this big stories, right? Yes, it just kept going on. So finally, I think I was on the Pat McAfee show and I just – I told the story. That's the truest part of the story. He was – he came in and asked me for it. I was going to be the starting quarterback.

They went out and spent it on the defense. That was it. There's no story to it. But I think because of how I imploded, the chaos that ensued with me, I think it just became this bigger, bigger story. The fable of my first training camp in San Diego. Yeah, I just found an article from 2013 that has a former Chargers exec telling SI the year before about how Junior had taken your credit card and you complained to Bobby Bethard and then Junior lit you up in practice as a way of saying, like, don't go to management. Yeah. So that rumor has been going around for a long time.

I mean, that's like, what, 15 years after it supposedly happened. Yeah. That's so interesting. Well, it's the same thing. It's like Bill Polian going on the radio talking about the draft experience with me and saying that I showed up to the meeting and said, I won't be at the minicab days because I'll be in Vegas with my buddies. Right, right. That was the story that we had long heard. Right. And I just couldn't – I mean, things get – this fish, this fish was this big, this big, this big.

Telephone, man. You know, it's crazy. It's crazy what camp looks like. Hard Knocks didn't exist. Wow, what if Hard Knocks would have existed that year with us in that first training camp? It would have been pretty boring, to be honest with you. But what we saw last night, right, first thing you came in, Chris Brockman.

Yeah, I wanted to know if you guys had seen it. The opening of Hard Knocks last night, Dan Campbell, who's been a quote machine, who's been a quote machine early on in his career, went on a bit of a diatribe and there was so many – at the beginning, I was fired up, like I was ready to roll. And then it started kind of teetering off course with mixed metaphors and then the shallows and on the beach and then the abyss and then a – The tunnel. A tunnel with no light when then there is light and then – But it's a freight train because he heard a Metallica song and we're treading water to bury you. Are we in the water?

Are we on the land? I'm very confused. Some of the players looked confused. That was the thing.

Some of the players looked confused. Now, you know, Mike Del Tufeno is better than anybody. You can edit anything you want to put together to make it, you know, any reality show. Exactly. You can take that into consideration. This is a question for listeners out there, right?

If you want to give us a call, 844-204-RICH, 844-204-7424. Is that kind of coaching style, is that a motivating factor for you? Would that motivate you to get the best out of you? This team hasn't been to the playoffs since Jim Caldwell was the head coach and guess what? Jim Caldwell is my quarterback coach in Tampa. He is the polar opposite of Dan Campbell. He came up in the Tony Dungy era of coaching and how to handle yourself. Sometimes you wonder with kids that are, I shouldn't call them kids, young men who are 22 to 28 years old, new into the league, seeing a coach fired up like that, if you watch some of the pregame stuff, remember Ray Lewis back in the day in those huddles would just be screaming at people and barking and getting people fired up? Sometimes I think that craziness is what guys need. I don't know how you open camp with it, if that's a motivating factor in all this, because it's going to be a long, long time, but I'd love to hear what people think around what Dan Campbell does.

Is it something that would motivate you, would have you run through a brick wall? Because I think his team and the moment when they're 0-0, I think it feels like it right now. There's a hype to Detroit, some young players. They have sleeper potential, I feel like. Especially in a division where the Chicago Bears look like they're sliding down a mudslide and there's no stopping it in any way, shape, or form. Bears look like kind of a bottom five team. We don't know what Minnesota's going to look like.

We all assume Green Bay's going to be kind of there. But yeah, that was kind of my thought while I was watching the episode. We all kind of play, not to your level, but TJ and I played high school and some a little bit in college. Does that do it for you as a player, this type of Dan Campbell? He's very passionate. I don't believe it's phony watching the episode and what he talked about last year. I believe that's really who he is. He played in the league.

He was a Bill Parcells guy down in Miami and then learned under Sean Payton in New Orleans. So I really believe that's who he is as a man and as a coach. But I'm just wondering, like, would that do it for you, that type of just like all these mixing metaphors and the screaming and then right in your face? And I love you, man.

I think about you guys 24-7. You know, I don't know, just maybe at 22 that would have done it for me. But at 42, I'm just like, just give me a while. Let me get to work. But at 42 you're not playing football.

Let me do my job. You're only 42? Oh, man, I look 32. Come on, bro. By the way, though, just for the record, I did not play in high school. I was 5'6 in 10th grade, so I wasn't playing high school football. I'm trying to talk you up, man.

I know, but I don't want to lie to the folks out there. I was a little dude. I shot up.

Mike lies to them all day. Accountability. I like it. Yeah. We're rubbing off each other.

I grew as I got older. Yeah, but give us a call for real. Like, would this coaching style work for you? Yeah, what is your coaching style? What would you run through a wall for?

A guy that is in your ear constantly about just motivational things. I love you. You got to be better.

This is that. One day at a time. We're going to get better.

One percent better tomorrow. Or is it someone like Belichick or Kyle Shanahan? Just someone who's kind of more, not subdued, but just like, you know, we're on a different level.

And we're kind of talking to you in a regular, normal voice most of the time. Mike Price, who to this day is the greatest coach that I ever played for, and that's saying a bunch. I played for Tony Dungy, you know, Kevin Gilbride, June Jones.

I played for some great coaches, but he just, the way he motivated was pretty, he kind of moved in silence. And then just boom, there's an explosion. Like all of a sudden, Tommy, all of a sudden he hires somebody to ride out on the practice field on a horse when we're playing the USC Trojans that week, right? And the song's playing. And then we're about to play Oregon or Cal, I can't remember that year. And we're all in the dining hall pregame and we're just kind of, you know, we're kind of, you know, getting ready.

Everybody's quiet. All of a sudden this, you know, 55-year-old man jumps up on the table and starts screaming, I'm so excited by the Pointer Sisters. And I'm like, what the, but I'm 21 years old. And I'm like, dude, this is, this is really cool. This is motivating. This is interesting.

So maybe you're right. Maybe the 22 to 28-year-old guys are buying into it, want it. But you and me at 42 and 46 are going, oh, my God, please stop. Yeah, but your age is now, you're not competitive athletes. I don't know about you. I just want to home run derby. I'm not sure you are the home run king over here, but I'm just saying.

Maybe we should ask Tom Brady. Yeah, but he's an anomaly. Like, he's one of one.

No, but I'm saying he is our age. Yeah, but there's one guy that you can go to to ask this question of what you speak. Like, I don't know. I'm just wondering, like if Rich came in here and before the season started, gave this Dan Campbell type speech, wouldn't you roll your eyes? I would be like, what are you doing? If Rich said that stuff, I'd laugh. Yeah, right.

That's what I mean. If he's in here talking about tunnels and the abyss and the trains coming at you like, let's go have and then go have fun. I love that.

That was my favorite part. Dan Campbell's talking about all this bleak, dark crap. There is no like, let's go have fun. There is no light.

What? There is no light. And then he's like, let's go have fun.

But if there is light, if there is light, it's a freight train coming through your ass, right? And you're like, let's go have fun. Fun? How? How? What?

How? I don't care if you have one finger and half a butt cheek or something like that. What was it? Oh, no, it was half a butt cheek and three fingers and three toes. Wait a minute. I think it was three toes. I think it was half a butt cheek and three toes.

One ass cheek and three toes and I will beat your bleep. There you go. All right. Great.

All right. Like what? So like this. So if you just showed up with this. Yeah. And then half a butt cheek.

Three toes. And just remember, however you feel now, it's the best you're going to feel. There's truth in that one. Yeah, without question. Without question.

Until mid-March. He was like, you're 85% though. You're not 100%. You'll never be 100%.

Like you say, you're 85%. Yeah. Yeah. No, there's a former player in that aspect of things. And they commented and showed how many former players they have.

Yeah, it's cool. On that coaching staff. They got a lot. Like over 90 years of playing experience on this coaching staff. Mark Brunel, of course, played 19 years. Yeah, Mark Brunel, Aaron Glenn, Deuce Staley, like a lot of good former players who played a lot of years in the league. Antoine Randel-Well.

Antoine Randel-Well, Super Bowl champ. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, look, the Lions are fun. Like Hard Knocks kind of sucks you back in. For me, the Hard Knocks debut is really the kickoff to the NFL season. It's something to look forward to each week. It's something to talk about the next day. And so, look, I'm just glad it's back.

We didn't see any sprinkler ticking last night, Mike, which is a little disappointing. But it's nice to hear Liev's voice and then the music. I can't get enough of the Hard Knocks. The Liev Schreiber iconic voice, right?

It's just the best. Iconic. Yeah.

I would love for him just to do like a voiceover for something for me. Just like a day? For a day in my life.

Driving in my car. Yeah. It would be great. Yeah. But Ryan Liev decided to make a left turn. Right. When Liev got up, he decided to make a left turn when he should have gone right, as we all know. Chris cut another person off on the 405. Story of my life. All right.

Dave Aranda is going to join us here in a few minutes. But first, I don't know if you know your numbers, you don't know your business. That's true when your business is growing fast and even more true when there's a lot of uncertainty. Inflation is running rampant, supply chains are clogged, and the labor market is tight.

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Head to NetSuite.com slash rich radio right now, NetSuite.com slash rich radio, NetSuite.com slash rich radio for that. All right, when we come back, Dave Aranda, Baylor, head football coach is going to join us talk a little college football. We'll be right back. Does your antiperspirant keep you dry all day? Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on instantly dry for a cleaner feel and offers 48 hours sweat and odor protection. Let me repeat that, 48 hours of sweat and odor protection. Use it and don't even think about it. Also, Dove Men Dry Spray contains Dove's unique one-quarter moisturizing cream that helps protect your skin.

That's right, Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on dry, clean feel all day. Welcome back, everybody, to the Rich Eisen Show. Ryan Leaf here, filling in for Rich as he's off this week before getting kick-started with the NFL season. This next guest is, I'm a big fan of, had the privilege of covering his team a few times a year ago and then had the great honor of being asked to come and speak to that group of young men on campus back in June for the Baylor Bears.

Head coach Dave Aranda joins the show now here on the Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line. Hey, coach, how we doing? Doing great.

Good to hear from you. Dog days of summer, right? Camps starting, how has the introduction to the new season come about? I know you were building culture hard this offseason, and how's it gone so far? It's going good.

Today's the first day of pads. We've got a 9 o'clock PM practice tonight. We've got a game on our schedule that's going to be at that time, and so we're trying to get used to being under the lights and all of it, but it's been good. The helmets and shells, those practices have been real efficient, they've been executed good, the energy has been really, really good, and so I'm excited about it. How we push through these next couple of days, though, is really going to set the identity of the team, how we handle the task within the task, and so we'll see. I feel like the momentum and the want to and all that's way there. The expectations on your team didn't really exist a year ago, after your first year, and then the way you came out and played, how you went about your business to ultimately get to the Big 12 championship and become Big 12 champions. What has that done for the, not only for the coaching staff, but for these players in terms of confidence and expectation on a year that we're about to tread into? I think it, just from last year's path, it shows that you don't have to be an a-hole to win, that you don't have to look at all of it a certain way just to win. I don't know if, I think sometimes those things get on your phone and kind of get viral and maybe when you've come up, you've been coached or been around other players that have really been about those things, and so after a while, it kind of becomes, this is the path, and so I'm hopeful that, I think last year there was a lot of speaking kind of a certain way.

Football is a platform to show the world who you are as a person, and the most important thing is the person you become as a result of all of this. And I think it was probably difficult for a lot of guys to hear, and I think this year there's a better understanding. I think for some of the freshmen, the guys that are coming in, having heard it all recruiting season and then seeing the team, it might be even stronger with them. I think some of the guys on the team just kind of feeling that, this is my turn now, I'm in the field of weeds and I have to build to maneuver through all of this and hold the tension of it.

I think that's the way we're at, and so like I say, these next couple days are going to be good to kind of continue to push to become who we need to be. We're speaking with head Baylor football coach Dave Aranda. Where did you get your coaching philosophy from? I found it very interesting covering a few of your games last year, getting on those Zooms with you and hearing the way you spoke and talked and now getting to know you better.

It really is kind of your identity. Where did you find that philosophy over all the years of coaching and getting to where you're at? I appreciate the question. I don't know. When I was growing up, I was not really into reading or books or education, I guess.

I kind of included high school years and was at a junior college in California and then started to kind of get into school and it just became so much easier when you read your books and studied and did all the things and then I became a philosophy major and then started to study religion and faith and reason and sports psychology. It just always struck me that there is always, it's interesting, I'm always looking at what is the thing we're really doing when we're doing what we're doing and I think there's folks that can be very direct and very precise with direction and commands and people can just kind of roll with it when they hear it. For me, it's like, what is he really saying? Why is he saying that?

What does this mean? Maybe you have to go way deep into it, but I feel like when you kind of have to go down, but then when you come back up, it can be way strong with connections and this is kind of, these are the people that have come before, right? This is something that is a natural feeling that you're going through, this stage of life, this is reflected in this movie, this is reflected in Ryan Lee's life, and you go from, there's like an awakening where it's kind of, this is all about me, it's me versus the world. The other side of that is that there's a connection with everybody and you can learn from everybody and there's empathy for everybody from other folks and that's just way strong, but it takes a while for guys to get there because they just want to fight it all.

And then in the process of that, when you're playing ball and you're fighting everything, you're kind of missing the whole point. The arc of college football right now in terms of where it's going, going for the big bag of money, switching conferences and stuff like that, your name was floated around a ton a year ago after the success about another job here or possibly there. I think you kind of are flying in the face of what people expect to be college football. You found a home in Waco, you love what Baylor presents to you as a man and to the university. Kind of speak to that a little bit and why you chose Baylor and why you're committed to making it the best possible place you can imagine.

No, thank you. I think Baylor helps me become a better man. I think so much of it is, it's interesting and it was just great about getting to visit with you and hearing your story and our guys still talk about your talk, but so much of it is just making yourself fully available to other people and really being seen. It just takes a lot of courage to do that and you have to know who you are and then you have to get out of your own way.

I don't know, those things are very hard to do and it's almost like our jobs or our professions and everything are almost, they can be used to distract you and have you kind of just play the game of all of it or they can be used for that transcendence. I feel that here and I think that to me is way important and I don't know, I feel like our guys are starting to have an understanding of that or at least they know when I'm talking and they don't understand what I'm saying, they know I'm being sincere and I believe it and so I just feel at home here. I can see from afar and while I'm there that you do feel at home and this team is raring to go.

I'm excited for it. Before we get you out of here, let's talk a little football, right? Jerry Bohannon did a heck of a job for you a year ago. Blake Shapen steps into the Big 12 Championship and this offseason won the job and is now your quarterback. Kind of talk to us about that a little bit and just what you expect from this team this season.

No, I appreciate it. So far, so we're going into our 6th day today, there's been a really good balance of run and pass. I think the ability with the wide zone, just the pro-style attack, is to really force people to play with edges for safeties to kind of get down in the box and there's just big play ability.

I think in the league, what was it, maybe a couple years ago when the Rams were coming up and they had that Super Bowl game versus the Patriots and the Patriots played like a 6-1 and they had their both safeties deep so they could kind of catch those overs off the play action pass that the Rams are running and so there's big play ability within just kind of the structure of the offense that we play and so to connect on those things and to, you know, if corners are playing off, because the safeties have to be in and the corners are playing off to protect that way, to take advantage of the grass with just free access throws, but to be precise and to connect on all that stuff and give the offense a big play ability, I think just adds a whole other layer with it, you know. I think Blake and his development is maturing as a leader. We've got to continue to run into these storms. When I look at our season, it's really that. I mean, we're running into one storm after another, you know, on the road particularly and so for us to mature and take these days that we have to kind of rep that and kind of harden that muscle I think is going to be way important for us, but the throw game has been good. I think defensively, you look at our front and just the depth that we have and, you know, knock on wood that all that is going to continue to be there for us. I feel, you know, there's a confidence among the team, but there's also like a real strong hunger for our identity and this is this year and this is us and so it's a good mix.

It sounds like it. Coach, thanks for taking the time. Hopefully I'll get out there and maybe get one of your games again this year, but continued success and good luck on this season.

No, appreciate you. Thank you. Thanks, coach. Dave Aranda, Baylor head football coach in his third year, winning a Big 12 championship a year ago in a year where Texas and Oklahoma decided to vacate.

It couldn't have been a better thing for the Big 12 Conference to see a couple of their teams that weren't a part of that of leaving to go to the SEC. All right, when we come back, we'll recap a little bit about that and talk about some of the injuries that came out yesterday from camp here on the Rich Eisen Show. You're listening to Ryan Leaf here on the Rich Eisen Show filling in. We'll be right back. Welcome back everybody to the Rich Eisen Show.

Ryan Leaf here filling in for Rich out this week alongside TJ Jefferson, Michael Del Tufo on the ones and twos, Chris Brockman playing the hot corner today for us as always. Dave Aranda, we just had him on, Baylor head football coach. If you all remember a year ago, right around this time, a little bit before, the SEC shocked the world with the move by both Oklahoma and Texas in a couple of years to the SEC out of the Big 12, which at the moment put the Big 12 on life support.

What's that going to look like, right? They went out and found four other teams, teams that, one, made the college football playoff in Cincinnati, Central Florida, Houston, and BYU. Those are the four teams that they added to the mix when those two teams left. I think people still feel like it's a bit underwater, but I found the most important thing for them to do a year ago was to go out and compete in that conference and showcase that both Oklahoma and Texas are not to be thought of, right?

And that's what happened. The state went out and had one of the best years in school history. Baylor did as well in year two under Dave Aranda. If any of you guys don't know who Dave is, he was the defensive coordinator on that LSU national championship team that sent half their starters to the NFL in the first round. He does an incredible job. This was a perfect example of how we started the show around Dan Campbell as kind of a in-your-face screamer, you know, metaphors, biting kneecaps and three fingers and a butt cheek type of mentality, to what Dave Aranda sounds like, right? As a coach.

That couldn't be more night and day. But when I asked him the question around who does he get his coaching philosophy from, I heard him say it before and it's somebody that I played for. It's really Tony Dungy. And so that kind of makes sense, right? Tony was a bit of that way, right?

Just very faith-based, wasn't a charge in to motivate, but rather do it in a take you aside type of way. And I can tell you right now, these Baylor Bears have responded, right? To win it in the fashion in which they did a year ago, making that stop on fourth down at the goal line to win the championship, and then to spend some time on campus this summer to see how they're going about their business.

The culture there has definitely changed and they are to be reckoned with now. I want to go over their schedule a little bit, all you Baylor Bears fans out there. Yeah, Ryan, also the Coaches Bowl came out two days ago. Right where they have them? Baylor's number 10.

Number 10. I mean, coaches around the college landscape see what Dave has done in his few years. Run the football, right? They run the football, they run play action, and they play great defense and get turnovers. I mean, that's just the ingredients needed for championship football. Biggest thing for me is their road.

I mean, he talked about it. Their road schedule is brutal, right? At BYU in week two, at Iowa State, right? At Oklahoma State at home, it's great, but at West Virginia on a Thursday night in Morgantown, at Oklahoma, at Texas.

That's a brutal road schedule, but they were incredibly good on the road and at home last year. I expect them to do much of the same this year. Speaking of that top 25, can we put that together?

I'd love to kind of go over that because there's some interesting aspects to this. In particular, one, let's start with the top 10 here, right? Alabama, of course, they get the most votes. They should every single year, 54 first place votes. Ohio State with five.

I thought they would be a little bit closer to this. I think Ohio State can be incredibly dangerous this year. I mean, they are loaded once again. Their performance in the Rose Bowl was exceptional. Georgia, having lost that whole team, still comes in at three.

Plebs in there, looking for a rebound. Ironically enough, those four teams, the elite of the elite, right? Notre Dame followed by Michigan. Michigan gets thrown up there and Mr. Rich Eisen is pretty happy with where they're starting this year. Texas A&M, who apparently bought their entire team this year. The Utah Utes. After I host the show on Friday, I'm going to jump in on a plane, fly into Salt Lake, going to be with the Utes for a couple of days there, picked to finish or picked to start the season at eighth right now. That's impressive to start that high, because if they have a great year, guess where they open up, guys? In the swamp at Florida.

Wow. It's a big non-conference matchup, right? Oklahoma, even under Brent Venables. After Lincoln-Reilly departure, picked at nine, and then Baylor, the team we just talked about, at 10. All right, let's pop into the next 10 after that. Okay, we just had the top 10. The team I wanted to showcase I think is picked around, Brockman, correct me if I'm wrong here, but USC. Who are you looking at? USC's 15.

15, right. This for me is, this tells you what kind of impact Lincoln-Reilly has, right? The move he makes to go to USC, the transformation of the roster.

Apparently 30 plus new players on the roster because of the transfer portal. They've added the Balitnikov Award winner at wide receiver in Jordan Addison. Travis Dye, best running back in the Pac-12, comes from Oregon and heads to USC. They get Caleb Williams, his quarterback, five-star quarterback, who we talked to Yogi Roth about yesterday, and from Oklahoma. And people assume that a team last year that was four and eight, four and eight, with that turnover with a new coaching staff because of Lincoln-Reilly and those things, can now be... Are back? They're back.

It's like Texas getting a first place vote. I just saw that. That is insane. Who do you think did that? Sarkeesian? Or do you think, maybe Saban did it.

Because they play him in week two, like, look, no one, somebody thinks we can't win this thing. That's funny. Yeah, maybe. You wonder. I don't know how many people comes out here, I think, next week or later in this week, so we'll know a little bit more there. But I don't know. I have USC going eight and four this year.

Okay. Which, if you look at their schedule, I think people would walk away from and go, that's... But expectations are going to be through the roof for this football team. So we'll see. We'll see. We'll come back, we'll get back into the NFL and talk about training camp and the teams and divisions we're going to discuss.

Here on the Rich Eisen Show, I'm Ryan Leaf filling in for Rich. All right. So when we come back, we're going to want to talk about the divisions that we were starting to dive into. And today, particularly because we have Mary Kay Cabot on for the Cleveland Browns and the Cleveland Plain Dealer here in about 25 minutes or so, we want to talk about the AFC North.

Let's do it. Right? Incredible division. Pittsburgh has never had a losing season under Mike Tomlin. Cincinnati goes to the Super Bowl in year two with Joe Burrow. The Lamar Jackson scenario in Baltimore, does he get the new contract? There's no way he plays on the fifth year option this year, does he?

I can't imagine. Why would he? Why would you put yourself in that type of situation? Why would you risk that?

I wouldn't do it if I was him. And then you look at the Cleveland Browns with all the chaos that has ensued. This may be one of the most chaotic but interesting divisions of football this year because of all the storylines that we just talked about.

So we're going to dive deep into that when we come back. Also Tyler Dunn is going to join us. Buffalo Bills really beat Ryder, has his own podcast and go-long TD at dot com that he's done.

But he follows the Buffalo Bills really, really closely. And I'm interested to get his insight on what the offense looks like now that Brian Dabble's gone. How the coaching staff has addressed what went down at Arrowhead Stadium in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Those are two big questions I want answered there. And then when we get into hour three, we're going to discuss the live situation, right? The injunction that the players were looking for, the three players that were suing the PGA Tour to try to get access to play into the FedEx playoffs, it was denied yesterday. And simply because of the amount of money they've been given by the live tour, the judge ruled that they did not believe that these players would be hampered by not playing in the playoffs because of the amount of money that they made, essentially. So they will not be involved. This will be ongoing, of course.

This will be something that continues for some time on the legal side of things. Rex Hoggard from the Golf Channel dot com, Ryder is going to join us to talk about when we come back. So you're listening to the Rich Eisen Show. I'm Ryan Lee filling in for Rich.

We'll be right back. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments, it's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson, too. All-time Hogan opponents, Macho Man's got to be in the conversation. Where's Andre for you? I've always said Andre was number one. Wow. Because even going back before Hulk Hogan was a babyface, Hulk and Andre were able to go in and headline at the New Orleans Superdome at Shea Stadium in Japan. Wherever they went, that was an attraction. Something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.