REShow: Eric Musselman/Tom Izzo - Hour 3

This is the Rich Eisen Show.

Aloha, friends. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'll be back Monday when Aaron Rodgers is still a member of the Green Bay Passes. It'll be great.

And we'll spend the whole five days waiting for something to happen that probably won't happen until the trash. Earlier on the show, ESPN Packers reporter Rob Demovsky, ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Billis. Coming up, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, Arkansas men's basketball head coach Eric Musselman. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air here on this busy Monday with the Sweet 16 all set. Tom Izzo of Michigan State basketball calling in at about 20 minutes time.

Jay Billis, we chatted with him last hour. We chatted with Rob Demovsky also of ESPN in the first hour about what's going on with the Green Bay Packers and their conversation with the Jets about Aaron Rodgers. If you missed any of the first two hours, we re-air right here on the Roku channel as soon as this hour is up. We also have our podcast where all podcasts can be acquired thanks to the Cumulus Podcast Network all three hours. Do us a favor and hit us with a subscribe button there and also our YouTube page youtube.com Rich Eisen Show. There's the Rich Eisen Show collection page as well as part of our Roku channel experience.

And you can check us out there if you miss anything. Chris Brockman and Jason Feller in for Mike Del Tufo, TJ Jefferson in his position as well. Joining us here, however, to kick off the third hour of this program, we have a new champion that will soon be crowned in college basketball in the men's basketball tournament because Arkansas bounced last year's champion in an exhilarating win to move on for Arkansas to take on UConn next up in Las Vegas in the West Regional and the head coach of the eighth seeded Arkansas Razorbacks after beating a top seed for the second straight year in this year's tournament. Joining us on the program is none other than Eric Musselman back here. How you doing, coach? I'm doing great, Rich. Thanks so much for having me on.

You got it. I'm just being honest with you. I'm excited that you're here, but I'm going to keep my shirt on if that's okay with you. That's probably good.

We all should probably keep our shirts on and me included. No, I don't know. I don't know, coach. I'm just going to throw this out there. 58, you look great, man. I mean, what's your diet? What's your diet, Eric?

It's an hour cardio every day, but my wife, she let me know that that was not a good thing, not to do it again. So I'm going to try to hold my emotions together a little bit more next time, Rich. Well, in your defense, Eric, we have a photograph of it up right there, and I have worked with your wife. So I know what Danielle looks like. I think that's her right in front of you looking, cheering you on.

So in this still photograph, I'd have to push back on any pushback from the misses, not to get involved. I think Danielle was so excited for the W's that she actually put up with it. Very good.

I do like it. What was it like in the locker room afterwards of that game? Oh, it was, I mean, like when you win a game, any game in the NCAA tournament, it's absolutely incredible the emotions that come out. Certainly after a loss, there is a lot of tears, but even after wins, you see guys crying. And when you win and advance, the camaraderie, the chemistry, everything just continues to grow.

The buy-in continues to grow. But there's nothing like winning in this tournament and advancing, and then to be able to do it against the number one seed of the defending champions. And they had, you know, Kansas had some really, really talented players that were part of that championship team as well.

So a great win for us. But now the key is that game is over, and it happened on Saturday, and now how do we focus on our first time back on the floor today as we get ready for UConn? Well, the good thing about the advancing and the surviving is you get the players pack that fouled out. I don't know if you're aware, but I do believe your team is the first one seed to, the first team to ever beat a one seed in the tournament, despite having three players foul out.

And I'm wondering if that is something that can actually cascade from one week to the next. Is that sort of resilience, coach? Well, you know, we were put in some unique situations with three guys fouling out because, you know, our player that was kind of the go-to guy the entire second half was Devontae Devo Davis, and he picked up his fifth foul with about a minute forty to go, and we were actually down three. I mean, we had to kind of change who we were running sets for.

We went to Rickey Council and kind of played our small forward at the point guard position, handling the ball and picking roles. And then even towards the end of the game, we were kind of shuffling. One guy might go in for five seconds because we had the ball on offense, and then we might put a different player in for defensive purposes. Then a third guy went in with seven seconds to go just for rebounding. Those three guys in particular had not played the entire 39 minutes up until the last minute of the game. But hey, we're a physical team, and sometimes we do get in foul troubles because of our aggressiveness on both sides of the floor. Well, I mean, your team did, you know, obviously you have a lot of moving parts and a lot of moving pieces.

Davis with 25 points, but Rickey Council, the fourth man, nine of his last 11 points, came on that final run for your team. He was terrific and followed up his free throw, and that was a huge moment for you guys. What do you say in the huddle when you do get these guys in front of you and there's a bunch of guys who have fouled out and you got to dig deep? What do you say to a team like that? Yeah, just continue to talk about belief and continue to talk about getting a shot on goal and understanding the ball's got to have eyes and find an open teammate if you get trapped or double teamed.

It's so interesting, Rich, because these games always come down to a little thing. You mentioned the missed free throw by Rickey Council, and Jordan Walsh actually spun to the baseline and got a piece of the ball, as he was obviously not an inside rebounder because we were shooting, but he did a great job of really aggressively trying to tip the ball back out, and not often there's a guy that shoots to, you know, a free throw, miss it, the ball comes back to him, and then he ends up drawing two more fouls. He could have actually backed the ball out. He made a really aggressive, smart move to just take one or two dribbles, get right back to the rim, and get back on the foul line.

But all these games that are close, there's always like little one or two defining plays that, you know, that are the difference between a win and a loss. I've got the head coach of Arkansas basketball, Eric Musselman, here on the Rich Eisen Show. Now, you know, you go back to the state of Nevada, interestingly enough, right, for you, former Nevada coach, and do you ever sit here and think about your journey as well, Eric, where you were a young guy following in your dad's footsteps, the head coach in the NBA, Golden State, Sacramento. Now, you're a college coach who's trying to get back to the Elite Eight for a third straight year. Do you ever sit back and, you know, obviously you strike me as a guy who is very high energy focused on the present, but do you ever sit here and wonder about your journey and what you've done so far, coach?

I think for sure, Rich. I think that, you know, some of the emotions after a big win are, you know, obviously people, you know, are aware of being a head coach of the Warriors and the head coach of the Kings, but, you know, I also kind of had to reinvent my career and made a decision to kind of move away from the NBA game and start in college basketball as an assistant coach, two years at Arizona State, a year at LSU. I knew that I did not know the college game.

I didn't know anything about putting together a schedule, non-conference schedule. I had no idea about recruiting, so I needed those three years as an assistant coach, and just prior to my time doing that, I was a head coach of Venezuela, Dominican Republic national team, so it's been an unbelievable journey. There's not many people that have had the opportunity to coach in the NBA, coach in the G League, coach national teams overseas, and be a college head coach, so my journey's been a long, wild one, but one that I wouldn't, all those experiences have have really shaped me.

I think back to my time coaching, you know, the two national teams were predominantly, the roster spoke Spanish, and it made me a better demonstrator because I don't speak Spanish, so I had to slow down my delivery. I had to demonstrate more, and then in-game huddles, I became much, much clearer in my presentation and diagramming on the dry erase board for execution type stuff, so all those experiences have certainly shaped me as a coach that still can't wait to get on the practice floor every single day. But how did your NBA experience shape your ability to do what you're doing right now, or not at all?

Well, no, I think for sure a ton, Rich. I mean, I say it all, the best coaches in the world are in the NBA. They really are. I know that college coaches are developing and teaching players, but from a strategy standpoint, incredible coaching at the NBA level, so certainly that's helped. I think just from an experience standpoint, when you're able to coach 82 games in a regular season as opposed to 30, and your game is eight minutes longer, that people don't really think about. In the NBA, you know, if you're involved in any free agency stuff, that's a form of recruiting, and so I think strategically being in the NBA has helped, but also some of the things that I've seen from a recruiting standpoint with free agency can also, you know, because you've got to have presentations to try to sell an NBA player if he's got four or five different options in free agency.

So there's been a lot of areas that I've learned from the NBA that I've been able to take to the college game. A couple more minutes left with Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Eric Musselman trying to get his team into the Elite Eight for a third straight year taking on UConn, so that game comes up pretty quick. How do you handle the 72-hour period between now and tip?

What do you do? Well, yeah, so we're going to practice today. We'll leave tomorrow morning. Practice once we get to Las Vegas, and then there'll be a lot of mini film sessions, Rich. We don't have long film sessions here. We don't really believe in the 35-minute, 40-minute film session, so we might do a little five-minute segment of film before we go to lunch, a five-minute segment where we come back from lunch, and each of those five-minute segments will have its own theme because we, you know, we have got to know UConn, their personnel, what they like to do offensively, what they like to do defensively, and then in special themes, what do they like on baseline out of bounds and side out of bounds, both defensively and offensively. So we have a lot of things to cover in a short amount of time, and obviously, from a preparation standpoint, you cannot overload your team as well, especially in these one-and-done type situations. But at the same time, do you have somebody cutting up UCLA and Gonzaga tape as well, or you don't dare do something like that because you're...

I know we're doing it, Rich, but I don't know about it, and I don't want to hear about it. But we have three assistant coaches, and they all divide up. One will have this scout.

Another would have the potential of a winner in the next game as well. So we will be prepared, although the players and myself are only focused on one thing and one thing only. And that's beating UConn, but I'd imagine also, for somebody who's in charge of a group of college-age men going on the road to try and pull off a difficult task, Las Vegas might be the last place that you'd want to take them to, but what do you got on that front about talking to the guys about the city or where you're staying or anything like that? I mean, what do you got?

It's really interesting because while we were in Des Moines, Iowa, one of the things we said was, hey, this is awesome. Everybody's really focused. There's basketball in the gym, and we don't have to worry about anybody walking around.

They're all off their feet. And certainly Vegas is a whole different animal that you're dealing with. But I think between practice and the NCAA, there's a requirement from the media obligation. So I think we'll be pretty zoned in and focused. I think that's what you have to do during this time of year. And your guys have got to understand this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and you really can't lose focus, not even for a minute. Then you got to make sure that whatever opportunity is coming your way, not to take all of them. And for that, I send you off with this idea.

Coach, if you win in Vegas and you take your shirt off, you might get a call from the Excalibur about bringing your thunder down the end of that strip right there. I don't know if that's something that's on your mind, but just keep that in mind if you're thinking of celebrating in the same fashion. Just throwing that out there. I hear you.

I've always got to keep that in the back of my mind, I guess. Please do that. Please do that. Best to your wife, who I haven't seen in a long time at ESPN, and of course, NFL Network. Take care. Good luck, and let's chat down the road. Appreciate the time as always, truly. Thanks so much, Rich.

I appreciate it. You got it. That's Eric Musselman here on The Rich Eisen Show, Arkansas versus Yukon in the regional in Las Vegas. That's still in the Excalibur, right? The thunder? Oh, good question.

That's from down under? Well, they have the giant. They have the giant. Just turn your man to your left. He spent more time in Vegas. I'm just saying that when you get off the train from the, they have a giant billboard right when you walk into the airport. Boom, it's right in your face. Coach Musselman.

Taking on Yukon. Wait, he's 58? Yeah, I know. Now, let me tell you something. He deserves to not wear a shirt looking like that at 58.

I wear cardio every day. I looked it up. I looked it up. He was the head coach of the Warriors. So if he's 58 now, 2002, he was in his early 30s, or his mid 30s, coaching the Warriors. And he was the runner up in coach of the year voting in 2002 to 2003. 26 first place votes finishing behind Greg Popovich.

Wow. And that 2002-2003 Warrior team, I mean, I think a Donald Foyle was on it. Was it Baron Davis too?

Was it too early for BD? I mean, you've got the internet in front of you just as much as it's in front of me. You know? Yikes. 26 first place votes.

Minnesota, yeah. They reached at one point. Before Baron.

They reached 500 for the first time in nearly a decade. And then Chris Mullen came in and ended up bringing in his own people. That's the same guy that's out there for Arkansas. Just interesting.

Talk about journeys. We'll talk about it with Tom Izzo, the head coach of Michigan State basketball. He's getting set to go to Madison Square Garden to take on Kansas State. Can't wait to chat with Coach Izzo, one of the few Spartans I adore.

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Grainger is the right product for you. Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. I had to call this man and offer my personal congratulations to get to the sweet 16 for the 15th time in his stupendous career as the Michigan State Spartans are going to Madison Square Garden to take on Kansas State in the East regional semi-final. The head coach of Michigan State basketball, the only basketball program from the Big Ten still left in this big dance. Tom Ezzo back in the program. How you doing, Tom? I'm doing good, Rich. I was hoping to come out west so I'd get you and Mooch.

I'd make you come to the game and maybe put on some gear or something, but that didn't happen. Wait a minute. Mooch isn't hopping a flight to New York? What's going on there? I don't know yet.

I talked to him yesterday and I think he's making his decisions. I heard you talking to your buddy there about having kids. Sometimes if you just have a wife it makes it harder.

You don't get to do whatever you want to do when you're married. No, I understand, but Dale understands. Come on now. She's awesome. Of course. She knows.

You've known her for decades too. Here's the thing. I know there's all this talk with Tyson Walker being from Long Island, all this talk of New York pizza. That is the exact way to get Mooch on a plane is to tell him.

Oh, I know. He does love pizzas, so maybe I could have him in the back of the cab with me and Tyson. I'll be working on that, but I don't want to think Tyson's buying too.

That's the deal we made last week, so I might have two pieces. Who knows? I heard that how you said afterwards he's going to dip into his NIL money to buy the pizza in New York. That one made me laugh out loud. Well, look, congratulations on advancing. Obviously, you know about surviving and advancing and you know about what it takes to cut down nets. I'm wondering what it is about this team, uh, coach, that might feel different to you or remind you of a previous run at all. Yeah, you know, it reminds me of some of them. I mean, and we've been a, as I said, I've done it all. I've been a one seed and got beaten the first weekend and I've been there, you know, a two seed, I think, and got beaten the first weekend and I've been a seven seed and gone to a final four.

So, um, I'm not sure seeds matter like they used to, Rich. It's just, there's just so much either parity or there's so many people trying to find themselves. And the one thing I've thought about our team all year, we had two major injuries early. Guys missed a lot of time and then we got them back and then they got, uh, you know, then they went out again. And so we've been a little bit, um, up and down. We're not the most talented team I've had.

It's kind of like the Denzel Valentine team of 15. You know, maybe we, uh, who knows if we can make a run, we've already made a little run and now, uh, you know, the way everybody's been getting beat, I don't know who's left, you know, it's, it's hard to believe. I'm sure your bracket's all screwed up, but, uh, even my bracket's all screwed up.

So, uh, I don't know. It's been an interesting year in college basketball. Well, I mean, the one seed in Purdue, uh, went out, you mentioned first weekend, first game, my goodness, and Florida Atlantic beats, uh, Fairleigh Dickinson, um, and faces Tennessee in the other regional semifinal that's there in Madison Square Garden.

So, um, I would say there's a clearer path to the basket, but as you pointed out, seeds don't really matter anymore. No, there's a lot of good teams. I mean, uh, we play Kansas State and, uh, you know, we, we had played Kentucky earlier. I thought we'd end up playing Kentucky and that Kansas State beat them.

And, uh, then we played Tennessee, uh, in an exhibition game early in the year. And I think they got the clearest path of the elite eight. I mean, they have to beat Florida Atlantic and that's not saying, but it's an eight seed. So who knows, you know, it's been such a topsy turvy, um, uh, tournament that, uh, every time you think you can predict something, it's unpredictable. So hopefully we'll just keep doing our job and see where it takes us. Well, I mean, you have 55 NCAA tournament wins now, uh, coach.

And so, uh, you're a perfect guy to ask this. Is there more parody now? Is, is, is there more talent that's spread out all over the country, uh, that does lead to seeds not mattering anymore?

Have you noticed that from your position on a bench all these years in the NCAA tournament, Tom? You know, it's a notice of big change. I don't know if it's parody, the transfer rule.

I don't know what it is. Um, guys, you know, nobody wants to stay one place. Uh, we're getting to be a transactional, uh, organization now. And instead of the old, uh, I think your, your old buddy Bo would have trouble this day and age.

I don't think they'd like the, uh, the movement, you know, Hey, Hey, tell a kid, he's got to go to class and I'm leaving tomorrow. You know, so I think we got some of that going on. I think we've, we're in this period right after COVID, you know, where everybody's trying to find themselves, but, uh, you know, I think parody is good, but like in the NFL, I don't think everybody should be nine and seven and all or 10 and six. And it's kind of happened in our league this year.

Everybody was 11, seven or 11 and eight. And, uh, that's kind of hard to handle at least right now. Maybe that becomes the new normal. I don't know, but, uh, I think it's a situation where there's a lot of moving parts right now in college football and basketball. Let's see where it lands. Do you think there's a lot of Heathcote head knocking would happen if he was, you know, like I said, you're, you're guy, Bo and my guy, I'm not sure they got different time having trouble adjusting, but those two, um, I don't think they'd adjust very well. Did Heathcote ever come back after knocking his head so damn hard with his own fist, say I actually hurt myself. Did he ever say anything?

Did that ever happen? One time, uh, he had a watch on and he did it and he was bleeding. And I told him he was bleeding. They yelled at me. And then one time, I remember when he threw his, the ball down and it came up and hit him in the head. Um, I went to catch him and he told me to get my blankety blank hands off. You know, he was, he's awesome, man. You know, I get worried about what people say to people now. I was fired so many times during that 12 years that, uh, I'm, I'm surprised I'm still here.

Are you serious? He told you, he told you those things and then, and, and what, you just came back to work the next day as if it didn't happen or like, did that? Oh yeah. You know, now we transfer, we'd leave, we'd be, we'd be insulted. We'd have mental illness or something, you know, the, the things that go on now are so insane. But back then it was part of building who you were and your character. And, uh, you know, I, I, I, you know, you went through it, I'm sure everything didn't go perfect there when you started working.

I'm sure you've had bosses that told you, you didn't do a good enough job, you know, or people outside and you fight through it, you know, but this day and age, you kind of come and give up and quit. And, uh, that, that's annoying to me. But, um, other than that, you know, I'm just happy that I got a team that, that, uh, isn't like that, you know, maybe because they're not all superstars, but they've, uh, even when we're struggling, I kind of believed in this team and I don't know why I'm usually a glass half empty guy, but this year I had it half full and at least some of it's been full. We'll see what we can do. Tom Izzo here on The Rich Eisen Show. Last we spoke, it was in the, uh, first week of the dreadfulness that occurred on campus, the shooting, uh, in mid February. And, uh, I'm wondering how much that's with you.

Um, the Spartan Strong t-shirts, I do see them obviously, but how much is that with you and the team as you're, as you're in the locker room before a game, maybe during a game, um, after on this run, uh, how, however present is it, coach? You know what? Um, you try not to make it, uh, so big that, you know, it's because it's not fair.

It's not fair to anybody. And, and, and by the way, winning games, I say is to be part of the healing process, but if it was my son or daughter that went through that, I don't think, uh, winning the game would, would help heal that. So I'm realistic on the whole thing, but do we bring it up?

Do we talk about making it better for people that have gone through tough times and maybe bring a smile on her face or help the healing process like sports often does? I, I said it then, Rich, and I say it now, you know, I went to Much's game at New Jersey when he was with the, uh, the 49ers played, uh, the Giants and it was the first game Thursday night football. Did you do the game? I mean, in fact, man, I don't remember, but I went to the game and, uh, and the, that scene with the New York cops and policemen and all the people, I mean, it, it brought a positive thing to, you know, one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our country.

And so I try to look at that and figure out how can I do that? And, and yet it's hard to give the Vince Lombardi speech and know that somebody lost their life. So it's, it's been a difficult, but it's been something that we keep close enough to us to say, we were playing for more than ourselves. And yet, uh, we try not to make it an everyday thing because, uh, my guys didn't know any of the people, um, except that they were activities like themselves, but they all see.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, we sometimes forget when we're sitting here March madness, all my brackets busted, all that stuff is that the, the, the men and women that we see in these tournaments that are going on right now, they're, they're part of a student body. Like that is, they're all, that is their first and foremost existence part of a student body. And they may not know any of the students who are killed or hospitalized, but they I'd be stunned if they didn't know somebody who knew somebody on that front or, or the fact that they're walking around campus hearing about it all the time, you know? Yeah.

We had one of our managers who was real good friends with one of the girls. So, I mean, yeah, there's no question that, uh, that everybody does that and everybody, it brings it closer to home to say, Hey, this can happen to anybody, you know? And I think that's what we've, uh, we've tried to deal with and, and, and understand and, and move forward like you have to do. But I think never forgetting, um, is important too, because, uh, whatever we do in our lives, I think we learn from what happened in the past, either to us or to somebody else. So it is important to understand it and not just pass it off.

And so we're trying to find that happy medium. Um, Tom Izzo, a couple more minutes left with the Michigan State, uh, head coach before taking on Kansas State in Madison Square Garden. Do, do you have to give the, or do you want to give the kids a, a little history lesson on what the Garden is and, and, or do they already know it? Obviously Tyson Walker's from, uh, Westbury in Long Island, he would clearly know, but, um, I'm wondering, is there any sort of significance about the arena that you're going into here?

Yeah. The one thing about, you know, I'm the one that needed the history lesson, you know, where I'm from, you know, Madison Square Garden, New York, seemed like, you know, I guarantee a Marion G knows nothing about it either. You know, we came from an area where I don't think a city for us to even understand.

We thought that was another country back when we were growing up. But I think that the guys, um, the one thing, if you talk to any NBA player and they talk, where would you rather play? And the Mecca is always one of them is always the place. And so as a basketball player, I think, and then we have the advantage of, we did play against Rutgers in the garden this year. We lost, but we played them. So the guys have been there guys have been there. But as you know, when you walk through that place and the pictures that are hanging of all the performers, the Muhammad Ali's, the so many things go on at Madison Square Garden, it's way bigger than just the basketball arena. And, um, and then, uh, what is your first blush thoughts on Kansas state that, by the way, they've got a kid from Harlem who's also having a home coming in Marquise Noel, who just went off on Kentucky.

Um, so what, what's your two cents on, on Kansas state and their journey? I'm impressed that you're paying more attention to basketball. Now you've got these names down, you got where they're from, you got Tyson. I'm a professional. I mean, come on, you know, I've got, I come from a good educational stock, as you know, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the deal.

I know the deal. I know where you're from, but I would say, Rich, that, uh, I heard they have four or five guys from the New York city area. Um, I don't know that their roster, uh, has been really changed. They have a lot of transfers because new coach and everything. And so, uh, you know, all I'm worried about is, uh, what they do on offense, what they do on defense and what my guys do on a daily basis and all the other stuff will take care of themselves. But, you know, as cool as it is to play in Madison Square Garden, once the ball's tossed, you know, you might as well be playing anywhere. It's a, I think kids just look at it as a, you know, a big game with a lot of importance and a chance to advance to an elite eight.

And if that's not enough to get you going, um, I don't know if you need the garden or New York or anywhere else, but if you're a basketball player, the chance to get to an elite eight is a special feeling. Well, somebody who can also give a history lesson in that building would be magic. He, I mean, he's always at your, at your disposal, I'm sure to talk to him. He talked to our guys, uh, the day of the game, he called and put him on speaker and wouldn't be surprised if urban flew out there and, uh, maybe I'll have to tell Mooch to hop a ride. We'll see what happens. Yeah. Air, air, urban, that, that wouldn't be a bad spot. That wouldn't be a bad seat to have on that plane.

But he caught, which, which game did he speak to the team before the last one or the first one? Um, you know, the morning of our game, our last game against, uh, you think I'd motivate my guys. I'm not going to do that.

So I bring in people that are bigger. Uh, he's, he's a good one to do it. He's a great one to do it.

Hey coach, appreciate the time. Have a great time in New York. Hope you get that pizza.

So many great places for that. And I, I'm, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm rooting for you. I'll just say it. I appreciate it. It's great to be on your show. You do a great job and have some fun. All right. You too. Thanks again, coach.

Appreciate the time. That's Tom Izzo once again, here on the Rich Eisen show. There you have it. It's a big 10 team from state of Michigan. They just wear the wrong colors, but they are representing so much of what's right here.

Um, um, I'm looking up, there's Mooch right now on NFL network. Literally the same person. I feel like Iron Mountain Michigan.

They don't know anything about New York. Huh? Okay.

Very good. Uh, let's take a break, uh, here on the Rich Eisen show. Baker Mayfield has spoken today. Um, and so has the, uh, general manager of the Carolina Panthers. He has revealed who they're taking first overall. Wait a minute. We'll take a break right here on the Rich Eisen show.

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Monster.com. Michael in State College, Pennsylvania. That's home to Penn State University, is it not, TJ?

That's close to the crib. What's going on, Michael? Uh-oh, we just lost our call from the east coast. You there, Michael?

814, answer. All right. Put him back on. Put him back on.

You snooze, you definitely lose. Maybe he's on mute. Baker Mayfield appeared for the first time as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer today. I saw that. Hey, told you, love this spot for him. Love this spot for him.

I think I agree. Mike Evans. Come on now. He's good. Chris Godwin, speaking of Penn State. He's good too. Right?

Rashad White. I know you like that, right? I do. He's a good player. And I guess they'll run it back best they can with whatever cap ramifications they're paying off the credit card from the Brady championship years. But how many spots where you got Pro Bowl wide receivers in a quarterback job that's open for a team that can play pretty damn good defense in a division that is wide open for you to win? Right? Yeah.

All that's true. So Baker Mayfield, come on down. You are the next quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, although there is a quarterback competition with Kyle Trask, who's been sitting in the quarterback room for a while. I have a feeling that this is something Baker will win. And you will see Baker Mayfield week one for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is the guy after the guy for Tom Brady. This is what Baker had to say today about his new way of looking at things.

Tell you what, it's night and day different from this time right now to last year. I was sitting at home doing rehab for my shoulder last year and not really knowing what was next. That's why I'm really excited about being here and knowing what, you know, where I'm going to be at, what I get to dive into playbook wise teammates and get to know everybody. So I don't know if words really describe it correctly, but I'm excited. I'm excited for this next journey that my wife and I and our new puppy are going to be taking on.

So we're ready for it. Golden doodle Irish setter and he runs our life. Golden doodle Irish setter.

By the way, new fantasy team name Baker's golden doodle Irish setter. That's a hell of an avatar. Very pretty. I don't know if that fits. I don't think that fits into a little long, very pretty dog looking at the Google image. Okay.

Very good. Also, can we, whoever's manning the camera for bucks, can we do Baker a little better there with the framing, the head, the head, the head space made him look like he's five, four. You know what though? He plays bigger than that. And, um, and as a perfect example is the difference between this year and last year. Honestly, at this point last year, we were right around the whole time of, you know, he's rehabbing his shoulder. When did Deshaun Watson hit last year? Was it right around now?

The hell going on month? Oh, good question. Like when did, when did, when did Baker send his letter to Cleveland? Remember he wrote it to Cleveland writ large as a city. Wasn't it just like to Cleveland? It was just Cleveland.

Actually, it was two days ago yesterday. Was the Deshaun Watson trade. And that was right after he wrote his letter to Cleveland, telling the Browns, you're not breaking up with me.

I'm breaking up with you. He pulled a full people to full Costanza. Smart move. And, um, and then now he's got a beautiful golden doodle Irish setter.

And, um, last year the dog, I, a dog perfectly encapsulized his issues and what was going on with his life when he, he was on the, you never know, you know what I mean, pod with a dog showing his belly to him on the, on the, on the couch right there, wanting some scratches, totally different dog, different situation. Baker's a top dog in Tampa. And then there's the situation in the division where it looks like the Carolina Panthers are set up to do some damage. I like the moves that Carolina's made a lot.

I like Frank Reich. I like the Josh McCown has got it. Everybody thinks he's new head coaching material. He's going to be the coordinator there. Jim Caldwell to help, Dom Capers to help.

I mean, it's a heck of a staff they put together. And Andy Dalton is the backup quarterback. You already know already that whoever they're drafting first overall is going to have an aces individual backing him up and telling him what you need to know about being a professional quarterback. Adam Thielen just got answered.

Miles Sanders is running the football. Caroline is building a nice team. Now just who are they going to draft first overall? Who's going to be handed the keys to the car right out of the gate? Because they're not drafting somebody first overall, giving up all what they gave up to go get this person just to have them sit and wait and watch Andy Dalton start week one. That is just flat out not happening. There's many things on the earth that can happen, might happen, will happen.

That ain't one of them. Frank Reich and Scott Fitterer, the general manager moved up from nine to one, giving up all that draft capital to draft somebody. And apparently that's somebody as we are entering pro day week for the quarterback draft class or the top of it. This is what Scott Fitterer, the general manager had to say about who they are looking at as the first overall pick.

Do you trade out because you have one quarterback you wanted? We at the combine said if you're going to go up you better have conviction and we have conviction on players at that top that we feel good about. I'm not going to go into it but we feel good about being in this position. We're still going through the process right now.

I mean obviously we have our ideas. You know you're not going to make a move like that without having that pretty much cemented. Well now we're going through the process of talking to the players and really getting to know them. You know them as players starting back a couple years when your scouts start you know watching these guys evaluating them. We had a snapshot of the combine where you get 18 minutes talking to them but really we want to get to know them, what drives them, who's supporting them, who's in their family. So this is an important time to go through this process but we do feel good about the group up top. Here's the deal, anybody who hears that and says oh it's just smoke it's a general manager blowing smoke and that he definitely knows who's number one overall, who they moved up to go get. It's not smoke. If it's anything like most of these situations where a team is first overall, has a choice of quarterbacks first overall, who are they going to choose and it's one person that could lead the race but they're not fully done doing their due diligence on maybe eliminating that person or opening the door to who might have been in second place on the day of the trade.

If you think that that's not possible you're wrong. One of my favorite stories that I've picked up in my now soon to be 20 full years with NFL Network. Jim Morris senior go ahead playoffs that's the guy about playoffs that guy me that playoffs I just hope we can win a game bless him Jim Morris senior prior to all of that he was um you know the guy who had the first overall selection placed right in front of him the Indianapolis Colts who are you going to choose here is Peyton Manning and our frequent guest host on this program Ryan Leaf and everybody believes well it had to be Peyton right from the get-go because look what happened with Peyton's career and look what happened with Ryan Leaf's career so on and so forth. Jim Mora senior told me senior told me that they were grinding tape on the first overall selection to the very last moment grinding tape on it till the very end and this is after apparently I think if I asked Ryan this point blank that they asked Peyton Manning hey if you're going to be the first overall pick in the draft what are you going to do I'm going to get in the playbook I'm going to do all the things that you want to hear the answer of your first year first overall pick quarterback that he asked Ryan Leaf the same thing he said I'm going to take my buddies we're going to go to Vegas and celebrate yeah I'm pretty sure Ryan still that's he saw the story right so even after hearing that the Colts grinded tape on do we choose Ryan Leaf over Peyton Manning even hearing that I believe again it was this is first this is for Bryce Young but you think the decision's made but no no I don't think the decision's made I think on the day that they made the trade they're like we like Bryce Young although CJ Stroud's the one that threw at the combine and this trade was made right after the combine yeah I think it could be for Stroud too also too Vegas knows everything the odds totally flipped on who will be the number one pick well guess what Bryce Young's pro day is Wednesday yeah and it's gonna it's it's gonna go hog wild of how terrific he looks and how he spins the ball and then the the interviews will happen on NFL network and ESPN and whatever you'll see just how incredibly intelligent and likable he is just like it's got to be him and then CJ Stroud's pro day is Thursday and then Will Levis's pro day is Friday and then Anthony Richardson's is a week from today it's gonna be refreshed about how great everybody looks because everybody's I don't remember the last bad pro day anybody at the quarterback position had Jalen Carter apparently had one for Georgia Eddie Bridgewater okay well that's another one sure it's gonna switch over and over and over and over again and I want that to happen up until the last second but Carolina's got something cooking and I really like what they've got cooking and that's the way we wrap up this edition of the Rich Eisen show we will see you on Tuesday and wrap this show up on the Roku channel in a moment no one in the wrestling business has experienced the trials and tribulations along with redemptions and longevity quite like Jeff Jarrett come along for the ride on the my world with Jeff Jarrett podcast they didn't really brand belts in the heyday of boxing you know Muhammad Ali Sugar Ray Leonard I mean they had them but along comes sports entertainment professional wrestling and now it is truly a part of pop culture they've just branded what it looks like to be a champion my world with Jeff Jarrett wherever you listen