REShow: Bruce Feldman - Hour 3

Bring smiles to all when shopping online with Dell Technologies Gift Guide.

Whether it's for the artist, the entrepreneur, the student, the streamer, or the gamer, you'll find the perfect gift for everyone on your list. Dell.com slash gift guide makes gifting easy with a carefully curated selection of our best tech. Shop now to explore innovative laptops, desktops, and this season's top accessories. Plus, get select savings on impressive PCs like the XPS 13 laptop powered by the latest Intel Core processors. Visit Dell.com slash gift guide today for details and get a jump on your holiday gift list.

That's Dell.com slash gift guide. This is the rich eyes and show. The rich eyes and show with guest host Andrew Siciliano from the rich eyes and show studio in Los Angeles.

You would take Zach Wilson right now over Kirk Cousins them riding with Zach is the best way to go earlier on the show box sports NFL insider Jay Glaser host of the rich eyes and show rich eyes and coming up box sports college football insider Bruce Feldman and now sitting in for rich. It's Andrew Siciliano. Yo, Anthony.

Yes. Hey, yo, Anthony. And we're back. Hey, everybody, guys. Hey, good to see you. Thank you.

Yes, for carrying my water. While I had to step aside real quick, rich, obviously. Coming in on Rich's own show, obviously, that's what I am doing. Rich has joined us the second hour, the entirety of his time in London. We're very grateful that he obviously very busy schedule is doing that. He was awesome. It's great.

And I thank you. And rich helping me out a little bit here as I had to step aside and talk to some Ohio State Buckeyes ahead of the big game coming up at Ross aid stadium. It'll be a blackout Saturday on Peacock noon Eastern. So just chilling with Marvin Harrison Jr. there for a little bit, but I'm back and I'm happy and didn't miss anything. Just plumbed into Sean Watson's not practicing.

Other than that, we are good. Did you see the look on Brockman's face when I said it's down to like twenty five. What you're hearing right now is the sound of Brockman buying up more Bitcoin on Coinbase. Performance is not necessarily indicative of future game, not financial advice.

Believe me, I'll show you my not financial advice, not financial advice at all. Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. As mentioned, Bruce Feldman is coming up at about twenty minutes. I believe Bruce is in the building getting pampered in the back and he will be here shortly as we get ready for USC and Notre Dame coming up Saturday.

Night in South Bend. Can USC stop anybody? Is that this week? Yeah, buddy. I was not aware that this was this week. Yeah, buddy.

Did you not know that man behind the man? I did not see everyone's got a little further. Huh? There are some really good matchups. Oregon State, UCLA, North Carolina, Miami, Notre Dame, USC, just all the matchups of teams ranked in the top twenty five. Obviously, Oregon and Washington.

Mm hmm. Yeah, it's a good week. Last week was a good week.

Good week as well. Look, we're into the meat of the conference schedule, right? Obviously, USC, Notre Dame, the greatest intersectional.

That's right. We call it, right? Intersectional rivalry. Yes. In college football. Well, Notre Dame, obviously, famously independent. So yes, but but that is what it's it's it's it's a long time intersectional right.

Enter my from my friend Andrew loves hiking and grammar. Hold on. They call it.

Yes. Yeah, it's called the intersectional rivalry. The greatest intersectional rivalry in college sports. Look, what is anything in press notes mean? I mean, if you go look at the USC press notes, I'm going off on a tangent here as well. Need my ADDH drugs, but USC will tell you never call us Southern Cal.

OK, so like you take things from press notes. It's the greatest intersectional rivalry. Notre Dame is favored in this game. That is preposterous.

For recreational purposes only. Why is it preposterous? They stink. They don't stink. Notre Dame. Look, Jeff Brown beats top ten teams. It happens. Like, come on. OK, USC is going to score sixty in this game. And that's. But how many are they going to give up? Great.

Fifty nine. They're still going to win. Did you see triple overtime? The fighting jet fishes should have beaten.

Look, I should have gone for the first O.T. trap game. USC has more talent. I think Bruce would admit that when he comes out. That's actually an interesting conversation. We'll have that conversation coming up with Bruce Feldman from the athletic. And then maybe we'll ask Bruce to write because, you know, Bruce is, you know, his his freaks column every. You guys read that, right? Of course.

OK, right. The hundred college football players you need to keep an eye on because they're just freakishly athletic. And by the way, if you take said column and then you take it to next year's draft, all of those guys will get your first three rounds are Bruce's column. That is assuming, you know, everyone is draft eligible.

But that's that's what it is. Maybe we should have him list the athletes in this room. Well, I'm clearly number one. Really? Yeah. Why? What do you mean?

Why? What are you good at athletically? Everything. Everything I am.

You should see the look on his face when you can. It's just perplexed that you would question that. OK. I mean, I'm still the all time leading scorer in Flanagan gym history.

Flanagan gym being the intramural gym at Syracuse. OK, the all time leading scorer. I'm sure no, nobody nobody has topped that in the 20 years you've been gone. All time leading scorer. The all time leading scorer. Let's see. Flag football champion. I hit one at Clark University.

That still hasn't landed yet. Oh, yeah. Let's flag football champion. You're going to be an Olympian in L.A. in twenty eight. Just say I'm a handicap right now. Are you really? Come on. You're really an aid handicap right now.

You can check my g h i n. All right. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. A handicap is pretty good.

Come on. I'm six feet. I've got a nice six to wingspan. You're not six feet. You think you're six feet.

We're going to talk about sports. Do you guys think he's six feet? Yeah, he's probably six feet. Is that your driver's license height?

Yes. He's slightly shorter than me. The driver's license weight is your immediate height is six foot. I mean, you know, you embellish those media guide stats.

Driver's license is an official U.S. document. You can't lie on that. I'm five ten and I think we're similar. Come on. They'll measure you.

You write down how we will do a combine outside if you want. What is your 40 right now? My 40? I haven't run a 40 in forever. The last time I ran a 40, true story, show tie in as we bring it back full circle at NFL Network many years ago, obviously to help raise money for St. Jude. Right. We all did a thing before the combine that we ran. We, meaning anyone at NFL Network that wanted to in the back lot at Culver behind stage one.

Yeah. We ran the 40 for Rich. For run, Rich, run. And I was blazing down that concrete. Blazing, blazing, and the ground jumped up and tripped.

No, I didn't trip, but about a step a stride and a half. Oh, no. Pop. My hammy went. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. Are you in a suit? I was.

Yeah, I think you'll run another 40 in your suit. Also, Andrew, I think the greatest athlete. He's afraid to play pickleball because he's afraid his Achilles. Won't play. Are you kidding me?

Pickleball? Are you kidding me? No way. Here's the thing. I'm now at that age where the Achilles goes pop. Yes, that's why I don't. No way. How many people do we know who when they turn 40 had their Achilles go boom?

I got plenty of friends that happened long before they turned 40 in their 30s. I have. I could probably name you 10 people, men and women tour their Achilles that, you know, playing basketball, basketball or pickleball. I'll tell you tour her Achilles.

I think this is public consumption. My good friend Kara Sneed, my former co-host on NFL Network on Total Access. She's a friend of the show.

Many years ago, friend of the show. Right. Also known to some now as wife of Rams GM Les Sneed. Yes.

She tore her Achilles playing pickleball a couple of years ago. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. How many times do you see Rich come in here limping and you're like, pickleball, bro?

He goes. Yeah. But I'm just saying for all your bravado about your athleticism, that was the first thing when pickleball was in the game. Pickleball became a thing. You were like, I don't want to.

I've got 70. I'm not playing pickleball, right? I've gone to the combine injured twice.

OK, once where that it wasn't like a hamstring tear, but something didn't feel right. I still got a great time. I don't remember what it was. I'm going to look it up.

We'll look it up. OK, but it's a great time. But I did get on the plane with a giant ice ice pack around my hammy.

Absolutely. And the other time I went to the combine. Injured. DirecTV had asked me to go to Dallas the week before. The Cowboys were celebrating like the Troy and Emmett Super Bowl team, like a big anniversary thing.

So we went to Dallas and shot some stuff and I just sit down with Troy and Jimmy, whatever. And I had to fly back. And I had a flight issue at DFW.

Shocker. I mean, never gone to DFW where there wasn't a major issue. Ever.

Ever. And I'm at the counter trying to sort this out. And I wanted to get on like this other one that was going to take off like other side of the airport in 30 minutes. And I needed them to reticket me. And they told me they couldn't do it. And I'm like, yes, you can. They said, no, we can't. And I said, yes, you can. And they said, no, we can't.

And I was right. By the way, I had it like the page on their website right there that specifically said for like seventy five dollars, we could do this. I said, look, here's a seventy five bucks. Here's my credit card.

Put me on that one. Nope, nope, nope. That's not right. Anyway, I turned away from the desk and I put my right foot into my suitcase because there's a suitcase's fault. Clearly, I kicked my suitcase halfway across, you know, Gate 24 desk. OK. And instead of getting thrown out of the airport. A funny thing happened. The woman's like, you know what, sir, you're right.

We misread. Yeah. Seventy five dollars. Let me have your credit card. And I got my way.

Pathetic way to get your way. By the way, I really regret it. I made a jackass of myself. And the worst behavior comes out of the airport. They put me on that flight. And I now have to sprint to get on that other plane on the other side of DFW. Like, got to go.

And they go up the escalator to get on the train. We've all been there. And I'm jogging through the airport.

I'm like, my fault. My foot does not feel good at all. I landed in L.A. and I was in a walking boot within three hours. And then I had to go to the combine like two days later. And I will say this great conversation starter, the walking boot. Oh, what happened?

Andrew, what did you do? So the combine, those who don't know, obviously, you know, the whole league is there. Everyone stays up late, goes out. You get, you talk to everybody, you catch up with everybody. I can't tell you how many coaches and GMs came up to me. Usually had to be like, you go start the conversation.

Nope. Everybody came to me. Dude, what happened?

What happened? And I remember, I think I told, I think I told Quesidofo Mensah, then who was with the Browns, not yet with the Vikings. I think I said, dude, I am going to wear this boot every year at the combine. Every year.

Because this thing is magic. Anyway, while I was gone, gentlemen, thank you. Here's what happened. Deshaun Watson didn't practice, and Kevin Stefanski confirmed what we told you yesterday. The report was yesterday that P.J. Walker would get the nod, not DTR, not Dorian Thompson.

Robinson, darling of the preseason, had a rough game two weeks ago when he finally, when he got the shot. P.J. Walker would start potentially this week when the Browns welcomed the 49ers in to Cleveland. P.J. Walker starts, notably with Carolina Panthers, had that amazing D.J. Moore touchdown finish that they could have, should have beaten Atlanta last year. Then D.J. pulled the helmet off.

Then there's the penalty. And we know it. P.J.

Walker can play a little bit. I believe it was M.C. Light that talked about getting a roughneck.

He is a Houston, he is a Houston roughneck from the XFL, right? Don't you remember? The M.C. Light?

I did not have you referencing and quoting the great M.C. Light today. Light is a rock. L.Y.T.E. Come on, man.

Let's go. Back in the day when she and Queen Latifah had, like, I mean, they were a rock. Latifah's had it up to here, T.J., so you know. Oh, my goodness. So it could be P.J.

Walker also. There you go. Justin Jefferson is officially on injured reserve. And Kirk Cousins has now been asked on the record whether or not he would waive his no trade clause. Oh, baby.

Here we go. And Kirk Cousins says, what do you think he said? No, I'm trying to win right now. My focus is on being the Vikings quarterback and helping us have the best possible record in twenty twenty three that he likes his house.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah that they showed on Carterbacks. Are you reading off? I am not.

I was literally looking at a Victor Wimbunyama highlight. OK, you're that guy. OK, Kirk Cousins quote. You know, I am just very focused on the Bears and going one and only this week.

And anything else is not worth my time or energy or attention. Are you sure you didn't read it? I mean, literally, Victor Wimbunyama spin move, slow mo under him scoop.

I'll tweet it out if you want me to. OK, spin move and a beauty. I mean, he's he's going to be really he's going to be really good for a guy this eight foot tall that has a handle. Yeah, and can shoot three. Have you ever thought about, you know, in all seriousness, that tall? No, no, no. I have never thought about being that tall. No, no. I have a better shot of winning the lottery tonight than I have of being that tall.

One point seven. Billy, you ever thought about like in all seriousness, like this is genetics and nutrition and fitness and obviously. But like, are we going to see like the eight foot basketball player one day? I know that sounds absurd. It's going to be a generation from now. But yeah, humans just get bigger and bigger, you know, I don't know.

My family does it. Not not really. I mean, there have been seven foot six players. Sure. But they've come, you know, Manu Ball played 30, 40 years ago. Sure. He was what, seven, seven, seven, seven.

Yeah. And then George Mirasan and Sean Bradley, Yao Ming. Obviously, I mean, it's been very big people, but they're having you. You would have thought 40 years ago when we saw a seven foot seven player that we would see an eight foot player by now. But we're not the tallest player in the league. Who's the tallest? Who's the tallest person on earth? Well, it's the Waldo guy, right? Who was like eight foot something. I don't know that is right now.

The Guinness Book World Records. Yeah, Robert Waldo is a real, real thing. He's a real guy. I think his last name is Waldo, bro.

I mean, I'm sure there are people yelling at their radio right now saying, no, you idiot. Like, like, what? Like, eventually, why? Eventually, humans don't get to a certain height. I was eight foot eleven, but this is in 1918. Four hundred pound football players. OK, so, yeah, whatever.

The guy only lived to be twenty two years old, by the way. OK, so, yeah, not healthy. Devine A. Chan also on injured reserve today. So you got Justin Jefferson out. Anthony Richardson out. Richardson could be over a month.

All right. He's definitely on IR. Devine A. Chan as well. Leading the NFL in rushing on injured reserve. So we've officially hit the season of attrition point on the calendar where it isn't only who has the best team in football, it's who has the healthiest team in football. The forty niners for years have had bad injury luck. When they are healthy, they're damn good. Right now, for all intents and purposes, they're healthy enough. Right. Banged up a little bit of running back. They always are.

Elijah Mitchell, whatever. But they're fine. Right.

They are fine. And as long as they stay healthy. And the Eagles have taken their dings. Obviously, Cam Juergens on the IR last week. Key piece on that old L. Long as they stay healthy, those are key pieces of the game. Clearly, the two best teams.

But. Beyond the top five. Weird thing in the NFL right now, there's only four or five teams where I think we could all agree, truly have a shot. What will change in the second half of the season? A lot of that depends on injuries like doing the power ranking show yesterday with Eric at home on NFL dot com. You can watch on the NFL fast channel on the Roku channel. You can watch.

It's also downloadable as a podcast. He has the Steelers who lead the AFC North, who many of us believe that's the best division in the NFL. The Steelers, he has them as the 20th team on the power rankings. Because their offense is bad. Bad.

Just bad. But TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith are closers. They're closers. And that's what they have to put you away.

Anyway, I digress. Injuries will be the story of the second half. I truly do believe because we're already seeing it here. Week five. All right, let's talk college football. Chris Brockman says USC has more talent than Notre Dame. No, the other way around. No, I did say that USC has more talent than Notre Dame. I believe it. But the question is, can they keep the score down? Does Notre Dame get to run away with anyone or from anyone?

I don't know. Regardless, Bruce Feldman is going to be here. Is Chris Brockman the best athlete here? Is he a freak? And I meant athlete.

Next! NFL matchups you can only get on Peacock. College fan? You don't want to miss Big Ten Saturday, featuring some of the best schools, the loudest fans, and the most action-packed showdowns week after week. You also get Fighting Irish home games live from Notre Dame. And that's just a sample of all the live sports you get from Peacock. Stream live races from IndyCar, NASCAR, Super Motorcross, IMSA, and Nitro Rallycross. Plus, get golf, every premium live event from WWE, the Paris 2024 Olympics, and so much more, all for $5.99 a month.

Go to PeacockTV.com to learn more and join today. Millions of listeners and thousands of five-star reviews rave about the hit podcast series In the Red Clay, the unbelievable story of Billy Sunday Burt, the most dangerous man in Georgia history. He was a whiskey man, bank robber, hit man. He was a murderer.

He's also my father. Seasons one and two are available to binge right now, and bonus episodes are coming soon. Imperative Entertainment presents In the Red Clay.

Get the podcast wherever you listen. A world request for a quick $30 million loan to secure the services of the Manning kid. I have to say no at this time. But the leaf boy is another matter. He looks strong and Manning doesn't, or at least not strong enough to handle that welcome to the NFL business for two years without a world-class offensive line. How are you fixed at left OT for the next few years, James? Think about it.

You don't want a China doll back there when that freak sap comes crashing in. Okay, let me know if you need some money for leaf. I expect to be very rich when this debt movie comes out. Your faithful consultant, Hunter, and it's signed HST. The absurdity of the fact that, A, Hunter S. Thompson knew who I was, and B, that he was trying to persuade Mr. Ursay to draft me instead was just comical. And not to see it for 20 years, it's just nowhere to be found.

Nowhere to be found. I called John Walsh of ESPN. It's a thousand percent real. Wow. And Hunter S. Thompson was a huge NFL fan and obviously had an opinion on the 1998 draft.

Well, I think now that we know that a lot of people had an opinion on the 1998 NFL draft. This is amazing. Isn't that amazing?

I love that line is that you don't want a China doll back there when that freak sap comes crashing in. The irony of all this, the irony of this, he would go on and play, start the most consecutive games of anybody. And I would be injured going into year two and missed the entire season. So we're just just reminding people. Strong underlined. Strong. It is the Rich Eisen Show here. Andrew's sitting in for Rich as we hear some old Ryan Leaf stories.

I love that guy and how self-aware he is and he can be hysterical these days. Does a great job on Good Morning Football. I am sitting, by the way, the Rich Eisen Show desk, which is furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions in every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call or click grainger.com or just stop by. Stopping by here and being flexible and generous and gracious with his time. The man who, if you don't read on the athletic, he alone is worth the price of the yearly subscription. It is one of the major reasons why I am a subscriber. It is Bruce Feldman is always great to see you, sir. Thank you.

That's very, very kind. It's actually true. It's honestly one of my favorite websites.

You can make a face all you want. It's the first thing I would other than NFL dot com. Look at me zoom in other than NFL dot com where I make my daily bread. Yeah. My first two sites I go to every day. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyway, how's life? How's the college football season? College football season has been really, really good.

You know, we talked about this earlier today on our own podcast where the TV ratings are way up from last year. Some of it's Dion related. Some of it honestly is because all these terrific quarterbacks are back and people love offense.

What do you make of the Dion phenomenon? Because I think the first couple of weeks, everybody was like, yay. And now it seems to be, for whatever reason, polarizing to some.

And I don't get it. I think it's because, like anything else, people, especially the diehard college football fans, feel like, all right, can we hear about something else? There's just some fatigue there. But I think what's been great is he has brought a lot of people who may not have been paying attention to college football. Maybe got tired of, you know, Georgia and Alabama and Clemson every year. I think there was a newness there and he's super charismatic. As you know, his team is fun to watch or an offensive team. His son's a really good quarterback. I think when they've been in the in the spotlight, you know, Travis Hunter hasn't played in a few weeks since he got hurt in the Colorado State game. But you see stuff on social media where like, oh, that's pretty cool how he's handling some of these guys. And so, you know, look, sports are supposed to be fun, right?

Yes, thank you. They are making it fun. And so, I mean, we were around them for a couple of weeks. I did not expect them to beat TCU.

They were a 20 and a half point underdog. It's been it's been a wild and entertaining experience. And I mean, I think it's made the season better. And let's say this, too, Chidor can play, right?

It's not all hype. I was speaking to an NFL GM at a training camp over the summer and we had talked about what was going on in Colorado and the transfers and can it actually work? And he said, Chidor is going to play in the league. He's like, I don't know if he's going to start, may not start day one, but he will play in the league. And that was before he got on the field in the Pac-12 and did what he is currently doing. He's a legitimate prospect.

Oh, no doubt. I mean, he's very accurate. He's got great presence. He's obviously really tough because he has a really bad offensive line. That's a patchwork offensive line. I mean, he's been sacked, I think, 10 times more than them than the next most sacked quarterback in the Pac-12. And he's still hanging in and making plays. And he's had guys get hurt and guys are new. Like, I don't know how you can look at him and go, man, I think he's going to be a legit NFL starter. Now, whether he is going to become an elite guy who leads a team to a Super Bowl, who knows?

You can never predict any of that, right? But if you told me Chidor Sanders was going to get drafted in the top 15, I would have had more confidence in him than a couple of guys I thought might have got drafted in the first round six months ago. Right. Both out of the SEC. One guy was coming off an injury in the system, question mark. The other one, Will Leviss, was just up and down. I know Will Leviss has a great arm, a strong arm. But everything I've seen from Chidor has made me think, oh, yeah, I could see him as a first-round quarterback.

Absolutely. Talking to Bruce Feldman here from The Athletic. USC went in there, obviously, with huge ratings and beat Colorado. Now USC this Saturday evening in primetime goes into South Bend. Let's start with Brockman's thing first. Who's got more talent?

Just athletes only. SC or Notre Dame? Offensively, USC.

Clearly. Caleb has more firepower around him. His offensive line isn't as good, although the Notre Dame offensive line last week against Louisville could not get a running game going. That's unusual for Notre Dame.

Notre Dame, Mitchell Evans is a good tight end. I think that's, you know, Caleb doesn't have that. Caleb has talented running backs just like Sam Hartman does.

But I think he has much better receivers, more explosive guys. I mean, Notre Dame has speed, more speed than I think we typically think they do. Notre Dame to me is better on the defensive side of the ball. That's not saying much because USC has been so bad the last year and a half. You know, we're going to be there for big noon this weekend.

I can't wait to get down there. I think what's fascinating to me is Notre Dame is coming off of this is going to be week four of a gauntlet. They had Ohio State first physical, emotional game. They lose at the wire. Then they rally to beat Duke on the road.

Then last week, they didn't look like they had anything in a tank. Credit to Jeff Brom and Louisville. They took it to them.

They ran it down their throats. And now they got the big rivalry game with Caleb coming in there. And by the way, USC has looked really shaky the last three times out.

So I don't know what you're going to get. My guess is I have a little more faith in Caleb than I do in Sam Hartman right now. And I just feel like it'll be a wild game. And in the end, I think Caleb will lead them to a win. Will Lincoln Riley's faith in Alex Grinch be his downfall with this team? My gut is no.

I know that's that's people would be like, come on. You know, what are you seeing in Alex Grinch? So my first impression of Grinch was he did an amazing job at Washington State for Mike Leach. They were awful on defense.

They got to be really capable and very good at Oklahoma. He took over a terrible defense. They got better. Then they regressed a little, but they were still better than what he took over.

This was not a good situation. They are, you know, everyone says internally that they are better than they were last year. They haven't really shown it. The last three weeks have been disappointing. And you just see guys not making plays on the ball. I feel like at some point this thing will start to turn a little bit and they will get better.

The thing I do wonder about, and this is why I'm not sure if this is this is a bigger than an Alex Grinch thing. But I think what you have at USC is you have very average guys in the secondary and they're going up against Caleb Williams and really good receivers in practice. And I just wonder if it's like, OK, you know, I did a big story for the athletic this offseason on life as an air raid defensive coordinator.

What are you going up against? Whether you're going up against Pat Mahomes and Davis Webb at Texas Tech when you didn't have a good defense and Cliff is, you know, lighting people up. It's like, how does the defense get its confidence when they're just like they can barely get lined up? And I do feel like for USC, this is as much a problem of Monday through Friday as it is what happens on game day. You know, look at the schedule here. It's Notre Dame. It's Utah. And I know the the FC fans who are my neighbors still have nightmares about Utah.

Yeah. And last year, Washington, Oregon, UCLA with Cal in between, you have five ranked teams as we sit here today. Two top 10 teams plus Notre Dame, which obviously was up there a couple of weeks ago on that schedule. I just and maybe it's the South Bay.

We all live in L.A. near each other. The South Bay SC anxiety that I feel that they don't think that defense can hold up to that second half of the season schedule. I don't know why you would think they will.

I mean, because you want you haven't seen enough so far against lesser competition to this point. Now, again, Chador is really good, but the offensive line is not. They're going to see better offensive lines now than some of those teams.

You're going to see also a lot of different stuff, whereas you look at the firepower that we're going to see this weekend. Oregon's play in Washington, two high powered offenses with good receivers and quarterbacks playing really well. And they're they're much more complete teams in USC. They're going to play their arch rival, UCLA, who can run the football. And they're much improved on defense.

Anthony Lin's son, Danton Lin, has been a great hire for Chip Kelly. They're the number one defense in the country right now. I mean, they did a terrific job against the hottest quarterback who was in the country last week, Cameron Ward, and shut them down. So there is a lot to ask for USC.

I think there's got to be a point and I still think it will happen where somebody on USC defense who's not is not in terms of just pass rush will start to. They will start to grow a little bit because because they were so bad on linebacker last year. They're they're better now. They're not that much better, but they're definitely better.

They're definitely more complete. Obviously, they had Thule last year. Now he's with the Chargers.

He was disruptive. Now they have more guys up front. It's the secondary that has been a huge disappointment.

They have to find a way to get their confidence up and it need they need something good to happen. My hunch is it'll it will happen, but I get why USC fans don't don't buy it. Talking to Bruce Feldman here from the athletic last thing on S.C. kind of sort of. How many people and I know there are some how many people out there actually like Drake May a little bit better than Caleb? I think there's definitely some I don't know. I would guess in this right now, I'd guess it's 20 percent.

The hard part, like terrific arm, really good athlete. Now, I think what from an optics standpoint, he's playing in the ACC. Nobody really watches. That's the power five conference. It seems like, yeah, maybe we'll watch Florida State and Clemson, but we're not going to watch. You know, those other UNC Syracuse and that horrible call on the blocked punt and, you know.

Yeah, I know you're going to have shy marker. There's a lot of broadcasters who are watching that game. You know what play I'm talking about? No. OK, so. OK, now the gripe part of the broadcast with me and Chris Brockman opening drive, at least first quarter scoreless game.

S.C. or rather S.U. defense gets off the field, blocks a punt punter, picks it up, kids run and trying to get to the to the sticks. And he got blown up like was a Brian Mormon in the Pro Bowl by Sean Taylor. It was a Sean Taylor Pro Bowl kind of hit a yard to a yard and a half shy of the marker. The officials, however, gave him the first down the entire broadcast.

Oh, wow. I mean, that's not a first down. This is easily overturned. Officiating expert comes in.

Oh, yeah. Easily overturned. They didn't stop it.

So do you know challenges? And then after like a 10 minute review, they didn't overturn it. I know it sounds like I'm just bitter and angry and blowing it out of proportion. Was it that obvious to you, too?

Who's the artist? I like it. Yeah. I mean, but it proves your point. Nobody watches the ACC anyway.

Back to what you're saying. Well, I think he is very talented. We did a story in the off season about Caleb. He obviously couldn't come out last year. But if he would have that, he would have been the first quarterback taken.

I have no I have no doubt of that. What's interesting is a lot of people in the NFL already know more about Caleb than they do. Most quarterbacks come out because he went through this QB collective process where we know, you know, like a lot of those, whether it's Sean McVeigh or Kevin O'Connell, a bunch of these guys helped work the camp when he was in high school. So they have a lot of familiarity. They know he's very talented. Right.

And so. I think they look at him and he's been on the radar for a long time. You know, he does stuff that's different in terms of like he'll extend plays forever.

Right. And I don't know how much he'll be able to get away with that in the NFL because the level of athletes are just way better, obviously, than they are that USC is facing. But there'll be little stuff that I could see. I would predict at some point there will be some nitpicky stuff that makes it into the long, as you know, long draft cycle where somebody be like, yeah, we don't like that, Caleb, because this came up already. Like, you know, one of the people I was I talked to who's in the NFL was like, yeah, I'm sure somebody will make a big deal. Say, oh, we don't like that.

He painted something on his fingernails, you know, that kind of thing. And at the end of the day, high twelve championship came last year against Utah. At the end of the day, the people who are drafting, they're not going to care. But I think it will kind of go into the orbit. Like, it wouldn't also surprise me if JJ McCarthy gets talked about. Maybe not as the first pick, but also in the Drake May range, because I had a conversation with somebody in the NFL who works for a team was like, we actually like JJ McCarthy or I do more than he they do on Drake May.

I think that's the minority of people. I think it's going to probably be Caleb, then some who will prefer Drake May and then they'll probably that'll be it. But this is should be a loaded quarterback class, whether Quinn Ewers comes out, whether whoever. You know, you still have these other guys in the Pac-12, but it will be such a deep crop.

And, you know, in the back of your head, somebody's not going to make it like because that's the way it always works. You mentioned JJ McCarthy rank in your order, the top three in the big in the Big Ten. Is it is it clearly Michigan won?

I think it is. We had Ohio State last week. They struggled to run the football against Maryland and they should have been down by Maryland instead. You know, it was a throw to his brother missed in the red zone. It was a pretty open third down play. They had to settle for field goal. Then they kind of botched clock management so that they didn't get points at the end.

They should have been up. Ohio State didn't score an offensive touchdown till like midway through the third quarter. And this is like I think Maryland's much improved, but it's not like Maryland is like the eighty five bears either.

You know, they could not get much going. I still think Ohio State and obviously that Marvin Harrison Junior, they have a lot of talent. I think they are better on defense than they've been in the last few years. But I think Michigan, I think because Michigan hasn't played anybody yet. I think Michigan is the best team in the conference of the most physical and the most complete.

I don't know if Penn State can usurp Ohio State. I do think Drew Aller is an upgrade from what they've had there the past few years. They have they have two really good running backs. They actually have a third running back in Trey Potts, who's good. They have a better offensive line than they've had in a while. And they got playmakers all over the defense. I know Joey Porter Junior is not there anymore, but they got I had more freaks on my freaks list from from Penn State than I've ever had.

That's been a reoccurring theme, hasn't it? Franklin has recruited and their strength and conditioning guys have developed. And for people who roll their eyes at it, as you know, you go to the combine and you're there every year. Those Penn State guys, they back it up.

They do. And whether it's Saquon or Gasicki or Owey or obviously Michael Parson, you know, like bad. No, he's not bad. And the thing is, it's like, you know, Chop Robinson is there and they have all these dudes like they're like, if you told me Penn State ended up one in the Big Ten, I'd be like, yeah, that doesn't surprise me. And and chops a transfer to like when he was in Maryland. Would he have been was he on your radar for the freaks list when he was a freshman at Maryland? He was on the radar. Yeah.

Because people knew he was a big, big time recruit. Right. And it's not like Maryland hasn't you go back to like Vernon Davis and guys like that. Yeah. You know, Sean Merriman, you know, like they've had they've always had, you know, obviously digs, but they've always had like some high level guys.

You just haven't had enough of them. Right. But Penn State has so many guys. It's just the question is, can they get over the hump and beat? You know, last year we had the Penn State Michigan game. Michigan ran it down their throats, you know, just mauled them. And that, you know, like they they're doing that to the top level teams in their division. It's just can it stop this year?

I don't know. I am actually I have Ohio State this week. We are at a raw state in West Lafayette on Peacock for the Buckeyes and Purdue, where Ohio State traditionally over the years have been there since 18 have obviously had trouble upset as a top five team. They're with Ryan Rondell Moore with you. They're not. Rondell Moore is not walking through that door.

So there goes my question. Can Ryan Walters with a banged up team find a way to pull off another West Lafayette upset? I don't think so. And what you said. Yeah, I don't think they have enough firepower. Tight ends out. Right tackles out. Top corners out.

Yeah, that's good. That's a tough thing for Hudson Card and that offense. You know, they're running, you know, Graham Harrell's air raid. They I think they can put up some points against them, but I feel like Ohio State's corners are better. And I can see Ohio State getting a lot of pressure. Ohio State may not have a Chase Young up there, but they have really good players still. And, you know, I just feel like they're very solid now on defense. And I think that's a bad matchup for for Purdue, to be honest.

JT and Jack getting after Hudson Card noon on Peacock coming up on Saturday. And you are going to be in South Bend. Yeah. Get to go get to go be in South Bend with my buddy Brady Quinn, who's like royalty. I'm excited about that. That's pretty cool. Awesome.

S.C. and Notre Dame, the greatest intersectional rivalry coming up on Saturday evening. Bruce, it is always a pleasure to have you in safe travels. Maybe we'll pass each other in the middle of the night on a rainy Indiana highway. OK, hopefully we'll be driving those cars.

But yeah, exactly. Bruce Feldman, everybody. Rich Eisen Show down the stretch. We come coming up if you haven't heard what James Franklin said.

We'll play it for you one more time. Suzy Schuster and Amy Trask present offbeat conversations and expert sports commentary as they ask, what the football? When my family found out how long it took me to figure out why Charles Woodson named his line intercept, they said there's a reason that you had trouble in school. You know, not everyone knows. You know, when I think about a little intercept, they don't know that I play football.

Well, what I've learned is a smooth defensive back can make smooth wine. That's what it's all about. What the football with Suzy Schuster and Amy Trask.

The podcast is available Tuesdays wherever you listen. Just a real basic question. What the hell are you thinking? What are you doing out there? You know, just technical challenge that most wouldn't do.

I would say so. Why? Why did you do it? Just trying out my new bat booster package that I was working on this year. For me, though, is is literally like, would you rather live and die?

Would you rather die and never lived? So when I jumped to the first time, everybody started like cheered and yelling. I was like, OK, that's pretty cool. And then I did it the second time. And I heard his word El Salvador, El Salvador. And I didn't know what that means. I left that one day. And then I started hearing that through the streets and I was like, OK, whatever.

And came back the second day, did it again. And they stopped the music and everything. They just started yelling in the stands to you, to me, like me.

Now, I'm a football player here in the States. Sure. Correct.

Yes, sir. They don't know me from Adam House. Josh.

Josh Norman is not out there in Pamplona. I get there. Yeah. And they started chanting that name.

So I'm like a hero in Spain, almost not even back here. Let me. So hold on. This is bananas.

Let me get this down so I can use this on on any home. On any host of shows this NFL season. El Satador. Yes. It's like the jumper. El Satador. Like the matador.

Matador is like the jumper. So I would love just one second in my life to have the words El Satador chanted to me. Great music there, by the way, and again, I refer to the TV portion of the radio is Josh Norman talking about Pamplona, the Running the Bulls, I get to that in a second, but I should tell you that you should go and get the game time app. If you need tickets to a game, a concert, anything, you need a last second ticket. Best way to do it because we've all been frustrated finding those tickets is game time. All right. Download the game time app because it is the way to go.

Browse through the app. Just check it out. Right. You could see see the stuff in your neighborhood. The game's coming up, whether it's this weekend. Maybe you're in a town with baseball. Maybe you could see a baseball game tonight. Baseball is a big deal this time of the year.

I'm kidding. Hockey just started as well. Hockey started last night.

Right. I live in a town that love their kings. I walk into a restaurant last night, get the Blackhawks game on last night. So, yeah, next weekend, Bruins are coming to L.A. I'll be hitting up game time for that. Let's go.

Bruins are coming to town. So, yeah, go get the game time app. It takes the guesswork out of buying tickets. Download the app, create an account, and then I have a promo code for you. It's rich.

R-I-C-H. Rich. And you get $20 off your first purchase. Restrictions apply. Visit the game time app or game time dot C-O for all the terms. Again, download game time app from your app store, whatever you use. Create your account and redeem the code R-I-C-H for $20. Download game time today.

Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. A lot to cram in here in the final couple of minutes again. Thanks to Bruce. Always the best.

I meant what I said. I'm not just saying it because, you know, he's here. I go to NFL dot com and I go to the athletic every day. And Bruce is a huge part of why I go to the athletic. Shameless plug.

I'm not getting paid for that. His work is truly great. And obviously you can watch him on Fox as well.

College football coverage coming up this weekend from South Bend. Real quick, Josh Norman there. We showed video when Josh was in with Rich. How many years ago?

2019. Now Josh is back with the Buffalo Bills again, which is just absurd. But he was in the ring in Pamplona for the running of the Bulls. So the run happens. They go down the street. They eventually get into the stadium. And then the Bulls all run around and they do their thing. You can follow the Bulls into the arena. Now it's at your own risk. It's all at your own risk. But we have the video of Josh Norman actually jumping over a bull in the arena, which is just suicide.

It is absurd. I have had a lot of moments in my life traveling. I've been very fortunate. I like to travel a lot in the offseason and see all the corners of the world.

Right. That I could. I'm very fortunate to do some great things. And there have been times in my life where I regret not doing things like you get somewhere and then it doesn't work out. You know, I can't believe I traveled all the way here and I didn't do it.

Sure. I had one of those moments in Pamplona in 2016, but now in retrospect, it was by far the smartest thing I've ever done. And that is not run with the Bulls. I went to the Fedia, the festival, the running of the Bulls in 2016. I was on the road, did a Europe thing with my girlfriend at the time.

She had to come back with a real job and go to work. I could stay a little bit. I went to Pamplona and I'm there by myself and I was going to run with the Bulls. I was going to do it. It's something I always wanted to do.

Bucket list, check that box, had to do it. So for those who don't know, it is a festival and the running is just one part of that festival. It is a week long drinking exercise. It is a test of endurance to the point where there are countless people who don't get hotel rooms, who simply drink until they can't drink anymore, go sleep under a tree and then come back and then go at it again. Never get hotel rooms, just sleep under a tree. We're talking daytime naps, siestas. It's not like a homeless camp. It's just people sleep under trees. It's also a great family event. People from all over the region come in instead of picnics.

It's amazing. But when they run, they start in the morning. Obviously, it's this giant square and the people that are there to run have been drinking for days on end. So I decided I'm going to watch it day one. I'm going to go up there and observe it, maybe pick out a route, see the best way to handle this. I'm going to come back and I'm going to do it day two. So I get there to observe day one and you have hundreds of drunken British bachelor party tourists who have been just absolutely obliterated for a week.

A week. I mean the Feria opens with a giant sangria fight. Everyone's got the skein, the sky, whatever, you know, the thing around their neck filled with sangria and it begins with everyone in a sangria fight. That's how the week begins. It sounds kind of awesome.

It is awesome. But then those are the people that decide that they're going to run with a 3,000-pound animal whose job it is to kill you. Right, they're going to outrun this guy. They're going to outrun it. So I watch the first day and I see people getting trampled and trying to jump through windows. I'm like, are you kidding me?

But I'm going to do it. I didn't sleep the night before. I was so anxious because I'm watching news coverage, local news coverage, and then you turn on like CNN International, right? And, well, you know, the running of the bulls happened again. And, you know, here's so-and-so at a hospital through his rear end.

And here's so-and-so and here's so-and-so and here's an interview with a mom, you know, from Tennessee saying I can't believe my son's in a hospital in Pamplona. And I went, you know what, nah. Not worth it.

I'm good. But I didn't decide until I actually went. I actually went there that next morning and then looked at it and went, nah, I'm good. But I had the self-loathing for like weeks. I went all the way there and didn't do it. Like, you chickened out. I hated myself.

But every time, thank you, Josh Norman, I see that video. Oh, you're glad now? I'm so glad I didn't do it. Oh, I thought you had seven-year regrets. I can feel it.

I'm so, so, so, so glad I didn't do it. I know I promised the James Franklin thing. You guys ranted earlier. We have no time. I just want to say this.

Be nice to the guy. I have a whole rant I could go on about people, reporters, treating press conferences like talk shows, like there are some reporters that don't ask questions, that just think they're doing a show with the coach, right? Here's what I think. And then the coach eventually goes, is there a question? That's not what that was. It kind of was what it was.

Maybe James Franklin overreacted just a little bit for the theater. Bad question. Yeah, it was a bad question.

The answer was I bought hysterical, hysterical, but maybe a little bit over the top. Just be nice to the guy on Twitter. Social media is a horrible place. It really is.

And when you tweet mean things to people, it really tells me more about you than it does about anything that other person did. My name is Andrew. Back tomorrow. Adios. Adios.