REShow: Trevor Lawrence & Bruce Feldman - Hour 2

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Limitations apply. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Tank wisely.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Are we going to tank? Meaning the Patriots? Yeah, it's happened.

And I keep telling them they are not. Because Belichick doesn't tank, man. Earlier on the show, Bengals wide receiver Jamar Chase. Coming up, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, Fox Sports college football insider Bruce Feldman, writer, director and comedian Robert Smigel. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Trevor Lawrence, in just a handful of minutes, will be hopping on a Zoom to chit chat with us. Jamar Chase already chatted with us. That was an enjoyable conversation.

I'm going against him in fantasy. Basically told me tough. So there's that. Bruce Feldman is going to be joining us in studio in the middle of this hour. As soon as Trevor Lawrence, as soon as we, I guess, end the Zoom with him, he'll be joining us here. And the college football playoff standings going into the final weekend of the season have been set.

And I will ask for clarification from Bruce, how he views them. It sure looks to me as if Ohio State is set up to get in if Florida State loses. Which to me is the most likely result of any of the teams in the Final Four losing this weekend.

That's the most likely. With all due respect to Alabama and obviously Oregon fans that feel that they have a really good chance this weekend. But Oregon's favorite in the game. I get it. I get it. And I understand why they've been playing, I think, consistently better since losing to Washington than Washington has since that win. Yeah, you could say offensively they're one of the hottest teams in college football. Right.

So, you know, in Bo Nix, along with Daniels and LSU, those are... Bo Nix is seemingly the favorite right now. So we'll see how the weekend goes. That's in a couple of Saturdays from now.

Yup. So, you know, and then, screw it, I'll go here, too. I'll ask you, since you have no dog, if you will, in this hunt. I don't, although Syracuse just hired a new head coach.

Very excited about that. From Georgia. From the back. You definitely want to take the fruit of the vine, I'll tell you that. I definitely want a little Georgia leftovers. Guess what?

Coming up north. The Philadelphia Eagles have taken that. Yeah.

And they're about to go to, potentially, the second straight Super Bowl, right? Exactly. I understand. But I'll ask you this. I'm going to ask you this. You tell me. Straight up. You too, TJ, even though you've got a little bit of a dog in Penn State on here, OK?

In the Florida State. OK. No, no, no. Well, I got you. Here we go.

Had Ohio State beaten Michigan, do you think Ohio State would be 2 and Michigan would be 6? Yes. You do? OK. For real? For real?

Yeah. Why wouldn't they? Why do you think it wouldn't have been? I think Ohio State would be 1 and Michigan would be 8. 8?

Oh, yeah. Michigan would be behind Texas and Alabama. They would have fallen all the way off because they didn't play anybody. Ohio State had beaten Notre Dame and there are 10 men on defense. Penn State would be the same. OK. Michigan won there. Ohio State won in the shoe. Just pointing out, I'm just wondering, there's also the Connor Stallion's thing, you know?

OK. I see what you're saying. You know, they would have been no style points for the fact that Michigan didn't have their coach, which, by the way, they wanted to Penn State and beat Ohio State without their head coach. Well, he coached all week except for Saturday. Saturday's the penalty. Yeah.

A real slap on the pinky, that penalty. OK. OK. That's your opinion. I don't think so. You don't think Ohio State would be 1? I don't think they would be 1, no.

You don't? How are you going to penalize a team that's won 29 straight games and has won the last two championships? They've been 1 all year. They didn't boat race Georgia Tech? They didn't play their best players. OK. Rival were being 2.

Are you as steadfast with him? After you gave your argument and them thinking about the Stallion's thing, I'm like, you're probably right. Everybody is ready to stomp all over America's team. Well, stop it with that. You at least appreciate that.

By the way, what are you laughing at, Chris? Stop with the American school. It's Michigan versus everybody. Isn't everybody versus everybody? Exactly. It's everybody's school against everybody else.

Then it should be Dallas against everybody. Tom Brady going up there and saying everyone thinks we suck, except we were the Super Bowl favorite that year. You know what? Here's what I need you to do. I need this.

All right? I'm asking. You've got to stop your eye rolling at me.

Michigan is the betting favorite to win the national championship. Who are you going against? And what is this everybody? You of everyone shouldn't.

It's the problem you created. You should stop the eye rolling. We're on the same team now. I'm trying.

I know. To be the guy who relishes in the hate. I want you on the dark side. I've never been in this position.

It's going to take me some time to ramp up to it. And I'm trying to work my way into it instead of look over at you and I feel your scorn. I feel your eye rolls and you've got to be with me here. I mean, he's not going to be with you.

He's got well, if it's admission against Georgia, I understand that's where we got to go our separate ways. But until then, Chris, I do want you got to foster this aspect of me. You're right. Told me two years ago.

Right. Say it with my chest. Say it with my chest. And then I said it's with my chest so damn much last year, I was like the alien was popping out of my chest.

How much you need to have a vest over your chest. And now go back. And now I'm turning to you and I'm saying it's time for you to foster this part of my Michigan sort of he doesn't want to see you happy, a transformation and you're and you're not allowing this flower to bloom. Well, I think, OK, stop your eye rolling and the eye rolling is response is in response to the tone.

It shouldn't be, but it shouldn't matter. You're the one who was there. Tom Brady's right.

As we went off to our umpteenth Super Bowl, everybody is expecting us to lose, but everyone did brush them off. Oh, God. This guy.

I mean, that guy after the. OK. After the day, go off to the cheese. Forty two. All I'm saying is help me become you know, you don't want that situation. All right. And I never say that to you.

You don't. Will you please. OK, come on. I'm looking to you for guidance, not scorn. You're right. I'll be better. Thank you. I'll be a better teammate.

Is he the one you want to look to for this? It's now that Michigan's the team to hate. I'll be a better teammate. OK. Please. You might not be able to get out of that hole, though.

All right. That's funny. Look who's joining us right now on The Rich Eisen Show on Zoom. There he is.

Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars. What's up, Trevor? Is that an actual Jaguar behind you? Is that what it is? Is that? Yeah. Wow.

My my brother and sister-in-law did this. They're artists. They painted it for me. I'll pick it up so you guys can see a little better. So I got hung up in the office. I got to tell you. I'm not going to lie. I'm a little intimidated now.

That's dope. I'm a little intimidated. You know, that Jaguar looks ready to pounce, man. You know, it's supposed to be like Clemson, the Tigers, the Jaguars, like both. I see that.

It's a cat theme. That is cool. I like it. How are you doing, man? How's it going? I'm doing great. Doing great. How are you guys doing? I have not seen you since London. And you know, it feels to me, Trevor, last year, London was a turning point for you because you didn't have that great of a game and you learned from it and Doug Peterson was talking about the lessons you learned from the adversity. And it feels that London was kind of a turning point in another direction again for you guys this year. Back to back games. First team to ever do that. You won those and you've been crushing ever since.

Trevor, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, I totally agree. I think especially in the NFL, in your season, you're going to have some adversity.

You're going to have some challenges. Usually it doesn't go super clean and perfect for a team. You know, at some point you're going to hit a few bumps in the road. So, you know, I think for us it was, it was probably good for us that it happened early. You know, it seemed like we couldn't, you know, find our groove offensively. Just weren't playing, weren't playing great. We lost those two games back to back at home and then we went away to London and kind of got back on track. And I think that that helped us and whatever you can do to find your rhythm, the sooner the better, obviously. But there's going to be times where you might not have a great game as an offense or a couple games and you just got to find a way to bounce back and get out of that funk.

And I think that's something that is going to happen to every team in the NFL at some point in the season, no matter whether the team can, you know, come out of it or not. What's the best piece of advice Doug Peterson has imparted to you? Trevor, what do you got for me? You know, that's a tough question.

You know, I can't think of one specific thing. I think just his whole, his whole mindset and really the way that me and him interact, you know, he's very, he really just lets me, lets me play. I think that that's such a powerful thing as a quarterback to have a coach that has full confidence and trust in you, even when you make some mistakes. And obviously you're not going to play perfect and all that, you know, his trust and confidence in me never wavers. And I think that's something he's proven by the way, you know, the decisions he makes in games, whether it's maybe going for on some four downs or different things, you know, throughout last year and this year, I think him having that confidence in me, he continues to tell me all the time, whether the play was good, bad, either way, you know, I think he has kept that confidence and that's given me a lot of confidence. I can just go play. I don't have to worry about really anything. And of course you're going to make some mistakes and you're not going to make every play, but having the ability to go play with confidence as I know that coach Peterson and the whole staff and all the players have that full confidence in me just to go, you know, let it loose. Yeah, I know. And I guess it's tough for me to ask you for one specific, since it is a residual thing that you just described.

Right? I mean, you know, trust is something that has earned, it has gained, it is something that you feel over time, but I'm just wondering, is it his demeanor that you vibe with? I'm just trying to, you know, get something to drill down here about this one. Yeah, it's, it's, it's everything, you know, the way he carries himself, he's, he's just always the same guy. You know, he's very consistent in the way he carries himself, whether we've, you know, we're on a winning streak or losing streak or whatever.

Obviously, obviously it's a lot more fun coming to work when you're winning. You know, just the whole vibe in the building is better, but I will say, you know, we've had some, we've had some different, you know, I guess time periods last year or even this year where we haven't been playing great. And he just does a good job of managing all the highs and the lows that a season can hold. And I think that's really important from a head coach is just to balance that because there's going to be times where the team might not be playing great and, but the season is so long and you've got to find a way to get the guys back on track, but also to lead the right way to where it's not like panic and throw everything out because you can't do that because it's such a long season.

And like I said earlier, you're going to have some games where you might not play your best. So I think he handles that really well. And then I just think overall his, his demeanor, the environment that he's created, the culture here, it's just a place that people want to be, you know, it's, it's fun going to work. You know, it's very sustainable, you know, it's not.

It's not a dictatorship. It's not, you know, he lets guys have personalities and all of these things. I think he does a great job of just, you know, allowing his players to lead as well. You know, it's not like it's, it's all just what he says it goes, I think he does a great job of feeling out the players and we have a leadership committee that meets every week and just really keeps us involved in everything that he does. And I think he's done an awesome job.

Trevor Lawrence here on the Rich Eisen show. And you know, I, last year you went the division sort of coming out of the blue, right? You caught fire and you won it then. And in terms of, I guess, journeys and growing and things of that nature, the win you just had is a potential sort of a stamp. Like this is your division. The fact that Houston came in and did hand you a loss, it was their first win of the season.

And that's where CJ Stroud is, as you know, has started to really come on strong, but you went into their house and, and, and ended any thoughts of them taking things over. And I'm wondering if that has added to a different sense as you go into a home game on a Monday night against an opponent that, you know, has been at the top of the conference the last couple of years and that you're now beginning to have a stamp in your hand, Trevor, is that accurate? Yeah, 100%, you know, you look at the games, including last week and, you know, before that game, all the games that we have left on our schedule, and I think we have an opportunity every week to prove something and that it's that we it's that way every week anyways, but you look at the teams that were playing, you know, big win last week in Houston, a team like you said, it's playing really well.

CJ is obviously playing great, the team's playing well. And they were getting hot, you know, and I think that was a big win for us. Because if we, you know, we lose that game, we're tied for the lead, and I guess they get the tiebreaker because they beat us twice. So I mean, that game was huge, and then we don't really control our own destiny for the rest of the season. You know, you can you can kind of hope you get a wildcard spot or, or anything like that, or, you know, hope that Houston loses some games, we don't want to be in that spot, you want to control your own destiny.

So that was the first step. And then this week, obviously, a big AFC opponent. And just looking where we're at, we should take it one week at a time, you know, we got a chance to do something special, put ourselves in a great position entering the postseason. You know, but we got to take it one week at a time. And this will be a great opportunity, and hasn't been a Monday Night Football in Jacksonville in a long time.

So I know everybody's excited for that. And we just got to make the most of it day, you got a Sunday nighter home against Baltimore coming up down the road as well. And in terms of your development, how are you better now than than when you were even at the beginning of the season? Do you think?

What do you got for me there? Yeah, I think I'm just continually becoming more consistent, you know, every week, I think I'm for the most part making better decisions, taking care of the ball. That's something that since my rookie year just been an emphasis taking care of the ball making good decisions, you still got to play with instincts, you got to go play, you can't be scared to let it rip.

So I think there's a balance in all that. But yeah, I think those are the biggest things accuracy, I think that's something that has probably been my biggest improvement since my rookie year. I think about halfway during the season last year, I really took a jump in that area and just given our guys chances, whether it's outside, you know, wherever, you know, I think just accuracy in general, I've gotten a lot better. And then just like I said, decision making all those things and just making the right play at the right time.

You know, then there's a time and a place, you got to have some judgment on when you want to take shots and take chances. And I think, you know, I'm getting better at all that still a lot of improvement to be done. You know, I think we need to get better at finishing games, you know, we had an opportunity to kind of put Houston away last week and weren't able to do it. So always stuff you can get better at, but I do I like the strides that, you know, I've taken into this offense is taking the season. And how about playing with discomfort, you learn how to do that, because I'm assuming there's got to be something you're not wearing a brace for style points, you know what I mean?

So what about that? Yeah, you know, I'm feeling a lot better, thankfully, but doesn't bother me as much to move around. It's more of just a kind of precautionary thing, you just don't want to get rolled up on and kind of reenter the knee. So this point, it's feeling good, like the last couple of weeks, I think really the Tennessee game and this this last week in Houston, I felt 100% comfortable moving around and just playing normal. So those are the first two weeks in a while that I felt that way.

So that's exciting, you know, for the stretch that we got ahead of us that I can feel that way because there's nothing worse than feeling like you can't necessarily do everything and react the way you want to in games, you know, that's that's not a good feeling, especially as a quarterback. OK, so let's have a little bit of fun before I let you on your Wednesday. And I appreciate you spending this is your off day. So I appreciate you doing this, Trevor Moore. What requires more maintenance, your actual hair or shod Khan's facial hair? Trevor, what do you got for me?

Oh, I don't know what goes into I don't know what goes into his keeping that mustache. OK. Perfect. Like he does all the time. But so I don't know. That's a good question.

I'd probably say. I probably I feel like the mustache, you know, I feel he's got to brush it. You know, I don't brush my hair every day, so I feel like he has to brush the mustache every day.

Hold on a second. Are you just trying to show me up right now that you don't you know, not every day I'd say once or twice a week, maybe what? That's all like, OK, all right. So there's no there's no maintenance required. You know, go wash, wash it like shampoo and condition in a couple of times a week. In one in one shampoo and conditioner in one for me, it's been years for me. So I'm sorry if this comes across as weird, but it's been it's been it's been separate.

Usually the usually those aren't is usually those aren't good quality from my experience. OK, and then and then how steep is that hill in Clemson, man? How steep is the steep? I mean, it's pretty steep, but where it gets you is halfway down, it kind of levels off. OK, so you own it kind of gets flat and then it drops off again. So a bunch of guys will like run down, then jump in the air and land.

And I don't know how to do that. But a lot of guys I mean, we've had a couple of guys fall in the past match itself. It's Dabo, man. I mean, yeah, I was not eating it. Somehow Coach Sweeney is like whatever, you know, a thousand for a thousand on that hill. And he runs full speed. I mean, he's running like 20 miles an hour down that thing.

Right. So did you ever did you ever come close to eating it yourself or or what? I was I was calculated. I was real slow, just a little trot down it.

Never jumped. I'd have got like the DBs and some of the receivers and stuff beside me would like jump in the air. But I mean, we'd have guys that would that would fall and roll down the hill.

And then Monday morning or Monday for our team meeting, they'd put it up on the on the screen in slow motion and zoom in on the guys that would fall on the hill. Right. OK.

Very good. And so do you have an I don't know if you pay attention to the college football playoffs right now. Do you got to any team that you're you think can win it all? What do you got for me on that front?

What do you think? You know, I don't I think it'll be interesting just to see who gets in. This is a look at it this year.

I mean, it's tough. You got four spots and it seems like there's a lot of scenarios based on what happens in the conference championship. There's a lot of scenarios that could make it a tough decision. So I'll be interested to see who gets in. Obviously, Georgia last couple of years has been dominant, you know, so they take care of business in the conference championship they're in and then they might be in anyways. I don't know. That's an example.

I don't know what happens there. One day you'll tell your kids used to play when, you know, when it was just four teams, man, you know, and now I mean, we're gonna get 12 and remember, remember everybody said, hey, cut these college kids. We can't have them play 1516 games like that's coming. That's right around the corner, man. Is it 12? Is it eight?

What is the next? It's gonna be 12 next year. Gonna be 12. Oh my God. We're the conference championship game and 12 regular season games.

They're gonna be playing an NFL schedule soon. There'll be no there'll be no rookie wall. That's for sure.

Trevor, thanks for the time again. Let's give a shout out. Who are the artists? Where's that? What's that artwork behind you?

Behind your left shoulder? Yeah. Chase and Brooke Lawrence. It's my brother and sister-in-law. Okay. Just a little shout out for them.

There they go. Very nicely done. Very nicely done. Trevor, thanks for your time, man. Good to see you. You be well. Yeah.

Enjoy the rest of your off day. You got it. That's the great Trevor Lawrence right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Check out Monday Night Football. That was great. Dude.

We're gonna quickly do this and then we'll bring Bruce Feldman out here. You on overreaction Monday said the Jaguars are going to be the one seed. You're trying to speak this into existence because you said it before the season. I said there was a path to them being the one seed in the AFC.

Well, there is now. Yeah. Problem for them is they gotta have a better record than Kansas City if they're straight up with them. Or in any tie break, they'll be bounced out. Do that tie break. Right. But let's just say they take care of business at home against Cincinnati since they should. Let's be straight up.

They should. Okay. Quarterback driven league. We'll go there. Yep. Then they go to Cleveland.

Now that one is just gonna be huge. No idea what the Browns offense looks like. And or defense.

I mean, I guess it's a day to day four miles guard. Correct. But I mean, if the guy was in a sling last week and he might be, you know, who knows putting it on the line against the Rams.

I'll just put it this way. Cleveland, let's, let's say Cleveland is full compliment defense, but you're going against Jake Browning and DTR or Joe Flacco or PJ Walker. And I know they have all won games. Should win the next two.

That game against Baltimore. They win that huge at Tampa home for Carolina at Tennessee should win out. That would make them 13 and three, which is good enough for the one seed, but 14 and three, pardon me. I'm so bad at this now, even if they win five of the last six, that's 13 and four, 13 and four. And certainly if you've got a tie break against Baltimore and you're hoping that Kansas city doesn't have the same record as you and that Miami doesn't catch fire either, but they're in this mix. They're absolutely in the mix. And that's why I wanted to just point out, okay, Houston, you came in to our house and now you're feeling good about yourselves.

Guess what? We're winning this and we're now going to be two games better than you. You're not going to be in first place. We are.

Again, we're, you're going to be far back in our rear view mirror and keep putting stamps on it. This is our home on Monday night football. We're winning. This is our home on Sunday night football, Baltimore. We're winning. Keep putting stamps down.

They can be the one seed. Let's take a break. Bruce Feldman next on the Rich Eisen show. Don't go anywhere. This will be fun. All right, folks, let's talk about game time and let's talk about buying tickets to big time events because it can be worrisome. It can be time consuming and it can be expensive. So game time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy and theater events near you. You can see the view from your seat before you buy.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. You know, in today's world, it seems the best treatment is reserved only for a few. Well discover wants to change that by making everyone feel special. That's why with your discover card, you have access to 24 seven live customer service as well as $0 fraud liability, which means you're never held responsible for unauthorized purchases. Finally, no matter who you are or where you are in life, you'll feel special with discover.

Learn more at discover.com slash credit card limitations apply back here on the rich eyes and show radio audience coming back in a moment. So first of two times, I say hello to you, Bruce Feldman. Good to see you, sir.

How are you? Uh, you know, and I'm glad you are here because your information is on besmirchable. You are a guy who knows everything about everything. So I can ask you this and I'll know I'm going to get a straight answer and it's going to be absolutely true. What did it say on the scoreboard at the end of the Michigan Ohio state game?

It just in numbers. What did it say? What was that?

Can you, can you report back to me points than the arch rival? Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thanks for coming.

Thank you, buddy. See now, can you at least imagine like sent him home after that, like did we not talk about this? Like about what are we talking about? We talked about the scenario of, well, what happens if they suspend Jim and it's like in retrospect now it's like, it's curious to see how the NCAA is going to handle this going forward, whether Jim's there or not, because you basically suspended the head coach for the two biggest games of the season in the league. The biggest game, by the way, of the year in the entire sport that 19 million people saw on your network. That's true.

You know, and obviously there are bigger games with bigger stakes to come, but the biggest regular season game of those by far. Right. So, and he wasn't there.

So I would say that that is one would say a punishment. However, you know, as Chris pointed out, he was, he was around all week. Yeah.

I'll be here all week. Literally just wasn't there for game time. No, that's, but that's the, that's the crucial kind of moment right there.

Is it? I mean, because without your head coach, who's going to just hop up and down with a whistle in the middle of everybody dancing on the, on the, on the field, who's going to do that? Ryan Day needs a guy to cry for him. Who's crying for Ryan Day? It's all right. We're on the same team. Is that right now? See? Are you glad?

But it's terrible. All right. So we're here on the Rich Eisen show. Bruce Feldman is here to go through what we saw last night. So we will do that in a second. The Rich Eisen show radio network is back on the air with my Roku channel live stream.

I'm at the Rich Eisen show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry Grainger has the right product for you call click Grainger.com or just stop by. Bruce Feldman is back here. What was it like in Ann Arbor? Paint the word picture for me pregame during game after game. What do you got for me?

What do you got? Intense. It was at times when Zach's inner goes down and it gets silent. And then there's a cheer starts to build up and he responds to the crowd.

I thought there was so like if there couldn't have been more drama ratcheted into that into that moment. And then look, you know, as nasty as rivalry is, credit to Ryan Day, he did run up the tunnel to go to pay his respect to him, you know, it's his enter. And then the very next play, Blake Horn breaks like a 20 yard touchdown run.

And flashes six, five, his number at the Fox camera. And one and this is Zach center and Blake Horn, both guys who decided, hey, we're coming back for one more running back and he's coming off injury and decided, hey, I'm not done yet. It was and then the post game was kind of what you'd expect. As crazy as it's going to sound, it did not as memorable as it was the year before in Columbus to me kind of blew my mind because I didn't see it coming in the way it fell apart. And it was almost like, yeah, we're the only people in this building who think this is going to happen. And it did.

In this case, it kind of went the way a lot of us thought it was going to go, right? Michigan had a, this year had a big edge at quarterback and that bared out. Michigan wrote its run game and just kept on leaning on them. Eventually it was good enough. Their defense played and made enough plays.

And it kind of, I don't think there was anything shocking about it like this, you know. The theater of it, no Jim Harbaugh. Yeah, it was just a, it felt like big time college football all the way through. The atmosphere was intense throughout, there was like never a lull in it. Even when it got quiet, like I said, in the Zach Zinter gruesome injury, it ratcheted the intensity even more into the building.

And it was great that you mentioned how Ryan Day does go and comforts Zinter and then Sharone Moore and the Michigan staff went out to, I believe it was Tui Moluau who was involved in the sequence where Zinter's tib-fib occurred and they went and consoled him or at least went up and tapped him on the helmet and all that. And then obviously everybody goes back to their corners and comes out fighting again. What happens now? I feel like we're through the Conner Stallions, what did it all mean during the games phase, at least I'd like to think that.

That that's now put to bed. Now we're in the, are we in the penalty phase? Because Jim got three games and it's not just any three games. What is happening with this as we're, are we going to hear anything before the Big Ten or the final? No, I don't, I think at this point, that's a postseason deal.

That is a, when I say postseason, I'm post, you know, that's a 2024 deal to me. Because at this point, if anything comes to light, no matter what it is at this point, you know, again, Michigan served a significant punishment. Their head coach was away from them. He wasn't away from them for the whole week, but he was away from them on Saturdays.

And that does, that does matter. Now, is it as big a deal if he was away permanently? No, but I think at this point, the NCAA is going to go through its process and we'll circle back on that when it happens. Well, the crucial part about that, just to jump in here, is that, you know, obviously it depends on how many more games Michigan wins this year, how Harbaugh's standing might be with the Regents at Michigan or, or what happens. But you know, the NFL coaching hiring season is going to start the first Sunday, Sunday before the national championship. And he is the one guy in the college coaching space who has a big time NFL coaching pedigree. Yes.

You know, if Nick Saban at this stage of his career somehow desperately wanted to be a head NFL head coach, but like Jim Harbaugh took his team that wasn't very good before he got there to a Super Bowl. 44 and 19 is a, as you know, is a really impressive resume. There will be jobs. My gut, and this is something that some people inside Michigan kind of also buy, there's going to be a rebuild in Ann Arbor. Yeah.

There's a transfer portal. Yeah. There's still some really good young players who can't leave early, but the bulk of those starters are going on to the NFL. The NCAA is not going to be done with Michigan now.

They are not. There's more punishment and if Jim Harbaugh is still there, it's not like, oh yeah, he served three games for the big 10, but we're still not happy with how the sanctions are going to be laid out for the COVID recruiting issues. So I think I'd still be surprised if Jim Harbaugh is the head coach at Michigan a year from now.

Bruce Feldman here on the Rich Eisen Show. Interpret the college football playoff standings for me. How do you interpret what the committee put out there on Tuesday night? I think the committee reinforced something that I think a lot of us thought might happen, which was they dropped Ohio State a little further down than maybe people thought it was going to be. Really?

I thought it's too high. No, I'm not saying that for rivalry purposes. I mean, Texas and Alabama is playing for their titles.

And if they win, they will leapfrog Ohio State. You do believe that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. If Alabama beats Georgia, they're leapfrogging a bunch of people, not just Ohio State.

Okay. Because to me, this indicates, hey, all Florida State's got to do, all Ohio State needs is Florida State slips up and they're moving forward. Otherwise why not put Ohio State down below Alabama right? I think what Ohio State needs to have happen is they certainly need Florida State to lose. I think they need Georgia to win. They need obviously Michigan to win, Ohio State, then maybe they could be into the number four slot, but I think they not only need Florida State to lose, I think they need Texas to get knocked off by Oklahoma State too.

I think it's going to be a harder sell. I mean, Oklahoma State's not a very good team, especially by conference championship game standards, but if you're Ohio State, I think the thing that also hurts them a little bit, they have Penn State's number 10, Notre Dame is a solid win on the road, but that's about it. And they had a close loss at Michigan. I think the thing that hurts them significantly is when you look at that team, they do not look as dangerous as the team last year. The team last year had CJ Stroud and that gave them a puncher's chance against anybody. They almost took down Georgia and they came within the last second field goal of doing that.

But the thermal cord of what I think the committee has looked and seen is a good young quarterback. There's a big difference now in that offense. And I think that would, I don't think they have as much of a fear factor as an opponent as the team last year did. I just don't think just from seeing them a lot last year and seeing this team now a lot in person, they're not as good.

They may be a little better on defense, but offensively they are not the same team. So let's put it up one more time because I've got a few questions. Let's just go through one at a time. So what the conference playoff, college football playoff rankings show, winner of Pac-12 in, loser out, right? I believe so, yes.

Okay. Florida State wins. They're in. They need to be. They deserve 13 and 0 and you whipped the third best team in the SEC by like three or four touchdowns. Yeah, I think they deserve it. Okay, so we're not discounting because you're here that they want the best teams, not the deserveds.

They want the best. So how do you say that a team that's undefeated with their backup quarterback over a Texas team that's Quinn Ewers quarterbacked, right? I mean, in all honesty, honestly, so those are the two worst power five conferences, the big 12 right now and the ACC, but still if the backup quarterback leads them to a win over right now, it's a two loss Louisville team. I mean, I still think you can't just diminish everything they've done because you just think the backup quarterback's not that good.

Okay. And so Texas wins. How does Texas get in if Alabama beats Georgia?

How does that happen? They need a lot of help. I think they- Even though Texas has beaten Alabama, I mean, like let's cape for the Longhorn fan right now because they're like, it shouldn't matter. Like we beat Alabama. I mean, they finally freaking beat Alabama and Alabama is still going to go with the same- And the irony here is they would be really being snubbed by the aura of the league they're about to become. The idea that an SEC champ is going to get left out doesn't compute for anybody, it just doesn't. And it's unfortunate, but I think that the rationale that they would talk themselves into is Alabama with a much improved Jalen Milro, not the same guy that Texas played early in the year. Now, it's not to say Texas hasn't improved from that point either, but I think Alabama has improved as much as anybody from the beginning of the season to now, especially Jalen Milro. If they beat Georgia, I think we're going to look at them way differently.

It hasn't happened yet, so we haven't digested it yet. But what happens in college football, and I feel like it's way different than it is in other sports because there's just way less games, but when you see stuff happen, it's like we look at them differently. We looked at LSU differently when they went to Tuscaloosa with Joe Burrow, and they beat Alabama.

At that point, it was like, ooh, we just remember all the stuff that had happened before, and then you kind of look, oh, Clyde is actually really good, and this guy's really good. It's like they're on a different level, and we look at them differently when it happens. If Jalen Milro beats Georgia, we will look at Jalen Milro and Alabama much differently, I almost promise you. I'm not saying it's definitely going to happen, but I think if it does, I think that'll be a collective narrative.

Makes complete sense, and the flip side of that is true, too. Because speaking on behalf of a lot of Wolverine fans watching this season play out, feeling how our team, Team 144 as we refer to them, looks and how deep the team is and how, as you even pointed out, how many NFL players are on this roster right now. They're feeling really good about the long-term hopes for this season, because Georgia looks less than, right? They don't look like Georgia the last two years. Georgia goes and beats Alabama, it'll be like, oh, okay, they go for a three-peat right now.

They'll look a hell of a lot more different in the eyes of a lot of people. What if they pound Alabama and just, in that game, just going in style? They'll be like, well, there's your three-peat right there. Well, it'll erase some of the skepticism that people who watched Auburn and a way less athletic quarterback than Jalen Milro run all over them for a while. Now, if they shut down Jalen Milro, I think that would be a big statement for them. I think it's also a chance Carson Beck has quietly, about as quiet as you can be on the number one team, been very, very impressive. But I think, fair or unfair, the benchmark for him now at Georgia is going to be, well, Stetson Bennett really lit it up in the playoffs. That's when he seemed like he was just a playmaker and did, I get it, he's not 6'4", and he doesn't do a lot of the same stuff that you want people to evaluate and look for.

But he was a really good playmaker in the playoffs, and he seemed like he was pretty unflappable and he rose to the moment. That's the challenge, I think, now for Carson Beck. If he can show he can do that, because right now, Missouri's pretty good, but they haven't played anybody who'd say, okay, this is a legit playoff team, and they will play a legit playoff caliber team this weekend. So exciting. Let's take a break. When we come back, I'd love to talk about the future of the college football playoff, and also a fascinating quote that Caleb Williams gave to the Los Angeles Times in today's edition. What's next? Bruce Feldman is here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Don't you dare move. The football season is underway, and Believe podcasts are talking about it. When he went home and went to sleep, Michael Parsons was just terrorizing him.

Believe has podcasts covering all 32 professional teams and many of your favorite college teams too. And to be only producing 15 points a game, that's something that is definitely disheartening. Side line to sideline, end zone to end zone. As a quarterback, I would expect him to be acting like that. Take the accountability. Put that on yourself.

Don't put it on your teammates. Search BLEAV Podcasts wherever you listen. Half redneck, half posh, 100% fun. Trey Crowder and Corey Ryan Forrester try and learn fancy culture in putting on airs.

The host of the Medium Popcorn Podcast, Brandon Collins and Justin Brown. Okay, so Paddington too had like 100% arrived tomatoes for years. You guys ruined that? Paddington came in and like took it down like two points because of his rating. That's the time we started getting death threats. Yeah, I'm not surprised.

I didn't know people worship that movie. Putting on airs. The podcast is on YouTube and wherever you listen. You want to talk about that right now? What do you think is going to happen if Michigan wins the Big Ten Championship as expected and Tony Petitti, the commissioner who suspended Jim is up there handing out with a trophy to Sam? What do you think? What do you think is going to pass in Jim Harbaugh awkward moments of engagement? The what's your deal deal with Pete Carroll and whatever happened with Jim Schwartz. We got like a power ranking.

Nice, I like it. Okay. Those two were really weird.

And whatever happened with Jim Schwartz. Remember that handshake? Yeah. That was strange. Okay.

That's not bad. I don't know. I think he's going to go up and he'll just take the trophy. You suspended him when they were flying to Penn State. In the air. In the air. Day before. That is jacked up.

Again, I understand that he accepted the punishment at the end. But on Veterans Day, right? Yeah. That was.

There were no courts were open for for any for any judicial relief observation of Veterans Day. One of the biggest. Right.

So it's a federal holiday. One of the biggest beats. One of the things that Michigan people had on regard to that is like, you're basically taking your direction all from the people who are the coaches was like, when does that ever happen in any form of justice in the NCA? Well, at least I'm sure one of them wasn't the one that Michigan beat on the weekend. Do you know who the coaches were? Were they all of them? Were they all of them? No, there was a couple guys who were not physically there on that call. I don't know if Brett Beelen was on the call. I think there was somebody else I had.

Now it's feels like it's like six months ago because all this stuff is just piled on top of each other. Yeah, I think Jim will take the trophy. I mean, again, if they win this game, he'll just take the trophy and maybe point to his name in the Ring of Honor in there, too.

His name's on the wall. I'd be curious to the conversation if there are conversations with Jim Harbaugh, whoever talks to him about, hey, if and when you guys do win, what do you say to the commissioner? I don't think back here in the Rich Eisen show radio, Bruce Feldman, we're asking what happens at the podium if Harbaugh wins and Commissioner Tony Petitti has got a trophy to hand him. I think he just takes it and he turns around.

He looks at his kids. I think that's the way it would go. But of course, Iowa's got other things to say. And they're a really good defensive team.

They are that. So we just had a whole conversation about the college football playoff Final Four and who is on the outside looking in and whether it's fair to Texas or Alabama or Ohio State or Florida State and all of that business flash forward to next year. This ain't the conversation.

Completely different conversation. So I believe Ross Dellinger of Yahoo put together what the college football playoff committee's current standings would look like in next year's format. And we have it on our screen right now. There it is where Texas would host Penn State. The winner then plays Michigan. Like an SEC corridor.

Correct. And then there's Ohio State hosts Ole Miss. Winner plays Washington. Alabama plays Missouri. Winner plays Georgia. In the Peach Bowl.

My goodness gracious. Oregon hosts Tulane. And the winner goes and plays Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

And my question is, which one do you like better? The one like this where we're having controversy and talking about who's in, who's now, who deserves or not or doesn't matter. Let's just play it out. And the controversy is who's Tulane keeping out at 12? What do you got for me on that?

What do you think? As a football fan on the surface, I like what you just showed Ross's breakdown of what it would be like for 12. The part that I don't love about this is, so we just had a super intense Saturday of Michigan and Ohio State. And by the way, the rest of the day, Apple Cup, Iron Bowl, Farmageddon, which I know wasn't for a spot, but in the Snowmageddon and Farmageddon. Wild four minutes of that, whatever happened at the end of that game with, you know, you intercept it.

No, you intercept it. But I thought Michigan, Ohio State, if it's a rematch the next week. In the Big Ten Championship game. In the Big Ten Championship game, because now there are no divisions next year. Does that diffuse a lot of does that make some of the other games less meaningful?

Hell yeah, it does. And certainly what if they face each other for a third time in the college football playoff? Yeah.

Then it feels like college basketball. Right. Or, you know, professional football where, you know, Titans Ravens used to play three times in a year. Right.

But they played one time in the playoffs as well. Yeah, I don't know. I'm back and forth. And I look at that and I'm like, hell yeah. Do I want to see Ole Miss and the whole like Lane Kiffin in the horseshoe? You know, I mean, Texas and Penn State is a fascinating one. Yeah, I think it's I think the matchups are really compelling. I just think there's going to be the awkwardness of the double play. Right. Because I remember this coming up with Bedlam at one point before Oklahoma, you know, this you know, Oklahoma, Texas, we're going to bail from the from the Big 12 about what happens when the teams are that are normally at the end of the year, and now all of a sudden you strip away divisions so they can have a rematch. I think, you know, yeah, it's fine with Texas on OU in this case, you know, would have been if they if OU was in the in the Big 12 title game, because that game happens early. Red River is like basically in the middle of the season.

Yes. It's when it's like, hey, we're going to play the we just got to beat these guys and I got to beat them again another week from now. That's the part that I think is like it's not going to always happen in this setup. But there are a few there are a few of these scenarios which I think are are going to be they're going to be a little tough to wrap your head around. How about this wild idea?

How about we get rid of conference title games? A lot of money people. I get it. I hear you. I understand it.

I work for one of those companies. Hey, I understand that. And you know, Chris and I were we were joking about it earlier with TJ also like remember the time when you used to say these college kids, we can't do this. They're college kids. They can't play 16 games. And you know, that's professional football. 12 regular season games, one conference championship game, the loser then winds up not getting the bye has to play three games to win it all.

That's 16. Well, that's a lot of wear and tear on on college athletes, right? And there's no doubt about academically too, right? Because they're going to have to find time to actually study right. A lot of classes are online or whatever. Yeah, there's that too.

But I think it's just physically the injury risk and everything else. I mean, I don't I'm sure at some point you'll see somebody who will be like, all right, I'm good. No, that's it. Or whatever. I'm not 100% right now.

I'm not going to risk it. Even if it's an especially with enough team that's like a nine seed or whatever. I mean, I think at some point somebody will say for professional football aspirations is what you're saying. Yeah, I think that will happen. I mean, I don't think it'll be across the board. If Christian McCaffrey got crap for sitting out a Sun Bowl in El Paso, you imagine what red flags would be raised at the professional level of somebody that sits out as a nine seed in the comfortable player.

Really good, because the red flags end up going away if you're really, really, really good. Exactly. I know. I'm not. I'm just saying, you know, narratives conversation for me. I'm wondering how many years are we going to get where the best team doesn't win the national championship, because with the BCS and even this final four, you get the sense that the best team always won.

Can I bring this up? By the way, that's a Patriot fan that got beaten by you. I was going to go, though, was the best team, the team that wins it all. It's a tournament right in the NFL, right?

But nobody nobody thinks the Giants were the best team. There you go. So there you go. I don't know. Even look at college basketball.

It's it's a random. It's a crapshoot. Connecticut was not the best team in the country last year.

I'm sorry. They dominated everybody. Like, I have no dog in that fight at all. But like, they just smashed it. I remember like Hurley afterwards, it was like, it was a seem to be really matter of fact, like, oh, yeah, we knew we were gonna kick the crap out of everybody kind of thing. Like, that's how it felt. This feels a little more like, you know, sometimes in baseball, it feels like it's the hottest team that goes through, right?

That's true. But baseball, I feel like is the most tilted towards that not happening. I could see where it's not the best team ends up winning it. I'd be really shocked. Really shocked if a number 12 or 11 seed ends up winning it all. In the three minutes I have left with you here, Caleb Williams in an interview with the Los Angeles Times said, it's quote unquote, a game time decision whether he decides to go pro at the January 15th deadline. What's your reaction to that? I'll be shocked if he ends up staying at USC right now or staying in college football.

Period. I mean, you know, I mean, it's like, okay, so what does that mean? Game time decision like he's just truly on the fence. One pick.

Is that what it is? He'll stay in there if the team isn't to his satisfaction. He makes $8 million next year in NIL. Why wouldn't he just play college football? Matt Ruhl said today a quarterback in the transfer portal means 1 to 1.5 million in NIL. You have to basically... A really good one. That's what he said. You basically have to promise that in the portal to get a good quarterback in the portal.

So what's he worth? I don't think it's money. I don't think, right? I mean, again, you're the inside man here.

What do you think? You know, again, I don't know how he and his dad, his dad's helping manage him through this. USC is right now in certainly a state of flux. He's in five of six.

How the hell did that happen to end? Yeah. I mean, I think if you're Caleb Williams, you saw how emotional he was a couple of weeks ago after one of the losses. I mean, at this point, you start your clock in terms of as a draft pick. If you delay it another year, I think ultimately it's like, okay, are you that leery of who is going to take you? Because there's no guarantees next year, it's all of a sudden, oh yeah, I'm going to stay another year. It's more viable, the franchise. The other thing with Caleb too, and I know he's a sturdy, he's not like he's Bryce Young's size, but you run around, you take a lot of hits, you're going to have another year of that risk where it's a career altering injury, you're going to risk that to stay in college another year.

That would really surprise me because that's a position where a lot of guys do not make it through a regular season that way. I mean, we just saw the way it ended too. Bruce Feldman, thank you for coming here, brother. Awesome. It was a pleasure. We will see you next week when things will be a little bit more crystallized.

We got Bruce Feldman here at the brilliant, hilarious Robert Smigel in studio hour three. We still have about a minute and a half to go. I feel like I've had the heart out. I feel like I cut you off like you just threw me out.

Now. All of a sudden I'm still lingering. Like I'm there.

I know I've got many audiences. I went to junior college and that was what I felt like when I went to the high school parties, by the way, high school parties in junior college for learning. Well, Caleb can't transfer in your eligibility. You still have one more year of eligibility in high school.

Is that what you're saying? I went to school for six years and didn't get any big degrees. What J.C. did you go to? I went to Ulster Junior College. Ulster? Where is that? That's in halfway upstate New York.

Okay. Do you know where that is, Chris? Ulster?

No. SUNY Ulster. SUNY.

You Google that that fast? It's junior colleges in the SUNY system? Stone Ridge, New York.

I know about the SUNY system, Oneonta. This was back in the day. I think that's when the Coens went to a SUNY, she went to a SUNY school, I think.

I played junior college golf there. We got five dollars for meal money for those trips. Is that for your name or your image or your likeness? Well, my image was on the Burger King thing. That's all you could do with five dollars. Hold the pickles. Oh, my gosh.

All right. So next week we'll obviously be talking about the final four and then the Heisman, right? That's the... Yeah. I mean, look, the Heisman, nobody talks about it much anymore unless you're at LSU. Like Jayden Daniels has been phenomenal this year. We think it's going to be the other... What happened in the packed whole title game? Like if Michael Penix goes wild and goes off and has a spectacular day, he may be able to snatch the Heisman away.

But I feel like it's barring that. I feel like it's Bo Nix or else Jayden Daniels. Thank you very much, Bruce Feldman.

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