Bruce Feldman: Harbaugh has made other people money

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Find out how to bring your ideas to life at dell.com slash welcome to now. This is the Rich Eisen Show. How many times do I say in this microphone, you never want to be the guy after the guy, you just don't want to be the guy after the guy. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. This guy after Tom Brady leaves. Maybe throws a dart toward the end zone.

Caught ball by Gummett. There's no doubt in my mind that he has raised this franchise. Earlier on the show, ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst. Coming up, Fox Sports College football analyst Bruce Feldman. Host of Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show.

I started hour number one with Harbaugh Watch, as in Jim. Still no word, still no smoke, right? It's either maize and blue smoke or powder blue and yellow smoke, right? That's basically coming out of the chimney in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Wherever it is. He's here so far, right? There's no chimney atop so far, right? I don't think so.

There's just an oculus inside it. Well, you would know you're a season ticket holder there. I've been multiple times this year.

Really? You went to the Saints game on a Thursday night. I went to the preseason game and the last game. Oh, great. You're a diehard.

You go to preseason games, you're a diehard. Come on, Rich. Well, probably you took your son, right? Right. Yeah.

There were Raider fans everywhere. Gave him some tater tots and some chicken tenders. Oh, yeah. Cheetos. Cheetos? Oh, yeah. Really orange hands.

Cheetos? Rookie move on my part. Big time. Yeah.

Chris, you should reach out to me. I've been around. I know. You know what I mean? Okay.

I was solo. At any rate, still no word from Jim Harbaugh. So, then we'll just settle for John, who's only trying to get to the Super Bowl again.

He's a one seed for the second time. Didn't make the Super Bowl that year. And for the first time, though, they made sure they won that division game. So, they are hosting an AFC championship game.

This is unbelievable. When I look this up, as soon as the Ravens won that game against the Texans, I'm like, so when was the last time the Ravens hosted an AFC championship game? And I started looking back and the answer was never. The Ravens have never hosted an AFC championship game. It's either been in New England or it's been at Pittsburgh.

Wow. That's it. They have never been home for an AFC championship game. And that included, you know, the year that they made it with Ray Lewis.

With Billick. Oh, way back in... They didn't. The last time they hosted an AFC championship game, they were the Baltimore Colts hosting John Madden's Raiders in the old Memorial Stadium the year after Don Shuler left to go to Miami and they went on to Super Bowl V in winning that game.

1970. That's the last time Baltimore football fans would say, let's go and settle into our home stadium and watch our team to see if they'll make the Super Bowl. Although, back then, it might be this... What are they calling it now? They're calling it the Super Bowl? They're no longer calling it the AFC NFC championship game?

That's how long ago it's been since Baltimore's hosted a title game in its town in football. So, cue John Harbaugh about the mindset of this team looking as great as they've looked, playing as well as they just played in the second half of their divisional playoff game. Lamar playing at the top of his game. The defense is buzzing.

And how does he approach this in the mindset? And this is another reason why I love the Harbaugh's. We think alike. Hit it. Yeah.

I mean, the biggest thing is always the biggest thing. It's you want to go play well. It's one game. It's like the Hoosiers movie, right?

I mean, have you seen that movie, Sean? And I got to say it to our team because most of all, I bet our players haven't seen it. If I gave them that reference, I mean, 10 feet high, the free throw line is 10 feet. So, it's 100 yards long and 53 and a third yards wide. The field doesn't change.

The hash marks are on the same spot. So, really, our guys understand that. They've understood that all year. Your focus is always going to be on just playing your best football game and all the details that go into that one play at a time.

That's what my mom always says, so I'll go with that advice. I love it. I do that all the time. I make Hoosiers references all the time, as you know, from this seat, this chair. It's my favorite sports movie ever, and it makes sense. It does give a sense to the players, hey, just a bigger spot in terms of attention and obviously what it means to win, but it's still the same game. Coach Dale measuring the rim to the floor in the old Butler Field House and from the baseline of the free throw line, just like our home gym, and he makes a great point. The only difference is, unlike Coach Dale, I don't think Harbaugh's going to make a point by taking one man off the field and saying, that's my team on the floor.

That would be a bold move. I'm sorry. No, no, no. I'm sorry. That's just Notre Dame against Ohio State.

My bad. I'm having the time of my life right now, having the time of my life because we won the Natty because his brother brought it home. And I'll just say this, man, Lamar is just killing it, killing it. And him versus Mahomes, man, this could be because the last time they played, it was on a Sunday night a couple of years ago, and Lamar won that game. First time he'd ever beaten the Chiefs.

And I remember waking up the next day because I think it was when I was over in London or Germany or something like that, and it was tough to stay up to see it, watching the highlights. You watch the highlights back of this game, if that game happens in the AFC Championship game, the ratings might start with a six, although it's the early game. At any rate, this is what Lamar had to say about being on the same field and a chance to go to the Super Bowl with Patrick Mahomes. I don't like competing against him at all, but yeah, he's a great quarterback, definitely Hall of Famer. It's not even a no brainer, he's definitely a Hall of Famer, but I believe it's just two to two greats, up and coming greats just going toe to toe, like a heavyweight fight, heavyweight matchup.

That's just what I see. I love it. Guys, how great is this going to be? Yeah, the last time they played, a couple of years ago, this was a hell of a game, 36-35 If that happens on Sunday. Lamar, two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter to win it after being down 11. And they were 0-3. He was 0-3 against Mahomes going into that game career.

And that was the first one that he came out with the dub. Yeah, that was week two in 2021. Every move the Ravens made when the calendar year turned, and it looked like the relationship between quarterback and franchise was souring. Every move they made was to make sure this moment could happen in Baltimore. From Todd Monken being hired from the Georgia staff to change however their offensive philosophy would be made to remaining composed, John Harbaugh, as his butt was hitting the seat at the owner's meeting last March, Lamar appeared to hit send on his tweet revealing that he's requested a trade from the team.

And John was taking questions at that moment. And he remained composed in the moment talking about how much they love Lamar and the general manager Eric DeCosta saying how much they were trying to keep Lamar. And then they draft Zay Flowers in the draft and they get Odell Beckham on the hook before it to sign. And Odell is now delivering the message by his presence that, yeah, big time available wide outs.

And I understand he was coming off a knee injury, but Odell is still Odell. And him to say, I'm going to go there, even with Lamar not in the fold yet. Get someone in your life, everybody, who loves you like the Ravens love Lamar Jackson.

Please do that. Because there are so many times other organizations would crack and fold and there'd be rumors and it would ruin it and they, or the coach would just like, you know, crack with the cameras on him and him learning the in-house stuff that they're working so hard to keep in house is now let out of house by Lamar. All of that working towards this moment from happening and it's happening. And we will see if Lamar can do to Kansas City, what he did in the fourth quarter of that game two years ago, what he did to the Texans in the second half of this game last week and pretty much everyone in front of him this year to be what I believe if they make the super bowl this year, Lamar is going to have to make the trip in from the team hotel in Henderson, Nevada, and show up at NFL honors and accept the MVP. If he's up for it because he's going to get it, oh boy, Ravens getting it done in the mix every move they made, check the boxes, it's all worked, right?

Name one that hasn't worked for them. And also we forget about the fact that this team, every running back that plays for this team gets hurt and that they still keep churning, bringing more people in and have another guy step up over the last two, three years. Dalvin Cook made up getting a ring after all. Dalvin Cook had three carries for 22 yards in the playoff game against the Texans. I looked it up, that was more than he had in 10 individual games for the Jets in his 15 appearances for the Jets this year. In three carries, right? And so Dobbins goes out and here comes the Gus bus back in again in Justice Hill and unfortunately for Melvin Gordon, he's been there for much of the ride all year and he's sent home because Dalvin Cook's available. Let's get him and they might get Mark Andrews back this week. Still waiting to hear confirmation on all of that, but signs are pointing to yes, to use the Magic 8-Ball phrase, man, oh man. And you remember they had the young guy Keaton Mitchell who was made active after he got hurt in the preseason.

He was made active off the practice squad for the game I called for the Ravens and Titans in London and they were raving about him prior to the game and he started coming on strong. Oh my goodness, you're not wrong. I appreciate you bringing that up.

So I forgot about that. So as I mentioned, 844-204-rich, number to dial. Pete in Hilton Head, South Carolina, take your call right here. What's up, Pete?

Hey, how are you doing today? What's going on? Well, I'm calling because I embarrassed myself on December 13th when I said that Alabama beat Michigan and that Texas would beat Washington by two touchdowns.

So that proves I'm an idiot. No, Pete. No, Pete. Pete, listen. This? Pete, can I help you out here before you continue on with your point?

Let me help you out here. Yes, sir. When you are on a show like this one and you are wrong, you should say mea culpa. That's what we do here. But outside of these walls on a show like this one, you're supposed to just forget about it. Yeah. Move on and keep on taking, Pete.

Act like it never happened. Exactly. So I will counsel that to you. I'm going to redeem myself today. Okay.

Because- Should we mark the date as well? Let's write this down. Okay. January 24th.

I know I told you before, look in that little book of yours, so I do the same. I think the two games this week will be close, probably less one score games. Okay. And then in the Super Bowl, Baltimore will beat Detroit Lions by more than three. And I mean three touchdowns. Oh.

Not three. Wow. Oh, that's bold, Pete. So I know Chris Brockman can laugh at me like he did before, but I'm going to call you on February 12th, and I'll be back in the fold. Okay, Pete. You're always in the fold, but thank you for the call, Pete. Okay.

Have a good day. Do you bet? Pete, tell the crowd. So based on what happened a month ago, it's going to be Chiefs over 49ers in a close one. Oh, boy.

Don't do that, Pete. I will say Ravens making the Super Bowl, completely in the realm. Not a hot take at all. Lions making the Super Bowl, completely in the realm.

A little hotter. Completely in the realm, sir. Well, they're seven-point dogs, Rich. I understand what they are, but it's in the realm.

Well, it is because they're among the final 14s. Them losing by three touchdowns just because they got blown out when they were in Baltimore earlier this year? I don't know about that, pal. I don't know about that. Baltimore?

How about that? It's been a long time since we've had a good old-fashioned tail whipping in the Super Bowl where we're all checked out watching commercials instead. Well, Seattle, Denver was the last one.

It's been a long time. That game was over in the first half. Oh, was it for the first snap?

Went past Peyton Manning's head, right? Was that snap one or snap two? That might have been one or two, yeah.

Right. The crowd, two reasons. One, Seattle fans were all over MetLife. Like seriously, the Pacific Northwest roosted in northern New Jersey that night. And then two, the other people who weren't rooting for the Seattle Seahawks somehow wagered that a safety would be the first score of the Super Bowl and were cheering their heads off. Good bet.

Pretty checked out at 28 to 3, not going to lie. Right. That was after that, too? Yeah, that was after. 13 Super Bowls have had a 21 point greater deficit as the final.

It's been a while, though. When was the last one that we had that? Was it Seattle and Denver? Denver, yeah. That was a big blowout. What was the score of that one?

Seattle, Denver. Okay. Yeah. That was 2014. I mean, the Bucks beat the Chiefs by like 14 or something like that. It's been a while since we just checked out. So let's not speak it into existence.

Plus it's going to be Ravens Niners anyway. Just look at the color scheme. You roll your eyes.

I roll my eyes completely. It hasn't happened in the last three years, according to the internet. But these logos are created way in advance. Oh, so they created this in advance before Lamar got healthy from whatever, kept him out of last year, and then survived his holdout where everything was dicey. So the fixers were trying to find another purple team in the AFC? Is that what you're saying? I mean, it's so dumb. All I'm telling you, it's happened three years in a row. I mean, you and Cooper should hang out.

I actually don't believe this. What did you call my son with his conspiracy theorists? What did you call him? Oh, man. Koopa-non?

Koopa-non. Oh my God. They're scripts for these things. Tell him to get off YouTube. Right? He's not on YouTube. The only thing on YouTube he's watching are cars and sports videos.

Tell him to get off YouTube. All right. Thank God. That's all he's watching.

The dark one. Thank you. Thank you, Fletcher Cox.

Fletcher Cox, defending my son. Game time tickets, get the app, put it on a mobile device near you, phone, iPad, whatever you got, and tablet, I should say. And because it is the perfect way for you to remove the frustration of buying tickets and all the guesswork straight out of it.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports and the Athletic coming out, talking about everything in college football and the kids that's going to be available in this year's draft that's on his board. Welcome to Talkville. All the Ultimate Smallville rewatch podcasts. Karen, what you got?

Hi, guys. Karen Appleland from Australia with a quick question for season three talisman. That knife wound he was in was so powerful. Tom, what was it like to do that scene with John as your director?

It's great that I was with those people because when your eyes are closed and someone is supposed to going to stab you in the chest, you have to really trust that they're not going to hurt you. So I was in good hands with John. Jump in now or catch up on any of the past seasons of Talkville on YouTube or wherever you listen. Back here on the Roku channel, everybody, our radio audience will return in a matter of moments. Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports and the Athletic back on his usual Wednesday spot right here. Good to see you, sir.

Good to see you. Was the last person sitting in this chair? Was Andrew Whitworth, right?

And then before that was Snoop Dogg, right? Correct. Wow, you have really dropped in star power to go from those to the main. Not at all.

Not at all. I think it's, you know, you're the Snoop and Andrew Whitworth of your world, I would think. By the way, watching the Lions game, I cannot help think of when you see the interception of Barnes. I'm like, my first thought is Andrew Whitworth because of that, like, awesome story he told on the maybe the NFL honors show. I'm trying to remember. It's like, you know, because of him mentoring kids when he was a Bengal, like 15 years ago. I forgot about that.

We should have asked him that. Sorry. No, no, no, no, no. That is, that's true. But like, that's what I think of him because I remember that story and I just have a really good NFL linebacker, but it's just crazy to pay it forward piece of it, you know, so.

Oh, man. Now we, now we got to get Whitworth back here. Let's FaceTime him. Let's FaceTime him.

I forgot about that angle. See, I need to talk to you more. I need to, before we get, who's our next guest, Florio? Well, I mean, isn't the other crazy thing I heard about Andrew Whitworth just is being, you know, whatever, six, seven plus and 300 plus, like can confirm his old teammate, Eric Winston, who is like a buddy of mine from back in the Miami days was like, Andrew Whitworth, and this is back when they were Bengals. He was like, Andrew Whitworth was like a great golfer and you just don't think of something that big.

We talked about that with him yesterday. What's his handicap? Six.

Six. To be that big, to like, to have. Cause you can have all sorts of problems when you're that big when you're back, you know, you can. Yeah.

The game is not built for somebody to be 300 pounds like that. No, I know. Honestly, his, his driver, his driver in my hand would probably look like a hockey stick, right? Let me, let me hit it like, like happy Gilmore back on the rich eyes and show. We've got Bruce Feldman here from Fox sports and the athletic here on our program. Good to see you, sir. Good to see you.

So I'm on pins and needles. I'm sensing today's Harbaugh day one way or another. What do you think? What do you think right now? I don't know about today, but I would be very surprised if he's not an NFL head coach. Just everything seems like it's pointing in that direction from what I did here that like the interviews apparently have gone pretty well.

Yes. That's how his camp feels about it. We're hearing, you know, money's not an issue that, uh, that the chargers are, are ready to cough up, not just for him, but what, you know, what he would want his staff to be paid and, and everything else that you pointed out that needs to go along with his program from, you know, whatever it is, strength conditioning and, you know, smoothie making or whatever the heck it is. And if you're a Michigan fan, I think that the bigger blow, obviously if Jesse Minner who did a terrific job as a DC, the one I would be like, oh, please don't take Ben Herbert. That's the one, like that's the strength guy there who Jim can't, Jim brought, he was old belima guy, you know, Wisconsin, then Arkansas, like that guy's as good as it gets. And you know, when you look at him, them not like quote, having the recruiting stars of the other, you know, elite teams that win a national title, it was the development part and that guy, man, they can't pay him enough money. Well, I mean, we'll see what Michigan does to keep whomever from going with Jim and things of that nature.

I don't know. And maybe Jim is still considering staying, but this may just be, you know, you heard how the Broncos thought they had him, he thought that he had the Vikings and then didn't. So you never know, especially with Jim Harbaugh, you really never know. That's what I said at the top of this show, like everybody who I talked to that might know from the Chargers and everyone that I talked to that might know from Michigan finishes their entire soliloquy or theory, or this is what's happening type statement with Jim, you never know.

You never know. Now I know his wife liked Southern California from her time there, you have a franchise quarterback that's waiting there, you know, like a big athletic guy, some really good players on defense, just like, there's a lot to work with for the Chargers, especially, you know, obviously the Falcons would have, you know, no quarterback. I don't know if he, if, if that would be attractive to go say, Hey, all right, well, I can bring in JJ McCarthy and move up to get him if I believe he's that guy.

I don't know. But man, the Chargers feel like they're, you know, they're moving into new facilities this year, not far from us, right down the room, across the street, practically probably hit a golf ball, tee it up and let it fly. What would a, um, a coaching search at Michigan look like with Harbaugh gone? Is it just as simple as Sharon Moore, here's a new contract? I think it is the only, and I wrote about this on the athletic the other day, the only thing that I think could give them a little hesitation would be is if there's anything that they have that's been uncovered related to the NCAA investigations, I don't think that's going to be something that will be a deterrent.

You know, I could see them saying, Hey, we're going, you know, it's Michigan, we're going to do a, a full coaching search. But ultimately, you know, again, this is something I wrote a lot about was, Sharon Moore not only has beaten Penn State at Penn State, he beat your arch rival. There's no interim who could have proven more than Sharon Moore has under intense pressure and scrutiny in tough environments.

And he aced those tests. The other thing was, and I got into this in the story about him. After the national title, it's an hour later, and I'm talking to Trevor Keegan, who's a team captain, not about what if Harbaugh leaves any of this, we were talking about something about like kind of the brotherhood of him and some of the linemen and some of the guys he came in with, unprompted. And he starts talking about how, you know, the recruiting process, how jaded that could be. And when he was a freshman and he did not love, he basically stopped loving football, going in to, you know, kind of had this feelings about going into Shembeklar Hall when he was a young player and everything in the building. And then all of a sudden he goes, Sharon Moore, you know, basically made him love football again and completely flipped everything for him.

I didn't ask him about Sharon Moore. He, and he wasn't talking about him, I think, in terms of like, this is why Sharon Moore should be the next head coach at Michigan. But I think that's probably why he should be because, you know, as much as we want to say that, oh, these bigger programs aren't totally developmental programs, they absolutely are.

They're all college football programs or developmental programs. Harbaugh was masterful at that. And I think Sharon Moore has shown he is, he is very able and wired to do that.

And so if you don't, if it's not going to be Sharon Moore, man, it better be a grand slam choice. Like the other guys I'd say, the only other guy I would think of and say, okay, that guy's pretty remarkable head coach, but he has no ties to Michigan, is Lance Leipold at Kansas. Like, I think he's done an amazing job at a place nobody wins at. And he's from Wisconsin, so he has, you know, big 10 footprint, you know, growing, you know, coming from where he came from. But he's still not, you know, like he, you're talking about a complete outsider. Anybody else they're bringing out, you know, like I've had some people throw the name, you know, Brian Kelly, like the stuff that, that made Jim Harbaugh such a great coach at Michigan, when you talk to people, it's like the connection he has with the players. Jim Harbaugh is Jim Harbaugh.

He may be wildly unpredictable. He may be very different, but like there's an authenticity that the players and the people in there totally buy in on. Bringing in Brian Kelly after the guy who's totally authentic and, and that lands with people and resonates with them, doesn't, it seems like you'd almost have the polar opposite, you know, where you'd have a salesman component to it.

Are you saying Brian Kelly would not pronounce the word family differently? How did they say it in, in, well, but he would know, I mean, he was a former central coach, you know, not only that, he was at Lake Superior State for a long time, you know, in, you know, in the area as well, and he's got deep ties around the Midwest. He's recruited at a high academic school, you know, for a long time at Notre Dame. But, but I just think that Sharone Moore is such an obvious choice for them and for the players in the program.

And there's a lot of key pieces I think you could probably keep. And there's still a lot of really good young players there. So to me, it's like that, that would surprise me if they didn't end up promoting him. Bruce Feldman here on the Rich Adson Show, Fox Sports and the Athletic. In the meantime, Jim Harbaugh has made a ton of other people money. By that, I mean, beating Alabama, Nick Saban retires, which he probably would have done anyway. Nice, Jim Harbaugh, because Nick Saban retires, Dan Lanning makes a killing, right?

Mike Nervell makes a killing. Yeah. All right. Sarkeesian makes a killing, right? Yes.

Okay. DeBoer makes a killing. I'm assuming Jed Fish got a raise to go to Washington.

Oh my God, yeah. I'm sure Jed Fish does, actually. And the others who are making a killing are Ohio State Buckeye players. I'm reading to you a headline from the Wall Street Journal today. Michigan won a title, this school spent millions to make sure it never happens again. And that's Ohio State. How much money have they spent from what you're hearing?

It's a great question. I know that for them to get Caleb Downs, who to me is as talented a defensive players in the country, was a phenomenal freshman player, a safety who, you know, the people I talked to who faced him were awestruck by what he was able to do in that defense as a true freshman coming in, you know, just a phenomenal talent. Everybody thought he was going to Georgia. Ohio State was able to win that recruiting battle.

I suspect it probably did not come cheap. Julian San, right? Yeah. I mean, he's from Calabasas, you know, not that, I don't want to say like down the road, but a Southern California kid. When I went to the late 11 this summer, he was a revelation. He was so good, so impressive. He was headed to Alabama. And then in this change now, he's at Ohio State. Their quarterback room is going to be really interesting because they have another elite 11 kid. He's got a really big arm who's talented, Aaron Nolan. They have Will Howard they took from Kansas State who led them to the Big 12 title game two years to the Big 12 championship is an experienced quarterback plus Devin Brown who started their bowl game and then got hurt.

That's a lot. And then on top of it, you add Ryan Day is no longer going to be the guy running the offense. He brought in Bill O'Brien and we'll see how that works. Well, isn't that a firewall for him when if he doesn't perform very well again, if the team doesn't underperform in the mind's eye of the fan base to say, hey, don't blame me on that.

No, that's not going to work. Like I look, look, Bill O'Brien is as top notch as you can get, you know, for a resume, obviously from coaching and what have you. But I'm just returning to the original question here, because it's just fascinating to me a program that once upon a time got smacked down because of some silliness over tattoos is now in a day and age spending what is possibly the Wall Street Journal is clearly making it, you know, apparent here, potentially eight figures of money to give to players, you know, legally clearly through the manner of which our world exists in college football. Like we're now seeing that part of college football change to me.

I think it's become more of a front burner subject because I think there's more, you know, Georgia thought they were getting Caleb Downs. They didn't, you know, he ended up at Ohio state. There's certain, you know, Quinn, Sean Judkins was a terrific running back who couldn't leave yet for the NFL because he's only been in college two years, left Ole Miss where they are very not just very invested in NIL, but I feel like that organization has really figured it out of how to make it work, you know, and what do you mean? Because I'm shocked you would say that since a JUCO transfer showed up in a yellow Lamborghini to sign his papers with Ole Miss.

I think it's kind of crazy. I mean, seriously, I'm just, but this is a different day and age because a couple of years ago I remember, and this is, I don't want to make this as like, this is only Ohio state. A couple of years ago, like Treveon Henderson, great running back. I think he was a freshman, true freshman at the time, freshman, and you know, they have a car dealership and he is with, you know, what looks, you know, it's, I dunno, $70,000 SUV.

This is not like plenty of high level players have some kind of NIL component with car dealerships and everything, and that's acceptable. And so the, I think there's a lot of stuff that gets, and I could be doing this in a five minute segment of conflating, okay, they're paying this as a recruiting inducement as opposed to they're rewarding this as part of an NIL program. There's a lot of stuff that has now been put under this umbrella, and I think that the programs and the schools that are the most organized about it, and again, I think Ole Miss has been that, become proactive. They've gotten some really good players to go, especially from like, you know, one kid was a really good edge rusher who was at Florida and now is at Ole Miss, they, Walter Nolan who is as highly rated a defensive lineman has come out of high school in the last few years was a Texan. Now they're like, they have upgraded the roster considerably because I, you know, like one of the people who runs their collective was, was a former Walker Jones, former CAA agent who then worked for Under Armour, but also former Ole Miss player, like in retrospect, I think if you were to said, like, if you were an AD or who would you want to be in that position of, in that, I'm like, man, that would kind of be the profile. A guy who played there, a guy who understands the business world, the sports business world, and who understands the culture.

I think those are the things that we're starting to see go into those directions as opposed to some random money guy who may have been the guy who was the under the table guy seven years ago. Yeah, the local buddy, the local buddy Garrity, you know, and so, you know, and if I'm not mistaken, one of the, I guess, co-chairs for lack of a better phrase, I don't know if there's the exact title of Ohio State's collective is Cardell Jones. And they announced that CJ Stroud made a significant major contribution to the collective. What could be better than that if you're an Ohio State person? CJ Stroud was like, you know, I'm not saying you're critical of it, but I'm not being, trust me, I'm not being critical because I do want to also say players deserve, I mean, I'm watching this because of the players, the Jimmys and Joes, right?

And it seems like the guys who draw up the X's and O's can get to go wherever the heck they want. They can coach in a national championship game one minute and then start wearing a script A the next. And that's, Kalen DeBoer's worked his ass off to come out of South Dakota to be Alabama's head coach. So I'm not criticizing or I guess saying you shouldn't have when it comes to the players at all. I'm just saying, where are the rules? And I wouldn't blame Jim Harbaugh, who seems to have cracked a code here, to basically say, I'm going to go to the pros where I know when free agency starts, I know when I can talk to a free agent, I know how much the free agent's going to make, I know what the cap is, I know what my capologist is going to do, and I know I can't speak to a player or have them in the building until April this, and there's rules, there's actual rules and contracts and unions. And that's where, you know, this sport needs to go, clearly, Bruce, and I guess that's my long-winded way of setting up, is this the stuff that I'm also hearing Nick Saban wants to fix or lead on this?

I'm still looking for the leader to try and figure out, where are the guardrails here, man? Good luck on that, because it's still so evolving. All this stuff we just talked about, and I thought about this with Stroud, especially because he's a Southern California kid, went there and really blossomed, and if I was Ohio State, and I'm not saying they're not doing this, but I was like, especially now, he's been a phenomenal first season and did all this amazing stuff, has been really good in front of the camera on top of it.

These are the things that you should be embracing, and not just celebrating, embracing. And I wonder, though, what took them so long to kind of get it sorted out? Because everyone's doing it for the first time, I think, you know what I mean? This could be a template, like I don't know how many programs are reaching out to their stars in the NFL, or making a killing on a second overall contract, saying, where's your contribution? LSU wins the national title when Joe Burrow is the quarterback four years ago. And I remember it was Odell Beckham Jr. is like literally throwing cash around after the game, and it's like, uh-oh, what's going on here? We talked about that with Patrick Queen a couple weeks ago when he zoomed in, and I asked him like, you know, Odell's your teammate now, huh?

Are you one of the guys who put a few hundred dollars, you know, put some money into, he laughed. He's like, basically, it's like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like even today, there is a guy you work with over on the NFL side who was a great receiver at Miami.

Yes. You should ask his brain and say, let me wonder, let me look at who I work with. I don't know who you're referring to. Pick his brain on this, like you want to talk about, like Ohio State said, three miserable years, three miserable years of like incredible success, yet on the other hand, we know that the elephant in the room. Go ask somebody like you have all these Miami guys in terms of like, it has been a dark, it's like 20 years or whatever it is, where other programs, because that is a place that did not have the kind of boosters. The one booster they had was not even like a Miami, you know, boosted guy. He jumped in and then ended up, you know, with a Ponzi scheme and they got in a lot of trouble for it.

I mean, I saw 30 for 30 on that, right? I don't know, but okay. But the point of it is like, there's a lot of programs that could leverage this stuff if they can get it figured out. And I think the challenge is for them to get it figured out, to get the egos in the right place. When I say the egos, I mean the collective egos, like the people who are running it. USC has three collectives. I think there's a lot of probably well-intentioned people that are all kind of, kind of, you know, kicking each other in the Achilles along the way. Ohio State has two different collectives.

Like I think it's not uncommon for that, but it's like, this is the level of dysfunction. I think before we get to the part that you were asking about where the leadership and where are the rules and where are the guard rails, because the guard rails question has come up for four years now, but it's like now there's different, before what happened, and it's interesting the timing of this, because just in the last few days has come to light that University of Florida is under investigation for a quarterback recruit who they initially were going to offer $13 million for. And then the NIL contract completely fell apart. It was completely dysfunctional in terms of dysfunctional on the agent side of what he was working with and dysfunctional on the Florida collective side.

And there was, you know, maybe there's some really dubious things that had gone on there. The kid ended up, you know, signing with Arizona State, but Florida is now getting investigated for it. And I think what happened back then, which is not that long ago, it was two years ago, was the collective people were taking the old model, throwing money at high school recruits where the hit percentage of how good those kids end up being is still pretty slight. That's maybe 25% in that ballpark, as opposed to now, the money people have figured out, let's go throw the money at transfers, because those guys are proven. It's way different to have high school film than it is to have college film. You know, there's no way, barring an injury, Caleb Downs is not going to be a great player at Ohio State. The kid who was in high school, who was thought to be really good, there's a lot of those guys who end up being disappointed.

That's the crapshoot, I guess. I'm just saying, you know, I don't have a problem with the kids making money at all. I just don't know if I'm ready. Maybe I need to get ready.

Get ready. Well, no, no, not how much the kids make, that the teams, these programs that have the best collectives are going to be the ones that succeed the most. Maybe it doesn't matter about facilities, doesn't matter about school, doesn't matter about recruiting acumen, doesn't matter about the X's and O's. It's just that if you get the collective part down right now, you now win more than those who don't have the collective part down.

And there's no rules essentially about the collective significantly that everyone can play by the same standard. Some of that stuff that Rich was happening underneath the table with recruiting for years. And I understand that. When it was about recruiting, it's about, you know, how much was in the paper bag underneath the table. I understand that.

And it's more out in the open now, which is cool. I'm just waiting for the rules. I want to take a break, if you don't mind, because I do want to talk a little bit of draft with you before sending you on the road. And certainly you say that you're writing about, and I'll tease it this way, one of the most, you said, polarizing prospects in terms of polarizing quarterback in this draft.

And not because of their personality about their style. Very good. That's next. This is Bruce Feldman still with us on The Rich Eisen Show. We'll be back in a moment. All right, everybody back here on The Rich Eisen Show.

Bruce Feldman's still here. Your phone's ringing. You've got people. You've got sources.

You've got people. Look at you, man. I see it. I didn't mean to snap my fingers at you. That's all right. I'm just happy for you, man. You're in the middle of this whole thing. This is great. I'm sorry.

I'm nervous as well. I'm deep down, I'm open. Nothing, you know, nothing is more, when you live on the West Coast, like where, like, I turn the ringer off at night because I sleep in the house with family or whatever, sleep with my wife, whatever. By the way, by the way, congratulations.

Not everybody in this town does, but okay. So you like that, T.J.? The phone buzzes when it doesn't ring.

It does the vibrate on the rug and I'm like, all right, now I got to go check this and whatever. 447. Oh no, the blue light. Then you're not going back to sleep. That's it.

Never mind that. But it's 447. I'm like, okay, who's calling in 447? Somebody who's not calling with the information I want. I'm basically babysitting two things right now. One thing, I've been babysitting for about, I don't know, probably like two weeks or whatever.

And it's not a huge, huge scoop, but it's a big enough scoop for me that I would care. And it's somebody I've talked to, just giving me the update on where they're at with this. And so when I hear it in the morning, because we're on the West Coast, so it's, you know, at the least 6.30, somebody else's time locally, or 6.40, I'm just thinking, and then I look down and be like, hey, just seeing how you're doing or whatever. Some like random person, I'm like, yeah.

Tell Nick Saban to stop saying a lot. Well, I mean, you gave me a central time zone. I'm trying to drill down here where who could possibly be, or tell, you know, Jim's on the Eastern time zone. All right. I'm sorry.

I'm going to keep making it about myself, but you just saw how the sausage kind of gets made right here. Back on the Rich Eisen Show, and back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger, with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. I feel like Bruce Feldman could do that read by himself.

Not in that. Like at some point, we have a home renovation, and I've definitely thought, I've heard this Grainger for so long, and I'm like, I wish they could help us. I can help. I can fix you up.

Just stop by. These are two of the least DIY people in the country right here. Excuse me. Excuse me.

Am I wrong? I don't know. Excuse me. Excuse me. You know, my Swedish name is Ikea. All right. Just give me an Allen wrench, and I can put anything together. Does that make sense?

All right. So a preview of what you're going to write on the athletic. This quarterback prospect is the most polarizing for scouts to identify as a professional at the next level. This is where they think he goes. Some people think he is a top, could be a first round quarterback. Some people think he may not get drafted. May not get drafted. And his name is?

His name is Michael Penix Jr. He may not get drafted in some scouts mind? The concern for some people is going to come back to the medical piece, because he did have four season injuries.

So ultimately, that's going to be what the doctors tell, say them. But then there's other parts of this where people are like, I don't think we have a third round grade on him based on some of what they look. And this guy, if you watch the Texas game in the semifinal, was spectacular. He puts up big stats, but it's not like he's dinking and dunking the big stats and letting the receivers and running backs run for tons of yards. He's taking shots down the field, throws into tight windows.

Not just that, Bruce, I'm watching the national championship game. Michigan hardly could lay a finger on him sometimes, because he was so quick to get rid of it. And also his, I mentioned this before, so it's not name dropping, even though it sounds it. Marshall Faulk was watching the game at our house, and he was marveling at his pre-snap identification abilities. Just his neck up ability. And Marshall is the smartest football player I've ever been around. So if he's praising that part of his game, the brain part of his game, the identification pre-snap, then this guy is an all-timer when it comes to that. That's a hell of a statement from Marshall Faulk, because I know you've been around a lot of- You should speak to him.

I'll hook you up with him. I mean, if you need that help, I mean, honestly, he was talking about how Pennax was clearly pre-snap, seeing it really well, and how he could see, and you know Michigan has got like a pro-type defense coming out. Well, that's the thing. That was one of the people I talked to said, Michigan is as close to an NFL defense as he saw. And he said, whereas Texas was much more vanilla for what he was seeing, Michigan gave him more challenges to sort it out and figure and feel comfortable where he's going with the ball and everything like that.

The part of the story for me is I think, and I talked to both Bucky and DJ for this story too, and they're great resources obviously for stuff like this, but it is the part about where I am a big Pennax believer, what you said is definitely true. I think because there's tighter windows in the NFL. I go back to something, back when Mike Evans and Johnny Manz all were training in San Diego, Cam Cameron came out one day to help George Whitefield and Kevin O'Connell there. And I remembered Cam Cameron was like, talked about NFL open compared to like college open. And like, he's like right in front of me. And I knew Cam a little before that, but I was like, oh, it's Crest. I can tell the toothpaste because he was like that close.

Sounds like Hoosiers, it's Dentine. He was like, this is NFL open. And he started, he was really fun to talk to about that because he had at one point Anquan Bolden, but in college he had Jarvis Landry and he was like, these are guys who are essentially like the most powerful words, how they can operate in this tight space. Roma Dunze might not be too far off.

No. And he had three elite college receivers. But Roma Dunze is probably a top 10, top five kind of player. But he trusted them and he made a lot of big plays with them because he gave them chances. But also I thought the biggest thing that I really like about him is he has faced real adversity in his career and his life and came out the other side and thrived from it. And the thing you wonder about with a lot of quarterbacks who come into the NFL at a college is how much adversity have they really faced and what happened when they faced it. Whereas this guy, he's been very, when we talked in the off season, he was very candid about it. Surprised me how candid he was about some of the adversity he had been dealing with or had dealt with and came through the other side. And I think there is something to really be said for the guys who have dealt with it and come through it and how they've come through it.

And I think there are certain kinds of adversity. When I watch Lamar Jackson, there's so much stuff you can get awed by. But there is something to be said for the guy who, I remember the Bill Polian quote about- Oh, he's still saying that stuff. And you're like, man, this guy is the franchise, right? No knock, I mean, like you say, there's been good pieces around him, right? But you look at him like, holy cow, I feel like for a long time he was underrated because of what he does. But you're also seeing a guy who has been doubted a lot, even before when he got to Louisville there. And even look at him now, by the way, our radio audience is about to go away. Check out Bruce Feldman's article in The Athletic about this on Wednesday.

People here, so finish your sentence. Yeah. I just think that there's something to be said for these guys who have come through the other side and then it really does become the strength. It's like the weakness that turns into a strength. No doubt. I mean, that's what football's about at any level, right? Is that adversity is going to hit. Goff was a one-win quarterback when he was a Cal at first, right?

Oh my goodness. Now look at him. No, but then obviously you saw how that was probably a gut punch. He loved it being out here and then he gets traded away and then, oh, the other team wins the Super Bowl without me. And now you watch, I'm a Lions fan because of Goff. I can say this because I don't cover the NFL like that, but I definitely root for them in part because of him. But you see the parts of how they push through when, and a lot of times people will manufacture that, oh, everyone's, it's us against the, I'm not saying that was a Michigan thing. But I think there's something to be said for the ones, because a lot of times guys don't. And there was some quarterbacks I've talked to who said, when I got injured and I had this, and I didn't know how to deal with it.

And here comes panics. I can't believe somebody's even saying it shouldn't even be drafted. Well, I think the question on that is- Is the medical? Yeah, that's the- Well, we're going to find that out. We're going to find out. That's going to be a yes or no. That's what the combine's about. That is exactly it.

And I will hear, I believe within five minutes of being off the plane about something like that, that's the sort of thing that usually gets out there in the ether. Great to have you here. Thanks for having me. Fox Sports and the Athletic. Check out his articles in the Athletic, back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Mike Florio on the latest in the NFL. How wrestling really works and how you get the ratings.

Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson explain on 83 weeks. I mean, I dig J.U. So because he's born out of great storytelling and he lived up to the opportunity and exceeded it. The LA Knight, he's way up on my list because here's a guy that's been around for almost forever, should have probably quit a half a dozen times and he just forced his way into their life. And now he's making money hand over fist. That is a story I love. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.