Josh Heupel: Rankings Are Out Of Our Control

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Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. Okay, let's begin. This is the Rich Eisen Show. You can't win! Play off clinching scenarios, everybody.

Very simple. Kansas City Chiefs, what was the word that Adrienne once told Rocky? Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Just win Sunday night, they clinched the AFC West. You can't win! Adrienne had no confidence in Rocky, but that's a story for another day.

Man, she hated Rocky so much. That's another day. Earlier on the show, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, Apple TV lead MLS analyst Taylor Twelman. Coming up, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Power three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. 844-204 Rich.

Number to dial. Josh Heupel of Tennessee football will join us and I promise I will not drag him down to my level. I just won't do it. I won't do it. He's next up.

He's next up to be playing in the horseshoe according to the college football playoff committee. If everything stays dormy, everything stays the same, he'll go into Columbus and I won't ask him if they have checkerboard gas masks in case they choose to plant a flag. I don't believe you. Won't do that. Can one of us ask if you don't want to? I won't do it. I won't do it. I'll ask him if he needs advice on how to win in the horseshoe.

As a Michigan man, I'll tell him. I've got opinions. Sure you do.

I've got history, recent. Facts. Yes. Hashtag.

Facts. Got him. Promise. I won't drag him down to my level. You know, the thing is when you say promise and then you break it, you've broken a promise. I understand that. So we kind of want you to do it. So please don't promise. But you understand, TJ, I'm sitting in a chair on sports talk radio where I can make one thing, a statement or a take or whatever.

Say one thing and then just flush it and not even have to respond. Yeah. That's why, you know, and people have receipts like, say, on the Bills social media team. They've got receipts. That was in August.

Yeah. Nobody got out of here. In week two, I said they were the best team in the league on overreaction Monday. Guess what? That doesn't make for a good reel.

They thought you were overreacting. What are we doing? At any rate, Josh Heiple is going to join us.

I need to know about the mask. And the interesting thing is we had Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame football on in hour number one. And Notre Dame, 11 and 1, currently ranked, if I'm not mistaken, fourth by the college football playoff committee. Right now they're seeded sixth. But if you take a look at the CFB playoff rankings, they're fourth. Georgia fifth, the Ohio State sixth. And Tennessee is seven, and they just get knocked down certain pegs with Penn State, Notre Dame, Georgia, Ohio State, and Tennessee are three through seven in the rankings. But Penn State is five in the rankings. Notre Dame is six in the rankings. Georgia seventh in the rankings.

The seedings. And Ohio State and Tennessee are eight and nine. And the reason why is because, well, SMU and Boise State lower in the rankings but higher in the seeds because there's a requirement to put conference champions in the seeded positions. And unfortunately for the Big 12, Arizona State and Iowa State playing for its championship, too low down the rankings to even be considered prior to their championship game as a bi-week seeded team. So they put SMU from the ACC in that spot, and they put Boise State from the Mountain West in that spot. And Notre Dame isn't even allowed to be considered for that spot because they are independent. And as long as they remain independent, I guess their penalty for that is they're not able to be eligible for a bi-week. And as long as those are the rulings, that's the way it is. So my question for everybody here is, let's remove that filter. Let's remove that caveat.

Let's remove that rule. Who would the four teams be for bi-week eligible? Who would they be if you were on the college football playoff committee and you could just throw any four into a bi-week spot based on their schedule or excellence or whatever eye test? You would definitely, Oregon would go through. Yeah, Oregon's hands down the one seed. Oregon's in.

Easily the one seed. Texas would be in as well. I think so. Right? You'd have to put Notre Dame in there. You would have to have Notre Dame as one of the bi-week teams. Kind of think so.

Right? Yeah, they have three wins against ranked teams, ranked at the time. You know, the ones slip up in week two.

Other than that, they've been pretty dominant. And you'd be cheeky if you're the college football playoff committee prior to the championship games. You'd throw Penn State in there as well.

I mean, I would. You would because they're 11-1 and you'd put them in there with their one loss to the Ohio State. You'd put them in there with the sort of dangled carrot that, hey, if they lose, they're out and you could be in. In the same way that the 14 playoffs set up in previous years was set up. And then there would be an argument back in the day, well, if Georgia loses to Alabama, even though they're undefeated, are they still one of the four teams that get in? And Alabama goes. So it would be two SEC teams and which team would get bounced out.

Remember those conversations you used to have every single year, this time of year? You'd be having that conversation right now. If we were able to throw out there who gets to play their way in or play their way out, or do you say, hey, Penn State is in and it doesn't matter if they lose because we're not penalizing somebody for making the conference championship game.

And all I will say in that argument is this, because we're going to hear that argument. As to who gets a bye week and who doesn't, who gets a home playoff game, if they're not going to be a bye week team and who doesn't or who makes it and who doesn't. I will say to the college football playoff committee saying we don't want to penalize anybody for playing in the conference championship game.

My answer to that is why not? Well, listen, the teams that are sitting at home can't win or lose, can't help themselves, can't hurt themselves. Why should a team that has played better than them for the right to play for their conference championship be penalized for losing? Oh, but they can help themselves by winning, but not be penalized by losing.

Is that the case? So it's just, it's a win-win. It's kind of like that line from Raging Bull. Even if you lose, you win. Right? Like LeVar Ball would say.

So I don't understand that. So you can help yourself, Penn State, by winning. Even when you lose, I win. You, however, shouldn't get penalized for losing to Oregon unless you get blown out.

Now suddenly we're making this a competition that is objective. The score has always been a factor in college football. I get it, and that's why, did you hear your Penn State head coach, James Franklin, talking about the handshake after the Maryland-Penn State game, where Coach Locksley held on? He had a lock hold. Oh, yeah.

It got real... Made it look like, oh, we're just having a genial conversation, but no, it was anything but. And Franklin afterwards said, hey... We've got our threes and fours. We've got style points that we have to worry about here, and we've got threes and fours when they get out there. They want to score. They want to show what they can do. We need to see what they can do, so too bad.

Yeah, Penn State scored with no time left against Maryland. I understand, and I don't know if James Franklin sometimes rankles people just by talking. But I'm bringing all of this up to say, well, we don't want to penalize them for having conference championship game appearances or losing or getting blown out in them. Then why are we playing these damn games? Exactly.

Because you want more money. And in putting together this system, you already pissed off the loud-jacketed bowl representatives around the country. You finally got past their anger by saying, well, maybe we'll give you a college football semifinal game. Or maybe we'll give you a college football quarterfinal game, right, whatever you want to call it.

Or maybe we'll just, you know, put you in a rotation, and suddenly the loud-jacketed people, you don't hear from them as much anymore, and they're not as much of a consideration, a kind of a speed bump towards the more money. Well, whoever's in charge of the conference championship games, let's tune them out, too. Oregon has won it, and SMU has won it, and Boise State has won it, and the rest, too bad. We're done. We're done. We're done with the conference championship games.

They are superfluous. Now, can they play themselves in? Somebody can play themselves in?

Great. And if that's the case, if somebody like Clemson can play themselves in, and SMU can play themselves out, and if somebody like Iowa State can play themselves in, and Arizona State would play themselves out, then whoever does play in this game needs to be penalized for losing. I'm sorry. And if you don't want to go ahead and handle that tough reality, then don't play them.

Don't play them. Am I wrong? Or am I right? Please tell me I'm wrong. Go ahead.

Somebody can call me, 844-204-rich, and I'm fine with it. I'm wondering if a team in a position where if they lose or out just refuses to play. We're not showing up. So you know what the scenario is in this respect? Is you're playing in your fantasy league playoff game, right? And you're up on somebody who is one point behind you, and that person can't score another point because their entire roster's played.

The person that you're playing in the Monday Nighter, if that person fumbles on the first snap, you're now suddenly losing. Right. So you take that person, just bench that person, and you win.

Yeah. That is the philosophy, where you just don't show. You're SMU, and you're like, I'm not playing in the game. Not playing in the game. We've done enough on our merits up to this point to deserve a spot. Would that ever happen?

Could you imagine? We're not showing. We're not coming. I'm trying to think fantasy football-wise how that would work. Well, if you have a defense, I'm seeing your defense go Monday night. You bench it. I'm not playing where I can lose points.

I'm already winning. I've never even had that scenario. We've had it multiple. I've had it multiple times. Yeah.

We've had people do that in one league, in my poker league, where it affected whether somebody else made the playoffs or not, and infuriated. There's a huge to-do over that. What was the final verdict? I don't remember. I was the commissioner.

What do I care? Oh, by the way, my buddy Doug wants to call the show. He hasn't done it. He threatened to do so today. He's the one who acquired Lydede McConaughey and Trey McBride flipping Ahmaud Ra's St. Brown, and he got the better of the deal last week, and he won the game because of it. Of course.

He got two great players. Right, and he wants to call him because 60% of our listeners and viewers on our poll voted against him. He wants to come on and talk smack. I was on his side. I know. But you see what I'm saying with the conference championship? Oh, you can help yourself if you win them. But we're not going to penalize you for losing them? Then why are we even playing them? Right. Conference championship games have outworn their usefulness. I think so too. When we were hearing down the pike that these expanded playoffs were coming, I said, oh, well, then they'll definitely get rid of the conference championship games for exactly this reason.

And the answer is now coming back. No. No, I understand that the college football playoff committee wants these games to be relevant.

It's one last season finale. You're also getting a lot of play yourself in excitement. You're including fan bases that have a chance. They're going to get potentially get their ticket into the tournament.

Who knows how far they can go. I totally understand that. And you want to have that if you're the college football playoff committee and you're college football playoff. You want to have that Cinderella story.

You want the off the bubble at the bracket buster. Right. Remember that, you know, those conversations we have every single March, you want to have that. I get it. Somebody wins. But guess what? You got to penalize the one who makes it and loses.

You have to. What do you think Ohio State is going to tank the Michigan game or vice versa, because they don't want to run the risk of playing in the Big Ten championship game and hurting their positioning? You think Alabama will do that with Auburn or vice versa? That's why you maybe you put the rivalry game at the end where there's going to be no tanking. Yeah.

Right. You know, like there's going to be play. You're not going to be able to game it out in the system and go, why would I want to play in the conference championship game? It's only going to hurt me.

I'm already in right now. You've got to penalize those who make these conference championship games and lose. Lose by a lot. Or lose, period, man. Lose, period.

Georgia loses by one to Texas. They're out after they beat them earlier this year? Oh, no, you were or you could you could still consider them one of the better teams and downgrade them lower, that they don't get a home playoff game like they're currently in a position to do.

That's fair. I'm not saying that they're out completely, but yeah, you move them down a peg. And if a team that's sitting at home gets moved up a peg, that's the way it goes. Why else are we playing a damn game? So a team at home who's not playing a game at all gets rewarded above a team that loses a conference championship? It's not perfect.

But you know what? To me, it's better than just saying, hey, you've got house money when you're playing for a conference championship when it comes to the college football playoff bracket. It's not perfect. Just don't lose by a lot. All you gotta do is lose by a little.

Really? That's what we're talking about here. But, but, but in the ACC championship game, in the Mountain West championship game, in the Big 12 championship game, you win, you move on, you lose, you're out entirely. Right. That's the stakes. But hey, Penn State, Georgia. Those are better.

You might not get back downgraded. Better conferences, better competition they're playing against throughout the year. I understand the pushback here. Georgia has one of the best strength of schedules in the country. If Penn State loses by a lot, maybe they should lose their home game. Well, they haven't played that many good. Their strength of schedule's not great. I understand it. I just don't like the whole idea that, you know, winner of the game, you can absolutely help yourself. Loser the game, don't worry about it. Not too much.

Not much blood. 844-204 Rich, number to dial. Josh Heupel will join us from Tennessee football. Can't wait to talk with him about a whole bunch of stuff. He knows about winning a national championship from the quarterback position. He does.

True. A BCS for Oklahoma. Back in the day. Josh Heupel will join us next, the head coach of Tennessee football in a moment. We'll be right back.

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Game time. Just giving people an idea of what it's like for me to sit in this seat every day. I've got our monitor in front of me here. I've got a monitor to my left about what's in the control room.

I could see that Josh Hypel in Tennessee is about to zoom in. I can see that. I see, you know, we're in my right. I've got all like a mix of six different channels here to monitor the competition. I have all of that. You have our feed over there and also you would you have the worldwide leader usually on pretty much.

Yes. I can always tell who's on ESPN judging by your guy's attention span to what I'm saying. And I don't think it has anything to do with the content coming out of my chair. I can always tell.

Certainly our sound engineer in particular, because he's usually nudging you to look at the screen when I usually am trying to engage you verbally on this program. What? No, no. No, no. Good one. Yeah.

Go ahead. And I'm not talking like, you know, you're fascinated by Kendrick Perkins popping up on the screen. Well, Schefter was just breaking something down. Oh, you're looking you're looking to see what the topic bar is.

Zach Martin has an issue. It's not somebody who's coming on with a certain piece of information that you might be interested in over and under. It might not be just that that person. No. When you say those words, what do you mean? I don't understand.

Frozen, frozen caveman. OK, just making sure you're just not like tuning out and hopping on ESPN bet because some individual is just telling you to do so. Not legal in the state of California. Rich, I don't know what you're talking about. No idea. No idea. What's MGM stand for? I don't understand. Do you have the same feed on over there, TJ? I don't know what they got.

OK, it's somebody with somebody with like three names possible on the screen and their eyes glaze over. Well, just to be honest, I may have been the first one on that back on the Rich Eisen Show, just sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you.

Call click Granger dot com or or just stop by. Joining us in advance of a college football playoff game. Just don't know where he's going or his team is playing.

But the University of Tennessee certainly is going in the head coach, Josh Heiple, joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show. Good to chat with you, coach. How are you, sir? And great to be on with you about time. I'm thrilled to have you. I mean, I remember doing your. Sit again. I might have been the delay here in the late part of the season.

It's OK. No, listen, it's all good. I just remember doing your highlights when I was on Sports Center with Stuart Scott. Those Oklahoma highlights.

I remember doing all those back in the day. Yeah, just a couple of years ago, right? Yeah, right. Exactly right. Plus, I wanted to have somebody on the program who got more Heisman votes than Drew Brees, Ladanian Tomlinson and Michael Vick. And I have gotten that person right here.

That's a short list right there. Oh, my goodness. Josh Heiple, that is something on your resume that nobody can ever take away from you. And I'm wondering how much of that Josh Heiple is on the sideline. There's a lot of the quarterback in me that is a huge part of me as a coach, in particular on the offensive side of the ball and how we go about things, you know, from what we do schematically to how we try to put those guys in a position to go play their best and how we handle them on game day. And I do think, you know, being a quarterback, understanding what it looks like, it feels like out there is a is a huge part of what I do and try to communicate with our guys as an entire football team. How much is Bob Stoops inside the headset for you, Josh? Yeah, Bob and Mike might have been a little bit more emotional than I tend to be on game day, a little bit more defensive presence on their demeanor. But for sure, you know, my experience at Oklahoma, Bob, you know, Mike Leach was my first coordinator there, Mark Mangino, but Chuck Wong, quarterbacks coach, all of those guys have helped me get to this point and are a huge part of, you know, my career and the growth that I've had. Yeah. And I'm just wondering, does something come out of your mouth and it's in your like, man, that sounds just like Stoops.

I shouldn't. Anything like that happen for you, Josh? Every once every once in a while, there will be a guy that was with me there at Oklahoma that will understand that the message that's being presented has a similarity to some of the things that we had there. So let's just jump into your current status in the college football playoff bracket rankings. What what does the position that you have been placed by the CFP committee say to you?

How do you what do you glean from it? Yeah. You know, for for us as a program, most things are really out of our control. And certainly we'd love to have a home game, but you get into the playoffs. It really doesn't matter if you're not of the mindset that you're ready to go play anyone anywhere at any time. You know, you're not of the right mindset to have success in the in the bracket. And, you know, we've we've played ourselves into a position where we'll be in. Don't know who the opponent will be until Sunday. But we're excited about having an opportunity to play during this postseason. Now, I guess what what chess pieces are you and your staff or anybody in your Tennessee world that you huddle up with?

What are you looking at this weekend to potentially put you in a position where you're welcoming somebody into Knoxville, as opposed to getting on a plane? Like what do you what do you think here? I don't know that that will happen. You know, there's a handful of games here that certainly impact what's going to happen on Sunday with the playoff bracket. I don't know if there's a scenario that actually ultimately gets us a home game with what happens this weekend. End of the day, you know, we're excited that we're in. You know, you just had the bracket up there right now.

It's Ohio State. There's a lot of things that can change. We're excited and looking forward. And, you know, this week we were on the grass a couple of times with our guys trying to get get some growth out of our young guys in particular. But growth from our entire football team and, you know, the message to our guys is good teams continue to get better throughout the course of the season.

And we got to continue to get better before we get to the first round. And I know you can't control it and you don't spend time complaining and making excuses. I understand, you know, again, you're a national champion quarterback from your playing days.

You're a head coach of a top notch program in the United States of America, World of Collegiate Football. But I was just talking to my audience here about how the college football playoff committee says anybody who makes a conference championship game will not be penalized by playing in it based on a result. And my question is, why not? You know what I mean?

Why not? I mean, you can be helped by winning it, but not by losing it. Do you think that's fair, coach? Well, I think, you know, at the end of the day, I think they got to look at everybody's body of work and the conference championship game, the matchup. That's all part of the body of work of the regular season. And, you know, for them, then they got to judge who are the conference champions.

They got to place them in the bracket and then look at everybody's complete season and the body of work that they've had. And, you know, we're really proud of what we've done. There's a couple of results that we would like to play a little better, coach, a little better to help change those. But this is a really good football team here on Rocky Top that plays all three phases of the game together and, you know, really proud of what they've done.

And, you know, we got to get ready for the next part of the season. Tell me about your quarterback, what you like about him. Obviously, quarterback driven sport, Josh, and this is your position.

So what about it? And just a young guy that has continued to get better throughout the course of the season. I've had a bunch of freshmen that have started for me at the quarterback position. Nico's got an unbelievable skill set. He's hungry to get better every single day. He's continued to grow as a player throughout the course of the season. And he's just playing really good football right now. He's got great command of what we're doing.

He's taken care of the football through the air. He's done a really nice job just understanding, you know, our run pass game and controlling the run game for us. And, you know, I'm looking forward to him playing his best as we get into the playoffs. He's an elite competitor, you know, middle part of the season.

There are a couple first halves where we didn't play as well as we're capable of offensively. And his ability to push back, you know, on everything that's gone on in, you know, a drive or a half of football and come back and be an elite competitor, play that play, that series independently of what's happened before. You know, I think that's one of his greatest attributes. And to be honest, as a freshman quarterback, I think that's the hardest thing to do.

And he's really special in his makeup, his competitive makeup. How demanding are you because you've played the position? I guess self-scout yourself coaching a quarterback.

Yeah, playing quarterback for me is probably not the easiest thing. We're going to be, you know, dialed into every detail, understanding how, you know, your fundamental body position, your eyes all play a huge part in your ability to have success on the back end of the play. And, you know, Niko's done a great job of continuing to grow in that. And that leads himself to being accurate with football, being a good decision maker and taking care of it. Do you ever connect him to Peyton? Does Peyton have direct access to him?

Josh? Peyton has direct access to anything that he wants on Rocky Top, you would probably imagine. But Peyton and Niko do have a really good relationship. Peyton's back here all the time, you know, brings his family to games back here. He's here during the spring. What people don't know about Peyton is how much he gives back to this community and to this campus. And so he's back here quite a bit during the course of the year. And Peyton Manning, right? The same one, Debaton Manning, Peyton Manning, Peyton Manning, all those Mannings come back, right? Who knew he had those type of artistic skills? I know that. I saw the United Way commercial years ago. We know who the real Peyton Manning is, you know. Yeah, exactly.

Josh Heiple here on The Rich Eisen Show. How much of your time is spent not coaching on the job, the NIL, the Portal? More than I would want. It's changed a bunch. You know, from, you know, I think it was, excuse me, maybe seven years ago, first year as a head coach, the landscape of college football, the time demands on everybody, let alone the head coach. What you have to navigate with your roster, it's so dramatically different than it was, you know, five years ago.

And for whatever reason, it continues to get busier and harder and longer. And, you know, I guess you spent much of your week and you were in the middle of the signing period right now, right? Pretty much right now? Yeah. You know, yesterday was signing day.

Had a great day as far as, you know, what we're bringing here on campus. And, you know, everybody across America is dealing with their own roster as well. And then, you know, transfer portal. Do you have kids come in your office demanding money? Josh, does that happen? I don't. That's not how we operate here at Tennessee. And man, I want to keep it that way as long as possible. Okay.

All right. You mentioned the guy's name before I let you go. I need your favorite Mike Leach story, Josh.

I need your favorite Mike Leach story. Everybody has one. And you're probably going through your Rolodex as to what mental Rolodex, what you can actually say right now. What do you have for me, Josh?

What's made for live TV and radio? There's very few of those. For me, there's two stories that pop to mind right away. But remember Howard Stern used to be on ETV, right? You know, late at night. Thursday nights I would go up to his office and we'd go through the game plan and kind of go through, you know, how he wanted to start the game. And, you know, kind of the flow of the game. And ultimately that would go on his call sheet and his wristband in order.

And he didn't really care for his right half, right hash, left hash or whatever. But the meeting probably should have taken, you know, 30 minutes every Thursday night. But inevitably Howard Stern would be on the back of where I was sitting.

And, man, it would turn into a 45-minute dissertation about who's on the Howard Stern show and some random story that would come up on the back end of it. He, man, huge impact on my career and so thankful. He got a great family. But, I mean, he's just the most unique person in football and really in my entire life that I've ever met. He was so interested in so many different things. So it was one of the Audibles called Baba Booey, Josh?

Did that happen? Anything was real. There were some play calls and I don't want to put the name of the play call out on it.

My wife doesn't like the name of a couple of them. We might have kept a few of them. You know, there's a great story of him dropping a fake script when we were playing Texas in the Cotton Bowl as well. He was a character, man.

There was nothing that wasn't in his reach or that he wasn't willing to do. So where did he drop that fake play script, Josh? Where did that happen?

Yeah, so we're getting ready to play Texas in the Cotton Bowl, Red River shootout. I think it was Thursday night he came up with the idea of putting a fake call sheet out there. He dropped it. He had one of our student coaches go drop the fake script. He had to make it look real, like it just came out of his back pocket or out of his hand. You saw a Texas guy go pick up the script. You know, the first play might have been a reverse as far as what was on the script.

We had a reverse screen up. He was willing to do anything. He used it to his advantage. Wow. Absolutely.

Josh, I love that guy. And I appreciate you with the story time right here. And listen, in return, again, because you're in the middle of a very busy part of your schedule right now and a very busy part of your world. In return for your appearance here, I am happy if you wind up having to go to Columbus as a Michigan man, telling you how it's done. Happy to do that. Listen, if we're playing the Buckeyes up in Columbus, I'll give you a call for sure. Please do.

Please do. And just have the largest T flag ready on some sort of a pole, just in case. And just have your head on a swivel if that happens, Josh.

You know what I'm saying? I love it. Take care of yourself, Josh. Thanks for the time. Appreciate it. Let's do this again soon. Thanks again. Always appreciate it.

You got it. That's Josh Heupel, head coach of Tennessee football right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Yeah, Mike Leach was the quarterback coach OC for Oklahoma one season, 1999.

Everybody's got a story. It's great. Love it. With Mike Leach. I love that one. Howard Stern is on the background. Well, you know, the show was pretty awesome.

Eleven to midnight Eastern every night. Oh, is that right? That's right. That's right. That's right.

So you would go up and you'd have these meetings and Mike and him, the meeting lasted longer? That play they ran, I think to beat Florida State, was called Fart Man, wasn't it? Yep. A bit of Beal Juice.

Maybe Hank was involved. Fofohe? Oh, my gosh. Stuttering John on three. Ready? One, two, two, two, three. Okay, very good.

Let's take a break here on the Rich Eisen Show. Sleep number, everybody. Make sure that if you are in a market for a bed, you stop by a sleep number store right now. And why choose a sleep number smart bed?

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Shopify.com slash Westwood One. It was 96, and it was the week before the Michigan-Ohio State game. You know, I got to practice, I wasn't feeling well, my back was a little tight, and I told the trainer, you know, my back is not feeling right. He was like, oh, you know what, don't worry about it. So, you know, we're in practice, and he calls me over a couple of times.

Coach Carr. Yeah, yeah, you know, he was like, you know, you're not paying attention. He said, hey, if you're not going to pay attention, then you can just leave. And I turned around, I walked out the field, walked into the locker room, put my clothes back on, I walked to the dorm, and I was like, man, I'm transferring. I'm out of here. You walked out on Coach Carr and Michigan practice, Ohio State week, saying I'm leaving.

I'm gone. I go into Coach Carr's office. You know, he asked me a question. He's like, you think you justified yourself by walking off the field? And I was like, yeah. I was like, I don't think you had to make an example out of me. He was like, you know what, you're not playing this week. I walked back down to Vance Bedford's office. He was like, I told you. Just go down there and just apologize.

You know what? He picks up the phone. I don't know what he's doing. He's like, uh-huh, Ms. Woodson, I told this boy to go down there and apologize, and that's all he had to do.

Here, you talk to him. So I'm talking to my mom. She was like, what's the problem? I'm like, you know, my coach wants me to go down there and apologize. I'm like, I'm not apologizing.

She was like, Charles. She said, I understand. I know you're mad. You're angry. She said, if you're not going to apologize for yourself, then do it for me. Oh, boy.

Come on, man. So I said, okay. I get up.

I go down. Did it for Mom. I did it for Mom, man. Apologized the coach. He said, well, you know what? Good, Charles. You're playing this week. And his mom presented him at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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Get a free quote at triethos.com. That's T-R-Y-E-T-H-O-S dot com. Anton has been hanging on for darn near two hours in Birmingham, Alabama. What's up, Anton? How you doing, Rich?

What's up? I'm a Minnesota Vikings fan. Saw your power rankings yesterday, and feel like the Minnesota Vikings have not been treated the way that they should have been treated. Where should they be? Where should they be, Anton? You put them where?

Where do you put them? I would say at least behind the Kansas City Chiefs because of their quarterback. But if you look at the games that the quarterbacks, that Minnesota and the Chiefs have been playing, the Chiefs have won more close call games, and they haven't been given help for it. And when Minnesota wins close call games, they're like woo, the pumpkin-mode watch on San Donald.

And I think we need to give respect to Kevin O'Connell for what he's doing to Minnesota. Sure. Let me ask you this, Anton. Let me ask you this. At least in my head.

Let me ask you this. You put them above the Steelers? Yay or nay? Definitely, yeah. Okay. Do you put them above the Ravens? Right now, yes.

Okay. The way the Packers have been playing, I know you went there and you beat them. You beat them up pretty darn well before hanging on for dear life. Do you still put them above the Packers? It's a divisional round, so anything can happen. I would say it's a close call game right now with the Packers and the Lions. What do you think?

I would say it's at home, so I'm going to give it a win. Okay. So let me ask you this question.

Do you put them above the Bills? I'll say that one's pretty good. Yes or no? Yes or no? Yay or nay? This is not who wants to be a millionaire.

You cannot phone a friend. You must say, you must give me your final answer. Yes. Wow. Okay.

As they say in, I appreciate the call, but as they say in Goodfellas, now I've got to turn my back on you. The Vikings above the Bills? That's a tall order. Tastes like a buffalo. Not above a buffalo, but it's pretty low.

As I said yesterday. You put them above the Steelers? Definitely above the Ravens. I don't know why you went so south on the Ravens after one loss to the Eagles. The best team in football at this point. And a loss if their kicker didn't have the yips. The Ravens would probably have two more wins right now. Kickers on the team, right?

That's true. Kickers on the team, sir. Kickers on the team.

Yeah, he's on the team. I'm just saying. It's not like they were getting blown out. They're 10-2. They have three less losses. Not everyone can have a team winning two in a row where the kicker's one of the best players in the team. Although, he's been missing a couple, TJ.

Well, no. He missed the one because his foot slipped. And by the way, just in case you think that's a slight.

It is the way Micah Parsons has been playing lately. As a slight. Michigan's won two in a row and the kicker's one of the best players on the team. Oh, and we know you would never disparage Michigan.

Never. Oh, your kicker's getting drafted. Dude, our kicker is phenomenal.

Your kicker's going pretty early. Savannah, he's so good they should name a timepiece after him. It's not like he's got the name of a watch. You know who doesn't care about this at all?

Savannah. Larry David. Now I got to tie my back.

You don't want to hear nothing about kickers. That's correct. Yeah, Mike.

I found it. I knew we had it. I talked about Caleb Williams yesterday. He spoke about how, someone asked him if everything going on in Chicago is stunting his development. If it's messing with his development as a quarterback. You know the whole business of here's your new offensive coordinator. Here's your new team. Here's your new coach. And the guy who is now the offensive coordinator is gone. Same thing as the coach. And the guy took over the offensive coordinator. Now it's taken over for the coach. I might mess with somebody's development.

Hit it. I wouldn't say that it would affect my development. I think this is a stepping stone of development. You know to be able to have all of this in my first year.

I wouldn't say that I'm happy for it. But you know having these moments is definitely something that will help me in the future. Having these situational moments that you can't, it's hard to rep in practice. Having some of these moments. Having your coach fired, your coaches fired, and people being promoted.

You know things like that all happening within a couple weeks of each other. I think it would have helped me in the long run. Being able to handle all of this, handle this first year and being able to grow from it.

I think it is a stepping stone actually with my development. As they say on Family Feud, good answer. That is a good answer. Because he's not wrong that this is a crash course on life in the National Football League. That some players are born into bad situations.

And that's the whole nature versus nurture. Can somebody survive and become a franchise quarterback when the head coach might not be the right coach. And the offensive coordinator might not be the offensive coordinator.

That is going to lead you to be the most successful. Or in this situation it's both together getting bounced in the middle of the season. That's not the way the Bears were drawn it up when they were knowing Kayla Williams was coming.

And I mean they put the cart before the horse in a way that I have not seen in quite some time. They did a very smart thing which is using the top 30 visit with the kid to essentially get him in the playbook before they drafted him. Sending the entire organization including his future teammate in Keenan Allen to his pro day.

I mean they got ahead of the game and then wound up not having the right group. And so yes he can overcome that and actually utilize this to his advantage. He's getting a front row seat to a lot of what the NFL unfortunately can be about for a young player. The problem is if it happens again.

Right? You don't want, oh this is year two for him and he's already on his third offensive coordinator. Well that's coming when they get a new person in unless they do love Thomas Brown so much they keep him. And then he's the play caller and the HC. I don't know if the Bears fans would be terribly happy with that. Even if Caleb starts winning games under Thomas Brown towards the end of the season. I think they want a big name or at least somebody that they know has run an offense to remarkable success which is why I keep mentioning Ben Johnson's name as the guy they should target. I don't know if you heard what Kyle Brent said on Good Morning Football which is on the Roku Sports Channel every day before this show comes on the air at noon Eastern. He said as a Bears fan expect a name you've never heard of.

That you're going to have to buy into. I don't know if that's him just trying to let his smile be his umbrella or whatever. I don't know. But Matt Eberfluss kind of is that. He's numb. He said he's numb to all of it now.

Well welcome to the party pal. I don't think Matt Eberfluss was a name that people were really familiar with. Well that's why I think he's saying that. Lubby Smith at the time was one of the hot coordinators if you remember he was. I just think again they need to get an offensive coach who's not going anywhere. Who's the play caller and connects himself to the hip of this guy and he's the guy.

If you can get somebody who's incredibly well established guess what that doesn't happen very often. It happened for Mahomes. Can you imagine? Mahomes comes into the league he gets to sit all year long there's no pressure on the system because the Chiefs are going to make the playoffs and then Andy Reid is your coach and he sits next to you on the bench. Sits on top of the Gatorade jug and says let's go over the plays. Let's take a look at the tablet kid.

Can you imagine if they had that for Caleb? What a different year it might be? I don't know. Just got to get it right. This just in. I know that's a real hot take but it's the truth. Because if this happens again then it can really stunt his growth.

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Limited time only at the sleep number store or sleepnumber.com cstore for details. Kyle in Harrisburg PA hanging on there. What's up Kyle? You there Kyle? I'm there Rick.

What's up bud? Hey I just want to talk about I've been you know show after show after show hearing all about the strength of schedule the SEC especially Georgia and Alabama. And I gotta say I'm tired of hearing about it. They played Tennessee Tech. Georgia did. They played Tennessee Tech. And UMass. And Alabama played I think Western Kentucky and Mercer. I mean Mercer are they even like are they like parochial league?

Are they division three? I don't even know who Mercer is. Kyle did you see the UMass game? Because Marcus Camby was awesome in it. Right yeah.

Like 20 years ago you are correct. Thank you. Kyle you're in the right church here even though we love love love having the commissioner of the SEC Greg Sankey on. I love my conversations with him. You should know Kyle that here this phone call just means more to us when you say this sort of thing. So are you a Penn State guy Kyle?

Is that why I pick it up what I'm putting down here? I am of course a Penn State guy yes pretty much so. Harrisburg of course.

Harrisburg PA. Hey listen you're going to make it. You're going to make it and you know Kyle just understand this. You know when it comes down to it your coach is going to have to dial up and play on fourth down. And your palms are going to be so damn sweaty at that moment in time.

I think you need to focus and prepare yourself for that moment Kyle. You know what I mean? I got one thing to say about that.

Yes. I've heard a lot of people from around here. A lot of my friends that don't want Franklin around anymore. But I think USC game. I think the end of the Minnesota game has been some of James Franklin's best coaching.

I just got to say that. Okay Kyle and I appreciate you calling in but you seem like you're worthy to mix it up with. If you need help on how to beat Ohio State just call. I'm around.

Okay? Hey thank you for beating them by the way. To see that look on Ryan Day's face was priceless. Chef's kiss.

We can at least come together. Thank you Kyle. Kyle and Harrisburg PA. Georgia's strength of schedule number 3. Alabama 17. Penn State 36. So Kyle while you're from where I was born.

Harrisburg General Hospital. You have no case. He delivered that direct to camera at the end. That was very good Chris. But at least you can appreciate the tears from the Ohio State University. Fill up both of our cups. Yes.

Yes absolutely. And we are holding them up. One from the yacht.

The other from the beach. Talking about feeling good. Looking good.

Well they can join us in that if they can only come up with that fourth down play to beat Ohio State. Oh this is so great. I'm so happy. I'm really happy. You know what I'm happy about? Michigan beating Ohio State and this week has one more show day left in it. And 360 days after that. Wherever you listen.