This episode is brought to you by Bleacher Report. How do you follow sports? From college football to the NBA, Bleacher Report brings you the latest news, live scores, and epic highlights from your favorite leagues, teams, and athletes all in one app. Dive into exclusive shows hosted by your favorite athletes and original Bleacher Report series with breaking news, rumors, and predictions all season long.
Download Bleacher Report to personalize your coverage. Travel, more shopping, more time online, and more personal info in places that could expose you to identity theft. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second. If your identity is stolen, their US-based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock.
Save up to 40% in your first year. Visit lifelock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
Oh my God, you guys are my favorites. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Rich Eisen. I know what I'm talking about.
That's the headline. The Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Dan Schwartzman. OMG. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
Oh my gosh. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Dan Schwartzman. It is our number two this Friday edition of the Rich Eisen Show.
Dan Schwartzman in for Rich. Talk some college football, more NFL, NBA as well. As the show rolls on, I'll tell you what, I made fun of those three bowl games yesterday. How about that Toledo pick game? Six overtime. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, I was watching it in the studio. I was building my log for last night's game, and oh my gosh, it kept going and going and going and going. Who doesn't love that? Toledo winning one for the Mac. Mid-American Conference, I am a product of the Mac, a proud Ohio University graduate. Good to see the Toledo Rockets win one for us over a major conference team in the Pitt Panthers. Six overtime.
So, I apologize. I did not take those three bowl games seriously enough, and because of that, I had to tune in late to a Toledo Pitt game to watch six overtimes. I like that.
Always fun to see that. Well, the big news these days in college football, besides the playoffs, the transfer portal, is how about the historic black colleges having a trend here, right? Going out there and hiring former NFL stars to be their head coach. Now, it started with Deion Sanders when he went to as a Jackson State, and he was very successful there. He got some big name recruits, NIL seemingly helped, but Travis Hunter went there originally as the number one recruit in the nation. He had committed to Florida State. Deion goes to, you know, becomes a head coach at Jackson State, and what happens is he goes there. Shandor Sanders, I mean, he brought a ton of talent there that you usually don't get at that level. And then when Deion went to Colorado, those guys went with him. Last week, Michael Vick got that job as the head coach of Norfolk State in Virginia. He's from that area, by the way.
He's from that Tidewater area, Virginia Beach area, and Norfolk State is right there. And, you know, I remember Michael Vick pre and post going to jail for running the dog fighting wing and literally killing dogs with his own hands. I mean, a despicable, despicable act. From what we read and what we heard, it was awful. But I was in Philadelphia working there when Michael Vick was brought to the Eagles by Andy Reid. There was a large outcry, rightfully so, by the way, and I was there to watch the transformation of Michael Vick growing up. Now, Michael Vick, when he was at Virginia Tech, was one of the greatest quarterbacks I've ever seen. Forget Caleb Williams. Michael Vick, the Southpaw quarterback, had an absolute cannon.
Absolute cannon. Just Google Michael Vick throws, and he had an absolute rifle of an arm. And, by the way, he averaged seven yards a carry, I believe, for his career.
Now, Lamar Jackson just passed him for the most rushing yards for a quarterback. But Michael Vick, honestly, and he will admit this, and he has, when he played for the Falcons and he was the first football player with a hundred plus million dollar contract. But Michael Vick didn't work very hard. Michael Vick was the last one there, first one out.
That I do know for a fact. Michael Vick didn't take being a quarterback in the NFL as seriously as he should. Watching tape, studying, being there early, being the leader. There's a lot of elements of being a quarterback besides being the most talented guy on a team, and probably the most talented guy in the league at that point. But Michael Vick didn't work as hard as he should. Gets arrested, rightfully so. Goes to jail for two years, again, rightfully so.
Loses everything, rightfully so. Comes out, gets an opportunity at the Eagles, and honestly, man turned around his life. Did what he said he would.
When he was in Philly, he went to schools in the inner city, spoke to the kids about his plight. Remember, he had owed a bunch of money, and he could have gotten away with paying pennies on the dollar in bankruptcy court. He owned up to what he owed, and he said no. There was clearly a future of earning still for Michael Vick. From what I understand, I think he paid back every penny that he had to pay back.
When again, he could have paid pennies on the dollar and gotten away with it. Michael Vick has stayed out of trouble. He's a family man. He's done a lot of good. I'm not dismissing what he did because it's despicable.
I love animals. And, but I also think that a person at times deserves a second chance. Vick got that, and he's made the most of it. So I can see why any college would bring in Michael Vick to be a coach to teach boys to become men. You're talking about recruiting 17-18 year olds. Hopefully they're there for four years or five years, and when they leave, they are high-functioning members of society as men.
Okay? That's what it is. To be a head coach in college isn't just winning football games. If you have any sense and you truly understand your responsibility, you want to make sure when these guys leave school, they can fend for themselves and be productive members of society. You know, Deion Sanders to me does that.
I give Deion a lot of credit. I've heard stories of coaches who will show up in classrooms at 8 a.m. that their players should be in to make sure they're there. Who will call professors and say, hey, checking up on so-and-so. Is he in class? Is he doing his work?
How are his grades? Because they understand that being a college coach is more than just winning football games. So I think a Michael Vick is capable with the message that he has. Again, I don't know if he's going to win football games, but I think Michael Vick is somebody that a young person can look up to and say, if you get that opportunity in life to have a second chance, you roll with it. You run with it.
Take it. There's a lot of maturity that's happened in Michael Vick over the last 20 years, and I think it makes sense to bring it in. Look, again, I don't know if he's going to win any games. He's never been a head coach.
He may be terrible at it. Just being Michael Vick in that area maybe gets you a couple of recruits the first couple of years, but if you don't start winning some games, they're not going to come. So now Deshaun Jackson gets a job, his former teammate by the way with the Eagles, Deshaun Jackson gets the job of being the head coach at Delaware State University, also a MEAC school, also a former NFL star getting an opportunity, his first coaching gig. Here's the difference that I see with Michael Vick and Deshaun Jackson.
And please, please tell us. Deshaun Jackson was an immature guy when he played. So I remember, you know, interviewing Deshaun Jackson in Philly.
I remember one time he came to the studio and his mother was there and he was actually very good because his mother was there. Kind of seemed to be a different guy than the reputation he built in Philly. Now I don't know what he was doing off the field, but there are always some whispers about Deshaun Jackson. I don't know if Deshaun Jackson woke up a couple of years ago and grew up or matured and became a different guy.
I have no idea. But I don't ever recall some sort of awakening with Deshaun Jackson, right? I don't remember Deshaun Jackson becoming a different man due to adversity of being in prison or something like that the way he had with Michael Vick.
Now he's gotten some, you know, good recommendations. Andy Reid, who was his former coach of the Eagles, as well as Sean McVeigh, praised the hiring. Reid saying, quote, he would stake his career on his success at Delaware State.
Okay, maybe. But I just hope Deshaun Jackson has, in fact, changed the reputation he's had from his days as a player. Remember, he's only 38 years old. It's not like Deshaun Jackson is like 50 years old, removed from playing in this league for a bunch of years. He's 38 years old, still a young guy. In fact, you have some receivers like Jerry Rice played past 38 years old. Yeah, he was 40. 40?
40. He shouldn't have played in Seattle. That never should have happened, by the way. Still thinking of Jerry Rice in a Seahawks helmet is a weird thought, you know?
That never made sense. But my whole point is, this is becoming very popular, bringing in former NFL stars and hope that they can win games. I'll tell you what.
You know what? You look at Major League Baseball, right? Very few ex-great players turn out to be very good managers.
Think about that. Think about the best managers in baseball over the last 20 years or so. Like Buck Showalter, right? Never made it out of the minors. Tommy Lasorda. Lasorda, he's known more for a comment he made when he was being sent down to the minors than for anything he did on the field. You know what that was, right Art? Refresh our memory. That Kofax kid, he'll never amount to much.
Oh yeah, that's right. Because they kept Kofax because he was a bonus baby and he had to keep a bonus baby on the roster and Lasorda got sent down to the minors and he said, that Kofax kid, he'll never amount to much. He was right for the first six years and after that Kofax became probably the greatest pitcher in history, but whatever. Tommy was an incredible manager. Loved Tommy.
Great interview. Now Joe Torre was a hell of a player as a catcher with the Braves and a couple other teams, but Ted Williams, who may be the greatest hitter in history, it wasn't like Ted Williams was a fantastic manager with the Rangers. Dusty Baker was a heck of a player. I never thought Dusty was a great manager per se. Bruce Bochy wasn't a great player. He's a great manager.
See the trend? Joe Girardi, I thought was a very good manager, was a decent player. Nothing special. Just because you were a great player doesn't mean you have more knowledge than the guy that wasn't. And why is that?
Is it because they don't have the patience? No, I think honestly if you're a guy sitting on the bench a lot, you have more time to analyze the game. Right? You're watching it. You're sitting there. You're listening to managers because you're on the bench. If you're the star player, you're out there all the time. And maybe the ego. You know, the guy who's not that star player maybe is willing to be more patient and learn more from others because of the fact he wasn't a great player and had to do what he had to do to hang on in the league. And maybe that had to be listening to people and saying, maybe you need to do this. Change your swing.
Change positions. Whatever it might be to, you know, have some longevity in their career. The star player never had to deal with that.
Everybody catered to them. That might be why. So my whole point is, will a Deshaun Jackson, who was a heck of a wide receiver and special teamer for the Eagles and a bunch of other teams, will that translate to being a very good head coach at a place that has not had a winning season since 2012? Here's what I think. I think Michael Vick will be successful at Norfolk State.
I do. Because what he had said at the press conference when he was announced as a head coach was he's incredibly nervous. He made calls to mentors such as Deion Sanders to kind of get an ID. He said, the first week of work here is more work than I've done in years. He's understanding what it takes to be that head coach. He's understanding what it takes to be a successful head coach in the college level regardless of the fact if it's in the MEAC or the ACC, the SEC, whatever it might be.
It's a lot of work. I'm just wondering, is Deshaun Jackson willing to put in the time or does he think his incredible athletic abilities on the field, which he obviously had, will that translate to him just automatically being a great coach? People forget, and Art, you may not know this, Deshaun Jackson was a heck of a baseball player as well. Heck of a baseball player. Yeah, he comes from the Los Angeles area here.
Yes, yeah. I mean, Deshaun Jackson was a, put it this way, if Deshaun Jackson was not committed to being a football player, there's a good chance he would have been a first round pick in the baseball draft. That's how good he was as a baseball player. Now, maybe not as good as Kyler Murray. People forget Kyler Murray was actually a top 10 pick of the Oakland A's as a baseball player. He was a top 10 pick in football and a top 10 because he was actually the top pick in football and I think he was either the 6th or the 9th overall pick in the baseball draft by the A's.
I'm not sure Deshaun Jackson would have been that highly picked, but Deshaun Jackson was a tremendous baseball talent as well coming out of high school. I wish him success. I wish that it works out for him. Maybe this is what he needs to kind of settle him down a little bit. Maybe he has settled down again.
I don't know. He's not been in the news that much. Maybe that's a good thing. Yeah, it's always a good thing. I do remember when he played, you know, the reputation of Deshaun Jackson wasn't a guy that took things seriously. He was a guy that seemingly had some off the field issues.
And if that's the case, is he the right guy to be taking boys and making men out of them the way that college coaches do? I remember when I was 16, 17 years old and I remember when I was 21, 22 leaving college, you hopefully are a different person. Sure, you have a good time in college.
Sure, you do some stupid things, no question about it. But you do want to make sure after 4 or 5 years that you are a different person in a positive manner because you go from the fake world of where everything is given to you to having to be in the real world where you have to kind of fend for yourself. Get a job, keep a job, get better at your job to move up, right?
That's on you. High school, if you come from a decent family home, you know, your parents take care of you. If you need some spending money, you have your little summer job working retail at the local Gap, whatever it might be. You're not really paying bills, right? Mowing lawns for me. Right, mowing lawns. I remember shoveling cars out of snow as a gift for 20 bucks each.
I thought that was a lot of money. The day I turned 16, I went to my high school, got my working papers and worked retail jobs at sporting goods stores. Made, I think it was $5.50 an hour.
It was minimum wage. So, you know, things like that where you develop a work ethic but that's just a summer job. You come out of school, then it's a different story. That's a real job. So, you know, that's a responsibility of Deshaun Jackson as a head coach or Michael Vigge as head coach to take young boys and make them into men. To me, the great coaches do that. They win football games too but they also get people to be productive members of society by the time they leave your program because not everybody's going to the NFL, right? Not everybody is going to make millions of dollars playing sports for a living.
It's just not possible. No, most of your roster will be guys who will not be playing professional sports when it's all said and done. That's how it works out. We're going to talk with Chris Venini, Covers College Football for the Athletic. He's going to join us next.
We'll get his thoughts on this. You know, I like the trend. Why not? Again, I don't know if it's going to work but I do like the trend.
At least for recruiting purposes, it could work. You want to go play for Deshaun Jackson? Hey guys, I had a thousand catches in the NFL. I know what I'm talking about. Hey guys, I'm Michael freaking Vigge. I know what's up.
But that only goes so far. Once they realize you don't know your X's and O's, you're not going to win football games, they don't care what your name is, you're done. You're not winning games, you're not going to be a head coach, regardless of the fact if you have a big name or not. Chris Venini joins us next.
I am Dan Schwartzman. It is a Friday. Hopefully, where you're listening, the weather's nice, not too cold. A little better here on the East Coast than before. I'm sure the LA area is very, very nice weather-wise.
As always, Dan Schwartzman for Rich on a Friday at the Rich Eisen Show. The American Express Business Platinum Card offers world-class business and travel benefits, so you can get more for your business wherever it takes you. With the Amex Business Platinum Card, you can earn 1.5 times membership rewards points on select business purchases. And you can get complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges worldwide, including the Centurion Lounge, so you can keep running your business while you're on the go. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love.
Terms and points can't apply. Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts, people. You love their jingle. You're going to love their friendly, helpful service even better.
Because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road. And the parts knowledge they have, it's all you need for your maintenance and repairs. They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock, either in-store or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam. The team at O'Reilly Auto Parts can test your battery for free in or out of your car. If it needs to be replaced, they'll find you just the right battery for your vehicle.
Need your windshield wipers replaced, a brake light fixed, or a quick service? They'll help you there and find the right part or point you to the nearest local repair shop for help. The professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts are your one-stop shop for all things auto. Do it yourself and you can find what you need in-store or online. So stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit us at OReillyAuto.com slash Eisen.
That's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N. O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Let's talk game time, people, and the holiday season. Game time's all about togetherness, and isn't the holiday season all about that, too?
The answer's yes. This means when you bring people together at live events, the experience is that much better, and it's the perfect gift. And game time has this new feature called game time picks. It makes getting tickets for live events even easier. I love using game time picks because it filters out all the fluff, shows you only the incredible deals you want, on the great seats you need, so you don't waste a single second searching through thousands of tickets. And then there's that all-in pricing feature I love. You see your total up front. There's no surprise fees at checkout. The price that they tell you is the price that you're going to buy.
It's unbelievable. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, and use my code EISEN for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Visit GameTime.co for restrictions.
Again, create an account, redeem my code E-I-S-E-N, $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time.
Dan Schwartzman in for Rich on this Friday. College football. What a bowl game yesterday. Six overtimes.
Toledo versus Pitt. Deshaun Jackson following in the footsteps of Michael Vick who followed in the footsteps of Deion Sanders. Getting a head coaching job at a historic black college.
No coaching experience. I like the Vick hiring. I'm not sure about the Deshaun Jackson hiring. I think Vick was a guy that turned his life around.
That's some definitely teachable to youngsters. Not sure Deshaun Jackson. Maybe he has changed from his reputation. No news is good news, I guess.
Haven't heard much out of him in a while. Chris Venini covers college football for The Athletic. Joining us in Chris, first off, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to you and the family. Yeah, same to you. Thanks for having me. Thank you, Chris.
I want to start before we break anything down. The quarterback situation heading into the NFL Draft is fascinating to me with Shadore Sanders, Cam Ward, Jalen Milro, Dylan Gabriel, whoever else may be in this conversation. In your mind, Chris, covering college football, is Shadore Sanders to you the number one quarterback in this draft? Or do you think with personal workouts, the combine, whatever it might be that could change? I would say yes, but it's not a great quarterback class by any means whatsoever. Next year, the next couple years are shaping up to be much better. This previous year was much better when we saw like what, like five quarterbacks in the top 15 picks or something like that.
I would go with Shadore. He's someone I wasn't totally sure about early on. He played high school in kind of a private school league, didn't play against the best, and he played at the FCS level, didn't play against the best. But his two years at Colorado have really impressed me. He is unbelievably tough. The number of sacks he has taken the last couple of years, the number of big hits he's taken, and he's fought through that.
He's made really, really good throws. He's not perfect. I don't think he's a perfect prospect by any means.
There's issues. But if I had to pick somebody I was going to go with, I would go with him. You know, people say you look at last year's class with Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels, and I guess Drake May could be in that conversation as well. If Shadore Sanders was in last year's draft, he's getting picked after those guys. You agree?
Yeah, probably. I mean, Shadore showed a lot more this year than I think he did last year, in part because it was with a better team. To have two years under your belt of that, I think he really made a step up. I think the offense this year fit him a lot better than what they were running last year. So I do think he's improved his stock this year. Plus, last year again, yeah, those are all, it's a lot of guys who are currently starting in the NFL as we just listed there.
Yeah, Bo Nix as well has played very well for Denver, has done a nice job this year, probably surprising a lot of people in terms of what he's done so quick. You know, you look at the college football game today, and I'm not a big transfer portal guy. I think it's outrageous in terms of guys transferring before a bowl game, for instance.
It's been like you can't set your roster for your game because you don't know who's going to be there or who's not. The NCAA has been toothless for a long time at this point, but does this have to change? Is this Wild West mentality that we see right now in college football? Is it going to have to come to an end soon because of the fact coaches, I think, have to be saying to themselves, this is out of control? I do think we're heading to a spot where you may have players have multi-year contracts or something of the like. The issue with the transfer portal, or at least, you know, for guys to enroll for next semester, they have to transfer now. It's a really difficult spot. The reason no other sport has free agency during the postseason is because no other professional sport has classes.
You've got to go. Some coaches have been saying, hey, maybe it might be better if we only do the spring portal instead of having two and doing the winter portal. Because that way, at least, guys would stay with the team. Maybe they stay with a new coach through the spring and see if they like it. Maybe you would see less kids jumping out and seeing what's there, but maybe not.
I mean, every kind of step and change that has been made with the portal has brought unintended consequences. There's not really an answer right now because the courts forced the NCAA to allow unlimited transfers. That wasn't the plan. The plan was one transfer.
The court said from a lawsuit, you probably can't do that. And so, the NCAA is in a tough spot where it can't enforce a lot of the rules that it had. Chat with Chris Vannini, Covers College Football for the Athletic here on the Rich Eisen Show. Dan Schwartzman in for Rich on this Friday. A lot of big names getting head coaching positions. Michael Vick got a job at Norfolk State.
Deshaun Jackson just got hired as the head coach at Delaware State University. I said earlier, Chris, I understand the Michael Vick. Here's a guy that clearly, when he plays for the Falcons, forget the dogfighting, was immature, didn't take it as seriously or work hard enough to be as great as his talent should have been.
He, of course, went to jail for hideous crimes. He's really changed his life around since then. I think it's fair to say that. And he has matured. I think he's got a great message to tell youngsters. Maybe he wins games.
I'm not sure about the X's and O's. Were you surprised about Deshaun Jackson, that name coming out this week, as getting a head coaching job? Deshaun Jackson surprised me because I don't totally know the connection. Michael Vick at Norfolk State, he's from the area.
He's right down the street. He is that community, so I can kind of see the connection. The thing with all of these, you know, a lot of people try to compare it to Deion Sanders, but I would really caution against that because before Deion Sanders got the Jackson State job, he was coaching high school football for a number of years. He was doing the coaching thing, and Deshaun Jackson, I believe, coached some high school or helped out last year, so he did a little bit of that. But like, sometimes you see these NFL players who's like, oh, let me just go take an HBCU coaching job.
It'll be fine. Like Ray Lewis's name popped up around FAU. Ed Reed took the Bethune-Cookman job and then realized, oh, there's like not a lot of stuff to work with here, and he had a big blow up and didn't go there. Eddie George went to Tennessee, and everything I've heard about him at Tennessee State, I'm sorry, and everything I've heard about him is that he's fully bought into that program and that community and everything that needs to be done at schools that aren't funded at powerful levels. And I think their team just made the playoffs this year.
He's done a good job. So they're not all the same. And also Trent Dilfer, you know, went to UAB, but he was also coaching high school football. So the ones that don't have the coaching experience, those are the ones I'm a little concerned about. Michael Vick and Deshaun Jackson pretty much both fall under that.
But you know what, though? When Deshaun Jackson played, I worked in Philly for a bunch of the years he was there. The off-the-field reputation wasn't great. It wasn't as if he was thought to be this mature guy that took it real seriously, stayed out of trouble, things like that. So my whole thought is, you know, so much of being a coach is taking a young kid and hopefully molding them into productive men when their college career ends because many of these guys do not go on to play at the next level. I just thought for Michael Vick, he's got the message to say, this is what it means to mature.
You get that opportunity, run with it, right? I just never thought of Deshaun Jackson as being that mature player who you went and saw and talked to after games and thought to yourself, man, this guy's going to be a great head coach one day. This guy's really mature. This guy's going to teach youngsters to become men.
You know what I'm saying? I just never kind of got that feeling. So I was floored when I heard that he was being hired as a head coach of a college team, Chris. That's my thing when it comes to the whole Deshaun Jackson thing. He never just seemed to have that reputation. I don't know, maybe I didn't hear it, maybe you did, but he didn't seem to be that guy. Well, and I think, I don't know Deshaun personally, I only know of his reputation and that's why you got to have guys who are willing to understand that you're going to a place where you're not going to have the resources.
You're going to have to work insane hours and really, really grind to get things done. That's what Deion Sanders did at Jackson State and other places. So he deserves, I think Deion generally deserves more credit for the work he put in as a coach before getting to where he's at yet.
Some of these other guys, not so much. So, you know, Delaware State has been maybe the worst program in FCS for a while now. It's been really bad there.
And so, you just hope it's not an Ed Reed situation where he knows what he's getting into. Right now, Oklahoma, no, you're right about that. They haven't had a winning record since 2012.
It's a very long time. Sounds like my Jets, by the way. So, you know, they're the Jets for, I guess, the college football version of the Jets. Oklahoma used to win a ton of games every year. They were, you know, thought to be a national championship contender every year. You know, Brent Venables has been there a few years now and they have not had success.
Regardless of what happens in this Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, they're 6-6 heading into this game. He's going to be back, obviously, but how hot is that seat? Well, it probably should be hotter than it is. I mean, he got a big contract extension earlier this year, like in the summer or the spring or something like that, for no reason that I could understand. He'd only been there two years, hasn't done anything amazing, didn't win the Big 12, and nobody was trying to hire him. So now his buyout was gigantic, but he's going to get another year. I mean, Oklahoma, two of these last three years have been some of the worst years they've had in 25 years. This is a place that is not used to doing this. And for it to be the second time in three years to have followed up a good season last year with a bad season this year, missing on Jackson Arnold, your five-star quarterback, you were fully behind who Dylan Gabriel left because Jackson Arnold was coming in and he was the future. And then he benched a couple of games into the season and now he's transferring off to, I think, Auburn.
Yeah, I have a lot of concerns about them. I mean, they rebuilt the defense. The defense is legit very good.
He's done a good job with that. And they did have a ton of wide receiver injuries this year, right? The entire wide receivers were out. But they got to get quarterback right, and we'll see if Jon Matier, the transfer from Washington State, we'll see if he's the guy, but they really have to fix that side of the ball. Let's look at another team here. Ohio State could very well win a national championship. They might.
I think they're the best team. That said, though, they can't beat Michigan. Ryan Day has now lost four straight years to Michigan, and that's unacceptable if people know anything about Columbus, Ohio, and that state. Jon Cooper used to win a ton of games for the Buckeyes, but he couldn't beat Michigan. He got himself fired. So, when it comes down to it, how do you assess Ryan Day and the job security, considering he beats everybody else, literally, but he cannot win the one game every year that, as a head coach at Ohio State, you must win?
How do you assess him? You've done everything that you think a generic coach could do at Ohio State, and that's the problem. He's got to win these big games, and he hasn't done that. His best win is probably Notre Dame last year on the road, but that's why this playoff run is important. If they beat Oregon, get to the semifinals, maybe you think, all right, maybe it's just literally just a Michigan problem, but all the other goals are still there.
Jon Cooper kept losing to Michigan, and it costs him shots at national championships. A couple of years ago, Ohio State loses to Michigan, and they miss a field goal at the end against Georgia in the semifinal. If they make that field goal, they play TCU in the championship game, and they're probably winning a national championship.
It's not far off, and that's why it'll be interesting. If Ohio State goes to the final or something like that or wins a national championship year, it's like, all right, what does that mean for the Michigan rivalry that Ohio State can win the national championship despite losing that game? You wonder if that loss this year, the way it happened, has maybe motivated that team. I think you saw a very focused and motivated and aggressive Ohio State team against Tennessee that you really haven't seen all year. They have not played up to their potential all year, and you wonder if that game kind of kickstarted things. But if they don't win the national championship, again, it sounds crazy because Ryan Day's win-loss record at Ohio State is, frankly, ridiculous. He wins like 90-some-odd percent of his games. But because he can't beat Michigan and he doesn't win a national championship, again, this might be a crazy thought, but if he loses a fifth year in a row to Michigan and they don't win a national championship next year, is Ohio State back in the market for a head coach?
Could be. I mean, winning 90 percent of your games, that's what most Ohio State coaches do historically. That's the thing. And so what are you getting from Ryan Day that you couldn't get from somebody else? Now maybe you say, look, we've got three first-round draft picks at wide receiver every year and many years of first-round quarterback. They've done a good job at acquiring talent and developing that talent, which you have to do, but you ultimately have to win the biggest games. And it's baffling how these last couple of years, especially this year, it felt like Ohio State thought it could push Michigan around and it can't.
So instead of trying to be something you're not, lean into what you do well. That's what they did against Tennessee. They were passing on first down all the time.
They were passing to set up the run and not trying to run at first. And so we'll see if they learn from that. But yeah, I mean, next year's team is not going to be as talented as this year's team. This year's team is loaded with NFL dudes who turned down the NFL to come back.
That's not going to be the case next year. And so if you lose to Oregon here, I mean, I don't think they're going to fire him at this point. Could Ryan Day choose to leave on his own?
It's been talked about from people. I don't know how likely that is, but it feels more likely than him getting fired, at least at this point. Chris Venini covers college football for the athletic.
Joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show, Dan Schwartzman in for Rich. It's never easy to replace a legend, and Nick Saban certainly was more than a legend, frankly. He's a god in the state of Alabama. Caleb DeBoer comes in from Washington where he's very successful. They finished 9-3, missed the playoffs. Assess his first year now that we kind of look back at the recruiting and also, of course, at the results on the field. It was a very Caleb DeBoer year. If you look at his history, even at Washington, he would mostly win you the big games, but then he would lose or play poorly against teams they were way better than. That's what happened this year. Even last year's Washington team that went to the national championship, they barely beat a 3-9 Arizona state team. They barely beat a 5-7 Washington state team, but they also beat Oregon twice, and they beat Texas.
That kind of just happens with DeBoer, I guess. That's what happened this year. They beat Georgia, but they lose to Vanderbilt.
They lose to a 6-6 Oklahoma team. So, that remains a question, but I think the long term, I think things are still pretty good because the biggest question coming in was, can he recruit at the level that Nick Saban did? Nick Saban was signing the number one recruiting class every year. Caleb DeBoer, I don't think he ever signed a top 100 recruit at that point.
That has changed. Alabama has the number two recruiting class in the country this coming year, so they are recruiting at the level they need to. They just need to not lose the games that they shouldn't be losing, and that's something that's kind of been an issue with DeBoer wherever he's been. How about Michigan?
Sharron Moore takes over, a team that wins a national championship. They do struggle this year, but he does beat Ohio State. Some thought when he was hired maybe he was too young for this position, not the experience to take a marquee job like Michigan. It was a tough season. What kind of a, how long does he get to prove himself when you're coaching in a place like Michigan and results are expected immediately?
Well, he'll get a few years. I think the Ohio State win this year showed that he still has the buy-in of the team, much like Harbaugh did, that there is still a full belief there or culture there that has continued. The problem was they just didn't have the talent, especially on offense, and part of that was because Jim Harbaugh left so late in the cycle that they missed the first portal window because they couldn't get a quarterback. And so they didn't get anybody in the second portal window.
Maybe they should have. I think they really mis-evaluated the quarterbacks that they had this year. They also didn't have any explosive players at wide receiver. But now they're signing Bryce Underwood. They signed Bryce Underwood, the number one quarterback, I think the number one player in the class, five-star quarterback, who people are really high on. They also added, I think, Mikey Keene from Fresno State potentially as maybe a one-year bridge. So the quarterback play should be much better next year than it was this year. And Michigan's doing things in the portal and some other stuff that they weren't doing under Harbaugh.
So I think that's still good. I think the way Michigan finished to compete with Indiana, you know, to almost win that game and then to beat Ohio State, showed that there's still a lot to like here. And that Sharon Moore, they signed a top ten recruiting class as well.
So I think Sharon Moore is doing the talent acquisition things that you need to do. Real quick though, it's great he got Underwood. The kid grew up 30 minutes away from the big house. But you've got to be nuts to not go to LSU where he had originally committed considering the success they've had in developing quarterbacks to the next level. I mean, Michigan, yes, McCarthy was a first-round pick, but it's not as if they had a ton of success developing high draft picks. When you look at a guy like Jayden Daniels, you look at Joe Burrow, guys like that. When I heard that, I understood it, you want to stay in state, but man, if you want to get to the next level, LSU to me would give you that better opportunity.
That's just me, Chris. Maybe you agree, maybe you disagree. Well, yeah, I mean, in Joe Sloan, the quarterback's coach at LSU, he developed Jayden Daniels, who's now a really good NFL player. Garrett Nussmeier also looks like he'll be a really good player.
He's coming back another year, but he's a really good quarterback. Money probably looked like played a role in this. I mean, you had one of the richest men in the world helping step up to get Bryce Underwood into Ellison. So Michigan is now playing the NIL game in a way that it really didn't under Jim Harbaugh. It's willing to spend money on players now, and that again kind of comes back to doing the talent acquisition things that you need to do, and that's a positive sign for Michigan. Imagine being a freshman quarterback at a place like Michigan that loves football and you have like $10 million in your bank account. It's unbelievable. I don't think it's $10 million up front.
I think the numbers have been something like that over three or four years, so it's more like a couple million a year probably, but yeah, still pretty good. I'd love to be in that position. You know what? You can afford the keggers, right? I mean, there's no pulling the money to get six kegs or something.
I mean, you can afford to party pretty well in a couple million dollars as a college kid. That's insanity. He's getting paid higher than I think Brock Purdy. How crazy is that? A lot of college quarterbacks are getting paid higher than Brock Purdy because timing is everything. Timing is everything.
That's true. Chris Vanini covers college football for the Athletic. Chris, Merry Christmas. Happy New Year to you and the family. Appreciate you hopping on the show.
Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. Awesome stuff there. Oh my goodness, imagine that. Being a millionaire stepping foot on campus. Incredible.
You drive the nicest car, you throw the best parties, you can throw around as much cash as you want. That's incredible. I remember putting money into my bank account so I could take $10 out at the ATM. I got $7.
I put $4 in there, I could withdraw $10. Good idea. Can I afford these wings tonight? Gotta buy the cheap beer today. Nah, we can't throw the kegger this week. We have no money. Let's pull it together. Alright, we can get three kegs.
Nope, millions and millions of dollars. Wow. It's amazing how far we've come. Oh my goodness. I don't think it's a good thing by the way.
More college football talk coming up next. It is Dan Schwartzman in for Rich Eisen on The Rich Eisen Show. Amazon Q can securely understand your business data to help you streamline tasks like summarizing quarterly results or doing complex analyses in no time. Q got this.
Learn what Amazon Q Business can do for you at aws.com slash learn more. This year, Santa's bringing the power of Energizer into his workshop. Whoa, the Energizer Bunny's got so much power. Wait, he's powered up all the toys. I think that means we're done for the year. I love this bunny. He's the hardest working helper the North Pole has ever seen and he wants all your gifts to have the power of the number one longest lasting AA battery. So this holiday season stock up on Santa's and the elves favorite battery Energizer Ultimate Lithium. Back on The Rich Eisen Show.
Dan Schwartzman in for Rich. Don't forget game time is focused on togetherness this holiday season. That means when you bring people together at live events, the experience is that much better and it's the perfect gift. Game Time has a new feature called Game Time Picks that makes getting tickets for live events even easier. Game Time Picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats. You don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. For the new Game Time Picks, curation makes it easier to save more on sports, concerts, comedy, theater, etc. With the all-in pricing feature, you get the total upfront with no surprise fees at checkout. With Game Time, you always get the lowest price guarantee or Game Time will credit you 110% of the difference.
Plus, your purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use code RICH for $20 off your first purchase.
Terms do apply. Visit gametime.co. That's gametime.co.
C-O for restrictions. Again, create an account. Redeem code RICH for $20 off. Download Game Time today. What time is it? It is Game Time. That's awesome stuff there.
The lowest price guarantee, event cancellation protection, 24-hour returns guarantee, job loss assurance, and on-time ticket delivery. The whole package there at Game Time. Alright. Man. How about that? A lot of college football talk there.
Chris Venini. Here's something interesting. And again, I'm not sure why this is surprising to people. So, on Saturday the 21st, the NFL games that day, it was Texans, Chiefs, and Steelers-Ravans, they were up against two college football playoff games. Remember, this is the year that we have the 12-team playoff now. The SMU-Penn State game averaged 6.4 million viewers. That was on TNT Networks. Texans, Chiefs on NBC, that averaged 15.5 million. Clemson, Texas, that got 8.6 million viewers compared to 15.4 million for Steelers-Ravans on FOX. No surprise.
I mean, what's the shock here? The NFL will outdraw anybody, right? The NFL is a ratings juggernaut. Now, people do love college football, don't get me wrong, but more urban areas are NFL fans, and a lot of population of this company is centered on urban areas. Urban areas are more NFL cities than college football cities. I think that definitely helps when you think about why an NFL game can outdraw a college football game for one.
Yeah, let's stack it up. The national championship in college football, college basketball, or the Super Bowl. Super Bowl, by a mile.
Absolutely. There's nothing else that can touch it. Yeah, 110, 120 million people. A third of America tunes in for a Super Bowl. You might get 50, 60 million people tuning in for a college football championship game, and that's a heck of a lot of people.
No one's going to sniff at that number, but you know what? That's still going to be half the audience you get for an NFL Super Bowl. Yeah, absolutely. And we had Yankees, Dodgers in the World Series this year still. Still.
Still. That's a marquee matchup. Those are two national fan-based teams. They're not regional teams. Yankees and Dodgers have fans around the country, or haters around the country. Haters. Here's the thing, though.
Here's the other problem. SMU's not going to be a national draw. No one's going to tune in outside of, well, Texas to watch SMU. Unless you have investments in this game. Right.
If you're gambling on the game, sure. Oh, don't say that word. Investments. Investments. Okay, fine.
We'll use the term investments. We're wagering. That's a good one, too. I like that.
But that's the issue, right? I mean, SMU's not going to draw a national audience watching them. They don't have that kind of draw. Meanwhile, Clemson, Texas. Clemson's kind of lost the luster a couple of years, right? They're not exactly fighting for national titles the last couple of years. They haven't been the same powerhouse they were.
And I think that's kind of taken a little off of them. But there's a reason why Clemson, Texas is going to draw a good what? Two million more viewers than SMU-Penn State.
It's a better matchup. Two more marquee teams than Penn State SMU. And even Penn State, you know, in the Northeast and the Midwest, Penn State has a big name.
But I don't think in college football circles in the South and even out West people really care about Penn State. It's not like watching Alabama. It's not like USC. It's not like Notre Dame, right?
Those are big names around the country. Ohio State, Michigan. Ohio State, Michigan.
Exactly. Those are teams that have fan bases around the country. Penn State to a point does, but I don't think it's at the exact same level as the teams we're talking about. And one reason is Penn State hasn't won a national championship in years. Yeah. I'm here in Los Angeles and we get Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame. I never see any Penn State fans. Right. You're going to have Alabama, right?
If they're on TV people. Any college football fan is going to watch Alabama because you want to see. Texas as well.
Texas, right. Penn State to me doesn't have that oomph that they used to have with Joe Paterno as a head coach. And I don't think what that means is I don't think that they're getting the same type of national love of the major schools we just talked about. So for the NFL, you know, regular season games on a Saturday to outdraw college football playoff games involving an SMU and Penn State, for instance, no surprise.
Not at all. Look at the numbers that just came out from Netflix on the two Christmas Day games they aired. The numbers were unbelievable.
They were staggering. This is streaming, by the way. This isn't even just network television where you turn on your, you know, your antenna and you can watch this game.
The ratings were utterly incredible and good job for them. I think one of the games, I think the late game, which was Ravens and Texans, averaged 24.3 million viewers. The earlier game, Kansas City and Pittsburgh, averaged 24.1 million. They said at least 65 million people tuned into Netflix to watch at least one minute of one of the two games. 65 million. Again, that is a streaming service. Saquon Barkley could be the all-time leader in terms of rushing yards in a season, while the current record holder Eric Dickerson has commented on, is he rooting for Saquon? That's next, Hour 3 coming up, Dan Schwartzman in for Rich right here on the Rich Eisen Show. There's no substitute for hard work and getting over it.
