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My wife's is 70. Just 10 numbers apart, but it is the world of difference. We can set the mattress firmness on each side of the bed to the way that we want and get a great night's sleep. So why choose a Sleep Number Smart Bed? So you can choose, again, your ideal comfort on either side. And now it's the lowest price of the season on the top-selling i8 Smart Bed.
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Terms and points can't apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash Amex Business. This is the Rich Eisen Show. I want a team that nobody's talking about in the playoffs.
Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. It's the Rams. I don't think we're talking enough about the Chargers.
Touchdown Chargers! Earlier on the show, ESPN NFL analyst Dan Arlovski. Coming up, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. Bucks Sports College football insider Bruce Feldman.
Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leek. And now it's Rich Eisen. And I start our number two with words I have never said in our 10 plus year history on the Rich Eisen Show. We just had a mariachi band.
If you're just joining us, you missed it. Carl Anthony Towns has taken a liking to T.J. Jefferson. Most people do. I think the only thing Carl Anthony Towns likes more than T.J. Jefferson is trolling T.J. Jefferson. Because he's a cowboy fan and Carl Anthony Towns is an Eagles fan with a trolling streak and a whole boatload of expendable cash.
Yeah, that's the thing. And you put those two together. Bad combo for T.J. You know? Good combo for us.
Suddenly we have a mariachi band in here singing Fly Eagles Fly. Did you text Kat? I haven't texted him yet. I have not texted him yet. But again, when Carl Anthony Towns and I were texting one another when Tanner McKee threw his second touchdown pass in the Dallas Cowboys to sweep them on the year.
He said, God knew who to give the money to because I'm going to use it wisely. LMAO. And we were the ones LMAOing moments ago.
So hopefully you were taking all that in. We'll put that everywhere later on. We don't need to. Oh, I'm going to have it tweeted in like the next five minutes.
Nah, nobody cares. Bruce Feldman's making his way in shortly. We'll talk in college football. The two semifinal games coming up. It's Penn State and Notre Dame tomorrow night in the Orange Bowl and then in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas in Arlington, Texas. The Texas Longhorns, I guess, have a defacto home game, although the Ohio State travels very well.
So that should be a heck of a game there. Let's sneak in a couple of phone calls here. Justin in Maryland has been hanging on since jump. What's up, Justin? What's up, Rich, TJ, Chris. What's up, Justin? Hey, buddy. What's up, man? Thank you for saying that. So far, so good for the four for the four of us in here, but there but for the grace.
Yeah, that's what's up. But to take you guys mind off of it, I would like to point to you guys to one of the billions of people that listen to you guys every single day. I know specifically one family does and that is the Conn family that owns the Jaguars. And I would like to put a quick little impassioned speech just to say I think you guys should hire Robert Salah as the next coach. The last time Robert Salah was the head coach of the team for his first year, he took the Jets from the last place defense to third. Right now, the Jaguars are second to last and the second to last to the Panthers.
So we might as well be last. No disrespect, but let's be real. Also, on top of that, if you bring in Robert Salah, you're bringing in a college Shanahan type offense, which has been the ginger rail and crackers for quarterbacks and remedied anything that has been ailing them beforehand in their careers.
And let's be honest. I'm pretty sure a key loss will have a little bit of the early modern flu going on. So with all of that being said, we can get Josh hands down in the hall of fame because they will have Robert Salah telling him exactly where to go. We'll get Trevon Walker looking like the number one overall draft pick that we all know that he could be. We'll get better secondary because Robert Salah will be pinpointing that in the draft. And we'll get T. Law back into business.
What am I missing? Not much, Justin. You know, I know the Jaguars have reached out to him and are interviewing him Tuesday. So you're not just plucking the name out of the air and associating him with Jacksonville. Jacksonville has already reached out and I think they'd be real wise to do it. And, you know, Trent Baalke, as we all know, came from the 49ers organization. And by the way, thanks to the call, Justin, I like that ginger rail and crackers for quarterbacks that need, I guess, to get over stomach issues. They don't cure what ails you.
So you could do a whole lot worse, which is, I guess, the floor. And I obviously think the world of him. And as soon as he left, you know, and made the DC, the HC, the defense fell apart. I mean, I assumed when Woody Johnson made that move, he thought the defense would just keep playing the way that it played since he's just elevating the DC to the HC.
But no, I mean, Robert Salah was a CEO right there. I still can't believe that Bill Belichick is having people reach out to him, including Brady, according to Tom Pellicero. That would just be absolutely sports earth shattering.
If he's like, yeah, North Carolina, I'm sorry. I thought you were my only option when I signed with you and I understand. I'm entering the transfer portal back to the NFL. That would be just absolutely wild.
I do know, though, I shouldn't say that Vance Joseph went back to Denver. I can't imagine Josh McDaniels would say, sure, I'll go. I'll be the OC there.
I can't imagine that would happen. 844-204, Rich, being the number to dial here on the program. Hey, you know, yesterday we were talking about teams that not enough people are talking about to go on a run in the playoffs. You chose the Chargers, correct, Christopher? I did.
I did. You chose the Packers and I chose the Rams. I'm going to choose one that some people are talking about, but maybe not enough. And it is unbelievable that it's a division winner with 11 wins and a potential three-time MVP quarterback. But I'm going with the Ravens as well. I don't think enough people are looking at them as a deeper threat and, unbelievably, I think the reason why is because of their potentially three-time MVP quarterback. Because no matter what you're seeing out of Lamar Jackson in his career to date, and I have, you know, a half dozen pages of research from NFL Network on this game, and one entire page is filled up with Lamar Jackson's professional achievements through his first X number of years in the NFL and certainly this past year. But the reason why that people are not maybe looking at Lamar Jackson, the Ravens, as a deep threat is because in the seasons that he did win his previous MVP awards, he went one and two in the playoffs.
That's why. Yeah, two and four lifetime. And in terms of his playoff record, you take a look at his entire body of work. Lamar is one of six quarterbacks with a winning percentage of 700 or better since the merger, 1970. And he's the only one of those six with a losing record in the playoffs. The other quarterbacks with a winning percentage of 700 or better are named Mahomes, Brady, Staubach, Montana, and Peyton Manning.
That's, to use the phrase from Midnight Run, a pretty respectable neighborhood, right? And though he's the only one who's two and four in the playoffs. He's got the largest differential between his regular season win percentage and playoff win percentage of any quarterback since at least 1950. Any time I have been saying anything positive about Lamar Jackson and the Ravens going on a run on this show, and it gets posted, when I do look at the comments, TJ, the number one, I guess, most common answer in retort is he's going to blow it. He's going to blow it because he's never beaten anybody of significance in the playoffs.
It's that simple. Yeah, the numbers are not good. He's only a 57% completion percentage in the playoffs.
One 300-yard game in six games, 75 passer rating, six touchdowns, six picks. It hasn't been great. Even in the wins, it hasn't been dominant or overly MVP-like.
It's weird. Right, and you see last year, his postseason win was against rookie CJ Stroud making his first career road playoff start, and I told you yesterday with Nix and Jayden Daniels getting their first career playoff starts on the road, the last rookie quarterback to win on the road in the playoffs was Russell Wilson, and he was going against a fellow rookie in RG3. And Lamar's beaten CJ Stroud, and he's beaten Ryan Tannehill. Those are the two quarterbacks he's beaten in the playoffs. So now that I've given you everything out there about why I think not enough people are saying, okay, Lamar's been out of his skull to the point where he's getting a lot of buzz for back-to-back MVP campaigns when Josh Allen is available for somebody to get the MVP award or Saquon or Jared Goff, yada, yada, yada.
Let me tell you why. Another reason, I guess, why you're not thinking about the Ravens because of Lamar Jackson and how it may not be sustainable, while also telling you the reason why you're wrong. Lamar Jackson, okay, has the sixth most rushing yards per game in the history of the playoffs.
How about that? Now that's why you're thinking it's not sustainable. Are your quarterbacks leading your rushing attack? Number one all-time is Terrell Davis. Number two all-time is John Riggins. Number four all-time is Eric Dickerson. Number five all-time is Emmitt Smith. Number six all-time is Lamar Jackson. Why did I skip number three? Because the third leading rusher with the most rushing yards per game in the history of the NFL playoffs is his current teammate, Derrick Henry.
Yeah, okay. Derrick Henry is the first player besides Lamar to leave the Ravens in rushing since 2018. Lamar's led the Ravens in rushing every year since he's come out of college. Finally, somebody's looked at, and it was always the question, who's he going to throw to? Nobody has nowhere to throw to. They don't have a passing attack in Baltimore.
That's the reason why they're not going to win. Now, the question is, finally somebody's taking the rushing load off of him. So we're going to get more than eight running back carries in a playoff game? Look at this face on the screen. Infinity Sports Network, this is one of his 80-plus runs this year. I think it was against the Bills when he did this? It was against the Bills, and he just, I mean, imagine this individual coming and running and hitting you at full speed looking like this. I don't want to do that.
No thanks. Deion Sanders taught me this phrase a long, long time ago. It's called making a business decision. When you're on defense, I'm going to make a business decision. I'd like to be in business.
I like the business that I am in. So I will sidestep or not, you know, I'll arm tackle. The five years that Jackson led the Ravens in rushing is the most seasons and longest streak as the team's leading rusher by any quarterback in NFL history doesn't have to do that now. Now he's got 22 behind him or to his right or his left, and that guy has averaged the most rushing yards in December or later in the Super Bowl era, 99.8 yards per game ahead of Barry Sanders and Eric Dickerson. That's the difference. That's why they went and got him.
Let's see, because I'm thinking, wrong or not, right or not, the defense is going to be right around where we expect them to be. And Lamar Jackson may not have Zay Flowers. Obviously that's big.
That's big. But the fact that anybody's like, yeah, Lamar's just going to blow it. He's got Derrick Henry now. He's got Derrick Henry now to tenderize the Steelers front seven. He's got Derrick Henry now to terrorize anybody's front seven with some ball fake play action or keeping it himself and doing that rushing thing. It's a different ball of wax.
We've not seen it yet. Lamar Jackson in all those years of going two and four in the playoffs has never had someone to hand off to who's got more rushing yards than him. They got himself, they got Lamar a running specialist and not just anyone, a future Hall of Fame one who just came up with 130 plus yards and two touchdowns on his 31st birthday. So he's got a nice head of steam into his first postseason as a Raven.
That's why. So people are talking about the Ravens as a threat, but not enough. People are considering them a threat because, oh, Lamar's just going to blow it. Lamar had this to say, because he's self-scouted too, gents.
This is what he had to say about his past issues in the postseason. Do you have to remind yourself not to be too amped up for games of the stakes? Is that something that in your career you've sort of, I don't want to say battled, but is that something you still have to remind yourself to settle down in these games? Yeah, I just be too excited.
That's all, you know, too antsy. Like I'm seeing things before it happened, like, oh, I got to calm myself down. But just being more experienced, I found a way to balance it out. You know how to balance it out too?
Handed to 22. I'm serious, man. Yeah, Rich, I know you're saying people are sleeping on them.
They have the third best Super Bowl. No, I understand that. I guess I'm making the mistake I tell T.J. not to make. I'm reading the comments. It's hard not to. It's okay to do that. It's called feedback. I understand. Engagement, as they say in the business. But honestly, so I guess I'm directing this message to all those, well, they're not going to do it because Lamar's just going to step on his Jackson.
You know, and and I'm like, he's got he's got the diminisher right there. And also, you want to talk numerology to the Ravens won their first Super Bowl in 2000. Then they won their next one in 2012 in New Orleans. Now, it's 12 years later after that in New Orleans.
Are you kidding? This is a dream. So here's all of that. Whether you're ordering wings for the game, whipping up a seven layer dip or ordering pizza, there's something about football that makes you want to eat. And this football season, Uber Eats has the best deals on Game Day food, no matter what you're craving.
Oh, Jerry's eating rice from two for one pizza to buy one, get one wings. Uber Eats will be. I love that commercial Uber. It's going to be dropping new deals each week all season long. Uber Eats, the official on demand delivering partner of the NFL. Order now for Game Day. Terms and conditions apply. See app for details. Our friend Bruce Feldman is next.
Let's talk college football. Semifinals with him in a moment. As a business owner, you're always going that extra mile to pursue your passions, so you deserve partners who can help you go further with premium benefits and rewards. 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 one point five times membership rewards points on select business purchases, and you can get complementary access to more than fourteen hundred 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 American Express dot com slash Amex Business. And the NFL, as we all know, there is no margin for error. One single mistake can change the outcome of a game or even, yeah, a career. Science proves quality sleep can help boost reaction time, recovery time and overall athletic performance. Putting it all together, the official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL is Sleep Number, whose mission is to provide players with data and insights to optimize their sleep for the ultimate competitive edge. And you can have it, too.
I know all about it. I've been around Sleep Number since twenty fifteen. My sleep number setting is sixty.
My wife's is seventy, just ten numbers apart. But it is the world of difference. We can set the mattress firmness on each side of the bed to the way that we want and get a great night's sleep. So why choose a Sleep Number smart bed?
So you can choose again your ideal comfort on either side. And now it's the lowest price of the season on the top selling I-8 smart bed. Your best savings, plus special financing, limited time shop, a Sleep Number store near you. Sleep Number, official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL.
See store or sleep number dot com for details. This episode is brought to you by unstoppable. Discover the inspiring, true story about Anthony Robles, who defined every expectation to become a national wrestling champion and unstoppable. A new original movie from Amazon, MGM Studios and director William Goldenberg, evoking the excitement and camaraderie of classic sports dramas and thrilling wrestling matches. Unstoppable features an all star ensemble cast, including Gerald Jerome, Jennifer Lopez, Don Cheadle, Michael Pena and Bobby Cannavale. Unstoppable is streaming exclusively on Netflix. Michael Pena and Bobby Cannavale.
Unstoppable is streaming exclusively on Prime Video January 16th. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Look who's back here from Fox Sports and the Athletic. They call me Bruce. Appreciate you being here, sir.
Thank you. Good to see you guys. And so are you going to either one of these bowl games? Not to this one. I'm going to go next week to the national title game. Obviously.
Okay. And remind everybody where that is? That would be in Atlanta. So we'll see if it's going to be. And I think Ohio State's going to be in there. I don't know. I don't have as much of a confidence level on the Notre Dame Penn State game.
Okay. Well, we'll get into that when our radio audience returns. You know how we you know, we roll here. I was in Pauley Pavilion last night as well, watching Michigan take on UCLA and hoops. We got you know what this team looks like. B-Line 2.0, where everybody does everything and they do most of it really well and coached well. They shoot it well. They pass it well. They move it well. It does remind me of the B-Line era right now.
The portal world, they've killed it. I mean, you take one guy from FAU, you take another guy from Yale. And they're, you know, seven-footers who play incredibly well together.
They do. I mean, they're a fun team. At one point, they were both in foul trouble last night. And then they just shot threes and got a double-digit lead again. And Cronin's on the court the entire time.
I've never seen that. By the way, it was my first UCLA men's game in Pauley Pavilion. You've lived out here all this time and that close and never been, huh?
That is correct. Yeah, it took my alma mater to come out here in the midst of a fire hellscape to go see him. Obviously, a lot can happen between now and the Final Four. But Michigan fans, are they sitting there thinking this team could be good enough to win?
Are they deep enough? No, but what I'm saying, it just reminds me of a B-Line team that could be one of those three, four, five seeds that'll just keep on matriculating. And then we'll see how far it goes. But if Dusty May took FAU, why not take Michigan? I don't know. It's exciting.
That's all. At least it's not like the last couple of years. What a month it's been for Michigan after a dismal autumn. It's Bryce Underwood, it's knocking off Ohio State, it's shocking Alabama, and now this basketball team. It is an unexpected turn of events after losing to Indiana and losing to Illinois and things of that nature. I don't know about your different case, but are people big Chargers fans now?
They should be. Listen, it's just fascinating to me, Bruce Feldman, by the way, Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports and the Athletic here. It's not lost on me that Jim Harbaugh has got J.K. Dobbins at running back and Joey Bosa at the lineman defensive end position, now trying to take out C.J. Stroud with Hassan Haskins.
That's the way my brain works. It really is amazing seeing what Jim Harbaugh has been able to plus up the Chargers. But I'm not surprised by it. But yeah, I know enough Michigan fans are... Yeah, there's a lot of guys there. There's Jesse Minter, Ben Herbert, the strength coach who was invaluable at Michigan.
There's a lot of... Oh, I'm aware of who he took from the staff. Bruce Feldman here again from Fox Sports and the Athletic. By the way, we're sitting here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.
Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Let's talk about the Orange Bowl, Penn State and Notre Dame. What is your first blush thoughts on this one, Bruce Feldman? First blush thoughts are coming off Notre Dame's win against Georgia, which was, I think, you know, just a validating win for that program. It had been three decades since they'd won, like a postseason game like that of substance.
It was against Georgia. Not only that, I think what was really, you know, an interesting subplot to this is Marcus Freeman gets this job after one year at Notre Dame. Young coach, charismatic.
You know, he's a good looking guy who was really well respected in the industry. But now it's a big job. You know, a lot of guys get their first head coaching job. It is not at Notre Dame.
And so there were some good moments, some rocky moments. You know, he starts out the first time he's a coach, head coach. They lose, you know, they fall apart in the second half against Oklahoma State. Then there's the loss to Marshall and a loss to a bad Stanford team. And then this year, obviously loose to northern Illinois. In that game against Georgia, though, he out coached Kirby Smart. He outfoxed him. I thought that that was, I want to say, a crowning moment because it's not the national title game.
But that was, I think, a huge statement for you saw what they'd done. I think he's made some really smart hires. Al Golden on the defensive side to run the defense. Getting Mike Denbrock back from LSU to run the offense.
Put together really good staff. They're really good on special teams. I think it's been very cool to see, you know, you and I both grow up in the northeast around the same time. There was a lot of people who either love Notre Dame or you hate them. I feel like there's a bunch of people who used to hate Notre Dame who are like, yeah, they're a tough team to hate now with Marcus Freeman there. You know, and I'm I'm I'm one of them, but I still find it deep in my soul enough to come on. You can move on from that.
But they are an interesting team. And you want to talk about because we just talked about Michigan using the transfer portal. I mean, Riley Leonard and an open from from Duke. The kicker Turner, who, you know, people talk a lot about from Marshall.
Yeah, it's people talk about the middle. It was basically the middle two. It was the minute before halftime and then the opening kickoff that changed the game. It changed the tenor of that game. Yeah, Bo Collins, a transfer from Clemson called the touchdown pass after open calls the force fumble. And Riley Leonard, his Duke teammate, finds the kid from Clemson and then the Marshall transfer runs it back. And then the the the South Carolina transfer kicks field goals, you know, I mean, it's it. But I mean, obviously they have a ton of and it's not just any transfer. You know, you got to get through the provost at Notre Dame.
That's not an easy spot. Good on Notre Dame. They supported their guy. I think there were some some rocky moments.
It's on a big stage. And I felt like, you know, again, whether they can win this game, like I feel like Penn State is is fairly similar to them. They're a good defensive team, really good running backs.
I think they're healthier. You know, we'll see how is Abdul Carter going to play in this one? I think he's questionable and we'll see game time, real game time decision. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't play.
That would be something, man. I mean, I think so. He is, but of the two star players who are, you know, we expect Jeremiah love to play. He's the most dynamic weapon Notre Dame has. I feel like like Penn State could get around not having Abdul Carter better than Notre Dame could get around not having. And look, Notre Dame has lost like five starters on defense. Ben Morrison, best cornerback, Riley Mills, probably their most disruptive D lineman.
They've lost some really good players and found a way to get through it. Penn State has a lot of again, not to Abdul Carter, probably a top five pick as an edge rusher, but Penn State has a lot of really athletic D lineman that they they can go after you. And it's not like Notre Dame is really so like Notre Dame is going to throw the ball 50 times. You know, like Riley Leonard's not throwing deep downfield. It's not much of a downfield passing game.
Not saying Abdul Carter, if he can't play, it won't matter. But it's different if you were playing Quinn Ewers. It's different if you're playing Ohio State. Notre Dame's game is really they want to run the football and they're not going to throw it all over the yard. Fair enough to say Penn State is the most talented kid on the field in Tyler Warren. I mean, he is 44 of Penn State, the most talented kid in the in the Orange Bowl.
He's unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, he's a big tight end in the kind of the Gronk mode. He's not as quite as big as Gronk, but he is. They do a lot of really cool stuff with him. They don't have great outside receivers. Now, they do have really two really good running backs, Katron Allen. I think I think people, you know, were kind of wowed by Nick Singleton, who's more the size speed guy.
And Katron Allen has gone off in the playoffs like it's a really good one to punch. And I think they do a lot of cool stuff with those three guys because they don't have like an elite outside receiver. That interesting subplot to this is, you know, talking to some NFL draft people. The NFL, I think, is very intrigued by Penn State's quarterback.
He's six five to 40. Drew Aller has a big arm. He's a decent athlete. He's a fast processor, which obviously people in the NFL are very intrigued by. If he plays really well, I know he said he's coming back. But if it's word comes back to his camp saying, hey, you could be the first pick in the draft because people do not love this quarterback class. Does that give him pause? Now, he's got to play well, you know, this week against a good defense.
But it's a big stage. Wouldn't shock me if there was like push to get him. So you're saying if let's just say he wins it all. Let's say Penn State wins it all.
And so he then he's got he's got a ring, he's got a trophy. He's got Ohio kid could be. Well, we'll see if it's Ohio State or Texas, whoever. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, like and NFL scouts are saying you could be first overall.
Maybe he's changed his mind. If Penn State wins it all, then Drew Aller has has definitely played well, extremely well over the last two weeks. Bruce Feldman from Fox Sports and the Athletic here on the Rich Eisen show.
Let's move to the Cotton Bowl. And I guess the the conversation is how does Texas slow down Ohio State? You know, our our our colleague from from Yahoo. And he he he comes on our he comes on our program quite frequently. And he threw out an analogy that Ohio State is like Mike Tyson in his heyday.
Just coming out and he's Dan Wetzel just absolutely. Saying that Ohio State is just demolishing everybody in the last two weeks. That's correct.
That's what he said. This is looks like right now. So the question is, how does Texas slow them down?
Do they have the ability to slow them down? They have a good defense. I think it's an interesting situation here. You know, Colin, they have some really good young players, especially Colin Simmons, Anthony Hill, you know, a Thorpe winner at cornerback. They have good D lineman. They're really well coached with Pete Kwiatkowski. Statistically, they're an elite defense. I think they're very good.
I would I push back on somebody. You know, one of my coworkers was like, it's a great defense. I was like, is it a great defense? Because the teams they played, it's hard to prove you're great when you see who they played. You know, they played Michigan. Michigan's not a good offense, you know, especially at that point of the season was terrible offensively.
You go through the teams. They haven't really seen anything close, anything even remotely close to the talent that Ohio State has with two top line running backs. The most talented player in all of college football is the receiver J.J. Smith at Ohio State has.
Number four. They have three other receivers who are really good. The quarterbacks are running threat. They have a good scheme.
This is a different kind of test. I mean, probably the two best offenses they've seen was have been in the playoff. They played Clemson, who at the time didn't have a healthy running backs, but Kate Klubnick played well, threw the ball on them. And then Arizona State had over 500 yards offenses, very heavy cam scattaboo. But again, they didn't have anything close to the receivers Texas is going to see. Now, can Texas's D line and pressure get after Will Howard and be really disruptive?
You know, we saw that at times. They don't, you know, Michigan, what Michigan did have is three elite college D linemen. You obviously have Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant and Josiah Stewart on the outside, really disruptive guys. You know, you talk to people inside Ohio State's program. They were like, OK, in that game also.
And I don't think this is an insignificant point. Will Howard was pretty banged up. I don't know how comfortable they were throwing him with him throwing the football. I think you'll see Texas try to do some of the same things coverage wise that Michigan did. But I don't know. I think right now they're just playing with a ton of confidence.
They're cut loose. I don't know if we could really use the Michigan game as a blueprint. Period. End of story. And I'm not saying this just this is not a troll. This is the real thing is that every team that's left in the college football playoffs does not have, which Michigan has had over the last three plus years, is the ability to get in Ohio State or Ryan Day's head. I mean, it's that simple. No one's getting in his head. What do you think? Is Penn State getting in his head?
As a matter of fact, it's the other way around. I mean, Notre Dame and Ohio State, I understand that I imagine if they play each other in the national championship game, Notre Dame would put an 11th man on defense, you know, like. But, you know, that was a game that Ryan Day was like the person who was in his head was Pat McAfee's Lou Holt's impersonator.
You know what I mean? Like, I don't know if anybody has the ability to get in Ryan Day or Ohio State's head from Texas or any of the other teams remaining. That's why I think the Michigan game, you just it was one of those days.
Scrap it. You know, and the way that they've been playing the last two weeks, that's kind of all that matters right now. And I'm genuinely concerned for Texas's ability to not fall down 14-0 like everybody else is doing right now.
Yeah, I don't disagree. I mean, again, this was not like a this was a fairly one dimensional Arizona State team that gave them a lot of problems over the course of the game. Now, Texas can cause them problems in other ways. I mean, Texas has a really dynamic return game now that we've seen some, you know, Ohio State, when they played Oregon the first time, didn't do well in the special teams game. But Texas also has a kicker right now who you would worry about his confidence in clutch kicks after Burt Auburn missing in a couple of, you know, a couple of key kicks.
But how about this? I'm sure I'm going to just jump in here. Quinn Ewers, his history with the Ohio State, is there any there there at this one? I know it was like his old roommate was Jack Sawyer. And, you know, like I think he has probably some affinity for a lot of those guys because a lot of those guys have been there for a long time. Right. But he went to Texas because C.J.
Stroud was there. Right. And you knew he went to Ohio State. I mean, no, no. But what I'm saying is that he left Ohio State because he knew that there was no path for him.
Yeah. I mean, at that point, like it seemed like, you know, it's now it's like four or five years ago. He left South Lake Carroll early, a year early, because the NIL situation to go get, you know, by all accounts, around low seven figures because he could do that at Ohio State. I don't think realistically he ever had a chance to win that quarterback job, but he was there for whatever it was, four months.
Transfer back to Texas has had a really good career there. The thing I will say that that if I was a Texas fan, I would kind of hang my hat on is Quinn Evers has played in a lot of big games, you know, like and where he's been the underdog. They were the underdog absolutely when when Alabama came in there. He played really well before he got hurt in that game, like, you know, you know, a quarter and a half in, but played very well. You know, he's played well against that. Whether you're playing Alabama, especially when Nick Saban's there was there, that was a powerhouse program you're going up against.
You were punching up against them. This team, like he has weapons. They have really good receivers. I think, you know, I feel like people downplay their running game a little bit because it's been inconsistent. But he made he made some really good decisions against Arizona State. I'm interested to see what Jim Knowles does with him, the defense coordinator at at Ohio State, because the first meeting against Oregon, you know, they were on their heels and Oregon kind of picked them apart. They only had two negative tackles in the backfield and no sacks. The other day in the Rose Bowl, eight sacks completely shut down the run game and killed it.
Yeah. And they have they have some interesting chess pieces. Cody Simon's playing at an All-American level in the middle of the defensive linebacker. And they have he's not Jeremiah Smith quite, but probably the next most talented guy is Caleb Downs, their safety was at Alabama last year.
He's a brilliant player. He's all over the field. You know, if I was an Ohio State fan, I'd feel really confident right now. In the few minutes I have left with you, Bruce Feldman, Fox Sports and the Athletic. I'd like to get your reaction to a tweet sent out by my colleague at NFL Network and the NFL Media Group. Tom Pellicero, if you wouldn't mind putting it up on the screen. Multiple NFL teams have inquired about whether legendary coach Bill Belichick would reconsider his move to college football, including the Raiders, whose new minority owner, Tom Brady, spoke recently with his old coach per league sources. Your first blush reaction to that would be what?
Man, where was this like two months ago for like to set? You know, Tom Brady was and I'm not saying like I like Tom and I think he does a really job. I'm just you know, the first blush reaction to that is Tom Brady couldn't have talked to his old coach like two months ago. I mean, he was still trying to get into ownership with the Raiders. And just to say, hey, if it comes to fruition, maybe this could have been because it wasn't like all of a sudden, Poof, Bill Belichick took the North Carolina job.
There was like there was like a run up of about 10 days. The thing I would have think thought would be would be more likely scenario was Tom Brady talks to his old buddy, Mike Vrabel, and go, hey, why don't you come to the Raiders that, you know, and again, I'm not saying that's definitely going to happen. Well, the the other tweet that Tom sent out is it's a 10 million dollar buyout before June one.
And they're just everybody's trying to go through fine print to see if that even involves the NFL and how 10 million bucks is, you know, technically, you know, it's it's not car ashtray money, but it's still in the realm of I can get Bill Belichick. I'm going to go get him. Do you think that let me ask it this way. Are there nervous people in Chapel Hill right now, do you think? It's a good question.
I don't know the answer to that. I really don't, because in one sense, if you're if you're in North Carolina and the people who really, you know, push this through. And I'm just thinking, you know, allowed it was going from, hey, we're going to pay you five million. And all of a sudden they found 10 million a year. And the way this contract was set up, you know, for a year from now, it was going to be a million dollar buyout, which is not prohibitive at all. Right. And then but you're sitting there going, OK, but if he waits another year, he's going to be 74 before the next NFL season.
I mean, I'm on the record and I feel like I said this to you, you know, weeks ago and I definitely wrote about this. I think Bill Belichick will have success in the ACC. I just think after like I saw he's now on Twitter and he's you know, I think after like about a year of this or two years of this, he will be so disgusted by being what it takes to be a college football head coach that he'll be like, I don't need this.
That's your tooth. That's that's your gut. Now, the question would be, would he be so disgusted after two weeks of being on Twitter and two weeks of trying to go into homes and recruiting and deal with this? We go, yeah, I'll take the Raiders job and let's move to Vegas. I asked Dion when he was on three weeks ago, I'm like, you have any advice for Bill?
You know, as I know, he's Bill Belichick, but you have more experience in the college game than Bill. He said, yeah, don't do home visits. That was his that was his. He's doing visits. I mean, he's got like also what's what's different, though, is Dion had access to two difference makers right out of the gate.
Sure did. Like, you know, his son, even more than that, because like, you know, the safety they had is a great college player. Like Dion coached him when he was in high school and then at Jackson State. So Dion had this pipeline into players where Bill Belichick, as you know, the greatest football coach in the history of the NFL.
He doesn't have that. Like he's going to have to. And I'm sure there's people who are listening and I know, you know, high school coaches are going to be so enamored by it and they'll certainly be players who are. But, you know, you still got to find those guys. And it's late in the process, like most of the top recruits in this class are already signed and they're probably enrolled. I mean, there are there's a bunch of not a bunch of Bryce Underwood's, but like there are guys who are already practicing with their teams and working out. Now, listen, you're getting what whatever you're getting. And again, he's going into the ACC, not the SEC.
Yeah, it's fascinating. I you know, if he the Tom's tweet, Pelisaro's tweet about the Raiders, you know, I don't know if it's like Bill Belichick has enough money. He could probably buy himself out of that deal. He really wanted to get out of it. Right. Ten million dollars to him after all. Like, you know, he was making probably double that for I don't know how many years with the Patriots.
I'm sure he if he really wanted to make that happen, he could make it happen. Which is why I was asking if there's nervous people in North Carolina that maybe he did do two, three, four weeks of just going around and seeing seeing what it would take and how he might have to figuratively bend the knee for an 18 year old kid. I think they're nervous it's a basketball program is really struggling.
They haven't been they've they've been decent, but not great in football forever. So I hear you. Hey, enjoy the the bowl games and we'll have you on next week in advance of the big one. Looking forward to it. That's Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports and the Athletic. Always fascinating talking with him. We'll be right back on the Roku Sports Channel. But for those listening on the Infinity Sports Network, now time for a sports update with Rich Ackerman. Rich.
Freaking go. The Jim Rohn show follow and listen on your favorite platform. Bravo TV star Lala Kent holds nothing back on the Give Them Lala podcast.
No, I have a very short fuse. Get to know the TV personality. I don't need to watch the show because I get the real life version from relationships and motherhood. Let me tell you something about breastfeeding to business and beyond. You are scared of failure.
So it prevents you from trying. This is where we implement a big set of ovaries and then we obsess. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. This is a letter written in March of nineteen ninety eight to Colts owner Jim or say what at the time, a month away in the draft. The decision between you and Peyton. Right.
It's from Hunter S. Thompson. Dear James, dear James, dear James, in response to your addled request for a quick thirty million dollar loan to secure the services of the Manning kid. I have to say no at this time. But the leaf boy is another matter. He looks strong and Manning doesn't or at least not strong enough to handle that. Welcome to the NFL business for two years without a world class offensive line.
How are you fixed at left OT for the next few years? James, think about it. You don't want a China doll back there when that freak sap comes crashing in. Wow. OK, let me know if you need some money for leaf.
I expect to be very rich when this depth movie comes out. Your faithful consultant, Hunter, and it's signed HST with at the bottom scrolled in handwriting. C.C.
John Walsh, ESPN and C.C. Colonel Depp. How did you come into possession of this? So I'm a Chicago Cubs fan and they were in town last week and I was sitting there behind the dugout and a guy in L.A. here in L.A. and a guy tapped me on the shoulder and said, are you Ryan?
Are you Ryan Leaf? I said, yes, sir. And he said, I'm just, you know, just such a fan of what you're doing now with the foundation and everything like that. And he just talked for a little bit. He's like, have you ever you ever seen that the Hunter S. Thompson letter? And I'm like, no, I don't know what you're talking about.
Would you like to see it? And I said, well, yeah, of course. I mean, I didn't believe it for a second.
Right. And there it came in the email and I showed it to my my fiance, who's a huge Hunter S. Thompson fan. And we read it. And I just the absurdity of the fact that a Hunter S. Thompson knew who I was and be that he was he was trying to persuade Mr. Ursay to draft me instead was just comical and not to see it for 20 years.
How does it just it's just nowhere to be found. Right. I called John Walsh of ESPN and he says, because he's known Hunter and his family's known Hunter S. for four years. He said his wife was like, why are they thinking it's not real? And as a matter of fact, it's a thousand percent real. Wow. Wow. And Hunter S. Thompson was a huge NFL fan and obviously an opinion on the 1998 draft.
Well, I think now that we know that a lot of people had an opinion on the 1998 NFL draft. This is amazing. Isn't that I love that line is that you don't want a China doll back there when that freak sap comes crashing in. The irony of all this, the irony of this, he would go on and play start the most consecutive games of anybody.
And I would be injured going into year two and miss the entire season. So we're just just reminding people strong underlined. Yes. I love that segment. And that was Ryan Lee's first ever appearance, I believe, on our show back in 2018.
He's about to make his most recent one coming up next hour. And we'll chat a whole bunch of life stuff with him as the former Charger quarterback, who I met at the Espy Awards in the year that he lost to my Wolverines in the Rose Bowl. So I first met him that night. Oh, yeah. So he would have been there for the Norm Macdonald joke. Yeah. Yeah, he would have been. That was the night. Wow. That was the night where Charles Woodson had no idea he was about to become world famous for one of Norm Macdonald's most enduring jokes in the history of his illustrious career. May he rest in peace.
I'll never forget when he asked me for betting advice the day before. Life insurance, you know, you need it, but maybe you think you can't afford it or it's too complicated or you don't want to deal with medical exams. Well, that is all changed with ethos. With ethos, just go online, answer a few simple health questions. And in as little as 10 minutes, you can get up to two million dollars in term life coverage with plans starting at around two dollars a day. No doctor's visits, no complicated forms and all online.
Don't let the unexpected leave your family without the financial security they need. Get your free quota. Try Ethos dot com. That's try ETHOS dot com. The phone number to dial to contact us, whether you're listening on the Infinity Sports Network or watching on the Roku Sports Channel, Sirius XM or Odyssey is 844-204 Rich number to dial.
It's been dialed by passionate rater in Illinois. Hello, passionate. Hey, Rich. May I call you?
Passionate? Sir, that's me, man. That's who I am.
That's what I represent. I called in a couple months ago and talked to you guys about Antonio Pierce. I kind of gave you my guys. I gave you guys my insight and no one really agreed, but we kind of see what happened and where it went.
And it was kind of crappy. Hold on, Rich. I want to take one step back real quick and just give a shout out to Ryan Leaf real quick. I'm going on 10 years recovering alcoholic. And I give that man major props for what he's done in his life. I appreciate that. Keep it up.
You're an inspiration, man. And I'm always backing you on Twitter, buddy. But, Rich, you know, this is just another miracle round in Vegas that we're here again with another coach. What, four coaches in three years? This is a four years?
Whatever it is, it's unacceptable and it has to stop. Now, you guys are just talking about the Bill Belicheck, the buyout with Tom Brady and all that. I don't know if a 75-year-old guy is what we need right now, but I know we need some experience. I don't know if it's Pete Carroll.
I don't know who it's going to be, Rich. But if I had to pick right now and I could go pick and sit in that room with Brady and Mark Davis, we'd be getting John Gruden back in silver and black and giving this man his third run, third time's the charm. He lost out last time over some, we don't even know what really happened, but he got the short end of the season.
Oh, we know what happened, passionate raider. We don't know how the emails got out, but we also, you know, I mean, I called it at the time, he was in an untenable position as a head coach in the NFL, and that's why he stepped away from a contract that I think had, what, seven, eight more years left on it or something like that? I'm not saying he's not coming back.
I'm hearing he's got a real shot to come back into the NFL. Rich, but look at Mark, he still was under a 10-year contract. Mark paid that man for 10 years. Mark, if Mark was smart, bring him back. He's got two years on his contract.
Let's see, we know those two years and we'll extend them. Thanks for the call, Passion. Thank you, take care, Rich. You got to call back again. Thanks, sir.
Right back at you. I thought, isn't that redundant, passionate raider? I've never met a dispassionate raider.
No. Like, ever. That's true.
They're all passionate. Wouldn't that be something, though? The guy still has some years left, bring Gruden back, let him play it out? Again, I just think it's now the Brady era there. It really is.
For sure. And I mean, Stephen A. Smith, again, on Suzy and Amy's pod, what the football said it as only he could. You know, why would you listen to anybody else in the building? You know, obviously, he's going to have a lot of sense in this. And who is it? And we all just think he's going to go, you know, into his history and get Bill or Vrabel. Or maybe he's just going to go in a different direction because he's met a ton of people and he feels there's a young person out there, a younger person out there that can do it.
I don't know. It's just amazing. Tom Brady making a coaching decision for the Raiders. Bob Kraft and his son, Jonathan, making a coaching decision for the Patriots after one and Dunning for the first time in their careers. The Bears having a first overall pick in the draft one year removed and an opportunity. Who wants to who wants to coach the Chicago Bears? It is a fascinating quarterback carousel.
I mean, a coaching carousel. And I always say quarterback because Tom Brady's involved in it. I put up that poll yesterday, best coaching spot available. And? Bears lead by slightly over the Patriots.
Hour number three coming up. Bears 37%, Patriots 34%, Jags 16%, Raiders 13%. I wouldn't I wouldn't again, you can't discount the fact again that you go to New England and you know the Kraft family is going to hand whoever is their next coach. What a five year deal, six year deal, right? One would think that they're six is long, four or five probably.
They do not want to be one and Dunning anymore. I'm guessing Mayo had a five year deal. So they're paying him for a little while. I don't know how however much Mayo is going to make might not have been how much Bill was making in one year. You're probably right about that. You know, yeah, the report said Bill was what in the 18 to 20 range. You know, you're going to have some job security.
You know, you're joining an organization that is established. You know that you've got the quarterback that half like the Raiders were probably the Raiders knew that they were too far for Jayden Daniels. They really wanted Jayden. I know. Yeah.
How much different would that have been? But the only reason why Antonio Pierce, why they were drafting so low is the reason why they hired Antonio Pierce. He went five times.
Yeah. You know, and again, the the the owners like missed the opportunity of keeping my interim coach the last time. Not going to make that same mistake this time in the same way that the Patriots are like just made that mistake one and Dunning somebody.
We are not going to do that again. Let's get somebody who's as well established and go to work. Well, that's kind of what Danrowowski said. You're now the guy after the guy. So you want to be that guy.
Pressure is kind of all you want to be. You want to be the guy after the guy after the guy. Right. So you want to be the guy once removed. We're now a guy removed. Right. Or twice removed.
I've never written a record like that. Right. That's that's who you want to be. Yeah. So, you know, there's some runway there. Right.
You don't want to be the next host of The Rich Eisen Show, for instance. Right. Right. Although it wouldn't be called that.
That would be weird if it was. That's the thing. You know what I mean?
That's the thing. You know what I mean? Like The Tonight Show. Well, I mean. Well, Conan was the guy after Jay.
Didn't go so well. Now Jimmy Fallon's been there for a while. Who was the guy after Conan?
It's Jimmy Fallon. Oh, isn't it Jay? Didn't Jay go back? They went back. Oh, yeah.
Jay went back for a second. Oh, yeah. That's right. That was so crazy. How'd you forget that? I mean, that was like 15 years ago. Team Coco.
Team Coco. The Rich Eisen Show with Jason Filler. Well, he's already got the tattoo for it. Well, we're out of time for the second hour. Hey, it's Rich Eisen here.
Join me and my compadre Chris Brockman every Monday on the Overreaction Monday podcast. You're also saying the record's going to go down. I'm saying the record's going down anyway.
The guy. I don't think you're off on this at all. Like, you're spot on here. I don't think this is an overreaction because we have no idea what we're reacting to. Come react or overreact with us. Overreaction Monday. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. It's game over. Over, man.
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