1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska vs Minnesota GAMEDAY with Jake Bockoven & Austin Oerman: October 17th

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Nebraska vs Minnesota GAMEDAY with Jake Bockoven & Austin OermanAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Boom, it is game day here in Lincoln, Nebraska. I suppose it's technically over up there in the Twin Cities in Minneapolis. But one way or the other, the Huskers are playing, and we are excited about. I'm Jake Bachman, Asin-Orman, in here, studio, in the studio with me here as D.P. It's off to a different land, Vancouver, where he will be covering some UFC this weekend. We've got people going everywhere. Of course, Nick, out in Minneapolis as well. so you hear some different voices today.

We've also got the E1 Automotive Ticket Tailgate Pregame Show, which will begin about three hours before kickoff. So I see we already got a question here, what time kickoff is? That will be 7 o'clock central time. So our pregame show will start at 4 o'clock. And that means we have to cut into old school. And that, I mean, obviously, we can't just not have as much Austin as we can for the day. We can't take any time out.

So Austin, welcome aboard. Fun day to be on. You don't usually get a normal game day. I suppose we do in Black Friday, but not often do we get to do our shows on a game day. I know, but here we are. It's beautiful. It's the blessing and the curse is that,

you know, with all our games that we carry on the ticket as well as some other programming. Yeah, old school kind of kind of gets the boots sometimes. But you know what? That's all right because gosh darn, if I'm not going to be here filling in, getting my takes out there. And it's for a good cause.

It's for pregame. People are going to hear enough of me today anyway. So they're stuck with me for this hour here in the morning, taking them up to lunchtime. but at least they still got you. That's the important. Yeah, I'll be here for a little bit as well. It is a good sense Friday. So we thanks our friends from Good Sense.

We're going to be helping us get nice and fed so we can get ready for this game as well. I asked you yesterday. Awesome. I get your thought on this as well today. If Minnesota was a rivalry, I think we stopped a little bit short. It's kind of a weird, you know, $5 bits of broken chair trophy. He was acknowledged by Matt Ruhle on his podcast. Luke was eager to let me know that this morning.

morning. If you don't know, Luke from the mill, help build that. He'll help build the $5 bits of broken chair trophy. And I say help. I think he did the whole thing. But in one case, that'd be Luke. Yeah. It is, it is, if you're looking for the whereabouts of that, one of my favorite trophies in college football, it is on its way. He told me up to Minnesota. So the winner will be getting that. And I guess I don't know where it has been because Minnesota's had that trophy for a while. So I suppose maybe it traveled back here and there, just for some appearance sakes, but appearances sake. But hopefully Nebraska is able to take that home.

I guess my question to you, though, now is after five straight losses to PJ Fleck, I mean, we go through all these things. Nebraska's being able to get over the Wisconsin hump, you know, obviously going to the Bulls, bowl games. Nebraska could be bull eligibility today, by the way, if they win. Do you consider there to be a PJ Fleck hump? Or, you know, I mean, it is one way the other. It's there, right?

It's five games. or would you put that pretty low on the list of Nebraska's problems? No, it's there. It's absolutely there. The game that I think sticks out in the minds of most people is that 2020 COVID game. Minnesota came in with like 50 players available. They had fewer guys on their travel roster than some high school teams did that year. It was crazy.

And that Minnesota team came in. I know a different era, and I'm not putting this on Matt Rule. But I think that game is most indicative of everything. Minnesota's just always found a way to beat Nebraska, right? Wisconsin had been more talented than Nebraska times. Iowa's put more guys in the NFL draft than Nebraska. Minnesota has been about the same. Yeah, they've had some maybe bigger name guys and guys that have certainly gone on to the NFL draft.

But between that COVID game, and really I think the game that kicked off the matural tenure there in 2023, another weeknight game up in Minneapolis. it was the turnovers, it was the finding ways to get in the way. It was still having a chance late. And then I think it was Malcolm Hartzach bit to the inside instead of staying outside to allow that nice, nice pass and catch from Calais to his receiver for the touchdown. It was the big things and it was the little things. I think all come to a head against Minnesota. Sure, maybe had more talent at times than Nebraska.

And it's manifested in one score games, right? There's been, you know, quote unquote, culture wins, discipline wins, Minnesota being Minnesota wins. And so while Minnesota this year is not what it's been in years past, and you can say that about a bunch of those teams that Nebraska hasn't gotten over the hump against, it really feels to me like this is another business trip, another take care of business win for Nebraska. Not a should win.

I don't think that we're to the point you can just chalk it up as an automatic win for Nebraska because Minnesota has ways to beat Nebraska. But I think Husker fans are much more confident in Nebraska not beating itself. in a game like this. And no better time than the present to cross another, you know, curse. Now the Matt Rule would call it that, but, you know, another unfortunate losing streak off the list. There's no better chance than right now. This is a golden opportunity, a Maroodan golden opportunity, you might say, for Nebraska to do that.

So it's on the list. It's not number one. But it's one of the more inexplicable ones. Yeah, it's interesting. Of course, I always go back to kind of the Steve Peterson quote of not letting the conference. Prince Paul to Texas and Oklahoma. And ever since then, it's just been a little bit dropping off, you know, from time to time. When you get to the big tenure, you say, okay, well, when I compete with Michigan State, Ohio State,

and then Wisconsin and I were getting in the way. And eventually Northwestern in Minnesota. And, you know, so it's just like, man, everybody is, is, is, is, is been a tagger on the side of Nebraska football, unfortunately. And when everybody's doing it again, that's when you want to look inward, maybe look at the mirror. Maybe it's yourself. Maybe it's not everybody else.

maybe it's yourself. Nebraska hopefully has fixed that problem. I was thinking about that game because I did go to the first Matt rule game. And I remember too, it was not just, you know, the pain of that too was not just that touchdown catch there at the end. It was fourth down. If you remember on third down, Nebraska had the chance to get an interception in the end zone. It was just dropped. And then, man, that could have been, that could have sealed the game. All right, but they still got a long fourth down. You know, this is going to be difficult for them to pick up. And they were able to do so, of course, if you remember too, as part of that. game Anthony Grant going into the game we talked about you know had been talked about as a guy that fumbled quite a bit in the preseason and in and they fumbled on that drive um wasn't a game of fumbles it was a game of interceptions three interceptions of course from jeffsons too the uh the the one touchdown pass he had as a hosker was in that game on a gimmick play i still don't think he actually saw alex bullet he don't think so i don't think so i mean first of all think about how close that play was to going wrong if not for a fortunate bounce that play never happens

I still don't think Jeff Sims did anything other than I don't think he actually set his feet and saw where Alex Bullock was and threw it to the end. I think he just threw it downfield to get rid of it. And Alex Bullock happened to be there. Or he just knew kind of where Bullock was supposed to be. Screw it. I got to get out of my hands. Here we go.

Yeah. So, I mean, that was quite a game. Obviously put a bit of a damper on the beginning of the Matt Rule 10 year. But Nebraska, of course, as part of the stuff. you know, the things that have gotten the way of Nebraska, too, is just a one and a start. And Nebraska has been able to do that now this season, obviously in five and one.

It is a bit weird, too, to talk about the fact that Nebraska gets to a bowl game. I almost don't, like, acknowledge that so much. It's like, well, yeah, and that's part of the goal, you know, they've got a lot more ahead of them to do than that. But, you know, I was thinking walking into, again, to work today. It's like, all right, but at the same time, you know, I get that idea and there's there's, you know, hopes of much more than just getting to the Pinstrype Bowl this year.

You know, today could be very big as far as even since 2016, cementing this as the second best season halfway through and certainly potentially potential to be the best season for Nebraska since 2016. Absolutely. And I think it's a testament to the job that Matt Ruhl has done in turning around this program that it's not a bigger deal that Nebraska could become bowl eligible tonight. or the very least with its next win. If Nebraska is not bowl eligible by the end of October,

something went horribly, drastically wrong, and that's a problem. But the odds are good with Nebraska having two cracks yet in October to get bowl eligible that's going to happen. I don't think it's program crushing. I don't think everything comes crumbling down. I think it's certainly unfortunate and disappointing if Nebraska loses tonight, but there hasn't been that conversation. Oh, PJ Fleck owns us all this is going to be tough to go over the hump.

Yeah, let's get bull eligible next week against Northwestern. I really think the conversation has been, hey, this team's in a good place. They got a chance. They got an opportunity. That's all you can ask for in a game like this against the team that's really owned you over the course of the last few years. Last handful of you, me, last decade, really is the last time Nebraska went on the road and won in Minneapolis. And, of course, they're one in six against PJ Flex since he came to the Twin Cities. But I think that is, again, just a credit and a testament to Matt Rule that, yeah, it seems like they're handling business so far.

I said going into the year, and especially once Nebraska got off to that hot start, the proving ground for this program, I think, will really be November, where Matt rules one and seven. September's fine. October's been run of the middle. November's been bad. Nebraska has a chance to set itself up for a special November, but it's got to continue with a win tonight. Yeah, it is interesting too, you know, because I think you hit on it a little bit there is what would the loss mean. And we don't want to think about that.

I understand this game day. don't get into that discussion. But, you know, I think a lot of it, because Nebraska's been favored, because Nebraska's ranked, you know, for the first time this late in the season, in quite some time. And because of the biggest thing is, is the Matt Rule kind of, I don't know, it's called the Matt Rule side show because it's no fault of his own. But the Penn State rumors with Matt Rule going on has made us kind of all together feel like, okay, we've arrived, right?

I mean, we're there. We got to be. And then I think a loss tonight could bring you back to Earth quite quickly. You mentioned it. I don't think it would be earth-crushing. It might not be the end of the world. And certainly not the end of the season. Nebraska would still have a lot to play for.

But man, would it be bringing you back to Earth. It really would because it's Minnesota. And that's where I think this game does mean a little something, where, yeah, it's nameless faceless, but I think fans would be pretty pissed, pretty frustrated if Nebraska didn't find a way to pull off a win. in this game tonight because then it would be, gosh, dang it. Why is it Minnesota? Of all the teams, and I mentioned with you yesterday, Minnesota found a little bit of devil magic against Rutgers.

It's still in there. It's still in that program. But the best part I think for Husker fans is that Husker fans head coach doesn't believe in that stuff. If they go out and they play a good game, they like their chances of the scoreboard ending up where it should be. Five and two, I think would still be on schedule. Maybe it would feel a little bit behind schedule, but I think it would be, you know, in the range. of still being right where Nebraska needed to be at this point. Five and three is a different conversation.

But anything from, you know, seven and one, six and two, I think is the worst case for Nebraska entering November. That's fine. You're where you need to be at the very least. Yeah. And the opposite side of that is you do get a win. Then you're looking at Northwestern thinking that's a winnable game. And then you're thinking seven and one going into November. And, you know, with USC obviously being November first, you get.

not too much time to think about it. You jump right into it in November there. But I mean, that would be huge for Nebraska. And I mean, we talked about this stretch from Michigan State to Northwestern, kind of all offseason. It's like, okay, these aren't giants that, you know, this isn't going to, you know, like you said, kind of make or break the season as far as nationally getting attention and all that sort of stuff.

But I'll admit, even looking at this schedule, we're only two games through it. so I don't want to speak too soon. But pre-season, it's like it's hard. It's been a long time since Nebraska can look at games they should win and mark them down as Ws as opposed to saying, all right, there's four getable games, two and two, maybe. So at worst, I mean, you don't want to go to one in three in those games.

Obviously, Nebraska will not. But how much do you believe that Nebraska is kind of over there? Should be able to win games that we see on paper, or at least the last couple weeks, they've been favored to win, favored again here tonight against Minnesota, because it's been a wild ride the last two weeks. Talk about just in terms of swings of the game in scoring bunches. Both games, Michigan State and Maryland, it was like wild,

just again, like a wild ride as each team was scored at least 14 in chunks. And so, you know, going into this game, there's this narrative out there for Nebraska. And it should be. They've earned it that maybe there. over that sort of thing and they can they can kind of take down these formidable opponents that you know aren't quite uh maybe you know not top 25 not where nebraska uh should fear them again where games you're favorite in at the same time you know there's been moments in each of the games

the last two weeks we're going oh boy here we go again but they get around it is the oh boy here we go again much of a fear heading in tonight for you well i mean there's probably going to be a moment like that in the game where okay yeah nebraska is teetering. Nebraska's wobbling. Can they take the punch and stay standing? Because when I, when I think about the word should and should win, yeah, Nebraska was favored. Nebraska's probably a little deeper on both sides of the ball. And guess what? Nebraska found a way to win the game. But I think when fans here, Nebraska should win, they think that's, okay, Nebraska will be up at halftime, they'll put the game away in the third, and then keep them at arm's length in the fourth quarter.

that's not what's happened the last couple of weeks for Nebraska against Michigan State and Maryland. So yes, Nebraska handled the should win part of it by winning the game. But that's where I think I would call those Nebraska has a good opportunity to win. Nebraska could win. And maybe could is a little pessimistic sounding on its face. But when I say Nebraska could win these games, it's, yeah, if Nebraska plays its game, if Nebraska takes care of itself. Nebraska is going to be in a good position.

But when I think of a game that Nebraska should win, it's something, you know, 30 something to teens, 40 something to teens, 20 something to single digits, where the game's never really in doubt. We can't forget the other guys are on scholarship to that whole cliche because, yeah, Nebraska is better this year than it's been for a couple of years. But you saw what Michigan State did, even if that's not a great team, it was a good enough team to beat Nebraska.

same thing with Maryland. Might not be a perfect team, but it was good enough to beat Nebraska. If a team is good enough to beat Nebraska, legitimately don't have to talk yourself into 17 things going wrong for Nebraska to lose the game. That to me is a Nebraska has an opportunity. A Nebraska could win this one. To me, I put Northwestern more in the Nebraska should win category, whereas Minnesota's in the Nebraska ought to Nebraska could win

if they play the type of game we've seen Nebraska play recently. Yeah, I like that take, especially on the road. Nebraska, too, with Minnesota, if you're kind of looking at this, I think the game started off this week at a five and a half point open as far as the spread goes. Got as high as to eight and a half. I think it's at seven and a half right now, at least according to ESPN.com. All right, let's go ahead and take quick break. We got plenty more to talk about here on a game day, my favorite or one of my favorites.

I will say one of my favorite trophy games in college football in the big 10, the $5 bits of broken chair trophy. I was I was shouted out from from the rooftop with my lungs because I love this game. I love this day. We'll talk more about it when we come back on one-on-one with D.P. on 93-7, the ticket. We're back here on one-on-one on 93-7. The ticket, once again, it is game day. Happy game day to everybody out there, Nebraska, taking on Minnesota.

And we got plenty to talk about as we get ready for that game. for both teams, but for our focus here with the Huskers. I know we talked about it yesterday, at least you talked about it as news broke, Austin, but I didn't get a chance to talk with you about the Kurt Signetti extension with Indiana the other day. Coming as somewhat of a surprise, at least to me, of course, Indiana, doing the right thing, keeping their guy in town. And very interesting time.

And, of course, it also might reflect on some of the other bigger names that are out on the market and people might wondering, might we see a similar thing with Matt Rule? I'll first go ahead and say, what I've said all along is that, and I know you, I've listened to you. I know we're kind of on the same path here, is that I would not necessarily jump to do such a thing. Kurt Signetti, obviously in a different situation than Matt Rule is. If time goes on and it looks like Matt Rule is more and more going to be one of the front candidates for Penn State or another job, which certainly is a possibility. if he's going to be, you know, 9, 10 win type of season.

There might be some other teams calling. I think then you might lock him down closer to, well, closer to Penn State Week, closer to Iowa Week, but not necessarily would do it now. It's not that Matt Rule doesn't deserve. It's not that Matt Rule hasn't done a good job. That's not at all the conversation I'm trying to have. It would be perfectly normal for Matt Rule to get an extension now.

and if he doesn't get one, that's really bad agent work. Really bad agent work. If you can't parlay all of this into even an extra two years and a little bit of a pay bump, like that's, that'd be unthinkable. If Matt Rule doesn't get anything out of this. But if I'm Troy Dannon, we have to find a middle ground. I know that, you know, Danon wasn't the one that hired Matt Rule.

I get it. It wasn't Danin's guy, but clearly they have a good working relationship. They get along seems like they're aligned on a lot. So the easy thing to do is to just take the agent's word for it and say, yep, here's whatever you want. But I don't think that's necessarily prudent for Nebraska right now. And the main point that I've been making to that effect is you got to reward the coach for doing a good job. But at some point, if your coach keeps saying we need more money to spend on the roster, we need more money to spend on the roster, it's going to be about investing in the roster,

investing in the players, at what point do you believe him and say, okay, put your money where your mouth is. This money that you could have going to you personally could actually reflect better on you if you want it to go to the roster. Let's say Nebraska is going to give Matt Rule, I don't know, let's say, you know, a three-year extension to its current rate an average of $8.5 million per year.

Of course, that's escalating up to nearly 11 by the end of things. But if Matt Rule was going to get an extra, you know, $2 million a year for the next five years, well, there's $10 million. even if it's an extra $1 million for the next five years, there's $5 million that you could spend on the roster. And I think that that's another way that maybe Nebraska could be, you know, quote, quote, innovative in the space is to be one of the first college programs

to say, we don't, we, be careful, I phrase this, we understand your value to us. We understand that you're a good coach. we respect that. But we think the best way to keep Nebraska competitive and to keep you competitive to build your own personal legacy is to give you enough money that you feel fairly compensated, but not go above and beyond because we can spend that money other places, whether it's facilities, most likely on the roster.

So yes, reward your coach. Do what you need to to keep him around. But at some point, coach salaries are going to come crashing down. when people realize just how much money it takes to invest in a roster and win. And I think Nebraska could be ahead of the curve by saying, hey, Matt Rule, we'll give you enough money to maintain your current lifestyle. Maybe you make a slight tweak here or there.

But the best way for you to continue to be successful, the best way for Nebraska to continue to be successful, is to pay you enough to make you comfortable in the lifestyle that you want to live, but not go above and beyond and tie up extra money, you know, in the coaching. staff maybe add some of that to the coaching staff pool as well. I think that certainly goes along for the ride, but especially too, not that Matt rules at any risk of this happening, but we know bought over the last 20 years how much money Nebraska spent on buyouts for Solich,

for Callahan, for Polini, for Riley, for Frost, there's a lot of money tied up there. And I think in just a risk mitigation minds that Nebraska has to say, we can't afford to have this much potential money tied up in one guy who's been very good for Nebraska. in a lot of ways in Matt Ruhle. But I think Matt Ruhle would also tell you the program's bigger than one guy. It has to be bigger than one guy. And I think Husker fans have been disillusioned of that mindset because it was, oh, if Scott Frost can't do it, who can.

Well, it's not anymore if Matt Ruhl can't do it, who can. I don't think the mindset from Husker fans is if Matt Ruhle leaves, Nebraska's screwed. It wouldn't be great. There's certainly risk in a coach leaving, always. But it's not the end of the world if he takes another job, whether it's because he gets fired from not doing a good job for Nebraska, which again looks increasingly unlikely.

And in fact, Nebraska would get a little kickback from rules slash a different school. If he does end up leaving and not be on the hook for all that money, I just think in this day and age, it is so risky to tie up, you know, potentially tens of millions of dollars in one guy when giving that guy the best chance to succeed looks like taking a little bit maybe off the top of his paycheck and reinvesting it in his coaching staff and the players, the labor, if you want to call it that. Yeah, it's interesting. A lot of different ways to do the math, of course, you know, that might be a, I like that idea until maybe you start talking about upgrading the stadium again.

Then you, then you're like, well, wait a minute. What about me? So it can be interesting to see what kind of moves on there. I mean, I just think the whole Penn State rumor circulating, I've said for the longest time about this, well, I guess not the longest time just this past week, but is that you kind of have to let things play out. As of right now, Matt Rule is a trending upward candidate, but he's not one that I'm, I would hire based off what I've seen just yet. If I'm Penn State, right? You want to see this play out.

Want to make sure that year three at Nebraska is the year three jump that this, you know, is continuing. And so, I mean, I think that's that that's the most interesting part about all of this. And so in the same way, I don't want Nebraska just because Penn State is not even, I mean, the odds are just because there's a connection to Penn State, right? And that Matt Ruhl is doing all these, you know, different TV and in radio, by, whatever, you know, podcast deals, is there's still work to be done on the field. This season, especially, you know, starting with tonight might not end up being the big

year three jump that we see. We've seen Nebraska on the top 25 now, to our point earlier, to our conversation earlier, are they in the top 25 at the end of November? That will really tell us if this is a successful season or as successful as a season needed for him to really get outside interest and therefore needed to get a contract extension at Nebraska. A couple of things from the text line here. IQ crew agrees if Brady Manning Elway took less to pay others on the team,

Rule could restructure an extension for a few more years while paying a little bit more for Rule and a lot more for the roster. I don't know what Matt Rule's about. Seems like he's about the right stuff. And I've said on this show and many others, you know, I'm not going to follow anyone if we're going to get their money. You're not a coach forever. You're not in your profession forever.

If you can get that bag, essentially, go do it. More power to you. I do think, though, that a little altruism goes a long way. A little big picture thinking goes a long way. I don't know what the difference, you know, between $8.5 million a year and $11.5 million a year looks like in practice for someone here. Sure, it's absolutely generational wealth. I don't know if Matt Ruhl's going to spend it on himself and his family now, or if he's a guy that would invest it. And it's going to be their first great, great grandkids down the line someday.

I don't know. It's none of my business. I don't care. It is very easy for me to sit here and mess with other people's money. Oh, it's easy for you. You know, you make this many million that rule. Go ahead and push a little bit off to the side. That's got to be easy for you.

It's not. I'm sure it's not. I can't imagine that it's easy to make that decision. It's easy for me to say, I think you'd be the right decision, but it's not my decision to make. Yeah, yeah. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. And like you're kind of saying,

I always think in terms of that, too, you know, if you think of it, you know, even if it's just a few, if a guy already has, you know, millions and it's, you can look at it from the outside and say it's just a few million. Well, again, to your point, that can really alter another generation of his, you know, you maybe, maybe like you said, maybe his grandchildren are set as of right now with what he's got. Maybe he can make sure his grandchildren's children are set, you know, so, I mean, every, every million dollars that you add on there, none of it's too small. All that being said, I mean, it was, it was a bit interesting at the Husker games. I can't remember what the amount was.

Maybe it was a hundred grand, something like that where he's just, you know, it was, somebody was doing the push-ups. I'll throw in an extra 50, 100 grand, whatever it was. If you could do, you know, 10 more of them. And I thought that was good because it all went to, um, it went to teammates, which what better, you know, cause to go from, you know, some local kids in need. Um, at the same time, it made me feel pretty small. I was like, oh, man, he did I pay off my house with that money.

And he just throws it away and, you know, just 10 seconds there. It doesn't see it goes. So like you said, it depends on the person, depends on the individual. The other part of the Signetti part that we might hit on, I'll take a quick break here. But I do want to get your thoughts on. I was fascinating. I mean, if he ended up at Penn State,

I would have been fascinated to see what he can do with a giant instead of building what he's doing at Indiana. So I want to get into that conversation because it is awesome to have stability. It's awesome to get the Frank Beamer's the Bill Snyders, those stories, and maybe Indiana for the next two decades can be great. But I'm still sitting here wondering what would happen if Bill Snyder or Frank Beamer took a Texas job. So we'll talk about that coming up next year on one-on-one with D-P on 93-7, the ticket. We are back here on one-on-one with D-P on 93-7.

The ticket D-P is out today's off to Vancouver. He's traveling north to go through some UFC or UFC fights. I had to Scott Frost on the brand. That happens to everybody in broadcasting. I feel like it happened to me here. I would probably be just as entertained by UCF fights. I was completely honest. You're not wrong here.

It's funny, Adam the other day was playing a trick on me. He said he chimed in on the Matt rule rumors to Nebraska. And I said, really? I was like, I was like not, excuse me,

the Met Rule to Penn State. I was like, yeah, I don't necessarily, I don't think that that would happen. But it's Scott Frost we're talking about here. And he definitely has opinions. So it's just kind of funny what you can believe with that.

But we'll see. I mean, it's all in good fun from here. Again, Nebraska, Minnesota this evening. We got our A1 ticket tailgate pregame shows starting at 4 o'clock up until then. Well, we're basically pregame in the pregame show. But we've got our normal shows on today on a game day. So it is going to be a fun day here on a good sense Friday. Thanks to Good Sense.

They just dropped off our food. Always go for the pepper bread if you're a pepper fan. And, yeah, yeah, it took me a year and a half to realize that. Did it really? It did. And I double up, I'd Dr. Pepper with my, with my pepper bread. So there we go. Plenty of pepper here on Friday. We went to break. We're talking about Kurt Signetti's big session that he got from Indiana yesterday. Of course, this with a speculation that he might be the front runner for not just the Penn State job, but any job. I mean, everybody's kind of thinking he's the number one guy, maybe number two, if you still want to bother Nick Saban.

but number one guy to call on the open market. And I kind of posed this question. You guys can respond to 402, 464-5-6-8-5. Would you like to have seen Signetti, who's kind of just taking college football by storm? Would you like to have seen him at a powerhouse to see what he could have done? Or do you like the fact that he's kind of staying where he built it, where he built it up?

They gave him a chance. He is going to go ahead and give them an opportunity. to keep him and see what his program can become. It's a bit refreshing, obviously, in this day and age, I suppose, at least if you look at it from that side. But I was really intrigued to see, you know, if a Florida job comes open or the Penn State job, what Signetti might be able to build at a place. As he put it with Indiana, just give me kind of average resources here.

And I can build something special, you know, given, you know, a Florida or, you know, a job like that, a Penn State job that could come open, I mean, I would be really intrigued to see what he can do, but it doesn't always translate too. Sometimes coaches are the best at getting, getting more out of somebody with less and pushing them rather than, you know, just straight up coaching the best to the best of their abilities. So wouldn't, that doesn't, as we know, no assurances, no, no definite, there's no definitive way to know what would happen if he did leave. But I kind of, I kind of wanted to see it in this case. Maybe it's because I'm not enough. of a Hoosier's fan or something like that.

But I would have liked to see Signetti with a possibility at a bigger school. 0739. Signetti can still be bought out of his contract. Well, his contract is fully guaranteed if he's fired without cause. So that's a big win for his agent. And that's going to be a lot of money,

a lot of money to buy out the remaining years of a coach or even just the leaving fee. Here's the thing. Would it have been interesting to see Kurt Signetti at Penn State? Yes. Maybe Florida. you know, is another job that could be coming up and shoot. Even Signetti at Virginia Tech, I think, intrigues me.

But I think it's that Virginia Tech point, Bach, that informs my overall sort of perspective on this. And that's that love them or hate them, I do think just from a fan perspective, every college football fan base, short of Iowa and Texas, deserves a golden age. You know, and so that's why, as much as, you know,

Signetti pisses people off in Nebraska for not doing it the same way or not having the same level of success. Good for Indiana fans. I hope that Indiana fans are excited, are in the moment or exuberant, continue to rally behind their team

in the golden age because it won't last forever. Just look, you know, 10 and 11 hour drive down the road back to the west to see that the golden days and the glory days don't necessarily last forever. I hope fans are in a good mindset

where they're not arrogant about it. Oh, we, We earned this, we deserve it, we waited so long. Look at us, we're the best, we're always going to be the best. There's a very dangerous line to walk. Indiana is not and will not ever be a college football blue blood. It's not to say they don't deserve an era of success or to enjoy the era of success that they're in. So, yeah, it's interesting to think about what could have happened if Signetti would have taken a bigger job than Indiana.

But Virginia Tech fans deserve the Beamer era, even though. I didn't like two of the wins that they had against Nebraska, but good for them. They deserved it. You know, you think about, shoot, even Arkansas and Bobby Vitrino back in the day, kind of a golden era after the broils era for them. UCLA didn't really have a golden football era necessarily, but I hope those fans get a coach that gets them to whatever they consider glory. I think that's just good for the game regionally to be able to say that, yeah,

there are going to be these different pockets of the country where there's going to be a regional power for a while, maybe Oregon's in the middle of that right now. Good for those fans. Every fan base deserves a golden age, even if some of us might like to see, you know, a really good coach go take a, you know, closer to a traditional power or a blue blood job just to see what happens. Yeah, it's a, it's interesting that too, because when I look at certain jobs, you know, I think they have the power with the right coach behind them to be quite quite frightening for what they can do as far as, you know, kind of holding down some of those regional spots and the rest of the teams.

That's someone in Texas and he'd rather see, you know, more parity, more teams, not just the same, you know, eight, ten teams at the top or whatever. But, you know, that's what I think, even like a Sark, and I think Sark's a fine coach. But Sark at Texas doesn't, doesn't like hold down college football, like maybe a Nick Saban or, you know, Kirby Smart or somebody like that would.

And so one of those Florida or Texas or USC jobs come open like Clay Helton. When USC hired Clay Helton, it was a sigh of relief in my mind. Not that he's a bad coach. It's just not what really, it doesn't seem to have the same type of sort of ceiling as some of the top names going to those big schools. Well, we can even think about it kind of in this sort of way, right? I mean, you think about, you know, going from Tom Osborne, who ran the sport in a lot of ways as a big name coach. coach. Spurrier got close, I guess, fulmer in the conversation. Bobby Bowden,

you can make the argument for, you know, and plenty of other guys across the country. I'm not saying everything. But then from Tom Osborne to Nick Saban, maybe in 07, kind of a power vacuum there in college sports. Who's the leader? Who's the figurehead?

Who's leading that sort of program? Kirby Smart hasn't really taken that mantle because he did all his work while Nick Saban was still there. Kirby's got to prove he's the guy in a post-sabin era. Could it be Dan Laining remains to be seen? But I wouldn't be surprised if it takes us five, seven, 10 years to figure out who that next kind of figurehead of the sport in terms of the head of the head coach is.

Think about it, you know, we're coming up on that with LeBron on his way out the door. You know, you go from MJ to a little bit of a gap to LeBron. And then there's probably going to be a little bit of a gap as people jostle and try to figure out who is the next face of the NBA because even, you know, your jokers, your SGA's, the bronze's still there right now they're both Kirby you know winning the titles like they did it's going to take five years so you get that next generational sort of figurehead in the NBA and I think the same goes for college football coaches yeah yeah definitely will be interesting to see who who steps up there if you look at and you know a big part of that is like a Pete Carroll

running off to the NFL Harbaugh even this past example run off the NFL is that that could always be a possibility too that I'll wrap it up for one-on-one Adam Gericker coming up next on 93 7 the ticket