1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Should We Hold Coaching Contracts Accountable?: October 15th, 11:25am

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Should We Hold Coaching Contracts Accountable?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome back. So here's the thing from the text line. Dirty Tony and the board says, we never heard you saying anything during this, during Nebraska's firing of Bill Callahan, Bo, Polini, Mike Riley, or Scott Frost, but now it's egregious.

Quit being a hypocrite. Hey, hey, Tony. Hey, bro. I wasn't here. I wasn't here. So you stop being, don't come at me with that nonsense, bro. Don't do that.

Speak what you know. I only talk about what I know, and then I'm curious about what I don't know. I didn't give an answer or response to anything. I simply asked the question. And if you don't like your answer to my question, that's a you thing. I wasn't here. I've been in five years.

Now, I've been in this business. I've been in this business for 38 years. 38 years all over the country. At every level of this thing. From literally to high school to pro, I've been around it. I've been around the coaches, players, the parents, the agents, the managers, the administrators.

So when you say something like that, that's you coming, you coming for me? I'm the wrong one. I don't know if you've met me. But no. Bacca, is that a fair statement? Well, you were here for the Scott Frost one. I don't know

what exactly he's mad about. Hey, I don't know either. But it's hard to say without the detail. I don't know either. Well, that's what the text sign is for. You typed out. all of that and didn't say what you were talking about. But Bach, you were here with me during Scott Frost here. Yeah. Did I say exactly what I just said?

Yes, sir. Hey, there were no secrets. As a matter of fact, when I first got here, it was doing this thing. Here's the thing. People got mad at me, people that didn't know me because, hey, you're an outsider. Why are you beating up on Scott Frost? Why are you not defending? Why are you talking negatively about the Husker coach?

He's a Husker legend. But Bach, remember those texts? Those conversations. That I can't stand for sure. And I said this in simple form. The biggest issue with fandom is that there are people with microphones and podcasts and columns that if they told you the truth or at least ask you to find the truth with them, there are people who didn't want to. there were fan base, we can say clearly, that the fan base,

there are people in the fan base who did not want to know the truth about the state of Nebraska football under the Frost era. They didn't want to understand. Then they got mad after the fact to say, well, why didn't the media tell us? You wouldn't have listened if they told you. Like, we work in the thirds, man. I keep saying this to folks,

that there's a third of the people that don't want to hear the truth. their third, they won't accept it. Then there's a third in the middle looking at either side going, I'll decide which group is right. That's just how it works. And in this situation, the thirds will fall and say,

if we said, does Matt Rule stay? A third of the people will go, yeah, I think he absolutely stays. The third will go, nope, he absolutely has to go. The middle third, hey, I'm going to wait and see, because I don't know. if you ask, is Penn State right for firing James Franklin? A third will say, absolutely, a third will say,

nah, bro, this dude just led them to a championship to a playoff. And then that middle third, somewhere in the middle. Right. So, again, I don't have to have all the answers. I will never get on this microphone and tell you that I have all the answers to everything. I will get to the right question. That's more of my task and my job, is to be curious about the things that we don't understand.

And we don't understand. Listen, Matt Ruhl said what he said about it. We haven't heard from Penn State on Matt Ruhl. So we're having a lot of conversations about a thing that Penn State hasn't really talked about, right? We don't know who's making the decision at Penn State. And we don't know what the parameters are for who they're going to look for. We don't know.

They could already have a deal. The whole point of the conversation is to point out if a problem exists. I asked the question, does a problem exist? I literally asked Bach. Bach, is this problematic for you? And I'm okay if he says it's not. Bob's like, no, I love it for the entertainment value. This is wonderful.

This is wonderful. Right? This is wonderful. And there are people who enjoy it. And I'm cool with that, right? I'm cool with that. I don't know what Penn State is looking. for. I don't know what Matt Rule's decision-making process is other than what he's shared at the microphone.

I'm not in the room when he's when I don't know if Penn State's even talked to him. I don't know. That's not my point. My point is this years ago, I shared this with Bach during the break, that there was a time in college athletics where freshmen were ineligible. So in the recruiting process, think Lou Al-Sinder, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, being recruited by everybody in the country, with the fully understood concept that he would not be eligible to play. He could go to school and practice. He would learn how to be a UCLA Bruin, learn how to be a college basketball player, learn how to be a college student, and then in year two would reap the benefit of his work.

you could do that. You could do that now. That would remove some of the recruiting stuff that we're dealing with, right? Matter of fact, we've said, or it's been said, that a part of the problem now is that college athletes aren't being, high school athletes aren't being recruited the same way they were two years ago because people want proven college veterans now, right? Because you're doing business.

Developing has moved down the pyramid to being ready, being college ready, being Big Ten ready, being SEC ready. and there aren't many freshmen in the country in football who are SEC, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, A&M, Texas, ready as a fresh, as a true freshman. Right? That's a fair statement that in the Big Ten, now, Dylan Rayola is the unicorn, right? When we find a true freshman who can compete at the Big Ten at this level, it's rare. and maybe you have some exclusion.

But a part of the protection was, here, young man, you'll come to the college town. You'll learn it's your first time away from home. You'll learn how to budget yourself. You learn how to get on a diet, how to manage your time, how to be a student, how to be an athlete, how to handle social engagement, social situations, and then all the agreements that are required.

And that makes sense. And somebody came along and said, nope, they should be eligible right away. Okay, fine. Okay, fine. But from that premise, if you said that if a coach, if a program fired a coach, right, that they should not be able to tamper with other coaches who are under contract for that next year, wouldn't that simplify a lot of this? if a coach is under a current agreement with a university

for the next calendar year that no program shall tamper with that coach or that program. Bob, am I outside my marble bag here that that would simplify a lot of this? Well, I mean, tampering is one thing. I mean, if you're saying you couldn't hire an acting coach. What do you call it? What do you call it when you reach out to somebody

that's under agreement? if it was a player, it's tampering. Well, I'm just saying the problem is you talk to his cousin or is it, you know, his agent's brother or something. Well, but there's a fix to that too. Because if it's an athlete, it's tampering, right? It's tampering. So let's call it what it is.

The act itself based on those premises is tampering. So if you're allowing it, if you're not allowing it for players, then you shouldn't, or you don't want it for players, then you probably shouldn't want it for the coaches who were in charge who were actually the paid professionals of the bunch. And if you did that, hey, Bob, it'll simplify all of this coaching thing, wouldn't it? Like, if we want it simple and we want it fair, wouldn't that simplify it to say, hey, listen, Penn State, you can get rid of your coach, but you cannot go and entice somebody. And then knowing if the coach knows that I have to honor my contract, right? Because we've talked about the problem with athletes is that they don't honor the agreement.

You should come to a place and be there for four years and fulfill your. obligation, right? We say that in the military. We say all those things. And then we remove it because of sports, because of football. We remove a base level consideration and contractual agreement because it's

football. Well, let's not do that. So imagine if it's James Franklin. So James Franklin at Penn State, right? USC needs a coach. If James Franklin is under contract for 2027, he's off limits. But James Franklin

knows he's off limits for 2027. He knows. I have to... Why would his focus... Why would the coach's focus not be where he is and the agreement he's under? Why are you looking out the window at the neighbor's wife, bro?

Stop doing it. It's weird. You can't tell me you're fully engaged if you're looking out the window at the neighbor's wife or the neighbor's house. Go fix your yard, bro. Go fix your house. And if the coaches know that they...

Listen, I made a promise, a legally binding commitment to the university and to these kids and these families and the community. And let's not forget about the community because the community has to buy in too, right? Lincoln, Nebraska has bought in. Spent money behind it, time, energy, et cetera. If Matt Rule knows, if James Franklin knows, if Kurt Signetti, if he's under a full agreement with the coach, right? with the program, with Indiana, that he's under contract to 2028. I committed to this program until 2028.

If they decide to fire him, then they're breaking the contract and that he's free to go. But if whoever breaks the contract is limited by the contract, that's the purpose of a contract. That's literally the reason why you have it is to make both sides beholden to it.

So if Indiana decides to fire Kurtzignetti, then he is free to go. But if not, if they are under agreement, leave my people alone. Leave my alone. Go search somewhere else. That would simplify a lot of this. I mean, again, the idea is to get to,

if the question is, is the system working? There are people who are perfectly fine with the system as is. They love the chaos of Penn State firing a college playoff coach and mid-season, all the players and contractual agreements be damned, right? Because they sold the James Franklin TV show. They showed the James Franklin radio show. They sold appearances. They sold deals with shoes and apparel.

They sold all these things based on, guess what? These people paid because you said this is the partnership and these are the players and coaches involved. if you signed, if verbally committed with Penn State and James Franklin as a high school senior, are you, should you be held to that agreement? No, the NCAA knows that's wrong. You're free to go back in recruitment.

I mean, that's, if you're okay with the chaos, then expect chaos and, and they're people who fully enjoy the chaos. But if you're trying to get it right, then tell me what right is tell me what right is tell me what the focus is tell me what the priority is and then we can get to what's right but Nebraska fans deserve better that having to deal with Penn State nonsense like this is their nonsense Matt rules again mind his own business man he's mind his own business he's a clip by a Penn State Meteor man he is in Lincoln

Nebraska living his best link in Nebraska life and because you You don't have, one, you haven't determined that this is a blind spot and that this could happen. But it would simply be resolved if Penn State knew that Matt Ruhle wasn't available because he was under agreement, a mutual contract with Nebraska and Matt Ruh. Let alone partners in the Big Ten who were doing full billion dollar business under Big Ten umbrella. Yikes. We'll read your text when we come back up and down the line, DP, we'll be right back.

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