Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - The Bengals Own the Chiefs, Plus Jimmy G's Injury and Deion Making Waves

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

Gabe is back from across the pond, and he joins Geoff to break down an action packed football weekend. Once again, Geoff is left to sift through the pieces of the Chiefs' defense left in Joe Burrow's wake, looking for answers as to why the Chiefs can't beat that team in Cincinnati. Geoff also discusses the 49ers options following jimmy Garoppolo's season-ending foot injury and what it means for the rest of the NFC. Also, did the best four teams make it into the college football playoff? And what will Deion be able to accomplish in Boulder? All that plus a jam-packed Moving the Line on Geoff Schwartz is Smarter Than You.If you enjoyed the pod, be sure to leave a rating or a comment to let us know, or tweet @geoffschwartz to tell him yourself.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's tuesday december 6th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this is jeff schwartz asmari new power by the varsity podcast network so much football to get into my favorite team is owned by another team we have a rivalry in the afc we'll talk college football transfer portal playoffs deon sanders to colorado and so much more gabe is back from the motherland. He's back from England. You're now a big soccer fan all of a sudden, I see. Your kids are into soccer now. You're watching soccer at pubs in England. How was your experience over in London?

It was great. Thank you for asking. The highlight was my son correcting his British family. It's called soccer. It's great. Big win for my kid. Yeah, you know, America's out, but England's still in.

We get to root for them. And all the teams that I love collapse, Jeff. They all blew it this weekend. In different ways, right? Yeah. USC, the Chargers, the Jets. And America.

Men's tennis. I mean, men's tennis. Men's soccer um this is are you a soccer fan like do you watch soccer every four years oh okay like very novice take but if you have the ball near the goal shouldn't you shoot it more often shoot it more yeah i i think all of us feel this way and then smart soccer guys come in and tell you why that's not the case why i asked someone a smart soccer guy and they they said that one form of, there's like two forms of playing soccer, basically.

One is you have like the guy on France and, or you have Messi or, and you just, that guy is your dude and he shoots as much as he wants all the time. Yep. Or you have the USA and you like play possession and you just try to find the best shot you can at whenever you can. But then you watch the games and you're like, shoot, like, come and you just try to find the best shot you can at whenever you can but then you watch the games you're like shoot like come on you have to shoot I'm like come on get it done so that's I guess the way we play I watch a lot of soccer uh with people who really know the sport because you know my in-laws yeah the reason is the counter right so it's like uh

it'd be like if you told your quarterback just throw it into coverage just throw it it's fine like he would throw a lot of picks and they'd go back the other way for six sometimes that's why you don't do it but when i watched the netherlands how many counters did the u.s have well that when they were being aggressive they were being aggressive they were also just better and they looked like they had two extra guys in the field so let's talk about american football though because that's something you can make us smarter on. No offense. You cannot make us smarter on soccer.

So you said it. Your Chiefs have a problem. They have a real rival now. That seems to be the big take on Monday is, wait, the Bengals are the only team that really can be counted as a rival to the Chiefs in the last few years. They are three times now they've won within the same calendar year if i have that right uh and they are the only team to knock off the chiefs in these months of november and december it seems so what what the hell what is the kryptonite going on in cincinnati well i mean your bangles fans argue that is it a rivalry if you can't beat the other

team right um that's that's a good it's a good question breaks bengals fans chill yeah there's a lot uh well first of all um the bengals are better this year than last year yeah like they're just much better um we we talked about them last year kind of being the quote-unquote like fraud right like didn't deserve to be there um they're better this year so offensive, they're just more under control, and there's less need for the explosive pass play, right? There's less need to just throw the ball up and hope Jamar Chase catches it type of offense.

So they're very controlled on offense now. They got into better play calling, kind of midway season as well. Got into better rhythm, more out of shotgun, more things Joe Burrow does well. Joe's obviously very good. The offensive line's improved. They're not great, but they've improved.

And defensively, they've been good. They're just good on defense. They're solid on defense. They do a lot of things well. And when they play the Chiefs, man, they just, they don't make mistakes. Like, that's the big difference, right? Where the Chiefs seemed in these games

to make more mistakes than the Bengals do. And one Travis Kelsey fumble, right? One tipped pass that would have been a first down, the Chiefs had to punt the ball or kick a field goal. You know, one, you know, third and three at the end of the game, the Chiefs get beat on a three-man rush and Pat Mahomes gets hurt and they got to kick a field goal. And they missed a field goal.

Like little things like that in these games that Bengals don't beat themselves in these games. That's very important here, right? They play within themselves and they obviously have the Chiefs defense a number, right? I mean, they're just, the Chiefs defensively got really two stops yesterday. One punt and the fourth down stop. Like that was it, right? Like they just, they can't get stops. And they played a kind of a pre-event defense. Like we that was it, right? Like, they just can't get stops. And they played it kind of a pre-event defense.

Like, we're going to stay back. We're going to play zone. We're not going to let you get any deep passes, which they didn't do for the most part. But they just methodically, the Bengals were 7 for 11 on third down. They just methodically went down the field. Chiefs tackling was so poor.

By the way, Gabe, okay, I have a question. Do you know the, okay, so if you're running with the ball, okay, you're running with the ball, and you go out of bounds, do you know where the ball is spotted based off of what? I have always assumed it's where the ball crosses the out-of-bounds line. Correct. Yes. Okay. I got in this discussion yesterday because Jamar Chase was short of the first down

on that third down the Chiefs didn't tackle him on. It didn't make a difference in the game. It would have been fourth and one they would have gone for or gotten it. But Bengals fans were arguing with me that it's when he touches out of bounds. Like, what are we doing? Like, at least be honest with your arguments. Like, we can debate whether or not he was actually out before 20-yard line, which he was. But, like, you can't debate the rule with me.

It was mind-blowing that that even became a thing after the game with Bengals fans. But the Chiefs just, man, just, you know, Zach Taylor coaches these games understanding that Joe Burrows is guy and Andy Reid kicks field goals at the end of the game. Like, I don't know if Mahomes was hurt. Maybe it would have been different if Mahomes wasn't limping at the end of that game.

But they just have the number, man. They do. There's no fluke anymore. They've won three games three different ways. The Chiefs played better in the second half than they had in the first two games. They ran the ball better in the first two games. And it just didn't happen. The Bengals played better, and they won the game.

And they'll probably meet up again in the playoffs. The Chiefs will be a three-point favorite as they always are in the game. And I don't know what's going to change in game four. Like the Chiefs, this is the game I expected them to have circled on their calendar. Like we're going to get the best performance they have. Couldn't rush the passer, couldn't hit Joe Burrow,

couldn't stop the run. Bengals played better. It was that simple, man. Clunky start for the Bengals. Clunky start to the season, I should say. Probably helped them a little bit. I feel like a few of us slept on them in the first third of the season, and now they're back.

They didn't play as well, though. Yeah, no, they didn't. But we started to write them off and spend all our time talking about the Bills and then the Chiefs. All right, so let me bring this up. And I love this, even though I think it's a little bit premature. All right, so let me bring this up. And I love this, even though I think it's a little bit premature.

I've seen some takes making the Pat is Peyton, Burrow is Brady comparison. The implication being one guy can put up the stats and win from time to time, but the other guy has the it, right? The stats are sometimes good, sometimes not, but he just has it. He finds a way to win. I don't think we've seen enough to go there, but I do like the comparison. Joe Burrow has no Super Bowls. Well, neither did Tom initially. No MVPs.

Okay. I mean, look, the thing about this is when you lose, people make these comparisons. It's fine. But also, Joe's got to win a Super Bowl for this comparison to be accurate. Maybe this is the year they do it. I don't know. They play the Buffalo Bills in two weeks, I think. So that'll be fun to watch.

But yeah, the Bengals are legit. They are a legit football team with a quarterback that they believe and trust, with a system that's working with a defense that's been very good this season, and they make more plays than the Chiefs in these games. But more importantly, to my point, they make less mistakes. They make less mistakes. They make less mistakes against the Chiefs. Let me ask you this.

We spend a lot of time talking about the value of the one seed now with the new playoff format. And I think it's conventional wisdom that Buffalo stands the most to gain playing at home because, oh, it's January in Buffalo, the weather, yada, yada, yada. But, you know, some teams are disproportionately better at home than others. Is the Bengals making a push and maybe stealing the one seed away from Buffalo and Kansas City? Is that going to be one of those things we're talking about in the final weeks of the season? Could that be the case?

And is Cincy a tough place to go? I don't think home field advantage is as important as it used to be. We're seeing now more road teams win playoff games than maybe ever before. Yeah. But I certainly think, now they play in a few weeks, that'd be the tiebreaker between them and Buffalo. But the Bengals are still a game back of Buffalo now, right? So if they lose that game to the Bills when they play,

then that's it. They're not going to end up with that one seed. But maybe they end up with a two seed. I mean, you know, the Chiefs have never played a road playoff game, and now they have the tiebreaker against the Chiefs. But their schedule, I'm trying to pull the schedules up. My computer is being slow here. Their schedule is much tougher than the Chiefs.

The Chiefs have Denver twice, I believe. The Raiders still. The Texans, I think I'm right on that. Yeah, easy schedule. Like, there's a chance they end up with their three losses now, like 14-3. Yeah, our buddy Nick Wright is predicting undefeated final stretch of the season. So Kansas City has Denver, Houston, Seattle at home, and then Denver again, they end with the Raiders.

And that game could be important in Week 18. The Raiders are playing better football now. So 14-3, probably unlikely that the Bengals are, you know, 14-3. Like, they have a much tougher way. So they have the Browns, who they've lost to five times in a row, I believe, go to Tampa Bay, New England, at New England, home against Bills, home against Ravens. So they just have a much tougher schedule.

Well, you brought up the Ravens. And unfortunately, I want to breeze past the Dolphins, who I would have been excited to talk about if they kept the streak going. But Dolphins lose. We'll get to the Niners in a second. Let's talk about the Ravens because Lamar's hurt. And that obviously has implications on the AFC playoff picture. But more importantly, like this whole season has been about

when's this guy going to get the bag? And let's hope he avoids a big injury. At least those of us who want to see him get paid like what do you what do you make of lamar jackson the ravens and that whole situation right now we can do it quickly because i want to get to the niners yeah the ravens are interesting right because i don't know how bad lamar's injury is he obviously missed the rest of that game huntley was able to pull it out but that's more because of uh days to weeks according to uh chef the broncos being the broncos being really really bad yeah this is two years in a row now he did he'd get hurt to end the season and i wonder if that affects the way the ravens look at you know paying lamar this big

contract i would at this point i'd venture to say they do not work out a deal if he's out for the rest of the season wow i mean two years in a row you you had a season with him being hurt i don't know how they can they're going to give him i mean do we have any dac prescott comes to mind but he only had one injured season right the injured season they paid him but who else gets paid after big injuries two years in a row at quarterback not especially not yeah who, right or wrong, have always been critiqued for being injury prone because of the way that he plays. Yeah, correct.

Hank is mentioning Kyler Murray. I don't know if that... Kyler Murray got hurt last year. That was it, though, I think. Yeah, he ended the season hurt a couple times. All right, well, I didn't really want to dwell on the Ravens. I hope for Lamar's sake he can finish the season healthy enough and then get paid the money he's earned but let's talk about another good team with an injured quarterback in a really crazy quarterback

situation and this all got more complicated with reports today um that baker mayfield is on the loose he's released he's released yeah so. Yeah. So the Niners lose Jimmy G. They had already lost Trey Lance. Both guys are on IR. So they're going to have to go to this kid Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant, who played pretty well on Sunday. He's the quarterback for now. But immediately, all day Monday, the speculation was, well, of course,

this means that Baker's heading to San Francisco. Makes a lot of sense to a lot of people on a lot of levels, but I'm guessing, Jeff, that you don't see it quite that way. No, I suggested that it wouldn't happen, but I think the issue is that he's got to clear waivers first. Yeah. And the Niners are like 27th in the waiver priority. And so you have all these teams just ahead of them.

And I think that's the hard part, right, is all these players that, I mean, all these teams, I should say, that would maybe claim him before the Niners get to him. And there could be even some that claim him so the Niners don't get Baker Mayfield. Because right now, for those who missed it, Trey Lance obviously hurt after the season. Jimmy Grabo broke his foot.

Brock Purdy came in, played well, but I don't expect him to play that well moving forward. I just don't. He played okay, I should say. The defense is a big part of that win, right, against Miami. So does Baker fit what they could do well? Yeah, certainly. Is he better than Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson?

Absolutely. So I just don't know if he's going to get there. I don't know if he'll get to the waiver wire cleanly or to the Niners. But I imagine that they put one in, they put a waiver, I mean, they need someone. You know, the trade deadline was still here. Jacoby Brissett would be a Niner.

Matt Ryan possibly would be a Niner. Jimmy Garoppolo just has some bad luck, man, when it comes to this. Just seems to just, you know, the injuries. I kind of feel bad for him sometimes. He just keeps getting hurt. And the Niners are good. They're a legit team to win the NFC if he was healthy. Yeah.

I mean, is there any reason Brock Purdy couldn't lead the offense? I mean, a lot of people think he played well. He stayed on this roster. They've looked at other quarterbacks. They had two guys who were starter level, they thought, but they kept him around. I mean, maybe he's good. It would surprise me if he was any good okay but i mean that's based

on because he was mr irrelevant right like again tom brady oh wow six round pick yeah we're not we're not we're not doing that thing where we look at tom brady and and like think that brock is gonna be tom brady okay but can i talk about Tom? I always do. I'll talk about Tom Brady from our buddy, Colin cowherd best taken the show today. Uh, it's now going to be Trey Lance Brock Purdy franchise going forward or Tom Brady. That was Colin's take after the injury on Sunday. Everyone's doing,

everyone's doing the, the, uh, the Tom Brady doesn't seem that crazy. Couldn't he end up there? Um, absolutely. He could, the Tom Brady. Doesn't seem that crazy. Couldn't he end up there? Absolutely, he could. But, geez, and there's New England talk. He's just not going to be in Tampa next year, right?

That's what we assume won't be Tampa. We're assuming he won't be in Tampa. We're assuming they don't have the quarterback they want in San Francisco. I mean, unless they just start the season with Trey. So, here's the thing about, I probably should have pulled this up, but Kyle Shanahan's record with and without Jimmy Garoppolo was striking. Jimmy Garoppolo is like,

you know, they have like 20 games over 500 and without Jimmy Garoppolo, he's way under 500. I just, I just don't, I think Jimmy Garoppolo fits what he wants to do. He trusts him. And I don't see a way that Brock Purdy ends up being the one

to lead this team to a deep playoff run. Maybe because the cushion they built, which is not very big of a cushion, that they're able to withstand this. But I just don't see this. Oftentimes, there is an in-game adrenaline-pumping backup quarterback who makes plays. We saw with Mike White yesterday, right? Game two, a little different than game one. I think Brock Purdy is limited.

There's a reason for that. Maybe Brock Purdy is next to Tom Brady. I watched him play Iowa State. Didn't think he was next to Tom Brady. So I just don't think they're going to struggle. And even Baker Mayfield is better than Brock Purdy. But to lose two quarterbacks and make a deep playoff run feels very unlikely. Yeah.

Well, I'm not ready to give up on the season if I'm a Niners fan. And I agree it's unlikely Baker makes it all the way to them the way the waiver wires work i guess but you don't need to find the next tom brady if you can get the actual tom brady in the offseason and jimmy garoppolo jimmy garoppolo was always supposed to be the next tom brady so why get the fake tom brady just go get the real tom brady right and that's certainly a possibility next year i think but right now i mean right now we're talking about how they're going to get kind of to the playoffs this year. And that's going to be tough without really any other quarterbacks. Well, it's very, very rare that a first round, a first overall pick and a guy with, you know,

a couple dozen NFL starts, a few dozen NFL starts comes along at the exact moment that you need a start in quarterback, but that's what's happened with Baker and the Niners. So by the time people hear this, there'll probably be some more updates on that story. We'll keep an eye on it. I think they're an incredibly unlucky franchise, or at least they have been in this decade. I mean, they've won six Super Bowls. I would gladly trade to be the Niners instead of the Jets or whatever. I'm just saying in the most recent decade. This isn't the 80s and 90s anymore. That's all.

All right. Let's keep it moving. And I think it's probably almost time to talk some college ball. We found out who the teams are in the playoffs. Yes. I would say not totally shocking, but maybe debatable. Right. So obviously Georgia number one, Michigan number two, then TCU at Yes. I would say not totally shocking, but maybe debatable, right? So obviously Georgia number one, Michigan number two, then TCU at three.

Bit of a surprise since they lost that game against Kansas State. And then rounding it out at number four, Ohio State. They sneak in even though they didn't play on championship weekend. Before I get into anything else, what was your quick reaction to that? And i want to talk about dm it's about correct right um you know i think that you can certainly make the argument that championship weekend is unfair to the teams that lost right usc for example um and for tcu now tcu got in because they were already undefeated right and the 13 and 1 or 12-1 is better than, you know, than obviously other schools, 10-2 Alabama, 11-2 USC.

So I get why TCU's in there. But I also get the argument for USC, like, if we didn't play, we'd be in the playoff. You know, if we didn't play that game and Caleb Williams doesn't get hurt, we're in the playoff. I get that, man. Totally do.

Because Ohio State didn't have to play their championship weekend. Their last game, they lost to their rival at home by over 20 points. And you can make the argument that they backed in there, certainly. But USC had a chance to get in there, and they lost to Utah. And take away the Caleb Williams issue, which was a big concern for them. Obviously, you can't move. You can't really win.

That defense does not deserve to be in the playoff. I've said it all season. I feel very vindicated, Gabe. I've said it all season long that that defense was bad. They relied on turnovers. They didn't get them. And Utah ran them over, trucked them, ran them over. So USC didn't deserve to be there.

So I feel like we did well with the four teams. I know people are clamoring for a 12-team playoff. And don't get me wrong. It would look great this year. We have some great matchups. But the BCS would have worked this year too. Georgia-Michigan. Go at it.

Play one game. Go find the winner. They're the two best teams. I'm not sure anyone would disagree with that. That they're the two best teams. Now, power rankings-wise, odds-wise, Ohio State's number two. I think they get smoked by Georgia. So, I think they get smoked by Georgia so I just

I think that they just do so the playoff got it right we're going to 12 teams after next season so it'll be a lot of fun well I guess two seasons 2024 and yeah Georgia Michigan will play again in

the final I guess they'll play the semifinal last year and Georgia will win and they'll be back-to-back champions. Okay, so that's the playoff. We'll have three more weeks to talk about that as the angles come up. I want to talk about De'Anne. So who knows what kind of takes will come out of him talking to his team and then him taking press conferences and presumably him appearing on other shows. Let's just start from the facts. He took the job at Colorado. He went in, he was introduced to his new team and, you know, it basically said, look,

not all of you are going to be here when the season starts. I'm bringing my Louie, meaning like I'm bringing in a bunch of serious football players through the transfer portal. This is going to be a place where you need to believe you can be better. What you guys have been doing isn't good enough. And it was you could compliment him for being honest. It was pretty harsh. I'm just curious, what do you think about the tone Deion set day one, week one at Colorado? So someone who covers the Pac- for living PAC 12 radio is my Monday

through Friday job. I am so happy for Dion Sanders because he provides us endless amounts of content just from a content machine. He has cameras that travel with him everywhere. They're filming documentaries. They're filming shows for barstool. I knew one of the, well,

we, I guess we both knew one of the, one of the guys that was there for six months in Jackson, Mississippi filming with him. And so we're getting endless content. How many other coaches have we seen get to a new place and have everything they do be videoed? I saw a video today. He's getting makeup put on, talking to recruits.

We saw him talk to Jackson State, fly to Colorado, Talk to a team. Do a tour. Everything. So from a content perspective, for me personally, love it. Thank you, Colorado, for getting this done. Football-wise, great at Jackson State. Absolutely wonderful at Jackson State. Won a lot of football games there. To be a college coach, successful college coach, a higher level,

you need a couple things, right? Be able to recruit. Be able to find good coordinators. He can recruit. We know that. Check, right? Done. The coordinator part, in-game stuff, we'll see how it goes. But the prerequisite for being good at cheese and is having dudes. I don't get why college football fans don't get this. Yeah, every now and then you get a Utah that makes, but Utah also has some guys that are good football players that they recruited that transferred in as well. So he gets, for those who missed it, Deion gets to Colorado.

He basically tells all the players there, you ain't staying here. Like, get up out of here. Go in the portal. I'm bringing everyone else in. Which is what USC did last year. They weren't as blunt about it. They had 60, 70 roster changes. Oregon had 53 last season.

Like, it's what everyone's doing now. And Colorado was 1-11 last season game. They were an uncompetitive 1-11. The most competitive game, they were up 3-2 against USC in the first quarter and lost like 55-17. That was the most competitive game they played outside of the game they beat Cal. They're not good. So I understand him saying,

all right, guys, when I come, we're bringing a new attitude and we're bringing new players. And they hired Deion for this. This is what they hired him for. And so I think players appreciate the honesty and the bluntness, even if it might piss them off,

even if it might upset them, even if they don't want to find a new home. And you can stay. You don't have to transfer. You may play you might not you know like it but or or you stay and you grow on Deion and Deion respects you and you play like there's you know many different ways to play this out but today as we record this December 5th opens the transfer portal for for players that are not grad transfers it's like a thousand kids ordering the portal today colorado will find talent it might take two or three years to build it up exactly the one thing

i will i will say is that i don't expect there to be quite the splashiness that people expect it to happen right away um the top players are getting NIL deals. I don't think Colorado has that in place right now. And the first signing day is in like two weeks. And you have players out west, you have USC, you have Oregon going after the same kids you're going after. And if you don't have that in place

for those top players, they're not going to Colorado yet. The one thing I would just say like, just wait a second. He'll get some players, but he ain't going to get as many That's the one thing I would just say, like, just wait a second. He'll get some players, but I ain't going to get as many as we think he is. And it'll take a couple of years to build up the roster. You know,

he's bringing his son to play quarterback. Great. I will say that the jump from Jackson state to the pack 12 is grand. We saw last season, just specifically in the conference, Cam Ward went from incarnate word to Washington State, had up and down parts of his season. I would expect year two this year to be good,

but he was seventh or eighth best in the conference this past season. We had a good year for quarterbacks. So there's a chance for Colorado to be really good quickly. I think it'll take a little bit longer than the internet wants it to take. They were 1-11 last year, guys. USC was 4-8 last year. They had some players on their team, okay? Like, they had some.

And Lincoln Riley brought with him, obviously, players that knew Lincoln Riley, right? Deion has done this for two years now at Jackson State. Lincoln Riley did it at Oklahoma for many years. So I think there's, again, I just would say slow down a tiny bit here. It's a great hire for Colorado. I love Deion in the Pac-12 Conference.

He will hit the portal hard. He'll hit recruiting hard. They need to build the NIL. They need to build transfer, their transfer program there. I'm curious who he hires. But I think it's a home run for Colorado. Home run for college sports.

Home run for me. Personally, the Pac-12 Conference, he covers the Pac-12 Conference. USC and UCLA are leaving at the end of 2023. Having Dion gives us some juice. I like it, man. Yeah. Okay. I love it as well.

And this is, forgive the pun, primed for him to become the class of the Pac-12 after that first year of settling in. And I think. What I want to know is. Like. Is this the first time. So Lincoln Riley obviously did a great job. Of bringing a bunch of talent over.

He must do a great job. In the living rooms with parents. He's obviously made it clear to the kids. That if you come play for him. Especially quarterbacks. You're going to get to the NFL. But i don't think that he does the thing that i saw dion do in that speech to his team which was obviously not for the team like you said he's surrounded by cameras the speech was for all of us correct well it's really i mean it's not for here's the thing gabe

this is the hard part about recruiting i think sometimes now what colleges do it's not even for me and you it's for 17 year olds that's what i mean like like like we're we're we're well i'm 36 you're you're 40 right i'm 40 yeah okay like we're we're 16 years away from who the target audience is like hank is the target audience not us and so you might not get it like you might not understand why he's talking like this to his players you might not get why the cameras are there you might but get it. Like you might not understand why he's talking like this to his players. You would not get why the cameras are there. You might,

but it's not for you. It's not for you. It's for the recruits and the transfer players and the parents of the players listening to Dion talk to, to, to their sons or to their, you know, eventually to their sons.

Well, then that's what, that's what I wanted to bring up is I, I have never heard a coach be as matter of fact about the transactional nature of college football as Dion was in that speech. He basically said to them, if you come here, you play hard, you believe you will get your family to a new place. You will make mom the kind of money that I promised my mom I would make her. Yeah. He said that.

Absolutely. Now, that's refreshing because for the longest, all these other college football coaches, some of them are very good at recruiting. They all pretend it's about grooming young men and getting them an education and yada, yada, yada. He's saying, I'm going to make you rich. Great.

Okay. I mean, aren't we just cutting through all the bullshit now? Isn't this nice? I think it's great. Now, look, his players at Jackson State, though, did well in academics as well. Like, if you listen to, like, any of the things that Jackson State did, every video he put out, I've been watching them for quite a while and they're entertaining.

I like hearing Dion talk. It's all about classroom. It's all about being good men, using your manners. Like you'll clean like simple things like clean up the locker room. Like I don't want any trash in the locker room guys. Like clean that shit up. He mentioned Colorado. Like we're going to be dressed the same.

We're going to have our Colorado gear on. We're're not gonna wear random hoodies and beanies and hats we're gonna take our earrings out i don't that to me i don't know why they take their earrings out whatever but like we're gonna be uniform we're gonna be uniform which i get some people push back on whatever i'm fine with it like we're gonna be we're gonna be one we're gonna be one team and one belief and he just said it and i'm fine with it um you know there are there are but here's the thing about you know this like gabe there are some players who are just there for that exact purpose they're just there to go to the nfl in three years that's it and not in look you cannot build your team i think all in that way i think that's a little bit tough to do you need some of those like

older players that want to stay for longer than three years, but to win at a high level, you absolutely have to have those top end players on your roster. And so Dion said it like, Hey man, I mean, look, if anyone else, if anyone else came to a business that had completely failed, they would revamp everything. Yeah. And that's what Dion's doing. Yeah,

he is. And, and he also picked the right conference. I mean, you know better than me, Jeff, but like, you know,

he isn't going to go get the unsexy, boring guys, the interior alignment and all like, that's not where he's going to get his biggest recruits. He's going to go get the same types of guys. Lincoln Riley brought over to USC. He's going to get his biggest recruits. He's going to go get the same types of guys Lincoln Riley brought over to USC. He's going to find you NFL ready wide receivers, playmakers on defense, a great quarterback and his son. Yeah, I don't I don't imagine you're going to see a lot of like great left guards at Colorado.

But so what? You score 40 something and occasionally take the ball away. You're going to win 10 games in the Pac-12. So what? You score 40-something and occasionally take the ball away, you're going to win 10 games in the Pac-12. Yeah. I think the really hard part, though, is that you do need to have those big dogs. To beat Michigan. Well, to beat, I mean, yeah, but we saw USC,

they eventually succumbed to not having those. You've got to have some guys. Yeah. Well, let's spend a secondumbed to not having those. You've got to have some guys. Yeah. Well, let's spend a second on them and other teams like them. So, obviously, it was disappointing as a USC fan to watch the way that they played on Friday. We know Caleb's injury had a lot to do with that. Do you think that some lessons will be learned by Lincoln Riley

or other coaches who've been successful in the transfer portal that you do you do still need to have like the ability to teach how to do certain things right like you can't just have great guys putting on a show every week for their NFL future you need to tackle you need to like run the ball on first down and pick up five or six yards from time to time like you need to do fundamental stuff better. You can't just bring in playmakers. Do you think people are going to learn that lesson? A couple things here.

One is that I think specifically for West Coast schools, those players are not typically in your footprint for recruiting. That's why transfer portal is so important, right? You need to get them through the transfer portal. But for Lincoln Riley specifically, he's had the same defensive coordinator for all these failures and continues to try out the same defense yeah like it's a it's a it's a it's a coaching problem and I don't think he's going to replace uh Alex Grinch either um you know I keep hearing from

USC fans like yeah well we just need different players sure but but if you but if you are if you're a a transfer looking at USC and, name and likeness changes this whole discussion. So let's put that aside, okay? If you're looking at Oregon, Deion now at Colorado, or USC for where you're going to play defense. USC's third on that list, okay? Oregon, Dan Lanning of Georgia has put out 25 pros,

and we have a first-round corner. There was a transfer portal kid just from Colorado. He was going the first round. We have a mid-round defensive tackle. We have a linebacker. USC right now is behind those two schools as far as your transfer portal kid. And Deion, by the way, Deion again, hasn't proven anything at this level. But it's Deion Sanders.

Like, you're going to play for Deion. And so that's what USC's got to do. They've got to hit that portal hard, man. And they did to some extent. They have a couple portal kids on defense. That's where they got to be. Yeah, but the days of USC, like the Troy Palomalos are not not playing for USC these days

well yeah but you can still like try to recruit those players it's a matter of are you going to get them but they're also Troy's a Southern California kid right I don't remember where Troy grew up but I mean it's a different era but they don't make them anymore in California

like that that's well so okay so this sorry to belabor this, but this was something I saw in my time. Yeah, he's in Garden Grove, California. Yeah, okay. So one of the things that I saw, coach didn't react well to a question from a reporter after the game. Reporter asked him, you know, I noticed a few of your secondary guys,

when plays got to the second level, they seemed like they were trying to strip the ball instead of tackle the run. Absolutely. Why is that? Do you teach that? And Coach kind of gave him a little bit of a snotty response. He didn't really want to dignify the question. He didn't. That's exactly what he said, right? I'm not going to dignify that question with a response.

But the thing is, and I say this with love for him and the team, it's the only question that fans want to answer why can't these guys tackle in the open field when they have their hands on the run it's because they're trying to poke the ball out because they were so good in turnover margin so that's coaching right absolutely yes because their defense thrived on that yeah that's what they thrived on so you win by that and you die by that and and and that seemed to be what happened so okay well i mean listen we'll probably talk about dion in some manner every week on this show from now till the end of time so i'm really glad that we have

that yeah and and i and i really do also i'm like you i like enjoy i enjoy listening to him speak even when he says things that could be kind of controversial i mean he basically told a room full of kids you ain't gonna be here any longer and the best you could say about that is he was honest you know so we'll see uh should we move the line i love i love honesty by the way yeah yes let's move the line we'll do that on the other side of this break all right jeff we're back moving the line a few over-unders for you none of them are real today uh over under seven and a half percent chance deshaun watson just forgot how to play football looked like crap uh and he has now ruined the browns franchise for the next decade by ending up there. Wow. So Watson did not play well.

No. They were able to win that game with defense and to win that game just kind of with special teams. They got a special team touchdown. Watson looked a little nervous, looked a little antsy, killed a bunch of worms with his throws game. Not the best performance, but he hasn't played in about a year and a half. He's back in Houston now in his first game.

He changed the offense a little bit. I just want to run the regular offense. I think, in my opinion, did a little bit too much with him. And I think he'll get better throughout the week throughout the season but not where they want him to be i think by the end of the year i think you're again you're looking at this for next year well they're obviously look they built the whole contract and made the whole the whole strategy was for year after this i just wonder though you know people were so critical and there's so little goodwill you know the other good players have bad games and there's a lot of

excuses made and we know who some of those players are we're about to get to a couple of them there's a built-in media infrastructure to apologize for certain players poor play this guy's not going to have that for years. It's going to take a ton for him to get people behind him again. I think a lot of people will never be behind him again. Yeah, so doesn't that make it hard to run a franchise? Oh, this decision to bring him in is not – it's just –

it's – yeah, there are plenty of people who are never going to support him, Gabe. It's never going to happen. Yeah, Kevin Stefanski will in the building and the coaches and the players there, but yeah,

I mean, he's never going to ever get, I think it's really hard sometimes in sports and, you know, Peter King got crushed for this one time when he said that Darren Sharper,

like, you have to consider just his on-field activities when it comes to voting for him for the Hall of Fame. All right. And even this past couple of days, the Major League Baseball Legends Committee, whatever they call them, they can add players to the Hall of Fame who didn't make the Hall of Fame

with the writers' vote. Yep. And they did not add like a Curt Schilling or Barry Bonds or Roger Clements. And Curt Schilling's issue is not that he took steroids, was a bad player. He was a great pitcher. But he's a jerk. Yeah. Like, right?

He's just a jerk. You know, Barry Bonds took steroids. Roger Clemens did. That's why they're not in. And so it's going to be hard to talk about Deshaun Watson without referencing the off-the-field lawsuits, right? Like, it's going to be hard to talk about Deshaun Watson without referencing the off-the-field lawsuits, right? Like, it's going to be hard to talk about that. We will try to talk about his on-field play,

but we have to acknowledge that this is also what happened. And then with Schilling, right? You acknowledge with Curt Schilling, great pitcher, but that will always be a discussion with Watson, is we're going to have this, but that. And that's fair, I think. I think that's how you have to approach it. Yeah.

Well, then I'm going to use kind of a strange segue to the next guy because I think there's a lot of people who just like the kind of dude he is, and it seems like a kind of person folks want to root for. He's still polarizing, but all for just whether you think he's good or not. And that's Tua, right? to root for he's still polarizing but all for just whether you think he's good or not uh and that's two up right so you've got the two and on uh captained by your buddy maniacho um they love him no matter what i need to hire i need to hire him to like be my hype guy and i love watch i've known him for a while great at what he does he. He knows what he's doing. He's not a dummy. He knows what he's doing.

But like, God, Gabe, he tweeted out yesterday when Tua threw that seven-yard pass and went for 75 yards about how great Tua was. And I wanted to tweet out like, this is how I respond to my wife when I load the laundry one time. Like, I'm the greatest. I might tweet that out. I'm the greatest of all time. I did the laundry once. Like, it was like a seven- time. I might tweet that out. I'm the greatest of all time. I did the laundry once. Like, it was like a seven-yard throw that went for 75 yards.

Like, come on, buddy. What are we doing on Joe? So, I was talking to this Bengals fan yesterday on DM. Like, it's really hard sometimes to root. If you spend too much time on social media, it's hard to root for players on certain teams because their fans are just the absolute worst right like there's a part of it where like you're just like i can't i just these fans are so out of control i can't i i don't but look two did not play well yesterday no that was the worst game he had played maybe all season and that's fine to admit now he might bounce back next weekend and play well but for everyone that

was waiting from have this game, he had this game against a good defense, which he hadn't played in five weeks. He did not play a playoff team in six weeks. That was the first playoff team they played in six weeks. Now they play the Chargers Sunday Night Football. Herbert, Tua, Sunday Night Football, primetime, and we're all on social media watching it all together. Explosive this weekend.

He didn't play well. It's okay. It's okay to admit it. There's a very specific corner of the internet, of NFL Twitter, that is obsessed with Tua versus Herbert. You're part of it. Acho's part of it.

Mina's part of it. No, no, no. I'm not talking about it. No, no, no. You're all in it. No, we're not part of it. I almost never tweet about this. Most of us are like,

Herbert's better. And then a bunch of Most of us are like, Herbert's better. And then a bunch of Dolphins are like, F you guys. And then I'm just like, I don't know what to tell you, man. Okay, I'll give you the exact example, okay? So there was a third down throw in this game where the guy was wide open. Third and seven, he was in rhythm, and he threw a terrible pass, okay? That pass right there is the one that we judge

between Mahomes Allen Burrow Herbert and Tua those four guys make that throw on third and seven to a wide open guy for a first down and Tua didn't and maybe that grading scale is unfair but that those are the throws that separate the elite quarterbacks from the very good quarterbacks, from the bad quarterbacks, and so on and so forth. Those four guys make that throw to the wide-open guy in rhythm. And Tua didn't. It's that simple game to me about the difference in the quarterbacks.

It doesn't mean Tua's bad or terrible or Tua not has to come after me. But it's just a few people that argue about it Mina argues because Dolphins fans crucify her on social media for this I've watched it all I said was you were part of it and I think you just proved that you are

I almost never you know one thing I've done about less on Twitter is just like comparison nonsense like it's just such a wasteful argument like a it's it's a good thing i love you guys following me and i have a lot of followers i appreciate the interaction it's definitely helped my life and my work but like there are times i just tweet and mute the conversation i can't argue with people that don't want to that just can't see things i i can't do it sound like aaron rogers bro can't i can't be in that headspace and that's what i want to talk about next aaron rogers bro can't i can't be in that headspace and that's what i want to talk

about next aaron rogers man did he i think come back season i think he found his guy christian watson i know every fantasy league figured it out a couple weeks ago now christian watson so i bench so people could draw this conclusion hank included that this is now proof they should have drafted him a better receiver for For me, it proves the opposite. It proves Aaron Rodgers will make a guy look like an all-time great receiver if you give him some time to develop him. That's what he's done consistently throughout his career. He turns okay guys into great guys. That's what seems to be happening here.

Do you think there's a chance that Aaron Rodgers actually salvages this season over under 1% chance? No, it's under. They just, their schedule's tough and they're beat up. And the Vikings are one win away from clinching the division, I think. And the Packers need a bunch of stuff to happen in front of them to make the wild card. They've also just like, everyone beats the Bears because the Bears are really bad on defense. But Christian Watson has played better.

Almost like Gabe, it takes rookies more than one week to be good. He's just getting better because he's playing more football. Weird how that works. Yeah, strange. By the way, speaking, we mentioned Vikings. So I watched the end of that game, obviously. Tell me, do you think more or less of them for the way that that game ended against the Jets? They gave the jets a

couple chances but they stopped them both times in the last two minutes what like does that make you think man the vikings are good or like why the vikings play a close game with the jets why the vikings play a close game with the jets yeah it makes you worry about the vikings right oh yeah yeah and like no disrespect to Mike White. You mentioned him earlier. Like, a slightly better quarterback probably converts with one of those chances. And the Jets could sneak that win out with a little bit better quarterback. Yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. Or not even better. More experienced. There's just ways to win that game that he didn't come up with. I am very curious to what the Jets do quarterback next year. It'd be pretty interesting. Lamar Jackson. You think so? quarterback next year. It's kind of interesting. Lamar Jackson. You think so?

I'm back if it's Lamar Jackson. Okay. I'm all the way back. None of this toe-in-water bullshit. I'm all the way back. But let's talk about the guy who they would probably try to tank next year for if they had the chance. Hank tried to sneak Quinn Ewers into this conversation.

No fucking chance, Hank. Quinn was terrible. Get the fuck out of here with that. This is a conversation about Caleb Williams. Sean Payton said on the herd not long ago that he thinks the NFL will rewrite the rules to make it a draft lottery. So that you cannot tank for a guy as good as Calebaleb williams so he's coming out after the 23 season next season a whole bunch of nfl teams would tank to try to get caleb if they could but he's saying they'll change the rule so that you just get into the draft lottery and then the balls figure it out but how often are we seeing that happen? Like where teams tank and ends up working for the guy that they absolutely want.

It doesn't work that way in the NFL very often. Now, the Texans are pretty bad. They could probably do it again next year, but it doesn't happen that often. And so they're not going to change the entire system because it happened with the Colts one time. You know what I mean? Like in the Colts, and Peyton Manning got hurt that season,

so they ended up working for them. They're not going to change the rule. K.A. Williams is so good. The Heisman discussion has been so weird to me. He was the favorite heading into the Friday, okay, Friday night's game against Utah. He tore his hamstring, threw for 400, to me, 380 yards and rushed for,

now the rushing numbers stink because of the sack. But, like, he had, like, 70 yards rushing before because of the sack but like he had like 70 yards rushing before this you had the sack the sack yardage in how did he lose the heisman playing that game no it seemed like it it would prove that he is the heisman winner i mean he was unbelievable he's so good dude he's so he he's i i know people compare him to pavahomes and sure you want to make that comparison i'd go for for it. I'm not going to do that because, yeah, because Pat Mahomes is one of the best, and you're not making that comparison. But he just like, he's so smooth out there, man.

And his ability to never get tackled by the defense, it's pretty, it's special. He's a special football player, Matt. He really is good. Yeah, I agree, obviously. However, I would say Mahomes is not the right comparison. Josh Allen is the right comparison. A couple reasons why. One, he's a more physical, imposing runner.

I know Pat is a better runner than he gets credit for, but he's not going to run you over. Josh can run you over. And to ding him a little bit, there's a little bit of the YOLO. But Caleb's not trying to run you over, though. I know, but he will. If you get in his way, he'll truck you. But there's some YOLO in Caleb.

And there's a lot of the, what do you call them, the yup-yup-nope plays. Oh, yeah. He gives you a few heart attacks a game. And this season, almost all of them worked out. But, man, he can put you in some scary situations. Absolutely. And that's like Josh.

Absolutely. He's just not as big as Josh. He's not even as big as my homes. That's like my comparison. The, the, the, the Mahomes thing. I think the only thing that really kind of frustrates me with this talk is

that he doesn't, is like, he's not as big as my homes. His arm is not as good as my homes. His arm is good, but not like one as mahomes his arm is not as good as mahomes his arm is good but not like one of the best ever does that make sense i'm not disparaging him at all but like that's that's where he's at his arm is good but not like the best we've ever seen i think the comparison to mahomes only is worth anything when he's scrambling on the move and then he just flicks

it yes and you're like what how the – how did he see that guy and how did the ball get there? Absolutely correct, yes. That's – yes, you're right. When he's in the pocket and just can't work through progressions like Pat can. I mean, that's not his specialty. Well, whatever. He's back next year.

I think USC is going to open the season. They're going to have to be a top five team starting the season with him. Yeah, they'll be top five. I mean, it's going to be interesting because I think USC is going to open the season. They're going to have to be a top five team starting the season with him. Yeah, they'll be top five. It's going to be interesting because I think you're going to end up at the start of the season with possibly three Pac-12 teams near the top 10 in USC, Washington, their quarterbacks returning, and Oregon. One note about as we're kind of getting to draft season,

I'm going to make this note, and I always say this, is I'm sure a bunch of draft prospects are listening this podcast get your money guys go to the nfl don't come back for another year washington's quarterback michael pennix had a great season he's coming back and um you know he is having a third round grade so maybe he can improve that but the reason he's a third round grade is because medically he's been very injured in his career. And last year was the first year he played all year not being hurt. And he played great.

He threw for the most yards, I think, in all of college football. Like, go to the NFL, dude. And Washington fans, I said the same thing about Herbert. So don't give me this crap that I hate Washington and I'm only making this comment

because of Washington. Go to the NFL. I said it all the time. Go to the NFL. Like, go. Bo Nix, he's coming back too. Like, I'd go to the NFL. But said all the time, go to the NFL. Like, go. Bo Nix, he's coming back too. Like, I'd go to the NFL. But NIL now changes everything.

They're making more money now with NIL than they are, you know, as a rookie in the NFL. You mentioned three Pac-12 teams could be in the top 10. What about UCLA if they get your boy DJ? Yeah, DJU. Yeah, I think there's a chance that DJ goes to there. I mean, his brother is a high-level recruit, and his brother probably goes to USC too,

so they've got both kids in Los Angeles. You have a high-level recruit in the studio with you. Yeah, I've been out of town. I just got home about an hour ago, and my daughter just said, come and say hi. Hey, honey. Piggy.

You're Piggy? Yeah. Yeah? How was your day at school today? Good. Okay. All right. All right, love.

I'm glad she brought, I didn't know if she was calling you Piggy or showing you the toy Piggy. Are you calling me Piggy or showing me the toy Piggy? Piggy. Either or. Okay, guys. All right. Well, we're back on the Varsityc podcast network we'll be back later in the

week to go over our gambling wagers another tough week uh for us but uh hopefully we get back on track for gabe for now emerson schwartz who's standing next to me and me jeff schwartz have a great couple of days talk to you later.