PTI - Baltimore Ravens Fire John Harbaugh!

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss Ravens/Harbaugh, Ole Miss/Coaching Issues, and Cignetti/Mendoza. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wolbach. We got the new year off to a really good start yesterday, Tony. You're ready to keep it going?

I'm Tony Kornheiser. Man, we're on ESPN too. Oh. So you weren't buying my fake hustle just now? You weren't buying that? Oh, if you want to do that, yeah, if you want to be enthusiastic, and, you know, most of the viewers will realize it's not true. But it's okay.

Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, how will old Miss Cope with some, coaches should the Raiders target Kurt Signetti and Jeff Saturday joins us for five the news. But we begin today with John Harbaugh out as head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens missed the playoffs on Sunday when Tyler Luke missed a game-winning field goal attempt. The team finished eight and nine on the season. But during his 18 seasons as head coach of the team, Harbaugh's record was 180 and 113. Wow. And 13 and 11 in the playoffs, including a Super Bowl win in 2013. Wilbon, what do you make of this?

Tony, it's certainly after that big game on Sunday night between Baltimore and Pittsburgh, Harbaugh and Tomlin. It seems like one of them was just destined to go. Like people had talked it into the universe and somebody had to go. And now here is Harbaugh going. Here's what I do make of it, even though it's still somewhat surprising. Given the Harbaugh to me, those numbers in the Super Bowl make him a Hall of Fame coach to me. eighth all time, 18th all time in wins, Tony.

So Baltimore only, though, has three playoff wins with Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson in his seven-plus seasons. Three, three playoff wins. In the meantime, you know, Mahomes, I'm going to the other extreme here with Andy Reid, has 17. Even Josh Allen in his eight seasons has seven playoff wins in Buffalo. So I'm looking at Harbaugh and his offensive coordinator, Tom Monkin, who the last two years just look foolish, too many times. And they wasted. Not only Lamar when he was healthy, but they waste Henry, Derek Henry,

a hall of fame running back two years, two years a long time in today's sports landscape. I think Harbaugh is 12th all time and wins. 12. By that, okay. You've been after Monkin for a long time. Yes, I have. Yeah, and I understand the criticism. Their defense has fallen off a lot more than their offense. So what you do is you fire the defensive coordinator and you fire the offensive coordinator,

but you save the coach of 18 years who has won a Super Bowl before either of those coordinators got there. You say you're somewhat surprised. I'm stunned by this. I mean, Steve Bishotti is not a quick trigger guy. No, he's not. This is 18 seasons. And to me, Lamar Jackson, you talk about, Lamar Jackson is a great quarterback, but not in the playoffs. That is the explicable part of their record in the playoffs compared to these other people.

Patrick Mahomes is the best player on the planet. I don't think you compare anybody quite to him. I'm stunned by this. I get the thing about him playing against Tomlin. I get the drum beat about maybe one will be gone or both will be gone or none will be gone. I would have chosen none will be gone. None. So I look at this and I'm really taken aback.

But I'll say this. If John Harbaugh wants to work again, he can have an open job in 30 seconds. 30 seconds, Mike. He has everything to recommend him. But Tony, you mentioned Bashati. Harbaugh worked for a, just a, the word solid doesn't do it justice. He, in some ways, an exemplary organization all those years. I ain't going to some of these other places that have openings,

right now just because they have openings. Then he'd find out how difficult it really could be. If he wants it. But after 18 years to think that you got fired because your kicker missed a 44-yard field car, that's hard for me. Tell your OC to hand the ball to Derek Henry a little more often and you might have won that games. You know, as they say on the other shows, that's overreaction Tuesday to me.

We move now to the uncertain coaching staff at Ole Miss as the team prepares to play Miami and Thursday's college football semi-final. LSU's administration will reportedly allow Charlie Weiss Jr. to continue coaching old misses offense and Kevin Smith to continue coaching the rebel running backs. Tight-ins coach Joe Cox and passing game coordinator George McDonald are not expected to coach in the Fiesta Bowl. Wilbon, is the headline that Weiss is coaching or that others may not be. Of that material tone in this context is Weiss coaching.

He's the offensive coordinator, and they've won a couple of games with him, being the offensive coordinator and good for them. But to me, the headline are the kids, the players at Mississippi at Ole Miss, who come into a meeting room every day and they look around. They don't know who's leading the meeting. They don't know who's coaching them.

It might be some dude from outside who's going to be there in the future because he just got there and he's carrying his to-me bag on the way into Oxford. If you're one of those players and coaches talk about distractions and they're like about how you've got to be locked in

and they give you all this nonsense and it's not Weiss's fault. Good for him for apparently saying to both schools, I'm staying here or I don't even come to LSU. Good for him. But this started with Lane Kiffin. This started with him and a certain selfishness as he collects hundreds of thousands of dollars

for wins that the kids he left are putting in his bank account. How about the irony of that? That's the headline to me. Yeah. So I understand your outrage, and I know you have never liked Lane Kiffin, And I don't have all that much to add to this. But what I would say is this, with all of this storm and drong that's going on there,

not knowing who your coach is, not knowing who's going to run a meeting, Ole Miss has won two playoff games. They're in the final four. All misses, Ole Misses kids clearly have something inside that says, we're better than this, and we can continue to win. To me, the large drama here. And I always thought, as you know, I always thought Lane Kiffin should have been allowed to coach that team. I look at Oregon where there were two coordinators who are taking jobs, head coaching jobs at other schools at Kentucky and Cal, I believe, and they're coaching both schools at the moment.

So to me, the drama is Lane Kiffin sitting in LSU, watching what is going on. And what if Ole Miss under Golding, what if they win the national championship? Does LSU say, ooh, maybe we extended ourselves too far for this guy? Maybe he's not the great coach we thought he was. I think the drama is inherent in Lane Kiffin. And as I said on the show yesterday, I'm rooting for an Indiana-O-M-Miss final because I think those are the two best stories.

By the way, I think the best stories by a lot. Most of what you just said except one thing. In Oregon, they don't acknowledge the existence, they don't need to, of Kentucky. It doesn't even exist to them. That's where one of those coordinators went. But they're head coaches. In A LSU and Mississippi, there's no relationship between those two places.

I'll give you that. I will tell you, I will concede that Lane Kiffin is the antagonist in all of this. Yes. But what I'm saying is that all Miss players don't seem to care. Great thing to point out. Good for them. I'm rooting for them. We move now to an intriguing piece of speculation from CBS Sports.

Brad Crawford, their writer wonders if Kurt Signetti might be interested in the open Las Vegas Raiders job. Raiders of the first pick in the upcoming draft. Many boards have Signetti's heisman winning quarterback at IU, Fernando Mendoza, as the overall number one. Signetti could take that job and bring Mendoza with him. Tony, could you see a Raiders Signetti partnership actually working? This is a really cool story. There are lots of intriguing aspects to it. And to me, one of those intriguing aspects is the history of Kurt Signetti.

Kurt Signetti moves. He does not grow roots in a certain place. He moves around. He was an assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama. Then he took the head coaching job at IUPUI. Then the head coaching job at Elon. Then the head coaching job at James Madison and now the head coaching job at Indiana.

And each step along the way, he took that job and moved up the ladder. Mike, to me, the coaching ladder ends with the NFL. It doesn't end with Indiana. No doubt. And I think that Kurt Signetti, his deepest belief is in himself, not the zip code that he's living in for however long he is living in it. And if he believes in Mendoza, if he truly believes in Mendoza, and he takes this job and he takes Mendoza, he has solved the toughest problem in football, which is the relationship between a head coach and a star quarterback. This is why, at least I thought the Giants should have interviewed Lane Kiffin because he coached Jackson,

dart why we both think the Browns ought to talk to Davo Sweeney, because maybe he can do something with the Sean Watson. Look at what Sean Payton has done with Bo Nix. Look at what Liam Cohn has done with Trevor Lawrence. So that, that to me is the intrigue in taking the job. Tony, the only butt I'm going to have is a big one. You and I have talked about the Raiders over the last couple of days, sometimes off-killed, sometimes on.

They're broken. They're broken. The whole infrastructure is broken. It's not, you know, 30-6. seven-year-old Al Davis, who is running the Raiders anymore. And the Raiders don't have so many things that to go out and use your resource to draft that quarterback, to take Mendoza, who we both think looks very, very capable at this point. Tony, to bring him in when you have so many other places that need to be fixed first,

it seems real dicey, real risky. And I don't know that that Signetti, as good a coach as he is on the college. his level can fix what's broken with the Raiders at the pro level. Signetti, right. He's got to want this and want that guy. And he's got to understand that the owner, Mark Davis, fires coaches all the time. After they got rid of John Grun, he went through Basce,

he went through McDaniels, went through Antonio Pierce, and he just went through Pete Carroll. And none of them even got two years. So you can fire coaches, but you never fire the owner. That's the problem. That's why I would not take this job. Let's take a break. Coming up, will the bills go out to the Jags like Wilbon says we're going to ask Jeff Saturday how vulnerable Buffalo is. Yeah, he'll look very, Joe. We're also going to ask him whether he favors the Packers or my Bears heading into their third game against each other in about three and a half minutes.

I now refer to them as My Bears because I hear you say it all the time. In my house, it's my Bears and my Cubs. The NFL playoffs begin this weekend, which makes it a perfect time to welcome. Welcome back, our great friend ESPN NFL analyst, Jeff Saturday. Let's start with this. Wilbon has the bills going out in the first round to Jacksonville. How vulnerable do you see the bills as being now? I think they're vulnerable. And I'll give you a few reasons.

Everybody's talking about this is Josh Allen. You know, this is his best opportunity to win the Super Bowl and all this kind of stuff because of my homes and Lamar. But their team isn't as good. Like their receiving court isn't as good. their defense, you know, typically as the season has progressed for Buffalo, the defense has not done that this year. So they are vulnerable on the defense side. They don't really stop the run. They run the ball well. But Josh Allen on top of all that looks banged up. Like as you watch him, he's limping. Like this is not the same. And could he have a heroic effort and win? Absolutely

he could. I would never put anything past him. He's an incredible ball player. But I think if you look at Jacksonville and the way they play and the way they play defense, They're going to try to make Josh Allen beat him. I just don't know that there's enough around Josh. Has them to do with him himself, but the bills themselves, I feel, are vulnerable because of areas that they're lacking from the team side. Yeah, I'm rooting for them, as Tony knows, but I just don't see it.

Okay, enough of this AFC talk. Let's get to the NFC, specifically my bears who heading to the playoffs, having lost two straight versus the Packers, who've lost four, but get Jordan Love back. Jeff, you've seen these two just played twice. in a three-week span, does either have an advantage, and if so, who? Oh, you know, I don't know that either team has a significant advantage, but I will say this. Homefield matters, but the return of Jordan Love and Watson and the combination of that coming back,

if you think about the Packers, I'm just telling you, if I'm Matt LaFloor, and I'm sitting in that, and I'm sitting in that locker room, I'm saying, Mim, we had them twice, right? We had a pick at the end to win the first one, but the last one, we had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. And we let them back in the game. They kick a field goal. They tighten it. You know, on second. The whole deal, right? Like, don't give them a breath, right? Like, we had them where we wanted them. That was with Malik Willis. We got our guys back. He's encouraging that. So I don't know that there's a significant advantage. But if I'm Matt LaFleur, that's what I'm selling my locker room for this third time. Yeah, which scares me, which is why I don't want to play the damn cheese head.

for a third time, but we'll leave that for later, Jeff. I want to ask you about the Niners and the Eagles. I mean, it seems like these teams are going in all kinds of directions, and there's a turn of one every week. Which way are you leaning between the Niners and Eagles? Yeah, my favorite matchup of the weekend. I'm just going to be real. I'm fired up for this one.

And, you know, I thought San Fram was going to win out and get the home field advantage. Unfortunately, they played really poorly against Seattle. and I think the thing that was kind of the largest indictment for me was they were physically punished. Like Seattle, don't let the score fool you. Seattle got after them. They pushed them around. And I think if you're Shanahan and you're looking at your like, hey, guys, like we can't let, you know, two running backs being Walker and Charminade just walk all over us. And Seattle wasn't good in the red zone.

Otherwise, it would have been even uglier. And so scoring three points against that defense, the way that the Eagles are our base, Vic Fangio, you know, incredible defense. a coordinator, he's going to make you, or he's going to try to make you beat him left-handed. I think I lean a little towards the Eagles and favor the Eagles because of the home field and their ability to run the ball, explosive plays, and then trying to limit what Shanahan and Brock Purdy can do on the other side. We will get you out of here on this. The NFL network is reporting that Philip Rivers could be an NFL head coaching candidate

right now. You did this. You did this. Any advice for Philip Rivers who has not coached at this level, has a lot. not done it before. Boy, you better keep yourself at a high school and enjoy the heck out of it, man, because it ain't, it ain't just coaching. I can assure you. Yeah, he's plenty good enough to go coach. I have no problem. I could do the same. It's all the other pieces and parts you got to deal with, man. And a lot of those, you don't always get to pick the ingredients and you don't

get to pick the recipe, which makes it really difficult. You know, he's done, he's done well enough in his life. He don't need the added stress. Would he be in addition to any team? Absolutely, but be careful what you wish for. You down in Alabama living a good life with them 10 kids. Don't rush yourself out of that NFL. Enjoy them 10 kids, buddy. Enjoy your life. I can promise you on this side of it, I don't get heckled come Monday.

Life is good on this side. Key phrase, as always, Jeff, added stress. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jeff. Thank you so much. Love you, fellas. Appreciate y'all. Let's take one last break still to come.

The commander split with offensive corps. I told you. I told you that was coming. What is that about? And I still don't get it, even though I thought it might happen to Thunder, lose to the Hornets. But was there a more notable loss in the NBA last night? Wow. This is the first I'm hearing about Kingsbury.

That surprises me. That surprises me. Both coordinators, told him from a team that was in the conference finals last year and spent all season injured. And you got a quarterback hurt. Yes. And got a quarterback hurt. Happy time.

people. Happy 27th birthday, Mack McClung. McClung has played in a total of nine NBA games. One game with the Bulls and one game with the Lakers in 2022, two games with Philadelphia in 2023, two games with Orlando last season, and three with Indiana this season. But despite his meager NBA career and his six-foot-two-inch height, McClung has won the NBA All-Star dunk contest, the last three years in succession, and this is remarkable. Wilbon and I remember, remember McClung from his days at Georgetown, where he played two seasons, then went to Texas Tech. McClung is currently playing with Chicago's G-League team, the Windy City Bulls, where he is averaging 26.3 points and 5.8 assists in six games. We root for McClung to get back to the NBA and carve something out there.

We do, but let me ask you this. We have to be critical here. Do you think he actually can make it? Is there a place for him? Can he play in the league? league. Well, he's had chances. So not yet. Keeps getting him. But if somebody gets hurt and he comes and plays well like he's playing in the Gile. I hope he gets a chance in Chicago. I hope he does. Happy anniversary, Marcus Marietta. On this day, eight years ago, while with the Tennessee Titans, Marioita threw a six-yard touchdown pass to himself in a bizarre play against Kansas City, sparking the Titans to a comeback win in a game where they had trailed 21 to 3. Mario was the overall number two draft picked by the Titans in 2015 out of Oregon and has been somewhat of a journeyman playing for five NFL teams now.

Currently, Marioada is backing up fellow Heisman Trophy winner Jaden Daniels in Washington. With Daniels hurt much of this season, Marioita appeared in 11 games. He was two and six as the Washington starter before getting hurt himself and giving way to another veteran backup quarterback, Josh Johnson. Josh Johnson was played like even longer than Marriota and for more teams. But Marriota, Tony, a great and gifted athlete and maybe injuries and just time have taken him down a little bit. But I thought he might actually get some better results as the commander's backup. I was hoping he would. Do you find it interesting that they have two Heisman trophy winners at quarterback on the same team?

I wonder how many teams have that? I wonder. Happy trails to the FCS title from Illinois State. College football's second division put on a first-rate championship game last night. Two-seed Montana State was up 14 in the third quarter over unseated Illinois State. But the Redbirds tied it with just over five minutes left. Their chance to go ahead with last-minute field goal was blocked by Montana State. In overtime, Illinois State scored a touchdown, but Montana State blocked the extra point.

And then on fourth and ten, Montana State scored the touchdown to tie it, kicked the extra point to win it, was Montana State's 14. straight win after starting the season 0 and 2. Am I allowed to see, and you hinted to this already, that game was a thriller. I turned it on late in the first quarter and then stayed with every snap the rest of the way. A thrilling championship game, Tony.

And you sort of listen out and watch and wonder if you're going to see any of those kids and there'll be a few playing on Sunday, which means they go up a full level and play. The end of the first half, Montana State had about 30 seconds one zip, zip, zip, three passes and scored a touchdown. Let's go to the big finish if we could. The Cowboys fired defensive coordinator, Matt Iberfluse.

Does that make sense to you? The defense was terrible in Dallas. Is that player? Is it scheme? I don't know if it makes sense. The commanders and offensive coordinator Cliff Kingsbury have parted ways. This surprises you, doesn't it? I'm very surprised.

I mean, last year, when his quarterback was healthy, you know, they went to the NFC championship game. He liked him as a playoff? Yeah, this surprises me. Michigan quarterback, Bryce Underwood, will return for a sophomore season under new head coach, Kyle Whittingham. Is that a big deal? Huge deal.

If you're Whittingham, you don't want it to start over there, and that kid has some promise. The Thunder lost at home to the Hornets, and the Pistons just clobbered the Knickleckers. Bigger deal? Okay. The Thunder has been losing games regularly lately.

That's not the bigger deal. The Knicks is the bigger deal because their defense is terrible. They've allowed at least 110 points in every one of their last 12 games. They didn't do that with tips. No. Last one, the Clippers beat the Warriors. They have won seven out of eight.

Explain that. I can't explain it. The Clippers look dead in the water, and then the Warriors have this up and down stuff. Curr gets kicked out. Curry fouls out. There's a lot of stuff in the NBA right now. I don't understand. And we're almost halfway through the season.

They missed a goaltending call. That's clear goal. They missed it. Clear gold. They're crazy. Should have. We're out of time. We were trying to better the next time.

I'm Tony Corny. And I'm Mike Wilbaum. We're back on the mothership tomorrow. Ah! Take that, you knuckleheads.