PTI - What Does Title Mean for Hoosiers?

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss the Indiana Hoosiers, NFL coaching hires, and Jimmy Butler's ACL tear. 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. I'm Mike Wilbaum. My Big Ten, won the national championship for the third straight year, Tony. That's why I was rooting for the Hoosiers last night. I'm Tony Cornhires. You don't fall for this, people. He was on the fence yesterday. He was leaning to Miami.

He said Miami was a better story than Indiana going 16 and up. Well, who did I say I was rooting for? That was insane. That was insane. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, the Dolphins and Titans hire new coaches. Jimmy Butler is out for the season, and Jeff Saturday joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with Indiana winning last night's college championship game over Miami, 2721 in Miami's home stadium. The Hoosiers never trailed.

It was 10-0 at the half in 2414 after Fernando Mendoza made a great 12-yard run on a fourth and four in the fourth quarter. Miami played well, kept it a lot closer against Indiana than Alabama, Oregon did. But Indiana was better and closed out their season 16 and O. Wilbon, your thoughts on how the Hoosiers did it and what it means. Well, Tony, it was a fascinating performance

of, you know, we hear the phrase complimentary football all the time, and some nights it just ain't true. But it was last night. I mean, you get this performance from Mendoza, particularly that play, that play which is going to become iconic in very little time. But you also get a blocked punt.

You get an interception in the game. All of it, they played so well all of it. And you look at the players on Indiana's team. You know, yeah, there's some talented players. They're a handful of four and five stars as opposed to Miami which has like more than 50 of them.

But then you look at Curtis Signetti and his staff and what they did to develop those players. And I'm looking at Tom Brady on the sideline wondering how much of himself he might see in Mr. Mendoza and choosing him first for the Raiders

if the Raiders indeed do that. So it was packed with a lot of stuff last night that game. And Miami did play well. Miami had a chance. Maybe if that pass is about, I don't know, two yards longer, to go ahead to win the game. They have a chance to do it. But it's one of the great, great stories of all time, the Hoosiers. And wow, they played to it again.

I'm going to sing a love song to Mendoza here because he showed that every honor he's gotten he deserves. I mean, he was really that good last night. A couple of weeks ago, we saw the Oregon quarterback, and he had a terrible night, and he was rated the second best quarterback in a college draft, and he said after that, I'm going back to school, presumably to raise his draft stock. The other day, C.J. Stroud, four interceptions in the first half.

The spotlight can be withering, but it was so complimentary with Mendoza. This is why the guy won the heisman. He got hit early, Mike. They cut his lip open. He was bleeding. You could see it. And he held up, and he stood.

stood up and on that most important call of his life, that fourth and four, he went in there like a pinball and he made it all the way to the end zone. And Mike, he justified everything that has been said about him to this point. You mentioned Signetti. They hired Signetti two years ago from James Madison. Nobody had ever heard of him. And Indiana wasn't any good. Signetti right now looks like the smartest guy to ever coach football. You Google him. He's got a national championship. Mike, it's one of the greatest seasons of all time because Indiana had never won. The last time they were in a bowl game

was something called the Copper Bowl in 1991. They had not won. Nobody expected this. And from the time they won the Big Ten championship on, the teams that they beat were great teams, and they beat, and they were plus 493 on the season. It's astonishing. The Big Ten, just to end with a note on that,

you know, I don't want to hear, let the SEC bow down. tip your cap to the Big Ten, because the Big Ten is the best conference right now. I know many, many, many years it is the SEC, but it ain't now. Not with three straight, Ohio State, Michigan, and now Indiana. And I don't know who's on the clock, but it's the Big Ten now. Let's move to the NFL's latest coaching hires. The Dolphins hired Packers' defensive coordinator.

Jeff Halfley is their next head coach. And the Titans are going with Niners' defensive coordinator, Robert Salah. Drew Petzing will join the Lions as their new OC, and the Chiefs plan to bring back Eric B. Enemy as theirs. Tom, which move stands out to you the most? None of them. I mean, it's not very glamorous. I guess you could say that Sala is kind of sort of glamorous,

but he was a disaster with the Jets, Mike. He was 20 and 36. Everybody's a disaster with the Jets. He goes to Tennessee. Here's what you need to know about Tennessee. They fired Mike Rable. couple of years ago. Since then, there's 6 and 28. Vrable is 16 and 3, and one win away from the Super Bowl. Halfley is interesting to me. I'd never heard of them except for this one little fact.

A few years back, he was the head coach at Boston College. So he's in a power four conference job, and he had won a bowl game. He quit. He quit to become the defensive coordinator at Green Bay, and people like me said, what are you doing? It felt like a backward step. Well, maybe it wasn't, because now he's got one of the 32 jobs in the country that go to NFL head coaches, and BC went 2 and 10 this year. I will say this. There's a lot of teams that need coaches. The three that interest me, these are the ones I'm waiting for. Buffalo with Josh Allen, Baltimore, with a two-time MVP in Lamar, and Pittsburgh, because it's an iconic franchise. The other things, I don't care. I want to know who's getting those jobs.

I care about the Kansas City Chiefs, and therefore, it's interesting. For one, I'm losing my running backs coach from Chicago and Eric B. Enemy, who did a hell of a job with that running game this year, this year. And he's going back to Kansas City where he already was. And basically, they're saying something that I told you for four years. Don't tell me that Matt Nagy's offense is any good because it's not, because the offense got worse, because they were up in the top 01, and they went to like 15 and then dropped and dropped and dropped. And Matt Nagy's out there, and who knows where he's going to have a seat when the music's. stops. But Eric B. Enemy is not like he's going to call the place. Andy Reid presumably will do that. He calls it. But the Kansas City Chiefs still matter. And even if the position of O.C. isn't glamorous.

The quarterback certainly is. And he, in my opinion, will be helped by getting B. Enemy back and getting Nagy out of there. Yeah, well, that's perfectly fair. The only other job that, you know, you care about a little bit, not because of the franchise, but the Raiders have the number one overall. So you'll want to see who gets that. Let's move to the NBA in the stunning news that Jimmy Butler tore his ACL last night and will be out for the rest of the season. Butler had been averaging 20 points, six rebounds, and five assists in 31 minutes a night. And the Warriors have been hot lately. They won last night.

They're 12 and 4 in their last 16 games. Well, but I know you love the Warriors and I know you love Jimmy Butler. Yeah. Where does this leave the team, Butler, and the exile, Jonathan Camingo? No, Tony, none of this is good. Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Butler is so important to what. the Warriors knew they could do last year when they acquired him. And then giving a training camp and some time, some patience.

And here we are just getting just past the halfway point of the season. And the Warriors and Butler were playing so well and well together. And now this. And the Warriors can't win without Jimmy Butler. The West is too hard. The West has got teams. I mean, first of all, they're not even in the top six now. And so I don't know what this means with Kaminga.

Do you just plug Kaminga back in? Kaminga should have been in any way, in my opinion. You know I love Steve Kerr, but I don't love the handling of Jonathan Kaminga. So do they just play Jonathan Kaminga or they still look to trade him and get someone they think is a better fit? These are all very difficult questions and issues for the Warriors. Yeah, so Kaminga a couple of years ago, average 16 points a game. It's only 23 years old. Yeah.

Butler is 36. Steph Curry is 37. Dreymond is 35. They picked up Al Horford. He's 39. They are so old, they could have watched the first show that we ever did on PTI. It's possible. They are that old. But to Kaminga for a second, he has played nine minutes since December 6th. I think I have that correct. That's only nine more minutes than I have played since December 6th. I mean, I don't know what you do with this guy. The guy wants to play. If he doesn't play at the Warriors, he wants to be traded. And I know that you're conflicted because you love Steve. I do. I always think that the Warriors are a threat because they have Steph Curry and Steve Kerr. But you know what, Mike? They haven't been in the playoffs three of the last six years.

So I may be living in the past on that. And I have no idea about Kaminga, but it does seem to me he's got to play immediately, right? Tell you would think he went the championship ring. The kid was on that team in 22. So I don't know exactly what happens, but it feels like the warriors, I mean the sands of It feels that way. Feels that way. I hate that.

Let's take a break. Coming up, how can the Patriots' offensive line rise to the challenge the Broncos defense? We're going to ask Jeff Saturday. We'll also ask him how the Broncos' offensive line will have to adjust to new quarterback Jared Stedham. All the people we know on the Warriors are basically our age. Let's dig into the conference championship game trenches with our great friend ESPN. NFL analyst, Jeff, Saturday. Jeff, let's start with this. The Patriots pass protection has struggled, and now they come up against the Denver Broncos who actually lead the league in

Sacks. From the perspective of an offensive lineman, how can the Patriots improve? Well, first of all, the last two teams that are playing last week and this week are nightmares anyway. So, I mean, you've got the best edge guys, they're pushing pressure. You have a young guy, and Campbell going to try to take the edge. But the reality is, they're going to, they're going to, they're going to get some kind of pressure. It's making sure from an offensive line perspective, you keep your body between he and the QB. Make him reach over you, make him do those kind of things. And then it's on Drake May to protect the football when he's in the pocket. Keep two hands on it, be strong. Don't let those strip sacks. What you don't want to do is get on an edge and get driven all the way back and give up

these free shots. Like that's the worst thing. But if you're talking about strictly from an offensive line perspective, be aggressive in your set, make the guy run the long way around, whether your guards or tackles, make them go the edge, and May's going to have to be strong in the pocket stepping up, not just trying to run outside and push the ball down the field. But the reality is, they're facing the two best groups and the AFC the last two weeks. Some guy, you know, they're on scholarship too, you know what I mean, Tony? So they're going to get home at some point. Jeff, meanwhile, the Broncos are going to turn to Jared Steddem and quarterback.

So what is involved, give us the most complex things involved when an offensive line has to adjust, and I'm sure there are many adjustments, to a brand new quarterback, particularly in a game of this magnitude. Yeah, I would say this. When you're at the line of scrimmage and you're going to have to make some kind of adjustment, whether it's an adjustment in pass protection, an adjustment in an audible, whether it's going from a run to a pass or pass to a run, whatever, and the defense shifts or moves in the middle of the cadence. Because we all human nature, you know, the speed of the cadence changes at times. You get very accustomed as an offensive line to listening to Bo Nix for week after week after week.

And all of a sudden, you've got a new voice, you have a new way that he wants to kind of go about it. His brain processes a little bit different. And Sean Payton's going to do a great drive of trying not to allow that to happen too much, but it's the most complicated part because it's the timing of everything. We always talk about the timing of a passing game. Well, there's timing of the run game and there's timing of protection and checks and audibles. All of those things are going to have to be. work through during this week. It is, it is very difficult. The great part for them, they're playing

at home. If this was on the road, it would be significantly worse, but at least they'll have the cadence to kind of, you to lean back on. But there ain't nothing easy about it. And let me tell you, the Patriots do a fantastic job of kind of mucking it up in the back, where you don't know exactly what they're doing, guys kind of jicky jack around. They're not kind of in the place they may end up. There's a lot of communication that's going to have to occur for that Broncos' offensive line, who's done a good job, but they're going to have to be even better with Stidham at the helm. Let's go back for a minute to something that pains me. Rams Bears and Rams hit coach Sean McVeigh says afterward that he has to be a better play caller,

Jeff, after abandoning the run for a lot of the game against the Bears. And I want to ask something in general, really, why is it that so many great play callers? And Shaw McVeigh is clearly one of them. Why do they abandon the run? Like, when things start to anything happens, abandon the run, we've seen that. What happens? Explosive plays. Like, and I tell people this all the time.

If you looked at last year with the Philadelphia Eagles, what made their offense so good was Sequin Barclay explosive runs, right? It's a low risk, high reward. Well, you get in these games, and all of a sudden, you know, you want to make sure you're getting first downs. You're moving the ball. You're flipping the field, per se. getting on their side of the 50, even if you're not scoring points,

you're making them go the long way. And coaches, they just forget. And I've been involved in games where you go in with the idea of the concept, hey, we're going to run the ball, we can physically dominate this team, and they start off doing that. And you kind of fade away, and then you kind of catch back up at the end of the game. But he's exactly right. You've got to stick to who you are.

Physicality matters, opening up for play action and plays down the field. all those explosive plays come from the defense getting closer to the line of scrimmage. If you don't stay physical with them, they'll stay back and make your passing game much more difficult. But again, it's much easier said than done. And when you're a design maniac like Sean McBade, you can think of all these great concepts. It's hard. And you've got a Hall of Fame quarterback. So you're like, why not?

Like, why not put the best at the best? But at times, physicality is the most important. And he understands that. He needs to make sure he gets with that with the Seahawks this week. Just to follow for one second quickly. As a veteran offensive lineman, can you ever go and stand next to the play caller, particularly if it's the head coach is on the sideline and say, yo, coach, hand it to Sequin? Absolutely.

They all are. Hey, listen, go YouTube, me and Manning on the sideline. That's exactly what that is. Don't tell me about any checks in the red zone. Don't tell me about we're throwing some passes. We're all about it. We're going to run the ball down their throat. We better get to it.

Every offensive lineman better feel comfortable enough to walk up to drive. Sean, we can't just sit here and throw it all around now. We're not playing in the park. Let's go hit him in the mouth and take some physicality. But absolutely, O-Line say that. But you better, that's what we do best. I love that. We will get you out of here on this, and it is also about running.

The Seahawks have averaged 172 yards a lot rushing in their last four games, but they're going to be without Zach Charbonnet. How much does it matter to the blockers? which running back is actually carrying the ball? Yeah, it definitely matters, Tony, but I'll say this about Seattle. They have been committed to the run all season. Like, even when they weren't really efficient at it, they kept calling them up. You know, you'd see 30 runs on the chart, and they're putting in the work.

It has come to fruition. You've seen the run game kind of take off these last few weeks, starting back in like week 18, I think it was, against the 49ers. But they're getting physical, and you can tell their offense. line and their backs are finding rhythm. But backs do run differently. Like Charbonnet, you know, interior, those short yardage goal lines, he's exceptional at it. And then you look at Walker, who's kind of an explosive play, right, bounces outside and can hit the home runs. But the bottom line with Charbonnet being out is you understand exactly what Walker wants to see as an

offensive lineman. He wants to see a clean edge. He wants to be able to push the ball north and south and then bounce and get outside. So as an offensive lineman, you know going in, he may like get a little different, but you ain't got Charbonnet, so we're going to stick with the Walker and have the one kind of the one thought process as offensive mile. It definitely matters, but you know exactly what he wants and that's what you do. That's a pleasure, Jeff. Thank you as always. Thank you. Jeff. Appreciate it, ma'am. Appreciate it, man. Appreciate your fellows. Love it, man. Have a great one. Let's take one last break still to come. Baseball's newest Hall of Famers. We get announced tonight. Will there be any surprises? How about just will there

be any? Alex Nadelcovic describes his strategy. and last night's goalie fight. I hate goalie fights. It's just like why. Happy time, people. Happy 37th birthday, Nick Foles. Everybody remembers when Foles took over for an injured Carson Wence

and quarterback the Eagles through the playoffs all the way to the Super Bowl in 2017, where the Eagles beat the Patriots 4133. Foles was the MVP, throwing for three touchdowns and scoring one on that memorable trick play the Philly special. Foles retired in 2020. after a career of mostly backup with six different teams.

Foles took to social media the other day in regard to Bo Nix breaking his ankle and Jared Stidham being named quarterback against New England in the AFC title game. Foles wrote, quote, I feel for Bo and the team. A positive note going into the game against the Patriots is that they struggle against backup quarterbacks in championship-type games, unquote. He'd know, wouldn't he? Tony, the Eagles have won two Super Bowls of recent vintage. they got to another one.

Three Super Bowls, they've had a lot of success. So why is everybody so unhappy all the time and whiny and complaining? They stay in the news for all the wrong reasons for a team that's that good. They've been very successful, really. A not-so-happy anniversary, Harvey the Hound. On this day, 23 years ago,

with the flames up 4-0, their snowhound mascot was harassing Oilers coach Craig McTavich. So the former NHL tough guy pulled out Harvey's tongue and tossed it into the crime. crowd. McTavish also reached for a stick to take a swing at the mascot but was held back by assistance. Shortly after, Harvey appeared back on the scene with a long red scarf as a replacement tongue and continued taunting the Oilers. McTavish said, quote, you deal with a lot of stuff as a coach

and Harvey the Hound isn't normally in the job description, nor should it be, unquote. The flames later reprimanded the person inside the Harvey suit, or so the story goes. In the early days of PTI, about mascots a lot on this show. I'm glad we don't because I hate mascots. There's one I love. Do you remember who it is? The chicken. You love the chicken.

The gorilla! The only real athlete of the mascots, the gorilla, could jump up and throw it down. It was the chicken. We're a fully fanatic. Happy trails to last night's game for the Panthers. San Jose beat Florida 4 to 1, but the real headline is our first goalie fight since 2020. Sharks goalie Alex Medelkevich got involved in a corner sprung. which prompted Panthers netminder, Sergei,

Bobrovsky, to skate the length of the ice and start swinging. Nadelkovich said later, quote, I was just doing my best not to get punched. I was just trying not to lose any teeth. It might have straightened my nose out a little bit more, but I don't want it that way, unquote. Also in the NHL last night, Jet Center Jonathan Taves returned to Chicago

for his first appearance since leaving the team, and he received a three-minute standing ovation. I can't stand here, Taze called Jet Center. And then here Patrick Kane called the Red Wings Patrick King. He's a Blackhawks. They were the guts of a three-time championship team. That standing O could have gone six minutes as far, as I'm concerned. Big finish quickly.

Kansas head coach Bill Self was hospitalized. Did not travel with a team for tonight's game at Colorado. Your thoughts? I worry about self. I just hope he's okay. I hope this is nothing. Baseball's Hall of Famers are announced tonight. Are you intrigued?

It's the only Hall of Fame that. It really is. Yes, I am intrigued. The Pistons beat the Celtics last night. Is that significant? Yeah, the pistols are piled up evidence, Tony, is the best team. The best team in the Eastern Conference. College golf champ, Michael Lassau, is passing on his senior season and a master's invite to join Live.

You surprised? I'm more than surprised. I'm stunned. I didn't see this coming. Passing up on a master's. Really? Last one. The Clippers go for their seventh win in a row tonight against your bulls. against your bulls.

You like their chances? Yeah, the Bulls are surprised you'll win at Denver and beat Cleveland and then lose games you can't believe. So I like the Clippers' chances. Yep. We are out of time.

We will try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Cornhage. And I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, Nuckleheads. How about Toreko going from Soldier Field

and the snow to Madison Square Garden yesterday?