Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Olin Kreutz reacts to Bears hiring Eric Studesville as running backs coach

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris were joined by Score football analyst Olin Kreutz to react to the Bears hiring former Dolphins running backs coach Eric Studesville as their new running backs coach. Kreutz also previewed the Patriots-Seahawks matchup in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

The score! This hour is brought to you by Jule Osco. Olin Kruits is there at the center. I like this guy. You know that he's going to be doing something. Olin Kruits. I'm concerned. Olin's one of the best centers to ever play a game.

There's nobody tougher. Nobody who was a better leader. That was his football team. And he ran the locker. 14-year NFL veteran. Did you see what Olin Kroots did there? He moved it right there. He got the first down before the ball was ever snapped.

That's a wiry old center. Makes moves like. Football analyst for 670 the score. That team, man, that team fought together. I think they got their quarterback. I think they got their coach. The future looks bright here in Chicago for the Chicago Bears. Olin Croutes with Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score.

I like a little disturbed on my Thursday morning. I like talking to Olin Prutz even more. We do it here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, The Score. He joins us via the Cirque Resort and Casino Hotline. Circa, Las Vegas.com. Olin, newly inducted the College Football Hall of Fame class of 2026. That happened seconds after we talked to you that day. Olin, congratulations.

Yeah, I really appreciate it. You know, that was a surprise to me. They called me the ball. They send you a ball through the mail, and you're supposed to open it and to get the call from the athletic director. But the ball actually went to a house I used to live in. When an athletic director called me, He was like, oh, and congratulations.

And I didn't know. First, I was thinking, you know, did they want some more money? What the hell did they want from me, right? University of Washington. But he told me I made that College Football Hall of Fame. And I'm sure as you guys, you guys, really humbling, it's a chance to thank everyone that helps you get to where, you know, those kind of awards, those kind of accolades.

But really just humbled and shocked. And it'll be a good time. And just grateful to actually, you know, get recognized by the College Football Hall of Fame. I was at Washington. I played three seasons there. So they didn't really know if I would make it or not. I didn't have a long college career, but obviously humbled and grateful I did.

Well, and I get their email lists, and I feel like they are a foundation and an organization that if they don't have a lot of, like, stipulations as to, like, when you get in or when you qualify, like, if you're good enough, you get in. It's a wonderful group of people who contributed to the game

in a lot of ways. Yeah, it definitely is a great group. of people and if you look at their board and go through it, you realize why it's run so well and why they throw such a great event every year that, you know, I've never heard complaints from people who went out and enjoyed it and took their family and it was part of the ceremony. They always leave, you know, really satisfied at what they, what kind of event it was and what, you know, what they put to put on there in Las Vegas. Olin, one of the things that's true, every football off season, really, really bad teams

and really, really good teams have one thing in common. They have openings on their staffs. The Bears on the right side of that for once this year with openings after seeing Eric B. Enemy move on, after seeing Declan Doyle move on. What do you make of those openings and now knowing that Eric Stoosville has been hired as the running backs and kind of reunited with Ben Johnson?

Yeah, a good sign for Chicago Bears that people actually want guys off of their staff, right? We've gone through a lot of years around here where we were trying to figure out who we wanted off of other people's staff. So a good sign of Chicago Bears are moving in the right direction. Coach Ben Johnson really puts himself together really strong staff and losing Coach B. Enemy, the standard he set in the running back room, the way he was demanding on his running backs.

You could see that through Manung guys play. You saw that through Swiss play and the way they played football. Obviously a great reflection on Coach Bianney. You know, in the coaching business, they always say, your film is your resume. And he had really good film from this year. Declan Doyle moves on to the Ravens. And, you know, thankfully we haven't heard anything about Al Harris yet.

But it's just, it's a good sign. And it's a good sign for Chicago Bears. And we still have the play caller here and Ben Johnson. And I'm sure he's looking right now to replace Declan Doyle, will it be somebody on staff, right? Would it be Matt Aponte? Would it be Jack Cable, Robert Baccaro, press Taylor, T.J. Barrett. You know, those kind of guys, will they do that?

Or would they look outside the building? But I'm sure he'll find somebody out there, put him in Declin Doyle's spot and keep that train moving the direction that Coach Ben Johnson wants it moving in. Well, and Olin, as a former player, I feel like the best staffs I read about are the ones who disagree a little bit. You know, it's the ones who may look at a blind spot

that you may have or they keep you honest because when they contradict you, it's usually because they see something that perhaps another team is keying in on. And I'm not saying that necessarily happened with this staff. But they did have a group of varying personalities where I feel like they didn't necessarily get the typical people in the building.

Eric B. Enemy is a great example. And then you hear Andy Reid talk about how direct Eric Bienemy is and how much they seem to want that in Kansas City. You know, what does that say about just not being afraid and being confident enough to bring in some different opinions who have some real experience on your staff? Yeah, a really great point. And critical, right? Critical that, you know, we used to say in the football building, leave your feelings at home,

right? Leave them at home because we're going to say the things that need to be said. We're going to challenge each other. We're going to tell you when we don't think a play is good. When you don't think you're playing, we don't think you're playing well. And that's the kind of people like you're talking about Ben Johnson put in the building. Same with your guys' radio show. If you agreed on every topic, the show would be boring and you'd be off the air.

So you need guys in there with different opinions who will challenge each other, who will talk about different subjects. Look, I've seen the player run this way. I don't like to play it run that way. I think we should do this, not that. So Coach Ben Johnson did a really good job. Finding those guys the first year, guys who would challenge him, guys would help him grow as a head coach, as a play caller, help him get to the plays that he needed to get to, present ideas.

Obviously, Coach DeAnnemy, been around for a long time on a lot of coaching staffs, Andy Reid. People would argue the best play caller in the NFL for a long time. He brings his ideas, and then you've got Declan Doyle comes from Sean Payton and Sean Payton is a great play caller, right tight in, coach Jim Dre, coach Dan Rochard from New Orleans, was that too lame? all these ideas like you're saying in one building man challenging each other and that's going to be you know studysville as marshall mentioned suitorsville was here i was coach on him he's a great running back coach he'll bring new ideas he was just down in miami with that coaching staff and running the offices they wanted to run so maybe a big reason uh that he is here is to bring those ideas and it's just going to be interested to see uh how he replaces these coaches he had and keeps this thing moving

in the right direction. Olin Cruz joining us here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 104-3, the score. He is our football analyst, also a Bears Center from 1998 to 2010. He is a college football Hall of Fame in the class of 2026.

Olin, I wanted to ask you about the uniqueness of offensive line. We had our Bearses award show the other day, and the question was, who should be the MVP on this team? I put my vote, I said at the top of list, should be Joe Tooney because of he represented in his flawless play.

Are you upset that they're just now getting around to this new award, the protector of the year? Yeah, I mean, it's a cool award, man. Honestly, it's something I've ever thought about when I play. And I heard a little tidbits of Joel talking about the award and being up for it. And obviously, he's deserving. And that's a great pick by you with the culture and the winning and the winning ways he brought and teaching the young guys how to prepare, how to attack every week,

how to stay focused, how to stay ready for the season. as it gets late in the season. How to keep in your playbook, keep moving to right direction, stay on your fundamentals. But for me, it's something I never thought about. I heard Joe say, like, you don't even think about getting honored as an offensive alignment, right? You think about your offensive line and are you playing well together

and how's the team doing or are we all moving in the right direction? Are the running backs playing well? Are the receivers getting the ball because we're blocking well? But it would have been pretty cool while we're playing to have that award, something to strive for, something other than the Pro Bowl, other than all pro an award and protector of the year. Pretty cool idea there by Dion Dawkins out of Buffalo to come up with to honor guys. And they've got a great committee that's voting on it.

And I'm sure they'll pick the right guy. And I think it's today. Yeah, the NFL honors are tonight, Olin. Our segment with Olin Cruz is sponsored by almost free teeth.com, affordable implants, life-changing smiles. And Olin, one of the other things that I think is, is at least the NFL is starting to understand this. And you were on this earlier.

and I don't think you just said it because you play center. But how left tackle was always the standard for the most crucial part of the O line. It was one where that was always the original traditional position that meant the most. But you're seeing how center is really becoming crucial as well. You know, I feel like having this award for the offensive lineman, and just with more people watching tape, they just realize how much more the line is really essential to a quarterback success. You know, what do you think about everybody getting smarter in a good way?

I feel like I can't say that very often right now. Right, no, but you know, social media has really helped for that, right, guys who understand line play, who watch the film, putting their thoughts out there on Twitter, that who are the good offensive alignment, what's actually happening on plays, what you're actually seeing from different guys. And, you know, the NFL, I was just talking to a coach the other night, you talk about centers, and he was saying it's a third down league. And by that he means, you've got to adjust to the blitzes and all these pressures that these defensive coordinators are bringing nowadays, and it's really complicated up front to direct. protection, the change direction, to get guys on the right guys, and that's when a good center comes into play. He has to ID who the O-line's going to when you want to redirect protection, slide one way, slide the other way. So you are right that people are now, like guys like the Charles Bentley, Duke Mannyweather, Brandon Thorne, they're out there. You hear from them,

you hear them talking about Mitchell Schwartz putting stuff on Twitter, breaking down film, breaking down tape, AQ, Shipley's another guy. So there, I just mentioned a bunch of guys that are kind of teach everybody about line play, what's going on out there. Because as you guys know, most games are the quarterbacks talking, right? Retired quarterbacks are the color analysts, and they're talking, telling you what's going on in the game. And obviously, like I always say, I'm always biased towards offensive alignment. By that, I mean, I'll tell you why it wasn't an offensive alignment's fault, right?

I can make the film say anything I wanted to say, honest. I can grab clips from two or three games. That's what people got to watch for because people can present us any story they want from two or three clips on what that happened in a game. game and a quarterback is going to tell the story from a quarterback's perspective or why the quarterback couldn't make the play. So it is nice to have guys who understand the game from a different point of view. Talk about the line play, talk about how important it is, talk about how important a guy like Joe Tuny, Drew Dolman, Jonah Jackson, Darnell Wright, right, Audrey Tripilla going

in and out, those guys, how important they are to a football team and what's actually going on when you're watching a game. Now, Olin, I love that you brought this up because it brings me back to like a bigger point in society right now because social media exists and the way it does. There's so much misinformation, disinformation. You could argue that we have the most educated football fans we've ever had in the history of the game, right? But at the same time, there is stuff out there and people can tell you what they want you to believe using the film.

How do fans, how should Chicago Bears fans, what should they do? What steps should they take to differentiate between what is true and what is false out there? that's a great question man and that's that's really every subject right on twitter right right how do you differentiate between what's true and what's false in a political world or are in football and basketball and anything that you're looking on you know Twitter for information there's so much information so many accounts out there but you find people you trust it and think that you know they say something in three or four or five weeks later that ends up being true they're just giving you exactly what they see on film, exactly what they think is happening.

Now, there's bias in everything, right, and people don't like to think there is. You know, the big problem with the Pro Bowl for years is, oh, there's bias in the Pro Bowl, right? Now you see this bias in the Hall of Fame votes, and there's bias in all pro votes, too, right? That's just natural. People want to tell the story. They want you to believe what really benefits them or somebody they know, right, the information people get out of a football building, whoever gives you that information. I always tell people from the Bears building, don't call me in season,

because you're just going to tell me what you want me to think about what happened on the player, right? I want the video, the film to tell me exactly what happened, and then that's what I say when I'm on radio. So I don't even like hearing from coaches. I don't want to hear from players because they just tell you from their perspective, their point of view, they just tell that story. So, you know, Marshall, I couldn't even give you a good answer on that.

Like, how do you find people to trust who believe? I would just say, man, good luck. Wow. I appreciate the honesty. Yeah, that is completely understandable. If you have an answer, make sure you text one to me. You know what I mean? I got no idea.

We're talking to score football analysts. The Bears Center from 1998 to 2010, Olin Crutes, two-time All-Pro as well. And Olin, we talked about this earlier. You know, you are our coach. I just saw a video of you doing a drill with two of your kids on Instagram. I wanted to ask you about that. But then it also got me thinking about just how we saw 10 head coaches get hired in the league. And not a one of them is a minority. And as a as a as a minority yourself who is in coaching, who wanted to get opportunities in the NFL on the offensive side where we're seeing a lot of these coaches get the head coaching jobs. You know, what do you think about the level of opportunity based on the outcomes that we're seeing for a lot of these, these head coaching candidates? Yeah, it's it's perplexing to say it at least, right? I don't know what the answer is.

I know they're trying. They're doing the Rooney Root. They're doing interviews. That doesn't seem to be working out the way they want it to work out. You talk about I'm coaching. Obviously, I wasn't looking for opportunities in the NFL. But, you know, I remember going to the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame, which I'm a member of and talking to Maatana Vasa and Jesse Sapolu

and asking them, how did you guys come up with this idea? and it's exactly what you're talking about. They created the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame, and they created the Polynesian Bowl, which is turning to one of the biggest high school events in the nation. They created that for the networking opportunity for Polynesian coaches to meet and fail them to get chances to get different jobs

and to get to know each other and just create more opportunity. And that's what we're really talking about, right? It's creating opportunity for coaches to get to know each other, get comfortable, and that's the way you get hired in any business, right? It's not just in the NFL. It's in any business that this is going on, where we're trying to present more opportunities to people that usually would not have the opportunity.

And if I, you know, just like the social media, I think like everyone else, if I told you I had the answers, I'd be lying, right? Even on the defense side of all, if you look at Mike McDonald them in the Seahawks, right, they almost, that group they had in Washington with the Washington commanders in 2010 to 2013, where Shanahan, McVeigh, LaFleur,

all those guys there, they almost had that thing in Baltimore, right, with the defensive coaches, with McDonald, Minter under Dean P's, under Don Wink Markendell, who I like to call Baba Yada because all the blitzes he runs, but they have a group there right with Dernard Wilson and Lynn, the D. Quarter at Penn State and Zachary Orr and, you know, why did Jesse Minter and McDonnell get those opportunities that the other guys have not got, right? So it's just very interesting questions to ask, and I think that, You've got to make people uncomfortable. You've got to ask them the questions and get answers from them

and try to get to a solution here at some point where you can move the Rooney Rule along. I think the Rooney Rule came about in 2003. So obviously we can update it. We can make it better. And they have, right, we're pushing into coordinators in a different position where you have to interview and they just got to keep working on it. All right. Your net worth is your net worth, as they say.

So I completely understand everything you just said with that sentiment. And one more before we get you out of here. Who you got on Sunday? And tell us why. Yeah, the Seahs are hard to pick against, man. When you look at their roster, when you look at their coaching staff, and you look up all the stats that they have put up this year and their defensive front and the way Donald is playing

and Jackson Smith and Jibba and the way Mike McDonald-Paul plays and they look like they've been the best team in the NFL throughout the whole football season with their defense and the way Darno makes plays and the way Clint Kubiak is, hauling plays there, but gosh, man, the Patriots, when you turn their film on, you're like, I don't see a lot of stars on defense here. Obviously, you've got Christian Gonzalez, right, the quarterback, but the rest of the team, but man, do they play good football? I guess so this Brable, guys, these two coaching staffs are an interesting study, man.

They are very good at what they do when you turn their film on and the way they execute, especially both teams on the defensive side of the ball. So I'm going to go with the Seahawks, but one or two takeaways here are there. from the Patriots and they're very hard to run the ball against it. Their film is interesting. You turn the film on and you're like, okay, I'm looking for a star here in their front seven. And there's very good

football players there in their front seven, right? There's very like, you know, Milton Williams, Kyrice Tonga, who was Ryan Pace's last draft pick here with the Bears, right? There's Robert Spillane, there's Harold Landry. But there's not guys that jump off the film. Like when you watch the Seahos with Leonard

Williams, Brian Murphy, Demarcus Lawrence. Like, those are names everybody knows. right so very interesting to me how good of a defense the Patriots play and and where they rank and that just tells you how good Brable is and his staff is at coaching football but I'm going to see off through the reason they're favored and they're a very good football team ohlin thanks as always for joining us we appreciate the time thanks olin appreciate you guys have good day that is the college football hall of famer olen cruz the six-time pro bowler two-time first team all pro joining us here on Rahimi Harrison Brody on 1043 The Score.

Always great insight. Always. Absolutely. And coming up next, this story has gone viral. Like there's no other way to put it. It's gone absolutely viral. The Athletic did their anonymous player survey. And the answers that we are going to examine when it comes to the Super Bowl and other things are worth your time next.